HALF-FULL REPORT 02/20/15

Foremost in the news this week were more atrocities by Islamic terrorists, more frantic efforts by President Barack Obama and his minions to deny Islam has anything to do with Islamist terror.

"The notion that the West is at war with Islam is an ugly lie," the president said at the opening of his conference on Violent Extremism Wednesday (2/18). "All of us have a responsibility to refute the notion that groups like (ISIS) somehow represent Islam, because that is a falsehood that embraces the terrorists’ narrative."

People who "spew hatred towards others because of their faith…feed into terrorist narratives," he said.

* * * *

ISIS is very much Islamic, writes Graeme Wood in a long, must read analysis in the Atlantic. It scared the bejeebers out of a liberal colleague at the Post-Gazette, who wanted to make sure I saw it.

"By doggedly sticking to his position that there is no such thing as Islamist terror and by focusing on the economic and political grievances of such groups, the president undermined any notion that the U.S. was committed to the fight," said Jonathan Tobin of Commentary magazine.

" Indeed, rather than bolster the West’s resistance to ISIS, the massive effort expended on this public-relations extravaganza may have only solidified the belief among the terrorists that this president isn’t someone they should either fear or take seriously," he said.

* * * *

Zero wasn’t the only person at the conference spewing noxious nonsense. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said "we in the administration and the government should give voice to the plight of Muslims living in this country and the discrimination that they face."

"This is simply insane," said John Hinderaker of Power Line.  "Does the Obama administration think that pleading guilty-falsely-to discriminating against Muslims is somehow going to pacify ISIS, al Qaeda, Hezbollah and the rest? And what, exactly, is the "plight" of American Muslims? How does it compare with the plight of Muslims who live in Syria, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Libya and elsewhere in the Islamic world?"

If Muslims are unhappy here, they should go back to where they came from.

Ron Radosh expects that when the conference winds up today, the conferees will conclude the real threat is "Islamophobia."  Jeh Johnson’s prattle, and that from Slow Joe Biden and John Kerry, suggests he’s right.

* * * *

There are moderate Muslims willing to fight ISIS. I wrote about Jordan’s King Abdullah in last week’s HFR. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al Sisi, a former HFR Hero of the Week, hasn’t just vowed revenge for the beheading by ISIS in Libya of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians, he’s bombed the murderous SOBs.

Zero isn’t helping them. The Pentagon expressed reservations this week about Egyptian and UAE air strikes in Libya.

"The Obama administration was given multiple chances Wednesday (2/18)  to endorse a longtime ally’s airstrikes on America’s biggest enemy at the moment, the so-called Islamic State," reports Nancy Youssef in the Daily Beast.  "Over and over again, Obama’s aides declined to back Egypt’s military operation against ISIS."

The administration has denied Jordan’s request for Predator drones. Zero has refused to give Egypt and Jordan intel on ISIS targets.  He won’t deliver to Egypt 10 Apache helicopters they bought. He hasn’t given to the Kurds the weapons they need.

"The Kurds really are in this fight, yet they’re complaining they’re not nearly getting the weapons, the training, the manpower, the number of airstrikes, drone support, almost everything you could imagine, to take the battle forward," said Richard Engel, chief foreign correspondent for NBC News.

* * * *

A White House official met with members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the granddaddy of Islamist terror groups, at the State Department last month. A senior member of the Ikhwan was part of a delegation of Muslims who met with Zero and Slow Joe at the White House Jan. 22. Arnold Ahlert writes here about the connection between the Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS.

Zero plans to increase fourfold the number of refugees from Syria admitted to the U.S., even though intelligence officials fear some could be ISIS supporters.

The president plans to appoint Rashad Hussain to head the State Department’s Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications, which will spearhead the administration’s effort to counter ISIS propaganda. Hussain has strong ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, Pamela Geller says.  Ryan Mauro has more background.

"So a terrorism supporter will head up our counterrorism messaging," said Daniel Greenfield. "Why not just turn over the whole operation officially to the Muslim Brotherhood. Then the groups of Jihadists can debate each other on Twitter and we won’t have to pay for it."

It’s getting hard to attribute all of this to incredibly bad judgment.

"I do not believe the president loves America," Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday. He’s "an apologist for radical Islamic terrorists," said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex.

"The Obama administration has a strategy," said retired Admiral James "Ace" Lyons. "It’s anti-American, anti-Western, pro-Islamic, pro-Iranian, and pro-Muslim Brotherhood."

* * * *

We can’t defeat ISIS by killing them, Marie Harff, the "dumber" half of the State Department’s Dumb and Dumber tag team of spokessluts told MSNBC talk show host Chris Matthews Monday (2/16).  "We need in the medium to longer term to go after the root causes that leads people to join these groups, whether it’s a lack of opportunity for jobs…"

This nonsense – which appalled even "Tingles," who interrupted her before she could spout more – subjected Ms. Harf to a torrent of abuse on Twitter. She kept digging. Her comment was "too nuanced" for her critics, she told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Tuesday.

"Marie Harf is Exhibit A for the comprehensive failure of our educational system," said our friend, retired Army LtCol. Ralph Peters.

The only way to defeat ISIS, Peters said, is to "kill them all, and after you’ve killed the last one, kill his pet goat." What success against ISIS looks like is "acres and acres of dead terrorists." The U.S. must leave behind "smoking ruins and crying widows."

All of Ralph’s rants at the links are worth listening to, but I think this one is especially good.

For more mockery of this dimwitted dame, here’s Sonny Bunch on "General Marie Harf through History," and Ian Tuttle on "Lucy and Ethel."

* * * *

"Lucy" (Jen Psaki) is being promoted to Director of Communications at the White House. In the Obama administration, nothing succeeds like failure.

Unless your fail is really, truly epic. When "Lucy" leaves for the White House at the end of March, "Ethel" won’t be replacing her.

"Marie’s TV appearances were an audition of sorts, a test run, and she failed spectacularly," a State Department official told the London Daily Mail.

* * * *

In response to a lawsuit by 26 state attorneys general, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen issued Monday (2/16) a temporary injunctive order blocking implementation of President Obama’s executive order granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens.

Such an injunction isn’t granted unless the judge thinks plaintiffs have "a substantial likelihood of success on the merits," said Patrick Brennan of National Review in this fine analysis. Judge Hanen quotes Zero himself in support of  plaintiffs’ contention he illegally changed the law.

* * * *

The injunction comes in the nick of time for Republicans in Congress, whose efforts to use the power of the purse to curb amnesty are floundering.

The GOP made a tactical error by placing their restrictions on the appropriations bill funding the Department of Homeland Security, which runs out at the end of the month. Americans will blame Republicans if DHS shuts down, according to a CNN/ORC poll Tuesday. (This is chiefly because of the potency of the Lying Swine, as we’ll discuss below.)

What Republicans should have done, said Jonathan Rothenberg, is "pass a continuing resolution funding all of the government except for the EPA, and a second CR funding EPA with a prohibition on amnesty. Few Americans will care if EPA is shut for a few weeks, and Democrats can decide which constituency is more pander-worthy."

It’s too late to do that now, but the editors of National Review suggest splitting DHS funding into two bills: One would fund just the immigration bureaucracy; the other would fund everything else. Slapping the restrictions just on the funding for the immigration bureaucracy "would narrow the debate and make it much harder for Democrats to argue that the Republican plan is inappropriate or risky."

* * * *

GOP efforts to roll back amnesty have been stymied by a Democrat filibuster.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should nuke it, Hugh Hewitt thinks. By tampering with the filibuster to get more Obamunists appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Dingy Harry Reid has given Republicans cover, Hewitt said.

I emphatically agree. The filibuster is an affront to majority rule. It originated with some bad advice given to the Senate in 1805 by Vice President Aaron Burr. Bill Jacobson of Legal Insurrection explains here how the filibuster has locked in the "Progressive" agenda. If we’re ever to repair the damage the Obamunists have done, we have to nuke it.

* * * *

Over the last three years, nearly 5,000 illegals in a "supervised release" program committed crimes and absconded, said the DHS inspector general.

* * * *

Joe Biden is a dirty old man. He creeps out even  libs at Talking Points Memo.

* * * *

Obamacare has a nasty surprise in store for millions of Americans. About 3.4 million who got subsidies last year will have to repay some or all of it, and nearly six million who don’t have insurance will have to pay a fine. Ed Morrissey and John Hayward have details.

Confusion is compounded because the administration sent the wrong tax forms to about 20 percent of Obamacare enrollees.

Moe Lane noted this response of an Obamacare supporter mugged by reality.

* * * *

Can a Republican be elected to the U.S. Senate from California? Can pigs fly?

Barbara Boxer is retiring in 2016. In a Field poll released Wednesday (2/18), 49 percent of likely voters said they’d support Condoleeza Rice, Republican. Attorney General Kamala Harris ,a Democrat (of course), was 2^nd with 46 percent.

The land of fruits and nuts has a jungle primary in which everybody runs, regardless of party affiliation. The top two in face off in the general election.

Should Condi choose to run, she’d benefit from the likelihood more prominent Democrats than Republicans will run in the primary. She could beat Harris – who is so far left Zero considered her as a replacement for Eric Holder – in the general.

Maybe we need to look up now and then to see if any hogs are hovering overhead.

 * * * *

If a Republican is to be elected president in 2016, he or she must recognize who the main enemy is.

As Scott Walker was forcefully reminded, the main enemy isn’ t Zero, or Hillary, or Democrats in Congress.

I’ve mentioned often UCLA Prof. Tim Groseclose’s calculation media bias gives Democrats roughly an 8 percentage point advantage in most elections, but it bears repeating.

The Lying Swine are so powerful, and so dangerous, because it is largely they who determine what constitutes "news" (if it reflects poorly on Democrats, it isn’t). They set the agenda.

In the 44th minute of a 45 minute news conference, a reporter for the BBC asked Walker if he believed in evolution."

"I’m going to punt on that one," he responded.  "That’s a question a politician shouldn’t be involved in one way or the other, so I’m going to leave that up to you."

His response immediately became the Big Story from the news conference. "Walker weasels on evolution," said the National Journal. "Scott Walker punts on evolution," said MSNBC and Politico. He should "man up," said Time magazine.

The Lying Swine want to "define" any Republican who might be nominated, the way they did Sarah Palin in 2008, Mitt Romney in 2012.

Gov. Walker is right. Politicians shouldn’t be weighing in on evolution, one way or the other. Where he goofed was in beginning his response: "I’m going to punt on that one." That was all the opening the Enemedia needed.

It is imperative to concede nothing; counterattack immediately.  Republicans must have a riposte prepared for the "gotcha" question that is certain to come. Such as:

"I don’t answer gotcha questions.  Honest journalists don’t ask them."

"After you’ve asked President Obama what his grades were -which, if you had any integrity, you’d have done in 2008 – I’ll tell you why I dropped out of college."

"There are some scientific controversies that have a bearing on public policy. Why don’t you ask Hillary if she believes life begins at conception?  Why don’t you ask Barack if he thinks carbon dioxide is harmful?

* * * *

Walker is fortunate to have his learning experience come so early, and it’s stupid of liberals to make "evolution" a litmus test. Only 19 percent of Americans agree with what they think is the right answer.

The attack on Walker for dropping out of Marquette isn’t going so well either.

The Lying Swine aren’t nearly as smart as they imagine themselves to be.

 "Scott Walker is a conservative hero, and liberals have themselves to blame for it," lamented Washington Post columnist Nia-Malika Henderson.

* * * *

I’m way long again. Gotta stop now. Hero of the Week is Judge Hanen. Marie Harf edges out you know who for Putz of the Week. 

Discuss this item on the forum. Click Here!