Hagel voices U.S. concern over new Egyptian law limiting protest

oped: uuuhhh Chuck...we both served during the Vn era...we both were Buck Sgt's E-5...the difference is I dropped out of college to serve...you were drafted and it shows..your allegiance now is to Obama, and Lt. John Kerry...and as all Vets who served during Kerry's bogus service era  know...they are Marxist sympathizers and supporters... hello Jane 'Hanoi' Fonda crowd...Are YOU?


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel telephoned his Egyptian counterpart on Saturday to voice U.S. concerns about a new Egyptian law that curbs protests and has prompted the arrest of a group of Egyptian girls and political activists, a spokesman said.

Hagel, in a call to Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Saturday morning, said the Egyptian government's approach to free speech would be seen as a demonstration of its "commitment to a non-violent, inclusive and sustainable democratic transition," Pentagon spokesman Carl Woog said in a statement.
The U.S. defense chief is considered an important channel of communications with Egypt because of the close military ties between the two countries.
The United States provides Egypt with about $1.55 billion in aid annually, most of it military assistance. But U.S. officials said in October that the United States would withhold some of that assistance, including weaponry and cash, pending progress on democracy and human rights issues.

The Egyptian protest law, which bans demonstrations without prior police approval, was passed a week ago by the military-backed interim government and has provoked an outcry among rights groups.
Since then, police have used tear gas and water cannon to disperse Islamist protesters supporting deposed President Mohamed Mursi, who was ousted on July 3. A number of activists have been charged under the new law.
Ahmad Maher, a symbol of the popular uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, turned himself in to the authorities on Saturday after an order was issued for his arrest for defying the new restrictions.
And 21 women demonstrators were given prison sentences on Thursday of up to 11 years for participating in a violent protest in support of Mursi. Seven of the women were under age 18, the youngest 15.
Woog said Hagel and al-Sisi also discussed the status of Egypt's new constitution and its plans to hold a referendum to vote on the document. The new constitution will bolster the military's hand in the government and ban religious parties, according to a draft completed on Saturday.
Hagel and al-Sisi also discussed terrorism, border and maritime security and regional issues such as Syria and Iran, Woog said.
Hagel expressed condolences over the death of 10 Egyptian soldiers in a recent car bomb attack by al Qaeda-inspired militants in the Sinai and thanked al-Sisi for continuing to fight terrorism in the peninsula, Woog said.

(Reporting by David Alexander; editing by Gunna Dickson)

To Hell with Theocracy

As a Christian conservative, Zo is about as interested in a theocracy as he is interested in hell. Man is not meant to rule in God's name. We have a rule of law that is based on the Ten Commandments. That does not make this a theocracy, and conservative Christians aren't trying to make it one. But to those who worry about it. Save that for liberals who call themselves Christians. Hear more in this ZoNation. 

Be Grateful To Almighty God This Holiday Season

by Len Munsil 

During the holiday season, I feel some sympathy for those who try to write religious faith out of our nation’s history.
Suddenly everyone is talking about giving thanks to God, and even public institutions have to acknowledge the obvious. As a legendary liberal Supreme Court Justice, William O. Douglas, put it: “We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being…”
This season makes our heritage difficult to ignore.

A few years back in Arizona, we had a liberal Governor who struggled with requests that she issue a “National Day of Prayer” Proclamation. Not wanting to offend her friends at the ACLU, she settled on a Proclamation for a “National Day of Prayer or Reflection.”
Reflection – looking at ourselves in the mirror – is a useful exercise. But it’s not what a Day of Prayer is about. Prayer is about looking to God and connecting with God.
In the same way, Thanksgiving is about giving thanks to God. It is about WHO we are thankful to even more than what we are thankful for.
The preamble to Arizona’s Constitution – like the constitutions of most states – has a thanksgiving provision – “We, the people of the State of Arizona, grateful to Almighty God for our liberties, do ordain this Constitution.” 


The preamble to Arizona’s Constitution – like the constitutions of most states – has a thanksgiving provision – “We, the people of the State of Arizona, grateful to Almighty God for our liberties, do ordain this Constitution.”
U.S. Presidents from George Washington to Barack Obama – in times of peace and prosperity, and in times of economic challenges and war — have understood this and declared our thanks to God on behalf of a grateful nation.
President Lincoln was particularly eloquent. After listing the many blessings of God on our nation, even in the midst of the tragedy of the Civil War, he wrote: “No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.”
We are certainly grateful during this season for family, friends, and for those in uniform who help preserve peace and freedom. But let’s also take this opportunity to remind each other, and the nation, of the true meaning of Thanksgiving — our utter dependence on Almighty God. From Pilgrims to Presidents, through hard times and good times, let us remember to “give thanks in all circumstances.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18.

Len Munsil is president of Arizona Christian University.

The Polls You’re NOT Hearing About

by Dr. Kevin "Coach" Collins 

Despite a glee-filled report dated Oct 22nd from a stereotypical ABC News nerd – dark rimmed glasses, plaid shirt, orange tie, and hair combed like one of the gang at TMZ – insisting the Democrats’ government shutdown would hurt Republicans next year, no one really believes that. Americans didn’t believe the shamelessly left weighted polls last month; and they don’t believe them today, if they even remember them.
It’s a sure thing, however, that the Left wishes they could roll out some more fake polls to help Barack Obama out of his sink hole; but that’s not happening.
Because the Obama sandcastle is washing away so quickly, it is hard to say how far Obamacare has dragged him down. Is he at 42% approval as one of the “faker” polls had him earlier last week? Is he down to 38% approval? Or is that 37 or even 36%? The speed of his fall is dizzying.

A better way to gauge the destructive effect of Obama’s naked assault on America is examining the havoc it is bringing to his Party’s chances of regaining control of the House and holding the Senate next year.
A Morning Consult National Healthcare Tracking Poll gives us a peek at what the media would prefer we didn’t know about how Americans see the Obamacare disaster.
It says: Obamacare is at a net -12 approval and is upside down 28/63 with Independents, who trust Republicans to handle healthcare 58/42.
Sixty five percent believe Obama broke his promise (read: lied). While 29% (likely every one a Democrat) blames Republicans for the Obamacare mess (although not a single Republican voted for it), 40% blame the Democrats.
By 46/15, a recent Washington Post/ABC survey showed that Red State voters will be less likely to vote for a Senator who voted for Obamacare. The day of reckoning is coming for Democrats Mary Landrieu in Louisiana, Mark Begich in Alaska, Mark Pryor in Arkansas, and Kay Hagan in North Carolina – who has lost all of a once-daunting 17 point lead against any potential Republican opponent in just six weeks.
These are the surveys that are most telling.

CNN Target Audience Shrinks By 62 Percent

by B. Christopher Agee 
When determining a television network’s influence, no factor carries quite as much weight as its viewership numbers. For this reason, far left organizations CNN and MSNBC are in dire straits regarding their rapidly diminishing market share.
Comparing CNN’s audience to that of just one year ago, the steep drop in viewers is telling. During primetime, the network had 481,000 total viewers this month, with just 153,000 in the target demographic of viewers between the ages of 25 and 54. This marks a 62 percent decrease in viewership among that audience.
The results were similarly negative when comparing last November’s total day audience to monthly totals this year. With just 100,000 of the 335,000 total viewers in the target demographic, CNN’s viewership dropped nearly 60 percent in this measurement.

MSNBC fared slightly better during November, besting CNN’s results across the board. Still, neither network can hold a candle to cable news leader Fox News.
With more than 2 million primetime viewers, about 350,000 of whom fell into the target demographic, Fox News obviously offers a product viewers want. On the other hand, CNN and MSNBC remain so entrenched in their own ideology that they are quite literally causing people to tune them out by the millions.
It bears noting that last November’s totals were inflated throughout cable news due to the approaching presidential elections. The precipitous drops seen among CNN’s audience, however, were far beyond any losses experienced at Fox News.

Rupert Murdoch’s brainchild, for the sake of comparison, lost only about 20 percent of its election season audience in the intervening year.
CNN has apparently recognized its growing irrelevance, citing a desire to steer away from breaking news by featuring more documentaries on the network. Instead of acknowledging that executives and staff repeatedly failed to provide accurate coverage of news events, the network has instead decided to remove its emphasis on such coverage altogether.
Regardless, this pioneer in cable news has so irrevocably sullied its own reputation that CNN as a brand now appears destined for insignificance.
Photo credit: FLC (Creative Commons)

ObamaCare for Dummies

What if buying coffee was like buying health insurance?
Enjoy this brief video until you burst into flame at the contempt with which the Obama Regime treats those of us in the Serf class.

Christian Rocker Receives Death Threats From Liberals

by Kevin Banet
CityPages squawks about Dean, “He’s hidden in plain sight behind Captain America in this photo from the rally.” One can imagine the editors and writers, gleefully yucking it up over a Skype conference call, peering at photo after photo, looking for Dean like a gold nugget. They knew about his appearance because he was invited to speak at the event, thus drawing their thunderbolts of anger. In fact, Dean’s tall stature and long hair are very hard to make out in the crowd; but I guess you could say that he’s there. 

Not too long ago, when I lived in Chicago, I read a horrifying story about an eight-year-old boy who was shot to death a few blocks from where I lived.

It was one of those deeply disturbing stories, very sobering to a suburban-raised guy like me, especially since the boy was simply sitting in his car with his dad at the time.

His father had been driving down a busy street; and the boy, seeing newly-fallen snow, begged his dad to pull over so he could play in the white stuff. It was 10 pm; and the dad, wanting to please his son, gave in to his son’s wishes. They didn’t know it then; but when they parked in front of a public school, they had pulled up directly behind a car full of gang members.

One of the gang, apparently fearing that an enemy was out to get them, jumped out of the car, stepped close, and shot the boy through the windshield. 

Violence Begets Paranoia

We all hear about gang violence, but the untold story here is that the practice of evil twists one’s perception of others. When you kill others, you fear retribution. When you’ve unjustly committed some crime, you see in everyone else’s motives some hidden agenda against you. Thus, gang members are always looking over their shoulders at everyone passing by, hands in their pocket, gripping a gun, ready to fire.

In the book of Genesis, after Cain slew Abel, he said, “I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.” (Gen. 4:14) Cain, the murderer, feared the vengeance of others. He knew and feared that his act would draw others’ anger. 

CityPages Rant

This type of anger might be what’s behind the recent rant of the leftist publication CityPages, in asking its readers to look for Christian preacher and rock musician Bradlee Dean in a photo it published. In a headline that screamed, “Can you spot Bradlee Dean in this photo…,” the Minneapolis-based alternative newspaper drew attention to a Nov. 19 conservative event in Washington DC called Reclaim America Now.

Dean is a drummer for the band Junkyard Prophet and a public speaker who brings his message of respect for the Constitution and for America’s founding Biblical values to others. The fact that he’s getting through to the young people of this country is unsettling to leftist publications like CityPages, whose hatred of the proper respect for sexuality is mingled with normal features likes sports and restaurant reviews – all in an attempt to make its perverted agenda appear honorable. 

Seeing Ghosts

Like gang members, or Cain, these writers see the ghosts of their enemies around every corner, under every rock — in every patriot rally. Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth cries, “Out, damned spot!” at the imaginary blood stains on her hand after she has conspired with her husband to murder the king of Scotland.

Reclaim America Now’s organizer Larry Klayman has drawn the ire of CityPages, too. The website showcased the conservative lawyer’s divorce proceedings and made some outrageously false claims against him. Klayman is now suing the paper. Dean himself is suing CityPages, MSNBC, and Rachel Maddow for $50 million for defamation after their inflammatory and false statements were followed by anonymous death threats to Dean’s staff and family. Folks, aren’t these the real “hate crimes”?

Dean’s ministry and nationally-syndicated radio program can be followed at Sons of Liberty Radio. Why not like Bradlee Dean on his Facebook page?

Obamacare’s Chickens Are Coming Home To Roost

by Fred Weinberg 

So Harry Reid (D-Ritz Carleton, Washington DC) wants to make the Senate into a replica of the House he has repeatedly bashed since its majority went to the Republicans.

A little Boehner envy, perhaps?

It’s entirely possible that the historical precedent for the filibuster is more contained in black and white Jimmy Stewart films than in actual history. But you would have thought that the personal representative of MGM to Washington would have thought this move through in the context of his last hardball move, which was passing what they no longer want to call Obamacare. 

How’s that working out for him?

It’s only a matter of time before most of the people who supported Reid and Obama, but are now being clobbered by new rules Reid jammed through the Senate in 2010 on a party line vote, figure out it was really Reid who begat Obamacare.

Harry, famously, has the most flexible morals and ethics in Washington.

He’ll get a chance to display those when the madding crowd starts to roar in 2014 and 2016.

Gutting the filibuster has opened a clear path to de-fanging Obamacare, should the Republicans take the Senate and hold the house in 2014. 

Harry seems to be counting on one of two factors to prevent that.  First, that Obamacare will magically turn around in the peoples’ esteem and become as beloved as Social Security.  Second, that the Republicans are perfectly capable of destroying themselves. 

If we had to guess, the second factor is far more likely than the first. But as far as the Republicans go, even a blind hog can find an acorn. And it’s likely, given the polling data, that they can unite against Obamacare long enough to establish some semblance of leadership in Washington.

The sad truth is that the far left and the far right, given the chance, will destroy their respective party’s appeal to the 60% of the voters who get to decide where this nation is headed.

Now you can argue about the relationship of the Congressional chambers to history, but here’s a point that is cast in stone.

20% of the voters are hardcore Democrats, 20% are hardcore Republicans, and the middle 60% decide elections.  Those are the people who Reid and Obama have to ask in 2014 about Obamacare, “Who are you going to believe? Us or your lying eyes?”

The problems with Obamacare are so systemic that the chances of working them out to the satisfaction of the middle 60% in the time before November 8, 2016 are close to zero.

It will take bipartisan support for a fix, and Reid just threw that away.

The media cares about things like filibusters and Federal Judgeships. 

The actual public votes its checkbook.

And what the Obama Administration has never understood is that healthcare is a checkbook issue in its purest form. A crappy insurance policy that costs $1,000 a month and has a $12,600 yearly out-of-pocket limit is like buying a second house. And, that said, you cannot tell the average guy he has to pay another mortgage payment or deal with the IRS and get away with it.

Under those circumstances, the average guy will undoubtedly go to the polls and vote for the people who want to repeal that.

Had people been told that Obamacare was the requirement to go out and buy another house, it would not have been acceptable even to Democrats back in 2010.

Remember how Obamacare was sold.  It’ll be cheaper than your cell-phone bill and easier to buy than a book on Amazon.  And, by the way, if you like your current plan or your doctor, you can keep them.

Well, to quite its namesake’s favorite preacher, “America’s chickens are coming home to roost.”

Now, the economic consequences are becoming clear, and the bill will be coming due.

Instead of trying to gain some bipartisan support to fix it, Reid, being the moron he is in everything except getting elected, decided to pour gas on the fire. 

With some luck, that fire will consume him, Obama, and Nancy Pelosi for good.

One can only hope the Republicans—who also have trouble organizing a two car funeral—will avoid overplaying their hand long enough to actually fix things over the next five years.

Obama Leaves Another American Citizen Behind

by Rev Michael Bresciani 
Pastor Saeed Abedini goes on languishing in an Iranian prison in poor health as President Barack Obama touts his peace plan with Iran to the public. The centrifuges have slowed, but the subterfuge is on the rise as Obama’s latest foreign policy farce is heralded as the best deal with Iran in a decade.
The nation and those who represent Saeed Abedini (Jay Sekulow from the American Center for Law and Justice) and the wife and children of Pastor Saeed have all been cast off like they meant no more to Barack Obama than a few good soldiers and an ambassador to Benghazi.
Now the miserable mess known as ObamaCare has been assuaged, or at least toned down as Obama makes swelling statements on how he and John Kerry have made history together.

Saeed was arrested after trying to start an orphanage in Iran and for supporting home-based Christian churches from 2000 – 2005. His only crime is practicing his Christian faith.
We can only wonder if he was a Muslim, if Barack Obama would work for his release. It seems easier day by day to see that those who say Barack Obama is a self-centered borderline narcissist are not using hyperbole to make their point.
Iran is probably laughing at Obama’s gullibility while the cries of Saeed’s children are heard daily in the Abedini household. Naghmeh Abedini, Saeed’s wife, has reported that his children are calling for him more than ever before, and now they are about to see another Christmas pass without the presence of their father.

Fox News reported Tuesday that Saeed’s name was never mentioned at the table with John Kerry and the Iranian officials.
Obama’s quest for a deal with a nation that has sworn death to all Americans looks like more pure nonsense from a leader who hasn’t done a significant thing for this nation since he took office. Now, rather than bowing to Saudi Kings, he is throwing decent American citizens to them in lieu of some leadership with some backbone (and at least a tacit showing of care for American citizens.)
Jay Sekulow says that Obama has clearly “betrayed” Pastor Abedini to gain a little recognition from a foreign policy move that has procured nothing for the U.S. or Israel and allows Iran to come out from the weight of severe sanctions at no cost to them.
Diverting the attention from the ObamaCare disaster and saving face for an otherwise miserable showing as commander in chief may seem like a pretty sharp move for a president who hasn’t much to brag about; but for many Americans, many Christians, and many ministers of the gospel, leaving Pastor Saeed behind without a word from Obama is an act of selfish cowardice.
Yes, we have always expected our president to wield the influence of his office on our behalf, and we always will. To the same degree that Mr. Obama is showing his pride for his feigned and fickle foreign policy achievement, we are feeling shame for his abandonment of yet another decent American citizen.
Hasn’t this president, who claims to be a Christian, ever read these word spoken by the great prophet Isaiah?
“Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.” (Isa 1: 17)

American Prophet.org has since 2005 featured the articles and reports of journalist Rev Michael Bresciani along with news and reviews that have earned this site the title of The Website for Insight. Millions have read his timely reports and articles in online journals and print publications across the nation and the globe. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Photo credit: Robert Reed Daly (Creative Commons)

Breaking: Obama NSA Spied On Porn Habits As Part Of Plan To Discredit Enemies

 
[When 6 Muslims browsed porn online, the NSA was watching]

oped: Just *SMH* it would be cool if this was actually to discredit the radicals...by the way most of the 9/11 Hijackers went on a porn/prostitute and drinking (strip) club binge prior to their escapade of destruction!...However I am thinking either they are trying to cover up their own habits by claiming to be spying on radicals or a prerequisite to try to attack Obama's opposition... Republicans,Tea Party and conservatives in general...Good luck on that approximately 75 % of the population has visited a porn site one time or another out of curiosity or whatever! And I would bet dollars to donuts most who continually on a daily basis frequent theses sites would be progressive Liberals...lol

by Jim Hoft

 Here’s a copy of the document:
(Click to enlarge)
 
We all knew this was going to happen sooner or later.
The Huffington Post reported: 

The National Security Agency has been gathering records of online sexual activity and evidence of visits to pornographic websites as part of a proposed plan to harm the reputations of those whom the agency believes are radicalizing others through incendiary speeches, according to a top-secret NSA document. The document, provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, identifies six targets, all Muslims, as “exemplars” of how “personal vulnerabilities” can be learned through electronic surveillance, and then exploited to undermine a target’s credibility, reputation and authority.
The NSA document, dated Oct. 3, 2012, repeatedly refers to the power of charges of hypocrisy to undermine such a messenger. “A previous SIGINT” — or signals intelligence, the interception of communications — “assessment report on radicalization indicated that radicalizers appear to be particularly vulnerable in the area of authority when their private and public behaviors are not consistent,” the document argues.
Among the vulnerabilities listed by the NSA that can be effectively exploited are “viewing sexually explicit material online” and “using sexually explicit persuasive language when communicating with inexperienced young girls.”
The Director of the National Security Agency — described as “DIRNSA” — is listed as the “originator” of the document.

Gee, how long before they use this same tactic against Republicans?

Gitmo Inmates Rejecting Repatriation in Algeria

By Sandy Fitzgerald
The Obama administration may be pushing to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, but that doesn't mean all the prisoners want to go home.

Two Algerian prisoners being held at the Cuban naval base are fighting against being transferred out because they fear Islamist extremists will try to kill them when they discover the repatriated men don't share their views on violence, a lawyer for one of them told The Wall Street Journal. 

Robert Kirsch, who represents detainee Belkacem Bensayah, said sending him and the other Algerian detainee, Djamel Ameziane, back to the North African country is "the most callous, political abuse of these men," and is being done so the Obama administration can show progress on closing the prison.
 

The International Committee of the Red Cross has visited both prisoners for their exit interviews this week, said Kirsch, and has asked the United States to reconsider sending them back to Algeria, a claim the Red Cross has not yet confirmed.
 

They would be returning to Algeria as Islamist violence is growing there and in other North African countries. According to government reports, North Africa now houses 15 al-Qaida affiliates, according to a recent Forbes report, and there have more than 1,000 attacks in Algeria, LIbya, Tunisia, and Morocco since 2010. 

Cliff Sloan, the State Department's special envoy on the Guantanamo closing, refused comment on specific cases, telling the Journal that State is "moving ahead on the president's commitment to close Guantanamo responsibly, and we are making progress."
 

The Cuban prison, which former President George W. Bush opened in 2002, holds 164 prisoners, with 84 already cleared for release with restrictions. The government held a review last week for 21 more prisoners who are eligible to seek clearance, and nine others are either serving sentences or facing charges.
 

U.S. officials said they have already put off repatriation to some countries, including Tunisia, Syria, and Uzbekistan, along with Algeria, when detainees fear mistreatment upon going home.
 

Human rights activists say detainees' fears must be taken seriously.
 

"When you hear people say they would rather spend the rest of their lives in Guantanamo than go to a particular place, you have to take that seriously," said Andrea Prasow, a counterterrorism counsel with Human Rights Watch.
 

On Thursday, a senior Obama administration official, who was not named, said the United States does consider a detainee's concerns, but 14 detainees have already been sent back to Algeria without incident. 

Bensayah, 51, is one of six Algerians who were arrested in Bosnia for plotting to blow up U.S. and British embassies, and was turned over with the others to the United States in January 2002, shortly after Bush opened the prison.

The other five have already been released, but a judge ruled Bensayah was an al-Qaida "facilitator" who planned to go to Afghanistan, but later backed away from the claims, ruling him eligible for release. Bensayah wants to return to Bosnia where his family lives, but the U.S. prefers returning prisoners to their own countries.
 

Amezian, 46, was caught trying to enter Pakistan from Afghanistan following the U.S. invasion that came after the Sept. 11, 2011 attacks. He has been fighting repatriation to Algeria since 2009 and wants to be resettled in Canada.

Denial, Desperation, and Despotism

by SARTRE 

With the death of the American Republic, the headstone sums up the epitaph – stuck on stupid. People celebrate a “Politically Correct” mixed-race president as the maturing of the country. Very few writers describe the ways diverse and culturally conflicting factions clash with traditional values and tested institutions because any serious discussion automatically presumes to be racist. Such an adolescent and narrow-minded attitude surrenders to the forces of anti-intellectualism. It is time to liberate the fabricated guilt and face up to the certainty that our nation is a declared SOS zone.
Another media induced taboo, if you want to be part of polite society, is to criticize the public for their lack of understanding or backbone. The term “sheeple”, derogatory in nature, smacks of a counter-cultural assault on prevailing and acceptable attitudes. The irony is that such current middle-of-the-road viewpoints contradict our moral and principled heritage.
Activist Brandon Smith depicts the situation in his article “You Should Feel Sorry For Sheeple; Here’s Why.” –”The goal is to give sheeple comfort that they are “normal” and that anyone who steps outside the bounds of the mainstream is “abnormal” and a welcome target for the collective.” He goes on to elaborate the pollution from breathing the rarefied air of the ignorant.

• Sheeple Are Nothing Without The Collective
• Sheeple Need Constant Approval From Others
• Sheeple Are Incapable Of Original Creativity
• Sheeple Have No Passion
• Sheeple Are Useless
• Sheeple Are Easily Forgotten

American Denial is a disease that afflicts all political persuasions, but is severely acute in the feeble minds of “Great Society” true believers. For the uneducated pupils of government schools, the youthful appeal of grand public solutions under the velvet hand of bureaucratic guidance are seldom tempered with the harsh reality of the inevitable political deceit. Obamacare should be a tangible teaching experience; but for the social liberal and the bleeding heart Democrats, admitting that Barry Soetoro is a habitual liar is just too much to ask. Add in the helpless dependent welfare constituency, and you get a congregation of chumps who cannot even admit that their plight is worse off under the president who would be king.

The reason why social collectivism is accepted so readily stems from the construct that government pays the bills for all the establishment whores who administer, enforce, and expand the parasite society.
Forgotten and never admitted is the fact that the collection of taxes is an act of forced extortion. Likewise, mandatory health care coverage, paid by a relatively healthy youth generation to support an aging and ailing population, is pure theft.
Yet, the crazed and dazed Obama cheerleaders continue to act as propaganda props in a surreal adaptation of the theater of the absurd. You can just envision Forest Gump “stupid is as stupid does”, but none of these Obama brain surgeons ever hear or got the message.
For the remnant of the sane and rational, such as the authentic Tea Party grassroots, demonizing true patriots is a fun sport for the Statist sympathizers, directed at their movement.
Henry David Thoreau wrote about lives of quiet desperation. Today, our entire society’s desperate condition hardly moves the sheeple. Their reliance, based upon a delusional perspective that they “cannot survive without the system” keeps the Ponzi scheme going.
Without moral principles and ethical standards, only despondency and despair are predictable. Breaking down the will of the people to resist the systemic destruction of the cherished tenets of Western Civilization is the objective of progressive governance.
There is no serious loyal opposition coming out of the NeoCon Republican Party. The SOS alert has gone out for decades, much to the frustration of solid God-fearing Americans. However, the march towards complete authoritarianism is uninterrupted.

Only a citizen uprising/revolt and an acceptance of civil disobedience as a form of dissent has a chance to reverse the perils of government by Pharisee and Scribes regulation. Bureaucracies seldom end and never do voluntarily. Notwithstanding the Sheeple resignation, the real enemy is known to anyone with a command of history and current affairs. What is lacking is the will to act. The rest of the exploited must join in or move out of the way.
The system is only as powerful as apathy allows. Non-compliance stops despotism with implosion. The technocratic organism that challenges the rational basis of civilized conduct, with situation ethics of relative conditionality, is poison.
Hopelessness exists when people accept benign servitude. A sure sign of an establishment toady appears when a blanket denunciation of nonviolent resistance to a corrupt system is the only response offered. Read comments from the government trolls who populate the web with the assignment to discredit any patriotic movement or truth.
Breaking the bondage of a peer pressure/Stuck on Stupid attitude may seem to some as a courageous deed. Then again, what is more natural than the desire to be a free and honorable person? Only the corruptible and depraved will answer in the negative.
The Obama administration is the standing joke of late night ridicule. When will community disdain for the district of criminals materialize into a daily pattern of defiance? The nation deserves a concerted confrontation against the internal traitors. True American Patriots targeted for extinction are on notice. Only a country of dullards and spineless sycophants keep the system afloat.

If the vow of our founders was correct (“mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor”), what stops our fellow citizens from taking the same oath? How you react and engage in this struggle determines if you are a SOS fool or an esteemed national. The masters of the system are vulnerable from a mass uprising – break the denial syndrome, and fight to save our country.

November 19, 2013 Was America’s Kristallnacht

by Dr. Kevin "Coach" Collins 
History is almost always best understood in retrospect. Only on rare occasion are we able to see events and immediately identify them as historical milestones. Most of these are harbingers of trouble in the making.
On the night of November 9th and 10th, 1938, following orders from their Fuhrer Adolph Hitler, Germany’s Nazis (who had steadily moved in a heretofore deliberate but low-key manner against the Jews) removed their masks and took their attacks to the streets. Under what had become the “Law of the land,” they burned the Jews’ synagogues, shops, and homes. They rounded up 30,000 Jewish citizens and put them in “legally maintained” death camps. Germany’s Nazis brushed aside all pretense of being civilized people who could be dealt with rationally.  This savage attack is called Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass.
After their Kristallnacht, the Nazis stepped up their attacks on Jews and anyone else they hated. No amount of “worldwide condemnation” swayed them in the slightest.

There was not a peep from Germany’s media, which by that time had either joined the Nazis, become frozen in fear, or had been murdered for opposing them.
The Nazi’s Kristallnacht led to the murder of those whose continued existence was deemed not cost-effective. Anyone with a physical or mental defect was sent to a camp by completely legal “Death Panels.” Although Hitler was given power by a bare plurality in 1933, after Kristallnacht, anyone who wasn’t with them was an enemy who had to be destroyed; no one but Nazis had any rights. Hitler ran the courts, had the guns, and did everything according to “the law of the land.” He was answerable to no one because all his moves were “legal.”

On November 19, 2013, Americans experienced our “Night of Broken Glass” when the Democrats in the Senate decided that laws and procedures in place for hundreds of years are not as important as fulfilling the wishes of their Fuhrer. Their changes to our Senate’s rules means the Democrats have committed America’s Kristallnacht. They have cleared the way to use “the law of the land” to destroy our Constitution, which is the only barrier between us and 1938 Germany.
To ensure the success of his eugenic, fake “healthcare” program, Barack Obama can now follow the “law of the land” and thin us out by cutting off life support for the weakest and most vulnerable among us. He can import millions of new Democrat voters to take the place of “legally” eliminated Americans. They will vote to ensure that their own parasitical presence in America becomes “the law of the land” forever.  America’s Fuhrer can now use Hitler-like fiats to “LEGALLY” ascend to the position of dictator.
There are, of course, those who will laugh at this notion. But when you hear their cackling, ask them who has their allegiance– the Constitution or Barack Obama.  The answer will speak volumes.

Photo credit: Fresh Conservative (Creative Commons)  

Obama’s Knockout Game Against America

by Rick Badman 

One of the latest fads young people are involved with is called the Knockout Game. A group or a single person is walking down the street of some city and sees an unsuspecting person coming their way. They punch them in the face, and the victim usually falls to the sidewalk unconscious. It is dangerous because the victim isn’t expecting the punch and could land on something that could break their neck. A few of the punchers have been arrested. Often, they don’t think it is a big deal.
But President Obama has been doing his version of the Knockout Game for years. An unsuspecting America elects him and is made to think he will save it. Then he begins lowering the boom on the citizens, and America is still reeling. He said he would make creating jobs his number one priority. WHAM. He makes baling out his supporters and Wall Street his number one priority. He claims he wants students to receive the best education possible. WHAM. He shuts down the Washington, DC voucher program that allows parents in the District of Columbia to receive vouchers so they can send their kids to better schools. Maybe he feared poor students would be better than his two daughters.
He did his version of the WPA, which put so many Americans to work during the Great Depression. We are experiencing a similar economic downturn which he may have been partly responsible for since he backed the legislation that crashed our economy when he was in the Senate. But after spending hundreds of billions of dollars to create good permanent jobs, WHAM, we find out there aren’t nearly as many good permanent jobs (and some of the money hasn’t been spent yet.) Also, much of the money was never intended to be used for job creation. Money is invested in companies that go bankrupt, and unions are paid off.

Obama pushes for national health care like Progressives had been supporting for around a century. He says he wants the millions who don’t have health insurance to be covered by what is now called Obamacare. He promised we could keep our doctors and health care insurance policies if we liked them. WHAM. He lied. He said before he was elected that he wanted a single-payer national health care system, and it looks like he may get his way. He said people would save money. But he didn’t tell people that the cost savings might come at the expense of their lives. Doctors are quitting because they know the government doesn’t want to pay them in full. Hospitals are turning down Medicare and Medicaid patients because the government won’t pay all the expenses. Over $700 billion was transferred from Medicare to Obamacare. It was bad enough when Clinton took 10% of retirees’ Social Security checks in taxes in 1993, which has continued for 20 years. But with Medicare about to expire, transferring desperately needed funds into Obamacare is an enormous WHAM.

The latest WHAM comes from the Senate that decided to do away with the filibuster threat. Obama likes the idea of his nominees to the federal benches not being delayed by the Republicans filibustering his choices. The left-leaning DC federal court will now be able to go WHAM whenever it feels like it once the three recently chosen nominees become a part of the court. Will people in the district be able to exercise their Second Amendment right and carry a gun for protection? WHAM. Only the police and military will.
There may come a time in the future when protesters of the government will be arrested and, WHAM, put away for life. A preacher says something the government considers defamatory; and, WHAM, the preacher is locked up for years–and the doors of his church are padlocked. Our government trusts what the Iranians say; and, WHAM, they develop nuclear weapons in secret and receive missiles from North Korea, China, or Russia and can, WHAM, launch an attack on Israel. At least the Israeli missile defense system I will attempt to improve, if given the chance, will destroy the missiles over Syria or Jordan. But millions may die if the warheads are detonated.
When I hear Democrats say Obama doesn’t lie, I want to go, WHAM, wake up in the real world and not the Obamanation. When I hear Democrats say Obama is the greatest President, I again want to go, WHAM. We’ve lost millions of jobs that may never come back, and the real unemployment number is probably over 14%. And if it weren’t for the Fed buying bonds to prop up the stock market, WHAM, we’d have a depression.

When high unemployment causes Social Security to go belly up sooner than expected, our foreign investors decide America is too big a risk and want to redeem their bonds, our friends in the Middle East become our enemies (and our enemies take advantage of our loss of respect in the world), and over $100 trillion in unfunded mandates send our economy crashing, WHAM, this nation will be worst than a Third World Country. At least they can be bailed out. Not America. When a nation has been warned of troubles ahead like this country has been for decades, don’t be surprised if the final WHAM is the sound of the coffin lid on a nation that has expired.

Enjoy This Brain-Melting Hilarity From Daffy ObamaCare Defenders

by NewsEditor
Poll numbers for Barack Obama and his disastrous health care law are dropping faster than adolescent boys at a Miley Cyrus concert. Still, shameless cheerleaders for ObamaCare continue to twerk and twirl for the Dear Leader. Here’s the report as only Norvell Rose can deliver it…

Navajo Leader Defends Redskins Name

by B. Christopher Agee 

The radical left relies on hyperbole and fabricated causes in its desperate mission to remain relevant. Instead, these ideologues are often exposed as the partisan rabble-rousers they truly are.
Among the latest invented scandals involves the name of Washington, D.C.’s professional football team. While the Redskins have played for decades with a moniker to which the vast majority of Americans never gave a second thought, it has become a cause celebre among today’s perpetually indignant leftists.
While many prominent figures – including Barack Obama – have jumped on the bandwagon by insinuating that the team’s name is racist and offensive, there have been some interesting voices of opposition. Roy Hawthorne, for instance, recently expressed his belief that the name invokes many positive traits and does not demean Native Americans.

Hawthorne, who serves as the Navajo Code Talkers Association’s vice president, should be considered a reliable source on the matter. As one of four men honored during a game earlier this week, he offered some enlightening views.
“My opinion is that’s a name that not only the team should keep,” he said, “but that’s a name that’s American.”
Even as active protesters rallied at the stadium, Hawthorne and three other code talkers were honored for their bravery. These Native Americans from various tribes served during both World Wars by using a form of their native language to foil Japanese espionage efforts.
While some saw the ceremony as a publicity ploy, Redskins Senior Vice President Tony Wyllie denied the accusation, confirming that the “American heroes … deserved recognition.”

Dan Snyder, the team’s owner, has consistently defended the Redskins name, most recently by referring to it and the affiliated mascot as a “badge of honor.”
As in countless cases before, leftists have attached themselves to this particular cause without all of the facts. These activists use definitive rhetoric, leaving no room for dissent by claiming the conversation is already over.
Among Native American communities supposedly injured by the name, however, there is no such consensus.

Photo Credit: Keith Allison (Creative Commons)

Texas Sues EEOC Over Felon Hiring Rules

(Before It's News)

Texas is suing the EEOC to preserve its absolute ban on hiring felons for certain state positions.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed suit against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in federal court Monday, arguing that the EEOC’s guidelines “limit employers from excluding convicted felons from employment,” according to the Dallas Business Journal.
What does this suit mean for Texas employers, and can your business refuse to hire felons?
EEOC Guidelines Disapprove of Absolute Ban
The Texas suit alleges that the EEOC’s guidelines, released in 2012, prevent the Texas government from upholding its longstanding ban on hiring felons to state positions.
In particular, the EEOC noted that unlawful discrimination may occur when a state imposes a ban on hiring applicants with any criminal record. This discrimination can be actionable discrimination under Title VII.

Under these guidelines, a felon’s suit under Title VII would not be based on discrimination against felons, but more likely a disparate impact claim based on the policy’s effect of excluding a particular racial group.
A business can try to defend itself against such a claim by providing that the exclusionary policy is both:

• Job-related for the position, and
• A business necessity.

However, the EEOC’s enforcement guidelines state that an absolute ban on felons, even if imposed by state law, can still leave the employer open to federal discrimination lawsuits.

Texas Fights Back
The Journal reports that Texas currently blocks all felons from being employed in jobs like “state troopers, school teachers, and jailers,” and the current suit aims to keep it that way.
Legal conflict between state and federal authorities puts employers in the nasty position of violating state law in order to comply with the EEOC’s guidelines, which Abbott claims violates state sovereignty.
Those not compelled by state law to bar the hiring of felons may attempt to mitigate future liability by following Target’s lead and removing questions about criminal history from their applications.
Regardless of state laws, the EEOC’s guidelines do not prevent employers from denying positions to persons with criminal backgrounds that would present a risk based on the job position (e.g., felony sex offenders as day care workers). Still, Texas is fighting for the right to ban all felons for certain positions.

A Thanksgiving Message From Oath Keepers

Quick Links Oath Keepers Site Join Oath Keepers Oath Keepers Store National And State Chapter Forums Donate Contact Oath Keepers Youtube Facebook Twitter

A Thanksgiving Message From Oath Keepers Awaits Your Visit To Our National Website Enjoy some positive reading and a remarkable video, and share your thankfulness with a comment under the article, here: http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2013/11/27/a-meditation-for-thanksgiving-eve/   Salute! Elias Alias, editor

Thanksgiving Message from Allen West and a Note from Me..!

oped: Ok y'all don't forget to put Little Eva on and do the Turkey Trot Whilst a cookin' Ye old Turkey dinner:)

On Thanksgiving, we remember the hardships endured by those brave Pilgrims who broke from the Church of England and came to America for the simple goal of religious freedom. It is also the first night of Hanukkah, the celebration of the Festival of Lights, commemorating the miracle of the oil, the Maccabean victory over the Hellenic invasion and Jewish religious freedom. It is therefore appropriate that this Thanksgiving coincides with the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah for a very special "Thanksgivukkah" which won't occur for another 79,000 years or so. How fitting we should come together on this special day honoring the Judeo-Christian faith heritage of America, and our inextricable bond to the State of Israel. America and Israel both face seemingly insurmountable challenges at this time. However, as we gather in thankfulness with our families and friends, let us honor the perseverance of the early settlers and the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean revolt of the 2nd century BC. Let us recall the challenges these groups faced and let it inspire us to secure the promise of freedom and liberty for our next generation. We should take comfort in knowing that both America and Israel represent a sense of exceptionalism that has thrived against recurring threats and odds. And each year, we find ourselves celebrating Thanksgiving and Hanukkah. It seems somewhat a miracle that not even a week ago, a deal was struck with our common enemy, Iran. This is an enemy sworn to the destruction and elimination of our ally Israel, as well as the subjugation of our Constitutional Republic to their tyranny and totalitarianism. So here we are on this day, together giving thanks with our families and friends. Here we are saying to those who would break our bond that their efforts will fail and they shall be cast upon the ash heap of history -- and years from now our future generations will remember the early Pilgrims, the Maccabees, and those of us today who pledge to keep Thanksgiving and Hanukkah always and forever. Steadfast and loyal, Lt. Col. Allen B. West, USA (ret) U.S. Congressman (2011-2013)

Islam~Sharia Law~AlQaeda~Taliban~MB~ Obama et al must go...!

PERIOD...

Afghanistan ‘plans to reintroduce public stoning as punishment for adultery’

oped: Yes indeed we really settled all the 7th Century issues in Afghanistan...we are pulling out and they are going back to business as usual! I say make it a glass factory and be done with this bullish country once and for all! If not we will only see more attacks on our country from the Taliban and their associates in crime AlQaeda. Of course remove all the women and children first...! 

By Admin Conservative Action Alerts 

Afghanistan is planning to reintroduce public stoning as punishment for adultery 12 years after the Taliban was ousted from power, according to a new draft penal code.
The move has shocked human rights campaigners and will dismay donors who have poured billions of pounds into the country for reconstruction.
It will be viewed as another backwards step at the end of a year that has seen women’s rights undermined, with a slew of legislation and murders of prominent women.
Human Rights Watch called for international donors to withhold funding if the government goes ahead with the plan.
“It is absolutely shocking that 12 years after the fall of the Taliban government, the Karzai administration might bring back stoning as a punishment,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at HRW.
“President Karzai needs to demonstrate at least a basic commitment to human rights and reject this proposal out of hand.”
The draft — devised by a working group led by the justice ministry, parts of which have been obtained by The Telegraph — states that unmarried adulterers should be subject to 100 lashes. If they are married, the punishment is stoning in a public place.

Death by stoning was used as punishment for adultery during Taliban rule, a brutal period which included bans on radio, television and music and ended in 2001 when Nato forces seized Kabul.
Since then, human rights – and women’s rights in particular – have frequently been cited as a measure of progress under the government of President Hamid Karzai.
His government signed up to international human rights conventions and the current penal code does not allow stoning as a punishment.

This article was written by Bob Crilly for the London Telegraph; continue reading at the London Telegraph …
(Image: AFP / Getty)

Whom Is John Kerry Representing?

By Phyllis Schlafly 

John Kerry is turning out to be an even more dangerous Secretary of State than Hillary Clinton. He just took it upon himself to unilaterally proclaim that the Monroe Doctrine is dead, saying, “The era of the Monroe Doctrine is over.”
The Monroe Doctrine has been a fixed star in American foreign policy since December 2, 1823. Its essential words are: “The political system of the allied powers is essentially different from that of America. We should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety.”
The operative words are: “this hemisphere,” “dangerous to our peace and safety,” and “system.” The Monroe Doctrine is not limited to military aggression; it prohibits extending the “system” of foreign powers to the Western Hemisphere, recognizing the fundamental difference between our constitutional republic and Old World empires and dictatorships.
The Marquis de Lafayette called the Monroe Doctrine “the best little bit of paper that God ever permitted any man to give the world.” The Monroe Doctrine has been successful over the centuries in keeping Old World dictatorships out of our hemisphere.

In 1823, the Monroe Doctrine was specifically directed at Imperial Russia when Czar Alexander was trying to colonize our Pacific coast. President James Monroe made his courageous declaration at a time when America had no standing army and our navy had only five sailing ships.
But we had a proud sense of national identity and national security. Monroe’s Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, stated, “There can, perhaps, be no better time for saying, frankly and explicitly, to the Russian government that the future peace of the world cannot be promoted by Russian settlements on any part of the American continent.”
During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the problem was Russia again. The American people fully backed President John F. Kennedy in forcing Khrushchev to remove Soviet missiles from Cuba.
In October 1983, the Soviet Union tried to turn the island of Grenada into a Soviet base. The American people fully backed Ronald Reagan’s use of U.S. troops to counter this threat in the Western Hemisphere, and we can look back on Reagan’s rescue of Grenada as the turning point in official American policy toward Soviet Communism.

The U.S. State Department later published a selection from the 35,000 pounds of captured documents proving how the Soviet Union had planned to use Grenada as a base of operations and supplies. Grenada was being prepared as an air base for Soviet military jets, a port for Soviet vessels, and a base for exporting revolution.
One document quoted a Soviet military chief as gloating, “Nineteen years ago we had only Cuba. Now we have Cuba, Nicaragua and Grenada – we are making progress.” But Communist progress was halted when Reagan ended the Cold War, as Margaret Thatcher famously said, “without firing a shot.”
Like Kerry’s repudiation of the Monroe Doctrine, he is selling out U.S. interests in other negotiations, many of which are conducted in secret such as the current ones with Iran and Afghanistan. The Associated Press reported that “The U.S. declined to release specific details about the negotiations” with Afghanistan, and John Kerry confirmed this week that “We have agreed on the language that would be submitted to a loya jirga.”
Kerry didn’t define “we,” but we know it does not include the American people, who certainly have not agreed on any terms of a treaty with Afghanistan. Much as the American people don’t want to put our fate in the now-dictatorial hands of Harry Reid’s Senate, we surely don’t want to be subject to the 3,000 Afghans called the loya jirga.

According to what has leaked out about this treaty and exposed by Diana West, U.S. forces will be forbidden to conduct combat operations in Afghanistan, or even counterterrorism operations against al-Qaida-brand terrorists, without Afghan approval. This agreement commits America to prop up a hostile, corrupt Sharia state, with all our training and equipping of Afghan military forces subordinate to Afghanistan’s approval.
The treaty includes this passage: “The United States shall have an obligation to seek funds on a yearly basis to support” the defense and security of the Afghan state. This massive new entitlement program even specifies that “relevant Afghan institutions” will dole out the dollars, so perhaps we should call them “navigators” who will be expediting Afghan-o-care.
During Obama’s 2008 campaign, he said that George Bush “had taken our eye off the ball” by invading Iraq instead of concentrating on Afghanistan, and Kerry charged that Bush “hoodwinked the American people” into the Iraq war. Obama presumably wanted us to look upon the war with Afghanistan as a good war with which he was glad to be personally identified.

One Reason to be Thankful

American Conservative,
This year we’ve seen a lot of awful things happen at our nation’s capitol: Obamacare saved, the debt ceiling raised, and Harry Reid’s nuclear attack on the filibuster just last week.
And with Thanksgiving a day away it may seem, at least as far as Washington is concerned, that there is really nothing to be “thankful” for as bigger government, more debt, and less freedom are things never to be celebrated.
These things stated, there’s at least one good reason to be thankful: Congress is doing a lot less than they normally do.
This is very good news.
To date, the 113th Congress has passed a historically low number of bills. While a total of 9,425 pieces of legislation have been introduced in some form since January – bills, amendments to bills, resolutions, etc. – only fifty-two have become public law.
Putting these numbers into perspective, Harry Truman’s 1948 “do-nothing congress” passed more than seventeen times as many bills as the current legislature.
Seeing that approximately ninety-percent of what Congress does today is unconstitutional, a legislative slow-down is worth celebrating as it means less tyranny.

So when you’re enjoying turkey with family and friends tomorrow, remind them that the federal government is actual growing slower than usual!
We need to tell lawmakers we’re grateful for this and remind them that only necessary and wise bills ought to be made into law.
Sign our petition and tell your U.S. lawmakers you’re grateful that Congress is passing fewer bills — send your no-cost messages here.

We’re Being Heard
Fewer laws are not a result of Congress not showing up for work; they’re the result of our taking action.
A deluge of unnecessary legislation has been prevented because we made our voices heard loud and clear on the Hill in recent months – our faxes, messages, and phone calls have made, and are making, a national impact.
A perfect example of this is the defeat of Harry Reid and the gun-grabbers’ “Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act” back in mid-April. Because we took action, we saw the most sweeping gun-control bill in recent history go down in flames.

But we know that the fight is far from over. We know that the Establishment members of both parties want to grow government for their own gain – despite the Constitution and despite the American People.
Conservative Action Alerts is committed to challenging the establishment and fighting the statists in Washington, but we can’t do it alone. We need your support to help us keep the pressure up and mobilize more of the grassroots.
Your donation of $15, $25, or $100 will help us ramp-up our media efforts and campaign even stronger against big government. Will you chip-in whatever you are able and support us?
Help Conservative Action Alerts fight the establishment and defend limited government — donate to support our media efforts here.
Happy Thanksgiving, Conservative Action Alerts
www.ConservativeActionAlerts.com
P.S. Don’t forget to tell lawmakers you’re thankful their doing less. Sign the petition and send your no-cost message here.

Conservative Action Alerts (CAA) is a media outlet protected by the first amendment; no financial contribution to support our efforts is tax-deductible. Diener Consultants, Inc., 10940 S Parker Rd Ste# 763, PARKER, CO 80284-7440

Barack Obama..The Duke of Earl,The great Pretender or both?

Well I say both...you be the judge!

Defying China, U.S. bombers fly into East China Sea zone

[A group of disputed islands, Uotsuri island (top), Minamikojima (bottom) and Kitakojima, known as Senkaku …]

By Phil Stewart and David Alexander
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two unarmed U.S. B-52 bombers on a training mission flew over disputed islands in the East China Sea without informing Beijing, defying China's declaration of a new airspace defense zone and raising the stakes in a territorial standoff.
The flight did not prompt a response from China, the Pentagon said, and the White House urged Beijing on Tuesday to resolve its dispute with Japan over the islands diplomatically, without resorting to "threats or inflammatory language."
China published coordinates for an East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone over the weekend and warned it would take "defensive emergency measures" against aircraft that failed to identify themselves properly in the airspace.
The zone covers the skies over islands at the heart of a territorial dispute that China has with close U.S. ally Japan.
"The policy announced by the Chinese over the weekend is unnecessarily inflammatory," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters in California, where President Barack Obama is traveling.

"These are the kinds of differences that should not be addressed with threats or inflammatory language, but rather can and should be resolved diplomatically," he said.
Two U.S. B-52 bombers carried out the flight, part of a long-planned exercise, on Monday night EST, a U.S. military official said.
The lumbering bombers appeared to send a message that the United States was not trying to hide its intentions and showed that China, so far at least, was unable or unwilling to defend the zone.
Beijing may have been caught off-guard and could change its approach down the road, said Dean Cheng, an analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank.
"The Chinese may not have expected such a strong American reaction so soon," Cheng said. "The fact that Washington responded and responded so strongly sends a very clear challenge back to Beijing saying: 'Look, in case you were wondering, we are serious when we say we are an ally of Japan. And do not mess with that.'"

The B-52s, which have been part of the Air Force fleet for more than half a century, are relatively slow compared with today's fighter jets and far easier to spot than stealth aircraft.
"We have conducted operations in the area of the Senkakus. We have continued to follow our normal procedures, which include not filing flight plans, not radioing ahead and not registering our frequencies," spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said, using the Japanese name for the islands.
The dispute flared before a trip to the region by Vice President Joe Biden, who is scheduled to travel to Japan early next week and also has stops in China and South Korea. The White House announced the trip in early November.
The East China Sea dispute will figure prominently on Biden's agenda.
'DESTABILIZING'
While Washington does not take a position on the sovereignty of the islands, it recognizes that Japan has administrative control over them and is therefore bound by treaty to defend Japan in the event of an armed conflict.
The Pentagon said the training exercise "involved two aircraft flying from Guam and returning to Guam." Warren said the U.S. military aircraft were neither observed nor contacted by Chinese aircraft.

The United States and Japan have sharply criticized China's airspace declaration, with U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel calling it a "destabilizing attempt to alter the status quo in the region." He said on Saturday the United States would not change how it operated there.
The Chinese move was believed to be aimed at chipping away at Tokyo's claim to administrative control over the area, including the tiny uninhabited islands known as the Diaoyu in China.
Japan's two biggest airlines - Japan Airlines and ANA Holdings - bowed to a Japanese government request to stop complying with the Chinese demands for flight plans and other information. They will stop providing the information on Wednesday, spokesmen for the carriers said.
China's Defense Ministry said it had lodged protests with the U.S. and Japanese embassies in Beijing over the criticism from Washington and Tokyo of the zone.
China also summoned Japan's ambassador, warning Tokyo to "stop words and actions which create friction and harm regional stability," China's Foreign Ministry said. Tokyo and Seoul summoned Chinese diplomats to protest.
In addition, China sent its sole aircraft carrier on a training mission into the South China Sea on Tuesday amid maritime disputes with the Philippines and other neighbors and tension over its airspace defense zone.

It was the first time the carrier was sent to the South China Sea.
(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason in California, Matt Spetalnick and Lesley Wroughton in Washington, Tim Kelly in Tokyo, Lincoln Feast in Sydney,; Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Megha Rajagopalan, and Manny Mogato in Manila; Editing by Alistair Bell and Peter Cooney)

Insight: After Assad, Syria democrats learn to fear Qaeda

 By Mariam Karouny 
BEIRUT (Reuters) - When he was agitating for revolution, urging fellow Syrians to rise up against President Bashar al-Assad, Abdullah dreaded the midnight knock at the door from the secret police.
Now that the uprising has succeeded in his home town near Aleppo, pro-democracy activists are living in fear again - and this time those who brand them "traitor" don't bother to knock.
Two years ago, after Abdullah broke off his studies to run social media campaigns against Assad, he was held and tortured by security men. This summer, it happened again - only now it was Islamist gunmen loyal to al Qaeda who smashed into his family's house, broke everything in their way and took him off to a cell where, once more, he was blindfolded and beaten.
"The sad thing is that those who were doing this were not Assad's police," Abdullah told Reuters from Turkey, where he managed to flee after his latest ordeal. "They were fighters who were supposed to be fighting for freedom, our freedom.

"Back then they called me 'traitor' for demanding freedom. These armed men also tortured me for calling for freedom."
His story is increasingly familiar across northern Syria, where Assad's government has ceded territory to a bewildering array of rival militias. The rising power is militant Islam and men who see democracy as the work of the devil, or the West, a system contrary to their hopes for a state ruled by religion.
Abdullah's experience also highlights the fragmentation of Syria's opposition, which greatly complicates new international efforts to end a civil war that has killed over 100,000.
Reuters spoke to 19 Syrians who describe themselves as activists for democracy. All gave similar accounts of violence and intimidation by militant Islamists in northern areas no longer controlled by Assad's "mukhabarat" security services.
Most were students when Syria's Arab Spring protests began in March 2011. All got involved in publicizing demonstrations - and documenting Assad's crackdown on them - using social media. They went on, as self-taught journalists, to provide images and reports for Syrians and international media as the war spread.

Some, like Abdullah, have now had to flee for their lives.
They, and those still inside Syria, say Islamist militants have begun a campaign to silence them and free speech in general. Last month, two media activists were shot dead in broad daylight in Aleppo, Syria's biggest city. Some have been seized and are being held. Others have simply disappeared.
AL QAEDA FEAR
In particular, those who spoke recounted the fear spread by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The al Qaeda-linked group, dominated by foreigners blooded in other wars, from Libya to Iraq and Afghanistan, does not tolerate critics.
"It is impossible for me to go to Syria now. I am wanted by the regime and by al Qaeda," said Rami Jarrah, who ran a radio station in the city of Raqqa until early October, when ISIL gunmen shut it down and took away one of his colleagues.
Now living in Turkey, from where Radio ANA continues to broadcast into Syria, Jarrah won early fame among "media activists" in 2011, employing the English of his British education to forge an international reputation blogging from Damascus, where foreign news organizations had little access.
When a pen-name - "Alexander Page" - failed to shield his identity, he fled the country but returned later to "liberated" northern Syria, where he helped set up broadcasting in Raqqa.

The station's mistake, he said, was to open its airwaves to phone-in callers venting grievances against the Islamists:
"People were calling in and saying ISIL did this and did that. 'They closed my shop' or 'attacked my wife and forced the hijab on her'," Jarrah said. The militants, online themselves, accused him of "atheism" and put a price on his head.
Journalists have long faced suspicion and harassment from rebels, gunmen forcing them to stop filming, sometimes seizing equipment or raiding apartments and cafes where they have set up "media centers" to share and distribute videos and reports.
But in recent months, events have taken a more sinister turn. Several of those working in Aleppo have gone missing. In some cases, their bodies have been found - tortured, shot and left on the street. Friends and relatives of others have been told by militants that the activists have been arrested.
Hazem Dakel, from Idlib, described what that could mean.
Now also living in Turkey, his ordeal began when two men on a motorbike forced his car to a halt after he had been filming in an area run by ISIL. Held in a house, they accused him of "opposing Islam". He was lucky, and escaped through a window.
If he had any doubt what would have happened had he stayed, a call from one of his captors to an acquaintance still in Syria has since removed it: "They were planning to execute me on the night I escaped," Dakel said. "They were going to take me to a notorious abandoned factory where they execute people."

UNDER SURVEILLANCE
The militant Islamists have won respect among Syrians in the north, partly by their fighting mettle, party by imposing order where feuding among rival rebel warlords had broken out, partly by ensuring supplies of food and medicines. But for democratic activists, that does not excuse other failings.
"Our problem with them is ideological," said Jarrah. "They want to force their ideology without asking our opinion.
"The regime deprived us of freedom of expression and they are doing the same," he added. "Anyone liberal - or not Islamic enough according to their standards - is getting arrested. They want all local radios to broadcast from a centre they control."
Jarrah said he knows of at least 60 activists who have been detained by al Qaeda gunmen or have simply gone missing.
One man still living in rebel-controlled territory near the central city of Hama described the fear that still forces him to conceal his identity - as he did when Assad held the area.
"I live in a liberated country area near Hama and I walk around looking over my shoulder all the time," he said. "It is like we are back to the old days when we were running from the mukhabarat. But now we are running from our Islamist brothers."
Though he himself favors an Islamic state, the activist said that his online condemnations of sectarian killings of civilians who belonged to Assad's Alawite minority prompted warnings from Islamist militants that he should keep quiet.

Like the government's security service, Islamist groups keep a close eye on what activists are saying on the Web.
"They know everything," an activist from Deir al-Zor said. "One word can get you killed or make you disappear ... They look for our names, what we said to this newspaper or to that magazine. They watch us like hawks. And then they act."
Rami Jarrah and others were publicly condemned in an online post under the headline: "Western agents in Raqqa, or democracy activists? In religious terms, is there much difference?"
In the middle of a civil war that shows little sign of abating despite international plans for a peace conference in January, Syrians have limited means to oppose the armed groups.
Jarrah said those who campaigned for free speech must bear some blame for their predicament: "We used to say 'It's OK, they believe in God and fight on the frontlines'," he said.
"So we ignored their atrocities."
Abdullah, the activist who fled Aleppo province, argued that the experience of standing up to the Assad family after four decades of submission would mean Syrians may more quickly break the new "barrier of fear" to speak up against al Qaeda.

There have been signs of anti-Islamist demonstrations.
Some people filmed themselves marching this month outside a building in Aleppo where they believed ISIL was holding fellow activists. A video on YouTube shows about 30 of them chanting: "Shame! Shame! Kidnapped in free, rebel territory!"
But, just as Assad accuses his opponents of playing stooges to foreign powers, militant Islamists in Syria say they will not heed complaints from activists they also view as traitors.
One Syrian blogger who is close to another al Qaeda-linked group, al-Nusra Front, dismissed accounts of oppression and intimidation from democratic activists as exaggerated and intended to "please the West" by slandering Islamists.
"Those who accuse Islamists of violations," he said, "Are following a Western agenda."
(Editing by Alastair Macdonald)