Can you hear me now?
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 29, 2015
Also, from James Bamford, at Foreign Policy, "What @Snowden Told Me About the NSA’s Cyberweapons."
Commentary and analysis on American politics, culture, and national identity, U.S. foreign policy and international relations, and the state of education - from a neoconservative perspective! - Keeping an eye on the communist-left so you don't have to!
Can you hear me now?
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 29, 2015
Modern man feels powerfully, dreams passionately, can't achieve an erection in the presence of a living woman. #caring @petersuderman
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) October 1, 2015
WASHINGTON — Billionaire businessman Donald Trump has strengthened his lead at the top of the USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll while two other outsider candidates, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina, have gained ground over rivals with electoral experience.Still more.
Jeb Bush, who was second to Trump two months ago in the USA TODAY survey, has tumbled to single digits and fifth place. The third-place finisher last time, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, suspended his campaign this month.
"Unfortunately, I'm leaning toward Trump, only because he's a non-political figure," said Ginger Mangam, 58, a customer service representative from Little Rock who was among those surveyed. Asked about his lack of electoral experience, she replied, "I don't think it's a problem; I think it's a message."
Anthony Edelen, 37, a small-business owner from Vermillion, S.D., likes what he hears from Trump and Fiorina. "I just want somebody who is going to move our country in a direction different from where it is currently," he said in a follow-up interview.
The shifting landscape underscores an electorate that is fed up with politics-as-usual and willing to embrace contenders who promise to shake things up. Some presidential hopefuls with significant political experience — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham among them — have failed to gain traction and score at 1% or below, a standing that may make it harder for them to raise money and command a spot on stage in televised debates.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has risen to fourth place, backed by 9% of those surveyed.
The poll of 380 likely Republican primary voters, taken Thursday through Monday, has a margin of error of +/- 5 percentage points. The full sample of 1,000 likely voters has an error margin of +/-3 points...
Before the drugs that were to kill her were administered, Kelly Gissendaner asked her lawyer to be sure her children knew that she left this world singing "Amazing Grace."More, "Gissendaner executed early Wednesday morning."
She cried and sang with joy until the powerful sedative took over and she closed her eyes.
Then she drifted off and minutes later died, punishment for her part in the murder of her husband, Douglas Gissendaner, in 1997.
For the next few minutes, the only sounds were sobs from one of her attorneys.
Two doctors checked her for signs of life and nodded to the warden that she was dead.
And it was then that warden Bruce Chatman announced to witnesses that it was done.
“The court-ordered execution of Kelly Rene Gissendaner was carried out,” he said before the curtains on the window to the death chamber were drawn.
MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts interviewed Lexi Fretz, a photographer and mother who shared images of her son Walter, born prematurely at 19 weeks, on Facebook. One of the photos of Walter was used in a Center for Medical Progress video, depicting what a child at approximately 19-20 weeks looks like.As they say, context is everything.
Lexi’s photos of her son have now saved countless lives and helped change people’s minds about abortion.
In an interview with Live Action in March, Fretz said:
For someone who survived so few minutes outside of me, he’s left such an impact, more than I ever could. For someone so tiny, he’s touched so many. I hope he keeps educating the world and the masses as to what the preborn looks like on the inside – that it’s not just a blob – it’s not a clump of cells.But Roberts must not have been aware of this. He asked Fretz, “How do you feel about Walter’s picture being used to discredit Planned Parenthood?”
Fretz replied, “Well, my husband and I are actually extremely pro-life so we were a little shocked at first and surprised […] but we are extremely proud of our son and the path that the Lord has put us on, just to help. I mean, he has saved many, many unborn lives.”
Fretz then shared stories of people walking out of abortion appointments, or finally learning what a preborn child looks like thanks to Walter’s photographs. She also told Roberts – who kept referring to Walter as ‘stillborn’ – that Walter was born alive, with a beating heart, and lived for a few moments.
Roberts then said:
I know that Walter’s story is very precious for you and your family. This has been really distorted out of context in this larger political conversation. Have you felt betrayed in any way by Walter’s life being used and mischaracterized in such heavy — and in some ways mischaracterized political debates?Fretz replied:
I was a little surprised at first. Not being directly asked. But at the same time, […] our lives are in God’s hands. Me and husband are trusting God and the ultimate perfect plan and if this is happening, we are trusting that He is going to take care of us and use Walter for His good.Roberts again pressed Fretz, asking her if anyone from CMP reached out to ask for permission to use Walter’s image in the “anti-abortion video”. Fretz confirmed that no one had asked for permission. Roberts repeated again that no one from CMP had reached out to tell Fretz that CMP would be using Walter’s image to attempt to defund Planned Parenthood. Fretz confirmed this.
Then Roberts asked Fretz if she expects an apology from CMP and Fretz shocked him with her reply:
No. I have talked to them directly and we’ve cleared the air and my husband and I are fine that it’s being used.That’s when Roberts ended the interview.
But the best moment from the interview with Fretz was her quote about being pro-life. She told Roberts, and all MSNBC viewers:
I just believe that every child should have a chance, a chance to be alive, to make a difference. We have so many little lives being lost and thrown away each day and I wish so much that my son was here. We miss him and the short time we had was precious with him. But I know his purpose; his purpose was to help to educate the world as to what a child really looks like. You know, you say fetus, baby, whatever you want to call it, he was very much alive. And I just believe that every, every little baby should have a chance.
O’Donnell also tells how her StemExpress supervisor instructed her to cut through the face of the fetus in order to get the brain. “She gave me the scissors and told me that I had to cut down the middle of the face. I can’t even describe what that feels like,” she says.So, perhaps Carly Fiorina did not fully appreciate the totality of "Human Capital - Episode 3," particularly that the kicking infant was apparently not an aborted baby at a Planned Parenthood clinic. If so, it's unfortunate, since a reasonable mistake on Fiorina's part has become the foul fodder of a diabolical campaign of far-left deception to smear the investigators behind the Planned Parenthood investigation. It's especially unfortunate, because this debate is not the debate we should be having, which is whether the American public supports Planned Parenthood's genocidal program of extermination of society's most vulnerable. See, "PLANNED PARENTHOOD CLINIC CUT THROUGH DEAD BABY’S FACE TO GET HIS INTACT BRAIN."
Moscow says its enemy is ISIS, but the initial phase of its air war in Syria hit American-backed rebels battling Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad.
Barack Obama’s administration said Wednesday that it doesn’t know whom Russia is bombing inside Syria. Rebel leaders on the ground there say they know precisely whom Moscow is targeting — and it isn’t the Islamic State.Still more.
Instead, Russia’s first airstrikes in Syria — which dominated the final day of the United Nations General Assembly session — appear to have struck a rebel group that likely was vetted by the CIA, uses U.S.-made weapons, and has publicly backed the international coalition fighting the Islamic State. The group is also part of the ad hoc alliance of militias battling the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which means that the early phase of Moscow’s military intervention will strengthen Assad at least as much as it will weaken the Islamic State.
Jamil al-Saleh, a defected Syrian army officer who is now the leader of the rebel group Tajammu al-Aaza, told AlSouria.net that the Russian airstrikes targeted his group’s base in al-Lataminah, a town in the western Syrian governorate of Hama. That area represents one of the farthest southern points of the rebel advance from the north and is therefore a crucial front line in the war. An alliance of Syrian rebel factions, including both the al Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front and groups considered by Washington to be more moderate, successfully drove Assad regime forces out of the northern governorate of Idlib and are now pushing south into Hama.
Tajammu al-Aaza released a video of the airstrike and its aftermath before Saleh’s statement. Syrian security sources also confirmed that a Russian airstrike took place in al-Lataminah. The Russian Defense Ministry, meanwhile, released a video of what it said was one of the strikes.
U.S. officials were quick to criticize the strikes, which they said had hit targets that didn’t appear to be linked to the Islamic State. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said at the Pentagon that the strikes were in areas “where there probably were not ISIL forces,” using an alternate acronym for the group. White House spokesman Josh Earnest, for his part, told reporters that it was “too early for me to say exactly what targets they were aiming at and what targets were actually hit.”
The strikes come amid a flurry of diplomatic maneuvering at the United Nations, where Moscow and Washington have traded potshots about who is to blame for the rise of the Islamic State and who should take the lead in fighting the group...
"Stand by Me. "
Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit "AND THE ROLE OF EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN WILL BE PLAYED BY…: Liberals’ Knives Come Out for Nate Silver After His Model Points to a Trump Victory..."
R.S. McCain, "'Jews Are Dead, Hamas Is Happy, and Podhoretz Has Got His Rage On ..."
Ace, "Georgia Shooter's Father Berated Him as a "Sissy" and Bought Him an AR-15 to 'Toughen Him Up'..."Free Beacon..., "Kamala Harris, the ‘Candidate of Change,’ Copies Sections of Her Policy Page Directly From Biden's Platform..."