Obama's Terrorism-Shielding Envoy to the Muslim World
On Feb. 20, 2003, Professor Sami Al-Arian of the University of South Florida was arrested by the Department of Justice for his leadership of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a designated terrorist organization. Al-Arian was a radical supporter of Islamic terrorism, a man who announced at rallies that he sought "victory to Islam" and "death to Israel." He created the organization in America, designed, at least in part, to bring terrorists to U.S. soil.
On Sept. 5, 2004, law student Rashad Hussain spoke at a Muslim Student Association (MSA) conference. The MSA is in and of itself a troublesome organization, which has been repeatedly linked to terror -- but that wasn't the main problem. The main problem was Hussain's speech, in which he explicitly defended Al-Arian, calling his prosecution "a sad commentary on our legal system … a travesty of justice … [one incident in a] common pattern … of politically-motivated prosecutions."
On Feb. 28, 2006, Sami Al-Arian pled guilty to conspiracy to help Islamic Jihad.
And on Feb. 14, 2010, President Barack Obama appointed Rashad Hussain to his Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference.
When news broke of Hussain's 2004 statements, Hussain immediately called reports mistaken, explaining that he had not uttered those words. Unfortunately for Hussain, Politico.com quickly recovered a tape of the MSA conference. Hussain then backtracked, stating, "I made clear at the time that I was not commenting on the allegations themselves. The judicial process has now concluded, and I have full faith in its outcome." Very reassuring.
Unsurprisingly, the Obama administration is standing by its man, the same way they originally stood by communism-friendly Green Czar Van Jones. This is troubling not only because Obama consistently elevates those who champion anti-American causes, including Jones and Hussain, but also because of his original selection of these people for powerful posts.
Last Updated (Wednesday, 24 February 2010 15:29)
I Hereby Volunteer to Vomit on Susan SarandonAccording to James Hirsen of Examiner.com, Susan Sarandon had an odd night recently: Oscar winning actress Susan Sarandon has had a bad time of it lately. The actress recently separated from her long time partner, actor Tim Robbins. Sarandon attended the third anniversary of The Box in New York's Lower East Side. A transsexual cabaret performer named Rose Wood engaged in projectile vomiting on stage and hit Sarandon with it. Standing nearby were Scarlett Johansson and Liev Schreiber. According to Wood it was not intended as an affront to the actress and she didn't take it that way. “Apparently [Sarandon] got a big kick out of it. She squealed with surprise and loved it when several handsome gentlemen wiped it off of her. She had a ball! I saw her assistant downstairs afterward, and he was moved by it! She was in great spirits,” Wood told the New York Press.
Nothing says fun like vomit. This sort of “performance art” is the death of true art. I know, I know, art is subjective. But transsexuals vomiting on people is not art – it’s gross. And mostly, it carries an unvarying underlying leftism: the idea that action that is “subversive” is automatically artistic. Art historian Roselee Goldberg sums up performance art this way: “Performance has been a way of appealing directly to a large public, as well as shocking audiences into reassessing their own notions of art and its relation to culture.” Here’s what Janelle Reinelt and Joseph Roach say in Critical Theory and Performance: “The current commodification process of much performance art suggests than any subversive potential inherent in the art form loses its capacity to engage in any radical critique once it enters more mainstream mass culture venues and spectatorships.” The truth is that performance art is largely a function of critical theory (one of the awful creations of the Frankfurt School), which suggests that any artistic material that is worth its salt ought to criticize. Hence the production of art which is utterly disgusting and disreputable – at least it doesn’t enforce the capitalist status quo by appealing to the people. Boiled down to its essence, this is just elitist claptrap. Unfortunately, it’s taken seriously by the vast majority of New York and Los Angeles artists, who somehow think it’s cool to be the object of transsexual chunk-blowing. I’m not a transsexual, obviously, but I’ll make Susan Sarandon and her ilk this offer: I’ll vomit on them at any time, anywhere, so long as they say the same thing – that it’s avant garde performance art worthy of praise. Seriously. I have a very strong gag reflex. Which is just one reason the left’s version of art is so unbelievably hard to stomach.
We Don't Need a Savior (Not Brown, Not Palin, Not Gingrich)After his stunning Senate victory in Massachusetts, Scott Brown was hailed by many on the right as a possible leader for the nascent Tea Party movement, a possible 2012 Republican nominee, and the face of the new movement. Today, he proved he is none of those: A modest job-creation bill advanced in the U.S. Senate on Monday as the chamber's newest Republican bucked his party and sided with Democrats on a $15 billion package of tax cuts and highway spending. Republican Scott Brown joined four other Republicans, 55 Democrats and two independents to overcome a procedural hurdle that sets up a final vote later this week. ... Brown said the bill was not perfect but would help put people back to work. "I hope my vote today is a strong step toward restoring bipartisanship in Washington," he said in a statement. This is obviously idiotic. We didn't back Scott Brown so that he would restore bipartisanship, and we didn't elect him so that he would vote with Democrats on yet another moronic spending bill. We elected Brown because were sick and tired of the Democrats' attempt to hijack the American economy and turn the private sector into a function of the public sector. Should we regret electing Brown? Of course not -- he'd be far better than any Democrat in that seat. But this underscores the fact that the Republican Party and the Tea Party movement are not synonymous, and that many Republicans still don't get it. More than that, this demonstrates that people on the right need to stop looking for a figurehead. Sarah Palin is not it. Scott Brown is not it. The reason the Tea Party movement is successful is because it has no recognizable leaders, no individuals others can point to and say, "He's the one in charge." Because we're the ones in charge, not any single figure. Leave it to the left to deify their leaders; I'd prefer to rely on the wisdom of the American people. Reagan was the product of a movement, not the savior of one. Let's produce our own leaders, not rely on the media or the heads of the Republican Party to tell us who those leaders should be. Last Updated (Tuesday, 23 February 2010 01:09) Obama's Imperial PresidencyIn 1973, liberal historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. released a book entitled The Imperial Presidency. He updated it in 2004 with a new introduction, in which he wrote: The American Constitution, the book argues, envisages a strong presidency within an equally strong system of accountability. When the constitutional balance is upset in favor of presidential power and at the expense of presidential accountability, the presidency can be said to become imperial. Schlesinger, being the liberal scholar that he was, used this term as a cudgel to wield against every Republican president (others, like Clinton, got easier treatment). But there is no question that we are watching the rise of the most imperial president in American history. The President's latest proposal to effect the reconciliation process in order to pass his health care agenda is merely a symptom of an underlying ill. President Obama believes that he alone is capable of making policy, he alone is capable of implementing policy, and he alone is capable of understanding the vagaries of the universe that require his crystallization. In this quest, the legislature and democratic processes are superfluous to the grandure that he embodies. Which is why he's now writing the health care bill. Everyone seems to have overlooked one little problem in the details of his new legislation, which raise taxes in several places: in nationalizing one-sxith of the US economy, he is now originating legislation, a practice prohibited by the Constitution. Here's what the Constitution says in Article I, Section 7: All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills. How exactly does this translate into President Obama stating this today on the WhiteHouse.gov website? Over the past year the House and the Senate have been working on an effort to provide health insurance reform that lowers costs, guarantees choices, and enhances quality health care for all Americans. Building on that year-long effort, the President has now put forth a proposal that incorporates the work the House and the Senate have done and adds additional ideas from Republican members of Congress. Never mind the lies here (it is a lie that he has incorporated "additional ideas from Republican members of Congress"). Focus instead on the massive arrogance it takes to grab two separate bills and unify them under the executive rubric. This is not what the framers intended. But of course, Obama doesn't give a damn about that. His is an imperial presidency, pure and simple. And he wants us to be his subjects. No Means No, Mr. PresidentIt's a phrase we haven't heard since the halcyon days of President Clinton -- and we heard it then in a slightly different context. Nonetheless, the American public has told Obama no, and he seems think no means yes: President Barack Obama is expected to publish his healthcare plan as early as Sunday or Monday, combining features of the two Democratic bills passed by the Senate and House of Representatives, congressional aides and healthcare advocates said on Friday. ... The legislation the White House will post on its website is expected to reflect common ground negotiated over the past several weeks by House and Senate Democratic leaders. ... Those agreements are likely to be combined as a privileged budget reconciliation bill, which only needs a simple 51-vote majority to pass the 100-member Senate instead of the 60-vote supermajority that has become routine in the Senate and gives Republicans power to block the healthcare bill. It ain't just on health care. They're also pushing the egregious cap and trade bill again: A last-ditch attempt at passing a climate change bill begins in the Senate this week with senators mindful that time is running short and that approaches to the legislation still vary widely, according to sources. ... "We will present senators with a number of options when they get back from recess," said one Senate aide knowledgeable of the compromise legislation that is being developed. The goal is to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that scientists say threaten Earth. The Obama Administration is like a drunken frat boy forcing its will on the originally willing but now deeply protesting American public. If he succeeds in forcing his policies on us, we will go all Jennifer Lopez in Enough (no, I haven't seen the movie, but I've seen the commercials, which are tantamount to seeing a Jennifer Lopez movie) on him come November. It won't be pretty. And to paraphrase a far better movie: President Obama -- go ahead. Make our day. Do you feel lucky, punk? Well, do ya? |
- Obama's Terrorism-Shielding Envoy to the Muslim World
- I Hereby Volunteer to Vomit on Susan Sarandon
- We Don't Need a Savior (Not Brown, Not Palin, Not Gingrich)
- Obama's Imperial Presidency
- No Means No, Mr. President
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