Hundreds of irate parents are planning to attend the Walton County, Georgia, school board meeting Oct. 10 to convey their outrage over their children being taught the religious beliefs of Islam in middle-school social studies.
The outrage erupted over a quiz handed out to students asking them to answer questions related to the five pillars of Islam, the Quran as the “holy” book of Muslims, and the conversion prayer known as the “shahada,” which states, “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger.” Perhaps most disturbing to Christian parents was the “correct” answer that the Muslim god Allah is the “same god” that is worshiped by Christians and Jews.
At the same time Islam is being studied in detail, the beliefs of Christianity are glossed over, parents say. They now have more than 2,300 parents and concerned citizens who have joined a Facebook group dedicated to opposing the school system’s methods of teaching comparative religions.
“I believe my children are my responsibility, and I believe I need to be the one teaching them what we believe instead of the school,” Bill Green told News 95.5.
Parent Michelle King told WSB-TV she’s upset because students seem to spend a lot more time learning about Islam than any other religion. (Read more from “Islam Quiz Has Parents Outraged” HERE)
This is a story that has the feel of a slightly implausible spy thriller. Unfortunately, it is all too real, and it suggests that hidden forces have indeed been at work shaping the narrative on the Benghazi attack that was so deftly manipulated in the lead-up to the 2012 re-election of Barack Obama. The complicated story (as much of it as we know at present) is laid out by Mark Hemingway of the Weekly Standard:
In March, an investigation by ProPublica and Gawker revealed that a “secret spy network” that was not on the State Department payroll, run by longtime Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal, was “funneling intelligence about the crisis in Libya directly to the Secretary of State’s private account starting before the Benghazi attack.” Now the WEEKLY STANDARD has learned that Tyler Drumheller, the former chief of the CIA’s clandestine service in Europe who was working directly with Blumenthal as a member of Clinton’s spy network, was concurrently working as a consultant to CBS News and its venerable news program 60 Minutes.
According to WEEKLY STANDARD sources, Drumheller was active in shaping the network’s Benghazi coverage. His role at the network raises questions about what went wrong with the retracted 60 Minutes report on Benghazi that aired in October 2013. Despite his former life as a high ranking CIA official, Drumheller was laden with political baggage, making him a curious choice to be consulting with a major news operation—especially so given that he was working directly with Sidney Blumenthal, whose primary occupation appears to be manipulating media coverage on behalf of the Clintons.
The president of CBS News is David Rhodes, brother of Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security advisor for strategic communications of President Obama.
The ins and outs of the story, and the career of Drumheller, former CIA head of clandestine services in Europe and darling of the left after he retired in 2005 and began debunking Bush Iraq policy (only to be severely contradicted by former CIA head George Tenet) are convoluted, to say the least. CBS News comes across very badly in its choice of advisors to shape coverage and in its behavior. Readers will remember the crucial turning point in the Romney-Obama debate when Candy Crowley stepped up with a quote in hand to seemingly make the point that Obama did in fact promptly call the Benghazi attack terror. (It was an ambiguous quote, presented as fact by moderator Crowley.) (Read more from “The Tangled Web Linking Sidney Blumenthal, CBS News, and a Secret Clinton Spy Network Starting to Come to Light” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-09-30 21:23:112016-04-11 10:57:52The Tangled Web Linking Sidney Blumenthal, CBS News, and a Secret Clinton Spy Network Starting to Come to Light
A police officer responding to a report of a suspicious person was fatally shot at a suburban South Carolina mall on Wednesday, and police say a suspect is in custody.
The incident began when the report came in just before 8 a.m., Forest Acres police Chief Gene Sealy told reporters. Two officers responded and attempted to talk to the person, who fled on foot and ran through parts of Richland Mall, including the Barnes and Noble bookstore, officials said . . .
Sealy said a suspect is in custody and is being questioned. Sealy described the man as being armed with a handgun and a knife at the mall. Police did not detail any charges against the man and did not take questions at their news conference. (Read more from “Police Officer Dies in Random South Carolina Mall Shooting” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-09-30 21:21:412016-04-11 10:57:52Police Officer Dies in Random South Carolina Mall Shooting
A nonprofit civil rights organization is demanding a Hawaii Marine Corps base take down a religious themed sign and move it to the base’s chapel.
The sign, which says, “God bless the military, their families and the civilians who work with them”, was established on the base in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
“This sign is a brazen violation of the No Establishment clause of the Constitution, as it sends the clear message that your installation gives preference to those who hold religious beliefs over those who do not, and those who prefer a monotheistic, intervening god over other deities or theologies,” Blake A. Page wrote in a letter to MCB Hawaii Commanding Officer Col. Sean C. Killeen . . .
Not only is the organization’s demands to remove the sign ridiculous, but it’s also incredibly ignorant. Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, a Christian group of chaplain endorsers, called the MRFF’s [Military Religious Freedom Foundation’s] accusations as “unfounded.”
“Only someone with a great misunderstanding of the First Amendment or an axe to grind against religion would claim that such a slogan poses a threat or in any way unconstitutional. The real threat is posed by those who want to whitewash any reference to God from public discourse — even ones as innocuous and uplifting as this one,” Chaplain Ron Crews, the group’s executive director, said. (Read more from “Liberal Organization Tells Marine ‘Jesus Does Not Belong in the Military’, Here’s His Incredible Response” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2015-09-30 21:20:592016-04-11 10:57:52Liberal Organization Tells Marine ‘Jesus Does Not Belong in the Military’, Here’s the Incredible Response
A number of Middle Tennessee school districts haven’t complied with an open records request for content that concerns Islamic curriculum being taught in public schools.
But the American Center for Law & Justice says its records request of all 146 Tennessee school districts earlier this month is valid and that it “isn’t uncommon for a government entity to delay compliance.”
Metro Nashville, Rutherford, Williamson and Wilson counties are among districts that haven’t complied with the records request after receiving a sample letter from an attorney saying they don’t have to the way the request is presented.
Attorney Chuck Cagle of the Lewis Thomason law firm, which represents more than 70 school districts and picked up several more for the open records request, wrote the sample letter for school systems to send to the ACLJ if they desired. The ACLJ’s request can’t be honored the same way as it would be for a Tennessee resident, Cagle said . . .
The ACLJ, a nonprofit that advocates and litigates legal, legislative and cultural issues regarding freedom of religion and free speech, confirmed it has received the sample letter from some districts. (Read more from “Schools Deny Islamic Curriculum Records Request” HERE)
Although country music legend Charlie Daniels is famous for his fiddle-playing skills, what he does for our military is even more impressive.
The Journey Home Project, a non-profit organization co-founded by Daniels, recently donated $50,000 for the new Veterans and Military Family Center at Middle Tennessee State University.
The center will not only provide distinctive space for study sessions and discussions, but also a VA mental health counselor on-site to assist veteran students and their families as they cope with post-war traumas . . .
The 2,600-square-foot center will also include a conference room for employer job interviews and video teleconferencing to benefit veterans.
“The new center will encourage and facilitate the success of our veterans as they transition out of uniform into academics, and then into future employment opportunities, as they strive to become leaders in the community much like they were in uniform. It will also help to answer all of their questions and give them a place to go where they’re talking to people with a commonality of background, purpose and focus,” said U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Keith Huber, MTSU’s senior adviser for veterans and leadership initiatives. (Read more from “Country Music Legend Just Released News That Changes Everything for Veterans” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2015-09-30 21:18:152016-04-11 10:57:53Country Music Legend Just Released News That Changes Everything for Veterans
While Carly Fiorina has unquestionable debate skills, the more I research her background, the more troubled I become. While it’s clear that she is — politically speaking — somewhere to the left of Jeb Bush on policy, it is her business record that is most alarming.
Let me start with a little history lesson and a company called Lernout & Houspie. Founded in 1987 by two Belgians, L&H went public in 1995 on NASDAQ and operated from U.S. headquarters in Burlington, MA. Specializing in voice recognition software, L&H rode the tech boom to a peak market valuation of $10 billion.
L&H, despite its rise, was dogged by rumors of financial fraud. By early 1999, The Wall Street Journal reported that its earnings had been inflated. A subsequent WSJ investigation led to revelations in August of 2000 that much of the company’s value had been achieved by booking imaginary sales through a wide range of accounting gimmicks.
In April 2001, the founders — Jo Lernout and Pol Hauspie, as well as former CEO Gaston Bastiaens — were arrested in what was then one of the largest accounting scandals in history.
What were the accounting gimmicks that L&H used? Among them, “investing” in companies that were then required to turn those investments around to “purchase” L&H products and services. As the WSJ reported:
The company … appears to have improperly reported revenue from barter deals with other software firms in which no cash changed hands; immediately recognized revenue for sales that were contingent on L&H later performing development work for the customer; and sometimes reported sales before contracts were signed, when it was unclear the customer had the ability to pay or when the customer’s ability to pay depended on investment from L&H… In all, tens of millions of dollars in revenue over the past several years may have been improperly recorded…
Thousands of individual shareholders have lost a collective fortune in the fall of a company whose market value was nearly $10 billion nine months ago…
…Michael Faherty, a former L&H salesman in the U.S., says he and others were encouraged to refer potential but cash-poor customers to FLV Fund. “If FLV invests $1 million” in the customer, he says, “it was understood that we’d get about $300,000” in the form of license fees paid by that customer to L&H…
… In 1995, for example, FLV took a 49% stake in the Belgian unit of Quarterdeck Corp., a highflying California software company headed by another Belgian, Gaston Bastiaens. This Belgian unit became L&H’s largest customer, accounting for 30% of revenue that year, and Quarterdeck itself chipped in 6.5% of L&H’s sales…
In simple terms, L&H laundered loans and investments to other companies, which it then booked as phony sales.
And what happened to the founders, Lernout and Houspie? In 2010, they “were found guilty by a Belgian court of fraud violations in the accounting scandal [and] each given sentences of five years…”
So what does all of this have to do with Carly Fiorina?
Well, Fiorina ran the telecom giant Lucent as it was imploding, a fact that she was able to conceal until after she’d jumped ship to HP with over $60 million in performance-based pay.
A series of major orders were announced under Fiorina that subsequently turned out to be completely fraudulent. In 1999, for example, Fiorina trumpeted a huge sale of up to $2.1 billion of equipment to a company called PathNet. Problem was, however, that PathNet’s annual revenue was $1.6 million and it could ill afford such a massive purchase. In other words, Fiorina’s PathNet deal was as crooked as a corkscrew:
In the giant PathNet deal that Fiorina oversaw, Lucent agreed to fund more than 100% of the company’s equipment purchases, meaning the small company would get both Lucent gear at no money down and extra cash to boot. Yet how could such a loan to PathNet make sense for Lucent, even based on the world as it appeared in the heady days of 1999?
It didn’t make any financial sense. Just after Fiorina’s departure, Lucent revealed that it had written $7 billion of loan deals to customers, many of them unviable startups like PathNet, which itself went bankrupt in 2001. Post-Fiorina, Lucent also collapsed as the nature of her vendor-financing deals became obvious; but she walked away with upwards of $60 million.
In short, Fiorina used the same fraudulent tactics that L&H employed, investing in companies in order to massively inflate sales numbers.
Unlike Lernout and Houspie, though, Fiorina jumped ship before the implosion and walked away with tens of millions of dollars.
Fiorina, based upon these reports, has a distinctly unsavory background and has as much business running for president as Hillary Clinton does. Which is to say, none. (Read more from “Fiorina Engaged in Criminal Activity?” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-09-30 03:59:092016-04-11 10:57:53People Have Been Thrown in Prison for the Kinds of Stuff Carly Fiorina Engaged in as Lucent’s CEO
Michelle Obama Jokes About Clinton’s Philandering?
The Daily Beast gushed about Michelle Obama’s fashion and performance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert last night. It also reported on this curious exchange between Colbert and Michelle:
Laura Bush had left her a letter, Colbert said. If we have a female president next, would Mrs. Obama leave her husband a letter?
Mrs. Obama said she would.
“I would say, ‘Follow your passion, just be you,’” she replied very safely.
“I think he does,” Colbert said, to roaring laughter from those imagining Bill Clinton’s famously philandering past.
“I think he would,” she replied, flashing a smile at Colbert and chuckling as he clenched his fist in a display of mock-virility.
Some believe this is yet another indicator of the intense, ongoing hostility between the Obama’s and the Clinton’s. Yet another reason Biden may jump into the race for POTUS.
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Lewinsky Wants to Stop Bullying
By Judy Kurtz. Monica Lewinsky is launching a new anti-bullying campaign, and she’s teaming up with a slew of celebrities — including Michael J. Fox, Olivia Wilde, Salma Hayek and Jamie Lee Curtis.
The ex-White House intern, who made countless headlines for her 1995 affair with then-President Bill Clinton, is behind #MonthofAction, which throughout October will post daily anti-bullying challenges and steps advocates can take on social media sites. Email and text messages will also be sent to supporters who sign up on the Bystander Revolution website, where Lewinsky serves as strategic advisor.
The messages will be “simple, practical actions that each of us can do right away to relieve suffering and shift the culture,” Lewinsky tells People magazine.
“Engaging in the daily challenges will help transform our online world into a safer and more compassionate space for everyone,” [she said]. (Read more about this story HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-09-30 03:58:532016-04-11 10:57:53Michelle Obama Jokes About Bill Clinton’s Philandering; Lewinsky Joins Anti-Bullying Campaign
Christian entrepreneurs and twin brothers David and Jason Benham have issued an urgent call to Christians to hold fast to Biblical truths amid a “direct assault on Christianity in America.”
Speaking to CNSNews.com, Jason Benham said, “[W]e don’t believe there’s a threat to religious liberty. We think there’s a threat to Christian liberty, because all other religions seem to be fine right now in America.”
He referenced a recent report about Islam being taught in public schools across the United States, while Christianity is targeted.
“We’ve even got elementary schools now starting to teach Islamic prayers – but Christian prayers – how dare you have a Christian Bible in the schools,” he told the news outlet. “There’s a direct assault on Christianity in America. That’s why we’re encouraging Christians to stand.”
David Benham also urged Christians to become more vocal about their faith and publicly defend their beliefs instead of avoiding conflict in silence.
“The greatest threat to that is the silence of Christians,” he said. “As Edmund Burke once said, the only thing necessary for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.” (Read more about the “Greatest Threat to Liberty” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-09-30 03:56:032016-04-11 10:57:53Benham Brothers: The Greatest Threat to Liberty is Your Silence
By AP. Saudi Arabia was dismissed Tuesday as a defendant in lawsuits brought by the families of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks by a judge who said lawyers had failed to show sufficient evidence linking the country to the attacks.
U.S. District Judge George Daniels said in a written ruling that lawyers for the plaintiffs had failed to show facts sufficient to overcome Saudi Arabia’s sovereign immunity. He also dismissed as a defendant the Saudi High Commission for Relief of Bosnia & Herzegovina on the grounds that the charity is an instrument of Saudi Arabia and thus covered as well by sovereign immunity. (Read more from “Judge Dismisses Saudi Arabia from 9/11 Suit” HERE)
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Hundreds of ISIS Fighters Desert Over Pay Disputes
By Mark Duell. Hundreds of jihadis are leaving Islamic State for other extremist organisations after being forced to take a pay cut of almost £200 by chiefs, it was claimed last night.
ISIS militants were allegedly being paid £260 a month until the terror group faced financial shortages which forced their salaries down to £65 – and at least 200 gunmen have since quit.
The fighters from ISIS, which until recently was said to be the world’s wealthiest jihadist group, are now retreating from northern Iraq to earn more money from other terror organisations in Syria
ISIS, led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has faced problems since coalition air strikes in Iraq and Syria rendered it unable to access a multi-billion pound war chest, reported the Daily Mirror.
The group has made its money from the likes of bank robberies, stolen oil and people-smuggling, but accountants have cut down on cash convoys between war zones over drone attack fears. (Read more from this story HERE)
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After Attempt on President’s Life, Tiny Nation Seek US Help vs. Terror
By Josh Rogin. The Maldives is calling on the United States to help it respond to an attack on its president, potentially opening the newest front in the war on terror.
President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom on Sunday narrowly escaped an explosion on his boat. His wife was injured. Investigators have converged on the island nation in the Indian Ocean to determine whether the blast is related to organized terrorism. The government is already rethinking its security and defense practices; top officials say terrorist recruiting has been on the rise there.
Maldivian Foreign Secretary Ali Naseer Mohamed told me Tuesday that officials are still piecing together what happened.
“No group has claimed responsibility,” he said. “But we believe it was an attack directed to the president. That’s the first time the president has been attacked in that way.”
Ali was in the United States this week for the UN General Assembly, and he said his government has been tracking an increased flow of its citizens traveling to Iraq and Syria to fight there, at least 40 so far. Some are coming back to the Maldives. (Read more from this story HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-09-30 03:54:392016-04-11 10:57:53Judge Dismisses Saudi Arabia From 9/11 Suit
