Discussions about anything that comes to our minds.
You've probably heard the news by now that House Majority Leader Tom Delay has been indicted by a grand jury in Texas on a felony count of criminal conspiracy for violating election laws. Heres what you might not have heard:
In November of 2004, House Republicans voted secretly to change the long established House Ethics Rules in an attempt to protect Mr. Delay from having to step down as House Majority Leader should he ever be indicted. Despite public outrage, my opponent John Kline has not owned up to his vote on changing the rules to protect violators in powerful positions. Small wonder, given the fact Mr. Kline has accepted $30,000 in campaign funds, and a maximum of $10,000 in 2004 from Mr. Delays PAC. Small wonder he voted with Mr. Delay and Republican leadership 99% of the time in 2004.
The news about Mr. DeLay, taken together with how closely my opponent Mr. Kline is tied to Mr. DeLay's money machine, illustrates clearly what we're up against.
Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District deserves better than Mr. Kline.
Breyer's largest hurdle came when Newsday broke a story indicating that he had investments in some of Lloyd's of London's insurance syndicates. Senators argued that his investments would create conflicts of interest if Breyer would be presented with "Superfund" cases that could affect Lloyd's potential liability. In the hearings Breyer promised to sell off his investments in Lloyds, and to make all of his investments public. However, as the confirmation process was winding down Newsday further exposed Breyer as having been on a three-judge panel in a pollution case where the Kayser-Roth Corporation was sued by Lloyd's of London after being held accountable for cleaning up the site of a chemical spill. The case demonstrated that he had failed to recognize that he had a conflict of interest. (Lloyd's was directly involved in the case, but it was uncertain if his syndicates were.)
Source: History News Network
From Democrats and the American Left -- the U.S. equivalent to the people who run Canada -- we are still hearing that the disaster in New Orleans showed a heartless, white Republican America had abandoned its underclass.
This is garbage. The great majority of those not evacuated lived in assisted housing, receive food stamps and prescription medicine and government support through many other programmes. Many have, all their lives, expected someone to lift them to safety, sans input from themselves. And the demagogic mayor they elected left, quite literally, hundreds of transit and school buses parked in rows to be lost in the flood, that could have driven them out of town.
Yes, that was insensitive. But it is also the truth; and sooner or later we must acknowledge that welfare dependency creates exactly the sort of haplessness and social degeneration we saw on display, as the floodwaters rose. Many suffered terribly, and many died, and one's heart goes out. But already the survivors are being put up in new accommodations, and their various entitlements have been directed to new locations.
The scale of private charity has also been unprecedented. There are yet no statistics, but I'll wager the most generous state in the union will prove to have been arch-Republican Texas, and that nationally, contributions in cash and kind are coming disproportionately from people who vote Republican. For the world divides into "the mouths" and "the wallets".
House Majority Leader Rep. Tom DeLay, R-TX, said that while he would consider cutting all other domestic discretionary spending to raise the tens of billions of dollars needed for Katrina relief, it was a bad idea to take money from transportation projects.
His suburban Houston district is slated to get $64.4 million under the bill, and DeLay has said that he brought home an additional $50 million for freeway projects in the metropolitan area. He also helped secure $324 million in funding credits for Houston's light rail construction.
House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, said Tuesday she was willing to return to the federal Treasury $70 million designated for San Francisco projects in the new highway and transportation bill and use the money to help pay for Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts.
Charlie Weis doesn't usually let anyone else call plays on offense. He made an exception for 10-year-old Montana Mazurkiewicz.
The Notre Dame coach met last week with Montana, who had been told by doctors weeks earlier that there was nothing more they could do to stop the spread of his inoperable brain tumor.
"He was a big Notre Dame fan in general, but football especially," said his mother, Cathy Mazurkiewicz.
Weis showed up at the Mazurkiewicz home in Mishawaka, just east of South Bend, and talked with Montana about his tumor and about Weis' 10-year-old daughter, Hannah, who has global development delay, a rare disorder similar to autism.
He told Montana about some pranks he played on Joe Montana -- whom Montana was named after -- while they were roommates at Notre Dame.
"I gave him a chance to hammer me on the Michigan State loss, which he did very well. He reminded me of my son," said Weis, whose son, Charlie Jr., is 12 years old.
Weis said the meeting was touching.
"He told me about his love for Notre Dame football and how he just wanted to make it through this game this week," Weis said. "He just wanted to be able to live through this game because he knew he wasn't going to live very much longer."
As Weis talked to the boy, Cathy Mazurkiewicz rubbed her son's shoulder trying to ease his pain. Weis said he could tell the boy was trying not to show he was in pain.
His mother told Montana, who had just become paralyzed from the waist down a day earlier because of the tumor, to toss her a football Weis had given him. Montana tried to throw the football, put could barely lift it. So Weis climbed into the reclining chair with him and helped him complete the pass to his mother.
Before leaving, Weis signed the football.
"He wrote, 'Live for today for tomorrow is always another day,"' Mazurkiewicz said.
"He told him: 'You can't worry about tomorrow. Just live today for everything it has and everything you can appreciate,'" she said. "He said: 'If you're (in pain) today you might not necessarily be in pain tomorrow, or it might be worse. But there's always another day.'"
Weis asked Montana if there was something he could do for him. He agreed to let Montana call the first play against Washington on Saturday. He called "pass right."
Montana never got to see the play. He died Friday at his home.
Weis heard about the death and called Mazurkiewicz on Friday night to assure her he would still call Montana's play.
"He said, 'This game is for Montana, and the play still stands,'" she said.
Weis said he told the team about the visit. He said it wasn't a "Win one for the Gipper" speech, because he doesn't believe in using individuals as inspiration. He just wanted the team to know people like Montana are out there.
"That they represent a lot of people that they don't even realize they're representing," Weis said.
When the Irish started on their own 1-yard-line following a fumble recovery, Mazurkiewicz wasn't sure Notre Dame would be able to throw a pass. Weis was concerned about that, too. So was quarterback Brady Quinn.
"He said 'What are we going to do?'" Weis said. "I said 'We have no choice. We're throwing it to the right.'"
Weis called a play where most of the Irish went left, Quinn ran right and looked for tight end Anthony Fasano on the right.
Mazurkiewicz watched with her family.
"I just closed my eyes. I thought, 'There's no way he's going to be able to make that pass. Not from where they're at. He's going to get sacked and Washington's going to get two points,'" she said.
Fasano caught the pass and leapt over a defender for a 13-yard gain.
U.S. and Iraqi authorities said Tuesday their forces had killed the No. 2 official in the al-Qaida in Iraq organization in a weekend raid in Baghdad, claiming to have struck a “painful blow” to the country’s most feared insurgent group.
Abdullah Abu Azzam led al-Qaida’s operations in Baghdad, planning a brutal wave of suicide bombings in the capital since April, killing hundreds of people, officials said. He also controlled the finances for foreign fighters that flowed into Iraq to join the insurgency.
Al-Qaida in Iraq denied that Abu Azzam was the No. 2 leader of the organization and said “it was not confirmed” that he was killed. “Abu Azzam was one of al-Qaida’s many soldiers and is the leader of one of its battalions operating in Baghdad,” the group said in an Internet statement by its spokesman, Abu Maysara al-Iraqi.Uh, he wasn't important but we are going to deny he was killed. Whatever, you lying pieces of ****.
It called the U.S. and Iraqi claims that he was the group’s top deputy “a futile attempt ... to raise the morale of their troops.”
It was not immediately clear what effect Abu Azzam’s death would have on al-Qaida in Iraq, which has been one of the deadliest militant groups, carrying out suicide attacks that targeted the country’s Shiite majority. The U.S. military has claimed to have killed or captured leading al-Zarqawi aides in the past and attacks have continued unabated — although Abu Azzam appeared to be a more significant figure.
Iraqi government spokesman Laith Kubba called the killing of Abu Azzam a “painful blow” to al-Qaida, but warned that the group would likely carry out revenge attacks.
Abu Azzam was killed early Sunday when U.S. and Iraqi forces raided a high-rise apartment building in Baghdad, Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman, told the AP.
“They went in to capture him, he did not surrender, and he was killed in the raid,” Boylan said.
The Iraqi and U.S. forces targeted the building after a tip from an Iraqi citizen, Kubba said. During the raid, the troops captured another militant in the apartment with Abu Azzam, Kubba said.
Abu Azzam — whose real name is Abdullah Najim Abdullah Mohamed Al-Jawari — was the No. 2 figure in al-Qaida in Iraq, Kubba and Boylan said.
He had claimed responsibility for the assassinations of a number of top politicians, including a car bomb in May 2004 that killed Izzadine Saleem, the president of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council, and a July 2004 attack that killed the governor of Nineveh province, the military said.
He was the group’s “amir” or leader in Anbar, the vast western province that is the heartland of the insurgency, until spring, when he became the amir in Baghdad and led operations in and around the capital. He was “responsible for the recent upsurge in violent attacks in the city since April 2005,” the military said.
Abu Azzam’s death was followed by two other successes against al-Qaida in Iraq’s leadership, officials said — the group’s leader in the northern city of Mosul surrendered to the Iraqi military, and its leader in the town of Karabila in the sensitive region near the Syrian border was killed.
The Karabila leader, identified only as Abu Nasser, died along with several others Monday in a raid on the group’s headquarters in the city, Kubba told a news conference, without elaborating. Gen. Wafiq al-Samaraei, the Iraqi president’s national security adviser, said Abu Nasser was killed in a U.S. airstrike. The U.S. military confirmed an airstrike in the region Monday, but gave no details on casualties.
Former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith is going to the Supreme Court. Justices said Tuesday they would consider Smith's appeal over the fortune of her 90-year-old late husband.And no, I do not think she was a gold-digger. Strippers always fall in love with their 'johns', don't they?
The stripper-turned-reality television star stands to win as much as $474 million that a bankruptcy judge initially said she was entitled to. The case will be argued before the justices early next year.
She has not gotten any money from the estate of J. Howard Marshall II, an oil tycoon who married her in 1994 when he was 89 and she was 26. Marshall, one of Texas' wealthiest men, died in 1995.
A clock error added 52 seconds to the fourth quarter of the Patriots-Steelers game Sunday. The extra time aided the Patriots during a winning drive that ended with Adam Vinatieri's 43-yard field goal with 1 second remaining.
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The NFL acknowledged the mistake Monday, with director of officiating Mike Pereira issuing a statement: "The on-field officiating crew, which oversees the official game clock operated in the press box, failed to recognize that the clock was improperly reset."
The mistake occurred after the second play of the fourth quarter, a reverse by Steelers wide receiver Cedrick Wilson for no gain on second-and-10 from the Pittsburgh 30 with the Steelers ahead 13-10.
There were 14 minutes, 51 seconds remaining when the play started and, by the time, a false start penalty was called on Steelers guard Kendall Simmons, the Heinz Field clock had run down to 13:59.
But before the next play started, the clock reverted back to 14:51 -- the time left before the Wilson run. Ben Roethlisberger's incompletion on third-and-15 lasted 14 seconds and Chris Gardocki's 51-yard punt took up 10 seconds, meaning the Patriots got the ball back with 14:19 remaining in the game rather than 13:27 if the error hadn't occurred.
According to former NFL official Chuck Heberling, who observes the officials in a league-appointed capacity, an NFL employee in New York spotted the error and immediately called officials supervisor Johnny Grier. Grier was sitting with Heberling in the press box.
"We checked it out with the statisticians and, according to his records, everything seemed to be all right," Heberling said. As a result, no move was made to try to correct the error.That means 2 clock operators did not say anything, 2 officials did not notice, the statisticians did not catch the error and the crowd in Pittsburgh did not say/yell anything. The broadcasters (television and radio) for the Patriots, Steelers and CBS did not catch it.
The mistake showed up when the officiating crew, headed by referee Bill Carollo, reviewed the CBS game tape with Grier and Heberling during their usual post-game meeting in a Pittsburgh hotel.
"When we ran the tape, it was obvious it (the clock) was jumping," Heberling said.
The clock operators -- there are two, one for the game clock and the other for the play clock -- are locally based but hired by the league. The Steelers did not identify them, and they are not listed with the other officials on the league's statistical report.
The mistake caused the final quarter to last 15 minutes, 52 seconds, extra time that proved invaluable to New England after the Steelers tied it at 20 on Roethlisberger's 4-yard touchdown pass to Hines Ward with 1:21 remaining.Forty-five of the 52 seconds are right there. Two other plays occurred...the pass of 17 yards and the pass of 14 yards. Vinaterri's range would have easily covered that extra 6 yards...so that takes care of :45 seconds. There was also a run for no yardage that spent 16 seconds. There is 1:01 that easily can be argued would have been made up with a hurry up offense.
After New England got the ball at its 38, Tom Brady needed only 31 seconds to complete passes of 17, 14 and 6 yards to set up Vinatieri's third field goal of the game. Forty-five seconds ran off between the time Brady found David Givens for 6 yards to the Steelers 25 and Vinatieri kicked the decisive field goal.
Steelers president Dan Rooney was unaware of the mistake until being alerted Monday by reporters.
"There's nothing to say. The game's over," Rooney said. "It's not going to change the score."
Two starting offensive linemen on the Minnesota Vikings were arrested shortly after 3 a.m. today when they refused to leave a 24-hour service station where a crowd had gathered, according to Minneapolis police.You think so? I mean, there are die-hard Vikings fans that would like about a murder to protect their beloved purple.
Bryant McKinnie, 26, and Marcus Johnson, 23, were charged with disorderly conduct and obstruction of justice, which are misdemeanors, and were released from the Hennepin County jail early today after they each posted $50 bail.
Witnesses gave various accounts of the incident at the service station.
Jared Scheeler, a manager at the service station, said that he had originally called police because a woman customer had become unruly. He said that security guards who work at the store had handcuffed her. It appears that the woman was not connected to the Vikings entourage.Yet we should subsidize their place of employment because they are such great role models and sports builds character.
A group of individuals with McKinnie was standing inside the store when a another man who was getting a drink out of the cooler shouted at McKinnie, making a reference to Miami, and it "could have been an insult," Scheeler said.
The men apparently exchanged words and McKinnie's teammates were trying to get him to back off. At some point during the argument, two police officers arrived. "He (McKinnie) kept arguing with the guy," said Scheeler. "Police were telling him to stop. He wouldn't. They attempted to cuff him. There seemed to be a little resistance (by McKinnie) but not much."
Cindy Sheehan, the California woman who has used her son’s death in Iraq to spur the anti-war movement, was arrested Monday while protesting outside the White House.Good. Let that be on their records. Of course, I doubt any of them are candidates for decent jobs anyway.
Sheehan and several dozen other protesters sat down on the sidewalk after marching along the pedestrian walkway on Pennsylvania Avenue. Police warned them three times that they were breaking the law by failing to move along, then began making arrests.
On Sunday, a rally supporting the war drew roughly 500 participants. Speakers included veterans of World War II and the war in Iraq, as well as family members of soldiers killed in Iraq.And that was without the help of the media promoting this rally. See, the media is NOT objective.
“I would like to say to Cindy Sheehan and her supporters, ‘Don’t be a group of unthinking lemmings.’ It’s not pretty,” said Mitzy Kenny of Ridgeley, W.Va., whose husband died in Iraq last year. The anti-war demonstrations “can affect the war in a really negative way. It gives the enemy hope.”
I don’t quite know what to say about Jay Esmay’s call into the show. I’ve been trying to be fair and balanced to all the candidates on this blog, and I was attempting to on the show today. We were discussing Esmay and we kind of… were… well… tough on him. I think all is fair in ‘love and ploitics’ [sic]. Maybe I was mis-stating his positions, but the others were not exactly on his side. I don’t remember the specific exchange, but I can say this. If you are ever a candidate for office, and someone is talking about you on the radio in unflattering ways, don’t call in unless they ask you to.
I'll be on Race to the Right on KNSI with Martin Andrade tomorrow. 1-3pm at 1450 KNSI; at last local folks can hear me without a webstream. Not local? Marty's got streaming action. BTW, Marty, it's Banaian. Every other letter is an 'A'. Just ask Foot: He always spells my name so well.Thanks...I think I have brutalized the spelling as well.
I'm going to be appearing on Race To The Right, on KNSI (AM1450 in Saint Cloud, plus available on the website) with King, Andy from Residual Forces, as well as hosts Tony Garcia and Marty Andrade. We're going to be talking about the Sixth District house race, among many other things.
Race to the Right was a blast today. King Banaian is awesome, Mitch Berg is almost as awesome (but "classier") Andy Aplikowski was pronouncable for the first half hour, and Tony and I did our normal walk through excellence.
Too bad Psycmiester didn't ID himself, else we could have had a lot more fun with him and his comments (Next time buddy). Even my mother, who doesn't like conservative radio all that much, enjoyed listening to the show.
Scott Stevens is the Idaho weatherman who blames the Japanese Mafia for Hurricane Katrina. To folks in Pocatello...
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Since Katrina, Stevens has been in newspapers across the country where he was quoted in an Associated Press story as saying the Yakuza Mafia used a Russian-made electromagnetic generator to cause Hurricane Katrina in a bid to avenge the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima. He was a guest on Coast to Coast, a late night radio show that conducts call-in discussions on everything from bizarre weather patterns to alien abductions. On Wednesday, Stevens was interviewed by Fox News firebrand Bill O'Reilly.
Although the theories espoused by Stevens - scalar weapons, global dimming - are definitely on the scientific fringe today, there are thousands of Web sites that mention such phenomena.
"The Soviets boasted of their geoengineering capabilities; these impressive accomplishments must be taken at face value simply because we are observing weather events that simply have never occurred before, never!" Stevens wrote on his Web site. "The evidence of these weapons at work found within the clouds overhead is simply unmistakable. These patterns and odd geometric shapes seen in our skies, each and every day, are clear and present evidence that our weather has been stolen from us, only to be used by those whose designs for humanity are rarely in alignment with that of the common man."
Stevens never discussed his weather theories on the air during his time at Channel 6 - an agreement he had with the station management. What the meteorologist chose to do in his off time was his business, said his manager of eight years.And you global warming freaks OUGHT to do the same.
A battle in the skies is waged daily. Some battles are won and others lost. We yet know not which. For years this massive global project has been under way, but only now is it making it to the forefront of the consciousness of those with curious minds. These open minds know that every belief system fails; and only fails, under the weight of new truthful information. This is how progress is made, slowly and often only with the passing of a generation of humankind.
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As a television weatherman I first met this information with skepticism, who wouldn't? Almost completely rejecting the concept that weather modification outside of cloud seeding possible. Additional clues kept creeping in until I came across examples of scalar weather engineering on Tom Bearden's web site. Soon I began looking for my own examples in my own skies. Whoa! There they were! And not just occasionally, but all the time! Examples in highs clouds were the easiest to spot, much less convective turbulence to round out the edges. Mid level clouds. the alto cumulus are now frequently gridded and square. Odd, very odd I thought. Lower clouds, cumulus and stratus, especially in a marine layer environment seem to be the most difficult in which to see the active grid. But it is there.
Hamas blamed Israel and said it fired rockets on Israeli border towns in retaliation. However, the Palestinian Authority described the explosion as an accident that happened when Islamic militants mishandled explosives and renewed demands that armed groups stop flaunting their weapons.
Israel ordered ground forces to the Gaza border Saturday and threatened a "crushing" response after Israeli towns were hit by the first major Hamas rocket barrage from the coastal territory since Israel's pullout two weeks earlier.
Israel also resumed airstrikes against Hamas targets, hitting several suspected weapons workshops, and imposed a blanket closure that bars all Palestinians from its territory.
Some of the trees being destroyed are over 100 years old. Make no mistake, tonight the very face of the cities is being changed forever.OK, I understand trying to fill air time and sometimes stupid stuff exits the mouth. Maybe he didn't mean it. In the meantime my wife and I were discussing how overdone the quote was (she didn't hear it and thought maybe I was making it out to be dumber than it was).
And for three Mars summers in a row, deposits of frozen carbon dioxide near Mars' south pole have shrunk from the previous year's size, suggesting a climate change in progress.Eeks, I guess that means the California Emissions Standards were not strong enough. If only Kyoto were signed 4 years ago it would have prevented the Universe Warming. We're all doomed.
Early last month, the bureau's Washington Field Office began recruiting for a new anti-obscenity squad. Attached to the job posting was a July 29 Electronic Communication from FBI headquarters to all 56 field offices, describing the initiative as "one of the top priorities" of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and, by extension, of "the Director." That would be FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III.
The new squad will divert eight agents, a supervisor and assorted support staff to gather evidence against "manufacturers and purveyors" of pornography -- not the kind exploiting children, but the kind that depicts, and is marketed to, consenting adults.
But Gonzales endorses the rationale of predecessor Meese: that adult pornography is a threat to families and children. Christian conservatives, long skeptical of Gonzales, greeted the pornography initiative with what the Family Research Council called "a growing sense of confidence in our new attorney general."
Each year, 21 common names are reserved for Atlantic Basin hurricanes, with the list arranged alphabetically and skipping certain letters. Rita is the 17th named storm in the Atlantic Basin this year. There are only four left.
So what will officials do after tropical storm Wilma develops, assuming it does?
"We go to the Greek alphabet," said Frank Lepore, spokesman for the National Hurricane Center.
The twenty-one names reserved each year (the letters q, u, x, y and z are not used) are recycled every six years, minus those retired (such as Hugo and Andrew and, you can bet, Katrina). When a name is retired, the WMO chooses a new name to replace it.
The year with the most documented tropical storms was 1933, when there were 21 in the Atlantic Basin, but this was before hurricanes were routinely named.
Some studies have suggested that global warming may be causing increases in hurricane intensity and frequency, but many scientists are skeptical.
Sunday, Aug. 28 2005 - 1 Day Prior
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8:30 p.m. - An empty Amtrak train leaves New Orleans, with room for thousands of potential evacuees. "We offered the city the opportunity to take evacuees out of harm's way…The city declined," said Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black. The train left New Orleans no passengers on board.
—Susan Glasser, "The Steady Buildup to a City's Chaos," The Washington Post , 11 Sep 2005.
Two weeks later, Nagin denies on NBC's Meet the Press that Amtrak offered their services. "Amtrak never contacted me to make that offer," the mayor tells host Tim Russert. "I have never gotten that call, Tim, and I would love to have had that call. But it never happened."
—"Interview with Mayor Nagin," Meet the Press, NBC, 11 Sep 2005.
Tampa Bay rookie fullback Rick Razzano was suspended four games Friday by the NFL for violating the league's policy on anabolic steroids.
Razzano, a seventh-round draft pick from Mississippi, said through the team that he tested positive for a substance he used in training before joining the Buccaneers. He did not identify the substance.
"I take full responsibility for my mistake and encourage all athletes to be fully aware of all substances which may be prohibited by the NCAA or their respective sports and leagues," Razzano said.
"I apologize to my family, my coaches, teammates, the ownership and Buccaneer fans for the embarrassment and distraction I have caused. Let my experience be a further lesson for all."
Razzano, a third-stringer who plays behind Mike Alstott and Jameel Cook, was inactive for last Sunday's season opener at Minnesota. He will be eligible to return to the active roster on Oct. 10, a day after Tampa Bay plays the New York Jets.
The suspension follows the arrests this week of reserve cornerback Torrie Cox and offensive assistant Jay Gruden, younger brother of Bucs coach Jon Gruden, on drunken driving charges.
Apparently American actress Gwyneth Paltrow doesn't want to live in the country that made her a rich celebrity anymore due to "Bush's anti-environment, pro-war policies." Now I bring this up for two reasons. Firstly, I now have to lump an actress whose work I enjoy (or used to enjoy before today) into a growing category of leftist jackass celebrities whose work I can no longer pay my hard earned money to follow. Again I hold up celebrities like Paltrow and Tim Robbins and compare them to oh say Tom Hanks and Owen Wilson. All are liberal, make no mistake. But two of those would politely disagree with a Republican president's policies (at least in public that is and that's what we're concerned about) while the other two are all too willing to want to move out of the country or throw terms around like "fascist" or "warmonger" or "Nazi" or whatever else their egotistical minds hurl out to inflate their own sense of self worth. Paltrow doesn't want to live in America. Fine, we're better off without her. Think you'd ever hear Tom Hanks say the same thing?
"I think this is an opportunity for me to use my talents to help the people of Pennsylvania," Swann said to ESPN.com in an exclusive interview. "I think we can be much better than we have been in recent years. I believe Pennsylvania needs leadership from outside the box."
The 14-year-old was told she couldn't, and went home distraught that afternoon in October 2003. Praying five times a day is a cornerstone of her Muslim faith.Oh, but the story does not stop there. The story (inadvertantly) shows that this is not isolated but a very concerted effort to push for special Muslim religious rights within the schools.
"If I wasn't allowed to pray my second prayer at school, I couldn't do it at home," she said. "When school finishes, the third prayer begins."
Her family contacted a Muslim advocacy group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which asked the school district to reconsider. Eventually, the district acknowledged it had no policy preventing a student from praying on his or her own during free time, and allowed Yasmeen to use an empty classroom to unfurl her prayer rug, face Mecca and touch her head to the floor in a few moments of worship.
Her case was part of a nationwide grassroots effort by Muslim parents to make public schools more friendly and accommodating to Muslim students. The movement has gained strength since the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.Yep, the movement to allow Muslim prayer in school while still fighting against any Christianity practicing child from praying GREW STRONGER after 9/11. Now, we can argue why but I will postulate that the hate/blame America crowd who think that terrorism is not really "an enemy we can fight" have been aiding & abetting Muslim and Middle-Eastern infiltration. This is not a bad thing except the Left willingly include suspected & known terrorists in this protection. This story is a result of the idea that terrorists get American Constitutional protections.
"The reality for many Muslim students in public schools is very difficult," said Ingrid Mattson, vice president of the Islamic Society of North America. "It's highly stressful."Two things to this. One, all groups of kids do this kind of thing to all other groups of kids. Two, this is what kids do. As long as the kids are not inflicting damage to each other's property or inflicting physical harm then this is just schoolyard banter. Shut up and get over it.
She said her children were sometimes taunted in their Connecticut [a blue state] school district.
"The kids will say 'Hey Osama, do you have a bomb? Are you going to blow us up?"' she said. "My daughter has had people try to pull her head scarf off, or say 'What are you doing with that rag on your head?' But they have also had friends who defended them."
A zero-tolerance policy on harassment of Muslim students was adopted by Florida's Broward County school board in March 2003, just before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Noor Ennab, a fifth-grader who attends the private Muslim Al-Noor School in New York City, said she was driven out of her public school by post-September 11 harassment.So, Noor, did people actually say "You're a terrorist" or is this the result of your paraphrasing your perception? If it is your perception then, well, get a little bit thicker skin would be my advice. If people actually said that to you then your opportunity to denounce the terrorists as evil misrepresentations of your religion was missed. Did you say that you 100% disagree with those terrorists proclamations, methods or targets? I'm guessing not.
"Before that (the 2001 terror attacks) happened, we were treated so kind," she said. "Now it's like, 'You're a terrorist; get out of this country."'
"I don't want to be hated by other people," said Rohani, who attends the Al-Noor School in Brooklyn, New York, and said she was harassed by non-Muslims after 9/11. "I didn't do anything wrong. I would go home to my mom and cry. I started saying, 'No, I'm not Arabic.' But I don't want to deny who I am."Actually, if you did not denounce the evil that is Muslim terrorism then you are doing something wrong in a sense. You are tacitly supporting the terrorists. See, life is about action-reaction. Action: not unequivocally denouncing Muslim terrorists; Reaction: people will not like you.
