As Children Are Forced To Dance With The Devil (Boko Haram)---What Took Us So Long To Act?

Islamist terrorist have zeroed in on what they regard as a mortal threat: girls going to school...NY Post

• I---as well as many others---have been raising the alarm about children being kidnapped and murdered by Islamist. Last August, I wrote a piece entitled, "Our Anemic Response To Islamist Contributions To Peace: One Christian Body At A Time." And last month, I reinforced the earlier piece with one entitled: "As Islamist Continue To Stack One Body On Other, Our Media Remains Largely Silent."
• All of that changed last month when Boko Haram kidnapped almost 300 school girls from a government girls secondary school in Nigeria. And earlier this week, one of the leaders of Boko Haram said the girls would be sold into slavery. "I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market...There is a market for selling humans. Allah said I should sell. He commands me to sell. I sell women. I sell women," said the thug claiming to be the leader.
• According to intelligence sources, Boko Haram is a terrorist group that has received training from al-Qaeda. This terrorist group of human filth has been terrorizing mostly Christians for over a decade (they were founded in 2002). They've murdered thousands of people at schools, villages, government buildings, and churches. In this most recent attack, in addition to kidnapping the girls, 16 other people were murdered. In the last two years alone, they've been responsible for about 30 terrorist attacks including the killing of students at other schools and bus bombings. If you're so inclined, you can read a listing of the crimes committed by these beasts in the two posts I referenced above.
• So with all of this information and disturbing history, you can imagine my surprise (perhaps I should not have been surprised considering her own history) when The Daily Beast (a left-of-center publication) reported yesterday that Hillary Clinton had refused to brand Boko Haram a terrorist group when she was Secretary of State. In fact, the piece by Josh Rogin begins: "The State Department under Hillary Clinton fought hard against placing the al-Qaeda linked militant group Boko Haram on its official list of foreign terrorist organizations for two years." (By the way, you can always identify a progressive rag when they refer to terrorists as "militants"). As of this week, the good news is we are providing some assistance to the Nigerian government especially in the form of intelligence. Drones anyone?

Climate Change Now The New "Big Distraction" From The Obama Administration's Scandals + Blunders

Global Warming May Be Irreversible By 2006...In The Onion in 2011

• I'm one of those people who doesn't know who should be believed when it comes to climate change. The misinformation and disinformation is both disturbing and overwhelming. However, I do lean to being skeptical considering Al Gore has been one of the "leaders" in this controversy. It's also been interesting to me that the activists now refer to global warming as climate change. Climate changes every second. The question is: are we responsible for it?  There's been global warming and cooling going back billions of years prior to any human footprints or tire track disturbing the earth's soil. So you decide.
• But that's not the main point of this post today. It's clear that the Obama administration and the complicit media have glomed on to the climate change train to divert attention from the administration's many scandals and blunders. This week it's to divert attention from the Benghazi scandal. We watched the Obama administration make use of these diversions and distractions for the last six years. For example, during the campaign, they threw out a variety of cultural-war diversions from class warfare to gender warfare. Romney was a bully {the opposition went back 40 years accusing him of attacking an alleged gay student}. Harry Reid, the most miserable prick in Congress and bold-faced liar, accused Romney of not paying taxes for years {he did and donated more money to charity than the combined salaries of almost every senator}. The Washington Post declared Reid a liar with that assertion. They even attacked Romney for being wealthy. In other words, it's okay for someone like Oprah, a democrat to be one of the wealthiest women in the world, but Romney---he's a bad guy.
• And the complicit media has been doing its best covering for the Obama administration for the last 6 years. One doesn't have to go back six years. In the last several months, MSNBC and CNN have been obsessed with either Bridgegate or the missing Malaysian aircraft while they barely touched any of the major scandals surrounding this administration.

How Is A Nation To Respond To Lying By The Political Class That Leads To Americans Dying?

"I have certain rules I live by. My first rule: I don't believe anything my government tells me." The late, great comedian George Carlin

• With Benghazi finally getting the attention it deserves (it's been trending on Twitter for days), it brings to mind an important question: How is a nation to respond to lying by the political class that leads to Americans dying? And Benghazi is just one example. The new revelations regarding the VA is another of many, but I'll get to that in a moment.
• With the new email revelations regarding Benghazi, it now appears the administration---along with its complicit media---shifted the focus from its failed foreign policy to blame the attack on an inconspicuous video. And it also appears that was done to ensure Pres. Obama was re-elected (by the way, if you want a good summary of what we knew about the attack and what we now know, feel free to visit my 9/23/13 post on it).
• But if that wasn't enough, it got much worse. In addition to the apparent cover-up and stone-walling by the administration, then Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, told the families of the fallen the same false story: that their death was the result of an obscure anti-Muslim video. In other words, they told them a lie regarding the circumstances of their deaths because the administration already knew the truth (that is wasn't).
• And the depictions of betrayal and deceit did not end with Benghazi. We now also know the first impulse of this administration has been to lie. We've seen this unconscionable behavior from Benghazi to Obamacare to the IRS and even to our foreign policy.
• But now we're also seeing it manifested by the Veteran's Administration. Last month, a retired VA doctor blew the whistle on the VA in Phoenix, Arizona. He charged that the medical center purposely evaded legal requirements that veterans be seen in a timely fashion (In the late 1990's, Congress passed legislation requiring veterans be seen within 30 days of needing an appointment. The General Accounting Office reported that the waiting period has been a problem since the legislation was enacted. (I have to mention my own experience with a particular VA has generally been good with few exceptions including long waits in the waiting rooms and the fact that I've seldom been seen by a physician. More often than not, it's been a nurse practitioner. However,  I have to admit, she's good and gives me a lot of personal attention and time).
• Charges have now arisen that at least 40 veterans died at the Phoenix VA largely due to the secret waiting list exposed by the former VA physician. And it's not been the first time. In their piece, "Hospital Delays Are Killing America's War Vets" CNN reported similar problems at VA medical centers in Augusta, GA and Columbia, SC. Last year, in my Dedicated To Heroes blog, I reported about the back-log of VA disability claims. At the time, the back-log was about 600,000. The VA reports it's now down to under 400,000 but critics---including veteran organizations---are charging the decrease in numbers is the result of the VA denying more applications for disability.
• So I ask again. With these new revelations:  How is a nation to respond to a political class whose first impulse is to lie---even as Americans die as a direct or indirect result of those lies?

Postscript: 

Progressives Keep Flashing The Race Card As They Continue To Subjugate Minorities Into Failing Schools + No Jobs

Report: Our High Schools Might Not Adequately Prepare Dropouts For Unemployment...The Onion

• Progressives have a lot of cards in their deck. But the card they enjoy dealing out with relish is the race card. In the last month, the race card has been dealt repeatedly during the Sterling and Bundy episodes. 
• However, along with the gender, sexual orientation, and income inequality cards, perhaps the race card illustrates perfectly their striking hypocrisy. This has been clearly in evidence in many urban school districts where many minority students have been subjugated to failing and segregated schools for decades. As I reported several months ago, in New York City alone, at 53 schools, no African American students passed the state's recent math exams. At 48 schools, no Hispanics passed the same test. Similar data was found in other schools and in other studies, e.g. English language proficiency. In fact, in 69 schools, English proficiency was 3% or less. This achievement gap is conspicuous even on the national level. For example, drop-out rates for minority students in Trenton, N.J. is approximately 60%, in Baltimore it's 65%, in Cleveland it's also about 65%. 

• And this is certainly unfortunate and a disgrace considering the facts reveal that most minorities excel in good performing schools.  For example, in NYC Catholic parochial schools, minority graduation rates are almost 100% with 98% moving on to college (NYC Catholic parochial schools minority population stands at approximately 15%). And while there are some charter schools that perform no better than public schools, there are many charters that outperform their public school counterparts. Success Academy had 82% of its students passing the state's math exams. For the public schools, it was 30%. In other words, minority students learn well because they are at many other schools outside of the public school system. In addition, many of the better performing schools are not hamstrung by union contracts or the overwhelming bureaucracy found in the public school system. This fact was substantiated by Fahari Academy in NYC. It's a charter completely staff by the United Federation of Teachers. It was rated the single-worst school in the entire city. After Fahari unionized, only 7% passed the English state test down from 40% the previous year. In math, the students didn't perform much better with only 10% passing, down from 60% the previous year.
• And the jobs picture is not much better for minorities. Most recent data from the Department of Labor reports that unemployment among blacks is about 13% or double the rate among whites. Among Hispanics, the rate hovers around 9%. And the rates among minority youth---depending on the geographic area---exceed 50%.
• In the face of all this failure, total expenditures to elementary and secondary schools amount to about $640B a year or $12,800 per public school student. Since the start of the recession, the federal government has spent over $11B on just one jobs program (The Workforce Investment Act). The feds have approximately 50 federal employment and training programs that cost the American taxpayer $18B a year.
• As you review this data, you also need to know that, on average, school superintendents earn approximately $162,000 per year. Teachers about $55,000.00. In addition, in many states, retired school administrators still ride the gravy train funded by taxpayers. In California alone, those receiving pensions exceeding $100K a year rose by 650% between 2005 and 2011.

• So as progressives keep flashing the race card (keep in mind, most city governments that are failing are run by progressive democrats), it's they who continue to subjugate minorities into failing schools and no jobs. It's clear who is failing. It's even clearer who is suffering.

Sources for this post include, but are not limited to, The NY Post, The NY Daily News, The Labor Department, The NY Times, CATO Institute, Great Schools, Dept. of Education, and Institute of Education Sciences.

Dude! The Obama Administration Wouldn't Do That...But They Did

When the Benghazi emails were released, the president was out of the country. Now he's back and the story is too old for him to comment on...Jay Carnie Tweet

• There was some good news today. The leadership of the House announced their intention to form a select committee to investigate Benghazi. It will also be chaired by Trey Gowdy.

• Last night, Bret Baier of Fox, one of the finest journalist out there (not only my opinion, the opinion of those who respect good journalism), interviewed former White House NSC spokesperson Tommy Vietor about Benghazi. Vietor was at the White House during the 2012 attack on the consulate. When pressed by Baier on several key issues, this little twerp replied: "Dude, this is like two years ago." It appears he was following the lead of Hillary Clinton who spouted, "What difference at this point does it make?" when she was also questioned about Benghazi during Congressional testimony last year.
• History is replete with examples of governments doing bad things and subsequently trying to cover up those scandals and major blunders. Our government has not been an exception. Nixon and Bill Clinton come immediately to mind. Nevertheless,  under this administration, they've taken making blunders and scandals to an art form. Yet, I often ask myself: Our government and administration wouldn't do that, would they? 
• But they did. Put in charge of the Treasury Department a guy who didn't pay his own taxes.
• But they did. Bowed to foreign leaders. And even told the president of Russia that he would have "more flexibility" after the election. We now know how that one turned out. The administration gave up any leverage they might have had with Russia by that one absurd statement.
• But they did. For the first time in American history, our nation's credit rating was downgraded.
• But they did. Appointed a self-avowed Communist and 9/11 Truther as Green Jobs Czar.
• But they did. Vowed to end lobbyist influence in Washington while their influence has only increased during this administration's tenure.
• But they did. In Fast and Furious, this administration sponsored an illegal gun-running program. They actually gave Mexican drug cartels over 2000 weapons. They subsequently lost track of most of those weapons. And at least one of those weapons was responsible for the murder of one of OUR Border Patrol Agents, Brian Terry.

The Knee-Pad Presstitutes In The Media Keep Steering The News From The Truth

Insecure Brian Williams Only One Who Doesn't Trust Brian Williams For Latest News...The Onion

• More and more rational viewers of the news know that most media outlets in this country have abdicated their ethical responsibility and duty to report the truth. Just turn on a network like MSNBC. It's clear it's become a mouthpiece for the government as well as a haven for lunatics. The same can be said for many of the other alphabet networks as well as the print media like The NY Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Post and countless others across the nation. And while there are many outlets that lean to the right, the difference between the two is that a free press is suppose to hold governments accountable. Most conservative publications do that. Most progressive publications do not. In fact, progressive publications have a tendency to actually be mouthpieces for the government. 

• Michael Goodwin pointed this out recently when he wrote: "...Obama has not lacked for lackeys...The system broke down under Obama, and the blame starts with the media. By giving the president the benefit of the doubt at every turn, by making excuses to explain away fiascoes, by ignoring corruption, by buying the White House line that his critics were motivated by pure politics or racism, the Times and other organizations played the role of bartender to a man on a bender..." This was clearly in evidence during the 2012 presidential campaign. Pew Research reported that MSNBC reported no negative stories about the Obama administration even in the face of high unemployment, historically high rates of poverty, countless scandals and a failed foreign policy. We witnessed similar lack of reporting from many of the main stream news networks.
• In other words, as the Obama administration and its enablers in Congress drew red lines through American jobs, the economy,  healthcare, power, exceptionalism, security and prestige, most in the complicit media remained silent. For example, does any observer of the media actually believe they didn't know of the plethora of lies that emanated from the White House regarding Obamacare? Does anyone believe the media didn't know the initial claims by the White House regarding the attack on the consulate in Benghazi were bold-faced lies? (newly released emails this week counter the claims made by the administration that the anti-Muslim video was the reason for the attack.  But we knew that already). Newsbusters is reporting now that NBC News gave a whopping 28 seconds of coverage to the recently released Benghazi emails and The Washington Post didn't even do a story (The New York Times and WSJ did albeit deeper in the newspapers).
• And perhaps no where was this more evident than in the Gosnell and Zimmerman murder trials. With Gosnell, the lack of coverage by the national media was so conspicuous USA Today could no longer avoid the embarrassment. They were forced to publish a piece entitled: "Media Late To Coverage Of Abortion Doctor's Trial." Keep in mind, this doctor was one of the most prolific  murderers in the United States. He was subsequently convicted on 3 counts of first-degree murder. On the other hand, the media couldn't wait to get involved in the Zimmerman/Travon case. So much so, NBC News was accused of altering the 911 tape.
• And I'm obliged to mention more disgraceful lack of reporting by the mainstream media. By now, even tribesmen and women in the deep rain forests of Brazil know what Donald Sterling did. But did you know that Democrat Congressman Bennie Thompson called Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas an "Uncle Tom." The networks completely ignored this story. By the way, don't these nitwits every get tired of mouthing the same ignorant and old cliches?
• And their sins of omission continue. NBC News didn't even report on their OWN poll that showed Mr. Obama's numbers are taking a deep dive.
• And remember, one major new organization still employs this guy:

• As well as this guy:

Postscript:

Since this was posted, MSNBC managed to try to turn ISIS and Ebola into race issues. And Gruber did to Obamacare what the media should have done 3 years ago.  In addition, the media keeps perpetuating false narratives about Ferguson and the NYPD.

John F. Kerry: Proves Over And Over Again He's An Arrogant, Self-Righteous, Deceitful And Disgraceful Fool

John Kerry Lost Somewhere In Gobi Desert...The Onion

• Those of you who read my work on a regular basis know how much I hold John F. Kerry in contempt. In short, it's largely because he's a fake, phony and back-stabbing fraud. From his maligning of ALL Vietnam Veterans over 4 decades ago to his being completely and hopelessly bewildered in all areas of foreign policy, he still doesn't get it. For example, as our foreign policy kept unraveling, this putz actually went to the UN in February and demanded more action on climate change. In fact, he likened climate change to terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.
• He's also the back-stabbing, two-bit, sleazebag politician who was making a case to attack Iraq because "the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real."  He said that on January 3, 2003. In fact, he was on record on several occasions from 1998 to 2003 urging Clinton and Bush to take action against Iraq. In September of 2004 when he was campaigning against George W. Bush, Kerry proclaimed in his usual pompous way: "It's the wrong war---in the wrong place, at the wrong time."
• So does it come as any surprise that Kerry would fall to yet another diplomatic low? Earlier this week, it was reported he said if Israel doesn't make peace it might become an "apartheid state." And to prove how arrogant and contemptible this jerk is he tried to apologize by saying this: "I will not allow my commitment to Israel to be questioned.? I will not allow? WTF does that mean you arrogant little putz? All he had to say was he was sorry. The "apartheid" statement was so embarrassing even Barbara Boxer and several other key progressive democrats blasted Kerry for his remark.