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June 2014

NEVADA ELECTION 2014 FINAL SLATE PRIMARY CONCLUDED ON JUNE 10

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/nevada-2014-candidates-for-congress-where-they-stand?f=must_reads

All incumbents remain in place. In District 4, a Tea Party challenger Niger Innis lost his bid to be the GOP challenger to Democrat Steven Horsford. Here is the final slate:

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To see the actual voting records of all incumbents on other issues such as Foreign Policy, Second Amendment Issues, Homeland Security, and other issues as well as their rankings by special interest groups please use the links followed by two stars (**).
U.S. Senate

Harry Reid (D) Next Election in 2016.
Dean Heller (R) Next Election in 2018.
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District 1
Dina Titus (D) Incumbent Elected in 2012
She previously served as U.S. Representative for Nevada’s 3rd congressional district from 2009 to 2011, when she was defeated by Joe Heck. In 2012, she ran successfully for Nevada’s 1st congressional district.
http://www.dinatitus.com/ http://www.ontheissues.org/house/dina_titus.htm**
http://titus.house.gov/
ISSUES
HEALTHCARE Las Vegas, NV – Dina Titus, Democratic candidate for Nevada’s First Congressional District, released the following statement in response to the Supreme Court upholding the Affordable Care Act this morning:
“Today is a great day for children who can stay on their parents’ health insurance plans until they are 26, and people with preexisting conditions who had previously been discriminated against by private insurance companies. I was proud to vote for this legislation that ended the worst abuses of the insurance industry. While today is an important milestone in ensuring affordable, quality healthcare for Nevadans, we still have a lot more work to do in making healthcare more affordable for Nevada families. What we can’t do is what Mitt Romney, Dean Heller, and Joe Heck want to do, which is to end Medicare by turning it over to profit-first private insurance companies. In Congress, I will fight with President Obama and Shelley Berkley to create jobs and protect Nevada seniors from Washington Republicans trying to pull the rug out from under them.”
ENERGY Voted against the Keystone XL Pipeline without limiting amendments.

Annette Teijeiro M.D. (R) Challenger
http://friendsforannette.com/
HOT BUTTON ISSUES
HEALTHCARE As someone who has been a longtime community leader in the medical field with substantial experience reviewing proposals before they become state laws, Annette has the best experience to navigate the pending legislative nightmare caused by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). She will fight to ensure people’s lives are placed before the politics already associated with the most intrusive legislation in history, until it can be overturned or overhauled.
ECONOMY AND JOBS As someone who has managed small medical practices as well as overseen large departments in the private sector, Annette understands the critical needs facing businesses, the importance of a low tax base, and the benefits of economic diversity. She will fight against uncontrolled government growth, against reactive tax increases, and propose economic initiatives and solutions to diversify the economy, attract new businesses, and put Nevadans to work.

District 2
Mark Amodei (R) Incumbent
http://amodei.house.gov/#dialog http://www.ontheissues.org/house/Mark_Amodei.htm**

ISSUES
HEALTHCARE Vigorous opposition to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)
This law mandates that all uninsured Americans purchase health insurance or face a financial penalty, creates complex regulations for health care providers and insurers, imposes unfunded mandates on states and small businesses, dramatically expands Medicaid coverage and cuts Medicare funding, all while permitting the Obama Administration to issue waivers for those groups it chooses to exempt, raise taxes on successful individuals and some health services, and raise fees on insurance companies.

The ACA fails to accomplish real reform and instead harms health care, job creation and the federal deficit at a time when our country can ill-afford such government inflicted damage. The ACA will cause premiums to skyrocket, forcing millions of Americans off of their current coverage and putting unelected Washington bureaucrats between patients and their doctors. With respect to the uninsured, ObamaCare drives up the cost of health care and takes us further away from real solutions to improve health care access.
Cosponsored legislation:
• H.R. 6079, the Repeal of ObamaCare Act, which passed the House.
• H.R. 582, the Healthcare Tax Relief and Mandate Repeal Act
• H.R. 763, to repeal the annual fee on health insurance providers enacted by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
• H.R. 2022, to prevent the targeting for political reasons or on the basis of political views as related to the enforcement of ObamaCare
ENERGY Unleash American energy – Strong support for the Keystone XL Pipeline.
The energy sector is crucial to our economic growth and high energy costs have a major impact on job creation. We have an abundant supply of natural resources in Nevada and across the country that we must use to meet our nation’s energy requirements. We need policies that allow us to harness our own resources, develop new sources of energy, and create jobs here at home. Over the past 220 years, America has created the greatest economic success story in the history of the world. Our innovative society has dramatically improved the length and quality of life for billions of people around the globe. This same ingenuity must be unleashed to meet our energy and employment challenges. House Republicans are taking immediate action through our American Energy Initiative by passing bipartisan legislation to expand energy exploration and production. This will help create American jobs, grow our economy, and enhance our security.
In Nevada, new sources of energy, such as solar and geothermal are showing promise. Geothermal in particular brings jobs and growth to Nevada with 20 plants in operation providing clean, reliable electrical capacity to the grid and significant additional capacity under development. Beyond Nevada, I believe that we need to take action on the bipartisan Keystone XL energy project, which would immediately create 20,000 jobs, with the potential for 100,000 to 200,000 additional jobs. This project should also lower the price of oil and gasoline and enable us to increase trade with our ally Canada, as opposed to hostile regimes in the Middle East.
IMMIGRATION Immigration reform and border security are complex, emotional debates, with passionate beliefs on all sides. Some view the issue as one of humaneness. Many see it from a perspective of fairness. And still others approach immigration on the basis of practicality. We are a nation of immigrants. My Irish and Italian forebears made their way to Nevada in search of a better life. We are also a nation of laws with the right to control our borders. While I don’t think any of those perspectives are mutually exclusive, it seems the one thing all sides can consistently agree on is that our immigration system, as presently constituted, is not working.

Kristen Spees (D) Challenger
http://kristenforcongress.wordpress.com/
ISSUES
HEALTHCARE The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) – I am a proponent for the increased quality and affordability of healthcare. Nevada has accepted Medicaid expansion. Healthcare is too expensive and hard to obtain. I personally pay for healthcare and I still have high premiums. I broke my foot last year and I didn’t want to go to the doctor because I would have to pay for the x-ray and visit out of pocket, despite having insurance. The PPACA is not perfect and has many flaws, but it is a step toward affordable healthcare. I am open to alternative ideas for affordable and quality healthcare.
IMMIGRATION We need a solution to our broken immigration system that strengthens our workforce and economy, keeps families together, and provides the generation to come with equal opportunities to education. I support the DREAM act and I think that immigration needs to be reformed in the US. The immigration reform should allow for a pathway to citizenship contingent on security checks, expanding visa options and an expanded and improved employment verification system for employers to confirm employee work authorization. We need comprehensive and responsible immigration reform that strengthens our immigration laws. The must be a way for undocumented workers to get right with the law and have the opportunity to earn citizenship. Immigration reform will boost our economy and keep it strong.
ENERGY Renewable Energy: I want to make Nevada a leading state for renewable energy. When intaking such an endeavor it is important to weigh the factors of the impact on the environment, the community and the economic impact of each particular project. Investing in renewable energy may boost our economy, provide new jobs, save money and protect the environment by tapping into wind energy, solar energy, biomass Energy and cellulosis ethanol and biogas energy. Nevada’s population is increasing as well as our energy consumption. This could be a powerful tool in economic development which will help further develop instate resources and will expand Nevada as a key player in the energy market. Promoting renewable energy may create more jobs as well as reduce pollution and balance energy rates.

District 3
Joe Heck M.D.(R) Incumbent
http://heck.house.gov/ http://www.heck4nevada.com/
http://www.ontheissues.org/house/Joe_Heck.htm**
Rated -2 by AAI, indicating anti-Arab anti-Palestine voting record. (May 2012)
ISSUES
HEALTHCARE The Obama health care take over hurts patients and cuts $500 billion from Medicare. Joe Heck is fighting for a better alternative. Joe Heck’s solution supports Nevada’s families by protecting the patient-physician relationship and reducing health care costs. Joe Heck is working to protect Medicare for Nevada’s seniors and preserve it for future generations.
ENERGY On numerous occasions the House has voted to approve the job-creating Keystone XL pipeline project which would bring crude oil from Canada to refineries in the southeastern United States. I believe that this project would have a profound impact on the economy – both by creating jobs and increasing domestic energy supplies – which is why I have voted in favor of its construction. Unfortunately, its construction has been repeatedly delayed by the Administration despite strong bipartisan support in Congress. I will continue advocate for the approval of the project.
IMMIGRATION As the grandson of Italian immigrants, I welcome the debate on immigration reform and the opportunity to find real solutions for our broken immigration system. As the debate over this important issue continues, there are several provisions I will be looking for in legislation. Those provisions are improved border enforcement, a modern e-verify system, a more sustainable guest worker program, and improvements in the current legal immigration system. Finally, while I oppose blanket amnesty, I am open to considering proposals that address earned citizenship.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
ISRAEL I am concerned about the ever-increasing instability throughout the Middle East. During this time, the U.S. must remain committed to supporting our greatest ally in the region. I believe that U.S. assistance to Israel is vital to her security, and will do all I can to ensure that Israel maintains her qualitative military advantage.
The Administration must reject any Palestinian government that fails to renounce violence or refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist. President Obama’s speech on May, 19, 2011 endorsed a key Palestinian demand that the borders of any future Palestinian state be based on the 1967 lines. I was extremely disappointed with President Obama’s statement. The mere suggestion that a two state solution be based on borders prior to the Six-Day War significantly undermines Israel’s ability to negotiate a practical and workable peace settlement. Additionally, retreating to the borders of 1967 would create an Israeli state only 8-10 miles wide, significantly inhibiting Israel’s ability to defend itself. I will continue to take a strong stance against any action that undermines this critical alliance.
IRAN As a strong supporter of Israel, I believe that we must work to prevent Iran from acquiring the technology to develop nuclear weapons. I am a co-sponsor of H.R. 850 which further strengthens sanctions against Iran by closing loopholes in the energy and financial sanctions. It denies visas to individuals who engage in Iran’s energy sector and increases the number of sanctions the Administration is required to impose. Additionally, it targets capital markets and activities by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and its affiliates significantly involved in the development, extraction, production, transportation, or sale of petroleum, oil, or liquefied natural gas in Iran.
This bill serves as a strong reminder to rogue states, such as Iran, that the U.S. will not stand idly by as they threaten the safety and security of our country, as well as the rest of the world. Please be assured that I will continue to support legislation that protects our national security and keeps countries such as Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR Providing for the common defense is one of the federal government’s most important responsibilities, and as an active member of the Army Reserve for over 20 years it is a responsibility that I take very seriously. The clear national security objectives in Afghanistan and Iraq required our presence there, and the efforts of coalition forces have resulted in substantial improvements to the security situation in those countries. Due to those improvements, we are in the midst of drawing down conventional troop levels in Afghanistan. Under the current strategy, 23,000 troops will leave by the end of the summer of 2012. At that point, the drawdown will continue and our mission will move from combat operations into a support role. We must ensure that any force reductions are conditions-based, reflect the conditions on the ground, and are supported by our military commanders – not any specific timeline. We must ensure victory and do not undermine the successes our troops have fought so hard to achieve.

Erin Bilbray (D) Challenger
http://www.erinbilbray.com/
ISSUES
HEALTHCARE Health care costs continue to be too high for both patients and small businesses. The Affordable Care Act contains a lot of common sense solutions, such as protecting coverage for those with pre-existing conditions, lowering drug costs for seniors, and allowing young people to stay on their parents’ insurance plan for a longer period. But the results of full implementation remain to be seen. I believe we still need to do more to contain costs. I’m proud that my husband and I created Nevada’s only completely free pediatric health clinic.
ENERGY Nevada is the nation’s leader in renewable energy. I will support policies that allow Nevada businesses to continue to be in the best possible position to research, innovate, and create thousands of good-paying, green energy jobs. Nevada’s clean energy industry provides a strong, diverse source of economic growth that makes us less dependent on foreign oil.
Environment – I will fight to protect Nevada’s tremendous natural beauty for generations to come, while balancing the opportunities that it provides for economic growth. I’ll oppose any attempt to ship nuclear waste through our communities to Yucca Mountain.
IMMIGRATION I support comprehensive immigration reform that is tough, fair, and practical. First, we need to increase border security and enforcement. I support bringing people back into the immigration system legally through a path to citizenship for those without criminal records. Reform must include a reasonable plan for paying back taxes and fines, securing education, and gaining employment.

District 4
Steven Horsford (D) Incumbent
http://www.stevenhorsford.com/ http://www.ontheissues.org/house/Steven_Horsford.htm**
ISSUES
HEALTHCARE Horsford Leads Effort To Stop 50th House Republican Attempt To Repeal The ACA
Mar 5, 2014 – Press Release – WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Representative Steven Horsford (NV-4) introduced a motion to prevent House Republicans from attempting to undermine or repeal the Affordable Care Act for the 50th time.
IMMIGRATION Steven believes that immigration reform is the civil and human rights issue of our time. Our system is broken, and unless we do something, immigrants will continue to be forced to live in the shadows, families will continue to be torn apart, and our country will suffer.
It’s time for a comprehensive immigration reform policy that protects families, strengthens our economy, and provides a real pathway to citizenship.
ENERGY Voted against the Keystone XL Pipeline without limiting amendments.

Cresent Hardy (R) Challenger
http://cresenthardyforcongress.com/
ISSUES
HEALTHCARE The Federal Government should not be forcing unfunded mandates such as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) upon the states. This sort of top-down legislation from the Federal Government comes with many unintended consequences, and places tremendous burden upon the businesses and employers that drive our economy.
Management of healthcare policy at the state level would help to mitigate fraud and abuse, while ensuring that each state develops programs that best suit the needs of their residents. A one-size-fits-all approach does not work on an issue as complex as healthcare coverage. Reform is needed. However, the ACA is far over-reaching, expensive, and detrimental to our fragile economy.
BALANCING THE BUDGET / SIZE OF GOVERNMENT The Federal Government has got to learn to live within its’ means. We must immediately balance the overly bloated federal budget, and actively work toward reducing our trade deficit.
As a long-time businessman, I have had to keep a sharp eye on the bottom line of my businesses to ensure that employees and vendors are paid on time. The government should operate by this same basic standard. We cannot spend money that we do not have!
The periodic raising of the nation’s debt ceiling is not a long-term solution. Government must provide for the essential responsibilities of national defense, maintenance of federal highways, preservation of Social Security, and welfare programs for our most needy citizens. Aside from these core responsibilities, most functions of government are more efficiently handled at the state and local levels.
JOBS / ECONOMY Job creation and retention are the key elements to getting our stagnant economy moving again. Employers will not invest in new businesses or expand existing ones when taxes are high and the federal government is saddling them with expensive unfunded mandates and burdensome regulations. Congress is not directly a job creator. However, the federal government can and should be instrumental in creating a business climate in which employers are willing to invest in business expansion, new business start-ups are encouraged, and invasive regulations are kept to a minimum.
Read more: Family Security Matters http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/nevada-2014-candidates-for-congress-where-they-stand?f=must_reads#ixzz34KW0Sctv

MY SAY: READ THIS BOOK

It is not enough to complain and wring hands about the BDS movement against Israel with the futile hope that this vile movement will just go away. Please read it and post a review at Amazon. This is a yeoman effort to expose and delegitimize this anti-Israel movement posing as a “human rights” issue.rsk

“From the day of its founding, Israel has been under attack—with tanks, rockets, and horrific terrorism against civilians. But despite it all, the Jewish State remained unbowed, and its democracy has become stronger as its adversaries have sunk deeper into poverty, political chaos, and totalitarian depravity. In need of new tactics, Israel’s foes have opened up a new front: A well-funded, global campaign to demonize Israel as a racist, “Apartheid” state. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has captured the attentions of idealistic youth and dedicated radicals around the world, either unaware or uncaring that they are being cynically manipulated by Islamicists and their sympathizers in the West. An alliance of some of the worst state and non-state actors on the world stage, BDS represents an existential threat to the future of Israel—one that cannot be ignored by her or her allies. ”

http://www.amazon.com/BDS-War-Against-Israel-Divestment/dp/1499606451/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1402575958&sr=1-1&keywords=jed+babbin

The BDS War Against Israel: The Orwellian Campaign to Destroy Israel Through the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions… by Jed Babbin and Herbert I London (May 28, 2014)

JED BABBIN:Why Does President Obama Want to Empower Hamas?

Given President Obama’s most recent action in the “peace process” between Israel and the Palestinians, it’s reasonable to ask if the president believes that Israel has the right to exist.

That’s not a question to be posed casually. From the time it became a nation, Israel – the only democracy in the Middle East – has always been able to count on America to come to its defense. Until now.

The State Department has announced that it will not only work with but will also continue to fund the Palestinian “reconciliation government” sworn in last week. The “reconciliation” was between Fatah – the political party of Palestinian president Mahmood Abbas – and the Hamas terrorist group which has, as its primary raison d’etre, the destruction of Israel.

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The Hamas charter declares, “The purpose of Hamas is to create an Islamic Palestinian state throughout Israel by eliminating the State of Israel through violent jihad.” If Hamas had changed its charter to renounce jihad and accept Israel’s existence then and only then could Abbas’ Palestinian Authority have reconciled with it without endorsing its goal of destroying Israel.

But Hamas never made any change to its charter, its beliefs or its dedication to the violent destruction of Israel. The only conclusion that can be reached is that Abbas and his group have accepted Hamas’ goals and methods and modified their own to suit them.

That point compels another conclusion: that the State Department’s announced intent to accept the Hamas-Fatah government into the peace process – and to continue funding it – is that the president and Secretary of State John Kerry have also accepted the legitimacy of Hamas, its goal and its chosen method of reaching them. They have legitimized Hamas just as they have legitimized the Taliban by negotiating with it and releasing five of their top commanders.

Obama’s disdain for Israel has been no secret. In March 2010, Obama treated Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the sort of rudeness presidents had previously reserved for America’s enemies. As detailed in my new book, The BDS War Against Israel, Obama’s anti-Israel attitude must have been formed when, as a college student, he studied under the late Edward Said, a Palestinian activist with whom Obama maintained a relationship for two decades.

DANIEL GREENFIELD: HEY MR. TALIBAN ****

After presiding for six years over a war in which over 1,600 Americans were killed fighting the Taliban, Obama did not mention the enemy during his West Point Commencement Address.

That wasn’t unusual. Obama has a curious habit of avoiding the “T-word” in his official speeches.
Even when delivering his Rose Garden speech about Bergdahl’s return, the Taliban were never mentioned.

Obama’s mentions of the Taliban vary by context. When speaking to the military he will sometimes say that the United States is at war with the Taliban. In international diplomatic settings however there is a subtle shift in his language that emphasizes that the conflict is really a civil war between the Taliban and the Afghan government with the United States there to act as a stabilizing force.

When discussing the Qatar process, his language suggested that the United States was only there to facilitate an understanding between the Taliban and the Afghan government.

The President of Afghanistan claimed that Obama had told him, “The Taliban are not our enemies and we don’t want to fight them.”

Vice President Joe Biden had expressed similar thoughts, stating, “The Taliban per se is not our enemy. That’s critical.” White House spokesman Jay Carney awkwardly defended Biden by arguing that the United States was fighting the Taliban, but was there to defeat Al Qaeda.

Al Qaeda in Afghanistan however had already been defeated by Bush.

During the campaign and once in office, Obama had proposed outreach to the “moderate” Taliban. Biden estimated that only 5% of the Taliban were incorrigible while 70% and then another 25% could be reasoned with.

According to Biden, these Taliban were expected to end all ties with Al Qaeda, accept the Afghan constitution and offer equal treatment to women. Obama issued the same demand last year. The Taliban who hold strict religious beliefs about the evils of democracy and the inferiority of women did not rush to take Obama and Biden up on their offer.

Obama’s dual views of the Taliban made for an incompatible policy. When playing the role of commander, he delivers applause lines about “pushing the Taliban back” and large numbers of American soldiers were sent to Afghanistan. But the rest of the time he views the Taliban not as an enemy, but like Boko Haram or Hamas, as a group that is acting violently only because their legitimate political needs are not being met.

Some might say that it was as a commander that Obama sent Bowe Bergdahl to Afghanistan, but that it was as an appeaser that he brought him back. And yet both Obamas are the same man. Obama sent Bowe Bergdahl to Afghanistan for the same reason that he brought him back.

This is the discontinuity that bedevils modern liberal foreign policy which fights wars it does not believe in, rejecting war, while still attempting to use force as an instrument of diplomacy.

When Bush sent American soldiers off to war, it was because he believed that there was a real enemy to fight. Obama, as we have seen, never believed that the Taliban were our enemy and his own intelligence people had told him that Al Qaeda had a handful of fighters in Afghanistan.

ObamaCore Emerges As a Major Issue As Education Takes An Orwellian Turn by BETSY MCCAUGHEY, PHD ****

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/obamacore-emerges-as-a-major-issue-as-education-takes-an-orwellian-turn?f=puball

In the past week, Governors Haley of South Carolina and Fallin of Oklahoma evicted Common Core from public schools, even at the risk of losing hundreds of millions of federal dollars promised to states adopting it. Mmes. Haley and Fallin initially supported Common Core. But public outrage is forcing them to reverse course, and more states will follow. In New York, the Republican-Conservative challenger to Governor Andrew Cuomo, Robert Astorino, vows to topple Common Core if he wins in November.

Move over Obamacare. Mid-term elections will also be referendums on ObamaCore.

Contrary to what the public is told, Common Core is not about standards. It’s about content – what pupils are taught. In the Social Studies Framework approved on April 29th by New York State’s education authorities (but not parents), American history is presented as four centuries of racism, economic oppression, and gender discrimination. Teachers are encouraged to help students identify their differences instead of their common American identity. Gone are heroes, ideals, and American exceptionalism.

Eleventh grade American history begins with the colonial period, but Puritans and their churches, standing on virtually every New England town green to this day, are erased. Amazingly, Puritan leader John Winthrop’s “city on a hill” vision, an enduring symbol of American exceptionalism cited by politicians from John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan and Michael Dukakis, is gone. Religion is expunged from New York State’s account of how this nation began.

Instead, the focus is on “Native Americans who eventually lost much of their land and experienced a drastic decline in population through diseases and armed conflict.” The other focus is on slavery and indentured servitude. True, the curriculum includes political developments and democratic principles. But overall, it’s so slanted as to be untrue.

The indoctrination begins early. In grade three, “students are introduced to the concepts of prejudice, discrimination and human rights, as well as social action.” Grade four suggested reading includes “The Kid’s Guide to Social Action.”

ANDREW HARROD: PROFESSORS SHILL FOR ISLAMISM…SEE NOTE PLEASE

NORTON MEZVINSKY MENTIONED HERE IS THE UNCLE DEAREST OF CHELSEA CLINTON’S HUSBAND…AND A VICIOUS AND SELF PROFESSED “ANTI ZIONIST”….RSK
Only ten people, including two imams and a reporter, showed up to hear University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, professor of religious studies Carl W. Ernst deliver the “First Annual Ibrahim Abu-Rabi Lecture” on May 7 at the International Council for Middle East Studies (ICMES) in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. Ernst was introduced by ICMES founder and president Norton Mezvinsky, who came to ICMES after a 42-year career teaching Middle East history at Connecticut State University.

A self-professed “anti-Zionist,” Mezvinsky endorsed the infamous 1975 Zionism-is-racism U.N. resolution and developed amiable relations with the deranged anti-Semitic Lyndon LaRouche movement and once spoke at the LaRouchite Schiller Institute in Germany. He also co-authored Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel with the late Israel Shahak, whose work, MEF Fellow Asaf Romirowsky wrote, “rests on his conviction that Judaism is the font of all evil and that most global issues can ultimately be traced back to Judaism via a world-wide Jewish conspiracy.”

In dedicating its inaugural lecture series to the memory of former ICMES director Ibrahim Abu-Rabi, ICMES signals its support of his radical ideology. Mezvinsky tearfully recalled his late “very good friend” and “distinguished scholar,” about whose book on the Muslim Brotherhood’s Sayyid Qutb Daniel Pipes wrote, “author and subject meld into a nearly seamless whole” so that, for Qutb and likeminded individuals, Abu-Rabi was “their apostle to an English-speaking audience.”

Appreciatively hearing Mezvinsky were Imams Mohammad Magid and Johari Abdul-Malik. The Sudanese-born Magid heads two groups with disturbing Islamist connections, the Muslim Brotherhood-founded, terrorism unindicted co-conspirator Islamic Society of North America and the All Dulles Area Muslim Society mosque in northern Virginia. The American convert Abdul-Malik, meanwhile, who called Magid “my teacher” at a press conference the day after the ICMES lecture, is outreach director at northern Virginia’s Dar al-Hijrah mosque, known for many years of attracting violent individuals, some personally defended by Abdul-Malik.

ALAN CARUBA: “TEAR DOWN THIS WALL” RONALD REAGAN JUNE 12, 1987)

On June 12, 1987, the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, speaking in Berlin, said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” It fell in 1989 and, in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. From the end of World War Two in 1945, the United States had stood strong against the Communist empire’s effort to extend its power and influence around the world.

Today, however, we have a President who not only swapped five Taliban generals, men whom the United Nations regards as war criminals, but likely also paid a yet unreported ransom as well. We have a President who made it clear that he intended to close Guantanamo where jihadist enemies have been detained because he thinks the United States is provoking the Islamic fanatics by maintaining it.

President Obama’s mindset is so favorable to Islam that he seemingly cannot grasp that jihad is a sacred duty for Muslims and nothing the U.S. or any other nation does will cause their holy war to end. Or maybe he does understand that and his true sympathies are with the growing army of Islamists?

The Rand Corporation, a think tank, recently released a report noting the accelerating rate of jihadist groups worldwide and the number of jihadist fighters which it estimates at 100,000. The number of attacks by al Qaeda affiliates between 2010 to 2013 rose to approximately one thousand from an initial 392.

The five Taliban generals were sent to Qutar, a small Arab state that borders Saudi Arabia, with the understanding they would remain there for a year. That is unlikely. Muslims are permitted to lie to infidels to advance Islam and jihad. The practice is call taqqiya. I have little doubt we will see them return to Afghanistan and Pakistan, both of which are still home to al Qaeda and allied groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Taliban.

At the heart of the deal struck to get the return of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, a deserter from his unit in Afghanistan, bespeaks the utter weakness of American foreign policy that has been the hallmark of the Obama administration. In a recent commentary, “Meet Obama’s Kissingers”, Wall Street Journal columnist, Kimberly A. Strassel, spelled out the alarming fact that Obama’s key national security and foreign affairs advisors are all politicians as opposed to experts in those respective fields.

Helicopters on the Roof by Mark Steyn

In May 2011, in the wake of Osama bin Laden’s death, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria wrote a column headlined “Al Qaeda Is Over”:

The truth is this is a huge, devastating blow to al Qaeda, which had already been crippled by the Arab Spring. It is not an exaggeration to say that this is the end of al Qaeda in any meaningful sense of the word.

Al Qaeda is not an organization that commands massive resources. It doesn’t have a big army. It doesn’t have vast reservoirs of funds that it can direct easily across the world.

Zakaria is famously a confidant of Obama’s, but there are limits to the horse manure even devoted courtiers swallow. Three years on, just one malign al-Qaeda progeny, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, now commands more territory than ever – from Aleppo in western Syria to the gates of Baghdad. It has all the tanks and weaponry abandoned by the Iraqi “army” we trained. It has the cash reserves of the second largest city in Iraq, and control of the northern oil fields.

Meanwhile, the White House has apparently canceled its cable subscription and daily newspaper. On Tuesday, as half-a-million Iraqis were fleeing Mosul, Administration flacks were talking up Hillary’s Greatest Hits:

Earnest was asked by a reporter at the daily press conference to describe Clinton’s accomplishments while she was Secretary of State.

“Ending the war in Iraq and winding down in a responsible fashion the war in Afghanistan, and doing that after the success of our our efforts to dismantle and destroyed Al-Qaida core that had established a base of operations in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan,” Earnest answered.

Obama and Clinton ended the war in Iraq by losing it. They “pivoted” from Iraq to Afghanistan, and wound up losing both. Hillary crowed over Gaddafi’s corpse – “We came, we saw, he died” – and then sat by as her ambassador and best friend “Chris” was devoured by the mob: He died, she sat by, we’re gone. The Arab Spring that Zakaria claims “crippled” al-Qaeda delivered Egypt to the Muslim Brotherhood and a military coup, Tunisia to soft Islamists, Libya to ever harder Islamists, and much of Syria and Iraq to jihadists too hardcore for “mainstream” al-Qaeda.

MARK STEYN ON CANTOR

Last night, I talked to Dana Perino on Fox News about the supposedly inevitable next President. Barely had I left the studio when news broke of the defeat in a primary of the supposedly inevitable next Speaker of the House. The magnitude of what happened to the House Majority Leader at the hands of some wossname who wasn’t supposed to break 40 per cent is nicely summed up in this headline:

Eric Cantor Blew $168K at Steak Houses; Brat Spent $122K Overall

“Brat” is the name of the obscure economics professor who whupped him, not the Cantor campaign’s characterization thereof. Nevertheless, they made the mistake of condescending to the prof. Like so many other ingrate rubes in the despised “base”, he didn’t get it. The Chamber of Commerce wants an endless supply of cheap unskilled foreign labor, so the job of “mainstream” Republicans is to find a way of facilitating this without using provocative words like “amnesty”. Eric Cantor was the master of this, talking up coy cotton-candy maneuvers like the “ENLIST” Act.

Here’s what he said in his famous let’s-do-it-for-the-kids speech:

A good place to start is with the kids. One of the great founding principles of our country was that children would not be punished for the mistakes of their parents. It is time to provide an opportunity for legal residence and citizenship for those who were brought to this country as children and who know no other home.

It’s news to me that not punishing children for their parents’ mistakes is a “founding principle” of America. But no matter. Washington bigwigs have many attentive readers in the human-shipping industry south of the border, and so Cantor’s primary campaign coincided with the bizarre Bugsy Malone’s Camp of the Saints scenario currently playing out on America’s southern border.

ALEXA MOUTEVELIS COOMBS- Junior High Goes Condom Crazy –

Reading, Writing, Rubbers Schools give out condoms to 11-year-olds
This month a rural Oregon school district announced its decision to offer condoms to children as young as 11. The new policy was adopted in part because, according to a memo from the superintendent, “every few years, a middle school student either becomes pregnant or is associated with a pregnancy.” The rationale is flimsy, but it speaks to the wider trend of pushing the envelope when it comes to giving kids contraception in school.

Statistics on the availability of condoms nationally in secondary education, particularly in middle schools, are hard to come by. In 1998, Advocates for Youth reported that 418 schools gave out condoms. More recently, in 2006, the CDC said it was 5 percent of high schools. But city-wide programs in places like Chicago are growing and anecdotal evidence suggests that schools serving as free condom dispensatories is becoming old hat by now.

In Boston this spring there was a controversy over condom distribution in the school system. Not over the fact that condoms were being given out to students, but over the design of the wrapper. City schools received condoms from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to hand out to high schoolers that were emblazoned with provocative phrases like “one lucky lady,” “hump one,” and “tasty one.”

Somehow this scandalized parents who were otherwise supportive of their kids’ collecting condoms on the way to class. One mother told the Boston Globe, “I was horrified. As a mother of three teenagers, there was no way I wanted my kids to be given condoms with those wrappers.” Try to wrap your head around that logic.

Speaking of interesting wrappers, New York Daily News reported that city students were welcomed back to school last fall with a vast assortment of condoms from which to choose. Not content to provide condoms for simple utilitarian use, fun features such as “Rough Rider Studded,” “King XL,” “Extra Strength,” “Ultra Sensitive,” “Ultra Thin,” “Ribbed” and even “Assorted Flavors,” were on offer to minors. Far from the professed purpose of safety, these types of condoms sure seem to cross the line into encouraging more sex and experimentation. Homework assignment, kids: figure out the difference between “Ultra Sensitive” and “Ultra Thin!”