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It's been pretty nice out, warm.

Poll: 6 in 10 Say United States at War with 'Radical Islam', Repudiating President Obama and Hillary Clinton

That's one of the major findings in this new blockbuster Washington Post/ABC News poll.

See, "Americans more fearful of a major terror attack in the U.S., poll finds." The raw internals are here:

Fears among Americans about terrorist attacks on U.S. soil have risen sharply a week after a major assault in Paris killed 130, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, which finds a majority believing that the country is at war with “radical Islam.”

Fully 83 percent of registered voters say they believe a terrorist attack in the United States resulting in large casualties is likely in the near future, rising from 73 percent in a Quinnipiac University poll earlier this month asking the same question. Forty percent say a major attack in the United States is “very likely,” up eight percentage points since last week’s attacks to match the record level of concern recorded after the 2005 subway bombings in Britain.

The Post-ABC poll finds a majority of Americans want the United States to join a military response to the Paris attacks, including increasing airstrikes and sending ground troops to fight the Islamic State, which asserted responsibility for last week’s mayhem.

But the poll also finds evidence of the public hesitation about a major military commitment, with more saying the United States should play a supporting role, and only one-third of all respondents supporting deployment of large numbers of ground forces.

The findings underscore the heightened anxiety many Americans feel after the Paris attacks, as well as a broader dissatisfaction with President Obama’s approach to terrorism. They come as the House voted Thursday by a large majority — 289 to 137 — to restrict Syrian and Iraqi refugees from entering the United States, despite a White House veto threat, and as several Republican presidential candidates are urging stricter control on admitting refugees and a deeper military involvement overseas. The poll found over half of adults oppose accepting refugees from Syria and other Middle Eastern countries, even if they are screened for security.

Rather than rally around the commander in chief, the public’s ratings of Obama on dealing with terrorism have fallen to a record low 40 percent, with a smaller 35 percent approving of his handling of the Islamic State. Obama’s ratings on terrorism have fallen seven points since January, driven largely by a 20-point drop among political independents and an 11-point drop among moderates.

Ken Kaas, a 50-year-old heavy-equipment operator in Pottstown, Pa., described the president’s approach in a single word: “horrible.”

“I just think he’s just politically correct, doesn’t want to ruffle feathers and is not a strong leader,” said Kaas, a Republican, who added that he preferred the strategy espoused by many GOP presidential candidates. “They’re stronger, and they seem to be more caring of Americans and our cause, as opposed to trying to appease the world.”

The Paris attacks also appear to have bolstered public support for circumventing civil liberties to pursue potential terrorists. A 72 percent majority say the federal government should investigate possible terrorist threats even if they intrude on personal privacy, rising nine percentage points since January to the highest level since 2010....

Fifty-nine percent of respondents say the United States is “at war with radical Islam,” while 37 percent say it is not. Republicans have embraced the term and criticized President Obama and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton for not using it. Clinton, who is running for president, says “radical Islam” wrongly conflates Islamist jihadists with the teachings of Islam and Muslims more broadly, but fellow partisans do not appear to have such reservations. Fifty-two percent of Democrats say the nation is at war with radical Islam.

Sixty percent support sending more ground troops to defeat Islamic State. That's a really striking figure, considering the intense opposition we've had to Middle East ground deployments this last few years.



Americans have had it with this administration on national security, and it's going to hurt the Democrats. Independents and moderates have swung sharply against Obama in his handing of the terrorist threat. A shrewd GOP nominee will be able to eviscerate Hillary Clinton on the issues next year, and the field seems to be narrowing down to Trump and Rubio as the front-runners. Carson's fading.

More at the link.

Xenia Deli Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Casting Call (VIDEO)

A nice Friday treat.

Al-Murabitoon, with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Claims Responsibility for Mali Hotel Attack (VIDEO)

At Long War Journal, "Al Qaeda group claims credit for attack on hotel in Mali’s capital."

Also at Pamela's, "Mali: Muslims screaming “Allahu akbar” take hostages, free those who can recite Qur’an."

Plus, at CNN, "UPDATE: #ParisAttacks death toll rises to 130, says French Prime Minister."

House Approves Tougher Screening of Syrian Refugees

It's a major blow to Obama, although the bill's gotta go through the Senate, where Democrats are threatening a filibuster. This oughta be interesting.

At WSJ, "House Passes Bill to Halt, Overhaul Syrian Refugee Process":

WASHINGTON—Nearly four dozen Democrats joined House Republicans to pass legislation Thursday that would halt the resettlement of Syrian and Iraqi refugees in the U.S. and overhaul the screening process, delivering a rebuke to the White House in response to public anxiety sparked by last Friday’s Islamic State attacks in Paris.

President Barack Obama, who threatened to veto the legislation, and many Democrats have argued that barring Syrian and Iraqi refugees would be contrary to American values and a strategic blunder in the effort to combat the spread of Islamic State ideology.

The White House left open the possibility of agreement on different legislation—for which there was early bipartisan support—that would block other ways terrorists might be able to infiltrate the U.S.

The struggle to respond to the Paris attacks rippled first through the 2016 presidential campaign before quickly arriving on Capitol Hill in a messy legislative battle less than a week after the violence in France. The defection of 47 House Democrats suggested that Mr. Obama’s initial visceral response wasn’t sufficient to unify Democrats on national security, with voters feeling more vulnerable on that front heading into the elections.

In early public comments, Mr. Obama focused on the contrast between his philosophy and that of Republicans, some of whom suggested the U.S. take in only Christian, not Muslim, refugees. He said that those ideas were “shameful” and un-American and that halting the program would anger potential sympathizers with Islamic State and push them toward radicalization.

But as the House took up its bill Thursday, Mr. Obama and his administration concentrated more directly on the policy reasons for opposing it.

“We already have in place the most vigorous vetting process that we have for anybody who is admitted,” Mr. Obama said at an international summit in the Philippines. “We subject them to a process that takes anywhere from 18 to 24 months before they are admitted. And the idea that somehow they pose a more significant threat than all the tourists who pour into the United States every single day just doesn’t jibe with reality.”

White House officials on Thursday said security measures in the waiver program have already been enhanced, but expressed an openness to working with Congress on the issue.

Thursday’s vote exposed tension between lawmakers’ desire to take steps to bolster national security and the administration’s philosophical and policy objections to a bill that officials said would also be impossible to implement...

Keep reading.

Plus, see the huge roundup at Memeorandum.

New Islamic State Video Threatens to Blow Up the White House (VIDEO)

Kimberly Guilfoyle speaks with Catherine Herridge:

'Most Americans want people who behead Americans destroyed considerably sooner than that. They wonder why the world's greatest military can't do that...'

Well, you'd think so, but then again, we've got Obama as president.

See Michael Barone, at the Washington Examiner, "Obama gets really angry -- at Americans."

Obama's Phony War

From Charles Krauthammer, at the Fresno Bee, "Obama’s phony war on terror":

WASHINGTON - A Syrian passport was found near the body of one of the terrorists. Why was it there? Undoubtedly, to back up the Islamic State boast that it is infiltrating operatives amid the refugees flooding Europe. The passport may have been fake, but the terrorist’s fingerprints were not. They match those of a man who just a month earlier had come through Greece on his way to kill Frenchmen in Paris.

If the other goal of the Paris massacre was to frighten France out of the air campaign in Syria – the way Spain withdrew from the Iraq War after the terror attack on its trains in 2004 – they picked the wrong country. France is a serious post-colonial power, as demonstrated in Ivory Coast, the Central African Republic and Mali, which France saved from an Islamist takeover in 2013.

Indeed, socialist President Francois Hollande has responded furiously to his country’s 9/11 with an intensified air campaign, hundreds of raids on suspected domestic terrorists, a state of emergency and proposed changes in the constitution to make France less hospitable to jihad.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama, titular head of the free world, has responded to Paris with weariness and annoyance. His news conference in Turkey was marked by a stunning tone of passivity, detachment and lassitude, compounded by impatience and irritability at the very suggestion that his Syria strategy might be failing.

The only time he showed any passion was in denouncing Republicans for hardheartedness toward Muslim refugees. One hundred and twenty-nine innocents lie dead but it takes the GOP to kindle Obama’s ire...

Come to My Window

I woke up yesterday with this song on my lips.

I don't know why. I love it. And I love Melissa Etheridge.

A nice break from terrorism blogging, in any case.



More blogging tonight. Thanks for reading.

Black Friday Countdown in Camera, Photo, and Video

At Amazon, Shop - Countdown to Black Friday in Camera, Photo & Video .

And check out Audrey Kurth Cronin, How Terrorism Ends: Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Campaigns.

Majority of Americans Rejects Obama's Syrian Refugee Importation Plan

It's not huge, but no matter: Obama's clearly on the wrong side of the issue.

At Bloomberg, via Memeorandum, "Bloomberg Poll: Most Americans Oppose Syrian Refugee Resettlement."

San Francisco Practices Security Drills Ahead of Super Bowl 50 (VIDEO)

Oh boy, it's like September 11 all over again.

The Super Bowl's February 7, 2016. The NFL's no longer using Roman numerals, which is like, finally.

Watch, at CBS News San Francisco, "Military Teams Practice Security Drill at Levi's Stadium Ahead of Super Bowl 50."

'The Hunger Games' Deserved Better Ending Than 'Mockingjay -- Part 2'

Well, I'm going to go see it either way.

But see Kenneth Turan, at the Los Angeles Times, "Movie Review: Jennifer Lawrence and 'The Hunger Games' deserved a better ending than 'Mockingjay -- Part 2'":

"The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2" is exactly what you would expect from its ungainly title, and that turns out to be not quite enough.

That's a bit sad because novelist Suzanne Collins' saga of resistance and rebellion in the totalitarian future state of Panem as led by redoubtable warrior Katniss Everdeen has been such a reliable staple of popular entertainment that it would be swell if the fourth and final film of the series ended things on a completely satisfying note.

And in truth many of the same elements of the previous films are present here. Stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth return for the fourth time as ace archer Everdeen and her pair of devoted swains, director Francis Lawrence is back for his third film, and screenwriters Peter Craig and Danny Strong mark this as their second effort. Even the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, who appeared in two other films in the franchise, is seen briefly in the finale.

On the level of stunts and action, "Mockingjay — Part 2" has its share of briskly executed, efficiently done set pieces as the rebellion against that nasty President Snow (Donald Sutherland) edges closer and closer to the Capitol.

But what made the best of the "Hunger Games" movies so effective was the emotional connection its shrewd plotting created by combining a coming-of-age saga, romantic rivalry and broader concerns about violent spectacle used to manipulate public opinion.

In theory, all this should come to a head in this final film, but the aesthetically misguided idea of breaking the final book into two films, commercially remunerative though it might have been, has ended up making the dragged-out proceedings feel anti-climactic and emotionally static...

Keep reading.

WATCH: First Video Footage of #ParisAttacks Inside Cafe

At London's Daily Mail, "EXCLUSIVE: First footage of Paris attacks shows diners diving for cover as jihadist sprays café with bullets... and women he tried to kill at point-blank range but who escaped because his gun jammed."

Also, a report at CBS News New York, "Paris Attacks Caught on Camera."

France Leads From the Front

France is at the forefront of the global war on terror.

There's no doubt about it.

At the Wall Street Journal:

‘Strategic patience” is how the Obama Administration describes its approach to national security, based on its view that time is on our side in dealing with threats such as Islamic State (ISIS). “We cannot afford to be buffeted by alarmism in a nearly instantaneous news cycle,” National Security Adviser Susan Rice said in February. We doubt French President François Hollande agrees.

French security forces Wednesday conducted hundreds of antiterror raids and placed more than 100 suspects under house arrest. Police fought a gun battle in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, which ended when a terrorist detonated her suicide vest. Belgian-born Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the alleged mastermind of Friday’s massacre, was thought to be in the targeted apartment and it wasn’t clear as we went to press if he was among those killed.

Meanwhile, security forces found a weapons cache in the city of Lyon that included Kalashnikov rifles and a rocket launcher. On Tuesday German authorities evacuated a soccer stadium in Hanover based on a “concrete indication about a concrete danger,” according to the state premier of Lower Saxony. Paris-bound flights have been diverted following bomb threats and France-bound jihadists have been arrested as far as Moldova.

Such threats are a reminder that the urgency of French antiterror actions is less about revenge than the pressing need to prevent another attack. Europe was fortunate earlier this year when a police raid in Belgium prevented an imminent terrorist attack, and again in August when three Americans and a Briton prevented a jihadist from opening fire on a high-speed train.

But luck runs out, especially when you treat terrorism largely as a matter for cops and courts. ISIS was able to conduct three mass-casualty attacks in three countries in less than three weeks and is threatening more attacks elsewhere. France has some 11,500 names on government watch lists. Many are likely to be detained under the three-month state of emergency that Mr. Hollande declared after Friday’s attacks, but authorities can’t track them all...

Keep reading.

Al-Nusra Front Commander and Syrian Reporter Killed While Filming Interview (VIDEO)

Via My Pet Jawa.

Islamic State Terrorists 'tortured wounded victims by slitting their stomachs with knives...'

Astonishing brutality.

Truly demonic.

At the Mirror UK, "British survivor of Eagles of Death Metal concert tells how ISIS terrorists 'tortured wounded victims by slitting their stomachs with knives'."

Brigitte Gabriel and Robert Spencer on Steve Malzberg Show (VIDEO)

Via Jihad Watch.

Islamic State Releases Video Threatening Attack on New York City (VIDEO)

At NYDN, "ISIS releases video warning of attacks on New York City," and at USA Today, "ISIL releases video threatening attack on New York City."



More at AoSHQ, "ISIS Now Threatens NYC, Times Square Specifically."

Obama Gets Hammered by Democrats Over 'Condescending' Paris Rhetoric

I hate the Hill's homepage. All the autoplay video and so forth ... it's a disaster.

But they publish good stuff. So, if you can bear it, here's the link, at Twitter, "Obama comes under criticism from Dems over Paris rhetoric."

The Democrat chickens are coming home to roost, big time.