Obama On The Mosque - The Backpedaling Begins

I have an idea our President will love - maybe we can open an Islamic Waffle House in a building damaged in the 9/11 attacks.  Obama can be the first customer.

On Friday night President Obama explained tolerance and the Constitution to We The Rubes, drawing this headline from the Times:

Obama Strongly Backs Islam Center Near 9/11 Site

With uncanny prescience AllahPundt explained that the media was reporting on their fantasies, and that Obama was actually splitting the difference:

So what’s a poll-readin’ president to do? On the one hand, he’s at a Ramadan dinner and doesn’t want to alienate either the audience or his base. On the other hand, he’s staring at supermajority opposition to the mosque. Hey, I know: How about a statement that mostly dodges the question of whether it should be built in favor of the easier question of whether the owners have the right to build it? Not a Bloombergian lecture, in other words (unlike Bloomberg, Obama’s not a lame duck and thus can’t afford to wag his finger like The Enlightened so enjoy doing), but rather a pat on the back for free exercise and a pat on the back for the mosque’s opponents by acknowledging their “emotions.” He’s basically voting present. But since the media is pro-mosque too and eager to leverage authority on behalf of its position, this’ll be spun tomorrow as some sort of stirring statement in defense of the right to … alienate everyone around you, I guess, in the ostensible interests of “dialogue.”

And on cue, here is President Obama on Saturday, backpedaling from the media so quickly he might be the answer to the Jets Darrelle Revis problem:

Obama Says Mosque Upholds Principle of Equal Treatment

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

PANAMA CITY, Fla. — President Obama said on Saturday that in defending the right of Muslims to build a community center and mosque near Ground Zero he “was not commenting” on “the wisdom” of that particular project, but rather trying to uphold the broader principle that government should treat “everyone equal, regardless” of religion.

...White House officials said earlier in the day that Mr. Obama was not trying to promote the project, but rather sought more broadly to make a statement about freedom of religion and American values. “In this country we treat everybody equally and in accordance with the law, regardless of race, regardless of religion,” Mr. Obama said at the Coast Guard station. “I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding. That’s what our country is about.

“And I think it’s very important as difficult as some of these issues are that we stay focused on who we are as a people and what our values are all about.”

That was quick.  Gutless, but quick.

Just to reassure us that they weren't reporting from a dream state, the Times runs a paragraph citing those pesky aides.  Here we go:

Aides to Mr. Obama say privately that he has always felt strongly about the proposed community center and mosque, but the White House did not want to weigh in until local authorities made a decision on the proposal, planned for two blocks from the site of the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center.

So to be clear - the President has always felt strongly that he has no comment "on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there", but he wants to remind us all to read the Constitution.  My goodness, since many people (but not Krauthammer!) are arguing the wisdom rather than the legality, I guess we can score this as Obama 1, Strawmen 0.

NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU DON'T:

Lib cheerleader Greg Sargent:

One of the finest moments of Obama's presidency

A few quick thoughts about Obama's forceful speech yesterday expressing strong support for Cordoba House, which will go down as one of the finest moments of his presidency.

Obama didn't just stand up for the legal right of the group to build the Islamic center. He voiced powerful support for their moral right to do so as well, casting it as central to American identity. This is a critical point, and it goes to the the essence of why his speech was so commendable.

Many opponents of the project have been employing a clever little dodge. They say they don't question the group's legal right to build it under the Constitution. Rather, they say, they're merely criticizing the group's decision to do so, on the grounds that it's insensitive to 9/11 families and will undercut the project's goal of reconciliation. The group has the right to build the center, runs this argument, but they are wrong to exercise it. In response, Obama could have merely cast this dispute as a Constitutional issue, talked about how important it is to hew to that hallowed document, and moved on.

...this couldn't have come at a better time for Obama. His core supporters, frustrated, were badly in need of a display of presidential spine. They got one.

Ben Smith, post-clarification:

Obama narrows mosque defense

Speaking to reporters today, President Obama drew a sharp line under his comments last night, insisting that his defense of the right to build a mosque does not mean he supports the project.

"I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding," he said.

...Obama's new remarks, literally speaking, re-open the question of which side he's on. Most of the mosque's foes recognize the legal right to build, and have asked the builders to reconsider.

It looks like Obama's finest hour lasted roughly an hour.

THEY CALL HIM DON...

Don Surber quotes Sarah Palin ("no, this is not above your pay grade") and works in a Four Season song.  Donnie, Donnie, Donnie, you'll never know...

GREAT MOMENTS IN THEOLOGY:

Obama's Big Finish on Friday night:

For in the end, we remain “one nation, under God, indivisible.”  And we can only achieve “liberty and justice for all” if we live by that one rule at the heart of every great religion, including Islam —- that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us.

Is the the Golden Rule really part of Islam?  Over to Wikipedia, our go-to source for liberal group-think, which gives us the thumbs-up:

Islam

See also: Islam

Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you.

—Muhammad, The Farewell Sermon

OK, let's check that Farewell Sermon:

O People, just as you regard this month, this day, this city as Sacred, so regard the life and property of every Muslim as a sacred trust. Return the goods entrusted to you to their rightful owners. Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you.

Wait, the life and property of "every Muslim" is a sacred trust"?  But I'm not Muslim!

IN THE NEXT CLARIFICATION...

What's next - Obama explaining that his speechwriters acted stupidly?  His Friday night speech was not some off-the-cuff answer that went awry.  He and his sppechwriters thought about this, one presumes.

Comments

[the bank is laughing all the way to the bank]

I prefer that you give the children here entertainment that aspires to their tastes.

Like Michelle's Spanish vacation, or comments on photoshopped butt pics.

It's unkind to expect them to rise to the challenge of nuance.

They prefer racial jokes.

[centralcal]

Guess the WH read Memeorandum this morning and went "uh oh."

Poor Ben at Politico, he is so depressed.

[Jane]

I'm depressed too, and I'm on the right side.

[the bank is laughing all the way to the bank]

If you want to attract a sophisticated audience, you should put up posts on witty double entendres about fiscal conservatives and testicle sucking. But that's only if you want grownups like me to enjoy the site.

I'm a big boy. Mommy tells me so when she's giving me a bath.

[Rick Ballard]

Geez - just picture BOzo on a unicycle pedaling back and forth in front of the Barack Hussein Obama Muslim Victory Mosque. This isn't the last time he's going to try and throw himself under the bus prior to the arrival of the November Express.

[Extraneus]

If you watch the video, his attitude said a lot more than his words.

[Tea-Baggers s*ck]

"testicle sucking"

The only sucking in "Tea-Bagger" is the oral attachment and sucking sound as you piggy=back on the great unwashed masses whose primary link to the movement is being 'pissed-off' about being a white minority.

You Tea-Baggers espouse unity , but if you ever gained status in the political arena, you wouldn't agree on much of anything.

Your governance would be similar to The unified Arab government T.E. Lawrence dreamed of. Then he gave them Damascus.
The rest is History.

[Danube of Thought]

I guess the question of the project's wisdom is a local issue.

[cathyf]

I posted it near the end of yesterday's thread -- I think that Ground Zero needs to be the location of the Patriot Guard's only permanent Honor Guard.

Maybe even some sort of permanent memorial. I vote for a line of life-sized statues of ordinary patriot guard members, with flag poles and flags, lined up on the public side of the sidewalk surrounding the mosque.

[centralcal]

Drudge has a picture of Obama up that is just priceless!

[I put the s*ck in sophistickated]

My side gets its strength through unity. Yesterday we all agreed with the President that the mosque was a good idea. Today we all agree with the President that it's beside the point whether it's a good idea or not.

Your side just has one disagreement after another. How do you know what's right if you don't listen to the people in charge telling you what to do?

[Extraneus]

This isn't the last time he's going to try and throw himself under the bus prior to the arrival of the November Express.

Especially if he can claim it was the bigots who won the day. Not good Americans, or people opposed to his policies, but racist bigots who were incensed by a black man winning the presidency, and took it out on the poor Democrats.

[Wall Street Hump]

I don't care what's right or good, unless it's right and good for me

[Danube of Thought]

Good God--the poor sap who wrote this slobbering piece in the WaPo must feel like Obama has pulled the rug out.

Sample:

Many opponents of the project have been employing a clever little dodge. They say they don't question the group's legal right to build it under the Constitution. Rather, they say, they're merely criticizing the group's decision to do so, on the grounds that it's insensitive to 9/11 families and will undercut the project's goal of reconciliation. The group has the right to build the center, runs this argument, but they are wrong to exercise it. In response, Obama could have merely cast this dispute as a Constitutional issue, talked about how important it is to hew to that hallowed document, and moved on.

But Obama went much further than that. He asserted that we must "welcome" and "respect" those of other faiths, suggesting that the group behind the center deserves the same, and said flat out that anything less is un-American:

[Dick Armey]

"Obama went much further than that. He asserted that we must "welcome" and "respect" those of other faiths, suggesting that the group behind the center deserves the same, and said flat out that anything less is un-American"

Imagine that. He must be crazy.

[bgates]

DoT, that's superb.

[Michelle Bachman]

I think the objection is connected to;

"we must"

No black man is gonna tell us what to do.

[Ranger]

“I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there,”

Of course he wasn't.

But he was perfecly willing to comment on the wisdom of the Cambridge PD.

Come on Barry, tell us what you really think of the wisdom of this project.

[I Won]

I'll cling to my religion as much I want. Allahu Akbar.

[mb]

maybe he really doesn't read polls. Only an idiot who reads polls would have made such stupid comments in the first place.

[Frau Edith Steingehirn]

Time was, we had Sat.Night Bill and Sunday Morning Bill. Now we get Barry "I'm of two minds.Maybe.Take your pick." Obama.

JOM is so infested, I was forced to go look at Troll beads. TM must really upset progdom.

[Rick Ballard]

"TM must really upset progdom."

Nah - it's the humming from the tracks. Even the tiny pea brain of a prog can sense impending annihilation. It's probably responsible for a good part of BOzo's increasing dysfunction as well. After all, he is tied to the tracks.

[Frau Edith Steingehirn]

WaPo commenter:
"Wow... talk about exceeding expectations. When this president is at his best, which he clearly was here, it's hard to imagine anyone being better.
This reminds of his case for direct diplomacy during the primary, though this is arguably even more gutsy.
...
Barack Obama with a pronounced backbone... it's a dream scenario for Democrats."

Avoid the comments unless you like flashbacks to Nick Berg.

[mockmook]

How about just designating the whole area a "National Battlefield" (no mosque allowed)?

The Federal government never seems shy about taking property for much less worthy reasons.

Guess we will have to wait for President Palin to do it.

[Clarice]

I think the Axelrod serfs have hitched up with the CAIR peasants.

[Danube of Thought]

“I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there,”

Don't we expect leaders to do precisely that?

[Captain Hate]

LOL DoT; right now Tiger is closer to leading the PGA than Preznit Present is to leading the country.

[bgates]

talk about exceeding expectations

That's a still-generous summary of this Presidency: Talk, about 'exceeding expectations'.

[Eli]

Crack Lady keeping cool. Just kidding about the drugs. It was rock salt. Sorry, but I'm sure you had the time.

[thorp]

Will union labor actually build that thing?

[daddy the wanna' be heretic]

He's for it--he's agin' it---he's maybe for it--- but not really---Darn, perhaps our confused President needs to talk to a shrink.

I think there's an Army psychiatrist in Fort Hood Texas who might be able to help Obama straighten out his thinking on this matter. Here's the guys ">http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200911/r469815_2346238.jpg"> mugshot.

[Ignatz]

--Barack Obama with a pronounced backbone... it's a dream scenario for Democrats--

I think it's actually pronounced "wet noodle".
He has such a rigid spine he's already backpedalling from his "arguably more gutsy" call.
How come I never find peabrains like this to play poker with?

[Frau Edith Steingehirn]

Is the teleprompter already on vacation? The NYT waits until the last paragraph to come up with what FavreauObama missed: Mohamed Haroun, an intern at a mechanical engineering firm, said, “What he (Pres. Barry) should have said was: ‘This is a community decision. Constitutionally, they have the right to do it, but it’s a community decision and we should see what the local community wants to do.’"

[daddy the wanna' be heretic]

Frau,

That sort of thinking is called common sense. It's banned in this Administration.

[eaglewingz08]

I guess this is another issue that's above Obama's pay grade. Too bad he didn't treat Arizona's laws as beyond federal comment and action.

[Frau Edith Steingehirn]

Non-sense is what I see in the Administration, daddy.

Mystery solved. The teleprompter was practicing in Panama City in *advance* of Barry's mini-vacation in FL. The photos of him with sleeves rolled up for "work" are always worth a smile.
LUN

[Jane]

Your psychiatrist continues to collect a paycheck daddy, as I'm sure you know. Even tho he can't get anyone to cash it, it really pisses me off.

[streetfalls]

O is perfecting his trading with Pakistan. He was for that whole NATO AFPak thing, so what did you expect when he got mad and left.

China is next, but he already helped with the guaranteed loans.

He hired more federal employees so he does what he wants. America won't understand until they're broke that it's all about government jobs and you ignored it, like you ignored the making. Not paying a government employee is like an abduction. 52% need to be layed off.

[Jim Ryan]

Found:

Obama's surpassing talent has been his ability to dissimulate and impersonate judiciousness, intelligence, reason. He has a second talent, too: well-styled and totally shameless demagoguery. It is the latter packaged within the former that makes him so dangerous.

But people see through pseudo-intelligence after a while, and Obama's time is up.

[Captain Hate]

With all the "interesting" new commentors here I was kind of expecting a TCO drive-by so I could get his opinion of the first game in the Shanahan era. I'm sure he's doing his best to change his IP address and coming up with about his 20th alias at Extremeskins following 19 permanent bannings.

[narciso]

So he was caught 'acting stupidly' again, what
a big surprise. Speaking of which Blow warbled
something more incoherent then usual today

[Extraneus]

That's some LUN you have there, narciso.

[Rick Ballard]

Jim Ryan,

I wonder if we're seeing the Obama's version of Home Alone. The pure stupidity involved in both their decisions over the past few weeks suggests that they are now operating solely on the basis of their own barely adequate intellects. We know about Romer jumping from the sinking ship but I'm wondering who else has gone quietly over the side at the dark of the moon.

My only concern is that those who wish us ill are realizing that "he can't possibly be that stupid" was incorrect as a basis upon which to plan and proceed.

[PD]

But he was perfecly willing to comment on the wisdom of the Cambridge PD.

Hey, now.

He did so only after judiciously informing himself just as well as he did before commenting on the AZ immigration law.

[doc]

It's hard to believe he could manage it, but Obama may have hit a new peak level of political ineptitude in his statements on the mosque. You have an issue where 70% of the country is one side. So you make a statement that infuriates that 70%.

His core supporters (ie the liberal media) hails the statement for its political courage. Then he backpedals like crazy, leaving Glenn Greenwald and the rest of them looking like idiots.

The final result is that he's now got close to 100% of the country mad at him on this issue. I wouldn't have thought it was possible to pull this off.

Obama might be the least skillfull politician in American history.

[narciso]

"Just when you thought it was safe to back into the water," for him I mean, in the LUN

[Frau Edith Steingehirn]

Must be time for a new crisis.

[Clarice]

Rick, I suppose we can count on the dynamic duo ti figure out how to keep bespattering themselves, but just in case, perhaps we ought to come up with suggestions. It's not everyday one can come up with something that hits all the bases like the mosque fiasco did.

[Extraneus]

Court says California mall's chat policy illegal

The mall prohibited people in its common areas from approaching people they didn't know to talk unless the conversation was about business involving the mall or its tenants. The case arose after mall officials issued a citizen's arrest of a 27-year-old pastor who tried to talk about his faith.

What would Obama say?

[narciso]

Yes he left them, high and dry DoT, the question is, has Sargent ever gotten anything
right since he left the New York Observer

[Extraneus]

He should at least make a statement.

[Rick Ballard]

Clarice,

Midnight sail off of Nantucket on Kerry's Taxes Are For Little People? Press conference at Martha's Vinyard focusing on the plight of the newly homeless?

There's really nothing off the table, is there? There is nothing so stupid that it would be inconceivable that the President of the United States (God save us all) would actually say or do.

[Jim Ryan]

Rick, by Jove I think your Home Alone theory makes sense.

[Ignatz]

Excellent synopsis, doc.

[Clarice]

Good suggestions, Rick. Now we need to figure out the best way to plant these notions. Take Jarrett to lunch? Toss them in which the fed ex spandex superduper containment garments shipment to the Vineyard?

[Clarice]

**WITH the ed ex****

[MarkJ]

I used to think Obama was the Anti-Christ.

However, I can now confidently state that Obama is NOT the Anti-Christ.

Why?

Because the Anti-Christ would never say something a politically bone-headed as Obama did in his remarks about the mosque.

Never.

[narciso]

No, they come up with this on their own, dissing law enforcement, removing 'all doubt' you have any understanding of doctors, vacationing all through out the land while
the Gulf get a dark tint to it, during a
deep recession, and this last instance,

[Pops]

So can we assume Obama and the left all support the Westboro Baptist Church building a Church and Community Center next to Arlington National Cemetery??

I just don't seem to recall all the talk about the Constitution when it came to the Westboro Baptist Church. Perhaps I missed something and it was the Baptists that destroyed the World Trade Center..

[Janet]

Obama might be the least skillfull politician in American history.

It is bound to be so because the MFM told us he WAS a skillful politician! Ha! Absolutely everything is a fraud...

[Pops]

Speaking of tolerance...is it Muslim tolerance that causes the number of Jewish Synagogues and Christian churches to be diminshing to near ZERO throughout the Middle East??

It is official policy in most of those countries to harass and pressure Christian and Jewish organizations to get out or die.

[Rob Crawford]

So can we assume Obama and the left all support the Westboro Baptist Church building a Church and Community Center next to Arlington National Cemetery??

Certainly -- the folks at Westboro are loyal, life-long Democrats.

[Extraneus]

Let's not forget the nose-in-the-air delivery of the original statement. Nor the knowing nods, the "like everyone ELSE," emphasis, etc.

Video

If I didn't know better, I'd have thought that when he said "We must all understand and respect the sensitivities surrounding the development of lower Manhattan" to the audience, it wasn't because they were all Americans.

[MaryD]

Please pardon my stupidity, but what the heck does the Drudge headline 'as-salamu alaykum' mean? Thanks to anyone who can translate.

[Clarice]

LOL..The feckless greg sargent does a 180.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/08/did_obama_walk_back_his_suppor.html>180

[Jim Ryan]

Not even a cunning triangulator, he's only good at dissimulating to a target audience in order to get the gullible amongst them to like him and support him without knowing why and only for the moment. He hasn't the intellect or the wiliness to lead people who disagree with each other along a path which will be good for himself, let alone for them. He hasn't thought through the various conflicting political and philosophical points of view well enough to fashion a passably coherent political philosophy, let alone one that can garner wide support.

He is a semblance of a leader. This is the role to which the power-hungry who lack brains are relegated. It's a show which ends when the hook comes out from off-stage and drags him off. There are brainier sorts who are also relegated to this role, such as Bill Clinton. They are sometimes able to see that what's good for them often lies in what's good for the country, and they are able to last a little longer on the stage. The dimmer bulbs, like Obama, simply have no clue and can only continue to act smart, which is all they've ever known how to do.

[narciso]

Clarice, was that your comment at the end of that piece, I would almost feel sorry for the
schlub, then again

[Jane]

I love seeing the Greg Sargeants of the world twist themselves into a pretzel. It's greatSaturday night entertainment.

[Clarice]

Not saying, narciso..HEH

[Clarice]

How stupid are the Post's editors? How stupid do they think we are to publish this kind of dreck by these hacks day after day after day?

[Janet]

He is a semblance of a leader.

So true Jim. An actor whose script writers have run out of ideas & are just winging it. He is left standin' there on the stage with nothing coherent to say...um...er..um.

[jorod]

Just another reason to vote against Obama.

[Janet]

and Jim, I loved your comment on the other long thread..."Well, I marked him as a first-class asshole well before he won his primary. Those of us who can't stand his voice and have to turn off the radio when he comes on - we knew all along."

We knew all along. Amen.

[narciso]

Well when you hire from the nutroots, (Klein,
Sargeant, Weigel) what kind of result are you
likely to get

[Rick Ballard]

Jim Ryan,

Chance the Gardener has always been known to be a simulacrum by the right, just as you detail. The prog puppet masters know that his utility is at an end and that the bathos of this farce is going to cost them dearly. I wonder if he is fully prepared for the role of Corn King? I lean towards him wanting to be a kamikaze pilot with a 25 mission pin.

[Stephanie]

The mental gymnastics required to perform these maneuvers are gold medal worthy. Too bad the Olympics didn't pick Chicago.

On second thought, nevermind!!! I don't want to contemplate any of these guys in the "required uniform."

[Ann Mongrel]

This is from the Weekly Standard blog:

Update by John McCormack (6:45 p.m.): White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton tells Politico:

Just to be clear, the President is not backing off in any way from the comments he made last night.

It is not his role as President to pass judgment on every local project. But it is his responsibility to stand up for the Constitutional principle of religious freedom and equal treatment for all Americans.

What he said last night, and reaffirmed today, is that if a church, a synagogue or a Hindu temple can be built on a site, you simply cannot deny that right to those who want to build a Mosque. The World Trade Center site is hallowed ground, where 3,000 Americans -- Catholics, Protestants, Jews and Muslims -- were the victims of a cold-blooded massacre. We are still at war with the small band of terrorists who planned and executed that attack.

But that does not give government the right to deny law-abiding Americans of one faith the same rights you would accord anyone else.

Well, glad to see we've cleared everything up then. Best comment so far comes from Rick Wilson on Twitter: "It's a double walkback with a triple-Lutz spin."

[maryrose]

Jim Ryan and Rick:
An excellent summation on the latest Obama Gaffe!I remember thinking at the time "what is this idiot doing and then caught him down in the Florida region Recanting! He really did nullify his statement because it truly was so over the top and so None of his business. We don;t need this fop weighing in on every aspect of our lives. He needs to make a case for keeping the tax cuts and restoring our economy before we double dip. Joe Kernan on Squawk Box must not have heeded Immelt 's warning to go easy on Obama because he bashes his economic strategy everyday.

[unseen]

We should blow up a couple of buildings in Mecca and then buy the land and build a church. All in the name of religious unity.

[Clarice]

Love that--"It's a double walkback with a triple-Lutz spin."
Absolutely marvelous.

[Bill in AZ sez it's time for Zero to resign]

Obama's surpassing talent has been his ability to dissimulate and impersonate judiciousness, intelligence, reason.

Seriously!!?? Seriously??!!
The lone electron traveling the vast wasteland of cocaine addled synapses until it accidentally grazes a barely functioning one to create an incoherent thought - translates into that statement?? It could only be a similarly cocaine addled journalista who could come up with that.

[Janet]

But it is his responsibility to stand up for the Constitutional principle of religious freedom and equal treatment for all Americans.

See, that's the problem. When have leftists ever stood up for religious freedom & equal treatment? They are all about suing and dismantling any organizations with a Christian component. And equal treatment is a joke...with affirmative action, hate crime legislation, the endless gender, color, ethnic, & sexual orientation grievance business.

[TheMusilin]

"Obama might be the least skillfull politician in American history."

But he is so smart and intelligent, says the lame stream media.

[Larry Sheldon]

What is the4 big deal?

The lying sack of......The person who as demonstrated a lack of respect for any of our core values, among them Truth and Honesty, tells the rubes what he thinks the want to hear.

He tells the Frisco swells about the gun-loving bible-thumpers, the goes east and tells THOSE folks about....hell I can't keep track of what he tells who.

[Ann Mongrel]

Janet:

I think you will like what Don Surber has to say:

We have been lectured that we should not feel anger, that we should be nicer to Muslims, that we should not profile possible terrorists at airports and instead harass everyone, that journalists should not wear lapel pins, that we should not be too harsh on the cutthroats at Gitmo, that we must try our soldiers in military court and their soldiers in civilian courts, that we must Mirandize terrorists, that we must honor Muslim holidays in school but we must take Christ out of Christmas, and now that we must allow the city of New York’s government to waive zoning law in order to speed up construction of a mosque funded by the homeland of Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers.

At some point, the American people reach a breaking point.

We may reach that on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 when there still is no one-foot–taller trade center but there is a mosque.

EVIL.

[PD]

Cheer up, fans of Michelle's fashions. A new storyline we have to look forward to:

Sasha Obama: Style Icon

I know you're as thrilled as I am.

[Janet]

I DO like it Ann. I guess I haven't been too good at keeping my views & opinions hidden. :)

[bgates]

Sasha Obama: Style Icon

I won't care if the nation's fashion community is run by a nine year old.

It's having the media, diplomatic, and financial communities run by nine year olds that bothers me.

[PD]

I was thinking more of the aspect of having our media betters fawning over another Obama until we're sick to death of it. This story is less about Sasha than the gag-me-with-a-spoon quality of the stories and their writers.

[RichatUF]

Rick-

In re: the election. Have you seen any good polling because I wondering if it might be a bigger disaster in that down-the-ballot races at the state level will become important in re-districting. Pretty sure that the Census and elections are going to end up in court though.

Jim R.-

Ledeen did a great piece in the late 1990's calling Bill Clinton an indolent prince. It is to kind for Obama.

[Ann Mongrel]

If you took that statement of Burton and took out religious freedom:

"But it is his responsibility to stand up for the Constitutional principle of religious freedom and equal treatment for all Americans.

and inserted numerous other rights like the fourteenth amendment that does not give anchor babies the right to citizenship you would have one heck of a speech for Palin.

Come on bgates, I know you can! Think about immigration, civil rights, DOMA, border security, treason.....

[BR]

Frau, great that you've forwarded the Runawayslavemovie.com link. LUN.

I've been listening to the underground grapevine rap stations, so vibrant and alive, more melodic and uplifting than ever before. The drums of the African "bush telegraph" are beating a new message.

OldTimer, the message of that video is not only going viral, it's going "intergalactic"! I'm quoting snippets as I'm listening -- "the party's elsewhere," "changing party," "paradigm shift" (actual words in a variety of rap songs, and the latter phrase also in the Runawayslavemovie text).

And this one could be its soundtrack:
I'm Not Afraid, lyrics by ?.

"I'm not afraid to take a stand...
We'll walk this road together through the storm
Whatever weather, cold or warm...
Just lettin' you know that you're not alone...

I shouldn't have to rhyme these words
for you to know it's a rap
You said you was king, you lied through your teeth
For that, f--- your fillings, instead of gettin' crowned you're gettin' capped..."

You have to listen to it for the full impact. I can see it - people in their cars all over the country honking their horns to this beat and singing along.

It's inspiring me to do my own topless voodoo dance in my kitchen on my black sheepskin, rapping: take a stand, honk the honky out!

[Ann Mongrel]

Sasha Obama: Style Icon

Yes, she gets it from her mother.

I would say that is some of my best work. :)

[maryrose]

Is any smart forward thinking person really buying all this spin from Obama and the progs? If so we are in a lot more trouble than I thought we were. We need to lose the dem majority and this faux president fast.

[RichatUF]

maryrose-

"Recovery Summer"? The economic braintrust really goofed on that. They all must have believed every word that the Reagan boom had nothing to do with Reagan and that the recovery would look like 83-84 just because of the depth of the 07-08 crisis.

He still has the media on his side though, and I'm skeptical of the "wipe out" scenario (60+ seats House and 10 Senate). I suppose it's possible, but the campaigns have hardly begun and GOP never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

[Rick Ballard]

Rich,

I've seen very little low level polling yet. You can sort of get a feel by looking at governor's races and the Dems are going to take the same sort of shellacking there as they are in the House. I'm certain that a number of redistricting plans will wind up in court but I would be willing to bet that 8 - 16 House seats will be shifted to Republican safe by '12. Texas and Florida by themselves will take care of half of the changes.

The dying Blue Hells will fight viciously over the scraps but impending insolvency is going to be the biggest pot on the front burner for them. This isn't going to be a "regular" election any more than the current recession is a "normal cyclical business event".

[Ann Mongrel]

Michael Yon tweet:

Ground Zero Mosque: A significant error A terrorist pilgrimage site should not be built at ground zero. Speaking...Little Girl

[Porchlight]

but what the heck does the Drudge headline 'as-salamu alaykum' mean?

I believe it is an Arabic greeting, MaryO. According to Wiki it means "peace be upon you."

[Porchlight]

I would forgive Michelle a lot, fashion-wise, if she would only stand up straight and square her shoulders and try to achieve something resembling a ladylike posture.

[Ignatz]

--So can we assume Obama and the left all support the Westboro Baptist Church building a Church and Community Center next to Arlington National Cemetery??--

No frickin way. Those Westboro nuts believe in stoning homosexuals and they call the Iraq war criminal just like mosle.....
Hey wait a minute.