Human Shields

Michelle Obama complains about money's influence on politics, then asks for 'fat check'

First lady Michelle Obama is complaining on the fundraising circuit about the evils of money in politics -- while also asking Democratic Party supporters to “write a big fat check” before the November elections.
“So, yeah, there’s too much money in politics,” Obama said during a fundraiser Thursday in her hometown of Chicago. “There are special interests that have too much influence.”
However, she quickly pivoted and urged attendees at least twice to write a hefty check.
“There is something you can do right now today to make a difference and that is to write a big, fat check. I kid you not,” she told the crowd of about 150 at the Waldorf Astoria Chicago. “I’m going to be honest with you. That’s what we need you to do right now. We need you to write the biggest, fattest check that you can possibly write.”
Beyond helping Democrats win in the fall midterms, the money is needed to help President Obama make progress on his political agenda in the final two years of his presidency amid relentless Republican opposition.
“It’s gotten so bad, they’re even trying to block the work that I do on childhood obesity, and that’s really saying something,” the first lady said. “I mean, for most folks in this country, making sure our kids get decent nutrition shouldn’t be that controversial.”
She continued asking for fall elections money by saying: “Writing those checks is the single most impactful thing you can do right now. When you dig deep, when you max out, that translates into staff hired and offices opened and ads running where they need to run.
“You need to dig deep and you need to get everyone you know out to vote this November.”
Tickets for the event started at $500 a person and scaled upward to special donations of $10,000 and $20,000 per couple.

UN Security Council calls for 'immediate and unconditional' Gaza cease-fire

The U.N. Security Council ratified a draft statement early Monday calling for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. 
The council adopted the presidential statement as Muslims begin celebrating the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
The statement calls for both Israel and the Islamic militant group Hamas "to accept and fully implement the humanitarian cease-fire into the Eid period and beyond." It said this would allow for the delivery of urgently needed assistance. 
The statement also called on both sides to begin to "engage in efforts to achieve a durable and fully respected cease-fire," based on a proposal previously put forward by Egypt. Hamas has rejected previous Egyptian proposals for a truce in the region and insisted that any cease-fire agreement must include the lifting of a joint Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza. 
The resolution was drafted by Jordan, the Arab League's representative on the Security Council. The text "expresses grave concern regarding the deterioration in the situation as a result of the crisis related to Gaza and the loss of civilian lives and casualties," though it does not call for the Israeli military to pull out of the territory. 
Rwanda, the current council president, announced agreement Sunday night on the presidential statement and the immediate, rare emergency meeting. Presidential statements become part of the council's official record and must be approved at a council meeting. They are a step below Security Council resolutions, but unlike resolutions they require approval of all 15 members.
The Security Council is often deeply divided on Israeli-Palestinian issues, with the United States, Israel's most important ally, often blocking or using its veto on statements and resolutions pressed by the Palestinians and their supporters.
Jordan's deputy U.N. ambassador Mahmoud Hmoud said the presidential statement was the first Security Council document on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since January 2009, when the council called for an immediate cease-fire and withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza after another conflict with Hamas.
The Gaza health ministry claims the 20-day war has killed more than 1,030 Palestinians, though it is unclear how many are civilians. Israel has lost 43 soldiers, as well as two Israeli civilians and a Thai worker killed by rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza, according to the Israeli military.
The Palestinians and the Israelis both criticized the statement adopted by the council.
Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour said the council should have adopted a strong and legally binding resolution a long time ago demanding an immediate halt to Israel's "aggression," providing the Palestinian people with protection and lifting the siege in the Gaza Strip so goods and people can move freely.
Nonetheless, Mansour expressed hope that Israel will "honor and respect" a new humanitarian cease-fire which the Palestinians hope will last "for a long time" so all outstanding issues can be addressed, especially the siege.
"You cannot keep 1.8 million Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip in this huge prison," he told reporters. "That is a recipe for disaster, It is inhumane, and it has to be stopped and it has to be lifted."
Israel's U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor said the presidential statement didn't mention Hamas or the firing of rockets into Israel or Israel's right to defend itself.
He sidestepped several questions on whether Israel would accept a new humanitarian cease-fire, but stressed that it had agreed to five cease-fires since the conflict began.
"Every single time the international community called for a cease-fire, we ceased and Hamas fired," he said.
Prosor directed his statement to countries that give money to the Palestinians in Gaza, saying, "Your tax dollars are not being used towards education, civil services or development -- they are being used to develop a terrorist stronghold."
The statement calls for "full respect" for international humanitarian law and reiterates "the need to take appropriate steps to ensure the safety and well-being of civilians and their protection."
The statement also commends efforts by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to achieve a cease-fire. Ban is scheduled to address U.N. correspondents on Monday morning on his mission.
In the longer term, the statement urges the parties and the international community to achieve a comprehensive peace based on the vision of two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side in peace "with secure and recognized borders."

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu vows Israel will do 'whatever is necessary' in fight with Hamas

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/07/27/israel-resumes-gaza-offensive-after-rocket-attacks/

Mexican prison ordeal saps Marine Sgt. Tahmooressi's life savings

Click to see video.

7/27/14    

While Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi was living on a base and eating MREs in Afghanistan and earning a battlefield promotion, his paychecks from Uncle Sam were piling up in the bank.

He dreamed of returning to Weston, Fla., when his second tour of duty ended and buying a new truck, maybe getting a place of his own. At 26, and with a modest nest egg waiting, he had a future back home.

Now Tahmooressi languishes in a Mexican prison, plagued by Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. And the $65,000 he saved in the service of his nation is gone, according to his mother.

"He has already lost all of his life savings."- Jill Tahmooressi, mother of Marine imprisoned in Mexico

"He has already lost all of his life savings," his mother, Jill Tahmooressi, said. "When this is all over he will have nothing and will be facing an enormous debt."

Tahmooressi has been held since March 31, when he accidentally drove into Mexico at the San Ysidro, Calif., Port of Entry late March 31, after becoming disoriented from poorly lit street signs and being in a position on the road unable to make a last ditch U-turn. He was carrying all of his possessions, including three registered guns – legal in the U.S., but not in Mexico.

If convicted, he faces up to 21 years in prison. But even if he is set free, he will have nothing, his mother fears.

"He's been in jail for three months just for making a wrong turn and now he is broke," Jill Tahmooressi said. "He will walk out of jail a broke man."

Most of the money has been spent on attorneys, Jill Tahmooressi said. The Marine is now represented by Fernando Benitez, a legal star known for defending the mayor of Tijuana on weapons and corruption charges. While the family is confident in Benitez, two prior attorneys did little but send bills, according to Jill Tahmooressi.

She said their first lawyer, Alejandro Osuna, cost her son a prepaid retainer in excess of $10,000, although she declined to be more specific. Osuna was fired after he allegedly suggested Tahmooressi tell a judge at an April 28 hearing that he had never been to Mexico before his arrest, which was not true.

A second attorney, Lamberto Jesus Esquer Dabdoub, charged him $10,000 up front and didn't do anything prior to his firing eight days later because of lack of confidence by the family. Neither attorney ever submitted a shred of evidence to the federal court on Tahmooressi's behalf.

Benitez has yet to submit a bill, but given the case could stretch out for as long as two years, the Tahmooressi family is braced for expenses that could exceed $100,000.

The family of Jon Hammar, another Florida Marine caught at the border with a weapon he declared, told Jill Tahmooressi that in the four months he was in prison before his release in 2012, his legal fees alone exceeded $90,000.

Jill Tahmooressi said her son is shouldering the bulk of the expenses but she is not without her own financial burdens with the case. A nursing director at Miami Children's Hospital in Florida, she said she has already laid out more than $6,000 for travel to be with her son. The time she is taking from work is unpaid.

Jill Tahmooressi said she hasn't sought help because "economically, all of America has been hurting for so long." But three weeks ago, with the help of a California law firm that has been advising her, she established a charitable trust through Campaign Solutions in Washington. The name of the site to make donations for Andrew's defense is www.andrewfreedomfund.com.

But whether kind sympathizers chip in or the Tahmooressis have to go deeper into debt, the distraught mom said she would do whatever it took.

“I will pay any cost, including sacrificing our family home if need be, to pay the bills to Mexico associated with Andrew's release back to the states,” Jill Tahmooressi said.

For all you Obama Lovers, He hasn't lifted a finger to help!

Border agents say violent MS-13 recruiting at Arizona facility for new Central American arrivals

 Bailey: "This just shows you how incompetent our Government is on protecting us from outside threats."

MS-13 members are infiltrating a federal facility for Central American youths illegally entering the United States -- trying to cross the border with criminal pasts and recruiting others to join the notoriously violent, California-based gang, sources tell Fox News.
Shawn Moran, of the National Border Patrol Council, said the gang leaders are recruiting pre-teens, as they typically do, and following the lead of drug cartels also trying to fill their ranks from among the estimated 57,000 unaccompanied youths and others who have come to the U.S. from Central America in roughly the past nine months. 
He said agents have witnessed the recruiting at the Border Patrol’s facility in Nogales, Ariz., and that gang members are using a Red Cross phone bank there to “recruit, enlist and pressure” others illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
“It makes sense that MS-13 would do the same,” said Moran, vice president for the union, which represents border patrol agents.
He and local union officials also say agents are saying they cannot isolate admitted criminals and gang members, suspected gang members and those engaging in criminal behavior because they are minors.
The Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement each told FoxNews.com earlier this week that they have no knowledge of the MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, activities detailed by Moran and others. However, they pointed out that young unaccompanied aliens are held in ICE facilities for only the first 48 hours.
“We know it’s happening because agents are telling us,” Moran told Fox News. “The Border Patrol is trying to downplay it.”
He said agents have overhead the phone bank conversations and that potential recruits are given a phone number to call and say they are “willing to join” the gang.
MS-13 also has a large presence in El Salvador, which has in part led to many Central American youths fleeing that country. So at least some gang members would more than likely be among the tens of thousands of young illegal Central Americans who have recently arrived at the border, sources say.
Texas state GOP Sen. Dan Patrick said earlier this week that roughly 100,000 illegally immigrants living in his state are gang members.

Israel resumes Gaza offensive after rocket attacks

Israel said Sunday that it was resuming its ground offensive and airstrikes in the Gaza Strip early Sunday, closing a unilateral 24-hour cease-fire window after the Islamic militant group Hamas fired a salvo of rockets at southern Israel.
"Due to Hamas' incessant rocket fire during the humanitarian window, we are renewing our aerial, naval, and ground activity in Gaza," an Israel Defense Forces spokesman tweeted Sunday. The next tweet read, "The IDF has repeatedly urged the civilian population of Gaza not to approach combat zones."
The Israeli military said about a dozen rockets had been fired from Gaza since midnight Sunday, without causing any reported casualties or damage. Israel's Cabinet had decided to extend the cease-fire for 24 hours, until midnight Monday (5 p.m. Eastern Time Sunday), but warned that its military would respond to any fire from Gaza and would continue to demolish cross-border tunnels used by militants to stage attacks.
The rocket fire began late Saturday after Hamas, who have demanded the lifting of an Israeli and Egyptian blockade on the territory and the release of prisoners, refused to extend the truce.
"Once again Hamas is cynically using the people of Gaza as a human shield," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement.
Shortly thereafter, clashes erupted between Israeli troops and Gaza militants and the sounds of explosions echoed across the coastal territory. The Islamic Jihad group said one of its field commanders was killed by tank fire near the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis.
Gaza health officials claim that the 20-day offensive has killed more than 1,050 Palestinians, though it is not clear how many were civilians and how many were Hamas militants. Israel has lost 43 soldiers, while two Israeli civilians and a Thai worker were also killed by rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza.
The Hamas rejection of a further lull after fighting was halted for 12 hours Saturday complicated the efforts of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and European foreign ministers, who were meeting in Paris in hopes of transforming the cease-fire into a more sustainable truce.
Israel launched its military operation on July 8 and later sent ground forces into Gaza to stop relentless rocket fire and to destroy a sophisticated network of Hamas tunnels that could be used to infiltrate the country.
The military says it is doing its utmost to prevent civilian casualties, including by sending evacuation warnings to residents in targeted areas, and blames Hamas for putting civilians in harm's way.
Hamas and other militants in Gaza have fired more than 2,400 rockets at Israel since hostilities began on July 8, many deep into the Israeli heartland and toward most of the country's major cities. Casualties in the Israeli side have stayed relatively low thanks to Israel's sophisticated Iron Dome missile defense system and because residents have been vigilant about seeking shelter quickly upon hearing the air raid sirens.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said any truce must include a withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, and that tens of thousands of displaced people must be allowed to return to their homes. Israel's current terms are "not acceptable," he said in a text message to journalists.
Israel's acceptance of the cease-fire extension was premised on its soldiers remaining in Gaza to destroy the more than 30 tunnels the military says it has already found in the densely populated coastal strip. Israel says the tunnels represent a strategic threat because they allow Hamas fighters to carry out attacks on Israeli territory.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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