Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

OBAMA SLAMS EVANGELICAL HISPANICS

Zachary Evans - Obama Claims Evangelical Latinos Disregarded Trump's Racism Because of View on 'Abortion,' 'Gay Marriage

Maybe Obama suffers from a bad conscience.   Giancarlo Sopo, the Trump campaign’s director of rapid response for Spanish media, disputed Obama’s claim.

“Our Hispanic advertising and communications largely focused on economic issues, public safety, Latin America, and socialism,” Sopo wrote in an email to National Review. “We never ran a single ad that even mentioned gay marriage, and while our surrogates did address abortion in media appearances, our only advertising on the topic was limited to a modest radio buy in New Mexico. ”

       Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.), criticized Obama’s comments as “condescending.”

Ah yes, those Hispanic evangelicals. So backwards. Clinging to their guns and religion, you might say. Barack Obama still the most condescending corporate liberal in America https://t.co/IqUdbx5FB7     — Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) November 25, 2020

 Nick Arama also writes on Obama slaming evangelical Hispanics

        The article does well to quote Allie Beth Stuckey's reply:

Obama demeaning Hispanic evangelical voters for their marriage/abortion views is so classically Obama. Always presenting himself as the uniter while smugly condescending those who disagree with him. Give me Trump’s bombastic tweets over Obama’s smooth cruelty any day.   — Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) November 25, 2020

OBAMA SCHEMES TO SABOTAGE TRUMP'S PRESIDENCY

If Paul Sperry (writing in today's New York Post) is right, the United States remains subject to the tentacles of a failed and discredited Obama who has put in motion an apparatus to torpedo Trump's vision of an "America First" presidency.  (HT: Drudge)  Quite maddening!  Other presidents don't fight their successors!  Sperry writes:

When former President Barack Obama said he was “heartened” by anti-Trump protests, he was sending a message of approval to his troops. Troops? Yes, Obama has an army of agitators — numbering more than 30,000 — who will fight his Republican successor at every turn of his historic presidency. And Obama will command them from a bunker less than two miles from the White House.

In what’s shaping up to be a highly unusual post-presidency, Obama isn’t just staying behind in Washington. He’s working behind the scenes to set up what will effectively be a shadow government to not only protect his threatened legacy, but to sabotage the incoming administration and its popular “America First” agenda.

CARTOON

DAVID LIMBAUGH ON OBAMA'S RELIGIOUS FAITH

Limbaugh writes (my bolding)

. . . . I see no point in raising Obama’s Christianity anymore, but the media are forcing it. Forgive me for not falling all over myself to affirm Obama’s Christianity. It’s true we can’t know for sure what’s in a person’s heart, but we can observe his statements and behavior. Obama’s assertions mean little to me these days. He emphatically asserted not too long ago that he believed marriage should be between a man and a woman. He told us we could keep our doctors and insurance plans when he knew that wouldn’t be true. This is not a man with a track record of authenticity. And he is not a person who has shown any allegiance to Christian values.

For 20 years, he attended Wright’s church, where black liberation theology and anti-Americanism were preached with abandon. It shouldn’t shock you – as I’ve said before – that Wright’s church was more race- and Marxist-oriented than Christ-centered.

Additionally, throughout his presidency, Obama has gone out of his way to belittle Christianity. He demeaned “bitter” Midwesterners who “cling to guns or religion.” He mocked Scripture by saying: “Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is OK and that eating shellfish is an abomination? Or we could go with Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith.” It’s hard for me to believe that any God-fearing person would ridicule God’s Word like this.'

Obama likened the Christian Crusades to present-day Islamic terrorism. He trampled the conscience rights of Christians when he forced employers to provide abortion-inducing drugs under their Obamacare health plans. He invited a host of anti-traditional Catholics to the White House to meet Pope Francis. He paved the way for the Supreme Court’s fiat legalizing same-sex marriage, knowing that it would lead to further assaults on Christians’ religious liberty.

He has taken Christmas themes out of White House Christmas cards, has removed references to religion from his Thanksgiving speeches, has omitted “the Creator” when quoting from the Declaration of Independence, supports abortion on demand and protects the abortion factory Planned Parenthood. His administration has sought funding for all kinds of sexual education but not those reflecting traditional values.

Obama has also shown preferential treatment toward Islam, from apologies for the U.S. military’s accidental burning of Qurans to blocking Middle Eastern Christians’ access to the White House, effusively praising Islam and overstating its role in America’s heritage, supporting the building of a mosque at Ground Zero, refusing to attribute terrorist attacks to radical Islam, rewriting government documents to remove terms potentially offensive to Muslims, such as “jihad” and “radical Islam,” turning NASA into a Muslim outreach effort, labeling the Fort Hood shootings “workplace violence,” and so much more.

If you want to see whether Obama embraces the precepts of the Christian faith, research the many curious statements he’s made on the subject. . . .

QUICK TAKES

**  Dr. Ben Carson - "the 'Black Lives Matter' Misfire"  

I grew up in neighborhoods most Americans were told to never drive through. I saw bullets, drugs and death in the same places I played tag and ball with my friends. Both of my older cousins died on the streets where I lived. I thought that was my destiny.

But my mother didn't. She changed all of that. She saved my brother and me from being killed on those streets with nothing but a library card.

My mother knew what the problems were and she shielded me and my brother from them. I can tell you she wasn't worried about Socialist senators from tiny rural states. "BlackLivesmatter" could learn from her to focus on the real sources of our hopelessness.

This is where we should march:  [more. . .]

** Jay Nordlinger:

The maker, or makers, of those Planned Parenthood videos? I think they should win every award under the conservative sun. Under the human sun, actually. They’ve done a tremendous service. Harriet Beecher Stowe, with a novel, rocked the conscience of America. These videos should do something similar, if the American conscience is open to rocking.

** Koch blasts Obama-

Charles Koch hit back at criticism of “the Koch brothers” during President Barack Obama’s energy speech in Las Vegas earlier this week, saying he was “flabbergasted” by the attack and charging that Obama made the dig as a favor to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who appeared with him.

“It’s beneath the president, the dignity of the president, to be doing that,” Koch said during a phone interview Tuesday.

**  M.B. Dougherty - The kids are not all right: The bleak future of the millennial generation

Millennials marry much later. Just 26 percent of younger millennials (18-29) are married. At that same age, 36 percent of Gen Xers, 48 percent of Baby Boomers, and 65 percent of the Silent Generation had married. And that's if millennials get married at all. Pew's research suggests that about 25 percent of those between the ages of 25 and 34 will remain unmarried. That's higher than previous generations.

OBAMA'S "HO-HUM" ATTITUDE TOWARD W0RLDWIDE KILLING OF CHRISTIANS

Kirsten Powers distinguishes herself as being one of the few reporters willing to report on the massacre of Christians worldwide and Obama's "ho-hum" attitude. Powers writes in USA Today:

What do you call it when 12 men are drowned at sea for praying to Jesus?

Answer: Religious persecution.

Yet, when a throng of Muslims threw a dozen Christians overboard a migrant ship traveling from Libya to Italy, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi missed the opportunity to label it as such. Standing next to President Obama at their joint news conference Friday, Renzi dismissed it as a one-off event and said, "The problem is not a problem of (a) clash of religions."

While the prime minister plunged his head into the sand, Italian authorities arrested and charged the Muslim migrants with "multiple aggravated murder motivated by religious hate," according to the BBC.

As Renzi was questioned about the incident, Obama was mute on the killings. He failed to interject any sense of outrage or even tepid concern for the targeting of Christians for their faith. If a Christian mob on a ship bound for Italy threw 12 Muslims to their death for praying to Allah, does anyone think the president would have been so disinterested? When three North Carolina Muslims were gunned down by a virulent atheist, Obama rightly spoke out against the horrifying killings. But he just can't seem to find any passion for the mass persecution of Middle Eastern Christians or the eradication of Christianity from its birthplace.

Religious persecution of Christians is rampant worldwide, as Pew has noted, but nowhere is it more prevalent than in the Middle East and Northern Africa, where followers of Jesus are the targets of religious cleansing. Pope Francis has repeatedly decried the persecution and begged the world for help, but it has had little impact. Western leaders — including Obama — will be remembered for their near silence as this human rights tragedy unfolded. The president's mumblings about the atrocities visited upon Christians (usually extracted after public outcry over his silence) are few and far between. And it will be hard to forget his lecturing of Christians at the National Prayer Breakfast about the centuries-old Crusades while Middle Eastern Christianswere at that moment being harassed, driven from their homes, tortured and murdered for their faith.

A week and a half after Obama's National Prayer Breakfast speech, 21 Coptic Christians were beheaded for being "people of the cross." Seven of the victims were former students of my friend and hero "Mama" Maggie Gobran, known as the "Mother Theresa of Cairo" for her work with the poorest of the poor. She told me these dear men grew up in rural Upper Egypt and had gone to Libya seeking work to support their families. They died with dignity as they called out to their God, while the cowardly murderers masked their faces.

Rather than hectoring Christians about their ancestors' misdeeds, Obama should honor these men and the countless Middle Eastern Christians persecuted before them.

Monday, there was more horrifying news: ISIL terrorists released a video purporting to show more religiously motivated killing. According to CNN, before beheading and shooting two groups of Christians in Libya, a speaker said, "The Islamic State has offered the Christian community (the opportunity to convert to Islam or pay a tax for being Christian) many times and set a deadline for this, but the Christians never cooperated."

So they kill them.

Indeed, let's talk more about the Crusades.

Kirsten Powers writes weekly for USA TODAY and is author of the upcoming The Silencing: How the Left is Killing Free Speech

In addition to its own editorials, USA TODAY publishes diverse opinions from outside writers, including our Board of Contributors. To read more columns like this, go to the Opinion front page.

LOOK OUT ISRAEL: OBAMA IS GUNNING FOR YOU

Michael Godwin offers a useful summary of Obama's "accomplishments" and warns Israel is next:

First he comes for the banks and health care, uses the IRS to go after critics, politicizes the Justice Department, spies on journalists, tries to curb religious freedom, slashes the military, throws open the borders, doubles the debt and nationalizes the Internet.

He lies to the public, ignores the Constitution, inflames race relations and urges Latinos to punish Republican “enemies.” He abandons our ­allies, appeases tyrants, coddles ­adversaries and uses the Crusades as an excuse for inaction as Islamist terrorists slaughter their way across the Mideast.

Now he’s coming for Israel.

Barack Obama’s promise to transform America was too modest. He is transforming the whole world before our eyes. Do you see it yet?

RALPH PETERS - IVY LEAGUE THINKERS CAN'T COPE WITH STREET LEVEL INTERNATIONAL REALITY

The actual title of Ralph Peters' article is Putin vs. the preppies and the Ph.D.s:  Outsiders, not insiders, change the world.   My thoughts:  Ivy league elites, hidebound and limited in experience and street-level savvy, can't cope with street-level international reality.  Peters nails it.  I have long felt that Obama's "education" narrowly ideological, his knowledge of history abysmal, his grasp of (sinful) human nature non-existent, and his prejudices blinding.  Here are two pull-quotes from Peters' valuable article:

Once-great universities have turned into political indoctrination centers worthy of the high Stalinist Era or the age of Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Their aims may be more benign, but their unwillingness to consider alternative worldviews is every bit as rigid. . . .

Putin, that “petty bureaucrat,” has won every significant confrontation with the West, conquering foreign territory and humiliating presidents. Iran’s negotiators have outmaneuvered their Western interlocutors so spectacularly that they really don’t need Obama’s deal, having gotten most of what they needed: time and partial sanctions relief. And the Islamic State has confounded not only our elite’s prejudices about how the world should work, but demolished their platitudinous nonsense that “All men want peace.” In fact, some men delight in inflicting grotesque forms of violence on others.

THE GLOBAL VISION ANIMATING BARACK OBAMA

Victor Davis Hanson, that most astute observer of the world scene, says that although Obama's foreign policy looks chaotic and befuddled, it's actually consistent and logical.  His foreign policy is based on four pillars of belief --  all of which, I hasten to add, (and which VDH expects readers to understand), will produce deadly and destructive consequences.   Hanson writes:

THE PANDERING, DIVISIVE PRESIDENT

John Fund points out that contrary to what is customary, President Obama has not sought air time from ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox for his amnesty immigration speech tonight.  Instead, as Fund writes,

 Obama has timed his address to come at the start of the second hour of the Latin Grammys, an immensely popular award show on Univision, which was watched by 10 million people last year.  Univision, whose Spanish-language programmers have long been friendly collaborators with the White House on its propaganda efforts, will delay the second half of the awards show so it can air Obama’s 15-minute speech and then switch back to the music.

Fund rightly observes:

The man who declared at the Democratic convention in 2004 that “there’s not a liberal America and a conservative America; there’s the United States of America” has come a long way. He now wants a segment of Americans to see his speech dramatically changing immigration law, while he goes out of his way to avoid the broader national audience. Talk about dividing America after you talked so much about uniting it.   [my bolding]

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON - OBAMA FOLLOWING THE FRENCH REVOLUTION MODEL MORE THAN THE AMERICAN

VDH, an esteemed historian whose work I have cited numerous times on this blog,  offers a clear analysis of the type of revolution taking place under Obama's guiding hand.  He subtitles his piece, "America’s current revolutionary inspiration seems to derive more from Robespierre than Madison. "  Hanson writes:

At the end of the 18th century, there were two great Western revolutions — the American and the French. Americans opted for the freedom of the individual, and divinely endowed absolute rights and values.

A quite different French version sought equality of result. French firebrands saw laws less as absolute, but instead as useful to the degree that they contributed to supposed social justice and coerced redistribution. They ended up not with a Bill of Rights and separation of powers, but instead with mass executions and Napoleonic tyranny.

Unfortunately, the Obama administration is following more the French model than the American.  [more . . .]

BUSH PREDICTED EXACTLY WHAT HAS HAPPENED IN IRAQ

Former President Bush has every right to say to President Obama:  "I told you so!"  No one takes pleasure in that fact.  It's disheartening that America acted so foolishly as to elect a "community organizer" not just once, but twice!  

 

Mark A. Thiessen writes in the Washington Post:  (HT: Wintery Knight)

. . . In the summer of 2007, Bush warned of the dire consequence of pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq against the advice of our commanders on the ground. All of Washington was telling Bush that the surge he had launched would fail and that the time had come to withdraw from Iraq and accept defeat.

At a White House news conference on July 12, 2007, Bush declared: “I know some in Washington would like us to start leaving Iraq now. To begin withdrawing before our commanders tell us we’re ready would be dangerous for Iraq, for the region and for the United States. It would mean surrendering the future of Iraq to al-Qaeda. It would mean that we’d be risking mass killings on a horrific scale. It would mean we’d allow the terrorists to establish a safe haven in Iraq to replace the one they lost in Afghanistan. It would mean we’d be increasing the probability that American troops would have to return at some later date to confront an enemy that is even more dangerous.”

. . .  In 2010, Obama did precisely what Bush warned against and withdrew all U.S. forces from Iraq — overruling his commander on the ground, Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, who had recommended that Obama keep 24,000 troops. And since then, everything that Bush warned would happen has come to pass.

Bush warned that withdrawing against the advice of our military commanders would result in “mass killings on a horrific scale.” Check. We’re now seeing mass killings on a horrific scale — summary executions, women and children buried alive, people being crucified, the attempted genocide of the Yazidis and two American journalists beheaded.

SEN. CRUZ QUESTIONS IRS ABOUT DECISION TO AUDIT BREITBART NEWS

This government is becoming bolder and bolder in its attack on entities that disagree with its policies.   This tyranny must stop.   Breitbart news is a conservative news outlet.  The Obama administration, not embarrassed or intimidated by congressional investigations into its one-sided attack on conservative organizations, is at it again, which prompted Sen. Ted Cruz to send the following letter to the IRS:

Dear Commissioner Koskinen:

I write to express deep concern over the recent announcement by Breitbart News that the Internal Revenue Service recently notified the Breitbart News Network, LLC that it would be subject to a far-reaching, burdensome, and open-ended audit.

As you know, the Breitbart News Network LLC is a conservative-leaning press outlet. It has editors and reporters who cover daily political news and regularly breaks stories that are critical of the Obama Administration's policies. To conduct this audit, Breitbart News Network, LLC was asked to provide the IRS with all of its organizational documents, financial records, W-2s, W-4s, 1099s, and K-1s filed, personal income tax returns for each member of the company, payroll tax forms, information regarding properties and assets acquired by the company, bank statements, and array of other records documenting revenues, expenses, and depreciation costs.

This media audit, coupled with the recent proposal of 49 Senate Democrats to amend the Constitution to give Congress plenary power to regulate political speech, paints a disturbing picture of a coordinated assault on the First Amendment.

 

DAVID HOROWITZ - "THE HELL THAT IS THE OBAMA WHITE HOUSE"

 I have great respect for David Horowitz's and his counsels.  As written elsewhere, David Horowitz was one of the founders of the New Left in the 1960s and an editor of its largest magazine, Ramparts.  . . .  Looking back in anger at their days in the New Left, he and Collier wrote Destructive Generation (1989), a chronicle of their second thoughts about the 60s that has been compared to Whittaker Chambers’ Witness and other classic works documenting a break from totalitarianism. Horowitz examined this subject more closely in Radical Son(1996), a memoir tracing his odyssey from “red-diaper baby” to conservative activist that George Gilder described as “the first great autobiography of his generation.” His latest book is Take No Prisoners: The Battle Plan for Defeating the Left (Regnery Publishing).

 On Obama and his administration, Horowitz writes:

. . . And what exactly is the I.R.S. scandal about — to take just one case? It’s a plan unprecedented in modern American politics to push the political system towards a one-party state by using the taxing authority of the government to cripple and destroy the political opposition. The administration’s campaign to promote voter fraud by opposing measures to stop it (and defaming them as “racist” is guided by the same intentions and desire.

And why shouldn’t Obama want to destroy the two-party system since he is also in utter contempt of the Constitutional framework, making law illegally, and defying an impotent Congress to stop him? Of course every radical, like Obama, hates the Constitutional framework because, as Madison explained in Federalist #10, it is designed to thwart “the wicked projects” of the left to redistribute income and destroy the free market.

The same desire to overwhelm and permanently suppress the opposition drives the war that Obama and the Democrats have conducted against America’s borders and therefore American sovereignty. Their plan is too flood the country with illegals of whatever stripe who will be grateful enough for the favor to win them elections and create a permanent majority in their favor. The immediate result of these efforts is that we have no secure southern border, and therefore no border; and therefore we have effectively invited criminals and terrorists to come across and do Americans harm.

Which brings us to the deepest level of Obama’s hell, which is his anti-American foreign policy. When Obama was re-elected in 2012, the very first thought I had was this: A lot of people are going to be dead because of this election. How disastrously right I was. Since their assault on George Bush and their sabotage of the war in Iraq, Obama and the Democrats have forged a power vacuum in Europe and even more dramatically in the Middle East, which nasty characters have predictably entered with ominous implications for the future security of all Americans.

RICH LOWRY - "THE CALLOW PRESIDENT"

Rich Lowry, editor of National Review,  today offered a biting assessment of President Obama' s character and governing ability.  Particularly sharp (and accurate) is the last sentence, which I've highlighted.

. . . It’s certainly true that the president is much further left than he’d ever admit, but the deepest truth about Obama is that there is no depth. He’s smart without being wise. He’s glib without being eloquent. He’s a celebrity without being interesting. He’s callow. . . 

It’s a trope on the right to say that Obama has quit, that he’s not interested in the job anymore. It isn’t true.  If you are smug, overly self-impressed and unwilling to bend from your (erroneous) presumptions of how the world works, this is what presidential leadership looks like. . . 

His greatest rhetorical skill turns out to be mockery. The man who once promised to transcend political divisions is an expert at the stinging partisan jab. What Churchill was to thundering statements of resolve, he is to snotty put-downs.

MERIAM IBRAHIM, THE CHRISTIAN MOTHER IMPRISONED IN SUDAN AND SENTENCED TO DIE FOR APOSTASY, HAS BEEN FREED

Update 6/24/14   10:30 PM - Meriam cannot leave the country!!  The British Daily Mail reports in an exclusive story that she is being charged with fraud.  Reporter Dan Bates writes:

. . . Meriam Ibrahim has been accused of falsifying travel documents as she tried to leave the African country hours after the death penalty was dropped against her.

It is understood that the authorities told her she should have used the Muslim name she had when she was born, not the Christian name she uses after choosing to worship that faith.

It is not clear if her husband Daniel Wani, who is from Manchester in New Hampshire, has also been charged with any offenses.

The new allegations are a huge setback to Meriam's hopes of leaving Sudan and a further sign that the Sudanese government is playing twisted games over her release.

Meriam, a doctor, is on bail which was put up by a friend. She cannot leave Sudan until this matter is resolved as part of her bail conditions.

It came as campaigners working to free the mother-of-two attacked the U.S. Department of State for its ‘shameful’ response to helping her.

Tina Ramirez, founder of religious freedom organization Hardwired, called for Congress to investigate the 'incredibly negligent' handling of Meriam Ibrahim’s case.

Meriam and her husband were detained at the airport of the Sudanese capital Khartoum when they tried to leave the country with their son Martin, 21 months, and daughter Maya, one month.

Meriam was only freed on Monday after nine months in jail, during which she was shackled to the floor while she gave birth to Maya.

As noted, Tina Ramiraz of Hardwired, accuses the State Department of incredible negligence.  Read the whole news report to understand why.  Note also the reporter's chilling observation:

In a worrying twist, Meriam and Daniel were taken into custody by the feared National Intelligence and Security Services, MailOnline has confirmed.

NISS does not operate through the courts if it claims to be working on a matter of national security and can detain people indefinitely, Hardwired said.

The organisation was described as ‘Agents of Fear’ in a damning report by human rights campaigners Amnesty which outlined a catalogue of abuses they had carried out.

NISS is also notorious for taking prisoners to secret 'ghost houses' where they are tortured. . . 

We need to pray this family safely released and out of Sudan!  

(Original Post) - The following CBN News video interview offers  lots of insights into the freeing of Meriam Ibrahim.  Noteworthy is that Ibrahim was represented by Muslim lawyers who demonstrated tremendous courage in so doing.   Also noteworthy has been the negligence of the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum.   As Tony Perkins points out, "where the Obama administration has fallen short, House and Senate conservatives have not. Congressmen from Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), Chris Smith (R-N.J.), and Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) to Senators Cruz, Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) were doing the heavy lifting -- while not a single White House official met with the Sudanese ambassador."  

 

Perkins also notes that,

If the State Department isn't busy bringing Meriam home or dealing with the imploding Middle East, what exactly is it doing? According to Secretary Kerry, he's "working hard to… have lesbian, bisexual, and transgender ambassadors." Like his boss, Kerry foreign policy seems to be a foreign concept for this administration, whose only real overseas "progress" is bullying other nations into accepting this President's twisted sexual agenda.

During last week's LGBT pep rally at the State Department, Kerry's rah-rah moment was saying that if confirmed, Ted Osius would be the sixth openly homosexual ambassador. "… We now have hundreds of LGBT individuals in our bureaus at State, USAID, and at posts all around the world." Of course, what Kerry neglected to mention is that many of those posts are in complete and utter turmoil -- in large part because the Obama administration is too obsessed with its homosexual agenda to focus on the real priority of protecting America's national interests. It all confirms what former Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrote in his book -- the only time he sensed passion from the President about any issue involving the military was overturning "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

Last week I read of the disturbing fanatical gay foreign policy of the Obama Administration when it cut U.S. aid to Uganda because it refuses to bow down to imperialist U.S. government pressures to remove restrictions on homosexual practice in the country.  I read:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Thursday cut aid to Uganda, imposed visa restrictions and canceled a regional military exercise in response to a Ugandan law that imposes harsh penalties on homosexuality.

The White House said in a statement the measures were intended to "reinforce our support for human rights of all Ugandans regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity."

Homosexuality is taboo in most African countries and illegal in 37, including in Uganda where it has been a crime since British rule.  [more . . .]

Which leads one to ask why the Obama administration doesn't cut aid to countries that persecute Christians?  Why doesn't it, at the very least, advocate for freedom of religion and speak up on behalf of imprisoned Christians?  Why the Johnny one-note imperialist commitment to homosexual acceptance worldwide and failure to address human rights more broadly?

The news of Ibrahim's release has brought to my attention the good work of Hardwired, an organization I had not heard of before. 

PROTEST AT WHITE HOUSE OVER PRESIDENT'S SILENCE ON IMPRISONED MOTHER SENTENCED TO DIE

Paul Strand, CBN News, reports:

WASHINGTON -- Protesters from some 40 groups marched and rallied outside the White House Thursday, accusing the president of not doing enough to push Sudan to free Meriam Ibrahim, a 27-year-old mother of two who's been sentenced to die for her Christian faith.

 Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, attended the rally and pointed out Ibrahim, who is a daughter of a Muslim father, has been sentenced to die because she herself is a practicing Christian.

"Very simply the fact that she is a Christian, that she attends a local Catholic church, is deemed a crime there," Cruz said of Sudan. "And for that crime, she has been sentenced to 100 lashes and then to hang by the neck till dead."

Meriam's young son is imprisoned with her, as is her newborn baby daughter. Some of the protesters calling for their freedom wore red links as they marched and demonstrated.

"These represent the chains that Meriam Ibrahim has been wearing since she was imprisoned in Sudan," Penny Nance, with Concerned Women for America, told CBN News.

"She actually was forced to give birth while wearing them. So we wanted to wear them today in solidarity with our Christian sister, who was imprisoned only because of her faith," she added.

BILL O'REILLY INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA (VIDEO)

Both unedited segments can be found here.

DAN HENNINGER - OBAMA'S CREDIBILITY IS MELTING

It's not only in the U.S. but overseas as well.  Read Henninger's article.  (HT: DRUDGE)  Excerpt:

Bluntly, Mr. Obama's partners are concluding that they cannot do business with him. They don't trust him. Whether it's the Saudis, the Syrian rebels, the French, the Iraqis, the unpivoted Asians or the congressional Republicans, they've all had their fill of coming up on the short end with so mercurial a U.S. president. And when that happens, the world's important business doesn't get done. It sits in a dangerous and volatile vacuum.

NEIL COVUTO RESPONDS TO OBAMA'S DIATRIBE AGAINST FOX NEWS

Text:

OBAMA:  If you’ve talked to somebody who said, ‘Well, I don’t know. I was watching FOX News and they said this is horrible…”

NEIL CAVUTO:  Mr. President, we at FOX News are not the problem. I hate to break it to you, sir. you are. Your words are, your promises are. We didn’t sell this healthcare law, sir. You did. Remember this?

OBAMA:  If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period.

NEIL CAVUTO:  Not so.  Mr. President, tell that to tens of thousands of retirees at IBM and Time Warner and dozens of others, who have been dumped from their coverage and told to find their own coverage. Now, FOX News didn’t break that news to them, Mr. President, their companies did.

FOX News didn’t push more of those firms to hire part-time workers, your healthcare law did.

FOX News didn’t incentivize fast-food restaurants to scale back their benefits, your healthcare law did.

AP COVERS UP OBAMA GAFFES

Update:  Rush Limbaugh weighs in with media treatment of Sarah Palin compared with President Obama, and lists additional Obama gaffes papered over by the AP and other media outlets.

(Original post) - The media jumps on Dan Quayle and Sarah Palin in never-ending mockery for minor verbal slips, but covers up for Obama.   You can read about Obama's slip here and here (assuming it was a slip!)  Obama stated that Charleston, Jacksonville, and Savannah were on the Gulf of Mexico!   (HT: Drudge)

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION PUSHES PRO-HOMOSEXUAL PROPAGANDA WORLDWIDE

I find the following news truly offensive and a governmental activity that needs to be stopped.  It's "cultural imperialism" at its worst.  The Obama Administration, in the name of U.S. tax-paying citizens, is pushing the homosexual agenda on countries that until now have resisted such immoral sexual conduct.   The Family Research Council reports:

If the President doesn't respect America's views on marriage, what makes us think he would respect other countries'? Certainly not his latest USAID project. In April, to relatively little fanfare, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) embarked on one of the most shocking abuses of taxpayer dollars in the last five years. With help from the Levi Strauss Foundation and millionaire liberal Tim Gill, the U.S. government is spending $11 million to train homosexual activists in other countries.

The Washington Blade, D.C.'s gay newspaper, praised the Obama administration for creating an army of international lobbyists for same-sex "marriage," anti-discrimination laws, and homosexual "rights" around the world. According to USAID, the first phase of the program is focused on countries with a strong Catholic influence: Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala, and other developing nations that oppose homosexuality.

This week, the first in a series of USAID "gay trainings" took place in Colombia, a nation specifically targeted for its rejection of same-sex "marriage." The goal, an agency spokesman says, is to teach people how to infiltrate the political process and advocate for laws that a majority of Americans, who are paying for the program, object to. "It can be a real game-changer in the advancement of LGBT human rights," she insisted. In essence, U.S. taxpayers are being forced to groom the next generation of the world's Human Rights Campaigns -- a stunning exploitation of Americans' money, and more importantly, their trust.

For the Obama administration, this is just another part of its strong-arm strategy to bully other nations into compliance. Whether it's through the United Nations, U.S. embassies, or the State Department, President Obama is leading the effort to bribe and coerce poor countries into accepting his pro-homosexual agenda. Our friends at Family Watch International are urging people to get involved. They've released a shocking new documentary highlighting the President's dark world of "Cultural Imperialism." Click over to their website to see a five-minute clip [posted below] or the full feature. Be prepared to be outraged.

 

RUSH LIMBAUGH - AMERICA IN THE MIDST OF A COUP D'ETAT

I listened to the first part of Rush Limbaugh's radio program today.  He articulated my own thoughts when he said, 

. . .what's taking place in the United States right now is a coup, not a violent coup, and not a million artistic coup, but nevertheless a takeover of a government, and it's being done by the Obama administration. . . .  there is clearly -- somewhere, somehow, in some form or another -- a coup taking place, and there is an assault on privacy, and there are assaults on people because of their politics and their ideology. It is taking place; it's undeniable. Yet many of the people we would hope would be pushing back against this and doing their best to join us and warning everybody say, "Nothing to see here! Don't get all crazy about this. We must be level headed."

RUSH: There was a time when the United States government earned the trust of its people. There was a time when most people believed that the United States government was protecting them. There was a time when most people believed that the United States government was spying on the bad guys, that the United States government was in fact earning the trust of the people. But this current data collection, scanning, whatever you want to call it, unfortunately has to be judged in context: the IRS leaks, the now unquestionable, undeniable, admitted-to-it IRS tactic of suppressing the vote of Tea Party conservatives, denying them their First Amendment rights.

The regime and its tricks with the Associated Press and Fox reporter James Rosen, the Benghazi cover-ups, the Fast and Furious operation, suing the state of Arizona for simply endorsing essentially federal immigration law. You can't just try to be the smartest guy in the room and say, "Well, we must be levelheaded about this and understand that this is just metadata." We cannot take the motives and intelligence guided by experience watching this administration over the last four-and-a-half, five years, and what their express purpose is. . . 

So if the Constitution exists as it is, the country was founded as it was, and an administration comes along and doesn't like that and is doing everything it can to overturn that Constitution without a convention, doing everything it can to change direction of this country, and what's the word, transform it, what's wrong with calling this a coup?

Me:  He's absolutely right.

CARTOONS SOMETIMES SAY BEST WHAT NEEDS TO BE SAID

The following came via a friend's email - 

 

 

GEORGE W. BUSH SHINES

Drudge provides links to two commentaries lauding the humility, integrity, and "normalness" of President George W. Bush.  I found both opinion pieces fascinating, and on the mark, as each sketches the character of the five presidents present for the opening of Bush's presidential library in Dallas yesterday.

     - Peggy Noonan - Obama fatigue becomes apparent

I thought the following even more poignant:

      - Joseph Curl - W outclasses Barack and Bill, without even trying

PRESIDENT OBAMA WILL DINE WITH MISS ISRAEL - AN ETHIOPIAN JEWESS

Story here.  (HT: Drudge)

RUSH LIMBAUGH - RESISTANCE TO OBAMA HAS MELTED AWAY

I heard part of Limbaugh's commentary today  and felt disheartened.   Limbaugh says Santa Claus trumps freedom, Santa Claus trumps working, Santa Claus trumps everything.  And I think he's right:

[...] That's why Cantor is saying, "We're gonna have to do a better job of explaining who we are. We need to do a better job of explaining why we're doing what we're doing." Well, I think that epitomizes how lost they all feel -- and right now, folks, there is no fight. There's no desire for it. There's no fight mentality. There is no desire for any opposition of any kind at this point in time. That's what all of this means. It's a direct outcome of the 2012 election. It is Santa Claus trumping freedom. Santa Claus trumps everything. Santa Claus beats fiscal responsibility. Santa Claus beats individual liberty. Santa Claus beats individual responsibility. Santa Claus trumps all of this. It's no more complicated than that, but that's exactly what all of this means.

Santa Claus trumps everything.  Santa Claus trumps working.  Everybody loves Santa Claus.  That bugs 'em.  They think there's nothing in it.  There's no upside to opposing anything that's happening in the country right now.  And it's gonna get even worse as issues come up and more Republicans throw in the towel.  That is going to happen.  And I have no idea what's gonna arrest it.  At some point it'll stop.  At some point it's gonna reverse itself.  I don't know what it's gonna be, when, I haven't the slightest idea.  But Kasich's up for reelection.  He lost the state of Ohio, it went Obama, it went Democrat.  He's reading tea leaves.  Other governors are doing the same thing. 

There's some holdouts.  I mean, not every Republican is throwing in the towel.  But for the most part, the overarching philosophy or theory is there's nothing to be gained in opposing Obama.  The media's gonna come out and destroy you. The American people love Santa Claus and don't want to hear any opposition.  That's just gonna be categorized as mean-spiritedness, extremism, racism, what have you.  So you're gonna have to bite the bullet for a while, let this play out, because there's nothing that's gonna stop this, nothing foreseen that's going to stop it.  Something will, but I don't know what or when, but something will arrest this.  Because it always happens.

OBAMA THE MESSIAH

Last night I read the series of blog posts Weasel Zippers put up throughout the day covering numerous news stories.  I went to bed under a heavy cloud, conscious that our country was following a Destructive Force cheered on by a mindless, deceived (or in cahoots) mainstream media.  Then this morning I received an email from a friend (TC) who provided a link to a post I found truly shocking.  Please go to the original post.  It is well formatted, my reproduction below is not.  But I needed to provide you, my reader, a sense of what is happening, knowing many do not follow links.  Here is Tod Starnes post without the proper formatting:

Inauguration Poster Likens Obama to Jesus

Jan 20, 2013

By Todd Starnes

Street vendors and souvenir stores across Washington, D.C. are selling posters depicting President Obama as Jesus Christ — and one national news publication called him the “Second Coming.”

FOLLOW TODD ON FACEBOOK FOR CULTURE WAR NEWS. CLICK HERE!

The poster, which does not have the official endorsement of the White House,  features an image of the president in prayer with the headline, “Prophecy Fulfilled.”

“Barak is of Hebrew origin and its meaning is ‘flash of lightning,” the poster notes, referencing a passage in in the Old Testament book of Judges.

Hussein, they allege, is a Biblical word meaning “good and handsome.”

“So you see, Barak was destined to be a good and handsome man that would rise like a flash of lightning to win victory in a battle against overwhelming odds,” the poster read.

This week’s cover of Newsweek depicts President Obama as the “Second Coming” – a biblical reference to the return of Christ.

It’s not the first time that Obama has been deified by his supporters.

Actor Jamie Foxx called President Obama “our Lord and Savior” during a recent television appearance.

“It’s like church over here,” Foxx told the audience. “First of all, give an honor to God and our Lord and Savior Barack Obama.”

“Barack Obama,” he shouted as the audience cheered.

Florida A&M professor Barbara Thompson published a book titled “The Gospel According to Apostle Barack.” The book likens Obama to Jesus Christ and Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I learned that Jesus walked the earth to create a more civilized society, Martin (Luther King) walked the earth to create a more justified society, but, Apostle Barack, the name he was called in my dreams, would walk the earth to create a more equalized society, for the middle class and working poor,” she wrote in an excerpt published by The Daily Caller. “Apostle Barack, the next young leader with a new cause, had been taken to the mountaintop and allowed to see over the other side.”

A controversial painting of President Obama, posed as Jesus Christ on the cross, was part of an art exhibit at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston.

Photo by Art & Response

The Michael D’Antuono painting is called “The Truth” — and features the president with his arms stretched out — wearing a crown of thorns.

The original debut of the painting four years ago was cancelled due to public outrage, Design & Trend reported.

At the time D’Antuono told Air America that he didn’t mean to “disrespect people’s religion. It’s meant as a political piece.”

And at the Democratic National Convention street vendors were selling an array of products including a prayer garment embroidered with President Obama’s name — along with a calendar that declared him “heaven sent.”

The entry also included a photograph of Obama along with a passage of Scripture from the New Testament.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” the entry read — referencing John 3:16.

The month of November includes an image of individuals with their hands on Obama’s back — with the words “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.”

Todd Starnes is the author of “Dispatches From Bitter America.” The book is endorsed by Sarah Palin, Mark Levin and Sean Hannity. Click here to get your copy!

Related posts:

1. Actor Calls Obama “Our Lord and Savior”
2. Artwork Likens Obama to Jesus
3. Obama Joins Jesus in Nativity Scene
4. Rick Warren Says Obama Deification is Blasphemy
5. Painting Depicts Obama as Crucified Christ

AMERICA GOING DOWNHILL FOLLOWING FRANCE

Socialists choose illusion, but reality can be ignored only so long.  France is far along the illusory road, and the U.S. under Obama follows in pursuit.  Idiotic.

Dale Hurd reports:

  Text:

PARIS -- If Americans want a glimpse into their possible economic future, they should look to France where there's high unemployment, low growth, more taxes, and more people on welfare.

Some are calling America's stagnant economy the "new normal." Some say America is looking more and more like Europe.

France should be a warning to Americans who have just voted for four more years of big government spending. The French are experts at big government. They've been deficit spending for decades, and it's made the country poorer.

A Welfare Time Bomb

America's exploding welfare state and huge deficit is starting to look so European that after the recent "fiscal cliff" fiasco, the Economist magazine dressed up President Obama in a French marinière shirt and House Speaker John Boehner in lederhosen.

Now the White House has decided to hire a famous left-wing French economist, Esther Dufflo, to help formulate economic policy. While France does some things well, economics might not be on the list.

France's bloated welfare state has been dubbed a "time bomb." Big government has not only weakened the French economy, it has crippled the entrepreneurial spirit.

"The entrepreneurial young people, they're going to London; they're going to Asia; they're going to the United States because they want to achieve something that is not automatically taken away by a state that says, 'you have, therefore I take it,'" said Jacob Arfwedsons, a Paris-based free market economist at the Institute for Research in Economic and Fiscal Issue.

France's Millionaire Exodus

The wealthy are fleeing, too, because of high taxes. French actor Gerard Depardieu recently collected his Russian passport, offered by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia has a flat tax of only 13 percent.

France has one of the lowest numbers of millionaires per capita in Western Europe.

One clue as to why can be found in a newspaper headline over a photo of France's wealthiest man, Bernard Arnault, who threatened to leave France over high taxes.

It reads, "Beat it, rich jerk."

Some joke that France is the one country where communism succeeded. It hasn't had a balanced budget in 40 years. The government sector of the French economy is larger than the private sector.

Most French are dependent on the state not only for benefits but for jobs. Three out of four French young people say their dream is to get a government job someday.

"France is addicted to public spending like a drug," Florian Silnicki, with the Club of Entrepreneurs, told CBN News. "We turn to government spending as the solution to our problems. Businessmen are telling us, 'We can't take it anymore.'"

"The system we have is very generous. But it's also very expensive, and we simply cannot pay for it," Dr. Emmanuel Martin, a French economist with the Atlas Foundation, said. 

Welfare = Stingy Society

Martin said France demonstrates that when the welfare state starts caring for people, people stop caring for each other.

The level of charitable giving in France and other nations in Western Europe is much lower than in the United States.

Martin said the welfare state "kills the natural move toward solidarity among individuals. And no wonder we're not a very philanthropic country." He says welfare makes societies "mean."

Socialism allows politicians to essentially buy votes by offering benefits paid for with money they don't have; and they won't be around when the state finally goes broke.

"More and more companies are dying, so there's more and more destruction of jobs," Martin said.

Coming Reality Check

IREF's Arfwedson said France has all but guaranteed that its future will be poorer.

"Oh, and that day is coming very soon, very soon," he warned. "There is growing awareness that we're heading right into the wall, which is called 'reality.'"

An excellent question is why American leaders would want to emulate France, or Europe, for that matter. 
 
Polls show most Democrats now have a favorable view of socialism, and it's very popular among America's college-age young people.

Maybe they should have a talk with a French economist.

**Follow Dale on Twitter @HurdontheWeb and "like" him at Facebook.com/DaleHurdNews.

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S HOLIDAY CARD

Inside:

This season, may your home be filled with family, friends, and the joy of the holidays.

Me:  No surprise.

OBAMA'S ROYAL PRESIDENCY

You'd never know the U.S. was a debt-ridden country by the lavish, prodigal way the Obama family spends taxpayer's money.  The Presidential family is traveling to Hawaii for Christmas vacation.  Consider the cost (Mark Steyn's research):

The cost to taxpayers of flying one man, his wife, two daughters, and a dog to Hawaii is estimated at $3,639,622. For purposes of comparison, the total bill for flying the entire royal family (Queen, princes, dukes, the works) around the world for a year is £4.7 million — or about enough for two Obama vacations.

Ah yes.  But Obama is Obama, the most important man in the world as he no doubt self-meditates, and thus finds it easy to dismiss any slight qualm of conscience that could conceivably disturb his repose.  "I'm worth every penny," he no doubt assures himself.  Still, it's worth taking a look at comparative airplane costs.

According to the USAF, in 2010 Air Force One cost American taxpayers $181,757 per flight hour. According to the Royal Canadian Air Force, in 2011 the CC-150 Polaris military transport that flew William and Kate from Vancouver to Los Angeles cost Her Majesty’s Canadian subjects $15,505 per hour — or about 8/100ths of the cost.

British and Canadian citizens scrutinize money spent on the royals, not so Americans the money spent on (and by) Obama:

Obama flew Air Force One from Washington to Williamsburg, Va., requiring a wide-bodied transatlantic jet that holds 500 people to ferry him a distance of a little over 100 miles. And, unlike their British and Canadian counterparts, the American media are entirely at ease with it.

Maybe we should stop being "at ease with it."  Is it too much to expect a modicum of frugality from the President?  He makes present-day monarchs look like pikers.  Consider:

In his recent book "Presidential Perks Gone Royal", Robert Keith Gray, a former Eisenhower staffer, revealed that last year the U.S. presidency cost American taxpayers $1.4 billion. Over the same period, the entire royal family cost British taxpayers about $57 million. There’s nothing “royal” about the current level of “presidential perks”: The Obama family costs taxpayers more than every European royal house put together.  [more . . .]

Ichabod.  It's unseemly for the man who preaches "fair share" and "equality" to everyone else, to flaunt his own lavish, personal extravagance.  The man who fails to recognize the "exceptional" quality of America as a nation, readily embraces the "exceptional" quality of himself and his family.

GOP STRIPS TEA PARTY MEMBERS OF KEY CONGRESSIONAL ROLES

Conservative will be antagonized by this dumb (and malicious?) move.  Count me among them.  Be sure to scroll down to listen to Mark Levin's analysis of President Obama and Speaker Boehner.  The more I think about Levin's analysis the more I think he is right.    Though I hate to think ill of anyone, Levin may be right in calling Boehner self-protective, a climber, and out of his league vis-a-vis Obama.

 

John Jessup, CBN News Washington correspondent reports:

WASHINGTON -- Two years after Tea Party conservatives swept House Republicans into power, GOP leaders appear to be sweeping some of those same Tea Party lawmakers under the rug.

Some believe it's because they're too conservative.

Tea Party Purge

Kansas Rep. Tim Huelskamp is a Tea Party Republican who came to Washington on a mission to rein in an out-of-control government.

"I was critical of the debt deal, which created the fiscal cliff," he told CBN News. "I was critical of the spending increases. I was critical of a lack of progress taking down Obamacare."

As one of Congress's most conservative members, his principles sometimes puts him at odds with party leaders. He was among the first Republicans to criticize House Speaker John Boehner's plan to avert the fiscal cliff.

"When you talk about $800 billion in new revenue I don't see how you do that without some pretty large increases in taxes," Huelskamp said. "And I've been very clear, as have most Republicans, that I don't want to raise taxes."

Huelskamp suggested the strong conservative stances he and other Tea Party colleagues have taken on issues like abortion and marriage may be one reason for the tension with GOP leaders. Listen to his comments below:

On the same day Boehner unveiled his counterproposal to the White House plan, he broke some bad news to certain members in his conference: Huelskamp along with North Carolina Rep. Walter B. Jones, Arizona Rep. David Schweikert, and Michigan Rep. Justice Amash were getting booted from their prime committee posts.

"Really, it's a slap in the face of all young people who are out there thinking about being Republicans," Amash said.

Huelskamp and Amash, both freshman, were removed from the Budget Committee where they voted against the Republican budget created by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.

Despite being removed from the committee posts, Huelskamp vowed he and his Tea Party colleagues would not be silenced. Watch his comments below:

"How much do you think this had to do with your votes against the Ryan budget?" CBN News's John Jessup asked Huelskamp.

"Again, that might be part of it. We don't know," the Kansas lawmaker replied.

They don't know because they weren't given an explanation.

CBN News contacted Boehner's office to get some answers, but was only given this response: "The (Republican) Steering Committee makes decisions based on a range of factors."

A Vindictive Move?

With nothing concrete, Huelskamp wonders if his pro-life, pro-traditional marriage policies may also be to blame.

"Perhaps that might be the reason that some folks do not like me to continue to speak up," Huelskamp speculated.

Whatever the reason, he's labeled the move "vindictive," noting how party leaders also stripped him from the Agriculture Committee.

Huelskamp shared more of his thoughts what he views as the GOP leadership's punitive actions below:

Huelskamp said his removal will mark the first time in 150 years that a Kansas lawmaker will not be on the roster.

Some have suggested that the House GOP leadership, much like that song about Santa, is making a list and checking to make sure rebellious Republicans pay a price.

As for Huelskamp, he vowed that -- above party -- he'll remain loyal to the people who are most important: his constituents.

In Addition:

Mark Levin analyzes the two major political figures now resident in Washington - President Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner.  The Right Scoop introduces Levin's monologue (audio] saying:

Mark Levin steps into the shoes of both Obama and Boehner, explaining the mindset of both men and why they operate as they do. This isn’t a comparison of the two men, but rather an attempt to give a deeper insight into what’s really going on in Washington by explaining the two men. It’s excellent

Listen here...  Levin's commentary is definitely worth chewing on.

U.N. AMBASSADOR SUSAN RICE A SHAMELESS ADVOCATE FOR EXPORTING ABORTION ON DEMAND

President Obama will likely choose Susan Rice as his next Secretary of State.  FRC reports:

[...]  As a member of both the Clinton and Obama administrations, Rice has been a shameless advocate for exporting abortion-on-demand--even to countries with moral objections. "Reproductive rights are human rights," she tweeted on World Population Day. "They are essential, which is why the U.S. works tirelessly to protect them."

Like Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice has several liberal cheerleaders, including Planned Parenthood, National Organization for Women, and Emily's List. If that doesn't tell you everything you need to know about global diplomacy under Susan Rice, take this statement from Planned Parenthood chief Cecile Richards: "Susan Rice has consistently affirmed... [and] understands the important role the United Nations plays in promoting and protecting women's health around the world, especially in developing countries. We expect that she will work effectively with other countries to fulfill the UN's development agenda, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) on maternal health," whose goal is to "achieve universal access to reproductive health care" [read: abortion]. For more on Susan Rice's record--and the red flags her nomination to State would raise--check out FRC's new backgrounder.

OBAMA'S FLIP FLOPS

Kimberley A. Strassel reports:  [These are amazing flip-flops!!!  I've supplied the topic headings]

*** Single-payer health system

"I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care program"—Illinois state Sen. Barack Obama, June 2003.

"I have not said that I was a single-payer supporter"—President Obama, August 2009.

*** Debt Limit

"Leadership means that the buck stops here. . . . I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America's debt limit"—Sen. Barack Obama, March 2006.

"It is not acceptable for us not to raise the debt ceiling and to allow the U.S. government to default"—President Obama, July 2011.

*** Same-sex marriage

"I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages"—Obama questionnaire response, 1996, while running for Illinois state Senate.

"I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage"—Sen. Obama, November 2008, while running for president.

"It is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married"—President Obama, May 2012.

*** Sequestration

"We have an idea for the trigger. . . . Sequestration"—Obama Office of Management and Budget Director Jack Lew in 2011, as reported in Bob Woodward's "The Price of Politics."

"First of all, the sequester is not something that I've proposed. It is something that Congress has proposed"—President Obama, October 2012.

*** Public financed election

"If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election"—Sen. Obama, 2007.

"We've made the decision not to participate in the public financing system for the general election"—Sen. Obama, June 2008.

*** Patriotism

"I will never question the patriotism of others in this campaign"—Sen. Obama, June 2008.

"The way Bush has done it over the last eight years is . . . [he] added $4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back. . . . That's irresponsible. It's unpatriotic"—Sen. Obama, July 2008.

"I don't remember what the number was precisely. . . . We don't have to worry about it short term"—President Obama, September 2012, on the debt figure when he took office ($10 trillion) and whether to worry about today's $16 trillion figure.

*** Health insurance mandate

"[Sen. Hillary Clinton believes] that . . . if the government does not force taxpayers to buy health care, that we will penalize them in some fashion. I disagree with that"—Sen. Obama, Jan 2008, opposing the individual mandate for health insurance.

"I'm open to a system where every American bears responsibility for owning health insurance"—President Obama, June 2009, supporting the individual mandate.

*** Apologizing for America

"Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times when America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive"—President Obama, April 2009, in France.

"We have at times been disengaged, and at times we sought to dictate our terms"—President Obama, April 2009, in Trinidad and Tobago.

"Nothing Governor Romney just said is true, starting with this notion of me apologizing"—Barack Obama, October 2012, on whether he went on a global apology tour.

*** Spending freeze

"The problem with a spending freeze is you're using a hatchet where you need a scalpel"—Sen. Obama, September 2008.

"Starting in 2011, we are prepared to freeze government spending for three years"—President Obama, January 2010.

*** Energy production

"So if somebody wants to build a coal-fired plant, they can, it's just that it will bankrupt them"—Sen. Obama, January 2008, on his plans to financially penalize coal plants.

"Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution"—Sen. Obama, August 2008.

"Here's what I've done since I've been president. We have increased oil production to the highest levels in 16 years. Natural gas production is the highest it's been in decades. We have seen increases in coal production and coal employment"—President Obama, October 2012.

***  One term accomplishments to decide whether he should be re-elected

"If I don't have this done in three years, then there's going to be a one-term proposition"—President Obama, 2009.

"We've got a long way to go but . . . we've come too far to turn back now. . . . And that's why I'm running for a second term"—President Obama, October 2012.

PEGGY NOONAN'S DAMNING PORTRAIT OF PRESIDENT OBAMA

In her discussion of Obama's first debate, Noonan muses: [my bolding]

Maybe what happened isn't a mystery at all.

That, anyway, is the view expressed this week by a member of the U.S. Senate who served there with Mr Obama and has met with him in the White House. People back home, he said, sometimes wonder what happened with the president in the debate. The senator said, I paraphrase: I sort of have to tell them that it wasn't a miscalculation or a weird moment. I tell them: I know him, and that was him. That guy on the stage, that's the real Obama.

***

Which gets us to Bob Woodward's "The Price of Politics," published last month. The portrait it contains of Mr. Obama—of a president who is at once over his head, out of his depth and wholly unaware of the fact—hasn't received the attention it deserves. Throughout the book, which is a journalistic history of the president's key economic negotiations with Capitol Hill, Mr. Obama is portrayed as having the appearance and presentation of an academic or intellectual while being strangely clueless in his reading of political situations and dynamics. He is bad at negotiating—in fact doesn't know how. His confidence is consistently greater than his acumen, his arrogance greater than his grasp.  

He misread his Republican opponents from day one. If he had been large-spirited and conciliatory he would have effectively undercut them, and kept them from uniting. (If he'd been large-spirited with Mr. Romney, he would have undercut him, too.) Instead he was toughly partisan, he shut them out, and positions hardened. In time Republicans came to think he doesn't really listen, doesn't really hear. So did some Democrats. Business leaders and mighty CEOs felt patronized: After inviting them to meet with him, the president read from a teleprompter and included the press. They felt like "window dressing." One spoke of Obama's surface polish and essential remoteness. In negotiation he did not cajole, seduce, muscle or win sympathy. He instructed. He claimed deep understanding of his adversaries and their motives but was often incorrect. He told staffers that John Boehner, one of 11 children of a small-town bar owner, was a "country club Republican." He was often patronizing, which in the old and accomplished is irritating but in the young and inexperienced is infuriating. "Boehner said he hated going down to the White House to listen to what amounted to presidential lectures," Mr. Woodward writes.

Mr. Obama's was a White House that had—and showed—no respect for trying to negotiate with other Republicans. Through it all he was confident—"Eric, don't call my bluff"—because he believed, as did his staff, that his talents would save the day.

They saved nothing. Washington became immobilized.

Mr. Woodward's portrait of the president is not precisely new—it has been drawn in other ways in other accounts, and has been a staple of D.C. gossip for three years now—but it is vivid and believable. And there's probably a direct line between that portrait and the Obama seen in the first debate. Maybe that's what made it so indelible, and such an arc-changer.

People saw for the first time an Obama they may have heard about on radio or in a newspaper but had never seen.

They didn't see some odd version of the president. They saw the president.

And they didn't like what they saw, and that would linger.

I'M BARACK OBAMA, AND I APPROVE THIS ABORTION

From the Family Research Council:

While the media would like to portray conservative politicians as obsessed with abortion, the Democratic Convention last week told a different story. President Obama had over two dozen prime time speakers, including the heads of the largest pro-abortion organizations, praising unrestricted abortions at taxpayer expense.

Abortion giant Planned Parenthood, which gets at least one million dollars a day from taxpayers, is repaying the President's gratitude by launching a $3.2 million television ad buy in Ohio and Virginia on Monday as part of its biggest-ever campaign effort. The newest ad, called "Turn Back the Clock," is set to run on cable television in Northern Virginia for the next five weeks. The ad highlights Mitt Romney's opposition to the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision and his opposition to federal funding for Planned Parenthood. There is a reason that the President's abortion allies are attacking Governor Romney.

Gov. Romney reiterated his desire to overturn the poorly decided decision, known as the Dred Scott decision of the 20^th century. He also said he would overturn President Obama's actions that have resulted in taxpayers subsidizing and paying for abortions both internationally and at home.

President Obama has done a fundraising video from the White House for Planned Parenthood's PAC. According to their highly paid leader, who tweeted her excitement, President Obama called them yesterday to thank them for all their support of taxpayer funding of unrestricted abortion. To see the differences between the two party platforms on life and other issues check out our comparison here.

D'SOUZA RESPONDS TO WHITE HOUSE OBJECTIONS TO HIS DOCUMENTARY, "2016: OBAMA'S AMERICA"

Dinesh D'Souza is wonderfully articulate.  Read this interview:    (HT: Drudge)

Dinesh D’Souza is the conservative author of the best-seller The Roots Of Obama’s Rage which was the basis for the #2 political documentary of all time 2016 Obama’s America. He is also its co-director. He answers today’s slam on the film by the Obama-Biden campaign, which comes just as the movie is hot in battleground states and its producers are looking for a network to air it before the November election. D’Souza attacks the mainstream media for “refusing” coverage:

DEADLINE: What is your reaction to today’s Obama-Biden campaign slam of 2016 Obama’s America??
DINESH D’SOUZA: “I welcome Obama’s critique of the film. He has probably figured out that he cannot ignore it any longer. Obama’s response is a characteristic mix of name calling and false allegations. Some of the claims he makes refer to things that are not even in the film. Elsewhere Obama just gets it wrong. For example, he disputes that he funded $2 billion in Brazilian oil exploration. In reality, Obama has given billions of dollars not only to Brazil but also to Columbia and Mexico to drill for oil. On March 19, 2011, Obama gave a speech in Brazil in which he deplored the legacy of colonialism, promised technology and support for Brazilian energy development, and concluded “when you are ready to start selling we want to be one of your best customers”. The facts in the film stand up very well to the closest scrutiny. I think people should see 2016 and make up their own minds.

DEADLINE: What do you think of the criticism the film has received?
D’SOUZA: The criticism of the film actually bothers me less than the neglect of the film. If I were Michael Moore and I were to make a film that was the No. 2 political documentary of all time, I would be on every network. I would be on Meet The Press, and I would be profiled in The New York Times, and I would be all over MSNBC. Instead large sectors of the press are refusing to cover the film. They are just pretending it doesn’t exist.

DEADLINE: What is your response to charges that you are simply an anti-Obama propagandist?
D’SOUZA: I tried very hard with this film to make an intelligent film with credible sources and new information. I’m a college president [D’Souza in 2010 was named the president of The King’s  College, a Christian college located in New York  City], I’ve been a fellow at the Hoover Institution and at the American Enterprise Institute, so what is kind of funny is in a guy like Michael Moore we have a true propagandist and a true conspiracy theorist. A guy who is fast and loose with the facts. My film was to some degree inspired by Fahrenheit 9/11. In the sense that I remember that Michael Moore dropped that film in the middle of the 2004 campaign and it had a big impact. But nevertheless, I set out to make very different type of film than Michael Moore. One that is, first of all, not just preaching to the converted. And second, one that doesn’t insult the intelligence of the audience. And I really think that is actually a large part also of the film’s appeal. That even though the left says it’s propaganda, it’s a risky attack on the film because when people go to see it, they actually see whether they agree or disagree that it is not propaganda. Whatever your politics, you are going to come away from this film saying at least, “Hey, I do know a whole bunch of things about Obama I didn’t know 90 minutes ago.”  [more . . .]

RESPONSES TO OBAMA'S SPEECH

From the Drudge report:

- NOONAN: 'Stale and empty... he is out of juice'...

- OBAMA HAMMERED IN FIRST REVIEWS...

- FROM THE LEFT: TOMASKY: Pedestrian and Overconfident...

- FROM THE RIGHT: KRAUTHAMMER: 'One Of The Emptiest I Have Ever Heard'...

DINESH D'SOUZA ON C-SPAN THIS WEEKEND

C-Span announcement:

Dinesh D'Souza, Obama's America: Unmaking the American Dream
Sat. 8:45 pm; Sun. 10:45 am ET
Dinesh D'Souza presents his thoughts on what a second term for the Obama administration would look like. The author contends that the president's policies would greatly reduce America's global influence.

Me: The announcement refers to D'Souza's book, Obama's America.   I recommend going to see Dinesh D'Souza's documentary, on President Obama: “2016: Obama's America"

WE'VE HEARD IT ALL BEFORE . . .

 

AMERICA'S MOST BIBLICALLY-HOSTILE U.S. PRESIDENT

Some time ago David Barton compiled a list of Obama's Biblically hostile statements and actions on his website, WallBuilders.  (HT: Tom)   The list of hostile actions is even longer now and needs updating, but as it stands it remains a MUST-READ reminder of the views of the man currently occupying the U.S. White House.

America’s Most Biblically-Hostile U. S. President

America’s four-century long religious conscience protection through his attempts to require Catholics to go against their own doctrines and beliefs, one is tempted to say that he is anti-Catholic. But that characterization would not be correct. Although he has recently singled out Catholics, he has equally targeted traditional Protestant beliefs over the past four years. So since he has attacked Catholics and Protestants, one is tempted to say that he is anti-Christian. But that, too, would be inaccurate. He has been equally disrespectful in his appalling treatment of religious Jews in general and Israel in particular. So perhaps the most accurate description of his antipathy toward Catholics, Protestants, religious Jews, and the Jewish nation would be to characterize him as anti-Biblical. And then when his hostility toward Biblical people of faith is contrasted with his preferential treatment of Muslims and Muslim nations, it further strengthens the accuracy of the anti-Biblical descriptor. In fact, there have been numerous clearly documented times when his pro-Islam positions have been the cause of his anti-Biblical actions.

Listed below in chronological order are (1) numerous records of his attacks on Biblical persons or organizations; (2) examples of the hostility toward Biblical faith that have become evident in the past three years in the Obama-led military; (3) a listing of his open attacks on Biblical values; and finally (4) a listing of numerous incidents of his preferential deference for Islam’s activities and positions, including letting his Islamic advisors guide and influence his hostility toward people of Biblical faith.

1. Acts of hostility toward people of Biblical faith:

• April 2008 – Obama speaks disrespectfully of Christians, saying they “cling to guns or religion” and have an “antipathy to people who aren't like them.” ¹
  
  
• February 2009 – Obama announces plans to revoke conscience protection for health workers who refuse to participate in medical activities that go against their beliefs, and fully implements the plan in February 2011. ²
  
  
• April 2009 – When speaking at Georgetown University, Obama orders that a monogram symbolizing Jesus' name be covered when he is making his speech. ³
  
  
• May 2009 – Obama declines to host services for the National Prayer Day (a day established by federal law) at the White House. ⁴
  
  
• April 2009 – In a deliberate act of disrespect, Obama nominated three pro-abortion ambassadors to the Vatican; of course, the pro-life Vatican rejected all three. ⁵
  
  
• October 19, 2010 – Obama begins deliberately omitting the phrase about “the Creator” when quoting the Declaration of Independence – an omission he has made on no less than seven occasions. ⁶

RUSH LIMBAUGH: WHAT OBAMA'S DOING IS A DICTATORS WET DREAM (VIDEO)

I posted Krauthammer's comments on Obama's "Naked Lawlessness" and my comment on Obama assuming dictatorial powers earlier, but Rush's observations add pungency and clarity to the dire situation we face under this President. 

 

From the Rush Limbaugh website via Jim Loft's Gateway Pundit:  (emphasis in the original)

RUSH: So, once again we see which side Obama comes down on in the question of whether this is a country of the rule of law or the rule of man. With Obama, it’s not the rule of law. He is implementing law that the Congress defeated, as in the legalization of the amnesty for 800,000 young illegals. Congress defeated that, the DREAM Act. He said, to hell with it, I’m gonna make it the law, just gonna do it. Obama wants the enforcement of every federal law to hinge upon whether he agrees with it or not. And if he doesn’t agree with the federal law, he’s not gonna enforce it, like the Defense of Marriage Act. It’s the law of the land. The regime announced within the past year that they were no longer going to enforce it. It’s a dictator’s wet dream to do what Obama is doing. If he doesn’t agree with the law, voila, it’s no longer enforced. It may as well not even exist. That’s who he is, folks…

…Yeah, there’s no way Obama would ever not enforce immigration law. There’s no way Obama would ignore the Constitution and just write a health care law that basically pees all over it. No way, Obama wouldn’t do any of that, Democrat Party, no, they respect the rule, they wouldn’t do anything like that. No, of course they wouldn’t. Why should civil rights laws be enforced? Once you start cherry-picking these things and once the laws you enforce or don’t enforce strictly because whether you like ‘em or not, what if we started obeying laws on that basis or not? If the president of the United States can choose to enforce or not enforce law because he likes them or doesn’t like them, what about us?

OBAMA CONFUSES NOVELS WITH MEMOIRS

In a post-modern world where truth and falsity have no specific boundaries and many question the distinction, fake memoirs sell well.  Mark Steyn's opening  paragraph in his latest article (aptly subtitled, "We're too busy inventing ourselves to be interested in the truth"),  is worth noting:

Courtesy of David Maraniss’s new book [Barack Obama: The Story], we now know that yet another key prop of Barack Obama’s identity is false: His Kenyan grandfather was not brutally tortured or even non-brutally detained by his British colonial masters. The composite gram’pa joins an ever-swelling cast of characters from Barack’s “memoir” who, to put it discreetly, differ somewhat in reality from their bit parts in the grand Obama narrative. The best friend at school portrayed in Obama’s autobiography as “a symbol of young blackness” was, in fact, half Japanese, and not a close friend. The white girlfriend he took to an off-Broadway play that prompted an angry post-show exchange about race never saw the play, dated Obama in an entirely different time zone, and had no such world-historically significant conversation with him. His Indonesian step-grandfather supposedly killed by Dutch soldiers during his people’s valiant struggle against colonialism met his actual demise when he “fell off a chair at his home while trying to hang drapes.”   [more . . .]

June 23, 2012 4:00 A.M. Obama’s Great American Novel We’re too busy inventing ourselves to be interested in the truth. By Mark Steyn About Author Archive Latest RSS Send Follow•  20016 followers in Share8 Print Text   Comments 35 Mark Steyn  Courtesy of David Maraniss’s new book, we now know that yet another key prop of Barack Obama’s identity is false: His Kenyan grandfather was not brutally tortured or even non-brutally detained by his British colonial masters. The composite gram’pa joins an ever-swelling cast of characters from Barack’s “memoir” who, to put it discreetly, differ somewhat in reality from their bit parts in the grand Obama narrative. The best friend at school portrayed in Obama’s autobiography as “a symbol of young blackness” was, in fact, half Japanese, and not a close friend. The white girlfriend he took to an off-Broadway play that prompted an angry post-show exchange about race never saw the play, dated Obama in an entirely different time zone, and had no such world-historically significant conversation with him. His Indonesian step-grandfather supposedly killed by Dutch soldiers during his people’s valiant struggle against colonialism met his actual demise when he “fell off a chair at his home while trying to hang drapes.” David Maraniss is no right-winger, and can’t understand why boorish non-literary types have seized on his book as evidence that the president of the United States is a Grade A phony. “It is a legitimate question about where the line is in memoir,” he told Soledad O’Brien on CNN. My Oxford dictionary defines “memoir” as “an historical account or biography written from personal knowledge.” And if Obama doesn’t have “personal knowledge” of his tortured grandfather, war-hero step-grandfather, and racially obsessed theater-buff girlfriend, who does? But in recent years, the Left has turned the fake memoir into one of the most prestigious literary genres: Oprah’s Book Club recommended James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces, hailed by Bret Easton Ellis as a “heartbreaking memoir” of “poetic honesty,” but subsequently revealed to be heavy on the “poetic” and rather light on the “honesty.” The “heartbreaking memoir” of a drug-addled street punk who got tossed in the slammer after brawling with cops while high on crack with his narco-hooker girlfriend proved to be the work of some suburban Pat Boone type with a couple of parking tickets. (I exaggerate, but not as much as he did.) Advertisement Oprah was also smitten by The Education of Little Tree, the heartwarmingly honest memoir of a Cherokee childhood which turned out to be concocted by a former Klansman whose only previous notable literary work was George Wallace’s “Segregation Forever” speech. Fragments: Memories of a Wartime Childhood is a heartbreakingly honest, poetically searing, searingly painful, painfully honest, etc. account of Binjamin Wilkomirski’s unimaginably horrific boyhood in the Jewish ghetto of Riga and the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. After his memoir won America’s respected National Jewish Book Award, Mr. Wilkomirski was inevitably discovered to have been born in Switzerland and spent the war in a prosperous neighborhood of Zurich being raised by a nice middle-class couple.  He certainly had a deprived childhood, at least from the point of view of a literary agent pitching a memoir to a major publisher. But the “unimaginable” horror of his book turned out to be all too easily imagined. Fake memoirs have won the Nobel Peace Prize and are taught at Ivy League schools to the scions of middle-class families who take on six figure debts for the privilege (I, Rigoberta Menchú). They’re handed out by the Pentagon to senior officers embarking on a tour of Afghanistan (Greg Mortenson’s Three Cups of Tea) on the entirely reasonable grounds that a complete fantasy could hardly be less credible than current NATO strategy. In such a world, it was surely only a matter of time before a fake memoirist got elected as president of the United States. Indeed, the aforementioned Rigoberta Menchú ran as a candidate in the 2007 and 2011 presidential elections in Guatemala, although she got knocked out in the first round — Guatemalans evidently being disinclined to elect someone to the highest office in the land with no accomplishment whatsoever apart from a lousy fake memoir. Which just goes to show what a bunch of unsophisticated rubes they are. In an inspired line of argument, Ben Smith of the website BuzzFeed suggests that the controversy over Dreams from My Father is the fault of conservatives who have “taken the self-portrait at face value.”  We are so unlettered and hicky that we think a memoir is about stuff that actually happened rather than a literary jeu d’esprit playing with nuances of notions of assumptions of preconceptions of concoctions of invented baloney. And so we regard the first member of the Invented-American community to make it to the White House as a kinda weird development rather than an encouraging sign of how a new post-racial, post-gender, post-modern America is moving beyond the old straightjackets of black and white, male and female, gay and straight, real and hallucinatory. The question now is whether the United States itself is merely the latest chapter of Obama’s fake memoir. You’ll notice that, in the examples listed above, the invention only goes one way. No Cherokee orphan, Holocaust survivor, or recovering drug addict pretends to be George Wallace’s speechwriter. Instead, the beneficiaries of boring middle-class Western life seek to appropriate the narratives and thereby enjoy the electric frisson of fashionable victim groups. And so it goes with public policy in the West at twilight. 1   2   Next > in Share8 Print Text   You Might Also Like... Goldberg: Obama’s Truthiness Comments (35) Hanson: Obama’s ‘They’-Did-It Campaign Comments (166) Lowry: The Vanity Leaks Comments (28) Barone: Obama Listens to Rich Liberals, at His Peril Comments (12) Tuttle: The Politics of Race Comments (17) Sowell: Barack Obama: Dictator of the Left Comments (95) Ads by Google Public Admin Masters Earn Your MPA Online at USC. Ranked #7 "Best Graduate Schools." 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HOPE & CHANGE FOUR YEARS LATER

Fox News produced the following accurate summation of Obama's grand promises and their sorry "fulfillment."  I am amazed that such facts aren't constantly dwelling in American minds when thinking of Obama's promised "hope & change."

 

THE "OBAMA IS A NICE GUY" REFRAIN IS NOT TRUE

Michele Malkin reminds us of just how thuggish this President is. 

ROMAN CATHOLICS AREN'T BACKING DOWN FROM THE HHS MANDATE FIGHT

This is a good, tough video.  Hat tip to Ed Morrissey, whom see for commentary.  Catholics Called to Witness created the video.  Good for them!  The Obama administration's war on religious freedom requires resistance from all quarters.

 

CNN'S SOLEDAD O'BRIEN ILLUSTRATES DEMOCRAT MEDIA BIAS - AMAZING!

(Update 3/14/12) - Michelle Malkin gives us background on Soledad O'Brien's personal and emotional commitments that most people don't know.  Don't look to her for objective journalism.

(Original post) - Below is the "must see" video I linked to earlier today.   Ed Morrissey offers commentary.  The left can be depended on to cast its opponents as "racist."  The issue here is the Democratic media complex acting as a gatekeeper over what the public can see and know. 

Pollak ran for Congress in 2010.  Here's a commercial featuring Joel Pollak's lovely South African wife.  I would think she pretty much defuses the charge of racism!  (HT Morrissey)

Update: On Obama and Harvard Professor Derrick Bell, Investor's Business Daily (via Pamela Gellar) opines:

 

QUICK TAKES - HEADLINES FROM THE DRUDGE REPORT

Current headlines from Drudge:

Update: - This is an AMAZING, MUST-SEE video of Soledad O'Brien interviewing Mr. Joel Pollack, the editor of Brietbart.com.  I found it absolutely astonishing and revelatory!!  The mainspring press is going hysterical over the new Breitbart video of Obama at Harvard.  Breitbart knew what he was doing when he hired Pollack. The man is calm, articulate, and unflappable.  He gets his points across magnificently.  Update 2: I've just posted the video on this blog.

(Original post):

BREITBART OBAMA VIDEO RELEASED...

And this video is a smoking gun showing that Barack Obama not only associated with radicals, he was their advocate.

Iran Building Drones for Hugo Chavez...

PAPER: US offered Israel advanced weaponry in exchange for delaying Iran attack...

Panetta: 'International Permission' Trumps Congressional Permission For Military Actions...

VIDEO: THE CON ARTIST

Ed Morrissey explains:

Last night, as expected, the Academy Award went to The Artist, a modern silent film that had gotten plenty of Oscar buzz from the moment it hit the screens.  Raising Red, a conservative group, showed great prescience and demonstrates an acerbic wit in their parody The Con Artist, which features the broken promises of a political leading man who broke hearts around the country when he failed to deliver:

 

HARRY JACKSON: THE CHURCHES OF CAIN AND OBAMA

This article by Bishop Jackson will be an eye-opener for those unfamiliar with theology's powerful influence on economic, political, and social positions.   Jackson writes:

When Herman Cain began singing "Amazing Grace" at the National Press Club on Monday, some believed he was trying to distract attention from the sexual harassment charges that had surfaced against him. But, as he explained, "My faith is a big part of who Herman Cain is." In fact, though he's decided to campaign on his background in business, Mr. Cain is an ordained minister and deeply religious man.

Like President Obama, Mr. Cain belongs to a mostly black congregation with a black pastor. But that is where the similarities end. Stark differences between the political philosophies of these two men may be rooted in their profoundly different theological heritages. The churches both men are (or in the case of Mr. Obama, were) longtime members of are known for liberal activism, but with notable differences in their views of scripture.