Thursday, November 15, 2012

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Obama’s “Victory Lap”

President Barack Obama held his first press conference in months yesterday. Was news made? Did we learn anything new? Not really. This front page Washington Post headline says it all: “Meeting The Press, Taking A Victory Lap.”

The president’s comments yesterday were reminiscent of his “I won” quip to congressional conservatives four years ago. Once again, Obama claimed a mandate to raise taxes. Presumably, House conservatives also have a mandate not to raise taxes.

The one part of the press conference where Obama potentially made news was his combative and aggressive response to a question about opposition to promoting U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to Secretary of State. Here was Obama’s response:

“As I’ve said before, she made an appearance at the request of the White House in which she gave her best understanding of the intelligence that had been provided to her. If Senator McCain and Senator Graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me. …But for them to go after the U.N. ambassador, who had nothing to do with Benghazi and was simply making a presentation based on intelligence that she had received and to besmirch her reputation is outrageous.”

It has been suggested before, and yesterday Obama seemingly confirmed it: Rice was sent out to give the administration’s line precisely because she “had nothing to do with Benghazi.”

As Obama admitted yesterday, Rice “made an appearance at the request of the White House in which she gave her best understanding of the intelligence that had been provided to her.”

The U.N. ambassador may have been the only administration spokesperson with credibility on foreign policy who didn’t know what happened on September 11, 2012, and who could be sent on national television to unknowingly propagate such a bizarre explanation.

Israel Under Siege

Tensions and hostilities are escalating in the Middle East. Three Israelis were killed in Kiryat Malahi when a rocket fired from Gaza struck an apartment building. In the past day, 250 rockets and mortars have been fired by Palestinian militants into Israel. Yet the world is urging Israel to “show restraint” and “limit civilian casualties.”

The media are covering this story as if it all started yesterday, and, once again, Israel is being accused of perpetuating a “cycle of violence.” Israel is trying to end the cycle of violence!

The New York Times acknowledges that “Southern Israel has been struck by more than 750 rockets fired from Gaza this year” by Hamas and Palestinian extremists. The world seems to have a very high tolerance for dead or wounded Jews.

Israel finally did what every other responsible sovereign nation would do — it took action and made those responsible for the repeated attacks pay a heavy price. Ahmed Jaabari was a terrorist thug. The civilized world and all those who cherish the rule of law and decency should be applauding Israel’s actions and condemning the rocket attacks from Hamas and other Islamic extremists.

Meanwhile Egypt’s new president, Mohamed Morsi, declared in a nationally televised speech that “all of Egypt is standing with all its resources to stop this assault, to prevent the killing and the bloodshed of Palestinians.” Morsi also recalled Egypt’s ambassador to Israel. So let’s get this straight: The Palestinians launch 750 rockets at Israel, Israel responds and Egypt condemns Israel. So much for that peace treaty.

Today, the suburbs of Tel Aviv were hit. These long-range missiles are Iranian-made, and could even be under the control of Iranian Revolutionary Guard agents. To put this into perspective, it would be equivalent to 50 to 60 million Americans coming under the bull’s-eye of Al Qaeda firing from Mexico or Canada with the cooperation of the Mexican or Canadian governments. Does anyone seriously think the U.S. would hesitate to defend itself?

In times such as this, I am especially proud to be part of Pastor John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel and Bill Kristol’s Emergency Committee for Israel. I want our Israeli friends to know that millions of Americans are praying for them and standing with them.

Scandalous

A great frustration of the culture war is just how pervasive the left-wing ideology is in popular media. So whenever there is a movie or TV show that portrays our worldview in a positive light, I try to make an effort to share it with you.

Now I realize many of our readers do not regularly attend Broadway musicals, but if you happen to be in New York City over the holidays or if you live in the area, I hope you will make every effort to see Scandalous, written by Kathie Lee Gifford.

Columnist Cal Thomas recently wrote a review of Scandalous. Here’s an excerpt of his column:

“The hottest ticket on Broadway continues to be ‘The Book of Mormon,’ a musical that pokes fun at the Mormon faith in particular and Christianity in general. It is also full of profanity and blasphemy. If there was a show called ‘The Book of Muhammad,’ the Eugene O’Neill Theatre probably would have been burned down by now. …

“Now there’s a new musical called ‘Scandalous,’ about a colorful, some would say corrupt, evangelist named Aimee Semple McPherson, founder of the Foursquare Church. … ‘Scandalous’ has just begun previews. I saw it in development and thought it excellent.”

You can read more here.