The Top Ten Reasons for Obama to Attack Syria

A semi-serious look at the top 10 reasons for Barack Obama to attack Syria by Norvell Rose at Liberty News.

Instant Karma: The Brobdingnagian Burglar Beatdown

If only Karma didn’t ‘kick in’ like this all the time eh?  These two perpetrators picked the wrong two guys to rob.

This Brob·ding·nag·i·an burglar beat down occurred in Charlottesville, Va., two suspected robbers left the scene of their own crime looking like the victims.  The pictures below are not the victims of a crime, they are the perpetrators who learned a very painful lesson.

The Blaze reported: Two suspected robbers left the scene of their own crime looking like the victims of a brutal attack after their would-be victims fought back.

Johnny Calderon Jr., 19, and Gerald Allen, 18, attempted to rob two University of Virginia students at gunpoint, which turned out to be a huge, painful mistake, according to police in Charlottesville, Va.

Police arrived on the scene to find the two students had beaten up and detained the suspects

Clearly, Allen got the worst of the beating. His right eye was swollen shut and his face bloodied. However, Calderon didn’t get off easy and arrived at the police station with a black eye and plenty of bruises.

Calderon has been charged with two counts of attempted robbery, one count of pointing a firearm and using a firearm in the commission of a felony, WVIR-TV reports. Allen is facing two counts of attempted robbery.

“Calderon is due in General District Court Friday morning for a hearing. Allen is due in court on October 3,” the report adds.

NBC29 WVIR Charlottesville, VA News, Sports and Weather

Shocking Persecution: Christian Sentenced to Death by Hanging for a Sip of Water Reserved for Muslims

Aasiya Noreen “Asia” Bibi has been sentenced to death by hanging in Pakistan for drinking water “from a well belonging to Muslim women, [and] using ‘their’ cup in the burning heat of the midday sun.”

And this ‘religion’ expects Americans to welcome them into the United States?

As her religion faces persecution across the Middle East, a Christian woman explains why she faces hanging in Pakistan for the crime of ‘blasphemy’

New York Post reported: To her neighbors, Aasiya Noreen “Asia” Bibi, a poor mother of five in the tiny village of Ittan Wali in central Pakistan, was guilty — guilty of being Christian in a nation that is 97% Muslim. For four years she has languished in a prison cell for this, facing death by hanging. Her new memoir, “Blasphemy,” was dictated to her husband from jail, who relayed it to French journalist Anne-Isabelle Tollet. Fifty percent of the proceeds the book will go to support Bibi and her family. Tollet says the situation is dire. Embarrassed by Bibi’s case but still refusing to release her because of angry protests by extremists, the Pakistan government has transferred her to a more remote prison, hoping the 42-year-old dies quietly behind bars, perhaps poisoned by another inmate. Already two government officials who have spoken out on her behalf have been murdered, including Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti, who was killed by the Taliban. In this excerpt, Bibi explains the simple “transgression” that led to her plight.

I’m the victim of a cruel, collective injustice.

I’ve been locked up, handcuffed and chained, banished from the world and waiting to die. I don’t know how long I’ve got left to live. Every time my cell door opens my heart beats faster. My life is in God’s hands and I don’t know what’s going to happen to me. It’s a brutal, cruel existence. But I am innocent. I’m guilty only of being presumed guilty. I’m starting to wonder whether being a Christian in Pakistan today is not just a failing, or a mark against you, but actually a crime.

But though I’m kept in a tiny, windowless cell, I want my voice and my anger to be heard. I want the whole world to know that I’m going to be hanged for helping my neighbor. I’m guilty of having shown someone sympathy. What did I do wrong? I drank water from a well belonging to Muslim women, using “their” cup, in the burning heat of the midday sun.

I, Asia Bibi, have been sentenced to death because I was thirsty. I’m a prisoner because I used the same cup as those Muslim women, because water served by a Christian woman was regarded as unclean by my stupid fellow fruit-pickers.

That day, June 14, 2009, is imprinted on my memory. I can still see every detail.

That morning I got up earlier than usual, to take part in the big falsa-berry harvest. I’d been told about it by Farah, our lovely local shopkeeper. “Why don’t you go falsa picking tomorrow in that field just outside the village? You know the one; it belongs to the Nadeems, the rich family who live in Lahore. The pay is 250 rupees.”

Because it was Sunday, my husband Ashiq wasn’t working in the brickworks. While I was getting ready to go to work he was still fast asleep in the big family bed with two of our daughters, who were also worn out after a long week at school. I looked at them with love before I left the room, and thanked God for giving me such a wonderful family.

When I got to the field, around 15 women were already at work, picking away, their backs hidden by the tall bushes. It was going to be a physically exhausting day in such heat, but I needed those 250 rupees.

Some of the women greeted me with a smile. I recognized my neighbor, Musarat, who was the seamstress in my village. I gave her a little wave, but she turned back to the bushes again at once. Musarat wasn’t really an agricultural worker and I didn’t often see her in the fields, so I realized times must be hard for her family. In the end, it was just our lot to be poor, all of us.

A hard-faced woman dressed in clothes that had been mended many times came over to me with an old yellow bowl.

“If you fill the bowl you get 250 rupees,” she said without really looking at me.

I looked at the huge bowl and thought I would never finish before sunset. Looking at the other women’s bowls, I also realized mine was much bigger. They were reminding me that I’m a Christian.

The sun was beating down, and by midday it was like working in an oven. I was dripping with sweat and I could hardly think or move for the suffocating heat. In my mind, I could see the river beside my village. If only I could have jumped into that cool water!

But since the river was nowhere near, I freed myself from my bushes and walked over to the nearby well. Already I could sense the coolness rising up from the depths.

I pull up a bucketful of water and dip in the old metal cup resting on the side of the well. The cool water is all I can think of. I gulp it down and I feel better; I pull myself together.

Then I start to hear muttering. I pay no attention and fill the cup again, this time holding it out to a woman next to me who looks like she’s in pain. She smiles and reaches out . . . At exactly the moment Musarat pokes her ferrety nose out from the bush, her eyes full of hate:

“Don’t drink that water, it’s haram!”

Musarat addresses all the pickers, who have suddenly stopped work at the sound of the word “haram,” the Islamic term for anything forbidden by God.

“Listen, all of you, this Christian has dirtied the water in the well by drinking from our cup and dipping it back several times. Now the water is unclean and we can’t drink it! Because of her!”

Read more at New York Post.

Ted Nugent: Wife Arrested for Gun Found in Luggage

Infowars reported: The wife of Ted Nugent was arrested Thursday for a handgun found in her carry-on luggage at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

Shemane Ann Nugent’s attorney, David Finn, said that she made an “honest mistake” having the gun in her bag, as reported by the Dallas Morning News.

“She is very embarrassed. She’s never been in this situation before,” Finn said. “She has expressed remorse for any inconvenience for any public safety officials.”

According to Finn, Nugent does not have a criminal record.

Over the years, several celebrities and well-known personalities have been arrested for firearm possession at airports, with the vast majority of them receiving reduced sentences and charges from the courts.

Last March, professional boxer Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero faced up to four years in prison for bringing a .40 S&W pistol to JFK International Airport.

Two months later, prosecutors dropped the charge to “disorderly conduct” and required Guerrero to pay a $250 fine, serve 50 hours of community service and surrender his firearm.

Earlier in the year, Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive end Da’Quan Bowers was also arrested for carrying a .40 S&W handgun in his carry-on luggage, this time at LaGuardia Airport.

Like Guerrero, Bowers’ charge was also dropped to “disorderly conduct” but had an more lenient sentence. Bowers paid a $250 fine and an additional $120 surcharge.

In 2006, Snoop Lion (formerly known as Snoop Dogg) was arrested on “suspicion of illegal drug and gun possession” after police searched his vehicle parked illegally in the loading zone at the Bob Hope Airport.

The next year, the rapper pled no contest to “gun possession by a convicted felon” and a drug charge.

A judge sentenced him to a three-year suspended sentence, five years’ probation, and 800 hours of community service.

Also in 2006, comedian Katt Williams was arrested at the Los Angeles International Airport after security found a stolen handgun in his luggage.

He was later sentenced to three years probation and three days in jail.

In a more well-known case from 1997, then-Cowboys coach Barry Switzer said he forgot about the loaded handgun in his carry-on luggage found by security at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

After a court fined him $3,500 and one year of deferred adjudication, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones also fined him $75,000.

The question remains on how the charges against Nugent will turn out.

Will the court follow this pattern of proper leniency (except for the outright confiscation of Guerrero’s gun) as shown in these previous cases, especially considering that Nugent is a law-abiding citizen with no criminal record whatsoever?

Her alleged “crime” did not harm anyone at all and the charges should be dropped entirely.

Our government has even frowned upon arming more pilots to serve as the “last line of defense” against attempted hijackings.

Last year, the Obama Administration pushed to reduce the number of armed pilots in cockpits by cutting the budget on firearms training, even though armed pilots are on five times as many flights as federal air marshals.

If the administration would follow Ted Nugent’s lead as a great defender of the Second Amendment, we would actually be safer rather than merely living in an illusion of safety as we are groped by total strangers at the airport.

U.S. Fighting Mexican Cartels with Privatized Manned Aerial Surveillance

Breitbart reported: It has long been known that U.S. authorities use unmanned aerial drones to patrol the nearly 2,000-mile U.S./Mexico border. However, a recent report by FOX News’ William La Jeunesse reveals the U.S. is engaging in aerial surveillance over Mexican soil—manned surveillance flights.

Such efforts are not new on the part of U.S. authorities. Manned surveillance flights have long been a part of U.S. efforts to break the backs of Colombian drug cartels. The Colombian mission has seen its share of catastrophe, though. Two surveillance planes went down, a pilot was killed by narco-guerrillas, and a number of Americans were held captive for years until Operation Jaque, a Colombian operation, freed them.

A private company conducts the operations, which La Jeunesse says are daily. He was quoted Aram Roston of vocative.com as stating: “I’m told that they fly daily and as much as possible. They land, they refuel, they get their maintenance, and they get out again.” He also wrote that the planes are manned by a defense contractor named Sierra Nevada.

The privatization of U.S. border security and anti-cartel efforts are not new in the war against Mexican cartels, though they have been substantially under-reported in U.S. media. Several sources in U.S. law enforcement who work directly on such issues have acknowledged to Breitbart News that rural border counties sometimes hire privatized narcotics interdiction teams to assist in drug war efforts with boots on the ground.

Law enforcement from Laredo, Texas to Oregon have acknowledged that a severe lack of resources exist to handle the Mexican cartels’ efforts in rural U.S. counties. Laredo Police Department’s Joe Baeza spoke to Breitbart News on multiple past occasions regarding rural Texas counties along the U.S./Mexico border that do not have internet, much less the gear, firepower, or manpower to deal with such organized criminal efforts.

In an interview with Breitbart News from May of this year, Oregon Department of Justice Communications Director Jeff Manning acknowledged that Mexican cartel operations were overwhelming rural Oregon counties’ law enforcement capabilities. The general consensus among the law enforcement sources who spoke with Breitbart News on this issue, excluding the two mentioned above, acknowledged that privatized efforts were ultimately more affordable than hiring needed officers, and the experience levels of some of the privatized border warriors are sometimes difficult to match in rural counties.

Though no information is available as to why the U.S. has chosen to use private subcontractors to conduct surveillance over Mexico, the issues surrounding such efforts on the ground north of the border may help to illuminate the reasons. However, unlike rural Texas or Oregon county efforts, the flights in this case involve federal agencies such as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), who reportedly had over 100 planes at their disposal as early as 2009. U.S. government agencies’ contracting with private companies has come under fire previously with allegations of cronyism or fiscal waste, as they have ample resources to operate the missions themselves, unlike rural U.S. counties.

Obama Has Not Visited North Dakota Through Entire Presidency

Breitbart reported: Even Democrats are perplexed about why President Barack Obama has not visited North Dakota, the state with the country’s lowest unemployment rate because of what has been described as an “oil and natural gas boom” that is “transforming America’s energy landscape.”

Obama often speaks about the economy and energy independence. But National Journal asserts, “no clear reason exists for why the president has not visited the state” for economic and energy security reasons, especially because North Dakota has the country’s lowest unemployment rate and offers some hope of becoming energy independent.

Leaders from Germany, Turkey, Dubai, and other nations have visited the state to learn about the oil boom and North Dakota’s economy, but Obama has been absent.

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) said Obama simply told her that he would not come in the winter when she asked him if he would ever visit the state.

“That’s as much of a commitment—I think it’s really important for him to take a look,” she told National Journal.

During his first term, the state did not offer Obama political benefits, and visiting the state during his second term may “inflame Obama’s environmental base, which is already worked up over his pending decision on the Keystone XL pipeline.”

“I would encourage him to go out,” former Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) told National Journal. “You’ve got to see it to believe it. It’s a big boost to our economy and also a big boost to our nation’s energy policy.”

North Dakota “is at the heart of America’s oil and natural gas boom” and “produced more than 800,000 barrels of oil a day in June, roughly 10 percent of the country’s overall daily oil production and an all-time record for the state. “

In fact, the state “has surpassed both California and Alaska to become the second-highest oil-producing state in the country, behind Texas.”

As a result, job seekers from around the country have traveled to North Dakota to find employment, and many have been successful. In stump speeches throughout the summer, Obama mentioned that the country was going to “produce more of our own oil than we buy from abroad for the first time in nearly 20 years” and repeatedly spoke about the economic problems the country faces.

North Dakota is one of six states Obama has never visited as president. The other five are Arkansas, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah.

Shocking: Story That Could Derail Attack on Syria, Rebels Admit Responsibility for Chemical Attack

Inforwars reported: Respected 20 year Middle Eastern reporter and Associated Press, BBC and NPR correspondent Dale Gavrak was told by Syrian rebels that they were responsible for last week’s chemical weapons incident in Ghouta.

Will the mainstream media ignore a story that could derail the march to war?

Full Story: Rebels Admit Responsibility for Chemical Weapons Attack

Syrians in Ghouta Claim Saudi-Supplied Rebels Behind Chemical Attack

Obama Uses Executive Actions to Bypass Congress on Gun Control Again

Breitbart reported: On August 29, Vice President Joe Biden announced two new gun control measures implemented by President Obama via executive actions.

Fox News reports the measures target military surplus weapons and the method in which certain guns are registered in the United States.

Regarding military surplus weapons, the U.S. has allowed old weapons to be “sold or donated to U.S. allies, or to be reimported into the U.S. by private entities” for years. 250,000 such firearms have been reimported since 2005 alone, all of which have been “curio” or “relic” firearms that were 50-years old or older. But with Obama’s executive action, such reimportation ends “except for museums and a few other entities like the government.”

The second gun control measure addresses the ability of certain corporations or trusts to acquire and register firearms without a background check. These are often investment firearms, Class III and the like. But Obama says this must stop and from now on someone must go through a background check on behalf of the corporation or trust.

“Curio” or “relic” firearms are not wildly popular with criminals, and attempts to find a record of a trust going on a shooting spree were unsuccessful.

Senate’s Elevator Operators Cost $1.2 Million

Breitbart reported: Exactly how lazy is the United States Senate? This lazy: they apparently require elevator operators to push the buttons in elevators. Even after Senate said the jobs in the senators-only elevators were nonessential in 2011, the jobs still exist. Over the last five years the cost of those jobs has reached $1.2 million. The longest serving operator has seen a salary increase every year of those five years, earning over $210,000.

The defense offered by the Senate sergeant at arms office for the necessity of those pushing buttons listed nine additional roles and responsibilities of the operators: providing a clear and safe path for Senators, showing confused tourists which direction they should go, and working in the galleries while the Senate was not in session. They are also certified in first aid and CPR.

Stunning Defeat: UK Votes Down Military Action Against Syria, U.S. Will Go it Alone If They Attack

TheBlaze reported: LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister David Cameron lost a vote endorsing military action against Syria by 13 votes Thursday, a stunning defeat for a government which had been poised to join the U.S. in strikes to punish Bashar Assad’s regime for an alleged chemical weapons attack this month.

Cameron’s nonbinding motion was defeated 285-272 and he conceded after the vote that “the British Parliament, reflecting the views of the British people, does not want to see British military action.”

The prime minister said in terse comments while he believes in a “tough response” to the use of chemical weapons, he would respect the will of the House of Commons.

At the start of the week, Cameron had seemed ready to join Washington in possible military action against Assad over the alleged chemical weapons attack. But the push for strikes against the Syrian regime began to lose momentum as Britain’s Labour Party – still smarting from its ill-fated decision to champion the invasion of Iraq in 2003 – announced its opposition to the move.

Cameron gave concessions, promising to give the U.N. inspectors time to report back to the U.N. Security Council and to do his outmost to secure a resolution there. He also promised to give lawmakers a second vote in a bid to assuage fears that Britain was being rushed into an attack on Assad.

In the end, it wasn’t enough to dispel lingering suspicions that what was billed as a limited campaign would turn into an Iraq-style quagmire.

Tony Travers, the director of the government department at the London School of Economics, said Cameron had clearly miscalculated when he brought Parliament back early from its summer recess. He said the move had been unpopular even within Cameron’s Conservative Party.

“Clearly this will be seen as a defeat, it suggests he got the politics wrong, both with the opposition and with some members of his own party,” Travers said. “It’s not great, it’s not brilliant, nor is it the end of the world for him. He’s lost votes before. It doesn’t necessarily stop them taking further action, but they are going to have to start again really.”

He said there was “not a lot” of public support for British military activity in Syria.