"Why is it that no Muslim group has ever been created to condemn...terrorists who kill themselves to become 'martyrs for Islam'?"

 From Jihad Watch / Posted by Robert Spencer

This article makes a great many true and accurate observations. After detailing a number of recent jihad attacks, the author says, "The West is deluding itself when it says that 'this is not the real Islam.'

Indeed, what is the real Islam? Since terrorists and Salafists say they are Muslims and acting in favour of Islam, only a violent Islam has taken central stage." He asks: "why is it that these masses of moderates never protest? Why is it that no Muslim association or group has ever been created to condemn Salafist violence and terrorists who kill themselves to become 'martyrs for Islam'?

But he does so in a very apologetic and hesitant way, going on to affirm his commitment to a "dialogue" that has in every instance proved spurious and chimerical, and saying: "I just want to make sure that people in Italy will not come to accept what Domenico Quirico, La Stampa envoy to Syria, said. Held captive for months by Islamic guerrillas, he wrote, 'We refuse to realise that moderate Islam does not exist, that the Arab Spring is over and that its new phase involves an Islamist and jihadist plan to build the Great Islamic Caliphate, a political plan that is being implemented starting in Syria with weapons, armies, and money.'" Why does he not want people in Italy to accept that? What if it's true? Is he really doing a favor to the people of Italy (or anywhere else) or furthering any genuine "dialogue" by pretending that things are not as they are?

"Anti-Christian violence and the silence of 'moderate' Muslims," by Piero Gheddo for Asia News, October 22 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

Milan (AsiaNews) - An Italian man, who recently came back from the Philippines, told me that on the big island of Mindanao, hundreds of extremists came at night from the island's interior and from smaller islands to attack a suburb of the city of Zamboanga, looting and burning houses and huts. They retreated taking dozens of hostages, leaving behind dead and wounded victims. The Italian said that targeted killings and kidnappings are frequent, but perhaps this is the first time that such a large-scale attack on Christians was carried out. Fear of new attacks has spread and nothing will be as before. The government is bound to send in the army and more fighting, revenge attacks and destruction are to be expected. Those who can have fled to other parts of the country, as people's lives and the economy are on hold. From Gulf countries, money is being sent to ulemas, mosques and Qur'anic schools to train young people to fight and accept to become "martyrs for Islam" against the Christian state. Salafists want an autonomous region for the Muslim minority on the island of Mindanao, which would join Malaya and Malaysian Borneo to form a single Islamic state.

All this does not make its way into front-page news, and yet there is more. Three days ago, an attack was carried out against a Christian wedding in Giza, in southern Cairo, that left four people dead and 18 wounded according to the latest report. 

In Bangladesh, people have always adhered to a moderate form of Islam. At present, foreign missionaries and nuns are still allowed in, but in recent years, a number of Islamist movements and groups have stirred people up. They have called on the government to make the Sharia (Islamic law) the law of the land, holding up the country for days with non-stop strikes and demonstrations that often result in unnecessary violence (travellers and workers are stopped, beaten, stabbed and killed sometimes). The small Christian, Hindu and Buddhist minorities are under pressure and have to endure every day specious sentences, acts of injustice, and violence. As Bangladesh's upcoming general election draws near, many fear the worse.

The Central African Republic is "one of the most destabilised states in the continent" because of foreign Muslim gangs (from Nigeria, Chad, Niger, and Sudan) who seized power in the capital Bangui, ousting President Bozizé. As Mondo e Missione (October 2013) reported, "during the offensive by Seleka forces (the ruling Islamists), hospitals and health centres were looted and medical staff fled. The health situation is dramatic. [. . .] Christians are being targeted by Islamic soldiers," a Protestant clergyman said, "tied, beaten and forced to hand over money to save their life . . . . Seleka rebels have ravaged and plundered places of worship, killing and forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee, targeting especially Christians." In four dioceses in Central Africa, at least half of all Church assets have been heavily looted, destroyed or taken away. "Everywhere, people are leaving," Mgr Juan José Aguirre, bishop of Bangassou, said. "Civilians are killed and girls raped. They stole everything they could in the dioceses: cars, motorcycles, even refrigerators, television sets, blankets. They destroyed everything: from educational centres to children's facilities."

And "In Bohong, foreign Seleka soldiers did not spare a single hut belonging to non-Muslims residents," a report issued by the Diocese of Bohong said. "Throughout the city, except on the Muslim side, the same scene can be seen: roofless, empty homes and blackened walls . . . ."

Op-ed:
ObamaCare...one major mess built and owned by Obama

By: Diane Sori

As expected the props were there…supposedly happy ObamaCare subscribers who were anything but as only three of those on stage were able to log onto the nightmare of a website…but shhhhh… Obama does NOT want you to know that.

And so in his press conference on Monday, in which Obama promised to get the website and the exchange problems fixed ASAP we know his promises are if NOTHING else…laughable. And as the laughs continued with Obama claiming there were 20 million ‘look-sees’ on the ObamaCare website during its first weeks in operation and that almost half a million accounts were created on the exchanges during the same time period…we could actually see his nose growing with every word spoken for Obama gave NO actual real-time enrollment numbers…just more of his straight-faced lies spewed while smiling ever so sweetly for yet another photo-op.

The truth is that the ObamaCare website and the exchanges that go along with it are a complete and total failure…a failure costing three times as much as originally budgeted for…a failure to the tune of $394 million in total…$200+ million of which came directly from our taxpayer dollars…and NOTHING Obama says now can make us forget his narcissistic bravado of a mere month ago when he told Americans that a “few glitches would be inevitable and that people should disregard the program’s naysayers.”

Thing is…the naysayers were right and as always Barack HUSSEIN Obama was wrong yet again.

So in Monday’s just another in-our-face photo-op of a press conference, Obama’s lies droned on and on ad-nauseum as he continued down his chosen path of trying to ruin the one-sixth of our economy that ObamaCare touches.  Ruining it with this monstrosity of an anything but affordable health care bill that will cost many NOT only wages but their very jobs as well as this miserable excuse of a president insists on forcing economic hardships on ‘We the People’ with his refusing to grant us the same one-year delay he gave big business in their having to implement ObamaCare.

And so the man who secretly…or maybe NOT so secretly…wants ObamaCare to fail so he can then initiate his true objective of controlling a one party health care system…a system where ‘do as I say or else’ would become reality…Barack HUSSEIN Obama once again placed the blame for the website’s many failures on any and everybody he could think of…except on himself of course. ‘The buck stops here’ does NOT exist in Obamaspeak…I’m just surprised the name George Bush did NOT enter his conversation.

But blame or NO blame the fact remains that ObamaCare is just plain bad medicine…and mucho expensive to boot.

Bad medicine because now our medical care will NOT be decided by our doctors but by a panel of 15 fat-cat DC bureaucrats…expensive because while some sick people with pre-existing conditions might think ObamaCare is the answer to their prayers, the amount of dollars needed to cover the cost of those pre-existing conditions will bankrupt ObamaCare. And why…because healthy people… young healthy people…want NO part of ObamaCare.  And the success of ObamaCare depends on this youth demographic signing on to it otherwise it goes broke paying for those with pre-existing conditions.

Bottom line…ObamaCare will cease to exist if younger healthy Americans do NOT underwrite the high costs of medical care for older and sicker Americans...especially those with pre-existing conditions.

And let’s NOT forget Obama’s famous line, “You can keep your current plan if you like it.” Words spewed forth from smirking lips…words that proved to be just more in his series of lies…for the sad reality is that yesterday a half million people in Florida received cancellation notices from their current insurance carriers…and more are on the way.

Now add in that even for those very ‘lucky’ (gag) few who do get through the hodge-podge of a website and are able to sign onto the ObamaCare exchanges, the insurers they sign onto have said that they were getting incomplete or corrupted applications that could NOT be processed, and that many states are having trouble accessing the federal data needed for the applications.

But under it all what remains is that when you strip away the website’s many failures the fact is that ObamaCare simply does NOT work NO matter whatever guise it’s presented in…and needing seven million sign-ups by the end of March to make it operational…to make it break even…will simply NOT happen for ObamaCare is bad-medicine any way you cut it…as people who are getting through to the website are finding out.

ObamaCare has flaws…many many flaws…flaws that NO amount of PR can fix…flaws that might eventually bring it down without any intervention by our side at all. Having had three years to get it right, ObamaCare and its laughable website will give Barack HUSSEIN Obama a legacy that he truly does NOT want but oh so deserves…and that might be the ultimate payback ‘We the People’ can give him for forcing the monstrosity known as ObamaCare down our throats. We did NOT need ObamaCare nor did we want it…yet for now we are stuck with it…and that does NOT sit well with ‘We the People’ at all.

Nuclear Talks With Iran: How the Game is Played

Paul Greenberg / Townhall Columnist

It may be fall but everything's coming up roses in Geneva -- and in every press release about how swimmingly negotiations have been going in that picture-postcard-perfect Swiss spa. (How come diplomatic conferences are never held in Gary, Indiana, or East St. Louis, Illinois?) The subject of last week's meetings in picturesque Geneva: how to work out a deal over Iran's nuclear weapons program. That's right, the vast program that doesn't exist, never existed, and will be halted if only the West would be so kind as to lift its sanctions on trade with that country and theocracy.

Each side, East and West, had its own agenda as the twain met in Geneva last week. No wonder the late League of Nations chose Geneva as the site for all its futile deliberations. It's a lovely city on a lake and a fine place to take a vacation from all the petty irritations and frustrations of the real world. Like how to achieve a real peace.

Anyone who's read even a little history about Europe between the Wars will know the formula for an officially successful negotiation: talk a lot and achieve little if anything. Except maybe the next, bigger and worse war.

The only thing that seems to have changed about such formal conclaves since the Roaring Twenties and Drab Thirties is that the diplomats no longer wear wing collars and striped pants. Flowery blouses and dresses now crop up in the group photographs. But little else seems to have changed over the years. Especially the futility of international conferences. That the aims of the High Contracting Parties involved in such conferences may be diametrically opposed is but a minor detail that never seems to get in the way of the Pollyannas who write the communiqués.

The aim of Iran's mullahs in these latest negotiations at Geneva is to end the West's crippling sanctions on their country's economy. Which is understandable. Iran's oil exports have fallen sharply, its currency is largely worthless, its banks paralyzed, and the natives grow restless.

For the West, the aim is to keep Iran's nuclear program from producing a nuclear weapon, which by now is almost within reach. If only Iran's military-industrial complex can buy a little more time at Geneva, all these oh-so-solemn proceedings will prove but abstractions. Which is why Iran's diplomats are willing to talk, and talk and talk, at Geneva. So long as those centrifuges can keep whirring and Iran's supply of enriched uranium keeps mounting.

That sound you hear in the background of these negotiations is an atomic clock ticking. For the work proceeds apace at Isfahan and Natanz and Qom ... and sites still to be disclosed. Till it's too late, and the fog of diplomacy is replaced by a mushroom cloud.

Don't be concerned. Great progress is being made at Geneva, where last week the diplomats looked over their work and pronounced it good.

The head of the European Union's diplomatic delegation there, the Rt. Hon. Catherine Ashton, Baroness Ashton of Upholland, assured the world that last week's "very important" negotiations had entered a "new phase," not to be confused with the decade of deceptive deadlock that preceded them.
Iran's foreign minister concurred: "We have reached a serious stage in the talks."

Our own State Department's spokesperson, Jennifer Psaki, declared the discussions "substantive," which is almost as assuring as State's official line after the unfortunate events at Benghazi.

Even the White House's press secretary, Jay Carney himself, weighed in on this happy occasion: "The Iranian proposal is a new proposal with a level of seriousness and substance that we had not seen before." And we all know how trustworthy Jay Carney's words have proven. Not since Ron Ziegler occupied his position in the Nixon administration has a press secretary been so reliable a source.

If all these assurances aren't enough to leave you as bubbly and full of good cheer as that first glass of champagne, followed by a few more, Americans can always rely on the editorials in the ever in-vogue New York Times. The word from the Times is that anybody who criticizes these negotiations is just "sabotaging diplomacy," and that goes especially for Israel's Bibi Netanyahu, who keeps demonstrating a stubborn interest in keeping his pesky little country from being wiped off the map, troublemaker that he is.

All these stately proceedings at Geneva have an unreal yet familiar air. Like a nightmare that keeps recurring. Only those who think past experience might be of some use in assaying current events may recall another series of negotiations, those conducted by another administration with another ruthless regime. And how well they were going before they succeeded only in giving the world another nuclear power, and scarcely the most peace-loving one at that.

Back in 2005, which is almost another age in a country as historically amnesiac as the United States of Forgetfulness, the ancien régime known as the Bush administration announced to great fanfare that North Korea -- yes, the sealed hermit kingdom itself -- had just agreed to any number of concessions (meaningless, as it turned out) and would give up its plans to produce a nuclear weapon. Hooray! Let the confetti fly!

Leading the celebrants back then, Gentle Reader will not be surprised to learn, was the (no longer) good gray New York Times, which could scarcely contain its jubilation:

"For years now, foreign policy insiders have pointed to North Korea as the ultimate nightmare ... a closed, hostile and paranoid dictatorship with an aggressive nuclear weapons program. Very few could envision a successful outcome (to these negotiations). And yet North Korea agreed in principle this week to dismantle its nuclear weapons program ... and admit international inspectors. Diplomacy, it seems, does work after all."

For a while. Within a year, Pyongyang had set off its first nuclear explosion. Just as Teheran will soon be in a position to do. Thanks to our diplomatic corps' inexhaustible capacity for wishful thinking. It's a charming trait, really, and a very American one. If only it didn't come at such a high price.

Math, the Real Kink in Obamacare 

Debra J. Saunders / Townhall Columnist

At an event Monday to boost the Affordable Care Act after its glitch-rich rollout, President Barack Obama asserted that his signature health care plan is a hit because "prices have come down."

That's the administration's big lie: that Washington can mandate universal health care with beefed-up benefits and somehow the plan will save everyone money.

"One study shows that through new options created by the Affordable Care Act," the president boasted, "nearly 6 in 10 uninsured Americans will find that they can get covered for less than $100 a month." He glossed over the fact that according to the federal government study, 56 percent of the uninsured should pay less than $100 a month because they qualify for Medicaid or for federal subsidies. To the extent that these people's prices come down, it's because someone else pays the price.

Some people will save without subsidies. Obama read a letter from John Mier of Leetsdale, Pa. Mier agreed the website "stank" when he first logged on, but later he found that instead of paying $1,600 a month for coverage, as his current provider would charge, thanks to Obamacare, he and his family "have a plan that will only cost ... $692 a month -- a savings of $900 per month."

I talked to Mier, who is a consulting engineer; his wife works for his business. The couple do not qualify for subsidies. He's in his 60s. She's in her late 50s. He has a pre-existing condition, and she has diabetes. One insurer turned down his wife. I asked him whether he thought his claims experience, because of the family's medical history, explained the couple's high premiums. Mier answered, "Probably, no doubt."

I've been hearing from healthy Californians who were kicked off their private plans because of Obamacare and were informed they would have to pay much higher premiums on Affordable Care Act exchanges. It could be that his family's boon spells a financial hit for healthy individuals who had good affordable health care before Obamacare.

The White House doesn't hold events with families who have been burned by Obamacare. The president had promised Americans that if they liked their health care plans, they could keep them.

But the president doesn't read letters from people who feel they were betrayed and deceived.
Couples who decide to earn less money so that they can qualify for federal subsidies don't swoon on the White House steps as the president crows about how swell Obamacare is. There is no "rate shock" on Pennsylvania Avenue.

So let me quote from an email from a San Francisco contractor who is "very angry over this new health care act." Kaiser informed him that for him to comply with the new law, his deductible would rise from $2,700 per year to $4,500, and his premiums would rise from $356 to $567. "All I ever heard was that if you currently had health insurance, you need not worry; you could keep your same coverage, your doctor, and nothing would change for you. Wrong, wrong, wrong."

Voters never should have believed that Washington could provide the same benefits -- no, more benefits -- to millions more Americans and still people would pay less. That thinking, not computer glitches, is the real "kink in the system" of Obamacare.

Hamas top dogs admit to building tunnels to kidnap Israelis

From Jihad Watch / Posted by Robert Spencer   

Even if they wanted to, the Palestinian Authority leaders with whom Obama is demanding that Israel negotiate can't rein in Hamas. "Hamas Leaders Admit to Building Tunnels to Kidnap Israelis," by Adam Kredo for the Washington Free Beacon, October 21 (thanks to Block Ness):

Hamas leaders confessed on Monday that they had been planning to kidnap Israelis using a recently discovered tunnel system burrowed deep beneath the Israeli-Gaza border, according to reports. 

The admission that Hamas is still seeking to kidnap and ransom Israelis has renewed concerns that a new round of violent demonstrations known as an intifada could sweep the region and jeopardize nascent peace talks.

Israeli authorities revealed last week that they had discovered a complex 1.5-mile tunnel system running from the Gaza Strip into a nearby Israeli kibbutz.

Hamas officials came clean about the tunnel on Monday when a senior leader admitted that the terror group was planning to abduct Israelis and ransom them to secure the release of imprisoned Palestinian terrorists.

“This tunnel was made by the hand of the fighters of (Izzadine) al-Qassam and they will not sleep in their efforts to hit the occupation and kidnap soldiers,” Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida was reported as saying on al-Aqsa radio, a Hamas-owned station.

“Kidnapping soldiers is the only way to succeed against the (Israeli) occupation,” Obeida was quoted as saying by the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency.

The Hamas leader vowed to continue efforts to spark violence and kidnap Israelis.

“We are working on the ground and under the ground to release the prisoners,” Obeida said.

Hamas secured the release of more than 1,000 prisoners in 2011 under a deal that bought freedom for kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Middle East experts said Hamas’ admission is another sign that the group is not backing down from its violent agenda as U.S. officials attempt to foster a peace deal....

Law Enforcement Laments: Americans Informed About How We Abuse Their Rights Are Hurting Our Ability To Abuse Their

by Ben Bullard / Personal Liberty Digest

PHOTOS.COM

The Director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation stood before his law enforcement peers Sunday and warned them that they were all in danger of losing their technological toys in the ongoing effort to spy on non-suspects and to create probable cause out of thin air. The revolt of public opinion elicited by Edward Snowden’s revelations about government’s spy methods has simply made secret surveillance too unpopular and has attracted too many fresh sets of watchful civilian eyes.

Of course, GBI Director Vernon Keenan spoke of this as a bad thing, in the process revealing just how comfortably ensconced American law enforcement has become in its echo chamber of police-culture entitlement.

Speaking at the conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (a gathering that also features draconian surveillance cheerleaders such as U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder), Keenan talked about how the law enforcement community must be careful in the near term if it wants to hang on to wonderful technologies like facial recognition software, license plate scanners and unmanned surveillance drones.

From Reuters, which reported on Keenan’s weekend speech:

“The scrutiny that the NSA has come under filters down to us,” Keenan said at the annual gathering that draws top law enforcement from the United States and elsewhere with workshops, product exhibits and conferences.

“…If we are not very careful, law enforcement is going to lose the use of technology.”

Watching the watchers is, in other words, a momentary public relations nuisance that, if negotiated skillfully by the police, will blow over. The only reason police need to be careful about abusing their powers right now is because all eyes are on them. Eventually, they’ll win the day — if they don’t make too great a spectacle of themselves in the meantime.

“Law enforcement should join us, instead of fighting us, as we seek to advance privacy protections for everyone in the United States,” responded a blogger for the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. “After all, if they are only interested in spying on the ‘bad guys,’ what do the police have to hide?”

Op-ed:
Political bullies...existing at all levels of government

By: Diane Sori

Bullying…the use of force, threat, or coercion to abuse, intimidate, or aggressively impose domination over others. Bullying…what better word is there to describe the growing number of RINOs in the House.

And while lately the issue and consequences of bullying in general has been all over the news…as in bullies in our schools, bullies on the playground, bullies in sports…sadly, the bullies within the ranks of the Republican party…certain long-term way past time to leave RINO bullies… seem to be dominating the headlines. These political bullies…as in the likes of John McCain and Lindsey Graham to name but two…held Republican lawmakers in both chambers hostage with their made-up doomsday scenarios about defaulting as they sold their party…and ‘We the People’…out to the Obama political machine.

These bullies…in getting House Republicans to surrender to ‘Prince’ Harry Reid…a bully in his own right…and his anything but compromise Senate bill to end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling…made those in the House, when it came their time to vote, appear as the humiliated, impotent, beaten down lawmakers they proved themselves to be.

And their bullying doom and gloom tactics overwhelmed and overtook any semblance of a backbone that Speaker of the House John Boehner once had.

As if the House surrender wasn’t bad enough, in their efforts to sell us all out, these Senate bullies tried to defame the few Republicans in both chambers who stood strong against Reid and crew…zeroing their bully pulpit tactics in on the one man who had the guts and courage to get in their faces from day one with his unwavering stance against the nightmare that is ObamaCare.

Senator Ted Cruz, called a bully by the RINOs, led the charge against the true party bullies and in retaliation has been slandered NOT only by Senate and House Democrats but by those within his own party…by those who wanted to acquiesce to ‘Prince’ Harry Reid from day one…by those who cared only that they and their cushy perks might be hurt by the shutdown while NOT caring one iota about those who were disrespected by this administration…as in our elderly WWII veterans.

And so any in either chamber who voted for this abomination of an anything but compromise bill…voting in lockstep for it even after Obama…and YES it was Barack HUSSEIN Obama….blocked the memorials to those who served…these sellouts MUST be voted out of office…and their bully tactics along with them.

True Conservative Republicans in Congress must unite and stand strong on two front…against the always liberal Democrats and also against the growing ranks of the RINO bullies who seem to be overtaking the House. And in the toxic environment that is the hallmark of today’s political scene, these political bullies must NOT be allowed to rule the roost, because if they do the Republican party…the party of our beloved Ronald Reagan…will be forever doomed…doomed because of ‘old guard’ bullies who will try to hang onto their political life by any means possible, including by NOT doing the people’s bidding if it does NOT serve their personal agendas.

But sadly, political bullying is NOT just the signature of those in DC…it trickles down through the states, the counties, all the way down to the local level. And at the local levels it can be even nastier than at the federal level…I know as I’ve just recently experienced a tried but failed bullying attempt against me. Standing strong against the individual and their pitiful attempt to bully me…intimidate me…I used something so often forgotten…so often overlooked…but something very effective in neutering a bully…in a word ‘facts’…and facts are the very thing the RINOs love to ignore.

And while this Lady Patriot does NOT take kindly to being bullied so should those who were elected to do the people’s bidding for those who succumb to bullying…like the RINOS in the House…are pitiful…with those who do the bullying even more so. And bullies like McCain and Graham will get theirs when they’re up for re-election…that is if they even have the guts to run after their sellout to the Democrats and Obama.

Bottom lie…all politics starts at the local level so at the local level is where the bullying must be squelched first so that those in power in DC…those who think they’re untouchable…get the message loud and clear that ‘We the People’ will NOT tolerate their political bullying and bickering at any level…especially by those from our own party who are trying to implode us from within.

We already have head bully Barack Hussein Obama trying to implode our country from within…we don’t need our own party bullies helping him.

And so the Republican Party must return to its true Conservative roots if we are to keep the House and take back the Senate in 2014…and that means the bullying tactics of the ‘old guard’ must NOT be allowed to dominate the conversation any longer. It’s time for the next generation of leaders to take over…new leaders that include members of those aligned with the TEA Party…for the TEA Party will be the salvation of the Republican party…that is after all the RINO bullies have been sent packing.