Credit where it's due

Yes, it's true, Barack Obama has done some good things. In fact, Matthew Rothschild at "The Progressive" compiled a list as part of his response to Robert Gibbs' inanity.

I think some of those items (such as citing the Lilly Ledbetter Act) give him more credit than he deserves, some (such as canceling the F-22, a system the Pentagon did not want) don't really count as accomplishments, some (such as "moving toward" getting rid of DADT, which so far is only words) are overstated, and some (such as "banning torture") exist more in rhetoric than reality - but that doesn't change the fact that there are some good things on that list and while they may not be "big" things, they are not small to the people directly affected. So yeah, he has done some good stuff.

And now he's done another.

President Obama threw his support behind a controversial proposal to build an Islamic center and mosque near New York's ground zero, saying Friday that "Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country."

"That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances," Obama said at a White House Iftar dinner celebrating the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Well, damn good on him. And, for that matter, on NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose earlier dramatic defense of the project has, like Obama's remarks, pissed off the ignorant and brought out the boobs and the bigots.

Today, Obama backed off his comments slightly, saying he was not addressing the "wisdom" of the project, but only the principle of freedom of religion. Good on him anyway.

Oh, and speaking of boobs and bigots, NY GOPper Peter King said

[i]t is insensitive and uncaring for the Muslim community to build a mosque in the shadow of ground zero. While the Muslim community has the right to build the mosque they are abusing that right by needlessly offending so many people who have suffered so much.

Wait. Back up.

While the Muslim community has the right to build the mosque -

Stop right there. They have the right to build the mosque? Then STFU, you lizard-brained slimeball and stop trying to stir ethnic hatreds that you intend to marshal for your own selfish political benefit.

Footnote: Just like the racists who will deny that their wink-wink-nudge-nudge dog whistling has anything to do with race, so here the haters of religious freedom insist their rants have nothing to do with religious freedom. Oh, no, it's about being "courteous," about being "sensitive" and how those people are neither, well isn't it obvious they just don't care about the feelings of real Americans which of course they're not, they're other, they're not us and so we don't have to extend any courtesy or sensitivity to them and well, sure they can build their evil, foreign, not-actually-a-church-type-thing where they want, just not there.

Well, to those people I have a question: Just how far away would be acceptable to you? A half-mile? A mile? Delaware? How far? And how many of you even knew that there are already two mosques in lower Manhattan, one just four blocks from the "sanctified ground?" Don't you get it that this is just crap being stirred up by the troglodytes because they think it's beneficial to them to keep you pissed and scared?

Or are you really just bigots who don't actually believe in the freedom of religion and the tolerance you spout off about?