Supreme Leader: If Jesus Were Here He Would Fight America

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Photo Credit: Office of the supreme leader

Photo Credit: Office of the supreme leader

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei marked Christmas Day with social media messages tying Jesus into political rhetoric directed at the United States.

“If Christ were among us today, he would not spare even a single moment to fight the leaders of despotism and global arrogance,” he said on Facebook, using the Islamic Republic’s favored term for America.

“Nor would he tolerate hunger and wandering of millions of people, degenerated by the hegemonic and colonialist powers into war, corruption, and violence,” he added.

On Twitter, Khamenei tweeted another message containing a veiled dig at the U.S.: “Jesus Christ was a minister of a heavenly justice to call all oppressed on earth for emancipation from the thralldom of bullying despots.”

In a separate message he claimed that Jesus is as important to Muslims as he is to Christians: “No doubt that Jesus Christ has no less value among Muslims than he has among the pious Christians.”

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Cleveland Settles, Pays Gun Owner for Weapon Seizure

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

Derrick Washington is a law-abiding gun owner with a valid concealed-carry permit.

Last February, Washington called local police to report a shooting near his home in Cleveland, Ohio. When police arrived on the scene, they began questioning Washington about the incident.

Although he didn’t tell them initially, probably because it wasn’t germane to the investigation, Washington later admitted that he was a licensed gun owner and that he had a firearm stored in his parked car. The firearm was not linked to the shooting in any way.

According to police reports, officers claim that Washington said he had two vodka drinks that night– a claim that Washington vehemently denies.

Since Washington had been allegedly drinking and because he waited to tell the officers that he was a law-abiding gun owner with a carry permit, the officers put him in cuffs, confiscated his .38-caliber Taurus from inside his vehicle and charged him with using weapons while intoxicated and illegally carrying a concealed weapon.

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In Distress: The Battle Within the Democratic Party

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Photo Credit: Mike Theiler/Reuters

Photo Credit: Mike Theiler/Reuters

Things are not going well for Democrats. Riding high just weeks ago after Republicans shut down the government, the party now finds itself in a swoon: President Obama’s ratings have hit an all-time low. The implementation of healthcare reform remains a mess. Vulnerable Democrats are scrambling to distance themselves from the White House, and the party is on track to lose seats in the House and Senate next year.

Parties in distress tend to fall to bickering, and today’s Democrats are no exception. On one side, liberals calling for a muscular agenda of government expansion and progressive taxation; on the other, centrists who believe restraint is necessary in both policy and politics. Progressives have been emboldened by liberal victories like that of the new mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio. Centrists fear that liberals will drive the party out of the American mainstream with their talk of income redistribution and political correctness.

In the post-Obama era and without an incumbent on the ticket, “Where does the party go?” Jon Cowan, president of the centrist think tank Third Way, asked me. “I think that is going to be an incredibly heated debate.”

No one is saying Democrats are tipping into the kind of civil war that has riven the GOP. But the split is likely to worsen as the party confronts its future, complicating Democratic prospects in the 2014 midterm elections and coming to the fore in the 2016 primaries.

“When we focus on economic mobility, that’s a conversation that unites us,” Jack Markell, the popular two-term Delaware governor and a self-styled centrist, told me. “If it’s about inequality, it’s a conversation that has the potential of dividing us.” Markell says that middle-class voters hear in the crusade against “inequality” a desire to equalize people rather than make everyone better off.

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Bizarre Radio Meltdown During NSA Interview (+video)

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

Aaron Klein’s WABC Radio show experienced what the host called a “tech meltdown” while he was conducting a live, on-air interview with the lawyer who won an injunction against the National Security Agency’s collection of phone records.

Software used by the radio station dropped the guest, Larry Klayman, and listeners who had called in to ask Klayman questions were cut off in mid-sentence. Other callers could not be put on the air due to technical difficulties at the radio station.

Audio clips saved on an independent system played at the wrong time.

Klein’s headphones had massive feedback that could be heard on the air.

At one point, the WABC call screener said, “We lost control of the software. It’s all going nuts.”

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Video: Xavier Hawkins, “Southeast Santa,” Shot with Pellet Gun at Toy Giveaway

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Photo Credit: wwarby

Photo Credit: wwarby

A man in a Santa Claus suit who has been identified as Xavier Hawkins was shot in the back with a pellet gun Tuesday morning during a toy giveaway in a part of Southeast Washington plagued by crime.

The video is disturbing. The man dressed as Santa has led the annual Barry Farm gift giveaway for the last seven years, and according to an ABC7 photographer who was interviewing the victim at the time of the shooting, the he was struck in his upper back then transported to a nearby hospital with the pellet still lodged in his shoulder.

Later on Tuesday, we saw Xavier Hawkins again after he was released from the hospital. He showed us the tear in his Santa suit as well as the scene of the depraved crime:

“Oh, here’s the hole. That’s where I got shot — right there.”

In the video, you can hear Hawkins’ booming voice faltering after being hit. It was an act of violence appalling on more levels than we can fathom.

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Another Dark Christmas for Iraq’s Christians

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Photo Credit: REUTERS/AHMED SAAD

Photo Credit: REUTERS/AHMED SAAD

By Alexander Dziadosz.

It’s Christmas in Baghdad, and once again Iraq’s Christians are celebrating behind blast walls and barbed wire.

At least 34 people died in bomb attacks in Christian areas on Wednesday, some by a car bomb near a church after a Christmas service. A church attack in 2010 killed dozens.

As prayers are offered and gifts handed out, many are wondering what a surge in violence to its worst levels in half a decade and politicking ahead of April elections means for a community whittled down by years of carnage and migration.

On Christmas Eve, the Mar Yousif Syriac Catholic church in western Baghdad looked like a walled fortress. Soldiers and police ran bomb detectors across cars, searched trunks and bags and patted down visitors before the evening ceremony.

Inside, the red confetti-strewn Christmas tree, bright blue-and-white tile mosaic, and strings of Santa Claus-themed bunting contrasted with drab streets strewn with concrete blocks and barbed wire outside.

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Karim Kadim

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Karim Kadim

Christmas day bombings in Iraq’s Capital kill 37

By Sinan Salaheddin.

Militants in Iraq targeted Christians in three separate Christmas Day bombings in Baghdad, killing at least 37 people, officials said Wednesday.

In one attack, a car bomb went off near a church in the capital’s southern Dora neighborhood, killing at least 26 people and wounding 38, a police officer said.

Earlier, two bombs ripped through a nearby outdoor market simultaneously in the Christian section of Athorien, killing 11 people and wounding 21, the officer said.

The Iraq-based leader of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Louis Sako, said the parked car bomb exploded after Christmas Mass and that none of the worshippers were hurt. Sako said he didn’t believe the church was the target.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but Iraq’s dwindling Christian community, which is estimated to number about 400,000 to 600,000 people, often has been targeted by al-Qaida and other insurgents who see the Christians as heretics.

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US Embassy in Kabul Attacked on Christmas Day

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Photo Credit: Jonathan Saruk/Getty Images

Photo Credit: Jonathan Saruk/Getty Images

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul was hit by indirect fire before dawn on Christmas Day but no Americans were hurt, as attacks elsewhere in Afghanistan killed at least six people Wednesday, officials said.

Two rounds struck the sprawling embassy compound but it was not immediately clear which part of the complex, and a U.S. Embassy official said the incident was under investigation.

“At approximately 6:40 local time in Kabul, approximately two rounds of indirect fire impacted the U.S. Embassy compound,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. “All Americans are accounted for and no injuries were sustained.”

Indirect fire can refer to either mortars or rockets.

The Taliban promptly claimed they fired four rockets at the American Embassy on Wednesday and said they inflicted heavy casualties. But the insurgents often exaggerate their claims.

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Santa’s Workshop Was Not the Problem; It Was Delays at UPS and FedEx

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

By Fox News.

It wasn’t a problem at Santa’s workshop that held up Christmas presents for some this year, but rather, shipping problems at UPS and FedEx.

The delays were blamed on poor weather earlier this week in parts of the country as well as overloaded systems. The holiday shopping period this year was shorter than usual, more buying was done online and Americans’ tendency to wait until the last possible second to shop probably didn’t help either.

Neither company said how many packages were delayed but noted it was a small share of overall holiday shipments. While the bulk of consumers’ holiday spending remains at physical stores, shopping online is increasingly popular and outstripping spending growth in stores at the mall.

The problems appear to have affected many parts of the country. The Associated Press spoke to people in Alabama, California, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia who didn’t receive presents in time for Christmas.

Many were left with little or no time to make alternative plans.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Shipping overload leaves many Christmas giftless

By Shelly Banjo.

Many shoppers are blaming online retailers for stealing Christmas.

Companies from Amazon.com Inc. to Kohl’s Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. promised to deliver items from headphones to television sets before Christmas, but shipping delays left gift-givers across the country without anything to put under the tree.

On Christmas Eve, Brandon Scott was still waiting for a 46-inch Samsung TV and Kate Spade watch he ordered from Amazon on Saturday.

“I’m frustrated because these items could have easily been purchased at various retailers in my area, something I would have gladly done had Amazon not guaranteed’ their arrival before Christmas,” said Mr. Scott of Ann Arbor, Mich.

An unexpected surge of online orders in the past few weeks appears to have strained the limits of delivery and fulfillment infrastructure at retailers and parcel carriers. While instances of bad weather, Web glitches and late deliveries from manufacturers also played a part, the sheer volume may have been the problem, according to retail analysts.

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US and Canada Scramble to Restore Power to Half a Million Homes Following Deadly Ice Storm

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Photo Credit: Angelika Cox/Demotix/Corbis

Photo Credit: Angelika Cox/Demotix/Corbis

Utility crews from Maine to Michigan and into Canada worked on Wednesday to restore power to more than half a million homes that were left in the dark by last weekend’s ice storm, which has been linked to 27 deaths.

In the United States, the death toll from the storm reached at least 17 on Wednesday, from traffic accidents and carbon monoxide fatalities.

Ten people were reported dead in Canada, including five from apparent carbon monoxide poisoning.

Police said two people in Ontario died after using a gas generator to heat their blacked-out home north-east of Toronto. Police in Quebec said carbon monoxide poisoning was believed to be the cause of three deaths in a chalet on the province’s North Shore. Earlier, five people were killed in eastern Canada in highway crashes blamed on severe weather conditions.

The ice storm last weekend was one of the worst to hit during a Christmas week, and repair crews were working around the clock to restore service.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska Cop Sexted 12-Year-Old Girl While Drunk on Duty

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Photo Credit: PRESSUREUA/GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

Photo Credit: PRESSUREUA/GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

A small town Alaska cop sexted a 12-year-old girl repeatedly during a drunken, on-duty bender, authorities say.

Leon Outwater, 21, sent 20 messages from his work cell phone before the girl’s mother caught on and called Alaska state police, troopers said.

“He was sending the text messages to her, and then deleting them,” state police spokeswoman Beth Ipsen told the Daily News.

The calls took place over a 24-hour period in November in the tiny village of Kobuk in northwestern Alaska, authorities said.

“I was drunk,” Outwater, 21, told troopers, according to court documents obtained by the Anchorage Daily News.

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