President Obama Arms Terrorists- Not Our Men and Women on U.S. Bases

Family Security Matters - Who's to blame for the Navy Yard massacre?  Aaron Alexis.   Alexis followed the religion of Buddhism but he wasn't yelling ‘Buddha is Greatest' as he murdered our servicemen and women.

Aaron Alexis was outspoken about his mental condition long before his Navy Yard massacre.  Alexis sought treatment for insomnia, hearing voices, and feeling vibrations from microwave antennas before his murderous rampage.

It is near impossible to defend oneself against the violent acts of a lone psychotic when mental health professionals can no longer easily institutionalize violent patients.  That is where the story of Aaron Alexis ends and Military Base security begins.

America Is Desensitized to Mass Shootings

America is officially desensitized to mass shootings like at the Navy Yard, Ft. Hood, Sandy Hook, Columbine, Virginia Tech, and the Aurora Theatre, etc.... and there are many more you never heard about as listed in this article.

Military Base Safety Solution

The easy solution is you allow military men and women with concealed weapons permits to carry on base.  An armed man or woman inside the target facility can kill the shooter long before the police can analyze the situation and send in tactical teams to kill or capture the shooter.  An armed victim is never a victim.

Read more: Family Security Matters http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/president-obama-arms-terrorists-not-our-men-and-women-on-us-bases#ixzz2fSHsPfNb

House to consider authorizing military force against Iran

Joel Gehrke - House lawmakers will consider authorizing the use of military force against Iran, even though President Obama has not yet requested it, in order to avoid a repeat of the apparent fumbling that characterized the chief executive's push for military force against Syria.

"We must handle the nuclear threat in Iran with a more focused and proactive policy than we used in responding to the chemical threat in Syria," said Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., who plans to introduce the resolution next week.

Franks told the Republican Study Committee Sept. 11 that he would offer the resolution, an aide to the lawmaker told the Washington Examiner. In his Friday statement, Franks said that Iran could have the ability to build a nuclear weapon within a year.

"If we authorize the use of military force now, it will strengthen the president's hand in any potential talks with Iran," he said. "If we do not, the president may rely on reactionary efforts, much like the debacle in Syria. For the sake of our national security, the security of our allies, and global stability, more generally, we must have every option available in advance."   More   PTG

Household income in nation’s capital rises as rest of the country declines

Caroline May - While the residents of most states and localities have seen their incomes decline since 2000, the population of the nation’s capital experienced something quite different.

The Census Bureau released national income data for 2011 and 2012 from the U.S. Census Bureau’s “American Community Survey,” Thursday revealing that from 2000 to 2012 the District of Columbia enjoyed the largest increase in median household income — from $53,995 to $66,583 or 23.3 percent — during that period.

For perspective, across the United States median income declined by 6.6 percent from 2000-2012 from $55,030 to $51,371.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/09/20/household-income-in-nations-capital-rises-as-rest-of-the-country-declines/#ixzz2fRyWXuIA

The real Reagan record on civil rights

Michael Taube - Hollywood's liberal establishment often claims that freedom of expression creates a more vivid landscape for motion pictures. The desire for artistic liberty in popular films such as "Lincoln," "Argo" and "Zero Dark Thirty" is said to trump the need for historical accuracy.

However, placing real-life events on the back burner isn't something to be admired. It provides Tinseltown with ample opportunity to launch further attacks against certain public figures and rewrite history as it sees fit.

We can add Ronald Reagan's treatment in "The Butler" to the list. This film is a loosely based account of former White House head butler Eugene Allen's 34-year career (1952-1986). It's a good movie overall, and will likely be a strong contender at next year's Oscars.

Naturally, I don't want to spoil the film's plot, but I will say this much: When it comes to re-enacting Mr. Allen's life story in the imaginary guise of Cecil Gaines, played by Forest Whitaker, it would be inaccurate to say that filmmakers think honesty is the best policy.  More   PTG

California college bars student from handing out copies of Constitution

Fox News - The Constitution guarantees the right to free speech, but don’t try to pass out copies of it at Modesto Junior College in California.

A student at the school who tried to pass out pocket-size pamphlets of the very document that memorializes our rights got shut down on Sept. 17 – a date also known as Constitution Day.

 Campus authorities told 25-year-old Robert Van Tuinen, who caught the whole thing on videotape, he could only pass out the free documents at a tiny designated spot on campus, and only then if he scheduled it several days in advance.

“Watching the video is a combination of depressing and nauseating, to see what rigamarole students have to go through just to express themselves on campus,” said Robert Shibley, senior vice president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which has taken on campus speech codes around the nation.   Read More

Journalism Professor Says He Hopes for Murder of NRA Members' Children

Rep. Frank Wolf Demands FBI Punish Agents For Outreach to CAIR

Wolf Demands FBI Punish Agents For CAIR Contact

Investigative Project of Terrorism - On a day when the Council on American-Relations (CAIR) issued a report accusing its critics of bigotry, a Justice Department investigation reminds the public why CAIR does not merit the public's trust.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz found a series of incidents in which FBI field offices knowingly engaged in outreach activity with CAIR despite a 2008 policy banning non-investigative cooperation with the Islamist group.

Only a summary of the report has been released publicly. The rest is considered classified, but has been made available to Congress.

The ban on interactions with CAIR, first reported by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, resulted from an FBI investigation into a Muslim Brotherhood-created Hamas-support network in the United States.

Internal documents seized by the FBI show that CAIR and its founders, Omar Ahmad and Nihad Awad, were a part of that network known as the Palestine Committee. Both men appear on a telephone list of Palestine Committee members (Awad is listed under a pseudonym "Omar Yehya), and CAIR is listed on a meeting agenda listing the committee's branches.

"[U] ntil we can resolve whether there continues to be a connection between CAIR or its executives and HAMAS," an FBI official wrote in 2009, "the FBI does not view CAIR as an appropriate liaison partner."   More   PTG

Today in History for September 20th

This Is The Biggest Health Care Cost Obamacare Won't Cover

Business Insider - With the coming implementation of Obamacare, many Americans believe that all of our health-care needs will soon be taken care of.

But the coverage mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act doesn't address one critical type of health-care cost -- and could leaving you with a huge and expensive challenge to deal with on your own.

Many people don't realize that traditional forms of health-care insurance coverage don't typically pay for long-term care, and long-term care is increasingly becoming a key financial issue for the aging U.S. population. According to the RAND Corporation, 15 percent of those over age 70 have dementia, and dementia-care costs alone are expected to rise to $1 trillion annually by the year 2030.

To address the lack of knowledge about long-term care, the Department of Health and Human Services created a website with information on getting the care you need and protecting yourself from the financial impact of paying for that care.

Let's look at four key facts you need to know about long-term care.

1. Long-Term Care Isn't Just Nursing Home Coverage.

Decades ago, when people needed help with basic daily tasks like bathing or getting in and out of bed, they had relatively few options. If they couldn't get family members to take care of them, they often had to go to a nursing home to get the help they needed.

Read more: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/09/19/biggest-health-care-cost-obamacare-wont-cover/#ixzz2fNKwBASh

Texas Congressional Candidate Katrina Pierson Will Bring Tea Party Values to Congress

New video sheds light on Iran's role in Syrian conflict

Al Qaeda running chemical weapons program?

Obama donor gained nearly $1 billion in tax credits in Solyndra bankruptcy

Conn Carroll - Part four of the Washington Examiner's 10-part series "With the Stroke of a Pen: How Obama abuses executive power to make the law of the land."

Most people who follow the news are aware that President Obama invested $527 million in Solyndra, the now-bankrupt California-based solar panel manufacturing company.

What is much less well-known is that the federal government was legally required to cut its losses of tax dollars just months into the project, and that only an illegal loan modification made to benefit an Obama fundraiser led to taxpayers losing more than $500 million.

“The true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra,” Obama declared in May 2010, but even then, the company was burning through more than $10 million a month and headed towards bankruptcy.

By December 2010, Solyndra was so cash-poor that it missed a $5 million payment to an Equity Funding Account as required by the firm’s deal with the Energy Department.   More   PTG

It begins: State Dept says Syria’s 7-day deadline for chemical weapons list not really 7 days

via Legal Insurrection - 

Syria basically says: So sue me. State Dept. says: Pretty please.

We’ve been rolled.

Via L.A. Times:

The U.S.-Russian plan for the removal or destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons, hailed as a diplomatic breakthrough just days ago, appeared to run into trouble Wednesday as the Obama administration backed off a deadline for the Syrian government to submit a full inventory of its toxic stockpiles and facilities to international inspectors.

The State Department signaled that it does not expect Syrian President Bashar Assad to produce the list within seven days, as spelled out in the framework deal that Washington and Moscow announced last weekend in Geneva.   Read More

Victor Davis Hanson - The Decline of College

Townhall.Com - For the last 70 years, American higher education was assumed to be the pathway to upper-mobility and a rich shared-learning experience.

Young Americans for four years took a common core of classes, learned to look at the world dispassionately, and gained the concrete knowledge to make informed arguments logically.

The result was a more skilled workforce and a competent democratic citizenry. That ideal may still be true at our flagship universities, with their enormous endowments and stellar world rankings.
Yet most elsewhere, something went terribly wrong with that model. Almost all the old campus protocols are now tragically outdated or antithetical to their original mission.

Tenure -- virtual lifelong job security for full-time faculty after six years -- was supposed to protect free speech on campus. How, then, did campus ideology become more monotonous than diverse, more intolerant of politically unpopular views than open-minded?

Universities have so little job flexibility that campuses cannot fire the incompetent tenured or hire full-time competent newcomers.   More   PTG

Dog found stabbed, partially skinned alive in Detroit - Reward increased to $8,500

Reward increased to $8,500 in skinned, stabbed dog case

Dog found partially skinned alive in southwest Detroit

CLickOnDETROIT - The reward being offered in the search for a person responsible for skinning a dog has been increased to $8,500.

The Michigan Human Society Cruelty Investigation Department, the Humane Society of the United States and Providing for Paws have joined to offer the higher reward. The dog, given the name Patty, was found partially skinned alive and stabbed last week on Woodmere Street in southwest Detroit.  More

Germany sold Syria chemicals that could be used in the production of sarin gas

(Reuters) - Germany exported 111 tonnes of chemicals to Syria between 2002 and 2006 that could be used in the production of sarin gas, according to a government document published on Wednesday.

But the government rejected a suggestion from an opposition lawmaker that Germany might thereby have inadvertently contributed to the August 21 sarin attack in Syria, which the West blames on President Bashar al-Assad.

The chemicals - sodium fluoride, hydrofluoric acid and ammonium hydrogen fluoride - are classified as "dual use" under European Union law, meaning they can be used for either civil or military purposes. They require special export permits.

In a written response to a parliamentary question from Germany's Left Party, the economy ministry said the chemicals sold between 2002 and 2003, in 2005 and 2006 had a total value of 174,000 euros ($232,300) and were sold for civilian use.   More   PTG

Review Team Will Probe Capitol Police Navy Yard 'Stand Down' Controversy

Roll Call - Capitol Police officers stationed around Capitol Hill reacted with shock to a BBC report that Capitol Police commanders told a team of their heavily armed officers to stand down when they arrived on the scene of Monday’s deadly Navy Yard shooting.

“Stunned” and “embarrassed” were among the reactions overheard from officers posted around the Capitol complex discussing the allegations that one of the best-trained tactical units in the city was ordered to leave the scene of a mass shooting. 

In response to the revelations, the Capitol Police Board — Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer, House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving, Architect of the Capitol Stephen Ayers and Capitol Police Chief Kim Dine — on Wednesday established at Dine’s request a “Fact Review Team led by Michael Stenger, Assistant Sergeant at Arms for Protective Services and Continuity and former Assistant Director of the U.S. Secret Service” to get to the bottom of the questions, according to a release from the board.

 Report condemns Navy's vetting process 

Robert Spencer, Toronto Sept. 18 2013 - The Talk The Muslim Brotherhood Tried to Ban

Senator Ayotte: Standalone mental health bill can pass

Obama: US willing to allow Iran to show nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. But, Lindsey Graham seeks authorization for U.S. attack on Iran

Obama tells Rouhani: US willing to allow Iran to show nuclear program is for peaceful purposes

Jerusalem Post - White House spokesman says US president told Iranian counterpart in exchange of letters window of opportunity for diplomatic solution will not remain open indefinitely; Rouhani to NBC: Iran would never develop nuclear weapons.

US President Barack Obama has told Iran's President Hassan Rouhani in an exchange of letters that the United States is ready to resolve its nuclear dispute with Iran in a way that allows Tehran to show it is not trying to build weapons, the White House said on Wednesday.

"In his letter the president indicated that the US is ready to resolve the nuclear issue in a way that allows Iran to demonstrate that its nuclear program is for exclusively peaceful purposes," said White House spokesman Jay Carney   Read More

Sen. Lindsey Graham to seek authorization for U.S. attack on Iran

Washington Examiner - Sen. Lindsey Graham is one of the strongest advocates of an American military strike against the Assad regime in Syria. He was unhappy when President Obama decided to seek congressional authorization for an attack, and then unhappy when his fellow lawmakers voiced disapproval of the president's plan. Graham believes the diplomatic path chosen by the administration will lead to a debacle.

Given all that, Graham now says he will work with a bipartisan group of senators to craft a resolution authorizing the president to use military force -- not against the Syrian regime but against Iran. In an appearance on Fox News' Huckabee program over the weekend, Graham argued that such a resolution is essential, because American inaction in Syria will encourage Iran to go forward with its nuclear weapon program, eventually leading toward a Mideast conflagration if the U.S. doesn't intervene.

"Look how we've handled the chemical weapons threat in Syria," Graham said. "If we duplicate that with the Iranians, they're going to march toward a nuclear weapon and dare Israel to attack them. So in the next six months, our friends in Israel are going to have to take the Iranians on, unless the United States can send a clear signal to Iran, unlike what we've sent to Syria.   Read More

John Bolton: Syria Deal Dying 'Death of a Thousand Cuts'

Obama Rodeo Clown Performs Again While Crowd Wears 1st Amendment Shirts

Daniel Greenfield - Not so long ago the nation was cast into a terrible state of dread when a clown in an Obama mask performed in a rodeo. Many people had troubling telling apart the clown from the real Obama. Some thought the clown would do a better job of negotiating with Putin.

The NAACP demanded a Federal investigation followed by a swift and decisive lynching. Every major Missouri politician apologized on behalf of the state, the human race and plastic masks.
But now the clown is back and is negotiating with Putin. Meanwhile the original clown is still performing at rodeos with the support of the crowd.   More  PTG

The Designs For The 2016 Olympic Park In Rio De Janeiro Look Spectacular

Business Insider - Architecture firm AECOM released some artist renderings for the 2016 Olympic Park that its designing for the Rio de Janeiro games.

The park will consist of seven sports venues and an open entertainment area that can fit 12,000 people. It'll be constructed on a peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic that used to be the site of an F1 racetrack.

These are just mock-ups, but it looks great. View the rest of the photos.

ObamaCare & The GOP - Delay vs. Defund

New GOP strategy looks at delaying ObamaCare

Fox News - Faced with a politically risky push by some Republicans to defund ObamaCare, other party members are turning to an alternative strategy: delay it instead.

Republicans are divided on how to confront the Affordable Care Act. Some, such as Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah, are pushing to permanently defund it.

But attaching such a measure to a resolution that funds the government after October 1 runs the risk of a government shutdown if it doesn’t pass. If that happens, Republicans fear they would be blamed.
Former White House chief of staff Karl Rove told Fox News people who overwhelmingly oppose ObamaCare also oppose shutting down the government by a 2 to 1 margin.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/09/17/new-gop-obamacare-strategy-delay-instead-defund/#ixzz2fDW8pOY7

Thirty Years of Voting in the U.N. General Assembly: The U.S. Is Nearly Always in the Minority

Heritage Foundation - Congress has been concerned for decades that countries receiving American foreign aid often oppose U.S. initiatives and priorities in the United Nations. A State Department annual report on the voting practices in the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA), mandated by Congress since 1983, shows that in the past 30 years voting coincidence with the U.S. surpassed 50 percent only twice.

Moreover, the vast majority of recipients of U.S. foreign assistance routinely oppose U.S. diplomatic initiatives and vote against the U.S. The most recent report confirms yet again that most recipients of foreign aid voted against the U.S. in the UNGA in 2012.

To address this issue, Congress should instruct State and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to take into account countries’ U.N. voting practices when allocating America’s development assistance.

Low Support for the U.S. in the U.N.

In 1983, Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick testified on how the U.N. could be “made a more effective instrument for problem-solving and peace-making among nations, an institution which helps resolve difference rather and exacerbate them.” Among her recommendations was to make “voting behavior, in multilateral organizations like the United Nations…one of the criteria we employ in deciding whether we will provide assistance, and what type of assistance and in what amount.”[1]
 
To help implement this recommendation, Congress required the State Department to track how individual countries vote in the U.N. and report the results to Congress in its Voting Practices in the United Nations report submitted annually since 1984.[2] Each report includes tables listing the percentages with which countries voted with the U.S. on U.N. Security Council and UNGA resolutions, including consensus and non-consensus votes and votes deemed “important” by the State Department. These reports serve as a unique and valuable source of information for gauging support for U.S. priorities and policies and show that, to the detriment of American interests, the U.S. is often in the minority at the U.N.

Most UNGA resolutions are adopted by consensus—i.e., without a recorded vote or dissent. For instance, 180 of 269 resolutions (66.9 percent) were adopted by consensus during the 67th UNGA session in 2012,[3] which is typical of recent U.N. sessions. Although some consensus decisions are the result of prolonged negotiation, it is difficult to separate the significant consensus votes from those of little substance.[4] Therefore, analysis is better focused on non-consensus votes—when actual votes are taken on resolutions and, by definition, involve substantive matters where member states disagree—where there is a transparent metric for measuring support for U.S. positions.   More

Tennessee high school students visit mosque, get Qur'an -- not visiting church or synagogue

Jihad Watch - The public school officials behind this reveal by their choices of visits that the real agenda here is to make these Tennessee students "accepting of the other," because that is the whole problem of jihad terrorism, doncha know -- if Americans were more accepting of Muslims and Islam, jihad terror would be a thing of the past. There are so many initiatives like this, such as the Arkansas school that planned to feature a Muslim speaker on September 11, that it is hard to escape the conclusion that they really believe this nonsense.

"Students Take Field Trip to Mosque, Receive Koran," by Todd Starnes for Fox News, September 17:

A Tennessee high school has decided to revise its field trip policy after a group of freshmen were taken to an Islamic mosque where they were given copies of the Koran and while a student who opted out of the trip was given a worksheet that alleged Muslims treated their conquered people better than the United States treated minorities.

"There are said to be over ten thousand Jews in Fez, all of whom are obliged to live in the Melha, or Jews' quarter -- the Ghetto, in fact, of Fez. They are particularly odious to the Moor, being held in greater contempt even than Christians; and the interest taken in them by foreign societies tends to make them insolent and independent, increasing thereby the Musselman aversion to them.   More

Syrian opposition says Christians will live as dhimmis in Sharia state

Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregory III and other clerics at a funeral for three Christians murdered by Muslims in Maaloula

Jihad Watch - "The commanders of the Islamist brigades, who have declared more than once that their project was to establish a caliphate, have repeatedly indicated that no one will persecute the Christians or drive them out of their homes because they are 'people of the book' and dhimmis (non-Muslim citizens of the Islamic state), so there are no problems with them, unlike the rest of the communities such as Shiites, Alawites and Druze."

So apparently they want to subjugate the Christians, in accord with the cornerstone of the dhimmi system, Qur'an 9:29, which mandates that Muslims fight against the "People of the Book" until they "pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued" (9:29). And the Shiites, Alawites and Druze will evidently just be massacred.

"Syrian Opposition Fails To Reassure Christians," by Tareq al Abed, translated from As-Safir (Lebanon) in Al-Monitor, September 11 (thanks to AINA):

Syrian Christians as a whole have not thrown their support behind either side in the Syrian war.

Nevertheless, Christians in Syria have been subjected to a lot of pressure by both the regime and the opposition, which failed to give them (or any religious or ethnic Syrian component) any assurances or support.

Some armed groups have accused the church of supporting the regime. And many of the opposition’s statements and video clips do not reassure minorities that they will be participants in the new Syria.

The political opposition: failure without borders   More

The Victims Of The Naval Yard Shooting

Photo Credit: The Atlantic

(Reuters) - A dozen people were killed in Monday's shooting rampage at the Washington Naval Yard. The three women and nine men ranged in age from 46 to 73 and included retirees, parents, a bird lover and a divorcee.

Here are some details of their lives.

KATHY GAARDE, 62

The mother of two loved animals and nature, and she liked to help count bluebirds for a local wildlife refuge in her spare time, her family said.

A financial analyst from Woodbridge, Virginia, Gaarde was an avid fan of the Washington Capitals hockey team and a season ticket holder for more than 25 years. The Chicago native had lived in the D.C. area for 38 years.

Her children are grown - ages 26 and 33, a family member in Minnesota told local media. The relative said Gaarde worked on military contracts at the Navy Yard and was nearing retirement.

In a statement, her family said: "Kathy was a caring daughter, fantastic mother, wife (of 38 years) and best friend for 43 years. She loved her animals and was a blue bird counter for the local refuge."

The family asked that donations be made in her memory to the Virginia Branch of the Humane Society.

GERALD L. READ, 58

Gerald Read was devoted to his job as a project manager in information assurance at the Navy Yard and also to animals, said his wife of 35 years, Cathy.

"We have four dogs - three Labs and an Irish Setter - and they are the life of the family," she said. "He always had a really good life-work balance."

Six years ago, the Alexandria, Virginia couple started a professional pet care company called Biscuit Break Pet Service, and their daughter now runs the business.

Read was a Civil War history buff and would watch battle re-enactments at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, his wife said.

They met when he was in college and she was a senior in high school, she said.

On the day of the shooting, Cathy Read said when she had not heard from her husband by 5 p.m., she began to worry.

"Then there was a knock at the door, and I thought it was him," she said.

Instead, it was someone coming to tell her that her husband was dead.

SYLVIA FRASIER, 53

The Waldorf, Maryland, resident came from a large religious family that spent the hours after the shooting waiting for news, praying and reading the Bible. According to the Washington Post, the family gathered at the home of her parents, both in their 80s, in Prince George's County.

Frasier, who was unmarried, worked on automated information systems and security of the network and information systems at Naval Sea Systems Command.

She received a Master's and Bachelor's degree from Strayer University, an online school that also has bricks and mortar campuses.   More   PTG

Egypt: El-Sisi being pushed to run for president as media bolsters his image - Replacing One Radical With Another?

Speculation on rise General to run in July vote; campaign reportedly underway to to gather 30 million signatures endorsing him.

Jerusalem Post - Gen. Abdel Fattah Sisi is emerging as a likely front runner in the Egyptian presidential elections planned for next year, though he has not announced whether he will be running for the office.

Since the coup against the Muslim Brotherhood on July 3 which brought him to power, Sisi has enjoyed positive media coverage and public support, and according to a report in the Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm this month, a campaign is underway to gather 30 million signatures endorsing him for president.

Eric Trager, an expert on Egypt and a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told The Jerusalem Post that Sisi’s plans are as yet unknown, “but one thing that might propel him to run is the fact that every new Egyptian president since Anwar Sadat has ultimately fired the defense minister as a way of removing a potential political threat.”   Read More

Back in July, Robert Springborg, in Foreign Affairs, wrote:

Although he has vowed to lead Egypt through a democratic transition, there are plenty of indications that he is less than enthusiastic about democracy and that he intends to hold on to political power himself. But that’s not to say that he envisions a return to the secular authoritarianism of Egypt’s recent past. Given the details of Sisi’s biography and the content of his only published work, a thesis he wrote in 2006 while studying at the U.S. Army War College in Pennsylvania, it seems possible that he might have something altogether different in mind: a hybrid regime that would combine Islamism with militarism. To judge from the ideas about governance that he put forward in his thesis, Sisi might see himself less as a custodian of Egypt’s democratic future than as an Egyptian version of Muhammed Zia ul-Haq, the Pakistani general who seized power in 1977 and set about to “Islamicize” state and society in Pakistan.

For more information on El-Sisi's background, click here

To view the thesis, click here

Judicial Watch Sues over Fast & Furious Stonewall: Seeks Docs about DOJ’s Legal Fight over Holder Contempt of Congress Citation

Judicial Watch - (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that on September 5, 2013, it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, against the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking access to all records of communications between DOJ and House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform relating to settlement discussions in the Committee’s 2012 contempt of Congress lawsuit against Attorney General Eric Holder. The contempt citation stemmed from Holder’s refusal to turn over documents to Congress related to the Fast and Furious gunrunning scandal (Judicial Watch v. DOJ (No. 1:13-cv-1344)).

Judicial Watch filed the FOIA lawsuit as part of its continuing investigation of the Fast and Furious scandal, where the Obama administration allowed weapons to “walk” across the border into the hands of Mexican drug cartels directly resulting in the death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and countless Mexican citizens. On August 13, 2012, the House Oversight Committee sued Holder to enforce subpoenas in its probe of the Fast and Furious operation. On March 18, 2013, after a breakdown of settlement talks between the Committee and DOJ, a federal judge ordered the two sides to enter into mediation.

Judicial Watch now seeks access to the following records pursuant to its original FOIA request submitted on March 20, 2013:

Any and all records of communications, correspondence, and contacts between the Department of Justice and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform concerning or relating to a settlement in Committee on Oversight and Government Reform v. Holder, 1:12-cv-01332, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington). Such records include, but are not limited to, records of the settlement discussion themselves. The timeframe for this request is October 1, 2012 to March 20, 2013.  More   PTG

Charity Miles turns your workout into a charitable donation

This free app for Android and iOS lets you earn money for worthy causes when you walk, bike, or run.

CNET - Need some extra motivation to get off the couch and lace up the ol' running shoes? If losing weight and improving your health won't do the trick, how about helping those in need?

Charity Miles is a free app (Android|iOS) that donates money to charity based on your physical activity: walking, biking, or running. In other words, instead of merely exercising for yourself, now you're exercising for others.

The app is a basic distance monitor that relies on your phone's GPS to track your mileage. You simply choose from the three possible activities, then swipe to select from a variety of very worthy causes: Autism Speaks, Feeding America, The Michael J. Fox Foundation, Stand Up to Cancer, and so on.   More   PTG

In Egypt, Public Campaign Against Obama, U.S.; Calls For Intensified Cooperation With Russia, China

Obama: "I don't belong to the MB, but I support the MB." Ahram-canada.com, July 6, 2013

MEMRI - Since Egyptian president Muhammad Mursi's removal from power, the Egyptian public and media – both pro- and anti-Mursi – have been fiercely attacking the U.S.[1] This trend is part of continually escalating anti-U.S. and, more specifically, anti-President Obama attacks on the part of supporters of Egyptian Defense Minister Al-Sisi, who deposed Mursi. Apparently, the reasons for this include: President Obama's condemnation of the violent August 14 dispersal of the Mursi supporters' weeks-long sit-ins at Raba'a Al-Adawiya and Al-Nahda Square; the U.S.'s July 24 cancellation of its delivery to Egypt of four F-16 aircraft; the U.S.'s August 15  cancellation of the joint U.S.-Egypt military exercise, scheduled for this month; and discussions in the U.S. about the possibility that it would halt its aid to Egypt – measures that were perceived both by the pro-Al-Sisi camp and  by opponents of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) as expressions of American support for the MB.

Al-Sisi's anti-U.S. onslaught has taken the form of declarations by senior Egyptian government officials, articles in newspapers identified with the regime and the army, and political and popular campaigns in social media and on the street. One prominent example of this was Al-Sisi's direct appeal to the American administration in his August 3 interview with The Washington Post, where he stated: 'You left the Egyptians. You turned your back on the Egyptians, and they won't forget that…'[2] Another example is Egyptian Prime Minister Hazem Al-Beblawi's reminder, in an interview with the ABC network, that Egypt had received military aid from Russia for decades,[3]and his insistence that the Egyptian army would survive the cessation of American aid to Egypt, and that, if this caused any damage, the damage would last for a limited time only.[4]

The Egyptian pro-regime and -army press published articles notable in their vilification of President Obama himself – insulting his mother, calling him mentally deficient and his administration "the Adolf Obama Reich," and even going so far as to offer a prayer that he would die in agony. Many articles contended that Obama and his administration supported terror by virtue of their support for the MB; columnists also opposed U.S. intervention in Egypt's internal affairs, and, in response to American threats to cut off aid, argued that Egypt was better off without it. 

At the same time, political and popular campaigns against continued U.S. aid to Egypt were launched, with the leading campaign organized by the Tamarrud and April 6 movements; these movements had played a major role in the protests that led to Mursi's ouster. Another campaign called for the regime to reject American aid so as to maintain Egypt's independence and to protect it from foreign interference. 

Furthermore, many articles dealt with the decline of American influence in the Middle East, particularly in Egypt, in Russia's favor; they called for inviting President Vladimir Putin to Cairo, with a lavish reception held in his honor. Billboards with Putin's photo, captioned "Bye-bye America" were even put up at a pro-Al-Sisi demonstration in Alexandria. 

This report will review some of the many articles in the pro-Egyptian regime and pro-Egyptian army press condemning the U.S., and will also review the campaigns against U.S. aid to Egypt. 

Anti-American Articles In The Pro-Regime And Pro-Army Egyptian Press

Obama Supports The MB In Egypt, Which Is The Source Of Global Terror 

Many articles accused Obama of allying with the MB, which they claim is a radical terror movement.

Obama, Friend Of The MB – Which Is The Source Of All Terror Organizations In The World

In an article titled "The MB and Obama's Filthy Alliance [With It] Against the Egyptian People," Egyptian writer 'Abd Al-Fatah 'Abd Al-Mun'im wrote: "Does the American administration and its president, Mr. Obama, an enemy of the Egyptian people and a friend of the MB, know that the Al-Qaeda organization and all the terrorist organizations that kill and slaughter American soldiers in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and everyplace else in the world, [trace their] origins, roots and first affiliation to the MB movement… [?] Without the radicalism of the MB's ideology, these terror organizations, by which the American people have been burned, would never have emerged.    More   PTG

U.S. Pacific Command Successfully Intercepts Ballistic Threat in Missile Defense Flight Test

DC’s Fight Over ObamaCare Exemption Gets Dirty - The ruling elite resort to gutter politics to ensure they remain above the law

FrontPageMag.Com - Last Wednesday, while Americans remained distracted by Syria, Senator David Vitter (R-LA) began an effort to bring Washington, D.C.’s aptly described ruling class down to the same level as the people they represent. In return for allowing his fellow senators to continue proposing amendments to an energy efficiency bill on which they have begun deliberations, Vitter is demanding a floor vote on his amendment to end an exemption to ObamaCare for Congress and their staff members. The exemption allows them to continue receiving employer subsidies to pay for their health insurance. ”My amendment is not related to this [energy] bill but I have to bring it up now because it’s very time sensitive since [ObamaCare] will go into effect on Oct. 1,” he said on the Senate floor. “I think this is a special exemption for Washington.”

“Washington” is fighting back. Sources have told Politico that a bipartisan effort is being made by Republican and Democrat staffers and aides to ensure Vitter’s amendment never gets a vote, or that it is defeated if it does. Furthermore, Senate Democrats, angry that Vitter is trying to attach his amendment to an unrelated bill (as if that hasn’t happened innumerable times before), are considering three incredibly childish amendments aimed at getting even with Vitter, along with anyone who supports him.   More   PTG

John Hawkins - 7 Examples of Discrimination Against Christians in America

Townhall.Com - The majority of Americans are Christians, but we're not treated with respect by the culture, the schools, or by our politicians. "Vengeance" may be the Lord's to dish out, but that doesn't mean Christians have to support the people who are attacking us or meekly stand by when other followers of Christ are denigrated and oppressed for their faith. The habitual wimpiness of so many Christians is particularly grating because when Christians shine a spotlight on these attacks and say, "That's enough," more often than not we win. So, if Christians across the country were consistently willing to speak out and take action, you'd be surprised at how quickly our culture would begin to change. If that happens, instead of seeing this many incidents every year (All of these happened in 2013), they'd be a once in a blue moon occurrence.

1) Florida Ministry Told To Choose Between Jesus And Helping The Poor:"For the past 31 years, the Christian ministry has been providing food to the hungry in Lake City, Fla. without any problems. But all that changed when they said a state government worker showed up to negotiate a new contract. ...(A) state agriculture department official told them they would not be allowed to receive USDA food unless they removed portraits of Christ, the Ten Commandments, a banner that read 'Jesus is Lord' and stopping giving Bibles to the needy." When the government tells the Christian Service Center it has to give up on Christ or quit using USDA food to help the poor, that’s religious discrimination.

2) Billy Graham Evangelistic Association: Obama’s IRS Was “Targeting and Attempting to Intimidate Us:”It's well known that the IRS targeted Obama's political enemies in the Tea Party, but the IRS also targeted his Christian enemies in the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.    More

Thomas Sowell - Minimum Wage Madness

Townhall.Com - Political crusades for raising the minimum wage are back again. Advocates of minimum wage laws often give themselves credit for being more "compassionate" towards "the poor." But they seldom bother to check what are the actual consequences of such laws.

One of the simplest and most fundamental economic principles is that people tend to buy more when the price is lower and less when the price is higher. Yet advocates of minimum wage laws seem to think that the government can raise the price of labor without reducing the amount of labor that will be hired.

When you turn from economic principles to hard facts, the case against minimum wage laws is even stronger. Countries with minimum wage laws almost invariably have higher rates of unemployment than countries without minimum wage laws.

Most nations today have minimum wage laws, but they have not always had them. Unemployment rates have been very much lower in places and times when there were no minimum wage laws.
Switzerland is one of the few modern nations without a minimum wage law. In 2003, "The Economist" magazine reported: "Switzerland's unemployment neared a five-year high of 3.9 percent in February." In February of this year, Switzerland's unemployment rate was 3.1 percent. A recent issue of "The Economist" showed Switzerland's unemployment rate as 2.1 percent.   Read More

Part II

A survey of American economists found that 90 percent of them regarded minimum wage laws as increasing the rate of unemployment among low-skilled workers. Inexperience is often the problem. Only about two percent of Americans over the age of 24 earned the minimum wage.

Advocates of minimum wage laws usually base their support of such laws on their estimate of how much a worker "needs" in order to have "a living wage" -- or on some other criterion that pays little or no attention to the worker's skill level, experience or general productivity. So it is hardly surprising that minimum wage laws set wages that price many a young worker out of a job.

What is surprising is that, despite an accumulation of evidence over the years of the devastating effects of minimum wage laws on black teenage unemployment rates, members of the Congressional Black Caucus continue to vote for such laws.   Read More   PTG

Putin: Russia to reopen Soviet-era Arctic military base

(Reuters) - Russia is reopening a Soviet-era military base in the Arctic, President Vladimir Putin said on Monday, part of a drive to make the northern coast a global shipping route and secure the region's vast energy resources.

Two decades after abandoning it, Russia has sent 10 warships behind four nuclear-powered ice breakers to the base on the Novosibirsk Islands, a show of force as it resumes a permanent naval presence in the thawing region.

The flotilla was led by Russia's flagship nuclear-powered cruiser, Peter the Great, along the Northern Sea Route, which connects Europe to Asia across Russian waters from the Kara Gate to the Bering Strait.   More   PTG

Economic Freedom Benefits the Poor the Most

 

Regulatory roadblocks hamper their earning potential

Mackinac Center - Research Associate Jarrett Skorup was a guest on “The Tony Conley Show” on WILS AM-1320 in Lansing this morning, explaining how regulatory roadblocks harm the poor and how more economic freedom most benefits those struggling to move up the income ladder.

Regulatory Roadblocks Hurt the Poor

Mackinac Center - When people hear the terms "capitalism" or "free markets," often their first thought is that these are systems mostly benefiting the wealthy.

In fact, the evidence suggests that it is actually the poor who gain the most from economic freedom.

It is abundantly clear that living in countries with lower taxes, fewer regulations, a rule of law and generally limited government makes all citizens better off. One interesting statistic: Those reading this article are likely among the wealthiest — earning $34,000 per year puts people among the top 1 percent in the world, and half of the world's "1 percenters" on Earth live in the United States.

And when you break it down, the poor are significantly better off in free market systems. In countries with the most economic freedom, the rich earn eight times as much compared to the rich in the countries with the least economic freedom. But the poor in the nations with the most economic freedom actually earn 10 times as much as the poor in the countries with the least.

Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute, frequently makes the case for why free market solutions and economic freedom are not just for people who are rich. His recent piece in the Wall Street Journal is a good example.

He noted that to the extent that the country has recovered from the most recent recession, it has been concentrated at the top. He wrote: "Census Bureau data show that in 2006-11, real annual income for the top 20% (quintile) of Americans fell by about 5% but rose almost 2% in 2010-11 — and shows signs of continuing an upswing. For the bottom quintile, income fell by over 11%, and there was no upswing."

Brooks is concerned that there is declining opportunity for people to move up the income ladder in America. He noted that current proposals focus on things like freezing student loans, increasing the minimum wage, and providing "stimulus" money for high-tech jobs, biofuels and electric vehicles. But each of those "solutions" (with trade-offs that likely would make things worse overall) favor high-skill workers — not those at the bottom.

The key to helping the poor is first to allow them to move up. In Michigan, entrepreneurs who are just starting out face an increasing amount of regulations. One recent survey shows that this is the largest obstacle business owners face, more than taxes, zoning or environmental rules.

Brooks put it this way: "As a pro-poor rule of thumb, I suggest this: If you want to start a landscaping business, all you should need is a lawn mower, not an accountant and a lawyer to help you hack through all the red tape before setting up shop."

Michigan requires a web of burdensome rules to hold certain jobs: 2,000 hours of training to be a barber, a host of classes and fees to be allowed to paint or  put up gutters and lay down tile, or work as a landscape architect, thanks to Michigan’s licensing apparatus.

While the Legislature is making some progress where the state House has repealed some rules that the Senate has not taken up, few meaningful rules have been eliminated from the state licensing apparatus.

Have pity on the poor who simply are trying to work their way up? Get rid of some rules standing in the way.  

UK: CLOWN Terrorizing Residents

Judicial Watch: 12 Years after 9/11 Weak Oversight of DHS Keeps U.S. Vulnerable

Weak congressional oversight over the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) keeps the United States vulnerable to terrorist threats posed by small aircraft and boats, cyber attacks and biological weapons, according to a diverse panel of lawmakers and security officials.

This may be difficult to swallow twelve years after the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history but it’s the conclusion of a task force of Homeland Security officials and experts as well as current and former members of Congress from both political parties. The task force found that one of the key recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission, the special panel that Congress created to investigate the terrorist attacks and prevent them in the future, has not been fulfilled.

After all these years one of the commission’s most significant recommendations to guard against future attacks has not been implemented.  It’s the call for consolidated Congressional oversight of DHS, the monstrous agency created after 9/11. Jurisdiction over DHS is fragmented and that impedes the agency’s ability to deal with the three major vulnerabilities mentioned above, the experts found.

DHS has no oversight structure like other crucial agencies such as the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Justice (DOJ), the panel of intelligence experts and lawmakers reveal. Instead, more than 100 Congressional committees and subcommittees claim jurisdiction over it creating a seriously disintegrated oversight system and massive bureaucracy.   More   PTG

50 Richest Members of Congress

Roll Call - Each year since 1990, CQ Roll Call has reviewed the financial disclosures of all 541 senators, representatives and delegates to determine the 50 richest members of Congress. This year's report, derived from forms covering the calendar year 2012, shows it took a net worth of $6.67 million to crack the exclusive club. The wealthiest lawmakers with breakdowns of their assets and liabilities is found below. 

Overview Story |   How these numbers were calculated  |   Previous 50 Richest lists

1. Rep. Darrell Issa R-Calif.

 

Rank	Net worth	Minimum assets	Minimum liabilities
This year	#1	$355.38M	$430.38M	$75.00M
Previous year	#3	$140.55M	$315.55M	$175.00M
Change	+2	152.8%	36.4%	-57.1%

Issa had a very, very good year. The longtime denizen of the 50 Richest list finally reached the No. 1 spot after making about $135 million in 2012, mostly from investments that swelled in a bull market.

Before his election to Congress, the Californian made his fortune founding Directed Electronics — based in Vista, Calif. — which manufactures car alarms. Now Issa appears to make his money in the stock market. He ended 2012 with at least $390 million in bonds and stocks. His true worth, however, could be far greater. Members of Congress aren’t obligated to disclose exact figures, only ranges, and Issa has seven accounts with a minimum of $50 million, which is the highest category available on standard disclosure forms.

Issa also has about $75 million in outstanding loans, owing at least $50 million to Merrill Lynch and $25 million to Union Bank. Whether he truly is the richest member of Congress actually depends on precisely how much money he owes to Merrill Lynch.

It is impossible to really know, even though Issa’s own financial disclosure forms list him as president of the OpenGov Foundation, which aims to bring transparency and technology to government. Regardless, Issa made a significant amount in the stock market in 2012 — more than $100 million — and he made at least $10 million more in real estate sales.

Assets by type

Investments	$392.85M
Real estate	$36.52M
Trusts	$0.00M
Bank accounts	$1.02M

Roll Call Member profile »

2. Rep. Michael McCaul R-Texas

 

 

	Rank	Net worth	Minimum assets	Minimum liabilities
This year	#2	$114.10M	$114.60M	$0.50M
Previous year	#1	$305.46M	$305.96M	$0.50M
Change	-1	-62.6%	-62.5%	0%

McCaul was knocked off the perch he occupied atop the 50 Richest list for the past two years after his reported minimum net worth plummeted $191 million, to $114 million. But it’s not as if the Texas Republican and former federal prosecutor fell victim to market gyrations, rising debts or risky trades in 2012.

Instead, McCaul valued several holdings in his wife’s name in the broad category of $1 million and above that’s reserved for spousal assets. Previously, he listed each of the same assets as being worth at least $50 million — a category normally reserved for member holdings. The shift means the true size of the couple’s fortune is now harder to ascertain and illustrates the limitations of the congressional financial disclosure system.

As in the past, the majority of McCaul’s assets ­— at least $114.6 million in all for 2012 —are connected to his wife, Linda McCaul, who has extensive family trusts. She is the daughter of Lowry Mays, the founder of Clear Channel Communications Inc. That company owns and operates more than 1,000 radio stations and has extensive billboards and outdoor advertising. In 2010, when McCaul first reported that his wife had received “certain assets” as gifts from her parents, his net worth jumped from at least $73.75 million in 2009 to a minimum of $294 million in 2010.

McCaul also listed assets connected to his five children, three of whom are triplets.
As was the case last year, the McCauls had a Bank of America mortgage worth at least $500,000 on a personal residence.

Assets by type

Investments	$107.06M
Real estate	$0.38M
Trusts	$7.15M
Bank accounts	$0.00M

Roll Call Member profile »

3. Sen. Mark Warner D-Va.

 

 

	Rank	Net worth	Minimum assets	Minimum liabilities
This year	#3	$96.31M	$96.31M	$0.00M
Previous year	#4	$85.81M	$85.82M	$0.02M
Change	+1	12.2%	12.2%	-100%

Warner, consistently one of the wealthiest members of Congress, saw his net worth increase by almost $10.5 million in 2012, after his wealth grew by $10 million the year before.

More than $63 million, or 66 percent, of his assets are held in trusts. According to Warner’s annual report, one of the trusts — the MRW Blind Trust — made 14 securities sales valued at $1 million to $5 million and one sale of a stake in a Tennessee-based pooled investment fund, Pointer (QP) L.P., valued at $5 million to $25 million. Holders of blind trusts do not directly control the purchases, sales or exchanges of assets within the trust. Warner also reported $7.1 million to $35.3 million in holdings in the Columbia Capital Equity Partners technology and telecommunications investment company — his most valuable non-trust asset.

Warner, a former governor, made his fortune from starting ventures in energy and real estate and co-founded the cellular company that would become Nextel.

He reported no earned income or liabilities in 2012. His only position listed on his disclosure form is a seat on the board of directors of the Alexandria-based Collis Warner Foundation Inc., led by his wife, Lisa Collis. The group supports health and child abuse initiatives.

Assets by type

Investments	$32.23M
Real estate	$0.00M
Trusts	$63.44M
Bank accounts	$0.63M

Roll Call Member profile »

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