Some News of the Day (Open Thread)

 

© Miri WTPOTUS July 19, 2012

Is the Bulgarian government now justified to send drones to attack U.S. citizens (and non-citizens) in Michigan?  Thank goodness we won’t find out, because they don’t have drones. Yet.

A suicide bomber carried out the attack that killed eight people in a bus transporting Israeli tourists in Bulgaria, the country’s interior minister said on Thursday, and Israel accused Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants of responsibility.

Video surveillance in front of the airport and the investigation showed the bomber could not be distinguished among arriving Israeli tourists, Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said at the airport of Burgas, on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast.

“We have established there was a person who was a suicide bomber in this attack (on Wednesday). This person had a fake driving license from the United States, from the state of Michigan,” Tsvetanov told reporters.

“He looked like anyone else – a normal person with Bermuda shorts and a backpack,” he said.

Israeli tourists were killed. Media reports say the jihadist was “lanky” and had  long blonde hair, possibly a wig.  Gateway Pundit says the Israelis report the attacker was a Turkish national.  (With a Michigan driver’s license?  What did it say, Dearbornistan?)  He looks more like someone from Michigan, not Turkey. 

In other news: Finally angry enough about unfair attacks on him, Mitt Romney is throwing the “Mitts off.”  Says a spokesperson,

[T]his latest round of attacks that have impugned his integrity and accused him of being a felon go so far beyond that pale that he’s really disappointed. He believes it’s time to vet the president. He really hasn’t been vetted; McCain didn’t do it. … I mean, this is a guy who admitted to cocaine use, had a sweetheart deal with his house in Chicago, and was associated and worked with Rod Blagojevich to get Valerie Jarrett appointed to the Senate,” the adviser said. “The bottom line is there’ll be counterattacks.

Speaking of McCain:  Leaping before you look can be a dangerous thing, especially for a fighter pilot. One would think that McCain would have learned that by now, especially given his years in the Hanoi Hilton.  Here’s yet another incident that shows why he’s not president today.

Republican Senator John McCain leapt across the political aisle to defend a top aide to Democrat Hillary Clinton who has been accused of conspiring with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.

McCain railed against accusations from five lawmakers in his own party, including former presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, that Huma Abedin is somehow part of a Brotherhood conspiracy to influence US foreign policy.

Abedin, who is in her mid-30s, is a long-time aide of Secretary of State Clinton who has traveled around the world with her and acted as her chief of staff during her losing 2008 run for the White House.

This was in response to the letter that Michele Bachmann and four other patriotic members of Congress sent DHS, the Dept. of State, and the Dept. of Justice, asking for an investigation into the possible infiltration of our government by the Muslim Brotherhood. 

We know all about Huma Abedin, Muslim wife of disgraced ex-Congressman Anthony Weiner.  We discussed her and this situation with her parents here and here. 

Because Huma is a big shot in the Democrat party and thus is also a fashion plate who, like Michelle Obama, is strategically placed on the covers of magazines like Vogue, and who is also on a first-name basis with so-called reporters like Dana Bash, the reconstituted Journolist is out in force, using the talking points of “McCarthyism” against Bachmann–on cue and in lockstep with CAIR:

Hamas-linked CAIR: “Michelle Bachmann is giving us a six degrees of separation drinking game” on Muslim Brotherhood in government

Nothing, nothing whatsoever in this story about how Hamas-linked CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case — so named by the Justice Department. Nothing in this story about how CAIR operatives have repeatedly refused to denounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups. Not a word about how several former CAIR officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror. No hint here that CAIR’s cofounder and longtime Board chairman (Omar Ahmad), as well as its chief spokesman (Ibrahim Hooper), have made Islamic supremacist statements. No indication whatsoever that its California chapter distributed posters telling Muslims not to talk to the FBI.

Instead, we hear that a civil rights organization is charging “McCarthyism.” What is really happening is that a recognized Hamas front is trying to block the asking of legitimate questions. For if there really is Muslim Brotherhood infiltration in the government, and Hamas-linked CAIR succeeds in blocking an investigation of it, who will emerge as the winner? The Muslim Brotherhood infiltrators. Funny thing how everything CAIR does seems to redound to the benefit of jihadis and Islamic supremacists.

Not to be outdone, other Republicans are also leaping before they look, so fearful are they of being tarred with the “bigot” label, even if by some degrees of separation from Bachmann (irony duly noted):

[John] Boehner said he hadn’t seen the letters Bachmann and four other conservative lawmakers sent to five federal agencies warning that the Muslim Brotherhood may be infiltrating the U.S. government. One of the public servants who has been singled out is Abedin, whom Bachmann and her co-signers allege has ties to the hard-line Islamic group through her family.

Nevertheless, Boehner warned that lawmakers shouldn’t make such serious allegations without anything to back them up.

“From everything that I do know of [Abedin], she has a sterling character and I think accusations like this being thrown around are pretty dangerous,” he said. …

Ed Rollins, Bachmann’s former campaign chairman, posted a blistering op-ed on Fox News’ website on Wednesday afternoon, comparing her allegations to the conspiracy theories of former Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) weighed in on Twitter, writing, “Rep. Bachmann’s accusations about Sec. Clinton aide Huma Abedin are out-of-line. This kind of rhetoric has no place in our public discourse.”

And on Thursday morning, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said he didn’t “share the feelings” expressed in the lawmakers’ letters.

In a statement on Wednesday, Bachmann said that her letters were being “distorted” …

It’s truly amazing that Boehner shoots off his mouth before reading the letters and that he says that everything he knows about Abedin indicates that she has a “sterling character”.  Could that be because that’s what the media report and that’s just about all Boehner knows about Abedin?  Does it occur to them that this big crusade against Bachmann-the-messenger is designed to head off an investigation that might reveal a rather frightening TRUTH?

It would be interesting to know what sort of background/security check, if any, Abedin was put through, when she first got a job interning and then somehow, “mistakenly” and unexpectedly, ended up on then-First Lady Hillary Clinton’s staff.  The sterling character was questioned  before. Stories about Huma as Hillary’s “body woman” (reminiscent of Obama’s “body man” Reggie Love) can be found here.  But that’s not the issue today, although blackmail is another scary potential truth. 

This is yet another example of the media attacking the messenger instead of investigating the message.  Sheriff Joe Arpaio can relate, as can we, who are regularly denounced as bigots or birthers or conspiracy theorists, simply for asking questions that are also very, very critical to the safety and security of our country and our people.  Bachmann defended herself:

“I encourage everyone, including media outlets, to read them in their entirety,” she said in a statement. “The intention of the letters was to outline the serious national security concerns I had and ask for answers to questions regarding the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical group’s access to top Obama administration officials.”

The Center for Security Policy issued a statement saying that McCain clearly had not fully reviewed the organization’s “curriculum” and its “extensive documentation of a stealthy ‘civilization jihad’ being mounted against this country, its civil society institutions and government.”

Here’s a link to the 16-page rebuttal that Bachmann sent to Congressman Ellison. And here’s a link to a disappeared story about Huma and Anthony Weiner.

Recently, it was reported that Weiner was considering a political comeback, intending to run for mayor of New York City, no less.  But as Drudge reported, “Weiner pulls out.” 

The media have been working hard to rehabilitate Weiner’s image as well as continuing to promote his wife as the female equivalent of “The One”.  Isn’t that a heartwarming photo at this link? 

By the way, it’s no coincidence that they’re bringing up McCarthy. They know what’s coming with Paul Kengor’s new book, The Communist, about communist radical Frank Marshall Davis and his long association with Barack Obama and his family. 

By the way, Joe McCarthy was right.

Finally, in another story that will warm your heart (or give you heartburn):

The Mexican government has been working with the United States Department of Agriculture to increase participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps.

USDA has an agreement with Mexico to promote American food assistance programs, including food stamps, among Mexican Americans, Mexican nationals and migrant communities in America. …

The goal, for USDA, is to get rid of what they see as enrollment obstacles and increase access among potentially eligible populations by working with arms of the Mexican government in America. Benefits are not guaranteed or provided under the program — the purpose is outreach and education. …

When asked for details and to elaborate on the program, USDA stressed it was established in 2004 and not meant for illegal immigrants.

 “The partnership with the Mexican embassy was established in 2004,” a USDA spokesman wrote The Daily Caller in an email. “USDA does not perform outreach to immigrants that are undocumented, and therefore not eligible for SNAP.”  … 

Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions, who has been pushing for reform of SNAP, sent a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack on Wednesday demanding more answers and documents pertaining to the partnership. 

The agency has yet to supply documents and information requested by Sessions’ Senate Budget Committee staff, including the Memorandums of Understanding between USDA and the Mexican government regarding the food assistance partnership. …

“It’s a very disturbing policy, gone on for some years, and it raises very serious questions about American immigration policy as well as fiscal policy,” Session said. “Let’s get back to the fundamentals. What happened with the ‘96 welfare reform was to say that if want to you come to America you come legally, you assert you’re not coming for welfare benefits but you’re coming to work or otherwise be independent. There is no logic behind an immigration policy that would encourage immigrants who can’t successfully operate within this society.”

Since Obama just unilaterally rewrote the 1996 welfare reform bill, this should come as no surprise.  People on welfare no longer have to look for work, and now food stamp recipients and welfare recipients can be illegal aliens.  Surely they can.  Who believes that the Obama administration will screen out illegal aliens, when the administration has sued to prevent Arizona law enforcement officers from checking anyone’s legal status?  They need them to stay and VOTE.  Illegal aliens need to eat to be able to do that, so give them food stamps.  They also can’t work if they’re illegal, but welfare laws used to require them to look for work.  Solution?  Rewrite welfare policy so that the illegals on welfare (unchecked status, of course) won’t be caught by potential employers when they try to look for work.  They don’t have to try to find work anymore, so they won’t be caught via E-Verify. 

Because Obama no doubt plans to unilaterally give amnesty to illegal aliens, once he’s reelected, he also needs to lure back as many illegals as possible from among the many who self-deported over the last few years. He wants to maximize the number of future votes for the communist policies of the Democrat party–maybe even the future votes for himself.  Why not push the envelope ever further and try to get on the ballot for the presidency in 2016?  Who will stop him?

This related story tells what it’s like for “undocumented” U.S. citizens in Mexico:

One by one, the parents filed inside, sat down before a Mexican government worker and told stories of lives that had crossed the U.S.-Mexican border twice. First, they crossed illegally into the United States for work, found jobs and had children. Then, they were caught and deported, or left on their own as the work dried up with the U.S. economic slump. Now they are back in Mexico with children who are American citizens by virtue of being born on U.S. soil.

Because of the byzantine rules of Mexican and U.S. bureaucracies, tens of thousands of those children without Mexican citizenship now find themselves without access to basic services in Mexico — unable to officially register in school or sign up for health care at public hospitals and clinics that give free checkups and medicines.… More than 300,000 U.S.-born children have been brought to Mexico since 2005, out of a total of 1.4 million people who moved back from the U.S. during that period, according to the Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center.

The number of U.S.-citizen children living in Mexico with at least one Mexican parent reached 500,000 in 2011, according to one demographic study.

Open Thread.