Wednesday PM ~ The Front Page Cover

[Rudy Tirre]

The Front Page Cover

 2016             The turth is the gold of today 

Featuring:

Who was the cleric Saudis executed

--- and why his death matters

Ladane Nasseri

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 nObama's New Year Resolution: Targets Guns 

Entering the New Year, Barack nObama is scheduled to meet with Attorney General Loretta Lynch to discuss how his administration can take executive action to create more gun control. In his weekly address Jan. 2, nObama pulled out all the rhetorical stops, evoking the Sandy Hook massacre and the shooting of former Rep. Gabby Giffords to say that he would make it a priority to use his phone and pen to enact more gun control regulation against the American people because Congress wouldn't. "We know that we can't stop every act of violence," nObama said. "But what if we tried to stop even one? What if Congress did something — anything — to protect our kids from gun violence? A few months ago, I directed my team at the White House to look into any new actions I can take to help reduce gun violence."

          While nObama's cronies guesstimate out how far he can go, the office of House Speaker Paul Ryan said the executive branch hasn't communicated its specific gun control aspirations to Congress. Seems like that would have been a prerequisite before nObama declared that the legislative body refused to act. Such a move from nObama guarantees that he will push Americans to continue purchasing firearms in record numbers before the feds descend with their regulations. nObama opined that he received letters from "responsible gun owners" (as if the only gun owners that are responsible are the ones who agree with nObama) asking him to take action on gun violence. But the person acting irresponsibly is nObama. The federal government has all the tools necessary to curb gun violence, all the laws already on the books to crack down on straw purchases, but nObama's administration refuses to act. And because of that, criminals are allowed to walk free while gun-toting lovers of Liberty are viewed with deep suspicion. But nObama cares nothing of the law; he only has his ideology to push.  -The Patriot Post

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 Marine Vet Stands Up to DMV Red Tape 

If "Pastafarians," people who satirize religion by claiming to be worshipers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, can get their department of motor vehicles to let them wear colanders on their heads while getting their driver's license photo taken, then government can at least accommodate a veteran wanting to display his service to his homeland. Last month, Marine Corps vet Alex Morales went to his local DMV in California to get a new license while he was wearing a baseball cap with "USMC" emblazoned across it in red. Ahead of him, the DMV was photographing a group of men, probably Sikhs, who were wearing turbans. Here's how Morales' wife, Henrietta, described what happened next in a Facebook post:

"Alex was asked to take his hat off to have his picture taken. He said 'no', and 'no' again when asked the second time. When he was asked why he would not remove his hat he said, 'those men didn't remove their head wear, I shouldn't either'. It was explained that this was their attire and their religion. Alex told the DMV person that what he had on was his attire and when he entered the Marines he declared an oath to the USA, and one nation under God, so that his oath was under God so just as good as his religion."

Eventually, the DMV allowed Morales to stand for his photo, USMC hat and all. Afterwards, Henrietta Morales said some of the DMV staff quietly applauded Morales' stand. Marine vet: 1. Bureaucratic tangle at the DMV: 0.   -The Patriot Post

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 Ranchers Take on the Feds in Oregon 

A group of armed activists took over the closed and unoccupied headquarters building at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, part of an escalating conflict over land use out West. Rancher Ammon Bundy is leading the group, and if his name sounds familiar it's because he's the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who had a similar standoff with the feds in 2014. We wrote at the time to choose your mascot carefully, and we'd advise the same now. Essentially, this dispute arises from two things: First, the truly unjust treatment and sentencing of Dwight Hammond and his son Steven, ranchers punished for arson after they managed controlled burns on their property a decade ago; second, the use of the federal land at the wildlife refuge — Bundy and the other ranchers claim the feds have unlawfully taken it, and the ranchers should be able to continue using it.

          Many leftists are demanding that the ranchers' actions in recent days be considered terrorism. After all, Barack nObama and his cadres have been stoking fears of right-wing extremism since taking office; this is just "proof." But no one has been held hostage or hurt, much less killed, and the ranchers are so far peaceably assembled. There's no question the federal government possesses far too much land in the West, but what is the appropriate response? Clearly, many ranchers have had enough, and they're willing to take up arms to stop the abuse — even, apparently, if it provokes a violent government response.    -The Patriot Post

http://patriotpost.us/digests/39790

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Judge Jeanine: Stop blaming guns;

start shooting terrorists

noisyroom.net

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{noisyroom.net} ~ Reaction to reports that President Obama is considering using executive action on gun control. Watch Jeanine Pirro on Justice With Judge Jeanine and Opening Statement.

http://noisyroom.net/blog/2016/01/04/judge-jeanine-010316/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Noisyroomnet+%28NoisyRoom.net%29

Video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaFF81VQ3nk

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#OregonUnderAttack: It’s about the land

Renee Nal

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{trevorloudon.com} ~ In the wake of the developing situation in Burns Oregon, I thought it would be appropriate to post two stories that illustrate the complete injustices suffered by the ranchers in the West... I wrote these stories during the Bundy crisis in April 2014, and I was horrified by what I found. My greatest hope is that under a President that cares about the Constitution, the states will finally have their land returned to them.

http://www.trevorloudon.com/2016/01/burns-oregon-its-about-the-land/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NewZeal+%28New+Zeal+Blog%29

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U.S. Christian groups support Muslim

refugees, ignore persecuted Christians

Raymond Ibrahim

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{frontpagemag.com} ~ According to recently released figures from the State Dept., the United States has let in a miniscule number of Christian refugees from Syria — only 34 — during the four years since the Islamic State began its campaign of mass slaughter... Put differently, although Christians amount for 10 percent of Syria’s population—and so should at least be 10 percent of the refugees accepted into the States—only two percent of those accepted are Christians. This disparity is being ignored by influential U.S. Christian groups.  The Church World Service (CWS) and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have both called for the resettlement of 100,000 Syrian refugees in the United States next year. Yet advocacy for especially persecuted Christians is lacking among these U.S. Christian organizations. The CWS, for example, does not  even mention persecuted Christians on its website’s call to help Syrian refugees; it primarily features pictures of Muslims. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops — which touts itself as the world’s largest refugee resettlement organization and even received $80 million from the federal government in 2014 for its Migration Fund — also often fails  to mention Christians in its public advocacy for the resettlement of Syrian refugees.  

http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/261302/us-christian-groups-support-muslim-refugees-ignore-raymond-ibrahim

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Al Jazeera Continues to Hate on

White America - Jab at Payton Manning

Joe A. Gilbertson

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{punchingbagpost.com} ~ It’s no secret that Al Jazeera, a Middle Eastern news publication, consistently portrays white Americans in a disparaging light... Earlier this year, the network released one of the most famous America-hating videos ever with the patronizing title- “Americans Show Why USA is the #1 Country in the World,” and to add insult to injury, the video was released on Independence day. Just last week, the network has found another way to ridicule “white America.” And their victim this time is the American icon, Peyton Manning. Deborah Davies, an Al Jazeera journalist, created quite the stir last week by releasing a documentary with allegations about the Denver Broncos quarterback. The documentary claimed that the football player had used performance enhancing drugs while recovering from a neck injury.  Her first source, Charlie Sly, an Indiana pharmacist has recently recanted his original statements regarding the news story. He had claimed that human growth hormone (HGH) was delivered to the manning’s home and was prescribed for his wife. Even though Sly has recanted, Davies told CNN on Sunday that there is another source. However, the other source is conveniently confidential.

http://punchingbagpost.com/al-jazeera-continues-to-hate-on-white-america---jab-at-payton-manning/

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No Good Guys in the West

RANDAL O'TOOLE

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{cato.org} ~ There are no good guys to cheer for in the militia takeover of an Oregon federal office building on January 2... The ostensible issue is the re-sentencing of two Oregon ranchers–Dwight Hammond and son Steven Hammond–for arson, while the underlying issue is federal land ownership of much of the West. The arson fires lit by the Hammonds in 2001 and 2006 may have actually represented sensible land management, but the Hammonds lost the high ground by their failure to coordinate with the government agency managing the land they burned. Prescribed fire is a tool used to improve wildlife habitat, increase land productivity, and control wildfire. The 2001 fire aimed at improving productivity, but the government says the ranchers didn’t bother informing the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) they planned to burn until two hours after they lit the fire. While they lit the fire on their own land, it escaped and burned 139 acres of federal land, but that burning probably did not do serious damage to the grassland and they put the fire out themselves. The 2006 fire was more questionable. A wildfire was burning on BLM land near the Hammond’s ranch, so to defend their land they lit a backfire on their own land. That would be standard procedure except, again, they didn’t tell anyone and when their fire crossed over onto federal land it endangered firefighters who the Hammonds apparently knew were located between the wildfire and their backfire. Due to severe fire hazards, the county had a no-burn rule which the Hammonds apparently violated, but this was hardly a terrorist act. http://www.cato.org/blog/no-good-guys-west

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Heroes of Benghazi: “13 hours. 

Nobody comes”

NICEDEB

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{nicedeb.wordpress.com} ~ In a powerful “Kelly File” exclusive, Mark “Oz” Geist, Kris “Tanto” Paronto and John “Tig” Tiegen reflected on the 2012 attack and reacted to Michael Bay’s much-anticipated film... Paronto said that the movie left him drained, because it brought him right back to the besieged American diplomatic compound and nearby CIA annex. “It was a part of me that I relived on the screen, and I realized how much I’d been missing,” Paronto said. “It’s amazing being with your brothers and fighting … being there and being with them and having the faith that you’re going to defeat all the obstacles.”        https://nicedeb.wordpress.com/2016/01/05/heroes-of-benghazi-13-hours-nobody-comes/

Video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJD4LCV5jqE

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Finally – Leon Panetta To Appear

in Closed-Door Session With 

Benghazi Committee…

theconservativetreehouse

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{theconservativetreehouse.com} ~ Nothing will come of it, but it is still interesting to point out that for the first time EVER former CIA Director Leon Panetta will give testimony to congress about Libya... It is important to note that Panetta and Hilly Clinton worked together on Operation Zero Footprint, the covert weapons running and regime change operation which began in March 2011 as a result of President nObama authorizing via presidential “finding memo“.

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Clinton and Panetta worked closely together during their Libyan intervention and overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi.   ~See The Benghazi Brief~ http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2015/09/12/the-benghazi-brief-three-year-anniversary/

http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2016/01/05/finally-leon-panetta-to-appear-in-closed-door-session-with-benghazi-committee/

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Congress Seeks Investigation Into

nObama Spy Ops on Congress, Israel

Adam Kredo

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{freebeacon.com} ~ Lawmakers are demanding that the nObama administration disclose how it used private communications that were intercepted during a massive spy operation on Israel that included private conversations with members of Congress...  according to letters sent to the National Security Agency and White House. Rep. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.) petitioned President Barack nObama late Monday afternoon, demanding the administration reveal how it used information obtained during secret surveillance of Israeli leaders, according to a copy of the letter obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. Reports emerged last week that the NSA’s spy operation picked up private communications between Israeli officials, members of Congress, and U.S. Jewish community leaders. The information reportedly centered on Israeli efforts to halt the nuclear negotiations. The White House reportedly did not take steps to ensure that these political conversations were omitted.

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/congress-seeks-investigation-into-obama-spy-ops-on-congress-israel/?utm_source=Freedom+Mail&utm_campaign=ada1849036-WFB_Morning_Beacon1_4_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b5e6e0e9ea-ada1849036-45611665

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Forget 20 Million Illegals, Terrorists 

& Open Borders – Johnson’s 

Sending 121 Back Home

Rick Wells

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{constitutionrising.com} ~ The flow rate of Central American rabble across the Mexican border, just in the form of juveniles or family units, is estimated by the Center for Immigration Studies to be in excess of  ten thousand individuals per month over the last several months... Over the weekend, Jeh Johnson’s DHS claims to have gone on an offensive, picking up 121 illegal aliens from Central America who, for whatever reason, happened to have been targeted for repatriation. Jeh Johnson claims that more raids will be forthcoming as well, more drops in more buckets, we can assume. As it relates specifically to a single month’s Central American juvenile-centered traffic, that’s a less than 1 in 82 odds of being deported. And the pool of candidates is much greater than those of a single month, so the chances are exponentially better than what are already casino-busting chances of being able to stay in the States. For most they will be free from the short arms of DHS and allowed to remain undisturbed on the public dole in America as the system slowly works its way around to their distant hearing date. Johnson has hardly achieved anything worthy of congratulations, to have finally engaged in an enforcement activity remotely related to the border security mission of his agency, a mission that he should have been allowing his agents to conduct all along. Johnson must recognize a need to be able to make a claim that he is doing his job. Something other than a desire to honor his oath or secure the nation must be at play for this dishonorable man who despises America.        http://constitutionrising.com/archives/24449

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Petraeus and other big name witnesses 

to testify to Benghazi Committee

 Sharyl Attkisson

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{sharylattkisson.com} ~ The House Benghazi Committee has announced some big names are about to testify behind closed doors, including former director of the CIA David Petraeus... As I write in “Stonewalled,” in the immediate aftermath of the Benghazi attacks, Petraeus first drew ire from some administration colleagues for not reading from the Carney-nObama-Clinton-Rice book of fiction: While they’re pushing the spontaneous protest narrative, he’s disclosing full information on the suspected al-Qaeda links, to House Intelligence Committee members at a classified briefing, according to those present. Then the talking points his agency approves for public dissemination on September 14 say that the CIA provided warnings on September 10 that the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, could come under attack and that Benghazi was in a precarious state. Clinton’s state department sees the inclusion of that damning information in the CIA’s original proposed talking points as a “knee-jerk cover-your-ass moment” on Petraeus’s part. One official later tells me, “We thought, Why are you guys [Petraeus’s CIA] throwing us under the bus? . . . They made it seem like the State Department was given a warning they ignored. But no specific warning was given.”        https://sharylattkisson.com/petraeus-and-other-big-name-witnesses-to-testify-to-benghazi-committee/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SharylAttkisson+%28Sharyl+Attkisson%29

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Who was the cleric Saudis executed

--- and why his death matters

Ladane Nasseri

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{jewishworldreview.com} ~ Saudi Arabia on Saturday executed 47 men convicted of terrorism-related offenses and political activism, including a prominent Shiite cleric critical of the kingdom's Sunni rulers.

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The execution of Nimr al-Nimr triggered international condemnation, with the harshest reaction coming from regional adversary Iran, where hardliners stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran and set the building on fire. Saudi authorities said the execution was a judicial matter.

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The incident is the latest crisis to rock ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia, two powers vying for everything from political influence to oil market share. The OPEC members are currently engaged in a proxy confrontation in conflicts from Syria to Yemen.

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Here's an overview of the actors in this confrontation and what may happen next.

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Q: Who was Nimr al-Nimr?

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A: Nimr al-Nimr, 57, a Shiite cleric from Saudi's oil-rich Eastern Province, was a well-known figure at anti-government demonstrations and criticized Saudi rulers in some of his sermons for their treatment of the kingdom's Shiite minority.

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In 2009, he threatened to lead Saudi Arabia's Shiite Muslims to secession, provoking a government crackdown in the minority's eastern heartland. In his sermons, al-Nimr was critical of Sunni and Shiite autocratic rulers alike, though he reserved some of his most scathing attacks to the Saudi and Bahraini royal families.

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In a meeting with U.S. diplomats in 2008, al-Nimr sought to distance himself from Tehran, according to a cable released by WikiLeaks. Iran, like other countries, acts out of self- interest, and Saudi Shiites shouldn't expect Iranian support based on sectarian unity, he said. The report describes him as a "second-tier political player" in the Eastern Province.

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He was arrested in 2012, a year after popular uprisings swept parts of the Middle East, and sentenced to death in 2014.

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Q: Why does his execution matter?

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A: While Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia largely escaped the unrest that spread across the Arab world in 2011, the country's Shiites, who say they suffer discrimination, have occasionally protested and clashed with security forces. Most Saudi Shiites live near some of the world's largest oil fields in the eastern region, and according to the CIA World Facebook, make up between 10 percent and 15 percent of Saudi Arabia's population.

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The execution "institutionalizes tension in Saudi Arabia by creating a symbol for Shiite grievances," Ibrahim Fraihat, senior foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Doha Center, said in an interview. "Not many people in the past saw him as the representative of the Shiite community, but now he has become one of the symbols of the tension between Shiite and Sunnis."

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In 2015, Islamic State militants took advantage of the Saudi sectarian fault-lines and struck Shiite mosques in the Eastern Province.

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Shiites are a majority in neighboring Bahrain, a small island that's home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet. Bahraini authorities regularly accuse Iran of supporting extremist Shiite groups, a charge the Islamic Republic denies. Hours after al-Nimr's death, scores of his supporters there took to the streets in protest, Agence France-Presse reported.

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Q: Why carry out the execution given regional tensions?

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A: Given the complex dynamics in the region in Yemen, Syria and Iraq, al-Nimr's execution was an illustration of Saudi Arabia's "get tough" policy against Iran and internal dissent, said Scott Lucas, an Iran analyst and professor of international politics at Birmingham University in Britain.

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"The Saudis deliberately crossed the line by executing him, and to add insult to injury they used the rhetoric that lumps him in with al-Qaeda terrorists," he said.

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Q: How did Iran react?

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A: Iranian protesters armed with rocks and firebombs massed outside the Saudi embassy in Tehran late Saturday and set parts of the building on fire. A small group stormed the premises, ransacking offices, and several were arrested, Tehran police chief Hossein Sajedinia told the state-run Islamic Students' News Agency.

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On Sunday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saudi rulers will face "the divine hand of revenge" for their actions. Khamenei, the country's highest authority and a regular critics of Saudi policies, stopped short of saying Iran would take action.

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, meanwhile, suggested he didn't seek to escalate the confrontation. While he denounced the execution, he condemned the attack on the Saudi embassy as unjustifiable.

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This incident might "spiral quickly into domestic fight" in Iran between hardline and more moderate factions close to Rouhani, Lucas said.

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Q: Will tensions between Iran and Saudi escalate further?

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A: "The ball is in the Iranian court. If we see any signal of asymmetrical warfare from the Iranians, any escalation in Iranian support for Houthis in Yemen, anything that appears to be a step-up of Hezbollah activity, which appears to be targeting Saudi in any way," Lucas said. "But I don't think it's going to happen."

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At least one commentator, London-based Lebanese political satirist Karl Sharro, looks for tensions to simmer, not boil over, for now. Saudi Arabia and Iran are "like two guys in a bar shouting at each other for a long time, but not quite ready to take it outside just yet," he tweeted on Sunday.

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http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0116/saudi_cleric.php3