the Chicks responded with martyred terms of being put on Free Republic's and "Christian fundamentalist" country fans' "hate list."
Tell Audioslave and Velvet Hammer, too. While I certainly haven't blacklisted them I did just buy two cds of Mozart's music in stead of their music and didn't when so much as grunt a thought in the Chicks' direction.
There's a fundamental lesson in country music and it is both a blessing and a warning:
#2
The only dixie chick I am interested in happens to be one from the local KFC fryer. The so-called music group of the same name sounds like a bunch of long tailed cats with their tails caught under a rocking chair.
#4
So I'm blacklisting them too by buying a new CD of Rodrigo's (spanish) classical music?
Hah!
I still think Larry the Cable Guy has the ultimate verdict:
"That little fat one needs to watch her mouth. Hey Natalie, your fan base is country music lovers. These are the most religious and patriotic people in the country. You might as well have gone to a trailer park with a magaphone and hollered, Jesus and Walmart Suck! ... If it weren't for them other two cute musician sisters, she'd just be selling clothes at a Lane Bryant in somewhere in Nashville"
#6
If these chicks are so smart, why did they have to steal the title to Laura Ingrams' book, “Shut Up And Sing”, as the title for their "documentary"? Maybe it should have been: "Shut up and Think".
#8
I was a BIG fan of the Chicks until Natalie opened her pie hole. Yes she has every right to her opinion and I have every right NOT to buy her music. Larry the cable Guy had it right.
#11
let em be - someone has to be spokesman for the over-employed WaffleHouse waitresses
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/27/2006 18:42 Comments ||
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#12
Actually, the two pretty ones were about on the way to needed to sell clothes in a Lane Bryant (in other words, they were a moderately successful bluegrass act, which isn't a living wage) until they replaced their old singer with Maines and major labels started to take interest.
None of that justifies her foolish and naive politics, but the business story is what it is.
#14
All depends then on what you want: borderline success from your musical talent, or whoring yourself out politically.
Personally, Alison Kraus is a far better dinger - and Toby Keith was right to criticise them about being performers and not musicians. The quote I heard was something like "Tell Natalie to call me when she *writes* a couple #1 songs".
(SomaliNet) SomaliÂ’s powerful Islamic Courts controlling most of south and central Somalia have strongly dismissed on Thursday an accusation from Baidoa based government that Islamic militants kidnapped three Somali lawmakers near Bur-hakaba, a town now ruled by Islamists in southwest Somalia, describing the government allegation as anti Islamist propaganda.
“It was not a kidnap as the government said but this was a move to protect the MPs from going into a risky place because Baidoa is a city occupied by Ethiopians."
Sheik Yusuf Mohamed Said known as Inda-adde (means ‘White Eyes’), the chief security of Islamic Courts rejected that his fighters have abducted the MPs but admitted that the lawmakers have been stopped to go Baidoa for security reasons. “It was not a kidnap as the government set but this was a move to protect the MPs from going into risky place because Baidoa is a city occupied by Ethiopians and all the public and government officials are hostage to Ethiopia,” Sheik Yusuf said while he was speaking with the local media later today.
That makes sense. Not a lot of sense, but sense. In an Islamic kind of way. Sorta.
He said the Islamists behaved the MPs well and with respect and returned them to Mogadishu where they initially left. “It is our duty to save the Somalia people and government officials from the enemy cave,” Sheik Yusuf said urging all Somali patriotic to gear up for defending their territory against Ethiopian invaders. The three members of the parliament now being held by Islamists had been identified as Moalim Jis, Sheik Jama Haji Hussein and Mohamed Faqi. They left from Mogadishu this morning and were on their way to Baidoa city, the seat of Somalia government. Many MPs are now in Mogadishu after months of leave and will return to Baidoa within 10 days as mentioned by deputy chairman of the parliament in Baidoa on Thursday.
The government said the abduction was organized by a Pakistani militant who has been with the Islamic Courts in many battle fronts against pro-government militia in southern Somalia...
Sheik Yusuf Inda-adde, former ruler Lower Shabelle region in southern Somalia, made it clear that Islamic Courts are not on offensive to Baidoa city. Despite that, he said there has been on one can prevent Islamists to reach Baidoa, since it is Somalia city. Earlier, the UN backed interim government accused powerful Islamists of kidnapping three of its lawmakers near the disputed town of Bur-hakaba 180km southwest of the capital and 60km to Baidoa city, the capital of Bay region. The government said the abduction was involved by Pakistani militant who has been with the Islamic Courts in many battle frontlines against pro-government militia in southern Somalia, pointing it as an aggressive act against Somalia government.
"But at least he's not Ethiopian!"
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10/27/2006 00:00 ||
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The government said the abduction was involved by Pakistani on loan from that Army militant who has been with the Islamic Courts...
(SomaliNet) Despite UN’s confidence in Mr Jan Pronk, a special UN envoy to Sudan who was recently expelled from Khartoum, Sudan has said it will not have any further dealings with envoy, a senior official said Thursday. “The decision to expel Jan Pronk is irrevocable because of positions he has taken that are incompatible with his mission in Sudan,” foreign ministry spokesman Ali Al Sadek told journalists. “It is a decision of state and of the government that is not concerned with what the United Nations decides.”
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2006 00:00 ||
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The head of news at the state-owned South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has been accused of acting arbitrarily in unofficially blacklisting eight journalists and commentators. Among the banned journalists is Israel-based freelancer Paula Slier, a Jerusalem Post contributor, who has been barred from reporting because she is a Jew.
SABC management set up a commission under former SABC head Zwelakhe Sisulu and advocate Gilbert Marcus - after complaints about a ruling, allegedly by news head Snuki Zikalala, that certain commentators and analysts not be used because they were critical of South African President Thabo Mbeki. The commission, which has now released its findings, said AM Live anchor John Perlman was right when he had said that blacklisting of commentators and analysts was happening "by instruction."
Zikalala ordered an outright ban on reports from Slier because, the commission found, he assumed that since Slier was Jewish she supported Israel. Zikalala admits to supporting the PLO and justified his ban on Slier, who used to report regularly for the SABC until barred in 2004, by calling the conflict in the Middle East a "Jewish war" and saying the corporation needed someone who was "impartial."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2006 00:00 ||
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Check the pic, Zikalala. Follow his path, share his fate.
#2
But Contrarian will say this is a simple business decision, based on attracting larger audience segments. So that's ok. And, he'll be able to buy cheaper airline tickets to Cape Town as well as London -- the vacation options multiply!
#4
so the commission found stuff that was embarassing about Zikala (evidently a genuinely independent commission - good for SA) Now what happens? Zikala goes? Or he stays, and this is just a minor embarassment for Mbeki (I mean compared to his idiocy on HIV, how many SA voters care about bias and racism at the SABC?)
The State Department said Thursday it was studying the imposition of additional sanctions against North Korea for its October 9 nuclear test. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had said Wednesday that the United States "is now obligated by law to adopt additional sanctions on North Korea under national legislation."
She mentioned the so-called Glenn Amendment, which bans US assistance to non-nuclear weapon states found to have exploded a nuclear device. In 1998, former President Bill Clinton invoked such sanctions against India and Pakistan after the rivals tested nuclear weapons.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2006 00:00 ||
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SPACEWAR.com article > SORKORS believe NK may have up to 50 kg of PLUTONIUM material, enuff for 3-7 NUCLEAR [= PLUTONIUM?] BOMBS. As before, many pundist-analysts believe that NK was already a de facto [Chinese-controlled] "NUCLEAR POWER/STATE" long before the Norkie's recent alleged test. Ditto by same for Radical Iran.
(dpa) - South Korea Thursday reaffirmed its support for United Nations sanctions against North Korea by refusing entry to weapons-related officials from the communist country and calling for Pyongyang to return to international negotiations. The government said it will prevent entry of any North Koreans suspected of having links to nuclear and other weapons programmes into South Korea, Unification Minister Lee Jong Seong told a parliamentary committee in Seoul, reported Yonhap news agency. The unification minister said inspection of goods and materials shipped to the North have been increased to prevent the supply, sale or transfer of luxury goods in an attempt to curb what some have described as "disgusting spending" by leader Kim Jong Il, according to Yonhap.
The announcement comes a day after Pyongyang threatened Seoul with punitive counter measures if it went along with "US-led moves on international sanctions." Also in response to the threat South Korea called on North Korea to unconditionally return to six-party talks over its nuclear weapons programme. "As the government has already clarified, North Korea's nuclear test was a serious threat to stability and peace on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia," a unification ministry spokesman said, reported Yonhap.
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SOUTH KOREAN NEWS > SORKOR succesfully tests "SKY DRAGON" advanced-design indigens TLCM.
AUSTRALIA'S senior Muslim cleric cannot be sacked or deported despite the outrage caused by him saying immodestly dressed women invite sexual attacks. Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly yesterday “unreservedly” apologised for any offence caused to women by his comments, made in a Ramadan sermon last month. But he said he had been misunderstood and added: “I had only intended to protect women's honour from feral cats.”
The mufti of Australia and New Zealand was last night under intense pressure from within the Muslim community over the sermon in which he likened scantily-dressed women to uncovered meat eaten by animals.
Many Muslim leaders and groups yesterday distanced themselves from his remarks and some called for their religious figurehead to stand down. Five Muslim leaders at Gallipoli Mosque in Sydney's west said many Muslims were “sick and tired” of religious leaders like Sheik al-Hilaly claiming to speak on their behalf. “Whether he steps down or not, I think it's time for Australia's Muslim faith to have a religious leader who has a better understanding of Australian laws, Australian values, and the Australian way of life,” said Alia Karaman, one of three women in the group.
A former member of the Federal Government's Muslim Advisory board, Iktimal Hage-Ali, said she had listened to a recording of Sheik al-Hilaly’s speech and believed he should be stripped of his position. “I was just flabbergasted,” she told ABC radio.
Prime Minister John Howard labelled Sheik al-Hilaly’s comments “appalling and reprehensible”. “They are quite out of touch with contemporary values in Australia.
“The idea that women are to blame for rapes is preposterous.”
Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward suggested the sheik be dumped or deported, saying: “I think it is time he left.”
But, as an Australian citizen, the mufti cannot be deported and in his position as Islam's most senior religious figure in Australia, he is not answerable to any organisation. The Egypt-born imam came to Australia in 1982 and cannot have his citizenship revoked.
He was appointed mufti by Australia's peak Islamic body, the Federation of Islamic Councils of Australia (FICA), 15 years ago, but no-one has the authority to sack him. “Nobody can sack him because it's not an elected position,” said Amir Ali, the chairman of the Prime Minister's Muslim Community Reference Group and immediate past president of FICA.
"Only another man holier than him can do it, and we don't have one of those."
The Lebanese Muslim Association (LMA) can withdraw his right to speak at Sydney's Lakemba Mosque, where he preaches, but has given him “the benefit of the doubt” until it reviews the tape of his contentious sermon. Sheik al-Hilaly yesterday appeared badly affected by the backlash to his remarks, with a spokesman saying he was depressed and confined to bed all day, breathing with the assistance of an oxygen tank.
#1
The UK and Oz clearly have similar problems- and in the UK the leftists (Galloway/SWP) support these nutbags. Now if a Tory MP called gays unclean or suggested that a woman's immodest dress sense lead to rape he'd be butchered alive by the green anorak mob.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
10/27/2006 3:44 Comments ||
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Well said Howard .
I am happy to hear hes stuck in an oxygen tent right now gasping for breathe , he deserves nothing less
#3
"The Egypt-born imam came to Australia in 1982 and cannot have his citizenship revoked."
Fascintaing assertion. Total bullshit, of course.
The Ozzie Govt can, and should, do whateverthefuck it needs to do to maintain order and protect its citizens. It's their country, their decision, their duty.
#7
On the plus side, if Scotland devolves, England can deport George Galloway.
Posted by: ed ||
10/27/2006 7:41 Comments ||
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#8
Throw this dude a stingray.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
10/27/2006 7:43 Comments ||
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#9
in an oxygen tent? Give him a smoke
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/27/2006 8:06 Comments ||
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#10
He came in on a tourist visa and never left- he was an illegal immigrant. Paul Keating gave him citizenship to suck up to the Muslim vote in his electorate.
#11
There's always the .45 caliber option. It never fails.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/27/2006 13:34 Comments ||
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#12
Al-Hilali's apologies are pure taqqiya. In his attempts to back-pedal on labelling women as pieces of meat, he now claims he was referring to "prostitutes". A translation of his 17 minute sermon shows that he never used the word "prostitute" even a single time. Most astonishing of all is how al-Hilaly is considered a "moderate" Muslim. It is becoming clear that Islam will necessarily have to become radically polarized. There already exists the radical jihadists and there must now also arise radical reformists.
The incessant taqqiya and perfidy of putatively moderate Muslims like al-Hilali and Yusuf Qaradawi make it perilous, if not impossible, to accept the existence of moderate Islam. As mentioned by others here, this is much like being willing to accept someone who is a moderate sociopath. The analogy is more than apt in that these so-called moderates promote the beating of women, blaming rape victims for the crime, advocacy of terrorism and the death penalty for homosexuality.
Genuine reformation of Islam represents one of the only paths towards rehabilitation of this otherwise hostile and violent dogma. It stands as a form of Abject Gender Apartheid and has little in the way of redeeming features. The time has come for Muslims to take back their religion by force, as little else will have any chance against the aggressive and violent jihadists who continue to speak for it. Radical reformists need to begin a campaign of forcibly ejecting these terrorists and turning them over to the authorities for prosecution. The status quo shows no indication of improving and, in fact, has only deteriorated further with the likes of al-Hilali.
However, Muslims are in no way obligated to begin radical reformation of Islam. Just like how, when the time comes, we will in no way be obligated to worry about any so-called moderates if it ever comes to bombing Islam out of existence. Radical reformation is rapidly becoming one of the few ways for Muslims to demonstrate that they are serious about peacefully coesixting with the rest of humanity. With Islam's constant torrent of taqqiya, revolting propaganda and dogmatic filth, little else will prove very convincing.
#13
Oztralian-Love that photo link in #5. What a picture of modesty.
Zen-Problem is, even if he had meant prostitutes, it's just as bad. Rape is about lack of consent and force; even prostitutes can be victims of rape, though of course it would probably be difficult to win their cases.
#14
Problem is, even if he had meant prostitutes, it's just as bad. Rape is about lack of consent and force; even prostitutes can be victims of rape, though of course it would probably be difficult to win their cases.
I completely agree with you, Jules. Al-Hilali was only attempting to divert criticism away from his attempt to blame rape upon women who do not even remotely seek sex.
I'm curious as to what you think of my proposal vis Radical Refomation of Islam. The jihadists have actively sought to polarize both Islam and its relationship with the West.
I believe that one major driver in this polarization has been the moderate Muslim's thundering silence and highly dubious flaccidity in condemning radical Islam. Whatever moral highground that might ever have existed for moderate Islam has been eroded by both their tacit acceptance of terrorism and the overt taqqiya of jihadists.
I see this as rightfully creating a path of last resort for Muslims who are truly committed to coexistence with other cultures. They can begin salvaging their putative religion by aggressively combating jihadists or feel free to sit back and watch the inevitable trainwreck of Islam's collision with the West.
I have always maintained that the West has zero obligation to sort out the psychotics from amongst Islam's followers. This task has now devolved upon those Muslims who have the slightest honorable intentions of carrying forward some reformed version of this blighted dogma.
The time has come for decent Muslims to take up the banner of their faith's rehabilitations or risk watching its entire construct get dismantled by force of arms, be they conventional or nuclear.
#15
Sweet merciful crap! The Lakemba mosque receives public funding. Time to end that shit! Al-Hilali must be made to suffer direct and palpable consequences for his anti-Australian spewing.
CONTROVERSIAL Muslim cleric Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilary today said he refused to resign until "we clean the world of the White House", outside a mosque where 2000 people attended prayer.
SHEIK Taj al-Din al-Hilaly will only resign when the world is "clean of the White House", he said today.
After emerging from Friday prayers at Lakemba Mosque this afternoon, Sheik Hilaly was asked whether he would quit over a speech in which he said scantily-dressed women invited rape. "After we clean the world of the White House first," he said.
His supporters cheered and applauded loudly at the comments, which were directed firmly at US President George W. Bush. The sheik has previously described Mr Bush, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and Prime Minister John Howard as the axis of evil.
Despite calls from within the Islamic community for his resignation, Sheik Hilaly has been assured he has the support of grass-roots Muslims, a supporter said. Other Muslim figures have called for him to stand down over a sermon last month in which he likened immodestly dressed women to uncovered meat.
Over 2000 Muslims attended prayers at Lakemba Mosque today where British Imam Abdul Jalil Sajid gave the sermon in English in place of Sheik Hilaly.
Supporter and president of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, Keysar Trad, says the sheik will not resign but is taking a break which will include a pilgrimage to Mecca. "Reaction from the grass roots is that we appreciate all the hard work the mufti has put in for the community," Mr Trad said. "We're certainly not going to pass judgment on the basis of one comment in which we know his intentions were completely different.
"The grass roots are behind him."
But the Lebanese Muslim Association (LMA), which runs the Lakemba Mosque where the sheik preaches, said many of its members are embarrassed by his comments. The LMA met last night and said it was satisfied with Sheik Hilaly's apology but is dismayed that he is not explaining himself publicly today. "We wanted an explanation as to his thoughts on the matter," LMA President Tom Zrieka said. "The (LMA) board were satisfied with his apology last night, but some were priming for a retraction of his comments, but that's not going to happen.
"We've never, ever mentioned the word censure, we've never intended to terminate him or ban him in any way.
"There was an implied understanding following yesterday's discussion to take the necessary time off to recuperate and get back to health."
Mr Zrieka said Sheik Hilaly is not speaking for all Muslims and the LMA hopes to meet with him again shortly to discuss his situation. Mr Zrieka fears the sheik's comments will cause serious divisions within Muslims and a backlash from the wider Australian community.
He also asked Prime Minister John Howard and other politicians to stay out of the debate. "Leave the Islam community to the Islam community," he said.
#3
Despite calls from within the Islamic community for his resignation, Sheik Hilaly has been assured he has the support of grass-roots Muslims, a supporter said.
AUSTRALIA'S Islamic community must resolve the dispute surrounding leading cleric Taj Aldin Alhilali or risk a lasting backlash against Muslims, Prime Minister John Howard says.
Muslim leaders decided last night not to sack Sheik Alhilali, the mufti of Australia, for comparing women to "uncovered meat" and suggesting women who did not wear the hijab invited sexual assault. The mufti made the comments to a Ramadan sermon at Lakemba mosque in Sydney.
Mr Howard said today the episode was a crucial test for Australia's Muslim community. "It's not for the government to say who runs a mosque, or who's an archbishop, or who's a rabbi," he told Southern Cross Broadcasting. "What I am saying to the Islamic community is this: If they do not resolve this matter, it could do lasting damage to the perceptions of that community within the broader Australian community. "If it is not resolved, then unfortunately people will run around saying 'Well the reason they didn't get rid of him is because secretly some of them support his views'."
Mr Howard said he could not sack the mufti because Australia was a secular country that observed the separation of church and state. However, he did not want the Islamic community to be an object of "criticism and derision". "We who are not of that faith have an obligation to embrace them and to treat them as part of our community," he said. "They have an obligation to understand that it is an exercise in self-discipline for them to deal with these sorts of issues."
Mr Howard said most Australians, including most Muslims, were appalled by Sheik Alhilali's comments. "I think what he's done is so unacceptable and so out of line with not only mainstream Australian opinion but .. mainstream Muslim opinion," he said.
But the government was not in a position to deport the mufti. "It is a matter of interesting political record how a decision some 20 years ago by a former Labor immigration minister about his citizenship was overturned by the Hawke and Keating government," Mr Howard said. "But anyway, that's history now. He's an Australian citizen. I think he does have citizenship of another country as well - as do four or five million other Australians.
"It's not for me to deport people. This is a democracy. "You do not arbitrarily deport people from Australia who are Australian citizens. "That only happens as the result of a long process and as a result of somebody being convicted of an offence."
Posted by: ed ||
10/27/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
1) What he said was VERY offensive
2) Strip him of citizenship
3) Deport
#5
the police can only do so much. In my opinion, this will escalate, with many young girls getting raped. The mufti's words will inspire the Muslim men that it is ok. Then there will be Muslim girls getting raped for retribution. Then ...heck I don't know. But the Muslims will ultimately be the losers in this because it will show very clearly that they don't have it in their culture to stand up and do what is right.
#6
I'm amazed that the Lakemba mosque is still standing.
Howard is spot on. He has thrown the ball into the Australian Muslims' court and they had best send it straight back without any spin on it. If they go the usual taqqiya route, all hell is going to break loose.
#7
I'm amazed that the Lakemba mosque is still standing.
That's because the vast majority of Australians are decent, law-abiding, and patient people. They believe in the rule of law and fair play.
Not to say that there is a limit to their patience. If the time comes when resolution by force of arms is required, I have no doubt that the matter will be settled according to the law and the weight of superior firepower.
#8
That's because the vast majority of Australians are decent, law-abiding, and patient people. They believe in the rule of law and fair play.
Of that I have no doubt, and which I certainly admire them for, not to mention their incredible restraint in the face of endless provocation as well. The Lakemba mosque has been nothing but a cesspool of terrorist sympathizers and antagonistic Islamic propaganda.
Sheik Taj Aldin Al-Hilali, the Muslim leader at the centre of a storm over comments blaming women for rape, will be giving no more sermons for several months at Lakemba mosque, senior Muslims say.
Not until the heat's off...
But no further action is to be taken against Australia's top Muslim cleric for likening scantily-dressed women to uncovered meat and saying they're responsible for sexual attacks.
"Yeah, it's all their own fault. Sez so right in the Koran someplace. You could look it up."
The decision followed an emergency meeting of Muslim leaders in Sydney to discuss the storm over mufti's remarks, condemned by many fellow Muslims and by mainstream political leaders across the political spectrum.
"Cheese! Who the hell let that cat outta the bag?"
The meeting at Sydney's Lakemba Mosque lasted four hours to determine the fate of the man regarded by much of the Islamic community as the mufti of Australia.
"How the hell are we gonna get Sheikh Bigmouth, here, off the hook?"
But the board of the Lebanese Muslim Association decided that Sheik Alhilali had been misinterpreted.
"I suppose we could say he'd been misinterpreted..."
"Again?"
Tom Zrika, of the Lebanese Muslim Association, said he would be giving no more sermons for several months, but no further action would be taken. "Some people on the board would have liked to have more done, but unfortunately we can only speak to the board," he said.
"They're the ones that make the decisions. We just supply the money."
He described Thursday night's meeting as "very, very intense."
"It wuz like they wuz cornered or somethin'. Nobody expected that sucker to be taped, and then translated."
"You can take it either way," Mr Zrika told ABC radio.
"That's gotta be some kinda violation of our rights as Oztralians, ain't it?"
He said the board had "met with the mufti of Australia."
"He said, 'So what? I'm the mufti and you ain't.'"
"A thorough explanation of the contents of the sermon, the subject of complaint, was given to the board. "The board is satisfied with the notion that certain statements made by the mufti was misinterpreted."
"Yeah! It's really very funny in the original Arabic!"
Sheik Alhilali's remarks were made during a Ramadan sermon to 500 worshippers in Sydney last month. Excerpts from a recording of the 17-minute sermon appeared in The Australian newspaper. He said there were women who "sway suggestively" and wore make-up and inappropriate clothes, "and then you get a judge without mercy (rahma) and gives you 65 years," The Australian reported.
"I mean, just for slappin' the ol' baloney to some infidel wench!"
"If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat," the sheik asked. "The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab (Muslim headscarf), no problem would have occurred."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2006 00:00 ||
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Great inline commentary, Fred.
Tom Zrika, of the Lebanese Muslim Association, said he would be giving no more sermons for several months, but no further action would be taken.
"It's not like we even disagree with al-Hilali, it's just that they're asking too many questions. We've got to let things die down a bit before letting him preach some more."
"Some people on the board would have liked to have more done, but unfortunately we can only speak to the board," he said.
"It's not like if we tore down the mosque that it'd do any good."
"You can take it either way," Mr Zrika told ABC radio.
"You can think we've censured al-Hilali and we'll laugh at you behind your backs."
"The board is satisfied with the notion that certain statements made by the mufti was misinterpreted."
"He's always being misinterpreted. Al-Hilali talks about blowing up Jews and suddenly people are calling him a terrorist. He applauds the 9-11 hijackers and everyone's labeling him a jihadist. He mentions stoning homosexuals to death and somehow that magically makes him an extremist. I'm telling you that the poor man is tragically misunderstood."
He said there were women who "sway suggestively" and wore make-up and inappropriate clothes, "and then you get a judge without mercy (rahma) and gives you 65 years,"
Thank your merciful fucking lucky stars there isn't a death sentence for your pet gang rapists. Those maggots already received sentence reductions as it is. Fortunately, they'll probably meet up with some other Australian inmates who'll show them the same rough handling mercy as they showed their victims.
#2
this POS should spend some time outside the country - like the rest of his lifetime
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/27/2006 19:04 Comments ||
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I suspect by now there's a large warning sign posted on the door of the Lakemba mosque prohibiting tape recorders on the premises. These kind of signs will become common at most mosques in the not too distant future. They're necessary to prevent the infidel from misinterpreting and misunderstanding the imam's sermons.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
10/27/2006 21:23 Comments ||
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Islamic groups in Australia yesterday moved to distance themselves from controversial comments made by a cleric, calling them "un-Islamic, un-Australian and unacceptable". The cleric, Sheikh Taj Aldin al-Hilali, caused a storm by describing scantily-clad women without headscarves as "uncovered meat" inviting sexual attack. He later apologised but Islamic Council of Victoria spokesman Waleed Aly predicted a backlash against Muslims, saying: "I am expecting a deluge of hate mail. I am expecting people to get abused in the street and get abused at work."
"I mean, that's what we'd do, after all."
AustraliaÂ’s most senior Islamic cleric sparked uproar after describing immodestly dressed women without headscarves as "uncovered meat" inviting sexual attack. "They are appalling and reprehensible comments," Prime Minister John Howard told reporters. "The idea that women are to blame for rapes is preposterous."
Not if you look at it a certain way, with your turban really, really tight. Then it all makes sense, and you can see God's belt buckle just before you pass out.
The governmentÂ’s sex discrimination commissioner called for the cleric, Sheikh Taj Aldin al-Hilali, to be sacked and deported from the country, where bikinis and miniskirts reflect a sun-drenched lifestyle.
Hrowf! Hilali should be prosecuted for blasphemy! Orf wif 'is 'ead!
Al-Hilali made the comments in a Ramadan sermon to 500 worshippers last month in which he criticised women who "sway suggestively", wear make-up and no hijab or Islamic headscarf, The Australian newspaper reported.
"They got thighs, brethren and sistern! I seen 'em! I seen 'em with my own eyes! An' they got buttocks! And them buttocks swaaaaaays when they walks! An' they got bosoms! An' them bosoms swaaaaaays when they walks! An'... An'... An' they looks at me wid them eyes! Big ol' eyes, brethren and sistern! An' sometimes they smile, the brazen hussies, but never, never at me! An' my meat starts to swell! An' the cats comes after me! An' then... An' then... Oh! I must shoot off! My gun, that is. I must shoot off my gun... Does anyone have a tissue?
Al-Hilali later issued a statement apologising for any offence caused by his remarks. "I unreservedly apologise to any woman who is offended by my comments," he said. "I had only intended to protect womenÂ’s honour, something lost in The Australian presentation of my talk. The presentation related to religious teachings on modesty and not to go to extremes in enticements, this does not condone rape, I condemn rape," he said. "Women in our Australian society have the freedom and right to dress as they choose, the duty of man is to avert his glance or walk away," he added.
"And shoot off his gun."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2006 00:00 ||
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Whatever the heck that means. It SOUNDS good, anyway, even if it reeks of BS to any culture with their brain turned on at least 10% of the way.
So what is this honour thingy anyway, and why does it need so much protecting, if it isn't just to be used as an excuse to act like barbarians half of the time?
I'd say let the women protect their own honour if they want to. And not if they don't . . . . :-)
#7
Funny how such a mild rebuke resulted in such a dhimmi-like apology from al-Hilari. These muzzie rabble-rousers should be told to STFU much more quickly, often and clearly by those in power. The Australians have set a great example in this instance. It should be made clear that they are free to have whatever opinion they wish, just like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. And they are just as free to be clearly and completely rejected and ignored.
#8
Make sure every woman in Australia becomes a seventh-degree black belt in their choice of martial arts, and give them a concealed-carry permit for .45s. Get them to travel in pairs or larger groups. The (attempted) rapes will soon stop. Force is the only thing muzzies understand. Australia needs to teach them, extremely well, that Aussie women WILL be treated with respect, or the disrespecting male will end up fresh shark bait.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/27/2006 15:15 Comments ||
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#9
Old Patriot - Australia has banned personal ownership of firearms some years ago (and curiously gun related crime has gone UP). There's been talk of banning swords too. We in the US should be grateful that our founders put the second amendment in the constitution.
THE daughter of besieged Muslim cleric Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly said his comments have been misinterpreted and the media should "leave him alone".
"Leave 'im alone, you big bullies!"
Asma al-Hilaly said her father comments implying that immodestly dressed women invite sexual attacks were not his own words.
"He got them from the writings of a medieval pope. I think it was Pope Bob... Yes. I'm sure it was."
She said the offending quote, likening women to uncovered meat tempting cats to eat it, was offered to a group of old men as a way urging them, to teach their daughters to be modest. "All I'm saying is that what he said was (taken) out of context," Ms al-Hilaly told Southern Cross Broadcasting. "Leave him alone. He is a sick man.
"I mean, like, really sick. He tried to feed me to a cat once."
"He was in a house of God. He was only preaching to a group of old men. And his only concern was for them to keep their daughters modest. It all got out of context, blown out of proportion out of something little. Move on."
"Just get over it. And keep that cat away from me!"
Ms al-Hilaly said her father was misinterpreted by unfair translation of the sermon. "He was not inviting people to rape (women). That's the thing that was out of context," she said. "He was just teaching women to be modest."
"So they won't be eaten by cats. I mean, who wants to be eaten by cats?"
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
It was "taken out of context". Context being that it was only for Muzzie consumption. Infidels could not understand and should not have been informed in the first place. In the second place, f**k you infidels for causing my old man to sweat into his beard.
#2
I'm glad it was taken out of context, or the mosque would probably be a smoking hole in the ground right about now. And there have been many examples that is what is 'lost' in translation is usually lost for a reason.
#10
I've looked for a link, and can't really find any reference to this degenerate as a moderate, however there is universal agreement that he is "AUSTRALIA'S most senior Islamic cleric".
The poularity of moderation is still doubtful.
#11
By whom? I've not heard that applied to him at all, but maybe I've missed the occasions where it's happened. Links would be helpful -- thanks.
Here's a few:
While he paints himself as a moderate, at a young age Sheik Hilali joined the Muslim Brotherhood - an extremist group influenced by one of Islam's most radical thinkers and a supporter of violent jihad.
Sheik Hilali, who is considered a moderate leader but has regularly shaken relations with the Howard Government, still has a strong powerbase, particularly within the Lebanese community.
After having provoked an international furor with his jihadist remarks, yet keeping his job, Australia's Mufti Al-Hilali is trying to repair his image as a moderate Muslim
The ICRA and Faiz's Global Islamic Youth Centre have broken away from the Lakemba Mosque, the main place of worship for Sydney's Lebanese Muslims, because, a former associate says, Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali, 64, is too moderate.
There was a time when Al-Hilali was a moderate as can be seen from this 2002 press release Message to all the extremists of the world (From Australian Muslims).
The president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Dr. Ameer Ali, told an Australian newspaper that Sheikh Al-Hilali could not possibly "hold such radical views" because he is a "very moderate Islamic leader."
I foresee a day when there will be only two brands of Islam. The current radical jihadists and one that must evolve in the very near future; Radical reformists.
Moderate Muslims like al-Hilali make any such notion of moderation totally unacceptable. Be it taqqiya or that this is honest and true Islamic moderation, the title moderate Muslim carries with it all the comfort of calling someone a "moderate sociopath".
You're so welcome, lotp. I certainly hope this clears things up for you about the piss poor reputation and lack of credibility that "moderate" Muslims have with so many people, especially around Rantburg.
France's interior minister ordered police to go on maximum alert in at-risk areas around the country after several buses were torched in suburbs ahead of the anniversary of widespread rioting last year. "I decided to mobilize all mobile forces at our disposal for the security of those who use public transport,'' Nicolas Sarkozy, a conservative frontrunner in next year's presidential elections, said overnight Thursday.
A car was burned and a police officer slightly injured near the home of Xavier Lemoine, the conservative mayor of the town of Montfermeil, near Paris, police said Friday. "The officer was slightly injured when a stone was thrown as he tried to put out a fire after a car was torched in the street where the mayor lives,'' said a police spokesman.
Mr Sarkozy spoke after a meeting with transport officials on the eve of the first anniversary of three weeks of violent clashes between armed youths and police in suburbs throughout France, when more than 10,000 cars were set alight and 300 buildings firebombed.
Mr Sarkozy said that all "sensitive (bus) lines'' would be protected at crucial times. "We will do everything possible to ensure that public services are not disrupted anywhere in this country,'' he said. He did not give details but said that a meeting would be held Friday with police chiefs and transport companies "to finalize necessary measures''.
Mr Sarkozy called for an investigation into what led young people to set fire to buses after drivers who were attacked in the latest violence said that the assailants were very young. The media should also act responsibly in reporting on the anniversary of last year's violence to avert copycat crimes, he said. "We should not give any publicity to people who want nothing else,'' he said.
In the runup to the anniversary armed youths had hijacked and set fire to a bus in the suburbs of Paris Thursday while hooded gangs torched two others overnight Wednesday. Around 10 masked men - five of them carrying handguns - forced the driver and passengers off a night bus heading from Bagnolet to Montreuil, on the eastern edge of the capital, at around 1:00 am on Thursday morning.
Earlier, hooded youths had set fire to a bus in the western suburb of Nanterre, not far from the La Defense business district, leaving passengers scrambling to escape, firemen and police said. A dozen youths boarded the bus, threw an inflammable liquid inside, lit it and fled.
A third attack took place in Athis-Mons south of Paris, where police said three masked youths ordered passengers off a bus, hurled a Molotov cocktail inside and fled. The driver managed to put out the flames.
Outside Paris, in a suburb of the central-eastern city of Lyon, a bus was also torched by vandals as it was parked in a depot. Police have warned of an increase in tensions in recent weeks. Officers have on several occasions been the targets of ambushes in the Paris suburbs.
The spark for last year's rioting was the accidental deaths of two local teenagers in the run-down Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois, who were electrocuted while hiding from the police. Town residents are to hold a silent march in tribute to the two boys on Friday, before unveiling a monument in their memory. Later Friday, the town has planned an evening of concerts, films and debates.
#2
This problem is not restricted to France. Will someone please explain to me why rioters are not shot on sight? We have the means to deal with any such apprehended insurrection in short order: Why don't we? It is a moral insanity to fret unduly at the fate of face of the torch-wielding mob and not at that of commuters, presumably mainly composed of the elderly, the infirm, students and the poor. These last groups deserve our compassion and our protection. The mob deserves only what it gets.
#3
Sarky, the situation is getting away from you. So far, these brave "youths" have allowed passengers to get off the buses before lighting them off. What are ya gonna do when they decide they'll get more attention by burning buses with passengers aboard ? You better quit playing games with the "youth." I noticed since something occurred near a mayor's residence, this promoted some reaction. Do over running of estates have to occur before any serious government retaliation happens ?
Hat tip: GOC
Edited for brevity.
Fill in the blank:
By the year _____, the country had grown weary of the long and bloody ____ War. _____ thousand of the countries' best and bravest young men had fallen on the fields of _____. Many began to think that the war was not worth it, and the price of freedom too great. The Republican Presidential Candidate ____________ thought no price was too great for _________. Unfortunately, after _____ long years of war, _____'s support was dropping fast, and people were looking for a way out of the war.
If you thought this was written about President Bush and the Iraq War, you would be mistaken. This paragraph depicts the political climate in America 142 years ago... and describes the challenges that faced a different Republican President during a different US War. Go to the link for much more, including a contemporary Democratic poster that, with a little Photoshopping, represents their outlook (and CNN's outlook) today.
Posted by: Dar ||
10/27/2006 16:22 ||
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#1
Does anyone know a source (I'm too lazy to do it) where we can find out who was Pres at the start, and at the "end" (heh), of every war the US has been in? How many were Donks, how many Pubs, how many Mull Boose, you know what I mean... Might be interesting. TIA.
* George Washington: war with Native Americans in Ohio
* Thomas Jefferson: Tripolitan War, 1800-1805, against the Barbary pirates
* James Madison - War of 1812, 1812-1814, against the British
* James Monroe - First Seminole War, 1817-1818
* Andrew Jackson - Black Hawk War, 1832
* Martin Van Buren - Aroostook War, 1839; Second Seminole War - ended 1842
* William Henry Harrison - Second Seminole War - ended 1842
* John Tyler - Second Seminole War - ended 1842
* James Polk - Mexican War
* James Buchanan - beginning of the Civil War
* Abraham Lincoln - Civil War, 1861-1865
* William McKinley - Spanish-American War, 1898; Boxer Rebellion, 1899-1900
* Woodrow Wilson - WWI, 1914-1918
* Warren Harding - formally concluded WWI
* Franklin Roosevelt - WWII, 1941-1945
* Harry Truman - conclusion of WWII, Korean War - 1950-1953
* Dwight Eisenhower - conclusion of Korean War
* John Kennedy - Bay of Pigs Invasion, 1961; beginning of Vietnam War
* Lyndon Johnson - Vietnam War, Dominican Republic, 1965
* Richard Nixon - Vietnam War
* Ronald Reagan - Grenada Invasion, 1983
* George Bush - Invasion of Panama, 1989-1990; Persian Gulf War, 1990-1991
* George W. Bush - War against the Taliban, Iraq, 2001 to present.
#3
President Lincoln fired his first Secretary of War, and went through several commanding generals. He wasnt afraid to say when things were well and truely f***ed up.
and in those days, Republican run congressional committees were highly critical of the running of the war.
* Thomas Jefferson
* James Madison
* James Monroe
* Andrew Jackson
* Martin Van Buren
* James Polk
* Franklin Pierce
* James Buchanan
* Andrew Johnson
* Grover Cleveland
* Woodrow Wilson
* Franklin Roosevelt
* Harry Truman
* John Kennedy
* Lyndon Johnson
* Jimmy Carter
* Bill Clinton
Whig presidents
* William Henry Harrison
* John Tyler
* Zachary Taylor
* Millard Fillmore
Republican presidents
* Abraham Lincoln
* Ulysses Grant
* Rutherford Hayes
* James Garfield
* Chester Arthur
* Benjamin Harrison
* William McKinley
* Theodore Roosevelt
* William Taft
* Warren Harding
* Calvin Coolidge
* Herbert Hoover
* Dwight Eisenhower
* Richard Nixon
* Gerald Ford
* Ronald Reagan
* George Bush
* George W. Bush
Presidents belonging to no party
* John Quincy Adams
Presidents who changed party affiliation after their presidency
* Millard Fillmore (Whig) became a candidate for the American or Know-Nothing Party.
* Theodore Roosevelt (Republican) founded the Progressive or Bull Moose Party.
#8
I'd say, LH - the adults have cleaned up the mess left by the Left
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/27/2006 17:48 Comments ||
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#9
Just from reading this list, it's apparent that war is not just 'diplomacy by other means', but it's really a constant, like time and gravity. Dovetails nicely with the hard left moonbat's refusal to acknowledge certain aspects of reality, because they can't / won't view wars that way.
#10
It would be even more telling to read the statements of the Copperheads of the North who were more than willing to trade "slavery for peace".
They were blood brothers with such southerners as George Fitzhugh, who wrote the book "Cannibals All! Or Slaves without Masters". It was more than just a defense of slavery, it was a proto-socialist statement that slavery was such a good that 90% of mankind should be slaves.
It is still in print, BTW. It is a worthwhile read, as it gives a formative look into the mind-set behind socialism.
#13
Small bones to pick with Darrell's excellent post about Vietnam. US involvement in VN started under Eisenhower (originally in support of the French), with the big escalation under Johnson. Involvement continued and deepened under Kennedy, but not dramatically. I don't see how either the war or US involvement can br said to have started between '61 and '63. Also, the war ended under Ford. The '73 agreement with the North under Nixon drastically reduced but didn't end the US role - the North's invasion in violation of the agreement ended it two years later.
Article pasted here due to readability problems at the site
The U.S. Department of Defense is now taking its requests for corrections public through a website known as For the Record (located at http://www.defenselink.mil/home/dodupdate/index-b.html). Here, the Department of Defense is openly calling for corrections from major media outlets, and even noting when they refuse to publish letters to the editor.
The most recent was this past Tuesday, when the DOD published a letter, that the New York Times refused to run, which contained quotes from five generals (former CENTCOM commander Tommy Franks, current CENTCOM commander John Abizaid, MNF Commander George Casey, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers, as well as his successor, Peter Pace) that rebutted a New York Times editorial. This has been picked up by a number of bloggers who have been able to spread the Pentagon's rebuttal – and the efforts of the New York Times to sweep it under the rug – across the country.
The Defense Department has been dealing with a number of misleading stories. From Newsweek's misreporting of a Koran-flushing incident (caused by a detainee, not guards as reported by Newsweek), to claims of prisoner mistreatment (often without context, including one instance where a detainee spat on an interrogator), to a massive rewriting of an embedded reporter's report on the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment's efforts in Tal Afar, by editors of Time magazine, to the revelations about NSA efforts, the DOD has been barraged by numerous stories, many of which were followed by angry editorials.
The DOD is pushing back, not only putting out requests to correct the record (with the refusals published as well), but also citing stories of heroes that the media has failed to cover – usually two or three a week. Among these are accounts of those who have been awarded medals for battlefield bravery, like Navy Cross recipients Robert J. Mitchell Jr. and Bradley A. Kasal, as well as Silver Star recipients Juan M. Rubio, Sarun Sar, Jeremy Church, and Leigh Ann Hester. The DOD has also followed CENTCOM's lead in running pieces on what terrorists actually say – another item largely ignored by the mainstream media.
The Department of Defense is acting in an effort to avoid a repeat of the aftermath of the 1968 Tet Offensive. On the battlefield, American and South Vietnamese forces won a victory – effectively destroying the Viet Cong and crippling North Vietnamese forces in South Vietnam. However, media misreporting, including Walter Cronkite's famous mischaracterization of the war as a "stalemate", took away the victory that had been won on the battlefield. Such a scenario is less likely now, largely due to the presence of the internet (including blogs), talk radio, and other news networks – and the Department of Defense is taking advantage of alternative ways to get around the mainstream media. – Harold C. Hutchison (haroldc.hutchison@gmail.com)
Posted by: ed ||
10/27/2006 07:59 ||
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#1
TOO BAD......Advetisments at link screwed up the story
#2
Yeah, I'm having the same problem. Text is overlapped by the ads.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
10/27/2006 8:18 Comments ||
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#3
Text: October 27, 2006: The U.S. Department of Defense is now taking its requests for corrections public through a website known as For the Record (located at http://www.defenselink.mil/home/dodupdate/index-b.html). Here, the Department of Defense is openly calling for corrections from major media outlets, and even noting when they refuse to publish letters to the editor.
The most recent was this past Tuesday, when the DOD published a letter, that the New York Times refused to run, which contained quotes from five generals (former CENTCOM commander Tommy Franks, current CENTCOM commander John Abizaid, MNF Commander George Casey, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers, as well as his successor, Peter Pace) that rebutted a New York Times editorial. This has been picked up by a number of bloggers who have been able to spread the Pentagon's rebuttal – and the efforts of the New York Times to sweep it under the rug –across the country.
The Defense Department has been dealing with a number of misleading stories. From Newsweek's misreporting of a Koran-flushing incident (caused by a detainee, not guards as reported by Newsweek), to claims of prisoner mistreatment (often without context, including one instance where a detainee spat on an interrogator), to a massive rewriting of an embedded reporter's report on the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment's efforts in Tal Afar, by editors of Time magazine, to the revelations about NSA efforts, the DOD has been barraged by numerous stories, many of which were followed by angry editorials.
The DOD is pushing back, not only putting out requests to correct the record (with the refusals published as well), but also citing stories of heroes that the media has failed to cover – usually two or three a week. Among these are accounts of those who have been awarded medals for battlefield bravery, like Navy Cross recipients Robert J. Mitchell Jr. and Bradley A. Kasal, as well as Silver Star recipients Juan M. Rubio, Sarun Sar, Jeremy Church, and Leigh Ann Hester. The DOD has also followed CENTCOM's lead in running pieces on what terrorists actually say – another item largely ignored by the mainstream media.
The Department of Defense is acting in an effort to avoid a repeat of the aftermath of the 1968 Tet Offensive. On the battlefield, American and South Vietnamese forces won a victory – effectively destroying the Viet Cong and crippling North Vietnamese forces in South Vietnam. However, media misreporting, including Walter Cronkite's famous mischaracterization of the war as a "stalemate", took away the victory that had been won on the battlefield. Such a scenario is less likely now, largely due to the presence of the internet (including blogs), talk radio, and other news networks – and the Department of Defense is taking advantage of alternative ways to get around the mainstream media. – Harold C. Hutchison (haroldc.hutchison@gmail.com)
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/27/2006 8:41 Comments ||
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#4
Full text:
October 27, 2006: The U.S. Department of Defense is now taking its requests for corrections public through a website known as For the Record (located at http://www.defenselink.mil/home/dodupdate/index-b.html).
Here, the Department of Defense is openly calling for corrections from major media outlets, and even noting when they refuse to publish letters to the editor.
The most recent was this past Tuesday, when the DOD published a letter, that the New York Times refused to run, which contained quotes from five generals (former CENTCOM commander Tommy Franks, current CENTCOM commander John Abizaid, MNF Commander George Casey, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers, as well as his successor, Peter Pace) that rebutted a New York Times editorial. This has been picked up by a number of bloggers who have been able to spread the Pentagon's rebuttal – and the efforts of the New York Times to sweep it under the rug – across the country.
The Defense Department has been dealing with a number of misleading stories. From Newsweek's misreporting of a Koran-flushing incident (caused by a detainee, not guards as reported by Newsweek), to claims of prisoner mistreatment (often without context, including one instance where a detainee spat on an interrogator), to a massive rewriting of an embedded reporter's report on the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment's efforts in Tal Afar, by editors of Time magazine, to the revelations about NSA efforts, the DOD has been barraged by numerous stories, many of which were followed by angry editorials.
The DOD is pushing back, not only putting out requests to correct the record (with the refusals published as well), but also citing stories of heroes that the media has failed to cover – usually two or three a week. Among these are accounts of those who have been awarded medals for battlefield bravery, like Navy Cross recipients Robert J. Mitchell Jr. and Bradley A. Kasal, as well as Silver Star recipients Juan M. Rubio, Sarun Sar, Jeremy Church, and Leigh Ann Hester. The DOD has also followed CENTCOM's lead in running pieces on what terrorists actually say – another item largely ignored by the mainstream media.
The Department of Defense is acting in an effort to avoid a repeat of the aftermath of the 1968 Tet Offensive. On the battlefield, American and South Vietnamese forces won a victory – effectively destroying the Viet Cong and crippling North Vietnamese forces in South Vietnam. However, media misreporting, including Walter Cronkite's famous mischaracterization of the war as a "stalemate", took away the victory that had been won on the battlefield. Such a scenario is less likely now, largely due to the presence of the internet (including blogs), talk radio, and other news networks – and the Department of Defense is taking advantage of alternative ways to get around the mainstream media.
– Harold C. Hutchison (haroldc.hutchison@gmail.com)
Funny, the same moonbats who fear unchecked government power are all for unchecked media power -- as if "independent journalists" who never leave the Green Zone are somehow inherently more reliable than the people running operations.
Refusing to print a letter from five generals in wartime: serious chutzpah.
#5
The link to the DOD Page should be disseminated far and wide! I've commented on this at my website, and promptly added a side-bar link to it. Muchas Gracias, ed!
Grick doesn't know there's a serious downside to Firefox/adblock.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
10/27/2006 11:21 Comments ||
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#10
This is the ONLY front where we were not fighting. Its something I've been chewing on GW Bush about for years now. Stand up and Speak Out dammit!
Why the hell has he NOT used "the Bully Pulpit" of Reagan and Roosevelt? Even Bubba Clinton took the megaphone that comes with the office of President - and did so effectively!
GW Bush's main failure has been the failure to realize that in the arena of politics, you must not only BE right, you must be SEEN as right. And Bush has failed miserably in that part of this job as leader of this nation.
Had he explained the need for secrecy and the treachery of the press, we'd have less of the idiocy surrounding the government intel programs.
Had he stood up weekly and corrected the press in its misreporting of Iraq, we'd not have the lies that have been heaped up to support the moonbats.
Had he trumpeted the economy and his tax cuts salutatory effects on it, we'd not have the continued unopposed drumbeat of negative reporting from the major media accepted as gospel
GW Bush - fantastic success in terms of his policies, miserable PR failure to tell the nation about them.
Clinton was able to get a lot of his pet projects passed over the objection of an Republican house. The Gipper was able to reach out to the American People and sell far tougher measures over the heads of the press and left wing congress. Bush has an R house and R senate that he can;t even get a budget or a border control bill through - or a large number of district court judges.
#11
I agree the failure of both GWB administrations on the PR front is really surprizing; it's like they are not even trying to fight back, both re the domestic angle, and in regard to the WOT/WOI. And, yet, Karl Rove is supposed to be the PuppetMaster(Tm) of PR.
OTOH, they have been SWAMPED with operational decisions and with crises in more places than get a lot of media focus (thank goodness). Iraq, Afghanistan, the UN, Lebanon, Iran, the horn of Africa, Chavez and goings on in South America ....
PLUS the CIA leaking classified info selectively to the NYT, hostile and misleading questioning at press conferences designed to trap Bush into saying things that can be used against him.
And ... underlying it all, the incredibly irresponsible, destructive and truly corrosive attempt by Gore and the left to portray the last two major elections as stolen.
AND ... the European governments stuffed with (ex?) radical leftists like Schroeder's cabinet, seething in their hatred of the US and seeing in Bush the epitome of everything they hate. Spewing the most vile contempt and ridicule at him as he tries to lead the West through its biggest crises in, arguably, centuries.
Given all that, I cut them a break. But I am grateful for Tony Snow and wish he had been in place 5 years ago!!!
#13
OldSpook, judging by Bush's bill signing yesterday, he did not want to sign the fence bill, and it shows. I, for one, would like Bush to explain his exact position on the illegals issue.
#15
It helps to have the MSM on your side and to be on the MSM's side, as Clinton always tried to be. Bush has recognized that if he makes the tough decisions and takes a stand, the MSM is his incontrovertible enemy. He saves his MSM chips for when he needs them, right before elections. If he were trying to get the kind of exposure for his message that he has gotten for the last month all the time, he would be completely ignored at the all important election time. So he's had to make the strategic decision to focus media offensives at the times when they can make a difference. He who defends everything defends nothing.
Having the domestic press as an enemy is a huge problem for any leader who chooses to conduct a war or make hard policy choices. No question Bush is not a great communicator. But even the Gipper had things pretty rough, especially in his second term. That's why he had to sign a tax increase.
DoD has really missed a beat in failing to use the internet to get its message out for today's generation. This DoD update is a good start, but is updated too infrequently and doesn't have the edge things need on the internet. It's not coordinated with what Tony Snow is doing, which has the same flaws. Maybe DoD can't really do it directly. But they should be feeding more stories to bloggers and other disseminators who can get the message out more effectively.
This problem will not go away, no matter who is elected in 2008 unless we either pull out or suffer the kind of devastating attack that puts the whole nation in a post Pearl Harbor mentality. And remember that post PH we still didn't declare war on Germany, Germany delclared war on us. The American people just don't like going to war. And solving that problem is the key to winning a war that we will win. The only question is how much it costs. And right now, just like with Social Secuirty, every one wants to ignore the problem thinking they can reduce their pain by postponing it, when the opposite is the truth.
We hear reports all the time about the 'Insurgents' (aka Freedom Fighter to Ted and Co) using human shields. Why haven't we seen any videos of it? I know it would be hard to get a video in a combat situation but a video of a 'freedom fighter' hiding behind a woman or child will end this 'freedom fighter' bullshit in its tracks and help to shut Ted and Murtha and Cindy up.
So far we aren't even fighting this war in the media - we are giving up almost every 'media' battlefield unfought. Why?
#17
So far we aren't even fighting this war in the media - we are giving up almost every 'media' battlefield unfought. Why?
It's almost like a studied ignorance. Makes me wonder sometimes if the resulting discord is part of a hidden strategy because nobody's that stupid. These people use PR all over the place whenever there's an election to be won, then they forget how it works? BS*10e6.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A federal judge has denied a request from a former CIA contractor to overturn his conviction for assaulting an Afghan detainee who later died. In a decision issued Thursday, U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle said the evidence supported the jury's verdict against David Passaro. Prosecutors had argued Passaro beat Abdul Wali during two days of interrogations in July 2003 at an Army base in northern Afghanistan.
``The jurors heard evidence from eye witnesses regarding Abdul Wali's brutal beating, his condition after the beating and expert testimony as to the internal injuries such blows were likely to cause,'' Boyle wrote. ``Despite the defendant's arguments to the contrary, substantial evidence supports the jury's verdict in this case.''
Passaro was convicted in August in federal court of felony assault with a dangerous weapon and three counts of misdemeanor assault. Passaro faces up to 11 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when sentenced. He was the first American civilian charged with mistreating a detainee during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Boyle said the evidence showed Wali arrived at the compound as a healthy young man, then died after being beaten for two days. ``Notably, the absence of an autopsy likely shielded the defendant from murder charges,'' Boyle wrote.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/27/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
How soon can we release him ? Can we let him out after we celebrate one of our esteemed holidays, namely Halloween ? Revolving doors should not be limited to Saooodi Araby.
Like last week - Iraqi's take over more battlespace, convict more terrorists, produce 2.33 million barrels of crude per day, and Baghdad electrictity up to 8+ hours a day.
Link to .pdf slide show.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/27/2006 11:12 ||
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Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki told Reuters on Thursday he could end the violence in Iraq in six months if the United States gave him the weaponry and control over Iraqi forces.
Q. The United States says you have agreed to a 12-month "timeline" of measures to end the violence and bring stability to Iraq. Can you tell us in your own words about this?
A.They think building Iraqi forces will need 12 to 18 months for us to be in control of security. We agree our forces need work but think that if, as we are asking, the rebuilding of our forces was in our own hands, then it would take not 12-18 months but six might be enough.
I would actually be in favor of that, having had just about enough of attempts to civilize Iraq. If the rebuilding of the Iraqi forces is left in Iraqi hands, they end up with an army that's trained to Arab standards, good for oppressing the populace, but no great shakes on the battlefield. Trained to our standards, they could actually be dangerous to someone, at least until inshallah maintenance standards kick in again.
Q. What sort of weapons are you saying you need?
A. I'm not talking about modern tanks or modern warplanes and missiles because we aren't fighting a war with another country and facing an army. I'm talking about having a well-trained army, swift and light on its feet and at the same time with medium weapons. The police are sharing rifles. That is why when the police clashed with the (Shi'ite Mehdi Army) militia in Amara, the police fled. This is the responsibility of the Coalition because they created them (the police). Maybe they thought that the country would not slip into this situation. Well, now that we are here we need them to build the army quickly.
I thought we had built a reasonable Iraqi army, at least a core of infantry. If he's saying he needs some mechanized units, artillery, etc., sure, fine, but in return he has to promise to help us paste Syria some day ...
Q. Are you concerned that the United States could try to push you aside if there is no progress in the coming months?
A. I don't think American policy would commit the mistake of replacing a prime minister or a government in Iraq. That would be burning their slogans.
"They created us, now they're stuck with us."
He's right, everything we've tried to do in the new Bush doctrine would come crashing down. As long as someone doesn't blow him up he's actually in a sweet position, at least til the next election.
I don't think they think like that as it would mean the failure of the entire political process. As far as 'tough decisions' go, I say we want to take firm and difficult decisions. But anyone who wants to take a difficult decision has to do so from solid ground and so the far the ground is unstable -- due to current security policies ...
"That's why I've been paralyzed. Normally, I'm very decisive, y'know..."
If anyone is responsible for the poor security situation in Iraq it is the Coalition.
"Couldn't be us, or our policies. After all, we've got a government of national unity. Nobody's left out. All we have to do is please all the participants. It's just that some of their requirements sometimes conflict. A little. Here and there. In ways."
I am now prime minister and overall commander of the armed forces yet I cannot move a single company without Coalition approval because of the U.N. mandate. So those who have the authority and could move the forces are also responsible. This should be clear ...
"Not me, beppy. I am off the hook."
I have to be careful fighting some militias and terrorists ... because they are better armed than the army and police.
"I have no idea how that came to be. I should probably get around to looking into it, and I will, once I've gotten these other important considerations off my plate."
The other point is that the army and police have been infiltrated because they were randomly formed. There are terrorists in the army and militias in the police and also members of the old regime.
But if I had formed them, they'd be all Shia and those annoying Kurds would be out of the way and we'd have a clean shot at every SOB Sunni in the country.
Oh, and the oil too.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
The whining about the police is bullshit, IMHO.
#2
"The other point is that the army and police have been infiltrated because they were randomly formed. There are terrorists in the army and militias in the police and also members of the old regime."
Regards the police, Maliki's full of shit - a lying assmunching primo lick my crack piece of shit. The IM position, controlled by the Shia in the insane BS that passes for the Iraqi notion of democracy, has been completely subverted for Shia partisan death squads and militia support. Jabr, as the first IM, is as responsible for the mayhem as Zarqi and alQ.
[tiny rant]
I wouldn't mind seeing the entire fuckwit Iraqi "government" swept away, shuffled off this mortal coil, deep-sixed, aced en masse, pining for the fjords. The funny thing is, at this juncture - and I know the counter arguments, TIA, no - really I do, I just couldn't care less about the Iraqi Arabs and their fate. They're utterly unworthy, as a group - and that is the only way that policy can be made - of the slightest sympathy or support. Any of them worth warm spit should haul ass for Kurdistan, IMHO. Let the asstards remain and concentrate into a target-rich kill zone. Fuck 'em.
Partition? Well fuck yes. Some of us have been saying it for years - because we knew the Arabs - we knew they would revert to their traditions and blow it - and we didn't want to see the Kurds shackled to such losers, dragged down with them, losing their chance to finally be free from asshole overlords.
[/tiny rant]
#4
Heh, Pappy. I agree, especially where "politics" includes all forms, from prostration to head-chopping.
The Kurds are what we all hope Islam will become. I just see no reason to be optimistic. The goddamned Arabs haven't taken one step forward in 1300+ yrs.
Hamas has instructed its followers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to be on high alert following unconfirmed reports that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party are planning a coup against the Hamas government on Saturday. Sources close to Hamas told The Jerusalem Post that the Islamic movement was taking these reports seriously and that hundreds of Hamas militiamen would be deployed in strategic areas in the Gaza Strip to foil any attempt to overthrow the Hamas government.
Hamas's "Executive Force" in the Gaza Strip has also been placed on high alert and security around top Hamas officials has been beefed up, the sources revealed. According to the sources, Hamas leaders have expressed fear that Fatah gunmen and PA policemen loyal to Abbas would try to occupy a number of PA ministries and institutions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Saturday. "Hamas is convinced that Abbas is planning a coup," the sources added. "It could happen as early as this weekend."
On Thursday afternoon, Abbas summoned four Hamas ministers to his office in Ramallah and assured them that he was not planning a coup against the Hamas government. Abbas also phoned PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to deny the reports.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Might be better off flying the coup
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/27/2006 0:36 Comments ||
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#2
Never really thought I'd say this, but I hope so. And I hope it is just a stepping stone to a much better and more decent government.
#3
Never really thought I'd say this, but I hope so. And I hope it is just a stepping stone to a much better and more decent government.
With all due respect, gorb, I doubt it. Firstly, we're talking about Abbas and Fatah here, who were trained by, led by, and given a model to emulate, in the GrandMaster of Graft and Deceit, Yassir Arafat. This would be a coup led by the old guard, so it will be a return to business as usual.
Secondly, we're talking about the Palestinians here: utterly nothing has happened, and absolutely no evidence has appeared, to indicate that they have kicked the habit of consistently missing an opportunity when opportunity knocks whilst riding a D-9 through the door.
The flag of Islam should be flown over the Dáil [the Irish Parliament]. [...] If US warplanes are using Irish soil, then Ireland is seen as aiding and abetting the war on so-called terror. Ireland says it has a position of neutrality but I don’t think it is seen that way in the Muslim world at all.
#1
I notice ol' Anjem tones down his stance on the Pope when he's in Ireland... Wouldn't want Seamus and Paddy getting loose with that masonry drill on you would you now?
Posted by: Howard UK ||
10/27/2006 8:41 Comments ||
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#2
Mr Choudray said: “As a Muslim, I believe Islam is superior to every other way of life and that it can resolve all the social and economic problems that Ireland suffers from.
haha - deluded , confused , angry and pathetic describes Islam perfectly to me . He needs his face rearranging 'paddy style'
#5
There are plenty of leftist Irish who are secular, or hate the Catholic church on general principles. My guess is that the only reason they don't have a larger muslim population via immigration is that their economy is actually doing well and is based on industries where labor has to compete for good jobs.
#8
"As a Muslim, I believe Islam is superior to every other way of life and that it can resolve all the social and economic problems that Ireland suffers from." Which explains the wild migration of Europeans into countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran where Islam is the law of the land.
The idiot Muzzies think they can enslave the Iriash?
Think again, and ask the English. They had centuries, and failed.
Poem
Awaiting freedom from my mother's womb
At Resurrection time, some glint of rebel steel
Pierced deep my soul, so deep
That all the years have not erased the thrill
The names of Pearse and Plunkett,
Clarke, MacDonagh, Connolly
Ceannt and Sean Mac Diarmada arouse,
Of freedom born in blood.
Wresting freedom from a tyrant's hand
Had often been essayed on Ireland's soil.
Essayed at cost, at bitter cost
By men of eager hearts and giant mind, yet still
Each century brought fourth The poets, princes of pen,
To thrill with their philosophy
A nation's captive hearts.
No lust of blood inflamed the freedom verse
To turn the ploughshare to the sword;
They unlocked hearts, e'en timid hearts
To dreams undreamt of within captive breasts,
And set vast floods of liberty afloat
Upon a sea too long content
With anchored hopes,
And flotsam fears.
Who can recall an Emmet or a Tone,
A Mitchel or a Davitt or Devoy,
Without a glorious surging of the blood
And anticipation of emancipation
From the long-remembered wrongs
Upon a nation's rights?
Just tribute must be paid by
Freedmen to felon's heirs.
Half a century ago our resurrection came
Heralded by another name, the name of Pearse,
An Apollo with a quiver of words,
Music-tipped arrows to reach the very souls
Of those who longed and longed for freedom's balm;
Gentle leader of a quiet few
Who braved a tyrant's might
To make a bondman free.
Let me praise him who close by Rossa's grave
Praised the virtue of a valiant man
From a heart and tongue pregnant then
With death-decision made for
Freedom's urgent birth;
A man whose spiritual eye could see the joy
Of a ladybird upon a stalk,
Or a rabbit in a field at play.
There were no deaths in Dublin on that
Easter day those many years ago-
Such music makers cannot die
As many mercenary soldiers do
With battles lost or won.
They have but set the music to a song
That ever holds us bound,
Yet leaves us ever free.
Like Pearse or Plunkett,
MacDonagh and Mac Diarmada
Ceantt and Clarke,
And Connolly
#11
To get my Irish cousins into the WOT all we need is a a music video of Osama singing Croppies Lie Down. There won't be a jihadi in the world with two good knees left.
Posted by: Matt ||
10/27/2006 12:49 Comments ||
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#12
Actually Matt all you need is some idiot w/a diaper on his head telling us Micks we can no longer enjoy a Guinness because of islam. The muzzies would soon learn the tensile strength of a 3' piece of blackthorn oak wood.
#13
The idiot Muzzies think they can enslave the Iriash?
They won't need to. A good portion of Irish bid fair to either convert or at least to encourage Islamcism out of orneriness and a rejection of the catholic tradition.
Historian Robert Davis in his book "Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters - White Slavery In the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast and Italy", estimates that North African Muslim pirates abducted and enslaved more than 1 million Europeans between 1530 and 1780. These white Christians were seized in a series of raids which depopulated coastal towns from Sicily to Cornwall. Thousands of white Christians in coastal areas were seized every year to work as galley slaves, labourers and concubines for Muslim slave masters in what is today Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Libya. Villages and towns on the coast of Italy, Spain, Portugal and France were the hardest hit, but the Muslim slave raiders also seized people as far afield as Britain, Ireland and Iceland. They even captured 130 American seamen from ships they boarded in the Atlantic between 1785 and 1793.
According to one report, 7000 English people were abducted between 1622 to 1644, many of them ship crews and passengers. But the Corsairs also landed on unguarded beaches, often at night, to snatch the unwary. Almost all the inhabitants of the village of Baltimore, in Ireland, were captured in 1631, and there were other raids in Devon and Cornwall. Many of these white, Christian slaves were put to work in quarries, building sites and galleys and endured malnutrition, disease and mistreatment at the hands of their Muslim slave masters. Many of them were used for public works such as building harbours.
http://www.christianaction.org.za/articles_ca/2004-4-TheScourgeofSlavery.htm
#15
Why else do ya think they sent the Kennedys over to the US way back when?
Its the Irish that hit the US coast and stuck there that are the trouble. Thos of use who got hauled into the Army (169,000+) for the Civil War left the coasts and prospered inland, while Boss Tweed and the Kennedy's forebards rotted morally.
#18
If a Turban meets a Lassie
Comin'through the Rye
If a Turban bullies a Lassie
Need a Lassie die?
Multi-cultural Moores excepted
D'We hae the right t'ask why?
What's so hard to just admire the Lassie
When comin' through the Rye?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/27/2006 19:35 Comments ||
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#19
My guess is that the only reason they don't have a larger muslim population via immigration is that their economy is actually doing well and is based on industries where labor has to compete for good jobs.
Dublin is now known as New Warsaw. 150,000 Poles left for Ireland and more are leaving every year.
#20
Yup. And if they're like the Poles and other eastern European who migrated to the US a century ago -- or the ones migrating here today -- they will work hard and their kids will get educated.
#22
Just some early N.African mooslums adopting the English impressment-style, "surprise" sea duty recruitment tactics of the day. Only half of today's modern Irish warriors would take the bait... "It's not just a job, it' an" INDENTURE.
(as)
MOSCOW: Russia on Thursday rejected a draft UN resolution put forward by European powers targeting Iran's nuclear programme, saying the proposed measures did not advance objectives agreed on earlier by major world powers.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the resolution put forward on Wednesday by Britain, France and Germany would not be effective in containing Iran's programme and contradicted the consensus reached by the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany. "I think that in this respect the draft resolution that has been presented clearly does not further the objectives that the six powers agreed on earlier," Lavrov was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.
Those goals, Lavrov said, are preventing proliferation of sensitive technology without the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency, while also keeping open all necessary channels of communication with Iran.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/27/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
SPACEWAR.com > Iran's BUSHESHR nukular plant exempted from UN sanctions-resolution. PRAVDA.ru > HIGHEST LEVELS US GOVT EASILY PENETRATED. IOW, USA indir needs more Centralism-Socialism-Governmentism so that Hated Fascist = Well-meaning but Error-prone Limited Commie Dubya + post-Dubya Amerikan NPE successors won't have to be so error-prone, so that Clintonian Amerika's sacred National Communist/Socialist mainstream won't have to take valiums anymore worrying over Commie Amerika's delinquent, corrupt Rightist Socialists minority.
#2
Those goals, Lavrov said, are preventing proliferation of sensitive technology without the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency, while also keeping open all necessary channels of communication with Iran.
Wow! Another line of unadulterated bull$hit straight from yet another communist nation trying to take advantage of a situation for monetary or political gain, damn the consequences!
OK, wise guy Russia, what did you just say in English, please, and what are your genius ideas?
Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, strongly criticized CNN Friday for its "Broken Government" series of specials in the run-up to the November mid-term elections and for its airing of tapes of snipers shooting American soldiers in Iraq.
In an interview with Situation Room anchor Wolf Blitzer, Cheney said the network's Vote 2006 specials contained "terrible distortions of the president's and vice president's positions on many issues."
She suggested CNN was working from Democratic talking points, and took issue with the negative tone of the title "Broken Government," suggesting it betrayed CNN's bias and countering that the administration had inherited a recession, been through some tough times like 9/11 and Katrina, but that the economy was healthy. "That's not broken, " she said, "this government has acted very well... I shouldn't let media bias surprise me, but I worked for CNN once [with Crossfire, according to Blitzer], and I was troubled.
Blitzer said the series was "probably" meant to be provocative, "to get people to think, to get people to discuss these issues."
Cheney turned the tables on Blitzer, becoming the questioner: "what is CNN doing running tapes of terrorists shooting Americans," she asked more than once, repeating a question CNN had been asked: "Do you want us to win?"
"The answer is, of course, we want the United States to win," said Blitzer. "We are Americans." Blitzer said airing the footage was not terrorist propaganda but "reporting the news. This is what we do... We make no apologies for showing it."
Later in the newscast, Lou Dobbs defended the "Broken Borders" series, saying that with all due respect, the government was broken in many respects and that he had been critical of Republicans and Democrats. He called Cheney's criticisms "power bridling at truth."
Cheney also complained that she wanted to talk about her children's book, Our 50 States, but had spent about 10 of the 15 alloted minutes for the interview responding to questions about her husband's comments about tactics used to question detainees and the citing of some passages of a book she wrote by Democratic Virginia Senate candidate Jim Webb in defending some racy passages in his books. She said Webb was "full of baloney."
Making lemons out of lemonade, CNN heavily teased the interview and Cheney's anger with the network for the first hour and a half of Situation Room.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/27/2006 18:56 ||
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#1
should've HT'd Drudge - my bad
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/27/2006 19:10 Comments ||
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#2
And, of course, wolfie refuses to answer another question: where did the tape come from?
He did so much toe dancing on that one, he'd make a ballerina jealous.
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/27/2006 19:23 Comments ||
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#3
#2 "And, of course, wolfie refuses to answer another question: where did the tape come from?
He did so much toe dancing on that one, he'd make a ballerina jealous.
Posted by Captain America"
#4
While it's true that CNN should be taken to task over who delivered the tape, I think they did the right thing by showing it, though certainly they revealed their bias by airing it now. The video is available on the web unedited. I watched it. Very little of it is actual combat. US soldiers are shown usually standing guard, on patrols, or doing other non-combat things. In other words, they are behaving like blue-helmeted peacekeepers. That's what stood out in my mind as I watched the video, and the anger inside reached a boiling point.
Fight the bastards that are killing US soldiers. Don't be inert like the UN blue helmets. Don't just accept casualties lightly and shrug it off saying "it's the lowest number of any war, so stay the course". That's what's pissing people off. That's what pisses me off. The video should be seen.
Remember this story from a few weeks back? Very interesting... The airport taxi controversy may go deeper than the quandary over whether to accommodate Somali Muslim cabdrivers who refuse to carry passengers carrying alcohol. Behind the scenes, a struggle for power and religious authority is apparently playing out.
The taxi controversy at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport has caught the nation's attention. But the dispute may go deeper than the quandary over whether to accommodate Somali Muslim cabdrivers who refuse to carry passengers carrying alcohol. Behind the scenes, a struggle for power and religious authority is apparently playing out.
At the Starbucks coffee shop in Minneapolis' Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, a favorite Somali gathering spot, holidaymakers celebrating Eid, the end of Ramadan, filled the tables on Monday. Several taxis were parked outside.
An animated circle of Somalis gathered when the question of the airport controversy was raised.
"I was surprised and shocked when I heard it was an issue at the airport," said Faysal Omar. "Back in Somalia, there was never any problem with taking alcohol in a taxi."
Jama Dirie said, "If a driver doesn't pick up everyone, he should get his license canceled and get kicked out of the airport."
Two of the Somalis present defended the idea that Islam prohibits cabdrivers from transporting passengers with alcohol. An argument erupted. The consensus seemed to be that only a small number of Somalis object to transporting alcohol. It's a matter of personal opinion, not Islamic law, several men said.
Ahmed Samatar, a nationally recognized expert on Somali society at Macalester College, confirmed that view. "There is a general Islamic prohibition against drinking," he said, "but carrying alcohol for people in commercial enterprise has never been forbidden. There is no basis in Somali cultural practice or legal tradition for that.
"This is one of those new concoctions."It is being foisted on the Somali community by an inside or outside group," he added. "I do not know who."
But many Somali drivers at the airport are refusing to carry passengers with alcohol. When I asked Patrick Hogan, Metropolitan Airports Commission spokesman, for his explanation, he forwarded a fatwa, or religious edict, that the MAC had received. The fatwa proclaims that "Islamic jurisprudence" prohibits taxi drivers from carrying passengers with alcohol, "because it involves cooperating in sin according to the Islam."
The fatwa, dated June 6, 2006, was issued by the "fatwa department" of the Muslim American Society, Minnesota chapter, and signed by society officials.
The society is mediating the conflict between the cab drivers and the MAC. That seems odd, since the society itself clearly has a stake in the controversy's outcome.
How did the MAC connect with the society? "The Minnesota Department of Human Rights recommended them to us to help us figure out how to handle this problem," Hogan said.
Omar Jamal, director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, thinks he knows why the society is promoting a "no-alcohol-carry" agenda with no basis in Somali culture. "MAS is an Arab group; we Somalis are African, not Arabs," he said. "MAS wants to polarize the world, create two camps. I think they are trying to hijack the Somali community for their Middle East agenda. They look for issues they can capitalize on, like religion, to rally the community around. The majority of Somalis oppose this, but they are vulnerable because of their social and economic situation."
The society
What is the Muslim American Society? In September 2004 the Chicago Tribune published an investigative article. The society was incorporated in 1993, the paper reported, and is the name under which the U.S. branch of the Muslim Brotherhood operates.
The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna. The Tribune described the Brotherhood as "the world's most influential Islamic fundamentalist group."Because of its hard-line beliefs, the U.S. Brotherhood has been an increasingly divisive force within Islam in America, fueling the often bitter struggle between moderate and conservative Muslims," the paper reported.
The international Muslim Brotherhood "preaches that religion and politics cannot be separated and that governments eventually should be Islamic," according to the Tribune. U.S. members emphasize that they follow American laws, but want people here to convert to Islam so that one day a majority will support a society governed by Islamic law.
How are society members to respond when questioned about a Muslim Brotherhood connection? The Tribune cites an undated internal memo: "If asked, 'Are you the Muslim Brothers?' leaders should respond that they are an independent group called the Muslim American Society."
The April 2001 issue of the society's magazine, the American Muslim, lists "essential books" for understanding Islam. They include works by Hassan al-Banna, the Brotherhood's founder, and Sayyid Qutb, one of its most violent theoreticians.
Here's the flavor of these authors' writings:
"Always cherish the intention of jihad and the desire for martyrdom in the Way of Allah, and actually prepare yourself for that," wrote Al-Banna.
Osama bin Laden relied heavily on Qutb in formulating his world view, according to the 9/11 Commission. Qutb had "an enormous loathing of Western society and history," states the commission's report. He taught that "no middle ground exists" in the "struggle between God and Satan." All Muslims must therefore take up arms in this fight, he said.
Hassan Mohamud is vice president of the society's Minnesota chapter. The society is independent and has no connection with the Muslim Brotherhood, he said.
The Minnesota chapter's website, however, states that the organization's roots lie in the Islamic revival movement that "brought the call of Islam to Muslim masses ... to reestablish Islam as a total way of life."
Mohamud says the society has three goals: to present the "real image" of Islam in American society, to preserve the identity of Muslims here and to "make that identity fit without having clashes between cultures and laws."
He emphasizes, however, that Muslims must follow shari'a, or Islamic law, in every aspect of their lives. "There are two conflicting systems here -- two ways of life -- that want to live in the same place and respect each other," he says. The society aims to facilitate conciliation between the two.
Mohamud adds that Americans need to learn about Islamic law because the Muslim population here is growing. That's why the proposed two-tier system for airport cabdrivers is important, he says. It could become a national model for accommodating Islam in areas ranging from housing to contractual arrangements to the workplace.
MAC officials will hold another meeting today about the airport controversy, and Mohamud says he will try to revive the two-tiered pilot project for taxis. Whatever the meeting's outcome, we now have reason to believe that the issue is only a prologue to a larger drama playing out in Minnesota and the United States.
#1
Push back Minnesota. Don't accomodate these muzzies.
Or if you feel you absolutely must accomodate them, then give them precisely the same accomodation "people of the book" receive in Iran KSA, Sudan, or any other muslim majority country.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
10/27/2006 12:38 Comments ||
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#2
Funny...The terrorist suspect arressted a while back in the T-Cities was a Somali Muslim cabdriver. Go figure.
#4
Sounds like anyone who wishes to get a cab ride in Minneapolis need only to carry alchol with them to make sure they are not being driven around by a nutjob.... Let the free market take care of this "fatwa of doom".
#5
Personally, I fully intend to visibly carry alcohol whenever I hail a taxi. I neither want to put myself in the hands of an islamic zealot, nor do I want to give them any of my hard earned cash.
#6
What a bunch of hypocrites ( like that's big news here) While in the ME, during Ramadmadingdong, we US servicemen (pre-gurls-on-boatz) were willingly served alcohol by muzzies, for a price of course and in separate areas so we weren't seen by the faithful.
#7
What is the Muslim American Society? In September 2004 the Chicago Tribune published an investigative article. The society was incorporated in 1993, the paper reported, and is the name under which the U.S. branch of the Muslim Brotherhood operates.
Why is this terrorist front still operating on American soil? Shitcan these maggots, STAT!
#8
DoDo: As an alternative you could actively seek out the hypocrite muzzie cabbies. Verify they're a true muzzie cabbie that won't carry someone w/ alcohol. Take your ride. When you arrive at your destination, pay your fare and demand your change. Then explain you never tip because it's against your religion. Don't forget to smile.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
10/27/2006 16:43 Comments ||
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#9
Here's another opinion. Where is Homeland Security/ICE ? Does anyone seriously believe Somalians are lawfully in residence in Minneapolis ? They go to Canada and come right through. Get someone there to carefully check their credentials. Deport them immediately. If they don't want to carry passengers, kick them off airport property. If this ever happened to me(it wouldn't be for booze) but some other affliction, I would tell the asshole to get out of the way and get in the next cab. If there were any further altercation, I probably would have to seriously assault someone.
#11
Sheesh, the way this somos drive, ya gotta take a few nips
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/27/2006 17:13 Comments ||
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#12
well as i see it, it is the same as
me being a chef and having to feed vegtablarians, at a steak house. If I dont i would be fired.
so this alledged american feels his religious law comes before company policy?
Funny thing is these duche-bags dont realize they are supportin Zionism by meeting at Starbucks, 4 cups buys the IDF a couple of cartridges perhaps. One can only dream
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
(SomaliNet) SomaliÂ’s powerful Islamic Courts controlling most of south and central Somalia have strongly dismissed on Thursday an accusation from Baidoa based government that Islamic militants kidnapped three Somali lawmakers near Bur-hakaba, a town now ruled by Islamists in southwest Somalia, describing the government allegation as anti Islamist propaganda. 
(SomaliNet) Despite UN’s confidence in Mr Jan Pronk, a special UN envoy to Sudan who was recently expelled from Khartoum, Sudan has said it will not have any further dealings with envoy, a senior official said Thursday. “The decision to expel Jan Pronk is irrevocable because of positions he has taken that are incompatible with his mission in Sudan,” foreign ministry spokesman Ali Al Sadek told journalists. “It is a decision of state and of the government that is not concerned with what the United Nations decides.”
The head of news at the state-owned South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has been accused of acting arbitrarily in unofficially blacklisting eight journalists and commentators. Among the banned journalists is Israel-based freelancer Paula Slier, a Jerusalem Post contributor, who has been barred from reporting because she is a Jew. 
The State Department said Thursday it was studying the imposition of additional sanctions against North Korea for its October 9 nuclear test. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had said Wednesday that the United States "is now obligated by law to adopt additional sanctions on North Korea under national legislation." 
(dpa) - South Korea Thursday reaffirmed its support for United Nations sanctions against North Korea by refusing entry to weapons-related officials from the communist country and calling for Pyongyang to return to international negotiations. The government said it will prevent entry of any North Koreans suspected of having links to nuclear and other weapons programmes into South Korea, Unification Minister Lee Jong Seong told a parliamentary committee in Seoul, reported Yonhap news agency. The unification minister said inspection of goods and materials shipped to the North have been increased to prevent the supply, sale or transfer of luxury goods in an attempt to curb what some have described as "disgusting spending" by leader Kim Jong Il, according to Yonhap. 
Sheik Taj Aldin Al-Hilali, the Muslim leader at the centre of a storm over comments blaming women for rape, will be giving no more sermons for several months at Lakemba mosque, senior Muslims say.
Islamic groups in Australia yesterday moved to distance themselves from controversial comments made by a cleric, calling them "un-Islamic, un-Australian and unacceptable". The cleric, Sheikh Taj Aldin al-Hilali, caused a storm by describing scantily-clad women without headscarves as "uncovered meat" inviting sexual attack. He later apologised but Islamic Council of Victoria spokesman Waleed Aly predicted a backlash against Muslims, saying: "I am expecting a deluge of hate mail. I am expecting people to get abused in the street and get abused at work."
THE daughter of besieged Muslim cleric Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly said his comments have been misinterpreted and the media should "leave him alone".
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki told Reuters on Thursday he could end the violence in Iraq in six months if the United States gave him the weaponry and control over Iraqi forces. 
Hamas has instructed its followers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to be on high alert following unconfirmed reports that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party are planning a coup against the Hamas government on Saturday. Sources close to Hamas told The Jerusalem Post that the Islamic movement was taking these reports seriously and that hundreds of Hamas militiamen would be deployed in strategic areas in the Gaza Strip to foil any attempt to overthrow the Hamas government. 
MOSCOW: Russia on Thursday rejected a draft UN resolution put forward by European powers targeting Iran's nuclear programme, saying the proposed measures did not advance objectives agreed on earlier by major world powers.
