God bless Judicial Watch; they do some fantastic work.

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice (DOJ) for failing to respond to its request for public records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 11-01121)). The documents relate to a decision by the DOJ not to prosecute the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and its cofounder Omar Ahmad, who has been linked by federal investigators to the terrorist group Hamas. The decision not to prosecute reportedly was made over the objections of special agents of the FBI and prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Dallas, Texas.

On May 9, 2011, Judicial Watch sent a FOIA request to the DOJ’s Office of Information Policy (OIP) seeking access to the following:

• The March 31, 2010 memorandum entitled “Declination of Prosecution of Omar Ahmad from
  Attorney General David Kris to Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler.
• “Any and all communications, contacts, or correspondence between the Office of the Attorney General (AG), the Office of Deputy Attorney General (DAG), or the Office of the Associate Attorney General (Assoc. AG) and the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) or any CAIR groups concerning, regarding, or relating to the prosecution or declination of prosecution of Omar Ahmad.”
• “Any all communications, contacts, or correspondence between the Office of the AG, the Office of the DAG, or the Office of the Assoc. AG and the U.S. Congress concerning, regarding, or relating to the prosecution or declination of prosecution of Omar Ahmad”
• “Any and all communications, contacts, or correspondence between the office of the AG, the office of the DAG, or the office of the Assoc. AG and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas concerning, regarding, or relating to the prosecution or declination of prosecution of Omar Ahmad.”

On May 9, 2011, Judicial Watch also filed a similar request with the DOJ’s National Security Division (NSD) seeking access to contacts and correspondence between the NSD and CAIR, Congress, and the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Northern District of Texas regarding the decision not to prosecute. The time frame for these requests is January 20, 2009, to May 1, 2011.

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A legend in his own mind.

(The Hill) — Former presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) thinks he could have done a good job leading the country.

“I would have been a good president,” he said Wednesday on “Imus in the Morning.” “Maybe even a great one.”

Kerry stopped short of agreeing with host Don Imus’s assertion that a President Kerry would have been “better than the guy we have now.”

Kerry, who ran against incumbent George W. Bush in 2004, also touched on the current debt crisis facing the U.S.

President Obama is not in trouble “yet” on the economy, Kerry said.

“We have to get the deficit on the track where people see the revenue and expenditure lines coming together instead of separating and going apart,” he said.

Mind-numbing insanity.

(Daily Caller) — In the latest ‘you’ve got to be kidding’ news from the United Nations, North Korea assumed the presidency of the Conference on Disarmament Tuesday.

“Bare months after the U.N. finally suspended Libya’s Col. Muammar Qaddafi from its Human Rights Council, North Korea wins the propaganda coup of heading the world’s disarmament agency,” the executive director of UN Watch Hillel Neuer said in a statement protesting the move. “It’s asking the fox to guard the chickens, and damages the U.N.’s credibility.”

According to the U.N. summary of the meeting, North Korea’s So Se Pyong addressed the 65-member arms control forum, saying that “he was very much committed to the Conference and during his presidency he welcomed any sort of constructive proposals that strengthened the work and credibility of the body.”

Neuer said that though North Korea’s new role as head of the conference, which reports to the U.N. General Assembly, would likely be justified by the U.N. by saying it was the result of a an “automatic rotation,” such an excuse was not sufficient.

“While the U.N. will likely defend North Korea’s appointment as simply an automatic rotation,” he said, “no system should tolerate such a fundamental conflict of interests. It’s common sense that a disarmament body should not be headed by the world’s arch-villain on illegal weapons and nuclear proliferation, notorious for exporting missiles and nuclear know-how to fellow rogue regimes around the globe.”

Keep reading…

Nothing to see here folks, move along.

(JPost) — Iran has been carrying out covert ballistic missile tests and rocket launches including testing missiles capable of delivering a nuclear payload, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Wednesday.

He told parliament the tests were in clear contravention of UN resolution 1929.

Iran denied the claims.

“None of the missiles tested by Iran is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead,” Ramin Mehmanparast, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeman, told Reuters.

Iran is carrying out a 10-day military exercise in a show of strength it hopes will warn Israel and the United States against any attack.

As part of the exercise, it test-fired surface-to-surface missiles on Tuesday with a maximum range of 2,000 km.

On Wednesday it was also announced that Iran has tested a new radar system. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the Revolutionary Guards’ aerospace division, said the new radar system, called Ghadir, was used for the first time.

“The Ghadir radar has been designed and built to detect airborne targets, radar-evading planes, cruise and ballistic missiles and low-orbit satellites,” he was quoted as saying by the student news agency ISNA.

Love it.

(JPost) — The US Senate passed a resolution late Tuesday threatening to cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority should it seek a unilateral declaration of statehood at the UN.

The non-binding resolution, sponsored by Democratic Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland and co-sponsored by 88 of the body’s 99 other senators, passed by unanimous accord.

The measure declares that the Senate “will consider restrictions on aid to the Palestinian Authority should it persist in efforts to circumvent direct negotiations by turning to the United Nations or other international bodies.”

It also calls on US President Barack Obama to veto any such UN proposal and to lead an international diplomatic campaign against the Palestinian effort.

In addition, the resolution urges the Obama administration to consider suspending aid to the Palestinians in light of the recent unity government agreement between Fatah and Hamas.

Should that deal be implemented, the resolution stated, current law would prohibit the flow of US monies to the new government unless all ministers accepted the right of Israel to exist and honored previous agreements between Israel and the PA.

“The Senate has delivered a clear message to the international community that United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state at this time does not further the peace process,” Cardin said in a statement. “A permanent and peaceful settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can only be achieved through direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.” Maine Republican Susan Collins, who joined Cardin in sponsoring the resolution, warned that “any effort to seek unilateral statehood at the United Nations will have serious consequences for future US aid to the Palestinians.”

Prepare to be shocked.

(USA Today) — Former president Bill Clinton says he would be “surprised” if President Obama doesn’t win re-election next year, even given today’s 9% unemployment rate.

In an upbeat assessment of Obama’s political future and the U.S. jobs picture, Clinton told reporters Tuesday afternoon that several years worth of economic stimulus, bank and auto bailouts, and business incentives are paying off.

The ex-president is trying to do his part. His Clinton Global Initiative will hold two days of meetings in Chicago Wednesday and Thursday in an effort to get hundreds of new commitments from the public and private sectors for job-creating endeavor.

Understatement of the year. Bonus: Talk about hate, read the comments on this Guardian article.

(Guardian) — US politician Sarah Palin described her Hollywood critics as “full of hate” following the world premiere of her new documentary The Undefeated in Iowa last night.

Film-maker Stephen K Bannon’s hagiographical portrayal of Sarah Palin opens with several minutes of footage in which various well-known figures in film and US television offer scathing, often expletive-ridden verdicts on the former Alaska governor and darling of the American right, who is said to be weighing up a tilt at the US presidency next year. Their angry comments are interspersed with news footage of an effigy of Palin being hanged. Among those to be represented are Matt Damon (who likens Palin to “a really bad Disney movie”), Madonna, comic Bill Maher and talk-show hosts David Letterman and Howard Stern.

Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter following the screening at a historic opera house in the small town of Pella, Iowa, Palin said it was the first time she had seen the footage. “It makes you want to reach out to some of these folks and say, ‘What’s your problem? And what was the problem? And what is the problem?’” she said. “What would make a celebrity, like you saw on screen, so hate someone that they’d seek their destruction, their death, the death of their children? What would make someone be so full of hate and, I guess, a sense of being threatened that they would want to see that person destroyed?”

Letterman describes Palin as “slutty” in the footage, while Maher calls her a “dumb twat” on his TV show. Madonna screams “Sarah fucking Palin” while performing at a concert and various other entertainers variously label her a “slut”, “bitch” or use the term “hate” to describe their feelings about her. As the footage ends, a verse from the Bible appears on the screen: “By their fruits ye shall know them.”

Not worrying too much about this, at the end of the day this thing is going to the Supreme Court.

(Fox News) — A federal appeals court in Cincinnati has upheld President Obama’s health care overhaul.

The ruling is the first by a federal appeals court on the overhaul. The three-judge 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel delivered a long opinion Wednesday with disagreement on some issues.

But it affirmed a Michigan federal judge’s earlier ruling that Congress can require Americans to have minimum insurance coverage.

A conservative law center had challenged the provision. It said that it was unconstitutional and that Congress was overstepping its powers.

More than 30 legal challenges have been filed. The case is expected to eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

Israel doesn’t mess around.

(JPost) — Israel sent a message to Syrian President Bashar Assad in recent days, warning him that if he started a war with the Jewish state in order to divert attention from domestic problems, Israel will target him personally, Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida reported on Tuesday.

According to the report, the personal warning was sent through Turkey following intelligence reports of unusual Syrian troop movements, including the moving of long-range ballistic missiles that could be used to target Israel.

The report added that the IDF has increased its preparedness on the northern border out of fear that Hezbollah may attempt to stage another kidnapping of soldiers or civilians along the Lebanese border.

Last month, following deadly attempts to breach Syria’s border with Israel, US-based Syria experts accused the Assad regime of being behind the Naksa Day protests on the Israeli border in order to distract from the prolonged uprising challenging Syria’s rulers.

Class warfare.

(US News) — A proposal that rich Americans and corporations bear the brunt of paying off much of the federal deficit is catching fire as liberals and progressives are urging President Obama not to give in to GOP demands that no taxes be considered in the talks to boost the deficit ceiling. [Read the U.S. News debate: Should Congress raise the debt limit?]

A letter to Obama posted on Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Web site already has 4,500 signatures and that is expected to surge after he addresses the issue in a late afternoon Senate floor speech today.

“Mr. President, please listen to the overwhelming majority of the American people who believe that deficit reduction must be about shared sacrifice. The wealthiest Americans and the most profitable corporations in this country must pay their fair share,” the Vermont Independent urges.

“At least 50 percent of any deficit reduction package must come from revenue raised by ending tax breaks for the wealthy and eliminating tax loopholes that benefit large, profitable corporations and Wall Street financial institutions. A sensible deficit reduction package must also include significant cuts to unnecessary and wasteful Pentagon spending.”

Republicans have rejected new taxes as part of an agreement to trim the deficit and offset the $2.4 trillion boost in the national debt ceiling.

Romney in second? Really?

(The Hill) — The Texas conservative, who’s weighing a late entry into the GOP field, beats other candidates among Tea Party members.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) is the top choice of Tea Party supporters in a Republican presidential candidate, according to a new poll released Wednesday.

The Texas conservative, who’s weighing a late entry into the field of GOP candidates, beats other candidates among members of the Tea Party, the conservative grassroots wing of the Republican Party that’s battling to shape the race for the nomination.

Twenty percent of Tea Party supporters would like to see Perry as the nominee, according to a McClatchy-Marist poll released Wednesday. Perry displaces former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) as the top Tea Party candidate in Marist’s April poll; Huckabee’s since withdrawn from the race.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) is the second choice of the Tea Party, at 17 percent, followed by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) at 16 percent and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) at 12 percent.

The poll suggests that Perry might be well-positioned to seize the mantle of the Tea Party should he choose to enter the race. Bachmann’s made a play for those voters during her announcement this week, and could enjoy increased support after heavy media coverage this week.

Perry makes a strong showing in a test of all Republicans and Republican-leaning independents’ preference in a nominee. Romney leads the pack, at 19 percent, and Perry and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) are tied at second, at 13 percent, followed by Palin at 11 percent.

Update 12:45 PM EST: Press conference is over. Below are the updates as they happened real time.

• Here comes Mr. Wonderful … 9 minutes late.
• “Right now” Congress give me more money.
• “Right now” X 10 times
• Fear mongering on budget cuts.
• “I spent two years cutting taxes” with a straight face.
• “Corporate jet owners” need their taxes raised.
• “Corporate jet owners” X 3 times.
• “Call me naive” ok, you’re naive.
• “Corporate jets” X 4
• “Corporate jets” X 5
• “Corporate jets” X 6
• Another talking point, “time limited, scope limited” in Libya.
• Won’t say if War Powers Resolution is constitutional.
• DOMA is “unconstitutional”
• “I’ve discovered a President can’t dictate” Yes, really.
• NLRB suit against Boeing is okay.
• When asked point blank, refuses to say “victory” is our objective in Afghanistan, only to be “successful”
• “Pathway for illegals” aka amnesty.
• More fearmongering, if debt ceiling isn’t hiked. We’ll pay China and not Social Security.
• Congress ran up this debt, he had nothing to do with it.
• “I am not engaging in scare tactics”
• Invoking his daughters Malia and Sasha for some unknown reason.
• “I’m amused when people say the President needs to show more leadership” . . . “I put Joe Biden in charge of debt talks”
• Complaining about Congress not showing up to work!
• End.

How dare she insult TOTUS!

(LA Times) — There are many ways to get a crowd riled up in New Hampshire, but Michele Bachmann cut to the chase in her first Granite State appearance as a presidential candidate Tuesday.

“Live free or die!” she shouted into the microphone as she stepped on stage — bringing many in the crowd to their feet.

A day after her debut as a 2012 contender in Iowa–where she surged to the top of the field in a Des Moines Register poll released this weekend — the fiery Minnesota congresswoman drew some 300 people to the small, wooded town of Raymond, about 22 miles from New Hampshire’s coast. She followed her opener (New Hampshire’s state motto) by leading the crowd in a chant declaring Barack Obama a one-term president and went on to mock him for “leading from behind” and ridicule his use of a teleprompter.

“President Bachmann will be banning the teleprompter at the White House,” the candidate said to laughter. “You’ll be getting uncut, uncensored — you’ll be getting the unvarnished truth out of the White House because that’s what the American people deserve.”

I always assumed she was a flaming lib, not that I really care one way or another what celebrities think (although I do enjoy mocking their idealistic leftist beliefs), but this is star-struck America we’re talking about and, like it or not, people actually listen to what these people say. Maybe it will open some eyes.

(Forbes) — Lady Gaga, the music industry phenomenon, is surprisingly hawkish in her views on foreign policy. In an exclusive interview, at a café around the corner from her parents’ Upper West Side apartment, she laments what she terms “the pathetic U.S. policy on Iran.”

“They support terrorist groups, ferment trouble in Iraq, and are building a nuclear bomb. And what do we do? Nothing. Not that we do anything about North Korea either. Why are we so spineless?” With that rhetorical question, Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, throws her hands in the air, and takes a sip of water (she’s on a diet). “I mean,” she then continues, “has anyone in the White House ever read Machiavelli or Thucydides?”

I manage to ask whether she feels unwelcome in Hollywood; this provokes anger. “Let’s start with your premise; I disagree with it. Influential liberals like Alec Baldwin may want you to think that celebrities are liberals, but I get a big crowd at my monthly Carl von Clausewitz reading group.”

“Group?” “Yes,” she responds, her tone now indicating that she’s getting more annoyed, “lots of my friends. From Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, 50 Cent, and Kobe Bryant, to Jennifer Aniston, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Oprah Winfrey.” “Hold on,” I say, undeterred by the glare now on her face, “Oprah? But she’s a well-known supporter of President Obama.” “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer,” Gaga replies, “Have you not read Machiavelli?”

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Makes perfect sense.

(POLITICO) — Former President Bill Clinton said he likes the economic stimulus — it just wasn’t big enough.

“I think the stimulus did as well as it could have done — there just wasn’t enough of it,” Clinton told reporters on Tuesday.

President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus bill, signed into law in 2009, has since being a rallying point of contention for Republicans and conservative tea party activists.

Clinton has made his support for the stimulus package clear in the past, telling Fox News in 2009: “I think the stimulus package is well conceived. A lot of it puts money in people’s hands, with the unemployment benefits and the food stamps and the tax cuts. A lot of it keeps the states and local governments from laying off a million more people or having big tax increases with the aid to education and health. And then I think the energy and the infrastructure investments will create the jobs the president wants. So I like the conception of that.”

Will the talking heads on the left slam Durbin as a “religious fanatic” like they do when a conservative invokes religion?

(CNS) — In response to Republican criticism of the DREAM Act, Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.) invoked Moses and the Ten Commandments: “To my knowledge, the only perfect law ever written was on stone tablets and carried down a mountain by Senator Moses,” he said.

Durbin made the remark on Tuesday at a hearing of the Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security. During the hearing, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said the DREAM Act, reintroduced last month, was flawed because it would give the Secretary of Homeland Security the authority to waive provisions of the law on a case-by-case basis.

“Under this version of the Dream Act, a 35-year-old illegal immigrant who’s been convicted of two misdemeanors would be eligible for a green card,” Cornyn said. “And let’s remind ourselves that many misdemeanors are not minor offenses. In many states they include driving under the influence of alcohol, drug possession, burglary, theft, assault and many other serious crimes.”

That’s when Durbin (D-Ill.), who reintroduced the legislation, made his comment about the Ten Commandments.

The Dream Act would allow an illegal alien to gain legal status if he came to the United States with his parents at age 15 or younger; if he has been in America for at least five years prior to the bill’s enactment; and if he meets certain education or military service requirements.

Flashback: Durbin compares American troops to Nazis, Soviets and Pol Pot.

Then again, he has no clear plan to deal with ____ (fill in the blank).

(WaPo) — The top military official involved in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden said Tuesday that the Obama administration has no clear plan for handling suspected terrorist leaders if they are caught alive outside a war zone.

Vice Adm. William H. McRaven told a Senate panel that contingency plans for detaining terrorism suspects are developed on an ad hoc basis and approved by the White House, but that there are no set rules. “That is always a difficult issue for us,” he testified. “No two cases seem to be alike.”

In response to senators’ questions, McRaven said that “in many cases” suspects captured in secret operations by Navy SEALs or the Army’s Delta Force are taken to a U.S. Navy ship until they can be tried in a U.S. court or transferred to the custody of an allied country. But if neither option turns out to be feasible, the prisoner is ultimately let go, he said.

“If we can’t do either one of those, then we will release that individual,” McRaven said in response to a question from Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.). “I mean, that becomes the unenviable option, but it is an option.”

McRaven did not describe any specific cases in which prisoners were freed.

HT: Jay

This should have liberals jumping off roofs.

John Lennon was a closet Republican, who felt a little embarrassed by his former radicalism, at the time of his death — according to the tragic Beatles star’s last personal assistant.

Fred Seaman worked alongside the music legend from 1979 to Lennon’s death at the end of 1980 and he reveals the star was a Ronald Reagan fan who enjoyed arguing with left-wing radicals who reminded him of his former self.

In new documentary Beatles Stories, Seaman tells filmmaker Seth Swirsky Lennon wasn’t the peace-loving militant fans thought he was while he was his assistant.

He says, “John, basically, made it very clear that if he were an American he would vote for Reagan because he was really sour on (Democrat) Jimmy Carter.

“He’d met Reagan back, I think, in the 70s at some sporting event. . . Reagan was the guy who had ordered the National Guard, I believe, to go after the young (peace) demonstrators in Berkeley, so I think that John maybe forgot about that. . . He did express support for Reagan, which shocked me.

“I also saw John embark in some really brutal arguments with my uncle, who’s an old-time communist. . . He enjoyed really provoking my uncle. . . Maybe he was being provocative. . . but it was pretty obvious to me he had moved away from his earlier radicalism.

“He was a very different person back in 1979 and 80 than he’d been when he wrote Imagine. By 1979 he looked back on that guy and was embarrassed by that guy’s naivete.”

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Rampaging Islamic mob in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1.

(BBC) — Iran’s minister of cultural and Islamic guidance has attacked an upcoming BBC2 documentary series on the life of the founder of Islam, the prophet Muhammad, saying the “enemy” was attempting to “ruin Muslims’ sanctity”.

The three-part series, The Life of Muhammad, presented by Rageh Omaar, a Somali-born British Middle East correspondent for Al Jazeera English, is scheduled to be broadcast on BBC2 in mid-July and has been drawing increasing criticism from senior figures in Iran.

The documentary makers say it seeks to “retrace the actual footsteps of the prophet” from his birthplace in the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca, his struggles with his prophetic role and divine revelations, his migration to Medina and establishment of the first Islamic constitution before his final return to Mecca following armed conflicts.

But the Iranian culture minister, Mohammad Hosseini, who has not seen the programme, said in an interview on Monday that he was worried about the BBC film.

Speaking to Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency, he said: “The BBC’s decision to make a documentary on the life of [the] prophet Muhammad seems dubious and if our suspicions are proved to be correct, we will certainly take serious action.”

Hosseini added: “What the enemy is trying to do in ruining the Muslims’ sanctity is definitely much more than causing us to react and unfortunately, some Islamic countries are not taking this issue seriously. One way to show objections is to express condemnation of the West over their despicable actions.”