Jews are "Allah's enemies, the sons of pigs" - in child's hate poem recited on Pal TV

Yes, this is an example of how the Palestinians 'educate' their children for peace.

What they're really teaching them from the cradle is to dehumanize Jews and be willing accomplices to jihad terrorism.

And a reminder, this is official Palestinian State TV..paid for by your tax dollars.

Does anyone reasonably expect the Israelis to cede more territory and make strategic concessions to these people for mere words on paper?

Do they still endorse the so-called 'two state solution'  with the idea that it's going to bring peace?

CAIR Director 'Radical Islam Is Not Primary Driver of Terrorism In the World '

Interesting, to see how Bill O'Reilly deals with the typical Muslim Brotherhood spin about 'perverting Islam'.

Especially coming from Niwad Awad, who would almost certainly be sitting in jail for material support for terrorism in the Holy Land Foundation Trial if Attorney General Eric Holder hadn't filed disinclination to prosecute briefs on President Obama's orders to let him and a number of other Islamists off the hook.

He was one of CAIR's kingpins caught on FBI wiretaps attending a 1993 meeting of Hamas leaders in Philadelphia conspiring on how to raise and launder money for them.

Of course, if O'Reilly was more knowledgeable he would have asked Awad about that.

And the inevitable followup if I were sitting in O'Reilly's chair would have been to ask Awad this one - if, as he says, he condemns terrorism, does he unequivocally condemn Hamas as a genocidal terrorist group?

Pulling aside the curtain to reveal how different CAIR's definition of terrorism is than ours is a lot more instructive than shouting at somebody.

(h/t, Robert at Seraphic Secret)

Obama Administration Threatening Benghazi Survivors To Keep Them Quiet

This if nothing else ought to tell us that there's a lot about the Benghazi fiasco we're going to find out.

Rep. Darrel Issa of the House Oversight Committee is holding new hearings and specifically advised some of the survivors that they were going to be subpoenaed and to 'lawyer up' in his words.

The Administration's response has been to threaten the Benghazi aurvivors in an attempt to silence them and to deny their attorneys access to material needed to secure their rights as whistle blowers, something illegal under federal law.

Rep. Darrell Issa, the Republican from California who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry on April 26 to complain that the department has not provided a process by which attorneys like Toensing can receive the security clearances necessary for them to review classified documents and other key evidence.

“It is unavoidable that Department employees identifying themselves as witnesses in the Committee’s investigation will apply for a security clearance to allow their personal attorneys to handle sensitive or classified material,” Issa wrote. “The Department’s unwillingness to make the process for clearing an attorney more transparent appears to be an effort to interfere with the rights of employees to furnish information to Congress.”

Victoria Toensing is an attorney representing one of the whistleblowers and said publicly that he and others have been threatened by members of the Obama Administration.

“I’m not talking generally, I’m talking specifically about Benghazi – that people have been threatened,” Toensing said in an interview Monday. “And not just the State Department. People have been threatened at the CIA.”

“It’s frightening and they’re doing some very despicable threats to people,” she said. “Not ‘We’re going to kill you,’ or not ‘We’re going to prosecute you tomorrow,’ but they’re taking career people and making them well aware that their careers will be over [if they cooperate with congressional investigators].”

Toensing has also complained about not being given access by the State Department to materials needed to adequately represent her client. Since she's a former Justice Department official and a former counsel to the Senate intelligence committee, she already has a top security clearance - but the State Department is still refusing to release the information she needs.

Odd, but in spite of what she's saying and in spite of Issa's letter to Secretary Kerry, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell still claims he's 'unaware' of any attorneys seeking security clearances...or even attorneys like Toensing who already have such clearances seeking access to classified materials.

So somebody's lying. Three guesses who...

But eventually we're going to get some answers, especially since some of the government functionaries in State and the CIA appear ready to testify regardless of how they're pressured.

From what I'm hearing, a number of them are fairly disgusted over what happened in Benghazi and the subsequent coverup, and they're not going to stay silent.

Forum:What Were Your Reactions To The Opening Ceremony Of The Bush Presidential Library?

Every week on Monday morning , the Council and our invited guests weigh in at the Watcher's Forum, short takes on a major issue of the day. This week's question:What were your reactions to the opening ceremony of the Bush Presidential Library attended by five living presidents?

 The Independent Sentinel:President Obama sold himself as the non-politician when he ran for
office in 2007. He was not a DC insider. He was going to change the way Washington operates.

President Obama's speech at the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Library in Dallas, Texas Thursday morning seemed to prove the opposite.

President Obama politicized the event by making his pitch for immigration reform:

Seven years ago, President Bush restarted an important conversation by
speaking with the American people about our history as a nation of laws
and a nation of immigrants. And even though comprehensive immigration
reform has taken a little longer than any of us expected, I am hopeful
that this year, with the help of Speaker Boehner and some of the
senators and members of Congress who are here today, that we bring it
home — for our families, and our economy, and our security, and for
this incredible country that we love. And if we do that, it will be in
large part thanks to the hard work of President George W. Bush.

The man who was supposed to be a man of the people is pretty much a PAC hack.

He never stops campaigning and he never lets a good crisis go to waste.


The Razor: I didn’t pay much attention except for the press reaction to Bush. It’s clear that Bush Derangement Syndrome is in decline, especially since Obama has followed many of Bush’s policies. I find it interesting that Bush’s poll numbers are now the same as Obama’s, and they’re likely to continue growing. Bush has also showed greater dignity than any of the other living presidents with the exception of his father by avoiding the limelight – something that seems impossible for both Clinton and Carter. His silence speaks volumes, and proves he simply outclasses the other living presidents, and makes his detractors look petty.

Rhymes With Right :  My reaction?  YAWN!

This is one of those events that happens a few years after the end of a presidency. Whether the former president whose library is being dedicated was loved or hated, all the members of the club gather and make nice.

Of course, Bill Clinton said something wildly inappropriate.

Obama was gracious as expected -- because he expects his successor to likewise speak kindly of him.

And Dubya was himself -- the man we all had personal affection for even as we disagreed with him.

But if I am to point to any single thing said that day, it would be this from the speech given by George W. Bush.

I believe that freedom is a gift from God and the hope of every human heart. Freedom inspired our founders and preserved our union through civil war and secured the promise of civil rights. Freedom sustains dissidents bound by chains. Believers huddled in underground churches. And voters who risked their lives to cast their ballots. Freedom unleashes creativity, rewards innovation and replaces poverty with prosperity. And ultimately freedom lights the path to peace.

The words are beautiful, and they are true.

But I wonder -- did Dubya leave the American people as free as we were when he took office? Has his successor increased or decreased our freedom since January 20, 2009, and what is he likely to do in that regard in the remaining years of his presidency?

  Bookworm Room: I didn't have much of a reaction. Some people praised Jimmy Carter's surprisingly gracious speech, but I don't think that gives him a pass on a hostility to Israel that's tantamount to antisemitism. Barack Obama was as tacky as always (it's all about me and let's talk about giving citizenship to illegal immigration), but that was scarcely surprising, since we've come to expect narcissistic crassness from him. Otherwise, he did a fine, albeit bland job. Clinton looked dreadful. Bush Sr. looked fragile.

The only thing I really enjoyed about the whole thing was a photo I saw. I'm still wondering what occasioned these expressions:

 

Beyond that, I was reminded once again what a gentleman George W. Bush was and is.


JoshuaPundit: I was seriously tempted to avoid this one, just to be nice but...

I rate George W. Bush as one of our worst presidents, along with Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, and my first thought was that George W. Bush fit in with the group quite well, with the exception of his father, whom at least got the Saudis and the Emirates to pay the tab for pushing Saddam back out of Kuwait and had the common sense to listen to advisers like Dick Cheney on why invading Iraq itself was a seriously bad idea.

Dubbya looks good only in comparison to his successor, President Obama, and that's frankly a pretty low bar.And I say that as someone whom voted for him and worked on his campaign in 2004.

You know what occurred to me when I saw a picture of these particular presidents? Who paid for that library.

There's been a huge involvement with Arab money and the ascension of the Muslim Brotherhood here in America, and these presidents all had a part in it. All of them built their libraries and made a nice dollar after leaving office with substantial Saudi and Emirates funding, starting with the execrable Jimmy Carter.  

Muslim immigration to America has increased over forty percent since George W. Bush took office,he was almost as big an apologist for Islamism as President Obama and President Bush made a habit of speaking in jihadi mosques run by the Brotherhood.

Bill Clinton became a seriously wealthy man as a consequence of a 'business opportunity' he was given after he left office by  the Emir of Qatar. Small wonder that when President George W. Bush wanted to turn the security of our ports over to the Emir of Dubai (remember Portgate?) Mr. Bill was hired as a consultant to lobby congress at a seven figure sum. He was by no means alone.

A great deal of the Bush family money is involved in the Carlyle Group, a huge mega-hedge fund mainly run by former cabinet members, influential congressmen and yes, a few former presidents. President Bush worked directly for the Carlyle Group. He  was appointed in 1990 to the Board of Directors of one of Carlyle's first acquisitions, an airline food business called Caterair, until he left in 1992 to run for Governor of Texas.

Former President George HW Bush was was a senior adviser to the firm from April 1998 to October 2003,specializing in bringing in investment capital from the Arabs, including a couple of million from the bin-Laden family, which was liquidated after 9/11. He was chairman emeritus until recently, and in 2007 shepherded through a deal to have another of the Emirates, Abu Dhabi buy a 7.5% equity stake in the company, which has a lot to do with investing (or not investing) in defense companies.The deal put substantial money in the Bush family coffers.

That investment was also a factor in the huge bailout that took place during the waning months of the Bush Administration.

That was my reaction when I saw these five presidents together. Remember this?




 Well, there you have it.

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum. And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.

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The Syria Tango - Assad Calls Obama's Bluff On Chemical Weapons Use

 

President Obama was perfectly clear, to use a favorite cliche of his - use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime in Syria would be a 'red line' for American intervention.

Here's the president on March 21st, 2013:

I’ve made it clear to Bashar al-Assad and all who follow his orders: We will not tolerate the use of chemical weapons against the Syrian people, or the transfer of those weapons to terrorists. The world is watching; we will hold you accountable.

This is something the president and various members of his administration have said this numerous times.

Well, Assad has crossed that particular red line. Israeli intelligences claims that the Assad regime has used sarin gas against the Islamist rebels have now been confirmed by American authorities and by Britain’s Defence Science Technology Laboratory analyzing blood samples.

The chief samples came from attacks that occurred last month in Aleppo’s Khan al-Asal suburb and in Oteibeh, a suburb of Damascus.

The Assad regime claims that the chemical weapons used in Khan al-Asal were fired by the rebels from Kafer Da’al, about 30 miles north of Khan al-Asal, where the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra fighter have control of the Syrian-Saudi Chemicals Company...which by the way doesn't make sarin. Nor do the rebels have any way of delivering a gas weapon at that distance.

That attack was aimed at a pro-Assad rally and killed 25 people. Given the logistics, there's a good chance it was a case of friendly fire the regime is blaming on the rebels, not that the rebels would shy away from using chemical weapons if they were able to.

The other attack, at Oteibeh is a little more clear cut in that it was a direct attack on a rebel position using a missile armed with sarin gas that killed between 60 and 70 people. The rebel Syrian Support Group (SSG)has since claimed there were two more gas attack launched on the Damascus suburb of Daraya that injured about 130 people, although no deaths were reported.

What Assad is doing makes sense from a logistical standpoint. Daraya is fairly close to the front where Assad's own forces are located, and gas weapons kill indiscriminately.No sense using a full on attack at full strength which could backfire and affect his own forces, and attract unwelcome attention from the West. Daraya's close to the Mezze Military Airport and headquarters of Assad's Fourth Armored Division. So a small, very concentrated attack works far better than an all out assault.

Oteibeh is close to the barracks of the Republican Guard’s 104th and 105th regiments, elite units of Assad, but a heavier attack was likely made there because of its strategic location. Oteibah is the chief destination for rebel weapons paid fo rby the Saudis and Qatar coming in from Jordan.

And the attack was effective.The rebels were pushed out of Oteibeh, and many of them reportedly fled, fearing another gas attack.

Assad also probably used this particular attack to send a message to Jordan's King Abdullah, reminding him that the al-Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood fighters he's enabling today could easily turn oh him and oust him from his throne tomorrow. Like Assad, Abdullah also is part of a minority regime ruling over a different majority.

It remains to be seen what the Obama Administration plans to do about this.

As I've pointed out before, there's absolutely no dog the United States or the West has in this fight.

Basher Assad is a ruthless, murderous tyrant and his regime has been a supporter of terrorism for years. If it wasn't for enablers like former Speaker Nancy Pelosi ( D-CA) and former Senator and now secretary of State John Kerry pushing 'engagement' with Assad, we might have taken his regime to task a long time ago for allowing jihadis free access and use of training facilities en route to fighting our troops in Iraq, let alone Syria's involvement with Hezbollah.

Unfortunately, it isn't as simple as just 'supporting the Syrian rebels'. We'd be idiots to get involved..and yes, I'm looking in your direction, Senator McCain.

The twists and turns in the Administration allegiances rival Libya.

Obama administration started out by actually supporting Bashir Assad - remember Secretary of State Hillary Clinton referring to Assad as a 'reformer' and Senator John Kerry shilling for U.S. aid to him?

Next, the Obama administration switched to support the insurgents, consisting of the Syrian National Council(SNC) and the Syrian Free Army, a group put together with the 'help'  of President Obama's good friend Tayyip Erdogan and the Islamist Turkish government. The U.S. government was   supplying them with a few light arms and some training via Turkey and Jordan while Qatar and the Saudis supplied most of the funding. It's important to remember that this is essentially a Sunni vs. Shi'ite battle, which is why Hezbollah is so heavily involved.

Of course, the problem was that the SNC and the Syrian Free Army were controlled in their entirety by the Muslim Brotherhood and other Salafists, some of them outright al-Qaeda affiliates like the aforementioned  Jabhat al-Nusra, still the most prominent group of opposition fighters in Syria.

President Obama and his team eventually came to the realization that our supplying arms and training to these people was not such a great idea, so we formed yet another 'official' Syrian resistance group, the Syrian Opposition Coalition,(SOC)and the associated Joint Military Council.

Just some minor  minor problems...first of all, the SOC and the JMC, formed in Qatar, are also controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood. The leader of the SOC is one Ahmed Mouaz al-Khatib, former imam of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus,  a religious cleric closely allied to the Damascus branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and fairly hardline and radical himself.

Not only that but most of the actual boots on the ground belonged to  the SNC, the Syrian Free Army and groups like Jabhat al-Nusra. And they did not take kindly to the Obama Administration dumping them and telling them whom represents the resistance and whom doesn't.

So once again, the president and his foreign policy team have demonstrated  their ability to get both sides of a conflict angry at them.

There's absolutely no way a pro-western government is going to emerge from this morass no matter who wins. Even worse, if the rebels win, aside from the possibility of arming these people with Assad's chemical weapons and missiles, there's a major possibility that a salafist Islamist regime could destabilize Jordan, where the Muslim Brotherhood is already powerful.

Russia and China will veto any sort of UN action against Syria, so the administration, if it actually is silly enough to get involved in something like a no fly zone is going to have to go it alone.

Let's hope that any action we take is geared towards a raid destroying Assad's chemical and missile arsenals, no matter whose hands they're in.Even better, let's see if we can't somehow convince the Israelis to do the job. Their intel on Syria's been consistently a lot better than our own.

Once the chemical and missile arsenals are taken care of, we can then back off and let Assad and the rebels resolve the matter themselves of which totalitarian faction ends up ruling Syria, or what's left of it.

UPDATE: Apparently President Obama and his team plan to start sending serious U.S. arms to Syria's al-Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood rebels.

This is exactly what this president and his team did in Libya, taking out Khaddaffi and letting his weapons stockpiles fall into the hands of the Islamist and al-Qaeda forces. Those arms were used to attack our embassy, kill our diplomats, foment terrorism in Algeria and to invade Mali, and a number of them have turned up headed in the direction of Hamas in Gaza.

If Obama's gambit is successful and Assad is ousted, the arms we're sending to the Syrian opposition along with Basher Assad's arsenal including his chemical weapons will be turned against Israel, just like the heavy weapons we gifted to the Brotherhood regime in Egypt will at the earliest opportunity. And of course, against America.

If the opposition takes over, you can add Syria to the growing Caliphate President Obama has had such a hand in creating and cross Jordan off our fast diminishing list of allies and assets in the region, since King Abdullah's regime will almost certainly be destabilized and fall to the Islamists.

I'll let you decide whether President Obama's course in the region is simply abysmally stupid and amateurish or willfully destructive.

LATMA Satire - The FBI Investigates The Boston Bombing...

Not too far from the truth, unfortunately!

CNN Finally Admits Hamas Kills Its Own And Deliberately Targets Israeli Civilians

Another red letter day in journalism (sarcasm/off).

This CNN report not only admits that Hamas uses its own civilians as human shields, but that it fires missiles indiscriminately at Israeli civilians.

It even admits at the end of the video that a 4-year-old child whose death Hamas originally blamed on Israel was actually killed by Hamas in a 'work accident'.

Needless to say, they 'balance' that by interviewing some creep from the extremely biased NGO Human Rights Watch...who of course sees no difference between Hamas' simply firing rockets and deliberately targeting Israeli civilians and Israel's attempts to minimize civilian casualties and the collateral damage that inevitably occurs when Hamas or Islamic jihad use civilians as human shields and deliberately fire missiles and hide terrorists in civilian areas.

Hotel Cancels Jewish Charity Event After Violent Threats By Pro-Palestinian Activists

 

Jewish student from Scotland's St Andrews University were stopped from holding a charity ball after the hotel involved canceled the booking because of threats it had received from Pro-Palestinian activists.

A dinner and black tie ball scheduled at the renowned St. Andrews Golf Hotel was expected to draw a huge crowd from all over the UK. The money that was raised was to be sent to seven Israeli charities supported including the Jewish National Fund (JNF), Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) and Save A Child's Heart, which helps fund heart surgeries for children all over the world, including Palestinian children.

Instead, according to the Jewish Telegraph, the hotel canceled the event after receiving a number of threats from pro-Palestinian activists. Hotel manager Niall Thompson was quoted as saying that he felt that he had to cancel 'due to health and safety concerns for staff and hotel guests'.

Paul Morron of the Glasgow Jewish Representative Council said he spoke to Thompson, to try and salvage things, but to no avail. "I conveyed the extent of the concern of the Jewish community that a hotel of its stature had caved in so easily to intimidation - something that would damage its reputation."

"I contacted Inspector Meek, of St Andrews Police, and he told me that they had not had any serious concerns about policing the event.

"We regard this as a very serious incident, setting a worrying precedent in Scotland. It's not up to others to dictate to the Jewish community what charities they should support. That's just not acceptable."

Apparently it's acceptable in Scotland, which has a growing Muslim population and a cadre of hard core terrorist groupies like the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC).

A lot of people are already boycotting a number of brands of Scotch because of this kind of nonsense.

Perhaps tourism to St. Andrews ought to be added to the list.

(h/t, The Commentator)

The Council Has Spoken!! This Week's Watcher's Council Results

 

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and we have the results  for this week's Watcher's Council match up!!



 

This week's winner, The Right Planet's  Rush for Judgement: The All-Star ‘'Calumnists’' of the MSM   is a sharp, well written examination of how Alinsky's principles permeate the media in a real life version of Orwell's Two Minute Hate...and coins a new word in the process! Here's a slice:

Following the 2011 Tuscon shooting, I predicted the left-wing media would jump on the opportunity to use the horrific crime as an opportunity to further their political goals. I just have seen this behavior from radical leftists for too long now. It is completely predictable. Oh, and they didn’t let me down, either. Not only did they “not let me down,” it was way beyond even what I thought possible, in terms of vicious audacity and outright buffoonery.

If you might recall, Sarah Palin and the Tea Party were blamed for the 2011 shooting in Tuscon, which resulted in six deaths and one wounded, as well as former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (AZ-D) being critically injured. At the time, the preposterous notion was fomented by the progressive media that target reticule symbols printed on Palin’s campaign literature somehow influenced the shooter, Jared Loughner, to commit a heinous multiple murder.

Just so we’re all on the same page, here’s a prime example of some of the ridiculous linkages and rhetoric that was being bantered about by the deranged left in their all-out effort to smear Sarah Palin and the Tea Party.

Via freakedoutxenophobes.com:

After the tragic fatal shooting of six people yesterday, half-governor Sarah Palin’s supporters are scrambling more than Michael Vick trying to escape Justin Tuck’s clutches in order to make an excuse for Palin’s pathetic use of crosshairs in an ad for the 2010 midterm elections which targeted 20 Democratic Representatives who voted for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Fast forward to the Aurora movie theater mass shooting. The media was quick to “rush to judgement” and blame, once again, the Tea Party.

Politico reported:

ABC’s Brian Ross reported this morning that there is “a Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado, page on the Colorado Tea party site… talking about him joining the Tea Party last year.”

Ross later apologized for his rash conclusions. But it was too little too late.

Of course, we can’t forget the unimaginable horror of the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre which saw scores of children shot dead by madman Adam Lanza. Yet, like clockwork, the mainstream-media went into hyper-drive and blamed the NRA and the nation’s legal gun-owners for the appalling atrocity. It’s just utter nonsense, yet this is what passes for journalism from our state-run press these days—ruthless left-wing agitprop and unadulterated leftist political advocacy.

Is there ever any respect or period of observable mourning for the dead and the victims of these awful crimes by the mainstream-media? If there is any mention of the victims by the MSM, it is only an effort to further a political cause via emotional appeal—like so-called “gun control,” for example—otherwise tributes and memorials to the victims are cast aside as “not viable” for promoting the cause—which is the only the liberal media cares about … nothing can supersede the struggle.

Now consider what just happened in Boston. Instantly the vile spinsters of leftist agitprop (i.e. MSM) went immediately to work to try and link, once again, the bombing of innocent Americans at Monday’s Boston Marathon to “right-wing” groups. MSNBC’s resident socialist Larry O’Donnell even went so far as to blame the NRA for helping the Boston bombers get away.

Oh, it doesn’t end there. I’m just getting started. So buckle up. As a matter of fact, while researching this post, I found so many glaring examples of frothing progressive liberals in the media and the state-run press eager to “rush to judgement” and blame “white people” and so-called “right-wing groups” for the bombings in Boston that I can’t include it all here. It would takes days, weeks, months … maybe even years.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Michael Totten's  The Beginning of the End for Hezbollah   submitted by Joshuapundit. It's yet another of Totten's fine pieces on Lebanon, and in it he explores the changing dynamic enveloping the terrorist group Hezbollah.Do read it.


OK, here are this week’s full results:

Council Winners

• *First place with 4 1/3 votes! The Right Planet –Rush for Judgement: The All-Star ‘'Calumnists’' of the MSM


• Second place with 4 votes – Simply Jews -Boston bombers: mission accomplished


• Third place  with 2 votes – The Noisy Room-Sleeping With The Saudis


• Fourth place with 1 1/3 votes – Joshuapundit-The Two Boston Marathon Bombers And What It Says About Jihad And The West


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Bookworm Room- Islam — the ultimate umbrella organization for violent malcontents


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Razor- The Alarm System


• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Gay Patriot -Millennials & the Real Republican Problem


• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey – Apocalypse now ... and then


• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – VA Right! –Bombings, Shootings and Obama’s Gestpo: Welcome to the Fundamental Transformation

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 3 2/3 votes! – Michael Totten- The Beginning of the End for Hezbollah submitted by Joshuapundit


• Second place with 2 1/3 votes – Mark Steyn –The ‘Co-exist’ Bombers   submitted by The Noisy Room


• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – RedState –Hunt for the elusive Tea Party murderer continues submitted by Gay Patriot


• Third place with 1 1/3 votes -Ace of Spades -Congressional Panel Releases Report on Beghazi: Hillary Not Truthful submitted by VA Right!


• Fourth place with 1 vote Dennis Prager/NRO -Lessons from Boston and Chechnya submitted by Bookworm Room


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes - American Center For Democracy –Boston’s Jihadi Terrorists & The Chechen Connection   submitted by The Political Commentator


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote - The Propagandist –  We Have to Look at the Root Causes  submitted by Simply Jews


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Zenpundit/Carl Cameron – Tamerlan Tsarnaev end times videos I: the Mahdist video, pt 1 submitted by The Glittering Eye


• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Scheiss Weekly – Good People Exist & They Shall Prevail! submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey


• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -American Thinker –President Obama's Plan for A Socialist One Party State submitted by The Right Planet


• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Daniel W. Drezner/Foreign Policy –5 Essays That Changed World Politics submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD


• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Althouse –Don't say "there is a piece of Boston in me" when orating about a bombing in Boston that put shrapnel in many victims. submitted by Rhymes With Right

See you next week! Don't forget to tune in on Monday AM for this week's Watcher's Forum, as the Council and their invited special guests take apart one of the provocative issues of the day with short takes and weigh in...don't you dare miss it. And don't forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.....'cause we're cool like that!

Days After Boston, Obama Pressures Israel To Release Terrorists As A 'Goodwill Gesture'

 

Here's more proof that in spite of all the photo ops and rhetoric, the Obama Administration learned nothing from the Boston Marathon bombing. Nor does it particularly want to.

It hasn't even been a week since Islamist terrorists unleashed carnage in Boston,  but the Obama Administration outraged Israeli public opinion and the Israeli government by pressuring Israel to release Palestinian murderers convicted in Israeli civil courts as a goodwill gesture to Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority.

Knesset MK Orit Struk from the Bayit Yehudi party said, "the demand is shocking, not just because the peace talks must begin without preconditions, and not just because of the danger that these terrorists will return to terrorist activity once they are released, but because the release of terrorists is an energizing shot of encouragement to terror and terrorists."

"Every release like this," she continued, "causes potential terrorists to make the decision to become one, because they see that they will be given support."

Struk added, "is the America that is asking Israel to release terrorists the same America that has carried the flag in the struggle against terrorism and who recently experienced the hands of terror in their house?!"

This story made headlines in Israel.

Deputy Minister Ofir Akunis promised on the floor of the Knesset that the Netanyahu government would not cave in to U.S. demands in this area.

It's worthwhile taking a look at who the Obama Administration demanded Israel free because they were on the Palestinian's wish list, and what they were convicted of:

Amongst the terrorists that the US is demanding Israel release, are those who burned Amnon Pomerantz alive in his car in 1990, the terrorists who murdered tractor driver Yigal Vahknin in 1993, the terrorist who murdered 39-year-old Gush Katif resident Shaya Deutch in 1993, the terrorists who burned to their deaths Rachel Weiss and her three children; Ephraim, Netanel and Raphael as well as soldier David Delarosa who tried to save them and the terrorist who murdered Professor Menachem Stern in the Valley of the Cross (in Jerusalem) while he was on his way to Hebrew University.

I'm surprised they didn't demand that Israel cut loose the murderers of the Fogel family, who murdered a mother, a father and three of their children in cold blood, including 3-month-old newborn baby girl.

 

Abbas and the PA used the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day last year to have official Fatah-run Palestinian TV glorify the murderers of the Fogels.

 And by the way, our tax dollars paid by the Obama Administration as jizya to Abbas and the Palestinian Authority go to fund the salaries that Abbas and the PA pay to every one of these killers and their families. In fact, the PA considers paying these killers one of its highest priorities, or in th ewords of Mahmoud Abbas 'Our highest joy'.

Don't think for a moment that this is news to Washington. Yet these are the kind of people the Obama Administration is pressuring Israel to make concessions to and make a peace agreement with.

Does he really consider the blood of Israel people that cheap? Did he somehow dial out from the carnage that occurred in his own city of Boston a few days ago? Or is he just clueless?

I can't imagine how this president expects Israel or anyone else, friend or foe to take him seriously about terrorism or anything to do with security issues when he is so shockingly callous. Perhaps he should set an example by releasing the Tsarnaev brothers, Major Nidal Hassan, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the Blind Sheikh.

What an embarrassment to us all...but at least I have the slight comfort of saying I didn't vote these people into office.

There's a lot more I could say about this, but perhaps it's better I exercise a little self censorship.

Secretary Napolitano Caught Lying To Congress about Saudi Implicated In Boston Bombing

 

The coverup continues on the Saudi 'person of interest' implicated in the Boston Marathon bombings,Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi, a Saudi national with major connections to al-Qaeda.

Today, during a hearing on immigration policy, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee and caught some questions from Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, asking about the fact that Alharbi was on the terrorist watch list.

“Before the [Tsarnaev] brothers became the focus of the investigation, authorities questioned a Saudi student who reportedly was on a terror watchlist,” said Grassley, “…if so, how did he obtain a student visa?”

Her answer is absolutely astounding:

“He was not on a watchlist. What happened is — this student was, really when you back it out, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was never a subject. He was never even really a person of interest. Because he was being interviewed, he was at that point put on a watchlist, and then when it was quickly determined he had nothing to do with the bombing, the watch listing status was removed.”

Aside from contradicting herself in the above paragraph - was he on a watch list or was he not? -  the Secretary is also not being entirely truthful about Alharbi's status

Alharbi's visa stated that he was a student at a college in Ohio he never attended, while in fact he was living in an apartment in Revere, a suburb of Boston. And there's evidence that someone attempted to delete the report on him, (known as an incident report ).

Stay tuned.

Leftist Muslim Politician To Jewish Woman- ''I Am Your Nightmare"

Karen West from the Social Democrats in Denmark put this on her Facebook page:



"Yesterday I received a screenshot in which the "social democratic" Youssef Khalil Idiab, member of city council of Brøndby (Copenhagen suburb), wrote to a Jewish woman:

"I am your nightmare , wait for me, Palestinia is on the way, peace is on the way, and you and yours are on the way to the dump of history, wishing you frightening nightmares."

"Regardless of who you stand with, Regardless of what one thinks about the conflict this is completely unacceptable for a social democratic elected official".

"Imagine if an elected official had written the same thing to a Muslim on Palestine."

***************************************

The reason Ms. West is so upset is because this kind of openly expressed hatred by Muslims is hardly unique in Denmark nowadays, and it has a special resonance there:



Denmark, considered an Aryan country by Hitler could have had a very easy time of it during the Nazi occupation. German troops were ordered to behave with discipline in the country, respect the local laws when they didn't contradict military necessity and avoid the usual outrages. Denmark was a German 'Protectorate', its government still kept local control, King Christian X retained his throne and Denmark's Jews were not rounded up and shipped to concentration camps with the eager cooperation of the locals as they were in most of Europe. When local Danish Nazis tried to burn the main synagogue in Copenhagen, they were arrested by the Danish police and jailed, outraging the Nazis and eventually leading to a German takeover of the Danish government.

When the Germans finally issued a deportation order for Denmark's Jews in 1943, Danish civil servants leaked the news of the upcoming order and virtually the entire country collaborated in transporting their Jewish fellow citizens to safety in Sweden.

Today, Denmark has a population of 6,400 Jews and 270,000 Muslims in a population of about 5.5 million, and things are very different.

Jews today in Denmark are openly advised not to wear any clothing or jewelry that marks them as Jews for their own safety.

The entrance of the Caroline Jewish Skole in Copenhagen’s Østerbro district is surrounded by a high barbed wire fence and policed by private security guards, and the same applies to the other Jewish community buildings, schools and synagogues.

The Humlehave School in Odensesaid, a secular public school said openly that it would refuse Jewish students because Muslim violence would make it too dangerous for them.

Anti-semitic violence and attacks have skyrocketed in direct proportion to the increasing Muslim population.

Can it be that even Left leaning Danes like Ms. West are beginning to realize that Islam doesn't play well with others, and that for Islam tolerance is a one way street?

And could it possibly be that as the Jews leave, they're realizing that the Jews were just the first victims and they're next?

Watcher's Council Nominations - One Day In Boston Edition

Welcome to the Watcher's Council, a blogging group consisting of some of the most incisive blogs in the 'sphere, and the longest running group of its kind in existence. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council.Then we vote on the best two posts, with the results appearing on Friday.

Council News:
This week, Thinkers And Sinkers, Liberty's Spirit, Ask Marion and The Pirate's Cove took advantage of my generous offer of link whorage and earned honorable mention status with some great articles.

You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcher’s Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didn’t get nominated by a Council member? No worries.

Simply head over to Joshuapundit and post the title and a link to the piece you want considered along with an e-mail address ( which won't be published) in the comments section no later than Monday 6PM PST in order to be considered for our honorable mention category. Then  return the favor by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcher’s Council contest for the week.

It's a great way of exposing your best work to Watcher’s Council readers and Council members. while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?

So, let's see what we have this week....

Council Submissions

• The Political Commentator – Boston conspiracy theory: Obama, the Saudis and a 'dark-skinned male'?
• Simply Jews – Boston bombers: mission accomplished
• The Right Planet – Rush for Judgement: The All-Star ‘'Calumnists’' of the MSM
• The Noisy Room – Sleeping With The Saudis
• The Colossus of Rhodey – Apocalypse now ... and then
• Joshuapundit- The Two Boston Marathon Bombers And What It Says ABout Jihad And The West
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Global
• The Razor – The Alarm System
• Rhymes With Right – Joe Biden Proves He Is Utterly Ignorant Of Democrat Party History
• VA Right! - Bombings, Shootings and Obama’s Gestpo: Welcome to the Fundamental Transformation
• Bookworm Room – Islam — the ultimate umbrella organization for violent malcontents
• Gay Patriot – Millennials & the Real Republican Problem
• The Glittering Eye -The Search
• The Mellow Jihadi – Bourbon Red Turkey Eggs and Pilates

Honorable Mentions

• Thinkers And Sinkers - The Two Voices
• Liberty's Spirit - "We are a "People of Parts," Not a Feeble Lot"
• Ask Marion - Seems Bomber Jihadists’ Money Traces Back to Saudi Arabia and Osama
• The Pirate's Cove - Support For Gun Control Slips Further

Non-Council Submissions

• American Center For Democracy -Boston’s Jihadi Terrorists & The Chechen Connection submitted by The Political Commentator
• The Propagandist – We Have to Look at the Root Causes submitted by Simply Jews
• American Thinker – President Obama's Plan for A Socialist One Party State submitted by The Right Planet
• Mark Steyn –The ‘Co-exist’ Bombers submitted by The Noisy Room
• Scheiss Weekly – Good People Exist & They Shall Prevail! submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Michael Totten – The Beginning of the End for Hezbollah submitted by Joshuapundit
• Daniel W. Drezner/Foreign Policy – 5 Essays That Changed World Politics submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Young Hip And Conservative –Immigration politics of the Boston Marathon Bombing submitted by The Razor
• Althouse – Don't say "there is a piece of Boston in me" when orating about a bombing in Boston that put shrapnel in many victims. submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Ace of Spades – Congressional Panel Releases Report on Beghazi: Hillary Not Truthful submitted by VA Right!
• Dennis Prager/NRO-Lessons from Boston and Chechnyasubmitted by Bookworm Room
• RedState -Hunt for the elusive Tea Party murderer continues submitted by Gay Patriot
• Zenpundit/Carl Cameron – Tamerlan Tsarnaev end times videos I: the Mahdist video, pt 1 submitted by The Glittering Eye
• The Boogie Man Is My Friend –Rolling Dirty or Magnolias? submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
• Steve Sailor/Taki's Magazine – Guns And Whites submitted by The Watcher
• Tablet – Poland's Undead Gravestones submitted by Watcher

Enjoy! And don't forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter..'cause we're cool like that!

Jihad Thwarted In Canada

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, of Montreal, and Raed Jaser, 35, of Toronto in what RCMP Commissioner James Malizia described as an al-Qaeda linked plan to derail a Canadian passenger train.Neither are Canadian citizens.

The plot involved a VIA train route in the Toronto area, the Canadian equivalent of America's Amtrak passenger trains.

Malizia linked the pair to al-Qaeda factions located in Iran.

The plot apparently has no links to the Boston bombing, and the RCMP expects to make more arrests.

One positive note is that Malizia credited Canadian Muslims with tips that lead to the thwarting of the planned attack, which had th epotential to kill and injure a large number of people.

Understanding the Islamic Bombing of the Boston Marathon

Pretty much all you need to know.

(H/T Louie Louie)

How Jihad Incubates - The Boston Bomber's Mosque

 

One thing I've consistently said whenever we've experienced terrorism on our soil since 9/11; you'll almost always find a Saudi-funded mosque and a radical imam in the mix.These things don't come out of thin air.

In taking a look at the Boston Marathon bombers, one thing the media is attempting to gloss over is the connections between the brothers and radical Islamism.It turns out that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the now deceased older brother who appears to have led the bombers was a member of the Islamic Society of Boston.

A story that's being pushed in the media, when the ISB is mentioned at all is how  Tamerlan Tsarnaev was reputedly 'kicked out of the mosque' for an angry tirade against the Imam for preaching a sermon telling his congregants to emulate Martin Luther King Jr.

The 'source' for this Arabian Nights tale is an anonymous Muslim worshiper in the mosque who would only give his name as 'Muhammed.'

The story goes on to mention in passing that Tamerlan was readmitted to Friday prayer services.

As we'll see, it's highly unlikely that a sermon would be preached in this particular mosque using Dr. King as a role model.

The Islamic Society of Boston is a place I know of by repute.

The mosque is very much Muslim Brotherhood oriented, and claims the Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader imam Yusef al-Qaradawi as it's major influence and spiritual guide. One of its eight founding members was Abdurahman Alamoudi, who was jailed for 23 years in 2004 for material support of Islamist terrorism and money laundering.

You've heard me mention al-Qaradawi before. He has some interesting views.

He favors a world-wide Islamist caliphate under sharia law, including the beating of 'disobediant' women, female genital mutilation , and death for homosexuals and apostates, just as it says in the Qu'ran.

He's also called for a second Holocaust against Jews, saying, "Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the [Jews] people who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by Hitler. G-d willing, this time it will be the believers."

And while the ISB has made a few statements publicly distancing themselves from Qaradawi,  they have never distanced themselves from his theology. In fact, the Society used Qaradiwi's name in their fundraising and had al-Qaradawi as an honorary member of the board. Literature found in the mosque, speakers who've been invited guests , writings and speeches of people intimately associated with the mosque and transcripts of a number of sermons preached there confirm that the Islamic Society of Boston remains very much a Muslim Brotherhood hardline mosque.

The ISB has been noted in the past for nuisance lawsuits designed to silence anyone who pointed out the mosque's ties to the Brotherhood, the establishment of the mosque with Musim Brotherhood and Saudi funds, and the mosque's fund raising for 'charities' like the Holy Land Foundation and the Benevolence International Foundation, both of which were essentially money laundering outfits for the benefit of groups like Hamas and al-Qaeda, and both of whom were subsequently shut down by the feds.

Among others, the ISB sued terrorism expert Stephen Emerson, The Boston Herald, Charles Jacobs, co-founder of the David Project and the American Anti-Slavery Group, and the local FOX news channel. The ISB claimed it was libeled.

Unfortunately for the ISB,the lawsuits proceeded to the discovery phase and bank records and other documents showed that not only had the mosque acted as a fundraiser for the Holy Land Foundation and the Benevolence International Fund, but that the mosque was funded almost entirely by Saudi and Brotherhood funds to the tune of over $7 million.

Another thing that surfaced in discovery was the interesting  way the ISB obtained the land to build its mosque.

The ISB was built on land owned by the City of Boston that was valued at $1.5 million at the time. It was gifted to them in a murky process by Mayor Menino, who spoke at the ribbon cutting ceremony. The deputy director of the Boston city agency that 'negotiated' the land giveaway not only was a member of the Boston Islamic Society whom it paid to raise money in the Middle East, but also secretly advised the group about obtaining the land cheaply. Essentially, the ISB was 'negotiating' with itself. Aside from being an illegal conflict of interest, this was a clear violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment, using public funds to favor one religion over all others...at the expense of the City of Boston's taxpayers.

Discovery also revealed that the ISB had attempted to delete all e-mails and documents relating to the land deal.

While we're trying to digest how home grown jihad happens, we'd do well to take a much clearer look at the places it incubates.

Forum:How Would You Solve The Problem Of Illegal Immigration?

 

Every week on Monday morning , the Council and our invited guests weigh in at the Watcher's Forum, short takes on a major issue of the day. This week's question: How Would You Solve The Problem Of Illegal Immigration?

Simply Jews: Building a few pyramids in Texas and/or Arizona?

 The Noisy Room: Priority one is closing the border - for real. Take a page from the Israelis on building a fence and just do it. Go for a layered approach using a fence, a concrete wall and vehicle-barrier trenches. And put either armed military or border patrol in sufficient numbers all along the wall who are willing to enforce the law and use force if necessary. The presence needs to be stepped up because we are factually being invaded from the south.

Remove ALL incentives and enticements that attract or encourage people to enter the country illegally. This includes benefits such as food stamps, housing, education, health care... in short, all the freebies being sprinkled in front of the target demographic. Illegal immigrants should not be eligible for any government paid services, accept in life-threatening instances. And after that passes, they should be deported. The 'Anchor Baby' provision also needs to go away.

As to illegal immigrants already here... Once you have the border actually secured, your next step is to deport those who are not 'legitimate immigrants,' when they are nabbed for crimes. You don't catch and release. You either prosecute and convict, then deport after any imprisonment or the offender goes straight to deportation depending on the crime. There should be standardized methodology for anyone wanting to become a citizen and the same rules should apply to all. Enforce our current immigration policies. If families and children are found that are illegal, as cold as it sounds, they should be deported. Immigrants should be forced to follow our laws and come in the front door legally, rather than sneaking in the back door to reside in 'the shadows.'

We need to eliminate the concept that if you get away with a crime long enough, it becomes legitimized and somehow okay. The de facto policy at the moment seems to be that if you break the law by sneaking into the country and manage to evade detection and capture for some arbitrary amount of time, you get declared 'all in free.'

What we don't need is mass 'Amnesty,' which makes 11 million criminals instant citizens who will comprise a Democratic voting block strong enough to keep Progressives in office and power indefinitely. It is a strategy that the Communists/Marxists are putting forth and using as an overthrow and infiltration from within tactic. See Italian Communist Party leader, Antonio Gramsci, who promoted exchanging the subtle long-term infiltration of institutions and Government for the outdated, confrontational street-marching tactics of Mao Tse Tung.

A physical barrier coupled with the removal of incentives would take care of the vast majority of illegal incursions. I think the current Immigration Bill put forth not only pushes mass 'Amnesty,' it doesn't solve the problem of illegal immigration. It literally overrides our current laws and policies concerning immigration, rather than enforcing them and opens the borders to all. It would make everyone part of a massive, privacy stealing database (which is an unfathomable violation of our Constitutional rights and a dictator's dream) and would finish off bankrupting our nation. You might as well finalize handing the U.S. over to the Mexican nationalists and Communists. Progressives on both sides of the political aisle benefit from this with a massive voting block that will entrench their Marxist ideals and create a slave base that not only brings down the standard of living, but pushes crony capitalism. The only ones who benefit in the end are the Marxists, the powerful and the wealthy elite. Sounds a lot like Cuba or any of a number of Communist regimes, doesn't it?

 JoshuaPundit: To solve a problem, you first have to think of it as a problem,That's really the first step. It's important to realize that there's an important political constituency that doesn't consider this a problem at all, but a political tactic and a net political benefit to themselves. There's a reason the Democrats are so ignited about pushing through what amounts to another amnesty, if you actually look at the bill the so-called Gang of Eight came up with.

Because of that, there's never going to be real cooperation in a number of blue run states or municipalities when it comes to things like building an actual border fence, or cooperating with enforcing any laws that limit what the Left refers to as 'immigrant rights'. There have been bills that called for fences and border enforcement before, but you'll notice they never were implemented. That's why.

 So I think the first step ( which of course isn't being done in Congress) is to redo the entire context inwhich we view immigration. Rather than a 'right', it is a privilege a sovereign nation grants to people it decides would be a benefit to the country. It's forgotten now,but that was exactly the context under which America's great waves of legal immigration occurred in the mid 1840's and  in the period from 1880 through the 1920's.We needed population to farm, to labor and to build a relatively young country. As an added bonus, when you have that attitude, it tells potential immigrants that American citizenship is something of value, not something you can just glom on to by walking across the border.

If we manage to change that context, a solution  obviously involves controlling our border first and withholding Federal funds from any state not cooperating.We have to make it that ironclad or it weon;t happen.

Then we need to fix what's really wrong with our immigration system, ending the 'diversity lotteries'and basing immigration on what America needs rather than what suits partisan politics. There are plenty of people in Europe and in Asia who would love to come here with their money and their skills whom can't because the sysytem is so  weighted towards Third World immigrants, legal and otherwise.

At the same time, we need to know who's here, so I'd institute a 60 day period when illegal aliens must register to receive a temporary( and renewable) ID showing their status or lose all rights to stay, permanently. That will give us time to run the background and health checks needed.There are a number of ways we can control illegal immigration when it comes to employment and other factors to remove a lot of the incentives while we're securing our border.

Australia and Canada use a points system which varies according to their needs at any particular time. They're competing for highly skilled, high productivity immigrants while we mostly import low skilled, low productivity  immigrants.

While it would be both heartless and counterproductive to import all 11 million or so illegal aliens,  we could use a points system and the market to decide how many of them stay. A common slogan of amnesty supporters is 'don't deport my uncle', 'don't deport my cousin' . Provided these people otherwise qualify, I see no reason why family members couldn't buy  a visa for several thousand dollars for their friends and relatives and act as guarantors that they will not become a public charge.That's makes a lot more sense than the ridiculous notion  that people are going to 'pay fines' and declare money they earned under the table and pay taxes on it. Seriously, would you?

The only penalty involved ought to be a place at the end of the line behind legal applicants from their country of origin when it comes to the waiting period for citizenship.

The Independent Sentinel: would start by enforcing the immigration laws we have, something that
has not been done in the last 30 or more years. Hiring cheap labor is
not cheap after all.

What I wouldn't do is pass the new immigration bill produced by the
gang of eight.

The Senate bill produces a massive bureaucracy of regulations and
government agencies. It is 844 pages with the promise of more. Rules
still need to be written for almost every aspect of it.

It changes the definition of "illegal immigrant" by replacing it with
"registered new Americans." The US Citizenship and Immigration
Services" will be called the "Office of Citizenship and New Americans."
Almost no one is "illegal" any longer under this bill.

While many wait for entry into this country legally, the people who
came here illegally are given "legal status" before the border is
secured, which could take another 5-10 years. If the border is not
secured, there are triggers which will set off yet another government
bureaucracy to look at it. It should work as well as sequester.

Amnesty includes deported illegal immigrants deported after 12/31/11.
It includes relatives of all - children, spouses, stepchildren,
orphans, widows, widowers, and so on.

Some criminals are exempt from deportation and most illegal immigrants
will be exempt from deportation.

Citizenship takes about 13 years except for DREAMers who will achieve
citizenship in five years.

Employers are actually incentivized to hire illegal workers over
citizens and residents because they won't have to pay for their
healthcare and neither they nor their illegal immigrant employees will
be fined. They are a special, protected class.

It will cost taxpayers a lot of course with $100 million alone for the
purpose of helping illegal immigrants wade through the onerous
paperwork and regulations to gain citizenship and the vote.

What I would prefer is not giving them legal status until the border is
secured, not on the word of Janet Napolitano, but on the word of law
enforcement.

Employers need to be held accountable and be required to check
citizenship.

A certain number of migrant workers could be allowed. Allowing students
to remain makes sense.

I would pass immigration reform piece-by-piece to see if it is working.
This massive senate bill was written in secrecy and is being rushed
through with the final hearing tomorrow. Did you know there was one
Friday?

Our visa program is failing because no one checks on people who
overstay visas and no one is ever deported as one can see in the case
of Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Our porous borders are welcomed by drug dealers
and terrorists. It's not only potential hard-working Americans as some
would have us believe.

*Weekend Monkey:  Hidey ho, Primates! Y'know,I actually addressed this during my 2008 presidential campaign and if you'd voted for me, there's a lotta problems you have now woulda been solved, and that's the real banana!

"No primate left behind" was my slogan", and I meant it - uh, at least at the time.

There's nothing loco about cheap labor..we all like having people to mow our lawns, clean our toilets and wash our cars at working primate prices, yeah? The problem is that we aren't allowing the free market to give us a solution because of a coupla stoo-pid   prejudices.

My wisdom would handle  that. After all, if we can create one set of special policies aimed at creating a low wage underclass and exploiting their labor, why not another, especially when it saves us billions of dollars and keeps the price of labor down..and saves us megabucks on them pesky social welfare costs. Talk about biting a chunk out of that deficit!

 Bookworm Room: People are rational actors. Rather than sealing 2,000-mile-long borders or raiding homes, I would start by disallowing all social services: food stamps, welfare, education, healthcare, etc. Only then, once I'd removed incentives and let that reality sink in for a while, would I start police action, such as deportation.

Having made America an unwelcoming place for illegal immigrants, I would sit down and look at my country's needs. I don't just mean its business/economic needs, although that matters tremendously. I'm also talking about the vitality that comes from immigration. That's a conversation the nation needs, but we should do it on our own terms, and not let the illegals choose the terms.

As the child of two legal immigrants, I am very pro-immigration. It's illegal immigration to which I object. For better or worse, a nation should have the right to decide who it lets in. Nor does this one-way border sealing make us like North Korea or Cuba, both of which refuse to let their own citizens out.

 The Razor:

The vast majority of people I work with on a day to day basis were not born here. All came here legally from circumstances that were humbling if not outright horrifying at times. I would guess that the vast majority of them tend toward the Right, and I’ve even met a Ron Paul supporting libertarian. 

I also live in one of the poorest counties in North Carolina. Some of the men I’ve hired as skilled contractors have complained to me about being underbid on jobs by companies employing illegal immigrants from Mexico. The influx of illegals has pushed down their wages as they’ve been forced to lower their bids to compete. They are good, hardworking and decent people who want to work, but jobs are scarce around here and the temptation to live on disability or some other form of welfare is always there. The oldest guys resist that temptation, but it’s tougher for the younger guys to. I have yet to see either side discuss the damage to middle class wages caused by illegal immigrants, probably because those it hurts tend to be religious and vote Republican.

The only solution I see would be to make illegal immigration truly illegal and treat it as such. Jail and deport illegals and their families, and severely punish the businesses that employ them. At the same time make it easier to legally immigrate here. Increase the quotas of all categories but especially skilled immigrants such as those I work with. The problem is that leftist ideology views capitalism as a polarizing system, and that leftists create such a system by throwing open the borders to unskilled immigrants who drive down wages for the middle class. It then becomes the government’s role to redistribute the wealth to create a fairer system.

The problem is that a fairer system would exist on its own if we had higher immigration quotas along with a bulletproof border. 

(* Weekend Monkey was a Democratic presidential candidate in 2008. He now works in Washington as a special aide to Senator Elizabeth Warren)

Well, there you have it.

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum. And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.

It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere, and you won’t want to miss it.

And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that, y'know?

The Arrest Of The Second Boston Bomber, And What It Tells Us.

The second Boston Bomber, Dzhokar Tsarnaev was taken into custody Saturday night, and the circumstances of his arrest and what subsequent investigations have revealed opens up an entirely new can of worms.

A badly wounded Dzhokar was found hiding in a boat in the backyard of a man who called 911 after he became suspicious of what was going on in his backyard.

 


David Henneberry had gone into his garden for a cigarette after police lifted restrictions on people leaving their homes, believing the bomber had left the area. He noticed that the cover over his boat had blood on it and a strap had been cut. He went back into the house to get a stepladder and looked inside.

His stepson Robert said: “He stuck his head under the tarp and noticed a pool of blood and something crumpled up in a ball. Instead of being a hero of the moment and yelling at what we now know was the suspect, he did the right thing and called 911.”

In spite of the fact that the SWAT teams had Dzhokar cornered and knew he was badly wounded, neighbors said they heard more than 30 shots after police swarmed the scene, and several explosions that were probably police concussion grenades.

The boat was riddled with shots to the point that the fact Dzhokar was taken alive is amazing. It's interesting to speculate whether pulling a corpse out of that boat was the intent.Dead men, after all, tell no tales.

Dzhokar Tsarnaev (murderous irony) is now handcuffed to a bed in Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where 11 victims of the bombing are still being treated. He's too badly wounded to be interrogated at present according to the authorities.

Even more interesting is how his arrest is being treated. Dzhoaker Tsarnaev is a fully naturalized American citizen,presumably with all the rights guaranteed under the Constitution, Yet the Obama Administration's Justice Department has said that Tsarnaev is not going to be given his Miranda Rights and that when and if he's able to be interrogated, they're going to invoke a recently legislated 'public safety exception' that will permit him to be interrogated without being Mirandized and having an attorney present, and will allow anything he says to be used against him in court. In other words, it's essentially a flushing of his Fifth Amendment rights.

Among other things, this points out the ridiculous nature of the Warren Court's stretching the Fifth Amendment out of shape with the Miranda decision, but wait, there's more.

The 'public safety exception' is designed to be invoked when the feds have what's referred to as a reasonable need to protect themselves or the public from 'a clear and present danger'.

Well and good, but Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis among others has said clearly that while the authorities are not certain there aren't more caches of arms and explosives to be found, the people of Boston are safe and the lockdown of the city and surrounding areas has already been removed. Not only that, but other members of a major terrorism cell of whom the Tsarnaev's were a part have been rounded up, on which I'll have more to say in a minute.

My point here is that Tsarnaev's rights are being waived, and according to Boston's own police commissioner the 'clear and present danger' description doesn't apply.

However with Tsarnaev being questioned under this exception, any knowledge of what he says or doesn't say is filtered by what the feds say he said, and unverified by an independent source like an attorney.

Not only that, but if he's reclassified as an enemy combatant, which is already being discussed by the Justice Department, we're not going to see a public trial. And under the provisions of the 2012 NDAA Act (specifically, Section 1021) for the "indefinite detention of American citizens without due process at the discretion of the President", Tsarnaev,if he survives, can simply be held without trial for the rest of his life.And so can anyone else President Obama decides it would be a good idea to imprison for whatever reason.

Under section 1021, the president could legally imprison his caddy without trial for handing him the wrong golf club.

What this means in real terms is that a coverup of what happened in Boston, why it happened and whom was responsible is dead simple.

And as we find as we look a little more closely, there's a fair amount the Obama Administration and its security appointees might very much want covered up.

First, there's the little matter of how we treated Russian intelligence when it came to the older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev when he traveled to Russia and parts unknown for six months. The Russians made a formal request for information on Tamerlan. because they knew he was a follower of radical Islam, were worried he was in contact with radical groups and were concerned about him traveling to Russia. Tsarnaev visited Dagestan and Chechnya, and may very well have gone elsewhere. It isn't a problem for a totalitarian government to put someone on a list and give orders not to stamp his passport.The Iranians, for instance, did it for a number of escaping al-Qaeda fighters en route from Afghanistan after we invaded, just as they did for the 9/11 hijackers.

Not only did the FBI sluff off the Russian request with a few inconsequential details, they never followed up by investigating the brothers after Tamerlan returned to the states.

There was virtually no checking of Tamerlan's associations when it came to his younger brother Dzhoaker application for a green card and later for citizenship, let alone Tamerlan himself who was a legal permanent resident.

Nor were either of the brothers placed under surveillance. There was no attempt to monitor them even after the Russian warning, and no one bothered to monitor the jihadi material Tamerlan was promoting via social media.

There's also a great deal of chatter about the Tsarnaev's being part of an organized jihad cell. What we know for a fact at this point is that is that several other people with ties to jihadi groups in the Boston area been arrested.

We also know that jihadist groups in the Caucasus have received funding from Saudis.

And we know that despite what DHS chief Janet Napolitano said, Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi,a Saudi national with major family and clan ties to al-Qaeda has a file created under the name “Abdul Rahman Ali Al Harby” at 4 p.m. on Tuesday by an official with the National Targeting Center, a counterterrorism sub-agency that's part of the Department of Homeland Security.

It specifically states that Alharbi is  “linked to the Boston bombing” and was to be processed for revocation of his visa based on national security grounds.

As you'll remember, Alharbi somehow went from suspect, to 'person of interest' to 'cleared' after Saudi Foreign Minister had private chats with Secretary of State John Kerry and President Obama. And lo and behold, according to the Saudi paper Okaz  Alharbi had a  personal  visit in the hospital from none other than First Lady Michelle Obama.

In fairness, Mrs. Obama visited other victims of the bombing, but in view of the personal, hands on intervention of the Saudi Foreign minister and Alharbi's background,let's just say it seems questionable to me.

You'll remember that President Obama ended post-9/11 restrictions on Saudis entering the US three months ago and gave them special, preferred status.

 If Saudis were involved, that would constitute a nasty problem for both the president and the Saudis.

Aside from reflecting badly on President Obama's unilateral decision to  change U.S. law to let Saudis in without restrictions or background checks, there's a multi-billion dollar arms deal with the House of Saud in the works, not to mention this president's fondness for Islam and Islamists, all  that oil, and continued Saudi access to America.

So cooperating in cleaning things up and indulging in coverup ala' Benghazi, Fast and Furious and numerous other incidents would not only be win for the Obama Administration but  a natural win-win for both sides.

That could very well explain why the Swat teams made a pretty fair try at seeing to it that  Dzhokar Tsarnaev wasn't taken alive, and when it turned out he survived, why the Obama Administration is setting it up so that he can be imprisoned indefinitely and kept hidden away where anything he says can be safely filtered.