Muslim Brotherhood Took Bribes From US Embassy

Yo Hillary, smart diplomacy means you don't get caught paying bribes but it looks as if that has happened. Egypt’s Attorney General Hisham Barakat is investigating allegations that members of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood were bribed by the American embassy. From the Egyptian newspaper Almesryoon:

“A judicial source stated that over the past few days, a number of complaints have been filed with the Attorney General Hisham Barakat. These complaints accuse the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and leaders of the centrist party of receiving gifts from the American embassy in Cairo. The sponsors of these complaints stated that among these leaders are Mohamed Badie, General Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Khairat Al-Shater, deputy leader and businessman, Mohamed Beltagy leading the group, Essam el-Erian, deputy head of the Freedom and Justice Party of, and Abu Ela Mady, head of the Wasat Party, Essam Sultan, deputy head of the Wasat Party.”

The article goes on to read;

“A judicial source stated that the Attorney General Hisham Barakat received a number of filed complaints over the past few days. These complaints accuse leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and leaders of the centrist party of receiving bribes thinly disguised as ‘gifts’, paid through the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.”

In defense of the Muslim Brotherhood one can argue that they didn't sell out cheaply. Bribes being paid to the Morsi government members are in annual payments of between $750,000 and $850,000 in U.S. dollars each which is far better than Huma Weiner earned from her two jobs at State ($135,000) and Teneo ($355,000).

Duck Dynasty and Me

Anticipation determines our perception. Sometimes something is built up so much that it can never live up to expectations. I finally saw "Gone With The Wind" when I was in high school after hearing over and over and over that it was the greatest movie ever. To say I was disappointed would understate things.

"Catcher in The Rye" was not hyped quite as much but when I finally read it, I shrugged. Not bad. So it has been with a lot of books I have read. My favorite movies are mostly those that I discovered on my own. My top ten movie list has a few blockbusters on it but most of the listings are obscure. Something to be said for connecting the dots.

So I was ready to be disappointed with "Duck Dynasty." It just could not live up to the hype. Turns out, this is one of those exceptions to the rule. I have only seen about a half dozen or so episodes but they are laugh out loud funny. They seem to have struck the right chord for reality television. Yes, they are pulling our legs but not with a vice grip that dislocates our hips and rips our tendons. There is a certain plausibility usually absent from reality shows.

Whereas, I do not feel a closeness to or familiarity with pawn shop clerks or tattoo artists or Jersey housewives, I feel like I grew up with the Duck guys. Sometimes we encounter a character who reminds us of someone we know personally. Each "Duck Dynasty" guy reminds me of a dozen people I have known. Yet, their characters are unique.

My absolute favorite episode so far is where the uncle (is his name Si?) picks out a poodle to use a s a bird dog. Spoiler alert: The poodle turns out to be a top notch retriever.

I have beheld the wondrous and the spectacular as I watched the magic box. But a poodle utilized as a bird dog--that just might move to the top of the list. "Duck Dynasty" does not disappoint.

Bikers; We'll see your million and raise you a million

 Somewhat related to the previous post, a spontaneous group born on FaceBook, Two Million Bikers to DC will attempt to get 2 million bikers to ride into DC on 9/11 to counter the Million Muslim March. The bikers are riding “To remember those who were killed on 911 and honor our armed forces who fought those who precipitated this attack,” the Facebook page said. I doubt if either group can hit their desired numbers but it will be interesting if the bikers outnumber the Muslims. I'm sure Obama will want to greet them.

Overpasses For Obama’s Impeachment Picks Up Steam

The Overpasses For Obama’s Impeachment movement is picking up steam. I seriously doubt if this will result in Obama's impeachment but these good people are making politics fun again. Evidently it's a pick an overpass and we'll meet you there type of organization. I can find very little information on them and I doubt if there is any formal membership. I can find only two names associated with the organization, Dallas Thurmon and Ann Whitten. OFOI does now have a web site which features a forum that allows a state by state search for demonstration. If I can find one close to home I may just go.

Why Isn't Oberlin College the Laughing Stock of the Country?

Apparently you can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time but you can fool all of the Oberlin College student body all of the time. We now know that OC's bout with racism was all a hoax. What is not known is how long the college's administration and Board of Trustees knew it was a hoax and let it continue one assumes enjoying the pangs of bigotry. What is striking and hysterically amusing is the credulity displayed by the student body and faculty. The hoax was perpetrated by two students, Dylan Bleier, a member of Obama’s Organizing for Action group and Matthew Alden. Bleier told police the pair posted inflammatory signs and a Nazi flag around campus to “joke” and “troll” their peers. Juvenile yes, mean spirited no. Probably the hoax would not have reached its climax if it were not for this air head  eye witness of the Klan activity. She should be given a special award for her display of paranoia. Would you listen to this ditz. .."Saw someone in what appeared to be KKK paraphernalia... something that's real". The Klansman was later identified as a coed wrapped in a blanket but no doubt this lady really put the hoax over the top.

Was Sasquatch there too? That's right he had an Aryan Brotherhood meeting that evening it it would right on his way. This isn't fear. It's phobia. This fear of Nazis and Klansmen is akin to New Yorkers' fear of rodents and about every other animal except cats and dogs.
Personally I'm inclined to cut the hoaxers some slack. When I was in high school three friends burnt a cross on a playground. I didn't find out about it for maybe a year afterwards and they couldn't tell the story with a straight face. It seemed like such a boyish thing to do, to upset the adults in the community who took everything including themselves quite seriously.
I had another friend, probably in his mid thirties at the time, who cut some huge feet out of plywood and fitted them with straps so he could attach them to his feet. After dark he would float down river to the edge of town then don his plywood feet and track through the mud and sand and then wade out to his boat and be gone. Soon everyone in Western Kentucky knew Sasquatch was alive and well and living in Spotsville, Kentucky.
Why would anyone of ripe years believe the Ku Klux Klan would want to organize on a liberal college campus? Doesn't everyone know by now that the American Nazi Party died with the death of George Lincoln Rockwell in 1967? Of course if he were to be reincarnated he would choose Oberlin College as his home. None of this makes sense and only a person with a penchant for the nonsensical would fall for such an inane hoax. I think the whole campus enjoyed the hoax. It may not have been racism but it was the next best thing.

Google, Yahoo paid to comply with NSA's PRISM

So Yahoo and Google have been compensated millions of dollars for their trouble to comply with NSA's PRISM data collection? That is not what these two bastions of internet freedom have said in the past. Funny things happen when money changes hands. That about closes the circle. Google has connections with both NSA and the Obama campaign. Nothing to worry about. Actually Google had no connection the Obama campaign but Google employees just ended up mining data for Obama for America.

“To keep our digital teams agile, we needed to make consistent and comprehensive reporting available to everyone on a near real-time basis,” says Nate Lubin, Director of Digital Marketing for Obama for America. “Throughout the campaign, Google Analytics helped us democratize our web data, and enabled all of our teams to make key decisions quickly.”

True, Google Analytics could have been used by the Romney campaign had it known how to utilize it but Google employees chose sides in the 2012 election and gave the Obama team a real technical boost. There is a disturbing link between Silicon Valley and NSA and Silicon Valley and the Obama campaign/administration. Is it far fetched to reason that at some point this relationship will result in the corruption NSA for the political ends of the Democrat Party? No, not unless you would accept the absurd premise that the IRS could be corrupted into the service of Obama and the Democrats.


On the subject of NSA, the snoop agency has dialed back its assertion that individuals in the agency have never abused their power to individuals in the agency seldom abuse their power. So much for Senator Diane Feinstein's “has never identified an instance in which the NSA has intentionally abused its authority to conduct surveillance for inappropriate purposes.” and Congressman Mike Roger's that there were “zero privacy violations” in the agency’s collection of phone records of Americans.
Bloomberg News reports that agents do go off the reservation;

The incidents, chronicled in a new report by the NSA’s inspector general, provide more evidence that U.S. agencies sometimes have violated legal and administrative restrictions on domestic spying, and may add to the pressure to bolster laws that govern intelligence activities.
The inspector general documented an average of one case per year over 10 years of intentionally inappropriate actions by people with access to the NSA’s vast electronic surveillance systems, according to an official familiar with the findings. The incidents were minor, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss classified intelligence.

So far everything Edward Snowden has said has been proven true and everything NSA, Obama, and congressional intelligence committee members have said have been proven to be half true at best.

Al Gore, Perpetual Bore, Greatest Writer of Folklore

Even the Washington Post thinks Al Gore is full of it!

If you believe former Vice President Al Gore, global warming is morphing science fiction into reality. In his exclusive interview with the Post’s Ezra Klein published Wednesday, Gore says (bold text indicates my added emphasis):
The extreme events are more extreme. The hurricane scale used to be 1-5 and now they’re adding a 6. The fingerprint of man-made global warming is all over these storms and extreme weather events.
But Gore’s statement about this new breed of hurricanes is patently false. There’s no new hurricane category in the works.
Just to be sure, I contacted Chris Vaccaro, director of the National Weather Service’s office of public affairs, and asked him whether the National Hurricane Center is about to unveil the doomsday Category 6. In less than 10 minutes, he fired back this response:
No, we’re not pursuing any such change. I’m also not sure who VP Gore means by “they.” I’d also point out that the top rating, Category 5, has no ceiling: it includes hurricanes with top sustained winds of 157mph and higher
Generally, Gore’s characterization of the links between global warming and hurricane intensity is a bit fast and loose.
Whereas Gore tells Klein hurricanes are “stronger now” due to manmade warming, the freshly leaked United Nations climate assessment is much more equivocal. Although the assessment says hurricane activity has become more intense in the Atlantic since 1970, there is “low confidence” of a human contribution.

Hurricane Carol hit the New England on August 31,1954. It was followed by Hurricane Edna ten days later. Both were category 3 hurricanes Carol produced 68 deaths and Edna contributed another 20. Just for Al Gore's information Hurricane Edna remains the costliest hurricane for the state of Maine. Likewise Hurricane Sandy was a category 3 storm not a category 6 super storm as Gore and his fellow travelers would have you believe.

Cops fire 15 shots at unarmed man in his own drive way

Yes, of course only police officers should be allowed to carry firearms. Why? because only they can be relied on to use them properly. Yes, there are exceptions like the pair of imbecile peace officer in Pensacola, Florida who shot 15 times at an unarmed man in his own drive way. He was struck twice which may say more about the competence of the officers than the victim's luck.
The deputies involved in the shooting have been placed on paid administrative leave pending an internal investigation that will determine whether any charges will be filed against them but Sheriff David Morgan maintains they acted properly. So why were they placed on paid leave and why have an internal investigation if the officers acted properly or is the Sheriff just trying to prejudice the case?

Eleanor Holmes Norton solicits a bribe via voicemail

I would call this soliciting a bribe but to a corruptocrat like Washington Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton it just fund raising.

The End of Family Medical Plans?

From USA Today;

Partly blaming the health law, United Parcel Service is set to remove thousands of spouses from its medical plan because they are eligible for coverage elsewhere.
Many analysts downplay the Affordable Care Act's effect on companies such as UPS, noting that the move is part of a long-term trend of shrinking corporate medical benefits. But the shipping giant repeatedly cites the act to explain the decision, adding fuel to the debate over whether it erodes traditional employer coverage.

The health law requires large employers to cover employees and dependent children but not spouses or domestic partners. So now mom gets her own healthcare plan and may have to find a new doctor and domestic partners are s.o.l. When Obamacare was being debated it was argued that the cost of it to large employers would be negligible. Hmm. In an economy where top line growth is also negligible large companies can only remain viable by cutting costs. Women of child bearing age are a considerable cost driver and even more so under Obamacare. We could be looking at the beginning of the end of family medical plans.

That Overpasses for Obama's Impeachment thing is really catching on

They don't look like Tea Party types. The group Overpasses For Obama’s Impeachment is the impetus behind the fad of demonstrating for Obama's impeachment on overpasses. You can view more pictures here.

More Evidence Smart Diplomacy is Working

There Hasn't Been A Single Abuse! Honest

We were told that here had not been as single abuse in the NSA's collection of user metadata right up until massive abuse was revealed and then that was construed as error. It may be we are on the verge of seeing deliberate abuse of NSA's entire program. That abuse would not be in the collection and mining data but rather an overt legal action taken against the operator of Lavabit, the secure email company that shut down rather than comply with a FISA court order. The feds seem to be saying that the act of shutting down Lavabit was a violation of the court order.

... a source familiar with the matter told NBC News that James Trump, a senior litigation counsel in the U.S. attorney’s office in Alexandria, Va., sent an email to Levison's lawyer last Thursday – the day Lavabit was shuttered -- stating that Levison may have "violated the court order," a statement that was interpreted as a possible threat to charge Levison with contempt of court.
"I could be arrested for this action," Ladar Levison told NBC News about his decision to shut down his company, Lavabit LLC, in protest over a secret court order he had received from a federal court that is overseeing the investigation into Snowden.

Levison has started a legal defense fund and raised more than $90,000 in the first few days. His chief political supporter is former Congressman Ron Paul who says Levison's case "should be in the interests of everybody who cares about liberty."