Romney aide cusses out disrespectful reporters in Poland

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Photo credit: The Takeaway

The traveling press secretary for Mitt Romney lost his cool and cursed at reporters who attempted to ask questions of the Republican presidential candidate in a public plaza near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw Tuesday.

After Romney paid his respects to Poland’s war dead and shook hands with a small gathering of the nation’s military veterans, the GOP contender walked approximately 100 yards away from the memorial as he chatted with Warsaw’s mayor.

As Romney made his way to his vehicle, reporters attempted to shout questions to the candidate. The former Massachusetts governor, who has answered only three questions from his traveling press corps during a week-long overseas trip, ignored the queries.

When members of the press tried to ask Romney about some of the mishaps on his trip, his traveling press secretary Rick Gorka verbally dressed down reporters.

Here’s a transcript of the questions and Gorka’s response:

CNN: “Governor Romney are you concerned about some of the mishaps of your trip?

NYT: “Governor Romney do you have a statement for the Palestinians?

Washington Post: “What about your gaffes?

NYT: “Governor Romney do you feel that your gaffes have overshadowed your foreign trip?”

CNN: “Governor Romney just a few questions sir, you haven’t taken but three questions on this trip from the press!

Gorka: “Show some respect”

NYT: “We haven’t had another chance to ask a question…”

Gorka: “Kiss my ass. This is a Holy site for the Polish people. Show some respect.”

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Anderson Cooper’s vicious attack on Michele Bachmann

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Anderson Cooper closed one of five segments of his weeknight CNN show that he recently devoted to attacking principally Rep. Michele Bachmann with a genuflection toward an iconic newsman, Edward R. Murrow. He deployed against her the gauntlet Murrow threw down to Sen. Joseph McCarthy in March 1954: “The line between investigating and persecuting is a [very] fine one.” If anyone has stepped over that line, however, it is Mr. Cooper himself, rather than the Minnesota congresswoman.

Night after night during the week of July 16, the host of “Anderson Cooper 360” failed to meet even the most basic standards of investigative journalism. The irony is that, in his ill-concealed persecution of Mrs. Bachmann, Mr. Cooper has serially engaged in precisely the practices he pillories her and others for using, by his account, to destroy the reputation of a Muslim-American woman named Huma Abedin, the deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Let us count the ways:

*Mr. Cooper insists that Mrs. Bachmann failed to do her homework. He singles her out for most of his criticism, despite the fact that she was but one of five members of Congress to raise concerns not only about Ms. Abedin’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, but those of a number of others the Obama administration has enlisted as officials, advisers and liaisons to “the Muslim community.” Yet, Mr. Cooper repeatedly showed his ignorance of the extensive evidence cited by the legislators, even as he mentioned the website where some of it resides: the Center for Security Policy’s online video course at MuslimBrotherhoodInAmerica.com.

*As he accused Mrs. Bachmann of playing fast and loose with the facts, Mr. Cooper repeatedly mischaracterized the nature of the legislators’ request for five federal inspectors general to conduct investigations. He or his echo chamber of exclusively like-minded guests complained that Ms. Abedin is accused of being a “spy” and engaging in “treason” and that she has been subjected to a groundless, bigoted and McCarthyite witch hunt. Several of the reporters and interested parties who added color commentary (sometimes repeatedly) further demeaned Mrs. Bachmann by asserting that she is simply engaging in partisan politics and fundraising for her re-election campaign.

*As with the lawmaker and to a lesser extent her colleagues, Mr. Cooper also made a point of going after this columnist. If anyone is guilty of “McCarthyism,” though, it is the journalistic poseur who specializes in shooting the messenger and buying into and tendentiously proclaiming that there are “no facts” supporting the unwanted message — rather than rigorously examining and accurately reporting on the vast amount of evidence that inconveniently does exist.

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CNN Apologizes over Palin “Stupid Girls” Intro but omits story from website (+video)

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CNN has issued an apology for playing Pink’s “Stupid Girls” before a story on former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s support for fast-food restaurant Chick-fil-A and its homophobic president Dan Cathy.

In what is known in the broadcasting industry as a ‘bumper,’ CNN played part of Pink’s 2006 hit “Stupid Girls” before a Sunday morning segment about Palin and her husband dining at a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Texas.

“Sarah Palin is apparently hungry for chicken and controversy,” CNN hard news anchor Randy Kaye said, segueing into the story about how the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee not only ate at Chick-fil-A but posted about her visit on Twitter and Facebook as well.

“Stopped by a Chick-fil-A in The Woodlands to support a great business,” Palin tweeted.

CNN has since apologized for what it called a “poor choice” of music, but the network denied intentionally linking “Stupid Girls” to Sarah Palin.

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Publisher’s note:  Good luck finding the CNN apology on its web site.  At the time of this posting, the story is nowhere to be found.  Also, if you haven’t seen the CNN segment introducing the Palin story with “Stupid Girl”, here it is here:

Fast & Furious: Issa’s report holds 5 ATF Officials Responsible but not Holder

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WASHINGTON — Republican congressional investigators have concluded that five senior ATF officials — from the special agent-in-charge of the Phoenix field office to the top man in the bureau’s Washington headquarters — are collectively responsible for the failed Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation that was “marred by missteps, poor judgments and inherently reckless strategy.”

The investigators, in a final report likely to be released later this week, also unearthed new evidence that agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Phoenix initially sought to hide from the Mexican government the crucial information that two Fast and Furious firearms were recovered after the brother of a Mexican state attorney general was killed there.

According to a copy of the report obtained Monday by The Times, the investigators said their findings are “the best information available as of now” about the flawed gun operation that last month led to Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. being found in contempt of Congress for failing to turn over subpoenaed documents.

Two more final reports, they said, will deal with “the devastating failure of supervision and leadership” at the Department of Justice and an “unprecedented obstruction of the [congressional] investigation by the highest levels of the Justice Department, including the attorney general himself.”

The first report did allege some Justice Department involvement, however, notably that Kenneth E. Melson, then acting ATF director, was made into a “scapegoat” for Fast and Furious after he told congressional Republicans his Justice Department supervisors “were doing more damage control than anything” else once Fast and Furious became public.

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Democratic Party moves to include Gay Marriage in Platform

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Democrats appear ready to embrace same-sex marriage as part of their party platform, a policy shift that reflects the rapidly growing acceptance of gay rights in mainstream politics.

Party officials met over the weekend in Minneapolis and approved the first step to amend their platform. In two weeks, the entire platform committee will vote on the matter at a meeting scheduled in Detroit. Then, if approved as expected, it would move on to convention delegates in Charlotte, N.C., for final approval in September.

According to Democrats who were briefed on the vote in Minneapolis, there was no objection when the issue came up. Though the language that was voted on still could be revised, party officials do not anticipate any major obstacles going forward.

The platform language approved over the weekend also included a condemnation of the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits the federal government from recognizing legal same-sex marriages.

The Democratic Party’s move comes more than two months after President Obama personally backed the rights of same-sex couples to wed, making the action decidedly less controversial than it could have been had the party been in conflict with its leader.

US Postal Service preparing for first-ever default, will miss billions in payments

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Photo credit: Gerry Dincher

The U.S. Postal Service is bracing for a first-ever default on billions in payments due to the Treasury, adding to widening uncertainty about the mail agency’s solvency as first-class letters plummet and Congress deadlocks on ways to stem the red ink.

With cash running perilously low, two legally required payments for future postal retirees’ health benefits — $5.5 billion due Wednesday, and another $5.6 billion due in September — will be left unpaid, the mail agency said Monday. Postal officials said they also are studying whether they may need to delay other obligations. In the coming months, a $1.5 billion payment is due to the Labor Department for workers compensation, which for now it expects to make, as well as millions in interest payments to the Treasury.

The defaults won’t stir any kind of catastrophe in day-to-day mail service. Post offices will stay open, mail trucks will run, employees will get paid, current retirees will get health benefits.

But a growing chorus of analysts, labor unions and business customers are troubled by continuing losses that point to deeper, longer-term financial damage, as the mail agency finds it increasingly preoccupied with staving off immediate bankruptcy while Congress delays on a postal overhaul bill.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has described a “crisis of confidence” amid the mounting red ink that could lead even once-loyal customers to abandon use of the mail.

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Iran prepping for final confrontation with West, arrival of Islamic messiah, 12th imam

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The Quds Forces, a special Iranian unit of thousands of operatives tasked with exporting Iran’s Islamic revolution, are being told to step up preparations for terrorism for the coming of the last Islamic messiah and the destruction of the West.

Ali Saeedi, the Iranian supreme leader’s representative to the Revolutionary Guards, emphasized during a Friday sermon in Tehran that the Islamic republic must directly confront America so that the necessary environment is created for the reappearance of Mahdi, the Shiite’s 12th imam, who will kill all infidels and raise the flag of Islam in all corners of the world.

“In three points of history, God directly confronts the will of unruly humans in which, of course, the Right will overcome the False,” Saeedi said, according to the Sepah News, the Guards’ official publication. “The first point in history was during the era of pharaoh, the second era was Bani Abbas, and the third is our current era in which it seems that God has willed us to enlighten the world with the coming of Imam Mahdi.”

Saeedi, “Many of the signs [necessary] for the coming have taken place during the previous years; however, the main sign will take place right before the coming.”

There are five levels of readiness that have to be prepared for the coming, he said: “Individual readiness, the readiness for creating the environment, systematic readiness, the readiness in the region and the international readiness. This means Occupy Wall Street must take place, the Americans must lose hope with the Democratic Party and others, and lose faith in the U.N., while at the same time the unraveling in the Middle East, which was not ripe before, must have taken place before the coming.”

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After Aurora, Obama now considering banning ammo sales online

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Photo credit: kcdsTM

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday that President Obama will “evaluate” a new bill that would ban online ammunition sales in the wake of the shooting massacre in Aurora, Colo. That left 12 dead and dozens more injured.

During the daily press briefing, Mr. Earnest was asked whether Mr. Obama supports the measure, which aims to end sales of unlimited amounts of ammunition on the Internet and other mail orders. The bill also would force ammunition dealers to report large sales of bullets and other munitions to law enforcement authorities

At first Mr. Earnest said he didn’t know if Mr. Obama was aware of a bill sponsored by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, Democrat from New Jersey, and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, a Democrat from New York. He later amended this remarks to say the White House would evaluate the measure.

“The president’s view that have been relayed quite frequently over the last few days, you know, is that he believes in the Second Amendment of the Constitution, in the right to bear arms but he also believes that we should take robust steps within existing law to ensure that guns don’t fall in the hands of criminals or others [who] shouldn’t have them,” he said, referring to gun-control comments Mr. Obama made during at speech at the National Urban League.

The reporter followed up by asking whether the president’s push for enforcing existing law would prevent him from supporting the bill banning online munition sales.

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Generals continue blind effort to remake military for Obama; now prepping women for combat

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Photo credit: US Army

To graduate from boot camp, soldiers must perform 35 pushups and 47 situps and run two miles in at least 16 minutes and 36 seconds — but that’s only for male soldiers.

Female troops are required to do 13 pushups and 43 situps and run two miles in 19 minutes and 42 seconds.

As the Army weighs integrating women into armor and infantry combat positions, the command in charge of soldier training is looking at requiring women to meet the same physical goals as men.

If wartime studies over the past decade are a guide, the Army can expect an increase in injuries and attrition among female soldiers as they seek to match men in strength and endurance.

The Pentagon bans women from direct combat roles, but this year opened 14,000 support jobs that can put female soldiers closer to the front lines on battlefields.

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Ambassador Bolton’s Blunder

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Photo credit: Gage Skidmore

I received a form letter from the Honorable Ambassador John R. Bolton, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (2005-2006) and member of the Board of Directors of The American Conservative Union (ACU). A FOX-news contributor, he has been a tenacious and outspoken advocate of US efforts to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Below the bold red lettering at the top, “Stop Iran’s Nuclear 9-11,” Bolton confirmed his belief that the future of our American cities are in imminent danger from an Iranian atomic-bomb threat. He described Iran as the rogue, terror-sponsoring regime that calls America “the Great Satan” and vows to wipe our ally, Israel, off the face of the Earth. He reminded me, the reader, of his testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, when he expressed his concern about “the Obama Administration’s inept and dangerous policy failure in the Middle East.”

But it was the petition that disturbed me. The heading included the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, naming the Honorable John F. Kerry, chairman, and Honorable Richard C. Lugar, ranking member. The petition’s conclusion was, “Therefore, I believe we ought to give Israel our full support for a preemptive strike against Iran’s nuclear weapons program if we don’t do it ourselves.”

I never quite grasped the phrase, “I have your back,” but now it was clear. It means “You go in front to meet the enemy head-on, and I’ll bring up the rear. And if you don’t survive the first full surge of the battle, I’ll be in a good position to make a hasty retreat.”

It seems to me that Bolton can’t promise much from his position as past ambassador, and that the once-great United States of America has been brought down several pegs so as to no longer warrant the title of Leader of the Free World. Therefore, in an effort to thwart Iran’s objectives, Bolton will send the tiny Jewish nation, which is no bigger than one of our smallest states, to lead an attack on Iran, to which he hopes — but can’t promise — to provide some undetermined support.

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