Showing posts with label World. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Déjà vu all over again: Clinton henchman Cheryl Mills reportedly hid incriminating Benghazi documents

The invaluable Sharyl Attkisson has the scoop.

To Sonya Gilliam, a recent account of improper sorting of Benghazi-related documents at the State Department brought back vivid memories of her own encounters with high-level government officials who withheld, deleted or destroyed public records.

And one name stood out for its familiarity: Cheryl Mills.

A former deputy assistant secretary of state had told The Daily Signal that Mills was present during an after-hours document operation in a basement room of the State Department in October 2012. Mills was chief of staff to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The purpose of the session, former State Department official Raymond Maxwell said, was to “separate” documents damaging to Clinton before records were turned over to an independent review board probing the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya.

Mills declined to comment on Maxwell’s account to The Daily Signal.

“My stomach dropped,” Gilliam says about hearing the allegation last month that Mills was involved in Benghazi document sorting:

I said to myself, oh my gosh, here we are, 14 or 15 years later, [and] Cheryl Mills is still in charge of document ‘production’—I’ll use that term loosely.

Gilliam, now retired, was responsible for Commerce Department responses to Freedom of Information Act requests during the Clinton administration.

Back then, Mills was deputy White House counsel to President Clinton. At the time, multiple probes sought to determine whether the administration was fundraising illegally by selling seats on Commerce Department trade missions.


You can read the entire report here.

Reason #4,032 that I penned an open letter to Rep. Michele Bachmann asking her to get to the bottom of these Clinton scandals once and for all.

After all, what difference does it make?


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

CDC Head Thomas Frieden Proven an Incompetent Liar, i.e., a Perfect Fit for This Administration

By Investor's Business Daily

Public Health: The man whose one job is to safeguard America's health has failed, saying that we must change our responses to Ebola after a Dallas health care worker becomes infected despite the rules he championed.

After 26-year-old Dallas health care worker Nina Pham became the first person to contract Ebola on U.S. soil, Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), said during a press conference that (we) "have to rethink the way we address Ebola control."

Yes, we do. Pham's infection, just as Thomas E. Duncan's death in Dallas after a multistop trip from Liberia, wasn't supposed to happen with CDC's protocols. Frieden's repeated assurances that everything possible was being done have been demonstrably false.

Blaming Pham, who contracted the disease while caring for Duncan despite taking recommended protections and wearing the proper gear, Frieden said that "at some point there was a breach in protocol, and that breach in protocol resulted in this infection."

He later walked back his remarks. But if the protocols were adequate, why do we need to rethink them?

Pham isn't alone. Maria Teresa Romero Ramos, a Spanish nurse's aide, contracted the disease while caring for an Ebola patient in a Madrid hospital.

She got infected when her gloved hand inadvertently touched her face while removing her protective gear.

In August, two American aid workers who contracted Ebola while working in Liberia returned to the U.S. for treatment. That those trying to treat Ebola patients and fight the disease's spread — people aware of the dangers and practicing the prescribed protocols — still catch the disease doesn't bode well. Bringing back infected Americans under controlled conditions is one thing. Unrestricted air travel from West Africa is quite another.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Obama Survival Manual, Intl. Edition

Bret Stephens, writing at the Wall Street Journal, offers the definitive survival guide for the next 25 months or so. There's a subscription required to read the whole thing -- well worth it, by the way -- but the key graphs follow to offer you but a taste.

So Paul Krugman, who once called on Alan Greenspan “to create a housing bubble to replace the Nasdaq bubble”; who, a few months before the eurozone crisis erupted, praised Europe as “an economic success” that “shows that social democracy works”; who, as the U.S. fracking revolution was getting under way, opined that America was “just a bystander” in a global energy story defined by “peak oil”; and who, in 2012, hailed Argentina’s economy as a “remarkable success story”—this guy now tells us, in Rolling Stone magazine, that Barack Obama has been a terrific president.

Which can only mean that the next two years are going to be exceptionally ugly. How to get through them?


I ask the question not as an exhortation to subscribe to Survivalist magazine, stock up on tuna fish and Zithromax, and master the arts of homolactic fermentation. In fact, if you’re a resident of the U.S., you’ll probably be OK. What Americans call a recession is what the rest of the world considers affluence. What we call disaster is what others know as existence.

Stephens asks us to consider what the Caddy-In-Chief means for the President of Estonia (or any other territory in Putin's cross-hairs), or a student protester in Hong Kong, a Kurd guerilla fighter defending his village against ISIS, or any other number of putative allies abandoned by President Jarrett.

Leaders in Russia, Moldova and Saudi Arabia have all described U.S. foreign policy under Obama as "complete chaos".

Monday, October 13, 2014

BENGHAZI ILLUSTRATED: Is THIS What Really Happened in the White House on 9/11/2012?

Based on input from ex-Secret Service agent Dan Bongino and others, Biff Spackle illustrates what he think happened in Washington as the Benghazi terror attack unfolded.


DUDE: One Possible Replacement for the Hummer Makes the Batmobile Look as Tame as a Kia

Not that there's anything wrong with a Kia, mind you. Just that they're relatively... tame.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency last week posted a video of an advanced concept ground vehicle under development in its Ground X-Vehicle Technologies (GXV-T) program... It's not clear whether the vehicle in question is a light armored car or a tank, but DARPA wants to give it improved survivability through the use of advanced technologies.


The technologies might include visualization systems to provide high-definition, wide-angle views of external conditions for a closed cockpit; path planning, which would display optimal routes to take; terrain classification, which would evaluate the surroundings for optimal travel surfaces; sensors using various technologies to visualize the surroundings and identify and track friends and foes; and autopilot capabilities that would let the driver focus on more-strategic activities.

WHO YOU GONNA TRUST ON EBOLA? The Center for Infectious Disease Research -- or Dr. B.H. Obama?

Point.

Obama: “You Cannot Get Ebola Sitting Next to Someone On a Bus”

“First, Ebola is not spread through the air like the flu,” Obama explained in the video released by the White House Thursday. “You cannot get it through casual contact like sitting next to someone one a bus. You cannot get it from another person until they start showing symptoms of the disease, like fever.”

Obama also explained that “the most common way you can get Ebola is by touching the body fluids of someone who is sick or has died from it, like their sweat, saliva or blood, or through a contaminated item like a needle.”

Counterpoint.

Health workers need optimal respiratory protection for Ebola

We believe there is scientific and epidemiologic evidence that Ebola virus has the potential to be transmitted via infectious aerosol particles both near and at a distance from infected patients, which means that healthcare workers should be wearing respirators, not facemasks.1

The minimum level of protection in high-risk settings should be a respirator with an assigned protection factor greater than 10. A powered air-purifying respirator (PAPR) with a hood or helmet offers many advantages over an N95 filtering facepiece or similar respirator, being more protective, comfortable, and cost-effective in the long run.

We strongly urge the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to seek funds for the purchase and transport of PAPRs to all healthcare workers currently fighting the battle against Ebola throughout Africa—and beyond.

Is there anything this walking, talking catastrophe has gotten right?

Please: any of you drones out there, let me know in the Comments section. I've got a nice crisp $20 bill for the first "progressive" out there who can describe what Barack Obama himself has done correctly. Personally. Not Co-President Jarrett, but Barack Obama himself. Not SEAL Team Six. But Obama.


Hat tips: BadBlue News and BB.

Friday, October 10, 2014

The Penultimate Indictment of Barack Obama

By Investor's Business Daily

Leadership: The former president on whose watch Americans were taken hostage and the mullahs rose to power in Iran gets it right in condemning the current president's failed handling of Syria and the Islamic State.

We've often referred to Jimmy Carter as our worst president. But considering the recent IBD/TIPP poll showed 53% of Americans labeling Barack Obama's presidency a failure in just its sixth year, the incumbent may soon claim the title. It's one thing to make mistakes out of gullibility, quite another to foul up the world out of gross incompetence.

It is said that Carter's presidency literally crashed and burned in the Iranian desert with the failed Desert One Delta Force mission that was sent to rescue our embassy hostages from the clutches of the mullahs he had naively helped to power. But as we have noted, at least Carter tried a rescue, as President Obama failed to do at Benghazi as he rested up for a Las Vegas fundraiser.

Carter at least acknowledged and belatedly learned from his mistakes. As James Jay Carafano of the Heritage Foundation points out, Carter, after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, declared the "Carter Doctrine" and warned the Soviets that the U.S. would defend its interests in the Middle East "by force if necessary." That, presumably, included the threat of boots on the ground.

Thursday, October 09, 2014

Drought, disease, and dictators aren't even among Africa's worst problems that start with the letter 'D'

By Don Boys, Ph.D.


Africa’s biggest problem is not drought, disease, or dictators (all massive problems) but drinking and defecation! And this is similarly true of India, Asia, and areas of South America. Fully 80 percent of diseases in developing countries are caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation.

Africa, India, and some areas in South America are open cesspools where children play, parents wash clothes and get drinking water, workers irrigate crops, etc. In those areas, fresh water is unknown and open defecation (OD) is common.

Now for the first time in human history most people live in cities, often in the slums. More than 70 percent of Africa’s urban population lives in slums! Around one-third of the urban population in developing countries, nearly one billion people, live in slums, according to estimates. There is one toilet for every 500 people in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya.

However, the biggest problem is in rural areas where the problem can be more quickly solved but not without difficulty. Nearly 540 million people, more than 60 percent of Africa’s population, currently practice open defecation according to the African Development Bank Group. And worldwide, more than a billion people still “go out back” to take care of one of life’s most important functions. Moreover, in all those areas, they do so where deadly cobras, lions, tigers, etc., roam freely–at night! Seems as if that ever-present danger would cause “bashful bladder” and “bashful bowel.”

WHAT ELSE WOULD YOU EXPECT? Obama FBI says it will "track" -- but not arrest -- returning ISIS fighters

By Investor's Business Daily

War On Terror: Though they've given material assistance to terrorists by fighting for the Islamic State, which is a federal crime, the FBI director says American jihadis are "entitled" to come home and move about freely.

FBI Director James Comey told Scott Pelley on CBS' "60 Minutes" Sunday that we know who the dozen or so Americans fighting with the Islamic State are, but we can't do much more than follow them around if they decide to return to the U.S.

In the aftermath of 9/11, and in the face of IS atrocities and threats, this is an appalling statement.

"Ultimately, an American citizen, unless their passport's revoked, is entitled to come back," Comey said. "So someone who's fought with ISIL, with an American passport, who wants to come back, we will track them very carefully."

Presumably we will do a better job than we did with the Tsarnaev brothers, who bombed the Boston Marathon after Tamerlan Tsarnaev spent time in the terrorist-infested Russian republic of Dagestan.

Tuesday, October 07, 2014

ISIS Threatens Mass Slaughter After Planting Black Flag In Kobani

By Investor's Business Daily

War On Terror: While hitting a truck here or a tank there, the administration blows another chance to shatter Islamic State forces in open country as they plant their black flags on NATO's doorstep in the Kurdish city of Kobani.

One of the benefits of being a superpower is that you have super power. But power is effective only if you use it, something President Obama is loathe to do.

We have commented before on the administration's video-game air campaign against ISIS, designed to score points with the electorate even as ISIS relentlessly advances.

CNN reports that over the weekend "allied airstrikes destroyed two ISIS tanks, a bulldozer and another ISIS vehicle," likely one of those white pickup trucks ISIS is fond of. We're sending expensive high-tech fighters to fire laser-guided weapons at solitary bulldozers. This is beyond pathetic.

A week ago we warned of the Islamic State advance on Kobani, and the desperate pleas from the Kurds for something more than token airstrikes as they struggled to survive an ISIL onslaught complete with tanks, armored personnel carriers and even heavy artillery.

It was an advance through the wide-open northern desert of Syria that could have been stopped with a sustained around-the-clock air campaign that targeted more than bulldozers.

It would have been a shooting gallery for our B-1 and B-2 bombers. Even a single B-52 might have done more to "degrade and destroy" advancing ISIS forces in one pass than we have accomplished since Obama's anemic air campaign began.

Now it may be too late to do anything as house-to-house fighting in Kobani is under way.

OPERATION ANNOY ISIS

By Lawrence Sellin, Ph.D

On August 7, 2014, Barack Obama announced "Operation Annoy ISIS," ordering U.S. aircraft to drop humanitarian supplies to tens of thousands of Yezidi refugees fleeing the terrorists of the Islamic State. He also ordered U.S. combat aircraft to be ready to launch airstrikes to protect Americans in Erbil, Iraq, and to lift the siege of the Yezidis.

The airstrikes began on Aug. 8, 2014, when two F/A-18 aircraft dropped 500-pound laser-guided bombs on a mobile artillery piece near Erbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan region.

On September 10, 2014, Obama declared his intention to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIS, while precluding a combat mission for American ground forces in Iraq.

As of October 7, 2014, 60 days into the air campaign against ISIS, a total of 376 airstrikes have been conducted, 266 in Iraq and 110 in Syria, the vast majority targeting vehicles, equipment and buildings, not terrorists.

Supporters of the Obama Administration's approach to the ISIS threat cite the 1999 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) air campaign in the Kosovo War as an example of how air power alone can end wars.

On the night of 24 March 1999, NATO launched Operation Allied Force in response to Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic's ethnic cleansing of Kosovar Albanians. The violence had already taken the lives of more than 250,000 people by 1995, and when the conflict continued to escalate, the United Nations Security Council warned of an "impending humanitarian catastrophe" if action was not taken.

During the 78-day campaign, NATO aircrews flew 38,004 sorties, 10,484 of which were strike sorties. Overall, the U.S. Air Force flew 30,018 sorties, including 11,480 airlift, 8,889 fighter, 322 bomber, 6,959 tanker, 1,038 Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR), 834 Special Operations, and 496 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) missions.

Monday, October 06, 2014

President Ebola

By Alan Caruba


What does it tell you when Britain and France have stopped flights to and from the nations in Africa where Ebola has become a threat and the United States has not taken a similar measure?

What does it tell you when the President sends 3,000 U.S. troops on a “humanitarian” mission to West Africa? It tells me he has put the U.S. at risk if any or a portion of these troops return after having been infected.

As always history has lessons that cannot be ignored. In 1918 and 1919, there was a pandemic of the Spanish influenza that caught nations by surprise, infecting an estimated 500 million people and killing between 50 and a 100 million of them in three waves. It began in the U.S. in March 1918 at a crowded army camp, Fort Riley, Kansas.

CHANGE: ISIS Mortars Land in Green Zone

Jimmy Carter and the rise of Iran's genocidal clerics. Bill Clinton and the ascent of Al Qaeda. Now, Barack Obama has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in Iraq.

After weeks of sustained air strikes in Iraq, Islamic State fighters have reportedly hit Baghdad’s international zone with mortars on Monday.

The so-called “Green Zone” is in the heart of the city and lies along the Tigris River. The U.S. Embassy is located there, along with several Iraqi government buildings.

CNN’s Ben Wedemen, reporting from Baghdad, said several mortar rounds landed in the Green Zone late Monday. Officials with U.S. Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Defense One. Several news outlets said the Islamic State is now operating in Abu Ghraib, a city just west of Baghdad and only a few miles from the Baghdad International Airport, where U.S. troops are positioned. It’s possible the mortar attacks were launched from Abu Ghraib, based on the proximity of its location. Pro-Shiite militias are also operating in the area.

The GOP may be the Stupid Party, but Democrats represent the Party of Weakness. And weakness gets Americans killed.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Sunday, October 05, 2014

As Terrorism, War and Disease Ravage the Globe, Leftist World Leaders Focus on... the Global Warming Scam

By Steve Goreham

On September 23, representatives from 190 nations will gather at the Climate Summit 2014 at United Nations headquarters in New York City, including 125 heads of state. President Obama and other world leaders will attend to discuss the urgent problem of climate change, seeking common ground in preparation for a “meaningful global agreement in 2015.” At the same time, Europe is threatened by conflict in Eastern Ukraine and ISIS beheads US citizens in the Middle East.

With regard to ISIS, President Obama recently addressed the nation, but many have said that the President’s strategy is still unclear. However, the President does have a strategy for a global climate change agreement. It was reported last month that the Obama administration is pursuing a global accord to compel nations to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.

On February 16, Secretary of State John Kerry stated, “In a sense, climate change can now be considered another weapon of mass destruction, perhaps even the world’s most fearsome weapon of mass destruction.” Only two days later, demonstrators set fire to Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, protesting ties between then President Viktor Yanukovych and Russia. Yanukovych was forced to step down four days later. Events in Ukraine have continued to deteriorate, with the Russian seizure of Crimea in March and today’s growing insurrection by Russian-backed separatists in Eastern Ukraine.

European leaders and President Obama appear to have no effective plan to stabilize the situation in Ukraine. But the Europeans do have a strategy to halt global warming. The European Union has proposed a 40 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels and a 30 percent energy efficiency target by the year 2030 for member states.

Fear and Loathing in Manhattan

By Jim Quinn

I live only a two hour drive from New York City, but it is a world apart from my daily existence. I’ve visited the Big Apple probably a dozen times in my life, but never for longer than two or three days. I have a soft spot in my heart for NYC because it is where I proposed to my wife on a bitterly cold December evening in a horse drawn carriage ride in Central Park, twenty five years ago. But, I can honestly say that I never feel comfortable in the city.

Last week we had an opportunity to get away for a long weekend. My wife had gotten tickets to the Jimmy Fallon Show for Thursday afternoon and we decided to get a hotel room for one night and then drive directly down to Wildwood for the remainder of the weekend. My mother-in-law agreed to watch the kids, so we had ourselves a mini-vacation. I anticipated a more laid back trip than our visit to Occupy Wall Street a few years ago, that led to one of my most read articles.

A couple years ago I was shocked to receive an email from David Stockman, complimenting me on a particular article I had written. When a former Reagan budget director, founding partner of the Blackstone Group, and world renowned financial mind takes notice of something you’ve written it really boosts your morale. We have had a periodic email dialogue ever since. When he created his own website earlier this year, he asked me to be a contributor. He also told me that if I ever make it to NYC, let him know and we would meet for a drink.

I was reluctant to bother such a busy man, but during a recent email exchange I mentioned I’d be in New York. He suggested we meet after the Jimmy Fallon Show for a drink. I told him to pick a place convenient for him. He emailed back, the morning we were leaving, to meet him and his wife at the Carlyle Hotel bar at 5:00 pm. I immediately googled the hotel and realized I should pack some nicer clothes. This was no Shamrock bar in Wildwood. It was on Seventy Sixth & Park Avenue. My uneasiness had begun.

Photographic Proof That President Obama is Finally Taking the Ebola Threat Seriously

Never let it be said that the president doesn't adapt to a changing situation on the ground.



In all seriousness, what possible reason could the president have for refusing to ban travel from Ebola-ravaged countries?

TRUE HOLLYWOOD STUPID: The Many Faces of a Bentard

Summer intern @BiffSpackle illustrates the hilarious dips***tery of yet another left wing Hollywood crackpot.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Saturday, October 04, 2014

INTRIGUING: North Korean General Photographed While Smiling

Good catch by John Jay at Winter Soldier:

i don't care what anyone writes about all of this. it is all nonsense, unless you recognize one singular fact... the north korean general who is in charge of the north korean military, sat as a table with south korean political and no doubt intelligence people across from him, and smiled.

he smiled.


i am 66 years old. in my entire life, i have never seen a north korean military officer and/or official smile.

you can read a lot of things about all of this. none of it will talk about anything as significant as that smile. that smile sent chills up and down the spines of rooskie and chinese officials, everywhere: they know what it means.

As Jay notes, during the entire Korean confict, DPRK officials always sat motionless and never, ever, ever smiled.

So a public smile might indeed confirm rumors that the fat, inbred war criminal running North Korea may be incapacitated or -- better yet -- dead.


SERIOUS QUESTION: What Possible Reason Could Obama Have for Refusing to Ban Travel From Ebola-Ravaged Countries?

The most politically correct, "progressive" countries on Earth have banned travel from Liberia and other Ebola-plagued countries for the simple reasons of sanity and safety. It's a called a quarantine, a state of isolation used by humankind to secure safety from communicable diseases since the beginning of recorded history.

But history, logic, facts and reason find no home in this administration. State Departmet spokesman Jen Psaki insists that "screenings in West African airports and observation of passengers in the United States, will be sufficient to prevent the 'wide spread' of the virus."

But if, as the White House insists, that Ebola isn't a national security threat, why has it ordered 4,000 U.S. troops to deploy to West Africa?

In fact, the State Department has insisted not only that we allow travel from countries ravaged by the deadly disease, but that we also fly medical personnel to the U.S. from Africa, including many who have treated Ebola patients. Apparently using GoToMeeting is too practical for this administration to consider as an alternative to travel.

Is it just me or does it seem that though Obama wants disease to decimate the American citizenry?

This is a man who wants to change the character of the United States by remaking the voter base, primarily through deeply unpopular actions on illegal immigration. This is a man who sides with illegal aliens -- on a consistent basis -- over taxpayers, recently stating that "no force on earth can stop us" (with the word "us" referring to an audience of illegal aliens).


This is a man who has repeatedly threatened to use "a pen and a phone" to unlawfully rewrite federal immigration statutes to legalize millions of illegal aliens.

This is a man who has repeatedly stated -- and acted upon -- his intent to "fundamentally transform America."

One can only hope that, as the San Antonio Express-News reported earlier this week, that this insane remaking of America has dire consequences for the Democrat Party in 2014.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Friday, October 03, 2014

GUN-RUNNING: Andrew Tahmooressi vs. Eric Holder

By Investor's Business Daily

Veteran Neglect: A Navy and Marine Corps veteran asks a House panel why an administration that says it leaves no one behind has let a soldier with post-traumatic stress disorder sit in a Mexican jail for six months.

From the famous "latte salute" to the Marine holding the presidential umbrella, President Obama's respect for our men in uniform has been open to question. Unless, of course, they desert their post in Afghanistan to try to join the Taliban, like Bowe Bergdahl. Then you have the parents to the White House and trade the Taliban general staff to obtain their release. After all, we leave no one behind.

Except, maybe, for Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi.

Jill Tahmooressi, Andrew's mother, has never been invited to stand by the president on the White House lawn. Nor has she ever received a phone call from President Obama, as she testified Wednesday before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee. Presidential calls of support are reserved for basketball players like Jason Collins, whom Obama called to say "he was impressed by his courage," according to a White House spokesperson, for announcing that he was gay.

For our part, we are impressed by the courage of Sgt. Tahmooressi, who served two tours of duty fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, and his mother. Her son fought the enemy instead of trying to join them. And for making a wrong turn into Mexico while carrying legal American firearms in his trunk as he journeyed to San Diego for treatment of his PTSD, he now sits in a Mexican jail ignored by the country he risked his life for.