Blog Heap o'Links for July 2014

According to an investigation by Iraq Oil Report (paywall), ISIL rapidly captured one and possibly two oilfields south of Kirkuk soon after storming Iraq a month ago. The fields, in the Hamrin mountains, produce relatively small volumes—just 16,000-20,000 barrels a day. But that earns a tidy income even at the knock-down local black market rate of about $55 a barrel, according to the report. +

The description of ISIL’s smuggling route into Kurdistan continues the narrative of a ruthlessly managed, financially savvy rebel group that has emerged over the last year first in Syria and now Iraq. That includes control over Syria’s oilfields—on July 3, ISIL captured al-Omar, the country’s largest oilfield—plus some $420 million in Iraqi dinars snatched up in the June capture of Mosul. In all, ISIL may have a cache of some $1.3 billion.

Evidence suggests that the Benghazi attacks were the work of two separate militant groups, commanders involved in the U.S. response to the attacks told the House Armed Services Committee in testimony released on Wednesday.

…two photos from President Obama’s meeting with Texas Gov. Rick Perry Wednesday… met in Dallas to discuss the humanitarian crisis on the Texas-Mexico border… Gov. Perry and his team appear to be taking the moment seriously. President Obama is grinning and laughing. …

"It looks like he had a chicken burrito bowl," Chipotle's national office replied to E! News' request for comment. "No changes with regard to sneeze guard rules. He shouldn't have reached over it. An overreach of government, I guess." [Ha ha ha ha. Arrogant President is Arrogant. Photo at link.]

I’m not the savviest person when it comes to body language, but even I can tell when someone is using inappropriate laughter… In this case… Barack Obama… cracking up during a meeting with Texas governor Rick Perry. … Perry… looks deeply disturbed and that’s not surprising. After all, the meeting is to discuss the crisis playing out on Texas’s southern border, as hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans — children, criminals, gang members, terrorists, disease carriers, sexual predators, etc. — pour into America. … Even if Obama is thrilled by the deluge… he should at least pretend that something serious is going on. … I am saying… that he is increasingly unhinged.

“The aliens who are getting released on their own recognizance are being allowed to board and travel commercial airliners by simply showing their Notice to Appear forms,” NBPC’s Local 2455 Spokesman, Hector Garza, told Breitbart Texas.

“This is not the CBP [Customs and Border Protection] or another federal agency renting or leasing an aircraft, these are the same planes that the American public uses for domestic travel. This just adds insult to injury. Not only are we releasing unknown illegal aliens onto American streets, but we are allowing them to travel commercially using paperwork that could easily be reproduced or manipulated on any home computer. The Notice to Appear form has no photo, anyone can make one and manipulate one. They do not have any security features, no watermark, nothing. They are simply printed on standard copy paper based on the information the illegal alien says is the truth.

“We do not know who these people are, we often have to solely rely on who they say they are, where they say they came from, and the history they say they have. We know nothing about most of them, ICE releases them into the American public, and now they are boarding aircraft at will with a simple paper document that anyone can easily alter or reproduce themselves.”

Kolkata, 2013 Jan 13 (IBNS): As India observed two years of polio free status on Sunday, the global face of the World Health Organization (WHO) and International Polio Crusader Ramesh Ferris, Friday met India's last Polio victim Ruksar Khatun at Panchla, here. [Note: The United States of America is no longer polio-free thanks to President Do-Nada.]

BREAKING NEWS: IRAQ TELLS U.N. THAT ‘TERRORIST GROUPS’ SEIZED NUCLEAR MATERIALS. REUTERS

New Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has assigned deputies to manage everything from bank accounts to bomb attacks [War News Updates editor's comment: "The International Criminal Court in The Hague now knows who to focus their attention on when it comes to who they must charge for war crimes."]

Islamist plot to blow up Eiffel Tower, Louvre and nuclear power plant foiled, say French police - French police stumbled on terror plans after decrypting coded messages between Algerian butcher living in southern France and high-ranking members of al-Qaeda in the Maghreb

Survey data continually show that Oklahomans favor policies that give parents more educational options. However, enacting those policies has proven to be difficult. A simple metaphor can help explain why.

Campbell, Wisconsin… police chief Tim Kelemen on leave… admitted using a Tea Party activist's name and email address to create accounts on pornographic, dating and insurance websites from both his home and work computers. …apparently upset that Tea Party activists… filed a federal lawsuit over the city's decision to bar political protests on a pedestrian walkway on Interstate 90.

…Algorithms designed by Yahoo wiz kids make sure that at least twenty-five percent of the headlines I see are positive stories about same-sex marriage… Interestingly, I had read the previous weekend about the revelation of a clandestine experiment that Facebook conducted on its subscribers. … That got me wondering: aren't judges people too? Aren't they subject to emotional contagion as easily as the rest of us mortals? …

Congressman Steve Stockman Thursday filed a resolution directing the House Sergeant-At-Arms to arrest former IRS Director of the Exempt Organizations Unit Lois Lerner on charges of contempt of Congress. “Asking the Justice Department to prosecute Lois Lerner for admittedly illegal activity is a joke. The Obama administration will not prosecute the Obama administration. How much longer will the House allow itself to be mocked? It is up to this House to uphold the rule of law and hold accountable those who illegally targeted American citizens for simply having different ideas than the President. Democrats have openly stated the House has the powers to arrest those in contempt of Congress and imprison them in the Capitol. I don't want to go as far as Democrats in exercising the House’s powers to arrest. Ms. Lerner will be held in the D.C. jail. It's time to for House to stop tacitly endorsing this administration's illegal activity by refusing to hold him accountable. I expect Democrats to defend and even praise criminal activity. The question is whether Republican leadership will join them in mocking the House and breaking the law." [Powerful!]

A former Ponca City [Okla] bakery worker will get a $51,500 settlement over charges that he was discriminated against for not being a union employee at a bakery. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters came to an agreement with Kirk Rammage, a former delivery driver… The case took more than seven years and worked its way through the National Labor Relations Board and federal courts twice. … Oklahoma’s Right to Work law, passed in 2001, says that a worker does not have to join a union as a condition of employment.

…The letter claims that Google has been confusing America with 2016: Obama’s America, which was D’Souza’s first movie and has been out of theaters for two years, while Lionsgate released America on July 2 and it is currently playing in about 1,100 theaters nationwide. Google, according to the letter, has been "misdirecting many users who mistakenly believed the film was not playing in theaters. We understand this was brought to your attention for correction five days ago, yet the problem persists." …

Obama caught horsing around in Denver [graphic at link]

In contrast to the inhuman behaviour of the terrorists, the elephants at the Ramat Gan Safari showed how they protect their young during an air raid alert. This must be one of the most moving videos I’ve seen. [Watch on YouTube]

…unnamed woman… had tissue from her nose implanted in her spine… [trying to] repair… nerve damage… treatment failed. …eight years after… the woman… complained of increasing pain in the area. … Doctors discovered a three-centimetre-long growth… mainly nasal tissue, as well as bits of bone and nerve branches that had not connected with the spinal nerves.

"Paedophilic interest is natural and normal for human males,” said the presentation. “At least a sizeable minority of normal males would like to have sex with children … Normal males are aroused by children.” [No.]

Chicago-born actress and comedian Nora Dunn, who is one of the few alums of TV’s “Saturday Night Live” based in the Chicago area, has sold her two-bedroom vintage condominium unit in Ukrainian Village for $258,500 and paid $185,000 for a condo unit in Evanston.

Hamas apparently expected a limited response to the recent rocket attacks on Israeli cities and towns; The organization is concerned the IDF's operation could be the end to Hamas’s rule over the Gaza Strip. … Hamas accused Israel of “crossing all the redlines” by bombing the homes of its military commanders. [Can dish out, can't take. Weenies at heart.

Three rockets were launched at Dimona in southern Israel on Wednesday afternoon. The Iron Dome intercepted one rocket before it could land, while two other rockets landed in open areas. Dimona is the location of Israel's nuclear reactor. There was no indication that rockets damaged any part of the reactor. Hamas claimed responsibility for the rockets, stating that it had been attempting to hit the nuclear reactor.

Republican Rep. Allen West of Florida: "Um, Harry, are you so blind to your own political prejudice that you overlooked the fact that one out of those five white men — isn’t?" … Mr. West added that he hoped Republicans would capture the Senate in November and "kick your white male butt out."

“Look, for $8 million you could put them all on a first-class seat back to their homes,” [Oklahoma Senator Dr. Tom] Coburn said on CNN’s “Crossfire” on Tuesday. [Video at link]

With the system being overwhelmed, Border Patrol agents are concerned about minors who have admitted to being MS-13 members… minors who have committed acts like torture and murder in their home countries before heading north to the United States. … "We have six minors in Nogales who have admitted to killing and doing grievous bodily injuries. One admitted to killing as young as eight years old," an agent tells Townhall anonymously for fear of losing his job for speaking out. "They are being held for placement in the U.S." …

Hessy Taft, the winner of a 1935 contest commissioned by the Nazis in Germany to find the most beautiful Aryan baby, recently revealed that she is Jewish. … Hans Ballin, a well-known photographer, to have the 6-month-old's picture taken. Unbeknownst to her, Taft's image soon turned up on the cover of Sonne ins Hause, a Nazi family magazine. Taft's mother, terrified, asked the photographer about it, and was told that he knew the family was Jewish and submitted the photo to the contest to make the Nazis look "ridiculous." …

Lois Lerner Email: We Should Be Careful What We Say In Emails And, Say, Just Curious: The IRS' Internal Instant-Message System Isn't Archived By Any Chance, Is It?

So first she says that we should be careful what we say in emails, and then asks if the OCS system -- an internal IRS instant-message system -- is also archived, as emails are.

She is told "no."

She responds: "Perfect." …

I'm sure she meant "I'll just change the default setting to archive these instant messages right now, in order to carefully preserve a record of official documents."

“I don’t believe he particularly cares whether or not the border of the United States is secure,” Perry said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” charging the president was either “inept” or had an “ulterior motive” in failing to secure the border.

ISIS militants take sledgehammers to Mosul tomb of Prophet Jonah

"I’ve been a deep believer my whole life. 18 years as a Southern Baptist. More than 40 years as a mainline Protestant. I’m an ordained pastor. But it’s just stopped making sense to me. You see people doing terrible things in the name of religion, and you think: ‘Those people believe just as strongly as I do. They’re just as convinced as I am.’ And it just doesn’t make sense anymore. It doesn’t make sense to believe in a God that dabbles in people’s lives." [This sad case is more proof that belief is not faith. Whatever he believed, and quit believing, was an idea. Apparently not a very strong one, at that.]

In fact, a mind-altering compound found in some 200 species of mushroom is already being explored as a potential treatment for depression and anxiety. People who consume these mushrooms, after “trips” that can be a bit scary and unpleasant, report feeling more optimistic, less self-centered, and even happier for months after the fact. [Paging Dr. Alpert, Dr. Leary]

For 50 years Raju the elephant was held in chains, beaten and abused… legs bleeding from spiked shackles… But last week animal charity workers swooped to save him in a daring midnight rescue operation on the streets of India. … Raju’s rescuers insist the giant animal wept as he realised his ordeal was coming to an end. …

'We Didn't Get Elected Just to Cut Ribbons, Kiss Babies, and Hold Office' -Gov. Bobby Jindal at Resource Bank 2014 [Video at link]

“They started to ask, ‘Well, why didn’t she finish her documents in the Ukraine?’ And I said, ‘Well, there’s a war in her region. That’s the reason why.’ And they started asking us why she just couldn’t return and I said, ‘Well, there’s still battling going on to this day there,’” Price said. “She was then handcuffed and taken into another room.”

A government scientist cleaning out an old storage room at a research center near Washington… [found a] decades-old vials of smallpox… in a cardboard box… intact and sealed… scientists have yet to establish whether the virus is dead or alive

Nada Bakos, a former CIA analyst who tracked al-Baghdadi’s predecessor Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, told ABC News al-Baghdadi had forced himself to step from the shadows, even if it meant “definitely taking a risk, security-wise.”

“This would be in line with where he’s trying to take the organization,” Bakos said. “He has to present himself as a leader. This was the next step… He has to come out and declare what he, as the caliph, expects from other Muslims.”

Holland, Oklahoma’s seismology chief, is determined to find the cause of an unprecedented earthquake epidemic in the state. And he suspects pumping wastewater from oil and gas drilling back into the Earth has a lot to do with it.

“If my research takes me to the point where we determine the safest thing to do is to shut down injection -- and consequently production -- in large portions of the state, then that’s what we have to do,” Holland said. “That’s for the politicians and the regulators to work out.”

[Of course, confirmation bias could not be possible when he's looking for confirmation of his theory.]

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio: "I want an explanation and investigation as to why 3,800 of the people in my jails that are charged with state and local crimes are here illegally. We turn them over to ICE and they keep coming back over and over again. How come they’re not deported, or if they are, why do they keep coming back across the border?"

The influx of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has grown so large that it now requires its own transportation system: government buses that spend each night idling on a Texas roadside, awaiting the latest arrivals.

238 Years After The First Revolution, Is It Time For A Second? … the fact remains that the rationale for the existence of the nation known as the United States of America, which first appeared in print 238 years ago today, is entirely dependent on the premise that there are indeed times “…when in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another….” So, are we there yet?

Adding millions of illegal immigrants to the public rolls – which will happen in terms of lower education and healthcare by necessity – will skyrocket spending. Which is the plan.