by Breitbart News

Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker:

The Obama Justice Department has seized the phone records of numbers that are associated with White House staffers and, apparently, with Fox News reporters, according to a document filed on October 13, 2011, in the case of Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a former State Department contractor accused of violating the Espionage Act for allegedly leaking classified information to James Rosen, a Fox News reporter. Ronald C. Machen, Jr., the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, who is prosecuting the case, has seized records associated with two phone numbers at the White House, at least five numbers associated with Fox News, and one that has the same area code and exchange as Rosen’s personal-cell-phone number (the last four numbers are redacted).

In all, Ronald C. Machen, Jr., the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, has seized records associated with over thirty different phone numbers.

Full story here.

By John Hudson

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) blasted members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday, which voted overwhelmingly to arm elements of the Syrian opposition in a bill co-sponsored by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN). “This is an important moment,” Paul said, addressing his Senate colleagues. “You will be funding, today, the allies of al Qaeda. It’s an irony you cannot overcome.”

The legislation, which would authorize the shipment of arms and military training to rebels “that have gone through a thorough vetting process,” passed in a bipartisan 15-3 vote. Paul offered an amendment that would strike the bill’s weapons provision, but it was rejected along with another Paul amendment ruling out the authorization of the use of military force in Syria. (Connecticut Democrat Chris Murphy was the only senator to join Paul in support of the weapons amendment.)

Paul’s two amendments constituted his first legislative act to soften the Menendez-Corker bill, which earned the support of powerful lawmakers from Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) to Barbara Boxer (D-CA) to Marco Rubio (R-FL) — all of whom rejected Paul’s allegations. “I don’t think any member of this committee would vote for anything we thought was going to arm al Qaeda,” said Rubio. “Al Qaeda, unfortunately, is well-armed,” added Menendez. “That is the present reality in Syria.”

The dispute centers on the issue of whether the United States could properly vet Syrian rebels so that weapons and body armor would not fall into the hands of extremist groups, such as the al Qaeda-aligned al-Nusra Front. The Pentagon’s top brass has vacillated about whether it’s logistically possible to keep track of weapons as they enter a conflict involving a complex mix of opposition groups, as the new bill would require.

Corker added that not arming rebel groups such as the more moderate Free Syrian Army would ensure the dominance of the better-equipped al-Nusra Front. Paul responded, saying, “It’s impossible to know who our friends are … I know everyone here wants to do the right thing, but I think it’s a rush to war.”

To get a sense of how adamant the committee is to authorize more aggressive intervention in Syria, an amendment offered by Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) to limit the types of weapons delivered to rebels was forcefully rejected as well. “The senator from New Mexico wants to use shotguns against SCUD missiles,” McCain said dismissively.

The bill now includes an amendment by Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), that would “require the administration to impose sanctions on entities that provide surface-to-surface or surface-to-air missiles, like the SA20s or S300s, to the Assad regime,” according to a press release — a clear reference to Russia, which has vowed in recent weeks to proceed with sales of advanced missiles that would extend the range and sophistication of the Syrian regime’s anti-aircraft systems.

The Menendez-Corker bill next moves to the Senate floor, but an aide to Menendez said it was uncertain when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, whose office did not respond to a request for comment, will take up the legislation.

Observers say the bill’s chances of passing in its current form are slim, but it does increase the pressure on the administration to intervene more aggressively. As Andrew Tabler, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy noted earlier this month, “If you want to pressure the president into acting, it’s a pretty good bill …The last time the Hill moved on Syria was sanctions on Syrian oil in the summer of 2011. That pressured the president to move, and this could too.”

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com

by Wynton Hall

The White House Visitors Log reveals that President Barack Obama met with Internal Revenue Service (IRS) union boss Colleen Kelley on March 31, 2010—the day before the Inspector General’s report says the IRS began its scheme to target tea party and conservative groups.

Furthermore, Obama appointed Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), to the Federal Salary Council whose job is to recommend pay raises for IRS and other federal employees one week after Obama and Democrats suffered historic midterm losses in 2010.  Two years later, Kelley’s 150,000-member union had raised $580,412, 94% of which went to Democratic federal candidates. The group also strongly backed Obama’s reelection.

American Spectator reporter Jeffrey Lord, who uncovered the visitor log connection, says the March 31^st meeting between Obama and Kelley was not the only time Kelley met.

In fact, this record in the White House Visitors Log of a 12:30 Wednesday, March 31, 2010 meeting between President Obama and the IRS union’s Kelley was not unusual.

On yet another occasion, Kelley’s presence at the White House was followed shortly afterwards by the President issuing Executive Order 13522. A presidential directive that gave the anti-Tea Party NTEU — the IRS union — a greater role in the day-to-day operation of the IRS than it had already — which was considerable.

Since the IRS tea party targeting scandal erupted, Kelley has gone quiet.

“NTEU is working to get the facts but does not have any specifics at this time,” Kelley told the Washington Post in an email. “Moreover, IRS employees are not permitted to discuss taxpayer cases. We cannot comment further at this time.”

breitbart.com

By Helen Pow

A second ‘house of horrors’ abortion clinic is being investigated in Texas, just days after Dr Kermit Gosnell was found guilty of murdering newborns at his Philadelphia termination center.

Dr. Douglas Karpen, seen here in court, is accused of killing babies aborted in their third trimester

Houston doctor Douglas Karpen is accused by four former employees of delivering live fetuses during third-trimester abortions and killing them by either snipping their spinal cord, stabbing a surgical instrument into their heads or ‘twisting their heads off their necks with his own bare hands’.

Other times the fetus was so big he would have to pull it out of the womb in pieces, Karpen’s ex-assistant, Deborah Edge, said in an Operation Rescue video, which has prompted a criminal investigation into the doctor.

‘Sometimes he couldn’t get the fetus out… he would yank pieces – piece by piece – when they were oversize,’ Edge explained.

‘And I’m talking about the whole floor dirty. I’m talking about me drenched in blood.’

Two of Edge’s colleagues, Gigi Aguliar, and Krystal Rodriguez, also described the hellish scenes which took place at the Aaron Women’s Clinic in Houston in 2011, and possibly two other abortion clinics run by Karpen in Texas.

Another staffer, who remains anonymous, filed an affidavit with her account of events, which the Texas Department of State Health Services is using in its investigation.

‘We have several people looking into the allegations,’ Harris County District Attorney spokesman Sara Marie Kinney told Chron.com.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said he had read the allegations ‘with disgust’ before calling for a full investigation into Karpen and his clinics.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO – WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Speaking out: Krystal Rodriguez, left, Deborah Edge, center, and Gigi Aguliar, right, have all come forward to talk about their former boss KarpanLifenews.com, an anti-abortion news website, has published cell phone photographs taken by the employees of fetuses with gashes in their necks after they were killed at the clinic, though these are far too gruesome for MailOnline to show.Edge said fetuses were killed well after 24 weeks gestation at the Houston clinic, which resulted in a sweat-inducing job that took about an hour per procedure. She said every morning on multiple occasions she would see fetuses born alive and then quickly killed by the doctor.

‘When he did an abortion, especially an over 20 week abortion, most of the time the fetus would come completely out before he either cut the spinal cord or he introduced one of the instruments into the soft spot of the fetus in order to kill it…. or actually twisting the head off the neck with his own bare hands,’ she explained.

‘It was still alive because it was still moving and you could see the stomach breathing.’

The women described one occasion where a fetus that Karpen thought was dead suddenly ‘opened its eyes and grabbed (the doctor’s) finger’ after he wrenched it from the womb. However, it met a similar fate to the other fetuses at the clinic, the women said.

‘He thought it was dead but the fetus actually opened its eyes and grabbed his finger,’ Aguliar said. ‘He was alive. He thought it was deceased already. He was getting ready to put it in the back.’

Crime scene: The hellish scenes allegedly took place at the Aaron Women’s Clinic, pictured, in Houston in 2011, and possibly two other abortion clinics run by Karpen in Texas

They also recounted occasions when women were so far along with their pregnancy they were actually induced into labor and in two cases their fetus’ came out while they were in the bathroom.

Rodriguez described another incident where a patient’s fetus fell from her and onto the floor in the clinic’s waiting room.

‘(Karpen) just picked it up with a Chux and put it in the trash bag,’ she said.

According to Rodriguez, as long as patients had the cash, Karpen would perform an abortion well past 24 weeks. A late-term procedure cost between $4,000 and $5,000 at the clinic, they said in the video which was filmed as the clinic was still operating and released on Wednesday.

Edge said she regularly got upset during her work and couldn’t watch when Karpen allegedly killed the newborns. But she said she didn’t know that what he was doing was illegal.

‘We used to look at each other and sometimes our tears would come out with the other assistants,’ Edge said. ‘We would always think “he’s so greedy.”‘

http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Paul Harvey, 2005 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In 1964, Paul Harvey wrote “If I Were the Devil.”

Before Paul
Harvey wrote “If I Were the Devil,” the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci
(1891–1937) explained the steps necessary for radicals to transform a
nation without firing a shot:

They must enter into every civil,
cultural and political activity in every nation, patiently leavening
them all as thoroughly as yeast leavens bread. . . .
This would require a ‘long march through the institutions’ — the
arts, cinema, theater, schools, colleges, seminaries, newspapers,
magazines, and the new electronic medium of the time, radio.”

Marijuana – scientific name “cannabis” – performed like a champ in the first-ever placebo-controlled trial of the drug to treat Crohn’s Disease, also known as inflammatory bowel disease.

The disease of the digestive tract afflicts 400,000 – 600,000 people in North America alone causing abdominal pain, diarrhea (which can be bloody), severe vomiting, weight loss, as well as secondary skin rashes, arthritis, inflammation of the eye, tiredness, and lack of concentration.

Smoking pot caused a “complete remission” of Crohn’s disease compared to placebo in half the patients who lit up for eight weeks, according to clinical trial data to be published the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

Researchers at Israel’s Meir Medical Center took 21 people with intractable, severe Crohn’s disease and gave 11 of them two joints a day for eight weeks. “The standardized cannabis cigarettes” contained 23 percent THC and 0.5 percent CBD (cannabidiol). (Such marijuana is available on dispensary shelves in San Francisco, Oakland, and other cities that have regulated access to the drug.) The other ten subjects smoked placebo cigarettes containing no active cannabinoids.

Investigators reported that smoking weed caused a “complete remission” of Crohn’s Disease in five of the 11 subjects. Another five of the eleven test subjects saw their Crohn’s Disease symptoms cut in half. Furthermore, “subjects receiving cannabis reported improved appetite and sleep, with no significant side effects.”

The study is the first placebo-controlled clinical trial to assess the consumption of cannabis for the treatment of Crohn’s, notes NORML. All of the patients had intractable forms of the disease and did not respond to conventional treatments. Still, the United States government claims that marijuana is as dangerous as heroin and has no medical use. U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag is waging a war on safe access to medical cannabis in the Bay Area.

According to Franklin Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse, the IRS targeted both ministries in a “review” that Graham said was part of an Obama administration effort of “targeting and attempting to intimidate us,” Politico reported Tuesday.

“While these audits not only wasted taxpayer money, they wasted money contributed by donors for ministry purposes as we had to spend precious resources servicing the IRS agents in our offices,” Graham wrote.

“I believe that someone in the administration was targeting and attempting to intimidate us. This is morally wrong and unethical – indeed some would call it ‘un-American,’” the letter added.

Graham said that “in light” of last Friday’s admission that the IRS targeted conservative groups, he did not believe the extra attention was warranted or justified, nor does he believe that it’s a coincidence.

“The Graham organizations kept their federal income tax exemptions after the audit,” Politico said, “but were not told they’d be able to until after the November election, he wrote.”

“Mr. President, the IRS has already publicly acknowledged it operated in a less than neutral and non-partisan way,” he said in his letter. “We also now know that the target of their improper actions was much wider than political or Tea Party organizations. Will you take some immediate action to reassure Americans we are not in a new chapter of American history – repressive government rule?”

Hearings are set to take place Friday before the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.

examiner.com

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• Billy Graham: IRS Targeted Us For Backing Conservative, Pro-Israel Candidates (patdollard.com)

Video produced by http://www.westernjournalism.com

10 Quotes By Barack Obama About Islam

#1 “Islam has always been part of America”

#2 “we will encourage more Americans to study in Muslim communities”

#3 “These rituals remind us of the principles that we hold in common, and Islam’s role in advancing justice, progress, tolerance, and the dignity of all human beings.”

#4 “America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.”

#5 “So I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed”

#6 “Ramadan is a celebration of a faith known for great diversity and racial equality”

#7 “As a young man, I worked in Chicago communities where many found dignity and peace in their Muslim faith.”

#8 ”I look forward to hosting an Iftar dinner celebrating Ramadan here at the White House later this week, and wish you a blessed month.”

#9 “That experience guides my conviction that partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn’t. And I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.”

#10 “I also know that Islam has always been a part of America’s story.”

10 Quotes By Barack Obama About Christianity

#1 “Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation”

#2 “We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation.”

#3 “Which passages of scripture should guide our public policy?  Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is OK and that eating shellfish is an abomination?  Or we could go with Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith?”

#4 ”Even those who claim the Bible’s inerrancy make distinctions between Scriptural edicts, sensing that some passages – the Ten Commandments, say, or a belief in Christ’s divinity – are central to Christian faith, while others are more culturally specific and may be modified to accommodate modern life.”

#5 “The American people intuitively understand this, which is why the majority of Catholics practice birth control and some of those opposed to gay marriage nevertheless are opposed to a Constitutional amendment to ban it. Religious leadership need not accept such wisdom in counseling their flocks, but they should recognize this wisdom in their politics.”

#6 From Obama’s book, The Audacity of Hope: “I am not willing to have the state deny American citizens a civil union that confers equivalent rights on such basic matters as hospital visitation or health insurance coverage simply because the people they love are of the same sex—nor am I willing to accept a reading of the Bible that considers an obscure line in Romans to be more defining of Christianity than the Sermon on the Mount.”

#7 “I find it hard to believe that my God would consign four-fifths of the world to hell.  I can’t imagine that my God would allow some little Hindu kid in India who never interacts with the Christian faith to somehow burn for all eternity.  That’s just not part of my religious makeup.”

#8 “Those opposed to abortion cannot simply invoke God’s will–they have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths.”

#9 On his support for civil unions for gay couples: “If people find that controversial then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount.”

#10 “I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people.”

Related articles

• Report: Obama ‘covertly recruiting’ Muslims as diplomats (themuslimissue.wordpress.com)
• Tea Party Congressman: Muslim Brotherhood Is Guiding Obama In Boston Bombings Investigation (kstreet607.com)
• Egyptian Cleric: Soon We Will See The Flag Of Allah Over The White House (thedailysheeple.com)