Month: September 2010

Let’s Make a Deal: Qur’an Burning for Manhattan Muslim Center

Trish

quranburn20463.jpg
Orlando Sentinel photo of Mohammad Musri talking to reporters
The head of Orlando’s Islamic Society of Central Florida was among the many folks in Gainesville lining up to see Pastor Terry Jones, the leader of the 50-member Dove Outreach Center, who plans to spend Saturday night burning Qur’ans. But unlike the FBI agents and members of the press gathered nearby, Mohammad Musri was making an offer.

Mohammad Musri, of the Islamic Society, went to the church for the second day in a row Thursday afternoon, this time to make a deal. He said if Jones agrees to call off the Quran burning, he will urge Feisal Abdul Rauf, the controversial Imam behind the proposed mosque and community center near New York’s “ground zero,” to relocate the planned mosque in New York City.

No word on Jones’ decision.

It’s been a busy day for Jones, as he counts down to the fateful moment at 6 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday when he has promised to burn Qur’ans in commemoration of the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

Obama: “Yeah. I hope he listens to…those better angels.”

FBI sources tell ABC News that the agents were there to brief Jones on all the death threats he’s received and to discuss how they’re going to protect him and the church on Saturday.

Protecting University of Florida Gator football fans is also a major issue, as the home team plays cross-state rival Tampa’s University of South Florida Bulls in a game that kicks off at 12:21. What with the press, protestors, and supporters flocking to Gainesville to witness the Qur’an bonfire, Gainesville police have their hands full. Add thousands of drunk football fans and who knows what will happen?

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On Message: Palinize

Jon Ponder

palinize To avoid giving any substantial answer to a factual question, by means of cobbling together meaningless platitudes; to attempt to fool the listeners and distract their attention by pandering to their prejudices and using one’s charm or attractiveness. Inspired by the distinctive style of Alaska governor and former VP candidate Sarah Palin. At the press conference several reporters tried to hold the Prime Minister accountable, but he just continued to palinize until they had to give up. (Credit: Urban Dictionary)

GOP Now Running Against Wall Street Bailout They Voted for – Here’s a List of GOP Reps and Senators Who Voted ‘Aye’

Jon Ponder

On MSNBC last night, Rachel Maddow looked at the political rationale behind the White House decision to make House Speaker Wanna-Be John Boehner, R-Ohio, the face of the “Party of No” in the midterm elections.

Boehner was chosen, in part, because he is a boozey, overly tanned cartoonish character, but mainly because he was the GOP leader in 2008, back when it was the Bush rubberstamp party. In late September 2008, when the United States financial system was in freefall, Boehner took to the well of the House and tearfully begged the Republican caucus to support the Bush bank bailout of Wall Street and the “too big to fail” banks, officially known as the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008”:

REP. JOHN BOEHNER, MINORITY LEADER: Think about what happens if we don’t pass this bill, think about what happens to your friends, your neighbors, your constituents. So, I ask all of you, both sides of the aisle: what’s in the best interest of our country? Not what’s in the best interest of our party, not what’s in the best interest of our own re- election– what’s in the best interest of our country? Vote yes.

The bailout eventually passed both houses of Congress, with over 90 Republicans in the House and 33 GOP senators voting yes. (There’s a complete list at the below.) The vote was taken before the rise of the GOP’s astroturfed tea party mobs and their virulent opposition to Obama policies — particularly the government funding of programs intended to resolve the financial collapse brought on by the Bush Recession.

Since the rise of tea baggery, many, if not most, of the Republicans in Congress have made a spectacle of themselves by desperately kowtowing to the mob, so it is surprising to see many of their names on the list of Republicans who voted “aye” on the tea baggers’ much-despised Wall Street Bailout.

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Verbatim

Buck Banks

I sat here, stood here, and very respectfully listened to you. If what you want to do is put on a show and giggle every time I talk, well then I have no interest in answering your question.

— New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), talking to a teacher at a town hall event.

93-Year-Old Stetson Kennedy Vows to Arrest Qur’an Burner

Trish

stetsonkennedyLocal (in my neck of the woods anyway) legend Stetson Kennedy, best known for his ground-breaking journalism exposing Ku Klux Klan members in the 1940s, is taking on the Qur’an burning church. The 93-year-old Kennedy has vowed to perform a citizen’s arrest of Pastor Terry Jones of Dove World Outreach Center on Sept. 11.

Stetson Kennedy says he’ll be in Gainesville this weekend, and will conduct a citizen’s arrest on Dove World Outreach Center Pastor Terry Jones on the grounds of inciting violence and rioting.

“Any citizen in the presence of a crime in progress may make a citizen’s arrest,” Kennedy said.

“In this case, I would intend to take the Reverend Jones to the nearest U.S. Attorney.”

Kennedy plans to arrest Jones on grounds of sedition, which can be defined as inciting people to disturb the public peace. It’s a bit of a reach, but it makes more sense than Jones’ own plan to paint all of Islam with one brush, based on the attack by Osama bin Laden’s followers nine years ago.

Around the world, others are making a similar error of generalization in mistaking Jones’ idiocy as representative of all America, or all of Florida, or even all of the Missouri-born Jones’ operating base of Gainesville, with some Muslims vowing revenge for Jones’ ignorant actions against Americans, including troops, abroad.