Anti-American Protests Spreading Beyond Middle East

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Anti-American rage that began this week over a video insult to Islam spread to nearly 20 countries across the Middle East and beyond on Friday, with violent and sometimes deadly protests that convulsed the birthplaces of the Arab Spring revolutions, breached two more United States Embassies and targeted diplomatic properties of Germany and Britain.

The broadening of the protests appeared to reflect a pent-up resentment of Western powers in general, and defied pleas for restraint from world leaders, including the new Islamist president of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi, whose country was the instigator of the demonstrations that erupted three days earlier on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The anger stretched from North Africa to South Asia and Indonesia and in some cases was surprisingly destructive. In Tunis, an American-run school that was untouched during the revolution nearly two years ago was completely ransacked. In eastern Afghanistan, protesters burned an effigy of President Obama, who had made an outreach to Muslims a thematic pillar of his first year in office.

The State Department confirmed that protesters had penetrated the perimeters of the American Embassies in the Tunisian and Sudanese capitals, and said that 65 embassies or consulates around the world had issued emergency messages about threats of violence, and that those facilities in Islamic countries were curtailing diplomatic activity. The Pentagon said it sent Marines to protect embassies in Yemen and Sudan.

The wave of unrest not only increased concern in the West but raised new questions about political instability in Egypt, Tunisia and other Middle East countries where newfound freedoms, once suppressed by autocratic leaders, have given way to an absence of authority. The protests also seemed to highlight the unintended consequences of America’s support of movements to overthrow those autocrats, which have empowered Islamist groups that remain implacably hostile to the West.

Read more from this story HERE.

House GOP Passes Budget Including Funding for Planned Parenthood, Obamacare

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The Republican-majority House of Representatives on Thursday passed a $1.047 trillion bill funding the federal government through March 2013 that will permit funding for Planned Parenthood and ObamaCare–including the regulation that took effect on Aug. 1 that will require virtually all health plans in the United States to cover, without fees or co-pay, sterilizations and all FDA-approved contraceptives, including those that induce abortions.

The vote was 329-91, and the bill now goes to the Senate for expected approval next week.

The bill funds the government for six months into the new fiscal year and for almost five months after the November elections. Congress turned to the stop-gap measure after failing to pass any of the 12 appropriation bills necessary to fund day-to-day government operations.

The Catholic bishops of the United States have unanimously declared the Obamacare sterilization-contraception-abortifacient regulation an “unjust and illegal mandate” that violates the right to free exercise of religion not only of Catholic institutions but also of Catholic business owners and workers.

The bill, a continuing resolution (CR), does not prohibit funding for either ObamaCare programs or Planned Parenthood. Nor does it stop the government from enforcing regulations, such as the mandate from the Health and Human Services Department that nearly all health insurance plans provide contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs free of charge.

Read more from this story HERE.

House GOP Snookers Public Again: “No More Solyndras” Bill Allows $90 Billion of Solyndras

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Four groups – Taxpayers for Common Sense, Heritage Foundation, National Taxpayers Union and the Competitive Enterprise Institute – warned today that a number of energy boondoggles would remain in the federal pipeline under the No More Solyndras Act.

While the “No More Solyndras Act” would limit federal loan guarantees for future energy projects, it would allow dozens of major projects already in the federal pipeline to move forward. The four groups are concerned that a number of the “zombie” projects that would be allowed to live could be, in fact, even more costly to taxpayers than the widely publicized Solyndra loan-guarantee failure. So instead of being a fix for what ails the federal loan guarantee program, the No More Solyndras Act would countenance exactly the opposite of what its name suggests: the prospect of more Solyndra-like loan guarantee defaults, on an even larger financial scale.

Ryan Alexander, president, Taxpayers for Common Sense, said:

Despite some merits, ‘The No More Solyndras Act’ has a glaring loophole that should have it redubbed the ‘Even More Solyndras Act.’ The bill protects roughly 50 projects in the pipeline, including one that could cost taxpayers 15 times more than we lost on Solyndra. Lawmakers need to stop the program from putting taxpayers on the hook for billions in loan guarantees instead of passing bait and switch legislation.

Andrew Moylan, vice president, National Taxpayers Union, said:

The ‘No More Solyndras Act’ is an important effort to protect taxpayers against future losses from reckless energy loan guarantees, but it doesn’t do nearly enough to address boondoggles that were approved under the same failed regime that lost over $500 million on the Solyndra bankruptcy. While it takes the vital step of preventing new loan guarantees and improving transparency, Americans could still be on the hook for struggling multi-billion dollar projects. The House should amend the bill to strengthen provisions dealing with loan guarantee applications already in the pipeline to ensure that these ‘zombie’ projects don’t draw any more blood from taxpayers.

William Yeatmen, energy policy analyst, Competitive Enterprise Institute, said:

The No More Solyndras Act has a major flaw. The bill would end the Energy Department’s clean energy bank, which is great and is why we support it, but the fact is it sunsets the program too late to stop most of these subsidies from going out the door. Despite the bill’s weakness, it has engendered bipartisan opposition. These days, unfortunately, it seems that the only thing that both political parties can agree on is the merit of pork barrel politics.

Jack Spencer, senior research fellow, nuclear energy policy, Heritage Foundation, said:

The No More Solyndras Act begins to protect taxpayers from future bad bets the government makes with market-distorting loan guarantees. While setting a definitive end date to the program is important, this will not remedy the problem of loan guarantees still lurking out there. The legislation could be strengthened by ensuring that the risk of any loan that moves ahead is objectively determined and not skewed for or against any technology or project. It’s also important for the legislation to make sure the training wheels come off as soon as possible by requiring that the loan be privately refinanced once the project begins operations. To be clear, however, the federal government needs to get out of the commercial finance business altogether. The bottom line is that there is no set of protections that can make a loan guarantee program good, you can only stop the bleeding. No more Solyndras helps stop the bleeding.

Read more from this story HERE.

Ann Romney Claims She “Walked In” on George Bush

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Photo credit: marcn

If Mitt Romney wins the presidency, he won’t be the first commander in chief whom his wife has seen in a compromising position.

During a taping of “Live! With Kelly and Michael,” potential first lady Ann Romney said she once walked in on former President George W. Bush receiving a massage in the White House, according to a pool report.

“We had the unbelievable pleasure of spending the night at the White House and the next morning I was like, exploring everywhere,” Romney said when asked to name the most embarrassing thing she had ever done. “And I was supposed to be at meetings and Mitt was like, ‘Ann, you’re supposed to go,’ and I said ‘No, I’m exploring.’ I went into one door, I was with Anita Perry, by the way. I’ll put blame on her. And Anita and I were like ‘We wonder what’s behind this door?’ It was George Bush having a massage.”

Anita Perry is the wife of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, whom Mitt Romney defeated in the Republican presidential primaries.

“He was covered up,” Ann Romney said. “But I was so embarrassed that the next time I did see him, I didn’t know what I was going to say to him. We were going down the elevator from the White House going to an event together, and I walked up to the elevator and am just blushing, blushing, blushing. And he looks at me and he winks as he does and says, ‘I look pretty good, don’t I?’”

Read more from this story HERE.

US Credit Rating Cut Again

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Ratings firm Egan-Jones cut its credit rating on the U.S. government to “AA-” from “AA,” citing its opinion that quantitative easing from the Federal Reserve would hurt the U.S. economy and the country’s credit quality.

The Fed on Thursday said it would pump $40 billion into the U.S. economy each month until it saw a sustained upturn in the weak jobs market.

In its downgrade, the firm said that issuing more currency and depressing interest rates through purchasing mortgage-backed securities does little to raise the U.S.’s real gross domestic product, but reduces the value of the dollar.

In turn, this increases the cost of commodities, which will pressure the profitability of businesses and increase the costs of consumers thereby reducing consumer purchasing power, the firm said.

In April, Egan-Jones cuts the U.S. credit rating to “AA” from “AA+” with a negative watch, citing a lack of progress in cutting the mounting federal debt.

Read more from this story HERE.

Commerce secretary declares Alaska salmon disaster

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Photo credit: Peber the Swede

King salmon fisheries in major Alaska watersheds have been declared failures by the U.S. Department of Commerce, making commercial fishermen eligible for disaster relief.

Acting U.S. Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank announced the disaster declaration Thursday for the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers, which flow into the Bering Sea, and for Cook Inlet region south of Anchorage, which includes the Kenai River.

“Some Cook Inlet salmon fisheries have experienced revenue losses of up to 90 percent of their historical average during the 2012 season, seriously hurting local economies that are dependent on fishing,” Blank said in her announcement.

The Yukon River is North America’s third-longest. Villages along the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers depend on chinook salmon for both commercial sales and subsistence needs, Blank said.

King salmon are the largest of the five Pacific salmon that thrive in Alaska waters. They hatch in freshwater streams, live a year in rivers and spend three to four years in ocean water before returning to streams to breed and die. Some spawning Yukon River kings swim more than 2,000 miles over two months across the width of Alaska to reach headwaters in Canada, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

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Lebanon News: US Ambassador Was Raped Before He Was Killed

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[Publisher’s Note: Lebanon News apparently misattributed the rape report to AFP. The Libyan Free Press also reported the rape, but its post is no longer available. The Examiner has recently published two related stories, “Did Hillary Clinton send a gay ambassador to Libya as intentional provocation?” and “Rep. Gohmert nauseated upon hearing reports of what they did to Ambassador Stevens.” Both provide additional information on the ambassador’s death.

Some reports are suggesting that the ambassador died of smoke inhalation in a safe room prior to his capture. However, if you look at the Ambassador’s picture HERE, it appears that the Ambassador could still be alive. Note his left hand being held, without assistance, near his head. His condition in this photo suggests that he has been abused.

Until the autopsy by US authorities is complete (and assuming it’s not scrubbed for political purposes), we may not know with any level of certainty what happened to the ambassador before his murder. Read about this HERE. What follows is the story we originally posted on the ambassador’s murder.]

This report just broke from an Arabic site called “Lebanon News.” The Arabic Lebanon News (Tayyar.org) is the number one Lebanese online news site (ranked number eight of all sites in the nation) and has significant coverage throughout the Arab world.

What follows is the rough Google Translation of the site’s report on the Ambassador’s gruesome murder:

Sources AFP that “the U.S. ambassador to Libya was raped sexually before killing by gunmen who stormed the embassy building in Benghazi last night to protest against the film is offensive to the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh),” The sources said that “Ambassador was killed and representation of his body in a manner similar to what happened with Gaddafi, such as murder. ” has reported: kill the U.S. ambassador in Libya Christopher Stevens and three Americans in an attack on Tuesday evening 09/11/2012 the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, also announced Wednesday a senior official at the Interior Ministry Libyan told AFP.

The deputy interior minister and Nice Sharef “kill the ambassador and three other staff members,” said Libyan Deputy Prime Minister Mustafa Abu Hakor killed the U.S. ambassador in its note on his Twitter page.

For his part, President of the Supreme Security Committee in Benghazi Fawzi and Nice that the U.S. ambassador was at the consulate when the attack occurred.

The demonstrators attacked by gunmen on Tuesday evening consulate and fired upon shells by security sources Libyan reported in a first stage for the fall of American lives and wounded during the attack. and condemned U.S. President Barack Obama Wednesday 09/12/2012 strongly “attack infamous” that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three Americans others in the U.S. consulate in the city of Benghazi and ordered to tighten security at diplomatic missions around the world.

Obama said in a statement after the murder of the U.S. ambassador and three employees in a rocket attack on their vehicle in Benghazi “I have asked my department to provide all the necessary resources to ensure our employees in Libya and tighten security at diplomatic missions around the world.”

Here is a related story regarding the Koran-burning pastor from Florida and the phone call he received from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff several days ago concerning the video trailer that allegedly sparked the Egyptian and Libyan violence.

Did Koran-Burning Pastor Promote Video that Incited Egyptian & Libyan Violence? (+video)

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The retired Florida pastor who attracted international attention two years ago for threatening to burn the Quran was again in the media spotlight on Wednesday for purportedly promoting a video that may have incited the violent attacks in Egypt and Libya.

But Terry Jones, 60, told reporters from his now-dismantled church here that his organization’s website was hacked and that he had not been able to post the short video mocking the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

Whether he promoted the video or not, U.S. authorities were so concerned about Jones that Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, asked him not to post the controversial 14-minute video in fear it could further inflame tensions in Libya or Egypt.

Jones said he told Dempsey in a phone call Wednesday that he would “definitely consider it,” but later told reporters he would ignore the request during a lengthy interview in the building that once housed his congregation.

U.S. State Department officials believe the video, a trailer for a longer movie entitled “Innocence of Muslims,” may have contributed to the violence in Egypt and Libya, where four people, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, were killed. But Obama administration officials also believe the attacks — which happened on the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — may have been planned.

Read more from this story HERE.

Another Democratic Screw-up: DNC Paid Tribute to US Navy Veterans Using Images of Russian Warships

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DNC, Democrats, Russia Warships

On the last night of the Democratic National Convention, a retired Navy four-star took the stage to pay tribute to veterans. Behind him, on a giant screen, the image of four hulking warships reinforced his patriotic message.

But there was a big mistake in the stirring backdrop: those are Russian warships.

While retired Adm. John Nathman, a former commander of Fleet Forces Command, honored vets as America’s best, the ships from the Russian Federation Navy were arrayed like sentinels on the big screen above.

These were the very Soviet-era combatants that Nathman and Cold Warriors like him had once squared off against.

“The ships are definitely Russian,” said noted naval author Norman Polmar after reviewing hi-resolution photos from the event. “There’s no question of that in my mind.”

Naval experts concluded the background was a photo composite of Russian ships that were overflown by what appear to be U.S. trainer jets. It remains unclear how or why the Democratic Party used what’s believed to be images of the Russian Black Sea Fleet at their convention.

A spokesman for the Democratic National Convention Committee was not able to immediately comment Tuesday, saying he had to track down personnel to find out what had happened.

The veteran who spotted the error and notified Navy Times said he was immediately taken aback.

“I was kind of in shock,” said Rob Barker, 38, a former electronics warfare technician who left the Navy in 2006. Having learned to visually identify foreign ships by their radars, Barker recognized the closest ship as the Kara-class cruiser Kerch.

“An immediate apology [from the committee] would be very nice,” Barker said. “Maybe acknowledge the fact that yes, they screwed up.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Set to Meet Muslim Brotherhood While Snubbing Netanyahu

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President Obama invited Muslim Brotherhood-backed Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi to meet him in New York next week, right after publicly snubbing a request from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to meet with him and discuss the escalating crisis over a nuclear Iran. The Egyptian president’s invitation follows upon repeated protests at the U.S. embassy in Cairo.

The initial protest at the Cairo embassy began on the eleven-year anniversary of the September 11th attacks, and led to the compound’s breach. An official U.S. flag was confiscated and burned. Renewed clashes with Egyptian protesters have led to more American flag burnings and the firing of tear gas to disperse the crowd.

Oddly enough, several protesters spotted at the Cairo embassy were wearing Guy Fawkes masks, which are popular with members of anarcho-socialist movements. It should be noted that the Muslim Brotherhood is an organization that can be justifiably described as a blending of socialist and Islamist traditions.

Even though the political situation in Egypt is fluid, President Obama forgave a billion dollars owed to the U.S. by the Egyptian government and guaranteed a billion dollar infrastructure loan for the country. A recent intelligence report disclosing increasingly closer ties between Egypt and Iran is a red flag that all effective military aid to the country should undergo further State Department review.

The reaction of the Cairo embassy has been a cause for concern for the Obama administration, which has separated itself from the besieged embassy’s public relations campaign. The Cairo embassy originally condemned “the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims – as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions.”

Read more from this story HERE.