In making a point about the president’s lack of leadership in her opening statement Saturday night, Judge Jeanine Pirro compared him to Lincoln and Reagan, trashing Obama as a weak and feckless embarrassment.
“Admit it, you’ve been played”, she jeered. “Caught flat footed by a devil who doesn’t wear Prada. Through your feckless an inept foreign policy, you have squandered the good will and the reputation of this great nation. You engage in diplomacy with public conversations with your finger to the wind. The United States of America deserves better. The men who made the monumental decisions that contributed to the greatness of America, did it through a position of strength and respect. They didn’t make these decisions on stage, but rather in the quiet of the Oval Office after consultation and consideration of the consequences. You sit in the same office that Lincoln, FDR, and Reagan sat, but you are no Lincoln, no FDR and no Reagan. To most of us, 2016 can’t come soon enough.”
To be fair, Obama did consult his Chief of Staff, Denis McDonough privately and considered the grave political consequences of unilateral action in Syria. At the time, it seemed like a brilliant strategy to put the responsibility of going to war on Congress. U ntil it looked like both Houses were still going to vote it down.
This is funny. For some reason Fox News bigwigs think it’s edifying and/or entertaining for their audience to be treated to Republican and Democrat strategists spewing their idiotic talking points at each other. This is typically the most boring and frustrating part of the show. It’s seems very much to me like a “check the box”, get it out of the way to make the “fair and balanced” crowd happy segment.
Bur Pirro read the Dem’s talking points (didn’t know she could do that!) before he came on, and she was ready for him.
The battle rageson to liberate the ancient Christian village of Maaloula, Syria which has been mostly cleared of the rebel infestation. As the Syrian army tries to dislodge the remaining snipers (who include Jabhat al-Nusra, the fighters allied to al-Qaeda) the Christian residents of the town who have taken refuge in Damascus are angry and bitter. One woman, attending a funeral for the Christians who had been killed in battle, lashed out at Obama, saying they blame him because he’s been arming the rebels.
“The army is continuing its mission in Maaloula. There are still some terrorist pockets in the north of the town, in the Al-Safir hotel and its surroundings, as well as in the hills surrounding the town,” the official from the security services said on condition of anonymity.
President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has consistently labelled opponents as “terrorists” since the outbreak of the revolt in March 2011 that has killed more than 110,000 people.
“The army has made some progress,” the official added, saying the battle for Maaloula has been hard because the army did not want to bomb the town.
The statues of the Virgin Mary and Christ were shrouded in smoke and dust, as every few minutes a tank shell crashed into the mountainside. Christ’s message of forgiveness had been forgotten here, the Bible’s teaching that the peacemakers are blessed seemed to echo from another world.
Syria’s soldiers were angry and frustrated. Many didn’t want us to show their faces or film their failure to recapture one of the jewels of Syria’s multi-faith mosaic. Others kissed crucifixes they wore and cursed the Nusra Islamists who, as more than one assured me “were helped and trained by Britain and America”.
The rebels claim they took Maaloula to punish the Christians there for supporting the Assad government, a support that is real but tepid. For most Christians in Syria the fear of what Islamists might do if they win this war outweighs any dislike they have for Assad’s system.
On Saturday, in a Damascus church heavy with gold and grief, they mourned the Christians killed in the battle. The framed photographs of the dead sat next to the holy icons of the Greek Orthodox faith, some men in the pews bandaged from injuries they’d received. “We blame Obama”, one woman in black yelled at me, “he should have the Nobel peace prize taken away from him – he is helping the rebels who killed our Christian brothers”.
The battle for Maaloula seems a long way from the diplomatic debate abroad about Syria’s chemical weapons. And so it seems across the country.
In a land weary of war, one woman personified it. Her head seemed to move heavily, her eyes slowly, as she looked up to the skies after four months in captivity. She told me she was 37 years old but she looked a decade older. She rolled up her sleeve to reveal the bruises and piercings of what she said was constant torture by her captors; rebels who accused her of being a spy.
She had been kidnapped inside a rebel held area; her religion, Alawite like Assad, raising the suspicions of Islamists and their allies who have been attacked by Assad’s army there for nearly two years. So they beat her, electrocuted her, she said, women as well as men joining in the torture, week after week.
Her lips were chapped, her teeth almost orange with neglect, her whole body seemed deformed by her ordeal. She tried to stand up but could hardly walk. It was as if she had had a stroke. She escaped her torturers only because she was swapped for the wife of a rebel leader, in a prisoner exchange.
This then, is the nitty gritty of a dirty war without any end in sight. As she spoke, the battle raged all around us; the sniper fire across a sandbagged frontline; the thud of artillery shells landing amid the densely packed buildings; the occasional shouts of “Allahu Akbar”, ‘God is great’, from across the rebel lines.
“Giving weapons to the Syrian opposition means, in all likelihood, that the United States will be arming and aiding extremist groups who seek to defeat us and our way of life,” says Rep. Michele Bachman. “To make the American taxpayer pay to send arms to our enemies is madness. Rather than unilateral foreign policy decision-making from the White House, there needs to be careful debate by Congress, as is our constitutional responsibility, and a clear strategy that is in line with America’s national security interests before any involvement is considered.”
Sen. Mike Lee says: “Any military involvement in Syria, including the arming of Syrian rebels, needs to be authorized through Congress, where concerns can be publicly debated and the American people can have a say. We have to ensure that we are not arming extremist groups who seek to cause chaos in the region and harm the United States and our allies. The long-term objectives of increased involvement in Syria are vague, as are the necessary commitments and costs. The United States cannot be involved in more nation building in the Middle East.”
“The President’s unilateral decision to arm Syrian rebels is incredibly disturbing,” says Sen. Rand Paul. “Engaging in yet another conflict in the Middle East with no vote or Congressional oversight compounds the severity of this situation. The American people deserve real deliberation by their elected officials before we send arms to a region rife with extremists who seek to threaten the U.S. and her allies.”
As President Obama plans to ship money and expensive military equipment to the Syrian rebels without the authorization of Congress, we need to take action, rally our elected servants, and demand that they stop him.
Sign the petition and send a free message to your elected servants demanding that they support H.R.2494 and S. 1201!
MORE:
BBC News Syria crisis Fierce battle in Christian town Maaloula:
As we reported earlier this week, Stephen Colbert presented soundbites from Fox’s Andy Levy and Greg Gutfeldas something they were not. Even though the Red Eye personalities were mocking right-wing outrage over PresidentObama‘s foot on a White House desk, Colbert used the clips to suggest the two Fox Newsers were genuinely outraged. During last night’s Red Eye, Levy and his panelists ridiculed the Comedy Central host.
“You don’t have to think it is funny, but you have to know it is a joke,” Levy began his monologue. “That’s something I said to people on Twitter who took Tweets seriously when they weren’t meant that way. Stephen Colbert tackled the outrage over a photo the White House released of President Obama with his foot on the Oval Office desk. I guess the only problem was there wasn’t a hell of a lot of right-wing outrage. Here is how you can tell: the first clip he used as an example is Red Eye mocking the outrage. But he didn’t realize that is what he was doing.”
After playing the Colbert clip in question, Levy delivered a scathing critique of The Colbert Report:
PJ Media: ZoNATION: The Black N.R.A.? More like the Fake N.R.-eh?
Sarah Silverman’s Funny or Die video should probably die, but not by shooting.
Breitbart writer Brandon Darby made an appearance on HuffPost Live on Thursday where he was confronted by David McKay, one of the two men that Darby helped convict for their role in planning attacks on the 2008 Republican National Convention. The segment provided a sharp contrast between the viewpoints of the two individuals on the topics of violence, honesty, and personal responsibility.
The interview was part of promotion for the new film Informant, a documentary focused on Darby’s transformation from radical community organizer to conservative leader. Informantis now open in limited release nationwide.
The HuffPost Live segment is significant because it’s the first time a nonconservative news source has given Darby an unedited forum to discuss the case. Unsurprisingly, Darby came off as the adult in the room, appearing calm, cool, and collected, while McKay, who was sentenced to four years in prison for his part in the plot, was defensive, scattered, made several bizarre psychological accusations.
Watch that video at the link.
Midwest Republican Leadership Conference: Common Core Pros and Cons:
The Midwest Republican Leadership Conference held in KCMO September 13 and 14, included a panel on Common Core pros and cons with Dr. Mary Bryne, Michael Brickman of the Fordham Institute, and David Myslinski of the Foundation for Excellence in Education.
Miley Cyrus’ behavior at the VMAs was grotesque, but isn’t new; Madonna and Lady Gaga have given us plenty examples in recent history. And even back in the 1930’s, there were several slutty grotesque performers. But which comes first? A society which exemplifies this behavior, or lewd behavior which leads to a societal downfall? Watch this Afterburner with Bill Whittle to find out.
Walid Shoebat MUST HEAR interview on The Kuhner Report:
Kuhner asked Walid to talk about why he believes the Syrian rebels are responsible for the Chemical weapons attacks. The subject eventually moved to Obama’s family in general, and Malik Obama in particular. Regular readers to our site are quite familiar with what we’ve uncovered;it is irrefutable.
Main topic of hour 3:
– [01:14:19] What’s happening in Syria? Jeff interviews Walid Shoebat. Walid says he is being harassed by the government;
Rion Paige may have a different way of spelling her name, but it’s probably one you should get used to. That’s because the spunky 13-year-old country singer brought the “X Factor” judges to their feet Wednesday with her rendition of a Carrie Underwood song.
Besides a solid voice and a special name, Paige is unique for another reason: She has a rare disease that has left her wrist joints deformed and she’s almost completely blind in her right eye. But you’d never know it from her attitude.
“I have arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, which is basically a whole bunch of words to describe something simple,” she said with about as much energy as an F-5 tornado.
Is it my imagination, or is the Obama Regime going out of its way to impose policies here and abroad that hurt Christians?
Via Andrew Marcus at Gateway Pundit, a Christian ministry in Florida has been ordered by the Feds to remove all of their religious symbols if they want any federal assistance in feeding the poor.
A Florida ministry that feeds the poor said 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.
Not only was the Christian ministry told it must strip its office of all Christian symbols, they were told they could no long practice their faith.
Daly and her staff sat in stunned disbelief as the government agents also informed them that the Christian Service Center could no longer pray or provide Bibles to those in need. The government contract also forbade any references to the ministry’s chapel.
No word yet, on whether they were forced to reveal the content of their prayers.
According to Todd Starnes of Fox News, the Christian ministry had been providing food to the hungry in Lake City, Fla. for the past 31 years without any problems until now.
This is part of an clear and chilling pattern of anti-Christian animus on the part of this Regime.
Nice Deb 