MSNBC Host Blasts Palin for Displaying Christmas Tree

MSNBC, the station that had employed a host that suggested someone should urinate and defecate in former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's mouth, blasted Palin on Thursday for having a Christmas tree in her home on Christmas. 

In a segment that was stranger than fiction on  The Ed Show, guest-host Joy Reid claimed Palin was going against the Bible by displaying a Christmas tree in her home when she was interviewed for a Fox & Friends Christmas special.
"Certain parts of the Bible also appear to preach against let’s say, I don’t know, Christmas trees," Reid said, according to a Newsbusters transcript. 

Reid then read Jeremiah 10-10, thinking she was indicting Palin in a game of "gotcha":

“For the practices of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter. Like a scare crow in a cucumber field, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good."

"Now, a Christmas purist wouldn't want to stray from the Bible on Christmas, would she?" Reid said.

As Newsbusters noted, though, authorities on the Bible have pointed out that "nothing can be further from the truth" since Jeremiah does not mention Christmas trees, and the trees in the verse that Reid mentioned are cut down to to be turned into worthless idols, which is what the verse warns against.

Read More: Breitbart

A Bad Year for Obama May Turn Worse in 2014

If President Obama were a baseball player he would have gone 0 for 2013.

No, it’s not exactly breaking news that 2013 was a bad year for the president.  But he may soon look back on the remnants of a bad year and say, “Those were the good old days.”

Mr. Obama’s biggest flop, of course, was also his biggest “accomplishment” (a word I put in quotation marks not by accident).  That would be the ironically named Affordable Care Act, better known as ObamaCare.

The rollout, he told us, would be as smooth and easy as shopping on Amazon. If Amazon sued the president for slander, I think Amazon would win.
Then there were all those (let’s be nice and call them) misstatements of fact.

If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep your healthcare plan.

If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.

Premium costs will go down on average $2500.

Okay, let’s just stipulate that so far ObamaCare has been one great big mess.  Period!  And it’s exacted a toll on the president.

As CNN Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger put it: “People don’t think he’s as competent as they used to think. They don’t think he’s as trustworthy as they used to think.”

But it’s not just the disastrous rollout of ObamaCare. There were also revelations in 2013 that the National Security Agency was secretly keeping tabs on all of us.  Mr. Obama defended the plan, which caused a split in his liberal base.  Turns out they don’t like secret, widespread surveillance anymore than a lot of (but not all my any means) conservatives do.

Liberals were angry, too, that the president continued to use drones to knock off terrorists – and sometimes, innocent bystanders – a program started by the one liberals detest, George W. Bush.

There was also the IRS scandal, which conservatives believe showed that the president’s team was willing to use the agency to punish conservatives and further it’s own liberal agenda –no matter what the law said.

Whether it was Republican obstruction as Mr. Obama believes, or principled GOP opposition, the president got nowhere on a jobs program; nowhere on tax reform;  nowhere on immigration reform; no hike in the minimum wage; and no expansion of background checks for gun purchases, even after the Newtown massacre, despite a strong effort by the president.

And a new CNN/ORC International poll shows a drop of 14 percentage points since the beginning of 2013 in President Obama’s approval rating.  It’s now down to 41 percent.

Another poll, this one by ABC News and the Washington Post shows that 45 percent of Americans trust Republicans to do a better job handling the economy compared to 41 percent for President Obama.

But anyone who thinks that what goes down must at some point go back up, that 2014 has got to be better than 2013, may be engaging in wishful thinking.

Read More By: Bernie Goldberg

Christians are Suffering in the Holy Land this Christmas

The Christians who still live in the Holy Land face a Christmas that will be far from happy, merry or bright. They are a persecuted minority.

“O Little Town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie…” This hymn, and dozens like it will be sung all over the world soon, as they are every Christmas. Cards depicting the scene of the holy birth will decorate millions of houses.  Nativities will be set up in homes, in shopping malls, in churches.  But as people prepare to celebrate the humanity of a man known as Jesus of Nazareth, his homeland is no longer a safe place to be for those who follow him.

There are 14 million Christians throughout the Holy Land but they are a rapidly dwindling minority. Many of them are so desperately vulnerable that they feel they have no choice now but to emigrate. In Iraq alone, since the fall of Saddam, a startling two-thirds have fled.  Since 2003 at least a million have left. Most of them went to Syria. Now they face a second wave of displacement as they are no longer protected there.  There have been reports of rape, murder and attacks directed at them and the Christian community lives in terror.  When they feel they have to run for their lives they head for Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. It is said that the ancient Syrian Armenian community has all but gone.

Egypt has seen churches being burnt and anti-Coptic rioting. In Gaza and on the West Bank, Christians are caught up in chaotic uncertainty. To be Christian in the Holy Land, the birthplace of Jesus, is to live in fear.  The Vatican has confirmed as credible the estimate that 100,000 Christians are killed every year for their beliefs.

Historian Tom Holland has noted how deeply ironic it is, that two devoutly Christian leaders, George W. Bush and Tony Blair, brought about, inadvertently, the final demise of Christianity in the Middle East by invading Iraq. Now the Arab Spring has proven the final knell, as Christians are all too easy targets for extremists and are living in dire jeopardy.

The major Christian celebrations are still national holidays in Syria, and this is testament to the fact that Syria has long been a sanctuary for Middle Eastern Christians.  One of the oldest parts of Damascus is the Christian Quarter at Bab Touma.  Islamic and Christian communities used to live side by side in such ease, that sacred spaces were shared.  There was ethnic and religious tolerance, mutual respect and understanding.  Now, along with so much in Syria, that harmonious co-habitation has been ripped apart.

Speaking about his deep concerns for the beleaguered Christians of the Middle East, has been HRH Prince Charles. At an inter-faith reception he said he is very troubled by what he calls the “intimidation, false accusation and organized persecution” to the Christian faith communities.  It is a problem affecting Syria, Egypt, Palestine and Iraq as well as other Arab countries. The prince says it is no longer possible to turn a blind eye to the targeting of these Christians by “fundamentalist Islamic militants.”

The birthplace of Jesus and the founding site of Christianity now has less than 4 percent of Christians making up the entire population of the Middle East and North Africa;  a number that has dropped dramatically over the past 100 years.  Prince Charles sees this as a great threat to possible peace in these regions as Christians are renowned for their bridge-building capabilities.  He himself had been trying to build a bridge between Islam and Christianity for the last 20 years, but these efforts have been beset by those with “vested interests” in destroying them.

Read More: Liberty Voice

CIA CONTRADICTS GOV’T BENGHAZI ACCOUNT

CIA agents on the ground in Benghazi testified to lawmakers they were loaded into vehicles and ready to aid the besieged U.S. special mission on Sept. 11, 2012, but were told by superiors to “wait,” a congressman privy to the testimony has revealed. 

Unreported is that the new accounts seem to contradict claims made by the State Department’s Accountability Review Board, or ARB, which states that the response team one mile away in the CIA annex was “not delayed by orders from superiors.” 

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., head of the House intelligence subcommittee that interviewed the CIA employees, explained that while there was no “stand-down order,” there was a disagreement at the nearby CIA annex about how quickly to respond. 

Westmoreland revealed that some CIA agents wanted to storm the Benghazi compound immediately, but they were told to wait while the agency collected intelligence on the ongoing attack. 

“Some CIA security contractors disagreed with their bosses and wanted to move more quickly,” the Associated Press reported, drawing from Westmoreland’s comments.

 The AP reported: Westmoreland said the CIA security contractors loaded into two vehicles, with weapons ready, the moment they heard the radio call for help from the diplomatic building. Some wanted to rush to the U.S. compound roughly a mile away, and their agitation grew as they heard increasing panic when the diplomats reported the militants were setting the compound on fire. The CIA team leader and the CIA chief at the Benghazi annex told committee members that they were trying to gather Libyan allies and intelligence before racing into the fray, worried that they might be sending their security team into an ambush with little or no backup. At least one of those security contractors, a former U.S. Army Ranger, was told to “wait” at least twice, and he argued with his security team leader, according to his testimony, related by Westmoreland. Westmoreland declined to share the names of the officers who testified because they are still CIA employees. 

The AP reported the CIA agents said a quicker response would not have saved the lives of those killed in the attacks, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. That claim cannot be immediately verified because of the lack of information regarding what happened to Stevens the night of the attacks. 

The narrative of “orders to wait” seems to directly contradict Page 23 of the ARB report. 

The page states: “Just prior to receiving the TDY RSO’s distress call shortly after 2142 local, the head of Annex security heard multiple explosions coming from the north in the direction of the SMC. 

The ARB report said “the Annex response team departed its compound in two vehicles at approximately 2205 local.” 

“The departure of the Annex team was not delayed by orders from superiors; the team leader decided on his own to depart the Annex compound once it was apparent, despite a brief delay to permit their continuing efforts, that rapid support from local security elements was not forthcoming.”

Read More: Klein Online

As Many As 50 Obama-backed Green Energy Failures

 

The October bankruptcy of solar company Satcon Technology Corp. puts the number of bankrupt or troubled green energy companies as high as 50, according to one estimate.

During the first presidential debate, Republican candidate Mitt Romney said the Obama administration had doled out $90 billion to green energy companies, half of which he said had failed, which sparked a media-wide debate over the accuracy of the claim.

The Romney campaign later clarified that he was talking about the DOE’s 1705 loan program which doled out $16.1 billion to green energy companies, according to the Washington Post. Of the 33 companies that received 1705 loan guarantees, only three have declared bankruptcy.

However, when other subsidies, outside of the 1705 loan guarantees are factored in, the number of government-backed green energy failures is much higher.

The blog Green Corruption’s “Obama green-energy failure” list contains 23 bankrupt and 27 troubled green energy companies which were backed by the federal government. This list uses data compiled by the Heritage Foundation, but also includes some things the conservative think tank doesn’t.

According to the Heritage Foundation, $80 billion was set aside in the 2009 stimulus package for clean energy loans, grants, and tax credits, and 10 percent of these funds have gone to companies that have filed for bankruptcy or are in dire straits.

The Green Corruption estimates are on the high end as others have total number of bankrupt and troubled green energy firms much lower.

The Heritage Foundation’s list contains 34 companies that have either filed for bankruptcy or are faltering as of October 18. Of those 34 listed, nineteen have filed for bankruptcy and fifteen are considered faltering.

The Heritage list only contains companies that received federal funds from the Obama administration’s Energy Department and other agencies, and does not include “other state, local, and federal tax credits and subsidies,” which would raise the amount of taxpayer dollars that was given to these companies.

Another list compiled by the Senate Republican Policy Committee shows a total of 19 government-backed green energy companies that have either gone bankrupt, are in distress, or failing — twelve bankrupt, six in distress, and one failing.

The committee’s list, however, does not include the most recent green energy failure, Satcon Technology Corp., which received a $3 million DOE grant earlier this year and filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 17, making it the second green energy company to file for bankruptcy that week.

Read More: The Daily Caller