Obama Iraq Decision Followed Limo Ride Talk With General

Christians take shelter in a church in Erbil, Iraq.

Bloomberg   "President Barack Obama’s decision to approve airstrikes and humanitarian air drops in Iraq began to come together at nightfall on Aug. 6, between the end of the African leaders’ summit he’d hosted and a dinner with his wife and some friends.

"During a five-minute limo ride back to the White House from the State Department with Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Martin Dempsey, Obama’s fears were confirmed. The offensive by militants with the Islamic State group had reached a critical point, according to an administration official who asked for anonymity to outline the private discussions.

"That chat turned into an hour-long meeting in the Oval Office with Dempsey, Obama chief of staff Denis McDonough and top national security advisers.

"Two White House Situation Room deliberations followed on Aug. 7 -- a 90-minute session during which Obama was told that a genocide could unfold without U.S. intervention and later, after the president broke off to sign a Veterans Affairs bill, a final two-hour huddle in the afternoon.

“ 'America is coming to help,” he announced in natioannly(sp) televised comments that night. U.S. food and water drops were conducted and then U.S. jets and drones yesterday carried out three bombing missions in northern Iraq, hitting militant offensive positions and a convoy." ...

The rise of Ben Carson and the GOP’s fractured flock of 2016

 "Why the prognosis is dim for Ben Carson's 2016 presidential campaign."

NRO  

"How will the fractured GOP find its next standard-bearer without ripping itself apart in the process?  Every Republican I speak with is extremely concerned that the party is again heading toward another brutal primary bloodbath in 2016, yielding disastrous results.

"Perhaps the answer is someone like Carson, a well-respected and fresh face who comes to the party from far outside the political arena.

' “The prospective 2016 presidential field looks like it will more open than any contest in memory,” Mark McKinnon, who served as the media strategist for President George W. Bush, tells National Review Online. “The absence of a clear front runner makes it possible for anyone to be ‘in play’ — even Ben Carson.”

"If Carson continues his current surge, widening his national media profile while his draft committee or official PAC rakes in millions, should that negate my concerns raised by the General Eisenhower?
And a more intriguing political question:

"In our modern age, is traditional elected-office experience really necessary to perform the job of president if one is a highly successful professional in a respected field?

"I do not pretend to know the answer, but I do know that all Americans are craving a strong, decisive leader in 2016. If Dr. Ben Carson is that person, let him lead the way.

Female Israeli Soldiers and American Feminists

Jeannie DeAngelis  

"Almost daily, Americans are subjected to the rantings of the likes of Democrat darling Sandra Fluke, Democrat politician Wendy Davis, and crazier-than-a-hoot-owl Nancy Pelosi.  Shamelessly, Sandra Fluke insists that the government finance her $3,000-a-year birth control habit.  In Texas, Wendy Davis made a name for herself by standing for 11 hours on the crushed corpses of aborted babies filibustering Senate Bill 5’s abortion regulations.

"And then there’s Mrs. Nancy "I’m Significant and You’re Not" Pelosi, who rationalizes promoting a crisis on the border with references to Baby Jesus and Moses, and who then, when challenged with the truth about her party’s culpability in that border crisis, manifests like Regan MacNeil in The Exorcist, insulting colleagues by calling them “insignificant.”
...
"The women of the IDF are focused on preserving the Holy Land, not advancing gender equity – the latter of which, by the way, is automatically accomplished when women act powerful and fearless instead of persecuted and ungrateful.

"It’s equality earned versus equality exacted." ...

 

Krauthammer’s Take: ‘Why in God’s Name’ Will Obama Not Arm the Kurds?

Weasel Zippers

 

"Of course, this qualifies as sense, and we’re talking about the Obama regime…

"Via NRO

"Charles Krauthammer cannot understand why the Obama administration is unwilling to provide arms to Kurds battling ISIS in Iraq: “The Kurds are allies of the U.S. They have a civil society, they’re pro-American, and they fight really hard. But they’re essentially using javelins and harpoons here, and we have not given them anything.”

"The White House has claimed that all American arms must go through the Iraqi government, an obligation at which Krauthammer scoffed: “The Iraqi government — that’s Maliki, that Shiite chieftain — has cut off all aid to the Kurdish area [of Iraq] since December of last year.” None of the arms the U.S. has sent through the Iraqi government have arrived, says Krauthammer.

" 'Why in God’s name we don’t resupply or supply our allies who can hold back ISIS is beyond me.”   Full article..
 

The Massacre of Sinjar

Force12 Media.

 

... "The Yezidi faith has many unique practices but despite the interesting instrumentations of their religion, the Yezidi are good peaceful people who have always supported the United States. When I was a Special Forces soldier deployed to Tal Afar in 2009 we had several Yezidi interpreters who were outstanding men. While Sinjar was a safe place, Yezidi who traveled to Mosul faced summary execution.  When ISIS captured the city and let all the criminals out of prison, any Yezidi found in the prison were immediately executed." ...

...

"There are now scattered reports of US air strikes against ISIS targets near Mosul amid the Pentagon’s official denials.  Whatever happens in the next few days will be critical.  While few are more skeptical of getting involved in more conflicts around the world than me, this is a situation where America can put a win in the box for the good guys and do it relatively easily with airstrikes which would shake up the status quo on the ground, giving Yezidi refugees a chance to escape, and Kurdish forces the opportunity to change the tides of war.  Please contact your representatives in the US government and let them know that a Yezidi genocide is unacceptable as is turning our backs on the oppressed."

U.S. F/A-18 Jets Bomb ISIS Artillery In First Airstrike

DEBKAfile  "The US military has begun air strikes against Islamic militant targets in Iraq, the Pentagon announced on Friday.

"Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, said aircraft struck artillery being used against Kurdish peshmerga forces defending the Kurdish stronghold of Irbil against fighters with the Islamic State, known as ISIS or IS.

"Two FA-18 jets, launched from the USS George HW Bush aircraft carrier in the Gulf, dropped 500lb bombs on what the Pentagon described as a “mobile artillery piece”.
IS was using the artillery to shell Kurdish forces defending Irbil, where US forces are based, the US said. Two US air strikes followed, one by a drone on a mortar position and another by a jet on a vehicle convoy near Irbil, the Kurdish capital."

FUNKER530.com  "The U.S. has officially announced that airstrikes against ISIS fighters in Iraq have commenced, with the dropping of two 500 pound bombs on ISIS artillery firing on Kurds."

"Smoke rises from airstrikes Friday targeting Islamic State militants near the Khazer checkpoint outside of the city of Irbil in northern Iraq."

42 Changes to Obama Care...So Far

http://terrellaftermath.com/

Galen Institute    "This list was originally published HERE on Galen.org and has been published on National Review Online. It was updated to 29 changes on December 10, 2013."

December 13, 2013 UPDATE: 30 changes (PCIP extension)
December 19, 2013 UPDATE: 31 changes (Hardship waiver)
January 14, 2014 UPDATE: 32 changes (Union reinsurance fee exemption)
January 14, 2014 UPDATE: (PCIP extended again)
January 21, 2014 UPDATE: 33 changes (Equal employer coverage delay)
February 3, 2014 UPDATE: 34 changes (Subsidies may flow through federal exchanges) (List is now ordered chronologically)
February 10, 2014 UPDATE: 35 changes (Second employer mandate delay)
March 5, 2014 UPDATE: 36 changes (Subsidies extended outside of exchanges)
March 5, 2014 UPDATE: 37 changes (Consumers can keep non-compliant plans until 2017)
March 26, 2014 UPDATE: 38 changes (Sign-up deadline delayed)
April 7, 2014 UPDATE: 39 changes (Small group deductible cap eliminated-passed by Congress and signed into law)
April 8, 2014 UPDATE: 40 changes (Cuts to Medicare Advantage in 2015 canceled)
May 22, 2014 UPDATE: 41 changes (More funds for insurer bailout)
July 18, 2014 UPDATE: 42 changes (Exempting U.S. Territories)

The morality of Israel’s killing Palestinian civilians

Bookworm Room   "I have been engaged ... with someone who believes that killing civilians is always immoral. This moral stance means that, because Israel is killing civilians more effectively than Hamas, he believes Israel is morally more culpable than Hamas in the current conflict. He therefore cannot support her, and his sympathy for Palestinians outweighs his sympathy for Israelis."

 

... "Anyone who subscribes to a moral relativism that says that life is too precious to allow Israel to defend herself when a rabid Islamic force is waging war against her – and to castigate either Israel or me for being callous about death – is unforgivably ignorant about the reality of life in the Muslim world.

"The reality is that tyrannical regimes don’t walk away on command. They will kill or let die all of their people rather than relinquish their power. Moreover, one of the ways in which they maintain control over their citizens is to encourage those beleaguered, abused, pathetically ignorant citizens to enjoy killing “the other.”  The best way to show ones compassion and empathy for Muslims and Arabs around the world is to discourage the fanaticism that consigns them to lives of almost unbearable suffering."

Perhaps his debating friend felt the way Geraldo Rivera does.     ... "Geraldo went so far as to dismiss Hamas’ thousands of rocket attacks on Israel as “laughable” since only three Israeli civilians have been killed by them. The millions of Israelis who are huddling in bomb shelters – which is the reason for the low Israeli civilian casualty toll – are not laughing." ...
"Lesson twenty of the Gaza war: liberal pundits who justify terrorism are not only inviting attacks on Israel, but ultimately upon themselves."

Islamic State “Systematically Beheading” Christian Children, Raping Mothers, Hanging Fathers…

Noisy Room

 

"Beyond words."

A prominent Christian leader of the Chaldean community unveiled the “systematic beheading of children” and other horrendous crimes committed by ISIS. He said that the Sunni extremists are committing genocide against Christians in Iraq and with the aim to instill the Sharia Law as the law of the land.

In the interview with CNN’s Jonathan Mann, Chaldean-American businessman Mark Arabo said that the “world hasn’t seen an evil like this for generations.”
“There is a park in Mosul, where [ISIS] they actually beheaded children and put their heads on a stick and have them in the park,” he explained. “More children are getting beheaded, mothers are getting raped and killed, and fathers are being hung.”

Speaking from San Diego over Skype, Arabo called for the international community to offer asylum to the more than 300,000 Christians fleeing and living in neighboring cities.

“The world hasn’t seen this kind of atrocity in generations,” he said. “This is a crime against humanity. This is much broader than a community or a state. This is crime against humanity. They are doing the most horrendous, the most heart-breaking crimes that you can think of.”

When asked about Sunni extremists’ targeting of Christians, Arabo said that around 95 percent of Christians have fled, five percent have converted. Also, the ISIS have marked the death stamps on Christian homes, so whoever returns will get killed.  Keep reading…

 The slaughter of the Yazidi

 

"While over 700 journalists were covering the Gaza conflict, few paid attention to the mass slaughter in Iraq of the Yazidi, who are on the verge of a true genocide at the hands of ISIS.

"Finally the impending massacre is getting coverage, but it may be too late." ...

Also this: While the world is preoccupied with Gaza, another religious minority faces the world’s worst fanatics.
... "Yet America must understand that our physical separation from the world won’t shelter us from its problems. We must accept that our deliberate neglect of strategic purpose only invites alternate strategic purpose: the purpose of IS and its opposite fanatics in Iran. And we must realize that those threats aren’t static. Uncontested, these political cancers will spread toward us."

Amnesty as impeachment bait

Charles Krauthammer

"President Obama is impatient. Congress won’t act on immigration, he says, and therefore he will. The White House is coy as to exactly what the president will do. But the leaks point to an executive order essentially legalizing an enormous new class of illegal immigrants, perhaps up to 5 million people.

"One doesn’t usually respond to rumors. But this is an idea so bad and so persistently peddled by the White House that it has already been preemptively criticized by such unusual suspects as (liberal) constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley, concerned about yet another usurpation of legislative power by the “uber presidency,” and The Post editorial page, which warned that such a move would “tear up the Constitution.”...

In Case You Forgot – Obama’s Position on Israel Comes From Jeremiah Wright

American Glob

 

"For anyone who’s wondering about Obama’s tepid response to the current conflict in Gaza, I’d like to remind you of Jeremiah Wright’s words on the subject.

"In 2008, the liberal media told us this wasn’t news.

"In light of recent events, it makes perfect sense…

Obama’s Pastor: God Damn America, U.S. to Blame for 9/11
In addition to damning America, he told his congregation on the Sunday after Sept. 11, 2001 that the United States had brought on al Qaeda’s attacks because of its own terrorism.
“We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye,” Rev. Wright said in a sermon on Sept. 16, 2001.
“We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost,” he told his congregation.
Sen. Obama told the New York Times he was not at the church on the day of Rev. Wright’s 9/11 sermon. “The violence of 9/11 was inexcusable and without justification,” Obama said in a recent interview. “It sounds like he was trying to be provocative,” Obama told the paper.

Full article... 

This president gloats and taunts while our enemies mock us

We don't get no respect under Obama and it will take an administration better that a Democrat one to earn it back.

Russian bombers penetrated U.S. airspace at least 16 times in past 10 days    ... " The numerous flight encounters by Tu-95 Russian Bear H bombers prompted the scrambling of U.S. jet fighters on several occasions, and come amid heightened U.S.-Russia tensions over Ukraine. Also, during one bomber incursion near Alaska, a Russian intelligence-gathering jet was detected along with the bombers.

Russian students beam laser show depicting Obama eating a banana on the side of US embassy in Moscow on President's birthday   "Racist laser message showed a banana sliding into Mr Obama's mouth
"It was projected onto the front of the U.S. embassy building in Moscow "Group called the Moscow Student's Initiative have claimed responsibility." 

... "Russia has been accused of failing to crack down on racism in recent years, particularly at football matches where fans have been seen throwing bananas at the feet of black players.

"Only hours before the racist stunt a banner was unfurled on a building across the road from the embassy that featured caricatures of Obama with the words, 'I don't see … I don't hear … I don't speak the truth to anybody'. "

 

China to build lighthouses on five isles in defiance of U.S. call   "China plans to build lighthouses on five islands in the South China Sea, state media reported on Thursday, in defiance of calls from the United States and the Philippines for a freeze on such activity to ease tension over rival claims."

All above from Drudge.
  
U.S. Plays Directly into Hamas' Hands   "In a moment of political correctness meant to appease the enemies of its single most trustworthy ally in the entire Middle East, the United States chose to blacken the eye of Israel regarding the attack on the UNRWA school which took place on Sunday.

“Political correctness” is an oft-used method of taking the easy route by doing nothing more than what is popular. This is precisely what the U.S. did. If however they had chosen to do something which is actually appropriate instead of politically correct, their statement would have been  entirely different. For example: