Fresh off plane(s) from the Middle East and Asia, and just in time for the holidays, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama return to Washington DC amid the growing ferocity of House and Senate hearings on Benghazi, Libya and the possible cover up.  

Simultaneous to the hot button political issues surrounding Susan Rice and “who changed the Benghazi talking points” to reflect falsehoods and lies…..

….. an unusual fire breaks out, on a long holiday weekend, in the State Department building, in Washington DC, on the Seventh Floor [Office of the Secretary of State], and Eighth Floor [State Reception and only Public Tour venue] ……  You just can’t make this stuff up.

ABC News – Authorities say a fire broke out at the State Department headquarters in Washington, seriously injuring three maintenance workers.

D.C. Fire and EMS spokesman Lon Walls said the fire started at around 11 a.m. Saturday in the ductwork on the 7th floor. Workers were able to put out the fire before firefighters arrived, but not before three people had suffered burns. (more…)

(AP) — Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi issued decrees giving himself broad powers and effectively neutering the judiciary. Morsi, an Islamist hailing from the Muslim Brotherhood, defends the step as necessary to clear obstacles holding up Egypt’s transition, particularly from judges who could have disbanded a controversial assembly writing the constitution or overturned his decisions. Critics say Morsi, who already holds both executive and legislative powers, is setting himself up as a new dictator.

Here is a look at the main points of his decrees:

– All laws and decisions by the president are final, cannot be appealed, overturned or halted by the courts or other bodies. This applies to decisions he has made since taking office in June and any he makes until a new constitution is approved and a new parliament is elected, expected in the spring at the earliest. (more…)

We’ve been tracking this for more than 3 years…. No-one is paying much attention, but they will – VERY SOON.    Without a doubt the “rebels” in Syria are now fully engaged al-Qaeda, or radical Islamist operatives, from multiple geographies.

We have highlighted some Syrian ground reports which outline how their cause was hijacked in Jan/Feb 2012 by the flood of al-Qaeda operatives flowing from the previous conquest(s) in Egypt/Libya.

Now the First of Two reports which should alarm EVERYONE.

First…. BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels strengthened their hold Thursday on an oil-rich province bordering Iraq, activists said, capturing a key military base that was considered one of the last bastions for President Bashar Assad’s loyalists in the strategic region.

The reported fall of the Mayadeen base, along with its stockpiles of artillery, caps a series of advances in Deir el-Zour including last week’s seizure of a military airport. (more…)

Brilliant !!  ya’ know, m’cause it ain’t just fer kiddies no more  🙁    ( fyi, I would kinda like to see what happens to the dude who would try to pull one of these tracking manuevers on Waltzing Matilda..…)  

(AFP) – Denied the right to travel without consent from their male guardians and banned from driving, women in Saudi Arabia are now monitored by an electronic system that tracks any cross-border movements.

Since last week, Saudi women’s male guardians began receiving text messages on their phones informing them when women under their custody leave the country, even if they are travelling together.

Manal al-Sherif, who became the symbol of a campaign launched last year urging Saudi women to defy a driving ban, began spreading the information on Twitter, after she was alerted by a couple. (more…)

Watch these two videos – this is EXACTLY the approach needed when you accept what faces the next candidate for President with common sense principles.   Bill Whittle describes it with humor filled indignation – and he is keenly articulate…..

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted a brokered peace deal by Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood President Morsi after meeting with US SOS Clinton.  This, despite 70% Israeli support for continued self-defense against attacks from Hamas in the Gaza Strip.  The cease fire was set for 9pm Tel Aviv time (3pm EST) – during first hour rocket attacks from Gaza Strip continued.

WH says Pres Obama urged Netanyahu to agree to the Egyptian ceasefire proposal while reiterating Israel's right to defend itself.

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) November 21, 2012

FUBAR – Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said the deal included an agreement to open all border crossings with the Gaza Strip, including the important Rafah crossing with Egypt. A copy of the deal obtained by The Associated Press appeared to be somewhat vague about the details on the crossings. (more…)

Cut to the chase – You know why?   Because it was empty.  No-one was trying to do anything to help Our Americans while they were being attacked and murdered over the course of 9 hours from 3:40pm DC time to after Midnight when Ty Woods and Glen Doherty were killed.

Obama went to bed while Woods and Doherty begged for help.   The 3am phone call rang at 3pm and it was ignored …” – take a message – we’ve got a fundraiser in Nevada tomorrow”..

PROOF – The White House Photo Office has declined CBS News requests to release images taken of US officials during the Sept. 11 Benghazi attacks. (more…)

HatTip StellaP

Turkey’s Erdogan has been highlighted here numerous times. He is not to be trusted, he is a stealth Islamist and might even be a co-conspirator in the attack against the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

Recently he called Israel a “terrorist state”, and yet supposedly Turkey is a primary U.S. ally in the region. Go Figure. But shockingly an AP reporter actually calls out the State Department on their silence.

President Obama’s core, his center, his essence, is not as simple as viewing him as a classic leftist/progressive in the FDR model.   To really understand, and subsequently be able to predict his future activity you have to understand his Global Leftism.

In part driven by his upbringing, and in part driven by his associations, and in part driven by his own self-created values and beliefs.   When you listen to his words, watch his behaviors, understand his purposes and intents, watch his jealousies (Clinton Global Initiative), and understand the well written psychologies behind his endeavors, you recognize his approach is more mentally academic than I believe people give him credit for.

President Obama believes the stuff he has developed an affection for.  He truly does.   That’s not to say the policies that flow from it are appropriate, reasonable or even well constructed, indeed most are not.   But what they “are” is predictable. (more…)