This and That...

[Warph]

Video: U.S. Delta Force Team Nabs Top Al-Qaeda Operative Anas Al-Libi In Libya

(Pretty bad ass if you ask me)

Via WaPo:

After dawn prayers Oct. 5, Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, a wanted al-Qaeda terrorism suspect, returned to his family's home in Tripoli, Libya.

He stopped his car in front of the house, which was nestled in an affluent neighborhood in the coastal city. It was 6:38 a.m. and still dark.

A white van trailing Ruqai pulled alongside his car. Then at least three men, with guns drawn, jumped out of the van as another car blocked Ruqai's escape while a third idled down the street.

The men yanked Ruqai, also known as Anas al-Libi, out of his car and threw him in the van, according to a video of the abduction obtained by The Washington Post. The video, from a closed-circuit camera in the neighborhood, provides a rare glimpse of a U.S. covert operation and also captures some of the bewildered reaction in Ruqai's home once he had disappeared.

Ruqai's detention immediately became international news and was unusual because of the involvement of the U.S. military in the kind of operation traditionally carried out by the CIA with foreign partners.

Less than two minutes after the Libyan was first cornered, American Special Operations forces sped away with the suspect and his vehicle. Ruqai was taken to a Libyan military base and then to the USS San Antonio, an American warship, waiting off the coast in the Mediterranean Sea.

Ruqai's arrest, carried out in a joint operation by the CIA, the FBI and the U.S. Army's elite Delta Force, ended a 13-year hunt for a man once thought to be close to Osama bin Laden. Ruqai is accused of participating in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa, which resulted in more than 200 deaths.

[Warph]

Atheist Group Demands School Stop Allowing Students
To Help Starving Children In

Haiti

(Militant atheists are their own worst enemy)

GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — Alliance Defending Freedom sent a letter Friday to Robbinsdale Area Schools after an atheist group complained about students participating in a community service project at a church to pack meals for needy families in Haiti.

"Public schools should encourage students to participate in as many community service opportunities as possible. The Constitution does not prohibit students from cooperating with a religious organization to help starving families, which is not any sort of government endorsement of religion," said Legal Counsel Matt Sharp. "Neutrality toward religion does not permit schools to discriminate against beneficial programs simply because they are run by Christians. That is not neutrality but the very hostility toward religion that the First Amendment forbids."

Students at the School of Engineering and Arts recently visited Calvary Lutheran Church to participate in a volunteer program sponsored by Feed My Starving Children, a non-profit organization run by Christians that seeks to eliminate world hunger for children. As part of the program, students prepared pre-packed meals that would be sent to malnourished children across the globe and did not engage in any religious activities.

The Alliance Defending Freedom letter explains that "public schools may constitutionally work with religious charities to provide food or other secular goods and services to impoverished children." Moreover, the letter states, "Courts have consistently upheld instances where schools cooperated with religious organizations...where they had a valid educational purpose for doing so."

"The School has not promoted any religious aspect of the church or the non-profit organization," the letter adds. "Nor can AHA point to any such evidence. The School simply chose to cooperate with a local charity to do nothing more than prepare meals for impoverished children. The School is not advancing religion at all."

[Warph]

Where Is Obuma's Outrage Over Afghan "War On Women?"

(It is a local matter)

Via Allen B. West

As we wind down operations in Afghanistan the question is, "did we make any difference?" Sure, Osama bin Laden is dead — then again so is Saddam Hussein and his sons Uday and Qusay, but al-Qaida is in control of western Iraq's al-Anbar province. During my time in Iraq and Afghanistan, I remember the most difficult thing for many of us to stomach was the treatment of women.

The most rewarding sight for me during my two-and-a-half years in Afghanistan was watching little girls in their uniforms walking off to school. Nothing infuriated me more than reading reports about a Taliban attack against a girls' school — funny thing, you never heard about that in any liberal media reports. How many front pages were dedicated to Abu Gharaib by the New York Times? And these liberals want us to take them seriously when they start droning on about a damn "war on women?" I have seen it with my own eyes, and it is repulsive.

So as we prepare to depart Afghanistan, and President Obama is more concerned with campaign promises and politics, I must ask, what will happen to the women of Afghanistan?

[Ross]

[Warph]

Free beer in Sochi, if you're Canadian

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2556668/Cheers-Canadian-Sochi-Olympians-able-beer-vending-machine-scan-PASSPORTS.html

Watch out, Olympians. The Canadians have their very own fleet of beer fridges at their Olympic house.

And it really is just for them.

The fridges inside Canada Olympic House, which contain Molson Canadian products, can only be opened by scanning a Canadian passport. To give you a better picture, the brewer tweeted a photo of someone using one of the contraptions:

(Such a clever way of them to keep non-Canadians away from their beer)

As you can watch in the 90-second video below, this isn't the first time Molson tried out their Canadians-only beer fridge. Last summer, a TV campaign by Rethink Canada introduced the clever idea by placing the bright red refrigerators in random European locations. Many foreigners made attempts at opening the refrigerators, but only those with Canadian ID had the power of unleashing the beer within.

[Ross]

[Warph]

There's a Powerful New Ad on TV About Work Narrated by Mike Rowe (Dirty Jobs)

(That ad reminded me of "Atlas Shrugged."  If this WalMart works and Mike Rowe's offer to do ads for other companies comes to pass, our country could recover quickly.  The bottom line is US buying products made in USA.  They can't be shoddy crap, though, the way they were when we turned to foreign-made goods.  Also, we have to push for reduced or eliminated govt regulations and let the market decide which winning manufacturers to reward.

I have also been a fan of Mike for some time.  I admire his pragmatic approach to problem solving, on both the personal level (helping young people with job skills training) and on the larger level he is advocating here.  If we leave behind, for even just a little while, our automatic devotion to our preferred ideology, we might find solutions.

This last sentence was a hard statement for me.  I like my viewpoint, and for the most part I am profoundly opposed to compromise on principles.  I don't see what he is advocating here as compromise, but common sense.  Companies respond to the dollar, and what they believe will bring consumers to them)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mike Rowe, Walmart, and the return of American Manufacturing

February 13, 2014

I like Mike Rowe.  I've been following him on Facebook for a while now, and he seems to be a practical, logical guy who loves this country.

This past week, Mike has been involved in a controversy over a commercial voice-over that he did for Walmart that ran the other night during the coverage of the Olympics.    Here's the video, called, "I am A Factory", in case you missed it (I did):

The video is part of an initiative by Walmart called "Work Is a Beautiful Thing."  As Mike says:

The commercial features real people doing real work in real factories all across America. It's not very glamorous, but it's honest and authentic, and I was honored to narrate it.

The result of this is that many people are calling for Mike Rowe's head.  Apparently, they hate Walmart, and have concluded that he is a sell-out who has abandoned the "little guy".

If you want to read the first essay that Mike wrote about it, here is the link to Mike Rowe's Facebook Page.  https://www.facebook.com/TheRealMikeRowe

After a day or so, he did another post that I think explains his position as well as it can be.  I agree with him completely.  This country needs to get back to its manufacturing base, in my opinion, and anybody who will help it along is on my side.  I have never been a big Walmart shopper or booster, but if they are willing to commit a quarter trillion dollars to U.S. manufacturers, then I am on their team.  Here is his second post:

Clean-up In Aisle Four!

This whole Walmart thing. Wow. Just...wow.
If you're just tuning in, here's a brief timeline.

- Last week, I did the voiceover for a commercial that announced Walmart's commitment to purchase 250 billion dollars of American made goods and put them onto their shelves.

- This Saturday, the commercial ran during The Olympics, and people started talking. Some of the talk wasn't very pretty.

- Sunday evening, I opened a bottle of Whistle Pig, and responded to a few of my detractors. I attempted to clarify a few things. By midnight, the Whistle Pig was badly depleted and I was very sleepy. So I hit "post," and went to bed.

- Several hours later, I woke up to use the bathroom. (Sad, that I had to. Glad, that I woke up first.) On the way back to bed, I saw that my laptop was still open. I glanced at this page, and saw that over a million people had read your questions and my answers. Holy Crap.

The next morning, I awakened to the kind of chaos that simply wasn't possible before social media. No less than a dozen requests from various news outlets asking me to appear as soon as possible. Urgent messages to return calls from people I didn't know. Angry messages from certain acquaintances. Lots of encouragement from unexpected sources.

I was tied up all day, and unable to respond to the media requests. But the press waits for no one. Articles about our little Q&A began to pop up everywhere. There was this.
http://www.thenewamerican.com/economy/commentary/item/17606-mike-rowe-touches-the-third-rail-of-retailing-walmart

And this. http://www.babble.com/entertainment/mike-rowe-and-walmart/

And this. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/02/10/who-gives-a-crap-about-your-feelings-towards-walmart-mike-rowes-fiery-2648-word-response-to-his-recent-haters/#

CNN even did a story about me...without me.

That brings us to the present. 4,000 comments and counting. I've read them all. Thanks. And since you're still reading, allow me to free-associate a bit further. Because if the press is still interested in this topic next week, I'll fly to NY and make the rounds. Consider this a rehearsal of my talking points. As always, your suggestions are welcomed.
He goes on a bit and then says this:

- The mikeroweWORKS Foundation is in the business of partnering with any company that wants to see American manufacturing revitalized. If Walmart asks me to do more commercials like this, I will. Likewise Ford. Or Chevy. Or Lowe's. Or Home Depot. Or George Soros. Or The Koch Brothers. Or The Sultan of Brunei. I really don't really about where the investment is coming from, as long as it's getting the US back to the business of making things. Because there is simply nothing more important to the future of the country.

- It's a hell of a thing when someone you really don't like suddenly does something that you actually agree with. At base, I think that's what's happening here. A lot of people who have fallen in love with hating Walmart are now wrestling with what the shrinks call "cognitive dissonance." Regarding a 250 billion dollar investment in American manufacturing, the choices are simple – a) continue to condemn them for whatever you like to condemn them for, b) offer support and encouragement, or, c) shoot the messenger.

Try, for the moment, to forget what you think you know about Walmart.  I encourage you to read the rest of his post, and the comments.  See the link to Mike's Facebook page (above).

Here is a list of YouTube Walmart videos for their campaign, "Work is a beautiful thing":

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=walmart+work+is+a+beautiful+thing&sm=3

P.S.:  While shopping on Amazon for boots the other day, I noticed that you can now select shoes (and other products too) that are "made in usa".  That's a step in the right direction, in my opinion.  And yes, I bought some boots "made in usa".

We should make an effort to Buy American whenever we can, even go out of our way, or pay a little more, if we can, and it is necessary.  We can't expect companies like Walmart and Amazon to carry American-made goods if we aren't willing to buy them.  That's the bottom line.

By the way, I find it odd that many of the same people who condemn Walmart have no problem buying Apple products that are made by people in China working under less than ideal conditions.

[Warph]

Mitt Romney on Obuma's Many Lies: They Have
"Seriously Eroded His Capacity to Lead"

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Former Governor Mitt Romney joined Megyn Kelly Thursday to discuss the current political environment in the country.

Megyn Kelly: Do you believe the American people should trust this president?

Mitt Romney: Well, I believe they've lost the confidence they've had in him. I think one of the great things you have as a leader of a country is a confidence of a people and a belief that what you are telling them is the truth. And, I think that during the campaign and in the months afterward the president consistently said that if people have insurance they like they can keep it. They can keep their doctor. Prices weren't going to go up. These things turned out not to be true. And I think the breach of that promise is something that has very seriously eroded the president's capacity to lead.

(Yeah, it kinda sucks when people find out you're a serial liar)

[Warph]

DISABLED ARMY VET Attacked by Mob of Black Nigger Teens Screaming "Knock This White Boy Out"

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Disabled Army veteran Matthew Robinson was attacked by a mob of black teens while riding a bus in Cleveland.
The youths were screaming, "Knock that boy out!" and "Cracker!"
Via FOX Nation:

19 Action News reported:

There's evidence of more violent teens running around the heart of downtown Cleveland.

A disabled Army vet spoke out about the latest attack that happened Friday, Feb. 7, 2014.

Matthew Robinson told our Ed Gallek he was riding RTA's Healthline when six to eight teenagers surrounded him on the bus, and then started following him.

Then, he said they attacked, took his stuff, and videotaped what they were doing.

The incident went down at 6th and Euclid, and the crowd scattered when cops showed up.

Robinson told 19 Action News, "What they were saying was, 'Knock that boy out!' 'White boy.' 'Cracker.' They were saying, 'Knock that white boy out.'

[Ross]

The IRS of Barack Obama: even more weaponized

By TH on February 13, 2014

Lie or be charged with perjury

On Tuesday of this week we learned that, during a press briefing, The IRS of Barack Obama issued the following diktat.

Lie or the IRS will charge you with perjury.

This is the stuff of Kafka and only one major media outlet has covered it. If you tell the truth you will be punished, if you lie, we will let that stand as truth  (unless we change our minds, in which case you will be punished.)

Fox News–of course it's Fox News, the legacy media is covering gay football players–has the details.

"Obama officials made clear in a press briefing that firms would not be allowed to lay off workers to get into the preferred class of those businesses with 50 to 99 employees. How will the feds know what employers were thinking when hiring and firing? Simple. Firms will be required to certify to the IRS – under penalty of perjury – that ObamaCare was not a motivating factor in their staffing decisions."

Welcome to Omerica, where you say exactly what the IRS of Barack Obama tells you to say

orwellIn totalitarian re-programming centers, interrogators would hold up five fingers to a prisoner. "How many fingers am I holding up?" they would ask. If the prisoner told the truth–"there are five fingers"–they would be beaten by their jailers. That would continue until the prisoner finally said whatever the interrogator told them to say. An episode of Star Trek dramatized this well; in Obama's Omerica, perhaps TV melodramas are a better source of truth than the legacy media.

Even based upon the standards of Barack Obama's Omerica, telling Americans what to say is a stunning and illegal diktat. Maybe it's just me, but didn't I read something on Fox News (oh, yeah, right wing wackos, so take it with a grain of salt) about something called the First Amendment to the Constitution? This diktat from the IRS of Barack Obama is a direct violation of that.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

Barack Obama announced that firms–owned and run by sovereign human beings–cannot adjust their cost structures in response to ObamaCare, which was once a law, and is now just a set of whims from the Exalted One. He has decided he can bankrupt a business; if they cannot afford the law, but cannot adjust their cost structures to avoid it, what else would happen? Barack Obama has the solution to the problem he caused: Obama will force the management to lie–"it wasn't ObamaCare that caused this adjustment." By being forced to lie, business owners open themselves up to even more harassment from the IRS. If Barack Obama or Valarie Jarrett or any other Obamaton should ever choose to point out the obvious–"Hell, yes it was ObamaCare that forced you to fire people"–the IRS can prosecute the business owner for telling a lie the IRS forced him to tell.

In America the truth is what the government tells you the truth is (and it is entirely open to change without notice.)

But, how can this be important enough for the legacy media to cover? I mean, there is a gay man–a GAY man–entering the NFL Draft! Now, that's real news.

The "law" is whatever pops out of my mouth at a press conference or golf course

The illegality of this government goes even further. Barack Obama isn't just using the IRS to force people to say what he wants them to, he is breaking his own law and violating his oath of office–not that such things matter in the post-constitutional era of Omerica, but, humor us–, while forcing Americans to adjust to his electorally-motivated mutations of what used to be a law.

The law is what Obama speaks it to be. ObamaCare is the most aptly nicknamed law diktat in history. This ... thing is a series of whims issued from the perfumed hand of a single person, an Oz, if you will. Barack Obama, in absolute violation of Article Two of the United States Constitution, decided he can break his own law with a series of edits he feels like making.

Article II of the United States Constitution states, in part: "He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States."

When the law is what one man wants it to be there is no country or people or democracy, there is rule by one man. There is his will and his subjects.

This is hope and change?

Someone–anyone?–can defend this?

The Establishment GOP is completely irrelevant

Have you seen the quick and smart reaction from the Republican establishment in D.C.? Neither have we. No one will.

The on-going criminal conspiracy that is the Obama administration is of little concern for people who have an election to win.

If the GOP in D.C. wanted to, they could do the following:

1. Issue a press release signed by the Chairmen of the RNC, RGA, NRCC, NRSC, the House and Senate GOP caucus chairs stating that the IRS diktat is illegal and any business the IRS tries to pressure with this diktat will be afforded Whistle Blower status by the House Republicans ... they DO control the votes in the house! They could echo that statement on all of their social media channels and send their surrogates on TV to explain it.

2. Call the leaders of the IRS in front of the proper committees–not to question then, because they will simply lie–but, to tell them, point blank, face to face and on screen that no American will have pushed upon them such a blatantly illegal diktat.

3. Put out another public statement signed by the Chairmen of RNC, RGA, NRCC, NRSC, the House and Senate GOP caucuses, addressed to all business owners in America, that the IRS diktat is null and void.

They could do that, but they won't.

What can you do?

Call your representatives in Congress today–202-224-3121–and tell them that this is the last straw for you. Unless they stand up, right now, you are done with them and will vote only for people whom have never been tarnished by serving in that pit of slime called Congress. You will vote only for people who are as angry and disgusted as you are and who will take their oath to protect our freedoms seriously at every turn.

Why must you act?
Does this image seem like an exaggeration given what you just read?




http://buzzpo.com/the-irs-of-barack-obama/