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April 2016

Virginia’s Massive Voter Drive for Felons Terry McAuliffe fulfills his mission of delivering the battleground state for Hillary. Matthew Vadum

To clear the way for fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton to capture the White House this year, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe unilaterally acted to restore the voting rights of 206,000 convicted violent and nonviolent felons in his important battleground state last week.

The move, which critics say violates the state constitution, is without precedent in Virginia’s history and is particularly noxious and authoritarian coming as it did two days after the state’s General Assembly adjourned.

The push to mainstream felons comes as Barack Obama, the most radical left-wing American president in history, is defining deviancy down by attempting to de-stigmatize criminality. The Left views criminals — especially minorities — as victims of society, oppressed for mere nonconformism. Because it needs their votes, the Left is pressing for the restoration of felons’ voting rights. And it also supports legislation “banning the box,” that is, banning employment applications that ask if the applicant has a criminal record.

And like President Obama, McAuliffe apparently revels in signing executive orders to accomplish what lawmakers would never approve. McAuliffe’s order also classified all drug-related convictions as “non-violent, shortening the application for more serious offenders from 13 pages to one page, [and] removing a requirement that individuals pay their court costs before they can have their rights restored,” his office indicated.

Mr. Obama, you should have stayed home. Your trip to Saudi Arabia, Europe signals weakness : Fred Fleitz

President Obama faces contentious meetings with European and Gulf state leaders during his trip this week to Europe and Saudi Arabia. Why? Because of his continuing refusal to adopt a serious strategy to defeat ISIS, confront Iran’s increasingly belligerent behavior, and his inexplicable comments published in an April 2016 Atlantic article that blamed Europe and Gulf states for his administration’s growing list of foreign policy failures.

The Atlantic article will lead to some awkward questions for Mr. Obama from the leaders of America’s closest allies.

For example, the president will undoubtably be asked by European and Gulf state leaders to explain how, after his administration ignored the growing crisis in Libya for the past four years and his 2011 “leading from behind” strategy during the Libyan civil war, he can criticize European and Gulf states of being “free riders” and not having “skin in the game” in the Libyan situation.

I imagine British Prime Minister Cameron will say to the president, “But Mr. Obama, France and the United Kingdom took the lead in fighting that war because you refused to.”

Saudi leaders are more concerned about Obama’s comment in the Atlantic article that Saudi Arabia needs to find a way to “share the neighborhood” with Iran and “institute some sort of cold peace.” These incoherent remarks must have enraged Saudi officials in light of the July 2015 nuclear deal with Iran which they strongly oppose and a recent surge in Iranian missile tests.

Obama’s tin-eared comments about Saudi Arabia may be why Saudi King Salman was not there to greet him when the president’s plane landed in Riyadh Wednesday. The King did greet other heads of state when they arrived, according to Reuters.

Given the way he has ignored Saudi security concerns and tilted toward Iran during his presidency, I assume the Saudis have written off Mr. Obama and recognize that most experts in Washington – Republican and Democrat – do not share his radical and disjointed foreign policy views. The Saudis know their strong relationship with the United States will survive Barack Obama’s presidency. But even if they do understand this, Saudi leaders also know that this president’s failed Middle East policies did enormous damage to Middle East security that they will have to live with for many years to come.

Frank Gaffney :Muslim Brotherhood Day on Capitol Hill

On Monday, April 18, legislators’ offices were visited by individuals associated with a group unknown to most lawmakers: The United States Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO). In the interest of helping members of the U.S. Congress understand precisely who their interlocutors are, permit a brief introduction: The USCMO is the latest in a long series of front organizations associated with, and working to advance, the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States.

Members of Congress should be clear about the true nature of that agenda. It is laid out most authoritatively in a document introduced into evidence by federal prosecutors in the course of the largest terrorism financing trial in the nation’s history, U.S. v. Holy Land Foundation et al. Written in 1991 by a top Muslim Brotherhood operative, Mohamed Akram, and entitled “The Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal of the Group in North America,” this internal correspondence was meant for the eyes only of the organization’s leadership in Egypt. So, the document is direct and to the point: It explicitly states that the mission of the Muslim Brotherhood in North America is “destroying Western civilization from within … by [the infidels’] hands and the hands of the believers so that Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”

There are two other important facts legislators should know about Akram’s memo.

First, the document helpfully attaches a list of 29 groups under the heading “Our organizations and organizations of our friends: Imagine if they all march according to one plan!” A number of the identified Muslim Brotherhood fronts – and many others that have come into being since 1991 – are members of the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations. Representatives and associates of such fronts will be among the Islamists in congressional offices on Monday.

Second, the memo describes in detail the Muslim Brotherhood’s favored technique for accomplishing its stated goal of “destroying Western civilization” – at least until such time as they are strong enough to use violence decisively: “civilization jihad.” This sort of jihad involves employing stealthy, subversive means like influence operations to penetrate and subvert our government and civil society institutions. (The successful application of these means have been chronicled extensively in the Center for Security Policy’s “Civilization Jihad Reader Series.”)

Obama Appointee: White House ‘Aggressively Engaged’ in Transgender Fight By Debra Heine

The Obama White House is “aggressively engaged” in the push to allow transgender students to use whichever bathroom they wish at school, according to a top Obama appointee in the Department of Education. DOE Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine Lhamon made the point last Thursday during her keynote address at an LGBT summit in Michigan which was co-hosted by the White House.

Via the Daily Caller:

The event was co-sponsored by activist group Equality Michigan, which has led a statewide charge to allow schoolchildren to choose their name, gender and bathroom, all without parental knowledge or input. Officials from seven different federal agencies attended the event, according to the Equality Michigan website.

Equality Michigan executive director Steph White blasted out a giddy email to supporters after the event, which she called “a great catalyst that will propel our collective work forward.” The email included an excerpt from Lhamon’s remarks, which White called “refreshingly clear.”
Speaking about the Obama administration, Lhamon told attendees: “We are serious. We are aggressively engaged. We will enforce Title IX.” The Daily Caller has filed a FOIA request with the Department of Education for Lhamon’s full remarks.

Under Lhamon’s guidance, the DOE’s Office of Civil Rights has ruled that schools will be in violation of Title IX if they do not permit transgender students to use the bathroom and locker rooms of their choice. The administration has made clear that giving private, single-user bathrooms is not a sufficient accommodation. That is: schools must allow boys who think they’re girls to shower and change alongside actual girls.

On April 19, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that a biological female who identifies as a male may bring a claim under Title IX against a school for not allowing her to use the men’s restrooms and locker room facilities.

Saudi family therapist releases helpful video on how to beat your wife the Islamic way By Thomas Lifson

“You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” by Neil Diamond RSK
Here’s some diversity for the multiculturalists to celebrate. Via MEMRI, translation of a video by Saudi family therapist Khaled Al-Saqaby, who explains the proper Islamic way to beat your wife, which, he admits, is a thorny issue. As U.K. Daily Mail excerpts:

Mr Al-Saqaby urges men not to physically abuse their wives but pursue three courses of action should they need “discipline” – first talk to them, then “forsake them in bed,” and finally beat them.

He said wives “undoubtedly” caused problems because many “want to live a life of equality with their husbands,” which is a “very grave problem.”

Yes, that is grave indeed.

In the video, he says: “I am aware that this issue is a thorny one which contains many hazards, but Allah willing we will cross this bridge safely.

“I believe the problem arises when husbands do not understand how to deal with disobedience. Some women disobey their husbands and make mistakes with them, and their husbands think this is due to inadequate treatment [of disobedience].”

He added: “The first step is to remind her of your rights and of her duties according to Allah. Then comes the second step – forsaking her in bed.

“Here some husbands make mistakes which might exacerbate the problem.”

Mr Al-Saqaby goes on to explain how men should remain sharing a bed with their wives but turn their back on them, rather than one of the couple sleeping in a different room or on the floor.

He said: “As a woman once told me, this is the most ingenious way to discipline a wife. If the husband leaves the room it is easier for her than if he remains but turns his back to her or if he sleeps on the floor or vice versa.”

Finally comes physical action, although Mr. Al-Saqaby stresses that it should not be a way for a husband to “vent one’s anger.”

He said: “Women have to understand the aim is to discipline. The necessary Islamic conditions for beating must be met.

“The beating should not be performed with a rod, nor should it be a headband, or a sharp object, which, I am sad to say, some husbands use.

“It should be done with something like the sewak tooth-cleaning twig or with a handkerchief, because the goal is to merely make the wife feel that she was wrong in the way she treated her husband.”

TRUMPING THE NEWS AT FOX

I’m done with Fox News By Patricia McCarthy

When Fox News debuted in 1996, it was a breath of fresh air, seemingly unadulterated by the leftist bias that had long characterized the three mainstream networks and CNN. But that initial commitment to balance has gone by the wayside, sacrificed on the altar of Donald Trump.

Fox News, as Mark Levin has observed, has become a Trump super-PAC instead of a news organization. From morning throughout the day and night, it is Trump, Trump, Trump.

Many of us who have depended on Fox for “fair and balanced” news feel betrayed. While Trump’s rants at his rallies are a form of repetitive mass hypnosis of an angry public by a fraudster, Fox has set out to convince its viewers that Trump is a legitimate candidate, not a spoiler for Hillary – that he is a conservative when he is clearly not. His millions of supporters who have hitched their hopes for a better future, a return to American strength and values, to him will be sorely disappointed. Trump has no core values beyond his own ego and accumulated wealth.

Has Fox News changed its nature at the command of Rupert Murdoch or Roger Ailes? Are large amounts of money involved? Who knows?

Megyn Kelly sure got in trouble for challenging Trump and had to go grovel before him at Trump Tower. Now she is about to interview him; it will most likely be a carefully orchestrated love-fest. She has capitulated. Greta is clearly his good friend of long standing, so she will not address his candidacy honestly. Hannity has become, as one cartoonist drew it, Trump’s ventriloquist’s dummy. And Giuliani! What can one say about his support of Trump?

Meanwhile, O’Reilly speaks as though Trump is already the Republican nominee. Maybe he will be; maybe he will not. But he is not yet. These folks are betraying the country for the friendship of a rich celebrity.

So I am finished with Fox News. The channel has sold out to the lowest common denominator and actively sabotaged the one qualified candidate, the constitutional scholar, the Reaganesque guy. While I greatly respect Bret Baier, Catherine Herridge, Jennifer Griffin, and a few others, the rest of them can wallow in their Trumpaphilia to their hearts’ content.

NICE TRY BUT U.K. PRIME MINISTER GETS THE WRONG NAME

http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/

Nice try, Mr Corbyn, but the “19th century rabbi” you cite with such apparent authority in your so obviously barbed Pesach message to Anglo-Jewry was not called Joseph Morris.
As you see here, he was called Morris Joseph.

With Term Waning, Barack Obama Aims to Stabilize Relations in Middle East By Aaron David Miller

“If Mr. Obama left office today he’d leave the relationships with America’s three most important partners worse than when he found them; and relations with one of Washington’s erstwhile adversaries – Iran — better.”

Life’s about learning, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young famously sang. And it may well be that in the last year of his presidency, Barack Obama is finally learning that imperfect partners in the Middle East are better than no partners at all, particularly for a president disinclined to invest in a large U.S. presence in the region.

None of this means that relations with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel will fundamentally improve before 2017 — too many divergent interests preclude that. But recent U.S. efforts suggest that Mr. Obama may at least want to stabilize them. With the Middle East a mess, he can’t afford to hand to his successor three relationships in crisis.

Mr. Obama’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia – his fourth since taking office (he’s visited Israel and Egypt only once) reflects the continued importance of the Kingdom in U.S. foreign policy, however strained the relationship has become. Declining dependence on Arab hydrocarbons, differences over Iran and Syria, and the famously missing 28 pages in the 2002 Congressional report that might contain damning information on official Saudi knowledge or role in 9/11 have injected tension into the relationship. Still, the president’s visit wasn’t a disaster and led to new areas of cooperation between the U.S. and the Gulf Cooperation Council. Mr. Obama is likely to hand over to his successor a U.S.-Saudi relationship that, while still fraught with significant divides, is functional and working to the advantage of both.

Curt Schilling the Science Guy From climate change to restrooms, Democrats are increasingly the anti-science party. By William McGurn

Let us stipulate that ESPN, as a private institution, was entirely within its rights to have sacked Curt Schilling for his combative Facebook post on the continuing national saga that is North Carolina restrooms. Let’s stipulate too that the way the former Red Sox pitcher advanced his case—sharing a meme featuring a grotesque fat man in a blonde wig pretending to be a woman—was not the line of argument that, say, William F. Buckley would have chosen.
But let us also note the irony. Mr. Schilling’s main contention—“a man is a man no matter what they call themselves”—is supported by DNA and those pesky X and Y chromosomes. In short, in this fight between science and authority, Mr. Schilling is in the amusing position of being the Galileo, with ESPN filling in for the Holy Office.

Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist in chief for Johns Hopkins Hospital, puts it this way: “Curt Schilling is of course correct with the science in saying that claiming to be a woman when you have the chromosomal and anatomical structures of a man does not make you such. You’re still a man no matter what you think or how you dress.”

It’s an interesting detail that has gone largely unaddressed since Mr. Schilling delivered his knuckleball. Nor is it hard to see why. For it contradicts the dominant narrative in which Democrats take their positions from a clear-eyed look at the science while Republicans are blinded by their religious, social and economic orthodoxies.

This was the trope Barack Obama invoked in his maiden inaugural address, when he promised to “restore science to its rightful place.” Well, the American people have now had almost eight years of it. Turns out that restoring-science-to-its-rightful-place comes with its own set of dogmas and orthodoxies. CONTINUE AT SITE

Palestinians: Insulting Religious Minorities by Khaled Abu Toameh

The Samaritan incident reveals as well how the Palestinian Authority (PA) treats religious minorities in the Palestinian territories. The tiny community of Samaritans in the West Bank now faces a tough choice: continue living with the Palestinian Authority and accept its intimidation, or relocate to a safer locale.

In yet another blow to Palestinian Christians, the PA recently rejected demands to consider Easter an official holiday.

The PA has had a long-standing policy of combating “normalization” with Israelis, and this is but one unpleasant example. Yet this campaign is directed not only against Jewish settlers, but also against Jews who live inside Israel proper.

Showing their true colors, the activists do not hesitate to attack even Jews who are supportive of the Palestinians. Thugs assaulted people indiscriminately, including film crews, European activists and even Palestinian participants.

What happens if you arrive at a religious ceremony and discover that your Jewish neighbors are also on the guest list?

Well, if you are a representative of the Palestinian Authority (PA), you get up and leave. No matter if such a move insults your hosts: the main thing is not to sit with Jews, especially if they are from the settlements.

This embarrassing incident took place last week near the Palestinian city of Nablus, where members of the tiny Samaritan community gathered to celebrate their own Passover. The Samaritans are an ethnoreligious group in the Levant, originating from the Israelites of the ancient Near East.