Dedicated to Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, this one’s for you.

Note: Major flying jihadi at 1:12 mark.

You know, because it wasn’t the least bit staged or anything.

Via Newsbusters

(click image for video)

Cain was spot on: This mindless “don’t think for yourself, vote Democrat” nonsense isn’t doing the black community any favors.

CORNELL BELCHER, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: First of all, do you think you’re going to invite me on the show and then I’m not going to talk about the ridiculousness of that statement? Two things. One is a great way to sort of get people on your side and win voters is to attack their intelligence.

So great job there. Really sensible, Herman Cain.

The second part here is, it’s really a teachable moment. You know, if I came on your show, Anderson, and I said, all Jewish people are brainwashed, I probably wouldn’t be invited back to CNN and I assure you the condemnation would be swift and it’d be powerful and be strong.

What Herman Cain said was a racist, bigoted statement and it should treated like a racist and bigoted person who makes those racist and bigoted statements.

Keep reading…

Didn’t we already dodge this bullet?

(Reuters) — Mike Huckabee has been approached by Republican and conservative activists unhappy with the current crop of presidential hopefuls and he is considering entering the fray, two sources who have spoken with Huckabee told Reuters.

The former Arkansas governor, who made a splash by winning the Iowa caucuses as a candidate in 2008, announced last May on his Fox News show that he would not enter the race.

But the conservative Huckabee, who appeals to evangelical Christians and is seen as an effective campaigner, is taking another look at jumping in, said the two sources, who are close to Huckabee. They spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity.

“He is entertaining the request for conversations about it,” one of the sources said. “I do not think it is a complete 100 percent ‘I’m reconsidering’ but he hasn’t shut the door on it.”

One of the sources said Huckabee was urged to enter after the recent stumbles of Texas Governor Rick Perry, who appeals to a similar right wing of the Republican party.

Surprise . . . errrrr . . . maybe not.

October 19, 2001 — NY Times

Imam Anwar Al-Awlaki, spiritual leader at the Dar al-Hijra mosque in Virginia, one of the nation’s largest, which draws about 3,000 worshipers for communal prayers each Friday, said: “In the past we were oblivious. We didn’t really care much because we never expected things to happen. Now I think things are different. What we might have tolerated in the past, we won’t tolerate any more.”

”There were some statements that were inflammatory, and were considered just talk, but now we realize that talk can be taken seriously and acted upon in a violent radical way,” said Mr. Al-Awlaki, who at 30 is held up as a new generation of Muslim leader capable of merging East and West: born in New Mexico to parents from Yemen, who studied Islam in Yemen and civil engineering at Colorado State University.

HT: Patrick Poole

And I have mixed feelings about Gary Johnson.

(The Hill) — Gary Johnson joined fellow Republican nominee Ron Paul in criticizing the drone killing of U.S.-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen, saying he had “mixed feelings” about the strike since he believed Awlaki to be “entitled to due process.”

“Well I as President of the United States I would have been a lot more transparent about what, and I understand all of the accusations against al-Awlaki and they are very significant and I don’t want to minimize at all the threat that he was posing to the United States. But he is a U.S. citizen, he was a U.S. citizen, and never before have we targeted a US citizen for death,” the former New Mexico governor said on Fox News.

Awlaki, who was born in the United States, was an outspoken cleric cited by terrorists, including Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist charged in the 2009 Fort Hood shootings, and Faisal Shahzad, who tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square last year.

Johnson called Alwaki “the first person to be denied” due process, and cautioned against similar attacks in the future.

If Trumka is praising something then you know it’s bad for America.

(The Hill) — Union leader Richard Trumka praised President Obama on Friday for focusing on jobs rather than the national deficit.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka praised President Obama on Friday for focusing on jobs rather than the national deficit.

The complimentary words for Obama are a shift in recent tone from the union chief, who last month blasted the White House for becoming distracted by the politics surrounding the summer debt-ceiling debate. Since then, Obama has proposed the American Jobs Act — a $447 billion proposal that includes funding for state and local government aid, rebuilding of the nation’s infrastructure and school modernization.

“I think he stands in a lot better position than he did three weeks ago,” Trumka said of Obama during a question-and-answer session following a speech he gave at the Brookings Institution.

In his speech, Trumka said America is facing a jobs crisis, not a debt crisis, and that politicians need to focus on keeping people working instead of cutting government programs. Trumka said the president made a mistake by focusing so much on reducing the national deficit.

“I think he’s now fighting for that. I think going out to city after city, laying down the gauntlet, saying, ‘We need jobs. Jobs is the most important crisis right now, and if you don’t pass them, shame on you, Senate, shame on you, House, for not doing that,’” Trumka said. “I think he’s starting to lead and I think because of that, he’s in better position with our members.”

Keep reading…

Yes, he really said that.

(Politico) — Vice President Joe Biden compared Irish immigration the United States to Hispanic immigration — but noted Hispanics were here first.

Biden on Thursday hosted the annual Hispanic Heritage Month reception at the Naval Observatory. Guests included about 100 Hispanic veterans, active duty service members, elected officials and others. The music was classical Mexican.

“You all were here before us,” Biden said, according to a pool report.

Biden noted his own background as the descendant of Irish immigrants, saying, “We come from a similar circumstance. It’s about family it’s about faith and it’s about basic things.”

The event coincides with a stepped-up effort by the administration to improve relations with Hispanic voters. Once among President Obama’s most enthusiastic constituencies, Hispanic support for the administration has flagged with the stall-out of immigration reform and other key priorities.

Bring it.

Via HAP:

Van Jones warns that October is going to be the “turning point” when it comes to the progressive fightback. He says the “American Dream Movement” will be the counterbalance to the tea party and this is going to be an “October offensive.”

The trifecta is now complete: ACLU, CAIR and Ron Paul.

NEW YORK — U.S. airstrikes in Yemen today killed Anwar Al-Aulaqi, an American citizen who has never been charged with any crime.

ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer said, “The targeted killing program violates both U.S. and international law. As we’ve seen today, this is a program under which American citizens far from any battlefield can be executed by their own government without judicial process, and on the basis of standards and evidence that are kept secret not just from the public but from the courts. The government’s authority to use lethal force against its own citizens should be limited to circumstances in which the threat to life is concrete, specific and imminent. It is a mistake to invest the President — any President — with the unreviewable power to kill any American whom he deems to present a threat to the country.”

ACLU National Security Project Litigation Director Ben Wizner said, “Outside the theater of war, the use of lethal force is lawful only as a last resort to counter an imminent threat of deadly attack. Based on the administration’s public statements, the program that the President has authorized is far more sweeping. If the Constitution means anything, it surely means that the President does not have unreviewable authority to summarily execute any American whom he concludes is an enemy of the state.”

Finally, CAIR is dropping the “moderate” facade and showing its true colors.

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 9/30/11) — A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization today reiterated that the calls to violence made by Anwar al-Awlaki, who has reportedly been killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen, have been firmly rejected by American Muslims.

In a statement reacting to al-Awlaki’s death, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said:

“As we have stated repeatedly in the past, the American Muslim community firmly repudiated Anwar al-Awlaki’s incitement to violence, which occurred after he left the United States. While a voice of hate has been eliminated, we urge our nation’s leaders to address the constitutional issues raised by the assassination of American citizens without due process of law.”

HT: Second Fiddle In NH

Any why not? Romneycare is, and always has been, the blueprint for Obamacare.

(Fox News) — It’s not every day that you see Jay Carney quoting Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney from the White House podium.

But that’s what Carney did Thursday as reporters pressed for the president’s reaction to the Affordable Care Act heading to the Supreme Court before the 2012 election amid questions about its constitutionality.

Carney’s quoting served the dual purpose of defending the president and trying to drive a wedge between Romney and some of his Republican rivals, who have charged that the former Massachusetts governor’s health reform law on the state level bears too much of a resemblance to the plan that conservatives derisively call “Obamacare.”

“A former governor of Massachusetts just said the other day, ‘The idea for a health care plan in Massachusetts was not mine alone,’” Carney said, reading from notes as he continued quoting Romney. “‘The Heritage Foundation, a great conservative think tank, helped on that. I’m told that Newt Gingrich, one of the very first people who came up with the idea of an individual mandate, did that years and years ago. It was seen as a conservative idea to say, you know what, people have a responsibility for caring for themselves if they can. We’ll help people who can’t care for themselves, but if you can care for yourself, you’ve got to take care of yourself and pay your own bills.’”

Without ever mentioning Romney by name, Carney concluded, “That’s the former governor of Massachusetts describing the individual mandate and why it’s smart policy, and we certainly agree.”

And these are on top of the Arizona and Alabama lawsuits.

(WaPo) — The Obama administration is escalating its crackdown on tough immigration laws, with lawyers reviewing four new state statutes to determine whether the federal government will take the extraordinary step of challenging the measures in court.

Justice Department lawyers have sued Arizona and Alabama, where a federal judge on Wednesday allowed key parts of that state’s immigration law to take effect but blocked other provisions. Federal lawyers are talking to Utah officials about a third possible lawsuit and are considering legal challenges in Georgia, Indiana and South Carolina, according to court documents and government officials.

The level of federal intervention is highly unusual, legal experts said, especially because civil rights groups already have sued most of those states. Typically, the government files briefs or seeks to intervene in other lawsuits filed against state statutes.

“I don’t recall any time in history that the Justice Department has so aggressively challenged state laws,” said Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law expert at George Washington University Law School.

The legal skirmishing comes as immigration emerges as a defining issue in the presidential campaign and Hispanic voters play an increasingly influential role. Most Republican candidates are calling for a hard line on the nation’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants — and criticizing Texas Gov. Rick Perry for some of his positions on the issue.

President Obama is staking out a position on the other side. He told a roundtable of Latino reporters Wednesday that Arizona’s immigration law created “a great danger that naturalized citizens, individuals with Latino surnames, potentially could be vulnerable to questioning. The laws could be potentially abused in ways that were not fair to Latino citizens.”

Double down.

“Well I don’ think how she carries herself, in a general manner, as a gentle lady, she’s not that way ,if you look at some of the things she’s said as the DNC chair. I stand by what I said earlier.”

Note: Starts around 2:30 mark.

If we give him $3 do you think they will stop spamming people’s inboxes with daily emails?

From: Barack Obama
Subject: Last chance at dinner
Date: September 30, 2011 10:56:26 AM EDT
To: Drew
Reply-To: info@barackobama.com

Drew —

Because you and I don’t have a lot of chances to have dinner together, I hope you’ll take advantage of the one that’s coming up this fall.

So if you’ve been sitting on this, now’s the time to toss your name in the hat:

https://donate.barackobama.com/Dinner

I like these dinners not just because I get to hear from supporters like you, but because they’re part of what makes our organization different.

Other campaigns save seats at the table for special-interest PACs and Washington lobbyists — and you can see the effects in the decisions they make and the priorities they set.

Our campaign rejects all contributions from Washington lobbyists, and we refuse all money from corporate PACs. That means we’re accountable only to the people, not special interests.

Instead, we’re relying on millions of people like you giving just $3 or whatever you can pitch in.

Hope to see you soon:

Thanks,

Barack

How can you not think of the paperboy from Better Off Dead when you see these relentless emails?

You couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried.

The highlights:

Disagrees with Obama who set the tax increase to begin at $1 million. Said he wasn’t talking that low, he advocated over well over $50 million per year.

Refused to comment on Obama’s other plan to increase taxes on Americans and small businesses making more than $250,000.

Won’t endorse American Jobs Act.

HT: @PunderFile

WASHINGTON (The Blaze/AP) — The same U.S. military unit that got Osama bin Laden used a drone and jet strike in Yemen on Friday to kill an American-born cleric suspected of inspiring or helping plan numerous attacks on the United States, including the Christmas 2009 attempt to blow up a jetliner, U.S. and Yemeni officials said.

Anwar al-Awlaki was killed in a strike on his convoy directed by the CIA and carried out with the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command’s firepower, according to a counterterrorism official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence.

Al-Awlaki had been under observation for three weeks while they waited for the right opportunity to strike, one of the U.S. officials said.

Another source told Fox News the operation was carried out by two Predator drones that launched Hellfire missiles.

Keep reading…

Even though Anwar al-Awlaki was directly responsible for the killing of 13 U.S. soldiers in the Ft. Hood terror attack, Ron Paul says “no one knows if he killed anybody,” hence we should have allowed him to continue plotting to kill Americans from his safe haven in Yemen.

MANCHESTER NH (NBC News) — Ron Paul aggressively criticized President Obama today for al-Awlaki’s death.

“No I don’t think that’s a good way to deal with our problems,” Paul said in a media avail after his remarks at the Politics + Eggs event here. “He was born here, Al-Awlaki was born here, he is an American citizen. He was never tried or charged for any crimes. No one knows if he killed anybody. We know he might have been associated with the underwear bomber. But if the American people accept this blindly and casually that we now have an accepted practice of the president assassinating people who he thinks are bad guys, I think it’s sad.

“I think what would people . . . have said about Timothy McVeigh? We didn’t assassinate him, who certainly he had done it. Went and put through the courts then executed him. To start assassinating American citizens without charges, we should think very seriously about this.”

Does he feel the same about Bin Laden?”

Not exactly. Because he was involved in 9/11 and I voted for authority to go after those individuals responsible for 9/11. Al-Awlaki nobody ever suggested that he was participant in 9/11.”