The Bomb

A hugely more destructive version of whatever bomb the Chicago-to-Amsterdam dry-run bombers had in mind, but the intent is pretty much the same:

Read this report on the Chicago O'Hare terror scare at Backyard Conservative.
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No Charges Against USS Cole Bombing Mastermind--Why?

Fireman Gary Graham Swenchonis, Jr.

Obama and his Justice Department have again "withdrawn" charges against the mastermind of the suicide bomb attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors and injured 39 others. Dropping the charges against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who headed al-Qaeda's operations in the Persian Gulf seems incomprehensible until Obama's action is explained by someone close to the situation, in this case, the father and mother of one of the slain sailors, Gary Graham Swenchonis, Jr.

The good folks at Gathering of Eagles: NY, have posted a letter from Gary and Deborah Swenchonis, in which they relate why they think the trial of al-Nashiri, who was the architect of the murder of their son and 16 others on the Cole, has been stopped for the third time.

The first time, Mr. and Mrs. Swenchonis recall, al-Nashiri was to face a military tribunal. At the last moment, however, Obama dropped the charges with "the promise that al-Nashiri would be charged and tried in a Federal Court."

As Mr. Swenchonis explained:

It appeared that Obama thought that the Military Tribunal were too draconian, and that the terrorists would not get a fair trial. We thought that was extremely odd, considering that we had attended the trial of the Al-Qaeda Propagandist just two months before at Gitmo. We saw how professional all the military personnel conducted themselves at all times. In my previous profession I was in civilian court many times. From what I saw of the Military court it was much more professional in all aspects than the civilian courts.

Months later, Mr. and Mrs. Swenchonis discovered that Obama had changed his mind again, and had decided that the al-Qaeda senior would not be tried in a civilian court.

Now it was back to the Military Tribunals, but with one major caveat. The Tribunals would be reformed! To better serve the needs of the terrorists. So after more months of waiting, Obama announced that the New and Improved Military Tribunals were ready. I thought that, well, even though the Tribunals are “terrorists friendly” at least we will get a trial after 9 long years! My wife and I hoped that the New Tribunals were not as terrorist friendly as they were in Yemen. Where all the Cole bombers were either pardoned, given reduced sentences, and/or allowed to escape and roam free. 

However, just last week, Obama "changed his mind again":

. . . And we knew it was coming. The reason is purely political now. No matter how he and his administration try to spin it. If the terrorists were tried in Obama’s new tribunals there is a very good chance that they would be given extremely light sentences, and or acquitted. And that would be very bad news for Obama and the democrats in the present political environment.

Obama and his Obamatons are right in assessing that America is not ready to have an acquitted Cole bomber "worshipping" in a Ground Zero mosque. But they also obviously have calculated that America will permit this administration to replace swift justice with whatever Obama considers expedient to his political agenda.

So the 10th Anniversary of the attack on an American ship of war will soon be here, and gone. And Clinton’s words that he spoke at the ceremony less than a week after the attack on the USS Cole will ring hollow. He spoke how American would track down the terrorists who had committed the attack and bring them to justice. We did not believe him anyway, but it sure sounded tough.

And in the end, the only terrorists killed who were involved with the attack, were taken out on Bush’s watch. And the only one to stand trial was on Bush’s watch as well. So my wife and I owe President Bush a Thank-you. And we mean it too. I guess one president out of three who took some action ain’t to bad.

But President Obama should be ashamed of himself for the way he has played with the emotions of the victims families. I know we are ashamed of him.

I'm not waiting for Obama to feel shame. But I am waiting for the ordinary Democrats who voted for Obama to admit that they recognize the damage this man is doing and to use their energy to help sweep his administration from power.
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Related Post: No Trial for Architect of USS Cole Attack that Killed 17 and Injured 39

GZ Mosque Developer El-Gamal Assaults Barber, Breaks His Nose and Cheekbones

Otherwise, Sharif El-Gamal is just a "moderate" Muslim who's also a tax deadbeat. Just an average New Yorker who decided to convert to Islam after 9/11.

From the New York Daily News via Jihad Watch, comes this account of one of el-Gamal's eight "run-ins" with the law*:

His most recent arrest was for a Sept. 10, 2005, assault on a barber who sublet a Manhattan apartment from El-Gamal's brother, Sammy.

The brothers and another man went to the apartment that afternoon to retrieve back rent from Mark Vassiliev, criminal and civil court records show.

El-Gamal allegedly cursed at Vassiliev, called him the Arabic curse word "sharmouta" and punched him in the face, breaking his nose and cheekbones.

When he was arrested, El-Gamal denied he socked Vassiliev, but conceded, "[Vassiliev's] face could have run into my hand," court papers say.

"I am in real estate. I'm rich. Why would I do this? Why would I jeopardize my career? I'm not a thug," he told cops.

He was charged with misdemeanor assault and harassment. Charges were dropped in 2007 after Vassiliev sued.

El-Gamal settled out of court for $15,000 damages, but he wasn't claiming to be a rich guy anymore. In fact, "he was slow to pay and the matter ended up in mediation - where his lawyer, Marshall Isaacs, told Gray [Vassiliev's lawyer] there were money problems."

El-Gamal agreed to fork over $1,360 in interest and fees but paid up in installments . . . .

That was in 2008. Although El-Gamal claimed to be too poor to pay a few thousand dollars in damages for breaking up Mark Vassieliev's face, the very next summer, in 2009, he managed to come up with a "$39 million mortgage to buy a W. 27th St. commercial building."

That year he also bought a $5 million building whose roof and top two floors had been destroyed by a piece of the Boeing 767 that Mohamed Atta hijacked and then crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

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* El-Gamal's other "run-ins" with the law include disorderly conduct in 1990; DWI in 1992; attempted petit larceny in 1993; patronizing a prostitute in 1994; and more disorderly conduct in 1994, 1998, and 1999.
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Related post: GZ Mosque Developer Tax Deadbeat -- Owes $224K on Mosque Site

GZ Mosque Developer El-Gamal Is Tax Deadbeat - Owes $224K on Mosque Site

The New York Post has some of the goods on Sharif El-Gamal, who owes an entire year's back payments on his intended Ground Zero mosque site (via Weazel Zippers).

Interestingly, that means that Gamal is in violation of his lease with Con Ed for the building next door, which is also part of the proposed mega-mosque site.

The mosque developers are tax deadbeats.

Sharif El-Gamal, the leading organizer behind the mosque and community center near Ground Zero, owes $224,270.77 in back property tax on the site, city records show.

El-Gamal's company, 45 Park Place Partners, failed to pay its half-yearly bills in January and July, according to the city Finance Department.

The delinquency is a possible violation of El-Gamal's lease with Con Edison, which owns half of the proposed building site on Park Place. El-Gamal owns the other half but must pay taxes on the entire parcel.

The lease agreement, obtained by The Post, specifies that El-Gamal's company pay taxes on the property and submit receipts to Con Ed.

The utility said it would have to review any possible lease violations.

[snip]

El-Gamal's spokesperson insisted to The Post that the taxes had been paid . . . .

 Uh huh.
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This is My Father's World

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Watch the Restoring Honor Rally Online (UPDATED)

USTREAM here.

C-SPAN here.




UPDATE: The rally is over, but you can watch a video of it at The Right Scoop, here.

Scoop's also got some great photos of the event, here.







We are not alone:

From Smitty at The Other McCain, a Restoring Honor crowd pan just before Sarah Palin took the mike:

UPDATE

I like these pix by pedaling fast and trying to keep up:

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No Trial for Architect of USS Cole Attack that Killed 17 and Injured 39

The 17 sailors killed during the USS Cole attack.

Named after a U.S. Marine who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his "conspicuous gallantry" at the Battle of Iwo Jima, the destroyer USS Cole was moored to a refueling platform in the Port of Aden in Yemen when suicide bombers used an explosive-filled boat to blow a 35-foot hole in the destroyer's hull. On that day, October 12, 2000, seventeen sailors were killed and thirty-nine were injured.

The alleged coordinator of that attack, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who was captured in 2002 in the United Arab Emirates, has been awaiting trial at Guantanamo Bay.

But al-Nashiri is not going to trial, courtesy of Barack Hussein Obama and his Attorney General, Eric Holder.

Even though al-Nahiri was scheduled to be arraigned way back in February of 2009, the charges against him have been withdrawn.

Moreover, as reported in the Washington Post, "no charges are either pending or contemplated with respect to al-Nashiri in the near future." 

At first, I wondered if al-Nahiri's file at the Justice Department got mixed up with the file of that New Black Panther guy who was intimidating non-Obama voters at a Philadelphia polling place. Or maybe the Justice Department got an "unwitting" delivery of "no charges pending" stamps that they felt had to be put to use.

No. What happened was that 20 months ago, right after Obama's inauguration, Obama's Defense Secretary, Robert M. Gates, ordered the military to stop referring cases from Gitmo for trial.

That's okay by al-Nashiri and his lawyer. Al-Nashiri maintains that he was an unwitting dupe who purchased the suicide boat for "a fishing project."

I think that if you asked him, al-Nashiri would tell you that his "freedom of fishing" should not be interfered with just because he is a senior al-Qaeda operative with Osama bin Ladin's number in his rolodex.

No doubt a chorus of American Leftists would agree. They should be happy. Under Obama, says the Post, it is unlikely that American Leftists--or any other Americans, including terrorism survivors and the families of those murdered by terrorists--will see Gitmo detainees in military courts or 9/11 plotters in federal court.

Come to think of it, trials of terrorists are messy things that do not exactly smooth the way for projects like the planned 9/11 Victory Mosque at Ground Zero, which has been endorsed with rubber stamps from City Hall right up to the White House.

And the Mainstream Media can't figure out why 20% of Americans think Obama is a Muslim.

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America Says No to 9/11 Victory Mosque at Ground Zero; Daisy Whines

As an out of work Union Carpenter, I’d rather starve than earn a bloody check from this job.

So proclaimed this honorable American at Sunday's rally against the Ground Zero mosque. (Photo from Gathering of Eagles: NY.)  And 77% of mainstream American voters join him in his opposition to the mosque.

Meanwhile, Daisy Khan, who is holding down the pro-Shariah fort in the U.S. while her husband, Imam Rauf, is on his American taxpayer-funded "bridge-building" tour in the Middle East, was shocked, shocked! to find out that all of America isn't bowing-down-at-the-waist-grateful for what Americans are supposed to believe are her sublime efforts to foster "healing" in the U.S. with a stick-in-the-eye 9/11 Victory Mosque at Ground Zero (via Jihad Watch):

Asked if America was "Islamophobic," Khan responded that it's like "metastasized anti-Semitism."

Wow, that would be bad.

Imagine the rest of the world holding Islam in the same high regard as Islam holds Judaism.

Is Daisy really afraid of that?

Not on your life. If she really feared that, the jet plume from Daisy's one-way flight to Saudi Arabia or Malaysia would have been trailing across the sky long ago.

What Daisy is doing instead is proceeding full steam ahead with the 9/11 Victory Mosque plans:

"Of course, it has to go ahead," she said. "There's so much at stake."

Daisy is out there stirring that ol' cauldron to see how much pain and bad feeling she can put on the boil--something she's obviously quite good at.

And then she can whine about it afterward.

Nonetheless, Daisy must be disappointed that the American people aren't quite up to being controlled by the ruling-class wannabes and their imam friends. Shariah law can come in mighty handy when it comes to "controlling the masses."

The next rally opposing Ground Zero: September 11.

Meanwhile, Daisy can start explaining what's really "at stake" at the 9/11 Victory Mosque. And then, she can start explaining her husband's freshly exposed defense of al Qaida.

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Obama's Popularity Among Muslims Drops

The Arab world's initial enthusiasm for Barack Hussein Obama has slid into reverse. Imagine that.

As Fouad Ajami pointed out almost a year ago in the Wall Street Journal:

It was the norm for American liberalism during the Bush years to brandish the Pew Global Attitudes survey that told of America's decline in the eyes of foreign nations. Foreigners were saying what the liberals wanted said. 

These surveys, it seems:

bring findings from the world of Islam that confirm that the animus toward America has not been radically changed by the ascendancy of Mr. Obama. In the Palestinian territories, 15% have a favorable view of the U.S. while 82% have an unfavorable view. The Obama speech in Ankara didn't seem to help in Turkey, where the favorables are 14% and those unreconciled, 69%. In Egypt, a country that's reaped nearly 40 years of American aid, things stayed roughly the same: 27% have a favorable view of the U.S. while 70% do not. In Pakistan, a place of great consequence for American power, our standing has deteriorated: The unfavorables rose from 63% in 2008 to 68% this year [2009].

With Obama's favorable ratings dropping in those countries, it is fair to assume that the Arab world's view of the U.S. is not becoming more favorable.

Mr. Obama's election has not drained the swamps of anti-Americanism. That anti-Americanism is endemic to this region, an alibi and a scapegoat for nations, and their rulers, unwilling to break out of the grip of political autocracy and economic failure. It predated the presidency of George W. Bush and rages on during the Obama presidency. 

And, as Ajami observes:

There is little Mr. Obama can do about this disenchantment. He can't journey to Turkey to tell its Islamist leaders and political class that a decade of anti-American scapegoating is all forgiven and was the product of American policies—he has already done that. He can't journey to Cairo to tell the fabled "Arab street" that the Iraq war was a wasted war of choice, and that America earned the malice that came its way from Arab lands—he has already done that as well. He can't tell Muslims that America is not at war with Islam—he, like his predecessor, has said that time and again.

So, what's the problem? According to to Ajami, part of the problem is Obama's "great moral lapse."

We had once taken to the foreign world that quintessential American difference—the belief in liberty, a needed innocence to play off against the settled and complacent ways of older nations. The Obama approach is different.

Steeped in an overarching idea of American guilt, Mr. Obama and his lieutenants offered nothing less than a doctrine, and a policy, of American penance. No one told Mr. Obama that the Islamic world, where American power is engaged and so dangerously exposed, it is considered bad form, nay a great moral lapse, to speak ill of one's own tribe when in the midst, and in the lands, of others.

The crowd may have applauded the cavalier way the new steward of American power referred to his predecessor, but in the privacy of their own language they doubtless wondered about his character and his fidelity. "My brother and I against my cousin, my cousin and I against the stranger," goes one of the Arab world's most honored maxims. The stranger who came into their midst and spoke badly of his own was destined to become an object of suspicion.

And besides, as one Saudi academic told Ajami: "He talks too much."

America has noticed that too.

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The Greek Orthodox Choir of the Convent of the Annunciation

This chant represents the first part of the Great Supplicatory Canon to the Most Holy Theotokos (the Virgin Mary), dating from the 13th century.

I post this beautiful prayer for intercession in times of trouble in recognition of the clerics and congregation of the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, which was destroyed on 9/11. Since then, these people have been permitted to worship at the former site of their church only twice a year, in a tent, on September 11, and on the Feast of St. Nicholas, December 6.

The Greek Orthodox Church is planning to replace the original church building with a larger one, to accommodate the larger number of people who are expected to visit the rebuilt church when the Ground Zero memorial is completed. For nine long years, rebuilding of the church has been tied up in red tape. The new church building, in compliance with a NY Port Authority directive, will include a blast-proof foundation.

The chant begins:

Most holy Theotokos, save us.
My humble soul is troubled by the rising storms of afflictions and woes; and clouds of misfortunes overcome me, bringing darkness to my heart.

O Bride of God, but since you are the Mother of the Divine and Eternal Light, shine your gladsome light and illumine me.

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The Great Democrat Somnambulism

America as a whole isn't liking Obama much these days.

As of August 16, 2010:

But, incredibly, Gallop shows that Democrats still think he's "one cool cat," with a current job approval rating among Dems almost the same today as it was at Obama's inauguration:

If this poll accurately reflects reality, then there seems little chance that the Obamatons will ever wake from their group somnambulism, and they'll still be mumbling about what a great leader he and the other Progressive Socialists were as they line up for their Soylent Green.

But, as PoliticalJunkie Mom points out, Democrat Pied Pipers just might start changing their tune in the hope of awakening enough snoozing Democrats to save their party.

Based on past experience, I wouldn't bet any money on their chances of success.
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Bill Whittle: When Tolerance Becomes a Code Word for Suicide

A taste of Whittle's observations:

Giving up everything--at every turn--to people who give up nothing in return and whose response to charity and decency is merely to increase the outrageousness of their demands is not tolerance, and it's not decency, and it's certainly not moral superiority.

It's not the highest ideals of the American character.

It's cowardice.

It's the unwillingness to face a threat proclaimed by loudspeakers all across the world every single week.

It's the moral weakness to face the fact that, for every ideology in the world, there is an opposing one that wishes for, plans for, prays for, and eventually executes its destruction.

And it's one more data point that our pampered, idiotic, and self-proclaimed morally superior elites have reached a point of self-loathing and self-delusion that drives them to actions that are indistinguishable from suicide.

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Victory for Islamists: The Feet of Muslims Trodding Over Bones and Ashes

I have the impression that many people who don't have a problem with the erection of a mosque at Ground Zero live at a distance from New York City and therefore don't have an accurate mental picture of what it's like for thousands and thousands of grieving family members and friends of those murdered at the World Trade Center on 9/11/01 to be unable to lay their loved ones to rest--for the simple reason that the massive explosions and building collapses did not leave many bodies left to bury.

To people who think that 600 feet from the Ground Zero "hole" is plenty far enough away for a mosque, I think that it cannot be too strongly emphasized that Ground Zero--and the area around it--is literally the graveyard of the 9/11 dead, where, as many understandably believe, "their souls are going to be . . . forever."

Think of that.

Think of that not in the abstract, but in a real physical and emotional sense. Imagine losing a loved one and having no idea where their blown-to-bits body has landed. Imagine wondering to what indignities that loved body, once filled with sacred life, is being subjected. Imagine erecting a little plaque or shrine somewhere in your world, your backyard, perhaps, so that dearly loved person gets at least the dignity of a memorial spot.

In many ways, New Yorkers have valiantly tried to create some kind of closure to 9/11. On May 30 of 2002, eight-and-a-half months after the attack on the World Trade Center, "one last stretcher" carrying, not a flag-draped body, but a folded American flag, was slowly carried from the World Trade Center site to a waiting ambulance by ten people, symbolically marking the official end of the recovery effort.

Of the 2,823 dead, the remains of more than 1,100 victims of the World Trade Center attack had not been recovered or had not been identified.

During the week following the "official" end of the recovery effort, more human remains were found in nearby buildings damaged in the attack, including on West Street and Cedar Street, "office buildings that were struck and punctured by plane parts and sections of the twin towers."  These remains included bone fragments and a jaw with teeth still intact.

This piece of landing gear from the first plane to hit the Twin Towers fell through the roof of the proposed mosque site.

In September of 2006, five years after the second attack on the World Trade Center, yet more remains of victims of the attack on the World Trade Center were discovered under a service road near the Southern edge of Ground Zero. These human remains included "recognizable bones from skulls, torsos, feet and hands."

By June of this year, as more remains were still being discovered, there was still no identifiable trace of more than 1,000 human beings murdered at the World Trade Center, although DNA testing has been used to identify the human remains found.

So why is there a supposed necessity to build a mega-mosque on this Ground? The fact is that the great majority of people killed in the Twin Towers were not muslims, and were never intended to be.

As Joshuapundit pointed out:

The very name Cordoba House invokes Islamist triumph, invoking the capitol of Islam's Spanish conquests at the height of Islam's power. The new mosque will be designed to rise up from the ashes of 9/11 and tower over Ground Zero.

The feet of Muslims will be trodding over the bones and ashes of the people who died on 9/11, and again, those who are aware of Arab and Muslim culture understand full well what a gross insult this is in that world.

Islamists understand this symbolism quite well.

And so do many Americans: Americans who insist that the American flag leaving Ground Zero on a stretcher in May of 2002 continues to symbolize what Americans intended it to symbolize -- the entire nation's honoring of and grief for the loss of the 9/11 dead -- and not what our enemies want it to symbolize, the collapse of our Constitution and our country.

The red box outlines the Burlington Coat Factory Building with a destroyed roof, the proposed site of the Ground Zero mosque. As you can see, it  is just one building away from complete rubble, not two blocks as is being claimed.

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Are You Feeling Healed Yet? (Updated)

Update: Un-be-liev-able. Nice Deb reports that Nancy Pelosi is calling for an investigation into who is funding opposition to the 9/11 Victory Mosque.

Is that what is called "healing" in Dem-World these days? Investigating people crying out in grief and pain?

Over at American Thinker, Stella Paul has a few thoughts on the future "healing process," Dem-style:

As the Victory Mosque for The Nineteen Martyrs debacle explodes across the headlines, New York's courageous politicians are running for cover, crying for mommy. Even ardent endorsements by Hamas and President Obama haven't helped.

Because it is an immutable law of nature that no New York politician will ever stand for any principle higher than his survival, the Great Do-Over must now be underway. How can these worthies save their darling little hides?  What can they do to get that dang thing out of the headlines and lull everybody back to sleep once more? And what will happen when they do?

Look into Stella Paul's Crazy Crystal Ball  after she wonders what really does happen when "the long-promised civil trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed begins in downtown Manhattan, a few blocks away" from the mosque. See if you can honestly tell her that what she sees in her crystal ball is wrong.

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Related Posts:

• Obama Celebrates Ramadan by Pushing for Mosque at Ground Zero
• Dennis Miller on the Ground Zero Mosque: "It's Time We Start Saying It Like It Is"
• El Marco's "Prayer Time at the Ground Zero Mosque"
• Ground Zero Mosque Imam Sponsors Gaza Blockade Run...
• Tolerance is Easy When It's at Other People's Expense
• Scary Stuff: What Ground Zero Imam Says on Arabic Websites
• About that Imam from the Ground Zero Mosque . . .
• Petition to Stop the Ground Zero Mega-Mosque: Sign...

Why Won't Bloomberg Let a Church Destroyed on 9/11 be Rebuilt?

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church on May 20, 2000.

The members of Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, which was destroyed on 9/11 by the collapse of the Twin Towers, have spent NINE YEARS trying to get building permits. Nine. Long. Years.

From Fr. Constantine J. Simones Waterford, courageous pastor supporter of St. Nicholas Church:

Shame on Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the members of his Landmarks Preservation Commission for voting 9-0 to allow the building of a Muslim mosque at ground zero in New York City.

Too many Americans are sleepwalking when it comes to understanding Islamic policies during the last 1,400 years of what I see as its brutal history. No one talks about St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, which was crushed by the collapsing Twin Towers.

Why is the mosque put on the fast track to construction when St. Nicholas' reconstruction is being hindered by New York City bureaucracy?

Wake up, America, before it is too late. The Greek Orthodox faithful of the Balkans were enslaved by Islam for 500 years. Ask me what it means to live under the laws of Islam, under Sharia Law and the Hadith. Call me and I will provide a history lesson on what can be like to live under Islam extremists.

Fr. Constantine J. Simones Waterford [Correction 8/17/10: I am under the impression that this cleric's name and location have gotten garbled somewhere along the line during many reprints. Apologies.]

About the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church:

Since 1922, St. Nicholas Church had stood as a quiet sanctuary of prayer and reflection amidst the tumultuous and bustling crossroads of commerce. For the past nine years the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey has used bureaucratic obstacles and false promises to hinder the rebuilding of the St. Nicholas Church.

Like Nice Deb (who has published an excellent commentary about the Ground Zero mosque, don't miss it) pointed out: 

City officials, eager to deflect the criticism of a righteously outraged public, claim that nothing can be done [to stop the mosque from being built on hallowed ground]…something that anyone who has contended with zoning boards across the country knows to be untrue.

Ask the congregation of the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church of New York City.

Many thanks to patriot Chris Wysocki at Wyblog for a heads-up on the Ground Zero Church. You'll want to read his report on moderate Muslims in New York  (and watch the video)  here.

Cross-posted at Potluck.

Addendum (Tuesday, 8/17/10): For a history of the delays affecting the rebuilding of St. Nicholas Church, see this New York Times article, written before the Ground Zero victory mosque became an issue. The short story: St. Nicholas Church wanted to rebuild on the original site, and were promised that they could do so by then NY State Governor Pataki (R). However, the Port Authority wanted the Church's land and proposed a land swap, which the Church, after negotiation, agreed to. The Church then developed plans for the new site, but the Port Authority has never concluded the deal for a variety of reasons, leaving the Church in limbo when it comes to rebuilding.

Some of the delays include the discovery of more human remains on Ground Zero (human remains have been discovered as recently as June 2010), and the necessity for the Church  "to install an expensive blast-proof concrete slab beneath its building to protect it from a possible explosion on the screening center ramps."

I don't doubt that it is prudent to add a $35 million blast-proof foundation to the new St. Nicholas Church.

Similar red tape would normally apply to the Ground Zero Victory Mosque. But instead, that structure is being escorted to the finish line, amid much fanfare and chest-thumping, by the NYC mayor, the State Department, and the President of the United States.

Meanwhile the Port Authority apparently can't quite figure out where they want St. Nicholas Church to go.
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Related Posts:

• Obama Celebrates Ramadan by Pushing for Mosque at Ground Zero
• Dennis Miller on the Ground Zero Mosque: "It's Time We Start Saying It Like It Is"
• El Marco's "Prayer Time at the Ground Zero Mosque"
• Ground Zero Mosque Imam Sponsors Gaza Blockade Run...
• Tolerance is Easy When It's at Other People's Expense
• Scary Stuff: What Ground Zero Imam Says on Arabic Websites
• About that Imam from the Ground Zero Mosque . . .
• Petition to Stop the Ground Zero Mega-Mosque: Sign...

Schubert's Ave Maria, Sung by Celine Dion

In this version of Ave Maria, composed by 28-year-old Franz Schubert, who was filled with devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, a young woman in hiding prays to the Mother of God. This is Schubert's original conception, translated into English.

For the Latin challenged:

Ave maria
Gratia plena,
Maria gratia plena,
Maria gratia plena,
Ave, ave,
Dominus, Dominus tecum.

Hail Mary
Filled with grace,
Mary, filled with grace,
Mary, filled with grace,
Hail, hail,
The Lord, the Lord is with you.

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Dems Lost Control a While Back, Documented

”"Normally," says No Sheeples Here, "I don’t get involved in shouting matches on the playground but I could not let “F*ck Tea” [description here] stand without a challenge. Here is my video response:"

H/t, Nice Deb.
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Obama Celebrates Ramadan by Pushing for Mosque at Ground Zero

I am surprised that Obama showed himself so eager to trample on the sacred ground that is Ground Zero. I thought he was going to stay well concealed behind Mayor Michael El-Bloomberg and his cronies in the various ACORN-infested councils of New York City. It does seem obvious that Obama has been behind this nefarious plot all along--it certainly would not be happening without his strong approval.

But I didn't think the president had it in him to come right out and tell the American people that they don't count at all, ever, alive or dead. It does, after all, take, ahem, well, you know. He must have borrowed a pair for the occasion.

But he'd need a much bigger pair to stand up to Daisy Khan and her Ground Zero imam, it seems. Or, he'd have to actually want to.

As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable.

Got it. Americans' freedom to grieve for their dead is nothing compared to Muslims' freedom to celebrate our loss and rub our noses in it. They couldn't have their religious freedom down the street, say, or even in one of the at least 100 other mosques already existing in New York City.

One thing Obama won't admit to is understanding what is plain to most Americans, like Charles Krauthammer, an American born in New York (and I'll bet he has the birth certificate to prove it).

When we speak of Ground Zero as hallowed ground, what we mean is that it belongs to those who suffered and died there — and that such ownership obliges us, the living, to preserve the dignity and memory of the place, never allowing it to be forgotten, trivialized or misappropriated.

Many will argue that Obama just doesn't get it. Don't fall for that. This is not Obama's first attempt to desecrate 9/11. One year ago, almost to the day, his administration got together with ACORN, the AFL-CIO, the Apollo Alliance, Friends of the Earth, the RainbowPUSH Coalition, and a raft of other leftist "organizations" to turn 9/11 into a "Day of Service" to obliterate the memory of that day's events. The sick rationale: to drain 9/11 of all meaning because the 9/11 attack "helps" republicans.

That's how these people think. Nothing is sacred to them.

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About Muslim Charity: One Observation on Obama's Ramadan Speech

According to this year's Ramadan speech by President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, Ramadan is a time "when Muslims provide support to others to advance opportunity and prosperity for people everywhere."

Uh huh. As long as those "people everywhere" are Muslims.

From Robert Spencer:

In reality, it contravenes Islamic law to give zakat, the almsgiving that is one of the pillars of Islam and is required of every Muslim, to non-Muslims. That's why it is easy to find Western governmental agencies and Christian charitable organizations busy building and staffing schools and hospitals in impoverished parts of Africa and Asia, but oil-rich Muslim countries have never undertaken similar endeavors.

For references, read the rest.
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Related post: What? Your Tax Money Is Going to Build Mosques?

Pistol-Packin' "Mama" Wears Burqa to Rob Maryland Bank

Why bother wearing a mask when you can disguise yourself as a Muslim woman?

From the Washington Post, via Atlas Shrugs, who identified the theft as a "burklary."

Police said the robbery occurred about 4:20 p.m. at a TD Bank branch in the 3100 block of Briggs Chaney Road in the Silver Spring [Maryland] area. They said a man entered, showed a gun and demanded money. He received an undetermined amount and fled.

Police said he wore "a long black burqa over his face," and also wore blue jeans.

He was described as a man of unknown race who spoke with what was described as "a Middle Eastern" accent.

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3 Things You Should Know About Islam

Pass it on.

H/t: Another Black Conservative.
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What? Your Tax Money Is Going to Build Mosques?

No separation of mosque and state? From Lee DeCovnick American Thinker:

Newsweek, the Washington Post's former progressive stepchild, published an op-ed by Fareed Zakaria, the in-house lapdog for the Administration, extolling the virtues of building the Ground Zero Mosque. A couple of sentences demand a great deal more explanation.

To that end, early in its tenure the Bush administration began a serious effort to seek out and support moderate Islam. Since then, Washington has funded mosques, schools, institutes, and community centers that are trying to modernize Islam around the world.

We should be encouraging groups like the one behind this project, not demonizing them. Were this mosque being built in a foreign city, chances are that the U.S. government would be funding it.

Perhaps we all missed the memo where US taxpayers are gleefully funding Islamic "mosques, schools, institutes, and community centers" around the globe. Of course, US troops have restored hundreds of schools and community centers in Iraq and Afghanistan, but mosques and Islamic institutes? This seems very difficult to believe.

Thanks to The Right Scoop for the heads-up.

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Obama's "Historic" Economy: Full Job Recovery by 2017?

Another first for our history-making president: a job recession of "unprecedented" depth and length.

From Investor's Business Daily.
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Brother Sonny's Sunday Skiffle: "I Shall Not Be Moved"

Voices of Reason: Black Tea Party Patriots Speak Together

Awesome!

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NYPD Protects Daisy Khan From So-Called "Hateful Messages"

I was about to begin this post by commenting that, in his recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Tamer El-Ghobashy was attempting to play a Muslim tearjerker about Daisy Khan on whatever is the Muslim equivalent of a very small violin, but that probably would have been "insensitive" because many Muslims believe that "Islam forbids playing an instrument."

Daisy Khan, of course, is wife of the Ground Zero mosque imam, as well as the Executive Director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, and Daisy's decidedly non-melodic whine is that she has been the victim of "a string of hateful messages and phone calls related to the community center that she said will house a mosque among other facilities."

“Never in my life have I been a victim of discrimination or hate like I have been recently,” said Daisy Khan,  speaking directly to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, after she introduced herself as the executive director of the group that is seeking to build an Islamic community center on Park Place in Lower Manhattan.

Cry me a river.

Clearly, Daisy, a Shariah law advocate, has never been a Christian in Malaysia, where her husband, the Ground Zero mosque imam, is currently hiding from questions vacationing, and where firebombing of Christian churches is getting to be routine since Muslims recently decided that Christians are no longer permitted to use the word "Allah."

Obviously, Daisy has never been a Jew in Yemen, where only two synagogues are believed to still be functioning, and where Jews are required to live in "restricted areas" and are not permitted to eat meals with Muslims, marry Muslims, run for political office, serve in the Army, hold employment outside of farming or producing handicrafts, communicate with Jewish institutions outside Yemen, or, if they don't enjoy second-class citizenship, even to leave Yemen for greener pastures. Oh yes, and Jews in Yemen are subject to violent attacks.

And, without doubt, Daisy has not spent time as one of the few remaining Hindus in Pakistan, where the latest Muslim fad is kidnapping Hindu girls and forcing them to "convert" to Islam, and where, in 1971, East Pakistani troops slaughtered about 2.5 million Hindus.

Instead, Daisy is a put-upon Muslim in Bloombergistan, which houses a mere 100 mosques, and where two detectives from the NYPD's Hate Crimes Task Force paid her a personal visit to teach her "how to handle these hate crimes" and also "how we [Muslims] should take care of ourselves."

Yes, enough NYPD officers survived 9/11 to protect Daisy from the inconvenience of facing some of the hard feelings of many thousands of grieving friends and relatives of those murdered on 9/11 and millions of other Americans whom she is working so diligently to insult and dominate with the mosque she envisions on ground made sacred by the blood of those murdered that day.

Under El-Bloomberg's leadership, police officials have announced that they will "step up patrols around the city’s mosques during Ramadan to deter any hate crimes and harassment [of Muslims] during the holy month of fasting and reflection. Officers will also visit future sites where mosques have been proposed, officials said." Increased security will include foot patrols at mosques; patrol cars assigned to mosques, nearby areas, and future mosque sites; undercover units to deter burglars; and mosque visits by the Hate Crimes Task Force.

That's a lot of prevention, especially considering that, in the U.S., anti-Jewish and anti-Christian hate crimes far outnumber anti-Muslim hate crimes.

El-Bloomberg's rush to protect Muslims during Ramadan also is interesting because law enforcement officers around the world have become accustomed to expecting increased Islamic terrorism during Ramadan, which, according to a report by the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute, is "a month in which Allah grants military victories to his believers," and therefore "is also regarded as an auspicious time to escalate violence in the name of jihad."

And some, I believe, would term that "Muslim advancement."

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Related Posts:

• Dennis Miller on the Ground Zero Mosque: "It's Time We Start Saying It Like It Is"
• Did the Ground Zero Mosque Imam Go to Malaysia for a Fashion Show?
  
• El Marco's "Prayer Time at the Ground Zero Mosque"
• Ground Zero Mosque Imam Sponsors Gaza Blockade Run...
• Tolerance is Easy When It's at Other People's Expense
• Scary Stuff: What Ground Zero Imam Says on Arabic Websites
• NYC Community Board Okays Ground Zero Mosque Plans...
• About that Imam from the Ground Zero Mosque . . .
• Petition to Stop the Ground Zero Mega-Mosque: Sign...

Dennis Miller on the Ground Zero Mosque: "It's Time We Start Saying It Like It Is"

Miller does:



Hat tip: The Right Scoop.
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67% of Politicians Think the U.S. is Heading in Right Direction

The reality of how little elected officials care about the people who pay their salaries and permit them to remain in power is still breathtaking:

According to a new Rasmussen poll,  67% of the Political Class believe that the United States is generally heading in the right direction, as opposed to 84% of the rest of us who think this country is going to hell in a handbasket.

If you have allowed yourself to indulge in the occasional daydream that politicians might finally be getting the message about the need to curb gov't spending, hold onto that handbasket: A minuscule 2% of the Political Class think that taxes and government spending are the most important issue facing the nation today! Two percent!

Some other Rasmussen findings:

• 68% of voters believe the Political Class doesn’t care what most Americans think

• 59% of voters are embarrassed by the behavior of the Political Class

• 23% of voters believe the federal government today has the consent of the governed

• 6%  support the Political Class. 

From the Rasmussen web site:

In his new book, In Search of Self-Governance, Rasmussen explains, ““In the clique that revolves around Washington, DC, and Wall Street, our treasured heritage has been diminished almost beyond recognition. In that world, some see self-governance as little more than allowing voters to choose which of two politicians will rule over them. Others in that elite environment are even more brazen and see self-governance as a problem to be overcome.” 

The book can be ordered on the Rasmussen Reports site or at Amazon.com. 

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Did the Ground Zero Mosque Imam Go to Malaysia for a Fashion Show?

What combination of $$$ and threats are greasing the wheels of New York politicians wide-open welcome of the Ground Zero mosque?

Don't ask me.

Don't even ask Mr. "Religious Freedom" for Muslims to Spit in Your Eye, more popularly known as Ground Zero Mosque Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who is currently "resting" in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He won't answer your call.

Maybe he went to appreciate Kuala Lumpur's fashion industry, where these skimpy new designs were proudly displayed by Muslim fashion designers in the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center during International Fashion Week:

Or, for those with more traditional spouses, "How enchanting a veiled head can be":

For girls, these easy-care play clothes were on display:

And for that darling (female) toddler:

Only mothers of daughters can appreciate what I feel when I see Mayor Bloomberg and his sock puppets promote Islamic attempts to create cultural and political dominance under the guise of protecting religious freedom.

I wonder if Imam Faisal is having a good time schmoozing with (oops, wrong word, Yiddish root) chatting up whoever is handing him $100 million or so to build the Ground Zero mega mosque and whatever else it takes to get New York politicians to so eagerly, nay, unanimously, bulldoze ahead with their heartfelt approvals (today's being denial that the site is an historical landmark, despite the fact that a piece of one of the airlines that destroyed the World Trade Centers fell through its roof).

I'm guessing yes.

Now, I ask those who think that the mosque is located at a distance from Ground Zero how that heavy piece of fuselage managed to travel such an incredibly "long" distance. Also, if a piece of landing gear could fall through that building's roof, just how far do they think pieces of human flesh or bone have gone? Far enough to build a mosque on, perhaps?

So, Mayor Bloomberg and his fellow worshippers at the altar of multiculturalism, which somehow always manages to exclude majority groups, can't wait to get a bunch of male Muslims a prayer spot looking down on Ground Zero.

Got it. The rest of us don't count. That's no surprise.

Here's who counts:

From City Journal, Autumn 2002:

Jihadist mullahs urge 1,000 followers to learn the murderous lessons of the WTC attack.

An obscene spectacle took place in North London on September 11, 2002. A thousand Muslims gathered at the Finsbury Park mosque to “celebrate” the bombing of the World Trade Center. The Metropolitan Police deployed a force 500-strong to protect the meeting, called “A Towering Day in History,” from disruption. A dozen or so menacing-looking men with kaffiyehs over their faces stood on the mosque’s steps to prevent unfriendly journalists from entering.

The “celebration” began promptly at 1 pm, so that participants could applaud the action of the WTC bombers at exactly 1:46 London time—the exact time, a year earlier, when the first plane hit its target in New York.

Unless you think that someone sinks $100 million into a piece of real estate for no real reason at all, when they could get a much better price with less hassle a bit down the road.

Just one more question: Is it true blondes have more fun?

 

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 Related Posts:

• El Marco's "Prayer Time at the Ground Zero Mosque"
• Ground Zero Mosque Imam Sponsors Gaza Blockade Run...
• Tolerance is Easy When It's at Other People's Expense
• Scary Stuff: What Ground Zero Imam Says on Arabic Websites
• NYC Community Board Okays Ground Zero Mosque Plans...
• About that Imam from the Ground Zero Mosque . . .
• Petition to Stop the Ground Zero Mega-Mosque: Sign...