News/Politics

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News/Politics 4-30-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

There’s a lot to choose from. Here’s a few.

First Benghazi is back. The Obama State Dept. says we should be happy with what they’ve given, and it should be dropped. From TheHill

“The State Department on Monday defended its decision not to have lower-level  employees testify before Congress about last year’s attack in Benghazi,  Libya.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is pushing ahead  with his investigation of the terrorist assault, and has asked for legal  protections for lower-level employees who might be called to testify.

The State Department pushed back on Monday and said the independent probe  into the attack “should be enough” for lawmakers.

“We think that we’ve done an independent investigation, that it’s been  transparent, thorough, credible, and detailed, and that we’ve shared those  findings with the U.S. Congress,” State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell  said. “And that should be enough.””

Special Report with Brett Baier makes a strong case against these assertions from the State Dept. He also does a hidden interview with a military operator who was on the ground, and in the de-briefings. That witness says more could have been done, but wasn’t. It also reports on threats to whistleblowers from the White House and State. This from an attorney representing one of the four whistleblowers.

More from FoxNews

““I’m not talking generally, I’m talking specifically about Benghazi – that  people have been threatened,” Toensing said in an interview Monday. “And not  just the State Department. People have been threatened at the CIA.””

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Here’s a new development in the Boston bombing case. From TheWallStJournal

“Investigators have found female DNA on at least one of the bombs used in the Boston Marathon attacks, though they haven’t determined whose DNA it is or whether its presence means a woman helped the two brothers suspected in the bombings, according to U.S. officials briefed on the probe.

In another development, Russian officials revealed details about contacts between the older brother and suspected Islamist radicals in the Caucasus, including Internet exchanges that led to concerns by investigators that he was trying to join up with jihadist fighters.

Speaking Monday about the DNA discovery, the U.S. officials cautioned that there could be multiple explanations for why genetic material from someone other than the two bombing suspects—Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his younger brother, Dzhokhar—could have been found on remnants of the exploded devices. It could have come, for example, from a store clerk who handled materials used in the bombs or a stray hair that ended up in the bomb.”

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More bad news out of Syria. From AsiaNewsIt

“The two Orthodox bishops kidnapped in Aleppo are still in the hands of kidnappers, Mgr. Jean-Clement Jeanbart, Greek Melkite bishop of Aleppo, told AsiaNews. “The Catholic and Orthodox Churches are doing their best to mediate with the kidnappers,” the prelate added, “but at present no one understands the reasons for this act and who is behind these criminals.”

“This morning, mortar rounds hit one of the city’s main Christian neighbourhoods. The shelling killed four people and several houses have collapsed.”

“Christians have not taken sided with either the rebels or regime. “I do not know who fired at Christian homes or why,” the prelate explained, “but it sure was not a ballistic mistake.””

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These last 3 are all related. The issue is religious freedoms in the military. There’s a battle going on here, and it seems to be aimed at the Christian religion. The people seeking to determine training material and policy are without a doubt hostile to Christianity. They have an obvious hatred. They don’t even try to hide it. So of course most of the press, and the WaPO On Faith column, will carry water for these haters. We’ll start with this, from TheWashingtonPost

“Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is worried about the Pentagon budget, but there are much more serious issues he must deal with. Religious proselytizing and sexual assault are at the top of the list.”

“The armed forces are on the verge of falling apart,” Larry Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, told me in an interview. Aside from proselytizing, he said, other problems include “sexual assault, suicides, lowering entrance standards and war weariness. They are in trouble, and the leadership is oblivious.” Sexual assault and proselytizing, according to Wilkerson, “are absolutely destructive of the bonds that keep soldiers together.”

Wilkerson was speaking to me in an interview with former ambassador Joe Wilson and the head of the private Military Religious Freedom Foundation, Mikey Weinstein. They were on their way to a meeting at the Pentagon on April 23 where they would discuss religious issues in a group that included several generals and a military chaplain.”

How bad is it?

“The stories are legion. Most complainants don’t want to be identified for fear their careers would be destroyed or, worse, for fear for their safety, even their lives.”

So religious proselytizing is destroying the military. Who knew? 🙄

And then with this next one we get a little better picture of some of the players in this battle. Let me introduce you to Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.  He’s also a big fan of the SPLC. Shocking right? You’re gonna love him. 🙄  But again, the real hater gets a sympathetic outlet to run his hateful rants. Here’s a piece he penned for TheHuffingtonPost 

“Ladies and Gentlemen, let me tell you of monsters and monstrous wrongs. And let me tell you what these bloody monsters thrive on.

I founded the civil rights fighting organization the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) to do one thing: fight those monsters who would tear down the Constitutionally-mandated wall separating church and state in the technologically most lethal entity ever created by humankind, the U.S. military.

Today, we face incredibly well-funded gangs of fundamentalist Christian monsters who terrorize their fellow Americans by forcing their weaponized and twisted version of Christianity upon their helpless subordinates in our nation’s armed forces. Oh my, my, my, how “Papa’s got a brand new bag.””

“If these fundamentalist Christian monsters of human degradation, marginalization, humiliation and tyranny cannot broker or barter your acceptance of their putrid theology, then they crave for your universal silence in the face of their rapacious reign of theocratic terror. Indeed, they ceaselessly lust, ache, and pine for you to do absolutely nothing to thwart their oppression. Comply, my friends, and you, too, become as monstrously savage as are they. I beg you, do not feed these hideous monsters with your stoic lethargy, callousness and neutrality. Do not lubricate the path of their racism, bigotry, and prejudice. Doing so directly threatens the national security of our beautiful nation.”

At this point I think it’s safe to say that this man has no business deciding anything policy related. His hostility to those with opposing views is extreme, and obvious, and not at all rational. Which is why this last piece is so troubling. From Breitbart

“Those words were recently written by Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), in a column he wrote for the Huffington Post. Weinstein will be a consultant to the Pentagon to develop new policies on religious tolerance, including a policy for court-martialing military chaplains who share the Christian Gospel during spiritual counseling of American troops.”

“According to Weinstein, “We should as a nation effusively applaud Lt. Col. Rich.” He adds that the nation should “venture further” than Rich’s recommendations, saying, “We MUST vigorously support the continuing efforts to expose pathologically anti-gay, Islamaphobic, and rabidly intolerant agitators for what they are: die-hard enemies of the United States Constitution. Monsters, one and all. To do anything less would be to roll out a red carpet to those who would usher in a blood-drenched, draconian era of persecutions, nationalistic militarism, and superstitious theocracy.””

“Yet the little coverage this story is getting is positive, such as this Washington Post column that somehow manages not to carry any of these frightening quotes from Weinstein and instead actually endorses the Pentagon’s meeting with him. Sally Quinn’s Post column also approvingly quotes MRFF Advisory Board member Larry Wilkerson as saying, “Sexual assault and proselytizing, according to Wilkerson, ‘are absolutely destructive of the bonds that keep soldiers together.’”

Did you get that? They say having someone share the Christian gospel with you is akin to being raped. Weinstein makes sure there are no doubts, being quoted by the Post as adding, “This is a national security threat. What is happening [aside from sexual assault] is spiritual rape. And what the Pentagon needs is to understand is that it is sedition and treason. It should be punished.””

It’s no surprise that the DoD has gone way left when this is the type they take counsel from.

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by

News/Politics 4-29-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

Open Thread, as always.

Some interesting developments in the Boston bombing case. From TheBostonHerald

“A top-ranking Republican congressman said yesterday he expects the feds to make more arrests in their ever-widening probe of the deadly Boston Marathon bombings, which took a new frightening turn yesterday when officials revealed the accused terrorist brothers made “spontaneous” plans to launch an attack on Times Square.

“I hear a lot of definitive statements out there that it was just these two men and it’s over, but I will tell you I hear these briefings every day, and I don’t think this is over,” said U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican who chairs the House Committee on Intelligence. “There are clearly more persons of interest, and they’re not 100 percent sure if there aren’t other explosives.””

More here from TheWashingtonTimes

“The chairman of the House Homeland Security  Committee says that evidence  suggests the Boston bombing suspects had help  in the attack and that he is concerned about a “wider conspiracy.”

“Given  the level of sophistication of this [explosive] device, the fact   that  the pressure cooker is a signature device that goes back to  Pakistan  and  Afghanistan … leads me to believe there  was a trainer,”  Rep. Michael  T.  McCaul, Texas Republican, told “Fox News  Sunday.”

Also, from TheDailyMail

“The FBI has revealed that they now know the  identity of the American known as Misha who helped radicalize the Boston bombing  suspects.”

“Under the tutelage of a friend known to the  Tsarnaev family only as Misha, Tamerlan gave up boxing and stopped studying  music, his family said. He began opposing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

He turned to websites and literature claiming  that the CIA was behind the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, and Jews  controlled the world.”

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Here’s a piece on the problem in Syria, from TheNYTimes

“In Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, rebels aligned with Al Qaeda control the power plant, run the bakeries and head a court that applies Islamic law. Elsewhere, they have seized government oil fields, put employees back to work and now profit from the crude they produce.”

“Across Syria, rebel-held areas are dotted with Islamic courts staffed by lawyers and clerics, and by fighting brigades led by extremists. Even the Supreme Military Council, the umbrella rebel organization whose formation the West had hoped would sideline radical groups, is stocked with commanders who want to infuse Islamic law into a future Syrian government.

Nowhere in rebel-controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to speak of.”

How do you help the Syrian people without further aiding Al-Qaeda and other radical groups? Seems impossible.

Here’s a good example of why it matters. Do we really think it’s a good idea to let Al-Qaeda affiliated fighters take control of a chemical weapons plant? How can you even prevent it at this point?

From TheTelegraphUK

“The fight for al-Safira is no ordinary turf war, however, and the prize can be found behind the perimeter walls of the heavily-guarded military base on the edge of town. Inside what looks like a drab industrial estate is one of Syria’s main facilities for producing chemical weapons – and among its products is sarin, the lethal nerve gas that the regime is now feared to be deploying in its bid to cling to power.”

“But as the West now ponders its response, the fear is not just that President Assad might start using his chemical arsenal in much greater quantities. Of equal concern is the prospect of it falling into even less benign hands – a risk that the stand-off at al Safira illustrates clearly.”

“For among the rebel lines in al-Safira flutters the black flag of the al-Nusra Brigade, the jihadist group that recently declared its allegiance to al-Qaeda. Known for their fighting prowess honed in Iraq, they are now taking the lead in nearly every frontline in the Syrian war, and earlier this month, pushed to within just over a mile of al-Safira, only to for the Syrian troops to regain the ground last week.”

I strongly disagree with Sen. McCain and others who are urging us to assist these people. I don’t see how any good comes from that decision.

But if this is accurate, it looks like Israel is tired of waiting for others to act. If we won’t stop it, looks like they will. From UPI.com

“The Free Syrian Army says Israeli air force jets flew over President Bashar  Assad’s palace and bombed a chemical weapons site near Damascus, Maariv  reported.

The report said Israeli jets entered Syrian airspace close to 6 a.m Saturday  and flew over Assad’s palace in Damascus and other security facilities before  striking a chemical weapons compound near the city.

The Hebrew language daily said a Syrian army air defense battery positioned  in the city fired at the Israeli jets, but the aircraft left Syrian airspace  unscathed. FSA rebels posted a video showing smoke rising from the headquarters  for chemical weapons.”

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It will be interesting to see what the Congressman has in mind here. From TheBlaze

“Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) on Saturday promised that “explosive” congressional hearings over the Benghazi, Libya attacks are on the way.

“There are more Benghazi hearings coming, I think they’re going to be explosive,” Gowdy said on Fox News.

Gowdy, a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the hearings are going to be “coming quickly” and seemed to hint that the public might for the first time hear from witnesses to the September assault that left four Americans dead.”

Let’s hope so. It’s time they got to the bottom of this.

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I think this is what they refer to as a Momma Grizzly. She’s got guts, that’s for sure. 🙂  From FoxNews

“Through the slit of the burqa she wore to blend in on the streets of  Alexandria, Egypt, Kalli Atteya waited and watched until the boy climbed off the school bus. When she saw him, she moved quickly, grabbing his arm and steering  him toward the waiting motorized cart.

“Get in,” she said to the 12-year-old, who recognized his mother’s piercing  blue eyes and obeyed wordlessly.

Soon, they were speeding toward a safehouse where they would wait for three weeks before returning to the U.S., and ending a 20-month ordeal that began with another abduction — one the boy, Khalil Mohamed “Niko” Atteya, did not accept  willingly. His father, Mohamed Atteya, who is wanted by the U.S. authorities, is accused of luring the mother and son to his homeland, then snatching the boy and  leaving Kalli Atteya and her sister on the side of a desolate road between Cairo and Port Said on Aug. 1, 2011.”

Good for her.

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This one is the last from me today. But it comes with a

CONTENT WARNING!!!

for adult content and some pretty gruesome details. The Pro-life group Live Action is about to release another series of undercover videos that show Kermit Gosnell was not the exception, but the norm, in the late term abortion industry. From LifeNews

“The video shows how the kinds of gruesome late-term and live-birth abortions done at abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell‘s “House of Horrors” abortion clinic are not limited to his abortion facility alone.

The pro-life group Live Action today released an undercover video of an abortion counselor at a clinic describing, in gruesome details, what is done with a baby that survives an abortion attempt.  This is the first in a series of videos Live Action will release videos , found at www.liveaction.org/inhuman, that will show a number of late-term abortion clinics engaging in illegal and inhuman practices, as well as explaining in explicit detail what happens to the victims of late-term abortion.

“Dr. Kermit Gosnell is not an aberration, ” said Lila Rose, Founder and President of Live Action.  “The gruesome and brutal practices exposed in Gosnell’s ‘House of Horrors’ are business as usual for the abortion industry in America.  Nationwide, it’s just another day at the office.”

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by

News/Politics 4-27-13

What’s interesting out there today?

Open Thread.

First some good news, but only for your taste buds, not your diet. 😦

From GMA/Yahoo

“The bankrupt assets of Hostess Brands, Inc., the company responsible for Twinkies, Ho Ho’s, Sno Balls and Ding Dongs, are being put back to work by a buyout firm. What’s not being put back to work are the former Hostess unionized employees.”

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The idea of the US military being used to aid Al-Qaeda in Syria really bothers me. But that’s the idea being pushed. From RT.com

“The White House says that United States President Barack Obama may approve of using military force against the Syrian government.

Early afternoon on Friday, White House press secretary Jay Carney said that the administration has a number of options in regards to handling reports that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has used chemical weapons, and those routes include but are not exclusive to using military force.”

Pelosi is pushing it too. From TheHill

“House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Friday that it was time  for the United States to “take it to the next step” in Syria in response to  possible chemical weapons use, although she said that did not include putting “troops on the ground.”

“I myself think that we have tolerated for too long all of the assaults on  the Syrian people made by its own government,” Pelosi told reporters. “I think  we have to take it to the next step. That does not mean troops on the  ground.””

Syria has become the go to place for jihadists looking to fight. From RT.com

“War-torn Syria is now “number one” destination for jihadists who could then return to Europe experienced “in weapons and explosives” to carry out terror attacks, Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague warns.

As the violent military conflict rages on, the threat to Western countries from Syria-grown extremists is rising; and the risk that it may breed a new generation of battle-hardened militants is “growing the longer the fighting in Syria continues,” Hague said in his speech Thursday at the Royal United Services Institute.”

Here’s 4 of the bad arguments being used to argue the case for arming them. From RealClearWorld

“Slowly but steadily, the United States (scratch that, Washington, DC) is talking itself into a deeper involvement in Syria’s civil war. There are already reports indicating that the U.S. is taking an active hand in determining which Syrian rebel groups will receive shipments of weapons purchased by Gulf allies.  The CIA has reportedly been training “secular” fighters in Jordan to send into the fray.

All the while, the Obama administration has been goaded ever-deeper by a series of dubious arguments about U.S. involvement in Syria’s civil war. Four, in particular, have surfaced frequently.”

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Meanwhile, Obama’s speech to Planned Parenthood was a first. It was also quite disgusting to watch. He’d like Planned Parenthood to help him push ObamaCare. From Politico

“President Obama asked Planned Parenthood and its supporters to play a key role in informing Americans of the details of the Affordable Care Act as he addressed the group Friday.

“I’m here to … ask for your help, because we need to get the word out,” he said in Washington during a speech rescheduled from Thursday night, when he chose to spend extra time with victims of the West, Texas, explosion. “We need you to tell your patients, your friends, your neighbors, your family members what the health care law means for them.”

It was about as controversial as Obama got in the speech — the first to the group by a sitting U.S. president — as he avoided talking about the Kermit Gosnell trial or a recent ruling on the morning-after pill.”

Gee, I wonder why? 🙄

From TheDailyCaller

“President Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to deliver a speech  to Planned Parenthood on Friday.

The organization is America’s leading abortion provider.

During a speech at the Planned Parenthood National Conference in Washington,  Obama told the room of about 1,000 attendees that the organization is here to  stay, despite efforts by Republicans to strip the group of federal funding.”

He ended the speech with “God Bless Planned Parenthood.” He also told the adoring crowd at the start that they were “making him blush.” Classless and clueless. He should be embarrassed. If he’s gonna blush, it should be from shame.

And yes, there’s video, from WeaselZippers

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The NY Times has done something I’d never thought I would see. They said Andrew Breitbart was right about the Pigford Settlement to minority farmers all along. From HotAir

“It’s rare to get this kind of vindication, so let’s enjoy it in memory of Andrew Breitbart for as long as possible.  For more than two years, Andrew and Lee Stranahan have investigated the Pigford settlement and the fraudulent claims that not only have cost taxpayers billions, but have left the original black farmers who sued the USDA over discrimination in the lurch.  Today the New York Times reports what Andrew and Lee have been saying all along — that the Pigford settlement was a political hack job by Tom Vilsack’s Department of Agriculture, and that it’s a magnet for fraud (via Twitchy):”

“Career litigators, who had successfully defended the Agriculture Department all the way to the Supreme Court, were aghast:

The payouts pitted Mr. Vilsack and other political appointees against career lawyers and agency officials, who argued that the legal risks did not justify the costs.

Beyond that, they said it was legally questionable to sidestep Congress and compensate the Hispanic and female farmers out of a special Treasury Department account, known as the Judgment Fund. The fund is restricted to payments of court-approved judgments and settlements, as well as to out-of-court settlements in cases where the government faces imminent litigation that it could lose. Some officials argued that tapping the fund for the farmers set a bad precedent, since most had arguably never contemplated suing and might not have won if they had.”

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And lastly, an interesting read from Pat Buchanan over at CNS News called “The Dark Side of Diversity”

“”I do not know the method of drawing up an indictment against a whole people,” said Edmund Burke of the rebellious Americans.

The  same holds true of Islam, the majority faith of 49 nations from Morocco  to Indonesia, a religion that 1.6 billion people profess.

Yet, some assertions appear true.

Islam  is growing in militancy and intolerance, evolving again into a fighting  faith, and spreading not only through proselytizing, but violence.”

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by

News/Politics 4-26-13

What’s of interest in the news today?

Open Thread.

Boston Bombing suspect #1 was on 2 watch lists. From TheWallStJournal

“U.S. authorities put alleged Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev on two separate watch lists in 2011 after Russian security agencies twice reached out to their American counterparts, raising new questions about missed opportunities to prevent the attack.

U.S. officials said Wednesday that at the request of the CIA, Mr. Tsarnaev was added to a broad database called Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, which holds hundreds of thousands of names flagged by multiple U.S. security agencies.”

“The FBI’s earlier contact with Mr. Tsarnaev already had caused his name to be put in another database, called TECS, which is used by U.S. police and national-security agencies, two law-enforcement officials said.”

Here’s more on suspect #2 being read Miranda rights and the effect it had on questioning. And who sent the judge and public defender? The DoJ. From WLTX

“Sixteen hours after investigators began interrogating him, Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev stopped talking after being read his constitutional rights.

Officials briefed on the interrogation say the 19-year-old suspect went silent after a magistrate judge and a representative from the U.S. Attorney’s office gave him his Miranda warning. The officials insisted on anonymity because the briefing was private.”

The FBI was not pleased. They were under the impression that the exemption gave them 48 hours to interrogate. That ended after 16 hours. Megyn Kelly has that and more from Fox News.

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All 5 living President’s attended the dedicating of the George W. Bush Presidential Center. From USAToday

“Bush opened his remarks with wry humor. He joked that there was a time in his life that he wouldn’t be found in a library, much less found one, and noted that Obama, unlike the other ex-presidents, has a job.

Noting Alexander Hamilton’s concern that ex-presidents would wander the nation like “discontented ghosts,” Bush said, “Actually, I think we seem pretty happy.” Bush, a stickler for punctuality, began his remarks a few minutes early.

He thanked his wife, parents, former aides, world leaders and his vice president, Dick Cheney, adding, “I’m proud to call you friend.””

Liberals hate that too. They acted as you’d expect, so no link to them. Why encourage them?

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Democrat leaders have changed their mind on that ObamaCare exemption for Congress. They claim it wasn’t their intent to do so. From TheHill

“Republicans hammered Democrats for allegedly seeking to  carve themselves out  of a requirement in the healthcare law.

Democratic leaders said Thursday they’re not seeking an exemption from a  central requirement of ObamaCare — that members of Congress and their staff  purchase healthcare coverage through insurance exchanges.”

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Frank Lautenberg has introduced legislation which will have the public paying for Peace Corps rape victims to have abortions. From Lautenberg.Senate.gov

“Today, U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) introduced legislation to ensure that basic health care benefits are offered to women in the Peace Corps and provide them with the same standard of health care that most women with federal health care coverage already receive. Lautenberg’s bill corrects the current inequity in law that prevents the Peace Corps from offering any abortion coverage for volunteers, even for volunteers who have been sexually assaulted or when the life of the woman is endangered.

“We must not stand idly by while Peace Corps volunteers continue to be subjected to this gross inequity in their health care coverage,” Lautenberg said.  “Peace Corps volunteers choose to provide a valuable public service despite inherent risks to their safety, including sexual assault, and it is unacceptable that their own country restricts their access to care.  My legislation would ensure that Peace Corps volunteers don’t have to forfeit their rights or jeopardize their health when they volunteer to help underserved populations throughout the world.”

“The “Peace Corps Equity Act of 2013” would allow the Peace Corps to provide its volunteers with health insurance coverage for abortion in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the woman is endangered.  Almost all other women covered under federal health plans receive this same coverage.  With more than 1,000 Peace Corps volunteers having experienced sexual assault over the past decade, this technical fix is needed to protect the reproductive rights of women in the Peace Corps.  The bill is co-sponsored by U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).”

I find it strange that the Senator mentions sexual assaults as justification. But he doesn’t address what they are going to make the Peace Corps do in order to address this threat that female workers face in many foreign countries. These assaults are all too common. There are even websites advising women not to join, and they claim the Peace Corps covers it up. The Senator should be more concerned with preventing the assaults, and calling the Peace Corps to task for their failures, rather than just aborting the sometime result.

The following links come with a CONTENT WARNING!!! because it’s adult subject matter, and it’s difficult to read some of these stories. The Senator is treating a symptom, not the problem.

From TheHuffingtonPost

“Jessica Smochek told members of Congress on Wednesday that, after being brutally gang-raped in Bangladesh in 2004, a Peace Corps medical officer refused to give her a proper physical examination. Instead, the medic confiscated the former English teacher’s cellphone so that she could not alert her fellow volunteers and instructed her to tell anyone who asked about her sudden departure from the program that she was returning to the U.S. to get her wisdom teeth out. When Smochek arrived in Washington, D.C., a Peace Corps official asked her to write down everything she had done to provoke the attack.

“Shortly after I left, the country director — who never attempted to contact me after I was raped — called a meeting of several women in my former volunteer group and told them, without my permission, what had happened to me,” she said. “Then, he told them that rape was a woman’s fault and that I had caused what happened to me by being out alone after 5:00 PM. As for the other women in the group, who had been very vocal about being constantly stalked and afraid, he threatened them with administrative separation.”

Smochek was one of a growing number of former Peace Corps volunteers who are speaking out about the sexual assaults they endured while serving abroad. Their stories have sparked Congressional hearings, as well as pledges for institutional reform.”

More From About.com

“Is the Peace Corps safe for women? The news that over a thousand female Peace Corp Volunteers (PCVs) have been raped or sexually assaulted in the past decade has prompted Congress to hold hearings on the matter. These findings, reported by ABC News on their investigative news show 20/20 in mid-January 2011, are the most recent in a long line of stories that suggest the Peace Corps is more interested in protecting its reputation than its female volunteers throughout their two-year volunteer overseas assignments.”

Some victims have even submitted affidavits to Congress. From TheWashingtonPost

The Senator has a misguided approach to the problem, and it isn’t a solution at all.

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by

News/Politics 4-25-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

It appears from press reports that Boston bomb suspect #1 was on a watch list, yet it didn’t help, or work as it’s supposed to. From Reuters

“The name of one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was listed on the U.S. government’s highly classified central database of people it views as potential terrorists. But the list is so vast that this did not mean authorities automatically kept close tabs on him, sources close to the bombing investigation said on Tuesday.”

“After being put in the TIDE system, his name was entered in another database, this one maintained by the Homeland Security Department’s Customs and Border Protection bureau which is used to screen people crossing U.S. land borders and entering at airports or by sea.

Tsarnaev was flagged on that database when he left the United States for Russia in January 2012 but no alarm was raised, presumably because the FBI had not identified him as a threat after the interview.”

It was the CIA who asked that his name be put on the list. From TheWashingtonPost

“The CIA asked the main U.S. counterterrorism agency to add the name of one of the suspected Boston Marathon bombers to a watch list more than a year before the attack, according to U.S. officials.

The agency took the step after Russian authorities contacted officials there in the fall of 2011 and raised concerns that Tamerlan Tsarnaev — who was killed last week in a confrontation with police — was seen as an increasingly radical Islamist and could be planning to travel overseas. The CIA requested that his name be put on a database maintained by the National Counterterrorism Center.”

“The CIA’s request came months after the FBI had closed a preliminary inquiry into Tsarnaev after getting a similar inquiry about him from Russian state security, according to officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

The new disclosure suggests that the U.S. government may have had more reason than previously known to scrutinize Tsarnaev in the months leading up to the bombings in Boston.”

John Kerry has made some statements that raised eyebrows. From Politico

“Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that Tamerlan Tsarnaev returned from Russia last year “with a willingness to kill people.”

“Well, of course we have the same problem. We just had a young person who went to Russia, Chechnya, who blew people up in Boston,” Kerry said. “So he didn’t stay where he went, but he learned something where he went and he came back with a willingness to kill people.”

His remarks appear to go further than those made by other U.S. officials, who have said they haven’t determined yet if Tsarnaev received terrorist training during his 6-1/2 month stay in Russia. Tsarnaev and his younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, are suspected of carrying out the Boston bombings last week.”

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And in an unrelated domestic terrorism case we have some interesting testimony from Floyd Lee Corkins II, the Family Research Council shooter. His motivation? He explained to investigators that he attacked the group’s headquarters because the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) identified them as a “hate group” due to their traditional marriage views. The hate preached by the SPLC motivated him. From TheWashingtonExaminer

““Southern Poverty Law lists anti-gay groups,” Corkins tells interrogators in the video, which FRC obtained from the FBI. “I found them online, did a little research, went to the website, stuff like that.””

“The Southern Poverty Law Center still lists FRC as an “anti-gay” hate group on the “hate map” Corkins used. “The SPLC’s reckless labeling has led to devastating consequences,” said FRC President Tony Perkins.  “Because of its ‘hate group’ lists, a deadly terrorist had a guidemap to FRC and other organizations.  Our staff is still reeling from the attack, and the chilling effect this could have on organizations that are simply fighting for their values is outrageous.”

And yes, there’s a short video.

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And the Obama admin and DHS have been handed a loss in federal court. It’s not the final decision, but the judge feels the ICE Agents Union is likely to prevail. The Union filed suit over the admin insisting that agents NOT do their jobs. It’s a shame that these folks had to sue, but the admin only enforces laws it likes. From BusinessWeek

“A court challenge by federal immigration agents seeking to block President Barack Obama’s deferred-deportation initiative will probably succeed, a judge said.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Dallas today put off his own decision on whether to grant the request for a preliminary injunction by 10 U.S. Immigration and Customs agents. He asked both sides to file additional arguments no later than May 6.”

““The court finds that DHS does not have discretion to refuse to initiate removal proceedings” when the requirements for deportation under a federal statute are met, O’Connor said today in a 38-page decision, referring to the Department of Homeland Security.”

More here from TheWashingtonExaminer

“The judge’s comments come one day after Napolitano scolded the union, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill, for challenging the policy she and Obama have implemented.

“There are tensions with union leadership, unfortunately,” Napolitano told Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., on Tuesday. “Here’s what I expect as a former prosecutor and attorney general: that is that law enforcement agents will enforce the law in accordance with the guidance they are given [by] their superiors.”

Sessions faulted Napolitano for refusing to meet with the ICE officers’ union. “I have never heard of a situation in which a group of law officers sued their supervisor, and you, for blocking them from following the law,” he said. “They weren’t complaining about pay, benefits, working conditions — they were saying their very oath they took to enforce the law is being blocked by rules and regulations and policies established from on high, and that this is undermining their ability to do what they are sworn to do.””

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News/Politics 4-24-13

What’s interesting out there today?

Open Thread, as always.

Me…. I’m beating that horse again. From Boston.com

“Russian authorities alerted the FBI not once but “multiple’’ times over their  concerns about Tamerlan Tsarnaev — including a second time nearly a year after he was first interviewed by FBI agents in Boston — raising new questions about whether the FBI should have focused more attention on the suspected Boston Marathon bomber, according to US senators briefed on the probe Tuesday.”

More on the mosque they attended here. From USAToday

“The mosque attended by the two brothers accused in the Boston Marathon bombing has been associated with other terrorist suspects, has invited radical speakers to a sister mosque in Boston and is affiliated with a Muslim group that critics say nurses grievances that can lead to extremism.

Several people who attended the Islamic Society of Boston mosque in Cambridge, Mass., have been investigated for Islamic terrorism, including a conviction of the mosque’s first president, Abdulrahman Alamoudi, in connection with an assassination plot against a Saudi prince.”

Check out the link. This place has a long list of radicals that have spoken there. And many of them have also been investigated for terrorism ties.

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The Ricin letters suspect has been released. From NBCNews

“Charges were dropped Tuesday against the Mississippi man suspected of mailing ricin-laced letters to President Obama and other public officials — as authorities searched the home of another man hoping to find clues in the expanding investigation.

“I respect President Obama and love my country. I would never do anything to pose a threat to him or any other U.S. official,” Paul Kevin Curtis said at a news conference Tuesday.”

More from FoxNews

“The Mississippi man charged with sending ricin-laced letters to President Obama  was released on bond Tuesday, as the FBI searched the Mississippi home of a  possible second suspect amid an apparent probe into whether the first suspect  might have been framed. ”

“Shortly afterward, FBI searched the home of a possible second suspect. The FBI  zeroed in on this individual earlier in the day, a source told Fox News.”

More on another possible Ricin attack, from  WaPo 

“Federal authorities are investigating another potential ricin attack at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Southeast Washington, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday.”

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Some pretty disturbing details are emerging in the Texas plant explosion. If true, arrests and prosecutions need to happen. From TheNYPost

“The fertilizer plant that exploded and wiped out much of a small Texas town last week once stored 1,350 times the amount of ammonium nitrate that typically triggers federal safety oversight, officials said.

Yet a person familiar with Department of Homeland Security operations said the company that owns the plant, West Fertilizer, failed to tell the agency about the potentially explosive fertilizer it stored last year, as required.”

Much more here from HuffPo/Reuters

“Fertilizer plants and depots must report to the DHS when  they hold 400 lb (180 kg) or more of the substance. Filings this  year with the Texas Department of State Health Services, which  weren’t shared with DHS, show the plant had 270 tons of it on  hand last year.

A U.S. congressman and several safety experts called into  question on Friday whether incomplete disclosure or regulatory  gridlock may have contributed to the disaster.

“It seems this manufacturer was willfully off the grid,”  Rep. Bennie Thompson, (D-MS), ranking member of the House  Committee on Homeland Security, said in a statement. “This  facility was known to have chemicals well above the threshold  amount to be regulated under the Chemical Facility  Anti-Terrorism Standards Act (CFATS), yet we understand that DHS  did not even know the plant existed until it blew up.””

With a Hat Tip to HRW

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Several charges against Kermit Gosnell have been dropped by the judge. From LifeSiteNews

“A federal judge has dropped nine charges – including three murder charges and one count of infanticide – against Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, as his trial resumed this morning.

Local media report the judge has determined Gosnell will not face three counts of murder, one count of infanticide, and five counts of abuse of a corpse. The latter charges related to Gosnell’s keeping the severed feet of aborted babies in jars in his clinic.

Gosnell still faces the remaining four charges of first degree murder in the deaths of newborn babies, and an additional charge of third degree murder over the death of one of his abortion clients.”

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“What difference does it make?”

Well now we know why she wasn’t concerned with the truth getting out and was reluctant to answer questions. It was to protect herself and the White House. The House has issued it’s Benghazi report, which blames Hillary Clinton. From TheWashingtonExaminer

“A critical report drafted by five GOP-led House committees has determined that reduced security at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi in the days leading up to the Sept. 11, 2012, attack was approved by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The report also found that White House and high-ranking officials at the State Department changed CIA talking points following the attacks, which killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others, in order to shield the State Department from “criticism for inadequate security levels” on the ground in Benghazi.

The 46-page report provides a timeline of events leading up to the attacks in Benghazi and investigation that followed.”

A larger view of the report can be viewed here at Scribd.com

And it also appears that like her husband, she has lied under oath. From TheWashingtonExaminer

“House Republicans released their report on the investigation into the Benghazi terrorist attack, having concluded that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was not telling the truth when she told Congress that she wasn’t aware that officials at the U.S. mission in Benghazi had requested extra security.

“The specific security requests pertaining to Benghazi, you know were handled by the security professionals in the department,” Clinton told Congress in January. “I didn’t see those requests, they didn’t come to me, I didn’t approve them, I didn’t deny them.”

The House report suggests that Clinton received a request for more security from Gene Cretz, who preceded Christopher Stevens as ambassador to Libya.

Not only did she receive and see the request, her signature was on the response cable which denied the request.

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Democrats have been insisting the last few days that we need to pass the immigration/amnesty bill to protect against terrorism. It would do nothing of the sort. It’s what it really does that they are in a hurry to get done. From Politico

“The immigration proposal pending in Congress would transform the nation’s  political landscape for a generation or more — pumping as many as 11 million new  Hispanic voters into the electorate a decade from now in ways that, if current  trends hold, would produce an electoral bonanza for Democrats and cripple  Republican prospects in many states they now win easily.

Beneath the philosophical debates about amnesty and border security, there  are brass-tacks partisan calculations driving the thinking of lawmakers in both  parties over comprehensive immigration reform, which in its current form offers  a pathway to citizenship — and full voting rights — for a group of undocumented  residents that roughly equals the population of Ohio, the nation’s  seventh-largest state.”

“If these people had been on the voting rolls in 2012 and voted along the same  lines as other Hispanic voters did last fall, President Barack Obama’s  relatively narrow victory last fall would have been considerably wider, a  POLITICO analysis showed.”

THIS is the goal. It always has been.

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News/Politics 4-23-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

Open Thread, you decide. Here’s a few from me…

Once again, the FBI, DHS, and INS dropped the ball. From TheDailyMail

“The Department of Homeland Security was  dragging its feet on processing Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s U.S.  citizenship after a routine background check revealed he had been questioned by  the FBI in 2011.

Tamerlan, 26, filed an application for  citizenship six months ago but immigration officials had not yet made a decision  on his case at the time of the Boston Marathon bombings.

Authorities knew the alleged bomber had a  domestic violence charge on his record but the fact he had been grilled by  federal agents is reportedly what threw up red flags, halting the progress of  his application.”

And he wasn’t deported because…….?

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TheAP finally reports the obvious…….

“Two U.S. officials say preliminary evidence from an interrogation suggests the suspects in the Boston Marathon attack were motivated by their religious views but were apparently not tied to any Islamic terrorist groups.”

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You can read the criminal complaint against bomber #2 here, from TheWeeklyStandard

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Canada has thwarted a terrorist attack, with the help of DHS. From TheTorontoSun

““Had this plot been carried out, it would have resulted in innocent people being killed or seriously injured,” Royal Canadian Mounted Police official James Malizia told reporters in Toronto.

The RCMP said it had arrested Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, of Montreal, and Raed Jaser, 35, of Toronto, in connection with the plot, which authorities said was not linked to the Boston Marathon bombings, which killed three and injured more than 200 people last week.

Neither is a Canadian citizen, but the police did not reveal their nationalities.”

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More here from TheNYDailyNews

“Two suspected Al Qaeda terrorists were busted Monday in Canada before they  could wreak havoc on the rails by blowing up a New York-to-Toronto passenger  train.

The plan hatched by Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser — and directed by Al  Qaeda operatives based in Iran — was derailed by the Mounties before it ever got  out of the station, officials said.”

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Meanwhile the rebels our govt. is backing continue to commit atrocities against Christian minorities in Syria. From AssyrianInternationalNewsAgency

“Syria’s Christians fear an Islamist takeover should the current government be overthrown. During the ongoing civil war there has been a well-documented rise in the number of salafi-jihadist groups operating in Syria that pose a direct threat to Syria’s Christian community.These militant opposition forces espouse an Islamist ideology, which incorporates elements of Wahhabism and Salafism and whose stated goals and objectives are by definition hostile towards Christians. Firsthand accounts from Syrian Christian refugees in Lebanon reported by award winning investigative journalist Nuri Kino detail the horror in which they described kidnappings, rapes, harassment, theft and other violent reprisals at the hands of Islamist groups.

Those who survived reported “just being Christian is enough to be a target,” disproving theories that violence and kidnapping directed towards Syrian Christians is purely incidental or for economic reasons. One individual openly declared “We’re not poor. We didn’t run from poverty […] we ran from fear.”

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Two Bishops have been kidnapped by rebels as well. From Reuters

“Two prominent Syrian bishops, who had warned of the threat to religious tolerance and diversity from the two-year conflict in their country, were kidnapped on Monday by armed rebels in the northern province of Aleppo, state media said.

SANA news agency said the Syriac Orthodox and Greek Orthodox Archbishops of Aleppo, Yohanna Ibrahim and Paul Yazigi, were seized by “a terrorist group” in the village of Kfar Dael as they were “carrying out humanitarian work”.”

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John F. Kerry, reporting for duty…….

From AmericanThinker

“While  speaking in Istanbul, Turkey, Secretary  of State John Kerry compared the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings with  the terrorists who attacked IDF forces aboard the ship Mavi Marmara in  2010.”

“Speaking  at Istanbul, Turkey, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made a jarring comparison between the victims of the Boston Marathon terror bombs and terror activists from the IHH  group who were killed  when they attacked IDF forces aboard the Mavi Marmara in 2010.

Kerry  told his hosts in Turkey that he understands the pain of the  families whose  loved ones were killed aboard the Marmara – and added  that he can understand  their pain well, having just dealt with the  families whose loved ones were  slain in Boston.”

Is it really any wonder our govt. supports the terrorists in Syria, Egypt, and Libya? They don’t seem capable of even telling the difference between the parties involved. Their ideology blinds them to the obvious.

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News/Politics 4-22-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

The big story continues to be the Boston Bombings.

The surviving bomber is awake and responding to questions from authorities. From ABCNews

” Law enforcement sources tell ABC News that the Boston Marathon bombings suspect is awake and has been responding sporadically in writing to questions. Officials say they have been asking about other cell members and other potential unexploded bombs. Details on any answers given have not been released.”

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It’s a story of dueling press accounts as well. As you’d expect, MSNBC and like minded sources refuse to admit the obvious motivations of the bombers. They’re in denial about any religious motivations. Some foreign sources aren’t having that problem.

From TheDailyMail

“The Mail on Sunday has learned that the FBI  put Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, under surveillance after receiving an explicit  warning from the Russian intelligence services.”

“Despite all this, the FBI found no  substantive evidence that he was engaged in terror-related activities though  they continued to ‘monitor his internet use and contacts’.

According to an intelligence source, Russia  remained convinced that Tamerlan, an ethnic Chechen, was in ‘direct contact’ with Islamist militants, most likely based in the strife-torn southern Russian  region of Dagestan, where he lived for two years with his family prior to moving  to the US.”

The FBI has a lot of explaining to do. More from TheTelegraphUK

And here as well, also from TheTelegraphUK

MSNBC says don’t be too hard on the FBI, from Newsbusters

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Meanwhile NBC Nightly News ignores the Islamic ties.

MSNBC insists it’s not related to Islam at all.

And Salon’s Clown Prince says we conservatives want them to be Muslims so we can have a bigoted, violent, civil-liberties-trampling reaction.

And the Atlantic insists it too soon to tell if Islam played a roll.

The NYTIMES publishes then revises a story seemingly sympathetic to the bombers.

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The Mayor of Boston says the 2 suspects acted alone. From TheAP

“Boston Mayor Tom Menino says information he has indicates that the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing acted alone.”

“He tells ABC’s `This Week” that a pipe bomb was found at another location and that another person was taken into custody. The mayor did not elaborate.”

Well which is it? Or is this another totally unrelated bomber?

This publication disagrees with the Mayor. From TheMirrorUK

“The FBI was last night hunting a 12-strong terrorist “sleeper cell” linked to  the Boston  marathon bomb brothers.”

“A source close to the investigation said: “We have no doubt the brothers were  not acting alone. The devices used to detonate the two bombs were highly  sophisticated and not the kind of thing people learn from Google.

“They were too advanced. Someone gave the brothers the skills and it is now  our job to find out just who they were. Agents think the sleeper cell has up to  a dozen members and has been waiting several years for their day to come.”

I hope they’re wrong and the Mayor is correct.

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This is a good piece on how the brothers came to be the extremists they were in the end. From TheBostonGlobe

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Military tribunal or criminal trial? Go with A.  From ABCNews

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Boston’s Police Comm. calls releasing the photos a turning point. From Boston.com

“Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis said releasing the photos of the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing “may have led to the further attack” against MIT police officer Sean Collier, which he called an assassination. But he stressed there is no way to know for sure.

Releasing the pictures after many hours of behind-the-scenes deliberation, “was a turning point in the investigation, no doubt about it,” said Davis in an interview with the Globe.

“It forced them out of their hideout and they decided to commit further violent acts. But it’s my belief that they were already manufacturing explosive devices. Further violent acts were inevitable.” The suspects “were not making those explosives for nothing,” said Davis. “There was a plan there, and I believe that tragically [Collier] lost his life, but he was truly protecting the citizens of the city.””

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In other news…….

An update from the Texas plant explosion story. Press has been allowed in, and the story is one of devastation. From CBSNews

“At least 14 people are dead and 200 injured after the blast in the tiny Texas town. Officials now say 12 of the 14 killed were first responders, CBS News’ Steve Futterman reports.”

“Meanwhile, on the first Sunday after the explosion, pastor John Crowder stood atop a long flatbed truck overlooking a hayfield and spoke to his congregation.

Crowder’s First Baptist Church in West remains blocked off as investigators work on the scene of Wednesday’s blast. So about 100 people sat in white folding chairs Sunday morning, while others carried their own.

“We have lost our friends and neighbors,” Crowder told the audience. We have lost the safety and comfort of our homes. But as scary as this is, we don’t have to be afraid.”

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A bizarre report of shots fired at a nuke plant. Great, just what we need, more crazy. From WBIR.com

“A TVA spokesperson confirmed that a security officer patrolling TVA Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in Spring City was involved in a shootout with a suspect Sunday at about 2:00 a.m.
The security incident happened on the Tennessee River side of the plant property, more than a quarter mile from the plant’s protected area, which houses its reactor and power production facilities.

TVA spokesperson Jim Hopson said the subject traveled up to the plant on a boat and walked onto the property.  When the officer questioned the suspect, the individual fired multiple shots at the officer.  The officer shot back, and when he called for backup, the suspect sped away on his boat. ”

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Schumer and Graham are claiming this adds a need for urgency to the amnesty bill they want passed. 🙄 Shocking right? From TheHill

“The Boston Marathon tragedy is a reason for Congress to move faster – not  slower – to overhaul the nation’s immigration system, according to two  co-authors of a Senate reform package.

Some conservatives on Capitol Hill have suggested Monday’s deadly bombings – allegedly orchestrated by a pair of young immigrants from Russia’s volatile  Caucasus region – should cause lawmakers to move more deliberately in their  approach to immigration reform this year.”

“But Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) – chief  architects of a sweeping bipartisan immigration proposal unveiled last week – argued Sunday that their bill will help prevent future terrorist attacks at home  and should be taken up as soon as possible.”

Funny thing though, Chuck doesn’t like to be questioned on the specifics. From TheDailyCaller

“Chris Crane, head of the immigration officers union, was pulled out of a  Senate press conference today when he tried to question Sen. Chuck Schumer  during the televised roll-out of the 844-page immigration rewrite.

While reporters asked questions, Schumer ignored three requests from Crane,  who sought to question him about aspects of the far-reaching law, which promises  to tighten enforcement of immigration laws at borders, airports and  seaports.

“Will you take a question from law enforcement?” Crane asked, repeating the  question twice before being removed.

Schumer ignored the question, and repeated his advocacy for the bill. Crane’s  union represents agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)  service.”

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News/Politics 4-20-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

Open Thread, so talk about whatever you’d like.

I’m going with the obvious.

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The 2nd Boston Bombing suspect remains in serious condition in the hospital. From ABCNews

“The alleged Boston Marathon bomber who hid from authorities for more than 20 hours was captured tonight by police, sending cheers up through the Watertown neighborhood where he was found.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was discovered by a homeowner lying in a boat in the man’s backyard around 7 p.m. The man noticed blood on the boat, spotted a body inside the boat and called 911, according to Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis.

According to police, a helicopter with infrared technology then located Tsarnaev in the boat and noted that he was moving about within it. The helicopter directed officers on the ground to the boat, where they briefly exchanged gunfire shortly before 7 p.m.”

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The people of Watertown are relieved and thankful for the job police did here. They took to the streets in celebration. From TheAP

“Reporters and spectators lined up on the other side. The mood was tense, with the few neighbors who ventured out hugging and crying as they heard bangs. Others merely looked on curiously.

Then, one officer slowly started clapping. Then it spread to the crowd. Then loud cheers broke out.”

“But after the capture, celebratory bells rang from a church tower. Crowds lined the streets into the center of town. Teenagers waved American flags. Every car that drove by honked. Every time an emergency vehicle went by, people cheered loudly.”

“Hundreds of people marched down Commonwealth Avenue, chanting “USA” and singing the Red Sox anthem “Sweet Caroline” as they headed toward Boston Common. Police blocked traffic along part of the street to allow for the impromptu parade.”

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The suspect’s sister is heartbroken and skeptical. Police seized a computer from her home. From TheAP

“The FBI on Friday removed a computer from the New Jersey home of a sister of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects. Police said she was cooperating with the investigation and was “heartbroken, surprised and upset,” though she told reporters she wasn’t sure the accusations against her brothers were true.

The woman, identified by local police as Ailina Tsarnaeva, told federal agents she had not been in contact with her brothers for years, according to Police Director Michael Indri.”

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The father of the bombers had already alleged a set-up, now so has the mother as well. But that’s not what concerns me here. I’d expect them to say this. They’re his family. But some of the other things she has to say are troubling. From WorldNetDaily

“The mother of two brothers believed to be responsible for the Boston Marathon  bombing insists her sons are innocent and were “set up,” according to a  telephone interview with RT-TV, also known as Russia Today.”

““My son would never do this. It is a set-up,” the woman continued in her  interview with RT. “He was controlled by FBI for like, three, five years. They  knew what my son was doing. They knew what actions and what sites on the  Internet he was going. He used to come home, they used to come and talk to me.  They used to tell me that, you know, that they are controlling his – they were  telling me that he’s really a serious leader and they’re afraid of him. They  said, they told me that whatever he is, whatever country decides, whatever is  there, whatever information he’s getting, they are controlling him, so how could  this happen? How could they – they were controlling every step of him, and  they’re telling today that this is a terrorist act. Never, ever! This is not  true. My two sons are innocent.””

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Now as I said, I’d normally dismiss her opinion, except there’s another story out there that says the FBI investigated the older brother 2 years ago at the request of an unnamed foreign govt. The assumption is Russia. He spent 6 months there around the same time. From CBSNews

“The FBI admitted Friday they interviewed the now-deceased Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev two years ago and failed to find any incriminating information about him.

As first reported by CBS News correspondent Bob Orr, the FBI interviewed Tsarnaev, the elder brother of at-large bombing suspect Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, at the request of a foreign government to see if he had any extremist ties, but failed to find any linkage.”

“CBS News correspondent John Miller reports it is likely Russia asked to have the elder Tsarnaev vetted because of suspected ties to Chechen extremists.”

“This is an issue they’ve had in the past. They interviewed Carlos Bledsoe in Little Rock, Ark., before he shot up an Army recruiting station in 2009. They were also looking into Major Hasan Nadal before the Fort Hood shootings.”

And it’s an issue that raises all kinds of questions about how the FBI is doing their jobs. It also shows a failure in leadership that this continues to happen. And that failure is the White House’s responsibility as well. When you couple that with the story yesterday  from JudicialWatch about a criminal arrest and conviction for domestic abuse, a deportable offense, then you have to question why these failures occurred. It appears that had at least 2 opportunities to remove him from the country prior to this. The FBI, INS, DoJ, and Obama Admin have a lot of explaining to do here. Why did this happen?

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Rep. Peter King would like some answers as well. He tried to get some before on other cases of extremists like Maj. Nadal Hasan, and he was ridiculed and called a racist for his efforts. Rep. Steve King recieved the same treatment. Maybe folks will be a little more receptive to having this conversation now. Although I’d expect the Obama Admin to circle the wagons and not want to provide answers. Especially when the evidence seems to imply their policies are not working. From NationalReview

““We can’t be bound by political correctness,” adds King, who chairs the House subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. “I think we need more police and more surveillance in the communities where the threat is coming from, whether it’s the Irish community with the Westies [an Irish-American gang in New York City], or the Italian community with the mafia, or the Muslim community with the Islamic terrorists.””

““I’ve been talking about radicalization of the Muslim community,” he remarks, “and I think this is an example of it.””

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And this also raises questions about the Admins preference for downplaying Islamic radicalism.

From TheTelegraphUK

“Mr Obama and his intelligence community know the threat from al-Qaeda affiliates, but have chosen to downplay it to the US public.

Even when that fight does directly touch on American lives, as it did last September when the US ambassador to Libya was murdered in Benghazi by an al-Qaeda linked group, the administration appears at pains to deny the connection.”

“But as many counter-terrorism experts have been saying – their voices often drowned out or ignored in favour of the pleasing simplicity of the Obama administration’s narrative – the threat from al-Qaeda is too amorphous and shifting to ever have been discounted.”

And it would be foolish to think this has nothing to do with the muslim influence in the Obama admin. That influence is reflected in their policies, and the decisions here to not investigate further and to not deport. And it’s reflected in places like Syria, Egypt, Libya, and pretty much the Middle East as a whole. These are the people they’ve backed in all those countries. That’s not a coincidence.

Like I said, lot’s of questions. But will we get answers?

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But I must say I agree with the President and DoJ on this part. From WeaselZippers.

“During the press conference this evening, the question of whether Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had been read Miranda rights arose. Carmen Ortiz, the U.S. Attorney, noted that they had not read him the rights, but were employing the “public safety exception”.  The following is a good explanation of the exception.”

“At least 7 IEDs were reportedly found in their home in Watertown, as well as other bomb making equipment. So the question of more bombs were a very real possibility and the exception likely wisely invoked.”

He should be treated like an enemy combatant, because he is. Still, it will be interesting to see if the left get’s as upset about this as they did when Bush did it. But I won’t hold my breath.

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Boston Bombing Update 4-19-12

One Bombing suspect is dead after a shootout with police, the other is still on the run. A massive manhunt is under way for him.

UPDATE II

Captured!

From FoxNews

“The second suspect in the Boston Marathon  bombing is in custody, after police found him hiding in a boat covered by a tarp  behind a house in the Watertown section of the city, Boston police  confirmed.

Police moved in on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev  Friday evening after tip led them to the home on Franklin Street, where he  apparently had been hiding in the back yard. Neighbors said they heard more than  30 shots one likened to “a roll of firecrackers shooting off.” Police swarmed  the scene, and several explosions, possibly police concussion grenades, were  heard after a robot moved in on the boat.”

Great job by the police, and especially the alert lady that called it in.

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From NBCNews

“The Boston Marathon bombing suspects — armed with explosives and guns — battled law enforcement officers in a Boston suburb early Friday morning, unleashing chaos until cops took one of the men into custody and the other fled, law enforcement sources said.

Officials later said the suspect taken into custody died and authorities identified the man on the run as the “white-hat” suspect, referencing photographs released by the FBI Thursday. Authorities warned he should be  considered armed and dangerous.”

“Law enforcement sources said the suspects have international links and have been in the country legally for about a year.

The suspects approached the MIT officer and shot him in head, the sources said. The two then stole the MIT officer’s cruiser, robbed a nearby 7-11 and carjacked a Mercedes SUV, briefly kidnapping the driver, the sources said. At various points, the suspects threw explosives out the window of the moving car.”

More here from FoxNews

“Authorities urged residents in Watertown, Newton, Waltham, Belmont, Cambridge  and the Allston-Brighton neighborhoods of Boston to stay indoors. All mass  transit was shut down.

“We believe this to be a terrorist,” Davis said in a press conference. “We  believe this to be a man who’s come here to kill people. We need to get him in  custody.””

“A federal law enforcement official told Fox News they are looking into  whether the bombing suspects may have been from overseas and had overseas  military training.”

Watertown, Mass. and the surrounding area is under lockdown this morning. From NBCNews

“Public transportation in Boston was shut down Friday morning and some neighborhoods and towns were in total lockdown as police searched for the second of two men believed to have been involved in the marathon bombings earlier this week.”

“All services on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority were immediately suspended authorities announced and the residents of the city’s western suburbs, including the neighborhoods of Watertown, Allston-Brighton, Cambridge, Belmont and Newton, were asked to remain in their homes.

Police searched the Watertown neighborhood door to door on foot and in patrol cars early Friday morning. Residents were asked to call 911 if anyone other than police came to doors in the neighborhood.

People waiting for buses or other transit services should head home and stay there, police said. No vehicular traffic was being allowed in or out of Watertown, where police engaged in a shootout overnight with men armed with explosives.”

The suspects have been identified. They are from Chechnya. From NBCNews

“The suspects are brothers with the last name Tsarnaev, law enforcement officials told NBC News. The suspect on the loose is 19 and has a Massachusetts driver’s license, they said. Law enforcement officials told NBC News that both men had international ties, had been in the United States about a year and had military experience.”

UPDATE

Here’s an excellent rundown on the bomber still at large, including Tweets, from TheAtlanticWire  with a CONTENT WARNING!!! for the Tweets.

“On Friday, after a chaotic evening saw his partner in crime (and apparently his older brother) killed and as a city locked down to find him, Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev emerged as the name of the man in the ongoing manhunt in Boston Friday. According to information culled from multiple reports, Tsarnaev is a 19-year-old reportedly from Kyrgyzstan who has been living, for the past year, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Here’s are the basics of what we know about “Suspect No. 2” — a.k.a. the suspect in the white hat, the one authorities apparently saw drop a bomb-laden backpack in security footages, and the one currently being pursued by police: Tsarnaev was a student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, which is closed for the day; he has been in this country for at least one year; his father is currently in Russia and is claiming that the two boys aren’t/weren’t religious. His uncle is also speaking out about Dzhokhar and Tamerlan, his now dead brother and apparently fellow suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings.

By culling social media, official news reports, and beyond, we’re in the process of filling in the blanks about both suspects — beginning with the man in the standoff with scores of law enforcement officers right now:”

It’s a pretty extensive background piece. I would also point out that despite the father’s insistence to the contrary, the older brother’s Facebook told a different story. Those he “followed” certainly were. And the younger’s Tweets speak for themselves. From WeaselZippers with a CONTENT WARNING!!! for the Tweets.

And he’s a 9-11 truther.

More here on a video allegedly posted by the suspect. It reads like a prayer of some sort, from TheInvestigativeProject

And if this is true, heads should roll. From JudicialWatch

“One of the Chechen terrorists who carried out the Boston Marathon bombings could have been deported years ago after a criminal conviction and the other was granted American citizenship on the 11th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the 26-year-old killed in a wild shootout with police, was a legal U.S. resident who nevertheless could have been removed from the country after a 2009 domestic violence conviction, according to a Judicial Watch source. That means the Obama administration missed an opportunity to deport Tsarnaev but evidently didn’t feel he represented a big enough threat.”

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