Man Steals Delivery Car, Continues Deliveries

Forty-five year old Keith Hinds is under arrest in Connecticut.

Charges against him are drug possession and larceny.

Hinds stole a Chinese food delivery driver's car, and then continued to make the rest of the deliveries.

He finished the rounds so that he could pocket the cash from the deliveries.

The delivery driver had made the mistake of leaving the car running while he made one of his stops.

Police are using this as a reminder of how important it is to never leave your car running and unattended.

Downtown Denver Shut Down for Man Hunt

A section of downtown Denver was shut down, during Monday, while police performed a man hunt.

It all started when Aurora police were called to the scene of a domestic abuse case.

They quickly realized the man that they were looking for had two outstanding felony warrants in Centennial.

Information led them to believe he had hopped a bus to downtown, and the search began.

During their search, a man with an ankle bracelet ran from police, causing them to lock down the building he hid in.

They eventually found him, hiding in the ceiling of 110 16th St, but discovered he wasn't who they were looking for.

It is unclear why he ran from police, but he is being held on multiple charges.

Monday afternoon, the man police were originally looking for, turned himself in to Aurora police, allowing for the search of downtown Denver to be stopped.

Gazan Rockets Continue to Strike Southern Israel

Rockets from Gaza continue to rain down on Southern Israel. Over one hundred and twenty rockets have been fired since Saturday, by Hamas and other terrorist groups.

Some homes and businesses have received minor damages from the projectiles and explosions, while one factory took a direct strike. Luckily, no one has been injured or killed.

Part of that is thanks to the warning systems, including text alerts, that the Israeli government has in place. The Iron Dome Defense Shield has also been able to eliminate several rockets, that were headed for populated areas.

Israeli Defense Forces have fired counter strikes, at launch sites, and weapon depots, killing at least six Gazans.

Hamas called other factions together, for a discussion on how to keep from having anymore casualties on their side of the border. They did not hold not firing any more rockets, as an option.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a meeting with foreign ambassadors, within rocket range in Ashkelon, at an unprotected auditorium to drive in the fact of how vulnerable Israel is. With a collection of rockets, that had been fired at Israel, to his side he told the ambassadors that they had thirty seconds to find cover, if an alarm sounded.

Netanyahu told them, "This is the situation in which one million Israelis find themselves. That's families, old people, children, babies. I don't know of any of the citizens of your cities, who could find that acceptable and something that could proceed on a normal basis. Any fair minded person in any fair minded government in the world would understand that it’s our right to defend our people, and this is what we shall do."

The Israeli government is considering options, which include using ground troops, to put a stop to the rocket barrage. They've been forced to go that route before, but are doing everything they can to avoid doing so again.

Syria and Israel Exchange Fire for Second Day

Israeli tanks have responded to fire coming across the border from Syria.

On Monday, artillery fire, from Syria, crossed into the Golan Heights, of Israel.

Tanks quickly responded to the fire, striking "direct hits" on the Syrian unit.

Syrian forces quickly radioed asking the Israelis to cease fire.

It is not clear if the Israeli fire caused any injuries amongst the Syrians.

This comes just a day after Israel fired a warning, into Syria, after mortars crossed over the border, hitting Israeli territory.

Syrian MiG Bombs Ras al-Ain, Turkey Protests

A Syrian MiG bombed the town of Ras al-Ain, on Monday, killing twenty, injuring seventy, and destroying fifteen buildings.

The city, along the Turkish border, has been the scene of heavy fighting, for the last few days.

Turkish ambulances rushed across the border, to aid the wounded.

Across the border, in Ceylanpinar, Turkey, windows were blasted out by the explosion, but there have been no reports of injuries or other damage there.

Turkey sent a protest over the bombing, and warned it's citizens not to travel near the Syrian border.

For most of the last week Turkey has suggested that Patriot missiles be placed along it's border, to effect a no fly zone.

They've had tanks and artillery stationed along the border, for over a month.

Must See: From Here to Eternity (1953)

Anyone who’s seen The Godfather remembers the famous scene where the movie producer finds a horse’s head in his bed, left there to persuade him to give the singer “Johnny Fontane” a juicy part in a big war movie. “Johnny” was assumed by many to be based on Frank Sinatra, and the “offer you can’t refuse” was read as the way he got his role in From Here to Eternity.

Sinatra’s daughter Nancy was just one of many people who eventually busted this Hollywood/mafia rumor, and the real tale goes like this.

For the part Sinatra played, the character of “Maggio,” director Fred Zinneman first thought of Eli Wallach. Sinatra had read the bestseller, and so strongly identified with “Maggio” that he was determined to get the part, and sent a series of telegrams to the film’s producer, director and also to studio president Harry Cohn (who, by the way didn’t even own a race horse, to further put that Godfather connection to rest) hoping to convince them to just give him a tryout.

At that time, Sinatra had to beg for a shot because, despite once being the generation’s teeny bopper idol, teens were then as now, notoriously fickle fans, and Sinatra entered a down period of his career and personal life. He’d made a couple flop records and films and gone through a scandalous divorce, and though he was then with Ava Gardner, who tried to get the studio to consider him, he had neither traction nor attention in Hollywood.

He was so low down the totem pole that Columbia agreed to a screen test if he could get back from Africa (where Ava was shooting Mogambo) on his own dime; when they did give him the role they paid him $1,000.00 a week.

But he got his chance, and was great in the movie, drawing authenticity from his own recent experiences with defeat, despair, disappointment, and rejection; he won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, kicking off one of the greatest comebacks ever seen in Hollywood. 

See it Monday, November 12 at 10:15 PM on TCM

See me at the Speakeasy for much more classic stuff.

Benghazi Update: Hillary Sidesteps Testifying and Newly Released DOD Timeline is Full of Discrepancies

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declined an invitation to testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which will take place on Thursday, regarding the Benghazi attack. But, Michael Courts, acting director of International Affairs and Trade for the Government Accountability Office, will be testifying, and so will a RAND Corp. analyst.

Clinton, “was asked to appear at House Foreign Affairs next week, and we have written back to the chairman to say that she’ll be on travel next week,” Victoria Nuland, department spokeswoman, said. She failed to answer a question regarding whether Clinton would be willing to return from Australia to address either the Foreign Affairs panel or the Senate and House closed-door intelligence committee hearings.

“The Committee plans to hold the second segment of this hearing the week of November 26, 2012 and will request Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton testify before the Committee at that time,” the Foreign Affairs Committee reported in an advisory.

Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) wrote Clinton last Tuesday, calling for the State Department to respond to the panel’s requests for information on Benghazi. She wrote: “It is disappointing that we have yet to receive any response from your Department and that we are receiving more information from the press than from the Administration.”

Then too, though somewhat overshadowed by General David Petreaus’ resignation, was the news that the Department of Defense released a timeline in an attempt to reconcile its story line with that of the State Department and the CIA. This was done through an off-camera briefing, with an official who could only be quoted anonymously.  A report from Fox News uncovers several discrepancies in the DOD’s purported timeline:

• The Defense Department timeline on the night of Sept. 11 begins at 9:42 p.m. local time and states, “The incident starts at the facility in Benghazi.” Right from the start, the Pentagon and the CIA timelines do not match. (The CIA timeline, which was released on Nov. 1, states that at 9:40 p.m., “A senior State Department security officer at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi called the CIA annex and requested assistance.”)

• A source at the CIA annex that night told Fox News that when they first asked to go and help, they were told to wait.

• At 10:32 p.m. (4:32 p.m. in Washington), 50 minutes after the incident began, the National Military Command Center, which is the operations center at the Pentagon where Ham is overseeing the operation,  notifies Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey.

• That means for nearly an hour, no one told the defense secretary and Joint Chiefs chairman that a U.S. ambassador is in peril and his personal security officer has pressed his “personal distress button” which sends an SMS signal back to the command authority in the U.S. and a U.S. embassy has been overrun by attackers.

• More calls for help – Upon returning to the annex, the CIA team and those that were rescued immediately begin taking fire and at midnight, according to sources on the ground that night, begin making radio calls for help and air support. Almost immediately, they begin taking fire from small arms and rocket-propelled grenades.

• According to a senior U.S. defense official, “This was not one long continuous fight, but two separate incidents at two separate facilities with some separation of time.”

• However, British sources who were near the consulate and annex that night tell a different story, saying there was almost continuous fire on the annex after the team fled from the consulate.

• Sometime over the next two hours, according to the official Pentagon timeline, Panetta gives the “go code” for two Marine FAST (Fleet Anti-terrorism Security) teams to prepare to leave Rota, Spain. A Special Operations force which is training in Central Europe is told to “prepare to deploy to an intermediate staging base in southern Europe (Sigonella, Sicily), and a Special Operations team in the U.S. is told to prepare to deploy to Sigonella as well.

• It isn’t until 2:53 a.m. (about five hours after the incident began) that those orders are formalized by Panetta and the teams are told they can leave.

For the full list of discrepancies, click here.  For the DOD’s official timeline, click here.

There is also what appears to be an attempt at obstruction involving the Benghazi hearings. The documents needed in order to prepare for the upcoming hearings were made available for just two days last week – days when most Senators were out of town.  According to Breitbart:

“The Obama Administration’s timing is exquisite; by making the documents available only today and tomorrow, the Senators will not be able to review them to prepare for the hearings next week. Committee staffers are also forbidden to see the material, meaning practically no one will have all the information when the hearings begin.”

A senior GOP Senate staffer was reported to have said: “Funny since no member is in town. The timing and limited access clearly demonstrates the administration cares more about playing politics with the tragedy than accepting responsibility.”

Cross-posted on  RedState & Red Pill Report.

Syrian Opposition Unites

Syria's opposition groups claim to have finally united as one body, on Sunday.

Calling themselves the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces they are already being back by several international countries and bodies.

Made up of sixty members, the group has one representative from each of the major cities, well known opposition leaders, and twenty-two members of the Syrian National Council.

The SNC has been the leading and largest opposition group, and previously had been expected to take control, but couldn't come to full terms with all of the other groups.

Ahmed al-Khatib, a moderate cleric from Damascus, was named President of the Coalition, Sunday night.

Over the next weeks he will have the job of leading the Coalition through an election of ten cabinet members.

The cabinet members will then be in charge of overseeing the war effort, gaining the Syria's seat in the Arab League, and taking over frozen Syrian assets.

International group, Friends of Syria, has pledged millions of dollars to financially support the Coalition.

Secession Petitions

According to the White House's own site, nineteen states have seen secession petitions filed.

They began to be filed on Wednesday, right after President Obama was reelected.

Each petition asks for the United States government to allow the state to peacefully leave the US and form it's own sovereign government.

The government allows for one month, from the day of first post, for a petition to reach twenty-five thousand votes.

If a petition can hit that mark, in the time allowed, then the Obama administration must consider the request.

Now the likely hood of them actually saying yes, is completely well below zero, one might even say frigidly so.

They will mostly become a sign of protest and not really end up meaning much, but it might be interesting to see how many signatures they actually end up with.

Most of them have around two thousand signatures, so far.

For now Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, North Carolina, Florida, Kentucky, Georgia, Mississippi, Indiana, Montana, North Dakota, New Jersey, Oregon, Colorado, New York, South Carolina, Michigan, Tennessee, and Missouri all have petitions.

Likely we'll see one for each of the fifty states, by the end of this week.

Sunrise Rock Has It's Cross Again

The longtime cross

For decades a cross stood atop Sunrise Rock in the California Mojave Desert.

It had stood there since 1934 as a promise to a WWI veteran.

In 1994, the area became part of the Mojave Desert Preserve, and then trouble started in 2001.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed in court against the cross, saying that it's placement in a national park violated separation of church and state.

Several court battles took place over the cross, during which the cross was kept covered up, until in 2003 Congress ordered a land swap.

Under the land swap, Sunrise Rock, and the surrounding acre of land would be traded for five acres of land on the edge of the park.

Ownership of the Rock and it's acre would then be transferred to veteran's organizations in Barstow.

That however wasn't acceptable to the ACLU, and eventually the case made it all the way to the Supreme Court, who in April of 2010 backed Congress's decision and ordered the cross to be kept where it stood.

But to make matters worse, within weeks of the win, and it's uncovering, the cross was stolen.

Earlier this month, the cross was found in the San Fransisco area, and was to be returned.

However, the veterans have decided that they would create an all new cross.

On this Veteran's Day they dedicated it in a special ceremony.

The US Park Service plans to put a fence, with entrances and signs, around the acre, and a plaque will be placed to note that the cross is a veteran's memorial.