Day: August 30, 2010

Verbatim

Buck Banks

He is a super-smart man, but he doesn’t know anything about commitment to marriage. He’s the last person I’d vote for for president of the United States. His life indicates he does not have a commitment to the character traits necessary to be a great president.

— Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), quoted in Tulsa World, poo-pooing the idea of Newt Gingrich running for president.

Does Arson at Mosque in Tennessee, Birthplace of the Klan, Signal a Rise in Tea Party Terrorism?

Jon Ponder

photo-vandalized-sign-murfreesboro-islamic-centerFour large pieces of construction equipment, including an excavation hauler, were destroyed by fire Friday night at the construction site of a mosque expansion in Mufreesboro, Tenn., a suburb of Nashville. Local officials are calling the attack arson, and federal officials, including the FBI, are investigating.

Displays of hatred against Muslims have been on the rise this summer, fueled by attack rhetoric from GOP-tea party leaders like Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Newt Gingrich, former N.Y. Gov. George Pataki and former Tea Party Express Chairman Mark Williams, who made headlines in July by issuing a racist rant in the form of a letter in which he used the term “colored people” a dozen times. After stepping down from TPE, Williams, who lives in Sacramento, announced he was going to work full time on preventing the construction of the Park 51 Islamic center in New York.

In fact, most of the GOP-tea bagger hate rhetoric this summer has been leveled at the so-called “Ground Zero mosque,” as the Park 51 center has been dubbed by Republicans and in the corporate media. The center is slated to be built in a long-abandoned building in a section of mostly derelict buildings situated a block west of New York City Hall and two blocks north of the World Trade Center plaza.

In addition to the anger over Park 51, attacks against Muslims and new mosque construction have taken place across the country:

[…]

Hydrophobia Chronicles: When It Comes to Rabid Raccoons, It’s Kill or Be Killed

Buck Banks

Racoon Has A Question

More prosaic reporting on interactions between mad animals and sometimes demented humans from ProMED Digest, the newsletter of the International Society of Infectious Diseases.

A woman attacked by a rabid raccoon in Prospect took matters into her own hands, literally. The raccoon jumped out from a backyard on Woodcrest Drive and bit the woman Monday morning.

“I turned around and grabbed him. Then he bit me in the hand. Almost took my thumb off, I mean bit right through the thumbnail. And then I managed to get a hold of him with my left hand, all the while screeching for my husband to come out. And I just shoved the raccoon to the ground and held him there,” said the woman.

The victim said she saw the animal chasing her dogs around the backyard. She got the dogs inside, but that’s when the raccoon attacked. She grabbed the attacking raccoon and choked it to death to keep it from biting her anymore. Her husband, hit the animal with a hammer to slow it down even more.

“What disturbs me is I smashed his mouth off, I smashed his teeth in; he still wanted to continue in the attack mode,” said the husband. “I was actually terrified at the resilience of this animal.” His wife had to be hospitalized for her injuries. “I knew she was hurt by the way she was hollering and screaming. I never heard my wife quite that loud or in that pitch,” he said.

The raccoon tested positive for rabies, so both the victim and her husband are undergoing rabies treatments.

It’s not the only attack by a raccoon in Prospect. According to police, a different raccoon injured a dog before taking off. The attack happened during daylight hours. Raccoons are nocturnal animals. The dog had to be euthanized, because it hadn’t had a rabies shot.

State Police issued a warning to residents in Prospect to be on the lookout for raccoons and skunks out during the daytime.

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[…]

Verbatim

Buck Banks

I don’t have to say I’m going to caucus with the Democrats or the Republicans.

— Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (I), in an interview on CNN’s State of the Union, dodging the question of which of the two major political parties he would caucus with if elected to the U.S. Senate.

Verbatim

Pensito Editors

Permits should not be granted to build even one more mosque in the United States of America, let alone the monstrosity planned for ground zero. This is for one simple reason: each Islamic mosque is dedicated to the overthrow of the American government.

– Bryan Fischer, a blogger for the right-wing hate group, American Family Association, which has raised millions of dollars over the years by stoking hatred of gays among its Christian-extremist donor pool — but with acceptance of gay rights rising in the polls and the multi-million dollar budgets of AFA’s anti-gay competitor groups shrinking to the point that employees are being laid off, Fischer’s attack on Muslims may signal that AFA will add Islamic hatred to its fundraising appeals.