Losing His Religion
I said early on, back when all the Jeremiah Wright sermons were coming out, that Obama's christianity and church choice seemed far more politically oriented than anything else. This isn't anything unique to Obama, or even to politicians. I think it's more common in small towns, but anyone who has spent any time in church knows there are always people who attend for the social, economic, or political benefits. Others attend to avoid the social, economic, or political damage that comes from not participating. It's a pitfall of living in a country where Christianity is the dominant religion.
The thing is, if it weren't for church attendance, no one would think of these folks as Christians. It's only natural, then, that for such people, their attendance needs to be very regular and visible. With Obama, the confusion over his religion goes all the way back,and many people have been hearing conflicting stories for years. Contrast this with George W. Bush, whose Christian beliefs were made public and pounced on by liberals who seem to only be able to tolerate Social Justice Christianity. Since I don't know that the question was ever asked, I'm left to wonder what percentage of respondents would have thought he was Muslim. I would guess only the Neo Nazis and Jim Birch types would have answered that way.
The other key about the politically motivated church members is that they have no real desire to be in church. It's hard enough to want to go when you, well, want to be there. But when you don't want to go, all sorts of obstacles tend to pop up to keep you out. For some, it's late nights on Saturday. For others, there's yard work to be done. For those who are so inclined and have the means, it's golf. My cynicism with regard to Obama leads me to believe that since his attendance was designed to get him to as high an elected office as possible, he no longer has any incentive to attend now that he has attained the highest elected office in the free world. And now that he's no longer attending, or making any sort of waves with his faith, Americans are losing sight of what he wanted them to remember.
Also, we're all aware that, as Franklin Graham noted, Obama was born a muslim. The fact that, as an adult, he converted to Christianity, will be overlooked by a couple of groups of people. First, the devout muslims in our country would, presumably, still consider him to be a muslim. Second, every politician has political enemies who just simply refuse to believe anything he says. There were those who claimed Bush wasn't a Christian; their claims were based on their disagreement with his policies. Third, the portion of the population that pays just enough attention to be dangerous. The same group who thought Republicans were running congress in 2008, or who think Sarah Palin actually said she could see Russia from her house, are prone to hear just enough about Obama being born a muslim to think he's still a muslim. I can't imagine any reason those three groups wouldn't equal, say, 18% of the poll taking population.
Send your cards and letters!
Code Pink Founder Jodie Evans
At first I thought (and commented on the blog) "wow if I were a liberal, what would I do with THAT information?" And there were interesting suggestions.
Then, today I see THIS and have decided that as a conservative and you know, a HUMAN that this is what I would do with that information: Send a letter to Ms. Evans and let her know just what I think of her organization in general...and about her comments on the death of Debbie Lee's son in particular. Then, I would ask my friends, tweeps, and blog readers to do the same....and to tell two friends, and they can tell two friends and so on and so on.
So, grab a pen and jot this down:
Jodie Evans
757 Palms Blvd.
Venice, CA 90291
and send her a quick little note expressing your feelings. Be polite, be respectful (things she of course will not recognize, but that isn't the point) but tell her what you think.
Have fun!
UPDATE: So over at Andrew Breitbart's Big Peace it seems Ms. Evans got a little taste of her own medicine. I'm still trying to figure out why Andrew was wearing inline skates, but I'm having fun with the imagining. :) So get those cards and letters in the mail y'all, she's primed and ready for a little conservative activist snail mail!
Liar-in-Chief Warns Americans Not To Be Fooled
Remember how ObamaCare was going to lower premium costs and the deficit? Not so much, anymore. But Obama's warning you to be on your guard.
U.S. President Barack Obama Saturday warned of a "corporate takeover" of democracy and said Republicans want the public kept "in the dark" on campaign funding.
In his weekly radio and Internet address, the Democratic president found fault with a Supreme Court ruling that permits corporations, unions and other organizations to spend "unlimited amounts of money to influence our elections."
"They can buy millions of dollars worth of TV ads -- and worst of all, they don't even have to reveal who is actually paying for them," he said.
"A group can hide behind a phony name like 'Citizens for a Better Future,' even if a more accurate name would be 'Corporations for Weaker Oversight.'"
Well, gee. Obama for America became Organizing for America. ShoreBank just became Urban Partnership Bank, after costing taxpayers almost $400 million, which will go directly to Goldman Sachs and others (Obama backs mob funder Alexi Giannoulias). In Missouri, ACORN has morphed into MORE. Issa notes that Obama and company have been using Stimulus funds to advertise, and Congress just passed a union bailout bill with no name.
He blamed GOP leaders for killing legislation this summer that would require "corporate political advertisers to reveal who's funding their activities."
"But the Republican leaders in Congress said no," Obama said. "In fact, they used their power to block the issue from even coming up for a vote.
"This can only mean that the leaders of the other party want to keep the public in the dark.
"Well, we cannot allow the corporate takeover of our democracy," he said, while urging Americans to "challenge every elected official who benefits from these ads to defend this practice or join us in stopping it."
And Obama, apart from supporting "card check," otherwise denominated Orwellianly as the Employee Freedom of Choice Act, has thrice backed exempting unions from disclosure laws that other institutions have to follow.
Let me be clear. Bite me.
Good News From Cowboy!
Because much of our daily thoughts are centered on attacking the Darkness of this world, I thought today I would bring to you, Dear Reader, some Good News regarding our brother, Cowboy.
As frequent readers will know, Cowboy (our beloved brother and commenter) has been through the ringer more than once with regards to Cancer. A few months ago he wrote to me asking for prayers when his physicians noted some interesting shadows. Hence, the call went out for prayers for Cowboy and his beloved Family.
Well, a week or so ago Cowboy emailed me with an update - the email was entitled "Some Light!"
Some good news!
Yesterday, the first of the three doctors--my G.P.--involved in my exploratory surgery and liver tests said he looked at the last set of scans and believes that the "spot" was "highly unlikely to be a carcinoid, more likely a blood hemangioma, which is common." I don't know yet what a hemangioma is, but this is great news!
I have scheduled an appointment with my oncologist for this week and I'll feel better if I hear the same thing from him because of the three doctors involved, he's by far the most blunt and pessimistic.
So, if we here at POWIP could impose on you, Dear Reader, for one more round of Prayers and Thanksgiving to the Eternal One On High, we would surely be indebted.
To Cowboy our Love and Energy we send. May you be delivered - body and Soul.
Rebuild St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church
Now this is a worthwhile cause... From commenter "1389AD" whose blog home is Antijihadist Tech
The Ground Zero Mosque or ANY mosque has the potential, and in fact the likelihood, of becoming a focus of jihadism and a source of subversive propaganda (taqiyya). That is simply because jihadism (and no, I do not mean “internal struggle”) and taqiyya are central and indispensible tenets of Islam.
If the 9-11 mosque in the US were to be built, it too would become a pilgrimage and recruitment center for jihadis. This is a matter, not only of respect for the dead, but of national security.
While the tranzi-progressive/pro-jihadi NYC bureaucrats, politicians, and media pundits are doing everything they can to smooth the way for this mosque (and being very self-righteous about their reasons for this), they are creating every possible obstacle to the rebuilding of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, which was destroyed in the 9-11 attack when the South Tower fell on it.
Rebuild St. Nicholas CHURCH at Ground Zero, not a mosque
The parish still has an active congregation but no building; they have been meeting to worship in Brooklyn. Now, many of us Orthodox Christians, working pretty much independently by word of mouth among friends and parishoners, have finally succeeded in getting some news media attention to this matter.
I’d like to ask all Americans supporting St. Nicholas Church to call, write, or better yet, GO AND VISIT the offices of their US Representative and US Senators. You will probably just get to talk to a staffer, but the staffer will pass this information along. It makes a BIG difference if you take the trouble to write a personal letter or show up in person.
Everyone, please, pass the information along to everybody else you know who might be interested. Put it on Facebook, repost it on your own blog, email it to your friends and relatives, whatever else you can think of.
Clint Didier: He came, he lost, he whined
I usually wouldn't crosspost local stuff, but this could be an important race, and I don't think it's getting enough coverage. Just putting this out there: I'm totally willing to say I slept with Dino Rossi to increase coverage.
My entire beef with the Teaparty movement (which doesn't mean I'm anti-teaparty movement) can be summed up in Clint Didier's oozing sore loser concession speech to Dino Rossi this morning. Summary: He's withholding his endorsement of Rossi until Rossi can commit to things Rossi's stood for all along.
KIRO7: Didier said he wants to endorse Rossi if the Republican will promise to support pro-life issues, pledge no new taxes and show that he's serious about cutting federal spending.
Didier's still trying to make a winner out of his losing campaign strategy that Dino Rossi is some kind of RINO. Apparently, RINO now means anyone running on a Republican ticket that you've actually heard of before.
As for the criteria he's laying out for his irrelevant endorsement, the only way Rossi is soft on abortion is because he favors it being legal in cases of rape and incest. So do I. That hardly means we think pregnancies that result from rape and incest should all be aborted. What that means, for me, is that if for the last 30 years abortion had been illegal except for cases of rape and incest millions of Americans that died in abortions would be alive and millions more Americans would identify as pro-life. Yes, I'm willing to compromise my principles when they're covered in blood and stubborn idealism.
Didier's demanding Rossi promise to vote against any new taxes and against raising existing ones and to support cutting federal spending. Perhaps Didier should have perused the issues tab at www.dinorossi.com at some point during the campaign. Or even have just googled Dino Rossi anytime since the invention of googling. Rossi's whole platform is cutting taxes and spending. Always has been.
That spectacle this morning was nothing but a sore loser pity party. I don't understand what purpose this serves other than helping Harry Reid's handmaiden, Patty Murray. Thankfully, it seems his supporters are in touch with reality. Washington State political twitter guru, Nansen Malin, has posted multiple tweets about Didier supporters inquiring about Rossi campaign signs, way to support him.
By the way, the primary results were Murray (46%), Rossi (34%) and Didier (12%). That's right. A dead heat.
crossposted at KillTruck, Snark and Boobs
Krauthammer Sticks Michael Kinsley Like a … Pig
H/T @Sky_Bluez
The Atlantic's Michael Kinsley was typical in arguing that the only possible grounds for opposing the Ground Zero mosque are bigotry or demagoguery. Well then, what about Pope John Paul II's ordering the closing of the Carmelite convent just outside Auschwitz? (Surely there can be no one more innocent of that crime than those devout nuns.) How does Kinsley explain this remarkable demonstration of sensitivity, this order to pray -- but not there? He doesn't even feign analysis. He simply asserts that the decision is something "I confess that I never did understand.
Entire article here
Remembering 9-11 & Ground Zero [UPDATED]
Powerful video by Carol of No Sheeples:
WND has a useful post up about some of the connections between Obama's pals and Imam Rauf. In reponse to the news that lots of people think Obama's a Muslim, the White House pushed back, saying that he's a Christian and prays daily. I'm personally of the camp that he's irreligous. He says he forgoes services so as not to inconvenience others, but he's willing to cause major traffic jams in LA to fund raise in Hollywood. His chief religious advisor, Jim Wallis, is in the pay of Soros, despite his claims to the contrary---a sort of "Christian" form of taqqiya, I suppose. Bad for the optics, presumably, is NYC's refusal to let a Greek Orthodox church destroyed on 9-11 rebuild. Cordoba Initiative's @Park51 Chief Twitterer Insultin' Oz Sultan should perhaps seek a job at a carnival booth.
Speaking of quotation marks, Mark Knoller yesterday informed us that a White House spokesperson commenting on the President's vacation to Martha's Vineyard (site of the last sighting of a live Passenger Pigeon, IIRC) said that they ought to be wrapped around any use of the word "vacation," because a President (by which he means this one) is never really on vacation. Later in the day, the AP issued some guidelines about how journalists shouldn't refer to the proposed mosque site as "Ground Zero." At least AP journalists are able to refer to it as a mosque, though I've been challenged on those grounds as well, by sympathizers who feel that they can defuse the issue by characterizing it instead as a cultural center. As Jim Treacher points out, that tends to weaken the argument that this is about religious liberties, of which many leftists are suddenly advocates. The best argument that it is a mosque is probably that that's the way the Cordoba Initiative refers to it. That's not to mention that on three occasions the State Department has paid for Imam Rauf to travel on their dime to fund raise abroad, despite the vaunted Separation of Church and State, which under other circumstances would raise liberal hackles. Apostate Walid Shoebat has a nice rundown on the Imam, and Andrew Cline considers our Lecturer-in-Chief, while Raymond Ibrahim considers the Muslims who regard resistance to the building of the Ground Zero Mosque a Zionist conspiracy. Related would be Issa's findings on Stimulus funds being laundered through unions exempt from disclosure laws used to propagandize for Obamaism and Democrats are being advised on how to spin Obamacare so as not to get their asses bitten again in 2012. Matthew Vadum also finds some "Green Shoots," but they happen to be ACORN.
I do appreciate Issa, but I wish he wouldn't talk about how he's going to use the subpoena power when he gets it. I think most people are focused at the moment on how to stem and reverse the enormous growth of government, first.
Regarding apostates, UCLA has seen fit to terminate the services of people who find themselves opposing AGW orthodoxy. Al Gore, meanwhile, is angry that the chance to ram through pseudoscientific laws regarding emissions, which would enrich him and other such worthies as Franklin Raines, has been lost, for the moment, and is urging people to take to the streets. His second chakra just can't seem to catch a break.
Also worth paying attention to is the strange story out of St. Louis regarding a supposed firebombing at a Russ Carnahan campaign office, in which the suspect was captured and released without being booked on charges. In London, a supposed hate crime against Muslims is also being questioned.
I'm not going to timing question Roger Clemens' indictment for lying to Congress. I'm just going to say that it's nice that Congress takes such an interest in America's deep concern with the Integrity of Professional Sports. Had he perjured himself under oath about something less important, such as sex with an intern, it wouldn't be such a big deal, because everybody does that, I'm told.
UPDATE: It's only a matter of time before I get Olbermann's coveted Worst Person in the World award.
WND Email: OMG, Can You Believe Ann Coulter Said Something Intemperate?
I think I'll just dispense with the fair use worries:
By Joe Kovacs
© 2010 WorldNetDailyAnn Coulter promoted on a poster for a homosexual-sponsored event
Link: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=192885
MIAMI – Conservative superstar Ann Coulter launched a verbal assault on WND Editor Joseph Farah today, calling the veteran journalist "swine" and a publicity whore after she was dismissed as a keynote speaker for the news site's upcoming "Taking America Back National Conference" here.
"[F]arah is doing this for PUBLICITY and publicity alone," Coulter wrote in an e-mail to the Daily Caller, a political site founded by journalist Tucker Carlson.
As reported yesterday, Coulter was dropped from WND's event next month because of her plan to address a gathering titled "HOMOCON" sponsored by the homosexual Republican group GOProud that promotes same-sex marriage and military service for open homosexuals.
Farah said the decision was a gut-wrenching one for his team because of their fondness for Coulter as both a person and writer-speaker.
"Ultimately, as a matter of principle, it would not make sense for us to have Ann speak to a conference about 'taking America back' when she clearly does not recognize that the ideals to be espoused there simply do not include the radical and very 'unconservative' agenda represented by GOProud," said Farah. "The drift of the conservative movement to a brand of materialistic libertarianism is one of the main reasons we planned this conference from the beginning."
Coulter took issue with WND's publication of her e-mail discussion with Farah concerning her appearance.
"[T]his was an email exchange [between] friends and even though I didn't expressly say 'OFF THE RECORD' and I believe everything I said, he's a swine for using my private emails politely answering him," Coulter wrote to the Daily Caller. "[W]hy would he do such a despicable thing? ... for PUBLICITY."
She continued: "I will say that [Farah] could give less than two sh--s about the conservative movement – as demonstrated by his promotion of the birther nonsense (long ago disproved by my newspaper, human events, also sweetness & light, american spectator and national review etc, etc etc). He's the only allegedly serious conservative pushing the birther thing. for ONE reason: to get hits on his website."
Farah responded to Coulter's remarks, saying, "Ann is angry. I hope she calms down and there can be some restoration, repentance and forgiveness. She said some mean things about me, but I can sleep at night knowing I did the right thing in God's economy."
David Kupelian, WND's long-time managing editor, added, "Ann Coulter's a hero to many, but her angry accusation that we were motivated by publicity couldn't be more off-base. This wasn't Farah's sole decision; our executive team, including me, discussed this at length in a serious and thoughtful manner, and in the end, we went with what we considered to be the principled decision."
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