On August 1, 2014, IDF forces from the Nahal Brigade and Engineering Corps detonated these tunnels in the northern Gaza Strip as a part of Operation Protective Edge.
These particular tunnels are located near the site that 2nd. Lt. Hadar Goldin, 23, from Kfar Saba, who was captured by Hamas in an ambush this past week.
On August 1, 2014, IDF forces from
Senator Rand Paul speaks to students at the liberal Berkley University regarding domestic spying, freedom and civil rights.
Libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) called for CIA Director John Brennan to leave office amid news the agency spied on Senate staffers. Paul is now the third senator to do so since Brennan publicly apologized to the same committee that confirmed him for the spying.
In a statement sent to The Hill, Paul, who mounted a 13-hour filibuster against Brennan’s confirmation in March, said that the spy agency chief and everyone else involved with the hacking should be removed from office.
“It is illegal for the CIA to spy on Americans and an affront to our republic to spy on the Senate,” Paul said. “Brennan told the American people that the CIA did not spy on the Senate but now he admits that they did.
“Brennan should dismiss those responsible for breaking the law and be relieved of his post.”
Paul’s statement comes after Sens. Mark Udall (D-CO) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM), who both sit on the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Thursday urged Brennan to step aside.
The CIA inspector general report concluded “that some CIA employees acted in a manner inconsistent with the common understanding reached between” the Senate Intelligence Committee and the agency back in 2009, which outlined how access to a classified computer network was to be shared.
Five officials at the CIA had “improperly accessed” Senate staffers’ drives and emails through a network set up to share secret documents about a report on the agency’s “enhanced interrogation” methods. The Senate panel is preparing to release a public version of the 6,300-page classified analysis, which is expected to describe in detail the techniques that were used during the George W. Bush administration, which directly led to the name and location of Osama bin Laden’s courier, who then led CIA agents to the location of the Pakistan compound where the terror leader was hiding.
Despite the lawmakers’ call for Brennan to step aside, the White House has not been swayed. On Friday, President Obama maintained that he continues to have “full confidence” in the CIA leader.
Libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) called for
Now, this is just getting embarrassing. According to Hillary Clinton, the Russian reset was a success. According to President Obama, we are not entering a second Cold War. But according to the Kremlin, U.S. President Barack Obama is a poodle-holding weakling compared to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russia is turning to Twitter to drop a sissy bomb on President Obama, using photos to challenge the manliness of America’s commander in chief, while pumping up their main man, President Vladimir Putin.
The post by Russia’s deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin included side-by-side images of the two presidents. In one, Putin is confidently holding a majestic leopard. In the other, a notably younger Obama is holding a small, fluffy dog.
The caption: “We have different values and allies.”
Ouch.
We have different values and allies pic.twitter.com/aJ1312jJNx
— Dmitry Rogozin (@DRogozin) July 31, 2014
The White House said Obama again spoke with Putin on Friday to discuss the situation in Ukraine.
“The President reiterated his deep concerns about Russia’s increased support for the separatists in Ukraine,” the White House said. “The President reinforced his preference for a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Ukraine, and the two leaders agreed to keep open their channels of communication.”
Of course, they left out any discussion regarding the mockery the Kremlin is making of Obama on the world stage.
Now, this is just getting embarrassing. According
I was watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” again this week and something struck me that most people miss in the movie. It was how badly living in a localized economy sucked.
You know there is a big movement this day to eat, shop, and buy locally for your products. The theory is that by doing so you are sticking it to large corporations, big box stores and agribusiness and thereby making it a better world. Main Street before Wall Street, that sort of thing.
I’m all for protecting our small business owners by “buying locally,” but it is only going to hurt your community in the long run if the local business is not offering quality goods at competitive prices.
There is a reason why “big box” stores are popular and have been so successful — they offer goods at lower prices. That’s capitalism dear readers and in almost every case, it works.
Take for example a local electronics store that offers a radio at $20. Now, compare it to the same radio that a big box store offers at $15. Ever wonder why that is? It’s not because the big box store has lower overhead costs; in fact, in most cases they have higher costs of shipping and running their store. It’s because they are buying 10 million of those things at a time, and passing those savings onto the consumer. So, if you buy locally, now the manufacturer can no longer make 10 million of them, they will make less because they will be selling less at the 20 dollar price. That either means layoffs for factory workers that are making that radio, or cost cutting on the quality of the radio.
Worse, now you have less buying power. If you are paying $20 instead of $15 for the radio, that’s $5 less you have to spend on other things that keep people employed, too. Maybe you skip eating out at the local diner. They lay off people, too. And with less businesses out there, that means fewer jobs and less movement in the economy.
Layoffs and fewer jobs also are a result of having the local hardware store selling you other things besides that radio. A big box store employs a lot of people and lot of other jobs that the little guy’s store doesn’t use. People like shippers and security personnel. Not to mention lighting and heating that big box store means utilities have more revenues to keep costs low and expand their power facilities and modernize them. The opposite argument on this suggests that more small mom and pop hardware stores would simply crop up to meet demand for those radios. But, ultimately, what happens when people spend more money on each purchase is that they simply make fewer purchases.
Another factor to consider is the taxation shift places a large burden on local governments. It’s much easier to zone and provide police, fire and sanitation coverage for a single big box store than it is for a zillion little hardware stores on every corner. That means tax dollars go further and the traffic patterns are more efficient.
A big box store can provide a wider variety of goods on its shelves in a single location, whereas the little guy has shelf space only for a limited item. This means you might have to drive further or make more stops to complete your shopping purchases. Years ago Christmas shopping meant spending days going all over to 100 different stores. Now, most of it can be done by going to the mall and maybe a few other stores. That’s called efficiency and it does wonders for the economy.
Even better, the internet can supply goods direct to your door. Less hassle means more time for you to spend doing other, more productive or pleasing things, which means a higher quality of life.
It’s not very efficient to spend a lot of time going to stores, and it’s more costly to the consumer. Again, as a result, you make fewer purchases if you have to spend more on each item in terms of prices and travel costs. There’s a reason department stores and big box stores are so successful; they can offer more goods and lower prices. That’s not a bad thing, that’s a good thing.
There’s another aspect to this argument that most people have forgotten, as well.
Company towns.
In the old days, before large corporate big box stores were all the rage, the local merchants gradually would get bought up or bought out by wealthy, local town lords. The guy that owned the hardware store also owned the supermarket and the bank. Guess who got rich and guess who took it in the shorts on their wallets? All across America in the 20s and 30s little towns were being gobbled up by the Mr. Potter’s and turning little Bedford Falls into Pottervilles. Local business lords owned the factories that made the radios and the stores that sold them. The employees were owned lock, stock and barrel.
What broke them was corporatization and big box stores.
It didn’t hurt the consumers’ pensions and retirements, either. Those big box stores are public entities. Imagine what your pension funds or 401k investments would look like if all those big box companies suddenly went bust. You can’t put your retirement into Moe’s Hardware, but Home Depot is a solid performer for not only you, but Americans all over this country.
Look there’s nothing wrong with supporting a local business, but don’t do it if they aren’t offering competitive products at competitive prices. Don’t buy local just to buy local.
That’s just playing into a return to local fiefdoms controlled typically by the government in cahoots with the Mr. Potters of this world.
Remember who George Bailey’s best friend was? It was Sam Wainwright, the big corporate plastics manufacturer who bails him out at the end.
Thomas Purcell is host of the Liberty Never Sleeps podcast show and more of his work can be read at libertyneversleeps.com.
Most Americans have forgotten how badly living
An Israeli soldier flashes the “V” for victory sign from an armored personnel carrier (APC) at an army deployment area near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip on July 17, 2014 (Photo Credit: AFP/ Jack Guez)
Another cease-fire in the Gaza Strip has been shattered by the militant terror group Hamas after the Israeli military said Friday one of its soldiers is “feared” captured by Gaza militants. The developments came only hours after a three-day cease-fire on the Gaza strip began.
The Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas was patrolling in the southern Gaza town of Rafah. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said that government forces were moving to destroy a tunnel, as the terms of the cease-fire allowed for, when multiple Hamas militants came out of the ground. The militants included at least one suicide attacker, who after an exchange of gun fire, was used to threatened the IDF as the soldier was dragged back into the tunnel.
“The incident is ongoing, and the IDF is in the midst of operational and intelligence efforts to track down the soldier,” the source told the newspaper.
Gaza officials claimed at least 35 Palestinians were killed, but the Israeli military did not provide further detail.
The cease-fire took effect at 8 a.m. local time and was suppose to last for a duration of 72 hours. “This morning, Hamas fired at our forces in S. Gaza in violation of a ceasefire,” an IDF spokesman said. “We suspect that an IDF soldier was kidnapped moments later.”
We suspect that a group of Hamas terrorists, including a suicide attacker, kidnapped 2nd. Lt. Goldin at 9:30AM & dragged him into a tunnel.
— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) August 1, 2014
Another tweet from the official account of the Israel Defense Forces said that eight rockets and mortars were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip. While one was intercepted while the other seven hit “open areas.”
“Once again, Hamas and the terror organizations in Gaza have blatantly broken the cease-fire to which they committed, this time before the American Secretary of State and the U.N. Secretary General,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
Immediately after the cease-fire was announced Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry cautioned the international community not to celebrate, and that is was meant only to be a stepping stone to a greater agreement.
“This is not a time for congratulations or joy or anything except a serious determination — a focus by everybody to try to figure out the road ahead,” Kerry said in New Delhi, where he had been meeting with Indian officials. “This is a respite. It is a moment of opportunity, not an end.”
During the cease-fire, Kerry said Israel was allowed to continue locating and targeting terror tunnels that are located behind its territorial lines. The Palestinians would be able to receive food, medicine and humanitarian assistance, bury their dead, treat the wounded and travel to their homes. The time also would be used to make repairs to water and energy systems.
“We hope this moment can be grabbed by both parties, but no one can force them to do that,” Kerry said.
The Palestinian delegation is expected to include members of Hamas, which the United States and Israel both classify as a terrorist organization. Legally, they cannot negotiate directly with groups deemed such. The Egyptians will act as the go-between for all parties involved and will coordinate the talks, according to a senior State Department official said.
The Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas was patrolling
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday that job growth in the U.S. economy misses expectations and the headline unemployment rate inched up to 6.2 percent. Even though the jobs report marks the six straight month of job creation above 200,000, the number is a bit of a disappointment.
Reporting less-than-expected job creation in the second quarter is a trend that has been established over the past five years since the end of the Great Recession.
Employment in health care changed little over the month, because healthy job gains in ambulatory health care services (+21,000) were offset by losses in hospitals (-7,000) and nursing care facilities (-6,000), a long-time charged consequence of ObamaCare. A networks shrink, nurses in out-of-network hospitals and nursing care facilities will be laid off.
The unemployment rate for adult women increased to 5.7 percent and the rate for blacks further increased to 11.4 percent in July.
The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons — those working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find full-time jobs — was unchanged in July at 7.5 million. Meanwhile, the Employment Cost Index report released Thursday found that labor costs jumped 0.7 percent, up sharply from the 0.3 percent rate for the first quarter.
The civilian labor force participation rate was flat in June at 62.9 percent for the third month in a row and is hovering at its lowest level since the late 1970s. The employment-population ratio at 59% was little changed from the prior month. The number of long-term unemployed. or those jobless for 27 weeks or more, was unchanged at 3.2 million.
A whopping 2.2 million persons were still marginally attached to the labor force. These people wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the past 12 months, but were unable to find any. They were not counted in the unemployment rate because they quit on the American dream sometime in the past 4 weeks.
Among the marginally attached, there were 741,000 discouraged workers in July who are not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available.
“The economy still has a huge amount of headwind out there from the popping of the credit bubble,” said Joshua Shapiro, chief United States economist for MFR, in an interview before the labor market numbers were released. “We’re not through that by any means.”
The June jobs report showed the unemployment
A newly released audio recorded just hours before the 9/11 terror attack captured former President Bill Clinton openly admit he turned down a chance to kill Usama bin Laden.
The former president can be heard admitting this in a speech to 30 Australian business leaders in Melbourne, including Michael Kroger, the former head of the Liberal Party on Sept. 10, 2001. The speech was recorded with the former president’s permission, but have never been made public until now. A businessman who had access to the nearly 13-year-old recording passed it off to Sky News Australia, which broadcast it during “Paul Murray Live” on Monday.
“I’m just saying, you know, if I were Usama bin Laden — he’s a very smart guy, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about him — and I nearly got him once,” Clinton said on the recording.
“I nearly got him. And I could have killed him, but I would have to destroy a little town called Kandahar in Afghanistan and kill 300 innocent women and children, and then I would have been no better than him.”
“And so I didn’t do it,” he added.
Bill Clinton was paid $150,000 to speak to J.T. Campbell & Co. Pty. Ltd. in Melbourne that day. Ten hours later the first plane hit the World Trade Center.
It had long been a common criticism that President Clinton had several opportunities to either detain or kill bin Laden, but unless he was acting to distract Americans away from his own scandals, had little stomach for being a commander-in-chief. But then the final report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, better known as the 9/11 Report, released findings that showed the administration didn’t take Al Qaeda threats seriously and, in fact, even refused the opportunity to have bin Laden extradited to the U.S. on terrorism charges.
The 9/11 panel would go on to conclude that there were multiple missed opportunities to go after bin Laden and Al Qaeda, including a point in which the Central Intelligence Agency had tracked bin Laden to a hunting camp in Afghanistan in 1999. The Clinton administration again failed to pull the trigger, citing fears he might kill or injure officials from the United Arab Emirates, who were present at the time on a hunting trip.
http://youtu.be/EhakDgb3IQU A newly released audio recorded just hours
Protestors with United We Dream stage rally in front of Washington, D.C., but even half of U.S. Hispanics say illegal minors should be sent home immediately.
The group United We Dream boldly protested outside of the White House gates this week — with no fear of arrest — to push for Obama to act unilaterally on amnesty. But according to a new poll, even nearly half of legal U.S. Hispanics say unaccompanied illegal minors flooding across the border should be sent home immediately, if need be.
In fact, roughly half support a measure that includes deporting them faster, the Pew Research survey found.
Pew found that 47 percent of Latinos support expediting the processing of the children’s cases regardless of whether they are deported in the end, while roughly 49 percent of Latinos say they support the current system.
In total, the American people support speeding up the processing of the kids’ cases in greater numbers, as 53 percent of Americans say they support expediting the process compared to 39 percent who favor the current system.
Similarly, the latest Rasmussen Reports survey found that 54 percent of likely voters want the U.S. government to send the illegal children flooding across the border home “as quickly as possible,” while just 36 percent say that the government should process them more slowly as to accurately determine whether they should be allowed to stay.
When asked a bit differently, another Rasmussen survey found that 59 percent believe the primary focus of any new immigration legislation passed by Congress should be to send the young illegal immigrants back home as quickly as possible. Only 27 percent say it should focus instead on making it easier for these illegal immigrants to remain in the United States.
Further, just 22 percent think President Obama wants to honor and respect the will of most voters on the issue of immigration, which would be sending most of these new illegal immigrants home. A whopping 54 percent think he is more interested in letting most of them stay in the United States.
The Border Patrol detained more than 57,000 unaccompanied children from October through June, the vast majority from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
The mainstream media — including Fox News — has claimed that they are “generally fleeing violence and poverty,” but an internal government report conducted jointly by law enforcement and intel agencies found that a general misunderstanding of U.S. immigration policy is the cause. They believe President Obama will grant them “permisos,” or amnesty.
“Of the 230 migrants interviewed, 219 cited the primary reason for migrating to the United States was the perception of U.S. immigration laws granting free passes or permisos to UAC (unaccompanied children) and adult females OTMs (other than Mexicans) traveling with minors,” the report said.
According to the slew of polling data, it is clear a majority of Americans aren’t buying what the media and the administration are selling.
A recent Associated Press-GfK poll, found that 53 percent of Americans believe the United States does not have a moral obligation to offer asylum to people who escape violence or political persecution, while 44 percent believe it has that responsibility. Because the poll assumed a false narrative was true, the respondents’ answers are significant.
Meanwhile, even if Americans conceded that the false narrative is in fact true, 52 percent still say children who say they are fleeing gang violence in Central America should not be treated as refugees, while 46 percent say they should.
Overall, 46 percent of Latinos say they disapprove how President Obama has handled the immigration crisis, while just 28 percent said they approve.
With a massive number of illegal minors flooding across the border daily, the issue of illegal immigration has surpassed “dissatisfaction with government” and “the economy” as the top problem facing the U.S. today. A recent Gallup survey found the percentage of Americans citing immigration as the top problem has skyrocketed to 17 percent, which is up from 5 percent in June and the highest seen since 2006.
However, Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called the border crisis “an opportunity,” and more recently compared the illegal minors to baby Jesus.
“This crisis that some call a crisis, we have to view as an opportunity,” Pelosi said.
The American people couldn’t disagree more with the minority leader’s assumption. “In fact, more Americans think immigration should be decreased than increased, and by a nearly two-to-one margin, 41 percent vs. 22 percent,” Lydia Saad said regarding another recent Gallup survey.
With the the American people now reporting they trust the Republican Party more than the Democratic Party on the issue of immigration and, historical data suggesting they have benefited electorally when this is the case, it would be a colossal mistake for Speaker Boehner’s Republican conference and Senate Republicans to buckle to Minority Leader Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Obama.
Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) believes his lawsuit against Obama’s executive overreach will galvanize his base this fall. Admittedly, ObamaCare remains deeply unpopular among the American people, the issue the lawsuit chose to focus on. However, by adopting the same positions as the Democratic Party on illegal immigration — among other issues — the GOP not only threatens to put out the fire among their already-fired up base, but also erases any reason at all the American people would have to vote for them over Democrats in the fall.
Speaker Boehner Thursday proposed a bill that would give illegal minors five different opportunities to make the case for staying in the U.S., even if an immigration judge first rules they are not refugees. Under his direction, House leadership tabled a bill drafted by Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn that is far more aligned with American public opinion, the very kind of move they would be wise to know can cost them the Senate.
While the House Republicans scramble to craft
Director of U.S. National Intelligence James Clapper (right) listens to CIA Director John Brennan (light) during testimony at the House Intelligence Committee on ‘Worldwide Threats’, in Washington February 4, 2014. (Photo: Reuters)
CIA Director John Brennan did not enjoy a smooth confirmation hearing in the Senate back in 2013. Libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) staged a 13-hour filibuster in protest of John Brennan’s nomination and the domestic of drones to spy on U.S. citizens, a move that led even President Obama’s former radical leftist advisor Van Jones to say “Rand Paul is a hero.”
Now, the same majority of Senators who pushed Brennan through despite the “Stand With Rand” blowback, are ironically fielding a rare apology from the head of the top spying agency, who today acknowledged that an internal probe uncovered CIA employees in the Executive Branch improperly had spied on the Legislative Branch by searching Senate computers earlier this year.
Yet, despite an agency spokesman confirming that Brennan had apologized to the leaders of the Senate intelligence committee, the same committee who ensured his confirmation, Democratic lawmakers are pushing for more than just words.
“The CIA Inspector General has confirmed what Senators have been saying all along: The CIA conducted an unauthorized search of Senate files, and attempted to have Senate staff prosecuted for doing their jobs,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR). “Director Brennan’s claims to the contrary were simply not true.”
Sen. Wyden has long been suspicious of the unchecked agency and other Fourth Amendment concerns, but others are also jumping on the Brennan bash-wagon even though they had been more than supportive of his confirmation, and the president’s policies as a whole.
The CIA inspector general report concluded “that some CIA employees acted in a manner inconsistent with the common understanding reached between” the Senate Intelligence Committee and the agency back in 2009, which outlined how access to a classified computer network was to be shared.
Continuing a long trend regarding investigations into government corruption, Attorney General Eric Holder has decided not to pursue criminal charges against the employees. The developments and the subsequent decision by Holder raises the question of whether the American people would have any recourse at all against similar infringements on private property and personal rights. If U.S. senator’s have no expectation of privacy from employees in an overreaching and Executive Branch, then what boundaries are they respecting when it comes to everyday American citizens?
Perhaps Sen. Rand Paul had a point.
Sen. Ron Wyden had previously called for a “public apology” from Brennan, who said he promises to establish an accountability board that will investigate the despotic conduct of the CIA officers and discipline them, that is, “if need be.”
CIA Director John Brennan was forced to
The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago’s gauge of Midwest manufacturing in the region fell to 52.6 in July from 62.6 in June, widely missing economists’ expectations. Economists polled by Reuters forecast of a reading of 63.
The July measurement of the index is at its lowest level since June 2013.
Midwest manufacturing in the region fell to
