Obama Sees Potential ‘Breakthrough’ in Russia’s Syria Proposal

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syria_alqaedaRussia and Syria embraced Secretary of State John F. Kerry’s suggestion Monday that the Syrian government could avert a U.S. attack by placing its chemical weapons under international control, upending the Obama administration’s efforts to sharpen its case for military action.

U.S. officials said Kerry’s comment, made in response to a question at a news conference in London, was not intended to be a diplomatic opening. But Kerry’s Russian and Syrian counterparts quickly followed up, and the idea drew immediate interest internationally and from top Democrats in Washington.

By the end of the day, President Obama conceded that the idea of monitoring and ultimately destroying Syria’s arsenal “could potentially be a significant breakthrough.” The Senate postponed a vote scheduled for Wednesday on whether to back a proposed punitive strike.

“I think you have to take it with a grain of salt, initially,” Obama said in an interview with NBC that was among several he gave Monday in pursuit of public backing for a military strike in response to an alleged Aug. 21 gas attack on Syrian civilians.

“We are going to run this to ground,” Obama said. “We’re going to make sure that we see how serious these proposals are.”

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Things Fall Apart for Obama – Left Abandoning Him

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Photo Credit: American Thinker

Photo Credit: American Thinker

It’s so bad for President Obama that there is now talk of impeachment, not from his foes on the right but from his former allies on the left, if he proceeds with an attack on Syria absent Congressional approval. Dennis Kucinich kicked off the talk late last month with a tweet:

200 in #Congress demand #Syria vote. #Constitution art.1 sec.8 -@BarackObama risking #Impeachment? (@washingtonpost https://t.co/f12uDY3TTu)– Dennis Kucinich (@Dennis_Kucinich) August 30, 2013

But yesterday it got serious, as prominent blacks intellectual leaders took up the theme. From Buzzfeed:

“It doesn’t make sense to commit more war crimes,” Cornel West said Sunday on the syndicated radio show Smiley and West, to an approving response from host Tavis Smiley, who has also been consistently critical of Obama. (snip)

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Obama: Even Michelle’s Answer on War ‘is No’

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michelle-obama-photo1President Obama acknowledged Monday that even his wife, Michelle, is skeptical of having the U.S. become embroiled in another overseas military conflict.

Obama, in a number of television interviews taped Monday, used his wife to drive home the point that he understands most Americans remain skeptical of his proposal for a limited strike in Syria.

“If you ask somebody, if you ask Michelle, ‘Do we – do we want to be involved in another war? The answer is no,” Obama told NBC. “People are wary about it, understandably.”

The administration has consistently made the point that any action would be limited in scope, and it has denied that it would constitute a war.

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W.H. Sends Out Rice, Who Misled on Benghazi, to Make Case for Syria (+video)

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Photo Credit: The Cable

Photo Credit: The Cable

Susan Rice famously blamed the Benghazi terror attack that took the lives of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, on an Internet video. She further said the terror attack occurred after a spontaneous protest over that anti-Muslim film got out of hand, instead of blaming the al Qaeda backed terrorists responsible for the murders.

“The White House has had quite enough of the controversy over ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice, the misleading talking points she used in TV interviews about the jihadist attacks in Benghazi, and the Obama administration’s contradictory narrative about those attacks,” Steve Hayes reported in December.

But today, Rice will be called upon again to make a public case for the White House ..

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Oil Shipments by Rail, Truck, and Barge Up Substantially

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Most oil and petroleum products are moved to refineries and consuming areas by pipeline, which is both the safest and most economical means of transporting them. However, due to a shortage of pipeline capacity, more and more oil and petroleum products are being moved by rail, truck, and barge. Those shipments almost doubled in 2012, and they are continuing to increase to move crude oil from the shale formations in North Dakota and Texas, and oil sands in Canada to U.S. refineries. Between 2011 and 2012, oil delivered to refineries by trucks increased 38 percent, crude moved on barges increased 53 percent and rail deliveries quadrupled. Because the nation’s pipeline infrastructure has not kept pace with growing domestic oil production, the market has had to rely increasingly on alternative transportation options.

figure 2

etween 2005 and 2010, 96 percent of crude oil was transported by pipeline and tanker ships to refineries. Inland refineries are generally reached by pipeline since pipeline transport has relatively low costs and high capacity. For imports and offshore production, tanker ships have been the primary form of transportation for crude oil. But in 2011, these two transportation forms began to decline in market share, representing 93 percent of the market in 2012.[ia]

Between 2000 and 2010, truck and rail shipments have averaged just 1 percent of total shipments to refineries because they are less cost-effective options for moving crude. But, beginning in 2011, truck and rail volumes increased, and represented 3 percent of refinery shipments in 2012. Domestic barge shipments also increased, accounting for nearly 3 percent as well.

Because of the lengthy regulatory review process for expanding existing pipelines or building new pipelines, the transportation of crude oil and petroleum products has moved to rail and truck, which provide more flexibility because they can use existing infrastructure. Unless more pipeline capacity is built to deal with the increased domestic crude production, it is likely that these transportation modes will expand.

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Syria Can Shoot Back, Mr. President

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Syria: As a Chinese warship joins Russian ships in the Mediterranean, we should remember a cruise missile attack on an Israeli warship. President Obama should understand that Syria and Hezbollah have missiles, too.

As the Obama administration continues to deploy its comical weapons, with Secretary of State John Kerry promising America any attack on Syria will be “unbelievably small,” a Chinese warship deploys off the Syrian coast, joining its Russian counterparts in what used to be an “American lake,” the Mediterranean Sea.

The People’s Liberation Army has dispatched the amphibious dock landing ship Jinggangshan, a move that follows the announcement that Russia is sending three more ships — two destroyers and the missile cruiser Moskva — to the eastern Mediterranean to bolster forces that already include three other warships dispatched over the last two weeks.

All are a pointed reminder that we are not the only player that has pieces on the board.

Launched in 2011, the 19,000-metric-ton Jinggangshan is a 689-foot-long warship that can carry 1,000 soldiers, helicopters, armored fighting vehicles, boats and landing craft, according to a report in the China Daily.

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Fisherman Opts to Keep Massive, 231-Pound Halibut

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Photo Credit: DeepStrike Sportfishing

Photo Credit: DeepStrike Sportfishing

Dirk Whitsitt, a construction worker from Kansas, caught a fish of a lifetime only an hour into his first fishing trip in Alaska, and he wasn’t about to release the monster, not even for a $250 voucher for another day of fishing.

You can’t blame him, really. The Pacific halibut he hooked in 370 feet of water in Cook Inlet out of Homer, Alaska, and fought for 45 minutes wound up weighing a whopping 231 pounds.

Once the decision was made to keep it, the prized fish needed to be subdued, which is no easy task with a halibut this size.

“Towards the end of the fight, the fish headed back toward the bottom and we had to release the anchor to follow the fish,” Capt. David Bayes of DeepStrike Sportfishing explained in an email to GrindTV Outdoor. “We shot it three times with a .38 special and used three gaffs to pull it aboard.”

Using a gun to subdue halibut is common practice in Alaska. In fact, it is recommended on any sizable fish over 100 pounds because big halibut are nearly all muscle and can do damage to people and boats if they’re not killed before being brought on board.

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Bill Maher Confesses: ‘Selling Pot Allowed Me to Get Through College’

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Photo Credit: Mediaite

Photo Credit: Mediaite

In an infographic from this week’s edition of Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Bill Maher admits to having been a pot dealer as a means to paying for college and start up his career in comedy.

bill maher confession

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UNC Prof Ignites 4th Amendment Debate After Being Pulled Over by Fire Truck

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Photo Credit: UNC GAZETTE/IVY DAWNED

Photo Credit: UNC GAZETTE/IVY DAWNED

When a North Carolina firefighter switched on the siren atop his Chapel Hill Fire Department truck to get a driver he suspected of being impaired to pull over, he probably didn’t expect to ignite a constitutional debate.

But that’s exactly what has happened. The woman Fire Lt. Gordon Shatley pulled over on his way back from a call was Dorothy Hoogland Verkerk, a professor at the University of North Carolina and former town council member who is arguing use of the fire truck and siren – which are not authorized for law enforcement actions – gave the color of government to what might otherwise have been a lawful citizen’s arrest. And although a lower court upheld Verkerk’s arrest, an appellate court remanded the case with instructions to consider whether it was an illegal search and seizure.

The incident occurred in May, 2011, and led to Verkerk’s arrest and eventual conviction by an Orange County District Court judge for driving while intoxicated. Verkerk, who teaches art history at UNC-Chapel Hill, claimed in her appeal that Shatley violated her rights under the Fourth Amendment when he used the lights and sirens on the fire truck he was driving to pull her over. When she sped away, he called police who later caught and charged her.

Lower court Judge Elaine Bushfan denied Verkerk’s motion claiming that Shatley had conducted a citizen’s arrest, but suspended her sentence and ordered the professor to spend 30 days in jail plus 18 months’ probation, pay a $1,000 fine, and perform 72 hours of community service.

That’s when Verkerk filed with the court of appeals and the three-member panel ordered Bushfan to consider anew the legality of Shatley stopping the driver. In particular, the appellate judges said it must be determined whether or not Shatley acted as a private citizen or as a governmental officer; if Shatley did act as a government officer, whether he followed Fourth Amendment criteria and had reasonable suspicion that a crime was being committed; and finally if the stop was unconstitutional, if that tainted evidence and the subsequent police traffic stop.

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Afghan Interpreter who Saved US Soldier Gets Long-Awaited Visa

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Photo Credit: MATT ZELLER

Photo Credit: MATT ZELLER

The Afghan interpreter credited with saving an Army intelligence officer only to become a target of the Taliban, has been granted a visa and could come to the United States as soon as next month.

Janis Shinwari, whose cause was embraced by Medal of Honor winner and U.S. Marine Dakota Meyer, along with more than 100,000 people who signed a petition at Change.org, saved Army Officer Matt Zeller in a 2008 firefight with insurgents, according to Zeller. The grateful Zeller has been aggressively lobbying for a visa for Shinwari for nearly two years, since Shinwari, 35, began getting death threats. On Monday, the pair spoke by phone after learning the State Department had finally processed the paperwork.

“Janis gave me the news a short while ago via Facebook chat — and then I called him,” Zeller told FoxNews.com. “It was very emotional. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him that happy. He started telling me about how excited he is and that he expects to have flights and housing arranged by IOM (the organization that handles that aspect of it) within 30-40 days.

“We started talking about how our kids (I have a daughter about the same age as his youngest) will grow up together and be friends,” Zeller added. “I still can’t quite wrap my head around the fact that in a few weeks I’ll be able to talk to him in person.

Shinwari applied to move to the U.S. in 2011 under a special immigration program begun in 2009 for people who helped U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. The program, designated to help interpreters and other allies from the Iraq war, expires at the end of this month absent an extension. The Afghan version would go away in September 2014 without a new law.

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