Faith, Freedom, and Memory: Report From Ground Zero, September 11, 2010

The weather.

On the 9th anniversary of September 11, I kept thinking about the weather. It was clear and sunny today, with temperatures in the high 70s. It was a meteorological replica of September 11, 2001. So much natural beauty, and so many beautiful people out and about, living and enjoying the serenity and sunshine. Then the unthinkable. That's how it was nine years ago. It's amazing how the vagaries of nature can make an already intense experience all the more real. (Below I'm walking down Lexington from the Radisson Hotel to 42 Street and Grand Central Station. I'll take the subway to Lower Manhattan. It's a glorious morning.)

I came to New York to be here on this day, to be here --- in person and in solidarity --- for the families of the fallen. It's my first pilgrimage to New York for a 9/11 anniversary. I visited in August 2007, but it's been three years, and Ground Zero has changed tremendously. There's a feeling of attention, affirmation, and purpose that I hadn't felt in my previous visit. The construction largely explains it, but also the weekend atmosphere, with bustling crowds of visitors moving back and forth across the city streets, an hour or so after the official memorial ceremonies. It felt like a special day. And of course, New York has been in the news constantly, and the memory of those who died that day has been disrespected by the administration in Washington and by the left's Media-Industrial-Islamist-Complex. (By his own words, Imam Rauf is no moderate, but Amercans can't get a break from the lamestream press.)

I took hundreds of pictures. Most of what follows is chronological, with special attention to the day's highlights.

Arriving in Lower Manhattan, walking over to the WTC grounds from the City Center subway station, I came upon St. Paul's Chapel. What a perfect way to start the day's events. For eight months St. Paul's was a humanitarian command center following 9/11. As I walked inside, some folks were praying. Others were taking in the sights and significance of the location. Visitors certainly have a richly human record of those times, and my few minutes was entirely inadequate for the occasion. But I was deeply moved:

I felt as though this place was in God's hands. I knelt to pray. Nothing planned, I thanked God for giving comfort to the families and for keeping America strong during times of trouble. I thanked Him for his blessings upon our nation. I asked Him to extend his Goodness and Will as we work for peace in the world.

Walking down Fulton Street toward Ground Zero, I said hello to this couple of truthers. I had no idea how large a contingent these folks would have. More on them further down:

Here's the scene at Vesey and Church Streets. It's about 10:30am, or so. The crowds were pretty heavy and would grow throughout the day:

A pair of young Marines walking down Vesey Street, near the Information Booth on West Broadway. It's a sight for sore eyes to see U.S. servicemen sometimes, and these two were handsome and polite, so starkly different from the raving anti-Americans out in large numbers today:

This is One World Trade Center. It's really the Freedom Tower, now about one-third constructed. This was a kinda rush, thinking about this tower going up:

It will look like this upon completion:

High fencing with the large promotional banners obscures the view of the construction area, but walking down near the tower, there's an entry gate where one can get a good look:

Here's the display at the Information Booth:

Here's a neat before-and-after graphic of the grounds. The memorial pools, at the second diagram, are located at the footprints of the original towers:

Here's the Cordoba Center, on Park Place. The police had erected barricades in anticipation of the protest. Park 51 is at right:

That's an Amish market on the streetcorner. Kinda like a religious trainwreck over here:

One of the truthers challenged some mosque opponents lined up next to the barricades:

Taking a break, I enjoyed a wonderful two-beer breakfast with huevos rancheros on the side. Reminds me of home:

I watched some of the memorial service replay on the local news:

A beautiful mural outside the restaurant:

It's a little after noon by this time. I'm just cruising around a bit now, back and forth between WTC and Park Place. Here's a family waiting for the SIOA rally to begin:

Walking up to Church Street, there's a huge evangelical Christian wing working the street, attracting a lot of attention:

This guy wasn't going for the interfaith cooperation angle:

These folks, a bit further down the street, seemed pretty mellow, even accommodating (of radical Islam):

Continuing down Church, I learn of the Cross of Steel, found during the recovery after September 11. It will become a permanent exhibit at the 9/11 Memorial:

Getting back over to Vesey Street, I see a huge procession of 9/11 truthers. The MFM reports are starting to come in, and I'm watching cable news as well, and no reports so far on these freaks. No one disrespects those killed on 9/11 more than the truthers. Of course, they're allied with the neo-communist left (sounds weird, but I've covered it before, in Los Angeles). Where's the press coverage of the freaks, I say? The signs read, "WHERE IS OSAMA? TEN YEARS MOST WANTED!? MILITARY INCOMPETENCE? CIA ASSET? DEAD?", and "BIN LADEN WAS FRAMED":

The procession continues down Broadway:

The truthers head down into the financial district. They've got a loud chant and response: "9/11 --- TRUTH NOW!! ... 9//11 --- TRUTH NOW!!", and "WALL STREET WAR, WALL STEET WAR."

The procession headed back to Ground Zero. I continued on down to Wall Street to get pictures of the New York Stock Exchange. What a contrast. Pure hatred of Americans and "blood for high finance" extremism compared to the heart of American capitalism. I needed to see that fabulous flag after marching along with the truther creeps like that. Sheesh:

It's getting near-abouts 3:00pm pretty soon now, so I head back over to West Broadway and Park Place. A gentleman takes my photograph in front of the Mennonite choir down the way from the Helmsley Plaza:

The Mennonites are the sweetest people. I spoke with this young woman for a few minutes and I asked her if her group had a political agenda. She said, "Nope. Just spiritual." They came from Pennsylvania mostly, but she said some folks came Canada. Notice the traditional dress:

The ubiquitous repent wagon was circling around all day. I finally got close enough to get a decent picture:

Operation Save America. I'll check later, but I'm not sure if these folks are the same as Operation Rescue. Message is pretty much identical:

Behind St. Paul's, this gentleman below hangs a banner. Unequivocal:

A quiet man with a strong message (and he apparently never learned "i before e except after c"):

Okay, I make it back down to the SIOA rally, still a bit before start time. It's getting packed:

That's not to say there weren't a lot of flags, thanks to some entrepreneurial types:

I actually stayed just through Geert Wilders' talk. Here's Pamela:

She's got some nice photographs at Atlas Shrugs: "America Speaks! Historic 911 Rally Draws 40,000."

Geert Wilders gave an speech both fascinating and deeply felt. It was powerful.

Pamela posted the text: "Geert Wilders Speech at the 911 Rally of Remembrance." One of my favorite passages:

Friends, in honor of these victims, these heroes and their families, I believe that the words of Ronald Reagan, spoken in Normandy on the 40th anniversary of D-Day, resonate with new purpose on this hallowed spot. President Reagan said: “We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we may always be free.”

And, we, too, will always remember the victims of 9/11 and their loved ones who were left behind;

We, too, will always be proud of the heroes;

We will always defend liberty, democracy and human dignity;

In the name of freedom: No mosque here!

And you can watch it as well, at Blazing Cat Fur, "Geert Wilders At Ground Zero Mosque Demo." Added: See El Marco's coverage, "Geert Wilders Warns America at 9/11 Remembrance Rally."

The New York Times has some brief coverage, placed in the larger national context: "On Sept. 11 Anniversary, Rifts Amid Mourning." AP is spinning the day as one of dueling protests. Yeah, multiple demonstrations, but nothing like the Ground Zero Freedom Rally. (And no mention of the 9/11 truther freaks.) That said, London's Telegraph has a decent piece, "America's agony: September 11 anniversary marked by anger and controversy."

Thanks for reading. I'll have more thoughts later.

And a special thanks to my friend Norman Gersman for his awesome New York hospitality.

September 11, 2010

As this post goes live I'll be somewhere at the World Trade Center covering events. Expect updates later tonight.

911 Rally of Remembrance: No Ground Zero Mosque

Check Pamela's for late updates on the rally.

AP has the bogus leftist meme for the day: "Islam Controversies Cast shadow Over 9/11 Events (via JammieWearingFool and Memeorandum). The lead editorial at NYT also continues the meme, although I'll permit myself some conciliation. I disagree that the huge majority of Americans are vilifying Islam. It is good, however, to just step back, take a moment to remember the fallen, and Thank Goodness for our freedoms. Have a good day friends.

Plus, Glenn Reynolds has some thoughts here.

And the latest from NYT, "At a Memorial Ceremony, Loss and Tension."

Building Freedom

The first clip is Part I from a Port Authority documentary, made in 1983. Interesting. At bottom is a Fox News report on the construction of the new Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center.

Safe Landing in New York!

That's my outstanding friend Norm, enjoying a wonderful sandwich from Katz's Delicatessen on the Lower East Side. He was waiting for me at La Guardia. The flight arrived on time and Norm dropped me off at the Radisson Hotel Lexington Avenue. After checking in we headed down to Katz's. It's a beautful night in New York. All kinds of vibrant people enjoying the evening, and some of the most beautiful women in the world!

Here's a shot of the food. I had beef brisket. We shared fries and cole slaw:

A picture of Rep. Charles Rangel, with the proprietor, in happier (and younger) times:

It's a nice place:

Norm mentioned that the deli scene from "When Harry Met Sally" was filmed here:

Leaving the restaurant, a view from the sidewalk:

Back at my hotel room, I turn on Fox News --- and I'm immediately brought back to the Ground Zero Mosque controversy:

I don't worry about keeping up with the news while traveling. Some folks were logging on at the airport before boarding this morning. But I just caught up with some dead-tree newspapers (and I'm reading a new book as well). I'll be at the center of events tomorrow, so check back. Meanwhile, I guess President Obama held a press conference today, and the New York Times reports, "Obama Tries to Calm Tensions in Call for Tolerance":

President Obama gave an impassioned call on Friday for tolerance and better relations between Muslims and non-Muslims at home and abroad, defending the “inalienable rights” of those who worship Islam to practice their religion freely.

Mr. Obama made his statements as protests and violence continued in Afghanistan, set off by a Florida pastor’s plans, now suspended, to burn Korans on Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and against the backdrop of the controversy in New York over a proposed Islamic center near ground zero.

With relations between the United States and the Muslim world perhaps at their most frayed since the invasion of Iraq seven and a half years ago, the president sought to appeal to America’s core founding principles.

Mr. Obama said it was imperative for people in this country to distinguish between their real enemies and those who have the potential to become enemies because of continued vilification of Islam in the United States. At a time when polls suggest that a substantial number of Americans erroneously believe that Mr. Obama is Muslim, the president cited his own Christian faith at one point.

I have not watched the video clip yet, but I'm bothered --- extremely bothered --- that Obama continues to feed the leftist meme that it's the families speaking for sensitivity, to say nothing of the 80 percent of Americans --- who are responsible for the alleged "vilification of Islam."

I'll have more later. Just thinking about this is taking buzz off from my visit with Norm.

Traveling to New York Today!

I'm departing from John Wayne Airport at 7:30am for New York City. My good friend Norman Gersman will be meeting me at La Guardia tonight. I don't know when I'll be back online for posting, but perhaps late tonight or early Saturday morning. I'll be covering the September 11 memorials and the Ground Zero Mosque protest. I'll be coming home Sunday, so I probably won't have a major report until Sunday night, but I'll try to get some photos and updates posted in the interim.

Here's Pamela's video clip. Look for me at WTC on Saturday if you're in New York!

The Day the Earth Was Soaked With Tears

Via No Sheeples Here!

Debra Burlingame Slams Imam Rauf's Comments as 'Extortion'

She's a national treasure, and it's hard to find anyone who speaks with more clarity on the issues.

Questions for Imam Rauf

From M. Zuhdi Jasser, Founder and President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (and a physician and former U.S. Navy lieutenant commander), at Wall Street Journal:

As someone who has been involved in building mosques around the country, and who has dealt with his fair share of unjustified opposition, I ask of Imam Rauf and all his supporters, "Where is your sense of fairness and common decency?" In relation to Ground Zero, I am an American first, a Muslim second, just as I would be at Concord, Gettysburg, Normandy Beach, Pearl Harbor or any other battlefield where my fellow countrymen lost their lives.

I must ask Imam Rauf: For what do you stand—what's best for Americans overall, or for what you think is best for Islam? What have you said and argued to Muslim-majority nations to address their need for reform? You have said that Islam does not need reform, despite the stoning of women in Muslim countries, death sentences for apostates, and oppression of reformist Muslims and non-Muslims.

You now lecture Americans that WTC mosque protests are "politically motivated" and "go against the American principle of church and state." Yet you ignore the wide global prevalence of far more dangerous theo-political groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and all of its violent and nonviolent offshoots ....

As an American Muslim, I look at that pit of devastation and contemplate the thousands of lives undone there within seconds. I pray for the ongoing strength to fight the fanatics who did this, and who continue their war against my country with both overt violence and covert strategies that aim to undo the very freedoms for which so many have fought and died.

Imam Rauf may not appear to the untrained eye to be an Islamist, but by making Ground Zero an Islamic rather than an American issue, and by failing to firmly condemn terrorist groups like Hamas, he shows his true allegiance.

Islamists in "moderate" disguise are still Islamists. In their own more subtle ways, the WTC mosque organizers end up serving the same aims of the separatist and supremacist wings of political Islam. In this epic struggle of the 21st century, we cannot afford to ignore the continuum between nonviolent political Islam and the militancy it ultimately fuels among the jihadists.

RTWT.

RELATED: At New York Times, "Video and Latest Updates on Koran Burning Cancellation," and AP, "Pastor Cancels Quran-Burning, Then Reconsiders" (via Memeorandum).

Pastor Terry Jones Cancels Koran Burning

At ABC News, "Pastor Terry Jones Calls off Koran Burning, But Deal for Ground Zero Mosque Is Denied: Defense Secretary Gates Calls Pastor in Appeal to Cancel Koran Burning."

Also, from AP, "Fla. Imam: No deal to Move NYC Mosque" (and at ABC News San Francisco and Memeorandum).

And from Pamela, "BREAKING NEWS: Church cancels burning of Qurans on 9/11 in a Deal to Move Ground Zero Mosque."

Anti-Semitic Education in the Muslim World

From Middle East Media Research Institute:

Obama's Problem Isn't That He's Been Too Moderate

From Jay Cost, at Weekly Standard, "Obama Tries to Rally the Base":

The President's attempts at bipartisanship typically ranged from half-hearted to specious, and his policies were never centrist. Centrists in the 111th Congress - of both parties - typically voted against the President's agenda. Of course, if you're on the left-hand side of the country, at, for instance, the New Republic or the American Prospect, the President did look awfully centrist. But from the perspective of middle America, he did not. Still, as wrong as this view is, I think the White House, like a lot of liberals, genuinely believes that the President tried earnestly to extend the hand of friendship, but had it bitten. The fact that it thinks it genuinely tried just goes to show that it - and, for that matter, much of the liberal intelligentsia - totally misunderstands American conservatism and the Republican party. That's ironic because the Tea Parties have a distinctly Jeffersonian Republican flair to them, and the DNC touts Thomas Jefferson as the party's founder.

Regardless, the President is facing a situation in which the opinions of Republicans and Independents are essentially set, and have been set for a while. Republicans have been long gone, obviously. But so are Independents. Gallup has had the President's job approval with Independents under 45% for almost four months. There is nothing the White House can do between now and the election to bring them back. Not with Recovery Summer turning into Recovery Sputter.

So what is left for the White House? Rally the base.

That is going to be the strategy coming from the West Wing for the next two months. That's why the President was never going to listen to moderates in his own party about the Bush tax cuts. It's why he is going to union meetings to talk about...sigh...more infrastructure spending. It's why he's talking about how his opponents treat him like a dog. Expect more stuff like this. He'll call out Fox News and Glenn Beck. For the next two months, the message from the White House is going to be like Ponderosa for the left: all you can eat red meat.

That's all the White House has left. Their hope - faint as it is - is to cede Independents, but amp up the Democratic base so the party does not get swamped by Republicans voting 90-10 against the Democrats.

My sense is that even if the White House manages to amp up its base, it is still going to lose the House. Take the basic Gallup numbers, recalibrate them for the 2006 turnout, and you still see a GOP win of +4 or thereabouts. Even with the (totally unrealistic for this year) 2008 numbers, you see a tie in the House vote, which I think would tilt the House to the GOP, thanks to the Democratic vote being concentrated in heavily Democratic districts. The White House is concerned that, if the turnout models continue the way they are, the final vote in November will be in line with Rasmussen and ABC News/WaPo, something like +13.

In other words, the White House, at this point, might be happy to walk away with a 1994-style loss. The worry is something closer to 1946 or 1894, when the Democrats struggled to get 45% of the vote.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Imam Rauf on Larry King Live — UPDATED!!

Imam Rauf claims that he has "a responsibility" to build the mosque, otherwise radical Islamists around the world will threaten "national security." In other words, screw the sensitivity concerns of Americans, you'll be blown to bits if you don't back off from my Victory Mosque. See Atlas Shrugs, "Ground Zero Supremacist Imam Rauf Threatens America: 'anger will explode in the Muslim world,' This crisis ...'could become something very dangerous indeed' 'Worse than Danish Cartoon Jihad," GZM is a 'national security issue'."

Also, don't miss Claudia Rosett for added context, at Pajamas Media, "Ground Zero Mosque: The Bombast of Imam Feisal."

The full interview is at YouTube.

UPDATE: From Larry O'Connor (via Memeorandum):

The man who continues to talk about healing and building bridges has thrown down the gauntlet. He created this entire situation by demanding that his mega-mosque be built in this exact location, despite the legitimate concerns of families of lost heroes whom he claims to care about. And now that the opposition of this mosque has fully engaged and has successfully swayed a vast majority of Americans to their side, he tells an international audience that if his plans don't go forward, America's national security will be at risk.

It could be that the Imam's threats, delivered in calm even tones, might end up doing more for the case against his mosque than any rally in the streets could ever do. And given Mr. Rauf's knowledge of the irrational and violent nature of the most radical practitioners of his faith, one has to challenge his judgement in even proposing this project in the first place.

There's a great comment thread at Protein Wisdom as well.

Even America's Liberal Elites Concede That Obama's Presidency is Crumbling

From Nile Gardiner, at London's Telegraph (via Theo Spark):

Democrats in Congress are no longer asking themselves whether this is going to be a bad election year for them and their party. They are asking whether it is going to be a disaster. The GOP pushed deep into Democratic-held territory over the summer, to the point where the party is well within range of picking up the 39 seats it would need to take control of the House. Overall, as many as 80 House seats could be at risk, and fewer than a dozen of these are held by Republicans.

Political handicappers now say it is conceivable that the Republicans could also win the 10 seats they need to take back the Senate. Not since 1930 has the House changed hands without the Senate following suit.

Is this a piece from National Review, The Weekly Standard, The Wall Street Journal or Fox News.com, all major conservative news outlets in the United States? No. It’s a direct quote from yesterday’s Washington Post, usually viewed by conservatives as a flagship of the liberal establishment inside the Beltway. The fact The Post is reporting that not only could Republicans sweep the House of Representatives this November, but may even take the Senate as well, is a reflection of just how far the mainstream, overwhelmingly left-of-centre US media has moved in the last month towards acknowledging the scale of the crisis facing the White House.

More at the link.

Sarah Palin Asks Pastor Jones to 'Stand Down' on Koran Burning Event

On Facebook (via Memeorandum):

Book burning is antithetical to American ideals. People have a constitutional right to burn a Koran if they want to, but doing so is insensitive and an unnecessary provocation – much like building a mosque at Ground Zero.

I would hope that Pastor Terry Jones and his supporters will consider the ramifications of their planned book-burning event. It will feed the fire of caustic rhetoric and appear as nothing more than mean-spirited religious intolerance. Don’t feed that fire. If your ultimate point is to prove that the Christian teachings of mercy, justice, freedom, and equality provide the foundation on which our country stands, then your tactic to prove this point is totally counter-productive.

Proof Democrats Heading for Major Losses in November

From Sean Hannity's:

Rage Against the ‘Breeders'

This is pretty unreal, from Jonathan Last, at Weekly Standard:

Like a puckish uncle determined to cause trouble at Thanksgiving dinner, the Washington Post periodically homes in on the existential conflicts that divide its readership. Earlier this summer, the Post Metro section headlined such a story “With City’s Baby Boom, Parental Guidance Suggested.” The article opened in Capitol Hill’s Lincoln Park, where a sudden outpouring of babies has caused altercations between parents, who bring their children, and childless adults, who bring their dogs, to play in the park.

The Lincoln Park neighborhood is gentrified and expensive—the median price for a rowhouse is in the $900,000s—and the dog owners there are annoyed at having to share space with human dependents. In an attempt to bring peace, a local pet coach who calls herself the Doggy Lama has been holding “dog citizen” workshops to help pet owners learn to deal peaceably with the interlopers. But it’s tough sledding. One dog owner interviewed by the Post said that she wished the kids could be confined to a fenced-in area of the park. “I find people with children to be tyrants,” she explained. “As someone who doesn’t have children, I think children are fine. I don’t think they own everything.”

The Post story detailed similar scuffles in other trendy Washington neighborhoods and generated 479 comments on the paper’s website before commenting was finally shut down. Readers ran about 60-to-40 against parents and children. Some sample entries:

CAC2: keep your nasty little snotty kid away from me, PLEASE!!!! Do not let your stickly offspring rush up to me in Whole Foods and grab my $250 Ralph Lauren silk skirt with it’s grubby, crusty hands. One of the benefits of not having children is not having to wear the Mommy Wardrobe. Do not make those of us who are not forced into wash and wear to pay extra for the dry cleaner to remove child goo. Do not allow your offspring to lean over the seat of a restaurant and try to initiate “conversation” with me when I am enjoying a meal with friends

graylandgal: I won’t make any apologies: I hate kids, especially babies. If parents can’t afford or locate a sitter, then stay home. I am bloody sick of having my feet and Achilles tendon rammed by knobby-tired strollers the size of Smart Cars; I am bitter about extortion for baby showers, christening gift, etc., for droolers who won’t thank me now any more than they will when graduation extortions start; I am nauseated by the stench of dirty diapers changed in public areas because a lazy-ass parent won’t adjourn to a restroom I am tired of “friends” dragging their hyper-active germ-spreaders to my antiques- and breakable-filled home for events clearly meant for grown-ups because, gee, everybody thinks they’re SO cute; and I weary of replying “hi” 467 times to a toddler who hangs over the back of an adjoining restaurant booth because the parents won’t make it sit down and shut up. Bitter? You bet. .  .  . My parents did not inflict me on society until I developed continence, self-ambulation, and social skills.

Knowingly or not, the Post had wandered headlong into a movement that has become increasingly militant in recent years: the childfree.

The term refers to adults—many of them married or cohabiting couples—without children. These people differ from the merely “childless” in that they want the world to know that their situation is not an accident. A spinster or an infertile couple might be childless by bad luck. The childfree are childless by choice.

As you already suspect, the childfree movement has its roots in the 1970s. After Paul Ehrlich’s (now discredited) Population Bomb became a sensation predicting hundreds of millions of deaths as the planet convulsed from overpopulation, clubs such as the National Organization for Non-Parents and No Kidding! sprang up. But what was once a hippy-crank affectation has in recent years become a wide-ranging attack on the societal machinery which supports and encourages baby-making.

More at the link.

Victoria Azarenka

I'm just now hearing about her, c/o Theo Spark:

Illegal Immigration's Impact on Our Public Schools

With Brandi Milloy of PJTV:

Nazi Tea Partiers

Right.

And haven't we heard this song before? Via POWIP:

Why Do Leftists Side With Islam Over Christianity?

The short answer is that both leftists and Islamists hate America and the West. But I'll let Sharon take it from there:

RELATED: At The Liberal Heretic, "“Burn a Quran Day”- Why Americans Need to Take the High Road."

Recovery Summer Bummer

Via Midnight Blue, "Recovery Starts November 2nd."

And I still just love the "Recovery Summer Bummer" rhyme, from Yid With Lid.

Daily Kos Anti-Semitism, And Then Some...

This is timeley, especially since I just reviewed American Taliban.

At Yid With Lid, "Anti-Jewish Hatred From the Folks Who Call the Tea Party Racist."

The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs published a report which examines Anti-Semitic cartoon content used in some of the major progressive sites, such as Mondoweiss, The Daily Kos and Indymedia. Some of the content of these blogs pointed out in this report is short of startling. The sites use "political cartoons: to reinforce negative stereotypes against Jews. The cartoons cloak their Antisemitism in a veil "anti-Israelism."

This is not in any way to suggest that all anti-Israel expressions are anti-Semitic, but it is clear that these cartoons have crossed the line. The cartoons show Jews or Israelis as being Nazis trying to paint Jews as the ultimate evil and at the same time diminishing the evil of the Holocaust. Other illustrations try to perpetuate the anti-Semitic canard that Jews control the world, or the blood libel about Jews using Gentile children to satisfy some imagined blood-lust.

This is totally common on the left. I document this stuff all the time.

At the screencaps, the first post has been taken down: "Zionism was and remains a racist ideology." The second I've covered many times, and it remains fully published at Daily Kos, "Eulogy before the Inevitability of Self-Destruction: The Decline and Death of Israel."

See the report as well: "Anti-Semitic Cartoons on Progressive Blogs." And don't forget to add Booman Tribune to the list.

Appeals Court Sides With Bush Obama Administration on Seizure of Terror Suspects

I had to catch myself for a second. Sides with the Obama administration on terrorist rendition?

The ruling is on "extraordinary rendition," of course. The policy for which leftists wanted Bush administration war crimes trials. And now we've got Barack Obama in power continuing the policy. Hey, way to "regain America's moral stature in the world"!

Okay, but according to the New York Times:

A sharply divided federal appeals court on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit involving the Central Intelligence Agency’s practice of seizing terrorism suspects and transferring them to other countries for imprisonment and interrogation. The ruling handed a major victory to the Obama administration in its effort to advance a sweeping view of executive secrecy power.

Sweeping view of executive power? How many millions of words were written by leftists attacking proponents of that? Indeed, folks like John Yoo still can't get a break. And there's more:

The decision bolstered an array of ways in which the Obama administration has pressed forward with broad counter-terrorism policies after taking over from the Bush team, a degree of continuity that has departed from the expectations fostered by President Obama’s campaign rhetoric, which was often sharply critical of President Bush’s approach.

Among other policies, the Obama team has also placed a United States citizen on a targeted-killings list without a trial, blocked efforts by detainees in Afghanistan to bring habeas-corpus lawsuits challenging their indefinite imprisonment, and continued the C.I.A. rendition program – though the administration says it now takes greater safeguards to prevent detainees from being mistreated.

Okay, but I thought Obama once said of the Bush administration:

"Our government made decisions based upon fear rather than foresight and all too often trimmed facts and evidence to fit ideological predispositions," he said.

"In other words, we went off course."

Right.

He means our previous government, of course, even though he's now following the exact same policies. The ACLU is criticizing the wrong government as well, the one before the Obama administration:

Ben Wizner, a senior A.C.L.U. lawyer who argued the case before the appeals court, said the organization was deeply disappointed in the ruling.

“To this date, not a single victim of the Bush administration’s torture program has had his day in court,” Mr. Wizner said. “That makes this a sad day not only for the torture survivors who are seeking justice in this case, but for all Americans who care about the rule of law and our nation’s reputation in the world. If this decision stands, the United States will have closed it courts to torture victims while providing complete immunity to their torturers.”

Let's just chalk this up as one more reason why folks miss George W. Bush. Honesty. Integrity. Moral clarity. Yep, those are the things we had in the presidency before this administration. They were the right qualities --- and the right policies --- at the time. The courts think so, even if the neo-communists don't.

This Is Where We Begin to Say No

From Andrew McCarthy, at National Review (via Memeorandum):

For the better part of two decades, Americans have been murdered by Islamists and then lectured that they are to blame for what has befallen them. We have been instructed in the need for special sensitivity to the unceasing demands of Islamic culture and falsely accused of intolerance by the people who wrote the book on intolerance. Americans have sacrificed blood and bottomless treasure for Islamic peoples who despise Americans — and despise us even more as our sacrifices and gestures of self-loathing intensify. Americans have watched as apologists for terrorists and sharia were made the face of an American Muslim community that we were simultaneously assured was the very picture of pro-American moderation.

Americans have had our fill. We are willing to live many lies. This one, though, strikes too close to home, arousing our heretofore dormant sense of decency. Americans have now heard Barack Obama’s shtick enough times to know that when he talks about “our values,” he’s really talking about his values, which most of us don’t share. And after ten years of CAIR’s tired tirades, we’re immune to Feisal Rauf, too.

We look around us and we see our country unrivaled by anything in the history of human tolerance. We see thousands of thriving mosques, permitted to operate freely even though we know for a fact that mosques have been used against us, repeatedly, to urge terrorism, recruit terrorists, raise money for terrorists, store and transfer firearms, and inflame Muslims against America and the West. As Islamists rage against us, we see Islam celebrated in official Washington. As we reach out for the umpty-umpth time, we find Muslim leaders taking what we offer, but always with complaint and never with reciprocation. We’re weary, and we don’t really care if that means that Time magazine, Michael Bloomberg, Katie Couric, Fareed Zakaria, and the rest think we’re bad people — they think we’re bad people, anyway

RTWT.

Also, the typically lame leftist response at Blue Texan's Crib:

Nearly nine years after Wingnut Christmas, it's equal parts scary and satisfying to see conservatives admits what we suspected all along - they're a legion of racist bedwetters for whom there was never a distinction between invading Iraq/Afghanistan and simply killing Muslims - even though Bush said otherwise.

Bedwet this, you freaking creep:

Behead This, Markos

I tweeted Markos Moulitsas yesteday, with the link to my review of his book: "Misunderstanding Markos Moulitsas and American Taliban." He's a netroots bigshot, of course, so he's ignoring me. Fine. I'll tweet him again a little later. He can "behead this," as far as I'm concerned. (The reference is to the Ring of Fire interview Saturday where Moulitsas claims conservatives want to behead opponents.) The Dems-Daily Kos nexus is up for an electoral blowout of world historical importance on November 2nd. We're going to so thoroughly crush Kos and his neo-communist allies that "demoralized" won't begin to explain the scale of evisceration. Game on, asshole. Yeah, politics is dirty business, but somebody's got to do it. So screw you, commie pig.

The Debate Over Religious 'Intolerance'

I've placed "intolerance" in quotation marks. And that's because poll after poll has found that Americans are not intolerant toward Muslims. The Koran burnings are sponsored by the Westboro Baptists, the same folks who protest military funerals. They don't speak for me, and I can't think of any mainstream conservative that aligns with them. What's happening, as always, it the controversial actions of the few become fodder for attacks on the legitimate opposition of the many. This is SOP with the radical left and their allied MFM contingents. It's messed up, but that's the kind of information stream we're dealing with these days. The New York Times is on the case, by the way. See, "Concern Is Voiced Over Religious Intolerance." And as usual, as Tom Maguire points out, the reporters buried the lede:

They did not take a stand on whether to support the proposed mosque and community center near ground zero in Manhattan, saying, “Persons of conscience have taken different positions on the wisdom of the location of this project, even if the legal right to build on the site appears to be unassailable.”

Susan B. Anthony List Lobbies GOP on Strong 'Pro-Life Language' in Party's Upcoming 'Contract' Campaign Manifesto

Check out this piece from Erin McPike at RCP, "Some Supporters Fret as GOP Readies Agenda." Here's the key passage:

Just weeks before House Republican leaders are set to announce the contents of a proposed governing agenda if they retake the majority, some GOP politicians and grasstops activists are growing nervous about those plans ....

So far, House Republicans have shown discipline and stayed on message on jobs and the economy; there are 16 mentions of the word, "jobs," in the packet. But there are two problems with the current effort: One is the wing of activists primarily concerned with social issues, and the other is the possible size of the incoming class of GOP freshmen who collectively would be the reason for the party's return to power.

Many high-level conservative activists agree that the most pressing issue of this cycle is the economy, but some are not willing to let up on matters close to them, either.

In an interview, Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser warned: "To only lead on one issue at a time is a non-sequitur." She added, "That's not real leadership." Dannenfelser's group advocates on behalf of women in politics who are pro-life, and she hopes to see substantial pro-life language in the House Republicans' agenda but is not entirely optimistic.

The 22-page recess packet of trial balloons does include an explicit ban on all federal funding for abortion. That's one item on Dannenfelser's list, but she has two more: requiring parental notification for abortion-seeking minors, and requiring physicians who perform abortions to notify women who are at least 20 weeks into their pregnancies that fetuses can feel pain in the process.

Said Dannenfelser, "The conservative base of the Republican Party is so strong at this moment, the most divisive thing that could happen would be to leave out the family values third of the issue base." Her group has undertaken its own small media blitz, "Life Speaking Out," to lobby the House GOP on abortion issues and prevent the omission. A release announcing the campaign noted, "Missing from the GOP's original Contract in 1994 was any emphasis on policies protecting the unborn. Pro-life legislation was not made a priority in the following Congress."

The group sent a letter to House Minority Leader John Boehner on September 2nd, arguing that:

The protection of women and their children from the violence of abortion and the protection of taxpayers from funding it must be an integral part of any legislative blueprint released by the leadership of the GOP, and should be included under a specific plank addressing family values.

As readers will recall, I take the big view on pro-life issues. And I expect the GOP to take the concerns of groups like Susan B. Anthony List very seriously.

Dancing

Theo loves this:

This is What America is All About

Giving everyone a chance to succeed? Hey, isn't that RAAAAACIST??!!

Hot ad from Allen West, via Weasel Zippers:

'The Reconquista is Here'

El Marco comments on "Machete":

More than just another movie exemplifying liberalism’s self-loathing and glorification of violence, Machete goes further in advocating the radical justification for leftist war against America. Machete is nothing less than Psycho-political incitement to violent revolution against American society and sovereignty.

Crowd at Glenn Beck Rally Seen From Above

I never did get a chance to post this pic, which is awesome. Who cares the exact number in attendance. Folks came out big time. The left's Media-Industrial-Complex just couldn't handle it. And not only that, this is another chance to throw my good friend Skye some linkage.

In Defense of Links

From Scott Rosenberg:

For 15 years, I’ve been doing most of my writing — aside from my two books — on the Web. When I do switch back to writing an article for print, I find myself feeling stymied. I can’t link!

Links have become an essential part of how I write, and also part of how I read. Given a choice between reading something on paper and reading it online, I much prefer reading online: I can follow up on an article’s links to explore source material, gain a deeper understanding of a complex point, or just look up some term of art with which I’m unfamiliar.

There is, I think, nothing unusual about this today. So I was flummoxed earlier this year when Nicholas Carr started a campaign against the humble link, and found at least partial support from some other estimable writers (among them Laura Miller, Marshall Kirkpatrick, Jason Fry and Ryan Chittum). Carr’s “delinkification” critique is part of a larger argument contained in his book The Shallows. I read the book this summer and plan to write about it more. But for now let’s zero in on Carr’s case against links, on pages 126-129 of his book as well as in his “delinkification” post.

The nub of Carr’s argument is that every link in a text imposes “a little cognitive load” that makes reading less efficient. Each link forces us to ask, “Should I click?” As a result, Carr wrote in the “delinkification” post, “People who read hypertext comprehend and learn less, studies show, than those who read the same material in printed form.”

This appearance of the word “hypertext” is a tipoff to one of the big problems with Carr’s argument: it mixes up two quite different visions of linking.

Interesting.

And don't feel bad about clicking away to RTWT.

Feisal Abdul Rauf — 'We Are Proceeding With the Community Center'

Or, "we are proceeding with the conquest mosque."

That's Imam Rauf, at the New York Times (via Memeorandum). And he claims:

I am very sensitive to the feelings of the families of victims of 9/11, as are my fellow leaders of many faiths. We will accordingly seek the support of those families, and the support of our vibrant neighborhood, as we consider the ultimate plans for the community center. Our objective has always been to make this a center for unification and healing.

Actually, not so sensitive, in fact. As the Imam also notes:

Our name, Cordoba, was inspired by the city in Spain where Muslims, Christians and Jews co-existed in the Middle Ages during a period of great cultural enrichment created by Muslims.

Yes, created by Muslims, for the oppression and enslavement of non-Muslims. As Robert Spencer has noted regarding the "Cordoba Caliphate":

The name "Cordoba" has been marketed to gullible Americans as being a place where Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived in harmony and peace, but actually Medieval Muslim Spain enforced the dhimma and systematically oppressed the Jews and Christians, and was the site of a Muslim pogrom against the Jews in the year 1011 -- 1000 years before this mega-mosque is slated to open.

And interestingly, Imam Rauf's essay coincides with El Marco's latest photo-essay, "Islamic Triumphalism: Cruel Lessons From History for New York City - Part I." Pictured below is the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount, which was built to consecrate the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem in 637 CE. According to Wikipedia, "In light of the dual claims of both Judaism and Islam, it is one of the most contested religious sites in the world." Well, looks like things turned out exactly as planned. As El Marco notes at his essay:

Islamic Triumphalism has a very long and brutal history. The Dome of the Rock represents the first stop on Islam’s 1400 year path of conquest. Today the duel paths of terrorism and stealth jihad are making great inroads worldwide. Most New Yorkers and Americans are only just waking up to Islam’s accelerating push to implant Sharia law in western countries as well as large areas of Africa and Asia. The controversy of the mosque at ground zero has alerted Americans to how Islamic totalitarian Sharia law dictates world domination and the fact that radical islam must be opposed by free people.

Exactly. Sharia. This is what Imam Rauf wants for America. And as the Ground Zero Mosque development continues, sharia is the culmination of his vision for "multi-faith" cooperation — it's happening friends, and with the help of the left's Media-Industrial-Complex and netroots terror-appeasers. See Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, "What Shariah Law Is All About."

'My Trip to Al-Qaeda' — HBO Documentary

It's on, in about an hour:

And see Blake Hounshell, "Is al Qaeda Still Relevant?"

RELATED: I read Lawrence Wright's book when it first came out in hardback: The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11.

Carly Fiorina Pulls Ahead of Scandal-Plagued Barbara Boxer — Incumbent Democrat Embroiled in Maxine Waters Pay-to Play Endorsement Scam

This would be big news, at RCP, "Fiorina Pulls Ahead of Boxer in California."

But Doug Ross has this as well: "Say It Ain't So, Babs: Barbara "Call me Ma'am" Boxer Ensnared in Maxine Waters' Ethical Roach Motel."

And Ed Morrissey adds this:

Democrats came to power in 2006 in large part by promising to “drain the swamp.” That doesn’t mean that individual members of both parties won’t commit ethics violations, but Boxer’s position as chair of the Senate’s enforcement panel while participating in Waters’ scheme certainly tells a story about the commitment to clean government in the Democratic Party.

RELATED: "Republicans Now Trusted on All Key Political Issues Over Democrats."

Should Political Science Be Relevant?

It's a question as old as the discipline, discussed at Inside Higher Ed. And it won't go away anytime soon. Political science for the most part is about theory-building and knife-sharpening. Even international relations can be an irrelevant pain sometimes, although I think my subfield has a better edge than American politics, surprisingly. (IR sees lots of cross-pollination from the super-scholarly literature to the popular magazines like Foreign Policy.)

In any case, the American Political Science Association held its annunal meeting over the Labor Day weekend, so there's some follow-up buzz going around. At the image below is Ezra Klein, and also Matthew Yglesias, c/o The Monkey Cage. And my sense is that's another reason for the dismal prospects for political science, the discipline's disastrous left-wing bias. Sure, there are lots of professors who are rigorous and avoid hack partisanship, but as a whole I'm underwhelmed by the attempts. (Henry Farrell was at APSA as well, and earlier this year, after repeated comments at Crooked Timber, he never did respond to my queries on the lies of the WikiLeaks Apache video — such otherwise smart people, so bogged down with deathly ideology.)

Anyway, an interesting passage from Inside Higher Ed.

One of the most biting critiques came from Bo Rothstein, the August Röhss Professor of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg, in Sweden. Rothstein, who noted that this was his 20th APSA meeting and who has held visiting professorships at several leading universities in the United States, said that maybe the problem to discuss isn't whether political science is relevant, but whether American political science is relevant.

"If you want to be relevant as a discipline," he said, "you have to recruit people who want to be relevant." And in this respect, he said, American political science departments are not doing well. He described his experiences teaching at Harvard University, where he was tremendously impressed with the 20 seniors in his seminar on comparative politics. One day he asked how many were planning to go to graduate school in political science and was "stunned" to find out that the students -- many of them idealistic about changing the world -- had to a person ruled that out in favor of law school. Their view was that "to be relevant, you have to have a law degree."

In Sweden, Rothstein said, this would be viewed as a terrible thing. "No such persons" like those Harvard seniors he taught "would dream of going to law school," which they would see as "boring and technical." But while American universities tell those who want to change the world to go to law school, they attract other kinds of students to grad school. "I was not at all impressed by the graduate students" at Harvard, he said. "They wanted to stay away from anything relevant."

America at Risk

This is a Newt Gingrich production (via Gateway Pundit). And since he's got Melanie Phillips featured at the interviews, I'm giving the Scozzafava-backing RINO the benefit of the doubt:

Check the America at Risk homepage as well.

'I Am Tired of Being Told That We Need to Sensitive to the Muslim Culture'

That's Just-a-Grunt, at JammieWearingFool, on the controversy surrounding the planned Koran burnings. And I agree, although there's something about burning the Islamic holy book that doesn't feel quite right. Burning books doesn't feel quite right, come to think of it. That said, I doubt General David Petraeus made a wise decision to wade into the debate on the alleged "anti-Muslim backlash." And I seriously doubt that burning the Koran is going to make that much difference in the level of insurgent recruitment, etc. Americans are being targeted, and jihadis are joining, just for Americans being Americans. Perhaps Koran-burnings do inflame Muslim passions and fuel anti-American violence. What's more likely is that Koran-burnings fuel the leftist Media-Industrial-Complex in its journalistic jihad against the American right. See ABC News, for example, "Anti-Islam Rhetoric Heats Up Ahead of 9/11: Muslim Groups Prepare for Wave of Anti-Islamic Sentiment as Ninth Anniversary of 9/11 Terrorist Attacks Approach."

After reading this stuff, I'm more likely to side with Just-a-Grunt when push comes to shove. The media proves the point. We are caving to PC sensibilities, and THAT's what's going get everyone killed in the end. Not a few ignorant pastors in Florida. More at Bare Naked Islam, "Muslims show absolutely no concern for non-Muslim sensitivities. Why should we respect theirs?"

Democrat Wipe Out

Dan Collins posts The Ventures, "Wipe Out," as the metaphor for the coming epic Democrat Party blowout in November. Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of a violent train wreck, like in the conclusion to "The Legend of Zorro" (at about 45 seconds). I can hear Obama-Pelosi-Reid screaming in horror from my house:

Indeed, how about a little roundup to that effect:

* ABC News, "Poll: Revolt Against Status Quo Gives Republicans Record Lead in 2010 Midterms."

* CNN, "Political handicapper ups prediction on GOP gains," and "Another top political handicapper forecasts larger GOP gains."

* Politico, "Latest polls predict a blow-out loss for Democrats in November."

* Wall Street Journal, "Get Ready for an Anti-Incumbent Wave."

* Washington Post, "Republicans making gains against Democrats ahead of midterm elections."

We Will Never Surrender

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Geert Wilders: We will NEVER give in, we will NEVER give up, we will NEVER surrender...Official Trailer Islam Rising."

From Phyllis Chesler: TIME Magazine’s Latest Blood Libel About Israel

I'm going to have to stop off at Barnes and Noble to read the whole thing, since Time posts only an excerpt, but I trust Phyllis Chesler's analysis:

The Jewish insistence on life may be the key to our survival as a people despite ceaseless persecution. It might be the lesson, the model, for all humanity in an era of genocides, civil wars, torture chambers, tyrannies, and totalitarian regimes. Why is TIME turning things on their head and refusing to recognize the courage and the heroism of Jewish Israelis who choose to live in the moment when the moment is all they have? Against all odds, the Jews simply refuse to give up.

Added: I see Time's essay is garnering some attention around the 'sphere. See Victor Davis Hanson, "For the Jews in Israel, Money Trumps All?":

I know it’s commonplace to read in the latest issue of Time or Newsweek that Obama is a god, that Islamophobic Americans are collectively prejudiced against Muslims, that the response after 9/11 was overblown and unnecessary (over 30 subsequent terrorist plots have been foiled, and, for some reason, renditions, tribunals, Guantanamo, Predators, intercepts, etc., have all been embraced by the Obama administration), but the recent Time piece on Israel by a Karl Vick is probably the most anti-Semitic essay I have ever read in a mainstream publication.

Hanson's on to something. See also Bret Stephens, "Time magazine adds its voice to the chorus of those attempting to delegitimize the Jewish state."

Here's more, from Daniel Gordis, "Acceptable in Polite Society."

Obama's 'Like a Dog' Speech at the Milwaukee Laborfest

I spent yesterday afternoon writing a book review of Markos Moultisas' American Taliban, and also watching "The Watchmen" on cable. I therefore didn't pay much attention to President Obama's Labor Day politicking. But lots of folks are talking about his speech at the Milwaukee Laborfest. The key passage is at the video, but be sure to check William Jacobson's longer analysis of the speech itself: