Friday Update: Radical Islam

The good news: this isn't Barack Obama, the Commander-in-Chief. The bad news: this is Eric Holder, head guy at the Department of Justice, and the guy Barack Obama chose to run his legal division. Behold the teeth-pulling session:

What's the fuss about? Well, it's pretty simple, really:

Excruciating, not least of all because he ends up basically agreeing with the premise of the question. Yes, of course Shahzad “might have been incited” by radical Islam. He’s an Anwar al-Awlaki fan who went to Pakistan for bomb-training, didn’t he? And yet … he can’t quite bring himself to say that. The best he can do is a clumsy, heavily qualified admission that while Awlawki’s version of Islam is wrong, “people who espouse a radical version of Islam have had an ability to have an impact on people like Mr. Shahzad.” So palpably uncomfortable is he that I honestly feel a little sorry for him. Pathetic. Says Andy McCarthy, “How can you ever hope to stop something when you refuse even to speak its name?”

Bingo. Thus, these people are utterly incapable of actually defending the nation against radical Islamic terrorism.

Speaking of which, it seems that the Obama administration is funding those same unnameable radical Islamic terrorists now:

The U.S. Department of Labor gave millions of dollars to a joint venture that included a Yemeni charity with extensive links to Al Qaeda.

At least $3.5 million was allocated by the Labor Department to fund a three-year partnership between the Charitable Society for Social Welfare (CSSW), based in Yemen, and CHF International, a Maryland-based foundation, to fight child labor and child trafficking starting in fiscal year 2008[...]

CSSW, based in Yemen, was founded by *Abdul Majid Al Zindani, a veteran of the jihad against the Soviet Union and its civil war aftermath. Zindani was an associate of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, according to published reports and exclusive documents obtained by INTELWIRE. The U.S. government believes he is an Al Qaeda recruiter and fundraiser.

At the same time, the Obama administration is also cutting the funding of domestic anti-terrorism efforts:

Eleven days after the botched plot to bomb Times Square, the Obama administration on Wednesday slashed some $53 million from the city’s terror-fighting budget.

“For the administration to announce these cuts two weeks after the attempted Times Square bombing shows they just don’t get it and are not doing right by New York City,” fumed Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

To top it off, the news arrives as President Obama comes to town today amid buzz he will meet with the very cops who helped thwart the bombing.

Obama will also be tapping the city’s deep pockets for the Democratic Party.

“The President seems more interested in raising money for political campaigns than providing New York the money it needs to defend itself against Islamic terrorism,” said Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.), the top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee.

Wow...it's not often that Sen. Schumer and Rep. King agree on something! But hey, relax - it's not like New York is much of a terrorist target or anything.

The bottom line: the biggest danger facing America right now is our own political leadership.

There's my two cents.