Benghazi

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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 4-24-13

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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by

News/Politics 4-18-13

What’s interesting in the news today.

As always, Open Thread.

There was a devastating explosion at a Waco, Texas fertilizer plant late Wednesday. Video from the scene shows a fire which set off a huge explosion. Authorities say 5 to 15 dead, and 160 wounded. Homes and businesses around the plant were leveled in the explosion.

From NBCNews

“At least five to 15 people were killed and more than 160 wounded when a large fertilizer plant explosion rocked a small Texas town late Wednesday, destroying dozens of homes under a cloud of toxic smoke, police said.

Firefighters, including local volunteers, were battling a blaze at the time of the blast, which caused a ground tremor equivalent to a magnitude-2.1 earthquake, the USGS said.”

“”It was a huge explosion,” Swanton said. “It reached blocks, if not miles, in its devastating effect. … My guess is going to be that … we will see the casualty rate rise and the injury rate rise.”

“We know fire was there, we know law enforcement was there assisting with traffic, and I believe there were EMS …,” Swanton said, adding some of those first responders were among the missing.”

Hat Tip to Donna J

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Police have made an arrest in the Ricin letter case. President Obama was a target, as were a group of elected officials. The person responsible didn’t seem to care about the intended victim’s political party.

From NBCNews

“Federal agents on Wednesday arrested a suspect in the mailing of letters to President Barack Obama and a U.S. senator that initially tested positive for the poison ricin.

The suspect was identified as Paul Kevin Curtis of Tupelo, Miss., federal officials told NBC News. They said he may appear in court as early as Wednesday night.

Both letters carried an identical closing statement, according to an FBI bulletin obtained by NBC News on Wednesday.”

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Police believe they have some suspects in the Boston bombing.

From TheAP

” In what could be major break in the Boston Marathon case, investigators are on the hunt for a man seen in a department store surveillance video dropping off a bag at the site of the bombings, a local politician said Wednesday.

Separately, a law enforcement official confirmed that authorities have found an image of a potential suspect but don’t know his name.

The development – less than 48 hours after the attack, which left three people dead and more than 170 wounded – marked a possible turning point in a case that has investigators analyzing photos and videos frame by frame for clues to who carried out the twin bombings and why.”

For some reason they haven’t released photos for the public yet. But at least one website claims to have photos of possible suspects.

From TheNYPost

“In the photos being distributed by law-enforcement officials among themselves, one of the men is carrying a blue duffel bag. The other is wearing a black backpack in the first photo, taken at 10:53 a.m., but it is not visible in the second, taken at 12:30 p.m.

“The attached photos are being circulated in an attempt to identify the individuals highlighted therein,” said an e-mail obtained by The Post. “Feel free to pass this around to any of your fellow agents elsewhere.”

“Meanwhile, officials have identified two potential suspects who were captured on surveillance videos taken shortly before the deadly blasts, law-enforcement sources told The Post yesterday.

Authorities know the names of the two men, but do not have enough evidence to make an arrest for Monday’s attack, which killed three and wounded 176, the sources said.”

UPDATE II  Or not?

From HotAir

“The FBI is (finally!) going to release the footage that everyone’s been clamoring for later today. If you’ve read the New York Post this morning, you probably think you know who the guys in the video will be. You’re probably wrong. I watched an interview on Erin Burnett’s show last night with Fran Townsend (I think it was her), who’d seen photos of the suspects circulated by cops; CNN refused to air the pics but it was abundantly clear from her description that it’s the same two guys in the Post’s story today. If you followed Reddit’s marathon photo sleuthing yesterday, you knew instantly watching that interview who she meant. There were at least five or six different shots of them near the finish line being scrutinized on Reddit — one of them wore a white cap and bulging black backpack, the other a blue track suit with a sagging duffel bag. I went to bed last night thinking that’s who’d be in the video released today.

But apparently I’m wrong. The administrator of the Reddit sleuthing thread posted an alert this morning urging people to back off.”

“We are not waiting for them to be officially cleared, one of the men has contacted the police to try and clear his name. Please understand that the FBI now knows who they are, so our posts now have no purpose. If the situation changes then people can make new posts. It’s not our job to keep their information out there, people are innocent until proven guilty – not the other way around.”

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Some in the left-wing media are pretty upset about the “dark-skinned” references some news sources used. Others on the left are hoping it’s a white male that’s responsible. But only because they fear it could hurt Obama’s agenda or some such nonsense. And believe it or not, it supposedly has something to do with “white privilege.”

From Salon

“As we now move into the official Political Aftermath period of the Boston bombing — the period that will determine the long-term legislative fallout of the atrocity — the dynamics of privilege will undoubtedly influence the nation’s collective reaction to the attacks. That’s because privilege tends to determine: 1) which groups are — and are not — collectively denigrated or targeted for the unlawful actions of individuals; and 2) how big and politically game-changing the overall reaction ends up being.

This has been most obvious in the context of recent mass shootings. In those awful episodes, a religious or ethnic minority group lacking such privilege would likely be collectively slandered and/or targeted with surveillance or profiling (or worse) if some of its individuals comprised most of the mass shooters. However, white male privilege means white men are not collectively denigrated/targeted for those shootings — even though most come at the hands of white dudes.

Likewise, in the context of terrorist attacks, such privilege means white non-Islamic terrorists are typically portrayed not as representative of whole groups or ideologies, but as “lone wolf” threats to be dealt with as isolated law enforcement matters. Meanwhile, non-white or developing-world terrorism suspects are often reflexively portrayed as representative of larger conspiracies, ideologies and religions that must be dealt with as systemic threats — the kind potentially requiring everything from law enforcement action to military operations to civil liberties legislation to foreign policy shifts.

“White privilege is knowing that even if the bomber turns out to be white, no one will call for your group to be profiled as terrorists as a result, subjected to special screening or threatened with deportation,” writes author Tim Wise. “White privilege is knowing that if this bomber turns out to be white, the United States government will not bomb whatever corn field or mountain town or stale suburb from which said bomber came, just to ensure that others like him or her don’t get any ideas. And if he turns out to be a member of the Irish Republican Army we won’t bomb Dublin. And if he’s an Italian-American Catholic we won’t bomb the Vatican.””

🙄

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The Senate has defeated the Obama admin backed gun bill. They couldn’t get the 60 votes needed. The President is not happy.

From TheHill

“The Senate delivered a devastating blow to President Obama’s agenda to regulate guns Wednesday by defeating a bipartisan proposal to expand background  checks.

It failed by a vote of 54 to 46, with five Democrats voting against it. Only four Republicans supported it.”

But they certainly aren’t giving up.

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Meanwhile Benghazi is back in the news, thanks to new, and talkative, whistleblowers.

From CBSNews

“CBS News has learned that multiple new whistleblowers are privately speaking to investigators with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee regarding the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attacks on the U.S. compounds in Benghazi, Libya.

The nature of the communications with the whistleblowers and their identities are not being made public at this time. But in response, the Oversight Committee yesterday sent letters to the three federal agencies involved: the CIA, the Defense Department and the State Department.

The letters make the case for the whistleblowers to be able to share sensitive or classified information with their own attorneys, and ask for each agency’s official description of the legal steps that process must follow. The letters also state that additional witnesses may be “compelled by subpoena to give testimony.””

And a Hat Tip to CBS, who has been on this story from the get go.

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News/Politics 4-8-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

Open Thread.

I guess we’ll start with the Obama budget.

And of course, more class envy. From TheHill

“President Obama’s budget, to be released next week, will limit how much wealthy  individuals – like Mitt Romney – can keep in IRAs and other retirement accounts.

The proposal would save around $9 billion over a decade, a senior administration  official said, while also bringing more fairness to the tax code.

The senior administration official said that wealthy taxpayers can currently “accumulate many millions of dollars in these accounts, substantially more than  is needed to fund reasonable levels of retirement saving.”

Under the plan, a taxpayer’s tax-preferred retirement account, like an IRA,  could not finance more than $205,000 per year of retirement – or right around $3 million this year.”

Once again, punishing success.

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ObamaCare is taking friendly fire. From TheHill

“Delays in implementing popular pieces of ObamaCare are hurting it with  Democrats.

Ahead of an election year in which Republicans promise to make  healthcare an issue again, Democrats are criticizing the White House for  delaying policies that could help build support for the unpopular law.

“Senate Republicans will have the opportunity to campaign against Obamacare’s  rising health care costs, burdensome paperwork and broken promises and could use  it to motivate voters against Democrat candidates, especially vulnerable ones in  red states,” Republican strategist Ron Bonjean said.”

This is all on them. Point it out repeatedly.

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And remember folks, this is who our govt is supporting and funding.

From TheTimesofIsrael

“A mob threw rocks and fired birdshot Sunday at several hundred Christians marching in a protest against Egypt’s Islamist government after the funeral of four Christians killed in sectarian clashes over the weekend.

The Christians were chanting slogans against Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, just as several thousand did earlier during the funeral service nearby in the Coptic Orthodox cathedral in Cairo.

Riot police later arrived, firing tear gas at the Christians and the mob. Several tear gas canisters landed inside the cathedral’s grounds, causing a panic among women and children who attended the funeral.”

Central Security Forces are being accused of allowing the attack to continue.

Tweeted by Alastair Beach on site……

“Csf doing absolutely nothing to stop the fighting. Standing around as the rocks and molotovs continue to fly over the wall”

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Meanwhile a group of 700 retired special forces members are asking the House to investigate Benghazi. From Breitbart

“Seven hundred retired Military Special Operations professionals from the organization “Special Operations Speaks” sent a letter to the House of Representatives urging members to support H.Res 36, which will create a House Select Committee to investigate last September’s deadly terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.

“It appears that many of the facts and details surrounding the terrorist attack which resulted in four American deaths and an undetermined number of American casualties have not yet been ascertained by previous hearings and inquiries,” the letter states. It continues further, “Additional information is now slowly surfacing in the media, which makes a comprehensive bipartisan inquiry an imperative. Many questions have not been answered thus far.” The letter puts forth over twenty unanswered questions the select committee should address.

Congressman Frank Wolf, a sub-committee chairman on the House Appropriations Committee, issued a resolution for a House Select Committee to investigate issues surrounding the Benghazi Attack last November in the 112th Congress. He re-issued his resolution for the select committee when the 113th Congress began. The resolution currently has over 60 co–sponsors.”

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The mother of one of the victims is speaking out against the White House handling of the situation. From Mediaite

“On Friday, Sean Hannity brought Pat Smith, mother of the late Sean Smith, on his radio program. The 34-year-old information management officer was one of four Americans murdered in the Benghazi embassy attack on September 11, 2012.

In the chilling interview, a distraught Ms. Smith, in tears, pleaded for answers and spoke of the efforts to silence her.

Ms. Smith first relayed how her son, prior to the attack, requested additional security in advance and warned the State Department:

He did tell them, ahead of time, he typed it into his little typewriter over there, that they were going to be attacked, ‘please they needed more security,’ and they were ignored. And I don’t appreciate everybody going to bed and going to sleep and not taking care of the guys that they put in harm’s way, one of them being my son.”

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We talked a little last week about the love Hollywood and the left have with terrorists and radicals. It’s a new week, new celebrity, and new radical, but it’s the same old story. Greg Gutfeld has noticed too. And while he may be a bit abrasive, I don’t see where he’s wrong. He seems to have nailed it if you ask me.

From TheFive on Fox with a content warning for extreme sarcasm.

“Gutfeld: Why The Left Embraces Armed Radicals, Mocks Law-Abiding Gun Owners”

Take the time to watch the video.

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by

News/Politics 3-19-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

Open thread, so feel free to chime in. 🙂

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Officials in Florida are still piecing together a plot to attack an Orlando college campus.

From NBCNews

“A former student found dead in a University of Central Florida dorm room along with makeshift explosives and weapons was planning an attack on the school’s Orlando campus, the university police chief said on Monday.

The man’s body was found at about 1 a.m. at the Tower 1 residence hall, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.

A fire alarm had gone off less than an hour earlier, and as campus police responded, a 911 call came in reporting a man with a gun, police said. When police went to investigate, they discovered the man’s body as well as a .45 caliber handgun, a .22 caliber tactical weapon and four homemade explosive devices. Hundreds of rounds of ammunition were also found, police said.”

Other info on the planned attack was found in the dorm room.

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I have a feeling this is making several people in the Obama admin nervous, including Hillary.

From TheSmokingGun

“Armed with confidential memos to Hillary Clinton that were stolen from the e-mail account of a former White House aide, a hacker has distributed some of the documents to a wide array of congressional aides, political figures, and journalists worldwide.

In a series of weekend e-mail blasts, the hacker known as “Guccifer” disseminated four recent memos to Clinton from Sidney Blumenthal, a longtime confidant of the former Secretary of State.”

“Most of the e-mail recipients were sent four separate memos that were e-mailed to Clinton by Blumenthal during the past five months. Each memo dealt with assorted developments in Libya, including the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi. One memo marked “Confidential” was sent to Clinton on September 12.”

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Well, what are they waiting for? Let’s get to it.

From TheHill

“Republican lawmakers are threatening to subpoena U.S. survivors of the  terrorist attack in Benghazi.

Exasperated GOP members say unless they get more answers from the White  House, they will call on the survivors to testify before Congress, and might  hold up President Obama’s nomination to replace the U.S. ambassador who was  killed on Sept. 11, 2012 in Libya.

The recent revelation that U.S. survivors are recuperating at Walter Reed  Hospital has sparked GOP demands that the White House provide Congress with  access to them. It has also breathed new life into the controversy that was  highlighted repeatedly during the 2012 presidential campaign.”

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Oh for cryin’ out loud…….  🙄

Via TheDailyMail

“Sunday evening’s episode of the History Channel’s hit series ‘The Bible’ threw up an awkward coincidence when viewers noticed that Satan bore a remarkable resemblance to President Obama.

Twitter exploded into life during the airing of the latest edition of the Mark Burnett-produced series with most noting the striking similarities between the 44th President and the devil played by actor Mehdi Ouzaani.”

“The miniseries’ popularity is somewhat of a mystery. For one, the drama wasn’t a hit with television critics, receiving a mediocre score of 44 on the Metacritic site.”

A mystery? Really?  🙄

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And here’s an interesting read, although not really news to conservatives. It’s probably shocking to liberals though, since it refutes their pathetic “Uncle Tom” meme.

From Reason.com

“In Django Unchained, director Quentin Tarantino’s bloody ode to the spaghetti western set in the pre−Civil War American South, Samuel L. Jackson portrays the despicable character of Stephen, the head house slave on a hellish Mississippi plantation. Reviewing the film for The Boston Globe, critic Wesley Morris struggled to convey the villainy of Stephen’s character, turning to a present-day comparison for help. “The movie is too modern for what Jackson is doing to be limited to 1858,” Morris wrote. “He’s conjuring the house Negro, yes, but playing him as though he were Clarence Thomas.”

It was not the first time a liberal writer had taken a cheap shot at the conservative Supreme Court justice. New York Times reporter Linda Greenhouse once described Justice Antonin Scalia as Thomas’ “apparent mentor,” yet we now know that Thomas has been the one quietly influencing Scalia’s jurisprudence. But the comparison to the slave power system was particularly contemptible, especially because no Supreme Court justice since Thurgood Marshall has written more frequently or powerfully about American racism than Thomas.”

“Many of his critics may be too ignorant to know it, but Thomas’writings are steeped in African-American history and grapple repeatedly with the long shadow cast by slavery and Jim Crow. He may not be a modern liberal, but there is no question that Clarence Thomas is part of a civil rights tradition that started with Frederick Douglass.”

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by

News/Politics 3-15-13

What’s happening in the news today?

Open thread, so share with the group. 🙂

I guess we’ll start with the “Well it’s about time!” story.

From NBCNews

“A Libyan man has been detained in Libya for questioning in connection with last September’s attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi which left four Americans dead, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, a federal official confirmed on Thursday.

The official said that while the United States is interested to find out what Faraj al-Shibli (also spelled Chalabi), 46, knows about the attack, it is not clear that he played a central role, or that his capture represents a major breakthrough in the case.”

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Then the “Why bother? You know you don’t have the votes” story.

From TheTelegraph

“President Barack Obama’s bid to renew a ban against military-style assault weapons narrowly won the backing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday and headed to the full Senate, where it appears certain to fail.

On a party line vote of 10-8, the Democratic-led panel approved a bill to renew a ban similar to one that expired in 2004. The measure would also limit high-capacity ammunition clips to 10 bullets.”

“But most Senate Republicans and a number of Democrats from rural states oppose it, arguing it would violate the constitutional right to bear arms. Many fear that backing the legislation could cost them re-election.”

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Followed by the “Now you’re getting warm, keep digging” story.

From TheWashingtonPost

“A federal grand jury in Miami is investigating Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), examining his role in advocating for the business interests of a wealthy donor and friend, according to three people aware of the probe.

Menendez has intervened in matters affecting the financial interests of Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen, seeking to apply pressure on the Dominican government to honor a contract with Melgen’s port security company, documents and interviews show. Also, Menendez’s office has acknowledged he interceded with federal health-care officials after they said that Melgen had overbilled the U.S. government for care at his clinic.”

“As part of the grand jury investigation, the three people said, federal agents have questioned witnesses about the interactions between Menendez and Melgen, who contributed $700,000 last year to Menendez and other Senate Democrats. The grand jury has also issued subpoenas for Melgen’s business and financial records, according to two people briefed on the probe who, like the others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe an ongoing investigation.”

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And I’ll end with the “Oh, him again” 🙄 story.

From TheBlaze

“Atheist activists are taking legal action against the U.S. Treasury. Their target? Currency.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a church-state separatist group, put out a press release on Tuesday announcing that the organization was joining 19 other plaintiffs in challenging “In God We Trust” on federal currency.

The challenge, being made in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, was filed on Feb. 1 — and a familiar face in the battle over the First Amendment will be leading the charge.

Well-known atheist activist Michael Newdow, who has fought incessantly to have U.S. courts rule that recitations of the “Pledge of Allegiance” in public schools are unconstitutional (the utterance includes the words ”Under God”), will be representing the group.”

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by

News/Politics 3-13-13

What’s interesting out there today?

How about the Dueling Budgets? I guess it’s only fair to start with the Senate proposal, since it’s the first in 5 years. Slackers. And not surprisingly, it calls for a trillion dollar tax increase. Oh wait, I’m sorry, the new term is “increased revenues”. My bad. 🙄

From Politico

“Sen. Patty Murray’s new budget plan calls for raising tax revenues by nearly $1 trillion while  cutting spending by roughly the same amount over the next decade, according to  people familiar with the proposal.

The Budget Committee chairwoman briefed fellow Democratic senators over the  new proposal in a closed-door lunch Tuesday that President Barack Obama also  attended. Committee deliberations will begin Wednesday, and the panel expects to  vote on the plan Thursday before floor debate next week.”

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The House plan, from Ryan, is nothing to get real excited about either. But at least it won’t increase taxes. Allegedly.

From TheWallStJournal

“America’s national debt is over $16 trillion. Yet Washington can’t figure out how to cut $85 billion—or just 2% of the federal budget—without resorting to arbitrary, across-the-board cuts. Clearly, the budget process is broken. In four of the past five years, the president has missed his budget deadline. Senate Democrats haven’t passed a budget in over 1,400 days. By refusing to tackle the drivers of the nation’s debt—or simply to write a budget—Washington lurches from crisis to crisis.

House Republicans have a plan to change course. On Tuesday, we’re introducing a budget that balances in 10 years—without raising taxes. How do we do it? We stop spending money the government doesn’t have. Historically, Americans have paid a little less than one-fifth of their income in taxes to the federal government each year. But the government has spent more.”

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Meanwhile the White House finds time for more important things.  Who needs budgets anyway, when you can have “increased revenues”? I guess that’s how they plan on paying for increased entitlements.

From TheWashingtonExaminer

“President Obama policy aides attacked a Republican bill that would block the Department of Health and Human Services from waiving the work requirements associated with the 1996 welfare reform bill, even as the White House continued to deny that it had authorized such waivers.

“With respect to the provision in H.R. 890 to limit State flexibility to strengthen the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program, the Administration notes that this flexibility was requested by Governors on both sides of the aisle to allow States to test new, more effective ways to place more people on a path to self-sufficiency,” the White House Office of Management and Budget said in a policy statement today. “The Administration is disappointed that the bill includes this unnecessary bar to innovative welfare-to-work strategies.”

Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., introduced the bill. “Nothing in current law prohibits a State from strengthening its work requirements and moving more individuals from welfare to work,” Camp said during a hearing last week.  “Instead, a waiver would only be needed to weaken the work requirements, as the Administration wishes to do, pure and simple.”

And paying for yet another needless Czar and his staff.

From JudicialWatch

“Keeping with his race-based ideology, President Obama has named the nation’s first African American education czar to focus on improving the academic performance of black students and countering the discrimination that persists in public schools around the country.

The official title is Executive Director of White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans and the task is to reduce “racial isolation and resegregation of elementary and secondary schools.” Despite decades-old desegregation laws, “substantial obstacles” to equal educational opportunities still remain in America’s public school system, according to the president. Therefore the academic performance of black students has for decades lagged behind whites and other ethnic minorities.”

“So last summer the commander-in-chief issued an executive order to create a special White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans. The goal is to tackle a rampant crisis of perpetually low academic performance and high dropout rates among black students. African Americans lack equal access to highly effective teachers and principals, safe schools and challenging college-preparatory classes and they disproportionately experience school discipline and referrals to special education, according to the executive order.

President Obama also threw this often-cited statistic into his race-based educational excellence executive order: “African American males also experience disparate rates of incarceration.” Presumably, his new initiative will bring the numbers down. The effort includes the creation of a new President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans and a special “working group” consisting of senior officials from the departments of Justice, Education, Labor and White House Domestic Policy Council.”

I’m so glad we finally have a post-racial President. 🙄

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And Sharyl Attkisson asks a good question over at CBS.

“Six months later, where are the Benghazi survivors?”

“Today marks six months since the September 11, 2012 terrorist attacks on the U.S. compounds in Benghazi, Libya in which four Americans were killed, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Some watchdog groups, members of the media and Republican members of Congress are asking: Where are the more than two dozen U.S. personnel who survived the attack but haven’t been seen nor heard from in public since? There were also an undisclosed number of witnesses at the U.S. compounds in Tripoli but they also have not spoken publicly.

In a recent press report, Secretary of State John Kerry said he visited one survivor at “Bethesda hospital,” and referred to him a “remarkably courageous person who is doing very, very well.” Kerry added, “I’ve called his wife and talked to her.” But the identities, condition and testimony of the survivors and witnesses have been closely held from the public.

Republicans demanded more information about Benghazi in recent weeks before they would agree to allow Obama Administration nominees to move forward in the Senate. A source familiar with material turned over to the Senate Intelligence Committee by the Obama Administration in response tells CBS News that long sought-after FBI transcripts of some survivors were included but had been “blacked out” or redacted. Three Senate Republicans including Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., say they want the survivors to be made available for interviews about what happened the night of the attacks.”

I guess the answer is “What difference does it make?”

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