BREAKING NEWS: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been convicted on numerous federal charges for his role in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. Jurors have yet to decide whether he will be sentenced to life in prison or the death penalty.
Iran Vows To Break Deal
Reports today demonstrate the futility of Obama's outreach to Iran. According to the Iranian FARS news agency, the Iranian foreign minister and the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization told the Iranian parliament yesterday that Iran would begin using its most advanced centrifuges "as soon as a final nuclear deal goes into effect."
Iran's IR-8 centrifuges are capable of enriching uranium 20 times faster than the ones it reportedly agreed to use.
The Times of Israel warns, "If accurate, the reports makes a mockery of the world powers' much-hailed framework agreement with Iran, since such a move clearly breaches the U.S.-published terms of the deal, and would dramatically accelerate Iran's potential progress to the bomb."
In today's Wall Street Journal, former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz write that the Islamic regime has mixed "shrewd diplomacy with open defiance of U.N. resolutions" turning "the negotiation on its head." They note that since negotiations over Iran's nuclear program began, Tehran has exponentially increased its centrifuges from 100 to nearly 20,000.
Any regime that has the blood of American soldiers and civilians on its hands, calls for the destruction of Israel and calls us "the great Satan" cannot be trusted.
Why Hezbollah & Hamas Are Happy
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is downright jubilant over the Obama/Iran nuclear deal. Why should Hezbollah care?
Among the many concessions the administration made in the talks was an agreement to immediately lift certain sanctions. According to various reports, that means releasing as much as $150 billion in frozen Iranian foreign assets. Nasrallah knows exactly what that means: More money for Hezbollah and Hamas.
During an interview Monday, Nasrallah said, "Iran will become richer and wealthier and will also become more influential. A stronger and wealthier Iran . . . will be able to stand by its allies, and especially the Palestinian resistance, more than at any other time in history."
This reality flatly contradicts Obama's rhetoric. He has repeatedly insisted that these nuclear negotiations are completely separate from every other issue -- whether its Iran's miserable human rights record, its refusal to recognize Israel or its aggression throughout the Middle East. But they are inextricably connected.
By giving the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism access to hundreds of billions of dollars, Obama is fueling Iran's aggression. Those funds will be unleashed against Israel and pro-Western Arab nations.
Obama Smacks Down Christians Again
President Obama chose an Easter prayer breakfast at the White House yesterday to promote one of his favorite themes: mean Christians. He told the audience, "I have to say that sometimes, when I listen to less than loving expressions by Christians, I get concerned."
I don't know what set off Obama's concern about "less than loving" Christians. The big news of the past week was a Christian couple in Indiana telling a reporter they could not participate in a hypothetical same-sex wedding ceremony. They are being called bigots for following their faith.
Whatever set Obama off, his comments immediately reminded me of his performance at this year's National Prayer Breakfast, where he chose to blame Christians for the Crusades, slavery and Jim Crow laws, while at the same time using his biased history lesson to ignore the daily attacks by Muslim jihadists.
When a jihadist shouts praises to Allah while he murders the innocent, Obama does not speak out against "less than loving" Islamists. Instead, he immediately assures us that the attacker is not a Muslim because Islam is, in his view, a "religion of peace." But Obama regularly uses Christian prayer meetings to berate Christians.
This Easter, as I celebrated the risen Lord, I found myself concerned about my Christian brothers and sisters around the world who are being systematically murdered, whose churches are being burned and whose children are being sold into slavery.
I am angered by silence and inaction in the face of their plight. Christians in America must do more to save our fellow believers. And we should hold politicians of both parties accountable when they are AWOL in the fight against Christian persecution.
Cakes & The Culture Wars
The radical left is on a jihad against traditional Judeo-Christian values. The evidence is growing by the day. If you had any doubts, consider the "Colorado Cake Wars."
Jack Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Denver, is facing fines for turning down business from a same-sex couple who wanted to celebrate their wedding. The Colorado Civil Rights Division rejected Phillips' First Amendment claim of religious liberty in refusing the business and charged him with unlawful discrimination.
Bill Jack decided to see how fairly the government bureaucrats were enforcing their non-discrimination policies. So he went to three Denver bakeries and asked them to make cakes shaped like Bibles with verses on them related to sin. All three refused to make the cakes.
Jack filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Division, claiming that he was discriminated against based on his faith. Last month, the commission rejected his claim, saying the bakers had a right to refuse his business due to "derogatory language and imagery," a right that apparently does not apply to Christian bakers.
My friends, here is something I hope you understand. The national firestorm over the Indiana religious freedom law was the result of a concerted effort by the entire left-wing establishment to demonize and demoralize men and women of faith -- the foundation of the conservative movement in America.
As I have repeatedly argued, the issue is bigger than whether two people of the same sex can get married. The tyrants of tolerance are using the brute force of big government to compel men and women of faith to choose between their values and their jobs, and it won't stop with the meaning of marriage.
The ACLU is now in federal court trying to force religious charities to provide abortions to children.