Saturday, August 14, 2010

Meanwhile, The Next Morning...

Alright.

Obama's statement on Cordoba House last night was the morally right thing to do, but looking objectively at it after a night's sleep, I have to entertain the thought that while it was morally correct, politically Obama and the Democrats are going to pay a heavy price for this.

Example one is CNN quoting Pam "Atlas Shrugged" Gellar's response to Obama, when she happens to be one of the most xenophobic bigoted anti-Islamic beings on Earth currently.  It's one thing when I point out "Hey, look at this verbal fecal matter that Pammycakes threw at Obama.  She's crazy."  It's entirely another when CNN characterizes her as legitimate:
"Obama came out for the Islamic supremacist mosque at the hallowed ground of 911 attack," Pamela Geller, a leading foe of the Islamic center, wrote on her blog Friday night. "He has, in effect, sided with the Islamic jihadists."
Any thinking American realizes how idiotic that is, but then you realize that just back in March that a Harris Poll showed 57% of Republicans believe Obama is a Muslim.  I'm pretty sure that number has gone up after this, so as far as Gellar's insanity goes, her views really are legitimate and mainstream among Republicans.

Expect the Sunday shows this weekend to be all about how Democrats are now going to have to answer if they agree with Obama or not, and how Republicans are going to say "It's not a question of can they build Cordoba House there, but should they."

It's a false argument, as Digby reminds us.  We're at a point where Republicans have embraced the Party of No label so much that it now extends to all Muslims in America.  It's outright bigotry being justified under "Islam isn't a real religion" the way slavery and racism was justified because "Blacks aren't really human" and anti-Latino racism today is "they're not really Americans".  We should be appalled that this is happening at all.

But the ignorance is overpowering.  Our media has failed to even try to bother to educate.  Pam Gellar is given equal time as having a real argument instead of it being treated as spittle-flecked invective hurling forward from her mouth like a garden hose.

We're deep into the scariest time socially that many of us, at least in my relatively young 80's kids generation, have seen.  9/11 at least united us against those who perverted a religion into hatred.  Nine years later we have become the hatred.

Now things are going to get really ugly.  Democrats nationwide are going to have to go on record about this, and the hate merchants are going to get all new ammo to use this fall.  You will see commercials this fall with "And Bob Smith agrees with Obama that Muslims should build a mosque at Ground Zero in New York City.  Bob Smith...out of touch with the people" and exploding towers and people in turbans.  It's going to be hideous.

That's all they have is hate...but American history is full of examples where hate achieved political goals.

[UPDATE]  Via Memeorandum, FOX News actually defends Obama for standing up for the First Amendment here. Watch:



Here there be dragons.

[UPDATE 2] And now Obama is walking back his comments from last night?!?
President Obama expanded on his remarks about the mosque planned near ground zero during his trip to Florida Saturday.

Obama said that his statement on Friday didn't express support for the “wisdom” of building a mosque two blocks from the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in Manhattan, but rather the right the group has to build it.
"My intention was simply to let people know what I thought. Which was that in this country we treat everybody equally and in accordance with the law, regardless of race, regardless of religion," Obama said.

I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding,” Obama told reporters Saturday after delivering remarks in Panama City Beach, Fla. “That's what our country is about."
Are you kidding me? Obama, what the hell?

[UPDATE 3Josh Marshall puts Obama's statements today in badly needed perspective.
He's not getting into the identity of the builders or whether he agrees the exact placement. They have the right to build on private property. We're Americans. We'd don't discriminate on the basis of religion. Even the AP, more accurately, refers to the president "expanding" on his statement, though perhaps better to say 'countering willful distortion.' The CBS version of the AP story says he "expounded" on the issue. (ABC was a bit in Politico's direction, though nearly as egregious.) Even with the aim of selling copy and appealing to its core readership's biases, this stands out as a troubling example of organized lying on the part of Politico's editors. It will be interesting to see who else follows their line.


Late Update: Notably, whereas Politico writes that the White House had may no effort to suggest that the president's original statement referred to a equal right to build rather than support for this particular effort, the Times says that had indeed done just that. What stands out here is that there is nothing surprising about Obama's stance since I believe this is the stance of most people who take a 1st Amendment stance on this. Who the people behind the project are is beside the point. Getting drawn into the design of the building is irrelevant. We don't discriminate on the basis of religion. Call it the American values position. 
So this really is a case of the Village picking a fight, and once again it's Politico throwing the first punch.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

"Politically Obama and the Democrats are going to pay a heavy price for this."

You are right about that but you clearly aren't smart enough to understand why they deserve to pay that price!

Zandar said...

Because they believe in the same First Amendment that allows you to have your opinion on Cordoba House?

Yes, let's punish them for this.

*facepalm*

Cerebus said...

It truly is a scary time. Obama makes a statement that any rational person would agree with and gets torn apart.

I wonder if the republicans will be able to put the genie back in the bottle after the election, or will we loom back on the '00s as the calm before the storm?

StarStorm said...

Kevin, you've stained your pants. Go change them.

Dave in Northridge said...

Cerebus, as long as Obama continues to be a fierce advocate for all of Americas supposedly unloved minority groups, absolutely.

A Conservative Teacher said...

How is Obama's comment 'the morally right thing to do'? The mosque is being built by an extremist Muslim for the purpose of celebrating the attacks on America by Muslims that killed 3K people. It is being built in that location for that purpose. You're an idiot if you think otherwise. So how is it 'morally right' to support that? The moral thing to do is oppose this mosque building.

Zandar said...

Yes, because we must assume that all Muslims believe what AQ believes, that the only conceivable reason to buy an unused Burlington Coat Factory building in Manhattan is to celebrate the deaths of Americans, and we must not allow the First Amendment apply to people we don't like.

What exactly do you "teach", other than staggering ignorance?

StarStorm said...

Wow, look at all that mischaracterization all over Conservative Teacher's comment. Andrew Schlalfy, is that you?

You'll have to forgive me that I am linking to Wikipedia and not Conservapedia, but as Conservapedia is staffed by A) trolls sucking up to Schlafly to ruin his pet project, and B) Andrew Schlafly, you'll have to understand that I really don't take that source seriously.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordoba_House
Let us start at the Cordoba House page itself:
Cordoba House, renamed Park51 and often called the "Ground Zero mosque", is a planned $100 million, 13-story, glass and steel Islamic community center, which will include a mosque, a 500-seat auditorium, a swimming pool, a restaurant, and a bookstore.

But, you know, it is a mosque and nothing but a mosque

Apparently, by those criteria, AQ sent two planes into the world's largest, most phallic mosque on Sept 11. You learn something stupid every day.

Those behind the project, the American Society for Muslim Advancement and the Cordoba Initiative, claim it is intended to foster better relations between Islam and the West. In an interview, Daisy Khan said: "We decided we wanted to look at the legacy of 9/11 and do something positive." She added that her group represents moderate Muslims who want "to reverse the trend of extremism and the kind of ideology that the extremists are spreading." Pointing to the fact that ordinary Muslims have been killed by Muslim extremists all over the world, Khan also said about the mosque, "For us it is a symbol... that will give voice to the silent majority of Muslims who suffer at the hands of extremists. A center will show that Muslims will be part of rebuilding Lower Manhattan.

Also known as: celebrating the deaths of 3000 people if, you know, you're a fucking moron who still checks under their bed for Muslin underpants bombers.

Onto the owners and sponsors:
Soho Properties' Chairman & CEO is real estate developer Sharif El-Gamal. His partner is Nour Mousa, the nephew of Amr Moussa, the Secretary General of the Arab League.
One investor in the transaction was the Cordoba Initiative, a tax-exempt foundation with assets of $20,000. In the foundation's first five years, from 2004–08, it raised less than $100,000. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is founder, CEO, and Executive Director of Cordoba Initiative, and the project is his brainchild. His wife, Daisy Khan, is a board member.
he project's other investor was the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA), another non-profit foundation. Abdul Rauf is also the founder and CEO of ASMA, and his wife is its Executive Director. They run it out of the same New York office as the Cordoba Initiative.


So basically, we have the nephew of the Secretary General of the Arab League (who, I imagine, would not want to be anywhere near a major act of terror unless the pants-wetters are right and all Arabs and Muslins are out to nuclear underpants bomb all the churches and them personally) and...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feisal_Abdul_Rauf

Oh look. Not an extremist jihadi. In fact, an Imam who is quite against terror and has been working to bridge gaps between Islam and the West, particularly the US. His "controversial remarks about 9/11" could basically be summed up as "if the US didn't stick their dick into the middle east trying to fuck oil out, maybe these people wouldn't be pissed enough to think suicide attacks are perfectly logical and power-hungry assholes wouldn't be able to take advantage of that anger, just sayin'".

Summary is mine, he's far more classy than I am.

StarStorm said...

In fact, it's almost as if the Cordoba House is what it says on it's face and that Conservative Teacher is full of shit and Kevin and "the majority of americans and the will of the people" are a bunch of fucking bedwetters who think that this place is going to regularly pump out jihadis to run over to their house and underwear nuke their penises.

Seriously, you're a teacher? THAT thought scares me far more than the Cordoba House, never mind actual Muslim extremists.

Great job painting all muslims as jihadi extremists though. Should I hold you responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing and various OB/GYN shootings?

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