Current Affairs Politics

Tell #NYC Mayor Bloomberg he Rocks

Mayor Bloomberg has strongly supported the the Islamic Center being planned near Ground Zero and has also strongly criticized those who have used anti-Islamic rhetoric and justifications for opposing the proposed center. See here for an article re his support: http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/08/03/mayor_bloomberg_on_mosque. I think that this is an important step from the Mayor, who has not always taken sympathetic positions vis a vis his Muslim constituents. He is certainly receiving a lot of criticism and negative feedback for taking this step. As a result, it is important that his office also receive positive feedback from each and every person who agreed…

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Current Affairs

Mayor Mike Make #NYC Proud

NYC.gov. The attack was an act of war – and our first responders defended not only our City but also our country and our Constitution. We do not honor their lives by denying the very Constitutional rights they died protecting. We honor their lives by defending those rights – and the freedoms that the terrorists attacked.

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Current Affairs Politics

A Terror Trials Pep Talk

There are two reasons I am utterly baffled by the possible reversal of the decision to try terrorists in federal court. First, it comes at a time when efforts to find, kill, and capture terrorists are having significant success. The key, it turns out, is to be dogged and professional, rather than going to “the dark side.” And that’s the other puzzling thing — that arguments based on fear-mongering and emphasizing the appearance of toughness still carry weight long after they were shown to do more harm than good. … We’ve got this totally backwards; this is a chance for…

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Current Affairs

Event: IN OUR OWN VOICE: WOMEN VETERANS TELL THEIR STORIES

Intersections Internationals’ Veteran-Civilian Dialogue program is pleased to host The Psychotherapy and Spirituality Institute’s theater project, “In Our Own Voice: Women Veterans Tell Their Stories.” This event will be devoted to the stories of women veterans––through monologues, video interviews, and in conversation with women veterans present at the event. The Veteran-Civilian Dialogue facilitates conversations between veterans and civilians about war’s effects on us all. Men and women, veteran and civilian, all are welcome! “In Our Own Voice: Women Veterans Tell Their Stories” takes place March 26, 6:30-8:30 p.m., at Intersections International, 274 Fifth Avenue in New York City (between 29th…

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Current Affairs

E.E.O.C. Sees Bias in Almontaser Ouster at Khalil Gibran School – NYTimes.com

Acting on a complaint filed last year by the principal, Debbie Almontaser, the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found that the department “succumbed to the very bias that creation of the school was intended to dispel and a small segment of the public succeeded in imposing its prejudices on D.O.E. as an employer,” according to a letter issued by the commission on Tuesday. E.E.O.C. Sees Bias in Almontaser Ouster at Khalil Gibran School – NYTimes.com.

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Current Affairs

‘My daughter’s on the no-fly list’ wr…

‘My daughter’s on the no-fly list’ writes Chris Kelly. She’s 12 years old. So I should hate the No Fly List. Besides the personal inconvenience, it runs counter to a solid third of the Bill of Rights. But I’m conflicted. Because I have a pretty good idea why my daughter’s on the list. It’s because she has the same name as this guy: In 1993 this IRA thug walked into a fish shop in Belfast with a bomb that went off prematurely (of course) injuring 57 people, including a 79-year-old woman and two two-year-old boys. It also killed ten people,…

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Current Affairs

The Achievements of al Qaeda: Muslim World, Take Note

A suicide bomber some years back attacked a hotel in Amman, Jordan, killing among others Moustapha Akkad, producer of The Message — one of the noblest attempts to convey Islam as a faith of good and to elevate and publicize the reputation and character of Muhammad, peace be upon him. Yeah, that’s right: al-Qaeda killed Akkad. His daughter was also martyred during that attack. What has Umar Farouk my-last-name-is-haram Abdul-Muttallab accomplished or advanced? [From The Achievements of al Qaeda: Muslim World, Take Note]

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Current Affairs

Why The Heart And The Kidneys? – The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan #torture

Why The Heart And The Kidneys? – The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan . Eric Holder, meanwhile, seems to act as if his job is to ignore evidence of hideous criminality in the government, rather than to prosecute it. The best explanation is that he is biding his time until the administration has more achievements under its belt. But delay itself is a violation of Geneva. As if those Conventions counted for anything any more.

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Current Affairs

Lipstick On A War Criminal – The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan #torture

Lipstick On A War Criminal – The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan . The entire point of the Geneva Conventions and the Reagan-signed UN Convention and domestic law and centuries of precedent was never to get anywhere close to torture. The broadness of the ban was designed to stop anyone in government from doing anything like what Yoo proposed and Cheney implemented.

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