If your goal is to perfect the art of commie propaganda, you might as well learn from the experts.

(NPR) — “The Associated Press and the North Korean state news agency have signed a series of agreements, including one for the opening of a comprehensive AP news bureau in Pyongyang,” the AP announced today.

The wire service says it will be “the first permanent text and photo bureau operated by a Western news organization in the North Korean capital.” Currently, AP Television News has an office in North Korea that distributes video news.

Via Translating Jihad:

Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan, a member of the Saudi Council of Senior Scholars, explains in this short fatwa that any Muslim who refuses to pray has become an infidel, and therefore must be killed.

This questioner says, “Your Eminence,” he says, “I have a colleague at work who doesn’t pray. I admonished him, but he didn’t respond. I informed the one in authority over us, and told him, ‘He is afraid of being transferred. Admonish him to pray, and threaten to transfer him.’ My colleague then became angry with me. Here’s my question: Is what I did wrong? What is my duty in this situation?”

He who does not pray is not a Muslim, owing to the saying of Muhammad (PBUH): “(The difference) between worship (of Allah), and infidelity and polytheism, is failing to pray.” He also said (PBUH): “The covenant that is between us and them is prayer, and whoever neglects this has become an infidel.” There are numerous evidences in the Qur’an and Sunnah for the fact that he who fails to pray is an infidel. It is not enough for this man to be transferred, but he must be fired from the job. And if he doesn’t repent to Allah and keep his prayers, then he must be killed. He must be called on to repent, but if he doesn’t repent, then he is killed.

Keep reading…

Golf clap.

(Statesman) — Gov. Rick Perry, who is considering a run for the Republican presidential nomination, has sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder asking him to prosecute those who “support a flotilla intended to interfere with Israel’s maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip.”

Perry wrote in a letter dated Tuesday, “According to numerous recent media reports, American citizens and organizations, together with a coalition of violent anti-Israeli organizations from other countries, have organized efforts to breach Israel’s Maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip as early as this week.”

He continued, “The act of funding, supporting, organizing and engaging in these efforts appears to constitute participation in a naval expedition against a people with whom the United States is at peace,” as well as material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization and other violations.

Perry said at least two of the ships are registered in Delaware, including one named “The Audacity of Hope,” which was the title of President Barack Obama’s second book.

The letter concludes, “I respectfully request that the U.S. Department of Justice take immediate steps to investigate, enjoin and bring to justice all parties found to be in violation of U.S. law by their participation in these efforts.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The United States has decided to resume formal contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday, in a step that reflects the Islamist group’s growing political weight but that is almost certain to upset Israel and its U.S. backers.

“The political landscape in Egypt has changed, and is changing,” said the senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It is in our interests to engage with all of the parties that are competing for parliament or the presidency.”

The official sought to portray the shift as a subtle evolution rather than a dramatic change in Washington’s stance toward the Brotherhood, a group founded in 1928 that seeks to promote its conservative vision of Islam in society.

Under the previous policy, U.S. diplomats were allowed to deal with Brotherhood members of parliament who had won seats as independents — a diplomatic fiction that allowed them to keep lines of communication open.

Where U.S. diplomats previously dealt only with group members in their role as parliamentarians, a policy the official said had been in place since 2006, they will now deal directly with low-level Brotherhood party officials.

There is no U.S. legal prohibition against dealing with the Muslim Brotherhood itself, which long ago renounced violence as a means to achieve political change in Egypt and which is not regarded by Washington as a foreign terrorist organization.

But other sympathetic groups, such as Hamas, which identifies the Brotherhood as its spiritual guide, have not disavowed violence against the state of Israel.

The result has been a dilemma for the Obama administration.

Former officials and analysts said it has little choice but to engage the Brotherhood directly, given its political prominence after the February 11 downfall of former President Hosni Mubarak.

Bachmann and Palin are ripped apart by the media for even the slightest of gaffes, something tells me Obama will get a pass on this one. Call it a hunch.

(Politico) — President Obama, who has expressed his fears about his daughter Malia becoming a teenager next month, is apparently dreading her birthday so much that for a brief moment on Wednesday, he thought she had already turned 13.

At a press conference at the White House, Obama suggested that his daughters, who “generally finish their homework a day ahead of time,” could serve as role models for members of Congress.

“Malia’s 13, Sasha’s 10,” the president said, even though 12-year-old Malia still has a few days to go until her July 4 birthday. “It is impressive. They don’t wait until the night before. They’re not pulling all-nighters. They’re 13 and 10.”

In a recent interview on “Good Morning America,” Obama expressed his anxieties about Malia’s upcoming birthday. “I’m not anticipating complete mayhem for the next four or five years, but I understand teenage-hood is complicated,” Obama said.

“I should also point out that I have men with guns that surround them often, and a great incentive for running for reelection is that it means they never get in the car with a boy who had a beer, and that’s a pretty good thing,” he added.

How dare they (gasp) think for themselves!

(RCP) — “Israel today, I’m sorry, it has the most inbred, unimaginative government I think it’s ever had,” Tom Friedman said on “The Charlie Rose Show” this week.

“You can say what you want, all of these American Jews criticizing Obama. ‘He’s anti-Israel.’ It’s all crap, okay. Can I say that on your show? It is pure crap. The guy is trying to do the right thing. He’s not anti-Israel, he’s not anti-Semitic. It’s all nonsense,” Friedman said.

Considering Pelosi’s 28% approval rating, I wouldn’t expect to see Obama touting Nancy’s nauseating endorsement.

(The Hill) — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi praised President Obama for finally jumping into the fray with House Democrats against Republican priorities on taxes, the debt ceiling and job creation.

In a statement after an animated Obama spoke at a press conference on Wednesday, Pelosi (D-Calif.) implied that House Democrats have been fighting alone for their party’s priorities without Obama so far this year.

“Bravo! This is the fight House Democrats have been making for the last six months under the Republican Majority as they move to end Medicare and continue tax breaks for Big Oil,” Pelosi said in a statement.

In his news conference, Obama chastised Republicans on not wanting to raise taxes on the rich, ending tax subsidies on oil companies and for accusing him of not leading on raising the debt ceiling.

“Keep in mind that the business community is always complaining about regulation. When unemployment is at three percent and they’re making record profits, they’re still going to complain about regulations because frankly they want to do whatever they think is going to maximize their profits.”

Of course what the Commie-in-Chief doesn’t say is these capitalist pigs use their evil profits to invest in future growth which results in more jobs.

Note: Quote starts at 3:45 mark.

HT: Fox

Sorry, Dick, a document you may have heard of called the Constitution forbids it.

Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) said in a congressional hearing Tuesday that a young person who is an illegal alien in the United States today may someday become president.

“When I look around this room, I see America’s future, our doctors, our teachers, our nurses, our engineers, our scientists, our soldiers, our congressmen, our senators, and maybe our president,” Durbin said immediately after having asked all young persons in the room to stand if they were currently undocumented aliens who would be eligible to become citizens if the DREAM Act were passed.

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We need another Reagan, this time to liberate America from communism.

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — A statue of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan was unveiled Wednesday in Hungary’s capital, where he was honored for his leadership in helping to end communism.

The bronze 2-meter (7-foot) likeness of the 40th president was erected in Budapest at Freedom Square, near both the U.S. Embassy and a World War II memorial to Soviet soldiers killed during the ouster of the Nazis from Hungary.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban and former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice helped unveil the statue Wednesday.

Reagan was remembered for the aid and encouragement he gave Hungary and other former Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe to gain back their freedom.

Reagan “changed the world and created a new world for Central Europe,” Orban said at the unveiling ceremony. “He tore down the walls which were erected in the path of freedom in the name of distorted and sick ideologies.”

Rice said the cause of the freedom fighters in Hungary’s failed anti-Soviet revolution in 1956 deepened Reagan’s commitment to ending communist rule around the world.

“The men and women of ’56 inspired Americans and all free peoples never again to leave those alone who are struggling for their freedom,” Rice said. “And they inspired most of all Ronald Reagan.”

A large facsimile of Reagan’s signature identifies the statue made by Istvan Mate and a touchscreen monitor nearby provides information about Reagan in Hungarian and English.

HT: David

Anyone else recall the last time we saw a Jewish suicide bomber? Yeah, same here.

(CNS News) — In an implicit admission that Israel is so threatened by terrorism that it is not only surrounded by countries and territories that produce terrorists but also unwillingly harbors terrorists within its own territory in a way the most other nations in the world do not, the Obama administration is currently listing Israel among 36 “specially designated countries” it believes “have shown a tendency to promote, produce, or protect terrorist organizations or their members.”

Also included on the list — separately from Israel — are the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza, as well as Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, the four nations bordering Israel.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General published the list of “specially designated countries” as an appendix to an unclassified May 11 report–”Supervision of Aliens Commensurate With Risk” — that was publicly posted on the Internet. (The appendix is on page 18 of the document.)

As a matter of policy, according to the inspector general’s report, citizens of Israel and other “specially designated countries” are subjected to a special security screening called a “Third Agency Check” (TAC) when they are actually detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the division of the Department of Homeland Security responsible for enforcing the immigration laws.

The five countries on the list that do not have majority Muslim populations — Kazakhstan (47 percent Muslim), Eritrea (36.5 percent Muslim), Israel (16.9 percent Muslim), the Philippines (5 percent Muslim) and Thailand (4.6 percent) — have had internal problems with radical Muslim terrorists, as reported by the State Department.

HT: Yid With Lid

Sweet.

(Rasmussen) — A generic Republican candidate now holds a four-point lead over President Obama in a hypothetical 2012 election matchup. It’s the fifth week in a row that the GOP candidate has been ahead and the widest gap between the candidates to date.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds a generic Republican candidate earns support from 46% of Likely U.S. Voters, while the president picks up 42% of the vote. Three percent (3%) prefer some other candidate, and nine percent (9%) are undecided.

Last week, the Republican held a 45% to 43% advantage. In weekly surveys since the beginning of May, support for Obama has ranged from 42% to 45%, while the Republican has earned 43% to 46% of the vote. Rasmussen Reports will provide new data on this generic matchup each week until the field of prospective Republican nominees narrows to a few serious contenders.

HT: Drudge

NRO’s Jim Geraghty notes these videos were filmed in the Map Room, which is part of the non-residence portion of the White House.

(CNS News) — White House visitor logs reveal that President Obama’s political campaign filmed two campaign videos featuring the president — inside the White House.

Federal law prohibits fundraising by the president in offices used for official business. The White House contends that the mansion’s residential areas do not fall under this prohibition, pointing out that presidents have used the White House for fundraising before without violating the law.

According to the logs, two “OFA Taping[s]” were conducted in November 2010, in the White House Map Room — in the residential area of the mansion. The tapings happened before Obama announced his candidacy for reelection.

OFA is the abbreviation for Obama for America, the official name of the president’s campaign. While he was not officially a candidate for reelection when the tapings were made, Obama has maintained his political operation throughout his presidency.

The tapings were conducted on November 1 and November 3, 2010 in the Map Room. The logs indicate that the meetings were scheduled to be with “POTUS” (President of the United States).

The Map Room, currently used as a private meeting room, also has been used for official business. On June 13, Obama used the room to record a video announcing his Campaign to Cut Waste — an effort to eliminate wasteful spending in government.

According to federal law, “It shall be unlawful for an individual who is an officer or employee of the Federal Government, including the President, Vice President, and Members of Congress, to solicit or receive a donation of money or other thing of value in connection with a Federal, State, or local election, while in any room or building occupied in the discharge of official duties.” (Title 18, subsection 607 U.S.C.)

But it makes the left feel all warm and fuzzy knowing they’re helping to fund abortions.

(Life News) — A new exposé released by Live Action shows Planned Parenthood staff at clinics across Indiana essentially admitting plenty of other options exist for women to obtain legitimate medical care other than at Planned Parenthood centers. That’s even if the abortion business is ultimately de-funded under Indiana law.

Undercover phone calls released today show Planned Parenthood of Indiana abortion business staffers admitting that they are not the only source of women’s health care for women on Medicaid, even though denying women heath care has become the thrust of its argument against losing taxpayer funds. Live Action, the group that recorded the calls, says its footage shows the reality is quite the opposite.

In an official press release, Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards claimed Indiana’s defunding of Planned Parenthood would “take away health care from thousands of women in Indiana.” Yet, last week, Live Action’s undercover investigators called 16 of the 28 Indiana Planned Parenthood centers posing as women on Medicaid concerned about where they could receive services if Planned Parenthood’s funding was not restored.

Planned Parenthood staffers at all 16 locations admitted that women on Medicaid could still have access to medical care after the defunding. Staffers suggested local health clinics or state-assigned primary care physicians for Medicaid patients.

One Planned Parenthood staffer in Michigan City is recorded saying, “Your primary care doctor should be able to do [a Well Woman exam,] I mean, that’s what they’re there for.”

“They have the same services we have,” a Merrillville Planned Parenthood staffer admits.

Fast forward to today and Obama made six different references to evil rich people who fly on private jets.

Via Washington Examiner:

During President Obama’s press conference today, he scolded Republicans for demanding tax cuts for corporate jets.

From the Associated Press in 2009:

Just a few months after lawmakers scolded auto executives for flying to Washington in private jets, Congress approved a tax break in the stimulus package to help businesses buy their own planes.

The incentive — first used to help plane makers recover from the 2001 terror attacks — sharply reduces the up front tax bill for companies who buy assets like business planes.

Of course, because they did such a bang up job stopping the Stuxnet virus.

(TechEye) — Iranian intelligence, which has been a bit run down since the revolution, is attempting to curry favour with the Supreme Leader by claiming that it can defeat the evil satanic CIA backed internet.

Aware that the internet has been responsible for overthrowing autocratic regimes, thanks to keeping the public informed, the CIA has been working out how to set up suitcase sized mini-networks.

If it worked then it would be possible for Iranian people to find out what is really going on, rather than what they are told.

When the Iranians found out “what was going on” in the 1970s, they kicked the CIA-backed thug, the Shah of Iran, off his peacock throne. So the Supreme Leader is very worried that people might find out that there are other flavours of Islam out there which are not so oppressive.

Anyway, Heydar Moslehi, the head of the Iranian intelligence service, has reassured Iranian students that they have nothing to fear from this new technology.

Glorious Iranian researchers, which did such sterling work protecting the country from the Stuxnet worm, can stop this internet in a suitcase technology in its tracks, he said.

HT: Jay

I can think of a few ways to make Obama cry — for starters we could take away his golf clubs.

(Politico) — The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is circulating a fundraising pitch asking donors to “Make John Boehner Cry.”

“We all know it doesn’t take much to make Speaker Boehner get teary-eyed. But let’s give him something to really cry about,” writes DCCC Executive Director Robby Mook in the solicitation. “Just 24 hours from now marks the first mid-year Federal Election Commission (FEC) deadline of the 2012 campaign.”

Full email:

We all know it doesn’t take much to make Speaker Boehner get teary-eyed. But let’s give him something to really cry about.

Just 24 hours from now marks the first mid-year Federal Election Commission (FEC) deadline of the 2012 campaign.

This deadline is so huge that just last week Boehner announced he’s transferring $1 million of his own Big-Oil-tainted funds to our Republican counterparts to give the false impression that they are the ones with the momentum at this critical benchmark.

We can’t let this stand.

We absolutely must exceed Boehner’s cash infusion with over $1 million in grass-roots support of our own. But we need your help immediately.

(Politico) — Violent Islamist groups in Pakistan have coalesced under the Taliban umbrella to become the world’s most significant terrorist threat and are the most capable of obtaining nuclear weapons, according to a report released Wednesday.

The Pakistani “Neo-Taliban,” as the report from the Federation of American Scientists calls the coalition, has emerged as a major threat to the security of the Pakistani state, perhaps posing an even greater one than the country’s longstanding enemy, India.

“They have conducted the most sophisticated, ambitious and operationally complex terrorist attacks in this century,” said Charles P. Blair, director of the Terrorism Analysis Project for FAS. “They can essentially attack at will any time they want.”

The report says the threat posed by the Neo-Taliban is largely the result of a strategic miscalculation by Islamabad after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States — allowing violent Islamist groups such as the Afghan Taliban and Al Qaeda to seek refuge from U.S. troops in Afghanistan and operate in Pakistan’s tribal areas as a buffer against Afghan, U.S. and Indian influence.

The entry of those foreign fighters into the tribal areas led to a dramatic spike in terrorist attacks inside Pakistan, from 29 in 2003 to 1,916 in 2009, resulting in some 30,000 deaths.

“They (the Pakistanis) really played a very dangerous game,” Blair said, “They didn’t think that when the Taliban and Al Qaeda came into the tribal areas that they would target the Pakistani state.”

Pressure from violent Islamists is one of the reasons elements in Pakistan’s government — particularly in the Inter-Services Intelligence agency — continues to support Taliban control in Afghanistan, he said. Lacking confidence in their ability to control the militants, Pakistani officials are looking for a place to dump them, he said. . . .

Numbering between 15,000 and 30,000 fighters, the Neo-Taliban pose such a serious threat because they combine decades of experience against state-sized forces with revenue obtained through the operation of shadow governments and an Islamist ideology that includes strong apocalyptic leanings.