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Archive for the ‘Special Report’ Category
An Interesting Read on Rand Paul
by coldwarrior ( 13 Comments › )Filed under Politics, Republican Party, Special Report at June 17th, 2013 - 4:46 pm
College Republican Report details how the GOP lost Younger Voters
by Rodan ( 26 Comments › )Filed under Elections 2012, Elections 2016, Republican Party, Special Report, The Political Right at June 3rd, 2013 - 10:40 am
In a scathing report done by College Republicans, it details the reasons why Republicans are losing voters under 30. They come across as hostile hateful scolds. The rhetoric employed by many Republicans have turned off many younger voters, who want solutions to problems, not the blame game and excuses. Hateful rhetoric and a dismissive is what younger voters associate the GOP with.
A new postmortem on the November elections from the nation’s leading voice for college Republicans offers a searing indictment of the GOP “brand” and the major challenges the party faces in wooing young voters, according to a copy given exclusively to POLITICO on Sunday.
The College Republican National Committee on Monday made public a detailed report — the result of extensive polling and focus groups — dissecting what went wrong for Republicans with young voters in the 2012 elections and how the party can improve its showing with that key demographic in the future.
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Perception of the party’s economic stance: “We’ve become the party that will pat you on your back when you make it, but won’t offer you a hand to help you get there.”
Big reason for the image problem: The “outrageous statements made by errant Republican voices.”
Words that up-for-grabs voters associate with the GOP: “The responses were brutal: closed-minded, racist, rigid, old-fashioned.”
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“Policies that lower taxes and regulations on small businesses are quite popular. Yet our focus on taxation and business issues has left many young voters thinking they will only reap the benefits of Republican policies if they become wealthy or rise to the top of a big business,” the report says. “We’ve become the party that will pat you on your back when you make it but won’t offer you a hand to help you get there.”
Younger voters — especially those in the Hispanic focus groups the CRNC conducted — are deeply familiar with the challenges posed by a less-than-robust economy, the report said, citing struggles with student loans and people who are delaying marriage because of financial issues. But the study said the party must explain how its policies translate into chances for economic advancement and should seek to do so in a more “caring” tone.
“If we don’t believe that Republicans are the ‘fend for yourself’ party, then it’s time for us to explain why — and to show our work,” the report said. “This will go a long way overall, but particularly with Latino voters, who tend to think the GOP couldn’t care less about them.”
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That was especially the case with certain economic issues. The report said that on many questions tied to that subject, young people and the GOP are, in fact, on the same page: support for entrepreneurship and small businesses and slashing spending in many instances, for example. But that common ground often got lost for young voters
This is a damning report and one that should not be dismissed. Too many Republicans think everything is fine and that Obama will self destruct. He may self implode, but this will not necessarily translate into Republican votes. The Party does have too many hostile voices that have even turned me off. What is needed is a positive agenda for a better future, this would not resonate not only with younger voters, but with everyone.
Republican rhetoric is negative and actually quite nasty. People will not vote for a party that comes across hateful and like a bunch of scolds.
Update: Here is the report.
Reason #6,254 for not intervening in Syria: Our “leaders” don’t even know who the people they plan to support are
by lobo91 ( 15 Comments › )Filed under Islamic Supremacism, Islamic Terrorism, Leftist-Islamic Alliance, Muslim Brotherhood, Republican Party, Sharia (Islamic Law), Special Report, Syria at May 30th, 2013 - 12:13 pm
Over the Memorial Day weekend, the intrepid John McCain (R-Alzheimer’s) apparently made a heroic trip to Syria to meet with leaders of the Syrian “rebels.” His brain-dead daughter promptly declared that her dad was the “last of the badasses” for his bravery in visiting the war-torn nation.
The reality, however, is that McCain is the “last of the dumbasses” if he actually believes that the people he wants to help are interested in instituting some sort of Jeffersonian democracy in Syria. Let’s look at some of the stories that have come out in just the past 24 hours related to the Syrian “rebels”:
First, McCain claimed that, contrary to just about every bit of actual evidence, only a “small part” of the rebel forces are made up of Islamic extremists:
US Senator John McCain said on Wednesday, two days after meeting with rebels in Syria, that he is confident the United States can send weapons to fighters in Syria without the risk they will fall into the wrong hands.
“We can identify who these people are. We can help the right people,” McCain said on CNN’s program “Anderson Cooper 360.”
McCain, a Republican, is an outspoken advocate for US military aid to the rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad and has angrily denounced Democratic President Barack Obama – McCain’s opponent in his failed 2008 presidential race – for shying away from deeper US involvement in the conflict, which has claimed 80,000 lives.
Critics of some lawmakers’ push to arm the rebels have expressed concerns that weapons could end up in the hands of militants who might eventually end up using them against the United States or its allies.
But McCain said such radical fighters make up only a small part of the rebels forces.
Unfortunately, the Syrian “rebels” themselves seem to disagree with McCain’s analysis of the situation on the ground:
“There is not even one battalion, in all honesty, that they can control,” the Islamic Front representative said. “These people [senior defectors in the FSA like the one the Libyans had met the night before] were placed as facades, in the beginning, as media personalities, but as real commanders on the ground? Not at all.”
The Libyan’s next question was one he would repeat or refer to 16 times over the next two and a half hours: “Why aren’t you united?” And every time, the Syrians would politely respond that their Islamist battalions were better organized and disciplined and had a clearer chain of command than their more-secular FSA counterparts, but that asking for greater unity than that was a difficult proposition.
Now, one could certainly raise the question of who is actually telling the truth. After all, it’s in the interests of each of the various “rebel” factions to inflate their own importance and dismiss the significance of the competition, right? Unfortunately, pictures don’t lie:
Senator John McCain’s office is pushing back against reports that while visiting Syria this week he posed in a photo with rebels who kidnapped 11 Lebanese Shi’ite pilgrims.
The photo, released by McCain’s office, shows McCain with a group of rebels. Among them are two men identified in the Lebanese press as Mohamed Nour and Abu Ibrahim, two of the kidnappers of the group from Lebanon.
A McCain spokesman said that no one who met with McCain identified themselves by either of those names.
So, the great military genius went to Lebanon, snuck across the border into Syria to meet with secular “rebel” leaders in order to promise them US aid, and wasn’t even able to figure out the fact that he was actually meeting with Islamists, because they pulled a dastardly trick on him and used false names?
If that’s all it takes to fool our “leaders,” we’re truly doomed.
Hizb’Allah’s struggles in the battle of Al Qusasyr
by Rodan ( 5 Comments › )Filed under Al Qaeda, Headlines, Hezballah, Islamists, Lebanon, Special Report, Syria at May 23rd, 2013 - 9:29 am
Hizb’Allah continues to suffer losses in their battle with al-Qaeda and Free Syrian Army on the border town of al Qusasyr. They have sent their elite soldiers in with artillery and armor support from the Syrian Army. The town still has not fallen and rebel reinforcements have arrived.
A source close to Hezbollah confirmed to A.F.P. on Thursday that more than 75 Hezbollah fighters were killed in Syria while fighting alongside the Syrian regime forces with armed opposition groups.
The same source reported that 57 Hezbollah fighters were killed in the battles, noting that the other 18 succumbed to their wounds after being involved in clashes taking place mainly in the border region of al-Qusayr.
The Syrian rebels and al-Qaeda probably have suffered higher losses, but they have a higher pool of people to work with. Hizb’Allah funerals are now becoming a common occurrence in their strongholds.
Hezbollah is throwing its men into battle in the Syrian city of Qusayr, and many are returning to Lebanon in coffins. Through their funerals and commemorations posted on pro-Hezbollah Facebook pages, we are now getting a sense of the casualties that the self-proclaimed “Party of God” is suffering as it joins the Syrian conflict on the side of President Bashar al-Assad.
It’s no secret why Qusayr is a vital piece of real estate for both the Syrian regime and the Lebanese paramilitary group. The city is a strategic link in the Syrian communications chain, connecting the capital of Damascus, Syria’s Alawite-dominated coastal highlands, and Hezbollah’s heartland in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley. The Lebanese border is only a few miles to the city’s west, and the Damascus-Aleppo highway lies to its east.
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Despite Hezbollah’s obscuring of facts surrounding their dead, it is clear their supporters know these men met their end in Syria. Chants of “Labayka ya Zaynab” (“We are here for you, O Zaynab”) are ubiquitous at funerals for Hezbollah’s martyrs. The highly sectarian and mantra-like chant references the Zaynab mosque in Damascus, an important Shia shrine near Damascus and a gathering point for pro-Iranian foreign fighters in Syria.
Qusayr isn’t Hezbollah’s first battle in Syria — for months, its militiamen have also taken part in fighting around the Zaynab shrine. While in Damascus, Hezbollah members tend to operate under the moniker of a group called Liwa Abu Fadl al-Abbas (LAFA). The group is comprised of fighters from throughout the Shia world, the vast majority coming from Iranian proxy parties in Iraq and from Hezbollah. The group takes its name from a legendary Shiite fighter who was martyred during the Battle of Karbala, a central event in Shiism. Hezbollah’s dead are often also claimed by LAFA on their wide network of Facebook pages.
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Another narrative, primarily one emerging from pro-rebel sources, was that Hezbollah was mainly losing young men. This too appears to be incorrect: While ages of those killed are very rarely posted by any Hezbollah-affiliated source, a number of older members have been killed in Syria. Ahmed Kamal Khurees, a Hezbollah fighter from the southern Lebanese town of Khiam, sports a white beard in his martyrdom photo. Fadi Muhammed Jazar, a Hezbollah member — and possible commander — who served time in Israeli prisons and was released during a 2004 Hezbollah-Israel prisoner exchange, was no youngster. Ibrahim Husayn, reportedly a Hezbollah commander, was also an older fighter. The presence of veteran fighters in Syria underlines the importance of this campaign for Hezbollah.
The conflict also shatters the myth of Hizb’Allah’s alleged “victory” over Israel in 2006. The organization lost 500-600 fighters against a half hearted Israeli campaign. Now it appears that the losses suffered at the hands of Israel has robbed it of experience veterans and as a result, they are struggling in the Qusasyr campaign.
It’s been five days since Hezbollah and Assad regime forces launched their joint offensive on the town of al-Qusayr in the Homs countryside. Hezbollah and regime media were quick to claim major advances, confidently predicting that the town would fall swiftly. These pronouncements have proven premature.
The attack on al-Qusayr has been long in the making. Assad’s forces, limited in manpower, are now acting more in concert with irregular sectarian militias trained by Iran. But the string of tactical gains in the Homs countryside, starting in April and leading to the current battle in al-Qusayr, is tied directly to Hezbollah’s lead role in spearheading ground operations.
As it became clear that the Syrian opposition was putting up fierce resistance, Hezbollah began adjusting its story about the battle for al-Qusayr. The group was now making it known that it was sending in reinforcements from its elite units, and that the fighting might last at least another week. More troublesome for Hezbollah, however, was the news about the severe losses its units were sustaining, with casualty numbers ranging from 30 to 40 dead after the first day of fighting alone. By Tuesday, Syrian activists in al-Qusayr were claiming another 25 dead Hezbollah fighters. This, of course, is not counting those who had been killed prior to the latest assault, going back to last year. The number and make-up of the casualties raise some interesting questions about Hezbollah’s fighting force post-2006.
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As more of the group’s elite units are called up from Lebanon to reinforce their comrades in Syria, Iran has to be concerned about more than just seeing its strategic weapons caches blown up by Israel. It also has to be worried about how Hezbollah’s vulnerabilities are being exposed not by the IDF, but by Syrian rebels that the Party of God was supposed to dispatch easily. If the Iranians have overestimated Hezbollah’s capabilities against an adversary like the Free Syrian Army, one wonders what else about their power they’ve misjudged.
The Israelis you can bet are watching Hizb’Allah’s performance in Syria and now they will face a weakened opponent in a rematch.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq attempts to move into al-Nusra turf causes a split
by Rodan ( 10 Comments › )Filed under Al Qaeda, Islam, Islamic hypocrisy, Islamic Terrorism, Islamists, Sharia (Islamic Law), Special Report, Syria at May 18th, 2013 - 1:13 pm
The most effective fighting force in Syria is al-Nusra Front. Led by members of al-Qaeda in Iraq, other foreign Jihadists, defectors from the Syrian Army and Eastern Syrian tribes, they have defeated Assad’s forces, Hizb’Allah and Iranian Basij in many battles. The leaders of AQI began to get jealous over the success of their creation and did not like the ideological direction of al-Nusra. Although the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda shared the same militant ideology as its parents, al-Nusra was more pragmatic and was for the time being tolerant of Christians and allowed freedom for women nor did it ban alcohol.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq now calls itself the Islamic state of Iraq and the Levant (al-Sham). They began to take over from al-Nusra in recent weeks, thus causing a split in the organization. The original foreign Jihadi element is now taking orders from AQI, while the Syrian element is staying loyal to al-Nusra. This is causing a huge splinter in what was the most effective arm of the rebels.
BEIRUT – The most feared and effective rebel group battling President Bashar Assad, the Islamist Nusra Front, is being eclipsed by a more radical jihadi force whose aims go far beyond overthrowing the Syrian leader.
Al-Qaida’s Iraq-based wing, which nurtured Nusra in the early stages of the rebellion against Assad, has moved in and sidelined the organization, Nusra sources and other rebels say.
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“Nusra is now two Nusras. One that is pursuing al-Qaida’s agenda of a greater Islamic nation, and another that is Syrian with a national agenda to help us fight Assad,” said a senior rebel commander in Syria who has close ties to the Nusra Front.
“It is disintegrating from within.”
Others said that Nusra’s Syrian contingent has already effectively collapsed, with its leader Abu Mohammad al-Golani keeping a low profile and his fighters drifting off to join other rebel groups.
Nusra fighters have claimed responsibility for the deadliest bombings of the two-year-old Syrian conflict and their brigades have led some of the most successful rebel offensives against Assad’s forces.
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One Nusra fighter said he believed Baghdadi held a personal grudge against Golani because of his standing in Syria.
Golani, a radical Sunni Muslim, won popularity in Syria even among some Christians, according to the Nusra fighter. “Baghdadi did not like this,” the fighter said.
“Baghdadi and the (al-Qaida) leadership consider the Muslim Brotherhood, the Free Syrian Army and other factions including Christians as infidels and when they saw Golani was on good terms with them they were not happy.”
“That is why he announced the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant without any consultation with Golani, and he is in charge to operate in his old failed way.”
This is case of a teacher jealous at the success of his pupil. Al-Nusra saw the errors al-Qaeda in Iraq committed and refused to go down that path. Its main goal is the establishment of a greater Syrian (Bilal al-Sham) emirate, while al-Qaeda has a more transnational agenda. This new development makes the Syrian War even more complicated. You now have 2 al-Qaeda factions operating in Syria. Hopefully the war continues to drag on and all the savages kill each other.
Pope Canonizes Hundreds who refused to covert to Islam
by Rodan ( 4 Comments › )Filed under Christianity, History, Islam, Religion, Special Report at May 12th, 2013 - 10:20 pm
Islam is Catholicism’s #1 enemy since the 7th Century. The wars between Catholics and Islam had raged for centuries. Many Catholics were killed by the Islamic savages. Pope Francis I canonizes hundreds of Italian Catholics who in 1480 refused to covert to Islam when Turks seized the city of Otranto.
(TheBlaze/AP) — Pope Francis on Sunday bestowed sainthood upon hundreds of 15th-century martyrs beheaded for refusing to convert to Islam as part of his first canonization ceremony in a packed St. Peter’s Square.
The “Martyrs of Otranto” were 813 Italians who were slain in the southern Italian city in 1480 for defying demands by Turkish invaders who overran the citadel to renounce Christianity.
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Francis told the crowd that the martyrs are a source of inspiration, especially for “so many Christians, who, right in these times and in so many parts of the world, still suffer violence.” He prayed that they receive “the courage of loyalty and to respond to evil with good.”
The pope didn’t single out any country. But Christian churches have been attacked in Nigeria and Iraq, and Catholics in China loyal to the Vatican have been subject to harassment and sometimes jail over the last decades.
I salute the Pope on this move and recognition of the current Islamic persecution of Christians.
Assad vows to give Hizb’Allah more advanced weapons
by Rodan ( 3 Comments › )Filed under Al Qaeda, Hezballah, Islamists, Israel, Lebanon, Muslim Brotherhood, Sharia (Islamic Law), Special Report, Syria at May 9th, 2013 - 11:55 pm
When you are in a hole, the best move is to stop digging. Bashar Assad obviously doesn’t not heed that advise and continues to dig a deeper hole. Despite warnings from Israel that they will not tolerate any shipments of advanced weapons to Hizb’Allah, Assad says he will do just that. He even claims that Syria will now be a “resistance” nation.
Israel’s alleged attack against Syria seems to have led President Bashar Assad to hunker down and more fully align his regime with the Iran-Hezbollah axis. As he fights for his regime’s survival, holding on to what some analysts say could become an Alawite ministate, he is publicly moving to a more hostile position vis-à-vis Israel and the West.
Assad told a local Lebanese paper that Syria was becoming a resistance state similar to the one Hezbollah has created in Lebanon.
We have decided that we must advance toward them and turn into a resistance nation like Hezbollah [did in Lebanon], for the sake of Syria and future generations,” Assad told the Al-Akhbar daily on Thursday, according to the Lebanese Daily Star.
He added that Syria would be cooperating more closely with Hezbollah, stating, “That’s why we have decided to give them everything.”
Assad can barely resist al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch al-Nusra Front, how the hell will he resist Israel.
Another clown is Hizb’Allah chief Hassan Nasrallah, who claims that his organization will help Assad take back the Golan Heights from Israel.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said on Thursday his forces would support any Syrian effort to recapture the Israeli Golan Heights, days after Israel reportedly launched raids in Syria believed to have targeted weapons destined for the Lebanese militant group.
“We announce that we stand with the Syrian popular resistance and offer material and spiritual support as well as coordination in order to liberate the Syrian Golan,” he said in a televised speech.
Hizb’Allah’s forces can’t even defeat al-Qaeda, how will they help Assad take the Golan Heights? Assad and Nasrallah really are smoking some strong hash. They are both upset that that they can’t retaliate for Israel’s strike on Syria against Hizb’Allah weapons. Al-Nusra is giving them the fight of their lives and if they even think of starting a fight with Israel, it will not end well for Nasrallah and Assad.
Please use Diaryofdaedalus.WordPress.com
by Rodan ( 12 Comments › )Filed under Blogwars, Diary of Daedalus, Special Report at May 8th, 2013 - 10:16 am
I commited a big boo boo. I allowed the registration name of Diaryofdaedalus to expire. Even worse, I lost the original account password and email. For now, please use Diaryofdaedalus.wordpress.com to get the site. We will register a new domain name shortly and update this thread accordingly.
Thanks for the patience.
Update: The new address is thediaryofdaedalus.com
Glenn Beck Declares War on Progressives at the NRA Annual Meeting
by lobo91 ( 2 Comments › )Filed under government, Media, Patriotism, Politics, Progressives, Second Amendment, Special Report at May 5th, 2013 - 11:24 pm
All of the speakers from the just-concluded NRA Annual Meeting in Houston were great, but if I had to pick the single most powerful speech, I’d have to go with Glenn Beck’s Saturday night keynote address. He did an excellent job of tying in the current fight over gun control with the larger culture war in America.
It’s long (over an hour and 40 minutes) but worth watching.
No frogs were harmed during the production of this video:
Update: I’ve collected links to some of the best speeches from the convention on a new page on my website, for those who might like to see them.
BBC blames Buddhist monks
by Rodan ( 8 Comments › )Filed under Dhimmitude, Islam, Leftist-Islamic Alliance, Multiculturalism, Progressives, Religion, Special Report, Tranzis at May 2nd, 2013 - 9:53 am
Reading the way the BBC covers conflicts between Muslims and non Muslims, it is always the latter’s fault. The most blatant example is their coverage of the Israeli-Arab conflict. This is the most obvious example but not the only one. There have been clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in Burma and Sri Lanka. As usual, the BBC blames the Non Muslims.
In Sri Lanka, the issue of halal slaughter has been a flashpoint. Led by monks, members of the Bodu Bala Sena – the Buddhist Brigade – hold rallies, call for direct action and the boycotting of Muslim businesses, and rail against the size of Muslim families.
While no Muslims have been killed in Sri Lanka, the Burmese situation is far more serious. Here the antagonism is spearheaded by the 969 group, led by a monk, Ashin Wirathu, who was jailed in 2003 for inciting religious hatred. Released in 2012, he has referred to himself bizarrely as “the Burmese Bin Laden”.
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On Tuesday, Buddhist mobs attacked mosques and burned more than 70 homes in Oakkan, north of Rangoon, after a Muslim girl on a bicycle collided with a monk. One person died and nine were injured.
But aren’t Buddhist monks meant to be the good guys of religion?
Aggressive thoughts are inimical to all Buddhist teachings. Buddhism even comes equipped with a practical way to eliminate them. Through meditation the distinction between your feelings and those of others should begin to dissolve, while your compassion for all living things grows.
It is never the Muslims’ fault according to the BBC.
