Saturday, July 31, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Anti-Defamation League: "Ground Zero Mosque" shouldn't be built because bigo...
The Anti-Defamation League has come out against the construction of an Islamic Community Center in Lower Manhattan, to be called the Cordoba House. The Cordoba House is also known as "The Ground Zero Mosque," an appellation bestowed on the project by the fear-mongering bigots who've made it the centerpiece of a campaign of anti-Muslim hysteria.
Opposition to the Cordoba House was limited, initially, to right-wing populist kooks like the editorial board of the New York Post, and their rage-columnist Andrew Peyser. Then it went national, as people who know damn well what they're doing stoked ethnic resentments and encouraged plenty of otherwise decent people to give in to base fears of scary Arabs who want to kill you, all of you, because that is their nature.
The Anti-Defamation League, which exists, in theory, to combat anti-semitism, is now promoting Islamaphobia for no real reason other than, you know, lots of other people seem to dislike this mosque thing.
Here's their shameful, mealy-mouthed statement. It begins with boilerplate about the importance of religious freedom:
We regard freedom of religion as a cornerstone of the American democracy, and that freedom must include the right of all Americans – Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and other faiths – to build community centers and houses of worship.
Unless some right-wing bigots stir up enough of a fuss.
We categorically reject appeals to bigotry on the basis of religion, and condemn those whose opposition to this proposed Islamic Center is a manifestation of such bigotry.
Hah, I don't think you guys know what "categorically reject" and "condemn" mean! For future reference: "condemn" does not mean "join."
However, there are understandably strong passions and keen sensitivities surrounding the World Trade Center site. We are ever mindful of the tragedy which befell our nation there, the pain we all still feel – and especially the anguish of the families and friends of those who were killed on September 11, 2001.
The controversy which has emerged regarding the building of an Islamic Center at this location is counterproductive to the healing process. Therefore, under these unique circumstances, we believe the City of New York would be better served if an alternative location could be found.
In recommending that a different location be found for the Islamic Center, we are mindful that some legitimate questions have been raised about who is providing the funding to build it, and what connections, if any, its leaders might have with groups whose ideologies stand in contradiction to our shared values. These questions deserve a response, and we hope those backing the project will be transparent and forthcoming. But regardless of how they respond, the issue at stake is a broader one.
Proponents of the Islamic Center may have every right to build at this site, and may even have chosen the site to send a positive message about Islam. The bigotry some have expressed in attacking them is unfair, and wrong. But ultimately this is not a question of rights, but a question of what is right. In our judgment, building an Islamic Center in the shadow of the World Trade Center will cause some victims more pain – unnecessarily – and that is not right.
So! They categorically reject bigotry, they recognize that freedom of worship is a cornerstone of American democracy, but these Muslims are probably connected to terrorists and while they have the right to build a house of worship anywhere they wish, they probably shouldn't because it would make Newt Gingrich mad.
What a fucking joke.
(Even after a lengthy, well-funded and publicized campaign to promote Islamophobia and invent reasonable-sounding rationales for it, spearheaded by one New York's major daily newspapers, only 36% of Manhattanites oppose construction of the "Ground Zero Mosque.")
#Meek Attack Ad: `#Greene Can Buy Anything But The Truth' #florida
Yesterday, you saw the landscape Democrats are agonizing about in Florida, where a sitting member of Congress expected to become the Senate nominee but a billionaire outsider is in the lead. This morning, another foot fell, with the release of poll numbers showing a Republican and an ex-Republican dominating the race. So you probably already predicted the next move.
This afternoon, the trailing campaign released a new attack ad.
"Jeff Greene can buy anything except the truth," says the new spot for the Senate campaign of Rep. Kendrick Meek.
Harsh? You bet. So are Greene's attack ads, and so were Meeks earlier ads.
And keep in mind, this is only the preliminary round. Whoever wins this slugfest will have two targets in the fall: no-party Gov. Charlie Crist and Republican Marco Rubio.
CQ-Roll Call rates the general election contest Leans Republican. Check out the ratings for other Senate races with our election map.
Hat tip: TPM
-- Katherine Rizzo
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Dilbert.com - Daily Strip Email
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Wednesday, July 28, 2010
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Tuesday, July 27, 2010
#Fla. tourism official: hold #media 'accountable' #WTF
Startup Country
Ryan Kittleson's "Frong" animation via #BB #wild
Via our new Submitterator submission system comes Ryan Kittleson's wonderfully phantasmagoric animation titled Frong, "in which every frame is a slight modification of the frame before it. It had no overarching direction, just a stream of consciousness channeling the imagery." Ryan says he made an average of one frame per day over four years. (Thanks, Erratic!)
Convergence, if not unity at Netroots Nation--can it spread? #OL
With that said, I was truly surprised at how much convergence of views I witnessed at Netroots Nation. This is a subjective view on my account, of course. But I was impressed that there seemed to be fairly broad agreement--even from Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid--that (a) Democratic governance had not brought about the kind profound change that we had been hoping for, and that (b) the reason for this was that the progressive movement is not yet strong enough to overcome the obstacles it faces.
When the Speaker of the House tells the FDR "make me do it" story (with Frances Perkins in the role usually given to A. Philip Randolph), and then directly encourages people to increase pressure on Congress, there is very tangibly much more unity of purpose than normally appears in our day-to-day struggles.
There are all sorts of differences over how this plays out, of course--as witnessed in our recent debates over trying to understand what motivates Obama. But Mike's point about the need for such speculation to have a positive practical result was very much reflected in the repeated overlap of views that I witnessed. Yes, the mid-terms are going to be tough. And I believe it's important to be clear about why this is: A failure not just to deliver "change we can believe in", but even to actually consider it, much less fight for it. But even more important than that is to keep moving forward in battling against the accumulated power and influence of the right.
This is a battle for the long haul, and we need to understand what that means and act accordingly. As one speaker pointed out, it was 30 years from Goldwater's defeat in 1964 to the GOP takeover of Congress in 1994. We've gone from the nadir of 2002-2004 to the triumphs of 2006 and 2008 in lightening speed by comparison, which is a big part of why those triumphs have not paid off in terms of fundamental change the way that want them to. It takes time to change deep-seated assumptions, habits and calculations--not to mention institutions. It doesn't need to take 30 years. But historically speaking it's hardly surprising that less than half a decade isn't enough.
I am, by nature, on the impatient side of things, even as I write this. I'm not asking anyone to lower their level of expectation. But what I saw at Netroots Nation was the potential power that comes when disappointment is channeled into raising the level of effective and transformative effort, rather than lowering expectations or abandoning the fight altogether.
Arguably the most important, most overlooked aspect of the upcoming elections is the control of state legislatures, who play a crucial role in redistricting for next decades. I'll be writing more about this in the days and weeks ahead. But for now, I'll just say that it's typical of the broader need to focus on institutional forms of power. We can tell if we're making real progress when we stop being obsessively focused on the shiny surface of things, and instead find ourselves naturally at home with the deeper structures that shape the moment-by-moment flow, even if they do not determine the exact nature of moment-by-moment events.
Maybe it was just me. But I don't think so. At Netroots Nation, I saw the signs of that shift taking place. I saw the shape of things to come--if we are wise and patient and persevering enough to "make it so," as Jean-Luc Picard would say.
Ansel Adams Photographs Bought at Garage Sale Worth $200 Million [Photography]
Eric Schroeck: In Wash. Times op-ed, Blankley defends Breitbart over Sherrod...
In a July 26 Washington Times op-ed, Tony Blankley defended Andrew Breitbart in his smear of Shirley Sherrod, writing that when Breitbart posted his deceptively edited video of Sherrod, "he alerts the viewer, 'Eventually, her basic humanity informs that this white man is poor and needs help.' It's in the video, and it is in the text of Mr. Breitbart's original post on the topic." Blankley then wrote: "Yet the mainstream media selectively edits out this exonerating fact in virtually every story about Mr. Breitbart. So the subsequent charge against Mr. Breitbart by the mainstream media that his editing was misleading is itself misleading and wrong."
As Media Matters has noted, a one-sentence reference to Sherrod's "basic humanity" does not "exonerat[e]" Breitbart or put the video in context, especially when framed by misleading snippets of information that underline Sherrod's purported racism. Further, Blankley does not note that, in his post, Breitbart continued to smear Sherrod, the Democrats, the NAACP, and the mainstream media for a "willingness to exploit race for political ends." Previously:Sunday media call out Breitbart, Fox for running with bogus attacks on Sherrod
Circling the wagons: Right-wing media figures rush to defend Breitbart
CNN's Cooper detonates Breitbart's NAACP applause falsehood
Media denounce Breitbart's tactics, highlight his loss of credibility
Breitbart flounders as his Sherrod story collapses
Media across the board reject Breitbart's race-baiting lies
Augmented Reality: Time Out New York
*Doesn’t look like that big a deal, but my AR tweeple are loudly moaning that this TIme Out effort is a “terrible implementation of user experience.”
*Okay, yeah: there’s a ton of clicking and downloading before anything happens at all, and for a gimmick purportedly aimed at kids, that’s a bit much. Interesting that AR is now advanced enough that it’s got cogent design critics. And, that they agree with each other.
Design Fiction: Apollo 11 Owner’s Manual
*Julian Bleecker:
“Found another design fiction in the form of an Apollo 11 Owners’ Workshop Manual, published by the folks at Haynes. I remember having Haynes service manuals for the two service-it-yourself buckets I had — a 1980 VW Rabbit and that 1972 Toyota Landcruiser which probably spent more time being made drivable than driving around.
“The curious thing to note here is the playful distortion of the genre convention of a service and owner’s manual. One would only reasonably have such a manual if you owned the thing you mean to service, or are planning to get it. Making it a routine sort of technical guide puts you in the position of a service technician or even an astronaut who perhaps bought one of these things and now needs to sort out how to get the glitchy STS Antenna system to reboot.
“I’d put this in the same category of design fictions as the Star Trek Starfleet Technical Manual and the myriad Star Wars “Essential Guides”, although these take themselves less seriously.
“Many of the technical manuals, operators guides and service manuals for the Apollo, Shuttle and Skylab programs are available online — the real-deal. Packaged in this way as a Haynes manual puts this in a whole different category….”
Idea to prototype to tool: how a Leatherman comes to be
Popular Mechanics has a great little slideshow showing the various intermediate steps that went into designing the original Leatherman tool, taking it from napkin doodle to TSA confiscata: "The prototype that Leatherman patented combined his dual-action pliers with an integrated locking-clamp feature. Every knife- and tool-maker he approached rejected it."
The Invention of the Leatherman: Patent Gallery (via Make)
- Leatherman Skeletool: Lightest Full-Sized Multi-Tool
- Leatherman's 25th anniversary, $40000 Argentum multitool - Boing ...
- HOWTO install your keys in a Leatherman handle
- Leatherman Freestyle: A Cheaper Skeletool Gadgets
- Leatherman tools that cost lots of money
- Leatherman Skeletool lightweight multitool -- Gadgets ...
- Leatherman Freestyle multitool finally to be released
- Is A Knife-Less Leatherman Still a Leatherman?
