op ed review 4/28
THIS WEEK’S NEWS
The FBI’s failure to recognize political Islam as a driver
of jihadist terrorism is partly to blame for the FBI not identifying one of the
Boston Marathon bombers in 2011 as a security risk, according to U.S. officials
and private counterterrorism analysts.
Russian authorities contacted the US government with concerns about
Tamerlan Tsarnaev not once but “multiple’’ times.
“There should be no puzzle about this atrocity. Since 9/11 there have been 20,000 terrorist
incidents perpetrated across the globe in the name of militant Islam.”
An al Qaeda magazine containing bomb-making instructions
helped the Boston Marathon bombers construct the deadly explosive devices.
The Obama administration has deciding against treating the Boston bomber as an enemy
combatant, which would have allowed more time for interrogating him. The
suspect had been providing valuable intelligence, but stopped talking once the judge
read him his Miranda rights.
The FBI was hunting a 12-strong terrorist “sleeper cell”
linked to the Boston
marathon bomb brothers.
“…five jihadists have
reached their targets in the United
States under Barack Obama”
Bombing the Hand That Fed Them:
“Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Family Received Mass. Welfare Benefits”
Michelle Obama reportedly visited Saudi student Abdul Rahman
Ali Issa Al-Salimi, injured in the Boston Marathon Bombings. But, she couldn’t find the time to visit
Jeff Bauman – the American who lost both legs in the Boston Marathon blasts and
helped US
officials identify the bombers. The rest of America appreciated his efforts. He
has received over $360,000 in online donations since the terrorist attack. “You
can donate to Jeff Bauman here.”
Flashback: In Obama´s
Audacity of Hope, he stated, "I will stand with the Muslims should the
political winds shift in any ugly direction." He also asserted in Bob
Woodward´s Obama´s Wars, "We can absorb [another] terrorist attack”
Will Hillary pay a price for Benghazi?
We already know the answer. Ben Ghazi who? will be the media’s reaction
if and when Hillary runs in 2016.
Tolerance in the Age of Obama: The US Army has blocked the website of the
Southern Baptist Convention from government computers, saying the Christian
site contains "hostile content."
A U.S. Army Equal Opportunity Instructor giving a
presentation on "extremism" during an Army Reserve training brief in Philadelphia categorized
Evangelical Christianity and Roman Catholicism as on par with Hamas, al-Qaeda,
and the Nation of Islam.
One out of every five households now receiving food stamps.
The administration has approved 99.5 percent of applications
of those who have applied for legal status under President Obama’s
nondeportation policy for young adults, granting legal status to more than
250,000 formerly illegal immigrants.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/22/995-of-illegal-immigrants-get-approval-for-legal-s/#ixzz2RIVOidr1
Attorney General Eric Holder calls amnesty for illegals a "civil right.”
The California Assembly passed a
bill on Thursday that would make the state the first in the nation to allow
illegal immigrants to serve on jury duty.
Obama to the Planned Parenthood National Conference: “God bless you.”
Influential House conservatives signaled that they will
pursue their own course on revising the nation’s immigration laws.
The conservative Koch Brothers have an interest in bidding
for the Tribune Company (publishers of eight local newspapers including the Los
Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune,)
A new poll from FoxNews finds that 66% of Democrats believe
the border should be secured before the nation considers changes to its
immigration policies. 75% of Republicans feel the same. Overall, 68% of voters
believe securing the border should come before any moves towards legalization.
The poll reinforces the public’s apparent
"schizophrenia" on immigration--which is actually just common sense.
4 out 5 voters are prepared to give illegal immigrants some way of becoming
citizens. And yet 3 out of 5 voters believe the borders are not secure and want
to see tighter enforcement, even restrictions. This is only a contradiction if
you think the latter position arises from racism, intolerance, selfishness
and/or xenophobia. What people are actually saying is that we are prepared to
legalize millions if that is the last time we have to do so.
Belief in God may improve treatment for those suffering with
depression, finds a new study. Faith in a higher being has been found to
significantly improve treatment for people suffering with a psychiatric
illness, according to research carried out by McLean
Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts.
_____________________________________________________________________________
THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN
Jay Sekulow
4/24
America
is facing a jihadist enemy. It is an enemy that has proven it can inflict more
civilian casualties on the United
States than any other foreign enemy in
almost 200 years. Just last week this enemy killed 3 innocent people, wounded
more than 100 and paralyzed a major American city. Yet, our obsession with
political correctness, with a strong desire not to offend our enemies makes our
self-defense immeasurably more difficult.
The evil nature and intentions of our jihadist enemies are
already clear. They hate us enough to pack pressure cookers with ball bearings,
to hijack airliners and turn them into weapons of mass destruction, to wear
underwear bombs, shoe bombs, and any other kind of bomb they can smuggle onto
aircraft. Yet we still can’t face facts. Consider these recent events:
- Despite screaming “Allah Akbar!” when he opened fire on
unarmed fellow soldiers at Fort
Hood – and despite his
own long history of radicalism, including communicating with Anwar al-Alwaki,
the American Al Qaeda terrorist – the Obama administration still calls Nidal
Hasan’s deadly attack an act of mere “workplace violence.” In fact, the
Army’s after-action report said nothing about radical Islam.
- We spent crucial days blaming the deadly Benghazi terror attacks on a video, and even
now have treated the filmmaker much more harshly than the actual terrorists who
killed our ambassador.
- The Associated Press Stylebook recently revised its
definition of “Islamist” to render it more benign, classifying Islamists as
mere supporters of a “political movement that favors reordering government and
society in accordance with laws prescribed by Islam.”
- Even after the Boston bombing suspects radical beliefs became
well-known, commentators continue to insist that their beliefs are just one
part of their personality no more relevant than, say, tastes in music or the
influence of violent movies.
- A commentator at one of our nation’s most influential
magazines even went so far as to write an essay entitled, “The Boston Bombers
Were Muslim: So?”
As key figures in government and the media continue to
minimize the threat of radical Islam, one wonders if it’s having a direct
impact on investigations. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the oldest of the two Boston bomber suspects, is
now the fifth suspected terrorist to be questioned by the FBI before
they attempted their acts of terror. Why are we questioning and
releasing future terrorists? Who are we trying to impress with our political
correctness?
Our enemies simply don’t care. Even worse, they view our
hand-wringing as a sign of weakness, and it encourages further attacks. Don’t
forget that plotting for the 9/11 attacks began during a Clinton administration that was so eager to
appease Middle Eastern jihadists it invited Yasser Arafat, one of the world’s
foremost terrorists, to the White House again and again. He even
received the ultimate tribute from the international politically correct left:
the Nobel Peace Prize. Arafat was so impressed by this tribute that he
launched the Second Intifada – complete with wave after wave of deadly suicide
bombings – just a few years later.
Yet we not only persist with political correctness, we now
go so far as to actually arm our enemies.
The Obama administration persists in giving F-16s and
advanced tanks to Egypt,
even after the Muslim Brotherhood (motto: “Jihad is our way”) took
power. The United
States just pledged $500 million in aid to
the Palestinian Authority, a government that is even now unifying with Hamas,
one of the world’s worst terror organizations. While we revise stylebooks and
debate the power of movies and music over the power of jihad, our enemies laugh
– and plan future attacks.
Political correctness kills.
________________________________________________________________________
FROM OTHER COLUMNS
"According to Dana Priest and William M. Arkin
of The Washington Post, 'Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private
companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and
intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States. ...... Despite
a domestic army of federal, state and local forces, the suspects managed to
evade capture for days.... Osama bin Laden's announced intention was to conduct
a 'war of a thousand cuts' against America to harm our economy and
permanently change our way of life. If he can see from Hell, he must be pleased
about the way things are going."
-Cal Thomas
"Friday morning, the entire city of Boston was put in lockdown. Residents were
warned to 'shelter in place,' meaning staying locked in their home, answering
only to uniformed law enforcement personnel. Hundreds of police swarmed through
the city, tracking a violent terror suspect ... with a clear intent to kill.
The situation is a reminder of why millions of Americans cherish their right to
own guns to protect themselves and their families. Gun control advocates
mistakenly assume Americans cherish their 2nd Amendment rights because of either
a cultural anachronism or an affinity for hunting. The left looks at gun
control as a debate over which guns Americans 'need.' They often argue, for
example, that Americans don't 'need' a 30-round magazine to hunt deer. That's
true, but the debate isn't about 'needs,' it is about rights. The 2nd Amendment
isn't built on a foundation of hunting, but, rather, the ability to protect
one's life and property. The manhunt in Boston
... shows the very real threats that occasionally enter our lives. In a situation
like Boston,
seconds count, while the police are minutes away. ... Gun control advocates ...
would be wise to reflect on the unfolding events to understand why many of us
'cling' to our guns. The world can be a very dangerous place."
-Mike Flynn
__________________________________________________________________________
LEFTIST WATCH
“Progressives can’t help
themselves. When normal people hear of a tragedy, they feel the natural range
of emotions – fear, anger, sympathy, etc. But progressives are not normal
humans. When they hear news of a tragedy their first thought is “How can this
help the cause?” There’s something oddly perverse about this mental defect that
somehow overrides decency in tragedy’s aftermath, but it’s as widespread
amongst the political left as freckles are on redheads.”
“I swung by the Stop the NRA March this afternoon to watch
the protest and march against gun violence. Participating organizations include
Public Campaign, Occupy the NRA, CREDO, Every Child Matters, Moveon, United For
Change, USA, New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, The Other 98%, and We Act Radio.
The event featured the debut of a new anti-NRA poster created by the designer
of the famous Obama ‘Hope’ poster. A generous estimation of the crowd size
would have been about 100 people, including members of the media.”
_______________________________________________________________________
ISLAM ON THE MARCH
Yes you are different, the rejected youth is told.
But, you are different for a reason. And that is because you are a chosen one.
You will join the ranks of a hallowed few at the forefront of a cosmic struggle
between good and evil. This way the formerly deflated ego is pumped up. Shame
and humiliation are alchemically converted into pride and honor, and for the
first time in his life the young man starts to feel good about who he is.
Really good. This is the poison disguised as a cure. One that is so toxic that
it will ultimately take his own life as well as that of yet to be determined
numbers of innocent others, too.
Like a noose, the community of "the elite"
constrict around the radicalized youth. A sense of righteous anger is stoked
within and cherished as if it were the most precious fuel, for, in a way, that
is exactly what it is. This is the fuel that will eventually power the weapon
of hate that he is becoming. And if appropriately channeled by the ideology,
the weapon he becomes will be a precision guided one, directed specifically at
the target; the western world that is supposedly at war with Islam.
That anger comes from giving the young man the most
dangerous mindset known to mankind, that of the victim. It colors the lens
through which he sees the world relentlessly till ultimately he can see only
darkness. If he believes himself to be enough of a victim, then he'll
eventually feel like he has nothing to lose. Victimhood is the opposite energy
to gratitude. And it is this flavor that the terrorist unconsciously wants to
pass on to us. He wants us to see the world in the same black and white way he
does. He wants us to taste some of his own medicine by seeing ourselves as
victims in a world that is essentially dangerous, unjust and bad. That way we
will then join with him in conflict and convert the fantasy his imagination has
fed on into a reality.
___________________________________________________________________________
SECOND AMENDMENT
A West Virginia
student was charged with causing a disruption at a middle school when he
refused to remove his NRA t-shirt.
Gun Shop Rationing: 'Never Seen Ammo So Impossible
to Get'...
The April 24 edition of The Late Show With David Letterman
saw the CBS talker label Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) the "Stooge of the
Night" for voting "no on gun control reform."
____________________________________________________________________________
CONSERVATIVE LEADERS
“Demonizing Ted Cruz”
Ted Cruz has made quite an
impression in just three months in the Senate. Like Marco Rubio, he is the son
of a Cuban exile. He is a extraordinarily talented guy. Unlike Barack Obama, he
had a stellar record both in academia and in the practice of law: he was
national debating champion, graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School,
clerked for the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was named by American
Lawyer magazine as one of the 50 Best Litigators under 45 in America, served as
Solicitor General of the State of Texas, authored more than 80 briefs in the
U.S. Supreme Court. As a law student, Cruz was described by Professor Alan
Dershowitz as “off the charts brilliant.” He was elected to the Senate last
year in what the Washington Post called “the biggest upset of 2012 . . . a true
grassroots victory against very long odds”.……So it is not surprising that, just
as Cruz has quickly become a hero on the right, the Democratic Party is out to
destroy him.
_________________________________________________________________________
ARTICLES
Steyn: “In America,
all atrocities are not equal: Minutes after the Senate declined to support
so-called gun control in the wake of the Newtown massacre, the president rushed
ill-advisedly on air to give a whiny, petulant performance predicated on the
proposition that one man’s mass infanticide should call into question the
constitutional right to bear arms. Simultaneously, the media remain terrified
that another man’s mass infanticide might lead you gullible rubes to question
the constitutional right to abortion, so the ongoing Kermit Gosnell trial in
Philadelphia has barely made the papers — even though it involves large numbers
of fully delivered babies who were decapitated and had their feet chopped off
and kept in pickling jars. Which would normally be enough to guarantee a
perpetrator front-page coverage for weeks on end….But his victims are
ideologically problematic for the media, and so the poor blood-soaked monster
will never get his moment in the spotlight….”
Steyn: “In
their final hours of freedom, the bomber brothers added a cruel bit of mockery
to their crimes by carjacking a getaway vehicle with a “Co-exist” bumper
sticker…..It’s very weird to live in a society where mass death is important
insofar as it serves the political needs of the dominant ideology. A white male
loner killing white kindergartners in Connecticut
is news; a black doctor butchering black babies in Pennsylvania is not.”
“As you probably have heard, a few days ago Bill Maher
shocked his liberal guest -- and much of the world -- by stating very correctly
and succinctly that it is "liberal bullsh_t" to equate Christianity
and Islam with respect to terror. The bluntness, not to mention the shocking
accuracy of the statement from this particular source, had the social media
universe all lit up over the weekend. It was surely my first "fist
pump" ever in response to Maher.”
Are you alarmed by the counterterrorism failures
increasingly evident as we learn more about the Boston terror attack? Don’t be. Former CIA
director Michael Hayden has helpfully explained, “This tragedy is the new
normal.”
“It began as a stunt intended to
prove that hardship and poverty still existed in this small, wealthy country,
but it backfired badly. Visit a single mother of two on welfare, a liberal
member of Parliament goaded a skeptical political opponent, see for yourself
how hard it is. It turned out, however, that life on welfare was not so hard.
The 36-year-old single mother, given the pseudonym “Carina” in the news media,
had more money to spend than many of the country’s full-time workers. All told,
she was getting about $2,700 a month….”
The Boy Scouts are one of the great jewels of American
culture. The success of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) is a result in no small
part of the organization’s commitment to a set of ideas and principles that
have guided the program for more than 100 years. Until recently, the BSA was
unwavering in its conviction that these values and principles were “timeless.”
But now those values are under attack. The Boy Scouts are the victims of an
aggressive, well-funded and relentless campaign to inject sex and politics into
Scouting.
___________________________________________________________________________
HUMOR
"A new Gallup
poll shows that 55% of Americans say their income taxes are 'fair.' I'm
guessing that'd be the 47% who pay none, plus a few Obama cabinet
appointees."
-Fred Thompson
"So, I guess you have to have a license to have
a gun in Massachusetts,
but the two loser brothers who did the Boston Marathon bombing did not have a
license for the guns they used on their shootout with cops. They were running
around shooting at people with guns that Massachusetts
very clearly said was illegal for them to have. It's like, come on, guys we're
a nation of laws; if you're going to be murderous criminals, at least legally
posses your guns first, you know. What's wrong with you?"
-Frank J. Fleming
______________________________________________________________________
WISE WORDS
"We have a system that increasingly taxes work and
subsidizes nonwork."
-Milton Friedman
posted by gary at
8:36 AM
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