It looks like Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) has invited Geert Wilders, the Dutch film maker and politician, to present the film Fitna to the United States Senate later this week.

For those of you unaware with this film, it has stirred up international controversy, as it explores Qur’anic motivations for terrorism in the Netherlands and beyond.

If you have yet to see Fitna, here is some of it:

It should be expected that this will draw some protest in Washington and beyond.

Update: Glad to see this story has recieved a good deal of attention!

Click here to view the embedded video.

My thoughts on some of the profiles:

Warie: “I’m proud to be a Republican, because the Republican Party offers the best opportunities to all.”

While that sounds great, who is “all?” One of the problems that we have within the GOP is our position on immigration. Some factions of the party would like to see a more “open-border” approach implemented, whereas others would like to build fences and make everyone waits there turn.

Even though it’s easy to make a statement suggesting that we offer the best opportunities for all, the reality is that currently (as a party), we don’t even have a definition of “all.”

We can’t brand ourselves as the party that offers the best opportunities until we know who they apply to, and more importantly, what those opportunities are.

Sean: “I just align myself with the Republican Party, anything from going hunting, to buying my first firearm, starting to pay taxes…”

This clip was obviously designed to target the pro-gun crowd, which I agree is an important segment of the Republican Party. However I always find it odd when people try to bring the NRA into these political debates by making it sound like the NRA is a Republican front-group. The reality of this is false, as the NRA has endorsed dozens of Democrats over party-line towing Republicans.

Dale: “I never followed politics until I owned my own business. I’m a small business owner…”

Perfect! Now this is exactly what we need to be focusing on. People vote with their pocketbooks, and unfortunately over the last 8 years, the Republican Party hasn’t done much to protect and/or expand them.

Velle: “I immediately found out that most of my beliefs are in line with what the Republican believe: Less taxes, less government, defense of my community and my nation…”

I agree with Velle, but unfortunately you’re always going to have caveats due to the power of single issue voting blocks. Sure, we might push for less government in terms of business and the economy, but then when it  comes to issues like abortion, gay marriage, and even education, we’ve often been the first to show up with a plan to use the big hand of the government to exert power.

Barry: “I want to see a leader who believes in what they do, not someone who says or will do anything because they think it will be popular.”

Excellent.

Diana: “To be a conservative, to be a Republican, means that you believe in the core Republican values… lower taxes, smaller government, transparency in government…”

One of the biggest challenges that the Republican Party needs to face is the fact  that we are never going to be the party that is 100% conservative (unfortunately).

The problem is that “conservatism” has become so skewed by the religious right over the last 30 years that many don’t even know what true-conservatism is anymore. Beyond that, I think it’s safe to say that Americans are becoming even more libertarian (some fusionist, maybe), so that’s an audience the Party will eventually have to cater to as well. However, she is spot on with the rest of her vision.

Harry: “The Republican Party is a party that believes in the equality of all people…”

Unfortunately, as long James Dobson is on his soapbox instructing his followers what to do, the Republican Party is going to have a tough time becoming something that emphasizes total equality for all.

I was extremely thrilled to see that they brought Barry Goldwater into this video, highlighting a quote from his 1964 speech at the Republican National Convention:

Our Republican cause is to free our people and light the way for liberty throughout the world.

While that’s a good quote, there are two even more fitting quotes from the very same speech:

Fellow Republicans, it is the cause of Republicanism to resist concentrations of power, private or public, which enforce such conformity and inflict such despotism. It is the cause of Republicanism to ensure that power remains in the hands of the people. And, so help us God, that is exactly what a Republican president will do with the help of a Republican Congress.

and

Balance, diversity, creativity – these are the elements of Republican equation. Republicans agree, Republicans agree heartily to disagree on many, many of their applications, but we have never disagreed on the basic fundamental issues of why you and I are Republicans.

Unfortunately, it seems like that last quote is the one that many Republicans (some who we’ve spent countless hours trying to get elected) have forgotten.

In September the Jewish Council of Education & Research launched an innovative and attractive campaign to motivate young Jews around the country to make their way down to Florida to convince their grandparents to vote for Barack Obama.

With an edgy (yet compelling) video-plea from Sarah Silverman, this campaign received a great deal of fanfare and had many believing that this effort would lead to hundreds of young Jews schlepping down to Florida.

Click here to view the embedded video.

So did this campaign live up to its expectations?

According to the Telegraph:

A novel campaign to boost Democrat support in Florida proved a “schlep” too far for young Jewish supporters after just 100 of them answered a call to visit the state and convert their grandparents to the Obama cause.

….

Around 20,000 people signed up as Great Schlep fans on Facebook but the big push last weekend saw only one in 200 of them actually make the trip.

Having 20,000 people sign up and only 100 actually show up for the “schlep” might seem like the effort was a complete failure. However, those people probably don’t understand the Jewish community and how close-knit they actually are, and more importantly what impact that closeness can have.

If you make your way down to Florida and find yourself in a large Jewish community, Boca Raton for example, you might notice that there is a strong sense of community amongst the elderly Jewish population. It’s been this strong sense of community that has held the Jewish people together for so long, and it will be that very attribute that keeps the Jewish people together for many years to come.

Just one elementary overview of this concept can be seen in this clip from Fiddler on the Roof:

Click here to view the embedded video.

With that being said, what impact could these 100 Jews have had on influencing the Jewish community? A lot.

All it takes is one person to make a comment about their grandson or granddaughter talking to them about Barack Obama, and in no time a group discussion will be started. While not everyone is going to be convinced, minds will be opened and the discussion will quickly spread.

While there is no concrete correlation, if you look at the polls in Florida, almost immediately after the Great Schlep was launched, Barack Obama pulled ahead, while John McCain went into a short-term free fall.

What’s even more fascinating is how this one campaign was able to start a discussion amongst the older Jewish population regarding the potential of Barack Obama being the next President of the United States.

Just as an example, the other day I was speaking with a Jewish man in his late 60′s, a busy executive who doesn’t watch much TV and has little time for the Internet. During our conversation, the topic of Barack Obama came up and he had asked me if I had heard about this “great schlep.” I told him yes and asked if he had heard about it on YouTube. While I was surprised by the fact that he wasn’t a YouTube user, what was even more surprising was how he found out about the project.

It wasn’t from YouTube, it wasn’t from an email or even from the radio. No, this busy executive had heard about it from a friend who heard about it from another friend who had a grandson participate in the Great Schlep. This was just one of what I’m guessing are thousands of examples of how this campaign spread the old fashioned way: by word of mouth.

Was this effort a failure? Absolutely not. If anything, the real-time success of the Great Schlep isn’t measurable due to the unique community dynamics of the Jewish community and we’ll just have to wait until Election Day to see what effect it really had in Florida.

Seeing such a unique program in action really makes me wish the Republican Party would embrace more ideas like this. There are many ethnic and religious groups that we could reach out to more, but unfortunately we seem to concentrate our major efforts solely on Evangelicals.

I truly hope that every Republican is taking notes during this election and will immediately analyze them after Election Day to figure out what we need to do to make our beat-up Party stronger than it’s ever been.

Of course step one would be to make sure that whoever takes over the RNC next is a choshever mentsh (genuinely respected person).

Update: If the McCain campaign, or another 527 puts forward some effort in going after Obama for his relationship with Rashid Khalidi, this could present a severe blow to the Obama campaign and might actually shrink Obama’s narrow lead. We’ll see how it plays out, and we’ll have more soon.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Can anyone say nut job?

For those of you who don’t recall his name, this is the same priest that used to protest the Jerry Springer show in the late 1990′s, and this is also the same guy who urged his parishioners to “buy time” with prostitutes to preach the gospel.

So to recap, this is a priest who will fight TV producers, work to ‘heal’ hookers, and try to heal as many societal wounds as possible. However, when it comes to one of the biggest divides in the United States, the black/white divide, this joke of a theologian is only making matters worse.

Based on what I’ve read about him, his missions, his sermons, etc, he seems to be “cherry picking priest,” only taking verses of the Bible that help him further his causes.

For the most part, his causes are noble and have a solid purpose, however it’s quite clear that he feels that white people should give up the ‘benefits of being white’, based on actions that happened generations ago.

Maybe Rev. Pfleger should flip his Bible to the Book of Ephesians and read 4:31-32:

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

And no, I’m not getting rid of my 401(k).

Update (5/30): Pfleger appologises for comments after condemned by Obama (via CNN.com)

Normally, I’m not one who is a fan of proselytizing evangelicals (yes, I’m still a Republican), but I noticed something in different in how Fatica approached young people: he called them out on their imperfections that nobody wanted to talk about. In the movie, there was a larger girl who was getting made fun of because of her weight. Now, most people would just tell her “you’re not that fat” or “who cares what they think” but Fatica took a completely different approach.

He told this girl straight-up, “you’re fat” and of course, silenced the crowd of teens that was in the audience. However, he wasn’t doing this to humiliate the girl, but instead was doing it as a means to cut through the political correctness and get to the core of the problem. The problem wasn’t the fact that this girl was fat, but instead the problem was that there weren’t more people who were willing to stand up to those people who talked down to her.

So how does this apply to the GOP?

Unfortunately, I haven’t seen this applied in the party yet, but after awhile I came to the conclusion that if the party is truly going to be successful, there needs to a serious discussion of what the party, not just the President or a few individuals have done wrong.

Instead of focusing on why one person is the way they are, or why they have done something, the party should be focusing on everyone surrounding that person. In this case, those surrounding would be the party itself.

Too often do I see Republicans here in Washington who surround themselves with people who have a little bit of power, and use that power to write their own agenda. Unfortunately, if these “mavericks” build a strong enough of a following, their feux-GOP beliefs can easily become those of the party.

Just look at the Bush Administration. Yes, they have done some great things for the conservative movement, but at the same time there has almost been more harm than good. Government has grown out of control, earmarks take up more paper than actual legislation and the spending has increased significantly.

Like Fatica says consistently throughout the documentary, “so what are you doing to do about it”.

This is a question that really needs to be asked as we approach the 2008 elections. So far, I’ve only seen attack questions and softballs, all questions that have some significance to the candidate on a personal level, but very few actually have value to re-building our tattered party.

If we don’t fix it, there are going to be major factions throughout the Republican party. Eventually, these factions will fade into smaller groups, and before you know it, being a member of the Republican party will be no different than being a member of the YMCA.

At least the YMCA lets me use their pool.

Maybe I’m the only one who understand the tie-in of “Hard as Nails” and the problems facing the Republican party, but if anything, you should definitely check out the documentary.

Here is more info: http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/hardasnails/