The Vice Presidential Debate: Someone Was Missing

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Hold it, I’m confused. I watched all of the vice presidential debate last night, and someone did not show up. Vice President Joe Biden was there—how could one miss him, with all the grinning, grunting, interrupting, and sneering. But where was the Ayn Rand-worshiping, rape-redefining, fanatically exercising zealot who wants to throw grandmothers off of cliffs and whose budget plan is, according to the president, “thinly veiled Social Darwinism” that is “antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity and upward mobility”? That Paul Ryan was nowhere to be found.

What America saw instead was a young and likable and knowledgeable conservative worried about the current trajectory of fiscal, monetary, foreign, and social policy. Where Biden harrumphed, Ryan calmly litigated President Obama’s failed record. Twice in eight days, the caricatures against which President Barack Obama and Biden are purporting to run have been exposed as grotesque exaggerations. The liberal attempt to frighten America with the illusory specter of an extremist Republican ticket dissolved on first contact with, well, the actual ticket. The reality principle asserted itself once again. We have an open race.

Perceptions matter. Why did 67 million people watch the first debate? One reason may have been that Americans, open to an alternative to the incumbent, wanted to know who the Republican nominee actually was. They only had vague knowledge of Mitt Romney going into the Denver bout—and their impression was not favorable.

What they knew was largely limited to the messages of $217 million in negative advertising from Obama and his allies: Romney was rich, secretive, out of touch, paying little in taxes, hiding his tax returns, stashing money in the Cayman Islands, singing out of tune, shipping jobs overseas with little thought of the lives he affected, dismissing out of hand 47 percent of the country, in favor of raising middle-class taxes and health-care costs for seniors, and waging a “war on women” with Todd Akin to “turn back the clock” on women’s rights.

The stories told about Romney in the media were no more flattering. Casual consumers of the news would have learned that the former governor of Massachusetts once bullied a child at his prep school; had catered to the most extreme wing of his party in pursuit of the GOP nomination; had insulted the highly sensitive and excitable Brits on the eve of the London Olympics; was gaffe-prone; had jumped the gun in his response to the attacks in Benghazi and Cairo; was either micro-managing or had little control over his campaign; was changing strategy on the fly; and was such a hopeless loser that the election basically was over. Obama had it in the bag. How could he not? Romney was trash—wealthy, radical, belligerent refuse.

Read more from this story HERE.

Florida Adopts Racist Educational Standards Even Though Race Classifications are “Nonsense”

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Florida sets education standards based on race, ethnicity

By Caroline May. New education standards approved this week in Florida set goals for public school student performance based on race and ethnicity — with lower benchmarks for African-American, Native American, and Hispanic students, and higher ones for white and Asian-American students.

“We need a strong plan to support our dynamic education system,” State Board Chairman Gary Chartrand said in a statement announcing the approval of the state’s strategic plan for public schools and state colleges through 2018, which includes the new race-based benchmarks.

“I am confident that these strategies and goals will put Florida on a path toward raising student achievement, improving educator quality, and expanding school choice,” he added.

According to the plan, Pre-K through grade 12 students will be assessed with their racial subgroups in mind “to reduce the achievement gap.”

By 2018, 90 percent of Asian students, 88 percent of white students, 81 percent of Hispanic students, 82 percent of Native American students and 74 percent of African-American students are expected to be at-or-above grade level reading standards. Read more from this story HERE.

Race: the Single Most Overrated Scientific Myth

By Gregory Oatis. Look, isn’t it time we dispensed with all the “race” nonsense, once and for all?

The fact is, categorizing humanity by “race” as has been happening for all these centuries is simply not a scientifically valid proposition. There is just one race of people on this planet, the human race.

Skin color defines a person about as much as hair color, eye color, or the length of the second toe on the right foot.

It’s a scientific fact that skin color cannot be discerned through DNA testing. If you doubt me, check it out.

And skin color is not even useful as a predictor of chromosomal similarity.

For example, if you pick 50 Americans at random and analyze their DNA, the two most similar sets are as likely to be those of a Ukrainian-American and an African-American as they are two African-Americans. Read more from this story HERE.

Syria and Turkey are on the Brink of All-out War, Threatens US-Russian Involvement

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The cross-border bombardments that Restoring Liberty has been reporting on have now become daily occurrences. Some pundits believe that the conflict could erupt into a regional war, and worse. Here’s one report from the front lines:

If anyone believed that Syria’s bloodshed would stay inside the country’s borders, the events of the last week should have put them right. I’m in southern Turkey, near the frontier with Syria, and this area feels like the new front line of the battle against Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Convoys of Turkish army vehicles ply the roads down to the border and, quietly, civilians are trickling away to safer areas.

The reason is simple: cross-border artillery and mortar bombardments have become daily events. Last Friday, I went to the scene of the bloodiest incident so far, when a Syrian mortar bomb landed outside a family home in the Turkish town of Akçakale. By malign chance, a mother, her six daughters and a female relative happened to be outside, making dinner under an olive tree, when the weapon exploded beside them. They were, quite simply, cut to pieces. When I arrived, a severed human finger, covered in flies, was still lying on the ground. Three of the girls survived with critical injuries; the mother, three daughters and the visiting relative were all killed.

Additionally, the increasingly Islamic Turkey, a NATO member country that the United States is obligated to defend by treaty, forced down a Russian plane yesterday and is at risk of direct conflict with Russia:

Adding to strains with Turkey over the conflict in Syria, Russia demanded an explanation on Thursday after Turkish warplanes forced a Syrian passenger plane flying from Moscow to Damascus to land in Ankara on suspicion of carrying military cargo.

The episode on Wednesday also marked a sharp escalation of Turkey’s confrontation with Syria as authorities in Ankara ordered Turkish civilian airplanes to avoid Syria’s airspace and warned of increasingly forceful responses if Syrian artillery gunners keep lobbing shells across the border.

The forced landing exposed new fissures of dispute as the Russian Foreign Ministry demanded an explanation from Turkey, and other officials in Moscow denied that there were weapons or other military supplies on board the plane, which was carrying some Russian passengers.

Moscow’s complaints brought a quick response from Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag, who was quoted by the semiofficial Anatolian News Agency as saying “materials that infringed international regulations” had been confiscated when Turkish officials searched the aircraft.

Russia and Turkey are already at odds over the Syrian crisis with Ankara joining Western and many Arab nations in support of insurgents seeking to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad while Moscow has consistently shielded Mr. Assad, its main regional ally. Russia is Syria’s main arms supplier.

Must See Video: Cavuto – “The Election is Big but the Fiscal Cliff is Bigger”

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In this must see video, Neil Cavuto shoots straight as he invariably does, and offers a frank assessment of where this country is headed economically. He contends that the fiscal cliff crisis is a much bigger deal than the presidential election in November.

Cavuto notes that the combination of automatic spending cuts and the expiration of the Bush tax cuts will result in millions of American jobs lost and thousands more in taxes for the average U.S. family.

He concludes that “We’re staring into the abyss and no one is talking about it.”

Cavuto then interviews Craig Smith who criticizes the Congress’s foolish kicking of the can down the road. Smith say the can can’t be kicked any further. As a result, Smith warns that the impending Fiscal Cliff crisis is “more critical than the European debt crisis.” Both Cavuto and Smith are amazed that the main stream media and political candidates are ignoring it:

Obama’s Classmate Tells PBS that Young Barry Called Himself an Indonesian prince & Kenyan royalty

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In a June 2012 PBS interview on Frontline that is just now hitting the blogosphere, Kristen Caldwell, a U.S. citizen who attended school with Obama in Indonesia, claims that young Obama called himself “alternatively … an Indonesian prince or Kenyan royalty”:

Frontline: So what do we know about Obama and his background? He wasn’t rich. Would he have needed help? How did he fit into this —

Caldwell: My understanding is that Barry — and that’s what we called him, so I’m not meaning to be disrespectful, but I’m going likely to refer to him as Barry for the most part. My understanding is that Barry was on a scholarship. And a lot of times if you’re on scholarship you had to do some work at the school. You worked in the snack bar.

My father told me — and I didn’t know it at the time — that Barry did some work at the tennis courts. We all did work at the tennis courts, those of us who hung out there. So it wasn’t unusual when the tennis pro would ask me, “Go and walk courts 1 and 2,” and that sort of thing, because he would ask any of us to do that. So I wasn’t aware of that.

When I first met Barry, when he showed up I think it was the summer before fifth grade, he was hanging out at the tennis courts. And at the time that was the very Wimbledon-like, where everyone had to wear white clothes and white tennis shoes. Very careful about the soles of the shoes because you didn’t want to scuff up the courts, mark them up.

So yeah, I can picture him as this slightly — “chubby” is too strong, but rounded, short little guy, Barry Obama. And he told us that his father was an Indonesian king and that he was a prince, and after he finished school he was going to go back, and he would be a ruler in Indonesia. And I absolutely believed him.

I understand that he told his fifth-grade class that he was Kenyan royalty, but I never heard that story until years later. My sister and I remember very clearly that he was an Indonesian prince and that he would be going back there. So there was some reference to where he had come from, and the understanding was his family was there.

Read more from the interview HERE.

Videos: Mother of Slain State Department Worker Blows Whistle on Obama Administration for Telling “Outright Lies” About Benghazi Killings

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In the following interview between CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Pat Smith, the mother of State Department employee, veteran Sean Smith, claims she talked to Clinton, Obama, and Biden about the murder of her son.

Here’s part of the transcript of the interview (the video is below) where Ms. Smith states that she pleaded with Obama, Clinton and Biden to tell her what happened to her son:

SMITH: [I told them,] “Please, tell me what happened. Just, just tell me what happened. Please, don’t give me any baloney. I don’t want political stuff. Just tell me the truth. What happened…” I look at TV and I see bloody hand prints on walls thinking, my G-d, is that my son’s? I don’t know if he was shot, I don’t know, I don’t know. They haven’t told me anything. They’re still studying it. And the things that they are telling me are outright lies. That Susan Rice, she talked to me personally and she said, she said, “This is the way it was, it was because of this film that came out.”

CNN: So she told you personally that she thought it was a result of the video of the protest.

SMITH: Oh, absolutely. In fact, all of them did. All of them did. Leon Panetta actually took my face in his hands like this and he said, “Trust me. I will tell you what happened.” And, so far, he’s told me nothing. Nothing at all. And I want to know.

CNN: It’s important for you to know all of the details no matter how horrible …

SMITH: Yes.

CNN: … no matter how tough they are to hear.

SMITH: Exactly. I told them if it’s such a secret thing fine, take me in another room, whisper in my ear what happened so that I know and we’ll go from there. But no … At first i was so proud because they were treating me so nice when I went to that reception … I cried on Obama’s shoulder, and then he kind of looked off into the distance, so that was worthless to me. I want to know, for G-d’s sakes. Or for Allah’s sake, or for whoever’s sake is there.

CNN: You deserve answers.

SMITH: I think so. I believe I do. I believe it. It is my son. I had him — I told Obama personally, I said look, I had him for his first 17 years and then he went into the service, then you got him. And, I won’t say it the way I said it. But I said, “You screwed up, you didn’t do a good job, I lost my son.” And they said, “We’ll get back to you. I promise, I promise you, I will get back to you…” They would at least acknowledge that I have a right to know something, something other than, “Oh, we are checking up on it.” Or, “Trust me,” I like that one the best of all: “Trust me, I will let you know.” Well, I don’t trust you anymore. I don’t trust you anymore…

Ms. Smith’s concerns about the Obama Administration’s lies were echoed by Representative Trey Gowdy who angrily asked at congressional hearings yesterday, “I want to know why we were lied to.”

Video: State Department Admits that Only One Person Was Guarding Ambassador at Time of Attack

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Although much of her narrative is suspect, Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Programs Charlene Lamb admitted that the Ambassador was protected by only one guard at the time of his death.

Watching this video should leave you convinced of the incompetency of the Obama administration:

Also, please take time to watch yesterday’s video of slain State Department employee Sean Smith’s mother blowing the whistle on the Obama Administration for lying.

And here’s an article about how Ambassador Stevens himself had requested more security.

Newly Confident Romney Moves to the Political Center in Risky Move that May Alienate Conservatives

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Mitt Romney has taken a more centrist stance on the campaign trail recently, a move that coincides with the GOP nominee giving speeches that are more personal in nature and showing a new-found confidence to voters.

Confusion over Romney’s stance on abortion, which the candidate clarified during a stop at an Ohio restaurant — joined recent moves on immigration, financial reform, tax policies and healthcare toward the center, a more natural habitat for the former Massachusetts governor.

The move to the middle has had a twofold effect for Romney: first, it puts President Obama on his heels by thwarting planned attack lines designed to make Romney’s policies look unreasonable and far-right, and second, it gives the Republican nominee more leash than he had during the GOP primary, where questioning conservative dogma could have proven fatal to Romney’s campaign.

And it’s a message that has appeal to independent and swing voters who could decide the election.

But it also has its dangers, leaving Romney open to charges of flip-flopping. Democrats have already begun previewing attack lines that could show up in Romney’s next debate with Obama.

The GOP nominee, however, appears much more comfortable in this role.

Read more from this story HERE.

New Photo’s From Obama’s College Years Include Photo of Ring that WND Alleges Reads “There is no God but Allah”

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The New Yorker blog features new photos that verify my take on what our 44th president acted and looked like as a sophomore at Occidental College. Readers will note the real Obama, the young revolutionary extremist with a soft spot for Islam, that I got to know as a participant in Occidental’s radical student politics.

Most shockingly, the photos show Obama wearing a band on his left ring finger that WND alleges reads “there is no God but Allah.”

The photo I find to be most historically significant is the one that shows details from the anti-apartheid rally of February 18, 1981, the rally that debuted Obama’s famous first skit in Obama’s Dreams from My Father. In contrast to Obama’s story, the banner above the event proclaims the somewhat more complex cause of “Affirmative Action & Divestiture NOW.” The photo features many of the real life figures who would become composite characters in Obama’s autobiography. These include my white ex-girlfriend, Caroline Boss, the radical student leader who improbably lent her grandmother’s name – and much of her scintillating personality – to the big-boned, black “Regina” character.

For the record, I view these photos from the perspective of an accident victim looking at a long ago car wreck.

Read more from this story HERE.

Time to Rise Up Again: United Nations Considering International “SOPA” to Regulate, Tax Internet

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In January, several million Americans contacted Congress to stop passage of two bills that would have destroyed Internet freedom and stifled innovation. The twin bills, Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA), were meant to counter Internet piracy, a very real problem. But they both used a sledgehammer when a scalpel was necessary. The legislation would have done more than block piracy – they would have hurt Internet users’ ability to get content from their favorite websites and prevented new websites from being created.

The world needs a similar citizen uprising to stop another well-meaning but harmful attack on the ability of Internet users to access websites outside their home countries. A United Nations body, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), will be meeting in December in Dubai to consider at least two proposals which would dramatically affect the ability of Internet users to get the content they want to receive over the Internet.

One proposal would require that a website owner or service provider pay a fee as a “sending party” to the government of any country for the country’s citizens to view the content. This would mean that popular websites like Khan Academy or BBC World would not be available to people outside their native countries unless the website or service provider paid a fee to the user’s country. This would hurt people in developing countries who hunger for access to quality news and education.

The countries that are advocating for this were getting money for international phone calls and have seen that revenue fall off. They see foreign website owners and service providers as having cash to fill the gap in declining long distance telephone revenue. They say they need this money to pay for their broadband infrastructure. But there are other proven ways to encourage quick broadband adoption, including liberalizing market access, encouraging broadband competition, providing spectrum awards and insisting on transparency of ownership of awardees of government telecommunications contracts.

Another proposal up for vote at the ITU meeting would allow governments or some type of multi-government body to use “security” or other justifications to create new rules to regulate the Internet.

Read more from this story HERE.