Forum:How do you feel about minors being able to buy the Morning After pill without prescription or parental notification?

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 do you feel about minors being able to buy the Morning After pill without prescription or parental notification?

The Razor:I spoke to the wife who is a family physician about this. She believes the pill should be offered to all girls of reproductive age, and not just the 15 year olds with ID. Although she is pro-life and believes that life begins at conception, she believes the pill is a lesser of evils when it comes to abortion although she is concerned that girls would use it as a form of birth control instead of using contraception. I agree with her on this issue, but am worried about the abuse of the pill since it would be easier to take after sex than taking the contraceptive pill every day, and may be cheaper too for some girls who do not engage in frequent sex. Since the pill is only effective within a day after sex, it could lead to more unwanted pregnancies if girls fail to obtain and take the pill in time. There are unintended consequences with any law, and side effects for every medication, and I’m worried that we will soon find out both.

The Noisy Room: It's a very bad idea. It's an effort to supersede the authority of parents in the rearing of their children. It presumes to grant minors State awarded rights that exceed those of the people responsible for their upbringing. It's also an effort to impose an artificial standard of morality well below what is viable for the survival of a society.

This is a communistic tactic that forwards the fundamental principle of turning children against their parents to enforce legitimacy of State ownership of children. It is collectivist manipulation meant to divide families and do away with a sense of right and wrong, which is normally fostered in the traditional natural family unit. Blurring the lines of right and wrong is a precursor to the elimination of morality and from that, of religion, which is traditionally the vehicle of morality.

Actions such as the unsupervised use of the Morning After Pill lead to government control and the disavowment of parental oversight. This is the goal of Marxists/Communists. They need children who are trained to hate and disobey their parents, but who will obey those they perceive as heroic; those who give them what they want whether earned or not; right or wrong. You saw this in Cambodia's Pol Pot who instituted a massive youth gang called the Khmer Rouge. They murdered millions; one-third of their own nation. Pol Pot created a society of pure, youthful Communism, which was a ghastly murderous tyranny.

Programmed youth are separated from and indoctrinated with hate for their parents. Left unchecked, the youth gravitate towards Big Brother. They not only hate their parents, but the State goads them into turning them in and/or killing them. You see it time and time again throughout history. If children can absolve themselves of responsibility for random sexual encounters and don't have to answer to their parents or suffer any repercussions, they are one step closer to the collective of the Marxist State. Prescribed permissiveness in and out of the classroom becomes all the children know and respect. They respect and cleave to the government and law enforcement; they shun and deride their families. Children consider themselves equal to adults in all ways and through State indoctrination come to support and implement a pervasive police State willingly. Selfishness becomes a desirable trait and loyalty to the State becomes the rule of the day. The Morning After Pill that caters to those as young as 15, coupled with secret, cheap abortions brings our youth one step closer to the killing fields.

Bookworm Room: As the parent of minors, I think it's appalling. The Left will always justify this kind of rule-making or legislation by pointing to those teenage girls who have dreadful home lives, and are at risk of being physically hurt if they confess to a pregnancy. Yes, those are real situations, but I've never seen any evidence that they are anything but a small minority. In the real world, parents whose daughters come home pregnant are not going to be happy, and they may yell at their daughter, but they don't abuse her. They rally around her. In other words, they are family and they are there for her. (In this regard, I think the movie Juno was pretty accurate.)

The facts on the ground mean that the state's motive in making birth control and abortifacients available to ever younger girls isn't because it's trying to protect a small minority of at-risk girls. Rather, it's trying to break down the family unit. Sex is a great way to force that schism because, next to hunger, sex is the most powerful motivator. By promising children sex, and lots of it -- without any messy consequences such as disease or pregnancy -- the state ensures that children look to the state as the bountiful provider. The message is a simple one: We'll make you happy; your parents will make you sad.

Of course, no one is looking at the very real consequences of the state's handing out sex like an addictive drug. The state pours toxic hormone soups in adolescent bodies; treats those young bodies with powerful antibiotics; alienates young minds and emotions from those who are most likely to love them; and sends the message that human sex, rather than creating powerful, life-long emotional bonds, has no more meaning than (and about as much charm as) bovine, canine, or feline sex. No wonder the girls who graduate from the hook-up culture in college, don't feel liberated but, instead, just feel used and emotionally frozen. They have been used -- not just by the men who get the girls, but by an all-powerful state that has as its goal the end of individuals' control over their own bodies.

Lastly, there's also something profoundly wrong about a government that, even as it criminalizes adult men and women who have sex with children, does everything it can to encourage children to have sex. I don't have a good word to describe that. Revolting? Hypocritical? Sleazy? Obscene? Immoral? I think all apply.

David Gerstman from  Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: The MSM will tell you when polling data supports their premises. You might have seen a news item recently that people who self-identify as pro-choice outnumber those who consider themselves pro-life.

That is true.

The latest Gallup poll surveying attitudes towards abortion indeed found that 48% of Americans consider themselves pro-choice but only 44% consider themselves pro-life.

But the same survey also shows that 52% of Americans believe that there should be some restrictions on abortion and only 28% support an unfettered right to abortion. (18% believe that abortion should never be legal.)

What's going on? The MSM generally support an unconditional right to abortion. The MSM only consider such a position to be pro-choice. Reasonable restrictions are considered to be violations of a fundamental constitutional right. Most Americans though, disagree. They believe that abortion should not be outlawed in entirely, but that there can be common sense restrictions on abortion.

Consider something else. Since 1996, over 60% of Americans support abortions in the first trimester. For the second trimester that percentage drops to under 30% and under 20% for the third trimester. The abortion absolutists will raise a hue and cry over the latter two figures, if they bothered to report it. But they won't because they know it's a losing issue.

One of the more contentious issues is that of parental notification. A teenager who has a tumor would require parental notification before she would undergo surgery. In many states, though, her parents would not have to be told if she were to undergo an abortion.

This ruling allowing a teenager to obtain a morning after pill seems one more effort to undermine parental authority. It is also a way of enshrining as an unconditional right a procedure that most Americans think should be reasonably limited.

Sara from The Independent Sentinel:   It's crazy. We are talking about children who aren't old enough to buy cigarettes but they are old enough to buy the morning after pill.

That's extreme and the President feels comfortable with it because the science is solid.

Is that all we are reduced to now - if the science is okay, that's enough?

  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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BREAKING: US Special Forces were STOPPED from going to Benghazi to aid men on the ground

CBS reporter Sharyl Atkinson is all over this.

This is old ground to those of you whom read this site regularly, but it's nice to have it confirmed by someone whom was there on the ground.

According to diplomat Gregory Hicks, murdered Ambassador Chris Stevens deputy who was one of the Benghazi survivors now giving testimony to congress, a team of Special Forces prepared to fly from Tripoli to Benghazi during the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks and save the Americans under attack was ordered not to do so.

Needless to say, this directly contradicts what we were told by President Obama, Secretary Clinton and other administration officials, that nobody was ever told to stand down and that that there were no resources available:

Hicks gave private testimony to congressional investigators last month in advance of his upcoming appearance at a congressional hearing Wednesday.

According to excerpts released Monday, Hicks told investigators that SOCAFRICA commander Lt. Col. Gibson and his team were on their way to board a C-130 from Tripoli for Benghazi prior to an attack on a second U.S. compound "when [Col. Gibson] got a phone call from SOCAFRICA which said, 'you can't go now, you don't have the authority to go now.' And so they missed the flight ... They were told not to board the flight, so they missed it."

No assistance arrived from the U.S. military outside of Libya during the hours that Americans were under attack or trapped inside compounds by hostile forces armed with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and AK-47 rifles.

Hicks told congressional investigators that if the U.S. had quickly sent a military aircraft over Benghazi, it might have saved American lives. The U.S. Souda Bay Naval Base is an hour's flight from Libya.

Hicks recounts how we had F-15's in easy reach of Benghazi, and says point blank that had we sent a couple of fighter aircraft over the attack area, the Libyan attackewrs would likey have left and the mortar attack that killed two Americans the next morning would not have occurred.

Read more excerpts from his testimony here.

We knew before that the Americans whom died in Benghazi could have saved. We knew that before, but having it confirmed by someone who was on the ground here makes it a lot stronger.

So that leads to the heart of the matter, the real unanswered questions:

Why did this happen, and why did this president and his administration go to such lengths to lie and cover it up? Was it really because it could have proven embarrassing in the middle of the president's re-election campaign?

What was Ambassador Stevens doing in a dangerous unsecured location like Benghazi? And why was he meeting with the Turks just before the attack?

Why exactly was it in American interests not to rescue him and his associates when they came under attack?

Why were both of the two buildings being used by the Americans in Benghazi delibeately left unsecured, and why were Ambassador Stevens' repeated requests for more security repeatedly ignored?

Was the US, perhaps represented by the Ambassador Stevens himself involved in negotiating for weapons caches in Libya? If so, why?

Answer those questions and we'll find out what really happened that night - in Benghazi, and in Washington DC.

The ghosts of some brave men and the living whom remain, like Charles Woods deserve some answers.

Israel Tips The Scales Against Assad In The Syrian War

After this weekend' strikes by Israel on Syria's chemical weapons sites, military installations and on a missile shipment bound for Hezbollah, Syria's regime is signalling it may declare war on Israel.

Syrian Information Minister Omran Zoabi said in his press conference today that the raids 'open the door wide to all possibilities.'



(courtesy of Iran's state-run propaganda outlet PRESS TV)

In a similar statement, Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al Mekdad told CNN the strike was "a declaration of war" by Israel and represented an alliance between Islamic terrorists and Israel.

Is Basher Assad thinking seriously of declaring war against Israel?You'd think he has enough troubles.
He apparently is making a try to get the other Arab League nations back on his side by uniting them against the Jews. But again, this is in many ways a Sunni versus Shi'ite fight, and Qatar and the Saudis are bankrolling the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaeda Sunni rebels.While Assad got a pro forma condemnation, that's all he got.

What I think actually has happened is that President Obama, stuck over what to do in view of his embarrassingly vanishing 'red lines' asked the Israelis to tip the scales against Assad and solve the problem for him, and at least one of my notorious Lil' Birdies intimated that this is exactly what went down.

Which means that when President Obama and the U.S. State Department claimed that they had no warning of the Israeli attacks, they were out and out lying, but then that's nothing new.

The problem was that Assad was starting to win this war and the tides were shifting against the rebels.

Assad's forces were gradually pushing them back and retaking territory the rebels controlled. And the recapture of Oteibeh, the chief depot for arms coming in  from Jordan for the rebels by Assad's forces a few days ago,  was a major strategic loss.

Meanwhile, Assad's allies, Hezbollah and Iran were pouring in fresh troops and arms to bolster the regime. The rebels have been unable to take Damascus or Aleppo and the attrition of their fighters was starting to tell. At worst, Assad had achieved a stalemate and appeared to be turning the tide...until now.

The strikes on Syria not only took out a shipment of Hezbollah-bound advanced Iranian missiles, but were also directed at Syria's chemical weapons facility in Jamraya..which coincidentally just happens to contain numerous Syrian military bases, including the headquarters of Assad's elite Fourth Infantry Division, commanded by his brother Maher, as well as al-Hamah, where the command of the Republican Guard, one of the government’s elite forces, is located.

New reports from my sources indicate that the Syrians suffered heavy military casualties:



The Israelis obviously have no preferred outcome in this fight. Assad's Syria is an ally of Hezbollah and Iran and a conduit for Iranian weaponry, while the al-Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood dominated rebels are certainly no friends of Israel's either.

And it's also obvious that they took out these facilities and the missiles for their own self-interest.But those raids could have been done a lot more surgically and with less casualties for Assad. So it also appears they may have conveniently tipped the scales in favor of the insurgents, whom President Obama is backing. If you remember, something similar happened in Libya when the president's favored Muslim Brotherhood/al-Qaeda allies looked to be getting their collective clocks cleaned by Moamar Khadaffi's forces in Benghazi.

In that case, President Obama had the U.S. military do the job, using air power to destroy Khaddaffi's forces so the jihadi insurgents could survive and win. This time, he appears to have used the Israelis.
who undoubtedly got or will get something for cooperation.

UPDATE: My Lil' Birdie's sarlier intelto me that the Syrians suffered high military casualties is now conformed officially.

Guess What? The Obama Admin Has No Idea How Many Agencies They're Funding!

 

The Feds have just revealed a deep, dark secret...they have no idea how many agencies they're asking us to pay for!

There is - wait for it - no complete official government list of federal agencies and programs telling the federal government what your tax dollars are supporting.

Needless to say, there are laws that say the feds are supposed to compile this information. The Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010 (GPRAMA) — which President Obama signed into law on January 4, 2011 — established required quarterly performance assessments of all government programs, and also mandated that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) create a website that was supposed to publish quarterly performance reports by the heads of each agency.

Not only does that website — Performance.gov. launched in 2011 — only a partial list of government programs,(even the FCC isn't on the list) but the quarterly performance reports for even the agencies listed are conspicuous by their absence.

This should give you a clue about how the vast bureaucracy mandated by ObamaCare is going to function.


There isn't even a uniform standard about how strategic and performance plans data is published, something GPRAMA also mandated. Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute was quoted by the Daily Caller as saying that not only isn't there a list of federal agencies that exists, but that there's no standard machine-readable federal government organization chart or report format.

According to Harper, Many reports are currently published in formats like PDF instead of XML or StratML, which make it more difficult for the data to be useful to a computer.

There was a bill to establish reporting these kind of reporting standards supported by House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa that successfully made it through the House in 2012.. only to die in the Senate.

Ah Washington! It's fun spending other people's money!

Israel Hits Iranian Missiles Being Transferred To Hezbollah - And Syria's Chemical Weapons Center

 

Well, President Obama has his red lines and Israel has it's own it appears.

In two separate strikes, an area containing a number of Syrian military facilities including Syria's main chemical weapons facilty and a convoy of Iranian missiles en route from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon stored at the Damascus Airport were destroyed by...well someone, since the Israelis as usual aren't acknowledging anything.

The missiles were being stored in a warehouse at Damascus International Airport when they were hit. They were Iranian-made Fateh-110s — a mobile, accurate, solid-fueled missile made from Russian design and an improvement over the liquid-fueled Scuds. But there were also some late model Scud Ds, with an enhanced range. Both types have the range to strike most of Israel from southern Lebanon, except apparently they're not going to strike anywhere now.The warehouse itself was guarded by Hezbollah fighters and Iran’s Quds Force, most of whom went the same way as the missiles.

The Israelis - or whomever it was - apparently used well targeted air-to-ground missiles from Lebanese air space, and never overflew Syria at all.Apparently they had pretty good intel too.

All a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington would say in a statement was, “Israel is determined to prevent the transfer of chemical weapons or other game-changing weaponry by the Syrian regime to terrorists, especially to Hezbollah in Lebanon.”

The second attack apparently had something to do with those chemical weapons. The Syrian government announced today that the Israelis had launched a missile attack against the large Syrian military complex at Jamraya just outside Damascus.

Now, Jamraya is the home of a lot of Syrian military facilities, including the headquarters of Syria's Fourth Army Division, commanded by the president’s brother Maher, as well as al-Hamah, where the command of the Republican Guard, one of the government’s elite forces, is located. But it's also the location of Syria’s main research center for work on biological and chemical weapons. This same facility was targeted and damaged by the Israelis back in January.

As an added touch, the explosions this weekend were clearly visible from Damascus...I think something maybe went 'boom'.



The Israelis, like the U.S. have no particular dog in this fight.Assad's Syria is an ally of Hezbollah and Iran and a co0nduit for Iranian weaponry, while the al-Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood dominated rebels are certainly no friend s of Israel's either.

So Israel's main objective here is to prevent Assad's arsenal from falling into Hezbollah's hands,particularly his chemical weaponry. And to prevent the violence of the Syrian civil war from spilling over Israel's northern borders.

Rear Admiral Vows To Continue Sharing Christian Faith In Spite Of New Obama Admin Orders

Faith in the military is under deliberate assault by the Obama Administration. It's even gotten to the point where the military has brought in Michael Weinstein, Esq., a “religious tolerance” specialist (and hard line atheist) who calls Christians to 'well funded monsters and told FOX news that U.S. troops who proselytize are guilty of sedition and treason and should be punished to stave off a “tidal wave of fundamentalists.”

This is th esame Administration who said that Major Hassan shooting down his fellow soldiers at Ft. Hood while scremaing 'Allahu Akbar!' had nothing to do with Islam and was just a workplace accident.

But some of our brave warriors are apparently not backing down.

One of them is U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. William D. Lee, who was present at the 62nd observance of the National Day of Prayer in Washington, D.C, as lawmakers and faith leaders gathered on Capitol Hill. Adm. Lee was there to represent Americans serving in the military.

When he ascended to the microphone, Adm. Lee told the crowd he had 10 minutes of carefully prepared remarks, but he decided to leave them in his chair and “speak from the heart” instead.

Describing himself as “a man of deep abiding faith who happens to wear a uniform,” the admiral then went on to announce his intention to defy any efforts to stop military personnel from openly sharing their Christian faith.]

Lee went on to cite last year’s record high number of military suicides, 349—roughly one per day—and said every 65 minutes a military veteran will take his or her own life. “I want you to remember that number,” he said.

He told the story of a recent meeting with a 24-year-old soldier who had attempted suicide but survived his self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. When he heard the man’s story, Admiral Lee told his audience that he knew the rules said he should send the man to a chaplain, but his heart said to give him a Bible.

“The lawyers tell me that if I do that, I’m crossing the line,” Lee said. “I’m so glad I’ve crossed that line so many times.”

Lee pledged not to back down from “my right under the Constitution to tell a young man that there is hope.”

The Obama Administration's assault on Christianity in the military has taken insidious forms, including threats by the Pentagon that they may court martial Christian soldiers who share their faith and actual Army reserve training materials listing believing Christians as 'extremists':



Part of the agenda of President Obama and the Left appears to be attempting to corrupt the one institution so far that resisted their attempts to do so. The repeal of 'Don't ask, don't tell' and the hollowing out of our military through forced early retirement and sequestration cuts was just the beginning.For an active duty admiral to profess his faith publicly like this was an act of uncommon courage.

There comes a time to stand, and warriors like Adm. Lee are showing the way to thousands of others. With their courage and G-d's grace, they will succeed.

Who Really Is Really Savagely Destroying Palestinian Children?

The Arabs whom refer to themselves as Palestinians have made an entire industry of trotting out dead children for the media and wailing about how the Israelis are murdering them. These two items should give you a good idea of the truth.

We've already discussed how Palestinian children are being educated to hate  Jews from the cradle. But they're also being indoctrinated to be cannon fodder.

Exhibit A...this tweet form the Palestinian al-Qassam Brigades.




 


Just lovely, isn't it?

They also come in handy as human shields for cowardly Palestinian 'fighters' who seem to  only be effective targeting unarmed civilians.

 





And then, there's little Mohammed al-Farra.



This is a story you won't see on your nightly news.

Mohammed hails from Gaza, but the only home he's ever known is the yellow-painted children’s ward in Israel’s Tel Hashomer Hospital in Ramat Gan, Israel, where he lives with his grandfather.

He was brought there because he was born with a genetic disease, likely attributable to the frequency of marriage between first cousins. His little hands and feet had to be amputated because his genetic disorder weakened his immune system and crippled his bowels, and the resulting infection destroyed his hands and feet.

He gets along now with a small wheelchair. His parents abandoned him - his mother left him at the hospital in the middle of his treatment because his father threatened to take another wife if she didn't leave the child and return home to Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian government refused to pay for his care, so he lives at the hospital with his grandfather, who continues to care for him.

Mohammed spends his days undergoing treatment and learning how to use prosthetic limbs.

Mohammed’s Israeli doctors fund-raise to cover his bills, allowing him and his grandfather to live in the pediatric ward:

But it’s not clear how long he’ll stay in the hospital, or where he’ll go when his treatment is complete. As a Palestinian, Mohammed is not eligible for permanent Israeli residency. Yet his family will not take the child back, the grandfather said. His parents, contacted by The Associated Press, refused to comment.

As his grandfather spoke, Mohammed used his knees and elbows to scamper up and down a nearby stairwell, his knees and elbows blackened and scarred from constant pressure. He used his arms to hold a green bottle he found in a stroller. His prosthetic legs with painted-on shoes were strewn nearby.

He crawled toward his grandfather’s lap. “Baba!” he shouted, Arabic for “daddy.” ”Ana ayef,” he said — a mix of Arabic and Hebrew for “I’m tired.”

Dr. Raz Somech, the senior physician in the Tel Hashomer pediatric immunology department, attributes Mohammed’s genetic disorder to the several generations of cousin marriages in his family — including his parents.

So much for those savage, brutal Israelis.They're paying for this disabled child's care out of their own pockets when his own government refuses to and his parents have abandoned him. If Mohammed was a few years older and healthy, the Palestinians would be schooling him in the joys of murdering his Jewish benefactors.

So, in the last analysis, who cares more about Palestinian children? The Jewish culture that values life,or the Arab one that exalts death?

(H/t, Carl)

The Latest LATMA - Cutting Edge Israeli Satire!

This week, 'President Obama explains his red lines'.

Breaking! E-Mails reveal Hillary Lied On Benghazi

 

There's a good reason the White House is trying to downplay the upcoming hearings on Benghazi. There's a reason they have spokeshole Jay Carney saying 'Benghazi was a long time ago' . It's obvious why the White House is illegally threatening whistle blowers who want to come forward and testify.

The more that comes out, the worse this smells:

Fresh evidence in the form of newly released e-mails reveals that the State Department had its fingers all over the attempted coverup, with a senior apparatchnik managing the talking points and saying clearly that her superiors were 'unhappy with implications they'd ignored warnings.'

As intelligence officials pieced together the puzzle of events unfolding in Libya, they concluded even before the assaults had ended that al Qaeda-linked terrorists were involved. Senior administration officials, however, sought to obscure the emerging picture and downplay the significance of attacks that killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. The frantic process that produced the changes to the talking points took place over a 24-hour period just one day before Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, made her now-famous appearances on the Sunday television talk shows.

That senior apparatchnik, by the way, turns out to be State Department flack Victoria Nuland, who lied to reporters in claiming that Susan Rice's Sunday Talking Points accurately reflected the government's "initial assessment"...even though Victoria Nuland personally had the "initial assessment" changed to suit her "superiors'" political worries!

Election time, you know.

These e-mails were turned over to the House and Senate Intelligence committees as part of a deal in order to allow John Brennan, President Obama's choice for head of our CIA to be confirmed. Part of the agreement was that the committees would be allowed to just review the e-mails, not actually take possession of them..which is quite a giveaway right there:

If the House report provides an accurate and complete depiction of the emails, it is clear that senior administration officials engaged in a wholesale rewriting of intelligence assessments about Benghazi in order to mislead the public. [...]

Within hours of the initial attack on the U.S. facility, the State Department Operations Center sent out two alerts. The first, at 4:05 p.m. (all times are Eastern Daylight Time), indicated that the compound was under attack; the second, at 6:08 p.m., indicated that Ansar al Sharia, an al Qaeda-linked terrorist group operating in Libya, had claimed credit for the attack. According to the House report, these alerts were circulated widely inside the government, including at the highest levels. The fighting in Benghazi continued for another several hours, so top Obama administration officials were told even as the fighting was taking place that U.S. diplomats and intelligence operatives were likely being attacked by al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists. A cable sent the following day, September 12, by the CIA station chief in Libya, reported that eyewitnesses confirmed the participation of Islamic militants and made clear that U.S. facilities in Benghazi had come under terrorist attack. It was this fact, along with several others, that top Obama officials would work so hard to obscure.

The article goes on to give the seamy details on how the State Department and the White House cooked reports and intel to cover their culpability and come up with the 'it was the video' narrative that turned out to be such horse manure. It even shows how the drafts of the Talking Points were edited to reflect 'concerns'

And even more is going to come out during the hearings.





Gee, Mrs. Clinton...if it didn't make a difference, why did you and your pals in DC lie about it?

I'm sure we'd all like to know. Certainly the families of those dead Americans would.

A great piece of reporting by the Weekly Standard's Stephen F. Hayes.

Church of Scotland - 'Jews Have No Right To Israel'

A report commissioned by the Church of Scotland titled "The Inheritance of Abraham? The 'Promised Land,'" essentially says that the Jewish people have no right to Israel, using the same sort of reasoning prevalent in replacement theology, an anti-semitic reading of Christianity that claims that G-d's Biblical covenant with Abraham is null and void because, you know, it's the Evil Jews:

The church, which in recent years has jettisoned its once philosemitic character, opened a wide rift with the Scottish Jewish community with the report. Among other controversial statements, the report argues that, “Christians should not be supporting any claims by Jews, or any other people, to an exclusive or even privileged divine right to possess particular territory.”

'Christians should not be supporting any claims by Jews, or any other people, to an exclusive or even privileged divine right to possess particular territory'? Well then,Jimmy, that should include the Arabs who call themselves Palestinians and want an apartheid state where Jews won't be permitted, shouldn't it? As a matter of fact, it ought to include the Scots, who have a referendum on independence from the UK coming up next September.

If the Church of Scotland is going to take this stance, I expect them to be in the front lines opposing both. Unless they're filthy hypocrites, which is more likely, isn't it?

You see, this report attempts to use a blatantly skewed and selective reading of scripture to legitimize what is de facto Jew hatred and anti-semitism, the singling out and denial of the right of self determination to the Jewish people alone.

It quotes a number of rabidly anti-Israel writers and uses a ridiculously inaccurate reading of Israel's history to make the point that the Jews have no right to a country because of their 'injustice' to the Arabs calling themselves Palestinians. No mention is made whatsoever of the attempts at the genocide of every Jew in Israel the Palestinians were eager participants in, or the almost 1 million Jews expelled from the Arab world simply because they were Jews.

The Church commissioned report will goto its annual general assembly, where its 700 members will vote on whether to make it official Church policy. Given the Church's recent record of anti-Israel activity, I wouldn't be at all surprised if this latest outrage is adopted.

Scottish Council of Jewish Communities Director Ephraim Borowski said the church should withdraw the report.

"On behalf of the Jewish community of Scotland, we call upon the church to withdraw it [the report] from the forthcoming general assembly. If the Church cannot build bridges, can it at least refrain from burning them?" Borowski told the London Jewish Chronicle newspaper.

Mr. Borowski misses the point. The  reason the Church of Scotland commissioned this report in the first place was to provide justification and cover to burn those bridges. Simple as that.

The irony is that given the rapidly increasing Muslim population of Scotland and the low birthrates of native Scots, the members of the Church whom vote for this atrocity are going to find out that turning against Israel and the Jews isn't going to win them any points with their new masters.

Nor will it win them any points with Almighty G-d, if history is any indication. Ask the Romans, Egyptians, Babylonians, Spain, the Nazis...

On the other hand, if you believe that G-d runs this world, then Israel  exists, either as a test or as a precursor to messianic times by His grace and design.

So we'll see whom lasts longer, shall we? A declining church embracing anti-semitism and dhimmi status or the modern miracle of Israel, the Jewish homeland.

Prostitute Pepper Sprays 14-Year-Old Boy, Steals His Piggy Bank

Young lust, sex on the internet and the toils of commerce...

A 14-year-old boy saved up his money in a jar for what he thought would be initiation into the mysteries of sex. Then he arranged a meeting with a prostitute over the 'net using his IPad.

Lo and behold, when said prostitute showed up, instead of delivering she looked at him..and after she finished laughing, she pepper sprayed the prospective 'john'. And while he was incapacitated, she stole his IPad and his money jar and left the scene.

Police later apprehended 22-year-old Dareka Brooks when they were able to track her because she stupidly used the IPad in question. Charged with one count of armed robbery, her bail was set at $10,000.

Meanwhile, the teen in question is reportedly safe..and while he 's still ignorant of sex, he's definitely been educated!

Can you imagine what it was like for him to report this to the police? Or how hard it was for the cops to keep from laughing?

China's People's Daily Mocked Over It's New, Phallic Headquarters...

The new Beijing headquarters of China's People's Daily newspaper has come in for a great deal of mockery and government censors are apparently fairly stiff and sore about it.

The People's Daily is the official government mouthpiece..or should I say, tool?

Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter has reportedly been censored heavily after a range of salty tweets.

I personally don't think it's that bad.A fountain at the top would be a nice touch, perhaps. Maybe some nice trees, bushes and shrubs at the bottom?


(H/t, Long time Joshua's Army member Louie Louie)

ChutzPah! Obama Blames America For Drug Violence, Blames U.S. GUN SMUGGLING!!

Pure, unadulterated chuzpah!

President Obama spoke in Mexico today, talking about how he sees a 'new Mexico emerging' along with the usual rhetoric about how Mexico and the U.S. should be equal partners, deepen their relationship, the normal stuff you would expect.

But then there's this gem. As Reuters reported, he blamed the drug- violence in Mexico on the United States because- wait for it - much of the violence is centered around the Americans' demand for illegal drugs and the fact that guns are smuggled into Mexico from the United States.



Did he mention that he and his attorney general were responsible for a significant part of that weapons smuggling via Fast and Furious, a scheme to buy weapons illegally here through straw buyers, traffick them illegally over the border and sell weapons directly to the cartels that they didn't even bother to tell the Mexican government about beforehand? No 'coordination' there! He even took a shot at 'gun shops along our shared border'...the same his ATF coerced into selling illegal weapons to straw buyers even though they objected!

Did he take any personal responsibility? No way amigo! Blame it on 'America'.

He's simply shameless. Absolutely everything is somebody else's fault.

Simply disgraceful.

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

 

Alea iacta est...the Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and we have the results  for this week's Watcher's Council match up.

Before we get started, some flowers, a little medicinal tonic for healing purposes and best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery to Matthew White.Heal up soon Matthew!!








One definition of a friend is someone who puts him or herself in your shoes...in short someone whom exercises empathy, a quality our president himself said he prizes and was the prime qualification he looked for in his own picks for Supreme Court justices.Remember that?



This week's winner by a nose, Joshuapundit's Days After Boston, Obama Pressures Israel To Release Terrorists As A 'Goodwill Gesture'   was a pretty visceral reaction on my part to how this president practiced 'empathy ' when it came to Israel...and at a particularly interesting time, when you would think there was every excuse for anyone who was a human being  to be particularly sensitized to it  Here's a slice:


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:

You won't believe the list.Or the American taxpayer's connection with it.

In our non-Council category, the winner was the always awesome Mark Steyn with The Collapsing of the American Skull submitted by The Noisy Room. Steyn uses the Gosnell abortion trial (collapsing a baby's skull and suctioning the child's brains out is standard operating procedure in partial birth abortions) as a metaphor for our country's seeming unwillingness to come to terms with some very real pathology in our national culture. Strong, stirring stuff.

OK,  here are this week’s full results. Only Simply Jews was unable to vote this week,but was not affected by the usual 2/3 votes penalty.

Council Winners

• *First place with 2 1/3 votes! Joshuapundit –Days After Boston, Obama Pressures Israel To Release Terrorists As A 'Goodwill Gesture'
• Second place with 2  votes – Gay Patriot- Basketball player comes out; “I could care less”
• Third place  with 1 1/3 votes – The Political Commentator- Hungary's shoes of death!
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – The Razor-The Lure of the Conspiracy Theory Revisited
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – Simply Jews-Boston bomber and the Waltham, Mass triple murder
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – The Right Planet-Chris Matthews Pushes the ‘Only Whites Can Be Racists’ Meme … Again
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – The Noisy Room- Amnesty – Solidifying the Marxist Control of America for Decades, If Not Permanently
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey –Should be titled The Reluctant Idiot
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – Rhymes With Right –Why Is A Matter Settled 70 Years Ago Still An Issue In Our Public Schools?
• Fifth place with 2/3 vote – Bookworm Room –Orwellian double think enters the gun grab debate
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Syrian Delirium
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Mellow Jihadi – A Reuters Writer Writes Me

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 3 votes! – MarkSteyn-The Collapsing of the American Skull submitted by The Noisy Room
• Second place with 1 2/3 votes – The Big Picture –Is Israel really Pakistan’s enemy?   submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Third place  with 1 1/3 votes – Robert Spencer/ FrontPage –Who We Must Blame For Boston     submitted by Joshuapundit
• Fourth place  *t* with 1  vote -Richard Fernandez/Pajamas Media-Freedom  submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Fourth place  *t* with 1 vote  Sultan Knish -The Snake In The Bloody Garden    submitted by The Political Commentator
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote - Benjamin Wiker/Human Events –Why aren't liberals more critical of Islam? submitted by Bookworm Room
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote - Andrew McCarthy –Obama's National Security Fraud submitted by The Watcher
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Canada Free Press – Bad Moon Over America   submitted by The Right Planet
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion –The High Cost Of Low Information Voters    submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Big Jolly Politics –Harris County Republican Party: Yo, dude, do you support pedophilia?     submitted by Rhymes With Right
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Buckhorn Road –Just a couple questions about the Boston Marathon bombing and its aftermath   submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Hellinahandbasket.net–Canine Logo Equals Rape   submitted by The Razor

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!

America's Left : Koch Bros. Bad, Al Jazeera Good!!

 

If any of you still harbor any doubts about the dysfunctional, anti-American nature of much of the American Left, especially the ObamaMedia's Left wing 'journalists', what appears below should pretty much resolve them.

The Koch brothers, for reasons I frankly can't fathom are in the process of making an offer to buy the Tribune Company’s newspapers.This would include the sale of mainstream Leftist flagships like the Los Angeles Times,The Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, the Hartford Courant and the Orlando Sentinel, among others.

I suppose the idea, at the root of it, is to actually support a little diversity of thought. The billionaire Koch brothers lean libertarian and have funded a number of conservative causes.

But.we.can't.have.that.

The Left is screaming like a bunch of recently castrated toy poodles at the very thought of the Evil Koch Brothers actually breaking the Left's main stream media monopoly. And nowhere is that more evident than in Los Angeles.

Half the staff of the L.A. Times reportedly said they would quit rather than, you know, actually be journalists instead of partisan shills. Not much of a threat considering that the new owners would probably have to fire at least that many to actually create a newspaper,online or print, worth reading.

Then the journalist's union, the American Newspaper Guild and the Communication Workers of America got into the act, putting out a harsh statement that the Koch Brothers are apparently not covered by the First Amendment and were therefore unfit to own newspapers:

Recently you’ve seen many petitions asking that the Koch brothers not be allowed to buy the Tribune Company’s newspapers. We understand why the Kochs breed this distrust. They are active political proponents of harsh right-wing positions. We’re also not certain that Tribune will listen to anything but money when the final decision is made.

What we do know is that great papers publish credible, trusted journalism online and on the printed page. Whoever comes to own these mastheads needs to understand that protecting newsrooms from ideological taint is no small thing. The future of American journalism depends on the ability to print truth, not opinion.

We call on Tribune to make a pledge that they’ll only sell to a buyer that will protect the objectivity of the news product by making a public commitment to doing so. The Newspaper Guild-CWA and the Communications Workers of America seek your support in this goal.

'Protecting newsrooms from ideological taint?' Ho Ho! And they say the Left lacks a sense of humor!

You'll notice that none of this nonsense has anything to do with the usual union concerns about working conditions, pay, benefits or layoffs. It's strictly visceral anger about the politics and nothing else. It's hatred based on ideology, on the commission of supposed  Thought Crimes. Orwell would recognize these people in a nanosecond.

Ah, but it gets better. The doctrinaire socialists on the Los Angeles City Council have decided that they're going to get involved and punish the kulaks if the sale goes through:

Three Los Angeles City Council members — including a candidate for mayor — asked their colleagues Tuesday to consider pulling city pension money from the investment firms that own the Los Angeles Times if they sell the publication to buyers who do not support “professional and objective journalism.”…

“Frankly what I hear about the Koch brothers, if it’s true, it’s the end of journalism,’’ said [Councilman Bill] Rosendahl, a former broadcaster. “I don’t want to see Los Angeles, the second-largest city and the biggest region in the nation, not to have a quality newspaper.”…

“We cannot support the sale of the Times to entities who Times readers would view as a political transaction first and foremost, turning L.A.’s metropolitan daily into an ideological mouthpiece whose commitment to empirical journalism would be unproven at best,” Rosendahl wrote in the motion. “A newspaper isn’t just a business it’s also a civic trust.”

You see, it's their ideological mouthpiece, dammit. No sharing!

Oh, as an aside, Rosendahl's broadcasting experience is confined to free cable television and Leftist public broadcasting outlets like the Free Air Time Project. But he was also a professor at Cal State Dominquez Hills, where he probably hung out and happily rubbed elbows with the likes of his fellow professors Angela Davis and Rod Karenga. You'd think he'd know better, but apparently he's uninterested in what a fun-filled First Amendment lawsuit the City of Los Angeles would be subjected to if the rest of the Council signs on to his proposal.

Needless to say, nothing like this was said when prominent Lefty and major Democrat donor David Geffen toyed with buying the Times.

But wait, there's more.

There's another media story that sheds considerable light on how totalitarian these people really are.

As you know, Al Gore recently sold his failed Current TV to al-Jazeera, AKA Jihad TV, the anti-Semitic, anti-American news network based in the Muslim country of Qatar and owned by the Muslim Brotherhood supporting Emir of Qatar. Al-Jazeera was willing to grease Gore's over sized palm with $500 million to get an American presence.And Big Al was more than happy to take it.

Al-Jazeera specializes in airing jihadi snuff video films of non-Muslims and American soldiers being murdered, they're the outlet of choice for any stories or propaganda  al Qaeda, The Taliban, Hezbollah and other terrorist groups want to air and one of their star performers is the Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader Sheikh Qaradawi, who favors a world-wide Islamist caliphate under sharia law, including the beating of 'disobedient' 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 the good Sheikh's show is one of the major attractions of al-Jazeera world wide.

But all that appears to be unimportant. Now that al-Jazeera now has a presence in the American market, the same Leftists who are having apoplexy at the idea that somebody with different views like the Koch brothers might actually have a place in America's media climate are welcoming al-Jazeera with open arms.

Not only isn't there any criticism of al-Jazeera having a presence on American cable TV, but since al-Jazeera America announced that they're hiring “800 American journalists and media professionals" a lot of these same journalists are fighting like rabid dogs to get a spot on Jihad TV's payroll.They'd never work for the likes of the Koch Brothers, but al-Jazeera..."salaam alekum, tzadik! Where do I sign"?

Perhaps they've forgotten that Al-Jazeera is the same network that cheerfully ran the al-Qaeda video of Khalid Shiekh Mohammed sawing off the head of reporter Daniel Pearl while the mob screamed 'allahu akbar!'

And the same network who ran al-Qaeda videos of the kidnapped Christian Science Monitor's reporter Jill Carrol tearfully begging for her life.

Ah, well.

Yes, the irony is monstrous. But as I said at the start of this piece, this entire sordid episode is valuable because it shows the dysfunctional, anti-American nature of a lot of people on the Left and especially a lot of the ObamaMedia's Left wing 'journalists' quite well.

They're unworthy of living in a free society.

Pope Francis To Canonize 800 Christians Murdered By Muslims

 


Now this is interesting.

Pope Francis has decided to canonize 800 Italian Christian civilians murdered by by Ottoman soldiers in the 15th century after they refused to convert to Islam.

This took place in 1480 in Otranto, a small port town at the eastern tip of southern Italy. The Turks had captured the town and after the usual sack, rape and pillage the Christian males over the age of 15 were offered the choice of conversion or death:

The leader, known as Blessed Antonio Primaldo, a tailor, spoke on the prisoners’ behalf. “We believe in Jesus Christ, Son of God, and for Jesus Christ we are ready to die,” he said, according to Blessed John Paul II, who visited Otranto in 1980 for the 500th anniversary of the martyrs’ deaths.

Primaldo inspired all the other townspeople to take courage, the late Pope said, and to say: “We will all die for Jesus Christ; we willingly die so as to not renounce his holy faith.” There were not “deluded” or “outdated,” Blessed John Paul continued, but “authentic, strong, decisive, consistent men” who loved their city, their families and their faith.

The skulls and other relics of the martyrs currently adorn the walls around the altar of Otranto Cathedral as a memorial to their sacrifice. According to the archdiocese’s website, popular tradition holds that when the soldiers beheaded Primaldo, his body remained standing even as the combatants tried to push him over. Legend has it that the decapitated man stood until the very last prisoner was killed, at which point Primaldo’s body collapsed next to his dead comrades.

The men of Otranto held off the forces of Mohamed II long enough for Christian forces to regroup and throw the ottoman armies out, Their sacrifice likely saved Italy from the same fate as the Balkans.

The canonization will be held in St. Peter's on May 12th.

It will be interesting to see what the Muslim world makes of this.

(h/t Robert @ Jihadwatch)

Hilarious Green Screen Prank on Weather Girl

by

I have a feeling the language was pretty heated on this one off the air!!

Jason Collins, 'Heroic'????

I absolutely can't believe the to-do over basketball player Jason Collins outing himself as a homosexual.

One breathless commentator over at USA Today even compared him with Jackie Robinson, believe it or not...

I'm sure you've all noticed the 'straight only' bathrooms, water fountains, seating sections in restaurants and public buildings and the many neighborhoods where gays are unable to buy property.

Oh, wait a minute, you haven't?

Full disclosure..I'm not a round ball fan and know nothing about Collins, nor do I care whom he sleeps with. But it seems to me that calling him heroic is just a tad misplaced.

If anyone deserves credit and sympathy, it's his former fiancée, Carolyn Moos.

She only found out Collins was a gay a couple of days before he announced it.


Carolyn tells TMZ, she never once suspected he was gay, so the news is shocking. She says Collins eventually revealed everything last weekend — just days before his big announcement — and said that his homosexuality was the real reason he ended things with her.

At the time of their breakup, Carolyn says Jason gave a bunch of BS reasons for calling it quits ... and she could never understand what went wrong, until now. [...]

"It's very emotional for me as a woman to have invested [eight] years in my dream to have a husband, soul mate, and best friend in him. So this is all hard to understand."

Eight years. And after all that, he calls her up just like that and says 'Guess what, I'm batting for the other team'. Like he didn't know before?

And while Jason Collins was discovering this about himself, does anyone doubt he was cheating on her?

If he had any doubts about his orientation and he cared about this young woman and her feelings, I think he owed her some honesty.

To her credit, Ms. Moos has remained fairly classy about being strung along like that.

"I care about [Jason] tremendously and only want the best for him," she said. "I want Jason to be happy for a lifetime and stay true to who he really is, inside and out."

Again, I could care less who Jason Collins sleeps with. But based what his behavior and his treatment of his fiancée reveals about his character, I don't see him being held up as any kind of hero or model at all.

That's the only part about this I think worthy of mention, because it shows how debased our ideas of what heroism is are becoming.

'Think Progress' Lefty Female Blogger Cited By Police For Making Phony Rape Threat To Herself

Meg Lanker-Simons is a well known paid shill for the Soros-funded Think Progress,  as a radio host at the University of Wyoming (UW) and on her own blog, Cognitive Dissonance (no link, I don't want to give her traffic).

Apparently that wasn't enough attention for her, so she decided to manufacture some more by putting up a phony rape threat on a college “crush” Facebook page earlier this week and pretending it came from a 'conservative' :

 


"“I want to hate f**k Meg Lanker-Simons so hard. That chick that runs her liberal mouth all the time and doesn’t care who knows it,” it read.  “I think its hot and it makes me angry. One night with me and shes gonna be a good Republican bitch.”

Needless to say, Ms. Lanker-Simons got a lot of mileage out of this on her usual outlets.

Unfortunately for her, she took it way too far.

The University of Wyoming Police Department investigated, as they should have. And they ended up issuing a citation to Lanker-Simons for “interference” for “false statements she made to the UW Police Department,” according to a UW statement referred to by Laramie Boomerang Online.

"Subject admitted to making a controversial post on UW Crushes webpage and then lied about not doing it," according to the citation.

The University of Wyoming also said that the police had "obtained substantial evidence verifying that the offending Facebook post came from Lanker-Simons' computer, while the computer was in her possession.”

Below is a picture of Ms. Lanker-Simons :



This is no joke..if Lanker-Simons wasn't fairly stupid and had actually been able to frame someone credible, this could have had life changing consequences for one of her 'enemies'.

If a male student was even suspected of making a threat of this kind, even if there was no conclusive proof, he would have been summarily expelled, with little chance of ever getting into another university in the future.

Even worse, it might affect how seriously campus police investigate  a future rape threat and lead to another innocent woman being attacked.

Lanker-Simons got off with a citation. She should have been tossed out of the university on her ample derrière.

According to her Facebook page, Lanker-Simons is a member of the University of Wyoming Gender & Women's Studies group (of course!) as well as the school’s chapter of The Nonviolent Communist.

To give you an idea of how serious she is about that whole 'non-violence' thing, she was one of the plaintiffs in a successful 2010 lawsuit against the University of Wyoming when they rescinded an invitation to have domestic terrorist Bill Ayers speak on campus.

Of course, being a Leftist means never having to say you're sorry. So naturally, since she was outed as as an attention seeking liar, her supporters have put together a Facebook page entitled “Meg Lanker-Simons is innocent.”

"“Meg Lanker-Simons is innocent we believe what she did was justified and deserves not to be held accountable for her accusations we stand behind you sister”

You see, even if there wasn't an actual rape threat by an Evil Conservative.you know, there should have been. Just because, you know.

(h/t Campus Reform)

The 'Lone Wolves' Theory On Bombing Explodes As Boston Police Arrest More Suspects

 

Yet another piece of the careful meme the Obama Administration put out about the Boston Bombing is apparently crumbling.

Boston police have arrested 3 more suspectsand charged them with aiding and abetting the Tsarnaevs and obstructing justice 'after the fact' :

Three college friends of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were arrested and accused Wednesday of removing a backpack containing fireworks emptied of gunpowder from Tsarnaev’s dorm room three days after the attack to try to keep him from getting into trouble.

Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev were charged with conspiring to obstruct justice. A third man, Robel Phillipos, was charged with lying to investigators about the visit to Tsarnaev’s room.

In court papers, the FBI said Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev agreed to throw the backpack in the garbage — it was later found in a landfill by law enforcement officers — after concluding from news reports that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was one of the bombers.

They also apparently knew that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had bomb making skills.

Actually 're-arrest' is the correct term. This trio hail from Kazakhstan, like the Tsarnaevs are also Muslims allowed into the U.S. on student visas and were originally picked up as associates of the Tsarnaevs. One of them drove the car with the license plate 'Terrorista #1' and all three violated their visas by not bothering to attend classes...I wonder why.

But wait, there's more.

The intelligence sent to the U.S also apparently referenced three Pakistanis, and pressure cooker bombs are a signature explosive device of the Pakistani Taliban. Not only are they common, but they're easily detonated remotely from, a cell phone.

It's not at all far fetched that Tamerlan Tsarnaev received training in manufacturing this kind of IED during the six months he was overseas before he returned to the U.S. to take advantage with the rest of his family of America's welfare system, attend a radical mosque and plan his jihad attack.

That's becoming apparent to a lot of people interested in finding out that happened rather than merely covering for some pretty obvious intel failures.

One of them is Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas and Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security. who said on Fox News Sunday, “I think given the level of sophistication of this device, the fact that the pressure cooker is a signature device that goes back to Pakistan, Afghanistan, leads me to believe — and the way they handled these devices and the tradecraft — … that there was a trainer and the question is where is that trainer or trainers.”

And we haven't even fully investigated the possible connection to the Tsarnaevs of Saudi nationals with major ties to al-Qaeda.

That was important enough for DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano to lie about to Congress.


Rep. McCaul is going to be holding hearings on the Boston Bombings, and no doubt some more useful information is going to be uncovered.

Whistle blower claims U.S. knows who masterminded the Benghazi attack but is not taking action

Apparently he's walking around free in Libya, and FOX claims conformation from a number of sources.

"We basically don't want to upset anybody, and the problem is, if Ambassador Stevens' family knew that we were sitting on information about the people who killed their son, their brother, on and on, then, and we could look them as a government in the face, then we're messing up. We're messing up", the source said.

Fox News spoke exclusively with one special operator who watched the events unfold in real time and has debriefed those who were part of the response. He remains anonymous for his safety and has decided to talk because he says he and others connected with the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks in Benghazi are frustrated with the excuses and lack of a military response since Stevens and three other Americans were killed.

"We have all the capability, all the training, all the capacity, to kill and capture not only terrorists involved, with the specific events of 9/11, and Ambassador Stevens' death, but terrorists that are feeding other regions including Europe that could eventually affect our national security in the short term," the source said. "And we're not talking midterm or long-term, this is the short-term."

Something that ought to be of major interest is the connection between our removal of Khaddaffi and allowing his arsenal to fall into the hands of Islamist and al-Qaeda forces. These heavy weapons were used to attack our consulate in Benghazi, make terrorist attacks in Algeria, invade Mali and make their way to Syria.

FOX's source says that he personally came across shoulder fired missiles in the hands of Libyan forces capable of bringing down a domestic airliner, but was unable to confiscate and destroy them because his orders didn't allow it. I've heard the same thing elsewhere.

I have to unfortunately agree with what FOX's source says here:

"It was frustrating not only for myself, but for the men and the guys that I work with. We always talk amongst each other and discuss it's probably going to take a 747, a 757 to get shot down in Tripoli for somebody to pay attention to that, which is unfortunate."

'Unfortunate'...that's one word for it. Criminal negligence and stupidity might be another way to put it.

Breaking: Turns Out The Saudis Warned FBI About Tamerlan Tsarnaev In 2012

 

“We want to leave no stone unturned. Based on what I’ve seen so far, the FBI performed its duties. Department of Homeland Security did what it was supposed to be doing.” - President Barack Obama at his press conference yesterday, 4/30/13.

As it turns out, that stone was more like a boulder. And it appears it was definitely left lying on the ground.

Aside from numerous warnings from Russian intelligence the FBI and DHS sluffed off,  the London Daily Mail reported this morning that according to a highly placed source,  Saudi intelligence  sent a written warning in December 2012 to the Department of Homeland Security that Tasmerlan Tsarnaev was a dangerous jihadi. They even refused to give him a visa to when he applied for one to make the haj, the Muslim religious pilgrimage to Mecca. The information came from Saudi intelligence in Yemen, a notorious al-Qaeda stronghold and the country where the brothers went for 'religious studies':

According to a highly placed source who spoke to MailOnline, the Saudis sent a written warning about Tsarnaev to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2012. That was long before pressure-cooker blasts killed three and injured hundreds.

The official told MailOnline about a written warning from the Saudi government to the Department of Homeland Security, and said he had direct knowledge of that document.[...]

The Saudis' warning, the official told MailOnline, was separate from the multiple red flags raised by Russian intelligence in 2011, and was based on human intelligence developed independently in Yemen.

Citing security concerns, the Saudi government also allegedly denied an entry visa to the elder Tsarnaev brother in December 2011, when he hoped to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, the source said. Tsarnaev's plans to visit Saudi Arabia have not been previously disclosed.

The Saudis' warning to the U.S. government was also shared with the British government. 'It was very specific’ and warned that 'something was going to happen in a major U.S. city,' the Saudi official said during an extensive interview.

It 'did name Tamerlan specifically,' he added. The 'government-to-government' letter, which he said was sent to the Department of Homeland Security at the highest level, did not name Boston or suggest a date for his planned attack. [...]

The high-ranking Saudi official whom MailOnlne interviewed at length provided a wealth of detail about the warning he says his government sent to the United States. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk publicly about foreign intelligence, or about Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic relationship with the United States.

The Daily Mail added that another DHS official in-fact confirmed that the 2012 letter exists, then went on to add that he had already heard of the Saudi communication before the newspaper had even made their inquiry.

Needless to say, the wheels turned quickly in DC once this broke. The DHS claimed it had never received anything, the Saudi ambassador issued a quick denial that his government had ever warned the U.S., and the Daily Mail quickly edited its story to include that information.

So that leaves us with 2 possibilities.

One, the Administration is telling the truth and they never received any warning from the Saudis.

That's interesting in itself if the Saudis are telling the truth, because they have an extensive intel operation going on in Yemen since it's just over their southern border and because the Russians almost certainly would have extended the warnings they gave to the Americans on the Tsarnaevs to the Saudis since Tamerlan was known to be in the area.

Or two, the DHS did get warned by the Saudis, chose to ignore it just as they did written warnings from Russian intelligence, are now in serious CYA mode and got the Saudi government (who have their own reasons for downplaying any connections between Boston and the Kingdom)to play along.

Now, given the Obama Administration's well-known track record for veracity and transparency I think I have a pretty good idea of what happened, but I'll let you come to your own conclusions.

After all, as former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton famously said about Benghazi, "What difference does it make?"

Perhaps the Administration can find a poorly produced, obscure video on YouTube to blame the Boston Marathon bombings on - you never know.

The 'lone wolf' meme the Administration has been putting out about the bombings is crumbling as well, but more on that later.

Watcher's Council Nominations - May Day Edition

Yes, everyone it's May Day! 

The festivities used to look like this :

 

But now....change!



Perhaps it's May Day in more than one sense...

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. This is your essential weekly magazine for the best in opinion and commentary. 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, Liberty's Spirit, Right Truth and Ask Marion took advantage of my generous offer of link whorage and earned honorable mention status with some great pieces.

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 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 just return the favor by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcher’s Council contest for the week when it comes out Wednesday morning.

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 – Hungary's shoes of death!
• The Noisy Room – Amnesty – Solidifying the Marxist Control of America for Decades, If Not Permanently
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Syrian Delirium
• The Razor – The Lure of the Conspiracy Theory Revisited
• Joshuapundit-Days After Boston, Obama Pressures Israel To Release Terrorists As A 'Goodwill Gesture'
• The Colossus of Rhodey – Should be titled The Reluctant Idiot
• Rhymes With Right – Why Is A Matter Settled 70 Years Ago Still An Issue In Our Public Schools?
• Bookworm Room – Orwellian double think enters the gun grab debate
• The Glittering Eye -What If Fairies Are Real?
• The Right Planet – Chris Matthews Pushes the ‘Only Whites Can Be Racists’ Meme … Again
• The Mellow Jihadi – A Reuters Writer Writes Me
• Gay Patriot – Basketball player comes out; “I could care less”
• VA Right! - Ken Cuccinelli Airs First Campaign Ad of the 2013 Governor’s Race
• Simply Jews – Boston bomber and the Waltham, Mass triple murder

Honorable Mentions

• Liberty's Spirit - The Sanctimonious Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,Homemakers Again Insulted on so Many Levels
• Right Truth - The Two Faces of Death
• Ask Marion - Alinsky Still Alive and Well at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner

Non-Council Submissions

• Sultan Knish -The Snake In The Bloody Garden submitted by The Political Commentator
• Mark Steyn – The Collapsing of the American Skull submitted by The Noisy Room
• The Big Picture – Is Israel really Pakistan’s enemy? submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Hellinahandbasket.net –Canine Logo Equals Rape submitted by The Razor
• Robert Spencer/ FrontPage – Who We Must Blame For Boston submitted by Joshuapundit
• Buckhorn Road – Just a couple questions about the Boston Marathon bombing and its aftermath submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Big Jolly Politics – Harris County Republican Party: Yo, dude, do you support pedophilia? submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Benjamin Wiker/Human Events -Why aren't liberals more critical of Islam? submitted by Bookworm Room
• Richard Fernandez./Pajamas Media – Freedom submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Canada Free Press – Bad Moon Over America submitted by The Right Planet
• Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion –The High Cost Of Low Information Voters submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
• Jennifer Rubin/Right Turn -Obama press conference: Does he believe what he is saying? submitted by Gay Patriot
• Andrew McCarthy – Obama's National Security Fraud submitted by The Watcher
• Fjordman/Gates Of Vienna – The Media Myths submitted by Watcher

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