R.I.P.: Star Trek’s Spock, Leonard Nimoy passes away at 83.
He lived long and prospered.
MEANWHILE…IN CHICAGO
MEANWHILE…IN CHICAGO: The disappeared: Chicago police detain Americans at abuse-laden ‘black site’
Alleged police practices at Homan Square, according to those familiar with the facility who spoke out to the Guardian after its investigation into Chicago police abuse, include:
- Keeping arrestees out of official booking databases.
- Beating by police, resulting in head wounds.
- Shackling for prolonged periods.
- Denying attorneys access to the “secure” facility.
- Holding people without legal counsel for between 12 and 24 hours, including people as young as 15.
At least one man was found unresponsive in a Homan Square “interview room” and later pronounced dead.
Hat Tip to Instapundit
IS YOUR LAPTOP SPYING ON YOU?
IS YOUR LAPTOP SPYING ON YOU?
We know some televisions are. How about your laptop? Lenovo’s was, but they admitted they ‘screwed up‘ with “SuperFish”.
From the Lenovo forums:
APPEASEMENT
APPEASEMENT: Obama at Extremist Summit: We All Know There Is No One Profile of a Violent Extremist or Terrorist (Video)
CHASER: Former UN Spokesperson Richard Grenell Lashes Out at Obama’s Insane Speech on Extremism
MEANWHILE…
TWITCHY: Did Marie Harf just say jobs will defeat ISIS?
Gee, so they can get paid to commit acts of “Workplace Violence“?
RELATED: The “Jobs for Jihad Delinquents” Program
ALSO:
BIDEN ON THE LOOSE
BIDEN ON THE LOOSE: In Iowa, Joe Biden Gives A Shout Out To “An Old Butt Buddy” (Video)
EMPTY SUIT
EMPTY SUIT: Krauthammer: ‘Stunned’ At Obama’s ‘Banal,’ ‘Offensive’ Prayer Breakfast Remarks [VIDEO]
MORE AT Instapundit: LEADERSHIP: Obama: You know, Christians were just as bad as ISIS a few centuries ago.
Remember, this is the same suit that stood in front of the U.N. and proclaimed that the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.
WHO IS TEACHING YOUR CHILD?
WHO IS TEACHING YOUR CHILD?: Evergreen H.S. teacher arrested on child rape charges
ALSO: Elementary Teacher Arrested for Attempted Murder
UNFORTUNATELY, MORE:
SouthWest Edgecombe HS coach charged for sex crime with student
Former Teacher at Elite L.A. Girls’ School Charged in Alleged Sexual Relationship With Student
La Vernia teacher arrested in sexual assault of student
Pleasanton teacher arrested, accused of sending lewd texts to teenage girl
Miami High School Teacher Arrested on Second Marijuana Charge
Evergreen H.S. teacher arrested on child rape charges
Teacher arrested for paying teen for oral sex
NANNY OF THE MONTH
REASON TV’S NANNY OF THE MONTH: Sledding Bans Spread; Who Knows if They Actually Work (Nanny of the Month, Jan ‘15)
Description:
Published on Feb 2, 2015
Sure flattening monkey bars, shortening slides, and rubberizing pavement may not actually make kids safer (and it may leave them less prepared for the real, bubblewrap-free world), but the march to make kid’s lives duller continues. The latest target: sledding.
Poor kids. Everyone’s browbeating them to burn more calories, meanwhile cities and towns across the land are outlawing one of winter’s most beloved outdoor activities. City officials will do anything for the children(!), but even most of them seem to acknowledge that sledding bans are more about protecting cities from lawsuits than protecting kids from injuries.
In fact, bans might actually make sledding more dangerous. They could prompt kids and teens to head to more perilous sledding spots to avoid getting busted. Some cities ban sledding in all but a couple of spots, which could lead to overcrowding and increase the chance of collisions.
#BENGHAZI UPDATE
#BENGHAZI UPDATE: State Dept Benghazi Witness Gets Grilled About His Criticism Of Conservatives
There is a video clip of the exchange between Roskam and Rubin at the end of the article.
During a hearing of the Benghazi Select Committee, Illinois GOP Rep. Peter Roskam repeatedly questioned Joel M. Rubin, the deputy assistant secretary for House affairs, about past op-eds he authored suggesting that Republicans were only investigating the attacks for partisan reasons.
“You don’t think that this a frivolous, partisan investigation, do you?” Roskam asked Rubin Tuesday.
This exchange between Roskam and Rubin is a big deal and highlighted the bias of those chosen on the state department side to work with the committee.
I live-tweeted during most of this hearing. See the Storify Article with links to the Committee and video.
In a nutshell, the Democrats questions and criticized the committee itself and asked virtually no questions of the witnesses. This clearly coordinated theme in all of the committee Democrats statements did not go unnoticed. What Rep. Pompeo asked is important:
Pompeo to Higgins and Rubin: Have you received any doc or witness requests from the minority on this cmte? #Benghazi
— LL1885 – A.P. Dillon (@LadyLiberty1885) January 27, 2015
Rubin and Higgins to Pompeo: No, we’ve received no requests from cmte minority. #Benghazi
— LL1885 – A.P. Dillon (@LadyLiberty1885) January 27, 2015
Pompeo slams Dems on cmte for hypocrisy of their statements today as they have requested NO info on #Benghazi
— LL1885 – A.P. Dillon (@LadyLiberty1885) January 27, 2015
H7N9
H7N9: First North American case of H7N9 bird flu found in Canada
ALSO: Why the WHO is calling H7N9 one of the ‘most lethal’ flu viruses so far
The three factors that make an avian flu “dangerous” for humans are 1. Transmissibility from bird to human; 2. Contagiousness from human to human and; 3. Severity of disease in infected humans.
What the CDC is saying seems to be the opposite:
- Since H7N9 is not spreading easily from person to person at this time, CDC does not recommend that people delay or cancel trips to China. The World Health Organization also is watching this situation closely and does not recommend any travel restrictions.
WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?
WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?: IRS Has Active Contract For MILLIONS With Company HHS FIRED Over Botched Healthcare.gov
HOPE AND CHANGE
HOPE AND CHANGE: For the first time in at least 50 years, a majority of public school students across the country are considered “low-income”
“Romero-Smith, 40, who has been a teacher for 19 years, became a foster mother in November to two girls, sisters who attend her school. They had been homeless, their father living on the streets and their mother in jail, she said. When she brought the girls home, she was shocked by the disarray of their young lives.
“Getting rid of bedbugs, that took us a while. Night terrors, that took a little while. Hoarding food, flushing a toilet and washing hands, it took us a little while,” she said. “You spend some time with little ones like this and it’s gut wrenching. . . . These kids aren’t thinking, ‘Am I going to take a test today?’ They’re thinking, ‘Am I going to be okay?’ ”
The job of teacher has expanded to “counselor, therapist, doctor, parent, attorney,” she said.”
And the state will use this extreme example as an excuse to look into everyone’s homes.”
MORE:
“The new report raises questions among educators and officials about whether states and the federal government are devoting enough money — and using it effectively — to meet the complex needs of poor children.
The Obama administration wants Congress to add $1 billion to the $14.4 billion it spends annually to help states educate poor children. It also wants Congress to fund preschool for those from low-income families. Collectively, the states and the federal government spend about $500 billion annually on primary and secondary schools, about $79 billion of it from Washington.”
This country has dumped more money into and written more bad laws in the realm of education, all in the name of ‘helping poor children’, than the typical person realizes. The more the federal government tries to level a playing field, the more uneven it becomes. More money isn’t the problem.
RELATED: About 1 Million Kids Are Now Eating Dinner at School
“The federal government currently operates about a dozen programs that provide food assistance to poor and lower-income Americans,” Sheffield observed. “On top of food programs, there are about 70 other means-tested government welfare programs that provide cash, housing, medical care and social services.
“Tragically, this welfare system has failed to truly help the poor achieve self-sufficiency. Rather than continuing to expand a broken system, policymakers need to work to reform it.”
The federal government is a broadsword. States need to be their own scalpels.
IRS SCANDAL UPDATE
IRS SCANDAL UPDATE: New Documents: Lerner Objected to IRS Deputy Director Visit to Cincinnati Office During Congressional Inquiries into Tea Party Targeting
“These IRS documents also include what appears to be further evidence that, contrary to Lerner’s earlier claims, the IRS targeting operation was conducted from the agency’s Washington headquarters.”
Excerpt:
The newly released documents include an intense chain of emails in which Lerner pleads with Grant, who was a supervisor to her, to “put this [Grant’s planned visit to Cincinnati] off please” at the very time during which both the internal IRS watchdog and Congress were investigating whether the IRS had beeninappropriately targeting conservative groups in the months leading up to the 2012 elections. The chain begins with an email from Lerner to Grant, apparently written in response to her learning of the Deputy Director’s planned visit to the Cincinnati office:
• April 4, 2012 – 4:41 PM – Lois Lerner to Joseph Grant:
We just gor an very extensive information request from Imraan [Imraan Khakoo, TE/GE official] –sure looks like op review material. I’m especially concerned that information about pipeline is being asked about … Add to that the fact tha cincinnati is smack dab in the middle of the c4 Congressional inqueries and is about to get a request from TIGTA on all of that, this is NOT a good time to be asking them for anything or to be talking to them about issue in their work. Everyone is stressed to the max and at their wits end, so can we put this off please? [Typos in originals]
• April 4, 2012 – 5:17 PM – Joseph Grant to Lois Lerner:
It is a visit, not an OP review … I am also interested in the questions Imraan sent to them. Some answers should be readily at hand. Others certainly won’t be … The questions just serve as a framework for a broader conversation about how things are going and what is on our respective minds.
• April 4, 2012 – 5:26 PM – Lois Lerner to Joseph Grant:
I get that–but timing would be bad if we have to go to Cincy now. So, I will assume we can go
over this here as I get the information I’ve already asked for? Thanks.
• April 4, 2012 –5:42 PM – Joseph Grant to Lois Lerner:
I think we are in agreement, but just to be sure. I am planning to go to Cincy at the end of the month. I am travelling with Nan Marks and Imraan.
• April 4, 2012 – 6:15 PM – Lois Lerner to Joseph Grant:
Fine with me–just trying to keep the stress level manageable in Cincinnati–they are pretty freaked. Please don’t ask them about closures, pipelines, wait time for full development cases, or the c4 application letters. I know Imraan is really interested in that stuff in general—I promise to give him info—that just wouldn’t be the best place to ask. Thanks
• April 04, 2012 — 9:41 PM – Joseph Grant to Lois Lerner:
Noted.
On May 8, 2013, a few days before the IRS scandal broke, then-Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller promoted Mr. Grant to TE/GE Commissioner, where he was to “oversee the administration of tax law relating to employee plans, tax-exempt organizations and various government entities.” Miller announced his resignation on May 15, 2013 and Grant announced his retirement the next day.
These IRS documents also include what appears to be further evidence that, contrary to Lerner’s earlier claims, the IRS targeting operation was conducted from the agency’s Washington headquarters. In May 2013, Lerner blamed the targeting of conservative groups on “low-level” employees in Cincinnati. President Obama parroted Lerner’s claim and suggested the IRS targeting was due to “bonehead decisions in local offices.” In February 2012, however, the following email exchange revealed that from 2010, Exempt Organizations (EO) Technical was deeply involved in advocacy organization applications. According to IRS Bulletin 2013-2, “The EO Technical office is located in Washington, DC.”
• February 29, 2012 – 2:53 PM – Holly Paz to Lois Lerner:
Lois, EO Determinations noticed an uptick in applications from advocacy organizations early in 2010. The first case was referred to EO Technical in…2010. That case was an application for…status. It closed…2010 when the… At that time, EO Technical requested another…from an…be transferred to EO Technical. Such a case was transferred in…2010. That case also closed…2012 after the… EO Technical also requested an application from a…be transferred from Determinations. A case was transferred in…2010. It is still being developed by EO Technical. To give you a sense of the growth in the number of these cases, in October 2010, we had identified approximately 40 advocacy cases.
As of about 10:00 a.m. on 2/28/2012, we had 229 of these cases. Of the 229 cases, 141 have been assigned. Development letters have been sent to the majority of the 141 assigned cases. The oldest control dates of those cases that are still unassigned are 2/8/2011, 3/18/2011, 4/28/2011, and 5/28/2011. These will be assigned next. Otherwise, we’re at approximately 6/6/2011 control date for these cases. EO Technical provided guidance regarding the development of applications by advocacy organizations to EO Determinations in November 2011.
Paz’s allegation about an “uptick in applications from advocacy organizations early in 2010” is contradicted by the May 14, 2013, TIGTA report on the matter, which details that such applications actually declined in 2010 from the prior year.
Additional emails on the same date indicate that Lerner knew that the requests for information from the targeted Tea Party groups were burdensome.
• February 29, 2012 – 6:30 PM – Lois Lerner to Holly Paz:
Have we given Cincy new guidance on how they might reduce the burden in the information requests and make it clearer that recipients can ask for extensions? I don’t want any more letters going out on advocacy cases until the letters have been adjusted. Also, I have been telling folks that not all the letters are the same because it depends on the facts. What I’ve seen so far though is identical letters–can you clarify for me please. Thanks
• February 29, 2012 – 8:18 PM – Holly Paz to Lois Lerner:
Andy and Justin are working on revising the letter. That should be done soon. In the meantime, Cindy [Cindy Thomas, Director of OE Cincinnati Office] and I discussed having specialists print the relevant parts of since that seemed to be the most burdensome request. We can hold off on sending anymore development letters until we have the revised version.
Also in the new internal IRS documents obtained by Judicial Watch is an email confirming that former IRS Acting Commissioner Steven Miller knew from early 2012 that the agency was collecting the names of donors to nonprofit organizations.
• March 8, 2012, 10:30 AM – Nikole Flax [former Chief of Staff to Miller] to Lois Lerner:
Lois – maybe we can chat after the meeting. Steve wanted to make sure that going forward we were modifying the info request (I told him that I thought your guys were already working on it) and that for the cases already ongoing, that is was clear that if the TP calls, we will allow them not to send donor names in the initial submission (but we may need later). Thanks
At the time, Miller was the IRS’s Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement. Miller became the Acting IRS Commissioner on November 9, 2012, four days after Obama’s reelection.
JIHAD IN AMERICA
JIHAD IN AMERICA: Pelosi names Muslim lawmaker who wants to model US schools after madrassas to House intel committee
“At the 6:19 mark of the video from the May 26 presentation, Carson tells the crowd what he believes American schools are lacking:
“America will never tap into educational innovation and ingenuity without looking at the model that we have in our madrassas, in our schools, where innovation is encouraged, where the foundation is the Quran. And that model that we are pushing in some of our schools meets the multiple needs of students.”
The Huffington Post piece fails to mention Carson is Democrat.
The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) is an offshoot of Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). ISNA is a one of the unindicted co-conspirators (along with CAIR) in the Holy Land Foundation case in 2007.
ALSO, IN TEXAS: Outcry over coming “Stand with the Prophet” rally at Texas Public School Center
“A featured speaker is New York City Imam Siraj Wahhaj.
CBS-11 reported that “a letter from federal prosecutors to a judge in 1995 listed Wahhaj and nearly 200 others as ‘un-indicted persons who may be alleged as co-conspirators’ during the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.” They added that Wahhaj was never charged.”
Further down:
“Breitbart Newsreported Wahhaj was a “character witness for the “Blind Sheik,” Omar Abdel Rahman who was convicted in 1995 of plotting to blow up the World Trade Center and other New York City landmarks.”
FYI - Wahhaj also knew Anwar al-Awlaki:
“Contrary to the ICNA’s appearance of sunshine and rainbows with holding seminars on inter-faith dialogue, feeding the poor, and “condemning” Islamic terrorism, the organization has a track record of harboring skeletons in their closets: most notably Anwar al-Awlaki giving a speech at theICNA/MAS convention in Baltimore, MD in 2002 with Siraj Wahhaj, an Imam who defended Omar Abd-al-Rahman in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.”
More here.
RELATED TO ICNA: A training guide produced by the Islamic Circle of North America in Chicago demolishes the group’s pretenses that it’s moderate.
FORE!
FORE!: Obama winds down 2014 on golf course
Of course he did.
“I will not rest until every American can find a job.”
Image via Doug Ross
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/
NANNY OF THE YEAR
REASON: Cop’s Obama Rant Embarrasses Officials, Spurs 2014 Nanny of the Year Win
“Our nation’s control freaks got even freakier in 2014–from jetpacks to parking apps, eco-ATMs and powdered alcohol, they were determined to kill anything cutting edge.
They targeted everything from dogs in parks to births at home, and they’ll sic cops on you for hoarding or smelling bad. You might even get busted for doing things that are legal–like vaping while driving, warning motorists about speed traps, or putting up Christmas lights.
And whether it’s yanking chocolate milk, boogie boards, homemade libraries or sunscreen(?!), the control freaks are (all together now!): Doing it for the children.
It’s fitting, then, that 2014’s Nanny of the Year recipients justified their power grab on the same grounds (although the real reason may have more to do with protecting city officials from future caught-on-tape embarrassments).
Check out how one cop’s rant (“Obama has decimated the friggin’ Constitution”) embarrassed a city council into taking home this year’s top dishonors!”
FORE!
FORE!: Obama goes two for two
“It’s his 50th time playing this year and the 207th time as president.”
Image via Doug Ross
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/
