The good folk of Winfield, Ala. have been very upset by the news of an annual pastors conference taking place near their town.
Not because of any animosity towards religious gatherings, but rather to the stipulation that only white Christians are invited.
Tyler Cantrell, the manager of Norris Music in downtown Winfield, discovered a flier for the conference earlier this week. “It was put up throughout the town in the middle of the night. When everyone was asleep and without the permission of the business owner[s],” he told WBRC news.
Despite the fact that the three-day conference in neighboring Lamar County was reportedly festooned with confederate flags and banners bearing Ku Klux Klan and white-supremacist slogans, and that it was scheduled to end July 6th with a “Sacred Christian Cross Lighting Ceremony” — not unlike the kind performed by the Klan –organizers denied that his organization was a hate group.
“The white race is God’s chosen people,” William C. Collier, the organizer of the event, told WBRC. “We don’t have the facilities to accommodate other people.
We haven’t got any invitations to black, Muslim events.
Of course we are not invited to Jewish events and stuff.”
The Christian Identity Ministries, which is running the event along with the Church of God’s Chosen, also claims on its website that the “Europeans and their descendants are the chosen people of God.” Ministry founder Mel Lewis spoke with a reporter from WAFF TV and claimed that the town’s mayor was violating their right to free speech and religious freedom.
“We are not breaking any laws. We’re not violating any ordinances. We’re bringing the Word of God to people who want it, obviously, or they wouldn’t be here,” said Lewis.
However the town’s Mayor, Wayne Silas, sees it differently. He told WBRC that “Business people are upset.
It looks like Doug Pitt isn’t the only member of Brad’s family getting some extra press this week.
On Tuesday, an anti-Obama letter signed by Jane Pitt, the mother of the Hollywood star, appeared in the pages of the Springfield, Missouri News Reader in response to an article about Christians reluctant to vote for Mitt Romney as President.
The letter reads, in part:
Any Christian who does not vote or writes in a name is casting a vote for Romney’s opponent, Barack Hussein Obama — a man who sat in Jeremiah Wright’s church for years, did not hold a public ceremony to mark the National Day of Prayer, and is a liberal who supports the killing of unborn babies and same-sex marriage.
The News-Leader later cleared up any confusion of the identity of the author by confirming the letter writer as “the mother of actor Brad Pitt and local businessman Doug Pitt.”
Her stance could not be further from that of her son, who is one of Hollywood’s most vocal supporters of same-sex marriage. In 2008 Pitt donated $100,000 to help fight Proposition 8, the ballot proposition to repeal same-sex marriage in California. At the time, it was the largest donation to the campaign from an A-List celebrity.
He explained to the Los Angles Times that, “no one has the right to deny another their life, even though they disagree with it, because everyone has the right to live the life they so desire if it doesn’t harm another and because discrimination has no place in America, my vote will be for equality and against Proposition 8.”
Pitt and actress Angelina Jolie, his partner of seven years, with whom he has six children, had also famously vowed not to marry each other until same-sex couples also shared that right.
(The couple announced their engagement in April, however, and although they have yet to set a date, Pitt told The Hollywood Reporter that he didn’t “think we’ll be able to hold out” until gay marriage is universal.)
At the premiere of her film The Land of Milk and Honey at the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., Jolie said of the current administration, “there are many, many things that have gone in a wonderful direction and there are a few things I’m disappointed in.”
When asked if he was an Obama supporter at the same premiere, Pitt answered, “I have been and remain so.”
Interestingly, Pitt shares more than a political affinity with the President; they also share an ancestor, Edwin Hickman, making them ninth cousins.
When Mr Pitt went to Washington last week the official line was that Brad was there to talk to Obama about the Hollywood star's plan to help rebuild New Orleans.
All very worthy. But who were they trying to kid?
It was obvious to any rightwing conspiracy theorist that the meeting was all part of a plot to forward the interests of Obama's family. Surely you haven't forgotten? Obama and Pitt are cousins.
Ninth cousins to be precise. On the campaign trail last year it emerged that the two share a common ancestor.
The link is Edwin Hickman, who died in Virginia in 1769. Obama is a direct descendant of Hickman's son James through the president's white Kansas-born mother, Ann Dunham Sutoro.
Hickman's other son, Edwin Jr, James's brother, is head of the line leading to William Bradley Pitt, known these days as Brad.
We don't know much about Hickman, but what there is points more towards Obama's life of public service than Pitt's calling as an entertainer. Hickman was sheriff of the wonderfully named Spotsylvania region of Virginia, and owned a little land. A big fish in a tiny pond, he could not have dreamed of his double whammy 10 generations later.
Christopher Child, a genealogist at the New England Historic Genealogical Society, who did much of the work on Obama's family tree, finds these coincidences interesting, though not surprising. "If people have ancestors in a common part of the country they will be more likely to find connections - in Obama and Pitt's case the South."
So are the similarities evident? Not at, erm, face value. Pitt's jaw is broad, Obama's sharp. But they share a nose and an irresistible smile. The charm is in the genes.
Yesterday While Visiting Alabama Pres. Obama Declared That Region To Be A State Of Disaster After It Was Ravaged By "Epic", Unusually Violent Tornadoes Which Struck The Southern States Twice Within A 2-Week Period Of Time.
For The Record God Hates Racism & He Loves Black People!
The SAME Black Man Many White Southern Governors Have Bashed Only Due To His Race, Is The SAME Black Man Who They Must Now Seek Help From To Assist The Citizens Of Their States.
Isn't That Something?
Thank God Pres. Obama Is A TRUE CHRISTIAN Who Doesn't Easily Hold A Grudge!
Words Of Wisdom To Southern Lawmakers & Leaders:
Get Rid Of The Klu Klux Klan & Stop Practicing Centuries Old Racism Against People Of Color, Mainly Black People Or.....
Hopes of finding trapped survivors dwindled Friday evening in Alabama, the epicenter of storms that obliterated neighborhoods and towns and claimed scores of lives across the South.
Gov. Robert Bentley, speaking in Birmingham, said the long road to recovery will now begin.
"We've gotten past the rescue stage," Bentley said. "We have begun the recovery stage."
Earlier Friday, President Barack Obama toured rubble-strewn neighborhoods in Tuscaloosa, declaring the devastation brought by a series of powerful storms and tornadoes was beyond anything he had ever seen.
The storms killed at least 326 people in six states and left entire neighborhoods in ruins. Obama promised expedited federal aid to states affected by the tornadoes.
"We're going to do everything we can to help these communities rebuild," he said.
Wednesday's outbreak of severe weather brought what the National Weather Service categorized as a rare EF-5 tornado to one Mississippi town.
And according to the weather service, it's possible another twister was on the ground for 200 miles from Mississippi through Alabama.
The extent of the devastation became evident by Friday, when the death count in Marion County in northwest Alabama rose from three to 21, according to the state Emergency Management Agency. It said 20 people were missing.
Marion County Sheriff Kevin Williams put the number even higher -- 29 people dead in the city of Hackleburg and six in Hamilton. The Hackleburg fatalities included 16 on the scene and 13 who died at several hospitals, he told CNN.
"It's pretty much wiped out," Williams said of the town. "It looks like a war zone."
The possible tornadoes destroyed a Wrangler clothing plant, a pharmacy, doctor's office and three schools, officials said.
Alabama suffered the greatest of loss of life, with fatalities in 19 counties confirmed by the state Emergency Management Agency. The agency reported Friday evening that the state's death toll had risen to at least 238.
In Tuscaloosa, Obama's motorcade passed street after street of homes reduced to splinters, crushed and flipped cars, and widespread debris on the way to his first stop to visit with families affected by the storms that pounded the region Wednesday and Thursday.
"I've gotta say I've never seen devastation like this," Obama told reporters.
Tuscaloosa city officials reported 45 deaths as of Friday afternoon, but later revised that to 39 because of a counting error. That change was not immediately reflected in the state's total.
Nearly 450 people were unaccounted for Friday afternoon in the city, although they were not necessarily missing.
The president's visit took place as emergency responders in Alabama and five other states continued to assess the damage wreaked by one of the worst outbreaks of violent weather in the southeastern United States in decades, experts said. The storms leveled neighborhoods, rendered major roads impassable and left nearly 800,000 customers still without power Friday evening.
CNN iReporter Stephen Bozek, a broadcast news major at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, snapped a photo of a U.S. flag affixed to an overturned vehicle.
"The neighborhood is torn to pieces and the flag flying represented the unity (of) this town," Bozek wrote.
In Mississippi, where 34 were confirmed dead, Gov. Haley Barbour told reporters that some people remain unaccounted for and rescuers could still find bodies in the rubble or in the waters surrounding Smithville, where 14 of the state's known death's occurred.
He said the city was a scene of "utter obliteration."
On Friday, the National Weather Service said the tornado that struck Smithville on Wednesday was an EF-5 storm with peak winds of 205 mph. The last such tornado recorded in the United States struck May 25, 2008, in Parkersburg, Iowa.
The tornado, the Weather Service said, destroyed 18 homes, a post office, a police station and a water treatment system. In addition to the 14 deaths, it caused 40 injuries, the weather service said.
Obama issued a federal disaster declaration for seven Mississippi counties.
The storms also left 34 people dead in Tennessee, 15 in Georgia, five in Virginia and one in Arkansas.
In Alabama, emergency management officials said Friday that 35 teams have been deployed to Tuscaloosa and six other counties hit hardest by the storms to assist in recovery efforts.
Officials also warned Tennessee motorists not to cross the Alabama state line without filling up their tanks first. Widespread power outages and devastation from the storms have likely rendered functioning gas stations in northern Alabama hard to find, according to a statement released by officials in both states.
The storms cut swaths of death and destruction along U.S. Highway 72 in northern Alabama and Interstate 59 from Tuscaloosa County to the northeastern corner of the state.
Tuscaloosa Mayor Walter Maddox said at least one strong tornado swept through the city, leaving dozens of roads impassable and destroying hundreds of homes and businesses.
"It literally obliterated blocks and blocks of the city," Maddox said.
The city remained under a curfew for Friday night that was scheduled to expire at 6 a.m. Saturday. City officials early Friday also advised Tuscaloosa residents who live south of the Black Warrior River and east of McFarland Boulevard to boil their tap water.
Obama had signed a disaster declaration for Alabama, which enables storm victims and damaged businesses in eight counties to seek federal aid.
Such aid will be critical, Birmingham Mayor William Bell told CNN affiliate WBMA.
"It's beyond our local resources so we're going to have to get the federal government involved," Bell said. "The president assured us that he would do that."
The storms are being compared to the "super outbreak" of tornadoes on April 3 and 4, 1974, Craig Fugate, the FEMA administrator, said Thursday.
In that period, 148 tornadoes were reported in 13 states, and 330 people died. States affected were Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
Today Pres. Barack Hussein Obama Shut Up Donald Trump's Mouth & The Mouths Of Many Racist GOP & Democrats Opponents, By Releasing A Long Form Copy Of His Birth Certificate.
I Can Understand Why He Did It But Its An Absolute SHAME Because NO Other President Was Ever Asked To!
Probably Because They Were WHITE!!
Excuse Me But Isn't Barack Obama An AmeriKKKan Too??
Last Time I Checked The ONLY True Americans Are Native American Indians NOT The White Man From Plymouth Rock!!
Ain't I An AmeriKKKan Too??
Shame On AmeriKKKa!!!
Thanks To Donald Trump Such Obviously Racist, Divisive Behavior Has Most Certainly Lost Republicans The 2012 Presidential Bid.
Now Everyone Knows Why They Kicked Michael Steele Out Of The RNC Chairman's Office.
And Shame On Rev. Franklin Graham, A Man Whom I Previously Highly Respected As A Man Of God.
I Don't Recall Franklin Graham's Father, The Rev. Billy Graham EVER Endorsing Or Speaking Out Against ANY President. Only Praying For Them!!
Does God See The Color Of A Man's Skin Or Just A Man's Heart??
Shame On The GOP!!
Here Are 11 Extremely Important Questions For GOP Lawmakers As It Relates To The 2012 Elections:
1) Where Are ALL Those Jobs Your Party Promised To Bring Back To America From Overseas After Winning Last November's Elections??
2) Why Do You Want To Kill Medicare, Thus Killing Off Elderly Americans & Hurting Many Senior Citizens?
3) Why Are You Opposed To Raising Taxes On Millionaires & Billionaires When Those SAME Millionaires & Billionaires Are Sending American Jobs Overseas While Benefiting From Huge Tax Breaks??
4) Why Do You STILL Want To Give Huge Tax Subsidies To Oil Companies?
5) Why Are You Engaging In Gas Price Gouging For Political Gain??
6) Why Are You Engaging In Such Ugly Racist, Divisive Behavior Prior To The 2012 Elections?
7) Why Do You Want To Kill Pell Grants Thus Hindering The Education Of Millions Of Black & Hispanic College Students??
8) Who Is The GOP's 2012 Presidential Race Frontrunner??
9) Did You Fire Michael Steele Because He Was Black? Why Does The GOP Appear To Hate Black People & Other People Of Color?? What Have We Done Wrong To Your Party??
10) Why Is Your Party Intentionally Choosing NOT To Raise The Debt Ceiling When You Did It So Nicely (Without Drama) When Pres. George W. Bush Was Still In Office??
11) Why Does The GOP Hate Labor Unions & Workers' Rights?? Is It Because The GOP Is For Paying American Workers Lower Wages And Providing Them With Little To No Benefits??
Inquiring Minds Would Like To Know.
As President Obama Said Today "We've Got Better Stuff To Do."
The White House released copies of President Barack Obama's original long-form birth certificate Wednesday, seeking to put an end to persistent rumors that he was not born in the United States.
The certificate states, as Obama's advisers have repeatedly said, that the president was born at Honolulu's Kapiolani Hospital on August 4, 1961. Doubters insist Obama was born overseas -- possibly in his father's home country of Kenya -- and may be constitutionally ineligible to serve as president.
"We do not have time for this kind of silliness," Obama told reporters at the White House. "I've been puzzled at the degree to which this (story) just kept on going."
"Normally I would not comment on something like this," the president said. But the country has "some enormous challenges out there" that it will not be able to effectively meet "if we're distracted."
"We're not going to be able to (meet those challenges) if we spend time vilifying each other," he stressed. "We're not going to be able to do it if we just make stuff up and pretend that facts are not facts. We're not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers."
Obama released a shorter, legally binding "certification of live birth" in 2008, but failed to persuade members of the "birther" movement.
The administration had to make a special request from the state of Hawaii to get the long-form certificate released, White House legal counsel Bob Bauer said. Typically, the state only releases the shorter, computer-generated live birth certification when people request such documentation.
Obama's personal attorney, Judith Corley, picked up certified copies of the long-form document in Hawaii and brought them back to the White House Tuesday evening, Bauer noted.
While the president has tried to make light of the controversy, the question has remained political red meat for some of his critics. A recent CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll showed that nearly 75% of Americans believe Obama was definitely or probably born in the United States. More than four in 10 Republicans, however, believe he probably or definitely was not born in America.
What's your take on the birth certificate release?
The U.S. Constitution says only "natural born" citizens can become president -- a vague clause that followers of the birther movement contend disqualifies Obama from the presidency, since they believe he was born overseas.
"The president believed the distraction over his birth certificate wasn't good for the country," White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said. "It may have been good politics and good (television), but it was bad for the American people and distracting from the many challenges we face as a country.
"At a time of great consequence for this country -- when we should be debating how we win the future, reduce our deficit, deal with high gas prices, and bring stability to the Middle East, Washington, D.C., was once again distracted by a fake issue," Pfeiffer said. "The president's hope is that with this step, we can move on to debating the bigger issues that matter to the American people and the future of the country."
Pfeiffer told reporters that the birther debate has been politically damaging to the Republican Party. Regardless, the issue remains potent in GOP circles. Potential Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump recently seized on the issue, saying he had doubts about the president's background.
Trump stands by "birther" claims
Following the White House's release of the long-form certificate, Trump told reporters in New Hampshire that he is "very proud" of himself for helping to bring about the release of the document.
"I've accomplished something nobody else was able to accomplish," Trump said. "I'd want to look at (the birth certificate), but I hope it's true so that we can get on to much more important matters."
Obama "should have (released the certificate) a long, long time ago," he said.
Trump, a billionaire business tycoon and reality television star, blamed the media for repeatedly bringing up the issue. Trump, however, has frequently raised questions about Obama's birthplace during his climb in recent GOP primary polls.
Allegations that Obama was not born in the United States have been repeatedly discredited. A recent CNN investigation turned up no evidence to support the birther claims.
"This has long been a settled issue," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
The president acknowledged Wednesday that the release of the long-form certificate won't satisfy a "segment of people for which, no matter what we put out, this issue will not be put to rest."
"But I'm speaking to the vast majority of the American people, as well as to the press," he said. "We've got better stuff to do."
In 2008, in response to media inquiries, the President’s campaign requested his birth certificate from the state of Hawaii. The state sent the campaign the President’s birth certificate, the same legal documentation provided to alhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifl Hawaiians as proof of birth in state, and the campaign immediately posted it on the internet.
When any citizen born in Hawaii requests their birth certificate, they receive exactly what the President received. In fact, the document posted on the campaign website is what Hawaiians use to get a driver’s license from the state and the document recognized by the Federal Government and the courts for all legal purposes. That’s because it is the birth certificate. This is not and should not be an open question.
The President believed the distraction over his birth certificate wasn’t good for the country. It may have been good politics and good TV, but it was bad for the American people and distracting from the many challenges we face as a country. Therefore, the President directed his counsel to review the legal authority for seeking access to the long form certificate and to request on that basis that the Hawaii State Department of Health make an exception to release a copy of his long form birth certificate. They granted that exception in part because of the tremendous volume of requests they had been getting.
President Barack Obama's long form birth certificate can be seen here (PDF): http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
At a time of great consequence for this country – when we should be debating how we win the future, reduce our deficit, deal with high gas prices, and bring stability to the Middle East, Washington, DC, was once again distracted by a fake issue. The President’s hope is that with this step, we can move on to debating the bigger issues that matter to the American people and the future of the country.
(Correspondence With The Hawaii State Dept Of Health Can Be Seen Here On PDF.)
Like the rest of the federal government, the Small Business Administration is going to get the squeeze in 2012, according to President Obama's budget proposal released Monday.
The SBA -- and, most critically, the lending programs it backs -- got some pretty hefty government subsidies through the Great Recession as the White House tried desperately to get capital flowing to small businesses. That stimulus cash vanishes in the government's 2012 fiscal year, which begins in October 2011.
"We have to tighten our belt, too, and we have to make tough choices," SBA Adminstrator Karen Mills said in a conference call with reporters.
In the 2010 fiscal year, the SBA received a whopping $963 million in supplemental appropriations, more than doubling its $824 million core budget for the year. Most of that cash went toward a very popular series of deal sweetners that helped entice banks to step up their government-backed small business lending.
The deal sweetners worked. In a time when lending to small businesses overall contracted by $43 billion, SBA-backed lending rose in the 2010 fiscal year to $12.6 billion, after plunging 27% in 2009 to $9.3 billion.
But as the economy moves toward recovery and spending has become a battleground in Washington, those stimulus efforts were discontinued on Dec. 31.
"We actually saw a big rush right at the end of the year," Mills said, as borrowers raced tried to get a loan locked with lower borrowing costs and higher government gurantees against default.
Now, borrowers and lenders are readjusting to the SBA's traditional loan terms. "We expected to see a lull, but we have started to see the volume come back," Mills said.
The guaranteed loan program has grown more costly as default rates jumped, especially on loans made between 2004 and 2008. Therefore, the SBA requested that it be given the authority to adjust the program's fees as it sees fit. The idea is to get the loan guarantee program as close to "self-sustaining" as possible, the budget proposal said. The adjustments in fees would become effective in 2013. 0:00 /8:30Who feels the pain in Obama's budget
President Obama's 2012 budget proposals calls for SBA funding of $985 million, down slightly from the $993 million proposed for fiscal year 2011. The 2012 proposal is an increase from the $824 million core budget the SBA had in 2010, but a sharp 45% drop from the $1.8 billion the SBA actually got in 2010, thanks to its supplemental allocations.
The agency will have to cut back to meet those targets. Funding for SBA salaries and expenses dropped by $7 million compared to 2010, and the agency will have to trim $5 million from its budget for managing its main loan programs.
What is getting whacked: The SBA warned that funding for its nationwide network of Small Business Development Centers will have to decrease by $10 million. Small Business Development Centers are mentoring centers run by the SBA in a partnership with colleges and universities throughout the country.
The SBA plans to come up with another $8 million in savings by reducing the core staff for its disaster loan program. The reserve staff that is "on-call" for emergencies will not be reduced.
Like other government agencies, the SBA has the unenviable task of trying to plan its 2012 spending while still battling uncertainly about its budget for the current year. Congress hasn't yet approved President Obama's proposed budget for the 2011 fiscal year -- which began five months ago. The government has been keeping the lights on with a so-called "continuing resolution." That's a month-by-month stopgap funding measure that keeps the agencies funded at their 2010 budget levels.
Sources: CNN, Huffington Post, MSNBC, Politico, SBA, Youtube
The Obama administration is demanding that Israel call off a contentious building project in east Jerusalem and make a public gesture toward the Palestinians to help defuse one of the worst U.S.-Israeli feuds in memory, officials on both sides said Monday.
But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed little sign of yielding, saying Jewish construction in east Jerusalem "in no way" hurts Palestinians. A Jerusalem city spokesman suggested Jewish building there would continue.
Announcement of the plan to build 1,600 apartments for Jews in the Ramot Shlomo neighborhood came during Vice President Joe Biden's visit last week, embarrassing him and the Obama administration, angering Palestinians and endangering the start of indirect peace negotiations that are to be mediated by a U.S. envoy.
Adding to tensions was a ceremony Monday in the walled Old City in east Jerusalem, where Jews rededicated an ancient synagogue destroyed after the war that followed Israel's creation in 1948. Israeli police sent in reinforcements to prevent riots. The synagogue is in the Jewish Quarter, but Palestinians still saw the colorful celebration as an affront.
Demands become clear
After a weekend of rare broadsides from top U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, American demands became clear Monday. The U.S. wants Israel to cancel the construction plan, U.S. and Israeli officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because no announcement was made.
American officials said they were also insisting that Israel take significant steps to get peace talks back on track. These might include releasing Palestinian prisoners or turning over additional West Bank land to Palestinian control.
Washington, the officials added, also has demanded that Israel officially declare that talks with the Palestinians will deal with all the conflict's big issues, including final borders, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees who lost their homes during the war that followed Israel's 1948 creation.
But Netanyahu appeared unreceptive to the main demand, defending four decades of construction for Israelis in east Jerusalem.
"The building of those Jewish neighborhoods in no way hurt the Arabs of east Jerusalem and did not come at their expense," he told his parliament on Monday.
Netanyahu has apologized for the timing of the project's approval but has not said he will cancel it.
City will not change its Policies
Palestinians say Jewish building in east Jerusalem, an area they hope to make their capital, eats up land they want for a future state, cuts off east Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank and prevents the expansion of Arab neighborhoods. The Palestinians also point out that much of the land used for Jewish construction was expropriated from Arab owners.
Stephan Miller, a Jerusalem spokesman, said the city will not change its policies — meaning Jewish construction in the part of the city Palestinians claim will continue. "We are developing the entire city for the benefit of all residents," he said.
Most Israelis accept the Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem as part of Israel, differentiating them from West Bank settlements, which many Israelis oppose. But since the world does not recognize Israel's annexation of east Jerusalem, the international legal status of the neighborhoods is the same as the settlements, which are considered illegal.
The unusually harsh U.S. criticism has undercut Netanyahu's efforts to play down the crisis. Israeli newspapers reported Monday that Israel's ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, told Israeli diplomats in a conference call Saturday night that their country's relations with the U.S. haven't been this tense in decades.
‘Attempt to suffocate the Palestinians’
Israel does not stand to benefit from antagonizing its most important ally, but Netanyahu has historically taken a hard line against territorial concessions to the Palestinians. A curb on east Jerusalem construction also could fracture his hawkish governing coalition.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit called for international moves against Israel, calling its Jerusalem policy "absurd, an evasion, maneuvering and an attempt to suffocate the Palestinians."
Jerusalem is the most explosive issue in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it, claiming the whole city as its capital. No other country has recognized the annexation.
At the emotional and religious center of the dispute is Jerusalem's Old City, with shrines holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims.
For a fourth straight day, Israel deployed hundreds of police around the area and restricted Palestinian access in anticipation of possible unrest. Israel also maintained a closure that barred virtually all West Bank Palestinians from entering Israel.
In the West Bank, Israeli troops dispersed 70 Palestinians hurling rocks and burning tires north of Jerusalem, the military said, wounding at least four people. In Egypt, meanwhile, thousands of students at six universities protested against Israel, shouting, "Arm us and send us to Al-Aqsa," Islam's third holiest site, also located in the Old City.
Today, about 180,000 Israelis live in east Jerusalem, in addition to nearly 300,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank. Israel withdrew its 8,000 settlers from Gaza five years ago, though it continues to control that territory's borders, airspace and sea coast. Palestinians hope to establish a state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem.
Pro-Israel Democrats have begun to criticize the Obama administration's stern stance toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Congressional Democrats, with the lone exception of Nevada's Shelley Berkley, held their tongues over the weekend, out of their sympathy with the White House's outrage, their dislike for the conservative Israeli leader, and their desire to allow the administration to manage the crisis.
But as the stalemate continues -- envoy George Mitchell just canceled his trip to Israel -- Democratic critics have begun to question the White House's public pressure on Netanyahu to reverse plans for controversial new housing and make other, unspecified concessions. The pro-Israel group AIPAC and others have been lobbying Congress to rein in the administration, and the Democrats join Republicans and Senator Joe Lieberman, whose intense criticism of the administration's Mideast policy has been a constant.
Pennsylvania Rep. Christopher Carney, a Democrat, and Illinois Republican Rep. Mark Kirk are sending a letter this morning to President Obama asking the administration to climb down.
"We urge your Administration to refrain from further public criticism of Israel and to focus on more pressing issues affecting this vital relationship, such as signing and enforcing the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act when it comes to your desk," they write.
New York's intensely pro-Israel delegation has also begun to criticize the White House openly, if in measured tones.
"We should not have a disproportionate response to Israel. We need to be careful and measured in our response, and I think we all have to take a step back," Rep. Eliot Engel said on the floor of Congress yesterday.
"While the timing of the East Jerusalem housing announcement was regrettable, it must not cloud the most critical foreign policy issue facing both counties — Irans nuclear threat," said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.
"The Administration, to the extent that it has disagreements with Israel on policy matters, should find way to do so in private and do what they can to defuse this situation," said Rep. Steve Israel.
Jewish groups, including the American Jewish Committee and Anti-Defamation League, have also criticized the White House, and while the Congressional criticism remains measured, it appears to be growing louder.
Virginia Democratic blogger Not Larry Sabato posts the audio of a conversation with Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli -- recorded, the bloggers says, during the transition -- taking Obama conspiracy theories extremely seriously, and talking about legal options.
"It will get tested in my view when someone… when he signs a law, and someone is convicted of violating it and one of their defenses will be it is not a law because someone qualified to be President didn’t sign it," Cuccinelli says on the recording, suggesting its "possible" that he would challenge it.
"Someone is going to have to come forward with nailed down testimony that he was born in place B, wherever that is. You know, the speculation is Kenya. And that doesn’t seem beyond the realm of possibility," he says.
Cuccinelli's office didn't immediately respond to a question about the audio.
ALSO: Cuccinelli is emerging as a real irritant to Bob McDonnell, and his campaign pledge to govern as a moderate, and to avoid the cultural issues he steered away from during the campaign. McDonnell recently reversed an executive order that quietly lifted protections for gay employees after Cuccinelli trumpeted it in letters to colleges telling them they were free to discriminate.
Obama was once an CIA Operative who worked with the Taliban?
He's NOT a real U.S. Citizen??
Fact or Fiction?
Before you proceed I must warn you that the videos below possibly reveal extremely troubling information about Pres. Barack Hussein Obama's background.
The information presented raises a lot of doubt and questions.
No, I am NOT a "Birther" however as of late I'm beginning to wonder about Pres. Obama's U.S. Citizenship and his Muslim background.
Especially considering how many of his recent Policy Decisions seem to be taking America backward and destroying our nation's legacy.
For example him wanting to basically dismantle our Military Nuclear Program while Iran officials are making their program stronger.
Doesn't this seem as if Pres. Obama is intentionally allowing Iran to attack Israel?
The American Media (of which the CIA Bomber called "Stupid") has drowned out all cries of concerned people (Voters) requesting Obama's real citizenship be proven.
Just because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled him to be a U.S. Citizen, doesn't mean it is actually so.
After all if Politics or the CIA is involved, than even the Supreme Court will LIE.
If Pres. Obama is truly an American Citizen and he truly loves our country, fine I will let this rest.
However if Barack Obama is NOT a real U.S. Citizen, then his election was a LIE and he must be impeached.
I'm praying for our country because I'm disturbed by what Pres. Obama is doing.
At first I was fully onboard with Pres. Obama's call for "Health Care Reform", but the more I research information on his plan, I've discovered this plan may in fact help eliminate many of American Society's "undesirables" such as:
Unemployed Middle Class citizens, Senior Citizens, Low Income people, Black Children.
Especially unborn Black Babies from Poor, Unwed mothers.
I boldly stand for God and Jesus Christ!
What does Pres. Obama stand for?
God or Allah??
Is Pres. Obama trying to turn America into a Muslim nation or secretly attempting to diminish America's power?
Does he truly Love America?
Remember Rev. Jeremiah Wright?
Please watch the two videos posted and than come to your own conclusions.
Ignore the Biased Mainstream American Media!(except Fox News)
In Fall of 2007, there were all kinds of people, a number of them Ron Paul supporters, dashing from Internet site to Internet site suggesting that John McCain could not serve as president of the United States.
That was because he was born outside the United States and, therefore, not native-born, as presidents must be constitutionally.
McCain was, in fact, born in a U.S. military hospital in the Panama Canal Zone, where his father was serving in the Navy. That was, in fact, American-controlled territory at the time.
More importantly, his parents were both American citizens, so he could have been born on Mars and still been an American at birth. And a sense of the Senate resolution took care of any lingering doubts.
Now come the rumors about Barack Obama's birthplace, that he was really born in his father's native Kenya, so like Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was born in Austria, he can't become a U.S. president.
Same rule would apply as for McCain. Obama's mother was an American. So is her son.
Tom Tancredo used to be my congressman. The large geographic swath outside of Denver that he represented included ranchers and suburban families. And though once upon a time Tancredo had a wider array of issue interests, his brain gradually was taken over by rage against immigrants.
In our moderate, land-locked state, my Republican neighbors would sometimes express puzzlement over Tancredo’s obsession. He came to sound more like a deranged border-patrolling Minuteman than a Colorado congressman.
On Thursday, Tancredo delivered the opening remarks at the national Tea Party convention, and, as I watched the clips, I was struck by two things.
First, it was oddly gratifying to see Tancredo take the next step in a long personal journey toward Crazy Land.
Second, it was interesting to see how the far right relates to “the common man.”
You see, the popular conservative meme right now is that Democrats are arrogant and condescending and think that voters are stupid. Charles Krauthammer expressed this sentiment in a column on Friday, claiming that Democrats believe, “The dim, led by the malicious, vote incorrectly.” Gerald Alexander pushes this narrative in an Outlook essay subtly headlined: “Why are liberals so condescending?”
Given Democrats’ condescension, I wanted to see how a real American conservative would relate to the average voter. How would the far right express its deep belief in the power of the people?
Here is Tancredo’s opening: First, we should have a “civics literacy test” before people are allowed to vote. Second, “People who could not even spell the word vote or say it in English put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House whose name is Barack Hussein Obama.” Convention organizer Judson Phillips helpfully explained that "Tancredo doesn't feel like a lot of people who supported Barack Obama understand the basics of this country."
Oops. And this on the heels of a couple of Polls showing that a surprisingly large chunk of Republicans believe that ACORN stole the 2008 election.
You know what I think? The right wing doesn’t trust the people! It believes that the dim, led by the malicious, vote incorrectly!
Actually, this mainly reinforces my firm belief about ideologues and American politics: If you travel far enough to the right, you are sure to meet the far left on the other side of the circle.
Every political community includes some members who insist that their side has all the answers and that their adversaries are idiots. But American liberals, to a degree far surpassing conservatives, appear committed to the proposition that their views are correct, self-evident, and based on fact and reason, while conservative positions are not just wrong but illegitimate, ideological and unworthy of serious consideration. Indeed, all the appeals to bipartisanship notwithstanding, President Obama and other leading liberal voices have joined in a chorus of intellectual condescension.
It's an odd time for liberals to feel smug. But even with Democratic fortunes on the wane, leading liberals insist that they have almost nothing to learn from conservatives. Many Democrats describe their troubles simply as a PR challenge, a combination of conservative misinformation -- as when Obama charges that critics of health-care reform are peddling fake fears of a "Bolshevik plot" -- and the country's failure to grasp great liberal accomplishments. "We were so busy just getting stuff done . . . that I think we lost some of that sense of speaking directly to the American people about what their core values are," the president told ABC's George Stephanopoulos in a recent interview. The benighted public is either uncomprehending or deliberately misinformed (by conservatives).
This condescension is part of a liberal tradition that for generations has impoverished American debates over the economy, society and the functions of government -- and threatens to do so again today, when dialogue would be more valuable than ever.
Liberals have dismissed conservative thinking for decades, a tendency encapsulated by Lionel Trilling's 1950 remark that conservatives do not "express themselves in ideas but only in action or in irritable mental gestures which seek to resemble ideas." During the 1950s and '60s, liberals trivialized the nascent conservative movement. Prominent studies and journalistic accounts of right-wing politics at the time stressed paranoia, intolerance and insecurity, rendering conservative thought more a psychiatric disorder than a rival. In 1962, Richard Hofstadter referred to "the Manichaean style of thought, the apocalyptic tendencies, the love of mystification, the intolerance of compromise that are observable in the right-wing mind."
This sense of liberal intellectual superiority dropped off during the economic woes of the 1970s and the Reagan boom of the 1980s. (Jimmy Carter's presidency, buffeted by economic and national security challenges, generated perhaps the clearest episode of liberal self-doubt.) But these days, liberal confidence and its companion disdain for conservative thinking are back with a vengeance, finding energetic expression in politicians' speeches, top-selling books, historical works and the blogosphere. This attitude comes in the form of four major narratives about who conservatives are and how they think and function.
The first is the "vast right-wing conspiracy," a narrative made famous by Hillary Rodham Clinton but hardly limited to her. This vision maintains that conservatives win elections and policy debates not because they triumph in the open battle of ideas but because they deploy brilliant and sinister campaign tactics. A dense network of professional political strategists such as Karl Rove, think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation and industry groups allegedly manipulate information and mislead the public. Democratic strategist Rob Stein crafted a celebrated PowerPoint presentation during George W. Bush's presidency that traced conservative success to such organizational factors.
This liberal vision emphasizes the dissemination of ideologically driven views from sympathetic media such as the Fox News Channel. For example, Chris Mooney's book "The Republican War on Science" argues that policy debates in the scientific arena are distorted by conservatives who disregard evidence and reflect the biases of industry-backed Republican politicians or of evangelicals aimlessly shielding the world from modernity. In this interpretation, conservative arguments are invariably false and deployed only cynically. Evidence of the costs of cap-and-trade carbon rationing is waved away as corporate propaganda; arguments against health-care reform are written off as hype orchestrated by insurance companies.
This worldview was on display in the popular liberal reaction to the Supreme Court's recent ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Rather than engage in a discussion about the complexities of free speech in politics, liberals have largely argued that the decision will "open the floodgates for special interests" to influence American elections, as the president warned in his State of the Union address. In other words, it was all part of the conspiracy to support conservative candidates for their nefarious, self-serving ends.
It follows that the thinkers, politicians and citizens who advance conservative ideas must be dupes, quacks or hired guns selling stories they know to be a sham. In this spirit, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman regularly dismisses conservative arguments not simply as incorrect, but as lies. Writing last summer, Krugman pondered the duplicity he found evident in 35 years' worth of Wall Street Journal editorial writers: "What do these people really believe? I mean, they're not stupid -- life would be a lot easier if they were. So they know they're not telling the truth. But they obviously believe that their dishonesty serves a higher truth. . . . The question is, what is that higher truth?"
In Krugman's world, there is no need to take seriously the arguments of "these people" -- only to plumb the depths of their errors and imagine hidden motives.
But, if conservative leaders are crass manipulators, then the rank-and-file Americans who support them must be manipulated at best, or stupid at worst. This is the second variety of liberal condescension, exemplified in Thomas Frank's best-selling 2004 book, "What's the Matter With Kansas?" Frank argued that working-class voters were so distracted by issues such as abortion that they were induced into voting against their own economic interests. Then-Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, later chairman of the Democratic National Committee, echoed that theme in his 2004 presidential run, when he said Republicans had succeeded in getting Southern whites to focus on "guns, God and gays" instead of economic redistribution.
And speaking to a roomful of Democratic donors in 2008, then-presidential candidate Obama offered a similar (and infamous) analysis when he suggested that residents of Rust Belt towns "cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations" about job losses. When his comments became public, Obama backed away from their tenor but insisted that "I said something that everybody knows is true."
In this view, we should pay attention to conservative voters' underlying problems but disregard the policy demands they voice; these are illusory, devoid of reason or evidence. This form of liberal condescension implies that conservative masses are in the grip of false consciousness. When they express their views at town hall meetings or "tea party" gatherings, it might be politically prudent for liberals to hear them out, but there is no reason to actually listen.
The third version of liberal condescension points to something more sinister. In his 2008 book, "Nixonland," progressive writer Rick Perlstein argued that Richard Nixon created an enduring Republican strategy of mobilizing the ethnic and other resentments of some Americans against others. Similarly, in their 1992 book, "Chain Reaction," Thomas Byrne Edsall and Mary D. Edsall argued that Nixon and Reagan talked up crime control, low taxes and welfare reform to cloak racial animus and help make it mainstream. It is now an article of faith among many liberals that Republicans win elections because they tap into white prejudice against blacks and immigrants.
Race doubtless played a significant role in the shift of Deep South whites to the Republican Party during and after the 1960s. But the liberal narrative has gone essentially unchanged since then -- recall former president Carter's recent assertion that opposition to Obama reflects racism -- even though survey research has shown a dramatic decline in prejudiced attitudes among white Americans in the intervening decades. Moreover, the candidates and agendas of both parties demonstrate an unfortunate willingness to play on prejudices, whether based on race, region, class, income, or other factors.
Finally, liberals condescend to the rest of us when they say conservatives are driven purely by emotion and anxiety -- including fear of change -- whereas liberals have the harder task of appealing to evidence and logic. Former vice president Al Gore made this case in his 2007 book, "The Assault on Reason," in which he expressed fear that American politics was under siege from a coalition of religious fundamentalists, foreign policy extremists and industry groups opposed to "any reasoning process that threatens their economic goals." This right-wing politics involves a gradual "abandonment of concern for reason or evidence" and relies on propaganda to maintain public support, he wrote.
Prominent liberal academics also propagate these beliefs. George Lakoff, a linguist at the University of California at Berkeley and a consultant to Democratic candidates, says flatly that liberals, unlike conservatives, "still believe in Enlightenment reason," while Drew Westen, an Emory University psychologist and Democratic consultant, argues that the GOP has done a better job of mastering the emotional side of campaigns because Democrats, alas, are just too intellectual. "They like to read and think," Westen wrote. "They thrive on policy debates, arguments, statistics, and getting the facts right."
Markos Moulitsas, publisher of the influential progressive Web site Daily Kos, commissioned a poll, which he released this month, designed to show how many rank-and-file Republicans hold odd or conspiratorial beliefs -- including 23 percent who purportedly believe that their states should secede from the Union. Moulitsas concluded that Republicans are "divorced from reality" and that the results show why "it is impossible for elected Republicans to work with Democrats to improve our country." His condescension is superlative: Of the respondents who favored secession, he wonders, "Can we cram them all into the Texas Panhandle, create the state of Dumb-[expletive]-istan, and build a wall around them to keep them from coming into America illegally?"
I doubt it would take long to design a survey questionnaire that revealed strange, ill-informed and paranoid beliefs among average Democrats. Or does Moulitsas think Jay Leno talked only to conservatives for his "Jaywalking" interviews?
These four liberal narratives not only justify the dismissal of conservative thinking as biased or irrelevant -- they insist on it. By no means do all liberals adhere to them, but they are mainstream in left-of-center thinking. Indeed, when the president met with House Republicans in Baltimore recently, he assured them that he considers their ideas, but he then rejected their motives in virtually the same breath.
"There may be other ideas that you guys have," Obama said. "I am happy to look at them, and I'm happy to embrace them. . . . But the question I think we're going to have to ask ourselves is, as we move forward, are we going to be examining each of these issues based on what's good for the country, what the evidence tells us, or are we going to be trying to position ourselves so that come November, we're able to say, 'The other party, it's their fault'?"
Of course, plenty of conservatives are hardly above feeling superior. But the closest they come to portraying liberals as systematically mistaken in their worldview is when they try to identify ideological dogmatism in a narrow slice of the left (say, among Ivy League faculty members), in a particular moment (during the health-care debate, for instance) or in specific individuals (such as Obama or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom some conservatives accuse of being stealth ideologues). A few conservative voices may say that all liberals are always wrong, but these tend to be relatively marginal figures or media gadflies such as Glenn Beck.
In contrast, an extraordinary range of liberal writers, commentators and leaders -- from Jon Stewart's "Daily Show" to Obama's White House, with many stops in between -- have developed or articulated narratives that apply to virtually all conservatives at all times.
To many liberals, this worldview may be appealing, but it severely limits our national conversation on critical policy issues. Perhaps most painfully, liberal condescension has distorted debates over American poverty for nearly two generations.
Starting in the 1960s, the original neoconservative critics such as Daniel Patrick Moynihan expressed distress about the breakdown of inner-city families, only to be maligned as racist and ignored for decades -- until appalling statistics forced critics to recognize their views as relevant. Long-standing conservative concerns over the perils of long-term welfare dependency were similarly villainized as insincere and mean-spirited -- until public opinion insisted they be addressed by a Democratic president and a Republican Congress in the 1996 welfare reform law. But in the meantime, welfare policies that discouraged work, marriage and the development of skills remained in place, with devastating effects.
Ignoring conservative cautions and insights is no less costly today. Some observers have decried an anti-intellectual strain in contemporary conservatism, detected in George W. Bush's aw-shucks style, Sarah Palin's college-hopping and the occasional conservative campaigns against egghead intellectuals. But alongside that, the fact is that conservative-leaning scholars, economists, jurists and legal theorists have never produced as much detailed analysis and commentary on American life and policy as they do today.
Perhaps the most important conservative insight being depreciated is the durable warning from free-marketeers that government programs often fail to yield what their architects intend. Democrats have been busy expanding, enacting or proposing major state interventions in financial markets, energy and health care. Supporters of such efforts want to ensure that key decisions will be made in the public interest and be informed, for example, by sound science, the best new medical research or prudent standards of private-sector competition. But public-choice economists have long warned that when decisions are made in large, centralized government programs, political priorities almost always trump other goals.
Even liberals should think twice about the prospect of decisions on innovative surgeries, light bulbs and carbon quotas being directed by legislators grandstanding for the cameras. Of course, thinking twice would be easier if more of them were listening to conservatives at all.
galexander16@gmail.com
Gerard Alexander is an associate professor of politics at the University of Virginia. He will be online to chat with readers on Monday, February 8, at 11 a.m. Submit your questions and comments before or during the discussion. On Monday, he will also deliver the American Enterprise Institute's Bradley Lecture, "Do Liberals Know Best? Intellectual Self-Confidence and the Claim to a Monopoly on Knowledge."
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