Anyone with a pulse and their wits about them has heard through the Old Media that a mosque has been proposed for Lower Manhattan, mere feet from Ground Zero. While this is certainly controversial, and brings to the surface emotions perhaps some have not had in some time, there’s quite a bit in Imam Rauf’s background which should give even the most casual observers, even supporters of the mosque, some pause.

Imam Rauf has close ties with the Obama Admin., in fact he recently boasted about writing President Obama’s Cairo speech, and he’s traveled on State Dept. junkets across the world, all paid for by we, the taxpayers. Essentially, he’s your typical, smooth-talking type who loves to lecture others about perceived “insensitivity”, particularly when it pertains to the West and its dealings with the Muslim World. Basically, political-correctness, Islam-style, with a soft, candy-assed shell.

Hat tip to 5TownsJewishTimes for cluing folks into a Human Events article about the taxpayer-subsidized Slumlord Imam:

Ground Zero Imam a Taxpayer-Subsidized Slumlord

by Connie Hair

08/30/2010

The elitist, media-generated grand illusion of the Ground Zero mosque imam has begun to collapse under scrutiny.

New reports from The Record out of Hackensack, N.J., reveal Feisal Abdul Rauf, the would-be Ground Zero imam, owns taxpayer-subsidized apartment buildings in Hudson County where the tenants have made municipal health complaints including rat, roach and bedbug infestations, seeping toilets, leaks, urine-soaked hallways, no heat and no hot water.

Despite millions of dollars in government subsidies, Rauf has trouble maintaining several small apartment buildings in North Bergen, Palisades Park and Union City.

From the NewJersey.com report:

Page after page of municipal health records examined by The Record show repeated complaints ranging from failure to pick up garbage, to rat and bedbug infestations and no heat and hot water.

Cynthia Balko, 48, of Union City — a longtime tenant of Rauf’s — said she’s had to live with rats, leaks and no heat: “I don’t have anything nice to say about the man.”

Despite having received over $2 million in public funding for renovations, Rauf’s tenants were forced to file municipal health complaints to seek relief. One such single mother living in a Rauf-owned apartment in Union City said Rauf has not answered complaints.

From an additional story in The Record:

To understand her perspective, you need to go to a forlorn corner on the Jersey side — to 22nd Street in Union City and a four-story apartment building owned by Rauf. The locks on a front door are broken and the hallway leading to [Melba] Lopez’s two-bedroom apartment smells of urine.

Looking east on 22nd Street — back across the Hudson — the Empire State building pokes the sky. On that side of the river, New York’s mayor speaks of Rauf as a symbol of religious freedom and last week invited the Imam’s wife, Daisy Khan, to dinner at Gracie Mansion to honor the Islamic celebration of Ramadan.

But in Union City, Lopez, a single mother, has another way of describing the man who has time to promote the so-called Ground Zero mosque, but does not seem to have time to answer her complaints about leaks in her toilet.

Lopez said in the report she has never met the would-be Ground Zero mosque imam but she says she has met Rauf’s wife Khan.

Lopez said she remembers Khan telling her that she and her husband did not have enough money to fix her leak and other problems in the building. What Lopez did not know was that at the same time, Rauf and Khan were trying to raise money for their mosque project on the other side of the Hudson

According to the new reports, Rauf has a long history of taxpayer subsidies and grants for slum properties. There’s even a new revelation of a lawsuit settled in June over what the report terms a suit alleging fraud.

From the link:

[T]he suit alleged Rauf and Khan transferred ownership to another firm they owned and then obtained a $650,000 mortgage on the same building from a bank. After the building was damaged by fire in February 2008, Rauf and Khan stopped making mortgage payments to Cockinos, a former key executive at Daibes’ Mariner’s Bank. When Cockinos tried to foreclose, he discovered Rauf and Khan had switched ownership and filed suit alleging “fraud.”

The case was settled shortly before a June 28 trial, with Rauf and Khan agreeing to pay off the mortgage to Cockinos within the next few years, said the couple’s lawyer, Richard Rosa of Hackensack.

There is much more on Rauf and Khan’s current financial woes at the link.

The New York Post reported the site’s developers owe hundreds of thousands in back taxes:

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.

Sounds like a good time to raise $100 million for a mosque.

Reuters is reporting New York is considering granting the group a reported $70 million in public funding.

So, there ya have it. A smooth-talking imam, not unlike any other smooth-talking type who is not a real holy man, just another shyster who seeks to bilk millions out of the taxpayers’ pockets, both for his slum properties and a mosque/”community center” mere feet from Ground Zero. Same as any other dime store shakedown artist who hides behind his religion. I’d bet dollars to donuts he and his people, to include the deadbeat owner of the property, made all this noise so they could get more private funding. The fact that Bloomberg supports this is a shame, and a slap in the face to the survivors and victims’ families of the September, 11th, terrorist attacks.

Thanks go out to my friend in Montreal who sent me one of the articles.

RV

We must never forget the 9/11 attacks and the ideology that was responsible for them!

As was expected, Obama accepted General Stanley McChrystal’s resignation. In a surprising move, Obama appointed General David Petraeus to fill the position of Commander of the Afghanistan operation.

Flash back to September 2007, during the Senate confirmation hearings on the Surge in Iraq, when Obama beat up on the same General David Petraeus. Just as a reminder, here’s the video of it. Obama did not let General Petraeus get a word in edgewise!

“We have now set the bar so low that modest improvement in what was a completely chaotic situation’s considered success, but it’s not. This continues to be a disastrous foreign policy mistake.”

–Senator Barack Obama

If you recall, then Senator Joe Biden was also very critical of General Petraeus and his “surge” strategy.

“Well, what I, uhh, I saw heard and learned is a little bit what you heard, uhh, from the general just a moment ago. Uhh, there’s a big disconnect between, uhh, the truth of the matter and the reality. I mean the truth of the matter is that, uhhh, the America — this administration’s policy and the surge are a failure and that, uh, the surge, uh, which was supposed to stop sectarian violence, uh, long enough to get political reconciliation… There’s been no political reconciliation.”

and

“I expect him to say that. I think he’s dead, flat, wrong. The fact of the matter is is that, uh, this — this idea of these security gains we made have had no impact on the underlying sectarian dynamic. None! None whatsoever! Can anybody envision a central government made up of Sunni, Shi’a, and Kurds, that’s going to gain the trust and respect of 27 million Iraqis? It’s not going to happen.”

Both Obama and Biden tore General Petraeus a new one, proclaiming that the Surge was a failure and both of those clowns were wrong. Now they’re in charge and are turning to the very man that they so wrongly abused to save the Surge in Afghanistan. I can only hope that they let General Petreaus do his job in eliminating the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, just as he did in defeating the insurgency (and also Al Qaeda) in Iraq.

I was first made aware of this yesterday. While watching FOX News last evening, Charles Krauthammer commented on how Obama was photographed with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, but when he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this past March, Obama wouldn’t allow photographs to be taken.

Gateway Pundit picked up on this and reported on it as well:

U.S. President Barack Obama shakes hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (L) at the White House in Washington, June 9, 2010. Obama hosted Abbas at the White House on Wednesday seeking to ensure that fallout from Israel’s Gaza flotilla raid does not derail fragile U.S.-led peace efforts. (REUTERS)

Barack Obama would not allow any photos taken of him with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he came to the White House for a visit in March.

It figures.

Yes, this certainly does figure. With this act, Obama has again snubbed yet another long-time ally, Israel, while chumming up with the Palestinians. Did he really think people wouldn’t be noticing this and calling him on it? Does he really care? Apparently not.

We’re in big trouble folks!

Kevin O’Brien of the Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote a spot-on commentary, We’re worried about ‘backlash’ as the terrorists press our luck. Here’s an excerpt:

What’s it going to take for the American left to admit that, no matter how much we all wish it weren’t true, our Islamic enemies are trying to kill us?

It’s going to take more than 31 attempts on our lives, engineered or financed by Muslim militants. Because that’s where the count stands since Sept. 11, 2001, and the left still stubbornly insists that Tea Party attendees armed with placards and lawn chairs are the real enemy.

Here’s New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, speaking with CBS anchor Katie Couric before Faisal Shahzad, the would-be bomber of Times Square, was caught:

“If I had to guess — 25 cents — this would be exactly that, somebody . . . home-grown, maybe a mentally deranged person or somebody with a political agenda that doesn’t like the health care bill or something. It could be anything.”

The “. . .” was where Couric helpfully prompted him: “A home-grown?”

Now, here’s Bloomberg after Shahzad, a Pakistani immigrant, was caught:

“We will not tolerate any bias or backlash against Pakistani or Muslim New Yorkers.”

As if that were going to be a problem.

One would hope the no-backlash policy doesn’t apply to whatever the New York City Police Department is doing to find Shahzad’s terrorist associates. Will they be allowed to question Pakistanis or Muslims, or would that be considered profiling?

When that video was shown of the middle aged white guy taking off his shirt near the explosive laden vehicle, many in the media almost had “orgasms” that the bomber could be a Tea Partier. When Faisal Shahzad was caught, there were actually media types that expressed disappointment that it wasn’t the white guy Tea Partier. MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer has this to say:

“I get frustrated…There was part of me that was hoping this was not going to be anybody with ties to any kind of Islamic country”

“…There are a lot of people who want to use terrorist intent to justify writing off people who believe in a certain way or come from certain countries or whose skin color is a certain way. I mean they use it as justification for really outdated bigotry.”

Contessa, how about MSNBC’s outright bigotry towards the Tea Party Movement?

The left does not get it! The Tea Party Movement is not the enemy of the USA and the American Way of Life. We are trying to defend and preserve it. Many of us are military veterans who’ve already served our country. Many are First Responders, law enforcement officers, fire fighters and paramedics. It’s the Islamic Extremists that are our enemies. They aim to kill us! Yet, MSNBC, along with other cohorts in the lefty MSM continue to vilify the loyal Americans of the Tea Party Movement while making excuses for Faisal Shahzad. This speaks volumes of where their loyalties lie!

The Feds are considering the possibility that the Times Square Car Bomb was meant for Comedy Central. This was reported on Fox Nation:

Police hunting the man who parked a crude but powerful car bomb in Times Square Saturday night are looking into a possible link to a South Park cartoon lampooning censorship about Mohammed.

No link has been established, but threats against the Comedy Central animators were made by a New York Islamist Web site last month and police are aggressively looking for connections, sources told the Daily News.

The dark-colored Nissan SUV, its engine running and hazard lights flashing, was parked on W. 45th St. right next to the Broadway headquarters of Viacom, which owns Comedy Central.

Wouldn’t it be something if the South Park cartoon was the motivation behind the attempted bombing? A radical Islamic website, RevolutionMuslim.com, posted a warning to Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, that stated the following

From Fox News

We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show,” the posting reads. “This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them.”

Reaching by phone early Tuesday, Abu Talhah al Amrikee, the author of the post, said he wrote the entry to “raise awareness.” He said the grisly photograph of van Gogh was meant to “explain the severity” of what Parker and Stone did by mocking Muhammad.

“It’s not a threat, but it really is a likely outcome,” al Amrikee said, referring to the possibility that Parker and Stone could be murdered for mocking Muhammad. “They’re going to be basically on a list in the back of the minds of a large number of Muslims. It’s just the reality.”

So al Amrikee promised the murder of Parker and Stone over a cartoon. I do hope that the FBI is investigating this guy and his website.

There’s a video of guy who may be the perpetrator that was aired this morning on the news. I hope they catch the guy soon and get to the bottom of this and find out the motive for the attempted bombing.

Ambassador Paul Bremer is recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on terrorism and homeland security. He served as the Presidential Envoy to Iraq, responsible for Coalition efforts to start rebuilding the country’s shattered political and economic structure. His best-selling book, My Year in Iraq: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope, tells of the challenges he and his colleagues faced there. Ambassador Bremer’s 23-year career in the State Department spanned eight Presidencies and during this time, he served as Special Assistant or Executive Assistant to six Secretaries of State.

Our Three Key Foreign Policy Challenges:

1. China: possess a hunger for natural resources, totalitarianism and an aggressive foreign policy
2. Russia: increasingly isolated, demographic collapse, population will shrink from 140 million to less than 100 million by mid-century due to high death rate, low birth rate, high abortion rate and low immigration
3. Islamic extremism: Global threat with a nation-state dimension, we need a strategy to combat it

Terrorism changed in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s from just trying to get attention to a new approach: they are now more deadly, suicide attacks increased, all of the known terrorist-supporting states are pursuing or will soon acquire nuclear weapons.

This extreme version of Islam believes only in conversion and by force if necessary; purpose is to destroy Western civilization from within, motivated by a burning hatred of all that is Western civilization.

“A Muslim has no nationality except his belief,” wrote an intellectual godfather of radical Islam, the Egyptian Sayyid Qutb. Democracy has been called a “Satanic Project” by Osama bin Laden; he denies the legitimacy of Western civilization. Prediction: extremists will use weapons of mass destruction on us within the next four years.

Why? What is the root cause? Existence and success of Western civilization is the ONLY reason; this is a clash about civilizations, due to their inability to reconcile their image of Islam with that of Western civilizations and the modern world.

Iran has paid no price for lying and diplomacy is failing! A nuclear Iran will create:

• a shift in the geopolitical balance
• nuclear proliferation
• increasingly bolder actions by Iran
• uncertainty of peace between Israel and Arabs
• an increase in a form of super-terrorism

The only options: regime change or military action

A Great Strategy is necessary. We need:

• conceptual clarity about the threat
• good intelligence
• mobilization of all our resources

Obama’s policies don’t match his words, “We are at war”. How can you do a serious examination of the Fort Hood shooter without mentioning Islam once in the report? The best intelligence is when we can find out what they are going to do before they do it and then stop them from doing it!

We need a Grand Strategy: it has to deal with ideas; terrorism is symptomatic of underlying hatred; we need to help a moderate Islam create representative government, support the Green Democratic movement and the women of Islam in their support for democracy. We must encourage them to be brave so they can show radical Islam that THEY are the aberration.

And we shouldn’t allow Russia and China to hold us hostage – time is running out!

Big Government.com is getting intel that the Clinton Machine is preparing to gear up in an attempt to take down the Tea Party Movement:

Big Government has learned of at least one other conference call/meeting around this time. A meeting of former Clintonistas and senior Democrat political operatives to coordinate a push-back to the burgeoning tea party movement. Consider it a Democrat party relief effort.

This is right up the Clinton Machine’s alley, smearing and ruining citizens who get in their way. The Clintons were not shy about using government apparatus that was at their disposal to suppress their opposition. Remember the Clintons’ “Enemies List”. Christopher Ruddy can tell you about his experience with it during his crusade to expose the Vincent Foster cover-up. Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily, was harrassed and his office burglarized after taking out full page ads that provided evidence of a cover-up and appealed for donations to keep the probe going, in the Washington Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. American Spectator magazine also suffered break-ins during its reporting of the “Troopergate” scandal.

The Clinton Era is epitomized by the term “connect the dots”.

“Big Government” goes on to report:

Big Government has learned that Clintonistas are plotting a “push/pull” strategy. They plan to identify 7-8 national figures active in the tea party movement and engage in deep opposition research on them. If possible, they will identify one or two they can perhaps ‘turn’, either with money or threats, to create a mole in the movement. The others will be subjected to a full-on smear campaign. (Has MSNBC already been notified?)

Big Government has also learned that James Carville will head up the effort.

Who are the Tea Parties national figures? We don’t have a central command and contrary to the bleating from the lefties, we’re not getting funded by the Republican Party or Fox News. Although we come together for rallies and political action, we’re a pretty defuse bunch. Those of us in Rochester don’t take our marching orders from anybody. We’re truly a local, grassroots coalition of concerned, freedom loving Americans that believe in small government and adherence to the Constitution. We are working class people that don’t have much to begin with and are concerned about the future of our families. Will our houses mysteriously start getting burglarized? Are we going to get unjustly audited by the IRS? Will bodies end up in Fort Marcy Park?

I thought we were done with the Clinton Machine’s dirty politics, smear campaigns, malfeasance and mysterious deaths that were connected with it.

How do you feel about the Democrats unleashing of the Clinton Machine on regular, law abiding, working class citizens?