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We need more of this, because secular rationality, like syntax and grammar are highly overrated.
The religiously deluded are up to their old tricks. The corporate media will always take the easy story as it will sell ads, and ads are what they all about. The disproportionate amount of attention this church and pastor have received shows how completely our news agencies are failing in their duty to provide citizens with information that is relevant to their lives.
“A Florida minister who had been considering burning copies of the Qur’an to mark the anniversary of 9/11 will not go ahead with the plan on Saturday, his son said.
“There will be no Qur’an burning tomorrow,” Terry Jones’s 29-year old son, Luke Jones, told reporters outside his father’s Gainesville church Friday. But Luke Jones said he did not know if it might happen in the future.”
Kind of anti-climactic after all the hoopla. It is almost like they realized they were acting like douche-nozzles and decided to retreat from the stupidity of their position.
“On a confusing Thursday, Jones initially said he had decided to call off the burning because of a deal negotiated with Musri that organizers of the effort to build an Islamic centre near Ground Zero had agreed to move its location.
Musri replied that he could only set up a meeting with Rauf.
Later that night, Jones claimed Musri “clearly, clearly lied to us” about the centre being moved.”
Typical christain mendacity as the meeting with the Imam seems to only have happened in Jones’s mind. But, blaming the other party for your failure is pretty much standard operation procedure.
The next quote is from President Obama who waded into this story, giving it undeserved legitimacy. He pontificates about how bad this whole situation could potentially be and how it will affect America’s image abroad. All Obama needed to do was dismiss this menagerie of clowns and continue with matters that were actually relevant to the American people. But he does not:
“Earlier Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama said that burning copies of the Qur’an is “contrary to what [America] was
Giving unwarranted attention to the deluded.
founded on” and “the best imaginable recruiting tool for al-Qaeda.
Speaking at a news conference in the East Room of the White House, Obama referred to but did not name Terry Jones.
“The idea that we would burn the sacred texts of someone else’s religion is contrary to what this country stands for,” Obama said. “It’s contrary to what this nation was founded on, and my hope is that this individual prays on it and refrains from doing it.”
Obama had already condemned Jones’s plan, joining other political leaders, top military officials and foreign dignitaries who have said burning the Qur’an would provoke militants in Afghanistan and put the lives of international soldiers in jeopardy.”
Newsflash: American’s reputation abroad sucks. This particular incident, given the general foreign policy direction of the US, is minor compared to what the US currently doing.
It enlightening to watch as one group of religious crazies can derail the entire media cycle, but hey, forgoing responsible reporting and instead prioritizing profits is all we can really expect of the news media these days. If they had only covered the story like this:
It is hazy and smoky outside and I feel a bit under the weather, so I post another Chomsky interview, this time on from Russian Television topics include the Afghanistan War, Obama and the American Economy.
Shamelessly plagiarized from Wikipedia:
The Second Bill of Rights was a proposal made by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt during his State of the Union Address on January 11, 1944 to suggest that the nation had come to recognize, and should now implement, a second bill of rights. Roosevelt did not argue for any change to the United States Constitution; he argued that the second bill of rights was to be implemented politically, not by federal judges. Roosevelt’s stated justification was that the “political rights” guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights had “proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.” Roosevelt’s remedy was to create an “economic bill of rights” which would guarantee:
- A job with a living wage
- Freedom from unfair competition and monopolies
- A home
- Medical care
- Education
- Recreation
Roosevelt stated that having these rights would guarantee American security, and that America’s place in the world depended upon how far these and similar rights had been carried into practice.
How different a political landscape we would be faced with today if FDR has lived. Would we see the Plutocracy that is in full bloom currently in the US? Perhaps, but I think that the enormous divisions that exist in American society would be significantly less and more people would feel like they were part of the system rather then victims of it.
President Obama should take heed of FDR’s words and make them his second term platform. Adopting such a progressive goal, I think, would take the bitter taste out of so many progressive’s mouths.
The Second Bill of Rights TV address to the American people in case you missed it.
I’m reading a piece in Harper’s right now by Naomi Klein titled “Minority Death March: Jews, blacks and the “post-racial” presidency. This article is chock full of blog fodder, from US/Israeli obstructionism in the UN to the denial of racism and responsibility of the ‘first’ world. One section caught my eye as it focused on Mr.Obama and the job he is doing as president of the US. The article references what one Juan Santos wrote in an open letter to Mr.Obama. You can find the whole post here.
Barack Obama is the living symbol of our silence. He is our silence writ large.
He is our Silence running for president –
With respect to Black interests, Obama would be a silenced Black ruler: A muzzled Black emperor. A Black man at the head of the White Amerikkkan State – one who’s unwilling to speak truth to power, but more than willing, like a Condi Rice or a Colin Powell, to become that power and to launch wars of aggression against other people of color.
In Obama’s case the targets will be Iran (which he has threatened with “surgical” missile strikes) and Pakistan, rather than Iraq. That’s the only difference between Obama and Rice and Powell, or Bush, for that matter.
Between the Harper’s article and Mr.Santos’s own denunciation of Obama and what he stands for, it seems like the current president of the US is in a fair bit of trouble. Where is the reform promised by his campaign? It was my first impression that Obama was taking his time being conservative in his governance as to size up his opposition and his own capacities. The more I read the more it seems that Obama is not about hope and change, but rather maintain and remain the same (maintaining the status quo of the last 8 years is reprehensible) .
I hope that Obama begins to move in a genuine progressive way soon. He is at risk of losing his base of people who genuinely thought he would fight for change.
“I had so much hope of what was promised…but nothing has happened yet.”
“Where is the change?”
These and similar statements are filtering through the liberal blogosphere. What happened to the lovely luster of Obama circa ’08? Some would say that he is reneging on his promises, ignoring the people that brought him into office.
I think Obama is still coming to terms with the reality of the political machinations he needs to wrestle with and the weight of established opinion he is trying to change. It will not be easy.
I am very happy that McCain did not get in, I think that would have been much worse an outcome for Canada. At least with Obama in our PM cannot so unabashedly embrace the neo-conservative ideology which he seems to be in love with.
Obama raised the bar very high during his election campaign. Many people were expecting many great things from his presidency from the beginning. I think that view is unrealistic given the political reality of the situation. Change, especially progressive change is going to happen in very small increments in US politics. The administration has changed, but the ruling elite, the people who have power and influence in America, have not.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
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