Category: Politics

Earl and the Peace Talks

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics6 Comments

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.

Muslim Congressional Staffers: You’re all Islamaphobes!

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics5 Comments

The Congressional Muslim Staff Association (CMSA) convened a panel discussion on Capitol Hill Tuesday to whine about the way that Americans view Islam.  You see, they are upset that the overwhelming majority of Americans are opposed to the proposed Cordoba Initiative, err, Park51 Islamic center and mosque project to be located at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan.

All three panel participants agreed that those who oppose Muslim initiatives, such as the Ground Zero mosque, are Islamaphobic and ignorant. 

I’m shocked, I tell you.  Shocked.

 A recent CBS poll revealed that 71% of Americans believe it is inappropriate to build a mosque so close to the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Since it’s a poll from CBS, I would advise you to adjust that total upward about 10 %.

Salam Al-Maryati, president of Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), Dr. Azizah Al-Hibri, chairwoman of KARAMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights, and Dr. James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), were members of a panel entitled,“Muslims in America: Myths and Realities — A discussion on faith in the wake of the Park 51 Controversy.”

The panel was moderated by Suhail Khan, senior fellow at the Institute for Global Engagement (IGE).  He started the round of condemnation by complaining that the uproar about the Cordoba Initiative has brought a bunch of  conspiracy theories, that had once been relegated to Internet message boards, out into the open:

There are all kinds of accusations that are swirling around.  We thought here we’d assemble a panel of experts to really take on some of these myths.

At first, he tried to minimize the importance of the Ground Zero mosque, but then , Salam Al-Maryati reversed himself, criticizing the way in which the American public has come to view the project:

The nomenclature of this particular story — it started out as the Ground Zero mosque controversy and I think by now, everybody acknowledges that the place is not at Ground Zero and it is not a mosque.  It is a few blocks away, where you can’t even see Ground Zero, and it is a community center that was actually intended to develop interfaith dialogue.

Al-Maryati claims that, because of all the demonstrations, anti-Islamic sentiment has increased. As an example, he brought up a planned 9/11 Koran burning ceremony in Gainesville, Florida.  Al-Maryati said that the more anti-Islam America appears, the more anti-Americanism will increase abroad. However, Al-Maryati concluded that he still feels that “America is the best place for Muslims.”

Yessir.  There are a lot less beheadings here.

Dr. Azizan Al- Hibri, the lone woman on the panel, , said that Islamaphobia is not a new phenomenon in America.  They allowed her to speak?  She claimed that in her research of the Founding Fathers, she read multiple instances in which there were explicit examples of anti-Muslim views and activities by America’s founders.

You mean, like the Barbary Wars?  Yeah, I know.  Those pirates were just trying to make a living.  I wonder if she actually cited any of those “anti-Muslim views and activities”?

Al-Hibri added that Muslims are hardly the only minority group that have been demonized in America. She went on to catalogue various groups throughout American history that had been marginalized.

She said:

So in some ways I want Muslims to know we are not being singled out one way or the other.

Al-Hibri whined about  “the false information” that she claims is fueling American ignorance about Islam. According to Al-Hibri, the Koran is a freeing document that even incorporates the principles of the First Amendment.

Historically Islamic communities have practiced religious tolerance. This is nothing new. It did not start with the United States.

Time out.  I just spewed my Cinnamon Toast Crunch all over my monitor.

Religious Tolerance?  You mean like the Americans working in Saudi Arabia that have to worship God in their homes?  And that’s just the non-violent intolerance.

Dr. James Zogby was exasperated that he was having to have another “conversation” about Islam, as he said that it feels as though he is always having to explain the faith after a crisis due to American overreaction and misunderstanding.

It’s all because of that pesky “Jihad” thingy, Doctor.

Zogby said that the Cordoba Initiative controversy was a misunderstanding perpetuated by various pundits and experts who appear on radio and television, and who write misleading books about Islam. However, when pressed, Zogby shied away from naming names:

What troubles me is that what is at stake with this Park51 story is that it is not about a building and it’s not about a place.   It is about the narrative of who we are as a people, and if these guys win, whatever the outcome, but if these guys win then America will not be America anymore.

When asked why there is so much backlash against the Cordoba project, Zogby said it is one of the many symptoms of the current social and economic unrest in the country, which, according to him, is all because some people do not like having an African-American president:

I think it is part and parcel of the broader social unravelling. I think that is taking place. We saw it begin last summer. I think some of it has to do with the fact that we have elected an African-American president and some folks just can’t accept it. There is no question that the economic distress and social dislocation which has occurred is part of it and I think at the same time that eight to nine years of misinformation has taken its toll.

The topic of sharia was discussed in length by the panel.  According to them, sharia is the “the way to God,” and “moderate” sharia differs greatly from the harsh brand of sharia implemented in some Muslim countries.

Al-Hibri said:

The word sharia law has been batted around as a threat. I don’t know where this came from. Why is it being discussed in the United States as a threat?

Gosh.  Maybe because little caveats in Sharia Law, like HONOR KILLINGS , just don’t sit well with Americans?

She also fantasized that the Founding Fathers, specifically Thomas Jefferson, took into account some of the principles in the Koran when they were building the legal framework for the United States.

There is a verse in the Koran that says there is no compulsion in religion — that is the freedom of action.

Don’t you just love Revisionist History?   Jefferson read the Koran in order to better combat the Barbary pirates.

In order to combat Americans’ perceived negative view of Islam, the panelists want members of the Muslim community to spend September 11 participating in service projects.    Gosh, hasn’t President Barack Hussein Obama (peace be unto him) suggested this for Americans as well?  Hmmm.

Al Maryati complained that the media only focuses on the bad followers of the faith:

The moderate Muslim story still has yet to be told.

You’re right, Al Maryati.  Their silence is deafening.

By the way, you Muslim Congressional Staffers need to quit complaining about Americans with your mouth full.

 

False Pride, Phoney Niceties, and Political Expediencies

On By kingsjesterIn Politics5 Comments

As President Barack Husein Obama (peace be unto him) prepares to make a purportedly self-congratulatory speech tonight concerning the end the lengthy and divisive U.S. combat operation in Iraq, he’ll personally thank some of the soldiers who fought there for their service to a mission he forcefully opposed from the start.

Many of those soldiers that went to Iraq deployed from Fort Bliss, the huge Army base in El Paso, Texas, that Obama will visit Tuesday. After a victory lap photo op with the troops, Obama will return to Washington to address the nation from the newly renovated Oval Office.  Did they put a Persian rug in there?

He will formally announce the end to a combat mission in Iraq that lasted more than seven years, leaving more than 4,400 U.S. troops dead and thousands more wounded.

Obama remains a critic of the war, speaking out against it during the U.S. invasion in early 2003 and promising his Far left Base, during his presidential campaign, to bring the conflict to an end.   The White House is promoting Tuesday’s benchmark as a promise kept and has gone to great lengths to make sure that everyone can revel in Obama’s glory.  They are accomplishing this by sending Vice President Joe Biden to Iraq to preside over a formal change-of-command ceremony and raising Tuesday night’s remarks to the level of an Oval Office address, something His Eminence has graced us peons with only done once before.

Among Obama’s Public Relations goals on Tuesday is honoring those who have served in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion, many returning to the battlefield for multiple tours of duty. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Monday that while the Iraq war would have never happened had Obama been commander-in-chief at the time, the president holds the service and sacrifice of the troops in high regard.  Uh huh.

According to Baghdad Bob:

Whether you are for the invasion or whether you opposed the invasion, you had our men and women in uniform who undertook the commands of their commander-in-chief, and should be held up and celebrated for what they’ve done in allowing combat troops now to come home.

200,000 personnel from Fort Bliss have deployed to Iraq, serving in every major phase of the war. Fifty-one soldiers from the base died there and many more were wounded.

Last week, some 600 soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team returned to the base as part of Obama’s self-imposed Aug. 31 deadline for having all U.S. combat troops out of Iraq. Just about 50,000 U.S. troops will remain, down from a peak of nearly 170,000 in 2007. U.S. troops will no longer be allowed to go on combat missions unless requested and accompanied by Iraqi forces.

Administration officials are trying with all their might to avoid equating the end of the combat mission with a mission accomplished.

So, the war is not really over .  Gibbs said:

You won’t hear those words coming from us.  Obviously tomorrow marks a change in our mission. It marks a milestone that we have achieved in removing our combat troops. That is not to say that violence is going to end tomorrow.

Under a security agreement between the U.S. and Iraq, all U.S. forces must be out of Iraq by the end of 2011.  The Terrorists have marked their calendars.  But the Obama administration insists the U.S. is not abandoning Iraq and is ramping up a diplomatic corps to help stabilize the country’s government and economy over the coming years.

Because there’s nothing an Islamic Terrorist fears more than a stern talking to.

Listen to the logic of Baghdad Bob:

This redoubles the efforts of the Iraqis.  They will write the next chapter in Iraqi history, and they will be principally responsible for it. We will be their ally, but the responsibility of charting the future of Iraq first and foremost belongs to the Iraqis.

Ahead of Tuesday night’s remarks, Obama also planned to call President Bush. While Bush’s decision to invade Iraq was criticized by wild-eyed Liberals all over the world, including Obama, the troop surge Bush ordered in 2007 has been credited with striking a several blow against violence in Iraq and helping keep the country from falling into a civil war.   However, all bets are off as to whether Obama will be man enough to give Bush any credit for the role the surge played in leading the war to its end.

Meanwhile,  as mentioned before, Vice President Joe Biden is in Iraq, “presiding” over the formal end to U.S. combat operations in Iraq.   However, the majority of Iraqis are not very happy about it.

Iraqis, who for years have voiced opposition to the U.S. occupation, are generally happy to see that American forces will not be there forever.  However, at the same time, they are scared about their country being overrun by Islamic barbarians.

Johaina Mohammed, a 40-year-old teacher from Baghdad, is worried:

It’s not the right time.  There is no government, the security is deteriorating, and there is no trust.

While there, Biden has been pleading to Iraqi leaders, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, to end the political deadlock and seat a new government.   March 7 parliamentary elections left Iraq without a clear winner, and Terrorists have since exploited the uncertainty to hammer Iraqi security forces.

Iraqi forces have improved the number of  attacks have gone down a lot since the dark days of 2006 and 2007.  But rarely a day goes by without some loss of life, and spectacular attacks such as the violence on Wednesday that killed 56 people still happen with disturbing regularity.

Biden and U.S. officials have blown off suggestions they are abandoning Iraq at a crucial time. The vice-president Tuesday said militants’ attempts to again wreak havoc in Iraq have been unsuccessful.

Biden said Tuesday in comments to al-Maliki before the two met privately:

Notwithstanding what the national press says about increased violence, the truth is, things are still very much different, things are much safer.   

But many Iraqis do not share his optimism.

Mohammed Hussein Abbas, a Shiite from the town of Hillah south of Baghdad, said:

They should go, but the security situation is too fragile for the Americans to withdraw now. They should wait for the government to be formed and then withdraw.

However,  U.S. military officials are not basing their reduction in troop numbers on Iraq forming a new government, but on the ability of Iraqi forces to handle security on their own.

The decision to draw down to 50,000 troops was made by President Barack Obama, and is not part of the security agreement between Iraq and the U.S. in 2008 under President Bush.

Ali Mussa, a 46-year-old engineer from eastern Baghdad is worried about his country’s neighbor:

The U.S. withdrawal will put Iraq into the lap of Iran.

Iran and Iraq are both majority Shiite countries. Since America got rid of Saddam Hussein, Iran has been working to secure greater leverage in Iraq, using centuries-old religious and cultural ties.

Even former Sunni insurgents in Fallujah, who supported armed resistance against two American assaults on the city in Iraq’s western province of Anbar, are worried about U.S. troops leaving after they joined forces and fought extremists together.

Col. Abdelsaad Abbas Mohammad, a Fallujah commander in the government-supported Sunni militia, known as the Awakening Councils, said:

Of course we were against the occupation, but in 2007 the Americans came up with a good plan for fighting al-Qaida, not Iraq.  Americans have committed many mistakes, but they did not go into houses and chop people’s heads off.

Riyadh Hadi, a 47-year-old Shiite from the southern city of Basra, said the frustration over power shortages and unemployment has reached the boiling point in Iraq and:

The U.S withdrawal will worsen the situation.  Corruption is now clandestine, but after the American withdrawal it will be out in the open and widespread among Iraqi officials.

Many Iraqis believe that the U.S. drawdown and emphasis on the end of combat operations means that Obama is playing to domestic politics instead of assessing what is truly right for Iraq,

Sheik Ali Hatem Sulaiman al-Dulaimi, an influential tribal leader from Anbar province cautions:

The Americans should think about the door they’re walking out of.  This is the destiny of a nation.

It appears that the Iraqis have figured out what the majority of Americans have:  All of Obama’s promises have expiration dates which are subject to change for the benefit of the greater good:  his.

An Unbecoming Arrogance

On By kingsjesterIn Politics5 Comments

His eminence, President Barack Hussein Obama (peace be unto him) sat down for an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams Sunday Afternoon.

In it, he dismissed a recent poll showing that a third of Americans don’t know he’s a Christian.  Instead of humbly finding fault within himself, he blamed an “online campaign of misinformation” by his conservative enemies for perpetuating the myth that he’s a Muslim.

Obama also turned his nose up at conservative talk show host Glenn Beck. According to the petulant president, he didn’t watch the Fox host’s Saturday rally in Washington but wasn’t surprised that Beck was able to “stir up” people during uncertain economic times.

Somewhere between 300,000 and 1 million  people were at the Lincoln Memorial Saturday.  That’s a whole lot of “stirring up”, Scooter.

Brian Williams conducted the interview with Obama under a rain-soaked tent in New Orleans,  where the president and his family flew in for a photo op and speech commemorating the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.  The NBC anchor asked Scooter why so many people were uncertain about something so fundamental as his faith.  Was it simply an failure to communicate?

The President of the United States snarkily replied:

I can’t spend all of my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead.

Obama went on, visibly annoyed:

The facts are the facts. We went through some of this during the campaign — there is a mechanism, a network of misinformation that in a new media era can get churned out there constantly.  I will always put my money on the American people, and I’m not going to be worried too much about what rumors are floating around there.

You mean, you will always take the money of the American people…in a heartbeat.

According to a Pew poll released earlier this month, 18 percent of Americans identify Obama as Muslim.   Only a third identified Obama, who speaks about his faith in his autobiography, as Christian.

Perhaps it is the fact that he spent 20 years under the teachings of a racist preacher in a Black  Liberation Theology Church, perceived as being Marxist in their philosophy and sympathetic to Islam and its teachings.

Or, maybe, it’s this Actual quote from “The Audacity of Hope” [pg. 261]:

Of course, not all my conversations in immigrant communities follow this easy pattern. In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific assurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction. 

Obama, who just returned from a long, garish vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, feebly claims that didn’t watch Glenn Beck’s massive rally at the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday, adding that he was focused on the long-term, not on the “Nightly News.”

And if you believe that garbage, I have beachfront property for sale in Arizona.

Obama explained:

It’s not surprising that someone like a Mr. Beck is able to stir up a certain portion of [the American people]. … That’s been true throughout our history.

Obama doubled down on his support for a mosque and community center planned for a site two blocks north of ground zero in lower Manhattan, denying reports that he tried to back away from backing the controversial project:

I didn’t walk it back it all.  I was very specific with my team… The core value and principle that every American is treated the same doesn’t change… At [a White House Ramadan celebration], I had Muslim Americans who had been in uniform fighting in Iraq… How can you say to them that their religious faith is less worthy of respect?… That’s something that I feel very strongly about.

Although, you had no problem cancelling the White House Day of Prayer Breakfast the first year you ascended to the throne, huh, Scooter?

Obama added:

I respect the feelings on the other side.

No, you don’t.

Obama has been a very vocal and very harsh critic of the Bush administration’s sluggish response to Katrina.  So, naturally when Williams dared to ask him if the BP Gulf oil spill was his administration’s Katrina, because of a failure to act quickly enough, he got his widdle feewings hurt.  Awww.

Scooter responded:

It’s just not accurate.  The only thing in common with the Katrina response was [oil spill incident commander] Thad Allen… We had immediately [deployed] thousands of vessels, tens of thousands of people.

The spill has wreaked less havoc on the Gulf Coast “because of the sturdiness and steadiness” of his administration’s response, Obama added.

Sturdiness?  Steadiness?  The only sturdiness and steadiness you displayed during the Deepwater Horizon Disaster was your determination to continue playing golf as often as possible.

By the way, according to Drudge, while the president was in Martha’s Vineyard, workers at the White House have been busy installing new carpets, drapes, painting, etc. in the Oval Office. 

I wonder if they put a Persian rug in there?

How Do You Ridicule “Honor”?

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics4 Comments

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?

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.