Only in the warped mind of a liberal does one feel ashamed to be wealthy.

HT: Rachel

Fingers crossed.

ZAMBOANGA CITY ,Philippines — The military is verifying reports that a Malaysian Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorist was among the five militants killed in an air strike launched by Philippine Air Force bombers last Sunday at an Abu Sayyaf camp in Indanan, Sulu.

Brig. Gen. Romeo Tanalgo, commander of the Sulu Island Command and the Joint Task Force Sulu, yesterday said five Abu Sayyaf members, including three sub-leaders, were confirmed killed during the bombing in Mt. Tukay, at the Kawaran complex in Indanan.

Tanalgo said Malaysian JI leader Zulkipli bin Hir, alias Marwan, could also have been killed after his aide was found dead near the Abu Sayyaf camp after the air strike conducted by the 3rd Air Force Division’s two OV-10 Bronco planes.

Tanalgo identified those killed as Abu Sayyaf leaders Ben Wagas, Apo Mike and Abu Abad, whose bodies were recovered.

He said the two others killed were Sali Madarang, said to be the right hand of Marwan, and a certain Andag.

“Madarang was the known right-hand man of Marwan and the air strike was launched after the JI leader was monitored in the area,” Tanalgo said.

Islam being the only religion the ACLU actually defends instead of mercilessly persecuting (i.e. Christianity).

WEST VALLEY CITY — The deputy legal director for the ACLU believes post-9/11 security policies specifically target Muslims, and that the intelligence community has taken training cues from bigots, not experts.

And unlike the era where Japanese Americans were detained in camps during World War II, he sees detainment, surveillance and other infringement policies staying in the extreme in the decade following 9/11 becoming “the new normal.”

“While President Obama uses the rhetoric of human rights, his administration is continuing to become more entrenched,” said Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director for the ACLU and director of the ACLU’s Center for Democracy, which houses the agency’s work on national security; human rights; and speech, privacy and technology.

Jaffer spoke Saturday night at the Islamic Society of Greater Salt Lake’s Khadeeja Islamic Center.

He urged Muslims to vote and participate in public events, including demonstrations, but said they should not band together as Muslim or Arabic-sponsored groups to oppose government or societal injustices. “Choose something less selfish” rather than representing a Muslim bloc. “You have to think of other people’s rights” as well, he said.

Get the streamers and confetti ready, we’re closing in on 3K.

Pretty please?

(Politico) — Progressive disgruntlement with elements of President Obama’s governance, and with his principled fondness for compromise, has not at any point seemed on the verge of a serious primary challenge, and the most serious potential challengers — Howard Dean and Russ Feingold — have ruled it out.

But a New York reader sends over the stirrings of that disillusion in one of America’s true liberal heartlands, Manhattan’s Upper West side, where Obama and Biden won 84% of the vote in 2008. A longtime local Democratic activist, Bob Ginsberg, has sent around a mailing to about 1,800 New York Democratic leaders and activists, calling for a progressive challenge to President Obama.

Obama, Ginsberg writes, is destined for David Weprin-style defeat because of “his wimpiness; his unwillingness to fight for anything; and his addiction to compromising.”

“The soution is to find a credible progressive Democrat to run for President in a primary against President Obama. The best lesson comes from 1980 when another Democratic “middle of the road, compromising” unpopular president was planning to run for re-election,” writes Ginsberg, who represented the neighborhood in the state Democratic committee for 25 years, and notes that a local liberal reform Democrat, Fred Ohrenstein, was Kennedy’s campaign chairman.

“If only Kennedy had won, the country would have been spared 8 years of Ronald Reagan. Hopefully we have learned our lesson — and we will start immediately looking for a candidate to run against President Obama in the primaries and then to continue and run a strong campaign against whomever wins the Republican nomination,” he writes, calling it “the obligation of progressive reform Democrats.”

Disgusting.

(Fox News) — Lorna Jose Mendoza has been given a choice. She can either assist in an abortion this week at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, or she could refuse and risk losing her job.

Mendoza is one of a dozen nurses who filed suit today against the hospital — accusing them of violating federal and state law by forcing them to assist in abortions against their religious and moral objections.

“The hospital told the nurses they have no regard for their religious beliefs,” said Matthew Bowman, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund. “They were going to be assigned these abortions or they would be terminated.”

Bowman said the lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in New Jersey, on behalf of the nurses who “possess strongly held religious and moral beliefs that she may not participate in the process of an abortion that causes the death of a preborn child.”

A spokesman for the hospital told Fox News they were not aware of the lawsuit and would not be able to provide comment.

Bowman told Fox News that the hospital had been performing abortions for decades without forcing nurses to violate their religious beliefs. But that changed a few weeks ago.

“The hospital passed a policy and put one of the nurses who did abortions in a supervisory position and started forcing nurses to assist in abortions out of the blue,” Bowman said. “It’s in complete violation of federal and state law — that says you can’t force people to assist abortions.”

Bowman said hospital officials agreed to meet with the nurses to discuss the matter, but when the nurses arrived with an attorney the meeting was abruptly cancelled.

Keep reading…

Call me crazy but I predict a major fail in MoveOn’s future.

Dear MoveOn member,

The big Wall Street banks crashed our economy, refused to clean up the mess, and still haven’t been held accountable.

Now the Occupy movement has inspired people everywhere to take action in protest and a lot of us have realized there’s something we can do to fight back: close our accounts and move our money out of the big Wall Street banks and into community banks and credit unions.

This week, in the lead-up to the November 5 Make Wall Street Pay day of action targeting the giant banks, we’ve set up a new “Move Your Money Pledge.” Our goal is to get as many people as possible pledging to close their accounts with the big banks.

Are you ready to show the Wall Street banks that we’re going to hold them accountable ourselves? If you’re ready to stop banking with Wall Street — or if you already have — click here to sign the Move Your Money pledge:

Yes, I want to sign the Move Your Money pledge.

By signing the pledge you’ll be able to turn your private choice as a bank customer into a powerful public display of outrage and protest by joining tens of thousands of others who are ready to switch banks and close accounts.

We have resources available to help you find a new bank and a guide for how to go through the process of closing an account. Whether it’s a spare credit card, a savings account, or your personal checking, every account counts.

If we can get a huge number of accounts closed at the major banks we’ll certainly impact their bottom line, but we’ll also do something even more powerful — we’ll send them a very clear message that the public’s outrage is only growing stronger and that we’re not going to let them off the hook for the damage they’ve done to our economy.

Can you sign the pledge and close an account?

Yes, I’ll sign the pledge.

Thanks for all you do.

— Daniel, Elena, Robin, Stefanie, and the rest of the team

Huh?

Via Shark Tank

Because why should Obama have to play by the rules?

(TheDC) — White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said President Barack Obama will “continue” to act “administratively” without congressional authorization to “benefit the American people” as part of the White House’s “We Can’t Wait” campaign.

“He [Obama] fully understands that the kinds of things that are contained within the American Jobs Act require congressional action, require laws being passed, and that’s why he’s pressing for Congress to take action legislatively,” Carney told reporters on Monday at the White House.

“But he can also act independently or, rather, administratively, and exercise his executive authority to benefit the American people in other ways. And he will continue to do that.”

Keep reading…

The Dems can’t breathe without permission from the unions.

(The Hill) — AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Monday that a proposal by Democratic members of the “supercommittee” could undermine President Obama’s jobs campaign.

On a conference call with reporters, the leader of the nation’s largest labor federation said the White House has made job creation the “No. 1 priority” in recent weeks by pushing Congress to pass legislation and issuing executive orders meant to boost the economy. . . .

The AFL-CIO chief said he was surprised that Democrats on the deficit panel proposed cuts to social programs.

“I have personally talked to members of that committee and told them that this was the wrong direction to go in,” Trumka said. “So the question was, was I surprised? Yes, I was surprised to see some of the suggestions coming out of the Democratic side.”

The labor leader noted that the AFL-CIO’s state affiliates pick which candidates to endorse in congressional races. But he said anyone who votes for cuts to social programs would likely risk the support of unions come next election.

“This is the one of things that will be considered when we do endorsements,” Trumka said. “Although I have a tough time envisioning us endorsing people who actually voted for major cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.”

Never mind the fact that his assassin was a Communist who had previously defected to the Soviet Union.

“[Kennedy] was living the life of an American politician, trying to figure things out politically, trying to figure out what was in the water down there in Dallas that made some people so viciously right-wing. An hour later, he was gone.”

Via Newsbusters:

Shocker.

HT: Jack via BreitbartTV

John Boehner unavailable for comment.

(The Hill) — House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), met by an organized protest before his planned speech on economics at the University of Michigan Monday, criticized demonstrators for showing “ire and hatred.”

“To me if you’ve got a problem you ought to go about trying to fix it in a constructive manner,” Cantor said, according to local news site AnnArbor.com.

The protesters, many part of the local Occupy Ann Arbor movement, confronted Cantor ahead of his speaking engagement hosted by the university’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.

The demonstration was staged as a “Funeral for the Middle Class,” with many protesters holding signs shaped like tombstones.

The Occupy Ann Arbor movement is part of the larger Occupy Wall Street protest movement, which began in New York City in mid-September and has spread across the country. Cantor responded to the protest movement early in the month by calling protesters “mobs,” though he later said he understood the “frustration” that prompted the movement.

“Let’s not pit one against another,” he said, slamming the “ire and hatred toward certain people” demonstrated by protesters as something not “constructive.”

He added, “I don’t think it’s reflective of the majority of America.”

Update:

(Ann Arbor) — Inside the University of Michigan League, U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, spoke of the opportunity of Americans to move up “the economic ladder.”

Outside, a group of about 70 students and Ann Arbor residents protested a perceived economic inequality that they say makes it too difficult to climb that ladder.

The House majority leader gave a speech today at the Michigan League in Ann Arbor as a part of a lecture series at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.

“Social justice is about fairness. Fairness is making sure that we afford opportunities for everyone to pursue their happiness,” Cantor said. “There are several folks that have stood up to say tax the rich. That that’s somehow fair.”

“That all we have to do is redistribute the wealth and we can create the American dream for more.” he continued. “That doesn’t work. . . wealth distribution doesn’t work.”

Über-classy.

(SSN) — With the team behind President Barack Obama targeting the Sunshine State in their bid for a second term in 2012, the White House sent U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis to speak to the Florida Democratic Convention on Saturday.

A day after Vice President Joe Biden told the convention at Walt Disney World that Obama needed to carry Florida to win in 2012, Solis attempted to rally Democrats for the elections and urged them to push for the Obama jobs plan which, with Republicans controlling the U.S. House, has no chance of passing Congress.

Speaking at a luncheon event on Saturday, Solis carried water for Obama, bashing Republicans and praising the administration’s economic policies.

Solis offered harsh words about conservatives. Looking at 2012, Solis slammed the tea party movement, calling them “teabaggers” and promising the Obama administration will take them on.

Keep reading…

(Al Arabiya) — A prominent Egyptian Islamic scholar spoke out against a fatwa issued by a Salafist cleric that bans voting for non-Islamists in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

A former deputy of al-Azhar, the world’s leading institution of Sunni Islam and member of the Islamic Research Center, Sheikh Mahmoud Ashour lashed out at Sheikh Mahmoud Amer, a Salafist cleric and head of the Giza Governorate branch of al-Sunna al-Mohamadeya for issuing a fatwa that renders voting for certain Egyptian groups against Islam.

Amer had said that Muslims were prohibited from voting for Copts, secularists, and liberals as well as Muslim candidates who do not pray and who do not call for the implementation of sharia (Islamic law) in their programs.

He also included members of the formerly ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) on the black list, yet excluded what he called the “honorable” among them.

“Anyone who votes for one of those will be committing a grave sin,” the Egyptian daily independent al-Masry al-Youm quoted Amer as saying.

First it was Arizona, then Alabama and now South Carolina.

On the plus side, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has vowed to fight the lawsuit.

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department filed suit Monday against South Carolina over a recently-passed state law seeking to step up local law enforcement action against illegal immigrants.

The law, set to take effect Jan. 1, requires local law enforcement officials to check the immigration status of everyone they detain. Proponents say the measure will reduce crime and other problems caused by illegal immigrants, but critics have warned that U.S. citizens and immigrants who are in the country legally could be kept in custody by police carrying out the new law.

The lawsuit — the third the Justice Department has filed against new measures states have enacted to crack down on illegal aliens — argues that the law usurps the federal government’s authority to enforce immigration laws.

A spokesman for Gov. Nikki Haley (R-S.C.), who signed the measure into law in June, said she would resist the federal government’s effort to block the new law.

“As the daughter of immigrants who came to this country legally, Gov. Haley understands that no American value is more sacred than the rule of law. That’s what this is about — nothing more, nothing less,” Haley spokesman Rob Godfrey said in a statement. “If the feds were doing their job, we wouldn’t have had to address illegal immigration reform at the state level. But, until they do, we’re going to keep fighting in South Carolina to be able to enforce our laws.”

If true, then we now know why Politico refused to say what the details of the accusations were.

Via Byron York:

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain for the first time has offered a detailed recollection of what led an employee of the National Restaurant Association to lodge a sexual harassment charge against him when he was CEO of the organization.

Cain spoke in response to detailed questioning from Fox News’ Greta van Susteren, who led Cain through the facts of the case in an extended interview. That interview was taped to be shown on Fox Monday night.

Cain told van Susteren that he remembered one woman who was a writer in the Association’s communications department. “I can’t even remember her name, but I do remember the formal allegation she made in terms of sexual harassment,” Cain said. “I turned it over to my general counsel and one of the ladies that worked for me, the woman in charge of human resources. They did investigate. . . and it was found to be baseless.”. . .

Cain said the woman was “younger than I was,” but he could not recall her age. Pressed, he said, “It would have had to have been late 30s, early 40s.”

Van Susteren asked what Cain did that led to the accusation. There were reportedly more than one accusations in the complaint, but Cain said he recalled just one incident. “She was in my office one day, and I made a gesture saying — and I was standing close to her — and I made a gesture saying you are the same height as my wife. And I brought my hand up to my chin saying, ‘My wife comes up to my chin.’” At that point, Cain gestured with his flattened palm near his chin. “And that was put in there [the complaint] as something that made her uncomfortable,” Cain said, “something that was in the sexual harassment charge.”

Keep reading…

Take a good look, Barack, you decided to hitch your wagon to these psychopaths.

Video of 9/11 Troofer outside Zuccotti Park on Broadway at Occupy Wall Street on October 28, 2011. Man with cap engages in anti-semitic verbal abuse. Crowd defends man with cap.

HT: Weekly Standard

Update to this story from yesterday.

MOGADISHU, Somalia (MSNBC) — A man who blew himself up in an attack in the Somali capital on Saturday reportedly grew up in Minneapolis and was known by the FBI as one of 20 Somali Americans to have joined an al-Qaida-linked militant group.

Abdisalan Hussein Ali, 22, was suspected of being a member of al-Shabab, the FBI told msnbc.com.

Kyle Loven, the FBI’s chief division counsel for Minneapolis, said Ali was a subject of “Operation Rhino,” an ongoing investigation into Somali youth traveling from the U.S. to Somalia to fight for al-Shabab.

Loven could not confirm whether Ali was indeed the bomber but told msnbc.com that the FBI was “awaiting results from DNA checks at this point.”

Al-Shabab posted an audiotape that they said was made by Ali before he blew himself up during an attack Saturday on an African Union base in Mogadishu that left at least 10 people dead.

The FBI could not confirm whether the audiotape was authentic but was investigating its credibility.

A spokesman for the Somali affairs unit at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi told msnbc.com that they had seen reports alleging that one of the bombers was an American citizen.”We have not been able to verify those reports,” Matt Goshko said.