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A series of fresh revelations about atrocities and war crimes perpetrated by Western-backed Syrian "rebels" had sparked alarm among analysts, further complicating Obama's already tough-push for support to launch military strikes against the Assad regime. ... the latest atrocities are being cited by critics of the warmongering as more reasons not to join the civil war on behalf of ruthless jihadists... Christian villagers quoted in new reports [URL at link] said the rebels had, among other atrocities, forced them to convert to Islam or be murdered while shouting the now-infamous "Allahu Akbar" war cry. Christian homes and churches were reportedly...

The US secretary of state has said that President Bashar al-Assad has one week to hand over his entire stock of chemical weapons to avoid a military attack, but said he had no expectation that the Syrian leader would comply. John Kerry also said he had no doubt that Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons attack in east Damascus on 21 August, saying that only three people are responsible for the chemical weapons inside Syria – Assad himself, one of his brothers and a senior general. He said the entire US intelligence commnity was united in believing Assad was...

Full Title Liberal Activist Ed Asner Explains Hollywood Silence On Obama, Syria: They 'Don't Want to Feel Anti-Black (Hollywood Reporter) In 2003, ahead of a U.S. attack on Iraq, a robust anti-war movement in Hollywood included a TV commercial starring Martin Sheen and Sean Penn visiting Baghdad. There were online petitions signed by Ed Asner; letters to President George W. Bush pleading for peace were signed by Matt Damon, Tim Robbins, Barbra Streisand and Alec Baldwin; former M*A*S*H star Mike Farrell fronted multiple press conferences where celebrities denounced war. In interviews, Janeane Garofalo stopped identifying herself as an actor --...

From John Kerry’s statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 22, 1971, in which he criticized the Vietnam War. Submitted without comment: “We veterans can only look with amazement on the fact that this country has been unable to see there is absolutely no difference between ground troops and a helicopter crew, and yet people have accepted a differentiation fed them by the Administration. No ground troops are in Laos, so it is all right to kill Laotians by remote control. […] SNIP

Democratic Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton said Tuesday that at the current time, the only reason she would vote in favor of an attack on Syria was out of loyalty to Barack Obama. Appearing on radio's Bill Press Show, the non-voting delegate from the District of Columbia also said if the President actually gets the votes he needs, "it’ll be because of loyalty of Democrats. They just don’t want to see him shamed and humiliated on the national stage" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Forty-one days after legendary Motown singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder vowed to boycott Florida, Miami Beach’s sultry sultry summer evenings called out to him and he couldn’t resist. Jose’ Lambeit’s Gossip Extra broke the story Tuesday that the legendary recording artist spent the weekend in South Florida’s legendary South Beach before jetting off to Los Angeles. During a Canadian performance on July 14, Wonder told the audience he would boycott Florida, saying, “for those of you who’ve lost in the battle for justice.. we can’t bring them back. What we can do is we can let our voices be heard.” He made...

<p>A spoof about a real-life American superhero voluntarily reducing herself to the antics of every other reality-show airhead?And someone thought this was "hilarious"?</p> <p>That someone happened to be hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, whose newly launched YouTube channel, All Def Digital, released the three-minute spoof entitled "Harriet Tubman Sex Tape" on Wednesday. After a tidal wave of Twitter backlash, including a change.org petition, ADD removed the sketch and Simmons issued a hasty apology on his other digital property, Global Grind.</p>

I am actually experiencing a new emotion: empathy for Michelle Obama. It's bad enough when an ordinary husband makes his wife look like a fool in public, but when the husband is the most visible man in America, the sting is all the more intense. Yesterday, Michelle released the news that she is making a cameo appearance in a video featuring "a hip-hop song recorded to encourage kids from minority groups to take care of their bodies."

It´s only been three days, but President Obama has quickly settled into the vacation diet on Martha´s Vineyard. But don´t tell the first lady. During a rainy day on Tuesday, he traveled to Nancy´s in scenic Oak Bluffs for a fried lunch. According to the pool report: "POTUS´s food order at Nancy´s was fried shrimp, fried oysters, onion rings and french fries." Obviously not on the lunch trip was first lady Michelle Obama, the first family´s fitness buff. Obama showed up at Nancy´s in a blue fleece, a Chicago White Sox cap and Nike sneakers. According to the pool, he

In an interview with the Guardian published Saturday, Damon revealed that he had just moved to Los Angeles from New York, but that he didn't "have a choice" when it came to putting his four daughters into private schools. The multi-millionaire did say that it was "a major moral dilemma" and then made the bizarre excuse that the public schools aren't "progressive" enough. This would probably mark the first time anyone has ever complained that America's public schools, especially in Los Angeles, aren't left-wing enough.

In 2008 and then again in 2012, after retired four-star General Colin Powell endorsed and then voted for Barack Obama, the former Secretary of State's sanity was already in question. At least now, after having his email account hacked by high-level security-breacher Guccifer, Colin Powell's besmirching of the Republican Party's "shift to the right" and "identity crisis" finally makes sense. It seems that for years the mannerly and always professional Colin Powell has been cyber-comporting with a 46-year-old Romanian European Parliament member, Social Democrat, and past spokesperson for Romanian president Ion Iliescu named Corina Creţu. So it's safe to say...

President Obama spent part of his surprise appearance at last Friday’s White House press briefing urging that the Stand Your Ground laws that exist in 31 states be reexamined. But only nine years ago, in the Illinois state senate, he co-sponsored a bill that strengthened his state’s 1961 Stand Your Ground law.

Reid continues to say that the nuclear option in the Senate is on the table: I'm speaking @CAPAction to discuss why changing Senate rules is good for the institution. #EndGridlock Watch here: http://t.co/aVwisuCrjy— Senator Harry Reid (@SenatorReid) July 15, 2013 End the gridlock eh? I seem to recall a time when the Democrats were in the minority during Bush's tenure and during that time Reid and pals made gridlock a household name. Senate Democrats mounted an unprecedented filibuster campaign against Bush’s judicial nominees. According to The Heritage Foundation’s Todd Gaziano, the average number of days a Court of Appeals nominee...

Obama is urging Americans on the Fourth of July to live up to the words of the Declaration of Independence by securing liberty and opportunity for their own children as well as for future generations. In his weekly radio and online address, Obama commemorates the Fourth of July by looking back at the day in 1776 that a small band of patriots declared those in the American colonies “a people created equal” —free to think and worship and live as they please. Obama says their declaration was “heard around the world.”

Apparently (according to the Washington Examiner) Michelle says being First Lady is confining...like prison.I know a lot of Americans who would want in, Princess...Life can be SOOOOOO hard! :-(

President Bill Clinton released a statement, together with his wife Hillary Clinton, hailing the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act, a bill he signed into law in 1996. "By overturning the Defense of Marriage Act, the Court recognized that discrimination towards any group holds us all back in our efforts to form a more perfect union. We are also encouraged that marriage equality may soon return to California. We applaud the hard work of the advocates who have fought so relentlessly for this day, and congratulate Edie Windsor on her historic victory," the Clintons' statement reads....

An amazing scene in Boston yesterday. Barack Obama returned to the city of one of his biggest triumphs (his 2004 Democrat convention speech) and one of his worst political spankings (the 2010 repudiation by Massachusetts Senate voters of his candidate). Those were tough days for the ex-state legislator, you may remember. Virginia voters had just rejected Obama's choice for governor. New Jersey voters had just rejected Obama's choice for governor. Both setbacks were indicators of the rising tide of dissatisfaction over Obama's preoccupation with ObamaCare when what voters really wanted was Joe Biden's three-letter word, "J-O-B-S." Americans are still waiting...

The issue of judicial nominations causes an outbreak of hypocrisy in both political parties, and President Obama isn't immune. In fact, he seems to have come down with a particularly bad case lately. On June 4, the president went to the Rose Garden to deliver a peevish and lecturing speech announcing three candidates for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Noting that it is the president's constitutional duty to nominate judges and the Senate's duty to provide advice and consent, a clearly frustrated Obama said, "Time and again, congressional Republicans cynically used Senate rules and procedures...

(CHICAGO) Nancy Pelosi is in Chicago for fundraisers with President Obama Wednesday night -- and she says there is nothing ironic about it. 89 WLS Reporter John Dempsey was at a Q&A session for Pelosi Wednesday afternoon. He asked her if it was even a little ironic that she spent time decrying fundraisers in the past and now she is in Chicago for a private fundraiser with the president. "We have to raise money to win the election so that we can change," Pelosi responded. "But what we're raising tonight is not the money I was talking about." She clarified...

... Obama will be meeting with his disaster response team, including Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, on Tuesday before delivering a statement on the devastating tornado that tore through the Oklahoma City suburbs Monday. Obama has declared a major disaster in Oklahoma, ordering federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts.