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Article by John on August 11th, 2006 at 9:13 pm I suspect most (non-Muslim) Americans read very little about how most Muslims perceive the “war on terror”. Unfortunately the Bush Administrat ion to often uses the threat of terrorism to advance their own political goals. Washblog has a post from Ali-Salaam Mahmoud, the Director of the Islamic School of Seattle, which provides just such a perspective. Among other things, Mr. Mahmoud says: It is important that Americans realize what Islam stands for in these tragic days, as well as, how Muslims conduct themselves within the greater society. The recent events in Britain speak to the truth. It was Muslims who provide initial tips to law enforcement. Yet, the echoes from the oval office (discussed later in this essay) again bring and uneasy feeling throughout our land and here in Puget Sound. My hope lies in building a bridge to understanding of who we are as Muslims and where many Muslims stand in the onslaught of physical and psychological mayhem being waged against us throughout the globe.
Here is the full story. (Be sure to read the comments too and add your own). Thanks to Neomie Maxwell for highlighting the post.
Article by John on August 11th, 2006 at 2:11 pm  Do people really think that we are more secure because we are prevented from bringing toothpaste onto an airplane?
Isn’t our security enhanced far more by not killing more than 129,000 Iraqis, many of them children, in a conflict that was conjured up under false pretenses? Anyone ever hear the saying, “You catch more flies with honey than vinegar” Isn’t it far more likely that we minimize the numbers of people in the world who are willing to commit suicide along with the murder of others if we strive to help make their lives more worth living (honey) rather than strip them of aid as we did with Hamas and enable countries by selling them arms like we do with Israel (vinegar)? Why is it sensible to prevent people from bringing water on board an aircraft but they can have a package containing a bomb put in the hold of the aircraft without screening and not even board the aircraft themselves? If our goal is real security, doesn’t it make more sense to focus on why others want to harm us rather than on how others might be able to harm us? Let’s work on catching more flies with honey.
Article by John on August 9th, 2006 at 9:50 am Democracy in America is threatened today. Increasingly, ordinary citizens have lost their influence over law-making and public policy, because candidates must raise huge sums to run for office, and because our elected representatives – often concerned about financing their next campaign – tend to follow the bidding of big donors rather than the true interests of voters in their district. The result is that public policies bend to the wishes of corporations and special interests rather than what is truly best for humankind and our planet – on almost every issue governing the shape of our society and allocation of resources. We need full public financing of elections – so that candidates who represent the people can afford to run, and so that once in office, elected representatives are not obligated to special interests and their lobbyists, for fear of losing campaign contributions. This won’t solve all of our problems, but it will go a long way to breaking the link between big donors and public officials and to restoring democracy to the people. This is fundamental to getting government “of, by, and for the people”! This is not just a pipe dream. The states of Maine and Arizona have led the way, adopting public financing of election campaigns through citizen initiatives, in 1996 and 1998, respectively. Each year in those states, more candidates choose to run with what is called Clean Money, Clean Elections. Today, 83% of the Maine Senate and 77% of the Maine House were elected through clean elections! Other states are following suit: In 2002, the North Carolina legislature became the 2nd in the country after Vermont, to adopt full public financing for judicial races. In 2003, New Mexico broke new ground, setting up a pilot program of clean elections for the state’s powerful Public Regulation Commission, the body that regulates corporations and utilities. In Connecticut, a program was established in law by the state legislature. In places, cities have acted – such as Portland, Oregon. In places where clean elections are law, candidates are encouraged (as “Hostile Takeover” author David Sirota has written) “to run on their ideas, their convictions and their integrity instead of how effectively they can shake down the big money.” We can do it here! Washington Public Campaigns is organizing toward public financing of election campaigns in Washington state! To find out about our most recent activities, you can read our newsletter at www.washclean.org For more details on how clean elections work, see Case for Clean Elections.
Article by John on August 8th, 2006 at 8:59 pm Joe, Democracy worked today. I’m sure you will do the expedient thing and run as an Independent tomorrow. But the majority of us now are against the illegal occupation of Iraq. That is a fact that no amount of spin is going to change. By continuing to support the illegal occupation, you failed in your duty to represent the people of Connecticut. And those people let you know about that today.
The Hartford Courant
By JON LENDER, ELIZABETH HAMILTON And DAVID OWENS August 8 2006, 11:49 PM EDT
U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman conceded defeat just after 11 p.m. in the bitter Connecticut primary that many considered a referendum on the war in Iraq.
But Lieberman pledged to continue his candidacy as an independent in the general election in November. Continue reading this article »
« Shrink this article
Article by admin on August 8th, 2006 at 6:29 pm  Democracy for Vancouver DFALink members through a poll endorsed MarCine Miles for Clark County Clerk. 78% of the polling members voted for Ms. Miles. Ms. Miles is running along with Sherry Parker in a Democratic Party primary to replace the present Clark County Clerk who is retiring. Congratulations to MarCine Miles and thanks to everyone that participated. DFALink members may also go to Marcine Miles DFALink Campaign site and indicate their support for MarCine and/or volunteer for her campaign.
Article by Rich on August 7th, 2006 at 11:39 am Rosemary My Ass I got one of those irritating mega-forwarded Emails from an Uncle who has moved to SoCal: My wife, Rosemary, wrote a wonderful letter to the editor of the Orange County Register which, of course, was not printed. So, I decided to “print” it myself by sending it out on the Internet. Pass it along if you feel so inclined. Dave LaBonte (signed)Written in response to a series of letters to the editor in the Orange County Register:Dear Editor:
So many letter writers have based their arguments on how this land is made up of immigrants. Ernie Lujan for one, suggests we should tear down the Statute of Liberty because the people now in question aren’t being treated the same as those who passed through Ellis Island and other ports of entry. Maybe we should turn to our history books and point out to people like Mr. Lujan why today’s American is not willing to accept this new kind of immigrant any longer.
And yadda yadda yadda…
…It goes on to say that today’s immigrant (read: Brown and from the South) is an ungrateful lout, waving a Mexican flag and a copy of Das Kapital and not too infrequently squirting out little bambinos…
…I’ll just link to it here, as I Googled it and found it everywhere for you to read.
I’ll wait right here.
But I wasn’t content to simply flush it like I do most bad forwards (sorry, Mom!).
Instead, I added my contribution and sent it out to everyone in the CC field: …Except that a lot of the sentiments portrayed in this letter towards our ‘new immigrants‘ aren’t particularly new or unique. Over the last century and a half, a lot of immigrants came here and attempted to hang on to some aspect of their national or ethnic identity, only to face hostility, violence or high-pitched political rhetoric. A lot of historical text (especially culturally and politically homogenized school textbooks) have sanitized elements like that, giving lie to the romanticized vision that the melting pot process in ‘the good old days’ was painless and hatred-free. The sentiment conveyed towards Latinos isn’t much different than that directed towards the Irish in turn-of-the-last century Chicago, Boston, New York et. al.; “they’ll take our jobs, take over our neighborhoods, breed like rats and taint our otherwise untainted gene-pool, etc…”.
I think this issue – although fraught with many real problems – is mainly being exploited as a wedge to split the electorate in the 2006-2008 cycles.
With so many other problems facing this nation, why else would this one garner so much corporate news time and so many newspaper column-inches?
I think because its element of xenophobia is successful at keeping people alarmed and agitated.
And I hang around a fairly ‘liberal’ and ‘multi-cultural’ (the horror!) circle, and have yet to hear someone suggest we demolish the the Statue of Liberty, burn a flag, crush fluffy kittens in a hydraulic press, or whatever it is that Fox News says we want to do.
Wake up America, the barbarians aren’t at our gates, they’re tending the gates.
All this set off a flurry of Emails from some of the CC’ees.
My Uncle responded rather indignantly, saying that he only forwarded it because he had issues with illegal immigrants and not legitimate ones and also said I would have a different perspective had I lived in Southern California. He mainly forwarded it as per the message’s request.
But I think that’s what we have to do when someone says or writes (or echoes via Email) something stupid, we have to confront it and set them straight, if possible.
Please, if you receive this Email, add your two cents worth.
It’ll make you feel a lot better than if you didn’t
Article by Rich on August 6th, 2006 at 10:03 pm Colbert takes morning news programs to task, including industrial-grade tool Matt Lauer – for dissing The Colbert Report RE:politicians going on his show and being made fun of. In it, he reveals the inane banality of Good Morning America, etc… Watch Video (YouTube link)
Article by Rich on August 6th, 2006 at 9:55 pm Rosemary My Ass I got one of those irritating mega-forwarded Emails from an Uncle who has moved to SoCal: My wife, Rosemary, wrote a wonderful letter to the editor of the Orange County Register which, of course, was not printed. So, I decided to “print” it myself by sending it out on the Internet. Pass it along if you feel so inclined. Dave LaBonte (signed) Written in response to a series of letters to the editor in the Orange County Register: Dear Editor:
So many letter writers have based their arguments on how this land is made up of immigrants. Ernie Lujan for one, suggests we should tear down the Statute of Liberty because the people now in question aren’t being treated the same as those who passed through Ellis Island and other ports of entry. Maybe we should turn to our history books and point out to people like Mr. Lujan why today’s American is not willing to accept this new kind of immigrant any longer.
And yadda yadda yadda…
…It goes on to say that today’s immigrant (read: Brown and from the South) is an ungrateful lout, waving a Mexican flag and a copy of Das Kapital and not too infrequently squirting out little bambinos…
…I’ll just link to it here, as I Googled it and found it everywhere for you to read.
I’ll wait right here.
But I wasn’t content to simply flush it like I do most bad forwards (sorry, Mom!).
Instead, I added my contribution and sent it out to everyone in the CC field: …Except that a lot of the sentiments portrayed in this letter towards our ‘new immigrants‘ aren’t particularly new or unique. Over the last century and a half, a lot of immigrants came here and attempted to hang on to some aspect of their national or ethnic identity, only to face hostility, violence or high-pitched political rhetoric. A lot of historical text (especially culturally and politically homogenized school textbooks) have sanitized elements like that, giving lie to the romanticized vision that the melting pot process in ‘the good old days’ was painless and hatred-free. The sentiment conveyed towards Latinos isn’t much different than that directed towards the Irish in turn-of-the-last century Chicago, Boston, New York et. al.; “they’ll take our jobs, take over our neighborhoods, breed like rats and taint our otherwise untainted gene-pool, etc…”.
I think this issue – although fraught with many real problems – is mainly being exploited as a wedge to split the electorate in the 2006-2008 cycles.
With so many other problems facing this nation, why else would this one garner so much corporate news time and so many newspaper column-inches?
I think because its element of xenophobia is successful at keeping people alarmed and agitated.
And I hang around a fairly ‘liberal’ and ‘multi-cultural’ (the horror!) circle, and have yet to hear someone suggest we demolish the Statue of Liberty, burn a flag, crush fluffy kittens in a hydraulic press, or whatever it is that Fox News says we want to do.
Wake up America, the barbarians aren’t at our gates, they’re tending the gates.
All this set off a flurry of Emails from some of the CC’ees.
My Uncle responded rather indignantly, saying that he only forwarded it because he had issues with illegal immigrants and not legitimate ones and also said I would have a different perspective had I lived in Southern California. He mainly forwarded it as per the message’s request.
But I think that’s what we have to do when someone says or writes (or echoes via Email) something stupid, we have to confront it and set them straight, if possible.
Please, if you receive this Email, add your two cents worth.
It’ll make you feel a lot better than if you didn’t | |
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