The Sky is Burning! Alaska too!

Tweeted it this morning.

Ground Zero Mosque Supporter Curses Out Holocaust Survivor: 'Obviously He Didn't Learn His Lesson'

At JWF:

Obviously a Michael Bloomberg and Barack Obama supporter. Classy guy. He calls the old man an unpatriotic, treasonous piece of garbage. A shame how the lamestream media ignored this.

Challenger Joe Miller Beats Lisa Murkowski in Alaska*

Tuesday was a Super Tuesday for primary elections across the country, and while establishment candidates have shown staying power, indications suggest some earthquake potential come November.

* Check Alaska's results especially. See Robert Stacy McCain's prediction, "PRIMARY ELECTION NIGHT HQ SHOCKER! Challenger Miller Upsets Murkowski in Alaska GOP Senate Primary." (And the consensus wait-and-see approach is at ABC News, "Another Incumbency Upset? Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski Trailing Behind Tea Party Favorite.") Ed Morrissey has more, "Upset in Alaska?" And LAT notes, "with 97.9% of the precincts reporting, Miller led by fewer than 2,000 votes, 51% to Murkowski's 49%. Several thousand absentee ballots remained to be counted."

Boehner Urges Obama To Fire Economic Team

Video Hat Tip: Noisy Room:

And at New York Times:

CLEVELAND — Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader, called on President Obama on Tuesday to fire his top economic advisers as Mr. Boehner tried to make the economic case for restoring Republicans to the majority in Congress in the November elections.

In a speech at the City Club of Cleveland, Mr. Boehner, who is in line to be House speaker in the event of a Republican takeover, unveiled a five-point plan that he said would provide an effective economic alternative to the Democrats’ course.

He singled out Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and Lawrence H. Summers, the head of the National Economic Council, as responsible for failing to turn the economy around, saying the president should replace them with officials who have “real-world experience.”

“We do not have the luxury of waiting months for the president to pick scapegoats for his failing stimulus policies,” Mr. Boehner told a friendly audience here in his home state.

Mr. Boehner’s speech was part of an emerging effort to raise his public profile and establish him as a credible political leader on such issues as the economy. Mr. Boehner, a 20-year Congressional veteran, would be the most likely choice for speaker if Republicans gained the net 39 seats needed to catapult them into the House majority in November.

NewsBusted: Time Poll: 1/4 of Americans Think Obama's a Muslim

Via Theo Spark:

Terrorist Attack Assignment for High School Teens in Australia Causes Uproar

And that's on top of New York's pro-Islam/anti-Christian testing curriculum.

Warped minds thinks alike, worldwide no less...

At DBKP:

From Perth Now:

STUDENTS at a West Australian high school have been asked to plan a terrorist attack that would kill as many innocent people as possible as part of an assignment.

The society and environment teacher at the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Community High School asked Year 10 students to pretend they were a terrorist planning a chemical or biological attack on “an unsuspecting Australian community”, it was reported this morning.

“Your goal is to kill the MOST innocent civilians in order to get your message across,” the assignment said.

The students had to explain their choice of victims and decide the best time and place for their attack.

Fifteen-year-old student Sarah Gilbert said she was horrified to get the assignment because if that sort of thing was found in your house you’d be arrested.

“But there is a difference between being a terrorist and learning about terrorism – it’s two completely different things,” she said.

After the story broke, survivors of the 2002 Bali bombing which killed 88 Australians and the victim’s families were appalled to hear about the terrorist attack assignment. So far, the Australian press hasn’t reported the identity of the teacher.

You Gotta Slow Down (Slow Down) ... Sweet Talking Woman...

Takin' a break from anti-jihad blogging. Overnight. Enjoy ELO:

Where did you go

I was searching (searching) on a one-way street
I was hoping (hoping)
for a chance to meet
I was waiting for the operator
on the line
(She's gone so long)
What can I do?
(Where could she be?)
no no no
don't know what I'm gonna do
I gotta get back to you.

CHORUS
You gotta slow down (slow down)
sweet talking woman (slow down)
You got me running (run run)
You got me searching
Hold on (hold on)
sweet talking lover (hold on)
It's so sad
if that's the way it's over

I was (walking) many days go by
I was thinking (thinking) about the lonely nights
Communication breakdown all around
(She's gone so long) What can I do?
(Where could she be now?) no no no don't know what I'm gonna do
I gotta get back to you.

REPEAT CHORUS

I've been living (living) on a dead-end street
I've been asking (asking)
everybody I meet
Insufficient data coming through
(She's gone so long) What can I do?
(Where could she be?) no no no don't know what I'm gonna do
I gotta get back to you.

REPEAT CHORUS

Journalistic Malpractice: Time Magazine, 'Does America Have a Muslim Problem?'

I've not published anything about the Ground Zero Mosque controversy, simply because I'm still trying to think about it in a detached and objective manner. As a strong proponent of religious liberty, I can see the reasonableness of the pro-Mosque position. But as someone who will never forget what happened on September 11, 2001 -- the consequence of Islamic terrorists putting their beliefs into practice -- I fully understand the objections raised against the Mosque. However, when a magazine like Time attempts to paint one side of the debate as consisting of nothing more than bigots moved by an irrational fear, I see Rhetorical McCarthyism. It is a shameful and undemocractic way to conduct a discussion in a Constitutional republic, since its purpose is to end the discussion rather than to advance it, to shut people up rather than to treat them with equal respect and dignity. It is the plagiarized cultural cliff notes of the intellectually lazy. — Francis J. Beckwith, Return to Rome, "My Rhetorical McCarthyism Beats Your Islamophobia."

If I was contemplating teaching a seminar on ideological bias in the contemporary press, Time Magazine's recent cover story on the Ground Zero mosque controversy would be hard to beat. And keeping with dead tree media ethics, the full article's available only in print. Perhaps the editors were hoping to avoid a savage thrashing at the hands of bloggers. I started reading the essay at my son's orthodontist's, then finished it at Barnes and Noble on the way home (no way would I fork over cash for such a pathetic hatchet job, sheesh). There's absolutely no mention of or engagement with any of the arguments Mega Mosque opponents have offered. And at one point the piece argues that Imam Rauf and Daisy Khan are leaders of the U.S. Muslim community's "interfaith outreach." The only problem, of course, is that throughout the controversy the developers have shunned any dialogue with "interfaith" critics of the project. And then there's this passage, available at the homepage:

You don't have to be prejudiced against Islam to believe, as many Americans do, that the area around Ground Zero is a sacred place. But sadly, in an election season, such sentiments have been stoked into a political issue. As the debate has grown more heated, Park51, as the proposed Muslim cultural center and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero is called, has become a litmus test for everything from private-property rights to religious tolerance. But it is plain that many of Park51's opponents are motivated by deep-seated Islamophobia

That's blanket condemnation. And it's too bad. I'd be perfectly happy to condemn outright hatred and bigotry toward Muslims (and I have at American Power). But folks are barking up the wrong tree with Pamela Geller. Mostly, she's just doing a fabulous job at calling these people out. Leftists don't like it, and they're lashing out the only way they know how: with allegations of RAAAACISM! From the Imam's excoriation of the United States to Little Miss Daisy's Islamic anti-Semitism, the Cordoba developers are offering up a whole lotta fodder for opponents. And as you have the press so completely in the tank --- and so oblivious to the manifestly non-bridge-building aims of the initiative --- it's no surprise that conservatives are even more outraged at the shameless indignity of building a jihadi worship center on sacred ground.

Americans are not prejudiced against Muslims. It's more likely that the families of the fallen and their grassroots supporters are now subject to a broad-based pattern of harassment and discrimination, from the White House all the way down to the communists on the streets screaming anti-Semitic epithets at the "Jewish Zionist" state.

Daisy Khan and Islamic Anti-Semitism

From Pamela, "Islamic Antisemitism 101: The Daisy Khan Con":

How dare Daisy Khan evoke the holocaust and the mass genocide of the Jews to smear those brave Americans who dare to stand up against Islamic supremacism and the tower of triumph under proposal for Ground Zero?

What has Daisy Khan done to expunge the Koran, hadiths and sira of the virulent antisemitism and calls for Jewish genocide enshrined in Islamic teachings? What has Daisy Khan done to denounce and rebuke the pivotal role the leader of the Muslim world and Hitler's ally (the Mufti haj al Husseini) had in the holocaust and the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Jewish women and children? Her husband, Imam Rauf of the Cordoba Imitative, pals around with the notorious Jew hater and America hater, Sheik Qaradawi. Is that the kind of mutual respect and mutual understanding we can expect to see fostered at the Ground Zero mosque and "islamic Cultural Center?" Will Qaradawi be asked to speak?

Who among my readers will gift Daisy the Con all of the complete works of the world's leading scholar on Islamic antisemitism, Bat Ye'or.

Also, Robert Spencer, "Wow: Daisy Khan says opposition to Ground Zero mosque 'like metastasized antisemitism'."

I wrote on this previously: "Daisy Khan: Moving Islamic Center ‘Not’ On the Table for Now."

The Myth of an Anti-Muslim Backlash

From Jonah Goldberg:

Here's a thought: The 70% of Americans who oppose what amounts to an Islamic Niketown two blocks from ground zero are the real victims of a climate of hate, and anti-Muslim backlash is mostly a myth.

Let's start with some data.

According to the FBI, hate crimes against Muslims increased by a staggering 1,600% in 2001. That sounds serious! But wait, the increase is a math mirage. There were 28 anti-Islamic incidents in 2000. That number climbed to 481 the year a bunch of Muslim terrorists murdered 3,000 Americans in the name of Islam on Sept. 11.

Now, that was a hate crime.

Regardless, 2001 was the zenith or, looked at through the prism of our national shame, the nadir of the much-discussed anti-Muslim backlash in the United States. The following year, the number of anti-Islamic hate-crime incidents (overwhelmingly, nonviolent vandalism and nasty words) dropped to 155. In 2003, there were 149 such incidents. And the number has hovered around the mid-100s or lower ever since.

Sure, even one hate crime is too many. But does that sound like a anti-Muslim backlash to you?

Let's put this in even sharper focus. America is, outside of Israel ,probably the most receptive and tolerant country in the world to Jews. And yet, in every year since 9/11, more Jews have been hate-crime victims than Muslims. A lot more.

In 2001, there were twice as many anti-Jewish incidents as there were anti-Muslim, again according to the FBI. In 2002 and pretty much every year since, anti-Jewish incidents have outstripped anti-Muslim ones by at least 6 to 1. Why aren't we talking about the anti-Jewish climate in America?

Because there isn't one. And there isn't an anti-Muslim climate either. Yes, there's a lot of heated rhetoric on the Internet. Absolutely, some Americans don't like Muslims. But if you watch TV or movies or read, say, the op-ed page of the New York Times — never mind left-wing blogs — you'll hear much more open bigotry toward evangelical Christians (in blogspeak, the "Taliban wing of the Republican Party") than you will toward Muslims.

No doubt some American Muslims — particularly young Muslim men with ties to the Middle East and South Asia — have been scrutinized at airports more than elderly women of Norwegian extraction, but does that really amount to Islamophobia, given the dangers and complexities of the war on terror?

More at the link.

'There is No Moderate Islam in the Mainstream of Muslim Life'

Andrew McCarthy cuts to the heart of the matter (via Cold Fury and Memeorandum):

The sad fact, the fact no one wants to deal with but which the Ground Zero mosque debate has forced to the fore, is that Qaradawi is a moderate. So is Feisal Rauf, who endorses the Qaradawi position — the mainstream Islamic position — that sharia is a nonnegotiable requirement. Rauf wins the coveted “moderate” designation because he strains, at least when speaking for Western consumption, to paper over the incompatibility between sharia societies and Western societies.

Qaradawi and Rauf are “moderates” because we’ve abandoned reason. Our opinion elites are happy to paper over the gulf between “reformist” Islam and the “reformist” approval of mass-murder attacks. That’s why it matters not a whit to them that Imam Rauf refuses to renounce Hamas: If you’re going to give a pass to Qaradawi, the guy who actively promotes Hamas terrorists, how can you complain about a guy who merely refuses to condemn the terrorists?

When we are rational, we have confidence in our own frame of reference. We judge what is moderate based on a detached, commonsense understanding of what “moderate” means. We’re not rigging the outcome; we just want to know where we stand.

If we were in that objective frame of mind, we would easily see that a freedom culture requires separation of the spiritual from the secular. We would also see that sharia — with dictates that contradict liberty and equality while sanctioning cruel punishments and holy war — is not moderate. Consequently, no one who advocates sharia can be a moderate, no matter how well-meaning he may be, no matter how heartfelt may be his conviction that this is God’s will, and no matter how much higher on the food chain he may be than Osama bin Laden.

Instead, abandoning reason, we have deep-sixed our own frame of reference and substituted mainstream Islam’s. If that backward compass is to be our guide, then sure, Qaradawi and Rauf are moderates. But know this: When you capitulate to the authority and influence of Qaradawi and Rauf, you kill meaningful Islamic reform.

There is no moderate Islam in the mainstream of Muslim life, not in the doctrinal sense. There are millions of moderate Muslims who crave reform. Yet the fact that they seek real reform, rather than what Georgetown is content to call reform, means they are trying to invent something that does not currently exist.

Real reform can also be found in some Muslim sects. The Ahmadi, for example, hold some unorthodox views and reject violent jihad. Witness what happens: They are brutally persecuted by Muslims in Pakistan, as well as in Indonesia and other purported hubs of moderation.

Meanwhile, individual Muslim reformers are branded apostates, meaning not only that they are discredited, but that their lives are threatened as well. The signal to other Muslims is clear: Follow the reformers and experience the same fury. As Qaradawi put it in the 2005 interview, public apostates are “the gravest danger” to Islamic society; therefore, Muslims must snuff them out, lest their reforms “spread like wildfire in a field of thorns.”

Today, “moderate Islam” is an illusion. There is hardly a spark, much less a wildfire. Making moderation real will take more than wishing upon a star. It calls for a gut check, a willingness to face down not just al-Qaeda but the Qaradawis and their sharia campaign. It means saying: Not here.

'Moderate Muslims Are Going to Be Pushed Into Joining Extremist Movements Like al-Qaida'

So much for moderate Muslims repudiating jihad:

Experts worry the controversy surrounding an Islamic center near ground zero in Lower Manhattan is playing right into the hands of radical extremists.

The supercharged debate over the proposed center has attracted the attention of a quiet, underground audience — young Muslims who drift in and out of jihadi chat rooms and frequent radical Islamic sites on the Web. It has become the No. 1 topic of discussion in recent days and proof positive, according to some of the posted messages, that America is indeed at war with Islam.

"This, unfortunately, is playing right into their hands," said Evan F. Kohlmann, who tracks these kinds of websites and chat rooms for Flashpoint Global partners, a New York-based security firm. "Extremists are encouraging all this, with glee.

"It is their sense that by doing this that Americans are going to alienate American Muslims to the point where even relatively moderate Muslims are going to be pushed into joining extremist movements like al-Qaida. They couldn't be happier."

Hey, Imam Rauf's dreams come true! Build a Victory Mosque at Ground Zero, alienate two-thirds of the American people and piss on the families of the fallen, then turn around and attack them all as a bunch "anti-Muslim bigots," which in turn induces all those millions of "peaceful" Muslims worldwide to show up at al Qaeda's recruiting stations.

Brilliant.

And working true to plan. These folks are da bomb! Really!

Hat Tip: James Taranto.

America Rising: An Open Letter to Democrat Politicians (Repost)

This video came out at the very beginning of the year. It's interesting to see it again. More prescient than ever:

Radical Ground Zero Victory Mosque Imam Thanks Obama For His Support

At Gateway Pundit:

The radical imam behind the Ground Zero Victory Mosque project, who said the U.S. is worse than Al-Qaeda, thanked Barack Obama today for his support on the project. The New York Daily News reported:

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf used his taxpayer-funded Mideast tour yesterday to praise President Obama’s qualified support for the mosque near Ground Zero.

“I am grateful to President Barack Obama and all those who expressed support for our project,” Abdul Rauf said at a dinner for student leaders in the Gulf state of Bahrain. the Gulf Daily News in Bahrain reported.

The 'Professional Left' Calls Conservatives Fighting Ground Zero Mosque Islamophobes

From Lisa Richards, at NewsReal Blog:

Leftists have an crazy obsessive compulsive drive to defend Islam and Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s radical plans to build the Ground Zero mosque. Islamophobia is their weak argument for supporting a religion that calls for the death of all non-Muslims and honor killings for Muslims considered dishonorable.

But leftists are losing the fight, because too many Americans know the truth about Islam — it's anti-Semitic. It's the GOP, darling leftists, that loves Jews and welcomes Jews, Islam does not. "Progressives" love condemning conservative protesters as the bigots, yet they defend Islam’s radical anti-Semitic history that continues today.

Americans understand Islam and they know why leftists support Islam and the Ground Zero mosque so ferociously: the Left has a devoted fetish for anti-Semitism, Islam and mosque conquering. Leftists love Islam, because The Left harbors anti-Semitism toward Israel and Jews and is against anything preventing Islam from conquering and destroying western ideals.

RTWT.

Progressive Censorship and the Ground Zero Mosque

See James Taranto, "Is Nancy Pelosi Un-American?":

Also, from Roger Simon, "Censorship in the Era of the Ground Zero Mosque and Islamic Debate."

Continued Debate on Ground Zero

Pamela on Hannity:

Gonna Ride Me a South-Bound...

Enjoy a bit of Marshall Tucker Band:

Rasmussen Reports: 62% Oppose Ground Zero Mosque/Only 25% Support

Another poll finding roughly two-thirds of Americans against a Victory Mosque at Ground Zero:

Now 62% oppose the building of a mosque near where the World Trade Center stood in Lower Manhattan, compared to 54% in the previous survey. Twenty-five percent (25%) favor allowing the mosque to go ahead, and 13% more are not sure.

Sixty-eight percent (68%) of the Political Class, however, favor building the mosque near Ground Zero. Seventy-seven percent (77%) of Mainstream voters are opposed.

Since the July survey, the local New York City zoning debate over the planned 13-story Cordoba mosque has escalated into a national controversy. It has even been addressed by President Obama, who supports the building of the mosque in the name of religious tolerance. Opponents of the project, including many who lost loved ones in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, see the mosque as a deliberate provocation that dishonors the memories of the 3,000 people who died that day.

In mid-July, most voters in New York (58%) opposed the building of the mosque near Ground Zero. Twenty percent (20%) supported it, and 21% were undecided.

And yet leftists continue to claim they're the compassionate, enlightened ones. Talk about "the political class." It's pretty much the extreme left-wing and its jihadi allies who support this thing. Most regular folks see this as an affront to decency at least, if not another foot in the door to sharia.

Response to Haris Tarin and Moderate Muslims

I like this response to "Where have America's tolerance and acceptance of Muslims gone?", at the Letters to the Editor at LAT:

I agree with Tarin that the Muslim faith in the U.S. (and in other Western countries) is under attack. This goes against our principles and is very disturbing.

But in our defense, there has been a very muted response from the moderate Muslim community to the vicious attacks by the extreme fundamentalist wing of their religion on the "openness and welcoming nature of the American people."

If we perceived a loud moderate and open voice from the Muslim community, I am sure there would be strong support for it.

We are hungry to hear a clear message from Islam denouncing the extremists and embracing the open and tolerant attitude that drew Tarin's parents to this country in the first place.

Susan Clayton

Santa Barbara