Remarkable bravery considering the backlash Recep Erdogan is likely to retaliate with.
(Via PJ Media) A newspaper in Turkey whose roots stretch to the founding of the modern republic will truly live the words “je suis Charlie” on Wednesday when it publishes the new Charlie Hebdo issue in Turkish despite threats.
Cumhuriyet (The Republic), founded in 1924 at the encouragement of Mustafa Kemal, tweeted that it will continue to “defend the freedom of expression” and will dedicate four of its pages to the French satirical paper’s content. They’ll also reportedly double their normal press run to 100,000 copies.
Besides French, the only other language of Charlie Hebdo in print will be Italian. English, Spanish, and Arabic versions will be available in online formats.
Threats have reportedly been pouring into the newspaper in the 99 percent Muslim country, and some overtly posted on Twitter. Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek, a member of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP), stoked the flames by tweeting in all caps that the paper was about to commit a “serious provocation” and asking followers to spread the word. He also accused the newspaper of working with some foreign power and declared it a “game of the enemies of Islam.” (more…)

I would expect this from Erdogan, but from Ron Paul it’s profoundly disappointing. Erdogan blames the generic “West” for creating racism and negative views of Islam, adjusting his view to present a massive conspiracy against the Islamic world. However, Ron Paul specifically blames the U.S.

(JPost) Erdogan accused the West of having a double standard with regard to Muslims. The Turkish leader said historically Muslims were never on the side of terror, nor did they perpetrate massacres.

Referring to last week’s deadly attacks in France, Erdogan said that racism, hate messages and Islamaphobia stood behind the acts.

“We hope that the those attacking nations, cease their assault on our mosques.”

“Take note that the acts of terror are not carried out in a vacuum. The acts follow a predetermined script and we should be alive to a plot against the Islamic world,” he added. (read more)

Erdogan’s position really does not come as a surprise.  Essentially his Muslim Brotherhood affiliation has been more open in the past several years.  Recently, as Qatar kicked out the five terrorist leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, Erdogan opened up a sanctuary for them.
In addition Erdogan has openly supported the Islamic State (ISIS) -as they fight against Syria’s Assad- by keeping the Kurds from crossing the border to battle ISIS in Kobane, and closing his NATO bases to the U.S. effort against the terror network. (more…)

NBC contributor Mike Barnicle explained on “Morning Joe” that the network won’t display the cartoons because “they are deemed to be offensive.”  [pictured below fold]
Hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough both agreed with the network’s decision. “There are certain cartoons that are offensive — that have vulgar tinges to them — and I don’t see the need to show them to anybody,” Brezezinski said. “I really don’t.”

(more…)

Both President Obama and Francois Hollande have refused to connect the terrorism in the U.S., France, Australia, Canada and North Africa to Islamic Extremism.  This cognitive disconnect they continue to exhibit exists despite the terrorists themselves clearly proclaiming their intents and motives.
(Via Vocativ) A new video released by an official ISIS forum shows Amedy Coulibaly, the 32-year-old terrorist who murdered four men during the Hyper Cacher siege in Paris, declaring his loyalty to the Islamic State.

“I’m a soldier of the Caliphate [ISIS] since the beginning,” Coulibaly says in the video. “Our group was coordinated before the attack. France is a legitimate target because [of] what they are doing to us.”
Coulibaly explains how he helped the Kouachi brothers prepare for the attack: “We did a few things together and a few things separately to maximize the impact. I helped them by giving them a few thousand euros to buy what they needed.” (more…)

People keep asking: why won’t the Obama administration admit the terror threat is specifically from Islamic extremists? The reason is simple.  They won’t admit it because once the problem is defined, they become responsible for an action plan to address it.  The administration does not want to address it, ergo as long as the threat can be obfuscated, no-one will be expected to do anything specific.
Hence, when Kelly File guest host Martha MacCallum confronts State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf about why the White House won’t openly say that radical Islam specifically is a major threat to the world – Harf avoids the specifics.

Harf told MacCallum that Islamic extremism is “not the only kind of extremism we face,” though when pressed to name other examples of troubling extremism, she simply said people all over the world want to kill each other for a “variety of causes.”

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Barack Obama’s administration admitted it erred by failing to send a higher-ranking representative of the United States to the Paris unity march on Sunday.
He said Obama himself would have liked to attend the march “had the circumstances been a little different.” But planning began Friday night, 36 hours before the event began, and there wasn’t enough time for the “onerous and significant” security work that needed to take place ahead of a presidential visit, Earnest said. He said Obama’s presence also would have meant extra restrictions on the people who were there. (read more)

But, but, no-one from the secret service was ever queried:

Unbelievable. Gladiator training while wearing onesies !!

INDIANA – An Indiana couple was arrested after police found videos of a one-year-old placing a real gun in her mouth, authorities said.
When police in Evansville, Indiana, arrested Michael Barnes last Thursday in connection with an armed robbery, they say they searched his phone and were shocked to find two videos of a toddler putting a gun in her mouth and holding the gun up as if to shoot someone else.
In the videos, a man and a woman can be heard prompting the child, who, in one video is dressed in only a brown onesie, to say “bang” and “shoot.” (more…)

Apparently the Lake Mary Police Department made the decision to charge George Zimmerman despite the non-existence of an actual cooperating victim. The LMPD went to rather extraordinary lengths in order to generate an arrest.   Six police officers, two detectives etc. all on a mission to identify how a bottle of wine was broken on a driveway.
George says she broke it, she says George broke it. Six investigators, body cameras, squad car cameras, DVD’s, neighbors questioned, and eight pages of investigative testimonials later – you discover the Lake Mary Police must have a lot of free time on their hands.
[scribd id=252421188 key=key-SUJlZjF95klUi3mpQVmt mode=scroll]

…Alan Greenspan’s wife, Andrea Mitchell, is critiquing you on MSNBC.
President Obama spent the day Sunday watching football. Joe Biden also spent the day at home watching the playoffs in Delaware.

January 12th 2015 is the five year anniversary of the Haiti earthquake.

(Via Washington Times) […] In 2010, Haiti was rocked by a deadly earthquake that claimed the lives of between 200,000 and 300,000 people. In response to the tragedy, the international community pledged an estimated nine billion dollars in foreign aid to help Haiti’s recovery efforts.
However, according to Joseph, much of the pledged cash never made it to Haiti. And the money that did make it to Haiti has mysteriously disappeared.

(more…)