Author: kingsjester

64 year old Christian Conservative husband, father, and grandfather who has been writing since April 2010.

Bringing Honor Back to America

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics2 Comments

Even as I compose this blog, the Lincoln Memorial grounds are awash with a sea of humanity, gathering for The Restoring Honor Rally, to be held from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. Central today, August 28th.

Glenn Beck, Fox News/Conservative Radio Host will be joined on stage by Former Alaskan Governor and Fox News Contributor Sarah Palin, among others.  Beck says that  the event, on the same steps where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech exactly 47 years earlier, isn’t a political rally.  Instead, it’s going to be a celebration of the military, patriotism and American heritage.

Over 300,000 are expected to attend.   Beck has been cautious about not overestimating attendance:

It’s going to be a little overwhelming as we see tens of thousands of people standing together, locked arm-in-arm, peaceful, happy.  This event is bigger than any single one person; it is not about one person.

Rev. Al Sharpton , he of the less-than-honorable Tawana Brawley fiasco and noted race-baiter, is of the opinion that Beck is offering a very different message from the one offered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his “I Have a Dream” speech there 43 years earlier.  I’m shocked.

Beck’s statement that he is reclaiming the civil rights movement, Sharpton told CBS News’ Wyatt Andrews, reminds him of earlier claims that King was a communist: 

When Dr. King and others came here in ’63 to ask the government to protect the civil rights of people and the economic rights of people, they came to ask government to protect them from local states that were robbing them of economic and civil rights.

…Glenn Beck is coming here to ask government to leave us alone, so he’s trying to reverse what King did and there are those of us who are not going to allow that to happen.

Gosh, Al.  You’re having a hard time coping with being irrelevant, aren’t you?

They’re saying ‘we’re talking about the honor of America,’ they’re saying ‘we’re talking about restoring dignity,’ there is nothing more dignified than our country coming together and making sure that everyone has equal opportunity.  That’s not communism, that’s really what this country is supposed to stand for and what Dr. King gave his life for.

You’ve correct.  Equal rights isn’t communism, Al.  The Government controlling our lives is, though.

Beck has said that  the fact that his rally is being held on the anniversary of King’s speech is a coincidence.   He has gone on to say that King’s legacy does not only belong to African-Americans.   And that is what is getting professional race-baiters like Sharpton’s goat.

Sharpton went on to say that while King stood for the government helping poor Americans, Beck deems that “socialism” and “government ruling our lives.”

Actually, I have heard Beck say the same thing most Americans say.  Charity begins with community:  families, neighbors, and churches…a hand up, not a handout. 

Duct tape your head, here it comes:

It couldn’t have been more of a contradiction.  When government stayed out of people’s lives women and blacks couldn’t vote,   When government stayed out of people’s lives we were in the back of the bus. We need government to do what Dr. King came and asked government to do in ’63 and we need government to do that now.

When you start saying you’re going to reclaim the civil rights movement that’s not even coded, that’s a blatant attempt the hijack a movement that changed America.

You’re right, Al.  America is such a Raaaciiist nation.  Why, a black man could never become president.  Hey!   Waitaminute….

A Facebook friend of mine has a different viewpoint.

Dr. Alveda King is the director of African-American outreach for Priests for Life, and the founder of King for America.  Here is an excerpt from an article she wrote about today’s event:

Delineating ourselves as red state or blue, liberal or conservative, minority or majority, we have not quite reached the day when men and women are “judged not by the color of their skin but on the content of their character.” We are still marching toward that day. As Uncle Martin said, “we cannot turn back.”

The rally will also give America another chance to honor and thank the men and women in our armed forces for the dangers they face every day in our stead. Unless you have a loved one in Iraq or Afghanistan, it’s too easy to forget that tens of thousands of Americans are far from the comforts of home, are directly in harm’s way, facing an enemy who hates us precisely because we are free. And coming just days before the ninth anniversary of 9/11, the day that roused us from our complacency, we could use another wakeup call, one of our own devising.

When I join Beck and all gathered at the Lincoln Memorial this weekend, I will talk about my Uncle Martin and the America he envisioned. I will talk about honor and character and sacrifice. I will be joined by those who represent the diversity of the human race.

On Saturday, Uncle Martin’s dream of personhood and human dignity will resound across America. And the Park Police should consider themselves forewarned: As we stand in the symbolic shadow of the great American who signed the Emancipation Proclamation, we just might sing.

Dr. Alveda King is a leader in the Pro-life Movement.  She has received all sorts of accusations and insults for her involvement in today’s event.

Whether you like Glenn Beck and/or Sarah Palin does not matter today.  Today is about recognizing that we live in the greatest country on God’s green earth and it is time to reclaim our heritage.  As President John Adams said:

[I]t is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue.

[W]e have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. . . . Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

It is time for Americans to remember our heritage and to realize the role that God and His Divine Providence played in the establishment of this country as the greatest on Earth.  It is time to restore honor.

America’s Recovery Bummer

On By kingsjesterIn Politics6 Comments

On June 17th, 2010, the following appeared on whitehouse.gov:

The Administration today kicks off “Recovery Summer,” a six-week-long focus on the surge in Recovery Act infrastructure projects that will be underway across the country in the coming months – and the jobs they’ll create well into the fall and through the end of the year.  The Recovery Act has already funded tens of thousands of projects and put about 2.5 million Americans to work, but summer 2010 is actually poised to be the most active Recovery Act season yet, with tens of thousands of projects underway across the country that will help to create jobs for American workers and economic growth for businesses, large and small.  For example:

  • Highway Projects: There will be six times as many highway projects underway in July 2010 as in July 2009 – projects will surge from 1,750 last summer to over 10,000 this summer. 
  • Clean and Drinking Water: This summer over 2,800 clean and drinking water projects will be underway versus just over 100 last summer – more than 20 times as many.
  • Home Weatherization: This summer, 82,000 homes will be weatherized versus 3,000 last summer – 27 times as many homes this summer as last.
  • National Parks: This July, nearly 800 projects will be underway at national parks versus just over 100 last July – 8 times as many this summer.

As part of Recovery Summer, President Obama, Vice President Biden and other Administration officials will travel to more than two dozen Recovery Act project sites in the coming weeks, highlighting the surge in project activity and the Recovery Act’s steady climb to 3.5 million jobs by the end of the year. 

Sound’s great, huh?  So did the ads for the movie MacGruber.

The national reality that our economy is moving with all the speed of a dead tortoise has been reinforced today as the government just announced that the nation’s second-quarter growth was virtually non-existent.

Economists (the biggest guessers since Miss Cleo) were looking for the Commerce Department to revise its estimate of growth in gross domestic product to 1.3% or lower, down from 2.4%.  It was just announced to be 1.6 %.

How’s that Hopey-Changey Thing workin’ out for y’all?

This bad GDP number has put the cherry on top of a week’s worth of horrible numbers in the housing and financial markets, just in time for the Republicans to use this information against the Democrats as we head into November’s midterm elections.

Unfortunately for the Dems, while Americans are usually an optimistic and forgiving people, they also have a long memory and will remember who really ruined America’s economy.

According to Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at Cal State Channel Islands and former chief economist for Wells Fargo:

Housing is in the tank. Confidence is going down. The stock market is going down. It’s hard to imagine how consumers will spend.

Yeah, Doc.  It’s pretty difficult to spend money when you can’t even pay your monthly bills.
He places the probability that economic growth will slide back into negative territory — a double-dip recession — at “40% and going up.”

Ahhh, the wonders of an advanced education.

On Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average closed below the 10,000 benchmark after receiving worrisome new economic reports.

According to the government, while initial unemployment claims last week dipped to 473,000, from 504,000 the week before, the four-week average still reached its highest point since November.  Unemployment was at 9.5% nationally in July and higher in many states, including 14.3% in Nevada, 13.1% in Michigan and 12.3% in California.

And a mortgage trade group said that, while foreclosures overall continued to ebb, more homeowners fell behind on their payments for the second straight quarter. With unemployment numbers showing no signs of getting better, foreclosures could soon ramp up again.

Those reports followed news earlier in the week that home sales had fallen to their lowest level in more than a decade, even though mortgage interest rates that are at their lowest levels in nearly 40 years.

Bart van Ark, chief economist for the Conference Board, a business research group, said:

All the indicators at the moment are pointing in the wrong direction.

He doesn’t think the nation will dip back into recession, but said the risk of that happening was rising amid continuing high unemployment:

We are in the slow lane at this moment.  The risk of things turning wrong and then dropping the economy into recession is significant.

Today, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will attempt to explain this tanking economy to a meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyo., of central bankers, finance ministers, academics and industry executives from around the world.

Amid false hopes brought by a  modest recovery early this year, the central bank began pulling back its extraordinary support. But as growth slowed, the Fed began shifting from exit strategy to re-entry.

The fed announced this month that it would resume buying U.S. Treasury bonds to hold down longer-term interest rates. Fed policymakers said they made the move because the recovery “appeared more modest in the near term than had been anticipated.”

Translation:  Oops.

Experts say that with the Fed’s benchmark short-term interest rate already near zero, it’s policy options are limited.

For instance, even though the central bank’s purchases of mortgage-backed securities have helped push mortgage rates to record lows, home sales still went in the porcelain receptacle after a federal tax credit expired at the end of April.

According to Sohn, among the limited moves Bernanke could take is eliminating the interest rate the Fed pays banks on about $1 trillion in cash reserves, making it more attractive to lend the money,  The Fed also could loosen the reins on banks it regulates, also freeing up more money for loans.

The White House will be among those paying close attention to Bernanke’s remarks today.

Scooter will probably have a satellite feed up in Martha’s Vineyard, as he and First Mama devour another lobster.  Tough life.

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R- Ohio) told Scooter this week that he needed to fire his economic team .  Fat chance of that, especially since the administration remains bragadocious about their efforts to stimulate the economy being  responsible for a “Recovery Summer”.

However, Obama is very aware that this economy that he is responsible for is a political liability.   The president interrupted his vay-cay on Wednesday to hold a conference call with his economic “brain-trust”, including Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and top economic advisor Larry Summers, to discuss “recent data reports, global markets and economic growth.”

Scooter and his minions will not be able to prop up the economy with more of our money because the attention that the out-of-control federal budget deficit has raised along with last year’s ineffective $814-billion “Porkulus” legislation.   Obama’s economic failures are providing excellent cannon fodder for Republicans as they campaign for the Midterm Elections.

The Congressional Budget Office published a dubious report this week that the stimulus raised the nation’s economic output, or gross domestic product, from April through June, and lowered the unemployment rate by as many as 1.8 percentage points.

However, in the same breath, the CBO said the effects of the stimulus on GDP “are expected to gradually diminish during the second half of 2010 and beyond.”

Our economy started this freefall in December 2007, as rising numbers of homeowners defaulted on subprime mortgages and housing prices collapsed. The descent sped up in 2008, as unemployment grew, banks suffered huge losses and the nation’s financial markets teetered on the verge of collapse.

The economy began a modest improvement last summer but its momentum has stalled. The initial estimate of economic output in the three months ended June 30 was 2.4%, down from 3.7% in the first quarter and 5% in the final three months of last year.

But that second-quarter figure could be cut nearly in half after more analysis of data, such as business inventories and exports. Growth near 1% is “virtually nothing,” Sohn said:

This is a harbinger of weak economic growth to come for quite some time.  Right now, it’s hard to see where we will get any sort of strength.

The strength of America has always come from her people, not from the government.  The only way out of this economic catastrophe is for Obama and his academically-experienced useful idiots to get out of the way and let America work.  Extend the tax cuts.  Repeal Obamacare.  And get your up-turned noses out of our lives.

Head ‘Em Up. Move ‘Em Out.

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

Leaders in the Democratic Party are beginning to painfully face the reality that the summertime economic and political recovery that they and Barack Husein Obama (Peace be upon him) have promised “ain’t gonna happen” in time to save their phony baloney jobs in the House of Representatives.

More than two dozen party insiders, most of whom pleaded for anonymity, said that Democrats in and out of Washington are increasingly alarmed about the economic and polling data they have seen in recent weeks.

They no longer believe in the administration’s myth of a “recovery summer”.  What has really caught their attention are indications that House Democrats once considered safe, like Rep. Betty Sutton, who occupies an Ohio seat that President Barack Obama won with 57 percent of the vote in 2008, are are on the verge of being tossed out on their kiesters.

In two close races, endangered Democrats are even running ads touting how they oppose their leadership.

According to one of Washington’s best-connected Democrats:

Democrats kept thinking: ‘We’re going to get better. We’re going to get well before the election.  But as of this week, you now have people saying that Republicans are going to win the House. And now it’s starting to look like the Senate is going to be a lot closer than people thought.

A Democratic pollster working on several key races said:

The reality is that [the House majority] is probably gone. 

 His says that the Democrats’ problems are only getting worse:

It’s spreading.

However, Republicans have some catching up to do in the 68 days before the election. Republicans need to pick up 39 seats, and polls show most voters still have a downbeat view of the GOP’s ability to govern any better than Democrats. Republicans have been out-raised and out-spent at the national level and in many of the key races. 

According to Chris Van Hollen, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

We have been saying for the past 18 months this will be a politically challenging environment.  That being said, we will retain the majority in the House. All of what you are hearing is the inside-the-beltway chatter.

A top House Democratic strategist who agrees with Van Hollen admitted that pessimism is spreading rapidly, but mainly in Washington. This strategist thinks that the mood among individual Democratic candidates, many of whom enjoy a considerable cash advantage, is more optimistic.

Meanwhile, you can see the Democrats’ stress building in their campaign ads, like that of veteran Ike Skelton of Missouri, whose job is unexpectedly at risk.   And then there are signs that professional Democrats are worried. Lobbyists are reporting a noticeable increase House committee staffers looking for jobs.

Democrats are at odds with each other on the best way to maintain control of the House, but mostly agree there are few good options beyond grinding it out in each individual race.

According to Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker:

It’s individual Democrats that are going to have to defeat flawed Republican candidates.  It’s important that Democrats succeed in individual races.

Democrats thought that they would be ab le to use their decisive fund-raising edge to bail out members over the final two months of the campaign. But, even though they have raised way more money than Republicans, Democrats are worried that when spending by outside groups is factored in, they will have little or no advantage in spending over the next two months.

Dems had hoped Obama’s popularity, and perceived appeal with base voters and donors,would draw the party together.

A state party chair said:

The concern I have is that the president is doing poorly in places you need him to perform strongly with your base. You need to have confidence in your leader.

Several House Democratics are furious with the White House for keeping the debate over a New York mosque in play for two weeks – and then announcing Obama will use a prime-time address next week to brag about Iraq, and not for a serious discussion concerning the economy.   Democrats are upset that, by Labor Day, they will have spent nearly nine weeks this summer beating back negative or unhelpful story lines instigated, in part or in total, by the White House.

And, Democrats had hoped that by constantly blaming Boooosh!, they could convince swing voters not to install a Republican House again.

A former state Democratic Party chairman seems to have had an epiphany:

The problem is that a lot of the message talks to the base, and we’ve got to talk to the middle.  You can only blame Bush for so long.

In some races, frightened Democrats are desperately trying to distance themselves from the national party, even if that means bashing Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

A second-term congressman from South Bend, Indiana, Rep. Joe Donnelly, is airing a new TV ad in his South Bend-area district boasting that he voted against “Nancy Pelosi’s energy tax on Hoosier families.”

Pennsylvania Rep. Jason Altmire is running one just like it, which features supporters praising the second-term Democrat for “stand[ing] up” to Obama and Pelosi.

In Washington, Democrats are floating a new strategy of trying to make the national conversation about Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), who would become the speaker of the House with a GOP takeover.  The major problem with that strategy is that most voters have never heard of him.

A senior Democratic aide involved in party strategy said:

We want to elevate John Boehner.  We want him and his ideas to be in the forefront.

I’m blinded by their intellect.

Democrats want  this weak approach to somehow stoke excitement among its base voters.   However, two different sets of data show Republicans with a big advantage when it comes to firing up the base.   A new Gallup poll out this week shows 46 percent of Republicans and just 23 percent of Democrats to be “very enthusiastic” about voting.

Heading into Tuesday night’s races, 15.4 million Republicans had already voted in primaries, compared with 12 million Democrats who have turned out for primaries so far in 2010.

Jamie Franks, chair of the Mississippi Democratic Party, said:

Hopefully, we can rally the base and turn people out.

He also predicts that the Dems will maintain control of the House.

After the interview, Jamie left to feed the unicorn in his front yard.

What Democrats are watching most closely right now is the expansion of the field of at-risk seats.  Such as those seats occupied by Reps. Allen Boyd of Florida, Jim Marshall of Georgia and Leonard Boswell of Iowa.  All of whom were recently moved into the toss-up category by respected handicapper Charlie Cook.

Also, Reps. Ben Chandler of Kentucky and Stephanie Herseth Sandlin of South Dakota were both outraised by their opponents this past quarter, increasing concern about their races.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has already purchased ads to defend 54 seats that the party controls.  Heading into the home stretch,  it appears that their advertising budget is going to have to be expanded.

Sho’ ’nuff hate it for them. 

 

 

 

 

Obama: Down With His Own Struggle

On By kingsjesterIn Politics5 Comments

Now that President Barack Hussein Obama’s (Peace be upon him.) approval ratings have been consistently under 50% for a while, some of those in his strongest voting bloc are starting to gripe about the way in which he’s exercising his perceived “mandate”.

Since Obama ascended to the Throne, African Americans have faced a number of high points, like  an exceptionally high unemployment rate, a high foreclosure rate, and a high number of African-American political figures thrown under the wheels of the legendary Obama Bus:  former White House social secretary Desiree Rogers, former Department of Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod, South Carolina Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alvin Greene, former green energy czar Van Jones, Democratic Illinois Sen. Roland Burris, Democratic New York Gov. David Patterson, would-be Democratic New York Senate candidate Harold Ford Jr., and Democratic Reps. Charlie Rangel of New York, Maxine Waters of California and Kendrick Meek of Florida.

There’s gratitude for ya.

Professor of African-American Studies at Princeton University, Dr. Cornel West, is one of the African-American leaders who are upset about Obama’s neglect of African-American issues. West said that he has been extremely frustrated with the president’s perceived aloofness regarding civil rights issues.

He can take the black base for granted because he assumes we have nowhere else to go.  But we just won’t put up with it. He has got to respect us.

West is not alone in feeling neglected.  According to West, behind the scenes, a lot of African-American leaders are not happy with Obama’s failure to address issues important to the black community, a community which felt that their issues were finally going to be given special attention by helping to elect the nation’s first black president.  However, according to West, many of those dissatisfied leaders are hesitant to step forward.

There hasn’t been a lot of talk about it because I think most black spokespeople, at the moment, are scared of the Obama machine.   A lot of us are trying to put the pressure on him without aiding and abetting the right wing.

Radio-talk show host and expert on black politics, Dr. Wilmer Leon, said that while Obama has actively been distancing himself from the African-American community, few know the best way to push him in the right direction.

On the one hand many in the community are very frustrated with the president and want him to say more and do more and stop throwing people under the bus.  But many in the community don’t quite know how to approach him because of the historic nature of his presidency and they don’t want to do the brother in.

Shelby Steele, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, has written extensively about the fine line the president had to walk in order to be elected.  His book, “A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can’t Win,” illuminates all the political wheeling and dealing that Obama had to make in order to be elected.  According to Steele, Obama is a “bargainer,” who appeals to white sensibilities by eschewing the presumption of racism.  This would be in contrast to a “challenger,” or an individual who presumes his white counterpart is racist.

I think that is why he is president of the United States, because he is a superb bargainer on this racial level. If he starts to pay any kind of special attention to black problems then he starts to look like what I call a ‘challenger,’ somebody who has a chip on his shoulder who has a hidden agenda.  He cannot politically afford to pay special attention to black Americans. So if he runs into any black Americans who seem to have any coloring of militancy, he runs for his life. He cannot be associated with those people — Reverend Wright almost did him in. So he throws them under the bus very quickly.

Bingo.

Dr. Leon agreed with Dr. Steele’s theory, saying that the president’s failure to connect with the African-American community is largely political in nature:

The president has done everything in his power not to be tagged as an African-American representative. For to be tagged as such would force him into discussions and contribute to stereotypes that make it very difficult, if not impossible, to be elected. So he was very successful as a candidate to walk that fine line and stay out of the racial dialogue.

Professor of political science at the University of Arkansas, Dr. Pearl Ford, sees Obama’s relationship with the African-American community as a complex issue, not easily explained with a quick answer.  She believes that during the election Obama garnered African-American support by not necessarily appealing directly to the community, but by focusing on larger issues in which they are interested:

He was able to tap into the community’s sense of camaraderie, sense of racial identity and pride to garner support. There were not any major overtures. A lot of the overtures were general like education in general and health care in general.

Dr. Steele also said that Obama does not owe the black community as much as they believe he does due to the fact that whites were the ones who elected him — specifically by throwing their support to him during the Iowa caucus. Initially, the African-American community was significantly supporting Hillary Clinton’s candidacy.

Per Dr. Steele:

Once blacks began to see that whites were with Obama they didn’t want to be left standing at the station so they jumped on board.  They were not his base anyway. So he is not confused about that. That said, blacks will continue to vote for him. They vote for every Democratic candidate at a rate of 90% so Obama can absolutely take them for granted and will.

Dr. Ford disagrees.  According to her, Obama owes a great deal to African-American women, who she believes helped him to secure his victory in a couple key battle-ground states:

What we do know about the turnout is a significant number of African-American women vote and that is extremely significant in critical states like North Carolina and Ohio. So, even though he won the white vote, there was an extreme increase in African-American turnout that allowed him to win those battleground states. It would be very dangerous to ignore that.

Both West and Leon are torqued off about the president’s air of superiority and arrogance toward the black community:

Obama has been at times very condescending to the black community.  And the problem is this, don’t run from us and then tomorrow think that you can come in and preach to us. In the vernacular, you are either down or you’re not! You’re either with us or you’re not.

Obama treats all Americans this way.  Welcome to the party, pal.

Dr. Ford said that while President Obama has made a show of performing several important symbolic acts for the African-American community — such as staying in the historically black section of Martha’s Vineyard and laying a wreath on the African-American Civil War Memorial — he has failed to deal with the substantive issues she says the community wants addressed:

He has a substantive role, and he also has a symbolic role. He’s addressed the symbolic issues, but with the substantive issues — that’s where he has failed.

Dr. Leon said that it is incumbent upon the African-American community to try to get Obama to move in their direction. If the community fails to do this, he said,  it will be more difficult to get presidential support in the future for civil rights initiatives:

My take on that is, you have to treat him the same way you would treat any other president.  Especially since he is not giving you any reason to treat him otherwise. And it is going to be very difficult, whether it is 2012 and he is not reelected or it is 2016 and we’re dealing with a new president — who most likely will not be African-American — it is going to be very difficult to hold that new president to a different standard.

Dr. Ford concludes:

It’s my hope that he becomes more aggressive and addresses these issues. I’m not willing to say he’s not willing to do it, but I think it’s a difficult global climate for him to do so, but I think he’s gonna have to do so and let the chips fall.

I hope that America’s “black leadership” will not be too disappointed when Scooter doesn’t respond to them in the way that they want him to.   The only struggle that Obama has proven that he is down with, is the one shared by Marx, Alinsky, and Soros…and that knows no color.

 

Peace Through Funding Islam?

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics6 Comments

While Americans have been asking questions about the Ground Zero Mosque and why in the world the State Department is funding Ground Zero mosque Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s trip to the Middle East, few Americans are aware that U.S. taxpayer money is funding mosque development around the world.

A search by The Daily Caller of the State Department’s list of “projects” revealed 26 examples of federal funds going to fund construction, renovation, and rehabilitation of various mosques abroad. The countries receiving our money include Bulgaria, Pakistan, Mali, Tunisia, Afghanistan, Benin, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania, Egypt, Tunisia, the Maldives, Yemen, Turkmenistan, Tanzania, Uganda, Azerbaijan, Sudan, Serbia and Montenegro.

The U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP), claiming it is putting millions toward “heritage preservation” projects in the Muslim world , used American money to finance mosque-related projects in all the aforementioned countries.

For example, in Montenegro, the State Department used our money in an effort to restore and conserve the Shadrvan (Fountain) of the Old Mosque in Pljevlja.   The State Department’s website claims that without needed repairs there would not be a sufficient place for ritual washing before prayer.

The state department describes our previously-unknown benevolency thusly:

To support the restoration of a fountain at a 16th-century mosque concurrent with the restoration of the mosque itself. Used for ritual ablutions before prayer, the fountain has deteriorated over time and needs a new wooden octagonal roof, pipes, water-taps, and pavement.

According to Nicole Thompson, a State Department spokeswoman, the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation is a type of diplomatic effort and outreach, what she says Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calls “soft power.”

Soft-headed is more like it.

Per Ms. Thompson:

It is helping to preserve our cultural heritage. It is not just to preserve religious structures.  It is not to preserve a religion. It is to help us as global inhabitants preserve cultures.

Indiana Republican Sen. Richard G. Lugar, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, received a document on Monday from the State Department explaining that the practice of funding such projects became acceptable in 2003 when the Justice Department declared that the U.S. Constitution’s Establishment Clause did not preclude federal funds from going to preserve religious structures if they had cultural importance:

That advice is provided in the following paragraph that appears in every AFCP request for grant proposals… ‘The establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution permits the government to include religious objects and sites within an aid program under certain conditions. For example, an item with a religious connection (including a place of worship) may be the subject of a cultural preservation grant if the item derives its primary significance and is nominated solely on the basis of architectural, artistic, historical or other cultural (not religious) criteria.’

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has also spent millions reconstructing and financing multiple mosques in Cairo and Cyprus, as well as providing computers for imams in Tajikistan and Mali.

The funny thing is, the Code of Federal Regulations says:

USAID funds may not be used for the acquisition, construction, or rehabilitation of structures to the extent that those structures are used for inherently religious activities.

USAID press officer Annette Aulton told The Daily Caller that the code did not apply to the mosque construction and the imam computer projects as they were done for ostensibly secular concerns.

Aulton wrote in an e-mail:

Historic and cultural preservation activities have a clearly secular purpose as do activities to promote tourism.  With respect to the computer center in the mosque in Tajikistan, this activity seems to be part of a larger program aimed at reducing social conflict.

…[W]ith respect to the computer equipment provided to the Imam in Mali, there really isn’t enough information to do an analysis. There are references to promotion of the town’s historical, cultural and religious heritage, which sounds like a secular purpose.

Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch, opines:

I think it is disastrously wrongheaded and unconstitutional.  It is not going to accomplish what they hope it will. They are not going to win hearts and minds. It is not as if they are going to say ’the Americans built this mosque for us so we shouldn’t wage jihad on them.

Spencer also believes that the State Department will often explain that it provides funds for cultural reasons, “but a mosque is a mosque is a mosque. It is where prayer happens. That is a religious installation.”

Bingo.

Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) disagreed (I’m shocked).  He claims that such projects can help improve relations with the Muslim world:

Anytime the United States is seen as being on the side of Muslims, of their aspirations and their needs and goals, that can only help our image and interests around the world.

The National Director of the Islamic Society of North America Office of Interfaith and Community Alliances, Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed,  agreed with Hooper, claiming that it is worthwhile to preserve centuries old historical and cultural structures and funding these projects could help America build bridges in the Muslim world:

It is an erroneous image that America is singling Muslims out as their target. So to some extent this could help.

I’m shocked again.

Michael Rubin, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, disagrees.  He says that such initiatives are problematic because they often lack oversight and “quality control”:

Part of the problem is the State Department really has no definition of what radical means and they also have no coherent strategy when it comes to dealing with extremist Islam.  As a result you have young junior officers who are adjudicating grants and are basically approving them on the basis of what the grantee says rather than doing a deeper check behind who they are affiliated with or what their mission is.

…Unfortunately Muslim Brotherhood type groups are the ones which are the slickest when it comes to PR and have the greatest ability to reach out.

The president and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, says that despite American efforts to reach out to Muslims around the world, a recent Zogby poll found that in the Muslim world, the percentage of the population which views America favorably still hovers around 18%:

We have always felt this type of outreach is completely ineffective and that ultimately we have to approach it like the Cold War where we are fighting an ideology and we have to be poignantly open about what part of political Islam we are trying to change and modify.  If we are going to have this long war of ideas we cannot fund these religious institutions. We can fund anti-Islamist institutions based in liberty.

The president of Hudson Institute, Herbert London, is extremely troubled by the use of government funds for religious purposes:

I wouldn’t be okay with it if these were synagogues that they were funding.

According to the State Department’s document that they sent to Sen. Lugar, there are zero construction efforts occurring on historic Jewish synagogues, though there is funding of some Jewish related projects such as the “preservation of the Main Gate and Tombstones in the Jewish Cemetery in Sarajevo [Bosnia-Herzegovina].” The document  also gives examples of the State Department funding churches, cathedrals and Buddhist and Hindu temples abroad.

Meanwhile, back in New York City, at the scene of the greatest Islamic Terrorist attack ever on American soil, a Greek Orthodox church, destroyed on Sept. 11, has yet to be rebuilt.

According to the World Trade Center site’s owner, a deal to help rebuild St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church was offered and rejected, after years of negotiations, over money and other issues.

Supporters, including George Pataki, New York’s governor at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks, have wondered why public officials have not addressed St. Nicholas’ future while they lead a debate on whether and where The Cordoba Project should be built.

Father Alex Karloutsos, assistant to the archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, plaintively asks:

What about us? Why have they forgotten or abandoned their commitment to us?   When I see them raising issues about the mosque and not thinking about the church that was destroyed, it does bother us.

You’re not alone, Father.

 

 

 

The New York City Mosque Mess: Khan!!!

On By kingsjesterIn Politics9 Comments

Both sides of the Ground Zero Mosque Debate, or Obamamosque, as some have called it, squared off in duelling demonstrations yesterday.

The now-national debate centers on plans to build an Islamic center (i.e., mosque) at Ground Zero, the site of the September 11, 2001 attacks by al Qaeda, which killed 3,000 people.

The debate is not helping the Democratic party.  Republicans against the mosque are using it to attack Democratic President Barack Obama a little over two months ahead of midterm elections, where his party is fighting to keep their phony baloney jobs in Congress.

Opponents of the Cordoba Initiative, renamed Park51, say its proposed location is insensitive and fear it will be a haven for Muslim Extremists. Those who back it cite the right to religious freedom and a need to promote tolerance and understanding.

Hundreds of opponents on Sunday showed up chanting “No Mosque,” singing patriotic songs and waving photographs of violent attacks by Islamic extremists.

One sign read:

Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all the terrorists were Muslim.

Around the corner, supporters chanted:

We don’t care what bigots say, religious freedom is here to stay.

I thought it was supposed to be:  We don’t care what the people say, rock ‘n roll is here to stay.  Funny how the Libs love religious freedom, as long as it does not apply to Christianity.

Demonstrators tried to shout each other down, however, no violence or arrests were reported.  Uniformed police and rows of barricades kept many in the crowds apart. Police officials said extra forces were deployed but did not say how many officers were at the demonstration.

Obama and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg have given their support  to the right of Muslims to build the center near Ground Zero, while Republicans, including former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, oppose it.

Others suggest it be moved to a less controversial spot.

Ali Akram, a local doctor who supports the project, said:

The people who say the mosque is too close to Ground Zero, those are the same people that protest mosques in Brooklyn and Staten Island and Tennessee and Wisconsin and California. What radius will they go for? There’s no end to it.

A lot of those  in the crowd opposing the center were firefighters and construction workers, who carried signs reading:

This is Sacred Ground to New Yorkers.

One sign read:

Everything I Ever Needed to Know about Islam I Learned on 9/11.

Plans for the project that have been revealed to this point include a 13-story building to house an auditorium, swimming pool, meeting rooms as well as the prayer space. The structure is fairly plain and, so far, does not include a minaret, dome or other motifs often associated with mosques.

Some that are opposed to the mosque, err, cultural center, have taken legal action, seeking to void a ruling that would allow construction to proceed, while some construction workers have launched a Hard Hat Pledge, vowing not to work on the project.

Daisy Khan, wife of Cordoba Initiative Leader Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, compared opposition to the project to the persecution of Jews, in comments that could add to the controversy over the Cordoba Initiative Project (Park51).

Ms. Khan, who is spearheading the project with her husband, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, said:.

We are deeply concerned, because this is like a metastasized antisemitism.  It’s beyond Islamophobia. It’s hate of Muslims.

A Muslim comparing righteous indignation to antisemitism.  How…ironic.

She appeared on ABC News’s “This Week” on Sunday and vowed to push ahead with plans to build a 15-story complex two blocks from the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in lower Manhattan, saying there was “too much at stake.”

Yeah, Miss Daisy.  If they make you move the mosque, it won’t be an Islamic symbol of victory any longer.

Several politicians, including New York Governor David Paterson, have called for the project to be moved away from Ground Zero. On Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) also suggested the mosque’s location should be changed:

McConnell said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday:

I hope the people of New York, who can actually make the decision, will take into account public opinion not only locally but around the country.

Ms. Khan said that they weren’t going to move it, but (like a cat playing with a mouse) she didn’t rule out the option.

Right now it’s not (being considered) until we consult with all our stakeholders.

Appearing with the head of the Jewish Community Center in New York, on which her project is modeled, she said a prayer space would only be part of a broader center:

There will be schools, you know, small education forums, conferences, and it’s basically become a place where ideas can be exchanged, but tolerance, mutual respect can also be extended.

The project’s backers are holding talks with the families of those who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks in an effort to calm the controversy around their project, Ms. Khan said.

The imam behind the project is described by Liberals as a moderate Muslim leader who has long called for reconciliation between religions. But comments that he has made before and after shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, prove that he is not as moderate as his supporters say.

On of the comments made by Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf was that, while the U.S. didn’t deserve what happened on 9/11, its policies were “an accessory to the crime.” Asked on Sunday about those comments, Ms. Khan said they had been part of a wider interview that addressed support by the Central Intelligence Agency for Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban in the 1980s – when the U.S. was fighting a proxy war against Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

That was a very weak explanation, Ms. Kahn.

For supposedly very learned people, Iman Rauf, his wife Daisy Khan, and the people behind The Cordoba Initiative (Park51), do not seem to be able to grasp the meaning of the word inappropriate.  That obtuseness alone presents a very clear and compelling argument that there is more to their desire to build the Ground Zero Mosque than they are revealing. 

A Social Political Firestorm

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics5 Comments

On June 14th, 2010, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, an agnostic, said in an interview with Andy Ferguson of The Weekly Standard: 

… the next president, whoever he is, “would have to call a truce on the so-called social issues. We’re going to just have to agree to get along for a little while,” until the economic issues are resolved. 

Little did Governor Daniels know that social issues would soon rival, if not overshadow economic issues, in the eye of the American public.

Over the last several days, the buzz around the water coolers in America has been about:

The Ground Zero mosque. Gay marriage in California. The president’s religion. 

Granted, these issues have nothing  to do with the economy.  Obama’s failed economic policy has dominated the political scene in 2010 and caused a panic among incumbents up for re-election in November.   However, with a little over two months to go until the midterm elections, the three aforementioned social concerns have created a hurricane of political buzz,with the tornadoes of illegal immigration and health care swirling within the atmosphere. 

The all-knowing pundits (just ask them) say the economy is still the number one issue and that politicians need to stay away from the sticky issues revolving around morality, ethics, and, God forbid, religion, or else they will drive away independent voters who, the pundits assume, vote with their wallets.

Evidently, their parents never told these all-knowing pundits what assuming does.

In Florida, site of  primary elections this Tuesday, the top Republican candidates for governor are both echoing each other’s outrage over the Islamic center proposed near Ground Zero in lower Manhattan. 

Billionaire Rick Scott immediately put out a campaign ad after President Obama launched the New York issue into the national spotlight by saying the developers had the right to build there. 

Scott’s campaign ad, to the backdrop of moody guitar music, declared that Obama was “wrong” and the mosque should not be erected “just yards” from where “Muslim fanatics murdered thousands of innocent Americans.” 

Opponent Bill McCollum, Florida’s attorney general, repeated the outrage: 

We’re still at war with Al Qaeda. They see this as a sign of weakness.  This is not just an insult to the families of the victims of September 11. It’s also a problem for our soldiers that are still fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. 

In Missouri, GOP Rep. Roy Blunt’s Senate campaign posted a web video that had audio of Democratic opponent Robin Carnahan saying New Yorkers should decide the mosque issue for themselves — with a photo in the background of smoldering World Trade Center rubble.  Blunt eventually pulled the ad, but Carnahan said it went too far. 

Senate Majority Leader “Dinghy” Harry Reid, who faces a conservative challenge from Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle, shocked  Washington by coming out against the mosque Monday. 

He had to protect his phony baloney job.

Political candidates in states thousands of miles from Ground Zero are publically expressing their opinions on the mosque debate. The hottest part of this political firestorm is in New York, where Republicans are blasting Democrats who have either sided with the proposed center or kept their mouth shut, trying to fly below the radar.

Rick Lazio, challenger to Democratic Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in the general election, has released an ad through the New York State Conservative Party slamming Cuomo for defending the Cordoba Initiative.

In the ad, Rubio says:

New Yorkers have been through enough.  Andrew Cuomo is very, very wrong. 

Republicans think that they have found a political hot button issue.   A Fox News poll released last Friday found 64 percent of voters think it’s wrong to put a mosque near Ground Zero. 

However, there are Republicans who seem to be preaching Moderation.  Oh, squish.   New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie has warned lawmakers against getting too caught up in the debate.  Republican strategist Kevin Madden, former spokesman for ex-presidential candidate Mitt Romney (Has anybody heard where he stands on the issue, by the way?), said candidates should beware the mosque:

What happens is candidates run the risk of looking like they are focusing on the trivial at the expense of the urgent — the urgent being the economy.

Trivial?  Not according to other Republican candidates.

According to Georgia Republican Rep. Phil Gingrey, the recent debate over whether the 14th amendment should be altered so that children of illegal immigrants are not granted automatic citizenship will be a “huge issue” come November. 

Hearkening back to the campaign of 2004, gay marriage was also tossed into the campaign season mix when a federal judge earlier this month ruled that California’s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. The decision is being appealed. 

Republican gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman on Friday seized the opportunity to blast California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown, her Democratic opponent, for not defending the law in court. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, she promised to defend the law as governor. 

The hottest social issue of the week was a poll released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center which showed voters’ views on the president’s religion are either murkier, or possibly clearer, than ever.  The poll showed 18 percent of Americans believe the president, who claims to be a practicing Christian, is a Muslim — that’s up from 11 percent in March 2009.  A third  identified him as a Christian and 43 percent said they don’t know what religion the president practices. 

 Director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, Larry Sabato, told Fox News that in light of the numbers the White House will probably be more “persistent” in letting reporters know when he’s attending services or consulting with pastors. He said that may help “moderate” the false impression about his religion. 

It has been very interesting this week to observe the MSM, the Progressives, and the Northeast Moderates all trying to spin these social issues that are so upsetting to the American public.  Just as Beltway Republicans have been trying to steer their party away from Reagan Conservatism, saying that it was a failed model, so are these elements in our society trying to tell the American people that right and wrong are relative things, and that traditional American values are passe’.

Reality check, people:  75 % of Americans proclaim their Christianity.  The overwhelming majority of Americans were raised with traditional values.  They believe in the concept of right and wrong.  They have been working hard all of their lives and now, a bunch of clowns in Washington are trying to tell them that they need to give more of their money to them, just so this Regime can destroy what it took over 200 years to build.  At the same time, they see a president, currently on his 6th vacation of the year, who has said that we no longer consider ourselves a Christian nation and that the Muslim call to prayer is one of “the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset”.  Not only that, but he can recite the Call to Prayer in perfect Arabic.  Funny, I’ve never heard him recite The Lord’s Prayer.  What are Americans supposed to believe about this man?

Yes.  We are all struggling to survive due to the worst economic policy in the history of America.  However, strictly campaigning on the issue of economics alone, with no ethical and moral stance to back it up, will not win an election for the Republicans.  After all, Mussolini made the trains run on time.

The WikiLeaks Weasels

On By kingsjesterIn Politics6 Comments

According to government officials, lawyers from the Pentagon  believe that online whistleblower group WikiLeaks acted illegally in disclosing thousands of classified Afghanistan war reports and other material, and federal prosecutors are exploring possible criminal charges.

There is a joint investigation by the Army and the Federal Bureau of Investigation still in its early stages.  They are trying to decide what course the Department of Justice is going to take.

Government officials have previously said that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had not been named by the FBI as a target of the probe.

In late July, WikiLeaks posted some 76,000 classified military documents on its website, the largest such disclosure since the release of the Pentagon Papers in 1971. It has promised that there are another 15,000 documents coming from the cache it obtained. The disclosure made the Pentagon’s collective heads spin around.  The Pentagon warned that the release could endanger allies in Afghanistan and undercut the war effort.

Defense and Justice departments are exploring legal options for prosecuting Assange and others involved on grounds they encouraged the theft of government property.

Bringing a case against WikiLeaks would be a complicated matter.  It would potentially alienate Obama from his Far-Left voter base through the fact that Scooter and his administration would be pursuing not just government leakers, but organizations that disseminate their information.

The Pentagon is ratcheting up their tone in an effort to dissuade WikiLeaks from posting online the remaining documents.

Defense Department General Counsel Jeh Charles Johnson sent a letter this week to a WikiLeaks lawyer.  In it he wrote:

It is the view of the Department of Defense that WikiLeaks obtained this material in circumstances that constitute a violation of United States law, and that as long as WikiLeaks holds this material, the violation of the law is ongoing,” The letter did not spell out what those circumstances were.

People in-the-know said investigators and government lawyers were looking at whether WikiLeaks pressured army intelligence analyst Pfc. Bradley Manning to leak the Afghan war logs after the soldier provided the group with a classified Iraq video.

It that is the case, prosecutors will certainly pursue charges against WikiLeaks, legal experts said.

The head of the project on government secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, Steven Aftergood, said U.S. law gives prosecutors a number of tools they could use to prosecute WikiLeaks, for instance, alleging the group was an accessory to a crime or had unlawfully taken possession of stolen property.   He said if WikiLeaks actively encouraged the transfer of classified documents, the government could allege the group was part of a conspiracy,

The big question is whether WikiLeaks should be given the same legal protections as a “traditional” media outlet.

According to legal experts, the government may treat WikiLeaks differently because of the way it gathers and publishes information.  Its website actively solicits classified material and promises leaking is “safe, easy and protected by law.”

Traditional news organizations rarely publish information wholesale without first consulting the government to authenticate the information and to ensure it doesn’t compromise national security. WikiLeaks’ conveniently ignores that prudent step.

Mr. Aftergood said:

If WikiLeaks thought it would make the last move and the government would not respond, they may be mistaken .   But it would be a terrible new precedent if these legal options were actually employed against a publisher, even a disreputable one. Once such measures were used against WikiLeaks, it would only be a matter of time until they are used against other media outlets and individuals.

Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said:

We believe at a minimum that WikiLeaks has behaved in a reckless and irresponsible manner.

WikiLeaks lawyer, Timothy Matusheski, said he had been told by a member of the Army Criminal Investigative Division unit investigating the case that Mr. Assange, an Australian national, “was not a subject or target of any investigation.”

The U.S. law-enforcement official said that Mr. Assange was not a target, but Mr. Johnson’s letter may signal a shift, at least in terms of the Pentagon’s thinking.

Mr. Matusheski said:

They accuse him [Assange] of breaking the law.  But they haven’t said what law.

22 year-old Pfc. Manning worked in intelligence operations in Baghdad.  His job was to examine intelligence relevant to Iraq, but defense officials said Pfc. Manning used his “Top Secret/SCI” clearance to tap into documents around the world.

Pfc. Manning was charged by the military in July with illegally taking secret State Department files and disseminating the classified video, later released by WikiLeaks, showing a U.S. military helicopter firing on a group of people in Baghdad. Two Reuters journalists and seven other people were killed in the 2007 incident.

Michael Moore, the Oscar-winning filmmaker and embarrassing slob, announced in his own attention-seeking way, that he will contribute $5,000 to Manning’s Defense Fund. 

Moore told The Associated Press in a telephone interview he also hopes to make the public understand that Pfc. Bradley Manning exposed what Moore called “war crimes.”:

He did a courageous thing and he did a patriotic thing.

Manning faces up to 52 years in prison if convicted.

Meanwhile, Julian Assange is suspected of rape in Sweden, where authorities have issued a warrant for his arrest, officials said yesterday.

The 39-year-old Assange denied the allegations on WikiLeaks’ Twitter page, saying they “are without basis and their issue at this moment is deeply disturbing.”

Assange, who has sought Swedish legal protection for his website, is suspected of molestation and rape in two separate cases, according to Karin Rosander, a spokeswoman for the Swedish Prosecution Authority.

Rosander told The Associated Press:

He should get in contact with police so that he can be confronted with the suspicions.

She said a prosecutor in Stockholm issued the arrest warrant on Friday. That means that means police are ordered to seek his arrest as part of an investigation but doesn’t necessarily mean that criminal charges will be filed.

Regarding the war documents, if the United States Government goes after WikiLeaks or  Assange personally, things are going to get complicated.  Not only is Assange not an American, according to Mr. Matusheski:

I don’t know [if] WikiLeaks has a presence in the United States except for a website.

The classified documents cover the Afghan war from 2004 through 2009. The Pentagon this week told WikiLeaks to go jump when they boldly requested  help in reviewing the remaining documents.  They demanded that WikiLeaks instead return all of the logs to the U.S. government.

The Pentagon said the 15,000 additional documents, like the initial batch, contained the names of Afghans who have helped the U.S. war effort and who could be targeted by the Taliban if their identities were made public.  Officials have continued to play down the impact of the leak on military strategy, saying they did not reveal anything new.

Have you ever looked at someone, and the first word that pops in your head is weasel?  When I saw  the pictures of Assange and Pfc. Manning, that word popped into my head.  When I watched Fox News and read about this life-threatening publicity stunt, other words and phrases popped into my head, also:   phrases like enemy of America, publicity hound, and playing at being a journalist, and words like traitor, treason, and hanging.

Like other Progressives, Assange is too wrapped up in his own self-righteousness to be worried about what effect his actions will have on others’ lives.   Hmmm..now, who does that remind you of?

UPDATE:   The warrant against Assange for rape has been withdrawn.   Chief prosecutor Eva Finné said in a statement explaining her decision:

I do not consider there to be any reason to suspect that he has committed rape.

Then why did the Swedes issue the warrant in the first place?  Hmmm.

 UPDATE 2:   Karin Rosander, spokeswoman for the Swedish Prosecution Authority, said that after a new prosecutor looked at the allegations, the arrest warrant was withdrawn because the severity of the case does not require an arrest at this stage.

Stranger and stranger.

A Powder Keg Waiting to Explode

On By kingsjesterIn Politics8 Comments

The Obama administration, touting evidence of continued troubles inside Iran’s nuclear program, has been trying to persuade Israel that it would take roughly a year, maybe longer, for Iran to complete their quest for a nuclear weapon, according to administration officials.

Today’s news from Iran will not help.

Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi announced on Friday that Iran has test fired a surface-to-surface missile, Qiam, and screened footage of the event on state television.

This announcement comes a day before Iran is scheduled to go on line with its Russian-built first nuclear power plant in the southern port city of Bushehr.

The television images showed the sand coloured Qiam (Rising) blasting into the air from a desert terrain, amid chants of “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest).

The words “Ya Mahdi” were written on the side of the missile, referring to Imam Mahdi, one of the 12 imams of Shiite Islam, who disappeared as a boy and whom Muslims believe will return one day to bring redemption to mankind.

Vahidi, speaking during Friday prayers in Tehran, would not reveal when the launch took place nor the precise range of the missile.

He did say on state television that the missile was of a new class:

The missile has new technical aspects and has a unique tactical capacity.  Since the surface-to-surface missile has no wings, it has a lot of tactical power, which also reduces the chances of it being intercepted.

Vahidi had announced on Tuesday that Qiam was to be test fired during the annual government week, the period when Tehran shows off  its achievements in various fields.  This year government week begins on Monday.

The third generation Fateh 110 (Conqueror) missile is also scheduled to be test fired during this period. Iran has previously paraded a version of Fateh 110 which has a travel range of 150 to 200 kilometres (90 to 125 miles).

Also during government week, the production lines of two missile-carrying speedboats, Seraj (Lamp) and Zolfaqar (named after Shiite Imam Ali’s sword) are going to be unveiled long with a long-range drone, Karar.

The firing of Qiam comes days after a top commander from the Revolutionary Guards said Iran will mass produce replicas of the world’s fastest boat, the Bladerunner 51, , and equip them with weapons to be deployed in the Gulf.

On August 8, Iran took delivery of four new mini-submarines of the home-produced Ghadir class. Weighing 120 tonnes, the “stealth” submarines are aimed at operations in shallow waters, notably in the Gulf.

Iranian officials frequently brag about the Islamic republic’s military capabilities and the latest missile launch comes at a time when local officials have been warning against any attack on the Islamic republic.

While Iran is thumping its chest and bragging about its military might, the authors of Smart Power!, Obama and his administration, were certain that their assessment of Iran’s nuclear program has somehow dimmed the prospect that Israel would pre-emptively strike against the country’s nuclear facilities within the next year, as Israeli officials have suggested in thinly veiled threats.

For years, Israeli and American officials have gone back and forth on whether Iran is on a quest toward a nuclear bomb and, if they are, how long it would take to produce one.   What is the unknown factor is how long would it take Tehran to convert existing stocks of low-enriched uranium into weapons-grade material, a process commonly known as “breakout.”

Israeli intelligence officials believe that Iran could complete such a race for the bomb in months, while American intelligence agencies have come to believe in the past year that the timeline is longer.

Gary Samore, Obama’s top adviser on nuclear issues, said:

We think that they have roughly a year dash time.   A year is a very long period of time.”

Administration officials believed international inspectors would detect an Iranian move toward breakout within weeks, leaving a considerable amount of time for the United States and Israel to consider military strikes.

These assessments were based on intelligence collected over the past year, as well as reports from international inspectors.  It is not known whether the problems that Iran has had enriching uranium are the result of poor centrifuge design, difficulty obtaining components or accelerated Western efforts to sabotage the nuclear program.

American and Israeli officials have believed that Iran’s quest for nuclear power will not be over anytime soon. For one thing, Iran, which claims it is interested in enriching uranium only for peaceful purposes, would be forced to build nuclear bombs from a limited supply of nuclear material, currently enough for two weapons. Second, such a decision would require kicking out international weapons inspectors.  That would be a clear signal that even Obama and his administration could recognize.

Even if Iran were to move in this direction, the administration says it would probably take Iran some time to reconfigure its nuclear facilities to produce weapons-grade uranium and ramp up work on designing a nuclear warhead.

Israeli officials have warned that if they saw a race for the bomb under way, they would probably take military action and encourage the United States to join the effort.  A spokesman for Israel’s embassy in Washington declined to comment for this article. In interviews, Israeli officials said their assessments were coming into line with the American view, but they remain suspicious that Iran has a secret enrichment site yet to be discovered.

Meanwhile, Israelis and Palestinians seem to be closer to beginning direct peace talks.  

An official statement calling for direct talks to begin is expected to be released soon by the Quartet, a group composed of the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, and Russia.

Israeli and Palestinian officials told Fox News that they are waiting for the Quartet statement first before announcing anything formally.

Saeb Erekat, Palestinian negotiator said:

I have not seen the statement and we will wait to see what the Quartet releases before making any announcements. 

 A Washington summit led by Obama to formally launch talks is expected to follow, likely before the Jewish holidays begin on Sept 9.

American officials said the White House set very early on a tentative deadline of 2011 for the creation of a Palestinian state.

Both Israeli and Palestinian governments are expected to consult with their leaders before agreeing to direct talks.

Israeli officials are concerned that the Quartet statement will call on the Jewish state to freeze construction in West Bank settlements. A construction freeze is set to expire on September 26 and the government has already said it will not renew it.

Palestinians have said they will not enter direct talks unless Israel agrees first that a future Palestinian state would follow the 1967 borders– the border between the two territories as it was on the eve of the 1967 Six Day War.

These proposed talks would cover the same issues as previous talks:  the outline for borders of a future state, Jerusalem’s status, Israeli security, and whether Palestinian refugees would be allowed to return to the homes they had before Israel’s creation.

While domestic issues involving America’s economy and the nation’s perception that Obama is, at best, a Muslim sympathizer, have seemingly monopolized our country’s attention, the area of the world known as The Middle East, continues to be minefield where the next next miscalculated step could lead to an explosion.  Unfortunately, the same waffling, Far-Left leadership that this administration has demonstrated concerning America’s domestic issues, in very evident in its bungling Foreign Policy initiative, ironically named Smart Power.

It is not comforting to Americans to know that The Middle East remains a powder keg waiting to explode, and this administration is holding the match.

Scooter: No, Really. We’re on the Right Track.

On By kingsjesterIn Politics8 Comments

President Barack Hussein Obama (Peace be unto him), on his ninth visit to Ohio and third to Columbus, tried to convince Americans in a backyard discussion that, despite the worst economy that most of us have seen in our lifetimes, his policies have actually got America on the right track.

According to Gallup, Scooter’s poll numbers, as of yesterday, break down thusly:

JOB APPROVAL       APPROVE  41%     DISAPPROVE  52%

U.S.  WORKFORCE    UNDEREMPLOYED  18.1%    EMPLOYED 81.9%

ECONOMIC CONDITIONS  EXCELLENT/GOOD  9% POOR 48%

ECONOMIC OUTLOOK  GETTING BETTER  32% GETTING WORSE  61%

With these kind of numbers hanging over his head, Obama returned to Ohio, a battleground state he won handily in 2008, to try to, as he said about Republicans,  bamboozle voters by saying that his economic policies are beginning to pay dividends in the form of new jobs and to plead with Democrats to turn back an expected GOP juggernaut at the Nov. 2 midterm election.

Obama told a group of about 40 in the backyard of Rhonda and Joe Weithman’s home, a Cape Cod on quiet E. Kanawha Avenue in Clintonville:

Slowly but surely, we are moving in the right direction. We’re on the right track.

Hey, Scooter, that light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train.

The president had to admit that times remain tough. Ohio’s unemployment rate of 10.5 percent is a full percentage point above the national rate.  Obama said:

We’ve made progress, but let’s face it, the progress hasn’t been fast enough.

As usual,Obama blamed Boooosh for  the economy, whining about how bad it was when he took office, saying it “really suffered a big trauma” and comparing the recovery to improving from an illness by getting “a little bit stronger each day.”

Later, at a Downtown luncheon fundraiser for Gov. Ted Strickland and the Ohio Democratic Party, Obama continued to blame Boooosh saying that the recession already had swept away 8 million jobs before “we had any opportunity to put in our economic policies.” His policies: the $787 billion stimulus package, health-care overhaul, domestic auto industry bailout and tighter regulations on Wall Street are helping to rebuild the economy, Obama said.

Scooter told 700 of the cheering faithful at the fundraiser in the Athenaeum:

After 18 months, I have never been more confident that our nation is headed in the right direction.

And, every day, he goes outside to feed the unicorn grazing on the South Law of the White House.

Obama’s visit, particularly his gloves-off rebuke of congressional Republicans : “This year, their slogan is, ‘No we can’t'”, was intended to boost the spirits of local Democrat politicians who dominate statewide offices and are feeling voters’ wrath against incumbents.

Mayor Michael B. Coleman called the speech “a motivator” for the state’s Democratic base:

It had some new energy for the party and showed how far we’ve come in a relatively short time, and going back to where we were is just not an option acceptable to Ohio.

Then he went and drank another glass of Kool-aid.

Scooter’s theme of remember the past so we don’t relive it was woven through every speech delivered at the fundraiser by members of the statewide Democratic ticket, who warned those attending that electing Republicans would mean resurrecting the policies that ignited the recession.

Sen. Sherrod Brown said after the fundraiser:

This is going to be a hard year, as we know.  We’ve got to make the contrast between what we are doing versus what they (Republicans) did, and what they did is what they want to do again.

Obama received a few chuckles when he reiterated a story he’s been making at every campaign, err, fund-raising, stop:  saying Republicans “want the keys back” after putting the economy in the ditch:

When you want your car to go forward, what do you do?  You put it into ‘D.’ When you want it going backwards, what do you do? You put it into ‘R.’

Auditor Mary Taylor, the running mate of John Kasich, Strickland’s GOP challenger, said in a conference call that jobs are the only issue in Ohio, and that both Strickland and Obama have failed to create them.

The president has a lot to answer for because more than 130,000 jobs have been lost in Ohio since February 2009, when the president’s ‘stimulus’ spending bill became law and helped explode the national debt to $13 trillion.

Obama arrived at the Weithmans’ home around 10:30 a.m. and spent about 15 minutes trying to bamboozle the family at their kitchen table about how the federal stimulus bill helped them.  Rhonda was able to maintain the family’s health insurance after losing her job last year, and the small architectural firm Joe runs was able to keep two employees with a project funded in part by stimulus funds.

Scooter then pontificated for nearly an hour in the backyard, taking nine questions from guests seated on a semi-circle of picnic tables in front of the few stalks of corn in the family vegetable garden.

The questions included whether Social Security would be privatized (Obama said not as long as he is president), as well as concerns about health care, education and pensions.

When a reporter had the temerity to ask a question after the “backyard bash” about whether Scooter has any regrets about his controversial comments about a proposed mosque at Ground Zero in New York City, the president paused for a picture (of course) and then answered:

The answer is “no regrets.”

The president kept the mood informal, telling the guests to ignore the throngs of photographers standing on risers and tried to schmooze with the “little people”, asking Columbus firefighter Joe Richard:

Did you used to play for Ohio State, man? You look like we could put you on the line right now.

Obama also said the Weithmans “made me be the ‘O'” in an O-H-I-O for a keepsake photo.  How droll.

The neighborhood was abuzz with curiosity as people gathered outside the police barricades to watch the hubbub before the president arrived on their street.

Although she was glad to have the president visit her neighborhood, Mirka Biggs, 60, a Republican who lives a street over from the Weithmans, said she’s skeptical about where the job market is headed:

The economy is not going right.

As the Gallup poll numbers that I posted earlier show, the majority of Americans feel the same way that Ms. Biggs does.  Unfortunately for Obama and the Democrats, with Midterm Elections a little more than three months away, all the flowery rhetoric and Boooosh-blaming in the world will not be able to rescue them from the consequences of  their failed Economic Policies.