Tides turning in Iraq? Kurdish fighters take back 2 towns from ISIS militants

No Thanks To Obama!

Kurdish Fighters

Kurdish forces retook Sunday two towns from Islamic militants that have seized large parts of northern Iraq in one of the first victories for a military force that until now has been in retreat, a senior Kurdish military official says.
Brig. Gen. Shirko Fatih said the Kurdish fighters were able to push the militants of the Islamic State group out of the villages of Makhmour and al-Gweir, some 27 miles from Irbil.
The victories by the radical Sunni militants that adhere to an extremist intolerant interpretation of Islam have sent tens of thousands of the country's minorities fleeing from their homes in fear in a situation that has grabbed world attention.
The United States announced a fourth round of airstrikes Sunday against militant vehicles and mortars firing on Irbil as part of its small-scale series of attacks meant to discourage the Sunni fighters from endangering U.S. personnel near the Kurdish capital.
During a visit to Baghdad, France's foreign minister said during that Paris will provide "several tons" of aid to hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people and called upon leaders in Baghdad to unite against Sunni militants who have seized large parts of the country.
Speaking at a press conference with Iraq's acting Foreign Minister Hussain al-Shahristani, Laurent Fabius said his visit is aimed at boosting humanitarian efforts in northern Iraq, where tens of thousands of minority Yazidis have fled into the mountains and even into neighboring Syria to escape the extremist Islamic State group.
The actions of the militants may even constitute "crimes against humanity," warned the European Union in a statement, in which it said it was "appalled by the rapid deterioration of the humanitarian situation."
Britain for its part said its air force has already dropped water containers and solar lanterns over the Sinjar mountains where the Yazidis have taken refuge with little food and water. An ancient religion with links to Zoroastrianism, the Yazidis have been given a choice of converting to Islam or dying, by the militants.
U.S. fighter jets and drones have also attacked militants firing on the Yazidis around Sinjar, which is in the far west of the country near the Syrian border.
After Kurdish fighters opened a path to the border, thousands of Yazidis have been pouring across the river into Kurdish-controlled parts of Syria.
Those crossing told The Associated Press they had lost their sisters, daughters, children and their elderly parents, describing militants randomly spraying machine gun fire in their direction as they fled.
An Iraq human rights minister told Reuters that the militants have killed at least 500 Yizadis, including women and children -- some of which were buried alive.
"We have striking evidence obtained from Yazidis fleeing Sinjar and some who escaped death, and also crime scene images that show indisputably that the gangs of the Islamic States have executed at least 500 Yazidis after seizing Sinjar," Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said.
He added that around 300 women have been kidnapped as slaves.

Israel, Palestinians accept new 72-hour cease-fire offer

Israel accepted an Egyptian proposal Sunday for a new 72-hour cease-fire with Gaza militants.
The move clears the way for the resumption of indirect talks on a long-term cease-fire arrangement in Hamas-ruled Gaza after a month of heavy fighting.
Egypt brokered a similar truce last week. But after the three-day window, militants resumed rocket fire on Israel and new fighting erupted.
The Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said they accepted Egypt's latest offer Sunday. But they said they were wary after last week's breakdown.
Palestinian negotiators said earlier Sunday they accepted the Egyptian proposal for the cease fire. 
The officials, representing various Palestinian factions, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing sensitive negotiations.
Egypt called on Israel and Palestinian factions to observe the cease-fire beginning within hours, and to resume talks on a more comprehensive Gaza agreement.
A statement from Egypt's Foreign Ministry said the cease-fire would begin at midnight Cairo time (2101 GMT) and would create the atmosphere to resume humanitarian aid as well as indirect talks, through Egypt, to reach a more lasting and comprehensive cease-fire.
Israel walked away from negotiations over the weekend after rocket fire resumed, saying it would not negotiate under fire.
Earlier, Hamas refused to extend the temporary truce that helped launch the Cairo talks last week, saying it wants guarantees from Israel first that Gaza's borders will open. Israel and Egypt have enforced the blockade, to varying degrees, since Hamas seized Gaza in 2007. Israel has said it will not open Gaza's borders unless militant groups, including Hamas, disarm. Hamas has said handing over its weapons arsenal, which is believed to include several thousand remaining rockets, is inconceivable.
Since the truce expired Friday, smaller Gaza militant groups -- though not Hamas, according to claims of responsibility -- have fired dozens of rockets and mortar shells at Israel, including two on Sunday.
"If Hamas thinks it has worn us down, it is wrong," Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said. "We will return to the table only after an end to the fire. ... We are not intending to compromise."
The diplomatic standoff, coupled with the ongoing cross-border attacks, signaled that a broader deal for battered Gaza, as envisioned by the international community, likely will remain elusive.
Various ideas have been raised to end Gaza's isolation, including deploying international inspectors at all crossings to address Israeli security concerns about smuggling weapons and militants. Europe has floated the idea of a link between ports in Gaza and Cyprus, with inspectors at both ends checking people and cargo.
Palestinian officials have said that Israel has so far rejected such proposals.
The Gaza war erupted on July 8, following weeks of escalating tensions between Israel and Hamas.
Israel launched an air campaign on the coastal territory, sending in ground troops nine days later to target rocket launchers and cross-border tunnels built by Hamas for attacks inside Israel.
Israel has targeted close to 5,000 sites, the army has said, while Gaza militants have fired more than 3,000 rockets into Israel.
On Sunday, Israeli aircraft hit about 20 targets, the army said.

mission accomplished cartoon

US launches four airstrikes against Islamic militants in Iraq

U.S. military forces conducted four more airstrikes on Islamic militants in Iraq Saturday, taking out armored carriers firing 'indiscriminately' on civilians, US military officials said.
U.S. Central Command said the strikes on the Islamic State (IS), the militant group formerly known as ISIS, were spread out, with three before noon Eastern Time on Saturday and one at about 3 p.m.
"At approximately 11:20 a.m. EDT, a mix of U.S. fighters and remotely piloted aircraft struck one of two ISIL armored personnel carriers firing on Yazidi civilians near Sinjar, destroying the APC," a statement released late Saturday by US Central Command said.
The statement said that all indications suggested that all strikes were successful in destroying the armored vehicles, and that all aircraft left the area safely.
This is the third round of airstrikes against Islamic State forces by the U.S. military since they were authorized by President Obama to protect U.S. personnel and Iraqi religious minorities facing a possible "genocide."
The latest strikes comes as President Obama prepared Americans for a sustained military involvement in Iraq, saying the United States is ready to continue with air strikes to protect U.S. diplomats and citizens and others under attack from the Islamic State terror group. 
"I don't think we’re going to solve this problem in weeks," the president said on the South Lawn of the White House Saturday. “This is going to be a long-term project.”
The Islamic State extremists have captured hundreds of Yazidi women, according to an Iraqi official, while thousands of other civilians, including Kurds and Christians, have fled into the mountains and elsewhere as the militants in recent days have seized a string of northern towns and villages.
Yazidis belong to ancient religion seen by the Islamic State group as heretical. The extremist group considers Shiite Muslims apostates, and has demanded Christians either convert to Islam or pay a special tax.
Obama acknowledged Saturday that providing a "safe corridors" for those who face a potential “genocide” will be difficult.
"That may take some time," he said. "Moving them is not simple in this unstable environment."
The latest round of airstrikes come a day after U.S. warplanes launched two more rounds of airstrikes, taking out two mortar positions and a seven-vehicle convoy. 
The airstrikes mark the deepest U.S. engagement in the country since the troop withdrawal in late 2011. The latest mission in Iraq also has a humanitarian component. On Friday C-130 and C-17 cargo aircraft dropped 72 bundles of supplies for the refugees. Included in the aid were more than 28,000 meals and more than 1,500 gallons of water. U.S. cargo planes have also begun airlifting aid to civilians stranded in the mountains of northern Iraq after fleeing from the Islamic State group.

Hamas backers spend fortunes on rockets and tunnels while Gazans live in misery

 Bailey: "Where did they get their cloths from, the KKK?"

HAIFA, Israel – The latest ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended Friday morning when Hamas resumed its costly campaign of rocket attacks on Israel even as its 2 million constituents suffer from wrenching poverty.
Although the millions of Palestinians packed into the small strip suffer from chronic unemployment, and lack of electricity and running water, Hamas and its backers such as Qatar have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on tunnels and rockets with one goal in mind: killing Israelis.
“When you look at what Hamas did with all the cement and the materials that went into Gaza for ‘building’, and you now see that most went on the tunnels, you understand that from their point of view the civilian side is not important,” retired Maj. Gen. Yaakov Amidror, former national security advisor to the prime minister of Israel and director of the Intelligence Analysis Division in Israel’s Military Intelligence, told FoxNews.com.
So far, Israel has destroyed some 32 terror tunnels – each one requiring the equivalent of 350 truckloads of building supplies and costing up to $3 million to create, according to the IDF. And 3,360 short and medium-range rockets have been fired at Israel by Hamas and other militant Islamist groups, likely costing millions more.
Hamas’ arsenal- estimates suggest they still retain a significant number of missiles - includes home-made crude Qassam rockets,as well as longer-range more sophisticated weapons such as the Iranian Grad and Fajr5, and Syrian-made M302’s. Hamas had scores of rocket launching sites, many placed in or close to schools, mosques, and hospitals - including missiles hidden in UNRWA schools on three separate occasions.
Regional experts argue that Hamas’ terror infrastructure shows the terrorist group elected to power in 2006 shows its economic policies place war on Israel above the welfare of its own people. Gaza’s total gross domestic product is approximately $750 million, and although funding for attacks on Israel often comes from patrons like Iran, Turkey, and Qatar, true economic aid from Gaza’s allies should be spent to better the lives of Palestinians, experts say.
“Hamas is the same movement that runs both the civilian and the military [in Gaza],” said Amidror. “So when the money is going to Hamas, it is going both for civilian and military purposes. There is no question that Qatar is the biggest funder of Hamas. In the past it was more taxes from the tunnels that ran from the Sinai Peninsula [that funded Hamas], but today there is no question that it is Qatar more than anyone else.”
In 2012, the former Emir of Qatar visited Gaza and made a donation of $400 million to Hamas, a donation The New York Times reported would go towards “two housing complexes, rehabilitate three main roads, and create a prosthetic center, among other projects.”
Hamas appear to have diverted the funds to terror projects. The Qatari smoke screen of donating to ‘civilian projects’ fools few people, Israeli officials say.
In one of his final speeches last month before he stepped down as president of Israel, Shimon Peres also highlighted Qatar as the main financier of the Gaza regime.
The Jerusalem Post reported that Peres “charged Qatar, saying that Qatar had no right to spend millions of petrol dollars to enable Hamas to build rockets and tunnels instead of developing Gaza.”
Meanwhile, the Palestinians who suffer under Hamas’ governance can only watch as money that could have been spent to improve their lives is spent on rockets and tunnels now being systematically destroyed by the IDF.
“Most of Gaza’s civilians survive in substandard living conditions without the infrastructure to support basic sanitation, running water, and a sewer system,” said Itamar Gelbman, a former IDF special forces lieutenant and a U.S.-based security consultant. “The unemployment rate is over 40 percent and for the lucky ones who actually do work, they have to settle for an average salary of $16 per day.”
Gelbman said instead of building terror tunnels, Hamas could have used the same money, equipment, and engineering to construct sewage and water treatment facilities, improve old infrastructure, build schools, and even create beach front resorts
While its leaders live lavish lifestyles with luxurious villas on the Mediterranean shore, most Gazans sit and suffer as government workers go unpaid and money that could have been used to improve many lives continues to be squandered on Hamas’ pursuit of destroying Israel.
“Only judging by their deeds you understand that there is no way that [Qatari] money went to civilian programs” said Amidror. “The materials went for military purposes.”

Paul Alster is an Israel-based journalist. Follow him on Twitter @paul_alster and visit his website: www.paulalster.com.

Senior Hamas member reportedly killed in Gaza after fighting resumes

Israeli forces struck more than 20 targets Saturday in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire from the area after the expiration of a cease-fire between Israel and the terror group Hamas, reportedly killing a senior member of the militant group.
Hamas officials said Israel airstrikes hit houses, mosques, its warehouses and training sites. Three bodies were found under the ruins of the al-Qassam mosque in Gaza, including that of senior Hamas official Moaaz Zaid, said Palestinian health official Ashraf al-Kidra.
The Israeli military said militants in Gaza fired five rockets Saturday toward Israel, for a total of 70 since the truce expired. In response, Israel has targeted more than 30 sites in Gaza since Friday, it said.
The militants resumed their rocket attacks Friday shortly before the 72-hour truce expired, drawing a wave of retaliatory airstrikes that killed at least five Palestinians. The fighting shattered a brief calm in the month-long war and dealt a blow to Egyptian-led efforts to secure a long-term cease-fire
The renewed violence threw the Cairo talks on a broader deal into doubt. Hamas officials said they are ready to continue talks, but Israel's government spokesman said Israel will not negotiate under fire.
Hamas wants Israel to open Gaza's borders, following a seven-year closure also enforced by Egypt, but Israel says it will only do so if the Islamic militants disarm or are prevented from re-arming. Hamas has insisted it will never give up its arms.
The wide gaps became clear at an all-night meeting between Egyptian and Palestinian negotiators that preceded the renewed fire. Hamas negotiators told The Associated Press that Israel rejected all of their demands.
Hamas had entered the Cairo talks from a position of military weakness, following a month of fighting in which Israel pounded Gaza with close to 5,000 strikes. Israel has said Hamas lost hundreds of fighters, two-thirds of its rocket arsenal and all of its military attack tunnels under the border with Israel.
The heavy toll of the war appears to have made Hamas even more resistant to returning to the status quo. The group is unlikely to accept a cease-fire without assurances that Gaza's borders will be opened -- particularly after the fighting left close to 1,900 Gaza residents dead, more than 9,000 wounded and tens of thousands displaced, with entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble.
With nothing to show for in the negotiations, Gaza militants began firing rockets at Israel within minutes after the temporary truce expired early Friday morning. 
The rockets appeared to have been an attempt by Hamas to exert pressure on Israel without triggering a major escalation. Smaller Gaza groups claimed responsibility, while there was no word from Hamas rocket squads.
However, Israel said it will not negotiate under such terms.
"When Hamas broke the cease-fire, when Hamas launched rockets and mortar shells at Israel, they broke the premise of the talks," said Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev, adding that "there will not be negotiations under fire."
The Israeli delegation to the Cairo talks left Egypt on Friday morning, and it was not clear if it would return.
Previous rounds of Israel-Hamas fighting ended inconclusively, setting the stage for the next confrontation because underlying problems were not resolved, particularly the stifling border closure of Gaza.
Israel and Egypt imposed the blockade after the Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007, and have since enforced it to varying degrees.
The closure led to widespread hardship in the Mediterranean seaside territory, home to 1.8 million people. Movement in and out of Gaza is limited, the economy has ground to a standstill and unemployment is over 50 percent.
Israel argues that it needs to keep Gaza's borders under a blockade as long as Hamas tries to smuggle weapons into Gaza or manufactures them there.
The militant group has said it is willing to hand over some power in Gaza to enable its long-time rival, Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, to lead reconstruction efforts, but that it would not give up its arsenal and control over thousands of armed men.
The Gaza war grew out of the killing of three Israeli teens in the West Bank in June. Israel blamed the killings on Hamas and launched a massive arrest campaign, rounding up hundreds of the group's members in the West Bank, as Hamas and other militants unleashed rocket fire from Gaza.

Obama Cartoon

Oracle sues Oregon over health insurance exchange

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/08/oracle-sues-oregon-over-health-insurance-exchange/

US conducts 2nd airdrop of food, water to Iraqi refugees after airstrikes

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/09/us-military-launches-airstrikes-on-targets-in-iraq/

Israel resumes strikes on targets after rocket fire from Gaza

Israel resumed strikes on targets in Gaza in response to rocket fire from the area shortly after the expiration of a cease-fire between Israel and the terror group Hamas, Israeli military officials said Friday.
The move came after military officials said Gaza militants had fired a barrage of at least five rockets at southern Israel shortly after the three-day truce between Israel and Hamas expired. The Israeli military said it responded with strikes "across Gaza."
At least one of the rockets fired from Gaza was successfully intercepted by the Iron Dome system over the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon while two rockets fell in open areas without causing casualties or damage, Haaretz reported.
Israel and Hamas had been holding indirect talks in Cairo on new border arrangements for the blockaded coastal territory. Israel said it was willing to consider easing border restrictions, but demanded that Hamas disarmed. The talks began during the three-day truce that ended at 8 a.m. local time on Friday.
A Hamas official had told The Associated Press before it ended that the group had decided not to extend the cease-fire.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev would not say whether Israel is interested in extending the cease-fire or if it will respond to the rockets.
Regev blamed Gaza militants for breaking the cease-fire. "The cease-fire is over," Regev said. "They did that."
Prior to the end of the cease-fire, the Israeli military said that the militants had fired two rockets at Israel. However, although the firing of the rockets violated the cease-fire, the Israel Defense Forces did not respond, The Jerusalem Post reported. 
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the fire from Gaza. There are a number of militant groups in the crowded territory that operate outside the control of Hamas with rockets of their own.
In Cairo, the gaps between Israel and Hamas were wide, and it was likely from the start that an extension of the truce would be needed. Hamas has said it will not even contemplate Israel's demand that it disarm. Israel has said it will not lift the blockade of Gaza without a demilitarization of Gaza.
The blockade has been enforced by Israel and Egypt to varying degrees since Hamas seized Gaza by force in 2007.
The war grew out of the killing of three Israeli teens in the West Bank in June. Israel blamed the killings on Hamas and launched a massive arrest campaign, rounding up hundreds of the group's members in the West Bank, as Hamas and other militants unleashed rocket fire from Gaza.
On July 8, Israel launched an air campaign on the coastal territory, and nine days later, sent in ground troops to target rocket launchers and cross-border tunnels built by Hamas for attacks inside Israel.

Obama authorizes airstrikes in Iraq, says 'America is coming to help'

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/08/obama-authorizes-air-strikes-against-militants-in-iraq/

Political Cartoon

Idiot Cartoon

‘Serious limitations’: Gov’t watchdogs unite in letter slamming Obama administration transparency

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/06/serious-limitations-govt-watchdogs-unite-in-letter-slamming-obama/?intcmp=HPBucket

Millions of uninsured Americans exempt from ObamaCare penalties in 2016, watchdog report finds

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/07/millions-uninsured-americans-exempt-from-obamacare-penalties-in-2016-watchdog/

Dog fetches paper cartoon

US military officials ID officer killed in Afghanistan as Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene

This goes back to the old saying about the Dog that bites the hand that feeds it.

U.S. officials identified the general killed in Afghanistan on Tuesday as Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene, who became the highest-ranking U.S. military officer killed in combat since 1970.
Greene, who was on his first deployment to a war zone, was involved in preparing Afghan forces for the time when U.S.-coalition troops leave at the end of this year. An engineer by training, he was the deputy commanding general, Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan.
Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said earlier that the assailant fired into a group of international soldiers at the Marshal Fahim National Defense University at Camp Qargha, a base west of Kabul, and was subsequently killed.
Another 15 people, roughly half of them Americans, were wounded. Among the wounded were a German brigadier general, two Afghan generals and an Afghan officer, whose rank the Afghan Defense Ministry did not provide.
The attack occurred during a site visit to the university by coalition members.
Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said a "terrorist in an army uniform" opened fire on both local and international troops.
The Qargha shooting comes as so-called "insider attacks" --  incidents in which Afghan security turn on their NATO partners -- largely dropped last year. In 2013, there were 16 deaths in 10 separate attacks. In 2012, such attacks killed 53 coalition troops in 38 separate attacks.
The Army's top soldier, Gen. Ray Odierno, issued a statement Tuesday evening saying the Army's thoughts and prayers were with Greene's family as well as the families of those injured in the attack.
In a 34-year career that began at Fort Polk, La., Greene, a native of upstate New York, earned a reputation as an inspiring leader with a sense of humility. He had been in Afghanistan since January.
At the time of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks Greene was serving at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and when the U.S. invaded Iraq in March 2003 he was a student at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, at the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Greene flourished in the less glamorous side of the Army that develops, tests, builds and supplies soldiers with equipment and technology. That is a particularly difficult job during wartime, since unconventional or unanticipated battlefield challenges like roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan, call for urgent improvements in equipment.
In 2009-2011, for example, he served as deputy commanding general of the Army's Research, Development and Engineering Command and senior commander of the Natick Soldier System Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Aberdeen, Maryland. During that tour of duty he gained the rank of brigadier general, and at his promotion ceremony in December 2009 he was lauded for his leadership skills and ability to inspire those around him.
Lt. Gen. Stephen Speakes applauded Greene for a "sense of self, a sense of humility" and an exemplary work ethic, according to an account of the promotion ceremony published by the Times Union of Albany, N.Y., which called Greene an Albany native.
"In every job I had we got things done that I think made our Army better, and it was done by other people," Greene was quoted as saying. "All I did was try to pull people in the right direction and they went out and did great things."
Greene earned a bachelor of science degree in materials engineering and a master's degree in industrial engineering, both from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. He later studied at the University of Southern California and also attended the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Leavenworth, Kansas.
In 2010, he spoke at the opening of the Social Cognitive Networks Academic Research Center, a research facility at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with the mission of improving the Army's understanding of social, information and communication networks, according to the Army's account of the event.
"We're in a fight now with an enemy that's a little bit different and uses different techniques ... and networks are a key part of that," Greene said.
He said finding patterns in the tactics of insurgents was difficult because of the way networks evolve and otherwise change. So the goal was to bring to light the patterns and determine how to anticipate and influence the actions of insurgents.
"The enemy is every bit as good as we are at using that network to our detriment so this is essential work, this is about defending our country," Greene said. "You must know that there is a direct application on the battlefield and we're using it today, but we don't really understand it yet so this is a critical element."
His awards include the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Service Medal, a Meritorious Service Award and an Army Commendation Medal.

Suspects in murder of Border Patrol agent arrested and deported numerous times

RAYMONDVILLE, Texas -- Two illegal immigrants from Mexico who were charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of an off-duty U.S. Border Patrol agent in front of his family in Texas have been arrested and deported numerous times, police sources told FoxNews.com.
One suspect has been arrested no fewer than four times for entering the U.S. illegally, according to federal court records. The other has been deported twice after entering the U.S. illegally, sources said.
Gustavo Tijerina, 30, and Ismael Hernandez, 40, were arraigned Tuesday afternoon inside the Willacy County jail library. They were ordered held without bail after being charged with capital murder of a peace officer, attempted murder, and a variety of lesser charges.
The pair, who have been living in Texas illegally, confessed after being interviewed multiple times Monday to killing Border Patrol agent Javier Vega Jr. in front of his wife and two kids and his parents Sunday night while they were fishing in Santa Monica, Sheriff Larry Spence told FoxNews.com.
They finally confessed to the robbery and indicated they knew they had killed someone, but did not know it was an off-duty Border Patrol agent, Spence said in an interview in his office Tuesday morning.
"They do now," he said.
When asked how the suspects reacted when they learned the victim was a Border Patrol agent, Spence said, "shock and concern."
The sheriff said the two suspects were likely connected to cartels or other criminal gangs.
"They claim to have been involved in other incidents, this means you've got stolen vehicles going into Mexico," he said.
"Everything is going to be cartel-related, there's a connection somehow.
"This is not the first episode of border violence in Willacy County but it's the first time someone's been killed," he said.
Tijerina, who according to records was arrested at least four times between 2007 and 2010 for entering the U.S. illegally, and Hernandez allegedly approached Vega and his family and tried to rob them on Sunday night. When Vega pulled out his weapon, the suspects allegedly shot him in the chest, killing him.Vega's father was shot in the hip and is recovering at a nearby hospital.
Both Tijerina and Hernandez were arraigned on seven charges: capital murder of a peace officer, attempted murder, four counts each of aggravated robbery and one count of tampering with evidence. When asked by the judge if they wanted to notify the Mexican Consulate and if they wanted attorneys, both said yes. Each also wanted to be allowed to call family members.
At 12:45pm, the first suspect, Tijerina, appeared before Judge George Solis. He wore an orange short-sleeve shirt and pants and black flip flops with silver chains around his ankles. His blood-shot eyes bulged in apparent surprise when the judge told him he faced seven different counts.
Tijerina at several points during his arraignment looked around the room and stared at each person, including this reporter and two others, and the county sheriff.
When the charges were being read, Tejerina interrupted to say there was no robbery. Sources told FoxNews.com Tejerina is the one believed to allegedly have fired the shots that killed Vega.
As he was being walked out, he asked if he could have a Bible from the library shelf. He was told he would be brought one later in his cell.
After Tijerina had been escorted out of the small room, Hernandez, thin and lanky and wearing dark green prison garb, was brought in about 1:10pm. He was more vocal than the first suspect. When told of the seven charges he was facing, Hernandez exclaimed "seven charges?" in Spanish.
"I don't understand why I'm being accused of so many things," he told the judge.
Hernandez said he tested negative for gunshot powder. Sources said this suspect’s job in the robbery-turned-murder was to drive the car they planned to steal.
Hernandez said he wanted to tell his wife and his brothers "who live here" what had happened.
"I wish I could let my wife know and my brothers, the ones who are here," he said.
When he was told a lawyer would be provided if he couldn't afford one, Hernandez said, "Yo no tengo deniro. No tengo nada." ("I don't have money, I don't have anything.")
According to court records, Tijerina, who also goes by the name Tijerina-Sandoval, pleaded guilty to entering the U.S. illegally on July 9, 2007. He was given a 30-day sentence with credit for time served and charged a $10 fee.  
Three months later, on Oct. 4, he was again found guilty of entering the country illegally and was sentenced to 60 days in jail and $10 fee. In a criminal complaint, he said he entered the U.S. on Sept. 1 and was encountered by border patrol agents near Weslaco, Texas, on Oct. 3. He had waded across the Rio Grande River near Progreso, Mexico, court records show.
A year later, on Oct. 25, 2008, he again crossed into the U.S. by wading across the river. On Nov. 18, 2008, he was given 90 days in jail and another $10 special assessment fee.
On Dec. 15, 2009, Tijerina was indicted by a grand jury on charges of entering the U.S. illegally yet again. The indictment says he "had previously been denied admission, excluded, deported and removed, knowing and unlawfully was present in the United States having been found near Edinburg, Texas." Court records say he had not obtained consent from the U.S. attorney general and the secretary of homeland security to reapply for admission into the U.S.
A warrant issued for his arrest said he faced up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
He was held without bond on Jan. 26, 2010. He was given nine months in jail and fined $100.
Sources confirmed that these court cases involved the same Tijerina in custody for killing the Border Patrol agent. They said Hernandez, the other suspect, has been deported twice for entering the U.S. illegally.

Kerry calls for fresh Middle East peace talks as Cairo mediations get underway

Where's Obama in this matter?

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has called on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to use the ongoing 72-hour truce that halted fighting in the Gaza Strip as a stepping-stone to restart more far-reaching negotiations. 
Speaking to the BBC, Kerry said that both sides needed to make a "bigger, broader approach to the underlying solution of two states," adding "I believe that the situation now that has evolved will concentrate people's minds on the need to get back to the negotiations and try and resolve the issues."
Kerry spoke on the second day of the truce, which came into effect Tuesday morning and was precipitated by Israel's withdrawal of all ground forces from Gaza. Israeli troops had begun their ground offensive July 17, nine days after the commencement of airstrikes against Hamas rocket sites as part of Operation Protective Edge. Israel said it had destroyed 32 cross-border tunnels used by Hamas to attack Israeli soldiers and civilians. 
In the BBC interview, Kerry said that Israel had a right to defend itself against rocket attacks from Gaza, saying ""No country can live with that condition and the United States stands squarely behind Israel's right to defend itself in those circumstances. Period."
Kerry added that Hamas had "behaved in an unbelievably shocking manner engaging in this activity and, yes, there has been horrible collateral damage as a result." 
Delegations from Israel and the Palestinians were in Cairo Wednesday for the scheduled start of talks on a longer-term cease-fire. As part of the format of the indirect talks, Egyptian mediators planned to shuttle between them to try to work out a deal.
The Palestinian delegation is led by a confidant of Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and includes members of Hamas and other factions. The delegation has presented a list of demands, including a lifting of a joint Israel-Egypt blockade of Gaza and a release of Palestinian prisoners arrested by Israel in a recent West Bank sweep
Israel has refused to do lift the blockade in the past, claiming that such an action would lead to Hamas importing more weapons into the territory, and has countered with demands that Hamas be made to disarm. 
"The extent to which we are going to be ready to cooperate with the efforts to have better access and movement in Gaza will deeply depend on the kind of arrangements that would secure our peace and security," Yossi Kuperwasser, a senior official in Israel's Strategic Affairs Ministry, told the Associated Press.
That demand, in turn, has been rejected by senior Hamas officials, with one telling the AP "We'd take the life of anyone who tries to take the weapons of resistance."
The AP also reported that the outlines of a proposed solution would call for Abbas would oversee rebuilding in Gaza and reassert his authority in the territory that his Fatah faction lost to Hamas in 2007.
Forces loyal to Abbas would be deployed at Gaza's crossings to encourage Israel and Egypt to lift the blockade they imposed after the Hamas takeover.
Kuperwasser, the Israeli official, told reporters earlier Tuesday that having forces loyal to Abbas deployed at the Gaza crossings would likely not be enough to allow restrictions to be eased, and that there should also be international supervision.
"Yes, they (Abbas' forces) can have a role in the crossings, but we can't say we can fully trust just Abu Mazen," he said, referring to Abbas. "It's got to be something more robust. International and Egyptian elements should be involved in it. And other means of supervision should be involved as well."
One key sticking point will be the import of construction materials, including cement and steel. Israel says that such materials, meant for civilian use, were diverted in the past by Hamas to build the cross-border attack tunnels
Mohammed Mustafa, a deputy prime minister in the Abbas-led government, said he has already started preparing a Gaza reconstruction plan that would be presented at an international pledging conference in Norway tentatively scheduled for early September. He said the usual lineup of donors — the United States, European Union, Japan, Arab states and international organizations like the World Bank are likely to be there.
The Islamic militant group's fortunes changed dramatically last year after the Egyptian military deposed a Hamas-friendly government in Cairo and began closing hundreds of smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border.
The closures deprived Hamas of a key source of revenue — the taxation of goods brought through the tunnels — and prevented weapons and cash destined for Hamas from flowing into Gaza.

Obama As The World Burns Cartoon

Democratic strategist erases Twitter account after remarks about McConnell's wife

WASHINGTON –  A Democratic operative deleted her Twitter account Monday following a series of what some called racist remarks about Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao.
Chao, former U.S. Labor Secretary under President George W. Bush, is Asian.
Kathy Groob, who describes herself as an “advocate for women in politics,” sent a series of tweets related to Chao at a political event Saturday.
According to WKMS, Groob sent the tweets in response to comments McConnell made at the event, in which he referred to his wife as "the only Kentucky woman who served in a president’s cabinet."
In one tweet Groob wrote, “Hey Mitch, nothing against you wife and spouses should be off limits; since you mentioned, she isn’t from KY, she is Asian.”
Groob followed that tweet with another: “Google Elaine Chao, #MitchMcConnell’s wife. No mention of Kentucky, she is Asian” Groop wrote.
Her racially-charged comments drew a firestorm on Twitter from people who questioned why Groob was pushing a narrative that someone who is Asian could not also be from Kentucky.
In Chao's case, she and her family came to the U.S. from Taiwan when she was a child. She has been married to McConnell for more than two decades.
The state chapter for the Democratic Party condemned Groop’s tweets, calling her comments “abhorrent” and saying they “have no place in Kentucky politics.”
They added, “We strongly denounce them.”
Following widespread criticism from her own party, Groob later apologized for her “poor choice of words” and deleted her Twitter account.
Kentucky’s Senate race is one of the highest-profile races during this year’s midterm elections. It pits McConnell against Democratic candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes.
Both candidates were at the Fancy Farm Picnic – a colorful political festival in Kentucky – over the weekend.
The event -- which drew a record crowd of 5,000 this year -- invites both Democratic and Republican candidates on stage to deliver short speeches while being heckled by the crowd.
Calls for comment to the offices of McConnell and Grimes were not immediately returned.

Israel says ground troops out of Gaza as cease-fire takes effect

The Israeli military has said that all of its ground forces have been removed from Gaza as a 72-hour cease-fire went into effect Tuesday. 
The truce, agreed upon Monday by Israel and Hamas, took effect at 8 a.m. local time Tuesday (1 a.m. Eastern Time). The Times of Israel reported that a barrage of rockets were fired from Gaza minutes before the cease-fire was due to take effect. The paper also reported that Israeli's Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted two rockets over central Israel, while two other rockets fell into open areas in southern Israel near the Gaza border, causing no damage or injuries. 
There were also signs of tensions created by the Gaza fighting spreading to Jerusalem and the West Bank, including two attacks police say were carried out by Palestinian militants.
Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told The Associated Press that the withdrawal would go forward after forces completed the destruction of the last of the 32 known tunnels used by Hamas militants to cross between Gaza and Israel to carry out attacks on soldiers and civilians. 
Israel launched its ground offensive in Gaza on July 17, nine days after beginning airstrikes targeting Hamas militants and weapons caches. The Times of Israel, citing an Israel Defense Forces source, reported that approximately 900 Hamas operatives have been killed during the fighting. By contrast, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry has repeatedly claimed that 1,900 Palestinians have been killed, mostly civilians. The war has also claimed the lives of 67 Israelis, all but three of whom were soldiers. 
Lerner said that some some 3,500 rockets had been fired at Israel by the time the cease-fire came into effect.He estimated that Israeli forces destroyed another 3,000 rockets on the ground -- but that Hamas has an equal number for future use. Lerner also declined to say how many ground forces had been involved in the Israeli operation, though the military acknowledged calling up 86,000 reservists, including rotations, during the course of its Gaza operation. 
Israel and Hamas were scheduled to hold indirect talks in Cairo during the cease-fire period in an attempt to broker a more durable settlement. However, the gaps between the sides are vast. Hamas wants Israel and Egypt to lift their seven-year-old Gaza border blockade, which Israel says would lead the militant group to import more weapons with which to attack Israeli soldiers and civilians. For its part, Israel has insisted that Hamas be disarmed. 
Previous attempts by diplomats to broker an end to the fighting have failed, and ending the conflict without a sustainable truce a sustainable truce raises the probability of more cross-border fighting in the future.

Rep. King reignites impeachment debate, White House unconvinced House has dropped the issue

Iowa GOP Rep. Steve King reignited the debate Sunday about the Republican-led House considering impeachment proceedings for President Obama, just days after party leaders furiously tried to extinguish such talk.
King suggested on “Fox News Sunday” that the impeachment issue could be reconsidered if Obama again uses his executive powers to delay or defer deportation for illegal immigrants beyond those brought illegally to the United States in past years by their parents.
“I think then we have to start, sit down and take a look at that,” King said.
Political observers have suggested Obama will expand his 2012 executive memo on deportation to include the surge of illegal Central American youths because Congress on Friday went on a five-week summer recess without passing legislation to help fix the crisis.
The GOP-led House passed legislation, but the Democrat-led Senate did not.
On Sunday, White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer told ABC’s “This Week” that it would be “foolish to discredit the possibility” that House Republicans would try impeachment.
King, a member of a House subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security, told Fox: “None of us want to do the thing that's left for us as an alternative.
“But if the president has decided that he simply is not going to enforce any immigration law or at least not against anybody except the felons, which he has done already … I think Congress has to sit down and have a serious look at the rest of this Constitution and that includes that "I" word we don't want to say.” 
On Tuesday, House Speaker John Boehner said his chamber has no intentions of trying to impeach the president and that such a notion is merely a Democratic fundraising “scam.”
“Talk about impeachment is coming from the president’s own staff and coming from Democrats on Capitol Hill,” he said.
Democrats have used the impeachment issue, raised by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee, and others to fundraise a reported $3.1 million over roughly the past two weeks and to give Democratic incumbents an issue to run on in November.
Pfeiffer also said Sunday that talk about the president taking more executive action without getting the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security input he has requested is “uninformed speculation.”
“Let’s wait and see,” he said.

Gaza cease-fire window opens hours after Israeli strike kills militant leader

A seven-hour humanitarian cease-fire period began in the Gaza Strip Monday, hours after an Israeli airstrike killed a leader of the Islamic Jihad militant group. 
The group said that its commander in the northern part of the strip, Daniel Mansour, died when the Israeli strike hit his home just before dawn Monday. The Islamic Jihad group is an ally of Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. However, The Wall Street Journal reported that Islamic Jihad may be using the present fighting to increase its clout in the region.
U.S. and Israeli officials told the paper that Islamic Jihad has closer ties to Iran than Hamas, and said the group might have been pressured by Iran to continue fighting in defiance of any truce. 
The Israeli military said the cease-fire, which began at 10 a.m. local time (3 a.m. Eastern Time), would not apply to areas where troops were still operating and where they would respond to any attacks.
Israel has been drawing down its ground operation since the weekend but has kept up heavy aerial, offshore and artillery bombardments of the strip. The Gaza war, now in its fourth week, has left more than 1,800 Palestinians and more than 60 Israelis dead. However, it is unclear how many of the Palestinian dead are civilians. 
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the group was skeptical about the Israeli truce announcement. "We do not trust such a calm and call on our people to take caution," Zuhri said.
The Journal reported Monday that U.S. officials are concerned that divisions between the political and military wings of Hamas have contributed to difficulties in securing a lasting cease-fire. Since most of the militant group's political leaders -- who are more likely to support a truce -- live outside of Gaza, officials and analysts say that it is possible that their messages are not being transmitted quickly enough to fighters on the ground.
Israel launched its military operation in Gaza on July 8 in response to weeks of heavy rocket fire and has since carried out more than 4,600 airstrikes across the crowded seaside territory. It sent in ground forces on July 17 in what it said was a mission to destroy the tunnels used by Hamas to carry out attacks inside Israel.
Since the fighting erupted, Hamas has fired more than 3,200 rockets into Israel, many of them intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome defense system.
Overnight, Israeli forces carried out new airstrikes while Israeli tanks and navy gunboats fired dozens of artillery shells, targeting houses, agricultural plots and open areas, Gaza police said. They said Israeli jet fighters destroyed three mosques, nine houses, five seaside chalets and a warehouse for construction material.
The Gaza police said Israeli navy boats also approached the northern coast of the strip and soldiers tried to land in the area. On the ground, there were clashes in the southern town of Rafah and southeast of Gaza City, they said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
U.N. officials claim more than three-quarters of the dead in the war have been civilians, including the 10 people killed Sunday at a U.N. school that has been converted into a shelter in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the attack a "moral outrage and a criminal act" and demanded a quick investigation, while the U.S. State Department condemned the strike in unusually strong language.
According to witnesses, Israeli strikes hit just outside the main gates of the school on Sunday. The Red Crescent, a charity, said the attack occurred while people were in line to get food from aid workers. Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said in addition to the dead, 35 people were wounded.
Robert Turner, director of operations for the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency in Gaza, said the building had been providing shelter for some 3,000 people. He said the strike killed at least one U.N. staffer.
"The locations of all these installations have been passed to the Israeli military multiple times," Turner said. "They know where these shelters are. How this continues to happen, I have no idea."
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, said Sunday that Israel had detected some 30 tunnels that were dug along the border and had substantially minimized "this huge threat."
But he warned the operation was not over and that Israel would continue to target Hamas' rocket-firing capabilities and its ability to infiltrate Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under international pressure to halt the fighting due to the heavy reported civilian death toll.
U.N. shelters in Gaza have been struck by fire seven times in the latest Israeli-Hamas round of fighting. UNRWA, the U.N. agency that assists Palestinian refugees, says Israel has been the source of fire in all instances. But it also has said it found caches of rockets in vacant UNRWA schools three times.
Israel accuses Hamas of using civilian areas for cover and says the Islamic militant group is responsible for the heavy death toll because it has been using civilians as "human shields."
Israeli artillery shells slammed into two high-rise office buildings Sunday in downtown Gaza City, police and witnesses said. Al-Kidra said more than 50 Palestinians were killed, including 10 members of one family in a single strike in the southern Gaza Strip.
Israel said that it attacked 63 sites on Sunday and that nearly 100 rockets and mortars were fired at Israel.

Obama Cartoon

Report: Bill Clinton Has Earned $104.9 Million in Speaking Fees Since 2001

While in office this guy was impeached? But he's still making big bucks talking, what the hell is this world coming too! 

 Click to read more:

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2014/06/27/report-bill-clinton-has-earned-1049-million-in-speaking-fees-since-2001-n1856549

SUNY paid Hillary Clinton $275K for speech

http://nypost.com/2014/07/16/suny-paid-hillary-clinton-275k-for-speech/

Israeli forces begin regrouping near Gaza border after Netanyahu issues new warning to Hamas

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/08/03/israeli-forces-regroup-near-gaza-border-after-netanyahu-issues-new-warning-to/

Pelosi confronts GOP congressman in rancorous House debate

A heated debate over the southern border crisis late Friday led to a rancorous confrontation on the floor of the House between House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rep. Tom Marino, R-Pa.
The dustup began when Marino accused Democrats of neglecting the immigration issue during their control of the White House and Congress in 2009 and 2010, saying that the party is now exploiting the issue for political gains.
"Under the leadership of their former leader, when in 2009 and 2010, they had the House, the Senate and the White House, and they knew this problem existed," Marino said. "They didn't have the strength to go after it back then. But now are trying to make a political issue out of it."
Soon after he made the remarks, Pelosi, in full view of House cameras, walked across the chamber to the GOP side of the aisle -- a rarity in the House -- to challenge Marino.
It was not clear what Pelosi said, but Marino responded immediately.
"It's true, madam leader, I did the research on it," Marino said. "You might want to try it. You might want to try it, madam leader. Do the research on it. Do the research. I did it. That's one thing that you don't do."
Reps. Ted Poe, R-Texas, Joe Barton, R-Texas, and Kay Granger, R-Texas, seated behind Marino, looked stunned at Pelosi's actions. The presiding officer, Rep. Randy Hultgren, R-Ill., told Marino to direct his comments through the chair and not at a fellow member.
"Well, it works both ways," says Marino.
After things seemed to calm down, Marino said, "apparently I hit the right nerve."
Pelosi then walked briskly across the chamber, making a beeline for Marino and shaking her finger at the congressman.
Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., could be heard saying off-camera, "what is she doing?"
After he was done speaking, Pelosi then pursued Marino through the chamber, and House chamber security were seen walking through the chamber.
Marino and Pelosi apparently spoke afterwards.
Pelosi spokeswoman Evangeline George told The Hill that Pelosi "just wanted to remind the Congressman that House Democrats had the courage to pass the DREAM Act -- and have the courage to stand up for what the American people want: bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform."  
She said that Pelosi accepted Marino's apology.
Marino told reporters afterward that he told Pelosi that his remarks were not meant to be personal or directed specifically toward her, The Hill reported.
Marino later took to Twitter to comment on the confrontation.
The House legislation, which adds additional funding for the National Guard and includes policy changes meant to speed deportations of illegal immigrant children surging across the southern border, was approved on a 223-189 vote, largely along party lines.

Israel bombards Gaza Strip, searches for missing soldier

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/08/02/israel-bombards-gaza-strip-searches-for-missing-soldier/?intcmp=latestnews

No cease-fire: Israel pounds Gaza after Hamas reportedly kidnapped Israeli soldier

The Democrats may stand with Hamas, but not this Blogger.

Tank fire and airstrikes pummeled Gaza, as Israeli forces moved deeper into the West Bank, searching for a soldier apparently captured by Hamas militants, despite a three-day cease-fire that didn't even last two hours Friday.   
The suspected kidnapping occurred shortly after a heavy exchange of gunfire erupted in the southern Gaza town of Rafah. Militants reportedly emerged from a tunnel shaft before a suicide bomber detonated himself, one senior Israel Defense Forces source told The Jerusalem Post.
Hadar Goldin, a 23-year-old 2nd Lt. from the central Israeli town of Kfar Saba, was apparently captured during the ensuing mayhem and taken back into Gaza through a tunnel, while another two soldiers were killed.
At least 62 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed in the fierce fighting that quickly shattered an internationally brokered cease-fire.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Secretary of State John Kerry that Hamas militants will ”bear the consequences of their actions, ” after reports of the kidnapping. Netanyahu told Kerry by phone Friday that Israel will continue to defense itself against attacks, Jewish newspaper Algemeiner reported.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu told U.S. Secretary of State Kerry that Hamas and the other terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip will bear the consequences of their actions and that Israel would take all necessary steps against those who call for our destruction and perpetrate terrorism against our citizens,” an Israeli government press office statement read.
Kerry issued a statement while traveling back to the U.S. from India Friday, condemning the violence in Gaza and possible kidnapping of the Israeli soldier, calling it an ‘”outrageous violation of the cease-fire. “
“Hamas, which has security control over the Gaza Strip, must immediately and unconditionally release the missing Israeli soldier, and I call on those with influence over Hamas to reinforce this message,” Kerry’s statement said.

“The international community must now redouble its efforts to end the tunnel and rocket attacks by Hamas terrorists on Israel and the suffering and loss of civilian life,” the statement concluded.   
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon blamed Hamas for violating the cease-fire and demanded the immediate and unconditional release of the missing soldier.
A Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum, would neither confirm nor deny the capture, saying it was being used -- along with news that two Israeli soldiers were killed in the Rafah area -- as a cover for a "massacre."
The Israeli military said the heavy shelling in Rafah that followed was part of operational and intelligence activity designed to locate Goldin. 62 Palestinians died and at least 400 were wounded in Rafah, Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said. Rescue workers were searching for people buried under the rubble, he added. He did not say whether those killed were civilians or militants.
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor sent a letter to U.N. Secretary –General Ban Ki-moon Friday, calling for the U.N. to condemn Hamas for violating the cease-fire and preventing humanitarian assistance in Gaza.  The letter also demanded Hamas be held responsible for murdering and kidnapping Israelis, and called for the missing soldier’s safe return.
“While Israel agreed to this cease-fire to allow humanitarian relief for the people of Gaza, Hamas agreed so that it could plan and carry out an attack and kidnap a soldier.  Hamas has sent hundreds of suicide bombers into our cities and towns and kidnapped our children.  In the last month, Hamas has also launched 3,073 rockets into Israel. How much more evidence is needed before the United Nations will finally designate Hamas as a terrorist organization and call for its disarmament?” the letter read.
Britain’s Channel 4 News reported that the soldier is from a family of British-Jewish immigrants and is a cousin – either second or third – of Israeli's defense minister, Moshe Ya'alon.
The cease-fire took effect at 8 a.m. local time and was expected to last for a period of 72 hours.  Both Israel and Hamas accused each other of breaking the cease-fire within two hours of its start.      
U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken said Friday if the soldier was, in fact, kidnapped by Hamas militants, it was a “barbaric violation of the cease-fire agreement,” and he must be immediately released.
"We urge those with influence over Hamas to exercise that influence to get Hamas to return the soldier that has been taken hostage and to live up to the agreements that were made just yesterday," Blinken said.
"There's no doubt that that soldier should be returned unharmed and immediately."

"Once again, Hamas and the terror organizations in Gaza have blatantly broken the cease-fire to which they committed."- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

United Nations Special Coordinator for Middle East Peace Robert Serry’s office issued a statement Friday, following reports of the cease-fire violation, urging Palestinian parties to reaffirm their commitment to the ceasefire.
“Serry is deeply concerned regarding the serious consequences on the ground that could arise as a result of this incident. He will continue his efforts to contain the violence and the risk of renewed escalation,” the statement said.   
A tweet from the official account of the Israel Defense Forces said that eight rockets and mortars were fired at Israel from Gaza, one of which was intercepted while the other seven hit "open areas."
"Once again, Hamas and the terror organizations in Gaza have blatantly broken the cease-fire to which they committed, this time before the American Secretary of State and the U.N. Secretary General," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in an earlier statement Friday.
An Israeli official said the apparent abduction marked a "very dangerous escalation of violence" and that there would be no three-day humanitarian cease-fire. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
The U.S. and U.N. said they had gotten assurances that all parties to the conflict had agreed to an unconditional cease-fire during which there would be negotiations on a more durable truce.
The Israeli Cabinet held a rare session after the start of the Jewish Sabbath on Friday evening to weigh options, including whether to expand the 25-day-old operation against Hamas.
If confirmed, Goldin's capture could dramatically change the trajectory of the conflict. Any cease-fire efforts would likely be put on hold and Israel might instead expand its ground operation. Israel has in the past gone to great lengths to return captured soldiers. In 2011, it traded hundreds of Palestinian prisoners for an Israeli soldier who had been captured by Hamas-allied militants in 2006.
The conflict has already devastated large swaths of the coastal area and killed at least 1,500 Palestinians, mainly civilians, according to Palestinian officials. Israel has lost 63 soldiers and three civilians.
Ambulances ferried the wounded to Rafah's al-Najar hospital, where bloodied bodies on stretchers were carried inside and family members frantically searched for loved ones. Many of the injured were young children, their clothes stained with blood. In one hospital room, four children were treated on a single bed.  
"We are under fire. Every minute or so, tanks fire shells," said Ayman al-Arja, 45, a resident of the area.
Despite the collapse of the latest truce, an Egyptian government official said Cairo had not canceled its invitation for Palestinians and Israelis to hold talks there. "Invitations were delivered already to the delegations," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media.

Russian official burns Obama with Putin-leopard pic

A picture says more than words could ever!

Ceasefire Cartoon

Clinton on Sept. 10, 2001: I could have killed bin Laden but 'I didn't'

Former President Bill Clinton, mere hours before the 9/11 terror attack, openly acknowledged that he turned down a chance to kill Usama bin Laden, according to a newly released recording. 
The former president can be heard admitting this in a speech to Australian business leaders on Sept. 10, 2001. 
Until now, Clinton's eerie words had not been made public. But a businessman who had access to the nearly 13-year-old recording handed it over to Sky News Australia, which broadcast it in a report Monday. 
"I'm just saying, you know, if I were Usama bin Laden -- he's a very smart guy, I've spent a lot of time thinking about him -- and I nearly got him once," Clinton said on the recording. 
"I nearly got him. And I could have killed him, but I would have to destroy a little town called Kandahar in Afghanistan and kill 300 innocent women and children, and then I would have been no better than him." 
"And so I didn't do it," he added. 
Clinton had recently left office at the time of the speech. 
This is not the first time that the notion was raised that the Clinton administration had the opportunity to detain or even kill bin Laden, but chose not to. Leading up to the final report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, otherwise known as the 9/11 Report, there were conflicting testimonies and information about whether the administration had taken Al Qaeda threats seriously and had turned down a chance to have bin Laden extradited to the U.S. on terrorism charges. 
In the end, the 9/11 panel found that there were several missed opportunities to go after bin Laden and Al Qaeda, including a point in which the Central Intelligence Agency had tracked bin Laden to a hunting camp in Afghanistan in 1999.  The Clinton administration declined to launch an attack for fear of hitting officials from the United Arab Emirates, who were at the camp on a hunting trip.