Obama Backs Ground Zero Mosque (surprised ? nope).

shall I just say that Obama "acted stupidly" with his comments.

Having now sided w/ jihadists over the 70% of Americans that oppose this mosque / community center's proposed location too close to Ground Zero, he is now backtracking (like the politician that he is).

Here's some commentary:

9/11 Families Stunned by President’s Support of Mosque at Ground Zero

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/243733/president-stands-sharia-andy-mccarthy

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/243736/obama-shrinks-america-kathryn-jean-lopez

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/243740/ramadan-dinner-kathryn-jean-lopez

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/243743/how-stupid-does-obama-think-we-are-andy-mccarthy

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Obamas-Clintonian-speech-pulls-rug-from-under-mosque-supporters-100716539.html

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/unshakeable_bam_latest_shaky_stand_JDfYCppVHIc8gX2PNzlGPK/1

Even the MSM knows Obama is a goof off fraud

Read Dana Milbank of the Washington Post:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/prez_his_perks_UaQCGCN3DAX0hDtW53lJrJ


An excerpt:

According to Mark Knoller of CBS News, Obama has left the White House to play basketball 16 times so far, in addition to the countless times he has played on his home court. He's shot 44 rounds of golf, gone fishing and played tennis. Total sporting-related events hosted at the White House: 45. That's about six times the number of news conferences he has held.

Obama's foes have mocked him for playing golf more often than his sports-mad predecessor, who played only 24 rounds during his entire eight-year presidency. "Obama skips Polish funeral, heads to golf course," was one Washington Times headline. Liberals who once mocked George W. Bush's "watch this drive" moment on the golf course now speak of the need for Obama to clear his head.

Whatever the merits of head clearing, (or in Bush's case, brush clearing) Obama's bachelor-birthday weekend at the White House set some sort of standard for presidential game-playing: the golf at Andrews Air Force Base with his buddies, then basketball Sunday with pros (and former pros) such as Grant Hill and Bill Russell (and Kobe Bryant watching from the sidelines) and finally, first thing Monday morning, the adoration of the Saints.

Tired of Obama ?

I’m tired At 63

Robert A. Hall is the actor who plays the coroner on CSI if you watch that show.
This should be required reading for every man, woman and child in the United States of America .
"I’m 63 and I’m Tired" by Robert A. Hall

I’m 63. Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce and a six-month period when I was between jobs but job-hunting every day, I’ve worked hard since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven’t called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn’t inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am.
Given the economy, there’s no retirement in sight, and I’m tired. Very tired.

I’m tired of being told that I have to "spread the wealth" to people who don’t have my work ethic.

I’m tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy to earn it.

I’m tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to "keep people in their homes." Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I’m willing to help. But if they bought McMansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the left-wing Congress-critters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them with their own money.

I’m tired of being told how bad America is by left-wing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and Hollywood Entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the economy of Zimbabwe , the freedom of the press of China , the crime and violence of Mexico , the tolerance for Christian people of Iran , and the freedom of speech of Venezuela.

I’m tired of being told that Islam is a "Religion of Peace," when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their family "honor"; of Muslims rioting over some slight offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren’t "believers"; of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for "adultery"; of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur’an and Shari’a law tells them to.

I’m tired of being told that "race doesn’t matter" in the post-racial world of Obama, when it’s all that matters in affirmative action jobs, lower college admission and graduation standards for minorities (harming them the most), government contract set-asides, tolerance for the ghetto culture of violence and fatherless children that hurts minorities more than anyone, and in the appointment of U. S. Senators from Illinois.

I think it’s very cool that we have a black president and that a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. I just wish the black president was Condi Rice, or someone who believes more in freedom and the individual and less arrogantly of an all-knowing government.

I’m tired of a news media that thinks Bush’s fundraising and inaugural expenses were obscene, but that think Obama’s, at triple the cost, were wonderful; that thinks Bush exercising daily was a waste of presidential time, but Obama exercising is a great example for the public to control weight and stress; that picked over every line of Bush’s military records, but never demanded that Kerry release his; that slammed Palin, with two years as governor, for being too inexperienced for VP, but touted Obama with three years as senator as potentially the best president ever. Wonder why people are dropping their subscriptions or switching to Fox News? Get a clue. I didn’t vote for Bush in 2000, but the media and Kerry drove me to his camp in 2004.

I’m tired of being told that out of "tolerance for other cultures" we must let Saudi Arabia use our oil money to fund mosques and mandrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in America , while no American group is allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia to teach love and tolerance.

I’m tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which no one is allowed to debate. My wife and I live in a two-bedroom apartment and carpool together five miles to our jobs. We also own a three-bedroom condo where our daughter and granddaughter live. Our carbon footprint is about 5% of Al Gore’s, and if you’re greener than Gore, you’re green enough.

I’m tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them and stuff white powder up their noses while they tried to fight it off? I don’t think Gay people choose to be Gay, but I damn sure think druggies chose to take drugs. And I’m tired of harassment from cool people treating me like a freak when I tell them I never tried marijuana.

I’m tired of illegal aliens being called "undocumented workers," especially the ones who aren’t working, but are living on welfare or crime. What’s next? Calling drug dealers, "Undocumented Pharmacists"? And, no, I’m not against Hispanics. Most of them are Catholic, and it’s been a few hundred years since Catholics wanted to kill me for my religion. I’m willing to fast track for citizenship any Hispanic person, who can speak English, doesn’t have a criminal record and who is self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves honorably for three years in our military. Those are the citizens we need.

I’m tired of latte liberals and journalists, who would never wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, or let their entitlement-handicapped kids near a recruiting station, trashing our military. They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad mouth better people than themselves. Do bad things happen in war? You bet. Do our troops sometimes misbehave? Sure. Does this compare with the atrocities that were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years and still are? Not even close. So here’s the deal. I’ll let myself be subjected to all the humiliation and abuse that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, and the critics can let themselves be subject to captivity by the Muslims, who tortured and beheaded Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, or the Muslims who tortured and murdered Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in Lebanon, or the Muslims who ran the blood-spattered Al Qaeda torture rooms our troops found in Iraq, or the Muslims who cut off the heads of schoolgirls in Indonesia, because the girls were Christian. Then we’ll compare notes. British and American soldiers are the only troops in history that civilians came to for help and handouts, instead of hiding from in fear.

I’m tired of people telling me that their party has a corner on virtue and the other party has a corner on corruption. Read the papers; bums are bipartisan.

And I’m tired of people telling me we need bipartisanship. I live in Illinois , where the "Illinois Combine" of Democrats has worked to loot the public for years. Not to mention the tax cheats in Obama’s cabinet.

I’m tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of both parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting caught.

I’m tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor. Speaking of poor, I’m tired of hearing people with air-conditioned homes, color TVs and two cars called poor. The majority of Americans didn’t have that in 1970, but we didn’t know we were "poor." The poverty pimps have to keep changing the definition of poor to keep the dollars flowing.

I’m real tired of people who don’t take responsibility for their lives and actions. I’m tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination or big-whatever for their problems.

Yes, I’m damn tired. But I’m also glad to be 63. Because, mostly, I’m not going to have to see the world these people are making. I’m just sorry for my granddaughter.

Robert A.Hall is a Marine Vietnam veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate.

Mosque Controversy near Ground Zero

Q. Why is Mayor Mike Bloomberg such a tin-eared elitist schmuck ?

Andy McCarthy: http://article.nationalreview.com/439002/more-moderate-muslims/andrew-c-mccarthy

If Mayor Michael Bloomberg ever decides to stop buying his way around New York City’s term-limit law, he’d be a perfect fit at the State Department.

Hizzoner was not content with having embarrassed himself by predicting that the attempted bombing of Times Square — the heart of a city that has been a jihadist target for 17 years — would prove to be the work of a disgruntled right-winger upset over the health-care bill. Bloomberg has now treated us to a cri de coeur in favor of the Ground Zero mosque. Funding sources for this project, originally known as the “Cordoba Initiative” in honor of the caliphate that conquered Spain, remain unknown. What is known is that the gigantic Islamic center would be located near the crater where Islamist terrorists killed more than 2,700 Americans while destroying the World Trade Center.

Mayor Bloomberg is clearly ready for prime time in the State Department’s production division: It was only last year that our foreign service used your tax dollars to broadcast, on its website, a little movie called “Eid in America.” Eid, the occasion for this exercise in cinematic hagiography, is the feast that ends what our government takes pains to call “the holy month of Ramadan” and commemorates with gala dinners around Washington. The star of the video was the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center — and accompanying mosque — in Falls Church, Va.

[much more; read the whole thing]


NY Post : Mosque Nanny

It’s one thing for Mayor Bloomberg to play nanny and hector New Yorkers about smoking and trans fats, as he never stops doing. But it’s quite another for him to grab the flag and start scolding foes of that planned mosque near Ground Zero, as he did Friday.

The mayor was way, way out of line.

“A handful of people ought to be ashamed of themselves,” he huffed.

Well, we know one person who should be ashamed: him.

Bloomberg got downright apocalyptic, calling the controversy “[as] important [a] test of the separation of church and state . . . as we may see in our lifetimes.”

“Do you really want every time they pass the basket in your church, and you throw a buck in, they run over and say, ‘OK, now, you know, where do you come from?’ ” Hizzoner asked.
Of course not. But that misses the point by a mile — and he well knows it.

The notion that the mosque controversy is a battle over religious freedom is utterly bogus. And it glosses over New Yorkers’ entirely legitimate concerns.

Nor is there a question of whether the mosque should be forced to reveal the sources of its funding — though its failure to do so certainly heightens suspicions.

Let’s face it: The majority of New Yorkers who oppose the project have every right to do so — unless Mayor Religious Freedom doesn’t believe in freedom of speech, or freedom of opinion.
And New Yorkers have every right to be curious about this project, especially.

The mosque’s leader, Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, claims to seek “interfaith understanding” — but just how “moderate” is it to launch a project he knows will inflame passions? Plus, he reportedly has ties to radical Islamists and refuses to label Hamas a terrorist group.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has been dedicated to spreading the Wahhabi ideology that spawned al Qaeda — and 9/11. If Saudi money is meant to make this mosque part of that cause, don’t New Yorkers (of all people!) have a right to know?

We don’t begrudge Bloomberg his opinion, of course — wrong as we think it is. But he has no right to begrudge others of theirs. And surely no right to insult them.

Give it a rest, Mr. Mayor.http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/mosque_nanny_m5JtsJMGHTZ1RVUjganFML#ixzz0w3cbclCX


A Muslim victim of 9/11: Build your mosque somewhere else http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/06/AR2010080603006.html

Christopher Caldwell: A mosque that wrecks bridges.

TARP should be renamed CRAP

Another Scam being pulled right before our eyes ...

Did the TARP Money Really Get Paid Back?
August 08, 2010 1:03 PM
By Kevin D. Williamson

I didn’t see the show, but apparently Jackie Calmes of the New York Times was on Candy Crowley’s program on CNN this morning and claimed that the bank and automobile bailouts have been repaid with interest.

A friend asks: Is that true?

No, not really. The part of TARP that deals with banks — the big banks, anyway — has largely been repaid: Goldman Sachs, Morgan, Wells Fargo, BONY, and the other bigfoot banks have paid back their loans.

But . . .

Citigroup paid back less than half of its bailout and the government took equity for the rest. We own a fifth of the company (and I wonder if that fact has anything to do with this.)

We still have billions of dollars’ worth of warrants on equity in 280 companies, almost all of them banks and insurance firms. Those warrants represent the option to buy stock at a pre-set price, and Treasury has made a few billion dollars exercising them as bank shares have recovered. It will come as no surprise to you that the American Bankers Association has asked the government to cancel the warrants, representing another multibillion-dollar giveaway to the banks. The administration is leaning toward accommodating that request by converting the taxpayers’ interest into a special small-business lending scheme, which we can safely assume will be handled with all the transparency and deftness that we have come to expect from similar programs run by the Small Business Administration.

The warrants business doesn’t represent all that much money in the grand scheme of TARP, but it is kind of interesting. Here’s a bit from finance professor Linus Wilson’s testimony before the House:

We meet today on almost the one year anniversary of the first warrant transaction, with Old National Bancorp. That transaction demonstrated that the U.S. Treasury without oversight will squander the taxpayers’ profits from their very risky investments in the banking sector. The auctions of several banks’ warrants make me hopeful that the taxpayers will get close to fair market value for their warrants in over 280 publically traded banks. Yet, by my estimates, the U.S. Treasury and the administration today plan to squander a fair market value of warrants and preferred stock of approximately $3.0 billion by allowing existing Capital Purchase Program recipients to cancel their warrants and convert their preferred stock into the proposed Small Business Lending Fund. Thus, vigilance and oversight is essential to ensure that taxpayers hold onto the returns they have earned from the TARP warrants because the U.S. Treasury left to its own devices has often been a poor steward of the $700 billion of taxpayer funds.

. . . The proposed $30 billion Small Business Lending Fund would allow over 580 of the smaller Capital Purchase Program recipient banks to wipe out the warrants worth $457 million, according to my estimates.

As Professor Wilson notes elsewhere, the big banks have been better about paying off their TARP obligations, mostly because the stigma of the program hurts their bottom lines. But the smaller banks are another story: In March, Professor Wilson identified 82 banks that had missed interest payments or dividends owed to the government: “Even as more firms try to feed at the trough of subsidized government capital, it seems clear that a lot of the banks that have received government capital were not worth the risk,” he writes, noting that “one-eighth of the banks remaining in the ‘healthy bank’ program are behind in their payments.”

Back to the major institutions: AIG and GMAC are the stuff of nightmares. In the case of AIG, we put up $40 billion for a company whose entire market capitalization, if I’m reading Yahoo right, is $5 billion. And the automakers have not paid back the capital we put into them, because the government took equity instead, which is why we own a tenth of Chrysler and three-fifths of GM. GM proudly advertised that it has repaid its government loan, which it did — out of a taxpayer-funded escrow account, i.e., it “repaid” its government money with government money. Senator Grassley blew a righteous head gasket over that shenanigan, the Competitive Enterprise Institute filed a false-advertising complaint in response to GM’s dishonest PR campaign, and the stink rose so high that even the New York Times caught a whiff.
So there’s that.

Oh, yeah: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have an infinite line of credit at Treasury and portfolios bursting with the worst kind of junk. Plus, we’re going to lose a bundle on the mortgage-assistance programs tacked on to TARP.

Short version: If TARP had only done what TARP was supposed to do — prop up the banking system — it still would have been a mess, but a mess for which the banks, not the taxpayers, ultimately would have picked up the tab. With everything that’s rolled up into TARP, we’re going to take a bath. And it could get really bad if we don’t do something about Fannie and Freddie – and by doing something I don’t mean getting behind a whole new passel of weak mortgages made to people who cannot even raise the money for a down payment.

I hope that answers the question.