State Department

20Aug/102

Remembering 9-11 & Ground Zero [UPDATED]

WND has a useful post up about some of the connections between Obama's pals and Imam Rauf. In reponse to the news that lots of people think Obama's a Muslim, the White House pushed back, saying that he's a Christian and prays daily. I'm personally of the camp that he's irreligous. He says he forgoes services so as not to inconvenience others, but he's willing to cause major traffic jams in LA to fund raise in Hollywood. His chief religious advisor, Jim Wallis, is in the pay of Soros, despite his claims to the contrary---a sort of "Christian" form of taqqiya, I suppose. Bad for the optics, presumably, is NYC's refusal to let a Greek Orthodox church destroyed on 9-11 rebuild. Cordoba Initiative's @Park51 Chief Twitterer Insultin' Oz Sultan should perhaps seek a job at a carnival booth.

Speaking of quotation marks, Mark Knoller yesterday informed us that a White House spokesperson commenting on the President's vacation to Martha's Vineyard (site of the last sighting of a live Passenger Pigeon, IIRC) said that they ought to be wrapped around any use of the word "vacation," because a President (by which he means this one) is never really on vacation. Later in the day, the AP issued some guidelines about how journalists shouldn't refer to the proposed mosque site as "Ground Zero." At least AP journalists are able to refer to it as a mosque, though I've been challenged on those grounds as well, by sympathizers who feel that they can defuse the issue by characterizing it instead as a cultural center. As Jim Treacher points out, that tends to weaken the argument that this is about religious liberties, of which many leftists are suddenly advocates. The best argument that it is a mosque is probably that that's the way the Cordoba Initiative refers to it. That's not to mention that on three occasions the State Department has paid for Imam Rauf to travel on their dime to fund raise abroad, despite the vaunted Separation of Church and State, which under other circumstances would raise liberal hackles. Apostate Walid Shoebat has a nice rundown on the Imam, and Andrew Cline considers our Lecturer-in-Chief, while Raymond Ibrahim considers the Muslims who regard resistance to the building of the Ground Zero Mosque a Zionist conspiracy. Related would be Issa's findings on Stimulus funds being laundered through unions exempt from disclosure laws used to propagandize for Obamaism and Democrats are being advised on how to spin Obamacare so as not to get their asses bitten again in 2012. Matthew Vadum also finds some "Green Shoots," but they happen to be ACORN.

I do appreciate Issa, but I wish he wouldn't talk about how he's going to use the subpoena power when he gets it. I think most people are focused at the moment on how to stem and reverse the enormous growth of government, first.

Regarding apostates, UCLA has seen fit to terminate the services of people who find themselves opposing AGW orthodoxy. Al Gore, meanwhile, is angry that the chance to ram through pseudoscientific laws regarding emissions, which would enrich him and other such worthies as Franklin Raines, has been lost, for the moment, and is urging people to take to the streets. His second chakra just can't seem to catch a break.

Also worth paying attention to is the strange story out of St. Louis regarding a supposed firebombing at a Russ Carnahan campaign office, in which the suspect was captured and released without being booked on charges. In London, a supposed hate crime against Muslims is also being questioned.

I'm not going to timing question Roger Clemens' indictment for lying to Congress. I'm just going to say that it's nice that Congress takes such an interest in America's deep concern with the Integrity of Professional Sports. Had he perjured himself under oath about something less important, such as sex with an intern, it wouldn't be such a big deal, because everybody does that, I'm told.

UPDATE: It's only a matter of time before I get Olbermann's coveted Worst Person in the World award.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Tagged as: Al Gore, apostasy, Congress, Ground Zero mosque, Imam Rauf, leftists, No Sheeples, Obama, professional sports, Roger Clemens, russ carnahan, State Department 2 Comments

5Nov/0917

Calamity in Honduras; Obama bus backs over Zelaya…

The Obama Bus

So here's another, and perhaps the final, chapter in the Obama-drama in Honduras.Â After essentially demanding that there beÂ some kind ofÂ avenue by which Zelaya could be returned to power, contingent on a determination by the same governmental bodies that legally removed him from office over the summer, the State Department has signaled that it really might not matter if that occurs, and that the US will unconditionally recognize the, previously declared unrecognizable, Honduran elections scheduled for the end of this month.

The U.S. has repeatedly pressed for Zelaya's reinstatement. President Barack Obama was explicit in a speech this summer: "America supports now the restoration of the democratically elected President of Honduras."

In Washington, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Wednesday that the United States considers what happened in Honduras a coup and that Zelaya should be reinstated, but he said the focus now should be on implementing last week's deal between the ousted president's representatives and the interim government of Roberto Micheletti.

Hold on with all of that "coup" talk Ian.Â Maybe that's what you and President Obama think, but the Congressional Research Service took a much different point of view in Spetember, finding that Zelaya was removed legally, in accordance with the Honduran Constitution.Â And anyway, your pronouncement has been superceded by someone above your pay grade.

Ousted President Manuel Zelaya is asking the Obama Administration why, after pressing for his reinstatement, it now says it will recognize upcoming Honduran elections even if he isn't returned to power first.

In a letter sent to the U.S. State Department on Wednesday, Zelaya asked Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton "to clarify to the Honduran people if the position condemning the coup d'etat has been changed or modified."

His request came after Washington's top envoy to Latin America, Thomas Shannon, told CNN en Espanol that Washington will recognize the Nov. 29 elections even if the Honduran Congress decides against returning Zelaya to power.

Clearly Zelaya hears the back-up alarm on the Obama bus beeping; my advice would be to move out of the way since far more intimate "allies" have ended up under that bus since Mr. Obama came on to the national scene.Â Â This whole embarrassing sequence of events has proven to underscore just how amateurish the administrations idea of SMART POWER! is in actuality.Â And not only that, but itÂ reveals all of the highminded talk about "not meddling in the affairs of other nations" to be hollow blather-"Just Words!"; and, a convenient excuse to vote "present" during the Iranian post election uprisings instead of strongly supporting freedom as Reagan did vis-a-vis Poland in the 1980's.

Thank goodness, in the end, the US is standing behind the free choice of the Honduran people.Â And Mr. Zelaya, enjoy your new office, along with the rest of the people that suddenly were "no longer the [insert name here] that I knew", under that bus!

Hugo Chavez could not be reached for comment...

(Graphic courtesy of radioactive liberty)