This gives new meaning to the Bush administration as the gang that couldn't shoot straight. Cheney accidentally shoots hunting companion: CNN Or perhaps Cheney was just trying to cover his tracks over adminstration leaks and connections with Abramoff. Or perhaps it's just that he is an old fart and needs an eye exam.
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Cheney, hunting, accident, shooting, guns, Bush, Administration, White, House, America, USA
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Two Excellent Sources For Islamic Studies
Here are two excellent sites I found while researching today's topics on Islam.
A daily blog of news from the Middle East:
Webby nominated (2002) website of Dr. Alan Godlas, Professor, University of Georgia.
Note that the vast majority of religion sites on the Web are established by committed believers. Although this presents certain problems (one of which is the variable quality of the material), its virtue is that the discourse of believers is directly accessible to students of religion. The articles linked on this site have been written both by Muslim and non-Muslim scholars as well as informed believers. Of course, the views expressed in the links connected to this site are not necessarily the views of Dr. Godlas or the University of Georgia.
Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Islam, Middle, East, Muslim, Koran, Blog, Website, Internet, WWW, University,
A daily blog of news from the Middle East:
Informed Comment
Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion
Juan Cole is Professor of History at the University of Michigan
An Academic website:
Webby nominated (2002) website of Dr. Alan Godlas, Professor, University of Georgia.
Note that the vast majority of religion sites on the Web are established by committed believers. Although this presents certain problems (one of which is the variable quality of the material), its virtue is that the discourse of believers is directly accessible to students of religion. The articles linked on this site have been written both by Muslim and non-Muslim scholars as well as informed believers. Of course, the views expressed in the links connected to this site are not necessarily the views of Dr. Godlas or the University of Georgia.
Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Islam, Middle, East, Muslim, Koran, Blog, Website, Internet, WWW, University,
My Final Comment on the Cartoon Controversy
Mobilize the masses in protest against a supposed insult to your Great Leader and distract them from the lack of democracy and need for reform at home. This then has been what the mobilization of Muslims world wide really has been about.
It was the cynical use of stale old cartoons that were eight months old, along with some suitable fakes, and the stupidity of the US Israel reaction to the election of Hamas and you have the gas and match to create a conflagaration that we have seen.Blasphemy is in the Eye of the Beholder
The not so hidden hand of the Saudi's and other feudalistic regimes in the Middle East have of course encouraged these outrages using their religious arm of Wahabism and Shiaism.
It is an attack on secularism, democracy and reform. The appeal to the reactionary elements of Islam who fear living in a secular democracy, say like Lebanon, where theirs is NOT the state religion and state model of governance is the subtext of the global anti-cartoon protests. The protests have been a way of channeling genuine dissent against high levels of unemployment, poverty, underemployment, lack of democratic reforms, etc. etc. to the end cause of Islamic Fascism.
It was not about the cartoons it never was. It is about whether the Muslim dominated countries will move from authoritarian states and join the age of enlightenment three hundred years later.
The fallacy is that Islamic politics and the modern Islamicist movement are somehow different some how more Muslim, ancient, and the established politics of the Middle East. This simply denies the historical reality that the enlightenment is older than most of these Modern Islamic movements, none of which existed until the fall of the last great secular Muslim Empire, the Turkish Ottomans.
Modern Islamism is reactionary and fascist. It is not and has never been enlightened. It is the reactionary child of British, American and French Imperialism in the region and their artificial division of the Middle East into competing national capitals for the benefit of the Oil Cartels.
The Enemy of my enemy is not my friend.
The secular nationalist and communist movements of the Cold War were defeated by the American promotion of reactionary authoritarian political regimes like the Shah of Iran.
This is the key to the modern Muslim facist movement, it all began with the Shah and the fall of his regime. The ideals of Wahhabism of the Saudis then was used to mobilize an armed struggle in Afghanistan against the Russian client state, with the aid and funding of the CIA.
In Afghanistan the Russian supported government andits regimes in the region of all the Stans were more progressive and secular indeed modern than what has replaced it. And this too was a result of American geopolitical Cold War politics.
Following the Afghanistan war, the U.S. decided to provoke and promote a war with Iran using its client state; Saddam Hussien's Iraq.
Former agents celebrate 50th anniversary of CIA coup in Iran
It was the cynical use of stale old cartoons that were eight months old, along with some suitable fakes, and the stupidity of the US Israel reaction to the election of Hamas and you have the gas and match to create a conflagaration that we have seen.Blasphemy is in the Eye of the Beholder
The not so hidden hand of the Saudi's and other feudalistic regimes in the Middle East have of course encouraged these outrages using their religious arm of Wahabism and Shiaism.
It is an attack on secularism, democracy and reform. The appeal to the reactionary elements of Islam who fear living in a secular democracy, say like Lebanon, where theirs is NOT the state religion and state model of governance is the subtext of the global anti-cartoon protests. The protests have been a way of channeling genuine dissent against high levels of unemployment, poverty, underemployment, lack of democratic reforms, etc. etc. to the end cause of Islamic Fascism.
It was not about the cartoons it never was. It is about whether the Muslim dominated countries will move from authoritarian states and join the age of enlightenment three hundred years later.
The fallacy is that Islamic politics and the modern Islamicist movement are somehow different some how more Muslim, ancient, and the established politics of the Middle East. This simply denies the historical reality that the enlightenment is older than most of these Modern Islamic movements, none of which existed until the fall of the last great secular Muslim Empire, the Turkish Ottomans.
Modern Islamism is reactionary and fascist. It is not and has never been enlightened. It is the reactionary child of British, American and French Imperialism in the region and their artificial division of the Middle East into competing national capitals for the benefit of the Oil Cartels.
The Enemy of my enemy is not my friend.
Iraq and Al Qaeda, America and the KKK by Michael Wolfe (Beliefnet.com; June 28, 2004)
The British invented Iraq 80 years ago at a treaty table in Versailles. They installed a puppet Arab king, and instructed Harry St. John Philby to run the place and keep the books. There were Iraqis alive then as small children who are still living in Iraq today. Iraq has enough of its own history to shed light on present experience for its people.
We Americans have a history, too. It includes the several unpleasant similarities between Al Qaeda and the Ku Klux Klan and, in a later chapter, our own present-day terrorist underground distantly modeled on Jesse James, the late, still popular Tim McVeigh presiding.
The secular nationalist and communist movements of the Cold War were defeated by the American promotion of reactionary authoritarian political regimes like the Shah of Iran.
An Anti-Democracy Foreign Policy: Iran
Secrets of History: The CIA in Iran - Empire? - Global Policy Forum
This is the key to the modern Muslim facist movement, it all began with the Shah and the fall of his regime. The ideals of Wahhabism of the Saudis then was used to mobilize an armed struggle in Afghanistan against the Russian client state, with the aid and funding of the CIA.
The Wall Street Journal and The Workers Vanguard Agree: Both Capitalists and Communists Conclude Afghanistan Better Off Under Soviets Than Northern Alliance
In Afghanistan the Russian supported government andits regimes in the region of all the Stans were more progressive and secular indeed modern than what has replaced it. And this too was a result of American geopolitical Cold War politics.
Following the Afghanistan war, the U.S. decided to provoke and promote a war with Iran using its client state; Saddam Hussien's Iraq.
Former agents celebrate 50th anniversary of CIA coup in Iran
 |
| Donald Rumsfeld shakes hands with Saddam Hussein on an Iraq trip designed to restore diplomatic relations between the two countries. The photo was taken after the Halabja massacre in which Saddam "used chemical weapons on his own people." |
Tucker and the other agents did not stick around to hear about how the rise of Saddam Hussein was made possible by weapons and funding from the US to counterbalance the fundamentalist Islamic government of Iran, which, itself, was a byproduct of the CIA coup 26 years earlier.