I don't think they make 'em much more conservative than Mr. Horowitz. I've never agreed with anything he's had to say, and I disagree with a few statements in this piece, but I totally agree with its premise.
December 08, 2008, 4:00 a.m.
Obama Derangement Syndrome Shut up about the birth certificate.
By David Horowitz
The continuing efforts of a fringe group of conservatives to deny Obama his victory and to lay the basis for the claim that he is not a legitimate president is embarrassing and destructive. The fact that these efforts are being led by Alan Keyes, a demagogue who lost a Senate election to the then-unknown Obama by 42 points, should be a warning in itself.
This tempest over whether Obama, the child of an American citizen, wasborn on American soil is tantamount to the Democrats’’ seditious claim that Bush ""stole"" the election in Florida and hence was not the legitimate president. This delusion helped to create the Democrats’’ Bush derangement syndrome and encouraged Democratic leaders to lie about the origins of the Iraq war, and regard it as illegitimate as Bush himself. It became ""Bush’’s War"" rather than an American War —— with destructive consequences for our troops and our cause.
The birth-certificate zealots are essentially arguing that 64 million voters should be disenfranchised because of a contested technicality as to whether Obama was born on U.S. soil. (McCain narrowly escaped the problem by being born in the Panama Canal zone, which is no longer American.)
What difference does it make to the future of this country whether Obama was born on U.S. soil? Advocates of this destructive campaign will argue that the constitutional principle regarding the qualifications for president trumps all others. But how viable will our Constitution be if five Supreme Court justices should decide to void 64 million ballots?
Conservatives are supposed to respect the organic nature of human societies. Ours has been riven by profound disagreements that have been deepening over many years. We are divided not only about political facts and social values, but also about what the Constitution itself means. The crusaders on this issue choose to ignore these problems and are proposing to deny the will of 64 million voters by appealing to five Supreme Court Justices (since no one is delusional enough to think that the four liberal justices are going to take the presidency away from Obama). What kind of conservatism is this?
It is not conservatism; it is sore loserism and quite radical in its intent. Respect for election results is one of the most durable bulwarks of our unity as a nation. Conservatives need to accept the fact that we lost the election, and get over it; and get on with the important business of reviving our country’’s economy and defending its citizens, and —— by the way —— its Constitution.
—— David Horowitz is the author of Party of Defeat.
FOR the second time in four years, the United States has been changed utterly by a previously unthinkable event. And just as was the case after 9/11, how this nation responds to the deluge that is sweeping New Orleans away will help define the nature of its character for decades.
Just as Rudy Giuliani said that the death toll from 9/11 would be more than any of us can bear, the same is already true of Katrina. Who can begin to take in the notion that in the United States in the 21st century, a storm could kill in staggering numbers?
At the beginning of the 20th century, something like 8,000 people perished when Galveston, Texas — unprotected from storm swells at the time — was hit by a hurricane. But when Hurricane Andrew leveled the entire town of Homestead, Fla., 13 years ago and became the most financially deadly storm in American history, it took only 15 lives.
Now we're talking about several hundred times that number in the literal swamping of one of the world's great cities.
There can be no doubt that the immediate response will be one of breathtaking generosity — financial, spiritual and personal. That's what we saw in the wake of 9/11, it's what happened after the tsunami in December, and it's what we will begin to see as the next few days pass.
But what we don't yet know is this: Are we going to try to look forward, to figure out how to save New Orleans and prevent another calamity of this sort there and elsewhere? Or are we going to begin finger-pointing, searching for villains among the debris?
Some of that villain-hunting has already begun, in the typically vulgar, unwisely speedy efforts made by overly assured ideologues certain that they can connect a cataclysm to a pet issue — whether it be the American failure to pass the Kyoto global warming treaty or making the claim that spending on the war in Iraq squeezed out the possibility of shoring up the New Orleans levees.
Here we see the stirrings of a spiritual divisiveness taking hold — in the form of a know-nothing populism that sweeps everything in its wake and brings everything into the courtroom.
What happened here was a natural disaster. But there will be the temptation to turn it into a human conspiracy of greed and selfishness on the part of oil companies, concrete companies, politicians, insurers, re-insurers, goonish cops and the like.
If the recriminations become the story of the next months, everybody will simply go to the usual battle stations. The tort reformers will take on the trial lawyers. The global-warming crowd will face off against American business. The politicians will scream at each other, scoff at each other, and try to find some cheap advantage that will turn the tide against one party or the other.
The good that will be done —person by person, donation by donation, community by community — will be in danger of getting swamped by the bitterness and divisiveness that characterizes contemporary elite politics. Rather than finding common ground, there will be ugly partisanship and a cold standoff.
The horror of a flood is literally, very nearly the oldest story in the Book. There have always been times that the water will rise higher than the walls men can build to contain it. The New Orleans system survived the battering of nature for more than 200 years — but it met its match and was overwhelmed by it.
The best we can do is comfort the afflicted, mourn the lost, and try to rebuild. The worst we can do is turn on each other.
So what shall it be? E-mail:
podhoretz@nypost.com
Not even interested in the architects of the 9/11 disaster. sm
They either have more lucrative interests in Iraq or are just bent on ridding it of Saddam or all of the above (too much history there), and we all know good and well there were no jihadist extremist there before America invaded that country, so this so-called War on Terror in Iraq was INVENTED.
What do you mean "what Obama disaster"
Haven't you been keeping up with the news. He doesn't need to take office for all the disasters that are heading our way. Unfortunately this is not going to be taken care of before he gets in the office and if you think things are bad now, just wait.
US MTSO's better start re-thinking their pay scales, because hopefully their 'sacred' cash-cow (India) is about to run out o' milk.
Palin's pending pastor disaster. As requested,
Thanks to Fox's Rev Wright feeding frenzy/orgy, the media now spotlights SP's religious upbringing. Here are some "legitimate" sources of info on the newest area of inquiry into SP's views, mentors, influences, etc., as we become more acquainted with JM's VP pick. A nutshell description might be politics based on the concept of manifest destiny. Most of these sources have often been cited by right-singers on this site. Keep in mind, these are only the early returns on this inquiry. Stay tuned.
http://www.wasillaag.net/
Due to the avalanche of inquiries, the Wasilla Assembly of God Q&A link has crashed and burned for the time being. Their Official Statement on Sarah Palin is posted here.
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/sarah-palins-je.html
Statement from Senior Pastor Ed Kalnins on war, including "I believe that Jesus himself operated from that position of war mode."
http://www.nypost.com/seven/09032008/news/nationalnews/church_prayer_for_iraq_war_127206.htm
"Church Prayer for Iraq War." US soldiers battling terrorists in Iraq are "striving to do what's right" and are part of "a task . . . from God," Sarah Palin told worshippers at a conservative Pentecostal church earlier this year.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13098.html
"Jewish voters may be wary of Palin." After growing up in Wasilla Assembly of God, she switched to Wasilla Bible Church. This article deals with their views of Jews and Jews views of them. Visitors to the pulpit: David Brickner, of Jews for Jesus, who according to the Anti-Defamation League is “targeting Jews for conversion with subterfuge and deception,” asserts in essence that it's okay to bulldoze Palestinians. He goes on to say, "…terrorist attacks on Israelis as God's "judgment of unbelief" of Jews who haven't embraced Christianity."
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/election/2008/09/02/palin-said-war-in-iraq-gas-pipeline-are-gods-will/
"Palin said war in Iraq, gas pipeline are God’s will."
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/02/by_juliet_eilperin_when_alaska.html
Palin Asks for Prayers That War Be "Task That Is From God"
http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/09/palins_past_pastor_bushfoes_he.html Tribunes Washington Bureau
"Palin's Past Pastor: Bush foes Hell-bound"
Former FEMA Director Michael Brown, heavily criticized for his agency's slow response to Hurricane Katrina, is starting a disaster preparedness consulting firm to help clients avoid the sort of errors that cost him his job.
If I can help people focus on preparedness, how to be better prepared in their homes and better prepared in their businesses — because that goes straight to the bottom line — then I hope I can help the country in some way, Brown told the Rocky Mountain News for its Thursday editions.
Brown said officials need to take inventory of what's going on in a disaster to be able to answer questions to avoid appearing unaware of how serious a situation is.
In the aftermath of the hurricane, critics complained about Brown's lack of formal emergency management experience and e-mails that later surfaced showed him as out of touch with the extent of the devastation.
The lawyer admits that while he was head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency mistakes were made in the response to Katrina. He also said he had been planning to quit before the hurricane hit.
Hurricane Katrina showed how bad disasters can be, and there's an incredible need for individuals and businesses to understand how important preparedness is, he said.
Brown said companies already have expressed interested in his consulting business, Michael D. Brown LLC. He plans to run it from the Boulder area, where he lived before joining the Bush administration in 2001.
I'm doing a lot of good work with some great clients, Brown said. My wife, children and my grandchild still love me. My parents are still proud of me.
I'd say you need to wake up and face the fact that America is on its back and one more castrophe to cause the fall of a nation. Rome fell in 400 years.
Iraq, Afghanistan, subprime mess, derivatives, tax cuts to rich and deficit spending to trillion all happened over two months ago by the man named George Bush.
Is there a problem with her perception of reality?
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