Gangsta! Suge Knight, Hip-Hop Executive, Shot at Pre-VMAs Party in WeHo (VIDEO)

At Fox News, "Rap mogul Suge Knight injured in shooting at pre-VMA party."

And at LAT, "Suge Knight, 2 others shot at Chris Brown party on Sunset Strip," and "Chris Brown party shooting: Another chapter in the life of Suge Knight."

Peter Theo Curtis, Kidnapped American Journalist, Freed in Syria (VIDEO)

Al-Nusra Front released him.

At the Boston Globe, "American man with Mass. ties released in Syria":

An American journalist and author with Boston-area ties has been freed by his Al Qaeda-affiliated captors after nearly two years of imprisonment in Syria.

Peter Theo Curtis, 45, is on his way home after being released by the Syrian Al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Al-Nusrah and handed over to United Nations forces in an Israeli-occupied village in the Golan Heights, according to statements from the UN, State Department, and family members.

The UN said on its website that Curtis was handed over to UN peacekeepers around 6:40 p.m. local time Sunday. He received a medical check-up, and was then transferred to US government representatives, the statement said.

In a detailed statement released through the State Department, members of Curtis’s family expressed elation and relief.

“We are so relieved that Theo is healthy and safe and that he is finally headed home after his ordeal,” Theo’s mother, Cambridge resident Nancy Curtis, said in the statement. “My heart is full at the extraordinary, dedicated, incredible people, too many to name individually, who have become my friends and have tirelessly helped us over these many months. Please know that we will be eternally grateful.”

Curtis’s family expressed gratitude to the US and Qatari governments for helping to negotiate his release, and said they had been told the negotiations proceeded on a humanitarian basis and did not involve the payment of a ransom. The US, along with the United Kingdom, has a policy barring the payment of ransoms to free its citizens who are being held abroad.

Nancy Curtis said she was “deeply saddened” by the death of James Foley, a New Hampshire journalist whose beheading by a fighter for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, was depicted in a graphic video released this week.

Nancy Curtis befriended Foley’s mother, Diane Foley, while their two sons were held captive for long stretches by separate groups, she said. She called for the release of others still imprisoned by Islamic militant groups in the Middle East.

ISIS, a radical Islamist group that blossomed in the chaos of Syria’s multi-front civil war, said Foley’s killing was in retaliation for US airstrikes on its fighters in Northern Iraq, where it has captured large swaths of territory in an attempt to establish a conservative caliphate state.

More.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



Also at Randy's Roundtable, "Friday Nite Funnies," and Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES."

CARTOON CREDIT: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Accelerant."

MTV to Shill Leftist #Ferguson Talking Points at Tonight's Video Music Awards — #VMAs

My son's in Inglewood for the VMAs.

He's got great tickets for the pit area, although they've got a blackout on social media for guests: No mobile phone allowed, period. I asked my kid how he was going to handle that and he was just bummed: "That sucks you can't take pictures!" I told him to leave his phone in the van.

In any case, when I see my boy again (hopefully tonight, if he's not out too late), I can deprogram him from all the leftist blather he'll be inundated with.

At the Washington Post, "MTV to turn Video Music Awards spotlight on Ferguson":

Last year, Miley Cyrus’s twerking, teddy-bear-filled performance at MTV’s Video Music Awards set off fierce arguments about race and cultural appropriation. This year, MTV is hoping to use its awards ceremony to start a different kind of conversation. Before and during the show, the network will be airing somber public service announcements about the ongoing standoff between law enforcement and the citizens of Ferguson, Mo., in the wake of the August 9 shooting death of teenager Michael Brown.

MTV’s spots are part of a larger campaign, Look Different, that the network developed in conjunction with organizations including the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, the National Council of La Raza and the Southern Poverty Law Center. MTV has a long history of activist-oriented youth programming, and the Look Different program developed out of a paradox that MTV President Stephen Friedman told me he saw showing up in MTV polling.

“Eighty percent of our audience believes that bias is at the root of racism and prejudice,” Friedman said. “But when cultural explosions like Trayvon Martin, or the recent death on Staten Island, or what is now happening in Ferguson occur, our audience often feels paralyzed to discuss the issues.”

The reason? A good-intentioned schema for how to treat other people fairly that ultimately makes it more difficult to acknowledge unfairness or difference when it shows up anyway.

“Ironically, part of the problem is that this generation was taught to be color-blind,” Friedman told me. “As a result, they feel like they’re going to step on a land mine if they say the wrong thing. In fact, our research has shown that fully 70 percent of our white audience grew up not talking about race in their households. They’re striving for fairness and equality and often just aren’t sure how to to proceed.”

And that's a bad thing?

In other words, raising your kids so that race is just a background phenomenon is something to be ashamed of?

Leftists want you think race 24/7. You get Obama constantly talking race ("If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon"); Holder visiting Ferguson as the chief law-enforcement shakedown artist; and Al Sharpton as the White House point-man for the Democrat-left's perpetual outrage and distortion machine.

And MTV's on the case!

Like I said, I'll be deprogramming my kid later tonight, or tomorrow if I fall asleep before I get the chance.

More at the link, and also, "VMAs 2014 FAQ: Where to watch the show, red carpet details, and who’s performing."

Islamic State, Ferguson, and the Left in Crisis

From Wretchard, at Pajamas Media, "Paradigms Lost" (via Instapundit).

Islamic State Captures Major Air Base in #Syria From Government — UPDATE: Captured Syrian Soldiers Beheaded!

At the Wall Street Journal, "The Base Was the Last Government-Held Outpost in a Province Dominated by Islamic State":

"SashTam Islamic State Captures Major Syrian Air Base From Gov't http://t.co/sH3dYVpjJE #ObamaForeignPolicy #ISIS pic.twitter.com/Hlw3FcjsnU
— Mike Beacham (@Mike_Beacham) August 24, 2014

BEIRUT—The extremist group Islamic State captured a major air base in the northeastern province of Raqqa, driving out regime forces and gaining full control of an entire Syrian province for the first time in the civil war.

Several opposition activists based in the Raqqa area said Islamic State fighters were able to pierce the defenses of the Tabqa air base earlier Sunday and take it over. The capture came after fierce clashes with regime forces for five days at the gates of the military installation located near a town and a dam on the Euphrates River that bear the same name as the Tabqa air base.

It was the latest strategic conquest for the group, which has captured large swaths of territory in Syria and neighboring Iraq. Its recent advances in northern Iraq toward the semiautonomous Kurdish region and threats to religious minorities drew U.S. airstrikes on the militants in Iraq.

The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group tracking the conflict through its own network of activists inside Syria, said Islamic State militants captured most of the air base. A contingent of regime forces that had been stationed there withdrew to the town of Athraya to the southwest on a major supply route controlled by the regime, the Observatory said.

The regime's state-controlled news agency SANA described the withdrawal from the air base as a tactical one, an apparent attempt to soften the impact of the loss on regime supporters.

"Our forces have completed a successful regrouping operation after withdrawing from the air base, and they are still carrying out precision strikes against the terrorist groups in the area," said SANA.

The fall of the base to Islamic State fighters gives the group full control of Raqqa province, which shares borders with Turkey to the north and the crucial province of Aleppo to the west. East of Raqqa, the group already controls parts of Hasakah province and more than 80% of Deir-Ezzour province, both bordering Iraq.

Over the past month, Islamic State has succeeded in capturing the headquarters of the Syrian Army's 17th Division in Raqqa and another base for the 93rd Brigade of the same division also located in Raqqa.

The beheading of American journalist James Foley has prompted American officials to begin working to knit together a broader international campaign to combat Islamic State, an effort that the Pentagon warned will require taking the fight beyond Iraq and into Syria.

JWF has the update on Twitter. Click through for the report from McClatchy:

Islamic extremists seize Syrian military base then behead captured Assad soldiers http://t.co/4T4evr1Lhc

— JWF (@JammieWF) August 24, 2014

America: The Ostrich Years

From Derek Hunter, at Town Hall:

In every cartoon I’ve seen with an ostrich, there comes a scene where it gets scared and buries its head in the sand. Ostriches don’t do this in real life, but it came to symbolize, in cartoons at least, the concept of thinking something bad will go away if you simply ignore it. It’s foolish – some would say stupid – but it appears to be the crux of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy.

There are times when a president has to be president, even on vacation. This is the part of the job President Obama seems to hold in contempt – the doing of it. The trappings – the motorcade, Air Force One, hanging out with celebrities, being a celebrity himself, having nearly every whim catered to – are the most appealing part of the job. But it is a job, and he sought it twice. He just doesn’t seem to like doing it.

This isn’t a new development. This president has been checked out to one degree or another since he checked in, but he at least paid lip service to the concept of domestic policy. He didn’t involve himself with the details of many of the laws Democrats in Congress passed; he just gave speeches in support of their concepts and signed them. But when policy issues crossed salt water, he lost all interest.

After a series of groveling speeches trying to make up for his predecessor, who just happens to be more popular than he is now, the president retreated to the comforts of his office and buried his head to the realities of the rest of the world.

Aside from occasional speeches and selfie-filled funerals or summits, Obama turned his gaze domestically and green-ward, to the golf course.

But the funny thing about the rest of the world is it doesn’t go away simply because you wish it would. The troubles of the world have a way of existing regardless whether you pay attention to them.

Afghanistan is on the verge of collapse. Libya is in anarchy. Israel is being attacked hourly by the terrorists in Hamas. Russia is putting its band back together. China is making aggressive moves toward us and Japan. And ISIS is executing people like it’s an Olympic event. Meanwhile, the president has given a few speeches and shaved two strokes off his handicap.

A great piece.

Keep reading.

Sexy Comes in All Sizes

The trend in plus-size fashion, at the San Francisco Chronicle, "Sexy comes in all sizes, says plus-size lingerie boutique owner."

BONUS: Great pic dump photos at Theo Sparks, here and here.

VIDEO: 6.1 Earthquake Hits Napa in Northern California — #NapaQuake

Here's video at the Telegraph UK, "A large earthquake rocked California's northern Bay Area damaging buildings, igniting fires, knocking out power to tens of thousands and sending residents running out of their homes in the darkness."

At at USA Today, "What exactly happened in Napa during earthquake?", and "Napa earthquake: Damaged water mains hurt fire efforts."

And at KRON4 – San Francisco:





More at the KRON YouTube page.

And see iOWNTHEWORLD, "NAPA, CA: NUMEROUS BUILDINGS UNINHABITABLE AFTER EARTHQUAKE."

Douglas Murray Interview with Michael Coren: 'British' Jihadis Abroad

Via Blazing Cat Fur.



And see Murray at the Spectator UK, "Britain’s beheaders – how we came to export jihad."

VIDEO: Race Hustler Al Sharpton Leads Staten Island Protest Over NYPD Chokehold Death of Eric Garner

Funny how Sharpton waited a month to have this protest, making sure to time it with the national race relations debate over Ferguson.

The irony is that in the case of Eric Garner, there's little controversy that the police used excessive force.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Thousands Protest in Staten Island Over Eric Garner's Death: Event, Led by Rev. Al Sharpton, Caps Weeks of New Scrutiny of the NYPD."



PREVIOUSLY: "VIDEO: Staten Island Man Dies After Placed in NYPD Chokehold, Slammed to Ground."

Emily Ratajkowski Cover Shoot for Ocean Drive Magazine

At Ocean Drive, "'Blurred Lines' Model Emily Ratajkowski on Playing Ben Affleck's Mistress in 'Gone Girl'."



HAT TIP: Fox News, "'Blurred Lines' model Emily Ratajkowski: Men need to get over naked women."

Obama's Foreign Policy Meltdown

A scathing piece, from Bret Stephens, at Commentary, "The Meltdown":

In July, after Germany trounced Brazil 7–1 in the semifinal match of the World Cup—including a first-half stretch in which the Brazilian soccer squad gave up an astonishing five goals in 19 minutes—a sports commentator wrote: “This was not a team losing. It was a dream dying.” These words could equally describe what has become of Barack Obama’s foreign policy since his second inauguration. The president, according to the infatuated view of his political aides and media flatterers, was supposed to be playing o jogo bonito, the beautiful game—ending wars, pressing resets, pursuing pivots, and restoring America’s good name abroad.

Instead, he crumbled.

As I write, the foreign policy of the United States is in a state of unprecedented disarray. In some cases, failed policy has given way to an absence of policy. So it is in Libya, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and, at least until recently, Ukraine. In other cases the president has doubled down on failed policy—extending nuclear negotiations with Iran; announcing the full withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

Sometimes the administration has been the victim of events, such as Edward Snowden’s espionage, it made worse through bureaucratic fumbling and feckless administrative fixes. At other times the wounds have been self-inflicted: the espionage scandal in Germany (when it was learned that the United States had continued to spy on our ally despite prior revelations of the NSA’s eavesdropping on Chancellor Angela Merkel); the repeated declaration that “core al-Qaeda” was “on a path to defeat”; the prisoner swap with the Taliban that obtained Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl’s release.

Often the damage has been vivid, as in the collapse of the Israel–Palestinian talks in April followed by the war in Gaza. More frequently it can be heard in the whispered remarks of our allies. “The Polish-American alliance is worthless, even harmful, as it gives Poland a false sense of security,” Radek Sikorski, Poland’s foreign minister and once one of its most reliably pro-American politicians, was overheard saying in June. “It’s bullshit.”

This is far from an exhaustive list. But it’s one that, at last, people have begun to notice. Foreign policy, considered a political strength of the president in his first term, has become a liability. In June, an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that Americans disapproved of his handling of foreign affairs by a 57-to-37 percent ratio. Overseas, dismay with Obama mounts. Among Germans, who greeted the future president as a near-messiah when he spoke in Berlin in the summer of 2008, his approval rating fell to 43 percent in late 2013, from 88 percent in 2010. In Egypt, another country the president went out of his way to woo, he has accomplished the unlikely feat of making himself more unpopular than George W. Bush. In Israel, political leaders and commentators from across the political spectrum are united in their disdain for the administration. “The Obama administration proved once again that it is the best friend of its enemies, and the biggest enemy of its friends,” the center-left Haaretz columnist Ari Shavit noted in late July. It’s an observation being echoed by policymakers from Tokyo to Taipei to Tallinn.

But perhaps the most telling indicator is the collapsing confidence in the president among the Democratic-leaning foreign-policy elite in the United States. “Under Obama, the United States has suffered some real reputational damage,” admitted Washington Post columnist David Ignatius in May, adding: “I say this as someone who sympathizes with many of Obama’s foreign-policy goals.” Hillary Clinton, the president’s once loyal secretary of state, offered in early August that “great nations need organizing principles, and ‘don’t do stupid stuff’ is not an organizing principle.” Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter’s national-security adviser, warned in July that “we are losing control of our ability at the highest levels of dealing with challenges that, increasingly, many of us recognize as fundamental to our well-being.” The United States, he added, was “increasingly devoid of strategic will and a sense of direction.”

What's worse is we've still got over two more years of this.

Keep reading.

Nikki Finke Goes Silent in Reported Legal Dispute With Penske Media

I used to read Deadline Hollywood just to find Nikki Finke's dishy inside scoops.

At the New York Times:

The Hollywood journalist Nikki Finke has stopped writing about the movie industry while she and a former employer, Penske Media Corporation, try to reach a legal settlement, according to a person with knowledge of the negotiations.

Ms. Finke built the site Deadline Hollywood into a machine for breaking industry news, and it became among the most influential news sites in the movie business. Penske acquired the site in 2009 and then in 2012 purchased the industry trade magazine Variety, setting off a dispute that caused Ms. Finke to leave the company.

In June of this year, Ms. Finke started her own site, NikkiFinke.com, and resumed reporting on Hollywood in apparent defiance of a noncompete agreement with Penske that barred her from doing so. But Ms. Finke stopped writing on Aug. 11, raising questions about her intentions for the new site.

BuzzFeed reported on Friday that Ms. Finke would shut down the site, but a person with knowledge of the negotiations suggested that it could remain active. Ms. Finke stopped writing about Hollywood, the person said, in order to reach a settlement with Penske that stipulated she could not cover the topic online. (A book she is working on is exempt from the current version of the agreement, as would be any writing in newspapers or magazines.)

She has told friends that she might turn her reporting attentions on NikkiFinke.com to Los Angeles generally, or the media or politics. If she returned to Penske’s media company, she would be allowed to report on movie industry news.

Well, that's like selling your soul to the devil, or something. Doesn't sound like she's going out easily. She may never be able to write about the movie industry online ever again.

'A casual glance at the mountain of distorted and simply false stories reported about Israel and its enemies makes clear that at a minimum, most of the Western media don’t care about the truth...'

From Caroline Glick, "Why Israel is losing the information war":

The goal of hasbara cannot be to educate the likes of The New York Times’ bureau chief Jodi Rudoren about the truth because the problem isn’t one of ignorance. The problem is that they consider the truth an impediment to their goal of reporting the narrative of Israeli criminality.

Rather than striving to educate, we must work to manipulate the Rudorens of the world into covering the truth.

Read it all at that top link.

Stopping the Jihadist Cancer in Iraq and Syria

From Daniel Byman, at the Wall Street Journal, "A Plan to Fight Islamic State":

When President Barack Obama called the Islamic State a "cancer" on Wednesday, the description may have been more apt than he intended. The Sunni jihadist group is indeed a malignant tumor metastasizing in the body of the Middle East. But like cancer, it will be stubbornly difficult to defeat—and some of the cures could end up killing the patient.

The spread has been shockingly quick. In June, the Islamic State surged deeper into Iraq, taking Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, advancing close to Baghdad and threatening Kurdish territory. The group even declared a "caliphate." Only Mr. Obama's Aug. 7 decision to launch U.S. airstrikes halted its advance.

The Islamic State is stalled militarily but far from beaten. But there is a way to turn the tide...

Continue reading.

VIDEO: Michael Brown Supporter Crashes Pro-Darren Wilson Rally in St. Louis

Via Progressives Today, "SCREAMING MICHAEL BROWN SUPPORTER Crashes Pro-Darren Wilson Rally in St. Louis (VIdeo)."

Parent in Phoenix Says Administrators Made Her Son Wear Pink Fairy Wings on First Day of High School

Because dressing up in queer fairy wings is totally normal, just like two men having disease-ridden sexual intercourse.

If you're not down with that you're a hater!

At the Arizona Republic, "Sunnyslope parent likens orientation to hazing" (via DernDawn):

Monalee Kamlley said her son was nervous to start classes at Sunnyslope High School in Phoenix. She said she spent all summer reassuring him that his first day would be fine.

"The night before, he couldn't even eat he was so nervous, and he couldn't even sleep," Kamlley said.

So when she asked her son how it went after school, he hesitated, then finally mentioned that he had to "walk around in wings" for much of the morning.

Then she saw the costume: pink glittery "fairy" wings and a black furry mustache.

Kamlley said she's upset with the way Sunnyslope treated her son, and she likened the episode to hazing. Her son was embarrassed, she said, and added that the event ruined his first day of high school.

School officials said the costumes are part of the orientation program and weren't meant to embarrass the students. Principal Steve Ducey said they've never had other complaints but called the parent feedback "valuable." However, the school has no plans to get rid of the program, he said.

Whether the incident could be called hazing is murky, said Sabina Low, an assistant research professor at Arizona State University's T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics. Hazing typically is a form of initiation that is intentionally humiliating but often meant as a bonding experience.

"I'm sure they did not set out to make it a humiliating experience for students. So I think calling this hazing is a little bit unclear," Low said. "This one might be a much-watered-down version of that."

More.

British Lingerie Chain Worries Sexy Underwear Named After Egyptian Goddess Might Be Confused with Islamist Barbarians

Well, yeah, you might wanna be more careful before naming your underwear brand "Isis."

At Blazing Cat Fur, "The name ‘Isis’ now unfit for use in polite company: Ann Summers sorry for ‘Isis’ lingerie":

A British lingerie chain store issued an apology on Friday after launching a new line of sexy underwear named after an Egyptian goddess whose name sounds like that of the terrorist group massacring its way through Syria and northern Iraq.

'A 22 year-old U.K. citizen campaigned for women's rights in Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) in an odd way on Friday: by asking to have equal rights to murder as a terrorist herself...'

Progress on gender equality, at Blazing Cat Fur, "Well Integrated Brit Muslima Demands Equal Beheading Rights for Women."

Governor Rick Perry Mugshot T-Shirts

Spotted by Maeve Reston of the L.A. Times:

.@GovernorPerry Mugshot t-shirts are flying off the shelves in New Hampshire, worn proudly by voters he's courting pic.twitter.com/FacFmF61um

— Maeve Reston (@MaeveReston) August 23, 2014

Noble High School Superintendent Makes 'Skanky' Girls Do Bend-Over Dress Code Check

It's Ronda Bass, the superintendent now being targeted by outraged family members. Of course, these "bend-over ass-checks" should have been performed by the parents, not the school officials.

At KFOR-TV Oklahoma City, "Local superintendent’s controversial way of addressing dress code sends students home humiliated." (Via Memeorandum.)

“If you’re not comfortable with bending over, we might have a problem.”

The Silent Terror: Media Ignoring Islamic Radical’s Murder of Seattle Gay Men?

Robert Stacy McCain reports on Ali Muhammad Brown, who is accused of murdering two gay men in Seattle.

WHAT A HOMOPHOBIC TERRORIST KILLER LOOKS LIKE http://t.co/BiPvf4ZHDO #lgbt #p2 #tcot @maddow @chucktodd pic.twitter.com/CNnFPmNdmL

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) August 23, 2014

Also at Pamela Geller's, "Media Ruling: Islam Trumps Gay in America, Islam Trumps Teen Murder in America."

'Call me crazy but if post-op transsexuals have such a brutal suicide rate, maybe we shouldn’t do it to children...'

Gavin McInnes is on an 'indefinite leave of absence' from Rooster following that hilarious piece he wrote a couple of weeks back. I blogged it here, "Wait! You're Transphobic?"

And he's out with some thoughts about it, at Taki Mag, "How to Be Fired."

"If a man isn’t willing to take risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or the man is no good."

— Gavin McInnes (@Gavin_McInnes) August 20, 2014

Looking Back at 'Enrique's Journey — The Boy Left Behind'

A fascinating piece at yesterday's Los Angeles Times.

Of course, the subplot is the open-borders advocacy of the Times' correspondents. This is nothing new. What's interesting is that "Enrique's Journey — The Boy Left Behind" ran 12 years ago at the paper, and I still remember it. Reporter Sonia Nazario won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing in 2003 for the series. Photographer Don Bartletti won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography. Enrique's Journey was also published as a book.

So here comes Barletti with a look back, "LOOKING BACK ON A CHILD MIGRANT'S JOURNEY NORTH ON 'THE BEAST'."

"Enrique's Journey" was the trek --- atop the "beast" freight trains of Mexico --- from Honduras to the U.S. Back in 2000, when Barletti was first covering the story, we didn't have the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Action Act, the 2008 anti-trafficking legislation signed into law by President George W. Bush. It's interesting, though, that the more the story changes, the more it stays the same. Illegal immigrants will continue to flow over our southern border until that time when there's no more political gain to be made from it, for both parties, as it turns out. Either that, or enough terrorists slip into the country to conduct a wave of attacks on the homeland so that we finally militarize the border, completing the "fence" everyone dreams about, although by that time the United States will be even more unrecognizable than it is now. When I'm out and about during the day, especially while running routine errands like shopping, or dropping my son off at the mall, I hear languages other than English spoken more often than not. It doesn't bother me. English remains the language of everyday American life --- you're not going to break out of your ethnic enclave, moving into the national mainstream, without it. But then, as more and more of America is increasingly Balkanized, I suspect our underground illegals don't even care. Indeed, I was nearly attacked by a gang of non-English speaking Mexicans when I was working at a gas station in Santa Barbara in 1992. They act like they own the place --- and that was more than 20 years ago. We're long gone now. Probably the best thing we could do would to be to impose a moratorium on immigration for about a decade or so, allowing the massive wave of new immigrants to assimilate into the country. Democrats don't care about that, of course. They know that they're creating a Democrat Party dependency class with all the undocumented criminals and diseased walking-zombies. Strange, frankly. Democrats don't care about the security of the lives of regular Americans. President Obama epitomizes the base corruption that is the core of the Democrat Party-left. And "Enrique's Journey" is the kind of "good" journalism that wins all kinds of awards for glorifying the criminal activity of illegal aliens who make a mockery of the notion of America as a nation of laws. This is what we've come to as a nation.

Let's just hope there's a decent America left by the time our children have families. There's always hope.

[Speaking of hope, Barletti's subject is Denis Contreras, the boy he'd interviewed in 2000 for the original story. It turns out that Denis was deported from San Diego this year after living nearly 14 years in the U.S. He left behind a wife and child in the states. Illegal immigrant family values, I guess. Maybe they thought the Obama-Dems would be handing out "permisos." Not this time though. Bummer for the dude.]

'Fiberhoods' — Google Provides Neighborhoods With Faster and Cheaper Internet Service, but Are Some Being Left Behind?

Here's more on the power of contemporary social media companies.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Google Fiber Is Fast, but Is It Fair?":

Frustrated by the hammerlock of U.S. broadband providers, Google Inc. GOOGL +0.02% has searched for ways around them to provide faster Internet speeds at lower cost, via everything from high-speed fiber to satellites.

In the process, it is changing how next-generation broadband is rolled out.

Telecom and cable companies generally have been required to blanket entire cities, offering connections to every home. By contrast, Google is building high-speed services as it finds demand, laying new fiber neighborhood by neighborhood.

Others including AT&T Inc. T -0.40%  and CenturyLink Inc. CTL -0.27%  are copying Google's approach, underscoring a deeper shift in U.S. telecommunications policy, from requiring universal service to letting the marketplace decide.

As Google's model gathers momentum, it stirs up questions about whether residents of poor or underserved neighborhoods will be left behind.

U.S. policy long favored extending service to all. AT&T touted its "universal service" in advertisements more than a century ago. The concept was codified in a 1934 law requiring nationwide "wire and radio services" to reach everyone at "reasonable charges."

In exchange for wiring a community, telecommunications providers often gained a monopoly. Cities made similar deals with cable-TV providers beginning in the 1960s.

The emergence of the commercial Internet in 1990s led to a reassessment. Policy swung in favor of encouraging competition in the hope that it would bring more people online faster. Over time, Congress and regulators loosened the strings on Internet providers.

Google seized the opening in 2010, as it sought to stoke demand for bandwidth-hungry businesses, such as its YouTube online-video site. It solicited interest from cities for a new network, specifying that it sought "opportunities to experiment with deployment techniques." More than 1,000 municipalities responded.

In 2011, Google struck a deal with authorities in both Kansas City, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo., to build the service based on customer demand. City officials say they didn't push hard for universal coverage because they thought faster Internet service would boost the local economy and they were competing against so many other cities.

"The main point was to win and bring that infrastructure to our city," said Rick Usher, assistant city manager of Kansas City, Mo.

As phone and cable companies slowed their own expansion plans, more cities allowed the selective approach.

Mary Beth Henry, director of community technology in Portland, Ore., says broadband providers balked at covering the entire city. So Portland stopped requiring universal coverage in 2007 and this year signed a deal with Google that employs the build-to-demand approach.

Offering service everywhere is "too risky and returns are lower," she said.

In Kansas City, Google divided the region into areas of a few hundred homes it called "fiberhoods" and asked residents to pay $10 to preregister for a service that would operate at one gigabit per second, about 100 times the U.S. average. The service now costs $70 a month.

If interest exceeded a certain threshold, generally between 5% and 25% of households, Google connected the area. The threshold varied based on population density. Google also worked with local officials to speed the permitting and construction process. It skipped some areas entirely, because they were too thinly populated or because of construction challenges, a company spokeswoman said.

To date, Google has conducted preregistration in 364 neighborhoods; all but 16 hit Google's threshold for connection. Google hasn't disclosed how many homes in each neighborhood subscribe to its service...

More.

After Foley Beheading, U.S. Refocuses on Islamic State Threat to the Homeland

From last night's CBS News This Evening, with Bob Schieffer:

Jessica Alba's Smokin' 'Sin City' Character is the 'Opposite of Who I Am'

Hmm, the original "Sin City" was released in 2005, when Ms. Alba would have been just 24 years-old. She's looking no worse for the wear in the sequel, "Sin City: A Dame to Kill For."

An interview with Juju Chang for Nightline:



The movie's in theaters now. Here's a trailer: "Frank Miller's Sin City: A Dame To Kill For - 60 Second Trailer - The Weinstein Company."

And Betsy Sharkey's review, at the Los Angeles Times, "'Sin City: A Dame to Kill For' is a sinful waste of a sequel."

NBC's Richard Engel: U.S. Policy Against Islamic State 'Isn't Working'

From last last night's ‎Hardball with Chris Matthews:

Russia Using Artillery in #Ukraine, NATO Says

At the Wall Street Journal, "Ukraine Says Russia Violated Its Border: Move Comes as NATO Says Russia Has Been Using Artillery Against Ukraine":

Russia has been using artillery against Ukraine forces both from its own territory and from inside Ukraine, NATO officials said Friday. It was the latest volatile development as U.S. and Western military leaders condemned Moscow for sending a convoy of trucks believed to be carrying humanitarian aid into Ukraine without Kiev's permission.

The entry of the aid convoy and the reported presence of Russian forces mark a sharp escalation of the four-month-old conflict. The developments also risk derailing a new diplomatic push to calm the conflict, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel scheduled to visit Kiev on Saturday and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko due to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and European Union officials on Tuesday.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization warned of a "dangerous situation" as reports of increased covert Russian military involvement, including artillery fire, within Ukraine coincided with the entry of the convoy, which gives Russia an overt official presence in rebel-held territory for the first time. U.S. officials said Russia's actions could trigger further consequences, without elaborating.

Russia, which has steadfastly denied aiding the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, brushed aside NATO's accusations. "They have been reporting those things throughout the crisis without providing any proof," Vitaly Churkin, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters in New York.

Oana Lungescu, spokeswoman for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, said Friday, "Since mid-August we have multiple reports of the direct involvement of Russian forces, including Russian airborne, air-defense and special-operations forces, in eastern Ukraine." Russian artillery had been fired against Ukrainian forces "both cross-border and from within Ukraine," Ms. Lungescu said. She didn't say how many Russian troops are believed to be in eastern Ukraine or where they had been active.

U.S. officials also said that Russia had been firing into Ukraine, but stopped short of confirming that the artillery fire had come from within Ukraine.

"We have seen the use of Russian artillery in Ukraine in the past days," Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said. "I wouldn't want to speak to an individual instance today, but it certainly has been a pattern whereby we've seen firing from within Russia into Ukraine, and we've seen a disturbing movement of Russian artillery and military equipment into Ukraine as well."

Well, obviously we're not going to do anything. Russian's been acting with impunity for months, if not years.

More.

And watch the first half of this Martha McCallum interview with Lieutenant General Thomas McInerney, who slams Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes as basically an impotent weasel. This is a "covert invasion" of Ukraine by Russia, says McInery. A very serious development not likely to be rebuffed anytime soon. Watch: "Russia Convoy Crosses Into Ukraine - The Kelly File."

Death of James Foley Demands We Bear Witness, Not Craven Self-Censorship

This has been my position all along, and it irks me that the leftist push for censorship of terror has become the reflex mode for so many.

Jeff Jacoby pushes back against the cowardly leftist culture of ostrich-like self-censorship, at the Boston Globe, "James Foley video is grim, but we owe it to him to bear witness":

James Foley wasn't in Syria to sanitize ISIS's evil, but to expose it. The evidence of his death deserves no less. http://t.co/uaK3OhEHRK

— Jeff Jacoby (@Jeff_Jacoby) August 22, 2014

SCARCELY HAD ISIS posted its video showing the grisly beheading of American journalist James Foley than the rush to stifle it began.

“Don’t watch the video. Don’t share it. That’s not how life should be,” entreated Foley’s sister Kelly in a message on Twitter that was heavily retweeted. Thousands of social media users, some of them journalists, called for an #ISISMediaBlackout — the hashtag quickly went viral — and Twitter CEO Dick Costolo announced that the company was “actively suspending accounts as we discover them related to this graphic imagery.” YouTube removed versions of the video posted on its site, invoking its policy on “gratuitous violence, hate speech, and incitement to commit violent acts.”

Most mainstream news organizations chose not to show or link to the sickening videos, or to publish still photos showing Foley being beheaded. One exception was the New York Post, which ran a front-page picture showing the journalist just as the knife was put to his throat, with the one-word headline: “SAVAGES.” For doing so, the paper was vehementlycriticized. Buzzfeed editor Adam Serwer echoed the widespread view that to publicize the gruesome image was to give the terrorists more of the notoriety they crave. “Pretty sure ISIS could not be happier with the New York Post’s front page today,” he tweeted.

Would that have been Foley’s reaction? Would he have clamored for self-censorship and a media blackout? Or would he have wanted decent people everywhere to know — and, yes, to see — the crimes being committed by the ruthlessly indecent killers calling themselves the Islamic State?

The intrepid and compassionate reporter from New Hampshire didn’t travel to Syria to sanitize and downplay the horror occurring there. He went to document and expose it. The 4-minute, 40-second video that records the last moments of Foley’s life may be slick jihadist propaganda designed to intimidate ISIS’s enemies and recruit more zealots to its cause. But it is also a key piece of the news story that Foley risked everything to pursue. That story cost him his life. The least we can do is bear witness to the courage and dignity with which he met his awful end.

Anyone with a heart understands why Foley’s anguished loved ones would want his murderers’ gloating depravity to be suppressed. When The Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Pearl was beheaded by Al Qaeda in 2002, his family issued a similar plea. “We should remove all terrorist-produced murder scenes from our Web sites and agree to suppress such scenes in the future,” urged Daniel’s father, the scientist Judea Pearl, in a published essay.

But we will never prevail over an enemy as barbaric and totalitarian as the Islamic State if we avert our gaze from what it does to those it vanquishes. There are times when it is necessary to see the evil, not just to read or hear about it. Images, especially of man’s inhumanity to man, can often convey truths and illuminate reality with an urgency that the best-chosen words cannot match...

More.

In the Mail: William Voegeli, 'The Pity Party: A Mean-Spirited Diatribe Against Liberal Compassion'

I like this book. So far I've read the introduction, but I'm not putting it down.

The publisher sent me an uncorrected proof. The book releases to the general public in November. Pre-order just in time for the holidays: The Pity Party: A Mean-Spirited Diatribe Against Liberal Compassion.

Should Twitter, Facebook and Google Executives be the Arbiters of What We See and Read?

I loathe Glenn Greenwald as a traitor, although I've never discounted that he occasionally makes a very good point.

In this case, on the widespread censorship of the James Foley beheading. I know. Why share terrorist propaganda? Well, one reason is broadcast the evil widely. Maybe the public will demand an overwhelming response from the American eagle. Certainly, the White House isn't going to do it on its own.

In any case, here's Greenwald at the Intercept:

Given the savagery of the Foley video, it’s easy in isolation to cheer for its banning on Twitter. But that’s always how censorship functions: it invariably starts with the suppression of viewpoints which are so widely hated that the emotional response they produce drowns out any consideration of the principle being endorsed.

It’s tempting to support criminalization of, say, racist views as long as one focuses on one’s contempt for those views and ignores the serious dangers of vesting the state with the general power to create lists of prohibited ideas. That’s why free speech defenders such as the ACLU so often represent and defend racists and others with heinous views in free speech cases: because that’s where free speech erosions become legitimized in the first instance when endorsed or acquiesced to.

The question posed by Twitter’s announcement is not whether you think it’s a good idea for people to see the Foley video. Instead, the relevant question is whether you want Twitter, Facebook and Google executives exercising vast power over what can be seen and read.

Right.

They already have so much power. It's ridiculous.

But keep reading.

PREVIOUSLY: "Google Takes Down Blog Post: 'GRAPHIC VIDEO: Islamic State Beheads U.S. Journalist James Foley in Warning to Obama'."

RELATED: At the Los Angeles Times, "Social networks crack down on terror posts."

We've Got the Terrorists on the Run

Now, if we could just get them going in the right direction.

Via Andrew Malcolm:

Obama was right about alQaeda running, but he got the direction wrong. pic.twitter.com/yEISocPt6u http://t.co/lCluNOdxJ5

— Andrew Malcolm (@AHMalcolm) August 21, 2014

Unprecedented Obstruction! Delegitimize This President!

At Free Beacon, "De-Legit to Quit: Revealed: MSNBC's favorite talking points."

Rapper Talib Kweli Hilarious Interview with CNN's Don Lemon

This interview generated wild headlines.

The best part is Don Lemon's body language at 2:50 minutes. He knows he got pwned, lol.

Sylvie Van de Vaart Perfect Bikini Bod

At the Superficial, "Sylvie van der Vaart in Mykonos, Greece. (August 6, 2014).

'Let's be honest. The United States has crossed the threshold on Iraq. We're in it to salvage the country — again — using American military might...'

From Robin Wright, at the Los Angeles Times, "Obama, be upfront on Iraq."

New Poll Shows Hagan and Tillis Statistically Tied in #NCSEN

Most analysts have been crowing about how little effect the outside ads have been having on Kay Hagan's standing in the race. Although now, with the new survey from USA Today and Suffolk University, folks are going to have to come up with another deflection point for the left's epic Democrat Party fail.

And remember, Tillis is supposed to be an objectively bad candidate, having supposedly alienated North Carolinians with a take-no-prisoners conservative reform agenda as Speaker of the North Carolina House (remember "Moral Mondays"?). Well, I guess that argument's not holding much water anymore either.

I noted the race was tightening the other day, when we had the blatantly partisan Democrat Party survey out from Public Policy Polling. But USA Today has long run a very reputable series of public opinion polls. And now they've got #NCSEN deadlocked.

Here's the report, from Susan Page, "Poll: In a sour N.C. Senate race, it's all but a tie":

ICYMI: In a sour #NCSen race, it's all but a tie http://t.co/mI8tyX3sKA via @SusanPage pic.twitter.com/dGR0br6Smj
— USA TODAY Washington (@USATWashington) August 21, 2014

North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan is all but tied with Republican challenger Thom Tillis in a midterm showdown likely to help determine control of the Senate, a USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll finds.

The Tar Heel State survey, which launches a series looking at key Senate and gubernatorial contests across the country this fall, shows an electorate that is feeling a bit better about the economy but decidedly negative toward politics. Voters are inclined to have an unfavorable view of each candidate and overwhelmingly disapprove of the legislative bodies in which they serve.

Hagan leads Tillis, the speaker of the North Carolina General Assembly, 45%-43%, an edge within the poll's margin of error of +/-4.4 percentage points. Libertarian candidate Sean Haugh could hold the balance: His supporters, 5% overall, disproportionately identify Tillis as their second choice.

The impact of the hard-fought campaign already has left some scars.

Frazier Manning, a 75-year-old retiree from Hope Mills who was among those surveyed, is voting for Tillis in large part because he's dismayed by Hagan, especially for her support of the Affordable Care Act. "She voted for it, but she won't respond to me about how she's going to fix it," he says. "I think he'll do more to repeal it and replace it." ...

North Carolina has been a Republican-leaning state but one Democrats increasingly see as competitive. Hagan, elected in 2008, is one of the GOP's prime targets in its effort to gain six seats and with it control of the Senate. After Tuesday's primary in Alaska, where Dan Sullivan won the Republican nomination to challenge Sen. Mark Begich, the most closely watched Senate races now are set. Sullivan and other establishment-backed contenders defeated Tea Party primary opponents, a development expected to boost GOP prospects in November.

The USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll of 500 likely voters, interviewed by landline and cellphone, was taken Saturday through Tuesday. Other recent statewide surveys also have shown a tight race. Tillis had a lead of 1.7 points in four surveys over the past month tracked by realclearpolitics.com.

More.

After James Foley Statement, Obama Wasted No Time Getting Back to the Links!

Heh, even the mainstream networks couldn't let this go.

"NBC: Right After Statement on ISIS, Obama Returned to the Golf Course."

Why Wrigley Field Is Suddenly So Empty

Well, it's not because of the tarp gaffe the other night.

Turns out the new ownership is all about winning. Management has a long-term plan to make the Cubs competitive, and strategic trades, etc., have weakened the ball club's standings in the short-term.

An interesting piece, at the Wall Street Journal, "The Cubs Are Trying Harder to Win, But Is That Hurting Attendance?"

Jennifer Nicole Lee Mighty Bikini in Miami

This lady's great for blogging. Check the link for previous iterations.

And at Egotastic!, "Jennifer Nicole Lee Bikini Booty Show Poolside in Miami."

BONUS: Also at Egotastic!, "Stacey Poole Poses for Some Bath Time Fun."

Bank of America Agrees to Pay Record $16.65 Billion in Obama-Holder Housing Settlement Shakedown

Look, we know what happened.

Many analysts, including Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times, in Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon, indicated that Democrat-leftist policies pushed government-backed financial institutions, such Fannie Mae, to issue sub-prime home loans to unqualified minorities. This dates back to the Clinton years. Democrats called for "partnerships" between government and the private sector, which ultimately removed all limits on mortgage lending, feeding an unchecked real-estate bubble and ultimately the worst financial collapse since the Great Depression.

But now here comes Barack Obama's shakedown Attorney General, who strong-armed B of A into this record shakedown payout.

The announcement is at the corrupt DOJ website, "Bank of America to Pay $16.65 Billion in Historic Justice Department Settlement for Financial Fraud Leading up to and During the Financial Crisis" (via Memeorandum).

And at the Wall Street Journal, "Record Bank of America Settlement Latest in Government CrusadeBank Agrees to Pay $16.65 Billion in Cash and Consumer Aid":

On Thursday, the bank agreed to pay $16.65 billion to settle the government's accusations it sold flawed mortgage securities in the run up to the 2008 crisis, the largest settlement ever reached between the U.S. and a single company.

For the U.S. government, the deal is a chance to put an exclamation point on a string of crisis-era enforcement actions and lawsuits that have cost big U.S. banks tens of billions of dollars. The Charlotte, N.C. lender will have to pay $9.65 billion in cash to the Justice Department, six states and other government agencies. The bank also will provide $7 billion in consumer aid by modifying mortgages for borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth, demolishing derelict properties or other relief.

For Bank of America, the settlement is a bitter coda to its decision in 2008 to buy two companies, Countrywide Financial Corp. and Merrill Lynch & Co., as they teetered during the housing crisis. Bank of America Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan, who has spent his 41/2 years as CEO wading through litigation, has told investors this is the last of the big crisis-era problems. His next challenge: proving the bank has the mettle to make money in an era of weak loan demand and low interest rates.

In a statement, Mr. Moynihan said the settlement "is in the best interests of our shareholders, and allows us to continue to focus on the future." Giant legal charges have depressed the bank's earnings for years, frustrating some investors. The bank said the settlement will cut third-quarter pretax earnings by $5.3 billion, or 43 cents a share after tax.

Shares in the company rocketed more than 4%, to close at $16.16, as investors welcomed the resolution of a long-running legal headache.

The Justice Department's case against Bank of America provides perhaps the clearest window yet into the behavior that fueled the 2008 financial crisis: Lenders knowingly providing credit to borrowers who couldn't afford the loans and selling those mortgages to unwitting investors. Borrowers ultimately defaulted, sending them into foreclosure and saddling investors with hefty losses.

Many of the mortgage securities in question were made by Countrywide and Merrill Lynch. But the government found problems with Bank of America's own mortgage securities as well, including efforts to circumvent underwriting standards by changing applicants' financial information.

In at least one instance, an underwriter at Bank of America made more than 40 attempts to win an "accept" rating from an internal Countrywide system—known as CLUES—that would allow Bank of America to make a loan, according to a statement of facts signed by the U.S. and Bank of America.

"One underwriter characterized what she was doing as trying to 'trick' the CLUES system into giving an 'accept' rating," according to the document.

The ramifications of originating weak loans was predicted by former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo, who warned in an Aug. 1, 2005 email to other executives that real-estate developers were anticipating a condo-market collapse in areas like South Florida and Las Vegas, and said the firm should avoid putting certain loans on its own balance sheet. Mr. Mozilo was worried the large increase in monthly payments required by many of the Countrywide-issued mortgages ultimately would cause borrowers to default.

"The simple reason is that when the loan resets in five years there will be enormous payment shock and the borrower is not sufficiently sophisticated to truly understand the consequences then the bank will be dealing with foreclosure in potentially a deflated real estate market. This would be both a financial and reputational catastrophe," Mr. Mozilo wrote, according to Justice Department documents.

Prosecutors in Los Angeles are preparing to file civil charges against Mr. Mozilo and other former Countrywide executives, according to a person familiar with the situation. Mr. Mozilo's lawyer, David Siegel, said, "There is no sound or fair basis, in law or in fact, to pursue any claims against Angelo Mozilo."

Countrywide, in particular, has morphed from trophy to albatross for Bank of America. The bank had a history of gobbling up competitors when it bought Countrywide in 2008 and the deal launched it to the top of the mortgage world.

The purchase, though, has brought legal headaches and regulatory scrutiny, including a multistate settlement over alleged predatory lending practices just months after Bank of America bought the lender. The bank's mortgage unit hasn't turned a profit in years.

The settlement comes on the heels of similar, but smaller, deals over precrisis mortgage-related conduct with Citigroup Inc. C +2.55%  for $7 billion and J.P. Morgan Chase JPM +1.49%  & Co for $13 billion. The Justice Department is expected to turn its attention next to other banks accused of selling flawed mortgage securities, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS +0.64%  and Wells Fargo& Co., according to people familiar with the matter. Those cases are expected to be smaller than the previous three settlements.

GlobalPost CEO Philip Balboni: James Foley Murder, #ISIS Threat, 'Cannot Go Unanswered...' (VIDEO)

Amazingly calm and rational statement. Simply, this threat "cannot go unanswered."

At National Review, "GlobalPost CEO: U.S. Must Respond to James Foley’s Murder, ‘Cannot Go Unanswered’."



And at the Global Post, "Foley beheading video followed prior threat," and "Full text of the last email the Islamic State sent to the Foley family."

REPORT: James Foley Rescue Mission Failed Because Obama 'Dragged His Feet' — #IslamicState

This has been the big news all day,

And now at Atlas Shrugs, "Report: U.S. Special Forces Rescue Attempt Of James Foley Failed Because Obama Kept “Dragging His Feet”."

Listen to the audio here, "Retired Intel Officer Tony Shaffer: Foley Rescue Attempt Failed Because Obama ‘Dragged His Feet’." (Via Free Beacon.)

Unless we get "ahead of the curve" we're going to see people being killed "on a level not seen since World War II."

Pamela Geller: 'Obama Has Constantly Denied the Jihad Threat...' #JamesFoley #ISIS #Appeasement

America has virtually disarmed in the face of savagery.

Here's Pamela Geller, "VIDEO: Pamela Geller on The Rick Amato Show, One America News, Discussing the Islamic State and the Beheading of James Foley."



More, "Obama Uses Jihad Beheading of American Journalist to Proselytize for Islam."

Mo'ne Davis!

I'm just tryin' to keep up with the pennant race in the American League West Division.

But this young lady is getting a lot of attention, at the New York Times, for example, "Mo’ne Davis: A Woman Among Boys at the Little League World Series."

And she'll be on the cover of Sports Illustrated:

Mo'ne Davis just landed the cover of Sports Illustrated http://t.co/mBw1At8LUq pic.twitter.com/eXYf7SZQ1R

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) August 21, 2014

It wasn't Mo'ne Davis's night, but her story is far from over: http://t.co/IMTCdPrp7a pic.twitter.com/3EYDGVq1OU

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) August 21, 2014

Miss Colombia Paola Builes Stripped of Beauty Crown Because of Racy Bikini Photos

Seriously? In this day and age?

She was stripped of the Miss Antioquia title.

At the Mirror UK, "Miss Colombia favourite kicked out of contest because bikini was 'too revealing'," and the New York Post, "Colombian pageant queen kicked out of competition over 'inappropriate' bikini pics."

More photos at the Lad Bible, "Miss Colombia Contestant Banned From Pageant Because Her Bikini Is 'Too Revealing'."

UPDATE! The Daley Gator does Ms. Paola some justice: "INJUSTICE! BEAUTY QUEEN STRIPPED OF CROWN BY BIKINIPHOBES! (PHOTOS!)"

Paola Builes de 20 años, quien fue nombrada señorita Antioquia, fue descalificada por polémicas fotos. pic.twitter.com/UGHDk7dhLd
— Q'hubo Barranquilla (@QhuboQuilla) August 12, 2014

This is so mean!

Obama's golf war gets Althouse riled: "Poor Obama!"

Obama blasted for golfing after speech: http://t.co/hwdD5DtiAh Editorial: Obama’s duty to act: http://t.co/2oNOndaTh6 pic.twitter.com/IBGhqqKnxF

— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) August 21, 2014

British Prime Minister David Cameron cut short his holiday to deal with the crisis. Obama, phones it in from Massachusetts.

And from the Daily News' editorial:

Americans can only pray that President Obama was as serious as a drone strike when he vowed the United States would “see that justice is done” for the beheading of American journalist James Foley.

While his anger was palpable, Obama’s resolve to rain death on the savages of ISIS was far from clear. Worse, he signaled disdain for the gravity of the moment by going from the presidential podium straight to a vacation round of golf.

The country deserved better from its reluctant-warrior commander in chief. So, too, Foley’s family. So, too, the family of Steven Sotloff, a second American journalist held by ISIS. So, too, the tens of thousands of Iraqis and Syrians facing murderous barbarity.

Well, we need a different president. I think the terrorists have a cakewalk of carnage until January 2017, and possible longer, if a Democrat is elected.

Ace Pitcher Garrett Richards Injures Knee in #Angels 8-3 Win Over Red Sox

Looks like he'll need surgery and will be out for six months.

At LAT:

The Angels huddled around first base Wednesday night as medical personnel tended to Garrett Richards, who lay on his back, writhing in so much pain that first baseman Albert Pujols, on one knee, held the pitcher's hand to comfort him.

Richards, the hard-throwing right-hander who has emerged as one of baseball's best pitchers in his first full season as a starter, suffered what Manager Mike Scioscia called a "significant" left knee injury while covering first base on a potential double-play grounder in the second inning against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.

Richards spent eight minutes on the ground before being wheeled out on a stretcher. His 2014 season appears finished, and he will likely need surgery on the patellar tendon, a procedure that would require at least a six-month recovery.

No doubt, fans and followers of this star-crossed franchise were wondering: Did the team's World Series hopes get carted off with Richards?

"To have something like that happen is a crushing blow to any team," Angels right-hander Jered Weaver said. "I heard him screaming down there, so you knew something wasn't right. It doesn't look too good for him. He's been our guy all year, one you could count on to get deep into games and pull out a victory."

More.

The Angels will call up Wade LeBlanc, per Mike DiGiovanna:

#Angels will recall LHP Wade LeBlanc from triple-A Salt Lake today. Will be in pen tonight, probably start Monday night vs. MIA.

— Mike DiGiovanna (@MikeDiGiovanna) August 21, 2014

Lt. Col. Ralph Peters Slams Obama Administration: 'Doesn't Know History ... Doesn't Want to Deal with Reality...'

A must-see video.

The reality is that we must kill the terrorists before the kill us. We must "kill them, keep on killing them until [we] kill the last one. Then, [we] kill his pet goat."

At Red Alert Politics, "Fox News analyst Ralph Peters on ISIS terrorists: ‘Hammer those suckers’."

CBS News Los Angeles Broadcasts Segments of #ISIS James Foley Propaganda Video

It's not distasteful, although it's hardly toeing the line with the left's #ISISMediaBlackout.

CNN's report, for example, by national security correspondent Barbara Starr, showed screencaps from the video, but no actual footage. Wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of the left's cultural censors ---- or God forbid, take too firm a stand against religious terrorism.

As I always say, it's better to spread the word about the evil of Islamic jihad.

Kidnapping of Western Journalists, Tourists, and Aid Workers Has Become Multimillion-Dollar Business

Somalian terrorists take hostages for money. The Islamic State just wants to murder them for propaganda purposes.

See USA Today, "Kidnapping Westerners is big business."

State Department's Marie Harf 'Won't Rule Anything In or Out' on Policy Responses to #ISIS Terrorism

We'll probably see a few more tactical airstrikes and that'll be it. In a few weeks the U.S. will be well into the post-Labor Day election campaign, and the Obama White House will have long forgotten about James Foley.

Video: Police Shoot and Kill Knife-Wielding Suspect Kajieme Powell in St. Louis

The main story is at St. Louis Public Radio and Memeorandum, "St. Louis Police Release Video, Calls From City Shooting."

Actually, there are two videos. One shows shows Kajieme Powel allegedly shoplifting donuts and energy drinks from a convenience store (and clearly somebody is shoplifting in the video), and a second video, captured by mobile phone, shows the shooting.

Watch: "Powell Shooting (Security Camera)," and "Powell Shooting (Cell Phone Camera)."

More at KSDK Newschannel 5‎ St. Louis, "Police name man who died in officer-involved shooting."

At at NewsMax, "Knife-Wielding Man Shot to Death by Police in St. Louis":

A knife-wielding man was shot to death Tuesday after allegedly shoplifting from a St. Louis convenience store. The incident took place just 2.6 miles from the protests in Ferguson.

According to local news reports, the 23-year-old suspect entered the store and stole two energy drinks, left the store, and returned to take a pastry.

The store owner followed the man from the store and police were called.

KMOV.com quotes police as saying that whens officers arrived, the man was acting erratically, yelling at officers, "Shoot me now, kill me now."

Fox2now.com reports that the man was warned repeatedly by the two officers on the scene to drop his knife, but he refused, instead charging at the officers. Both officers then shot the man, and he was pronounced dead on the scene.

Police Chief Sam Dotson told Fox 2 that the man was two or three feet from the officers in an attack posture when he was shot. The officers were not injured.

Asked about the incident by KMOV, Dotson said police officers have a right to defend themselves.

The incident occurred about 1 p.m. Central Time.

VIDEO: #ISIS 'Collecting' Hostages — 'Almost All Foreign Hostages' in Syria Held by Islamic State

It's NBC's Richard Engel reporting from the Turkey-Syria border. And remember, in 2012, Engel himself was taken hostage by Syrian forces loyal to Assad.

Here's his report from the Today Show this morning, at the link: "NBC: ISIL 'Collecting' Foreign Hostages."

He mentions "between 30 and 40" foreign hostages, including journalists and aid workers. It's dangerous over there, and public opinion is disinclined toward a renewed ground presence. So after this outrage cools off in the coming weeks, we'll be back to Obama's "realist" approach to the Islamic State threat.

New York Post: 'Time to Bomb #ISIS'

From the editors at the Post:

The time for games is over.

On Tuesday, America got a horrific wake-up call: Islamic State terrorists released a gruesome video that shows them beheading James Wright Foley, an American photojournalist held in Syria since 2012. The group also showed another US journalist held hostage, Steven Joel Sotloff, and threatened to murder him as well.

“The life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision,” declares the masked terrorist as he holds Sotloff by the neck.

True, that puts President Obama in a difficult spot. But the president must do whatever it takes to counter this vicious savagery: that is, launch full-throttled airstrikes against ISIS and its “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria — until the threat is gone.

With American lives now being taken and even more at risk, America is now directly involved. No more playing footsie with butchers....

ISIS has now sent what it called “A Message to America.” It’s time for America to send a more pointed message back.

PREVIOUSLY: "New York Post Runs Graphic Cover Photo of James Foley #ISIS Beheading."

Pro-Israel Hollywood Speaks Out

From Mark Tapson, at FrontPage Magazine:

RT if you can't wait for the wknd to start... Have a great wknd everyone & a happy summer!! xoxo #YOLO #LOVE pic.twitter.com/ygIboRcDju

— Gal Gadot (@GalGadot) June 21, 2013

Another superhero – Gal Gadot, who will play Wonder Woman in the upcoming Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice – spoke out as well via social media, posting this on Facebook:

I am sending my love and prayers to my fellow Israeli citizens. Especially to all the boys and girls who are risking their lives protecting my country against the horrific acts conducted by Hamas, who are hiding like cowards behind women and children…We shall overcome!!! Shabbat Shalom!

Gadot is a former Miss Israel who served two years in the Israeli Defense Forces. In a 2011 interview, she stated that:

I don’t feel like I’m an ambassador for my country, but I do talk about Israel a lot – I enjoy telling people about where I come from and my religion. I find that people in the U.S., especially in Hollywood, tend to have positive opinions on Israel – both Jewish and non-Jewish people alike. But when I travel to Europe, people often don’t know as much about Israel, and sadly a lot of them have a negative impression of the country.

Perhaps she should be an ambassador, because she handled that last sentence very diplomatically.

James Foley, Far Left-Wing Journalist, Supported Islamic Jihad Against Bashar al-Assad in Syria

From Daniel Greenfield, at FrontPage Magazine:

James Foley Went Looking to Support Terrorists in Syria, Instead They Cut Off His Head | FrontPage Magazine http://t.co/uicv8uvVXw

— Daniel Greenfield (@Sultanknish) August 20, 2014

Any human life lost is tragic, but a moral individual would have much more empathy for the Syrian Christians who suffered at the hands of Foley’s favorite Jihadists than one of their pet propagandists.

Foley came to Syria to support the Sunni Islamist rebels against the Syrian government.

He cheered on the Sunni Muslim terrorists fighting to ethnically cleanse the Christians of Aleppo. In the conflict between Israel and Hamas, his tweets and retweets were chock full of pro-terrorist propaganda.

But Foley ran afoul of at least some of the Sunni Jihadists in Syria. His twitter feed was filled with references to the FSA. And the FSA was going to be eclipsed by the Al Qaeda affiliates. And that was where he ended up.

When Austin Tice, an actual freelance journalist was kidnapped by Jihadists, Foley ridiculed the idea that Jihadists had kidnapped him. Surely Syrian Jihadists wouldn’t do that sort of thing.

Except they did.

When Newsweek’s Muslim Rage cover story came out, Foley mocked it too. Raging Muslims. How silly and Islamophobic.

Foley was fanatically anti-Israel and was even willing to echo Iranian propaganda.

RTWT.

Prime Minister David Cameron: 'Increasingly Likely' Foley's Murderer British (VIDEO)

At the Telegraph UK:

David Cameron cut short his holiday to return to Downing Street and oversee the response after the horrific video was posted online.
Speaking to reporters in Number 10, Mr Cameron said it seemed "increasingly likely" that a British citizen was the killer.

"Let me condemn the barbaric and brutal act that has taken place and let's be clear what this act is - it is an act of murder, and murder without any justification," he said.

"We have not identified the individual responsible, but from what we have seen it looks increasingly likely that it is a British citizen.

"This is deeply shocking. But we know that far too many British citizens have travelled to Iraq and travelled to Syria to take part in extremism and violence. And what we must do is redouble all our efforts to stop people from going. To take away the passports of those contemplating travel, arrest and prosecute those who take part in this extremism and violence. To take extremist material off the internet and do everything we can to keep our people safe. And that is what this Government will do."

New York Post Runs Graphic Cover Photo of James Foley #ISIS Beheading

Personally, I think the news of this horrific murder should be disseminated widely, and the New York Post went no-holds-barred with this graphic cover photo and story, "SAVAGES! Bloodthirsty ISIS militants behead US journalist James Foley."

And here's UPI for a taste of the inevitable backlash, "New York Post defies #ISISMediablackout with graphic James Foley cover."

Also at Toronto's National Post, "#ISISMediaBlackout: Social media users urged to shun beheading video of American journalist James Foley."

SAVAGES! Bloodthirsty ISIS militants behead US journalist James Foley http://t.co/INoHYFOLfa pic.twitter.com/yCMGE5GBQE
— New York Post (@nypost) August 20, 2014

PREVIOUSLY: "Google Takes Down Blog Post: 'GRAPHIC VIDEO: Islamic State Beheads U.S. Journalist James Foley in Warning to Obama'," and "VIDEO: Islamic State Beheads American Journalist James Foley (GRAPHIC)."

Islamic State Trolls 'American Power' on Twitter with James Foley Beheading Video — UPDATED!

Here's the irony, Google and YouTube are busy taking down blog posts and videos of the James Foley beheading, and just as soon as they take them down, more will pop back up. It's a whack a terrorist game, and Google's losing.

Here's the screencap of an Islamic State troll trolling my Twitter feed with the Foley video:



As of 12:10pm, neither Twitter nor YouTube has pulled the video, seen at the link.

UPDATE: Twitter took down the ISIS page, but the tweet's YouTube video of Foley's beheading is still up at 2:35pm.

UPDATE: The video is still up, at 9:35pm.

Google Takes Down Blog Post: 'GRAPHIC VIDEO: Islamic State Beheads U.S. Journalist James Foley in Warning to Obama'

Here's the blog post from yesterday, now gone: "GRAPHIC VIDEO: Islamic State Beheads U.S. Journalist James Foley in Warning to Obama."

You can see the URL identifying the post:




I posted a statement to my cross-post at Theo Spark's, "Warning! Islamic State Beheads Kidnapped American Journalist James Wright Foley as 'Message to America'."

I suspect the post violated Google's terms of service, especially on posting violence. The thing is, I've posted beheading videos for years. As gruesome as these are, my policy is to have people see the evil and thus know the enemy. Some folks take a different view, and in fact there's a hashtag campaign not to share the Foley video. But whatever.

In any case, Google owns YouTube, and the video service is having a difficult time dealing with the use of its services to disseminate the Foley beheading. Here's the Scotsman, "YouTube will take down James Foley beheading video":

This afternoon a YouTube spokesman said: “YouTube has clear policies that prohibit content like gratuitous violence, hate speech and incitement to commit violent acts, and we remove videos violating these policies when flagged by our users.

There you go. As always, I'll keep doing what I do, which is to get the important news out there on leftist and Islamic evil. Unfortunately, Google aligns with those very forces, but it is what it is.

Why Does Walter James Casper III Deny Evil?

It's a rhetorical question.

I know why Repsac3 denies evil. To confront it you have to perceive the world in terms of right and wrong, just and unjust, good and bad.

Leftists universally refrain from this dichotomy because they must to invert morality to achieve the perverted political agenda. From homosexuality (good and virtuous) to the war against Islamic terrorism (criminal and imperialistic), the left cannot elevate moral righteousness without undermining its own agenda, which is to undermine all that's right and good.

Here's Jonah Goldberg on Twitter yesterday:

People looking to put ISIS in "context" desperately avoid most obvious context. They're evil. They do obviously evil things for evil ends.

— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahNRO) August 20, 2014

And here's Walter James Casper III on Twitter some time back.

"To perceive 'evil' is an attempt to deny that we are all one. We have a myth that relates to this. The myth of God and Satan."

— W. James Casper (@repsac3) August 11, 2014

There is evil in the world. If you don't confront it you are joining it. Repsac3 long ago went over to the dark side, which is why I will continue to expose his demonic political agenda and fight back against his stalking and harassment.

Same as it ever was.

New Poll Shows Race Tightening for #NCSEN

At Politico, "Democratic poll: Kay Hagan lead narrows."

It's Public Policy Polling, a Democrat firm that polls for Daily Kos.

They were ranked most accurate after the 2012 election, so there's that.

Race Hustler Ta-Nehisi Coates Demands Reparations for #Ferguson

It's been awhile since I've blogged about this idiot. From last May, "Ta-Nehisi Coates' Insidious, Invidious 'Case for Reparations'."

And now here he comes, continuing his race hustling shakedown scam, at the Atlantic, "Reparations for Ferguson."