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July 2016

Pride before the fall: Too many Republican candidates do not honor their pledge By Howard J. Warner

“Senator Cruz was offered a place on the podium despite his failure to honor his pledge. He spoke glowingly of freedom and the right to choose. But he fell short of endorsing Trump. He will likely pay a price in his future endeavors. Trump invited him to speak without an endorsement, but he was not gracious in return. His pride will certainly be remembered should Trump fail to win the presidency. He was positioning himself for 2020. Will the Trump supporters in the audience forget this slight? Could he not recognize the difference between Trump and Clinton he so eloquently elucidated in his speech?”

The third night of the Republican National Convention provided observers with that moment of true ethics and honor. Governor Kasich has not attended the convention and will not endorse Donald Trump. He claims to be a man of conviction, but what conviction? Or is he a sore loser? What about Governor Jeb Bush, who will not attend? Is he still upset because he was called a loser or low energy? Did he think the $100 million raised by his campaign should ensure his victory?

Could they be willing to elect Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump? Would they saddle us with Supreme Court judges and federal judges appointed by Hillary Clinton? Their ethics are less conservative and constitutional than personal. Their pride will certainly help Clinton in this election.

Senator Graham did not attend. At one point he planned to honor his pledge, but then he recanted. One can understand Senator McCain’s and President Bush’s failure to participate; but why would Governor Mitt Romney take Trump’s money in 2012 but refuse to vote for him in 2016? Why would he work so hard to hurt Trump’s candidacy and help Hillary? Could his pride be involved? After all, his loss in 2012 was decried by Trump.

The Palestinians: Refugee Camps or Terrorist Bases? by Khaled Abu Toameh

The 450,000 Palestinians in Lebanon are still banned from several professions, especially in the fields of medicine and law. They refer to these restrictions as apartheid measures. The Lebanese apartheid measures against Palestinians are rarely mentioned in the Western media and international human rights groups. The UN does not seem overly concerned about this discrimination.

Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon have become in the past few decades bases for various innumerable militias and terrorist groups.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA, is formally in charge of the refugee camps in Lebanon, including those that are now providing shelter to Islamist terrorists.

The Lebanese authorities are increasingly running out of patience with the growing Islamist threat.

ISIS is on the mind of the Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership. Top PA officials have expressed concern that jihadi groups, including ISIS, have managed to infiltrate Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

Lebanese authorities are also worried — so worried that they have issued a stiff warning to the Palestinians: Stop the terrorists or else we will take security into our own hands.

According to Lebanese security sources, more and more Palestinians in Lebanon have joined ISIS and the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front, a Sunni Islamist militia fighting against Syrian government forces. In response, the Lebanese security forces have taken a series of measures in a bid to contain the problem and prevent the two Islamist terror groups from establishing bases of power in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

According to some reports, dozens of Palestinians from Lebanon who joined ISIS and Al-Nusra Front have been killed or wounded in Syria in recent months. Most of those who were killed have been buried in Syria, the reports said.

Alarmed by the success of ISIS and Al-Nusra Front in recruiting dozens of Palestinians to their ranks, the Palestinian Authority leadership this week sent Azzam Al-Ahmed, a senior advisor to President Mahmoud Abbas, to Beirut for urgent talks with Lebanese government officials on ways of containing the escalation. The PA leadership fears that the heightened activities of the two terrorist groups in the refugee camps will force the Lebanese army to launch a massive military operation to get rid of the terrorists, who pose an immediate threat to Lebanese national security.

Coup Attempt in Turkey: A Feast of Pretexts by Burak Bekdil

Turkey now will be an even more difficult place to live in for dissidents. President Erdogan is already talking about the reintroduction of death penalty.

The Security General Department (which runs the police force) issued a statement calling on citizens to inform them about any social media material that supports terrorists, the Gulen organization or that contains anti-government propaganda material.

Everything looked surreal in Turkey; soldiers inviting the head of the police anti-terror squad for a “meeting” only to shoot him in the head; top brass, including the chief of the military general staff, air force commander, land forces commander and gendarmerie commander, being taken hostage by their own aide-de-camps; then people taking to the streets in their thousands to resist the coup d’état, taking over tanks, getting killed, soldiers opening fire at the civilians and finally the victorious pro-Erdogan people lynching coup-staging soldiers wherever they could grab them.President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused his formerly staunchest political ally, a Muslim cleric in exile in the United States, Fethullah Gulen, and his loyalists within the military. Appearing before a crowd of party fans, Erdogan pleaded to Washington for “the terrorist” Gulen’s extradition.

Erdogan’s intelligence and loyal police force immediately arrested nearly 6,000 military officers and members of the judiciary, claiming that they belong to the “Gulenist terror organization.” Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said that more arrests were in the offing, signaling a witch hunt across the country. Immediately after that move the Interior Ministry suspended 8,777 officials, including governors, suspected of being “Gulenists,” and arrested thousands in the judiciary. Many liberals believe the government will use the coup attempt as a pretext to intimidate its opponents, whether or not with any links to Gulen.

Syrian Opposition Group Seeks Investigation After Deadly Airstrikes The death toll from the airstrikes range from at least 56 to more than 125 By Noam Raydan see note please

If this happens to Israel, the whole UN and its assorted tyrants are called in for another anti-Israel censure, and Obama moans about “disproportionate” response….rsk

Syria’s main opposition group on Wednesday called for the suspension of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes against Islamic State in Syria, a day after strikes that activists blamed on the international alliance killed scores of civilians in a village.

In a letter to foreign ministers of countries in the international alliance, Anas al-Abdah, the president of the Syrian National Coalition, condemned the airstrikes and asked for a thorough investigation of the incident, according to a statement issued by the group’s media office.

“We believe that such incidents indicate a major loophole in the current operational rules followed by the international coalition in conducting strikes in populated areas,” Mr. al-Abdah said in the letter. “It is essential that such investigation not only result in revised rules of procedure for future operations, but also inform accountability for those responsible for such major violations.”

Airstrikes blamed by residents of the area on the U.S.-led coalition killed dozens of civilians early Tuesday in the northern village of Tokhar, according to activists and monitoring groups. The death toll estimates ranged from at least 56 to nearly 100—among them many women and children.

The SNC put the death toll higher, saying the airstrikes killed more than 125 civilians.

The village lies just north of the city of Manbij, where U.S.-backed forces have been battling Islamic State militants for weeks.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said Wednesday that the Pentagon is aware of reports of civilian casualties in and around Manbij City.

“We’ll investigate these reports and continue to do all we can to protect civilians from harm,” Mr. Carter said at Joint Base Andrews after a meeting of defense ministers from the member countries of the coalition fighting Islamic State.

“We will conduct an investigation into any possible civilian casualties in this area, as we always do, and we will be transparent about that,” Mr. Carter said. “That is because that is a reflection of the values that we bring to this campaign.”

Indiana Growth Model The Daniels-Pence record is a lesson in conservative reform.

President Obama visited Elkhart, Indiana, on June 1 to tout the state’s economic recovery, taking credit for its success and claiming that it represents the 2016 election’s basic policy choice. He’s right, but the economic lessons speak better of GOP Governor and vice presidential nominee Mike Pence and his predecessor Mitch Daniels than they do Mr. Obama’s policies.

Mr. Obama touted his auto bailout, which he said rescued the city’s recreational vehicle industry that in 2009 was responsible in some way for about 70% of Elkhart’s employment. The cyclical RV industry has recovered along with the economy, but then so has the rest of the state. The most interesting statistic is that only about 60% of Elkhart’s jobs are still tied to RV sales as the economy has diversified.

All states have seen declines in the jobless rate, and Indiana’s has fallen to 5% in May from 8.4% in 2013 when Mr. Pence became Governor. The Indiana difference is that the rate has fallen even as the labor force has increased by nearly 187,000. Many states have seen their jobless rates fall in part because so many people have left the labor force, driving down the national labor participation rate to lows not seen since the 1970s. The Illinois workforce has grown by only about 71,000 in the same period, though it is roughly twice as large. Indiana is adding jobs fast enough that people are rejoining the workforce.

The Indiana turnaround began under Mr. Daniels, who took office in 2004 after 16 years of Democratic governors. His command to state employees was “we are here to raise the disposable income of Hoosiers.”

Mr. Daniels inherited a budget mess but eight years later Indiana was a rare state with a triple-A credit rating. He toyed briefly with raising the top personal income-tax rate, which we criticized at the time and was stopped by the legislature. He proceeded to cut the state corporate tax rate to 6.5% from 8.5%. He also took a big political risk by contracting with a private company to operate the Indiana toll road for $3.8 billion. CONTINUE AT SITE

Virginia’s Election Felony Obama’s executive power grab spreads to other Democrats.

President Obama has stretched beyond his legal power to end run Congress, and the bad habit is catching on. In April Virginia Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe issued an executive order giving voting rights to the state’s 206,000 convicted felons, with no consent from the state legislature.

Whether felons can vote in federal elections is determined at the state level, and Virginia has prevented the practice. The Virginia Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday challenging Mr. McAullife’s action brought by Virginia House Speaker William Howell and Senate Majority Leader Thomas Norment (both Republicans), along with four Virginia voters. While Virginia’s constitution allows the Governor to grant clemency to felons, they say Mr. McAuliffe’s action exceeds his authority and violates the separation of powers.

We’re not against letting some felons who have done their time regain voting rights. But those decisions should be determined by legislatures or popular referenda like any other voting statute. The Virginia constitution says “[n]o person who has been convicted of a felony shall be qualified to vote unless his civil rights have been restored by the Governor or other appropriate authority.”

In 2010 then Governor Tim Kaine concluded after examination that the state constitution barred him from acting unilaterally to restore voting rights en masse. In a letter to the ACLU of Virginia, Mr. Kaine’s counselor Mark Rubin wrote that “[a] blanket order restoring the voting rights of everyone would be a rewrite of the law rather than a contemplated use of the executive clemency powers. And, the notion that the Constitution of the Commonwealth could be rewritten via executive order is troubling.” CONTINUE AT SITE

MELANIA WRONGED: JOAN SWIRSKY

Like the millions who tuned in this week on the first night of the Republican convention in Cleveland to see Melania Trump’s speech, I was dazzled by her beauty, struck by her sincerity, impressed by her fluency in a language not of her native tongue, touched by her obvious love for her husband and family and country, and impressed by her quiet confidence and sense of self.

In a lengthy interview I had seen a few weeks earlier of Melania with Fox News’ Greta van Susteren, it was clear that the former super model—who is formally educated, multilingual, world-traveled, and the embodiment of sophistication—was unpretentious, of a serene temperament, plain-spoken, strong in her convictions and values, and also funny and nice. And also not interested in the spotlight, but more in raising her 10-year-old son Barron with good values and morals.

So it was shocking when I woke up Tuesday morning to read and hear of the gigantic brouhaha about Melania’s alleged “plagiarism.”

Right away, I smelled a rat.

For one thing, it is almost impossible to find anything the leftist media say that is even marginally credible. Most of the lackeys, who pose as journalists, sound more like they’re on the payroll of the Hillary for President campaign or the Democratic National Committee than in the service of the American public.

Remember, these are the people who spent a full year vilifying, insulting, and lying about Donald Trump, fully confident that their viewers and readers would listen to their wisdom, only to be soundly repudiated by the American voting public.

No matter what they said, the voters, figuratively at least, spit in their faces. But in the “culture” of journalism, such repudiation never breeds self-reflection; it only breeds vengeance, and the desire to find something, anything, to take down their nemesis.

Second, it was impossible for me to picture Melania consulting a search engine and looking up the speeches of former First Ladies, finding the words of Michelle Obama, and saying to herself: “Aha…I think I’ll lift a few lines here!”

However, it was eminently plausible for me to picture a professional speechwriter that Melania admitted to Matt Lauer helped her “a little bit” being lazy and unprofessional enough to do just that, to look up former speeches and stick random sentences into the quite brilliant and original piece Melania had written herself—without her knowledge that the excerpts had been lifted!

John Hinderaker of Powerline.com, a site founded by Dartmouth College alumni and, mysteriously to me, not a fan of Mr. Trump, weighed in with an article that damned the craven media. Entitled “Plagiarism? Please,” the writer called Melania’s speech outstanding, and said that so-called lifted sentiments “are so commonplace that they probably could be drawn from any of a hundred speeches. But, is this supposed to be some kind of scandal? One could probably think of a less important issue, but it would take a while. And I wouldn’t think that either Barack Obama or Joe Biden would want to start a conversation about plagiarism.”

Citing an article in the NY Times headlined “Melania Trump’s Speech Bears Striking Similarities to Michelle Obama’s in 2008,” Hinderaker disagrees, writing that, “Michelle Obama’s best-remembered public pronouncement is her statement that `[f]or the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country.’ Why? Because her husband was nominated for president. The heart of Melania Trump’s speech, on the other hand, was not the lines that she may have borrowed from Michelle Obama, but rather this tribute to America, delivered by an immigrant:

`After living and working in Milan and Paris, I arrived in New York City twenty years ago, and I saw both the joys and the hardships of daily life. On July 28th, 2006, I was very proud to become a citizen of the United States—the greatest privilege on planet Earth. I cannot, or will not, take the freedoms this country offers for granted.”

RACHEL EHRENFELD: PRESERVING THE MULLAH’S PRIDE

Exposes of secret agreements signed with Iran regarding its nuclear agenda should come as no surprise.President Obama made no secret that a nuclear deal with Iran was a priority of his, and he determined to keep most of his dealings with the Mullahs from the American people. When the first Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement, which was supposed to freeze “key parts of Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for temporary relief from some economic sanctions” was signed in November 2013, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared that the deal recognized Tehran’s “right” to maintain its enrichment program. Shortly afterward, Secretary Kerry was quoted by the Washington Post – a participant in the White House’s “echo chamber” as saying

that the “agreement…states they could only do that by mutual agreement and nothing is agreed on until everything is agreed on.” But skeptics who questioned Kerry’s frequent denials of Iran’s boasting of “victories” with the agreement, should feel vindicated.

Yesterday, a leaked document to the Associated Press revealed a secret agreement allowing Iran to replace 5,060 inefficient centrifuges with 3,500 advanced machines, which are “five times more efficient.” The upgrade , which is supposed to take place in ten years from now, will enable Iran to develop nuclear weapons in six months. So when Obama declared: “Under this agreement, Iran is never allowed to build a nuclear weapon – period,” he was fully aware this was not true.