URGENT! White House and U.S. Government Agencies Sponsor (Pay for): “Muslim Brotherhood-associated “Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations” “
Published August 31, 2010 | 
Coming August 31: ‘Direct Access’ Stimulus Grants for the Muslim Brotherhood
Think of it as ACORN reborn, with a slice of Jihad on the side.
On August 31, this coming Tuesday, the Muslim Brotherhood-associated “Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations” (CCMO) will bring 25-30 Muslim leaders of 20 national Muslim groups to attend a special workshop presented by the White House and U.S. Government agencies (Agriculture, Education, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services etc.) to provide the groups “funding, government assistance and resources.” The workshop will apparently provide special access for these Muslim Brotherhood organizations: the organizers pledge to provide “direct access” and “cut through red tape.” Government and Muslim groups will hold an Iftar dinner (breaking the fast of Ramadan) after the workshop.
The event was announced in an email newsletter sent August 27 by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism finance trial, long associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, the global Islamist network (great backgrounder here from Hudson Institute). Here are three key paragraphs from the email (the entire article on the August 31 event from the ISNA email is pasted below this post as reference):
This year, a phenomenal next step has been made where government iftars become coupled with workshops to provide resources and benefit the Muslim community. The US Department of Agriculture (DOA) and the Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations (CCMO) have paired the first of such events, scheduled for August 31, 2010.
…Leaders from Muslim organizations around the nation, particularly social service organizations, are invited to a workshop with representatives from the DOA, Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Health and Human Services, the White House, Department of Education, the Department of Homeland Security, and more. Twenty five to thirty Muslim leaders representing 20 Muslim organizations are expected to attend the workshop.
According to a representative of CCMO, this workshop is designed to clarify how Muslim nonprofits, mosques, Islamic centers, and social service organizations can strengthen their communities through more direct access to opportunities provided to social service agencies at the Federal level. “It will hopefully help cut through some of the red tape and shine light on the many opportunities for funding, government assistance, and resources that we just don’t know about at the local level,” said Elsanousi.
The Problem: Your Money, redistributed to the Muslim Brotherhood
This workshop constitutes an abdication of their professional responsibility by all government participants – and a taxpayer-funded government stimulus program for the attending Muslim Brotherhood-associated groups. The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928, is a global Islamist political movement dedicated to imposing Shariah law on all nations and institutions. Their credo is “Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”
Why do we think some of these groups attending, possibly all, may be associated with the Muslim Brotherhood?
Because the sponsoring organization – the Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations (CCMO), co-sponsoring with the Department of Agriculture – has a long history of associations with the Muslim Brotherhood. They also signed a 2009 American Muslim Task Force statement threatening to “suspend” relations with the FBI, because the FBI was investigating possible links to homegrown terrorism in mosques and other Muslim organizations.
Not so evident on the current website, of course. This happens all the time with groups associated with the Muslim Brotherhood – the current CCMO website has a LOT less information than the older ones preserved at archive.org (aka “The Wayback Machine”). Here are the previous websites for the CCMO from 2004-2008. The pre-whitewashed CCMO websites are highly revealing. They expose the degree to which this Administration intends to direct taxpayer money (and “reduced red tape”) to Muslim Brotherhood-associated organizations in the U.S.
The Administration has not revealed which 20 groups and 25-30 leaders will attend the special workshop, but if they include the 41 CCMO members listed in 2007, the attendees could include the following groups , which I’ve linked to descriptions published by The Investigative Project (please support their work):
The Islamic Society of North America, an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation Terrorism Finance trial, and the source of Friday’s email promoting this CCMO/Department of Agriculture Event;
The Council on American Islamic Relations, shunned by the FBI, several of its leaders indicted or convicted for terrorism, a possible violator of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, sued for fraud by Muslim, Hispanic and African-American families, named as an unindicted co-conspirator (CAIR fundraiser advertised at the CCMO site);
The International Institute of Islamic Thought , the “think tank” of the Muslim Brotherhood, described at that link by The Grand Jihad author and former prosecutor Andrew McCarthy. One of the current and longest serving officers of CCMO is Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, founder of the educational arm of IIIT, the Fairfax Institute and the Director of Outreach Program for Dar-ul Hijrah “Terror” Mosque – more on him below.
The Muslim Public Affairs Committee , exposed in that linked 88-page IPT report particularly for their defense of terrorists and terrorist financers. MPAC advertised here at the CCMO site for an event co-sponsored by Islamic Free Market Institute, the latter described in Paul Sperry’s pathbreaking book Infiltration)
The Dar al Hijrah Mosque (known as the “Terror Mosque” in Northern Virginia for its links to imprisoned, indicted or wanted terrorists as vividly described by Frank Gaffney), advertised here at the CCMO site.
The Muslim American Society “Freedom Foundation” run by three-time felon Mahdi Bray (MASFF Fundraiser advertised at the CCMO site). The Muslim American Society was originally founded as the U.S. branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. MAS leader Mahdi Bray was elected on September 7, 2003 to the Executive Committee by over 40 CCMO member organizations.
I suggest that the Administration knows these groups are linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. They think that’s a good thing.
This isn’t incompetence; it’s intentional.
The CCMO Officers: Muslim Brotherhood Leaders
These are not just your garden-variety Muslim Brotherhood operatives. The CCMO officers include leading national and international figures in the Muslim Brotherhood, settled in the Washington DC suburbs to enjoy “direct access” to the Administration and Congress. CCMO is a major U.S. node in the loosely coordinated Muslim Brotherhood network. Just the fellows to give your tax dollars as stimulus money!
CCMO appears to have started as an umbrella organization in the late 1980s, when so many Muslim Brotherhood organizations were expanding. According to this 2005 article at Washington, DC’s Muslim Link Newspaper, CCMO was 18 years old in that year, making the start date around 1987.
Who are these CCMO officers? We could write a book on each of them; their personal biographies are the tale of the Muslim Brotherhood’s ongoing “Project” to bring Shariah Law to America. Here are brief sketches on a few (Mahdi Bray, previously a CCMO officer and linked above, is not on the current CCMO board):
Dr. Iqbal Unus
Unus, like fellow CCMO officer Anwar Haddam below, holds the position currently of “Member at Large” on the CCMO board. Daniel Pipes notes that Unus unsuccessfully sued anti-terrorism researcher Rita Katz, and that his house was searched in the Green Quest investigation. He’s a leader in an alphabet soup of groups named as unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism finance trial, or known to be associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Just review his published biography ( pdf ) from a 2007 “Islamophobia Conference” in Turkey (here’s the conference program in Google translation to English). Several of the organizations he directs are listed in “An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America,” the Holy Land Foundation terrorism finance trial’s most famous document (p. 32), which I noted in brackets below in Unus’ bio below:
Dr. Iqbal Unus is director of The Fairfax Institute (TFI), the instructional division of International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) [listed on p. 32], located near Washington, D.C., U.S.A., where he has also served as director of human development and director of administration since 1989. Between 1995 and 1998, he taught and worked at the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences as dean of students and registrar. Prior to joining IIIT, Dr. Unus served as secretary general of Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) [listed on p. 32] after having worked as director of administration and assistant secretary general since 1977. Between 1980 and 1982, Dr. Unus taught in the applied sciences and nuclear engineering departments at King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Dr. Iqbal Unus has had a wide ranging volunteer service experience in the Muslim community in the United States for over 37 years. Some of the prominent offices he has held include president of the Muslim Students Association [listed on p. 32] of the United States and Canada (1975), several offices including president of the Association of Muslim Scientists and Engineers (AMSE) [listed on p. 32], member of Majls ash Shura of Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) [listed on p. 32], trustee of Amana Mutual Funds Trust, working committee member of International Council of Awqaf and Non-Governmental Organizations (ICANO), board member of Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations in Washington Area (CCMO), and trustee of All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS).
In his lecture at the 2007 Islamophobia conference, Unus stated, “Western academic institutions must reevaluate their curriculum on all levels and purge material that may encourage or promote violence or hatred towards others through Islamophobia and xenophobia.” Why this is important: the Department of Education will attend the August 31 workshop to provide “direct access” to grants. Americans have a right to know if the DoE will be talking to Unus on August 31 about funding projects to purge school curricula according to Unus’ standards.
Johari is a convert to Islam; he was formerly Winslow Seale of Brooklyn New York. Johari is currently CCMO Treasurer, and he has previously been Chairman of CCMO. He is the Director of Outreach at the Dar Al Hijrah Islamic Center near Washington DC. Dar al Hijrah is exposed in this report from the Investigative Project, in which the Department of Treasury’s Enforcement Communications System (TECS) records describe it as “a mosque operating as a front for Hamas operatives in U.S.,” “is associated with Islamic extremists,” “has been under numerous investigations for financing and proving aid and comfort to bad orgs and members,” has “been linked to numerous individuals linked to terrorism financing,” and “has also been associated with encouraging fraudulent marriages.”
Furthermore, his history of statements defending terrorist recruiter and trainer Al-Awlaki, promoting violence against Israel, and claiming that Islam will be the “first religion” in America are standard Muslim Brotherhood doctrine. His advocacy of terrorism against Israel in 2001 was particularly troublesome: he enthuses over specific acts of terrorism, with a passing nod to avoiding civilian casualties, almost as murderous as the violent guerrilla warfare in Algeria endorsed by CCMO officer Anwar Haddam (see below):
I am gonna teach you now. You can blow up bridges, but you cannot kill people who are innocent on their way to work. You can blow up power supplies… the water supply, you can do all forms of sabotage and let the world know that we are doing it like this because they have a respect for the lives of innocent people.
In the last two months, after highly critical media exposure on the radicalism of the Dar al Hijra Mosque, Johari has suddenly modified his behavior. On June 8, 2010, Johari announced his resignation from a variety of openly- Muslim Brotherhood-connected organizations, remaining as a representative of those interests on interfaith boards. He resigned from:
1. Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA)
2. Muslim Council of America (MCA)
3. American Muslim Task-Force (Representative of MANA)
4. MELD/EVEN START
5. North American Imams Federation (Founding Board member)
6. Georgetown U – Chaplain Advisory board
7. University of MD-Chaplain Board
Also to his credit, on June 20, he published a post urging the removal from Islamic store Halalco.com (also his neighborhood store) of two sets of publications or recordings: 1) those by Dar al-Hijrah’s previous Imam, terrorist Al -Awlaki, and 2) the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Christian Broadcasting Network had just exposed the Halalco.com bookstore for carrying radicalizing materials.
Whether Johari’s statements reveal a tactical retreat, in the face of public exposure of the Muslim Brotherhood associations of his prior directorships, or a genuine rejection of the Muslim Brotherhood ideology, remains to be determined, since he retained his leadership positions in CCMO and Dar al Hijrah. This administration reportedly has favored Dar al Hijrah previously with a government contract from the U.S. Census Bureau costing taxpayers $23,000/month since November 2008, and serious questions should be asked about how much “direct access” Dar al Hijrah will have at the August 31 workshop.
Haddam is listed at the CCMO website as Member-At-Large on the Board (a title held earlier by Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation head Mahdi Bray). Prominently displayed in the menu of the CCMO websites from 2004-2008 (but whitewashed from the current site) is this report – First Impressions: American Muslim Perspectives on the 9/11 Commission Report – sponsored by CCMO, published by IIIT (see above) and edited and authored by another coalition of Muslim Brotherhood-associated groups, the American Muslim Task Force. Of the several authors for the Report, one to note is Anwar N. Haddam. According to his bio in the “First Impressions” book, Haddam is a long-time and currently listed board member of CCMO, “elected to the Algerian Parliament in December 1991… currently Advisor to the Islamic Front for Salvation (FIS-Algeria)… involved with the Algerian Islamic Movement.”
What the bio doesn’t mention is that the Clinton Administration kept Haddam detained for four years, based on classified evidence. He had already been banned from Algeria. In late 2000, in spite of efforts to prevent his release from detention by Attorney General Janet Reno and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), he was granted asylum in the U.S. by the Board of Immigration Appeals. That decision, according to an assessment at Sheikh Qaradawi’s islamonline.net, was due to “political pressure from the Muslim community in Europe and the US, as well as from members of the US Congress.”
Earlier, in 1996, Daniel Pipes and Patrick Clawson had conducted an extraordinary in-depth interview with Haddam, published in the Middle East Quarterly, which exposes his absolute dedication to imposing an Islamist State in Algeria based on Shariah law, regardless of the costs in human life or liberties. Haddam himself wrote a revealing memoir of his leadership of the banned Islamic Front for Salvation. Algeria is an example of what happens when a somewhat secular Muslim-majority country is targeted by the Muslim Brotherhood – in this case, Haddam’s Islamic Front for Salvation – to force it to become an Islamic state. Decades of civil war, over 200,000 dead – and under this administration, a remorseless leader invited to the White House for “direct access” to grants using your money.
Here’s the abstract of a speech Haddam made in 2009, in which he describes himself (and the nature of his political party) in words relevant for the August 31 meeting: “The author of this paper – who has been in charge of the international relations of one of the first contemporary political parties of Islamic obedience…” Just to drive the point home here, that means he considers himself in the U.S. in official capacity (detained or not), representing a political party that is a leader in creating the Islamist state: “political parties of Islamic obedience.” And to connect the dots, that would be the same “Shariah-Compliant State” – also known as a state of “Islamic obedience” – that Ground Zero Mosque Imam Rauf is promoting for the U.S. and worldwide through his Shariah Index Project.
Congress should ask: will CCMO be given “financial assistance” to help further Haddam’s political goals for Algeria, working among the expatriate community here in the U.S. – or his goals for America?
Faizul Khan
Faizul Khan is Assistant Secretary-Treasurer for CCMO. He was the imam, recently replaced, at the Maryland Muslim Community Center Mosque attended for years by Fort Hood shooter Major Nidal Malik Hasan, until Hasan moved to Texas and shortly after killed thirteen people and wounded dozens. (He also reportedly attended services at CCMO-related Dar al Hijra Mosque in northern Virginia.) Khan is also on the board of ISNA, an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism finance trial.
In interviews after the shootings, Imam Feizul Khan referred to Hasan as “very devout.” This is, to say the least, an understatement. In fact, it’s not unlike another CCMO officer (and Dar al Hijrah spokesman) Johar minimizing the radicalism of al-Awlaki when the latter attended Dar al Hijrah. Somehow, terrorists Hasan and al-Awlaki were merely devout in these two CCMO-related mosques right before they went completely jihadist on America.
Stephen Schwartz exposed the radical associations of Khan’s mosque in November 2009 in this article in the NY Post. Schwartz found that Faizul’s Mosque website advertises for the Shariah Compliant “Amana Mutual Fund” which he states is still under investigation by the FBI. Faizul’s Maryland mosque also “hosted at least four talks by Enver Masud, the founder of The Wisdom Fund, the main Muslim ‘truther’ group in America.”
So, what is to be done between now and Tuesday, August 31?
Let’s review.
CCMO – the Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations – is co-sponsoring the August 31 event with the Department of Agriculture. CCMO has deep and broad ties, possibly dating since 1987, to the Muslim Brotherhood.
The issue: If the Obama administration is preferencing one religion over others for special workshops, “direct access” and cutting red tape for financial assistance, that’s not only wrong, it may be unconstitutional; combining the funding workshop with an Iftar dinner just makes it worse.
One solution: Cancel this meeting, and schedule one for all religious organizations. If government grants are to be given to religious groups (a policy some question, but set that aside here), then all grant applicants of all religions, including Muslims should be treated equally. And if Muslim social service groups attend, they should be ones without ties to the Muslim Brotherhood or other Islamist groups dedicated to imposing Shariah law in the U.S.
An alternate solution: Keep the event as currently planned – apparently arranged and dominated by CCMO – but open it up to the media (including network, cable, radio, Big Peace, bloggers, etc.) as well as organizations with expertise on the Muslim Brotherhood, like the Investigative Project, the Middle East Forum, NEFA Foundation, Hudson Institute, the Center for Security Policy and many others. Let the sunshine in…
After all, surely this administration – and CCMO - have nothing to hide?
——————————
Here’s the email in entirety:
Iftar with Our Government:
Serving up Resources for American Muslim Communities
In celebration of Ramadan, ISNA leadership and staff have been busy attending iftars hosted by the White House, State Department, Federal and State Agencies, Embassies, elected officials and interfaith partners.
“These iftars are a place to celebrate the diversity of America with our partners in the government and interfaith communities,” said ISNA Director for the Office of Interfaith and Community Alliances Dr. Sayyid Syeed. He adds, “They are also evidence that Muslims and our traditions are more regularly incorporated into the mosaic of cultures and traditions that form the foundation of American life.”
Although these iftars are important symbols of the transition of Muslims into mainstream American culture, according to ISNA Director of Community Outreach Mohamed Elsanousi, they are also a very important place for brainstorming and the development of practical ideas to help the Muslim community.
“Muslim community members have been asking for more from these iftars for years now. They have contacted ISNA and requested that we work with our partners in government to make the dinners more useful to our communities at the local levels,” said ISNA Director of Community Outreach Mohamed Elsanousi.
This year, a phenomenal next step has been made where government iftars become coupled with workshops to provide resources and benefit the Muslim community. The US Department of Agriculture (DOA) and the Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations (CCMO) have paired the first of such events, scheduled for August 31, 2010.
“ISNA is happy to join other nation-wide Muslim organizations and participate in this workshop. We absolutely expect that there will be more of these paired iftars and workshops in future Ramadans,” said Elsanousi.
The Workshop: So what exactly is this workshop, you may ask. Leaders from Muslim organizations around the nation, particularly social service organizations, are invited to a workshop with representatives from the DOA, Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Health and Human Services, the White House, Department of Education, the Department of Homeland Security, and more. Twenty five to thirty Muslim leaders representing 20 Muslim organizations are expected to attend the workshop.
According to a representative of CCMO, this workshop is designed to clarify how Muslim nonprofits, mosques, Islamic centers, and social service organizations can strengthen their communities through more direct access to opportunities provided to social service agencies at the Federal level. “It will hopefully help cut through some of the red tape and shine light on the many opportunities for funding, government assistance, and resources that we just don’t know about at the local level,” said Elsanousi.
The Iftar: Following the workshop, the DOA will host an Iftar to acknowledge and thank Muslim employees for their dedication and to the DOA. Keynote speakers will discuss the issues of increasing access to healthy foods for all communities and the powerful communal and sacred aspects of food. In addition to the DOA employees and representatives of various Muslim organizations, the DOA also invited Muslim employees from various other government agencies. The Deputy Secretary of the Department of Agriculture is also scheduled to attend.
THIS IS NO JOKE! New Obama Initiative, Government Funded Iftars!
Published August 31, 2010 | Frank Gaffney, Center for Security Policy…
….my Center for Security Policy colleague Christine Brim has broken the story of a major new Obama initiative[1] in that vein. In the words of the largest Muslim Brotherhood organization in the country, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), “A phenomenal next step has been made where government Iftars become coupled with workshops to provide resources and benefit the Muslim community. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (DOA) and the [Muslim Brotherhood-associated] Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations (CCMO) have paired the first of such events, scheduled for August 31, 2010.”….
…Muslim Brothers as evidence of our President’s submission (the literally meaning of “Islam” and the goal of all those who, like the Ikhwan, seek to impose shariah worldwide)….
SOURCE: Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.. Catholic Exchange, August 31, 2010
http://catholicexchange.com/2010/08/31/133918/
ENTIRE ARTICLE FOUND BELOW
Friend of the Brotherhood?
Published August 31, 2010 | …(Obama) has repeatedly said and done things that conform to, or otherwise advance, the Ikhwan’s agenda as articulated by the Brotherhood’s myriad front organizations in the United States….
Posted By Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.. Catholic Exchange, August 31, 2010
A new Pew Center poll says nearly one-in-five Americans think Barack Obama is a Muslim. Perhaps that is because of reports like the one blared on the cover of the September 6 edition of the tabloid, The Globe, replete with photos of Mr. Obama in Muslim garb: It found “shocking proof” in a Nile TV interview given earlier this year by the Egyptian Foreign Affairs Minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, disclosing that “the American President told me in confidence that he is a Muslim.”
A better explanation is that more Americans are taking note of the accumulating series of statements and actions by the President that display favoritism, or worse, towards Muslims. That would be troubling enough; after all, no chief executive is supposed to support one subset of us over others.
Growing numbers of our countrymen may be on to something else about the Obama presidency, however, that is even more alarming: In instance after instance, Mr. Obama has seemingly bent over backwards to accommodate not just Muslim-Americans, but a deeply problematic organization – the Muslim Brotherhood (or Ikhwan) – that purports to represent their interests here.
In fact, the Brotherhood seeks to do something most Muslims in this country – and needless to say, the rest of us – do not want: According to the organization’s mission statement, it is waging “a kind of grand jihad eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”
One need not believe that the President of the United States has actually embraced this radical goal to be concerned. It is enough that he has repeatedly said and done things that conform to, or otherwise advance, the Ikhwan’s agenda as articulated by the Brotherhood’s myriad front organizations in the United States.
Consider the following, necessarily partial listing of actions – some symbolic, some substantive – that can legitimately be seen by the Muslim Brothers as evidence of our President’s submission (the literally meaning of “Islam” and the goal of all those who, like the Ikhwan, seek to impose shariah worldwide):
- Mr. Obama declared in his inaugural address that, “The United States is a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and non-believers.” The ordering of “Muslims” before “Jews” was clearly deliberate, since the latter have been and are in the United States in far larger numbers than the former and have played a much more important role in the nation’s history from its founding. Subsequently, he went even further, describing (inaccurately) America as “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.”
- In his much-ballyhooed address to “the Muslim world” delivered in Cairo in June 2009, Mr. Obama signaled his determination not only to “reach out” to followers of Islam. He also committed himself to an initiative – clearing the way for Muslims to “fulfill their zakat (tithing for charity) obligations” – that would have the practical effect of giving Brotherhood operatives (whose representatives he insisted be in the audience) more latitude to engage in material support for terrorism and, thereby, wage their “civilization jihad” in and from America.
- In September 2009, the Obama administration co-sponsored a United Nations Human Rights Council resolution eagerly sought by the Muslim Brotherhood and its friends. The resolution called on member nations to “prohibit and criminalize” speech that offends Islam and its followers. Such an accommodation would clearly violate the Constitution’s First Amendment guarantees of freedom of expression.
- Speaking of the Constitution, the Obama administration is arguing in federal court that the U.S. government’s ownership of AIG, which happens to be the largest purveyor of shariah-compliant insurance products in the world, does not violate the Establishment Clause’s separation of church and state.
- We recently learned that, according to President Obama, the NASA Administrator’s “foremost” priority is to make Muslims feel better about themselves and their history. Job 1 is not assuring U.S. supremacy in space, or even assured access to it; it’s Muslim outreach and therapy.
- Then, last month, President Obama endorsed the megamosque near Ground Zero in a White House Iftar dinner attended by prominent Muslim Brotherhood operatives. Subsequent efforts to distance himself from that stance, in the face of intense criticism from the public and politicians of both parties, has only put into even sharper focus his pandering to this community.
- Now, my Center for Security Policy colleague Christine Brim has broken the story of a major new Obama initiative [1] in that vein. In the words of the largest Muslim Brotherhood organization in the country, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), “A phenomenal next step has been made where government Iftars become coupled with workshops to provide resources and benefit the Muslim community. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (DOA) and the [Muslim Brotherhood-associated] Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations (CCMO) have paired the first of such events, scheduled for August 31, 2010.”
The latest poll suggests that most Americans do not believe Barack Obama is a Muslim. And for the vast majority of us, it would not matter even if he were – provided he does not subscribe to the Brotherhood’s creed: “God is our objective; the Koran is our law; the Prophet is our leader; jihad is our way; and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations.”
Still, the public is clearly increasingly, and rightly, concerned about Mr. Obama’s policies of favoritism and submission towards the worst elements in Islam. Before tax-dollars are spent to that end, we need a national debate about such policies, and the grave dangers posed by their seeming principal beneficiary: the Muslim Brotherhood.
American Life League: Obama’s Jaded Perspective on Rights
Published August 31, 2010 | …Since when is killing a child or polluting the body of a teen with artificial hormones a “service”?….
Posted By Judie Brown, Catholic Exchange, August 31, 2010
It should be remembered that it was candidate Barack Obama [1], who said when addressing “reproductive rights,” “A woman’s ability to decide how many children to have and when, without interference from the government, is one of the most fundamental rights we possess. It is not just an issue of choice, but equality and opportunity for all women.”
In the intervening two years, a great deal has happened to not only cement those views into public policy but force American taxpayers to fund this deadly agenda, regardless of their religious or moral views on abortion. His message is that there is no fundamental right to life.
Architects of the culture of death such as the National Women’s Law Center salivate over and are emboldened by Obama’s fascination with “reproductive rights.” When the news came out that “Wisconsin is pushing to expand a controversial program [2] that uses federal Medicaid funds to provide free birth-control pills, vasectomies and other forms of contraception to low-income people, an effort made possible by the federal health-care overhaul,” the NWLC went ballistic because the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Richard Doerflinger observed that such a proposal is guided by “a very dismissive view of women.”
The NWLC [3] was pleased to immediately attack the USCCB, suggesting it was out of touch with women and was using its influence to further oppress them. Clearly, truth is not part of the NWLC game plan.
In reference to the same program, Matt Sande, legislative director of Pro-Life Wisconsin [4], an American Life League Associate group, pointed out, “Providing free, taxpayer-funded birth control to 15-year-old boys and girls behind parents’ backs is horrible public policy, and we urge the finance committee to block expansion of this offensive program.”
Indeed, Sande and Doerflinger are right. Contraception is dangerous to women, deadly to preborn children and destructive to the human family, each member of which possesses human rights that should be protected by the federal government. Instead, the Obama administration has made a full-time practice of doing all it can to drive wedges between human persons and their rights.
Recently, the pro-death and badly misnamed Catholics for Choice [5] has taken aim at the same teachings of the Church that so enraged the NWLC this week. In an article titled “Religious Freedom & Catholic Health Care,” it opined,
Unfortunately, Catholic health care institutions do not provide women with all basic and essential reproductive health services. Catholic health care in the US is regulated by the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (the Directives), which were issued not by doctors, ethicists or regulatory authorities, but by the nation’s Catholic bishops. These directives forbid services that contradict church [sic] positions, namely, prohibiting reproductive health options such as:
• abortion
• contraceptive sterilization
• in vitro fertilization and
• prescribing or dispensing contraceptives and contraceptive devices such as IUDs and diaphragms, emergency contraception, and condoms.
It is pitiful that our nation has reached a place where anyone and everyone can take aim at the Catholic Church, her bishops and her teachings while being in complete agreement with the radical agenda of the most anti-life president we have ever had.
Since when is killing a child or polluting the body of a teen with artificial hormones a “service”?
If American Catholics cannot persevere under the guidance of Church teaching because the government is controlling health care, then where are we to go?
My recommendation is that we go in protest to the Congress and to the American people, because this president’s idea of human rights is killing our future.
MICHAEL VORIS: Global Warming Unmasked: The Hidden Agenda
Published August 31, 2010 | Are the environmental movements and groups simply devoted to laudable, correct stewardship of God’s creation, or do they have a more sinister, hidden agenda?
Is global warming being used as an excuse for something far darker?
Is the final goal of the liberal elites behind the push of junk science population control, eugenics and Gaia worship?
Click here to learn more & buy a copy of the program
This program is from RealCatholicTV.com
MICHAEL VORIS: The Climate and the Bishops 08-27
Published August 31, 2010 | The Bishops’ Conference needs to stop supporting the hysteria around global warming and realize the real agenda behind this very dangerous movement.
This program is from RealCatholicTV.com
VIEW ONLINE: http://www.realcatholictv.com/free/index.php?vidID=vort-2010-08-27
MICHAEL VORIS: Glenn Beck and Religion 08-30
Published August 31, 2010 | A society needs more than just religion to survive. It needs the correct religion.
This program is from RealCatholicTV.com
VIEW ONLINE: http://www.realcatholictv.com/free/index.php?vidID=vort-2010-08-30
What Corruption? UPDATE: Count of Scholarships Given to Democrat Congresswoman’s Family, Associates Rises to 23…
Published August 31, 2010 | Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson says she’ll repay scholarship funds by week’s end
By TODD J. GILLMAN / The Dallas Morning News, August 31, 2010
![[Eddie+Bernice+Johnson.jpg]](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_axNHyzV4TeY/SHJ9-fNrB5I/AAAAAAAAA84/SsGs0h-zwCE/s1600/Eddie%2BBernice%2BJohnson.jpg)
WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson awarded eight scholarships last year to her grandsons and a top aide’s children – bringing to 23 the number of awards she handed out since 2005 in violation of Congressional Black Caucus Foundation eligibility rules.
The Dallas Morning News reported Sunday that over the last five years, the Dallas Democrat has awarded up to $20,000 in 15 scholarships to two grandsons, two great-nephews, and aide Rod Givens’ children between 2005 and 2008. The 2009 awards – reflected in a previously undisclosed list provided Monday by the foundation – push that above $25,000.
“While I am not ashamed of helping, I did not intentionally mean to violate any rules in the process,” Johnson said in a written statement issued Monday night, after two days of national scrutiny and sniping from critics, including her campaign opponent. “To rectify this matter immediately, I will reimburse the funds by the end of this week.”
She also pledged to change how she selects recipients for the scholarships. Continue reading
Louisiana Poll: Bush Tops Obama in Disaster Response
Published August 31, 2010 | 
By Elisabeth Meinecke, Human Events, 08/31/2010A new poll shows more Louisiana residents approved of the job President George W. Bush did helping the state in crisis than President Obama.
When asked whether George W. Bush or Barack Obama had done a better job helping Louisiana deal with a crisis, 54% of respondents said Bush, while only 33% said Obama. Six percent said they weren’t sure.
It gets even worse for Obama. Sixty-one percent disapprove of how he handled the aftermath of the oil spill, and only 32% approve. In contrast, 44% approved of how Bush handled Hurricane Katrina aftermath and only 47% disapproved.
The poll, released Friday, was conducted August 21-22 by Public Policy Polling and surveyed 403 likely voters. Interestingly, the polling company’s clientele seems to be fairly liberal—clients include the North Carolina Sierra Club, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund of Central NC and the North Carolina Democrat Party.
Fourteen percent of those who took the poll described themselves as liberal, 36% as moderate, and 50% as conservative. However, 44% identified themselves as Democrat and 45% as Republican.
Obama on Louisiana Gulf Coast
G.W.Bush fly-over after Katrina
President Bush gives a hug and kiss to Ella Glavan of Biloxi, Miss., during
a walking tour of a Biloxi neighborhood devastated by Hurricane Katrina, Friday Sept. 2, 2005.
LifeNews Headlines: August 31, 2010
Published August 31, 2010 | OBAMA ADMIN TO APPEAL EMBRYONIC STEM CELL FUNDING DECISION LATER THIS WEEK
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – The Obama administration is expected to officially appeal later this week a federal judge’s decision to halt President Barack Obama’s executive order forcing Americans to fund embryonic stem cell research through their tax dollars. The judge said the order violated federal law.
PRO-ABORTION OBAMA, DEMOCRATS GOT 88 PERCENT OF MEDIA DONATIONS IN 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – When the mainstream media issues biased news stories on abortion issues, it should come as no surprise to pro-life advocates. That’s because a new analysis of campaign donations by media reporters, producers and writers finds 88 percent of them went to pro-abortion candidate Barack Obama in 2008.
STUDY FINDS LATER ABORTIONS LINKED TO MENTAL HEALTH RISKS, WOMEN PRESSURED
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – A new study finds the later a woman has an abortion the more likely it is that she faces mental health risks and is under pressure from a partner or others to have an abortion she may not otherwise want. Women getting later abortions also are more likely to be ambivalent about having an abortion.
HUMAN TESTS FOR EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS REPORTEDLY COMING DESPITE JUDGE’S RULING
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – A federal judge may have issued a ruling stopping federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, but a new report out today indicates human trials with the cells may be forthcoming despite problems using them in animals. Scientists have yet to overcome significant problems in animal studies and testing.
AL PACINO WINS EMMY AWARD FOR MOVIE ON EUTHANASIA ADVOCATE JACK KEVORKIAN
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – In another example of the Hollywood elite glorifying those actors and films that promote anti-life values, Al Pacino won an Emmy Award for his portrayal of Jack Kevorkian in the HBO film, “You Don’t Know Jack.” Pacino portrayed the assisted suicide crusader who was eventually jailed for killing a disabled man in a televised euthanasia.
PLANNED PARENTHOOD BLOCKS RELEASE OF PAPERS ON TELEMED ABORTION PRACTITIONER
Des Moines, IA (LifeNews.com) – The Iowa-based Planned Parenthood affiliate that has the nation’s first abortion practitioner overseeing the new telemed abortion concept has filed a lawsuit to block a pro-life group’s request for papers on the abortion practitioner’s medical license.
PRO-LIFE PEOPLE, PUBLIC SHOULD SEE THE ABORTION EXPOSE’ FILM “BLOOD MONEY”
by Matt Abbott
Today (August 29) I had the opportunity to see the recently-released gripping and informative documentary “Blood Money.” The film also features testimonies from post-abortive women, whose stories are gut-wrenching. For example, one woman recounts, in detail, the horrific experience of procuring a late-term abortion from the late George Tiller.
Prayer for Safety in Hurricane Season
Published August 31, 2010 |
O God, Master of this passing world,
hear the humble voices of your children.
The Sea of Galilee obeyed Your order
and returned to its former quietude.
You are still the Master of land and sea.
We live in the shadow of a danger over which we have no control:
the Gulf, like a provoked and angry giant,
can awake from its seeming lethargy,
overstep its conventional boundaries,
invade our land, and spread chaos and disaster.
During this hurricane season we turn to You, O loving Father.
Spare us from past tragedies whose memories are still so vivid
and whose wounds seem to refuse to heal with passing of time.
O Virgin, Star of the Sea, Our beloved Mother,
we ask you to plead with your Son in our behalf,
so that spared from the calamities common to this area
and animated with a true spirit of gratitude,
we will walk in the footsteps of your Divine Son
to reach the heavenly Jerusalem
where a stormless eternity awaits us.
Amen.
http://www.diobr.org/news/060517a.htm
A Stay of Execution for Over a Half-Million Embryos in Frozen Orphanages
Published August 31, 2010 | …Father Tad Pacholczyk,“The situation is given a false dichotomy very often that ‘it is either this or that.’ Either the embryos will be thrown away or we could get some wondrous and miraculous cures if you would just let us have them. I think that is what the average person supposes, but the fact of the matter is we should never be throwing away a fellow human being…..
By Mark Armstrong, Catholic Exchange, August 31, 2010
Last week, in a decision which surprised nearly everyone involved in the scientific community, federal district judge Royce C. Lamberth blocked President Barack Obama’s Executive Order of March, 2009 that allowed expanded federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research.
The judge’s ruling gives a reprieve, from possible destruction, to the over 500,000 human embryos that are currently stored in liquid nitrogen tanks in fertility clinics in the United States, a number comparable to the entire population of the state of Wyoming. And, because our country does not have any laws to regulate the infertility industry, thousands of human embryos are being created each month and sentenced to be part of the half-million embryos in frozen orphanages.
Father Tad Pacholczyk, the Director of Education at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, in an interview with Catholic Exchange, said the practice of freezing human embryos is one of “the greatest humanitarian tragedies of our time.”
This week, opponents of Judge Lamberth’s decision are moving quickly to get the ruling either overturned or to get Congress to change the law to allow human embryonic research back on track.
One possible option in Congress would be to lift the funding freeze by modifying the language of the Dickey-Wicker amendment. This is the amendment that has been attached to spending bills since 1996 which prohibits the use of federal funds for research that destroys human embryos.
President Obama’s Executive Order attempted to get around the Dickey-Wicker amendment by saying that federal funding could only be used in research on the stem cells harvested from human embryos; it could not fund the actual killing of the human embryos themselves. Judge Lamberth saw through the ruse, and said the federal prohibition, “encompasses all ‘research in which’ an embryo is destroyed, not just the ‘piece of research’ in which the embryo is destroyed.”
An Important Decision
Father Pacholczyk told Catholic Exchange that while he was surprised by the judge’s ruling, it was hugely significant. “I would say it is a very important decision because it constitutes the central issue in the minds of many scientists; namely is the federal government going to be funding the kind of research that some scientists would like to do with human embryos?”
Father Pacholczyk, who earned his doctorate in neuroscience from Yale University and did post-doctoral studies at Harvard University, said while the issue is complicated to some, “embryonic human life is inviolable and deserving of unconditional respect.”
Scientists and others who claim that the human embryos are needed for research and would simply be wasted are not painting a complete picture, explained Father Pacholczyk.
“The situation is given a false dichotomy very often that ‘it is either this or that.’ Either the embryos will be thrown away or we could get some wondrous and miraculous cures if you would just let us have them. I think that is what the average person supposes, but the fact of the matter is we should never be throwing away a fellow human being. So the first point can never be granted. No, of course we cannot throw them away, these are our children, trapped in frozen orphanages and we have the duty to protect them and safeguard them to best of our ability and not hand them over to be destroyed for research purposes.” Continue reading
Pat Buchanan: Can the Tea Party Deliver?
Published August 31, 2010 | …“We must not fundamentally transform America, as some would want,” said Palin, in one of the direct challenges to Obama. “We must restore America.”…
Pat Buchanan, Townhall, August 31, 2010
“There are only two men in America who can fill Yankee Stadium on three weeks’ notice,” a friend instructed me years ago.
“Billy Graham and Louis Farrakhan.”
Indeed, a decade ago, Black Muslim Minister Farrakhan’s “Million Man March” brought a throng of hundreds of thousands to the Capitol.
But, last Saturday, Glenn Beck packed the Mall with a crowd that could have filled Yankee Stadium to overflowing five times over. As it stretched from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument, the estimates of its size ran to half a million.
This was twice the size of the crowd that heard Martin Luther King Jr. 47 years ago and matched the antiwar demonstrations of 1969.
Wisely, Beck dropped partisanship to convert his gathering into a God, country and Constitution rally, with speakers honoring the courage and sacrifice of America’s military. Said Sarah Palin, a rally star, “Say what you want to say about me, but I raised a combat vet, and you can’t take that away from me.”
Al Sharpton, who organized a counter-rally that turned out a few hundred folks at Dunbar High, was his usual gracious self. Speaking of the half a million Americans on the Mall, the Rev. Al volunteered, “They want to disgrace this day.”
President Obama, seeing that crowd on the Mall as large as the one that came to celebrate his inaugural, must understand what it portends. His moment may have passed.
For that enthusiastic and energetic assembly is the spear point of an army of millions headed for the polls to throw out the party he leads.
Nevertheless, as Obama raised hopes only to be perceived as having fallen short, so, too, Beck’s believers and the tea party folks are raising hopes and expectations.
But can they succeed?
“We must not fundamentally transform America, as some would want,” said Palin, in one of the direct challenges to Obama. “We must restore America.”
But can we restore America, or is the old America gone forever?
Consider the issue that unites all on the Mall on Saturday — the need for the U.S. government to cut spending, to balance its budget and not to shove an immense burden of debt on our children.
Like last year, we are running a deficit of $1.4 trillion, almost 10 percent of the entire economy. With housing starts and housing sales plunging, jobless claims rising, the stock market sinking and economic growth slowing to a crawl, we will face a new deficit equally large in the fiscal year beginning in October.
Where are the victorious tea party Republicans going to cut?
According to USA Today, 50 million Americans are on Medicaid, and perhaps an equal number on Medicare and Social Security. Which of these three will tea party Republicans cut, when Republicans are already denying Democratic charges that they plan to raise the retirement age for Social Security?
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has a 600-page plan to reform Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the tax code, the work of a conscientious conservative. But only one in 16 House Republicans has signed on as co-sponsor.
Are Republicans going to go after other entitlements — veterans benefits, earned income tax credits, food stamps — which now go to 41 million Americans, or unemployment benefits that run for 99 weeks?
With the racial achievement gap on test scores returning, will the GOP abolish No Child Left Behind or slash federal aid to education?
The big remaining items in the budget are interest on the debt, which must be paid, and war and defense. But Republicans are more likely to be supportive of Obama’s rebuilding a military ravaged by war, and staying the course in Iraq and Afghanistan, than are Democrats.
Obama’s budget commission will surely come in with tax increases on personal incomes, perhaps also for Social Security and Medicare. But the GOP cannot sign on to these and go home again.
Indeed, how can Republicans cooperate with a president who has spent the campaign blaming them for the Great Recession and telling voters the GOP intends to drag us back to the dark past of Bush II?
And why would a “Party of No” that picks up 40 or 50 House seats by its Alamo defiance become a Kumbaya, “Yes-we-can!” party and work in happy harness with Barack Obama?
Can we really “restore America” as she once was?
According to The New York Times, Orange County, Calif. — birthplace of Richard Nixon, Goldwater Country, bastion of the John Birch Society, land of the “little old ladies in tennis shoes” — is today a place where less than half the population is Anglo and almost half speak a language other than English in the home.
Where Ronald Reagan beat Jimmy Carter three to one in Orange County, Obama ran a near dead heat with McCain. And as Orange County goes, so goes California and so goes America.
Republicans and tea partiers are going to have a glorious fall.
But is this one of the last hurrahs?
Beck Couldn’t Get the Color Guard to His Rally, But He Got His Own “Fly-Over”…..
Published August 31, 2010 | ………From a Flock of Geese
Video of the Day – August 31, 2010
Training Wheels, Tassels and Tele-Prompters
Published August 31, 2010 | 
Congressmen Seek to Undermine Embryonic Stem Cell Ruling by Changing Law
Published August 31, 2010 | By Kathleen Gilbert, August 30, 2010 , LifeSiteNews.com
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Members in both chambers of U.S. Congress are angling to alter federal law in order to undermine a district court judge’s temporary injunction that effectively puts a stop to the onset of taxpayer-funded embryonic stem-cell research.
U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth ruled last Monday that Obama’s March 2009 Executive Order, which permitted public funds for the research involving the destruction of embryonic human beings, directly conflicted with federal law known as the Dickey-Wicker amendment. The amendment prevents taxpayer monies from funding research in which embryos “are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death.”
The Obama administration plans to appeal the decision, which followed a decision in June declaring that pro-life researchers and a Christian adoption group had standing to contest the new funding guidelines in a court of law.
But others are looking for a more direct route: Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee aides cited by the National Journal Monday indicated that lawmakers were gearing up to alter the pro-life law cited by the judge “to get at the heart of the problem.” “Simply codifying President Obama’s Executive Order wouldn’t do the trick,” said one aide.
In the House, Democrat Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado is planning to re-introduce legislation to eliminate the ban on taxpayer funding for embryo-destructive research, according to news reports in Colorado. The Democrat had sponsored the same legislation previously, but it was vetoed by President George W. Bush.
“For most members of Congress, it’s not really a political calculation as much as a realization that this research has been pretty halted by this court decision and we need to act quickly to reverse that,” said DeGette, a leading pro-abortion voice in Congress.
While DeGette and other Democrats argue that experimentation on cells derived from destroyed embryos is permitted under the law, Lamberth’s decision on Monday emphasized that attempting to separate the origin of such cells from research later conducted on them was misguided.
“ESC [embryonic stem-cell] research is clearly research in which an embryo is destroyed,” wrote Lamberth. “The process of deriving ESCs from an embryo results in the destruction of the embryo. Thus, ESC research necessarily depends upon the destruction of a human embryo. Despite defendants’ attempt to separate the derivation of ESCs from research on ESCs, the two cannot be separated.”
Richard Doerflinger, a spokesperson for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, agreed in a New York Times article last week, saying that attempts to make such a distinction were “implausibly narrow.”
Meanwhile, a Rasmussen Reports survey found that public opinion has shifted against taxpayer funding for embryonic stem-cell research since Obama signed the Executive Order last year.
Fifty-seven percent of U.S. voters say that embryonic stem-cell research should not involve taxpayer funds, while only 33 percent believe the research should receive public monies. The numbers are nearly flipped from when Obama signed the Order permitting public funds for embryo-destructive research in March 2009: 52 percent favored the move, and 38 percent were opposed.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/aug/10083005.html
Poll Shows Scots Ready to Welcome Pope Benedict
Published August 31, 2010 | Catholic News Agency, August 30, 2010
Glasgow, United Kingdom (CNA/EWTN News) – Based on the results of a recent survey and the disappearance of protest plans in Scotland, the spokesman for the Scottish Bishops’ Conference (SCMO) has declared that the Pope’s visit has the support of the people. Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien said that this result confirms the good nature of the people of his country.
In a survey carried out among a pool of 1,007 adults by Opinion Research Business in early June, 31 percent of those polled were “Very or fairly favorable” to the Pope’s visit on Sept. 16, as opposed to just five percent who “Object” or “Strongly object” to his presence. Incidentally, more than half of those surveyed had no opinion.
The lack of opposition to the papal visit has led the “Protest the Pope” group to “ditch” their plans to march in Scotland, opting rather for a single demonstration in London, SCMO spokesman Peter Kearney pointed out. Reacting to the poll results, he declared on Sunday that, “It’s now clear to everybody that this tiny minority of secularists speak for nobody but themselves.
“Most” of the nation’s people, he added, “will be delighted to hear that they’ve given up their attempt to spoil what promises to be a very exciting day for all Scots.”
The Holy Father will spend most of the first day of his U.K. visit in Scotland, first visiting Queen Elizabeth at her summer residence near Edinburgh and later celebrating Mass in Glasgow. His visit on Sept. 16 coincides with the feast of St. Ninian, the country’s first saint.
Cardinal Keith O’Brien also responded positively to the poll on Sunday, saying he was “greatly heartened” and asserting that the results “again (confirm) that the vast majority of Scots are warm-hearted and welcoming of all people.
“Next month’s papal visit,” he said, “is going to be a truly historic occasion for our country and one which I hope all Scots will share in and enjoy.”
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/poll-shows-scots-ready-to-welcome-pope-benedict/
Louisiana Family Forum Action’s Legislative Scorecard for 2010 Session
Published August 31, 2010 | 
Founder’s Quote Daily
Published August 31, 2010 | 
“Some talked, some wrote, and some fought to promote and establish it, but you and Mr. Jefferson thought for us all. I never take a retrospect of the years 1775 and 1776 without associating your opinions and speeches and conversations with all the great political, moral, and intellectual achievements of the Congress of those memorable years.”
–Benjamin Rush, to John Adams, 1812
- Benjamin Rush
- From American Medical Biography by James Thacher (1828).
GOSPEL & MEDITATION: Christ at Home in Capernaum
Published August 31, 2010 | August 31, 2010
Tuesday of Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Luke 4:31-37
Jesus then went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee. He taught them on the sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority. In the synagogue there was a man with the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out in a loud voice, “Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are — the Holy One of God!” Jesus rebuked him and said, “Be quiet! Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down in front of them and came out of him without doing him any harm. They were all amazed and said to one another, “What is there about his word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.” And news of him spread everywhere in the surrounding region.
Introductory Prayer: Lord, you have looked with favor on me. You have seen in my soul fertile ground, and you have sown your word in hope of an abundant harvest. I hope never to let you down by not responding in faith. I allow you to lead me to the fullness of my vocation as your disciple.
Petition: Christ, may zeal for your friendship consume me so much that I remove all sin from my life.
1. Great Hopes Jesus had great plans for Capernaum –– a big city, situated by the lake on the “way of the sea,” a thoroughfare open to travelers. It was an ideal hub from which to spread the Gospel. Would anyone from such a big town have interest in his message? Christ made his home there. He exercised the greater part of his public ministry in Capernaum and graced it with more than one-third of his miracles. It was quite different from Nazareth. Christ asks us to find our Capernaum –– seeking that niche, using those talents, evangelizing that audience — where we can become the most effective apostles for him. This may demand a greater love from us, but we can see how Christ blesses this effort with his presence, teaching and healing.
2. Simple Faith Christ chooses to cure a man on the Sabbath in Capernaum and nobody raises an eyebrow! How different this is from Jerusalem! These people here have a simple faith, unconcerned about the legalities of ritualistic orthodoxy. “Here I can preach. Here I can heal. Here I can work!” Christ feels at home and welcomed. Here Christ finds vocations: Peter, Andrew, James, John, Matthew. Here Christ finds faith even among the pagans: the centurion who asks for a cure. One can sense a special predilection of Christ toward this city. From those who have been given more, more will be expected.
3. Generosity Pushed to Its Limits Once a soul responds in generosity, Christ opportunely draws it to the fullness of its vocation. Encouraged by Capernaum’s faith, Christ asks more of it; just as he asked of the rich young man. As we see later in the Gospel, what better place than faith-filled Capernaum for Christ to reveal to the world one of his most difficult teachings: presenting himself as the Living Bread come down from heaven? In the end, the majority leave him. “Will you go away too?” The present-day ruins of Capernaum testify to the truth of Christ’s warning: “As for you, Capernaum, ‘Are you to be exalted to the skies? You shall go down to the realm of death!’ If the miracles worked in you had taken place in Sodom, it would be standing today. I assure you, it will go easier for Sodom than for you on the Day of Judgment” (Matthew 11:23-4).
Conversation with Christ: Lord, you know me and you know everything about me. Let me not become blinded by the arrogance of my own opinions and ideas. Help me to keep you always before me as the goal of my life, the pearl of great price, for which I joyfully sell all I own to possess.
Resolution: I will use one of my talents to help somebody today.
http://www.regnumchristi.org/english/articulos/articulo.phtml?se=363&ca=975&te=735&id=20302
TODAY’S SAINT: ST. RAYMOND NONNATUS
Published August 31, 2010 | CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY, TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2010
Raymond became a priest due to his quiet persistence in prayer and study.
He was born to a noble Spanish family in 1204. His mother died during child birth and his father had high expectations for Raymond to serve in the country’s Royal Court. However, the young Raymond felt drawn to religious life. In an attempt to dissuade him, his father ordered him to manage one of the family farms. However, Raymond spent his time with the workers, studying, and praying. His father finally gave up and allowed Raymond to enter the Mercederians.
Fr. Raymond spent his entire estate ransoming slaves. He even offered himself as a hostage to free another. He was sentenced to death but was spared because his ransom would bring in a large amount of money.
During his imprisonment, he succeeded at converting some of his guards. To keep him from continuing his preaching, his captors bored a hole through his lips with a hot iron, and attached a padlock. He was eventually ransomed, and he returned to Barcelona in 1239.
That year, he was named a cardinal by Pope Gregory IX. The following year, in 1240, he was summoned to Rome, but barely made it out of Barcelona before he died at the age of 36.
St. Raymond is the patron saint of pregnant women, childbirth, and newborn infants.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=580
What the Popes Have to Say About Socialism
Published August 30, 2010 | | Written by Gustavo Solimeo, Wednesday, 24 February 2010 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Anyone who examines the ideology of socialism will see the contrast between the socialist doctrine and the doctrine of the Church.
All the same, it is not out of place to review the condemnation of the popes starting with Pius IX and ending with Benedict XVI. Thus, we present what the popes have to say about socialism as they condemn the socialist doctrine thoroughly and entirely. This is not a comprehensive compilation, but just some samples.
PIUS IX (1846-1878):
“Overthrow [of] the entire order of human affairs”
“You are aware indeed, that the goal of this most iniquitous plot is to drive people to overthrow the entire order of human affairs and to draw them over to the wicked theories of this Socialism and Communism, by confusing them with perverted teachings.” (Encyclical Nostis et Nobiscum, December 8, 1849) LEO XIII (1878-1903): Hideous monster
“…communism, socialism, nihilism, hideous deformities of the civil society of men and almost its ruin.” (Encyclical Diuturnum, June 29, 1881) Ruin of all institutions “… For, the fear of God and reverence for divine laws being taken away, the authority of rulers despised, sedition permitted and approved, and the popular passions urged on to lawlessness, with no restraint save that of punishment, a change and overthrow of all things will necessarily follow. Yea, this change and overthrow is deliberately planned and put forward by many associations of communists and socialists” (Encyclical Humanum Genus, April 20, 1884, n. 27).A sect “that threatens civil society with destruction”
“…We speak of that sect of men who, under various and almost barbarous names, are called socialists, communists, or nihilists, and who, spread over all the world, and bound together by the closest ties in a wicked confederacy, no longer seek the shelter of secret meetings, but, openly and boldly marching forth in the light of day, strive to bring to a head what they have long been planning – the overthrow of all civil society whatsoever. Surely, these are they who, as the sacred Scriptures testify, ‘Defile the flesh, despise dominion and blaspheme majesty.’ (Jud. 8).” (Encyclical Quod Apostolici Muneris, December 28, 1878, n. 1)
Socialists debase the natural union of man and woman and assail the right of property “They [socialists, communists, or nihilists] debase the natural union of man and woman, which is held sacred even among barbarous peoples; and its bond, by which the family is chiefly held together, they weaken, or even deliver up to lust. Lured, in fine, by the greed of present goods, which is ‘the root of all evils, which some coveting have erred from the faith’ (1 Tim. 6:10.3), they assail the right of property sanctioned by natural law; and by a scheme of horrible wickedness, while they seem desirous of caring for the needs and satisfying the desires of all men, they strive to seize and hold in common whatever has been acquired either by title of lawful inheritance, or by labor of brain and hands, or by thrift in one’s mode of life.” (Encyclical Quod Apostolici Muneris, December 28, 1878, n. 1)Destructive sect “…socialists and members of other seditious societies, who labor unceasingly to destroy the State even to its foundations.” (Encyclical Libertas Praestantissimum, June 20, 1888)Enemy of society and of Religion “…there is need for a union of brave minds with all the resources they can command. The harvest of misery is before our eyes, and the dreadful projects of the most disastrous national upheavals are threatening us from the growing power of the socialistic movement. They have insidiously worked their way into the very heart of the community, and in the darkness of their secret gatherings, and in the open light of day, in their writings and their harangues, they are urging the masses onward to sedition; they fling aside religious discipline; they scorn duties; they clamor only for rights; they are working incessantly on the multitudes of the needy which daily grow greater, and which, because of their poverty are easily deluded and led into error. It is equally the concern of the State and of religion, and all good menshould deem it a sacred duty to preserve and guard both in the honor which is their due.” (Encyclical Graves de Communi Re, January 18, 1901, n. 21)
SAINT PIUS X (1903-1914):
The dream of re-shaping society will bring socialism
“But stranger still, alarming and saddening at the same time, are the audacity and frivolity of men who call themselves Catholics and dream of re-shaping society under such conditions, and of establishing on earth, over and beyond the pale of the Catholic Church, ‘the reign of love and justice’ … What are they going to produce? … A mere verbal and chimerical construction in which we shall see, glowing in a jumble, and in seductive confusion, the words Liberty, Justice, Fraternity, Love, Equality, and human exultation, all resting upon an ill-understood human dignity. It will be a tumultuous agitation, sterile for the end proposed, but which will benefit the less Utopian exploiters of the people. Yes, we can truly say that the Sillon, its eyes fixed on a chimera, brings Socialism in its train.” (Apostolic Letter Notre Charge Apostolique ["Our Apostolic Mandate"] to the French Bishops, August 15, 1910, condemning the movement Le Sillon)
BENEDICT XV (1914-1922): The condemnation of socialism should never be forgotten
“It is not our intention here to repeat the arguments which clearly expose the errors of Socialism and of similar doctrines. Our predecessor, Leo XIII, most wisely did so in truly memorable Encyclicals; and you, Venerable Brethren, will take the greatest care that those grave precepts are never forgotten, but that whenever circumstances call for it, they should be clearly expounded and inculcated in Catholic associations and congresses, in sermons and in the Catholic press.” (Encyclical Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum, November 1, 1914, n. 13) PIUS XI (1922-1939):
Socialism, fundamentally contrary to Christian truth
“… For Socialism, which could then be termed almost a single system and which maintained definite teachings reduced into one body of doctrine, has since then split chiefly into two sections, often opposing each other and even bitterly hostile, without either one however abandoning a position fundamentally contrary to Christian truth that was characteristic of Socialism.” (Encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, May 15, 1931, n. 111) Socialism cannot be reconciled with Catholic Doctrine
“But what if Socialism has really been so tempered and modified as to the class struggle and private ownership that there is in it no longer anything to be censured on these points? Has it thereby renounced its contradictory nature to the Christian religion? This is the question that holds many minds in suspense. And numerous are the Catholics who, although they clearly understand that Christian principles can never be abandoned or diminished seem to turn their eyes to the Holy See and earnestly beseech Us to decide whether this form of Socialism has so far recovered from false doctrines that it can be accepted without the sacrifice of any Christian principle and in a certain sense be baptized. That We, in keeping with Our fatherly solicitude, may answer their petitions, We make this pronouncement: Whether considered as a doctrine, or an historical fact, or a movement, Socialism, if it remains truly Socialism, even after it has yielded to truth and justice on the points which we have mentioned, cannot be reconciled with the teachings of the Catholic Church because its concept of society itself is utterly foreign to Christian truth.” (Ibid. n. 117) Catholic Socialism, a contradiction
“[Socialism] is based nevertheless on a theory of human society peculiar to itself and irreconcilable with true Christianity. Religious socialism, Christian socialism, are contradictory terms; no one can be at the same time a good Catholic and a true socialist.” (Ibid. n. 120)
PIUS XII (1939-1958):
The Church will fight to the end, in defense of supreme values threatened by socialism
“[The Church undertook] the protection of the individual and the family against a current threatening to bring about a total socialization which in the end would make the specter of the ‘Leviathan’ become a shocking reality. The Church will fight this battle to the end, for it is a question of supreme values: the dignity of man and the salvation of souls.” (“Radio message to the Katholikentag of Vienna,” September 14, 1952 in Discorsi e Radiomessaggi, vol. XIV, p. 314) The state can not be regarded as being above all “To consider the State as something ultimate to which everything else should be subordinated and directed, cannot fail to harm the true and lasting prosperity of nations.” (Encyclical Summi Pontificatus, October 20, 1939, n. 60)
JOHN XXIII (1958-1963): “No Catholic could subscribe even to moderate socialism”
“Pope Pius XI further emphasized the fundamental opposition between Communism and Christianity, and made it clear that no Catholic could subscribe even to moderate Socialism. The reason is that Socialism is founded on a doctrine of human society which is bounded by time and takes no account of any objective other than that of material well-being. Since, therefore, it proposes a form of social organization which aims solely at production, it places too severe a restraint on human liberty, at the same time flouting the true notion of social authority.” (Encyclical Mater et Magistra, May 15, 1961, n. 34)
PAUL VI (1963-1978):
Too often Christians tend to idealize socialism
“Too often Christians attracted by socialism tend to idealize it in terms which, apart from anything else, are very general: a will for justice, solidarity and equality. They refuse to recognize the limitations of the historical socialist movements, which remain conditioned by the ideologies from which they originated.” (Apostolic Letter Octogesima Adveniens, May 14, 1971, n. 31)
JOHN PAUL II (1978-2005):
Socialism: Danger of a “simple and radical solution”
“It may seem surprising that ‘socialism’ appeared at the beginning of the Pope’s critique of solutions to the ‘question of the working class’ at a time when ‘socialism’ was not yet in the form of a strong and powerful State, with all the resources which that implies, as was later to happen. However, he correctly judged the danger posed to the masses by the attractive presentation of this simple and radical solution to the ‘question of the working class.’” (Encyclical Centesimus Annus − On the 100th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum, May 1, 1991, n. 12) Fundamental error of socialism: A mistaken conception of the person “Continuing our reflections, … we have to add that the fundamental error of socialism is anthropological in nature. Socialism considers the individual person simply as an element, a molecule within the social organism, so that the good of the individual is completely subordinated to the functioning of the socio-economic mechanism. Socialism likewise maintains that the good of the individual can be realized without reference to his free choice, to the unique and exclusive responsibility which he exercises in the face of good or evil. Man is thus reduced to a series of social relationships, and the concept of the person as the autonomous subject of moral decision disappears, the very subject whose decisions build the social order. From this mistaken conception of the person there arise both a distortion of law, which defines the sphere of the exercise of freedom, and an opposition to private property.” (Ibid, n. 13) BENEDICT XVI (2005 – present):
“We do not need a State which regulates and controls everything”
“The State which would provide everything, absorbing everything into itself, would ultimately become a mere bureaucracy incapable of guaranteeing the very thing which the suffering person − every person − needs: namely, loving personal concern. We do not need a State which regulates and controls everything, but a State which, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, generously acknowledges and supports initiatives arising from the different social forces and combines spontaneity with closeness to those in need. … In the end, the claim that just social structures would make works of charity superfluous masks a materialist conception of man: the mistaken notion that man can live ‘by bread alone’ (Mt 4:4; cf. Dt 8:3) − a conviction that demeans man and ultimately disregards all that is specifically human.” (Encyclical Deus Caritas Est, December 25, 2005, n. 28)
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Andrew C. McCarthy: Why They Can’t Condemn Hamas
Published August 30, 2010 | Imam Rauf, Hamas, and the Muslim Brotherhood are one team working for the same goal.
Andrew C. McCarthy, August 28, 2010
Rauf and his friends employ different methods, but they are on the same team.
Hamas is a shibboleth. If you want to know whether an ostensible Muslim “moderate” is really moderate, ask him if Hamas is a terrorist organization.
It is really not a hard question, even if Feisal Rauf can’t — or won’t — answer it. Rauf, the would-be imam of the controversial Ground Zero mosque, is also a stud in the State Department’s stable of ready-to-travel-on-your-dime “moderates.” That same State Department has branded Hamas a terrorist organization, and we can’t even get it to say that about the Taliban, the guys we’re fighting in the overseas contingency operation formerly known as the War on Terror.
During a WABC radio interview, Aaron Klein three times pressed Rauf to admit that Hamas is a terrorist organization. Rauf bobbed and weaved in classic Islamist style. “I’m not a politician,” he replied, as if only politicians trouble themselves over whether terrorists are terrorists. “I try to avoid the issues. The issue of terrorism is a very complex question.” Avoid the issues? You don’t say!
But it is not a complex question, no more complex than “Does Derek Jeter play for the Yankees?” It is a straightforward question that Islamists complicate with clever casuistry, carefully designed to ring all the right chimes for our opinion elites and their media pitchmen.
TWISTING THE RELIGION WITH POLITICS?
On Tuesday, I appeared on Scoreboard, a Fox Business Channel program, to debate the proposed mosque with Dawood Kringle, a prison imam who is a perfect fit for the correctional system in Michael Bloomberg’s New York City. Like the mayor, Imam Kringle knows and admires Imam Rauf, so it’s only natural that he supports the Ground Zero mosque. He reasons, in his best Rauf-speak, that it would be “a tangible manifestation and demonstration of the spiritual principles of Islam as applied to everyone’s lives.”
Exactly: The main problem with Islamists is that they want to apply the principles of Islam — which are far from limited to “spiritual principles” — to everyone’s lives. It never seems to register with Imam Rauf’s apologists that we already have thousands of mosques and Islamic centers in the United States, and no one is suggesting these should be shut down, even though many of them are hotbeds of rabidly anti-Western ideology that have not proved to be reassuring “tangible manifestations” of how Islam is lived.
Nor does it seem to matter that Rauf’s project is an exercise in self-absorbed indignation. Claiming to “build bridges,” Islamists demand that their First Amendment right to religious freedom (which no one has denied) be deferred to while urging that your First Amendment right to free speech be smothered by governmental scolds — including a preening president, a demagogic mayor, and a House Speaker who wants to use her public office to investigate the project’s opponents (i.e., 70 percent of the public). The anticipated “tangible manifestation” in question not only divides a nation still under jihadist siege; it deeply wounds the 9/11 families, the remains of whose slaughtered loved ones are still being retrieved from the vicinity of Ground Zero.
Still, even Kringle’s desultory case for the mosque paled in comparison with his adamant refusal to answer the question, “Is Hamas a terrorist organization?” You can watch the short debate for yourself here. There are long pauses, shucks, jives, and gibberish — but no answer:
Asman: Do you believe Hamas is a terrorist organization?
Kringle: [Pause] I would, um — [pause]
McCarthy: That’s not a hard question.
Asman: [To McCarthy] Hold on a second.
Kringle: No, no, no. I —
Asman: Is Hamas a terrorist organization? A simple question.
Kringle: I believe that there’s people, uh, connected with Hamas that are, uh — advocate terrorism —
Asman: Is Hamas, though, a terrorist organization, as the State Department says it is?
Kringle: I believe that the people — that people that, uh, that, uh, exist on the fringe of there — Hamas is a political party that, uh, that grew out of, uh, out of, uh, what happened to, uh, Palestine. Obviously, there’s going to be people that are, uh, that are going to twist up, uh, the religion to serve their political agendas.
This is just counterfactual bunk. It is served up by the imam and many likeminded apologists as though Hamas did not have a richly documented history, and as though Islamists did not reject the very premise that religious and political agendas can be distinguished.
THE CHARTER
The name “Hamas” is derived from the Arabic phrase for “Islamic Resistance Movement” (Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyya). It was established in late 1987, at the start of the Intifada, for the singular purpose of waging a violent jihad that, Hamas pledged, would continue until Israel’s annihilation. This is not my opinion. It is an undeniable fact — regardless of how often denied. Set aside its decades of barbaric attacks, its celebration of a death culture in which streets are named after “martyrs” and children are garbed in mock suicide belts at summer camp. Hamas proclaimed its existence in a formal charter that could not be more emphatic:
The Islamic Resistance Movement erupted in order to play its role in the path of its Lord. In so doing, it joined its hands with those of all Jihad fighters for the purpose of liberating Palestine. The souls of its Jihad fighters will encounter those of all Jihad fighters who have sacrificed their lives in the land of Palestine since it was conquered by the Companion of the Prophet, be Allah’s prayer and peace upon him, and until this very day. This is the Charter of the Islamic Resistance (Hamas). . . . Our struggle against the Jews is extremely wide-ranging and grave, so much so that it will need all the loyal efforts we can wield, to be followed by further steps and reinforced by successive battalions from the multifarious Arab and Islamic world, until the enemies are defeated and Allah’s victory prevails. Continue reading
Five Years After Katrina, Obama’s Drilling Moratorium Biggest Threat to Gulf Recovery
Published August 30, 2010 |
NewsMax, Sunday, August 29, 2010
Five years after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf of Mexico, both Republican and Democrat officials in Louisiana say the federal moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, put in place after the BP oil spill, is now that state’s biggest problem.
In fact, it was the major concern voiced to President Obama Sunday during his speech marking the fifth anniversary of the disaster.
Louisiana’s congressional delegation – Democrats and Republicans – has a key focus of getting the president to lift the moratorium on offshore oil drilling his administration imposed in the wake of the BP spill.
“We’re also going to mention to him that this moratorium that is in place – this blanket moratorium is causing severe economic damage to small businesses as well as to the oil and gas companies, large and small, independent, as well,” U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat, told The Hill. “So this is a lot of what he’s going to hear when he’s here.”
In speaking to reporters following the president’s speech, Gov. Bobby Jindal said he thanked the president for mentioning seafood in his speech but said he hoped to hear a more explicit discussion of the effect the federal moratorium is having on the state economy.
“The experts all agree we could end this moratorium before six months,” Jindal said. “Let’s put our people back to work … I didn’t personally object to a pause [in drilling] but I object to a one-size-fits-all moratorium.”
U.S. federal government officials and many environmental activists say the temporary ban on drilling is necessary to prevent further accidents. But people in the Gulf region are worried that many of the well-paying jobs provided by the energy industry might leave and never come back.
The recent oil spill left many fishing boats in the Mississippi delta and Gulf of Mexico coastal area idle.
But more people in Louisiana make a living from the oil and gas industry than from fishing and the moratorium has put hundreds of them out of work.
Waylon La Font and Mathew Cheramie are both residents of the Mississippi Delta who have worked on fishing boats as well as energy production. They now fish on their own time because there is little work available, according to Cheramie. Continue reading
Rev. Euteneuer Steps Down From HLI
Published August 30, 2010 |
A press release from Human Life International:
The board of directors of Human Life International (HLI) has announced that after nearly 10 years of meritorious service to HLI as president, Reverend Thomas J Euteneuer has stepped down from his position after being asked by his Bishop to return to his Diocese in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The board thanks Fr. Euteneuer for his leadership, hard work and dedication in carrying on the legacy of Fr. Paul Marx. During his tenure Fr. Euteneuer traveled more than one million miles as a pro-life missionary to the world.
While Fr. Euteneuer’s leadership at HLI and his influence on the pro-life movement around the world will be greatly missed, we are blessed to have gifted staff who will continue to carry out our mission while a search for a new president is undertaken.
Msgr. Ignacio Barreiro Carámbula, Executive Director of HLI’s office in Rome, will assume Fr. Euteneuer’s responsibilities until such time as a permanent replacement is named.
Well, that was abrupt.
There may be more to this, or it could simply be a matter of a diocese hurting for vocations and needing its priests back. Let’s not speculate until we have more information.
http://www.insidecatholic.com/myblog/rev-euteneuer-steps-down-from-hli.html
What About the Stupid Lies Democrats Believe?
Published August 30, 2010 | 
Thirty-one percent of Republicans, according to the Pew Research Center, believe that President Barack Obama is a Muslim. And more Republicans, 74 percent, than Democrats, 39 percent, oppose the construction of a mosque near ground zero. Thus, goes the argument, opposition to the proposed mosque stems from similar “right-wing” ignorance and Islamophobia.
Why do so many people think Obama is a Muslim? Are they lunatics?
Perhaps people base their assumption about Obama’s religion on what they believe Islam says about the matter. In a New York Times op-ed, Edward Luttwak, with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote that Obama “chose to become a Christian.” But, Luttwak wrote: “As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. It makes no difference that, as Senator Obama has written, his father said he renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran his mother’s Christian background is irrelevant.”
Maybe some follow the lead of Hillary Clinton. When asked on 60 Minutes whether she believes Obama is a Muslim, then-presidential candidate Clinton said, “Of course not….There is no basis for that.” She said she goes on “the basis of what he says.” But she added, “There is nothing to base that on as far as I know” (emphasis added). She wasn’t called anti-Muslim.
Perhaps people believe Obama — who no longer belongs to a church — is a Muslim because of his 20-year association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Wright’s church publication honored the anti-Semitic Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan as a man who “truly epitomized greatness.”
Or maybe the more people oppose Obama’s policies the less they think of him as a person. Discontent breeds negative feelings. After the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, a majority of Americans believed that Germany was behind it. A large plurality of Americans, despite the lack of evidence, believed President Nixon planned the Watergate break-in that brought down his presidency.
Liberals should be sympathetic. They are quite adept at willfully refusing to face facts, if necessary, to support wrongheaded views.
Here are some examples:
“The rich don’t pay taxes.” False. For the 2007 tax year (the latest income tax data year released by the IRS), the top one percent of income earners, those making over $410,000 a year, paid 40 percent of all federal income taxes. The top five percent, those making about $160,000 a year or more, paid 60 percent of all federal income taxes. Yet according to a 2008 IBD/TIPP poll, only 12 percent of Americans knew what the rich, in fact, paid in taxes. And liberals are likelier to get it wrong.
“The rich exclusively benefited from the Bush tax cuts.” MSNBC’s insufferable lefty Ed Schultz said: “Ninety-eight percent of you, it [the Bush tax cuts] doesn’t even affect you.” False. In a recent New York Times editorial, the liberal paper said extending the cuts to the non-rich — a policy it favors — would “cost” about $140 billion next year. Extending the cuts to the rich — a policy it opposes — would “cost” about $40 billion next year. If the tax cuts only benefit the rich, why would the Treasury “lose” more money from the non-rich than it would “lose” from the rich?
“The Bush tax cuts caused the deficit.” CNN’s liberal host Fareed Zakaria said, “The Bush tax cuts are the single largest part of the black hole that is the federal budget deficit.” False. In 2002, tax revenues were $1.85 trillion. In 2007, revenues had grown to $2.57 trillion — a 39-percent increase. Unfortunately, outlays increased almost as much. In 2002, outlays were $2.01 trillion. In 2007 — the last year before the recession and before TARP, the various “stimulus” programs, bailouts and ObamaCare — outlays were $2.73 trillion, a 36-percent increase.
“Bush had prior knowledge of 9/11.” Thirty-five percent of Democrats, according to a 2007 Rasmussen poll, believe President Bush had prior knowledge of 9/11, and 26 percent are “not sure.” False. This was investigated years earlier and refuted by the 2004 bipartisan 9/11 Commission Report.
“George W. Bush ‘stole’ the 2000 election.” False. In November 2001, The New York Times wrote: “A comprehensive review of the uncounted Florida ballots from last year’s presidential election reveals that George W. Bush would have won even if the United States Supreme Court had allowed the statewide manual recount of the votes that the Florida Supreme Court had ordered to go forward. Contrary to what many partisans of former Vice President Al Gore have charged, the United States Supreme Court did not award an election to Mr. Bush that otherwise would have been won by Mr. Gore.”
Mosque opponents can and do distinguish between a right to do something and the appropriateness of doing it. Polls show 60 percent of Americans oppose the mosque near the World Trade Center — the same percentage that believe the Muslim group has the right to build it.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=1136820
Life in the South!
Ladies
For those of you who don’t live in the South, and think we are a bunch of uncivilized rednecks — well, it’s simply not true!
For example, we have ladies’ groups all over the South that meet regularly to discuss current events and develop needed home-skills. In fact, this photo was recently taken at a ladies group meeting in Tennessee, where they were discussing the elections coming up in November 2010 and in 2012.
— Submitted
SOURCE: Patriot Post
http://media.patriotpost.us/humor/2010-08-31.html
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….and one more winner from Patriot Post