<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Obama Administration</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/tag/obama-administration/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com</link>
	<description></description>
	<lastBuildDate>Wed, 31 Dec 2014 15:24:55 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en-US</language>
		<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
		<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	
	<item>
		<title>Racial Quota Punishment</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/thomas-sowell/racial-quota-punishment/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=racial-quota-punishment</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/thomas-sowell/racial-quota-punishment/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 18 Nov 2014 05:30:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Thomas Sowell]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[classroom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[discipline]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama Administration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[punishment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Race]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Racism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[school]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=245401</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Obama administration's war on discipline in education -- and who really suffers. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/2512878_orig.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-245404" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/2512878_orig-450x337.jpg" alt="2512878_orig" width="332" height="249" /></a>If anyone still has any doubt about the utter cynicism of the Obama administration, a recent agreement between the federal government and the Minneapolis Public Schools should open their eyes.</p>
<p>Under the Obama administration, both the Department of Education and the Department of Justice have been leaning on public schools around the country to reduce what they call the &#8220;disproportionate&#8221; numbers of black male students who are punished for various offenses in schools.</p>
<p>Under an implicit threat of losing their federal subsidies, the Minneapolis Public Schools have agreed to reduce the disparity in punishment of black students by 25 percent by the end of this school year, and then by 50 percent, 75 percent and finally 100 percent in each of the following years. In other words, there are now racial quota limits for punishment in the Minneapolis schools.</p>
<p>If we stop and think — as old-fashioned as that may seem — there is not the slightest reason to expect black males to commit the same number of offenses as Asian females or any other set of students.</p>
<p>When different groups of human beings have behaved differently in all sorts of ways, in countries around the world, for thousands of years of recorded history, why would we accept as dogma that the only reason one set of students gets punished more than others is because the people who are doing the punishing are picking on them?</p>
<p>Politically — which is the way the Obama administration looks at everything — any time they can depict blacks as victims, and depict themselves as their rescuers, that means an opportunity to get out the black vote for Democrats.</p>
<p>On the surface, this may look like a favor to blacks. But only on the surface.</p>
<p>Anyone with common sense knows that letting a kid get away with bad behavior is an open invitation to worse behavior in the future. Punishing a kid for misbehavior in school when he is 10 years old may reduce the chances that he will have to be sent to prison when he is 20 years old.</p>
<p>Other schools in other cities, which have also caved under pressure from the federal government, and agreed to lighten up on black kids who misbehave, have reported an increase in misbehavior, including violence.</p>
<p>Who would have thought otherwise?</p>
<p>Letting kids who are behavior problems in schools grow up to become hoodlums and then criminals is no favor to them or to the black community. Moreover, it takes no more than a small fraction of troublemakers in a class to make it impossible to give that class a decent education. And for many poor people, whether black or white, education is their one big chance to escape poverty.</p>
<p>The people in the Obama administration who are pushing this counterproductive policy are not stupid. They are political, which is worse. They know what they are doing and they are willing to sacrifice young blacks to do it.</p>
<p>This punishment issue made me think back to the 8th grade, when I was punished by being kept after school, more often than any other kid in the class — black, white, Hispanic or whatever. I was bored in school and did various pranks to liven things up.</p>
<p>One day, after school, as I sat alone among the empty chairs in the classroom, the teacher said, sarcastically: &#8220;Well, here we are again, Sowell, just the two of us!&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Good grief, Miss Sharoff,&#8221; I said. &#8220;If we keep staying in after school together all the time, people will begin to talk.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;We will just have to live with the scandal,&#8221; she said, without even looking up from the papers she was correcting.</p>
<p>Thank heaven there was no Obama administration to exempt me from punishment. Who knows how I might have ended up?</p>
<p>Years ago, there was a study of a working class community where there were black, Hispanic and Italian kids, and where many of the cops were Italian. When a black or Hispanic kid broke the law, the police took him down to the station and booked him. But, if an Italian kid did the same thing, they reacted differently.</p>
<p>The Italian cop would take the Italian kid out into an alley and rough him up. Then he would take him home to his family, tell them what had happened and leave him there — where the kid could expect another beating, instead of the wrist-slap punishment of the law. Those cops understood the realities of life that politicians ignore. And they were doing a favor to their own.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
<p><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf" target="_blank"><b>Subscribe</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, <i>The Glazov Gang</i>, and </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>LIKE</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> it on </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>Facebook.</b></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/thomas-sowell/racial-quota-punishment/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>23</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Indyk&#8217;s Yom Kippur War on Israel</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/moshe-phillips-and-benyamin-korn/indyks-yom-kippur-war-on-israel/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=indyks-yom-kippur-war-on-israel</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/moshe-phillips-and-benyamin-korn/indyks-yom-kippur-war-on-israel/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2014 04:10:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Moshe Phillips and Benyamin Korn]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[disrespect]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Martin Indyk]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[negotiations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama Administration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Palestinian]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=243069</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The former U.S. envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations shows what side he's really on. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="color: #232323;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/martin-indyk.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-243073" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/martin-indyk-450x314.jpg" alt="Martin Indyk" width="325" height="227" /></a>As Yom Kippur sermons go, Martin Indyk&#8217;s was a doozy. Speaking at the Adas Israel synagogue in Washington, D.C. on the holiest day of the Jewish year, the former U.S. envoy to the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations accused Israel of showing &#8220;total disrespect&#8221; for the Obama administration.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">Indyk said many things in his Yom Kippur address with which one might take issue, but one analogy in particular stands out as especially disturbing.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">He said that he “discovered” in the most recent round of failed negotiations &#8220;that we would crack the whip, but no one was responding to our whip cracks. That&#8217;s a change.&#8221;</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">How disappointing for Indyk. Those who recall his days as U.S. ambassador to Israel no doubt feel a sense of deja vu when they hear Indyk talking about whips. Here is how he described his role in Israel to the Washington Post back on February 24, 1997:  &#8220;The image that comes to mind is a circus master. All these players in the ring. We crack the whip and get them to move around in an orderly fashion.&#8221;</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">Ironic, isn&#8217;t it? The ex-diplomat who accuses Israel of being &#8220;disrespectful&#8221; has repeatedly compared the Israelis to circus animals who need to have some sense whipped into them. And when the dumb brutes don&#8217;t respond, Indyk the circus master is outraged and lashes out at his victims.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">The irony goes further. Indyk served a president who has made almost a hobby of being disrespectful to Israel&#8217;s prime minister. Nobody can forget the time that President Obama deliberately left Prime Minister Netanyahu waiting for an hour and a half, while he went off to have dinner with Michelle and the kids. Or the infamous photo that the White House released of President Obama with his feet on his desk as he spoke by phone with Netanyahu.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">Not to mention just last week, when Mr. Obama repeatedly referred to Netanyahu as &#8220;Bibi,&#8221; while Netanyahu, by contrast, appropriately referred to Obama as &#8220;Mr. President.&#8221; In an earlier era, perhaps someone could complain that it was difficult for an American president to pronounce a name such as &#8220;Menachem.&#8221; But how hard would it have been for President Obama to pronounce the name &#8220;Benjamin&#8221; ?</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">If the U.S.-Israel relationship is indeed &#8220;in trouble,&#8221; as Ambassador Indyk claimed in his Adas Israel speech, the reason is not that Israelis are being &#8220;disrespectful,&#8221; which Indyk claims to be &#8220;really, really disturbed by.&#8221;</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">The reason is that the Obama Administration&#8217;s policymakers, starting with the president and going all the way down the line to envoys such as Indyk, automatically blame Israel for everything and the Palestinians for nothing.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">They denounce Israel for construction within existing Jewish towns in Judea-Samaria, but never criticize the Palestinian Authority for building entire new Arab cities there. They denounce Israel for building homes in Jerusalem, yet they never say anything about the widespread illegal Arab construction in Jerusalem.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">Nor do they ever say a word about the truly &#8220;disrespectful&#8221; actions by the PA toward the United States, such as paying salaries to imprisoned terrorists who have murdered Americans, or naming streets, parks and soccer tournaments after killers of Americans &#8212; including the killer of the niece of the late U.S. Senator Abraham Ribicoff.</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">Just two weeks ago, both PA cabinet minister Yusuf Ida&#8217;is and the official PA news agency &#8220;WAFA&#8221; praised the killers of the three Israeli teenagers &#8211;one of whom was an American&#8211; as &#8220;Shahids,&#8221; or &#8220;martyrs.&#8221; And just a few weeks before that, the official PA daily newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida published no less than five articles in a six-day period acusing the United States of creating ISIS in order to destabilize the Middle East.  (For details, see <a href="http://www.palwatch.org/"><span style="color: #1255cc;">www.palwatch.org</span></a>)</p>
<p style="color: #232323;">It is precisely this Obama-Indyk attitude, which ignores the disrespectful actions of the PA, and accuses Israel of being &#8220;disrespectful&#8221; if it fails to respond to &#8220;whip cracks,&#8221; which threatens U.S.-Israel relations.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
<p><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf" target="_blank"><b>Subscribe</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to Frontpage&#8217;s TV show, <i>The Glazov Gang</i>, and </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>LIKE</b></a><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"> it on </strong><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank"><b>Facebook.</b></a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/moshe-phillips-and-benyamin-korn/indyks-yom-kippur-war-on-israel/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>22</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Revealed: The Obama FBI&#8217;s Illicit Partnership with CAIR</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/matthew-vadum/revealed-the-obama-fbis-illicit-partnership-with-cair/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=revealed-the-obama-fbis-illicit-partnership-with-cair</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/matthew-vadum/revealed-the-obama-fbis-illicit-partnership-with-cair/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 20 Sep 2013 04:39:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Matthew Vadum]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bipartisan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CAIR]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FBI]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama Administration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Outreach]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=204842</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A new report's disturbing findings on the ongoing outreach to a Muslim Brotherhood affiliate. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/cair.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-204846" alt="The Council on American-Islamic Relations Announces Educational Initiative" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/cair-450x347.jpg" width="270" height="208" /></a>A government watchdog&#8217;s new report takes the FBI to task for violating its own policies by continuing to work with the Muslim Brotherhood’s front group in the United States, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).</span></b></p>
<p>The report came as CAIR issued a <a href="http://o.dailycaller.com/thedailycaller/#!/entry/cair-attacks-fox-news-limbaugh-levin-as-islamophobic,523b4dfbda27f5d9d022f22f/1">new report</a> denouncing the so-called &#8220;Islamophobia&#8221; of the Fox News Channel, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, David the Horowitz Freedom Center, and others who dare to engage in an honest discussion of Islam and the politics surrounding it. <i>Islamophobia</i> is a concept invented to intimidate critics of Islam and Islamic jihad by implying that any and all criticism of the Muslim religion is animated by bigotry or ethnic animus. CAIR has urged Muslims not to cooperate with the FBI, which it characterizes as corrupt.</p>
<p>The report from the Justice Department&#8217;s inspector general faults FBI headquarters for repeatedly providing its field offices with conflicting information and pinpoints five examples in which FBI field office special agents-in-charge ignored or deliberately defied FBI policy.</p>
<p>Five years ago the FBI was directed to end its working partnership with CAIR that was part of the agency&#8217;s gooey, politically correct public relations effort in Muslim communities in the United States. The ban on contact with CAIR applies only to outreach efforts. The FBI continues its normal investigatory work, looking into criminal and civil rights complaints involving Muslims and working with any organizations to which they may belong.</p>
<p>FBI field office resistance to the policy goes back to late 2008.</p>
<p>&#8220;[W]e will decide how our relationship is operated and maintained with CAIR barring some additional instruction from FBI Headquarters,&#8221; wrote the head of the FBI&#8217;s field office in Los Angeles. &#8220;Please instruct your folks at this time that [we] are not to abide by the … [policy] but that their direction in regards to CAIR will come from the LA Field Office front office.&#8221;</p>
<p>Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Va.). blasted the FBI for its behavior.</p>
<p>These violations of the contact ban with CAIR are &#8220;intolerable,&#8221; Wolf wrote in a letter to new FBI Director James Comey. He demanded that those responsible be punished and be &#8220;separat[ed] from the FBI,&#8221; the Investigative Project on Terrorism <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/4165/wolf-demands-fbi-punish-agents-for-cair-contact">reports</a>.</p>
<p>When Wolf howls, the FBI listens. He chairs the House Appropriations Committee&#8217;s subcommittee in charge of the FBI&#8217;s budget. The investigation looked only at incidents in the FBI&#8217;s field offices in Chicago, Philadelphia and New Haven, Conn., in 2010, 2011, and 2012, so there may be many more that have yet to be uncovered.</p>
<p>Referring to the Los Angeles incident, Wolf criticized the &#8220;unacceptable and insubordinate behavior from a senior leader of the FBI.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Despite repeated efforts to communicate the policy to the field,&#8221; he wrote, &#8220;this was undermined by conflicting guidance being inexplicably offered by the bureau&#8217;s Office of Public Affairs as well as outright violations from several field offices.&#8221;</p>
<p>The damning report was posted on the website of the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Justice yesterday and then abruptly taken down. Sources say the OIG&#8217;s office said there was a technical problem. A few hours later, the <a href="http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/2013/e0707r.pdf">report itself</a> and an <a href="http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/2013/e0707r-summary.pdf">executive summary</a> resurfaced on the DoJ Inspector General&#8217;s website.</p>
<p>While the FBI downplayed the findings of the report in its official reply to the OIG, the agency acknowledged its offices made mistakes and promised to do better.</p>
<p>&#8220;We note that the five incidents you reviewed are but a small fraction of the FBI&#8217;s outreach efforts with the Muslim community over the past five years,&#8221; Nancy McNamara, assistant director of the FBI&#8217;s inspection division, wrote in a Sept. 17 letter to DoJ Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz that was obtained by FrontPage Magazine.</p>
<p>&#8220;Outreach to the Muslim community remains critical to the FBI&#8217;s mission,&#8221; McNamara writes. &#8220;Accordingly, we will ensure our guidance on CAIR liaison is quickly updated and clarified. In that regard, the FBI agrees with your recommendations and has already taken steps to implement remedial actions.&#8221;</p>
<p>CAIR has been a shady operation from its creation nearly 20 years ago.</p>
<p>CAIR, a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity, is the Islamofascist organization in the United States most favored by leftists, Islamist fellow-travelers, dupes, and useful idiots. It has enjoyed remarkable success in infiltrating the American political establishment.</p>
<p>CAIR applauded CIA director John Brennan and President Obama for following its recommendations by avoiding the perfectly useful word <i>Islamist</i>. “Islamist is a stealth slur,” according to CAIR. “It exists as a piece of coded language.”</p>
<p>CAIR poses as a civil rights organization in order to immunize itself from criticism. &#8220;We are similar to a muslim NAACP,&#8221; says CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper.</p>
<p>On more than one occasion CAIR has been compared to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_American_Bund">German American Bund</a>, a U.S.-based organization created to promote a favorable view of Nazi Germany. The Bund, like CAIR, was created with the assistance of unfriendly foreign powers.</p>
<p>CAIR was <a href="http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/printgroupProfile.asp?grpid=6176">founded</a> in 1994 by Nihad Awad and Omar Ahmad, both of whom worked for a pro-Palestine group established by senior Hamas operative Mousa Abu Marzook, and functioned as Hamas’ public relations and recruitment arm in the United States.</p>
<p>&#8220;[U]ntil we can resolve whether there continues to be a connection between CAIR or its executives and HAMAS,&#8221; wrote an FBI official in 2009, &#8220;the FBI does not view CAIR as an appropriate liaison partner.&#8221;</p>
<p>This latest development in the CAIR saga comes after a senior Muslim Brotherhood official who is also a member of the Clinton family&#8217;s political network was <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/matthew-vadum/clinton-muslim-brotherhood-operative-arrested-in-egypt/">arrested</a> in Egypt in an ongoing roundup of seditious Islamist militants. Charged with inciting violence, Gehad el-Haddad worked for the Bill, Hillary &amp; Chelsea Clinton Foundation from mid-2007 to mid-2012.</p>
<p><i>Gehad</i>, incidentally, is the Egyptian version of the Arabic word <i>Jihad</i>.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/matthew-vadum/revealed-the-obama-fbis-illicit-partnership-with-cair/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>25</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Obama Administration Calls for the ‘Human Rights’ of Jihadi Murderers</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/raymond-ibrahim/obama-administration-calls-for-the-human-rights-of-jihadi-murderers-2/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=obama-administration-calls-for-the-human-rights-of-jihadi-murderers-2</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/raymond-ibrahim/obama-administration-calls-for-the-human-rights-of-jihadi-murderers-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 03 Jun 2013 04:05:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Raymond Ibrahim]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Human Rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John Kerry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nigeria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama Administration]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=191841</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Nigerian government is criticized by the U.S. for going after mass murdering terrorists.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/BokoHaram2.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-191887" alt="BokoHaram2" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/BokoHaram2-450x285.jpg" width="270" height="171" /></a>Originally published by <a href="http://pjmedia.com/blog/obama-administration-calls-for-the-human-rights-of-jihadi-murderers/">PJMedia</a>.</em></p>
<p><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">It’s well known that whenever jihadis attack and slaughter innocent people — especially Christians — the Obama administration tries to ignore or whitewash. Lesser known, however, is that whenever foreign governments try to subdue the jihadis, the Obama administration objects and calls for the “human rights” of the terrorists.</span></b></p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/17/us-nigeria-violence-raids-idUSBRE94G0AF20130517">Reuters</a>,</p>
<blockquote><p>Nigerian warplanes struck militant camps in the northeast on Friday [5/17] in a major push against an Islamist insurgency, drawing a sharp warning from the United States to respect human rights and not harm civilians. Troops used jets and helicopters to bombard targets in their biggest offensive since the Boko Haram group launched a revolt almost four years ago to establish a breakaway Islamic state and one military source said at least 30 militants had been killed.  But three days after President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in the northeast, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry issued a strongly worded statement saying: “We are … deeply concerned by credible allegations that Nigerian security forces are committing gross human rights violations, which, in turn, only escalate the violence and fuel extremism.</p></blockquote>
<p>Thus here is Kerry grandstanding about the “human rights” of Boko Haram, a jihadi group whose name means “Western Education is a Sin” — that is, a group whose very name embodies hostility for Western civilization. (Of course, it’s not surprising that the Obama administration overlooks Boko Haram’s animus for the West, considering that it was <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/17/homeland-security-guidelines-advise-deference-to-pro-sharia-muslim-supremacists/#ixzz2Tmb1CbyX">just revealed </a>that “it is Obama administration policy to consider specifically Islamic criticism of the American system of government legitimate.”)</p>
<p>But what about the “human rights” of the victims of jihadi terror? In 2011, when Egypt’s Christians protested the constant attacks on their churches and the Egyptian military responded by <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/egypts-massacre-of-christians/">massacring them at Maspero</a>, including by running them over with armored vehicles, the White House then said nothing about “human rights,” declaring instead that “now is a time for restraint on all sides” — as if Egypt’s beleaguered and unarmed Christian minority needed to “restrain” itself against the nation’s military.</p>
<p>As for Nigeria’s Boko Haram, the group has been responsible for some of the most horrific human-rights abuses. Indeed, of all the human rights abuses I catalog in my new book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1621570258/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=1621570258&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=pjmedia-20"><i>Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians</i></a>, Boko Haram’s relentless slaughter of Christians is the most savage, resulting in <a href="http://www.aina.org/news/20130520121457.htm">more Christians killed than in the rest of the world combined</a>.</p>
<p>The group has bombed or burned hundreds of Christian churches, most when packed for service. The Christmas day church attacks — in 2010, 2011, and 2012 — which left hundreds of Christians dead or dismembered, are the tip of the iceberg of Boko Haram’s hate for Christianity. In the group’s bid to cleanse northern Nigeria of all Christian presence, it has threatened to <a href="http://global.christianpost.com/news/nigerian-christian-leader-claims-boko-haram-to-launch-jihad-with-poisoned-meat-76949/">poison the food eaten by Christians </a>and “to strike fear into the Christians of the power of Islam by <a href="http://www.persecution.org/2012/03/06/nigerias-boko-haram-wants-to-kidnap-christian-women-says-spokesman/">kidnapping their women</a>.” The group frequently storms areas where Christians and Muslims are intermingled — from villages to colleges — and singles the Christians out before <a href="http://www.christianpost.com/news/christian-students-executed-by-boko-haram-in-nigeria-believers-pray-for-change-of-heart-82646/">slitting their throats </a>to cries of Allahu Akbar. Pregnant and elderly Christian women and children have been raped, enslaved, and slaughtered simply for being “infidels.”</p>
<p>The fact that Boko Haram’s motives are clear-cut and fueled by jihadi doctrine — the creation of an Islamic state that enforces Sharia law and is Christian-free —  has not stopped the Obama administration from pointing to anything and everything else to rationalize its bloodlust.</p>
<p>The very next day after Boko Haram bombed Christian churches celebrating Easter in April 2012, killing 39 Christian worshippers, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs <a href="http://cnsnews.com/news/article/religion-not-driving-extremist-violence-nigeria-says-obama-official-after-church">Johnnie Carson said</a>, “I want to take this opportunity to stress one key point and that is that religion is not driving extremist violence” in Muslim-majority Nigerian areas where churches were and continue to be attacked.</p>
<p>As far as <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/clinton-blames-jihad-on-poverty/">Bill Clinton  </a>is concerned, “inequality” and “poverty” are “‘what’s fueling all this stuff’” — a reference to Boko Haram’s anti-Christian jihad. Foreshadowing Kerry’s concern for the well-being of Islamic mass murderers, Clinton also said that “it is almost impossible to cure a problem based on violence with violence” — a suggestion that Nigeria’s government not retaliate in response to Boko Haram with any severity.</p>
<p>Talk of “poverty,” “inequality,”  “grievance,” and the rest of the canards used by Western leaders to overlook Islamic violence blatantly ignores all the facts. Boko Haram began its jihad in earnest because a Christian won what was described as Nigeria’s freest and fairest elections. And Islamic law forbids non-Muslims from ruling over Muslims — not because they’re bad for the economy, but because they’re infidels.</p>
<p>The full name of Boko Haram is “Sunnis for [Islamic] Propagation and Jihad” — which doesn’t reflect any economic grievances. Their repeatedly stated goal is the establishment of a pure Sharia state in Nigeria. In other words, they are motivated by the same Islamic supremacism that is prompting jihadis all around the Islamic world to attack, kill, and displace infidels, leading to, among other travesties, <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/05/07/mass-exodus-christians-from-muslim-world/">a mass exodus of Christians</a>.</p>
<p>Once again, then, reality is easily ascertained — at root, Boko Haram’s terror campaign is entirely motivated by Islamic teachings — even as the Obama administration <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/global-affairs/terrorism/234193-obama-administration-pressed-to-do-more-on-boko-haram-terror-designations-">refuses to designate the group as a terrorist organization</a>, wastes millions of U.S. tax dollars on <a href="http://www.wnd.com/2012/05/obama-slaughter-of-christians-a-misunderstanding/">superfluous initiatives </a>(or diversions), and pressures the Nigerian president to <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/12083/obama-administration-war-on-persecuted-christians">make concessions </a>to the jihadis — including building more mosques, the very breeding grounds for Islamic “radicalization.”</p>
<p>And now, when the Nigerian government goes on the offensive to neutralize the terrorists responsible for countless inhuman atrocities, the Obama administration offers “a strongly worded statement” to defend their “human rights.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, when such jihadis daily persecute and murder non-Muslims around the world — Christians at the top of the list — the only sound coming out of the White House is of crickets chirping.</p>
<p><b>Postscript: </b>Following Kerry’s call to protect the “human rights” of Nigeria’s jihadi terrorists, Obama himself has just urged Myanmar to <b>“</b>halt violence against Muslims” and “move ahead with economic and political reforms” — all while omitting the fact that the government’s offensive is in response to violent, separatist Muslims, whose jihad has nothing to do with “economic and political reforms,” only the subjugation of infidels.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/raymond-ibrahim/obama-administration-calls-for-the-human-rights-of-jihadi-murderers-2/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Obama Issued 40% of Major Rules Without Public Notification</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/obama-issued-40-of-major-rules-without-public-notification/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=obama-issued-40-of-major-rules-without-public-notification</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/obama-issued-40-of-major-rules-without-public-notification/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 10 Feb 2013 19:02:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama Administration]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=177115</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The GAO found a large spike in this practice under President Barack Obama, with the percentage of major rules issued without public notice jumping from 26 percent in 2008 to 40 percent in 2009. The Obama administration also drastically increased the use of so-called interim final rules. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/obama-issued-40-of-major-rules-without-public-notification/obama-rules-for-radicals-from-rush1/" rel="attachment wp-att-177116"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-177116" title="obama-rules-for-radicals-from-rush1" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/obama-rules-for-radicals-from-rush1.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" /></a></p>
<p>And &#8220;Major Rules&#8221; means rules with at least <a href="http://cnsnews.com/news/article/gao-35-major-federal-regulations-were-issued-without-public-notice">100 billion dollars of economic impact</a>. The least transparent administration has gone on being as opaque as its morals.</p>
<blockquote><p>According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), 35 percent of major federal regulations – those with at least $100 billion in annual economic impact – were issued without a public notice from 2003 to 2010.</p>
<p>The GAO found a large spike in this practice under President Barack Obama, with the percentage of major rules issued without public notice jumping from 26 percent in 2008 to 40 percent in 2009. The number of major rules issued this way also hit a high point in both 2009 and 2010. (Obama’s first year in office began in January 2009.)</p>
<p>In particular, from 2008 to 2009, the percentage of major rules without an NPRM increased from 26 percent to 40 percent,” reported the GAO.  “Agencies issued the largest numbers of major rules without an NPRM in 2009 and 2010 (34 in each year), though the percentage was higher in 2009 than in 2010.”</p>
<p>The Obama administration also drastically increased the use of so-called interim final rules. These rules are effective immediately and issued without public notice but often allow public comment once they are issued. Interim final rules differ from the normal federal rulemaking process in that they skip the normal notice-and-comment period in favor of simply issuing final regulations immediately, with the possibility that the rule can be changed later.</p>
<p>From 2003 to 2010, the GAO found that about 47 percent of all rules without an NPRM were interim rules.</p>
<p>Normally, federal law requires that all regulations – both major and non-major – be opened for public comment and inspection through the publication of an NPRM, allowing the public and interested groups to read the regulations and submit comments on proposed changes.</p>
<p>Most of the major rules issued without public notice were issued by two agencies, the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The HHS issued 38 percent of all major rules enacted without public comment while the USDA issued 24 percent.</p></blockquote>
<p>Well it&#8217;s not like the public has an interest in its health care <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/so-god-made-a-democrat/">or its farms</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>God said, “I need college man to come to a farm and tell the farmer that he can’t feed his hogs with lettuce from his own farm or use the manure from his pigs to grow his lettuce. I need an inspector who will tell him how much he can sell his milk for and warn him that his son riding on the tractor constitutes child labor. I need someone to pay a farmer not to farm so that poor people can’t afford bread.”</p>
<p>So God made a Democrat.</p></blockquote>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/obama-issued-40-of-major-rules-without-public-notification/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Kirsten Powers, the Last Liberal</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/mark-tapson/kirsten-powers-the-last-liberal/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=kirsten-powers-the-last-liberal</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/mark-tapson/kirsten-powers-the-last-liberal/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 07 Feb 2013 04:56:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mark Tapson]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fox News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free press]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kirsten powers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[liberal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama Administration]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=176655</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Democratic pundit stands up for true liberalism.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/mark-tapson/kirsten-powers-the-last-liberal/kirstenpowers10-10_600/" rel="attachment wp-att-176688"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-176688" title="kirstenpowers10-10_600" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/kirstenpowers10-10_600.jpg" alt="" width="215" height="170" /></a>Last week Kirsten Powers, one of the more visible Democratic contributors to Fox News, wrote a lengthy <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/01/29/obama-vs-fox-news-behind-white-house-strategy-to-delegitimize-news-organization/#ixzz2JiYXZ0Qh">piece</a> for that organization’s website called “Obama vs. Fox News –behind the White House strategy to delegitimize a news organization.” In it she rather shockingly set herself apart from her more radical cohorts on the left by demonstrating a willingness to denounce them for their demonization of Fox and their assault on freedom of the press. She may be one of the last pundits on the left to adhere, at least in this instance, to classical liberal values.</p>
<p>“There is no war on terror for the Obama White House,” her op-ed began, “but there is one on Fox News.” She was referring to a recent interview with <em>The New Republic</em> in which President Obama complained yet again about, as she put it, “the one television news outlet in America that won’t fall in line and treat him as emperor… the media meanies at Fox News.” Unaccustomed to being held accountable by an adoring mainstream media, Obama has never even bothered to hide his frustration and irritation with Fox. In fact, the White House is brazenly open about its campaign to, as Powers wrote, “silence any dissent they detect in the press corps.”</p>
<p>Powers recounts some of the more recent instances of that campaign. For example, the White House excluded Fox News from conference calls dealing with the Benghazi debacle, “despite Fox News being the only outlet that was regularly reporting on it and despite Fox having top notch foreign policy reporters.” Actually, Fox was frozen out not so much <em>despite</em> its top notch focus on Benghazi as <em>because</em> of it, since Obama and Hilary Clinton would like to bury the controversy. The fact that Powers openly acknowledged Fox’s investigative quality rather than simply accusing the network of harassing the President over an issue that “doesn’t make a difference,” to paraphrase Clinton, is unheard of from the left.</p>
<p>Powers mentions other examples of the Obama administration’s antagonism toward Fox. His people left Chris Wallace’s <em>Fox News Sunday</em> out of a round of interviews that included CNN, NBC, ABC and CBS for not being part of a “legitimate” news network. In late 2009, senior adviser David Axelrod said on ABC’s <em>This Week</em> that Fox News is “not really a news station.” About that same time, then-White House Communications Director Anita Dunn <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/12/white-house-escalates-war-words-fox-news/">said</a> to the <em>New York Times</em>, “let&#8217;s not pretend they&#8217;re a news network the way CNN is.” This echoes Media Matters’ signature line about Fox in a 2010 memo to donors: “Fox News is not a news organization. It is the de facto leader of the GOP, and it is long past time that it is treated as such by the media, elected officials and the public.” Their CEO David Brock, Powers notes, has claimed that their strategy was a “war on Fox.”</p>
<p>“Can someone explain to me,” Powers wrote, “how it’s ‘liberal’ to try and shut down a media organization? What the Obama administration is doing, and what liberals are funding at [Media Matters] is beyond chilling – it’s a deep freeze.” She’s right – it’s not “liberal” at all, and neither is the contemporary totalitarian left. She goes on to excoriate Media Matters further for its threats to collect dirt on Fox News employees and to sue conservatives for “slanderous” comments about progressives. “If the White House can call one news outlet illegitimate for asking tough questions, then guess who is next? Anyone”:</p>
<blockquote><p>It is clear now that the idea of freedom of the press actually offends Media Matters… They say they are “consider[ing] pushing prominent progressives to stop appearing on Fox News.” For those who defy the order, they threaten to start daily publishing the names of Democrats who appear in order to shame them. If that doesn’t work, presumably they will just shave our heads and march us down Constitution Avenue.</p></blockquote>
<p>Don’t tempt them, Ms. Powers. They’re champing at the bit to do just that sort of thing to traitors like you who dare challenge their monolithic front. And kudos to you for calling them on it – although confining her criticism to Media Matters is way too limiting, considering that progressives in general find free speech and freedom of the press to be impediments to their lust for power.</p>
<p>One stretch in particular of Kirsten Powers’ op-ed is worth quoting at length, because it exhibits a rather courageous degree of self-criticism:</p>
<blockquote><p>Whether you are liberal or conservative, libertarian, moderate or politically agnostic, everyone should be concerned when leaders of our government believe they can intentionally try to delegitimize a news organization they don’t like.</p>
<p>In fact, if you are a liberal – as I am – you should be the most offended, as liberalism is founded on the idea of cherishing dissent and an inviolable right to freedom of expression.</p>
<p>That more liberals aren&#8217;t calling out the White House for this outrageous behavior tells you something about the state of liberalism in America today.</p></blockquote>
<p>Indeed it does. If only Powers would pursue this line of thinking to its logical end – that the “liberalism” she is describing is actually the domain of conservatives. The leftists she’s addressing here no longer have a truly liberal bone in their collective body. They are totalitarians, and it is today’s <em>conservatives</em> who are the guardians of classically liberal principles.</p>
<p>“We defend freedom of the press because of the principle, not because we like everything the press does,” Powers adds. “For example, I defend MSNBC’s right to run liberal programming to their hearts content. The media should be held accountable, including Fox News.” So it should – and so conservatives have been insisting through years of the media’s nauseating idolatry of Obama.</p>
<p>Kirsten Powers remains a Democrat, no doubt about it. There are still many issues on which she and conservatives would disagree. But at least on this point, her vigorous defense of freedom of the press against the repressive elements of her own party deserves our appreciation.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank">Click here</a>.  </strong></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/mark-tapson/kirsten-powers-the-last-liberal/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>86</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>List of 10 Most Corrupt Politicians in Washington Includes 4 Obama Cabinet Members</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/list-of-10-most-corrupt-politicians-in-washington-includes-4-obama-cabinet-members/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=list-of-10-most-corrupt-politicians-in-washington-includes-4-obama-cabinet-members</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/list-of-10-most-corrupt-politicians-in-washington-includes-4-obama-cabinet-members/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 Jan 2013 19:27:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[The Point]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Attorney General Holder]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fast and Furious]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kathleen Sebelius]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama Administration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Secretary Steven Chu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Solyndra]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=171801</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[You have to admit that Obama Inc. is nothing if not ambitious. Some administrations would be satisfied with having only one member of its cabinet show up on the list of the ten most corrupt politicians in government. But Obama Inc doesn't give up until it scores four of the spots. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/list-of-10-most-corrupt-politicians-in-washington-includes-4-obama-cabinet-members/lineup-717775/" rel="attachment wp-att-171802"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-171802" title="lineup-717775" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/lineup-717775-450x290.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="290" /></a></p>
<p>You have to admit that Obama Inc. is nothing if not ambitious. Some administrations would be satisfied with having only one member of its cabinet show up on the list of the ten most corrupt politicians in government. But Obama Inc doesn&#8217;t give up until it scores four of the spots. Or five.</p>
<p>Judicial Watch&#8217;s list of Washington’s “<a href="http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-announces-list-of-washingtons-ten-most-wanted-corrupt-politicians-for-2012/">Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians</a>” for the year includes politicians from both parties, but it includes four cabinet members;</p>
<blockquote><p>Attorney General Eric &#8220;We need to have a serious conversation about all the guns we&#8217;re shipping to druglords&#8221; Holder, Hillary &#8220;Benghazigate&#8221; Clinton and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen &#8220;What&#8217;s the Law&#8221; Sebelius and Secretary of Energy Steven “The final decisions on Solyndra were mine” Chu.</p>
<p>Attorney General Eric Holder</p>
<p>Fast and Furious was a reckless DOJ/Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) “gun-running” scheme in which guns were sold to Mexican drug cartels and others, apparently in the hope that the guns would end up at crime scenes. Well, they did – and it appears that the guns were involved in the deaths of hundreds of Mexican citizens, as well as the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, who was killed in a shootout with Mexican criminals in December 2010.</p>
<p>Holder became the first attorney general in history to be cited for criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to divulge documents about DOJ lies to Congress about Fast and Furious.</p>
<p>Secretary of Energy Steven Chu:</p>
<p>“The final decisions on Solyndra were mine,” said Secretary of Energy Steven Chu in his testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Oversight Committee on November 17, 2011. And this should be his political epitaph. Chu’s decision to pour $528 million tax dollars into a failing green energy boondoggle that went belly-up in 2011 is indefensible and corrupt, especially in light of the fact that Solyndra’s key investor (Tulsa billionaire George Kaiser) also happens to be a major Obama campaign donor.</p>
<p>Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and UN Ambassador Susan Rice:</p>
<p>Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and UN Ambassador Susan Rice lied about the events surrounding the Benghazi massacre. Hillary Clinton, the only First Lady to have been the subject of a grand jury investigation, is a regular visitor to our Most Corrupt list, while this is a first-time appearance for Ms. Rice.</p>
<p>Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius</p>
<p>On September 12, 2012, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius became the first member of the President’s cabinet in U.S. history to have been found guilty of violating the Hatch Act when she campaigned for the reelection of Barack Obama in her official capacity of Secretary of HHS.</p></blockquote>
<p>And there&#8217;s a surprise appearance from a fifth fellow who spends a lot of time on TV</p>
<blockquote><p>Barack Obama:</p>
<p>Were there a “Hall of Fame” for broken promises, here is one that would get in on the first ballot: “Let me say it as simply as I can: Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency” (President Barack Obama, January 21, 2009). Instead of transparency and the rule of law over the past four years, we have witnessed the greatest expansion of government in modern political history and, consequently, an explosion of government secrecy, scandals, and abuses of power.</p></blockquote>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/list-of-10-most-corrupt-politicians-in-washington-includes-4-obama-cabinet-members/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>22</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Muslim Brotherhood in the Obama Administration</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/frank-gaffney/the-muslim-brotherhood-in-the-obama-administration/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-muslim-brotherhood-in-the-obama-administration</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/frank-gaffney/the-muslim-brotherhood-in-the-obama-administration/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Sep 2012 04:48:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Frank Gaffney]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[frank gaffney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hillary Clinton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Huma Abedin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[muslim brotherhood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama Administration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pamphlet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[White House]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=143836</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[New Freedom Center pamphlet by Frank Gaffney exposes just how deeply Islamists have infiltrated the White House. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/mb-in-wh.jpeg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-143837" title="mb-in-wh" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/mb-in-wh.jpeg" alt="" width="259" height="389" /></a>If anyone needed evidence that Hillary Clinton is in the pocket of the Muslim Brotherhood, the events of the last few days should be more than sufficient.  On the anniversary of 9/11, on what should be a day of shame for the Muslim world, the US Embassy in Cairo issued a statement condemning critics of Islamofascism in language appropriate to the office of propaganda for the Muslim Brotherhood. Islamofascists launched violent attacks on Americans, repeating the outrages in miniature of the World Trade Center attacks 11 years ago. In the face of these outrages the posture of the U.S. government is one that would make Neville Chamberlain blush. In four years Barack Obama has managed to turn the entire Middle East over to America’s enemies. So that our readers can understand how this has happened and how far advanced the infiltration of the Muslim Brotherhood into the Obama administration has progressed, we are publishing this pamphlet by Frank Gaffney, President of the Center for Security Policy, called <em>The Muslim Brotherhood in the Obama Administration</em>. We are printing 200,000 copies to distribute to concerned Americans. We are selling them at cost if you buy 25 or more to share with your friends.—David Horowitz</p>
<p><strong>Read the pamphlet below or order your copy by clicking <a href="https://secure.donationreport.com/productlist.html?key=O7OTO0ODZ7JL">here.</a> </strong></p>
<p><embed src="http://frontpagemag.com/upload/pamphlets/mb-in-wh.pdf" width="600" height="650"></p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/frank-gaffney/the-muslim-brotherhood-in-the-obama-administration/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>112</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>More People Must Care about CAIR</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/adam-turner/more-people-must-care-about-cair/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=more-people-must-care-about-cair</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/adam-turner/more-people-must-care-about-cair/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 31 Aug 2012 04:25:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Adam Turner]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CAIR]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hamas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islamophobia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jihad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Left]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[muslim brotherhood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama Administration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Terrorism]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=142114</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If only CAIRophobia were more contagious.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/National-Executive-Director-of-Council-on-American_Islamic-RelationsCAIR-Nihad-Awad-holds-a-translated-copy-of-the-Quran-as-he-speaks-news-conference-at-the-headquarters-of-CAIR.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-142162" title="National-Executive-Director-of-Council-on-American_Islamic-Relations(CAIR)-Nihad-Awad-holds-a-translated-copy-of-the-Quran-as-he-speaks-news-conference-at-the-headquarters-of-CAIR" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/National-Executive-Director-of-Council-on-American_Islamic-RelationsCAIR-Nihad-Awad-holds-a-translated-copy-of-the-Quran-as-he-speaks-news-conference-at-the-headquarters-of-CAIR.gif" alt="" width="375" height="249" /></a>It has come to my attention that I may be suffering from “CAIRophobia.”</p>
<p>Almost certainly, according to the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), I am already afflicted with “Islamophobia,” which they <a href="http://www.cair.com/Issues/Islamophobia/Islamophobia.aspx">define</a> as “unfounded fear of and hostility towards Islam. Such fear and hostility leads to discriminations against Muslims, exclusion of Muslims from mainstream political or social process, stereotyping, the presumption of guilt by association, and finally hate crimes.”  Islamophobia is actually a term the Muslim Brotherhood – the granddaddy of all Islamist groups – and their cohorts may have <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/278722/rational-fear-islamism-robert-spencer">invented</a> to take advantage of the bleeding hearts among the politically correct.  So, if I am suffering from it, I suppose it is just a short hop to also suffering from “CAIRophobia,” which I define as having a very rational fear of CAIR.</p>
<p>I accept this phobia.  In fact, I sure wish some others had CAIRophobia.</p>
<p>CAIR is very busy pressure group these days.  Recently, it <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/24/cair-pushes-dod-to-drop-ex-cia-operative-lecturer-claims-anti-islam/">demanded</a> that the Pentagon drop a former CIA operative who worked inside Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, known by his pseudonym of Reza Kahlili, as a lecturer at the Department of Defense’s Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy.  Although Kahlili is primarily known for teaching, writing and lecturing about the dangers the radical Iranian regime poses to the West, CAIR still felt the need to call for his dismissal for his supposed “anti-Islam agenda” as a former Muslim-turned-Christian.  This is all part of CAIR’S continuing quest to purge the Defense Department and other government departments or agencies of the services of any expert who identifies radical Islam as a major threat to our nation.  CAIR’s public relations “jihads” have been waged against such people as <a href="http://www.cair.com/ArticleDetails/tabid/316/ArticleID/26749/mid1/777/currPage/6/Default.aspx">Robert Spencer</a>, <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/02/15/425947/tennessee-county-sheriffs-office-brings-in-anti-muslim-speaker-to-train-officers-about-muslim-culture/">John Guandolo</a>, and <a href="http://www.examiner.com/article/anti-terrorism-instructor-fired-over-politically-incorrect-material">Matthew Dooley</a>.  In Kahlili’s case, the Pentagon refused to drop him, but it did go out of its way to assure CAIR that Kahlili “<a href="http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/24/cair-pushes-dod-to-drop-ex-cia-operative-lecturer-claims-anti-islam/#ixzz21gqlb8F4">does</a> not lecture on or about Islam or any religious treatise, and his personal beliefs are his own.”</p>
<p>CAIR has also recently been hard at work <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cair-grateful-constitution-limits-michele-bachmanns-mccarthyism-163069136.html">attempting</a> to shame and malign Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN), and her four congressional compatriots for their letters to the Inspector Generals (IGs) of the Defense Department, the State Department, the Justice Department, the Homeland Security Department, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.  These letters asked the IGs to investigate thoroughly the degree to which members of, or sympathizers with, the Muslim Brotherhood are active in our defense and intelligence communities, and what impact that possible infiltration might be having on our national security.  Through its pressure, CAIR presumably hopes to force the congressional leadership to block any such investigation. Harming the political careers of these Congressmen and intimidating others from ever addressing any issue related to radical Islam is an added benefit.</p>
<p>Further, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSrNzo0nRW4">CAIR</a>, with the help of its left-wing friends at the <a href="http://www.city-journal.org/2012/eon0418jm.html">Associated Press</a>, along with other <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/25/nypd-spying-new-brunswick-muslim-surveillance-new-jersey_n_1701340.html">politically correct leftists</a>, has also sought to embarrass and intimidate the New York Police Department (NYPD) from doing its job: protecting the public of New York City.  The NYPD has found itself in CAIR’s crosshairs because of its continuing surveillance of Muslim people, mosques, etc. in public areas.  Even though going to Muslim-inhabited areas to surveil Muslim terrorists makes as much sense as going to an Italian-American club to surveil possible members of the Italian Mafia or going to an Irish-American bar to surveil potential IRA terrorists, CAIR believes that Muslim Americans deserve the special right not to be surveilled.</p>
<p>The amazing part of all this is that CAIR has an uncanny, Teflon-like ability to avoid mainstream criticism of its own disturbing background.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/adam-turner/more-people-must-care-about-cair/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>14</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Chen Guangcheng: An Inconvenient Activist</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/faith-j-h-mcdonnell/chen-guangcheng-an-inconvenient-activist/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=chen-guangcheng-an-inconvenient-activist</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/faith-j-h-mcdonnell/chen-guangcheng-an-inconvenient-activist/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 18 May 2012 04:02:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Faith J. H. McDonnell]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chen Guangcheng]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[China]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Communism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama Administration]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=132325</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Why the Chinese hero disturbs the U.S. government.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Chen-Guangcheng-Family22.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-132327" title="Chen-Guangcheng-Family[2][2]" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Chen-Guangcheng-Family22.gif" alt="" width="375" height="241" /></a>Chen Guangcheng has never lacked courage. Until his daring Sunday, April 22<sup>nd</sup> escape from house arrest was <a href="http://www.chinaaid.org/2012/04/ap-report-activists-blind-chinese.html">announced to the world</a>, the 41-year-old blind Chinese activist was not well known in the West except to China-watchers and human rights activists. But those who regard Chen as a hero range from peasants in his home province of Shandong to other celebrated Chinese dissidents. Members of Congress and the British Parliament knew of Chen’s bravery long before he climbed over the back wall of his home in the dead of night and began a journey which he trusts will eventually lead to freedom.</p>
<p>The Obama Administration is just beginning to reckon with this courageous man. Although Chen was <a href="http://www.chinaaid.org/2012/05/zeng-jinyan-chen-guangcheng-talked-to.html">pressured out</a> of the Embassy, at <a href="http://www.chinaaid.org/2012/05/guardian-chen-guangcheng-left-us.html">suggestions</a> that his wife would be beaten to death, and his extended family would suffer, his trust in the Americans had already created a <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/04/obama-declines-to-comment-on-escaped-chinese-dissident/">diplomatic nightmare</a> for the Obama Administration. They have been reticent in their remarks on Chen Guangcheng.</p>
<p>On the other hand, members of Congress have been vocal in their support for Chen. In the past three weeks, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights Chair Christopher Smith (R-NJ) has held two hearings on Chen. Remarkably, Chen has <a href="http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/ChenG">phoned in</a> and made <a href="http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/ChineseH">statements</a> at both the <a href="http://chrissmith.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=293929">Congressional-Executive Commission on China</a> <a href="http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/ChenG">hearing</a> on May 3 and the Subcommittee hearing on May 15.</p>
<p>At the May 3 hearing, U.S. Representative Frank R. Wolf (R-VA) <a href="http://wolf.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=34&amp;parentid=6&amp;sectiontree=6,34&amp;itemid=1931">declared</a>, “The most generous read of the administration’s handling of this case is that it was naïve in accepting assurances from a government that has a well-known and documented history of brutally repressing its own people under this government.” Witness <a href="http://www.chinaaid.org/2012/02/american-human-rights-activist-arrested.html">Michael Horowitz</a>, Hudson Institute Senior Fellow, remarked that one of the “great things we could do for the pursuit of American interests” would be to “replace the State Department with the AFLCIO.” “This is an issue of bargaining,” said Horowitz. “Anybody at the Teamsters Union would have flunked every one of these people who were bargaining for the life and freedom of such a world hero.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php">Women’s Rights Without Frontiers</a>’ President Reggie Littlejohn stressed the underlying issue that set the Chinese Communist government against Chen and that has been left out of much of the discussion in the mainstream media: “he was the one person in China who dared to stand up against the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjtuBcJUsjY">One Child policy</a>.” Not many in the media or the Administration were eager to reveal that Chen’s crime was exposing the brutal practices of forced abortion and sterilization of Chinese women, and the “gendercide” practiced against baby girls. Surely, part of the Obama Administration’s uneasiness over Chen stems from the awkwardness of defending an anti-abortion activist. Vice President Joe Biden has even <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogcvQ8fjIFc&amp;feature=player_embedded">defended</a> the One Child policy.</p>
<p>Chen is called a “barefoot lawyer,” because he provides free legal services but has no law degree. The blind were previously denied college admission in China, so Chen, who has been blind since childhood, was only permitted to audit classes. He started giving legal advice to disabled people in his home province of Shangdong, Dongshigu Village, in 1996. But in 2005, his activism shook the entire country and beyond. Chen went from village to village in Shandong Province collecting testimonies of tens of thousands of women who had been rounded up and forced to be sterilized or have abortions, even in the eighth month of pregnancy. Neither Chen’s blindness nor his lack of a degree prevented him from exposing some 130,000 forced abortions that took place in one year in that one province and filing class-action lawsuits on behalf of the victimized families.</p>
<p>Chen presented his findings in a class-action lawsuit against the Lin Yi City bureau of the Family Planning Commission. He also exposed this hidden horror to major international media when he traveled to Beijing in June 2005 to file a lawsuit there.  A year later, Chen was named one of <a href="http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1975813_1975847_1976744,00.html"><em>Time </em>magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2006</a>. In her tribute, journalist Hannah Beech said, “He may have lost his sight as a child, but Chen Guangcheng&#8217;s legal vision has helped illuminate the plight of thousands of Chinese villagers.”</p>
<p>In September 2005, Chen was placed under house arrest by Lin Yi City officials. Beech related, “three hours after meeting with <em>Time</em> in Beijing to discuss the issue, Chen was shoved into an unmarked vehicle by public-security agents from his hometown. They bundled him back to his village, where he was held under house arrest for months.” In March 2006, he was removed from home and taken to detention. At his trial in August 2006 he was sentenced to four years and three months’ detention on trumped-up charges of “damaging property and organizing a mob to disturb traffic.” Chen’s attorneys, some of the most well-known Christian human rights attorneys in China, were also subjected to abuse of various forms for their defense of Chen Guangcheng.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/faith-j-h-mcdonnell/chen-guangcheng-an-inconvenient-activist/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The West’s &#8216;Rational Iran&#8217; Fest</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/davidhornik/the-west%e2%80%99s-rational-iran-fest/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-west%25e2%2580%2599s-rational-iran-fest</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/davidhornik/the-west%e2%80%99s-rational-iran-fest/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 03 May 2012 04:34:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[P. David Hornik]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New York Times]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nuclear Weapons]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama Administration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rational]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=130797</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A flurry of reports attest to the Islamic Republic's reasonableness -- and the West's eagerness to be duped. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad_speak_001.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-130823" title="Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad_speak_001" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad_speak_001.gif" alt="" width="375" height="248" /></a>We’ve been treated lately to an Iran-rationality fest. In February it was U.S. chief of staff Martin Dempsey <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/19/iran-usa-idUSL2E8DJ0IG20120219">saying</a> Iran’s government was a “rational actor.” In March it was Israel’s disgruntled ex-Mossad chief Meir Dagan <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57394904/the-spymaster-meir-dagan-on-irans-threat/">saying</a> “The regime in Iran is a very rational regime.”</p>
<p>Just last week Israel’s serving chief of staff, Benny Gantz, took up the slack by <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/idf-chief-to-haaretz-i-do-not-believe-iran-will-decide-to-develop-nuclear-weapons-1.426389?localLinksEnabled=false">saying</a> that “the Iranian leadership is composed of very rational people.” And the next day another disgruntled Israeli, ex-Shin Bet (domestic security) chief Yuval Diskin, suggested who might <em>really </em>not be rational, <a href="http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=267863">saying</a> that Israel’s prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and defense minister Ehud Barak—both at least verbal hawks on Iran—were “two messiahs” who make decisions out of “messianic feelings.”</p>
<p>The <em>New York Times</em>, one could say, ate it up. A day after Diskin’s pronouncements, it <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/30/world/middleeast/chances-of-iran-strike-receding-us-officials-say.html">ran a piece</a> called “Experts Believe Iran Conflict Is Less Likely,”claiming that the “threat of tighter economic sanctions,” the “revival of direct negotiations,” and a “growing divide in Israel between political leaders and military and intelligence officials” had led “American officials and outside analysts” to believe that the “chances of war in the near future have significantly decreased.”</p>
<p>And the <em>Los Angeles Times</em> has <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/27/world/la-fg-iran-nuclear-20120428">reported</a> that the U.S. was signaling a “major shift on Iran[s’] nuclear program,” with Obama administration officials saying they “might agree to let Iran continue enriching uranium up to 5% purity, which is the upper end of the range for most civilian uses,” if Iran agrees to strict inspections and safeguards.</p>
<p>As the article notes, such a deal would be anathema to Jerusalem and probably most of Congress, since allowing Iran to continue <em>any</em> uranium enrichment means leaving the door open to clandestine work toward the bomb. Israel’s national security adviser Yaakov Amidror has, in fact, been <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israeli-national-security-adviser-heads-to-eu-for-sensitive-talks-on-iran-1.427395">dispatched to Europe</a> for “extremely sensitive” talks on the possibility of such a deal emerging.</p>
<p>The <em>Los Angeles Times </em>article, however, quotes Michael Singh, former top Iran adviser to President George W. Bush, saying “There have been many signals lately that the red line has shifted and they’re no longer pushing for full suspension” of Iran’s uranium enrichment—a shift that Singh “strongly opposes.”</p>
<p>The problem with the Iran-rationality fest is that Iran refuses to join in.</p>
<p>This week Iran’s English-language Fars News Agency website—regularly scoured by Western Iran-observers—has run a <a href="http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8101301309">report</a> rather brazenly titled “Iranian Navy Able to Deploy Vessels Three Miles off New York Coasts.”</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/davidhornik/the-west%e2%80%99s-rational-iran-fest/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>23</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Obama Administration vs. Tombstone</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/eric-burns/obama-administration-vs-tombstone/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=obama-administration-vs-tombstone</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/eric-burns/obama-administration-vs-tombstone/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 May 2012 04:06:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Eric Burns]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Arizona]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama Administration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tombstone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[United States Forest Service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[water]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=130363</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Historic town faces uncertain future thanks to federal tyranny. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/040209-003..gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-130418" title="040209-003." src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/040209-003..gif" alt="" width="375" height="243" /></a>The latest chapter in the Obama administration’s war against state sovereignty and the state of Arizona pits the town of Tombstone against the United States Forest Service. Tombstone is suing the U.S. Forest Service over that agency&#8217;s refusal to allow city officials to repair damaged water transport infrastructure in the nearby Huachuca mountains. The Forest Service’s refusal to allow city workers access to damaged reservoirs, pipelines, and pumping stations, has cut Tombstone off from 50 to 80 percent of its water supply; leaving town residents and tourists dependent on two wells for water, and the town acutely vulnerable to fire. In addition, the water in one well is contaminated with arsenic.</p>
<p>Tombstone is a desert town of 1500 residents located in southern Arizona about 70 miles southeast of Tucson <a href="http://www.summitpost.org/miller-peak/153596">in the shadow of 9466 ft. Miller Peak</a>, which is in the Coronado National Forest. Americans associate Tombstone with the October 1881 gunfight at the O.K. Corral; and the resulting tourist trade has supported the town fairly well. Tombstone has survived the closing of local silver mines and a number of fires, thereby becoming known as “The town too tough to die.” Now, however, that proud title is being severely tested, by our own federal government.</p>
<p>Tombstone is supplied with water from 24 springs, located in the Huachuca Mountains on and around Miller Peak. However, nearly a year ago, from May through July 2011, <a href="http://www.kpho.com/story/14928238/monument-fire-near-sierra-vista-burns-40-homes">the Monument fire destroyed at least 18,580 acres</a> (640 acres equals one square mile) of forest and vegetation in the Huachuca Mountains, including the Miller Peak Wilderness area. Torrential rains followed soon after the fire, and the resulting mud slides pushed boulders “the size of Volkswagens” down on vital pumping stations, pipes, and other infrastructure. Some water pipes remain buried under twelve feet of mud, while others are without support, ominously hanging in the air, as the ground underneath has been washed away. In August 2011, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer declared a state of emergency in Tombstone, authorizing $50,000 in state funds to help cover engineering and repair costs for Tombstone’s water system. Since many of the pipelines are in areas designated as “wilderness,” the U.S. Forest Service won’t allow access for the mechanized equipment needed to fix the pipelines. Huge boulders, downed trees, and enormous piles of dirt and gravel must be moved, to build the structures that will protect the water lines against future natural disasters. However, these obstacles can’t be moved with the hand tools and horse teams that the Forest Service demands the city use.</p>
<p>As of January 2012, Forest Service officials had granted permits to repair infrastructure for only 2 of the 24 springs that supply Tombstone; and city manager George Barnes said “the city was told that the requests for the remaining permits would take a lot longer” to approve. Meanwhile, the state’s emergency funds are being wasted, as rented vehicles and equipment are sitting idle, and several pieces of heavy equipment have been vandalized, with the city required to pay for their repair. In addition, <a href="http://www.wildernesswatch.org/newsroom/guardian/Miller_Peak_Wilderness_Motorization.html">Tombstone has only a two day supply of water on hand</a>, making the town particularly vulnerable to fire.</p>
<p>The Obama administration and the U.S. Forest Service are clearly attempting to regulate the state of Arizona in violation of the Constitution and impose an arbitrary, draconian environmentalist agenda on the land use rights of Americans. In addition, gold prospectors on western federal lands are routinely harassed by over-zealous park rangers, and ranchers have been pressured to surrender access and water rights. The Forest Service cites <a href="http://www.wilderness.net/nwps/legis/nwps_act.cfm">The Wilderness Act of 1964</a>, which defines “Wilderness” as “an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain. An area of wilderness is further defined to mean…an area of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation…with the imprint of man’s work substantially unnoticeable.”  Under “Prohibition of Certain Uses,” this act states, “[S]ubject to existing private rights, there shall be no…permanent road within any Wilderness area designated by this Act and, except as necessary to meet minimum requirements for the Administration of the area…(including measures required in emergencies involving the health and safety of persons within the area) there shall be no temporary road, no use of motor vehicles, motorized equipment…no other form of mechanical transport, and no structure or installation within any such area.” However, the Forest Service has gone beyond the Wilderness Act and threatened Arizona’s sovereignty and Tombstone’s very existence.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/eric-burns/obama-administration-vs-tombstone/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>21</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Iraq’s Coming Civil War</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/iraq%e2%80%99s-coming-civil-war/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=iraq%25e2%2580%2599s-coming-civil-war</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/iraq%e2%80%99s-coming-civil-war/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 25 Apr 2012 04:45:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[civil war]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iraq]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Maliki]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama Administration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shiites]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sunnis]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=129692</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Obama’s post-withdrawal bloodbath.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/iraq-united-states-0071.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-129762" title="iraq-united-states-007" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/iraq-united-states-0071.gif" alt="" width="375" height="252" /></a>As the Obama Administration tries to hammer together an American withdrawal from Afghanistan, the body count from his disastrous retreat from Iraq is swiftly rising. Last week alone there were fourteen car bombings orchestrated by Al-Qaeda in Iraq, whose goal has always been a civil war between Shiites and Sunnis. The bombings, which received only light coverage in a media unwilling to talk about anything that might show their candidate in a bad light, are only one of the fracture points.</p>
<p>A united Iraq died a few days after the withdrawal. The only people who still believe in the fiction of a centrally governed Iraq are holding down desks in the State Department. There are several Iraqs now. There is Iran’s Iraq, the one overseen by Tehran’s puppet in Baghdad, Prime Minister Maliki. Then there is Iraqi Kurdistan which stands on the verge of declaring its independence, an act that will touch off a violent territorial dispute accompanied by ethnic cleansing.</p>
<p>Iraqi federalism is only popular among some in the Shiite majority, for whom it means majority rule. Maliki’s warrant for Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi and the latter’s subsequent flight and sanctuary in Iraqi Kurdistan has ended the fiction of joint rule in Iraq. The Kurds have branded Maliki a dictator and are swiftly breaking their remaining ties to Baghdad.</p>
<p>President  Barzani of Iraqi Kurdistan declared that, “Power-sharing and partnership between Kurds, Sunni and Shiite Arabs, and others is now completely non-existent and has become meaningless” and concluded his speech by hinting at an independence referendum, a move almost certain to touch off a violent conflict, particularly in oil rich Kirkuk.</p>
<p>For now it’s a countdown to the inevitable. Barzani has been conducting a diplomatic tour to line up support for the next phase. As has Tariq al-Hashemi. Facing a Shiite majority and Maliki’s consolidation of power, they need all the domestic and international support that they can get. Western troops have left leaving behind a power vacuum that Iran is swiftly filling up.</p>
<p>Obama’s recent meeting with Barzani was typical of the empty discussions that have taken place since the withdrawal. While Obama urged Barzani to work within the Iraqi Constitution, the United States has made some concessions that pave the way for independence, including issuing visas through the US Consulate in Erbil, allowing Kurds to bypass Baghdad. The underlying message is that while the United States does not officially support Kurdish separatism, it is reducing obstacles to its independence.</p>
<p>The United States and the United Kingdom might be gone, but Barzani has managed to find a new ally in an unlikely place, Istanbul. Turkey has turned to Iraqi Kurds to check growing Iranian influence in Iraq. Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan and Prime Minister Maliki have exchanged harsh words, with Erdogan criticizing Maliki for sectarian policies and Maliki accusing Turkey of becoming a “hostile state”.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/iraq%e2%80%99s-coming-civil-war/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>36</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Obama Administration Takes On Westchester</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/thomas-sowell/obama-administration-takes-on-westchester/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=obama-administration-takes-on-westchester</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/thomas-sowell/obama-administration-takes-on-westchester/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 17 Apr 2012 04:03:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Thomas Sowell]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[low-income housing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New York]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama Administration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Race]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Westchester County]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=129069</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The federal government plans to "fix" the fact that not enough low-income people live in the up-scale county. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/957221_1332435240330_o.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-129077" title="957221_1332435240330_o" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/957221_1332435240330_o.gif" alt="" width="375" height="251" /></a>Apparently the soaring national debt and the threat of a nuclear Iran are not enough to occupy the government&#8217;s time, because the Obama administration is pushing to force Westchester County, N.Y., to create more low-income housing, in order to mix and match classes and races to fit the government&#8217;s preconceptions.</p>
<p>Behind all this busy work for bureaucrats and ideologues is the idea that there is something wrong if a community does not have an even or random distribution of various kinds of people. This arbitrary assumption is that the absence of evenness or randomness — whether in employment, housing or innumerable other situations — shows a &#8220;problem&#8221; that has to be &#8220;corrected.&#8221;</p>
<p>No speck of evidence is considered necessary for this assumption to prevail at any level of government, including the Supreme Court of the United States. No one has to show the existence, much less the prevalence, of an even or random distribution of different segments of the population — in any country, anywhere in the world, or at any period of history.</p>
<p>Nothing is more common than for people to sort themselves out when it comes to residential housing, whether by class, race or other factors.</p>
<p>When there was a large Jewish population living on New York&#8217;s lower east side, a century ago, Jews did not live at random among themselves. Polish Jews had their neighborhoods, Rumanian Jews theirs, and so on. Meanwhile German Jews lived uptown. In Chicago, when Eastern European Jews began moving into German Jewish neighborhoods, German Jews began moving out.</p>
<p>It was much the same story in Harlem or in other urban ghettoes, where blacks did not live at random among themselves. Landmark scholarly studies by E. Franklin Frazier in the 1930s showed in detail how different neighborhoods within the ghettoes had people of different educational and income levels, with different male\female ratios and different ways of life living in different places.</p>
<p>There was nothing random about it. Within Chicago&#8217;s black community, the delinquency rate ranged from more than 40 percent in some black neighborhoods to less than 2 percent in other black neighborhoods.</p>
<p>People sort themselves out.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/thomas-sowell/obama-administration-takes-on-westchester/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>40</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Obama Adviser Wants Syrian &#8216;Resistance&#8217; to Israel</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/davidhornik/obama-adviser-wants-syrian-resistance-to-israel/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=obama-adviser-wants-syrian-resistance-to-israel</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/davidhornik/obama-adviser-wants-syrian-resistance-to-israel/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 20 Mar 2012 04:30:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[P. David Hornik]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Assad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dalia Mogahed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama Administration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syria]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=126175</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The administration's true disposition toward Israel is once again exposed by the company it keeps. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Picture-18.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-126243" title="Picture-18" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Picture-18.gif" alt="" width="375" height="251" /></a>As <a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/03/obamas-muslim-adviser-criticizes-assad-for-not-being-able-to-deliver-resistance-to-israel.html">reported</a> on <em>Jihad Watch</em> this week, an adviser to President Obama has tweeted a criticism of President Bashar Assad of Syria for not being able to mount enough “resistance” to Israel. In the Arab and Middle Eastern context resistance is, of course, a codeword for terrorism and war.</p>
<p>The adviser is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalia_Mogahed">Dalia Mogahed</a>. Yet another example of the strange company Obama has kept and continues to keep, he appointed her to serve on the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. On March 10 she tweeted on her Twitter account:</p>
<blockquote><p>To those siding w/Assad: he cannot deliver stability, protection of minorities, or resistance to Israel. He is a killer w/o legitimacy.</p></blockquote>
<p>It wasn’t Mogahed’s first venture in radicalism. Two years ago she advocated Sharia law on British TV, saying it provided “gender justice” even though, as Robert Spencer <a href="http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=33933">noted</a> at the time, Sharia prescribes wife-beating, permits taking the vows with prepubescent girls, and discriminates against women in matters of testimony, inheritance, marriage and divorce.</p>
<p>Indeed, the show was hosted by a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir—banned as a terrorist organization by many countries—and included two Hizb ut-Tahrir guests who denounced Western society and called to make Sharia “the source of legislation.” Hizb ut-Tahrir’s alumni include 9/11 architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Jordanian jihadist Abu Musab Zarqawi, killed by U.S. forces in Iraq in 2006.</p>
<p>Mogahed was also coauthor with John Esposito of <em>Who Speaks For Islam?: What a Billion Muslims Really Think</em>—a book whose blatant distortions of poll data were <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/author/robert-satloff">exposed</a> by Robert Satloff among others. <em>Arabian Busines</em>s magazine has named Mogahed one of the Arab world’s most influential women.</p>
<p>And what of her take on Assad? Does he indeed come up short on “resistance to Israel”?</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/davidhornik/obama-adviser-wants-syrian-resistance-to-israel/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>67</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Taking Down Assad Will Not Save Syria</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/taking-down-assad-will-not-save-syria/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=taking-down-assad-will-not-save-syria</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/taking-down-assad-will-not-save-syria/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 01 Mar 2012 04:50:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Assad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Democracy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama Administration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[regime change]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syria]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=124170</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[To understand the problem, one only needs to look at neighboring Lebanon. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/AP_Syria_protests_16dec11-878x585.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-124185" title="AP_Syria_protests_16dec11-878x585" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/AP_Syria_protests_16dec11-878x585.gif" alt="" width="375" height="250" /></a>After September 11, the reasonable thing to do would have been to take steps to save ourselves from Islamic terror. Instead, we went on a crusade to save Muslims from themselves. The latest stop on that crusade is Syria, where the foreign policy experts responsible for decades of horrifying misjudgments tell us that we are duty bound to save the Syrian people from their dictator.</p>
<p>Rarely do we ask why it is that Muslims so often need saving from their dictators. Or why a party that campaigned on improving America&#8217;s reputation by promising not to bomb Muslims anymore, is now improving America&#8217;s reputation by bombing so many Muslims and so often that it makes George W. Bush look like a tie-dyed hippie.</p>
<p>The Obama Administration has had a role in regime change in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya all in one year. Along with the other &#8220;Friends of Syria&#8221; it would like to bomb its way to regime change in Syria. The point of all this regime change is to replace totalitarian Muslim regimes with democratically elected totalitarian Muslim regimes on the theory that will make everyone happier.</p>
<p>The reason why Muslim countries end up with dictators can be seen in the streets of Libya where militias run wild and former members of the regime and anyone with black skin is dragged off the street for torture sessions and a bullet in the back of the head. Peel away the presidents, colonels and other suit-wearing tyrants fronting for an oligarchy, and that is what every Muslim country will be reduced to.</p>
<p>To understand the problem with Syria, one only need look at neighboring Lebanon where every attempt at coalition building between different religious and ethnic groups has gone badly over and over again. The ruling Alawites have to hang on to power because the alternative is to be an oppressed minority. The Sunnis have to strive for power because the alternative is to be an oppressed minority. This pattern repeats itself across the region.</p>
<p>To the extent that Western multiculturalism works, it does so because Europeans and their descendants have agreed to cede some power and privileges to minority groups while maintaining confidence in the rule of law to protect equal rights for everyone. Such a state of affairs is ridiculously inconceivable in the countries that we are assuming will adopt that same value system.</p>
<p>The only form of protection for a minority in the Muslim world is to either seize power or form a coalition with the ruling party. Such coalitions are inherently fragile because tribal instincts of race and religion always end up overriding agreements. Mohammed&#8217;s treaties weren&#8217;t worthless just because he was a duplicitous power-mad figure, but because all treaties are worthless in the region. After his death, Islamic succession wound up being settled with assassination and civil war among his own family members and allies.</p>
<p>Muslims look to Islam as a central unifying principle of universal allegiance, but it&#8217;s nothing of the sort. It&#8217;s actually an excuse for constant internecine violence. Islam adds another layer of allegiances and another excuse for infighting that did not exist previously. Underneath the robes and beards and Korans is yet another oligarchy with family mafias clutching their ill-gotten gains, as is the case in Iran and as will be the case in Egypt, where the Brotherhood has already gotten a head start.</p>
<p>Under conditions like this how can democracy exist as anything other than a temporary state of affairs? When there is an overwhelming majority in favor of one religion, it becomes nothing more than a rubber stamp for tyrants, as was the case in the Egyptian elections. When the country is sufficiently divided along religious lines, as is the case in Iraq, it becomes a prolonged struggle with both sides marking their positions and building their coalitions in preparation for a civil war.</p>
<p>Acting as if all this can be resolved with a few lessons on democracy is absurd, especially when such problems linger on even in the countries doing the teaching; just ask the Flemish or the Basque. Nations can only overcome such divisions when they have shared higher values to strive for. The only &#8220;higher value&#8221; there is Islam, and it is only another source of sectarian strife.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/taking-down-assad-will-not-save-syria/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>28</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Israel Builds, Obama Administration Squirms</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/davidhornik/israel-builds-obama-administration-squirms/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=israel-builds-obama-administration-squirms</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/davidhornik/israel-builds-obama-administration-squirms/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 24 Feb 2012 04:30:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[P. David Hornik]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[construction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Judea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama Administration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Samaria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Settlements]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=123496</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Four reasons why Judea-Samaria settlements are vital to Israel's future. 
]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Rivlin-in-Migron-400x300.gif"><img class="size-full wp-image-123550 alignleft" title="Rivlin-in-Migron-400x300" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Rivlin-in-Migron-400x300.gif" alt="" width="375" height="246" /></a></p>
<p>This week Israel’s Civil Administration approved a plan to build 500 housing units in the West Bank community of Shiloh. U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4193710,00.html">complained</a> like clockwork that such building is not “constructive.”</p>
<p>In so doing, he was following a U.S. practice of frequently publicly criticizing its ally Israel. No other U.S. ally gets this treatment; when was the last time you heard Washington publicly take Britain, Germany, or Japan to task? And this in a week when the U.S. is already <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/02/22/obama-puts-israel-on-ice/">heavily pressuring Israel both publicly and behind the scenes</a> not to defend itself against a <a href="http://ca.news.yahoo.com/iran-boosts-nuclear-bunker-diplomats-184920735.html">growing existential threat from Iran</a>.</p>
<p>But is Toner right about the Israeli building plans not being “constructive”? In a world where there are mounting crises in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Egypt, <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/291286/great-obama-kowtow-mona-charen">severe human rights abuses</a> in America’s trading partner China, and so on, are housing units in Shiloh what Washington should fret about? In fact, these building plans not only pose no problem for the U.S. but are <em>constructive</em>, for several reasons.</p>
<p>1. They give people in Shiloh places to live. It’s natural for a community—especially a very life-affirming one like Shiloh, where people make a point of having children—to grow. One has to have a very crabbed perspective to want a place like Shiloh to freeze in place, so that parents can’t provide homes for their kids, no one can move in from outside the community, and so on. It’s a throwback to the early days of the Obama administration, when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/world/middleeast/28mideast.html">thundered</a> against “natural growth” in such Israeli communities. Isn’t this supposed to be an election year, with the Obama administration cooling it toward Israel and wooing Jewish votes?</p>
<p>2. Shiloh is a modern-day iteration of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiloh_%28biblical_city%29">ancient biblical city of the same name,</a> the center of Israelite religious and political life for about three hundred years before Jerusalem took that honor. Having a modern-day Jewish community there is a renewal and revitalization of one of the ancient roots of Western civilization.</p>
<p>Of course, many contemporary Western people no longer have the faintest idea or give a hoot what Shiloh was. This is particularly true in heavily secularized Western Europe, with its catastrophically low fertility rates and burgeoning Muslim presence. Can the United States and Israel—which still care enough about Western civilization to fight for it—afford this kind of contempt for its roots? Since taking office in 2009, the churchgoing President Obama’s behavior suggests that he sees any Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria as essentially scandalous and the Palestinians—part of the <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/specials/islamandscience/map/islam-map.html">geographically starved</a> Muslim <em>umma</em>—as the sole rightful possessor of this territory. Is <a href="http://spectator.org/archives/2009/05/12/judenrein-judea">Jew-free Judea</a> (and Samaria) really an American desideratum?</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/davidhornik/israel-builds-obama-administration-squirms/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>101</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Sabotaging America: The Obama Energy Agenda</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/rich-trzupek/sabotaging-america-the-obama-energy-agenda/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=sabotaging-america-the-obama-energy-agenda</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/rich-trzupek/sabotaging-america-the-obama-energy-agenda/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 24 Feb 2012 04:16:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Rich Trzupek]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Energy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fossil fuels]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gas prices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Green]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama Administration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[OIL]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=123574</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Steps the president could take to ease gas price worries.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Gaspump.gif"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-123578" title="Gaspump" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Gaspump.gif" alt="" width="375" height="255" /></a>The Obama administration&#8217;s lack of any coherent, realistic energy policy is providing Republican candidates with a good deal of ammunition, as gas prices and oil prices continue to rise. The issue has put the president on the defensive as the specter of five dollar per gallon gas this summer gives Team Obama heartburn.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s the easiest thing in the world (to) make phony election-year promises about lower gas prices,&#8221; Obama said, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/46501296">speaking at the University of Miami yesterday</a>. “What&#8217;s harder is to make a serious, sustained commitment to tackle a problem that may not be solved in one year or one term or even one decade.&#8221;</p>
<p>Indeed. Clearly, making a serious, sustained commitment to a sound energy policy is well beyond this administration’s capabilities. Rather than investing in proven, affordable and plentiful sources of domestic energy, Obama has thrown billions of tax dollars away in misguided efforts to find pixie dust solutions to America’s energy needs.</p>
<p>From wind, to solar, to bio-fuels, the president has abandoned the free market to cast his lot in with the most extreme of environmental utopians and we’re all paying the price for his folly. This president, who asserts that America’s future depends on science and technology, has yet to even come to grips with the basic laws of thermodynamics. That level of scientific ignorance doesn’t bode well for consumers, or for Obama’s re-election prospects.</p>
<p>The president has tried to blame rising gas prices on factors that are beyond his control, such as <a href="http://images.angelpub.com/2010/04/3828/oil-demand.png">increased demand from China</a> and India, increasing tension with Iran and speculation in oil futures. While it’s accurate to say that America can do little to influence those factors, it’s entirely disingenuous to ignore the fact that we could have – and should have – taken action to mitigate those market effects.</p>
<p>We have seen crude demand in China and India rise steadily for over a decade now. That it continues to do so as those economies continue to grow shouldn’t surprise anyone, least of all the president of the United States. The same holds true for the effect of the Iranian nuclear crisis. And, given all of the uncertainty and demand-side pressure, it’s clear that the free market is going to respond by hedging its bets in the form of rising oil future prices. The president sees the latter in terms of greedy speculation, but Obama has long-since abandoned any pretense of understanding – or caring – about the way that a healthy free market actually works.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/rich-trzupek/sabotaging-america-the-obama-energy-agenda/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>26</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Who Are America’s Reliable Allies?</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/alan-m-dershowitz/who-are-america%e2%80%99s-reliable-allies/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=who-are-america%25e2%2580%2599s-reliable-allies</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/alan-m-dershowitz/who-are-america%e2%80%99s-reliable-allies/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 17 Feb 2012 04:21:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Alan M. Dershowitz]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Alliance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[America]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Europe]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[muslim brotherhood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama Administration]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=122619</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[An already short list gets shorter. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/US-Israel1.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-122626" title="US-Israel" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/US-Israel1.gif" alt="" width="375" height="248" /></a></p>
<p>In a quickly changing world, it is important to ask which countries the United States can always count on in times of crisis.  Recent events have shortened that list considerably.</p>
<p>India has long claimed to be a reliable ally, but it is now undercutting American efforts to impose meaningful sanctions against Iran.  Its help cannot any longer be counted on in the struggle against the greatest danger faced by the United States—an Iran with nuclear weapons.  Japan, another ally, is dilly dallying on sanctions as well.  Brazil used to be a reliable partner, until it began to fall under the sway of Venezuela’s Chavez, who is closely allied with Iran and other American enemies.  The “new” Russia and China demonstrated their lack of reliability when they vetoed American efforts in the Security Council to help resolve the Syrian crisis.  Egypt, which has received billions of dollars of American aid, has defied American warnings not to put US citizens on trial on phony, trumped-up charges.  Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates are now playing footsy with Hamas and Hezbollah, also Iranian surrogates, as they worry about the contagion of the Arab Spring and the growing influence of the Muslim Brotherhood.</p>
<p>It turns out that other than Europe, Israel may be America’s only remaining reliable ally.  And even some European countries, such as France, Sweden and Norway, are in doubt.</p>
<p>Israel will always remain a strong American ally because it shares an American commitment to democracy, to freedom of religion, to freedom of expression and to an open market economy.  It also shares a common commitment to fight against terrorism and other threats to the security of the United States—a commitment that is less that vigorous among some European countries.</p>
<p>Some political scientists and state department officials, who call themselves “realists”, question Israel’s value as an American ally.  They are wrong, and recent events confirm how wrong they are and have been.</p>
<p>There is no doubt that America helps Israel enormously, as it should help those who share our democratic values. But there is also no doubt that Israel helps the United States considerably, by sharing its extraordinary intelligence-gathering capabilities, its military R&amp;D, its computer know-how and other intangibles.  As other nations in the region debate whether American troops should even be allowed to set foot on their territory, Israel welcomes the American military to engage in joint exercises.  In its nearly 64 years of existence, Israel has never asked for a single American soldier to fight its battles.  It fights its own battles while assisting the American military in defending our country against terrorism and other threats to our citizens.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/alan-m-dershowitz/who-are-america%e2%80%99s-reliable-allies/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>120</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>A Tale of Two Wars</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/a-tale-of-two-wars/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=a-tale-of-two-wars</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/a-tale-of-two-wars/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 Feb 2012 04:20:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Greenfield]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama Administration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[War]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=122218</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Why Washington needs the Syrian war to happen -- and the conflict with Iran not to happen.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/iran-syria-stop-killing.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-122250" title="iran-syria-stop-killing" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/iran-syria-stop-killing.gif" alt="" width="375" height="250" /></a></p>
<p>There are two possible conflicts on the table in Washington. One is with Iran and the other with Syria. The Iran conflict is the one that Washington doesn&#8217;t want. Its most likely trigger at this stage is an Israeli assault on Iran&#8217;s nuclear program. Like most of the wars centering around Israel, this one is existential and of no interest to the philosopher kings in D.C. who wage wars with the grand purpose of making the world a better place.</p>
<p>Washington does not particularly care whether Iran gets nukes or doesn&#8217;t get nukes. It cares about History. With a capital &#8220;H.&#8221; Libya got bombed because it was on the wrong side of history. Syria is about to get bombed because it&#8217;s on the wrong side of history. There are people in the administration like Samantha Power who would like to bomb Israel for being on the wrong side of history, but they don&#8217;t think that even J Street and Peter Beinart could spin that as a pro-Israel move.</p>
<p>Being on the right or wrong side of history is one of those topics that primarily interests Islamists and nation builders on the right and the left who subscribe to a progressive version of history. Things don&#8217;t just happen, they happen because a country and a people are riding the history escalator up or down, to the top floor of the mall of the world where the cultivated stores like Starbucks, Nordstrom and the now defunct Sharper Image are located, or the bottom where K-Mart, Payless and Gap take up space.</p>
<p>The Arab Spring was on the right side of history because of its transformative qualities. Supporters of it were on the right side of history. Opponents of it needed to be bombed if they were Arab dictators or disinvited from the right cocktail parties if they were merely columnists and analysts. And at the end of it all through the sublime majesty of democracy and people power, the Middle East would look exactly like Europe, but with a more exotic cuisine.</p>
<p>Israel has always been the hedgehog in the soup of Arab democracy, agitating them, empowering their rulers and causing them to distrust Western benevolence. Now Israeli jets threaten to spill the soup of the Arab Spring by bombing Iran, which may reinforce support for Syria, which will hold up the Arab Spring and halt the progressive escalator of history.</p>
<p>Washington needs the Syrian war to happen, and it needs to keep a conflict with Iran from happening. The great diplomatic problem of Israel has always been that its leader insist on viewing conflicts in practical terms. Israel does not fight wars to make the world safe for democracy, it fights wars because there&#8217;s someone shooting missiles as it. This is an unacceptable reason for a war in a postmodern world where wars are fought to preserve the international order, protect civilization, make the world safe for democracy and prove that human rights violations will be punished by the duly constituted body of international jurisprudence.</p>
<p>Self-interest is Israel&#8217;s original sin. It was the sin that countless titans of the left from H.G. Wells to Lenin berated the Zionists for. Instead of contributing to the welfare of mankind and participating in the international brotherhood of workers, they went off to rebuild a country that existed only in their holy books and stirred up all kinds of trouble doing it. And since they have kept on stirring up trouble, not in the name of some grand idea, but out of their tawdry interest in defending themselves.</p>
<p>With angry Muslims boiling in European cities, Koran touting terrorists blowing up the modern infrastructure of the world&#8217;s capitals and turmoil roiling the hundreds of millions of Muslims who still haven&#8217;t managed to get refugee status in the UK or the US, the progressive vision is in big trouble and the only solution is to somehow stabilize the situation. Democracy is the only panacea that the progressive prescription plan covers.</p>
<p>Israel&#8217;s insistence on a purely existential view is dismissed as selfish and narrow-minded when the Middle East is headed toward a brave new world where nukes no longer matter because no one is angry anymore because there are no more dictators and democracy is everywhere. While the Israelis see the Middle East as basically static, the progressives see the Middle East as constantly on the verge of a great leap forward to a new more enlightened age.</p>
<p>As a result any affinity between the neoconservatives and Israeli leaders was always going to be limited. The neoconservatives were impressed by Israel&#8217;s modernism, but they assumed that it could be copied over to their neighbors and came to resent Israel as an obstacle for not playing a more meaningful role in their grand theory of history. While outwardly the progressives see Israel as very modern, they reject it for not possessing the most vital element of modernism. Transnationalism.</p>
<p>While Israel has more than its share of leftists, its animating philosophy is an ethnic nationalism that is repugnant to the transnationalist. They can find no meaningful globally applicable philosophy that defines its success. Like Japan, Israel is a self-contained wonder. It is a nation, not a philosophy. Its identity is rooted in an infuriating recent and ancient history. It is modern in defiance of the progressive understanding of history&#8211; which is why its technology, its human rights and its basic decency are dismissed.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/a-tale-of-two-wars/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>20</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>

<!-- Performance optimized by W3 Total Cache. Learn more: http://www.w3-edge.com/wordpress-plugins/

Object Caching 1461/1631 objects using disk
Content Delivery Network via cdn.frontpagemag.com

 Served from: www.frontpagemag.com @ 2014-12-31 10:44:25 by W3 Total Cache -->