Hayes: Obama’s ISIS approach 'the wrong way to begin a concerted campaign’

Steve Hayes said Wednesday on “Special Report with Bret Baier” that the mixed messages the Obama administration is sending to the public about the campaign being waged against the Islamic State militants are damaging to the administration's effort.
Hayes, a senior writer for the The Weekly Standard, said the administration's stance is sending the wrong message to the militant group, which is also known as ISIS and ISIL.
“I mean, the president gives a speech, a nationally televised, prime-time speech, in which he announces a non-war, and then we spend a week debating extensively and nationally about what we are not going to do," he said. "You have the president and his team, can’t decide whether to call it a war… They can’t agree whether there will be boots on the ground or not.”
Hayes called the messaging “exactly the wrong way to begin a concerted campaign” against a critical threat to our nation.
Moreover, he said that President Obama is sending a signal that while the Islamic State is a threat to our core interests, the U.S. is relying on other nations’ ground troops to solve the problem.
“[President Obama] is saying… ‘We’re going to get some other people to fight [ISIS],’” he said.

School tells kids to remove American flags on 9/11

Sometimes good intentions have unintended consequences. Just ask the principal of Woodruff High School in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Principal Aaron Fulmer made national headlines this week after he directed students to remove American flags from their pickup trucks on September 11.
The patriotic teenagers had mounted large American flags in their truck beds – in violation of a longstanding school policy.

American flag bumper stickers are fine. So are American flag T-shirts. But students simply cannot fly American flags in their pickup trucks.

The policy, which has been in place for more than 20 years, bans anything that creates a disturbance on campus or draws an unusual amount of attention to itself.
“A bumper sticker is not going to do that from a distance, but a pole flag is,” Superintendent Rallie Liston told me in a telephone interview. “The American flag was never an issue for us. It was never anti-American flag. It was just no pole flags – period.”
CLICK HERE TO JOIN TODD ON FACEBOOK!
Liston said the original rule was created to prevent students from showing up at school with Confederate flags.
“It was inflammatory,” the superintendent told me. “Finally, we reached a point where we said no more pole flags.”
American flag bumper stickers are fine. So are American flag T-shirts. But students simply cannot fly American flags in their pickup trucks. Such behavior is impermissible.  
As the superintendent explained, it prevents someone from showing up with something offensive.
“If it’s an American flag – everybody is excited about it,” he said. “But what if it’s the Nazi flag or another flag you might not be congruent with?”
As you might imagine, the school’s decision has led to lots of protests and name-calling. A group of parents even stood outside the school waving American flags.
Superintendent Liston says all the anti-American accusations are just as far from the truth as can be.
“These are the most God-fearing, flag-waving, patriotic people you will ever find,” he said. “They are God and Country.”
But he said that with the growing fears over the Islamic State as well as the 9/11 commemoration – he realized at bit of hindsight was necessary.
“We dropped the ball with 9/11,” he told me matter-of-factly. “In hindsight we apologize to any veteran or service person for this happening. That was not our intent. It was just a rule that has been consistently enforced.”
In the meantime, he said there’s a good chance that next year the school will host a special program commemorating 9/11.
“I don’t want to ever get in the position where we take the American flag down again,” Liston told me.
Superintendent Liston seems like a true Southern gentleman – and I believe his apology is sincere.
As we say in the South – you know when somebody’s cooking your grits. And Superintendent Liston was not cooking my grits.
Nevertheless, it’s deeply troubling when any public school suppresses the patriotism of American teenagers.

Jonathan Dwyer, Cardinals' running back, arrested on aggravated assault charges

NFL running back Jonathan Dwyer was arrested on aggravated assault charges Wednesday in connection to two altercations at his home in July involving a woman and an 18-month-old child.
Dwyer, who plays for the Arizona Cardinals, is the latest in a string of NFL players to be involved in domestic violence cases.
The Cardinals said they became aware of the situation on Wednesday and are cooperating with the investigation. 
"Given the serious nature of the allegations we have taken the immediate step to deactivate Jonathan from all team activities," a statement released Wednesday said.
"We will continue to closely monitor this as it develops and evaluate additional information as it becomes available."
The NFL said the case will be reviewed under the league's personal-conduct policy.
Police told Reuters that the incidents involved a 27-year-old woman and an 18-month-old child. One of the counts was "aggravated assault causing a fracture" to the 27-year-old victim on July 21. The victim alleged that Dwyer threw a shoe at her 18-month-old son, Fox10Phoenix.com reported. Police said Dwyer admitted to the incidents, but denied physical assaults during an interview with detectives.
Neighbors heard a fight and called police, who showed up at the residence. Police Sgt. Trent Crump said Dwyer hid in the bathroom until police left. The next day, Crump said Dwyer snatched the woman's cellphone and threw it from the second floor of their home to prevent her from calling police about another dispute.
The woman came forward last week, providing police with information about her injuries and text messages that indicated Dwyer "was going to harm himself because of what had been going on," police said.
The NFL has been rocked by domestic violence issues ever since a videotape surfaced that showed former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice knocking out his then-fiancee in an Atlantic City elevator. Then Minnesota Vikings star running back Adrian Peterson was indicted on child-abuse charges.
Critics have been calling on NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to step down after Rice only received a two-game suspension for the attack before the video emerged.
Dwyer, 25, signed with the Cardinals earlier this year and was their second-string running back after spending the last four years with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Australia raids foil reported ISIS beheading plots

Australian counterterrorism forces detained 15 people Thursday in a series of suburban raids after receiving intelligence that the Islamic State movement was planning public beheadings in two Australian cities to demonstrate its reach.
About 800 federal and state police officers raided more than a dozen properties across 12 Sydney suburbs as part of the operation -- the largest in Australian history, Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Andrew Colvin told the Associated Press. Separate raids in the eastern cities of Brisbane and Logan were also conducted.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the plan involved kidnapping randomly selected members of the public off the streets in Sydney and Brisbane, beheading them on camera, and releasing the recordings through Islamic State's propaganda arm in the Middle East. 
Police allege that orders for the attacks came from Mohammad Ali Baryalei, a 33-year-old former Sydney nightclub bouncer who is believed to be the highest-ranking Australian in Islamic State, also known as ISIS. A 22-year-old Sydney man, Omarjan Azari, appeared in court Thursday and is accused of conspiring with Baryalei and others to act in preparation for or plan a terrorist act or acts. 
Prosecutor Michael Allnutt said he was involved in a "plan to commit extremely serious offenses" that was "clearly designed to shock and horrify" the public. It is not immediately clear what sentence Azari faces if convicted. The accused did not apply for bail and did not enter a plea. His next court appearance was set for November 13.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott told reporters that he had been briefed on Wednesday night about the operation and discussed the planned beheadings.
"That's the intelligence we received," he told reporters. "The exhortations -- quite direct exhortations -- were coming from an Australian who is apparently quite senior in ISIL to networks of support back in Australia to conduct demonstration killings here in this country." ISIL is another name for the militant group that has established control over large parts of Iraq and Syria. 
The planned public attacks resemble the murder of Lee Rigby, a British soldiers who was attacked and killed in May 2013 by two Nigerian-born Muslim converts near the Royal Artillery Barracks in southeast London.
"This is not just suspicion, this is intent and that's why the police and security agencies decided to act in the way they have," Abbott added.
The arrests come just days after the country raised its terror warning to the second-highest level in response to the domestic threat posed by supporters of ISIS.
"Police believe that this group that we have executed this operation on today had the intention and had started to carry out planning to commit violent acts here in Australia," said Colvin, who is also the acting Federal Police Commissioner. "Those violent acts particularly related to random acts against members of the public. So what we saw today and the operation that continues was very much about police disrupting the potential for violence against the Australian community at the earliest possible opportunity."
"Right now is a time for calm," New South Wales Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said. "We need to let people know that they are safe, and certainly from our perspective, we know that the work this morning will ensure that all of those plans that may have been on foot have been thwarted."
Last week, Australian police arrested two men in Brisbane for allegedly preparing to fight in Syria, recruiting jihadists and raising money for the Al Qaeda offshoot group Jabhat al-Nusra, also known as the Nusra Front. Colvin said the raids conducted in Brisbane on Thursday were a follow-up to that operation. It was not yet clear how the investigations in Sydney and Brisbane were linked, he said.
However, Fairfax Media reported that the arrests of the men averted a terror attack by mere days.
The government raised its terrorism threat last week from "medium" to "high" on a four-tier scale on the advice of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization. The domestic spy agency's Director-General David Irvine said the threat had been rising over the past year, mainly due to Australians joining ISIS to fight in Syria and Iraq.
When announcing the elevated threat level, Abbott stressed that there was no information suggesting a terror attack was imminent.
Police said at the time there was no terrorist threat to the Group of 20 leaders' summit to be hosted by Brisbane in November which will bring President Barack Obama and other leaders of the world's 20 biggest economies to the Queensland state capital.
Australia has estimated about 60 of its citizens are fighting for ISIS and the Nusra Front in Iraq and Syria. Another 15 Australian fighters had been killed, including two young suicide bombers.
The government has said it believes about 100 Australians are actively supporting extremist groups from within Australia, recruiting fighters and grooming suicide bomber candidates as well as providing funds and equipment.

NFL Cartoon

Vikings tell Adrian Peterson to stay away from team until child abuse case resolved

The Minnesota Vikings issued a statement early Wednesday saying that running back Adrian Peterson must remain away from all team activities until his felony child abuse case is settled. 
The statement, from team owners Zygi and Mark Wilf, said that Peterson was being placed on the Exempt/Commissioner's Permission list. The move was an about-face for the team, which reinstated Peterson to the active roster Monday after deactivating him following the All-Pro running back's indictment Friday. 
"In conversations with the NFL over the last two days, the Vikings advised the League of the team's decision to revisit the situation," the team's statement read, in part. "After giving the situation additional thought, we have decided this is the appropriate course of action for the organization and for Adrian."
Peterson has an initial hearing scheduled for October 8 in Montgomery County, Texas on a charge of reckless or negligent injury to a child. He is accused of beating his four-year-old son with a wooden switch, leaving bruises and other wounds that were visible days later. Peterson told police that he was merely inflicting discipline and had not intended to hurt the boy. 
"We want to be clear," the Vikings statement continued, "we have a strong stance regarding the protection and welfare of children, and we want to be sure we get this right. At the same time, we want to express our support for Adrian and acknowledge his seven-plus years of outstanding commitment to this organization and this community."
"This is the best possible outcome given the circumstances," Peterson's agent, Ben Dogra, told The Associated Press. "Adrian understands the gravity of the situation and this enables him to take care of his personal situation. We fully support Adrian and he looks forward to watching his teammates and coaches being successful during his absence."
On Tuesday, a Houston television station reported that the mother of another Peterson's children filed abuse allegations with the state's Child Protective Services agency last year, claiming that Peterson had left a head wound while striking her son. 
Peterson missed the team's 30-7 loss to the New England Patriots Sunday, but would have been eligible to return for this week's game against the New Orleans Saints. 
The decision to reinstate Peterson prompted criticism from fans, former players and sponsors. Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton said Peterson's actions were "a public embarrassment to the Vikings organization and the state of Minnesota." Hall of Fame Vikings quarterback Fran Tarkenton told Fox News.com that he was "embarrassed" by the team's decision to reinstate Peterson. 
"These are serious accusations, Tarkenton said. "And the only way you’re going to get the attention of an NFL player is to take away his paycheck and take him off the field. This is way above winning or losing a football game."
The Radisson hotel chain suspended its sponsorship of the Vikings following Peterson's reinstatement Monday. On Tuesday, Castrol Motor Oil, Special Olympics Minnesota and Mylan Inc. all severed ties with Peterson, and Twin Cities Nike stores pulled Peterson's jerseys from its shelves.

Curtain, reviews come down on taxpayer-funded climate change musical

The curtain has come down on Climate Change: The Musical and reviews of the taxpayer-funded play about global warming are downright icy.
The play, which is actually entitled "The Great Immensity," and was produced by Brooklyn-based theater company The Civilians, Inc. with a $700,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, ended its run early amid a storm of criticism from reviewers and lawmakers alike. It opened a year late, reached just five percent of its anticipated audience and likely fell short of its ambitious goal of informing a new generation about the perceived dangers of man-caused climate change. 
Plus, it apparently wasn't very good.
“Despite fine performances, the musical mystery tour is an uneasy mix of fact and credulity-stretching fiction. It’s neither flora nor fauna,” New York Daily News reviewer Joe Dziemianowicz wrote in a review at the time. “[The] songs — whether about a doomed passenger pigeon or storm-wrecked towns — feel shoehorned in and not, pardon the pun, organic.”
The play, which featured songs and video exploring Americans’ relationships to the environment, opened in New York in April with a three-week run before going on a national tour that was supposed to attract 75,000 patrons. But it stalled after a single production in Kansas City, falling short of the lofty goals outlined in a grant proposal. It was envisioned as a chance to create "an experience that would be part investigative journalism and part inventive theater,” help the public "better appreciate how science studies the Earth’s biosphere” and increase “public awareness, knowledge and engagement with science-related societal issues.”
According to a plot description on the theater company’s website, "The Great Immensity" focuses on a woman named Phyllis as she tries to track down a friend who disappeared while filming an assignment for a nature show on a tropical island. During her search, she also uncovers a devious plot surrounding an international climate summit in Auckland, New Zealand.
The description touts the play as “a thrilling and timely production” with “a highly theatrical look into one of the most vital questions of our time: How can we change ourselves and our society in time to solve the enormous environmental challenges that confront us?”
Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, said the dramatic debacle was a waste of public money.
“There is no doubt that the Great Immensity was a great mistake,” Smith told FoxNews.com. “The NSF used taxpayer dollars to underwrite political advocacy dressed up as a musical. And the project clearly failed to achieve any of its objectives.” 
In a statement to FoxNews.com, the NSF said it is too soon to tell if the grant funds were wasted.
“This particular project just concluded in August and the final report has not yet been submitted to NSF,” the statement said. “Final reports are due to NSF within 90 days following expiration of the grant. The final report will contain information about project outcomes, impacts and other data.”
But Smith and others in Congress said the foundation owes an explanation to lawmakers - and taxpayers.
“The NSF has offered no comment, neither a defense of the project nor an acknowledgement that funding was a waste of money,” Smith said. “The NSF must be held accountable for how they choose to spend taxpayer dollars.”
Other reviews of the play were similarly dismal.
"Even the best adventurers can wander off course, and the Civilians do so on a global scale in The Great Immensity,” read a review from Time Out New York. “The inventive troupe’s latest effort is all over the map… It’s not easy preaching green.”
The Civilians, Inc. did not return requests for comment.
FoxNews.com first reported on the House Committee’s dismay over the grant program back in March. Smith had also questioned the validity of other grants from the NSF including; $200,000 towards a three-year study of the Bronze Age, Another $50,000 towards the survey of archived lawsuits from 17th century Peru and $20,000 for a study on the causes of stress in Bolivia.
“All government employees and their agency heads need to remember they are accountable to the American taxpayer who pays their salary and funds their projects,” Smith said at a March hearing.

‘Incredibly serious’: Cover-up claims in spotlight ahead of Benghazi hearing

Allegations that Hillary Clinton allies may have tried to shield the former secretary of State in the wake of the Benghazi terror attack are coming to the forefront ahead of the first public hearing of the special congressional committee probing the attack and its aftermath.
Speaking with Fox News, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., chairman of the select committee, on Tuesday made clear he eventually plans to call former acting CIA director Mike Morell to testify – alleging the former boss “intentionally scrubbed” the so-called talking points that were the basis for the administration’s flawed public narrative about the attack.
Gowdy made clear he would question Morell on why he allegedly removed information damaging to Clinton’s State Department. (Morell now works for Clinton’s former spokesman, Philippe Reines.)
Gowdy also responded to new and separate allegations from a former State Department official that Clinton confidants hid politically damaging files from the supposedly independent board probing the attack. Gowdy called the allegations “incredibly serious,” but stressed that they are only allegations at this stage.
It is unclear how deeply the hearing on Wednesday might delve into the actions of any of these officials. The topic for the hearing, set for 10 a.m. ET, is the implementation of the recommendations from the independent board, known as the Accountability Review Board.
Among those set to testify are Greg Starr, the department's assistant secretary for Diplomatic Security, and Mark Sullivan and Todd Keil, members of the Independent Panel on Best Practices, created to review the accountability board's efforts.Morell is not part of Wednesday’s hearing.
But the hearing, following weeks of private interviews and investigation, marks the first public airing of the committee’s work.
Gowdy, speaking with Fox News on Tuesday, continued to raise questions about the administration’s claims that murky intelligence initially led them to conclude, wrongly, the attack grew out of a demonstration on the ground over an anti-Islam film. Gowdy said there is “overwhelming” evidence of pre-meditation and “overwhelming” evidence of pre-planning in the 2012 attack, in which four Americans were killed.
Morell was involved in editing the so-called talking points on the attack, and Republicans have long questioned his role. But Morell said in a statement to Fox News earlier this year that “neither the Agency, the analysts, nor I cooked the books in any way."
A CIA spokesman also told Fox News earlier this year that the talking points were originally written for Congress’ purposes and were never meant to be “definitive.”
Gowdy also hinted Tuesday that he will call National Security Adviser Susan Rice and any others with direct knowledge of the administration’s initial statements about the attack.
Meanwhile, Gowdy did not comment in detail on the allegations that Clinton confidants hid politically damaging documents from the ARB.
The account from Raymond Maxwell, former head of the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (NEA),was first published in The Daily Signal. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, confirmed to FoxNews.com on Monday that Maxwell told him and other lawmakers the same story when they privately interviewed him last year about the attacks and their aftermath.
Chaffetz said that Maxwell claimed Clinton's chief of staff and deputy chief of staff were overseeing the document operation, which allegedly took place on a weekend in a basement office of the State Department.
"What they were looking for is anything that made them look bad. That's the way it was described to us," Chaffetz said.
According to Chaffetz' account of his interview with Maxwell, as well as the Daily Signal report, Maxwell said those scrubbing the documents were looking for information that would cast Clinton and senior leaders in a "bad light."
Chaffetz said such documents were said to be removed, so that Congress and the Accountability Review Board would not see them.
State Department spokesman Alec Gerlach denied the allegations in a written statement.
"That allegation is totally without merit. It doesn't remotely reflect the way the ARB actually obtained information," he said in an email. He explained that an "all-points bulletin"-type request went out department-wide instructing "full and prompt cooperation" for anyone contacted by the ARB, and urging anyone with "relevant information" to contact the board.
"The range of sources that the ARB's investigation drew on would have made it impossible for anyone outside of the ARB to control its access to information," he said.
On Tuesday, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., top Democrat on the House oversight committee, said Maxwell was interviewed by their committee and never talked about this.
Maxwell was one of four State Department officials disciplined in the wake of the 2012 Benghazi attack. He was put on administrative leave, and has spoken out before about how he felt he was scapegoated.
Maxwell was eventually cleared, but retired last year.