Chicago News Bench

Was Obama Drunk and Having an Orgy During Benghazi Attack? Inquiring Minds Want To Know.

2013-05-21T21:15:00.002-05:00

"I got nothin' here. Hmmm. I'll give it a sexy
headline and send it to press. COPY!"

May 21, 2013 - There are gaps in the timeline. Where was Barack Obama on the long night of the attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya on last September 11? Incredibly, we don't know. The White House staff won't say. Obama won't say. His representatives won't say.

Maybe someone is about to tell us. Or maybe not. Or maybe somebody will say that somebody might tell us, sorta, but won't. Yes, that's confusing. Sorry....

Redflag News has a crappy post with a jolting headline on their website today:

"SHOCK: Obama Was 'Incapacitated' Due To 'Staggering, Inapt Activities' Between The Hours Of 1800 And 2300 On The Night Of Benghazi..." The post, by J. R. Elliott, is sensational to be sure. But the post is like candy, with empty calories. If you'll pardon the expression, the post raises some red flags.

"Incapacitated" due to "staggering, inapt activities?" One can only guess what Redflag means by that, because they offer no explanation in the post. "Inapt" means "inappropriate," but that could indicate anything from simply not paying attention to being absent without leave. My imagination, admittedly in the gutter, conjured up disturbing images of Obama in a sexual orgy with interns. Or smoking crack. "Incapacitated?" Drugs? Alcohol? Both? "Staggering?" As in mind boggling, or as in heavily intoxicated?

I am disturbed by these mental images, but I am also annoyed by posts such as the one by J.R. Elliott. The post breathlessly says, in effect, "Hey! Look! Some unnamed people are saying that Obama was doing inappropriate stuff!"

"Two sources close to the inner circle of the Obama White House," wrote Elliott, "have communicated exclusively to RedFlag News that during the night of Benghazi, President Obama was 'incapacitated' due to 'staggering, inapt activities' between the hours of 1800 and 2300."

And who are those sources? "In light of the clear culture of intimidation by the Obama Administration," Elliot wrote, "our sources are not in any position to come forward." Huh? So, how do we know that Elliott didn't just make this up? I'm not saying he did. But he's not proving he didn't. It's just not good to make sensational accusations and then attribute them to unnamed sources who will never be named. It casts your own reporting into question.

Well, okay. I appreciate that anonymous sources may have "communicated" with J.R. Maybe they have hot info. But it sounds like they didn't even tell Elliott what they meant by "'Incapacitated' Due To 'Staggering, Inapt Activities'." If they did, why didn't he share any of it with us?

What we do know is that we don't know what Obama was doing on Sept. 11, 2012. On May 19, "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace noted that there are pictures of Obama sitting in the Situation Room the night Osama bin Laden was killed, but on the night Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed we don't have so much as an artist's sketch.

Elliott's Redflag post seems to have no point other than to grab some hits for Redflag. Look, I'm no Bob Woodward, but Bob Woodward waited until he knew he had a story to say that he had a story. Elliott's post is not journalism. It's like being promised a magnificent meal, but only getting a menu.

I've worked as a professional journalist (and have a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin). I fully appreciate the use of anonymous sources. I've done it myself. But you only mention your anonymous sources if doing so lends credence to your story. In the case of Elliott's Redflag post, there is no story, just speculation. If you have no story, you don't rush to press screaming that you have unnamed people saying something might have happened but you don't know what. It just makes you look stupid, as it did when J.R. Elliot made that mistake.

Elliott went on to say that his mystery sources urge the media to do their jobs to uncover the "most damaging story in American presidential history." Maybe Elliott hasn't been paying attention. The media, even much of the Mainstream, left-leaning media, have been clamoring to report this story. Believe me, they smell blood. If ABC or CBS or NBC can uncover "the most damaging story in American presidential history," they will sell out their beloved Obama for ratings. And why not? They're pissed at him for Obama's Dept. of Justice grabbing the phone and email records of Associated Press reporters and editors.

Did Elliott's mysterious sources tell him how Obama was "incapacitated," and what his "inapt activities" were? We must assume so, for surely Elliott is not so stupid as to base a story as "explosive" as his on being told simply that Obama was acting badly. Put yourself in his place: Wouldn't you ask the sources to give you some details? The sources, if they exist, would want the story out there. Why else would they tell Elliott what he says they told him? If they did tell him the details, why didn't he at least hint at what they were in his crappy post?

Contrast the empty Redflag post to much better one over at PJ Media, titled "More Benghazi Whistleblowers Come Forth With 'Devastating Info'." Unlike J.R. Elliott's post, we get red meat from PJM's Roger L. Simon.

What J.R. Elliott gave us in his Redflag post was a shiny package with nothing inside. Nothing.

Must-Read: More Benghazi Whistleblowers Come Forth With "Devastating Info"

2013-05-21T17:01:00.004-05:00

Roger L. Simon, PJ Media

May 21, 2013 - In an "exclusive" report today, PJ Media is reporting that former diplomats indicate that Obama's Benghazi nightmare is about to get worse.

We've already heard from whistleblowers Gregory Hicks, Mark Thompson and Eric Nordstrom. They testified on May 8 at a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing.

The investigation of the missteps leading up to the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya -- and the failure to even attempt a rescue during the 8-hour long seige -- is far from over.

"More whistleblowers will emerge shortly in the escalating Benghazi scandal, according to two former U.S. diplomats who spoke with PJ Media Monday afternoon," writes PJM's Roger Simon. "These whistleblowers, colleagues of the former diplomats, are currently securing legal counsel because they work in areas not fully protected by the Whistleblower law."

The news revelations, says Simon, "will be at least as explosive as what we have already learned about the scandal," and that we will learn from them "what really transpired in Benghazi that are potentially devastating to both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton." Full story at PJ Media.

Former ambassador Thomas Pickering will testify on May 23.

May 21 Tea Party Rallies Nationwide to Protest IRS Abuses

2013-05-20T20:50:00.002-05:00

May 20, 2013 - Tea Party Patriots is calling on conservative groups across the U.S. to rally at IRS offices on May 21 in protest of recent abuses of power.

"On behalf of Tea Party, Patriot groups, 9/12, liberty activists, and the American people," TPP says on their website, "we are calling for anyone and everyone to protest the IRS’ complete abuse of power on Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at noon local time."

They even include a handy "Protest Toolkit," a digital how-to help package that includes nine essentials for the inexperienced rouser of conservative rabble.

"HORRIFIC" TORNADO DEVASTATES MOORE, OKLAHOMA, MAY 20 (VIDEO)

2013-05-20T15:56:00.000-05:00

KFOR TV LIVE STREAMING

May 20, 2013 - A monstrous, 2-mile wide EF-5 stovepipe tornado devastated Moore, Oklahoma. It was on the ground for about one hour and left a huge path of destruction. Moore is a suburb of Oklahoma City (map). The damage left behind looks like an atomic bomb went off. (Videos Below.)

Update, 5/21: The medical examiner has confirmed 24 people killed in the Moore tornado, nine of those were children, reports KFOR.

Update, 5/21: The National Weather Service says the Moore tornado had wind speeds up to 200 mph is officially classified as an EF-5 on the enhanced Fujita scale. A "tornado emergency" was issued, which is more dangerous than a standard "tornado warning."

Plaza Towers Elementary was devastated. Children sheltered in the hallways.As many as 75 people, children and staff, were believed to be in the school. As of 5:20 p.m. CT, rescuers are searching through the rubble to find anyone who might be trapped.

KFOR-TV reporting that "24 victims are assumed to be in the rubble of the Plaza Towers Elementary school. The effort at the elementary school is now a recovery mission and not a search rescue effort, according to KFOR’s Lance West."

"KOTV reports Briarwood Elementary School in Moore took a direct hit, where children are reportedly trapped inside. At another school, Plaza Elementary, 30 children were pulled from the debris. It's unclear if they are part of the 75 who are still in the school." (from WTVM)

Medical facilities and hospitals suffered heavy damage in Moore. "Norman Regional Hospital officials were asking all clinical staff to report to the Healthplex to help treat storm injuries. Thirteen patients were transported. One was sent to the Norman Regional Healthplex and 12 to Norman Regional. The Moore Medical Center on I-35 sustained major damage and patients were being transferred to Norman Regional’s two Norman campuses. An elementary school in Moore was hit and police were putting search dogs in the building. As of 4:40 p.m. there were no confirmed fatalities at Briarwood Elementary." (Source: The Norman Transcript)

"The massive tornado first touched down in Newcastle and churned toward Interstate 4 and S.W. 149th Street. It ripped down Santa Fe and hit Briarwood Elementary school....The tornado left behind incredible destruction. It wiped out entire neighborhoods, leaving behind piles of debris. There are reports of dozens of injuries. The tornado also hit the Warren Theatre and several nearby businesses." (from News9)

The weather Oklahoma today is part of a large swath of severe storms making their way across much of the plains, from mid-Texas up to most of Missiouri. An interactive severe weather map at Wunderground shows the extent of this dangerous and volatile system.

ALSO SEE:

Massive Tornado Rips Through Oklahoma City Suburbs NPR
LIVE UPDATES: Tornadoes tear through counties across Okla. KFOR
Massive Tornado Rips Across Moore, Hits Elementary School News9
Damage in Moore, Okla., massive, schools hit Times Record News
'Major damage' as huge tornado rips through neighborhoods south of Oklahoma City NBC
tornado damage track for the Newcastle-Moore-South OKC tornado. Based on radar and damage reports. pic.twitter.com/MT0auFhmnY
'Tornado Emergency': A Rare, Dire Warning Born In Oklahoma NPR

Below: A stormchaser's video shot along on 134th at Toby Keith and Sooner Rd

Raw Video: Aftermath of Massive Tornado in Oklahoma (Associated Press)

Spectacular Videos of Midwest Tornadoes, May 19, 2013

2013-05-20T00:12:00.000-05:00

National Weather Service Current Weather Warnings
May 19, 2013 at 11:37 PM CDT

May 19, 2013 - Season's Greetings, Spring style. Tornadoes and severe weather are marching across the nation's mid-section tonight, killing at least one person and damaging uncounted homes and buildings. Scroll down to see a bunch of some amazing videos of today's tornadoes.

"At least four separate twisters touched down in central Oklahoma late Sunday afternoon," reports Fox News late tonight, "including one near the town of Shawnee, 35 miles southeast of Oklahoma City, that laid waste to much of a mobile home park. Oklahoma state Rep. Justin Wood confirmed to Fox News Sunday that at least one person had been killed in the town."

The extent of the rough weather is seen on a map at Accuweather (top right). It shows active warnings for tornadoes and severe storms in Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa and Illinois. "At least one person has been killed and 21 injured in Oklahoma," reports Fox News. "The tornadoes, high winds and hail across the Midwest were part of a massive, northeastward-moving storm system that stretched from Texas to Minnesota."

Below: "Massive tornado hits Kansas" -- A bystander has filmed a huge black tornado in Kansas, in the state of Oklahoma, on a day when storms ripped across the United States' mid-south.

SEE MORE VIDEOS AT OUR "TORNADO VIDEOS" PAGE

Dan Pfeiffer Admits White House Knew About IRS Scandal Before It Was News (Videos)

2013-05-19T18:54:00.002-05:00

Pfact Pfudging, May 19, 2013

May 19, 2013 - Sometimes even a liar tells the truth, albeit accidentally. On CBS's Face The Nation today, White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer inadvertently admitted that the Obama Administration knew about the IRS scandal well before it hit the news. Surprisingly, this admission was missed by many.

First, we saw yet another example of the "mainstream media" expressing displeasure (and distrust, even) of the Obama Administration.

Second, host Bob Schieffer, fond of lobbing softball questions at Democrats with little or no follow up, actually asked tough questions about the ongoing IRS scandal.

Third, and best of all, we heard an admission by Pfeiffer the Parrot that the Obama Administration really did know about the IRS scandal before the public did, contrary to what the White House has been saying for days.

Schieffer expressed disbelief that the White House knew nothing about IRS harassment of Tea Party and conservative non-profit groups before it became publicly known through news reports recently.

Pfeiffer said that "what happened at the IRS was inexcusable and we have to do something about it....We gotta make sure this never happens again. It was an incredible breach of the public's trust and we have to repair that breach, no question about that."

Bob Schieffer: "What the....?"

"Well, if it is so important," said Schieffer, "the President, as I understand it, says he didn't find out about it til a couple of weeks ago. It is very difficult for me, Washington being Washington, to understand how the White House wouldn't have known something was up. The Treasury Department was informed there was an investigation. Capital Hill committees were informed there was an investigation."

"Are you trying to tell me that a wisp of this didn't get over to the White House during an election year, that there may be something going on over there at the IRS that we ought to find out about?" Schieffer asked.

"Yes, I'm telling you that," Pfeiffer said. "The first that the White House was made aware of it was from the Treasury Department a few weeks ago. And not the details of what happened, not the the results of the investigation, but that an independent investigation was about to conclude. And here's how we handled this, and this is how, I think, every administration tries to handle this. You have a cardinal rule, which is you do nothing to interfere with an independent investigation and you do nothing to offer the appearance of interfering in an investigation. So I feel like we handled this in the appropriate way."

"Well," said a visibly exasperated Schieffer, "if the President was so upset about this when he found out about it, why did he wait three days to say anything?"

"What we waited for were the facts," said Pfeiffer. Trouble is, the facts were already available to the White House.

What Pfeiffer said on Face The Nation today does not fit the timeline of events. Indeed, it contained the gem of unintended admission. He said the White House first learned that there was trouble at the IRS "a few weeks ago." He said the White House did not know about it until it was reported in the news. However, the scandal did not become news until May 11, 2013 with the first leaks of the report from the U.S. Treasury inspector general (IG). That report was the result of a March 8, 2012 meeting with the House Committee On Oversight & Government Reform, which started a review by the IG.

THE ACCIDENTAL ADMISSION: May 11 was only eight days ago, not "a few weeks ago" as Pfeiffer said. In other word, Pfeiffer admitted that the White House knew about the IRS scandal weeks before it became public news.

On February 14, 2012 The Blaze reported that they "received emails from various Tea Party groups around the country alerting us to the oppressive demands being sent to them from the IRS." But the story did not become public news, really, as a full-blown mainstream media topic until May 11 of this year.

The Committe on Oversight's members has 17 Democrats, including Obama apologist Elijah Cummings (MD-7), the committee's ranking member. It is hard to believe that Cummings -- or any of his fellow Democrats -- would not have made a call to someone in the White House about the potential scandal.

Far worse than Pfeiffer's clumsy tripping over himself was this inconvient fact: On March 30, 2012, confidential IRS documents were leaked to an Obama campaign co-chairman’s group. Those documents were used to attack Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Is it believable that the White House was (a) not aware of those campaign attacks or that (b) they had no idea that they were based on Romney's tax documents? And is it (c) believable that Pfeiffer was not also aware of this?

Not even the liberal New York Times believes it. In a report last Friday, the Times noted that "The inspector general gave Republicans some fodder [today] when he divulged that he informed the Treasury’s general counsel he was auditing the I.R.S.’s screening of politically active groups seeking tax exemptions on June 4, 2012. He told Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin 'shortly after,' he said. That meant Obama administration officials were aware of the matter during the presidential campaign year."

That means that Dan Pfeiffer lied, and he lied on orders from the White House.

Also See:

White House insists Obama was not involved in IRS Boston.com
Dan Pfeiffer: IRS Behavior ‘Inexcusable’ Whether or Not Illegal ABC News
White House Senior Adviser Pfeiffer On IRS Scandal: ‘The Law Is Irrelevant’ Before It's News
Schieffer Blasts Obama: ‘Spare Me The Talking Points And Excuses’ CBS DC
Schieffer Grills Pfeiffer: 'Why Are You Here?' NewsMax
White House word of the day – 'Irrelevant' Hot Air
Dan Pfeiffer Explains the IRS Scandal Atlantic Wire
Timeline of the IRS Scandal Boston Herald
BUSTED: The Complete IRS Scandal Timeline in Spreadsheet Format Doug Ross
IRS official: “Everything comes from the top” Washington Examiner
Pfeiffer: "Not Unusual" That Obama Unaware Of Investigations.... Real Clear Politics
Pfeiffer: 'Offensive' to Suggest Obama Let Americans Die in Benghazi Crooks & Liars

Uh Oh: Massive Sunspot Spewing at Earth

2013-05-17T23:01:00.001-05:00

X1.2 class solar flare on May 14, 2013 - NASA/SDO

May 17, 2013 - Okay, this might be bad. There's a big, very active sunspot called "Region AR1748" that's been spitting some very big solar flares over the past week. "A huge explosion on the sun will deal Earth a glancing blow today (May 17)," says Space.com. (See video below.)

"The sun storm erupted late Tuesday during a powerful solar flare -- the fourth unleashed by a single sunspot in just 48 hours -- and hurled a massive cloud of charged particles out into space at millions of miles an hour."

AR1748 produced four X-class flares within 48 hours

Busy, very busy. Region AR1748 produced the first four X-class solar flares of 2013 in less than 48 hours. That's no small feat (see image, left).

The big blob of particles and stuff is called a coronal mass ejection (CME), and it's really a lot -- a lot -- of stuff.

In fact, it was "billions of tons of solar particles" worth of stuff, reports UPI. And it's traveling at extreme speeds. "The CME which erupted at 5:24 a.m EDT left the sun at speeds of around 745 miles per second, and could cause a space weather phenomenon called a geomagnetic storm when it connects with the outside of the Earth's magnetic envelope known as the magnetosphere."

But should we be afraid? Space.com says that "this one isn't aimed directly at us," says Space.com, "so there's no cause for alarm, experts say." Whew. That's better, but.... what about next time?

Also See:

Busy, unruly sun NewsTimes
AR 11748 Lets Go Another X-class Flare! Solar Dynamics Observatory blog
Increased Solar Flares Disrupt Communications AccuWeather
Solar Map of Active Regions Raben Systems
Solar Flares Explained (video below)

VIDEO, Report: Tornado Nips Athens, Alabama

2013-05-17T21:37:00.001-05:00

Sarah Cole | scole@al.com (from video below)

May 17, 2013 - A tornado touched down briefly near Athens, Alabama today (see video below). CNN reports that "Law enforcement officials reported a funnel cloud -- indicative of a tornado -- at 2:15 p.m. (3:15 p.m. ET), the National Weather Service noted."

Athens got off easy: Injuries and damage seems to be minimal. The CNN report said that two homes in Athens "suffered minor damage as the storm rolled through," citing a spokeswoman for Limestone County's emergency management agency. Power lines and trees are down.

Severe weather is predicted for much of the Midwest through Monday.

"One person was slightly injured running for shelter near the Walmart on U.S. 72 in Athens," reports AL.com. "The storm lasted from 2:04 p.m. until 3 p.m." The severe weather caused the Limestone County Sheriff's Rodeo to be cancelled for tonight. But fear not: The rodeo will resume on Saturday.

Non-Partisan Group Says Obama is a War Criminal

2013-05-17T20:26:00.001-05:00

Obama's death drones

May 17, 2013 - Closing Guantanamo and ending torture of detainees was one of his campaign promises in 2008. In 2013, of his former supporters on the Left say Obama is worse than President George W. Bush in the way he has continued to detain Guantanamo inmates.

In fact, Obama has authorized, condoned and/or covered up torture, drone killing of civilians and other crimes -- and should be indicted. That's the conclusion of The Constitution Project, a legal research and advocacy group, in its "Report on Detainee Treatment."

Petitioning Obama (change.org)

The charges are detailed in a report and video from The Western Center for Journalism (watch the video below). The New York Times reported the story on its front page on April 16, but it received secondary attention because of the massive coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing.

A NY Times opinion piece on April 16 said that the Constitution Project's report "is also rightly critical of the Obama administration’s use of expansive claims of secrecy to keep the details of rendition and torture from becoming public and to block victims’ lawsuits."

"A nonpartisan group, The Constitution Project, in their mammoth 600-page report, has concluded that Barack Hussein Obama, the 44th President of the United States, should be indicted for war crimes in the authorization or coverup of the use of torture during interrogation on detainees at Guantánamo and CIA 'black sites'," according The Western Center for Journalism today.

The report is also critical of the administrations of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

GULAG Guantanamo

Hope and Change? "Obama originally said when he ran for office that he would close the Guantanamo Bay prison," wrote Rachel Alexander for Town Hall on May 13, "and after being elected in 2009, publicly instructed the military to shut it down within one year. It is now over four years later, into his second term, and the prison is still open. Most of the prisoners have been there for over 11 years without a trial. Nine have died since it opened in 2002. The scrutiny has intensified in recent months as a majority of the 166 inmates, down from a high of 684 in 2003, have gone on hunger strikes, and at least 21 of the men are being force-fed twice daily. The administration has approved 86 detainees for release, but curiously none have been released so far this year."

Also See:

U.S. Torture of Detainees 'Indisputable' World Net Daily
Is Obama continuing Bush-Cheney torture? The Star Democrat (newspaper)
Transcript: What’s Going on at Gitmo? ProPublica
A ‘terrorist’ is no ‘enemy combatant’ Reuters
President Obama: Close Detention Facility at Guantanamo Bay Change.org
Nader: Obama’s Drone Warfare Violates U.S. and International Law Between The Lines
Nader: Reining In Obama and His Drones The Nader Page
The Left Turning on Obama Over Military Policy Town Hall

Growing Chicago Food Service "Fetch" Preparing to Hire Delivery People

2013-05-16T19:19:00.001-05:00

May 16, 2016 - How can hungry Chicagoans on the city's north side want Big Macs, Whoppers, Sliders or Supreme Burritos delivered to them?

They can call "Fetch Foods," a new delivery service in the Windy City. They've been operating since mid-April, but are already seeing a steady stream of orders. Fetch tells us that they will soon need more delivery people with cars, scooters and bikes.

Fetch picks up from McDonald's, Wendy's, Taco Bell, Five Guys, White Castle and Five Guys, then deliver it quickly to a customer's home or office. With warmer weather, they are also delivering to beaches along the Chicago lakefront.

Unlike most food delivery services, Fetch does not work for any restaurant. "We work for the customer," a Fetch spokesman tell Chicago News Bench. Fetch delivers the fast food that, until now, was not being delivered at all: Grub from those big chain fast food restaurants that don't traditionally deliver. Ordering is easily done via the Fetch website, and people can follow updates at the Fetch Facebook page.

Fetch wants to hear from people who are interested in doing delivery work. If you would like to get on their list of folks looking for delivery work, contact them here. They are not actually hiring at this time, they "expect a big increase" in demand "very soon," and want to have a roster of eager people ready to go quickly. Fetch serves the following Chicago zip codes: 60613, 60614, 60618, 60622, 60625, 60626, 60640, 60645, 60647, 60657, 60659, 60660.

Also See:

Local Delivery Service 'Fetch' Brings Fast Food To You Chicagoist
Service Delivers Fast Food Burgers and Tacos To Chicago Chicago News Bench

UPDATED: HEAVY INJURIES, DAMAGE AS DALLAS AREA POUNDED BY TORNADOES - VIDEOS

2013-05-16T01:00:00.000-05:00

UPDATE, MAY 16 - Ten tornadoes smashed into the Dallas-Fort Worth area last night as powerful storms swept across northern Texas. At least six people are now known to have died. A number are still missing, probably buried under crushed houses. More than 100 were injured and hundreds more are homeless today. Especially hard-hit were the communities of Granbury, Cleburne and Millsap, each struck by separate tornadoes. The National Weather Service says a tornado in the small town of Granbury was an EF-4 with wind speeds over 200 mph.

Helping Neighbors: Another AP story reports that a large nonprofit group, Mission Granbury, Inc., is organizing donations to help those in need. Mission Granbury will work with local churches. You can donate supplies or money by calling Mission Granbury at 817-579-6866. The American Red Cross is operating shelters at two churches in Granbury. BELOW: Video of an aerial view of the tornado damage in Cleburne, TX. Earlier reports follow this video.

EARLIER REPORTS:

ADVISORY: MUTE VOLUME on video below (loud wind!)
ADVISORY: MUTE VOLUME on video above (loud wind!)

May 15, 2013 - Powerful storms are spawning tornadoes in northern Texas tonight. Hail as large as grapefruit was driven by high winds. "Mass casualties" are being reported. CNN reports at least 100 injuries. On the Hood County Sheriff radio frequency, sheriff's deputies and other first responders called out reports of bodies and injured people found among "flattened" houses.

"Dozens of ambulances and other emergency responders had mobilized, with agencies from many cities standing by to help," says a late report from Dallas Morning News. Firefighters and police officers were going home to home in search of casualties. Many of the injured were being treated at Lake Granbury Medical Center, McKethan said. Medstar officials said its crews had taken 17 people to Fort Worth hospitals. Granbury’s hard-hit Rancho Brazos subdivision was evacuated, and natural gas was leaking there, officials said. About an hour after Granbury was hit, a mile-wide tornado was reported on the ground in the Cleburne area in Johnson County."

Granbury, TX (pop. 8,000) seems especially hard hit, with at least one confirmed tornado causing damage and injuring a number of people. Granbury is about 40 miles southwest of Fort Worth. (Map)

Hood County Sheriff units reported downed power lines ("hot wires") and roads blocked with debris. CNN reports that Granbury city officials "were sending school buses to affected neighborhoods to help with evacuations. Granbury is about 40 miles southwest of Fort Worth."

"Multiple fatalities" were reported by the Hood County sheriff’s office said there were "multiple injuries" in the wake of the storm, according to KTLA.

School buses and sheriff's deputies are taking injured people to VFW posts and school cafeterias, which are being used tonight as makeshift triage units.

Houses and building have been flattened. It is too early to know the number of people injured and structures damaged. Granbury authorities say that the hardest hit area was the Rancho Brazos subdivision and neighboring areas along Lake Granbury, according to NBC5 in Dallas Fort Worth.

media.star-telegram.com

Updates as they were breaking on May 15:

KHOU Houston:
9:33p Tornado sirens are sounding in Granbury, in Hood County, where damage has already been reported.

9:32p A new tornado warning is issued for Dallas County until 10:15 p.m., with circulation reported just south of Cockrell Hill. Take shelter if you are in the vicinity of this storm, which is heading to the northeast at 15 mph. - Chief Meteorologist Pete Delkus

9:30p Heavy storm damage is reported at a subdivision in the vicinity of Chaucer Drive and Browning Lane, about 2.7 miles southwest of downtown Cleburne [map]. - Chief Meteorologist Pete Delkus More at KHOU...

Houston Chronicle:
The [Granbury] tornado was part of a system of severe thunderstorms that spawned several tornadoes across North Texas, dropping large hail in some areas. The extent of the damage and injuries was not immediately clear. However, police reported the hardest hit area was the Rancho Brazos subdivision [map] and adjoining areas along Lake Granbury.

Another tornado hit the small town of Millsap [map] about 40 miles west of Fort Worth. Parker County Judge Mark Kelley said roof damage was reported to several houses and a barn was destroyed, but no injuries were reported.

MORE:

Multiple fatalities, 100 injuries in severe Texas storm CNN

Texas severe weather, May 15, 2013 Breaking News

Tornadoes spotted near Granbury, Decatur Star-Telegram

Mission Granbury Organizing Tornado Donations NBC Dallas-Fort Worth

Abortion Kills More Black Americans Than The KKK

2013-05-15T18:19:00.002-05:00

Walter Hoye

May 15, 2013 - The nightmarish revelations about abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell's clinic, called a "house of horrors," shook up a lot of people. Gosnell was convicted of first degree murder earlier this week for the deaths of babies born at his Philadelphia clinic.

A lot of people on the Left dismiss the Gosnell case as an aberration. It's an unusual case, they say. They continue to shrug off the reality of the abortion holocaust. Whether or not an abortion clinic is "following the rules," the fact remains that unborn children are being slaughtered daily. Few on the Left think of abortion as murder; many don't consider an unborn person to be a person. But if were you put it to them this way, they might reconsider: Abortion is the biggest single killer of Black Americans. Bigger than the Ku Klux Klan, as we are reminded by Walter Hoye, founder and president of the Issues4Life Foundation.

Excerpts from the CNS News article:

Over 86 years, the Ku Klux Klan lynched 3,446 blacks – a figure matched in less than four days if tallying the number of black babies who are aborted.

Walter Hoye, founder and president of the Issues4Life Foundation, shared those statistics at a press conference on Tuesday where black clergy and other leaders gathered in response to the guilty verdict in the trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell, who was convicted of murdering three newborn babies.

“Right now to give some of us just a perspective of the impact of abortion on demand in the black community, according to the archives of the Tuskegee Institute, from 1882 to 1968 – 86 years – the Ku Klux Klan lynched 3,446 Negroes,” Hoye said. “While it took the Klan 86 years to accomplish this, abortion on demand in America accomplishes that is less than 4 days.”

Hoye's numbers are based on the Guttmacher Institute's fact sheet on induced abortion in the United States. That fact feet shows that in 2008, 2.1 million abortions were performed in the U.S. Of those, 432,000 of those abortions were performed on black women. Using those figures, in three days 3,550 black babies were aborted. In four days, the total would be 4,734 aborted black babies.

Hoye said that over 20 million of the more than 50 million abortions that have taken place since the Supreme Court Roe v. Wade ruling legalized the procedure are performed on black women.

“Since 1973, abortion on demand in black America has taken more lives than homicides, heart disease, diabetes, cancer and HIV/AIDS combined and has become the No. 1 cause of death in the black community,” Hoye said. Full article...

Baby Killer Kermit Gosnell Gets Life In Prison, Not Death

2013-05-14T20:00:00.002-05:00

May 14, 2013 - A Philadelphia abortionist Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, will not get the death penalty but will get two consecutive life terms instead.

Gosnell was convicted yesterday of first-degree murder in the deaths of three babies who were delivered alive and then killed in his clinic.

"Gosnell gave up his appeal rights Tuesday, and prosecutors agreed to two life sentences without parole," reports Associated Press.

AP Photo/Philadelphia Daily News, Yong Kim

Prosecutors had asked for the death penalty because Gosnell committed multiple murders. "Gosnell is to be sentenced Wednesday in the death of the third baby," says AP, "an involuntary manslaughter conviction in the death of a patient and hundreds of lesser counts."

"Pennsylvania authorities failed to conduct routine inspections of all its abortion clinics for 15 years by the time Gosnell's facility was raided," reports ABC News. "In the scandal's aftermath, two top state health officials were fired, and Pennsylvania imposed tougher rules for clinics."

Earlier: Abortion Doctor Kermit Gosnell Guilty on Three Counts of First-Degree Murder

Obama's Weaponized IRS and Dept. of Justice

2013-05-14T17:20:00.002-05:00

May 14, 2013 - The Obama Administration scandals just keep coming. The bungling of the Benghazi tragedy, and events leading up to it, was enough to make the administration scramble for cover and excuses. Within the past week, however, we've learned that the Department of Justice used a secret subpoena to snag Associated Press phone records of reporters and editors, and that the IRS improperly targeted conservative groups for extra scrutiny in 2011 and 2012. These abuses of power have a lot of people upset, including quite a few Democrats.

One of those Democrats is former Clinton Administration attorney Howard Fineman had harsh criticism for the Obama Administration. He was a guest today on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" show (video, left).

Fineman spoke about the AP phone records. "Every possible thing that DoJ could have done wrong, they did wrong in this case. Widely overbroad, in terms of the people whose records they got, no notice whatsoever, before or til long after the fact. No evidence that they exhausted other ways to find the information. One of the key things you have to do is look for other ways to find the information before you do this, and they apparently slapped it on quickly, did it very broadly, and the DoJ guidelines say at the top 'our goal here is to be as unintrusive to the press, as protective of the press as we possibly can be.' So, they violated both the letter and the spirit of their own guidelines in doing this. The question is 'Why?'"

Why? Willful abuse of power for political gain might well be the answer, and Fineman himself has said in the past that the Obama Administration is not above using government agencies as weapons. He said that Sheriff Joe Arpaio is a good example of such abuse.

Obama, the Little Dictator

A year ago, Fineman said that the Obama Administration used DoJ as a political weapon agains Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona. In a HuffPo article on May 13, 2012, titled "Barack Obama 2012 Takes Multiple Pages From GOP Playbook,"

Fineman wrote that the Obama Administration "filed suit against Arizona's controversial and, to many, egregiously anti-immigrant Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The goal is not just to bring him in line, but to make Republicans defend him."

Fineman wrote about the IRS abuse of power in his column at Huffington Post yesterday. "The real questions about the IRS are: Who ordered that targeted scrutiny of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status? Who knew about those actions at the time? Who has learned about them in the meantime?"

POTUS Operandus

In other words, what did Obama know and when did he know it?

"You don't have to be a Republican conservative or a tea party member or a hardened cynic," wrote Fineman, "to wonder who in the Obama campaign or the Obama White House might have known about inquiries into the tax status of Obama's foes."

Obama used DoJ as a political weapon, then, in an effort to distract Republicans and the Romney campaign. So why would Obama not also use the IRS as a weapon?

He's done it before, after all. A May, 2011 article in Forbes examined Obama's "use of federal programs and regulations to favor allies and punish or intimidate opponents."

"The Internal Revenue Service announced an investigation into five, unnamed donors to nonprofit advocacy groups organized as 501(c)(4)s," wrote Forbes contributor Charles Kadlec, "to determine if they owe millions of dollars in gift taxes going back to 2008. By so doing, the IRS has over-turned a three decades old policy and appears to be reacting to pressure from Democratic Senators and the President to use its power to limit the contributions to 501(c)(4) groups and thereby their influence in the political process." (Emphasis added.)

"Thus, it is fair to be more than a little concerned," added Kadlec, "that the President has decided to use the formidable power of the IRS to threaten some of the biggest contributors to Republican candidates. Such a threat will hobble the opposition’s efforts to match his own, all out effort to achieve a money advantage by raising $1 billion to finance his re-election campaign." (Emphasis added.)

The irony in all of this is that the Obama Administration's abuse of power has provided "Obama's foes" with the most powerful weapon of all: The hammer of public opinion, which seems to be rapidly turning against them. (Watch NBC's Lisa Myers talk about Obama's history of intimidating reporters and their sources in the video below.)

"There’s no way in the world I’m going to defend that," U.S. Rep. Michael E. Capuano (D-Somerville) said about the IRS scandal. "Hell, I spent my youth vilifying the Nixon administration for doing the same thing. If they did that, there should be hell to pay."

"Not only is it bad government and bad to society," Capuano said, "it is horrendous politics. The worst thing you can do is give your opponent an easy hammer with which to hit you."

The scandals are not just infuriating Obama's opponents. Those on the Left, who supported and elected and covered for him, are pissed of as well. The ACLU issued a statement yesterday that condemned the DoJ seizure of AP phone records. "Obtaining a broad range of telephone records in order to ferret out a government leaker is an unacceptable abuse of power," wrote Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project.

"The sweeping seizure of journalists’ phone records," writes John Glaser at antiwar.com, "was a witch hunt to enforce the Obama administration’s demands for total secrecy. And after the leaking of internal White House and State Department emails revealing an effort to cover-up terrorist involvement in the Benghazi attacks as well as the just-released information on IRS policy of giving 'special attention' to taxpayers who 'criticize how the country is being run,' Obama’s second terms looks like its the biggest scandal of all."

It's Gettin' Hectic by The Urge on Grooveshark

Perhaps the best thing to come from these scandals is this: The left-leaning Mainstream Media has finally awakened to Obama's imperfections. The violation of AP's rights hits very close to home for them, and the media is now willing -- even eager -- to ask the hard questions that journalist should ask of those in power.

The hammers are falling, and falling hard.

Also See:

A flood of scandals engulfs Obama The Week
Dems vow: ‘Hell to pay’ if IRS allegations ring true Boston Herald
US attorney general defends AP seizure Guardian (UK)
Obama on civil liberties: Saying one thing, doing another Washington Post
U-S government under fire for spying on journalists PressTV
A Witch Hunt to Enforce Obama Demand for Total Secrecy Antiwar
IRS Guilty of 'Thuggish Abuse of Power,' McConnell Says ABC News
Howard Fineman admits DOJ is political (May 15, 2012) theparlanceofpadzu (blog)
Documents point to widespread targeting of groups Boston Herald
Chilling Effect: Groups wary of talking about how they were targeted by IRS Free Beacon
President Obama's Abuse Of Power Forbes (May, 2011)
Taxing One’s Enemies: A brief history of scandals at the IRS Slate

Abortion Doctor Kermit Gosnell Guilty on Three Counts of First-Degree Murder (Updated)

2013-05-13T14:21:00.001-05:00

UPDATE, MAY 14: Baby Killer Kermit Gosnell Gets Life In Prison, Not Death

Kermit Gosnell - philly.com

May 13, 2013 - Abortionist Kermit Gosnell was found guilty today of three counts of first-degree murder for killing babies born alive in his clinic. He was acquitted on a fourth count. Prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty, which Gosnell is eligible for under Pennsylvania law.

House of Horrors: "Prosecutors say the 72-year-old Gosnell delivered babies alive and had their spines severed with scissors to kill them. They say the baby whose death he was cleared in let out a soft whimper before Gosnell cut its neck." (Associated Press)

Gosnell operated the Family Women's Medical Society clinic at 3801 Lancaster Ave. from 1979 to 2010, when it was closed after a federal-state drug raid.

Gosnell's House of Horrors

Gosnell was charged with four counts of first-degree murder, of babies allegedly born alive during illegal late-term abortions and killed by Gosnell or staff. Gosnell was charged with 227 counts of violating the state's 24-hour waiting period before a woman has an abortion, and also a count of third-degree murder in the 2009 death of an abortion patient allegedly overdosed on Demerol by Gosnell's untrained staff. More at Philly.com.

A Delaware woman who worked at Gosnell’s abortion clinic testified on April 9 that it was “standard procedure” to snip the necks of babies that were delivered by patients before the abortion due to labor-inducing drugs. Eight former staffers of Gosnell’s clinic have pleaded guilty to a variety of charges and are awaiting sentencing.

Also See:

Gosnell guilty of first-degree murder Delaware Online
Kermit Gosnell convicted on 3 of 4 counts of murdering babies LifeSiteNews
56 Days Later, ABC Ends Blackout, Covers Gosnell 'House of Horrors' Newsbusters
Gosnell Found Guilty Of 3 Counts Of First Degree Murder CBS Philly
Kermit Gosnell Found Guilty on Three First-Degree Murder Charges LifeNews
Dr. Kermit Gosnell found guilty on three murder counts, acquitted on fourth count KTRK TV
Why Obama and the Left Don't Care About Kermit Gosnell Human Events
Kudos to Kermit Gosnell and Ariel Castro American Thinker

Benghazi: Missing The Crime for the Coverup

2013-05-13T07:30:00.000-05:00

May 12, 2013 -- by Tom Mannis -- We've heard a lot recently about the failure to rescue the U.S. consulate staff in Benghazi, Libya during the deadly Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack. Killed in that attack were Ambassador Chris Stevens, Information Officer Sean Smith, and two embassy security personnel, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods (both former Navy SEALs, stationed at the CIA annex nearby).

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US News | Syria News | More ABC News Videos

We've heard a lot about the lies about what happened after the whole sad affair by the Obama Administration.

That, I believe, threatens to draw attention away from the more important issue of what happened before the attack.

The Obama Administration's statements after the attack are important, but they distract from what should be the main point of investigation: The denial of sufficient security before the attack, despite pleas for more protection from the consulate.

Unfortunately, too many Republicans and too many in the media are obsessed with what happened in the aftermath of the Benghazi tragedy. There has been too little discussion of the drawback and denial of security in Benghazi, and even less talk of the warnings of pending violence. Yes, there were warnings...

What did Obama and Clinton know, and when did they know it? "American diplomats were warned of possible violent unrest in Benghazi," reported The Independent (UK) on Sept. 18, 2012, "three days before the killings of US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three members of his team, Libyan security officials say."

Attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Sept. 11, 2012

The Independent previously reported "diplomatic sources who said that the threat of an attack against US interests in the region was known to the US administration 48 hours before it took place. The alert was issued by the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, but not made public."

The Independent also reported that a senior official of the February 17th Brigade, financed by the Libyan defense ministry and the biggest militia in Benghazi, "told CNN that he had warned US diplomats of a rapidly deteriorating security situation in Benghazi three days before the attack."

Those were not the only signals of danger. "Just hours before he died in a terrorist attack at the U.S. compound in Benghazi," reported The Washington Times in January, "Ambassador Chris Stevens sent a cable to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton painting a chaotic, violent portrait of the eastern Libya city and warning that local militias were threatening to pull the security they afforded U.S. officials."

Question: Who read the cable from Stevens? Clinton? One of her aides? Assuming the cable was read, why was no action taken to either increase security immediately or, at the very least, evacuate the consular staff to a safer location until the situation in Benghazi could be better assessed?

And yet, President Obama, Hillary Clinton, UN Ambassador Susan Rice and a variety of apologists blamed the assault on a reaction to an obscure video titled "Innocence of Muslims."

That video was offensive to Muslims, but was not the cause of the violence at the consulate. Until the Obama Administration began blaming the video as the cause of a non-existent "violent protest," it was virtually unknown.

On September 18, 2012 White House spokesman Jay Carney said, "Our belief, based on the information we have, is it was the video that caused the unrest in Cairo, and the video and the unrest in Cairo that helped -- that precipitated some of the unrest in Benghazi and elsewhere. What other factors were involved is a matter of investigation." In October 2012, the State Department contradicted the administration by saying that it never believed the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was just a film protest gone awry.

In fact, the attack was carried out by Ansar al-Sharia, a group affiliated with Al Qaeda. We know now that transmissions and emails from the consulate just before and during the attack said nothing about a demonstration or protest. Libyan President Mohamed Magarief immediately said that the attack was a terrorist act. And that goes to my point: The events leading up to Sept. 11, 2012 are critical, and more important than the noise that followed. It was a planned terrorist attack. There was intelligence warning of it in advance. The already weak security presence was not beefed up. Those are the real sins in the Benghazi saga.

Fact: Nobody died in the Watergate scandal.

Let's recall the Watergate investigations for a moment. In September 1971, operatives of the Nixon Administration burglarized a psychiatrist’s office to steal files on Daniel Ellsberg, a former defense analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers (the Defense Department’s secret history of the Vietnam War).

In June 1972, five men were arrested while trying to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate hotel and office complex in Washington, D.C.

The FBI determined in October 1972 that the Watergate break-in was part of an overall campaign of political spying and sabotage by Nixon's reelection team. (See Watergate timeline.)

Nixon, of course, tried to keep the lid on this scandal. The cover up of Watergate scandal involved additional various illegal activity, and deserved investigation. The crimes of illegal bugging, burglary and political sabotage, though, were far worse than the cover up of those crimes.

To obsess over the Obama adminstration's spin after the Benghazi attack is to miss the forest for the trees. What's worse: A murder, or the attempt to cover up that murder? Both are bad, of course. But the murder itself is the main offense. In the case of the consulate in Benghazi, it is the crime of allowing the ambassador and his staff to remain unprotected that is the primary issue.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney in a press
briefing on May 10, 2013 -Win McNamee/Getty

All the spinning and lying that came afterward, to further a political agenda and minimize the embarrassment of incompetence, is secondary. Yet what we've primarily heard from Republicans in recent days is outrage over the secondary issues. The lack of an acceptable level of security for the Benghazi consulate is more important.

But it isn't just the post-attack "talking points" that are distracting from the main offenses. The events during the attack are also blurring the focus.

Many of the questions asked of witnesses in the House hearings on Benghazi last week centered on whether or not help could have been sent to Benghazi after the attack began.

Democrats and liberals have seized on this, with some success, and mocked the idea that a rescue could have been quickly executed.

A good example of this is a commentary by CBS commentator Dave Ross. On May 9, Ross did a piece called "When The Cavalry Doesn't Come," in which he concentrated entirely on the events during the attack on Sept. 11. Ross, either through ignorance or his own blinding leftist ideology, completely missed the point. Here is the transcript of Dave Ross's May 9 commentary (with my emphasis added):

Last year's September 11 attack in Benghazi that killed our Ambassador to Libya and three others was briefly back at center stage Wednesday.

For several days, Republicans had been promising new revelations - in particular, they released a quote from State Department officer Gregory Hicks - who was some 400 miles away at the embassy in Tripoli at the time of the attacks - and who said that if the military had only sent a fast moving fighter jet over Benghazi it would very likely have scared the terrorists away and saved lives.

Mr. Hicks finally testified Wednesday, and he confirmed that quote. But under questioning by Democrat Elijah Cummings he would not contradict what military officials have already said.

Cummings: Mr. Hicks I understand that you wanted planes, that is completely understandable, but the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff said they simply could not get there quickly. Mr. Hicks do you have any reason to question General Dempsey's testimony?

Hicks: Again, I was speaking from my perspective based on what the defense attache told me, and he said two to three hours, but there were no tankers.

But there were no tankers, the defense official explained, by which he meant there was no way to refuel the planes so they could get to Libya and return to their base in Italy.

And that wasn't the only problem.

These planes aren't kept on alert and since it was the middle of the night, the crews were asleep. So the attache was not refusing to help, but simply pointing out that the U.S. Air Force, while it may be invincible, is not the fire department.

Ross seems unaware that fire departments do not close when fire fighters go to sleep. Those sleeping Air Force pilots, just like fire fighters, can be awakened and quickly spring into action. Ross is apparently unaware of the fact that a military rescue mission was actually told to stand down.

In Congressional testimony last week, whistleblower Gregory Hicks said the cause of the Benghazi massacre were inadequate security and substandard building requirements. Hicks is the former deputy chief of Mission and Charge d’Affairs in Libya.

"A seven-member security team was dispatched from Tripoli to Benghazi as soon as reports emerged that the diplomatic mission was under attack. Stevens was reported missing by the time the team arrived, according to a timeline provided by the Defense Department last year," notes a May 9 post on The Algemeiner.

"As the assault unfolded, four Army Special Forces members, part of a second team, were told not to go although they were poised to board a Libyan C-130 bound for Benghazi as early as 1:45 a.m." (The attack started at 10 p.m. local time.)

Note to Dave Ross: When fire fighters are sliding down the pole and jumping onto fire trucks, they are never told to stand down and let the fire burn.

Ross also did not mention in his smug commentary was the State Department's decision to keep the consulate's security at an inexcusably low level, and why Washington denied previous and numerous requests by Stevens for more protection. Nor did Ross say anything about the fact that Washington failed to act on warnings of a pending terror attack on the consulate from Libya itself, as well as from intelligence agencies of other nations.

National Review columnist Mark Steyn was a guest on Hugh Hewitt's radio broadcast on May 9. On that show, he made a scathing condemnation of the Obama Administration’s spinning of the Benghazi attack. "They let him die, and then told lies over his coffin," said Steyn (audio at Daily Caller).

Yes, and while the lies are bad and deserve investigation, the deaths of Chris Stevens and four others -- and the inadequate security that left them unprotected -- is far worse. Although Steyn's remarks were mainly about what the administration said after the attack.

To Steyn's credit, however, he did say that Clinton and senior State Department officials allowed the consulate staff to die, meaning that he was "sacrificed for the Obama-Clinton fiction of the Arab Spring."

Even so, Steyn veered away from talking about the diminished and inadequate security at the consulate and allowed himself to wade into the shallows of post-attack obsession with what the administration said about it afterward.

"In a sense," said Steyn, "[Stevens] was sacrificed to the Obama-Clinton fiction of the Arab Spring," said Steyn. "This is absolutely disgraceful. I cannot conceive of how empty and dead you have to be inside to put Ambassador Stevens through that, then leave him to die, and all the nonsense we heard about oh, they couldn’t have got there in time? Oh, really? You had, it’s like a football match, is it? It’s like a football game, you’ve got an end time, you know they’re all going to pack up and go home at 5:00 in the morning or whatever? They didn’t know how long it was going to last. They left him to die. They decided to let their guy die in the confusion of the stuff happening in Egypt and Tunisia over the stupid no-account video."

Let's revisit Dave Ross's lame fire department analogy. Suppose there is a deadly fire in an apartment building. The hypothetical fire was caused by bad electrical wiring, and deaths were multiplied by the absence of smoke detectors and sprinklers.

The Bad Landlord

The fire department, already stretched thin, was busy fighting other fires and responded slower than they are usually able. The landlord tries to cover his butt by falsely blaming the fire on arsonists. Should we ignore the cause of the fire -- the landlord's criminal negligence -- only to obsess on the slower-than-normal response of the fire department? Should we obsess on the landlord's lie about arsonists, only to ignore his own inaction prior to the fire?

To do so misses the real offense: The landlord's deliberate sacrifice of his tenants' safety. The issues of the fire department's response time and the landlord's lies are worthy of investigation, but should not distract from the investigation and prosecution of the landlord for the initial crime.

This is what I see happening in the Benghazi investigation. The lack of security on the ground at the consulate in Benghazi before the attack is the real issue. To repeat, the lack of a military rescue during the attack was horrible and merits investigation, as do the lies told by the administration. Had Clinton's State Department not denied additional security to them, the attack might have been repelled or, perhaps, been deterred entirely.

The biggest issue in the whole Benghazi story, then, is the negligence that made allowed the attack to become so deadly. Coverups only happen when there is something to hide, and there is plenty for the administration to hide regarding Benghazi. A coverup is, essentially, a sideshow to the main event. We must not allow ourselves to be distracted from the main by the sideshow. We must continue to ask why security was deliberately held to such a low level, why warnings were ignored, and why any rescue attempts were squashed. We must continue to ask what Clinton and Obama knew, when they knew it, and why they seemingly chose to ignore it. Then, after that's figured out, we can sort through the dust of the rubble.

Also See:

Issa: 'This is a failure. We need to be investigating' NBC News
Benghazi talking points revised 12 times to omit terror references BizPac Review
Obama Administration Defends Benghazi Emails, Talking Points Huffington Post
Whistleblowers: High-level Bureaucratic Errors Caused Benghazi The Algemeiner
Officials removed terror reference from Benghazi memo - report BBC News
George Will: Nation ‘Systematically Misled’ on Benghazi ABC News
Benghazi attack: Security was 'grossly inadequate' BBC News
Libya: We gave US three-day warning of Benghazi attack The Independent UK
Benghazi Coverup Much Worse Than "Third-rate Burglary" Real Clear Politics
What the Obama administration has said about the Libya attack CNN
Spinning Benghazi: The CIA's Talking-Point Edits New Yorker
State Department emails from day of Libya attack show militant group on radar Fox News
Email Alerts Describe 9/11 Benghazi Consulate Assault Unfolding ABC News
U.S. official sought more security for Benghazi post CNN
This is what Benghazi 'consulate' really was WorldNet Daily
Watergate Timeline of Events Watergate.info

Bullet Hits Popular Coffee House in Rogers Park, Chicago

2013-05-11T16:12:00.000-05:00

Common Cup - Chicago News Bench file photo

May 11, 2013 - An apparent drive-by shooting today has shaken up a quiet coffee shop on Chicago's far northeast side. Gunshots were fired around 12:30 p.m. today in the 1500 block of W. Morse Avenue in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood today. An excellent report at Chicago News Report says that "an investigating officer discovered a bullet hole in a window at 1501 West Morse." That's where Common Cup coffee house sits on the southwest corner of Morse and N. Greenview.

The CNR report noted that a woman was walking along Morse Avenue "when she heard gunshots behind her… when she turned around, a black sedan zoomed passed her, said authorities. Another eyewitness saw a silver car and two black males flee the area of the shooting. One male was limping… possibly, from an injury sustained in the shooting. The limping suspect was last seen going into a gangway near 1443 West Morse, said police."

An update to the CNR report said police were looking at an abandoned vehicle, in which they found shell casings. "Authorities believe the car was used in the Morse Avenue shooting," said CNR.

Also See:

Common Cup Drive By Shooting Chevanston Rogers Park
Coffee Bean And Tea Leaf Beverage Capsule Carousel (Google Affiliate Ad)

Cook County Sheriff Uncovers Gang Plot to Kill Cops

2013-05-11T00:39:00.000-05:00

May 10, 2013 - A Chicago gang allegedly sent out a hit order to kill law enforcement officers, according to the Cook County Sheriff’s Intelligence unit.

"The deadly order," reported Michael Sneed at the Sun-Times, "came via the Cook County Jail grapevine" and "claims the leadership of the Satan Disciples street gang has called for the formation of an assassination unit entitled the 'Guerilla Mafia Cartel' which would be assigned the deadly mission."

The sheriff’s department shared the alert with 132 Cook County municipalities, including the Chicago Police Department, and also the FBI. “This information is raw and very preliminary,” said a top Chicago police source. “But it is better to be safe than sorry.” More at the Sun-Times.

According to the National Gang Crime Research Center, the Satan's Disciples (SD's) have operations in most of Chicago's surrounding suburbs. They also have a far-reaching national presence. The SD's have been around for 30 years and "are a predominantly Hispanic gang originating from Chicago. The gang is a 'Folks' gang, and uses therefore the six-pointed star in some of its graffiti, but almost always accentuated with its unique trademark of 'Devil' images. It typifies many of the older traditional Chicago-based gangs in respect to being basically an adult-run criminal enterprise that makes extensive use of juveniles in its drug distribution operations. Unlike the majority of those gangs, it has now spread to over 40 Chicago suburbs as well as to 22 other states. It is, therefore, a big player in the American gang crime scene."

Former Guatemala Dictator Sentenced to 80 Years for Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity

2013-05-10T22:28:00.002-05:00

General Efraín Ríos Montt (center) announces his military coup,
Guatemala City, March 23, 1982 (Bettman/Corbis)

May 10, 2013 - Guatemala's former leader, Efrain Rios Montt, 86, was convicted in court today on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity during the most brutal part of country's 36-year civil war. By the time that war ended in 1996, over 200,000 people were killed or "disappeared." (Some testimony highlights can be seen in the video below.)

Rios Montt came to power after a coup d'etat on March 23, 1982 "and was accused of implementing a scorched-earth policy in which troops massacred thousands of indigenous villagers thought to be helping leftist rebels," reports Straits Times. A report at BBC News says that "Rios Montt was convicted of ordering the deaths of 1,771 people of the Ixil Maya ethnic group during his time in office in 1982 and 1983."

Rios Montt on trial - AP

Rios Montt was sentenced to 50 years in prison for the crime of genocide and 30 years for crimes against humanity in a sentence that was handed down on May 10, 2013 by Judge Yassmin Barrios in Guatemala City. In her decision, Barrios said Rios Montt was fully aware of plans to exterminate the indigenous Ixil population carried out by security forces under his command. The genocide conviction was the first for a current or former head of state in a national court, Human Rights Watch said.

Rios Montt still denies that he ordered any genocidal killings and claims that he did not have full control of everything that happened during the struggle.

It was the state's first official acknowledgment that genocide occurred during the bloody, 36-year civil war, something the current president, retired Gen. Otto Perez Molina, has denied. He knew about everything that was going on and he did not stop it, despite having the power to stop it from being carried out," said Presiding Judge Yassmin Barrios."Rios Montt is guilty of genocide." Source: Bloomberg Businessweek

Also See:

Rios Montt found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity Boing Boing
Rios Montt, guilty as charged Central American Politics
Profile: Guatemala's Efrain Rios Montt BBC News
Guatemala Profile (a timeline) BBC

FBI Withheld Vital Info About Terror Connections From Boston Police Dept

2013-05-09T16:31:00.002-05:00

May 9, 2013 - "The FBI never told the Boston police or the Massachusetts State Police about possible Russian terror connections of the suspected Marathon bombers until three and half days after the attack, law enforcement officials testified today before the House Homeland Security Committee," reports ABC News.

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US News | Syria News | More ABC News Videos

"My fear is that the Boston bombers succeeded because our system failed," said committee chairman Rep. Mike McCaul (R-Texas).

Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis was asked if it would have helped to know everything that the FBI knew about the terrorist activities of the bombers, especially of Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

Davis said while the information might have been useful, it might not have changed anything. "That's very hard to say. We would certainly look at the information, we would certainly talk to the individual," Davis said. "From the information I've received, the FBI did that, and they closed the case out. I can't say that I would have come to a different conclusion based upon the information that was known at that particular time." (AP/Newser)

Failure to Communicate

Rep. McCaul said "the Boston bombers may have succeeded because our system failed. We can and we must do better," reports CNN. "We learned over a decade ago the danger in failing to connect the dots," McCaul said, referring to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Testimony in the hearing today indicate that the US intelligence community is still not connecting the dots as well as they could. Why did the FBI not tell the Boston and Massachusetts authorities about the possible terror connections of Tamerlan Tsarnaev? Commissioner Davis said the intelligence might not have helped, but he left it open to the possibility that it might have.

We'll never know, but the fact remains that the FBI withheld information that might have saved lives. Such information should always be shared with law enforcement agencies that have a need to know. As we learned the hard way, Boston and Massachusetts had a very real need to know.

"The idea that the feds have this information and it's not shared with the state and locals defies why we create the Department of Homeland Security in the first place," said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. (FoxNews)

"Why didn't they involve the local law enforcers who could have stayed on the case and picked up signals from some of the students who interacted with them, from the people in the mosque," asked former Sen. Joe Lieberman, who also testified. "In this case, aggravatingly, you have two of our great homeland security agencies that didn't involve before the event the local and state authorities that could have helped us prevent the attack." (NorthJersey.com)

Kill Jodi Arias. She Asked For It.

2013-05-08T20:59:00.002-05:00

May 8, 2013 - Updated - After being convicted in Arizona of first degree murder for the brutal 2008 killing of her former boyfriend, Jodi Arias told Fox 10 KSAZ that she hopes for the death penalty. She said whe would "prefer to die sooner than later" and that "death is the ultimate freedom."

It is doubtful that Travis Alexander, her dead ex, preferred "to die sooner than later. Arias admitted killing her onetime boyfriend Travis Alexander on June 4, 2008 but she initially denied any involvement. Later, she said masked intruders killed Alexander. But, says an Associated Press report, "two years after her arrest, she said it was self-defense when the victim attacked her after a day of sex."

In the Fox 10 interview, Arias, 32, said that she was confident throughout the trial that she would not get a first degree murder conviction because "there was no premeditation on my part. I can see how things look that way."

That's an amazing statement by Arias. No premeditation on her part? According to FoxNews, "Alexander suffered nearly 30 knife wounds, was shot in the forehead and had his throat slit before Arias dragged his body into his shower. He was found by friends about five days later. Authorities said Alexander fought for his life as Arias attacked him in a blitz, but he soon grew too weak to defend himself." In his opening statement to jurors, prosecutor Juan Martinez said that, "Mr. Alexander did not die calmly." Not premeditated? For Arias to say that seems only consistent with her narcissistic, creepy behavior in the past.

Creepy murderess Jodi Arias. Photo: FoxNews

It is simply not believable that somebody could kill another person in that Alexander was attacked with no premeditation. The jury, obviously, did not believe it and so they convicted Arias of the heinous crime of first degree murder.

Even though she said she would prefer the death penalty, Arias can't just choose the death penalty. It's not up to her. "It is up to the jury to make a sentencing ecommendation, and the judge will then make the final decision," notes FoxNews. "If she were sentenced to death, she could decide not to appeal to speed up the process, but it could still take years to play out as she lives under punishing conditions on death row."

If Jodi Arias gets her wish for execution, she will be able to "die quietly." I generally favor the death penalty for first degree murder. In this case, it would be poetic justice to let Arias live a long and miserable life. But then again, I've never been a big fan of poetry. I say we grant the death wish of Jodi Arias. She's doing the state a favor, after all, by not mounting expensive legal appeals. If she dies, she will save the taxpayers of Arizona many hundreds of thousands of dollars, potentially for the next 40-50 years of her natural life. Kill Jodi Arias. We'll all be better off for it. On reconsideration. that would be nicely poetic.

Video: Benghazi Hearing Witness Answers Hillary Clinton's Question, "What Difference Does It Make?"

2013-05-08T18:40:00.004-05:00

May 8, 2013 - The first day of the House committee hearings on Benghazi produced a lot of fascinating testimony today, much of it damaging to the Obama Administration and to former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton. While questioning whistle blower Gregory Hicks, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Arizona) played a video clip of Clinton's testimony to the Senate in December. (Video below.)

In that clip, Clinton said, "The fact is, we have four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest, or was it because of guys out for a walk one night and decided they'd go kill some Americans? What difference, at this point, does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again." Gosar then asked Hicks for his reaction to Clinton's question, "What difference does it make?." (Continued below video.)

Hicks said, "I think the question is 'What difference did it make?'" Hicks recalled that Libyan President Mohamed Yousef El-Magariaf, who immediately said that the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi was a terrorist operation, "was insulted in front of his own people, in front of the world, his credibility was reduced, his ability to lead his own country was damaged, he was angry."

Gregory Hicks at Benghazi hearings.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images via NY Daily News

Magariaf's anger was also due largely to Susan Rice's talk show appearances in which she parroted the Administration's false assertion that the attack was the result of a spontaneous reaction to a video that insulted the prophet Mohammed. On Sept. 16, 2012, while Rice was out perpetuating the lie about the cause of the attack, Magariaf was telling the talk shows a very different story.

"The way these perpetrators acted and moved -- I think we, and they're choosing the specific date for this so-called demonstration, I think we have no, this leaves us with no doubt that this was pre-planned, determined," Magariaf said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

"A friend of mine who ate dinner with him in New York during the U.N. season," Hicks continued, "told me that [Magriaf] was still steamed about the talk shows two weeks later. And I definitely believe that it negatively affected our ability to get the FBI team quickly to Benghazi."

So, back to Clinton's question "What difference does it make?" As Hicks pointed out, it badly affected diplomatic relations with Libya's new president Magariaf, who publicly said the attack was terrorism but was contradicted publicly and repeatedly by the Obama Administration. That caused tensions that slowed the FBI's ability to investigate the crime scene in Benghazi. It unfairly compromised Magariaf's own credibility on the world stage.

Clinton also said, "It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again." Yes, indeed, and that's what the House hearings on Benghazi are about. Perhaps future leaders can learn from these hearing that politics should never be placed ahead of American lives, that the safety and security of Americans abroad is more important than any budgetary concerns, and that lying about criminal and willful negligence will not go unnoticed or unpunished.

Rep. Gosar tweeted this after the hearings:

Rep. Paul Gosar, DDS ‏@RepGosar 49m
Today’s hearing demands further investigation; as new info
shattered Obama Administration lies surrounding #Benghazi.

Charles Ramsey, The Man Who Ended Amanda Berry's 10-Year Kidnapping Nightmare (Updated)

2013-05-06T23:48:00.000-05:00

Amanda Marie Berry:
undated handout, FBI

UPDATE -- MAY, May 9: This post now includes videos of Charles Ramsey's interviews on Good Morning America, WKYC Channel 3, and Anderson Cooper 360.

May 5, 2013 - She was kidnapped on April 21, 2003 as she left her job at a Burger King. Amanda Marie Berry was missing ever since. Tonight, however, she and two other kidnapped women are free thanks to the heroic efforts of neighbor Charles Ramsey.

According to police, reports CBS News, "a woman claiming to be Amanda Berry called 911 Monday. She said she was kidnapped 10 years ago and said she is currently at a home at 2210 Seymour. She also told the dispatcher that Gina DeJesus was with her. A third missing woman, 32-year old Michelle Knight, was also at the location with Berry and DeJesus. It's believed Knight disappeared in 2000."

There are some odd discrepancies in the reporting of this story. CBS reports that a witness "says he saw Amanda Berry come running out of the house kicking and screaming 'Help me!,' and carrying a baby in her arms." That makes no sense, however. Kicking? The man who held her captive had reportedly left the house. Why was she kicking? It makes even less sense after you watch the Fox8-Cleveland news video below, in which we see neighbor Charles Ramsey let her out. It was from Ramsey's cell phone that Berry made her frantic call to 911 (hear the audio below).

HERO: In the Fox8 video report, Charles Ramsey told Fox8 that he heard Berry screaming from inside the house next to his. In the video below, Ramsey says that he ran next door and Berry identified herself to him, and he says he let her out.

"I heard this girl screaming," Ramsey said, "and she's going nuts." He said nobody knew there was any females in the house, and so her screaming was "a dead giveaway that something's wrong. And I came to the front door and looked at her, she said 'My name is Amanda Berry, please, get me out of this house'." Ramsey said that the police arrested a suspect at a nearby McDonald's, which the Fox reporter confirmed.

911 CALL: "Help me! I'm Amanda Berry. I've been kidnapped and I've been missing for 10 years and I'm here. I'm free now," Berry told a 911 operator. The recording was released by Cleveland police and posted on the website of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. You can hear the audio here. You can hear Charles Ramsey's 911 call at The Cleveland Plain Dealer (language advisory). Fox8 reports that three suspects were arrested late this evening. "The men, ages 54, 52 and 50, are brothers. One of them has been identified as Ariel Castro." Cleveland police will have a news conference on Tuesday morning.

Stunning: Two M-Class Solar Flares Within An Hour (Videos)

2013-05-03T21:51:00.000-05:00

May 3, 2013 - Two flares in under an hour! First came a "long duration, moderate, solar flare" reaching M1.3 peaked at 16:53 UTC on May 3. "The source of the event was Region 1731 still classified as Beta-Gamma-Delta and capable of more strong eruptions. This region has rotated out of the Sun’s central disk area toward western limb," reports The Watchers website.

But wait, there's more! "Before that event ended," The Watchers continued, "an impulsive and strong M5.7 solar flare erupted and peaked at 17:32 UTC." That's roughly half an hour later, and that's astounding. "A Type II radio emission was associated with the event which typically indicates Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)." But don't panic: Experts say that if a CME was shot into space it probably was not in our direction. Below, two great videos explain the May 3 double solar flares.

Fugitive Paris Poe Captured in Madison after Day Long Manhunt

2013-05-02T20:23:00.000-05:00

Please see FBI Fugitive Paris Poe Captured In Madison...

"Extremely Dangerous" FBI Fugitive Paris Poe Captured

2013-05-02T18:41:00.001-05:00

UPDATED Thursday, May 2, 2013 - Paris Poe led federal and local authorities on a day long manhunt. Local schools were locked down as a precaution against this "extremely dangerous" fugitive.

Paris Poe mugshots, 2011 - FBI photo

He was caught early this evening on the east side of Madison, Wisconsin ... in a "high-risk traffic stop." Madison Police Lt. Cory Nelson told The Associated Press that a SWAT team arrested Poe, of Chicago. "Shortly after 7 p.m. Madison Police found Paris Poe on Highway 30 between Fair Oaks and Highway 51," reports NBC15. "Officers were monitoring a car and saw Poe enter with a woman. Because he was expected to be armed officers ordered him from the car at gunpoint and he complied without any incident or injuries. Police say he will be taken to the Dane County Jail before extradition hearings seeking his return to the Chicago area. Investigators there want to question him regarding a gang-related homicide case. They say he is also in violation of his parole."

Previous Reports:
May 2, 2013 - 6:30 PM - The FBI and Wisconsin law enforcement agencies are still hunting for Paris Poe, 33, of Chicago. He is described as "a very dangerous" man on the run from the law in Illinois. After a day long manhunt, the FBI says that Poe is probably still in the great Madison area. Poe is also known by the nickname "Polerowski."

The search for Poe led to the lock down of several schools, public and private, in the neighboring communities of Verona and Fitchburg to lock down as a precaution. On Madison's south side, Leopold Elementary, was locked down for a while, as was Chavez Elementary School.

Poe on video at Country Inn & Suites,
Nesbitt Rd, Fitchburg WI

Poe was seen at a hotel earlier in the day, causing authorities to concentrate their search in an area just south of Madison, the state capitol. Paris Poe is wanted in connection with a federal murder investigation in Illinois. "The FBI said it was continuing to receive tips suggesting that Poe remained within a three-mile radius of the hotel and was possibly armed with a handgun," reports Seattle PI.

Poe was convicted of aggravated battery and robbery in 2009 and paroled in June 2011, reports the CT Post. A federal warrant for his arrest was issued April 17. He is charged with crossing state lines to avoid arrest for an alleged parole violation.

The FBI offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to his capture (not $5,000 as most media are reporting). Poe is 6 feet tall, 200 pounds. He has a tattoo that reads "Chief Hobo" on his upper right arm and another tattoo that reads "RIP Angie" on his upper left arm.

Video Shows Possible Cause of 747 Crash at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan (Taliban Takes Credit)

2013-05-01T20:16:00.000-05:00

May 1, 2013 - On April 29, a cargo-laden 747-400F airliner stalled moments after takeoff and plummeted to the ground, crashing in a huge fireball. The tragic accident happened at Bagram Airfield, north of Kabul in Afghanistan. The plane was carrying military cargo from Afghanistan to Dubai. It is still not certain what caused the crash of Flight NCR102, but this animation video (below) presents one theory: Badly loaded cargo that shifted because it was not secured properly. That, in theory, threw the center of gravity off toward the tail, causing the plane to lose momentum in mid-air and then to stall. The plane, owned by National Air Cargo, had a crew of seven. All of them died in the crash. (Videos below.)

THIS VIDEO MAY BE DISTURBING TO SOME VIEWERS

National Air Cargo's website says that the company "will release additional information as it becomes available, in cooperation with government authorities." National also said that the "focus at this time is on the family members of those we've lost, and on assisting the NTSB and Afghanistan Civil Aviation Authority in their investigations. As of now, the cause of the accident is unknown."

Photo: Ton Jochems. Source: World Airline News

The crew members of the doomed National Air Cargo flight NCR 102 were Brad Hasler, Pilot in Command, Trenton MI; Jeremy Lipka, Pilot in Command, Brooklyn MI; Jamie Brokaw, First Officer, Monroe MI; Rinku Summan, First Officer, Canton MI; Michael Sheets, Loadmaster, Ypsilanti MI; Timothy Garrett, Maintenance, Louisville KY; Gary Stockdale, Maintenance, Romulus MI.

"The Taliban reportedly took responsibility for downing the airplane, but it is believed to be a false claim. Other speculation centered on weather, but the video of the accident seems to show relatively benign conditions along the airplane's flight path," reports FlyingMag.com.

AirNation.net quotes National Transportation Safety Boardy spokeswoman Kelly Nantel as saying that NTSB “is sending a team of investigators to Afghanistan later today to investigate yesterday’s crash of a Boeing 747 cargo airplane.”

Exclusive Coupon Savings on Hot Tee Shirts for Our Readers! Sale Extended To May 13th!

2013-05-01T16:28:00.000-05:00

Just two of the 1000's of cool tees at Design By Humans

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You MUST use special coupon code #bench26 when ordering! We're able to off this great deal through our affiliation with Design By Humans.

This deal ends on May 13, 2013 and you must use special coupon code #bench26.

Pictured left: He is wearing "Samurai Warrior," and she's wearing "Black Rose."

Service Delivers Fast Food Burgers and Tacos To Chicago

2013-04-29T00:07:00.000-05:00

April 29, 2013 - Have you ever wished that you could get Taco Bell or McDonald's delivered to your door? To lovers of fast foods, the lack of delivery can be frustrating.

Fortunately for them, there's "Fetch Foods," a two-week old delivery service in Chicago that picks up from chain fast food restaurants and brings it to fast food addicts on the city's north east side.

Fetch is already getting orders via their website. People can order favorite items on the website. Fetch customers can choose items from McDonald's, Wendy's, Taco Bell, Burger King, Five Guys or White Castle. Fetch is an independent delivery service and is not affiliated with any of the restaurants from which they deliver.

The Fetch Facebook page is a good place to keep track of updates. There's the occasional wit, as well, such as this one today: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of a cure, so help prevent that hangover by ordering fast food with us after your drinking tonight."

Ordering through Fetch's website is simple. Select the desired items, add them to your shopping cart, then checkout. The process is straightforward familiar to anyone who has ever used an online shopping cart. Fetch says they can get orders delivered in an hour. They use delivery people with both cars and bicycles. Fetch serves the following Chicago zip codes:

60613
60614
60618

60622
60625
60626

60640
60645
60647

60657
60659
60660

Update: Fetch will deliver fast food to the beach! Their Facebook page noted on May 1, "Simply tell us what beach you're at (any Chicago beach, from Loyola to North Ave.) in the special instructions area of your order, and leave a cell phone number, and we'll gladly bring your grub straight to you."

Although Fetch is less than a month old, they're already creating a lot of buzz. Chicagoist did a nice piece about Fetch last week. If you would like to work with Fetch, contact them here.

Hacked AP Twitter Account Tweets 'Two Explosions in the White House' - Syrian Electronic Army Strikes Again

2013-04-23T13:43:00.001-05:00

This is did not really happen.

April 23, 2013 - "Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is Injured," said the ominous tweet from Associated Press's Twitter account.

The tweet was not true, however. AP's Twitter account (@AP) was hacked, and the culprits posted the bogus headline without AP's consent.

"Moments later," reports NBC News, "the @AP Twitter account — with nearly 2 million followers — was suspended. Immediately following the false tweet, the Dow Industrial Average lost about 140 points. These losses were immediately recovered."

Who did the hack job on AP? There is speculation now that it was the pro-Assad Syrian Electronic Army, according to the Quartz website.

AP's Mike Baker posted a screen shot (below), showing another hacked AP tweet that bragged, "Syrian Electronic Army Was Here."

The URL (web address) for the AP profile is (or was) twitter.com/ap. Attempting to go to that address, however, now takes you to twitter.com/account/suspended.

Twitter screen shot by @MikeBakerAP

More suspensions: Mike Baker tweeted at 2:58 PM ET this: "AP statement on hack: "Out of a sense of caution, we have suspended other AP Twitter feeds." Baker included a link to the AP's blog, which says, "Earlier this afternoon the @AP Twitter account was hacked. Out of a sense of caution, we have suspended other AP Twitter feeds. We are working with Twitter to sort this out." AP says that despite the hacking of its Twitter account, "At no time was the AP news wire compromised."

NBC also reports that CBS News social media accounts for "60 Minutes" and "48 Hours" were hacked into on Saturday. There is no known connection between those events and today's hacking of AP's Twitter account. However, Foreign Policy reports that the SEA "defaced the homepages of Al Jazeera and Reuters last year, and more recently they've been targeting social media accounts in particular. Last month, for instance, they got into the BBC's weather feed. In the past week alone, they've hit NPR and 60 Minutes. They've also gone after non-media targets, including Human Rights Watch and Columbia University."

However, reports PC Magazine, "AP took to its Facebook page to say that 'the Associated Press Twitter account (@AP) has been hacked. Please do not respond to news posted there in the last 20 minutes'."

How do hackers compromise sites like AP, CBS News, and Twitter? "When hackers compromise a site with weak security," writes Quartz today, "they get their hands on huge databases of password and email address pairs. Then, when they want to attack a site with good security, like Twitter, they simply try out passwords gained in the previous attack. It works because the passwords are often the same across sites—i.e., humans are lazy."

Quartz also notes that "if Twitter wants to get serious about the astonishing amount of hacking that happens on the site, it really needs to implement another layer of security. Google has already, and so has Microsoft: It’s called two-factor authentication." Twitter's attempt just three days ago to deal with the SEA have not stopped them from continuing to hack Twitter account. On April 20, Twitter suspended the SEA account.

Related:

What Is the Syrian Electronic Army? Mashable
Twitter plays cat-and-mouse with hackers of the Syrian Electronic Army Naked Security
How the Syrian Electronic Army hacked the AP—and who are these guys, anyway? Quartz
Articles about the Syrian Electronic Army Infowar Monitor
Twitter Keeps Deleting Accounts of Syrian Electronic Army Softpedia News
Syrian regime unleashes online propaganda campaign (with video) France24
Syrian Electronic Army: Disruptive Attacks and Hyped Targets OpenNet Initiative
The Syrian Electronic Army are at Cyber War with Anonymous Vice

Photos of Car Bomb Attack on French Embassy in Tripoli, Libya

2013-04-23T03:37:00.001-05:00

April 23, 2013 - A car packed with explosives blew up in front of the French embassy in Tripoli, Libya just past 7:00 AM local time (5:00 AM GMT). Two embassy guards were injured. Here are some amazing photos taken moments after the blast by Ehab (Twitter @Eh4b10). Ehab tweeted this about the photos: "General Statement: if anyone wants to use the photos & to credit, thats fine." These were the first photos used by all of the major media in reporting the story. See our earlier post about the bombing.

Click images to enlarge them

The explosion burst water and sewage pipes. Source: @Eh4b10

No remains of the bomb car were left outside. Source: @Eh4b10

Waiting for firefighters at the French embassy. Source: @Eh4b10

Embassy staffer asses damage, attend to wounded. Source: @Eh4b10

Guard pulled from embassy on a make-shift stretcher. Source: @Eh4b10

Bursting water and sewage pipes. Source: @Eh4b10

Nearby homes suffered heavy damage. Source: @Eh4b10

French Embassy Hit By Car Bomb in Libya, 2 Guards Injured (Updated)

2013-04-23T02:10:00.001-05:00

April 23, 2013 - Updated - Reuters is reporting that a booby trapped car exploded at the French embassy in a residential part of Libya's capitol city Tripoli. The bomb caused considerable damage, injuring two of embassy guards. One of the guards is described as being "gravely injured." According to the Libya Herald, several local residents helped to rescue one of the guards.

Image from Twitter/@Eh4b10
Click Here To See More Photos

"France's embassy in Libya was hit by what appeared to be a car bomb on Tuesday, injuring two guards in the first such attack in the Libyan capital since the 2011 war that ousted Muammar Gaddafi. "There was an attack on the embassy. We think it was a booby trapped car," a French official told Reuters. "There was a lot of damage and there are two guards wounded." ~ More at Reuters.com

"The explosion destroyed the outer walls of the embassy complex and the facade of the building," reports the Libya Herald. "The first floor is destroyed. Ten vehicles parked in the street have been wrecked. Every office in the building has been ruined, the [French] diplomat said. The blast also brought down the garden walls of two houses opposite the chancellery entrance. It was strong enough too to blow out windows in buildings in several streets around." The Libya Herald notes that nobody, as yet, has claimed responsibility for the bomb attack. "However," the Herald continued, "Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has vowed to attack France following its intervention in Mali."

"Black smoke billowed from the wreckage of the vehicle that exploded close to the Embassy’s entrance as fire crews arrived to put out the flames. Part of the Embassy complex’s outer wall was partly destroyed in the explosion as well as two nearby cars." More at RT.com. The explosion happened just after 7:00 AM local time (5:00 AM GMT). "The blast took place in a small side street, causing extensive damage to the buildings and parked cars, our correspondent said," reports BBC.

The local authorities were slow to send help to the scene. In another report by the Libya Herald quotes a man who lives next to the French embassy, Abdurrauf Al-Alam. His home was badly damaged by the blast. He said that police and fire fighters were slow to respond. “It took 30 minutes for the fire-fighters to arrive,” he said. The police and security “came at 9 am”, almost two hours after the attack. Three hours after the explosion, trees on the street outside the embassy were still burning.

Related:

Photos of Car Bomb Attack on French Embassy in Tripoli, Libya Chicago News Bench
French Embassy Bombed Libya Herald

THEY GOT HIM! SUSPECT 2 IN CUSTODY (UPDATED)

2013-04-19T19:51:00.000-05:00

April 19, 2013 - 8:45 PM ET - BREAKING - Bystanders broke into cheering and applause as police took Suspect 2 into custody in Watertown, MA. News sources are now saying that the Boston Police Dept. have 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in custody.

The house and the boat where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
was hiding - and captured. Photo: NY Daily News

The bombing suspect had been hiding under a canvas on a boat behind a house (see photo). Police followed a trail of blood to the yard of the house, alerted the homeowner, and evacuated a row of homes on the block. After shots being fired, police now have "Suspect 2" in their custody.

USA Today reports now: "Police cornered and captured Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Friday night. The Boston Police Department tweeted they had arrested the 19-year-old at about 8:45 p.m." USA Today also reports, "Police may have been tipped off by a resident who saw blood on the boat, climbed up a ladder to open the tarp cover, and saw a man. Hundreds of police on the scene surrounded the area, but were approaching the boat with caution because Tsarnaev is believed to be wearing or holding explosive devices." More at USA Today...

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was discovered "in the bottom of a rare, 1980s pleasure boat in the backyard of a Watertown, Mass., home just after 6 p.m. by the shocked owner David Henneberry," reports the New York Daily News. At 8:56 PM ET, police walked through the street to loud cheers and applause from residents.

Tsarnaev was transported away from the scene by ambulance to Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge with a heavy police escort, reports PolicyMic. He was taken to "Police are now combing through the crime scene for evidence, and celebrating. The police are still on scene checking for more bombs." Tsarnaev's condition is not known at this time.

Also see: Boston bomb suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in custody alive The Guardian UK