jpocsr

DEAL KILLER: Here’s why Dana Loesch can’t support a Ben Carson campaign. Me neither. An anti-gun GOP candidate for President?

13 deaths, perhaps as much as 18 inches.

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And it’s not just the federal government that’s shutting down in Washington DC, but the entire city — and for good reason. The infrastructure in the Beltway can barely handle a small snowfall, as the city rarely sees any more than that at one time, but even a metropolitan area like Minneapolis/St. Paul would struggle […]

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"Unfortunately, some current nominees are a modern version of the 18th-century French practice of the sale of offices."

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Call this yet another extension of smart power. In recent confirmation hearings, we’ve found that Barack Obama appointments for ambassador posts have no knowledge of the government with which they’ll interact, no clue as to the strategic interests in play for the US with the assignment (a description that applies to two appointments, as we’ll see), […]

Read this post »

Sandra Fluke made headlines when she filed to run for Henry Waxman’s congressional seat.

Now she’s decided not to run and will run for State Senate instead, via L.A. Times:

Democratic attorney and activist Sandra Fluke has decided against running for retiring Rep. Henry A. Waxman’s congressional seat, instead planning a bid for the state Senate.

“I am extremely moved by the outpouring of local and national support I have received since I announced that I was considering running for office. My entire career has been devoted to the public interest, whether representing victims of human trafficking or advocating for working families,” Fluke said late Tuesday night. “I am committed to continuing that fight in Sacramento, working to protect our environment, ensure our access to health care, and create the jobs that are desperately needed. While I strongly considered offering my candidacy for Congress, I feel there is a better way for me to advance the causes that are important to our community.”

It does make sense if she wants to accomplish her objectives. California is completely dominated by liberal Democrats. The state treasury, or what’s left of it, is hers for the taking.

Much like insurance, Hillary Clinton isn’t bought, she’s sold.

And it’s always been a hard sale.

She has name recognition, and is the default candidate for a significant percentage of the electorate, but there’s always been something missing. It’s why Obama could appear out of nowhere to take her down, and it’s why Elizabeth Warren could do the same thing if only she would run.

That’s why there is the Ready for Hillary shadow campaign apparatus — we must want Hillary.

The selling of Hillary by the Ready for Hillary PAC is playing out in the earliest stages of the Iowa caucuses, as Ruby Cramer at Buzzfeed reports, Clinton Supporters Want Iowa To Want Her:

After the meetings, the exhausted team declared the day a success. Attendees had been excited; had pinned “Iowans Ready for Hillary” buttons to their lapels; had smiled wide watching video clips from Clinton speeches; had even, at one point, broke into spontaneous applause and cheering at her mention.

“If we build it, she will come,” said one of the meeting’s organizers, Bonnie Campbell, a former Iowa attorney general and Clinton administration appointee….

Another frustration emerged during meetings. In spending time and resources on a candidate who isn’t even in the race yet, some said, Ready for Hillary stages a “total inversion” of the traditional primary, as state Rep. Jo Oldson put it.

Iowa, Oldson said, likes its candidates to beg voters — not the other way around. “This is just a different twist on how Iowans view getting into presidential campaigns,” she said. “It’s Iowa asking her to run, rather than the candidate asking Iowa to elect her.”

All this We Want You To Want Hillary stuff could backfire, as Michael Warren at The Weekly Standard points out, Hillary Supporters in Iowa: She Can’t Be Seen As ‘Ordained’:

A gathering of pro-Hillary Clinton activists in Iowa this weekend revealed how supporters of the former first lady are hoping to learn from the mistakes of Clinton’s failed attempt to win the Iowa caucuses in 2008. America Rising, a conservative opposition research firm, had its cameras rolling at the meeting, organized by Ready for Hillary, a super PAC that supports Clinton.

In one video, a supporter notes that Hillary must not be seen as the “ordained” candidate. “The environment has changed a lot in eight years. There’s even more negativity about everything coming out of Washington,” says the supporter. “All this stuff about her being, kind of, destined to be this, and it coming from top down, and it being ordained, we’ve really got to work hard to overcome that. It’s really got to be grassroots up.”

This shadow campaign should have a shadow campaign theme song.

Bill Clinton’s theme song was Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow.

Hillary 2016′s song should be I Want You To Want Me:

As we move towards the 2016 presidential election and potential nomination of Hillary as the Democratic Party candidate, let's look back at the fate of some associates of the Clinton's over the years!

Is this list accurate, inaccurate or totally false?

Well the list of people is accurate as they are definitely all dead and they were somehow related to the Clinton's.

Beyond that, however, it is impossible for me to say anything else for sure!

1- James McDougal - Convicted Whitewater partner of the Clintons who 
died of an apparent heart attack, while in solitary confinement. He was a key witness in Ken Starr's investigation. 

2 - Mary Mahoney - A former White House intern was murdered July 1997 
at a Starbucks Coffee Shop in Georgetown (Washington, D. C.). The murder happened just after she was to go public with her story of sexual harassment by Clinton in the White House. 

3 - Vince Foster - Former White House Councilor, and colleague of Hillary Clinton at Little Rock's Rose Law Firm. Died of a gunshot wound to the head, ruled a suicide. (He was about to testify against Hillary related to the records she refused to turn over to congress.) Was reported to have been having an affair with Hillary. 

4 - Ron Brown - Secretary of Commerce and former DNC Chairman. Reported to have died by impact in a plane crash. A pathologist close to the investigation reported that there was a hole in the top of Brown's skull resembling a gunshot wound. At the time of his death Brown was being investigated, and spoke publicly of his willingness to cut a deal with prosecutors. The rest of the people on the plane also died. A few days later the Air Traffic controller committed suicide. 

5 - C. Victor Raiser, II - Raiser, a major player in the Clinton fund raising organization died in a private plane crash in July 1992. 

6 - Paul Tulley - Democratic National Committee Political Director found dead in a hotel room in Little Rock on September 1992. Described by Clinton as a "dear friend and trusted advisor". 

7 - Ed Willey - Clinton fundraiser, found dead November 1993 deep in the woods in VA of a gunshot wound to the head. Ruled a suicide. Ed Willey died on the same day His wife Kathleen Willey claimed Bill Clinton groped her in the oval office in the White House. Ed Willey was involved in several Clinton fund raising events. 

8 - Jerry Parks - Head of Clinton's gubernatorial security team in Little Rock .. Gunned down in his car at a deserted intersection outside Little Rock. Park's son said his father was building a dossier on Clinton. He allegedly threatened to reveal this information. After he died the files were mysteriously removed from his house. 

9 - James Bunch - Died from a gunshot suicide. It was reported that he had a "Black Book" of people which contained names of influential people who visited Prostitutes in Texas and Arkansas 

10 - James Wilson - Was found dead in May 1993 from an apparent hanging suicide. He was reported to have ties to the Clintons' Whitewater deals. 

11 - Kathy Ferguson - Ex-wife of Arkansas Trooper Danny Ferguson, was found dead in May 1994, in her living room with a gunshot to her head. It was ruled a suicide even though there were several packed suitcases, as if she were going somewhere. Danny Ferguson was a co-defendant along with Bill Clinton in the Paula Jones Lawsuit, and Kathy Ferguson was a possible corroborating witness for Paula Jones. 

12 - Bill Shelton - Arkansas State Trooper and fiancée of Kathy Ferguson. Critical of the suicide ruling of his fiancée, he was found dead in June, 1994 of a gunshot wound also ruled a suicide at the grave 
site of his fiancée. 

13 - Gandy Baugh - Attorney for Clinton's friend Dan Lassater, died by jumping out a window of a tall building January, 1994. His client, Dan Lassater, was a convicted drug distributor. 

14 - Florence Martin - Accountant & sub-contractor for the CIA, was related to the Barry Seal, Mena, Arkansas Airport drug smuggling case. He died of three gunshot Wounds. 

15 - Suzanne Coleman - Reportedly had an affair with Clinton when he was Arkansas Attorney General. Died of a gunshot wound to the back of the head, ruled a suicide. Was pregnant at the time of her death. 

16 - Paula Grober - Clinton's speech interpreter for the deaf from 1978 until her death December 9,1992. She died in a one car accident. 

17 - Danny Casolaro - Investigative reporter who was Investigating the Mena Airport and Arkansas Development Finance Authority. He slit his wrists, apparently, in the middle of his investigation. 

18 - Paul Wilcher - Attorney investigating corruption at Mena Airport with Casolaro and the 1980 "October Surprise" was found dead on a > toilet June 22, 1993, in his Washington DC apartment. Had delivered a report to Janet Reno 3 weeks before his death. (May have died of poison) 

19 - Jon Parnell Walker - Whitewater investigator for Resolution Trust Corp. Jumped to his death from his Arlington, Virginia apartment balcony August 15,1993. He was investigating the Morgan Guaranty 
scandal. 

20 - Barbara Wise - Commerce Department staffer. Worked closely with Ron Brown and John Huang. Cause of death unknown. Died November 29, 1996. Her bruised, nude body was found locked in her office at the Department of Commerce. 

21 - Charles Meissner - Assistant Secretary of Commerce who gave John Huang special security clearance, died shortly thereafter in a small plane crash. 

22 - Dr. Stanley Heard - Chairman of the National Chiropractic Health Care Advisory Committee died with his attorney Steve Dickson in a small plane crash. Dr. Heard, in addition to serving on Clinton 's advisory council personally treated Clinton's mother, stepfather and Brother. 

23 - Barry Seal - Drug running TWA pilot out of Mena Arkansas, death was no accident. 

24 - Johnny Lawhorn, Jr. - Mechanic, found a check made out to Bill Clinton in the trunk of a car left at his repair shop. He was found dead after his car had hit a utility pole. 

25 - Stanley Huggins - Investigated Madison Guaranty. His death was a purported suicide and his report was never released. 

26 - Hershel Friday - Attorney and Clinton fundraiser died March 1, 1994, when his plane exploded. 

27 - Kevin Ives & Don Henry - Known as "The boys on the track" case. Reports say the two boys may have stumbled upon the Mena Arkansas airport drug operation. The initial report of death said their deaths were due to falling asleep on railroad tracks and being run over. 
Later autopsy reports stated that the 2 boys had been slain before being placed on the tracks. Many linked to the case died before their testimony could come before a Grand Jury. 

THE FOLLOWING PERSONS HAD INFORMATION ON THE IVES/HENRY CASE: 

28 - Keith Coney - Died when his motorcycle slammed into the back of a truck, 7/88. 

29 - Keith McMaskle - Died, stabbed 113 times, Nov 1988 

30 - Gregory Collins - Died from a gunshot wound January 1989. 

31 - Jeff Rhodes - He was shot, mutilated and found burned in a trash dump in April 1989. (Coroner ruled death due to suicide) 

32 - James Milan - Found decapitated. However, the Coroner ruled his death was due to natural causes"? 

33 - Jordan Kettleson - Was found shot to death in the front seat of his pickup truck in June 1990. 

34 - Richard Winters - A suspect in the Ives/Henry deaths. He was killed in a set-up robbery July 1989. 

THE FOLLOWING CLINTON PERSONAL BODYGUARDS ALL DIED OF MYSTERIOUS CAUSES OR SUICIDE 

36 - Major William S. Barkley, Jr. 

37 - Captain Scott J . Reynolds 

38 - Sgt. Brian Hanley 

39 - Sgt. Tim Sabel 

40 - Major General William Robertson 

41 - Col. William Densberger 

42 - Col. Robert Kelly 

43 - Spec. Gary Rhodes 

44 - Steve Willis 

45 - Robert Williams 

46 - Conway LeBleu 

47 - Todd McKeehan 

And this list does not include the four dead Americans in Benghazi that Hillary abandoned! 

H/T Digger email and Source


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Twitchy has the amazing tweet from Stephen King:

Could a woman of Chris Christie's size be taken seriously as a presidential candidate? Just asking, although I think I know the answer.

No comment yet from Stephen King on the BMI challenged picture of Hillary Clinton down below.

On December 23, 2012, David Gregory waved the now infamous 30-round ammunition magazine on air during a Meet the Press interview with Wayne LaPierre of the NRA following the Sandy Hook school shooting.

In D.C., mere possession of a 30-round magazine is a crime, regardless of whether the magazine is loaded.  D.C. is notoriously aggressive in its prosecution of gun laws even by otherwise innocent people who just didn’t realize they were breaking the law and were not committing any other crime.

NBC had no innocence of mind.

Prior to the show, NBC producers were specifically warned by the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department that possession of the magazine was illegal. MPD suggested NBC use a photo of a magazine, not the real thing.

NBC ignored the warning.

After investigation, the MPD prepared a warrant and supporting affidavit, which D.C. government refuses to release despite our FOIA request.  We are still fighting in court, with the help of Judicial Watch, to get that and other documents witheld.  D.C.’s withholding of documents has been strategic, releasing some to others but withholding them from us.

Yet, on January 11, 2013, the D.C. Attorney General decided not to prosecute ”despite the clarity of the violation of this important law.”  Among other things, the D.C. Attorney general cited Gregory’s lack of a criminal record, and “the intent of the temporary possession and short display of the magazine was to promote the First Amendment purpose of informing an ongoing public debate about firearms policy in the United States….”

Few if any people protesting the non-prosecution believed that in a rational world conduct such as that exhibited by David Gregory should be prosecuted.  But D.C. gun laws are not a rational world, and neither are D.C. gun law prosecutions.

The non-prosecution of David Gregory was a testament to the double standard for justice in the District of Columbia, one for the rich and powerful, another for the rest of us.

via http://madfuture.tumblr.com/

In his address last Wednesday at the Center for American Progress, President Obama made the following statement:

It’s also true that women make 77 cents on the dollar compared to men. So we’re going to need strong application of anti-discrimination laws… we’re going to need targeted initiatives to close those gaps….

That remark is consistent with this statement on the White House website with the heading “Did You Know That Women Are Still Paid Less Than Men?”

On average, full-time working women earn just 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. This significant gap is more than a statistic — it has real life consequences. When women, who make up nearly half the workforce, bring home less money each day, it means they have less for the everyday needs of their families, and over a lifetime of work, far less savings for retirement.

In a CD post last September, I documented the significant gender wage gap for the White House staff, based on salary data from the “2013 Annual Report to Congress on White House Staff.” An analysis of White House payroll data reveals that the 228 female employees in the Obama White House are being paid a median annual salary of $65,000 this year, compared to a median annual salary of nearly $75,000 for the 231 male White House staffers (see chart above). In other words, female staffers at the Obama White House are paid less than 87 cents for every dollar paid to male staffers, and there is therefore a significant White House “gender pay gap” of more than 13%. 

So I guess some obvious questions for Obama would include: Did you know that women working in your White House are paid less than men? Specifically, are you aware that female White House staffers earn 87 cents on the dollar compared to your male staffers? And shouldn’t your targeted initiatives to close the gender wage gap start in your own White House?

Welfare…not just for poor Democrat voters but also for giant corporations filled with Democrat donors! Yep, The Obama administration is finally planning to exit its corporate bailout of GM, and the taxpayers are on the hook for $10 billion....

Infowars

Say all of the negatives things you will about Barack Obama (and I certainly have) but the one thing we can all agree on is that he is a cold and calculating ideologue!

With that said, does it strike anyone else as somewhat curious that despite all of the time and all of the money and all of the warnings from the website creators, this Obamacare rollout was such an abysmal failure?

I know what the naysayers are going to say about that question.

Nay, they will say! Failure is no great surprise because little that this President has done has been competent so why should Obamacare be any exception?

To the naysayers I say that while this is certainly true, the fact remains that as of right now the focus of the conversation about Obamacare has turned to the website failure rather than the failure of the law.

This plays right into the hands of a President who is masterfully skilled at the game of running out the clock on one issue while waiting for some other issue, scandal or cover-up to take its place.

And, as we know, when it does his lapdogs in the media will take their direction from the White House and dutifully turn their collective noses away from Obamacare and onto something else.

Then, by the time this website is fixed (if it ever is) and all of the glitches are ironed out we will be many many months down the road and by then it may unfortunately be too late to do anything about repealing Obamacare.

Then, when it all fails, it will only be time before we are living under a single-payer system, joining our friends across the pond and to our north and doing our best UK/Canada socialized medicine dance.

Bottom line?

Don't sell Barack Obama short!

He may be an incredibly bad President but he is nothing if not a Chicago community organizer who knows what he wants and will stop at nothing to get it.

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ONE CHARISMATIC ORATOR TO ANOTHER: How JFK secretly ADMIRED Hitler: Explosive book reveals former President’s praise for the Nazis as he travelled through Germany before Second World War. A lot of influential Americans of the political class admired Hitler at some point.

Related: Cornelius Vanderbilt IV meets Hitler:

Vanderbilt toured Europe with two French cameramen, and managed to interview the day’s notorious newsmakers, including Benito Mussolini and Josef Stalin. But the plutocrat-cum-journalist set his sights on a man even more dangerous. When he had a chance to sit down with the former Crown Prince of Germany, in Berlin, he asked, “Strange, isn’t it, that you Hohenzollerns are so much easier to see than Hitler?”

On March 5, 1933, the day elections gave the Nazis a parliamentary plurality, a triumphant Adolf Hitler addressed a hysterical crowd at the Sports Palace in Berlin. From the wings of the stage, Vanderbilt managed a brief audience with the new Reich Chancellor. According to Vanderbilt’s account, he introduced himself, in German, and then Hitler, with a motion to the throngs that awaited, began speaking: “Tell the Americans that life moves forward, always forward, irrevocably forward. Tell them that Adolf Hitler is the man of the hour, not because he has been appointed Chancellor by Hindenburg but because no one else could have been appointed Chancellor instead. Tell them that he was sent by the Almighty to a nation that had been threatened with disintegration and loss of honor for fifteen long years.” Vanderbilt, an all-American blue blood, risked a final question. He shouted, “And what about the Jews, Your Excellency?” Hitler brushed it off—“My people are waiting for me!”—and pointed Vanderbilt toward Dr. Ernst Hanfstaengl, his Harvard-educated (and Anglo-acclimated) foreign press chief. “He will tell you about the Jews and all the other things that seem to bother America.” Hanfstaengl proved mostly interested in Vanderbilt’s money.

The old-money Vanderbilt seems to have been more discerning about Hitler than the new-money Kennedy. Tragedy that he didn’t shoot him.

UPDATE: Reader Matt Gilbert emails:

Hi Glenn – I laughed out loud at this: “pity he didn’t shoot him”.

My German-speaking grand-dad was the AP reporter based in London who was sent to cover Hitler’s election. He met him twice. I never knew this (neither did my mother – his own daughter) until I asked him what his biggest regret in life was. He told his story then reached out his hands and said, “my biggest regret was not strangling that man when I had the chance….” I’d never seen my no-drama Grand-dad so animated. He died two years later. His best friend was the AP photographer sent with him to the event. Afterwards they took 2 weeks and toured the continent. We found those sepia photographs in my Granddad’s things after he passed…pictures of pre-ww2 Europe, pre-destruction Germany and then right there: my granddad standing next to the most notorious man of the 20th century. It was bone chilling.

Some people just need killin’, as the Scots-Irish used to say. Okay, still do.

The New York Post

**Written by Doug Powers

Some are saying it’s shameful that the Democrats caved on the FAA sequester rules while leaving other targeted cuts in place. Maybe things would have gone differently if kids in Head Start were old enough to vote and politicians traveled to and from their home districts in Meals on Wheels vans, but that’s not the way things played out:

The White House and Democrats in Congress argued for months against a piecemeal fix to the budget problems caused by the sequester.

But on Thursday, Democrats caved in and agreed to allow the Federal Aviation Administration to keep air traffic control towers running at close to full capacity.

All it took was a few thousand people standing in line at the airport.

The Senate approved a deal late Thursday to ease the FAA’s burden following negotiations among both parties and the White House. The House is expected to take up the bill Friday, just before the congressional weeklong recess, so President Barack Obama can sign it.

While travelers may be relieved, some Democrats worry about saving the FAA while letting other domestic programs across the government suffer under the automatic budget cuts.

I haven’t flown anywhere since the furloughs kicked in, but when I read about airport delays I usually check this FAA site, and it’s usually all green dots. Here’s this morning’s map:

Maybe some here who have traveled by air in the past week or so can weigh in regarding the length of their wait, but if the delays haven’t been as bad as the administration threatened (or maybe “hoped” is a better word), it’s possible the Dems have been victims of their own overexaggeration and are backpedaling on this before increasing numbers of air traveling voters say to themselves, “this isn’t the end of the world.”

The “Reducing Flight Delays Act of 2013″ doesn’t provide additional funding for the FAA — meaning they’re still under the rules of sequestration — but rather allows the Transportation Department to apply the cuts elsewhere. The fact that departments aren’t allowed to do that at their own discretion is the best evidence that somebody wanted control of precisely where the pain is felt kept at the top.

The House will take up the bill today, and it will need a two-thirds majority to pass.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

A faction in the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) just proposed a resolution to change BSA’s longstanding policy regarding openly homosexual behavior, one that will subject them to crippling lawsuits and cannot possibly survive over time. Regardless of where a person stands on the question of whether there should be open and avowed homosexuals in the Boy Scouts, this policy doesn’t make sense either way.

As a private organization, BSA has always held the official position that open homosexual behavior is incompatible with the code of Scouting. Years ago, when New Jersey argued this longstanding policy violated public-accommodation laws, it went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the 2000 case Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, the Supreme Court sided with the Boy Scouts, holding that private organizations have a First Amendment right to express themselves through defining their own membership criteria.

Yet, on Friday, BSA’s Executive Council proposed a resolution with a new policy: that BSA will retain its complete ban on adults (age 18+) who openly engage in homosexual behavior serving in any Scouting role, but changing the youth (under 18) policy to read, “No youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone.”

The wording of the resolution reflects a cynical attempt by a faction within BSA’s leadership to get a preordained result: “No youth may be denied.” No one likes the thought of denying young people something. This faction chose not to use wording such as, “Scouting shall retain its longstanding traditional policy,” or, “Scouting shall uphold the expressed will of its national membership to retain its longstanding policy.”

That’s because a national survey of Scouting families showed 61% wanted to keep the longstanding policy against open homosexuality in Scouting, and only 34% want it repealed. Other studies show that most parents want to discuss sexuality at home and instill their personal values on that sensitive issue with their children, rather than having any organization teach their boys about it.

This policy cannot endure over time. Let’s say you have a boy who joins the Scouts at age 12. When he’s 16 years old, he begins engaging in homosexual conduct. (It makes no difference if he also has sex with girls.) At age 17, he attains the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest achievement in Boy Scouting.

But the following year, when he turns 18, suddenly he is expelled from Scouting for the rest of his life. How in the world could that happen? On what basis? A growing number of people with this story would become the faces and voices of efforts to change the other half of the policy and lift the ban on open and avowed homosexual adult Scout leaders.

This policy is also utterly incoherent. Does BSA believe openly homosexual conduct is consistent with Scouting principles, yes or no? If yes, then both Scouts and Scout leaders alike must abstain from homosexual conduct to be in compliance with the Scout Oath and Scout Law, which form the foundation of this longstanding policy. If no, then there’s no reason to deny open and avowed homosexual adults a role in the organization’s leadership.

The wording of this policy, “orientation or preference,” also opens the door for self-defined sexual identity. What if someone is anatomically a female but chooses to identify as a boy, and wants to dress and act as a boy? This policy suggests that a girl could join a Boy Scout troop.

In addition, if this resolution is adopted by BSA, then the organization will be subject to a crippling array of lawsuits that it lacks sufficient funds to win. This change in policy means that BSA would forever step outside the protection handed to it by the Supreme Court in Dale. The organization would forfeit the First Amendment protection they currently have from this form of “expressive association.” 

The new policy would instead express the opposite belief that open homosexual conduct is entirely consistent with Scouting’s code, and so federal courts would have no basis to uphold the part of the new policy that still doesn’t allow adult leaders who openly engage in homosexual behavior.

Every Scouting unit in the nation could be sued under the anti-discrimination laws of the city and state where it’s located. BSA would lose many of those lawsuits. They might win many others, but at a cost of many millions of dollars.

This doesn’t even consider other impacts of this policy. For example, many Scout troops are sponsored and housed in traditional churches. A Southern Baptist church in Mississippi or Texas or a Mormon church in Utah might no longer in good conscience be able to officially lend its name or facilities to a troop that now accepts open and avowed homosexual behavior as morally-acceptable conduct.

It seems unlikely that this faction in Scouting’s leadership somehow missed all this in drafting the new policy. And it’s very unlikely that any team of even half-competent lawyers could think the resulting litigation would be anything short of catastrophic for BSA, both considering the final outcome and the financial cost.

So this proposal now goes to the full Scouting body for its national Annual Meeting in May of this year. This proposal is squarely against what most Scouting families supported in the national survey, and things might reach a point where perhaps a second Scouting organization will be formed for people who don’t share the same beliefs. 

If it wants to try avoiding that outcome (or to see if it’s inevitable), BSA would be well-served by having an open and robust debate, with articulate spokesmen for both sides—including good lawyers to discuss the legal impact—at the national meeting before voting on the policy change.

Next month everyone will see whether BSA’s membership believes its interests are well-served by the work of this faction in its leadership ranks.

Breitbart News legal columnist Ken Klukowski is a senior fellow for religious liberty at the Family Research Council and on faculty at Liberty University School of Law.

Yesterday there was a wealth of speculation based on sleuthing at 4Chan and Reddit about possible suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing.

I didn’t run the photos, because, well, these may just be guys in the crowd and the analysis did not impress me based on what was presented. Here’s part of it:

Well, now an image is all over the internet already, supposedly of people the FBI wants to speak with, including the guy in the white hat:

Allahpundit notes that the people in the photos may not even be suspects, and the amateur photo analysis may be way off.  Reddit is backing off bigtime:

UPDATE: 10 hours after these guys were identified, the NY Post has ran a front page story with pictures of them, apparently unaware that they have been identified and have come forward.

This is what you call a witch hunt media, for god sake.

The two males we’re talking about are the one in a black jumper/hoody with a white hat, and his friend in a blue track jacket. There are multiple news sites releasing their information and/or Facebook pages, this is disgusting and will not be tolerated here, no links to these stories are allowed.

Please report any posts regarding personal information on these two, they will be removed and the user will be permanently banned. All previous links to these two are being removed.

We are not waiting for them to be officially cleared, one of the men has contacted the police to try and clear his name. Please understand that the FBI now knows who they are, so our posts now have no purpose. If the situation changes then people can make new posts. It’s not our job to keep their information out there, people are innocent until proven guilty – not the other way around.

So be cautious.

So much has been so wrong about the facts reported by the media.

Update:  Teen: I Am Not the Boston Marathon Bomber:

The teenage boy authorities once investigated as possibly being connected to the Boston Marathon bombing told ABC News today he was shocked to see his face pop up on television and all over social media.

Salah Barhoun, 17, said he went to the police yesterday to clear his name after he found himself tagged in pictures online. He had just gone to watch the race, he said, but soon after the explosions, he was singled out by internet sleuths as looking suspicious. Federal authorities passed around images of Barhoun, attempting to learn more information about him, sources told ABC News.

Boston police officers keep a perimeter secure in Boston’s Copley Square, April 16, 2013 as an investigation continues into the bomb blasts at the finish area of the Boston Marathon.

Today The New York Post ran a story featuring a picture of Barhoun circled in red, but said it was unclear if the two men were the same as two potential suspects spotted by law enforcement Wednesday.

The NY Post updates:

WASHINGTON — Sunday, June 25, 1950, the Korean People’s Army attacked across the 38th parallel, captured Seoul — capital of the Republic of Korea — and began driving south. The battered South Korean army and their U.S. military advisers quickly were pushed into the “Pusan Perimeter” on the southern tip of the peninsula — and U.S. President Harry Truman took the case to the United Nations Security Council.

American leadership and the absence of the Soviet ambassador resulted in swift passage of Security Council Resolution 84. The measure — perhaps the last time in history that the U.N. acted with dispatch — authorized the use of force against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. During the bloody three-year war that followed, troops from 10 European countries and from 10 others around the world fought beside U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines in Korea — finally securing an armistice July 27, 1953.

In the years since, the increasingly isolated patriarchal-Stalinist regime in Pyongyang, North Korea, has raised visceral hatred of the United States to a whole new level while systematically violating the terms of the armistice — and virtually every other agreement to which it is a party. In short, Pyongyang’s past behavior is a prelude to present and future conduct.

On Jan. 21, 1968, North Korean guerrillas attacked Seoul’s Presidential Palace in an attempt to assassinate South Korean President Park Chung-hee. U.S. President Lyndon Johnson dispatched Cyrus Vance to discourage the South Koreans — with troops already committed in Vietnam — from undertaking a military response. Vance’s mission was a success, and no action — other than a strongly worded diplomatic note — was taken against Pyongyang.

Two days later, the USS Pueblo, a small, unarmed U.S. Navy surveillance vessel, was seized in international waters by North Korean patrol boats. Cmdr. Lloyd “Pete” Bucher and the 81 surviving members of the Pueblo crew were beaten and tortured by their captors while the Johnson administration in Washington, enmeshed in micromanaging the war in Vietnam, dithered. Finally, after a year of brutality — and facing the threat of having one member of his crew shot each day, starting with the youngest — Bucher signed a concocted confession. Pyongyang promptly repatriated the crew, kept the Pueblo and still uses it for propaganda.

The unwillingness to deal forcefully with the North Korean regime in 1968 set a precedent from which neither the West in general nor the U.S. in particular ever has recovered. North Korean leaders, emboldened by the West’s flaccid response, stepped up their campaign of terror.

Intelligence operatives and commandos dispatched by Pyongyang have kidnapped hundreds of South Korean and Japanese mariners, fishermen and civilian women and children. North Korean terrorists have made no fewer than three additional attempts to assassinate South Korean leaders. One of them, a 1983 bombing in Rangoon, killed 17 diplomats and members of South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan’s security detail. In 1987, a bomb placed aboard Korean Airlines Flight 858 killed all 115 aboard — including four Americans.

In 1994, after North Korea’s “great leader,” Kim Il Sung, died of a heart attack at age 82, the Clinton administration opened direct negotiations with his son and successor, Kim Jong Il, and claimed it had forged a “new relationship” with Pyongyang. Since then, the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations have delivered tens of millions of dollars’ worth of food, fuel and humanitarian aid to ease starvation. Despite this generosity — and toothless U.N. sanctions — little has changed except that North Korea has acquired nuclear weapons and the means of delivering them.

Last year, the despotic dynasty passed to the founder’s 27-year-old grandson, Kim Jong Un. Eager to prove himself to “old guard” Communist Party hacks and the military leaders actually running the hermit kingdom, Kim has upped the ante. In December, the Korean People’s Army launched a multistage missile capable of hitting the U.S. homeland. In February, North Korea successfully tested a nuclear weapon — and followed up with threats of a nuclear strike on the United States, Japan and South Korea. This week, North Korea moved a Musudan midrange mobile missile to a coastal test range on the Sea of Japan.

Official Washington’s response to this new round of North Korean saber rattling has exacerbated anxiety in Seoul, Tokyo and U.S. Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii. Last week, the Obama administration launched a rhetorical counterattack against Pyongyang and widely publicized the deployment of strike aircraft, U.S. Navy surface combatants and ballistic missile defense assets — including two sea-based radar platforms and ground-based missile interceptors to Guam.

One senior military officer put it this way: “All this should have been done very quietly and reassured our allies. Instead, the Obama administration is turning this into their version of John Kennedy’s ‘Seven Days in May.’ If they keep this up, everyone out here will have nukes.”

Well put. The folks who canceled White House tours to save money need to get out their history books. The first occupant of the White House to receive a Nobel Prize was famous for saying, “Speak softly, and carry a big stick.”

The post North: Korean craziness appeared first on Conservative News, Views & Books.

Those who stand athwart the progressive dream of ending history yelling, “Stop!” suffered a great loss today. The Right Honourable Baroness Margaret Thatcher has died. Whatever one thought of her, there was no denying that she stood her ground with unrivaled firmness.

Lady Thatcher will be remembered as a fearless champion of individual liberty and the rule of law. In so many ways, she was ahead of her time, as a stateswoman, as a conservative, and as a critic of socialism.

She was also a great critic of the project to unite Europe under a single sovereign and currency. This stance was controversial as she was driven from power, but the Iron Lady lived to see a deeply troubled Eurozone, and a lukewarm British response.

Maggie has much to be proud of. Ronnie will be ever so happy to see her.

UTTER ANNIHILATION

Congressman Cliff Stearns leaves Henry Paulson abused and stuttering.

Everything is in here: AIG-Goldman conduit, Lehman failure, Paulson's tax-free $700 million stock sale, Geithner and AIG, TARP lies and Goldman's FDIC debt guarantee.

This is the closest we will ever see Paulson to a courtroom.

 

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Further reading:

Paulson's Little-Known 2004 SEC Rule Change - New York Times

 

 

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This is an Icelandic waterfall called Litlanesfoss and the naturally occurring rock formation is columnar jointed basalt.

The columns form due to stress as the lava cools. The lava contracts as it cools, forming cracks. Once the crack develops it continues to grow. The growth is perpendicular to the surface of the flow. Entablature is probably the result of cooling caused by fresh lava being covered by water. The flood basalts probably damned rivers. When the rivers returned the water seeped down the cracks in the cooling lava and caused rapid cooling from the surface downward. The division of colonnade and entablature is the result of slow cooling from the base upward and rapid cooling from the top downward.

One of the coolest things I have ever seen. Looks totally fake, like they built it for Fractal Falls in Polygon Gorge at Disneyland or something. Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland looks amazing as well. Check out several similar formations from around the world.

Tags: geology