Category Archives: The Media
#Nothing-burger Plan
JK posted a must-read link on my last post: “Why the Iraq Offensive Will Fail” by Michael T. Flynn, retired US Army Lieutenant General/former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Flynn clearly articulates the threat and steps to take to defeat the enemy, but first let me quote him from this politico.com article:
“Yet to defeat an enemy, you first must admit they exist, and this we have not done. I believe there continues to be confusion at the highest level of our government about what it is we’re facing, and the American public want clarity as well as moral and intellectual courage, which they are not now getting
There are some who argue that violent Islamists are not an existential threat and therefore can simply be managed as criminals, or as a local issue in Iraq and Syria. I respectfully and strongly disagree.”
“We, as a nation, must accept and face the reality that we and other contributing nations of the world are at war, and not just in Iraq. We are in a global war with a radical and violent form of the Islamic religion, and it is irresponsible and dangerous to deny it. This enemy is far broader than the 40,000 or so fighters in the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. There also exists a large segment of this radical version of Islam in over 90 nations abroad as well as here at home. Just ask those countries from which foreign fighters are flowing into the Levant to support this “jihad.””
The entire Flynn article is a must read, as he lays out steps he feels we must take to defeat. not only the Islamic State, but the broader fight against adherents of a violent and radical form of the Islamic religion. In the Cold War we battled a virulent communist ideology and in WWII we fought virulent forms of totalitarianism. Sadly, many, out of religious tolerance ingrained in our American psyche, tiptoe around the threat posed by radical Islam, perhaps better called Islamic Imperialism, where the stated goal is to annihilate all non-Muslim peoples and establish an Islamic Caliphate to rule the world.
Listening to “experts” analyze Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda for over a decade, well, I often thought certain opinions got cherry-picked as the definitive summation, while often, it seemed like many “experts” weren’t even really listening to what Al Qaeda spokesmen and Bin laden were saying in their numerous communiques. When individuals or groups of individuals repeatedly declare war on your country and fellow countrymen, it’s wise to take them seriously, yet far too many of the “experts” consistently tried to whitewash the religious elements to these declared “holy war” edicts from Al Qaeda. Likewise, the Obama administration spends more time trying to conjure up straw men (right-wing, domestic sovereign citizen hordes) threats to play cheap partisan one-up-manship games with a threat emanating from a large number of Muslims’ interpretation of Islam.
“The problem isn’t that ISIS is ‘medieval’. The problem is that Islam is.What progressives mistake for modern Islam, whether while touring Algeria or on the campus of their university, is really an Islam whose practice has been repressed by the West while its ideology remains untouched. Modern Islam is in a state of contradiction. It’s a schizophrenic religion whose doctrine calls for supremacism but whose capabilities prevent it from exercising the full measure of its doctrines.
Islam is the 90 lb. weakling that wants to be the school bully. It can’t punch you in the face, so it stabs you in the back and then blames someone else. When you punch it back, it plays the victim.
This split between ideas and power forced Islamists to resort to sneakier tactics, from terrorism to mass migration, to fulfill the spirit of their religion. The underlying imperative is to restore a conquering Islam capable of humiliating non-Muslims in Muslim lands and expanding into non-Muslim countries. That is why Saddam and Iran pursued weapons of mass destruction. Why Muslim armies tested themselves against Israel. Why Al Qaeda built a decentralized terrorist network with cells around the world.”
“The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic. Yes, it has attracted psychopaths and adventure seekers, drawn largely from the disaffected populations of the Middle East and Europe. But the religion preached by its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned interpretations of Islam.
Virtually every major decision and law promulgated by the Islamic State adheres to what it calls, in its press and pronouncements, and on its billboards, license plates, stationery, and coins, “the Prophetic methodology,” which means following the prophecy and example of Muhammad, in punctilious detail. Muslims can reject the Islamic State; nearly all do. But pretending that it isn’t actually a religious, millenarian group, with theology that must be understood to be combatted, has already led the United States to underestimate it and back foolish schemes to counter it. We’ll need to get acquainted with the Islamic State’s intellectual genealogy if we are to react in a way that will not strengthen it, but instead help it self-immolate in its own excessive zeal.”
And now we have our own US State Department effort – a newly unified Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications, under the directorship of Richard Stengel, whom you may listen to speaking to an NPR reporter about the new strategy here. He stated they’re looking for “credible new voices” (like Muslim Imams opposed to ISIS, former Islamic terrorists, etc.). In other words, our government once again is on a search for illusive “moderate Muslims” to aid our fight, so expect this effort to work out as well as the search for those illusive “moderate Syrian rebels”. And for those who want to say the administration is on the ball, catch this part in a February 16, 2015 New York Times report, “U.S. Intensifies Efforts to Blunt ISIS’ Message”:
““We’re getting beaten on volume, so the only way to compete is by aggregating, curating and amplifying existing content,” Richard A. Stengel, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, said by telephone on Monday. Until now, he said, the efforts to counter ISIS could have been better coordinated.
Many of the plan’s details are still being worked out, but administration officials are expected to describe at least its broad outlines during three days of meetings, sponsored by the White House and beginning Tuesday, intended to showcase efforts underway in the United States and abroad to combat what the authorities call violent extremism.”
In case you missed it: : “Many of the plan’s details are still being worked out” , in other words, President Obama once again announced another #nothingburger “plan”. Want some fries and Heinz ketchup with yours John Kerry? Never fear though, those cheerleaders at the US State Department have their hashtag signs and tweets ready to fight the Islamic State…. One, two, everyone #Yes, We Can….
Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Islam, Military, Politics, Terrorism, The Media
A Naked Phrase Goes Clothes Shopping
By Minta Marie Morze
The President in the 2015 SOTU used the terms “fearful and reactive”. He also used the phrase “violent extremist”.
Consider these lines from the SOTU:
“Will we approach the world fearful and reactive, dragged into costly conflicts that strain our military and set back our standing? Or will we lead wisely, using all elements of our power to defeat new threats and protect our planet?”
Here, I believe: “Fearful” could translate to, for example, the NRA, Bible Clingers, Pro-Lifers, Tea Partiers, the Right, and so forth. “Reactive” could be a reference to the known term ”Reactionary”, which means Conservatives, the Right Wing, Climate Change Deniers, and in short, it also could include everyone who is “fearful”, etc.: the “Fearful Reactionary Them” on the Right against whom the Progressive “Courageous Anointed Us” is in perpetual conflict.
People wonder why the President and his Administration won’t use the phrase “Jihadi violent extremism” or “Muslim violent extremism”. Even in the SOTU, he used the term “violent extremism”. He has said elsewhere that he is going to convene an international conference on “Violent Extremism”.
From the SOTU:
“. . . and assisting people everywhere who stand up to the bankrupt ideology of violent extremism.”
While there are many reasons for the Administration to insist on these terms and against the others, against any term relating to Islamists, I believe that a major reason for the omission—a very, very important reason—is simply this:
If you use the phrases “Jihadi Violent Extremism” or “Muslim Violent Extremism”, and if you call for an international conference to deal with the problem, then Islamist Violence/Terrorism will be what it is about. If you simply say “violent extremism” and “violent extremist”, you can have conferences and make laws and policies and regulations about generic “Violent Extremists”. Then, at any time, by inserting numerous qualifiers before the term, you can make the laws, regs, and policies turn, with full force of the law, against all of the people and groups on the Right, all of those “fearful and reactive” people who hurt the Progressives.
“Pro-Life Violent Extremists”
“Tea Party Violent Extremists”
“NRA Violent Extremists”
“Right-Wing Violent Extremists”
See how easy it is? Now all the laws and regs and policies made to deal with “violent extremism” apply to these factions too!
A naked phrase can be dressed in any attire you choose to clothe it in. Just select the necessary qualifier. After all, note how the Administration’s spokespeople carefully say things like, “There are many people who use violence to further their cause”, and other such phrases. (It’s called “priming the pump” or “preparing the ground” or “working the room”.)
Examples:
JOSH EARNEST [WH Spokesman]: Because violent extremism is something that we wanna be focused on and it’s not just — it’s not just Islamic violent extremism that we want to counter there. There are other forms of –
Martha Maccallum of FOX interviews a spokeswoman for the State Department:
MARIE HARF: . . . . But that’s not the only way that you counter this kind of extremism. Much of it Islamic, you’re absolutely right, but some of it not. So we’re gonna focus on all the different kinds of extremism with a heavy focus on people who do this in the name of Islam, we would say falsely in the name of Islam, but there are other forms of extremism. . . . . Well, I — I — I think all of these leaders have made very clear the serious threats we face. If you look at the president’s speech at West Point, if you look at the things Secretary Kerry has said. It’s not as easy as — as defining at the way you just did. We have to look at each threat individually. All of those threats you just mentioned are from different groups and different places.
[Interviewer MARTHA MACCALLUM asks: “Tell me, what other forms of extremism are particularly troubling and compelling to you right now?”]
HARF: Well, look, there are people out there who want to kill other people in the name of a variety of causes. Of course, Martha, we are most focused on people doing this in the name of Islam. As we’ve talked about with ISIL, part of our strategy to counter this extremism is to have other moderate Muslim voices to stand up and say, they don’t represent our religion. They speak for their religion more than we do certainly, and we need those voices to stand up in addition to all the other efforts we’re undertaking.
And we can add qualifiers like “Hate-Speaking Violent Extremist”.
This can be tied all together, those who speak, incite, behave, etc., in ways that make any qualifying faction a “Designated-Group Violent Extremist”.
“White Privilege Violent Extremist”
Note that, still in the 2015 SOTU, the President said:
“A better politics is one where we appeal to each other’s basic decency instead of our basest fears.
A better politics is one where we debate without demonizing each other; where we talk issues, and values, and principles, and facts, rather than “gotcha” moments, or trivial gaffes, or fake controversies that have nothing to do with people’s daily lives.
A better politics is one where we spend less time drowning in dark money for ads that pull us into the gutter, and spend more time lifting young people up, with a sense of purpose and possibility, and asking them to join in the great mission of building America.”
“Fearful-Demonizing-Gotcha-Fake-Controversy Contriver-Dark-Money-Ad-Producing-Guttersniping Violent Extremist”
So of course I remember the President’s UN speech in 2012, which words I noted at the time, where he said:
“Today we must declare that this violence and intolerance has no place among our united nations.
“In this modern world, with modern technologies, for us to respond in that way to hateful speech empowers any individual who engages in such speech to create chaos around the world. We empower the worst of us if that’s how we respond.
“However, I do believe that it is the obligation of all leaders in all countries to speak out forcefully against violence and extremism.
“It is time to marginalize those who, even when not directly resorting to violence, use hatred of America or the West or Israel as the central organizing principle of politics, for that only gives cover and sometimes makes an excuse for those who do resort to violence. That brand of politics, one that pits East against West and South against North, Muslims against Christians and Hindu and Jews, can’t deliver on the promise of freedom.
“It is time to leave the call of violence and the politics of division behind.
“It’s time to heed the words of Gandhi, “Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit.”
“And we must remain engaged to assure that what began with citizens demanding their rights does not end in a cycle of sectarian violence.”
Yah, we all know that citizens demanding their rights leads to violence. With this reasoning, any laws against “’Qualifier’ Violent Extremists” and “’Qualifier’ Violent Extremism” can magically transform to deal with “the demand for rights”, “intolerance”, “hate speech”, “division”, “factions”, etc. Repeating what the President told the UN, (ignoring a Prog ruse de guerre, the ”baseball, motherhood, and apple-pie”-sort of invocation of “America”, “the West”, and “Israel”, which verbalization is a normal Progressive subterfuge):
“It is time to marginalize those who, even when not directly resorting to violence, use hatred of America or the West or Israel as the central organizing principle of politics, for that only gives cover and sometimes makes an excuse for those who do resort to violence.”
Gosh! We wouldn’t want anyone, while themselves “not directly resorting to violence”, to do anything to “give cover to” or “excuse” “those who do resort to violence”.
“Fearful-Demonizing-Gotcha-Fake-Controversy Contriver-Dark-Money-Ad-Producing-Guttersniping-Not-Violent-Themselves-But-Givers-Of-Cover-To-Or-Excusing Violent Extremists or Extremism”
They.Must.Be.Stopped.
So, as a closing thought, maybe there are more reasons than people have suggested for why the President and Holder didn’t attend what was, after all, a demonstration in favor of “Free Speech”, including speech that “incites” and “offends”—you know, like “Hate Speech”.
A demonstration that marched against, oh, you know, “They-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-By-Anybody-At-Any-Time Violent Extremists”.
Filed under Culture Wars, Food for Thought, Foreign Policy, General Interest, Islam, Politics, Terrorism, The Media
Journalists and Jihadis at The American Thinker
Read more of G. Murphy Donovan’s excellent article!
Filed under Culture Wars, Foreign Policy, Islam, Terrorism, The Media
A memorial?
Last month, I came across reports in several conservative blogs, quoting a CNN story about Mike Brown, of #Ferguson fame, residing in an unmarked grave. The timeline speaks of priorities. Mike Brown died August 9, 2014. He was buried August 25, 2014. His mother, Lesley McSpadden and a group of thugs, allegedly attacked Mike Brown’s grandmother and a group of friends and family selling “Justice for Mike Brown” T-shirts on October 18, 2014. McSpadden and her group allegedly stole $1500 worth of merchandise, $400 cash and one person went to the hospital for injuries sustained in the attack.
This grieving mother could gather a gang to fight over who should profit from her son’s death, while her son lies in an unmarked grave. The MSM and black grievance industry have been carting McSpadden and her drug dealer husband, Louis Head around to drum up anti-police sentiment and fuel racial tensions, yet she hasn’t even had a headstone or marker put on her son’s grave. Likewise, the family of Staten Island police victim, Eric Garner,has been in a media whirl too. Garner was buried in July 2014 in a cemetery in Linden, NJ and surprisingly his grave also sits untended and unmarked.
Now, to complete this bizarre tale of memorializing the dead, along comes this story today of a Ferguson police officer, Timothy Zoll, being put on administrative leave for referring to a makeshift pile of mementos in the middle of the street, euphemistically dubbed a “Mike Brown Memorial”, as a pile of trash. Someone drove through the memorial in the middle of the street and idiots, yes, I said idiots posted photos of the carnage wrought and also if you scroll down there’s a photo of the memorial restored.
Is this really what memorializing the dead has come to in America – a pile of stuffed animals, dead flowers and assorted cheap bric-a-brac placed in the middle of a street? Where’s the outrage that all of these people profiting from Mike Brown’s death, to include his mother, can fight over T-shirt revenues before even caring for his grave? The silence is deafening. Yet, the Washington Post wants to sensationalize the police officer speaking the truth – it’s a pile of trash in the middle of the street.
Perhaps, at some of these protests, the black grievance leaders can take up a collection for decent headstones for the black men, whose names they’ve cheaply commercialized, with catchy, “hands up” and ” I can’t breathe” advertising gimmicks, to further their political aims.
If that months old, moldering pile of trash in the middle of the street is a memorial to a young life lost in America, the devaluation of human life plummeted far lower than most of us could ever have imagined.
Filed under Culture Wars, Food for Thought, General Interest, Politics, The Media, Uncategorized
Another lone wolf homegrown terrorist?
Some quick links with information on the assassin,Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley , who murdered two NYC police officers yesterday. Guess the PC MSM doesn’t want to follow clues or uncover unpleasant facts.
Patrick Poole, superb intelligence reporter for PJ Media offers:
Thomas Lifson, reporter extraordinaire at The American Thinker adds:
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/12/cop_killer_brinsley_may_have_been_a_jihadist.html
Filed under Culture Wars, General Interest, Islam, Politics, Terrorism, The Media
Civil order first
Justice For Jessica Chambers Murder Claims,
Sundance at http://theconservativetreehouse.com/ recently stated the following misleading information about Jessica Chambers;
“I know Jessica was not out of the Leah House as mom and dad claim. That was a lie, or misspeak, dunno. But Jess was only out since end of Nov. So maybe only a week.”
Sundance is obliviously a harbinger that will state a lie as fact to add creditability to his speculative theories and self importance.
The fact is Jessica Chambers had been out of Leah’s House since October, because she started her new job working for Goody’s (Batesville) sometime in October.
Jessica Chambers’ mother said her daughter “Jessica came home Friday night after ending her shift at Goody’s Department Store in Batesville, where she had recently started working“.
Listen carefully to phone interview with Bria Lundy Goody’s Director of PR at 00:59 in the video at the link below.
The claims Sundance at http://theconservativetreehouse.com/ makes should always be checked and rechecked for truth and accuracy!
#justiceforjessica #jessicachambers”
I began responding to TexasRanger’s comment, but then ran on so long that making it a post seemed better. So here goes, I’m climbing on my soapbox as I type. Grab a cup of coffee, because I ran lonnng here:-)
Your point about checking and rechecking for truth and accuracy should be emblazoned on a banner in every newsroom in America.
This case caught my attention, because of its similarities to the Deandre Joshua murder in Ferguson. I’ve sensed a racial bias, meaning it’s easier to look for the best in one race’s behavior than another, in many of the comments at the Conservative Treehouse. This same bias happens after all these big black and white crimes that catch national media attention. The polling on everything from Rodney King, OJ, on to the present Michael Brown, and Eric Garner cases, shows this clearly. Racial hatred, where racial bias festers into something very ugly and dark, on the other hand, exists on both sides and in a place like MS, it’s frequently out in the open.
From what I have seen at the CTH, in this case, they’ve allowed themselves to form an emotional attachment to the victim, and initially approached this crime as “an innocent white girl, minding her own business, was set upon by a black gang”. The post where they photoshopped Jesssica’s head onto an angel’s body, clearly makes my point. They’ve invested a lot of time into understanding and rationalizing the motives for her bad choices, when evidence-gathering should be a setting down of facts – as emotionally detached as possible. I still believe that sundance works hard to uncover facts and if he realizes he posted an incorrect fact, he’ll correct it. With the volume of comments at his blog and people sending him information, it’s easy to make a mistake.
There’s nothing wrong with feeling horror and demanding justice but in America, lady justice wears a blindfold for a reason. It’s not just the Jessica Chambers case that the mainstream press walked away from. They walked away from the Deandre Joshua murder too, preferring to cling to the Michael Brown mythological victim story. If you look at the photo of Jessica and her first gangster boyfriend, Bryan Rudd, both of them, look so young and innocent and while it’s easy to cast him as a gangster, both of these kids got involved with a gang, got into drugs and police records that came to light, thus far, show Jessica had two arrests for assault and Rudd has a quickly expanding criminal record. Further digging might uncover more crimes committed by both, but the point is – here is America’s future, decimated by crime and drugs. Look at the picture of Deandre Joshua, drug dealer, whose family hoped for so much more for him.
The Chambers and Joshua cases struck me as being similar – gang-related, possibly the victims being perceived as snitches. That’s what caught my attention. I am not an investigator, I’m a mom, a grandma and I work in an ordinary blue-collar job at a store. In recent years I’ve talked to so many Jessicas, Deandres and Bryans at work and lamented the waste of human potential from America’s poor communities. I also have experience with a child who got into drugs in college and know that heartbreak and anguish first-hand. I realized that Deandre, just like Jessica, had gotten involved with drugs and a gang.
Even Michael Brown, with his sorry mother and her drug-dealer boyfriend/husband, should shout that we need to save our kids, if America is to have a future. In America – we’ve got a serious gang problem, a serious drug problem and a lingering race problem and instead of fixating on “racism”, we need to deal with the crime and drugs robbing our kids of a future. We must preserve civil order first! While some of us who served in the military have sworn an oath to defend and protect The Constitution, we’ve got hard work ahead to teach our young people, that screaming about your civil rights is secondary to following the rule of law and carrying out your duties as good citizens. We’ve all got to respect the rule of law and each other, or our Republic will collapse.
“United we stand, divided we Fall”
Filed under Culture Wars, General Interest, Politics, The Constitution, The Media, Uncategorized
Crime in black and white…. not really
If you want an objective character reference, let’s all agree that parents and family members should be excluded. Here, in black and white, are two horrendous murders with some disturbing similarities, yet in all likelihood no easy pop culture, politicized race banner waving connection exists. Yes, both victims were set ablaze inside their cars and died unimaginably gruesome deaths, on that point there’s no debate.
The night of the Ferguson grand jury decision, Deandre Joshua, 20 was murdered – shot in the head while inside his car and then his car was set on fire. Details related, please take with a few extra grains of salt, because the facts might be completely different than the reporting. So, a photo of a much younger Deandre hit the press (Trayvon Martin anyone), and reporters gathered all sorts of quotes from assorted family members… “employed at Wal-mart”, “never in trouble”, “good kid”, etc., etc., etc. Here’s that photo from the Huffington Post.
Most of us don’t have the time to research new reports, in fact, there’s a presumption that the professional journalists would employ an ethical standard, whereby scrupulous fact-checking would be the rule. This sweet-faced young man’s face stuck with me, leaving a feeling of deep sadness, and I wanted there to be some connection, as the blogosphere buzzed, with Joshua’s death being because he was a grand jury witness. Officials in Ferguson stated Joshua was not a grand jury witness. Yet, Joshua, the good kid with a job, was friends with Dorian Johnson, who was present with Michael Brown during the commission of a strong arm robbery and also at the scene during the confrontation between Brown and Officer Wilson.
Alas, today, weeks later, I came across other photos of Deandre Joshua, ostensibly gleaned from his social media. A very different picture emerged as I reviewed these photos of Joshua, the Wal-mart employee, flashing big wads of cash. According to GotNews:
“Media outlets all over the planet reported on the death of DeAndre Joshua as the “First Ferguson Riots Fatality.” They ran with a years-old photo of Joshua taken in high school.
He was, in fact, a drug dealer, according to both law enforcement sources and his Facebook page.”
Now, the next crime up, that has the press once again talking to the grieving parents, is the horrific death last weekend of Jessica Lane Chambers, 19, from MS. Details to emerge assert she was doused with lighter fluid and set ablaze. The blogosphere’s been abuzz with assertions that she had ended an abusive relationship with a black boyfriend. Her mother stated that Jessica was just going to wash her car and pick up fast food Saturday night – perfectly innocent. Maybe that’s true. The Treepers over The Conservative Treehouse blog once again are putting together all the loose threads about this case. They offer photos of the crime scene, aerial view of the area and a timeline they’ve pieced together, with the missing data that might reveal what really happened:
“Her vehicle entered the gas station from North, headed South. Her model car (2005 Kia Rio) gas tank access is on the drivers side of the vehicle.
She then leaves the gas station headed again in a Southbound direction at approximately 6:32pm. Her home is in the opposite direction, North.
Approximately 90 minutes later the fire department responded to the call at Herron Road. What happened between 6:30 and 8:00pm is the unknown timeframe.
According to her mom, Lisa Chambers, either she called home -or her mom called her- at 6:48pm. Prior to that call when Jessica left home she stated she was going to “clean her car”, and then “get something to eat”. Jessica was wearing PJ style camo (black and white) pants, possibly flannel, and a dark zip-up hoodie.”
The press ran with photos of this young woman, provided by family, show a younger, very innocent-looking blond girl. Perhaps the truth will support neither the racial angle to the story some are promoting nor the completely hapless victim angle. There’s more to why she was at this isolated area. Time and more digging will uncover the facts, but my hunch is that instead of race or politics, maybe drugs played a central role in both crimes, providing that link that crosses racial, socio-economic and political boundaries. Just a thought…
Filed under Culture Wars, General Interest, Politics, The Media
libertybelle diaries 