Do they waive the law after the CIA launches a Hellfire missile up his ass?

(FOX News) — While the New Mexico-born cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, is the first American on the CIA’s kill or capture list, the U.S. State Department refuses to release documents about al-Awlaki citing his right to privacy. This disconnect was uncovered as part of the ongoing investigation by Fox News’ Specials Unit into the cleric who is a leader of a major Al Qaeda affiliate.

Through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in March 2010, Fox News requested “. . . . any and all records maintained by the United States Department of State, in the passport file. . . .” for the cleric. Initially, the request was referred to Human Resources at the State Department, before a formal response was issued more than a year later, in August 2011. The letter reads in part:

“The Department of State, Passport Services has reviewed your request and has given full consideration to the reasons provided. However, we have determined that your request must be denied. This denial is pursuant to subsection (b)(6) of the Freedom of Information Act. The release of this information to you would be an invasion of personal privacy of another person, without written authorization from that person.”

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Yes, that’s $156 T-shirt.

First Lady Michelle Obama prepares to dismount her bicycle along with her daughter Sasha Obama, foreground right, following a bike ride in Manuel F. Correllus State Forest in West Tisbury, Mass., on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011. (AP/Steven Senne)

HT: GWP

Ego maniac.

HT: Naked Emperor News

Sorry, guys, your race card has been declined.

(KTUL) — A statement by U.S. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) about President Obama is being called “racist” from Virginia’s NAACP State Conference.

Coburn stated, “His (President Obama) intent isn’t to destroy. It’s to create dependency because it worked so well for him. As an African American male, coming through the progress of everything he experienced, he got tremendous benefit through a lot of these programs. So he believes in them.”

The Virginia State Conference calls the comments racist. They say that, “People like Coburn attempt to create the myth that only African (Black) people receive food stamps or other forms of public assistance. White women do as well along with Wall Street, the banks, the auto industry, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, and many others that live on the public dole to the tune of trillions of dollars over time.”

“Coburn implies that the President benefited from this dependency on the government. White males have been the beneficiaries of the greatest affirmative action program in U.S. history. Yet, the face of government programs is the African welfare queen and now the President himself. This kind of racist propaganda is perpetuated through those with a platform to tell their lies to the people. The comments of Senator Tom Coburn are unconscionable, unfathomable and unacceptable. They should be condemned by all, especially those in the Republican Party. The Virginia State Conference NAACP condemns these remarks that are racist to the core!”

Remarkable waste of time and bandwidth. Transcript below the fold:

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(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, AUGUST 26 — The leader of the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah movement, Sayyid Hasan Nasrallah, has today reaffirmed his support for Syria’s and for the repression that has been taking place for over five months of anti-regime demonstrations in the country.

“We stand by Syria’s side and by the leaders to support them in their reform process,” Nasrallah told the followers of the pro-Iran movement in a video link. The address was made to a meeting held in Marun ar Ras, a town in the southernmost part of Lebanon, on the blue line of demarcation with Israel. “Without Syria’s support, the South (of Lebanon) would never have been freed,” the Shiite leader added, speaking on the anniversary of the Day of Jerusalem (Yawm al Quds), an event that has been inspired and funded by Iran for decades now.

Nasrallah, who has already made his support for the Damascus regime’s policy of repression over the past months, while praising the “Tunisian, Egyptian and Libyan revolutionaries,” reaffirmed: “We want a strong Syria and all those who say they have the interests of Syria, its people and its future at heart, should make efforts to calm the situation now so that everything can be resolved peacefully”.

The Shiite leader then returned to warn of the danger of a fictitious sectarian division between Sunnis and Shiites in the region: “In Syria there are those who are fanning the flames of a sectarian feud in order to realised their plans for a new Middle East”.

Bowler-in-Chief.

(ABC News) — As a candidate in 2008, President Obama pledged to tear out the White House bowling alley and install a basketball court instead.

Just over three years later, the basement bowling alley President Truman installed in 1947 is still there — and apparently being put to good use.

At least 230 visitors to the White House during May came for the express purpose of bowling, according to visitor logs released today.

In fact, the underground alley was used every day of the month, except five — May 14, 16, 18, 21 and 22.

On two days, May 15 and 23, the visitor entries indicate “bowling party.”

Fertilizer for brains.

(POLITICO) — Al Gore wants society to ditch meat-heavy diets and go organic to combat global warming.

“Industrial agriculture is a part of the problem,” Gore said Friday during an interview with FearLess Revolution founder Alex Bogusky. “The shift toward a more meat-intensive diet,” the clearing of forest areas in many parts of the world in order to raise more cattle and the reliance on synthetic nitrogen for fertilizer are also problems, he added.

Instead, Gore advocated organic farming and relying on “more productive, safer methods that put carbon back in the soil” to produce “safer and better food.”

In addition to big farms, Gore took a shot at the mining industry, calling mountaintop-removal mining a “horrible practice” that is “just incredibly harmful to the environment and to people.”

The former vice president also criticized climate change skeptics, urging those who support curbs to greenhouse gases to “win the conversation” when it comes to global warming. He compared the struggle against climate skeptics to the fight against racism during the civil rights movement.

When racist comments would come up in the course of conversations, “There came a time when people said, ‘Hey man, why do you talk that way? That’s wrong, I don’t go for that, so don’t talk that way around me. I just don’t believe that.’”

That happened in millions of conversations, and slowly the conversation was won,” he said. “And we still have racism, God knows, but it’s so different now and so much better. And we have to win the conversation on climate.”

What does breast cancer have to do with killing babies?

(The Blaze) — Affiliates of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer foundation gave more than half a million dollars to Planned Parenthood in 2010, according to federal tax records.

The American Life League obtained copies of the financial documents, which totaled donations from 18 Komen affiliates at $569,159.

Affiliates in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Washington all gave money. You can view a full spreadsheet of the donations here. . . .

Nevertheless, the $569,159 tag is lower than the donations from 2009, which totaled $731,303. Last year, a Komen spokesman said in an interview the money is closely monitored to ensure it goes to fund only breast screenings, not abortions.

Rita Diller, director of the American Life League’s Stop Planned Parenthood initiative, told Life News that aside from the abortion issue, it doesn’t make sense for Komen to donate money to Planned Parenthood when the organization does not provide any kind of advanced breast care, including mammograms.

Keep reading…

Just the slightest hint of Christianity is enough to throw the ACLU into a tailspin.

(Star-Tribune) — The Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors said it will continue to open meetings with prayer — and fight in court if necessary — despite a warning from the American Civil Liberties Union that Christian prayer violates the First Amendment.

In a letter sent to the county last week, the ACLU said court rulings permit prayer at government meetings only as broad expressions of faith that do not endorse a particular religion.

“The ACLU of Virginia has learned that opening invocations at the Pittsylvania Board of Supervisors meetings are consistently Christian in nature; that is, they explicitly refer to Jesus Christ,” said ACLU legal director Rebecca Glenberg.

“I write to inform you that such sectarian prayers by a government body violate the First Amendment under the clear precedent of the United States Supreme Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and to ask that you cease the practice immediately.”

Supervisors openly defied the ACLU warning last Tuesday, opening the meeting with not one but seven individual prayers.

The board’s chairman, Tunstall District Supervisor Tim Barber, said the county is willing to go to court if necessary.

“I’m prepared to fight,” said Barber. “This is part of our heritage in Pittsylvania County. Prayer before meetings has been going on ever since the county began. In all these years, we’ve never had a complaint.”

They chiseled an out-of-context paraphrase of his words into granite, to make it appear as though he described himself as a “drum major,” which he did not. Then again, given his well-documented reputation for academic mischief, perhaps a plagiarized quote would have been a better tribute.

Rachel Manteuffel via The Washington Post:

The memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. has been a little controversial — but not for the right reason. Someone, somewhere along the line, made a decision that makes King look like something he was not: an arrogant jerk.

“I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness.”

That’s what it says on the right side of King’s enormous monument. At first it struck me as odd that this man, whose many other quotes on the same monument are beautifully worded and biblically informed, would refer to himself as a drum major. To me, silly hats and King just did not compute.

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Excellent move.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Rick Perry has asked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to reimburse the state $350 million to cover costs of imprisoning illegal immigrants.

In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the top-tier Republican presidential candidate blamed the federal government for not securing the border with Mexico, allowing illegal immigrants to cross over and use taxpayer-funded resources.

He said resources for county jails are being depleted as a result.

(Politico) — From her front row seat at the fall and spring fashion shows, a nod or frown from Anna Wintour can make or break what comes down the runway and send tremors through the fashion industry.

As one of President Barack Obama’s most successful fundraisers, the Vogue editor memorably played as a controlling ice queen by Meryl Streep in “The Devil Wears Prada,” exerts her influence in another way.

In the run-up to the 2012 election, the British-born Wintour is part of an elite group of 27 Obama supporters who have used their connections to each solicit $500,000 for the president’s re-election campaign. In less than a year of making fundraising calls and hosting a string of dinner parties, Wintour has more than tripled the $100,000-plus she helped raise for the campaign in 2008.

The fashion matriarch’s support for Obama is not a complete positive for the Obama campaign. On the one hand, Wintour, who was named the 69th most powerful woman in the world this week by Forbes, brings a certain panache to a campaign that promises to reach the billion dollar mark. On the other, she highlights Obama’s celebrity ties at a time when the administration is tackling a down economy.

Last year, before Wintour, 61, hosted a fundraiser at her Greenwich Village home, the Republican National Committee sent out an e-mail with the subject line “The President Wears Prada.” In their press release, they blasted Obama for his “elitist disconnect from the American people.”

Bloody day in Nigeria, Boko Haram also attacked two police stations and two banks killing at least 12.

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — A car laden with explosives detonated outside the United Nations’ main office in Nigeria’s capital Friday, blowing part of the concrete structure into shards and killing at least seven people.

A U.N. official in Geneva confirmed to CBS News that it was a bomb attack, and a Nigerian security official told Reuters news agency it was the result of a car bomb.

Witnesses told The Associated Press that a sedan broke through the exit at the U.N. compound, ramming through two separate gates as guards tried to stop the vehicle. The suicide bomber inside drove the car just up to the main reception of the building before detonating, inflicting the most damage possible, witnesses said.

“I saw scattered bodies,” said Michael Ofilaje, a UNICEF worker at the building. “Many people are dead.”

Nigeria, a nation of 150 million, is split between a largely Christian south and Muslim north. In recent months, the country has faced an increasing threat from a radical Muslim sect called Boko Haram, which wants to implement a strict version of Shariah law in the nation. The sect has carried out assassinations and bombings, including the June car bombing of the national headquarters of Nigeria’s federal police that killed at least two people.

Earlier this month, the commander for U.S. military operations in Africa said Boko Haram may be trying to link with two al-Qaida-linked groups in other African countries to mount joint attacks in Nigeria.

Gen. Carter Ham told AP on Aug. 17 during a visit to Nigeria that “multiple sources” indicate Boko Haram made contacts with al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which operates in northwest Africa, and with al-Shabab in Somalia.

Update: As expected.

(Guardian) — Nigeria’s capital was on high alert on after an apparent suicide attack on the United Nations headquarters in Abuja stoked fears that Islamist militants were setting their sights on high-profile targets in Africa’s most populous country.

The car bomb – the first attack on the UN in Nigeria — ripped through the heavily fortified UN building, killing at least 18 people. Describing those who carried out the apparent suicide bombing as “barbaric”, President Goodluck Jonathan ordered all relevant government agencies to help in the search and rescue effort.

“The president believes that the attack is a most despicable assault on the United Nations’ objectives of global peace and security, and the sanctity of human life to which Nigeria wholly subscribes,” the president’s office said in a statement.

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, who asked his deputy, Asha-Rose Migiro, to go to Nigeria immediately, said: “This was an assault on those who devote their lives to helping others. We condemn this terrible act, utterly.”

The Islamist group Boko Haram told the BBC in a phone call that it had carried out the attack. If the claim turns out to be genuine, the attack would confirm American fears that al-Qaida-affiliated groups are targeting the important west African state.

Witnesses said a car rammed through two separate gates at the UN compound as guards tried to stop it. The suicide bomber drove up to the main reception area before blowing himself up.

More bad news.

(Rasmussen) — The economy remains the top issue on the minds of voters while perceptions of President Obama’s handling of the issue has fallen to a new low.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 29% of Likely U.S. Voters believe the president is doing a good or an excellent job on the economy. That’s down from 30% in each of the last two weeks, down from 36% three weeks ago and the lowest ratings on the economy yet recorded for this president.

Fifty-one percent (51%) give Obama poor marks on the economy. That’s up a point from a week ago and the most pessimistic assessment of his economic performance to date. Platinum Members receive weekly updates on this and other measures of the president’s performance.

On national security issues, 42% give the president good or excellent marks, while 34% rate his performance as poor. That’s similar to the ratings earned in April before Osama bin Laden was killed. Following that event, 53% gave the president positive marks in the national security area. That fell back to 46% a month ago.

Man crush?

Via BreitbartTV

Keepin’ it classy.

Officials at a Milwaukee Catholic school say they’re very disappointed that a visit by Gov. Scott Walker this afternoon has already been marred by vandalism.

Staffers at Messmer Preparatory School in Milwaukee’s inner-city were changing the locks today after some of them were filled with metal and super glue during the night.

Walker is scheduled to visit Messmer to read the Doctor Seuss story “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” to second- and third-graders.

School development director Jeffrey Robb said cars parked in front of the school had anti-Walker signs this morning.

The principal, Brother Bob Smith, said on Thursday a woman urged parents to bring noisemakers and scream as Walker arrived.

The governor has been dogged by protestors for months. They oppose the new law that virtually ends collective bargaining by most public unions.

Keep reading…

PRINCETON, NJ — Rick Perry’s candidacy has attracted strong initial support from Republicans who identify themselves as supporters of the Tea Party movement. Perry leads by 21 percentage points over the closest contenders among this group, Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann. Among Republicans who say they do not support the Tea Party movement, Romney and Perry are essentially tied.

We didn’t buy it the the other day and we’re not buying it now.

President Barack Obama holds conference call on Hurricane Irene with FEMA Director Craig Fugate, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Chief of Staff Bill Daley, and John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security, in Chilmark, Mass., Aug. 26, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)