Despite the obfuscations Charlie Rose keeps asking, and ultimately gets to the truth of the matter. Hamas refuses to accept the right of Israel to exist – period.
Hamas believes Israel is “occupying their land”, and what they mean by “their land” is anywhere near or around where Hamas chooses to place themselves. Hamas believes at their core that Israel needs to be destroyed and wiped off the face of the earth.

How is it possible to find “compromise” with a foundational position that you must be destroyed?

Four years ago I was in a rather heated discussion about the ultimate ends to leftist ideology. The framework was around immigration and the general principles which Secretary of State Clinton and President Obama were supporting – only the discussion was not about America, it was about Europe.

However, many of the same principles apply to the current U.S. border crisis.  One of the principle outlines being discussed was if you follow the path of belief to it’s logical conclusion you will find the U.S. facing the same issues with multi-culturalism and unchecked immigration.
At the time we did not know what 2014 would present; however, if you look historically at the issues I believe you will find a general similarity between the current border crisis, and the explosion in Europe right before the “Arab Spring”.
This is where the foreign policy ideology of President Obama comes full circle and delivers a domestic consequence of remarkable similarity.  (more…)

…. and now we know why Kerry was so insistent on a cease fire.  Hamas was getting their asses kicked, they need time to recover and reconstitute.

(TJP)  Operating behind enemy lines in Gaza during the conflict with Hamas, the elite Maglan unit has attacked dozens of terrorists cells that fired on the IDF, destroyed areas used to launch rockets at Israel, and killed and injured 40 terrorists in recent days.
A senior source from the unit revealed that its members have targeted Hamas gunmen waiting in ambush for the IDF’s Ground Forces, striking the threats right before Israeli forces pass by the ambushes.
The Maglan unit has detected and destroyed forward Hamas posts and rocket launchers. It has detected a cross-border underground attack tunnel leading into Israel from Gaza, and found 20 bomb-laden, booby-trapped homes in Gaza. The unit also uncovered a very large quantity of weapons, and enemy intelligence files in raids. (more…)

When your own stick turns out to be a boomerang, or what happens when you step on your own rake !

The latest revelations in the ObamaCare debacle revolve around Obama architect Jonathan Gruber.
You might remember back in 2010 during the fight over ObamaCare mandates ‘we the people’ were told the mandate was a penalty and not a tax.   However, when ObamaCare challenges ultimately reached the courtroom the administration argument was exactly the opposite.  The government argued the mandate was a tax not a penalty; only as a tax could the construct survive legal scrutiny.   This latest Gruber development similarly pretzellian but infinite degrees worse.
The construct of ObamaCare execution relied upon a network of state exchanges to enroll people in the plans.   The problem for the administration was the volume of political opposition to the entire plan itself.   Consequently the Obama administration had to set up a “stick” or punitive punishment if any state failed to comply with setting up the exchange.
The stick they settled upon was a simple premise – financial blackmail.   Any state who did not construct an exchange for their state citizens to enroll in ObamaCare would face a punishment of not being allowed to receive a federal subsidy for their premium.     In essence the goal was to force states to set up exchanges.  To force compliance the carrot was the federal premium subsidy, the stick was financial punishment if they didn’t. (more…)

They needed a poll to determine this?    Most people already knew the anti-Israel crowd was always youngish, stupid, lo-fo, emotional moonbats -ie. Democrats-  without a scientific poll to define.

According to Gallup’s internals, self-identifying Republicans are the primary reason Israel’s actions attract plurality support in this poll.  GOP-leaners back Israel’s actions by a whopping 44-point margin; the numbers turn upside-down among independents (-10), and especially Democrats (-16).  The cohorts least likely to label Israel’s attacks against Hamas as “justified” are young people (-26), non-whites (-24), women (-11), and people with a high school education or less (-11) — namely, the Democratic coalition.
On a not-unrelated note, Americans who are under-informed about the issue tend to break heavily against Israel, whereas those who say they’re following developments at least “somewhat closely” back our democratic ally.  (link)

The application window for HHS grants under the Unaccompanied Alien Children program just closed yesterday. According to the data included in the application the average length of stay for a UAC is 30-35 days prior to unification with a sponsor.
Most (95%+) of the sponsors are relatives of the child.  Most sponsors reunited are the mothers of the children (85%+) who actually brought them along and there is never a disconnect.  All sponsors are subsidized by taxpayers at an average cost of around $4,000 to $6,000 per child/per month. A custodial ‘sponsor’ (mother) with three UAC’s will net about $12,000 per month federal support from the ORR and UAC program(s).
Now that the current UAC grant application window has closed for FY2015, ORR (Office of Refugee Resettlement) has released the data of settlement placement for the first six months of 2014 (Jan-June).   The federal data release matches EXACTLY with the “unofficial” information we have previously discovered  from our own research:

(Via HHS.GOV) Once the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) receives a child from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), we have the responsibility to continuously seek placement options in the child’s best interest. This typically involves releasing children to sponsors.
Sponsors are adults who can suitably provide for the child’s physical and mental well-being and have not engaged in any activity that would indicate a potential risk to the child.
{*snip* The majority of sponsors are the parents; usually Mom… /SD} 
We try to place the child with a parent, and if that is not possible, with a relative, and if that is not possible, with a family friend. We do not restrict placements based on the immigration status of the parent or other sponsor.
(more…)

ROME – A Sudanese court sentenced Mariam Yehya Ibrahim to death because of her Christian faith, but now she’s arrived safely in Rome, where she had a private meeting with Pope Francis. (more…)

Dan Joseph – As a reporter who covers a lot of protests, I’ve come to realize the participants have distinct personality traits depending on what they are rallying against.
But, without a doubt, in my experience, those who rally against Israel are almost always the angriest.

I caught up with a sizable contingent of these protesters—led by the professional rabble rousers of Code Pink—who were making noise and shouting anti-Israel slogans outside the annual gathering of the group, Christians United for Israel. As always, passions and tempers ran high.  (read more)