Obama decries 'gulf of mistrust' between minorities, police

This guy stirs up more problems than he solves!

WASHINGTON –  President Barack Obama on Saturday said the widespread mistrust of law enforcement that was exposed by the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black man in Ferguson, Mo. is corroding America, not just its black communities, and that the wariness flows from significant racial disparities in the administration of justice.
Speaking at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's annual awards dinner, Obama said these suspicions only harm communities that need law enforcement the most.
"It makes folks who are victimized by crime and need strong policing reluctant to go to the police because they may not trust them," he said. "And the worst part of it is it scars the hearts of our children," leading some youngsters to unnecessarily fear people who do not look like them while leading others to constantly feel under suspicion no matter what they do.
"That is not the society we want," Obama said. "It's not the society that our children deserve."
The fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in August sparked days of violent protests and racial unrest in predominantly black Ferguson. The police officer who shot Brown was white.
Obama addressed the matter carefully but firmly, saying the young man's death and the raw emotion that sprang from it had reawakened the country to the fact that "a gulf of mistrust" exists between local residents and law enforcement in too many communities.
"Too many young men of color feel targeted by law enforcement -- guilty of walking while black or driving while black, judged by stereotypes that fuel fear and resentment and hopelessness," he said.
He said significant racial disparities remain in the enforcement of law, from drug sentencing to applying the death penalty, and that a majority of Americans think the justice system treats people of different races unequally.
Obama opened his remarks by singling out Attorney General Eric Holder for praise. Obama announced Holder's resignation days earlier after nearly six years as the nation's chief law enforcement officer. Holder, who attended the dinner and received a standing ovation, will stay on the job until the Senate confirms a successor.
Holder visited Ferguson after the shooting to help ease tensions, and the Justice Department is investigating whether Brown's civil rights were violated.
Obama also announced that he is expanding My Brother's Keeper, a public-private partnership he launched earlier this year to help make young minority men's lives better. He said a new "community challenge" will task every community to put in place strategies to ensure that young people can succeed from the cradle through college and career.
Businesses, foundations and community groups help coordinate investments to develop or support programs geared toward young men of color. Educators and professional athletes also participate.
Obama said government cannot play the primary role in the lives of children but it "can bring folks together" to make a difference for the young.
Helping girls of color deal with inequality is also important, he said, and part of the continuing mission of the White House Council on Women and Girls, an effort that has involved his wife, Michelle, mother of their two teenage daughters.
"African American girls are more likely than their white peers also to be suspended, incarcerated, physically harassed," Obama said. "Black women struggle every day with biases that perpetuate oppressive standards for how they're supposed to look and how they're supposed to act. Too often, they're either left under the hard light of scrutiny, or cloaked in a kind of invisibility. "

Ferguson police officer wounded in shooting, authorities hunt 2 suspects

Authorities said a Ferguson (Mo.) police officer was shot and wounded while on patrol Saturday evening.
St. Louis County Police Sgt. Brian Schellman said the shooting took place at approximately 9:30 p.m. local time. KTVI reported that the officer was shot in the arm and sustained non-life-threatening injuries. At least a dozen law enforcement agencies responded to the shooting, and police helicopters canvassed the area, but no arrests were immediately reported.
St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar told reporters early Sunday that the officer was shot after approaching two men at the Ferguson Community Center, which was closed at the time. As the officer approached, the men ran away. When the officer gave chase, "one of the men turned and shot," Belmar said.
Belmar did not give further details about the officer's condition. He said the officer returned fire but said police have "no indication" that either suspect was shot.
The shooting comes amid a fresh flare-up of unrest following the deadly August 9 shooting of a black teenager, Michael Brown, by a white police officer, Darren Wilson. The shooting sparked days of violent protests and racial unrest in the predominantly black community. Some residents and civil rights activists have said responding police officers were overly aggressive, noting their use of tear gas and surplus military vehicles and gear. 
Belmar said he did not think the officer's shooting was related to two separate protests about Michael Brown's shooting that were going on Saturday night around the same time. Saturday's shooting occurred approximately two miles from where Brown died near his grandmother's apartment building. KTVI reported that dozens of protesters initially showed up at the scene in the mistaken belief that the officer had shot someone. 
By midnight, approximately two dozen officers stood near a group of about 100 protesters who mingled on a street corner across from the police department, occasionally shouting, "No justice; no peace."
On Thursday night, Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson attempted to march with protesters hours after releasing a videotaped apology to Brown's family. In it, Jackson acknowledged Brown's body should have been removed from the street much sooner than the four hours it was there as police collected evidence.
He insisted officers meant no disrespect to the community or the family. "I'm truly sorry for the loss of your son," Jackson said.
Witnesses said Jackson agreed to join marchers Thursday but failed to tell officers monitoring his safety to stand down. They said that led to some officers forcing their way into the gathering, then pushing and shoving marchers. Several protesters were arrested.
"If (the officers) had just not come in, everything would be all right," protester Steven Wash, 26, of Ferguson, said Friday.
"Jackson decided to come out and broker some peace and pretty much asked what he could do to build a new level of trust, and police continued to come, come, come," Wade added. "The olive branch he tried to extend was great, and it showed he wasn't a robot. But police forced him out like he was a diplomat in a war zone."
The unrest Thursday occurred two days after many in the St. Louis suburb complained police did little to douse a fire that destroyed a makeshift Brown memorial. 
The Justice Department, which is investigating whether Brown's civil rights were violated, is conducting a broader probe into Ferguson police. On Friday, it urged Jackson to ban his officers from wearing bracelets supporting Wilson while on duty and from covering up their name plates with black tape.
Ferguson residents complained about the bracelets, which are black with "I am Darren Wilson" in white lettering, at a meeting with federal officials this week.
Brown's shooting has also focused attention on the lack of diversity in many police departments across the country. In Ferguson, of 53 officers in a community that is two-thirds black, only three are African-American.
Also early Sunday, not far from Ferguson, an off-duty St. Louis city police officer was injured on Interstate 70 when three suspects fired shots into his personal vehicle, a police spokeswoman said.
Schron Jackson said the officer, who has nearly 20 years of experience, was being treated at a hospital for a minor injury to his arm from broken glass. She said there is no reason to believe the two shootings were related.

More than 30 people believed dead at Japanese volcano

The bodies of more than 30 people believed to be dead have reportedly been discovered near the summit of an erupting volcano in central Japan. 
A police official from Nagano prefecture told the Associated Press that the victims were not breathing and their hearts had stopped, which is the the customary way for Japanese authorities to describe a body until police doctors can examine it. The official added that the exact location where the bodies were found and the identities of the victims were not immediately known. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly.
Nagano prefecture posted on its website that about 30 people had "heart and lung failure."  Keita Ushimaru, an official in nearby Kiso town, said that Nagano crisis management officials had informed local authorities that at least four people with heart and lung failure were being brought down to the town, and that there were others in the same condition. The journey was expected to take about three hours.
Mount Ontake in central Japan erupted shortly before noon local time Saturday, spewing large white plumes of gas and ash high into the sky and blanketing the surrounding area in ash. About 250 people were initially trapped on the slopes, but most made their way down by Saturday night.
Volcanic eruptions without warning are rare in Japan, which monitors seismic activity closely. Typically, any volcanic mountains that show signs of activity are closed to hikers, but that did not appear to have happened this time. The BBC reported that Mount Ontake is a popular place to view autumn foliage. 
Earlier Sunday, military helicopters had plucked seven people from the mountainside Sunday. Japan's Fire and Disaster Management Agency said that 45 people had been reported missing and at least 34 climbers had been injured. The tally was lower than reported by local officials earlier, but the disaster agency warned that the numbers could still change.
Japanese television footage showed a soldier descending from a helicopter to an ash-covered slope, helping latch on a man and then the two of them being pulled up.
Defense Ministry official Toshihiko Muraki said that all seven people rescued Sunday were conscious and could walk, though he did not have specific details of their conditions. 
The Self-Defense Force, as Japan's military is called, has deployed seven helicopters and 250 troops. Police and fire departments are also taking part in the rescue effort.
An estimated 40 people were stranded at mountain lodges overnight, many injured and unable or unwilling to risk descending the 10,062-foot mountain on their own. Rescue workers are also trying to reach the area on foot.
A large plume, a mixture of white and gray, continued to rise from the ash-covered summit of the volcano Sunday morning, visible from the nearby village of Otaki. A convoy of red fire trucks, sirens blaring, and rescue workers on foot headed past barriers into the restricted zone around the mountain.
Shinichi Shimohara, who works at a shrine at the foot of the mountain, said he was on his way up Saturday morning when he heard a loud noise that sounded like strong winds followed by "thunder" as the volcano erupted.
"For a while I heard thunder pounding a number of times," he said. "Soon after, some climbers started descending. They were all covered with ash, completely white. I thought to myself, this must be really serious."
Mount Ontake, about 130 miles west of Tokyo, sits on the border of Nagano and Gifu prefectures, on the main Japanese island of Honshu. The volcano's last major eruption was in 1979.

Krauthammer on how Obama is downplaying radical Islam

Another Holder Cartoon

Ted Cruz: 'We need a president who will speak out for people of faith'

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told an audience of Christian conservatives Friday that it is time for “a president who will speak out for people of faith.”
Speaking to the annual Values Voter Summit, the possible 2016 Republican presidential candidate referenced the situations of imprisoned Christians in Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba and Mexico.
“Oh the vacuum of American leadership we see in the world,” Cruz said. “We need a president who will speak out for people of faith, prisoners of conscience.”
He also told a story about how his father became a Christian.
“You know, when I was a young child, my parents were living up in Calgary,” Cruz began. “They were in the oil business. And neither of my parents were people of faith at the time. Neither of them had a relationship with Christ. Both of my parents drank far too much. Both of them had serious problems with alcohol.”
“And when I was three years old, my father decided he didn’t want to be married anymore,” he continued. “And he didn’t want a three year old son. So he got on a plane and left Calgary and flew back to Texas to Houston. And he left us. Now, when he was in Houston, a colleague in the oil and gas business invited my father to come with him to Clay Road Baptist church.”
“And my father accepted that invitation,” Cruz said, “he went to Clay Road Baptist church and he gave his life to Jesus. And he went and bought an airplane ticket. And flew back to Calgary to rejoin my mother and to rejoin his son.”
Cruz said: “So when anyone asks is faith real, is a relationship with Jesus real, I can tell you, if it were not for my father giving his life to Christ, I would have been raised by a single mother without having my dad in the home.”
Cruz reminded the conservative audience that it had been a year since his Obamacare filibuster, an act that helped make him a favorite of the conservative base across the country.
“One year ago this week, I stood on the Senate floor and said I intend to stand until I can stand no longer,” Cruz said to applause.
The senator also joked about the recent fence jumpers who have breached security at the White House.
“You know, we should actually hold the media to account,” Cruz said. “Because I will say, in their reporting on this person who broke into the White House, they really have not used the politically correct term. And we should insist that ABC, NBC, and CBS refer to the visitor, according to the term that is politically correct: an undocumented White House visitor.”

California city council candidate receives death threats over Mexican flag flap

A Southern California city council candidate was fired from her day job and is receiving death threats after she posted a video in which she told a woman that it was “very disrespectful” to have a Mexican flag on her front lawn.
Tressy Capps, a political activist from California’s Inland Empire, filmed a video on her smartphone of her approaching a homeowner about the Mexican flag fluttering in front of her home. She asked the woman to take it down.
“Hi. Is that a Mexican flag in your front yard?” Capps asks the homeowner, who is inside her home. “You know we live in America right? This is the United States. So, why are you flying a Mexican flag in your front yard?”
Capps goes on to say the she finds the Mexican flag “disrespectful.”           
Capps, who is running for a local city council spot in Fontana, Calif., posted the video online – and it quickly went viral.
When her former employer Coldwell Banker got wind of the video, the banking giant promptly let Capps go from her position with the company.
"We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind," David Siroty of Coldwell Banker Real Estate said in a statement. "We hold our affiliated companies to high ethical standards. Each of our franchised companies is independently owned and operated and we fully support the local owner's decision to disassociate this independent agent from the brokerage firm and, by extension, our franchise system."
Capps, in her video, also suggests that the family could face fines and legal problems for flying the Mexican flag, but the Ontario, California City Attorney John Brown disputed that claim.
"The City of Ontario takes great pride in being one of the most ethnically and racially diverse cities in Southern California,” Brown said. “Those expressions of ethnic and racial diversity take many forms throughout our City, and the City has always taken the position that such speech is absolutely protected by the both the United States and California Constitutions."
In an interview with Fox News, Capps said she can’t believe one video she posted is causing such outrage.
“My family is being threatened, I’m being threatened. We may have to move. I don’t know – I’m really scared,” she said.
Capps, who said it was not a campaign stunt, has since said she regrets uploading the video onto YouTube and said it was in bad judgment. 
The homeowner with the Mexican flag on her lawn, Maria Banuelos, told a local Spanish-language news network that she didn’t think that the flag, which she says she has flown for 13 years, was bothering anyone. Her husband, Siefrado, told Fox News that while Capps has since apologized, the family does not believe she is being sincere.
“We don’t feel like she’s saying it from the heart. She’s just saying it from the mouth,” he said.  
In a Facebook post, Capps said she should not live in fear because of speaking her mind.
 “[T]aking a position on an issue does not make me evil, racist or unethical if I disagree with your position,” she said. “My life is being threatened and the business I built for 30 years has suffered over a flag video. My son is being bullied at school now and for that I am devastated.”
Capps said all she was trying to do was “to educate with my video about flag etiquette.” Clearly, she said, “I did a very poor job communicating that.”
“If you want to fly another country’s flag you do it in the proper way. The American flag flies on top; it has a place of prominence and then the other country’s flag is underneath,” she said. “It’s just flag etiquette.”

US launching complex operation to train, arm Syrian rebels amid airstrikes

Bailey : Will this end up being another screw up like ATF's Fast and Furious? http://www.latimes.com/nation/atf-fast-furious-sg-storygallery.html

WASHINGTON –  Newly launched airstrikes in Syria are only one piece of the puzzle in the war against the Islamic State, as the U.S. military prepares to launch a complex operation to train and arm Syrian rebels. 
Just how that operation, formally approved by Congress last week, will play out is largely an open question. But based on past operations including those the U.S. already is running, analysts say allies in the region would likely help in getting military aid to rebels -- whom the U.S. hopes will one day fight as a cohesive unit to rout the Islamic State in their Syria headquarters, aided by airstrikes. 
On Friday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the U.S. is now "setting up the vetting system" to determine which opposition fighters will get U.S. training. Hagel, while unable to say who the head of that opposition is, said that process would include "regional partners" as well as the State Department and intelligence agencies. 
Lt. Gen. William Mayville, head of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said earlier this week that the mission is in the "beginnings of implementation" and described it as "a multi-year program." 
This is not the United States' first foray into the region. 
In the year leading up to Monday’s airstrikes, the CIA had set up camps in Jordan with the purpose of turning Syrian rebels into competent foot soldiers. 
"It is my understanding most of the lethal aid that has been provided by the U.S. has been through the clandestine channel – the CIA," Jeffrey White, a defense fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told FoxNews.com. 
While the Pentagon said it could not comment further for this story, White speculated that there likely is a "third party being used to actually deliver" weapons to the Syrian fighters. 
He said the U.S. probably is getting help from Syria’s regional neighbors Jordan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. It remains unclear what role they might play in the new train-and-equip mission. Reuters reports that Saudi Arabia is among the countries that has offered to host a training facility. 
To date, the U.S. mostly has been sending humanitarian aid into Syria. For that, there is a clear route. 
A July vote from the 15-member U.N. Security Council opened up four routes from Iraq, Turkey and Jordan into Syria. The resolution, though, also approved a monitoring arm that would make sure only humanitarian supplies – like food and medical equipment – would be allowed in the country, effectively closing the path for governments to use those routes for military supplies. 
Earlier this month, Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the U.S. government is providing an additional $500 million in humanitarian assistance to Syria. The funds bring the total U.S. humanitarian figure to more than $2.9 billion. According to the latest numbers from the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, there are currently 10.8 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in Syria. Of those, 5.5 million are children. USAID is a federal government agency responsible for administering civilian foreign aid.
With the U.S. maintaining no ground forces in Syria, the route for military supplies may be more complicated. 
Still, Syrian opposition fighters have found a way to arm themselves over the course of the three-year civil war. "There’s no question that the rebels are getting weapons," White said, adding it’s nearly impossible to know the exact kind of weapons being fast-tracked to Syria in the wake of the U.S.-led airstrikes.
Sources tell FoxNews.com that U.S.-made weapons were used by rebels during a "test run" earlier this year. In April, a video uploaded by Harakat Hazm, a Syrian splinter with an estimated 7,000 members, showed its fighters using U.S.-made Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire-guided antitank missiles, commonly called TOW missiles.
The use of BGM-71 TOWs, which are capable of cutting through heavy armor, marked the first time U.S.-made anti-tank missiles had appeared in rebel hands. The TOWs were introduced during a time when Syrian forces, using Russian-supplied weapons and ammunition, were quickly gaining ground on the rebels.
In the past, the United States had sold TOW missiles to Turkey. In December, the Pentagon approved the sale of 15,000 TOWs to Saudi Arabia. Though it's unclear how exactly the missiles got to the rebels, Turkey and Saudi Arabia are both U.S. allies and have helped rebel fighters in the past. 
TOWs are used in 40 armies globally and are the “preferred heavy assault anti-armor weapon system for NATO, coalition, United Nations and peacekeeping operations worldwide,” according to Raytheon, the company that makes TOWs. Current versions of the missiles can penetrate more than 30 inches of armor. The missiles can be fired using a tripod or from vehicles and helicopters. 
Going forward, military experts say rocket-propelled grenades and other communication equipment are also on the list of items the United States wants to send to Syrian opposition.  
But arming rebels is only part of the multi-layered solution, they tell FoxNews.com.
Training local fighters may be the toughest battle yet – and several military experts FoxNews.com spoke to say there is no easy path to a post-Assad Syria.
“After three years of inaction, anything the United States does will be in a difficult environment,” Foreign Policy Initiative Executive Director Christopher Griffin told FoxNews.com. “We need to train the trainers. We don’t want to subcontract this to others.”
Just how long will the training take?
By the Pentagon’s own schedule, it could take up to five months to identify trustworthy rebels and then up to a year to train them into an organized militia. Defense officials say they can train 3,000 rebels per year once the program become operational. 
Amid concerns that the ambitious operation could simply take too long -- with ISIS continuing to threaten the entire region -- White claimed that training smaller groups could be done in weeks.
“To produce a basic soldier, it would probably take weeks or a few months depending on how good we want them to be,” White told FoxNews.com. 
Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Senate hearing that about two-thirds of ISIS’s personnel – which the CIA has estimated to be between 20,000-31,500 – are in Syria.