Being the Change I Wish to See

Why is it that most Americans like, support and defend our Constitution in principle, but not in practice? When asked, most Americans think that freedom of religion is a vital First Amendment right.

But in practice, a whole bunch of people are freaking out about somebody building a rather typical structure in an abandoned Burlington Coat Factory about 5 blocks from ground zero that was damaged in the World Trade Center bombings of 9/11/2001. What everybody is freaking out about is the land owners want to build an Islamic Community Center on that land. The community center will contain a basketball court and a culinary school along with other typical community center facilities, and some prayer space, not a mosque.

Americans need to get over the idea that we need a buffer zone around the hallowed ground of the World Trade Center Complex. Many Muslim-Americans died in those attacks along with Christian-Americans and Jewish-Americans. Some were first responders to the attacks. Many Muslim-Americans volunteered in the U.S. military to fight in Afghanistan (and Iraq). There are a growing number of headstones in Arlington National Cemetery with Muslim sickle and star carvings, along with the many Christian crosses and Jewish stars of David.

Muslim-Americans are Americans. They were born here just like we were. They are not terrorists. They are not radicals or our enemies. They are us. Those we are fighting are not true Muslims. Islam is a peaceful faith.

If we look at faith as the Litmus test to exclude people who might be terrorists, we had better start watching white Christian males, because Timothy McVeigh was a white, Christian, American ex-soldier who became a radical terrorist. We don’t do that, so why should we do it to Muslim-Americans? We shouldn’t. It’s wrong.

In 10 years, such unrest about this issue will seem unbelievably petty and ridiculous. America, it’s time to live American values, not just pay them lip service.

Keith Olbermann’s special comment from today’s broadcast of Countdown says it best (12:21):

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Technorati Tags: Countdown, First Amendment Rights, Islamic Community Center, Keith Olbermann, Lower Manhattan

\\ tags: Countdown, First Amendment Rights, Islamic Community Center, Keith Olbermann, Lower Manhattan

Liz Cheney is at it again. Her new web ad about the Obama justice department and attorneys who have represented or advocated for Guantanamo detainees questions their values and loyalty to the U.S. Are they really al-Qaeda sympathizers? No, they are not. They are just doing their jobs.

Ms. Cheney is playing the “guilt-by-association” card. There is a really big problem once you go down that path, extremely twisted logic. The following clip from The Rachel Maddow Show demonstrates taking guilt-by-association to its full conclusion (7 min.). The question is where do you stop? How far down the rabbit hole do you go?

Queue the scary music:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Be afraid!!! Are you scared?

Using Liz Cheney’s logic, aren’t all defense attorneys criminals if they defend guilty people in court? No. Our Constitution guarantees presumption of innocence until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and the accused are entitled to a vigorous defense. What about the attorney who defended Timothy McVeigh? Is he a terrorist sympathizer, too? No.

Defending the guilty is an integral part of our justice system. It’s the American way. It’s one of our founding principals. We can’t abandon those principals because we are dealing with foreign detainees whose arrests were botched. Botched arrests happen regularly, not quite like these, but they are not new. We have the processes to deal with it.

Let’s allow the DOJ to go forward and prosecute the detainees against whom we have reasonable evidence. We know our court system is far more effective than military tribunals. Here’s the score: Federal court system: 300 convictions of terrorist suspects since 2001; military tribunal system: 2 convictions.

Even Republicans and Conservatives are saying Cheney’s ad goes too far. It steps way over the line of reason when Bill O’Reilly of Fox News won’t even agree with her. The following clip from Countdown explores the legal and moral outrage over this web ad (7 min.):

I have to hope Liz Cheney keeps up her conspiracy witch hunts in public for as long as she wants. When it makes Conservatives back away from her, it’s possible for the moderates to move left just a bit and get back to the middle where moderates like to be.

When fear-mongers start to sound like loons to those who are already ideologically extreme, they are finally being seen in the correct light.

Do you buy Liz Cheney and Keep America Safe’s bullpucky on this? If not, what other fear-mongering crap do you now question about what they have said?

If it’s a Cheney talking, I must admit I won’t believe a word of it because whatever “it” is that any of them are saying comes out of irrational fear of another terrorist attack on the U.S. Future terrorist attacks are possible, but so was nuclear war during the entire cold war. You can’t live your life in constant fear of what might happen. If we cower in fear, the terrorists win.

I wonder if the Cheney home is equipped with a fully stocked bomb shelter and survival gear…

BTW, Rachel posted bail with Kent Jones in the amount of slices of pizza, and borrowed the handcuffs from Jimmy Fallon. She was back on her show the next night.

Technorati Tags: al-Qaeda, Countdown, David Corn, Guantanamo Bay prison, guilt by association, Lawrence O'Donnell, Liz Cheney, MSNBC, Obama Administration, Rachel Maddow, The Rachel Maddow Show, U.S. department of justice

\\ tags: al-Qaeda, Countdown, David Corn, Guantanamo Bay prison, guilt by association, Lawrence O'Donnell, Liz Cheney, MSNBC, Obama Administration, Rachel Maddow, The Rachel Maddow Show, U.S. department of justice