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Punishing the truth tellers 1
If Obama and his gang had the dictatorial powers they would like to have, they would suppress all dissent as heresy, as Communist regimes always do.
As it is, his faithful minions in government agencies and the military are doing their best to act like the Stasi.
Obama repeatedly lies, encourages others to lie in the interest of his agenda, and has his unofficial Stasi operatives punish anyone who exposes a lie.
This is from the Washington Post, by Joe Davidson:
Warren Weinstein is dead. Colin Rutherford, Joshua Boyle, Caitlin Coleman and the child she bore in captivity are still hostages in Pakistan. I failed them. I exhausted all efforts and resources available to return them but I failed.
So began Army Lt. Col. Jason Amerine's testimony before a Senate hearing Thursday on retaliation against whistleblowers.
He was the first witness in what was a sometimes-emotional hearing into the reprisals military personnel and civilians can face from the government they serve.
Amerine is the decorated Special Forces officer who was assigned to help retrieve Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the soldier held captive for five years after leaving his base in Afghanistan. …
One not worth bringing home actually. Better brought to trial, which he soon will be, charged with desertion by the army. The Obama gang approve of him and exchanged him for five dangerous Taliban leaders imprisoned at Guantanamo. But Lt. Col. Amerine did his duty faithfully, so Obama disapproves of him and has his (laughably named) Department of Justice pursue him for revenge.
In the course of Amerine's work, he said his team learned about the other prisoners, Rutherford, Boyle and Coleman. After he complained to Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) that "the bureaucracy for hostage recovery was broken" and spoke with the FBI, Amerine said he was labeled a whistleblower, "a term that has become radioactive and derogatory".
His security clearance was suspended, his retirement was halted and he became the subject of a criminal investigation. …
Amerine was with three other whistleblowers, federal civilians also reporting reprisals from an Uncle Sam who evidently did not want to hear the truth.
One of the three, Michael James Keegan, a former Social Security associate commissioner who reported that agency officials misled Congress about a building project, was "confined to an empty office with little or no work to do, no responsibilities and very little contact with other SSA employees".
Their cases are still in progress, so their claims have not been fully substantiated. But they testified under oath about the kind of revenge that is reported all too often in the federal workplace.
"These men and women take great risk to stand up and expose wrongdoing," said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. "They sacrifice their careers, their reputations and often their financial security. Congress — and this committee in particular — must support federal whistleblowers and ensure that they are adequately protected from retaliation."
The witnesses at the hearing have congressional attention, but that is not the same as protection.
The Obama administration protects the liars, such as Lois Lerner, who – on behalf of the administration – used her position at the IRS to impede and harass conservative groups.
What Obama is doing is what the Left always does. The Left is a criminal movement.
The condemned 1
The Muslim mass-murdering terrorist, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who placed bombs among the watchers of the Boston Marathon in 2013, has been sentenced to death. Good.
The Washington Post's report of the conclusion to his trial includes this:
If sentenced to life, Tsarnaev would have been held at a Supermax prison that has been described by a former warden as a "version of hell" and a place that "is not designed for humanity". His attorneys used such descriptions to argue before the jury that a life sentence would not be a reprieve.
We are for the death penalty for murderers, but wish it could be carried out quickly and cheaply. A life for a life. Even if many hopeless years in a hellish prison would punish the murderer far more severely.
Here is a long BBC documentary about a prison in which murderers are locked up for life in Russia – where, strange to say of that blood-soaked land, there is no death penalty. Does it deter murder as effectively as capital punishment? It should do. It is grim beyond imagining.
Floating up now from a sewer named Clinton 1
President Nixon's crimes shrink to trivialities compared to this.
Impeached President Clinton and his corrupt wife … Well, read about it, and watch the video.
From Hot Air:
Bill Clinton helped out Kazakhstan's dictator with some propaganda at home 10 years ago in exchange for Clinton Foundation board member Frank Giustra being allowed to purchase uranium interests inside that country. Giustra's company got rich and made a correspondingly rich donation to the Foundation.
The company ended up merging with another company to form Uranium One, which began buying up uranium interests inside the U.S.
Eventually the stakeholders in Uranium One wanted to make a bigger score by selling the company to Russia, but they knew a deal like that would need to be approved by top officials of the federal government, including … the Secretary of State.
Who was none other than Hillary Clinton.
So they dropped another pile of cash on the Clinton Foundation and the deal was approved.
See why Hillary might have been keen to have that private e-mail server of hers wiped?
And now a huge chunk of America's uranium supply is controlled by Vladimir Putin, one of Iran's chief nuclear suppliers.
The uranium in your soil may eventually end up in an Iranian enrichment facility, thanks to a crook who's running to be commander-in-chief of the U.S. military.
Pay special attention here at around 5:20, when NYT [!] reporter Jo Becker recalls asking Bill Clinton's spokesman if he'd ever had Kazakh officials over to his home to discuss them purchasing an interest in Westinghouse. No way, said the spokesman. I've seen a photo of Bill with the Kazakhs at his home, replied Becker. Oops, said the spokesman. That story was first reported in linked … but watching Becker tell it here, in the context of so much other smelly Clinton self-enriching filth, is really the cherry on top of this sh*t sundae.
We only disagree that the US – ie. the Obama administration – is negotiating with Iran to "slow its ability to develop a nuclear weapon".
Obama is doing everything he can, while pretending not to, to ensure that Iran will be a nuclear-armed power.
The case for impeachment (3) 10
Is Obama's realignment of US foreign policy so astonishing that it leaves Congress too stunned to act?
Has there ever before been such a clear case of high crimes and misdemeanors as now with the action of this president – selling out the country's interests to its worst enemy?
Why have impeachment proceedings not begun?
Shawn Mitchell writes today, March 30, 2015, at Townhall:
Ponder the dire significance of the extraordinary story from MSNBC(!) last Friday, reporting on US "incoherence" in the Middle East, the exploding chaos there, and the shocking news Arab states like Egypt, the Saudis, and UAE are withholding intelligence and launching attacks without consulting the US. Why? Because they don't trust Obama not to leak information to Iran. In seeking closer ties with Iran, Obama is threatening every other strategic US relationship in the region and candidly committing alliance-cide against America's closest ally there, Israel.
The president, as chief executive and commander in chief may be the captain of foreign policy, but the Senate, representing the American public, has a Constitutional role, which Obama is deliberately evading.
What is happening is historically unprecedented. … Obama is pursuing a one-man foreign policy of realigning the US in the Middle East, ending our friendship with Israel, forging ties with Iran, and facilitating, or at least benignly accepting, the expansion of Iran's interests, influence, and agents throughout the region.
Facilitating. Not "benignly accepting".
This profound agenda is not one he ran on. It is not disclosed to, or understood by, the American people. It is not vetted or discussed in high circles of military and security leadership. It is contrary to long and widely held understandings of US security interests. It is a covert one man revolution.
In playing his chess pieces, Obama unsuccessfully pressed Egypt to submit to the Muslim Brotherhood; stiff-armed President al-Sisi who wants to move Egypt closer to America, keep peace with Israel, and move Islam closer to modernity; launched unprovoked missiles against Libya's Qaddafi, lighting that nation on fire, delivering it to chaos and Iran-backed rebels; played patsy with Iran's client Assad while Assad scorned Obama's red lines and gassed civilians; and manufactured an escalating series of confrontations and crises with Israel, most recently exposing top secret details of its previously unacknowledged nuclear program. After Yemen fell to Iran backed rebels, the White House continues to insist its approach there is a "model of effective counterterrorism".
… It's becoming apparent the trade of five Taliban field leaders for one US deserter was not a "bad deal" but a head fake. Bergdahl was just cover for Obama to hand back five Jihadi leaders and move closer to his goal of closing Gitmo.
Did he swap the Taliban leaders for Bergdahl because he wants to close Gitmo, or is his spoken intention to close Gitmo an excuse for silently strengthening the Taliban? That one can even ask the question, that the suggestion is not implausible, shows how extraordinary are the circumstances in which it arises.
Recent reports of the surreal "negotiations" with Iran would make for farce if they weren't terrifyingly real. Alone among the P5 + 1 world powers, the US is desperate to sweeten the pot to offer Iran whatever it takes. Obama originally set a redline of 500 high-speed centrifuges; we now shrug at 6,000. We're good with Iran continuing operations at its reinforced, underground lab. It doesn't have to reveal its ongoing research with military dimensions until after the world lifts sanctions … wink. Surprise inspections will be rare to never. Last week, the Associated Press astonishingly reported a final agreement may not even be in writing. Spokesman Josh Earnest failed to deny that unfathomable idea after three direct queries.
We recently witnessed the spectacle of France trying to put the brakes on this runaway concession train, complaining it's a weak, bad, unenforceable deal and the US is still conceding. That's something … the French accusing Americans of being burger eating surrender monkeys.
The president's defenders might call his upheaval a matter of high stakes, high risk strategy to improve US standing in the Middle East by aligning it with the region's strongest power. Other commentators might call it wrongheaded, reckless, and dangerous. And others, seeing what's right in front of their face, might call it hostile to America's interests and security, treacherous to America's allies, and of great aid and comfort to America's enemies.
Under a different Iranian regime, maybe a secular one, or a reformist product of the Green Revolution that Obama strangely spurned, it might make sense to support Iran as a stabilizing force. It's the Mullacracy with its radical, bloody vision that makes Obama's policy deranged. His defenders and critics alike speculate Obama is betting the regime can be enticed to make nice and join the community of nations during the limited lifespan of the agreement. But that surmise is incoherent. If Obama wanted a reformed Iran, he would have spoken up for millions of brave protesters who confronted the Mullahs and pled for his support. He stood mute as they were brutally crushed.
It's an unresolved question if, or where, there is a redline that a president's policies abroad become Constitutionally actionable. He leads in foreign policy. But, he also took an oath to protect American peace and security. If, for an extreme hypothetical, videotape emerged showing a president handing over US nuclear codes to Vladimir Putin, presumably, he would be dealt with as a treasonous traitor, his foreign policy authority notwithstanding.
Obama's actions in the Middle East raise troubling questions about how fundamentally a president can contradict deeply rooted US understandings, policies, and alliances before he enters a danger zone. Cutting off the Senate's voice adds to the gravity. To conclude any position a president holds, no matter how radical, must be the position of the US, is akin to embracing Louis XIV's declaration: ""L'État, c'est moi" or Richard Nixon's more recent formulation: "When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal."
Twenty months remain in this presidency. About a day is left till Obama's contrived deadline to reach a deal with Iran. It may be one of the only lines he means to respect. Few imagined after the 2012 election how fast events would unfold in the Middle East and how fast Obama's hand would emerge into view. It is going to be a dangerous and scary ride.
Valerie Jarrett, Obama's unofficial co-president, was born in Iran. Does she have a sentimental attachment to it? With this administration that could be enough "reason" – silly as it is – for Obama to put its interests and ambitions above the interests of the United States.
Can anyone think of any other possible reason?
Ah, yes. If Iran is allowed to become nuclear armed, there is a high likelihood that it will destroy Israel. That's a consummation the Muslim world devoutly wishes. And where the Muslim world leads, can Obama be far behind?
The case for impeachment (2) 0
This is the second of three posts quoting serious articles that argue the case for impeaching President Obama.
From an article by (retired) Admiral James Lyons published March 25, 2015, by Breitbart:
The current Kabuki dance ongoing in Geneva between Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Jamad Zarif regarding an agreement on Iran's nuclear weapons program is a sham. Its outcome was pre-ordained many years ago by President Obama in his secret communications with the Iranian mullahs in 2008 – at least according to one report.
These secret communications were exposed in a August 29, 2014 article written by Michael Ledeen in PJ Media and drew little attention then, but now must be addressed. According to Ledeen, shortly after Barack Obama clinched the Democratic nomination for president on June 3, 2008, he also opened a secret communication channel to the Iranian mullahs. The message was that they should not sign any nuclear agreement with the Bush administration on preventing Iran from achieving a nuclear weapon capability. He informed them that he would be much easier to deal with once he assumed the presidency. He further assured the mullahs that he was a "friend" of the Iranian theocracy and that they would be very happy with his policies.
Today, Iran is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism that has been "at war" with the United States since the 1979 takeover of our Tehran U.S. Embassy. Since then, Iran has directed many "acts of war" against the United States that have cost the loss of thousands of American lives. Most importantly, Iran provided the key material and training support to the 9/11 hijackers, which cost the lives of 3,000 innocent Americans.
The secret channel was conducted through Ambassador William G. Miller, who previously served in Iran during the Shah's reign. The Ambassador confirmed to Ledeen the aforementioned communications he personally held with the Iranian mullahs on behalf of candidate Obama during the 2008 campaign. The Iranian mullahs apparently believed the message since on July 20, 2oo8, the New York Times reported "Nuclear Talks with Iran End on a Deadlock." The main reason was that Iran would not address the "international demands that it stop enriching uranium." What a surprise!
The shocking fact is that candidate Obama secretly told the Iranian mullahs not to make a deal until he assumed the presidency, according to Ledeen's report. They would then be able to make a much better agreement with him – and that's exactly what's happening. Some would consider what candidate Obama did was treason.
President Obama abandoned the requirement that Iran stop enriching uranium. The result has been that Iran's nuclear program has been greatly expanded with more secret underground facilities and expanded capability during the course of the long, drawn out negotiations. When the interim agreement, called the "Joint Plan of Action," was announced in late 2013, the Iranian president openly bragged that the West had finally acknowledged Iran's right to its uranium enrichment program.
Iran's chief negotiator, Foreign Minister Zarif, furthermore bragged that Iran "did not agree to dismantle anything; not its centrifuges; not its ballistic missile program; not its nuclear programs." It also did not give up its role as the leading state sponsor of terrorism. By his cooperation with Iran in combatting the Islamic State, [Obama] is actually sanctioning de facto Iranian hegemony throughout the Persian Gulf region.
Andy McCarthy, in his book Faithless Execution, lays out a very detailed and logical case for President Obama's impeachment. Even Liberal law professors are now talking about Obama's many abuses of power, too many to list here. A summary of President Obama's extensive violations of law and dereliction of duty are covered on pages 11-26 of Faithless Execution. President Obama's use and abuse of power is clearly out of control. We are in a Constitutional crisis.
The Constitution vests in the House of Representatives "the sole power of impeachment". With a Republican controlled House of Representatives, a simple House Majority can vote out articles of impeachment. However, successfully impeaching a president means removing him from office. Removal requires the president's conviction on articles of impeachment by a two-thirds vote of the Senate. Even with a Republican controlled Senate, this will require much work.
Clearly the Speaker of the House of Representatives must start the process. If the current Speaker is unable to find the courage to start the impeachment proceedings, then he should resign. The House members should elect a new Speaker who is prepared to live up to his Oath of Office and protect the Constitution. The survival of America as we know it, as the shining city on the hill, must come first before any party politics.
And this is more from the 2014 article by Michael Ledeen at PJ Media:
They do have a strategy, but they prefer to appear indecisive. That's because the strategy would likely provoke even greater criticism than the false confession of endless dithering.
The actual strategy is detente first, and then a full alliance with Iran throughout the Middle East and North Africa. It has been on display since before the beginning of the Obama administration. During his first presidential campaign in 2008, Mr. Obama used a secret back channel to Tehran to assure the mullahs that he was a friend of the Islamic Republic, and that they would be very happy with his policies. The secret channel was Ambassador William G. Miller, who served in Iran during the shah's rule, as chief of staff for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and as ambassador to Ukraine. Ambassador Miller has confirmed to me his conversations with Iranian leaders during the 2008 campaign.
Ever since, President Obama's quest for an alliance with Iran has been conducted through at least four channels: Iraq, Switzerland (the official U.S. representative to Tehran), Oman, and a variety of American intermediaries, the most notable of whom is probably Valerie Jarrett, his closest adviser. In recent months, Middle Eastern leaders reported personal visits from Ms. Jarrett, who briefed them on her efforts to manage the Iranian relationship. This was confirmed to me by a former high-ranking American official who says he was so informed by several Middle Eastern leaders.
The central theme in Obama's outreach to Iran is his conviction that the United States has historically played a wicked role in the Middle East, and that the best things he can do for that part of the world is to limit and withdraw American military might and empower our self-declared enemies, whose hostility to traditional American policies he largely shares.
If we look at the current crisis through an Iranian lens, our apparent indecisiveness is easier to understand, for it systematically favors Iran's interests. Tehran's closest ally is Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. If Assad were to be overthrown by opposition forces hostile to Iran, it would be a devastating blow to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has committed tens of thousands of fighters (from Hezbollah, the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij) to shore up the Damascus regime. Everything Iran does in the region revolves around the necessity of preserving Assad's tyranny.
Obama surely understands this. It therefore made no sense to bomb Syria in the otherwise baffling about-face on the "red line" a year ago. In like manner, the refusal to take decisive action today against the Islamic State caters to Iranian and Syrian concerns. Remember that ISIS was supported by Iran and Syria as a weapon against anti-Assad and anti-Iranian forces (from the Kurds to the FSA), none of whom is receiving serious American support.
It is exceedingly unlikely that Obama will do anything that would threaten Assad's rule or Iran's power. To do so would be tantamount to abandoning his core strategy of creating a U.S.-Iranian alliance that would make Tehran the major regional power …
The case for impeachment (1) 0
We have a high regard for Sarah Palin. She is well-informed, politically astute, and personally impressive. The Left, especially Feminists, fear her so much they sink to ever new depths of malice in abusing her, and that alone would recommend her to us. (As we always have to do with politicians, we politely overlook her – extra absurd – religious beliefs.)
This is the first of three posts on the case for impeaching Obama. Sarah Palin's fact-packed opinion was expressed on July 11, 2014, on Fox News:
No serious person who is paying attention can deny that Obama and his administration have abused and violated the public trust and disregarded the Constitution. Let me count the ways.
Without notifying Congress as required by law, he set free terrorist prisoners at a time of war when they can return to the battlefield to kill our troops.
In violation of our Constitution, he regularly ignores court orders, changes laws by executive fiat, and refuses to enforce laws he doesn't like, including our immigration laws.
When Congress declined to pass amnesty for illegal immigrants' offspring, he unilaterally enacted his own version of it, which created the current crisis on our border as illegal youth pour into our country to receive what he illegally promised them.
He committed fraud on the American people when he promised that if we liked our health care plan we could keep it.
He got us into a war in Libya without Congressional approval. When our ambassador begged for security at the consulate in Benghazi, he was ignored and then murdered when the consulate was attacked as predicted. Americans were left behind to die, as the president did nothing to rescue our people there. Afterwards, he helped spread the lie that a spontaneous protest over a YouTube video was to blame for this highly organized, premeditated terrorist attack.
Obama's IRS targeted his political opponents for harassment. Then the agency lied to and stonewalled Congress and likely destroyed subpoenaed evidence, while Obama falsely declared there's no corruption there, not even a smidgen.
From the VA scandal to his unconstitutional recess appointments, to his DOJ wiretapping reporters and giving guns to Mexican drug cartels, to violating religious freedom exercised by businesses and ignoring in-house illegal fundraising, the list of abuse goes on and on.
Barack Obama's administration is proving itself a festering boil of scandal. The Constitution is rock solid in holding the president responsible for the executive branch. He can't just vote "present" while shrugging and feigning ignorance about all these abuses of the public trust, any more than a mob boss can claim innocence because he didn't personally do the hit. The buck stops with the guy at the top.
Impeachment is the ultimate check on an out-of-control executive branch. It is serious, not to be used for petty partisan purposes; and it is imperative that it becomes a matter of legitimate discussion before the American people lose all trust in our federal government.
Impeachment requires moral courage to advance what is right, and it requires political will. A complacent or disheartened electorate may silently endure these abuses from the administration, the permanent political class is only too happy to maintain the status quo, and the mainstream media is not a fair watchdog. So, the nation's last line of defense is for We the People to rise up and say, "enough is enough".
Obama's lawless encouragement of illegal immigration should be the tipping point for that political will because it impacts all Americans – native-born and legal immigrants of all backgrounds who followed the rules and now watch rewards go to rule breakers while they're forced to compete for limited jobs and resources. It's the tipping point because the forgotten working class is hurt most by this lawlessness …
Some are arguing for cautious inaction and dismiss even a discussion of impeachment. With Obama's poll numbers in the tank and his liberal policies exposed as failures, why rock the boat? But that argument misses the point.
The president is radically changing the way the executive branch does business. He is setting a dangerous precedent that will fundamentally change us. With his "pen and phone," he's abrogating Congressional authority in violation of the Constitution's separation of powers. He's making himself a ruler, not a president. We had a revolution back in 1776 because we don't like kings.
Some argue we should wait for midterm elections and hope a big victory by Republicans in both Houses of Congress will rein in Obama. Been there, done that in 2010.
If Congress refuses to use the power the Constitution gives it, Barack Obama will continue to rule however he wants.
Some argue that at best the House might vote for articles of impeachment, but the Senate is unlikely to convict. But that is no argument against holding a president accountable and sending the people's message to all successors.
Obama can keep laughing and say, "so sue me" to the House's tepid lawsuit threat. Let's hear him laugh off impeachment. At the very least, despite his mocking the Constitution, this Constitutional process will put him on notice.
The only thing necessary to transform America into something unrecognizable is for good men to do nothing! If not these violations and the president's promise to continue to "go it alone" in ignoring the separation of powers and rule of law, what will it take for you to take a stand? How bad does it have to get?
We live in an America where the NSA spies on our communications, the IRS targets us because of our political beliefs, the border is overrun by foreign nationals, terrorist leaders are released to the battlefield, our health care is taken from us and we're forced to buy a plan we don't want and can't afford …
If you're comfortable with all that, then by all means sit back and hope for the best. Those concerned about America want change. That comes with healing the injuries done to society by an unchecked president; that starts with impeachment.
What is terrorism? 1
Terrorism is a method.
It is not an ideology, or a movement, or a conspiracy, or a policy, or an aim.
Its users might be an organized movement that conspires to adopt the tactic; and a state might use it against its own people as a matter of policy. But terrorism itself is simply a method. A tactic.
Terrorism is not hard to define:
Terrorism is the systematic use of violence to create public fear.
As a method of intimidation it is as old as mankind and will surely continue to be used as long as our species continues to exist.
It has been used for various types of causes, such as religious (eg. the Catholic Church with its Inquisition; Protestant powers such as Calvin in Geneva, the Puritans at Salem); commercial and criminal (eg. the Mafia); and political, by rebels, and revolutionaries, and adherents of diverse ideologies.
Whether terrorism is used by a small group like the Weather Underground or the Baader-Meinhof gang; a large group like the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Northern Ireland and England, or Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) in Peru; or a state like the Third Reich or the USSR, it is a method of instilling fear into many more people than it can directly attack so they or their rulers will do or not do what the terrorists want done or not done. That is why the attacks need to be random. Though you have done nothing personally to affront the terrorist organization doing its evil deeds in your corner of the world, you must be made to understand that their bomb could be in the bus you take to work or your child takes to school, and so could as easily kill or maim you or your child as anyone else.
The mentality behind terrorism is similar to the mentality of the racist. The users of the method target individuals indiscriminately because they "belong" to a group or class that the terrorists designate their enemy. You are a member of a political party that they oppose. You have a nationality they don't like. You are a capitalist. You work for the "military-industrial complex". Or you are one person in a national collective under a despotism that would keep you obedient.
Terrorism punishes the innocent. If a tyrant is killed, it is not terrorism; if his infant children are killed as "collateral damage", it is.
Can the use of terrorism ever be justified? It is the moral question every terrorist needs to answer for himself. He alone makes the decision to do the deed. It is no excuse that he is obeying others. He – or she – is still responsible even under threat. The exception of course is when – for instance – a person is forcibly strapped into a suicide vest, deposited in a public place, and is detonated without taking any action himself. Islamic terrorists use children in this way.
An argument is sometimes put forward by persons – usually academics – who want, for various and usually disgraceful reasons, to discourage action against this or that terrorist organization, that the number of people who are hurt or killed in a specified period by terrorist action is smaller than the number killed by (eg) car accidents in the same time span. But an accident is by definition nobody's fault. Because terrorism is a moral question, depending on people making decisions and implementing them, such comparisons are not only invalid but invidious.
What of war? Does that not harm and kill many innocents? Of course. But when war happens, all normal constraints are abandoned and the moral questions are changed. Was Churchill right to have Dresden bombed flat? Was America right to drop nuclear bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima? If more people were saved by these acts which brought war to an end than were hurt and killed by the actions themselves, were they good or were they evil?
The morality of war is open to argument. But clear acts of terrorism can be carried out within wars, and need to be unequivocally condemned. For instance, in World War Two, the Germans massacred all the inhabitants (642), men women and children, of the village of Oradour-sur-Glane on June 10, 1944, in reprisal for one of their officers being captured and held there. It was plainly a "war crime", and plainly an act of terrorism.
What – it is sometimes asked – of random violence used against a conqueror occupying your country in war? Is that terrorism? And even if it is, is it not justified? Not an easy question to answer. The best one can do to decide the morality of (eg) blowing up a train that is bringing enemy reinforcements into your country but also bearing some of your fellow countrymen, is to ask whether the action would make most of your fellow countrymen feel more safe or more threatened. If the answer is "more safe", it could be argued that the act was therefore justified. But much depends on what an action is, whom it kills and in what way; on the circumstances of the occupation, and on whether it is oppressive or comparatively benign. In each case, judgment is needed.
Communism and Islam are inherently terrorist ideologies.
Jillian Becker March 18, 2015
(Jillian Becker was director of the London-based Institute for the Study of Terrorism 1985-1990)
Darkness looms over us 3
In the picture above, an IS member unsheathes his sword as he prepares to behead an ancient Babylonian statue. His sheath is the Koran and the sword is covered with verses from the Koran. The caption states: "With this sword is civilization and humanity slaughtered."
We quote Raymond Ibrahim, above and below:
The Daily Mail reports:
Islamic State thugs have destroyed a collection of priceless statues and sculptures in Iraq dating back thousands of years.
Extremists used sledgehammers and power drills to smash ancient artwork as they rampaged through a museum in the northern city of Mosul.
Video footage shows a group of bearded men in the Nineveh Museum using tools to wreck 3,000-year-old statues after pushing them over.
Extremists used sledgehammers and power drills to smash ancient artifacts at a museum in the northern city of Mosul
Militant uses a power tool to destroy a winged-bull Assyrian protective deity at the Ninevah Museum in Mosul, Iraq. The statue dates back to the 9th century B.C.
A man shown in the video said the items were being destroyed because they promoted idolatry.
"The Prophet ordered us to get rid of statues and relics, and his companions did the same when they conquered countries after him," the unidentified man said.
The articles destroyed appeared to come from an antiquities museum in the northern city of Mosul, which was overrun by Islamic State last June, a former employee at the museum told Reuters.
The extremist group has destroyed a number of shrines – including Muslim holy sites – in a bid to eliminate what it views as heresy.
Militants are also believed to have sold ancient artwork on the black market in order to finance their bloody campaign across the region.ISIS destroy artifacts with sledgehammers at Mosul museum
Yesterday it was revealed how terrorists had blown up the Mosul Public Library, sending 10,000 books and more than 700 rare manuscripts up in flames.
Leading members of Mosul society reportedly tried to stop the fanatics destroying the building, but failed.
The director of the library, Ghanim al-Ta'an, said that the extremists used homemade bombs in the attack, which took place on Sunday.
He told Middle Eastern website Geran: "ISIS militants bombed the Mosul Public Library. They used improvised explosive devices."
Presumed destroyed are the Central Library's collection of Iraqi newspapers dating to the early 20th century, maps and books from the Ottoman Empire and book collections contributed by around 100 of Mosul's establishment families.
Large segments of the priceless winged-bull Assyrian protective deity are hurled to the ground as militants smash it to pieces
Isis first invaded the Central Library in January. Residents say the extremists smashed the locks that had protected the biggest repository of learning in the northern Iraq town, and loaded around 2,000 books – including children's stories, poetry, philosophy and tomes on sports, health, culture and science – into six pickup trucks. They left only Islamic texts.
"These books promote infidelity and call for disobeying Allah. So they will be burned," a bearded militant in traditional Afghani two-piece clothing told residents, according to one man living nearby who spoke to The Associated Press.
The enlightened West is doing nothing to stop them.
"Our evening is over us; our night whelms, whelms and will end us."
- Gerard Manley Hopkins: Spelt from Sibyl's Leaves. ( He was a Jesuit. But even so, a very good poet.)
An atheist threatens world peace 13
What a gift to Muslim organizations in America which like to pretend that Muslims are victims of "Islamopobia": three young Muslims shot dead by a thug of a neighbor in dispute with them over a parking space!
To spice up the claim that the vicious killing was a "hate crime", the thug is reported to be an atheist. Now watch out for politicians, media, and the loudmouths of various religions claiming that atheists are murderous radicals, as bad and dangerous as ISIS, al-Qaeda, and Boko Haram.
Reuters reports:
A gunman who had posted anti-religious messages on Facebook and quarreled with neighbors was charged with killing three young Muslims in what police said on Wednesday was a dispute over parking and possibly a hate crime.
Notice that the very first piece of information Reuter supplies is that he "posted anti-religious messages on Facebook" – even though they have also to report a little later that that has nothing to do with the crime.
Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, a full-time paralegal student from Chapel Hill, was charged with first-degree murder in Tuesday's shootings around 5 p.m. two miles from the University of North Carolina campus.
The victims were newlyweds Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, a University of North Carolina dental student, and his wife Yusor Mohammad, 21, and Yusor's sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19. …
The suspect, in handcuffs and orange jail garb, appeared briefly on Wednesday before a Durham County judge who ordered him held without bail pending a March 4 probable cause hearing.
Police said a preliminary investigation showed the motive to be a parking dispute. They said Hicks, who has no criminal history in Chapel Hill, turned himself in and was cooperating.
But for Islamic propagandists that wouldn't do at all. At last they have an incident that, properly spun, will prove what they've been saying for years – America is cruelly "Islamophobic".
The killings drew international condemnation. The shooting sparked the hashtag #MuslimLivesMatter on social media with many posters assailing what they called a lack of news coverage. …
Muslim activists demanded authorities investigate a possible motive of religious hatred.
And at once the police did their dhimmi duty:
"We understand the concerns about the possibility that this was hate-motivated and we will exhaust every lead to determine if that is the case," Chapel Hill Police Chief Chris Blue said in a statement.
So far, the leads seem to point another way:
The killings occurred in a condominium complex in a wooded area filled with two-story buildings. Neighbors said parking spaces were often a point of contention.
"I have seen and heard (Hicks) be very unfriendly to a lot of people in this community," said Samantha Maness, 25, a community college student. But she said she had never seen him show animosity along religious lines.
But there are those Facebook entries for the "hate-crime" advocates to pin their hopes on.
On Facebook, Hicks' profile picture reads "Atheists for Equality" and he frequently posted quotes critical of religion. On Jan. 20 he posted a photo of a .38-caliber revolver that he said was loaded and belonged to him.
Hicks' wife, Karen Hicks, told reporters at a news conference that her husband had been locked in a longstanding dispute over parking and the killings had nothing to do with religion. She said Hicks was not hateful and believed "everyone is equal".
Nevertheless, the sad event must be milked for all the propaganda value it can yield:
Barakat's family urged the shooting be investigated as a hate crime and said the three were killed with shots to the head.
And at a candlelight vigil held for the dead at UNC, attended by "hundreds of people" –
University and city leaders urged inclusiveness during a time of unease, while a brother of one of the victims called for nonviolence.
The implication being that violence could break out at any moment: whether against Muslims or against non-Muslims, we do not learn from the report.
The prosecution, it seems, will stick to its findings:
The incident appeared to be isolated and not part of a targeted campaign against North Carolina Muslims, Ripley Rand, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina, told a news conference with local police officials. …
And the Islamic propagandists will stick to their wishes:
Groups including the Muslim Public Affairs Council, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the local Raleigh-based Muslims for Social Justice called for a federal investigation into possible hate crimes.
"I hope this terrible tragedy will be a turning point that brings the reality home that if we keep demonizing Muslims and equating their religion to terrorism, it will lead to more attacks," said Manzoor Cheema, co-founder of Muslims for Social Justice.
It's bad enough that three young people have been killed, but not bad enough for Reuters. They present the victims as extra good - while also keeping the idea of political-religious martyrdom before their readers:
"Today, we are crying tears of unimaginable pain over the execution-style murders," Barakat's older sister Suzanne told reporters.
She said her brother was light-hearted and loved basketball.
All were involved in humanitarian aid programs.
Barakat, an American citizen of Syrian origin, wrote in his last Facebook post about providing free dental supplies and food to homeless people in downtown Durham. He was raising funds for a trip to Turkey with 10 other dentists to provide free fillings, root canals and oral hygiene instruction to Syrian refugee children.
His sister-in-law, Abu-Salha, a sophomore at nearby North Carolina State University, was involved in making multimedia art to spread positive messages about being Muslim American.
Students at UNC said the three friends came from two of the most prominent Muslim families in the Raleigh area.
"Deah was a very proud Muslim American. He was proud of all his identities," said Sofia Dard, a 21-year-old senior psychology major. She said Muslims were used to occasional harassment in post-9/11 America, but the shooting "adds a whole level of seriousness".
Postscript: We may soon be in need of a word that suggests a psychopathic hatred of atheists that is permanently lodged in the minds of non-atheists. Suggestions are invited.
Post-Postscript: Turns out the murderer is a Leftie. Quoting Powerline:
You can see the liberal media's problem. Craig Hicks is, politically, a member of their team – a garden variety, cookie cutter, Obama-voting, conservative-hating liberal. His Facebook page looks like most reporters' would, if they didn't have to worry about appearances. So, much as they might want to publicize a hate crime against Muslims – Islamophobia at last! – can they possibly admit that a dyed in the wool liberal like Hicks can be guilty of an anti-Muslim hate crime? I think that would be too much cognitive dissonance. My guess is that the Chapel Hill murders will fade away as a local news story arising out of a dispute over a parking space.
The lord of injustice 4
President Obama and New York Mayor de Blasio are guilty of encouraging lawless mobs in Ferguson and New York (see here and here). So they both have a share in the events leading up to the murder of two New York police officers, Winjian Liu and Raphael Ramos, last Saturday, December 20, 2014.
More deeply guilty of creating conditions in which those murders could happen, is the outgoing attorney general of the United States, Eric Holder, who has been working for racial injustice for years.
This is from PJ Media by J. Christian Adams:
Wickedness has darkened this season of lights in Brooklyn. It is no surprise or accident that a ghoul like Ismaaiyl Brinsley bathed himself in messages of hate, racial division and anger and then chose to destroy lives. But Brinsley wasn't alone in his racially soaked hatred of the police.
For starters, a mob has Brinsley's back. This seemingly disconnected mob has been on the prowl in the months since America learned of Ferguson, Missouri. They've smashed up windows of banks in Berkeley, burned up bakeries in Ferguson, and looted, burned, shot, robbed and killed across the nation. But such mobs are really never disconnected, are they?
When a mob led by Al Sharpton chants on the streets of New York City they want "dead cops," people should expect dead cops.
The clapping and laughing at the crime scene in Brooklyn as well as the happy-it-happened racialist venom on Twitter leave no doubt that the mob has Brinsley's back. …
The culture of the West has largely distinguished itself by elevating the dignity of the individual, by treating others as they wish to be treated.
But ideas alone aren't enough to turn back barbarians. Sir Winston Churchill understood that leaders must lead civilized people against barbarism. "Civilization will not last," he said at the University of Bristol in 1938, "freedom will not survive, peace will not be kept, unless a very large majority of mankind unite together to defend them and show themselves possessed of a constabulary power before which barbaric and atavistic forces will stand in awe."
Without men in power and police on the streets who share these values, history trends toward barbarism.
All of which brings us to Eric Holder and his swarm of lawyers at the Justice Department. Holder, rather than opposing the lawless, says things to make the mob's fury seem more justified.
Holder went to Ferguson and complained that the police even treated him in a racially unfair manner. His stories are always thin on detail and merit closer media scrutiny. …
After visiting Ferguson, Holder sent swarms of federal officials into town and made it clear the federal government was on the side of the protesters. The "constabulary powers" which Churchill spoke of had crossed over.
For those who haven't paid attention to Holder's anti-police policies, now is a good time to start paying attention. And it isn't just Holder. He's hired swarms of other lawyers and put them in important positions where their anti-police attitudes have become federal government policy.
Hans von Spakovsky covered the rabidly leftist backgrounds of the lawyers hired by Holder who police the police. For example, Christy Lopez was hired as a deputy chief of the section. Prior to working at DOJ, Lopez helped an illegal alien support group called Casa de Maryland teach aliens how to avoid speaking with police officers. Even worse, von Spakovsky notes:
On her resume, Ms. Lopez proudly references the paper she authored for the liberal American Constitution Society, entitled The Problem with "Contempt of Cop" Arrests. She also highlights the presentation she gave on "Flying While Brown" at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee's annual convention. She has made numerous media appearances alleging post 9/11 ethnic profiling. She is also a founding partner of "Independent Assessment and Monitoring," which provided oversight of police departments and prisons.
Lopez had the perfect qualifications to work for Eric Holder. She was a crusader against cops. … [And] Lopez isn't alone.
Every single one of her coworkers hired by Holder is a radical leftist, more often taking the side of the lawless than the law-abiding citizen. The professional background of attorney after attorney in Holder's Special Litigation Section reads like a farce. They've worked for Islamic terrorists, black nationalist groups and even an organization called the Junta for Progressive Action. …
These lawyers are not fans of "constabulary powers." You cannot fully understand what the Justice Department's policies are toward police officers without understanding the outlandish personal and professional backgrounds of the lawyers enforcing those policies.
To oversee these dozens of new radical lawyers, President Obama appointed a radical's radical to lead them — Debo Adegbile. Adegbile was Obama's nominee to head the Civil Rights Division at Justice. Adegbile's anti-police history is what eventually sunk his nomination.
In response, Obama and Holder have tapped Vanita Gupta to run the Civil Rights Division as acting assistant attorney general, and eventual nominee. Gupta is no different than Adegbile … [She] came from the ACLU, where she spent most of her time waging a war against the police. …
After filling government jobs with anti-police radicals, Holder's Justice Department got busy attacking police departments and law enforcement across the United States. Actions against police departments have been launched in Seattle, Portland, Cleveland, Albuquerque, New Orleans, Miami, and, naturally, New York City.
In Ferguson, Holder even leveraged federal power to agitate against police officers wearing bracelets of solidarity with Officer Darren Wilson. In a letter signed by Christy Lopez of the Special Litigation Section, the Justice Department says such bracelets "upset and agitated people."
The mob was offended, and thus Holder acted. Holder used his power to attack "constabulary powers," over jewelry.
To "train" police officers how to behave, Holder's Justice Department has hired an outfit which has been affiliated with Angela Davis. That would be the same Angela Davis who was a Black Panther radical. That's the same Angela Davis who went on trial for the murder of a judge presiding over another murder trial of race radicals who killed a prison guard. Davis is still a racially venomous anti-police radical. That Holder's DOJ goes within a country mile of her is a disgrace.
Holder's lawyers aren't beyond using lies, deceit and illegal conduct to frame cops either. Take the Justice Department's prosecution of New Orleans police officers on civil rights charges. In that trial, Justice Department lawyers illegally and unethically set up fake blogging accounts. The DOJ lawyers ran a sock-puppet campaign against the cops on trial by posting comments to newspapers. They commented on evidence and attacked witnesses helpful to the police.
[You must] know who Karla Dobinski is … to understand Holder's tolerance of any means necessary to convict cops.
Dobinski was one of the lawyer puppeteers in the campaign against cops. Federal Judge Kurt Engelhardt called the DOJ misconduct "grotesque" in a 129-page order that must be read to fully understand the anti-cop rot inside Holder's Justice Department.
But Dobinski acted even more unethically than her fellow DOJ sock puppets. … It was Dobinski's job to guard against any information obtained in the internal affairs investigation conducted by the New Orleans Police Department from being used against the police on trial. Dobinski's job was to protect the rights of the defendant cops. Instead, [she] joined in the anonymous DOJ campaign posting [hostile] comments about the cops at newspaper sites.
When national and local government encourages violence against the very enforcers of law and order that it employs to carry out its prime duty of protecting the life, person and property of every individual, government is betraying the people. Obama, de Blasio and Holder can best be likened to generals who encourage the enemy to attack the troops they command, in hope of the enemy's victory.
When looting, burning mobs, screaming for "dead cops", are not only exonerated but actively encouraged by the President, the Mayor of New York, and the head of the Department of Justice, the country has descended into anarchy. First anarchy and then tyranny is what happens whenever and wherever the far Left acquires unconstrained power.
Is it too late to restore the free republic of America that the Founders tried to establish forever on the rock of the Constitution?


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Steve Martin & Martin Short: A Very Stupid Conversation
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