Obama: Change a Bush Just Might Believe In

The antiwar left is not too happy about Obama’s national security choices. A speech Obama made six years ago indicates that Obama’s approach to foreign policy is much like that of George H.W. Bush. Obama may prove to be less an idealist than a realist.

A Washington Post article by E.J. Dionne Jr. entitled “Obama’s Bush Doctrine” explains that the meaning behind Obama’s “apparent” decision to keep Robert Gates on as defense secretary and to select Hillary Clinton as secretary of state can be discovered in understanding Obama’s words and his George H.W. Bush approach to foreign policy.

In electing Barack Obama, the country traded the foreign policy of the second President Bush for the foreign policy of the first President Bush.

According to the article, Obama’s has been “relying heavily on foreign policy specialists” that are closely associated with Clinton. His choice of Clinton will enhance his image of strength because Clinton has “strong ties to the military” and she has a “carefully cultivated image of tough-mindedness.”

And the article notes that Gates can help Obama organize the withdrawal from Iraq and “bless it.”

The article also reports that Obama has had conversations with Bush senior’s “closest foreign policy adviser, Brent Scowcroft”.

Obama has drawn counsel from many in Scowcroft’s circle, and Gates himself was deputy national security adviser under Scowcroft.

The article goes on at some length to analyze a famous speech Obama gave in 2002.

Antiwar Democrats cheered Obama for addressing a rally against the Iraq war in Chicago’s Federal Plaza on Oct. 2, 2002. His opposition to the war was a major asset in his nomination struggle with Clinton. . .

Obama did indeed denounce the impending war as “dumb,” “rash” and “based not on reason but on passion.” But in retrospect, the speech may be most notable for other things Obama said that separated him from some in his antiwar audience.

Not only did Obama state five times that he didn’t oppose all wars, and that he would willingly “take up arms myself” to prevent another 9/11 from happening, it appears that Obama was echoing Brent Scowcroft’s “widely noted 2002 op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, published six weeks before Obama gave his speech.”

No, the Mecca-orientation of the Crescent of Embrace is NOT a product of the landform

Defenders of the Flight 93 memorial repeatedly insist that the Mecca orientation of the giant crescent HAS to be a coincidence. It is completely determined, they insist, by the landform, the path of Flight 93, and the impact point, leaving no room for intent to enter.

Of course it is crazy to think that, so long as it is just an unfortunate coincidence, there is nothing wrong with planting a giant Mecca-oriented crescent (the central feature of a mosque) on the graves of our murdered heroes. About as crazy, actually, as thinking that the Mecca-orientation of the giant crescent could really be a coincidence. First architect Paul Murdoch just innocently comes up with a half mile wide Islamic-shaped crescent to honor the victims of Islamic terrorism, then he innocently places the Sacred Ground Plaza between the tips of the giant crescent, in the position of the star on an Islamic crescent and star flag, then he innocently just happens to point this entire crescent-and-star-flag configuration at Mecca (and on and on and on).

When the nation saw the second airliner hit the Trade Towers, everyone immediately knew that the first impact was no accident. The more airplanes that Paul Murdoch flies into the Flight 93 memorial, the more the Memorial Project thinks it HAS to be an accident. Its just TOO OUTLANDISH to think that an Islamic enemy could attack us out of the blue and unawares in such a henious way. What precedent is there for thinking that such a thing could even be possible? (Knock, knock, knock.) And so the more evidence they are confronted with, the more impossible it seems, and the more they insist that Murdoch HAS to be innocent.

Okay, so they are WILLFULLY blind. Even so, they still need an excuse to hang their willful blindness on, and part of Murdoch’s evil genius is to supply these excuses. That is where this trope about the crescent design being dictated by the landscape comes from. It comes from Murdoch, and is actually one of his most brilliant deceptions.

Murdoch’ PRELIMINARY DESIGN actually can be seen as dictated by the landform, the flight-path, and the point of impact

Before any designs were submitted, the Memorial Project gave all the design contestants a site organization map that labeled the “the ridgeline,” “the bowl,” “the crash site,” and “the flight path.” Architect Paul Murdoch claims that all he did was combine these elements by having the flight path symbolically “break” the circular bowl shape, creating the giant Crescent of Embrace design. If you start a crescent at the point where the flight path crosses the ridgeline, and follow the rim of “the bowl” around the ridgeline to create a crescent that “embraces” the Sacred Ground where Flight 93 crashed, then you get the Crescent of Embrace design. Since this procedure uniquely determines the orientation of the crescent, there is no room for the orientation to be determined by anyone’s intent. If it faces Mecca, it HAS to be a coincidence.

This argument actually works, but only when applied to Paul Murdoch’s ORIGINAL Crescent of Embrace design, which did NOT point to Mecca. Take a look:

Click for larger image.

The site organization map (left), shows “the bowl,” bordered by “the ridge,” along with the flight path and the crash site. Murdoch’s preliminary Crescent of Embrace design (right), uses the point where the flight path crosses the ridge/bowl as the end point for a crescent that has the Sacred Ground centered between its crescent tips. Resulting orientation: 11.1°. clockwise from north, which is 44.1° north of Mecca.

The explanatory notes in the preliminary design are perfectly accurate when they describe the crescent as focused on the Sacred Ground:

A curving arc of maple trees along a walkway unites the ridge and forms an edge to the bowl, with a focus on the Sacred Ground.

It is also correct to say that this crescent and its orientation are uniquely determined (to within 5° or so) by the landform, the flight path and the crash site. If the crescent arc were extended much further then it would no longer point to the Sacred Ground. (The amount of curve between the end points of the crescent does not matter. Murdoch established the curve of his original crescent by smoothing the curved shape of the ridge line.)

If THIS crescent is uniquely determined by the combination of landform, flight path and crash site, then the final Crescent of Embrace design, rotated 42.3° further to the east, obviously CANNOT be determined by these factors. By extending the crescent in his final design to match the full Islamic crescent shape (covering about 2/3rds of a circle of arc), Murdoch created a crescent that no longer points to the Sacred Ground:

The bisector of the crescent in Murdoch’s final Crescent of Embrace design points approximately 1.8 ° north of Mecca (marked “qibla”). Notice that the bisector of this Mecca-oriented crescent does not even touch the Sacred Ground, but crosses through the upper portion of the Sacred Ground Plaza that sits up the flight path from the Sacred Ground.

While the crescent no longer points to the Sacred Ground, Murdoch still PRETENDS that it does. Asked last summer about the orientation of the crescent, Project Superintendent Joanne Hanley and architect Paul Murdoch both claimed that it points to the Sacred Ground:

Further, [Hanley] added, it is still unclear exactly where on the landscape the memorial will even be situated. It could move as much as 200 yards, she said, discounting the idea that it faces Mecca.

“The only thing that orients the memorial is the crash site,” she said.

Mr. Murdoch reinforced that idea.

“It’s oriented toward the Sacred Ground,” he said. “It just couldn’t be clearer.”

Hanley may be honestly duped, but Murdoch knows full well that the crescent does not point to the Sacred Ground. Such an orientation would ruin his mosque design, not just because a Sacred Ground oriented crescent would no longer point to Mecca, but also because it would place the graves of the infidels in the location of the star on an Islamic flag, leaving them inside the symbolic Islamic heavens. Blasphemy!

Murdoch has a very different symbolism in mind for the star on his giant crescent and star flag. In the top third of the Sacred Ground Plaza, centered on the bisector of the giant crescent, in the exact position of the star on an Islamic flag, sits a separate upper section of Memorial Wall, inscribed with the 9/11 date. The date goes to the star on the Islamic flag. The date goes to the terrorists.

The duping of David Beamer

At this August’s public meeting of the Memorial Project, David Beamer (father of Flight 93 hero Todd Beamer) came out to counter Tom Burnett Sr.’s protests against the crescent design.

Mr. Beamer declared that he had performed several months of due diligence investigating the warnings about the crescent design, by which he presumably meant that he had checked at least a few of our factual claims, like the Mecca orientation of the giant crescent (now called a broken circle). But instead of reporting the results of his fact-checking, Beamer changed the subject. He did not say a single word about the accuracy of any of our claims, but only reported how he had met with architect Paul Murdoch and was satisfied that Murdoch’s design properly honors his son and the other murdered heroes of Flight 93.

If he actually did any fact checking, then he is fully aware that the giant crescent DOES point within 2° of Mecca, in which case there is only one plausible explanation for Beamer declaring the design innocent. Murdoch must have convinced him that the crescent orientation is determined by the landform, the flight path and the crash site, so that its orientation on Mecca HAS to be coincidence.

If Mr. Beamer had bothered to talk to the person who has been warning of an enemy plot then Alec Rawls would have explained to him that no, these physical facts about the crash site do NOT yield a Mecca-oriented crescent. They yield a crescent that points 44° north of Mecca. It is a very strange concept of due diligence to trust the assurances of the person one is being warned is an enemy operative while refusing to talk to the person who is issuing warnings

Very strange too, to think that just because one is convinced that the Mecca orientation of the crescent is a coincidence, that somehow makes it okay to deny the Mecca orientation when speaking to the press and the public, as several Project spokesmen have now done. The fact that Beamer and Hanley and other Project Partners have been duped be Murdoch”s explanations would be of little consequence if they just let the public know what they know, so the American people can decide for themselves whether the fact that it might be a coincidence makes it okay to plant the world’s largest Mecca-direction indicator on the Flight 93 crash site.

Obviously the answer would be “NO!” and this nightmare would be over. It is the lying that is the problem. Hanley et. al. can be a bunch of dupes if they want, but they have no right to deceive the public about what they know.

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The Palestinian Con: Paying Off the Thugs

Last night, in response to my article about the Holy Land victory in Dallas, jihadists and propagandized “useful idiots” began flooding my site with semi-illiterate factoids and insults which border on anti-Semitism. Their rage is palpable. They blame all evil and human suffering on the (small case) “zionists.” Defenders have come forth too. Generally, their spelling and sentence structure are a lot better which suggests that indeed, ignorance remains a great enemy.

I have faced such self-righteous rage before, on campuses, at rallies, in meetings. Such people rarely listen to reason or to any other point of view nor are they ever swayed by facts.

But here are some facts anyway…Continue reading on Chesler Chronicles >>

A Right Way and a Wrong Way to ‘Do New Media’

Eric Odom has a good post over at the #dontgo Movement, describing the current conflict between the Republican establishment and the center-right blogosphere. Basically, the Republicans want to control the message and the bloggers won’t be controlled. Odom also has some great advice for how state-level Republican groups can avoid this problem in the future. Here’s an excerpt:

I believe that it can be seen as innocent to misunderstand something such as new media, but I also believe that if you refuse to admit you lack the understanding, and instead assert yourself king of the realm, you FAIL.

As you can see, the Virginia GOP establishment, along with several key GOP insiders, have committed the ultimate new media sin. They did this by attempting to inject themselves into the Virginia blogosphere as a dominate resource that, according to them, will be the “ONLY major Republican blog in all of Virginia”.

[...]

When pitching yourselves as “A project of the Republican Professionals Network”, you should probably be professional enough to consult with actual bloggers to ensure you know the following.

1) A site built by Yahoo Hosting is not ground breaking in new media. In fact, it’s rather archaic.
2) A site with no RSS feeds that claims to be a “blog”… really?
3) A “Helpful Links” page that doesn’t link to a single Virginia blog is not really helping your pledge of being a new media source
4) If you’re going to ask me to volunteer, perhaps you should tell me what I’m volunteering for, and what I can do to help.
5) You should really have a phone number somewhere on your website
6) Admit you were wrong, get over it, and move on

Nuff said…

Name That Organization

Listening to several talk radio shows today caused me to catch a tidbit of an article concerning Governor Sarah Palin’s current popularity, so as soon as I got home I got work looking for that.

Please do not click on the link before learning the rules of this game.

I was a bit disappointed when I found that article at Mens News Daily due to it being an expose’ of an article sent out by a news organization that we here at Fort Hard Knox refuse to ever link to. I really wanted to post about her meteoric rise, so I had to think for a bit as to how I could do so in a way that would allow me to get by my editor. Hope this works …

In that well thought out article is mentioned how Governor Palin being in high demand by television shows, movie makers, and others in the entertainment business. A mention was made about book deals, but how they could want her for book deals unless she has written more than one I’ll never understand. I guess she is just that popular.

In the meantime, amongst the meat found in that article from the unmentionable organization are little quips reminiscent of statements uttered by terrorist spokesmen, or nutroots. Honestly, they make one think of nasty lil people trying to make the point that the person they are speaking about is pure EVIIIL. It would be funny if this wasn’t being sold as reputable news.

OK. That should be enough for you to take a stab at guessing which organization I’ve been working overtime not to mention. Now please click on the link, then share with us if you were able to guess it correctly.

Note: Be sure to NOT mention that despicable organization here. Just let us know if you guessed it, or not. )

The ‘Whether’ Men

Over at Hot Air is an article that really torqued me off as again I was force-fed more data [aka. crap] about the ever-changing AlGorbal Warming Scam.

For people tired of listening to the Chicken Littles of the World, please allow me to explain how this nonsense works …

It isn’t Global Warming …

It isn’t Global Cooling …

It isn’t Climate Change …

It is as it always has been. It is a phenomenon well known to be Weather.

Today’s problem is that predicting the Weather has been taken over by Whether Men.

Whether they are right today, whether they are right tomorrow, or even if it takes one hundred [or more] years, when the data is finally ‘right’ they will claim there is the proof that they were right.

For 8 years the liberal media has been screaming ‘RECESSION!’. Today I listen to these same people state that this time they might be right. Such are the claims made by the Whether men.

 

New – CD for the Troops II

From CD For the Troops:

Grammy Award winners/nominees and multi-platinum selling recording artists Maroon 5, Keith Urban, Daughtry and Five for Fighting teamed up with 10 other artists to release the CD “For the Troops II” on November 25. “For the Troops II” will be available for free download by Thanksgiving for U.S. active duty service members and veterans world wide with a valid military ID at the Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) Web site, www.aafes.com. Additionally, TriWest Healthcare Alliance is producing and distributing 200,000 hard copies of the CD at locations, such as USO Centers, Fisher Houses, and others across the nation and overseas.

“I’ve heard from service members who, before going on missions or upon returning, listen to songs for inspiration, motivation, reflection or simply to be distracted from a reality few of us could ever imagine,” said John Ondrasik, who writes and sings under the pseudonym band name Five for Fighting and spearheaded the CD’s development. “I hope that my song and the other hits from artists who generously contributed to this project stir those same emotions in our service members. We greatly appreciate the sacrifices the military has made for our country.”

The complete track listing of “For the Troops II” is:

• 3 Doors Down – When I’m Gone
• Daughtry – Home
• Five for Fighting – Freedom Never Cries
• Good Charlotte – I Don’t Want to Be in Love (Dance Floor Anthem)
• Gretchen Wilson – California Girls
• Isaac Hayes – Theme From Shaft
• Joe Perry – Shakin’ My Cage
• Josh Groban – Machine
• Jude – I Think It’s Time (Everything’s Alright)
• Keith Urban – Everybody
• Maroon 5 – Won’t Go Home Without You
• Roy Orbison – In Dreams
• Alan Jackson – Where I Come From
• Trace Adkins – Fightin’ Words.

Palestinian Terrorists Found Guilty in Dallas: Justice At Last.

On the very day, November 24, 2008, that the United Nations spent all day and countless sums of money “mourning” the alleged Palestinian catastrophe, a federal jury in Dallas found all five former officials of the Holy Land Foundation, guilty of having illegally raised money in the United States to assist the Palestinian terrorist group, Hamas, in its hot war against Israel.

According to terrorism expert, Steven Emerson, the defendants, “Shukri Abu-Baker, Ghassan Elashi, Mohamed El-Mezain, Mufid Abdulqader and Abdelrahman Odeh, could face up to 20 years in prison for their convictions on conspiracy counts, including conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. The verdicts, read Monday afternoon, ended a two-year saga in what is considered the largest terror financing case since the 9/11 attacks.”

All five defendants are “Palestinians” and/or American citizens as well. Elyashi was born in Gaza; Abu-Baker moved to the “Palestinian territories” as a child; both Abdhulqader and Odeh were born in the West Bank; El-Mezain was born in Gaza. One wonders why five Palestinians chose to set up shop in Dallas, Texas?

Continue reading on Chesler Chronicles >>

Thanksgiving Tribute (Updates All Week)

Following is a collection of great thanksgiving posts, which will be updated all week. (Newer additions at the bottom):

• David Barton: Celebrating Thanksgiving in America
• Don’t Quit U. (Yorktown University): Podcast November 24th – The Meaning of Thanksgiving
• Newt Gingrich: What Every Child Should Know About Thanksgiving
• Rush Limbaugh: The Real Story of Thanksgiving (Transcript and Podcast)
• Michelle Malkin: Giving thanks for self-reliant Americans
• Robert Spencer: Be Thankful that You are Free
• Maggie Thornton: Slaughtering the Eagle: Change we Wanted???
• The New Conservative: The War on Thanksgiving!?!
• Tom McLaoughlin: Thanks to Whom?

 

(If you have a link you think should be included in this list, please post it in the comments section, and we’ll do our best to get them all linked in the post.)

 

The Case of the Missing Honor Killing

Psychologically, we tend to believe that what we see with our own eyes, especially if it is “acted out” for us, is the “truth.” Our brains are wired so that visual images assume a permanent reality-even if that reality is a computer-generated or photo-shopped Big Lie. Mohammed al-Dura did not die in his fathers’ arms even though that carefully staged image was seen round the world. Israel did not massacre anyone in Jenin even though that Big Lie has also taken on a life of its own.

I’m glad that America’s Most Wanted chose to dramatize the honor killing of Sarah and Amina Said in Dallas on Jan 1, 2008 by their father Yaser Abdul Said, who has been missing ever since. I hope the program helps aid in his capture. I applaud on-camera narrator John Walsh, who has turned his own grief at the loss of his child into something positive for so many others.

However, the dramatization was oddly, perhaps even purposefully misleading…Continue reading on FrontPagMag.com >>

Where Is The Change?

Liberals had high hopes for Barack Obama and his mantra of “change,” but many are confused by his, so far, familiar cabinet picks.

Oops! Bush Wasn’t Snubbed at the G20 After All

“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” -Mark Twain

Ignorance Is A Sign At Time

Again we have an illustration of how ignorance is king.

At the left leaning Time Magazine site [partners of CNN] is a blog slamming article where the final paragraph tells the whole story. It ends with,

“But many readers may be reaching the point with blogs and websites that I reached long ago with the Sunday New York Times Magazine–actively hoping there isn’t anything interesting in there because then I’ll have to take the time to read it.”

Two questions jump out to me from that. Shouldn’t your article have been titled, “How Many Magazines Does The World Need”, and will/do you really take the time read it, Michael Kinsley?

Hat-Tip, HotAir

Axelrod on FNS.

I happened to be listening to Fox News Sunday on the way to the store, and it struck me that David Axelrod was so open that they had basically admited that the Nut Roots weren’t setting the President-Elect’s agenda.

WALLACE:Mr. Axelrod, a lot of voices in the left wing of your party are saying this is not the kind of change that they thought they were going to get.

AXELROD: Well, let me make something clear, Chris. There’s one person who’s going to set policy in this administration, and that’s the president of the United States. That’s true on the economy. It’s true in foreign policy.

SHOCKING!!! The far Left Nut Roots got him elected, and like Rev Wright, Bill Ayers, and others, they are getting tossed into the “used” bin. Congrats, Chuckleheads!

Papa was a Muslim bum, and Mama was a Marxist geek.

Barry is stoned soul brother number one! Dig, the Choom Gang were so-called cos they wuz Cheech and Chong stoners too, man! And with many of the same mad laughs as Obama’s current Head Gang. Hey, all them affluent “good times” wacked out, diggin’ a nice J, plannin’ on how they’re gonna give it to The Man. And they’re back!

“I know…let’s get Barry elected as Prezeedent?!” “Right on!” “Power to da peeple!” “Pass that joint, brother!” “Wow! Barry’s on the floor again!”

“It’s the most beautiful sound in the world”. Barack Obama on the Krazy Koran, which BO can apparently recite from memory and in perfect Arabic. It’s certainly given a distinctive edge to his vocal tone, eh? So it’s been a real win-win…

“It was the third of September
That day I’ll always remember, yes I will
Cause that was the day, that my daddy died
I never got a chance to see him
Never heard nothin’ but bad things about him

Momma I’m depending on you, to tell me the truth
Momma just hung her head and said, son

Papa was a rolling stone, [my son]
Where ever he laid his hat was his home
and when he died, all he left us was alone”.
Papa Was A Rollin Stone.

Obama is the only President I’m aware of that refuses point blank to present his birth certificate, school records, health records or Hell, ANY records of really anything. And the MSM and most everyone agrees that’s like, totally cool and right on!

Obama had a fake birth extract put up on his own site and then it was taken down rather quickly when shown to be a fake via YouTube. Apparently this was not a story worthy of the MSM to present. Gosh, lucky Obama has nothing to hide! Nope, the MSM et al, has done and continues to do that for him.

Now dig. Whoever Barry Obama’s real Poppa was, he was a rolling stone sho’ nuff.

BO’s odd and sometime teenage mentor, who apparently tutored Barry rather intensely in advanced Marxist techniques and paper folding, and over an extended period of time, was one Frank Marshall Davis, Marxist geek and alleged paedophile pervert. Daily Telegraph…Continue reading on Colonel Robert Neville >>