California firearm-seizure measure takes effect January 1

(London Guardian) A California gun statute going into effect on 1 January gives the police or family members the option to petition the courts to seize the guns and ammunition of someone they think poses a threat, the first law of its kind in the country.

But the “gun violence restraining order” law, passed last year, has raised concerns from lawmakers and pro-gun groups about civil liberties and questions about how effective it will really be.

Modeled after firearms prohibitions in domestic violence restraining orders, the statute allows for law enforcement or “immediate family members” to ask a judge for a restraining order if they feel that someone is a danger to themselves or others. The order would also bar the person from purchasing a firearm by placing them on the state’s do-not-buy list.

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2015, as told by the State Department

According to spokeshole John Kirby, the State Department (and, by extension, Secretary of State John Kerry; and, by extension, President Barack Obama) considers the current situation in Syria a “success.” Perhaps they’re working with a different dictionary down in Foggy Bottom; but the last time I checked, “shooting war involving more than two countries on at least three sides” was as high on the alternative-definitions list for “success” as “bunch of inbred islamofascist wackos” is for “caliphate.”

Of course, the laughably optimistic estimation of the conflagration in Syria didn’t actually fall out of Kerry’s or Obama’s own faceholes. Obama is busy working on his short game, and Kerry couldn’t convincingly order dinner at a drive-thru window. Thus, a State Department flack, Kirby, got stuck with the task of selling America the idea that not only is a total breakdown of basic order in one of the world’s oldest civilizations worth the nearly 10 figures we’ve already sunk into it, but so is sinking close to 10 figures into ISIS’s ascendancy. And Kirby may not have done a good job, but he certainly did an interesting one.

In a post to the State Department’s official blog, which runs under the way-too-perfect header “DipNote,” Kirby didn’t just rest on his borderline-insane claim that “[o]ur diplomats have been busy, and they have met with significant success across a range of issues.” The poor sap actually ticked off a list of items that the foreign-policy wing of the Obama administration considers worthy of a gold star. He even headed each entry with the Twitter-friendly “#2015In5Words” because the cats who work for Kerry are super hip with the interwebz; omg!

“Diplomatic Relations Re-established With Cuba. #2015in5words”

Having seen firsthand what economic embargoes tend to do to the already-suffering people of countries that end up on the business end of a global money strike, I’m generally averse to the kind of diplomatic isolation that we forced on Cuba. So I’ll grant that lifting said embargo represented a forward step. But Obama choreographed one step forward and then two steps back. Cuba, one of the last of the old-line communist dictatorships, gave up precisely nothing in return for Obama’s largesse. Raul Castro remains the billionaire ruler of a grossly oppressed country full of people who risk prison if they don’t toe his line. And we get to reopen our embassy there. Yippee.

“Winning Fight Against Violent Extremists. #2015in5words”

Back in February, Obama hosted the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism. Since then, neither violence nor extremism has abated. I know the Democrats have convinced themselves that white conservatives with firearms are the biggest threat to humanity since the Black Death, but the reality is that facism/statism and islamofascism are the real champs in that weight class. Granted, the globalists can’t hold an antifascism conference, since that would require far too much introspection. We already know that they can’t bring themselves to say “Islamic” and “violence” in the same sentence. And virtually every pronouncement Obama has made on the topic of ISIS/ISIL has been as off the mark as Kerry’s 2004 presidential bid. These guys understand “winning” as well as they understand “success.”

“Protecting Arctic Climate and Communities. #2015in5words,” “Protecting Health of Our Ocean. #2015in5words,” “Strongest Climate Agreement Ever Negotiated. #2015in5words”

Blah, blah, blah, “global warming,” blah blah blah. Whatever.

“Iran Peaceful Nuclear Program Ensured. #2015in5words”

You know who agrees that the deal Obama struck with Iran over its nuclear-weapons development program is a “good” deal? Iran does. Although the agreement is so toothless the Iranians would need to be inventive in order to actually run afoul of it, we are talking about the Iranians. The world’s proudest funders of islamofascist terrorism set about to openly flouting the terms of the bargain before Obama could promise they wouldn’t. Congratulations, I guess.

“Stemming Tide of Ebola Outbreak. #2015in5words”

Remember back in 2014 when that disease wandered across the pond from Africa and touched off a bit of a panic, which the Obama Administration then mishandled like they were new to having thumbs? Among the State Department’s many “successes” in 2015 is a failure which occurred in 2014.

“Committing to Ambitious Development Goals. #2015in5words”

Translated: “Among our many accomplishments in 2015: our promise to accomplish stuff in 2016.” Imagine how you’d react if your kid not only told you they got an “A” on an exam they haven’t taken yet; but was absolutely convinced they deserved your praise for it. Now imagine that same kid is in charge of presenting America’s positions to the world. Holy cow.

“Open Door to Free Trade. #2015in5words”

Obama and his cronies negotiated a multinational trade agreement after secret negotiations to which the majority of Congress and the American people were not privy. The only thing bipartisan about it is the criticism it has engendered, bringing together such disparate allies as Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). But Comcast and the Motion Picture Association of America, who DID contribute to the negotiations, think it’s just peachy.

“Bringing Peace, Security to Syria. #2015in5words”

Joining “success” on the list of words Obama defines differently than the rest of humanity: “peace” and “security.”

If I’d had as bad a year as the State Department, I’d probably avoid drawing deliberate attention to it through an official blog post. Of course, Kirby and his fellow state-oids are members of the same administration that continues to give itself medals for Obamacare’s lowering of the uninsured rate — as if defrauding people at gunpoint is something for which medals ought to be awarded.

To these guys, the State Department had a terrific year, filled from Countering Violent Extremism Summits to San Bernardino, California, with “success.” It’s just that they define “success” somewhat differently than the rest of the species. And that might nothing more than fodder for a sharp-witted columnist with looks of a matinee idol, except that these same guys who say “success” where you’d say “catastrophe of near-biblical proportions” clearly don’t speak your language; but they do speak for you.

–Ben Crystal

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Another day, another assault on liberty

The gun grabber faction of Congress has embarked on yet another assault on liberty and the 2^nd Amendment, filing a bill called the “Assault Weapons Ban of 2015” (H.R. 4269) in the House. It was initiated by Rep. David Cicilline (Communist-R.I.) with some 126 listed co-conspirators, all communists listed as Democrats.

The bill does not even hide the fact that it is a direct assault on the 2^nd Amendment. The first line of the bill reads, “To regulate assault weapons, to ensure the right to keep and bear arms is not unlimited, and other purposes (emphasis added).” The “other purposes” are to begin an overt assault on lawful gun owners as a first step to remove from them their right to possess any and all weapons for self-defense and sporting purposes.

The bill lists more than 160 rifles, shotguns and pistols that are banned under the bill. The common denominator in them is that the guns look scary to some people, are semi-automatic, may have features that make them easier to handle and have the ability to accept what the cabal has decided are “large capacity magazines,” which equates to anything more than 10. The banned weapons are less powerful than many weapons listed specifically in the bill as not banned.

The term “assault weapon” is a nebulous and meaningless term in reality. It’s a code word applied to a class of weapons that simply look and function a certain way. They are not used to “assault” people any more than other weapons, and are in fact used to commit murder less often than less expensive weapons and even hands and feet, knives and blunt objects.

According to the FBI, rifles of all types were used to commit only 285 murders in 2013 (down from 351 in 2009), and so-called “assault weapons” are just a small subset of rifles generally.

The previous assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004, had no effect on crime. From the 1997 study on the assault weapons ban by the National Institute of Justice:

Using a variety of national and local data sources, we found no statistical evidence of post-ban decreases in either the number of victims per gun homicide incident, the number of gunshot wounds per victim, or the proportion of gunshot victims with multiple wounds. Nor did we find assault weapons to be overrepresented in a sample of mass murders involving guns.

In 2004, the NIJ revisited the gun ban. It concluded:

Should it be renewed, the ban’s effects on gun violence are likely to be small at best and perhaps too small for reliable measurement. AWs were rarely used in gun crimes even before the ban. ^[i]

Under normal circumstances one could assume that a Republican-controlled House and Senate would relegate a gun ban bill of any type to file 13, where it belongs –especially one as overreaching as this.

But given Speaker Paul Ryan’s (Fascist-Wis.) and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (Fascist-Ky.) penchant for supporting President Barack Obama’s liberty-stealing, big-government, progressive legislation, nothing can be ruled out until the bill is dead, dead, dead. Meanwhile, the undocumented usurper currently despoiling the People’s House has promised to embark on another gun grab of his own, attempting to write new 2^nd Amendment-infringing legislation with his executive pen in what would be yet another unconstitutional power grab.

But if the confiscators are somehow able to get a new weapons ban passed, a revolution is likely to ensue. And it would not be bloodless. Rest assured that being a confiscator would be an especially dangerous and short-lived occupation.

Americans are buying weapons and ammunition in record numbers (Obama will go down as the greatest weapons salesman of all time — both to Americans and Islamists). And polls show 54 percent of Americans oppose a ban, especially while the regime is arming ISIS terrorists and inviting them into America through the front door it has propped open.

And here are a few numbers for you to chew on. There were 8,454 people killed with firearms in 2013 (the last year for which figures are available). Assuming one murderer per murder committed, this legislation is designed to apply to 0.0026 percent of the population (or 8,454 people out of a country of 321.7 million). Breaking that down even further, assuming one murderer for each murder committed with a rifle, and that only rifles falling under the proposed gun ban were used in those murders, the legislation is designed to apply to only 0.00008 percent of the population. Or in other words, more than 321,738,000 Americans did not commit murder with a weapon on the ban list, had no intention of doing so and never will.

The regime’s intent is total disarmament of the citizens. A disarmed citizenry is a dependent one. A dependent citizenry is a frightened one. A frightened citizenry is easier to control.

[i] “Control: Exposing the Truth About Guns,” by Glenn Beck, page 44.

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Americans can’t let radical Islam threaten free speech

You may be surprised that a growing number of high-profile politicians, publications and legal experts are lining up in support of handing radical Islamists a huge victory over the American people.

Concerns over the Islamic State’s use of social media to recruit Westerners to its extremist ranks have led to widespread calls for the federal government to step in with new restrictions on constitutional free speech. And though you might expect such an un-American idea to have little mainstream support, people likes Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and the editors of The New York Times are doing their best to scare Americans into giving up certain 1^st Amendment rights.

Trump and Clinton have both called on tech-industry leaders to more actively target and disconnect Internet properties tied to extremist ideologies.

“We need to put the great disrupters at work at disrupting ISIS,” Clinton said during a recent speaking engagement.

The former first lady went on to suggest that complaints about possible violations of freedom of speech should be ignored when it comes to deny Internet resources to “the most effective recruiter in the world.”

“You are going to hear all the familiar complaints: ‘freedom of speech,’” she said.

Trump’s message has been similar.

“We’re losing a lot of people because of the Internet,” he recently said.

Trump continued: “We have to see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what’s happening.

“We have to talk to them about, maybe in certain areas, closing that Internet up in some ways. Somebody will say, ‘Oh, freedom of speech, freedom of speech.’ These are foolish people.”

As presidential candidates go, GOP hopeful Rand Paul is the only one warning of the possible consequences of rapidly rethinking free speech protections because of ISIS’s Internet activities.

“The question is: How do we keep America safe from terrorism? Trump says we ought to close that Internet thing,” Paul said. “The question really is: What does he mean by that? Like they do in North Korea? Like they do in China?”

Well, sort of– at least according to legal experts given a platform to tout new free speech regulations in the pages of The New York Times.

The Times highlights the ideas of University of Chicago law professor Eric Posner, who believes the Internet should be censored to protect the most “naïve” people using the Internet.

From the report:

Mr. Posner supported urging companies like Facebook and YouTube to crack down on propaganda by the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS or ISIL, but said that could never be fully effective. He proposed, in addition, passing a law to deter potential consumers from viewing dangerous sites. While the law would apply to all Internet users, his goal, admittedly limited, is to head off the radicalization of those he described as “naïve people” who research the Islamic State out of curiosity, “rather than sophisticated terrorists.”

His proposal would make it illegal to go onto websites that glorify the Islamic State or support its recruitment, or to distribute links to such sites. He would impose graduated penalties, starting with a warning letter, then fines or prison for repeat offenders, to convey that “looking at ISIS-related websites, like looking at websites that display child pornography, is strictly forbidden.”

Of course, having the government decide what online information can lead “naïve people” to extremist ideologies is far more complicated than inking out laws that prohibit child pornography.

So it’s really up to Americans to decide whether they trust state-sanctioned censors to focus only on scrubbing the Web of Islamic extremist content without allowing their own personal political beliefs to expand the scope of censorship or government scrutiny.

Unfortunately for people like Trump, Clinton and Posner, there’s more than enough evidence that it isn’t possible.

Does the name Lois Lerner ring any bells?

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Nevada bets on Trump: Billionaire holds big lead over rivals

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump

A new poll shows the Silver State easily giving Donald Trump the gold medal in his fight for the Republican presidential nomination.

A Gravis Marketing poll of likely Nevada voters released Wednesday found Trump, the Republican front-runner since August, winning over his rivals by capturing 33 percent. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was second at 20 percent, followed by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at 11 percent.

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The survey was conducted Dec. 23-27 with 909 registered, likely voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points for both parties.

Democrat front-runner Hillary Clinton beats Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, 50 percent to 22 percent.

(Photo: Gravis Marketing)

The good news for Trump comes just three days after Clout Research, a national opinion research firm in Columbus, Ohio, said the billionaire’s anti-establishment, anti-politically correct attitude resonates with many minorities.

The WND/Clout survey, taken Dec. 18-27, except for the holiday, found 40 percent of blacks, 45 percent of Hispanics, and nearly 19 percent of Asians view Trump favorably, WND reported. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.35 percentage points.

Trump’s prolonged dominance in the polls has created what Fox News deemed a “brawl” between candidates “below the Trump tier.”

“The establishment candidates – the former governors Bush, Christie, Kasich – and then Sen. Rubio are in a dogfight to see which one of them can emerge as the establishment candidate to challenge Cruz and Trump. So there is a real dogfight going on in the establishment lane,” former Mitt Romney adviser Robert O’Brien told Fox on Thursday.

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Right to Rise USA, a pro-Jeb Bush super PAC, is spending $1.4 million on ads set to begin in Iowa next week. Bush’s previous attempts to attack Trump have been met with laughter and derision.

Bush garners 5 percent in Gravis Marketing’s new poll.

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Judge’s pro-‘gay’ ‘bias’ kills counseling ministry

The “bias” of a trial court judge and the prevailing political perspective in the Obama administration that homosexuality should be promoted has killed a New Jersey counseling program that offered help to those who are frustrated with their same-sex feelings and need help to deal with them.

Officials with JONAH, or Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing, on Thursday issued a statement that the organization was closing down due to a judge’s order in a lawsuit brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

WND had reported several months ago on the jury verdict that ordered the organization to pay $72,000 to several plaintiffs who sued under a New Jersey consumer fraud law after they said their counseling sessions aimed at getting rid of unwanted same-sex attractions failed.

At the time, licensed professional counselor Christopher Doyle told the Anglican Mainstream that the decision “is the consequence of liberal judicial bias.”

“Before and during the trial Judge Peter Bariso stripped JONAH of so many opportunities to really defend themselves, disqualifying five of the six expert witnesses for the defendants because their opinions contradicted the so-called mainstream view that same-sex attractions are not at all disordered, even if a client is distressed by these unwanted sexual feelings because of their sincerely held religious and spiritual beliefs,” he explained.

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“The judge’s bias against religious freedom was so ruthless that he even refused to allow JONAH’s chief attorney to mention the First Amendment freedom of religion in his closing argument,” Doyle said.

A statement released on Thursday by organization directors Arthur Goldberg & Elaine Silodor Berk thanked supporters for their “kind words and consistent financial support” over the years.

They called the verdict in the case “unjust and unwarranted.”

“The N.J. court delivered its final judgement on December 18th. Under the order, JONAH must permanently cease operations, including providing referrals and operating its website and listserv. That means that our site, http://www.jonahweb.org, will no longer be available online after mid-January 2016, and neither of us will be permitted to give referrals to strugglers who call or email with requests for help. JONAH is required to dissolve as a corporate entity and liquidate its assets by the middle of May,” they said.

However, they issued a statement of warning.

“The tragic miscarriage of justice which occurred in the JONAH case reflects the near triumph of political correctness and the gay activist agenda in the USA. We long for the day when the outcome in the JONAH case will be recognized as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in modern history,” their statement said.

“So many of the court’s outrageous pre-trial rulings, such as not allowing our six defense experts to testify, the equally outrageous rulings that calling homosexuality ‘disordered’ violates the consumer fraud act, and the ruling during the trial which prohibited our attorney from arguing our freedom of religion 1st Amendment rights, ended any real chance for a fair trial and verdict.

“However, we fervently believe that the Torah’s traditional values on sexuality and the family will triumph in the end because these universal laws produce the most just societies which, in turn, offer G-d given truths for all humanity to follow.”

Of their plans going forward, they said first they are collecting donations through PayPal, or mailed contributions to JONAH, Box 313, Jersey City, 07303, to pay the SPLC off.

And they said they already have filed the articvles of incorporation for the Jewish Institute for Global Awareness.”

“We intend to explain how following [Noah’s] laws can be shown to benefit the individual and society.

Those laws prohibit idolatry, blasphemy, murder, robbery, immorality and removing the limb from a live animal, and require a justice system.

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The decision is representative of the moral agenda adopted by the Obama administration. Aalready California, Oregon and New Jersey have adopted rules that prohibit people from offering help during counseling sessions to juveniles who have unwanted same-sex attractions.

Several other states have rejected the idea.

The case was brought by the SPLC, which originally opposed racism and discrimination during its early years.

However, just a few years ago, it was linked to domestic terrorism in a court case. That was when homosexual activist Floyd Lee Corkins on Aug. 15, 2012, walked into Family Research Council headquarters in Washington, D.C., armed with a semi-automatic pistol, 95 bullets and a sack of Chick-fil-A sandwiches with the intent, he later confessed, of killing “as many people as I could.” Corkins admitted he picked FRC, which promotes traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs about family and sexuality, because it was listed as an “anti-gay” hate group by SPLC on its website.

See video of the attack:

In the courtroom, the judge actually had pre-ordained the conclusion, writing early in the case “the theory that homosexuality is a disorder is not novel but – like the notion that the earth is flat and the sun revolves around it – instead is outdated and refuted.”

For that reason, he gutted much of the organization’s defense.

Obama’s feelings are so strong on the issue that he has refused to meet with a group because of their sexual orientation.

In his victory speech on November 5, 2008, as reported by the New York Times, Obama said: “And for those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight; but I hear your voices. I need your help, and I will be your president, too.”

But Boynes Ministries chief Janet Boynes confirmed that Obama has refused to meet with former homosexuals and former lesbians.

Read Janet Boynes’ story of being “Called Out: A Former Lesbian’s Discovery of Freedom.”

In a commentary, she wrote, “For years, the president of the United States has sat down with those in the LGBTQ community but has failed to hear the stories of those of us who have successfully left the homosexual lifestyle.”

It’s not the first time Obama has been publicly confronted over this issue.

Officials with Parents and Friends of ExGays and Gays confirmed to WND they had written to Obama early in 2014 asking for support.

“Each year thousands of men and women with unwanted same-sex attractions make the personal decision to leave homosexuality through gender affirming programs, including counseling, support groups, faith based ministries, and other non-judgmental environments,” the letter said. “Their decision is a personal one that only they can make. However, there are those in society who refuse to respect an individual’s right to self-determination.

“Consequently, formerly gay men and women are harassed, bullied, and discriminated against simply because they dare to exist.

“Because of your public outpouring of support for the LGBT community, we ask that you also extend your support to the ex-gay community, which continues to face unprecedented prejudice, bullying and hate.”

The same organization had earlier approached Obama, when he still was a senator, with a request for support.

At that time, he was told, “Former homosexuals and their allies have been fired from their jobs, repeatedly ridiculed, assaulted and intimidated. This harassment is most often perpetrated by the same groups who demand protection under sexual orientation laws but work to deny ex-gays the same respect.”

For example, ex-“gays” routinely are excluded from NEA, PTA and American School Counselors Associations events and ex-“gay” speakers are not welcome on diversity days. Even their own conferences are picketed by “gay rights” groups.

But instead of support, the reverse developed.

“Sen. Obama knows about this discriminatory treatment firsthand,” PFOX reported. “When ex-gay gospel singer Donnie McClurkin sang at an Obama fundraiser last year, gay rights organizations demanded that Obama remove McClurkin from the program. On CNN Prime News, former Human Rights Campaign spokesperson Wayne Besen insisted that Obama should fire McClurkin just for being ex-gay. According to the Advocate, McClurkin is no longer part of the program.”

 

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Obama’s New Year’s resolution: Take your guns

President Obama made his New Year’s resolution known on Thursday: trample the Second Amendment under executive orders.

White House officials told CNN on Thursday that Obama’s gun-control measures are “imminent.” Supporters of the president said they expect an announcement to be made sometimes before the annual State of the Union address scheduled for Jan. 12.

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“It is complicated. That’s why it’s taken some time for our policy folks, our lawyers, and our expects to work through this and see what’s possible,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz told CNN.

Obama has struggled to find a way to close the so-called “gun show loophole” since the Dec. 12, 2012, shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, by 20-year-old Adam Lanza.

Six adults and 20 children were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School before Lanza committed suicide. He executed his mother in their home earlier that day.

The loophole allegedly allows criminals to circumvent background checks through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS.

Individuals familiar with the president’s plan say it will change the definition of a small-scale gun owner, which requires them to conduct a background check any time a weapon is sold.

Gun-rights advocates say the vast majority of prisoners convicted of gun crimes obtained weapons through theft; countless crimes are committed by those who steal weapons; and criminals often obtain weapons from straw purchasers, which background checks cannot prevent.

“[Obama] is doing what he always does when he doesn’t get his way, defying the will of the people and using executive action,” NRA spokeswoman Jennifer Baker told CNN Thursday. “The fact is, the President’s gun control agenda will only make it harder for law-abiding citizens to exercise their right to self-defense.”

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A top industry executive told Politico said Obama’s plan is a prime example of “overreach” given Congress’ current definition of a small-scale seller.

“If you are not doing it for the principal purpose of earning a livelihood and earn a profit, you are not engaged in the business as defined by Congress,” the executive,  whose opinion was shaped by conversations with ATF officials this month, told the website.

Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun-control group launched by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2014, told Politico its ideal executive orders by Obama would make the following criteria a red flag for requiring a license:

• Selling guns in original packaging.
• Reselling a gun soon after it has been acquired.
• Maintaining a certain quantity of guns for sale.
• Selling more than 25 guns a year.

“Any kind of clarification would be beneficial in this context because right now most sellers and prosecutors are kind of flying blind,” said Liz Avore, Everytown’s legal director.

One of the last things Obama did before leaving for his Hawaiian vacation Dec. 18 was to meet with Bloomberg.

The White House told CNN Dec. 18 that Obama and Bloomberg “discussed ways to keep guns out of the hands of those who should not have access to them and what more could be done at the state and local level to help address gun violence in America.”

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GOP warned to prepare for convention chaos

Reince Priebus

The last nine GOP presidential conventions all opened with a presumptive nominee – and the subsequent events largely could be described as formalities.

But that’s not at all guaranteed this year, with some dozen GOP leaders still fighting for votes, and a lawyer who advised campaigns for both Mitt Romney and George W. Bush says it would be unwise not to prepare for a convention floor fight for the role as GOP candidate.

That field still remained at 12 after former New York Gov. George Pataki ended his 2016 bid this week.

Candidates to drop out earlier included Rick Perry, Lindsey Graham, Scott Walker and Bobby Jindal.

But still in the running are John Kasich, Rick Santorum, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Jim Gilmore, Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Rand Paul, Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson and Donald Trump.

Meaning substantial support for a name like a Mitt Romney, or a John McCain, or a George W. Bush, may be hard to assemble before the convention itself.

In a column for the Wall Street Journal, Benjamin L. Ginsberg, who advised campaigns for both Mitt Romney and George W. Bush, said, “The chances of delegates arriving at the convention in Cleveland next July with no clear nominee remain small. But the odds are no longer infinitesimal thanks to the multicandidate field, required early proportional voting and the fact that only 16.2 percent of the delegates will have been chosen in decisive, winner-take-all contests.”

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He described there being three likely scenarios, including the first that there will be a clear winner. The other two, he said, would put the party in new territory.

That first option would happen if a first-ballot candidate gets a majority of the 2,472 delegates.

Indications of whether that is likely will be known after the March 1 primaries in 12 states, or after the March 15 Florida and Ohio contests, or the April 19 and 26 Northeast/Mid-Atlantic primaries, he said.

Or the fight is on.

In one other scenario, he said, several candidates could be a few hundred delegates short of the 1,237 needed.

He said, “This historical anomaly would produce a real-life experiment in how button-downed, conservative Republicans deal with pure chaos.

“The broadcast networks might actually want to cover all four nights,” he suggested.

Then there also could be a presumptive nominee who is short of delegates – and might even be opposed by party leaders.

Delegates, most of them anyway, are bound only to vote as instructed by their state results on the first ballot, he pointed out.

After that, a free-for-all.

Ginsberg said the jockeying actually will be starting a week before the convention, when the party’s rules committee and credentials committee must consider challenges, questions and procedures.

He pointed out that RNC Chairman Reince Priebus has “ridiculed the chances of a deadlocked convention” while preparing for “everything.”

“Indeed, no planning would border on malpractice,” Ginsberg said.

The GOP race is roiling this year because of an internal war between those Washington insiders who perceive a steady-as-it-goes path is preferable. Others, Washington outsiders, such as frontrunner Donald Trump, are proposing plans changes that would seriously disrupt the status quo.

Who do you love? Get your favorite presidential bumper sticker here! Check out WND Superstore’s mind-blowing and hilarious selection

 

 

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Motel room Bibles called dangerous as cigarette smoke

A team of anti-religion activists dedicated to removing those Gideon-placed Bibles from motel rooms says university facilities can’t have them because they’re linked to the government.

And they say private motels can’t have the Bibles, either, because they could “endanger your health and life” and they are as dangerous, like cigarette smoke.

The far-reaching claims are being made in a campaign targeting motel rooms by officials with the Freedom from Religious Foundation, and they are being met with answers from the American Center for Law and Justice, which has written to motels explaining, yes, they can allow Bibles in their rooms under the Constitution’s freedom of speech, and no, the Bibles really aren’t like cigarette smoke.

The letter that just went out on Thursday from the ACLJ to various hotel and motel interests pointed out, first, that there’s no legal reason for the FFRF to make the request.

“In the absence of any legal authority supporting its demand, FFRF instead resorts to an unreasonable and legally baseless ‘heckler’s veto,’ hoping to strong-arm privately held entities to do its bidding,” the letter said. “FFRF thus invades the realm of private businesses making business decisions. It is the hotel’s prerogative – and only the hotel’s prerogative – to decide whether to honor time-tested traditions.”

The FFRF previously has demanded that crosses be removed from war memorials, a Tennessee police department kill its “Adopt a Cop” program, a sheriff’s office in Texas abandon plans to place white cross stickers on their patrol cars, university sports programs drop their chaplains and the national motto, “In God We Trust,” be taken off the nation’s money and buildings.

And more.

In fact, FFRF has argued the Bible should be marked with “the placement of a skull and crossbones warning label.”

The ACLJ letter to hotels and their associations points out the obvious.

“In its letter, FFRF asserts: ‘It’s time that the lodging industry just says NO to the Gideons. The Gideon Society is exploiting hotels and motels to proselytize a captive audience.’ But to proselytize is to ‘induce someone to convert to one’s faith’ or ‘to recruit someone to join one’s party, institution, or cause.’ Hence, proselytization connotes action. It’s hard to imagine how placing a book inside a closed drawer could amount to proselytization. Indeed, an FFRF co-president recently described how she searched through her hotel room and was shocked to discover a Bible in the fourth drawer she opened.”

The letter continued, “According to the FFRF: ‘Many of your guests are freethinkers – atheists, agnostics, skeptics or Nones – who are offended to be charged high fees only to be proselytized in the privacy of their own bedrooms,’ and, ‘It’s simply bad business to promote divisive religious teachings to a diverse clientele.’ Again, making a book available in a closed drawer is no more akin to promotion or proselytization than making a religious channel available on a hotel television. There is no captive audience in a hotel room. ….

“FFRF asserts that ‘many of us object to renting a hotel room only to be greeted by a bible,’ as if the Bible jumps from the drawer and greets them. But a reasonable person, finding offense at the existence of a Bible in a nightstand drawer on the premises of a private business, may simply not open the book, just as one offended by what is available on a hotel television may choose to change the channel or not turn on the television at all,” the ACLJ said.

“We assure you that no reasonable-minded guests perceives the Gudeon’s Bible as an act of coercion or proselytization by your company.”

The ACLJ reported that the FFRF earlier had demanded hotels linked to universities drop the Bibles, claiming a state-church violation. The ACLJ said it is responding to those locations explaining that Bibles are, in fact, constitutional.

The foundation’s next move was to try influencing private companies.

“It claims to have sent letters – demanding that Bibles be removed from hotel rooms – to Wyndham Worldwide, Intercontinental Hotel Groups (Holiday Inn), Choice Hotels International (Quality Inn), Hilton Worldwide, G6 Hospitality (Motel 6), Marriott International, Best Western, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group (Radisson, Carlson, Country Inn) and Starwood Hotels and Resorts (Sheraton). FFRF also sent a similar letter to the American Hotel & Lodging Association in Washington, D.C.,” the ACLJ reported.

“Contrary to FFRF’s distorted characterizations, Bibles in hotel rooms are perfectly constitutional. The Supreme Court of the United States has been unequivocal that angry atheists like FFRF don’t enjoy a ‘heckler’s veto,’” the group said of the Bibles in rooms of privately held companies.

Its letters to those operations are in response to the FFRF claims the Bible “may endanger your health and life” and needs to have a warning label containing the skull and crossbones on it.

The FFRF said, “We consider it an important consumer complaint, much like asking for smoke-free rooms.”

“That’s right,” the ACLJ explained, “the Bible, sitting in a bedside drawer, poses a public safety hazard.”

An official with the FFRF group had told Hilton hotels, after finding a Bible in his room: “That book calls me a corrupt and filthy fool (Psalm 14). Do you agree with that? Your ‘family’ hotel is endorsing hatred of family (Matthew 10-34-37) and dashing babies against rocks (Psalm 137-9. It is a violent fiction about a bloodthirsty, genocidal, filicidal pestilential, petty, vindictive, ethnic-cleanser war-god who ordered the execution of nonbelievers like me (John 15:6, 2 Chron. 15:13, Deut. 13:12-16) and whose jealous anger is only appeased by shedding blood on an altar or a cross.”

The hotel responded, “I have noted in your profile for your next stay to remove the Bible from your room.”

 

 

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Terror-linked CAIR in beef over fired Muslims

An organization that the U.S. government has linked to terror funding has begun negotiating with a commercial meat-processing company in Colorado over the jobs for hundreds of Muslims who walked off the processing line together, demanding they be given a joint prayer time.

The dispute erupted over the last week when several hundred Muslims working at the Cargill meat processing plant in Fort Morgan, Colorado, which processes several million pounds of meat daily, demanded to leave the work line together for a prayer time.

The company previously had established rules that allowed a few workers to leave together, but said a mass loss of workers would require that the plant be shut down for that period of time, and that accommodation to the workers’ religion was not reasonable. It even had accommodated the workers with a special prayer room that was available for their use.

Some of the workers had returned to the line after being warned their jobs were hanging in the balance, but many did not.

So the company said their jobs were being forfeited.

Now, officials with the Council on American-Islamic Relations have confirmed they are representing the workers in talks with the company.

In a statement CAIR released, officials said that the Muslim workers’ demands were being “handled in a discriminatory manner.”

The workers, CAIR said, “Have retained CAIR to represent them regarding their religious accommodation request and to work with Cargill to implement a workable policy that meets the needs of all parties.”

The Denver Post reported that about 150 workers, mostly Muslims from Somalia, were fired for walking off the job.

CAIR officials told the Post that they will continue to meet with Cargill, but the workers continue to require their prayer break.

The company has stated that workers of all faiths are allowed to use a reflection area, but the company cannot accommodate the workers by shutting down operations. The company said because workers are on an assembly line, only a few can leave at a time.

That rule, the company told the Greeley Tribune, has not changed.

A related issue arose at the plant several years ago, and a company spokesman noted that federal law requires employers to accommodate a reasonable religious accommodation “as long as it does not pose an undue hardship.”

The company interprets shutting down operations as an undue hardship.

CAIR, as WND has reported, was part of a controversy earlier this week because of a Broward County, Florida, deputy sheriff who is an executive for the Florida branch of the organization.

That’s because CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the nation’s largest terror-funding case.

WND reported only days ago on an update in a case that goes directly to the issue of CAIR and its history and status.

It was when a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled that CAIR has no legal basis to claim its reputation was damaged by an undercover investigation documenting its ties to global jihad.

As WND reported, CAIR filed suit in 2009 against former federal investigator Dave Gaubatz and his son, Chris Gaubatz, after their findings were published in the WND Books expose, “Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That’s Conspiring to Islamize America.”

In its lawsuit, which is scheduled to go to trial, CAIR originally alleged it suffered damages after the younger Gaubatz, posing as an intern, obtained access to some 12,000 pages of CAIR internal documents under false pretenses and made recordings of officials and employees without consent.

CAIR, an unindicted co-conspirator in the nation’s largest terror-funding case, complained of the loss of donor revenue and the loss of contact with legislators and policymakers.

But when asked by defendants in the discovery process to identify its donors and name the lawmakers it has contacted, CAIR replied by stating it was no longer claiming damage to its reputation.

U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said CAIR’s filing of a motion to reopen discovery so it can depose an expert witness on the economic impact of damages to CAIR’s reputation is “too late in the game.”

Furthermore, she said, CAIR itself has chosen three times not to claim damage to its reputation.

The judge has dismissed most of the case, leaving standing an allegation that Chris Gaubatz violated the federal and D.C. wiretap acts when he recorded video and audio of his conversations while serving as a CAIR intern.

If you support WND’s fight to expose CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood, please consider a donation to the WND Legal Defense Fund for court fights like this one – which must be one if America is to remain free – and safe.

While WND is not a target of the lawsuit, the news organization has provided the attorneys for Chris and Dave Gaubatz, a co-author of “Muslim Mafia.”

“This legal fight has been dragging on for years,” said Joseph Farah, founder and chief executive officer of WND. “We are only involved in this case to defend the First Amendment, the intrepid and courageous work of one of our authors and to expose CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood tentacles operating with impunity inside the U.S.”

Farah said the “tragic story of this case is that no one else was willing to step forward and pay for the world-class defense team we assembled, including famed First Amendment attorney Martin Garbus of the Pentagon Papers case and Dan Horowitz, one of the most knowledgeable lawyers in the country when it comes to CAIR.”

‘Ample evidence’

“Muslim Mafia” documents CAIR’s support of jihad, recounting its origin as a front group for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, the worldwide movement that has stated its intent to transform the U.S. into a Saudi-style Islamic state.

WND recently reported that Republican candidate Dr. Ben Carson has called for an investigation of CAIR, and the White House invited a CAIR executive to a meeting on battling religious discrimination. WND reported in October that CAIR’s problems with the IRS, exposed in “Muslim Mafia,” were noted by Carson.

More than a dozen CAIR leaders have been charged or convicted of terrorism-related crimes.

FBI wiretap evidence from the Holy Land terror funding case showed CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad was at an October 1993 meeting of Hamas leaders and activists in Philadelphia. CAIR, according to the evidence, was born out of a need to give a “media twinkle” to the Muslim leaders’ agenda of supporting violent jihad abroad while slowly institutionalizing Islamic law in the U.S.

As WND reported in 2010, a federal judge later determined that the Justice Department provided “ample evidence” to designate CAIR as an unindicted terrorist co-conspirator, affirming the Muslim group has been involved in “a conspiracy to support Hamas.”

 

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Terror-tied Pakistanis caught at Southern border

Two Pakistani men with ties to terrorism were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border in September, according to a new report, but it marked just the latest indication that jihadists are using the porous southern border to infiltrate the U.S.

Pakistan is considered one of many “special interest countries” by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, meaning it has a high concentration of either violent criminals or terrorists who could seek to enter the U.S. illegally.

Muhammad Azeem and Mukhtar Ahmad were two such men. The two Pakistanis were caught Sept. 20 by agents south of San Diego and just over the international border from Tijuana, the Washington Times reports.

Agents checked their identities through databases and found they were both extremely bad guys.

Ahmad was an associate of a known or suspected terrorist, while Azeem’s information had been shared by a foreign government for intelligence purposes, according to the Times.

Both men had been processed two months earlier by immigration officials in Panama, suggesting they took advantage of smuggling networks or other routes increasingly used by Central American illegal immigrants to sneak into the U.S., the Times reported.

It comes as lawmakers on Capitol Hill are increasingly worried about potential terrorists gaining entry to the U.S. through the border with Mexico or taking advantage of lax screening elsewhere in the immigration system – such as the refugee resettlement program.

The U.S. brings in 85,000 foreign refugees per year, approximately half of them coming from countries with active jihadist movements. Another 10,000 foreign nationals are granted asylum every year from Muslim-dominated countries. That’s about 45,000 potentially dangerous immigrants just between those two programs alone. That doesn’t include the roughly 170,000 who enter the U.S. from Muslim countries every year on green cards or the thousands more who come as college students and are only lightly screened.

The wisdom of importing 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year (and many more in 2017) has been hotly debated in Congress with almost no mention of the more than 1 million Muslim refugees who have already arrived over the past 25 years from Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Burma, Uzbekistan, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and other terror hotbeds.

The FBI already has more than 900 active investigations into ISIS sympathizers in all 50 states. It is stretched to the limit of its abilities to foil all of the potential terror attacks, yet more high-risk refugees and immigrants enter the U.S. every day. More than 500 come every month from Somalia alone, despite the fact that Somali refugees have displayed difficulties assimilating into U.S. culture and dozens have been arrested, tried and convicted of providing material support to overseas terrorist organizations.

Nor has there been any uproar over the 100,000 Syrians who have arrived in the U.S. on green cards or student visas since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war. These Syrians would have been subjected to far less vetting than any of the refugees who are arriving now.

But most of the focus among immigration hawks in Congress remains on border patrol.

“The southern land border remains vulnerable to intrusion and exists as a point of extreme vulnerability,” Rep. Duncan Hunter, California Republican, wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson last week demanding to know how many people in the FBI’s terrorist screening database have been caught at the border.

“Evidently there are criminal organizations and individuals with the networks and know-how to facilitate illegal entry into the United States without regard for one’s intentions or status on a terrorist watchlist,” Mr. Hunter wrote. “The detention of the two Pakistani nationals underscores the fact that any serious effort to secure our homeland must include effective border security and immigration enforcement.”

The FBI, whose agents were brought in to interview the two men, declined to comment to the Times about the case, saying it had “no information to provide.”

The Border Patrol turned the men over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which said they have been in custody since September and are being held while they face immigration court proceedings.

But this is by no means an anomaly.

WND reported in May that DHS had transported an entire busload of Somali nationals to a detention center in Victorville, California, after they showed up at the border seeking asylum. They were likely never deported, immigration lawyers told WND.

Yet, when 27 Chaldean Christians from Iraq showed up at the border seeking asylum, most were deported and those not deported face criminal charges, WND reported.

A year ago, the Border Patrol apprehended four Kurdish men who said they were part of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Front Party, which is listed by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organization. Jeh Johnson, the Homeland Security secretary, said the four were actually members of the Kurdish Workers’ Party, which is also listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government, the Washington Times reported.

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