Bipartisanship on the White House menu
At a White House dinner with Senate and House leaders from both parties and their spouses, President Barack Obama got a standing ovation when he mentioned the demise of Osama bin Laden in his welcome.
“Last night, as Americans learned that the United States had carried out an operation that resulted in the capture and death of Osama bin Laden…” Obama said.
At that point, he was interrupted by the standing ovation.
“We were reminded again that there is a pride in what this nation stands for and what we can achieve that runs far deeper than party, far deeper than politics,” Obama continued after the applause subsided.
The Monday evening dinner had been on the books for a few weeks, but Obama said it could not have come at a more fitting time.
A day earlier, he had announced that bin Laden had been killed in a U.S. assault on a compound in Pakistan — ending a nearly decade-long manhunt.
Word that the hunt for the man behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks was over — and that he was gone – brought Americans together in celebrations across the country.
Then came social issues and ‘morality’…
The Tea Party’s November victories and the ensuing Republican drive for spending cuts are in large part the result of a political strategy that focuses tightly on fiscal and economic matters, while minimizing rhetoric on moral questions and social topics. But for how much longer can Republicans keep a lid on the culture war?
The 2012 presidential race, though lacking in declared GOP candidates, may be about to pry open a Pandora’s box bearing the name of social issues that have long divided Republican and independent ranks. And such an occurrence could work against the interests of fiscal conservatives, just as the GOP girds itself for a showdown with Democrats over spending cuts and the debt ceiling later this spring.
Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, one of those Republicans who are running for president without actually running for president, tells NBC’s Today show that social conservatism is what built America and made it strong.
And if a recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows 65 percent of GOP primary voters preferring candidates who focus more on the economy and the deficit, and less on social issues? ”I think we can walk and chew gum at the same time,” he replies.
Even the battle of the budget shows signs of becoming a Republican morality fight.
Here’s Santorum speaking to social conservatives in Iowa: “…if what we’re doing to the next generation of America, this entitlement attitude, if that is not a moral issue, I don’t know what is…”
And Newt Gingrich: “…balancing the budget is an essentially moral, not economic question…”
If you listen to Republicans, you’ll hear plenty of proud boasts about how their priorities reflect the will of the American electorate.
And if you listen to the American electorate, you’ll hear something else entirely.
State Dept: church Koran burning plan”un-American”
There have been lots of angry words over plans by an obscure Florida pastor to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
But State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley pulled out the biggest gun of all on Tuesday in his effort to distance the government from the pastor’s incendiary proposal — he called it “un-American.”
“We are conscious that a number of voices have come out and rejected what this pastor and this community have proposed,” Crowley told a news briefing. “We would like to see more Americans stand up and say ‘this is inconsistent with our American values.’ In fact these actions themselves are un-American.”
“Un-American” is not an epithet that trips lightly off the tongue for U.S. government spokespeople, carrying as it does the tang of the 1950′s witchhunt for alleged communist sympathizers spearheaded by the House Un-American Activities Committee.
Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center church in Florida presumably doesn’t think his book burning plans are un-American, at least by his definition.
Jones said he would torch copies of the Muslim holy book on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in an effort toward “exposing Islam” as a “violent and oppressive religion.”
“When do we stop backing down?…when does American stand for truth?” Jones said in an interview with CNN.
This reminds me of the imam priest in a mosque in the sindh province of Pakistan who was the sole survivor with the mosque and did not flee from the flood water. His comments to a jounalist; I have been living in the mosque, the house of God and lookibg after it. If God almighty wants to destroy his own house then be it and I am prepared to die”. He survived with the house of the God, Quraan is the property of God and not the property of muslims, Let Got decide what the infidels want to do with the book, read it, agree or dis agree with it or attempt to destroy it. There are always consequences for the crime whioch we commit in this world, the rest is just a distruction!
I have seen flag burning on the TV nand I have seen the on the Tv the burnings of the human written books, I have also witnessed the consequences on the TV and I have read about the crusaders onslaught against Islam and I have seen holiday films about the european kings and noblemen armies march into the holy land and I have also read about the defeats of the evil forces. I have also witnessed the world war war 2 and the consequences andf I am prepared to witness the ww3 on any pretext, so be it. Let us recognise just one principle, the world is controlled by the almighty God and it is illusary to believe that the human power can decide what is to transpire in the end.
Have a nice day, you brave warriors, unleashing anger the oapparent weak people.
Democrats try turning mosque debate against GOP
Democrats were stunned and somewhat speechless last August when Republicans accused them of proposing “death panels” as part of their healthcare reform initiative.
This August, it’s the proposed construction of a Muslim cultural center and mosque near lower Manhattan’s “Ground Zero” that is dominating the end-of-summer doldrums. Once again, Democrats are struggling to gain the upper hand in the debate.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi weighed in on Wednesday, saying, “Where a place of worship is located is a local decision.” The Democrat may have been tweaking Republicans from across the U.S. who are railing about the New York City mosque all the while complaining about the long, intrusive arm of the federal government.
Republicans have argued that allowing a mosque within blocks of the site of the Sept. 11 attacks would be an insult to the families of the thousands killed that day. But Pelosi, like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, is also noting that if Republicans’ hearts were in the right place, they would stop opposing legislation to help emergency responders and others suffering health problems related to the attacks.
Pelosi says it’s fine to look into who would fund the construction of the Islamic center, but that “we should also ask who is funding the attacks against the construction” of the facility.
A few days ago, a former House speaker — Republican Newt Gingrich – created a stir when he called the planned Muslim center a symbol of “Islamist triumphalism” and said it would be like placing a “Nazi sign next to the Holocaust Museum.”
That may have backfired as other staunch conservatives like Pat Buchanan said Gingrich’s comments went too far.
Sounds to me like the GOP is proposing dumb panels. Nothing too outrageous or fallacious is beyond their power to say and pick a fight with.
Democrats disagree on NY mosque, White House says no problem
Barack Obama and Harry Reid agree on most things.
They both favored stimulus measures to boost the economy. They both want climate change and comprehensive immigration reform to pass the Senate — at least someday.
But the U.S. president and the top Democrat in the Senate disagree about an issue that could become a flashpoint in the November elections: whether or not a Muslim cultural center in New York should be built near the site of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Obama has come out forcefully in favor of the rights of the builders to put the center, which would include a prayer room and an auditorium, near the site known as “Ground Zero.”
Reid, who is facing a tough reelection battle in his home state of Nevada, has said he thinks it should be built elsewhere.
White House spokesman Bill Burton said Obama didn’t mind the difference of opinion.
“Senator Reid is a fiercely independent individual; it’s one of his strengths as a leader of the Democratic Party. So the president feels completely fine that he might disagree,” Burton told reporters.
I wish people would stop calling it a mosque, it’s a community centre, it includes a 9/11 memorial. The campaign against it is pure mass hysteria. I’ve seen the guy who wants to start it on the news, he seems like a nice guy. Say it with me everybody: Only a FEW THOUSAND Muslims are terrorists, most of the rest – about 2.1 BILLION people – are moderate and are really people, just like you, not some faceless horde.
Sarah Palin, the Bard of Wasilla
Washington’s Emma Ashburn had some thoughts today on Sarah Palin’s latest literary stylings:
Sarah Palin: former Alaska governor, ex-vice presidential candidate, bard.
The media-savvy Republican introduced a new term over the weekend, using the word “refudiate” on her Twitter feed at SarahPalinUSA when she opined on plans to build a mosque at the site of the 9/11 attacks in Manhattan. Later, she suggested she wasn’t doing anything William Shakespeare hadn’t done.
Her first tweet on Sunday read:
* Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate
She changed it within hours to:
* Peaceful New Yorkers, please refute the Ground Zero mosque plan if you believe catastrophic pain caused @ Twin Towers site is too raw, too real
It shows why it took “gun-slingging” mama-grizzly long to finish college. Just slow is realizing when you’re making a fool of yourselves. But wait a minute, “people like us”…”the real americans”….They do understand this new bard in the western hemisphire. They wouldn’t pay so much money for dinner if she were that baaaaad!..or would they? yah! they would, some level of interlectual consciousness.
Attorney General Holder escapes DC snow for Florida, defends decisions
After the federal government closed for four days following two major blizzards, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder escaped to the warmer climes of Tampa, Florida, where he defended decisions on terrorism-related cases that have come under fire.
Republicans have harshly criticized Holder for deciding to prosecute the five men accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, including the self-professed mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, in traditional criminal courts rather than military tribunals.
He has also drawn bipartisan fire for planning to hold the trials blocks from the site where the World Trade Center twin towers stood amid new concerns about security and costs.
Additionally, the attorney general has been lambasted for how the Obama administration has dealt with the accused underwear bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who was arrested on Christmas Day for trying to explode a device aboard a Northwest flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.
The suspect was interviewed for about an hour before he underwent surgery for his injuries. He stopped cooperating and was read his legal rights and subsequently charged in a criminal court. That all drew harsh criticism from Senator Kit Bond, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, among others.
He and other Republicans have argued that Abdulmutallab should have been deemed an enemy combatant, charged in a military court and been interrogated by intelligence experts rather than the FBI. The lawmakers have questioned whether valuable intelligence was lost as a result.
“We at the Justice Department are under fire for some of the decisions I have made. I’m convinced that those decisions are the right ones,” Holder said in a speech to the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives Symposium in Tampa.
it’s very helpful to attorney peoples. thanks!!!!!!!!!
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The First Draft: NYC awaits day in court 8 years after 9/11
Today seems a day of numbers: 8, 11, 5, 3000, 13. Put another way, more than 8 years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the brutally violated City of New York learns that 5 men accused in the deaths of the nearly 3,000 people will face an actual criminal trial — in New York.
Oh, yeah, and the news comes on Friday the 13th.
The lead defendant, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, initially confessed to masterminding the 2001 attacks that set the United States on the road to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But he later told a Pentagon war crimes court that the interrogators “were putting many words in my mouth.” He also said he wants to be put to death and become a martyr.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will formally announce later today that KSM and four other defendants will be sent to New York City to stand trial for the attacks.
It’s part of President Barack Obama’s plan to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which has long been a target of human rights allegations against the United States.
The proceedings in New York will be an important test of how a U.S. civilian court might handle cases involving detainees who were subjected to U.S. interrogation techniques that some describe as torture.
Wow, let’s run through everyone’s posts thus far,
Anon: Why should we care what level of satisfaction he has in his death once he’s dead? Let’s save the american taxpayer some money and just run him through a trial and execute him.
Jeff: lol, that was good 
RLM: impeach Obama because you don’t think you’re going to like the eventual outcome of a trial that happens under him? Gosh you must have been screaming for every Republican in office to be impeached on 9/12/2009 right?
Arnoll: let’s not risk them recruiting more people to join their side, keep in mind people in prison most likely hate our gov’t also.
Dom: a suitcase nuke? Boy you’re doing the media and the gov’t a big favor in saving them from having to do the fearmongering themselves. They should just have you volunteer rather than having to pay their group of liars.
Dan: wishing reckoning on Israeli’s because of our government’s policy? That sounds demonic.
Nikos: good post, agree mostly, what was it you were a professor in?
What were they thinking? 9/11 scare on the Potomac
It boggles the mind.
Why would the Coast Guard decide to conduct a training exercise on the Potomac River, a stone’s throw away from the Pentagon, where the president of the United States and others attended a memorial event, on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks???
The media, always on hyper-alert for anything terrorism related on the anniversary of Sept. 11, ran with reports of shots fired on the Potomac.
That unleashed never-far-from-the-surface fears of terrorism amid memories of that day 8 years ago when a hijacked plane crashed into the Pentagon, two planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York and another into a field in Pennsylvania — shattering the country’s sense of security.
It turns out the Coast Guard was conducting a training exercise. “Somebody said ‘bang bang’ on the radio” and no shots were fired, Coast Guard Vice Admiral John Currier said, calling it a regular training exercise.
But still, what were they thinking?
The Coast Guard’s first line of defense over the incident was: “The best way that we in the Coast Guard can remember Sept. 11 and our security obligations to the nation is to be always ready and this requires constant training and exercise.”
Eventually after 8 yrs of 9/11 :
1)Where is US Troops ? Ans : Suffering/fighting in Afghanistan or Iraq, by staying away from their loved ones.
2)Where is George W. Bush ? Ans : Enjoying in Dallas,TX with their family members and loved ones, also enjoying texas ranger ownership with huge profit.
3)Where is Osama Bin Laden ? Ans : Enjoying in Pakistan (under the roof of top pakistani politicians, Real Truth)
with everyday Night party, Girls are Dancing and serving american Wine and Mexican Bear.
