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The Iranian government is paying a bounty to the Taliban in Afghanistan for each dead American. MSNBC reports: "Iran is paying Taliban fighters $1,000 for each U.S. soldier they kill in Afghanistan, according to a report in a British newspaper. The Sunday Times described how a man it said was a 'Taliban treasurer' had gone to collect $18,000 from an Iranian firm in Kabul, a reward it said was for an attack in July which killed several Afghan government troops and destroyed an American armored vehicle. The treasurer left with the cash hidden in a sack of flour, the newspaper...

"(Today Mr. Obama is at Camp David with no public events on the schedule.)" Things that make you go "hmm" ...

In talking about the new rug in the Oval Office on Wednesday, we mentioned several historical quotes woven into the rug, including one from Martin Luther King Jr.: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." A number of listeners pointed out that King was in fact echoing the words of 19th century abolitionist and Unitarian minister Theodore Parker. NPR's Melissa Block talks to Clayborne Carson -- a professor of history at Stanford University and director of the Martin Luther King Junior Research and Education Institute -- about Parker, and about King's use of favorite...

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." According media reports, this quote keeping Obama company on his wheat-colored carpet is from King. Except it's not a King quote. The words belong to a long-gone Bostonian champion of social progress. His roots in the republic ran so deep that his grandfather commanded the Minutemen at the Battle of Lexington. For the record, Theodore Parker is your man, President Obama. Unless you're fascinated by antebellum American reformers, you may not know of the lyrically gifted Parker, an abolitionist, Unitarian minister and Transcendentalist thinker who foresaw the...

Islamabad, Sep 2 (PTI) A Pakistani minister wants US President Barack Obama to offer Eid prayers at Ground Zero in New York and become the "Amir-ul-Momineen" or Caliph of Muslims. Minister of State for Industries Ayatullah Durrani, who belongs to the ruling Pakistan People's Party, said the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr festival, expected to be observed on September 11, would be a "golden opportunity" for Obama to offer Eid prayers and declare himself the leader of all Muslims. Durrani, a former member of the Pakistan Ideological Council, contended that the Muslim world is in "dire need" of a Caliph and occupying this...

The Obama Administration’s taxpayer-funded Islamic defense program has been quite busy this week, filing several discrimination lawsuits on behalf of Muslims in different parts of the country and holding Justice Department meetings to discuss prosecuting “anti-Muslim hate speech.”The legal actions come on the same week that the White House and various federal agencies—including the Department of Homeland Security—hosted a special workshop to provide members of radical Islamic groups with direct access to U.S. government funding, assistance and resources. Read all about that here. Now the administration is flexing its legal muscle in its ardent quest to befriend the enemy. A...

If Iran needed reassurance that their proxy warfare strategy is working .. The entire idea behind IranÂ’s proxy warfare is to have deniability so the regime can escape retribution and still position itself as the power broker that all must cater to. If the Iranians needed any reassurance that their strategy is working, they got it from Vice President Joe Biden on August 23.In an address in Indiana to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Biden made the remarkably ignorant and damaging statement: Iranian influence in Iraq is minimal. ItÂ’s been greatly exaggerated. To prove his point, Biden said that Iran...

The president and his administration that was suppose to unite America has divided our nation. They have pitted states against states, the federal government against states and now the federal government has sold us out to the international community for misplaced scrutiny and scorn to the U.N. Human Rights Council. The Arizona law mirrors almost verbatim, well settled federal law with regard to immigration law and enforcement. If the Arizona law is a violation of “human rights,” then surely the federal law is as well as is Mexico’s law and I suspect many other nations' immigration laws. It is despicable...

Reporting from Washington — President Obama said in an interview Sunday that he can't worry about dispelling every rumor about him — even though a recent poll showed nearly 20 percent of Americans erroneously believe he is Muslim.

The Justice Department filed another lawsuit against immigration practices by Arizona authorities, saying Monday that a network of community colleges acted illegally in requiring noncitizens to provide their green cards before they could be hired for jobs. The suit against the Phoenix area Maricopa Community Colleges was filed less than two months after the Justice Department sued Arizona and Gov. Jan Brewer (R) over the state's new immigration law. It also comes as the department is investigating Joe Arpaio, the sheriff in Maricopa County, who is known for tough immigration enforcement. In Monday's lawsuit, Justice officials said the colleges discriminated...

Obama says he ignored Beck rally He seemed intent on casting himself as above the political fray, saying he had more important work to do than to engage in the back and forth of the political “silly season.” For example, Obama said he did not watch any of Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally Saturday on the National Mall. “It’s not surprising that somebody like a Mr. Beck is able to stir up a certain portion of the country. That's been true throughout our history,” he said. But “I’m making decisions that are not necessarily good for...

Facing bleak developments on multiple fronts, President Obama is turning his attention to an unlikely source of positive news: Iraq. Obama will deliver a major address to the nation on Tuesday night highlighting his campaign promise to bring the war to a close. "As a candidate for this office, I pledged I would end this war. As president, that is what I am doing," Obama said in his weekly address, setting the stage for next week's speech. He said the United States is taking "an important step forward" as the last combat brigades leave the country, saying it will "mark...

For Obama, Steep Learning Curve as Chief in Time of War By PETER BAKER WASHINGTON — President Obama rushed to the Oval Office when word arrived one night that militants with Al Qaeda in Yemen had been located and that the military wanted to support an attack by Yemeni forces. After a quick discussion, his counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan, told him the window to strike was closing. “I’ve got two minutes here,” Mr. Brennan said. “O.K.,” the president said. “Go with this.” While Mr. Obama took three sometimes maddening months to decide to send more forces to Afghanistan, other...

The White House was forced yesterday to reaffirm President Obama's Christian faith after shocking polls found that 1 out of every 4 or 5 Americans falsely believe he's a Muslim -- a considerable increase from last year. "The president is obviously a Christian. He prays every day," White House spokesman Bill Burton told reporters. "He communicates with his religious adviser every single day. There's a group of pastors that he takes counsel from on a regular basis. And his faith is very important to him, but it's not something that is a topic of conversation every single day." A separate...

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Monday that NASA administrator Charles Bolden was wrong to claim that reaching out to the Muslim world was a top priority for the U.S. space agency. Bolden raised eyebrows in the space community and outrage among conservative pundits by telling Al-Jazeera television recently President Barack Obama had instructed him to work for better outreach with the Muslim world. He said Obama told him one of his top priorities was to "find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about...

The President of the United States has not been making a lot of friends in Israel lately. He snubbed Bibi, he’s looked the other way as Iran builds a nuke, and he’s generally one of America’s staunchest allies like something stuck to his shoe after walking Bo. On Wednesday he was magnanimous enough to grant an interview with Israel’s Channel 2, and here’s one of his pearls of wisdom, as reported by Haaretz: During the interview Wednesday, when confronted with the anxiety that some Israelis feel toward him, Obama said that “some of it may just be the fact that...

The military scrambled two F-16 fighters jets Friday morning after two small private aircraft violated restricted air space related to President Barack Obama's visit to Las Vegas, Nevada, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said. Both planes that violated the restricted airspace landed at nearby airports and were met by authorities, NORAD said.

Counterterror Adviser Defends Jihad as 'Legitimate Tenet of Islam' The president's top counterterrorism adviser on Wednesday called jihad a "legitimate tenet of Islam," arguing that the term "jihadists" should not be used to describe America's enemies. fox news The president's top counterterrorism adviser on Wednesday called jihad a "legitimate tenet of Islam," arguing that the term "jihadists" should not be used to describe America's enemies. During a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, John Brennan described violent extremists as victims of "political, economic and social forces," but said that those plotting attacks on the United States should...

Washington, DC -- May 25, 2010  Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Obama Justice Department to obtain documents related to the agency’s decision to dismiss the claims against several members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense who were accused of engaging in voter intimidation during the 2008 presidential campaign (U.S. v. New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense). Judicial Watch filed its original FOIA request on May 29, 2009. The Justice Department acknowledged receiving the request on June...

As the oil arrives on the Louisiana shores, Obama goes golfing Posted by Jeff J Latest News May 22, 2010 Beaches closed in Louisiana.. Officials closed the public beach here Friday as thick gobs of oil resembling melted chocolate washed up, a very visible reminder of the blown-out well that has been spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico for a month. Up to now, only tar balls and a light sheen had come ashore. But oil was starting to hit the beach at this island resort community in various forms – light sheens, orange-colored splotches and heavier brown sheets...