Now that CNN has been embarrassed over the Sarah Palin interview by Drew Griffin, in which he badly took an article by National Review writer, Byron York out of context to embarrass Governor Palin, CNN has now "made amends".
Well, not quite.
CNN has now removed that portion of the interview from its video, and Griifin has called York and National Review editor, Rich Lowry to apologize for the error in quoting York's words.
What they have not done is apologize to the person who was damaged by the error. That would be Governor Palin.
What they have not done is go on the air to clarify the error publicly for the benefit of those who watched the original interview or read about it.
The fact of the matter is that the average person is not concerned about any wrong done to Byron York or National Review, nor are they probably even aware of York or National Review. What should be done by CNN is to admit their mistake and do it publicly with a public apology to Governor Palin.
Until they do that, they cannot call themselves, "the most trusted name in news".
Friday, October 24, 2008
The Hoax in Pittsburgh
Yesterday, when I read the report of a young woman in Pittsburgh being robbed and assaulted-then badly beaten and mutilated because her car had a McCain-Palin bumper sticker, I was ready to post my comments on the incident. (The woman reported to police that her attacker had carved a letter "B" into her face with a knife.)
Something, however, told me to hold off a day or two until the dust settled. Perhaps, it was because I had been reporting on a recent hoax at Elmhurst College in Illinois, where a young Muslim woman reported being assaulted by a masked man in a college restroom because she was Muslim. A week later, the woman was charged with filing a false police report. It took CAIR five days to remove the original report of assault from their website, a fact I duly noted.
Fortunately for me, I didn't run with the story, and, today, it turns out the Pittsburgh case was also a hoax. So what do I say now? Well, for starters, I am glad that this young woman has also been charged with filing a false police report.
Her action obviously got a lot of people upset. McCain and Palin apparently called the woman personally to wish her speedy recovery. The Obama campaign expressed their concern as well. It certainly didn't help that the woman identified her attacker as an African-American, which only served to open up old wounds.
Manufacturing a phony crime to affect public opinion is a serious offense (though the charges in both cases are actually misdemeanors). Though McCain cannot be blamed for her actions, it does his campaign no good-especially among African-Americans.
So now we are saddled with another bad episode in an election in which I will be glad when it's finally over.
Something, however, told me to hold off a day or two until the dust settled. Perhaps, it was because I had been reporting on a recent hoax at Elmhurst College in Illinois, where a young Muslim woman reported being assaulted by a masked man in a college restroom because she was Muslim. A week later, the woman was charged with filing a false police report. It took CAIR five days to remove the original report of assault from their website, a fact I duly noted.
Fortunately for me, I didn't run with the story, and, today, it turns out the Pittsburgh case was also a hoax. So what do I say now? Well, for starters, I am glad that this young woman has also been charged with filing a false police report.
Her action obviously got a lot of people upset. McCain and Palin apparently called the woman personally to wish her speedy recovery. The Obama campaign expressed their concern as well. It certainly didn't help that the woman identified her attacker as an African-American, which only served to open up old wounds.
Manufacturing a phony crime to affect public opinion is a serious offense (though the charges in both cases are actually misdemeanors). Though McCain cannot be blamed for her actions, it does his campaign no good-especially among African-Americans.
So now we are saddled with another bad episode in an election in which I will be glad when it's finally over.
Introducing the Islamic Thinkers Society-A Real Hate Group
Muslim Day Parade in New York
top: Islamic Thinkers Society
below: Peaceful participants
On Ocober 12, thousands of Muslims held a "Muslim Day" parade down New York City's Madison Avenue, which, of course had to be closed to traffic to accommodate the marchers and their event, which included prayers in the street. Many of the marchers brought their children and many others carried flags of their mother countries. While it was mostly peaceful, there were a few verbal altercations that broke out between some marchers and non-Muslim protesters who lined the parade route. Many New York citizens had taken umbrage at the proximity of last year's event to 9-11 (two days previous). No doubt the sea of foreign flags did not sit well with many protesters. A lot of insults went back and forth, and on a few occasions, police and security had to keep people apart. Slides and videos of the event are readily available on the Internet.
While I believe it was the intent of most of the marchers to have a peaceful event, there was one segment of the march that does not have such good intentions. Some of the marchers are members of a Queens, New York-based organization called Islamic Thinkers Society. They should change their name to Islamic Haters Society. This is a radical group of Muslims, who seem to be mostly American-born Muslims and converts. Their world view is anything but peaceful and tolerant.
The Islamic Thinkers Society is reportedly the American wing of Al Muhajrioun, the extremist group which reportedly broke up in the UK and whose leader, Omar Bakri Mohammed, fled the country in the wake of the July metro bombings in London.
Here are some examples from their website (http://www.islamicthinkers.com/index/index.php)
On one page, they have put up posters with pictures of Obama and McCain proclaiming:
"Voting for those who ally with the enemies of Islam is Kufr.
"Oh believers, if any amongst you takes the Jews and Christians as auliya (supporters), then he is one of them." (5:51)
and,
"Voting and supporting those who rule by other than Allah (swt) is Kufr."
Then there is a depiction of the Israeli flag and two Stars of David. The stars are burning while a mushroom cloud is rising over the flag.
In addition, there is a warning that "Spying on Muslims is Haraam".
Then there is this bit of "wisdom" from the "thinkers":
"66 questions about the Holocaust", which lists 66 points implying why the Holocaust never happened.
But don't take my word for all this; visit their website.
By the way, this is the same group of mopes that publicly desecrated an American flag on the streets of New York a couple years ago.
How many members do they have? That's what I want to know. They describe themselves as "less than a handful" of Muslims. Hopefully, that is the case. Their presence in the above-mentioned parade is a blot on any positive message that New York's Muslims wanted to portray.
The Forgotten Refugees-By Reut Cohen
I am pleased to post an article written recently by my friend and colleague, Reut Cohen, a recent graduate of UC-Irvine, who has been outspoken in her opposition to anti-Semitic speakers sponsored by UCI's Muslim Student Union. In speaking out against the MSU, Reut also came into conflict with the UCI Administration.
Reut comes from a Middle-Eastern Jewish family that was driven from their homes in Iraq and Syria. It is a story that has been largely lost amid the Isreali-Palestinian debate.
Here is the story of Reut's family. It is also posted on her own website, which bears her name.
"In May 2007, Jimmy Carter went on a speaking tour and made a stop at the University of California, Irvine. During his talk, the former president made an offer to assist in funding a trip between Jewish and Muslim students to Israel and the Palestinian territories with the intention of bringing awareness to the plight of the Palestinians.
In August 2008 a group of students, primarily composed of Jewish students and students who are involved with the Middle Eastern Studies Student Initiative (MESSI) or the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding, participated in a program to visit Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Jimmy Carter did not subsidize the trip according to the students and departments involved, but Carter's suggestion in 2007 definitely helped to inspire this trip. Now that students have returned to the United States they will be sharing their experiences and the perspectives they heard at a series of events sponsored by university departments throughout the year.
My outlook regarding this trip is neither optimistic nor reassured just because the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding endorsed this program and UC Irvine's vice chancellor briefly met with students during the trip. After all, I am very familiar with the vice chancellor at my alma mater. He is the same vice chancellor who made a rather asinine remark that he would not seek to curtail hate speech against Jews because "one person's hate speech is another's education."
Another concern is that students, who probably had good if not extremely misguided intentions, were only afforded the ability to see two parts of the Middle East — developed Israel and the underdeveloped Palestinian Authority. Certainly students, especially students who went into the trip knowing little about the conflict, will only have a prospering, developed nation to compare the Palestinian territories to. In order for a well-rounded, honest approach to understanding the Middle East, students should have seen how Jordanians and Egyptians live. Anyone who has visited the Middle East will recognize that there are distinct similarities of impoverishment, lack of sanitation, and infrastructure in villages.
Conversely, Israel is not much different than Western nations. Innovation, advancement, proper health, and infrastructure are obvious components of Israeli society.
During this trip words like "refugees" and "oppressed" likely came up in discussion about the situation of the Palestinians. I sincerely doubt that there will be a mention that the infant mortality rate in the Palestinian Authority is actually lower than in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and many other Islamic nations. Israel has continuously provided medical assistance to Palestinians in need, which has very likely made the infant mortality rate lower in the Palestinian Authority. I also cannot help but wonder if the fact that Palestinians cannot become citizens of any Islamic nation or that there are Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon was discussed during this trip.
Furthermore, it is a concern that while the refugee status of the Palestinians is often up for discussion, there is little or no mention of the Jewish Middle Eastern refugees. Certainly, judging from what I have heard and seen about this trip, there wasn't a mention of Middle Eastern Jewry even though these Jews make up more than half of Israel.
I would like to share my own unique perspective on the refugee issue, one that is rarely heard by our media.
I am Jewish, but I am also Middle Eastern. I come from a traditional Sephardic/Mizrahi household. The food we eat, the way we pray, the music we listen to are all Middle Eastern in their style and origins. While I am very familiar with the situation of Middle Eastern Jewish refugees, it has always astounded, and even offended, me that the situation of my relatives who suffered and endured in refugee camps is rarely addressed.
Up to one million Jews lived in the Middle East and North Africa in 1945. These Middle Eastern Jews lived in communities dating back more than three millennia. Yet today these communities have been virtually wiped out by Islamic governments and only a few thousand Jews remain.
Israel was a very poor country with a finite amount of resources, making life very difficult for diverse Jews who were breaking free of repressive regimes. While Israel absorbed the survivors of the Holocaust, it also absorbed an equal number of Jews from the Middle East who faced intense persecution under Islamic regimes that became very Nazi-like in their treatment of Jews.
My paternal grandfather vividly recalls his experiences living as a Jew in Baghdad and the Farhud pogrom, which was a Nazi pogrom coordinated by Haj Amin al-Husseini. In a two-day period Arab mobs went on a rampage in Baghdad and other cities in Iraq. Nearly 300 Jews were killed and more than 2,000 injured; some 900 Jewish homes were destroyed and looted, and hundreds of Jewish-owned shops were robbed and destroyed. My older family members recall witnessing how Iraqi soldiers pulled small children away from their parents and ripped the arms off young girls to steal their bracelets; pregnant women were raped and their stomachs cut open. My grandfather hid his baby brother underneath his t-shirt when the violence began and ran home. My great-grandfather saved his entire family during the riots that broke out in Baghdad by claiming to be a Muslim when Iraqi troops came into their home with the intent of looting, raping, and killing. Eventually, when being a Jew was practically criminalized, my father's family escaped to Israel with only the clothes on their backs — their belongings were confiscated — leaving behind everything that they knew. Their experience was not a unique one and was shared by several thousand Baghdadi Jews.
Other Islamic countries treated their Jewish populations similarly. My maternal grandmother escaped from Syria during the mid-1940s. Her parents had died and she was forced to live with an older sister. As a 16-year-old girl, she decided to pay a Druze man with the gold her mother left to her and made the long, tedious journey to modern-day Israel. Because Syrian officials would incarcerate any Jew fleeing in the direction of Israel, my grandmother and other individuals making their way from Syria to what eventually became Israel would only be able to walk at night. Several Syrian Jews found it nearly impossible to flee. The last few Jews from Syria made their escape in the early 1990s. Our male relatives who arrived in Israel in the 1990s shared their stories with us. They were taken by Syrian authorities and tortured for unspecified amounts of time, experiencing unspeakable cruelty at the hands of Syrian officials.
We rarely hear of the atrocities committed against Middle Eastern Jewry and only hear about the poor Palestinian refugees. Indeed the Palestinian refugees are a poor people, a scapegoat for repressive Islamic governments who despise Israel and who will not allow these people to become immersed in Islamic countries.
My family is also indigenous to the Middle East. They are from communities that lived in dusty tents for years. They helped to build a country that was poor and barely habitable. They were refugees with a plight that has been unrecognized for decades.
Rather than engaging in violence like the Palestinians, Middle Eastern Jews persevered and built new lives. They became Israeli citizens and they ceased being refugees. At first they had to overcome social discrimination, as two very different Jewish populations found themselves interacting so suddenly — European and Middle Eastern. However, it is crucial to note that Israel eventually absorbed populations from Europe and the Middle East without receiving assistance from the international community. The Middle Eastern Jewish community makes up more than half of Israel's Jewish population.
I believe that without honesty or a comprehensive view of the Middle East, individuals are simply deluding themselves into thinking they actually have a firm understanding of a very complicated conflict. I have never heard a single Middle Eastern department at any university bring up this issue. Instead, much of the dialogue surrounding the Middle East attacks Israel, which makes up less than one percent of the Middle East. We cannot omit important narratives simply because they would call to question what we already believe."
Reut Cohen.
Reut comes from a Middle-Eastern Jewish family that was driven from their homes in Iraq and Syria. It is a story that has been largely lost amid the Isreali-Palestinian debate.
Here is the story of Reut's family. It is also posted on her own website, which bears her name.
"In May 2007, Jimmy Carter went on a speaking tour and made a stop at the University of California, Irvine. During his talk, the former president made an offer to assist in funding a trip between Jewish and Muslim students to Israel and the Palestinian territories with the intention of bringing awareness to the plight of the Palestinians.
In August 2008 a group of students, primarily composed of Jewish students and students who are involved with the Middle Eastern Studies Student Initiative (MESSI) or the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding, participated in a program to visit Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Jimmy Carter did not subsidize the trip according to the students and departments involved, but Carter's suggestion in 2007 definitely helped to inspire this trip. Now that students have returned to the United States they will be sharing their experiences and the perspectives they heard at a series of events sponsored by university departments throughout the year.
My outlook regarding this trip is neither optimistic nor reassured just because the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding endorsed this program and UC Irvine's vice chancellor briefly met with students during the trip. After all, I am very familiar with the vice chancellor at my alma mater. He is the same vice chancellor who made a rather asinine remark that he would not seek to curtail hate speech against Jews because "one person's hate speech is another's education."
Another concern is that students, who probably had good if not extremely misguided intentions, were only afforded the ability to see two parts of the Middle East — developed Israel and the underdeveloped Palestinian Authority. Certainly students, especially students who went into the trip knowing little about the conflict, will only have a prospering, developed nation to compare the Palestinian territories to. In order for a well-rounded, honest approach to understanding the Middle East, students should have seen how Jordanians and Egyptians live. Anyone who has visited the Middle East will recognize that there are distinct similarities of impoverishment, lack of sanitation, and infrastructure in villages.
Conversely, Israel is not much different than Western nations. Innovation, advancement, proper health, and infrastructure are obvious components of Israeli society.
During this trip words like "refugees" and "oppressed" likely came up in discussion about the situation of the Palestinians. I sincerely doubt that there will be a mention that the infant mortality rate in the Palestinian Authority is actually lower than in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and many other Islamic nations. Israel has continuously provided medical assistance to Palestinians in need, which has very likely made the infant mortality rate lower in the Palestinian Authority. I also cannot help but wonder if the fact that Palestinians cannot become citizens of any Islamic nation or that there are Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon was discussed during this trip.
Furthermore, it is a concern that while the refugee status of the Palestinians is often up for discussion, there is little or no mention of the Jewish Middle Eastern refugees. Certainly, judging from what I have heard and seen about this trip, there wasn't a mention of Middle Eastern Jewry even though these Jews make up more than half of Israel.
I would like to share my own unique perspective on the refugee issue, one that is rarely heard by our media.
I am Jewish, but I am also Middle Eastern. I come from a traditional Sephardic/Mizrahi household. The food we eat, the way we pray, the music we listen to are all Middle Eastern in their style and origins. While I am very familiar with the situation of Middle Eastern Jewish refugees, it has always astounded, and even offended, me that the situation of my relatives who suffered and endured in refugee camps is rarely addressed.
Up to one million Jews lived in the Middle East and North Africa in 1945. These Middle Eastern Jews lived in communities dating back more than three millennia. Yet today these communities have been virtually wiped out by Islamic governments and only a few thousand Jews remain.
Israel was a very poor country with a finite amount of resources, making life very difficult for diverse Jews who were breaking free of repressive regimes. While Israel absorbed the survivors of the Holocaust, it also absorbed an equal number of Jews from the Middle East who faced intense persecution under Islamic regimes that became very Nazi-like in their treatment of Jews.
My paternal grandfather vividly recalls his experiences living as a Jew in Baghdad and the Farhud pogrom, which was a Nazi pogrom coordinated by Haj Amin al-Husseini. In a two-day period Arab mobs went on a rampage in Baghdad and other cities in Iraq. Nearly 300 Jews were killed and more than 2,000 injured; some 900 Jewish homes were destroyed and looted, and hundreds of Jewish-owned shops were robbed and destroyed. My older family members recall witnessing how Iraqi soldiers pulled small children away from their parents and ripped the arms off young girls to steal their bracelets; pregnant women were raped and their stomachs cut open. My grandfather hid his baby brother underneath his t-shirt when the violence began and ran home. My great-grandfather saved his entire family during the riots that broke out in Baghdad by claiming to be a Muslim when Iraqi troops came into their home with the intent of looting, raping, and killing. Eventually, when being a Jew was practically criminalized, my father's family escaped to Israel with only the clothes on their backs — their belongings were confiscated — leaving behind everything that they knew. Their experience was not a unique one and was shared by several thousand Baghdadi Jews.
Other Islamic countries treated their Jewish populations similarly. My maternal grandmother escaped from Syria during the mid-1940s. Her parents had died and she was forced to live with an older sister. As a 16-year-old girl, she decided to pay a Druze man with the gold her mother left to her and made the long, tedious journey to modern-day Israel. Because Syrian officials would incarcerate any Jew fleeing in the direction of Israel, my grandmother and other individuals making their way from Syria to what eventually became Israel would only be able to walk at night. Several Syrian Jews found it nearly impossible to flee. The last few Jews from Syria made their escape in the early 1990s. Our male relatives who arrived in Israel in the 1990s shared their stories with us. They were taken by Syrian authorities and tortured for unspecified amounts of time, experiencing unspeakable cruelty at the hands of Syrian officials.
We rarely hear of the atrocities committed against Middle Eastern Jewry and only hear about the poor Palestinian refugees. Indeed the Palestinian refugees are a poor people, a scapegoat for repressive Islamic governments who despise Israel and who will not allow these people to become immersed in Islamic countries.
My family is also indigenous to the Middle East. They are from communities that lived in dusty tents for years. They helped to build a country that was poor and barely habitable. They were refugees with a plight that has been unrecognized for decades.
Rather than engaging in violence like the Palestinians, Middle Eastern Jews persevered and built new lives. They became Israeli citizens and they ceased being refugees. At first they had to overcome social discrimination, as two very different Jewish populations found themselves interacting so suddenly — European and Middle Eastern. However, it is crucial to note that Israel eventually absorbed populations from Europe and the Middle East without receiving assistance from the international community. The Middle Eastern Jewish community makes up more than half of Israel's Jewish population.
I believe that without honesty or a comprehensive view of the Middle East, individuals are simply deluding themselves into thinking they actually have a firm understanding of a very complicated conflict. I have never heard a single Middle Eastern department at any university bring up this issue. Instead, much of the dialogue surrounding the Middle East attacks Israel, which makes up less than one percent of the Middle East. We cannot omit important narratives simply because they would call to question what we already believe."
Reut Cohen.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Congressman Tim Mahoney's Websites-Good for Laughs
Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-FL) Working for Florida
If you are looking for a few yuks, you might want to check out Congressman Tim Mahoney's (D-FL) webpages-his campaign site (Mahoney for Florida) and his official congressional site.
As you will recall, this month Mahoney, who successfully ran for Mark Foley's vacated seat on a morality platform, became caught up in a scandal regarding his affair with another woman and the question of money paid to that woman for her silence ($121,000). (Mahoney's wife has filed for divorce.)
If you check out the above two sites, you will read all about the various people who are supporting him for re-election; the Fraternal Order of Police, Firefighters for Mahoney, the NRA, etc. You will read all about the great things Tim is doing on behalf of Floridians. You will see pictures of Tim reading to a kindergarten class. There is a section entitled, "Tim in the News"........
But there is no mention of how Tim has been in the news beyond October 9. In fact, neither website seems to have been updated since October 9. The section called "About Tim" is now blank. Photographs of his wife have disappeared.
I wonder why.
Of course, Tim is still asking for contributions with this little blurb:
"We are under attack by the national Republican bosses on two fronts and Tim Mahoney needs your immediate support. They have poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into a harsh, negative television ad that is blatantly false. We need you to immediately make a contribution so we can fight back."
There is no date that I could see attached to that statement. What two fronts is he talking about? Is it the adultery front or possible misuse of public funds front?
But there is good news. According to the polls, Tim is down 26 points.
National Black Republican Association Article on Obama and Bill Ayres
The below article, written by LA-based talk show host, Larry Elder, was posted on the website of the National Black Republican Association and e-mailed to me. I am pleased to post it here.
THE CASE AGAINST BARACK OBAMA, PART 2
http://townhall.com/columnists/LarryElder/2008/10/23/the_case_against_barack_obama,_part_2
By Larry Elder
Thursday, October 23, 2008
1) What about this business of Barack Obama and William Ayers?
Ayers and his wife, Bernardine, belonged to a radical terror group in the '60s and '70s called Weather Underground. The organization committed murders, bombings and attempted acts of terrorism. In a Sept. 11, 2001, article about Ayers' book "Fugitive Days," Ayers showed no remorse. Indeed, he said: "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough."
When Obama ran for state senator in Illinois, Ayers hosted what one person present called Obama's political "coming-out party."
Ayers and Obama sat on two boards together. One -- the Chicago Annenberg Challenge -- distributed more than $100 million from 1995 to 2001 to improve Chicago schools. Their own assessments show they failed. The money went for things such as peace initiatives, multiculturalism, Afrocentrism, bilingualism and courses that condemn capitalism and encourage attacking "oppressors."
Obama and Ayers also served on the board of the Woods Fund, an organization that distributed grant money to ACORN, which pushes its leftist agenda -- "tax justice," livable wages, anti-school choice, voter registration and affordable housing. The nearly 400,000-person-strong organization is currently under investigation by state and federal authorities in several states for voter registration fraud. The Obama campaign dismisses any connection to ACORN as tangential.
But on Dec. 1, 2007, Obama spoke at the Heartland Democratic Presidential Forum before leaders of community organizing groups, including ACORN. He said: "Let me even say before I even get inaugurated, during the transition we'll be calling all of you (community organizers) in to help us shape the agenda. We're gonna be having meetings all across the country with community organizations so that you have input into the agenda for the next presidency of the United States of America."
"Meet the Press" moderator Tom Brokaw called Ayers -- a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago -- a "school reformer." Ayers, on the other hand, calls himself a Marxist and a "small 'c' communist." A Venezuelan government Web site, translated to English, calls Ayers "the leader of the revolutionary and anti-imperialist group the Weather Underground, which initiated armed struggle against the government of the USA." Ayers sits on the directorate of a think tank funded by Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.
2) Is McCain's support for the Iraq war a political winner or loser?
McCain needs to clearly state that America and the world sleep easier without Saddam Hussein in power, and that Saddam intended to restart his chemical and biological programs. McCain makes a mistake by conceding, through silence, that the war was a mistake. A recent Rasmussen poll shows that more Americans than not believe that history will judge Iraq a success.
Obama was wrong about the surge, and continues to maintain -- despite clear evidence to the contrary -- that political reconciliation is not taking place. Even The Washington Post, which endorses Obama, editorialized against Obama's insistence on withdrawing troops by a date certain. Furthermore, the Post wrote: "Democrat Barack Obama continues to argue that only the systematic withdrawal of U.S. combat units will force Iraqi leaders to compromise. Yet the empirical evidence of the past year suggests the opposite: that only the greater security produced and guaranteed by American troops allows a political environment in which legislative deals and free elections are feasible."
3) Obama supports the use of our military to stop genocide in Darfur while showing indifference about a possible one in Iraq.
Brokaw, moderating a debate, asked Obama when American combat forces should be used to quell humanitarian crises that pose no threat to U.S. security. Obama -- specifically mentioning Darfur and Rwanda -- said, "When genocide is happening, when ethnic cleansing is happening somewhere around the world and we stand idly by, that diminishes us." But after a 2007 interview with Obama, The Associated Press wrote, "Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Thursday the United States cannot use its military to solve humanitarian problems and that preventing a potential genocide in Iraq isn't a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces there." So Obama wants to use our military to stop genocide in Darfur -- a tragedy that we did not start. But he wants our military to withdraw in Iraq, possibly resulting in a genocide of our own making. Got that?
4) As for the current financial crisis, does Obama bear some responsibility?
In the subprime crisis, many people took out unaffordable loans, and lenders lent under government policies that encouraged them to make risky loans. As a lawyer, Obama and his firm filed a class action lawsuit against Citibank, alleging that the bank systematically shut out minority borrowers. According to The Associated Press: "The case was settled out of court. Some class members got cash payments, and the bank agreed to help ease the way for low- and moderate-income people to apply for mortgages."
Bottom line. When the Communist Party USA approvingly says Obama would "advance progressive politics for the long term" -- run.
More information about the National Black Republican Association is available at: www.NBRA.Info/
THE CASE AGAINST BARACK OBAMA, PART 2
http://townhall.com/columnists/LarryElder/2008/10/23/the_case_against_barack_obama,_part_2
By Larry Elder
Thursday, October 23, 2008
1) What about this business of Barack Obama and William Ayers?
Ayers and his wife, Bernardine, belonged to a radical terror group in the '60s and '70s called Weather Underground. The organization committed murders, bombings and attempted acts of terrorism. In a Sept. 11, 2001, article about Ayers' book "Fugitive Days," Ayers showed no remorse. Indeed, he said: "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough."
When Obama ran for state senator in Illinois, Ayers hosted what one person present called Obama's political "coming-out party."
Ayers and Obama sat on two boards together. One -- the Chicago Annenberg Challenge -- distributed more than $100 million from 1995 to 2001 to improve Chicago schools. Their own assessments show they failed. The money went for things such as peace initiatives, multiculturalism, Afrocentrism, bilingualism and courses that condemn capitalism and encourage attacking "oppressors."
Obama and Ayers also served on the board of the Woods Fund, an organization that distributed grant money to ACORN, which pushes its leftist agenda -- "tax justice," livable wages, anti-school choice, voter registration and affordable housing. The nearly 400,000-person-strong organization is currently under investigation by state and federal authorities in several states for voter registration fraud. The Obama campaign dismisses any connection to ACORN as tangential.
But on Dec. 1, 2007, Obama spoke at the Heartland Democratic Presidential Forum before leaders of community organizing groups, including ACORN. He said: "Let me even say before I even get inaugurated, during the transition we'll be calling all of you (community organizers) in to help us shape the agenda. We're gonna be having meetings all across the country with community organizations so that you have input into the agenda for the next presidency of the United States of America."
"Meet the Press" moderator Tom Brokaw called Ayers -- a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago -- a "school reformer." Ayers, on the other hand, calls himself a Marxist and a "small 'c' communist." A Venezuelan government Web site, translated to English, calls Ayers "the leader of the revolutionary and anti-imperialist group the Weather Underground, which initiated armed struggle against the government of the USA." Ayers sits on the directorate of a think tank funded by Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.
2) Is McCain's support for the Iraq war a political winner or loser?
McCain needs to clearly state that America and the world sleep easier without Saddam Hussein in power, and that Saddam intended to restart his chemical and biological programs. McCain makes a mistake by conceding, through silence, that the war was a mistake. A recent Rasmussen poll shows that more Americans than not believe that history will judge Iraq a success.
Obama was wrong about the surge, and continues to maintain -- despite clear evidence to the contrary -- that political reconciliation is not taking place. Even The Washington Post, which endorses Obama, editorialized against Obama's insistence on withdrawing troops by a date certain. Furthermore, the Post wrote: "Democrat Barack Obama continues to argue that only the systematic withdrawal of U.S. combat units will force Iraqi leaders to compromise. Yet the empirical evidence of the past year suggests the opposite: that only the greater security produced and guaranteed by American troops allows a political environment in which legislative deals and free elections are feasible."
3) Obama supports the use of our military to stop genocide in Darfur while showing indifference about a possible one in Iraq.
Brokaw, moderating a debate, asked Obama when American combat forces should be used to quell humanitarian crises that pose no threat to U.S. security. Obama -- specifically mentioning Darfur and Rwanda -- said, "When genocide is happening, when ethnic cleansing is happening somewhere around the world and we stand idly by, that diminishes us." But after a 2007 interview with Obama, The Associated Press wrote, "Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Thursday the United States cannot use its military to solve humanitarian problems and that preventing a potential genocide in Iraq isn't a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces there." So Obama wants to use our military to stop genocide in Darfur -- a tragedy that we did not start. But he wants our military to withdraw in Iraq, possibly resulting in a genocide of our own making. Got that?
4) As for the current financial crisis, does Obama bear some responsibility?
In the subprime crisis, many people took out unaffordable loans, and lenders lent under government policies that encouraged them to make risky loans. As a lawyer, Obama and his firm filed a class action lawsuit against Citibank, alleging that the bank systematically shut out minority borrowers. According to The Associated Press: "The case was settled out of court. Some class members got cash payments, and the bank agreed to help ease the way for low- and moderate-income people to apply for mortgages."
Bottom line. When the Communist Party USA approvingly says Obama would "advance progressive politics for the long term" -- run.
More information about the National Black Republican Association is available at: www.NBRA.Info/
Let's Play, "Name That Ad"
Which is the most outrageous ad? (top to bottom)
a "The Most Trusted Name in News" (CNN)
b "The King of Beers" (Schlitz)
c "More Doctors Smoke Camels Than Any Other Cigarette" (Camel)
d "Fine Wines From the Vineyards of Bartles and Jaymes" (Bartles and Jaymes)
(I think it's a 4-way tie.)
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
CNN's "Interview" With Sarah Palin
Huh?
Yesterday, Sarah Palin sat down for an interview with CNN's Drew Griffin. What came out of that interview is a textbook example of media twisting facts and taking something totally out of context. Below is an exerpt from that interview.
CNN: "Yeah. Governor, you've been mocked in the press. The press has been pretty hard on you, the Democrats have been pretty hard on you, but also some conservatives have been pretty hard on you as well. The National Review had a story saying that, you know, I can't tell if Sarah Palin is incompetent, stupid, unqualified, corrupt or all of the above."
Palin: "Who wrote that one?"
CNN: "That was in the National Review, I don't, have the author."
Well, Mr Griffin, the author was Byron York, and here is what he really said October 20th in the National Review (I have included the full paragraph for context):
"Watching press coverage of the Republican candidate for vice president, it’s sometimes hard to decide whether Sarah Palin is incompetent, stupid, unqualified, corrupt, backward, or — or, well, all of the above. Palin, the governor of Alaska, has faced more criticism than any vice-presidential candidate since 1988, when Democrats and the press tore into Dan Quayle. In fact, Palin may have it even worse than Quayle, since she’s taking flak not only from Democrats and the press but from some conservative opinion leaders as well."
What is CNN's motto-"The Most Trusted Source in News"? Was this just an example of Mr Griffin's incompetence-or was this a deliberate twisting and misrepresentaion of the facts? Will CNN apologize to Obama and the public? Probably not.
Is there anybody out there who still believes that the news media (with the exception of Fox News and talk radio)is not totally committed to helping Barak Obama win the election? Perhaps you think that once Obama is in the White House, the media will become his adversary, will "speak truth to power" and all that. Wrong. The media, if Obama is elected, will spend the years of his administration acting as his defender. Why? Because they share Obama's ideology. The media today is nothing more than an arm of one political party-the Democrats.
Is that good for democracy?
CAIR Finally Admits Elmhurst Case a Hoax, But,,,
Five days after a young Muslim student at Elmhurst College in Illinois admitted that her claim of being the victim of a hate crime was a hoax, CAIR has taken down its initial report of the "assault". (I think someone alerted them to the fact that I was keeping a count on how many days it would take them to set the record straight.)
http://www.cair.com/ArticleDetails.aspx?ArticleID=25560&&name=n&&currPage=1&&Active=1
Yet, the article CAIR chose to post (by a Chicago Sun Times writer) almost seems to portray the complainant as a victim and contrasts her case (she was charged with filing a false police report) with another recent incident in which a minor female falsely reported a rape and described her attacker as "Arab-looking" (she has not been charged-see below).
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2008/10/parents-say-girl-made-up-palos-heights-rape-story.html
Let's not make excuses here. Filing a false police report is a crime and inexcusable no matter who does it. The young woman in Elmhurst did a disservice to everybody, Muslims, non-Muslims and the community as a whole. Yet, according to CAIR, it all came down to giving racists an excuse to hate Muslims-and a disparity in the handling of two separate cases.
I deplore true cases of acts against Muslims because of their religion, but perpetrating false cases of victimhood and hate crimes is inexcusable. We are still awaiting the results of the alleged Dayton Mosque gas attack, but the news has completely stopped after it was revealed that a can of pepper spray was found inside the mosque after the fact.
I would hope that there will be no more false claims of hate crimes against Muslims. That will enable all of us to rally around Muslims when they are the true victims of real hate crimes.
It seems that message is lost on CAIR.
http://www.cair.com/ArticleDetails.aspx?ArticleID=25560&&name=n&&currPage=1&&Active=1
Yet, the article CAIR chose to post (by a Chicago Sun Times writer) almost seems to portray the complainant as a victim and contrasts her case (she was charged with filing a false police report) with another recent incident in which a minor female falsely reported a rape and described her attacker as "Arab-looking" (she has not been charged-see below).
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2008/10/parents-say-girl-made-up-palos-heights-rape-story.html
Let's not make excuses here. Filing a false police report is a crime and inexcusable no matter who does it. The young woman in Elmhurst did a disservice to everybody, Muslims, non-Muslims and the community as a whole. Yet, according to CAIR, it all came down to giving racists an excuse to hate Muslims-and a disparity in the handling of two separate cases.
I deplore true cases of acts against Muslims because of their religion, but perpetrating false cases of victimhood and hate crimes is inexcusable. We are still awaiting the results of the alleged Dayton Mosque gas attack, but the news has completely stopped after it was revealed that a can of pepper spray was found inside the mosque after the fact.
I would hope that there will be no more false claims of hate crimes against Muslims. That will enable all of us to rally around Muslims when they are the true victims of real hate crimes.
It seems that message is lost on CAIR.
Day 5 and Counting
It has now been five days that CAIR has kept a report up on its web site about an assault on a young Muslim woman at Elmhurst College in Illinois-since the report was proven to be a hoax.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
It's the Law
"Hey Ollie, how come there's nobody in the Giants' new ballpark?"
"Didn't ya hear? They moved back to New York. The city said they had to provide free rides to the games and health care coverage for all the fans. The Giants told em' to stick it."
San Francisco, that insane asylum by the bay, is a model of how not to run a city. Under the reign of Gavin Newsom, the playboy mayor and a lunatic city council, San Francisco has opened its arms to the homeless and illegal aliens of our country, while paying no attention to the blight the homeless have caused and to crime committed by some of the illegal aliens, specifically gang members-even when, as happened this year, a local family was brutally murdered by an illegal alien gang member who, being already in the city's justice system, should have been deported prior to his last crime (murder). Who is not welcome in San Francisco? Anybody associated with our military.
While the city has rightfully garnered a lot of negative publicity recently for the above issues, there is more that should be pointed out. You see, San Francisco, like the State of California itself, is not friendly to business.
For example, the city has established a new ordinance that requires local businesses to provide "commuter benefits" to its employees. Those benefits consist either of an income-tax break of up to $110 per month, an employer-provided transit pass or free rides to and from work supplied by the employer. Failure to comply results in a fine of $500. Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi wants to add a new benefit that would mandate employers to provide $20 a month to those employees who ride to work on bicycles.
Meanwhile, the ultra-liberal 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a San Francisco "right" to charge employers to help pay for universal health coverage(see Orange County Register editorial October 21, 2008).
Now you liberals out there may think it is fine and dandy for government to mandate private businesses to provide this or that for its employees- pay for their transportation to work, provide health care insurance and all that. If a company wants to provide these benefits for its workers, great. I say you should get a job with that company.
However, I believe that these are issues between an employer and his/her employees. It should be the role of government to intervene.
Secondly, as a practical matter, at a certain point, a business owner saddled with all these regulations-not to mention-taxes-is going to do one of several things: They can lay off workers, raise prices, or relocate their business elsewhere-as many California businesses are already doing-and take their jobs with them.
Well, you say. That's California-San Francisco, in fact. That's not going to happen here in Wisconsin or Georgia.
Yes, it can.
If Barack Obama is elected, you know what he is going to do to businesses. He is going to raise taxes on them. He is going to saddle them with more regulations. He doesn't like business. He thinks they are the root of all evil. He forgets that businesses are the engine that drives our economy and provides jobs.
And what do you think will happen when President Obama starts laying the wood to the nation's businesses and mimics San Francisco? Many will move out of the country and take their businesses and jobs with them.
Many would call it unintended consequences. I am not so sure. The far-left leaders and politicians of this country are not so dim-witted not to know these will be the consequences. If they, in fact, know what the consequences of these policies are, then their motive can only be to bring this country to its knees.
Let's Not Forget Obama's Spiritual Mentors
Pastor James Meeks
While John McCain has been hammering Barack Obama on the issue of Bill Ayers and ACORN, he has apparently taken Jeremiah Wright off the table. Apparently, McCain thinks that the issue of Jeremiah Wright is known to everyone, and there is no need to bring it up again.
I have three points for consideration:
In addition to Wright, one figure who has received little publicity is another radical preacher in Chicago, Reverend James Weeks. Weeks is cut out of the same cloth as Wright. A few years ago, at a rally in Chicago, Weeks said (actually shouted) this:
“We don’t have slave masters. We got mayors. But they still the same white people who are presiding over systems where black people are not able, or to be educated.”
“You got some preachers that are house niggers. You got some elected officials that are house niggers. And rather than them trying to break this up, they gonna fight you to protect the white man."
Meeks is another man who Obama has, in the past, identified as a spiritual mentor. For a while, Meeks appeared on Obama's campaign website. He was part of Obama's exploratory committee prior to his run for the presidency. While running for the US Senate, Obama campaigned in Meeks' church.
We have also been treated to sound bites from another radical "man of God", Father Michael Pfleger, the radical Catholic priest of Chicago's St Sabina Church, who mocked Hillary Clinton in racial terms in a sermon at Wright's church and physically threatened a Chicago gun store owner at a rally a few years back.
You might never have heard this tape also recorded at Wright's Trinity United Church :
"It's time to move on. It's like saying to a woman who's been repeatedly raped over, and over, and over, and over, over, and over,... You need to get over it. The HELL I do. Get the sucker who's been raping me and make him pay. Well America has been raping people of color and America has to pay the price. America has to pay the price for the rape. I dare you say get over it."
As for Wright, there is one little fact that has appeared on various blogs, but escaped attention from the general public. Remember when the Wright tapes first surfaced, and Obama claimed he had never been present during the more controversial sermons by the fiery preacher?
Cut now to Obama's first book, "Dreams of my Father", first published in 1995. The book never made a dent until it was re-published in 2004 subsequent to Obama's electrifying keynote address at the Democrat Convention.
In the book, Obama describes "The Audacity of Hope" speech by Wright, which he (Obama) borrowed for the title of his second book.
Obama quotes Pastor Wright as describing a world "where white folks' greed runs a world in need, apartheid in one hemisphere, apathy in another hemisphere. ... That's the world! On which hope sits."
And then,
"Reverend Wright spoke of Sharpsville and Hiroshima, the callousness of policymakers in the White House and in the State House."
Don't take my word for it. You can read it in Obama's book or hear it on tape. (a taped audio version of the book in Obama's voice is available.)
The point here is not to bring up another inflammatory statement by Wright. The point is that Obama wrote about these statements as far back as 1995. Then, during the campaign, he told us he never heard them.
John McCain may have decided not to bring up the issue of the "spiritual mentors" who Obama has associated with. It cannot, however, be shoved to the side and neglected as a legitimate issue as we choose our next president.
One of the reasons for Obama's astounding success, in my view, is the fact that so many millions of Americans desperately want to put our troubled racial history behind us. Most all of us do-including those of us who will vote for McCain. I, for one, have a hard time believing that any person who comes from this kind of church background is going to "bring us together."
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