The Freddie Gray memorial gathering

Baltimore mayor: We 'gave those who wished to destroy space to do that'

Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake made a stunning admission Saturday in the aftermath of violent protests over the recent death of Freddie Gray, saying she wanted to give space to those “who wished to destroy.”

And destroy, some did. . . .

Then she thanked Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam for their help

Keep this nonsense in mind when viewing her entire statement, in context:

Freddie Gray mourners:

 

Via Conservative America

Disciples of "Killer Mike"?

Obama Sends Representation To #FreddieGray Funeral 

"Chris Kyle, an American hero, family still waiting. Family of James Foley, beheaded because he was American still waiting… Via The Hill: 

 CNN called all the above "scuffles"

 The Baltimore protests — are they really about the police?   . . . "Baltimore is far from the only American city in a sorry state. Thus, it’s plausible to anticipate that we will see protests and riots throughout the U.S.
"Given the enormous amount of police interaction with African-American lawbreakers, there will always be cases of problematic (or allegedly problematic) police behavior that can ignite protests. As time goes on, however, I wonder whether such cases will be required."

Trey Gowdy To Clinton Lawyer: Here's 136 Unanswered Questions About Hillary's Email

The Lid "You can't use political spin with Trey Gowdy. That's a lesson Hillary Clinton's attorney David Kendal learned on Thursday. Kendal send the House Select Committee Chairman a letter saying that the former Secretary of State had already answered all the questions about her email therefore she didn't need to testify on that subject. 

"Gowdy responded with a letter (embedded below) containing 136 unanswered questions about the email and issued this statement:

. . .  

Hat tip to  Jeffrey Dunetz

William Bennett: The Conservative Case for Common Core; other links to help you decide pro or con

"Federal intrusion and misleading rumors do a disservice to an effort that started in the states."

I have been knee-jerk opposed to CC, largely because of the cons about it, the federal intrusion in it, and those in this administration who support it, such as their efforts mentioned here: Feds Play the Race Card to Crush Parents’ Revolt Against Common Core.

Consider this an honest effort to understand Common Core and I can find no better source with which to do that than Mr. Bennett. At least now I know not to reject any candidate just because of his stand on Common Core. TD

"The same goes for math. Certain abilities—the grasp of fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios and the like—should be the common knowledge of all.
That's the fundamental idea behind a core curriculum: preserving and emphasizing what's essential, in fields like literature and math, to a worthwhile education. It is also, by the way, a conservative idea."

William J. Bennett

Wall Street Journal  "As the former Secretary of Education for President Ronald Reagan, I have been following the national debate over Common Core standards. The debate is getting hotter, but not always clearer. It's time to get clarity on some things that have been badly and sometimes mischievously muddled.

"Let's begin with the ideas and principles behind the Common Core. These educational principles have been debated and refined over decades. First, we can all agree that there is a need for common standards of assessment in K-12 education. And we can all agree that there are common and shared truths in English, literature and math. Think of "We hold these truths to be self evident" as emblematic.


"Nearly all Americans agree that to prepare a child for civic responsibility and competition in the modern economy, he or she must be able to read and distill complex sentences, and must be equipped with basic mathematical skills.
 . . . 

. . . "The standards are designed to invite states to take control and to build upon them further. The standards do not prescribe what is taught in our classrooms or how it's taught. That decision should always rest with local school districts and school boards.

"The principles behind the Common Core affirm a great intellectual tradition and inheritance. We should not allow them to be hijacked by the federal government or misguided bureaucrats and politicos."

" Actually, Common Core supporters insist the the Core is a set of standards and not a curriculum."

 RedState sees it this way: Bill Bennett paid to pimp for Common Core

Previous Tunnel Wall posts on this subject:
You Won’t Believe What Common Core Testing Looks Like on Long Island

What are some Pros and Cons of the Common Core Standards?

 

"The full implementation of the Common Core Standards is has arrived. However, the true impact that they have on schools and education as a whole will not be known for several years. One thing that is for sure is this shift to a national set of standards will be revolutionary. They will also be highly debated. As the media continues to evaluate the significance of the Common Core, you can bet the debate will rage on. Here we examine some of the pros and cons of the Common Core Standards that will continue to be debated."  Read the full article here.

 Bill Whittle – Common Core Is Obamacare For Education 

  COMMON CORE: What Does “College and Career Ready” Standards Mean? 

 More sources for your own research here.

 Rich Terrell sees it this way:

 

Where the Left and Islam Intersect

 

 American Thinker..."Curious how the godless left and Islam share a critical aim.  They both wish to subjugate infidels, though how infidel is defined differs.  But who the infidels are isn’t.  We are, of course, the infidels.  We of western virtues and values.  We who hold to Judeo-Christian beliefs.  We’re obstacles to glorious futures for both.  Both want us consigned to dhimmitude.  Yes, dhimmitude.  That’s second class status, with tribute being paid for the privilege. 
Marked differences and tensions exist between the left and Islam, to be sure.  But is the left using Islam for its ends, and Islam -- for the time being -- willingly being used?   

"Wrote Stephen Schwartz for First Things in February of this year: . . . " Read more:

 

George W. Bush Bashes Obama on Middle East

 Bloomberg View

"In a closed-door meeting with Jewish Donors Saturday night, former President George W. Bush delivered his harshest public criticisms to date against his successor on foreign policy, saying that President Barack Obama is being naïve about Iran and the pending nuclear deal and losing the war against the Islamic State.

"One attendee at the Republican Jewish Coalition session, held at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas with owner Sheldon Adelson in attendance, transcribed large portions of Bush’s remarks. The former president, who rarely ever criticizes Obama in public, at first remarked that the idea of re-entering the political arena was something he didn’t want to do. He then proceeded to explain why Obama, in his view, was placing the U.S. in "retreat" around the world. He also said Obama was misreading Iran’s intentions while relaxing sanctions on Tehran too easily.

"According to the attendee's transcription, Bush noted that Iran has a new president, Hassan Rouhani. “He's smooth," Bush said. "And you’ve got to ask yourself, is there a new policy or did they just change the spokesman?”

"Bush said that Obama’s plan to lift sanctions on Iran with a promise that they could snap back in place at any time was not plausible. He also said the deal would be bad for American national security in the long term: “You think the Middle East is chaotic now? Imagine what it looks like for our grandchildren. That’s how Americans should view the deal.”

"Bush then went into a detailed criticism of Obama’s policies in fighting the Islamic State and dealing with the chaos in Iraq. On Obama’s decision to withdraw all U.S. troops in Iraq at the end of 2011, he quoted Senator Lindsey Graham calling it a “strategic blunder.” Bush signed an agreement with the Iraqi government to withdraw those troops, but the idea had been to negotiate a new status of forces agreement to keep U.S. forces there past 2011. The Obama administration tried and failed to negotiate such an agreement.

"Bush said he views the rise of the Islamic State as al-Qaeda’s "second act” and that they may have changed the name but that murdering innocents is still the favored tactic. He defended his own administration’s handling of terrorism, noting that the terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who confessed to killing Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, was captured on his watch: “Just remember the guy who slit Danny Pearl’s throat is in Gitmo, and now they're doing it on TV.”

"Obama promised to degrade and destroy Islamic State's forces but then didn’t develop a strategy to complete the mission, Bush said. He said that if you have a military goal and you mean it, “you call in your military and say ‘What’s your plan?’ ” He indirectly touted his own decision to surge troops to Iran in 2007, by saying, “When the plan wasn’t working in Iraq, we changed.”

“ 'In order to be an effective president ... when you say something you have to mean it,” he said. “You gotta kill em.' ” . . . Much more here.

 

Transgender Bruce Jenner a Republican: ‘I Believe in the Constitution’

 CNS News

So much for that "war on women"

Here's your Hillary bumper sticker

The Liberal Media

It turns out the gridlock was all about Harry Reid

 

NY Post. . . "Here’s a story you haven’t seen for a while: Congress is working — well, sort of. Better than it had for the previous six years, anyway.

"The difference? Harry Reid is no longer running the Senate — and Republican Mitch McConnell has made the place far less dysfunctional.

"Just last week, the Senate cast breakthrough votes on a sex-trafficking bill and the confirmation of attorney-general nominee Loretta Lynch.

"The bipartisan trafficking bill was delayed awhile by Reid-style partisanship: Democrats held it up to score “War on Women” points over no-federal-funds-for-abortion language that’s been routine in such legislation for decades.

"McConnell broke that logjam by refusing to allow a vote on Lynch until Democrats quit playing games.

"Meanwhile, members of both parties are cooperating, particularly on the committee level' . .. 

 

When Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks, the world should listen.

 

Rich Lowry...Via  Lucianne   . . . "On inspections, it seems highly unlikely that the Iranians will give way on their military sites. Why would they? They have been able to wring concessions from Obama on almost everything else important — from maintaining thousands of centrifuges, to continuing to enrich, to maintaining its Fordow site buried in a mountain.

"The president’s fallback of last resort is “snap-back” sanctions that supposedly will punish any Iranian violations, but they will depend on Chinese and Russian cooperation. The Russians just stuck a finger in our eye by agreeing to sell Iran a sophisticated air-defense system.

"A blasé Obama said he was surprised that the Russians hadn’t sold Iran the missiles before. If the Ukrainian crisis were met with a similar presidential sang-froid, Obama might have said: “Candidly, I’m shocked that Putin didn’t take Crimea sooner. We’re just lucky that Russian forces haven’t yet overrun Kiev.”

"Sometimes you wonder if Obama is even trying. But the scandal is that he isn’t a naif; he is a sucker by design." . . .

Baltimore baseball fans trapped in ballpark because of Freddie Gray riots (UPDATED)

 UPDATE: Maryland Dem: Baltimore rioters 'mainly from out of town'  " Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) alleged Sunday that many rioters in Baltimore the previous night were from "out of town," noting that he was amid crowds in the area." . . .

Why isn't Al Sharpton there to calm emotions and talk reason to these rioters?  Oh, never mind; just be glad he's not there. TD

Rick Moran "The "largely peaceful" protest in Baltimore against police turned violent when marchers reached the Camden Yards baseball park where a game had just ended. The unruly crowd began to throw bottles at police and break windows, which resulted in the mayor and police chief ordering those left in the ballpark to stay where they were.

. . . 

"Can someone enlighten me as to what this protest is about? No one knows what happened to the young man. The fact that he died in police custody is suspicious but absent any evidence whatsoever that officers were responsible for his death, why the protests and violence?

"I guess it was Baltimore's turn. It would be bad PR strategy to have more than one city being targeted with anti-police protests, so blowing up the tragic death of Freddie Gray into a police brutality issue gives the social justice crowd the perfect opportunity to grab some TV face time and rant against whitey."

. . . 

"How silly will these people feel if it comes out that the police had nothing to do with Gray's death? Not very. Judging by what happened in Ferguson when the truth finally came out, the narrative will continue to be advanced without any reference to reality."

 Valdosta, Georgia -- a racial powder keg?. . . "Al Sharpton briefly sniffed around, but even he couldn’t find anything of substance that offered a profit to his National Action Network." . . .

This Adorable Baby Can’t Stop Laughing After He Sees A Dandelion For The First Time

Buzzfeed

 "Tom Fletcher, of the British band McFly, uploaded an adorable video on Saturday of his baby son, Buzz, experiencing a dandelion for the first time."

HILL-ARIOUS: Bill Clinton’s Wife Condemns ‘Scourge Of Sexual Assault’ In First Big Speech

Daily Caller

 

"In the first major speech of her scandal-plagued presidential campaign, Democrat Hillary Clinton explicitly raised the issue of sexual assault on college campuses.

"Clinton delivered the wide-ranging speech at the Women in the World Summit in New York City on Thursday, according to Inside Higher Ed.

“ 'When women of any age, whether on college campuses or military bases or even in their homes, face sexual assault, then no woman is secure,” she declared.

“ 'Every woman deserves to have the safety and security they need. That means we have to guarantee that our institutions respond to the continuing scourge of sexual assault.' ” . . 
. . .

On November 13, 1998, midway through his second presidential term, Bill Clinton paid former Arkansas state employee Paula Jones $850,000 to settle her claim that, in 1991, then-Gov. Clinton exposed his erect penis to her and begged her to have sex with him.
Clinton grabbed Jones’s hand “and pulled her toward him, so that their bodies were in close proximity,” according to a complaint filed in federal court. Jones “retreated several feet.” Unperturbed, Clinton followed Jones, saying “I love the way your hair flows down your back,” and “I love your curves.”

 Weiner should ask: What about Broaddrick, Willey?  Larry Elder; 7/31/2013
 . . . "The New York Times, among others, tells me to quit the race. Here’s my proposition. I’ll resign when the Times poses this question. In the upcoming NBC-produced miniseries called “Hillary,” who will play Juanita Broaddrick   and Kathleen Willey?

"What, confused expressions? Interesting how the Weiner-get-out crowd forgets that “everybody lies about sex” – except when it comes to politicians whose last name is not Clinton." . . .