USA Today News: October 2012

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

BOOM: Hey, How's That "Ignoring Benghazi" Strategy Working Out for Antique Media?

Let's compare Mondays -- one before Benghazi, one after -- and remove as much noise as we can from the equation (debates, Hurricane Sandy, etc.).

Fox News must be praying that the Leftist kooks running the other cable news operations continue their embargo on the biggest political scandal since Watergate.

AN OLDIE, BUT A GOODIE: If it's Halloween, it must be...

A classic, made all the more relevant by Steven Crowder's hidden camera video.

Hat tip: Tommy.

GOOD NEWS: Court Sides With Justice Department, Allows Warrantless Video Surveillance on Private Property

To paraphrase Glenn Reynolds, they told me if I voted for John McCain that we'd see widespread surveillance of U.S. citizens... and they were right!

Police are allowed in some circumstances to install hidden surveillance cameras on private property without obtaining a search warrant, a federal judge said yesterday.

CNET has learned that U.S. District Judge William Griesbach ruled that it was reasonable for Drug Enforcement Administration agents to enter rural property without permission -- and without a warrant -- to install multiple "covert digital surveillance cameras" in hopes of uncovering evidence that 30 to 40 marijuana plants were being grown.

This is the latest case to highlight how advances in technology are causing the legal system to rethink how Americans' privacy rights are protected by law. In January, the Supreme Court rejected warrantless GPS tracking after previously rejecting warrantless thermal imaging, but it has not yet ruled on warrantless cell phone tracking or warrantless use of surveillance cameras placed on private property without permission.

Yesterday Griesbach adopted a recommendation by U.S. Magistrate Judge William Callahan dated October 9. That recommendation said that the DEA's warrantless surveillance did not violate the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and requires that warrants describe the place that's being searched.

As Mark Levin observes, every day we endure under this administration sees the circle of liberty tightening around us, the citizens that gave birth to this great country.

You know what to do on Tuesday. You know to call your friends, neighbors and family members and to rally them, to drive them to the polls, to do whatever it takes to fire this administration and begin our journey back to Constitutional government.

FAST AND FURIOUS IN BENGHAZI: Timing of Attack Hints at Double-Cross of White House Gun-Running Operation by Turkey

Clare Lopez is an international security consultant at the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies. She is uniquely qualified to analyze the intelligence and defense communities not only through her current professional connections, but also because of her 20-year background with the CIA. She served for 20 years as an operations officer specializing in counterintelligence, counternarcotics, and counterproliferation programs.

Today, writing at RI.org, Lopez spots a very troubling anomaly with the timeline of the Benghazi attack. And, as if there aren't enough unanswered questions about the attacks and the subsequent White House cover-up, her discovery has the potential to implicate Turkish officials in the murders.

...Ambassador Christopher Stevens held his last meeting of the day on September 11 with [a]] Turkish diplomat [Ali Sait Akin] from 7:30pm to 8:30pm and then escorted him out to the compound gate to bid farewell. At that point, the briefing states, “Everything is calm at 8:30 p.m. There’s nothing unusual.”

But the AP witnesses said that, “The neighbors all described the militants setting up checkpoints around the compound at about 8 p.m.” The checkpoints were described as being manned by bearded jihadis in pickup trucks mounted with heavy machine guns and bearing the logo of the Al-Qaeda terror franchise, Ansar al-Shariah.

That means that the Turkish Consul General would have had to pass out through the blockade as he departed the American compound and left the area. There is no record that he phoned a warning to his American colleague, the one he’d just had dinner with, Ambassador Stevens. Given the description of the blockade around the American compound and of the jihadis and their trucks that were manning it, it seems unlikely that the he somehow just failed to notice. “[N]o one could get out or in,” according to one neighbor interviewed by the AP.

Except for the Turkish Consul General, it would appear.

Stevens was a sitting duck, a target surrounded by the jihadist attackers who shortly would take his life and that of his Public Affairs Officer, Sean Smith.

...Similarly, this raises the question of the Libyan gate guards from the "February 17 Martyrs Brigade," the jihadi militia subcontracted by the British firm Blue Mountain, which was the prime contractor for the U.S. Benghazi compound security contract... [T]he Libyans of the Martyrs Brigade surely must have been [aware of the checkpoints]. Yet they provided no warning to the Ambassador and his people either, because again, according to the State Department briefing, the American security officers inside were taken by surprise when the first gunshots and explosions rang out around 9:40 pm...

In other words, the Turkish Consul General met with Stevens -- the discussion topics of which have not been released by the State Department -- and then left the Ambassador, drove safely through a newly-established terrorist checkpoint, and disappeared into the night without warning his colleague.

Lopez asserts that "it is obvious that the Turkish diplomat and by extension, his government, were at least to some degree complicit in the attack against Ambassador Stevens and the others."

What was the subject of the discussion between Stevens and Akin? Malta Today offers some context that hints at some strong possibilities.

A Libyan-flagged vessel which last year was used by a Malta-based humanitarian organisation in supplying a lifeline to rebels in Misurata, has been implicated in a covert US arms smuggling operation to Syrian freedom fighters, which may also be linked to murdered US ambassador Chris Stevens in Benghazi last month.

The ship 'Al Entisar' which was chartered last year by I-Go Aid Libya, then run by businessman Mario Debono, has been reported to be linked to last September's attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.

A Fox News investigation revealed that shipping records confirmed that the Al Entisar entered the Turkish port of Iskenderun, some 35 miles from the Syrian border, just five days before Ambassador Chris Stevens, and three other US officials were killed during an assault by more than 100 Islamist militants on the US Consulate compound in Benghazi.

Another report, this time appearing on the Times of London, said that the Al Entisar was carrying 400 tons of cargo. Some of it was humanitarian, but also reportedly weapons, described by the report as the largest consignment of weapons headed for Syria's rebels on the frontlines...

...The cargo reportedly included surface-to-air anti-aircraft missiles, RPGs and Russian-designed shoulder-launched missiles known as MANPADS.

The ship's Libyan captain reportedly told the Times of London that "I can only talk about the medicine and humanitarian aid" for the Syrian rebels.

It was reported there was a fight about the weapons and who got what "between the free Syrian Army and the Muslim Brotherhood."

A reasonable person would deduce from these stories that the United States was running weapons (does "Fast and Furious" ring a bell?) from Libya to Syria using Turkey as a go-between. The end result turned out to be a complete disaster -- like everything this administration attempts.

The Libyan weapons likely went to the Muslim Brotherhood and a Turkish diplomat appears to have helped set up the assassination of Ambassador Stevens. We simply don't know whether the government of Turkey itself was involved with the double-cross or whether Akin was a Brotherhood sympathizer who helped set up the attack.

The families of those murdered deserve answers. America deserves answers. And we can start the interrogatory by firing this administration on November 6th and launching a full-scale Congressional investigation. We don't have to take this s*** any more.

Update: Clinton discloses West's effort to help reshape Syria opposition

YES WE CAN (DEFEAT OBAMA) - Best Yard Signs

EXCLUSIVE: Artist's Depiction of White House Situation Room as Benghazi Attack Unfolded

Redman Bluestate offers this courtroom sketch:

Note: You can get all of the latest Benghazi headlines at BadBlue.com, the real-time news service that automatically finds the stories antique media doesn't want you to see.

Larwyn's Linx: Did Obama Withhold Cross-Border Authority?

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

QOTD: "The Benghazi coverup is much worse than you think. Clearly there were air assets on the scene above the CIA annex and they were denied permission to fire.

Tyrone Woods was painting a target with a ground laser designator (GLD). Those are only used when the air asset is overhead, ready to fire. The jihadis can use cell phones with night-vision capabilities to see the laser beam, which then pinpoints the location of the person using the GLD. As a former Navy SEAL, Woods would’ve known that. He would only have exposed himself if he thought that the mortar squad was about to be taken out. The air asset didn’t fire, and Woods and Glen Doherty were killed by the mortar squad.

There was either a Spectre gunship or an armed Predator or Reaper drone overhead, and it was denied permission to fire. That’s the only explanation that fits. Woods would not have used his GLD for any other reason than to paint a target for an immediate air strike.

Only the commander of AFRICOM and the president have the authority to tell the air asset to not fire in this situation." --A Power Line reader

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

THE SCIENCE IS SETTLED: Global Warming Responsible for Worst-Ever Storm to Hit New York

I refer, of course, to the New England Hurricane of 1938.

The New England Hurricane of 1938 (or Great New England Hurricane, Yankee Clipper, Long Island Express, or simply the Great Hurricane) was the first major hurricane to strike New England since 1869. The storm formed near the coast of Africa in September of the 1938 Atlantic hurricane season, becoming a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale before making landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on Long Island on September 21...

...The hurricane was estimated to have killed between 682 and 800 people, damaged or destroyed over 57,000 homes, and caused property losses estimated at US$306 million ($4.7 Billion in 2012). Even as late as 1951, damaged trees and buildings were still seen in the affected areas. It remains the most powerful, costliest and deadliest hurricane in recent New England history, eclipsed in landfall intensity perhaps only by the Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635.

Whether or not "global warming" was to blame for the 1938 (or the 1635) storm I leave as an exercise for the reader.

Related: Scientists reject Sandy-Climate Change Link.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Careers Will Be Destroyed by Benghazi

Stanford Fellow Victor Davis Hanson offers a historian's perspective on the catastrophe in Benghazi.

...When the government systematically misleads and cannot establish a believable narrative, almost everyone involved is eventually tarred. The final chart of those officials in the Nixon White House who were devoured by Watergate was vast — and so it is becoming with the disaster in Libya. If we have learned anything from Watergate and Iran-Contra, it is that the longer officials deceive and obfuscate, the greater the number of wrecked careers and reputations...

...Most likely, the political wing of the White House almost immediately made a decision that the attack on our Benghazi consulate should not endanger the conventional narrative of a successful commander-in-chief — ahead in the polls in part because he had highlighted a supposedly successful foreign policy. Key to that story was the notion that the hit on bin Laden and the drone attacks on other Islamists had rendered al-Qaeda all but impotent...

...In such a landscape, Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans were brutally murdered. And almost immediately it was clear that the ambassador had earlier warned that Libya was descending into chaos and that Americans were not safe there — only to have his requests for further protection rejected.

During the actual assault on the consulate, a real-time video, streams of e-mail exchanges, and surveys of Islamist websites confirmed that al-Qaedists were carrying out a preplanned assassination — and over the next seven or eight hours it became clear that our staff was in dire need of military assistance that was somehow never sent. Then for nearly two weeks, the president, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Press Secretary Jay Carney, and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice advanced a counter-narrative that simply could not have been true: A spontaneous demonstration over a two-month-old video — just happening to coincide with the anniversary of 9/11 — got out of hand as some disruptive protesters showed up with machines gun, mortars, and RPGs and began killing Americans. Since it was an American religious bigot who had prompted such terrible but “natural” riots with his video that ridiculed and injured Islam, we should apologize for the uncouth among us in the strongest terms.

Obama, Clinton, Clapper, Rice, and Carney strove to outdo each other in damning the obscure video maker — to such an extent that he was summarily arrested on a supposedly outstanding probation charge. The message? Ambassadors die and careful U.S. foreign policy is undermined when right-wing bigots abuse their free-speech rights...

Hanson's next column should deal with the historic malfeasance of old media, a wholly owned subsidiary of the federal government.

Hat tip: Ame.

MORE OF THE LEFT'S VAUNTED "TOLERANCE": Progressive Scumbags Portray Ritual Murder of Mitt Romney

Dateline Boulder, Colorado:

The Boulder Theater was packed with stilts, skeletons and acrobats on Friday — and that was just on stage — for the first night of ***’s weekend run...

MarchFourth Marching Band kicked off the show with a stunning visual performance. ***’s Day of the Dead/Mayan Apocalypse theme came to life with a “sacrificial ritual” of a band member in a Mitt Romney mask.

A "Day of the Dead" theme "came to life" through the portrayal of a ritual murder?

I redacted the name of the band. They don't deserve to be mentioned.

Because these punks don't have the cojones to depict the ritual murder of a Democrat.

Hat tip: Ari.

PHOTOS OF NEW YORK'S SUBWAY SYSTEM: "the most devastating event to the city’s subway system ever"

Tyler Durden summarizes the damage to New York's all-critical subway system:

As everyone who has been to New York City knows, without its underground arteries - the subway system - the city is if not dead, than certainly in an indefinite coma. By that logic, New York will not get out of the critical ward for many days, because hours ago the head of the New York City’s transit system just called Hurricane Sandy "the most devastating event to the city’s subway system ever."

At last check seven subway tunnels under the East River had flooded, as did the Queens Midtown Tunnel—and Metropolitan Transit Authority chairman Joseph Lhota said there is “no firm timeline” for when the system would be back up and running. According to other MTA employees it would take between 14 hours and 4 days just to pump the water out of the subway system. We'll take the over.

Gothamist has additional images:

And don't ask what happened to all of the rats.

Larwyn's Linx: Benghazi-gate: What is being lied about, going unasked?

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Benghazi-gate: What is being lied about, going unasked?: Anchoress
Beyond Impeachment: Treason: Simon
Benghazi timeline, sourced: ProWis

Benghazigate: Chapter Two: Babbin
The Presidency Loses Its Final Traces of Dignity: Dossier
Tyrone Woods Painted a Target, But the Missile Never Came: Rush

BEEP... BEEP... BEEP...: BlackFive
New Projection of Election Results: Romney 52, Obama 47: WS
Rasmussen: Romney up in... Ohio: AIM

Incompetence, Indifference, or Just Plain Cowardice?: Elephant
Desperation Driving Obama: Finley
Postcards From An Underwater New York: ZH

Economy

Black Chicagoans rage against the Obama, the leadership, the machine: LI
Bailout Bombshell: Fiat Says Chrysler, Jeep May Move to Italy: NLPC
Illegal Immigrants Cost Michigan Taxpayers $1 Bil A Year: JW

Dana considering layoffs as Obamacare costs mount: Thurber
White House blocks oil production in Ohio: 200,000 jobs lost: Knight
Top Five Worst Obamacare Taxes Coming in 2013: ATR

Scandal Central

Report: Fast and Furious a ‘deliberate strategy’ laid out by Eric Holder, other Obama officials: DC
‘Highly confidential’ Treasury docs show Obama administration’s entanglement in Delphi pension scandal: DC
Chicago: Homicides already pass mark for 2011, defying trend in other US cities: CSM

Cook County lands $100 million federal Obamacare waiver: ChiBiz
Obama gave $443 million no-bid contract to drug firm run by Democrat fundraiser: Knight
Benghazi: Urgent call for military help ‘was denied by chain of command’: CSM

Climate & Energy

Dept. of Energy e-mails contradict Obama denials on another green energy failure: Hot Air
Pennsylvania Coal Companies Announce Layoffs, Blame Obama: H4A
How RFK Jr received $1.3M in FREE renovations to Westchester mansion, which he just sold for $4M: DailyMail

Media

Why Is Obama so Nasty and Vulgar?: Ledeen
Why I don’t believe the polls: Q&O
Oliver Stone rips Obama: USA Today

Having Run Out of Children and Single Women, Left Hires Foul-Mouthed Seniors: Babalu
12 Reasons to Vote Democrat: Fred's Corner
CNN political reporter not happy about favorable Romney coverage: Fox

World

‘Sharia Killed Ambassador Chris Stevens’: McCarthy
Benghazi and the Lethal Price of Arming Jihadists: FPM
Unreal: Obama Says 'Flexibility' Comment To Putin Meant He Was Busy Campaigning, Couldn't Talk: AllAm

The Liberal Man's Burden: Sultan Knish
Former Delta Operator on "The Panetta Doctrine" or also known as "The Dumbest S*** I Ever Heard!": BlackFive
Powerful new Benghazi ad: “When they called”: Scoop

Sci-Tech

How to use Twitter when you lose Internet access: WaPo
Google Adds Power Outage Information To Its Hurricane Sandy Crisis Map: TechCrunch
FDNY to NYC: Please don't tweet for help: CNet

Cornucopia

The Obama Curse strikes again: Bookworm
Warning, Storm of the Century On Direct Path for the White House: MOTUS
5 Deep Insights Gained from Watching Hoarders: Hawkins

Image: Shark in New Jersey (Comment)
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Make Calls for Romney-Ryan!

QOTD: "Now the President says that the US Military that he is at the head of (and controls) as the commander in chief are the ones who, after seeing the same information he did, decided not to help those besieged Americans and the President's personal envoy and representative who were under attack...

...I know that there are his sycophant defenders who are going to say "Whuh! Did you want the Delta Force SEALS to HALO rappel from the Space Shuttle and use their death rays and then use the Flux Capacitor to beam themselves to America?" No trolls, I expected them to do their job and give the Ambassador the assets he needed to be safe in the first place, but barring their lack of testicular fortitude to do that, I would expect that they would use whatever they had at their disposal to aid the living and destroy our enemies. Delta Force could have rigged in-flight for a jump into the nearest DZ that would have gotten them into the fight to be followed by heavier forces from Italy. AFRICOM SOF assets on the Horn Of Africa could have planned on the helo flight there, Fighter Jets, land or carrier based, could have been there early on and established a presence and put human eyes on what was happening.

So Mr. President, when you say that you didn't deny aid to those brave men in Benghazi, but that members of the US Military decided not to send aid to your personal representative under attack all on their own and you had no influence over that decision, then you are either derelict, incompetent, or a liar..." --DeeBow at BlackFive

Monday, October 29, 2012

GENIUS: Pepsi's Obama-style Branding Helped Crush Its Market Share

Who could have predicted that attaching your brand to an inexperienced, Alinsky-trained community organizer would turn out badly?

When Diet Coke surpassed Pepsi to become the No.2 soda in America, it was as if the Cola Wars had finally declared a winner: Coca-Cola...

[Much of the blame] has to do with the astronomical number of gaffes Pepsi has made in the past few years, particularly in its brand management and the way it has branded its flagship product...

Pepsi's 2009 logo redesign was dogged by political distractions

Pepsi paid Arnell Group an outrageous $1 million for this logo, which isn't drastically different from its predecessor.

The logo also made headlines for resembling that of newly elected President Obama...

...Coupled with Pepsi's new slogans -- "Yes You Can" and "Choose Change" -- the company was criticized for copying Obama's award-winning campaign and aligning itself with it at the same time.

Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi, in the job for about five years, was reportedly a huge Obama backer and behind the re-branding decision. Brilliant strategy: piss off half the country with your brand. I'd rather drink tap water than a Pepsi.

ANIMATION: Projected Hurricane Storm Track for Next Eight Days

Courtesy of Zombie:

#Beatdown2012

ERNST SHREIBER: What Ty Woods and Glen Doherty Should Have Done to Get the President's Attention

But before we get to what these two American heroes should have done, please consider the following report from Benghazi during the attack:

...Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty disobeyed orders to “stand down”... they instead “walked” while under fire to the Annex compound.

They walked there, approximately a half mile, retrieved the consulate employees, and walked them back to the Annex. Woods and Doherty were not in an armored SUV as previously reported. They were on foot and they were taking fire while doing so...

...When Woods and Doherty safely secured the 20 to 30 employees back in the annex they took up positions on the roof, and Woods engaged communication traffic... “Where the f*** is the Spectre??, referencing the AC-130 gunship he anticipated would be overhead by then. Obviously it was never sent.

So who refused help?

We still don't know. The President -- who is reported to have witnessed the attack live -- won't say. And the White House Briefing Room has been closed for two weeks, so no one can ask the lying hack Jay Carney.

They're in total cover-up mode.

Meanwhile, the State Department and the Intelligence Community are disavowing any responsibility for refusing Doherty and Woods backup.

The local station chief is reported to have said, "Hell yes, we asked for help!", referring to multiple requests for an AC-130 or a rapid response force to assist.

Commenting at Protein Wisdom, Ernst Shreiber offers the only strategy likely to have worked with the Obama administration:

"Hell yes, we asked for help!"

See. That right there was the mistake.

What they should have done is passed the hat and collected campaign contributions, bundle those contributions, send them off to a lobbyist who could bundle their contributions with other contributions from all the guys cooling their heels while waiting the “go.”

Then the lobbyist could have sat down with Jarrett or Axelrod over lunch and talked about all the exciting green energy ideas the consulate staff had come up with in their free time -- but before the pols in D.C. could get rich cashing in on those ideas -- the administration would first have to save the lives of the consulate staffers.

Rest in peace, Ty Woods and Glen Doherty. We won't forget you. And we won't let the most incompetent, partisan administration in American history forget you either.

Creaky, Partisan, Antique Media Finally Wakes Up: "President Obama has a problem with independents"

And the owners of The New York Times and The Washington Post wonder why their papers are bleeding out?

President Obama has a problem with independents. And it’s not a small problem.

In the last three releases of the tracking poll conducted by The Washington Post and ABC News, Obama has trailed former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney among independent voters by between 16 and 20 percentage points.

That’s a striking reversal from 2008, when Obama won independent voters, who made up 29 percent of the electorate, by eight points over Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

For months, independents have been breaking for Romney by double-digits, yet only within the last couple of days has vintage media seen fit to report this inconvenient truth.

Now even if Democrats match GOP turnout -- which is unlikely -- the margin of independents breaking for the GOP are going to make Nate Silver look like Nostradumbass. Just like 2010.

But that's why they're called "vintage media".