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Ruth King

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Political Correctness Taints the Olympics by Paul R. Hollrah

By on August 15th, 2016

The opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games are always a breathtaking spectacle. With each Olympic experience, one wonders what great technical and artistic miracles special effects technicians will produce for future Olympic ceremonies. This year we were told that we could also look forward to seeing the greatest Olympian of all time, Michael Phelps… the winner of 19 gold medals in previous Olympics… marching at the head of the U.S. contingent, proudly carrying the stars and stripes.

But when the U.S. team entered the stadium we were immediately distracted. There, in the first row of athletes, just off Phelps’ left shoulder, was a young Muslim woman wearing a hijab. What were the chances that, of the 554 members of the U.S. team, the one Muslim athlete on the team would end up marching in the front row? Was it an accident… pure chance? Or was she purposely placed in the front row by U.S. Olympic officials in an excess of political correctness?

It didn’t take long for the young woman, Ibtihaj Muhammad, to answer that question for us. In an interview with the Associated Press, she said, “I wish that, not just my life, but the lives of Muslims all over the world were a little bit easier, particularly in the United States. I’m hoping that with my first time appearance as a member of Team USA here at the Olympics, I’m hoping that the rhetoric around the Muslim community will change.” She went on to say, “I am excited to represent not just myself, my family, and my country – but also the greater Muslim community.”

A report in the August 8, 2016 edition of frontpagemag.com, titled “Muslim-American Olympian Criticizes her Country,” explained that, while Michael Phelps was elected by his teammates to carry the American flag, he was pressured to decline the honor in favor of Ms. Muhammad. According to the report, a CNN op-ed piece addressed to Phelps by W. Kamau Bell, suggested, “America has enough tall, successful rich white guys hogging the spotlight,” and that, “Muhammad carrying the flag would be nearly a one-stop inclusion shop.”

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The New York Times Exposes one of the Middle East’s Two Terrible Diseases The region’s pathologies can never be accurately diagnosed so long as the role of Islam is downplayed. By David French

By on August 14th, 2016

This week the New York Times – to much fanfare — has dedicated its entire magazine to the story of “how the Arab world came apart.” Called “Fractured Lands,” the title over-promises. It offers a snapshot of a region in crisis, not an explanation for its collapse. Any examination of Arab disunity that focuses — as the Times does — on the Iraq War and the Arab Spring is going to grotesquely narrow an inquiry that depends on more than a thousand years of competing (and sometimes complementary) religious, tribal, and political forces.

In other words, the piece suffers a bit from recency bias — the temptation to over-use recent experience to explain present trends. But it’s still an important read. It’s a painstakingly reported examination of the lives of activists, former militants, migrants, and soldiers from Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Kurdistan. And in their stories one sees all the symptoms of one of the Middle East’s two terrible diseases — tribalism.

Reading their accounts — wonderfully written, by the way — it’s extraordinary challenging to sort through all the competing factions and shifting loyalties. The Kurds appear united to the outside world but are in reality divided by their own factions. Syrians shift loyalties in the civil war with alacrity, with militias hopping from faction to faction. Egyptians — despite living in a land with perhaps the strongest national identity in the Muslim Middle East — are torn between strongmen and Islamic fundamentalists. ISIS arises, and even some of its fighters join mainly to settle local scores or to earn handsome paychecks.

Indeed, one is tempted to simply reject the whole region. Where are the good guys? Where is even the possibility of not just a happy ending but any sort of lasting peace? The author, Scott Anderson, highlights the argument that enduring peace will only follow splits along tribal, sectarian, or ethnic lines, but he’s shrewd (and experienced) enough to know that there is simply no easy path to stability.

And that’s not just because of tribalism. There is a second disease that plagues the Middle East, and it’s present mainly at the margins of Anderson’s story. It’s the disease that keeps us from throwing our hands in the air and leaving the region to work out its own problems. Competing with tribalism is universalist, aggressive, jihadist Islam. Anderson quotes a young Syrian who declares that “ISIS isn’t just an organization, it’s an idea.” Yes indeed it is. It’s an idea with ancient roots in the Islamic faith, and it’s an idea that not only once conquered the Middle East and vast sections of Africa and Asia, it very nearly conquered Europe.

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Woman Dies After Attack on Swiss Train Five others injured, including a child, in the attack a day earlier in eastern Switzerland By Brian Blackstone

By on August 14th, 2016

ZURICH—Swiss police said Sunday that a 34-year-old woman has died as a result of injuries from an attack a day earlier on a train in eastern Switzerland that also wounded five others.

The alleged assailant, an unnamed 27-year-old man, also died from injuries sustained in the attack, police said Sunday.

Armed with a knife, the man poured flammable liquids that caught fire on the train, police in the canton of St. Gallen said in a statement. The wounded were taken to local hospitals, among them a child whose injuries were considered serious, police said Sunday.

Police said the assailant’s motive was unclear and there was no evidence that the attack was politically motivated or related to terrorism.

The authorities searched the home of the man, who didn’t have a criminal record in St. Gallen or his neighboring home canton, but the results weren’t made public.

The incident, which was captured on video, happened at 2:20 p.m. local time on Saturday as the train neared the station in Salez, near the border with Liechtenstein. According to police, a passenger who was standing on the rail platform dragged the alleged attacker from the train. The footage indicates that the alleged perpetrator acted alone, police said Sunday.

The wounded included two women aged 17 and 43, and two men aged 17 and 50 in addition to the child.

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Airstrike on Yemen School Kills at Least 10 Children, Wounds Dozens Doctors Without Borders says children were between ages of 8 and 15

By on August 14th, 2016

SAN’A Yemen—An airstrike on a school purportedly carried out by the Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen killed at least 10 children and wounded dozens more on Saturday, Yemeni officials and aid workers said.

The Islamic school said in a statement that the strike in Saada, deep in the Houthis’ northern heartland, was part of raids that have resumed against the rebels after peace talks collapsed earlier this month.

Aid group Doctors Without Borders condemned the attack on social media, saying the 10 killed and 28 injured were between 8 and 15 years old. The school released some of the names of those killed.

The conflict in Yemen pits the internationally recognized government backed by the Saudi-led coalition against the Shiite Muslim rebels, who captured the capital in September 2014.

The war has left a security vacuum throughout parts of the country. Both al Qaeda and its rival militant group, the Islamic State, have exploited the turmoil and expanded their footprint in the country’s southern region.

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Child Rape Victim Lambasts Hillary Clinton for Defending Her Rapist

By on August 14th, 2016

EXCLUSIVE: Child rape victim comes forward for the first time in 40 years to call Hillary Clinton a ‘liar’ who defended her rapist by smearing her, blocking evidence and callously laughing that she knew he was guilty

‘Hillary Clinton is not for women and children,’ says Kathy Shelton, 54, who was 12 years old when she was raped by Thomas Alfred Taylor in Arkansas
Clinton was the rapist’s defense lawyer, pleading him down to ‘unlawful fondling of a minor’
The 41-year-old drifter served less than a year in prison
The plea came after Clinton was able to block the admission of forensic evidence that linked her client to the crime
Shelton says she’s furious that Clinton has been portraying herself as a lifelong advocate of women and girls on the campaign trail
Clinton accused Shelton of ‘seeking out older men’ in the case and demanded that she undergo a grueling court-ordered psychiatric examination
The presidential candidate later laughed while discussing aspects of the case in a recently-unearthed audiotaped interview from the 1980s

A child rape victim says she cannot forgive Hillary Clinton for defending her rapist in court 40 years ago, saying the Democratic presidential candidate attacked her credibility despite knowing that her assailant was guilty – and later laughed about it in a taped interview.

Kathy Shelton was just 12 years old when a 41-year-old drifter raped her on the side of a desolate Arkansas road in 1975.

Now, four decades later, she has agreed to be named and pictured for the first time in this Daily Mail Online exclusive because she is furious that her rapist’s defense attorney – Hillary Clinton – has been portraying herself as a lifelong advocate of women and girls on the campaign trail.

‘It’s put a lot of anger back in me,’ said Shelton, now 54, in an exclusive interview at her Springdale, Arkansas, home in August. ‘Every time I see [Clinton] on TV I just want to reach in there and grab her, but I can’t do that.’

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Hillary Clinton’s lead in the polls may be larger than it seems. Here’s why. – The Washington Post (June 2016) By Gabriel Sanchez and Alan I. Abramowitz see note please

By on August 14th, 2016

This column appeared before the conventions but cogently explains the fault lines of polling….rsk

Gabriel Sanchez is Professor of Political Science and Executive Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy at the University of New Mexico. He is also a Principal at the research and polling firm Latino Decisions.

Alan Abramowitz is the Alben W. Barkley Professor of Political Science at Emory University

In 2012, national polls in October suggested the presidential race was a virtual tie. The Real Clear Politics polling average gave Barack Obama a slight 0.7 point lead over Mitt Romney, but he actually won by almost 4 points. Of the final 11 national polls released in 2012, as reported on Real Clear Politics, 7 were a tie or had Romney ahead, while only 4 had Obama ahead.

Why were so many of the polls wrong? In part, because they failed to capture how minorities would vote. Unfortunately, some pollsters may be making the same mistakes in 2016 — and thereby underestimating Hillary Clinton’s lead in the polls.

In 2012, many polls underestimated how many minorities would vote and how many would vote for Obama. For example, a Politico poll released the morning of Election Day said the race was tied at 47 percent each for Obama and Romney. The poll said that 62 percent of Latinos supported Obama, while the exit polls reported 71 percent, and Latino Decisions reported 75 percent. Among the “another race” category, which is mostly comprised of Asian Americans, Politico reported that 47 percent supported Obama, while the exit polls reported 73 percent, and an Asian American Decisions exit poll reported 72 percent.

And Politico was not alone. A Monmouth/Survey USA poll, which had Romney leading by 3 points, suggested that Obama would barely win Latinos, 48 percent to 42 percent.

This problem was known before election day. In the fall of 2012, Mark Blumenthal asked “Is The Gallup Poll Favoring Mitt Romney By Undersampling Minority Voters?” which came after a series of blog posts by Alan Abramowitz, one of which asked “Is Gallup Heading for Another Big Miss?” As Nate Cohn has recently pointed out, it is difficult to know the “correct” percent of voters that are white vs. non-white. Nevertheless, many 2012 polls underestimated Obama’s share of the vote by under-representing minorities’ share of the electorate and underestimating their support for Obama.

Now, in 2016, it looks like many pollsters didn’t learn much from 2012.

Several polls suffer from flaws in how they sample Latinos. While large bilingual polls of Latino voters from outlets such as Latino Decisions and Univision/Washington Post have reported very little support for Donald Trump, other national polls that interview Latinos only in English show that 29 percent to 37 percent of Latinos will support Trump — better even than Romney fared. These polls also show Trump doing as well or better among Asian-Americans, compared to Romney. Some polls even estimate that 20 percent to 25 percent of blacks support Trump.

Here is one example from a Survey USA poll conducted on behalf of The Guardian, which gave Clinton a 3-point lead over Trump (39 percent vs. 36 percent). The sample of the poll was 74 percent white. However, a comprehensive analysis of census data and growth rates by Ruy Teixeira and William Frey estimates that less than 70 percentgof voters in the 2016 cycle will be white. If we adjust the racial composition of this poll to reflect the Teixeira and Frey’s estimates, Clinton’s margin grows to almost 5 points (see here).

The Survey USA poll is also arguably underestimating support for Hillary Clinton among three different groups of minority voters:
•Asian-Americans. In this poll, Clinton leads 48-29 among Asian-Americans. However, a recent national survey of Asian American registered voters conducted in six different languages found that just 10 percent planned to vote for Donald Trump.

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Report: Multiple FBI Investigations Into Clinton Foundation Corruption Are Underway By Debra Heine

By on August 14th, 2016

There are conflicting reports this week on the question of whether the FBI is currently investigating possible corruption within the Clinton Foundation. CNN’s report that the DOJ quashed the FBI’s request to open an investigation has been contradicted by The Daily Caller, which is reporting that there is a joint FBI-U.S. Attorney probe currently being conducted. The FBI, the U.S. Attorney’s office and the FBI director himself have all declined to comment on the possibility of an ongoing investigation.
Report: DOJ Refused FBI’s Request to Investigate Clinton Foundation

CNN reported yesterday that there were discussions earlier this year between the FBI and DOJ about opening a public corruption case into the foundation, but the DOJ pushed back on the idea.

At the time, three field offices were in agreement an investigation should be launched after the FBI received notification from a bank of suspicious activity from a foreigner who had donated to the Clinton Foundation, according to the official.

FBI officials wanted to investigate whether there was a criminal conflict of interest with the State Department and the Clinton Foundation during Clinton’s tenure. The Department of Justice had looked into allegations surrounding the foundation a year earlier after the release of the controversial book “Clinton Cash,” but found them to be unsubstantiated and there was insufficient evidence to open a case.

As a result, DOJ officials pushed back against opening a case during the meeting earlier this year. Some also expressed concern the request seemed more political than substantive, especially given the timing of it coinciding with the investigation into the private email server and Clinton’s presidential campaign.

The FBI investigation into Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s ties to a Clinton Foundation donor was also reportedly discussed during the meeting, and that probe was allowed to continue.

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Khizr Khan Shills for Hillary By Salim Mansur

By on August 14th, 2016

It has been a dereliction of duty on the part of the media not to probe into Khan’s political connections.

As Gold Star parents, Khizr Khan and his wife, Ghazala Khan, were deserving of every respect from Americans for the loss of their son, Captain Humayun Khan (US Army, 1st Infantry Division), killed while on a tour of duty in Iraq in June 2004. But the controversy they ignited by appearing on stage at the 2016 DNC in Philadelphia was entirely of their making. The result should be Americans learning more about Khizr Khan that otherwise would remain unexamined.

Humayun Khan was an American patriot who happened to be a Muslim by birth. There are, and have been, many Muslims who serve in the United States armed forces as proud and dedicated Americans. There has also been countless number of Muslims of various ethnicities at different times and circumstances who bore arms and sacrificed alongside Americans in wars waged for the defense of freedom and democracy. In World War II, for instance, there were over two million Indians and among them many were Muslims who voluntarily joined British India’s armed forces and fought against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in the North African, European and Asian theatres of that immense struggle against fascist totalitarianism. And during the Cold War decades a majority of Muslim countries were allies of the West against the Soviet Union and communism.

At a time in contemporary Muslim history when growing numbers of Muslims, especially those from the greater Middle East and North Africa, are waging an asymmetrical conflict ignited by Islamists (or radical extremist Muslims) against the West, Khizr Khan was presented with a rare opportunity as a Gold Star parent to speak about how gravely misguided, even perverted, are those among Muslims who have declared jihad (holy war) of Islam against the West. His son had made the highest sacrifice any individual can be called upon to make in defense of freedom and individual rights as an American soldier. The sacrifice of his son bestowed upon Khizr Khan the credibility to draw upon the best of both American culture and Muslim tradition in putting to rest the false notion that Islam as a religion calls upon Muslims to make war on the ideals that America represents; and to point out that while the conflict since 9/11 between a segment of the world’s Muslim population and the West is undeniable, yet this is an old conflict periodically renewed between freedom and totalitarianism in which present day Islamists are freedom’s most recent enemy.

But Khizr Khan also knew that the opportunity he was given to speak to a vast audience from the DNC stage came with a price tag. He had to know that Hillary’s campaign team was using him cynically to denounce Donald Trump as a bigot, and that he was chosen as a Gold Star parent to entrap the Republican nominee in a public furor that might further inflate Trump’s negative approval rating in the polls. Khizr Khan had a choice, however, to make between being a shill for the Democratic Party and remaining true to the memory of his soldier son, buried in the Arlington National Cemetery as an American patriot and not as a Democrat or a Republican. Khizr Khan chose to be a shill and in making that choice he should have known he was trading the public respect reserved for Gold Star parents to be above criticism for public scrutiny of his past and present.

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Fighting the Propaganda War and Winning By Eileen F. Toplansky

By on August 14th, 2016

An Israeli movement known as Im Tirtzu (IMTI) has been instrumental in publicizing the infiltration of Israeli organizations perceived as human rights organizations, but, which, in reality, are actually Foreign Agent organizations bent on destroying Israel.

Im Tirtzu (Hebrew אם תרצו, lit. ‘If you will it’) is a phrase coined by Theodor Herzl — “אם תרצו, אין זו אגדה” or “If you will it, it is no dream.” Founded in 2006 by Ronen Shoval, Im Tirtzu is an Israeli “extra-parliamentary movement that works to strengthen and advance the values of Zionism in Israel.” A major component of Im Tirtzu’s efforts is devoted to “combating the campaign of de-legitimization against the State of Israel and to provide responses to anti-Zionist” declarations. With thirteen branches at universities and colleges throughout Israel, its mission is based on recognizing that it is critical “to strengthen the Zionist and Jewish identity of Israeli students and encourage them to participate in Zionist activities in the Israeli academic sphere.”

Like many American universities, Israeli institutions of higher learning are filled with left-leaning professors who display a fierce anti-Zionist bias. In 2010, American-born Israeli journalist, newspaper editor, and writer, Caroline Glick noted that

One of Im Tirtzu’s central goals is to engender an atmosphere of academic freedom and intellectual pluralism on university campuses. Over the past generation or so, those campuses, and particularly the humanities and social sciences faculties, have become hotbeds of anti-Zionist activism and intellectual terror. Stories of professorial intimidation of and discrimination against Zionist students are widespread, as are instances of outright indoctrination in the classrooms.

Responding to complaints from students, Im Tirtzu examined the Politics and Government Department faculty at Ben-Gurion University and discovered adjunct lecturers openly promoting calls for international boycotts of Israel. Better known as the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, its primary purpose is the elimination of Israel.

In one of their publications, Im Tirtzu explains the concept of “political terrorism” which is defined as “actions that are not actually physically violent, but which are intended to spread terror and fear in certain countries for the achievement of political aims.” Consequently, “various political entities in Israel and abroad… carry out political actions with the aim of paralyzing Israel’s ability to defend itself.” For example, the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat, a Palestinian Foundation located in Ramallah, “supports not only foreign agent organizations, but also Palestinian organizations who work together with the terrorist organization ‘The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.'”

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DISPATCHES FROM TOM GROSS

By on August 14th, 2016

http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/ RISKING RETRIBUTION AGAINST HERSELF AND HER FAMILY My brave friend Darya Safai again risked retribution from Rouhani’s Iranian regime after she held up a sign at the Rio Olympics Iranian volleyball match asking that women be permitted to attend matches in Iran. Darya has been forced to live in exile from what New York […]

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