Bob Crewe Dies: Was Songwriter for Frankie Valli and Four Seasons

At LAT, "Bob Crewe dies at 83; songwriter behind Frankie Valli, Four Seasons":

Bob Crewe — the songwriter and producer behind dozens of hits, including standards like "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry" and "Can't Take My Eyes Off You," which boosted Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons into pop posterity — died Thursday in Scarborough, Maine. He was 83.

Crewe, a four-decade resident of Los Angeles, had been in worsening health since injuring his brain in a fall four years ago. In 2011 he moved to Maine to be closer to his brother, Dan Crewe, who confirmed his death.

With no formal music training, Crewe parlayed natural talents into a long and successful career, helping to advance the fortunes not only of Valli and the Four Seasons but also Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, Bobby Darin, Lesley Gore and Oliver.

Most of Crewe's songwriting hits were in the 1960s, but the 1970s brought one of his last chart-toppers, the soul hit "Lady Marmalade" for Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash of the vocal group LaBelle. The song, written with Kenny Nolan, launched a sexually suggestive line — "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi (ce soir)? — into the vernacular of a generation.

"He was an enormous talent," Valli said Friday. "He was making records from the early '50s to the '60s and '70s. He had his own record company for a while. Sometimes I wonder if the industry really realized what a talent he was. He was surely one of the most creative people I ever worked with."

Crewe, portrayed in the movie and Tony-winning Broadway musical "Jersey Boys," frequently collaborated with Bob Gaudio, the singer, songwriter and keyboardist who was one of the original members of the Four Seasons.

Although Crewe couldn't play an instrument or read music, "he sort of had a way of painting a picture of what he wanted," Gaudio told The Times. "He had a way of communicating with people — and they got it. He'd say, 'I want to hear some blue streaks here.' He's noted in the show as saying, 'I want to hear sky blue; you're giving me brown.'"

More.

David Cawthorne Haines Beheaded

British Prime Minister David Cameron has responded on Twitter:

The murder of David Haines is an act of pure evil. My heart goes out to his family who have shown extraordinary courage and fortitude.
— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) September 13, 2014

We will do everything in our power to hunt down these murderers and ensure they face justice, however long it takes.
— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) September 13, 2014

And at Mirror UK, "David Haines 'beheading': Latest updates after ISIS video claiming to show execution of British hostage."

More at Telegraph UK, "Foreign Office working urgently to verify video showing British hostage David Haines 'beheading' by Isil terrorists." And BuzzFeed, "New ISIS Video Purports To Show Execution Of British Citizen."

Added: At Bare Naked Islam, "Islamic State (ISIS) claims to have beheaded British hostage, David Haines, and is threatening to behead another Briton, Alan Henning."

Obama's Betrayal of the Constitution

From leftist Professor Bruce Ackerman, at the New York Times (via Ms. EBL):

BERLIN — PRESIDENT OBAMA’s declaration of war against the terrorist group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria marks a decisive break in the American constitutional tradition. Nothing attempted by his predecessor, George W. Bush, remotely compares in imperial hubris.

Mr. Bush gained explicit congressional consent for his invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. In contrast, the Obama administration has not even published a legal opinion attempting to justify the president’s assertion of unilateral war-making authority. This is because no serious opinion can be written.

This became clear when White House officials briefed reporters before Mr. Obama’s speech to the nation on Wednesday evening. They said a war against ISIS was justified by Congress’s authorization of force against Al Qaeda after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and that no new approval was needed.

But the 2001 authorization for the use of military force does not apply here. That resolution — scaled back from what Mr. Bush initially wanted — extended only to nations and organizations that “planned, authorized, committed or aided” the 9/11 attacks.

Mr. Obama is rightly proud of his success in killing Osama bin Laden in 2011 and dismantling the Qaeda network he built up. But it’s preposterous to suggest that a congressional vote 13 years ago can be used to legalize new bombings in Syria and additional (noncombat) forces in Iraq. In justifying earlier bombing campaigns in Yemen and Somalia, the administration’s lawyers claimed that the 2001 authorization covered terrorist groups that did not even exist back then. They said it sufficed to show that these groups were “affiliated” with Al Qaeda.

Even this was a big stretch, and it is not big enough to encompass the war on ISIS. Not only was ISIS created long after 2001, but Al Qaeda publicly disavowed it earlier this year. It is Al Qaeda’s competitor, not its affiliate.

Mr. Obama may rightly be frustrated by gridlock in Washington, but his assault on the rule of law is a devastating setback for our constitutional order. His refusal even to ask the Justice Department to provide a formal legal pretext for the war on ISIS is astonishing...

More.

And for the prototypical leftist response, see depraved authoritarian Steve M. at No More Mister, who blames it all on George W. Bush and the evil Republi-thugs, "MY SECRET SHAME: OBAMA'S SHREDDING THE CONSTITUTION, AND I DON'T REALLY CARE."

Nowhere does Steve M. actually rebut Professor Ackerman. Steve M. mocks Professor Ackerman and blames Republicans. Fact: George W. Bush went to Congress for war authorizations in 2001 (Afghanistan) and 2002 (Iraq). Now we have a president who simply refuses to seek congressional authorization for wars and improvises at each step along the way. I mean, Steve M. doesn't even offer the most reasonable rebuttal to Professor Ackerman, that Obama is acting under his power as commander-in-chief, with his own interpretation of presidential war powers; and that absent the large, wholesale, long-term deployment of ground troops, the president has ample authority to authorize strikes against terrorist on the basis of executive power alone.

But again, it's not about whether or not Obama has exceeded his authority. For Steve M. and other left-wing partisan hacks, it's all good as long as it's a black Muslim socialist who's pulling the strings up on Pennsylvania Avenue. The Republi-thugs are just standing in the way of the coming of leftist Heaven on Earth.

Nina Agdal for Leonisa Lingerie September 2014

At Egotastic!, "Nina Agdal poses in Leonisa Lingerie September 2014."

'Moderate', Obama-Backed Syrian Rebel Front (SRF) Signs Non-Aggression Pact with Islamic State — #ISIS

Right.

Remember the SRG is one of the key factions that compose the Free Syrian Army, the supposed anti-Assad rebels upon whom the Obama administration has staked its Syria policy.

Hmm, big mistake.

Basically, we're funding the Islamic State at this point.

At PuffHo, "ISIS Strikes Deal With Moderate Syrian Rebels: Reports."

And from Patrick Poole, at Pajamas Media, "Yet Another US-Backed Syrian Rebel Group Makes Peace With ISIS":

According to the media reports other groups joining the ceasefire with ISIS include Liwa Ahrar Turkman al-Golan, Liwa Hittin & Liwa al-Umma al-Wahida.

When seeking US heavy weapons, including TOW anti-tank missiles, SRF commander Jamal Maroof was full of bravado, declaring war against ISIS. In May, McClatchy reported that SRF and other “vetted moderate” rebel groups had received TOW missiles from the US and posted videos of their use.

But as soon as weapons were being delivered to Maroof’s SRF forces, he was giving interviews to Western media making clear that “Al-Qaeda is not our problem.”

A May 2014 report by Jenan Mousa of Al-Aan notes that Maroof runs SRF in a cave with his 3 wives and children...

During that interview where Maroof talks about receiving US military aid and his soldiers receive US training, there is one curious artifact in the background:

Yeah, talk about not understanding the optics!

More at the link.

Basically, forget about "aiding" the "moderate" Syrian rebels. There's no such thing. Perhaps at one point, years ago, there were. But not now. We need to start bombing the "Islamic State" like it's 1945. That is, if the U.S. is really serious about "destroying" ISIS. I think somebody of particular importance said that, somewhere. And, well, time's a wastin'.

Countries Around the World Trying to Suppress the Flow of Jihadists to #ISIS

Well, good luck with that.

At the New York Times, "Nations Trying to Stop Their Citizens From Going to Middle East to Fight for ISIS":

UNITED NATIONS — France wants more power to block its citizens from leaving the country, while Britain is weighing whether to stop more of its citizens from coming home. Tunisia is debating measures to make it a criminal offense to help jihadist fighters travel to Syria and Iraq, while Russia has outlawed enlisting in armed groups that are “contradictory to Russian policy.”

The rapid surge of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and its ability to draw fighters from across the globe, have set off alarm bells in capitals worldwide. Countries that rarely see eye to eye are now trying to blunt its recruitment drive, passing a raft of new rules that they hope will stop their citizens from joining extremist groups abroad.

The United States has seized on the issue, pushing for a legally binding United Nations Security Council resolution that would compel all countries in the world to take steps to “prevent and suppress” the flow of their citizens into the arms of groups considered to be terrorist organizations.

Recruits from 74 countries are among the estimated 12,000 foreign militants in Syria and Iraq, many of them fighting with ISIS, according to Peter Neumann, a professor at King’s College London, who has culled the figures largely from government sources. The largest blocs of these fighters come from nearby Muslim countries, like Tunisia and Saudi Arabia, but smaller contingents come from countries as far away and disparate as Belgium, China, Russia and the United States...

Continue reading.

Amanda Marcotte's '7 Female Misogynists' Is Actually 10, But Who's Counting?

She's a vile woman.

Funny though, she's not lesbian, which is an anomaly for Robert Stacy McCain and his series on radical feminism.

Marcotte ain't so great with numbers, that's for sure. The Politichicks --- Ann-Marie Murrell, Morgan Brittany and Dr. Gina Loudon --- count as one woman is Marcotte's rogue's gallery of femisogynists.

Happy Saturday! Here is a list of 7 female misogynists. http://t.co/jSJwEOgniK Glad to have my Twitter mentions turned off!
— Amanda Marcotte (@AmandaMarcotte) September 13, 2014

And yes, turn off those mentions! What better way to avoid the fact that you're reviled by the entire world?!!

Walter James Casper take note!

Added! From Darleen Click, "Vagina Warrior Amanda Marcotte has an Enemies List."

Cathy Young & I at top of SALON enemy list.We are both pro-choice, pro-LGBT,libertarian-leaning feminists.Our crime?We check feminist facts.

— Christina H. Sommers (@CHSommers) September 13, 2014

Saturday Roundup

Let's start things off with the Mad Jewess Woman, "Start War Before Elections. Brilliant Plan of the #Communist #Democrats," and "Speaking Out Against Tyranny Is Gods' Will."

And at Maggie's Farm, "Sunday Morning Links."

Also at Blackmailers Don't Shoot, "Quinnspiracy Rule 5 Linkaround, and Odie's, "Special Watch ~OR~ Rule 5 Woodsterman Style."

90 Miles from Tyranny, "Morning Mistress."

From William Teach, at Right Wing News, "Nancy Pelosi: Civilization Is In Jeopardy If GOP Takes Back Senate."

And at Pirate's Cove, "If All You See……is a wonderful greenspace which would be perfect for solar panels (as long as it is far from your home), you might just be a Warmist."

Matt Vespa, at Town Hall, "Fighter Pilot Was Tasked With Taking Out United 93 By Crashing Into It," and John Hawkins, "Millennials, Hollywood Is Lying To You About Work And Success (Part 2)."

At the Conservative Hideout, "Racial Violence: Two Black Women Force White Tenants out at Gun Point, Tired of ‘White People Moving Into Area’."

Now at Camp of the Saints, "The Obamas: Tone Deaf, Blind, and Dangerous."

And at EAG News, "University paper publishes 9/11 editorial, claims USA needs to ‘get over’ terrorist attacks."

More at Pat Dollard's, "Leftist Nutcase Bill Maher Says He Might Vote For Rand Paul Due To Libertarian Nutcase’s Anti-American Foreign Policy."

From Peter Ingemi, "Why a Formal Declaration of War on ISIS should be voted on and passed," and Zero Hedge, "Obama’s ISIS War Is Not Only Illegal, It Makes George W. Bush Look Like A Constitutional Scholar."

At Drunken Stepfather, "STEPLINKS OF THE DAY," and the Chive, "There Are Sexy Chivers Among Us (97 Photos)."

And at Lonley Con, "Kirsten Gillibrand Won’t Disclose Who Harassed Her."

From Dana Pico, "Economics 101: Maybe going on strike for higher wages when your jobs are already being replaced by robots isn’t the wisest idea."

Check out Jack Dunphy, at PJ Media, "Oakland Firefighter Plays Victim Card Until Police Release Video."

And JWF, "Democrat Fossil James Clyburn Say Sexting is a ‘Great Tool’ for Organizing Voters."

Also at Egotastic!, "Yasmine Colt Pink Bikini Sextastic for Today’s 138 Water Shoot."

At Knuckledraggin', "The most popular girl at the office," and Good Stuff's, "GOODSTUFFs BLOGGING MAGAZINE (155th Issue)."

California State University Could Limit Enrollment to Transfer Students

This is the first I've heard of it.

At LAT, "Cal State trustees raise scenario of transfer-only university":

Could California State University one day limit enrollment to transfers, admitting burgeoning numbers of community college students but turning away new freshmen?

The idea sounds far-fetched, but that scenario was raised Tuesday by trustees who cautioned that insufficient state funding could radically reduce the mission of the nation's largest university system.

The warning came during a discussion of the preliminary 2015-16 budget, which predicted growing demand for the 23-campus system. The Cal State system drew a record 761,000 applications for the fall 2014 term.

Much of that demand, officials said, is likely to come from community college transfers for two reasons: increased state funding is expected to boost two-year college enrollment by 60,000 students this year, and increased numbers of community college students will earn associate degrees for transfer, which guarantee admission to a Cal State campus.

After years of budget cuts and enrollment declines, funding for the Cal State system is increasing under Gov. Jerry Brown's multiyear plan that calls for an additional $119.5 million each for the Cal State and University of California systems in 2015-16.

But that number is $116.5 million short of what the Cal State system says it needs for operations, including a target enrollment increase of about 12,000 students. About half the students who qualify for Cal State entry but are turned away end up at community colleges, further increasing the transfer numbers, officials said...

More.

It's a sky-is-falling scenario.

Cal State will get more funding. The state's economy is picking up steam and tax revenues are increasing. There'll be a political outcry if freshmen are denied admissions to Cal State.

Should Children Be Held Back for Kindergarten?

Well, we held back our youngest son, who has ADHD and other neurological issues. And remember, I used to be skeptical of all the reports of ADHD, especially among my own students at college. But until you have a child with severe developmental issues, it's really hard to comprehend what kids --- and their parents --- go through.

So, keeping a kid back depends on the kid. Our oldest son is an outstanding student, basically a regular kid. He went to kindergarten when he was 5. But we kept back our second son and I'm glad we did. It's been helpful.

Either way, check the Wall Street Journal, "Many parents are holding back their 5-year-olds from school for a year, but the benefits are doubtful."

Republicans Putting Together an Agenda for First 100 Days of 2015

Just in case they win control of the upper chamber in November, which is looking increasingly likely.

At the Hill, "GOP Senate's first 100 days."

HETEROSEXUAL SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

Boy, that really pisses off the homosexual fascists.

At Instapundit, "21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: HETEROSEXUAL SAME-SEX MARRIAGE angers gay rights activists who say it 'trivializes marriage'."

Heh, the irony.

Big Solar Storms Expected This Weekend

At CNN:



Also at the Sydney Morning Herald, "Twin solar storms head towards Earth."

Lucy Collett's Twitter Video!

Watch, via Zoo Today.

Northern California Nudist Camp Accused of Stealing Water

Nudists. Progressives.

The biggest f-king hypocrites.

Tweeted earlier, from LAT:

Progressive values: Bay Area nudist resort accused of stealing 280,000 gallons of water. @Instapundit http://t.co/x5b43gv4sf

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) September 13, 2014

Microaggressions on Campus

Via Maggie's Farm, "You can't be too alert for microaggressions on campus."

UC Davis Researchers Develop Nanoparticle Cancer-Fighting Treatment

As Professor Glenn Reynolds always says, "faster please."

Via CBS Sacramento:

NewsBusted: President Obama's Approval Ratings Hit a New Low

Via Theo Spark:

Foreign Policy Editor David Rothkopf Hammers Obama's Foreign Policy: Says Barack Should Take a Page from George W. Bush's Second Term

A phenomenal piece, at Foreign Poilcy, "National Insecurity: Can Obama's Foreign Policy Be Saved?":

"YOU'RE STILL A SUPERPOWER," a top diplomat from one of America's most dependable Middle Eastern allies said to me in July of this year, "but you no longer know how to act like one."

He was reflecting on America's position in the world almost halfway into President Barack Obama's second term. Fresh in his mind was the extraordinary string of errors (schizophrenic Egypt policy, bipolar Syria policy), missteps (zero Libya post-intervention strategy, alienation of allies in the Middle East and elsewhere), scandals (spying on Americans, spying on friends), halfway measures (pinprick sanctions against Russia, lecture series to Central Americans on the border crisis), unfulfilled promises (Cairo speech, pivot to Asia), and outright policy failures (the double-down then get-out approach in Afghanistan, the shortsighted Iraq exit strategy).

The diplomat with whom I was speaking is a thoughtful man. He knew well that not all of these problems are the result of the blunders of a single really bad year or the fault of any one president. The reality is that any president's foreign policy record depends heavily on luck, external factors, cyclical trends, and legacy issues. And, to be sure, Obama inherited many of his greatest challenges, some of the biggest beyond his control.

Obama's presidency is largely a product of a moment in history that likely will be seen someday as an aberration -- the decade after 9/11, during which a stunned, angry, and disoriented America was sent spinning into a kind of national PTSD. Call it an age of fear, one in which the country and its leaders were forced to grapple with a sense of vulnerability to which they were unaccustomed. The response of George W. Bush's administration -- entering into the long, costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, remaking U.S. national security policy around the terrorism threat -- led to a backlash that ushered Obama into office with a perceived mandate to undo what his predecessor had done and avoid making similar mistakes.

The problem is that in seeking to sidestep the pitfalls that plagued Bush, Obama has inadvertently created his own. Yet unlike Bush, whose flaw-riddled first-term foreign policy was followed by important and not fully appreciated second-term course corrections, Obama seems steadfast in his resistance both to learning from his past errors and to managing his team so that future errors are prevented. It is hard to think of a recent president who has grown so little in office.

As a result, for all its native confidence and fundamental optimism, the United States remains shaken and unsteady more than a decade after the 9/11 attacks. Many of its problems have only grown dangerously worse: Its relative influence has declined; the terrorism threat has evolved and spread; and U.S. alliances are superannuated, ineffective shadows of their former selves. Compounding this is such gross dysfunction in Washington that, on most issues, the president is presumed to be blocked by Congress even before he has had the opportunity to make a move.

If the nation is to recover fully, Obama must not only identify and attempt to reverse what has gone wrong, but he also must try to understand how he can achieve new gains by the end of his second term. That is to say that huge challenges remain unaddressed and rising to them requires a hard look at himself -- his responses, his messages, his management, and his team.

He must start by devoting special attention to the instances that knocked his foreign policy off the rails. And one stands out, even in the minds of some of the president's most prominent loyalists...

Keep reading.

Rothkopf wraps up the essay with a comparison of Presidents Obama and G.W. Bush. The former should take a page from the latter. (Although I don't expect he will.)

Hey, How About a New TV for Football Season?

Now that would be a huge commission, lol.

At Amazon:

Cecily Strong Out as SNL 'Weekend Update' Anchor

The New York Times reports, "New Comic to Anchor ‘Update’ on ‘S.N.L.’":

The new season of “Saturday Night Live” will have a significant change in its cast and its most prominent segment, “Weekend Update.”

Michael Che, a comic perhaps best known for his role as a correspondent on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” will replace Cecily Strong, who will remain on “S.N.L.” as a regular cast member.

More.

And at Rolling Stone:

'SNL' will replace Cecily Strong as 'Weekend Update' anchor with writer Michael Che http://t.co/WxfGgRdI5y

— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) September 12, 2014

Germany Bans Islamic State

Now there's an idea.

At WSJ, "Around 400 German Nationals and Residents Have Joined Militant Group in Syria and Iraq":

BERLIN—Germany banned all activities of the Islamic State militant group in the country on Friday after hundreds of German nationals and residents traveled to Syria and Iraq to join the radical faction there while returnees were agitating and rallying supporters at home.

The ban, which also includes the seizure of IS's financial assets, is one step away from classifying IS as a terrorist group—a decision that can only be made by a court of law at the end of what is generally a time-consuming process. The ban targets propaganda on the Internet and social media and includes the display of IS symbols and flags.

About 400 German nationals and residents had joined IS in Syria and Iraq, said Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière, who announced the ban.

"More than 100 Islamists have returned. Many frustrated, but others with combat experience. They have learned to hate and kill," Mr. de Maizière told reporters.

"They are well connected. They have been well trained to fight and are possibly willing to share their knowledge with other supporters and recruit new supporters. We must prevent radical Islamists bringing their Jihad to our cities. We don't know what they are doing but it could be that they will carry out attacks."

The ban includes displaying IS symbols publicly during gatherings or in writings, photos, recordings, images or illustrations. These symbols include the IS flag which displays the beginning of the Islamic profession of faith as well as the prophet's seal in white script on black background. The ban doesn't target Islamic symbols in general but only those that the IS group has been using since 2004 in a terrorist context.

Last month, Berlin took a rare decision to deliver antitank weaponry and machine guns to help Kurdish fighters in Iraq battling Islamic State in norther Iraq. This week, however, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier overruled some conservative lawmakers who had called on the government to assist the U.S. in conducting airstrikes against IS positions in Iraq and Syria.

While Germany has dispatched troops abroad since the 1990s, most notably in the Balkans and Afghanistan, and has occasionally delivered weapons in crisis regions, it has generally sought to avoid overseas military involvement because of its history of international aggression under the Nazis.

"The [IS ban] is necessary because the biggest threat to internal security stems from returning IS fighters and because support activities, such as publicly expressing sympathy for IS and recruiting members and collecting money, are putting the internal security of our country at risk—not only that of countries and regions where IS is fighting," said Wolfgang Bosbach, head of the lower house of parliament's interior affairs committee and lawmaker with the ruling Christian Democratic Union party, ahead of the announcement.

The planned ban comes after supporters of the IS group attacked a group of Yazidis in the western German town of Herford last month. IS has been accused of ethnic cleansing and attempted genocide after systematic attacks on the religious minority in northern Iraq.

In its 2013 report, published in June this year, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the internal intelligence agency, said it had no information about IS' structure or members in Germany. But it said Islamic terrorism is the main security threat facing Germany.

Overall support for Islamic groups has been on the rise in Germany. The agency estimates that the number of potential supporters rose to 43,190 last year from 42,550 in 2012 and 38,080 in 2011.

The growing visibility of such groups also made headlines last week when a patrol of self-proclaimed Shariah Police took to the streets to urge Turkish people in the western German city of Wuppertal to stop drinking alcohol and gambling for money.

Mr. de Maizière called on the public to help the government in its efforts to fight IS influence in Germany.

"The security forces alone won't be able to win the fight against the Islamic radicalization," he said. "The radicalization often takes place unnoticed by the public, on the Q.T., on the Internet. That's why parents, siblings, neighbors and friends are called upon."

Still more.

Maria Menounos Bikini Shots for Shape Magazine October 2014

She's a sweetie.

At Egotastic!, "Maria Menounos Poses for Shape Magazine October 2014."

VIDEO: Code Pink Communist Medea Benjamin Denounces U.S. Combat Operations Against #ISIS

Communist Amy Goodman describes Code Pink's Medea Benjamin as "one of the country's leading peace activists."

They're all traitors who're allied with America's enemies. Seriously, it's too bad we can't have them lined up and shot. But hey, dissent is the highest form of patriotism, or something.

Benjamin denounces this "insane never ending war," as if it's America that's on the genocidal march around the world. It's all America's fault. It always is, if you're an America-hating radical leftist.

At Democracy Now:



And remember, Code Pink's got extremely close ties to the White House, so you know that these fifth columnists are exerting considerable influence on the "we're not at war with ISIS" Obama administration.

Republicans Have 47-44 Advantage in Generic Ballot for the November Elections

It's not huge, but polling experts say that surveys typically under-report the Republican vote on the generic ballot, so the GOP could be looking even better than this.

Oh, and the generic ballot question measures support in House races. Some experts say there's also a strong correlation to patterns of support in Senate elections.

Via Pew Research:

Republicans have 47%-44% midterm edge among likely voters; at this stage in 2010, it was 50% to 43% http://t.co/k6IOFIslzL

— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) September 12, 2014

RELATED: At Astute Bloggers, "WASH POST/ABC NEWS POLL SPELLS DOOM FOR THE DEMS AND SALVATION FOR THE NATION!"

Islamic State Ties Woman to Car, Splits Her in Two

Because the Yazidis won't convert to Islam, but Islamic State is not Muslim, or anything.

At Pamela Geller's, "Report: Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) split woman in two with cars, buries non-Muslims alive," and Pat Dollard, "PURE EVIL: ISIS Ties Woman To Car, Splits Her In Two."

The Yazidis, followers of an ancient religion derived from Zoroastrianism, are spread over northern Iraq and are part of the country's Kurdish minority.

Many of their villages were destroyed when Saddam Hussein's troops tried to crush the Kurds. Some were taken away by the executed former dictator's intelligence agents.

Now they feel helpless again. Fellow Kurds abandoned them. Iraq has a new prime minister who is seen as moderate and may be less inclined to engage in disputes with the Kurds over budgets and oil than his predecessor, perhaps bringing political stability that could benefit the north.

But many Yazidis have lost faith in Iraq and its leaders. They have few options. Some complained that Kurdish forces would not let them travel to Turkey.

So for now, it seems all they can do is wait, and try to forget what caused them to flee their homes.

"They put women and children under the ground. They were alive. I still hear their screams. They were trying to keep their heads up to keep breathing," said car repairman Dawud Hassan, 26.

"Iraq is finished for me. We had houses, shops, they all burnt our things. We have nothing. We want to cross to Turkey but the peshmerga is not letting us. We will not stay there, we want to go to Europe."

It is not clear if Iraqi government forces or peshmerga will manage to claw back territory and then hold it - something that could help Yazidis believe in their country again.

Islamic State is getting more ambitious. It has already grabbed much of the north and resources such as oil fields that will help fund its self-proclaimed caliphate.

Some Yazidis, like Hassan, 22, a student, shake their heads in disbelief when recalling how only foreign Kurdish fighters from Turkey or Syria extended a lifeline in the face of Islamic State.

"They tied the hands of one woman to the back of a car and her legs to another car and they split her into two," he said beside makeshift tents as women cried.

"Have you seen anything like this? This is all because she is not Muslim and did not want to be converted. We barely made it."

VIDEO: U.S. Troops in Afghanistan Mark September 11 Anniversary

Via Reuters:

Former NSA Director Michael Hayden: Airstrikes Are Like 'Casual Sex'

At the Hill, "Ex-NSA chief: Airstrikes like ‘casual sex’":

The United States is at war with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL), the White House and Pentagon said Friday, a day after Secretary of State John Kerry repeatedly declined to use that phrase.

"The United States is at war with ISIL in the same way that we are at war with Al Qaida and its Al Qaida affiliates all around the globe," White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters at the White House.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby echoed that sentiment, telling reporters that while the effort was "not the Iraq war," they should "make no mistake, we know we are at war with ISIL."

VIDEO: Secretary of State John Kerry: We Are 'Not at War' with #ISIS

At Free Beacon, "VIDEO: Secretary of State John Kerry: 'We Are Not at War' with #ISIS."



Also at CNN, "Kerry: U.S. not at war with ISIS."

Foreign Fighters Flock to #ISIS — Unexpectedly!

At CNN, "How foreign fighters are swelling ISIS ranks in startling numbers."

Yes, but these fighters aren't real Muslims or anything.

Unexpecedly! #ISIS Ranks Swell to Over 31,000

At Lonely Con, "ISIS Ranks Swell to Over 31,000."

Yeah, and we're still trying to figure out if we're really "at war" with the Islamic State.

OBILLARY!

OMG this is brilliant!

At Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – What Difference Will It Make?"

Unexpectedly! Arab States Give Tepid Support in Fight Against #ISIS

It's just like Ralph Peters said: Arab regimes don't trust Obama. He's f-ked 'em over too many times by now.

At the New York Times, "Arabs Give Tepid Support to U.S. Fight Against ISIS" (via Memeorandum):

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Many Arab governments grumbled quietly in 2011 as the United States left Iraq, fearful it might fall deeper into chaos or Iranian influence. Now, the United States is back and getting a less than enthusiastic welcome, with leading allies like Egypt, Jordan and Turkey all finding ways on Thursday to avoid specific commitments to President Obama’s expanded military campaign against Sunni extremists.

As the prospect of the first American strikes inside Syria crackled through the region, the mixed reactions underscored the challenges of a new military intervention in the Middle East, where 13 years of chaos, from Sept. 11 through the Arab Spring revolts, have deepened political and sectarian divisions and increased mistrust of the United States on all sides.

“As a student of terrorism for the last 30 years, I am afraid of that formula of ‘supporting the American effort,’ ” said Diaa Rashwan, a scholar at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, a government-funded policy organization in Cairo. “It is very dangerous.”

The tepid support could further complicate the already complex task Mr. Obama has laid out for himself in fighting the extremist Islamic State in Iraq and Syria: He must try to confront the group without aiding Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, or appearing to side with Mr. Assad’s Shiite allies, Iran and the militant group Hezbollah, against discontented Sunnis across the Arab world.

While Arab nations allied with the United States vowed on Thursday to “do their share” to fight ISIS and issued a joint communiqué supporting a broad strategy, the underlying tone was one of reluctance. The government perhaps most eager to join a coalition against ISIS was that of Syria, which Mr. Obama had already ruled out as a partner for what he described as terrorizing its citizens...

More.

'I feel morally compelled at a serious personal level to call for and defend the development of weapons of overwhelming power and sophistication and then to call for their employment against all nation states and ideologies currently waging wars against any liberal democracy...'

Heh, my friend David Swindle gets personal in the name of national self-defense.

At PJ Media, "When the Grandchildren of the Atom Bomb Wake Up, There Will Be No More 9/11s":

Whether Jew, Christian, secularist, or a tech-minded, neo-pagan confabulation of all three like myself, the broad reading of the history of war against nature-worshipping slavemasters from the Canaanites to the Nazis reveals that the way to achieve peace is to impose it on the enemies trying to destroy you with weapons which make surrender the only viable option.

And at the post --- indeed, what inspired the post --- is this clip from Prager University:

Lt. Col. Ralph Peters Hammers Obama's Cowardice, Incompetence, and Indecision

The irrepressible Ralph Peters.

Via RCP, "Ralph Peters: Obama 'A Terrified Little Man In A Great Big Job He Can't Do'."

He's not going to get neutral states and others in the Middle East to step up. Why? Because they cannot trust Obama. He's screwed over the Eastern Europeans on missile defense to get a crappy arms deal with Putin. He's bailed on our allies in Iraq. He's run NATO all over the map in Afghanistan. He's drawn red line after red line and never lived up to any of it. He won’t call an invasion of Ukraine an invasion. He won’t call a war a war. He won’t call Islamist terrorists Islamist terrorists. This president is a terrified little man in a great big job he can’t do.

First Lady Michelle Obama Commemorates 9/11 with KaBOOM!

Sounds like she wants to blow some shit up on September 11.

And man, we still have two more years of this bull.

@AceofSpadesHQ If this tweet and pic does not prove that the Obamas hate American children, what does https://t.co/KjNmMo1f2V
— KBDaBear (@kbdabear) September 12, 2014

The Democrat Radical Left is Destroying and Wussifying the American Military

An astonishing segment.

John Stossel interviews former Marine Aaron MacLean:



You'll be fuming by the time you get to the $150.00 a gallon for green fuels for American military aircraft. Obama did that. Something he actually did, the f-king treasonous scumball.

'Scottish independence would seriously weaken Britain as America's most important ally and as one of the key pillars of the Western world's security posture in the Middle East and Eastern Europe...'

An awesome piece, from Brendan Simms and Jason Pack, at the Los Angeles Times, "The Scots have little to gain and a whole lot to lose with independence":

The gravest immediate threat to the West's long-term security does not emanate from Vladimir Putin or from the militants of the Islamic State. Rather, surprisingly, it comes from peace-loving Scots.

With polls now showing a majority of Scots supporting independence in the referendum set for Sept. 18, it's suddenly clear that Scotland might actually break away from Britain. In the words of Lord West of Spithead, former First Sea Lord, "A 'yes' vote for Scottish independence would make it more difficult to defend Britain. It would diminish NATO and the West's ability to do things."

Bluntly put, there is no rational upside for a 'yes' vote. In Scotland, the independence campaign runs on emotions alone. Abroad, its supporters are the postcolonial left who will revel in Britain's resultant weakness. Independence may increase Scotland's national pride, but its economy will suffer as companies and jobs flee south amid uncertainties about currency and taxation.

There will be no political dividend either. Unlike the "Irish problem" of the 20th century, the Scottish question is not a running sore in European or transatlantic politics. It does not involve a serious terrorist threat, nor would independence eliminate a destabilizing political movement — as would Corsican independence from France or Basque independence from Spain.

Simply put, Scottish independence is a solution in search of a problem. It would unwittingly destroy history's most successful political merger, the Anglo-Scottish Union of 1707, which enabled Britain to punch above its weight in the world, served as a model for the United States Constitution, and provided a dynamic core for a fiscal-military state that defeated its illiberal and undemocratic opponents in World War I, World War II and the Cold War.

Scottish independence would seriously weaken Britain as America's most important ally and as one of the key pillars of the Western world's security posture in the Middle East and Eastern Europe...

Keep reading.

Obama Honors 9/11 Victims a Day After Announcing New Mission Against Terror

At the New York Times, "On a Day Devoted to Past Events, Focus on New Terror Link":

WASHINGTON — The morning after committing the nation to an expanded military campaign against Islamist terrorism, President Obama honored the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as the White House argued that he had the right to wage his new fight under the same legal authority he used to hunt down Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda.

On a day suffused with memories of four hijacked planes and the war they ignited, the president’s new mission seemed less a break from the past than the continuation of a long national struggle.

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the administration said, was formerly the Iraqi affiliate of Al Qaeda, and has maintained ties with Al Qaeda even after its very public falling-out with Qaeda leaders. It uses brutal tactics that are out of the Qaeda playbook, and is viewed, even by some members of Al Qaeda, as the legitimate heir to Bin Laden’s legacy.

The argument, laid out Thursday by Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, could spare the president’s lawyers from having to negotiate a new legal authorization from Congress, should Mr. Obama decide to ask lawmakers to approve a prolonged military campaign.

But it ties his efforts against ISIS more firmly to the war on terrorism waged by him and his predecessor George W. Bush in the decade after the 2001 attacks, even though Mr. Obama insists they are different. In his prime-time speech to the nation on Wednesday, Mr. Obama drew a distinction between the ISIS campaign and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying it was a new kind of counterterrorism operation that would rely on bolstering local troops rather than deploying American ones.

On Thursday, Mr. Obama paid tribute to the service members and civilians killed at the Pentagon. Speaking before a giant American flag draped over the part of the Pentagon wall where one of the hijacked planes crashed, Mr. Obama said, “Thirteen years after small and hateful minds conspired to break us, America stands tall and America stands proud.”

The president hailed the “9/11 generation” of soldiers who have served in the years since the 2001 attacks, noting that “three months from now, our combat mission in Afghanistan will come to an end.”

Mr. Obama made no mention of ISIS, speaking only of challenges facing the country. But his description of a nation coping with the threat of terrorism seemed entirely relevant today. “We carry on because as Americans, we don’t give in to fear — ever,” he said.

Keep reading.

Mel Brooks Wore Fake Finger for Six-Finger Hand Print at Chinese Theater

Well, I thought he had six-digits on the left hand.

But it turns out he faked six fingers to do something different for history.

At LAT, "Mel Brooks' Chinese Theatre cement handprint has six fingers."

'Orgasmic' Slingshot Ride Gets Women Really Excited

At Instapundit, "VIDEO: Women Get Really Excited, Orgasm On Amusement Park Ride."

Megyn Kelly Destroys Obama in 82 Seconds

At Western Journalism, "Epic Rant: It Took Just 82 Seconds for Megyn Kelly to Utterly Destroy Obama."

The Sad Return of the 9/11 Truth Movement

A great post, at American Glob.

Barack Obama, You’re No Ronald Reagan

From Dimitri Simes, at the National Interest:

Obama’s new sweeping pronouncements are dangerous. If they don’t prove hollow, further discrediting the United States in the process, they compel him put the United States in very dangerous territory. Obama appears to think that he can threaten to do anything, anywhere, against American enemies without any consequences for what he says, does, or doesn’t do. It is precisely because Obama is weak that he has a propensity for offering sweeping inflammatory pronouncements that deter no one but can be exploited by anyone looking for an excuse to disregard sovereignty of others whether in Ukraine or elsewhere.

Man, this is a stupendous takedown! Utterly brutal.

Continue reading.

Reflections on 9/11 from USS Nimitz

Via Theo Spark, "Nimitz Remembers 9/11..."

Supermodel Exhibition from Victoria’s Secret Photographer Russell James

At the New York Daily News, "Lensman Russell James achieves a naked ambition with book featuring Gisele Bundchen, Heidi Klum & more":

Supermodels are famous for looking great when they’re almost naked. Turns out they look pretty good when completely naked, too.

Photographer Russell James makes that point — repeatedly! — in his latest book, “Angels,” the fourth in his series of coffee table tomes about the Earth’s most beautiful places, things and, most profitably, women.

James has shot plenty of sexy images over the years, but he’d never done a full volume inspired by nudity — not that the public hadn’t been calling out for it.

More.

Also at Gotham, "PHOTOS: VICTORIA'S SECRET HOSTS PHOTOGRAPHER RUSSELL JAMES' ANGELS BOOK LAUNCH."

And Egotastic!, "Candice Swanepoel, Alessandra Ambrosio, Kendall Jenner, and More Naked Models in Russell James’ Angels Photo Book."

Colleges Reject Charge That Freshman Reading Lists Have Left-Wing Political Bias

Actually, I don't have a problem with most of the readings cited at this piece, at the Los Angeles Times.

Some of the greatest in classical literature is inherently progressive and humanistic.

The problem is when leftist professors indoctrinate students with an endless stream of race, class, gender and homosexual advocacy, at the expense of a broad pedagogical approach. And there's really no debate on whether that's happening.

In any case, here's this from the article:

Freshmen at colleges around the country for years have been assigned to read the same books as a way to bond at orientation and to encourage intellectual interactions rather than just social ones.

But this year, some of the reading selections are coming under attack.

In South Carolina, for example, the state Legislature tried to cut funding for two state universities that selected books with gay themes.

The conservative Young Americans for Freedom compiled a list of those books that they contend offer only left-leaning perspectives, including "Americanah," a novel by a celebrated Nigerian writer that was picked this year at Pomona College, Penn State, Duke University and Macalester College.

The National Assn. of Scholars had another beef. It advocates the classics and argued in a recent report that by frequently selecting contemporary literature, "colleges are implying that students have little to learn from the past. Or perhaps they simply think students' attention spans are too limited for them to want to pick up such a book and read it on their own."

The group suggested schools should instead assign such alternatives as James Fennimore Cooper's "The Last of the Mohicans," Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man," Shakespeare's plays, and selections from the Bible.

Colleges deny any political intent. They say they seek high-quality books that provoke debate and that they are encouraging it as an academic experience amid all the other events and parties during those first few days on campus. Because many schools invite authors to campus, classics by long-dead writers don't fit the bill and there are other opportunities to study them, colleges say.

A common book "is a tangible bond but it has intellectual heft as opposed to just wearing the school colors," said Cheryl Spector, director of academic first-year experiences at Cal State Northridge, where this year's common reading is "The Postmortal," a futuristic novel by Drew Magary about possible immortality and a cure for aging.

Critics misunderstand the programs' goals, she said: "The fact is we are not trying to pick literary masterpieces primarily, although we don't mind it if we hit them. But we do want engagement with students. We want to invite them to a love of reading."

Nearly 40% of colleges ask students to participate in such readings, according to a recent survey by the Assn. for Orientation, Transition and Retention in Higher Education.

UCLA this year chose baseball hero and former Bruin Jackie Robinson's autobiography, "I Never Had It Made;" the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is tackling Louise Erdich's novel "Round House," about violence on a Native American reservation; Williams and Trinity colleges selected Rebecca Skloot's "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," the history of how cancer tissue from a poor black woman influenced science.

At Pomona College, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's "Americanah," a novel about Nigerians who emigrate to the U.S. and Britain and return home, was selected from 40 nominated books by a panel of faculty, students and others. Copies were mailed to incoming freshmen's homes.

Pomona's dean of students, Miriam Feldblum, said Young Americans for Freedom badly mischaracterized the book. The novel, she said, offers multiple perspectives of racial topics and American and Nigerian societies and emphasizes that people should not make assumptions about culture and history. Beyond its cross-cultural themes, it's a good book for young people because it examines long friendships and life's unexpected turns, she said.

The college aims for political balance, Feldblum said, pointing to the 2008 selections of autobiographies from both presidential candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain...

More.

FLASHBACK: "How California's Colleges Indoctrinate Students."

Thursday Teaching

I'll be working all day.

More blogging tonight.

Shop Amazon in the meanwhile!

9/11 and the Future of U.S. Foreign Policy

Former Vice President Richard Cheney, yesterday, at the American Enterprise Institute.

Also at LAT, "Cheney urges Obama to launch 'immediate' assault on Islamic State."

The 'Food Insecurity' Hoax

Another one of those leftist buzz-phrases designed to promote dependency and expand government.

And it's a hoax, via iOWNTHEWORLD.

VIDEO: College Students Don't Remember 9/11 Anniversary, Don't Know Much About ISIS

Via Red Alert Politics, "Young America’s Foundation video shows college students don’t remember 9/11 anniversary, don’t know a lot about ISIS."

Does an Untapped Market Exist for Smart-Watches?

We're about to find out, argues Stephen Green, at PJ Media, "Dear Apple: Why a Watch?"

And ICYMI, "Apple Shows Off Smartwatch, Larger-Screen iPhones."

VIDEO: Marxist Mayor Bill de Blasio Lacks Security Clearance to View Classified Terror Documents

Radical butt-freak Marxist. Serves the f-ker right.

At CBS News New York:

#ISIS 'Is Not Islamic' — President Obama Speech on Defeating Islamic State Jihadists

I was cringing before even a minute into the speech.

Watch it here, "President Obama Addresses the Nation on the ISIL Threat."

And at the Los Angeles Times, "Obama vows to hunt Islamic State militants 'wherever they exist'."

Obama: #ISIS “is not ‘Islamic.'” Full transcript: http://t.co/wPGvt6fmkA #ObamaSpeech pic.twitter.com/5S5Cin40Ny

— CNN International (@cnni) September 11, 2014

WATCH: Roger Goodell Denies NFL Saw Ray Rice Tape, but Law Enforcement Sent Video to League in April

At the Associated Press, "AP NEWSBREAK: SOURCE SAYS RICE VIDEO SENT TO NFL."

And Norah O'Donnell has the interview with Commissioner Goodell, from this morning.

"Did the NFL drop the ball?"



PREVIOUSLY: "NFL's Roger Goodell May Be In Trouble Too."

Shelby Chesnes Photoshoot

At Egotastic!, "Shelby Chesnes Topless Playboy by Popular Demand."

It's Going to Take More Than Airstrikes to Destroy #ISIS

From Chris Woods, at Foreign Policy, "Can Airstrikes Stop the Islamic State?":

It will likely take more than just an air campaign to decimate the Islamic State. Beyond a few hundred military advisers in Iraq, however, American boots on the ground aren't an option the White House is seriously considering. Recent U.S. military actions in Libya and Yemen have focused exclusively on air power. That's Obama's preferred model for fighting the Islamic State, as well. "American combat troops are not going to be fighting in Iraq again," the president has made clear.

Yet there's scant proof that airpower-only campaigns actually work. Much of Libya is now overrun by militant Islamists, while Yemen is actually less stable today after five years of secret U.S. drone strikes.

Ground troops will eventually be needed to hold territory once IS is forced out of the areas of Syria and Iraq it now controls. Washington and its Western allies not only have little appetite for another ground war, they don't have enough credibility to conduct one following the disastrous 2003 invasion of Iraq. Presumably that's why Obama has promoted the idea of a regional solution to the problem. Yet with the Syrian and Iraqi armies barely capable of stepping up, it's not clear who would fill that void.

"If you want the Iraqi Army to go capture everything in the next few weeks then yes, it's going to struggle," says Afzal Ashraf, a former Royal Air Force group captain who served in Iraq. Sorting out the Iraqi Army's disastrous leadership could take months, maybe years, and time is in short supply. Yet Ashraf thinks it's still possible to turn things around: "Once you start using [airstrikes] to gain small tactical victories, it starts to build up its expertise fairly rapidly, and they become more confident."

thers too are confident that bombing can sufficiently degrade the Islamic State enough to turn the tide of the conflict. Lt. Gen. David Deptula was an architect of the successful U.S. air campaign that destroyed the Taliban in 2001. As he notes, the Northern Alliance was actually losing the war in Afghanistan in 2001 before U.S. airpower and small teams of elite U.S. forces on the ground turned the tide -- and in just weeks.

Yet if Obama means to do the same to the Islamic State, airstrikes will have to increase by an order of magnitude, Deptula believes. "We need to institute an aggressive air campaign in which airpower is applied like a thunderstorm, and not like a drizzle." He believes many hundreds of armed sorties a day will be needed if Washington is serious about wanting to "halt, paralyze, and then render ineffective [IS]."

We'll soon find out whether Obama has the appetite for that kind of fight.

Yeah, we'll see.

And frankly, we'll at least need some special operations forces going after ISIS on the ground. Remember Michael O'Hanlon's piece from last month, "Why Iraq Air Strikes Might Not Be Enough."

Global Jihad's Plan for Islamic Domination — And Obama's Ceaseless Program of Leftist Treason

From Michelle Malkin, "Never forget: Unlike Obama, the jihadists never rest":

Here’s the first and last rule of Islamic jihad: If at first you don’t succeed, plot, plot again.

9/11 wasn’t the first. 9/11 won’t be the last. It’s not “fear-mongering” to face reality. These head-chopping, throat-slitting, bloodthirsty hijackers — of planes, freedom and civilization — have conspired for decades to inflict modern mass murder on the West. Their homicidal mission is spectacular destruction in the name of the Koran.

Never forget: Eternal Muslim hatred of infidels didn’t start with George W. Bush. Or George Herbert Walker Bush. Or Ronald Reagan. Or the creation of Gitmo. Or the birth of Israel. Or the Twin Towers. Or the Khobar Towers. Or Lockerbie. Or the U.S.S. Cole. Or Fort Hood. Or the Beirut Marine barracks bombings. Or the bombings of the U.S. embassy in Africa, the bombing of U.S. military headquarters in Riyadh and the attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi.

Allah’s animals can’t stop. They won’t stop. Sura 9:5, the verse of the sword, commands them to “slay the idolators wherever you find them, and take them, and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush.” No “pagan” throat is safe: American soldiers, worldly journalists, innocent schoolgirls, Jewish teenage boys and Christian missionaries alike are all targets of Sura 47′s call to “smite the necks” of the unbelievers.

Now our impuissant president sees fit, after two laggard terms in office, to unveil a “plan” for “degrading and ultimately destroying” the Muslim terrorists of ISIS.

Pffft.

To call the Obama administration’s trifling gestures a “bump in the road” to Islamic domination would be an overstatement of astronomic proportions. The bloodless words of the White House are rhetorical pebbles.

While Barack Obama singles out ISIS jihad gangsters for a $5 billion kabuki counterterrorism campaign, he continues to subsidize Hamas terrorists.

He has freed countless al-Qaida recidivists from the very Gitmo detention facility he vowed to shut down to appease international jihad enablers of the Kumbaya/Coexist coalition.

Obama’s jihad enablers have rolled out the red carpet at the White House for Islamist funders and frontmen, including:

-Esam Omeish, former head of the Muslim Brotherhood-sponsored Muslim American Society and patron of jihad cleric Anwar Awlaki, whom he helped install at Virginia’s notorious Dar al-Hijrah mosque. (That’s the same mosque where two 9/11 hijackers, terrorist financier Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi and Fort Hood Muslim mass murderer Nidal Hasan all worshiped.)

– Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah, a top lieutenant of Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf Qaradawi, who urges followers to kill every last Jew, sanctioned suicide bombings and the killing of our soldiers, and declared that the “U.S. is an enemy of Islam that has already declared war on Islam under the disguise of war on terrorism and provides Israel with unlimited support.”

–Hisham al-Talib, another Qaradawi cheerleader welcomed at the White House by Obama’s Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Al-Talib is an Iraqi-born Muslim identified by the FBI as a Muslim Brotherhood operative and a major contributor to the left-wing Center for Constitutional Rights, the group of jihadi-sympathizing lawyers who helped spring suspected Benghazi terror plotter Abu Sufian bin Qumu from Gitmo.

While Obama has been hitting the golf courses and Hollywood fundraisers over the past two terms, the relentless jihadists have been training, recruiting, practicing, testing and refining.

They’ve infiltrated our prisons, our military and our universities.

They’ve penetrated our borders, abused our toothless visa programs and exploited our indiscriminate refugee system to import and export the next generation of soldiers of Allah around the world.

They’re experimenting with shoe bombs, underwear bombs, ink bombs, dry ice bombs and cargo bombs.

Their dry runs on airliners continue unabated as our Federal Air Marshal Service shrinks from insufficient funds and abandonment.
They command their own rogue freighter and aviation fleets.

While Obama finally gets around to reading his teleprompter vow to destroy ISIS this week, Osama bin Laden’s heirs are diligently fulfilling their 20-year plan...

Still more at the link.

Dick Cheney Is Still Right

From the editors at the Wall Street Journal, via Memeorandum:

President Obama will lay out his plan to counter the Islamic State on Wednesday night, and we’ll judge the strategy on its merits. But the mere fact that Mr. Obama feels obliged to send Americans to fight again in Iraq acknowledges the failure of his foreign policy. He is tacitly admitting that the liberal critique of the Bush Administration’s approach to Islamic terrorism was wrong.

Recall that Mr. Obama won the Presidency by arguing that the U.S. had alienated the world and Muslims by recklessly using force abroad. We had betrayed our values by interrogating terrorists too harshly and wiretapping too much. Our enemies hated us not because they hated our values or our influence but because we had provoked them with our interventions.

If we withdrew from the Middle East, especially from Iraq; if we avoided new entanglements, such as in Syria; and if we engaged with our adversaries, such as Iran and Russia, the anti-American furies would subside and the world would be safer. We should nation-build at home, not overseas, and slash the defense budget accordingly.

***

Mr. Obama pursued this vision starting with his Inaugural Address and throughout his first term. He tried to “reset” relations with Russia by dismantling a missile-defense deal with Poland and the Czech Republic. He muted support for the democratic uprising in Iran in 2009 lest it upset the mullahs he needed for a nuclear weapons deal.

When the Syrian revolt erupted in 2011, Mr. Obama called for Bashar Assad to go but did nothing to aid the moderate opposition. In the process he overruled Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, CIA director David Petraeus, and his ambassador to Damascus Robert Ford.

The U.S. absence left Syria’s battleground to the Russians and Iranians, who helped Assad hang on, and to the Qataris, who have funded Islamic State and the al Qaeda affiliated al-Nusrah. But Mr. Obama was unrepentant, saying as recently as August that it had “always been a fantasy” to think that arming the moderate Syrians would make a difference.

Above all Mr. Obama sought to end the U.S. presence in Iraq. He made a token effort to strike a status of forces agreement past 2011, offering so few troops that the Iraqis thought it wasn’t worth the domestic political trouble. Mr. Obama then sold his total withdrawal as a political success, claiming Iraq was “stable” and “self-reliant” and making a centerpiece of his 2012 campaign that “the tide of war is receding.” He ridiculed Mitt Romney for warning about Mr. Putin’s designs.

Mr. Obama doubled down on his peace-through-withdrawal strategy in the second term, speeding up the U.S. departure from Afghanistan. On May 23, 2013, he summed up his vision and strategy in a sort of victory speech at National Defense University:

“Today, Osama bin Laden is dead, and so are most of his top lieutenants. There have been no large-scale attacks on the United States, and our homeland is more secure. Fewer of our troops are in harm’s way, and over the next 19 months they will continue to come home. Our alliances are strong, and so is our standing in the world. In sum, we are safer because of our efforts.”

Then in January his friends at the New Yorker quoted him as comparing Islamic State to the “jayvee team,” and this summer he said Mr. Putin is doomed to fail because countries don’t invade others in “the 21st century.”

***

So where are we less than a year later?

Continue reading.

Charles Krauthammer: Obama 'Has Been Dragged Kicking and Screaming' to Accept #ISIS Threat

Video, at RealClearPolitics.

Majority of Americans Says Obama's an Epic Fail

It's a 52 percent majority, and Aaron Blake is sure to point out the question offers a "binary" choice between success and failure (and not other options, like perhaps he's only partially fail).

At the Washington Post, "A majority of Americans say Obama’s presidency is a ‘failure’."

The Obama Depression: Long-Term Job Losses Still at Record Levels

Well, things won't really being to turn around until the Depressor-in-Chief is retired for good.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Despite 'recovery,' long-term jobless still at record levels":

It has come down to this for Brian Perry: an apple or banana for lunch, Red Sox ballgames on an old Zenith TV and long walks to shake off the blues.

At 57, Perry has been unemployed and looking for work for nearly seven years, ever since that winter when the Great Recession hit and he was laid off from his job as a law firm clerk.

By his count, Perry has applied for more than 1,300 openings and has had some 30 interviews, the last one a good two years ago. With his savings running dry, this summer he put up for sale his one asset — a three-bedroom house his parents used to own in this suburb of Providence.

"I'm not looking for pity, just one last opportunity," said Perry, a boyish-looking man with bright blue eyes and a nasal New England brogue.

The national economy, now in its sixth year of recovery, is gaining momentum and the unemployment rate has fallen sharply over the last year to 6.1%. But the number and share of people out of work for more than six months, the so-called long-term unemployed, remain at historically high levels.

Of the 3 million long-term jobless today, about one-third have been unemployed for more than two years, Labor Department data show. A small minority — roughly 100,000 Americans like Perry — have been actively looking for at least five years.

They might be called the super long-term unemployed. While others have quit looking, taken early retirement or entered disability rolls, these workers have pressed on year after year despite the increasingly long odds of finding a new job.

Extreme as their cases are, they reflect the devastating effects of the worst economic downturn in 75 years and how much the risks of being unemployed for extended periods have increased compared with the past.

The longer people remain jobless, the more likely they are to suffer the scarring effects of unemployment that can hurt their earnings permanently and create a cycle of instability.

More.

Frankly, I'd be angry. And that "cycle of instability" could easily devolved into extremist political violence.

Gee, thanks Obama and the "equality"-obsessed Democrat Party.

PREVIOUSLY: "The Obama Depression: In Poll, 7-in-10 Say Economy Has Permanently Changed for the Worse Since '09."

Apple Shows Off Smartwatch, Larger-Screen iPhones

At WSJ, "Devices to Include Apple's New Payment Service Aimed at Making In-Store Purchases Easier":

In an ambitious blitz of new products, Apple Inc. unveiled a pair of larger-screen iPhones, an Internet-connected watch and a new payment system that allows users to make in-store purchases with a smart device.

The watch, called Apple Watch, represents the company's first new product in more than four years. Apple said the watch will start at $349 and be available in early 2015. It works through a connection to Apple's new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, unveiled Tuesday, as well as the older iPhone 5, 5c and 5s.

The wearable device comes in two sizes and three versions: Watch, Sport and Edition. Apple is offering several different straps and faces, allowing multiple designs.

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook called the watch the most-personal device Apple has created. The device allows new ways for users to communicate from their wrists, the company said, and includes sensors that can detect a pulse, count steps and suggest fitness goals.

The new iPhones, meanwhile, will have 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch displays, larger than its current four-inch screen. Apple said it expects the new phones—to be called iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus—to go on sale on Sept. 19.

"Today, we are launching the biggest advancement in the history of iPhone," Mr. Cook said.

Apple said it plans to sell the larger 5.5-inch model starting at $299 with a two-year carrier contract, higher than the $199 price for its current high-end iPhone 5S. The company said the 4.7-inch iPhone will start at $199 with a contract. The company said the new phones come with many hardware improvements, including a sharper display, better battery life and improved camera performance.

The company also unveiled a new digital-payments service that will allow consumers to make purchases using just their phones or watches, marking the company's first big push into brick-and-mortar payments.

More.

Cindy Crawford Offers to Pay for Toxic Chemical Cleanup at Malibu Schools (VIDEO)

Seems to me that Cindy Crawford would be sending her kids to private schools, but then again, this is Malibu. It's not like you're dealing with a bunch of inner-city poverty and the attendant cultural rabble.

At CBS Los Angeles, "Malibu Parents Demand Tests After Toxic Chemicals Found on 2 School Campuses":

KCAL9's Serene Branson reports parents have been pushing the district to fully test and clean up contaminated schools for four years - and concerned mom Cindy Crawford is among them.

Thank the Left's Minimum Wage Protests: McDonald’s to Offer Burger Orders by Machine

Leftists are so stupid. Demands for a $15.00 minimum wage, which have been targeted particularly at McDonald's, will backfire, resulting in more automation at the restaurant chain, and the increasing loss of entry-level jobs.

But then, leftists destroy everything they get their hands on.

At WaPo, "McDonald’s fresh hope to turn around slumping sales: Ordering burgers from a machine":

If you’ve ever felt guilty ordering at McDonald’s, the fast-food mega-chain has just the fix: You can now order your own quarter-pound bacon cheeseburger from a welcoming, non-judging machine.

Battling the worst sales slump in a decade and competition from build-your-own upstarts like Chipotle and Smashburger, McDonald’s is expanding a test concept built around ordering via tablet. Just tap on a screen and watch as your burger’s toppings (and calories) pile on, then wait for an employee to bring it over. No human interaction necessary.

McDonald’s move towards dehumanization, launched as a pilot last winter and expanded across San Diego last week, is part of a larger trend of chain eateries turning tablets into your full-time restaurant buddy: equal parts menu, server and paycheck. Applebee’s, Panera Bread and even airport bars have installed tablets to allow diners to order food or booze without a wait....

With tablet ordering, “you can serve more lunches per hour, and the customers, since so many use their smartphone for just about everything, see it as more convenient,” Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Chuck Pinson-Rose said. “We’re moving toward a point where you have to have these sorts of things. … But it hasn’t gained universal acceptance yet. I don’t know if it’s really going to move the [sales] needle in a big way.”

The tablets could give McDonald’s a few added bonuses outside sales, including helping whisk data more directly back to headquarters on what customers really want. A workforce of tablets could even potentially allow the firm to cut back in staffing. Pay at McDonald’s and other fast-food giants have recently been slammed in nationwide protests...

More.

Yes, so less people will be able to find jobs.

NFL's Roger Goodell May Be In Trouble Too

At LAT, "NFL faces troubling questions after a second video surfaces that leads to Ray Rice's indefinite suspension":

The grainy images, captured without sound, show a man and a woman in an elevator.

He turns toward her, then walks away. She comes at him, and he punches her on the side of the head, knocking her off her feet and into a railing. When the doors open he drags her limp body behind him.

Ray Rice, who threw the punch, was a star running back with the Baltimore Ravens. The woman was Janay Palmer, at the time Rice's fiancee, now his wife.

Within hours of the video's release by TMZ Sports, Rice's career as a professional football player was in jeopardy. His contract was terminated by the Ravens and the NFL announced he was suspended indefinitely.

But the league and its commissioner, Roger Goodell, may be in trouble too.

The surveillance video released Monday is the second look at that altercation. The first, which surfaced six months ago, shows Rice pulling Palmer out of a casino elevator. It led to Rice's being charged with third-degree assault, a felony; Palmer with simple assault, a misdemeanor. Rice agreed to enter a diversionary program, allowing him to avoid trial.

In July, the NFL suspended Rice for two games, which drew widespread criticism as too lenient.

Now, with the release of the latest video, the league is facing more troubling questions: Either its initial investigation failed to turn up the second, more graphic video; or its leaders were not being truthful Monday when they said they were seeing that footage for the first time...

More.

PREVIOUSLY: "Ray Rice Booted by Ravens After Brutal Elevator Knock-Out Video Goes Public."

BONUS: At CNN, "Sklar: NFL is an organization that needs immediate change."

Kelly Brook in London

Alright!

I miss this lady.

At Egotastic!, "Kelly Brook Looking Big in a Bright Orange Dress in London."

WSJ/NBC Poll: Fear of Terrorist Attack Soars Under Obama and the #Democrats!

Americans are more scared today than at any time since the September 11 attacks in 2001.

At NBC News, "ISIS Threat: Fear of Terror Attack Soars to 9/11 High, NBC News/WSJ Poll Finds":

BREAKING: Fear of terror attack high, NBC News/WSJ poll finds http://t.co/LCBuE1WPz7 Watch @NBCNightlyNews for more. pic.twitter.com/TrQzanKYCp

— NBC News (@NBCNews) September 9, 2014

The nation is on edge in the wake of brutal beheadings of journalists by Islamic extremists — with more Americans saying the United States is less safe now than at any point since 9/11, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll shows.

The exclusive poll reveals that 47% of Americans believe the country is less safe now than before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. That’s a significant increase from even a year after the twin towers fell when in September 2002 just 20% of the country said the nation was less safe. The level of fear across America also is up substantially from last year when 28% felt the same way.

In fact, just 26% of Americans now feel the nation is safer than before 9/11.

The numbers are a backdrop for the primetime speech President Obama will deliver on Wednesday night outlining his plan to combat the terrorist group ISIS, which has taken over parts of Iraq and Syria, beheaded two American journalists, distributed images of the killings in via gruesome videos, and has launched a social media campaign to extend its reach.

“A very war-weary country … seems to have woken up to the real threat that ISIS may present,” says Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted this survey with Democratic pollster Peter Hart and his colleagues at Hart Research.

“The beheadings are so chilling to the American public,” added Hart. “The only things I think of equal impact are the self-immolations back in Vietnam.”

The new poll also found that more than six in 10 respondents believe that taking military action against the Islamic militant group ISIS is in the nation’s interest.

And a whopping 94 percent of Americans say they have heard about the news of the beheaded journalists – higher than any other news event the NBC/WSJ poll has measured over the past five years.

That includes the 2011 debt-ceiling debate (77 percent), the 2012 health-care decision by the U.S. Supreme Court (78 percent), Syria’s reported use of chemical weapons in 2013 (79 percent) and this year’s botched execution in Oklahoma (68 percent).

According to the poll, 61 percent of American voters believe that the United States taking military action against ISIS is in United States’ interest, versus 13 percent who don’t. (Another 24 percent said they don’t know enough to have an opinion.)

That’s a significant change when a similar question was asked last year about the U.S. taking possible action against Syria’s government after its reported use of chemical weapons.

Back then, only 21 percent said action was in the nation’s interest, while 33 percent said it wasn’t.

“The results couldn’t be more different,” McInturff, the GOP pollster, says.

In addition, 40 percent of respondents say U.S. military action against ISIS should be limited only to air strikes; another 34 percent say it should include both air strikes and combat troops; and 15 percent say military action shouldn’t be taken.

And while a plurality of Americans (40 percent) think that the United States should be less active in world affairs, that’s a seven-point drop on this question from April (when it was 47 percent).

By comparison, 27 percent say the U.S. should be more active – an eight-point increase from April.

Devastating. Just 32 percent approve of the job Obama's doing in foreign policy, an all-time low.

VIDEO: Anne Bayefsky Blasts United Nation as the Leading Global Purveyor of Anti-Semitism

Watch, at Israel Matzav, "Into the belly of the beast: Anne Bayefsky blasts the UN as the leading global purveyor of anti-Semitism."

So, Mel Brooks Has Six Digits on His Left Hand

I saw Brooks' hand imprint yesterday on Twitter:

I desperately need to wash my hands. pic.twitter.com/fKVl4FyMFt

— Mel Brooks (@MelBrooks) September 8, 2014

I thought he must have double-dipped, or something, to get that sixth finger imprint on the left hand.

But no. Here's the photo from Grauman's Chinese Theatre (now TCL Chinese Theatre) in Hollywood, at the Los Angeles Times, "Photo Mel Brooks in concrete."

RELATED: "'Young Frankenstein' has new life on 40th anniversary."