Israelis, Palestinians and U.S. mediators are scrambling to find a compromise that would allow the collapsing Mideast talks to continue after an Israeli settlement slowdown expires at midnight.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu already stated that the 10-month-old moratorium on new settlement construction in the West Bank will not be extended, despite pleas from President Barack Hussein Obama (peace be unto him) to do so. The Palestinians have warned that if the slowdown ends, they will quit the talks.

If the sides fail to strike a compromise, the midnight end of the building restrictions will signal the end of the Mideast peace talks that began at the White House less than a month ago.

Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, and defense minister, Ehud Barak, were traveling from the U.S. to Israel this morning after attempting to reach a compromise with American and Palestinian representatives.

However, the chief negotiators, Saeb Erekat for the Palestinians and Yitzhak Molcho for the Israelis, stayed behind  in the U.S., keeping a slim hope alive for a last-minute agreement.

Israeli settlers and their supporters are pressuring Netanyahu to keep an explicit promise he made to resume construction in Israel’s West Bank settlements. Several thousand settlers are expected todayat a rally to count down the hours to the midnight deadline.

Faced with heavy pressure from the Palestinians and their allies, the Obama administration, to back down, Israel’s government was keeping its mouth shut as the deadline approached. Netanyahu told his Cabinet ministers not to speak to the media about the crisis Sunday, according to Israeli officials, and even the prime minister’s spokesman refused to comment.

In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that:

Israel must choose between peace and the continuation of settlement.

According to Abbas, the Palestinians and the Middle East are continuously pushed into “the corner of violence and conflict” as a result of Israel’s “mentality of expansion and domination.”

Uh Huh.  It’s never the Palestinians’ fault.  Just like it’s never Obama’s fault.  Hmmmm.

But, afraid of being blamed if the talks collapse, Abbas told a group of American Jewish leaders last week that he would not necessarily walk away from the negotiations even if settlement construction resumes. And senior Palestinian officials have said they are willing to show “some flexibility.”

Weasel.

Netanyahu, for his part, has said Israel would not necessarily resume construction in full.

The Palestinians oppose all Israeli construction in the West Bank, saying it cripples plans for a viable Palestinian state.  Isn’t that a contradiction in terms?

Israel rejects preconditions to negotiations, saying settlements should be discussed in the talks.

Abbas has problems back home.  He has to deal with his rivals from the Islamist Hamas group, which rules the Gaza Strip and rejects any recognition of Israel. Abbas “should withdraw immediately from the negotiations” and concentrate on unifying Palestinians to fight Israel, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told the AP in Gaza.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, faces heavy pressure within his pro-settler governing coalition to resume construction. Hardline elements could try to bring down the government if Netanyahu extends the settlement slowdown.

In reality, the slowdown has brought about only a slight drop of about 10 percent in ongoing construction in the settlements. On the other hand, it has significantly cut new housing starts — by about 50 percent, according to the dovish Israeli group Peace Now.

Israeli Cabinet minister Limor Livnat told Israel Radio on Saturday that around 2,000 homes can begin construction immediately once the slowdown ends.

Obama, Hillary, and the rest of the Smart Power Super Friends have 2 chances, at this point, of reaching a settlement between Israel and the ever-internally-squabbling Palestinians:  slim and none.

In their self-delusional quest to proclaim themselves the smartest American administration evah, they severely overestimated their foreign policy expertise.  Obama’s only prior experience with something even remotely resembling this situation would have been settling disputes between street gangs as a community organizer in Chicago.

Why is the government of the United States backing a bunch of barbarians that hate us and each other, and teaming up with them against one of our closest allies?  Israel is a nation which is pivotal in the faith of  over 75 % of Americans.  America was founded on a Judeo-Christian belief system.  This boneheaded foreign policy initiative is as naive as Obama’s wish to sit across the negotiating table from that barbarian, Ahmadinejad.  Didn’t Carter try something like this?  The only thing that came out of his Middle East Peace Initiative was the assassination of Anwar Sadat.

I still say that, evidently, Rev. Jeremiah Wright never discussed Genesis 12: 1 – 3 in his church.  If he did, Scooter slept through it:

 ¹Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ² And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

And he wonders why his presidency is failing…

Dr. Faiz Khan is a former board member of  the American Society for Muslim Advancement, along with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and his wife Daisy Khan, better known as the founders of the Cordoba Intiative, the ones trying to build the Ground Zero Mosque.   

Khan was listed as one of three directors of the American Society for the Advancement of Muslims in its 1997 incorporation papers, when it went by the name of the American Sufi Muslim Association.

He has preached at least twice at the former Burlington Coat Factory building, the site of the proposed mosque.   He is a 9/11 Truther and is a founder of the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth, known as MUJCA.  Here is his biography according to their website:

Dr. Faiz Kahn is a Muslim scholar and educator as well as an M.D. with a dual specialty in emergency and internal medicine. He has been living and working in New York City since 1969. A 9/11 first responder, he has been in the forefront of post-9/11 peace and education efforts in New York and elsewhere.  He is well-known as a staunchly outspoken opponent of terror in all its guises, and has participated in two memorial services for the victims of 9/11, as well as the New York group Muslims Against Terrorism. Dr. Khan is the author of “9/11: An Islamic Perspective” published by Belief Net in their selection of essays on religion and 9/11. An Assistant Imam at two New York area mosques, Dr. Kahn has treated subjects related to Islam, politics, and 9/11 at numerous speaking engagements and publications. He also served as assistant producer to the film Becoming Muslim – Submitting to Allah in America.

Here’s is an excerpt from an article he wrote for the website.  This is a “Moderate” Muslim?

Most American Muslims, both lay, and “educated’ had lost their way from the very start.  However, for a few American minds of various religious persuasions, or no religious persuasion – as of September 12th, 2001 onward, the widely displayed “good Muslim – bad Muslim” dialectic just didn’t cut it as an explanation of why the attacks of 9/11 occurred and succeeded.  Their instincts served them correctly. 

The surest sign of intellectual incompetence within the mass of 9/11 discourse is blindly accepting the limits that are constructed in discussing the phenomenon, especially when this blind acceptance occurs in the face of clear and compelling evidence that the limits of discourse must be expanded if some sort of explanation of the attacks of 9/11 is to surface.  In effect, what occurred from September 12th onward was the emergence of a sustained yet unbelievably ludicrous mainstream explanation as to the factors that produced 9/11, followed by this mainstream’s frantic inquiry to “American Islam” asking how could such a thing emerge from ‘the nebulously frightful geographic and ideological Islamic World’ – as if the main cause of the assaults and their success on 9/11 came from this quarter. Naively, yet predictably, the American Muslim scene performed its role by reeling onto the defensive, and sucking the bait. Prominent Muslims busied themselves trying to explain “real Islam”, distracted by and then swallowing the “mainstream thesis.” Most completely neglected the grotesque inconsistencies and outright lies which suggest that the success of the attacks had less to do with “militant Islam” and more to do with the inescapable fact that 9/11 was an inside job.

The ‘9/11 Truth’ thesis categorically rejects the mainstream thesis and asserts that the prime factor for the success of the criminal mission known as 9/11 did not come from the quarter known as ‘militant Islam’ although the phenomenon known as ‘militant Islamic networks’ may have played a partial role, or even a less than  partial role – perhaps the role of patsy and scapegoat.

Moreover, the rise and popularization of so called militant Islamic networks, from these networks’ ideology to actual empowerment, and the linking of this to western corporate driven government covert operations – this relationship is one that needs to be explicitly and loudly proclaimed by Islamic voices.

In an e-mail exchange with The New York Post, Khan claimed that he ended his affiliation with the ASMA in “2002 and 2003,” although there is a record of him speaking at a 2006 ASMA conference in Copenhagen, where his bio listed him as a board member.

When The Post asked Khan who he thought was responsible for 9/11, he initially declined comment, but later said in an e-mail:

I am certain of a few things . . . The towers and WTC 7 could not have collapsed without controlled demolition place from the ‘inside.’

Ray Locker, managing director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, said:

For someone who claims he wants the mosque project near Ground Zero to help build bridges and heal the wounds from 9/11, it’s odd that one of Feisal Rauf’s fellow bridge builders is someone who thinks the attacks that killed more than 3,000 people were an ‘inside job’ by the US government.

Khan told a group of 9/11 deniers at a 2006 Chicago summit called “Revealing the Truth/Reclaiming Our Future” that

…the most logical explanation” for 9/11 is that the hijackers were working for corporate America and that the heroin trade creates “billions of dollars” that are laundered by “Citicorp and Procter & Gamble”.

Imam Rauf has refused to comment about the situation.  Now, this is the same guy who was recently sent, using our money, on a Middle Eastern “Goodwill” (fundraising) Tour and is supposedly a “Moderate” Muslim cleric.  Where are the funds for the Ground Zero Mosque going to come from?  And how about all their political support, including that of President Barack Hussein Obama (peace be unto him)? 

Like Lucy Ricardo, they’ve all got lots of ‘splainin’ to do.

Speaking at “hallowed ground” at the Pentagon yesterday, President Barack Obama  (peace be unto him) alluded to the controversy over a mosque — and a Florida pastor’s threat, later rescinded, to burn copies of the Muslim holy book. Obama made it clear that the U.S. is not at war with Islam and called the Al Qaeda attackers “a sorry band of men” who perverted religion.

“We will not give in to their hatred,” Obama said. “As Americans, we will not or ever be at war with Islam.”

Excuse me, Mr. President, they sure do seem to be at war with us. 

According to a Washington Post-ABC News poll, released on September 9th, 49 percent of all Americans say that they have generally unfavorable opinions of Islam, compared with 37 percent who say that they have favorable ones.    This figure is almost 20 % higher than it was, immediately after 9/11/01.

I have a question for you, gentle reader.  How many well-known practitioners/leaders of Islam can you remember speaking out after the horrible events of  September 11th, 2001?

I’m waiting.

Not too many, huh.  If you can remember any at all, you can count them on one hand.  One that remains at the forefront of opposition to radical Islam to this day is Dr. M. Juhdi Jasser.  I’m sure you’ve seen him in his appearances on Fox News as a contributor.  

Do you remember when those 6 Imams behaved suspiciously on an airplane, resulting in their arrest?  After Dr. Jasser spoke out about the incident, he appeared on Mark Levin’s radio show and told him about the Muslim world’s reaction to his speaking out, which included being pulled from a 2007 PBS series which featured an episode titled Islam vs. Islamists:

The producers had seen my work and followed our travails with the moderates here, with what we’re doing against the fundamentalists locally. They came and spent the week with me and looked at all of our activities, the interfaith community, and spent time interviewing some of the imams locally [Arizona] and others… It is sort of a microcosm of what happened. People say, “Where are the moderates, why aren’t they speaking up?”

The movie looks at some of the response and how I’ve been demonized. I’ve been labeled as a false Muslim. I’ve been told that even though I’m proud to raise my kids Muslim and I pray and I fast that really I’m imposing a secular separation of religion and politics in our faith and for me to try to get the imams to stop talking politics in their sermons is to impose something false into our faith…

All I’ve tried to do is open the debate. The important thing this documentary did was to begin the debate and to say that certainly the fundamentalists are able to express what they want in our free speech but they shouldn’t suppress what I have to say. They should allow us to bring this debate into the Muslim community.

For this to get pulled really shows that our government and the mainstream media feel they’re basically tools of the Islamists. They’re going to respond to them and not push the issue and you wonder where the voice of the moderates is. The voice is in the wilderness because nobody [in the media] wants to hear it and nobody is going to give time…

According to the show’s producer, it was pulled on political grounds:

The producer of a tax-financed documentary on Islamic extremism claims his film has been dropped for political reasons from a television series that airs next week on more than 300 PBS stations nationwide. Key portions of the documentary focus on Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser of Phoenix and his American Islamic Forum for Democracy, a non-profit organization of Muslim Americans who advocate patriotism, constitutional democracy and a separation of church and state.

Martyn Burke says that the Public Broadcasting Service and project managers at station WETA in Washington, D.C., excluded his documentary, Islam vs. Islamists, from the series America at a Crossroads after he refused to fire two co-producers affiliated with a conservative think tank. “I was ordered to fire my two partners (who brought me into this project) on political grounds,” Burke said in a complaint letter to PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supplied funds for the films.

I related that moment from 2007 to try to explain what’s happening in this country today.  Yesterday, on the 9th anniversary of the worst attack ever on American soil, the American President was continuing to push a  message of reflection (on our bigotry) and service (atonement) on a day where Americans for the past 9 years have instead chosen to honor and remember those 3,000 innocent people who were murdered by Islamic Terrorists.  It was not a “man-caused disaster”.  It was an act of war.

Y’know, there’s a “moderate” Imam who wants to build a mosque at Ground Zero.  Did he condemn that horrific attack?  Nope.  He was interviewed on 60 Minutes by host Ed Bradley on September 30, 2001.  Here is a partial transcript:

BRADLEY: Are — are — are you in any way suggesting that we in the United States deserved what happened?

Imam ABDUL RAUF: I wouldn’t say that the United States deserved what happened, but the United States policies were an accessory to the crime that happened.

BRADLEY: OK. You say that we’re an accessory?

Imam ABDUL RAUF: Yes.

BRADLEY: How?

Imam ABDUL RAUF: Because we have been an accessory to a lot of — of innocent lives dying in the world. In fact, it — in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA.

This is a “moderate” Muslim?

While I don’t, as a Christian, condone the burning of the Koran or the ripping out of its pages, I do understand where the rage is coming from.  The oppression of the Politically Correct Elite, including those now in positions of power over us, has created a backlash.  In their zeal to forcibly unite a nation created on Judeo-Christian principles with a political ideology masquerading as a religion, Progressives have become responsible for the public demonstrations of dissent that they claimed were so “patriotic” during the Bush administration.  Unfortunately for the “smartest people in the room”, they did not realize how deeply Americans would resent being apologized for to those who view us as infidels.

Perhaps they’ll have a clue after November 2nd, 2010.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. – First Amendment to the United States Constitution

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. – 1 Corinthians 6:12 – English Standard Version

A Florida “pastor” yesterday announced that he had called off his scheduled burning of a bunch of Korans after proclaiming that he had a deal that would move the abomination known as the Cordoba House away from the site of the 9/11 terror attacks.  However, the Muslim cleric in charge of the Ground Zero mosque quickly denied to ABC News that he had agreed to move his project.

Pastor Terry Jones was upset and said that the denial was “very disturbing” .  He told ABC News’ Terry Moran that the promise of a deal by Florida imam Muhammad Musri led him to drop his plan to burn Korans Saturday on the ninth anniversary of the terror attacks.

Jones said in an interview airing tonight on ABC News’ “Nightline”:

We were promised from the imam here.  In the meeting, there were several people who can confirm that. We find that very devastating. If that [denial] is true, that would mean the imam lied to us.

Imam Muhammad Musri said he was clear on Thursday when he told the Rev. Terry Jones that he could set up a meeting with planners of the New York City mosque, but insisted he never promised to shift the location. Jones announced after the meeting — with Musri at his side — that they had a bargain and that he would call off the Koran-burning for Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Musri, the president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, later said that Jones wasn’t confused or misled and that “after we stepped out in front of the cameras, he stretched my words” about the agreement. The imam in charge of the New York Islamic center and mosque project also quickly denied any deal was made.

Musri said Jones had instead caved into the firestorm of criticism from around the world and that his announcement might have been a ploy to try to force Muslim leaders’ hand on the Islamic center. “After we stepped out in front of the cameras, he stretched my words” about the agreement, Musri said.

Jones said later that he expected Musri to keep his word and “the imam in New York to back up one of his own men.” Musri said he still plans to go ahead with the meeting Saturday.

According to the Florida Imam, moving the mosque is not why Jones canceled his threat.  Instead, according to this character, Musri, he relented under the pressure from political and religious leaders of all faiths worldwide to halt what President Barack Obama called a “stunt.” Musri said Jones told him the burning “would endanger the troops overseas, Americans traveling abroad and others around the world.”

Musri said:

That was the real motivation for calling it off.

In reality, Jones had never invoked the mosque controversy as a reason for his planned protest at his Dove World Outreach Center.  Instead, he proclaimed that the Koran is evil because it espouses something other than biblical truth and incites radical, violent behavior among Muslims.

President Barack Hussein Obama (peace be unto him) urged Jones to listen to “those better angels,” saying that besides endangering lives, it would give Islamic terrorists a recruiting tool. Defense Secretary Robert Gates even called Jones personally to ask him not to burn the Korans.

Jones’ church, which has about 50 members, most of whom are relatives, is independent of any denomination.  It follows the Pentecostal tradition, which teaches that the Holy Spirit can manifest itself in the modern-day.

The cancellation also was welcomed by Jones’ neighbors in Gainesville, a city of 125,000 anchored by the sprawling University of Florida campus. At least two dozen Christian churches, Jewish temples and Muslim organizations in the city had mobilized to plan inclusive events, including Koran readings at services, as a counterpoint to Jones’ protest.

Jones claimed at the news conference that he prayed about the decision and concluded that if the mosque was moved, it would be a sign from God to call off the Koran burning.

Jones said, before he figured out that he was double-crossed:

We are, of course, now against any other group burning Korans.  We would right now ask no one to burn Korans. We are absolutely strong on that. It is not the time to do it.

In a related story,  the owners of the property that is scheduled to be turned into the Ground Zero Mosque, have turned down a lucrative offer from Real Estate Mogul Donald Trump to purchase the site.

Wolodymyr Starosolsky, a lawyer for the investor in the real estate partnership that controls the site, says Trump’s offer is “just a cheap attempt to get publicity and get in the limelight.”

In a letter released Thursday by Trump’s publicist, the real estate investor told Hisham Elzanaty that he would buy his stake in the lower Manhattan building for 25 percent more than whatever he paid.

The letter said:

I am making this offer as a resident of New York and citizen of the United States, not because I think the location is a spectacular one (because it is not), but because it will end a very serious, inflammatory, and highly divisive situation that is destined, in my opinion, to only get worse.

Trump also attached a condition to his offer: He said that as part of the deal, the backers of the mosque project would have to promise that any new mosque they constructed would be at least five blocks farther away from the World Trade Center site.

So, there you have it:  a bunch of publicity hounds seeking their 15 minutes of fame.  Yes, it is legal for “Pastor” Jones to burn Korans.  Yes, it is legal for Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and the Cordoba Initiative to build a Victory Mosque at Ground Zero.  But, is it noble?  Is it respectful?  Is it helpful?  NO.

As Hurricane Earl steams toward the East Coast of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama (peace be unto him) and his administration are brokering the first face-to-face negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in almost two years.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will sit down together today for the first of what Obama and his State Department hope will be a series of meetings that lead in a year’s time to an agreement on the creation of a Palestinian state.

According to Obama, speaking from the White House:

This moment of opportunity may not soon come again.

Obama said he was “cautiously hopeful” about the talks, which begin with dim expectations and have been marred by two shooting attacks against Israelis in as many days.

Held at the State Department by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and special Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell, the two leaders’ discussions face numerous obstacles, not least renewed violence and provocations from Israelis and Palestinians opposed to Obama’s goal of an independent Palestine and secure Israel.

Gunmen from the militant Palestinian Hamas group, which opposes the talks, killed four Israeli residents of a West Bank settlement on Tuesday as Netanyahu, Abbas and the leaders of Egypt and Jordan convened in Washington. And on Wednesday, hours before the leaders were to eat dinner together at the White House, gunmen wounded two Israelis as they drove in their car in another part of the West Bank. Hamas claimed responsibility for that attack as well.

The top Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip rejected compromise with Israel in a fiery speech Wednesday.

Addressing Hamas members, Gaza strongman Mahmoud Zahar said the movement would resist peace efforts and criticized the Palestinian president for joining the negotiations:.

Today marks the start of direct negotiations between someone who has no right to represent the Palestinian people and the brutal occupier, to provide a cover for Judaizing Jerusalem and stealing the land.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas have been battling each other since the group seized Gaza from Abbas’ forces in a violent takeover in 2007, leaving him only in control of the West Bank.
Before the White House dinner with Netanyahu, Abbas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Obama said they all had a stake in the peace efforts as leaders and fathers.

 Obama asked in the packed East Room of the White House:

Do we have the wisdom and the courage to walk the path of peace?

Each of the leaders expressed hopes for a breakthrough, with the U.S. playing the role of peace broker, but the event was subdued, reflecting broad pessimism about chances of success after nearly two decades of failed peace talks.

Israelis “recognize that another people shares this land with us,” Netanyahu said at the White House on Wednesday. However, he added that any agreement must guarantee Israel’s security and could not be a repeat of Israel’s unilateral withdrawals from Gaza and Lebanon, where territory evacuated was seized by Iran-backed militants who launched further attacks on Israel.

Netanyahu said:

We left Lebanon, we got terror. We left Gaza, and we got terror once again. We want to ensure that territory we concede will not be turned into a third Iranian-sponsored terror enclave aimed at the heart of Israel.

Abbas joined Netanyahu in declaring that it was time to seize the moment:

We don’t want blood to be shed, neither that of Palestinians nor of Israelis. We want peace, we want normal life. We want to live as partners and neighbors

But Israel, Abbas added, needs to give the Palestinians tangible signs, including freeing all Palestinian prisoners and freezing all settlement construction on land the Palestinians want for their future state.

The talks will face their first test within weeks, at the end of September, when the Israeli government’s declared slowdown in settlement construction is slated to end.

According to Palestinians, settlement construction will torpedo the talks. The Israeli government is divided over the future of the slowdown, and a decision to extend it could tear apart Netanyahu’s coalition. Netanyahu has given no indication so far that it will continue beyond the deadline. Speaking to Clinton on Tuesday, Netanyahu said his government’s decision on a 10-month freeze that would end in September remained in effect.

Direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations broke off nearly two years ago, in December 2008, and the Obama administration has spent its first 20 months in office trying to get the two sides back to the bargaining table. Despite the success in launching the talks, gaps between the sides are wide, distrust remains after years of violence and deadlock, and expectations are low.

But American officials are pushing to get the two sides to agree to a second round of talks, likely to be held in the second week of September.

That could be followed by another meeting between Obama, Netanyahu and Abbas on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly near the end of the month in New York. The stated goal is to reach a final peace settlement within one year.

After listening to the Mideast leaders he convened Wednesday night, Obama pronounced himself carefully optimistic:

I am hopeful, cautiously hopeful, but hopeful.

As Obama attempts to complete his plan to divide Israel, Hurricane Earl is barreling toward America’s East Coast.  Coincidence?  Not according to believers like William Koenig, author of Eye to Eye – Facing the Consequences of Dividing Israel.

On the back cover of this book, last updated in 2006, Koenig asks:

What do these major-record setting events have in common?

 The ten costliest insurance events in U.S. history

The twelve costliest hurricanes in U.S. history

Three of the four largest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history

The two largest terrorism events in U.S. history

All of these major catastrophes and many others occurred or began on the very same day or within 24-hours of U.S. presidents Bush, Clinton and Bush applying pressure on Israel to trade her land for promises of peace and security, sponsoring major land for peace meetings, making major public statements pertaining to Israel’s covenant land and /or calling for a Palestinian state.

In his book, Koenig presents significant events during Israel’s struggle for existence from its forming to 2006 and their correlation with natural disasters and terrifying events that occurred at the same time that Israel’s sovereignty was threatened in some way.

These two events happening simultaneously gives those of us who believe in the Sovereignty of God and His promises to His chosen people, pause to reflect on the administration’s policy toward Israel and its consequences.

That’s the problem facing the Progressive/Liberal/Democrat pundits today, in the aftermath of the Restoring Honor Rally, held on the Washington Mall, in front on the Lincoln Memorial, yesterday.

Obama’s name was not mentioned once in the whole event.  There were no threatening speeches (unless you have something against God).  However, according to the Libs:

…political overtones were unmistakable, and the rally drew an enormous crowd – including many who said they were new to activism – that was energized and motivated to act – washingtonpost.com

With Glenn Beck organizing the event  and Sarah Palin playing a role, Liberal heads are exploding.

For instance, Rev. Al Sharpton and others marched in a separate and much smaller event, to the Mall from Dunbar High School in Northwest Washington, to commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech 47 years ago.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said at the Sharpton rally, referring to King’s speech:

The ‘March on Washington’ changed America.  Our country reached to overcome the low points of our racial history. Glenn Beck’s march will change nothing.

That was very weak, Eleanor.  You obviously were not paying attention.

The simultaneous rallies rendered the country’s political and racial divisions in stark relief.

Sharpton drew a mostly black crowd of union members (think SEIU), church-goers, college students, and civil rights activists.  The Obama administration weighed in, too, with Education Secretary Arne Duncan speaking of education as the “civil rights issue of this generation.”   Extremely generous people have estimated the crown size at 3,000 (including pets, probably).

The Beck crowd, meanwhile, was anywhere between 300,000 and 1 million.  We won’t know until Beck releases the official total.

The mood was peaceful and calm at both events.  By the time the Sharpton march arrived on the Mall, the crowd from Beck’s rally had largely dispersed. The events appeared to produce none of the politically damaging imagery that emerged from some earlier tea party rallies, although there were tweets from the event that some Left-wing whackos tried to start trouble on the periphery of the Restoring Honor Rally.

The attendance at Beck’s gathering is sure to be underestimated by the Main Stream Media.  They are already using the excuse that crowd sizes on the Mall are often controversial and notoriously difficult to estimate, so much so that law enforcement agencies have stopped providing numbers.

Beck knows this.  When he came on stage to being the rally, Beck joked that he had “just gotten word from the media that there are over a thousand people here today.” Later, he told the crowd he heard it was “between 300,000 and 500,000.”

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), speaking soon after the Beck rally at her own impromptu event nearby, said:

We’re not going to let anyone get away with saying there were less than a million here today – because we were witnesses.

Beck, warned Saturday that “our children could be slaves to debt.”  However, during the rally, he kept repeating that the event:

…has nothing to do with politics. It has everything to do with God, turning our faith back to the values and principles that made us great.

Martin Luther King’s niece Alveda King, an anti-abortion activist, addressed the rally with a plea for prayer “in the public squares of America and in our schools.” Referencing her “Uncle Martin,” King called for national unity by repeatedly declaring “I have a dream.”

Many in the audience said they had come because they fear that the country is at a perilous moment.

By the way, the Washington Post is begging for pictures of political t-shirts from the rally, to try to denigrate the message somehow.  Even they realize that their arguments are weak.

Others said they were motivated more by their deep appreciation of Beck, whose talk-radio show is the third-most popular in the country and who heavily promoted “Restoring Honor” on radio and on his television program on Fox News.

You will start hearing that Beck has a “Messianic Complex”.  I guarantee it.

Some came because they are frustrated at what they call the “ruling class,” at the health-care bill they say few supported, at schools that no longer require that students say the Pledge of Allegiance, and at elected officials who run on one platform and govern on another.

Linda Adams, 52, a university administrator who said her ancestors were on the Mayflower and fought in the American Revolution, said:

We want our country to get back to its original roots. 

John Sawyers, 47, an engineer who grew up on a farm in Virginia, said:

It’s not anger.  It’s more, ‘Guys, why are we going this way?’ It’s time for the silent majority to say it’s wrong.

Sawyers, a registered Republican, and Adams, an independent, said they were moved to attend by Beck’s theme of honor:

Both of us are unhappy with the perception Obama is apologizing for everything we ever did.

 Adams added:

And we felt we had to do something.

Democrats have desperately attempted to launch an offensive designed to link it to the Republican Party, trying to portray Republicans as extremists beholden to the tea party agenda.   Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, assailed Republicans for pursuing a “destructive agenda” and called out the tea party movement for pushing the GOP to the “extreme right.”

Unfortunately for the Democrats, the  reverent tone of Beck’s Rally will make this attack about as effective as a water balloon fight.

The event had a strong military theme, (another reason Libs’ heads were exploding) with Beck paying tribute to three soldiers. Beck asked for donations to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which funds scholarships for children of service members killed in action. During the rally, Beck announced that the foundation had raised $5.5 million for the event.

The idiots at the Washington Post intimated that Beck took money from this Foundation to hold the event.  He did not.  Epic fail.

Sarah Palin said she was at the rally speaking not as a politician but as the mother of a combat veteran.

She said the military is “a force for good in this country, and that is nothing to apologize for.” She honored three military veterans, hugging them onstage, and told people to look to them as inspiration, even when the nation’s challenges might sometimes seem “insurmountable.”

She added:

But here today, at the crossroads of our history, may this day be the change point.  Look around you. You’re not alone. You are Americans! You have the same steel spine and the moral courage of Washington and Lincoln and Martin Luther King. It is in you. It will sustain you as it sustained them.

The crowd responded with chants of “USA! USA! USA!”

In the short hours since the rally, it has been both amusing and baffling to watch the Liberals try to spin this event.  The Democrats know that they cannot attack God.  They cannot attack those who watched it on C-Span or the 130,00 that watched live stream on the Facebook page effectively either.  They can and will attack Beck and Palin.  However, that’s getting old and increasingly ineffective.  The appearance of professional race-baiter Rev. Al Sharpton on Fox News’ Geraldo at Large last night was an exercise in watching someone who does not realize that they are irrelevant.  Every argument he brought up was ineffective.  Even Geraldo was forced to say complimentary things about the event.  I know that killed his Progressive soul.

Once again, the Libs face a crisis that they have brought upon themselves.  75 % of Americans identify as Christians.  21 % of Americans claim to be staunch Liberals.  Did Obama and his Far Left Base really expect to impose their ideology upon Americans without awakening a Sleeping Giant?

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.