GARY BAUER: THE HAJJ AND THE HATE
Friday, November 19, 2010 From: Gary L. Bauer
garybauer@cwfpac.com
CAMPAIGN FOR WORKING FAMILIES
The Hajj And The Hate
As you may know from the news coverage or from material your kids might be learning in school, Muslims worldwide are celebrating the Hajj. For those who don’t know, the Hajj is an annual pilgrimage to Mecca, the holiest site in Islam.
The Hajj is an obligation for religious Muslims who are able to make the trip. It is something they must do at least once in their lifetime. President Obama issued a statement on Monday which read in part, “On behalf of the American people, we extend our best wishes during this Hajj season — Eid Mubarak and Hajj Mabrour.”
A letter from Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, was read at the Hajj this week. The ayatollah urged Muslims to engage in “struggle and resistance against the aggressions of the United States and the Zionist regime.” According to one report, tens of thousands of Muslims chanted in unison, “Allah is the greatest,” “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” I guess the ayatollah didn’t get Obama’s memo about our “best wishes” to the “religion of peace.”
For confused liberals like Christiane Amanpour, let me make this clear: I do not believe all Muslims are terrorists. That said, when the “supreme leader” of a nation urges the “faithful” to wage jihad, and when the “faithful” respond with “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” I think it is supremely foolish to pretend that there is no religious component to the war we are fighting.
It’s like suggesting that World War II was a war against Nazis, but that it had nothing to do with fascism. To deny that the jihadists are motivated by their faith is as delusional as to trust Adolf Hitler to secure “peace in our time.”
Speaking of Delusional…
Sometimes Washington can be so frustrating that you don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Today, Charles Krauthammer opted for comedy in a scathing editorial that mocks our politically correct culture. In taking on the absurdity of our latest airport screening procedures, Krauthammer observes:
“…everyone knows that the entire apparatus of the security line is a national homage to political correctness. …Wizened seniors strain to untie their shoes; beltless salesmen struggle comically to hold up their pants; three-year-olds scream while being searched insanely for explosives, when everyone — everyone — knows that none of these people is a threat.
“…This has nothing to do with safety — 95 percent of these inspections, searches, shoe removals, and pat-downs are ridiculously unnecessary. The only reason we continue to do this is that people are too cowed to even question the absurd taboo against profiling — when the profile of the airline attacker is narrow, concrete, uniquely definable, and universally known. So instead of seeking out terrorists, we seek out tubes of gel in stroller pouches.”
Reining In The Regulators
At a time when unemployment is higher than it has been in decades, Washington bureaucrats have declared war on American businesses. According to Tom Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, job creators are confronting “a regulatory tsunami” from the federal government: 200 rules from the EPA, 100 regulations from the Department of Labor, 183 new agencies under ObamaCare and 540 rules and 170 reports from the financial regulation bill.
If that’s not bad enough, we learned this week that unrepentant progressives are demanding that Obama do even more regulating after losing total control of Congress in the recent elections. The American people clearly voted for less government and against Obama’s agenda, but progressives are determined to stick it to them!
John Podesta, a former chief of staff to Bill Clinton, published a detailed report calling on Obama to “use all levels of his power and authority to move the country forward.” According to Podesta, Obama should use his “substantial executive authority to make and implement policy …using authorities … such as executive orders, rule-makings, agency management and public-private partnerships.”
In other words, Podesta and his fellow progressives are demanding that Obama ignore the American people and Congress and implement his left-wing agenda by regulatory fiat.
The most serious threat comes from the “Employment Prevention Agency” using its powers to implement some kind of carbon cap and trade scheme. Senator-elect Joe Manchin (D-WV) crowed recently about Harry Reid’s promise to him that cap and trade was dead in the Senate. Cap and trade was died in the Senate well before the election. The danger now is that the EPA will act unilaterally to impose a policy so radical that it could not pass when Democrats had 59 votes in the Senate. What are Manchin and Reid going to do about the EPA now?
While I’m pleased that the Chamber of Commerce is speaking up and fighting back, more CEOs and entrepreneurs — our job creators — need to speak up. Unfortunately, too many are afraid to cross the administration. They are afraid that government goons might show up to “audit” their books. “Gee, Mr. CEO, that’s a real nice company you got there. It would be a real shame if a surprise SEC investigation tanked your stock price.”
Don’t think it can happen? That’s the subject of a disturbing column by Charles Gasparino in yesterday’s New York Post.
I know it’s popular to bash Wall Street and Big Business right now. But Gasparino’s column is worth reading as a warning against Big Government statism and how it stifles business and job creation. For more on this subject from the perspective of small business start-ups, read this report from the Wall Street Journal.
Democrat Disarray
While the media continue to obsess about divisions between the GOP and the Tea Party movement, the real divide is among Democrats. Politico reports that Senate Democrats met for three hours yesterday to figure out what went wrong on November 2nd.
Senators described the meeting as a “raucous caucus” and “the most frank exchange of views I’ve ever seen.” Many senators, such as Florida’s Bill Nelson, reportedly complained that Barack Obama had become a “serious liability.” (Remember when Obama reassured nervous Democrats that he would be “the big difference” between 1994 and 2010?)
Some expressed frustration with the White House’s preoccupation with unpopular priorities like ObamaCare and cap and trade. But liberals, like Vermont socialist Bernie Sanders, took the opposite view, arguing Democrats suffered because Obama was too moderate and the left-wing base abandoned them as a result.
Bill Nelson is right to be worried. The political landscape in 2012 is much more favorable for Republican Senate victories than it was this year. With your continued support, we’ll do everything we can over the next two years to stop Obama’s socialism by defeating Barack Obama and taking back the Senate in 2012!
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