Forces Battle Over Oil Refinery as Iraqi Government Requests U.S. Airstrikes

Should the radical Islamists take over the Middle East, keep this article filed away in a timeline of how this all came about.

Fox News  " 'The militants have managed to break in to the refinery. Now they are in control of the production units, administration building and four watch towers. This is 75 percent of the refinery," an official speaking from inside the refinery in Beiji told Reuters on Wednesday."

http://brianlangis.wordpress.com/2014/06/12/iraqs-oil-fields-and-pipelines/

 

Foreign Policy   ... "On Thursday, a government spokesman said its forces were in "complete control" of the refinery, however a witness noted ISIL fighters were still in the area and that clashes were continuing. On Wednesday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshya Zebari appealed to the United States "to launch air strikes against militants." General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said incomplete intelligence in Iraq would make "an air campaign more difficult" meanwhile Gen. David Petraeus, who served as the top commander in Iraq, said, "This cannot be the United States being the air force of Shia militias or a Shia on Sunni Arab fight." Washington is indicating that it wants Iraq to form a new inclusive government without Maliki, however a spokesman for the prime minister said he would not resign as a condition for U.S. airstrikes." ...

This all sounds good and proper, but shouldn't our concern be how it threatens our faithful ally, Israel? This government's first priority should be to make America energy-independent: allow the Keystone pipeline and get off this ridiculous global warming schtick. If you determine your foreign policy by what Hollywood celebrities want, you in a heap o' trouble, boy.  TD

Harry Reid says he won't attend Redskins game until team changes name

http://cartoonsbyhenry.com/

 

Fox News   "In a letter late last week to the team's president, Reid called the Redskins name a racial slur that disparages the American people. The Nevada Democrat, who said he represents 27 tribes in his state, rejected Bruce Allen's invitation to a Redskins home game until the team does "the right thing" and changes its name.

 

" 'I will not stand idly by while a professional sports team promotes a racial slur as a team name and disparages the American people," Reid said in the letter. "Nor will I consider your invitation to attend a home game until your organization chooses to do the right thing and change its offensive name."

Reid said the matter is "personal" for him." ....

And the downside to that is...?

Lerner on missing emails: 'Sometimes stuff just happens'

 

Rick Moran   "The two years of missing emails from the account of Lois Lerner may be a problem for most people but for Lerner, it's just part of life.

"Sometimes, stuff just happens," Lerner wrote to an IT expert in 2011 who was trying to retreive the emails that were lost in her "hard drive crash." And no doubt, she's glad that's true.

"In a letter to Congress, the IRS tried to explain the steps they took to retrieve the missing emails." ...

Mr. Moran links us to this article from Power Line:

The Latest on Lois Lerner’s “Lost” Emails, With a Bombshell At the End

Jordan Could Be the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant's Next Target

Then guess who will be Israel's next-door neighbors.

STRATFOR

 

"The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, buoyed by its recent successes in Iraq, wants to expand its regional reach. Reports that Iraq has withdrawn forces from western towns close to its 180-kilometer (110-mile) border with Jordan have left Amman feeling vulnerable, and the Hashemite kingdom, certainly a target of interest for the jihadist movement, has deployed additional security personnel along the border.

"However, taking on Jordan would be tough for the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. The group has the ability to stage terrorist attacks in the country, but significant constraints will prevent it from operating on the levels seen in Iraq and Syria."  Read more:

Chuck Todd to Obama: Essentially the Public is Saying Your Presidency is Over

American Glob    
"Is Chuck Todd of NBC auditioning for a real news outlet?

"How else can this be explained?
 

 

"Read more at the Washington Free Beacon.

"I’m completely baffled by all of this. If Chuck Todd worked for FOX News instead of NBC, wouldn’t his comments be considered racist?"

Rush looks at this much differently: Don't Panic, Drive-Bys! The Obama Presidency is Just Getting Started
... "But the take-away is, this administration, this presidency is not cratered, it's not over, it's just now really beginning.  I mean, the things that have happened up 'til now I was worried would happen, predicted they would happen, knew they would happen.  That's why I warned everybody about it back in January of 2009.  But what is happening now is essentially really intensifying in the last six months, and what is going to continue to happen from now 'til the end of this administration, it's really only just beginning." ...
...
 "The president is releasing mass murdering terrorists and replenishing the enemy from Guantanamo Bay.  That doesn't sound like a presidency which is over.  The president's hell-bent on shutting town coal plants.  And just today, a story coming up, the haughty John Kerry, who once, by the way, served in Vietnam, has declared that 10% of the world's oceans will now be placed off-limits.

"The destruction of the oceans, you don't know how bad it is.  They're gonna set up the equivalent of wildlife reserves for marine life.  Marine life reserves.  You're not supposed to go in there and touch 'em.  You can't sail across.  I want to know what 10%.  Anyway, with all this going on, this is John Kerry shutting down 10% of the oceans again on a hoax.  Remember it was Ted Danson in 1989 who said, "We only got 10 years if we don't quit the oceans are all dead."  That was 1989.  These people are just beginning, is my point.  There's nothing over here. " ....

 

Patent & Trademark Office cancels several Washington Redskins trademarks

Volokh Conspiracy  " ... Blackhorse v. Pro Football, Inc. (USPTO TTAB June 18, 2014). A quick excerpt:

[T]hese registrations must be cancelled because they were disparaging to Native Americans at the respective times they were registered, in violation of Section 2(a) of the Trademark Act of 1946, 15 U.S.C. § 1052(a) [which bars, in relevant part, registrations of marks that "may disparage ... persons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols, or bring them into contempt, or disrepute"]. This decision concerns only the statutory right to registration under Section 2(a). We lack statutory authority to issue rulings concerning the right to use trademarks.

"The last two sentences are important: Even if the decision holds up on appeal (and I don’t know whether it will), the Redskins remain free to use those marks, and even sue over unauthorized use of the marks by others; they just don’t get the special protections against such uses by others that are offered by statutory registration. To quote the Patent & Trademark Office fact sheet on the case, those lost protections include:" ... Full article

Eugene Volokh teaches free speech law, religious freedom law, church-state relations law, a First Amendment Amicus Brief Clinic, and tort law, at UCLA School of Law, where he has also often taught copyright law, criminal law, and a seminar on firearms regulation policy. Before coming to UCLA, he clerked for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court and for Judge Alex Kozinski on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Volokh is the author of the textbooks The First Amendment and Related Statutes (4th ed. 2011), The Religion Clauses and Related Statutes (2005), and Academic Legal Writing (4th ed. 2010), as well as over 70 law review articles. Volokh is also an Academic Affiliate for the Mayer Brown LLP law firm.

Awesome! Redskins Not Backing Down, Vow To Defend Name…

 

 

"Gotta love the backbone on these guys."

...The professional football team added that in the meantime, the ruling would have “no effect at all” on its trademark rights while the case is on appeal. The press release even put that in boldface and underlined it.

Hail to the Redskins Fight song since 1938. History of the song

http://www.haruth.com/RedskinsHailtotheRedskins.html

 

You Bet This is Swiftboating

Ann Coulter

 

... "The Democrats' only concept of how to support the troops is to treat them like their other constituent groups -- single women, blacks and the poor -- and offer them more government benefits.

"I'm fairly certain what the troops would really prefer is to be left alone by liberals.

"How about no free college tuition -- and not forcing the military to accept open homosexuality? How about fewer increases in military pensions -- and no Defense Department-funded transgender operation for gay traitor Bradley Manning? How about skimping on PTSD therapists -- and no girl generals?

"The military doesn't ask for a lot. Soldiers just want to do their job, which is to kill people and break things, not to be nurturing to women, gays and traitors.

"The troops don't complain much, but when they do, there is nothing more devastating than a real "swiftboating.' "

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2ecasPqhgk

Gore: Obama Has “Signaled” He Will Reject Keystone Pipeline…

Weasel Zippers

 

"One thing is for sure, if Obama does reject it, it won’t be until after the midterm elections." So, I'd say for the Republicans to campaign as if he has already rejected the pipeline.

Via Politico:
Al Gore says President Barack Obama has “signaled” that he will kill the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline, though the former vice president didn’t cite any evidence for his claim.

“[Obama] has signaled that he is likely to reject the absurdly reckless Keystone XL-pipeline proposal for the transport of oil from carbon-intensive tar sands to be taken to market through the United States on its way to China, thus effectively limiting their exploitation,” Gore wrote in a Rolling Stone story published online Wednesday.
 

The Bergdahl Swap...in WW2; Obama's Foreign Policy Idiocy Demonstrated

http://terrellaftermath.com/

 

Visualize the Bergdahl Swap . . . During WWII   ... "Among Gitmo’s top Nazis, Berlin has insisted for years that it wants five specific prisoners released: Heinrich Himmler, Adolf Eichmann, Joseph Goebbels, Rudolf Hess, and Wilhelm Keitel. The German government unwaveringly has demanded these five detainees as they have negotiated this matter with Obama. For his part, Obama clearly has demolished America’s previously stalwart policy of not negotiating with Nazis." ... Deroy Murdock

 

George Will; Obama’s Foreign-Policy Problem, and Ours  ... "The House Select Committee on Benghazi should not consider the attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi its sole or even primary topic. Rather, it should begin at the beginning, with the U.S. military intervention in Libya’s civil war 18 months before Benghazi." ...

 

 

 

Remove the Illegal-Immigration Carrots; As long as U.S. politicians game the system, so will the illegals.

 

Dr. Ben Carson  " In 2012, the current administration made it clear that certain unaccompanied illegal minors would not be deported if caught. This helped create an atmosphere of tolerance that would be conducive to the current rash of illegal dumping of thousands of children from south of the border into the United States. Now we have a humanitarian crisis that appears to have been manufactured for political reasons."

RNC Dresses Up Intern As Squirrel To Follow Hillary Clinton's Bus...

Chicks on the Right   "The RNC just put an intern in a squirrel suit and then made a video, y'all.  It's warning people or the "potential for disaster should Hillary Clinton make her way into the White House after the next presidential election," and we found out about it from our friends at totalfratmove.com.  It's a cute little video for folks our age, but that's the thing - I'm not really sure who it's supposed to be targeted at...35-50 year olds?  Younger people?  Because folks my age - the kids who were in high school and college during the last Clinton nightmare already know what a disaster another Clinton would be.  But college kids right now? I'm not too sure they're going to respond to what appears to be a high school mascot run amok on which the RNC has slapped a t-shirt that says, simply, "Another Clinton in the White House is NUTS."  And they need to be the ones responding, since they're the ones who will more than likely go to the polls and vote Hillary into office in 2016."

'Redskins' stripped of trademarks. The tyranny of political correctness

Someone -I forget who- suggested calling them the Washington Redlines.

Politico

"In a major blow to the Washington Redskins, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Wednesday canceled six federal trademarks of the “Washington Redskins” team name because it was found to be “disparaging” to Native Americans.

“ 'We decide, based on the evidence properly before us, that these registrations must be cancelled because they were disparaging to Native Americans at the respective times they were registered,” the PTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board wrote." More here

This Democrat government's tentacles grip our nation ever tighter. What's left after the Cleveland Indians? The Oilers? Many teams on the Oregon coast were named the Loggers; will that go? 
This will be a long two years, but perhaps even longer given the choices of America's low-information voters. TD

“Redskins” trademark cancelled by USPTO as “disparaging” — Are “Negro” and “Colored” next?
"So when do challenges to United Negro College Fund and NAACP trademarks start?"

... "The landmark case, which appeared before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, was filed on behalf of five (count 'em - five) Native Americans. It was the second time such a case was filed." ...

I’m not familiar enough with trademark law to say just how far of an outlier this is, but many people now consider the phrase “Negro” and “Colored” to be disparaging. Just as at one time “Redskins” was not disparaging, so too times have changed and calling someone “Negro” or “Colored” could be deemed disparaging. 

 William A. Jacobson  Clinical Professor of Law, Cornell Law School