President Obama says bombing Syria will have a positive impact on American foreign policy. I don’t see it. I don’t see how helping the rebels does anything good for the US. But he seems to think this “shot across the bow” move will benefit US interests. Again, I just don’t see it. His reasoning doesn’t make sense. He says it’s to ensure the chemical weapons don’t fall into the wrong hands. Well how does that happen? You can’t just blow them up, that would disperse them in some cases. You’re not sending troops in to recover them, so how are you removing them?

And bombing the Syrian govt helps the rebels. You know, the groups we don’t want to get them. If the govt falls, those rebels will have possession of them all. This action defeats the stated purpose.

From RCP “PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, what’s happened has been heartbreaking, but when you start talking about chemical weapons in a country that has the largest stockpile of chemical weapons in the world, where over time, their control over chemical weapons may erode, where they’re allied to known terrorist organizations that, in the past, have targeted the United States, then there is a prospect, a possibility, in which chemical weapons that can have devastating effects could be directed at us. And we want to make sure that that does not happen. “

“And if, in fact, we can take limited, tailored approaches, not getting drawn into a long conflict, not a repetition of, you know, Iraq, which I know a lot of people are worried about – but if we are saying in a clear and decisive but very limited way, we send a shot across the bow saying, stop doing this, that can have a positive impact on our national security over the long term, and may have a positive impact on our national security over the long term and may have a positive impact in the sense that chemical weapons are not used again on innocent civilians.”

Congress needs to slow things down here, maybe wait on the UN report to see who is really responsible, and ensure that any action is thought out, debated, and authorized.

It appears the UK is backing off and saying they’ll wait on the UN.

From TheTelegraph “The Prime Minister has now said he will wait for a report by United Nations weapons inspectors before seeking the approval of MPs for “direct British involvement” in the Syrian intervention.

Downing Street said the decision to wait for the UN was based on the “deep concerns” the country still harbours over the Iraq War.

MPs had been recalled to vote on a motion on Thursday expected to sanction military action. Instead, after a Labour intervention, they will debate a broader motion calling for a “humanitarian response”.

A second vote would be required before any British military involvement. This could now take place next week.”

The US Intelligence Committee has a problem with it.

From Reuters “U.S. congressional intelligence committee leaders believe the Obama administration has not properly consulted them as the president engages in final deliberations for possible military action in Syria, according to congressional officials.

One of the officials said the administration’s discussions with critical lawmakers, including Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein and her House counterpart, Mike Rogers, had been limited to “very brief status updates.”

“A number of U.S. lawmakers have complained in recent days that Obama must do more to involve Congress in any decision to punish Syria militarily in response to last week’s chemical weapons attack on thousands of civilians.”

And at least one Congressman is calling on Boehner to bring the House back to address it.

From CNSNews “Rep. Scott Rigell (R.-Va.)–who served six years in the Marine Corps Reserves, sits on the House Armed Services Committee, and represents the congressional district with the largest concentration of military personnel of any in the nation–said today he is calling on House Speaker John Boehner to call the House back into session to prevent President Barack Obama from usurping Congress’s constitutional authority to authorize—or not authorize—the use of military force in Syria.

“He should be calling the House back right now,” Rigell said of Boehner. “I will be clear on this.”

“Rigell sent a letter to President Obama today—co-signed by a bipartisan group of “over 100” House members–reminding the president that it is “clearly delineated” in the Constitution that the president must seek congressional authorization before using military force unless the use of force is needed to protect the United States from an attack.

“While the Founders wisely gave the Office of the President the authority to act in emergencies, they foresaw the need to ensure public debate—and the active engagement of Congress—prior to committing U.S. military assets,” Rigell wrote. “Engaging our military in Syria when no direct threat to the United States exists and without prior congressional authorization would violate the separation of powers that is clearly delineated in the Constitution.”

You’d think the Constitutional Scholar/Professor would already know that, but no. Apparently it wasn’t covered. 🙄

And as a reminder, here’s more on some of the people this will aid.

From TheFreeBeacon “U.S. intelligence agencies earlier this month uncovered new evidence that al Qaeda-linked terrorists in Benghazi are training foreign jihadists to fight with Syria’s Islamist rebels, according to U.S. officials.

Ansar al-Sharia, the al Qaeda-affiliated militia that U.S. officials say orchestrated the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. diplomatic compound and a CIA facility in Benghazi, is running several training camps for jihadists in Benghazi and nearby Darnah, another port city further east, said officials who discussed some details of the camps on condition of anonymity.

The officials said the terror training camps have been in operation since at least May and are part of a network that funnels foreign fighters to Syrian rebel groups, including the Al-Nusra Front, the most organized of the Islamist rebel groups fighting the Bashar al-Assad regime in Damascus.”

Did I mention that I think this is a bad idea? Because I meant to.

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As I’m sure you’ve heard, Nidal Hasan has been given a death sentence for the massacre at Ft. Hood. Here’s a surprising piece from a surprising source on why this was terrorism, and not “work place violence.”.

From MotherJones “Last Thursday, as the jury in the trial of Nidal Hasan was deliberating, outgoing FBI Director Robert Mueller appeared on CBS News and discussed a string of emails between the Fort Hood shooter and Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Islamic cleric with ties to the 9/11 hijackers. The FBI had intercepted the messages starting almost a year before Hasan’s 2009 shooting rampage, and Mueller was asked whether “the bureau dropped the ball” by failing to act on this information. He didn’t flinch: “No, I think, given the context of the discussions and the situation that the agents and the analysts were looking at, they took appropriate steps.”

In the wake of the Fort Hood attacks, the exchanges between Awlaki and Hasan—who was convicted of murder on Friday—were the subject of intense speculation. But the public was given little information about these messages. While officials claimed that they were “fairly benign,” the FBI blocked then-Sen. Joseph Lieberman’s efforts to make them public as part of a two-year congressional investigation into Fort Hood. The military judge in the Hasan case also barred the prosecutor from presenting them, saying they would cause “unfair prejudice” and “undue delay.”

As it turns out, the FBI quietly released the emails in an unclassified report on the shooting, which was produced by an investigative commission headed by former FBI director William H. Webster last year. And, far from being “benign,” they offer a chilling glimpse into the psyche of an Islamic radical. The report also shows how badly the FBI bungled its Hasan investigation and suggests that the Army psychiatrist’s deadly rampage could have been prevented.”

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A new Harvard study will be poorly received in liberal circles.

From Breitbart “A Harvard Study titled “Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide?” looks at figures for “intentional deaths” throughout continental Europe and juxtaposes them with the U.S. to show that more gun control does not necessarily lead to lower death rates or violent crime.

Because the findings so clearly demonstrate that more gun laws may in fact increase death rates, the study says that “the mantra that more guns mean more deaths and that fewer guns, therefore, mean fewer deaths” is wrong.

For example, when the study shows numbers for Eastern European gun ownership and corresponding murder rates, it is readily apparent that less guns to do not mean less death. In Russia, where the rate of gun ownership is 4,000 per 100,000 inhabitants, the murder rate was 20.52 per 100,000 in 2002. That same year in Finland, where the rater of gun ownership is exceedingly higher–39,000 per 100,000–the murder rate was almost nill, at 1.98 per 100,000.”

“And when the study focuses on intentional deaths by looking at the U.S. vs Continental Europe, the findings are no less revealing. The U.S., which is so often labeled as the most violent nation in the world by gun control proponents, comes in 7th–behind Russia, Estonia, Lativa, Lithuania, Belarus, and the Ukraine–in murders. America also only ranks 22nd in suicides.

The murder rate in Russia, where handguns are banned, is 30.6; the rate in the U.S. is 7.8.”

If you’re interested, here’s the link to The Harvard Study. And if you scroll to the bottom you’ll see this, their conclusion.

“This Article has reviewed a significant amount of evidence from a wide variety of international sources. Each individual portion of evidence is subject to cavil—at the very least the general objection that the persuasiveness of social scientific evidence cannot remotely approach the persuasiveness of conclusions in the physical sciences. Nevertheless, the burden of proof rests on the proponents of the more guns equal more death and fewer guns equal less death mantra, especially since they argue public policy ought to be based on that mantra. To bear that burden would at the very least require showing that a large number of nations with more guns have more death and that nations that have imposed stringent gun controls have achieved substantial reductions in criminal violence (or suicide). But those correlations are not observed when a large number of nations are compared across the world.”

Ouch.

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According to the DoJ atheist leaders are eligible for certain tax break typically reserved for clergy. Not surprising, they’re not the first cult to receive it. 😯

And the irony here is that this comes out in a lawsuit seeking to do away with the exemption for clergy. Ha. 🙂

From UPI.com “The U.S. Justice Department says in a legal filing leaders of an atheist group qualify for the same housing tax exemption priests receive.

The paradoxical position comes in response to a lawsuit by the Freedom from Religion Foundation in Madison, Wis., which seeks to end the parsonage tax break granted to priests, ministers, rabbis and other clergy by the U.S. government. The tax break allows them to claim part of their income as a tax-free housing allowance.

Annie Laurie Gaylor, who receives a $15,000 housing stipend from the Freedom from Religion Foundation, is suing the federal government because she has to pay taxes on that money while “ministers of the gospel,” as the law defines priests, do not.

In response, the federal government said rather than agree to end the parsonage exemption it could be extended to Gaylor because she is the leader of a religious movement — albeit one that does not believe in God.”

Meanwhile other atheist continue their assault on Christianity.

From TheWashingtonTimes “Atheists are threatening to sue over a planned Princeton, N.J., memorial to mark the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on American soil because a metal beam that’s part of the display has a small cutout of a Christian cross.

The beam is the brainchild of a firefighter — who’s Jewish — who says the cross is actually a historic symbol, not religious, on Fox News. The beam was removed from the site of the World Trade Center debris; the cross shape was then cut into it. But American Atheists say the cutout is “grossly offensive,” and members vow to sue the municipality if the memorial goes forth as planned.

The group’s president, David Silverman, insists that the symbol is religious and that putting it on a public site would be a “clear violation of the separation of church and state.””

🙄

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Yesterdays March on Washington was a sad imitation of the original. The speakers list pretty much ensured that. I could post tons of stuff from Sharpton and his ilk to demonstrate my point. But I’m not gonna do that. Instead, I have a question for you all. Does this sound like the type of thing Dr. King would have done?

From RedAlertPolitics “Noticeably absent from the speaker line-up at the Let Freedom Ring event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington today: the nation’s only black Senator, Tim Scott.

Scott, a Republican Representative appointed by S.C. Governor Nikki Haley earlier this year to fill former Sen. Jim DeMint’s seat in the U.S. Senate after he retired, was not invited to participate in the historic event, a spokesperson for the Senator confirmed to Red Alert Politics in an email.”

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July 13, 2013 by the real Aj

News/Politics 7-13-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

UPDATE!

Not Guilty

From NBCNews

“Jurors have found George Zimmerman not guilty of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

The six-member, all-woman jury deliberated for more than 15 hours over two days before reaching their decision Saturday night.

They had been given the chance to convict Zimmerman of manslaughter but did not do so, despite asking for a clarification of the charge earlier in the evening.

After hearing the verdict, Judge Debra Nelson told Zimmerman he was free to go.”

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Open thread, as always.

First up today, I say good riddance. From TheLATimes

“Janet Napolitano, the U.S. secretary of Homeland Security and former governor of Arizona, is being named as the next president of the University of California system, in an unusual choice that brings a national-level politician to a position usually held by an academic, The Times has learned. Her appointment also means the 10-campus system will be headed by a woman for the first time in its 145-year history.

Napolitano’s nomination by a committee of UC regents came after a secretive process that insiders said focused on her early as a high-profile, although untraditional, candidate who has led large public agencies and shown a strong interest in improving education.”

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It was bad enough finding out the DoJ was involved with helping orchestrate the Trayvon Martin protests. But this is probably worse news. Is this really who they want holding rallies and “maneuvers” around the area should things get bad after the verdict? From TheWashingtonTimes

“New Black Panther Party members are prepping for rallies and gatherings in the wake of the George Zimmerman murder trial, but are coy on whether violence, riots and other chaotic outbursts are potential — or welcome — offshoots of those events.

On the one hand, NBPP members promise on their Twitter site that they will not engage in any sort of unlawful outbursts if the second-degree murder trial in Florida ends in a not-guilty verdict.”

“But on the other hand, the group’s Twitter site is alive and kicking with fresh updates about a planned Sept. 7 rally to show solidarity with 17-year-old shooting victim Trayvon Martin — complete with admissions: “We can’t and WON’T try to control the general dissatisfied population. For sure we are ORGANIZING.””

“And a third: “New Black Panther Party will not give you specific details on anything other than to say we have rallies and street maneuvers planned.””

More gas on the fire.

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The new DoJ leak guidelines are out. And in ironic twist, leaked out of course. 😯 🙂 From Politico

“Attorney General Eric Holder’s new guidelines on criminal leak investigations involving members of the media would prevent the FBI from labeling reporters as co-conspirators, according to details leaked to Reuters and The New York Times by an unnamed Justice Dept. official.

The guidlines would also make it more difficult for prosecutors to obtain a journalist’s telephone records without informing them of the subpoena, according to the Justice Dept. official, who said the guidelines went “as far as the department can go on its own until Congress passes the media shield legislation.”

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Exhibit C in the “Who’s the Real Extremist” abortion fight in Texas. From KETK-NBC

“The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) today received information that individuals planned to use a variety of items or props to disrupt legislative proceedings at the Texas Capitol.”

“During these inspections, DPS officers have thus far discovered one jar suspected to contain urine, 18 jars suspected to contain feces, and three bottles suspected to contain paint. All of these items – as well as significant quantities of feminine hygiene products, glitter and confetti possessed by individuals – were required to be discarded; otherwise those individuals were denied entry into the gallery.”

And yes, it’s the pro-abortion folks who were seeking to disrupt things.

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Lastly today, a Boston police officer has been arrested for possession of military grade explosives. And could someone please explain to me how he’s out on 1,000 dollars bail? From BostonCBSLocal

“A Boston police officer is free on $1,000 bail after police in Plymouth say they found a cache of military grade explosives in a shed at his former home.

Kirk Merricks, 43, of Dorchester, was charged Friday with 11 counts of possession of explosives, along with theft and ammunition charges.

The bomb squad responded to the home on Paddington Way, where explosives experts recovered a briefcase from a shed outside the home that had “a bandolier that contained four military-grade M203 rounds, six detonator cords with attached blasting caps and two rolls of timed fused cord connected to non-electric fixing mechanisms,” District Attorney’s office reported.”

Police say they received a call on Thursday from the homeowner, identified as Merricks’ estranged wife, saying she was cleaning out a bedroom closet and found four ¼ sticks of TNT and assorted ammunition in a metal box marked “highly explosive.”

The explosives were stolen. $1000 dollars? Really? 🙄

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June 8, 2013 by the real Aj

News/Politics 6-8-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

The hits just keep coming. The DoJ is fighting the release of a court opinion that found the surveillance programs activities unconstitutional. From MotherJones

“In the midst of revelations that the government has conducted extensive top-secret surveillance operations to collect domestic phone records and internet communications, the Justice Department was due to file a court motion Friday in its effort to keep secret an 86-page court opinion that determined that the government had violated the spirit of federal surveillance laws and engaged in unconstitutional spying.”

“For those who follow the secret and often complex world of high-tech government spying, this was an aha moment. The FISA court Wyden referred to oversees the surveillance programs run by the government, authorizing requests for various surveillance activities related to national security, and it does this behind a thick cloak of secrecy. Wyden’s statements led to an obvious conclusion: He had seen a secret FISA court opinion that ruled that one surveillance program was unconstitutional and violated the spirit of the law. But, yet again, Wyden could not publicly identify this program.”

More cover-up.

Not millions…. billions. From Bloomberg

“Collect telephone numbers for billions of U.S. calls, load the information into super-fast computers and you can start building a map of connections revealing patterns or oddities to help spot a terrorist.”

“The U.S. government’s primary electronic surveillance arm, the National Security Agency, is doing just that — vacuuming up U.S. phone records and, at least in certain circumstances, analyzing them to develop leads that authorities can pursue to identify and stop terror plots.”

Some of those hits are friendly fire too. From TheHill

“Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) on Friday disputed a claim President Obama made at a press conference only moments earlier, when the president said that every member of Congress had been briefed on the National Security Agency’s (NSA) domestic phone surveillance program.”

““I knew about the program because I specifically sought it out,” Merkley said on MSNBC. “It’s not something that’s briefed outside the Intelligence Committee. I had to get special permission to find out about the program. It raised concerns for me. … When I saw what was being done, I felt it was so out of sync with the plain language of the law and that it merited full public examination, and that’s why I called for the declassification.”

There went the blame Bush meme too.

Even NBCNews?

“The National Security Agency has at times mistakenly intercepted the private email messages and phone calls of Americans who had no link to terrorism, requiring Justice Department officials to report the errors to a secret national security court and destroy the data, according to two former U.S. intelligence officials. “

“Another former senior official, who asked not to be identified, confirmed Blair’s recollection and said the incident created serious problems for the Justice Department, which represents the NSA before the federal judges on the secret court.

The judges “were really upset about this,” said the former official. As a result, Attorney General Eric Holder pledged to the judges that the intelligence agencies would take steps to correct the problem as a condition of renewing the NSA’s surveillance program. “

Next up, does the US want to destroy privacy around the world? From BusinessInsider

“”It’s well past time that we have a debate about whether that’s the kind of country and world in which we want to live,” Greenwald said on CNN. “We haven’t had that debate because it’s all done in secrecy and the Obama administration has been very aggressive about bullying and threatening anybody who thinks about exposing it or writing about it or even doing journalism about it. It’s well past time that that come to an end.”

The Obama administration and some members of Congress have defended the use of the programs. Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) said the NSA’s collection of phone data has been going on for seven years. Feinstein said it’s about “protecting America.”

“People like Dianne Feinstein and Saxby Chambliss can have press conferences threatening people for bringing light to what it is they’re doing, but the only people who are going to be investigated are them,” Greenwald said in response.”

And it’s starting to look like this isn’t just on foreigners as first claimed. From WeaselZippers

“Anyone can appreciate the need to go after foreign terrorists, even that some information might cross over to some Americans who might be in league with foreign terrorists. Yet the order that allowed this massive NSA grab didn’t even give that as a justification, the order says the following:

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that, the Custodian of Records shall produce to the National Security Agency (NSA) upon service of this Order, and continue production on an ongoing daily basis thereafter for the duration of this Order, unless otherwise ordered by the Court, an electronic copy of the following tangible things: all call detail records or “telephony metadata” created by Verizon for communications (i) between the United States and abroad; or (ii) wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls. This Order does not require Verizon to produce telephony metadata.”

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And look what James Rosen found in the Friday Night News Dump. Susan Rice Benghazi documents. From TheGretaWire/FoxInsider

“State Dept does a ‘document dump’ late on a Friday – 97 pages of documents relating to Ambassador Susan Rice’s television appearances”

Hmmmmm……

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ObamaCare Navigators, coming to a red state near you. Or as I like to call it, ACORN Reborn. From WatchDog.org

“In those states where there is a significant level of hostility toward ObamaCare, trained “navigators” will be on the ground to ensure the program is successfully implemented, senior administration officials said Thursday during a conference call.”

“Another administration official on the call said funding is available through the Department of Health and Human Services for ObamaCare navigators who she described as “trained in-person consumer assistants.” The official also told reporters $150 million is available in supplemental grants for community health centers, which she said are “quite prevalent in Florida and Texas.””

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I’m not a Ravens fan at all. But I like this guy. 🙂 From TheWashingtonExaminer

“Retired Baltimore Ravens center Matt Birk, who won a Super Bowl with the team last year, skipped the team’s visit to the White House due to President Obama’s support for Planned Parenthood.

“I have great respect for the office of the presidency but about five or six weeks ago, our president made a comment in a speech and he said, ‘God bless Planned Parenthood,’” Birk, a former Minnesota Viking, told a local Minnesota sports blog. “I’m very confused by [Obama’s] statement,” he explained. “”For God to bless a place where they’re ending 330,000 lives a year? I just chose not to attend.”