First, to get it out of the way up front, Pastor Terry Jones and his 50 member Dumb World Outreach Center are a lunatic fringe cult whose plan to hold a Koran burning party on the anniversary of 9/11 is clearly intended to invite and incite hatred from the Muslim world. As if the Muslim world could hate the American culture any more than they already do. But now for the having said that…
There is no dispute that both kooks, Pastor Jones who wants to burn Korans, and his radical counterpart Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf who wants to build the Ground Zero mosque have the legal right to do it. The intent and purpose for either is the big question. Most American people, at least those with our feet on the ground, realize that the intent and purpose of the Cordoba mosque near Ground Zero is to carry out the historical custom of Islam to build a monument to what it considers its bloody conquest over its enemies. Jones’ plan likewise is to reciprocate by striking the symbolic blow of offending Islam.
But what is increasingly frustrating to most Americans is how Jones’ plan no matter how ugly, only further exposes the inequity of outrage from our leaders, that while it has become completely off limits to offend Muslims, it is open season and fair game for Muslims to offend everyone and anyone in the world, in this case the families of America’s victims of 9/11 with the Cordoba mosque near Ground Zero. What is incomprehensible is how the Leftist leaders of the United States and leaders from around the world have shamefully allowed themselves to play into this Muslim game.
The White House, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Attorney General Eric Holder and even the Vatican have weighed in, strongly though rightly condemning Pastor Jones for his Koran burning event because of its potential to provoke and incite Muslims. And don’t forget Speaker Nancy McCarthy Pelosi who gives the Cordoba mosque a free pass, but wants those who speak out against it investigated. Yet these heads of state who are so quick to condemn Pastor Jones, have stood virtually mute, refusing to condemn Imam Rauf and his plan to build his Cordoba mosque on the graves of the victims of 9/11. As Sen. Barry Goldwater (R) Arizona said, “The winds of appeasement blow from the left.”
Then there’s, New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg who has backed the right of Imam Rauf to build his Cordoba mosque, also backs the right of Pastor Jones to hold his Koran burning. In a strange way, Mayor Bloomberg is somewhat of a political, albeit unfunny Don Rickles, encouraging everyone to offend everyone, even appearing on Letterman trying to drum up a laugh about it. Mayor Bloomberg may be a buffoon, but at least he’s consistent.
Perhaps the sanest and most heartfelt objection to the Koran burning comes from General David Petraeus, who is responsible for managing America’s military mission in Afghanistan. General Petraeus has perhaps the truest conundrum of anyone. Talk about stuck between Iraq and a hard place. As the Commander of United States Forces in Afghanistan there is no doubt that he would rather do anything than cow tow to either the “we can’t offend the Muslims” crowd or to America’s enemies. But his bigger and more understandable worry is that Pastor Jones’ Koran burning will evoke such outrage within the Muslim world that it will cost the lives of our American troops and potentially American civilians anywhere in the world at the hands of Islamic extremists.
Pastor Terry Jones’ and his Dumb World Outreach Center lunatics’ plan to hold a Koran burning event on September 11 is atrocious to be sure, but in the end it is no more insensitive to Muslims than Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s plan to build a mosque near our hallowed Ground Zero is insensitive to the victims of 9/11. The failure of our Leftist leaders to condemn the Cordoba mosque at least equally as loudly as they have condemned the Koran burning is the disgrace.
The Muslim population is expanding worldwide including the United States and it does not bode well for the future and preservation of our American heritage.
As this video demonstrates England may already be gone, as are Spain and France. Here in America, Virginia is eaten up, remember Nidal Hasan the Ft. Hood shooter, and several other Islamic extremists recently arrested for involvement in terrorist acts are from Virginia. Dearborn, Michigan is becoming an Islamic stronghold, and rural areas of the Carolinas and Montana have documented Islamic extremist training camps, and many other cities are on the way.
In the 1950s and 1960s the threat was communism, with the Korean and Vietnam wars being our attempts to stop what was at that time called the Domino Theory. While we waged real war and cold war oversees to stop the communist domino effect, the sleeping creeping infestation of Islam spread in silence, and by the time the September 11th alarm clock woke us up it was too late. If we had stayed awake after the 9/11 alarm went off we might have had a chance, but America did what America does, and hit the snooze button and went back into its Ward and June Cleaver dreamland. Islam counted on it.
As the gentleman being interviewed said about the time frame for takeover being a simple matter of birth rate – Muslim births in England outnumbering native English births 10 to 1, this is what will happen in America. This presents us with some choices to ponder and America may have to choose its battles. On the current path, the survival of the America we have loved will eventually become a matter of domination. The struggle will be Islam vs all the rest of what Islam lovingly refers to as “non-believers,” i.e., all other religions in America, the majority being Christian and Catholic. And domination is the Islamic goal, on that there is no discussion. So what is America’s choice? Presuming we wake up in time to make any choice at all which is frankly questionable, America can focus on stopping the Islamic takeover, or focus on the other invasion issue, illegal Mexican immigration.
As it relates to the birth rate scenario, here’s the thing: At its current pace, similar to the birth rate of Muslims out pacing the native English birth rate in England, the birth rate and immigration to America of Mexicans likely means that the Hispanic community, mostly Mexican in America will eventually surpass the population of non-Hispanic native Americans. Presently, the conservative anti-Mexican immigration movement that is gathering more steam with each passing day is far more focused on this than on the creeping Islamic takeover. Remember, we hit the snooze button on that.
America should keep in mind that in general, the Hispanic community is far more devout in its Christianity and Catholicism than are native non-Hispanic Americans. Speaking in pure numbers then, far more people of the Hispanic community are far more devout in their Christianity and Catholicism than are native non-Hispanic Americans.
So again, what’s the choice? It seems that the ultimate struggle to stop the takeover of America by Islam will be a struggle between Islam and the “non-believers” in America i.e., all other religions, Christians, Catholics, et al. And therein lies the irony for America – our future and strength in the battle to stave off takeover by Islam may very well rely on the majority of America’s population consisting of the mostly Mexican devout Christians and Catholics. Who’da thunk!
If this scenario doesn’t set well with America then there is really only one solution – Start fuckin’ your brains out America, and don’t stop until you have more babies than M & Ms. M & Ms, they enter your south, and invade your land. I’m just sayin’
I can hear it now. No need to watch or listen. Here is how Barry’s speech will go tonight:
“Let me be clear about this historic unprecedented crisis that I inherited from the previous administration. I’ve said time and time again that the system is broken and ummm…I will hold them accountable through transparency that will restore our reputation. There are those who say you can keep your present plan but not one dime….”
I was close!
Well folks, the curtain has been pulled aside to reveal that the “wizard” is worthless.
Barry got right to the corruption of the “past 10 years” i.e., Bush’s fault. And also as predicted he is “ORDERING” BP to pay for the damage and clean up, and that they must fork over the money to an “independent” administrator to oversee the damage-compensation payment process. And by independent administrator he of course means himself.
BP has not ducked responsibility for any of this. They have accepted full accountability from the start. The world has been watching the oil billow from that well at the bottom of the sea since day one, up close and personal, with cameras placed there by BP for all the world to see – nothing hidden. BP has for weeks been running commercials taking responsibility and vowing to make it right. Total transparency. A word who’s meaning is totally foreign to Barry and da Boyz.
But Obama and his Reid-Pelosi Mafia cannot stand the thought of BP compensating folks on their own because then Obama and his Mafia wouldn’t get credit for doing anything. So he gets in there with his big words “I’M ORDERING’ BP to pay for all the damages and compensation, something they have already been doing. It’s like the old bit, “I quit. You can’t quit because I’m firing you.” In this case its, “We’re paying for all the damages and compensation on our own. No you can’t, because I’M MAKING you do it.” This is nothing more than Obama’s latest foray into communist, marxist, socialist, Hitler-Nazi government takeover of the BP’s compensation dollars to become nothing more than Obama’s newest piggy bank to raid for his Mafia. Under his “independent” administrator, I wonder just how much of the compensation funds will actually ever get to those affected. And when it doesn’t, and the outcry over that begins, the 5th column media will refuse to expose the corruption under Obama’s independent administrator, and they and he and his mafia will still blame BP, and probably Bush too.
When Obama’s butt buddy Chris Matthews can see the lack of any capability to be president then the writing is truly on the wall..
Think about it. He’s coming up short when compared to the absolute worst president since the pre-civil war: Jimmy Carter.. You can’t set the bar any lower and yet he does. That’s like coming in fourth in a three horse race. The man is a pathetic joke.
No leadership skills at all. His only game is the political blame game: Find someone to blame. The choice is BP in this event. But the real truth is if you do some basic homework, you discover that BP is out in the deep water of the gulf doing risky drilling because the environmental wacko’s have been able to lobby, pay the lefties into restricting oil drilling in shallow water forcing high risk adventures. The bottom line is that the real root cause is the environmental wacko’s and their political hand maidens like Gore, Obama and Clinton. They allowed and forced the EPA, and the other cognizant federal agencies to give into the paid lobbyists from the left and the high risk finally happened. You got the inevitable accident. Now the same crowd is trying to line up using the problem they caused to happen by joining Barry to do some finger pointing at the greedy capitalist. Then to use that false flag to sell their silly cap and tax power grab. Obama really believes that the average American is too stupid to see through the plot.
He definitely accomplished three things with his speech last night:
1. He ensured the GOP will take back the House.
2. He ensured the GOP will also take back the Senate.
3. He ensured the GOP will pretty much win governor’s races this year.
Cap ‘n trade? Higher energy costs? “Comprehensive bill?” Yeah, those will go over with the public like beer farts in church, won’t they?
The press elected an incompetent who can’t lead. Thanks to all those who voted for this empty suit who only knows how to give a speech at a college graduation.
The LA Times 2008 endorsement of Obama said it best: “He is so comfortable with his lack of experience”.
Why Obama fooled so many people is that Obama actually believed he was “god”. Listen to his speech after securing the nomination, “…this is the moment when earth began to heal and the rise of the oceans began to slow.”
That is beyond freighting. Can you say Megalomaniac?
It is the reason why Hitler rose to power. Barry’s megalomania radiates so much conviction it fools the masses, but as the megalomaniac falters the faux confidence erodes and the words and actions become hallow. I am not saying Obama is Hitler. I am saying that megalomaniacs have incredible communication skills while they believe in their power, but lose it entirely upon the realization that the narcissistic ego is fallible. Obama seems so out of touch because he is. Obama is blinded by his own belief system.
Intrinsically, big government is always a poor responder no matter which party is in power. Unlike the Katrina disaster where local and state government had the responsibility for primary response, the response to this oil spill is the direct responsibility of the Federal Government. Obama’s mismanagement of the Gulf oil leak is truly mind-boggling. Obama lacks the slightest degree of management skill. This is not really surprising as “We” elected as President and CEO of the USA a man who lacks absolutely any management experience.
Remember how the complicit media (including the MSNBC crew) told us that this man was so brilliant that experience would not matter (although experience really did matter when it came to the opposing Presidential and Vice-Presidential Candidates)? Surprise! Experience actually does mean something and America is re-learning it the hard way. Fifty plus days into the spill, and Barry finally decides that maybe he’d just better talk to the BP CEO and make political points by “kicking some ass”. Meanwhile, the people of the Gulf Coast and the environment continue to suffer crippling blows with no end in sight.
Where are the comparisons with FDR, Kennedy or Reagan now? All of these men would have handled the situation far better as they were true leaders.
Last night, nearly 60 days into the disaster, Barry displays his leadership and management skills with this pathetic and petty speech. A real leader and an experienced manager would have immediately called all players together, assessed the situation and mobilized all resources foreign and domestic to stop the leak. But no! He rejects the advice of his petroleum engineers, and tells the world in writing we don’t want their help. It looks like Barry is in the pocket of the unions on this one. The time for blame is after the leak is controlled and not before. We don’t expect miracles, we desperately need some competent leadership.
When you’ve lost the support of even the zombies like Keith Olbermann, you know you are officially toast. This is Obama’s Chappaquiddick.
Well Democrats certainly can not be accused of learning from their mistakes when it comes to misrepresenting their war service record. John Kerry getting his clock cleaned over his Vietnam war record embellishments during his presidential run didn’t stop Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal from jumping into the same minefield with both feet. In many speeches, Blumenthal has repeatedly and often pointed out that he served in Vietnam when it has now been confirmed that he was a Marine reservist, who obtained at least 5, count ‘em, 5 deferments, and never served overseas.
Blumenthal now wants us to believe that he simply misspoke, and that he only meant to say that he served “during” Vietnam, not “in” Vietnam. Everyone and especially he knows that he is pumping pure bilge water. When he said repeatedly and often that he served in Vietnam, he knew exactly what he was doing and he simply thought he could get away with it. Blumenthal blissfully, ignorantly and worse – arrogantly stode down the same briar path as the war record lying Grand Dragon John Kerry did before him, and just like Kerry he has now been caught red handed in his lies.
What is so astounding is how Blumenthal has the temerity to leer into the camera and warn us “I will not allow anyone to take a few of those misplaced words and impugn my record of service.” Really? You will not allow it? Ooh, I’m so scared. Sounds just like when Bill Clinton wagged his finger at us and said “You listen to me, I did not have sex with that girl.” Well that certainly convinced us didn’t it?
Get this straight Richard Blumenthal, I don’t care what you will allow, I am calling you out. You are a liar, you knew you were intentionally claiming to have served in Vietnam while knowing you never did, and I am impugning not the service you actually performed, but I’m most definitely impugning your fabricated claims to having servived in Vietnam, which is a repugnant affront to the brave soldiers who did. So there, despite your belicose warning you may now consider yourself thoroughly and completely impugned. Besides, you needn’t worry about being impugned by others when you have done such a superlative job of impugning yourself.
In the latest case of political correctness run amok, America has once again been bitch slapped, this time by Nick Boden the principal of Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, California who suspended several students – Why? For wearing American Flag t-shirts to school on Cinco De Mayo, an act he believed offended the students of Mexican heritage. Oy vey! It is time to take School Prinicipal Boden to school.
Mr. Boden,
Outrage aside:Employing simple logic, does this mean that your administration would also prohibit the students of Mexican decent from wearing any clothing bearing the colors of Mexico on any traditionally American holidays, or any other day for that matter, for fear of offending students whose heritage and ancestry is American?
Patriotism via the wearing of shirts bearing the colors of our flag aside: Are you aware that there is a right to freedom of speech in the United States? You should understand that although it may seem counter intuitive, there is nothing in our Constitution that protects one from being “offended” and by its design actually protects the right to “offend,” and therefore the bottom line ironically enough, is that it is this right to free speech that protects the rights of Mexican students, American students or students of any heritage to wear the colors of their nations flags with out hindrance because of the possibility that someone might be offended.
All of this aside: The question really becomes one of simple policy. Policy makes your jobs as a school administrator and my job as a police administrator easy. It keeps us in line, it protects us from liability, and keeps our organizations from looking incompetent and foolish. Hard as it may be to believe, even a horribly written policy that authorizes you to do whatever you want to whomever you want whenever you want would protect you as long as you had that policy. I don’t think you do.
Therefore, all the emotions about patriotic clothing offending one group or another, had no bearing in this episode which boils down to this simple question of policy: Does your school have a policy that dictates when students may or may not wear patriotic clothing bearing the colors of the nation of their heritage? If there is no such policy in your school, and I would bet a year’s salary there is not, then you Nick, arbitrarily created your own personal policy on the spur of the moment, a policy which like a magician who pulls a rabbit out of his hat, you essentially pulled out of your ass, and visited it upon a singled out group of your own choosing at a time of your own choosing.
Humor and national heritage aside: What the hell were you thinking Nick?
In his June “A New Beginning” speech in Cairo, President Obama announced that the U.S. will host a Summit on Entrepreneurship to identify how we can deepen ties between business leaders, foundations, and social entrepreneurs in the United States and Muslim-majority countries (MMC), including their minority populations, and Muslim communities around the world.
With all the American business failing you would think he would have an “American Entrepreneurship Summit”. But NO.
A Muslim “summit on entrepreneurship” to me is a “weapons bazzar and bake sale”. These people have not gotten along with others for thousands of years. Now let’s bring them all together like the old mafia and they can decide on which areas they can control. Why not give them casino licenses to launder money too? Did’nt Barry-O ever notice that other countries try not to get involved with this type of stuff?
What country is stupid enough to host a “black market mixer?”. What next?…a summit dinner cruse on a hijacked cargo ship? Well , it’s time to pack the camel with Russian ak-47’s , rpg’s and chinese ammo and shuffle off to the summit. I guess gas stations and 7-11 stores are not enough.
Investigators have NO IDEA why the KILLER whale KILLED the trainer at SeaWorld. Although the KILLER whale has been involved in TWO OTHER DEATHS. While this is very sad for the family and friends of the trainer…No Idea? Really? Just take a guess?…. C’mon take a stab.
Humans are so arrogant as to believe we can control nature, we assume these animals are happy because they do fun tricks for food. Hell, I do tricks for food and money, doesn’t mean I wouldn’t rather be in the ocean with my friends, In fact I know I would.
“They are piecing together information, so that this doesnt happen again”……Um… Don’t play with Killer Whales.
I would recommend the same for Tigers, Grizzly Bears, Rhinos and Sharks. Please note; that this is only a small list of animals I do not recommend playing with or even going near, please do not take me to mean that animals not mentioned here should be played with.
Ok I know I’m responding to myself here, But I think I have the solution:
We need Warning Labels on Killer Whales! I’m calling my Senators and Congressmen right now!
The United States of America has now been attacked by terrorists twice in two months. Barry Soetero aka Barrack Obama has not only minimized these attacks, he has stuck his head in the sand. The latest attack was on Christmas Day by a guy who is now known as the “pants bomber“.
Janet Incompitano comes out to say “the system worked” Achmed Hotpants should’ve never been allowed in the Amsterdam airport let alone on the plane: he paid cash for a ONE-WAY ticket, he was on the ‘no-fly list’, his father had warned the US about his son’s religious zealousness…THEY BLEW IT! And the result is we’re really going to search gramma and everyone else EXCEPT the people we should be PROFILING!!!!!
Let’s say we all lived in a village on the Serengeti Plain. Everyday animals like giraffes, water buffalo, gazelles and lions would pass by the village. Unfortunately, a pair of rogue lions (it does happen) starts mauling villagers. Now, when the animals pass by each day which ones will you pay attention to? Would you say to yourself that maybe the giraffes will maul our villagers? Or would you be focusing your attention on the lions? If you focused your attention on the lions, would that mean that you hate ALL lions? Maybe. It’s really irrelevant, isn’t it? The point is to stop the rogue lions, which means extra scrutiny on all lions passing by. Does that make me an intolerable animal hater or a vigilant person looking out for the welfare of my people? You be the judge! We should be learning from Israeli security.
Lets get the facts straight. The first thing this administration did when they took office was disban the FBI anti-terrorist division, disrupted the CIA’s intelligence gathering mechanism, stopped using the word terrorist and the phrase “war on terror”. All this had to stop . God forbid we should insult someone who is trying to kill us!
What you got in Detroit was the end result of Obamas’ political correctness and there is more and bigger things brewing if this administration doesn’t wake up and quit trying to make nice with the worlds terrorists.
TSA has nothing to do with it. The idiot Obama put in charge couldn’t protect a dog from fleas. Janet Incompitano is the best tool any terrorist has. And by the way, Barry gives the terrorists the protection of our Constitution which means nothing to this administration, except they don’t abide by it unless it is to protect TERRORISTS.
The evidence against Obama is piling up and even the far left is beginning to notice.
They should begin to use full body scanners But I’m sure the male liberals, would object because it would prove once and for all that they have no balls.
It is this Americans Against America attitude among the Left. Need we go into PCness and the inability to profile?
We need to call things as they are. If it looks, acts, sounds like a duck ….
The lefties of the world immediately go into Bush bashing. HE’S GONE!!! It doesn’t matter. What does matter is what this guy is doing. I could care less what Bush did, Clinton or Grover Cleveland for that matter. What I care about is how this bozo is running around the planet “playing” president and not being one.
Barry has been pulling a Ferris Bueller since he got into office. What he should do is turn the entire Middle East to glass! End of discussion. Profile ANYONE from the Middle East, Africa or an Arabic sounding name and STOP reading Miranda Rights and giving these pieces of excrement Constitutional Rights and a lawyer. It’s a very simple solution.
What Barry and da Boyz are doing is putting everything he has into “looking good” and not taking care of business. He was too busy ramming porkulus bills, healthcare and the auto industry bailouts down out throats than protecting the country. He’s beginning to make Jimmy Carter look like the best president we ever had. Now that’s sad.
Obama has shown an utter inability to focus, to set priorities and to consider long-term consequences to his actions. Lack of focus on priorities is fatal as a CEO; (but, maybe less so for a political leader?)
Obama clearly does not see his primary job as one of overseeing the security and well-being of America during his tenure as its chief executive. He’s not only unwilling to stand up for America , but he also regularly seems to go out of his way to apologize for her history. This makes it apparent that he believes his most important job is to change America into what he thinks it should have been had we not suffered the Founders flawed vision.
Obamas’ aims seem truly radical (if stealth); his methods pure Alinsky; and his success derivative of obfuscating the truth, creating crises, and rushing changes into law that no one can possibly absorb under artificial deadlines all aimed at limiting private property rights, changing the Constitution and forever altering our free market system.
For those who consider Obamas’ training and background irrelevant, they can now evaluate him as a Commander-in-Chief and CEO from what he’s done over his first year.
Among many other things, these evidences have come in the form of:
1. A $787B stimulus package (sold as preventing a crisis from becoming catastrophe)
2. The failure to focus on addressing the banking crisis as Job One
3. The migration of TARP funds to non-banking concerns, including the auto industry
4. Announcing tax increases in the middle of a recession
5. Failure to identify projects to fund job creation
6. Announcing that there would be no pork or earmarks in the stimulus package in order to get it passed without review when there were nearly 10,000 buried in the unread bill (including a $9B high-speed rail line to Las Vegas for Harry Reid ) Watch the video:
7. Bailouts of the banking and auto industries
8. The appointment of a 31-year-old to manage the revitalization on of the auto companies
9. The exalting of union claims above those of bondholders (violating a 200+ year history of contract law/property rights)
10. The appointment of 38 unvetted czars – creating more than in the House of Romanov between 1762 and 1917!
11. The failure to appoint a Cabinet of tax-paying, competent Americans (Reason for the move to the Czar system of administration?)
12. The appointment of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court despite some questions about her lack of qualifications and judicial temperament.
13. The dark-of-night passage of Cap and Trade legislation (300-page-long addendum inserted at 3 am the morning of the vote in the House)
14. The high pressure tactics to rush through a budget-busting $1.6 Trillion takeover of our National Healthcare System.
15. Phony town hall meetings with a fake cross-section of Americans selling Obamacare on ABC.
16. Lying about budget deficits projecting 4% GDP growth by year-end.
17. Lying about job losses projecting that if Congress would just ram through the stimulus that job losses could be halted at 8% (currently unemployment is at 10%. That does not include the 7-8% of people who are either self employed and out of work or who have stopped collecting unemployemnt. So the real unemployment rate is in the neighborhood of 17%).
18. Lying about the costs of nationalized healthcare – (just as when politicians projected Medicare’s cost in 1990 to be $3 billion, its actual cost turned out in 1990 to $98 billion, 30 times as much)
19. Pretending that new entitlement programs will provide lower costs, better care, no significant tax increases, more competition (as government joins the fray!) and keeping current private options. Claiming free healthcare will make America more competitive is baffling. Everyone knows the above are lies; but no one seems ready to call him out.
20. Forcing the stimulus package on states to impinge on States Rights.
21. Failing to support the freedom-loving citizens in Honduras and Iran (and instead, giving comfort to their dictators) to say nothing of his ineffectiveness with North Korea and his anti-Israeli pronouncements.
22. Allocating $4 Billion of stimulus funds to ACORN, the the people who brought you voter fraud.
23. Seeking to push through Union Card Check, the so-called Fairness Doctrine, and threats to take away 2nd Amendment rights.
24. Moving the heretofore non-partisan 2010 National Census into the White house under the direction of Rahm Emanuel.
25. Lying about having a transparent government. From the whitehouse website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/TransparencyandOpenGovernment/
“My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government”
They have done everything in their power not to be transparent. He’s as transparent as his brown shirt.
26. Deciding to try terrorists in New York City. It will cost NYC a minimum of 75 million dollars just for added security. Not to mention the ridiculous circus this will create.
Whatever one thinks of the results, the process of getting to them should bother all Americans. In the Obama (Mayor Daley) style of governing, its not clear that Congress, who can’t possibly process thoughtfully the blizzard of legislation, really serves any useful purpose other than to provide Politburo-style cover. Not only does Congress no longer debate legislation, but Obama has effectively circumvented its oversight of the executive branch by his appointment of czars.
Obama has confused leadership with salesmanship. Leaders aren’t salesmen because leaders aren’t sellers: they’re buyers. They buy into shared interests instead of selling out to conflicting interests. In a way, that was the point of Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman: Willy Loman ended up broke, alone, and defeated because he couldn’t lead anyone, anywhere, to anything — because he was too busy selling. Instead of buying in, Willy was selling out. Sound familiar? It should: striking deals that are riddled with pervasive conflicts of interest has become a hallmark of the Obama Presidency.
Overall, 47% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President’s performance. Fifty-two percent (52%) disapprove. What does that tell you?
To All My Liberal Friends:
Please accept with no obligation, implied or explicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2010, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere . Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.
To My Conservative Friends:
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Attorney General Eric Holder announced Friday that five Guantanamo Bay detainees with alleged ties to the 9/11 conspiracy, including accused mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will be transferred to New York to go on trial in civilian court.
So now we have a corrupt, plastic neophyte of a president, a secretary of Homeland Security employed because she “can see Mexico from her house,” a Treasury Secretary who is guilty of tax fraud, and an anti-Gitmo Attorney General who worked for a firm who will directly benefit from the closing of Gitmo, which is a blatant conflict of interest.
The prestigious D.C. law firm where Attorney General Eric Holder is a senior partner, Covington & Burling, just happens to represent 17 detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
* We represent sixteen men detained at the United States Naval Station at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Most of the men have been detained for approximately seven years. None have been charged with any crimes, and none have been accorded the protections of the Geneva Convention. In Boumediene v. Bush, 128 S. Ct. 2229 (2008), where we were co-counsel for eleven of the detainees, the Supreme Court held that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus extends to detainees held at Guantánamo Bay. Following that decision, we have been preparing for habeas corpus hearings to be held in federal district court Washington, DC, for eleven of our clients.
* The firm has been involved in the Guantánamo related litigation for the last five years. In addition to the on-going habeas corpus proceedings, our efforts have included: bringing cases for review of enemy combatant classification decisions in the D.C. Circuit under the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005; challenging the destruction of CIA torture tapes in federal court; filing amicus briefs and coordinating the amicus effort in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557 (2006); filing amicus briefs in support of Supreme Court review in Moussaoui v. United States, 382 F.3d 483 (4th Cir.), cert denied, 544 U.S. 931 (2005); challenging the government’s practice of redacting information from documents given to security-cleared habeas counsel; and challenging the abusive medical and living conditions that the detainees experience at Guantánamo.
Just the latest disturbing development regarding a guy who lobbied for pardoning convicted FALN terrorists against the judgment of the FBI and U.S. attorneys.
No wonder he is not in favor of Military Tribunals. During his Senate hearing Holder was steadfast in his decision, saying he was confident his choice of venue was legally sound and would produce a conviction. He denied that his Justice Department was going soft on terror and cited a number of arrests in cities nationwide.
Holder’s main refrain, however, was that the decision to hold the trial in civilian court rather than a military commission was not political and was instead based on where he thought his best chance for conviction was.
Holder should recuse himself from any participation in any case involving detainees.
: Willy Loman ended up broke, alone, and defeated because he couldn’t lead anyone, anywhere, to anything — because he was too busy selling. Instead of buying in, Willy was selling out. Sound familiar? It should: striking deals that are riddled with pervasive conflicts of interest has become a hallmark of the Obama Presidency.
