Saturday, January 10, 2015

French law enforcement officers have been told to erase their presence on social media and to carry their weapons at all times because terror sleeper cells have been activated over the last 24 hours in the country, a French police source stated. CNN .





Journalist Films Devastation of Jalawla, Iraq After ISIS Invasion (Video)



Journalist Rozh Ahmad follows local human rights activist Salam Abdullah documenting the aftermath of the Islamic State (IS) war in the multi-ethnic disputed town of Jalawla north Iraq. - Jim Hoft/Gateway Pundit

Unlimited savagery on human rights.... There are no signs of human life in Salawla.... ISIS beheaded people.bombed the council and demolished civilian homes...

What ISIS Is Doing With Towns They’ve Captured Shows How Much They Love Watching People Suffer - IJReview

According to Rudaw.net:

They put fences and walls around them, and made them into prison camps. ISIS, or the Islamic State, has used villages that were earlier emptied when their frightened inhabitants fled the Islamic radicals to imprison hundreds of Yezidi women and children.

Former German politician-turned-author Jurgen Todenhofer, who remarkably lived to share his reporting from inside the Islamic State, puts it bluntly: He has no doubt that ISIS wants to achieve the “largest religious cleansing in the history of mankind.”

New Investigation Into ISIS Terror Machine Uncovers 6 Horrific Findings That Should Alarm the World - IJReview

Upon returning after 10 days with ISIS, here’s what Todenhofer reported:

1. Every day, fighters from all over the world join ISIS. Todenhofer met fighters from Sweden, Germany, France and even the United States.

2. ISIS hands out brochures on how to treat slaves, women and the proper way in which to pray.

3. Al-Qaeda is an empty shell compared to ISIS.

4. ISIS is “much stronger” than western politicians think.

5. The Islamic State wants the largest religious cleansing in the history of mankind. They want to murder and enslave all Jews, Christians, Yazidis, and any Muslims who support democracy. (This would be akin to modern recreation of the Holocaust.)

6. ISIS terrorists are the largest threat to peace since the Cold War.

Anonymous declares 'war' on jihadists in retaliation for Paris massacre

Dying For a Cigarette in New York

As I have repeatedly tweeted, the correct chant for Garner's case is: Hey, de Blasio! Black lives matter more than your $%^&* tax money! - Ann Coulter/Townhall
What "brought us to this day" is not a "history" of racism; it's the left's maniacal pursuit of taxes -- the precise reason cops were arresting Eric Garner. He was selling untaxed cigarettes. He resisted arrest and, in the tussle, had a fatal heart attack.

Cops don't want to enforce these nonsense revenue-generating laws, but that's their job.
Dying For a Cigarette in New York - Ann Coulter/Human Events
On Monday night, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow reported in horror that there has been a major reduction in fine-collection by the police. NEW YORKERS ARE GETTING AWAY WITH IDLING THEIR CARS! WHAT KIND OF A CITY HAVE WE BECOME? She accused the police of "holding a city hostage," warning, "If they feel like they don't have public support now, is this supposed to earn it back?"

Why, yes, I think it is. The only time normal people get annoyed at cops is precisely for these revenue-collection laws -- parking tickets, moving violations, driving without a seatbelt, selling untaxed cigarettes, jaywalking and so on. So it was quite brilliant of the cops to zero in on the laws that exist just because Democrats want the money.
◼ And now: ‘Who’s going to enforce this?’ Having solved all other problems, Bill de Blasio announces styrofoam ban - Twitchy



The GOP has united with a plan to fight Obama's immigration executive action. Here's the inside story of how it happened...

Circular GOP firing squad straightens out - David Drucker/Washington Examiner

Even when House Republicans agree, they usually flirted with the possibility of having a blowout row before coming together.

But instead of forming a circular firing squad this week, House Republicans agreed a shocking seven weeks ahead of deadline on how to confront President Obama on immigration.

Specifically, they concurred in the best way to beat back the president's free pass for 4.1 million illegal immigrants. GOP lawmakers have agreed on, and are expected on Wednesday to pass legislation that would reverse the executive action and would be attached to a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security. DHS runs out of money Feb. 27.... KEEP READING

Alfonzo Rachel: "If you’re gonna stay angry about the KKK, why don’t you stay angry about the party who created them?"

Climate Duckspeakers And Relearning The Lessons Of Orwell’s 1984

In Oceania, the dystopian society of George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, a new language was created by the government to control the thinking patterns of the people. Officially labeled “newspeak,” it was the first language that, when fully adopted, was meant to limit the range of human thought. - Tom Harris/Daily Caller

Concepts such as freedom, skepticism, and debate would be virtually unthinkable since no words existed to describe them, aside from the generic term “thoughtcrime.”

Perhaps most insidious was “duckspeak,” a form of speech consisting entirely of words and phrases sanctioned by the party, language that conveyed politically correct messaging only. Someone who had mastered duckspeak could fire off ideologically pure assertions like bullets from a machine gun without thinking at all. Their words merely emanated from the larynx like the quacking of a duck.

Being called a “duckspeaker” was considered a sincere compliment, since it indicated that you were well-versed in the official language and views of the state.

More than ever before, 2014 was the year of climate change duckspeak. Rather than being merely ridiculous or social satire, the underlying purpose of climate duckspeak is ominous: to convince opinion leaders and the public to think about climate change only as the government wants. To consider alternative points of view is “climate change denial,” today’s version of thoughtcrime, punishable by excommunication from responsible citizenry....

...the “97 percent of experts agree” phrase is, using Oceania’s vernacular, “doubleplusgood” duckspeak, designed to suppress debate and boost the party line. After all, who would dare contest experts about such a complicated issue? ...KEEP READING

Leaked Newsroom Emails Reveal Al JazeeraFury over Global Support for Charlie Hebdo

‘I Am Not Charlie’ - Brendan Bordelon/National Review Online

...“What Charlie Hebdo did was not free speech it was an abuse of free speech in my opinion, go back to the cartoons and have a look at them!” Salem later wrote. “It’ snot [sic] about what the drawing said, it was about how they said it. I condemn those heinous killings, but I’M NOT CHARLIE.”

That prompted BBC alum Jacky Rowland — now Al Jazeera English’s senior correspondent in Paris — to email a “polite reminder” to her colleague: “#journalismsinotacrime.”

But her response triggered a furious reaction from another of the network’s Arab correspondents. “First I condemn the brutal killing,” wrote Omar Al Saleh, a “roving reporter” currently on assignment in Yemen. “But I AM NOT CHARLIE.”

Ayaan Hirsi Ali Responds to the #CharlieHebdo Attack



“The West must stand up for freedom.” - Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the writer and activist who has drawn the ire of many in the Muslim community as well as American feminists for her defense of women, has written an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal in which she addressed the attack:
How to Answer the Paris Terror Attack - Ayaan Hirsi Ali /Wall St. Journal

The West must stand up for freedom—and acknowledge the link between Islamists’ political ideology and their religious beliefs.

6 TIMES THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION SAID ITS JOB WAS TO PROMOTE ISLAM. - Ben Shapiro/Breitbart

On Thursday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest announced that the Obama administration would prioritize fighting Islamophobia in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo in France. Never mind that most Westerners aren’t Islamophobic, but rather GettingShotInTheFaceForExpressingMyOpinion-Phobic....

Even as the Obama administration pretends to push “true Islam,” the Obama administration completely ignored the words of Egyptian leader General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, who just days ago called for a “religious revolution” in the Muslim world. Al-Sisi explained:

I say and repeat, again, that we are in need of a religious revolution. You imams are responsible before Allah. The entire world is waiting on you. The entire world is waiting for your word … because the Islamic world is being torn, it is being destroyed, it is being lost. And it is being lost by our own hands….It’s inconceivable that the thinking that we hold most sacred should cause the entire Islamic world to be a source of anxiety, danger, killing and destruction for the rest of the world. Impossible that this thinking — and I am not saying the religion — I am saying this thinking. This is antagonizing the entire world. It’s antagonizing the entire world! Does this mean that 1.6 billion people (Muslims) should want to kill the rest of the world’s inhabitants — that is 7 billion — so that they themselves may live? Impossible!

Al-Sisi seems significantly more qualified to lead an educational effort about Islam than Barack Obama. But for the Obama administration to recognize the truth of al-Sisi’s statement would suggest that their own ignorance about Islam has prevented them from effecting change for the past six years. And that is an admission that President Obama and his lackeys refuse to make, given their deeply held belief that Islam isn’t the problem in any way.

2016 and Paris: It’s the Jihad, Stupid!

Forget the economy, forget education, forget even Obamacare. - Roger L. Simon/PJM

...if you don’t think what happened in Paris can happen here, you’re out of your bloomin’ mind. It already has, as everybody knows, and the chances are about 99.9999% it will again. (We could be hit by an asteroid instead, saving us from the jihadis.)

Meanwhile, under the watch of the man who masquerades under the moniker of president of the United States, someone who can barely muster a dopey three-minute speech filled with banalities about the killings in France, radical Islam has metastasized across the world in a manner only dreamed of on 9/11. A map on Gretawire shows terror networks cutting a wide swathe across the planet, from South America through North Africa on to the Indian subcontinent and then into South-East Asia. In a sense the map should already include Western Europe, the way things are going.

And most likely things are going to get worse. Al Qaeda (operating with impunity in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere) and ISIS (with a state of its own the size of Indiana) are in a pissing contest for terrorist maniacs of the year while Boko Haram is doing its best to exterminate everyone in Nigeria, and apparently succeeding – all in the name of Allah. And our president never uses the word “Islamic” or acknowledges that we are at war — even though, quite obviously, the Islamists are at war with us and with Western civilization. And they seem just to be getting started.... KEEP READING

'Every single French Jew I know has left Paris'



Editor of Britain's Jewish Chronicle claims people are fleeing terror-hit French capital - Martin Robinson for MailOnline and James White for MailOnline
  • Stephen Pollard says terror attack on Kosher store in Paris is no 'fluke'
  • 'Every single French Jew I know has either left or is actively working out how to leave', he said
  • Experts believe that more than 100,000 French Jews have left since 2013
  • France's Chief Rabbi has said after a number of attacks on Jews in the past year: 'Jews murdered were targeted specifically because they were Jewish'
  • Policing stepped up across British Jewish areas, community body says
  • Mayor's office has announced closure of shops in famous Jewish area

SUPREME COURT SHOULDN’T IGNORE CONSTITUTION TO SAVE OBAMACARE


link - David Harsanyi/Human Events

...And while pretending that the legal challenge is laughably weak — a politically motivated charade that has absolutely no chance of success — most left-wing pundits who’ve weighed in on the matter feel oddly compelled to urge SCOTUS to contemplate a whole host of factors that have nothing to do with the law....

Most bothersome, though, is the fact that the left doesn’t even bother pretending that the Constitution is more important than acts of progressive righteousness. We see it with left-wing groups openly pushing for more executive actions that directly circumvent legislative process. We see it with King v. Burwell, as well. Chief Justice John Roberts will have blood on his hands if he undermines progress; never mind the case. That this is the sort of reasoning that “may figure heavily in the government’s strategy for winning the case” is a depressing commentary on the administration’s contempt for the court.

We’ve reached a point where liberals argue not only that empathy (well, selective empathy, as you might imagine) should play a leading role in legal decisions but also that the court should avoid disrupting any laws that are driven by progressive notions of compassion. You know, because of the “consequences.” And seeing as progressives treat all their reforms as consecrated acts of charity, this would create a rather convenient legal environment for them.

But of course, they don’t really want justices to use their own moral discretion. What if, for instance, the majority of justices believed that it is Obamacare that is the most disruptive force in the country today? What if they believed ridding America of the ACA would benefit most Americans? If the justices defused Obamacare, think of all the disrupting taxes and regulations they would be saving citizens from. What if justices reasoned that killing Obamacare would be the most compassionate thing to do? Would the left still argue that they should worry about consequences — or would their position become “political”?

Incidentally, where were all these concerns about disruptions and consequences when a fleeting majority unilaterally stuffed a major reform down the throats of all Americans?

In U.S., New Record 43% Are Political Independents

In terms of national identification with the two major parties, Democrats continued to hold a modest edge over Republicans, 30% to 26%. - Gallup

New Poll: How Many Americans Are Conservative, Liberal? - Daily Signal

Conservatives maintained their stronghold on America’s political leanings this past year, outnumbering those who identify as liberals and moderates in 2014.

Conservatives have been the largest ideological group in the United States since 2009, but the 38 percent who identify as such remained the same as last year’s Gallup poll findings....

Independents hit a record high of 43 percent, contributing to the shrink in the number who identify as Democrat or Republican.

Democrats were hit the hardest by the increase in independents, falling from 36 percent to 30 percent. Republicans dropped by two points, down from 2008’s 28 percent to 26 percent.

In the beginning of 2014, Democrats edged out Republicans by five points with 46 percent identifying as such versus the 41 percent identifying as Republican.

By the end of year this gap had flipped, likely in response to the Republican midterm election wave. Democrats trailed Republicans by one point from October through December.

Friday, January 9, 2015

These attacks, rather than build sympathy for their cause, will have the opposite effect. Intelligence and police resources will be focused on muslim communities with greater intensity.

Muslim Terror in Europe, I Told You So - Larry Johnson/No Quarter

...The attacks and murders in France are likely to be replicated in other parts of Europe. There is a bright side to this madness–the bloodshed is going to rally the non-muslim Europeans to push back on the encroachment of the Islamic extremists.

These attacks, rather than build sympathy for their cause, will have the opposite effect. Intelligence and police resources will be focused on muslim communities with greater intensity. The conflict between the jihadists and the secularists will sharpen. And this is not going to be a short-term phenomena. It is likely to last for several years....

Britain's MI5 chief warns al Qaeda in Syria planning mass attacks on West

Al Qaeda militants in Syria are plotting attacks to inflict mass casualties in the West, possibly against transport systems or "iconic targets", the head of Britain's MI5 Security Service said on Thursday. - Guy Faulconbridge/LONDON (Reuters)

..."A group of core al Qaeda terrorists in Syria is planning mass casualty attacks against the West," Director General Parker said in a rare public speech at MI5 headquarters in London. His last public speech was in October 2013.

In the speech, planned before the killings in Paris, Parker said seasoned al Qaeda militants in Syria aimed to "cause large-scale loss of life, often by attacking transport systems or iconic targets" in the West....

"DARK PLACES"

Parker said around 600 British extremists had traveled to Syria, many joining the militant group which calls itself "Islamic State" and has taken control of swathes of Iraq and Syria.

The group, an offshoot of al Qaeda, has beheaded two U.S. journalists and an American and two British aid workers in an effort to put pressure on a U.S.-led international coalition bombing its fighters in Syria.

Islamic State militants in Syria were plotting attacks on Britain and making sophisticated use of social media to incite British nationals to carry out violence, Parker said.

MI5, established in 1909 to counter German espionage ahead of World War One, had stopped three potentially deadly "terrorist plots" against the United Kingdom in recent months, he said.

"We face a very serious level of threat that is complex to combat and unlikely to abate significantly for some time," said Parker, who has argued strongly for more surveillance powers to spy on militant communications on the Internet....

BOEHNER RETALIATION HAUNTS REPUBLICANS WHO DEFENDED, VOTED FOR HIM

House Speaker John Boehner’s decision to retaliate, or exact “revenge” as Politico puts it, against at least two House members who voted against him is haunting Republicans who supported him conference-wide and sparking a discussion in the party about the role Boehner should play as Speaker—and Republican members should play in challenging his authority. - Breitbart

Barbara Boxer Announces Resignation in Bizarre Video



Daily Surge via Breitbart

Barbara Boxer's Greatest Hits: California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer is calling it quits after four terms. What will the liberal heroine — less charitably described by Dennis Miller as “bat-guano crazy, she sleeps up-side down” — be remembered for? - Daily Caller

FRENCH POLICE STORM TWO SITES, KILLING PAIR SOUGHT IN MASSACRE



PARIS UPDATES: ◼ FRANCE 24...BBC...REUTERS...
Britain's MI5 warns al Qaeda planning mass attacks on West - Reuters
All shops in famed Jewish neighborhood ordered closed - CBS DC
4 Hostages Killed at Kosher Market - SKY News
At least four hostages have been killed at the end of siege at a Paris supermarket involving a jihadist gunman.

Commandos launched the assault at the supermarket 20 minutes after explosions at a second siege on the outskirts of Paris.

Six explosions were heard at the supermarket in the east of Paris and several hostages were seen running from the store.

It was initially hoped that all hostages had been saved - but it has now been reported that a number have been killed.

The hostage-taker has also been killed, sources say. Two police officers were also hurt in the raid on the shop in Porte de Vincennes.
Charlie Hebdo attack: 2 intense standoffs in France
Two intense standoffs with gunmen are underway in and around Paris early Friday afternoon -- one involving the two brothers wanted in the Charlie Hebdo massacre and the other a hostage situation at a kosher grocery store.

Authorities have not said if or how the situations are related, but both underscored France's days-long nightmare and anti-terrorism fight.
DRUDGE:
EURABIA DEBATE ERUPTS - Bloomberg Businesweek
The murder of 12 people at a French satire magazine put Europe’s fragile politics on display, mobilizing the opponents of the EU’s much-heralded open borders and driving mainstream backers of often ill-defined “fundamental values” onto the defensive.

Europe is more vulnerable than the U.S. to radical, anti-immigration leanings. Abutting the newly aggressive Russia and across the Mediterranean Sea from the upheavals of the Arab world, the EU inhabits a dangerous neighborhood, with potential troubles that dwarf what the U.S. faces along its southwestern border.

“One of the problems of Europe today is it is surrounded by regions, in North Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East where these dirty entanglements of corruption, crime and terrorism interact in such a potent way to destabilize the societies,” Louise Shelley, a professor at George Mason University in Virginia, told Bloomberg Television....
Fear, paranoia in wooded area where suspects hunted...
Kouachi Rap Video...
FACEBOOK page...
Before attack, French began ceding control of neighborhoods to Islamists - Washington Times
“There are no-go areas not just in Paris, but all over France, where they are effectively in control,” said Robert Spencer, who directs JihadWatch.org, a nonprofit that monitors Muslim extremists.

“They’re operating with impunity, apparently secure in the knowledge that authorities cannot or will not act decisively to stop them,” he said. “And with the universal denial and obfuscation of the clear motive for the Charlie Hebdo attack, they have good reason to think that.”...
Terrorists shift to frequent, soft targets...
Jewish residents flee...
WIRES: REUTERS... AFP...
LIVE: FRANCE 24...
Europe's anti-Islamisation groups look to spread movement...
Le Pen: 'Time's up for denial and hypocrisy'...
Muslim Cleric Defends Slaughter...
NYTIMES deletes Islamic proselytizing during attack...
'You must convert to Islam, read the Quran and cover yourself'...
Cleric asks radio host: Are you Jewish?
Islamic immigration to USA on rise...
Britain's MI5 warns al Qaeda planning mass attacks on West...
Second Standoff at Kosher Market in Paris...
FIVE HOSTAGES...
Female accomplice...
Incident at Eiffel Tower?
All shops in famed Jewish neighborhood ordered closed by police...

link

Thursday, January 8, 2015

#FreeCommunityCollege ?









Why Free Community College Is Anything But Free - Daily Signal

...The administration’s proposal begs certain questions. Low-income students already have access to federal Pell Grants, which can be used to finance their tuition obligations at a community college. Indeed, the number of Pell recipients has doubled since 2008. So the proposal will serve as little more than a federal handout to the community college system.

And it’s a system that hasn’t exactly produced stellar outcomes. Just 20 percent of students who begin community college each year complete their program within 150 percent of the standard time, according to the U.S. Department of Education....

And what is to prevent community colleges from escalating tuition and fees once the federal government – via taxpayers – begins paying the tab? The White House says the federal government will pay three-quarters of the costs of “average” tuition at community colleges, but we’ll most certainly see that “average” increase in the years to come thanks to this new federal largesse.

Then there is the impact on the K-12 system. More than one-third of students have to take remedial courses when they enter college, as they leave high school unprepared for university-level work. Free community college would put even less pressure on high schools to produce graduates who are prepared for college-level work, as they could expect the new free community colleges to fill in what the high schools are failing to do. The proposal is more likely to produce a six-year high school system than a two-year gratis workforce preparation experience.

The administration’s proposal is another step toward the White House’s goal of a “cradle-to-career” education system, starting with free preschool and now free community college....

New York mayor's secret past comes to light

De Blasio's unreported history stirring racial protests - Aaron Klein/WND

Largely unreported in the news coverage of the recent race-related demonstrations is that New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has a history of working with extremist activist groups to stir protests.

Further, de Blasio has a largely unreported history with the controversial Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.

ACORN’s renamed group, the New York Communities for Change, is one of the organizations helping to lead the protests over the death of Eric Garner, who was killed by police in July.

De Blasio has been accused by critics, including New York police officers, of helping to fuel racial tension between police and protesters....

De Blasio, Soros, MoveOn.org and protests

During the mayoral race last year, New York City media reported billionaire George Soros had endorsed de Blasio. But the reports failed to disclose the billionaire’s major financial donation to de Blasio’s nonprofit as well as the candidate’s cozy working relationship with Soros-funded activist groups. De Blasio worked with some of those groups to stir protests.

In 2011, using his position of public advocate, de Blasio launched a nonprofit called the Coalition for Accountability in Political Spending, or CAPS. The group received its primary launch donation of $400,000 from Soros’ Open Society Institute.

De Blasio used his group and his public office to organize with other Soros-funded groups....

CNN REPORTER IN FULL MELTDOWN: THOSE WHO DISAGREE WITH ME ON MUHAMMAD CARTOONS ARE AGENTS FOR ISRAEL

On Wednesday night, CNN International Correspondent Jim Clancy entered full meltdown mode on Twitter after critics fired back at his assertion that magazine Charlie Hebdo’s Prophet Muhammad cartoons did not criticize the prophet. - Breitbart

CNN ‘clown’ Jim Clancy goes on incoherent anti-Israel tirade - Twitchy



Boko Haram Torches Nigerian Town of Baga; 2,000 Missing: Senator



More than 2,000 people are unaccounted for after radical Islamist sect Boko Haram torched more than 10 towns and villages in Nigeria, a local lawmaker told NBC News.

Ahmed Zanna, a senator for Borno state where the attack happened, said the militants razed the town of Baga as well as "10-to-20" other communities in the country's rural northeast over the past five days. "These towns are just gone, burned down," he told NBC News via telephone. "The whole area is covered in bodies."

...Nigeria will hold general elections on February 14, a ballot many expect Boko Haram will attempt to disrupt. The group, whose name roughly translates to "Western education is sinful," has slaughtered and kidnapped thousands and wants to establish a state in northern Nigeria based on strict Islamic law.



A Revolutionary Speech Ignored by the MSM

On New Year’s Day, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi -- the hero of Egypt’s 2013 anti-Muslim Brotherhood revolution -- made some remarkable comments concerning the need for a “religious revolution.” - Raymond Ibrahim/American Thinker

...Although Sisi’s words were directed to Islam’s guardians and articulators, they indirectly lead to several important lessons for Western observers.

First, in just a few words, Sisi delivered a dose of truth and hard-hitting reality concerning the Islamic world’s relationship to the rest of the world -- a dose of reality very few Western leaders dare think let alone proclaim....

Meanwhile, as Sisi was making these groundbreaking if not historic statements, the Western mainstream media, true to form, ignored them and instead offered puerile and redundant headlines like:
  • “Egypt President Sisi urged to free al-Jazeera reporter” (BBC, Jan 1; to which I respond, “So Al Jazeera can continue lying and misleading the West about Sisi and Egypt’s anti-Muslim Brotherhood revolution?”)
  • “Egyptian gays living in fear under Sisi regime” (USA Today, Jan. 2; to which I respond, “Homosexuals live in fear in all Islamic nations, regardless of Sisi.”)
  • “George Clooney’s wife Amal risks arrest in Egypt” (Fox News, to which I respond, “Who cares? Only her innocence or guilt matter, not her husband’s fame” -- which is the only reason Fox News chose this story.)
Whether concerning the true nature of Islam or the true nature of Sisi, this is the latest example of how unfathomably ignorant all those millions of people who exclusively follow the so-called “mainstream media” must surely be.

American Thinker: Sarah Palin is the most powerful female politician

The end of 2014 marks, as the ends of all years do, the creation of “best of” and “worst of” awards. It was in that spirit that the American Thinking awarded former Alaska governor, former vice presidential candidate, and most powerful female politician on the planet, the “American Achiever of 2014” award... - Examiner.com

When one describes Palin as the most powerful female politician on the planet, one inevitably gets eye rolls and suggestions that one regard one Hillary Clinton, the once and future inevitable president of the United States. The American Thinker piece has an answer to that objection. It is based on cold metrics.

“Governor Palin endorses 22 candidates for various offices during the midterms finals including senators, governors, lt. governors, congressmen, and attorney's general. Of those so endorsed an incredible 20 were elected -- contrasted with, for example, Hillary Clinton's record of 8 wins out 24 endorsed candidates.”

2014 also marked the year that, not for the first time, Palin’s political judgment proved to be superior to that of the current president. In 2008, when Russia’s Vladimir Putin was invading Georgia, Palin predicted that then Senator Obama’s indecision would be just the sort of thing that would encourage him to go after the Ukraine next. The foreign policy establishment ridiculed her for being a boob for suggesting such a thing. But, one can now ask, who is the boob and who the prophet?...

American Achiever of 2014: Sarah Palin - M. Joseph Sheppard/American Thinker

For all her detractors’ cries of "irrelevance" and "she's just a reality show entertainer" (those two being among the nicer epithets), Palin goes on, election cycle after election cycle, populating Congress with her endorsed candidates in a cost-effective manner, and in such numbers that the likes of Karl Rove with his 1% success rate can surely view only with hidden admiration, if not downright envy.

Economist Alan Reynolds explains essence of Obamacare in 4 sentences.



Brit Hume · @brithume

10,535 pages of ObamaCare condensed to 4 sentences.

1. In order to insure the uninsured, we first have to uninsure the insured.

2. Next, we require the newly uninsured to be re-insured.

3. To re-insure the newly uninsured, they are required to pay extra charges to be re-insured.

4. The extra charges are required so that the original insured, who became uninsured, and then became re-insured, can pay enough extra so that the original uninsured can be insured, which will be free of charge to them.

Call her Ma'am. Senator Barbara Boxer Says She Won’t Seek Re-election in 2016

Senator Barbara Boxer announced Thursday that she would not seek re-election as senator from California, ending a 30-year career in Congress and breaking a generational logjam in a state where the three top political officeholders are over 70 years old. - New York Times











Can they muster the votes?

Senators introduce bill to counter Obamacare's 40-hour week - Sean Higgins/Washington Examiner

The Affordable Care Act requires businesses that employ 50 or more full-time employees to provide them with healthcare. The law considers anyone who works an average of at least 30 hours a week to be full time. The provision was included to keep employers from circumventing the requirement by giving some employees less than the standard 40-hour work week.

The Senate bill's co-sponsors, Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.; Susan Collins, R-Maine; Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; Joe Donnelly, D-Ind.; and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said the provision had resulted in an even more perverse incentive: to reduce employee hours to just 29 a week.

...The bill will put some Democrats in a difficult position, forcing them to choose between local and state businesses that say the Obamacare mandate is squeezing them and the White House, which does not want to see a part of President Obama's signature initiative undone.

The White House said Tuesday it would veto any such legislation. Spokesman Josh Earnest said, in reaction to the House version, that it would make it easier for businesses to avoid the 50-employee requirement. "This proposed change would actually do a lot of harm, not just to the Affordable Care Act but to a substantial number of workers across the country," Earnest said.

Wake-up Call



O'Reilly: 'ISIS Recruits Muslims, Not Flower Children From San Francisco' - FOX



Bill Maher: All religions are ‘stupid and dangerous — and we should insult them’ - Washington Times

...“We have to stop saying when something like this that happened in Paris … we have to stop saying, well, we should not insult a great religion,” Mr. Maher said, Raw Story reported. “First of all, there are no great religions. They’re all stupid and dangerous — and we should insult them, and we should be able to insult whatever we want. That is what free speech is like.”

Mr. Maher also said liberals, especially, needed to wake up to the dangers of radicalized Islamists.....

Excited to see so many NFRW members on Capitol Hill yesterday to celebrate the swearing in of the largest Republican majority in Congress in nearly a century and to pay tribute to the Republican Women of the 114th Congress.

NFRW President Kathy Brugger welcomes Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn (and sons) and RNC Co-Chair Sharon Day, both of whom are strong supporters of the Federation. 

National Federation of Republican Women on Facebook

Over 130 members of the National Federation of Republican Women gathered in Washington D.C. on January 6 to celebrate the swearing in of the largest Republican majority in Congress in nearly a century and to pay tribute to the Republican Women of the 114th Congress.

NEW FROM LoCO LABS: Choose Your Own Lost Coast Outpost Commenting Experience!

This is well worth a thorough read, whether you comment at Lost Coast Outpost or not:


Since its inception, nearly four years ago, the Lost Coast Outpost has not only sought to be the place that delivers the best and mostly timely news it can deliver, given the resources at its disposal. - Hank Sims/Lost Coast Outpost (LoCo)

It has sought, also, to be the place the county gathers ’round to chat. It has sought to use the medium as effectively as possible, understanding that this is the medium it is. This is not a newspaper transfered awkwardly to the Web. This is a two-way street. We talk to you and you talk to us, and then you talk to us some more and we talk to you some more until the line between you and us gets a little bit fuzzier than it had been previously, before the Internet was a commonplace.

...The growth of the Internet as a means of delivering information and tragedy and funny, telling stories — doing all the things that newspapers used to do, with what we can now see are their obvious limitations — is, to my mind, just about the most exciting thing going. That’s why, when I see something like The Week’s recent retreat from the possibilities of the medium and into a safe fetal position, I shake my head in wonder. Why would you do that? Why would you say: Hey, you want to talk about our stories? Go sign up with Mark Zuckerberg first, and then do it over there with people you already know! Don’t do it within our earshot!

Why would you do that?

I personally love comment sections very much. I like perhaps 97 percent of the Outpost’s comments — a far higher percentage than most people, I realize. Naturally I like most of all the people who have something to say about one of the stories we have published — people who can offer more information, or some expert understanding, or a different way of looking at things. But I also like the people who come in blustery and bullheaded, seeking to make their mark on the world via a silly handle. They are so human. I made this case a while back in greater detail.

the Lost Coast Outpost comment section is going Choose-Your-Own-Adventure. You like the way things have always been, except maybe a little bit less heavy-handed in the moderation department? You got it. You want tightly controlled discussion, with the least possible amount of rage or hard feelings? You got that, too. Everyone gets to choose the Lost Coast Outpost commenting regime they feel most comfortable in. Get the details, HERE.

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

The capper: Libya bans Palestinians from country to prevent entry of terrorists

Sudanese and Syrians also blacklisted for security reasons. - Haaretz

Libya has immediately and indefinitely banned Palestinians, Sudanese and Syrians from entering the country, because it suspects those citizens of belonging to armed groups operating in the country, Arab News reported....

Je Suis Charlie













12 Powerful Cartoons Drawn In Response To The #CharlieHebdo Terror Attack - MRC TV



France’s Front National leader Marine Le Pen pinned the blame for the killing of 12 people in Paris yesterday on Islamic radicals, as mainstream leaders tried to downplay the religious dimension of the attack.


Le Pen May Gain as Magazine Attack Strains French Divide - Bloomberg Business

While President Francois Hollande called for national unity in an attempt to deter the public from demonizing the country’s 5-million strong Muslim community, Le Pen said France has to confront the beliefs of the gunmen who stormed the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

“Time’s up for denial and hypocrisy,” Le Pen, who has railed against immigration, said in a video posted on her party’s website. “The absolute rejection of Islamic fundamentalism must be proclaimed loudly and clearly.”

Au Contraire: The Future Should Belong To Those Who Can Slander The Prophet of Islam

OBAMA'S GREATEST HITS: "The future must not belong to those who slander the Prophet of Islam" - Doug Ross/Director Blue

Radical Islam doesn't like being mocked. Funny how we don’t have to worry about our lives after mocking the Pope, isn’t it? - David Harsanyi/The Federalist

Paris: Islam Strikes Again - Roger L. Simon/PJM

After the brutal mass murders at the office of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris, the airwaves and the Internet are filled with pundits and “experts” wondering whether this horrendous act is the work of al-Qaeda, ISIS or were these evil maniacs “self-radicalized,” as the new phrase goes.

I have news for them – there is no difference! Al-Qaeda, ISIS and the Muslim man on the street all work from the same play books; they need no outside advice. And those play books are the holy texts of Islam, the Koran and the Hadith. All you need to know is there.

Egypt’s el-Sisi is right. Islam is in desperate need of a reformation, because right now it is not even a religion. It is a virus.

What the world should do now is nothing short of an intervention, just how we would treat a drug addicted or alcoholic relative. Unfortunately, given the terrified international leadership, that isn’t in the offing. They are more likely to call the murder at Charlie Hebdo “workplace violence,” as ludicrous as that sounds and is.

Meanwhile, one of the terms that should have been shot dead with these is murders as well is “Islamophobia.” From Hamas to ISIS to the Paris psychopaths, anyone who does not fear Islam is irrational, not the other way around. I fear Islam because I criticize it frequently. Some religious nutcase could run through my door and shoot me and my family at any time. It’s the simple truth. The folks at Charlie Hebdo are my brothers and sisters and I grieve for them.

Atheist Richard Dawkins Has a Message About Islam in the Wake of France’s Deadly Terror Attack - The Blaze



The Blame for the Charlie Hebdo Murders - GEORGE PACKER/The New Yorker
The murders today in Paris are not a result of France’s failure to assimilate two generations of Muslim immigrants from its former colonies. They’re not about French military action against the Islamic State in the Middle East, or the American invasion of Iraq before that. They’re not part of some general wave of nihilistic violence in the economically depressed, socially atomized, morally hollow West—the Paris version of Newtown or Oslo. Least of all should they be “understood” as reactions to disrespect for religion on the part of irresponsible cartoonists.

They are only the latest blows delivered by an ideology that has sought to achieve power through terror for decades. It’s the same ideology that sent Salman Rushdie into hiding for a decade under a death sentence for writing a novel, then killed his Japanese translator and tried to kill his Italian translator and Norwegian publisher. The ideology that murdered three thousand people in the U.S. on September 11, 2001. The one that butchered Theo van Gogh in the streets of Amsterdam, in 2004, for making a film. The one that has brought mass rape and slaughter to the cities and deserts of Syria and Iraq. That massacred a hundred and thirty-two children and thirteen adults in a school in Peshawar last month. That regularly kills so many Nigerians, especially young ones, that hardly anyone pays attention.

Because the ideology is the product of a major world religion, a lot of painstaking pretzel logic goes into trying to explain what the violence does, or doesn’t, have to do with Islam. Some well-meaning people tiptoe around the Islamic connection, claiming that the carnage has nothing to do with faith, or
that Islam is a religion of peace, or that, at most, the violence represents a “distortion” of a great religion....

The truth: Keystone is a litmus test for the debate on climate change, a straw man that will enrich lobbyists, consultants, and advocates on both sides of the fight without an iota of progress on a central question of our times:

How do we balance economic and environmental concerns while reducing greenhouse-gas emissions due to human activity? - Ron Fournier/National Journal

They're playing you for fools on both sides of the Keystone XL pipeline debate. Oil lobbyists and conservatives call it a jobs project; they're wrong. Environmental lobbyists and liberals call it a globe killer; they're wrong....

In fact, Obama's own State Department has determined that Keystone would not make climate change any worse. While the oil type envisioned for Keystone produces 17 percent more greenhouse gases than typical crude oil, the State Department concluded that, even without the pipeline, producers likely would find another way to sell the oil.

In other words, the environmental concerns over Keystone are much ado over almost nothing. That hasn't stopped environmental and liberal groups from making the "dirty oil" argument to the media, politicians, and donors.

The president has properly raised doubts about the jobs figures circulated by Keystone advocates. Typical of the type is GOP Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, who said of Obama on Sunday: "His own State Department said it's 42,000 new jobs."

Glenn Kessler, the impartial and thorough fact checker at The Washington Post, called that claim misleading.

Thursday will be a national day of mourning for those killed in the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, French President Francois Hollande said in a national address today.

The two gunmen believed to be responsible for the attack, which left 12 dead, were on the loose, French authorities said. Around France and the rest of Europe, thousands turned out for rallies Wednesday evening, expressing solidarity with the satirical magazine and the nation of France. The crowds pledged defiance to those behind the bloodshed.





The House Just Made It Harder for Politicians to Steal From Social Security Retirement Fund

This Tuesday, House Republicans nearly unanimously adopted new rules for the 114th Congress (H. Res. 5) which set the stage for long overdue Social Security reforms to protect disabled Americans and seniors from indiscriminate benefit cuts. - Romina Boccia/Daily Signal

The new rule strengthens the integrity of Social Security’s separate trust funds (disability and retirement) by putting a procedural barrier in place to prevent lawmakers from raiding retirement funds to shore up the bleeding disability trust fund. Page 32 of H. Res. 5 adds a point of order against weakening either trust fund, unless the changes result in an overall improvement to Social Security’s combined trust funds.

This change sets the stage for comprehensive Social Security reform in the 114th Congress....KEEP READING

15,000 JOIN ANTI-ISLAM PROTEST IN GERMANY:



'Zero tolerance toward criminal asylum seekers' - The Guardian

Its members have been dubbed the “pinstriped Nazis” and they refer to their demonstrations as “evening strolls” through German cities. But on Monday night, an estimated 15,000 people joined Pegida, or Patriotic Europeans Against Islamisation of the West, in a march through Dresden carrying banners bearing slogans such as “Zero tolerance towards criminal asylum seekers”, “Protect our homeland” and “Stop the Islamisation”.

Lutz Bachmann, the head of Pegida, a nascent anti-foreigner campaign group, led the crowds, either waving or draped in German flags, in barking chants of “Wir sind das Volk”, or “We are the people”, the slogan adopted by protesters in the historic “Monday demonstrations” against the East German government in the runup to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

And, a few days later:

At least 3.3 (3.7) million march against extremism in France:

12 KILLED AT PARIS HUMOR MAG THAT RAN MUHAMMED CARTOONS







CARTOONIST: 'I would rather die standing than live kneeling' - Daily Caller
Cop begging for life executed - Daily Mail



12 DEAD IN PARIS MASSACRE: Islamic gunmen execute French police officer as he pleads for his life after terror attack on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo at centre of Mohammed cartoon storm

  • Masked gunmen storm Paris headquarters with AK-47s shouting 'Allahu akbar!' and 'the Prophet has been avenged'
  • Stalked building asking for people's names before killing the editor and cartoonist during weekly editorial meeting
  • Horrific footage shows a police officer begging for his life before being shot in the head at point-blank range
  • Cartoonist Corrine Rey told how she cowered with her young daughter as she watched two colleagues gunned down
  • Ms Rey, who goes by the name Coco, said men 'spoke French perfectly' and 'claimed they were Al Qaeda terrorists'
  • Killers fled in stolen car across eastern Paris after a 'mass shoot-out' with police officers and remain on the loose
  • Newspaper had earlier posted a picture of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on its Twitter account
  • Publication's offices were previously firebombed in 2011 for publishing satirical cartoon of Prophet Mohammed











LIVE: FRANCE 24





































Words Not Used By Obama To Condemn Paris Terror Attack: “Islam,” “Muslim,” “Jihad”… - Weasel Zippers



Flashback: White House condemned #CharlieHebdo cartoons in 2012 - Twitchy

White House hesitates to call Paris attack 'terrorism' - Daniel Halper/Weekly Standard



FLASHBACK: 'Future Must Not Belong to Those Who Slander Prophet of Islam' - Ben Shapiro/Truth Revolt



Teenage suspect 'arrested after handing himself into police' over Paris magazine massacre that left 12 dead - as anti-terror unit raids building in hunt for two brothers 'trained in Yemen as assassins' - Mark Duell and Simon Tomlinson and Peter Allen and Jay Akbar and Chris Pleasance for MailOnline

Gunmen identified as Said Kouachi, 34, and brother Cherif, 32, both from Paris, and Hamyd Mourad, 18, from Reims
Police published pictures of two brothers saying they were 'armed and dangerous' as Mourad handed himself in
Masked gunmen stormed Paris headquarters with AK-47s shouting 'Allahu akbar!' and 'Prophet has been avenged'
Stalked building asking for people's names before killing the editor, three cartoonists and the deputy chief editor
Editor Stephane Charbonnier had famously shrugged off threats, saying: 'I'd rather die standing than live kneeling'
Horrific footage shows a police officer begging for his life before being shot in the head at point-blank range
Cartoonist Corrine Rey told how she cowered with her young daughter as she watched two colleagues gunned down
Killers fled in stolen car across eastern Paris after a 'mass shoot-out' with police officers and remain on the loose
Militants believed to be from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula which was behind plane bomb plots in US and UK
US counter-terror officials said earlier one suspect was killed and two others in custody, but this was not confirmed
Newspaper had earlier posted a picture of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on its Twitter account
Publication's offices were firebombed in 2011 for publishing satirical cartoon of Prophet Mohammed

Seattle Bans Throwing Food Away in Trash

Families can be fined $1 on their garbage bill for putting “food-contaminated cardboard” in their trashcan, as a result of the compost mandate. - Washington Free Beacon

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports: Currently, Seattle residents are allowed to throw food and food waste – pizza boxes, dirty napkins, soiled paper towels – in the garbage. Residents are required to have a food and yard waste collection service, but they don’t have to use it for food. (Backyard composters are exempt from that requirement.)

Similarly, multi-family building owners are required to provide a compost collection service for residents, but residents don’t have to use it.

But on Jan. 1, Seattle will ban food and food waste in trash.

Does Egypt’s el-Sisi Deserve the Nobel Peace Prize?


Egypt's President calls for a 'religious revolution' - CNN

The mainstream media silence on Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s historic New Year’s speech in Cairo calling for an Islamic reformation, reported here several days ago, has finally been broken by CNN International. - Roger L. Simon/PJMedia

...Not surprisingly, CNN goes on to quote a naysayer, H. A. Hellyer of the Brookings Institute, to throw some traditional liberal water on the whole event, but to the network’s credit it concludes by reporting another surprising action by the Egyptian president:
On Tuesday, the President visited the main Coptic cathedral in Cairo to attend a Christmas mass and make a short speech. He is the first president to attend such a mass since the revolution.

“We will build our country together. We will accommodate each other. We will love each other,” el-Sisi said in that speech.
That’s pretty radical stuff in a country where many Coptic churches have been burned and Christians encouraged to flee the country. The Jewish Press has more on this story (as well as a photo of a smiling el-Sisi welcoming the Israeli ambassador in Cairo).
Sisi’s attendance at the religious service was preceded by a heavy security presence, especially due to prior attacks on Christian sites by radical Islamists.

The president congratulated Egypt’s Coptic community on the occasion of the holiday, and maintained that all Egyptians are as “one hand.”
As “one hand”? New York’s Mayor DeBlasio should take lessons in graciousness from el-Sisi.

At the same time, Egypt’s stock market, up thirty percent, was the best bet of any for 2014, according to the Financial Times. Does this mean Egypt is about to turn into Denmark any time soon? Undoubtedly not. But Denmark — and a number of other European countries — may be turning into Egypt or something worse. So all is fair and el-Sisi is to be applauded.

Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize virtually for no more than being elected president — and then made a hash of everything. El-Sisi came into power by something of a coup over the Islamofascist Morsi — and then has worked hard to make peace, reign in and seal off Hamas, turn Qatar from the Islamist camp, etc., etc. — far more Nobel-worthy than anything Obama ever even dreamed of.