ATLmalcontent

tomorrow's smear today

Now he's in a dashiki -- heaven forfend!

Instead of dodging the whispering campaign (started by the Clinton campaign and certain to continue through November), Obama and his supporters should confront the ignorance of the smear merchants. That's why I'm posting this pic.

Dashikis have nothing to do with Islam; they're commonly worn in West Africa -- by Christians, Muslims, tourists from Luxembourg ...

Notice the undercurrent of racism on sites such as the one linked above. If Obama was wearing, say, a Russian Orthodox robe, would anyone raise a peep?

"it's your fault i'm violent"

If a far-right Dutch politician provokes radical Islamists, is he to blame for their violent reaction? I can't believe the question's even being asked, but some Europeans will go to great lengths to excuse fanatical behavior.

Meanwhile, an instructional CD that references "The Three Little Pigs" has been banned from a British government-sponsored awards show because it might offend Muslims. Hard to figure what's more ridiculous here: The banning of the CD, or the concept of a government-sponsored awards show.

McKinney '08

Anti-Semitic whack job Cynthia McKinney has launched her bid for the Green Party's nomination in 2008, declaring "the time for confrontation has come." And here I thought she'd work to end the country's partisan divide.

McKinney compared her "revolution" to those in Haiti and Venezuela. Maybe it's me, but I don't think Americans are eager to follow Haiti's lead.

While Cynthia has always been a reliable sideshow, Democrats should be a tad nervous about her candidacy. She might very well mobilize conspiracy-minded fanatics who agree with McKinney that 9/11 was an inside job. In a close election, the freaks could tip the balance.

Shouting fire in a crowded blogosphre

Maybe we shouldn't be that worried about government surveillance after all:

When Osama bin Laden issued his videotaped message to the American people last month, a young jihad enthusiast went online to help spread the word.

“America needs to listen to Shaykh Usaamah very carefully and take his message with great seriousness,” he wrote on his blog. “America is known to be a people of arrogance.”

Unlike Mr. bin Laden, the blogger was not operating from a remote location. It turns out he is a 21-year-old American named Samir Khan who produces his blog from his parents’ home in North Carolina, where he serves as a kind of Western relay station for the multimedia productions of violent Islamic groups.

In recent days, he has featured “glad tidings” from a North African militant leader whose group killed 31 Algerian troops. He posted a scholarly treatise arguing for violent jihad, translated into English. He listed hundreds of links to secret sites from which his readers could obtain the latest blood-drenched insurgent videos from Iraq.

The New York Times article says Khan isn't breaking any laws. Treason away, Mister Khan.

On bombastic twits and sanctomonious prigs

I've been trying to come up with a fresh angle on the latest Ann Coulter controversy, which isn't easy.

I'm certainly not going to act all offended; I'll leave that for Keith Olbermann's nightly finger wag (even when I agree with him, I can't stand his lecturing tone).

It's an endless cycle. Of course Ann Coulter is offensive -- how do you think she sells so many books? Why help her sell more? Shrewd marketers like the conservative dominatrix aren't trying to win friends and influence people. She's merely playing to her base, just as MoveOn.org was with the Petraeus ad. Their goal: to raise money to elect candidates who follow their narrow agenda, just like James Dobson does. They can't function without hyperbole and scare tactics.

You can't ignore them, but you can diminish them. Self-righteous handwringing only gives the fringes a relevancy they don't deserve.

Her right, our responsibility

It seems the Dutch government has grown weary of protecting Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the modern day heroine who has faced death threats for five years after her comments about the mistreatment of women in Holland's Muslim community.

To put it bluntly, many in Holland find her too loud and too public in her condemnation of radical Islam. She doesn't sound conciliatory, in the modern Continental fashion. Compare her description of Islam as "brutal, bigoted, fixated on controlling women" to the German judge who, citing the Quran, in January told a Muslim woman trying to obtain a divorce from her violent husband that she should have "expected" her husband to deploy the corporal punishment his religion approves. Hirsi Ali herself says she is often told, in so many words, that she's "brought her problems on herself." Now the Dutch prime minister openly says he wants her to deal with them alone.

Shameful. Hirsi Ali is currently in the United States under private protection. If the Dutch government abandons her, Christopher Hitchens writes that America should assume responsibility for her safety.

Extremists are all the same

I've argued before that the far left and far right have much in common. Namely, they have difficulty co-existing with those who think differently. Evidence:

Tired of foreign wars and what they consider right-wing courts, the Middlebury Institute wants liberal states like Vermont to be able to secede peacefully.

That sounds just fine to the League of the South, a conservative group that refuses to give up on Southern independence. ...

Separated by hundreds of miles and divergent political philosophies, the Middlebury Institute and the League of the South are hosting a two-day Secessionist Convention starting Wednesday in Chattanooga ...

Harry Watson, director of the Center For the Study of the American South and a history professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said it was a surprise to see The Middlebury Institute conferring with the League of the South, "an organization that's associated with a cause that many of us associate with the preservation of slavery."

He said the unlikely partnering "represents the far left and far right of American politics coming together."

V for Victory

The moderates in Palestine published this cartoon marking the recent anniversary of the terrorist attacks:

Apologies all around

The next time a Republican demands the Democrats apologize for MoveOn.org's disgraceful anti-Petraeus ad, the Democrats should demand the Republicans apologize for Ann Coulter (who routinely rubs shoulders with the GOP elite). Better yet, both parties should distance themselves from these partisan bomb-throwers. Should ... but won't.

Never, ever offend a Muslim (cont'd)

The BBC has dropped plans to show a fictional terror attack in an episode of Casualty to avoid offending Muslims.

The first show of the hospital drama's new series was to have featured a storyline about an explosion caused by Islamic extremists.

Now the bomb will be set off by animal rights campaigners instead.