Tea Party v GOP
Headless bodies in the Arizona desert & alligators in the sewers of New York
Amanda Terkel of Huffington Post
SB10
Gov. Brewer false claim of headless bodies in the Arizona desert
Keith Olbermann Interviews Amanda Terkel of Huff Post
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Gov. Brewer and other Arizona Politicians and GOP and anti-Immigrant groups who are exaggerating the problem of Crime in Arizona.
In fact crime has been doing down steadily since 2002
It also appears that the Privatized Penal System in Arizona is benefiting from SB1070
It just goes against common sense to have a privatized prison system which is paid for each inmate-so the more inmates the more profit for these corporations including individuals such as Sheriff Arpaio- is his salary connected to numbers of inmates . So illegal immigrants are for these free market believers are a boon to their businesses.
So what incentive is there for these corporations to release prisoners or to help them rehabilitate - the longer prisoners stay in prison and the sooner they return the better.
KPHO: Brewer pals to profit from 1070?
azdemparty | July 23, 2010
July 22, 2010: KPHO investigates ties between the Brewer administration and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) - and how the governor's rhetoric on border security may be damaging Arizona's tourism industry for the benefit of CCA.
and here's her moment of the painful pause and lies about " Headless bodies"
AssociatedPress | September 02, 2010
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer stumbled and stammered through opening statement during a gubernatorial debate. Brewer faced opposition from democratic candidate Terry Goddard, and walked away from a group of reporters during post-debate questioning. (Sept. 2)
and more dirt on Gov. Jan Brewer
AZ Governor Brewer Lies About Father/Nazis
ABC 15 reports: Gov. Brewer broke the law in raiding worker's comp funds to balance budget
and now for more on the Islamophobes Racist Fact Challenged Propaganda Machine and a word from the Queen of the Islamophobes and the Fascist Right Pamela Geller of AtlasShrugs blog & the organization SIOA- Stop The islamization of America and Muslim Americans Stealth Jihad in which the Muslims have infiltrated like a fifth column almost all of America's Institutions including the White House and the Presidency-
Geller & Islamophobes preach that Islam unlike any other major religion is a religion of hate, intolerance and violence .
She calls it a Muslim Supremacists Muslims as a symbol of their eventual take over of America and the west.
Islam she says has a philosophy which is as evil as Nazism and in fact came before Hitler and the Nazis. So Hitler was inspired in her view by Islam. So in what sense does she mean she respects Muslims???
She says she wants to spread "openness" and " Outreach"
Geller assumes the interviewers respect for another religion is somehow fear of Islam.
She then goes back to the "PissChrist" which was created in the early nineties but these characters are always referring to it as an attack on Christianity- or they refer to the Chocolate Jesus as being sacrilegious ( some people by the way get upset of depictions of the Nazarene as being black or Arab
Pamela Geller: 'Hitler Inspired by Islam' )
Geller never bothers to mention the Religious Right who would make such images of Jesus illegal . Nor does she consider the Dominionist theology which a large number of the Religious Right would impose on all Americans- ie anti-choice, anti-feminist, making it a requirement which to a great extent it already is that anyone running for Public Office must declare they believe in the Judeo-Christian GOd. They would further demand re-instituting prayer in the schools and the teaching of Intelligent Design (ID) or Creationism and ban the teaching of Darwinian evolutionary theory and make homosexuality a crime or at least that Gays, Lesbians , Bisexuals and Transgender individuals not be permitted to hold positions of authority ie as members of government or as public school teachers.
At the same time Geller, Robert Spencer, Daniel Pipes, David Horowitz et al are also raising the alarm that there are too many leftists/ socialist/communists in the Universities and in the Media who should be purged.
Letting the Terrorists Win: Newt Gingrich and the 'Ground Zero Mosque' by Michael J. W. Stickings Sept. 7, 2010
In attacking it, and calling for it to be moved, conservatives like Gingrich are labeling all Muslims anti-American jihadists, an appallingly bigoted and disrespectful thing to do -- not least because there are many Muslims proudly serving in the U.S. military and because there were American Muslims who died on 9/11. (And, as has been noted, there's even a mosque at the Pentagon.)
Not that Gingrich cares about any of this. To him, this is merely a fantastic opportunity to keep up a visible media presence on an issue that Republicans have manufactured, with the media happy to oblige, to attack Democrats ahead of the midterms. But in portraying the "war" as both a religious and a civilizational conflict, he is playing directly, through fearmongering, to the deep-rooted nativism and ignorance of a large swathe of the American populace, not to mention of the Republican base.
I am tempted to say that Gingrich and those with him on this issue are with the terrorists -- and I will say that, because they are. In opposing Park51 they are proving to be very much like those attacked America on 9/11, not in terms of their violence but in terms of their articulation of a worldview that pits "us" against "them," that divides people instead of seeking to unite them, that clamors for war instead of working for peace, that mirrors the hatred and bigotry of our enemies with hatred and bigotry of our own. And in trying desperately to capitalize on and benefit politically from this issue, they are indeed letting the terrorists win.
America is better than this, is it not? America is better than Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin and all the others who are waving the flag and pointing it menacingly at Muslims, calling for the government essentially to crack down on a specific religion just because a tiny minority of that religion attacked America, and because they so badly want this "war" to rule our lives.
Gingrich passes himself off as an intellectual, but he's really just a partisan thug who's read a few books and can speak coherently. He basks in bigotry and ignorance on this issue, as on so many others, and, no, Americans should not stand for it.
Imam Rauf is hoping real Americans who believe in freedom of Religion and freedom of speech will defend the building of the Park 51/Cordoba House Community Center in New York and will not give in to the hysteria of the professional anti-Islam agitators who want Muslim Americans to be denied the same rights as other Americans.
He is possibly being a bit over optimistic since Americans have more often than not shown themselves to be small minded bigots whether its against Black, Hispanic, Catholic, Jewish since Americans hate any who might be different. Besides the Religious Right , The Tea Party movement and the GOP and its media arm Fox News and Talk Radio and the Islamophobic Faux Scholars are not above playing to the insecurities, fears and prejudices and ignorance of the American people that is the mainly white Christian Americans who are being bombarded with erroneous Propaganda which tells them they under attack by Muslims, Immigrants, liberals, socialists , communists , secularists, atheists etc..
These right wing forces have a habit of distorting reality and appear to be "Fact-challenged" or at least manipulate facts and history to promote their various agenda which in the case of their fear and hatred of Muslims, Immigration, and Obama they share a common cause.
Imam Rauf: Mosque will move ahead By MAGGIE HABERMAN Politico.com Sept. 7,2010
In his first words in weeks about the controversy surrounding his planned mosque and Islamic center near ground zero, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the project's religious anchor, said he's moving ahead with building two blocks north of the site of the devastation in lower Manhattan.
Rauf made the comments in a New York Times op-ed that went online late Tuesday night — the first time he's said what his intentions are since the debate went national in the wake of a speech by President Barack Obama and since offers to find a new location were made by New York Gov. David Paterson.
"We are proceeding with the community center, Cordoba House," he wrote. "More important, we are doing so with the support of the downtown community, government at all levels and leaders from across the religious spectrum, who will be our partners. I am convinced that it is the right thing to do for many reasons."
He also insisted all financing would be made public, echoing something his partner on the project, developer Sharif El-Gamal, has said for weeks, but which has done little to quell the concern among some victims' relatives, or calls for probes by politicians who've turned the topic into a campaign issue. He also said he would try to win over victims' families, although many have hardened in their resolve against it, in part because they were not approached when Cordoba House was first rolled out nine months ago.
..."The wonderful outpouring of support for our right to build this community center from across the social, religious and political spectrum seriously undermines the ability of anti-American radicals to recruit young, impressionable Muslims by falsely claiming that America persecutes Muslims for their faith," Rauf wrote.
"These efforts by radicals at distortion endanger our national security and the personal security of Americans worldwide. This is why Americans must not back away from completion of this project. If we do, we cede the discourse and, essentially, our future to radicals on both sides. The paradigm of a clash between the West and the Muslim world will continue, as it has in recent decades at terrible cost. It is a paradigm we must shift."
...He also suggested that the support of President Obama and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg had resonated globally.
"President Obama and Mayor Michael Bloomberg both spoke out in support of our project. As I traveled overseas, I saw firsthand how their words and actions made a tremendous impact on the Muslim street and on Muslim leaders. It was striking: a Christian president and a Jewish mayor of New York supporting the rights of Muslims. Their statements sent a powerful message about what America stands for, and will be remembered as a milestone in improving American-Muslim relations," he wrote.
"How better to commemorate 9/11 than to urge our fellow Muslims, fellow Christians and fellow Jews to follow the fundamental common impulse of our great faith traditions?"
The ninth anniversary of the attacks will be marked not only by the annual ceremony, but also by dueling protests both against and in support of the mosque, a few hours after the conclusion of the reading of the names of the lost.
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It could be argued that Americans faced with anxieties over the economy the war on terror etc. are just in need of a scapegoat to explain the changes and the crisis taking place.
But there was also an increase in hatred for Arabs and Muslims during the 1970's oil crisis as OPEC flexed its muscles to show its strength and then later with the ousting of the Shah of Iran by the Islamic extremist Ayatollah Khomeini followed by the hostage Crisis and then later with the first Gulf War long before 9/11 etc.
American then and now can't understand that for instance the natural resources ie oil found in the OPEC countries does not belong to the Americans and is just a commodity to be sold at a fair price for the countries producing the oil.
Americans and other Western nations still refuse to accept their responsibility in destabilizing the Middle East and other parts of the world to further their own selfish agenda and self-interest with little regard to the needs of those nations America exploits.
Muslims Are Just The Latest American Scapegoat by Rchel Slajda, Talking Points Memo.com, Sept. 8, 2010
You know the stories, by now: The violent attack on a cab driver, the arson in Tennessee, the sometimes unbelievable vitriol associated with a Manhattan Islamic community center. The plans by a radical pastor to burn the holy book of another religion, plans that have been condemned even by his compatriots on the fringe of American thought.
But why? And why now?
"It's been percolating," John Esposito, the director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown, told TPM. As Esposito tells it, America has had a problem with anti-Muslim prejudice since before Sept. 11, 2001. But it was contained, in a way, and even after 9/11 "things were pretty stabilized." The uptick began in 2004, and now it's rising to the surface.
"What I think has happened with the mosque at Ground Zero, what it's done is surfaced in the American public square ... what in a way was kind of a dirty little secret," he said. "It exposed the tip of the iceberg, something that's been out there but hasn't been on people's radar screens."
What's more is that politicians like Newt Gingrich -- politicians with very real chances of running for president -- have legitimized anti-Muslim language.
People now "felt free to appropriate phrases, like building a mosque in the Midwest is building a monument to terrorism," Esposito said. Gingrich "is legitimizing [that language], saying to a lot of followers of his who may not be normally extremist or bigoted, this is an OK perspective."
Omid Safi, a professor of Islamic studies at the University of North Carolina, said he believes anti-Muslim sentiment has been steadily increasing.
"It's not the case anymore that the explosion of hostilities are actually tied to an external trigger," Safi told TPM. "It's not that there's 9/11 or 7/7 or something like that that allows this burst of xenophobia to take place. It's almost like there's this constant ratcheting up of discourse."
"Voices that five years ago were considered crazy, xenophobic, radical ... have been co-opted by people at the Fox News level of things," he said. And people like Daniel Pipes, who have been at the forefront of trying to convince Americans that Islam is a threat, are claiming victory: "For the first time in 15 years, I feel I may be on the winning team," Pipes wrote yesterday.
For Yvonne Haddad, professor in Georgetown's School of Foreign Service, the rhetoric from more mainstream politicians is directly tied to the midterms.
"Given the fact that we're in an election cycle, conservative voices have found a way of using it, and liberals are just hiding," she said. "A few are speaking out. But they are muffled."
In the months after 9/11, President George W. Bush managed to stem what could have been a wave of anti-Muslim discrimination, Safi said.
"If you go back to the days after 9/11, someone like George Bush with whom I have substantial differences of opinion, said Islam is a religion of peace," he said. "That spared the nation a lot of the angry vitriol we're seeing now."
Some believe that President Obama can't do the same thing because of the widely believed false rumors that he is a Muslim himself. "He can't come out and defend Muslims the way Bush did," Haddad said. "He'll be tarred and feathered."
The professors TPM spoke with all said that the anger directed at Muslims is, to an extent, not about Muslims at all. It's about "The Other."
"Human nature need an Other," Esposito said. "You look for the Other to blame."
"If it wasn't Muslims it would be gays. If it wasn't gays, it would be Hispanics," Safi said. "Muslims are the flavor of the day."
As Esposito put it, Americans are worried about the economy, and they're worried about terrorism, especially with the failed attacks over the past year or so. Those worries have fueled hatred against two groups: Hispanic immigrants and Muslims.
"The foreignness of Islam, the foreignness of imams, because of that, and the foreignness of their beliefs and practices, [some Americans think] these people want to impose here," he said.
It's something that's happened before, with Catholics, with Jews, with the Japanese. "This kind of thing," Haddad said, "is not new in American history."
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A question for readers:
I fear I do get carried away.
Seriously folks are my posts sometimes too long or cover too much at once -I am concerned about this so let me know in the comments section.
and so it goes,
GORD.
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