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Sunday, February 23, 2014

Not Just Your Average Bar

Hat tip Gates of Vienna, Simon XML, Vlad Tepes and NL Times



Gates of Vienna opens this story with an interesting twist. I won't spoil the effect, so I'll let the reader open the link and read about what happens when an entrepreneur opens a bar and offends certain religious sensibilities. The accompanying video is 11 minutes long, but if you get bored, just keep looking at the beautiful lady.

 http://gatesofvienna.net/2014/02/death-threats-for-opening-a-wine-bar/

Susan Rice Has No Regrets

In an administration filled with people who have no shame, Susan Rice stands out like a Texas-size turd blossom. In this interview with NBC's David Gregory on Meet the Press today, she continues the great Benghazi lie and says "she has no regrets".



http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/02/23/rice-acknowledges-some-her-benghazi-info-was-incorrect-but-has-no-regrets/

Here is the text of the above Fox News article. My comments are interjected in bold print.


National Security Adviser Susan Rice said Sunday she has no regrets over what she told the American public about the 2012 Benghazi terror attacks in the immediate aftermath of the deadly strikes.
"Je ne regrette rien" as Edith Piaf sang
Rice did a round of Sunday TV interviews a few days after the attacks, in which some of the information she gave was later proven incorrect.
Not incorrect. Lies.
“What I said to you that morning, and what I did every day since, was to share the best information that we had at the time,” Rice told NBC's “Meet the Press” moderator David Gregory on Sunday. “The information I provided … was what we had at the moment.”
Nonsense. The people on the ground in Libya told their superiors in Washington that it was a coordinated terrorist attack and that there was no protest that went out of control. That information was provided to DOS before Rice appeared on the Sunday talk shows. Indeed, it has been shown that the Pentagon, General Martin Dempsey, and Leon Panetta were told a terrorist attack was happening just before they went to the White House to meet President Obama.
Rice said “No,” when Gregory asked whether she had any regrets about her statements.
She should tell that to the families of the four dead Americans and those that survived the attack and in some cases, are still recuperating from their wounds.
She also said nobody in the administration intended to mislead the public, but acknowledged some of her information was inaccurate.
Lies. Flat out lies. Not some of the information. All  of it.
“That information turned out, in some respects, not to be 100 percent correct," Rice said. "But the notion that somehow I or anybody else in the administration misled the American people is patently false. And I think that that's been amply demonstrated."
Note the equivocal choice of words ("..in some respects not to be 100 percent correct"). Amply demonstrated? What has been amply demonstrated is that the administration perpetrated a lie upon the public. The talking points memo was changed by people within the administration and State Department to fit their own narrative that what happened at Benghazi was a protest gone awry and to continue the myth that Libya was stable. The administration and State also knew that if it got out that al-Qaeda-linked terrorists were running loose all over Eastern Libya, the previous pleas for enhanced security from the post at Libya would surface and put the lie to the entire narrative.
She was, at the time, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a top candidate to become secretary of state.
However, Rice withdrew herself from consideration in the wake of the attacks on the U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya, after the firestorm of criticism she received for her response.
Rice said Sunday she didn’t know whether her responses killed her chances of getting the top U.S. diplomatic post.
She  doesn't know. I know. Anybody with half a brain knows.
“I don’t know,” she said. “What I do know is that I [now] have a great job.”
She has a great job, and four Americans don't have a great job because they are dead.
Four Americans were killed in the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, and State Department information management officer Sean Smith, also died in the attack. 
Rice said the Benghazi attacks appeared to be a "spontaneous reaction” to an anti-Islamic video on the Internet.
The administration later said the attacks appeared pre-planned, but exactly who and what started them remains unclear, despite several investigations.
Pseudo investigations-like that DOS Accountability Review Board "investigation" that cleared Hillary Clinton without even interviewing her.

Ms Rice may have no regrets, but an entire nation has regrets over this tragedy that never should have happened. Rice may argue that as then-ambassador to the UN, she was not directly involved in the information flow, but she sure was in a position to find out what the facts were within the next five days when somebody handed her a doctored sheet of talking points and sent her of all people out to face the Sunday talk shows instead of Hillary Clinton, who was "too tired" to do her job (translation: answer hard questions about where she was and what she was doing on that fateful evening).

And isn't it interesting that Rice, instead of appearing on all five networks today as she did after the Benghazi attack, chose to appear only with a sympathetic David Gregory and the friendly confines of NBC?

Either Susan Rice knowingly lied on those Sunday talk shows, or she was incredibly derelict and naive in not asking the people around her for the facts before blindly going out and repeating those absurd talking points about a video. In either case, she "amply demonstrated", to  borrow a phrase,  that she is unfit to be either secretary of state or national security adviser.



Saturday, February 22, 2014

The Minneapolis Explosion: Somebody is Connecting the Dots

Hat tip Gates of Vienna

A few days ago, I cross-posted an update from Gates of Vienna on the New Years Day explosion in a Somali neighborhood of Minneapolis. One of Gates of Vienna's contacts, identified as Henrietta, had done some public source checking and come up with some interesting details and connections to the site of the bombing.

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2014/02/minneapolis-explosion-connecting-dots.html

Further checking reveals that an individual connected to the addresses linked in Minneapolis had already been identified by the European Commission for possible links to al Qaeda, a certain, Gerad Jama aka Gerad Nor of Minneapolis, with a connection right back to one of the suspected addresses in that same city, as well as a suspected company.

http://gatesofvienna.net/2014/02/the-ec-knows-why-doesnt-the-fbi/#more-32619

As previously speculated, hopefully, Henrietta and Gates of Vienna are one step behind the government investigators on this case as opposed to one step ahead.

UCLA Paying for Employee Spanish Lessons

Hat tip The College Fix


UCLA is now paying for its employees to learn Spanish.

http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/16438/

And how about the Jonathan Livingston Seagull language coming from their diversity coordinators?

“It is important as a university and employer that we are on the cutting edge providing our staff with the necessary tools needed to meet the future,” Lee Walton, a UCLA diversity coordinator, said in an email to The College Fix. “The exciting opportunity for a staff employee to learn a language during working hours is priceless.”

“The program began as a pilot project to enhance the cultural awareness of managers, especially those who led ethnically diverse staff members.”

Comment:  First of all, it may be priceless for the one learning Spanish, but if you are doing this on company time and UCLA   is  paying the freight, surely, some bean counters can come up with a round figure on how much this costs the tax payers who support UCLA.

Secondly, in the interest of full disclosure, I learned Thai at the Foreign Service Institute in Rosslyn, Virginia over a six-month period in  1974,  and it was paid for by my employer, the US Drug Enforcement Administration. Similarly, I also attended the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California studying Italian in 1982 for a one month period-again paid for by DEA. In other words, the tax-payer footed the bill. There was a difference, however. Both of those training programs were to prepare me for overseas assignments in Thailand and Italy.  

Last I checked, UCLA is located in the US. And I don't recall any of the Thai and Italian police counterparts I worked with getting free English lessons so they could enhance their cultural awareness and interact with little ol' me in their own countries.

As for the other languages I have learned in my life, I paid for it myself. Unless they are being sent to work long-term  in a Spanish-speaking country on behalf of UCLA, those  employees should be doing the same. 


Janet Napolitano Letter to Daily Californian




I have to chuckle at the relationship between University of California President Janet Napolitano and the students in the UC system. Her visit to UC Berkeley last week is an example. I took her to task because as she was strolling around the campus (or was she being spirited from one undisclosed location to another?) a bunch of condom-celebrators were cavorting around  masquerading as giant penises while school kids from  local area school where being guided around and exposed to all the nonsense. Apparently, some "undocumented students of color" were offended because she didn't meet with them.

Now comes this letter from Napolitano to the UCB campus paper, The Daily Californian, complaining about the complaining.

http://www.dailycal.org/2014/02/21/visit-uc-berkeleys-campus/

To me, this is one big food fight going on. Some students object to Napolitano because she was head of DHS and apparently, some illegal aliens were deported under her watch. Fancy that!  They are also upset that there is no Dream Act and that some (unknown) number of "undocumented" students at UC are "studying in the shadows".

And of course, we know that Big Sis does not take criticism well, as I learned a couple of years back at UCLA when I was guilty of rolling my eyes at one of her patented non-answers.

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2012/04/janet-napolitano-at-ucla-you-can-roll.html

The spoiled students at Berkeley should wake up and smell the coffee. They have one of their own as UC President. If she could, Napolitano would open the gates to every "undocumented" person of college age she could while the California tax-payers foot the bill. If it were up to her, the Underwear Bomber would be sitting in some UC engineering classroom right now on a study-release program so she could claim that the system worked perfectly.

I just wish UC had a president who would pay attention to all the nonsense that is going on at her campuses in the guise of education. God knows her predecessor didn't, and she won't either.


White House Takes Credit for Ukraine Deal

Hat tip PJ Media and John Speedie for audio



You have to give credit to White House deputy national security adviser Tony Blinken: The guy's got chutzpah. As things in Ukraine start to look like they are going to end positively, guess who deserves all the credit? Why President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, of course. Would never have happened without all those phone calls from Washington.

http://pjmedia.com/blog/white-house-takes-credit-for-ukraine-deal/

“This, I don’t think would have happened without the coordinated efforts of the United States and Europe,” Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken told CNN, claiming that the U.S. had “a lot” to do with the agreement.




I smell another Nobel Peace Prize.

But don't forget all those phone calls from Joe Biden (May he rest in peace).

"The White House handed off the crisis to Vice President Joe Biden some time ago, with the last discussion released by the press office between President Obama and Yanukovych happening on March 27, 2012. There’s no indication of the two leaders speaking since."



Friday, February 21, 2014

Fighting the Boycott Israel Drive on California Campuses

UC Santa Cruz teacher of Hebrew Tammi Benjamin of the AMCHA Initiative and Ari Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center  have co-authored the below linked piece in the (Los Angeles) Jewish Journal regarding the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement on California university campuses.

http://www.jewishjournal.com/opinion/article/bds_debate_a_tale_of_two_universities

I  was present at the referenced event featuring Omar Barghouti at UC Riverside. Professor Lloyd's quoted comments came in response to my question to him during the q and a as to whether the UCR Humanities Department was putting its imprimatur on Barghouti's words and whether the department would sponsor a pro-Israel speaker to provide balance, the latter of which, Lloyd  termed "preposterous".

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2014/01/omar-ingrate-barghouti-touring.html

Here is a link to a petition letter to California State Assembly Member Joan Buchanon and California State Senator Carol Liu regarding the misuse of tax-payer funds by UC and CSU faculty and departments in promoting the BDS movement against Israel. I have signed it, and I hope you will too.

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1528498/Please-sign-Letter-to-State-Senator-Carol-Liu-and-Assembly-Member-Joan-Buchanon-Regarding-Misues-of-Taxpayer-Funds-by-UC-and-CSU-Faculty-and-Departments

There is no justifiable reason why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has managed to become the top issue of contention on US college campuses. It constitutes a waste of tax-payer funds and resources and has tarnished the reputation of many universities, not just in California, but across the US and  Canada due to the abuse of academic freedom by left-wing faculty who engage in indoctrination of their students rather than educating them. It is time to tell our universities to get back to the business of education.

SFSU Saga Appears to be Over-at Least on Campus

Hat tip Pro-Israel Bay Bloggers

It appears that the student who put up violent messages directed toward Israelis is no longer a student at San Francisco State University. Pro-Israel Bay Bloggers has the update.

http://proisraelbaybloggers.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-nightmare-is-over-at-san-francisco.html

A reader sent in the below San Francisco TV news report link to Pro Israel Bay Bloggers:

http://www.ktvu.com/videos/news/san-francisco-group-calls-for-investigation-into/vCRQSz/

The  story may be over at SFSU, but if this character is still roaming around the US ( I suspect he is not an American citizen), then there may be more to report in the future as he is reportedly being investigated by the appropriate authorities. I certainly hope so. I also hope that SFSU will take a long hard look at the General Union of Palestinian Students.

I also noticed in the past few days that the posts I put up on this story were being visited often by SFSU computers.

At any rate, a big tip of the hat to Tammi Benjamin and Leila Beckwith of the AMCHA Initiative in pressing this issue with school authorities and to all those who held SFSU's feet to the fire. The issue here is that we are heading for a tragedy on one of our university campuses as a result of this asinine pro-Palestinian drive to demonize the Jewish state of Israel. It is just a matter of time, and when it happens, the focus will be on how the concerned university administrators failed to take proper steps to nip this campus cancer in the bud.
The SFSU case is just another warning sign.



Prince Charles at the Head Choppers' Ball in Saudi Arabia

Saturday night in Riyadh

Hat tip Vlad Tepes

While American diplomats engage in serious forums with their counterparts in Gaza about Muslim comic book super-heroes, the Brits send Prince Charles to Saudi Arabia to ....do......this!





Hours of fun.



Far as I know the prince didn't behead anybody, purposely or accidentally.





State Department Searching for Muslim Super-Heroes in Comic Books

Hat tip Atlas Shrugs

Screen Shot 2014-02-21 at 3.39.24 PM
"Fighting a never-ending battle against evil Islamophobes wherever they may be lurking"


You can't make this stuff up, Folks.

Our illustrious State Department, fresh from Hillary Clinton blaming the Benghazi attack on a video, is now busily engaged in some hare-brained scheme to promote Muslim comic book superheroes. This week, Asst Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, Evan Ryan, hosted a web chat on the topic of Muslim comic super-heroes that even included some experts from the West Bank and our friends in Gaza.



 https://conx.state.gov/live-event/eca/

You can't grovel much lower than this, Folks.

I don't guess it occurred to Ms Ryan to bring up for discussion those comic book heroes in the West Bank that are fighting to kill every last Jew in Israel.




Chuck Hagel Misspeaks-Again



"So that's the position of this administration; it was the position of the Bush administration -- that's unequivocal. That's stated -- it's clear,"




I almost forgot we do have a secretary of defense. His name is Chuck Hagel, and he plays Laurel to Joe Biden's Hardy. Sgt Hagel found himself in a Bethesda, Maryland synagogue Tuesday where he assured his listeners that the US would never allow Iran to acquire the capacity to build a nuclear weapon  (which they already have).

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/02/21/hagel-misstates-administration-policy-on-iran-nukes/?intcmp=latestnews


Hagel was escorted by Army medics back to the Pentagon where he was given a glass of warm milk and tucked into bed.



Let's Play, "Name That Canadian!"




As our northern neighbors storm through the Winter Olympics in Russia and break US hearts in hockey, what better time than now to play, "Name that Canadian"?

1 Which of the below persons is not Canadian?

a Michael J Fox
b Jim Carrey
c Steven Harper
d Alfred Eh. Neuman

2 Which of the below persons was not born in Canada?

a Wayne Gretsky
b Mario Lemieux
c Barack Obama
d Ted Cruz

3 When US troops stormed the beaches at Normandy in World War II, they were joined by troops from which of the below countries (2 correct answers)

a Great Britain
b Canada
c France
d Japan
e Germany

4 When Canadian prime minister Steven Harper recently spoke in front of the Israeli Knesset, he gave his speech in both English and French. Why?

a Half of the Israeli people are French
b Harper has Tourette Syndrome
c Somebody put the wrong speech on his teleprompter
d John Kerry was in the audience
e He has to because Canada is officially bilingual, and everything has to be done in two languages, or the French Canadians would demand secession, and Harper would be impeached or some such rot.

5 Which Canadian moved to the US and became known as "America's Sweetheart"?

a Mary Pickford
b Justin Bieber
c Jim Carrey
d Ferguson Jenkins

The correct answers are:

1 d
2 c
3 a and b
4 e
5 a

For you UC Santa Cruz Community Studies majors, here is a consolation question.

6 Name the Canadian national anthem

a Deutschland Uber Alles
b La Marseillaise
c The Star Spangled Banner
d Oh Canada

For you UC Santa Cruz History of Consciousness majors here is your consolation question.

7 Which of the below beers is Canadian?

a Molson Canadian
b Budweiser
c Lowenbrau
d Corona

The answers are:

6 d
7 a