Posted on 07/28/2005 10:59:45 AM PDT by F14 Pilot
This time U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo got it right. Meet with representatives of the Council on American-Islamic Relations? Not on your life, replied truculent Tom. They're compromised, he maintained.
Oh, how they're compromised.
To begin with, several officials or former officials of CAIR have faced criminal charges associating them with terrorism, and a founding board member of the Texas chapter was convicted on such charges just this year.
Moreover, as Salon.com's Jake Tapper reminded Americans in an article shortly after 9/11, CAIR once deplored the prosecution of Sheik Omar Abdul-Rahman for his role in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. In fact, the group repeated "Abdul-Rahman's lawyers' criticisms of the trial as 'far from free and fair' on a 1996 list of 'incidents of anti-Muslim bias and violence,' " Tapper recounts.
In preparing his profile of the group - remember, this is September 2001 - Tapper repeatedly tried to persuade CAIR's communications director, Ibrahim Hooper, to condemn Osama bin Laden by name, without success.
"What about prior acts of terror linked to bin Laden?" Tapper wondered. "Or that bin Laden has urged Muslims to kill Americans? Again, Hooper demurred, saying only that he condemns acts of terror." (CAIR did come around to denouncing bin Laden. What choice did it have with bin Laden himself cheerfully acknowledging his guilt?)
These days, CAIR spends most of its time portraying the United States as a nation slipping into the throes of bigotry, intolerance and anti-Muslim repression. But alas for its credibility even on this score, the group's claims of a surge in hate crimes are tainted by sloppy - if not atrocious - research, according to scholars Daniel Pipes and Sharon Chadha. They describe CAIR as part of the "Wahhabi lobby."
Can anyone blame Tancredo for refusing to endure a lecture on civility by the likes of this outfit?
Smart growth vs. families
"Our cities need kids," proclaimed the lead headline in The Sunday Denver Post Perspective section - an insight, you might suppose, akin to noting that forests need trees. But it turns out that cities might not need kids, as urban centers such as San Francisco, Seattle and Boston are well on their way to proving.
The author of Sunday's article, Hank Baker of Forest City Stapleton, understandably worries about cities' future if they fail to attract more families with children. Naturally, he also considers the Stapleton redevelopment as a model for how to lure them.
Baker might even be right, except that urban renewal on the scale of Stapleton is hardly the norm. Far more common are highly focused developments that push up population densities in neighborhoods of mostly single-family homes. Those densities translate into higher housing prices and traffic volume - both of which are red flags for middle-class families with youngsters.
My neighborhood, for example, is not far from a light-rail station that will open next year. Inevitably, some company is putting up several hundred apartments within walking distance of the train stop, along with shops and restaurants. The apostles of "smart growth" believe this sort of development is a Good Thing, because it helps contain the bogeyman of urban sprawl and reduces our dependence on cars - in theory, at least.
In the real world, unfortunately, most of those apartment dwellers will still hop into a car almost every day, even if they commute by train. How this will enhance my neighborhood is a mystery best explained by the smart-growth lobby.
While they're at it, maybe they can give us the lowdown on why Portland, the Shangri-la of smart growth, ranks a shocking seventh among U.S. cities with the lowest percentage of kids under 18.
Vincent Carroll, editor of the editorial pages, writes On Point Tuesday through Friday. Reach him at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com
PING!
ping!
See Hamas. See what Hamas has done to Israel.
See Cair. See what Cair will do to America.
Please note Hamas IS Cair.
CAIR, at best, is a terrorism enabler!
Anybody notice that in the past few days there have been more and more positive articles about Tancredo, this just after numerous bad ones about his Mecca comment? Looks like the emdia is starting to realize that he really does speak for alot of Americans on a couple of very important issues. In the end, all this publicity may actually help Tancredo.
"To begin with, several officials or former officials of CAIR have faced criminal charges associating them with terrorism, and a founding board member of the Texas chapter was convicted on such charges just this year"
...
This is no accident. For Cair it's standard business practice. Wake Up America....
And what should we do?
All I can say to CAIR is this. If you move a mosque into my neighborhood, you will be monitored, you will be watched.
When you CAIR enough to send the very BEST!......
Doesn't Theresa Hines-Scary, Donate to the cair group via the Tides foundation?
"And what should we do?"
Don't be afraid to call a spade a spade. If they are criminals say it. If they are liars, say it. If they do evil say it. What ever happened to good old fashioned SHAME? (I know it's not PC, but PC is getting innocents killed - civility is not part of their vocabulary.)
Treat criminals like criminals. Don't let them off on a sympathy plea.
Treat bullies like bullies. Show power - it's all they understand.
Remind their followers that silence is aquiescence and they will be judged the leaders they choose and the company they seek.
Someone described CAIR as "duplicitous". It is an excellent description of that organization. The description applies equally well to the Palestinians.
Another score for Rep Tancredo.
Somedays it seems like he is the only one who 'gets' it.
Jeb Bush sent a support letter to CAIR in May.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/006509.php
"What is best in life? To crush the jihadists, to drive their minions before you, and to hear the lamentations of the mullahs! Allahu fubar!
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