The President and the Mosque

President Obama waded into the 9-11 Mosque issue on Friday night, without bidding and after his spokesman had indicated the White House view that it was a local issue.  So before a group of 100 largely Muslim guests at the White Houset, the President decided to remind all of us what a fine Constitutional law scholar his is by lecturing Americans--to the delight no doubt of his audience and Islamic audiences around the world--that the builders of the mosque and community center were within their rights to do so--and basically that not supporting their right was un-American on its face.  Thanks Mr. President--I'm sure you were a big hit in the faculty lounge at the University of Chicago, but the fact is, you're politically tone deaf.

So as I was readying for my vacation trip yesterday morning (Sat.), I heard the reporting of the previous night's speech.  I couldn't help but think that the President had given Republicans a great gift.  Once again--Barack Obama has decided to come out on the side of a small minority of people because by doing so,  he looks smart and internationalist and new-agey. 

By the time I reached my destination and fired up the old Dell laptop, I'd come to see that the President had begun to back down a bit from his statements of the night before--that he wasn't commenting on the "wisdom" of the project, only its constitutionality.  How predictable was this?  Do you think Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi screamed at the Rahmn-o-nator a bit yesterday?   Do you think the White House got an earful from angry Democrats who are already in very dubious electoral positions?  No doubt. 

So once again--in an effort to be the smartest guy in the room and the hip internationalist he thinks he is--Barack Obama sold 70% of America up the river--first by telling a group antithetical to their views that opposing the mosque was unconstitutional, and then by inferring that believing so was un-American.   Democrats have a right to be angry at the President, and so do the rest of us.  November can't get here fast enough. 

If You Aren't Outraged, Then Someone Other Than Bush Must Have Done It

A few days late but thought it worth discussing. The Obama Administration Justice Department seized assets from several Islamic mosques inside the United States last week. It received what I would call "responsible reporting" (log it!) from the MSM. Read this article from the Baltimore Sun and see if you agree. Balanced reporting, explains the degree to which the government excluded the activities of the attendees of these mosques so as not to impede their First Amendment rights and to only seize the assets associated with those mosques (and other income earning real estate) where they had evidence (via phone taps, and other "Constitution-trampling activities" of the Bush Administration's Patriot Act) that it was supporting the Iranian government's ties to terrorist activities. FBI agents had even been videotaped going through dumpsters outside of various mosques, yet there was no public outrage, fueled by righteous indignation reporting and claims of trampling the Constitution (except in Democracy Today--but even there, they were uncharacteristically reserved in their "outrage"). Perhaps it's because, like so much else where the MSM has gone milquetoast on us, The One declared that he would NEVER do such "expedient" acts in the name of national security. Therefore, this is clearly beyond critical review: