Obama Administration Moves to Downplay 9/11

The commemoration of the devastating 9/11 terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people used to be known as “Patriot Day.” That designation was established in December 2001 after the House of Representative passed Joint Resolution 71 by a unanimous 407 to 0 vote.The new term, the September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance, stems from an amendment to the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act that Congress passed and President Obama signed into law in April.

Reuters AlertNet – Netanyahu adviser raises “MAD” nuclear scenario

Source: Reuters

JERUSALEM, July 9 (Reuters) – Israel must have “tremendously powerful” weapons to deter a nuclear attack or destroy an enemy that dares to launch an atomic strike, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted on Thursday as saying.

CNSNews.com – Holder Calls for Passage of Hate Crime Based on Sexual Orientation, Gender, Disability

Attorney General Eric Holder urged Congress Thursday to pass a new hate crimes law which would allow the federal government to prosecute cases of violence based on sexual orientation, gender or disability.

Holder, who testified at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, cited the recent killing of a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. The alleged assailant is a white supremacist.

“One has to look at the unfortunate history of our nation. There are groups that have been singled out, that have been targets of violence,” the attorney general said. “We have to face and confront that reality.”

Lawmakers at the hearing debated the possible impact of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The bill – named after a gay man killed in Wyoming in 1998 – would allow federal prosecution of violence committed because of the actual or perceived gender, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity of the victim.

For more than a decade, Democrats have sought to update the hate crimes law, which already makes it a federal crime to attack someone because of their race, creed or color.

via CNSNews.com – Holder Calls for Passage of Hate Crime Based on Sexual Orientation, Gender, Disability.

U.S. military teaches ‘protesters’ are ‘low-level terrorists’

But Thompson noted that the report also targeted as “potential terrorists” Americans who:

* Oppose abortion

* Oppose same-sex marriage

* Oppose restrictions on firearms

* Oppose lax immigration laws

* Oppose the policies of President Obama regarding immigration, citizenship, and the expansion of social programs

* Oppose continuation of free trade agreements

* Are suspect of foreign regimes

* Fear Communist regimes

* Oppose a “one world” government

* Bemoan the decline of U.S. stature in the world

* Are upset with loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs to China and India, and more

And Thompson told WND no apology has been offered to the members of any of those classes of citizens.

via U.S. military teaches ‘protesters’ are ‘low-level terrorists’.

Why Obama Should Stay Silent on Iran | Cato @ Liberty

President Obama should keep quiet on the subject of Iran’s elections. At least two pernicious tendencies are on display in the Beltway discussion on the topic. First is the common Washington impulse to “do something!” without laying out clear objectives and tactics. What, after all, is President Obama or his administration supposed to do to “support protesters” in Iran in the first place? What would be the ultimate goal of such support? Most importantly, what is the mechanism by which the support is supposed to produce the desired outcome? That we are debating how America should intervene in Iran’s domestic politics indicates the sheer grandiosity of American foreign policy thought.

The second, related tendency is that of narcissism: to make foreign countries’ domestic politics all about us. In this game, American observers anoint from afar one side the “good,” “pro-Western” team and the other the “bad,” “radical” one and urge Washington to press its thumb on the good side of the scale. But doing so would risk winding up Iranian nationalism, a very real force that binds Iranians together more tightly than their differences pull them apart.

If Iran’s government has overreached, the right response is schadenfreude. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer group of guys. Meanwhile, President Obama has a full plate of problems to deal with in his own country. Whatever government emerges from the Iranian political process, we’re going to have to deal with it. Until then, whatever President Obama’s personal prayers or wishes are for Iran, he ought to keep them to himself.

via Why Obama Should Stay Silent on Iran | Cato @ Liberty.

DHS: Statement by Secretary Napolitano on the Introduction of Pass ID in the Senate

Release Date: June 15, 2009

For Immediate Release

Office of the Press Secretary

Contact: 202-282-8010

“Today’s introduction of Pass ID in the U.S. Senate brings us closer to greater compliance with federal standards for secure driver’s licenses and better protection against terrorists and other threats nationwide,” said Secretary Napolitano. “Pass ID is a cost-effective, common-sense solution that balances critical security requirements with the input and practical needs of state governments. I am committed to supporting this important bill and it is my hope that Congress will pass it into law as quickly as possible.”

via DHS: Statement by Secretary Napolitano on the Introduction of Pass ID in the Senate.

CNSNews.com – Climate of Hate, World of Double Standards

When a right-wing Christian vigilante kills, millions of fingers pull the trigger. When a left-wing Muslim vigilante kills, he kills alone. These are the instantly ossifying narratives in the Sunday shooting death of late-term abortion provider George Tiller of Kansas versus the Monday shootings of two Arkansas military recruiters.

Tiller’s suspected murderer, Scott Roeder, is white, Christian, anti-government and anti-abortion. The gunman in the military recruitment center attack, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, is black, a Muslim convert, anti-military and anti-American.

Both crimes are despicable, cowardly acts of domestic terrorism. But the disparate treatment of the two brutal cases by both the White House and the media is striking.

via CNSNews.com – Climate of Hate, World of Double Standards.

The Religious Right Didn’t Kill George Tiller – WSJ.com

These unqualified reproaches are nothing new. The organized antiabortion movement has always opposed violence against abortion providers. That has never stopped opportunistic prochoice activists, however, from conflating their passionate rhetoric with the behavior of individual criminals. True to form, on Sunday, Mike Hendricks of the Kansas City Star accused anyone who had criticized Tiller as a murderer (Tiller aborted healthy, nine-month old fetuses) of being an “accomplice” to his death.

Over the past decade this argumentative tactic has taken on an even more insidious twist. In addition to fighting violent, Muslim jihadists abroad, some liberals argue that America must deal with its own, homegrown terrorists. These are not just people who commit violence but millions of socially conservative evangelicals and Catholics — “Christianists” — who comprise the base of the Republican Party and threaten the stability of the country.

via The Religious Right Didn’t Kill George Tiller – WSJ.com.

And Your Freedom to Travel Takes Another Step Back | Cato @ Liberty

hmmm … Rev 13:17-18

WHTI is a congressionally mandated program to increase the documentation required for travel to and from neighboring countries. It’s a classic example of self-injurious overreaction to terrorism. The costs we incur for this program vastly outstrip the harms it averts.

via And Your Freedom to Travel Takes Another Step Back | Cato @ Liberty.

Obama Urges World to ‘Stand Up’ to North Korea, After Nuclear Test – Presidential Politics | Political News – FOXNews.com

Concerns me the most –  that North Korea will give this technology to Iran or other radical regimes. Military goods is their primary if not only way to make money on the world market.

Obama Urges World to ‘Stand Up’ to North Korea, After Nuclear Test – Presidential Politics | Political News – FOXNews.com .