RUTHFULLY YOURS

Readers of the New York Times magazine on April 25, 2014 might have been surprised at a story by Eric Konigsberg on the 1976 murder of Anna Aquash. The article of nearly 5,500 words came headlined “Who Killed Anna Mae?” and the answer solves the question why it took nearly forty years for such a piece to appear.

Konigsberg, a former reporter for the New York Times and author of Blood Relation, explains that a South Dakota rancher found the badly decomposed body of a woman who had been shot at close range through the back of the head. The victim was Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, a key player in the American Indian Movement, a “radical” group of Native American militants founded in 1968, the same year as the Black Panthers, “the movement’s model.”

Konigsberg is right about that but after all this time many readers may be as unfamiliar with these groups as they are with Anna Aquash. The Black Panthers and AIM both saw America as intrinsically oppressive and racist, with racism part and parcel of government, the military and law enforcement. Both movements demonized a “white” American governing establishment and saw revolutionary violence and separatism as the only path to change.

“These white people think this country belongs to them,” Anna Aquash once wrote. She was a Mikmaq Indian from Canada who came south to join with AIM and fight the “raggedy-ass pilgrims” who took the land from the Indians back in the day. In 1973 at Wounded Knee, where the US Cavalry killed 200 Indians in 1890, AIM took up arms in a 10-week standoff with the National Guard, the U.S. Marshals Service and the FBI. There at Wounded Knee Anna Aquash met Dennis Banks, along with Russell Means AIM’s most high-profile leader.

Aquash was having an affair with Banks when he was still involved in a common-law marriage with Darlene “Kamook” Nichols. That did not sit well with some movement women of different tribal affiliations, and they saw the affair as a threat to AIM’s stability. At the same time, Konigsberg notes AIM had become “a vortex of paranoia” with factions charging that some members were “pigs” and collaborators.

Obama administration puts Israeli petty vandals on par with Hamas, Hezbollah and the Islamic Jihad.
The U.S. State Department has just released its 2013 report on terrorism around the globe, including a whole section devoted to “Israel, West Bank, and Gaza” as part of a broader chapter on the Middle East and North Africa. Coming on the heels of Secretary of State John Kerry’s despicable claim that Israel could turn into an apartheid state, his State Department’s report treated random criminal acts, mostly vandalism, by some Jewish settlers as being on the same level as rocket launchings, suicide bombing and other acts of real terrorism by Hamas, Hezbollah and other jihadist groups. For the Obama administration, Jewish settler attacks that damage Palestinian property are morally equivalent with jihadist attacks aimed at killing Jews and Christians.

Israel’s minister of communications and home front defense, Gilad Erdan, got it right when he said that the State Department report was making “a gross, incorrect generalization” in essentially equating acts of vandalism with murder. “We are not talking about acts of murder; this is graffiti. There is a difference between murder and destruction of property,” he said.

The small minority of Jewish settlers who drew the ire of the State Department have participated in what has become known as “price tag” attacks. The State Department report defined “price tag” attacks as “property crimes and violent acts by extremist Jewish individuals and groups in retaliation for activity they deemed to be anti-settlement.” The report expressly linked the words “extremist” and “Jewish” to describe the group of settlers involved in the attacks, while the Obama administration considers it too politically incorrect to identify those committing acts of terror in the name of jihad as Muslims.

The report conceded that Israeli police had set up special units to pursue the price tag cases and that the government had given authorities broader powers to act against the perpetrators. However, relying on the United Nations and unnamed non-governmental organizations as its sources, the report charged that the attacks by settlers “were largely unprosecuted.”

The report identified two specific examples of such attacks – both aimed at Christians, not Muslims. They involved graffiti on gravestones in a Christian Orthodox cemetery and the firebombing of a monastery. The report then cited the pro-Palestinian United Nations Office of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs as the source for claiming that there were “399 attacks by extremist Israeli settlers that resulted in Palestinian injuries or property damage.” The report added that “Violent extremists, including Israeli settlers, vandalized five mosques and three churches in Jerusalem and the West Bank, according to data compiled by the UN.” There was no analysis of the data compiled by the UN or explanation of where the data came from.

With Christians being murdered and persecuted by Arabs throughout the Middle East and North Africa, the chapter of the State Department report dealing with that violence-prone part of the world chose to emphasize alleged Jewish settler price tag attacks against Christian, as well as Muslim, targets. The only other anti-Christian incident highlighted by the report involved assaults on Christian Coptic Churches in Benghazi, Libya and damage to a major Sufi shrine. The report actually went out of its way to praise Jordan for hosting conferences “highlighting challenges facing Arab Christians and the importance of religious tolerance.”

Shocking White House emails released to the public Tuesday by government watchdog group Judicial Watch shed new light on the Obama administration’s brazen dishonesty with the public about the deadly Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. Statements from top Obama adviser Ben Rhodes confirm what critics have long alleged: that the Obama administration’s to priority in the wake of the attack was not to seek justice for the fallen or confront the threat to our nation, but to lie to the public about the nature of the attack in order to improve President Obama’s image in an election year.

It is the tragedy of our times that that the US government advocated the video excuse as a justification for the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi — or even the attack on the US embassy in Cairo on 9/11/12. It should be common knowledge to Western governments by now that Islamic leadership habitually justifies Islamic terrorism as a reaction to some kind of injustice or offense perpetrated against Muslims. This happens all the time in the commission of terrorist attacks or after they have been perpetrated. But instead of exposing the Islamic lie as usual, America facilitated the terrorists’ excuses. This is not a bad deal for jihadists who are only too happy to see nations victimized by terror defend jihad on behalf of Muslims.

As a matter of fact, Muslims over many centuries have trained Coptic Christians and other Middle East oppressed minorities to blame themselves for Islamic jihad and to ignore the obvious Islamic jihad violence.

Since jihad against other nations is a violation of international law, Muslims have discovered that they have no choice but to lie about their motivation and religious obligation to engage in jihad. It is not the author of this article who is saying this about Muslim culture, but the Islamic law books themselves; they clearly state that Muslims are obliged to lie if it is for the benefit of Islam.

Lying to justify jihad comes to people of the Middle East naturally and without hesitation. Even I was guilty of protecting Islamic jihad at any cost when I used to be a young journalist in the Middle East years ago. Lying to protect Islam has thus developed into a virtue that comes naturally to Muslims after centuries of forced practice of the Sharia obligation — and most Muslims no longer realize the connection to Sharia nor realize that what they are saying is lying.

Muslims shamelessly justified 9/11 with incredible fabricated stories about oppression of Muslims, America’s foreign policy, the occupation, etc. But when such excuses were discredited, the Muslim leadership never gave up and, until today, continues the blame game. The versions range from how Arabs could not have accomplished such a sophisticated terror attack by airplanes (their favorite excuse) to how 9/11 was a Jewish conspiracy or that the American government itself is behind it, etc.

Paul Weston, the chairman of a new political party in the United Kingdom called Liberty GB, was making a speech Saturday outside the Winchester Guildhall in Hampshire when suddenly everything went wrong. Weston made the mistake of quoting a notorious Islamophobe, whereupon a woman in the audience, disgusted by this hate speech, contacted police, and Weston was duly arrested.

The Islamophobe in question was an obscure British politician of the distant past named Winston Churchill, who apparently had something to do with leading the British to victory over something called Nazi Germany in a conflict apparently known as “World War II.” However, the Nazis were vociferous critics of Zionism, and thus couldn’t have been all bad.

Even before he interfered with this righteous anti-Zionist activism, Churchill was an obvious hatemonger. In 1899 he wrote a book about an even more obscure war known as The River War, in which he spewed this Islamophobic hate:

He quoted the following excerpt about Islam from the book The River War by Winston Churchill:

How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property – either as a child, a wife, or a concubine – must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the faith: all know how to die but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith.

Mr. Rotunda is professor of jurisprudence at Chapman University in Orange, Calif.
The federal judge denied anonymity for those deciding the fate of accused al Qaeda ally Mustafa Kamel Mustafa.

Statues of Lady Justice adorning courthouses often show her holding scales and wearing a blindfold, meant to show that she dispenses justice objectively, without regard to the identity of the parties. However, something else is going on in the New York trial of Mustafa Kamel Mustafa (also known as Abu Hamza al-Masri ). It appears that the presiding federal judge, Katherine B. Forrest, is lifting off the blindfold and putting her thumb on the scales to favor the defendant.

Mustafa is an Egyptian-born imam who preached Islamic fundamentalism and support for Osama bin Laden at the Finsbury FIF.LN 0.00% Park Mosque in London beginning in the 1990s. A British court convicted him in 2006 for encouraging his followers to murder non-Muslims.

After Mustafa served his sentence in Britain, he was extradited in 2012 to the U.S. Since April, he has been on trial in New York on charges of conspiring to aid al Qaeda, by assisting in the taking of 16 hostages in Yemen in 1998 (four of whom were killed), advocating violent jihad in Afghanistan in 2001 and helping others attend an al Qaeda training camp there; and attempting to establish a terrorist training camp in late 1999 and early 2000 near Bly, Ore.

During opening arguments last month, the prosecutor told the jury that they would hear a recording of an interview in which Mustafa admitted that he gave a satellite phone to the kidnappers and said the kidnapping “was justified.” Mustafa’s defense lawyer said that his client “needed to be outrageous” in his speeches so he could “reach the entire spectrum of his community.”

Judge Forrest denied the prosecution’s application to keep jurors’ names secret for their protection. That causes a real problem for jurors. Who will want to be a named, easily identified juror in a case like this one, when he worries that other fundamentalists will wreak revenge on those who convict? The jurors may recall that various translators of Salmon Rushdie’s “Satanic Verses” were murdered over the years, apparently because they translated a book insulting to Islam. The best way for the jurors to protect themselves from revenge seekers is to vote not guilty.

Poorly vetted outsiders have done a disservice to the grass-roots tea party movement.

Republican primary season is in full swing, and lucky for many prominent conservative groups, politics doesn’t track batting averages. They’d be hard pressed to hit the Mendoza Line.

The Senate Conservatives Fund, FreedomWorks, the Madison Project, the Club for Growth and some tea party groups roared into this primary season determined to claim more GOP scalps. The roar has faded to a whimper. In every race involving a Senate Republican incumbent, the outsider candidate is lagging—if not holding a 20-point deficit.

The challengers aren’t bombing because of a lack of money or the “establishment,” but mainly because of some mind-boggling embarrassments. Dr. Milton Wolf, challenging Pat Roberts in Kansas, was discovered to have a penchant for posting gruesome X-ray images of dead people on Facebook. FB +2.29% (Whoops.) Kentucky’s Matt Bevin, challenging Mitch McConnell, has been forced to explain his changed positions on the 2008 government bank bailout, and more recently his presence at a cockfighting rally. (Uh-oh.)

Chris McDaniel, a lawyer and state legislator challenging Mississippi’s Thad Cochran, spent April dealing with past comments as a radio host, including derogatory references to Mexico and “Mamacita.” He’s also fielding awkward questions about his past plaintiffs’ work, including his request that a judge blow up Mississippi’s tort reform. (Ummm.)

These episodes have turned off the very people these outside groups claim to represent: the grass roots. Many Republican voters—even those desperate for a party shake-up—simply aren’t comfortable supporting a doctor who publicly mocks gunshot victims. They expect (and deserve) something more serious. That’s to their credit, and it’s tempting to therefore write off all this as proof the system works. Bad candidates lose. No harm done.

Michelle’s Motto: ‘Sometimes the best time is to do nothing at all’
By Jeannie DeAngelis

There is a part of me that thought I was beyond being shocked by anything the high-living Obamas do. Somewhere deep down I believed that these people had to have a modicum of conscience at their core. To be honest, I secretly felt that at some point the gross excess would become a bit embarrassing and the Obamas’ orgy of self-indulgence would ease up a bit.

Boy, was I wrong.

Much to my astonishment, after chronicling all the travels and the affluent way of life enjoyed by the spoilt first lady, it turns out that while her husband was in Asia screwing up and eating $300 endangered blue fin tuna sushi, Michelle actually indulged in a secret spa weekend in Middleburg, Virginia.

If the second leg of her Hawaii vacation is counted as a separate trip, there would be Hawaii I and Hawaii II, Aspen, Key Largo, and China, with the Middleburg spa weekend being Michelle’s sixth getaway since the first of the year.

After 27 days in Hawaii (17 with family and an additional 10 at Oprah’s Maui Estate), a star-studded birthday bash, a State Dinner in a heated tent on the South lawn dressed in a $12K Carolina Herrera gown, skiing in Aspen for President’s Day weekend, bunking in an $8,400 per-night Presidential Suite in China for eight days, and Key Largo lodging at the Ocean Reef Resort ($35 million net-worth members only), Michelle apparently felt entitled to sneak away for some well-earned downtime at Salamander Resort in Middleburg, Virginia.

The resort’s website reminds guests: “Sometimes the best time is to do nothing at all,” a motto both Michelle and her do nothing husband have apparently taken to heart.

A new report by Rick Folbaum of CBS’s Miami affiliate shines light upon a pressing issue all too often ignored: women flocking to the U.S. in order to take advantage of the country’s notoriously generous birthright-citizenship policy. If a woman is here on vacation, or just passing through, and gives birth to a child on American soil: Boom! Automatic citizen! It may be that neither the child nor his parents have any ties whatsoever to the United States, yet the child is now an American citizen just as if his parents had worked, paid taxes, and been part of American society for years.

These children not only reap the incalculable advantages of U.S. citizenship but, when they turn 21, can sponsor their families’ U.S. residency — hence the term “anchor babies.”

We might better call this “unconditional citizenship.” All that is required is that the child be on American soil at the time of his birth — it generally matters not who the parents are, how they arrived here, why and how long they have been here, or whether they will even remain. Never paid a single dollar of tax in the United States or worked a day here? We will confer citizenship on your child nevertheless.

To be clear, there are two instances referred to as “birthright citizenship,” one of which is fair and one of which is ridiculous.The first is citizenship obtained at birth because at least one of the parents was a citizen at the time; this is referred to as jus sanguinis (Latin for “right of blood”), and it makes sense. The other is jus soli (Latin for “right of the soil”), citizenship granted simply by virtue of the child’s being born on that territory. For good reason, most nations, including every European nation, shun the soil-based “right” and instead grant citizenship only on the jus sanguinis principle. Out of the world’s advanced countries, only two grant automatic citizenship to those born on their soil: Canada and the United States.

So how did this happen? It’s thanks to the 14th Amendment, which reads: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” (The language was originally intended to rightly confer citizenship on freed slaves and their children.) However, the champions of jus soli conveniently ignore consideration of the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” as a myriad of legal scholars have questioned whether this language does, in fact, support our jus soli approach. While a tourist or undocumented immigrant is technically subject to our laws while visiting (e.g., if he commits a crime, he will be arrested), is that the same type of “subject to American jurisdiction” the 14th Amendment’s authors had in mind? Is a tourist truly subjecting himself to American jurisdiction the same way an American is, simply by vacationing here? It is hard to argue that the amendment’s authors intended the automatic jus soli, if only because they could not and did not imagine the ramifications of their confusing wording as (a) illegal immigration was not a large concern in mid-19th-century America, during a time when the nation was looking to grow and particularly seeking additional hands to cultivate lands out West; and (b) American citizenship was not so coveted back then as to warrant a trip here specifically for one’s child to obtain it. At the time of its drafting, in fact, as explained by the Heritage Foundation’s Hans A. von Spakovsky, “subject to [American] jurisdiction” meant not owing allegiance to any other country. Tourists certainly do still owe allegiance to their home country.

When the Washington Post–ABC News poll at the end of March showed a very slim plurality supporting Obamacare, Democrats hoped the health-care law had finally turned the proverbial corner.

Then came the Post–ABC poll in April. It had the law underwater again, with 44 percent supporting it and 49 percent opposed, right back to where it was in January.

This is consistent with a new Wall Street Journal–NBC News poll that has 36 percent of people considering the health-care law a good idea and 46 percent a bad idea, and consistent with the Kaiser poll that has had support for the law at 38 percent to 46 percent the past two months.

The more Obamacare’s standing with the public changes, the more it stays the same. Democrats always want to insist that the debate over the health-care law is over. If so, they have lost it — at least the debate over whether the law is worthy of support.

The March Obamacare enrollment surge hasn’t brought springtime for President Barack Obama, just the soggy reality that he stands to be about as much of a drag on his party in November as anyone would have expected a few months ago. He ticked up to a 44 percent job-approval rating in the Wall Street Journal–NBC News poll, while he is at 41 percent, his lowest showing ever, in the Post–ABC News survey.

According to every indicator, the public is sour, the economy lackluster, and Republicans much more motivated to vote than Democrats. The general environment looks to be November 2010 all over again, except it hasn’t been preceded by an interlude of historic Democratic accomplishments.

SOME DEMS GIVE OBAMACARE FAINT PRAISE BUT IN ALMOST EVERY SINGLE CONGRESSIONAL RACE HEALTHCARE IS A MAJOR ISSUE AND THE GOP IS NOT TAKING ADVANTAGE OF IT BY GIVING ALTERNATIVES….OTHER THAN CRITICISM ….RSK

Our latest congressional polling suggests the issue is pressing.
As Republicans discuss the policy alternative to replace Obamacare, the political benefits are clear and decisive.

Our April national poll of 1,000 likely voters showed the same majority job disapproval for the president, 47 percent approval to 52 percent disapproval, similar to the findings of many other polls.

The same is true for the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, with 45 percent approving to 51 percent disapproving. (For PowerPoint slides of the poll numbers, see here.)

However, despite the majority disapproval for the president and Obamacare, the Democrats hold a thin lead in the generic ballot for Congress, 43 percent to 41 percent, with 16 percent undecided: