Today Barack Obama spoke to the world’s Muslims in sweepingly messianic speech from Egypt.
More than bland diplomacy, more than conciliatory courtship, Obama blatantly wooed the Arab world. So demonstrative was he that he even quoted the Koran.
That Obama – a bona fide “bleeding heart” – is sucking up to despotic human rights violators is ironic. Doubly so, considering that George W. Bush – callous cowboy – wasted his legacy by trying to export democracy to these same despot-run countries.
It’s Bush’s naïve actions, incidentally, that have put Obama in the position to beg. To make up for what many consider to be the miscalculation of Iraq, Obama is willing to beg for everybody’s pardon.
Israel is, of course, Obama’s strongest bargaining chip – and he’s playing it.
In a recent NPR interview, Obama implied that tough love is the new American policy with Israel.
“What is also true is that part of being a good friend is being honest. And I think there have been times where we are not as honest as we should be about the fact that the current direction — the current trajectory — in the region is profoundly negative, not only for Israeli interests but also U.S. interests. And that’s part of a new dialogue that I’d like to see encouraged in the region.”
Indeed, “The One” spoke in strong favor of a Palestinian state in today’s speech, effectively reversing decades of U.S. foreign policy.
The Obama administration is calling it a “truth-telling address.” But who’s truth did he tell, and to whom did he tell it?
Admittedly, he was honest in his appraisal that Muslims have “always been a part of America’s story.” He just forgot to specify the nihilistic role they’ve tended to play.
By zamba June 4, 2009 at 10:25 am
Ol Hillary look’s positively smashing in appropriate headgear! We definitely need to import that look to the NOW crowd!
By Pat Hendrix June 4, 2009 at 10:58 am
Just curious, Mande, what “nihilistic role” have Muslims played? Or was this simply a chance to crow bar in the word nihilistic?
By Brian June 4, 2009 at 11:38 am
Just curious, how ignorant are you really Will? You can not seem to form one coherent thought after another and your attacks on what was an excellent well received speech seem baseless, cheap and insignificant. Stick to South Carolina politics because the world outside our borders is too complicated for your mind.
By fitsnews June 4, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Brian,
First of all, Will didn’t write this article, Mande did. Read the header, big boy.
Second of all, as for Will’s position, it continues to be “they’ll like us when we win.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10UBj4DppGE
-FITS
By Pat Hendrix June 4, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Brian,
You should have known this was no Folks post. First, Mande’s overwrought writing style should have been the first clue. Second, there was no reference to testicals. Folks never writes a post without alluding to balls.
By yep June 4, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Well, its a better effort than Pres. Bush made!!!
By Brian June 4, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Whether it is Will or Mande or any other intern over there…stick to what you know. “They’ll like us when we win” is not a foreign policy strategy.
By Mab June 4, 2009 at 1:08 pm
The first thing I ask myself every morning is…
“What did BHO do overnight to make the world an even crappier place?”
Well today, I see he:
1. Played USA president in the Muslim world.
2. Played the Israel chip in the Muslim world.
3. Played like he really thinks he can get away with it.
###
And the second thing I ask myself is, “Why does he do these things?”
Well, he does them because:
“He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character…”
~John 8:44 B1
By Laurin June 4, 2009 at 1:20 pm
And after reading this post, I’m not even certain if Mande read or listened to the president’s speech. If the speech were simply “sucking up to Muslims,” do you really think the president would have made such a point of not only acknowledging the Holocaust but also castigating those who deny the Holocaust? The president said:
“Around the world, the Jewish people were persecuted for centuries, and anti-Semitism in Europe culminated in an unprecedented Holocaust. Tomorrow, I will visit Buchenwald, which was part of a network of camps where Jews were enslaved, tortured, shot and gassed to death by the Third Reich. Six million Jews were killed – more than the entire Jewish population of Israel today. Denying that fact is baseless, ignorant, and hateful. Threatening Israel with destruction – or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews – is deeply wrong, and only serves to evoke in the minds of Israelis this most painful of memories while preventing the peace that the people of this region deserve.”
Those are not exactly words I’d describe as “sucking up to Muslims,” Mande. Maybe it would do you some good to actually take a look at the text of the speech, which was a frank, thoughtful speech for grown-ups around the world.
A Jewish friend of mine wrote, “At a time when the Iranian president, and much of the Arab world, denies the basic truth of the Holocaust —in a speech designed mainly to reach out to that world—these words take on out-sized importance.” He continued, “It’s a speech for the Muslim world, but a message that will resonate throughout the Jewish world, too.”
Mande, maybe people on this site would be a little more receptive to your contributions on here — overwriting and alliteration-fests notwithstanding — if you ever had anything of substance to say.
By Mande Wilkes June 4, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Laurin -
Tell your Jewish friend that this Jew says s/he is a frier. Even for Jews who speak no Hebrew, that is a label that cuts deep.
- Mande
By Laurin June 4, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Thanks for the substantive response, Mande. And I’ll commend you for offering two whole sentences without any alliteration or adverbs!
By fitsnews June 4, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Cat fight!
By Mab June 4, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Laurin — I thought it was an extremely well-written and succinct piece.
Barack Obama can talk for as long as he continues to draw breath — but encouraging encroachment upon Israel from every conceivable angle is a recipe for disaster. A two-state solution will not work. Jerusalem can’t be divided.
No amount of land will EVER be enough in the mind of radical Islamists who are determined to achieve “Umma.” Umma translates to “one Muslim nation.” They think this is a mandate from Allah! Who can argue with that?! This is even less productive than arguing with a drunk!
The Palestinians do not want a piece of the pie. They want the whole pie.
American Jews who condone what Barack Obama is pressuring Israel to do — can’t be serious! They are their own worst enemies. And as goes Israel, so goes America.
By Laurin June 4, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Extremely well-written? Really? Hmmm. Perhaps you can shed some light on what “nihilistic role” Muslims have played in the American story according to Mande — because that remark falls somewhere between nonsensical and xenophobic.
Obama’s speech covered a broad range of international issues in great detail. Mande didn’t cite a single one, except for saying that “‘The One’ spoke in strong favor of a Palestinian state in today’s speech, effectively reversing decades of U.S. foreign policy.”
If you read the part on Israel/Palestine relations in the president’s speech, you’ll see that his remarks on the situation and his acknowledgment of its historical and emotional complexities were anything but the oversimplified, Bushian characterization Mande offered.
This was a monumental speech to the whole world, and the only thing she bothered to quote and examine in some detail was something Obama said in an NPR interview??? Really?
By John June 4, 2009 at 2:51 pm
come on people, at this point – several decades of US policy clearly hasn’t worked in regards to Israel/Palestine. they’re still at war, they still hate each other, and they still take everything an american president says with a grain of salt. i’m a conservative republican, and i think obama is handling foreign policy well – screw his socialist domestic agenda. but on foreign policy he’s got it dead on, we can’t crusade into the middle east anymore single-handed. we’ve got to have our allies there with us, and the use of force is always a last resort.
i guess what im saying is that at this point, i’ll vote for anything that works, screw the political parties – because we all know they’re screwing us
By peyton manning sucks June 4, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Mab, is your biblical quote a reference to barrack or to bush?
By Brian June 4, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Will, you might want to check but I don’t think Mande meets your minimum requirement for an 8th grade education to write on your blog. Great reporting!
By Pat Hendrix June 4, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Laurin,
That was beautiful. Are you available? Anybody that can deliver a beat-down with such eloquence and verve is my kind of gal.
Best,
Pat
PS: I don’t often use the word “verve” but figure since it was a Mande post, it seemed appropriate.
By Mab June 4, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Laurin,
“This was a monumental speech to the whole world.”
In his mind, and in the minds of those who give him blind allegiance.
###
WorldNetDaily has initiated a billboard campaign entitled,
“Where’s the birth certificate?”
A simple question, really, to those who have nothing to hide.
And — in keeping with BHO’s commitment to transparency, he has blog police working overtime to delete and block comments to the White House web site devoted to dialogue. The web site had a few too many seekers as to why our “president” can’t simply satisfy our inquiring, American minds.
Here — inquire for yourself: http://www.worldnetdaily.com
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=99933
WND Exclusive BORN IN THE USA?
White House ‘dialogue’ site scrubbed of eligibility posts
Many Obama birth certificate queries yanked from ‘transparency’ debate
By Mande Wilkes June 4, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Laurin -
You know, I wrote this article as I watched it at 6 am. That was before the speech was transcribed, and before any sound bites had been picked.
My article is, unlike your friend’s appraisal of the speech,original thought written contemporaneously with the speech itself.
Just sayin’.
-Mande
By Bill June 4, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Laurin said:
“Obama’s speech covered a broad range of international issues in great detail. Mande didn’t cite a single one, except for saying that “‘The One’ spoke in strong favor of a Palestinian state in today’s speech, effectively reversing decades of U.S. foreign policy.””
The most pathetic part about citing to that single topic is that Mande is plain wrong. George W. Bush called for a two-state solution. In 2002.
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/gwbushtwostatesolution.htm
By Mickey Mouse June 4, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Mande, I encourage you to write more. It only serves to demonstrate to your audience your glaring short-sightedness and absence of logic.
By Mab June 4, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Laurin,
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nihilistic
Nihilism – #5 – works well.
(sometimes initial capital letter) the principles of a Russian revolutionary group, active in the latter half of the 19th century, holding that existing social and political institutions must be destroyed in order to clear the way for a new state of society and employing extreme measures, including terrorism and assassination.
###
“Many Muslims are kind and gentle people, but about one in ten, according to scholars who study *jihad*, have declared war on our way of life.” (1)
In order to bring about “Umma” — and set up Sharia law in America — this will require a gradual erosion of our existing social and political structures. One look at Great Britain will give you an idea of what we are up against here in the USA. Christianity has been all but neutered from the public arena in Great Britain.
There is tolerance, yes, but there is also pride in our heritage. Our heritage is religious liberty. You won’t find that in Muslim countries.
Note:
1. From the memoirs of former Islamic terrorist, Kamal Saleem – p. 308
By Mab June 4, 2009 at 4:12 pm
PMS —
BHO.
And here’s another biblical warning to us:
“…thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother.”
~ Deuteronomy 17:15 (part C)
I am quite certain that the writer’s intent here was to translate brother to natural-born citizen of said nation. Until BHO coughs up that birth certificate, he is a stranger, not US born, not my brother, not my president.
:)
By Pat Hendrix June 4, 2009 at 4:14 pm
I almost fell out my chair laughing when I saw the reference to the birth certificate and Worldnetdaily. By the way, here is what the non-lunatic investigators found:
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html
In any event, when I read these silly conspiracy theories, I’m reminded of this scene from I Married an Axe Murderer:
Stuart Mackenzie: Well, it’s a well known fact, Sonny Jim, that there’s a secret society of the five wealthiest people in the world, known as the Pentavirate, who run everything in the world, including the newspapers, and meet tri-annually at a secret country mansion in Colorado, known as The Meadows.
Tony Giardino: So who’s in this Pentavirate?
Stuart Mackenzie: The Queen, the Vatican, the Gettys, the Rothschilds, and Colonel Sanders before he went tets-up. Oh, I hated the Colonel with is wee beady eyes! And that smug look on his face, “Oh, you’re gonna buy my chicken! Ohhhhh!”
Charlie Mackenzie: Dad, how can you hate the Colonel?
Stuart Mackenzie: Because he puts an addictive chemical in his chicken that makes ya crave it fortnightly, smartarse!
Charlie Mackenzie: Coo-coo.
By Laurin June 4, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Here’s the truth on the looney “birthers” and their spam job on the Obama administration’s efforts to make government more participatory: http://techpresident.com/blog-entry/birthers-fouling-opengovt-interactive-site.
Explains a lot to learn that “Mab” is a birther.
By Mab June 4, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Pat –
When you recover from your hysteria, please ask yourself…
Why WON’T the CBS-owned outdoor advertising flunkies allow this freedom of speech? Why WON’T they take WND’s money and slap that puppy up there?
Capitalism is more dead that we thought. That’s why Pat. Do not talk to me any more today.
By Not Impessed June 4, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Well we have our negro president in the da@n middle east today talking to a bunch of towelheads about how important Muslims are. What a kiss up! I agree with Mande! Let’em have him I say! Less damage he can do to America.
By Pat Hendrix June 4, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Mab, to break your rule, let me say two things – first, I have no dea what you’re talking about and second, seek help.
“Not smart”, well articulated. Thanks for bringing the dumbass opinion to the discussion.
By liz June 5, 2009 at 6:47 am
The speech would NOT have been necessary is Cheney Bush had followed US law, trusted in US values and not started wars of agression against Muslims.
Obama is trying something. Give him a chance, wouldn’t you want ONE CHANCE?
Do Americans believe other Americans should have at least one chance on anything anymore?
I had all my chances removed by Lindsey Graham so he doesn’t believe in chances unless they are his. But come on ya’ll
it is truly about giving chances , which used to be an American ideal.
Wait til your turn for NO CHANCE. I promise you will get it.
By Um,no June 5, 2009 at 8:28 am
Pointing out Mande’s lack of understanding of foreign policy is sort of like pointing out that that a squirrel doesn’t understand nuclear physics. Her attempts at look-at-me-aren’t-I-controversial stuff got old, and a bit sad, a long time ago.
By Let Freedom Reign June 5, 2009 at 9:33 am
I’m on Will’s, Mande’s, W’s, Toby’s, and I guess Jeb Bartlett’s side. For all the faults in our educational process, we aren’t raising a generation whose purpose is to kill Islam. Occasionally, you have to put a teen, a kid, a punk, in their respective places. It costs to do so, both money and lives. But I’m glad there are generations who paid those costs. I cannot fathom people who don’t get this, but they outnumber me right now, probably 55%-45% or so. One day, they won’t outnumber me. It’ll get uglier before the balance shifts. God bless this country.
By Chucktown Import June 5, 2009 at 11:31 am
I will make it simple for all of you inbred rednecks still yearning for Bush to come back or Reagan to be cloned — generalizing the billions of global citizens that practice Islam as enemies puts this country at risk. Any person of an average IQ and enough foresight to see past his own nose will realize that in the modern world we must unite countries with peace from the top down as opposed to propagating isolationist xenophobia against everything that isn’t Christian. Whether or not you agree with the Democratic domestic policies, (which I do not), there is no question that his approach to foreign policy in this global community is intelligent, rational, and the only way to turn the tide of anti-American sentiment that our previous chimp of a president multiplied by tenfold. Read a damn book, people. Dropping clusterbombs on nations of brown people only amplifies the problems we are facing.
On a side note, Mande it’s embarrassing that we share the same diploma. Sensationalist republican propaganda is not a respectable occupation…but since you obviously care little for the respect of your peers, I suggest you go back to whoring yourself around King St. You’d probably make more money than your fake book deal.
By Let Freedom Reign June 5, 2009 at 12:19 pm
There is no generalization. There are, however, a bunch o’ people that hate us. No matter their skin color, they hate us. And generations have hated us way back when W was still partyin’ in college. I’ll count you in the vocal majority, Chuck. “Our previous chimp” …. classy. He was a two term president during the most bloody attack on U.S. soil since WWII. There were those that fought your fight back then, and there are others who will fight your fight today to protect this country, your freedom, and, more specifically, your freedom to spew.
“Dropping cluster bombs on brown people” … talk about your generalizations. If you believe Reagan or W believed that, then no matter where you graduated, you didn’t get your or your parents’ money’s worth.
I admire the President’s attempt to reach out, but believing Iran can have nuclear energy for good purposes is naive, as is believing Iraq can sustain a democracy. Good luck to all in both endeavors.
By Mab June 6, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Chucktown Import,
When we begin allowing the Muslim world to do this top down uniting — i.e., to bark orders to democratic nations — it isn’t about everything that isn’t Christian. Or everything that isn’t Jewish. It is about everything that isn’t Muslim. We are not their equals. We, being EVERYONE who doesn’t pledge allegiance to Allah, are dhimmis.* Ask them, they will tell you. This is not rhetoric — this is their belief system. Even the moderate Muslims want us to be tolerant long enough for them to gain a foothold through Sharia law. They are under a mandate to subjugate all lands for Allah. The extremists don’t concern themselves with Sharia law courts. Like any other bullies, they terrorize nations into submission.
~~~
* From http://www.jewishmag.com/57mag/dhimmi/dhimmi.htm
The Dhimmi is the Arabic term that refers to its non-Islamic embracing population that has the ignominious dishonor of living in Islamic conquered lands. In a similar manner to the Jewish reference to a non-Jew as being a goy, so too the term dhimmi refers to non-Muslims. However unlike the Jewish term, goy, and much more important, the dhimmi is a distinctly subjugated second class non-citizen almost slave who is subjected to dictatorial deprivation of any legal and human rights since he is a non-Muslim permanent resident in a Muslim state.
By Chucktown Import June 6, 2009 at 5:27 pm
You’re right Mab. We should just give up and kill ‘em all.
By Mab June 7, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Well that would be kind of cruel, don’t you agree – Chucktown?
They simply need a reinterpretation of their scriptures. Or maybe a new prophet who finds a ‘new’ manuscript that makes all of us equal to them, and makes killing and/or subjugating us a grave infraction of moral law. You know, like we have in our scriptures.
Now, won’t that more productive and humane?
Keep your eyes peeled.
And let Ahmadinejad know of any news on this front.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
~The Rest of the World~
By Rick June 9, 2009 at 8:21 am
Mab….why would that be cruel? How do you go about changing a holy text in todays world? How do you explain this change? Are you implying that the Arabs are rational enough to go along with this accomodation? I don’t think you have a hope in hell of this adjustment. Check out what is occuring in England/Europe which has a very large muslim population and is busy subverting the laws of these lands. Beware the muslim speaking peace…
By Mab June 9, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Rick,
We do need to beware of some wishes for peace. Even when a Muslim mentions Jesus they normally write “pbuh” after his name. This is many times only a form of subterfuge with us “infidels.” By the tenets of Islam, they are allowed to lie when it furthers conditions for Allah’s ultimate victory.
The Arabic word Al-Toquah (or Al-Taqiyah) refers to a Muslim military doctrine which advocates the use of deception to infiltrate the enemy and spread internal strife (working undercover).
I believe this doctrine is what “elected” Barack Obama and allows him to keep talking when all that is just in this world cries out that he be struck dumb!
By Roger George July 1, 2009 at 8:26 pm
I believe it is not fair to give Muslims a chance to change. Everything would be fine if we were to kill ‘em all. Just start a campaign to eradicate all those sand people and the world would be a better place and we can all live in peace and harmony. Why help them change? Just wipe them all out so we won’t have to worry about another body returning without a head.
Sincerely,
Mohammed Ahmed Saif Sheik Zain Ali Mustafa Huzaifa Bin Crappy Pants