This Isn’t the Way to Honor the Victims of Islamist Terrorism

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syrian-migrants-in-greece-AP-640x480Why — on the anniversary of 9-11 — are we debating how many Muslim refugees we will invite into our heartland? Isn’t this a little strange, like a dark Hollywood comedy?

When President Obama and John Kerry suggest taking 10,000 Syrian refugees in 2016, 90 percent of them Muslim and many of them jihadist sympathizers– really, it’s not that hard. Not today. Not ever. Just say no. In fact, say HELL NO!

Why is there even a debate on the matter?

Yes, the flood of refugees fleeing Syria is a humanitarian tragedy of historic proportions. However, these are not refugees from a terrible hurricane, a volcano eruption, or a tsunami tidal wave. These 4,000,000 are refugees from a civil war made intractable and horrific by an Islamist insurrection called the Islamic State, or ISIS. The refugees are a product of the same war that victimized 3,000 Americans on that beautiful September morning in 2001.

Unlike the Vietnam boat people or Cuban refugees after Castro came to power, the U.S. has no moral responsibility for the chaos in Syria. In fact, just the opposite is the case. (Read more from “This Isn’t the Way to Honor the Victims of Islamist Terrorism” HERE)

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GOLDMAN SACHS: Oil Prices Are on the Verge of Plunging to $20 per Barrel

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oil-prices1Oil prices have been on a rollercoaster ride over the last year. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil tumbled late in 2014 from over $100 (£64.78) per barrel to just around $45 per barrel early this year.

After a recovery back to around $60 per barrel during the early summer, prices have gone through the floor again, down to $45.12 again today . . .

The price of a barrel of oil could go to just $20 soon, according to Goldman Sachs analysts led by global commodities research chief Jeffrey Currie.

There’s a huge surplus of oil in the world, put down to both buoyant supply and weaker demand, and that could leave prices at levels not seen in decades. Here’s a snippet from Goldman’s latest note on oil:

The oil market is even more oversupplied than we had expected and we now forecast this surplus to persist in 2016 on further OPEC production growth, resilient non-OPEC supply and slowing demand growth, with risks skewed to even weaker demand given China’s slowdown and its negative EM feedback loop… While not our base case, the potential for oil prices to fall to such levels, which we estimate near $20/bbl, is becoming greater as storage continues to fill. (Read more from “GOLDMAN SACHS: Oil Prices Are on the Verge of Plunging to $20 per Barrel” HERE)

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Mike Huckabee Unveils Ground Game for 2016

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Huckabee2-Getty-640x480GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is expanding beyond his religious liberty message as his campaign lays out Huckabee’s battle plans for the 2016 race.

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Senior Communications Advisor Hogan Gidley and Huckabee’s campaign manager, his daughter Sarah Huckabee Sanders, explained what the former Arkansas governor plans to do differently in the 2016 race than he previously did in 2008, arguing experience is on Huckabee’s side.

“You guys know at the end of the day, you don’t vote for someone you don’t like,” Gidley said, pointing to Huckabee’s high favorability rating.

To his credit, Huckabee has one of the highest favorability ratings among GOP presidential candidates according to a recent Gallop poll, which has him with a national favorability rating of 57 percent.

Even more impressive is Huckabee’s favorability levels in Iowa at 67 percent and South Carolina at 59 percent, which are based on an average of recent polls. (Read more from “Mike Huckabee Unveils Ground Game for 2016” HERE)

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Donald Trump Says Illegal Alien Deportations Done in Two Years

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BN-KE638_Trump0_G_20150907180316Donald Trump estimated that it will take 18 months to two years to get the roughly 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally to leave the country, and that he would then build a wall running along the border with Mexico.

The businessman’s statement made on a call with Alabama Republicans Thursday night added a bit of specificity to the Republican presidential frontrunner’s hardline stance on immigration. Mr. Trump released a six-page policy paper on immigration last month, and reporters have asked for details about how it would work since.

The Alabama Republican Party hosted the dial-in call with Mr. Trump Thursday night as part of series with the 2016 presidential candidates. Ben Carson, Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz have also participated.

On the call, Mr. Trump was asked for details about how long it would take to round up illegal immigrants living in the U.S., with the questioner asking if five or ten years was an appropriate timeframe. Mr. Trump said his two year benchmark could be met with “really good management.”

“We have to get them out. If we have wonderful cases, they can come back in but they have to come back in legally,” Mr. Trump said in an audio clip posted on YouTube Thursday night by a person on the call. (Read more from “Donald Trump Says Illegal Alien Deportations Done in Two Years” HERE)

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Former CIA and DIA Operatives Warn of Another 9/11 Attack

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9_11_rect1The United States could be facing another 9/11 attack as factions grow deeper among the Taliban, al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, especially with the recently confirmed death of the Taliban’s one-eyed leader Mullah Omar, according to a senior U.S. lawmaker, federal law enforcement and intelligence officials.

The tensions between Islamic State group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, and the Taliban is as dangerous a national security threat to the United States as it was before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, said Brian Fairchild, who spent two decades with the CIA and has testified before Congress on terrorism.

“Right now, al-Qaida, under Zawahiri, needs the Khorasan group or some affiliated group to attack the U.S. again like 9/11 in order to lift up his stature and that of the organization,” Fairchild said. “He doesn’t want something small but something big – a big-scale attack like 9/11 to make him relevant again. This is an extremely dangerous time as Islamic State, al-Qaida and the Taliban fight and compete for dominance.”

A 32-page Islamic State recruiting document obtained in Pakistan by American Media Institute detailed the growing division between the Islamic State group and al-Qaida. The document — authenticated by retired Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and two other senior U.S. intelligence officers — called for the Islamic State group to launch a war with India that would draw the United States into battle and end the world.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) also issued two threatening communications in August calling on believers to take action in the U.S. through more lone-wolf attacks, according to SITE Intelligence Group and Middle-East Research Institute, both of which track terror activity. (Read more from “Former CIA and DIA Operatives Warn of Another 9/11 Attack” HERE)

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Explosive Video: Pope ‘Will Show Whose Side He’s on’ During Synod, Says Archbishop

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shutterstock_225979561_810_500_55_s_c1The first hard-hitting words by orthodox cardinals and archbishops about the “current crisis” in the Catholic Church have been sounded. Previous comments by Vatican Cardinal Raymond Burke have been more guarded but as the Synod nears, the reality of a looming schism in the Church has pushed him and other Church leaders to a painful willingness to be frank in publicly warning about the seriousness of what is facing the Church.

Speaking to the idea proposed in the mid-term report of the 2014 Extraordinary Synod on the Family and repeated by various bishops’ conferences, he says, “It is heresy to teach that homosexual relations are not disordinate or are not disordered or have positive elements.”

The comments come in a newly released video by the Polish publication Polonia Christiana called Crisis in the Church. In addition to Cardinal Burke, the video features Archbishop Jan Pawel Lenga, who takes aim at Cardinal Reinhard Marx, president of the German bishops conference and one of Pope Francis’ Council of Nine advisors. Speaking of Marx’s acceptance of communion for remarried divorcees and his statement that the Church in Germany “is not a subsidiary of Rome,” Archbishop Lenga said, “There was Marx, Karl Marx. And if present Marx says similar things, then there is no real difference.”

Lenga, the emeritus archbishop of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, added that if the Church in Germany thinks they are so superior, “it’s some kind of Phantom, we should chase it away by the sign of the Cross.”

“The Pope during the Synod will show whose side he is on,” said Archbishop Lenga. “If he accepts the statement of those who want to distribute Holy Communion to the divorced, there would be a heresy in the Church, and if he does not accept, there could be a schism in the Church.” (Read more from “Explosive Video: Pope ‘Will Show Whose Side He’s on’ During Synod, Says Archbishop” HERE)

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Dismembering Unborn Babies Is ‘Very Humane,’ Planned Parenthood Backer Tells Congress [+video]

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Screen_Shot_2015-09-11_at_11.14.48_AM_810_500_55_s_c1This week, the Congressional Judiciary Committee conducted its first hearing on the investigation of Planned Parenthood.

Titled “Planned Parenthood Exposed: Examining the Horrific Abortion Practices at the Nation’s Largest Abortion Provider,” this first hearing included four witnesses, one of which was Ms. Priscilla Smith, a Director and Senior Fellow at the Program for the Study of Reproductive Justice at Yale Law School. Her comments before the committee were truly horrifying.

During the questioning period, Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte read from Justice Kennedy’s dissent in the U.S. Supreme Court Stenberg v. Carhart decision. Kennedy had quoted the testimony of Dr. Leroy Carhart, a famed and brutal late-term abortionist.

Carhart testified that he had personally “observed fetal heartbeat” on an ultrasound screen, even after substantial portions of the baby had been dismembered and pulled apart. This type of abortion is known as a D&E abortion, or a “dismemberment abortion,” as the baby is literally torn and ripped apart, limb from torso . . .

As an abortion activist with decades of experience, Smith is fully aware of exactly what happens during a D&E abortion. And yet she easily declares that it is “humane.” (Read more from “Dismembering Unborn Babies Is ‘Very Humane,’ Planned Parenthood Backer Tells Congress” HERE)

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Sources: Man Taken Into Custody in Phoenix Allegedly Boasted to Friends of Rash of Freeway Shootings

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150909-arizona-shootings_792df76de1ac45d506369b911033318f.nbcnews-ux-2880-1000The man taken into custody in Phoenix Friday allegedly boasted to friends of his involvement in a rash of freeway shootings over the last 12 days, a police source said, adding the unidentified man is also wanted in connection with other crimes.

Bart Graves, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety, would not confirm the information, saying only the individual is a “person of interest” who will be “questioned all day” . . .

Sources also say police are attempting to place the man and his white Chevrolet Tahoe at the scene of previous shooting incidents using cell phone data from nearby towers, license plate readers and video taken from the 19 Department of Transportation cameras lining a 10-mile stretch of Interstate 10 through Central and West Phoenix.

The man and his mother were detained Friday morning in Phoenix outside a convenience store about four miles north of Interstate 10, where a majority of the 11 confirmed shootings took place.

Multiple undercover units and marked patrol cars boxed in the man’s SUV and wrestled him to the ground as he exited the store. Minutes later he spoke to Fox affiliate KSAZ through the back window of a patrol car. (Read more from “Sources: Man Taken Into Custody in Phoenix Allegedly Boasted to Friends of Rash of Freeway Shootings” HERE)

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Top 1% Are Biggest Winners in Jeb Bush’s Tax Plan

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BN-KF556_BUSHTA_G_20150909153905Jeb Bush has been highlighting the benefits of his new tax plan for the middle class, which in many cases are considerable. But by some measures the biggest winners would be – well, winners.

A new analysis by the business-backed Tax Foundation shows that the biggest percentage increases in after-tax income under Mr. Bush’s tax plan would go to the top 1% of earners, people making more than about $406,000. They would see their after-tax incomes increase on average by 11.6%, according to the analysis. That’s the biggest change for any income group.

The average for all income levels would be a 3.3% increase in income. The second-biggest beneficiaries would be folks in the top 10%, those making more than about $117,000. Their incomes would go up by 4.7%.

The benefits to the top 1% would be even higher when the full economic impacts of the change are considered, according to the Tax Foundation analysis.

To some degree, this result is expected, given Mr. Bush’s stated objectives. He’s trying to use his plan to boost anemic economic growth. And given the way economic models work, tax plans almost have to lower taxes on business- and investment-related income in order to get the desired growth effects. For good or ill, the top 1% tend to receive a lot of that kind of income, and thus benefit disproportionately from any tax reductions. (Read more from “Top 1% Are Biggest Winners in Jeb Bush’s Tax Plan” HERE)

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China Tells U.S. To Stop ‘Groundless’ Hacking Accusations

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hacker1China reacted angrily on Friday following a call by America’s top intelligence official for cyber security against China to be stepped up, and said the United States should stop “groundless accusations”.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said the United States must beef up cyber security against Chinese hackers targeting a range of U.S. interests to raise the cost toChina of engaging in such activities . . .

China routinely denies any involvement in hacking and says it is also a victim.

“Maintaining cyber security should be a point of cooperation rather than a source of friction between both China and the United States,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a daily news briefing.

“We hope that the U.S. stops its groundless attacks against China, start dialogue based on a foundation of mutual respect, and jointly build a cyberspace that is peaceful, secure, open and cooperative.” (Read more from “China Tells U.S. To Stop ‘Groundless’ Hacking Accusations” HERE)

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