US and Japanese sources reported Friday, April 12, that North Korea has warned Japan that Tokyo would be the first target if Pyongyang decided to launch a nuclear attack. This was in response to Japan’s orders to its armed forces to shoot down any North Korean missile that heads toward its territory. Taking the threat seriously, Japan has deployed Patriot interceptors around its capital.
Japanese defense officials refused to confirm reports about their naval alert saying they do not want to “show their cards” to North Korea.
On arrival in Seoul Friday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said: “We will stand with South Korea and Japan against these threats. And we will defend ourselves,” he said. He rejected the Pentagon’s assessment that Pyongyang had probably developed nuclear weapons which could be mounted on ballistic missiles, saying that North Korea had still not developed or fully tested the nuclear capabilities needed for this step.
The White House again insisted Friday that North Korea had not demonstrated a capability to deploy a nuclear-armed missile, evidently intent on having the last word in the debate with the Pentagon on this matter.
This is what the collectivists have in mind when they say they want to “break through our kinda private idea that kids belong to their parents.” No, our kids belong to whole “communities” of leftist freaks polluting their minds with garbage like this:
See, “it takes a village” to totally warp and indoctrinate young minds.
And it turns out many of the people in the village are left wing political hacks.
According to his firm bio, he “is widely recognized as one of California’s leading strategists for political campaigns, corporations, Native American tribes and nonprofit organizations,” and has managed five statewide political campaigns.” He is also a current board member of something called “the Constitutional Rights Foundation,” of all things.
Neat. What else?
Just this – Todd Starnes of Fox Newstalked to both Sragow and the student who taped him. As you can imagine, our collectivist hero is not pleased with the little whelp, and his grade is probably going to suffer for it.
Sragow said it is possible Talgo may have violated the student code of conduct by secretly taping his classes.
“While I am very candid and direct, I never say anything unless I am willing to have it repeated with attribution,” the professor said. “If he thought he was playing a dirty trick by taping me, it lacks creativity and the effort deserves maybe a C-plus.”
***
During one lecture, a student asked how to stop Republicans from voting.
The teaching assistant chimed in, “Put up Panthers outside of the polling place.”
The professor responded, “Yeah, yeah. You can do that.”
He also railed on the Bush-Gore presidential campaign and claimed Republicans had stolen the election.
Talk about lack of creativity.
The parents of students at a high school in Michigan are experiencing a similar scandal – an offensive and controversial pol has been allowed to speak there after an initial firestorm of disapproval nearly led to his appearance being canceled. At least this school is handling the controversy right – only students who have special written permission from their parents will be allowed to hear this miscreant.
Students at Grosse Pointe South High School will get to hear Rick Santorum speak after all — as long as they have signed permission slips from their parents.
Isaiah 5:20: Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
WASHINGTON – A U.S. intelligence agency has concluded that North Korea has developed nuclear warheads small enough to fit on a ballistic missile, a congressman disclosed Thursday.
At a House armed services committee hearing focused on the budget, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) read from what he said was an unclassified portion of a classified Defense Intelligence Agency study that states, “DIA assesses with moderate confidence the North currently has nuclear weapons capable of delivery by ballistic missiles. However, the reliability will be low.”
Although U.S. experts believe North Korean missiles are not capable of hitting the U.S. mainland, the notion that the regime had achieved a significant leap in weapons technology would be deeply disconcerting for U.S. policymakers. It was not immediately known whether the CIA and other U.S. agencies agree with the DIA, an intelligence arm at the Pentagon.
Lamborn said the DIA study was completed last month but the conclusion had not been made public.
Even though the DIA information revealed by Lamborn was unclassified, good luck getting any Obama officials to actually admit how dire the situation really is.
I’ll say this – I think it’s laudable that the president took a break from his vacations, fund-raising, and permanent campaign to weigh in on this national security crisis with the belligerent, nuke-rattling NORKS – even if it was just a pathetic plea for them to “lower temperatures” and a statement of the obvious: “No one wants to see a conflict on the Korean Peninsula”. (Except maybe Kim Jong Un?) But at least by commenting on it he’s taking a baby step in the right direction, so bully for him. I’m a big believer in positive reinforcement. Obama’s totally got this.
Lurch, (who served in Vietnam) has been dispatched to South Korea to meet with officials there “to try to calm tensions.”
The information which included personal information like phone numbers, addresses and even geographic coordinates was given to the environmentalists through a FOIA request. How is that possible? A government agency can give out personal information on Americans to any yahoo who requests it?
NCBA and the National Pork Producers Council are both furious with EPA for handing extremist groups illegally gathered data on farmers who operate confined animal feeding operations.
NCBA said early this week it was notified by the EPA that the agency had been collecting information from states on CAFOs. The information was requested by extremist groups, including Earth Justice, the Pew Charitable Trust and the Natural Resources Defense Council through a Freedom of Information Act request and was given to them.
The information released by EPA covers livestock operations in more than 30 states, including many family farmers who feed less than 1,000 head and are not subject to regulation under the Clean Water Act.
“When we reviewed the information submitted by the states and released by EPA, we were alarmed at the detail of the information provided on hard working family farmers and ranchers, family operations including my own,” said NCBA past president J.D. Alexander, a cattle feeder from Pilger, Nebraska.
“It is beyond comprehension to me that with threats to my family from harassment atop bio-security concerns, that EPA would gather this information only to release it to these groups. This information details my family’s home address and geographic coordinates. The only thing it doesn’t do is chauffeur these extremists to my house. For some operations, even telephone numbers and deceased relatives are listed.”
Personal information about the farmers were released to these extremist groups:
Seeks to place severe restrictions on how public land may be used
Earthjustice describes itself as a nonprofit “law firm for the environment” that works through the courts to “safeguard public lands, national forests, parks, and wilderness areas; to reduce air and water pollution; to prevent toxic contamination; and to preserve endangered species and wildlife habitat.” The organization’s professed raison d’etre is: “Because the earth needs a good lawyer.”
The Pew Charitable Trusts (PCT) are comprised of seven individual funds established between 1948 and 1979 by the four children of Joseph N. Pew, founder of the Sun Oil Company, and his wife Mary A. Pew.
Mr. Pew and his immediate heirs were politically conservative, as were most of the causes that PCT supported in its early years. In recent decades, however, leftwing staffers have taken control of the organization, radically transforming its ideology and funding philosophy. Particularly responsible for this change was the late neurosurgeon Thomas W. Langfitt, who served as PCT’s President and Chief Executive Officer from 1987 through 1994.
Rebecca Rimel, who joined the Trusts in 1983 as Health Program Manager, ascended to the positions of President and CEO in 1994 when Langfitt, her mentor, retired. She became the Executive Director in 1998.
In the early 1990s, Sean Treglia, a former program officer with Pew, conceived a strategy whereby a few major leftist foundations would bankroll front groups and so-called “experts” whose aim was to persuade Congress to swallow the fiction that millions of Americans were clamoring for “campaign-finance reform.” Consequently, between 1994 and 2004, some $140 million of foundation cash was used to promote such reform. Nearly 90 percent of this amount derived from just eight foundations: the Pew Charitable Trusts (which contributed $40.1 million to the cause); the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy ($17.6 million); the Carnegie Corporation of New York ($14.1 million); the Joyce Foundation ($13.5 million); the Open Society Institute ($12.6 million); the Jerome Kohlberg Trust ($11.3 million); the Ford Foundation ($8.8 million); and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation ($5.2 million).
One of America’s most influential environmentalist groups
Responsible for the 1989 Alar hoax
Founded in 1970 on a $400,000 seed grant from the Ford Foundation, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is today one of the most influential environmentalist lobbying groups in the United States. It claims a membership of one million people, including some 400,000 Internet activists. The organization’s President is Frances Beinecke, a co-founder of the New York League of Conservation Voters, a Board member of the World Resources Institute, and a former Board Chair of the Wilderness Society.
Rep Rick Crawford(R-AR) released the following video in response to this shocking news:
Recently, I was informed the Environmental Protection Agency had released the personal information of livestock and poultry producers to extremist environmental groups. The information was released after the groups filed a request through the Freedom of Information Act. The EPA turned over personal information like phone numbers, addresses and even geographic coordinates to environmentalists. An overwhelming majority of the information released appears to be from farms owned by families who may now face threats to their homes and businesses. I have serious concerns over the EPA’s release of this information, particularly regarding individual privacy rights and possible bio-security threats to the nation’s food supply. Releasing this type of information makes producers potential targets of harassment, or even bio-terrorism.
Unfortunately, this release of information is yet another example of the EPA’s overreach into the lives of hardworking individuals in rural America. As Chairman of the Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock, Rural Development, and Credit, I am leading a group of 40 House members in writing a letter to the acting director of the EPA expressing our concerns and asking the acting director to ensure the released information is not improperly used. In the letter, we demand answers on why the EPA obtained producers’ private information and, most important, what steps the agency will take to protect the affected producers while ensuring these actions will never happen again.
It is unacceptable for the EPA to do anything that could jeopardize our nation’s food security or threaten American farm operations. The EPA must be held accountable for their actions and bureaucrats in Washington must consider the livelihoods of farm families and our nation’s food-security before they cower to extreme environmental groups.
The EPA has become an enemy of the American people.
On tonight’s Justice with Jeanine Pirro, the Judge started off the show by commenting on the Regime’s decision to release 2000 dangerous illegal immigrant detainees.
“The first order of government is the protection of its citizens”, she said. “But what is unbelievable is how reckless this administration has been in releasing dangerous criminals onto our streets.”
She played a clip of White House Spokesdweeb, Jay Carney back-peddling, prevaricating and deferring blame.
“That less expensive form of monitoring”, Jay Carney mentioned, “is opening up the prison doors and letting them walk,” Pirro asserted.
The Regime has been claiming that they’re low risk – non-criminal detainees. “Jay, if they’re low level low risk detainees, why are they in custody?” Pirro queried. Somebody’s lying.
How does Ms. Pirro know this? She produced the memowritten by Ice’s “top dog”, John Morton, to field office directors and all special agents, providing guidance to on when to issue detainers against illegal immigrants charged with crimes.
persons with three or more prior misdemeanor convictions
persons charged with assault, DWI, unlawful flight from the scene of an accident
drug distribution or trafficking
sexual abuse or exploitation
In addition, an ICE hold can only be placed on a person who appears subject to removal or deportation. There are others who may be subject to ICE holds, including persons who have been previously deported or convicted of illegal entry.
There are, however, some notable exceptions to the list of persons subject to ICE holds.
Notable exceptions: Persons not subject to ICE detainers
First, ICE may not place holds or detainers on persons charged with minor misdemeanors or traffic violations, as long as they have a clean immigration history. Thus, a person arrested for littering, with no previous deportation order, is not subject to an ICE hold.
Second, a person charged with misdemeanor drug possession, with no allegation of distribution or trafficking, is also not subject to an ICE detainer. This category will include thousands of non-citizens charged every day for possession of small amounts of marijuana.
Pirro offered her own theory as to what’s going on. “This release plan was hatched and acted on even before the mandated cuts were signed into law – it’s part of what I call the Obama Amnesty Program.”
She played a clip of Napolitano complaining that she can’t pay for the beds of so many illegal immigrants, because — sequester.
“How do you pay for them?!” Pirro Asked incredulously. “That’s your question?!!
At the end of this year, it’s estimated that they will have a carry over of nine billion dollars. How about the 70 million you have in unobligated user fee balances?
And I have an idea…How about you reduce staff bonuses and performance awards. How about you spend those unspent funds from state and local grant programs instead of releasing criminals. How about you NOT spend money on ridiculous things like that $98,000 for an underwater robot for Columbus OH, where there are no major rivers and few lakes near by. And that $24,000 for a latrine on wheels in Ft. Worth Tx, and by the way if you release those detainees, make me feel better – give them a bill for those transgender hormone treatments, those new teeth and those abortions they had while in our custody.”
…”But no problem! – These criminals are going to voluntarily come back to face their own deportation – the same ones who snuck into the country and have been determined to be a danger to the rest of us. Hope springs eternal, doesn’t it?”
She had Iowa Congressman Steven King and Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu on to talk about the issue.
King said that he would like to get John Morton to appear before the House Judiciary hearings to explain the prison releases.
Some of the detainees, Babeu noted had been “convicted not just charged – convicted for weapons violations, drug smuggling, (these are cartel members, these are narcotic traffickers!), drug dealers, these are people who have been in fights, and aggravated assaults against police officers…. How in the world can you say these are low risk, non criminal detainees?! These are the worst of the worst. These are people who have been convicted of child molestation! We have people who have been released, I’ve been told by ICE agents, who have been charged with man-slaughter.”
Pirro brought up the whistleblowers who want to come forward and expose what’s going on. But Babeu said several memos have been sent out to ICE agents about the prisoner releases - anyone who talks about it “outside our agency shall be disciplined up to and including termination, creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.” He said, “these federal agents, who swore an oath to protect our country, are being intimidated from doing the right thing.”
As the Obama Administration spun nightmare scenarios over the impact of sequester cuts, it was revealed that Homeland Security had released from custody illegal immigrants who were charged with crimes. The White House said these actions were taken in expectation of the looming cuts, but dismissed concerns, saying just “a few hundred” criminals were released. The Associated Press, however, reported late Friday that 2,000 detainees had been released, with another 3,000 planned to be released this month.
Although she would later claim that she had no partin the decision to release the prisoners, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano blamed the sequester cuts for the need to reduce their numbers.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano foreshadowed the announcement earlier in the day at a press briefing. She said ICE “will be forced” under sequestration to reduce detention and removal of undocumented immigrants.
“All I can say is, look, we’re doing our very best to minimize the impacts of sequester,” Napolitano told reporters at the White House. “But there’s only so much I can do. I’m supposed to have 34,000 detention beds for immigration. How do I pay for those?”
According to the White House Office of Management and Budget, DHS is slated to finish the year with more than $9 billion in unobligated funds.
Critics of ICE’s detainee release rejected the budget constraint explanation. Some suggested the administration was using detainee releases to accentuate the supposedly catastrophic effects of the sequester.
If this president is ordering the release of prisoners to scare the American public about sequestration and force the Republicans’ hand – that’s not just your typical Chicago style hardball – that’s a borderline impeachable offense. If it was done to grant a defacto amnesty to the detainees – that should be an impeachable offense. Republicans should be investigating, and heads should be rolling over this. Instead, surprise – surprise – they’re capitulating.
And what the hell are all the bullets and armored vehicles for?
Here’s the 411 from the official spokesman for Das Vaterland. I mean, Homeland . . .The MRAPs were transferred to DHS from the Department of Defense, free of charge. But despite recent reports, they have actually been in service since at least 2008.
“The MRAPs we have are not new,” Ross Feinstein, a spokesman for DHS, told Business Insider. “We have been using them for years.”
“[The vehicle] is used in the execution of high-risk warrants — including drug trafficking, smuggling, and contraband,” Feinstein told Business Insider. “We have 16 MRAPs nationwide.”
Via Dan Riehl, and the Politico, here’s the entire email from Gene Sperling, economic adviser to the president, and Bob Woodward’s cordial response:
From Gene Sperling to Bob Woodward on Feb. 22, 2013
Bob:
I apologize for raising my voice in our conversation today. My bad. I do understand your problems with a couple of our statements in the fall — but feel on the other hand that you focus on a few specific trees that gives a very wrong perception of the forest. But perhaps we will just not see eye to eye here.
But I do truly believe you should rethink your comment about saying saying that Potus asking for revenues is moving the goal post. I know you may not believe this, but as a friend, I think you will regret staking out that claim. The idea that the sequester was to force both sides to go back to try at a big or grand barain with a mix of entitlements and revenues (even if there were serious disagreements on composition) was part of the DNA of the thing from the start. It was an accepted part of the understanding — from the start. Really. It was assumed by the Rs on the Supercommittee that came right after: it was assumed in the November-December 2012 negotiations. There may have been big disagreements over rates and ratios — but that it was supposed to be replaced by entitlements and revenues of some form is not controversial. (Indeed, the discretionary savings amount from the Boehner-Obama negotiations were locked in in BCA: the sequester was just designed to force all back to table on entitlements and revenues.)
I agree there are more than one side to our first disagreement, but again think this latter issue is diffferent. Not out to argue and argue on this latter point. Just my sincere advice. Your call obviously.
My apologies again for raising my voice on the call with you. Feel bad about that and truly apologize.
Gene
Almost sounding like a character in The Godfather, Sperling cautions Woodward “As a friend” to rethink his position. He tells him that he thinks Woodward will “regret” his claim.
But he graciously allows at the end of the letter that it’s Woodward’s “call”. What does that mean? Does Bob Woodward, veteran Washington reporter, and consummate insider who has talked to all of the involved parties really need to be told that?
From Woodward to Sperling on Feb. 23, 2013
Gene: You do not ever have to apologize to me. You get wound up because you are making your points and you believe them. This is all part of a serious discussion. I for one welcome a little heat; there should more given the importance. I also welcome your personal advice. I am listening. I know you lived all this. My partial advantage is that I talked extensively with all involved. I am traveling and will try to reach you after 3 pm today. Best, Bob
For his part, Woodward does come off looking slightly two faced in his email response, saying that he welcomed Sperling’s “personal advice”, but giving interviews afterward complaining that the letter made him “very uncomfortable.”
In a video taken September 23, 2010, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi said,“no reasonable person can expect any progress on this track. Either [you accept] the Zionists and everything they want, or else it is war. This is what these occupiers of the land of Palestine know – these blood-suckers, who attack the Palestinians, these warmongers, the descendants of apes and pigs.”
Morsi also promoted “all forms of resistance” against Israel, calling for military resistance against the “criminal Zionists” along with supporting “resistance fighters,” i.e. terrorists who attack Israeli civilians. He called on Muslims and Arabs all over the world to “support” such fighters, but did not specify what such support entails. He called on “Zionists” to be “driven out of our countries.” He stated that he does not recognize the “Green Line.” Morsi also called for boycotts against Israel and all countries that support it, including the United States.
Egypt and the United States held a joint ceremony in Cairo, Sunday, to mark the delivery of new F-16 aircraft to the Egyptian Air Force…
“Today’s ceremony demonstrates the firm belief of the United States that a strong Egypt is in the interest of the U.S., the region, and the world,” said U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Anne W. Patterson. “We look to Egypt to continue to serve as a force for peace, security, and leadership as the Middle East proceeds with its challenging yet essential journey toward democracy.”
The U.S. delivery of four aircraft is part of a group of 20 F-16s that will arrive in Egypt over the course of the year. To date, the U.S. has delivered 224 F-16 aircraft to Egypt.
“Our thirty-four year security partnership is based upon shared interests and mutual respect,” said Ambassador Patterson. “The United States has long recognized Egypt as an indispensible partner.”
The F-16s are part of the $1.3 billion in the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program from the U.S. in annual military and security assistance to improve Egypt’s defensive capabilities and support Egypt’s contributions to regional security that counter terrorist threats.
That explanation expired after the “Arab Spring” of 2011. It’s no longer operable in a Muslim Brotherhood led Egypt. What in the world is the Regime thinking?
In an appearance on Fox and Friends, an exasperated Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) said the decision to supply Morsi with the aircraft and tanks is consistent with what we recently found out is this administration’s foreign policy: “What difference does it make?! What difference does it make if we give weapons to our sworn enemies who want to wipe Israel and us off the map – so we give them the method to wipe them out – what’s the big deal?”
He continued, “we’re putting ourselves in danger when we’re sending jets and tanks to a leader whose only two enemies he’s said in the past are Israel and the United States.”
“This is going to help give Egypt an edge over Israel – they’ll have more M-16s than Israel, as I understand it.”
The first of four new fast missile craft for Egypt was dedicated Oct. 25 at a shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., and the ship’s name was announced.
The S. Ezzat is named after Soliman Ezzat, the admiral who founded and led the modern Egyptian Navy from 1953 to 1967, shipbuilder VT Halter Marine said in a press release.
Construction of the ship began in a newly built fabrication facility at VT Halter in November 2009 under a U.S. Navy Foreign Military Sales program managed by the U.S. Navy’s Naval Sea Systems Command.
The original contract for the program was awarded to VT Halter in November 2005. Since then, the U.S. has awarded the shipbuilder more than $800 million for the ships.
Mark Levin exploded on his talk show, a few days ago: “What the hell is this President doing sending F-16s to the regime in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood?!” he thundered.
“[They] ask questions about the Muslim Brotherhood’s infiltration of our own government, and they’re treated like pariahs,” an agitated Levin shouted. “Well, the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated our government — it’s called Barack Obama! No, he’s not a formal member; he’s a sympathizer. There, I said it! Prove otherwise.”
Why would the President nominate someone like Chuck Hagel, as Levin noted, a sympathizer with the most radical elements in the Middle East, and an Israel hater? Obviously, the President and Hagel are simpatico on foreign policy. The real question is will Senate Republicans wave him through? Although Mitch McConnell raised the possibility of a Senate filibuster, Monday, it’s looks to me like Senate Republicans have no stomach for a fight on this.
The opposition National Salvation Front (NSF) has condemned a recent spate of violent attacks on peaceful protesters.
In a statement on Sunday, the front claimed organised violence, including sexual attacks using knives on female protesters, was designed to prevent people expressing their views.
President Mohamed Morsi, his government and the interior minister are responsible for the violence and torture, the front said. They have failed to protect peaceful protesters from attacks by militias and thugs, such as those carried out against women in Tahrir Square.
“These organised mob sexual assaults cannot be separated from the oppressive tactics [of the security forces] and the use of torture and intimidation against revolutionaries,” read the statement.
Such tactics would not stop women from participating in Egypt’s political life, it added.
Dozens of mob sexual assaults have taken place around Tahrir Square during recent protests. Many argue the attacks are systematic and organised.
The Obama administration has Christian businesses like Hobby Lobby stuck between a rock and a hard place. Do they violate their consciences and provide contraception and abortifacients in their health insurance policies, do they drop their health insurance policies entirely, or do they simply refuse to comply and risk the huge fines? This is the America we live in, today, thanks to Obama voters who wouldn’t know what a totalitarian regime looked like unless it kicked them in the a$$.
Following a decision by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor denying Hobby Lobby’s request for an exemption from the Obama administration’s HHS mandate, the Christian retail company said it will defy the mandate.
As LifeNews reported, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has refused to act favorably on an emergency appeal Hobby Lobby stores filed to stop enforcement of the HHS mandate against it.
After a federal court denied a request to temporarily stop enforcement of the abortion pill mandate against the Christian-operated business Hobby Lobby, it took its HHS mandate lawsuit to the Supreme Court. Sotomayor denied its request to block the mandate and the millions of dollars in fines it will be subjected to starting January 1 for not complying.
Sotomayor said Hobby Lobby did not show it met the legal standard for blocking enforcement on an emergency basis, but said the company can continue with its lawsuit in lower court.
Now, an attorney for Hobby Lobby says it will defy the mandate and potentially risk potential fines of up to $1.3 million per day.
Kyle Duncan, an attorney for the pro-life legal group Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, said in a statement that hobby Lobby doesn’t plan to offer its employees insurance that would cover the drug while its lawsuit is pending.
“The company will continue to provide health insurance to all qualified employees,” Duncan said. “To remain true to their faith, it is not their intention, as a company, to pay for abortion-inducing drugs.”
Marine veteran Jon Hammar enlisted in the service at age 18 and was deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq where his unit provided security for Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai, protected election polls and disrupted insurgent cells.
According to one account, in Fallujah, Hammar’s battalion was hit hard, with 13 killed in action and more than 100 wounded.
Imagine surviving Iraq and Afghanistan only to be jailed a few years later in a notoriously awful Mexican prison, literally chained to a bed – on a ridiculous technicality. Since August, the 27 year old Hammar has been languishing in a Mexican jail in Matamoros, confined to solitary confinement and now is chained to his bed. The look of despair on this man’s face is heartbreaking.
An Iraq War veteran is being held in a Mexican jail, chained to his bed, his life continuously threatened, while his family is extorted for money…and our nation’s leaders appear impotent (or negligent) by their failure to help him.
After you’ve read the story below, please go to the White House petition and sign it to press the Obama Administration to start working to bring Jon Hammar home.
***
In early August, Hammar and McDonough embarked on a surfing trip to Costa Rica.
With their surfboards in tow, Hammar and McDonough made their way South. However, they didn’t get too far.
They made it to only the Mexican border. Hammar is in a Matamoros prison, where he spends much of his time chained to a bed and facing death threats from gangsters. He’s off the grid, for sure, in walking distance of the U.S. border. But it’s more of a black hole than a place to heal a troubled soul.
The reason might seem ludicrous. Hammar took a six-decade-old shotgun into Mexico. The .410 bore Sears & Roebuck shotgun once belonged to his great-grandfather. The firearm had been handed down through the generations, and it had become almost a part of Hammar, suitable for shooting birds and rabbits.
While some might argue, Hammar should have never taken his gun, he was complying with the law–or so he thought:
The pair had crossed the border and handed the paperwork for the weapon to Mexican officials, but police ended up impounding their RV and jailing the men, saying it was illegal to carry that type of gun. Hammar’s friend was later released because the gun did not belong to him.
Bill O’Reilly has taken up Hammar’s cause, and has been reporting on the case for the past couple of weeks. On The O’Reilly Factor, last Friday, he reported that “high level negotiations were taking place and there’s some optimism that Corporal Jon Hammar will soon be free.” He had on Rep Ileana Ros Lehtinen to discuss the case.
She said that according to the Mexican Ambassador she spoke with on the phone, the reason he is chained to the bed is because they had to move him from the general population to an area that is less secure – “so unsecure that they fear he will escape.”
O’Reilly asked how the Mexican Ambassador could justify this travesty, and Ros Lehtinen answered that the Mexican government is somewhat powerless in this case because as she says, “they believe they are under siege by the Mexican drug lords and they have ceded control to these gangsters..” She continued, “The folks who are administering this terrible prison are not the Mexican government, but these drug lords.”
She agreed with O’Reilly that the President of Mexico has the power and authority to release Hammar, but doesn’t have the guts to.
Please sign the White House petition to exert pressure on the Obama administration to demand that Mexico Authorities release Hammar immediately.
Total number of signatures on this petition as of Monday night, 11:35 pm: 19,033 and counting. 25,000 signatures are needed by January 06, 2013 for the request to be taken up by Obama. Help bring Jon Hammar home.
God willing, this Marine could be home in time for Christmas.
“Early this morning Tucson Sector Border Patrol agents assigned to the Brian Terry Station were involved in a shooting near Naco, Ariz. Preliminary reports indicate one agent has died from his injuries and another sustained non-life threatening wounds. The injured agent has been airlifted to the hospital. Names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin. More updates will follow as appropriate. The incident investigation is being led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office.”
The Brian Terry Station is of course named after the agent whose murder abruptly ended the Obama regime’s reckless and deadly Operation Fast and Furious because Fast and Furious weapons were found at the scene.
Time will tell if the guns from this crime will be linked back to Fast and Furious.
“According to investigations, ‘El Diego’ forms the link between this massacre and Fast and Furious,” an anchor read on air in Spanish Sunday evening, referring to two different mass killings drug cartel operatives used Fast and Furious weapons to conduct as Univision reported.
“When he [El Diego] was captured in Chihuahua in the summer of 2011, he was found with weapons that the American government had allowed to enter Mexico,” the anchor added. [...]
Mexican authorities have alleged El Diego is responsible for the murders of at least 1,500 people in Juarez and Chihuaha City, Mexico, according to the El Paso Times.
UPDATE:
Via Twitchy, we find Univision taking the lead on this story by asking the obvious question American News Agencies dare not ask:
That’s what Univision journalist Mariana Atencio is wondering. She also suggested the political implications could be “catastrophic” for President Obama.
Border patrol agent killed in Brian Terry's section. Could it be w Fast & Furious guns? Catastrophic for Obama one day before debate
Rep. Darrell Issa , R-Calif., released a statement calling an investigation into the shooting and cautioned about drawing conclusions before “relevant facts are known.”
“This shooting is a tragic reminder of the dangers the brave men and women who guard our borders face every day,” Issa’s statement read.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, called the fallen agent a fallen hero.
FOX 10 News reported that the Mexican bandits suspected in the killing were under investigation by the feds as part of Operation Fast and Furious. Video here.
It’s a weak, “I am not a witch - I misspoke – please forgive me ad. As Gateway Punditquipped; “when your campaign reaches the point where you are forced to remind voters that you oppose rape, you know you have reached rock bottom.”
He misunderstands. The faux outrage is on the left. It’s mortification on the right. Mortification that a guy who believes women can self-terminate pregnancies, when raped, is jeopardizing our takeover of the Senate. The anger on the right for him is if he stays. He still has time to drop out. He still has time to put the country above his political aspirations. Then there will be forgiveness.
I think this infatuation some people have with defending politicians to the end is silly and not a healthy small ‘r’ republican value. These guys are chess pieces to me. If you have to sacrifice one or more to win the game then do it and win. The game here is control of the Senate (repealing ObamaCare, confirming judges, etc.) not vindicating some guy most of us couldn’t pick out of a lineup. This is about beating the Democrats at the ballot box, not shoving it to the “establishment” or the media.
We’re not Democrats- we don’t “circle the wagons” when one of ours screws up this badly. We can’t have any weak links – this is war against a ruthless, Alinsky-trained, progressive left that will exploit any weakness that we have on our side to the nth degree, and their allies in the media will help. In a year that Democrats are trying turn into a Republican “war on women” — we can’t have a weak link like Todd Akin.
For the country, Todd Akin – be a patriot and withdraw from the race.
This morning, Public Policy Polling races to tell us that “Missouri voters strongly disagree with the comments Todd Akin made about abortion over the weekend, but it hasn’t moved the numbers a whole lot in the Senate race. Akin leads Claire McCaskill by a single point, 44-43. That’s basically identical to our last poll of the contest in late May, which found Akin ahead by a 45-44 spread.”
Hit the link to find out how heavily weighted toward Republicans the poll was to get that result.
Doh. There’s two sides to every story, and today we get to hear the beer tent owner’s side of Obama’s Iowa beer tent story.
Yesterday, Obama chose to do a photo op in the beer tent at the Iowa State Fair, ( he likes to be seen drinking beer – to appeal to the “Joe Six-pack” crowd.)
He made a point of saying he’d buy everyone a beer, except for the guy holding the Romney sign, (instead of, as Dana Perino suggested on The Five, yesterday, displaying some graciousness by singling him out to buy him a beer.) He eventually bought beers for a lucky ten people in the tent.
Today, Mike Cunningham II, the third generation owner of the 65-year-old Bud Tent is telling his side of the story. Obama’s photo op required that the Bud tent be shut down during the peak beer drinking hours. Fairgoers who wanted to meet the President were screened and scanned by the Secret Service and penned inside the tent by yellow caution tape. The whole production amounted to giving Obama a campaign donation against his will, Cunningham complains.
…the small business owner side of Cunningham fumes that the president “put a damper on what I’m trying to do here.” His Bud Tent was shut down at the most lucrative time of day, with a popular rock cover band, Hairball, about to perform at the Susan B. Knapp Amphitheater next door with legions of thirsty fans.
“I was in a position to make a campaign donation against my will,” said Cunningham, a Republican.
Cunningham played the gracious host during the president’s visit — smiled, posed for photos, raised a beer with Obama, gifted him a “Save Water; Drink Beer” T-shirt.
A tweet from Grassley Monday evening, in the senator’s trademark abbreviated social media lingo, was one of the first signs of disgruntlement: “How does PresO justify havin secret service shut down the bud tent @ the state fair nd the owner told me he loses 50,000 n 1 nite.”
Cunningham said that the more accurate figure for what he likely lost in sales Monday night is $25,000. He appreciated that fellow fair vendor Barksdale allowed him to set up a Bud beer station near the amphitheater stage and recoup some dollars from those Hairball fans.
Cunningham says, “I wouldn’t have voted for (Obama) before, I won’t again.”
Cue the Obama flying monkeys who will now swoop in to make Cunningham’s life hell for the next six months or so.
Whoa, I really slept in, today. While I’m still trying to get up to speed on today’s, news, here’s a little something I found in my inbox from the cool folks at Occupy the White House: OCCUPIED! – Obama’s Un-Affordable Health Care TAXES and CONTROL ACT.
This is the ONLY way to listen to an Obama speech:
My favorite part? The freeze frame on Obama’s contempt filled stare. I’ve actually done the same thing while watching Obama videos – freeze-frame on his hateful expressions. There is something very, very wrong with the guy.
From the Occupy the White House YouTube page:
When promoting his legislation “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act”, H.R. 3590, then-president Obama deceived the public in a myriad of ways including outright lies about the Act and its consequences as well as gigantic omissions regarding its costs, scope of invasive power, implementation and enforcement.
Please READ THE BILL. It’s a behemoth of bureaucracy and encroachment, full of socialistic sounding terms and its dictates are terrifying. It is NOT “European style” health care. Europeans — especially liberal Europeans — would never tolerate the consolidation of so much personal information within one single government agency.
They’ve had their Hitler.
Thanks to so many writers, bloggers, commenters and talk radio hosts — most especially Mark Levin, Americans for Tax Reform and the Western Center for Journalism — who have brought light, knowledge and insight to the UN-affordable Health Care Taxes and Control.
We all want health care reform. We never wanted it this way.
