Biden says US, Turkey prepared for military solution against ISIS in Syria

Vice President Joe Biden said Saturday the U.S. and Turkey are prepared for a military solution against ISIS in Syria should the Syrian government and rebel-opposition forces fail to reach a peace agreement during its upcoming meeting in Geneva.
The next round of Syrian peace talks are scheduled to take place Monday, but are at risk of being postponed over a dispute over who will comprise the opposition delegation, according to Reuters. Syrian rebels said they hold the Syrian government and Russia responsible should the peace talks fail to bring an end to the civil war that has torn the country completely apart.
"We do know it would better if we can reach a political solution but we are prepared ..., if that's not possible, to have a military solution to this operation in taking out Daesh," Biden said at a news conference after a meeting with Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
A U.S. official later told Reuters that Biden’s comment was talking about a military solution to defeating Islamic State, not Syria as a whole. Biden said he and Dabutoglu have also discussed how both the U.S. and Turkey can support Sunni Arab forces fighting to force out Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
He also met with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, capping a two-day visit to Istanbul focused on boosting the fight against ISIS militants and trying to resolve the Syrian crisis.
U.S. has backed Syrian rebels with Special Forces soldiers to help train them. Washington is also conducting air strikes against ISIS, which holds large swaths of Syria and Iraq.
Secretary of State John Kerry also said Saturday he was confident Syria peace talks would proceed. Kerry met with Riad Hijab, chair of the Syrian opposition’s High Negotiations Committee and other delegates representing the Syrian opposition.
"They discussed the upcoming U.N.-sponsored negotiations regarding a political transition in Syria and all agreed on the urgent need to end the violence afflicting the Syrian people," State Department spokesman John Kirby said.
Kerry emphasized how important it is to maintain the momentum of the International Syria Support Group, a group of big world and regional powers backing peace efforts in the war-torn nation, Kirby said.
Biden also offered his condolences over a Jan. 12 terror attack that killed 12 German tourists in Istanbul. The Turkish authorities say the suicide bomber was linked to the Islamic State.
"We have a robust operation and commitment to defeat ISIL," said Biden, crediting Turkey for increasing efforts to secure its 550-mile border with Syria, as well as allowing anti-IS coalition aircraft to use Turkish bases for bombing runs against IS targets.
Biden also acknowledged the threat that Kurdish militants pose to Turkey, calling the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers' Party, "a terrorist group plain and simple." Ankara views its war on terror as a two-prong effort focused on Kurdish militants and IS jihadists who have established cells in Turkey and use the country as a gateway to Syria.

Jane Fonda Organizing 'Dump Trump' Campaign / Hanoi Jane

Prominent actors, writers and thinkers joined a "Stop Hate Dump Trump" campaign to denounce the billionaire Republican presidential frontrunner, saying he is a threat to the United States.
Actors Harry Belafonte, Kerry Washington and Jane Fonda, filmmaker Jonathan Demme and intellectual Noam Chomsky are among those lending their support to the drive to prevent Donald Trump getting into the White House.
"We are offering Americans a chance to be heard and engage in action, as Trump's campaign gains momentum even as he increases his hateful and divisive rhetoric," said playwright Eve Ensler, one of three cofounders.
"We also intend to put the media and political institutions on notice that they are accountable for normalizing Trump's extremism by treating it as entertainment, by giving it inordinate and unequal air time and by refusing to investigate, interrogate or condemn it appropriately."
Trump announced his bid for the White House last June, dominating the news cycle of the presidential race ever since with insults slamming Mexicans and illegal immigrants, and a call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States.
The website said it united people as diverse as worker movement leaders, actors, teachers, farmers, students, poets and heads of companies.
"We believe Trump is a grave threat to democracy, freedom, human rights, equality and the welfare of our country and all our people," the campaign said.
"History has shown us what happens when people refuse to stand against hate-filled leaders. We pledge ourselves to speak out in every way possible against the politics of hate and exclusion he represents."
Nearly 1,200 people had added their signatures to the campaign within hours of it going live on Wednesday.
Jodie Evans, a documentary film producer and cofounder of the anti-war organization Code Pink, said the initiative had arisen out of a conversation with Ensler and said the celebrity endorsements had come from their friends.
"The media is pushing the hate of Donald Trump like it's a reality show," she told AFP.
The third cofounder is law professor Kimberle Crenshaw. For the real story on Jane Fonda check out the story below:
 

Traitor: "Hanoi Jane" Fonda

She was born Lady Jayne Seymour Fonda, but earned her reputation as "Hanoi Jane" Fonda after "aiding and abetting" the enemy -- North Vietnam -- as documented in these photos taken in Hanoi (July 1972):

 

Hanoi Jane on North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun: A few hundred yards from the location of this photograph, American POWs were being subjected to all manner of torture at the "Hanoi Hilton." You can read about one of those POWs, Col. Roger Ingvalson, whose aircraft was shot down by an NVA-AAG similar to the gun Hanoi Jane is straddling.

Hanoi Jane laughing it up

Showing her admiration

Fonda called returning POWs "hypocrites and liars," adding, "These were not men who had been tortured. These were not men who had been starved. These were not men who had been brainwashed. ... Pilots were saying it was the policy of the Vietnamese and that it was systematic. I believe that's a lie." You can read about one of Fondas "hypocrites and liars" in this Veterans Day Profile: Point Man, Roger Helle

Visiting with Friends

Looking for Target

With Tom Hayden back from Hanoi

Read the transcript of Hanoi Jane's propaganda radio broadcast delivered in Hanoi, North Vietnam on August 22, 1972.
As for the success of anti-democracy protests by radical protagonists like Fonda, John Kerry and others, Hanoi could not have been more pleased.
General Vo Nguyen Giap, supreme leader of the North Vietnamese Army, told CBS in a 1989 interview: "We paid a high price [during the Tet offensive] but so did you [Americans] ... not only in lives and materiel. Do not forget the war was brought into the living rooms of the American people. ... The most important result of the Tet offensive was it made you de-escalate the bombing, and it brought you to the negotiation table. It was, therefore, a victory.... The war was fought on many fronts. At that time the most important one was American public opinion. "
More to the point, in a 1995 interview with The Wall Street Journal, Bui Tin, a communist contemporary of Giap and Ho Chi Minh, who was serving as an NVA colonel assigned to the general staff at the time Saigon fell, had this to say about the Leftmedia and Soviet puppets like "Hanoi" Jane Fonda and John Kerry: "[They were] essential to our strategy. Support of the war from our rear was completely secure while the American rear was vulnerable. Every day our leadership would listen to world news over the radio to follow the growth of the American antiwar movement. Visits to Hanoi by people like Jane Fonda, and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and ministers gave us confidence that we should hold on in the face of battlefield reverses."
Bui stated further, "Those people represented the conscience of America. The conscience of America was part of its war-making capability, and we were turning that power in our favor. America lost because of its democracy; through dissent and protest it lost the ability to mobilize a will to win."
Most notably, Bui observed, that the 1968 Tet Offensive was "to weaken American resolve during a presidential-election year. We had the impression that American commanders had their hands tied by political factors. Your generals could never deploy a maximum force for greatest military effect."
Sixteen years later, under enormous pressure after Ronald Reagan had restored the honorable social standing of military service, Fonda admitted to former American POWs and their families that she regretted the pain she caused them. Few accepted her apology.

Fonda Power

In a 2005 interview with CBS, Fonda reiterated that she had no regrets about her trip to North Vietnam in 1972. "There are hundreds of American delegations that had met with the POWs. Both sides were using the POWs for propaganda... It's not something that I will apologize for."

Peace

More Peace

Fonda with last in husband line, Ted Turner, Village drunk and self-appointed ambassador to North Korea, who observed recently, "Obviously, I don’t like to see nuclear proliferation, and I’m very upset about [the North Korean test]," as opposed to his earlier position being "absolutely convinced that the North Koreans are absolutely sincere" about not developing nuclear weapons.

What a life

Hanoi Jane's real life -- so far...

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The Edge: Cruz booms, but Palin gets Trump mega media

Has Trump become part of the Washington establishment?

 

THE EDGE: CRUZ BOOMS, BUT PALIN GETS TRUMP MEGA MEDIA
Ted Cruz is starting to horn in on GOP frontrunner Donald Trump’s media monopoly. But just as Cruz was cresting, Trump found a new way to get the press back to wall-to-wall coverage of his campaign.
In this week’s installment of The Edge, a one-of-a-kind measurement of media mentions from the New Analytics Company, Cruz rocketed into second place with by far the biggest gains since last week.
But lest he lose his stranglehold on political coverage, Trump rolled out the one endorsement guaranteed to put the mainstream press into a frenzy: former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Despite the overwhelmingly negative tone of the coverage, as is often the case with Trump, the sheer volume drowned out other voices. A separate analysis from New Analytics shows that Trump and Palin dominated the discussion on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Edge “scrubs” television, radio, print, internet and social media for mentions of the 2016 candidates. The team at New Analytics has built unique tool to measure which candidates are being talked about the most and the data are compiled into a single score and provided to Fox News First.

Here are their rankings for media mentions this week, with their gain or decline from last week in brackets. See the full results here.

Donald Trump, 27.05 [+1.55]; Ted Cruz, 15.68 [+4.24]; Ben Carson, 13.97 [+1.32]; Marco Rubio, 12.12 [+1.68]; Jeb Bush, 9.32 [-2.79]; Chris Christie, 5.83 [-1.37]; Rand Paul, 5.04 [-.23]; Carly Fiorina, 4.69 [-1.88]; John Kasich, 4.38 [-.83]; Mike Huckabee, 3.95 [-1.17]

Kansas lawmaker imposes dress code on female witnesses

File-This May 9, 2011, file photo shows Kansas House Pensions and Benefits Committee Chairman Mitch Holmes, a St. John Republican, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. (AP)

A Kansas lawmaker came under fire Thursday from female legislators after he imposed a dress code that prevents women testifying on bills from wearing low-cut necklines and miniskirts.
State Sen. Mitch Holmes issued an 11-point code of conduct to urge women how to dress. The Topeka Capital-Journal reported that Holmes’ rules don’t include any restrictions on men because, according to Holmes, men don’t need instructions on how to look professional.
"Oh, for crying out loud, what century is this?" Sen. Laura Kelly, a Topeka Democrat, said Thursday.
Holmes, 53, is the chairman of the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee. He said he wrote the instruction because provocatively dressed women are a distraction. The guidelines don't detail a minimum skirt length or a permissible neckline for blouses.
"It's one of those things that's hard to define," Holmes said. "Put it out there and let people know we're really looking for you to be addressing the issue rather than trying to distract or bring eyes to yourself."
Holmes did think about adding a provision on how men should dress, but decided males didn’t need any guidance. He expects lobbyists to understand the rules when interacting with his committee, although he acknowledged infrequent visitors to the Statehouse might be unaware.
Female senators said no one should impose gender-specific demands on those testifying before committees.
"Who's going to define low-cut?" said Sen. Vicki Schmidt, a Topeka Republican. "Does it apply to senators?"
Sen. Carolyn McGinn, a Sedgwick Republican, said people who don't have clothes that meet Holmes' standards might be deterred from testifying.
"I am more interested in what they have to say about the direction our state should go than what they're wearing that day," McGinn said.
State Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, of Wichita, the ranking Democrat on the Senate’s elections and ethics committee, said people testifying before committees ought to present themselves in a professional way but she was put off by the lack of consistency for men and women.
"In my 13 years in the Legislature, that's the first time I've ever read anything like that," Faust-Goudeau said. "I thought it was a little strange."
Senate President Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican, predicted the committee will reconsider the dress code Wednesday at its next meeting. Wagle, who is a member of the committee but wasn't present when the rules were given to members, indicated she isn't inclined to intervene personally.
"The legislative process eventually always evolves to a consensus of the majority without leadership having to take action," she told The Associated Press.
Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat, told the AP that the "irony" of the dress code was that it came from a committee that "should be more concerned about violations of campus finance law than what women wear."
"Coming from a man, I think it's important that women are supported in the choices that they make for themselves," he said.
Kansas lawmakers had a previous controversy in 2014 over interns and how they were dressing. State Rep. Peggy Mast decided that interns during the session had to comply with an expanded dress code, according to the Capital-Journal.
Mast sought to have males wear a dress shirt, tie, slacks and suit and their hair neatly styled. Females could wear business attire with a “dressy” top. Mini-skirt and tight pants – along with revealing necklines – were prohibited.

Trump endorsed by John Wayne's daughter

WINTERSET, Iowa –  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is kicking off a swing through Iowa at the John Wayne Birthplace Museum, where he received an endorsement from the western film actor's daughter, Aissa Wayne.
The endorsement was announced Tuesday in front of a life-size, rifle-toting model of the actor in full cowboy gear.
Aissa Wayne says the country needs a strong and courageous leader like her father. She said John Wayne would be offering his endorsement if he were still alive.
Trump says he was a big fan of Wayne and that the actor represented strength and power — which the American people are looking for.
He says, "We have exactly the opposite from John Wayne right now in this country."
The museum includes an extensive collection of memorabilia from Wayne's movies.

Meg and Don Cartoon

Leading conservative voices unite to stop Trump?

Leading conservative voices unite to stop Trump?

And guess what it's no surprise that it is featured on the Fox's Kelly Files.

Megyn Kelly