Ann Coulter campaigning for a Democrat; No, really

Did you know that the founder of Operation Rescue and ardent pro-life activist Randall Terry is running for president... as a Democrat? Not only that but Ann Coulter is scheduled to speak at one of his fundraisers.

Via the Daily Caller:

While conservative commentator Ann Coulter has been firmly in GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s corner during the primary season, the ardently pro-life pundit will also be speaking at a fundraising event for a candidate running in the Democratic presidential primary.

Randall Terry, a primary challenger to President Barack Obama, however, is not just any Democratic candidate. Terry, a pro-life activist, is running purely to raise awareness about abortion.

Coulter explained to The Daily Caller that her participation in the fundraising event is to show “solidarity with the pro-life movement.”

Terry appears to be doing in the Democratic Party what Ron Paul is doing in the Republican Party. Both men have virtually no shot at winning the nomination and are staying in the race to make their issues relevant. Paul's libertarian agenda is what drives him and Terry's pro-life agenda does the same. Terry has openly conceded that he's in the race primarily to draw attention to the abortion issue.

Interestingly, this comes at a time when the Obama campaign has demonstrated that it wants to move away from abortion and make the issue about contraception.

Special Guests has more.

Renege: Muslim Brotherhood taking the mask off in Egypt and Tunisia

There is a narrative being pushed by western leaders right now that the Muslim Brotherhood is "moderate" in comparison to Iran. That narrative has come from none other than the Muslim Brotherhood itself. Naturally, once that premise is accepted, the Brotherhood is perceived as the lesser of two evils and is supported by the West in places like Syria, for example.

This is exactly how the Brotherhood wants it and the West is playing right into their hands. The latest indicator can be found in both Tunisia and Egypt, where Islamists there are already reneging on their pledge to moderate.

From Reuters, via Jerusalem Post:

PARIS - After months of reassuring secularist critics, Islamist politicians in Tunisia and Egypt have begun to lay down markers about how Muslim their states should be -- and first signs show they want more religion than previously admitted.

Islamist parties swept the first free elections in both countries in recent months after campaigns that stressed their readiness to work with the secularists they struggled with in the Arab Spring revolts against decades-long dictatorships.

With political deadlines looming, the Tunisian coalition led by the reformist Islamist Ennahda party and the head of Egypt's influential Muslim Brotherhood both made statements this week revealing a stronger emphasis on Islam in government.

Popular List, an Ennahda coalition member tasked with writing Tunisia's new constitution, announced on Monday its draft called Islam "the principle source of legislation" -- a phrase denoting laws based on the sharia moral and legal code.

On Tuesday, Egyptian Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie said his group wanted a president with "an Islamic background." That term is vague, but not as vague as the conciliatory "consensus candidate" talk heard from most parties until now.

Secularists in both countries warned voters against trusting the Islamists and these subtle changes could have come straight from a secularist playbook on how Islamists would gradually insert more religion into the political and legal systems.

The Brotherhood has been very effective at duping the west for several reasons, not least among them being the power its organizations have been able to acquire in western halls of power (CAIR and ISNA among them). Another reason is the tactic known as Muruna; it affords Islamists the ability to violate the very tenets of Islam in order to deceive in the name of a greater goal. This technique also goes a long way toward portraying themselves as moderate.

h/t Weasel Zippers 

Gun in ICE Agent's death linked to ATF Operation

Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and ICE agent Jaime Zapata were both murdered in the line of duty. Terry's death seems to have gotten more attention for two reasons. One, he was gunned down inside the U.S. border with Mexico. Two, the guns found at his murder scene came from ATF's Operation Fast and Furious, a gun-walking operation sanctioned by Terry's government. Zapata was killed in Mexico and the origin of the guns used to kill him were not proven to have been as closely connected to the ATF.

Well, thanks to CBS' Sharyl Attkisson, one of the guns used in Zapata's murder has now been proven to have come from an ATF operation. A suspicious aspect to this involves a conviction of the man who possessed the gun and Zapata's family never knew he was implicated in the murder.

Via CBS:

Prosecutors recently sentenced a Texas man, Manuel Barba, for trafficking a weapon connected to the murder of Immigration and Customs (ICE) Agent Jaime Zapata. Nobody was more astonished to learn of the case than Zapata's parents, who didn't know that Barba had been arrested or linked to their son's murder.

"The family was obviously surprised to learn that there was a case involving a weapon linked to the Zapata incident," attorney Trey Martinez told CBS News. Martinez represents Zapata's parents and the surviving ICE agent in the assault, Victor Avila. "They were surprised they had never been contacted in the capacity as victims so they could give a response or some kind of reaction at the time of sentencing."

Perhaps this goes a long way in explaining why the Zapata family was kept in the dark...

In a related development, CBS News has obtained documents showing that Barba was under ATF surveillance for at least six months before a rifle he trafficked was used in Zapata's murder. Zapata's government vehicle was ambushed by suspected cartel thugs in Mexico Feb. 15, 2011.

Documents indicate ATF opened its case against Barba, entitled "Baytown Crew," in June of 2010. During the investigation, court records state Barba recruited straw purchasers and "facilitated the purchase and exportation of at least 44 firearms" including assault rifles. On August 20, 2010 Barba took delivery of the WASR-10 semi-automatic rifle later used in Zapata's murder, obliterated its serial number, and sent it to Mexico with nine others just like it. Nearly two months later, on Oct. 8, 2010, ATF agents recorded a phone call in which Barba "spoke about the final disposition of ... firearms to Mexico and also about the obliterating of the serial numbers before they were trafficked." Barba told straw purchasers the guns were destined for the Zeta drug cartel.

Dave Workman at the Gun Rights Examiner received an e-mail from Senator Charles Grassley that said, in part:

"I've been asking for information from the departments of Justice and Homeland Security on the circumstances surrounding the murder of ICE Agent Zapata for almost a year, only to be met with resistance and more of the same stonewalling. If these revelations prove to be true, it's a sad commentary that this known trafficker was allowed to continue his illegal purchases, including trafficking the apparent weapon used in the murder of our own agent."

It's nice to see that Senator Grassley believes this report is a "sad commentary" and that he's reiterating what we've all known for over a year now, that's he's being stonewalled, but this righteous rhetoric needs to transition to righteous action soon. I realize Grassley is the ranking member and has limited power but DOJ needs to start coughing up documents or be held in contempt, which is something Rep. Darrell Issa's office has been hinting at doing but has already backed down once.

Be sure to read Attkisson's entire piece. It reveals a lot of smoke, and you know what they say about smoke.