In one of the more bizarre turns for a very bizarre man, Newt is now claiming that his affairs happened because he was more focussed on the country than his personal life. As someone at TPM noted, perhaps this was what Samuel Johnson was thinking when he said that "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
-----
Couple other thoughts while driving home. One, I heard that Illinois has banned the death penalty. That is always nice to see, especially when there are so many documented issues with its implementation.
Second, as everyone probably knows, Representative King from New York is holding hearings on how dangerous Muslims are in our midst. I heard an interesting interview with an analyst who said that there were issues with radicals recruiting our youth, and those should be addressed. Just, I would add, as we should be concerned about white supremacists or other violent felons trying to recruit young people.
But his interesting comment was to note that Al Qaeda wants, as a part of their broader goal, for Americans to see all Muslims as terrorists. That helps them recruit, and ultimately gets Americans to make bad decisions about Muslims instead of reaching out to moderates.
Isn't that a kick in the pants? Conservatives doing the work of Al Qaeda by inflating their importance and building divides between non-Muslims and the Muslim community. Nice work there, GOP.
5 comments:
Gingrich's language skills seem to be declining with age, as he is consistently mispronouncing "I am an unelectable narcissistic douchebag."
I think that there should be a dialog about radical Islam, though King's history makes him a poor choice for initiating the discussion. I am afraid that any intelligent debate will be overshadowed by partisan bickering or invalid comparisons. I don't know if this is unavoidable, as I have no idea as to the best way to approach it.
They were talking about Newt on NPR the other day and it was noted that if he were going to win that he would have to deal with his personal issues if he was going to win in the primaries. I don't know how his excuse will fly with those conservatives that care about that kind of stuff. My guess is that it won't and those people will throw in their support behind someone like Huckabee or Palin.
I think that there should be a dialog about radical Islam
I think there should be a dialog about radical fucking everything. If you talk about Islam, it better be in the same breath as assholes like this too. The same gullibility and sense of victimized hopelessness that leads to future jihadists also leads to future neo-Nazis and McVeigh wannabes.
I am afraid that any intelligent debate will be overshadowed by partisan bickering or invalid comparisons.
This singling-out of Islam is for the fucking birds. It's nothing but a political stunt to court the base and has nothing to do with intelligent fucking debate. It was never meant to debate. That crazy lady interviewed the other day applauded it for being the beginnings of the witch hunt she's always wanted; an acknowledgment that all Muslims are more susceptible to radicalization than anyone else, and that that's Islam's ultimate goal.
It's fucking bullshit political theater and shameless base pandering at its worst. Even pretending that this is a worthwhile exercise is mealy-mouthed crap.
I don't know if this is unavoidable, as I have no idea as to the best way to approach it.
It's not unavoidable. It's the purpose. The best way to approach this, besides for don't fucking let this asshole pander? have the conversation be led by Rep. Ellison and have a panel discussion from preeminent religious scholars and psychologists.
Or better yet, have Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins lead the panel.
Here's fucking more, from LA County Sheriff Lee Baca:
Baca warned against a "a false assumption that any particular region or group are more prone to radicalization than others," noting a high number of terror-related plots that did not involve Muslims. He also noted that Muslim Americans had helped foil "seven of the last 10" plots launched by Al Qaeda in the United States
That's all that that fucking clown Peter Goddamned King needs to fucking know. There's the alpha and omega of the hearings on "radical Islam." Fucking TOOL.
I'm on a roll. First, the Asshat King:
Republicans on the panel singled out the Council on America-Islamic Relations, a Washington advocacy group, as contributing to a culture in America in which imams and mosques are encouraged to be uncooperative with law enforcement.
"I have said that there are too many mosques that do not cooperate with law enforcement, and I think the testimony today has backed that up," King said.
Then, real, not made-up FACTS from the people on the ground:
Baca said he knew of no allegations in Los Angeles that CAIR encouraged Muslims to not cooperate with his deputies.
"I have not experienced anything that suggests that CAIR supports terrorism in Southern California," he said.
Baca told that panel that because of his department's outreach efforts to the Muslim American community, "We can go into mosques in Los Angeles, and we do that frequently."
"Muslims are just as independent, just as feisty, just as concerned about their safety," he added. "They certainly don't want their homes or mosques blown up."
Post a Comment