Barack Obama seen nodding in approval…

Via The Blaze

HT: Milton

Sorry, still not buying it…

(WhiteHouse.gov) — President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, along with daughters Sasha and Malia, sing during services at St. Michael’s Chapel at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kailua, Hawaii, Dec. 26, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

HT: HAP

Oh noes, da Joooos are watching us!…

Tehran, Iran (AP) – Iran on Tuesday hanged an Iranian convicted of spying for the country’s archenemy Israel, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Ali Akbar Siadati had been accused of providing Israel with classified information on Iran’s military capabilities, including details about military maneuvers, bases, operational jet fighters, military flights, air crashes and missiles, IRNA reported.

Separately, another Iranian was hanged Tuesday for membership in an exile opposition movement, IRNA reported.

Over the past decade, Iran has stepped up its domestic military production, including missiles capable of reaching Israel and beyond — aiming, Tehran says, to defend the country from Israel and the U.S. amid Iranian concern they might strike its nuclear facilities.

JAMES LEPORE’S NEW NOVEL, BLOOD OF MY BROTHER, RELEASED

AVAILABLE ON AMAZON AND WHEREVER ONLINE BOOKS ARE SOLD

Beyond blood. . . .

Beyond brotherhood. . . .

There lies . . . revenge and redemption.

For Jay Cassio and Isabel Perez, two people with dark pasts, their quest for justice will bring them face to face with Mexico’s terrifying drug underworld and a destiny they can’t deny.

Critics called James LePore’s first novel A World I Never Made, “remarkable” and “compelling.”

Now comes Blood of My Brother, a novel of love and violent rebirth like none you’ve ever read.

More about Mr. LePore, his novels and short stories, at jamesleporefiction.com.

Note: Any advertisers interested in running a stand-alone ad post on WZ please email me weaselzippers@yahoo.com.

Update to D-Lo’s post from earlier today.

HONOLULU — The White House confirmed Monday that President Obama praised Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie giving a second chance to quarterback Michael Vick, who went to play for the team after serving time in prison for running a dog fighting ring.

“The president did place a call to Mr. Lurie to discuss plans for the use of alternative energy at Lincoln Financial Field, during which they spoke about that and other issues,” deputy White House press secretary Bill Burton said in a statement. “He of course condemns the crimes that Michael Vick was convicted of but, as he’s said previously, he does think that individuals who have paid for their crimes should have an opportunity to contribute to society again.”

On Monday Peter King of Sports Illustrated reported that Lurie said Obama told him during a recent phone call that “so many people who serve time never get a fair second chance.”

Lurie reportedly described the president as “passionate about it.”

“He said it’s never a level playing field for prisoners when they get out of jail,” King said Lurie told him. “And he was happy that we did something on such a national stage that showed our faith in giving someone a second chance after such a major downfall.”

Flashback: Robert Byrd’s all-time classic Senate-floor rant on Michael Vick…

Siamese twins are un-Islamic, who knew?…

(Emirates 24/7) — A prominent Saudi Muslim scholar has called for the abortion of women found to be pregnant of Siamese twins to save what he described as moral and psychological losses to the family.

Nasser Al Miman, a member of the Makkah-based International Islamic Fiqh (jurisprudence) Academy, made the comments during a seminar dedicated to Siamese twins and the latest medical developments in their separation.

“Miman called for the abortion of the twins if they are found to be Siamese,” the Saudi Arabic language daily Alhayat said in a report from Makkah on Monday.

“He said women pregnant with twins should undergo pre-delivery tests . . . if the tests show they are Siamese twins, she should be allowed to abort them because the delivery of these twins will inflict moral, psychological and financial losses on the twins themselves and their family.”’

Alhayat said several doctors and scholars discussed issues related to Siamese twins at the Academy, an affiliate of the Organization of Islamic Conference.

Still seems way too high…

(The Hill) — Public support for a key element of President Obama’s healthcare reform law is slipping after a federal judge ruled the provision is unconstitutional, according to a poll released Monday.

A CNN/Opinion Research poll showed that only 38 percent now favor language “requiring all Americans who do not have health insurance to get it.” Support fell six points from August, when it was at 44 percent. Opposition to the provision has risen to 60 percent from 56 in August. Support for the individual mandate was at a high in November, when 49 percent said they backed it.

The poll comes after a Virginia federal judge appointed by President George W. Bush struck down the provision, dealing the Obama administration’s healthcare law its first major defeat in the courts.

Experts expect the dispute to reach the Supreme Court; two previous challenges to the mandate were defeated in Virginia and Michigan by judges appointed by President Clinton.

The individual health insurance mandate is regarded as a central element of the law, but the administration has argued that the law could survive even if the mandate is eventually struck down.

Out of 34 al-Qaeda messages, Gitmo is mentioned 3 times compared to 652 references to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict…

(Weekly Standard) — During a press conference on December 22, President Obama was asked about the difficulties his administration has encountered in trying to close Guantanamo. The president explained (emphasis added):

Obviously, we haven’t gotten it closed. And let me just step back and explain that the reason for wanting to close Guantanamo was because my number one priority is keeping the American people safe. One of the most powerful tools we have to keep the American people safe is not providing al Qaeda and jihadists recruiting tools for fledgling terrorists.

And Guantanamo is probably the number one recruitment tool that is used by these jihadist organizations. And we see it in the websites that they put up. We see it in the messages that they’re delivering.

President Obama and his surrogates have made this argument before, but they have provided no real evidence that it is true. In fact, al Qaeda’s top leaders rarely mention Guantanamo in their messages to the West, Muslims and the world at large.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has reviewed translations of 34 messages and interviews delivered by top al Qaeda leaders operating in Pakistan and Afghanistan (“Al Qaeda Central”), including Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri, since January 2009. The translations were published online by the NEFA Foundation. Guantanamo is mentioned in only 3 of the 34 messages. The other 31 messages contain no reference to Guantanamo. And even in the three messages in which al Qaeda mentions the detention facility it is not a prominent theme.

Instead, al Qaeda’s leaders repeatedly focus on a narrative that has dominated their propaganda for the better part of two decades. According to bin Laden, Zawahiri, and other al Qaeda chieftains, there is a Zionist-Crusader conspiracy against Muslims. Relying on this deeply paranoid and conspiratorial worldview, al Qaeda routinely calls upon Muslims to take up arms against Jews and Christians, as well as any Muslims rulers who refuse to fight this imaginary coalition. . .

By way of comparison, all of the following keywords are mentioned far more frequently: Israel/Israeli/Israelis (98 mentions), Jew/Jews (129), Zionist(s) (94), Palestine/Palestinian (200), Gaza (131), and Crusader(s) (322). (Note: Zionist is often paired with Crusader in al Qaeda’s rhetoric.)

Keep reading…

Tragedy averted…

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 26: The Ahmadi police acting on information to a well-prepared camp in Julai’a and prevented people from holding a Christmas party, reports Al-Anba daily.

According to a police source the owner of the camp had organized the party and people who arrived for the party had allegedly paid KD 200 each. The attendance for the party was through invitation only.

The invitation was ‘exclusive’ for couples only. The fee included booze and food. When a police party raided the camp, they found a well-organized bar, six candle-lit bedrooms. However, when the raiding party arrived, there was nobody except for the Asian guard.

HT: ROP

Abandoning Iraqi Christians after the invasion to die at the hands of Islamist animals is a blight on America’s soul….

(The Hill) — Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill are fervently pressing the White House to stem mounting attacks on Christians in Iraq.

Since 2004, 40 Christian churches and institutions have been bombed, according to the Chaldean Assyrian Syriac Council of America, seven on the eve of Orthodox Christmas alone in 2007.

In a recent letter to President Obama, the group warned that the current situation “promises more innocent Christian blood in Iraq, more turmoil in that country, and more shame for America.”

Lawmakers hope they can steer the attention of the White House to the intensifying violence.

Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), the only Assyrian member of Congress and a close friend of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), remembers well listening to her grandparents’ stories of family members being slain or fleeing the region, as they did when they came to the United States.

“History is repeating itself,” the congresswoman somberly told The Hill.

Eshoo and the co-chairman of the Religious Minorities in Iraq Caucus, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), have been trying to bring awareness to the plight of Christians in Iraq since the invasion of that country by coalition forces upended the sectarian dynamic, provided fertile ground for extremist groups such as al Qaeda to take root and put religious minorities under new pressure.

Holy shnikes!..

(CNSNews.com) — The federal government has accumulated more new debt–$3.22 trillion ($3,220,103,625,307.29)—during the tenure of the 111th Congress than it did during the first 100 Congresses combined, according to official debt figures published by the U.S. Treasury.

That equals $10,429.64 in new debt for each and every one of the 308,745,538 people counted in the United States by the 2010 Census.

The total national debt of $13,858,529,371,601.09 (or $13.859 trillion), as recorded by the U.S. Treasury at the close of business on Dec. 22, now equals $44,886.57 for every man, woman and child in the United States.

In fact, the 111th Congress not only has set the record as the most debt-accumulating Congress in U.S. history, but also has out-stripped its nearest competitor, the 110th, by an astounding $1.262 trillion in new debt.

An earlier Obama bowling outing — the one where he scored 37.

Not for nothing, it sounds like even I bowl better than President Obama and I totally suck. Wonder if Sasha and Malia outscored him?

(MercuryNews.com) — President Barack Obama is passing the time on a cloudy, rainy Hawaiian day with a family trip to the bowling alley.

The president, 12-year-old Malia and 9-year-old Sasha arrived at the bowling alley at Marine Corps Base Hawaii on Monday afternoon. It’s the same base where the president plays golf and where the first family uses a private beach.

The Obamas haven’t had much in the way of beach weather since the president arrived here Saturday. More rain is forecast throughout the week.

While Obama is a frequent golfer and basketball player, he hasn’t proven himself to be an expert bowler. A 2008 campaign stop at a Pennsylvania bowling alley proved an embarrassment for Obama when he bowled a 37.

Barry, do it for your loverboy…

“I am not a birther. I am an enemy of the birthers. This is an actual birth certificate in the state of Hawaii. This on the other hand is what they release to the public, a thinner form. It’s digital of course, doesn’t have signatures on it, and to the birthers is evidence he really ain’t one of us. Clarence, is this going to help if we get more documentation and second question, why has the President himself not demanded they put out the initial documents?”

Friday sermons strike again.

The Peninsula — Syria backed attacks on Scandinavian embassies in Damascus as violent protests erupted in early 2006 over the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), according to newly-leaked US government cables.

Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Naji Otri “instructed the Grand Mufti Sheikh Hassoun to issue a strongly worded directive to the imams delivering Friday sermons in the mosques of Damascus without setting any ceilings on the type of language to be used,” a cable from the US embassy in Damascus read.

The document was obtained by WikiLeaks and published yesterday in English by Norwegian daily Aftenposten.

The information in the cable was provided to US officials in Syria by “one of the most influential Sunni religious figures in Damascus,” whose name is erased in the cable. The religious figure told US officials the Syrian government had “allowed the rioting to continue for an extended period” and reacted with serious threats of force to stop it when it felt that “the message had been delivered.”

“This is what you will have if we allow true democracy and allow Islamists to rule,” was Damascus’ message to the West in doing so, the unnamed religious official told the US embassy. But at the same time, the Syrian government wanted to show it was “protecting the dignity of Islam” and “allowing Muslims freedom on the streets of Damascus they are not allowed on the streets of Cairo, Amman or Tunis,” the cable said.

On February 4, 2006, the embassies of Norway and Denmark — which housed the Swedish and Chilean missions — in Damascus were set on fire by protesters voicing their anger at the publication of 12 caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) by a Danish daily. Copenhagen had recalled its ambassador to protest the lack of protection given to the embassy by Syrian officials.

(Fox News) — A leader of Somalia’s Islamist insurgency threatened to attack America during a speech broadcast Monday.

“We tell the American President Barack Obama to embrace Islam before we come to his country,” said Fuad Mohamed “Shongole” Qalaf.

Al-Shabab has not yet launched an attack outside Africa but Western intelligence has long been worried because the group targeted young Somali-Americans for recruitment. About 20 have traveled to Somalia for training and at least three were used as suicide bombers inside Somalia. Al-Shabab holds most of southern and central Somalia and has the support of hundreds of foreign fighters, mostly radicalized East Africans.

It seeks to overthrow the weak U.N.-backed government, which is protected by 8,000 Ugandan and Burundian African Union peacekeepers.

The al-Shabab militia launched coordinated attacks in Uganda in July that killed 76 people. It has also announced its allegiance to Al Qaeda and is believed to be harboring a mastermind of the twin 2008 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people.

The radio message was recorded in the town of Afgoye, near the Somali capital, during a meeting of Shongole and Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, formerly the leader of insurgent group Hizbul Islam. The two insurgent groups had clashed several times previously but announced a merger last week. Aweys said his group will fight under al-Shabab’s command.

“We have united for the sake of our ideology and we are going to redouble our efforts to remove the government and the African Union from the country,” said Aweys on Monday.
(more…)

When out on the lawn there rose such a clatter that I sprang from my mud hut to see what was the matter — BOOM. . .

(CNN) — Two suspected U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal region killed 18 alleged militants Monday, intelligence officials told CNN.

It was the latest in a series of aerial assaults targeting insurgents in North Waziristan, one of seven districts in Pakistan’s volatile tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

In one attack, a suspected drone fired four missiles on a militants’ vehicle in the Mir Ali area of the district, two intelligence officials said. Six people died in the attack.

In the second attack, a suspected drone fired two missiles at a militant hideout in the same district, killing 12, officials said.

Based on a count by the CNN Islamabad bureau, Monday’s suspected drone strikes bring the number to 108 this year, compared with 52 in all of 2009.

(The Hill) — President Obama and the first lady sent out Kwanzaa greetings Sunday on the first day of the seven-day celebration.

“Michelle and I extend our warmest thoughts and wishes to all those who are celebrating Kwanzaa this holiday season,” Obama said in a statement.

“Today is the first of a joyful seven-day celebration of African American culture and heritage. The seven principles of Kwanzaa — Unity, Self Determination, Collective Work and Responsibility, Cooperative Economics, Purpose, Creativity, and Faith — are some of the very values that make us Americans.”

Feel good story of the day…

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli forces killed two Palestinian militants Sunday along the Gaza-Israel border, where a sudden surge in violence has weakened an unofficial truce in place since Israel’s bruising 2009 war there.

The Israeli military said it launched an airstrike after spotting two men trying to plant an explosive device along the frontier, where soldiers patrol.

The Islamic Jihad militant group said two of its members died in a clash with Israeli ground troops. There was no way to immediately reconcile the two accounts.