The CIA Torture Report's Purpose was to Take Focus Off Gruber and Obamacare

◼ The real story behind the release of the CIA ‘torture’ report - Joseph Curl/Washington Times

Senate Democrats and President Obama have moved up to a whole new level of desperate....

◼ Tuesday was a political "high point," –or "low point," if you prefer. - Freedom Outpost

Quite by design, at 11:00 AM Eastern Time, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, encouraged by the Democrat-controlled Senate and the Obama Administration, released a 528 ◼ Executive Summary of its $40 million, 6,000 page "Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program," uncovering the impropriety of ◼ methods used by the CIA to obtain information from high-ranking Al-Qaida and other terrorist groups responsible for the Trade Center bombing, among other things. The report is critical of the "enhanced interrogation" technique known as "waterboarding," plus other "tortures," such as playing loud music and sleep deprivation. Former senator Bob Kerrey (D-NE) ◼ writing in USA Today said, "I do not need to read the report to know that the Democrat staff alone wrote it. The Republicans checked out early when they determined that their counterparts started out with the premise that the CIA was guilty and then worked to prove it." They interviewed no CIA participants; issued no indictments or recommendations. The report will certainly be used to feed enemy terrorist propaganda....

◼ The Democrat Select Committee On Intelligence Releases Their “We Hate America” CIA Report… (Full 500+ Page pdf included) - Conservative Treehouse

The media is claiming CIA Director John Brennan is angry about the release of the CIA report…. Horsepucky! That is a complete and total ruse meant to deflect attention away from the real reasons why the former White House advisor, and fellow ideological traveler, was selected for the top job in the CIA.

Secondly, while the leftist ideologues are in a drama induced apoplectic feint about the Democrat Committee reports’ content, there is nothing within the report that is as bad as the previous leaks -around content- would have led anyone to believe.

However, that said, what the report does do is effectively accomplish it’s inherent goal. The goal of the report was to further diminish the influence of America through President Obama’s preferred method of Alinsky tactics: Isolate, Ridicule, Marginalize.

◼ As US tears itself apart over torture of terrorists, let's just remember who we're up against: ISIS throws man off roof to his death for being gay – and strings up ‘rapists’ in the streets - Henry Austin For Mailonline and Tom Wyke for MailOnline

An Islamic court ruled that he should be flung from the highest building
They posted the graphic images on a jihadist website
It is unknown whether the man died instantly from his injuries
This is the third execution for homosexuality in less than a month
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

◼ Senator calls for CIA chief's resignation after 'disturbing' discovery - Susan Crabtree/Washington Examiner

Sen. Mark Udall accused the CIA of continuing to mislead Congress and the public about his agency’s use of extreme interrogation techniques and called on President Obama to purge the agency of its top leadership, including Director John Brennan.

...“The president believes he has done an exemplary job in both of those roles,” Earnest said.

The comments sharply contrast Udall’s description of Brennan’s record at the CIA and the White House.

Udall accused the 25-year veteran of the CIA of trying to cover up a review of the extreme interrogation practices undertaken by Leon Panetta, Obama’s first CIA director. He also charged Brennan with “clinging to a false narrative about the effectiveness of the CIA’s enhanced interrogation program.”

Peppered with questions about the effectiveness of the interrogation tactics, Earnest repeatedly declined to say whether the program produced actionable intelligence that helped save American lives, as Brennan forcefully argued in a statement reacting to the report’s release Tuesday.

In outlining his criticisms of the CIA’s “dismissive” reaction to the Senate investigators, Udall cited factual disparities between Brennan’s responses to committee questions and the Panetta Review. He said Senate staff obtained a partial version of the review when the agency inadvertently provided access to it during the panel’s nearly six-year investigation.

“In my view, the Panetta Review is a smoking gun,” he said, calling for the declassification and release of the entire review.

The entire Senate review, he said, leads to a “disturbing” discovery — that Brennan and the CIA are continuing to provide inaccurate information about the efficacy of the interrogation program.

“In other words, the CIA is lying,” he said.

◼ Senator Udall Reveals Classified Info in Blasting CIA - Rick Moran/PJMedia

Taliban Condemns US Torture, Then Takes Responsibility for Suicide Bombing http://t.co/Johp9xiHtR #tcot

— PJ Media (@PJMedia_com) December 11, 2014

ROLLING STONE RAPE STORY IN TATTERS

◼ Washington Post's dismantling of Rolling Stone rape exposé continues apace - T. Becket Adams/Washington Examiner

◼ There have been many low moments in the history of modern journalism, but this must be one of the lowest. - JOHN HINDERAKER/POWERLINE

As investigation into Rolling Stone’s sensational story about an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia continues, the story unravels further. The Washington Post has interviewed the three friends who saw the alleged victim, Jackie, after the alleged assault. They say that their interactions with her were completely different from the utterly implausible callousness described by Sabrina Erdely, Rolling Stone’s reporter.

Most damning is the fact that what Jackie told them about what happened to her was totally different from what Erdely reported. No fraternity was mentioned. Jackie told her friends she was going on a dinner date with an upperclassman that night, but it seems clear that the person she described was an imaginary friend, complete with photographs of someone she barely knew in high school, taken apparently from a social media site. It turned out, too, that the name that Jackie gave for the person with whom she had a date on the night of the alleged rape was not the name of anyone who has ever attended the University of Virginia. Subsequently, she gave a different name for the person with whom she had the alleged date....

◼ U-Va. students challenge Rolling Stone account of alleged sexual assault - Washington Post

◼ Rape and Rolling Stone - The Editors at National Review

Consider the almost comically inept, and entirely unethical, reporting of Rolling Stone in the matter of the gang-rape allegation at the University of Virginia: the university’s ham-fisted overreaction in suspending all fraternities and sororities; the enraged protests; the subsequent media firestorms and sociological navel-gazing; and — most important — the fact that all of the preceding was based on a fiction that nobody bothered to try to verify. Taken together, that constitutes an excellent argument for something we already know: that there is only one public institution well suited to dealing with rape and other crimes, and it is the criminal-justice system.

The odd and lamentable encroachment of deans of students and other university administrators into a field that is properly the responsibility of police and prosecutors is a worst-of-both-worlds outcome...

◼ Rolling Stone UVA Reporter: I Shop Around For Victims [VIDEO] - Alex Griswold/Daily Caller

A new video, uncovered by GotNews founder and conservative activist Charles Johnson, depicts the author of the debunked Rolling Stone University of Virginia rape story saying that she “absolutely” shops around for stories that fit the narratives she wants to tell. (RELATED: UVA Gang Rape Story Falls To Pieces, Rolling Stone Admits It Was Fooled)

...“Yes, I absolutely do. In fact, I’m working on one right now where that’s the case,” Erdley replied. “That’s something I’ve done a lot when I’ve written for women’s magazines, where I’ve written a lot about women’s health and women’s rights.”

She gave the example of how she once wanted to write about domestic violence, but was looking for the perfect victim to share their story.

“It’s very hard when you find a topic, and then you want to find the story,” she continued. “Because then you want to find the right story.” She explained how she sometimes has to hold pre-interviews and “tryouts” to find the right victim....

◼ No wonder Jackie wanted Rolling Stone to take her out of the story before it was published - Neoneocon

After reading this article in the WaPo, we can safely say that it now appears likely that UVA’s Jackie didn’t just lie about whether she was raped at a fraternity. She appears to have lied about almost everything connected with whatever did or did not happen during some sort of incident that may or may not have occurred, and about the immediate aftermath.

Other than that, a very believable narrator.

Or maybe it was reporter Erdely who is responsible for some of the lies. At this point, we can be forgiven if we have trouble sorting it out....

There’s more, lots more, but you get the idea. It’s becoming more and more apparent that Jackie is most likely a fabulist, perhaps with some pre-existing mental/emotional problems, that it’s time for Erdely and the editors at Rolling Stone to choose another profession. However, I wonder whether there will be any repercussions for any of this.

TIME'S MAN PERSON OF THE YEAR:

◼ THE EBOLA FIGHTERS

They risked and persisted, sacrificed and saved. Editor Nancy Gibbs explains why the Ebola Fighters are TIME's choice for Person of the Year 2014...

For decades, Ebola haunted rural African villages like some mythic monster that every few years rose to demand a human sacrifice and then returned to its cave. It reached the West only in nightmare form, a Hollywood horror that makes eyes bleed and organs dissolve and doctors despair because they have no cure.

But 2014 is the year an outbreak turned into an epidemic, powered by the very progress that has paved roads and raised cities and lifted millions out of poverty. This time it reached crowded slums in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone; it traveled to Nigeria and Mali, to Spain, Germany and the U.S. It struck doctors and nurses in unprecedented numbers, wiping out a public-health infrastructure that was weak in the first place. One August day in Liberia, six pregnant women lost their babies when hospitals couldn’t admit them for complications. Anyone willing to treat Ebola victims ran the risk of becoming one.

Which brings us to the hero’s heart. There was little to stop the disease from spreading further. Governments weren’t equipped to respond; the World Health Organization was in denial and snarled in red tape. First responders were accused of crying wolf, even as the danger grew. But the people in the field, the special forces of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the Christian medical-relief workers of Samaritan’s Purse and many others from all over the world fought side by side with local doctors and nurses, ambulance drivers and burial teams....

Those who contracted the disease encountered pain like they had never known. “It hurts like they are busting your head with an ax,” Karwah says. One doctor overheard his funeral being planned. Asked if surviving Ebola changed him, Dr. Kent Brantly turns the question around. “I still have the same flaws that I did before,” he says. “But whenever we go through a devastating experience like what I’ve been through, it is an incredible opportunity for redemption of something. We can say, How can I be better now because of what I’ve been through? To not do that is kind of a shame.”

So that is the next challenge: What will we do with what we’ve learned? This was a test of the world’s ability to respond to potential pandemics, and it did not go well.

Live coverage: Storm arrives in Bay Area

◼ Visit our Bay Area weather page to check the forecast. - SF Chronicle
◼ High Surf Advisory, Flash Flood Watch High Wind Warning
◼ KRCR Interactive Radar
◼ KTVU Weather (note: Nowhere near as good as it used to be, use KRCR)

Overseas Coupon Project Update

Dear ladies,

I did a mailing today and the total was over $46,800. We should reach a half million $ by next year.

Thanks to all of you and a very Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Blessings,
Chris W.

◼ OVERSEAS COUPON PROJECT

Flooding forecast: Eel, Van Duzen river valley residents asked to prepare

◼ Images of Rainageddon (PHOTOS/VIDEO) - Lost Coast Outpost
◼ Could Be ‘Highest Water” Ever at Fernbridge Except for ‘64 and ‘55 Says The Office of Emergency Services - Lost Coast Outpost
◼ (UPDATING) Rainageddon Traffic Report: Numerous Local Accidents - Lost Coast Outpost
◼ Power Outages in Honeydew and Petrolia - Lost Coast Outpost
◼ The Rainageddon Radar Image Looks Like a Wet Dragon Set to Devour Humboldt

◼ The heavy rain storm expected to blanket Humboldt County starting Wednesday afternoon is predicted to raise the Eel and Van Duzen rivers to above flood levels, prompting river valley residents and towns to take preemptive measures to protect their homes... - Times Standard
◼ PG&E prepares for storm to hit, potential outages - Times Standard
◼ Parks close roads in anticipation of storm, safety hazards - Times Standard

◼ High surf: 2-story-high waves to pound Southern California coast - LA Times

Surf's up: 2-story-high waves are expected to pound the Southern California coast this week when a massive winter storm strikes. Beachgoers are being warned to to stay out of the water.



◼ Blizzard on its way to California, forecasters say - LA Times

◼ Interactive Radar at KRCR
◼ Radar at National Weather Service’s website