Keep Hope Alive!

Shariah at the Kumback Café – NYTimes.com. Shariah is the new hot-button wedge issue, as radicalizing as abortion or gay marriage, seized on by Republicans to mobilize conservative Americans against the supposed “stealth jihad” of Muslims in the United States and against a Democratic president portrayed as oblivious to — or complicit with — the threat. Not since 9/11 has Islamophobia been at such a pitch in the United States.

I was recently called to task, and rightly so, for not being specific about failed DOJ cases, and few come to mind: Yaser Hamdi (I seem to recall that a US citizen cannot be coerced by the gov’t into giving up his citizenship, and it strikes me that’s what happened here…. Detroit Sleeper Cell Brandon Mayfield (2, 3) James Yee (2) (Yes, I know this isn’t a DOJ case, but I’m working to establish a larger pattern in the gov’t in general) Terrorism Cases That Weren’t (but it doesn’t mean they weren’t guilty of something) Lackawanna Six (2, 3) Portland Seven José Padilla’s case is still pending, but I don’t know how much traction the gov’t will get with him.

The number of US servicemen killed in 2004 exceeds the number killed in 2003. We are fast closing in on a 1000 servicemen killed since the beginning of operations in Iraq. Almost all will have died after President Bush declared “Mission Accomplished.”