Obama, Biden, Kerry, Hagel, Clinton Backed ‘Reformer’ Assad During Bush Administration

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Photo Credit: AFP

Photo Credit: AFP

Kerry’s cozy dinner with Syria’s ‘Hitler’: Secretary of State and the man he likened to German dictator are pictured dining with their wives at Damascus restaurant before civil war broke out

By Anthony Bond and David Martosko.

An astonishing photograph of John Kerry having a cozy and intimate dinner with Bashar al-Assad has emerged at the moment the U.S Secretary of State is making the case to bomb the Syrian dictator’s country and remove him from power.

Kerry, who compared Assad to Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein yesterday, is pictured around a small table with his wife Teresa Heinz and the Assads in 2009.

Assad and Kerry, then a Massachusetts senator, lean in towards each other and appear deep in conversation as their spouses look on.

A waiter is pictured at their side with a tray of green drinks, believed to be lemon and crushed mint.

The picture was likely taken in February 2009 in the Naranj restaurant in Damascus, when Kerry led a delegation to Syria to discuss finding a way forward for peace in the region.

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Photo Credit: EPA

Photo Credit: EPA

Excerpted from Washington Times: The Obama national security team that wants to go to war with Syria and demonizes President Bashar Assad is the same group that, as senators, urged reaching out to the dictator.

As a bloc on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, President Obama, Secretary of State John F. Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Vice President Joseph R. Biden all opposed the George W. Bush administration’s playing tough with Mr. Assad.

None grew closer to Mr. Assad and promoted him in Washington more than Mr. Kerry.

“President Assad has been very generous with me in terms of the discussions we have had,” Mr. Kerry, as a senator from Massachusetts, told an audience at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in March 2011. He predicted that Mr. Assad would change for the better.

But that same month, pro-democracy demonstrations erupted in Syria that would lead to a civil war, unmasking Mr. Assad’s brutal tactics, including the Aug. 21 unleashing of nerve gas that killed more than 1,400 civilians.

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US Civil Rights Commissioner: Amnesty Means Special, Not Equal, Treatment

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Peter Kirsanow, a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, told Breitbart News that Attorney General Eric Holder’s claims that amnesty for illegal immigrants is a civil rights issue “profoundly ahistorical.”

“If you take a look at the basis of the civil rights movement, it was to have blacks treated in all respects the same as whites or everybody else,” Kirsanow (pictured) said in a phone interview. “What amnesty is doing is setting aside a special class of individuals who are going to put forward and treated more favorably than others. In other words, they’ve already broken the law and are being given amnesty.

“In terms of immigration policy… it would severely affect the rights of blacks generally and all low-income Americans. What it is going to do is displace those individuals from the labor market.”

The U.S. Civil Rights Commission, Kirsanow said, has held extensive hearings in recent years detailing how amnesty would economically impact American workers, especially the black community.

“We had a hearing before the Civil Rights Commission on the effects of illegal immigration on black employment levels, both wage levels and unemployment rates,” Kirsanow said. “What we had were a number of experts from just about every sphere you can think of: business, academia and immigration experts in general. They spanned the ideological spectrum. We had individuals from the far left, individuals in the middle, individuals on the right.

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What Obama, Biden Did After ‘Strike Syria’ Speech Even Disgusts Media

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Photo Credit: BizPac

Photo Credit: BizPac

Apparently there is no crisis, no threat to national security – nothing – that will stop President Obama from playing golf.

Four American diplomats slaughtered in Benghazi? He played golf. A terrorist attack in Boston that killed four, including a young child? He still played golf. Holy hell reigning down in Egypt? A vacation to Martha’s Vineyard to play lots of golf.

And on Saturday, literally within minutes of announcing he had decided the U.S. should engage in a military strike in Syria and asked Congressional to approve that strike, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden hightailed it out of the Rose Garden to, yes, go play golf.

NBC News’ Carrie Dunn was tweeting on the president’s remarks regarding Syria Saturday afternoon and quoted Obama saying Syria’s chemical attack “is an assault on human dignity. It also presents a serious danger to our national security.”

Not long after, Dunn tweeted:

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Snowden Document: NSA Spied On Al Jazeera Communications

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Photo Credit: DPA

Photo Credit: DPA

It makes sense that America’s National Security Agency (NSA) would be interested in the Arab news broadcaster Al Jazeera. The Qatar-based channel has been broadcasting audio and video messages from al-Qaida leaders for more than a decade.

The United States intelligence agency was so interested, in fact, that it hacked into Al Jazeera’s internal communications system, according to documents from former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden that have been seen by SPIEGEL.

One such document, dated March 23, 2006, reveals that the NSA’s Network Analysis Center managed to access and read communication by “interesting targets” that was specially protected by the news organization. The information also shows that the NSA officials were not satisfied with Al Jazeera’s language analysis.

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Duck Dynasty’s Si Robertson on Life, Marriage Proposals, and His Unwavering Belief in The Creator

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Photo Credit: A&E Jim Fiscus

Photo Credit: A&E Jim Fiscus

Silas Merritt Robertson, who’s best known as “Uncle Si” on A&E’s most watched reality television show “Duck Dynasty” spoke with The Christian Post about his new book, Si-Cology 1: Tales and Wisdom from Duck Dynasty’s Favorite Uncle that will be available on Sept. 3…

In his book, Si shares a spattering of stories about his childhood – skipping school to go fishing with his older brothers – and how he managed to earn A’s at Louisiana Tech after he skipped most of his classes during an entire semester.

Si’s mastery of storytelling runs throughout his descriptions of the Vietnam War and how he met his wife, Christine. The always-jovial Uncle Si also speaks candidly about the difficulties he and Christine have faced, and how God has blessed and sustained them throughout their 43 years of marriage. He also shares their unexpected blessing of having two children, Trasa and Scott, and eight grandchildren.

Although he’s spoken for, the marriage proposals keep rolling in for Si. All the single ladies who envision themselves walking down the aisle with the elder duck hunter are shattered when Si breaks the disappointing news that he can’t marry them because his wife will get mad.

“I was at an event in Arkansas, and a woman walked up and was standing there, and I was waiting for her to hand me something to sign – a T-shirt, a hat or whatever. And she said, ‘well, I’m ready.’ And I looked up and I said, ready for what? ‘Ready to marry you. I drove 450 miles here just to marry you.’ I told her we’ve got a slight problem here, lady. And she said, ‘what’s that?’ I’m already married and my wife probably wouldn’t like me marrying you. ‘You mean I drove 450 miles for nothing?’ I said, no. Isn’t that a T-shirt you’ve got hanging over your shoulder. ‘Yeah.’ Well, I’ll sign it for you darlin’ that’s the best I can do for you,” he said.

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Sierra Wildfire Now California’s Fourth-Largest

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The wildfire burning in and around Yosemite National Park has become the fourth-largest conflagration in modern California history, fire officials said Sunday as clouds and higher humidity helped crews further contain the biggest blaze in the United States this year.

The 2-week-old Rim Fire moved up a spot on the state’s list of large wildfires dating back to 1932 when it grew to 348 square miles – an area larger than the cities of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose combined – on Saturday, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Daniel Berlant said.

Although the fire still is growing, it was 40 percent contained as of Sunday, up from 35 percent a day earlier.

Moister air was expected to slow flames from advancing through brush and trees, giving firefighters room to set backfires, dig containment lines and to strengthen lines around threatened communities, U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Pam Baltimore said.

Full containment is not expected until Sept. 20.

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Pennsylvania Hospital to Open Country’s First Inpatient Treatment Program for Internet Addiction

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

Ten years ago, Kevin Roberts suffered from an addiction that took over his life.

Roberts, now 44 years old, would sit eight to 12 hours a day in front of the pale blue glow of his computer, playing a videogame. During holidays, he “binged,” spending nearly all his waking hours at his keyboard. Finally, a friend who had been through Alcoholics Anonymous told him he displayed all the same characteristics of an addict.

“Like most addicts, I went through a series of self-deception,” said Roberts, who documented his struggle with addiction in his book, “Cyber Junkie: Escape the Gaming and Internet Trap.”

The story of Roberts, who came to grips with his addiction through years of therapy and spiritual retreats, is not unique. Treatment facilities have sprung up in recent years, but a psychiatric hospital in central Pennsylvania is now set to become the country’s first facility of its kind to offer an inpatient treatment program for people it diagnoses with severe Internet addiction.

The voluntary, 10-day program is set to open on Sept. 9 at the Behavioral Health Services at Bradford Regional Medical Center. The program was organized by experts in the field and cognitive specialists with backgrounds in treating more familiar addictions like drug and alcohol abuse.

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Liz Cheney Blasted by Older Sister Over Anti-Gay Marriage Stance

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Photo Credit: AFP

Photo Credit: AFP

Mary Cheney, the openly gay daughter of one of ex-Vice President Dick Cheney’s two daughters, has taken to Facebook to blast her older sibling, Elizabeth.

Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Senate candidate, aired her views on gay marriage on Friday by saying it should be something for voters to decide on a state-by-state basis, and not a matter for ‘judges’ or ‘legislators.’

Mary Cheney, openly lesbian and married to Heather Poe since 2012, responded by posting on her personal Facebook page: ‘For the record, I love my sister, but she is dead wrong on the issue of marriage.’

She continued: “Freedom means freedom for everyone. That means that all families — regardless of how they look or how they are made — all families are entitled to the same rights, privileges and protections as every other.”

‘For the record, I love my sister, but she is dead wrong on the issue of marriage.’

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President Obama Turns to Congress to OK Strike Against Syria

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

President Obama said Saturday the United States should take military action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for using chemical weapons on civilians but also turned to Congress for approval — dealing a potential setback to America’s foreign policy and setting up what will likely be a hard-fought Washington debate on the issue.

“This menace must be confronted,” Obama said of the Assad regime’s alleged chemical attack, speaking from the Rose Garden.

However, the announcement also raised the question about whether the president put the burden on Congress to act.

“President Obama is abdicating his responsibility as commander in chief and undermining the authority of future presidents,” said New York Rep. Peter King, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. “The president doesn’t need 535 members of Congress to enforce his own red line.”

The president was driven to make a decision following an Aug. 21 chemical attack outside Damascus that killed more than 1,400 people, including hundreds of children. The attack was just one of several allegedly carried out by the Assad regime after Obama said about 12 months ago that the regime using a chemical weapon would “cross a red line.”

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Biden: We’ll Target Congressmen Who Oppose Gun Control Efforts

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images (1)The White House will continue its push to strengthen gun control laws, even if it means targeting members of Congress who oppose its agenda, Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday.

“If Congress doesn’t act, we’ll fight for a new Congress,” Biden said in the Roosevelt Room of the White House as he swore in B. Todd Jones as the new director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “It’s that simple. But we’re going to get this done.”

In April, a bipartisan gun-control plan that would have expanded background checks and banned assault weapons failed to garner support in the Senate and was killed off, despite polls that showed massive public support in the wake of the Newtown, Conn. school massacre last Dec..

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