Wednesday
727 DAYS BEFORE THE NOV. 6, 2012
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THIS WEEK'S EDITORIAL COMMENT: On Jan. 6, we announced a
300 day countdown to the Nov. 2 election, and urged our readers to adopt
a two-step program called, simply enough: "Pray and Vote." Ours was not
the only "countdown" program -- Chuck Colson and the "Manhattan
Declaration," and Michael Youssef and the "Leading the Way" program,
among others, united thousands to pray for America in preparation for the
upcoming Election Day. And whether we were the first to use the slogan,
"Pray and Vote," is not important -- many other Christian organizations
used the same words. God honored our prayers, and gave us an important,
even historical, victory. Robert Tracinski, of "The Intellectual Activist"
cited Winston Churchill's words after the Battle of El-Alamein, "This is
not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps,
the end of the beginning." And Tracinski added, "The enemies of liberty
have been advancing relentlessly for two years, and they have just been
pushed back and brought to a standstill. Now is when the real battle
begins." And that is where we find ourselves today. As we begin a new
countdown of prayer toward the next election, let us first thank God for
giving us this initial victory even as we look to Him for the next one.
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THERE ARE 727 DAYS BEFORE THE NOV. 6, 2012
ELECTION DAY; THAT MEANS 727 DAYS TO PRAY
BEFORE THE ONE DAY TO VOTE TO CHANGE AMERICA
We're still in the "morning after" aspect of last week's election. In fact,
all of the votes aren't counted yet, and a few of the individual elections
have not been decided. In general, we know that the Republican party
(whatever that may mean today) succeeded in overthrowing some of the
Democrat party's control of this nation, and did so to a degree not seen
for over 60 years.
So to begin this week's commentary we should take another look at
what the political situation is today. And this won't be an overly complex
or lengthy examination of where we stand. In doing so, we will include a
few quotes such as we have usually grouped under the heading, "What
Others Are Saying." This fact has to be faced: despite some decisive
victories in elections across the nation -- in the House, the Senate and
among the Governors -- as Conservatives we still have an uphill fight.
Majority Leader Harry Reid and the remaining Democrat Liberals still
control the Senate, and President Obama still occupies the White House.
So our victories must not be considered as a reason for complacency.
Gary Kreep, of the United States Justice Foundation, expressed it well:
"What a tremendous victory for Constitutional conservatives in
yesterday's elections! But, one victory does not mean that we've won
the war. As long as Barack Hussein Obama is in Washington, the war
continues."
David Stokes, pastor, radio talk show host and columnist wrote: "Last
Tuesday, the distant thunder, so long on America’s political horizon,
erupted in a local and national roar. A part of the nation’s body
politic often referred to as a silent majority, broke its silence. Beyond
mere red state/blue state dynamics, what we’ve witnessed is the
coming of age of a force that has stirred only on occasion in the past."
And Robert Tracinski, whom we quoted in our introduction, asked this
question: "So what should Republicans do?" And he offered this reply:
"There is one proposal that stands out above the others. It is brutally
simple, yet it encapsulates the essential political, economic and
ideological issues at stake. Balance the damn budget."
Any national election reflects on the party - and the man - in charge.
Mort Zuckerman, writing in US News and World Report, makes the point
that America's love affair with Obama is over. He finds that the results
of the election were a sharp rebuke to the president, and according to
Zuckerman, "The unusually revealing exit polls spell it all out -- how
he re-energized the Republican Party, lost the independent center and
failed to overcome the widespread sense that the country is headed in
the wrong direction." Polls seem never to end, and exit polls conducted
by Edison Research showed that the economy was the dominant issue at
62%, while healthcare rated only 18%. Zuckerman concludes that
"Obama didn't seem to have understood the problems of the average
American." These are telling phrases he used to portray Obama ... "a
young man in a grown-up's game" ... "impressive but not presidential"
... "a politician but not a leader" ... "managing American policy at
home and American power abroad with disturbing amateurishness" ...
"lacking real experience." And finally: "Yes, we can, he once said,
but now America asks, Can he?"
In the aftermath of last week's disasters at the polls, the Democrats are
already "at each other's throats," arguing over their nationwide losses,
but if there is any widely expressed agreement among the various
members of the Party, it is that President Obama bears a large share of
the responsibility for their downfall. Yet in every interview with him
since the election, one impression emerges: "he just doesn't get it." He
keeps insisting that he tried to do too much, too fast, and if there were
any failure on his part it was that he didn't adequately explain his agenda
to the American people. But Gary Bauer has come up with this analysis
of just Obama's first year in office: he held 42 news conferences, twice
as many as George Bush held in his first year; he led 21 town hall
meetings; he visited 58 cities in 30 states; he delivered 52 speeches on
Obamacare, and he gave 158 interviews, more than any of his recent
predecessors in their first year. Somehow his excuse of not explaining
his agenda doesn't stand in the face of the facts.
Have you ever given any thought to this perplexing fact: that when
the leader of small cult-like Pentecostal church in Florida threatened to
burn a copy of the Quran on the anniversary of 9/11, when Muslims
attacked America and killed thousands of innocent people, the whole
world rose up to object. From President Obama to the Pope to mobs of
Muslims rioting in the streets, burning American flags and threatening
death to America, every type of influence was applied to that man to
prevent him from desecrating the holy book of the Islamic religion.
But daily all over the world Christian churches are attacked, damaged
and burned, and Bibles burned and destroyed, with Christian believers
beaten, tortured, raped and beheaded by Muslims in the name of their
god, Allah -- but seldom, if ever, is there even a mild a word of official
protest and never does any element of the U.S. government register any
objection. Isn't there something a bit off balance here? The Muslims are
actually viciously attacking the Christian faith, but that one Florida pastor
only talked about burning a copy of the Quran -- he never actually did so.
President Obama's expressed viewpoint on this subject during his
present overseas trip has not improved the ongoing situation. In India, a
nation on the verge of war with Pakistan, where 96% of the population
is Muslim, he spoke of Islam as a great religion; yet he stayed in a hotel
which just two years ago (November, 2008) was the site of a Muslim
attack which killed some 160 people. In Indonesia, the largest Muslim
nation in the world, he spoke of his efforts to improve relationships
between Muslims and the West, and said that although terrorism issues
often dominate relations with Muslims, that relationship must expand
beyond security issues. "What we're trying to do is to make sure that
we are building bridges, and expanding our interactions with Muslim
countries," he said in a news conference with Indonesian President
Yudhoyono. And yet it is in Indonesia where some of the most violent --
and continuing -- attacks on Christians, churches and individuals, have
occurred. And in that same news conference, he did not miss the
opportunity to voice his usual criticism of Israel for plans to build
apartments in disputed East Jerusalem.
Now, in this week's news, all Christians in the Middle East have been
labeled as "legitimate targets. That warning from Al Qaeda in Iraq was
issued following the massacre of 58 Christian worshippers in the
Catholic Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad. That most recent
attack by Islamists was the most deadly single one since Iraqi Christians
came under such intense persecution in recent years. The Islamic State
of Iraq, in claiming responsibility for the Catholic massacre, announced
on their websites: "We will open upon them (Christians) the doors of
destruction and rivers of blood." Yet these major terrorist attacks on
Christians in Muslim-dominated countries around the world meet with
no expressions of outrage or protest, nor have there ever been any threats
of revenge from the nations of the West where Christianity is the more
dominant religion.
Augmenting that earlier threat of Muslim attacks on Christians, this past
week an American-born Islamic cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, now located
in Yemen, has issued a video in which he calls for the killing of
Americans, saying that Islamists need no special permission for such
killings, since Christians are from the "party of devils." Awlaki has
been named by the U.S. as a "specially designated global terrorist," and
has been linked to the failed bombing attempts in America, and to the
Army base murders by a Muslim U.S. Army officer in Fort Hood, TX.
Kal El, Co-editor of "Infidels are Cool," wrote this week, "Note the
irony...It’s always we infidels who have to be watched for cases of
islamophobia (a made-up word by islamists, to try and denigrate those
who have a fully justified fear of islam)... It’s never muslims who are
the bad guys, despite over 15,000 cases of muslims committing acts of
violence, and that is just in the days since 9/11." It is, indeed, a bit
ironic: we may agree that all Muslims are not terrorists, but we are then
faced with the enigma, that, to date, all terrorists have been Muslims.
And here are a few random "Afterthoughts" . . .
In the light of current events, this may be a moot point, since he may
decide to be a one term president, and she keeps insisting that she is not
interested in either the 2012 or 2016 elections -- but a Newsmax/Survey
USA poll conducted after the recent mid-term elections, disclosed that
Hillary Clinton would defeat Barack Obama by a 20 percentage point
margin, 60% for Clinton and 40% for Obama.
Reflecting on our above comments on Islam, there is this bit of news:
In last week's election, an amendment to the Oklahoma State Constitution
was approved by a majority of 70% of Oklahoma voters. The amendment
banned the use of Islamic Shariah law in deciding cases brought before
Oklahoma courts. At once, the Council on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR) filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the amendment.
For rules or "laws" held by adherents to any particular religion to be the
legal standard for courts in an American state would seem to be an absurd
position -- and imposing the legal views of a particular religion would
seem to be a violation of the prevailing theory of "separation of church
and state." Yet a federal judge has issued a restraining order to delay the
formal certification of the vote until a hearing can be held on Nov. 22.
One other factor makes the issue almost ridiculous -- Muslims in the
State of Oklahoma number some 15,000 out of the state's population of
3.7 million, or 4/10 of 1%. (Note Thomas Jefferson's comment below.)
Many of us felt Keith Olberman's suspension was long overdue . . .
and entirely too brief when it finally happened. But it is good to know
that MSNBC has some standards of ethics, and they are enforced, even
if by a very mild slap on the wrist. Concerning his brief suspension, Ann
Coulter naturally had a great "one liner" comment: "I can't believe they'd
treat a graduate of Cornell's agricultural college this way." And Erick
Ericksn commented a bit more at length: "In a week when the GOP took
back the House and made historic gains nationwide, it is almost more
excitement than any conservative can bear to witness. Thanks Keith!
You made our already awesome week even more awesome."
This is no time to forget or ignore our Founding Fathers' thoughts.
Although speaking more than 200 years ago, they addressed issues we
are facing today, and did so in what was the pure American way.
"The fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of
the consent of the people. The streams of national power ought to
flow from that pure, original fountain of all legitimate authority."
-- Alexander Hamilton, 1787
"Born in other countries, yet believing you could be happy in this,
our laws acknowledge, as they should do, your right to join us in
society, conforming, as I doubt not you will do, to our established
rules. That these rules shall be as equal as prudential considerations
will admit, will certainly be the aim of our legislatures, general and
particular." -- Thomas Jefferson, 1801
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending
with human passions unbridled by morality and religion ... Our
constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is
wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
-- John Adams, 1798
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