President Obama’s national security priorities are dangerous. Two weeks after terrorist attacks rocked Paris, he is visiting France, not to focus on fighting global terrorism, but to tackle the global warming “security imperative.” America needs a commander-in-chief, not a weather-obsessed meteorologist-in-chief.
The federal government cannot control the weather. Period. We can control borders, military assets, critical airspace, and American intelligence. We can also kill Islamic terrorists and radical ISIS murderers. America needs a president focused on what we can control, not fixated on weather patterns which we cannot.
Even if we could control the weather, 95 percent of the world lives outside America, and we cannot control the behavior of seven billion people across the globe. Put another way, other countries refuse to tackle simple, dangerous threats like nuclear weapons proliferation. So how does Obama expect to persuade massive polluters like China, Russia and Pakistan to embrace expensive, job-killing global warming regulations?
Obama’s obsession with global, utopian collaboration and building a personal climate change legacy has made him allergic to common sense. Meanwhile, the real “security imperative” keeps metastasizing.
ISIS keeps swelling in size and power and Obama still has no strategy. In the Syrian city of Raqqa, which serves as the ISIS capital, Islamic radicals have established a treasury department with an elaborate system of taxes, public services and real estate rental agreements. Between oil production, smuggling, antiquity dealing and kidnapping, ISIS is building a comprehensive infrastructure.
What will it take for Obama to wake-up to this menace? Maybe he would take ISIS seriously if he discovered they didn’t recycle.
Homegrown terrorists and radicalized immigrants continue to pop-up across Europe. The Department of Homeland Security refuses to reform a dangerous travel program that allows unscreened foreign passengers from 38 countries, including France and Belgium, to enter the U.S. without a visa.
Illegal immigrants continue to cross our porous borders and thousands of immigrants overstay their visas each year. America’s cyber-defenses remain incredibly vulnerable and the White House has endless excuses for security breaches, intelligence failures and routine Washington incompetence.
Now more than ever, America needs a commander-in-chief focused on the global war on terrorism, instead we have a community organizer focused on global warming. Obama’s blindness is beyond baffling, it’s dangerous. It shouldn’t take another Paris attack for this White House to open its eyes: radical Islamic terrorism is a much greater threat than a sunburn.
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is a 2016 Republican candidate for president of the United States.
In the decades following World War II, the world witnessed the greatest movement of populations in history. War refugees from displaced persons camps in Europe were helped to begin life anew in other countries and on other continents. Massive population exchanges in Asia were often bloody and brutal, when the new countries of Pakistan and Bangladesh were created as Muslim states and India achieved independence, its population majority Hindu. At the same time, the Jewish state of Israel achieved independence and rose to the challenge of accepting refugees from neighboring Arab countries, from Yemen to Morocco to Egypt.
With one singular exception, all people who were refugees in the second half of the 20th century have long been settled and integrated in their new countries. The one exception, which has been allowed to languish and be used as a political pawn, is Palestine. This was done with the connivance of the United Nations and the Arab League. We don’t want to see similar manipulation and mishandling of today’s Middle East refugees, with Syrians fleeing the horrors of four years of civil war and terror.
Most Syrian refugees find themselves in Turkey or Jordan, where every aspect of life is extremely difficult. Those who arrive with savings are permitted to live in the cities, such as Amman, where food and other expenses are high. Because they are not permitted to work, they soon spend their savings. When the refugee families’ funds are gone, their only choice is to move into a refugee camp and live on U.N. food vouchers. Many are now housed in refugee camps, such as the one I visited, the Azraq refugee camp.
The Azraq camp is located in a bleak and deserted stretch of desert that was built to house Iraqis and Kuwaiti Gulf war refugees. First opening in 2014, the United Nations and Jordan built Azraq with the capacity to hold 130,000 residents, which would have made it the largest refugee camp in the region. Today it is nearly empty, with a population of around 27,000 residents.
Is the camp nearly empty because the authorities have been so efficient in resettling those refugees? Quite the contrary! Conditions in Azraq, and the failure of Arab nations to receive refugees, have led to the refugees’ desperate flight in unsafe boats to Europe.
Here is a picture of life in Azraq: The camp is a bleak expanse of row after row of white sheet metal shelters. There is no electricity or air conditioning or heat against the scalding desert summer temperatures or cold winds of winter. Lack of electricity adds further hardship, as people are forced to choose between having light to see their way to the bathroom at night (six shelters share one bathroom) and charging their cellphones, which connects them to family and the outside world.
Despite the fact that refugees are in host countries that share their language, culture, ethnicity and religion, they are not helped to integrate into those countries, or into the many neighboring Arab, Muslim countries. Many refugees are educated professionals; many have other skills and occupations. But they are not allowed to work, and their children do not attend schools.
No wonder they want to leave! And they have, in droves — some preferring to take their chances back in Syria.
The media has focused on Europe and the United States’s willingness or unwillingness to welcome these refugees. This focus is all wrong. The solution to the Syrian refugee crisis is with Syria’s neighbors.
Syrian refugee resettlement should be concentrated in Arab countries, which are in the best position to help. The rich Persian Gulf states — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and United Arab Emirates — have the resources to provide services that refugees require. With no language barrier and no religious or cultural gaps to overcome, refugees can find new and fulfilling lives with only enough support to make the transition. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other refugee aid organizations can best use their resources to train these Gulf states to provide housing and social services effectively.
Syrians have a reputation as being very hard working, determined people, which should only enhance the overall economic health of the neighboring Arab countries that accept and integrate them into the general population. The humanitarian crisis presented by the fleeing Syrian refugees can be addressed if the nations of the world with resources would provide financial and material support to the aforementioned countries as well as encouragement. There is much beauty in Syria, and I suspect that many displaced Syrians will return there when peace is restored.
This is a forward-thinking and wise strategy.
Carson, a retired Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon, is a candidate for the 2016 Republican nomination
FBI Director James Comey is the pivotal figure in the 2016 presidential race that no one is talking about.
Comey, a Republican appointed by President Obama who enjoys a stellar reputation on both sides of the aisle, is investigating Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of State.
Clinton is the overwhelming favorite to win the Democratic presidential nomination next year and is expected to be a tough candidate for any Republican to face in 2016.
Yet the controversy surrounding her private email account remains an Achilles’ heel.
The GOP-created House Benghazi Committee flopped in October when Clinton testified for 11 hours. That hearing failed to produce anything newsworthy about her use of a private server and attracted criticism from liberals and conservatives alike.
Its failure makes it clear that the FBI will have the final say on whether Clinton did anything wrong or illegal. And whatever the verdict is, both parties will have to accept it because Comey is, in many ways, untouchable.
The 54-year-old FBI chief, confirmed by the Senate to a 10-year term in a 93-1 vote this summer, is known for his independence and aggressive prosecutions.
“We voiced concerns sensitive to the African American community. We’re all satisfied with the answers,” said pastor Dr. Darrell Scott about meeting with Donald J. Trump. “Nobody at this meeting came out with negative reaction in any kind of way. Everybody in the room likes Donald Trump.”
Trump insists ‘most’ black pastors endorsing him
Donald Trump is insisting that “most” of the 100 black pastors he met with on Monday are endorsing him for president.
“I thought it was an amazing meeting. I met some fantastic people,” Trump said following the private meeting at Trump Tower.
The GOP presidential front-runner had canceled a planned press conference on Sunday where he was to have highlighted the endorsements of 100 black religious leaders. He did so after several of the pastors denied they were endorsing Trump for president.
Darrell Scott, a pastor at the New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, stood by Trump’s side on Monday, saying that the meeting was “productive” and “constructive” and that the group of religious leaders are a “united front.”
“We voiced concerns sensitive to the African-American community,” Scott said. “We’re all satisfied with the answers.”
Scott said there were a number of pastors who endorsed Trump, but didn’t have an official number. He said the religious leaders who remain undecided are “praying about it.”
“Nobody at this meeting came out with negative reaction in any kind of way,” Scott said, adding that “Everybody in the room likes Donald Trump.”
Gov. Chris Christie won the endorsement from the New Hampshire Union Leader, the state’s biggest newspaper and an influential voice in presidential politics for the early-voting state. Matt Arco, NJ.com Read more
The Republican establishment is nearing full-blown panic about Donald Trump.
The demise of Trump’s candidacy has been predicted by centrist Republicans and the media alike virtually since the day it began. But there is no empirical evidence at all to suggest it is happening.
Last month, the liberal ThinkProgress collated more than 30 predictions of the business mogul’s imminent demise. One typical example was The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart, who discerned “the beginning of the end of Trump” in mid-July, soon after the mogul criticized the Vietnam War record of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)
Despite all that, Trump has led the RealClearPolitics (RCP) polling average in a virtually unbroken spell for four months. The only person to briefly wrest the lead away from him, Dr. Ben Carson, appears to be fading. And numerous polls show Trump drawing double the support of his closest establishment-friendly rival, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)
Add to all this the fact that Trump’s lead over the rest of the GOP field has expanded since the terrorist attacks in Paris, and it becomes clear why anxiety among his many Republican critics is reaching new heights.
“He has a real shot at this. He is the clear front-runner,” said Ron Bonjean, a consultant and former aide to GOP leaders on Capitol Hill.
Adding that “months ago, we all discounted Trump as a candidate,” Bonjean now acknowledged that it seems “safe to assume that he is going to continue with this strong momentum right into Iowa.”
The Iowa caucuses are set for Feb. 1, a little over two months away. Voters tend to pay less attention to politics over the holiday season than at other times, a trend that makes dramatic shifts in the race less likely during that period.
Only one more televised debate will take place before the end of the year, on Dec. 15 in Las Vegas. Beyond that, there will be only one more such clash, in January, four days before the caucuses.
Glenn Harlan Reynolds10:18 a.m. EST November 16, 2015
How can students too spoiled to tolerate debate weigh opposing political arguments? They can’t.
In 1971, the United States ratified the 26th Amendment, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18. In retrospect, that may have been a mistake.
The idea, in those Vietnam War years, was that 18-year-olds, being old enough to be drafted, to marry and to serve on juries, deserved a
vote. It seemed plausible at the time, and I myself have argued that we should set the drinking age at 18 for the same reasons.
But now I’m starting to reconsider. To be a voter, one must be able to participate in adult political discussions. It’s necessary to be able
to listen to opposing arguments and even — as I’m doing right here in this column — to change your mind in response to new evidence.
This evidence suggests that, whatever one might say about the 18-year-olds of 1971, the 18-year-olds of today aren’t up to that
task. And even the 21-year-olds aren’t looking so good.
Ben Carson and Donald Trump are under fire for comments that they saw Muslims celebrating 9-11.
The Washington Post’s fact checker claimed it never happened to which Donald Trump replied thusly:
Via @washingtonpost 9/18/01. I want an apology! Many people have tweeted that I am right! https://wapo.st/1R1siFz
The New York Times quotation is far more damning. Here it is, with our emphasis.
Within hours of the terror attacks, F.B.I. agents hurriedly intercepted telephone calls in which suspected associates of Al Qaeda in the United Stateswere overheard celebrating the attacks. In the following days, agents swept in and arrested them. (New York Times, October 28, 2001, Section 1B; Column 1; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 2).
The Washington Post–the very same paper denying that anyone was celebrating the attacks–reported on September 16, 2011 that Palestinian authorities and the media were working together to stop people from seeing Palestinians celebrating the terrorist attacks. Here’s the relevant quote:
Palestinian officials have told local representatives of foreign news agencies and television stations on several occasions that their employees’ safety could be jeopardized if videotapes showing Palestinianscelebrating the attacks were aired.
By Philip Rucker and Robert Costa November 23 at 1:40 PM
MOBILE, Ala. — Ben Carson journeyed here last week to the buckle of the Bible Belt, where he proclaimed America a “Judeo-Christian nation” and delivered a stern warning to his devoted followers: Show up at the polls on March 1 or face consequences.
On Saturday, Donald Trump again swooped into Alabama, where he has cultivated friendships with immigration hardliners, to rally fans in Birmingham. Sen. Marco Rubio has his eyes on the state, too, recently becoming one of only two candidates (Carson is the other) to submit a full slate of 76 delegates for its primary.
Then there’s Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, whose volunteers have been buzzing around Alabama gathering names of grass-roots opponents to the Common Core education standards. At next weekend’s Alabama-Auburn football game, Cruz’s campaign bus will be parked with free stickers and literature. “The Iron Bowl is a big, big moment in Alabama, and Cruz people will be everywhere,” said Ann Eubank, Cruz’s state co-chair.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is firing a warning shot at the Republican National Committee after it was reported that some establishment Republicans are forming an outside organization to try to harm his candidacy.
In a tweet on Monday, Trump referenced a recent Wall Street Journal article about these anti-Trump efforts, tagging the RNC’s official Twitter account, @GOP, in his complaint.
@WSJ reports that @GOP getting ready to treat me unfairly—big spending planned against me,” Trump tweeted. “That wasn’t the deal!”
The Wall Street Journal report does not say that the RNC is involved. But the story says Liz Mair, the architect of the Trump Card LLC organization described in the article, once worked for the RNC.
Company’s website removed from internet after Thursday report
BY: Alana Goodman
November 23, 2015 5:00 am
The Clinton Foundation’s Colombia-based investment company was not registered as a private equity fund in the country, which may have allowed it to avoid certain industry regulations and oversight from the Colombian government.
Although Fondo Acceso described itself as a “Private Equity Fund” in company promotional materials and business presentations, it is not listed in a database of current or previously registered private equity funds maintained by the Colombian government.
Colombian legal experts consulted by the Free Beacon said that Fondo Acceso did not appear to have violated any laws by calling itself a private equity fund, as long as it was not doing so while trying to raise capital.
According to its corporate records, Fondo Acceso is registered in Colombia as a “simplified stock corporation,” which legal experts said precludes it from doing business as a private equity fund.
Fondo Acceso’s website was also removed from the internet this week, shortly after the Washington Free Beacon reported that the $20 million investment firm was owned by the Clinton Foundation and was run out of the foundation’s office in Bogota.
The website had previously described Acceso as “a Private Equity Fund that seeks investment opportunities in small and medium Colombian compan[ies] with the purpose of obtaining economic and social returns.”
Its website also included a contract for companies seeking investment to fill out, which authorized the release of financial and other internal information to Fondo Acceso and the Clinton Foundation.
Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop owes an apology to all 9/11 victims and should resign immediately!
November 23,2015
PJ Blogger and
Ridgewood NJ, for many 9/11 is a day they will always remember with a sadness but for some it was a day of celebrations . The buildings had not yet fallen , the NY Water Way Ferries will still evacuating people , crowds were gathering along the Hudson and yes some were dancing in the street waving Palestinian flags and celebrating . It happen in Jersey City and in Patterson ,in fact the police kept angry mobs from attacking them . It was witnessed by thousand of people in Hoboken and Jersey City .
The recent attempt to deny Donald Trumps comments is more COWARD historical revisionism . Many of my friends who were still alive saw it with our own eyes. Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop should learn to shut his mouth and not speak about things he is clueless . Over 200 people that I knew died on that day and as they say it is what it is and they did what they did and no amount of lying will change that period. It is vile and unconscionable to lie about the events on 9/11 and Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop owes an apology to all 9/11 victims and should resign immediately! History will not be rewritten for your convenience.
COWARD Mayor blasts Trump’s claims about 9/11 response in Jersey City
NOVEMBER 22, 2015, 4:14 PM LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2015, 6:56 AM
BY LINDA MOSS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop accused Donald Trump on Sunday of “shamefully politicizing” by repeatedly claiming that he saw “thousands” of people cheering on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River when the World Trade Center was destroyed by the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
In one of her first media appearances in nearly a decade, Juanita Broaddrick, the woman who famously accused Bill Clinton of rape, is now speaking out against Hillary Clinton’s candidacy for president.
“Shame on you, Hillary, that’s disgusting,” Broaddrick said of Clinton’s attempt to run for high office in part on women’s issues. “Shame on you, Hillary. It’s time to be truthful,” she added.
Broaddrick was speaking in an interview set to air Sunday night on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio,” the popular weekend talk radio program. An advanced copy of the audio interview was obtained exclusively by Breitbart.
During the exchange with Klein, the notoriously media-shy Broaddrick accused Clinton of complacency in covering up her husband’s alleged sexual crimes and indiscretions.
“I think she has always known everything about him. I think they have this evil compact between the two of them that they each know what the other does and overlook it. And go right on. And cover one for the other,” she said.
She recalled a personal meeting with Hillary in 1978, in which, Broaddrick believes, the future First Lady strongly implied the alleged rape victim must stay silent about her traumatic experience.
Broaddrick said she “almost died” two months ago when she saw a Clinton campaign ad in which Hillary insisted all women must be sided with if they accuse men of sexual assault.
“You have the right to be heard. You have the right to be believed. We’re with you,” Clinton said in the video, which she addressed to “every survivor of sexual assault.”
Broaddrick responded: “Aaron, the only thing that I would like to say is I hope that someday these two people, these people that I feel like are so evil, will be brought to justice.”
“You know, if I can help in that, I will. But these are not good people for America,” she said of Bill and Hillary.
Broaddrick said she was prompted to speak on Klein’s show after she saw Clinton’s Benghazi testimony last month. The show airs on New York’s AM 970 The Answer and Philadelphia’s NewsTalk 990 AM.
“The only thing that made me consider coming forward again at this time at my age is when I saw her on that Benghazi hearing. Which was really hard to look at. I always turn the channel when either one of them are on TV. But when I saw that look on her face. It was the very same look back in 1978. That lying look.”
Broaddrick said she fears for a Hillary presidency because “she lies. Just like she did in the Bengahzi hearing. She lies. She covers up. Just to imagine her in that position would not be good for America.”
Rape allegations. Bloody lip.
Broaddrick’s story begins when she was a nursing home administrator volunteering for then-Arkansas Attorney General Bill Clinton’s 1978 gubernatorial bid.
She said Clinton singled her out during a campaign stop at her nursing home. “He would just sort of insinuate, you know when you are in Little Rock let’s get together. Let’s talk about the industry. Let’s talk about the needs of the nursing homes and I was very excited about that.”
Broaddrick said she finally took Clinton up on that offer in the spring of 1978 when she traveled to Little Rock for an industry convention along with her friend and nursing employee Norma Rogers. The two shared a room at the city’s Camelot Hotel.
Broaddrick phoned Clinton’s campaign headquarters to inform her of her arrival and was told by a receptionist that Clinton had left instructions for her to reach him at his private apartment.
“I called his apartment and he answered,” she recounted. “And he said ‘Well, why don’t we meet in the Camelot Hotel coffee room and we can get together there and talk. And I said ‘That would be fine.’”
Clinton then changed the meeting location from the hotel coffee shop to Broaddrick’s room.
“A time later and I’m not sure how long it was, he called my room, which he said he would do when he got to the coffee shop. And he said ‘There are too many people down here. It’s too crowded. There’s reporters and can we just meet in your room?’”
“And it sort of took me back a little bit, Aaron,” she said of Clinton’s request.
“But I did say okay, I’ll order coffee to the room, which I did and that’s when things sort of got out of hand. And it was very unexpected. It was, you might even say, brutal. With the biting of my lip.”
Broaddrick said she did not want to rehash the alleged rape scene, explaining those painful details are fully available in previous news reports.
She told NBC’s Dateline in 1999 that she resisted when Clinton suddenly kissed her:
Then he tries to kiss me again. And the second time he tries to kiss me he starts biting my lip … He starts to, um, bite on my top lip and I tried to pull away from him. And then he forces me down on the bed. And I just was very frightened, and I tried to get away from him and I told him ‘No,’ that I didn’t want this to happen but he wouldn’t listen to me. … It was a real panicky, panicky situation. I was even to the point where I was getting very noisy, you know, yelling to ‘Please stop.’ And that’s when he pressed down on my right shoulder and he would bite my lip. … When everything was over with, he got up and straightened himself, and I was crying at the moment and he walks to the door, and calmly puts on his sunglasses. And before he goes out the door he says ‘You better get some ice on that.’ And he turned and went out the door.”
In the interview with Klein, Broaddrick recounted the aftermath of the incident, when her friend Rogers came back to the room after Broaddrick failed to show up to the convention.
“I was in a state of shock afterwards,” an emotional Broaddrick said, clearly still impacted by the event. “And I know my nurse came back to the room to check on me because she hadn’t heard from me …She came up and it was devastating to her and to me to find me in the condition that I was in.”
“We really did not know what to do. We sat and talked and she got ice for my mouth. …It was four times the size that it should be. And she got ice for me and we decided then I just wanted to go home. I just wanted to get out of there, which we did.”
The detail about Clinton allegedly biting her lip is instructive. One woman who would later say she had a consensual affair with Clinton, former Miss America pageant winner Elizabeth Ward Gracen, would also reveal Clinton bit her lip when a tryst became rough.
Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie on Sunday continued his assault on the White House’s approach to admitting Syrian refugees into the United States.
“The FBI director himself said they cannot vet these folks,” Christie told Jake Tapper in an interview Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
The New Jersey governor has drawn criticism for his opposition to taking any refugees in his state, even widows and “orphans under five.”
Everyone from President Obama to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio have gone after Christie for his remarks. The issue has been in the spotlight as Congress considers a bill to restrict Syrian immigration in the wake of the terror attacks in Paris.
The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has taken credit for the attacks, which killed about 130 people, and reports have since emerged suggesting at least one of the attackers may have entered Europe by using a Syrian passport.
Ridgewood NJ, A United Flight bound for Boston with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was on board was delayed nearly six hours and each passenger was individually searched.
United Airlines Flight 1108 was supposed to take off from San Francisco at 8:32 a.m. and everyone was on the plane, preparing for takeoff. The aircraft was on the runway when the pilot announced they were returning to the gate for “operational difficulties.” ( https://www.myfoxboston.com/story/30570940/gov-christie-reportedly-threatened-on-plane-bound-for-boston )
The plane returned to the gate and they kept everyone on board for about 45 minutes. Then passengers were taken off five at a time to be checked. Every person was individually searched and some were cotton swabbed.
Gov. Christie was on the plane, heading to an event in New Hampshire. Spokesperson Maria Comella said that a passenger was removed from the plane before takeoff at the request of United Airlines, but Gov. Christie never interacted with him.
FOX25 is reporting that a male passenger was attempting to take photos of female flight crew members and someone from Christie’s staff noticed and said something.
“I’m proud of the fact that, you know, folks on my staff observed it and let the flight crew know, so all the credit goes to them, not to me,” Christie said again FOX25.
A Christie Staffer put out a press release stating , “Governor Christie, an aide and a member of his security detail were traveling on a United flight from San Francisco to Boston this morning when a passenger was removed from the plane before takeoff at the request of United Airlines,” Chris Christie campaign spokesperson Maria Comella explained in a statement. “At no point did Governor Christie interact with this passenger nor did this passenger pose a verbal or physical threat to the Governor. Any other inquiries about this matter should be directed to United Airlines.”
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