Its a rare week when one liberal Democrat, much less two, get apologies right

Former President Jimmy Carter is a Christian.

In fact, he is one of the most famous, publicly declared, Bible-believing Christians of the 20th Century. Sadly, despite his great work in accommodating the Camp David accords between Egypt and Israel, he had become a stereotypical charicature from many centuries past of a Christian without much Christian accord for Jews named David.

Incredibly, despite the Spanish Inquisition, Nazi and Soviet Holocausts and multiple Arab war actions against Israel since 1948, Carter has, at least since the mid-70s and continuing thru his recent book comparing Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the former apartheid segregation in South Africa, adopted the revisionist, morally equivalent history of the Left. The fact is that Israel has been nothing if not restrained in their responses to war and terrorist acts against them, and the treatment of Palestinians within Israel is better than the treatment of average citizens in any other state in the Middle East.

President Carter had a lot to apologize for, for a very long time, with respect to his rhetoric towards Israel, but has been under no pressure or clamor to do so, given his membership in the Democratic Party.

All of which makes his unsolicited Christmas apology all the more remarkable and appreciated by this announcer of dawns. This rooster regularly announces dawns from Georgia, and we hope this statement by the most famous Georgian alive today is the beginning of a realistic look at Israel and the enemies that surround them:

ATLANTA (AP) – Former President Jimmy Carter apologized for any words or deeds that may have upset the Jewish community in an open letter meant to improve an often-tense relationship.

He said he was offering an Al Het, a prayer said on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. It signifies a plea for forgiveness.

“We must not permit criticisms for improvement to stigmatize Israel,” Carter said in the letter, which was first sent to JTA, a wire service for Jewish newspapers, and provided Wednesday to The Associated Press. “As I would have noted at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but which is appropriate at any time of the year, I offer an Al Het for any words or deeds of mine that may have done so.”

Carter’s apology was welcomed by Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League and a vocal critic of Carter’s views on Israel.

“When a former president reaches out to the Jewish community and asks for forgiveness, it’s incumbent of us to accept it,” he said in a telephone interview from Jerusalem. “To what extent this is an epiphany, only time will tell. There certainly was a lot of hurt, a lot of angry words that need to be repaired. But this is a good start.”

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee could not immediately be reached for comment.

I know, a full mea culpa would be worded differently, and who knows whether the former President’s views have changed, but the most significant aspect of this apology, it seems to this observer, is that obviously President Carter felt personal guilt as a Christian that prompted him to say this.

I accept his apology and hope that everyone else will. That does not mean that carter is given carte blanche for any future unjustified attacks against Israel. If such attacks are forthcoming, then we will call him on them; remind him of this apology; and demand another.

But for Christmas, we accept Carter at his word, and pray that the New Year will find a strong voice added to those that already understand the immoral Palestinian death cult that opposes Israel.

No Obama apology tours since the last one

This Gamecock also welcomes recent military actions at President Barack Obama’s direction against terrorists in Pakistan and Yemen, the last of which has not received enough attention in the press, including especially the conservative press, that should be cheering Obama for actions similar to those taken by former President George W. Bush that caused him to be vilified by the liberal press due to civilian collateral damage and in supposedly “creating terrorists.’ From the AP on December 17:

Yemen’s Houthi fighters say scores of civilians, including many children, have been killed in US air-raids in the southeast of the war-stricken Arab country.

The Shia fighters on Friday reported the deaths of 63 people, including some 28 children, in the southeastern province of Abyan.

Almost 90 people were also injured in the attacks by US warplanes in the village of Bakazam, they added.

Yemen’s southern provinces have recently been the scene of US airstrikes which Washington claims to be aimed at uprooting an al-Qaeda cell operative in the Persian Gulf state.

But the residents of the area dismiss the claims that al-Qaeda members are being targeted in the US attacks, while a Yemeni lawmaker has also called for an investigation into the raids.

The US operation in southern Yemen comes on top of a joint Saudi-Yemeni military campaign in the country’s war-weary north where Sana’a and Riyadh forces are engaged in a fierce fighting against the Houthi fighters.

The Houthis are terrorist proxies of Iran, similar to their Hamas and Hezbo counterparts in Palestine and Lebanon, respectively.

How long will the United States continue to refuse to take the war Iran is waging against the West to Iran proper? I don’t know, and quite frankly have had this complaint about American foreign policy since at least the Khobar Towers attack in the 90s and especially since the Quds forces alliance with Iraqi separatists in attacks against the U.S. armed forces in Iraq.

But tha U.S. attacks inside Yemen (similar to some actions taken by Bush soon after 911 in Yemen) are a great step forward for an Obama known more for turning his back on the oppessed in Iran and reaching out in apologetic terms to the mullah terrorists of Iran.

Bravo this time Mr. President, and bravo to your continuing drone attacks in Pakistan; military actions in Afghanistan; and continuing progress in Iraq.

A.J. Strata wonders if the Ft. Hood incident and increasing attempted attacks against the U.S. on planes and on the ground might be a sign that Obama’s Administration is dropping the ball on homeland security. It certainly would not be surprising to learn that FBI and CIA lawyers and agents were gun shy about defending the nation given the expostfactObamalism threats against the Justice Department lawyers and interrogators that kept us safe for 8 years after 911 under President Bush.

Hopefully Obama will realize that killing terrorists and preventing them from having the publicity of successful attacks killing Americans does more to prevent the creation of new terrorists that apology tours or Abu Ghraib obsessions.

The threat from Iran is acute, and not just because of their ongoing nuclear threat development. Iran has been the number one sponsor of terror since 1979 and are presently in an armed stand-off with our Iraqi allies over possession of an oil well, on Iraqi territory.

Obama now needs to heed Charles Krauthammer’s advice and apologize to the Iranian people.

Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Minority Report columns

“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson

Originally published @ Examiner.com, where all verification links may be accessed.

ObamaDems don’t care about winning wars, honoring the troops, deterring terrorists, creating non-government jobs or allowing anyone to secure a loan in this country without their prior approval.

This is the first in a series, focusing on the governing concept of President Barack Obama that we identified early in his Administration and dubbed “expostfactObamalism”, due to ObamaDems’ attempts last Spring, to retroactively tax AIG-bonuses at a 90% confiscatory rate and to criminalize the enhanced interrogation techniques and the giving of legal advice justifying same, that CIA agents and Justice Department lawyers used to keep us safe after 911.

The recent decision to provide Khalid Sheik Mohamed (pictured, courtesy of TMR) with a civilian trial and return to the scene of his horrific handiwork near Ground Zero in New York City inspired the need to return to this issue, given its departure from fundamental American principles and comparability to the the regular criminalization of politics by Third World banana republics.

Actions of this kind so violate fundamental fairness that  the U.S. Constitution and state constitutions explicitly state, for example, that:

No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed. – US Const. Art. 1, sec. 9

No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, retroactive law, or any law impairing the obligation of contracts, shall be made. – Texas Const. Art. 1, sec. 16

U.S. Supreme Court precedents have severely limited the applicability of these concepts to criminalization of deeds deemed legal at the time, but have allowed their applicability, at least in the criminal realm to similarly-situated groups rather than just named individuals. However, our culture and traditions have, until the rise of the ObamaDems, have mostly followed the concepts embodied by the most detailed language of the Lone Star State’s language cited above.

Our purpose today, is to re-introduce the concept of expostfactObamalism in a number of contexts, which we will revisit over the coming week in more detail, as indicated below:

KSM trial in NYC

Possibly the most vile and cynical action taken by the liberal Democratic Administration, the decision to refuse to accept a guilty plea from the mastermind of 911 is a direct assault on previous administration. Such a trial serves no useful purpose as Attorney General Eric Holder (in the role of Janet Reno as Bill Clinton’s Waco raid foil) admits that KSM can be held indefinitely as an enemy combatant.

KSM was about to be convicted and executed under the rights-sensitive, U.S. Supreme Court-demanded, Democratic Party majority passed and signed  by Obama into law, military tribunals at Gitmo. The result of civilian trial in NYC can produce no better outcome, and promises to be a show trial that indicts President George W. Bush et al, with KSM and the other four terrorist defendants testifying essentially as witnesses corroborating the “testimony” of candidate Barack Obama’s campaign criticisms of the United States at war.

As we have oft repeated, Dems say and do for free, what the terrorists would gladly pay them to say and do. We suspect the irony of Mohamed echoing the words of ObamaDems, including Barack Hussein Obama and other ObamaDems, will not be lost on the American people.

Jobs summit fraud

The stimulus wasn’t, but could have been. Even the Keynesian part wasn’t. We know this because now ObamaDems are post-2009 Election Day in Virginia and know that they don’t have enough wealth to spread around to cover the stench of the fact that Dems Don’t Care about the poor and middle class.

If ObamaDems cared about actual people having actual jobs (save for government and union jobs), they would have front-loaded the recovery act with shovel-ready jobs. That they didn’t is an admission that they only care about the perception of progress on jobs leading up to Election Day 2010.

If they cared about creating jobs, they would celebrate the cooling Earth of the past 11 years, breathe a sigh of relief that we discovered the fraud of the global warming/climate change claim, and accept the reality of oil as the now and indefinite future fuel of prosperity and liberty. Read George Will, here.

We will have extensive coverage of this issue after the President’s address to the nation on Tuesday, but suffice to point out for now that:

• Obama is whining about the deficit and consequent lack of resources after his $1.8T first budget deficit, squandered the moment and our currency on a government growthulus bill posing as a stimulus;
•  ObamaDems reject any and all of the proven supply-side policies that produced the Reagan-Clinton 25-year recovery and tie all proposals for tax relief to crony capitalism that requires investors to follow the advice of federal bureaucrats;
• Seeks to monopolize mortgage, student and small business loans within the federal government’s discretion in order to enforce the above; and
• Creates two Americas that John Edwards never hinted at, i.e. One Union, One Non-Union, and guess which gets the shaft.

The non-surge in Afghanistan is expost facto pre-911 mentality

West Point address admits ObamaDems’ Bushlied Era and campaign claims that the Afghan war was one of necessity was a fraud

Charles Krauthammer’s paraphrase of Winston Churchill as Obama:

We shall fight in the air, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields, we shall fight in the hills — for 18 months. Then we start packing for home.

President Obama’s cynical use of West Point cadets as props for his diatribes, insults and lies against his predecessor as Commander in Chief (and oh, btw, I am sending 30,000 more of you chumps into war) showed just what a small man he is. I got through two pages of the eight-page transcript before having to write this column, the main follow-up to which will detail the vile hurlings from Obama’s mouth later in the week. For now, consider:

1. No mention of victory
2. Enemies of liberty described as mere ”extremists”, never terrorists
3. No praise for Iraq victory
4. Blames Cold War muhajadeen strategy that defeated the Evil Empire, for 911. We “allowed” 911 to happen
5. Blames Taliban resurgence on Iraq War
6. Lies concerning supposed denials of Afghan Theater troop requests by then Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld
7. Ad nauseum ad infinitum….in next column

 The AJC’s Jim Wooten Thinking Right:

It is tacky and disrespectful of the Office of the President for the Commander-in-Chief to assemble his troops, as Obama did at West Point, and use the occasion to trash their former Commander-in-Chief. This is the action of a small-bore leader.

We were told during the Bushlied Era, that we had to get Usama bin Laden, but now, not so much. But a war tax? We need that.

More later, every day this week…

But before we conclude part one, one comment on the relatively strong support the President has received from prominent Republicans, like Newt Gingrich, for his decision to send 30K troops to Afghanistan. Newt, like Karl Rove and Bill Kristol, disagree with exit strategies that telegraph to allies and enemies alike that we haven’t the stomach to finish the job, but do think that General Petraeus can win the war with the extra troops.

I was asked by an Astute Conservative Political Observer in Alabama is Newt had gone over to the dark side due to his praise of Obama’s decision on the increase of troops in Afghanistan.

No, he hasn’t, although some of his actions on climate change, support for moderates in contested GOP primaries and other actions do show he has been inside the Beltway too long.

However, the main lesson to be drawn from this exercise as contrasted with the behavior of Democrats (including then Senator Obama who refused to vote the fund the troops as a campaign game of chicken with Hillary) is the consistency of Republicans in supporting Commanders in Chiefs and troops in the Field.

By contrast, Democrats use war and the troops as political issues and pawns.

Dems are vile.

Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Minority Report columns

“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson

Originally published @ Examiner.com, where all verification links may be accessed