Barack Obama -- June 9, 2009

June 9, 2009

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"Islam has always been a part of America’s story"

Barack Hussein Obama

event	description
Is There A Muslim In The Oval Office?	With Obama's unbelievably ballyhooed address in Cairo Thursday to what he calls "the Muslim world" (hereafter known as "the Speech"), there is mounting evidence that Obama not only identifies with Muslims, but actually may still be one himself. Consider the following indicators: • Obama referred four times in his speech to "the Holy Koran." Non-Muslims -- even pandering ones -- generally don't use that Islamic formulation. • Obama established his firsthand knowledge of Islam (albeit without mentioning his reported upbringing in the faith) with the statement, "I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed." Again, "revealed" is a depiction Muslims use to reflect their conviction that the Koran is the word of God, as dictated to Muhammad. • Then Obama made a statement no believing Christian -- certainly not one versed, as he professes to be, in the ways of Islam -- would ever make. In the context of what he euphemistically called the "situation between Israelis, Palestinians and Arabs," Obama said he looked forward to the day ". . . when Jerusalem is a secure and lasting home for Jews and Christians and Muslims, and a place for all of the children of Abraham to mingle peacefully together as in the story of Isra, when Moses, Jesus and Muhammad (peace be upon them) joined in prayer." Now, the term "peace be upon them" is invoked by Muslims as a way of blessing deceased holy men. According to Islam, that is what all three were -- dead prophets. Of course, for Christians, Jesus is the living and immortal Son of God. In the final analysis, it may be beside the point whether Obama actually is a Muslim. In the Speech and elsewhere, he has aligned himself with adherents to what authoritative Islam calls Shariah -- notably, the dangerous global movement known as the Muslim Brotherhood -- to a degree that makes Mr. Clinton's fabled affinity for blacks pale by comparison. For example, Obama has -- from literally his inaugural address onward -- inflated the numbers and, in that way and others, exaggerated the contemporary and historical importance of Muslim-Americans in the United States. In the Speech, he used the Brotherhood's estimates of "nearly 7 million Muslims" in this country, at least twice the estimates from other, more reputable sources. (Who knows? By the time Obama's friends in the radical Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) perpetrate their trademark books-cooking as deputy 2010 census takers, the official count may well claim considerably more than 7 million Muslims are living here.) Even more troubling were the commitments the president made in Cairo to promote Islam in America. For instance, he declared: "I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear." He vowed to ensure that women can cover their heads, including, presumably, when having their photographs taken for passports, driver's licenses or other identification purposes. He also pledged to enable Muslims to engage in zakat, their faith's requirement for tithing, even though four of the eight types of charity called for by Shariah can be associated with terrorism. Not surprisingly, a number of Islamic "charities" in this country have been convicted of providing material support for terrorism. Particularly worrying is the realignment Obama has announced in U.S. policy toward Israel. While he pays lip service to the "unbreakable" bond between America and the Jewish state, the president has unmistakably signaled that he intends to compel the Israelis to make territorial and other strategic concessions to Palestinians to achieve the hallowed two-state solution. In doing so, he ignores the inconvenient fact that both the Brotherhood's Hamas and Abu Mazen's Fatah remain determined to achieve a one-state solution, whereby the Jews will be driven "into the sea." Whether Obama actually is a Muslim or simply plays one in the presidency may, in the end, be irrelevant. What is alarming is that in aligning himself and his policies with those of Shariah-adherents such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Obama will greatly intensify the already enormous pressure on peaceful, tolerant American Muslims to submit to such forces -- and heighten expectations, here and abroad, that the rest of us will do so as well. Read what a Muslim says -- "My Muslim President"
Obama’s Happy Muslim Rainbow Tour	"As the Holy [sic!] Koran tells us, Be conscious of God and speak always the truth," Obama told his audience at the beginning of his much heralded speech in Cairo last week. It was a remarkable performance: not a single significant statement he made on the nature of Islam, or on America’s relationship with the Muslim world, or on the terrorist threat, complied with the quoted command of the prophet of Islam. Obama’s two immediate predecessors have done a lot of respectful kowtowing, of course. Bill Clinton declared before the United Nations in September 1998, "There is no inherent clash between Islam and America." Three years and several thousand American lives later, President Bush said, "there are millions of good Americans who practice the Muslim faith who love their country as much as I love the country." Four years after 9-11 he continued insisting "the evil" unleashed on that day "is very different from the religion of Islam," and its proponents "distort the idea of jihad into a call for terrorist murder against Christians and Jews and Hindus." Obama brings a new quality to the continuum, however. He is developing the theme in Islam’s heartland. He is doing it in a manner likely to raise geopolitical expectations that cannot be fulfilled, and certain to cement even further the Muslim myth of blameless victimhood. It is the greatest favor any recruiter for the cause of global jihad could hope for. Is Obama deluded or mendacious? In view of his middle name and family history, the question is more legitimate than it would have been with Clinton or Bush. Continue reading here . . .
Obama Destroying U.S. Economy	Talk radio icon Rush Limbaugh says Barack Obama has become the Mikhail Gorbachev of the United States, overseeing its destruction. "Mikhail Gorbachev presided over the collapse of his country like Barack Obama is presiding over the collapse of his," Limbaugh said on his program today. "And so a man who knows how to collapse his own economy is now advising us on how to collapse ours. "Ladies and gentlemen, there can be no other way to say this now. The gloves have to come off. It's time for people to sober up. The president of the United States, Barack Obama, is destroying the United States economy. There is no other way to describe this, systematically destroying it," he said. "Even the Associated Press, government-run Associated Press with a headline: 'Big Government Spending Programs Have Opposite Effect on Economy.' They are concluding that you cannot spend yourself out of a recession. So what is Obama planning to do? Spend even more, even sooner," he said. "Here is the AP story: 'The Federal Reserve announced a $1.2 trillion plan three months ago designed to push down mortgage rates and breathe life into the housing market. But this and other big government spending programs are turning out to have the opposite effect.' It is not just that they aren't working, they are hurting, they are harming." Limbaugh continued with a quote from Gorbachev, "'The model that emerged during the final decades of the 20th century has turned out to be unsustainable.' This is an op-ed piece in the Washington Post, by the way. Gorbachev wrote in an op-ed piece in the Washington Post, 'It was based on a drive for super-profits and hyper-consumption for a few, on unrestrained exploitation of resources and on social and environmental irresponsibility.'" Then came Gorbachev's prediction of "perhaps even greater upheaval down the road." "He is endorsing what Obama is doing, tearing apart the greatest economy in the history of the world. Mikhail Gorbachev, who presided over the collapse of his own economy, is essentially now endorsing the same steps taken by Barack Obama. I don't know about you, when I have a former communist totalitarian dictator articulating policies identical to those being enacted by a United States president, I get scared," he said. "Gorbachev presided over the destruction of the Soviet Union, and Barack Obama is presiding over the destruction of the United States of America. There is no other way to say this. Given the economic numbers that we have -- given the 25-year record unemployment, given that there is no positive economic news anywhere -- wouldn't somebody with common sense and a brain think that after ... eight months of an amount of spending that equals $11 trillion and an over $2 trillion budget deficit this year -- after eight months of stimulating the economy in ways that have never been done, under the theory that this was the only way to revive our U.S. economy -- isn't it time to stop and say, 'Wait a minute! The political solutions not only aren't working, they are making it worse?' "I am convinced that Barack Obama, whether he wants to or not, is in the process of destroying it (the economy). This and other big-government spending programs are turning out to have the opposite effect," Limbaugh said. Full text here . . .
Obama Destroying Best Health System Ever	Obama’s proposed healthcare plan is the "first step in destroying the best healthcare system the world has ever known," Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., told Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday." "When the government is involved more and more in the details," Shelby warned, "and you start the one-pay deal and you got the government competing with private enterprise with all the incentives the government has and the power, they can destroy the marketplace for healthcare, and it will be a mistake and the American people better be careful in what they want." Shelby was responding to the Wallace question: "The president wants a public health option. Despite his opposition during the campaign, he now says that he’s willing to consider mandates on individuals to get health insurance, on employers to pay for health insurance, as long as there’s a hardship waiver. Senator Shelby, what’s wrong with that?" Shelby’ immediate response was: "Two things. One, we don’t know how much it’s going to cost and who’s going to pay for it." The Wallace-Shelby exchange was part of a larger discussion on the program that featured not only healthcare reform but the bankruptcy of General Motors Corporation and the federal government taking a 60 percent ownership stake -- and just how much government intervention is too much. Continue reading here . . .
Obama's Economic Spin Machine	The Obama administration was out in full force defending the stimulus this weekend. The mantra is that the economy is getting better but Americans need to be patient to see progress. The problem is that, so far, there hasn't been any economic progress. White House economic adviser Austan Goolsbee promised on "Fox News Sunday": "It's going to take more than a few months to turn it around." That contradicts White House economic adviser Lawrence H. Summers' promise in January that the economy would start improving "within weeks" so long as the president's $787 billion stimulus was passed. The stimulus actually has dampened economic projections. In January, before the stimulus was passed, 53 business economists and forecasters surveyed by the Wall Street Journal expected gross domestic product (GDP) for the third quarter (July through September) to rise by 1.2 percent at an annual rate. Predictions became gloomier after the stimulus passed in March. In May, these experts forecast only a 0.6 growth rate for the third quarter. White House adviser David Axelrod told CBS' "Face the Nation": "The president was very clear when he enacted the stimulus ... unemployment was going to go up and go up for some time." We only find administration officials back then warning about unemployment rates if the stimulus didn't pass. The stimulus did pass, and unemployment rose to 9.4 percent in May. On Sunday, Mr. Goolsbee claimed we are "in the midst of the deepest recession since 1929." He must have forgotten about the Jimmy Carter recession, which brought 10.8 percent unemployment, a 13.5 percent inflation rate and similarly slow GDP growth. The unemployment rate was about 18 percent in 1938. Mr. Goolsbee said that "Obama is cutting the deficit more than $2 trillion over the 10 years compared with what he was inheriting." This claim conflicts with the Congressional Budget Office, which forecasts that the Obama administration will create a $9.3 trillion budget deficit over the next 10 years. The Obama administration is trying to rewrite history even as it is being made. The stimulus appears only to have delayed the recovery that economists were expecting before it was passed.