Surprise: White House Lied Regarding Knowledge Of Secret Service Prositute Parties

By William Teach October 9, 2014 – 6:46 am

Here’s your most transparent administration ever, and a weird headline from the Washington Post

Aides knew of possible White House link to Cartagena, Colombia, prostitution scandal

Rather makes little sense in terms of the article

As nearly two dozen Secret Service agents and members of the military were punished or fired following a 2012 prostitution scandal in Colombia, Obama administration officials repeatedly denied that anyone from the White House was involved.

But new details drawn from government documents and interviews show that senior White House aides were given information at the time suggesting that a prostitute was an overnight guest in the hotel room of a presidential advance-team member — yet that information was never thoroughly investigated or publicly acknowledged.

The information that the Secret Service shared with the White House included hotel records and firsthand accounts — the same types of evidence the agency and military relied on to determine who in their ranks was involved.

The Secret Service shared its findings twice in the weeks after the scandal with top White House officials, including then-White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler. Each time, she and other presidential aides conducted an interview with the advance-team member and concluded that he had done nothing wrong.

So, the White House knew about the prostitutes, and decided to lie to the American public about it.

“We were directed at the time . . . to delay the report of the investigation until after the 2012 election,” David Nieland, the lead investigator on the Colombia case for the DHS inspector general’s office, told Senate staffers, according to three people with knowledge of his statement.

Nieland added that his superiors told him “to withhold and alter certain information in the report of investigation because it was potentially embarrassing to the administration.”

Not only did the White House lie about their knowledge of the scandal, someone surely pressured the investigators to withhold information for political purposes. As to the headline, that goes to

Whether the White House volunteer, Jonathan Dach, was involved in wrongdoing in Cartagena, Colombia, remains unclear. Dach, then a 25-year-old Yale University law student, declined to be interviewed, but through his attorney he denied hiring a prostitute or bringing anyone to his hotel room. Dach has long made the same denials to White House officials.

The White House’s big investigation was to simply ash Dach, twice, if he was involved. He said no, they said “move on.” Yet, the post does the investigation, and finds that Dach had an “extra guest”, a woman, registered to his room. Yes, prostitution is legal in Cartegena, however, if that’s why the White House found no wrong doing, then why discipline Secret Service agents?

Obfuscate, lie, misdirect, lean on people, especially loyalists, stonewall, never admit doing wrong, finally, years later, state that this is old news and it’s time to move on. Typical Obama administration.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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Surprise! More Say Obamacare Has Hurt Than Helped

By William Teach October 8, 2014 – 2:21 pm

If this is what Obama and his minions mean when they say Ocare “is working“, I’d hate to see the results if it was failing!

(Gallup) Although more provisions of the Affordable Care Act have taken effect over the past year, more Americans still say the law has hurt rather than helped them. Compared with early 2014, fewer Americans say it has had no effect, although this group is still in the majority, at 54%.

Americans overall are both more positive and more negative about the law’s effect on themselves and their families. Since the start of this year, the percentage saying the law has helped them has increased from 10% to 16%, while the percentage saying it has hurt them has also gone up, and by a similar amount, from 19% to 27%.

At the same time, overall attitudes about the law have stayed constant over the past year. Currently, 41% of Americans approve of the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as “Obamacare,” while 53% disapprove.

Broken down into partisan lines, obviously more Dems think it is helping, 27% yes – 15% no. Interestingly, 56% say it has had no effect. Good think we’ve heavily changed the health care and health insurance systems and spent gobs of money, along with giving Government even more control of our lives, eh?

For Republicans, 4% say helped, 40% hurt, 55% no effect.

What’s dangerous for Dems is Independents, of which 27% say hurt, 16% helped, and 53% no effect.

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If All You See…

By William Teach October 8, 2014 – 1:00 pm

…are wonderful wonderful trees sucking up all the carbon pollution from Other People’s Evil fossil fueled vehicles, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Lonely Conservative, with a post noting an anti-Obama film maker under audit by IRS.

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Anybody Watch “The Strain”?

By William Teach October 8, 2014 – 10:30 am

Hey, a non-political post. The Strain, based on the books by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, just made it through the first season, and, if memory serves, the first book of the trilogy. It’s been quite some time since I read the novels. I must say I loved this show.

Was it a bit plodding? Slightly, but it truly captured the essence and flavor of the book. I’m kind of a purist: I like movies/TV shows based on books to be close to the book. I understand that there often have to be changes to make it screen worthy. Some things do not translate as well, though one can be closer for TV than movies. In this case, it translated wonderfully, with few changes to the story arc. It truly seemed like the book, and even the characters were like those in the books. Well done.

If you watched it, what did you think?

Also, are you a purist, or a whatever goes? I read a lot. Seriously. A lot. If there’s a book associated with a movie or series, I’ve probably read it. Though I refused to read Revenge of the Sith prior to seeing the movie.

I can deal with some changed. When it came to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, there were serious substantive changes made,  plus missing scenes that were Important. I still love all three, and have watched them countless times. Especially the first half hour or so of each disk (6 in total) while going to sleep.

But, others, no way. I suffered thru the first season of Under The Dome, and the changes were beyond what I’ll suffer through further. Seriously, a large number of inner city ruffians just happen to be hanging out in this Maine town in the middle of nowhere, and now have some black market and fight club going on? Strains credibility. I did not watch season 2.

I could deal with the changes in the first episode of The Hobbit. I almost walked out of the theater for the 2nd. It was no better on DVD, and I did not purchase. The extra Gandalf stuff, fine. The things with the elves, what happens Dale, leaving dwarves behind, the silly love stuff, and what happens in the Lonely Mountain with Smaug, hell no. It missed the point as to the growth of Bilbo Baggins. The book is about HIM! Too damned much for me to take. I often have good natured arguments with a coworker about book to movie purism.

They did a great job with Stephen King’s The Stand. I loved the Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy movie. A lot of people didn’t, thinking it diverged too far from the book. It did, to a degree. Don’t forget, Douglass Adams was involved in writing the screenplay, so he was obviously happy with the end result.

Dune. Hmm. The original movie was very good, but took lots of liberties. I guess it helps that I read the book after seeing it. The SciFi mini-series based on the first couple books were fantastic.

Logan’s Run. Wow. Great movie, but not ever really close to the book. The John Carter Barsoom movie a few years ago? Terrible.

What are your thoughts on book to movie purism? Yes? No? It depends?

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Poll: Majority Disapprove Of Obama’s Handling Of ISIS

By William Teach October 8, 2014 – 8:40 am

It’s no wonder Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) stated after her debate with Thom Tillis Tuesday night that Tillis should stop linking the election to Obama because “The president is not on the ballot. This race is about who’s going to represent North Carolina in the U.S. Senate.” Democrats really, really, really want to pretend that Obama doesn’t exist

(The Hill) A majority of Americans are unhappy with how President Obama is handling the U.S. fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), according to a new poll released.

Some 51 percent of respondents in the CBS News poll released Wednesday said they disapprove of the job the president is doing with the radical jihadist group, while just four in 10 approved. Those numbers are slightly worse than a month ago, when 48 percent disapproved of how Obama was approaching the situation.

I certainly approve of his air strikes on ISIS, though they do not seem to be making a difference, except in terms of dead jihadis. I would hope that he is using special ops groups to fight on the ground against ISIS/ISIL, something he will hopefully not state out loud or allow to be leaked. However, his constantly telling ISIS that we will not use boots on the ground, as well as releasing his so-called plan to fight them, is disturbing and smacks more of politics than a real concern for protecting America and her citizens and property.

The survey also found that voters gave Republicans a substantial advantage on the issue of terrorism, with 53 percent saying the GOP does a better job on the issue. By contest, fewer than a third — 32 percent — favored Democrats on the subject.

And 54 percent said a terror attack against the U.S. homeland is somewhat or very likely — similar to last month, but up 10 points from March of this year.

It really doesn’t help when Obama seems to go golfing and fundraising whenever we see the Islamic State do something, like behead someone or take over a town.

Meanwhile

(NY Times) When he soared to victory by almost 10 million votes in 2008, President Obama won in states like Virginia that Democratic candidates had not captured since 1964. He was trumpeted as a transformational leader who remade American politics by creating a new electoral map and a diverse voter coalition to shape the Democratic Party for the 21st century.

But for now he has been reduced to something else: an isolated political figure who is viewed as a liability to Democrats in the very states where voters by the thousands had once stood to cheer him.

As November nears, Mr. Obama and his loyalists are being forced to reconcile that it is not only Democrats in conservative-leaning states, like Senator Mark Pryor of Arkansas, who are avoiding him. The president who became the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to twice win a majority of the vote is flying in politically restricted airspace.

Democratic senators in Colorado, North Carolina and Virginia — states that were pivotal to his success and whose demographics reflect his winning coalition of young, minority and female voters — do not want him. Nor does his party’s Senate nominee in Iowa, where Mr. Obama won twice and whose youth-filled 2008 Democratic caucuses vaulted him toward the nomination.

Even Senator Chuck Schumer says it’s better for Obama to be absent, and

Yet even the slightest injection of the Obama brand into this election seems perilous for Democrats.

Democrats are just not that into Obama anymore, and understand that his policies are, for the most part, worthless, failed, disasters, and Obama doesn’t care much about doing the hard work the job requires.

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Somehow, Florida’s Record Setting Hurricane Drought Is A Bad Thing

By William Teach October 8, 2014 – 8:14 am

The Washington Post Capital Weather Gang is known for it’s Big Warmist positions, including James Samenow. Only a Warmist would be this concerned

Why Florida’s record-setting hurricane drought portends danger

Florida has gone 3,270 days without a hurricane – nearly nine years and, by far, the longest stretch on record (the next longest streak is 5 seasons from 1980-1984, in records dating back to 1851). Meanwhile, the Sunshine state’s population and development have boomed.

Florida is long overdue for a destructive hurricane and has never had so many people and so much property in the way. This dangerous state of affairs is compounded by the potential for complacency and lack of recent experience. When hurricanes don’t strike over such a long period of time, some people may be lulled into a false sense of security and/or forget how horrible hurricanes can be.

In other words, they’re Very Concerned that their prognostications for big hurricane seasons being the new normal have crashed and burned, and they really, really, really want so fantastic hurricanes to strike Florida. Remember, the original prognostication was that the normal would look like the 2005 season, which was very active, and included lots of major hurricanes, with lots of storms making landfall. That prognostication immediately died on the vine as hurricane activity, particularly for landfalling storms, dropped precipitously. So, the next palm reading stated that hurricane activity would be normal or lower, but the storms would be worse. Nope. Didn’t happen.

And then there are newcomer Floridians who haven’t ever had to endure a hurricane. Weather.com notes that more than 1 million people have moved to Florida since Wilma in 2005, the last hurricane to hit the state. “That’s potentially 1 million people who are inexperienced with the impacts of hurricanes and tropical storms and lack the experience boarding up a home, cleaning out a flooded home or battling mandatory evacuation traffic,” Weather.com writes.

Wilma was the last major hurricane to strike the United States, and, if there are no major hurricane landfalls by November 23rd, that will be the new records for the longest period without a landfalling major hurricane, 3316 days, the previous record having been during the Civil War era.

It’s not a matter of if but when an active cycle of hurricanes returns to Florida. In 2004 and 2005 alone, seven hurricanes hit (Charley, Frances, Jeanne, and Ivan in 2004; Dennis, Katrina, and Wilma in 2005.).

That is true. At some point, a hurricane is going to strike Florida. And the minute one does, it will be blamed on “climate change”, much like with Superstorm Sandy (which was made worse by interaction with a big cold front).

There are some good points, getting beyond all the doomy talk, about the danger of people becoming complacent, as well as there being so many more people and so many more properties, many with much higher values. That said, this is what is referred to as “wish casting” by Delaware Jack in the comments, who notes that many news outlets portend doom and gloom for every storm that occurs. I’d contend that wish casting has moved from hoping for ratings over normal storm doom to wish casting to blame every rain drop, dry period, snow storm, etc, on “climate change”.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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Say, Whatever Happened To The Bloodbath From NC’s New Gun Laws?

By William Teach October 7, 2014 – 4:06 pm

Strange, yet another liberal prognostication that failed to materialize (via The Daley Gator)

(WNCN) A state law that allows concealed carry permits holders to take their guns into bars and restaurants is now one year old, but even though the law is set in the books, the debate over concealed carry has not died down.

State lawmakers made it legal to carry concealed handguns in places like bars, movie theaters and in locked compartments of cars on school and state government parking lots one year ago Wednesday.

“And there’s been no incidences, so the law is playing out exactly as we thought it would,” Chmiel said.

As Gator Doug points out

Once again, the Cult of Gun Control is proven clueless. Every new law allowing CHL’s, or open carry, or stand your ground, or allowing carry in restaurants is followed by fear mongering by the gun grabbers. And, every time, they are wrong. Yet, they never evolve, they just keep emoting and acting as if they do not have good sense, which, of course, they don’t.

Interestingly, the places with the most restrictions tend to have the most shootings, usually by criminals who care less about following the law.

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If All You See…

By William Teach October 7, 2014 – 1:00 pm

…is a wonderful tree in nature in a place that is great for solar panels, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Average Bubba, with a post wondering if Obama recognizes the threat from radical Islam.

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Climate Hysteria Today: Nothing Is More Dangerous Than Hotcoldwetdry

By William Teach October 7, 2014 – 10:00 am

From The Doom Files

Editorial: No threat more threatening than climate change

….

An evaluation of the actual danger posed by the Islamic State is a subject for a later time, but at least right now, the group – while it is vicious and barbaric and wants to hurt us – has limited capability to make that happen on American soil.

Yet, climate change already has invaded the homeland, reducing to ruins the homes of thousands of Americans, turning them into refugees of a sort. In his U.N. speech, Obama listed just a few of the terrors we already have experienced: “Along our eastern coast, the city of Miami now floods at high tide. In our west, wildfire season now stretches most of the year. In our heartland, farms have been parched by the worst drought in generations, and drenched by the wettest spring in our history. A hurricane left parts of this great city (New York) dark and underwater.”

There was absolutely no weather, no hurricanes, no tornadoes, no floods and droughts, no blizzards, nothing, prior to the invention of the fossil fueled vehicle, ya know! BTW, Obama performed a act of un-science by terming Sandy a hurricane at landfall. It wasn’t. In fact, what made Sandy so bad was a cold front that interacted with the storm.

Earth’s rising temperature represents a greater menace than any terrorist “sleeper cell.”

Not sure about you, but a 1.4F increase in global temperatures in the last 160 years has me terrified. I’m writing this from inside my safety fort with a few stuffed animals and some hot cocoa, wearing onesies, just like your Typical Warmist.

Extreme weather events are not the only danger: As food and water shortages increase and already vulnerable people suffer dislocation and loss, the stability of governments and even civil societies are jeopardized.

If you’ll check your pre-Common Core history books, you’ll see that the weather of the Earth was really stable during the 4.5 billion years preceding the Industrial Revolution. Climate Change, ie, cool periods, didn’t help in bringing down civilizations like the Roman Empire and Mayans.

Still, while most Americans worry more about terrorism than the environment, activists sense a change. You wouldn’t know it from watching mainstream media, but the message about the need for action is getting through to more ordinary Americans than in the past: The estimated 300,000 to 400,000 people who participated in the largest “climate justice” march in history on Sept. 21 aren’t putting away their signs and going home for good. The numbers of people engaging in civil disobedience is expanding. A movement to persuade institutions to divest from fossil fuels is still tiny, but growing.

They want Other People to divest from fossil fuels, yet, they themselves used vast amounts to travel to NYC (and other cities) to protest. Go figure.

We should do what we can to support them: In the not-so-long term, it won’t matter what harm the Islamic State can or can’t do if a rising planet temperature has the effect most scientists predict: global chaos.

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Imam: No, Muslims Shouldn’t Have To Apologize For Islamic State

By William Teach October 7, 2014 – 8:41 am

Very interesting thought process going on

(Huffington Post) American Muslim leaders gathered at Washington’s National Press Club late last month to release a scathing 17-page letter to the Islamic State that distanced mainstream Muslims from the militant group’s actions. But one prominent imam from Northern Virginia refused to give his endorsement.

“It sounded like they were apologizing for something they haven’t done, like they were running for cover,” Imam Johari Abdul-Malik said in an interview with The Huffington Post.

President Barack Obama has called on the world’s Muslims to “explicitly, forcefully and consistently reject” the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, while Secretary of State John Kerry recently said that Muslims need to “reclaim Islam.” In response, some of the largest Muslim organizations have issued sweeping condemnations of the militant group’s extremism. The letter unveiled at the National Press Club had the signatures of 126 prominent Islamic scholars, including the grand muftis of Egypt, Jerusalem, Bulgaria and Kosovo.

But not all Muslims have engaged in these condemnations. Many have written blog posts and created social media campaigns to criticize what they see as Muslim institutions’ knee-jerk instinct to decry faraway atrocities that are unconnected to their communities.

That’s an interesting point of view: why should they have to apologize when they aren’t involved? That leads to another thought: why should White people have to apologize for slavery when absolutely none of us were alive when it occurred here in the United States? Heck, my family wasn’t even here in the US, having legally immigrated in the early part of the 20th century on my Dad’s side, and escaping from Europe in the late 1930’s on my Mom’s side.

Anyhow

“When you ask Muslims to condemn or denounce heinous actions, ideologies or groups what you’re saying is that you don’t trust any Muslim,” Sana Saeed, a San Francisco-based producer at the digital Al Jazeera channel AJ+, wrote in a recent blog post, “Why I Won’t Condemn ISIS. “[Y]ou’re saying that I can’t be trusted until and unless I vocalize dissent against an individual, an action, an ideology or a group that claims to do something in the name of a shared identity.”

Interestingly, it wasn’t until White American’s stood up and said “no more institutional racism in my name” that the Civil Rights era truly made strides. Perhaps if more of the so-called moderate Muslims stood up to the extremists, they could significantly reduced the high number of Muslims who are being radicalized.

But, then there’s this

(Breitbart) The Imam’s frustrations and grievances would be perfectly understandable were his mosque not associated with a plethora of Islamic terrorists. Nowhere in the Huffington Post piece does it mention that Dar Al-Hijrah is the mosque with arguably the most convicted terrorists associated with the establishment.

Current Imam Abdul-Malik is the progeny of former chief al-Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki, who once served as Imam at the Dar Al-Hijrah mosque.

Major Nidal Malik Hassan, who was responsible for the jihadi attack on Fort Hood in 2009, was also a frequent attendee of the radical mosque.

Additionally, two of the September 11th hijackers were members of the Dar Al-Hijrah congregation.

Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, whom the Huffington Post portrays as a victimized Muslim, has spoken in the past in defense of convicted terrorist Abdul Rahman Al-Amoudi. The Holy Land Foundation trial found Al-Amoudi’s American Muslim Council not only to be a front group for the Muslim Brotherhood, but also guilty of raising funds for terror group Hamas.

Oops.

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