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Politics : How Quickly Can Obama Totally Destroy the US? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Taro who wrote (5304)	9/9/2013 11:24:18 AM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 16547

How did the US political class ever slip this far this fast? ................................................................................................................. Obama Admin. Official: Assad Will 'Still Be Able to Eat Cheerios' After U.S. Strike Weekly Standard ^ Obama Admin. Official: Assad Will 'Still Be Able to Eat Cheerios' After U.S. Strike Daniel Halper September 9, 2013 11:01 AM Syrian strongman Bashar Assad will "still be able to eat Cheerios" after a U.S. strike, but he'll have to use a fork and not a spoon. At least that's the metaphor one Obama administration official used to describe the nature of a U.S. strike to USA Today. The strike, as envisioned, would be limited in the number of targets and done within a day or two. It could be completed in one fell swoop with missiles, said one senior official familiar with the weapons involved. A smaller, follow-on strike could be launched if targets aren't sufficiently damaged. A second senior official, who has seen the most recent planning, offered this metaphor to describe such a strike: If Assad is eating Cheerios, we're going to take away his spoon and give him a fork. Will that degrade his ability to eat Cheerios? Yes. Will it deter him? Maybe. But he'll still be able to eat Cheerios.

To: Taro who wrote (5304)	9/9/2013 12:46:53 PM
From: joseffy	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 16547

'Either You Convert to Islam, Or You Will Be Beheaded' ................................................................................................................. by Breitbart News 9 Sep 2013 breitbart.com The village of Maaloula has been taken over by Syrian rebels associated with al Qaeda, who have stormed the Christian center and offered local Christians a choice: conversion or death. A resident of the town said the rebels shouted “Allahu Akhbar” as they moved through the village, and proceeded to assault Christian homes and churches. “They shot and killed people,” he said. “I heard gunshots and then I saw three bodies lying in the middle of a street in the old quarters of the village. Where is President Obama to see what has befallen us?” Another witness stated, “I saw the militants grabbing five villagers and threatening them and saying, ‘Either you convert to Islam, or you will be beheaded.’” The village is located just 25 miles from Damascus, and sites within the village are dedicated as United Nations world heritage sites. Residents still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus. The rebels who took over the city are associated with the al Nusra Front, an al Qaeda-associated Islamist group. Villagers reported foreign dialects ranging from Tunisian to Libyan, from Moroccan to Chechen. ............................................................................................................................................................................... I wonder if this "crosses a red line?"

To: Taro who wrote (5304)	9/10/2013 10:11:55 PM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 16547

Conservative Erna Solberg triumphs in Norway... Anger over immigration fuels populist vote...

To: Taro who wrote (5304)	9/11/2013 11:23:18 AM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 16547

A Man Among Men--This Man Is Feared

To: Taro who wrote (5304)	9/11/2013 1:50:16 PM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 16547

Fake Syria 'expert' quoted by Kerry and McCain Fired for Lying ....................................................................... Controversial Syria Researcher Fired Over Doctorate Claim Elizabeth O’Bagy’s ties to the Syrian opposition had become an issue. September 11, 2013 by Susannah George buzzfeed.com A young researcher whose opinions on Syria were cited by both Senator McCain and Secretary of State John Kerry in congressional testimony last week has been fired from the Institute for the Study of War for allegedly faking her academic credentials. The institute issued a statement on its website concerning the researcher, Elizabeth O’Bagy: The Institute for the Study of War has learned and confirmed that, contrary to her representations, Ms. Elizabeth O’Bagy does not in fact have a Ph.D. degree from Georgetown University. ISW has accordingly terminated Ms. O’Bagy’s employment, effective immediately. O’Bagy and her op-ed drew scrutiny last week when the Wall Street Journal failed to disclose O’Bagy’s ties to an advocacy group backing the Syrian opposition and lobbying the US government to intervene in Syria. The Journal was forced to post a clarification that “in addition to her role at the Institute for the Study of War, Ms. O’Bagy is affiliated with the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a nonprofit operating as a 501(c)(3) pending IRS approval that subcontracts with the U.S. and British governments to provide aid to the Syrian opposition.” O’Bagy wrote in an email this Wednesday morning: “I was just fired from ISW and I’m no longer legally allowed to discuss my employment with them or affiliate it any way.” In an interview conducted before O’Bagy was fired from ISW, she rejected claims that her research was compromised by her affiliation to the advocacy group, the Syrian Emergency Task Force. “My research is completely separate” she said. “Every journalist and every researcher goes into the conflict with their own background and their own ideas.” “Elizabeth is one of the best experts on Syria and her field work inside Syria along with her extensive networks on the ground makes her one of few people that can help inform policy makers on the reality on the ground,” said Mouaz Moustafa, the executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force.

To: Taro who wrote (5304)	9/11/2013 5:57:35 PM
From: joseffy	1 Recommendation Recommended By Woody_Nickels Respond to of 16547

Hillary heckled About Benghazi during award ceremony...

To: Taro who wrote (5304)	9/12/2013 5:19:47 PM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 16547

TIMEMAG editor leaving to work for Obama administration...

To: Taro who wrote (5304)	9/29/2013 8:47:39 AM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 16547

Police Department Acquires Military Tank... Man Catches Cops Removing Pro-Gun Signs From Yard...

To: Taro who wrote (5304)	9/29/2013 8:49:02 AM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 16547

UPDATE: NSA analysts spied on love interests...

To: Taro who wrote (5304)	10/9/2013 10:54:59 PM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 16547

To: Taro who wrote (5304)	10/9/2013 10:55:50 PM
From: joseffy	1 Recommendation Recommended By Woody_Nickels Respond to of 16547

To: Taro who wrote (5304)	12/9/2013 10:09:16 AM
From: joseffy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16547

Norman Rockwell’s 'Saying Grace' tops record week of art auction sales in US Extraordinary week of sales as buyers seek safe investments Tim Walker Sunday 08 December 2013 independent.co.uk Norman Rockwell’s Saying Grace became the most expensive American painting ever sold at auction last week, fetching $46m (£28m) at Sotheby’s in New York. The following day at Christie’s, an anonymous buyer set a record for a painting by Rockwell’s contemporary, Edward Hopper, whose Depression-era work, East Wind Over Weehawken, sold for $40.5m. And yet, as recent sales go, both seem like small fry. Over 48 hours in November, Manhattan’s two leading auction houses saw more than $1.1bn spent on 20th-century art, setting new records for the most-expensive work ever sold at auction, the most expensive work by a living artist ever sold at auction and – with $691m splurged in a single evening at Christie’s – the highest ever total for a single auction. All three records had previously been broken within the past 18 months, which only goes to show how quickly the contemporary art market is ballooning. The most-expensive auctioned artwork of all, Francis Bacon’s 1969 triptych, Three Studies of Lucian Freud, were sold to an anonymous buyer for $142.4m following a seven-way bidding war. That was about $20m more than the last record-holder, the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch’s The Scream, which was sold in 2012. At the same Christie’s sale, Jeff Koons’s sculpture, Balloon Dog, fetched $58.4m, also about $20m more than the previous record for a living artist’s work – the $37m paid for a painting by Gerhard Richter at Sotheby’s in May of this year. Georgina Adam, editor-at-large for The Art Newspaper, called the sums involved “demented”, adding: “If you’re a multi-billionaire, you want trophies, but… $58m for a Koons is bananas.” While most people are still reeling from the financial crisis, the world’s wealth has risen to those at the top. A recent report found there were 2,170 billionaires worldwide, three times as many than five years ago. To many of them, art seems a safer place to spend their money than the financial system – and contemporary art is what comes to market most frequently. “The art coming to auction is neither better nor worse than the art that came to auction a year or 10 years ago,” said Todd Levin, director of Levin Art Group. “[But] there is now an extremely thin layer of ultra-high net worth individuals, who have massive amounts of excess capital sloshing around, and they have to put that money somewhere.” The art market has also spread geographically, drawing in wealthy buyers from emerging markets in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. At its record-breaking November sale, Christie’s registered bidders from 42 countries. “This is certainly a new era for the art market,” said Doug Woodham, the president of Christie’s Americas, adding: “The market has truly globalised.” Among those rumoured to have bought the Bacon was Russian businessman Roman Abramovich, who, in 2007, paid $86.3m for another triptych by the artist. It has since been reported that the real buyer was Qatari royal Sheika al-Mayassa al-Thani, who chairs the Qatar Museums Authority. She also topped the ArtReview Power 100, an annual ranking of the most influential people in contemporary art.

To: Taro who wrote (5304)	12/16/2013 3:23:06 PM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 16547

US Officials To Meet With Syrian Extremist Rebels, Including Al Qaeda Forces ...................................................................................... ZeroHedge ^ \| 16 December, 2013 \| Tyler Durden

To: Taro who wrote (5304)	12/20/2013 2:52:41 PM
From: joseffy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16547

White House Damage Control: Obamacare Repeal Will 'Cost too Much' ............................................................................................. Breitbart ^ \| 19 Dec 2013 \| Warner Todd Huston

To: Taro who wrote (5304)	12/21/2013 3:35:53 PM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 16547

Meet the Dishonest Radical Academic Eric Holder Tapped to Oversee Federal Election Law ............................................................................................................ PJ Media ^ \| December 20, 2013 \| J. Christian Adams Her name is Pam Karlan. She is a radical progressive. She is currently a law professor at Stanford, and a dishonest one at that. She will be joining Eric Holder’s Justice Department to oversee the enforcement of federal election laws during the 2014 midterm elections. PJ Media readers already know Pam Karlan as the professor who published dishonest scholarship about the Bush Justice Department’s voting rights enforcement. From PJ Media’s “ The Dangerous Dishonesty of Possible Supreme Court Nominee Pam Karlan“: Karlan’s dishonesty goes beyond womyn’s issues, and extends to the election system. She falsely attacked the Bush administration’s Justice Department for not protecting racial minorities. This is a favorite and well-worn tactic; it’s what old segregationists like Coley Blease and Woodrow Wilson used to do — stoke racial division by lying about opponents. Unfortunately, Karlan’s lies were published with an air of respectability in the Duke Journal of Law and Public Policy ( 4 Duke J. Const. L. & Pub. Pol’y 17, 2009). She writes: “For five of the eight years of the Bush Administration, [they] brought no Voting Rights Act cases of its own except for one case protecting white voters.” This is demonstrably false; any visit to the DOJ website demonstrates this. Karlan says the Voting Section brought no cases to protect minorities under the Voting Rights Act in five of eight years — let’s look at the record. My article then traces out in detail the lies that Karlan published in a Duke Law scholarly publication. I contacted the editors of the Duke Journal of Constitutional Law in September 2013 to see if Karlan ever submitted a correction for her false scholarship. She hadn’t. The faculty advisor apologized and told me: “We are always concerned when an article published in our journal contains misstatements. . . the Constitutional Law and Public Policy Journal – not to mention Duke itself – does not endorse a disputed factual claim like Professor Karlan’s in the way that the [Washington] Times would endorse the claims in an investigative piece published in its newspaper.” Ed Whelan over at National Review also has this piece on Karlan’s dishonesty in another venue. Apparently Karlan’s record of dishonesty wasn’t enough to deter Eric Holder. ] After all, dishonesty is all the rage in his Justice Department. Just this month, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz sent Holder a memo, covered here at PJ Media, cautioning Holder about the perception that various DOJ officials have a troubled relationship with the truth. Some have committed perjury and are still employed at DOJ. Horowitz also warned Holder about the perception that the Justice Department is enforcing election laws in a way that is perceived as partisan. *With Karlan, Holder gets a two-fer: dishonesty and* partisanship.** That seems to be what leftist legal analysts like Jeffrey Toobin like so much about Karlan moving to DOJ. Toobin doesn’t mention her history of false scholarship. Her hackish friends in academia never mention it either, ever. Instead, to Toobin, this radical fibber is a “sharp progressive.” None of Karlan’s defenders dare mention her false scholarship. Dishonesty by “sharp progressives” is always forgiven by not-as-sharp progressives. Holder naming this dishonest radical to oversee federal election law enforcement demonstrates, once again, that the truth is optional at his Justice Department. J. Christian Adams is an election lawyer who served in the Voting Rights Section at the U.S. Department of Justice. His New York Times bestselling book is Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department (Regnery). His website is www.electionlawcenter.com. Follow him on Twitter @electionlawctr.