I really wanted to hunker down and ride it out.  But the insufferable propaganda around the death of Nelson Mandela is too much to ignore. Rather than deconstruct all of these ridiculous liberal CNN-isms and talking points, let’s just cut it down to brass tacks and stick to historical facts.
Apartheid as a political structure in South Africa was bad. Oppression under any guise is always wrong.
But with Apartheid you must step back to the geo-political map of 1976-1990 and evaluate the alternatives.
A bunch of stuff happened between the fall of the Shah of Iran and the collapse of the Berlin Wall / Soviet Empire which framed the backdrop for U.S. political discussion and eventual activity in South Africa.
Namely, for those of us who were actually engaged in the fight, the last big push of desperate Communist expansion was underway.  (more…)

*Update* Reuters is reporting the nuclear material has been recovered.

“Both the container and the radioactive source have been located,” said Mardonio Jimenez Rojas, an official at the commission, told Reuters. “The radioactive source was removed from its container and was found a kilometer away.”  (link)

Another reason to worry about an unsecure U.S. border.   It is well known that various terrorist enterprises, including Hezzbollah and al Shabbab, have franchise operations in/around Mexico.   The radioactive product stolen, Cobalt-60, has the potential to become a significant element in a “dirty bomb”.    Cobalt-60 is used in medical radiation treatments for cancer patients, it is the targeting radioactive element used in a gamma knife.     Unprotected exposure to cobalt 60 is deadly.  A massive search is underway to locate the stolen container, U.S. ports and border agencies have been put on high-alert.
 VERACRUZ, Mexico –  A stolen container of highly radioactive material has been found empty, Mexico’s nuclear safety director said Wednesday.
Juan Eibenschutz says radioactivity has been detected about a half mile from where the stolen truck and empty container were found in the state of Mexico.
He says authorities have cordoned off the area.
The truck was hauling extremely dangerous radioactive material from used medical equipment when it was stolen from a gas station in central Mexico, and authorities had sent out an alert in six central states and the capital to find it, Mexican officials said earlier Wednesday. (more…)

The event highlighted yesterday at the U.S. Mexican border reminded me of an event from eight years ago.
(Via V-Dare 2007)  Armed Mexican gunmen advanced to “within yards” of a National Guard observation post on the U.S. Mexican border. The Guardsmen ran away.

Guardsmen overrun at the Border Channel 12 News, Arizon Jan. 4, 2007 02:44 PM
A U.S. Border Patrol entry Identification Team site was overrun Wednesday night along Arizona’s border with Mexico.
According to the Border Patrol, an unknown number of gunmen attacked the site in the state’s West Desert Region around 11 p.m. The site is manned by National Guardsmen. Those guardsmen were forced to retreat.
The Border Patrol will not say whether shots were fired. However, no Guardsmen were injured in the incident.
The Border Patrol says the incident occurred somewhere along the 120 mile section of the border between Nogales and Lukeville. The area is known as a drug corridor. Last year, 124-thousand pounds of illegal drugs were confiscated in this area.
The Border patrol says the attackers quickly retreated back into Mexico.

(more…)

The Washington Post has an article today finally solving the riddle of who was driving the tank in his historic picture of Tiananmen Square.   
According to Washington Post columnist, Bill Minutaglio, the driver of the tank in the famous Tiananmen Square picture was Thomas Jefferson;  yes, that Thomas Jefferson.
(Washington Post)   […]  To find the very roots of the tea party of 2013, just go back to downtown Dallas in 1963,   back to the months and weeks leading to the Kennedy assassination. It was where and when a deeply angry political polarization, driven by a band of zealots, burst wide open in America.
(more…)

(Via Heritage)   Last week’s closed-door testimony by five CIA operatives who witnessed the attack on the U.S. special mission in Benghazi has finally created an opening for the congressional investigating committees.

The five CIA contractors, who testified in closed-door hearings before the House Intelligence Committee Thursday and Friday, were stationed at the “CIA annex” in Benghazi, about one mile from the U.S. special diplomatic mission. This was the facility that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tasked Ambassador Chris Stevens to turn into a permanent consulate, even though security staff there was totally inadequate. (more…)

It’s bad enough to know confirmation exists of Al Shabbab Islamic terrorists having crossed the U.S. Mexico border;  but to know we are allowing immigration through traditional processes is, well, beyond alarming.

Several dozen suspected terrorist bombmakers, including some believed to have targeted American troops, may have mistakenly been allowed to move to the United States as war refugees, according to FBI agents investigating the remnants of roadside bombs recovered from Iraq and Afghanistan. 

(Via ABC News)  Two al Qaeda-Iraq terrorists were discovered living as refugees in Kentucky in 2009. The men later admitted in court that they’d attacked U.S. soldiers in Iraq, ABC News reported.
The investigation showed that Waad Ramadan Alwan was mistakenly allowed to resettle in Bowling Green, home to Western Kentucky University and very close to the Army’s Fort Knox and Fort Campbell. (more…)

Back in August the New York Times reported a national energy “Grid Test” was scheduled for November called “Grid Ex II”.      The pdf outlining the test has been removed/disabled (?).   Can anyone confirm this is going to happen Wednesday the 13th?   The Day after tomorrow.
WASHINGTON — [August 16] The electric grid, as government and private experts describe it, is the glass jaw of American industry. If an adversary lands a knockout blow, they fear, it could black out vast areas of the continent for weeks; interrupt supplies of water, gasoline, diesel fuel and fresh food; shut down communications; and create disruptions of a scale that was only hinted at by Hurricane Sandy and the attacks of Sept. 11.
This is why thousands of utility workers, business executives, National Guard officers, F.B.I. antiterrorism experts and officials from government agencies in the United States, Canada and Mexico are preparing for an emergency drill in November that will simulate physical attacks and cyber attacks that could take down large sections of the power grid. (more…)

John Kerry says that “President Obama has prosecuted al-Qaeda with unprecedented intensity”.   I swear; he did, he said that – we have video to prove.
Yet, al Nusra Front (aka al-Qaeda in Syria) are now considered on “our team”, and Kerry says they are the “best fighters”.   In Afghanistan, at Obama’s behest, we are now negotiating with Taliban (aka. al-Qaeda in Afghanistan).  And lest we forget Benghazi, Libya, and our dead Ambassador, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans, where not a single al-Qaeda terrorist has been held to account.
…. President Obama is prosecuting al-Qaeda?   Uh-huh.   And Chris Christie is “Conservative”.   Gotcha.

Someone tell me what exactly is the U.S. value, or interest, in this Obama-doctrine again?   Concessions for Iran and Disparagement for Israel ?    Seriously.

GENEVA – On the eve of a new round of nuclear talks between Iran and the six world powers, a U.S. official said Wednesday that the powers want Iran to halt its nuclear program for six months in exchange for temporary sanctions relief.
The American official added that imposing any new sanctions on Iran at this stage would seriously undermine the negotiations.
During the three weeks since the last round of talks in Geneva, Iranian experts have been meeting in Vienna with counterparts from the six powers – the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany – to discuss the technical aspects of this first step, including how Iran’s nuclear program will be suspended and which sanctions would be eased.  (read the update)

Meanwhile: (more…)

There is a particular poignancy with Lara Logan doing this story after all she went through in Egypt. Her report essentially vindicates all that Fox News has previously outlined. How will a spiteful White House respond?