No surprise.

(Daily Caller) — White House officials are applauding Turkey’s Islamist government, which is gradually removing the country’s secularist political rules, suppressing free-speech, promoting Shariah Islamic laws and supporting the Islamist Hamas terror group’s effort to eliminate Israel.

Turkey’s “own example can be very powerful to countries now going through transition,” said Anthony Blinken, who is the national security advisor to Vice President Joe Biden in a Monday press conference called to describe Biden’s December visit to Turkey and Greece. “So it’s very encouraging to see Turkey play a strong leadership role [in the Middle East]. . . and that’s something that is in the interest of the United States.”

Turkey’s Islamist government, led by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, has pushed hard to remove longstanding secular laws that bar female students or government workers from wearing head scarves, which are promoted by Islamists to separate men and women. Erdogan and his political allies have sued hundreds of their critics for slander, some of whom were sent to jail, and free speech advocates have also accused the administration of using what it calls the “Ergenekon Conspiracy” to jail journalists, lawyers and political critics.

Keep reading…

Also features an adorable occupier doing a cop impersonation where he says, “If you were a girl I’d grab your hair and pepper spray you in the mouth.”

HT: BreitbartTV

I used to like Bachmann. Now she annoys the sh*t out of me.

To make matters worse, reporters flocked to Cain’s HQ after Bachmann’s state chair made the claim just in time to find 3,000 campaign signs entering the building.

(Des Moines Register) — Reporters flocked to Herman Cain’s Iowa headquarters in Urbandale Tuesday night after Michele Bachmann’s state chairman tweeted that moving trucks were sitting outside the offices of a candidate who said he’s “reassessing” his campaign.

The catch: They weren’t moving trucks, but delivery trucks full of campaign signs.

The Bachmann aide, Iowa Sen. Kent Sorenson tweeted: “Moving trucks at Herman Cains office in Urbandale”

The Des Moines Register arrived at the offices at 8550 New York Ave. to find more than 3,000 campaign signs leaning in the entryway and first reported it. A volunteer sat on the floor in the room, putting the signs together.

Keep reading…

You know, because Obama has brought such pride and happiness to America.

“One thing I know about Newt Gingrich: ever since he arrived on the national scene, politics has been nastier, more feral, too often uglier. There’s something about this figure that darkens the atmosphere, lessens the spirit.

The haters of liberal democracy will cheer his every assault, his every rise in the polls, his every advance toward Tampa where the scene of him, Newt Gingrich, being nominated by a major political party for the American presidency promises a grotesquery to make even the most hard-nosed of us avert our glance in embarrassment and sadness for our republic.”

Via Newsbusters’ Noel Sheppard

Someone inform Obama there hasn’t been an “English” embassy for several centuries.

Via The Foundry:

It is gratifying to see President Barack Obama condemn the disgraceful storming of the British Embassy in Tehran by thugs acting at the behest of the Iranian regime. After all, Obama has been notoriously slow in the past to criticise the brutal actions of the Iranian government after initially extending the hand of friendship to it. But did he really need to make another embarrassing foreign policy gaffe while doing so?

In a press conference this evening, the president referred in stumbling fashion to the “English Embassy” in Iran instead of the British Embassy. One can only imagine the kind of howls of derision that would greet any presidential contender if that kind of basic error were made before, say, the editorial board of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Keep reading…

I think “Queen” would be more appropriate.

Drew —

Yesterday, Barney Frank announced his retirement after spending over three decades representing the people of Massachusetts in Congress.

Congressman Frank has been a champion for American families and as the country moved forward it has been Barney Frank leading the way.

He is more than a Congressman — he is a voice for the voiceless, a leader for our Caucus, and a lion of the House.

Congress simply will not be the same without him.

But if Republicans have their way, the critical reforms that Chairman Frank put in place to end the days of Wall Street bailouts could also be retired.

We can’t let that happen — we must recapture the Majority in November. But, first we must raise $63,151 more by tomorrow night’s FEC deadline to keep pace with the Republicans.

Thanks,

Rep. Steve Israel
DCCC Chairman

Via Translating Jihad:

Popular Egyptian Shaykh Muhammad al-’Arifi last week called on the Saudi government to ban women from participating in the Olympic games, because it is “forbidden.” Al-’Arifi explained that women are permitted in Islam to play sports, just not when they might mingle with men, or any men might be watching. He also described it as a slippery slope which could lead to women taking off their hijabs or tightening their clothes.

Al-’Arifi also stated that “Prince Nawaf would not like his wife or daughter to participate, and thus he should likewise be eager to protect the reputation and virtue of his Muslim sisters.” Of course there’s nothing wrong with trying to protect people’s virtue and reputation; however, the fact that this only applies to women and not men is telling. Women under Islam are seen as sex objects only, which is why a man’s female relatives must be covered up and controlled at all times in order to protect the family’s honor.

Keep reading…

“I wanted to meet [her] mostly to see if she was OK and to thank her, because I’m glad I didn’t end up as an abortion.” — Steve Jobs on his birth mother

Via Raw Story:

Ask the Siri, the new iPhone 4 assistant, where to get an abortion, and, if you happen to be in Washington, D.C., she won’t direct you to the Planned Parenthood on 16th St, NW. Instead, she’ll suggest you pay a visit to the 1st Choice Women’s Health Center, an anti-abortion Crisis Pregnancy Center (CPC) in Landsdowne, Virginia, or Human Life Services, a CPC in York, Pennsylvania. Ask Google the same question, and you’ll get ads for no less than 7 metro-area abortion clinics, 2 CPCs and a nationwide abortion referral service.

Ask in New York City, and Siri will tell you “I didn’t find any abortion clinics.”

It’s an experience that’s being replicated by women around the country: despite plentiful online information about actual places to get an abortion, Siri doesn’t seem to provide it. It’s a similar experience for women seeking emergency contraception: in New York City, Siri doesn’t know what Plan B is and, asked for emergency contraception, offers up a Google results page of definitions.

Keep reading…

Way to take the high road, Michele.

Via Des Moines Register:

Responding to reports that Cain was “reassessing” his campaign in light of adultery allegations, Bachmann said the latest crisis was one more argument in favor of her candidacy.

“I think the language that’s used in particular in the tweet is code language for the fact that they’re looking at the viability of their effort moving forward,” she said. “I think that they recognize that the support has really dropped out of their campaign because of those questions.”

(The tweet she referred to was the first in a flood of reports this morning about a Cain campaign conference call in which he made the “reassessment” comments. The Des Moines Register and the National Review listened in on the call.)

Bachmann continued, “That goes back to the message we’ve been trying to get out to people across Iowa, and that’s that I do have a core of conviction, I’ve been the consistent conservative in the race and as people have been shopping around for the candidates I think they’re going to come back home and see I’ve been the consistent, constitutional conservative who’s going to fight.

Keep reading…

At least for now.

(The State Column) — After reports surfaced Tuesday morning that pizza magnate Herman Cain is reassessing his 2012 Republican presidential nomination bid, POLITICO obtained a statement from a Cain campaign spokesman regarding his candidates’ consideration of dropping out of the race.

“Yes,” the campaign spokesman said Tuesday when asked whether Cain would “definitely” remain in the race.

The clarification comes after the National Review Online released statements that Cain made in a conference call with campaign aides Tuesday morning. During the call, Cain made the following statements, “We have to do an assessment as to whether or not this is going to create too much of a cloud, in some people’s minds, as to whether or not they would be able to support us going forth,” Cain said.

I’m confident he won’t let them down.

(ABC News) — In August, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that health insurance plans, as of January 1, 2013, will be required to cover contraception, including FDA-approved emergency contraception. “These historic guidelines are based on science and existing literature and will help ensure women get the preventive health benefits they need,” she said. The Catholic Church has been pushing the White House to allow Catholic hospitals to opt out of providing contraception that it considers the termination of a life, and many in the abortion rights community are worried that the president will grant that exemption. Additionally, many Democrats invested in President Obama’s re-election are worried that if he grants that exemption, he will alienate liberal women voters they will need come November.

“There’s a high level of concern,” a prominent Democrat with ties to the White House told ABC News, “although the White House has been aggressive in reaching out to the women’s community to make it clear that no decision has been reached.”

The policy concern surrounds “what many would see as a significant expansion of the definition for the exemption,” the Democrat said. “The political concern is that it will make it more difficult to run against the Republican nominee whoever he or she may be on this issue of protecting women’s health. The real concern is that there’s even a discussion about this!”