The Wizards of Smart speak out: Obama showed courage on Ground Zero Mosque

Not only courage in defending the mosque …or was it not defending. Oh well, still he showed courage in defending … private property?

I kid you not. First we have David Ignatius of the WaPo who thinks the President showed great courage in defending the mosque being built at Ground Zero. Damn the sensitivities of the 9-11 families and the people of New York. It’s about the first amendment. Even better … Reuters reporter Chrystia Freeland says the President did a great job defending a fundamental principal of this country … private property. Meanwhile the Department of the Interior is in the middle of one of the biggest land grabs since Teddy Roosevelt.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btd5QLzZtBA

Let me be clear, do they have the right to build it? Sure. Should they? Well it’s not exactly bridge building is it?

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Jim Vicevich

Jim is a veteran broadcaster and conservative/libertarian blogger with more than 25 years experience in TV and radio. Jim's was the long-term host of The Jim Vicevich Show on WTIC 1080 in Hartford from 2004 through 2019. Prior to radio, Jim worked as a business and financial reporter for NBC30 - the NBC owned TV station in Hartford - and as business editor at WFSB-TV in Hartford for 14 years while earning six Emmy nominations and three Telly Awards.

25 Comments

  1. chris-os on August 16, 2010 at 4:58 am

    It is not a mosque! It is a freakin community center!

    (BTW, go to google maps NYC and look for mosques, there is already 1 there 2 blocks from this site and 240 in the city.)

    The 9/11 families are split on this issue.

    I have to give props for Obama for this comment. It's against the polls and he made it anyway.



    • scottm on August 16, 2010 at 5:20 am

      Yes, and this is also 2 blocks away but it's being built on the hallowed ground of a former Burlington Coat Factory.



    • socialenemy on August 17, 2010 at 2:56 am

      I wasn't aware there was already one there so close, I will definitely be looking that up later today.



    • jen on August 17, 2010 at 12:01 pm

      It's a mosque! It's a mosque!It's a mosque! Mosque by any other name it's a mosque…………………………………………

      LEARN HISTORY ……………………. SUNKEN "USS ARIZONA" – IS A NATIONAL MEMORIAL IN HAWAII DEDICATED TO THOSE WHO WERE INNOCENTLY FORCED INTO AN UNTHINKABLE CONFLICT AND LOST THEIR LIVES.THE SAME CAN BE SAID FOR "GROUND ZERO" VICTIMS IN LOWER MANHATTAN!NOW, DID THE JAPANESE ASK FOR A TEMPLE TO BE PLACED NEAR THE USS ARIZONA?   THEY DID NOT! 

      IN MY BOOK THE JAPANESE HAVE MORE RESPECT FOR THE U.S. THAN SO-CALLED PRACTICING MUSLIMS!



    • chris-os on August 18, 2010 at 5:30 am

      Someone forgot to take their meds today.

      the "mosque is already there-2 blocks away-been there since 1970.



    • Dimsdale on August 18, 2010 at 5:41 am

      If so, what happens to your point that "Americans hate all of Islam, even the Muslim -Americans that have been here for generations" that you espouse on the Pelosi-mosque post?



    • Lucinda on August 23, 2010 at 4:52 am

      Isn't a community center usually built in a community?

       

      Just sayin'.



  2. Dimsdale on August 16, 2010 at 7:07 am

    Now if he could just "show great courage" without getting all squirrelly about it.



    • chris-os on August 17, 2010 at 3:21 am

      In retrospect, I wish Obama hadn't weighed in though I agree with everything he said. Sometimes, it is better to stay out of the fray because these jackals are just waiting to hop all over anything he says, twist it, even lie about it, to discredit him and the Democrats.

      These plans were in place last year-then that islamophobe, Geller, and Murdoch(In his NY Post and on Hannity's radio show) jumped on it recently to gin up controversy and promote their hate agenda.

      It is so disheartening to see Americans act like chumps over this community center.

      However, it is amazing to watch the right stretch the meaning of the 1st amendment to suit their purposes.agenda.

       



    • Dimsdale on August 17, 2010 at 5:38 am

      I agree that the reactions of all concerned are exactly what the Islamofascists want, and it is a no win situation for us.  No matter what we do, it will be taken by these "jackals" as anti Islam, anti Arab.

       

      Both sides stretch the meaning of the First Amendment.  It is probably the most abused amendment of all.  Maybe that is why it was placed first…

       

      I have read Geller's Atlas Shrugged blog on occasion, mostly with regard to "honor" killings, and I appreciate her advocacy for these poor girls.  As for the rest, take it as it is, but if she can back up what she says, then maybe what you call "hate" is just SOP for some fringe Islamists.



    • Dimsdale on August 17, 2010 at 5:51 am

      I am also pleased that you agree that the Constitution is not "living and breathing" as many leftists espouse.



    • Wyndeward on August 18, 2010 at 6:35 am

      Barry was brave, right up to the moment he dropped the issue and ran away from it like a scalded dog.



  3. winnie888 on August 17, 2010 at 1:42 am

    Guess the Dept. of the Interior is fussy about which land it wants to grab.  And these are the wizards of smart?  Yikes!  Is waffling considered courageous?  I still don't think we've heard the last of Obama's opinions on this issue.  Bottom line is he stepped into something he probably should have avoided.



  4. Lynn on August 17, 2010 at 3:11 am

    If you are as fed up as I am with this "Commander – in- Chief", go to Hartford, North steps of the Capital at 3-4:30 TODAY. Be a part of the "Constitution Ride Across America" and ease your soul! It's an opportunity to say the Pledge of Allegiance, which no one ever says anymore and meet Daren Gardner who is riding across the country. Hear those candidates who are running for Congress and find out their views! Lynn



  5. sammy22 on August 17, 2010 at 12:44 pm

    Why would the Japanese ever want a temple near the AZ Memorial??



    • Dimsdale on August 18, 2010 at 3:02 am

      I believe it is supposed to be a metaphor.

       

      We are supposed to be soooo sensitive to Muslim sensibilities, but there seems to be no analogous sensitivity on their part.



    • chris-os on August 18, 2010 at 3:22 am

      That was a quote from the venerable professor, Newt Gingrich-who is always good for a laugh-or a scare.

      Gingrich: "You know, Nazis don't have the right to put up a sign next to the Holocaust Museum in Washington. We would never accept the Japanese putting up a site next to Pearl Harbor. There's no reason for us to accept a mosque next to the World Trade Center"

      The scholarly Gingrich was likening Muslim-Americans to Nazis and those dirty Nips. Remember the   Japanese Americans that we put in detention camps during WW2? This Newt (def in urban dictionary says 'small animal") is pushing his ummm followers to a return to that time in our history.

      And, OMG, people are actually quoting this clown!

       



    • Dimsdale on August 18, 2010 at 5:49 am

      No, they are extreme analogies designed to make a point about the aforementioned sensibilities of Americans.  And should you be referring to our Japanese friends as "those dirty Nips"?  Tsk, tsk.

       

      You do know that it was the great Democrat, FDR, that forced those Japanese Americans into the internment camps, right?  I believe it is Øbama that claims to be the "new Roosevelt".



    • Wyndeward on August 18, 2010 at 6:38 am

      How about the W. T. Sherman Military Academy, to be built in Atlanta, with its sister facility, the N. B. Forrest Academy, to be built around 125th Street…



    • Dimsdale on August 18, 2010 at 6:20 pm

      Perhaps a Confederate flag at an NAACP meeting?  New Black Panther thugs at polling places?  Women using men's rest rooms and vice versa?  How are these different than a mosque a GZ?

       

      It is all about sensibilities.  One group's is being favored, the other ignored.



  6. sammy22 on August 18, 2010 at 4:35 am

    Some metaphor! I thought it's American citizens who want to build the center. They are also practicing Muslims. The second affiliation negates the first or what?



    • Dimsdale on August 18, 2010 at 5:50 am

      A) maybe we should all just be "Americans" sans hyphen.

      B) now address the "sensibilities" comment.



    • Wyndeward on August 18, 2010 at 6:37 am

      Who is funding said mosque / community center, neh?  If the money is all local cash, that is one thing, but if he raises monies in the middle east, will any of it come from Hamas or other, similar groups?



  7. Lucinda on August 18, 2010 at 7:05 pm

    If, as chris-os says, "there is already 1 there 2 blocks from this site and 240 in the city", why the need to build another? In a business district? Where no one lives? Why there?

    No one is denying the Muslims the right to practice their religion, as evidenced by the existence of a plethora of mosques in the city.



    • Lucinda on August 18, 2010 at 7:14 pm

      It's not like they're the first or only religious group to receive objections about the location of their house of worship.

      Here in our own Litchfield, CT synagogue plans criticized.

      And as Dimsdale commented on another post on this blog, here.



David Ignatius WaPo

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