Monday Morning Edition

 
animated clock striking midnight The Front Page Cover
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened"
 
Featuring:
"You Call This Torture?"
Burt Prelutsky
 
"Rise up together as one voice"
"Be careful where you stand"
~~~lll~~~
 
 
 WHAT TOKE WAS THAT? I MEAN TAKE… 
BBC correspondent Quentin Sommerville has dodged bullets in some of the world’s most treacherous regions, but as the Telegraph reports, he was no match for what was wafting through the air behind him as he taped part of a report on narcotics: “In a video posted online on Monday, entitled “Don’t Inhale”, the BBC’s Middle East Correspondent appears to be getting high on the burning drugs as he tries and repeatedly fails to deliver his lines to camera before collapsing into laughter. ‘Burning behind me is eight-and-a-half tonnes of heroin, opium, hashish and other narcotics,’ Mr. Sommervillle begins, before emitting a high-pitched giggle. ‘Burning behind me…’ he begins a second clip before again collapsing into laughter – or ‘corpsing’, as it is known by broadcasters. In a third clip he is seen imploring his cameraman ‘Quick, quick! We just need one more’ but appears incapable of saying anything further with both men descending into giggles. Mr. Sommerville posted the footage online to his 24,000 Twitter follows with the message: ‘Dear tweeps, it’s been a year of bullets & bloodshed. You’ve earned a xmas laugh, at my expense.’”  -Fox News
 
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 North Korea-United Nations:   Today the UN Security Council began consideration of the General Assembly resolution urging the Security Council to refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court. Eleven of the 15 Security Council members voted to take up the issue. China and Russia opposed the debate and two other members abstained. North Korea's UN representatives boycotted the session. The US ambassador used the vote as an excuse to blame North Korea for the hacking attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, conflating hacking with torture and other systemic and systematic human rights abuses. The Chinese ambassador said, "China has been consistently against the politicization of human rights issues and against imposing pressure against other countries with the pretext of human rights issues….The Security Council is not a forum to discuss human rights issues."
Comment: While the Chinese and Russian delegations voted against a debate on the General Assembly resolution, neither blocked it entirely.  -NightWatch 
 
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 Pakistan:   The government announced that 500 more terrorists on death row are to be executed. " The Interior ministry has finalized the cases of 500 convicts who have exhausted all the appeals, their mercy petitions have been turned down by the president and their executions will take place in coming weeks," according to a senior government official.
Comment: The government is sending a strong message to ethnic terrorists that Pakistani children are off limits as targets. Pakistan has hanged six terrorists since the Prime Minister lifted the moratorium on capital punishment for terrorism. Pakistani security forces killed 35 anti-government militants on Saturday. One report claimed the dead included the mastermind for the Peshawar murders. The most important operations in the past week have targeted the facilitators and planners of the Peshawar massacre. A total of 70 terrorists have been killed in the past week in the area near Peshawar which includes Khyber Agency.  -NightWatch 
 
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 Ukraine:   Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced the pending resumption of peace talks aimed at settling the crisis in Ukraine. He made the announcement after phone conversations with the leaders of Russia, Germany and France. The Ukraine Contact Group will meet in Minsk, Belarus, on 24 December and on 26 December. The four leaders also "agreed to continue phone consultations in a few days," Poroshenko said. They emphasized the need to fulfill terms agreed on in September, including the "withdrawal of troops and heavy armament, as well as immediate liberation" of all prisoners. Representatives of the separatist Donetsk People's Republic also said they are ready to take part in the talks.
Comment: The latest ceasefire appears to have succeeded in reducing the level of violence. Consequently, the atmospherics for talks are more positive than they were in September. The pressure on Russia resulting from sanctions and the collapse of the oil market also appears to have had a positive effect in promoting willingness to settle the Ukraine crisis.  -NightWatch 
 
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 Russia:   Today, Russia and four other former members of the Soviet Union completed the creation of a new economic alliance intended to promote their integration. The Eurasian Economic Union includes Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. It will come into existence on 1 January 2015. In addition to free trade, its purpose is to coordinate the members' financial systems and regulate their industrial and agricultural policies along with labor markets and transportation networks. Armenia is the only member without a contiguous border with another member. Georgia, which has shown interest in joining, has guaranteed a free transit corridor for exporting goods to the Eurasian Economic Union, according to the Armenian deputy economy minister. The Union is predicated on the principle of four freedoms: free movement of good, people, services and capital. It aims to reach a number of macroeconomic objectives, such as reducing commodity prices by reducing the cost of transportation of raw materials; increasing return on new technologies and products due to the increased market volume; and promoting "healthy" competition.
Comment: The antecedent of this Union is the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which formed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russian President Putin admitted that the Union is modeled after the European Union (EU) and its development profited from the lessons learned in forming the EU. The theory and macroeconomic statistics for the new Union are impressive. It could be an energy producing powerhouse. However, the economies of the five states do not appear easy to integrate. They are competitive more than complementary, meaning that they all make the same or similar items and rely on the EU or China for the same or similar products. As an energy supplier to the EU, the collapse of the oil market has eroded their negotiating leverage for now. However, this is a long term project for the nations that will have benefits for commerce and travel within the Union. Meanwhile, Chinese demand for energy is close to insatiable. The Far East appears to be the most lucrative direction for market development.  -NightWatch 
 
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1.
 Fox News Special Report  
foxnews.com - A look at the remarkable life of Louie Zamperini. WWII vet who inspired the film 'Unbroken'...       http://video.foxnews.com/v/3960221659001/a-look-at-the-remarkable-life-of-louie-zamperini/?#sp=show-clips
2.
 What is America's survival plan?  
americanthinker - We’re facing the greatest national security threat we have ever known and there is no coherent plan to battle the enemy. This nation is so far behind the eight ball, the president and his minions won’t even name the enemy, no less fight it. Name = Islam...Even worse, those in positions of power and influence misrepresent what the enemy stands for. Like a pre-recorded announcement that just won’t stop, we are endlessly subjected to the false refrain: Islam is a religion of peace. By Muslim lights, we live in the Dar al Harb, the territory of war, simply because we refuse to accept Islam. We didn’t declare war, Mohammed did.       http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2014/12/what_is_americas_survival_plan_.html
3.
 Los Angeles ‘Kwanzaa’ parade FLOPS after 10 MINUTES  
therightscoop.com - If Kwanzaa wasn’t a stupid made-up holiday, this would be sad, but since it is, this is hilarious! Apparently a ‘Kwanzaa’ parade that was planned for Los Angeles was so sparsely attended that it was shut down after only 10 minutes...
4.
 So Why Couldn’t DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson Answer it?  
youtube.com - After the President submitted his executive order for de facto amnesty, the country was up in arms. Especially those who saw the move as an attack on the ability of hard working Americans to secure a better financial future...And while nObama says the move is going to help the economy, not everyone’s really sure how that’s going to happen… even members of his own cabinet. Department of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson provides great fodder for conservatives as he fails to prove the move was positive. Move to the 1:20 marker to see where it gets good…       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjG65YFnsR0
5.
 Hero Cop Disarms Assailant  
politicaloutcast.com - A true hero cop takes effective but non-lethal action. Portraying cops as heroes is sometimes unrealistic, not because cops are villains but because they, just like the rest of us, have a right to not to be heroes...A cop who gets a gun pointed at him has no more calling to let himself get shot in order to prevent the death of a shooter than anyone else does. Cops are married. Cops have children. None of those spouses or children—or the parents of the police officers—want their loved one to die in the line of duty. So here is a story about a real hero cop—someone who went above and beyond the call of duty. It was reported by the Dallas Morning News: “Dallas officer credited with disarming suspect who allegedly tried to shoot him, liquor store clerks.”       http://politicaloutcast.com/2014/12/hero-cop-disarms-assailant/
6.
 Washington plans favor for Shariah-run society  
wnd.com - On Christmas Eve, religious police in the capital city of the Islamic Sultanate of Brunei ordered business owners to remove Christmas decorations or face arrest...The ban on Christmas decoration is not the only restriction on religious freedom. The Shariah penal code bans non-Muslims from teaching or even speaking freely to Muslims about their religious beliefs, punishable with heavy fines and imprisonment. And all religious groups are required to register with the government. Muslims who convert to another faith could face the death penalty, and Christians who have brought Bibles into the country have been imprisoned. Now that the threat is not communism, but Islamist totalitarianism, Obama and the GOP congressional leadership are ready to embrace a Shariah regime as a privileged trading partner under the rubric of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement.       http://www.wnd.com/2014/12/washington-plans-favor-for-shariah-run-society/
7.
 Here’s What the Media Is Trying to HIDE About the Race Rioters  
conservativetribune.com - Most mainstream media outlets have been conveniently leaving out some key information with regard to recent anti-police protests that have taken place in New York City over the past few weeks...The missing information? While mainstream media report that the protests seem to be “spontaneous,” the real truth is that they’re highly organized and led by groups you may have forgotten about — groups such as Occupy Wall Street and the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) coalition. These radical leftist groups who are strongly anti-capitalist, anti-America, anti-war, pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel are piggybacking on the nationwide protests from the anti-police, race rioter movement, and using the sheep involved in those protests to further their own agenda.       http://conservativetribune.com/media-trying-to-hide-protesters/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzEmail&utm_content=936184&utm_campaign=0
8.
 NYT Openly Calls for the ARREST of These Top Republicans  
conservativetribune.com - If you were worried that, in light of their plummeting readership, the left-wing crazies at The New York Times might consider softening their editorial stance to something approaching the American mainstream, you can rest easy...They’re just as looney tunes as ever. The editorial, titled “Prosecute torturers and their bosses,” called on the Justice Department to investigate “former Vice President Dick Cheney; Mr. Cheney’s chief of staff, David Addington; the former C.I.A. director George Tenet; and John Yoo and Jay Bybee, the Office of Legal Counsel lawyers who drafted what became known as the torture memos,” among numerous others, The Hill reported. But it’s very clear that, while they call upon President Barack nObama to “authorize a full and independent criminal investigation,” what The Times’ editorial board is really after is payback — despite their rather pathetic claim to the contrary.       http://conservativetribune.com/breaking-ny-times-openly-calls-for-the-arrest-of-these-top-republicans/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzEmail&utm_content=936184&utm_campaign=0
9.
 Guess Which State Is Handing Out Welfare in ARABIC?  
conservativetribune.com - To quote Milton Friedman, “It is one thing to have free immigration to jobs. It is another to have free immigration to welfare. And you cannot have both.”...One of our states is learning that the hard way. It’s become the biggest destination for Muslim immigrants in the United States, and it’s now offering welfare assistance in Arabic. That state is Michigan, home to both the largest Muslim population in the country and “Dearbornistan” — the city of Dearborn, which has become a mecca (forgive the pun) for Muslim immigrants.       http://conservativetribune.com/which-state-welfare-arabic/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzEmail&utm_content=936184&utm_campaign=0
10.
 Rand Paul’s Cluelessness on Cuba  
townhall.com - Now where have we previously heard Senator Rand Paul’s cliché-fest that constitutes his rebuttal to Senator Marco Rubio on Cuba sanctions?...Well, from The Council on Foreign Relations to the New York Times and from Hilly Clinton to The Congressional Black Caucus—and that’s for starters. And oh, we also heard it repeatedly from every single one of the KGB-trained Cuban spies convicted by U.S. juries recently. “The embargo is Castro’s best friend,” Clinton chanted to an extremely friendly audience at the Council on Foreign Relations back in June while citing and promoting her book Hard Choices.       http://townhall.com/columnists/humbertofontova/2014/12/26/rand-pauls-cluelessness-on-cuba-n1935926?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=
"You Call This Torture?"
Burt Prelutsky

     burtprelutsky.com - Some people have been wondering about the timing of Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s release of her committee’s report condemning the CIA’s interrogation of Islamic terrorists. After all, the practice of waterboarding had ceased several years ago, so why bring it out when one knew it would lead to the U.N. condemning the practice and insisting that those who took part be indicted and tried by the World Court? They also had to know that it would endanger the lives of our spies around the world.

     There is nothing odd about the timing. One, the Democrats had to release it before the end of the year when the GOP would take control of the Senate, and relegate the report along with Mrs. Feinstein to the nearest dustbin. But, two, and even more essential to the Democrats, was that it be released on the very same day that Jonathan (“The American people are stupid and had to be conned into supporting nObamaCare”) Gruber would be testifying before a Republican-controlled House committee.

     Anyone who believes that was just a coincidence must also believe that it was coincidental that Clinton ordered the bombing of a benign Sudanese pharmaceutical plant in the midst of the Lewinsky scandal. You can carve it in stone that there is no such thing as a coincidence in Washington.

     As for the report itself, I would like to point out that our constitutional rights and protections do not apply to our enemies and even the Geneva Conventions don’t protect illegal combatants, aka terrorists. As for those who keep hollering about the Conventions, the fact is that they were first drawn up in order to guarantee for both sides that one’s captured soldiers would be treated humanely by their captors. However, in the case of Islamic terrorists, one, they are not signatories to the Conventions; and, two, they not only don’t have POW camps, but they torture and murder those, including civilians, who suffer the misfortune of falling into their hands.

In short, the Conventions were never intended to be a suicide pact.

     Furthermore, while I don’t happen to believe that most Americans are blood-thirsty, even if our legitimate motive hadn’t been to extract information from those villains who were waterboarded or deprived of sleep, I doubt if many of us would have minded their being gnawed on by rats. That would especially have been the case with the memory of 9/11 and of innocent people leaping from the roofs of the Twin Towers to escape the flames fresh in our minds.

     I know it’s not entirely fair to just pick on Feinstein and her liberal cohorts. After all, John McCain has long been a loud critic of enhanced interrogation techniques, and because he was a POW during the Vietnam War, he is believed to hold the high moral ground on this issue. Unfortunately, Sen. McCain has never seemed capable of differentiating between the Vietcong torturing Americans for the hell of it and the CIA torturing jihadists in order to extract information that could prevent a repeat of 9/11 or lead to the extermination of Osama bin Laden.

     I realize that Fox pundit George Will happens to agree with Sen. McCain, but that’s because he believes that whereas others merely rent the moral high ground, he holds the actual deed.

     When it comes to Sen. Feinstein, whom I have heard even some conservatives describe as a non-partisan grown-up in the Senate, I have to question the integrity and even the patriotism of someone who thinks it’s essential to rehash events from long ago that serve no other purpose than to give America a black eye and endanger those currently trying to protect the homeland.

     On top of that, the self-righteous senator has managed to ignore every scandal connected to nObama, ranging from Operation Fast & Furious, through the Benghazi massacre, the IRS targeting of conservatives, the Affordable Care Act, nObama’s bias against Israel and his promoting the alleged rights of illegal aliens while ignoring those of American taxpayers.

     At the very least, you would think that a U.S. senator would object to a president who, for all his denials of having the power and authority of an emperor, has chosen to ignore the separation of powers enumerated in the Constitution that both he and Mrs. Feinstein have sworn to defend. In addition, he has made it a practice to lie to the American people and has turned Robert Gibbs, Jay Carney and now Josh Earnest into real life Pinocchios to fabricate on his behalf whenever he had a round of golf to play, a fund-raiser to attend or simply wasn’t in the mood to face the press and do his own lying.

     In other news, I wasn’t even slightly surprised that Harvard, Columbia and Georgetown, law schools have all agreed to allow students who claim to have been traumatized by the grand jury decisions in Ferguson and Staten Island to postpone taking their exams, knowing that college administrators have the spines of jellyfish.

     Still, can you imagine how these self-indulgent young milksops will react when a few years down the road a judge or jury rules against them? Will they burst into tears, faint dead away, take to their beds with a case of the vapors or merely insist on a re-trial?

     Finally, the way Bowe Bergdahl has disappeared from the radar, in spite of his news-worthy exchange for five high-ranking jihadists, you might think he had been aboard Malaysian Airline flight 370.

     Is it any wonder that nObama has come to believe he can get away with absolutely anything when even the newshawks at Fox never ask about the Army’s alleged investigation of Bergdahl’s desertion?

     In my opinion, it isn’t only members of the military who should stand trial for dereliction of duty.
 
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