Grover Norquist Elaborates On The Folly Of Mosque Gambit

Now it will be really interesting to see what comes crawling out of the woodwork this Time.

Maybe Palin agrees that the republicans should move on.
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Looks like she would rather defend and cheer on “Doctor” Laura.
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/beltway-beast/black-republican-sarah-palin-doesnt-speak-for-us/

Norquist is correct on the religious freedom issue. Meanwhile, he spreads lies on others. When was the last time a Republican reduced expenditures? He must have a brain cramp because Bush left a 1.3 trillion dollar deficit in his wake, thanks in large part to his unfunded wars. I’m also confused as to which Obama tax increases he is referring to?

I’m also confused as to which Obama tax increases he is referring to?
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Oh, that’s easy. Republicans didn’t want to acknowledge the massive impact of their tax cuts for the richest in this country back in 2001 and 2003 — they had to avoid the issue, in order to sneak them through with reconciliation — so they set them to expire in 2010.
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Now that 2010 is here, the Republican plan to let the tax cuts expire is due to happen as Republicans scheduled it, but because Obama isn’t planning on renewing the tax cuts, he’s clearly responsible for a massive new tax hike.
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It really makes sense if you’re an idiot.

Derek: spot on!
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Norquist is eloquently promotes the importance of the First Amendment and its defining role in the shaping of America, then proceeds to spew so much bullsh!t about the current state of the economy that I want to bathe in hand sanitizer – yuck!

Money quote: Norquist at 41:30:

…the Republicans focusing on Monica Lewinsky cost them the election in 1998…

Let me finish the sentence for you Grover:”…and resulted in the Government being able to run a budget *surplus* by 2000!”

Kevin here is another thing you can figure out, if you are not an idiot, when you enact 3 of the largest tax cuts in history, as the center point of your economic policy, and leave a 1.3 trillion dollar deficit and an economy losing 700,000 jobs per month in your wake, it means the policy doesn’t work. The only reduction that results from it is a reduction in government revenue. If the Bush tax cuts stimulated anything at all it was the Chinese economy, not the US. Keynes would have promoted tax cuts as one of the fiscal tools to use to get out of recession, but only for those creating jobs, and only when they do. A good rule of thumb is to quit digging if the hole is getting bigger, but it is supposed to get smaller.

kbanginmotown if there wasn’t such a big deficit, before Obama made his half-assed attempt to stimulate it, there may not be quite the concern with deficits that there is now. Of course, the right fails to mention the hand they had in creating the first deficit and are trying to blame the whole thing on the so-called socialist in power. Today’s unemployment numbers demonstrate the failure of both parties. I’m afraid we can look forward to a decade of high unemployment.

On the subject of the Burlington Coat Factory Community Center, Jeffrey Goldberg offers this memory of the imam that so many idiots on the right are insisting is a dangerous radical:
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The right-wing campaign against the so-called “Ground Zero mosque” includes vicious personal attacks on the Muslim cleric who leads the Cordoba Initiative, the organization behind the plan. I know Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, and I know him to be a moderate, forward-leaning Muslim — yes, it is true he has said things with which I disagree, but I have never expected him to function as a member of the Zionist Organization of America.
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In 2003, Imam Rauf was invited to speak at a memorial service for Daniel Pearl, the journalist murdered by Islamist terrorists in Pakistan. The service was held at B’nai Jeshurun, a prominent synagogue in Manhattan, and in the audience was Judea Pearl, Daniel Pearl’s father. In his remarks, Rauf identified absolutely with Pearl, and identified himself absolutely with the ethical tradition of Judaism. “I am a Jew,” he said.
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There are those who would argue that these represent mere words, chosen carefully to appease a potentially suspicious audience. I would argue something different: That any Muslim imam who stands before a Jewish congregation and says, “I am a Jew,” is placing his life in danger. Remember, Islamists hate the people they consider apostates even more than they hate Christians and Jews. In other words, the man many commentators on the right assert is a terrorist-sympathizer placed himself in mortal peril in order to identify himself with Christians and Jews, and specifically with the most famous Jewish victim of Islamism.

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http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/08/ground-zero-imam-i-am-a-jew-i-have-always-been-one/61761/

And Peter Beinart, of all people, has possibly the best piece on this stupidity:
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Remember when George W. Bush and his neoconservative allies used to say that the “war on terror” was a struggle on behalf of Muslims, decent folks who wanted nothing more than to live free like you and me? Remember when Karen Hughes paid millions to produce glitzy videos of Muslim Americans testifying about how free they were to practice their religion in the USA? Remember Bush’s second inaugural, when he said “America’s ideal of freedom” is “sustained in our national life by the truths of Sinai, the Sermon on the Mount, the words of the Koran?”
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Once upon a time, Republicans were so confident that the vast majority of Muslims preferred freedom to jihad that they believed the U.S. could install democracy in Iraq within months. Now, confronted with a group of Muslim Americans who want to build a cultural center that includes Jews and Christians on the board (how many churches and synagogues do that?), GOP leaders call them terrorists because they don’t share Benjamin Netanyahu’s view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Once upon a time, the “war on terror” was supposed to bring American values to Saudi Arabia. Now Newt Gingrich says we shouldn’t build a mosque in Lower Manhattan until the Saudis build churches and synagogues in Mecca—which is to say, we’re bringing Saudi values to the United States. I wonder how David Petraeus feels about all this. There he is, slogging away in the Hindu Kush, desperately trying to be culturally sensitive, watching GIs get killed because Afghans believe the U.S. is waging a war on Islam, and back home, the super-patriots on Fox News have… declared war on Islam.
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So please, no more talk about those idealistic neoconservatives who are willing to expend blood and treasure so Afghans and Iraqis can live free. People in Basra and Kandahar had better hope that America’s counterinsurgency warriors create a society in which they can practice their religion free of intimidation and insult. Because it’s now clear they can’t do so on the lower tip of the island of Manhattan.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-08-17/ground-zero-mosque-controversy-america-has-disgraced-itself/

“Today’s unemployment numbers demonstrate the failure of both parties.”
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I would say that today’s unemployment numbers demonstrate the success of corporatist “conservatives” of both parties.

Right wingers are often dying to say that Democrats fear Sarah Palin.

I can tell you that I do not, but, I do fear intelligent conservatives leading this country backward economically with more corporate welfare and tax breaks for the top one tenth of one percent of Americans.

Karl Rove is a master manipulator, who is frightening.

Grover Norquist is frightening since he knows how to create a right wing movement and make it work and even convince people to vote against their own best interests as well as what not to do.

He is a bright adversary and, therefore, a scary one.