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Saturday, February 28, 2015

We Must Get Serious



Yesterday at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Texas Governor Rick Perry spoke on the threat posed by ISIS:

“At no time has the future been more uncertain and world more dangerous than today.  This administration’s incompetence in Iraq and Syria has allowed the emergence of ISIS. Let’s be very, very clear about what ISIS is. They are a religious movement that seeks to take the world back to the 7th century.”

“To deny the fundamentally religious threat is naïve, it is dangerous, and it is misguided. ISIS represents the worst threat to freedom since communism.”

Whether or not Governor Perry decides to run for President in 2016, he believes, as do the rest of the conservative candidates, that ISIS is an existential threat to the western world, and our government must put its full force into eradicating it.


Friday, February 27, 2015

Obama Spin is Absurdity



This week, John Kerry questioned the judgment of Benjamin Netanyahu over his stance on Iran’s nuclear program.  And why? Because of Netanyahu’s 2003 authorization for Israel to be part of the Iraq coalition.  Kerry went on to clarify, “and we all know what happened with that.” Of course Kerry left out the fact that he voted for the Iraq war along with President Obama. So, following John Kerry’s skewed line of reasoning now, does this mean that we should not trust his judgment either?

Injecting more absurdity to the same situation, Obama puppet-mouthpiece, Susan Rice, characterized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming address to Congress of as a “destructive” force in long-standing U.S. – Israel relations. Susan Rice is the one who appeared on all the Sunday talk shows in 2012, informing us that the Benghazi terrorist attack was a spontaneous reaction to an amateur video defaming the Prophet Mohammed. And we are supposed to believe her again?

The Kerry-Rice deleterious duo speaks as though Israel’s Prime Minister is coming to the U.S. on a trivial matter. What they are failing to state is that Iran’s goal is the complete destruction of Israel. Somebody in our government had to do something to address the spin being force-fed to us by our President and his sycophants. Thank God that Speaker Boehner stepped up and invited Netanyahu to give Congress a desperately needed dose of reality.

Another news story this week in The Washington Times reported that prominent dissident group, the National Coalition of Resistance of Iran, is claiming that Iran is enriching uranium in a facility known as “Lavizan-3.” This facility has been used for clandestine nuclear program research and development, as well as for enrichment with advanced IR-2m and IR-4 centrifuge machines. The operation’s existence has never been revealed to international officials.

It is at least a mile underground, with an entrance that is able to hide any clues of its existence. This is the group that first disclosed Iran’s covert nuclear program in the early 2000s -- which adds the element of credibility to the increasingly dangerous nuclear equation. They believe that Iran’s underground covert program of nuclear enrichment is aimed solely at the production of a bomb – and ultimately at the destruction of Israel. If the covert nuclear program does indeed exist, why else would Iran be hiding it?

This week, as Iran hung an effigy of President Obama and chanted “Death to America,” Secretary of State Kerry testified as follows:

"Despite ISIL, despite the visible killings that you see and how horrific they are, we are actually living in a period of less daily threat to Americans and to people in the world than normally; less deaths, less violent deaths today, than through the last century."

Maybe Kerry was just not up to speed on the latest data from Director of National Intelligence James Clapper who also testified yesterday on Capitol Hill:

"When the final accounting is done, 2014 will have been the most lethal year for global terrorism in the 45 years such data has been compiled."

Clapper offered statistics challenging the Obama Administration’s claims that the country and the world are safer today.

Why does the Obama Administration continue to spin such absurdity?



Sources:

1.  (2015). Fox News Politics, Itel Chief Says 2014 Deadliest Year for Terror Ever Recorded, In Counter to Upbeat Kerry. Retrieved February 26, 2015, from http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/02/26/top-intel-official-2014-deadliest-year-for-terror-ever-recorded/


2.  Taylor, G. (2015). The Washington Times. Iran Blockbuster: Group Claims Proof of Secret Nuclear Facility. Retrieved February 25, 2015, from  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/24/iran-running-clandestine-nuclear-facility-group-sa/

3.   Dorell, O. (2015) USA Today. Dissident Group Alleges New Secret Nuke Site in Iran. Retrieved February 26, 2015, from http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/02/24/dissidents-iran-new-secret-nuclear-site/23946643/








Tuesday, February 24, 2015

ISIS Threat Growing




ISIS militants have taken between 70 and 100 Assyrian Christians captive in the northeast section of Syria. Reportedly, 3,000 people were able to flee the ISIS onslaught and take refuge in the cities of Hassakeh and Qarnishli. The majority of the captives are from the village of Tal Shamiram which is located roughly 50 miles southwest of Qamishli. No one knows the condition of the captives.

With ISIS gaining hold in coastal Libya, in addition to ground that they are seizing near the Turkish border, Europe and the surrounding region are becoming increasingly more at risk.


The strategic ISIS threat is definitely mounting.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Failure to Engage




Folks are not surprised anymore with Obama’s failure to engage in the war on terror.  From the Red Line(s) in Syria, to the pull-out of American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, to Obama’s failure to define the threat as Islamic terror, to avoiding the anti-terrorist march in Paris, ad nauseum. The pattern has become quite evident. Our President has no interest in pushing back any more than he has to. He will continue “leading from behind” and only doing enough to appear engaged.


Nothing is worth doing unless you give it your all. But not all leaders ascribe to that philosophy – namely, one: our President. Let us hope that over the next 696 days the damage is not too extensive.

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Islamic Terrorist Group Threatens Mall Attacks



On Friday, suicide bombers blew up a hotel compound in Mogadishu, Somalia where a group of government dignitaries from Somalia were assembled. The deputy mayor of Mogadishu and two legislators were among those who lost their lives. Al Qaeda affiliate, Al Shabaab, claimed responsibility for the bloody attack.

Now the Al Shabaab has issued a new terror threat in the form of a video warning of impending attacks on three malls: the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, West Edmonton Mall in Canada and the Oxford Street Shopping area in London, England. In their terrorist video are graphic images of the terrorists celebrating the 2013 attack on Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya. Sixty people were murdered in that terrorist attack for which Al Shabaab also claimed responsibility.

In light of these new terrorist threats, it is especially concerning that the U.S. is a country with open borders. Even more concerning is America’s president who will not call Islamic terrorism what it is: Islamic Terrorism.


When is he going to wake up and enter reality?

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Our Greatest Threats are Not Right-Wing Extremists or Climate Change




ISIS is expanding in the Middle East.  Their immediate goal of conquering Libya is to utilize it as a gateway for an imminent invasion of southern Europe. Boko Haram’s acts of terrorism are expanding exponentially in Africa. Sunni countries are warning that if negotiations with Iran allow them to keep their nuclear-producing technologies, there will be an arms race between the Shiite and Sunni nations.

North Korea’s volatile leader paid a visit to a location near the border of South Korea to observe North Korean military drills – a week ahead of joint exercises between the U.S. and South Korea. Kim Jong-un regards the military exercises between the U,S. and South Korea as preparation for an “invasion” of the north.

Russia has violated their cease fire with Ukraine, and Nato’s deputy supreme allied commander in Europe is concerned that Vladmir Putin may try to invade and seize Nato territory. Britain’s top general in Nato has also said that this poses “an existential threat to our whole being.”


I do not think that right-wing “extremists” or global warming are today’s greatest threats to mankind. Would someone kindly inform our fearless leader?

Friday, February 20, 2015

Terror Threat



The priest who performed our mass last night had just returned from visiting his family in Southern Nigeria. While he was there, he performed a mass in the northern part of that country. His description of northern Nigeria was startling.

Because the terrorism has become so prevalent in that part of Nigeria, everyone going into the church was searched. I believe that he also said that there were metal detectors. The last thing that Father said was that no cars were allowed to park in the parking lot (because of suicide bombers).

If we don’t get a handle on terror, will this be the fate of the United States?


Thursday, February 19, 2015

President Doublespeak



According to Wikipedia, doublespeak is “language that deliberately disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words. Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms (e.g., "downsizing" for layoffs, "servicing the target" for bombing, in which case it is primarily meant to make the truth sound more palatable. It may also refer to intentional ambiguity in language or to actual inversions of meaning (for example, naming a state of war "peace"). In such cases, doublespeak disguises the nature of the truth. Doublespeak is most closely associated with political language.”


President Obama specializes in doublespeak:

In his State of the Union Speech this year, he declared that foreign wars were over – even as he was asking for Congressional backing to wage war on ISIS. I guess a bombing campaign is not war. He bragged about lower numbers of unemployment but failed to tell us that those “lower numbers” were due to unemployed workers who were so discouraged that they had given up looking for jobs.

Another keynote topic in President Obama’s State of the Union Speech was the closing of Guantanamo Bay. Not mentioned were the five high-level GITMO detainees the President traded for one American deserter – namely, Bowe Bergdahl  -- and that that three or more of these newly released Islamic terrorists were now reconnecting with their terrorist roots.

President Obama emphatically spoke about the persecution of Muslims in response to the murder of three Muslim College students in North Carolina.  While this is indeed tragic, and though persecution of religious groups of any kind is never acceptable, why doesn’t our leader know that the persecution of Jews in the U.S. is vastly higher than the persecution of Muslims? Adding insult to injury, when Obama commented on the 21 Coptic Christians whose brutal throat-slashing murders were broadcast all over the internet last week, our double-speaking leader called it the murder of “Egyptian citizens.”  There was no mention of these poor souls being murdered for their faith. The ISIS video was entitled  “A Message Signed With Blood To The Nation Of The Cross” – as in the cross of Jesus.  Then they threatened to conquer Rome (the seat of the Catholic religion) after they slaughter Christian hostages.

Is this not a religious war?


These are just a few of our feckless President’s attempts at doublespeak, and there are far too many to try to detail them all here. I just wanted to give you an overview.


Wednesday, February 18, 2015

What is Wrong With President Obama?



What is wrong with our President? He refuses to use the word “Christian.” He refuses to call Islamic terrorism by its name. He gives the cold shoulder to our biggest ally, Israel, and has gone even so far as to refuse to listen to Bibi Netanyahu’s upcoming address to Congress on Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Old Joe won’t be at that joint session of Congress, either, not that it really matters.

Obama has refused to assist in arming Jordan -- another U.S. ally, I might add – with ISIS at its doorstep. Neither will he help Egypt. It seems that President Obama  is a little sore over al-Sissi’s defeat of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt during the Arab Spring. Doesn’t he realize that the Muslim Brotherhood is the terrorist organization that spawned Hamas – another terrorist organization?  Obama also refused to give Jordan and Egypt intelligence on ISIS targets in Syria and Libya.

Quoting the Times of Israel:

 “Ryan Mauro, National Security Analyst for the Clarion Project, wonders why the world agrees that ISIS is morally repugnant even as Hamas gets a pass. ‘Both implement sharia governance, deliberately target civilians, have genocidal beliefs and seek the establishment of a caliphate,’ He further explains that ISIS’s determination to exterminate Iraq’s Yazidi population is “no more egregious” than Hamas’s determination to eliminate millions of Jews. And the only difference between the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and ISIS is in regard to their method of achieving the same goal. The Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas wish to establish a Muslim caliphate incrementally, while ISIS is willing to do anything and everything to bring one about as quickly as possible.

President Obama recently met with 15 Muslim leaders, many of whom are in groups spawned by the Muslim Brotherhood.  The Muslim Brotherhood is not a benign organization. It is, rather, an existential threat to American values and the American way of life.

President Obama offers the usual “Obama Speak” on being part of a “coalition” to defeat ISIS. If he really believes it, then why is he refusing to help our allies?






*Sources:




*I use these sources because the lame stream media refuses to report on anything that I have written about. What does that say about the major media outlets?




Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Where Are the Headlines? Where is the Breaking News?




Forty-six souls were reportedly burned alive in the Iraqi town of Al-Baghdadi less than five miles away from 400 Marines stationed at Al-Asad Air Force Base. I would think that this should grant prominent and immediate exposure in the news media. After all, Fox News reported on it as a breaking news flash. Granted, it is still developing , but there is no reporting on it elsewhere. In fact, there is next to nothing in the news media on the Middle East.

This morning, the lead story at USA Today was Holder ordering a probe of individual bankers’ roles in the financial crisis, and NBC’s was about a burglar who served four years of a 60-year sentence being back behind bars. The headline under the lead at NBC was about why beads are thrown at Mardi Gras. CBS posted legal loopholes for getting through DUI checkpoints as their lead story, and MSNBC posted a lead story about the slow crawl toward justice for the broken-hearted families of victims in police shootings. ABC posted a rolling lead story of the Aaron Hernandez trial, how military action may not be the answer in Libya and, last, a third lead story on the prudish mindset affecting old Hollywood’s silver screen.

I give credit to CNN, though, because at least they posted a lead story comparing ISIS to the Nazis and Khmer Rouge. At least they are talking about it.

Just under the breaking news on the burning alive of 45 human beings in Iraq, Fox News’ lead story discussed State Department spokeswoman, Marie Harf’s take on ISIS where she says this on MSNBC’s Hardball:

“We're killing a lot of them, and we're going to keep killing more of them. ... But we cannot win this war by killing them. We need ... to go after the root causes that leads people to join these groups, whether it's lack of opportunity for jobs, whether --"  At that point, Harf is interrupted by host Chris Matthews, who astutely points out, "There's always going to be poor people. There's always going to be poor Muslims." Harf continues to argue that the U.S. should work with other countries to "help improve their governance" and "help them build their economies so they can have job opportunities for these people."

“These people?” “We’re killing a lot of THEM?” “There’s always going to be poor Muslims?” Could they be any more condescending? And leave it to an Obama hack to bring job creation and politics into the grand equation of life for those poor souls living in the direct path of ISIS. You cannot create an infrastructure for dead people.

If the American Public is not reading about the atrocities of ISIS and other Islamic terrorists in their daily news, how are they going to know what is happening?




Monday, February 16, 2015

Egypt Strikes Back at ISIS



Egyptian warplanes bombed ISIS militants yesterday in retaliation for the recent mass beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians. As many as 64 militants were killed, and the bombing took out ISIS ammunition caches and training camps. The airstrikes came in two waves and were carried out in Derma, a port city in eastern Libya.

The Egyptian military issued the following statement:

"Avenging Egyptian blood and punishing criminals and murderers is our right and duty."

The statement was broadcast on state television.

El-Sissi, the President of Egypt, called on the Arab world to reject radical terror. He even took the unprecedented step of attending services at a Christian church.

"These cowardly actions will not undermine our determination," said el-Sissi, who also banned all travel to Libya by Egyptian citizens. "Egypt and the whole world are in a fierce battle with extremist groups carrying extremist ideology and sharing the same goals."

Egyptian officials have also indicated that there would be further air strikes.




Source: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/02/16/egypt-hits-isis-affiliated-terrorists-in-libya-after-video-showing-mass/


Sunday, February 15, 2015

No Time for Obama-Speak



Three hundred and twenty United States Marines at Al Asad Air Base  in Iraq are being slowly surrounded by ISIS militants– in some places less than five miles away in an area with no cover of mountains, rivers, etc. On Saturday, Isis militants disguised in Iraqi Army uniforms attacked that same base. Those ISIS fighters – some wearing suicide vests – were killed. Some say that it was a probing mission to determine the vulnerabilities of our base. As is very obvious, this is a classic circle-the-enemy maneuver.

The President, just days ago, told us that ISIS was suffering from a morale problem. Is this true? One would think that being so close to causing an American disaster would lift the morale of ISIS considerably. Is our President’s denial going to cause injury to those 300 troops gradually being surrounded by ISIS?

As Judge Janine Pirro said yesterday, “This is no time for “Obama Speak.” Our President need to take the ISIS threat seriously and send reinforcements.



Saturday, February 14, 2015

Shooting in Denmark – More Terrorism





Two gunmen opened fire at a free speech event in Copenhagen, Denmark. The event was organized by Swedish artist, Lars Vilks, who is considered controversial since his depiction of the Prophet Muhammad as a dog in 2007.  The gunmen used automatic weapons that sprayed at least 30 bullets, killing a 40-year-old man and injuring three police officers. The gunmen are still at large.

Helle Merete Brix, an organizer of the event said, "I clearly consider this as an attack on Lars Vilks.” Helle was ushered away with Vilks by one of the Danish police guards that Vilks gets whenever he is in Denmark.

Francois Zimeray, the French ambassador to Denmark, who was a speaker at the event, told the news media, "They fired on us from the outside. It was the same intention as Charlie Hebdo except they didn't manage to get in."


Friday, February 13, 2015

Worst President in U.S. History



The link below is an article about a video President of the United States made on Buzzfeed. While President Obama has continually made it obvious that he gets low marks for following accepted protocols as the Commander in Chief, the attached link and accompanying video seem to push him way over the line of acceptability. And for him to do this on the same day that the Islamic State announced the death of humanitarian Kayla Mueller -- well, it is downright unforgivable.

Take a look for yourself:



The man has no class whatsoever and illustrates (quite painfully) that he simply does not care.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Is This Surrender?


Yesterday the news media reported that Iranian-backed Yemeni militia seized American weapons and U.S. vehicles as Americans were told by the State Department to pack up and leave. The American Embassy has shut down operations and is involved in full-scale evacuation of Americans in Yemen. U.S. Marines were ordered to hand over their weapons to Houthi gunmen at the airport.

Now that our service members and diplomats are being bullied and humiliated into leaving, American relations in the country of Yemen have taken on the look of American surrender. Is this what is in store for our efforts in the Middle East? Wasn't Yemen supposed to be Obama's bastion of success?

Today a corrected statement was issued by the Marine Corps that none of our weapons left behind in Yemen have been handed over to the Houthi or taken by them. Believe what you want -- but why are we trusting an unstable new government in Yemen to honor its word?

Monday, February 9, 2015

Next Time We Need to Choose a Better President



Next time we will need to be more careful in who we elect as President. In 2008, America was impressed with Barack Obama’s speeches and the promise that his bi-racial makeup held for race relations in our country.  But the electorate put an incompetent into the White House.

We elected a man who had never run a business or been a governor and who had only been a U.S. Senator for a little more than a heartbeat. Nothing in our fledgling President’s background advanced the notion that he could actually do the job of being President.

President Obama was large on ideology but small on practicality. He did not know how to work with Congress. His narcissistic personality traits became painfully apparent when he slept through the Benghazi debacle and played golf immediately after telling the country about the James Foley beheading.

The President has failed to plan strong policies to defeat ISIS or to actually enforce his “red lines.” He is guilty of serial dishonesty on every level. Remember: “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it”? He has done all of this while failing to use the word “Islamic” in describing worldwide Islamic terrorism. He has lied to all of us on climate change, unemployment and immigration – all while snubbing our biggest ally (Israel) and facilitating Iran’s unrelenting march closer and closer to nuclear capability.

Next time we need to closely scrutinize the candidates’ resumes and put a leader in office who is competent in preserving U.S. interests and who can actually do the job.


Saturday, February 7, 2015

Administration Finally Releases List




The most “transparent” administration in U.S. history finally released the names of the American Muslim Leaders who met with the President on Wednesday. The number on the list was initially reported by one of the attendees as 15; however, the White House’s list is comprised of 14 people. A representative from the White House reported that the number on the list had always been 14.


All number wrangling aside, here is the list of attendees:

1. Bilqis “Qisi” Abdul-Qaadir, Director of Women’s Basketball Operations, Indiana State University

2.Arshia Wajid, Founder, American Muslim Health Professionals

3.Dean Obeidallah, Comedian, Dean of Comedy

4.Kameelah Rashad, Founder of Muslim Wellness Foundation and Muslim Chaplain of University of Pennsylvania

5.Diego Arancibia, Board Member and Associate Director, Ta’leef Collective

6.Farhan Latif, Chief Operating Officer and Director of Policy Impact, Institute of Policy and Understanding

7.Sherman Jackson, Professor of Religion and American Studies and Ethnicity, University of Southern California

8.Azhar Azeez, President, Islamic Society of North America

9.Farhana Khera, President, Muslim Advocates

10.Rahat Hussain, President, Universal Muslim Association of America

11.Hoda Hawa, National Policy Advisor, Muslim Public Affairs Council

12.Maya Berry, Executive Director, Arab American Institute

13.Imam Mohamed Magid, ADAMS Center

14.Haroon Mokhtarzada, CEO, Webs


Why did it take many requests and much resistance from the Obama Administration before the list of Muslim leaders was released? Why was it released so quietly – and on a Friday? And if there were 15 American Muslim Leaders in attendance at the President’s event, who was the fifteenth?

This is typical of this administration’s “transparency.”






Friday, February 6, 2015

Bumble of the Day



Yesterday at the National Prayer Breakfast, our President bumbled it again when he said the following about religion:

“Unless we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.”

How very relevant (sarcasm intended) to reach back 1100 years to support today’s threat from Islamic terrorism. And, worse yet, to say it to a group comprised primarily of Evangelical Protestants – Priceless.

It’s going to be a long two years.


Thursday, February 5, 2015

Denial and Obfuscation



We are in a war against Islamic terror. Yet, our Commander-in-Chief will not even say the words, “Islamic Terror.” We are told by our leader that the U.S. is doing strategic bombing of ISIS. Yet the sum total of this bombing amounts to less than a pinprick. Jordan is begging the U.S. for help in bombing ISIS, and we are not told that the UAE pulled out of ISIS bombing campaign in December. Worse yet, the UAE is referenced a month later as being actively involved in the bombing – which was not true. Yesterday the President had a gathering at the White House for Muslim leaders – all of which the White House staff refused to name. The President can meet with Muslim leaders, but he has already refused to meet with Benjamin Netanyahu when he addresses Congress next month. Iran’s leader has been quoted as saying that the U.S. is “begging” for an agreement on nuclear weapons.

Does anyone see a pattern here?