Assad Says There is No Civil War

President Bashar al-Assad once again showed his plain lack of connection with reality, on Friday.

During an interview, aired by Russia Today television, he stated that there is no Syrian Civil War.

Assad then said that the conflict is between him and a good portion of the world, but definitely not the Syrian people.

"The problem is not between me and the people. I do not have a problem with the people because the United States is against me and the West is against me and many other Arab countries, including Turkey, which is not Arab of course, is against me. If the Syrian people are against me, how can I be here?"

He also rejected suggestions that he find a safe haven in another country, to end the conflict, saying he would "live and die in Syria".

Syria's nearly twenty month long conflict has led to the deaths of over thirty-seven thousand people.

Rebel forces continue to slowly gain ground, throughout the country.

Meanwhile, reports out of Turkey said that over the last forty-eight hours, nearly ten thousand people have fled over the border, from Syria.

That number includes a group of twenty-seven Syrian military officers, including two generals and eleven colonels, who defected together.

Estimates place the total number of refugees, in Turkey, at over one hundred and twenty thousand people.

Refugees have escaped Syria, to every neighboring country, except Israel, that they could.

Those Who Do Not Learn From History...Aw, You Know the Rest!

Didn’t someone tell the GOP that bad déjà vu sucks! Don’t get me wrong, I so wanted Romney to win. He wasn’t who many conservatives wanted but they stood with him when he won the Republican nomination for President. To be honest, I don’t think that any of the other candidates would have done any better. Romney is a moderate but he didn’t have a strong enough conservative brand. The Obama campaign did a better job in a way of branding Romney than the Republications. Many found it hard to connect with Romney. I know choosing a candidate because you could see yourself having a beer, etc., with the person doesn’t make that person the best candidate for the job but people do want to believe that the President actually cares about them. President Obama did a great job convincing people that he cares even when his actions didn’t match was being said.

The other issue is that “conservative” needs new branding. There needs to be people that can effectively rebrand what conservative is instead of what people now believe it to mean. If the tape is not changed, conservatism will stay a negative word. Conservatives need to take back the narrative. It is time for it to be owned once again. “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” needs to be the conservative “why”. Why are you a conservative, why is conservatism good for the country, why should conservatives affect the culture around them, etc. The picture of what people believe conservatives are must be changed. The old, crotchety GOP male guard picture needs to go and be replaced with who conservatives really are. Conservatives are like a bouquet, one that has a variety of flowers that come in different colors.

Conservatives need to take a hard look at what they believe, do they want the status quo or is it time to change. If the GOP keeps doing the same thing over and over again, they will get the same results. They “king makers” need to retire. Conservatives need a party where all are welcomed, their voices are heard, their contributions (talents/skills) accepted not pushed aside by others because it is their turn to run things. You’re turn does not mean that the best people are doing the best jobs. Also, there needs to be a shake up on how things are done, policies implemented, their needs to be adaptability in how things are done. Just because something was done one way before, doesn’t mean that it is done the same way forever. If you stay in the same rut, the only thing that grows is the depth of it.

The next thing is vetting potential candidates better. Just because you want to run doesn’t means that you are the right candidate. Conservatives must remember that until the game changes, there will be Rule A for liberals and Rule B for conservatives. Life isn’t fair, but if you can’t play the game as it is, then don’t play. There also needs to be better prep done for new candidates so that they can effectively speak about social issues.

Also, people need to stop, not voting for someone because of one issue. I heard that people wouldn’t vote for Romney because he was a Mormon, or couldn’t vote for someone because they weren’t anti-abortion. Sorry, I would never vote for someone just because the candidate was a Protestant or Catholic or anti-abortion. I am going to vote for the right candidate for the job.

What is the answer? I am not certain as too many people don’t want take the hard road. But conservatives need to have these conversations because if people don’t try, nothing will ever change.

Police Identify Prairie View High School Student Killed in Crash

Police in Brighton, Colorado have identified the victim of a deadly crash, that happened on Tuesday.

Dominique Hernandez, sixteen, was killed when the car she was riding in lost control, rolled multiple times, and eventually landed on the median, where it finally came to a stop.

The driver and two other passengers are still in the hospital.

All four attended Prairie View High School, which has already seen a deadly car accident this year.

Iran Fires on US Drone

On Thursday, the Pentagon announced that one week ago an unarmed drone was fired upon, by Iran, as it flew over international waters.

Two Iranian jets fired twice in attempts to shoot down the drone.

They then chased the drone, but eventually gave up.

The drone was flown to a location where it could land, and be investigated for any harm, none was found.

A spokesman, for the Pentagon, said that, ""We have a wide range of options from diplomatic to military."

He further stressed the location of the drone, at the time of the attack, as being sixteen miles off the coast of Kuwait, several miles over international waters.

Some analysts have been quick to point out that such an incident could be considered an act of war.

Guatemalan Quake Claims 52 Lives

The death toll in Guatemala continues to rise, after the 7.4 earthquake that happened there Wednesday.

Fifty-two are now confirmed dead, and that is expected to rise as dozens are still missing.

More than seventy after shocks were felt in the region, within the first twenty-four hours, some of which were as high as 5.1.

Two thousand army troops joined the thousands of citizens and emergency workers searching the rubble for the missing.

As many as 1.2 million Guatemalans were affected by the quake, with many losing their homes.

Aircraft are being used to bring supplies into cut off areas.

Meningitis Toll Stands at 31 Dead

In what should be the final increase in cases of the meningitis outbreak, numbers have reached 424 sickened, ten of which are with joint infections.

Thirty-one people have died from the fungal meningitis.

These should be the final cases, as it has now been over forty-two days, the time in which it can take for meningitis to show itself, since the recall began.

All of the illnesses and deaths were caused by a contamination in anti inflammatory steroid shots, most of which were given via the spine.

Seventy-six locations, in twenty-three states, were sent the shots, which were given to as many as fourteen thousand people.

New England Compounding Center made the shots, and has complied completely with government officials who are conducting the investigation.

Officials are investigating at least two other drugs, made by NECC, for possibilities that they too may have been contaminated.

Things are only getting worse for the company, and now the government, as evidence comes out that they had been under investigation, for issues in their processing, since 2002.

Their sister company, Ameridose LLC, which has the same owners, voluntarily recalled all of their products.

Veterans Day 2012: Our Veterans Deserve Better Than High Unemployment and A Backlog of Disability Claims

As we prepare to honor US veterans on Sunday, it needs to be acknowledged that under the Obama administration, the backlog of veterans’ disability claims jumped by 179 percent. That translates into 883,949 outstanding claims, according to Veterans Administration (VA) statistics.

This represents a near record high, with 65.8 percent of claims having been backlogged for 125 days or more.

Also tragic is the fact that unemployment among young returning veterans is in the double digits.  It is unconciable that those returning from the front lines are arriving home only to then face unemployment lines.



Outreach to our veterans is also important.  What can you do? The Heritage Foundation has put together a brief list of suggestions:

• Contact means actively reaching out to the veterans and addressing specific needs that they and their families have. This could mean visiting military hospitals or reaching out to local chapters of national veterans’ organizations like the Veterans of Foreign Wars or American Legion.

• Comradeship is a key part of the healing process, since no one understands the needs and thoughts of veterans like other veterans. The volunteer organization Warriors and Quiet Waters addresses this need by taking severely wounded veterans fly fishing in small groups. In these locations and settings, former service members are free to talk about their experiences with other veterans in an informal and relaxed atmosphere.

• Community is something volunteer organizations can’t exist without. Warriors and Quiet Waters is located in Bozeman, Montana, a community of around 40,000 people. With over 400 volunteers and most of its funding coming from individuals and small businesses in the area, Warriors and Quiet Waters demonstrates what a successful community model looks like.

Watch the Following Tribute to Veterans

Transformers 4 Confirmed

Michael Bay has confirmed that work has begun on Transformers 4.

"We are at the inception of our story process right now on T4."

At this point all that's known is that Bay will be directing it, Ehren Kruger will be writing it, and that Mark Wahlberg will be the star.

Expectations are for it to start right where Transformers 3 left off and that it will have an entirely new human cast.

He says that internet rumors are what actually decided him on going forth with the project.

80,000 Protest Austerity in Athens

As a crowd of over eighty thousand marched through Athens, Wednesday night, things turned violent.

The marchers were protesting another round of austerity measures, being voted on by parliament.

They tried storming the parliament building, throwing gas bombs as police, engulfing at least one officer in fire.

Police retaliated with water cannons, tear gas, and stun grenades as they fought not just to defend parliament, but their own lives.

Injury reports are not yet coming in, but there are reports of fires and smoke in many parts of the city.

The planned austerity measures would cut 13.5 billion euros (17.4 billion dollars) in order to get a further loan from the European Union, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund of 31 billion euros (nearly 40 billion dollars).

Recreational Marijuana Legalized, But Not Really

Tuesday saw several states vote on whether or not to legalize various levels of marijuana.

Colorado and Washington both voted to allow for the recreational use of the drug, while Oregon voted against it.

In Arkansas voters rejected allowing medical marijuana, whilst in Massachusetts they decided to legalize it, and in Montana they added restrictions to their current medical marijuana laws.

Despite the legalization in Colorado and Washington, a heavy fight is still ahead. The federal government still considers it illegal.

The Drug Enforcement Administration released a statement saying, "Enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act remains unchanged. In enacting the Controlled Substances Act, Congress determined that marijuana is a Schedule I control[ed] substance. The Department of Justice is reviewing the ballot initiatives and we have no additional comment at this time."

Now the drug becomes even more of a state's right issue. Because of that it may find new supporters, amongst those who voted against it.

There are many people who voted no on legalizing recreational use, who also will fight to keep it as they see the federal government as trying to interfere too much in state's rights.

For now, it may be listed as legal, but authorities will continue to carry out arrests for using the drug, until such time as the Supreme Court decides on the matter.

A decision which is nowhere near even being scheduled yet.