If anyone wants to go back and look at historical references to Germany circa 1933/1934 this is profoundly similar in ideology.    Jewish Mayor Ed Koch supported, and endorsed, candidate Obama even though he knew Obama was hateful toward Israel.   Koch, says he figured Obama would win, so it would be better to support him and maybe Obama would go easier ‘on his’ people after the endorsement.

It’s like we’ve entered a time-warp back to the time of Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

Hitler knew his opponents were divided and couldn’t unite against him.  He would play them off each other brilliantly and would consolidate his power with breathtaking speed and a calculating ruthlesses for which no one was prepared.  On February 3 (still 1933) Goebbels wrote in his diary: “Now it will be easy to carry on the fight, for we can call on all the resources of the State.  Radio and press are at our disposal.  We shall stage a masterpiece of propaganda.  And this time, naturally, there is no lack of money.”  [ p. 145 of Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas]

In Discussing HAGEL – I admire former Mayor Ed Koch’s willingness to break with his own party on issues of principle, but his comments to the Algemeiner today are mind-boggling. In between some very strong denunciations of the Chuck Hagel nomination, Koch casually let it drop that he suspected Obama would abandon his pro-Israel positions after the election. The former mayor, of course, endorsed Obama’s reelection and served as one of his surrogates to the pro-Israel community: (more…)

Two days ago we posted a discussion around a newly released photo from the White House.  The picture was taken in the oval office on Sept 11th 2012:

We thought the picture was worth a thousand words.  After research it appears we were correct.     Yet again, it provides more sunlight into the events surrounding the Benghazi, Libya events and who made the critical decisions in those moments of crisis.

(Sept. 11, 2012)  – ”Denis McDonough, Deputy National Security Advisor, left, updates the President and Vice President on the situation in the Middle East and North Africa. National Security Advisor Tom Donilon and Chief of Staff Jack Lew are at right.” (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

(more…)

…. see below post because apparently it worked.

New York Times – Al Gore’s Current TV was never popular with viewers, but it was a hit where it counted: with cable and satellite providers. When he co-founded the channel in 2005, Mr. Gore managed to get the channel piped into tens of millions of households — a huge number for an untested network — through a combination of personal lobbying and arm-twisting of industry giants.

He called on those skills again after deciding in December to sell Current TV toAl Jazeera for $500 million. To preserve the deal — and the estimated $100 million he would personally receive — he went to some of those same distributors, who were looking for an excuse to drop the low-rated channel, and reminded them that their contracts with Current TV called it a news channel. Were the distributors going to say that an American version of Al Jazeera didn’t qualify, possibly invoking ugly stereotypes of the Middle Eastern news giant? (more…)

JOLLY JIHADING – Could the release of “Zero Dark Thirty” provoke violent protests against the U.S. in response to the film’s searing depictions of “enhanced interrogation” — the coercive, super-secret and bitterly debated methods used by the CIA against al Qaeda terrorism suspects?

Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow’s acclaimed docudrama about the pursuit of Osama bin Laden opened Wednesday at five theaters in New York and Los Angeles.

The film, an early Oscar favorite, graphically depicts coercive CIA interrogation techniques, including the waterboarding, domination and psychosexual humiliation of a detainee, who is, variously, collared and leashed like a dog, stuffed into a cramped “confinement box” and stripped naked for questioning in the presence of a female investigator. (more…)

There is absolutely no doubt a negative opinion toward Israel is an ideological qualification for any Cabinet Level position within the Obama Administration.    Having Zbignew Brzezinski out front is just further affirmation of this.   Brzezinski has been a part of Obama’s ideological life since the early days at Occidental College, through his Columbia University *cough* mystery thesis, and into the administration as a Senior Foreign Policy Advisor.  (In the picture below Zbignew Brzezinski is the guy with the gun, the bearded guy wearing the beret peering over his shoulder is Osama Bin Laden)

(WFB) As questions swirl around the prospective nomination of Chuck Hagel as President Barack Obama’s next defense secretary, the White House has begun mounting an effort to defend the former Nebraska Senator.

As part of that campaign, Zbigniew Brzezinski appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” early Thursday to push back against charges that Hagel is a poor choice for the job.

Brzezinski told the MSNBC anchor team, which includes his daughter Mika, that Hagel’s “critics, they would like to plunge the U.S. into some new wars, promptly, and not always for U.S. national interest.” (more…)

UPDATE – (Politico) — NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel and his production team were released today after being held captive for five days inside Syria, the network announced today.

In an interview with NBC’s Today show, Engel said the captors were members of a Shiite government militia loyal to Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad and allied with Hezbollah

This has all the potential to NOT END WELL.   We have tracked Syrian activity closely for over two years.   Currently the leader of the Syrian *resistance* is the former leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi al Husseini al Qurshi (a.k.a. Abu Du’a), in control of The Al Nusra Front.   Almost all of the well armed contingents associated within Syria are now various factions of al-Qaeda affiliates.   Pray for Richard Engel – Just pray….

SYRIA – Turkish media is reporting that veteran journalist Richard Engel, NBC’s chief foreign correspondent and Middle East bureau chief, and his Turkish colleague Aziz Akyavaş are currently missing in Syria.

Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reports that Engel and Akyavaş haven’t been in contact with NBC News since Thursday morning. (more…)

Let’s pause for a moment and evaluate recent events and recent claims by this President Obama [aka Dear Leader] of a Safe/Secure America under his watch:

Last night North Korea successfully launched their first ever 3-stage Intercontinental Ballistic Missile placing “something” in near earth orbit. North Korea has nuclear weapons ya’ know.

Yesterday from the border region of Afghanistan/Pakistan al-Qaeda’s #1 Ayman Al Zawahiri sent a video message to the salafists in Egypt to rise up off their prayer mats and support the sharia constitution by Muslim Brotherhood leader President Morsi.  “You must meet the request of the Egyptian people for Sharia rule in order to attain dignity and pride,” Zawahiri said in his video

That’s the same Egypt we just approved to get twenty brand spanking new F-16 fighter jets.

Also yesterday in West Africa, specifically in Mali, the freedom reform Prime Minister was forced to resign after al-Qaeda forces took control of the military and performed a coup de ta. al-Qaeda now controls the country.  Soldiers carried out a late-night arrest of Mali’s prime minister at his home here, forcing his resignation early Tuesday and casting new doubt on plans to chase out radical Islamists who control much of this troubled West African nation. (more…)

It is a desperate situation for minority moderates and Coptic Christians in Egypt. I hope the beacon of freedom can provide them a measure of hope.

(Reuters) – Egyptian army tanks deployed outside the presidential palace on Thursday in streets where supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Mursi had clashed into the early hours of the morning in violence that killed five people.

Armored troop carriers also moved into the roads around the palace, in what Egypt’s state news agency said was a measure to secure the palace. The area had become a chaotic battleground between Mursi’s Islamist backers and their opponents.

The soldiers’ badges identified them as members of the Presidential Guard and Republican Guard, whose duties include guarding the presidency. At least five tanks and nine armored personnel carriers were seen near or around the palace. (more…)

SYRIA – Syrian forces have mixed chemical weapons and loaded them into bombs in  preparation for possible use on President Bashar Assad’s own people, Fox News  confirms.

A senior U.S. official told Fox News that bombs were loaded with components  of sarin gas, a deadly nerve gas. Syrian forces have 60 days to use these bombs  until the chemical mixture expires and has to be destroyed.

NBC News,  which first reported this latest escalation in the Syrian civil war, cited  sources saying bombs filled with a sarin component have not yet been loaded onto  planes, but the Syrian military is prepared to use these chemical weapons  against civilians pending orders from Assad.

The United States has said chemical weapons use would be unacceptable and  would trigger greater Western intervention in the conflict. (more…)

“So, look,I’m not making excuses for the missed opportunities of the Israelis, or the lack of generosity, the lack of empathy that I think goes hand-in-hand with the suspicion. So, yes, there is more that the Israelis need to do to really demonstrate that they do understand the pain of an oppressed people in their minds, and they want to figure out, within the bounds of security and a Jewish democratic state, what can be accomplished.”  – Hillary Clinton