Sunday, June 12, 2016 -- Miss Oil Country Is First Runner-Up In Miss North Dakota 2016 Pageant Held In Williston, ND

For those who may have missed it, the Miss North Dakota 2016 pageant took place in Williston, at the Williston High School. Miss Grand Forks, Macy Christianson, lists her hometown as Minot. It was nice to see that "Miss Oil Country," Cara Mund, was among the five finalists. In fact, she was first runner-up. I assume these are one and the same: back in 2006, ten years ago, Cara Mund was a 7th grader at Horizon Middle School in Bismarck, ND, where she was crowned Miss Junior Teen Oil Country. 

I've never understood how Williston is always able to showcase some of these events. I think it's quite remarkable and quite wonderful for Williston to get the pageants. Williston is also a frequent host for the annual national Babe Ruth World Series League championships. 

Availability of lodging should not be an issue.

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The Politics Page
Obama Legacy

It turns out that a gun shop actually reported Omar to the FBI. See story below: Attorney General Loretta Lynch overruled FBI Director James B. Comey on firearms sales to those on terrorist watch lists. Something tells me Comey isn't so "comfy" any more. In Washington, when things go this bad, heads have to roll. My hunch is that with the largest mass murder on Obama's watch, and the "stuff" that is coming out about how the FBI bungled this case, Comey will soon be asked to resign. Posted 6:56 p.m. Central time, June 16, 2016.

The big question: why hasn't the president signed an executive order banning sales of assault rifles to those on no-fly lists; to those on the terror-watch lists; to white supremacists members. Just a start. The reason: blaming obstruction on GOP results in huge monetary donations from his gullible base.

It looks like the FBI has bigger problems than this. Not only did they close the file on the Orlando shooter, they also haven't even interviewed Hillary yet. In Washington Times, June 16, 2016:

Attorney General Loretta Lynch overruled FBI Director James B. Comey on Thursday, saying the Obama administration does support a ban on firearms sales to those on terrorist watch lists.

Mr. Comey last year had told Congress that the ban could end up alerting suspected terrorists that they are being investigated, and that could “blow” the cases his agents are trying to build.

The left's blind spot. From The Wall Street Journal, op-ed, Bret Stephens, June 13, 2016:

In the spring of 2013 Barack Obama delivered the defining speech of his presidency on the subject of terrorism. Its premise was wrong, as was its thesis, as were its predictions and recommendations. We are now paying the price for this cascade of folly.

“Today, Osama bin Laden is dead, and so are most of his top lieutenants,” the president boasted at the National Defense University, in Washington, D.C. “There have been no large-scale attacks on the United States, and our homeland is more secure.” The “future of terrorism,” he explained, consisted of “less capable” al Qaeda affiliates, “localized threats” against Westerners in faraway places such as Algeria, and homegrown killers like the Boston Marathon bombers.

All of this suggested that it was time to call it quits on what Mr. Obama derided as “a boundless ‘global war on terror.’ ” That meant sharply curtailing drone strikes, completing the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, and closing Guantanamo prison. It meant renewing efforts “to promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians” and seeking “transitions to democracy” in Libya and Egypt. And it meant working with Congress to repeal the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) against al Qaeda.

Comment: this whole thing stinks. One wonders whether the staffers who were on the OJ Simpson prosecuting team were "promoted" to the FBI. How many red flags did the FBI need? How many of your friends:

• have an Afghan father who runs a "hate" radio station in the US?
• have been investigated by the FBI, not once, not twice, but three times? (it looks like the IRS investigated "right wing" political groups longer and more aggressively than the FBI investigates folks like Omar)
• have a well-known history for violence? documented by his wife, his co-workers, the FBI
• are so "scary," your co-worker warns his employer; then quits when no action is taken?
• send dozens of harrassing each day to a co-worker?
• has made two pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia, in this case, 2011 and 2012?

It seems the FBI would have a "LinkedIn" application that would keep this terrorist case open, to the extent that the FBI would be sent a note when the individual buys an AR-15 -- which he did the week before the slaughter.

But again, this is the FBI that, after two years, still hasn't interviewed key people involved in the Hillary Clinton e-mail server case, and are clearly have no plan to bring charges before the election. 

People wonder whether ISIS has infiltrated the Department of Homeland Security? The bigger question is whether ISIS has also infiltrated a cabinet-level department? Like the Department of Justice?

Original Post

This is a screenshot from Obama-supporting media outlet: 

Updates

Later, 4:21 p.m. Central Time: Guns, assault rifles, immigration, open borders, the JV team, radical Islam -- it all becomes quite muddled, but the only thing Obama and Hillary will focus on: guns. And Americans are too smart to know this has anything to do with the "gun issue." This is all about the JV team, radical Islam, open borders, 99% of new Arabic immigrants are Muslim and support Sharia law (anti-gay).

Original Post

The banner at the Drudge Report certainly got my attention. Over at The Boston Globe it was just another headline story. Same with The Guardian. In both cases (and I'm sure everywhere else) it was the same: simply another headline story. Over at The Guardian, the story shared the top of the page with a story on "Nebraska's Hemp Battle: Farmers Say Officials Blocking a Gold Rush."

The first thing I thought of when I saw the Drudge banner this morning: the "Dukakis moment."

An FBI spokesman: 'Suggestions’ the suspect ‘may have had leanings’ toward jihadist ideology.

I wonder how long it will be before we have information on the shooter. [It turns out: "not long."]

• First posted: June 12, 2016, 8:30 a.m. Central Time, or thereabouts.
• Update, June 12, 2016, 9:28 a.m. Central Time, from The Los Angeles Times: "the shooter may have radical Islamic leanings." 
• Update, June 12, 2016, 10:28 a.m. Central Time: the suspect: Omar Mir Seddique Mateen, a US citizen from Port St Lucie, born to Afghan parents. No doubt a stellar student, with a 4.6 GPA, on his way to Yale, and known as a soft-spoken wonderful young man whose life ended too soon, too tragically. With no criminal history he would have "passed" gun checks without difficulty. I assume the disco had a "no-guns" policy.
• Update, 12:30 p.m. Central Time: the suspect, held a Florida security officer license and a state firearms license.
• Update, 12:32 p.m. Central Time: had been previously investigated by the same folks investigating Hillary's e-mail server, the FBI; as Maxwell Smart would say, "we missed him by that much.
• Update, 12:35 p.m. Central Time, the spin begins: "he wasn't very religious." 
• Update, 12:36 p.m. Central Time: the spin continues: "he was just among hundreds of known ISIS sympathizers." What? "Among hundreds." And their cases are closed; no longer under scrutiny. Gets a Florida security officer license; has a state firearms license; it appears Florida's application fails to ask whether one is an ISIS sympathizer; one can't ask about religious affiliation but it seems one should be able to ask about terrorist links/sympathies. 
• Update, 2:12 p.m. Central Time: Drudge banner now calls it an ISIS attack on the US. Wow. That's a pretty bold claim but by the end of the day, it may become a meme -- is it too far to say this is America's 21st century "Pearl Harbor"? 
• Update, 2:15 p.m. Central Time: man arrested with guns, explosives on way to Gay Pride parade in LA; all the hallmarks of a coordinated US attack.
• Update, 10:21 p.m. Central Time: it's being reported that suspect was employed by a "major" DHS contractor; concerns raised whether ISIS had infiltrated Homeland Security.
• Update, June 13, 2016: it turns out that while Hillary was SecState she denied a request to monitor the mosque attended by the shooter. Add these 50+ deaths in Orlanda to the deaths in Benghazi -- after awhile, that "what does it matter" reply is going to get old. Very old.
• The original report, I believe said 42 killed; that number has now risen to "at least 50" and one spokesman said that more were likely to die. An additional 53 other people are currently in critical condition. With "at least 50 dead" the suspect goes to the top of the list: this makes it the worst mass shooting in US history. It will be interesting to see what guns he used, and whether an armed club employee or armed customer could have saved any lives. It is being reported that he "wielded an assault-type rifle and a handgun" before dying in a gunfight with SWAT officers. When seconds count, SWAT officers will be there in minutes. It will be interesting to look at the timeline.
• One wonders whether SNL will do a parody of Hillary and/or Trump addressing this tragedy? 
• Guns, immigration, open borders, the JV team, radical Islam, -- it all becomes quite muddled, but the only thing Obama and Hillary will focus on: guns. 

Any bets on how tight security becomes at Disney theme parks in Florida and California?

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The Trainwreck

The Los Angeles Times is now reporting that Californians are more concerned about cost of health care insurance premiums than whether they have insurance in the first place. Of course, The LA Times interprets the poll one way, I interpret it another way.