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Atlas Shrugs: More on Muslim Gunmen in Belgium   "Herman Van Rompuy, a former Belgian prime minister who is now president of the European Council, said he was badly shaken by the attack. “There is no explanation whatsoever,” Van Rompuy said. “It leaves me perplexed and shocked.”

"Of course there is an explanation. Amrani was a Muslim and he was waging his personal Jihad against the infidels. After over 18,000 terrorist attacks by the followers of the religion of peace sincer 9/11, the only thing that is inexplicable and indeed shocking is the surprise of the politicians to connect the dots and that these terrorists are Muslims and they are practicing the many teachings of their prophet.

"Two days earlier, another Muslim, calmly pointed his handgun and opened fire on passing cars near Vine Street and Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood while shouting Allahu Akbar. He injured one passerby before being killed by the police. In both cases the media refused to identify the killer as Muslim terrorist."

"The Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo said the attack was the act of a “lone assailant,” a man known to police who had “no links to terrorism.” “The whole country shares in the pain. This is an isolated case. This is not about terrorism,” he stressed."

Mendacious Media Manipulation  "After the recent shootings in Belgium and Hollywood, most media outlets adamantly refuse to identify the shooters as Muslims, as Pamela Geller notes.

"Now a gunman has killed several vendors in Florence. But, as we see in this HuffPo article, the MSM is wasting no time identifying the shooter as a “right-wing racist terrorist.” "

The LA Times: ALWAYS in Barack’s Corner  "I don’t think Obama’s a Muslim. I don’t think he’s anything. He’s more than likely an agnostic who attends church when he has to for political expediency. America is a largely religious country, after all. He certainly is not a regular church-goer, unless three times a year constitutes regular.

"Of course, this is all quite obvious and the folks at the LAT know it as well as I do. So they lie or gild the lily or prevaricate or whatever you want to call it to protect their man, even in relatively monitor situations like this. It is engrained(sic) in them. They are probably not capable of writing or even seeing the truth.

"To do something as significant as producing the Khalidi Tapes would probably cause the institution to have a breakdown."

Civility: A Compilation of 'the GOP is Insane/Terrorists/Extremists' Articles   "The most heavy-- and even obscene terms are being thrown at the GOP. Below are just some examples from this month alone."There are some legitimately non-hyperbolic editorials coming out from the Left. However-- a disproportionate amount coming from actual establishment news organizations and writers should be cause for alarm. Yes, there is the regular alarm-pulling at the Nation and the Daily Kos-- but there is a troubling trend. The most heavy-- and even obscene terms are being thrown at the GOP. Below are just some examples from this month alone.":  Links active in the article.

- William Yeomans, Politico: Tea Party's Terrorist Tactics
- Paul Waldman, American Prospect: Underestimating Right Wing Insanity
- Nicholas Kristof, NY Times: GOP Zealots Threatening America's Security
- Andrew Leonard, Salon: New GOP Hostage Demand: Kill ObamaCare
- E.J. Dionne, Washington Post: Tea Party Extremism Endangering Nation
- Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA): "Cult Fringe" Holding Up Debt Ceiling Increase
- Gene Lyons, Salon: A Republican Party Divorced From Sanity
- Gary Younge, The Guardian: Debt Ceiling Crisis Exposing GOP Madness
- Bill Maher: Maher: Where Were The "Teabaggers" Before "Blackie McBlackman?"
- Senator John Kerry (D-MA): Kerry: Tea Party Republicans a "Group of Absolutists, Extremists"
- Robert Kuttner, American Prospect: The Joys of Fanaticism
- Paul Krugman, New York Times: The GOP Went Insane Long Ago
- Robert Reich, Huffington Post: The Wrecking Ball Right
- Joan Walsh, Salon: GOP's Extremist 2012 Field Helps Obama
- Jonathan Chait, The New Republic: The Republican Crazy Is Not an Act
- Mike Littwin, Denver Post: Tea Partier Crazies Want U.S. to Default
- Tina Brown, MSNBC: GOP Are Suicide Bombers in Debt Negotiations
- Martin Frost, Politico: The tea party Taliban
- Politico Cartoon: Norquist as the Mad Hatter
- Fmr Governor Ted Strickland (D-OH): 'Crazy'-sounding candidates can't beat Obama
-George Zornick, the Nation: The 'Right-Wing Nutters' Who Are Pushing the Country to the Brink
- Katrina vanden Heuvel, the Nation: The GOP Wants to Sabotage the Economy
- Andrew Leonard, Salon: The House GOP's debt ceiling hara-kiri
- Morning Joe, MSNBC: Is GOP Extremism the Problem in Politics Today?
- Steve Benen / Washington Monthly: How big is the House GOP's sane contingent?

"And this is without delving into Kos, TPM, FireDogLake, Democratic Underground and others. Does anyone else see a meme or is it just me?"

Obama, the guardian of our nation

Dick Cheney: Why didn’t Obama just destroy the drone when he had the chance? "That’s a good question — and according to former VP Dick Cheney’s contacts, Barack Obama didn’t lack for options to keep the highly-classified drone from falling into the Iranian military’s hands. In an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett, Cheney wonders why Obama didn’t order an air strike on the downed aircraft while he still had the chance:"...
"...“was told the president had three options on his desk and he rejected all of them.” The options all involved destroying the drone on the ground.
" “You can do that from the air,” he said. “And, in effect, make it impossible for them to benefit from having captured that drone.” "

Romney: Obama’s A Wimp For Not Destroying That Drone

He (Obama) was extraordinarily weak and timid in a time of … a critical moment. This will have severe implications for us, long term, and it was a terrible mistake on his part. I find it incomprehensible that he didn’t destroy it, or go get it. I think destroying it would have been a good deal easier. Destroy it immediately, or go get it. But the idea of letting it fall into the hands of people who will use it against us, use the intelligence capacity against us, is an extremely enormous mistake on the part of this president.

DEBKAfile: Iran propositions Saudis, seeks anti-US pact, offers nuclear cooperation "This TV item informed Tehran exactly how high the Saudis rate Iran's regional standing and the stability of its government."
Also this: Iran to practice Strait of Hormuz closure while unlocking US drone secrets

Via Iranian.com: US asks Iran to return captured drone

Newt's Romney Argument is Classic Left-Wing Critique of Capitalism

Krauthammer: Newt's Romney Argument is Classic Left-Wing Critique of Capitalism   "Charles Krauthammer says Newt Gingrich is facing some serious problems when it comes to the Presidential race. Besides the fact that the Republican establishment thinks he is erratic, Newt's argument that Romney should give money back to the people he fired when he ran Bain Capital is a classic left-wing critique of capitalism."

In this spot, we would imbed the video, but Youtube requires an Adobe update that I and a few thousand others cannot get to download and install. Even HP forums have not been of any help, but we will trudge on. TD

Regulation for Dummies ; The White House says its rule-making isn't costly or unusual. The evidence shows otherwise..

The Wall Street Journal  "To answer the most basic question—has regulation increased?—we'll focus on what the government defines as "economically significant" regulations. Those are rules that impose more than $100 million in annual costs on the economy, though there are hundreds if not thousands of new rules every year that fall well short of that."
....
"The evidence is overwhelming that the Obama regulatory surge is one reason the current economic recovery has been so lackluster by historical standards. Rather than nurture an economy trying to rebuild confidence after a financial heart attack, the Administration pushed through its now-famous blitz of liberal policies on health care, financial services, energy, housing, education and student loans, telecom, labor relations, transportation and probably some other industries we've forgotten. Anyone who thinks this has only minimal impact on business has never been in business.

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2011/12/12/94498

John Stossel: Job Creators Fighting Back    "Tom Stemberg, founder of Staples, got involved with the Job Creators Alliance  because he's annoyed that the government makes a tough job much tougher.

"He complains that government mostly creates jobs -- that kill jobs.

" "They're creating $300 million worth of jobs in the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau," Stemberg said, "which I don't think is going to do much for productivity in America. We're creating all kinds of jobs trying to live up to Dodd-Frank ... and those jobs don't create much productivity.

....

"Politicians rarely understand this. One who learned it too late was Sen. George McGovern. After he left office, he started a small bed-and-breakfast and hit the regulatory wall he helped create. Later, he wrote, "I wish during the years I was in public office I had this firsthand experience about the difficulties businesspeople face. ... We are choking off business opportunity." "

Why Would Obama Veto Job Creation?  "What’s so offensive that would cause the President to level a veto threat? A provision in H.R. 3630, the “Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2011,” that would provide for the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline project that would bring oil from Canada. Heritage’s Nicolas Loris explains that it would mean “access to easy imports from our northern neighbor, the creation of thousands of jobs, and the generation of revenue for the states where the pipeline passes. Montana, South Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Texas are collectively projected to collect $5.2 billion in property tax revenue as a result of building the pipeline.” "

http://conservativedailynews.com/2011/12/channeling-teddy/

Useful Idiots; the "#Occupiers"

NYC cafe impacted negatively by Occupy Wall Street goes out of business #OWS   "Epstein blamed the barricades that remained in front of his restaurant even after the Occupy Wall Street protestors were removed from Zuccotti Park.

" “This is now the 12th straight week of the barricades,” he said.

"The restaurant owner, who operates an eatery and catering business in Boston, said he pressed the city daily for their removal, but got nowhere.

"Milk Street Cafe’s closure will result in the layoff of 70 workers. That’s on top of the 21 let go in October."

Occupy Wall Street and the wolves among the sheep 

"Lenin used to refer to well intentioned and misguided middle class students who carried water for the Bolsheviks and later the Soviets in Russia and the west as “useful idiots”. The point being that these youths were so blinded by idealistic passion that they remained willfully ignorant to the danger posed by the wolves they were attempting to bring to power and support. The useful idiots were the sheep blissfully allowing the wolves to travel among them and blithely ignorant to the fact that they would be devoured once the wolves had killed the shepherds."

 Time Magazine 'Person of the Year.' The Protestor?  "If they Tea Party had boasted about closing the ports and then have the demonstrations flop as badly as OWS, it would have been headline news.
There were no "millions" of supporters and there never have been. Nobody knows what to support because the OWS crowd has yet to come up with any specifics to oppose - except hate the bankers and the rich. "
Also here: Two Years After Tea Party, Time Calls 'The Protester' Their Person of the Year  "The Tea Party emerges on the second page online, as merely a "foreshadowing" of the authentic protests that has "outlasted" its expected shelf life. (This, as the Occupy crowd is already being swept out of the parks.)"

Tim Tebow Sparks New Round of Non-Existent Hate Crime (Updated)

TheGatewayPundit  "But remember this: This many years into the War on Terror, the only anti-Muslim violence in the US has been a few sponsors pulling out from All-American Muslim, because it was a third-rate reality show. We’re a tolerant people. We welcome people who want to be here. That should include welcoming pretty darned good quarterbacks who are also Christians."

Below is a quote from a site that doesn't seem to abide Christians and considers them to be the enemy: 

If Tebow wins the Super Bowl, against all odds, it will buoy his faithful, and emboldened faithful can do insane things, like burning mosques, bashing gays and indiscriminately banishing immigrants. While America has become more inclusive since Jerry Falwell’s first political forays, a Tebow triumph could set those efforts back considerably.

(Update) Why Tebow? Why Now?  From American Thinker" Sex abuses on the young and innocent went on for years, in most cases ignored by those who could have put an end to it. When it comes to American athletes, their sins are largely tolerated and even glorified in our sick and hedonistic culture.
"For the past year, Tebow has been vilified for his displays of faith on the field and in interviews."
....
"Players from other teams have mocked his one-knee genuflection after a touchdown and his prayer circle with team members. Now, however, rival teammates are joining the circle in thanksgiving for a game well played. Let's face it: spoiled thugs have inundated the NBA and NFL, and perhaps it will take a miracle to bring some respect back to the games.
....
"Some, of course, are feverishly wishing for an end to Tebow's string of "miraculous" victories. To them, Tebow is dangerous because he represents the power of faith and good, clean living."


This following admonition is from the Matthew Henry commentary on Matthew 10:22:

...It appears plainly, that all who will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution; and we must expect to enter into the kingdom of God through many tribulations. With these predictions of trouble, are counsels and comforts for a time of trial. The disciples of Christ are hated and persecuted as serpents*, and their ruin is sought, and they need the serpent's wisdom. Be ye harmless as doves. Not only, do nobody any hurt, but bear nobody any ill-will. Prudent care there must be, but not an anxious, perplexing thought; let this care be cast upon God....    *And many commercial TV evangelists don't help.

Tim Tebow and the media  "A lot of major league athletes are Christians. A lot of them invoke God or make personal expressions of faith at some point in their games. That’s been the case for a long time. Why are the media obsessing on this quarterback and his particular witness to faith?"

From the no-American-president-would-be-this-dumb file: Iran Official Says U.S. Should Apologize for Drone 'Invasion'

Iran demands US apologize for the drone incident:  Fox News  "Also Tuesday, Iranian lawmaker Hamid Rasaei told an open session of the Iranian parliament that the drone is staying in Iran, calling it a "war booty."  (Is this something Iran should apologize for?)
"Later, 186 lawmakers in the 290-seat assembly issued a statement condemning the "invasion" and urging the international community to take a stance toward the "dangerous act" by the U.S.

"Meanwhile, state TV said Obama's demand for the drone's return puts the U.S. in the role of "the beggar" over the issue.
"There are concerns in the U.S. that others may be able to reverse-engineer the chemical composition of the drone's radar-deflecting paint or the aircraft's sophisticated optics technology that allows operators to positively identify terror suspects from tens of thousands of feet in the air."....
"On Monday, another lawmaker, Parviz Sorouri, claimed Iranian experts were in the final stages of recovering data from the captured drone."

If Mr. Obama can take credit for getting bin Laden, cannot he also be credited with losing this drone? This next, related post looks like it should be in red...and bold.

Obama, foreign policy, and national survival   "Foreign policy is one area that a President of the United States cannot be permitted to fail in, not if the country wants to survive, that is. There is absolutely no doubt that Obama has failed miserably in this area in his first term and that he will also fail miserably in his second should he be re-elected as well given his personality, mentality and ideology...he is simply incapable of change and will continue down the same path he is on to the inevitable conclusion. There are only two things the American people can do to get themselves out of this mortal danger.
"Stymie him at every turn before the next election and then vote him out of office. Obstruct the bum and then get rid of him before he gets rid of us."

What Is An Ex-Iran Guard Commander Doing At The White House?   "If you worry about the growing influence of Iran in neighboring Iraq, look no further than the delegation that visited the White House to proclaim the end of the Iraq War. Standing with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki during the ceremony with President Obama was Hadi Farhan al-Amiri, who is the Transportation Minister in the Iraqi government. But previously he was a commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. As the Washington Times points out, Mr. al-Amiri was a commander in the Badr Corps, a battalion that operated in….Iraq.
"Worried yet about the future of Iraq?"

The man of 1000 faces

http://terrellaftermath.com/

Ron Paul, a Conservative on the economy with a liberal foreign policy

DonkeyHotey

Reason #1067 why Ron Paul should never be elected president  by Rick Moran at American Thinker:

"And now he smears George Bush and his administration by making a statement that he just made up out of whole cloth. There is not one shred of evidence that anyone in the Bush administration was "gleeful" at any time, anywhere, for any reason connected to 9/11. It is a lie. Not even Bush's harshest, most unrelenting and unbalanced critics have ever made such a shocking, unproven allegation.

Bush may have been inept and inarticulate but if anything could be said about his and his administration's reaction to 9/11 and contemplation of war with Iraq, there was no "glee" to be found anywhere. Only in Ron Paul's warped imagination could such a thing be so."

 FOREIGN POLICY DOSSIER   "Paul said in an August debate in Iowa that the international effort to keep Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons makes tensions worse, placing himself firmly at odds with the Obama and Bush administrations. He argues it is natural that Iran, surrounded by nuclear-armed states, would want its own arsenal. And if the U.S. “tolerated” the Soviet Union and thousands of nuclear weapons but never went to war, he suggested, the U.S. should do the same with Iran. Paul told Fox News’ Chris Wallace last Sunday that he would end sanctions because he deems them an act of war. Characterizations of Iran as a threat, he said, were “blown out of proportion.”"
"DRONES HURT; SEND TERRORISTS TO COURT; CLOSE GITMO. Paul harshly condemned the U.S. drone strikes that killed two American citizens, Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, as “assassination” by “a secret government committee not subject to congressional oversight or judicial review.” He called it “an outrage and a criminal act carried out by the president and his administration.” "

Google

Beck considers Paul as a third party  "This is suicide and it doesn’t get any simpler this: voting third party on our side for whomever guarantees Obama a victory. That’s it. And if Newt’s the nominee and Beck wants to go that road, then I tell him what I tell others: enjoy the hell that will be a second Obama term."

From The Foreign Policy Initiative : Hopefully, the GOP nominee will realize that we focus solely on problems at home at our peril   "Most of the Republican candidates in South Carolina tonight passed that test, with the possible exception of Ron Paul, whose views are so far outside the mainstream that his continued presence at these debates makes the Republican party appear less serious."

Big bettors

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/

Rick Santorum Schools Candy Crowley on Obama's Appeasement

Newsbusters   "As NewsBusters has been reporting for days, the Obama-loving media have been doing a collective victory lap concerning the President's appeasement retort "Go ask Osama bin Laden."
"When CNN's Candy Crowley tried this during her interview with Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Sunday's State of the Union, she got a much-needed education that would help all her foreign policy-challenged colleagues in the press (video follows with partial transcript and commentary):"

Time for CNN and MSNBC to knock off the blatant campaigning for this traitorous administration. They contantly misrepresent everything wrong and try to pretend it's all coming up roses for America when we are in grave danger from every part of the world.

His so called intelligent diplomacy has left us staggering under constant assaults from those who know they're dealing with a weakling.

From the comments to the above article.

To CNN, The most busted name in news":   “Good Luck In Getting It Right This Time”
"There’s lots to criticize, of course, with the refrains from the center-right as familiar to you as the chorus from “American Pie.” (Please, no more fringe extremists held up as “representing” conservatism generally or Tea Party activists specifically.) While fixing these flaws would increase your audience and your credibility on many issues, these are small points compared with the looming world crisis. What really matters right now is that CNN get the Iran story right and that you not become the *Geoffrey Dawson of the new millennium.
"You no doubt know of [Geoffrey] Dawson and his shameful record of abetting the appeasement of Neville Chamberlain throughout the ’30s from his post as editor of the Times of London, in its day the most powerful news platform in the world. Dawson emerges as a loathsome character in the pages of William Manchester’s “Alone,” the narrative of Winston Churchill’s wilderness years from 1932 to 1940."

*Geoffrey Dawson Dawson began to use the [Times of London] in the same manner as Lord Northcliffe had once done, to promote his own agenda. He also became a leader of a group of journalists that sought to influence national policy by private correspondence with leading statesmen. Dawson was close to both Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain. He was a prominent proponent and supporter of appeasement policies, after Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. He was a member of the Anglo-German Fellowship and under his editorship, The Times forbade any mention of German anti-semitism during the pre-war years when Hitler was in power. He was opposed to Zionism. He is considered a major figure in the events that led up to the Munich agreement in 1938. He retired in 1941.

Video: Pat Condell comments on the Osama killing

Condell

Click here:  Sorry not to post the video imbed, but the new Adobe Flash refuses to download properly; an issue that seems to be widespread. TD

"Final confirmation that Osama is indeed dead: his name turned up on the voting rolls in Chicago." Comment to this post

Hat tip to Robert Hope, Sacramento. Thanks, Bob.