Ben Affleck: Portrait of Islam’s Clueless Apologists

Raymond Ibrahim    "The value of actor Ben Affleck’s recent outbursts in defense of Islam on HBO’s Real Time is that here, in one 10-minute segment, we have all the leftist/liberal bromides used whenever Islam is criticized.

 

"In what follows, Affleck’s main arguments are presented and then discredited.
...
"What such apologists fail to recognize is that the clash of civilizations is already upon us; and it is not a product of Western “bigotry” but Islamic teaching.  Whether we acknowledge it or not, here it is.

"The reason apologists can get away (for now) with their reasoning is because the U.S. is ostensibly immune from Islam — so they can spin and pass off feel-good fables about Islam all they want."

What's happening to Obama's allies?

 

From the AP: Obama allies getting harder to find these days   ... "The disenchantment with Obama is in part a reflection of inevitable fatigue with a president entering his final years in office. But some Democrats say it is also a consequence of the president's insular approach to governing and his preference for relying on a small cadre of White House advisers, leaving him with few loyal allies on Capitol Hill or elsewhere." ...
...
"But Panetta's most scathing critique is reserved for Obama's leadership style. Writing about Obama's inability to stop deep budget cuts at the Pentagon, Panetta said the episode reflected the president's "most conspicuous weakness, a frustrating reticence to engage his opponents and rally support for his cause.'"   Julie Pace,  AP White House Correspondent

Not only does Obama not engage his opposition, he has spent the last six years taunting and demagoguing them.

Et Tu, Jimmy?   "When Jimmy Carter starts criticizing your foreign policy as weak and indecisive, you are getting to the bottom of the barrel. Jimmy unloaded on Barack Obama yesterday:

Former President Jimmy Carter is criticizing President Barack Obama’s Middle East policy, saying he has shifting policies and waited too long to take action against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

 

Why Bill O'Reilly's Interview with Leon Panetta was So Devastating to President Obama    "Tuesday night Leon Panetta´s book tour brought him to the O´Reilly Factor. O´Reilly conducted what turned out to be a masterful interview, the results of which were nothing short of devastating for President Obama. (Snip)Things were different on Fox News where Bill O´Reilly came at Panetta from a very different perspective. Instead of accusing Panetta of saying too much, O´Reilly challenged him to say even more and say it more plainly. And that led to a series of exchanges in which Panetta felt forced to defend the President even as he continued to say that he´d made some significant mistakes."  Via  Lucianne
 

 

On a college campus yet! Obama Booed During PSA at Michigan State Football Game   "Jeers reportedly started in student section. "

Baseball Crowd Shouts 'USA! USA!' at Ferguson Protestors

M. Catharine Evans  "Days after liberal-minded symphony attendees sat quietly while direct action protesters disrupted their evening out, red-blooded Americans attending a baseball game in St. Louis went toe to toe with Michael Brown’s defenders."
...
"A few weeks ago, the stadium was the scene of a foiled demonstration.  Organizers Sarah Griesbach and Elizabeth Vega, two middle-aged white women who wore Cardinals jerseys, unfurled a protest banner and were instantly met with shouts from sports fans.  The same women were also behind the October 4 St. Louis Symphony demonstration.  After the failed ballgame protest, the duo from an upscale neighborhood decided that a symphony hall would be a better location."
...
"Apparently, according to tweets, the protesters faced off with Cardinals fans outside the exit and re-entry gate for smokers.  Not a great idea. 

"In the Stadium video, a Michael Brown activist can be seen holding the American flag upside-down.  The defiant act did not go over too well.  In contrast to the symphony attendees, the baseball crowd shouted the demonstrators down.  Loud chants of "USA!  USA!” drowned out what sounds like 'f*** you' coming from the Brown mob."  Full article.

GOP'S BIG IDEA: LET'S NOT HAVE A WAVE ELECTION

Ann Coulter  "On Monday, The Washington Times reported on the Homeland Security Inspector General's finding that detention facilities for illegal border-crossers are teeming with diseases because the guests don't know how to take medicine or use toilets. By Tuesday, there were more than 1,000 comments.

"That's a lot of comments. Articles on ISIS usually get between five and 100 comments.
...
"When it comes to what Americans are angry enough about to post more than a thousand comments, there's only one issue. It's immigration.

"But the Republican leadership won't touch it. Their consultants have kids who are going to need college tuition, and the donor class wants cheap labor."...

Making Harding Look Good; The Obama administration has tarnished nearly every major federal agency.

Victor Davis Hanson

 

... "The lasting legacy of Obama will be that he has largely discredited the idea of big government, of which he was so passionate an advocate. Almost every major agency of the federal government, many of them with a hallowed tradition of bipartisan competence, have now been rendered either dysfunctional or politicized — or both — largely because of politically driven appointments of unqualified people, or ideological agendas that were incompatible with the agency’s mission.

 

"The list of scandals is quite staggering. In aggregate, it makes Harding’s Teapot Dome mess seem minor in comparison." ...   Full article.

 

Bill Maher vs. Ben Affleck On Islam: "Mafia That Will F**king Kill You If You Say The Wrong Thing"

Bill Maher and Ben Affleck engaged in a heated debate over radical Islam and Islamophobia on Friday's broadcast of Real Time on HBO.   "Bill Maher and Ben Affleck engaged in a heated debate over radical Islam and Islamophobia on Friday's broadcast of Real Time on HBO.

"Aided by author Sam Harris, Maher contended radical Islamists are essentially a "mafia" that will kill you if you say or draw the wrong thing. Affleck argued that condemning a whole religion based on jihadists that make up a small fraction of Islam isn't fair.

"New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who was also on the panel, said the criticism of Islam has "a tinge of how white racists talk about African-American and define blacks."

"On last week's broadcast of Real Time, Maher went after Islam and argued "if we're giving no quarter to intolerance, shouldn't we be starting the mutilators and the honor killers?' "

CNS News: Bill Maher vs. Chris Hayes
... "Maher has drawn new attention for singling out Islam as the worst of all them all. He almost sounded pro-Christian (by comparison) in a surprisingly contentious PBS interview with Charlie Rose wherein he slammed militant Islam.

"Then he fought with Ben Affleck on his HBO show on Oct. 3. Suddenly the liberal media discovered Maher's argument ... and rushed to side with Affleck.

"Affleck thought attacking Islam was "gross and racist." He yelled at Maher about "more than a billion people who aren't fanatical, who don't punish women, who just wanna go to school, and eat sandwiches, pray five times a day, and don't do any of the things you saying of all Muslims! It's stereotyping!' "...

MSNBC was loaded with praise. Chris Matthews declared, "I'm with Affleck because knocking someone's religion is the way to start or escalate a fight. It's no way to cool one." Krystal Ball said "I have such a liberal crush now on Ben Affleck. I thought he was so amazing throughout that show, and so strong there."

 Slave Markets Sell Christian and Yezidi Women for $10 to Attract Islamic State Recruits

Nigeria: Devout Muslims of Boko Haram Torch 185 Churches -

Cyber Jihad: ISIS Targets Social Media Profiles of Air Force Member and Son

Victory Girls   "Last week, we reported on the bulletin that our U.S. Army has circulated to those both currently serving in our military, as well as veterans, about ISIS’s threat to target online social media profiles of military personnel and their family members. And it looks like that’s exactly what’s now happening.

"An Air Force member and his teenaged son have been harassed by ISIS sympathizers, targeting their FaceBook profiles and engaging in an all-out cyber jihad on them, labeling them “kafir,” or non-believer, as well as various other derogatory statements. It’s an effort, as reported last week, to encourage other ISIS supporters—lone wolves—to locate their homes, hunt them down and “slaughter” them."
...
"Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve had just about enough of this. These wretched excuses for human beings need to become one with the earth, in a vaporized into microscopic grains of sand kind of way. Preferably by women. In jets.

Does Obama recognize evil in this world, or has he just lost the courage and passion to stand up to it?

He does seem to do just the fun stuff. But if Obama has given up, his underlings and mentors are still as doctrinaire as ever I'd say.
Islamic radicals may safely take this president lightly, but heaven help you if you are an American conservative.

Panetta: Obama Has Given Up  "Tuesday on MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports," former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta declared President Barack Obama's approach to be like a law professor, however without the aspect of rolling up his sleeves and to get the job done.
Instead he suggested Obama has given up.

"Panetta said, "He [Obama] approaches things like a law professor in presenting a logic of his position. There is nothing wrong with that. We want to have a president who thinks through the issues. My experience in Washington is that logic alone doesn't work. Once you lay out a position, you are going to roll up your sleeves and you have to fight to get it done. That is key in Washington. In order for presidents to succeed, they cannot just -- when they run into problems, step back and give up."

" 'There is a feeling and I have a feeling that the leadership and the president have given up on the big issues facing this country whether it's immigration or a budget deal or infrastructure funding or trade or energy. there is a sense that you can't deal with that. This country needs that. They can't give up."

 Roger L Simon at PJ Media writes,  "Increasingly, I am thinking that Barack Obama does not know the difference between good and evil"   ... "ISIS had already provided us with more than enough examples of mass murder and other Holocaust-like actions to last several lifetimes.  In two videos I saw, dozens of Middle Eastern men were decapitated, their severed heads placed on poles while others were shot through the back of the neck and dumped unceremoniously into pits they had dug for themselves.
... "Evil does not interest him, especially if it has nothing to do with votes.  Evil does not even exist for him. Only fairness." ...
...
"At the same time as IS is rampaging, Obama’s equally morality-challenged crew at the State Department is busy criticizing (what else?) Israel, yet again for Jewish construction and apartment purchase in  Jerusalem Arab neighborhoods." ...

Disagreeing with Panetta, FITSNEWS takes issue with his points:  ... "Beyond being self-serving, Panetta’s comments are also at odds with reality.

"Last time we checked, Obama has gotten plenty of “big issues” done – notably a “stimulus” that’s produced record dependency and joblessness and a health care law that’s produced higher premiums.  Oh, and he’s successfully “spread the wealth around,” too … just not how many of his supporters imagined." ...

They Are Coming for Your Children

Teacup totalitarians target Connecticut home-schoolers

NRO

 

"Home-schoolers represent the only authentically radical social movement in the United States (Occupy Wall Street was a fashion statement) and so they must be suppressed, as a malevolent committee of leftist academics and union bosses under the direction of Governor Dannel Malloy is preparing to do in Connecticut, using the Sandy Hook massacre as a pretext. The ghouls invariably rush to the podium after every school massacre, issuing their insipid press releases before the bodies have even cooled, and normally they’re after your guns. But the Malloy gang is after your children." ... Full article...

Krauthammer’s Take: Obama Wants to Hand the Islamic State Fight Over to Next President

Interpreting the statistics on the US bombing campaign of ISIS: one air strike means one truck destroyed. TD

National Review Online
 

 

"On Monday’s Special Report, Charles Krauthammer said former defense secretary Leon Panetta’s criticism of President Obama’s foreign policy, including the withdrawal from Iraq, was consistent with past statements made by former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and former defense secretary Robert Gates.

“ 'There is agreement among the top advisers of Obama himself, his top national-security advisers, that he was indecisive; that he let opportunities pass” when it came to dealing with the Islamic State, Krauthammer said.

“ 'I think what we’re seeing now, with his inability and unwillingness to help in the fight in Kobane, which is a very critical fight where ISIS is, now has the upper hand, Obama seems to want to contain the situation until the end of his term and then hand it off,” Krauthammer said. Kobane is a Kurdish city in Syria along the Turkish border that the Islamic State has been reportedly trying to take for weeks."  (Emphasis mine, TD)

Can't you see it now? Obama spent these past six years blaming the Bush administration for his problems and after he leaves office, guess what? He will dump this world mess on his successor and continue to blame them for not handling it the way he would have. "If I could have had a third term, things would not be this bad!" The smiling sycophants that he always gathers behind him will clap and cheer.

Related to this is our next post:  KURDS BLAST OBAMA For Sitting Back & Letting Kobane Fall to ISIS

KURDS BLAST OBAMA For Sitting Back & Letting Kobane Fall to ISIS

The Gateway Pundit  "An ISIS flag flies on a building on the eastern side of Kobani (Kobane), Syria."

  "The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) raised on Monday its black Islamic flags on a building on the eastern side of Kobane. The ISIS militants have been fighting Kurdish forces for three weeks before entering Kobane today.

 

"Today Kurdish supporters blasted Barack Obama for sitting back and allowing Kobane to fall to ISIS.

http://terrellaftermath.com/

 

Operation Trojan Horse: ISIS Plans to Cross Turkish Border as “Refugees,” Launch Attacks in Europe    ... "The Kurds, not surprisingly, are placing the blame for the loss of the territory squarely on the shoulders of one Barack Hussein Obama."

Max Boot: The limited bombing that President Obama has unleashed against ISIS is, predictably, having little impact  "Didn't we hear that Mr. Obama himself is picking the targets, just as LBJ did in Vietnam?"  "This President is a real slow learner"

TD did an internet search for "Obama’s Foreign Policy Successes". The first group to come up included this aptly titled one from 2011 at the liberal site, Think Progress: "Obama’s Foreign Policy Successes.  Among those Think Progress listed were:

• KILLED OSAMA BIN LADEN, RAMPED UP CAMPAIGN AGAINST AL QAEDA
• MOBILIZED INT’L COALITION TO PROTECT LIBYAN PRO-DEMOCRACY DEMONSTRATORS
• ISOLATED AND WEAKENED IRAN
• ORDERED THE COMPLETE WITHDRAWAL OF U.S. FORCES FROM IRAQ BY END OF THE YEAR
• REPEALED DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL
• HALVED THE NUMBER OF RUSSIAN AND AMERICAN NUCLEAR MISSILE LAUNCHERS
• STRENGTHENED U.S.-ISRAEL RELATIONSHIP

Plus others, of which I sincerely liked this one the most: "KILLED SENIOR AL QAEDA LEADER ANWAR AL AWLAKI". 

And of course, he did do well in 2012 with regard to Myanmar .
Well, except maybe for um...this. :

About.com

Seattle City Council votes to rename Columbus Day to 'Indigenous Peoples' Day

Examiner.com

 

"It's the kind of political correctness to be expected in a city that elected a socialist and ordered workers to quit using the term "citizen" in official documents. On Monday, the Seattle City Council voted unanimously to change Columbus Day to "Indigenous Peoples' Day" to recognize that Native Americans were on the continent before Christopher Columbus first set foot on it in 1492.

"Mayor Ed Murray is expected to "swiftly" sign the measure, Reuters said. Once signed, the change will take effect for the upcoming holiday.

"But the measure doesn't end there. It also acknowledges that Seattle, a city named after a tribal chief, was built atop indigenous peoples' homes, Reuters added." ...

Must we bear this cross of political correctness even when we just want to watch skaters perform?  Anita Hartshorn & Frank Sweiding, 1492: Conquest of Paradise  ( Video)