(IPT) — Two terrorists released in the Gilad Schalit exchange pledged to continue their jihad, the Middle East Media Research Institute’s (MEMRI) Palestinian Media Studies Project reports.

In an interview posted online Oct. 19 and translated by MEMRI, Ahlam Tamimi expressed no regrets for her role in the suicide bombing of an Israeli restaurant. “This is the path. I dedicated myself to Jihad for the sake of Allah, and Allah granted me success,” she said. “You know how many casualties there were [in the 2001 attack on the Sbarro pizzeria]? This was made possible by Allah.”

Tamimi was serving 16 life sentences before she was released, one of hundreds of terrorists exchanged for Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit, who was kidnapped by Hamas five years ago.

Similarly, Muhammad Abu Ataya told Al-Quds TV of Lebanon last week that he was not deterred by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s warnings to hold accountable any released prisoner who returns to terrorism.

“He can make as many warning as he likes. His warning and threats will not deter us from continuing the journey of resistance, on which we embarked decades ago,” Ataya said. He also declared that he had been imprisoned for 16 life sentences for “killing spies and traitors” and “going after the herd of settlers and the Israeli army,” actions which he still supported.

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The MSM is going out of its way to describe Tunisia’s Ennahda as a “moderate Islamist” party, as if there is such a thing as a moderate Islamist.

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisia’s moderate Islamist party Ennahda, banned for decades, emerged the official victor in the nation’s first free elections, taking 41.47 percent of the vote and 90 of 217 seats in an assembly that will write a new constitution, the electoral commission announced Thursday.

The announcement of final results in Sunday’s landmark voting capped an ebullient period for this small North African country, which inspired the Arab Spring as it moves toward democracy after more than a half-century under one-party systems.

Ennahda’s leading role in fashioning a new Tunisia was evident shortly after the vote. However, electoral authorities had said they were slow in announcing full results because they were taking care with counting and verifying.

Officials of the party have said they are seeking a broad-based coalition government to replace the interim team in charge of this small North African nation since protests forced President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to flee in January. He took refuge in Saudi Arabia.

Ennahda has also vowed to wary Tunisians that democratic liberties such as gender equality will be respected in line with Muslim Tunisia’s strong secular tradition.

Juvenile? — Yes. Funny? — Absolutely!

Nancy Pelosi:

“It’s no use asking me about specific things until we see the whole package,” Pelosi said Thursday during a press briefing in the Capitol. “I’m not making any judgment about any package until I see the fuller package that it’s a part of.”

In related news, Dems don’t think highly of the American public’s intelligence.

(The Hill) — President Obama and Democrats on Capitol Hill are increasingly referring to the Congress as “Republican” even though their party controls one-half of the unpopular institution.

Obama and his allies have started to deploy the phrase “Republican Congress” in what some experts see as a clear attempt to gain a political advantage.

“I’m the first one to acknowledge that the relations between myself and the Republican Congress have not been good over the last several months, but it’s not for lack of effort,” Obama told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos earlier this month.

“It has to do with the fact that, you know, they’ve made a decision to follow what is a pretty extreme approach to governance,” he said.

And other Democrats have used the term.

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HT: Allah

The dead fetus’ thrown in the trash beg to differ.

New York (LifeNews/CFAM) — At UN headquarters this week, governments dismissed a high level UN bureaucrat’s claim that abortion is a human right and went so far as to scold him for overstepping his mandate.

The Special Rapporteur for Health, Anand Grover, presented his report to delegates of the UN Third Committee linking unrestricted abortion with the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. He adamantly affirmed his intention to redefine the “right to health” in UN conventions and treaties to include abortion.

The delegate from Swaziland questioned why the Special Rapporteur neglected his mandate by reporting only on reproductive health while ignoring a myriad of other health concerns such as hunger and disease. She criticized the notion that the Special Rapporteur would include a “non-existent” right to abortion within the right to health. The Holy See delegate insisted there is no right to abortion in international law, and that the Special Rapporteur failed to consider conventions that “safeguard the inherent worth and dignity of the person both born and unborn.”

The Egypt government challenged the Special Rapporteur’s “systematic attempts to reinterpret internationally agreed conventions” in order to redefine the right to health according to his own interpretations. In particular, the Egyptian spokesman was concerned by the way Mr. Grover stepped beyond his mandate in order to give “new perspectives” on the right to health in relation to child and maternal mortality.

The Chilean government emphasized that it is essential to recognize the right to life of all human beings. Its statement was of special interest given the country’s history with legalized abortion. Abortion was legal in Chile until 1989. After its criminalization, maternal mortality decreased.

In other words, he doesn’t want to play by the same rules as every president before him.

(RCP) — “What gives the president the right to [enact measures] by executive order,” NBC’s Mike Vaccaro asked White House press secretary Jay Carney today.

“The things [Obama] is doing administratively, through executive powers are things he can do, the things that do not require legislative action so he is exercising that power,” Carney responded.

Carney says Obama has been doing this throughout his entire presidency and it is only newsworthy at this point since it’s “obvious to everyone” that the Congress is dysfunctional and acting as “obstructionists.”

“He has done and will continue to take the kinds of actions he can, as president, without Congress, to help Americans. To help them deal with this economy. To help them deal with their debt, deal with their mortgages, and through a variety of other measures that he has taken and will take,” Carney told Vaccaro.

Keep reading…

Or something.

TAMPA — First Lady Michelle Obama made her first campaign trip to Tampa Bay on Thursday, promoting healthy eating, raising campaign money and acknowledging to supporters that change doesn’t happen overnight.

“Real change is slow, and it never happens all at once. But if we keep showing up, if we keep fighting the good fight, if we keep doing what we know in our hearts is the right thing, then we always get there. We always do,” Obama told a crowd of more than 200 at a fundraising reception at the Davis Islands home of developer Joel Cantor.

The fundraiser took place just a few minutes from the St. Pete Times Forum where next August the Republicans will crown a nominee to take on President Barack Obama. Admission started at $1,000, with $5,000 donations earning a photo with the first lady, and $35,800 to be on the host committee. Mrs. Obama, 47, also held fundraisers in Jacksonville and Fort Lauderdale on Thursday.

The election, she suggested, amounted to a fundamental question of America’s values.

“It’s about whether we as a country will honor that fundamental promise that we made generations ago, that when times are hard, we do not abandon our fellow citizens. We don’t let everything fall apart for struggling families. Instead, we say, ‘There but for the grace of God goes my family.’ Instead, we say we’re all in this together and we extend a helping hand. That is why even though there are some trying to stop this bill from moving forward my president — and my husband — he is not going to give up. He is going to keep fighting.”

Warning: The amount of bullshit in her next quote is potentially lethal.

President Obama faces a tough re-election campaign amid a lousy economy, and Mrs. Obama told the supporters gathered that the president gets it.

“Believe me, Barack knows what it means when a family struggles,” she said. “I hear (it) in my husband’s voice when he returns home after a long day traveling the country, in the Oval Office, and he tells me about the people he’s met. . . . And I hear the passion and determination in his voice. He says, ‘You won’t believe what folks are going through, Michelle.’ That’s what he tells me. He says, ‘It’s not right. We have so much more work to do.’”

Or as Obama calls them, the little people.

(ABC News) — President Obama is having dinner tonight with four donors who won the “Dinner with Barack” campaign contest. The previously undisclosed location was just revealed to be the Liberty Tavern in Clarendon, Va.

The four winners, who were flown to D.C. by the campaign, were Ken Knight, a U.S. postal worker from Chandler, Ariz.; Juanita Martinez, a retired teacher from Brighton, Colo.; Casey Helbling, a small business owner from Minneapolis and Wendi Smith, a retired professor from Corydon, Indiana.

The campaign encouraged supporters to donate $5 or more for the chance to have dinner with the president, but it is unknown how much the four winners donated.

The opportunity also to have dinner with Vice President Joe Biden was originally part of the contest, but Biden was unable to make it tonight. He is in Saudi Arabia on a diplomatic mission.

Shocker.

“I’m a mayor of a city that has divided opinions on some things,” Mayor Jean Quan said. “I think most support the Occupy Wall Street movement. I know you guys don’t like that I look at things day by day, situation by situation. We’re going to do what keeps most people safe.”

HT: BreitbartTV

Via Beltway Confidential:

Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman, claimed yesterday to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell that “when Democrats had the majority in the House, we passed legislation [and] sent it to the Senate that improved the economy.”

That might give one the impression that the economy actually improved over the Democrats’ tenure. Between 2006 and 2010, the unemployment rate increased from 4.5 percent to 9.8 percent.

In fairness, congressional Democrats probably deserve only a small share of the credit for this turnaround. (It is worth noting that since Republicans took the U.S. House in 2010, unemployment has fallen to 9.1 percent.)

When confronted with a poll showing that a majority of Americans believe Obama has “no clear plan for the economy,” Israel responded by blaming Republicans. “Quite honestly, the [Republican] strategy to do nothing hasn’t created jobs and it should be no surprise that people hold the president, of either party, responsible for that.”

Israel also said that Obama has “made a clear and convincing case” to the American people, despite the fact that the poll’s respondents seemed so unconvinced.

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Are they going to storm the polling stations or something?

HT: BreitbartTV

(Politico) — An upcoming Houston fundraiser featuring first lady Michelle Obama at the home of a former Enron executive who is part of a movement to convert public pensions to 401(k)-style plans is angering some local Democrats.

John Arnold, a Houston billionaire and former Enron trader, is hosting the Michelle Obama event with his wife, Laura Arnold, at their Houston home on Nov. 1.

Arnold is part of an organization pushing to convert public pensions — including teachers, police, firefighters and others — to 401(k)-style plans. The effort launched in California, but has plans to go nationwide, according to a story by Bloomberg. The story notes that Arnold is a libertarian and his wife a Democrat.

A receptionist at Arnold’s Houston investment office told POLITICO that Arnold was not available to comment.

CAIR continues its jihad again Congressman West and NPR is more than willing to shill for them.

(NPR) — There’s no member of the Republican freshman class in Congress more outspoken than Florida Rep. Allen West.

Since he was elected last year, West has become a strong voice on Capitol Hill for fiscal restraint, socially conservative values — and responding to the threat posed by Islamic extremists.

On the topic of Islam, West has been particularly controversial. He calls it not a religion but a “theocratic political ideology” that’s a threat to America.

Nezar Hamze, a Muslim activist in South Florida, has devoted himself to challenging West’s views. Hamze is the director of the South Florida office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. It’s a civil rights organization headquartered in Washington that has long sought to spread information and dispel myths about Islam. . . .

Hamze has attended four of West’s town meetings and sought — unsuccessfully — to have a private discussion with him. Hamze says he wants to talk to West about the congressman’s views on Islam and discuss the larger context of the passages he sometimes quotes from the Quran.

Hamze says there’s another important topic he wants to discuss on behalf of South Florida’s estimated 100,000 Muslims.

“To make him understand that discrimination and bigotry is real. And his comments are irresponsible and it fuels that bigotry and intolerance,” Hamze says.

West declined to comment on Hamze’s charges, or on his refusal to meet with the activist. In a letter he sent to Hamze, West says he’s not anti-Islam, but he is concerned about what he calls the “radical element of Islam that presents a dangerous threat” to the U.S.

West says meeting with Hamze would be “further legitimizing an organization with questionable associations.”

Does Planned Parenthood really need a lobbyist with Obama in the White House?

(The Hill) — The White House is losing another top female aide, with Planned Parenthood announcing Thursday that they had hired Dana Singiser, Special Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs, to serve as the reproductive rights organization’s Vice President for Public Policy and Government Relations.

Singiser had been with the president since his 2008 campaign, and was a key part in the team that shepherded Obama’s health care reform law through Congress.

“Dana Singiser is a highly respected advocate. We’re thrilled to have someone of Dana’s experience and caliber be a part of our team as we focus on expanding access to health care and making the new health care reform law a tangible reality for women across the country,” said Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards in a statement.

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But don’t worry, he doesn’t want them to be violent (wink . . . wink).

More hypocrisy.

(Daily Mail) — He recently showed his support to protesters by appearing at the Occupy Wall Street base in Zuccotti Park.

But protestors at the camp, who are campaigning against social and economic equality, will no doubt be interested to learn that the actor has just splashed $11.7million on a plush New York home.

The 53-year-old actor has just acquired the huge property, which was once six separate apartments all knocked into one.

The sprawling 4,137 square foot, three bedroom, four bathroom home, located in the hip West Village was originally listed at $12.5million but Baldwin managed to reduce the price.

HT: Rob M.

PC lunacy has no place on the battlefield.

(NC Times) — As the war in Afghanistan enters its 11th year, thousands of Camp Pendleton troops are getting much more detailed training in Afghan cultural practices.

Years of lessons learned about roadside bombs also are being tapped to better prepare more than 7,000 base troops leaving for Afghanistan in about 12 weeks to spot the weapons responsible for most deaths and injuries.

“The training is a lot more thorough and mission-oriented now,” said Gunnery Sgt. Dan Tremore, who was helping to oversee training sessions last week for nearly 100 troops. “It’s extremely important in order to be able to operate successfully.”

Troops scheduled to deploy in early January include more than 800 members of a unit that, for the next year, will direct Marine Corps operations in the south-central Asian nation of 31 million people.

The relationships troops forge can mean the difference between a bloody deployment and a relatively safe one, said one of the trainers, Shafiq Mubarak, from the Marine Corps Center for Advanced Operational Culture Learning. . .

Mubarak taught the troops the proper way to sit during a shura. He told them they should plan on at least 30 minutes for an initial meeting, and that they should always finish their tea and eat any food presented.

“If you don’t, that means to them that you don’t trust them, or think what they are giving you is poison or is unclean,” he said.

Mubarak also said the Marines should never spit or urinate to the west, the direction of Mecca that Muslims in Afghanistan face when they pray.

Also see No Joke — Marines In Afghanistan Ordered Not To Fart Because It “Offends” The Locals

HT: ROP

Feel good story of the day.

(LWJ) — US Predators killed five Taliban commanders in South Waziristan who served a leader favored by the Pakistani military.

The unmanned, CIA-operated Predators, or the more deadly Reapers, fired five missiles at a vehicle in the village of Tora Gola in the Azam Warsak area of South Waziristan, according to Dawn. Four of the five Taliban commanders were identified as Hazrat Omar, Khan Mohammad, Miraj Wazir, and Ashfaq Wazir.

Omar is the younger brother of Mullah Nazir, the leader of the Taliban in the Wazir areas in the western parts of South Waziristan. Omar served as Nazir’s operational commander and directed the Taliban faction’s activities in Afghanistan, Pakistani officials told AFP.

This year the CIA has begun to target Nazir’s tribal areas, after focusing nearly exclusively in North Waziristan in 2010. Twenty of the 22 strikes that have occurred in South Waziristan this year were conducted in areas under Nazir’s control (there have been 58 strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas so far in 2011). Last year, only two of the seven strikes took place in areas under Nazir’s influence (there were 117 strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas in 2010).

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Update: It’s raining AGM-114 Hellfire missiles!

(LWJ) — US Predators struck for the second time today in Pakistan’s tribal areas, killing six “militants” in a town where a top al Qaeda leader was killed in a separate strike six weeks ago.

The second strike took place in the village of Hisokhel in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan. Unmanned, CIA operated Predators or Reapers fired a salvo of five missiles at a “hideout” in the town, killing six fighters, according to The Associated Press.

The target of the strike has not been disclosed. No senior leaders from the Taliban, al Qaeda, or allied terror groups operating in the area have been reported killed.

Speechless.

(Fox News) — The Washington, D.C. Office of Human Rights confirmed that it is investigating allegations that Catholic University violated the human rights of Muslim students by not allowing them to form a Muslim student group and by not providing them rooms without Christian symbols for their daily prayers.

The investigation alleges that Muslim students “must perform their prayers surrounded by symbols of Catholicism — e.g., a wooden crucifix, paintings of Jesus, pictures of priests and theologians which many Muslim students find inappropriate.”

A spokesperson for the Office of Human Rights told Fox News they had received a 60-page complaint against the private university. The investigation, they said, could take as long a six months.

The complaint was filed by John Banzhaf, an attorney and professor at George Washington University Law School. Banzhaf has been involved in previous litigation against the school involving the same-sex residence halls. He also alleged in his complaint involving Muslim students that women at the university were being discriminated against. You can read more on those allegations by clicking here.

Banzhaf said some Muslim students were particularly offended because they had to meditate in the school’s chapels “and at the cathedral that looms over the entire campus — the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.”

“It shouldn’t be too difficult somewhere on the campus for the university to set aside a small room where Muslims can pray without having to stare up and be looked down upon by a cross of Jesus,” he told Fox News.

Keep reading..

HT: PatriotLady