(Haaretz) — Iran’s Revolutionary Guards tested 14 missiles on Tuesday, the second day of war games intended a show of strength to the Islamic Republic’s enemies in Israel and Washington.

The Iranian-made surface-to-surface missiles, with a maximum range of 2,000 km (1,250 miles), were fired simultaneously at a single target, the official IRNA news agency reported.

The head of the Revolutionary Guards’ aerospace division emphasized Iran’s preparedness to strike Israel and U.S. interests in the event of any attack on Iran.

“The range of our missiles has been designed based on American bases in the region as well as the Zionist regime,” Commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh told the semi-official Fars news agency.

Washington and Israel have said they do not rule out military strikes on Iran if diplomatic means fail to stop it developing nuclear weapons.

Tehran denies its nuclear program is aimed at building bombs.

IRNA said the Guards fired nine Zelzal missiles, two Shahab-1s, two Shahab-2s and one upgraded Shahab-3 missile.

Shouldn’t be long until CAIR calls Wolf an “Islamophobe.”

Dear Mr. Shulman:

I write in regard to the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) recent decision to terminate the tax-exempt status of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). I have long been concerned that CAIR may be in violation of federal tax law and applaud the agency for pursuing this matter and acting decisively.

It is my understanding that CAIR repeatedly failed to file its annual disclosure report, Form 990, for at least the last three years. Compliance with this law is the only assurance the public has that an organization claiming tax-exempt status is not abusing this privilege. Given CAIR’s status as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror financing case, this failure to comply with federal disclosure laws is all the more troubling.

In light of CAIR’s flaunting of tax rules regarding Form 990, I also wanted to share the enclosed copy of a recently disclosed letter from CAIR executive director Nihad Awad to Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, in which he appears to solicit money for a CAIR project. Specifically, Awad detailed an effort to set up the “Muslim Peace Foundation,” discusses the need to raise $15 million and thanks Gaddafi for his “generous support.”

Long before Gaddafi’s brutal and murderous assault on his own people, which has dominated the news in recent months, his deplorable human rights record was well-known. Gaddafi also has a long history of supporting international terrorist attacks. Earlier this year, former Libyan justice minister officially confirmed that Gaddafi personally ordered the terrorist attack on Pan Am flight 103 that exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 innocent victims.

It was to this same Gaddafi that Awad wrote, “I am pleased to send Your Excellency in my name the most solemn assurances of thanks and appreciation for the efforts you exert in the service of Islam, Muslims and all mankind through your initiative to teach Islam, spread the culture of Islam, and solve disputes, for which you are known internationally.”

I am concerned that Awad and CAIR may be soliciting — and receiving — funds from other unsavory foreign governments and organizations, including some that may be sponsors of terror. Additional information has come to my attention that Awad and other CAIR representatives may have traveled to Sudan to solicit funds from Sudanese President Omar Hassan Bashir, an internationally indicted war criminal. Are you aware of these reports? . . .

For these reasons, I request that the IRS investigate whether Awad and CAIR may have violated U.S. law in soliciting or accepting money from foreign governments or agents during the period that CAIR failed to file Form 990. I look forward to a full report on your findings.

Best wishes.

Sincerely,

Frank R. Wolf
Member of Congress

The same Randi Rhodes who claimed Palin likes to “sleep with teenage boys” and who was caught lying about being “mugged” in NYC to drum up publicity for her failing Air America show.

(Radio Equalizer) — If in need of further evidence that our Californian “progressive” friends have indeed lost their marbles, we direct you to today’s Exhibit A: a State Assembly proclamation honoring libtalker Randi Rhodes for “responsible journalism”.

Signed by Assemblyman Tony Mendoza (D-56), the public sector labor union-sponsored award doesn’t appear to specify any particular examples of excellence in reporting. Do we really need to point out that she’s actually a talk show host?

Here at the Radio Equalizer, of course, we were quickly able to recall a number of “responsible” on-air instances worthy of recognition (what KIND of honor, we don’t know):

A 2008 inference that Sarah Palin likes to sleep with teenage boys

Her airing of a “parody” skit suggesting Mitt Romney supporters would engage in mass murder if John McCain were to secure the 2008 GOP presidential nomination

Her claim that McCain was “well-treated” in Vietnam

A recent assertion that “Bush knew” where Osama bin Laden was hiding all along but allowed him to remain there

A claim she’d been “mugged” on a New York City street, which quickly fell apart under media scrutiny

An on-stage tirade where Randi called Hillary Clinton “a big f—ing whore”

And that’s just scratching the surface. Do our union/Dem friends really stand behind these kooky antics?

Keep reading…

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

(JPost) — Israeli think tank says drastic reforms are needed in Egyptian schools in order to comply with UNESCO standards.

Egypt’s school curriculum, laden with anti-Semitic and anti-Christian sentiment, must undergo drastic reform to comply with international standards, according to a new report to be presented this week at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

“Egypt has to conduct fundamental reforms in its curricula, which present a national identity based solely on the Islamic religion,” said Yohanan Manor, chairman and co-founder of the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-SE), the Jerusalembased think-tank that compiled the report.

“Egypt’s schools present Islam as the ‘only true faith,’ and believers in other religions — including Coptic Christians — as infidels,” he said.

Manor and his colleagues will present the report at the conference, “School Textbooks in the Greater Middle East: National Identity and Images of Self and Other,” to be held Tuesday and Wednesday at the Hebrew University’s Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace.

A year before the ousting of president Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s government announced plans for comprehensive reforms to “purge school curricula of erroneous views and material that incites extreme violence.”

Vince Cefalu in 2010.

Apparently the regime doesn’t feel the Whistleblowers Protection Act applies to them.

(Fox News) — The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is being accused of retaliating against an agent who helped publicize the agency’s role in allowing thousands of guns to cross the U.S. border and fall into the hands of Mexican drug gangs.

The agent, Vince Cefalu, who has spoken out about the ATF’s so-called “Project Gunrunner” scandal, says he was served with termination papers just last week, and he calls the move politically motivated.

“Aside from Jay Dobyns, I don’t know of anyone that’s been more vocal about ATF mismanagement than me,” said Cefalu, a senior special agent based in Dublin, Calif. “That’s why this is happening.” Dobyns, an ATF special agent based in Tucson, has appeared several times on Fox News to discuss the scandal.

Cefalu first told FoxNews.com about the ATF’s embattled anti-gun smuggling operation in December, before the first reports on the story appeared in February. “Simply put, we knowingly let hundreds of guns and dozens of identified bad guys go across the border,” Cefalu said at the time.

Since then, Cefalu’s claims have been vindicated, as a number of agents with first-hand knowledge of the case came forward. The scandal over Project Gunrunner led to congressional hearings, a presidential reprimand — Obama called the operation “a serious mistake” — and speculation that ATF chief Ken Melson will resign.

Yet last week, Cefalu, who has worked for the agency for 24 years, was forced to turn in his gun and badge. He can appeal but will be on “paid administrative leave” during the process.

WASHINGTON — The last time the Obama administration made a hard push to legalize some of the children of illegal immigrants, officials focused on some of the inspirational and sympathetic stories of honor students who could gain legal status through the DREAM Act.

As Democrats renew their push for that act in a Senate hearing Tuesday, the sales pitch will also focus on how those children can help the nation’s foundering economy.

The DREAM Act provides legal residency and the eventual chance for illegal immigrants brought into the U.S. as children to become full-fledged citizens. These immigrants, under the proposed law, could become citizens if they maintain a clean criminal record, graduate from high school and plan on attending college or joining the military.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Monday he will continue to support passage of the law by explaining how the hundreds of thousands of people who could benefit from the act would contribute to the economy.

Because they would be getting better jobs, they’d be paying more taxes, starting businesses and creating jobs, all of which would infuse a much-needed kick-start to the economy and help drive down the national debt, Duncan said.

“This could be a piece of a solution to a number of the challenges our country faces,” Duncan said.

Which is precisely the problem.

(LA Times) — As Democratic and Republican leaders in Washington struggled to find agreement on spending cuts and extending the debt limit, Mitt Romney struck a conciliatory note in New Hampshire on Monday by lamenting partisan feuding while touting his record of working with Democrats — even the Senate’s onetime liberal lion Edward M. Kennedy.

Taking a pause from a fundraising tour for two campaign appearances, Romney faced questions from voters that reflected frustration with the gridlock in Washington.

During a business roundtable at a technology company in Salem, state Sen. Chuck Morse pressed Romney to explain how he would unite “a country that’s very divided.” Morse told the Republican front-runner: “Quite honestly, it’s not working and they’re not getting the message in Washington right now.”

A short while later, at Lincoln Financial Group in Concord, Romney’s first questioner told the former Massachusetts governor that he was troubled by how polarized the country had become.

“We’re either on the extreme left or the extreme right, but in the past America has become great by compromise and going down the middle of the road,” said independent voter Stephen Smith, 57. “What do you propose doing to bring America back together?”

The questions were a reminder of the competing imperatives that Republican candidates face in New Hampshire: They must win over the party’s most passionate conservatives while also appealing to independent voters who can cast ballots in the first-in-the nation primary next year.

Attempting to straddle that line, Romney said President Obama had failed to work in a spirit of bipartisanship and had used his first two years “to jam through” legislation that Romney described as “strictly partisan,” including the controversial healthcare overhaul and changes to the financial regulatory system.

(more…)

The fact that this boat is named in Obama’s honor could not be any more fitting.

Via Naked Emperor News

Update to this story.

(NBC) — Islamic hardliners in Egypt are calling for the severed tongue of a Christian telecom mogul who posted a Muslim-ized Mickey Minnie Mouse online.

Nasguib Sawiris, founder of Mobinil and a prominent promoter of a secular Egypt, tweeted an apology for an online cartoon that showed Mickey Mouse with a beard and Minnie Mouse in a face veil.

“I apologize for those who don’t take this as a joke; I just thought it was a funny picture; no disrespect meant. I am sorry,” he tweeted.

But hardliners started Facebook groups attacking Sawiris, and others have filed lawsuits accusing him of religious contempt, according to The Associated Press.

“If you are really a Muslim, and you love your religion, boycott his projects,” said a message from a Facebook group called We are Joking Sawiris. “We have to cut out the tongue of any person who attacks our religion.”

And Al throws a hissy fit when challenged by a local San Diego reporter on this ridiculous claim.

Considering they fight like women, it only makes sense to dress like one.

KABUL, Afghanistan — A senior leader of an Al Qaeda-linked terror group has been captured in northern Afghanistan dressed up like a woman — the latest in a recent series of cases involving male militants disguised as females, the U.S.-led military coalition said Tuesday.

A joint Afghan and coalition force apprehended a leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and two of his associates during a nighttime operation Monday in Kunduz city, NATO said.

It said the militant, who also supported the Taliban network, had planned attacks against the Afghan National Police, various suicide bombings and assaults against other Afghan security forces.

NATO did not release the names of the three suspects caught in Kunduz.

“The leader attempted to disguise himself as a female by wearing a burqa, which is an all-enveloping cloak worn by some Muslim women,” the coalition said in a statement. “In the last two months there have been several instances of targeted males wearing burqas in attempts to disguise themselves in order not to be caught by Afghan-led forces.”

The coalition said there also have been a handful of recent reports of female combatants in burqas.

Kunduz and surrounding provinces are known hide-outs for the Taliban, Al Qaeda and fighters from militant factions that include the Haqqani network, Hizb-i-Islami and the IMU, which aims to create an Islamic state across Central Asia. The IMU was formed in 1991, originally aiming to set up an Islamic state in Uzbekistan, which neighbors Afghanistan, but later expanded its goal to seeking one across Central Asia.

Then again, Obama’s afraid of his own shadow.

(Ballot Box) — President Obama “fears” Republican Michele Bachmann’s presidential campaign, the Minnesota congresswoman said Monday night.

Bachmann, the newly-minted candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, pointed to the president’s reelection office’s attack against her campaign launch in Iowa today as evidence of their trepidation

“I think clearly what this demonstrates is that the president of the United States is afraid of my candidacy,” Bachmann said on Fox News. “He fears me.”

Obama campaign press secretary Ben LaBolt slammed Bachmann in a statement, saying that her policies “would erode the path to prosperity for middle class families.”

LaBolt went on to criticize Bachmann as a candidate of tax cuts for the wealthy, undoing Medicare, and for repealing Wall Street reforms and maintaining loopholes for oil and gas companies.

Oh noes, da Joooos!

(CSM) — A ship jointly owned by Swedish, Greek, and Norwegian activists hoping to join a flotilla of activist vessels challenging Israel’s economic blockade of Gaza, had its propeller cut while in Athen’s harbor today. A spokesman contacted by the Monitor said that the damage was a deliberate act of sabotage.

Israel and its allies have been working hard to head off the planned flotilla, which is hoping to enter the waters off Gaza in the next week. Col. (ret) Ann Wright, who’s organizing a US vessel named the Audacity of Hope for the flotilla, says her ship has been detained in Athens on spurious charges that it’s not seaworthy. She says that charge was made by an Israeli legal group.

Now the Juliano is held up. Mikael Löfgren, a spokesman for Ship to Gaza Sweden, says the damage was discovered at 6:30 in the evening Athens time today, and that divers probably cut the propeller in the past 24 hours.

“The reports I’m receiving is that it’s certain that it was sabotage,” says Mr. Löfgren, reached by phone in Sweden. “The propeller and [propeller shaft] has been cut and we have divers that have filmed the damages. Experts have said there’s no doubt” that the damage was deliberate.

He says that repairing the damage will take a few days. As to who is responsible, he declined to speculate. “We simply don’t know who did it, but it’s obviously a hostile act,” says Löfgren.

Move over, Sarah, the left has a new bogeywoman.

E-mail from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC):

Can you believe this? House Republican, Tea Party Caucus Chairwoman, and extremist Michele Bachmann has now officially announced her campaign for President.

Not only does she think she can win, but many pundits think she’s a contender. Even the latest polls show she’s in a good position.

So why does this matter? Michele Bachmann is the EXACT kind of extremist we’re fighting to keep OUT of Congress. We have just 72 hours left to put together the strongest possible mid-year fundraising totals and put Tea Party Republicans on notice that that we’re going to defeat them in 2012.

Contribute $3 or more before the mid-year FEC deadline so we have the resources necessary to keep Republicans like Michele Bachmann out of Congress. Your gift will be triple-matched by House Democrats.

As Research Director, I’ve spent the last four years unearthing the truth about candidates like Michele Bachmann. Let me tell you, she’s only the tip of the iceberg.

With Bachmann’s announcement, it’s more critical than ever that we report strong fundraising totals to show the world that grassroots Democrats are the ones with the real momentum going into 2012.

Kevin McKeon
DCCC Research Director

P.S. We’re fighting day and night to make sure President Obama has a Democratic Majority in the House. His agenda depends on it. But if we let tea party crazies like Michele Bachmann get elected to Congress, that agenda will go nowhere. Contribute today.

I can never get enough of Captain Crazypants aka Cynthia McKinney. For all her kookiness, at least she isn’t a hypocrite like the rest of the “anti-war” left.

Via Washington Times:

An important 2008 campaign coalition for the president is not happy with his actions in Libya and it could very well cost him politically.

Former Georgia Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney blasted President Barack Obama on Saturday at an ANSWER coalition meeting in Washington, D.C. for engaging the United States in a war against Libya. After returning from Libya with a group of U.S. journalists, Ms. McKinney launched a U.S. speaking tour to talk about her trip.

“I took a rash step because I was so outraged that our president would launch yet another illegal, unconstitutional, immoral, war and so I also knew that my government was lying,” she said to a group of 60–70 anti-war Left attendees sitting in a Columbia Heights meeting room.

Ms. Mckinney told the gathering:

“Black America has been extremely supportive of our president, but not in this case. A line has been drawn in the sand with respect to our president bombing Africa and Libya in particular because of the history of support when the United States was supporting apartheid in the African continent, it was the people of Libya and the people of Muammar Qaddafi who were fighting to eradicate apartheid. And for those blacks and people of color inside this country who were fighting to eradicate American style apartheid, the people of libya and Muammar Qaddafi were supportive as well.”

“Now I don’t know that history, but brother Akbar knows hat history very well and that is part of the reason why black America has drawn this line in the sand because this is something that is a historical relationship that has context that brother Obama . . . that President Obama . . . stepped across. He has crossed over threshold.”

Keep reading…

She does understand Libyans consider themselves Arab, right?

Never apologize for speaking the truth.

(ThinkProgress) — A spokesperson for Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), who last week accused liberals of having a “hatred for God,” refused to apologize for those remarks, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Akin’s communications director, Steve Taylor, told the Post-Dispatch that Akin was commenting on a difference between the two ideas: while conservatives believe rights come from God, liberals think they come from the government. Taylor said Akin was not referring to any individual’s beliefs, only the “defining principles of two political ideologies.”

And they have undeniable proof he should be groveling, like this quote from a “Unitarian Universalist” reverend. Which is one of those leftist churches that flies the gay pride flags and never refers to God with a “gender bias.”

Multiple religious leaders have fired back at Akin’s original comments. Rabbi Jim Bennett of Congregation Shaare Emeth in St. Louis:

Rev. Krista Taves, of Emerson Unitarian Universalist Chapter in St. Louis, wrote to Akin:

For you to say that liberals hate God means you know very little about liberals, and sadly enough, you also seem to know very little about God and his son Jesus, who said that ‘as you do to the least of these, you do unto me.’

The sad rantings of deranged lunatic.

(Newsbusters) — After playing a clip of Michele Bachmann longing for a return to the “Founders’ vision of a constitutionally conservative government,” MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on Monday assumed the Republican presidential candidate meant “slavery.”

The Hardball anchor offered bizarre analogies, questioning former RNC Chair Michael Steele on Bachmann’s 2012 campaign: “What is this, Michael? The Protestant Reformation? That somehow we’re going back to the purity of the original Christian church?”

Immediately jumping to the worst interpretation, Matthews continued, “We’re going back to the original perfection of slaveholders and how perfect they were and government is the enemy. She speaks pure Tea Party lingo.”

After Steele asserted that Bachmann was simply “reminding us of foundational principles,” the liberal anchor smeared, “What? Slavery?”

Keep reading…

HT: Brian

The Hollywood Marxist brigade seen nodding in approval.

(AP) — One of the brothers of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez yesterday said backers of the hospitalised leftist leader should not rule out armed struggle in the future, although they prefer to maintain power at the ballot box.

Adan Chavez’s statement came as speculation mounted about the health of the President, who has been convalescing at an undisclosed location in Cuba after reportedly undergoing emergency surgery 16 days ago.

Mr Chavez’s older brother said Venezuela’s ruling party wanted to retain power by defeating foes in elections. But he told government supporters they should be ready to take up arms if necessary.

“As authentic revolutionaries, we cannot forget other forms of fighting,” he said during a prayer meeting for the health of his 56-year-old brother in the leader’s home state of Barinas.

Quoting Latin American revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the President’s brother, a mild-mannered former university physics professor, added: “It would be inexcusable to limit ourselves to only the electoral and not see other forms of struggle, including the armed struggle.”

Of course if these were Muslim women being kidnapped and forced to covert to Christianity we’d never hear the end of it, but since the victims are Christian there isn’t a peep out of western governments.

Cairo (AsiaNews) — Attacks against Copts and the abduction of young women continue in Upper Egypt. Last Saturday, in the village of Awlad Khalaf (Suhaj, Upper Egypt), hundreds of extremists set fire to Christian houses. Three people were injured. In Minya, two young Coptic women were abducted and forced to convert to Islam.

Anti-Christian violence has become a daily event in Upper Egypt, where police and the military often side with Muslims, sources told AsiaNews. In this under-policed area of the country, extremists are pushing Muslim civilians against Christians, using any pretext to destroy churches and homes. . . .

The power vacuum created by Mubarak’s fall has increased the number of abductions of Coptic teenagers and young women. Kidnapped at home or in the street, they are forced to convert and marry Muslim men.

The latest case involves two girls, 14-year-old Nacy and 16-year-old Christine, who disappeared on 12 June. Police found them days later, wearing a niqab but with on cross tattooed on their wrist.

Despite complaints by their family, the two teenagers are being kept in a mental hospital until the end of the investigation.

“The daily abduction and forced Islamisation of Coptic minors, conducted by Muslims funded by Saudi Arabia, has escalated to new levels after the 25 January Revolution,” said Coptic activist Mark Ebeid. It has also “greatly enraged the Copts. Everyone now fears they might not be able to stand any longer continuous Islamist provocations.”