Minneapolis City Hall Celebrates ‘Hijab Day’

(Breitbart) – Muslim employees at Minneapolis City Hall recently declared “Hijab Day” in the workplace and convinced non-Muslim co-workers to don the Muslim head covering, including the city’s police chief, Janeé Harteau, who is well known as a homosexual.

Female Muslim employees at the government building declared February 28 to be “Hijab Day” then systematically convinced nearly every female employee at work to don the traditional headwear to pose for pictures which were later posted to Facebook.

Facebook user Ilhan Omar, a staffer for Minneapolis Council Member Andrew Johnson and self-proclaimed Somali activist, was thrilled to have “Hijab Day” claiming that she “loves cross cultural sharing.”

Omar was in the news recently for another incident in Minneapolis. She was involved in a brawl that ended a local Democrat meeting (the DFL Party) in Cedar-Riverside. In February a group of Muslims began a fight that abruptly canceled the meeting and left several injured.

Interestingly, Omar and her other Muslim co-workers convinced Police Chief Janeé Harteau to don a hijab, too. Last August, Harteau was celebrated by the Minneapolis Star Tribune for having married her “favorite sergeant,” Holly Keegel.

One wonders what Chief Harteau thinks of the intolerance for gays exhibited in such Muslims countries as Somalia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. The way gays are often treated in Muslim cultures would be some quite shocking “cross cultural sharing,” one would think.

Commenting on this report, Pam Geller wondered how the city allowed “Hijab Day” in the first place. Geller wondered if the celebration of this religious garb is a violation of the establishment clause.

Minneapolis has been implementing all sorts of Muslim-friendly policies of late. The city police department just welcomed its first female Somali police officer and even changed its uniform regulations to allow her to wear a hijab on the job.

[H/T Breitbart: Warner Todd Huston]

Stolen F-35 Secrets Now Showing Up in China’s Stealth Fighter

(Washington Free Beacon) – A cyber espionage operation by China seven years ago produced sensitive technology and aircraft secrets that were incorporated into the latest version of China’s new J-20 stealth fighter jet, according to U.S. officials and private defense analysts.

The Chinese cyber spying against the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II took place in 2007 under what U.S. intelligence agencies codenamed Operation Byzantine Hades, a large-scale, multi-year cyber program that targeted governments and industry.

Defense officials said the stolen data was obtained by a Chinese military unit called a Technical Reconnaissance Bureau in the Chengdu province. The data was then passed to the state-run Aviation Industry Corp. of China (AVIC).

An AVIC subsidiary, the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group, used the stolen data in building the J-20, said defense and intelligence officials familiar with reports of the illicit tech transfer.

Pentagon technology security officials in 2011 opposed a joint venture between General Electric and AVIC over concerns that U.S. fighter jet technology would be diverted to AVIC’s military aircraft programs. The Obama administration ignored the concerns and instead has since promoted the systematic loosening of technology controls on transfers to China.

The Office of Director of National Intelligence is known to have details of AVIC’s past involvement in illicit arms transfers and its role in obtaining sensitive F-35 technology through cyber espionage, the officials said.

The F-35 data theft was confirmed after recent photographs were published on Chinese websites showing a newer version of the J-20. The new version of the radar-evading aircraft had incorporated several design upgrades since the first demonstrator aircraft was revealed in 2011.

According to the officials, the J-20 has progressed from prototype to demonstrator. One of its most significant weapons enhancements is a new electro-optical targeting system under its nose.

Additionally, protruding engine nozzles seen in the earlier version have been hidden, an attempt to further reduce the jet’s radar signature. The newest J-20 also appeared with a different radar-absorbing coating.

Photos of the newer J-20 were first posted online on Chinese military forums on Jan. 17.

The Pentagon’s Defense Science Board revealed earlier this year that system design information on the F-35 was obtained from cyber attacks.

The new Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile systems and Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile defenses, along with many other systems, were compromised through cyber espionage, the board said in a report.

Most details of the Chinese cyber espionage campaign to obtain F-35 technology remain secret.

However, the Chinese probably obtained the F-35 secrets from Lockheed Martin, its subcontractors, or U.S. allies involved in the development program. Allies that took part in the F-35 program include the United Kingdom, Israel, Italy, Australia, Canada, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Turkey.

A Chinese Academy of Military Sciences official, Du Wenlong, told Chinese state television on Feb. 20 that the new J-20’s shortened exhaust nozzles, along with tail and vertical fin modifications, are designed to reduce radar detection.

Du also said that a “revolutionary” breakthrough allowed the twin engines to increase both power and reliability.

China’s inability to manufacture quality jet engines has been a weakness of its aircraft manufacturing programs.

Du also said that the electro-optical targeting system provides better surveillance and strike capabilities against both land and sea targets.

The J-20 also has a larger weapons bay than the U.S. F-22, which allows it to carry more powerful missiles that can be used against “aircraft carrier and foreign AEGIS ships,” Du said.

U.S. officials said the new J-20 had undergone ground tests, but it had not been flight tested as of early March.

Richard Fisher, a specialist on Chinese weapon systems, said the new J-20 was flight tested on March 1 and demonstrated the enhanced fifth generation jet fighter features.

Fisher, with the International Assessment and Strategy Center, said it is “very curious” that the new J-20 featured its new electronic targeting system under its nose. That location increased its field of view and is similar to the targeting system on the F-35.

“This targeting system and a set of distributed high-power infrared sensors give the F-35 a previously unrivaled ‘situational awareness,’ but the now it is clear that the J-20 will have a similar targeting system and its own set of distributed sensors,” Fisher said.

“If as part of their espionage, China had also gained engineering insights into the F-35′s very advanced sensor systems, that could prove disastrous to its combat potential barring a rapid redesign and improvements before entering service,” Fisher added.

Advanced sensors on the F-35 were intended as insurance for the jet not having the best capabilities for maneuvering in flight, he said.

“But if the Chinese, via cyberespionage, have gained insights into its sensor system, then it is to be expected that China is also working on ways to jam or otherwise degrade its advantage,” Fisher said.

The J-20 targeting system indicates that the Chinese plan to use the jet for ground attack and air superiority missions like the F-35, he said, adding that it now appears the J-20 will be comparable to the more capable F-22.

“We can be assured that J-20 production will significantly exceed that of the 187 F-22 fighters cut off by the Obama Administration in 2010,” he said.

China’s Communist Party-affiliated Global Times reported Jan. 20 that China obtained key technologies from the F-35 and incorporated them into the J-20

The newspaper did not admit stealing the technology, but stated that China “completely obtained the six key technologies” from the F-35.

Those features include the electro-optical targeting system and a diverterless supersonic inlet, a thrust-vectoring jet nozzle, and a fire-control array radar system.

The Global Times disclosures about F-35 technology acquisition were first reported in the Washington Times.

[H/T FreeBeacon: Bill Gertz]

Administration adds major exemption for ObamaCare INDIVIDUAL mandate

(Fox News) – In what might be the death knell for ObamaCare’s most controversial component — the individual mandate to buy insurance — the administration has added a mega-exemption that critics say would allow virtually anybody to skirt the rule.

“This is a huge public policy decision that could affect millions of Americans,” House Speaker John Boehner said, adding that the latest change, made ahead of the March 31 enrollment deadline, applies to “essentially everyone.”

“The door’s wide open,” economist Doug Holtz-Eakin, who leads the conservative-leaning American Action Forum, told Fox News. “[The] mandate which they said was absolutely crucial to ObamaCare is falling apart day by day.”

The most recent exemption was included in an ObamaCare application document. There already had been 13 distinct exemptions, but this document added one more — apparently it was added in late December.

The document said that individuals can now qualify for a “hardship exemption” — meaning they would not have to pay a penalty for not buying insurance — if they “experienced another hardship in obtaining health insurance.”

The document does not define what “another hardship” means, and suggests the administration might not be a stickler when it comes to proof either. It says anyone seeking this exemption should “submit documentation if possible.”

Of all the exemptions created so far, this category appears to be the broadest. Prior exemptions were created for people who are homeless, who filed for bankruptcy, who experienced a fire and who dealt with other financial emergencies. Already, the 13 exemptions previously on the books could apply to millions. Another created in December would give a pass this year to many of those whose policies were canceled due to ObamaCare and who struggled to find an affordable option — last week, the administration quietly extended that waiver through 2016.

All along, the administration has rejected congressional attempts to officially delay the individual mandate in its entirety. The White House even threatened to veto one such bill.

But the 14 exemptions now on the books raise the question of whether the mandate has been pushed off in all but name.

“There’s a real question as to whether the White House just abandoned the individual mandate,” Boehner said Thursday. “It just seems they are hoping no one will notice.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius defended the “hardship exemptions” during testimony Thursday before a House subcommittee.

“It’s been really aimed at people who could not afford coverage one way or the other,” she said. She noted that the list includes people who live in states that did not expand eligibility for Medicaid.

But Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office under the George W. Bush administration, said that for someone to qualify for the latest waiver, they could simply say they couldn’t get through on HealthCare.gov or plans were too expensive or a special condition they have didn’t appear to be covered.

As a consequence, he said, there could be “chaos” in the insurance market. Insurance companies, in exchange for taking on older and sicker patients as part of the Affordable Care Act, were counting on millions of young and healthy Americans signing on. The individual mandate — and the penalty that comes with it — was supposed to compel people who might not otherwise buy insurance to enter the system.

Now that the mandate is being softened, it’s unclear whether insurance companies will have enough of those new customers to keep premiums down for everyone else.

[H/T Foxnews]

Obama suggests people cancel cable and cell phones to afford Obamacare

(AllenBWest) – According to President Obama, low-income families may have trouble affording Obamacare premiums because they simply do not know how to spend their own money. Last week, during a town hall meeting for Spanish language media where Obama was promoting enrollment, a viewer challenged the economics of it for low-income Americans now forced to buy health insurance, according to Hot Air.

The president responded that “if you looked at their cable bill, their telephone, their cell phone bill… it may turn out that, it’s just they haven’t prioritized health care.” He added that if a family member gets sick, the father “will wish he had paid that $300 a month.

Not that the father has any choice in the matter, considering the government is forcing him to buy it.

No Sir, it just means they haven’t prioritized spending on the health care you’re shoving down their throats. The hypocrisy never ceases to amaze. While the “era of austerity is supposedly over,” it’s clearly over for the federal government only.

Once again, President Obama finds someone else to blame for the failures of his own policy — which is so unappealing he keeps delaying it piece be piece. Ironically, cell phones are okay if they’re given away “free” at the expense of the hard-working American taxpayer, but not if you want to buy one yourself.

Daniel Garza, Executive Director of The LIBRE Initiative said of Obama’s remarks, “If the president actually believes that a family earning less than $40,000 per year can afford nearly $4,000 in health insurance premiums, then he truly does not understand middle-income families. Americans do not need the President to tell them how to budget their households. People are already cutting back on things like cable television and cell phones, just to compensate for an awful economy. This president promised he would deliver on affordable health care. Instead, premiums are up, out-of-pocket expenses are up, and overall cost of living is up. The president simply doesn’t get it. And his condescending attitude adds insult to injury.”

Once upon a time, families had the choice of using Healthcare Savings Accounts (HSAs) to spend pre-tax money on routine care and smaller emergencies, while using so-called catastrophic insurance to deal with serious illness requiring hospitalizations. But as part of Obamacare, HSAs are now taxed as well. So much for freedom of choice.

Perhaps we should take away Obama’s cell phone (and pen, while we’re at it) so the politicized executive orders will stop.

Obama is trying to convince Americans that the unaffordability of the Affordable Care Act isn’t his fault. It’s the fault of the states (run by those rascally Republicans) that won’t expand Medicaid. And it’s the fault of those selfish, irresponsible folks who’d rather have cable and cell phones.

If you like your iPhone, you can’t keep it. Period.

[H/T AllenBWest: Allen B. West]

MSNBC’s Matthews: ‘I Think the Senate Goes’

(Breitbart) – On Thursday’s “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, left-leaning “Hardball” anchor Chris Matthews conceded Democratic Party control of the U.S. Senate is all but gone coming off that party’s election loss in a congressional special election in Florida earlier this week.

“It’s going to be very hard to hold the Senate — I think the Senate goes,” Matthews said. “[I] think we heard from the Ghost of Christmas Future this week; they’re going to lose the Senate.

http://embed.newsinc.com/Single/iframe.html?WID=1&VID=25710558&freewheel=69016&sitesection=breitbartprivate&width=575&height=400

[H/T Breitbart]

House Floor – Congressman Goes Nuclear On Obama’s UnConstitutionality

(BeforeItsNews) – Today on the House floor, Rep Trey Gowdy, sponsor of the Enforce The Law Act went all nuclear on Obama when he read some past quotes in which he warned of the encroachment of the executive on the powers of the other branches of govt from the time when Obama was a Sen in Illinois.

Please remember that all these fiery speeches that congressman give is pure theater, no change will ever come, because when it comes to the destruction of our Republic, the Dems and the Repubs are on the same side.

 

[H/T Before Its News: Guerilla Girl Ashley]