A just-released Associated Press account of the Benghazi attack contradicts a possibly false or misleading Reuters article claiming to quote a protester by his first name who described a supposedly popular demonstration against an anti-Muhammad film outside the U.S. mission in Benghazi.
The Reuters article claiming a popular protest against a Muhammad film is also contradicted by vivid accounts provided by the State Department and intelligence officials describing how no such popular demonstration took place. Instead, video footage from Benghazi reportedly shows an organized group of armed men attacking the compound, the officials said…
Reports the AP:
“It began around nightfall on Sept. 11 with around 150 bearded gunmen, some wearing the Afghan-style tunics favored by Islamic militants, sealing off the streets leading to the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. They set up roadblocks with pick-up trucks mounted with heavy machine guns, according to witnesses.
“The trucks bore the logo of Ansar al-Shariah, a powerful local group of Islamist militants who worked with the municipal government to manage security in Benghazi, the main city in eastern Libya and birthplace of the uprising last year that ousted Moammar Gadhafi after a 42-year dictatorship.
“There was no sign of a spontaneous protest against an American-made movie denigrating Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. But a lawyer passing by the scene said he saw the militants gathering around 20 youths from nearby to chant against the film. Within an hour or so, the assault began, guns blazing as the militants blasted into the compound.”
That account contrasts sharply with a Reuters report from Sept. 13 – two days after the attack – describing a supposedly popular protest outside the U.S. mission and even claiming to quote a protester.
As too few of us know, President Barack Obama and Russian President (and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin puppet) Dmitri Medvedev had in March this on-camera exchange:
President Obama: On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him to give me space.
President Medvedev: Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you…
President Obama: This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.
President Medvedev: I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.
Nothing like our president asking for “space” from one of the two nations (Communist China being the other) that has for years been blocking at the United Nations any rational policy on any number of issues.
Our policy as a people should not be to buy time for our president after he’s (ostensibly) re-elected to deliver Russia greater “flexibility” on issues on which he alone has decided we have thus far been too rigid.
Though I’m not sure our traditional allies — like Poland and the Czech Republic — would say that this president has been all that inflexible when it comes to dealing with Putin’s playground.
Just another example of our president bowing east rather than leading west.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2012-10-29 02:24:132016-04-11 11:27:36Russia: Just Another Example of Obama Bowing East Rather Than Leading West
Amy Gardner and Scott Clement. President Obama is clinging to a slender four-point lead over Republican Mitt Romney in Virginia as both sides ramp up already aggressive campaigns in the crucial battleground state, according to a new Washington Post poll.
Obama outpolled Romney, 51 to 47 percent, among likely Virginia voters, although he lost the clearer 52-to-44 percent advantage he held in mid-September.
Unlike in the Washington Post-ABC News national tracking poll, Obama still has an edge when Virginia voters are asked who better understands people’s financial problems, and he has not fallen behind a surging Romney on the question of who would better handle the national economy. Nor has Obama lost significant ground among self-identified independents in Virginia, as he has nationally.
The results underscore the importance of swing states like Virginia, with its 13 electoral votes, as both campaigns seek to secure a path to the 270 electoral votes needed for victory.
Perhaps the poll’s most striking insight concerns the many voters the two campaigns have contacted in Virginia this fall. A staggering 44 percent of likely voters polled said they had been contacted by the Obama campaign; 41 percent said the same of Romney’s. More than one in four had heard from both campaigns. Read more from this story HERE.
And Obama is Losing Ground in Minnesota, Too
By Rachel Stassen-Berger. As the presidential race tightens across the country, a new Star Tribune Minnesota Poll has found that it is narrowing here as well, with President Obama holding a 3-point lead and Republican Mitt Romney making gains in the state.
The poll shows Obama with support from 47 percent of likely voters and Romney earning backing from 44 percent — a lead within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
Last month, Obama had an 8-percentage point advantage in the Minnesota Poll. Romney has apparently cut into the Democrat’s advantage among women since then and picked up support from Minnesotans who were previously undecided or said they would vote for a third-party candidate.
Independents, on the other hand, are leaning more toward Obama. Barely a third supported him last month, but that number has grown to 43 percent. Romney’s support among independents remains virtually unchanged, with 13 percent of that group remaining undecided.
In an indication of how close the race has become, both campaigns have started airing ads in the state targeting Minnesota and western Wisconsin voters. Read more from this story HERE.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2012-10-29 02:03:112016-04-11 11:27:36Obama Clings to Slim but Shrinking Leads in Virginia, Minnesota
It was a little much when President Barack Obama said he was “offended” by the suggestion that his administration would try to deceive the public about what happened in Benghazi, Libya. What has this man not deceived the public about?
Remember his pledge to cut the deficit in half in his first term in office? This was followed by the first trillion-dollar deficit ever, under any president of the United States — followed by trillion-dollar deficits in every year of the Obama administration.
Remember his pledge to have a “transparent” government that would post its legislative proposals on the Internet several days before Congress was to vote on them, so that everybody would know what was happening? This was followed by an Obamacare bill so huge and passed so fast that even members of Congress did not have time to read it.
Remember his claims that previous administrations had arrogantly interfered in the internal affairs of other nations — and then his demands that Israel stop building settlements and give away land outside its 1967 borders, as a precondition to peace talks with the Palestinians, on whom there were no preconditions?
As for what happened in Libya, the Obama administration says there is an “investigation” under way. An “ongoing investigation” sounds so much better than “stonewalling” to get past Election Day. But you can bet the rent money that this “investigation” will not be completed before Election Day. And whatever the investigation says after the election will be irrelevant.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2012-10-29 01:50:272016-04-11 11:27:36Thomas Sowell: Benghazi Just One of Many Obama Deceptions
Pagans in Utah stepped out of the broom closet, so to speak, earlier this month to declare their existence and to dispel misinformation about paganism and witchcraft. “A lot of the misinformation is that witches are evil, that witches are green, that witches are ugly, that witches sacrifice children or eat babies or whatever the case may be, that there is worship of Satan, things of that nature,” said pagan entrepreneur Rita Morgan, whose store Crone’s Hollow in South Salt Lake not only sells ritual supplies but serves as a meeting place for local covens.
The pagan festival of Samhain (“Sawin”) was celebrated by the Celts as the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter, halfway between the summer and winter solstices on about October 31st. With bonfires and (rumored) human sacrifice to shy off the dead, the holiday was considered a day in which the door opened between this world and the next, and the dead walked among the living. Other historical efforts to protect oneself from evil spirits involved dressing in costume and lighting carved-out turnips or beets.
In our civilized, scientific culture, we tend to think of paganism as something distant, lost in the world of developing nations. In those places, ignorant medicine men seek to chase off disease through spiritual rituals when they would find better results with a tub of bleach water and penicillin. The word “pagan” often brings to mind half-clothed natives dancing around the missionary in the pot, human sacrifice, and barbarism in general.
However, today there is a form of popular paganism that looks surprisingly modern and has followers among intellectuals. While Judeo-Christian morality is increasingly seen as outdated and ‘puritanical’ in our Western World, the human need for spiritual fulfillment has not disappeared. Instead, updated forms of the old pagan religions are spreading once again. Neo-Paganism embraces a wide variety of religious traditions, including Wicca, Druidism, Asatru, Shamanism, and neo-Native American beliefs, mixing a variety of the ancient pagan beliefs about nature and the universe, fitting them to modern society. College professors, screenplay writers and the leaders of many ecological movements have delved into modern Paganism, and their ideas come home to us through our college students and our children’s movies.
Many people dive into Paganism innocently – out of a desire to find out more about God and the spiritual. They love nature, or they are weary of dry, boring church services. Many do not know the Bible well enough to recognize red flags, and a large number of people consider themselves “Christian” pagans. It is important that we recognize when Neo-Pagan beliefs come in conflict with Biblical Christianity and not confuse being “spiritual” with being led by the Holy Spirit. With a better understanding, we can help prepare our families to deal with the lure of modern Paganism.
The crab got a biscuit and is drinking the bumble bee’s milk. Translation: a Crip gang member has a gun and is looking to kill a Latin King rival.
New York gangs aren’t just a frightening menace driving up crime in the city. They operate in a shadowy underworld with their own signs, signals and terminology.
But a forthcoming book by gang expert Lou Savelli pulls back the veil, revealing thousands of insider terms for everything that makes up gangster life: guns, drugs, money and murder.
“Gangs have their own language to represent who they are and to show their camaraderie,” says Savelli, a leading consultant who founded the NYPD’s gang unit and is now deputy director of the nonprofit East Coast Gang Investigators Association. “The slang they develop helps protect them from law enforcement. They also don’t want other criminals ripping them off.”
Savelli says the emergence of small youth crews and the rising power of outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMGs) pose significant threats.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2012-10-28 22:00:222016-04-11 11:27:37A to Z: Deadly Slang by Gangs Where a “Biscuit” is a Gun & an “Elbow” is a Pound of Drugs
In an extraordinary interview with Bill Moyers, TARP regulator and former federal prosecutor Neil Barofsky made some startling accusations. He not only accused the Obama Administration of attempting to bribe him into silence, but he also stated that he was threatened with harm if he didn’t cooperate.
The heat was on Mr. Barofsky because of his “relentless” criticism of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and other officials. As the top TARP regulator, he attempted to keep the program independent, a struggle that earned him powerful enemies. He is a lifelong Democrat and was an Obama donor in 2008.
His criticism of the Obama Administration has intensified since his resignation last year. During his interview with Moyers, he agreed that the words “incestuous orgy” were not too strong to describe the relationship between Obama Administration officials and the Wall Street figures they were regulating:
BILL MOYERS: I thought, at the time, this was an incestuous orgy going on there, between inside players at Washington and inside players at Wall Street. Is that too strong?
NEIL BAROFSKY: It’s probably not too strong. It’s the fact that their ideology matches up. And look, one of the reasons why their ideology matches up is they all come from the same small handful of institutions. And the people I was dealing with on a daily basis came from the same financial institutions that helped cause the financial crisis and were the most generous recipients of bailouts, Goldman Sachs, Bear Sterns, which, of course, had been adopted by J.P. Morgan Chase. Goldman Sachs, Goldman Sachs, it seemed like every time I turned around, I bumped into someone from Goldman Sachs.
Mr. Barofsky also claimed that he was told to “keep [his] tone down . . . point blank by [the] Assistant Secretary of the Treasury.” He said the conversation continued:
And he said to me, he said, “Neil, you’re a smart guy. You’re a young guy. You’re a talented guy. You got your whole future in front of you. You’ve got a young family that’s starting out. But you’re doing yourself real harm. And the reason why you’re doing yourself real harm is the harsh tone that I had towards the government as well as to Wall Street, based on what I was seeing down in Washington.” And he told me that if I wanted to get a job out on the Street afterwards, it was going to really be hard for me.
Mr. Barofsky responded that
I wasn’t really interested in that. And he said, “Well, maybe a judgeship. Maybe an appointment from the Obama administration for a federal judgeship.” And I said, “Well, again, that would be great. But I don’t really think that’s going to happen with my criticisms.” And he said it didn’t have to be that way. “If all you do is soften your tone, be a little bit more upbeat, all this stuff can happen for you.”
And that’s what I meant by playing ball. I was essentially told, play ball, soften your tone, and all of these good things can happen to you. But if you stay harsh that was going to cause me real harm in those words.
You’ve got to give Bill Moyers credit for where he headed next:
BILL MOYERS: What happens to a political society, to a democracy, when we stifle or bribe or shoot the sheriff?
NEIL BAROFSKY: When I had my incident with the assistant secretary that my deputy, who had come down from– who’s another former federal prosecutor, who did narcotics work, said to me, Kevin Puvalowski. And he said to me, “Neil, you were just offered the bullet or the bribe, the gold or the lead.”
And what he was referring to was a society just like that, which was Colombia, back in the day when Pablo Escobar and the drug kingpins really controlled society. And what he was referring to is that basically to corrupt society Escobar would go to a magistrate or a police officer, police chief, a politician, and say, “You have two choices. You can either take this giant pile of money and do my bidding. Or you can get the lead, a bullet in your head.”
The transcript of the exchange follows. Here’s the video of the interview:
Transcript:
BILL MOYERS: At a conference a week or so ago, here in New York, you said playing ball for Wall Street has become a normal way of life, despite the panic of 2008. What does it mean, “playing ball for Wall Street”?
NEIL BAROFSKY: Well, what I saw when I was in Washington was this real pressure on myself, on other regulators to essentially keep their tone down. And I was told point blank by Assistant Secretary of the Treasury that, this is about in 2010.
And he said to me, he said, “Neil, you’re a smart guy. You’re a young guy. You’re a talented guy. You got your whole future in front of you. You’ve got a young family that’s starting out. But you’re doing yourself real harm.” And the reason why you’re doing yourself real harm is the harsh tone that I had towards the government as well as to Wall Street, based on what I was seeing down in Washington. And he told me that if I wanted to get a job out on the Street afterwards, it was going to really be hard for me.
BILL MOYERS: You mean on Wall Street?
NEIL BAROFSKY: Yes. And I explained to him that I wasn’t really interested in that. And he said, “Well, maybe a judgeship. Maybe an appointment from the Obama administration for a federal judgeship.” And I said, “Well, again, that would be great. But I don’t really think that’s going to happen with my criticisms.” And he said it didn’t have to be that way. “If all you do is soften your tone, be a little bit more upbeat, all this stuff can happen for you.”
And that’s what I meant by playing ball. I was essentially told, play ball, soften your tone, and all of these good things can happen to you. But if you stay harsh that was going to cause me real harm in those words.
BILL MOYERS: What made you able to say no to the temptation?
NEIL BAROFSKY: Well, I think part of it is the only job I ever wanted was to be a federal prosecutor.
BILL MOYERS: Send bad guys to jail?
NEIL BAROFSKY: It doesn’t get much better than that. Really interesting, complicated work, and wear the white hat. So I didn’t have those incentives that I think that were presented. And I think, look, you know, being trained in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, I was trained to be a government employee and to take my oath of office very seriously.
But I wasn’t really interested in their reindeer games. And I felt a real obligation and sense of duty to fulfill the oath that I took in Secretary Paulson’s office on December 15th, 2008 to do the job that I was sent down there to do. But I wasn’t really tempted with a big job on Wall Street. And frankly, if it meant getting a judgeship, compromising the job that I needed to do and was supposed to do, it just wasn’t interesting to me.
But look, let me be very clear. I also have the fallback of I was a trial lawyer. I prosecuted a lot of big cases. And I knew that whatever happened, I could always go back and get a good job in New York, working at a law firm or doing legal work. So it gave me a degree of financial freedom even though I basically spent most of my career as a government employee and I didn’t have money. I didn’t necessarily need to please anyone to be able to go back and still be able to feed my family.
BILL MOYERS: What happens to a political society, to a democracy, when we stifle or bribe or shoot the sheriff?
NEIL BAROFSKY: When I had my incident with the assistant secretary that my deputy, who had come down from– who’s another former federal prosecutor, who did narcotics work, said to me, Kevin Puvalowski. And he said to me, “Neil, you were just offered the bullet or the bribe, the gold or the lead.”
And what he was referring to was a society just like that, which was Colombia, back in the day when Pablo Escobar and the drug kingpins really controlled society. And what he was referring to is that basically to corrupt society Escobar would go to a magistrate or a police officer, police chief, a politician, and say, “You have two choices. You can either take this giant pile of money and do my bidding. Or you can get the lead, a bullet in your head.”
And Kevin was joking that I just received the Washington white collar equivalent of the gold or the lead. And it was funny, at the time, but that’s kind of what happens in a society where the rewards and incentives are, again, nobody’s getting shot in the head thank goodness. But it’s a breakdown of the system.
And in some ways, it creates this false illusion that there are people out there looking out for the interest of taxpayers, the checks and balances that are built into the system are operational, when in fact they’re not. And what you’re going to see and what we are seeing is it’ll be a breakdown of those governmental institutions. And you’ll see governments that continue to have policies that feed the interests of — and I don’t want to get clichéd, but the one percent or the .1 percent — to the detriment of everyone else.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2012-10-28 05:25:222016-04-11 11:27:37Obama’s TARP Regulator: “Offered the Bullet or the Bribe, the Gold or the Lead” (+video)
Internal Treasury Department emails obtained by The Daily Caller show that in June 2009 a high-ranking Treasury official planned a backroom meeting to discuss the pension plans for 20,000 nonunion Delphi salaried retirees.
Those retirees lost between 30 and 70 percent of their pensions, as well as their healthcare, life insurance and other benefits. Unionized employees working alongside them, however, saw their pensions and benefits made whole.
The Obama administration has blamed this decision on the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), a federal government agency that handles private-sector pension benefits issues. But these internal emails indicate the Treasury Department was involved to a greater degree than the administration has conceded publicly.
“Anything new on the PBGC front regarding Delphi?” General Motors official Walter Borst wrote in an email to Treasury officials Matt Feldman and Harry Wilson on June 9, 2009.
“I am meeting with them tomorrow and will have more to report after the meeting.” Feldman replied to Borst, copying Wilson.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2012-10-28 05:16:582016-04-11 11:27:37More Leaks Nail Obama: Despite Denials, White House Involved in Delphi Pension Failure
This video, put up by a black political activist with the blog, “Whatever Happened to Common Sense,” claims that Obama wouldn’t even be president if he were white. He asks if Obama ever had a background check. He also notes that Obama has virtually no qualifications for president.
He’s said he’s “never seen such stupidity” and is disgusted with many in the black community.
He’s furious that the mainstream media and others wouldn’t give Herman Cain and Allen West a chance, but allowed this “fraud, Barrack Hussein Obama” to become president.
And there’s much more:
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2012-10-28 05:15:082016-04-11 11:27:37Video: “You Couldn’t Even Be a Security Guard with Obama’s Background”
In remarks at a Virginia campaign stop on Saturday, Biden screwed up again, mistaking the name – twice – of Obama’s close friend, Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democratic US Senate candidate.
“I want to tell you, it’s good to be in a state that’s going to be represented by Tim Kaine,” Biden said to a crowd of over a thousand people. “What a guy! There is a decent honorable man. That man has more integrity in his little finger than most people have in their whole body. I’m a big Tom Kaine fan, a big Tom Kaine fan.”
Kaine later tweeted, “Thanks to the VPOTUS for the shout out today. I love Jay Biden!”
The vice president is no stranger to the former Virginia governor, having headlined a fundraiser for Kaine’s senatorial bid in late May.
Romney Campaign Spokesman Ryan Williams immediately seized on the opportunity to throw a jab at the vice president, issuing a statement declaring Biden “forgot the name of his own Virginia Democratic Senate nominee and he wants voters to forget about President Obama’s failed economic policies and lack of a real agenda for a second term.”
Here’s the video of Biden’s remarks:
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2012-10-28 04:00:162016-04-11 11:27:37Video: Biden Gaffe Again – Forgets Name of Va. Senate Candidate
