The Dog Ate My E-Mails, for Two Years

"IT experts and the IRS’s own manual note that backups of Lerner’s e-mails must exist."     

 

John Fund  Via American Glob ... "A growing number of computer professionals are stepping forward to say that none of this makes sense. Norman Cillo, a former program manager at Microsoft, told The Blaze: “I don’t know of any e-mail administrator [who] doesn’t have at least three ways of getting that mail back. It’s either on the disks or it’s on a TAPE backup someplace on an archive server.” Bruce Webster, an IT expert with 30 years of experience consulting with dozens of private companies, seconds this opinion: “It would take a catastrophic mechanical failure for Lerner’s drive to suffer actual physical damage, but in any case, the FBI should be able to recover something. And the FBI and the Justice Department know it.' ”...
Ah, of course; the Justice Department.
 

D-Day in Color, Photographs from the Normandy Invasion and the Pacific

Denver Post  "Original color photographs of the D-Day invasion of Normandy during World War II. From British and American soldiers preparing for the invasion in England to German prisoners being marched through the streets after France’s liberation, these images are some of the only color photographs taken during the war. This set of photographs is primarily from the German Galerie Bilderwelt, part of Getty Image’s exclusive Hulton Archive collection. "



"1,096 German Prisoners of War are marched through the town of Gosport, Hampshire, guarded by British soldiers, in June of 1944. The prisoners arrived on HM Landing Ship Tank (LST-165), the first transport with prisoners from the Allied invasion of Normandy. They will be interrogated and distributed to various camps according to their classification. (Photo by Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images) "

The Pacific   "With the premiere of the ten part HBO miniseries, The Pacific, produced by Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman, World War II has again come into the living rooms of American families. The Pacific, the follow-up to Band of Brothers, will focus on the US Marines in the Pacific Theater of the war.

"The below collection focuses on The Pacific War, a term referring to parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, the islands of the Pacific and the Far East. The start of The Pacific War is generally considered to be the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941. The Pacific War pitted the Allies against the Empire of Japan and culminated with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945, Victory over Japan Day on August 15, 1945 and the official surrender of Japan aboard the battleship U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945."

 "Feb. 19, 1945: In the Pacific theater of World War II, U.S. Marines hit the beach and charge over a dune on Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands during the start of one of the deadliest battles of the war against Japan. (AP Photo/Joe Rosenthal)"

Hat tip to Bill Smith; Rainier, Oregon

 

Of the men pictured in this collection, those still alive are in or close to their nineties, many in wheelchairs. One wonders how many of these men went to visit the WW2 memorials during Obama's shutdown only to be told they could not enter because Obama wanted the shutdown to hurt.

 The Tunnel Dweller.

Obama admin shut down D-Day beaches, cemetery in Normandy...

 



Almost everything we are told about illegal immigration is both a lie and amoral.

It couldn’t happen without U.S. enablers.

Victor Davis Hanson  "Those who oppose illegal immigration are dubbed nativists and racists. But if so, why do Americans not object when Africans, Latinos, and Asians immigrate legally and in reasonable numbers — given that legal immigration has long since virtually ceased to be a European phenomenon?

"In fact, illegal immigration is in itself a racist enterprise. Latino activists here are eager to welcome new illegal immigrants and ensure that immigration laws are not enforced not because they believe it benefits the United States. They are not concerned with the American working poor and the effect of cheap labor on their livelihoods. They could not care less about the abstract principles of immigration (what would the La Raza industry say should 300,000 Congolese immigrants, fleeing genocide, unload from freighters off the Texas coast?).

"Identity-politics operatives are focused on illegal immigration solely because it involves tribal identity. Were illegal immigrants not predominantly Latinos, then Latino activists would not worry much about illegal immigration other than to oppose it."

Some say the massacre of Iraqi soldiers was a phony report. This graphic story should clear that up.

JAWA   "Jihadtube Becomes #1 Platform for ISIS Snuff Porn
 "As you recall yesterday, some doubt that those Twitter images of ISIS murdering unarmed prisoners en mass.

Why are there doubts about the authenticity of the pictures?
Chiefly because video footage of the incident has not yet been released.

"Well [here] is your video footage. The first half of the video is of battles the real slaughter begins about half way through and climaxes at around 32 minutes. Extremely graphic."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqKf-SrcPKw

Sentimental memories from the ISIS scrapbook

The Bush-era is back, and it’s driving Obama’s supporters insane

Hot Air   "Among the many triumphs President Barack Obama’s supporters credited themselves with in the wake of the freshman Illinois senator’s historic primary and presidential victories in 2008 was that they had demonstrated that any support for military intervention in Iraq was a political career killer. The return of catastrophic violence to Iraq, after that violence spilled over the Syrian border, has proven especially vexing for Obama’s backers. This crisis has revealed that George W. Bush’s pro-interventionist allies not only failed to exile themselves following Obama’s ascension to the White House, but they remain unrepentant. And that’s driving the left mad.

"Iraq War opponents have fumed in recent days, not because of the sacking of Iraqi cities by Islamic jihadists who are going about systematically executing Shiites and imposing Sharia Law on the survivors, but over the fact that a variety of prominent Iraq War supporters are back in the news."

9 quotes from Obama’s 2011 “Remarks on the End of the War in Iraq” that show his total lack of foresight

From Mary Katharine Ham:  "I had occasion to rewatch this speech today before I went on “The O’Reilly Factor.” Given Dec. 14, 2011 at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, its contents are gut-wrenching."

From the White House Office of the Press Secretary: Remarks by the President and First Lady on the End of the War in Iraq

 

Former U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford: I could no longer ‘defend the American policy’

Christiane Amanpour

“ 'I was no longer in a position where I felt I could defend the American policy,” he said. “We have been unable to address either the root causes of the conflict in terms of the fighting on the ground and the balance on the ground, and we have a growing extremism threat.”
...
"The common refrain among people skeptical of deeper involvement in Syria is that with the influx of terrorist groups, America and its allies no longer know who the opposition really is.

"Ford refuted that notion head on.

“ 'We've identified them quite well now. Some people say, well, we don't know them well enough; we can't depend on them. We know them quite well. We've worked with them for years.”...
 

A Defeat for Terrible Teachers in California

The Daily Signal
... "In a Los Angeles Superior Court ruling today, Judge Rolf M. Treu “found five California laws governing teacher tenure, layoffs and dismissals unconstitutional,” reports Politico.

“ 'Treu found,” reporter Stephanie Simon wrote, “that the statutes permit too many grossly incompetent teachers to remain in classrooms across the state —and found that those teachers shortchange their students by putting them months or years behind their peers in math and reading.”

"There’s no doubt that not all teachers are created equal. Some are excellent, of course. But not all of them are, and in California, it’s almost impossible to fire a tenured teacher." ...

But that is not the end of this story...
Union Vows to Appeal Teacher Tenure Ruling as California Braces for Sweeping Change

 

 “When school children start paying union dues, that 's when I'll start representing the interests of school children.”    "That notorious quote was from Albert Shanker, President of the Teachers Union (United Federation of Teachers) from 1964 to 1984 as well as President of the Teachers Union (American Federation of Teachers) from 1974 to 1997."

Read more...

toledoblade.com

You won't believe new campus rules on 'rape'

WND

 

"WND columnist Thomas Sowell recently wrote about the issue of assault.

“ 'There seem to be a dangerously large number of people who think that the law exists to give them whatever they want – even when that means denying other people the same rights that they claim for themselves,” he wrote. “Nowhere is this self-centered attitude more common than on college campuses. And nowhere are such attitudes more encouraged than by the Obama administration’s Justice Department, which is threatening colleges that don’t handle rape issues the politically correct way – that is, by presuming the accused to be guilty and not letting constitutional safeguards get in the way.”

"The New York Times reported that the White House was increasing the pressure on universities to be more aggressive in combating sex assault on campus."

Liberals again. Good spot for this quote, but Rogers should also have mentioned "every time the president meets with someone".

 Hat tip to Walt Stier; Santa Maria, CA

Benedict Obama's Invasion of America

Selwyn Duke  "If millions of soldiers from south of the border were flooding our nation for the purposes of colonizing our land, we would easily recognize the threat. And if some amongst us were aiding and abetting this invasion -- purposely lowering border security to facilitate it -- we’d know what to call them. And we’d know how they should be dealt with.

"This comes to mind when considering the flood of humanity that does continually pour across our border, a phenomenon whose most recent manifestation is the children’s crusade (which includes many teens, some of whom are gang members) currently in the news. Oh, the people trespassing on our land aren’t wearing uniforms; they aren’t wielding cold steel. But this isn’t always necessary. As Muammar Gaddafi once pointed out, some invasions are prosecuted “without sword, without gun, without conquest.” “We don’t need terrorists; we don’t need homicide bombers,” he said. “The 50 plus million Muslims [in Europe] will turn it into the Muslim Continent within a few decades.” Of course, in the waning West, we call this “diversity” and “demographic change.' ”...

 

Political Earthquake as David Brat Handily Defeats Eric Cantor in Primary    ... "The timing of the flood of children across the border, creating severe overload for care facilities and threatening the spread of epidemics, no doubt also hurt Cantor and spurred the Brat turnout. All the talk of legalization and the Dream Act undoubtedly has spurred this flood, and Cantor is at least indirectly implicated in encouraging this."

Those Lerner emails along with some other stuff

Hope n' Change




Add caption

... "Speaking of screw-ups, the IRS is now telling Congressional investigators that they can't supply Lois Lerner's emails about targeted attacks on conservative groups because a computer crash wiped out two years of her email. Mind you, any technical expert will tell you that such computer emails should routinely be backed up elsewhere - and in fact, the government usually requires such a backup by law. Meaning it's very likely that those emails can't really have been wiped out...by accident." ...

"Betrayal in Benghazi" by Colonel Phil Handley-Confirmed Authorship! but Altered!

Truth or Fiction  "Summary of the eRumor:  This appears to be a commentary by Colonel Phil “Hands” Handley, U.S. Air Force (Retired) about the lack of response to the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi.

"The Truth:  Colonel Phil Hadley did write a commentary called "Betrayal in Benghazi" but this version, that went viral on the Internet, was slightly altered by someone who took the liberty to define some colorful acronyms used by the author.

"We found the genuine May 30, 2013 article posted on the Front Page Website.

 

A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:

Colonel Phil "Hands" Handley is credited with the highest speed, air- to-air gun kill in the history of aerial combat. He flew operationally for all but 11 months of his 26-year career, in aircraft such as the F-86 Sabre, F-15 Eagle, and the C-130A  Hercules. Additionally, he flew 275 combat missions during two tours in Southeast Asia in the F-4D and F-4E. His awards include 21 Air Medals, 3 Distinguished Flying Crosses and the Silver Star. Here is what Col. Handley wrote in response to Panetta and Dempsey's claims there was no time to send help to Benghazi. Betrayal in Benghazi... by Phil "Hands" Handley Colonel, USAF (Ret.) The combat code of the US Military is that we don't abandon our dead or wounded on the battlefield. In US Air Force lingo, fighter pilots don't run off and leave their wingmen. If one of our own is shot down, still alive and not yet in enemy captivity, we will either come to get him or die trying. Among America 's fighting forces, the calm, sure knowledge that such an irrevocable bond exists is priceless. Along with individual faith and personal grit, it is a sacred trust that has often sustained hope in the face of terribly long odds. The disgraceful abandonment of our Ambassador and those brave ex-SEAL's who fought to their deaths to save others in that compound is nothing short of dereliction-of-duty. Additionally, the patently absurd cover-up scenario that was fabricated in the aftermath was an outright lie in an attempt to shield the President and the Secretary of State from responsibility. It has been over eight months since the attack on our compound in Benghazi . The White House strategy, with the aid of a "lap dog" press, has been to run out the clock before the truth is forthcoming. The recent testimonies of the three "whistle blowers" have reopened the subject and hopefully will lead to exposure and disgrace of those responsible for this embarrassing debacle. It would appear that the most recent firewall which the Administration is counting on is the contention, "that there were simply no military assets that could be brought to bear in time to make a difference" mainly due to the unavailability of tanker support for fighter aircraft. This is simply Bull Shit, regardless how many supposed "experts" the Administration trot out to make such an assertion. The bottom line is that even if the closest asset capable of response was half-way around the world, you don't just sit on your penguin ass and do nothing. The fact is that the closest asset was not half-way around the world, but as near as Aviano Air Base, Italy where two squadrons of F-16Cs are based. Consider the following scenario (all times Benghazi local): When Hicks in Tripoli receives a call at 9:40 PM from Ambassador Stevens informing him "Greg, we are under attack!" (his last words), Hicks immediately notifies all agencies and prepares for the immediate initiation of an existing "Emergency Response Plan." At AFRICON, General Carter Ham attempts to mount a rescue effort, but is told to "stand down." By 10:30 PM an unarmed drone is overhead the compound and streaming live feed to various "Command and Control Agencies" so everyone watching that feed knew damn well what was going on. At 11:30 PM Woods, Doherty and five others leave Tripoli, arriving in Benghazi at 1:30 AM on Wednesday morning, where they hold off the attacking mob from the roof of the compound until they are killed by a mortar direct hit at 4:00 AM. So nothing could have been done, eh? Nonsense. If one assumes that tanker support really "was not available" what about this: When at 10:00 PM AFRICON alerts the 31st TFW Command Post on Aviano Air Base, Italy of the attack, the Wing Commander orders preparation for the launch of two F-16s and advises the Command Post at NAS Sigonella to prepare for hot pit refueling and quick turn of the jets. By 11:30 PM, two F-16Cs with drop tanks and each armed with five hundred 20 MM rounds are airborne. Flying at 0.92 mach they will cover the 522 nautical miles directly to NAS Sigonella in 1.08 hours. While in-route, the flight lead is informed of the tactical situation, rules of engagement, and radio frequencies to use. The jets then depart Sigonella at 1:10 AM with full fuel load and cover the 377 nautical miles directly to Benghazi in 0.8 hours, arriving at 1:50 AM which would be 20 minutes after the arrival of Woods, Doherty and their team. Providing that the two F-16s initial pass over the mob, in full afterburner at 200 feet and 550 knots did not stop the attack in its tracks, a few well placed strafing runs on targets of opportunity would assuredly do the trick. Were the F-16s fuel state insufficient to return to Sigonella after jettisoning their external drop tanks, they could easily do so at Tripoli International Airport, only one-half hour away. As for those hand-wringing naysayers who would worry about IFR clearances, border crossing authority, collateral damage, landing rights, political correctness and dozens of other reasons not to act -- screw them. It is time our "leadership" get its priorities straight and put America's interests first. The end result would be that Woods and Doherty would be alive. Dozens in the attacking rabble would be rendezvousing with "72 virgins" and a clear message would have been sent to the next worthlessP.O.S. terrorist contemplating an attack on Americans that it is not really a good idea to "tug" on Superman's cape. Of course all this depends upon a Commander In Chief more concerned with saving the lives of those he put in harm's way than getting his crew rested for a campaign fund raising event in Las Vegas the next day. It also depends upon a Secretary of State who actually understood, "What difference does it make?", and a Secretary of Defense who was watching the feed from the drone and understood what the attack consisted of instead of making an immediate response that "One of the military tenants is that you don't commit assets until you fully understand the tactical situation." YGBSM! (You Gotta Be Shittin' Me) Ultimately it comes down to the question of who gave that order to stand down? Whoever that coward turns out to be should be exposed, removed from office, and face criminal charges for dereliction of duty. The combat forces of the United States of America deserve leadership that really does "have their back" when the chips are down. Comments in The Liberal Forum on this "Gentlemen "I would say every US fighter pilot, retired or on active duty, knows that Panetta and Dempsey both are full of crap when they said there was no time to send help to Benghazi. They claim it was a problem of "time/space." All my friends and I said, "Bullshat." We know they could have gotten F-16s there from Aviano. " 'Hands" Handley is a well-respected USAF fighter pilot. Here is his short resume and what he just wrote about Benghazi below that. If anything, Handley is pessimistic in his timeline of when F-16s could have reached Benghazi . I think they could have been airborne even sooner and turned quicker at Sig. The decision to not try was not based on capability. We had the operational capability in every way. "I hope Handley's taxes are in order. His IRS audit is forthcoming. Much more at this site.

Hat tip to Paul Van Alstine

Hey, this is way better than taking the fifth!

http://terrellaftermath.com/