So, there's a lot of talk about Pres. Obama not attending the French rally, nor any of his close advisers. To me it's a very interesting contrast to the administration's reaction to the Benghazi attacks. Back in 2012 they (Obama and his close advisers.) placed plenty of blame on the video that supposedly provoked the Benghazi attack. This time around they, (Obama and his close advisers.) are not blaming Charlie Hebdo. Or are they?
Muslims never guilty of 'terrorist massacres,' Turkey's Erdogan insists
By Paul Alster
Published January 16, 2015
FoxNews.com
Monday's spectacle at Erdogan's new, 1,150-room palace raised eyebrows. (Reuters)
Turkish President Recip Tayyip Erdogan’s increasingly bizarre rhetoric continued this week when he told reporters Muslims have "never taken part in terrorist massacres" and appeared to blame the West for the recent Islamist attacks in Paris.
The NATO nation leader and western ally has moved his powerful nation further from its Constitutionally-mandated secularism in recent years, and has drawn criticisms for not doing more to stop the flow of foreign jihadis, who pass through Istanbul on their way to join Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. But Monday's comments, against the backdrop of near-universal condemnation of the Islamist attack on French satirical tabloid Charlie Hebdo, could further isolate Erdogan from the West.“As Muslims, we've never taken part in terrorist massacres," Erdogan said. "Behind these lie racism, hate speech, and Islamophobia. French citizens carry out such a massacre, and Muslims pay the price. The West's hypocrisy is obvious.”
"Behind [terrorist massacres] lie racism, hate speech, and Islamophobia."
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Erdogan spoke a day after more than 40 world leaders, including Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, joined in Paris to condemn the Jan. 7 attack and the related shooting of a police officer and siege on a Paris kosher supermarket, Islamist attacks that left a total of 17 innocent people dead. The attacks were motivated by Charlie Hebdo's publishing of caricatures of Muhammad.
“Take note that the acts of terror are not carried out in a vacuum," Erdogan said. "The acts follow a predetermined script and we should be [aware of a] a plot against the Islamic world.”
The comments also came against the backdrop of continuing slaughter of Muslims in Syria and Iraq by Islamic State and Al Qaeda and fresh reports that Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram killed an estimated 2,000 villagers in its latest atrocity.
In recent months, Erdogan has cracked down on the press and made a series of bizarre statements, some of which seem to have been aimed at elevating his status in the Muslim world. Monday's speech came as he met Abbas at his new, 1,150-room palace amid a ceremonial spectacle that drew ridicule from critics. Sixteen men dressed as ancient eastern warriors, holding replica swords, maces and spears lined a staircase as Erdogan descended to greet Abbas.
More of the same.
As a key Middle Eastern ally, Erdogan's swerve away from secular rule is concerning, say critics. (Reuters)
The pair saluted the Presidential Guard of Honor before walking to the bottom of the staircase, where they posed for a picture, shaking hands. The scene looked surreal with the costumed men — believed to represent Turkic-Mongolian and Ottoman warriors — standing proudly upright in the background, Al Monitor wrote in a column entitled "Is Erdogan Losing Touch with Reality?"
"The bizarre ceremony, unprecedented in Turkey’s history, instantly became the subject of lampoon on social media, blasted as shallow, ridiculous and problematic, while catching also the attention of foreign media for the same reasons," the publication's Turkey-based columnist Kadri Gursel wrote.
But a more practical concern of Turkey's neighbors and allies is its inability - or unwillingness - to secure its borders with Syria and Iraq has brought increasing international criticism, as jihadists have flocked to the killing fields in Syria and Iraq to fight alongside radical Islamist groups. No less worrying is that the Turkish border has also provided a return gateway to the battle-hardened killers to all too easily re-enter the West, posing massive security threats to democracies of the type seen last week in Paris.
“It’s no easy matter trying to secure extensive borders and stop everyone getting through, as the United States has found on its border with Mexico,” an Israeli government spokesman told FoxNews.com, “but Turkey could be doing more. We used to have very good relations with Turkey and we know just how beneficial those relations were, not only to both sides, but also to the U.S, but it’s disgraceful what Erdogan is saying.”
One of the last remaining supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, Turkey has also put out the welcome mat and provided logistical support to Hamas, the Gaza-based terror organization whose leader Khaled Meshaal was last week reported to have been asked to leave his base in Qatar and reportedly will be granted safe haven by Erdogan.
Erdogan, who did not attend the Paris rally but did send Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, slammed Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for showing up, saying through his spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, it was "unacceptable that Israel’s Prime Minister dared attend" the rally "instead of being brought to account for the women, children and journalists killed in Israel’s offensives in Gaza.”
But Gursel believes there is an underlying explanation for Erdogan's sharp turn away from the West and an embrace of fundamental Islam and its history that at times seems to border on delusional. Last year, the Turkish president overcame a widespread corruption scandal that toppled four cabinet ministers involved his son to win the presidency in August. But all 550 seats of Turkey's legislature, the Grand National Assembly, are up in June, and Erdogan needs the Justice and Development Party that he founded in 2001 to maintain its grip on power. The West and the phantom of Islamophobia could provide a uniting straw man for a winning coalition of voters, not to mention a distraction from the failures of his party and administration
"More Islam and more Islamism are meant to obliterate the deep marks left by the corruption allegations and evidence against his party and government," Gursel wrote. "The next general elections in June represent a key motivation in his efforts."
So, there's a lot of talk about Pres. Obama not attending the French rally, nor any of his close advisers. To me it's a very interesting contrast to the administration's reaction to the Benghazi attacks. Back in 2012 they (Obama and his close advisers.) placed plenty of blame on the video that supposedly provoked the Benghazi attack. This time around they, (Obama and his close advisers.) are not blaming Charlie Hebdo. Or are they?
IMHO they are learning not to say anything because someone always comes out of the woodwork and destroys what they say. Wouldn't you love to have been a fly on the wall when obozo gave his excuses for not going. And then he announces the SS said no. It took 2 days for that to be proven a lie.
While Obama Delays and Obfuscates, Civilized Muslims Tell Savage Muslims What They Need to Hear
By Deroy Murdock, National Review
Finally.
Prominent Muslim officials are standing up and telling radical Muslims to stop their madness, lay down their weapons, and join the 21st century.
Just days after militant-Islamic terrorists turned Charlie Hebdo’s Paris newsroom into a killing field, the mayor of Rotterdam offered choice words to many of his fellow Muslims in Holland.
“It is incomprehensible that you can turn against freedom,” Ahmed Aboutaleb told the Dutch TV program Nieuwsuur (Newshour). “But if you don’t like freedom, for heaven’s sake pack your bags and leave. . . . Vanish from the Netherlands if you cannot find your place here. All those well-meaning Muslims here will now be stared at.” The native of Morroco notably added: “If you do not like it here because some humorists you don’t like are making a newspaper, may I then say you can f**k off.”
While Obama Delays and Obfuscates, Civilized Muslims Tell Savage Muslims What They Need to Hear
By Deroy Murdock, National Review
Finally.
Prominent Muslim officials are standing up and telling radical Muslims to stop their madness, lay down their weapons, and join the 21st century.
Just days after militant-Islamic terrorists turned Charlie Hebdo’s Paris newsroom into a killing field, the mayor of Rotterdam offered choice words to many of his fellow Muslims in Holland.
“It is incomprehensible that you can turn against freedom,” Ahmed Aboutaleb told the Dutch TV program Nieuwsuur (Newshour). “But if you don’t like freedom, for heaven’s sake pack your bags and leave. . . . Vanish from the Netherlands if you cannot find your place here. All those well-meaning Muslims here will now be stared at.” The native of Morroco notably added: “If you do not like it here because some humorists you don’t like are making a newspaper, may I then say you can f**k off.”
Afghan police boss refused keys to US-funded, $8M barracks over shoddy construction
Perry Chiaramonte
This Afghan army official was stuck with the keys to a new police barracks when the police commander refused to take them because of shoddy construction. EXCLUSIVE: It should have been a proud and ceremonial moment: The commander of the Afghan national police force was to officially take possession of the new barracks built with U.S. tax dollars for the men who would ensure the nation's security and future. Instead, the 2012 incident was just another chapter in the long tale of American tax dollars wasted in the war-ravaged country.
After touring the $8 million building, located about located about 22 miles north of the city of Kunduz, the Afghan commander refused to take the keys from an Afghan army colonel involved in oversight of the project, making clear he did not think the building was was fit to accommodate his men. Built by local contractors and laborers under the eye of the Army Corps of Engineers, the building lacked working plumbing, heat and air conditioning. Even in an impoverished nation decimated by a decade of war, it was not up to code.
“The colonel tried to hand off the keys to my counterpart who refused knowing that if he took physical possession that it was the same as signing for the buildings in their culture,” a U.S. Army officer who was present for the aborted exchange and asked not to be identified told FoxNews.com. The officer said the facility for the Afghan national Police’s 3rd Kandak, or battalion, was one of several such instances he witnessed firsthand of shoddy construction, poor management and waste of American taxpayers’ money
A facility for the Afghan National Civil Order Police (ANCOP) in the Northern region of the country was never used because of shoddy construction.
The claims of the officer, who is still on active duty, jibe with a raft of reports from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), who has uncovered hundreds of millions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse. Earlier this month, the government watchdog revealed that a $500,000 police training center had started to “melt” just four months after it was built in 2012.
Pipes in the latrine facilities were found to be frozen and cracked and in some cases, not even connected.
The dry firing range (DFR) was designed to look like a typical Afghan village for training exercises. It was built under the supervision of a contracting center run by U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) which over saw the Afghan contractor, Qesmatullah Nasrat Construction (QNCC).
The report stated that the contractor failed to follow contractual requirements and used shoddy materials that caused water to become trapped between the walls, eventually causing the structure to disintegrate and making it look as if it was “melting” away. "This project was an utter failure and embarrassment to the U.S. government and the American taxpayer still doesn’t know why they paid for it,” Inspector General John Sopko said in a statement to FoxNews.com at the time. “As long as federal agencies fail to take oversight seriously, these sorts of projects and taxpayer dollars will continue to melt away."
In the case of the police barracks, the U.S. officer said he sympathized with the Afghan police commander, noting the facility were not fit for occupation.
“There was never heat or air conditioning spec’d for them," he said. "The commander would not sign for them. He wanted heat and air installed. The contract never had it in so there were no additional funds for heat and air.
The plumbing was a mess, he said.
Another example of faulty plumbing from the barracks' latrines.
“We heard water running in the one building,” he said. “We found out after getting inside, the pipes had frozen. We inspected and saw cracked pipes from freezing, fixtures broken or not even connected, [pipe] unions not connected.
“Any plumber who sets up a water system pressure checks before charging with water," he said. "This was not done; otherwise it would have failed because pipes weren’t even connected. If this was inspected by the U.S. inspectors, they would have seen the unions not threaded together and other fixtures not connected.”
Conditions at the barracks continue to deteriorate as they sit unused.
It was after that inspection that officials on the ground contacted headquarters to ask what went wrong, who was to blame and how it could be fixed.
“I was told by the U.S. Civilian engineer that it was inspected and that it was the Afghans fault, that they let the pipes freeze,” the official said.
A spokesman from the office if the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) tells FoxNews.com that they were not aware of any issue with the facility. It was not immediately clear if an investigation would be launched. The officer involved with the inspection process told FoxNews.com that many of the construction projects in the region were done at inflated costs. "The costs associated with construction were beyond the normal costs of Afghan construction,” he said. "I often asked my interpreters about this and they said it was true. That the Americans pay way too much, that all of the government officials in the area get their cut."
By Adam Shaw
Published January 28, 2015
FoxNews.com
Morgan said she is not worried about anyone coming after her, because she packs heat.
In the five months since Jan Morgan banned Muslims from her gun range in Hot Springs, Ark., business has boomed and predictions of a lawsuit brought by federal civil rights enforcers have so far proved inaccurate.
Morgan, who claims keeping Muslims out of her Gun Cave Indoor Firing Range is a matter of public safety and not a constitutional issue, says she made the decision in September after two customers she deemed suspicious visited. She said their furtive behavior and cellphone ringtones of “Allahu Akhbar” prompted her to revise her range’s policies.
“We are dealing in lethal firearms,” Morgan told FoxNews.com. “I’m not going to let a Nazi shoot in here, or a Ku Klux Klan member in here, either.”
Morgan said she excludes those she believes to be Muslim based on their names. She says business is up, but she has gotten threats, which she brushed off.
“I’m not going to let a Nazi shoot in here, or a Ku Klux Klan member in here either.”
- Jan Morgan, gun range operator
But Morgan’s “no Muslims” stance has her in the legal crosshairs of at least two groups. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder seeking the Justice Department’s involvement.
“Given the recent spike in anti-Muslim rhetoric, including Islamophobic statements by government officials, community leaders and media outlets, death threats, and other bias incidents targeting Muslims, I urge you to investigate this matter soon,” a letter sent by CAIR to Holder in October stated.
“CAIR believes that systematically banning Muslims from a place of business is a violation of federal laws prohibiting racial and religious discrimination and will inevitably result in a hostile environment for ordinary Muslims in Arkansas,” the letter added.
The Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment on the matter. CAIR’s letter was copied to Gov. Mike Beebe, whose term has since ended, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, and the ATF's Little Rock Field Office. CAIR’s litigation director told FoxNews.com none of the recipients has responded.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Arkansas also has petitioned federal authorities to do something about Morgan’s rules. Executive Director Rita Sklar told FoxNews.com Morgan’s claim the gun range was acting out of legitimate caution is a dog that doesn’t hunt.
“It’s discrimination based on religion, or, in this case, perceived religion and is a violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act,” Sklar said. “It isn’t based on that person’s behavior or anything they could reliably use that could be used to bar the person from the premises.”
Sklar also said that while the ACLU chapter has not heard back yet from the DOJ, her group would be “more than happy” to proceed with legal action should a client approach them.
“We would be happy to talk to anyone who had been turned away because he or she is Muslim or perceived to be Muslim,” Sklar said. “We would be more than happy to take her to court to get her to do the American, moral thing.”
While no Muslim plaintiffs have stepped forward, a father and son who say they are Hindu claim they were kicked out last week.
"My dad and I just got kicked out of a Muslim-free gun range," read a tweet from the man claiming to have been booted. "I'm not Muslim, I'm just brown."
Legal experts say Morgan may be within her rights if her gun range is deemed a private club. Federal law bars discrimination or segregation in places of public accommodation or those that affect interstate commerce. In a legal challenge, Morgan might have to prove that her business does not fall under federal civil rights regulation.
"Federal law forbids religious discrimination by places of public accommodations," said Cornell University Law School Professor Michael Dorf. Arkansas has a state law that does the same thing. Under the federal case law, in order for an entity to count as a private club, it must have some sort of restricted membership and not be generally open to the public.
"A gun range that is generally open to the public but excludes Muslims - or any other group based on a forbidden classification - could not fairly say that everyone is a member except Muslims," Dorf added.
Mark Killenbeck, a Constitutional law professor at University of Arkansas School of Law, said if Morgan is sued, she could have a hard time showing her gun range is a privvate club and not subject to the federal statutory ban on discrimination of the basis of religion.
"The Court has held that truly private entities can engage in such discrimination but requires that they are truly and demonstrably private and that the club and its members have a 'common expressive purpose,'” he said. "There are ways that the owner might be able to make that claim, but I am skeptical."
In the meantime, Morgan is not budging. She likened offering target practice to potential terrorists to flight schools offering lessons on simulators to the 9/11 terrorists. And because firearms are involved, she said her case is not analogous to cases in which private businesses have been sanctioned for refusing to serve other groups, such as gays.
“One mistake can cost another human being’s life,” she said. “There’s no room for mistakes when you’re handling firearms. We aren’t just refusing to make a wedding cake here.”
Morgan claims business has “quadrupled” with people from out of state coming to the range and some even offering donations for what they predict will be a legal battle. She also said she has been threatened, which she responded to by posting her home address on the range website and daring those issuing threats to do so in person.
“I am the infidel your Imam warned you about,” Morgan wrote under an image of her packing heat.
Adam Shaw is a News Editor for FoxNews.com. He can be reached here or on Twitter: @AdamShawNY
Iran calls for assassination of Netanyahu's children
Published January 29, 2015
Washington Free Beacon
Iran is encouraging its terror allies to pursue the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s children by publishing personal information about them, including photographs of the kids lined up in crosshairs, and declaring, “We must await the hunt of Hezbollah.”
The publication of the personal information and biographies of Netanyahu’s children follows an Israeli airstrike last week that killed several key Hezbollah leaders and an Iranian commander affiliated with the country’s hardline Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Iranian military leaders affiliated with the IRGC threatened in recent days harsh retaliation for the strike and promised to amp up support for Hezbollah as well as Palestinian terrorist organizations.
The information was originally published in Farsi by an Iranian website affiliated with the IRGC and quickly republished by Iran’s state-controlled Fars News Agency.
In addition to biographical details and pictures of Netanyahu’s children, the Iranians provided details about the families of former Prime Ministers Ehud Olmert and Ariel Sharon.
Gee, I wonder if this starts a war, who will obozo help.
Biden: "The Past Six Years Have Been Really, Really Hard For This Country".And The White House Blames It On George W. Bush!
By David Martosko and Francesca Chambers, Dailymail
Vice President Joe Biden suggested Friday morning that the Obama years have not been a time of prosperity and ease, but 'really, really hard for this country.'
But he still insisted that his boss, Presdient Barack Obama, has made the right economic decisions. And hours later the White House blamed problems Obama inherited from his predecessor for an incomplete economic recovery.
Biden's odd juxtaposition – half blame, half credit – will lead to questions about whether he can create effective separation between himself and the president as he's trying to build momentum for his own run at the top job.
Say what you will, blame Obama for the almost complete worldwide economic collapse on Bush's watch, or for not miraculously turning it all around in the first quarter of his presidency, whatever. It was the fault of many many congressmen, greed, Wall St., deregulation, outright thievery at the highest levels of government and finance. And, this time under Obama, they're setting up the bowling pins again.
Think about this, though. When Obama was elected. Unemployment? > 11%. Now? About 5%. The Dow? From 6,700 now up to over 17,000. Gas prices? The prez gets the blame, but not the credit. Of course, he deserves neither, but that never matters, does it? Osama Bin Laden? Was alive, now dead. Iraq? We were still wasting trillions in that cesspool, now, not so much. Afghanistan? Less a cesspool, more of a black hole. At least we're trying to disentangle. The last couple quarters we're finally seeing tiny steps in deficit reduction. Of course, the only way to do that is to tax the people who take 99% of the money, and Mitch McConnell & Co. are going to make sure that doesn't happen.
I think that if Mitt Romney had been elected and made that kind of progress Congress and the mainstream media, AKA FOX news, would be raising a stink to have his face added to Mt. Rushmore.
Say what you will, blame Obama for the almost complete worldwide economic collapse on Bush's watch, or for not miraculously turning it all around in the first quarter of his presidency, whatever. It was the fault of many many congressmen, greed, Wall St., deregulation, outright thievery at the highest levels of government and finance. And, this time under Obama, they're setting up the bowling pins again.
Think about this, though. When Obama was elected. Unemployment? > 11%. Now? About 5%. The Dow? From 6,700 now up to over 17,000. Gas prices? The prez gets the blame, but not the credit. Of course, he deserves neither, but that never matters, does it? Osama Bin Laden? Was alive, now dead. Iraq? We were still wasting trillions in that cesspool, now, not so much. Afghanistan? Less a cesspool, more of a black hole. At least we're trying to disentangle. The last couple quarters we're finally seeing tiny steps in deficit reduction. Of course, the only way to do that is to tax the people who take 99% of the money, and Mitch McConnell & Co. are going to make sure that doesn't happen.
I think that if Mitt Romney had been elected and made that kind of progress Congress and the mainstream media, AKA FOX news, would be raising a stink to have his face added to Mt. Rushmore.
I understood what you were saying until I got to the part about "the people who take 99% of the money". Who exactly takes 99% of specifically what money? That's almost all of it. Whatever "it" is.
Think about this, though. When Obama was elected. Unemployment? > 11%. Now? About 5%. The Dow? From 6,700 now up to over 17,000. Gas prices? The prez gets the blame, but not the credit. Of course, he deserves neither, but that never matters, does it? Osama Bin Laden? Was alive, now dead. Iraq? We were still wasting trillions in that cesspool, now, not so much. Afghanistan? Less a cesspool, more of a black hole. At least we're trying to disentangle. The last couple quarters we're finally seeing tiny steps in deficit reduction. Of course, the only way to do that is to tax the people who take 99% of the money, and Mitch McConnell & Co. are going to make sure that doesn't happen.
Confirmation bias is a wonderful thing.
We all know how unemployment numbers are outrageously rigged. Some of us refuse to acknowledge it. Obamaphiles will tell you unemployment is below six percent, because that is the rigged number boasted by their favorite fascist. Misobamans will tell you a smaller percentage of working age people have a job today than at any time since women's liberation effectively doubled the number of people expected to work. Over 38% of working age citizens today have no job. This jaw dropping stat must be further seasoned by the fact that over 70% of jobs that were created last year are part-time. But that's just statistics. Too often we "use statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts, for support rather than for illumination". So let's compromise: Ignore the part-time minimum wage feature, and let the two extreme numbers, 5% and 38%, meet in the middle. I'll even round down. What've you got? I get 21%. Hope and change?
No amount of stock market bubble is going to feed families who do not earn a living wage. Pensioners watching the value of their fixed moiety dwindle cannot pay increased taxes with an increased stock market average. If stratospheric stock market averages were a good thing or permanent, then there never would have been a great depression. A recent college graduate, living at Mom's house because the job he might have been offered on graduation has instead been taxed out of existence or regulated until it moved overseas, wondering how to get his adult life on track, yet utterly invisible to Professor Pangloss' unemployment statistics, feels no relief from a lofty Dow. Nor would he be relieved by the opportunity to attend community college on my dime. The young fellow needs a living wage at a productive job; not a degree in what provides no opportunity. So long as the value of fiat currency is systematically destroyed by profligate government spending, a minimum wage increase is only a stop-gap. Even that is no help to the fellow with no job who is not acknowledged to be unemployed. Without a job, no minimum wage increase affects him.
We got into Viet Nam under Johnson, out under Nixon. Does that make Nixon a hero? Or was eventual withdrawal inevitable?
Deficits skyrocketed until the Tea Party leveraged the House. In this case, the prez gets the credit, but not the blame. Had the Left maintained a super-majority, how many more of his Solyndras and Fiskers and Volts would we have funded in vain? Nor does any amount of deficit reduction solve the problem of debt. Only debt reduction does that. A thing which will be impossible until spending is reduced.
Finally, we arrive at the inane leftist slogan repeated ad nauseum: "Tax the Rich!" The rich don't pay taxes. The rich buy a senator, hire a lawyer, move off shore, and hike prices. Congress' only motivation to raise taxes on the rich is to sell exemptions to the taxes they enacted. Do you think for a moment that if Congress taxed internet sales Bezos would not raise the price to pay for it? Do you? Is Trump going to move from his hotel into the trailer park down the street? Is he? How delusional are you? Poop rolls downhill. Taxes fall on the working man. That's not Mitch McConnell & Co. That's the nature of government. Government is a scheme whereby the rich and powerful protect their pilth and power. For sixty years now, poor people have been trading votes for promises and programs. When will that finally pay off?
Here, I think, is a good expression of why I oppose the idiotic socialist revolution which has strangled recent political idealism:
"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the government
take care of him better take a closer look at the American Indian.”
Think about this, though. When Obama was elected. Unemployment? > 11%. Now? About 5%. The Dow? From 6,700 now up to over 17,000. Gas prices? The prez gets the blame, but not the credit. Of course, he deserves neither, but that never matters, does it? Osama Bin Laden? Was alive, now dead. Iraq? We were still wasting trillions in that cesspool, now, not so much. Afghanistan? Less a cesspool, more of a black hole. At least we're trying to disentangle. The last couple quarters we're finally seeing tiny steps in deficit reduction. Of course, the only way to do that is to tax the people who take 99% of the money, and Mitch McConnell & Co. are going to make sure that doesn't happen.
Confirmation bias is a wonderful thing.
We all know how unemployment numbers are outrageously rigged. Some of us refuse to acknowledge it. Obamaphiles will tell you unemployment is below six percent, because that is the rigged number boasted by their favorite fascist. Misobamans will tell you a smaller percentage of working age people have a job today than at any time since women's liberation effectively doubled the number of people expected to work. Over 38% of working age citizens today have no job. This jaw dropping stat must be further seasoned by the fact that over 70% of jobs that were created last year are part-time. But that's just statistics. Too often we "use statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts, for support rather than for illumination". So let's compromise: Ignore the part-time minimum wage feature, and let the two extreme numbers, 5% and 38%, meet in the middle. I'll even round down. What've you got? I get 21%. Hope and change?
No amount of stock market bubble is going to feed families who do not earn a living wage. Pensioners watching the value of their fixed moiety dwindle cannot pay increased taxes with an increased stock market average. If stratospheric stock market averages were a good thing or permanent, then there never would have been a great depression. A recent college graduate, living at Mom's house because the job he might have been offered on graduation has instead been taxed out of existence or regulated until it moved overseas, wondering how to get his adult life on track, yet utterly invisible to Professor Pangloss' unemployment statistics, feels no relief from a lofty Dow. Nor would he be relieved by the opportunity to attend community college on my dime. The young fellow needs a living wage at a productive job; not a degree in what provides no opportunity. So long as the value of fiat currency is systematically destroyed by profligate government spending, a minimum wage increase is only a stop-gap. Even that is no help to the fellow with no job who is not acknowledged to be unemployed. Without a job, no minimum wage increase affects him.
We got into Viet Nam under Johnson, out under Nixon. Does that make Nixon a hero? Or was eventual withdrawal inevitable?
Deficits skyrocketed until the Tea Party leveraged the House. In this case, the prez gets the credit, but not the blame. Had the Left maintained a super-majority, how many more of his Solyndras and Fiskers and Volts would we have funded in vain? Nor does any amount of deficit reduction solve the problem of debt. Only debt reduction does that. A thing which will be impossible until spending is reduced.
Finally, we arrive at the inane leftist slogan repeated ad nauseum: "Tax the Rich!" The rich don't pay taxes. The rich buy a senator, hire a lawyer, move off shore, and hike prices. Congress' only motivation to raise taxes on the rich is to sell exemptions to the taxes they enacted. Do you think for a moment that if Congress taxed internet sales Bezos would not raise the price to pay for it? Do you? Is Trump going to move from his hotel into the trailer park down the street? Is he? How delusional are you? Poop rolls downhill. Taxes fall on the working man. That's not Mitch McConnell & Co. That's the nature of government. Government is a scheme whereby the rich and powerful protect their pilth and power. For sixty years now, poor people have been trading votes for promises and programs. When will that finally pay off?
Here, I think, is a good expression of why I oppose the idiotic socialist revolution which has strangled recent political idealism:
"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the government
take care of him better take a closer look at the American Indian.”
? Henry Ford
As anyone who's followed our discussions knows, you and I actually agree on most of this. Considering that the statistics, past and present, tend to flow from the same sources, I still stand by my original point that if Romney had been in office instead of Obama the same people who blame Obama for everything since the extinction of the dinosaurs would be shouting Romney's praises from the rooftops, using those exact same statistics.
I think my only nitpick with your statements would be that we got into Vietnam under Kennedy, not Johnson, and that the only time in my memory, which only really goes back to the Kennedy years, that we've been in the black was when Clinton managed to tax the rich, for a short period of time. Of course, that all did indeed get passed along to you and me. As for the real unemployment numbers, you're probably on the money. I still think that anyone capable of work who is receiving "benefits" from the gummint should be performing some service to said government in return for those benefits. Working recycling centers, digging ditches, whatever they're capable of.
I simply object to the perpetual hate war. I don't like the indisputable fact that we're all kept busy echoing nonsense from talking heads, instead of focusing public attention on real issues, like the fact that our supposedly representative government is for sale to the highest bidder. So, I'll stand by my comments regarding Mitch & Co., who basically represent those few who are able to afford representation. Also, the forces that truly destroy our economy by causing "crashes" etc. are NEVER held accountable. They just get richer. Off with their heads!
National Review: Busted: Every Sharpton Business Known Has Been Shut Down For Failure To Pay Taxes
By Jillian Kay Melchior, National Review
So far, every for-profit enterprise started by Al Sharpton and known to National Review Online has been shut down in at least one jurisdiction for failure to pay taxes, a review of public records in New York and Delaware reveals.
Records show that Sharpton’s beleaguered for-profit entities often overlap and intertwine, some sharing ties with the reverend’s nonprofit organization, National Action Network. Their financial records are copious, confusing, and sometimes outright bizarre, and together, they depict persistent financial woes for Sharpton, who also personally owes New York State nearly $596,000, according to active tax warrants.
“He clearly appears — based on the information that’s available to us — to have a history of noncompliance with tax obligations,” says Bernadette Schopfer, the director of taxation at New York’s Maier Markey & Justic, a certified public-accounting firm that has had no dealings with Sharpton or National Action Network. “It appears that [Sharpton] does not file [taxes for his businesses], and then opens up something else. At all the entities we see he has opened up, he has not been compliant with the obligations of the owner of a business. . . . He’s either willful in his behavior, or he’s just sloppy.”
National Review: Busted: Every Sharpton Business Known Has Been Shut Down For Failure To Pay Taxes
By Jillian Kay Melchior, National Review
So far, every for-profit enterprise started by Al Sharpton and known to National Review Online has been shut down in at least one jurisdiction for failure to pay taxes, a review of public records in New York and Delaware reveals.
Records show that Sharpton’s beleaguered for-profit entities often overlap and intertwine, some sharing ties with the reverend’s nonprofit organization, National Action Network. Their financial records are copious, confusing, and sometimes outright bizarre, and together, they depict persistent financial woes for Sharpton, who also personally owes New York State nearly $596,000, according to active tax warrants.
“He clearly appears — based on the information that’s available to us — to have a history of noncompliance with tax obligations,” says Bernadette Schopfer, the director of taxation at New York’s Maier Markey & Justic, a certified public-accounting firm that has had no dealings with Sharpton or National Action Network. “It appears that [Sharpton] does not file [taxes for his businesses], and then opens up something else. At all the entities we see he has opened up, he has not been compliant with the obligations of the owner of a business. . . . He’s either willful in his behavior, or he’s just sloppy.”
Can't argue with this. If they'd said "Al Sharpton" instead of "Bill Cosby" I'd have never had a moments doubt.
Boy Suspended For Bringing Ring To School
BY NICOLE HENSLEY for the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tolkien lore led a Texas boy to suspension after he brought his “one ring” to school.
Kermit Elementary School officials called it a threat when the 9-year-old boy, Aiden Steward, in a playful act of make-believe, told a classmate he could make him disappear with a ring forged in fictional Middle Earth.
They sure have a lot in common and it makes perfect sense.
The one thing that amazes me, and it always has, is that these people will tell these outrages lies in public, and the people who know the truth are hearing them. What arrogance. Its as if they are so enamored of themselves that they actually believe no one will notice or speak up. Now granted, billary has been doing it for years, and her fans (never underestimate the power of large groups of stupid people) just don't care, and the rest of us could end up paying the price. So, I would not be surprised at all to see brian williams end up as a major player in her (God Forbid) re-election bid. And if the Republicans, Greenies, Libertarians and all the rest of them don't remove heads from backsides, and get together in a united front, for the sake of this country, it could happen. IMHO
Pennsylvania town packs heat, and wants visitors to know it
By Maxim Lott
Published February 10, 2015
FoxNews.com
Signs marking the entry into the central Pennsylvania town of Conoy warn that the population may be armed. (Courtesy: Stephen Mohr)
Drive into tiny Conoy Township, Pa., and you'll see the standard "welcome" sign, but it also comes with a warning: "THIS IS NOT A GUN FREE ZONE."
The signs are meant to alert criminals to the fact that many people in the rural Pennsylvania town of 3,000 are armed. A dozen have been installed so far and three more are slated to go up, which would cover every major road into the town. Officials hope the signs give would-be criminals second thoughts before causing trouble.
“I think even those who have bad intentions can read,” Stephen Mohr, one of the township supervisors, told FoxNews.com. He said the town’s five supervisors unanimously decided to put the signs up.
"What we’re telling people is that when they do come here, they should feel safer knowing that everyone in the township is watching out for them."
- Stephen Mohr, township supervisor, Conoy, Pa.
Mohr noted that the intent of the signs is to welcome good people to their town.
“The first word on there is “Welcome”… we have a lot here that we take pride in. What we’re telling people is that when they do come here, they should feel safer knowing that everyone in the township is watching out for them,” Mohr said. “And the criminal -- he should realize that going into this township he could have a bad day.”
We can now officially celebrate the sheer kindness caught in this blurry photo taken from the aisle of a Raleigh, North Carolina, Target store, which has gone viral with more than 55,000 likes on Facebook alone.
“I didn’t expect the kindness of strangers,” Audrey Mark, who took the photo, told ABC News. “You don’t expect humanity on aisle 11 of a big-box store.”
The quiet 15-year-old in the black suit was looking for a clip-on tie for his first job interview, but Target only sells regular ties. That’s when Dennis Roberts, Cyndi Moore and Cathy Scott came to his rescue.
“When Dennis was tying the tie, we took the time, ‘Look presentable, tie your shoe laces, tuck your shirt in,’ we were giving him pointers,” Cyndi explained of their interaction. “He was just soaking everything in, taking it all in."
This is more than just good customer service. Yasir Moore learned how to shake hands and look his interviewer in the eye.
"They could have just sold my son a tie," Moore's mother, Najirah Parrish, told ABC News station WTVD-TV in Durham, North Carolina. "But they took the time, helped him tie the tie and talked to him. They treated my son with dignity, respect."
And now, after two interviews with the Chick-fil-A restaurant at a mall near his home, ABC News knew something that Moore didn’t. He was going to get that first job.
“I think we are ready to offer you a job at the mall,” Chick-fil-A’s manager, David Langston, told a surprised Moore in the food court.
Out came the cameras and a few special guests from the Target store who were hiding, patiently waiting for him to get the good news.
“You look beautiful,” they told Moore, giving him big hugs.
When asked when he’ll actually start the new job, Langston replied, “As soon as he is ready!”
“I can start tomorrow,” Moore said, smiling ear to ear.
As for any advice the newly employed young man would give others, “Any advice you can, grab it,” he said. “These people right here helped me so much. Be respectful to people who are trying to help you out. Soak it all in.”
His mother and his new friends from Target were all in tears as they celebrated his accomplishment.
“We are so proud of you,” said Moore. “We are here. We are just so proud of you.
“You are ours now. You know that don’t you?” Scott added. “You have more than one mother.”
There is a passage in "Dereliction of Duty", written by Lieutenant Colonel Patterson, a first hand account of the clintonistas. It concerns cigars, golfing buddies, Monica Lewinsky and a jet ready to take of from a carrier to end ben laden, one of 3 chances before 9/11.
Wanted to put this in the "who got you started on cigars" thread.
State Department spokeswoman: Call for using jobs to combat terror ‘too nuanced’ for critics
Published February 18, 2015
FoxNews.com
State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf, after coming under fire for suggesting a way to fight the Islamic State and all terrorism is by creating jobs, has an answer for her critics: Her argument is just "too nuanced" for them to understand.
Harf, in TV interviews Tuesday night, stood by her original remarks and said she was speaking about a comprehensive approach to combating "extremism."
Harf said that means airstrikes in the short-term, and going after "root causes" like poor economic conditions in the long-term.
"Longer term, we cannot kill every terrorist around the world, nor should we try," Harf said on CNN. "How do you get at the root causes of this? Look, it might be too nuanced an argument for some, like I've seen over the past 24 hours some of the commentary out there, but it's really the smart way that Democrats, Republicans, military commanders, our partners in the Arab world think we need to combat this."
Harf went on to say the approach doesn't fit "into a sound bite," when asked to respond to the intense criticism, on social media and elsewhere, of her original remarks.
On Tuesday, Rob O'Neill, former Navy SEAL Team 6 member, told Fox News a "military strategy" is what's needed to fight ISIS.
"They get paid to cut off heads -- to crucify children, to sell slaves and to cut off heads and I don't think that a change in career path is what's going to stop them," he said.
O'Neill, who claims to have fired the shot that killed Usama bin Laden, warned that the problem is spreading.
"We can't let it happen," he said. "It'll go to Saudi Arabia, it'll hit Jordan."
Harf first pointed to jobs as a counter-ISIS strategy during an interview Monday night on MSNBC -- after ISIS-aligned militants slaughtered 21 Coptic Christians in Libya.
"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," Harf said on MSNBC's "Hardball." "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 was interrupted by host Chris Matthews, who pointed out, "There's always going to be poor people. There's always going to be poor Muslims."
Harf continued 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."
She said: "If we can help countries work at the root causes of this -- what makes these 17-year-old kids pick up an AK-47 instead of trying to start a business?"
Harf stood by the remarks Tuesday night on CNN, and on MSNBC. CNN host Wolf Blitzer challenged her statements, asking if she thinks these young men might not turn to terror if they just had a job.
Harf called that a "gross oversimplification."
Blitzer pointed out that some of the world's most notorious terrorists, including bin Laden, came from wealth and privilege.
Harf acknowledged that point. On Twitter, she also defended herself by quoting other leaders, including former President George W. Bush, who has pointed to the need to fight poverty as a way to fight terrorism.
H"ll most of the new jobs are going to illegal immigrants now.....and the this cow wants us to give jobs to ISIS?
Absolutely incredible. We have spent the last 12 years proving beyond any shadow of doubt that virtually no one in our legislative or executive branches of govt has any idea whatsoever how to comprehend this enemy. We should never never never send any weaponry at all to any party in that part of the world except Israel, and maybe the Kurds. Giving weapons to any Islamic group is like Custer selling repeating rifles to the Sioux.
A couple of years ago I had an interesting conversation about the ethics of asymmetrical warfare with a Colonel in the Army Chaplain Corps who worked for NORAD and a bunch of other command structures. Despite what many seem to think, this is not an easy issue. I tend to agree that there are many underlying injustices that drive people to extremism. Creating jobs is far different from "giving jobs" to terrorists and actually sounds like a fairly sane approach.
But I'm in NCR, so I shouldn't expect sanity, should I?
Maybe they just need a hobby too or do some crafting. Poverty maybe, education more likely, you don't see the educated "leaders" sacrificing themselves. Educated but warped in their quest for power. Bin Laden hid behind his wife for corn sake, no virgins for you. When things start going south they run and hide. Makes me wonder how much they believe in their cause, also they do value life, their own. They recruit and send out their followers to do the dirty work. Why these people follow puzzles me as it did with the cults back in the 60's, 70's and 80's. Most were from broken homes or were runaway's but some of these followers came from good, if not rich, homes. I'm sure they were educated, but sometimes the ones that think they are educated, and know, are the easiest to manipulate. Maybe because of their lack of maturity.
This administration knows all about creating jobs, think they hate us now.
Comments
By Paul Alster
Published January 16, 2015
FoxNews.com
Monday's spectacle at Erdogan's new, 1,150-room palace raised eyebrows. (Reuters)
Turkish President Recip Tayyip Erdogan’s increasingly bizarre rhetoric continued this week when he told reporters Muslims have "never taken part in terrorist massacres" and appeared to blame the West for the recent Islamist attacks in Paris.
The NATO nation leader and western ally has moved his powerful nation further from its Constitutionally-mandated secularism in recent years, and has drawn criticisms for not doing more to stop the flow of foreign jihadis, who pass through Istanbul on their way to join Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. But Monday's comments, against the backdrop of near-universal condemnation of the Islamist attack on French satirical tabloid Charlie Hebdo, could further isolate Erdogan from the West. “As Muslims, we've never taken part in terrorist massacres," Erdogan said. "Behind these lie racism, hate speech, and Islamophobia. French citizens carry out such a massacre, and Muslims pay the price. The West's hypocrisy is obvious.”
"Behind [terrorist massacres] lie racism, hate speech, and Islamophobia."
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Erdogan spoke a day after more than 40 world leaders, including Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, joined in Paris to condemn the Jan. 7 attack and the related shooting of a police officer and siege on a Paris kosher supermarket, Islamist attacks that left a total of 17 innocent people dead. The attacks were motivated by Charlie Hebdo's publishing of caricatures of Muhammad.
“Take note that the acts of terror are not carried out in a vacuum," Erdogan said. "The acts follow a predetermined script and we should be [aware of a] a plot against the Islamic world.”
The comments also came against the backdrop of continuing slaughter of Muslims in Syria and Iraq by Islamic State and Al Qaeda and fresh reports that Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram killed an estimated 2,000 villagers in its latest atrocity.
In recent months, Erdogan has cracked down on the press and made a series of bizarre statements, some of which seem to have been aimed at elevating his status in the Muslim world. Monday's speech came as he met Abbas at his new, 1,150-room palace amid a ceremonial spectacle that drew ridicule from critics. Sixteen men dressed as ancient eastern warriors, holding replica swords, maces and spears lined a staircase as Erdogan descended to greet Abbas.
More of the same. As a key Middle Eastern ally, Erdogan's swerve away from secular rule is concerning, say critics. (Reuters) The pair saluted the Presidential Guard of Honor before walking to the bottom of the staircase, where they posed for a picture, shaking hands. The scene looked surreal with the costumed men — believed to represent Turkic-Mongolian and Ottoman warriors — standing proudly upright in the background, Al Monitor wrote in a column entitled "Is Erdogan Losing Touch with Reality?" "The bizarre ceremony, unprecedented in Turkey’s history, instantly became the subject of lampoon on social media, blasted as shallow, ridiculous and problematic, while catching also the attention of foreign media for the same reasons," the publication's Turkey-based columnist Kadri Gursel wrote. But a more practical concern of Turkey's neighbors and allies is its inability - or unwillingness - to secure its borders with Syria and Iraq has brought increasing international criticism, as jihadists have flocked to the killing fields in Syria and Iraq to fight alongside radical Islamist groups. No less worrying is that the Turkish border has also provided a return gateway to the battle-hardened killers to all too easily re-enter the West, posing massive security threats to democracies of the type seen last week in Paris. “It’s no easy matter trying to secure extensive borders and stop everyone getting through, as the United States has found on its border with Mexico,” an Israeli government spokesman told FoxNews.com, “but Turkey could be doing more. We used to have very good relations with Turkey and we know just how beneficial those relations were, not only to both sides, but also to the U.S, but it’s disgraceful what Erdogan is saying.” One of the last remaining supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, Turkey has also put out the welcome mat and provided logistical support to Hamas, the Gaza-based terror organization whose leader Khaled Meshaal was last week reported to have been asked to leave his base in Qatar and reportedly will be granted safe haven by Erdogan. Erdogan, who did not attend the Paris rally but did send Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, slammed Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for showing up, saying through his spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, it was "unacceptable that Israel’s Prime Minister dared attend" the rally "instead of being brought to account for the women, children and journalists killed in Israel’s offensives in Gaza.” But Gursel believes there is an underlying explanation for Erdogan's sharp turn away from the West and an embrace of fundamental Islam and its history that at times seems to border on delusional. Last year, the Turkish president overcame a widespread corruption scandal that toppled four cabinet ministers involved his son to win the presidency in August. But all 550 seats of Turkey's legislature, the Grand National Assembly, are up in June, and Erdogan needs the Justice and Development Party that he founded in 2001 to maintain its grip on power. The West and the phantom of Islamophobia could provide a uniting straw man for a winning coalition of voters, not to mention a distraction from the failures of his party and administration "More Islam and more Islamism are meant to obliterate the deep marks left by the corruption allegations and evidence against his party and government," Gursel wrote. "The next general elections in June represent a key motivation in his efforts."
IMHO they are learning not to say anything because someone always comes out of the woodwork and destroys what they say. Wouldn't you love to have been a fly on the wall when obozo gave his excuses for not going. And then he announces the SS said no. It took 2 days for that to be proven a lie.
By Deroy Murdock, National Review
Finally.
Prominent Muslim officials are standing up and telling radical Muslims to stop their madness, lay down their weapons, and join the 21st century.
Just days after militant-Islamic terrorists turned Charlie Hebdo’s Paris newsroom into a killing field, the mayor of Rotterdam offered choice words to many of his fellow Muslims in Holland.
“It is incomprehensible that you can turn against freedom,” Ahmed Aboutaleb told the Dutch TV program Nieuwsuur (Newshour). “But if you don’t like freedom, for heaven’s sake pack your bags and leave. . . . Vanish from the Netherlands if you cannot find your place here. All those well-meaning Muslims here will now be stared at.” The native of Morroco notably added: “If you do not like it here because some humorists you don’t like are making a newspaper, may I then say you can f**k off.”
Perry Chiaramonte
This Afghan army official was stuck with the keys to a new police barracks when the police commander refused to take them because of shoddy construction.
EXCLUSIVE: It should have been a proud and ceremonial moment: The commander of the Afghan national police force was to officially take possession of the new barracks built with U.S. tax dollars for the men who would ensure the nation's security and future. Instead, the 2012 incident was just another chapter in the long tale of American tax dollars wasted in the war-ravaged country.
After touring the $8 million building, located about located about 22 miles north of the city of Kunduz, the Afghan commander refused to take the keys from an Afghan army colonel involved in oversight of the project, making clear he did not think the building was was fit to accommodate his men. Built by local contractors and laborers under the eye of the Army Corps of Engineers, the building lacked working plumbing, heat and air conditioning. Even in an impoverished nation decimated by a decade of war, it was not up to code.
“The colonel tried to hand off the keys to my counterpart who refused knowing that if he took physical possession that it was the same as signing for the buildings in their culture,” a U.S. Army officer who was present for the aborted exchange and asked not to be identified told FoxNews.com.
The officer said the facility for the Afghan national Police’s 3rd Kandak, or battalion, was one of several such instances he witnessed firsthand of shoddy construction, poor management and waste of American taxpayers’ money
A facility for the Afghan National Civil Order Police (ANCOP) in the Northern region of the country was never used because of shoddy construction.
The claims of the officer, who is still on active duty, jibe with a raft of reports from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), who has uncovered hundreds of millions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse. Earlier this month, the government watchdog revealed that a $500,000 police training center had started to “melt” just four months after it was built in 2012.
Pipes in the latrine facilities were found to be frozen and cracked and in some cases, not even connected.
The dry firing range (DFR) was designed to look like a typical Afghan village for training exercises. It was built under the supervision of a contracting center run by U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) which over saw the Afghan contractor, Qesmatullah Nasrat Construction (QNCC).
The report stated that the contractor failed to follow contractual requirements and used shoddy materials that caused water to become trapped between the walls, eventually causing the structure to disintegrate and making it look as if it was “melting” away.
"This project was an utter failure and embarrassment to the U.S. government and the American taxpayer still doesn’t know why they paid for it,” Inspector General John Sopko said in a statement to FoxNews.com at the time. “As long as federal agencies fail to take oversight seriously, these sorts of projects and taxpayer dollars will continue to melt away."
In the case of the police barracks, the U.S. officer said he sympathized with the Afghan police commander, noting the facility were not fit for occupation.
“There was never heat or air conditioning spec’d for them," he said. "The commander would not sign for them. He wanted heat and air installed. The contract never had it in so there were no additional funds for heat and air.
The plumbing was a mess, he said.
Another example of faulty plumbing from the barracks' latrines. “We heard water running in the one building,” he said. “We found out after getting inside, the pipes had frozen. We inspected and saw cracked pipes from freezing, fixtures broken or not even connected, [pipe] unions not connected.
“Any plumber who sets up a water system pressure checks before charging with water," he said. "This was not done; otherwise it would have failed because pipes weren’t even connected. If this was inspected by the U.S. inspectors, they would have seen the unions not threaded together and other fixtures not connected.”
Conditions at the barracks continue to deteriorate as they sit unused. It was after that inspection that officials on the ground contacted headquarters to ask what went wrong, who was to blame and how it could be fixed.
“I was told by the U.S. Civilian engineer that it was inspected and that it was the Afghans fault, that they let the pipes freeze,” the official said.
A spokesman from the office if the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) tells FoxNews.com that they were not aware of any issue with the facility. It was not immediately clear if an investigation would be launched.
The officer involved with the inspection process told FoxNews.com that many of the construction projects in the region were done at inflated costs.
"The costs associated with construction were beyond the normal costs of Afghan construction,” he said. "I often asked my interpreters about this and they said it was true. That the Americans pay way too much, that all of the government officials in the area get their cut."
By Adam Shaw Published January 28, 2015 FoxNews.com
Morgan said she is not worried about anyone coming after her, because she packs heat.
In the five months since Jan Morgan banned Muslims from her gun range in Hot Springs, Ark., business has boomed and predictions of a lawsuit brought by federal civil rights enforcers have so far proved inaccurate.
Morgan, who claims keeping Muslims out of her Gun Cave Indoor Firing Range is a matter of public safety and not a constitutional issue, says she made the decision in September after two customers she deemed suspicious visited. She said their furtive behavior and cellphone ringtones of “Allahu Akhbar” prompted her to revise her range’s policies.
“We are dealing in lethal firearms,” Morgan told FoxNews.com. “I’m not going to let a Nazi shoot in here, or a Ku Klux Klan member in here, either.”
Morgan said she excludes those she believes to be Muslim based on their names. She says business is up, but she has gotten threats, which she brushed off.
“I’m not going to let a Nazi shoot in here, or a Ku Klux Klan member in here either.”
- Jan Morgan, gun range operator
But Morgan’s “no Muslims” stance has her in the legal crosshairs of at least two groups. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder seeking the Justice Department’s involvement.
“Given the recent spike in anti-Muslim rhetoric, including Islamophobic statements by government officials, community leaders and media outlets, death threats, and other bias incidents targeting Muslims, I urge you to investigate this matter soon,” a letter sent by CAIR to Holder in October stated.
“CAIR believes that systematically banning Muslims from a place of business is a violation of federal laws prohibiting racial and religious discrimination and will inevitably result in a hostile environment for ordinary Muslims in Arkansas,” the letter added.
The Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment on the matter. CAIR’s letter was copied to Gov. Mike Beebe, whose term has since ended, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, and the ATF's Little Rock Field Office. CAIR’s litigation director told FoxNews.com none of the recipients has responded.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Arkansas also has petitioned federal authorities to do something about Morgan’s rules. Executive Director Rita Sklar told FoxNews.com Morgan’s claim the gun range was acting out of legitimate caution is a dog that doesn’t hunt.
“It’s discrimination based on religion, or, in this case, perceived religion and is a violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act,” Sklar said. “It isn’t based on that person’s behavior or anything they could reliably use that could be used to bar the person from the premises.”
Sklar also said that while the ACLU chapter has not heard back yet from the DOJ, her group would be “more than happy” to proceed with legal action should a client approach them. “We would be happy to talk to anyone who had been turned away because he or she is Muslim or perceived to be Muslim,” Sklar said. “We would be more than happy to take her to court to get her to do the American, moral thing.”
While no Muslim plaintiffs have stepped forward, a father and son who say they are Hindu claim they were kicked out last week. "My dad and I just got kicked out of a Muslim-free gun range," read a tweet from the man claiming to have been booted. "I'm not Muslim, I'm just brown."
Legal experts say Morgan may be within her rights if her gun range is deemed a private club. Federal law bars discrimination or segregation in places of public accommodation or those that affect interstate commerce. In a legal challenge, Morgan might have to prove that her business does not fall under federal civil rights regulation.
"Federal law forbids religious discrimination by places of public accommodations," said Cornell University Law School Professor Michael Dorf. Arkansas has a state law that does the same thing. Under the federal case law, in order for an entity to count as a private club, it must have some sort of restricted membership and not be generally open to the public.
"A gun range that is generally open to the public but excludes Muslims - or any other group based on a forbidden classification - could not fairly say that everyone is a member except Muslims," Dorf added.
Mark Killenbeck, a Constitutional law professor at University of Arkansas School of Law, said if Morgan is sued, she could have a hard time showing her gun range is a privvate club and not subject to the federal statutory ban on discrimination of the basis of religion.
"The Court has held that truly private entities can engage in such discrimination but requires that they are truly and demonstrably private and that the club and its members have a 'common expressive purpose,'” he said. "There are ways that the owner might be able to make that claim, but I am skeptical."
In the meantime, Morgan is not budging. She likened offering target practice to potential terrorists to flight schools offering lessons on simulators to the 9/11 terrorists. And because firearms are involved, she said her case is not analogous to cases in which private businesses have been sanctioned for refusing to serve other groups, such as gays.
“One mistake can cost another human being’s life,” she said. “There’s no room for mistakes when you’re handling firearms. We aren’t just refusing to make a wedding cake here.” Morgan claims business has “quadrupled” with people from out of state coming to the range and some even offering donations for what they predict will be a legal battle. She also said she has been threatened, which she responded to by posting her home address on the range website and daring those issuing threats to do so in person.
“I am the infidel your Imam warned you about,” Morgan wrote under an image of her packing heat.
Adam Shaw is a News Editor for FoxNews.com. He can be reached here or on Twitter: @AdamShawNY
Published January 29, 2015
Washington Free Beacon
Iran is encouraging its terror allies to pursue the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s children by publishing personal information about them, including photographs of the kids lined up in crosshairs, and declaring, “We must await the hunt of Hezbollah.”
The publication of the personal information and biographies of Netanyahu’s children follows an Israeli airstrike last week that killed several key Hezbollah leaders and an Iranian commander affiliated with the country’s hardline Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Iranian military leaders affiliated with the IRGC threatened in recent days harsh retaliation for the strike and promised to amp up support for Hezbollah as well as Palestinian terrorist organizations.
The information was originally published in Farsi by an Iranian website affiliated with the IRGC and quickly republished by Iran’s state-controlled Fars News Agency.
In addition to biographical details and pictures of Netanyahu’s children, the Iranians provided details about the families of former Prime Ministers Ehud Olmert and Ariel Sharon.
Gee, I wonder if this starts a war, who will obozo help.
By David Martosko and Francesca Chambers, Dailymail
Vice President Joe Biden suggested Friday morning that the Obama years have not been a time of prosperity and ease, but 'really, really hard for this country.'
But he still insisted that his boss, Presdient Barack Obama, has made the right economic decisions. And hours later the White House blamed problems Obama inherited from his predecessor for an incomplete economic recovery.
Biden's odd juxtaposition – half blame, half credit – will lead to questions about whether he can create effective separation between himself and the president as he's trying to build momentum for his own run at the top job.
Think about this, though. When Obama was elected. Unemployment? > 11%. Now? About 5%. The Dow? From 6,700 now up to over 17,000. Gas prices? The prez gets the blame, but not the credit. Of course, he deserves neither, but that never matters, does it? Osama Bin Laden? Was alive, now dead. Iraq? We were still wasting trillions in that cesspool, now, not so much. Afghanistan? Less a cesspool, more of a black hole. At least we're trying to disentangle. The last couple quarters we're finally seeing tiny steps in deficit reduction. Of course, the only way to do that is to tax the people who take 99% of the money, and Mitch McConnell & Co. are going to make sure that doesn't happen.
I think that if Mitt Romney had been elected and made that kind of progress Congress and the mainstream media, AKA FOX news, would be raising a stink to have his face added to Mt. Rushmore.
We all know how unemployment numbers are outrageously rigged. Some of us refuse to acknowledge it. Obamaphiles will tell you unemployment is below six percent, because that is the rigged number boasted by their favorite fascist. Misobamans will tell you a smaller percentage of working age people have a job today than at any time since women's liberation effectively doubled the number of people expected to work. Over 38% of working age citizens today have no job. This jaw dropping stat must be further seasoned by the fact that over 70% of jobs that were created last year are part-time. But that's just statistics. Too often we "use statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts, for support rather than for illumination". So let's compromise: Ignore the part-time minimum wage feature, and let the two extreme numbers, 5% and 38%, meet in the middle. I'll even round down. What've you got? I get 21%. Hope and change?
No amount of stock market bubble is going to feed families who do not earn a living wage. Pensioners watching the value of their fixed moiety dwindle cannot pay increased taxes with an increased stock market average. If stratospheric stock market averages were a good thing or permanent, then there never would have been a great depression. A recent college graduate, living at Mom's house because the job he might have been offered on graduation has instead been taxed out of existence or regulated until it moved overseas, wondering how to get his adult life on track, yet utterly invisible to Professor Pangloss' unemployment statistics, feels no relief from a lofty Dow. Nor would he be relieved by the opportunity to attend community college on my dime. The young fellow needs a living wage at a productive job; not a degree in what provides no opportunity. So long as the value of fiat currency is systematically destroyed by profligate government spending, a minimum wage increase is only a stop-gap. Even that is no help to the fellow with no job who is not acknowledged to be unemployed. Without a job, no minimum wage increase affects him.
We got into Viet Nam under Johnson, out under Nixon. Does that make Nixon a hero? Or was eventual withdrawal inevitable?
Deficits skyrocketed until the Tea Party leveraged the House. In this case, the prez gets the credit, but not the blame. Had the Left maintained a super-majority, how many more of his Solyndras and Fiskers and Volts would we have funded in vain? Nor does any amount of deficit reduction solve the problem of debt. Only debt reduction does that. A thing which will be impossible until spending is reduced.
Finally, we arrive at the inane leftist slogan repeated ad nauseum: "Tax the Rich!" The rich don't pay taxes. The rich buy a senator, hire a lawyer, move off shore, and hike prices. Congress' only motivation to raise taxes on the rich is to sell exemptions to the taxes they enacted. Do you think for a moment that if Congress taxed internet sales Bezos would not raise the price to pay for it? Do you? Is Trump going to move from his hotel into the trailer park down the street? Is he? How delusional are you? Poop rolls downhill. Taxes fall on the working man. That's not Mitch McConnell & Co. That's the nature of government. Government is a scheme whereby the rich and powerful protect their pilth and power. For sixty years now, poor people have been trading votes for promises and programs. When will that finally pay off?
Here, I think, is a good expression of why I oppose the idiotic socialist revolution which has strangled recent political idealism:
"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the government take care of him better take a closer look at the American Indian.”
? Henry Ford
I think my only nitpick with your statements would be that we got into Vietnam under Kennedy, not Johnson, and that the only time in my memory, which only really goes back to the Kennedy years, that we've been in the black was when Clinton managed to tax the rich, for a short period of time. Of course, that all did indeed get passed along to you and me. As for the real unemployment numbers, you're probably on the money. I still think that anyone capable of work who is receiving "benefits" from the gummint should be performing some service to said government in return for those benefits. Working recycling centers, digging ditches, whatever they're capable of.
I simply object to the perpetual hate war. I don't like the indisputable fact that we're all kept busy echoing nonsense from talking heads, instead of focusing public attention on real issues, like the fact that our supposedly representative government is for sale to the highest bidder. So, I'll stand by my comments regarding Mitch & Co., who basically represent those few who are able to afford representation. Also, the forces that truly destroy our economy by causing "crashes" etc. are NEVER held accountable. They just get richer. Off with their heads!
National Review: Busted: Every Sharpton Business Known Has Been Shut Down For Failure To Pay Taxes
By Jillian Kay Melchior, National Review
So far, every for-profit enterprise started by Al Sharpton and known to National Review Online has been shut down in at least one jurisdiction for failure to pay taxes, a review of public records in New York and Delaware reveals.
Records show that Sharpton’s beleaguered for-profit entities often overlap and intertwine, some sharing ties with the reverend’s nonprofit organization, National Action Network. Their financial records are copious, confusing, and sometimes outright bizarre, and together, they depict persistent financial woes for Sharpton, who also personally owes New York State nearly $596,000, according to active tax warrants.
“He clearly appears — based on the information that’s available to us — to have a history of noncompliance with tax obligations,” says Bernadette Schopfer, the director of taxation at New York’s Maier Markey & Justic, a certified public-accounting firm that has had no dealings with Sharpton or National Action Network. “It appears that [Sharpton] does not file [taxes for his businesses], and then opens up something else. At all the entities we see he has opened up, he has not been compliant with the obligations of the owner of a business. . . . He’s either willful in his behavior, or he’s just sloppy.”
Boy Suspended For Bringing Ring To School BY NICOLE HENSLEY for the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tolkien lore led a Texas boy to suspension after he brought his “one ring” to school.
Kermit Elementary School officials called it a threat when the 9-year-old boy, Aiden Steward, in a playful act of make-believe, told a classmate he could make him disappear with a ring forged in fictional Middle Earth.
The one thing that amazes me, and it always has, is that these people will tell these outrages lies in public, and the people who know the truth are hearing them. What arrogance. Its as if they are so enamored of themselves that they actually believe no one will notice or speak up. Now granted, billary has been doing it for years, and her fans (never underestimate the power of large groups of stupid people) just don't care, and the rest of us could end up paying the price. So, I would not be surprised at all to see brian williams end up as a major player in her (God Forbid) re-election bid. And if the Republicans, Greenies, Libertarians and all the rest of them don't remove heads from backsides, and get together in a united front, for the sake of this country, it could happen. IMHO
Signs marking the entry into the central Pennsylvania town of Conoy warn that the population may be armed. (Courtesy: Stephen Mohr) Drive into tiny Conoy Township, Pa., and you'll see the standard "welcome" sign, but it also comes with a warning: "THIS IS NOT A GUN FREE ZONE." The signs are meant to alert criminals to the fact that many people in the rural Pennsylvania town of 3,000 are armed. A dozen have been installed so far and three more are slated to go up, which would cover every major road into the town. Officials hope the signs give would-be criminals second thoughts before causing trouble. “I think even those who have bad intentions can read,” Stephen Mohr, one of the township supervisors, told FoxNews.com. He said the town’s five supervisors unanimously decided to put the signs up. "What we’re telling people is that when they do come here, they should feel safer knowing that everyone in the township is watching out for them." - Stephen Mohr, township supervisor, Conoy, Pa. Mohr noted that the intent of the signs is to welcome good people to their town. “The first word on there is “Welcome”… we have a lot here that we take pride in. What we’re telling people is that when they do come here, they should feel safer knowing that everyone in the township is watching out for them,” Mohr said. “And the criminal -- he should realize that going into this township he could have a bad day.”
There is a passage in "Dereliction of Duty", written by Lieutenant Colonel Patterson, a first hand account of the clintonistas. It concerns cigars, golfing buddies, Monica Lewinsky and a jet ready to take of from a carrier to end ben laden, one of 3 chances before 9/11.
Wanted to put this in the "who got you started on cigars" thread.
Published February 18, 2015 FoxNews.com
State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf, after coming under fire for suggesting a way to fight the Islamic State and all terrorism is by creating jobs, has an answer for her critics: Her argument is just "too nuanced" for them to understand.
Harf, in TV interviews Tuesday night, stood by her original remarks and said she was speaking about a comprehensive approach to combating "extremism."
Harf said that means airstrikes in the short-term, and going after "root causes" like poor economic conditions in the long-term.
"Longer term, we cannot kill every terrorist around the world, nor should we try," Harf said on CNN. "How do you get at the root causes of this? Look, it might be too nuanced an argument for some, like I've seen over the past 24 hours some of the commentary out there, but it's really the smart way that Democrats, Republicans, military commanders, our partners in the Arab world think we need to combat this."
Harf went on to say the approach doesn't fit "into a sound bite," when asked to respond to the intense criticism, on social media and elsewhere, of her original remarks. On Tuesday, Rob O'Neill, former Navy SEAL Team 6 member, told Fox News a "military strategy" is what's needed to fight ISIS.
"They get paid to cut off heads -- to crucify children, to sell slaves and to cut off heads and I don't think that a change in career path is what's going to stop them," he said.
O'Neill, who claims to have fired the shot that killed Usama bin Laden, warned that the problem is spreading.
"We can't let it happen," he said. "It'll go to Saudi Arabia, it'll hit Jordan."
Harf first pointed to jobs as a counter-ISIS strategy during an interview Monday night on MSNBC -- after ISIS-aligned militants slaughtered 21 Coptic Christians in Libya.
"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," Harf said on MSNBC's "Hardball." "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 was interrupted by host Chris Matthews, who pointed out, "There's always going to be poor people. There's always going to be poor Muslims."
Harf continued 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."
She said: "If we can help countries work at the root causes of this -- what makes these 17-year-old kids pick up an AK-47 instead of trying to start a business?"
Harf stood by the remarks Tuesday night on CNN, and on MSNBC. CNN host Wolf Blitzer challenged her statements, asking if she thinks these young men might not turn to terror if they just had a job. Harf called that a "gross oversimplification."
Blitzer pointed out that some of the world's most notorious terrorists, including bin Laden, came from wealth and privilege.
Harf acknowledged that point. On Twitter, she also defended herself by quoting other leaders, including former President George W. Bush, who has pointed to the need to fight poverty as a way to fight terrorism.
H"ll most of the new jobs are going to illegal immigrants now.....and the this cow wants us to give jobs to ISIS?
But I'm in NCR, so I shouldn't expect sanity, should I?
This administration knows all about creating jobs, think they hate us now.