Blog Heap of Links for the day 15 June 2014

Judge Jeanine: Tonight I'm Worried… You Need to Be Afraid [about consequences of Iraq. Video]

One of the five senior Taliban leaders transferred to Qatar in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl played a key role in al Qaeda’s plans leading up to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Mohammad Fazl, who served as the Taliban’s army chief of staff and deputy defense minister prior to his detention at Guantánamo, did not have a hand in planning the actual 9/11 hijackings. Along with a notorious al Qaeda leader, however, Fazl did help coordinate a military offensive against the enemies of the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan the day before. And Osama bin Laden viewed that September 10 offensive as an essential part of al Qaeda’s 9/11 plot.

Mosul Islamist take-over: Up to 1,000 Christian families have reportedly fled Iraq's second biggest city "This could be the last migration of Christians from Mosul." [War News Updates editor comments, "From a historical perspective this is an incredible depressing event. Mosul has had a Christian community for almost 1,800 years .... and today .... they are now all gone."]

Fighters from Kurdish regions are mobilizing to stop the threat of Islamist militants who are advancing across parts of Syria and central Iraq from reaching their own nearby territories.

Northern Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG, and the Kurdistan Communities Union, which controls the Kurd-dominated region of northeastern Syria, both pledged Wednesday to resist the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS, as the group extended dramatic military gains

The Islamist extremist some are now calling the most dangerous man in the world had a few parting words to his captors as he was released from the biggest U.S. detention camp in Iraq in 2009. “He said, ‘I’ll see you guys in New York,’” recalls Army Col. Kenneth King, then the commanding officer of Camp Bucca. … King had not imagined that in less that five years he would be seeing news reports that al-Baghdadi was the leader of ISIS, the ultra-extremist army that was sweeping through Iraq toward Baghdad.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal vetoed Friday a controversial bill that many critics of the Common Core standards said would bind the state further both to the nationalized standards and the PARCC tests aligned to them. … The governor added that the measure “would significantly impair parents’ ability to have clear information about the performance of their child’s school and teachers’ ability to have meaningful feedback.”

The Republican controlled legislature in South Carolina recently infuriated liberal groups by insisting that state universities teach students about the U.S. Constitution and other founding documents.

“I come outside, jump in the truck, and the whole thing’s been torn apart inside, wires had been yanked out, the paneling had some scratches on it…” It was the police: "Sir, your car was checked by TPD K-9. The vehicle was searched For marijuana due to a strong odor coming from the passenger side of the vehicle. Any questions call [phone number] - Cpl. Fannin"

If you don’t agree to submit your child to a psych eval for twirling a damn pencil, that’s child abuse. Say goodbye to him. This is Big Government in a nutshell: People you’ve never met making huge decisions about your life for reasons you can’t comprehend. And nobody is accountable.

The Internal Revenue Service told Congress Friday it has lost a trove of emails to and from Lois Lerner, a central figure in the agency's Tea Party controversy, sparking outrage from congressional investigators who have been probing the agency for more than a year.

The IRS said it cannot locate many of Lerner's emails prior to 2011 because her computer crashed during the summer of that year.

Lois Lerner lost email narrative debunked by IT experts on The Mark Levin Show

The White House is making plans to transfer more detainees from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay despite the mounting political furor over the exchange of five Taliban prisoners for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl

A targeting memo sent to the State Department by the Defense Department’s Africa Command two days after the Benghazi attack listed 11 suspects with ties to Al Qaeda and other groups… arrived two days before then-UN ambassador Susan Rice appeared on television shows blaming the assault on an inflammatory video… [and] nearly a day before presidential aide Ben Rhodes sent an email also suggesting the video – and not a policy failure… [But what difference does? it? make?]

Most years, two term Congressman Jim Lankford (R-OK) would be considered a shoe-in to replace retiring Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) as his party's nominee in the upcoming Oklahoma U.S. Senate Republican primary this June 24. With a reliably conservative voting record (Heritage Action Scorecard rates him at 82 percent) and the support of the Washington establishment, Lankford entered the race when Coburn suddenly announced his retirement in January with a 37 point lead in the polls.

But Lankford's top challenger, former Oklahoma House Speaker T.W. Shannon, has made a surprisingly strong challenge, climbing from a huge deficit to run neck-and-neck with Lankford in polls from this spring.

Shannon served as the youngest Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives ever from 2012 to 2014. While there, he established a strong conservative record as a fiscal hawk, supporting efforts to eliminate the state's debt by selling off unused state assets. He has continued in his Senate campaign to support classic conservative positions.

Shannon's limited government message has garnered the support of a host of national Tea Party groups--including the Senate Conservatives Fund--as well as some high profile Tea Party favorite politicians. Sarah Palin, Mike Lee, and Ted Cruz have all endorsed him.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee (D) and California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) were among other leftist politicians and gay advocacy leaders who used the words of Pope Francis to criticize San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone for his upcoming participation at the March for Marriage in Washington D.C. on June 19th. … “We ask that you will reconsider your participation and join us in seeking to promote reconciliation rather than division and hatred…."

While … the left accused Cordileone of promoting “division and hatred” through participation in the March for Marriage, the archbishop described those with activist agendas against marriage as “bullies,” and urged young pro-lifers during the March for Life last January to stay “close to Christ” as they seek to present the truth about marriage.

“Future generations will understand that the natural truth of marriage benefits everyone and discriminates against no one,” the archbishop said. “But prepare yourselves: It will require heroic virtue, for there is a lot of reverse bullying going on these days.”

Melinda Gates, of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has announced that her international family planning foundation will no longer fund abortion because she believes abortion and family planning have become “conflated.” … [Melinda Gates:] "The question of abortion should be dealt with separately. But in the United States and around the world the emotional and personal debate about abortion is threatening to get in the way of the lifesaving consensus regarding basic family planning."

Alison Spann was just 9 when she learned her father, a U.S. Marine turned CIA operative, had become the first American killed in the war in Afghanistan. Thirteen years later, she found out her country had freed the Taliban leader who may have played a role in his death. … “My initial reaction was shock. I was shocked that our president would release five of the most high-risk prisoners being held in Guantanamo in exchange for one American. As a whole, my family was extremely upset and saddened that our government would do something like this, especially in light of the fact that it seems that people in the intelligence community are fairly united in their belief that these terrorists are likely to seek to further harm Americans in the future.”

President Barack Obama's administration is knowingly allowing illegal immigrant gangsters from Mexico and Central America into the United States, and some are even being reunited with their family members.

The gang members reportedly belong to some of the most dangerous gangs in Central America and Mexico, like MS-13, but Border Patrol agents are handcuffed, especially if the illegal immigrants are deemed to be "minors."

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dismissed Matt Drudge and Karl Rove as “gamers” trying to plant false information in people’s heads.

…a giant squirrel has been stalking former first lady Hillary Clinton during her national book tour… wearing a T-shirt saying, “Another Clinton in the White House is Nuts.”