Fast forward to March 2010 and we have Durbin meeting with two unindicted conspirators in the 2008 Holy Land Fund trial (pictured below) and penning a letter of support to CAIR.

(Daily Caller) — The number two Senate Democrat, Richard Durbin, has scheduled a hearing for Tuesday to highlight claims of anti-Muslim discrimination, but his primary Muslim witness has publicly excused a U.S. imam for revealing an FBI investigation to a Muslim suspected-terrorist.

Durbin’s bungled choice for lead witness is another in a series of Democratic flubs that have paired top Democrats with anti-democratic, terror-excusing Islamists in the United States. According to a report released today by the non-profit Investigative Project on Terrorism, Durbin has already added to the flubs this year by visiting a mosque in Bridgeview, Ill., and posing for a photo with two Islamists who were named as unindicted conspirators in an Islamist project to smuggle funds to the Hamas Muslim terror group.

Hamas is an orthodox and militant Muslim terror group that controls the Gaza strip. Since it seized control in 2007, it has allowed numerous missile attacks on Israeli civilian targets and it has established an apartheid-like system of laws that cite Koranic texts to justify formal and informal discrimination and abuse against women, gays and Christians.

According to the IPT’s report, Durbin’s meeting with the Hamas-linked Muslims took place at the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, Ill. The mosque’s website shows a picture, dated March 1, of Durbin posing with nine suited men, and two women wearing dark-cozveralls and tight white scarves. The men include the mosque’s director, Jamal Said, and the mosque’s imam, Kifah Mustapha, according to the IPT report.

Both men were declared to be unindicted conspirators in the 2008 Holy Land Fund trial, which resulted in guilty verdicts for five men who smuggled $12 million to Hamas. The fund’s two founders were both sentenced to 65 years in jail. . . .

Other Democrats have been more careful. In a September 2003 hearing, for example, New York Sen. Charles Schumer declared that “we know [CAIR] has ties to terrorism.” At the same hearing, Durbin declared “from what I have read [CAIR] is unusual in its extreme rhetoric and its association with groups that are suspect.”

Since when did America’s “best interests” include keeping the French and British fully supplied with Libyan oil?

(The Hill) — No sense of precedent guided President Obama’s decision to intervene in Libya, administration officials said Monday.

“We don’t make decisions on interventions based on consistency or precedent,” said Denis McDonough, the administration’s deputy national security adviser, amid an off-camera gaggle of reporters. “We make them based on how we can best advance our interests in the region.”

McDonough was speaking hours before President Obama’s speech Monday night on Libya. He explained that there were compelling reasons to get involved in Libya as opposed to Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and Syria, four other countries in the Middle East where pro-democracy crowds have battled authoritarian governments.

Administration officials wouldn’t outline the contents of Obama’s speech, and McDonough’s remarks suggest Obama is unlikely to lay out any doctrine encompassing the administration’s philosophy for intervening in foreign conflicts.

Is the NAACP branching out into the “Islamophobia” fear-mongering racket?

MANSFIELD — A Mansfield North Central Ohio Tea Party Association event featuring a speaker on radical Islam will go on at 7 p.m. today as planned, but in a different location.

Usama Dakdok will speak at Premier Office Complex, 1456 Park Avenue West, Suite J. Attendees are advised to bring lawn chairs.

The group had planned to meet at its usual location at the high school until this morning, when Mansfield City Schools Superintendent Dan Freund, citing safety concerns, withdrew permission for the group to meet there.

Speaking at a 10:30 a.m. press conference at the school’s central office, 856 W. Cook Road, Freund said that, after consulting with Mansfield City Police, the school decided it could not guarantee public safety at a Mansfield North Central Ohio Tea Party Association event scheduled for 7 p.m.

In his comments, Freund said the district’s decision was prompted by safety concerns and not by the presumed content of the scheduled speaker’s message.

The Mansfield Branch of NAACP followed with a press conference of their own at 11 a.m.

Shortly after 7:30 a.m. today, the NAACP announced it would hold a joint press conference at 11 a.m. to ask the Mansfield City Schools Board of Education and superintendent to withdraw permission for the tea party meeting tonight. Around 10 a.m., the superintendent’s office annnounced a press conference for 10:30 a.m.

According to a press release issued this morning, NAACP will be joined at the 11 a.m. press conference by representatives from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Mansfield Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance and other civic community leaders.

The NAACP press release states: “We must stand together as a community and realize there exists many, diverse cultures in America. We as Americans have a right to choose whatever religion we wish to follow. It is our country’s diversity which has made us a nation rich in cultural experience and our children have a right to know that whatever faith they choose to follow, that they will not be judged by their color or religion, but by the content of their character.”

Pretty please!

(JPost) — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is willing to give up hundreds of millions of dollars of US aid if that is what is necessary to forge a reconciliation deal with Hamas, the Associated Press quoted his adviser as saying on Monday.

Azzam Ahmed stated that “the Palestinians need American money, but if they use it as a way of pressuring us, we are ready to relinquish that aid.”

Abbas met with a Hamas delegation from the West Bank in Ramallah on Saturday to discuss ways of ending the dispute between his Fatah faction and the Islamist movement. It was the first such meeting in more than a year.

It followed Abbas’s recent offer to visit the Gaza Strip for talks with Hamas leaders on achieving Palestinian unity.

The offer has divided Hamas leaders. While some have welcomed it, others have announced that Abbas was unwelcome in the Gaza Strip.

Abbas briefed the Hamas officials on his initiative, saying it was aimed at discussing the formation of a new government that consists of independent figures to prepare for presidential and legislative elections, and rebuild the Gaza Strip.

Predator drone stalks, then virginizes three jihadists.

Leave it to the Euro-commies to make the Obama regime look semi-rational when it comes to this global warming nonsense.

(Telegraph) — Cars will be banned from London and all other cities across Europe under a draconian EU masterplan to cut CO2 emissions by 60 per cent over the next 40 years.

The European Commission on Monday unveiled a “single European transport area” aimed at enforcing “a profound shift in transport patterns for passengers” by 2050. . . .

Top of the EU’s list to cut climate change emissions is a target of “zero” for the number of petrol and diesel-driven cars and lorries in the EU’s future cities.

Siim Kallas, the EU transport commission, insisted that Brussels directives and new taxation of fuel would be used to force people out of their cars and onto “alternative” means of transport.

“That means no more conventionally fuelled cars in our city centres,” he said. “Action will follow, legislation, real action to change behaviour.”

The Association of British Drivers rejected the proposal to ban cars as economically disastrous and as a “crazy” restriction on mobility.

“I suggest that he goes and finds himself a space in the local mental asylum,” said Hugh Bladon, a spokesman for the BDA.

Love it!

A mural depicting vignettes of state and national labor history was removed over the weekend from Maine’s Labor Department headquarters in Augusta, Gov. Paul LePage’s office said Monday morning.

The 11-panel mural that includes images of worker strikes and “Rosie the Riveter” was moved into a storage facility over the weekend, said Dan Demeritt, the governor’s director of communications and legislative affairs. It will be kept in storage until it can be “transfer[red] to a more appropriate venue,” he confirmed to POLITICO.

LePage, a Republican who took office earlier this year, last week ordered the removal of the mural from the department’s lobby, citing complaints from several members of the public, including one who said the images were reminiscent of “communist North Korea, where they use these murals to brainwash the masses.”

Tensions are high in state capitals around the country, where new Republican governors are pushing for changes to state labor laws seen as less friendly to unions in both the public and the private sectors.

“I’m trying to send a message to everyone in the state that the state of Maine looks at employees and employers equally, neutrally and on balance,” LePage said last week. “The mural sends a message that we’re one-sided, and I don’t want to send that message.”

Keep reading…

Coming from a guy who’s bought and paid for by the SEIU, AFL-CIO and a host of other unions.

(The Hill) — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Monday urged Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to ditch members of the Tea Party and cut a deal with Democrats to avert a government shutdown.

Reid insisted it is those GOP internal divisions that are threatening to shut down the government after April 8, in less than two weeks.

“For the sake of our economy, it’s time for mainstream Republicans to stand up to the Tea Party and rejoin Democrats at the table to negotiate a responsible solution that cuts spending while protecting jobs,” he said.

Last week Reid put $7.5 billion in discretionary cuts and $3.5 billion in mandatory savings on the table as a counteroffer to the $51 billion in additional cuts the GOP is seeking.

This week Democrats are mulling upping the offer to $20 billion. But Democratic aides insist it is the divided GOP that must make the next move and come back to the negotiating table, not Democrats who must continue to negotiate with themselves and up their offer.

“I am extremely disappointed that after weeks of productive negotiations with Speaker Boehner, Tea Party Republicans are scrapping all the progress we have made and threatening to shut down the government if they do not get all of their extreme demands,” Reid said in a statement.

Even dumber is the official logo (via CBS’ White House reporter Mark Knoller), it’s the Easter Bunny participating in Queen Michelle’s “Let’s Move” campaign.

(CNS News) — The White House announced Monday that this year’s Easter Egg Roll will be “more environmentally friendly,” including eggs made with wood certified by an environmental activist organization and packaging “to minimize waste and environmental impact.”

The press release issued by the White House states that the eggs will be produced in the United States from hardwood “certified” by the Forest Stewardship Council, a non-profit organization with a presence in 50 countries and a mission “to promote the responsible management of the world’s forests.”

The “greener” packaging for the eggs — available in purple, pink, green and yellow — is made from paperboard certified by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. The paperboard “uses no wood fibers from controversial sources” and the printed carton the egg comes in can be recycled. The packaging is also decorated with vegetable oil-based inks and water-based coatings.

It’s not like anyone believed Big Sis when she made her absurd claims about the border being “safe and open.”

(Washington Times) — The U.S. Border Patrol union says Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s comments reassuring Americans that the U.S. border with Mexico is safe and open for business are “wrong and give citizens a false sense of security.”

“It is time for the political games to stop for fear of insulting the government of Mexico,” the National Border Patrol Council said in a statement. “U.S. citizens are being kidnapped and killed while our Border Patrol agents fight a war at home that no one will allow them to win.

“Not one more Border Patrol agent should fall or citizen be victimized because our government fails to act,” said the NBPC, which represents all 17,500 non-supervisory U.S. Border Patrol agents. “Mexico is hemorrhaging violence, and we are being hit with the splatter.”

Ms. Napolitano told border-area mayors and business leaders in El Paso, Texas, on Thursday that the U.S.-Mexico border is safer than ever, adding that perceptions that the border area is at its most dangerous right now are false.

But. . . but. . . but his middle name is “Hussein.”

(Fox News) — Two years ago, President Obama was cheered in the Middle East and around the world as he toured capital cities on a diplomatic mission of reconciliation following an administration defined by two wars.

Last week looked a little different.

Crowds shouted “down with Obama” in Mali, burned him in effigy in Sri Lanka and, in Spain, brought back a slogan once used to attack George W. Bush — “no more blood for oil.”

Obama’s decision to enter Libya in hopes of preventing a slaughter at the hands of Muammar al-Qaddafi could, despite its best intentions, accelerate a public-opinion shift in some quarters of the world away from the U.S. president.

That shift has been under way for some time. Though polls showed Obama’s popularity soaring as he prepared to deliver his speech to the Muslim world in Egypt in the summer 2009, that affection appeared to have waned by the following year. International polling conducted last summer showed confidence in Obama plummeting in key Muslim countries.

The U.S. intervention in Libya could compound the public-relations trouble the Obama administration is having in the Middle East. His efforts to jump-start the Israeli-Palestinian peace process have fallen by the wayside, and new violence rocked Jerusalem last week; he has not closed Guantanamo Bay as promised and has, to the contrary, brought back military tribunals in a limited capacity; and the administration has struggled in Pakistan to smooth things over after a CIA contractor shot and killed two Pakistani men allegedly trying to rob him.

Bonkers.

(CBN) — New evidence has emerged that the Iranian government sees the current unrest in the Middle East as a signal that the Mahdi — or Islamic messiah — is about to appear.

CBN News has obtained a never-before-seen video produced by the Iranian regime that says all the signs are moving into place — and that Iran will soon help usher in the end times.

While the revolutionary movements gripping the Middle East have created uncertainty throughout the region, the video shows that the Iranian regime believes the chaos is divine proof that their ultimate victory is at hand.

The propaganda footage has reportedly been approved at the highest levels of the Iranian government.

It’s called The Coming is Near and it describes current events in the Middle East as a prelude to the arrival of the mythical tweflth Imam or Mahdi — the messiah figure who Islamic scriptures say will lead the armies of Islam to victory over all non-Muslims in the last days.

“This video has been produced by a group called the Conductors of the Coming, in connection with the Basiji — the Iranian paramilitary force, and in collaboration with the Iranian president’s office,” said Reza Kahlil, a former member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards who shared the video with CBN News.

Keep reading…

Iran has made a huge investment in Pant Suits’ favorite Arab “reformer” Bashar al-Assad and with the Syrian army being composed mainly of Sunni Muslims who are hostile to the Allawite-dominated regime the Mullahs aren’t left with many options other than supplying personnel to put down the rebellion.

Syrian sources announced that residents of the city of Dara’a were able to capture five elements of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards who participated in suppressing the peaceful demonstrations protesting the regime of Bashar al-Asad in Syria, alongside with elements form Hezbollah and Syrian security forces, according to what was reported by the website “Beirut Observer.”

The sources stated: “Residents of Dara’a are holding the five elements in a secret location, and contacted one of the satellite television stations, believe to be al-Jazeera, in order to communicate with them to show the video tape of the prisoners. However, they were surprised half an hour later by Syrian security forces, who demolished the house of one of those who was contacting the satellite station.”

The sources pointed out that, “The Iranian prisoners confessed that each element receives the sum of one million Syrian lira monthly from the Syrian authorities in exchange for participating in suppressing the protesters.”

The sources also stated: “The Syrian security forces are sweeping the city of Dara’a to find those elements before the residents are able to show the video tape and expose the Syrian regime.”

Previous news reports spoke of Mahir al-Asad, the brother of Bashar al-Asad, entering the Syrian city of Dara’a accompanied by 5,000 elements from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, supported by the Fourth Division of the Syrian Army, which was stationed outside the city.

Keep reading…

And don’t forget, tomorrow Dhimmi Durbin is holding his “Islamophobia” congressional hearings.

On March 29, 2011, Senator Durbin will hold Congressional hearings on the status of American Muslims’ civil rights. The hearing is scheduled for 10AM (EST) in Room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C.

The release announcing the hearing said it is in response to the “spike in anti-Muslim bigotry in the last year including Quran burnings, restrictions on mosque construction, hate crimes, hate speech, and other forms of discrimination.”

“Our Constitution protects the free exercise of religion for all Americans,” Durbin said. “During the course of our history, many religions have faced intolerance. It is important for our generation to renew our founding charter’s commitment to religious diversity and to protect the liberties guaranteed by our Bill of Rights.”

Senator Durbin recently sent a letter of support to CAIR-Chicago. Here is an excerpt from the letter:

“CAIR-Chicago advances a greater understanding of the Muslim culture and serves as an essential thread in the multicultural fabric of our nation. Your efforts to advocate for tolerance promote the civil liberties of all communities.” — Dick Durbin

Keep reading…

Watch closely, you can see the truck-mounted rocket launchers firing prior to being bombed.

Am I the only one who finds it hysterical this woman was once a Democratic congresswoman?

by Cynthia McKinney
March 27, 2011

In 2005 in the basement of the United States Capitol at a meeting convened by Congressman John Conyers on the subject of the “Downing Street Memo,” Ray McGovern uttered the following truth: he testified that “the United States went to war in Iraq for oil, Israel, and military bases craved by administration neocons” so that “the United States and Israel could dominate that part of the world.” McGovern went on to testify truthfully that “Israel is not allowed to be brought up in polite conversation. The last time I did this, the previous director of Central Intelligence called me anti-Semitic.”

One can begin to gain an understanding of exactly who these oligarchs are by investigating the financial winners in the oligarchization of the U.S. economy, in much the same way that the Russian oligarchs were created and eventually identified.

Israel was an important beneficiary of these economic operations and Israel has been an important beneficiary of certain U.S. military operations, exactly as McGovern testified.

The clear losers in this process are the people struggling globally for truth, justice, human rights, and peace. And there are clear and identifiable winners — if one dares to look. . . .

The reason Muammar Qaddafi is a target is because he has been a thorn in the side of anti-revolutionary forces since he took power in Libya, overthrowing the King and nationalizing the oil industry so that the people could benefit from their oil resources.

Libya’s Revolution brought free health care and education to the people and subsidized housing. In fact, students in Libya can study there or abroad and the government gives them a monthly stipend while they are in school and they pay no tuition. If a Libyan needs a surgery that must be done overseas, then the government will pay for that surgery. That is more than the soldiers of the United States military can say. While Libyans enjoy subsidized housing, members of the U.S. military risk foreclosure while they serve their country abroad. Money from oil is directly deposited into the accounts of every Libyan based on oil income. As one Libyan told me recently, the idea is that if people have what they need, then they don’t have to deny rights to or harm others and the Revolution believes that it is the responsibility of the government to provide the basic needs of its citizens.

Keep reading…

HT: Anon

President Saleh isn’t going to last much longer and this is only going to get worse, time for the CIA to capitalize and start firing barrages of Hellfire missiles.

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Islamic militants seized control of a weapons factory, a strategic mountain and a nearby town in the southern Yemen province of Abyan Sunday, said a witness and security officials, as a political stalemate in the capital causes security to unravel around the country.

The fragile nation has been rocked by weeks of mass protests against the long-serving president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who refuses to step down.

Saleh’s fate is of deep concern to the U.S. as he is a key ally in the fight against al-Qaida, but with his attention on massive anti-government protests in the capital, security has declined in the provinces.

Residents of the southern Abyan province said police reduced their presence in towns weeks ago. Elsewhere, residents have pushed out police and soldiers and set up their own local militias for self defense.

In the areas they took over, the militants set up checkpoints around the small factory and in the town of al-Husn, patrolling the streets and searching cars, said resident Wahib Abdul-Qader.

They also seized control of a nearby Khanfar mountain that holds a radio station and a presidential guest house, said Ali Dahmash, an expert on Islamic militant groups who lives nearby.

Residents in the nearby town of Jaar, which was seized by the militants on Saturday, said they heard gunfire, but the scope of the battle wasn’t immediately clear.

The area lies close to the southern port town of Aden.

In another province of Yemen, security officials say suspected al-Qaida gunmen killed seven soldiers and wounded seven others in an attack on a military post. The attack took place at Ubaida area in the central Marib province, another province where the militant group is active and only under nominal government control.

UPDATE: Jihadi work accident?

SANAA, YEMEN (AP) — The death toll in an explosion at a south Yemen bullet factory on Monday rose to at least 110, and more bodies were expected to be recovered, doctors said.

They said the dead in the blast in the southern town of Jaar included woman and children in addition to many men.

A blast occurred after residents broke in to steal ammunition, a day after clashes between militants and the army in the town, doctors said.

Witnesses said the blast, possibly caused by a cigarette, caused a massive fire in the factory in the town of Jaar in Abyan province, where Al Qaeda militants and mainly leftist southern separatists are active.

“This accident is a true catastrophe, the first of its kind in Abyan,” said one doctor at the town’s state-run hospital. “There are so many burned bodies. I can’t even describe the situation.”

Doctors put the death toll at between 50 and 55, but said that even arriving at a figure was difficult because the charred remains were difficult to count. They said some victims would be buried in a mass grave.

Are these still Eric Holder’s “people”?

“Barack Obama represents the ideology of the white man, he represents the CIA sabotage set-up sabotage lie on an African leader and bomb that man like he’s George Bush. His wife should leave the n***a tonight and his beautiful daughters should walk out on bamboozling, buck-dancing tom. You should have listened to Lois Farrakhan a long time ago when you were at his table.”

Via Blaze

Still not going to stop the Obama administration’s relentless push to crush the economy with pointless regulations and restrictions.

PRINCETON, NJ — With Earth Day about a month away, Americans tell Gallup they worry the most about several water-related risks and issues among nine major environmental issues. They worry least about global warming and loss of open spaces.

Although the United States has experienced nothing like the mass drinking-water scare that is gripping Japan during its current nuclear crisis, Americans largely recognize the importance of clean water to their lives. All four environmental issues referring to “water” in this year’s Gallup Environment poll rank in the upper tier of environmental concerns, with air pollution a close fifth. Perhaps not surprisingly, there is a slightly steeper drop-off in concern about several issues that aren’t directly related to daily survival, such as the loss of tropical rain forests and urban sprawl. What may surprise some, given the broad exposure the issue has received in recent years, is that global warming ranks lowest — consistent with other Gallup polling — with barely half of Americans concerned and 48% only a little or not at all concerned.

Momentum.

(Al Jazeera) — Rebel spokesman says hometown of Muammar Gaddafi has fallen into their hands as they push westwards. Libyan rebels are claiming to have captured the town of Sirte, the home of embattled Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi.

Shamsi Abdul Molah, a spokesman for the opposition’s National Council, told Al Jazeera that opposition forces had moved into the city at approximately 11.30pm last night (local time).

“They found it an unarmed city. They had no problem getting in there, they did not encounter any resistance,” reported Sue Turton, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Benghazi. Celebratory gunfire was head in Benghazi, the opposition’s stronghold in the east of the country, as news filtered in of the taking of Gaddafi’s hometown.

A column of military vehicles was seen leaving Sirte on Sunday, heading west towards the capital, Tripoli.

Clashes between pro- and anti-government forces continue in other areas, meanwhile. In Misurata, nine people were killed overnight by snipers and shelling by pro-Gaddafi forces, according to a doctor there.

The claim of the opposition taking Sirte, which could not be independently verified, came as their forces, bolstered by coalition air strikes, pushed westwards and seized control of the key towns of Bin Jawad, Ras Lanuf, Uqayla, Brega and Ajdabiya in a rapid advance along the coastline.

Coalition air strikes against targets in Tripoli also resumed on Sunday night with explosions heard in the Libyan capital.

Al Jazeera’s James Bays has been following the rebel offensive which has seen them claim a string of towns and key oil facilities since Friday.

Our correspondent said Gaddafi’s forces appeared to be withdrawing eastwards. Those still in Bin Jawad surrendered without a fight, Bays said.

“It seems there has a been withdrawal and a surrender of Gaddafi forces, not a battle,” Bays said. “They removed some of their vehicles that were not bombed further up the road but they removed these vehicles in haste.”

Rebels were intent on pressing onwards in the direction of Tripoli, Bays said.

The opposition’s National Council now says that it expecting a major battle to occur in the area around Tripoli, as opposed to at Sirte, where stiffer resistance had been expected.