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In a sharp escalation of the U.S. role in Syria's bloody civil war, the White House announced late Thursday that it will provide military aid to rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad after confirming that his government used chemical weapons on the opposition. Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes told reporters on a conference call that President Barack Obama had heard pleas from Syria's rebel Supreme Military Council (SMC) for more help. "Our aim is to be responsive," Rhodes said, underlining that the new assistance would have "direct military purposes."

The LA Times reports that sales of the book, which concerns a discontented propagandist working for the Ministry of Truth in a time of endless war, are up 5,771 percent as of Tuesday morning. From a sales rank of 12,507 in the days before The Guardian published top-secret government documents provided by Snowden, "1984" has risen to crack Amazon's top 200.

In a video recorded message released on Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry said that U.S. diplomats in every corner of the globe are working to help local lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organizations. Advancing the LGBT cause, Kerry said, is "central to the United States' commitment to promoting human rights." "I wanted to take a moment to join people around the world in celebrating Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride month," Kerry said.

My life has crossed paths with President Obama on multiple occasions. According to Obama, we were Columbia University classmates, both Pre Law and Political Science majors in the Class of ’83. I also ran against Obama in 2008 on the Libertarian Party Presidential ticket. What are the odds? But something about “the Obama at Columbia story” has always bothered me. Earlier in the week right here at The Blaze I wrote about having just returned from New York, where I attended my 30th Columbia University reunion. I celebrated with my esteemed classmates. Everyone except Barack Obama. As usual- he wasn’t...

Elizabeth Hofacre has turned out to be a gold mine to investigators of political corruption at the IRS. The Cincinnati-office specialist didn’t take kindly to having the entire mess dumped on the shoulders of her colleagues and herself, and has made it plain in depositions that this was no low-level innovation. The Hill became the latest media outlet to peruse the transcripts, and added a little more to the growing public record of the targeting effort’s genesis in Washington rather than Cincinnati: An IRS staffer in Cincinnati told congressional investigators that a Washington official was the driving force behind the...

The National Security Agency has at times mistakenly intercepted the private email messages and phone calls of Americans who had no link to terrorism, requiring Justice Department officials to report the errors to a secret national security court and destroy the data, according to two former U.S. intelligence officials. At least some of the phone calls and emails were pulled from among the hundreds of millions stored by telecommunications companies as part of an NSA surveillance program. James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, Thursday night publicly acknowledged what he called “a sensitive intelligence collection program” after its existence was...

The two previously unpublished pictures were given to Time magazine by the girl who was escorted by Barak Obama’s best friend. NBC’s Ann Curry reports....

You know the people I’m talking about. The Know-Nothings. You know the folks who pushed that one law regarding almost 20 percent of the entire economy before they even read the bill? The ones who rushed it into law just to see what was in it? The ones who managed to write a bill, while still not being familiar with what the bill actually did?   Yeah, those guys? The Know-Nothings. Well, they know nothing about a lot of other stuff too. Obama’s one of those guys. So is Eric Holder. So, apparently, is the entire staff at the IRS...

If anyone in the USA, for some extraordinary reason, is still in doubt about whom to choose for President [this was written before the last presidential election but is still topical], I recommend two things. The first is an empiricist approach: you have tried one candidate and he failed, you haven't tried the other. In experimental science it would be reasonable to choose the not-yet-tried possibility. The second thing is, if you haven't already done so, to read "Obama's Muslim Childhood" by Daniel Pipes.The discovery that Obama has been wearing for over 30 years a ring with the first...

Troubled by today's unemployment figures, the latest indicator of how badly America needs fundamental change from Bush-McCain policies

<p>Legislation that would award the injured from the 2009 Fort Hood shooting the Purple Heart would adversely affect the trial of Maj. Nidal Hasan by labeling the attack terrorism, according to a Defense Department document obtained by Fox News.</p> <p>The document comes following calls from survivors and their families for the military honor, because they say Fort Hood was turned into a battlefield when Hasan opened fire during the November 2009 attack. Fox News is told that the DOD “position paper” is being circulated specifically in response to the proposed legislation.</p>

Quarter-billion new rounds also slated for DHSWND recently reported that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has purchased well over a billion rounds of ammunition over the past year. The magnitude of the federal government’s ammunition buildup has been making headlines over the last few weeks, as members of the military, police departments and consumers are finding shelves bare when they want to buy ammunition. Alarms over the situation have developed just as the Obama administration is pushing hard on its agenda of gun control. But the full impact may not yet have developed, as WND has uncovered plans by...

Four days after slamming the doors of the White House closed, Barack "It's-not-my-fault" Obama says he's going to ask the Secret Service if to reconsider. Contradicting previous statements, Obama told George Stephanopoulos of ABC News this morning that neither he nor his staff had anything to do with closing the public out of the White House. This time, he threw the Secret Service under the bus. “I have to say this was not a decision that went up to the White House,” Obama said in the interview with Stephanopoulos. “But what the Secret Service explained to us was that they’re...

JACKSON, Miss. —Doctors at the University of Mississippi Medical Center said they have cured a baby suffering from HIV and the breakthrough is reverberating worldwide. Related Woman says ex kidnapped her 18-wheeler overturns off of I-20 3 arrested in Jackson drug bust Grenade launcher found during drug bust Fire hydrant testing begins in West... "There is excitement around this," said Dr. Deborah Persaud of John's Hopkins Children's Center. Doctors across the country are heralding the medical breakthrough in Jackson. "We have, perhaps inadvertently, but in fact, cured the child," said Dr. Hannah Gay, associate professor of pediatrics. "We don't know...

The White House has released a picture purporting to show President Obama "skeet shooting" at Camp David. An activity he claims he does "all the time." The White House also warns all you mischievous internet types to not mess around with the picture: "This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement...

America's downfall doesn't begin with the "low-information voter." It starts with the no-knowledge student. For decades, collectivist agitators in our schools have chipped away at academic excellence in the name of fairness, diversity and social justice. "Progressive" reformers denounced Western civilization requirements, the Founding Fathers and the Great Books as racist. They attacked traditional grammar classes as irrelevant in modern life. They deemed ability grouping of students (tracking) bad for self-esteem. They replaced time-tested rote techniques and standard algorithms with fuzzy math, inventive spelling and multicultural claptrap. Under President Obama, these top-down mal-formers -- empowered by Washington education bureaucrats...

In remarks with Afghan president Hamid Karzai at the White House this afternoon, President Barack Obama said the U.S. has fallen "short of the ideal" in Afghanistan:

Another weapon from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agency's controversial Operation Fast and Furious was recently recovered at a Mexican crime scene, CBS News has learned. Congressional investigators say the crime scene was likely where a recent shootout took place between reported Sinaloa drug cartel members and the Mexican military, in which Sinaloa beauty queen Maria Susana Flores Gamez and four others were killed. According to Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the Justice Department did not notify Congress of the Fast and Furious firearm recovery in November, even though Grassley has requested an accounting of weapons that...

It’s no secret that Egyptian slavery is as old as the pyramids. It’s also common knowledge that Barack Obama’s ancestors owned slaves... So it’s really no surprise that he helped usher in a radical Egpytian regime that is restoring slavery. ... The Obama administration declined to criticize Egypt’s constitution despite its slavery clause.