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Video, World

 

obama on isis 'we don't have a strategy'

President Obama speaks about the economy, ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and Putin’s aggression toward Ukraine Aug. 28, 2014. (Photo: AP)

In the days and weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by Al Qaeda on the U.S. homeland, it became apparent that then-Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George W. Bush perceived the threat from radical Islam in much the same manner, and shared much the same worldview. Even during times of public outrage, the two most-powerful Western leaders of the free world stood side-by-side and steadfast against the pressures of staying the course in Iraq and the greater War on Terror.

Over the past six years, the U.S.-U.K. relationship has undergone a radical shift and, as is also the sometimes very visible case with U.S.-Israeli relations, is now nearly unrecognizable from past presidencies. At no time has this become more apparent than in the aftermath of the horrific video surfacing on the Internet, in which a British-born executioner belonging to ISIS, also known as IS or ISIL, beheaded American journalist James Foley.

Speaking at a press conference Thursday, President Obama downplayed the prospect of an imminent threat from ISIS, as well as reports claiming the White House was crafting plans to commence U.S. airstrikes in Syria.

“ISIL poses an immediate threat to the people of Iraq and the people of the region,” Obama said, flatly ignoring recent warnings from the U.S. intelligence community over potential terror attacks on the U.S. homeland. With the anniversary of 9/11 approaching, Obama has convinced himself the threat is apparently willing to wait. The president shocked the entire White House press corps by admitting “we don’t have a strategy yet” with a straight face.

Meanwhile, across the pond in the U.K., Prime Minister David Cameron has been far more engaged than President Obama. In the immediate aftermath of James Foley’s execution, Cameron returned from his vacation to meet with the heads of MI5 and MI6, Britain’s two main intelligence agencies, as well as members from his government. He had a mission to 1) identify the obviously British-born executioner in the video and, 2) assess the prevalence of homegrown radicalization in the U.K. isles.

On the other hand, President Obama could be photographed fist-bumping Cyrus Walker during a five-hour long round of golf at the Farm Neck Golf Course on Martha’s Vineyard. Worse still for both optics and simple humanity, Obama’s ear-to-ear smile is unstoppable just minutes after making remarks respecting Foley’s murder and the ISIS threat.

Obama fist-bumps Golf course

American journalist James Foley (far-left) kneels as he bravely awaits his death at the hands of his cowardly executioner, Abdel Majed Abdel Bary. Meanwhile, Obama fist-bumps Cyrus Walker (center-right) alongside Glenn Hutchins (center) at the Farm Neck Golf Course on Martha’s Vineyard. (Photo: AP/Catholic4Life)

Not Prime Minister Cameron, who British intelligence officials told PPD was vehement and adamant from the onset, and still remains. Further, Cameron’s worldview is the basis for why his remarks were unapologetic.

“This threat [ISIS] can not be solved simply by dealing with the perceived grievances over Western foreign policy,” U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said in public remarks Friday. Unlike President Obama, who truly and foolishly believed radical Islam would somehow dissipate without incident if only the U.S. pulled out of Iraq, Cameron appeared clear-minded regarding the nature of the threat from radical Islam.

“Nor can it be dealt with by addressing poverty, dictatorship, or instability in the region, as important as those are. The root cause of the threat to our security is quite clear,” he added. “There is a poisonous ideology of Islamist extremism that is condemned by all faith and by all faith leaders.”

Cameron reminded the British people of the homegrown 7/7 bombers who blew up two trains and buses. On July 7, 2005, Islamic terrorists carried out a series of coordinated suicide attacks in central London, which intentionally targeted civilians through public transportation, during the morning rush hour no less to be more effective. Not including the 4 suicide bombers, 52 British citizens lost their lives in the attack and roughly 700 were injured.

“The links between what happens overseas and what happens here has also always been there,” Cameron said. “What we’re facing in Iraq now with ISIS now is a greater and deeper threat to our security than we have known before.”

While President Obama doesn’t want to “put the cart before the horse” when confronting the threat from ISIS and radical Islam, Prime Minister Cameron appears to making the argument to the British people that precedes military engagement. Even if Obama is actually working politically and diplomatically behind the scenes to “cobble together” a coalition, it is hard to believe that Cameron would feel confident in his resolve or strategy to follow through.

Last week, President Obama twice contradicted both his own joint chief of staff’s and defense secretary’s statements, as well as his own past statements. We learned this week that U.S. intelligence was aware of the existential threat from ISIS long before the president made his “JV” remarks, but his critics say he intentionally ignored the threat for political reasons and to avoid admitting he was wrong on Iraq, all along.

Obama’s stubborn refusal to change course as his predecessor’s have done — including President Carter who abandoned a similarly naive worldview following the Iran hostage crisis — is making it increasingly difficult to combat the current and grave threat facing the West. Despite the overwhelming evidence of its foley, he has opted for indecision, something no leader nor ally — even our once-inseparable ally, Great Britain — could ever follow.

At no time has the disconnect between

Video, World

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that the shelling by Kiev in East Ukraine reminds him of the Nazi seize of Leningrad during World War II. “Of course, it is very sad. It reminds me of World War II,” Putin said, “when German forces encircled Russian cities like Leningrad.”

Well, of course, Putin wasn’t even alive during the Nazi seize of Leningrad. He is only 61 years-old and was born on October 7, 1952. The 872 days of the Nazi siege of Leningrad from September 8, 1941, to January 18, 1943, resulted in an almost unspeakable amount of death and grave suffering from famine, thirst and violence. The German army cut off civilians from utilities, water, energy and food supplies. When all was said and done, nearly 1,500,000 soldiers and civilians were killed. and the evacuation of 1,400,000 more, mainly women and children, many of whom died during evacuation due to starvation and bombardment.

The video above and translation below were provided by Russia Today, a Russian state-run media organization.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: Now we see that big cities and small towns alike are encircled by the Ukrainian army, which take direct hits at residential areas to destroy the vital infrastructure and suppress the will of those who resist them. Of course, it is very sad. It reminds me of World War II, when German forces encircled Russian cities like Leningrad, — St. Petersburg, right? — So they encircled St. Petersburg and hit residential quarters with heavy artillery.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that

Polls, Video

A recent survey from Gallup finds a slight 53 percent majority of Americans still approve of labor unions, but the right to work movement is supported by the vast majority of adults. The data suggest a real problem for unions moving forward, as even their own members are divided in their views of right to work laws. After decades of outright opposition to them, members have shown a propensity to break from their union bosses over the last several years.

“At the same time Americans express greater approval than disapproval of unions, they widely support right-to-work laws,” said Jeffrey M. Jones at Gallup. Consistent with year-over-year declines measured in the past, just 10 percent of Americans now identify as union members according to Gallup’s Aug. 7-10 poll.

A right to work law is characterized by the National Right to Work Legal Foundation in the following language:

A Right to Work law secures the right of employees to decide for themselves whether or not to join or financially support a union. However, employees who work in the railway or airline industries are not protected by a Right to Work law, and employees who work on a federal enclave may not be. Moreover, a Right to Work law does not prohibit limitations on when a dues deduction authorization card can be revoked.

Since Gallup began tracking the question nearly 80 years ago, unions have consisting lost ground and the level of support, or labor union approval has been as high as 75 percent. But that was in the 1950s and, now, 38 percent disapprove of unions, while there is widespread approval of right to work laws.

A whopping 71 percent of Americans say they would vote for a right to work law, up from 62 percent who said the same in 1957. The poll also found 82 percent of Americans agree that “no American should be required to join any private organization, like a labor union, against his will,” a central tenet of right to work philosophy. However, despite widespread approval, Democratic Party efforts have limited the number of states have such laws. Currently, 24 states have right to work laws in place.

Right to Work Map

Right to Work States Map via National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation Inc.

Even though Americans typically favor choice no matter the issue, philosophy may not be the only contributing factor to the success of the right to work movement. In Gallup’s annual Confidence in Institutions survey, only 10 percent said they have a great deal of confidence in organized labor, and only 12 percent say they have quite a lot of confidence in them.

The future of both public and private labor unions is very much in doubt. They are bleeding membership, and losing the battles for both public opinion and legal opinion. In June, the Supreme Court ruling in Harris v. Quinn dealt a significant blow to the effort to expand public employee unions, but it did not gut them.

Because of the ruling, unions lost a tool of coercion they’ve used to expand their membership, reach and political power for decades. Many legal experts believe the high court will overturn prior precedent and completely forbid requiring public employees to contribute to union bargaining, rather than membership dues.

A recent survey from Gallup finds a

Video, World

The recent and long-overdue attention the terror group ISIS has received from the Western world has raised a number of questions and concerns over European policies toward radical Islam. Senior Western intelligence officials confirmed on August 24 that 23-year-old London rapper Abdel Majed Abdel Bary was believed to be the executioner who beheaded James Foley in a recently released video.

To discuss the beheading, Sean Hannity recently interviewed London imam Anjem Choudary, an Islamic radical who was once upon a time portrayed as a moderate by Britain’s progressive political elite. Nile Gardiner, a leading authority on transatlantic relations and director of The Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, says Britain’s overtly tolerant society has been exploded by Islamists.

The Islamists have infiltrated schools and supposedly moderate mosques in Britain, where they have indoctrinated young British Muslims who then go on to practice terrorism jihad in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. More and more experts in the intelligence community say these fighters are an imminent threat to the U.S. homeland, though it was just a few short months ago when President Obama characterized the now-terror army as a “JV” team compared to Al Qaeda.

ISIS, or IS as Choudary insisted, as it was already a caliphate, now controls far more territory than Al Qaeda ever has, and possesses far more weaponry and money seized from Iraq before Obama made the day-late and a dollar-short decision to begin U.S. airstrikes. The University of Mosul, which was raided and picked dry when Iraq’s second-largest city was captured by ISIS, housed nuclear fissile material sufficiently processes to utilize in a dirt bomb suit case.

Despite the fact they behead innocent people on video and post it to YouTube, apparently that doesn’t lose the support of a significant amount of French respondents. In a recent poll conducted by Vox for Russian state television found a good degree of sympathy for ISIS. France is only 5-10 percent Muslim, yet 16 percent say they have a favorable opinion of the leading terrorism group.

The rise of anti-Semitism in France is undeniable. But support for terror groups both in policy and public opinion should give the U.S. reason enough to question their alliance, if it was ever an ally of the U.S. to begin with. However, that may be difficult when regions in the U.S., itself, is practicing the same ill-conceived, so-called progressive policies of inclusion that allow radical Islam to operate under the banner of moderate Islam, as is the case with organizations such as CAIR, or the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

It is well-documented that CAIR has supported terror groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, yet somehow, national news organizations from FOX News to MSNBC have allowed their representatives to parade the charade on national television.

Considering U.S. officials and citizens allow this to continue, it is unsurprising to learn that federal investigators believe that approximately 100 Americans have traveled to Syria to join Islamist groups. A second American was reportedly killed fighting with ISIS in Syria, who has been identified as Abdirahmaan Muhumed, of Minneapolis. Muhumed was killed in the same battle as Douglas McAuthur McCain, the first American citizen confirmed killed. Minnesota has long-practiced a microcosm policy similar to Britain and France, which has allowed radical Islam to poison vulnerable U.S. citizens, and now threatens the security of the entire nation.

Nile Gardiner, a leading authority on transatlantic

Economy

The NAR said Thursday signed contracts to buy previously-owned homes rose 3.3 percent in July, far surpassing Wall Street’s expectation for a 0.5 percent increase. Sales have now risen in four of the last five months and regions saw reportedly healthy gains except for the Midwest, which saw a slight decline.

While the news was widely celebrated in the investor and political class, recent gains reported by the NRA and mediates reflect an increased return to risky lending practices, not a healthy housing market recovery.

In fact, the NRA report is actually cause for concern when understanding the subsidized forces propping up the housing market. AEI’s National Mortgage Risk Index, a measurement that combines National and State Mortgage Risk Indices, stood at 11.41% in July, down almost ¼ percentage point from June. Even though a decline is movement in the correct direction, subprime lending by the FHA and its issuers continues to grow.

Earlier this year, PPD reported on two policy statements made by Mel Watt, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), and Shaun Donovan, secretary of HUD, which backed-off tight restrictions that required sound lending practices. The policies represent a return to a pre-crisis mindset and are repeating the mistakes of the subprime mortgage crisis.

As tracked by AEI, roughly 200,000 loans were added to the National Mortgage Risk Index in the month of July, and home purchase volume hits its highest level since November 2013. The latest data increase the total number of loans included in the index to 3.66 million. Meanwhile, the FHA refuses to hedge against the inherent risk associates with these high-DTI loans by tightening other underwriting criteria. Fannie and Freddie, who have largely offloaded the bulk of subprime lending to the FHA since the crisis, are tightening underwriting practices to a minimal extent.

The National Association of Realtors profits enormously from the government-run subprime racket, and the data reflect the fact they have wasted no time in cashing in. However, AEI’s risk indices provide the first-ever measure of how mortgage loans originated month by month would perform under severely stressed conditions, such as a lack of liquidity experienced during the 2007 collapse.

And it isn’t good.

This risks are fueling the recently reported home price volatility, but the impact with be felt particularly hard in lower income and minority areas. In fact, Hispanics were the hardest hit ethic group in 2007 – 2008, and experienced the greatest decrease in wealth out of any other home-owning group in America. AEI’s tracking shows that will be the repeated effect in the event of another future crash, as well.

Special note: Using newly incorporated data, the NMRI has been revised to rate all loans based on month of first loan payment rather than date of securitization. In addition, the composite, FHA and RHS series have been extended back to November 2012 from August 2013.

Recent housing gains reported by the NRA

Politics, Video

While appearing on FBN’s “Lou Lobbs Tonight” with host Lou Dobbs, Sharyl Attkisson provided the mainstream media with a “Gold Standard” example of how to cover the IRS scandal, and why it matters.

Attkisson reported on the questionably corrupt fact the DOJ was “defending the IRS in court in the civil case with Judicial Watch” as it simultaneously was “also investigating the IRS. So at the same time it’s supposed to conduct a fair and impartial investigation on the one hand…it is defending the IRS in court on the other hand on the missing document cases. I think there is a potential appearance of a conflict of interest there.”

On Monday, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said Justice Department lawyers told the group’s counsel that “Lois Lerner’s emails, indeed all government computer records, are backed up by the federal government in case of a government-wide catastrophe.”

IRS officials, including IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, told members of Congress and congressional investigators that thousands of Lerner’s emails sent prior to 2011 were lost and that the data was unrecoverable. As far as the back-up system, they also said that, too, had been erased beyond recovery.

Then, on Wednesday, a senior IRS lawyer acknowledged in a sworn declaration that Lerner’s Blackberry was intentionally destroyed after Congress had begun investigating the IRS targeting of conservative groups.

According to the Media Research Center, a right-leaning media watchdog group, the major news networks haven’t reported the conflict of interest case at the Justice Department, nor have they even reported on the latest revelations in the IRS scandal this week.

The following is a transcript of Attkisson’s segment from the August 26 edition of FBN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight (video via Media Research Center:

LOU DOBBS: The elusive Lois Lerner e-mails, not missing after all. Another critical piece of evidence, however, is. According to a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information request, Department of Justice attorneys for the Internal Revenue Service now claim that all government computer records are backed up, are backed up. Those same attorneys, however, now claim the back-up system is quote “too onerous” to search. A second document received by Judicial Watch show Lerner’s Blackberry was wiped clean, as they put it, wiped clean of any sensitive or propriety information and removed as scrap for disposal in June of 2012. By that time a congressional investigation had been well underway. Joining us now is award-winning investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson. Great to have you with us Sharyl.

SHARYL ATTKISSON: Thanks for having me.

DOBBS: These latest revelations on the Internal Revenue Service, these are becoming now insulting to the intelligence of the Congress, the American people. How can it go on like this?

ATTKISSON: I think without the help of the court in this Judicial Watch case it might have gone on forever. But there is a chance that the judge will seriously make the federal government take a look at the answers its given and the evidence it’s provided and really hold their feet to the fire.

One thing you’ve mentioned that I really think is important here is the Department of Justice was representing the IRS in this phone call, basically defending the IRS in court in the civil case with Judicial Watch suing them. The Department of Justice is also investigating the IRS. So at the same time it’s supposed to conduct a fair and impartial investigation on the one hand, and it is saying that it can, it is defending the IRS in court on the other hand on the missing document cases. I think there is a potential appearance of a conflict of interest there.

DOBBS: And you point out in a recent, one of your op-eds that Andrew Strelka – speaking of conflict of interests – who used to work with Lois Lerner is now part of the Justice Department’s tax division, a key member of the Justice Department’s investigation. That has a certain appearance too? Doesn’t it?

ATTKISSON: Yes, there are several players at the Justice Department who have alleged potential conflicts of interest in this investigation. In particular he, the man you mentioned, Strelka worked under Lois Lerner, maintained a relationship with her. There are e-mails produced by the House Oversight committee that show he thanked her for the help that he had given her in the time that he worked in her division and held her partly responsible for some of the success that he’s, he’d held. He also, according to documents, was part of a discussion about focusing on Tea Party cases. So there, there are some e-mail documents that lend to the idea that he could have been part of that scandal all together rather than somebody who should be part of the department investigating it. That’s the allegation from Republicans on House Oversight. They’ve once again asked Eric Holder of the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel to get at this investigation rather than doing it himself to avoid this appearance of a conflict.

DOBBS: Sharyl let’s go to that issue of a special counselor investigator. I don’t know that anyone would have much confidence in anyone appointed by this attorney general in the Obama Justice Department. I mean everywhere we turn there seems to be an Obama appointee who is effectively blocking the progress for the search for truth. Without Judicial Watch, without the Oversight committee in particular we wouldn’t know what the hell is going on in this government at all, would we?

ATTKISSON: Perhaps not. It’s hard to say how a special counsel would turn out. But to your point when the IRS commissioner [John] Koskinen was brought in to basically, we were told, to get at the bottom of things and get at the truth. Based on his actions in his testimony to Congress it seems as though his edict, at least in the actions that he’s given, was more about protecting the IRS, not necessarily getting to the truth. He’s given testimony before Congress that has proven to be inaccurate on more than one occasion, including about these back-up tapes. It’s hard to know whether he simply doesn’t know the truth or hasn’t been fully briefed or something else. But I think that speaks to what you were saying.

DOBBS: Sharyl Attkisson we appreciate you being with us. Thanks so much.

Sharyl Attkisson provided the mainstream media with

Polls

2014 midterm elections

A pair of polls released this week from Gallup and Pew Research find widening enthusiasm and expectation gaps favoring GOP candidates in the 2014 midterm elections. (Photo: Shutterstock)

A pair of polls released this week from Gallup and Pew Research find widening enthusiasm and expectation gaps favoring GOP candidates in the fall. The PPD generic ballot average remains tight, with Democrats currently holding a slim 1.5-point lead. That lead, however, still largely reflects registered voter samples, which historically overestimate Democratic support. The latest polls suggest likely voter models, which will soon dominate samples after Labor Day, may have a dramatic impact on the average.

Democrats and Republicans have exchanged small leads throughout most of the summer on the PPD generic ballot average. Democrats retained a small lead from 1 to 2 points from June to mid-July, and again, most of the polling samples were of registered voters. Then, in early-to-mid August, Republicans led in 3 out of the 4 surveys, which gave them a similar lead. Let’s first take a look at Gallup’s findings.

In a survey conducted from 8/7 – 8/10, 42 percent of Republicans have given “quite a lot” or “some” thought to the 2014 midterm election, while just 27 percent of Democrats say the same. Nationwide, exactly one in three Americans (33 percent) say they have, up from 26 percent in April. Republicans are clearly much more engaged than Democrats in the election cycle at this point, representing a widening 15-point gap compared to the 13-point measured April .

There is a caveat, however.

The 10-point GOP advantage measured by Gallup just prior to the 2010 election was slightly less than their findings earlier in the fall, which hit a high of 19 points in early October and averaged 14 points during post-Labor Day months. In 2006, a Democratic wave election, for most of the same period the GOP advantage averaged 4 points, while the two parties were roughly even going into the 2002 cycle before Republicans blew it wide open late in the game.

The bottom line is that these numbers can change fast, but the more reliable samples we have to draw from, then the more predictive value they hold.

According to a Pew Research survey conducted from 8/20 to 8/24, 61 percent of Republicans expect their party will do better than they have in recent elections, while just 32 percent of Democrats say the same. Expectations matter and, a recent Rasmussen survey similarly found that the nation as a whole expects the Republican Party to control the Senate after November.

“If there is no significant narrowing of the Republican-Democratic thought gap between now and Election Day, the Republican advantage in turnout could surpass that on Election Day 2010,” says Gallup’s Jeffrey M. Jones.

While it is true that enthusiasm advantages widely fluctuate and will likely not be the same in October or November, as Jones notes, the correlation between post-Labor Day leads on the generic ballot and election results in November are strong. If likely voter models appropriately reflect enthusiasm and engagement, they will favor a higher GOP turnout over Democrats. And if that translates into even a small post-Labor Day lead that holds into the fall, then Republicans are posed to make gains we otherwise would not have expected.

Let’s, once again, take a look at the historical data below, which factors all 17 post-World War II midterm election results and compares them to generic congressional ballot results. Whether the Republicans maintain their lead is a critical question that needs to be answered before predicting the overall election outcome because, it isn’t until post-Labor Day polling comes in that the results of the generic ballot begin to have predictive value.

[table id=11 /]

As we can see from the table above, Republicans historically have picked up more seats on a point-for-point basis. In other words, on average, a 10-point advantage for Democrats on the generic ballot yields just a 12-seat swing, while an identical lead for Republicans yields a 23-seat swing, on average.

Each election has mitigating factors and variables, and the 2014 midterm election will be no different. Despite what the data shows, Republican pickup opportunities from targets listed in their “drive to 245″ goal in the House are somewhat limited due to their success in 2010. On the other hand, the Democratic Party is overly exposed in the Senate after their success in 2008, and it was essentially time to pay the piper.

Now, it is the Senate that is exuding that same dynamic, which our model favors the GOP to control after this cycle, wave or no wave.

It is worth noting, however, that in Gallup’s final 2010 pre-election generic ballot poll, Republicans led Democrats by 48 percent to 44 percent even among even registered voters. However, in the latest poll, Democrats held a slight edge among registered voters in congressional voting preference, 47 percent to 45 percent. Since Gallup underestimated Republican performance in 2010 with a more narrow enthusiasm gap, this suggests Republican turnout advantages could lead to larger-than-expected GOP gains if the elections were held today.

Or, perhaps the Republicans either don’t hold that advantage or never make up the ground in registered voter samples. I always caution against confidence during such a volatile part of the year, though Gallup’s likely voter model is unlikely to show some degree of Democrat disadvantage. It is also a historical probability, however, Democrats get more engaged as November draws near.

“But with Republicans much more engaged in the election at this point than Democrats — and by one of the larger margins in recent midterm election years — the odds of strong Democratic turnout seem low,” Jones added, “suggesting 2014 could be a good year for Republicans.”

A pair of polls released this week

Elections

Ohio Governor Race

Incumbent Gov. John Kasich (left) and his imploding Democratic opponent, Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) Executive Ed FitzGerald (right).

Ohio Governor John Kasich was always favored to retain the governor’s mansion in November, but now that Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald has imploded, he is a safe bet. It doesn’t take a political prognosticator to make this call, but let’s go over it.

FitzGerald was a poor candidate from the beginning, despite Democratic excitement that was mostly confined to the Cleveland and greater Cuyahoga area. Now, following reports he was caught in a parking lot at 4:00 A.M. with a woman who was not his wife — without a driver’s license — he has completely thrown in the towel.

His campaign — well, what is left of it — confirmed Tuesday that they will be shifting their resources in a hail mary attempt to save Democrats from getting trounced down-ballot. Meanwhile, campaign staffers have been jumping ship since the story broke and, we suspect, soon it will resemble little more than a skeleton operation.

But, again, Kasich had and has a good economic story to tell in Ohio that gave him the edge all along, something he will no doubt tout if he decides to run for president. Still, there is no question that the story of an economic turnaround has much to do with his own political turnaround. It wasn’t too long ago that Ohio voters rejected his attempt to get collective bargaining under control or when his approval rating was stuck in the dirty thirties.

Make no mistake about it: This cycle will impact 2016. Secretary of State candidate and state Sen. Nina Turner (D) is running a campaign intended to reverse the efforts of current Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, who has been on a crusade to end voter fraud in Cuyahoga County, as well as other Democratic strongholds.

Under the direction of Husted, election officials discovered and purged more than 257,000 dead people who were still listed as active voters, which is significant considering the 2 percent margin of victory Obama held over Romney represented just 166,214 votes out of a total of approximately 5.5 million ballots cast. I am certain that many pundits will have a problem with me citing that figure, but reality is reality.

That being said, even if Democrats get clobbered in 2014 up and down the ballot, which is looking more and more likely, Republicans shouldn’t get too overconfident. Two years are a lifetime in politics, and a lifetime is plenty of time to get the Ohio State Democratic Party back to formidable strength.

However, for now, it’s not. Compounding the party’s problem is the very real, very pronounced rightward shift in Ohio’s political environment and party identification since 2008.

The Ohio Governor race is now rated “Safe Republican” on PPD’s 2014 Governors Map Predictions model.

Ohio Governor John Kasich was always favored

Politics, Video

Sean Hannity provided Americans a rare opportunity to witness the enemy that is radical Islam up close and personal. Wednesday night, Hannity interviewed London imam Anjem Choudary, an Islamic radical who was once portrayed as a moderate, but he quickly snapped on national television shortly after discussing the beheading of American journalist James Foley.

Choudary admitted that the true goal of Islam is to establish a world-wide caliphate, a intolerant theocratic society where Sharia law is the only law, and openly mocked Americans for believing their goal is anything other.

“You don’t have a choice,” he said. “It’s coming to you in America.”

Though at times he would enter into an almost-incoherent rant, Hannity still exposed the true beliefs held by Choudary and those he clearly believes to be the majority of followers of the Islamic faith.

Choudary admitted, for instance, that homosexuality is something “people won’t be doing in caliphate.” But if they do and they are caught, “then sure they will be punished.” His comments came in response to Sean’s question regarding whether homosexuality warrants stoning individuals to death.

“Allah made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve,” he said.

American and British intelligence officials have identified a British-born rapper as the ISIS executioner who beheaded James Foley, an act Choudary made clear he believed to be justified. Senior Western intelligence officials confirmed on August 24 that 23-year-old London rapper Abdel Majed Abdel Bary is the suspect believed to be James Foley’s executioner.

British Prime Minister David Cameron left his vacation early to return to government after the revelations, yet Anjem Choudary, who is responsible for preaching radical Islam in the very area of London Abdel Majed Abdel Bary hailed from, is still free to continue his work. Britain, and to a greater extent France, have long been misleading their citizens with a progressive-fashioned narrative that falsely claims Choudary and others are tolerant, but now they find themselves gravely concerned about the thousands of native-born citizens currently fighting with ISIS.

ISIS, consequently, appears to be an unacceptable name to their supporters, as Choudary repeated that now “there is no ISIS, it’s the Islamic State, the caliphate.”

Countless times during the interview he threatened Hannity personally and U.S. citizens, in general, though Hannity gave back and good as he was getting.

Hannity interviewed London imam Anjem Choudary, an

Politics, Video

 

Liberal MSNBC’s Krystal Ball praised Republican Sen. Rand Paul as courageous, while also saying Hillary Clinton is cowardly for not speaking up on Ferguson, Missouri.

“I think it is cowardice,” Ball said. “I didn’t think what Rand Paul said was counterproductive. I thought it was courageous.”

BALL:

If you want to be a leader in this country, if you want to be the leader of the Democratic Party not to say anything. I didn’t think what Rand Paul said was counterproductive. I thought it was courageous, and I find it sad that no Democrat — and I put the president in a separate category, I think he is handling things appropriately and letting the Justice Department handle things as he should — but I find it sad that no national Democrat is up to the task here, and I think it goes to the fact here that Democrats are by and large take the black vote for granted.

MSNBC's Krystal Ball praised Rand Paul as

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