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Live from the White House South Lawn.

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It’s going to be awfully hard to find a loonier right wing rant than this one, as Americans for Legal Immigration PAC president William Gheen goes on the whacked-out Alex Jones show and concocts a freakish conspiracy theory (on the spot!) that President Obama is bringing in Central American children, giving them “Obamaphones” and “Obamacare” and paying for their housing and food, so they’ll act as a private army (just like “African child slave soldiers”) and start confiscating all the true patriotic Americans’ guns.

A great picture of the completely deranged mindset driving the anti-immigration fever of the right wing. These people are not well.

Over the weekend, President Obama issued the following press release on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, at the close of Ramadan:

As Muslims throughout the United States and around the world celebrate Eid-al-Fitr, Michelle and I extend our warmest wishes to them and their families. This last month has been a time of fasting, reflection, spiritual renewal, and service to the less fortunate. While Eid marks the completion of Ramadan, it also celebrates the common values that unite us in our humanity and reinforces the obligations that people of all faiths have to each other, especially those impacted by poverty, conflict, and disease.

In the United States, Eid also reminds us of the many achievements and contributions of Muslim Americans to building the very fabric of our nation and strengthening the core of our democracy. That is why we stand with people of all faiths, here at home and around the world, to protect and advance their rights to prosper, and we welcome their commitment to giving back to their communities.

On behalf of the Administration, we wish Muslims in the United States and around the world a blessed and joyous celebration. Eid Mubarak.

Here’s how breitbart.com reported it:

On Sunday, President Obama and First Lady Michelle released a statement thanking Muslim Americans for their many “achievements and contributions… to building the very fabric of our nation and strengthening the core of our democracy.”
The comments were made to mark the celebration of Eid-al-Fitr, a time of spiritual renewal for Muslims which comes at the end of the month-long fast of Ramadan. The Obamas said in their statement that Eid “celebrates the common values that unite us in our humanity” and “welcomed their commitment to giving back to their communities.” The International Business Times reports that during Eid, Muslims join in Islamic prayer, while saying “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is Great,” and feasting.

The statement further reads that the administration “wishes Muslims in the United States and around the world a blessed and joyous celebration.” The letter ended with salutation of “Eid Mubarak,” which roughly means “blessed celebration.”

The headline was enough to unleash the bigot brigade:

Contributions??? You mean like INSULTING everyone by putting a mosque at GROUND ZERO?

How about thanking Christians and Jews for THEIR contributions to this country - you know, like FOUNDING it? Ah, that’s right…that would offend our Jihadist-in-Chief!

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Some of the muslim “contributions” are:
1. 9-11.
2. Benghazi.
3. The Boston Marathon.
4. Nidal Hasan.
5. Muhammad & Malvo.
6. Daniel Pearl.
7. Lee Rigby (I know he was British).
Feel free to add a few of your own muslim “contributions” to the US.

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It’s not Muslims with the significant intellectual contributions, it is the Persians with a few things to brag about. Persians are responsible for the majority of all notable Islamic achievements in literature, art, government, science, theology, education, philosophy, and architecture.

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Well, that and all of the technology and science they got from the Byzantines and the Ptolemaic Greeks in Egypt. It became Muslim when they were forced to become Muslims or have their heads cut off.

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inquisition mo-ham-head style

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why would Muslims follow a guy that’s called Mo Ham head? I thought they hated pork.

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All of our bullets should be coated in bacon fat.

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Exactly! People should read the Koran and a little history. They would realize what BS the Islamic “contributions” to the world are in fact

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Islam was created by a lunatic pedophile

And on and on it goes, down the intellectual toilet that is breitbart.com, and American movement conservatism.

On a somewhat related note is the following plea:

Democrats, Liberals, Progressives, Moderates, and the politically apathetic - if you stay home in November like you did in 2010, people who reflect the above mentality will be elected - chronically misinformed, deranged, and demented. I know many of you aren’t thrilled with Democrats and President Obama, and there is good reason to feel that way. But if you express your dismay by sitting this election out, our government could be in the hands of dangerously unstable people.

I will step off the soap box now.

More: Obama: Muslims Built ‘The Very Fabric of Our Nation’

Hat tip: Alan Colmes

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From the excellent album The Ride, here’s another great song by East LA’s Los Lobos.

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Today on his radio show, Glenn Beck showed off those powerful reasoning faculties for which he’s famous, with a theory that President Obama is actually inviting all this crazy talk about impeachment in order to pass immigration reform. How does impeachment talk help pass immigration reform? He leaves that as a thought exercise for you, dear viewer.

But Beck does articulate a clear reason why Obama is now moving on to the impeachment thing — because “the birther thing is over, and the black thing is over.”

Yes, the raving freakazoid nut sandwich comes through again.

Have you noticed that for all the promotion and hype and promises, there hasn’t been a lot of… journalism happening at Pierre Omidyar’s very expensive journalism project, First Look? Not to mention the weeks that often go by before lonely articles appear at Greenwald’s branch, The Intercept?

Well, Pierre would like you to know it’s no big deal, because it’s probably going to take years before they figure out what they’re actually doing over there. Yes, years.

I expect we’ll be in this planning, startup and experimental mode for at least the next few years as we explore how to become integrated into people’s lives in meaningful ways. During that time, we’re going to continually test new ideas and approaches to use technology and journalism to achieve our mission.

A quarter of a billion dollars in funding and no need for advertising income sure takes the pressure off. No rush, folks. I’m sure it will be incredibly awesome some time around 2018.

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Voter apathy is a huge problem in the United States, and this year it’s an especially critical issue; the Republican Party has gone completely off the rails into non-stop obstructionism, with an agenda set by the reactionary religious right and the deeply destructive far right forces of the Tea Party.

I confess I don’t have any great ideas on how to overcome the apathy problem, but here’s one small thing I can do — present Michelle Obama’s video plea to get out the vote in 2014.

You may not think things can get much worse in our broken political system, but if the GOP gains control of the Senate this year all bets are off.

The religious right continues losing their reactionary culture war, as a federal appeals court strikes down Virginia’s ban on marriage equality.

And this ruling will also affect conservative bans on same-sex marriage in West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, so it’s a significant defeat for the forces of atavism.

“We recognize that same-sex marriage makes some people deeply uncomfortable. However, inertia and apprehension are not legitimate bases for denying same-sex couples due process and equal protection of the laws,” the divided three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit in Richmond concluded.

[…]

The 4th Circuit opinion also will affect marriage laws in other states within its jurisdiction, including West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Only Maryland has legalized same-sex marriage.

Israel and Hamas are trading accusations today; the informal cease-fire collapsed when explosions hit a Palestinian refugee camp playground and an area near Gaza City’s main hospital. Both sides are blaming the other for the blasts; Israel says they were caused by misfired Hamas rockets, while Hamas blames Israeli shelling.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that at least 10 children were killed as they played in a park in the Shati refugee camp on the western edge of Gaza City. The Palestinian agency attributed the explosions to Israeli missiles.

But Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military, denied that Israel had carried out any attacks at Shati or near the main Gaza City hospital, Shifa, saying those blasts “have absolutely nothing to do with us.” He suggested that the explosions had been caused by militant rockets aimed at Israel that had gone astray.

The missile or rocket explosion near Shifa hit an outside wall of the compound and caused damage but no casualties. Plainclothes security officers barred reporters from entering the compound to get close to where the rocket or missile fell.