Kenya Sends Troops into Somalia to Hunt Down Al Shabaab Terrorists

Tourism is a major contributor to the economy of Kenya, contributing about 60% to the GDP. So when you start kidnapping, abductingforeign aid workers,  and murdering tourists in Kenya – killing their tourist business…

The normally pacifist Kenya has to do something.

 

 

Cain Apologizes to Muslims

Not being surrounded by a bunch of white Tea Baggers out west – Herman tries to do the buckdance to moonwalk back on his vitriol…

Cain apologizes after meeting with Muslim leaders

 Republican Herman Cain is apologizing to Muslim leaders for vitriolic remarks he made about Islam while campaigning for the presidential nomination.

The former Godfather’s Pizza CEO has said communities have a right to ban Islamic mosques because Muslims are trying to inject sharia law into the U.S. He’s also said he would not want a Muslim bent on killing Americans in his administration.

On Wednesday, Cain met with four Muslim leaders in Sterling, Va. He said in a statement later he was “truly sorry” for comments that may have “betrayed” his commitment to the Constitution and the religious freedom it guarantees.

He also acknowledged that Muslims, “like all Americans,” have the right to practice freely their faith and that most Muslim Americans are peaceful and patriotic.

Conservatives and Radicalization

Hitler had the Jews to blame…

Lenin had the bourgeois…

Seems that every totalitarianism movement has one… Somebody to blame.

To be honest, right about now if I were President Obama – I would be bringing the full power of the Federal Law enforcement apparatus…

Against the radical right.

Biggest threat to this country isn’t “radical Islam”… It’s American born right wing whackjobs out of control.

How the Tea Bagger Racism Kills Americans

Those old enough to remember the Vietnam War may remember one of the most divisive and bitterest incidents during the war – the visit by Jane Fonda to North Vietnam while American Troops and North Vietnamese troops were actively engaged in trying to kill each other. Go to any VFW in America, and you will find a bunch of folks who view Jane Fonda with the sort of derision usually reserved for foreign enemies like Hitler or Tojo.

Strongly opposed to the Vietnam War, “Hanoi Jane’s” picture sitting on an anti-aircraft gun utilized to shoot down American Pilots gave me a lot of heartburn. There is a Grand Canyon size distance between opposing the actions of your government, and supporting the folks shooting at your friends, brothers, fathers, and fellow Americans.

Which brings us to the situation today. If Hanoi Jane was a traitor – then so too are the small legion of Tea Baggers currently putting our troops in the Middle East at risk so that they can promote ethnic racism. The Peter Kings, Alan Wests, Herman Cains, Michelle Bachmans et al are traitors too. In the case of Bachman, King, and West – they are even lower level scum because they are elected officials of the US Government, and as such are briefed on what happens to American personnel when crap like their Muslim baiting hits the press.

My position is that these scumbags should be impeached and convicted by their peers – and suffer the legal consequences.

I’m not sure if any Americans were killed in this one – but this is the logical conclusion of the sort of ethnic and religious racism and extremism promote by the Tea Baggers.

How many of our soldiers have died because of these treasonous, racist scum?

UN staff killed during protest in northern Afghanistan

At least eight foreign UN workers and four others have been killed in an attack on a UN compound in the Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif, officials say.

The violence happened during a protest over the burning of the Koran in a US church last month.

Witnesses said hundreds of people were protesting peacefully in the city when the scene suddenly turned violent.

A local police spokesman told the BBC the city was now under control and a number of people had been arrested.

The UN has confirmed its workers were killed but has not said how many – it said the situation remained “confusing”.

“We are currently working to ascertain all the facts and take care of all our staff,” said spokesman Dan McNorton.

UN officials quoted by Reuters warned that the death toll could rise and added that those killed included foreign and local staff, UN guards and Nepalese Gurkha soldiers hired to protect the compound.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described it as “an outrageous and cowardly attack”.

US President Barack Obama also condemned the attack “in the strongest possible terms”, saying the work of the UN “is essential to building a stronger Afghanistan”.

F*** condemning the attack, President Obama. What you need to be doing is offering the choice of a rope or a bullet to the right wing American scum whoring our people’s lives for political points.

Discrimination Against Muslims

In the following video, we have the Tea Party’s official Lawn Jockey Candidate, spreading love for Muslims…

This from the DOJ, discussing the impact of Cain’s type of “love”…

DOJ official: Muslims face rising discrimination

American Muslims face a rising tide of religious discrimination in U.S. communities, workplaces and schools nearly a decade after the September 11 attacks, a senior Justice Department official said on Tuesday.

Evidence of growing anti-Muslim bigotry, aired at a Senate Judiciary hearing, poses a challenge for President Barack Obama as his administration works to foster good relations with American Muslims at a time when the United States is threatened by home-grown terrorism.

“We should all agree that it’s wrong to blame an entire community for the wrongdoing of a few. Guilt by association is not the American way,” said Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, who chaired the hearing.

He said Muslims account for less than 1 percent of the U.S. population but more than 14 percent of religious discrimination cases investigated by the federal government and 25 percent of religious discrimination cases involving workplaces.

The Justice Department has investigated over 800 incidents of violence, vandalism and arson against people believed to be Muslim, Arab or South Asian, since the September 11 attacks.

U.S. homeland security officials say the United States faces a home-grown threat from Islamic radicalization, including attempts by al Qaeda to radicalize and recruit U.S. Muslims to carry out attacks here and abroad.

The hearing quickly took on a partisan edge when Durbin responded to criticism from Republican Peter King, chairman of a House of Representatives panel widely criticized for a hearing on radicalization in the U.S. Muslim community less than three weeks ago.

King said on Monday that the civil rights discussion would “perpetuate the myth that there is a serious anti-Islam issue in this country.”

But at the start of the session Durbin shot back: “Inflammatory speech from prominent public leaders creates a fertile climate for discrimination.”

“All of us, especially those of us in public life, have a responsibility to choose our words carefully. We must condemn anti-Muslim bigotry and make it clear that we won’t tolerate religious discrimination.”

Thomas Perez, the assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights, said anti-Muslim bigotry has brought a surge in the number of federal discrimination cases involving zoning boards and other local authorities that have acted to prevent mosques from opening in their communities.

The Justice Department has begun 14 such cases since May 2010, around the time when plans for a mosque near the site of the World Trade Center attack in New York seized media headlines and ignited a national political uproar.

Before last May, the government had pursued only 10 land-use discrimination cases over a decade.

 

 

Japanese Americans Push Back Against Republican Jim Crow

One of the ugly episodes in our history was the treatment of Japanese Americans during WWII. America operated concentration camps, where Japanse-American citizens, guilty of nothing but their Japanese ancestry were imprisoned for the duration of WWII. Whole familes were carted off to be locked away…

So it is no surprise Japanese would be sensitive to the virulent calls to racism by Tea Bagged Republicans – this time against another group, Muslims. They have seen this slide show before…

Japanese Americans decry Rep. King’s Muslim hearings as ‘sinister’

During the chaotic days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Basim Elkarra was passing by an Islamic school in Sacramento when he did a double-take: The windows were covered with thousands of origami paper cranes – peace symbols that had been folded and donated by Japanese Americans.

Amid the anger and suspicions being aimed at Muslims at that time, the show of support “was a powerful symbol that no one will ever forget,” said Elkarra, a Muslim American community leader in California.

It was also the beginning of an unlikely bond between the two groups that has intensified as House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter T. King (R-N.Y.)prepares to launch a series of controversial hearings Thursday on radical Islam in the United States.

Spurred by memories of the World War II-era roundup and internment of 110,000 of their own people, Japanese Americans, especially on the West Coast, have been among the most vocal and passionate supporters of embattled Muslims. They’ve rallied public support against hate crimes at mosques, signed on to legal briefs opposing the indefinite detention of Muslims by the government, organized cross-cultural trips to the Manzanar internment camp memorial in California and held “Bridging Communities” workshops in Islamic schools and on college campuses.

Juan Williams Gets Canned at NPR

Always felt William’s role at Faux News as the House Negro would get him in trouble with any serious news outfit. That ticking time bomb has finally exploded.

NPR fires Juan Williams over anti-Muslim remarks

Veteran journalist Juan Williams was fired from his job as senior news analyst for National Public Radio late Wednesday because of comments he made about Muslims and terrorism on “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News Channel.

NPR said in a statement that Williams’s remarks – including that he gets “worried” and “nervous” when he sees people dressed in Muslim-style clothing on airplanes – “were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”

Williams, 56, made the remarks after the show’s host, Bill O’Reilly, asked him whether he thought the United States was facing a “Muslim dilemma.” “The cold truth is that in the world today, jihad, aided and abetted by some Muslim nations, is the biggest threat on the planet,” O’Reilly said.

Williams, who is African American and writes and speaks frequently on race, told O’Reilly that he agreed with his assessment.

“I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country,” he said. “But when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they’re identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

Williams then brought up a statement made in a New York courtroom this month by Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani American who pleaded guilty to trying to detonate a bomb in Times Square and was sentenced to life in prison.

“He said the war with Muslims, America’s war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don’t think there’s any way to get away from these facts,” Williams said…

Muslim advocacy groups and liberal commentators reacted with outrage to Williams’s comments on “The O’Reilly Factor” and called for his ouster. Conservative bloggers, in turn, blasted the dismissal as political-correctness spiraling out of control.

“NPR should address the fact that one of its news analysts seems to believe that all airline passengers who are perceived to be Muslim can legitimately be viewed as security threats,” Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations, said in a statement issued before the firing was announced. “Such irresponsible and inflammatory comments would not be tolerated if they targeted any other racial, ethnic or religious minority, and they should not pass without action by NPR.”

 

 

 

Why Bin Lauden Won the War

It has become obvious to members of the intelligentsia what has been obvious to some of us for a very long time…

Bin Lauden, and Al Quada have won the “War of Terrorism”.

It started with the entirely unnecessary and illegitimate invasion of Iraq, and has gone steadily downhill since then.

The objective of international terrorism to to fool larger enemies into giving up their freedom, and into becoming frozen by fear. We had an entire presidential administration under the Bushit which used that fear to shred our Constitution and Laws. Today’s Republican Party, serving as little more than Faux New’s sock puppet, and the Tea Party’s legitimacy – revels in promoting fear for political gain. When you see the Tea Bagger clowns marching down our streets to protest the building of a Muslim Religious Center near the site of the WTC Buildings…

If you haven’t figured it our yet – Bin Lauden won.

Back during the bad old days of the Bushit Administration I argued that the best response to the downing of the 110 Story WTC Buildings…

Was to build 200 story buildings on the same spot.

But the chicken littles won that argument…

Just like Bin Lauden has won the war.

Ted Koppel hits one out of the park with this one – finally pointing out what should have been obvious.

Ted Koppel: Nine years after 9/11, let’s stop fulfilling bin Laden’s goals

The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, succeeded far beyond anything Osama bin Laden could possibly have envisioned. This is not just because they resulted in nearly 3,000 deaths, nor only because they struck at the heart of American financial and military power. Those outcomes were only the bait; it would remain for the United States to spring the trap.

The goal of any organized terrorist attack is to goad a vastly more powerful enemy into an excessive response. And over the past nine years, the United States has blundered into the 9/11 snare with one overreaction after another. Bin Laden deserves to be the object of our hostility, national anguish and contempt, and he deserves to be taken seriously as a canny tactician. But much of what he has achieved we have done, and continue to do, to ourselves. Bin Laden does not deserve that we, even inadvertently, fulfill so many of his unimagined dreams.

It did not have to be this way. The Bush administration’s initial response was just about right. The calibrated combination of CIA operatives, special forces and air power broke the Taliban in Afghanistan and sent bin Laden and the remnants of al-Qaeda scurrying across the border into Pakistan. The American reaction was quick, powerful and effective — a clear warning to any organization contemplating another terrorist attack against the United States. This is the point at which President George W. Bush should have declared “mission accomplished,” with the caveat that unspecified U.S. agencies and branches of the military would continue the hunt for al-Qaeda’s leader. The world would have understood, and most Americans would probably have been satisfied.

Uncle Tommie Sewage And the New York Mosque

Ever the faithful Lawn Ornament, Uncle Tommie Sewage climbs out of the cesspool of self hate and attacks Muslims, and those clear thinkers who consider our American values as something other than waving plastic Made in China Flags at appropriate moments.

This Lawn Jockey indeed has a price tag…

A matter of propriety, not rights

The proposed mosque near where the World Trade Center was attacked and destroyed, along with thousands of American lives, would be a 15-story middle finger to America.

It takes a high IQ to evade the obvious, so it is not surprising that the intelligentsia are out in force, decrying those who criticize this calculated insult.

What may surprise some people is that the American taxpayer is currently financing a trip to the Middle East by the imam who is pushing this project, so that he can raise the money to build it. The State Department is subsidizing his travel.

The big talking point is that this is an issue about “religious freedom” and that Muslims have a “right” to build a mosque where they choose. But those who oppose this project are not claiming that there is no legal right to build a mosque near the site of the World Trade Center.

If anybody did, it would be a matter for the courts to decide — and they would undoubtedly say that it is not illegal to build a mosque near the site of the World Trade Center attack.

The intelligentsia and others who are wrapping themselves in the Constitution are fighting a phony war against a straw man. Why create a false issue, except to evade the real issue?

Our betters are telling us that we need to be more “tolerant” and more “sensitive” to the feelings of Muslims. But if we are supposed to be sensitive to Muslims, why are Muslims not supposed to be sensitive to the feelings of millions of Americans, for whom 9/11 was the biggest national trauma since Pearl Harbor?…

This from a 9/11 Widow…

The first time I heard about the Park51 Islamic community center was on May 6, 2010, when I received the following e-mail from a New York TV reporter:

“I’m doing story today about the proposed mosque project at the WTC site. I am interviewing the developers but I am also trying to look for family members who think building a mosque at the site is a bad idea.”

“Bad idea” — that was a bit leading, wasn’t it? I always thought journalists were supposed to be objective, and yet, here we were, the “victims of 9/11,” being prodded for our outrage. An hour later, another e-mail arrived, this time from CNN. The language was more measured: “As a family member of someone who was killed in the attacks on 9/11, what do you think about the decision to construct a mosque this close to Ground Zero?”

These e-mails came through the “9/11 List-Serv,” which community activist Arnie Korotkin has voluntarily maintained since September 2001, sending 5,000+ subscribers daily articles and news updates related to 9/11. There are also media requests, which come clearly marked as such. The listserv has evolved and expanded over the years, vastly simplifying the media process from those chaotic days right after 9/11, when journalists hunted us down. In October 2001, journalists contacted my Lamaze teacher at Beth Israel Hospital, hoping she’d refer them to a pregnant 9/11 widow who would allow them to televise her fatherless child’s birth.

I ignored that request. And this one, too.

What did I think about the decision to construct a “mosque” this close to ground zero? I thought it was a no-brainer. Of course it should be built there. I sometimes wonder if those people fighting so passionately against Park51 can fathom the diversity of those who died at ground zero. Do we think no Muslims died in the towers? My husband, Eddie Torres, killed on his second day of work at Cantor Fitzgerald while I was pregnant with our first child, was a dark-skinned Latino, often mistaken for Pakistani, who came here illegally from Colombia. How did “9/11 victim” become sloppy shorthand for “white Christian”? I wish someone would put out a list of all the ethnicities and religions and countries and economic levels of the victims. For all the talk of “remembering 9/11,” I wonder if we’ve missed the patriotic message entirely. So, in short: No, I did not think it was “a bad idea.”

Obama Ahead With Muslims, Jews, Catholics, and Agnostics

Interesting Poll numbers show that President Obama’s approval among Muslims, Jews, and agnostics and non-religious is still very high – while polling Mormons is low.

I would think his polling among Protestants (43%) breaks on what type of Church.

24% Approval among Mormons? What are you guys smoking?

The amazing part of all of this is… Remember the Reverend Jeremiah Wright controversy during the election?

Indeed, here is an article from one of the “faithful” arguing that Obama isn’t a Christian… Because he isn’t their kind of christian.

U.S. Muslims support Obama

More than three-quarters of U.S. Muslims support President Obama, according to a new Gallup Poll.

The president’s support levels among religious groups: Muslims, 78 percent; Jews, 64 percent; Catholics, 50 percent, and Protestants, 43 percent.

Obama scored the lowest approval ratings among Mormons, 24 percent. He received 63 percent support from the non-religious, atheists and agnostics.

A recent Pew poll found that one in five Americans mistakenly believe Obama is a Muslim. He is a Protestant Christian.

Newt’s a Bigot

Harold Ford makes an interesting point here…

Faux News and the Tea Bagged right wing in this country are killing American Troops.

They are also killing American business, destroying our ability to go after 1 billion Muslim customers worldwide.

These people are not Patriots – they are anything but…

Scarborough: Don’t let Gingrich and ‘the voices…, posted with vodpod

Republican Announces “Obama is a Muslim”

It just don’t get dumber than Republicans right now. What happened to the group of earnest, if somewhat politically misguided people, who still had the best interests of their country at heart?

The current group of misanthropes and bigots truly don’t care if they take the whole damn country down the toilet with them.

In an interview with Christianity Today in January 2008, he talked about his belief in Jesus Christ.

“I am a Christian, and I am a devout Christian. I believe in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that that faith gives me a path to be cleansed of sin and have eternal life. But most importantly, I believe in the example that Jesus set by feeding the hungry and healing the sick and always prioritizing the least of these over the powerful. I didn’t ‘fall out in church’ as they say, but there was a very strong awakening in me of the importance of these issues in my life. I didn’t want to walk alone on this journey. Accepting Jesus Christ in my life has been a powerful guide for my conduct and my values and my ideals.”

To wind up with this non-Christian lying sack of guano:

Iowa GOP committeewoman says she believes Obama is a Muslim

Kim Lehman - Momma Grizzly, or Just Another Dumb Assed Bigot?

Iowa’s Republican national committeewoman said today that she believes President Barack Obama is truly a Muslim, contradicting his earlier statements that he’s a Christian.

Kim Lehman, who is one of Iowa’s two national Republican Committee members, may be one of the first national committee members to publicly state she believes Obama is a Muslim.

In a speech in Egypt in June 2009, Obama said he is a Christian. But Lehman said the speech “just had the appearance that he was aligning himself with the Muslims.”

Lehman in a telephone interview this morning said what matters is not her personal view that Obama is a Muslim, but his own answer to the issue.

“He’s the one that the news is about. It isn’t about me. Call the president. … Say, ‘Are you a Christian or not?’” Lehman said. “If I’m wrong, I’m more than happy to say, ‘Oh, I’m wrong.”

Lehman began to attract attention when she posted a Twitter message last week in response to a Politico news article about a Pew poll that shows 31 percent of Republicans and 10 percent of Democrats believe Obama is a Muslim. The Politico article pointed out that Obama — whose father was raised as a Muslim — has repeatedly found his faith questioned, and has “confronted the rumors head-on.”

“@politico you’re funny. They must pay you a lot to protect Obama. BTW he personally told the muslims that he IS a muslim. Read his lips,” Lehman said on her Twitter page on Thursday.

This morning, Lehman said she was referring to an Obama speech in Cairo last summer in which he reached out to Muslims “to seek a new beginning.” In that speech, he makes no comment about being Muslim, a transcript shows.

Apparently there is a reason Mrs. Lehman was censured by her own Party and asked to leave the Iowa Right To Life Organization in her state.

Islamic Services At The Pentagon

American soldiers come in all colors, they can be from anywhere and are a cross section of the peoples from all of the varied places Americans come from…

American Muslim Soldiers at Prayers

At Pentagon 9/11 site, Muslims pray without objection

Inside the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial Chapel, a female Air Force sergeant unlaced her combat boots, set them under the pews and slipped her black veil around her hair and over her camouflaged uniform.

The men pushed back the altar for Christian services to make room for their large green prayer rugs; then they moved the podium from one side of the room to the other so that the congregation would be facing Mecca.

“Allah akhbar,” called out Ali Mohammed, a contractor who works at the Pentagon, raising his hands to his face as he chanted the call to prayer. While politicians and others across the country in an election year debate the propriety of building a Muslim center, including a mosque, two blocks from the former World Trade Center site in New York, there’s no sign of such debate at the Pentagon.

Instead, about 400 worshipers, including Muslims, attend prayer services every week in the chapel, a non-denominational facility built over the rubble left behind when American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the Pentagon.

Opponents of the New York mosque say it would be disrespectful of those killed on Sept. 11, 2001, to allow Muslims to pray near the World Trade Center site.

That’s never been an issue at the Pentagon, where 125 people who worked there died that day. Muslims have been praying at the Pentagon’s chapel since 2002, gathering every day at 2 p.m. around the time of the second of five prayers Muslims are supposed to offer daily.

Darwin Done Left America!

Some portion of the population, though  their own action, removes themselves from the gene pool each year through some supreme act of stupidity. Apparently, in America that just isn’t happening anymore, and we have a glut of stupid individuals wandering our streets. We only have liberal politicians to blame for this, after all if we didn’t have seat belt laws, and warnings on the side of gas tanks not to use a lighted match to determine fuel levels that TV Program “1001 Ways to Die” which focuses on the remarkable ways folks find to remove themselves from the gene pool would already have the next 10 seasons filmed.

Overregulation as the cause of stupid Republicans in this country!

Poll: 1 in 5 incorrectly say Obama is a Muslim as president’s religion remains mystery to many

Americans increasingly are convinced incorrectly   that President Barack Obama is a Muslim, and a growing number are thoroughly confused about his religion.

Nearly one in five people, or 18 percent, said they think Obama is Muslim, up from the 11 percent who said so in March 2009, according to a poll released Thursday. The proportion who correctly say he is a Christian is down to just 34 percent.

The largest share of people, 43 percent, said they don’t know his religion, an increase from the 34 percent who said that in early 2009.

The survey, conducted by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center and its affiliated Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, is based on interviews conducted before the controversy over whether Muslims should be permitted to construct a mosque near the World Trade Center site. Obama has said he believes Muslims have the right to build an Islamic center there, though he’s also said he won’t take a position on whether they should actually build it.

In a separate poll by Time magazine/ABT SRBI conducted Monday and Tuesday _ after Obama’s comments about the mosque _ 24 percent said they think he is Muslim, 47 percent said they think he is Christian and 24 percent didn’t know or didn’t respond.

In addition, 61 percent opposed building the Muslim center near the Trade Center site and 26 percent said they favor it.

About three in 10 of Obama’s fiercest political rivals, Republicans and conservatives, say he is a Muslim. That is up significantly from last year and far higher than the share of Democrats and liberals who say so. But even among his supporters, the number saying he is a Christian has fallen since 2009, with just 43 percent of blacks and 46 percent of Democrats saying he is Christian.

Among independents, 18 percent say Obama is Muslim _ up from 10 percent last year.

Pew analysts attribute the findings to attacks by his opponents and Obama’s limited attendance at religious services, particularly in contrast with Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, whose worship was more public.

Keith Ellison Explains It, The Way Obama Shoulda’

Screaming high level debate now about the right of a Muslim group to build a Mosque near Ground Zero in NYC. President Obama stepped in it Friday, with support for the Mosque being built – which has had every Republican and bigot (but I repeat myself) in the United States bouncing off the walls. In usual form, President Obama has failed to stand up, and clearly and unequivocally justify his support for allowing the Mosque to be built on American Principle.

Representative Keith Ellison (D), in a debate with Peter King of NY (R) lays out exactly why those who oppose the Mosque are contrary to our tradition and core American values  of Religious Freedom, the words and beliefs of the Founding Fathers, and out Constitution.

Can we finally get some backbone here, President Obama?