The Mainstream Media
Senator Labels Bush Iraq Policy 'Disaster,' Lieberman Bid 'Huge Mistake'
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., blasted a fellow Democrat, Sen. Joe Lieberman, for continuing his bid in the Connecticut Senate race despite a narrow loss to newcomer Ned Lamont in the Democratic primary earlier this month.
"I'm concerned that [Lieberman] is making a Republican case," Kerry told ABC News' "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" in an exclusive appearance.
Kerry accused the 2000 Democratic vice presidential candidate of "adopting the rhetoric of Dick Cheney," on the issue of Iraq.
"Joe Lieberman is out of step with the people of Connecticut," Kerry added, insisting Lieberman's stance on Iraq, "shows you just why he got in trouble with the Democrats there."
Of his own views on Iraq, Kerry stated forthrightly, "The course of this country in Iraq is making the world more dangerous."
Kerry, the Democrat's nominee for president in 2004, supported the 2003 Senate resolution that ultimately led to the invasion of Iraq, and was criticized throughout his White House bid for then opposing a measure funding continuing operations in that effort. The Bush campaign seized on what they described as Kerry's wavering views on Iraq, which in part led to the senator's 2004 election defeat.
Since 2004, Kerry has steadily sharpened his opposition to the Iraq war, calling for a steady withdrawal of U.S. troops beginning last year.
Kerry told chief Washington correspondent George Stephanopoulos, "Iraq is not the center of the war on terror," while also asserting, "Iraq is in a civil war; of course it's in a civil war."
Kerry said he supports the efforts of Senator John Warner, R-Va., to introduce a second resolution on Iraq if and when the country descends into outright civil war. Kerry believes that moment has come and reiterated, "We have to set a date for the withdrawal," before concluding, "The absence of diplomacy is putting our troops at greater risk and is reducing our ability for success."
National ACLU accuses black mayor of Jackson, Miss., of racial profiling
JACKSON,
Miss. - The national American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday
accused the city's black mayor of civil rights violations including
racial profiling in his crusade to stem crime in Mississippi's capital
city.
The accusations against Mayor Frank Melton and police are
based on complaints from people who say they were pulled over on the
basis of their race and searched without probable cause, the ACLU's
national racial profiling coordinator, King Downing, said at a news
conference.
"For me to leave my office and come into one of the states
means that there is a very serious problem," said Downing, who is based
in New York. "There are problems here that it's going to take the
attention of the nation in order to solve."
Downing said the mayor's race should make him "more sensitive to the problems this is creating."
However, Melton said in an interview Tuesday that he wasn't
interested in the ACLU's complaints against him or the police, and
denied he had violated anyone's civil rights.
"We have 26 people that have been killed in Jackson this
year. We have 300,000 people killed across America each year. The
majority of them are African-American and it's time to do something
different," Melton said. "I want to know what the ACLU wants to do
besides criticize."
Melton took office last July after winning 88 percent of the vote on a tough-on-crime platform.
Melton declared a state of emergency last month to attack the
city's escalating crime problem, basically adopting a stricter curfew
for teenagers and homeless people. He also continued his practice of
riding with police officers on patrol or at roadblocks.
The city's population of 184,256 is nearly 71 percent black, and 23.5 percent live below the poverty level.
Since his election, federal authorities have told him to quit
packing his pistol on commercial airline flights, Mississippi Attorney
General Jim Hood told him to stop wearing police gear, and Faye
Peterson, the district attorney in Jackson, has said the mayor was
breaking the law by impersonating a police officer.
Melton criticized the ACLU's plan to hold meetings in Jackson
to inform residents of their rights if they're stopped by police.
"I hope they don't obstruct justice and give people false
information because if they do, then we'll be focusing on them and
we'll come after them," Melton said.
Snopes.com says this is for real and not an internet rumor. I can't imagine an American politician being this honest without being called a raciest by several organizations. I don't know if that happened in Austraila or not but there would be an uproar here. Let's all try to be honest about the challanges we face and not try to make the constitution in to some kind of susicide pact. As it is pointed out this is not a love it or leave it argument. It is a question of vaules and what the country is about.
The July 2005 London Tube bombings raised domestic terrorism concerns in countries with large immigrant Muslim populations, such as Australia. The following month, Australian prime minister John Howard held a two-hour summit with moderate Muslim leaders in Canberra to work on a national strategy for addressing intolerance and the promotion of violence, during which issues such as the curriculum of Islamic schools and suggested measures for vetting imams were discussed. The Christian Science Monitor noted of the event:
The students - who were traveling with six classmates from Mansoura University in Egypt - had their student visas revoked for failing to show up at Montana State University in Bozeman, the officials said.
The other six students made it to the college.
"The FBI and ICE [Immigration and Custom Enforcement] would like to locate these 11 students in order to speak with them," said FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko after the "be-on-the-lookout" alert was issued to all police in the United States.
Kolko said there is no reason to believe the missing students, all men around 20 years old, represent a threat.
"At this point, all they have done is not show up for a scheduled academic program, and their visas have been revoked," Kolko said.
"We do not know of any association with any terrorist or criminal groups. There is no threat associated with these men. We have simply asked law enforcement's assistance in locating them so that the FBI and ICE may interview them."
Rep. Peter King (R-L.I.), who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, said the situation "has to be taken very seriously."
"Having a number of students from an Arab country arriving on student visas and disappearing is cause for concern," he said.
Montana State University Provost David Dooley said 17 Mansoura University students signed up for a 32-day cultural-exchange program to intensively study English, learn about Montana history and go on several field trips.
They arrived at JFK on a flight from Egypt on July 29, but only one managed to clear immigration in time to make a connecting flight, Dooley said.
By July 31, five others had arrived in Bozeman, but the rest were unaccounted for.
Dooley said the ones who showed up "were not certain about the status of their fellow students and why they haven't made it."
MSU alerted federal Homeland Security and Mansoura officials and notified the students via e-mail they had 24 hours to show up in Bozeman. None of them did, Dooley said.
He added, "We're very disappointed by this. It would be regrettable if the misadventures or irresponsibility of a number of students damaged these kinds of programs."
Officials at the Egyptian Consulate in New York and the Egyptian Embassy in Washington, D.C., said they were unfamiliar with the situation
Vani and swara, is a practice found not exclusively in Pakistan whereby girls given away in marriage, often at ridiculously young ages, to act as compensation for the crimes or transgressions of a male relative. It would not be unusual for child under 10 to be wed to an adult male. Just as it is illegal in Pakistan to commit an honor killing there are laws against this disgusting Islamic tradition also. Pakistan passed the anti-vani law in January of this year. However the law is enforced so rarely as to not even exist. The same is true for prosecution of honor killings.
In Saudi Arabia, a woman's testimony in court is worth half that of a man's testimony if her husband divorces any kids are now solely under his caring. The mother has whatever rights the husband gives her.
In Pakistan, Zina (fornication) law says extramarital sex is punishable by public whipping or even stoning to death. If a woman is raped, she runs a high risk of being charged with zina, particularly if she becomes pregnant. In order to prove an absence of consent however, a woman is required to provide four witnesses to the rape, a near impossible task. The punishments are often not stayed.
And this on females living under Islam from one of Islams biggest heroes Khomeini who said: "A man can have sexual pleasure from a child as young as a baby. However, he should not penetrate. If he penetrates and the child is harmed then he should be responsible for her subsistence all her life. This girl however would not count as one of his four permanent wives. The man will not be eligible to marry the girl's sister."-(What a wise sage)
Is it any wonder that men in such places are inculcated with a uber Misogyny? The wonderful enlightened free woman of America scares them. It threatens their little domestic dictatorships. Hatred and oppression of woman is the only outlet of freedom they poses. In the home they are the kings. When you live in a dictatorship like Saudi Arabia this domestic overlord-ship provides some sense of control over your life. Maybe that’s why Islam sees democracy as such a threat? Democracy encourages woman to a life beyond the slavery of he husbands house.
Certainly not all women in strict Islamic homes guided by sharia are oppressed underlings whose function is to sever her husbands or fathers or brothers needs. But so many do that it is high on the radar screens of all western human rights organizations.
Again I call for Islam to have a reformation. Grow up! This is the 21st century, and baby we’ve come along way.
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