November82012
Obama Bombs Yemen Hours After Winning Reelection || AntiWar
Not even a full day had passed before newly reelected President Obama ordered another drone strike in Yemen.
A U.S. drone strike targeted a group of al-Qaida militants on the outskirts of the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Wednesday night, killing at least three terrorists, government officials said.
A White House spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. If it were a American strike, of course, it would have to have been authorized by Obama.
The drone war violates both domestic and international law, and the Obama administration’s vehement disdain for transparency in government is the only thing keeping it from public and legal scrutiny. Beyond the law, it’s terrorism.
May152012
“Besides being publisher of Harper’s Magazine and writing books, I occasionally review them, including the most complete biography to date of yesterday’s Barnard commencement speaker. To help illustrate my point, let’s do a close reading of one passage from this book [The Bridge] by New Yorker editor David Remnick. We learn that in his senior year at Columbia, Barack Obama took a modern fiction course with Edward Said, who until his death in 2003 was University Professor of English and Comparative Literature. My reading of this text leads me to believe that Remnick’s account of Barack Obama’s life was authorized by its subject—that most of what’s in it is there because the president wanted it there. Remnick offers this description of Said and of Obama’s feelings about his English professor: “Best known for his advocacy of the Palestinian cause, and his academic excoriation of the Eurocentric ‘Orientalism’ practiced by Western authors and scholars, Said had done important work in literary criticism and theory. And yet, Said’s theoretical approach in the course left Obama cold.” Remnick then quotes a friend of Obama’s who also took the course: “My whole thing, and Barack had a similar view, was that we would rather read Shakespeare’s plays than the criticism. Said was more interested in the literary theory, which didn’t appeal to Barack or me.” According to Remnick, the young Obama referred to Said as a “flake.”
Although I agree that it’s usually better to read the original than a criticism of the original, this is a misreading of Said. Edward Said was many things: a lover of literature, a fearsome and inspiring teacher, a politically engaged public intellectual, a humanist, but most pertinent to this speech, an extraordinarily rigorous reader and teacher of text. On at least one occasion he threw a student out of class for not knowing the definition of a word, and he never went into class less than completely prepared. The last extended conversation I had with him was in his apartment on Riverside Drive: we talked not about Middle Eastern politics, but about Stendahl’s Charterhouse of Parma and its wily and seductive female protagonist, Gina Sanseverina. “Ah, Gina,” he said with appreciation and feeling, as if he had known her personally.”
Although I agree that it’s usually better to read the original than a criticism of the original, this is a misreading of Said. Edward Said was many things: a lover of literature, a fearsome and inspiring teacher, a politically engaged public intellectual, a humanist, but most pertinent to this speech, an extraordinarily rigorous reader and teacher of text. On at least one occasion he threw a student out of class for not knowing the definition of a word, and he never went into class less than completely prepared. The last extended conversation I had with him was in his apartment on Riverside Drive: we talked not about Middle Eastern politics, but about Stendahl’s Charterhouse of Parma and its wily and seductive female protagonist, Gina Sanseverina. “Ah, Gina,” he said with appreciation and feeling, as if he had known her personally.”
John MacArthur, Columbia College Class Day Keynote Speech (Read More!)
10PM
“But is it too much to ask of anyone concerned with our Middle Eastern policy to read Said’s trilogy—that is, before they encourage a military attack on Iran by proxies—be they French, Israeli, British, or Saudi Arabian? Wouldn’t it be truly audacious if Barack Obama, class of 1983, had done a close enough reading of the three Orientalism texts—with their subtext of humiliation endured by colonized peoples—to cite them as a reason for his praiseworthy reluctance to move from sanctions to violence?
That before he wasted one more life, one more dollar in Islamic Afghanistan, Obama showed some interest in his old professor instead of reading the dubious Robert Kagan? And furthermore, that the president of the United States meet with Iran’s, shall we say, flaky, President Ahmahdinejad? After all, Obama has already visited another religiously intolerant abettor or terrorists and officially anti-Israel head of state, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.”
That before he wasted one more life, one more dollar in Islamic Afghanistan, Obama showed some interest in his old professor instead of reading the dubious Robert Kagan? And furthermore, that the president of the United States meet with Iran’s, shall we say, flaky, President Ahmahdinejad? After all, Obama has already visited another religiously intolerant abettor or terrorists and officially anti-Israel head of state, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.”
John MacArthur, Columbia College Class Day Keynote Speech
Read this!
March132012
Could The Use Of Flying Death Robots Be Hurting America’s Reputation Worldwide? || The Onion
The First Responders debate the U.S. military’s use of drone planes to rain fiery death upon Afghanistan from above. (Aired 10/11/11)
I personally think ‘flying death robots’ is more effective than the euphemism ‘drone.’ If we called them flying death robots, wouldn’t people take the issue of drone strikes more seriously?
October162011
An Afghan carpet seller displays a handmade rug bearing the image of US President Barack Obama inside his shop in Kabul, Afghanistan. The shop owner said the he spent a year sewing the carpet and that it is not for sale. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press) #
August162011
Fox News Headlines Vs. The Actual News Headlines - III
Fox News cited each of these “actual news headlines” as their “source.”
Fair and balanced. Yup.
August142011
Reza Aslan: Obama's "Weak", "Politically Correct" Counterterrorism Plan Will Make Americans Safer
It was inevitable that the release of the Obama administration’s new counter-radicalization strategy document, “Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism,” would garner heavy criticism from the usual quarters. At this point, the White House couldn’t release a Christmas card without setting off a virulent national debate.
Some critics of the strategy document argue that by not explicitly naming “radical Jihadism” or “Islamic fundamentalism” as the chief threat to US security, the White House is endangering the lives of Americans in an attempt to be politically correct. Others claim that the administration’s focus on community development and grass-roots mobilization efforts is ineffectual because it seems to equate radical extremism with more localized problems like gang violence.
Yet the strategy document that these critics decry as weak and “politically correct” may in fact be the most enlightened, most effective plan that the United States has ever put forth in dealing with the problem of domestic terror.
First of all, while the new strategy document specifically cites al-Qaeda as the biggest threat to the United States, it no longer uses the term “Islamic fundamentalism” for the same reason the Bush Administration stopped using it, because it is counter-productive to a policy that relies on the assistance of Muslims to be effective. Ever since the attacks on September 11, 2001, American Muslims have faced increasing levels of discrimination as pundits and politicians repeatedly claim “Islam” - not terrorism, not al-Qaeda, not the Taliban - is the biggest threat to our national security. Never mind that the latest Gallup poll showed that American Muslims are far more likely than any other religious group in the United States to say there is never any justification for the killing of civilians (that’s a staggering 78% of Muslims, compared to 38% of Protestants, 39% of Catholics, and 43% of Jews). Continuing to use rhetoric that explicitly ties Islam to terrorism not only further alienates the very community the government is desperate to reach out to, it ignores the very real danger of domestic terror attacks from radical right-wing groups, which analysts warn are on the rise in the US.
Secondly, as every counter-radicalization expert will tell you, the most effective way to fight domestic extremism is through community outreach. Contrary to what the President’s critics claim, extremist groups function exactly like gangs. Both attract recruits who feel socially isolated, who struggle with a lack of economic opportunities, and who long for a strong sense of identity (Shameless plug: I wrote an entire book on this subject called Beyond Fundamentalism). Why shouldn’t the same efforts that have proven successful in dealing with gang violence not be used to deter other forms ideological violence, be they religiously motivated or not?
The White House’s new strategy document does not ignore the importance of law enforcement in countering violent extremism. It simply focuses an equal amount of energy on using community outreach tools to prevent people from joining extremist groups in the first place.
By focusing on a wider range of domestic threats beyond just “radical Islam,” and by moving more government resources toward preventive measures, the Obama White House is being neither politically correct nor weak on terrorism. It is making Americans safer.
August112011
Mansura Shajahan, whose husband Mohammed Shajahan was killed during 9/11 at tower one of the World Trade Center, wipes tears as U.S. President Barack Obama acknowledges Muslim 9/11 families during an Iftar dinner in the State Dining Room of the White House August 10, 2011 in Washington, DC.
(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images North America)
(via verbalresistance)
February82011
Hannity’s Focus Group Believes Obama Is A Muslim
Absolutely everything they say is ridiculous.
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