Islamophobia in America: Nine Years On from 9-11.Cross post from Tami Peterson

Cross post from Tami :

I was commissioned to write this article for Counterfire but it will not be published there. This was after an edited version came back to me with important bits removed, specifically the section which notes the view that 9-11 was considered on the left by some as something that was not to be condemned and by some actually as an "anti-capitalist" act. I thought it was important to include this as it helped to shape my understanding of the event and reaction to it politically. Further, I was told that because I mentioned that the US idea of freedom of religion was losing its importance that I was being "patriotic" and "nostalgic". After responding that I had been commissioned to write this article with the full knowledge that I am not of the same political persuasion of the editors and that I would not allow the article to be printed edited in such a way, I was sent the following response: "Sorry about your decision... Obviously we won't run the article. I should clarify that Counterfire is the website of a particular membership organisation (also called Counterfire), which stands in a particular political tradition. We will sometimes publish writing by people outside that tradition, but nonethless it isn't meant to be a broad, pluralist site. Sorry about any misunderstanding over this."

I will let readers judge for themselves but certainly won't be writing for Counterfire again.

Islamophobia in America: Nine Years On from 9-11

In August of 2001 I got a job in lower Manhattan with a financial software company. I remember the awe I felt having moved to the Big Apple, the energy, the sheer excitement of living in the hustle and bustle of the if-you-can-make-it-there-you-can-make-it-anywhere New York. NYC is also a gathering place of sorts for those in the States who have grown up elsewhere. Huge numbers of artists, bohemians, queers, activists and liberal minded people move there every year, mixing with the multicultural beauty of the city from Queens to Manhattan to the Bronx and Brooklyn. Yet this is far too pretty a picture of NYC which carries such charm precisely because it is a city that is at the same time dangerous, human, alive, sordid and real.

I lived in Brooklyn with a native NYer, a Latino whose mother was Ecuadoran and father Puerto Rican. I remember feeling distinctly on top of the world in a city that I adored, a far cry from my upbringing as a Mormon in conservative Utah where knowing anyone who was non-Mormon or non-white was rather unique.

This romanticism of New York was short lived as the whole world changed on the 11th of September 2001. When one lives through such a dramatic event, it is difficult to separate the intimately personal horror one experienced with the dramatic political event itself. My experience was terrifying and I still find it incredibly difficult to talk about. I saw people falling to their deaths, heard horrific noises, saw horrendous things and was diagnosed, along with 20% of NYers who were in the vicinity, with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which unexpectedly manifested itself in me fully after the 7th of July, 2005 bombings in London. I am currently on the World Trade Center Health Registry along with 50,000 others who were there on the day so that they can monitor long term health effects of the event.

Nine years on, the images, the stories, the horror and the terror seem almost strangely blasé. Every year the photos reappear with some new political analysis whether Judith Butler in her Precarious Life, Slavoj Zizek in First As Tragedy, Then as Farce or Noam Chomsky in his 9-11. The left has rightly been determined to utilise and try to understand 9-11 for its political implications, meaning and ongoing relevance to politics.

Having moved to Britain in 2004 I was confronted with a variety of analyses of the event with which I was previously unfamiliar. Chief amongst these was the claim that 9-11 was not to be condemned because this would imply that US imperialism and Islamic terrorism were equal threats. In addition others had claimed that whether one liked it or not, this was an “anti-capitalist” act and therefore in some way progressive. What these views failed to fully understand was that far from being “anti-capitalist” the attacks helped to prop up the system, were used as a justification for war and undoubtedly prolonged the life of a Bush administration which was profoundly unpopular in the days before the attack. (And for the record I despise the so-called “9-11 Truthers” who spend more time on ridiculous conspiracy theories than having any real concern for the victims or those still dying from being first responders while breathing in the toxic dust.) The capitalist system is good at using reactionary events to its advantage and this has been borne out in a variety of ways as the attacks continue to be used to justify the deadly war in Afghanistan to the continued presence in Iraq to innumerable misuses of state terror from Russia to Israel to China.

This is further evidenced by the reactionary response to 9-11 that is feeding the current wave of Islamophobia in the United States. This is a tragedy lived twice over; yet one would be hard pressed to see the latest events as mere farce. Nearly sixty Muslims lost their lives in the attacks on 9-11, yet this alone is not reason enough to oppose the increasing Islamophobia in the US. On the24th of August, 21 year-old Michael Enright hailed a taxi near 24th street in Manhattan. He asked the 43 year-old Bangladeshi immigrant Ahmed Sharif “Are you a Muslim?” and when Sharif said “Yes” he pulled out a knife, cutting Ahmed’s throat, face and forearms. Luckily Sharif lived and Enright is facing 25 years in prison.

It is the reactionary politics of movements like the Tea Party that feed off of the victims of 9-11 to fuel hatred, racism and Islamophobia using ignorance, exaggeration and fear. Do a simple search on Facebook for “Ground Zero Mosque” and it becomes clear that the misinformation about Park51, a Muslim Community Centre which includes a prayer room, which is NOT being built on ground zero but a number of blocks away, is as misinformed as it is hateful. There are claims that President Obama is allowing a “victory monument” for terrorists at Ground Zero, that a “super mosque” is being built at Ground Zero, that Muslims are celebrating the triumph of their “hateful religion” due to “liberal communists, socialists and fascists” like Obama (yes, I am not sure how one can be all three of those either).

Lost is the American ideal that I and most others were taught from their youngest days, that we were a country founded because of the need for religious freedom, that our forefathers fought and died for that right and that immigration and the acceptance of others is at the very heart of what the United States is all about. Whether one chooses to believe this about the US, the fact that this once staple of teaching young school children across the country in conservative and liberal areas alike is fast being replaced by a fierce hatred of the “other” whether it be Mexican immigrants in Arizona or Muslim cab drivers in New York City, is a phenomena worth watching closely. It cuts across the very core of the country and reveals how the United States now sees itself; increasingly isolated, superior and always right. Lost is any kind of humility, a respect for knowledge and wisdom and promoted is an attack on all things secular and non-Christian.

It is this cynical use of a tragic event to subvert some of the most cherished values of the United States, a tragic event which occurred in one of the most alive, beautiful and multicultural cities, that is perhaps most galling. I can still remember the feeling I had when visiting my native Salt Lake City, Utah and seeing the innumerable bumper stickers vowing to never forget alongside another calling for supporting the war in Iraq. “What the hell do you know about it? What the hell do you know about beautiful, multicultural New York and those that died? Who are you to call for others to be killed for something you know nothing about?” I remember thinking.

Analysis is one thing, using such a tragedy to promote war and state terror is quite another. Yet this has been done since mere days after the attacks with George W. Bush standing on the smoldering pile at Ground Zero yelling into a megaphone about how “the people who did this” were going to pay. For many he meant Al-Qaida and Osama Bin Laden, yet nine years on it would appear that it is innocent Muslims that are the ones that are still paying for the horror of that day. The reality is that the Muslim victims of 9-11 far exceed the sixty from the day itself, they include the hundreds of thousands killed in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine. They include Muslims tortured and killed in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. They include Muslim rescue workers who rushed to the scene on the day and who along with their brothers and sisters have been snubbed by a government which has refused to support those still sick and dying from the toxic smoke and dust. They include victims of Islamophobic hate crimes across the world and Muslim victims of state terror in the name of “security” and “freedom”.

The victims of 9-11 are continuing to die around the world every day because the victims of 9-11 are also the victims of the responses to 9-11. Yet the oldest victim is not a person at all but an idea. It is the idea that America is a country where people of all faiths are respected and welcome, an idea which is enshrined in the US Constitution. It is a tragic loss from which the United States will find it very difficult to recover

Chile, the other 9/11

Sarah Palin a hypocrite, hell yeah!

Ahh, I have missed Sarah Palin, with her gaffes, cringe worthy interviews and good old home grown ignorance . So here is her latest:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin -- who has gone to great lengths to hype the supposed dangers of a big government takeover of American health care -- admitted over the weekend that she used to get her treatment in Canada's single-payer system.

"We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada," Palin said in her first Canadian appearance since stepping down as governor of Alaska. "And I think now, isn't that ironic?"

The irony, one guesses, is that Palin now views Canada's health care system as revolting: with its government-run administration and 'death-panel'-like rationing.

Hypocrisy more like .

Hat Tip Charlie Pottins on Facebook.

Republican into spanking resigns

Ooh I love it when those hypocritical family values types get caught out. Yep, another Republican with a do as I say not as I do attitude and this one is into spanking .

Yep, he has been a very bad boy :

In a now-eerily-familiar scenario, a rising star of the party's conservative wing has been forced to resign – amid allegations that he fails to practise the lifestyle he so dutifully preaches.

Mike Duvall, a California state assemblyman who has strongly championed traditional values, quit after a TV station broadcast footage of him telling colleagues about his extra-marital trysts with not one, but two, female lobbyists.

The graphic account, heavily bleeped-out in evening news bulletins, saw 54-year-old Duvall talk a colleague through his bondage sessions with the women, one of whom is 18 years his junior.

Not realising that a microphone at his desk was switched on, the longstanding crusader for the family decided to pass time in a Sacramento debating chamber by recalling a liaison that had occurred the previous day.

Yeah good old fashioned family values. Boast with the good old boys , yet lie and lecture the rest of us.

"So, I am getting into spanking her," he told a male colleague. "Yeah, I like it. I like spanking her. She goes, 'I know you like spanking me.' I said, 'Yeah! Because you're such a bad girl!'"

Duvall is married with two children and sat on the Assembly's ethics committee. In another part of the conversation he admitted failing to wear a condom during the hotel room encounter.

"She wears little eye-patch underwear," he added. "Her birthday was Monday... I said, 'now, you're getting old. I am going to have to trade you in.' She is 18 years younger than me."

No condom, stupid as well.

Still even after the tape recorded evidence he still seemed to think the public would be gullible :

Yesterday, he attempted to repair his reputation, optimistically claiming on his website: "I want to make it clear that my decision to resign is in no way an admission that I had an affair or affairs. My offense was engaging in inappropriate story-telling and I regret my language and choice of words."

According to Wikipedia :

Prior to being elected to the City Council, Duvall served as President of the Yorba Linda Chamber of Commerce, as chairman of the Yorba Linda General Plan Steering Committee, and as co-chair of "Safe Streets Are for Everyone." Chapman University awarded Duvall the Ethics in America Award in 2000 for his "demonstration of the highest standards of ethical integrity" while a member of the Chamber team. As legislator, Duvall has "blasted" efforts to promote gay marriage. The conservative Capitol Resource Institute gave him a 100% rating, calling him "a consistent trooper for the conservative causes" who "voted time and time again to protect and preserve family values in California"

As long as its consensual between adults, there is honesty between partners, then I really don't care how politicians get their kicks. Just stop lecturing the rest of us about family values, which seems to consist of lying and appearances , whilst spanking young women !

More US right wing hysteria on Obama's healthcare plans

Via Hakmao, good put down:

George W Bush , goodbye and good riddance

Before we all start dissecting the Obama presidency, lets just pause and enjoy the moment ...

Bush is no longer President !!



Here are a few you tubes ...



Bushisms



The genius behind Bush



And 8 years summed up

Vatican upset

 Well done Obama !

Gay marriage ..yes we can...no we can't

In the amidst of the Obama victory, two of the states that voted for him also backed a move that bans same sex marriage. A blow to equality:


California and two other states voted in Tuesday's elections to ban same-sex marriage, dealing a blow to gays and lesbians in the left-leaning, trend-setting state months after they won their case in state court.

Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council which worked for the passage of the anti-gay marriage measures, said the wins on same-sex marriage bans signaled Obama's mandate is for economic policy, "not one to implement a radical social policy."

"What lost last night was the Republican Party, but it was not a rejection of traditional or moral values, because you have two states that voted for Barack Obama -- Florida and California -- that also passed the marriage amendments," Perkins told Reuters in a telephone interview.

California's Supreme Court had declared same-sex marriage a right in May, unleashing a flood of weddings, but the state's voters changed the Constitution to rescind the right after one of the most expensive ballot campaigns in history.

Florida and Arizona joined California in Tuesday's elections, adding to the list of dozens of states banning same-sex marriages with similar laws.

The good news is :

Meanwhile, in one of the most emotionally-fought U.S. social issues, abortion rights advocates declared victory in two states.

Colorado voters rejected a measure that would have made abortion the legal equivalent of murder by defining human life as beginning at conception.

South Dakota defeated a ban on abortion that, if passed, had been expected to spark a court battle leading to the Supreme Court.

Obama wins , Mel is none to happy

The fear however is that the world now becomes very much less safe for all of us as a result. Those of us who have looked on appalled during this most frightening of presidential elections – at the suspension of reason and its replacement by thuggery -- can only hope that the way this man governs will be very different from the profile provided by his influences, associations and record to date. It’s a faint hope – the enemies of America, freedom and the west will certainly be rejoicing today.

....

western civilisation is losing out to a far-left agenda which has become mainstream, teaching American children to despise the founding values of their country and hijacking discourse by the minority power-grab of victim-culture.

America’s belief in itself as defending individual liberty, truth and justice on behalf of the free world will now be expiated instead as its original sin. Those who have for the past eight years worked to bring down the America that defends and protects life and liberty are today ecstatic. They have stormed the very citadel on Pennsylvania Avenue itself.

I look forward to future columns .

US has its first Black President

As Palin would say...you betcha .

Pic : Bob relaxing now the result is known.

David Broder and the US Elections

Well that should get some stat hits.

Woke from my nap, still sleepy, to find people talking about David Broder in the comments box!!
Was relived to find out it was an American David Broder , not our very own boy wonder, and that the left wasn't obsessing on the other big political event of the year yet again instead of whats going on over the pond:-)

Update

Had a nap. Awake now and catching up.Cats surprisingly lively. I'm not.

Looks like bye bye Republicans.

Pleased to see that Elizabeth Dole has been booted out:

Democrats are picking up another Senate seat from the South: Democrat Kay Hagan has defeated Republican incumbent Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina.
Dole had appeared to be headed to re-election, but she's been hurt by revelations that she's spent little time in North Carolina in the past year.
Dole is the wife of former GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole.

She ran an attack add :

Dole's 30-second ad, which is running on television in North Carolina but has not (understandably) been promoted by the GOP, uses a September fundraiser co-hosted by 40 people, including a representative of the Godless America PAC, to falsely accuse Democrat Kay Hagan of being an atheist herself.

The end of the ad features a picture of Hagan with a female voice yelling "there is no God!" -- the clear implication is that the voice is Hagan's. In fact, the Democratic candidate is a Sunday School teacher and an elder at her Presbyterian church.

Its a shame Hagan didn't say so what ! You say that like its a bad thing.

Dole had more to say on those godless gay people:


Capitalizing on Hagan's opposition to a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in the state, during the campaign, the Dole camp sent out a mailer claiming that Hagan's agenda, with the help of "liberal judges," will be to advance a "radical homosexual agenda," including same-sex marriage, removing "Under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, and forcing the Boy Scouts to accept gay and atheist troop leaders.

Good riddance.

Hagan opposes a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in North Carolina.

Pic : Bob getting a bit fed up with me pointing my camera phone at him when I should be asleep and so should he !

US Elections - late night blogging

I plan to stay up as late as I can and watch the results. I may be doing some blogging over at Liberal Conspiracy, but mainly here.


I am aware that some people think I have a poor grasp of socialist ideas ( I do though have a politics degree, so have a bit of a clue !). Others think this is a lifestyle blog or even that all I offer here is 'tits and fishnets'. Hmmm, perhaps posts about fisting, fucking and fishnets might have sullied my reputation:-)

Pah, this is a serious political blog. Well OK, not always. So I'm not going to be poe faced. In fact I intend to have some assistance from my cats. Tonight I will be in Brighton with them, some JD (the drink not Mr Denham), my laptop , coffee and snacks. I plan to chat with fellow bloggers and play a few moves on facebook scrabble with Jim J and who knows perhaps Mr Pottins , my regular fellow addicts.
Back to the cats. I plan to upload pics of them as the results come in. Well you didn't expect them to type did you. Nope, they are purely decorative.

So live cat blogging on the US Elections...

Pic : Beryl sort of showing an interest .

US Elections - Open Thread

Being a bit of an anorak I like elections ; the facts, figures, analysis and gossip. Yeah sad I know. So come the early hours of Wednesday morning I'll be watching the results of the US Presidential race and some interesting referendums as well.

This evening I'll post some of my thoughts , in the meantime do feel free to comment here.

Pic : my cats who aren't very interested in the US elections.

Talking of prank phone calls ...

"I just love killing those animals. Mmm, mmm, take away life, that is so fun," he said in an exaggerated French accent.

Republicans showing what pleasant tolerant people they are ...not

If only to piss off these bigots, I'll be pleased to see Obama beat McCain:







Hat tip to Hakmao and Will.

Sarah Palin found to have abused her powers

Gosh darn it :

The running mate of US Republican presidential candidate John McCain has been found guilty of an abuse of power, according to a state legislature probe.

Alaska's Governor Sarah Palin was accused of sacking a senior state official over a family feud.

"I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110 (a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act," investigator Steve Branchflower concluded in the panel's 263-page report.

Palin spoof

A bit of light entertainment for a sunday . I found this spoof of the Couric interview via Jim J on facebook:

Wall Street shares plunge, House of Representatives vote no to bail out package and the Republicans hope a shotgun wedding can boost their fortunes

The House of Representatives has voted against the bail out of Wall Street :



The lower house of the US Congress has voted down a $700bn (£380bn) plan aimed at bailing out Wall Street.

The rescue plan, a result of tense talks between the government and lawmakers, was rejected by 228 to 205 votes in the House of Representatives.

About two-thirds of Republican lawmakers refused to back the rescue package, as well as 95 Democrats.

Shares on Wall Street plunged within seconds of the announcement, after earlier falls on global markets.

A White House spokesman said that President George W Bush was "very disappointed" by the result.

He would meet members of his team in the coming days to "determine next steps", spokesman Tony Fratto said.

The vote followed a day of turmoil in the financial sector.

This of course is all going on bang in the middle of the US Presidential elections. Never mind, McCain has a plan :

In an election campaign notable for its surprises, Sarah Palin, the Republican vice- presidential candidate, may be about to spring a new one — the wedding of her pregnant teenage daughter to her ice-hockey-playing fiancé before the November 4 election.

Inside John McCain’s campaign the expectation is growing that there will be a popularity boosting pre-election wedding in Alaska between Bristol Palin, 17, and Levi Johnston, 18, her schoolmate and father of her baby. “It would be fantastic,” said a McCain insider. “You would have every TV camera there. The entire country would be watching. It would shut down the race for a week.”

There is already some urgency to the wedding as Bristol, who is six months pregnant, may not want to walk down the aisle too close to her date of delivery.

The selection of Palin, 44, the moose-hunting governor of Alaska, as his running mate was one of McCain’s biggest gambles. It paid off handsomely at first, but she could benefit from a fresh injection of homespun authenticity, the hallmark of her style, provided by her daughter’s wedding after appearing out of depth away from her home state.

McCain is expected to have a front-row seat at Bristol’s wedding and to benefit from the outpouring of goodwill that it could bring. “What’s the downside?” a source inside the McCain campaign said. “It would be wonderful. I don’t know that there has ever been a pre-election wedding before."

Yep, that's a real clincher; The shotgun wedding complete with the ice hockey redneck who didn't want kids and Bristol Palin,the shining example of how well a abstinence based sex education works , doing her duty to help mom get elected.

I mean even some on the right are commenting how badly Sarah Palin is handling interviews :

The conservative commentator Kathleen Parker, an early admirer, shocked McCain supporters late last week by calling on Palin to withdraw. “My cringe reflex is exhausted,” she wrote in National Review Online, a conservative journal. “Palin’s recent interviews . . . all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out of Her League.”

California Dreaming of Beating the Bigots

Assorted conservatives and homophobes are tryng to force their pathetic fear of same-sex attraction on the entire population of California by pushing a vote on Proposition 8.

Amusingly, while the bigots named their proposal The California Marriage Protection Amendment, California Attorney General Jerry Brown renamed it the rather more accurate 'Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry Act'.

The amendment seeks to legally restrict marriage to a link-up between a man and a woman. While it is probably no great surprise that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, California's Roman Catholic bishops plus assorted other Bible-bashers are promoting reactionary legislation, this particular move is significant in that it is the first attempt to get rid of legal gay marriage in a place where it already exists.

If you would like a taste of its supporters' views, try this letter, which compares Prop 8's opponents to Nazis and speculates that its defeat will be followed by the legalisation of man-sheep marriages (no doubt the sinister aim of woolly liberals).

Lining up to oppose homophobia are the California Labor Federation, Ellen DeGeneres of course, Steven Spielberg, and San Francisco's Jewish community. Good on 'em.

And the politicians? Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has previously opposed same-sex marriage legislation, but now opposes Prop 8 because he reckons that once a right is granted it should not be taken away. John McCain supports Proposition 8. But while Barack Obama opposes it, that is not stopping him campaigning alongside someone who writes in support of it.