Sitting Here in the Wreckage

The President’s speech was worse than I thought. Much worse.

First he pandered, then he pattered, and finally he just handed over the keys and told everyone at the Islamic Center that he just knew they could be trusted with the ship of state. Get a load of this piece of tripe:

Today we gather, with friendship and respect, to …renew our determination to stand together in the pursuit of freedom and peace. We come to express our appreciation for a faith that has enriched civilization for centuries. We come in celebration of America’s diversity of faith and our unity as free people. And we hold in our hearts the ancient wisdom of the great Muslim poet, Rumi: “The lamps are different, but the light is the same.”

Moments like this dedication help clarify who Americans are as a people, and what we wish for the world. We live in a time when there are questions about America and her intentions. For those who seek a true understanding of our country, they need to look no farther than here. This Muslim center sits quietly down the road from a synagogue, a Lutheran church, a Catholic parish, a Greek Orthodox chapel, a Buddhist temple — each with faithful followers who practice their deeply held beliefs and live side by side in peace.

Does he actually believe these poisonous platitudes? Doesn’t he read the newspapers? Hasn’t he seen what they’re doing to Christians in Gaza? To Hindus in Europe? What moral universe does our President inhabit?

Here’s the worst of several atrocities:

To underscore America’s respect for the Muslim faith here at home, I came to this Center six days after the 9/11 attacks to denounce incidents of prejudice against Muslim Americans. (Applause.) Today I am announcing a new initiative that will improve mutual understanding and cooperation between America and people in predominately Muslim countries.

I will appoint a special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference. This is the first time a President has made such an appointment to the OIC. (Applause.) Our special envoy will listen to and learn from representatives from Muslim states and will share with them America’s views and values. This is an opportunity for Americans to demonstrate to Muslim communities our interest in respectful dialogue and continued friendship.

That presupposes that rational people are interested in respectful dialogue with theocratic tyrants. Get a grip, Mr. President, you have slid so far down the muddy slope of sloppy, mindless goodwill that we’ll have to winch you back up to reality; you’ll never make it under your own steam. And that would presume you even wanted to live in a reality-based environment, a presumption I no longer assume on your behalf.
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The Center for Vigilant Freedom immediately makes the logical jump to what a “special envoy” to the OIC might entail:

First, that’s probably an entire office, not just some guy with a blackberry and a lot of airline miles. We’ll also assume logically that office is in the State Department, until we hear otherwise.

Second, what is the scope of commitment and involvement — and implicit acceptance of a new identity as a “Muslim state” — as a result of our sending a representative?

If we’re sending a representative to the OIC… are we now a member? What is the status of a representative to the OIC and what does it mean about our role vis-à-vis the OIC? We’ve been warned about Eurabia by Bat Ye’or. Welcome to Amerabia.

The Organization of Islamic Conferences has a lot of conferences (listed below)*: will we be represented at all of them? Who will be the representatives and their staff (look to friends of Suhail Khan, Grover Norquist, David Keene [now of the new joint organization “American Conservative Union-CAIR”], CAIR, MAS, and the attendees at yesterday’s Wilson Center conference for resumés now burning up the fax machines at the State Dept.). Will our involvement be as transparent and public as, say, inside efforts at passing the Amnesty Bill or establishing the apparatus of the North American Union?

*Organization of Islamic Conferences

• Islamic Summit Conference
  
• Conference of Foreign Ministers
  
• Conference of Information Ministers
  
• Conference of Culture Ministers
  
• Conference of Tourism Ministers
  
• The Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the OIC (COMCEC)

Which is the conference to which non-Muslim states send representatives? I’m optimistic that there is one, and he just didn’t go into the details.

But I can’t find it. What I can read in the OIC charter is this:

The Islamic Conference is made up of:

1.		the Conference of Kings and Heads of State and Government
2.		the Conference of Foreign Ministers, and
3.		the General Secretariat and Subsidiary Organs.

ARTICLE VIII

Membership:

The Organization of the Islamic Conference is made up of the States which took part in the Conference of Kings and Heads of State and Government held in Rabat and the two Foreign Ministers’ Conferences held in Jeddah and Karachi, and signatory to the present Charter. Every Muslim State is eligible to join the Islamic Conference on submitting an application expressing its desire and preparedness to adopt this Charter. The application shall be deposited with the General Secretariat, to be brought before the Foreign Ministers’ Conference at its first meeting after the submission of the application. Membership shall take effect as of the time of approval of the Conference by a two-third majority of the Conference members.

Are we now therefore, by default, a Muslim state (well, that would explain why we didn’t send a representative before…)? Will we be financing the OIC?

Good questions from CVF. Just try getting answers from the Byzantine Church of the Bush White House.

I am counting the days until this man goes back to Texas and morphs into just another ex-President shill for the same oily money bags that Jimmah and the Clintoons haul around.

He has become as smarmy as Hillary, as beholden as Barack, and every bit the turncoat that Kerry was. I would say it can’t get worse but Bush has another eighteen months to take us down.

Me? Bitter? Nah. Hell hath no fury like a voter scorned, Mr. Bush. Certainly you can feel the heat from millions of angry citizens by now. At least I hope you can. If you can’t it’s simply because you are so well-insulated by your sycophants that you can’t feel anything, can’t hear anything except your own echo chamber.

By the time Clinton left office I couldn’t bear to hear his voice. It had been the carrier of so many lies, so much faux-sympathy that I ran from the sound. Bush’s voice is worse, because I expected better from him. I expected better and I got worse, much worse.

After I lie down for awhile with a cool cloth on my forehead, I’ll have to get up and get back to work, figuring out the scenarios for 2008. But I’m twice shy now, having been so thoroughly burned… it’s hard to believe any of them.

Why would a sane person run for this office, and why would we vote for anyone who wanted it? They have all become automatically suspect.

As for our status now, I leave you with the questions the Center for Vigilant Freedom proposes:

Let’s be optimistic. Say we’re just sending a representative, not participating as an equal Muslim state but as some other category. What is that other category? Are we sending a Dhimmi representative as an inferior state (by definition of the Koran, if we are not a Muslim state)?

What, exactly, will be the portfolio of the Dhimmitude Desk in the State Department?

If this President had the anatomy for it, he’d propose John Bolton for this position as envoy to the OIC. Bolton would have them for breakfast. That’s why it will never happen.

Nothing manly will ever happen again on Bush’s watch.