Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Pamela Geller's Hit Job On Mitch Daniels Easily Dismissed

There was a time when Pam Geller of Atlas Shrugs was a voice that could be trusted, but not anymore. 

This is not to say that she is never right, because there are some times when she nails it spot on. But there are also times she gets it dead wrong and there are many blind followers who take her word for everything she ways without verification.

She often publishes posts about events that the MSM would never dare to report, and that's a good thing. We need people like her to do this more often. But there are moments when she runs with stories that are inaccurate. There are times when she presents a remarkably slanted perspective, without doing enough research before she hits the send button.

This hurts her credibility greatly.

Here is one example: Mitch Daniels "Honored" by Notorious Jew-Hating, Supremacist Organization AAI

You really don't have to read much more of her post to see where she is going with this. But if you took Geller's word as gospel, you might be tempted to jump to the same weak conclusion she has.

It's hard to know where to begin to dismantle this absurd presentation, but let's start with Gov. Daniels.

Daniels is the grandson of Christian Syrian immigrants who were purged from their homeland by Muslims in the early 1900s. While he is of Arab descent, he is Christian and American. Many other Syrians were purged from their country at that time, many of them settled in Indiana, many have made great contributions to this nation.

Some became businessmen and entrepreneurs in the spirit of the American dream. Others worked in coal mines and other forms of hard physical labor. Most of them sent their children to school and admonished them to study hard, so they could make something out themselves they would have never had the chance to do in their old country.

Like other ethnic immigrants, the next generation became doctors, lawyers, teachers, and some made their parents' small family businesses even bigger. So to most intelligent rational people, it should come as no surprise that one of those families has now produced a governor.

Let's look at the award Geller froths about in her erroneous fit, the Najeeb Halaby Award for Public Service.

Najeeb Halaby Jr. was a second generation Syrian-American with multiple degrees and was a test pilot in the US Navy in WWII. His father cam here from Ottoman Syria in the late 1800s, they were Christians. His daughter became Queen Noor of Jordan, but Halaby was an American through and through.

For this reason, it should come as no surprise that there is an award that bears his name, one that was awarded to another American of Arab descent who has made great achievements in the state that elected him to straighten what was a horrible mess.

This brings us to the organization that gave the award to Daniels, the American Arab Institute. (Before we go further... please notice the order of that title, American comes first.)

It was formed by James Zogby, brother of the pollster and Christian American of Arab descent.

Yes, it is a liberal, left-leaning organization that probably disagrees with 90% of Daniels' conservative policies. Yes, it has been a staunch critic of many of the state of Israel's policies. It is political in nature, not theological. It does not promote jihad, it does not call for the eradication of Israel. It does call for a two-state solution, one that Israel is willing to accept but the Palestinians have not yet signed onto, due the growing influence of radical jihadist organizations like Hamas.

It is not CAIR, it is not ISNA.

I am sure that just as the AAI does not agree with the lion's share of the Daniels' policies, he doesn't agree with theirs either.

Geller's blog isn't the only one jumping out of their skin about Daniels right now.

Red State just had to follow suit and get on the pathetic bandwagon without knowing the facts, along with Geller. But at the least the major premise of this blogger's argument was made on policy. His assumption is dead wrong, but the mention of the award was an afterthought.

Daniels is a strong fiscal conservative. Not going to TEA party rallies does not mean he stands against the TEA Party principles of limited smaller government. He has spent the last 6+ years slashing spending, balancing the budget, creating a business friendly environment that has led to increases in jobs, and did it without punishing the rich. Does that sound like a RINO?

And as for the Jew-hating tendencies that Geller wants uninformed people to believe, here is a speech you may want to watch before you let her get you sidetracked into believing a lie.

This is Daniels receiving the Man of Achievement Award from the Anti-Defamation League:



Bottom line: Daniels is not anti-semitic, not a RINO.

He just doesn't cater to the reactionary crowd that Geller associates herself with. And if you want Barack Obama to be sitting in the WH for four more years, just let people like her hijack this dialogue and distract from the important issues of the day. She has done a fine job of reporting many things in the past and my hat goes off to her for that. But this is not about her, it is about what is best for this nation.

It is not fair to categorize this man as a Jew hater for accepting an award from an organization that represents his heritage. Doing so takes a play right out of the Democrats' playbook, which will play very well into their hands in 2012.Doing so, exposes a terrible hypocrisy and severely cripples the GOP's chances of presenting a united front against an out of control government.

But the most important thing to learn from this is tolerance and acting within the boundaries of rationality. Lumping every American of Arab descent into the mold of Islamic jihad is not fair, and not what I want this nation to become accustomed to doing. I know many and have worked with them over the years, they bleed red, white, and blue, just like any American. Even like Pam Geller.


(Hat Tip for the video, and the inspiration to write this long-winded post comes from Advance Indiana.)

11 comments:

Mary Ellen/Nunly said...

It's frustrating to me when I see posts like the one of Geller's that you just pointed out. I will occasionally look at her blog if there is a link to it, but it seems like most of her posts are very much alike...mostly accusations of someone being an anti-Semite. It reminds me of all the progressive blogs who point to anyone who doesn't agree with them as being "racist".

Sure, there are anti-Semites out there and there are racists, but you have to look at the whole picture before those accusations are put forth.

I don't know that much about Mitch Daniels, and I'm glad you wrote this post. I only wish more could see this, written by someone who lives in Indiana and knows him from his work, not the selective information that Pam gave.

LA Sunset said...

ME,

Anymore, she is merely feeding a rabid crowd what they want to hear. She is interested in quantity of posts so she can compete with multi-writer blogs. By doing this, she is running with incomplete of completely erroneous info. It's not about the truth, it's become her business.

I never marketed this blog the way others do. I just figured that if I wrote what I felt was right and presented in a way that people would like to read it, good people would come read it. That is not to say that everyone agrees with me 100% of the time. I don't want sycophants, just a few intelligent readers. I think my goal has been met.

Mary Ellen/Nunly said...

Oh man, you just blew my goal to reach sycophant status! Dang! Obviously I need to work on that. :-)

LA Sunset said...

ME,

You are not a true sycophant unless you buy a t-shirt that says you are.

A.C. McCloud said...

I consider her worse, but similar to the Gateway Pundit. Both can get so slanted they fall off the rails, but both provide stories you won't see elsewhere.

Thanks for the background on Daniels. Although he's the definition of dark horse I look forward to his participation in the debates, should he run.

LA Sunset said...

AC,

Here's my dark horse scenario. No one shines. the party begs him to get in. He does and he looks to all of his opponents and says, help me. I need you all. I cannot do this by myself, the stakes are too high. I can put all of you work in the area you are best qualified. If I fail I will step aside in four and let someone else take a crack at it.

He will then build a team of all-stars. They will not be perfect in everything, but they will need to work together to undo the past several years of disastrous policies. It may be our only chance, since Christie isn't running.

Always On Watch said...

I entered the blogosphere via a route most other anti-jihad bloggers didn't travel. For years, when people mentioned "Pamela," I didn't have the slightest idea about whom they were speaking.

Of course, over time, I learned about Pamela's web site. I even worked with her on a radio-show project and met with her personally on one occasion. That said, I wouldn't call myself one of her blind followers.

Yes, she has done and continues to do some excellent work. More than that, she is willing to put her name and face out there.

I don't read Pamela's site every day. I'll check out the linked post after I finish typing in this comment.

You mentioned: the GOP's chances of presenting a united front against an out of control government.

The problem of that lack of unity, at least right now, cannot be laid only at the feet of Pamela Geller. In fact, the GOP has been fractured for years; that fracturing is but one reason that Obama got elected in 2008. I'd like to be wrong, but I don't see any possible GOP candidate who can defeat Obama in 2012. The RINO label is flying like crazy and being hurled at most possible GOP candidates. Also, I worry that the American electorate doesn't want a conservative in the White House.

Always On Watch said...

Wow. I just saw these two comments at Pamela's post:

Sal Anatoli said...

Here's what you do with the Arabs and Muslims in this country - internment camps. They worked in WWII and they should work just fine now. Daniels and his family should be locked up until the war on terror has been won - which unfortunately for him might be beyond his lifetime.

Reply Thursday, May 12, 2011 at 12:51 PM

cleareyedpatriot said in reply to Sal Anatoli...

WHy stop at internment camps? GET THEM WORKING FOR AN AMERICAN VICTORY IN THIS WAR!

I, for one, can't wait to see Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Marlo Thomas breaking rocks!


What to say to that kind of spewing?

Always On Watch said...

I read today that Daniels said something about choosing Condi Rice as his running mate.

LA Sunset said...

AOW,

1. Agree on the GOP split, but it's precisely the kind of rhetoric in her piece that ensured it stays that way.

2. The two comments you list are but a fraction of the hate mongering I have read at her site. Even when she gets it right, when she allows this kind of stuff to stand at her site it devalues the good things she does, greatly. You know what I think about playing the race card, but this is really racism at its purest level. And she is inciting it, even proud of it.

3. Condi would be a great VP and could certainly be trusted with the foreign policy component. Daniels would be the fiscal policy man, and is far from RINO.

He has the only state in the midwest in the black and has just signed the defunding Planned Parenthood bill....not because of the social issue aspect, but from the perspective that it makes no sense for the government to fund it, at all. Now, if we could defund a bunch of other stuff nationwide, we could see some progress on the deficit in my lifetime.

Catherine Barry said...

Wow, I'm so glad you posted this. Not getting the facts straight, regardless of political leaning, doesn't do Americans any good. I think Pam Geller is just too into her celebrity these days to do her homework.