The Front Page Cover
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened"
Featuring:
Epic fail: The year in verse
Andrew Silow-Carroll
"Know who you are standing with"
"Show me your friends and I'll show you your future"
~~~lll~~~
Another hire for Hilly - Politico: “The high-dollar super PAC that plans to support a Hilly Clinton presidential candidacy is bringing on a new finance director to aid it with the daunting task of raising hundreds of millions of dollars for 2016. Justin Brennan, who worked on President Barack nObama’s 2012 campaign and also raised money for Clinton in 2008, is expected to join Priorities USA as its finance director in the coming weeks, four people familiar with the hire said.” -Fox News
SCRABBLE RABBLE
Australian Broadcasting reports that the country’s Scrabble Players Association is set to reverse the suspension of Mohammed Hegazi, who was banned from playing the board game competitively for one year. The allegations included bullying, intimidation and cheating. A court overturned the ban and ordered the group to print a retraction on Hegazi’s behalf. However the cheating allegations remained and Hegazi was ordered to pay the association’s court costs of just over $3,000. Hegazi fought the deal, though ultimately agreed to the original terms, saying “I'm a bit disappointed because the definition is not legally clear.” -Fox News
Australian Broadcasting reports that the country’s Scrabble Players Association is set to reverse the suspension of Mohammed Hegazi, who was banned from playing the board game competitively for one year. The allegations included bullying, intimidation and cheating. A court overturned the ban and ordered the group to print a retraction on Hegazi’s behalf. However the cheating allegations remained and Hegazi was ordered to pay the association’s court costs of just over $3,000. Hegazi fought the deal, though ultimately agreed to the original terms, saying “I'm a bit disappointed because the definition is not legally clear.” -Fox News
AND NOW, A WORD FROM CHARLES…
“Republicans are going to have a chance to show how retroactively for the last six years everything has stopped in the Senate - Democrats stopped it, dinky Harry Reid stopped it and they effectively acted as a shield to make [President nObama] look as if he wasn't the one stopping stuff. Well, now he’s going to be exposed because he’s going to have to exercise the veto.” – Charles Krauthammer on “Special Report with Bret Baier” Watch here. -Fox News
“Republicans are going to have a chance to show how retroactively for the last six years everything has stopped in the Senate - Democrats stopped it, dinky Harry Reid stopped it and they effectively acted as a shield to make [President nObama] look as if he wasn't the one stopping stuff. Well, now he’s going to be exposed because he’s going to have to exercise the veto.” – Charles Krauthammer on “Special Report with Bret Baier” Watch here. -Fox News
WRECKAGE IN WAKE OF BUNGLED HOUSE COUP
WashEx: “Republican leaders on Tuesday infuriated conservatives by meting out punishment to a group of far-right GOP lawmakers who tried to oust House Speaker backstabber John Boehner. Hours after 24 Republicans voted against backstabber Boehner, GOP leaders removed two members from a key committee. By late Tuesday, Reps. Daniel Webster and Richard Nugent, both of Florida, were stripped from the powerful House Rules Committee, which governs the legislative process, including amendments and changes to bills before they reach the House floor for debate. Webster was one of three candidates who announced they were running against backstabber Boehner…But GOP lawmakers told the Examiner that others could feel repercussions, including Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., who could lose his chairmanship of a Financial Services subcommittee.” -Fox News
WashEx: “Republican leaders on Tuesday infuriated conservatives by meting out punishment to a group of far-right GOP lawmakers who tried to oust House Speaker backstabber John Boehner. Hours after 24 Republicans voted against backstabber Boehner, GOP leaders removed two members from a key committee. By late Tuesday, Reps. Daniel Webster and Richard Nugent, both of Florida, were stripped from the powerful House Rules Committee, which governs the legislative process, including amendments and changes to bills before they reach the House floor for debate. Webster was one of three candidates who announced they were running against backstabber Boehner…But GOP lawmakers told the Examiner that others could feel repercussions, including Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., who could lose his chairmanship of a Financial Services subcommittee.” -Fox News
Mulvaney blasts bunglers - Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., took to Facebook to vent his frustrations with the bungled coup: “…the Floor of the House is the wrong place to have this battle. The hard truth is that we had an election for Speaker in November – just among Republicans. THAT was the time to fight. But not a single person ran against backstabber Boehner. Not one. If they had, we could’ve had a secret ballot to find out what the true level of opposition to backstabber John Boehner was. In fact, we could’ve done that as late as Monday night, on a vote of ‘no confidence’ in the Speaker. But that didn’t happen…and at least one of the supposed challengers to backstabber Boehner today didn’t even go to the meeting last night. That told me a lot.” -Fox News
1.
34 Taliban shadow administrators reported killed or captured
(LWJ Staff) - Afghan and Coalition forces reportedly killed or captured at least 34 Taliban shadow administrators in 2014, according to local and international media reports...Among those killed were seven Taliban shadow governors, as well as numerous shadow district administrators -- including shadow police, intelligence, and military commanders. At least one other Taliban shadow governor surrendered to Afghan authorities, in Jawzjan province in late December 2014 along with approximately 200 of his subordinates. Overall, Taliban shadow administrators were reportedly killed in 17 out of Afghanistan's 34 provinces [see first graph below]. The highest number of incidents occurred in Badakhshan and Kunar provinces, with both provinces recording a total of five Taliban shadow administrators killed in each, including their respective shadow governors. In the case of Badakhshan, two Taliban shadow governors were killed within a five-month period. http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2015/01/afghan_and_coalition_2.php
2.
High Noon on the Gulf Coast: Canada, Saudi oil set for showdown
(Catherine Ngai) - As a test of wills between OPEC nations and U.S. shale drillers fuels a global oil market slump, a brewing battle between Canadian and Saudi Arabia heavy crudes for America's Gulf Coast refinery market threatens to drive prices even lower...While the stand-off between the oil cartel and U.S. producers of light, sweet shale oil has captured the limelight in recent months, the clash over heavier grades - playing out in the shadowy, opaque physical market - may put even more pressure on global prices that have halved since mid-2014. Two factors will come into play over the next few weeks: From the North, new oil pipelines will pump record volumes of Canadian crude to the southern refineries, many better equipped to process heavy crudes than lighter shale oil. http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/06/us-markets-oil-saudi-osp-analysis-idUSKBN0KF10X20150106?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews
3.
U.S. Spent $65 Mil on Afghan Women with No Result
(Judicial Watch) -In the latest of many scandals involving U.S. aid for Afghan social issues, tens of millions of American taxpayer dollars have been wasted on programs to supposedly assist women in the Islamic country escape repression yet we have no idea if it’s made a difference because there’s no accountability or follow up...During a two-year period from 2011 to 2013 the U.S. blew $64.8 million on 652 projects, programs and initiatives to support Afghan women though details of how the money was spent and the effectiveness of the costly experiments aren’t available, according to a federal audit. The cash flowed through three agencies—the departments of Defense and State and the famously corrupt U.S. Agency for international Development (USAID)—and it marked the latest of many allocations for the same cause. In fact, the audit, conducted by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), discloses that the agencies spent an “additional $850.5 million on 17 projects, but couldn’t identify the specific amount of funds within the projects that directly supported Afghan women.” http://libertynewsnow.com/u-s-spent-65-mil-afghan-women-no-result/article630?utm_source=Elist&utm_medium=email&utm_content=subscriber_id:35652032&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter%20-%2001/06/2015
4.
Crude Oil Prices: The Politics, Implications, and Backlash
(Bob Adelmann) - With the price of crude dropping significantly below $50 a barrel, prognosticators have come out of the woodwork predicting drops to $40, $30, $20 a barrel, and even lower before it rebounds...Jon Ogg, writing at 247Wall St.com, noted that the precipitous drop in crude oil prices “has serious implications for consumers and companies alike,” and not all of them are unblemished blessings. On the surface the winners are consumers, who are enjoying the equivalent of a $750 annual tax cut thanks to the drop in gas prices at the pump. The ripple effect bodes well, too, for airlines, over-the-road truckers, anyone using oil to haul freight or oil or natural gas to heat their homes, oil or natural-gas fired power plants, restaurants, retailers — just about every conceivable consumer product will be impacted favorably thanks to lower energy costs. http://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/energy/item/19852-crude-oil-prices-the-politics-implications-and-backlash?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_campaign=9f507ea408-The_Editors_Top_Picks_3_12_143_12_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8ca494f2d2-9f507ea408-289778381
5.
With Democrats Out, Audit of Federal Reserve Gains Momentum
(Alex Newman) - Despite frantic opposition by the privately owned Federal Reserve and Democrat leadership in Congress, newly empowered Republican lawmakers, now in the majority in the Senate as well, plan to hold a vote on “Audit the Fed” legislation to scrutinize the secrecy-obsessed central bank...Federal Reserve bosses are already lashing out and lobbying lawmakers “forcefully” to reject efforts at congressional oversight and transparency. Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and a coalition of his colleagues, though, are determined to see the bill become law this year, and congressional leadership has pledged to allow a vote. Supporters of the audit point to the central bank’s wild schemes amid the economic crisis to create trillions of dollars out of thin air and bail out mega-banks, cronies, foreign corporations, and even banks owned by hostile foreign powers. Critics of the Federal Reserve’s cloak of secrecy also cite its blatant and well-documented manipulation of markets, its distortion of interest rates leading to widespread malinvestment, its outlandish expansion of the currency supply, the steady erosion of the value of the U.S. dollar, the enabling of exploding government deficits, and much more. http://www.thenewamerican.com/economy/item/19853-with-democrats-out-audit-of-federal-reserve-gains-momentum?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_campaign=9f507ea408-The_Editors_Top_Picks_3_12_143_12_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8ca494f2d2-9f507ea408-289778381
6.
State Depart wishes ‘RIP’ to living captives of jihad terrorists
(Robert Spencer) - This epitomizes how out of touch and frankly stupid the State Department’s Think Again, Turn Away program really is. State Department analysts continue to misdiagnose the problem of the global jihad and apply solutions that only make it worse...and since the mainstream media is just as clueless and compromised, these failed analysts are never called to account for their failed policies. The year began on a rough note for the U.S. State Department’s Think Again, Turn Away anti-terror program. On January 1, the State Department used the program’s official Twitter account to tweet a photo collage accompanied by the message, “Entering 2015, taking time to honor some of terror’s many victims of 2014 and their families – RIP.” However, none of the individuals appearing in the photos are believed to be dead, but rather held captive by terrorists. http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/01/state-department-wishes-rip-to-living-captives-of-jihad-terrorists?utm_source=Jihad+Watch+Daily+Digest&utm_campaign=03531d7be1-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ffcbf57bbb-03531d7be1-123451509
7.
nObama Cuba Initiative Fears of Gitmo Naval Base Giveaway
(Bill Gertz) - President nObama’s drive to normalize ties with communist Cuba is raising new concerns among security officials and experts that the administration will give up the strategic naval base at Guantanamo Bay in deal with Havana...White House, Pentagon, and State Department officials offered assurances that the nObama administration currently does not plan to negotiate the return of the base, leased by the United States since 1903. “I’ve not been involved in any talks on normalization in the past … but it will not be on our agenda for upcoming talks,” Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson told the Washington Free Beacon, referring to discussions with the Cubans on the future of what the Pentagon calls Naval Station Guantanamo Bay. http://freebeacon.com/national-security/obama-cuba-initiative-prompts-new-fears-of-gitmo-naval-base-giveaway/
8.
Youth Misery Index: nObama is killing young America’s future
(Sam Rolley) - President Barack nObama was able to sail into the Oval Office twice thanks largely to his campaign efforts to woe young, idealistic voters into believing that “hope,” “change” and...of course, massive student loan forgiveness and basically free insurance were on the horizon. Now, young people are paying for having been fooled twice as Young America’s Foundation reports that its Youth Misery Index numbers for 2014 reached a record high. The YMI is calculated by compiling information on youth unemployment, average graduating student debt (in thousands), and national debt per capita (in thousands). For 2014, the foundation reports that the YMI hit 106.5, up from 98.6 in 2013. http://personalliberty.com/youth-misery-index-obama-killing-young-americas-future/
9.
Dump backstabber Boehner movement? Just getting started
(Joseph Farah) - In the end, backstabber John Boehner even needed help from Democrats to beat off a challenge by House Republicans to his speakership. Had it not been for some 27 members, mostly Democrats, not showing up for a floor vote, he might have been denied re-election...That’s fitting, since backstabber Boehner has been a facilitator of Democrat policies since he first got the job in 2011. When House Republicans alone under his leadership had opportunity after opportunity to deny Barack nObama the borrowed money he needed to implement his radical agenda, backstabber Boehner ensured, year after year, that nObama got what he needed. http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/dump-boehner-movement-just-getting-started/
10.
nObama's fake Social Security No. back with a vengeance
(Diana West) - From the “A” section of the New York Times, Page 15, in less than 100 words, the psychosis of denial as it is hard-wired into American journalism...Fat chance. For starters, there’s that unsolved mystery of why there is a piece of phony electronic artwork on the White House website purporting to be an image of a 1961 government document attesting to the details of Barack Obama’s birth. That this is evidence of what is likely the biggest case of identity fraud in history isn’t news to American media investigating more pressing matters (e.g., the presidential golf game). Nor, it seems, is other evidence of fraud or forgery from different investigations and numerous court proceedings. But it’s not just media (exception: WND.com) that turn their collective blind eye. Relevant federal, state and local authorities (exception: Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio) have consistently ignored, derided or buried all such evidence rather than carry out their legal responsibilities. And guess who is paying for his legal fees, we are. We should demand the true facts. http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/obamas-identity-fraud-and-mickey-mouse-media/
Epic fail: The year in verse
Andrew Silow-Carroll
(jewishworldreview.com) Zei Gezunt, Two thousand fourteen! Let's recap the things we have seen, From media bias to unfair attacks To Donald Sterling's rants about blacks, Or a Nobel Prize for chemistry but not between Barack and Bibi).
Operation Protective Edge Managed to insert a wedge between the world and Israel, which was blamed for overkill — A double standard that resents
when Hebrews act in self-defense.
The war ignited acts of rage That often seemed to take a page from other times in history, like Nineteen Hundred Thirty-Three except this time the streets were lined with so-called friends of Palestine.
Perhaps the war would not have mattered had not the hope of peace been tattered by bottlenecks and a lack of trust that no one seemed prepared to bust. Not Bibi, Abbas, nor Hanoi Kerry were able to get both sides back to the table.
Iran's rush, once uncontrolled, to build a nuke was put on hold by sanctions that delivered pain from Ashkezar to Zehadan. But as an end to talks came near, Tehran replied, "Sometime next year."
U.S. Jews at least could say they kept a nemesis at bay. Our top leaders found a way to deny the Street called J (Despite their claims to probity)
Membership in the C of P.
Our focus on Hamas and ISIS was diverted by a crisis in conversion set off by a rabbi with a thing for spying on the women in his shul —talk about your dirty pool!
From soda water to chickpea spread, a movement reared its ugly head to boycott all things white and blue and isolate its people, too. We pushed back with a full-court press to divest mankind of BDS.
We also took time to recall those whose murders cast a pall, from the Kansas JCC to Israel's kidnapped boys, all three, and Steven Sotloff, a writer who died for telling what was true.
And that is all the news that fits before we have to call it quits. We know that it's not Rosh Hashana, but you'll forgive us if we wanna wish you a year that's sweet and serene and see you again in 2015!
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0115/silow_carrol_epic_fail.php3
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