American News Commentary

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IN THIS ISSUE WE WILL TOUCH
ON TWO MAJOR CURRENT ISSUES,
AND LEAVE ANY EXTENDED
DISCUSSION TO OTHERS

First, concerning the health care reform issue:
"The speech" -- the much heralded speech by the
president before a joint session of Congress, was
obviously a desperation effort to regain the lost
initiative in the attempt to "reform" (whatever that
may mean) the nation's health insurance practices.
After listening to "the speech," on Wednesday
night and the seemingly endless re-runs on the
following days, here is a brief evaluation which
occurred to us.

If you are at all interested in the field of classic
cinema, high on your list of favorites must be the
1949 British production of Graham Greene's
novel, "The Third Man." The memorable quotes
from that film are many -- perhaps more than
from any other single film. The one which is so
applicable in this present instance is from the
film's leading character, Harry Lime : "In Italy,
for 30 years under the Borgias, they had
warfare,murder and bloodshed, but they
produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci,
and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they
have brotherly love. They had 500 years of
democracy and peace, and what did that
produce? - The cuckoo clock!"

The application is clear. After all the build-up
and anticipation, in the most prestigious setting
possible, and with the greatest possible media
coverage, the president's speech produced
absolutely nothing new and accomplished
absolutely nothing even remotely resembling
an adequate explanation or clarification of an
issue which the majority of the American people
have indicated they simply do not understand,
and do not want.

With "the speech," Obama took control (or so
he claims) of the action on Obamacare, and has
apparently made it his No. 1 project, traveling
across country to hold campaign-like rallies in
support of his proposal. Despite his claims to
the contrary, this is not a bi-partisan effort, but
even within the ruling Democrat party, opinions
and attitudes concerning Obamacare seem to
change, almost daily. This is not a subject we
are going to spend time, space and thought on
for the immediate future. The issue will wend
its way through Congress, and in due time it
will once again be a "current event" upon
which we will comment.

For now, "the speech" is over. Commentator
Monica Crowley summed-up the event most
succinctly: "The problem the president faces
is that he lacks credibility. No one believes
what he is saying." Congressman Joe Wilson
of South Carolina expressed the same
conclusion even more succinctly, but in an
inappropriate place and an inappropriate manner;
he shouted out "You lie" during the speech. The
Media Research Center described the speech as
a "litany of lies," and used the phrase "serial
dishonesty" to describe the entire Obamacare
campaign.

The Obama controlled media was -- as expected
-- fluent in its praise, as from MSNBC's Keith
Olberman: "a touch of greatness;" ABC's
George Stephanopoulos: "a pretty remarkable
speech;" NBC's Chuck Todd: "re-branding
the President himself as a centrist and a
pragmatist;" and CNN's David Gergen: "a very
well-crafted speech ... tonight we saw the
Obama we elected."

Now Washington's power politics will go to
work, taking over the supposedly democratic
process of reaching the best decision on
legislation which will affect, for better or worse,
the American people.

Should you, as a Christian American, sit back,
do nothing, and allow the wielders of power in
Washington to make decisions on legislation
which directly affect how you live and even
whether you live or die? You have every right
to express yourself -- it is so simple to phone
the US Capital switchboard at: (202) 224-3121,
and ask to speak to your Senator or to your
Representative. Or you can do nothing and let
them have their way.

The other major issue which we will simply
mention, and then leave all of the discussion
concerning it to someone else, is concerning
the lack of information about the background
and prior experience of Barack Obama.

Intensive investigation efforts have been made,
and still continue -- but in dismissing this issue
from our area of comment, we reproduce here
brief excerpts from a summary from a Western
Journalism Investigative Report:

"The fact is we know less about President
Obama than perhaps any other president in
American history and much of this is due to
actual efforts to hide his record... At every
opportunity Obama's high-priced lawyers
have built walls around various records ...
It is estimated that Obama's legal team has
now spent well over $1.4 million dollars
blocking access to documents every American
should have access to ...The president who
campaigned for a more 'open government'
and 'full disclosure' will not unseal his medical
records, his school records, his birth records
or his passport records. He will not release his
Harvard records, his Columbia College records,
or his Occidental College records ... All his
legislative records from the Illinois State Senate
are missing ... In addition, no one can find his
school records for the elite college prep school,
Punahou School, he attended in Hawaii."

The report restates facts already before us. We
do know very little about the man who is the
President of the United States. By family heritage,
we know him to be half-American, half-Kenyan.
Although he is called "black," he is as much
white as black, being by birth half of both of
those ethnic classifications. From a religious
standpoint we know he was raised as a Muslim
in the Islamic faith, and as an adult for some
20 years he sat under the teaching of a minister
in Chicago -- Rev. Jeremiah Wright -- who is
best known for telling his congregation not to
say "God bless America," but rather "God
d--- America." Otherwise, as the Western
Journalism report indicates, we are restricted
to anecdotal information, since the facts have
been withheld.

It is not our purpose or intent to initiate another
request for full disclosure of the man's
background, his life and achievements. Others
have tried to accomplish this through a variety
of legitimate approaches, and have been rebuffed
on every attempt. As American citizens we have
the right to ask why he is doing this, and ask
what it is about his past that he is so determined
to keep secret and hidden from the American
public.

But this is another issue concerning which we
will not speculate or discuss but will leave it for
others to seek the explanation. We simply ask:
"Why?"

If you thought we offered false information
about the Muslim take-over of Western Europe,
please note this report from Paul Williams in the
email publication, "The Last Crusade." "Libyan
President Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi has
mounted a multi-billion campaign to transform
England and Wales into Islamic nations. Eleven
Islamic missionaries will launch the campaign
this week in Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham,
Birmingham, Leicester, Glasgow, Cardiff and
Swansea. The effort is being sponsored by the
World Islamic Call Society (WICS), an
organization that was established by the
Libyan leader. In a recent speech, Colonel
Gaddafi said that the aim of WICS is to
convert the whole of Europe to Islam. 'This
religion shall overcome all other religions
before it. Their time has gone. It is his
promise, Allah shall prevail this religion over
the rest.' Gaddafi believes that the effort will
succeed since WICS has been the recipient of
billions in revenue from Libyan oil. 'There are
tens of millions of Muslims in the European
continent and the number is on the increase,'
he said. 'This is the clear indication that the
European continent will be converted to Islam.'”

Until a similar offensive is launched in America
-- and we have little doubt that it will be -- our
prayers must be in support of our fellow
Christians in Great Britain.

Barack Obama - a spiritual leader? It has
been broadly announced, and is being actively
promoted in Islamic mosques across the country,
that on September 25 there will be a day-long
Muslim prayer rally on the grounds of the US
capitol. Hassen Abdellah, president of the
Dar-ul-Islam mosque in Elizabeth, NJ, the
organizer of the event, said that the idea
developed from President Obama’s speech to
Muslims in Cairo in June -- a speech which was
analyzed at the time as meriting Congressman
Joe Wilson's outcry during the president's
recent speech on healthcare reform. It has been
reported that a permit from the Capitol Hill police,
granted July 28, allows Muslims to use the area
by the West Front of the Capitol building from
4 a.m. to 7 p.m. on September 25. The
organizers expect 50,000 attendees from mosques
across America.

President Obama celebrated the Islamic holy
month of Ramadan with a dinner at the White
House on September 1, observing itfar, the meal
which breaks the holiday's daily fast. He praised
American Muslims for enriching the nation’s
culture, saying, “The contribution of Muslims
to the United States are too long to catalog
because Muslims are so interwoven into the
fabric of our communities and our country."
No indication of any plans for the president to
participate in the September 25 rally have yet
been announced.

And to that report might be added this
analysis by Martel Sobieskey: "One thing is
certain, Islam is not a religion by anything
Americans believe one to be — not even close.
In fact, Islam is the antithesis of what we deem
to be religious. ... Above all, Islam is a
totalitarian political machine of bloodthirsty
conquest which zealously advocates the
downfall of the US government... Mohammed
and the Koran bellicosely command 'your
kingdom is my kingdom, surrender or die!'
Let's be to the point. It is sheer madness,
exceedingly irresponsible, criminally negligent,
and strategically suicidal to continue granting
religion status to an absolutely aggressive and
implacable ideology that demands the
destruction of our government and all other
religions."

A continuing urgent request for prayer: In
each issue we have urged our fellow Christians
in America -- and elsewhere -- to pray for our
nation in these difficult days, and to ask God
to give to our president wisdom in dealing with
the problems confronting him. And beyond our
shores we urge prayer support for our fellow
Christians in so many areas of the world who
are facing persecution, and are even experiencing
execution, from Muslims and other enemies of
our faith, because of their faith in our God and
Savior Jesus Christ. That is our responsibility,
and privilege, as Christian believers.

The Founding Fathers understood America's
dependence on God. "And can the liberties
of a nation be thought secure when we have
removed their only firm basis, a conviction in
the minds of the people that these liberties are
the gift of God? That they are not to be violated
but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my
country when I reflect that God is just: that
his justice cannot sleep for ever."
-- Thomas Jefferson, 1781


Some Random Afterthoughts . . .


Hopefully, you'll forgive us . . . but here are
a few more "one liners" ...

"There is an age-old joke that suggests politics
is defined as being the combination of two other
words: poly, meaning "many," and "ticks,"
meaning blood-sucking pests." (Lady Liberty)

"I still have a concern that he (BHO) is such a
skilled dispenser of falsehoods that he will
always find the words to pull yet another
deceitful rabbit out of his duplicitous hat."
(Robert Ringer)

"He described a fantasy land where everyone
gets more benefits, nobody loses anything and
the deficit magically doesn't increase."
(Gary Bauer)

"You lie." (Congressman Joe Wilson)

"There remain some significant details to iron
out.” (President Obama)

"E pluribus unum -- out of many, one -- was
the national motto the men of '76 settled upon.
One sees the pluribus. But where is the unum?
One sees the diversity. But where is the unity?"
(Pat Buchanan)

Every now and then something happens that
demonstrates the validity of old, familiar sayings
-- some of which almost merit being called adages.
Like the father of Russian communism, Vladimir
Lenin's "A lie told often enough becomes truth."
Which he probably borrowed a few years earlier
from William James, the father of modern
psychology, "There's nothing so absurd that
if you repeat it often enough, people will believe
it." In this current news story is the essence of
the point we are making:

(From Bloomberg News) "Foreclosure filings
in the U.S. exceeded 300,000 for the sixth
straight month as job losses that boosted the
unemployment rate to a 26-year high left many
homeowners unable to keep up with their
mortgage payments. A total of 358,471
properties received a default or auction notice
or were seized last month, according to data
provider RealtyTrac Inc. That’s up 18 percent
from a year earlier, the Irvine, California-
based company said in a statement."

Acting on news of that nature, MSNBC
commented, "Even the Treasury Department
admits there are millions more home
foreclosures on the way. Yet, they keep talking
about the recovery we are having - hoping
that repeating it will convince everyone it is true."

Lenin and James were right. Say it often enough
and people will believe it. It's nice to know our
administration is in step with the teachings of
history.

Sad but true, when you give it some thought:
"One of the first things Stalin, Hitler, Mao, and
other totalitarians did was rewrite the histories
of their nations, remaking the past to bolster
their control of the present. The American Left
has done the same thing in our country: Most
American history books -- both for students
and adults -- are riddled with PC (Politically
Correct) nonsense that makes the Founding
Fathers over into racist slaveholders, the
settlers of the West into genocidal land-stealers,
and the welfare state into America's ultimate
triumph." -- Thomas S. Winter, Editor in Chief,
Human Events

Our Founding Fathers understood that every
citizen is important: "Government is instituted
for the common good; for the protection, safety,
prosperity, and happiness of the people; and
not for profit, honor, or private interest of any
one man, family, or class of men; therefore, the
people alone have an incontestable, unalienable,
and indefeasible right to institute government;
and to reform, alter, or totally change the same,
when their protection, safety, prosperity, and
happiness require it." -- John Adams, 1776
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