Friday AM ~ The Front Page Cover

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"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened"
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Featuring:
Why Take The Trump Stunt Seriously
Charles Krauthammer
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"Rise up together as one voice"
"Be careful where you stand"
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 TOASTERS DON’T TOAST CRUMPETS, PEOPLE DO
Conservatives in the United States are worried about keeping their firearms. In Britain, the battle for liberty is somewhat, er, different as the Guardian tells: “A prized communal toaster has sparked a standoff between council staff and Conservatives at Bradford town hall, with councillors vowing to hide the appliance from health and safety staff who say it is a fire risk. Staff working in the [historically preserved], 19th-century building are banned from using toasters because they are a fire hazard and contravene the council’s eco-friendly policies on energy use. The rebellion by Conservative councillors was precipitated by an internal memo sent to all staff that said an environmental awareness officer had spotted contraband items. An amnesty would be held on Monday, it said, for ‘all portable heaters, fans and toasters ... [which] do not comply with the council’s agreed recycling and heating efficiency policies.’”  -Fox News
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 Leader Low on Resolve Attempts Smack Talk  
Speaking at the Pentagon, the commander in chief with an approval rating that has steadily declined since the beginning of September made an attempt to talk smack against the Islamic State. "As we squeeze its heart, we'll make it harder for ISIL to pump its terror and propaganda to the rest of the world," nObama said in a follow-up to his Oval Office speech. "ISIL leaders cannot hide and our next message to them is simple: You are next."
          The only thing that's changed is the rhetoric. After the recent attacks on the West, Americans are increasingly worried about nObama's strategy against the group, a strategy the chief executive only doubled down on Monday, naming off a list of eight Islamic State leaders that coalition airstrikes supposedly killed. nObama continued, saying the Islamic State has not made any major advancements in Iraq and Syria since the summer. So we're winning, right?
          According to commentator Charles Krauthammer, it's the same rhetorical trick presidents used to convince Americans the Vietnam War was a success. Meanwhile, the Islamic State struck San Bernardino, Paris and downed a Russian passenger plane over the Sinai Peninsula. "When you have to resort to statistics," Krauthammer said, "he has a list of people whom we've killed, as if anyone has any idea who they are. It's reminiscent of the strategy of the Vietnam War where we would announce the body counts — the ratio of dead Vietcong to Americans. It was always lopsided, and we lost the damn war because that's not how you gauge who's winning or losing a war." But hey, smart power demands committing to a failing strategy, holding out until someone more experienced can take over.  -The Patriot Post
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 DHS Won't Review Social Media Posts of Visa Entrants  
The nObama State Department once had a "brilliant" plan — fight the Islamic State in part by waging a propaganda war on social media. In other words, bureaucrats would try to deter potential ISIL recruits with Twitter and Facebook posts. After a while, however, State finally admitted that hashtag diplomacy wasn't really working all that well. But you know what else isn't working? U.S. policy of not considering the social media posts of foreigners trying to enter the U.S. through the visa program. ABC News reports, "Fearing a civil liberties backlash and 'bad public relations' for the nObama administration, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson refused in early 2014 to end a secret U.S. policy that prohibited immigration officials from reviewing the social media messages of all foreign citizens applying for U.S. visas, a former senior department official said." Why does that matter? Well, if officials had reviewed the social media posts of Tashfeen Malik, she might not have been granted a visa in May 2014 — a full 18 months before she and her husband killed 14 in San Bernardino. Even Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) gets it: "Had they checked out Tashfeen Malik, maybe those people in San Bernardino would be alive." Remember, no one has a right to come to the U.S., and the fact that Islam is as much a political system as a religion means these reviews are far more important than a little uncomfortable PR for the nObama administration.  -The Patriot Post
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 The Bill of Rights  
Today, Dec. 15, is the anniversary of the 1791 ratification of our Bill of Rights, the first 10 Amendments to our Constitution, and the Rule of Law it enshrines.
          The Bill of Rights was inspired by three remarkable documents: John Locke's 1689 thesis, "Two Treatises of Government," regarding the protection of "property" (in the Latin context, proprius, or one's own "life, liberty and estate"); in part from the Virginia Declaration of Rights authored by George Mason in 1776 as part of that state's Constitution; and, of course, in part from our Declaration of Independence authored by Thomas Jefferson. 
          Read in context, the Bill of Rights is both an affirmation of innate "unalienable rights" of man, and a clear proscription upon any central government infringement of those rights. As oft trampled and abused as the Bill of Rights is by those who've sworn an oath "to Support and Defend" our Constitution, most notably "judicial supremacists," or the "despotic branch" as Jefferson called the judiciary, Patriots must remain ever vigilant in order to sustain our rights.  -The Patriot Post
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 Israel Estimates Massive Hezbollah Losses in Syria  
{algemeiner.com} ~ Israeli officials estimate that one third of Hezbollah’s active fighters have been killed or wounded in the Syrian civil war, Israeli news site Walla reported on Tuesday... According to the report, based on anonymous sources, between 1,300 and 1,500 Hezbollah fighters have been killed in combat in Syria, and an additional 5,000 have been wounded and are out of commission. Although Hezbollah — designated by the US and Israel as a terrorist group — is not open about its armed strength, some estimates say it could have up to 18,000 full-time and volunteers troops. Hezbollah, long seen by Israelis as part of the Middle East axis also including Syria and Iran, has been fighting on behalf of Syrian President Bashar Assad and his backers in Tehran almost since the beginning of the armed conflict at the end of 2011.
http://www.algemeiner.com/2015/12/15/report-israel-estimates-massive-hezbollah-losses-in-syria/
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 White House Opens Door to CAIR Rep, Ignores Muslim Reformers  
{investigativeproject.org} ~ He accused the FBI of killing two men in cold blood in separate incidents. But nObama administration officials saw Hassan Shibly as a suitable representative of the American Muslim community... to include at Monday's White House meeting on combating religious discrimination, the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) has learned. Shibly is the chief executive director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Florida. Since 2008, FBI policy has barred outreach communication with CAIR officials due to documents seized by law enforcement which place CAIR and its founders at the heart of a Hamas-support network at the time of CAIR's creation. Eyewitness interviews recently obtained by the IPT further detail CAIR's ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. Until it determines "whether there continues to be a connection between CAIR or its executives and HAMAS, the FBI does not view CAIR as an appropriate liaison partner," a senior official wrote in 2009.
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 Gen Jerry Boykin – Why Allow Sharia Proponents Into The Country 
{constitutionrising.com} ~ In pointing out the nature of Islam, Retired General Jerry Boykin notes that it is only approximately sixteen percent religion... with the other eighty-four percent being a mixture of ideology, life-controlling dogma and “First and foremost a legal system called Sharia.” Boykin says, “If you survey most of the Muslims in America, even though they’re not violent, they don’t participate in jihad, and you ask them if they would support the implementation of Sharia, sadly, recent polls show that they would support the implementation of Sharia.” He continues, pointing out to Tony Perkins, “That means the destruction of the US Constitution. You cannot have coexistence between a democracy and Sharia.”
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 hanoi-Kerry And nObama Blink Under Putin’s Glare  
{constitutionrising.com} ~ John hanoi-Kerry made an announcement on Tuesday  following talks in Moscow with Russian President Putin that represent the first step of a substantial position shift... a reversal from that which has been another of those notorious nObama pink lines in the Syrian sand. It’s the official position of the nObama regime as to the future of the Assad government in Syria. nObama and hanoi-Kerry have previously maintained that Assad must step down and be replaced with their “rebel” government, another al-Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS variation that can help establish a chaotic no-go zone similar to that which they created with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and ISIS in Libya. It’s the same type of terrorist caliphate they are presently laying the groundwork for in the United States with their “refugee” terrorist importation policy. Their commitment has obviously weakened in the face of domestic terrorism and their exposure as complete incompetents or worse when it comes to matters of Homeland Security. Jihadi Jeh Johnson has been oddly quiet, having refrained from smacking his jowls like he’s got peanut butter stuck to his gums even once in a post-San Bernardino TV interview.        http://constitutionrising.com/archives/23694
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 Petition Congress to 'halt Muslim immigration now'  
{wnd.com} ~ The United States is fighting a clash of civilizations with a dysfunctional immigration system, which is mocked and exploited by its mortal enemies. In response, today WND has launched a petition demanding that Congress temporarily halt Muslim immigration into the U.S. ... Americans promised to “Never Forget” after the 9/11 terror attacks, but for the past seven years President nObama and his allies have tried to persuade the nation that Islamic terrorism has nothing to do with Islam, ISIS is “contained,” and al-Qaida is “on the run.” Meanwhile, ISIS controls large swathes of Iraq and Syria, murders another Christian every five minutes, its supporters have perpetrated deadly attacks inside Europe and on American soil, and al-Qaida remains potent across the Middle East and North Africa. The WND petition asserts that whether members of Congress accept Donald Trump’s idea to pause all Muslim immigration, or Sen. Rand Paul’s measure to stop immigration from 34 Islamic nations, or other suggesting a temporary pause in  all immigration, many believe it is time for what CNBC economist Larry Kudlow calls a “wartime lockdown.”   http://www.wnd.com/2015/12/petition-congress-to-halt-muslim-immigration-now/
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 U.S. knows ISIS hiding spots, won’t launch strikes...  
{Robert Spencer} ~ In a secret project tied to the overall U.S. campaign against the Islamic State, intelligence officials have spent months mapping out known physical locations of media safe houses where the extremist group’s operatives are compiling... editing and curating raw video and print materials into finished digital propaganda products for dissemination across the Internet. Most of the locations are embedded in heavily residential areas in Syria, Iraq and Libya and are not being targeted by U.S. airstrikes because of nObama administration concerns about civilian casualties, according to sources who spoke to The Washington Times only on the condition of anonymity. The White House also has been pressing the intelligence community to continue studying the facilities for a deeper understanding of how the Islamic State and its media enterprises operate, the sources said. But its okay for ISIS to attack and kill civilians. Makes no sense.
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 Three Hilly Clinton Stories You Probably Missed  
{Andrew Stiles} ~ Democratic frontrunner Hilly Clinton, on the other hand, hasn’t gotten a lot of attention lately, that doesn’t mean she hasn’t been making news. Here are few Hilly headlines you might have missed during the media’s most recent Trumpgasm... 
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Senate investigators have asked the State Department for backup copies of emails sent by Bryan Magliano, the guy Hilly hired to maintain her secret email server, and has since pled the Fifth in response to the ongoing federal investigations. The State Department, however, just told those investigator that they couldn’t find any copies of those emails. The FBI, which has taken possession of Pagliano’s government computer, might have better luck.
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Just another run-of-the-mill story about nepotism/corruption involving Hilly Clinton and Goldman Sachs, her favorite Wall Street bank: As secretary of state, Hilly Clinton intervened in a request forwarded by her son-in-law on behalf of a deep-sea mining firm to meet with her or other State Department officials, according to the recently released Clinton emails. One of the firm’s investors had asked Clinton’s son-in-law, Marc Mezvinsky, who is married to Chelsea Clinton, for help setting up such contacts, the emails show.

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Hilly Clinton has repeatedly insisted that she never (sent or) received information on her private email server that was classified (at the time). The intelligence community rejects that assessment, which Hilly has dismissed as a “disagreement” between government agencies. Fox News reports on a new development that undermines Hilly’s case: An intelligence community review has re-affirmed that two classified emails were indeed “top secret” when they hit Hilly Clinton’s unsecured personal server despite a challenge to that designation by the State Department, according to two sources familiar with the review. The sources described the dispute over whether the two emails were classified at the highest level as a “settled matter.”
Video:  http://launch.newsinc.com/share.html?trackingGroup=92335&siteSection=freebeacon_hom_non_non_dynamic&videoId=29436940
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 U.S. Visas continue to be handled by foreign contractors  
{Wayne Madsen} ~ The U.S. State Department, under both presidential hopeful Hilly Clinton and current Secretary of State John hanoi-Kerry, has continued a policy of outsourcing the preparation and acceptance of U.S. visa forms by outside contractors... In fact, the U.S. embassy in Islamabad referenced on its website a “new system” operating worldwide that handles visa applications. Accused San Bernardino Islamic State terrorist Tashfeen Malik was approved for a K-1 fiance visa by the U.S. embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan even though she had a history of involvement with radical jihadist Salafist groups in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and jihadist-oriented social media sites.
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 UN IAEA Decides In Favor Of Iran – Not That They Weren’t Cheating  
{constitutionrising.com} ~ It’s a safe bet that when the United Nations is involved in the oversight of anything it will at best be strongly politicized and at worst a completely dysfunctional, self-serving, dishonest charade designed to achieve a particular illicit result while providing the false appearance of legitimacy... The latter is not only a less appealing outcome, it is also a much more common one; what might be described as “the UN way.” Just because nuclear weapons and the ability to destroy the world are part of the equation does not in any way lessen the likelihood of an unfavorable result. On Tuesday the UN’s IAEA voted to let bygones be bygones and forgive the transgressions by Iran of the last decade and a half. The decision is consistent with the insane, mad rush to arm the terrorist nation with nuclear weapons in some sort of global death wish being imposed by the nObama regime upon all the people of the world – his global slaves, still, for the time being referred to as global “citizens.” The profiteers of the UN Security council are lining up to make some big bucks as are their comrades. They’re all on board to maximize their short-term reward realized at the expense of creating a very big long-term problem.
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 Navy Under Secretary Nominee Davidson Fields Ford Carrier...  
{John Grady} ~ The nominee for the Navy’s number two civilian post told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that she shares its concerns with the cost overruns and delays in the delivery of the Ford–class nuclear aircraft carrier and was “open to all options” in considering alternatives... In answer to a question about problems with the General Atomics Advanced Arresting Gear on the Ford–class carrier at her confirmation hearing, Janine Davidson said that it was critically important in “making sure your advanced technology . . . is ready to go.” Sen. John McCain, (R-Ariz.) and chairman, said, “To be honest we have not seen any progress” in controlling costs and speeding delivery of these ships.
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Why Take The Trump Stunt Seriously
Charles Krauthammer
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{freedomsback.com} ~ So how exactly does this work, Donald Trump’s plan to keep America safe from Islamic terrorism by barring entry to all Muslims? He explained it Tuesday on TV. The immigration official will ask the foreigner if he’s a Muslim.
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“And if they said, ‘yes,’ they would not be allowed in the country?”
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Trump: “That’s correct.”
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Brilliant. And very economical. That is, if you think that bloodthirsty terrorists — “people that believe only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life,” as Trump describes them — will feel honor-bound to tell the truth to an infidel immigration officer. They kill wantonly but, like George Washington, cannot tell a lie. On this logic hinges the great Maginot Line with which Trump will protect America from jihad.
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I decline to join the chorus denouncing the Trump proposal as offensive and un-American. That’s too obvious. What I can’t get over is its sheer absurdity.
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Here’s a suggestion (borrowed from my Fox News colleague Chris Stirewalt) to shore it up. At every immigration station at every airport in America, we will demand that every potential entrant — immigrant, refugee, student or tourist — eat a bacon sandwich. You refuse? Back home you go!
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True, the Stirewalt Solution casts the net a bit wide, snaring innocent vegetarians and Orthodox Jews. But hey, as Trump said Tuesday “We’re at war — get it through your head.” Can’t get squeamish about collateral damage.
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Dozens of others have already pointed out how strategically idiotic is Trump’s exclusion principle. Absent a renewed Christian crusade against radical Islam — with those fabulous Hollywood-wardrobe tunics — the war on terror will only be won in alliance with moderate Muslims. Declaring them anathema is not the best beginning to coalition-building.
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To take but the most obvious example: Our closest and most effective allies on the ground in the Middle East are the Kurds. Trump would turn them back at the Orlando airport. No Disney World for them. Or does he not know that they are Muslim?
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It is embarrassing even to embark on such arguments. To treat “no Muslims allowed” as a serious idea is to give credit to what is little more than a clever stunt by a man who saw Ted Cruz beating him for the first time in the Iowa Monmouth poll and five hours later decided it was time to seize the stage again.
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This got the thinkers going again. National Review’s Andrew McCarthy, whom I (otherwise) hold in considerable esteem, spent 1,000 words trying to tart up the ban in constitutional and statutory livery, stressing — hilariously — that he is dealing with the Trump proposal “in its final form.” As if Trump’s barstool eruptions are painstakingly vetted, and as if anything Trump says about anything is ever final.
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Take his Syria policy. In September, he said we should wash our hands and just let Russia fight the Islamic State. Having, I assume, been subsequently informed that Vladimir Putin’s principal interest — and target — is not the Islamic State but the anti-Assad rebels, Trump now promises to “bomb the s— ” out of the Islamic State.
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I’m sure there’s a Trump apologist out there working to explain the brilliant complementarity of these two contradictory strategies. Just as a few months ago there was a frenzy of learned scholarship about the constitutional history of the 14th Amendment following another Trump eruption — the abolition of birthright citizenship.
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Whatever the final outcome, Trump’s campaign has already succeeded, indelibly affecting both this race and the Republican future. At a time of economic malaise at home and strategic collapse abroad, Trump has managed to steer the entire GOP campaign into absurdities, like mass deportation of 11 million illegal immigrants, and impossibilities, like the exclusion of Muslims from our shores.
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“No Muslims allowed” is the perfect example. President nObama’s Oval Office address on Sunday night marked a new low in his presidency. The shopworn arguments, the detached tone, the willful denial that there might be anything wrong with his policy was deeply unsettling for left, right and center. Even The New York Times had to admit “nObama’s Plans to Stop ISIS Leave Many Democrats Wanting More,” which is Timesese for Democrats Stunned by Vacancy in the Oval Office. Here was an opportunity for the Republican field to launch an all-out takedown of the nObama (and Hilly Clinton) foreign policy.
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Within less than a day that opportunity was wiped out. Once again, it’s the Donald Show.
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