Topic: Newsmax
Tammy Bruce writes in her Nov. 10 Newsmax column:
Just a few days ago, Obama and the White House went out of its way to issue a special proclamation for Eid al-Adha, the Muslim “festival of sacrifice.”
In an official White House statement, the president and first lady gushed about Eid and congratulated Muslims involved in the Hajj “pilgrimage.”
All of that is well and good, but what struck me about this special message was the reminder that this very same president deliberately ignored Easter this year, the most holy of Christian holidays, by snubbing Christians here and around the world.
In April there was disbelief that the White House issued no proclamation about Easter, let alone a personal statement by the president and his wife. Newsmax noted:"By comparison, the White House has released statements recognizing the observance of major Muslim holidays and released statements in 2010 on Ramadan, Eid-ul-Fitr, Hajj, and Eid-ul-Adha." On top of neglecting Easter, the president "also failed to release a statement marking Good Friday." The White House did, however, "release an eight-paragraph statement heralding Earth Day," which fell on Good Friday.”Most of us recognized a problem with a man whose spiritual leader and father figure ran a church where pleading to God to “damn” America was standard, but it now seems Obama’s contempt for this nation is personal and isn’t even something he bothers to mask.
Bruce is merely indulging in some factually deficient Obama-hate. Newsmax "news" article by L.D. Breen she cites in claiming that "the White House issued no proclamation about Easter, let alone a personal statement by the president and his wife" ignores the fact that, as Media Matters documented, Obama held an Easter prayer breakfast for which video and a transcript are available. Also, no president has issued an Easter proclamation since at least 1980.
Bruce then conflates this fraudulent comparison into an attack on Obama's purported "a personal contempt for the Christian foundation of this country," as further exmplified by "the announcement of a “Christmas Tree Tax” by Obama’s Department of Agriculture." She went on to sneer: "Oh sure, the Fed is saying it was a marketing fee for the Christmas tree 'industry,' to supposedly improve the image of the apparently much hated and dreaded tree. The fact is it was a tax meant to fund a board appointed by a federal agency targeting one religion and one religion only — Christianity."
Bruce doesn't mention that Christmas tree growers support the fee, and that the Department of Agriculture collects similar assessments on numerous other agricultural commodites to promote those products.
But Bruce didn't care about the facts, as she was on a rant:
There is a precedent for this — in the Muslim world it’s called the “Jizya” — a tax levied on non-Muslim citizens in the Islamic world, allowing them to practice their religion while being "protected" by the Muslim state.
In our case, it seems more like an atheistic federal government looking for tribute by those pesky Christians who dare to think there is a higher authority than the permanent political class.
While I believe our main problem is the fact that our president is simply narcissistic with a chip on his shoulder, I also believe his narcissism keeps him from being able to embrace faith of any sort, contributing to the mess of a president that he is. You see, when everything revolves around you or is about you, that leaves no room for anything higher and beyond yourself.
Obama’s pandering to Muslims is just that — pandering, while his rather apparent hostility toward Christianity, Israel, and Jews is a natural reaction for anyone who has contempt for the United States in general.
Bruce clearly hates Obama too much to care about the truth.
