Fulbright Scholarships withdrawn from Gaza Students

Today the news reported that the U.S. State Department has withdrawn the prestigious Fulbright grant from seven Palestinian students who live in the Gaza Strip because Israel will not give these students exit visas to leave the country. The Fulbright grants - which are funded by our tax dollars and issued through the State Department - would enable these students to earn advanced degrees abroad.

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The Fulbright grants are controlled by our State Department. Condoleeza Rice said today she would "investigate" this issue. Please email Condoleezza Rice.

To email Rice, click here (ready message template available)

More on story here and here

More Keffiyeh Drama Fo' Yo' Moma

Dunkin' Donuts Yanks Rachel Ray Ad

Does Dunkin’ Donuts really think its customers could mistake Rachael Ray for a terrorist sympathizer? The Canton-based company has abruptly canceled an ad in which the domestic diva wears a scarf that looks like a keffiyeh, a traditional headdress worn by Arab men.

Some observers, including ultra-conservative Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin, were so incensed by the ad that there was even talk of a Dunkin’ Donuts boycott.

‘‘The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad,’’ Malkin yowls in her syndicated column.

‘‘Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant and not-so-ignorant fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons.’’

The company at first pooh-poohed the complaints, claiming the black-and-white wrap was not a keffiyeh. But the right-wing drumbeat on the blogosphere continued and by yesterday, Dunkin’ Donuts decided it’d be easier just to yank the ad.

Said the suits in a statement: ‘‘In a recent online ad, Rachael Ray is wearing a black-and-white silk scarf with a paisley design. It was selected by her stylist for the advertising shoot. Absolutely no symbolism was intended. However, given the possibility of misperception, we are no longer using the commercial.’’

(In case you’re wondering, the stylist who selected the offending scarf was not Gretta Enterprises boss Gretchen Monahan, who appears on Ray’s TV show as a style consultant.)

For her part, Malkin was pleased with Dunkin’s response: ‘‘It’s refreshing to see an American company show sensitivity to the concerns of Americans opposed to Islamic jihad and its apologists.’’

Source: Boston

Thoughts, in no particular order:

• We're letting the "right wing nut cases" rise to new levels of ridiculousness.
• Nobody really complained when Urban Outfitters and Delia's caved under pressure and proved unable to carry their respective versions of the keffiyeh for more than a week. Maybe those who appreciate the keffiyeh deserved this slap in the face.
• This is another step in exoticizing Middle Eastern culture.
  
• The prospect of a remote association with "terrorism" (though in my book I'd call the Palestinian struggle one being led by freedom fighters) terrifies corporate America.
• The commercialization of various Palestinian symbols dilutes their meaning and value.
• Popularizing the culture of resistance might be just what we need - think of the 60s when everybody was a hippy and the will of the people actually mattered!

Update (05/29, 7:00pm):

Message from the ANSWER Coalition
Boycott: Don't Shop at Dunkin' Donuts!
Say No to Anti-Arab Racism

The ANSWER Coalition and others are calling for a worldwide boycott of Dunkin’ Donuts. The boycott intends to send a powerful message to Dunkin’ Donuts and other corporations that engage in racism or pandering to anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racists.

Please lend your name to the boycott by clicking this link and send a letter to Dunkin' Donuts. Be sure to circulate this call to your friends on list serves and social networking sites.

Here’s the background:

Dunkin’ Donuts has capitulated and withdrawn an advertisement for its products following the allegation by a right-wing hack, Michelle Malkin, that the spokeswoman in the ad was pictured wearing a kaffiyeh, a scarf which is a staple of clothing traditionally worn by Palestinian men.

The scarf pictured in the ad is not actually a kaffiyeh. But the anti-Arab racism of the right-wing, pro-Bush ideologues like Malkin is so extreme that they launched their campaign because they “thought” the scarf was this traditional Arab garment. Dunkin’ Donuts pulled their ad apologizing that the scarf might even resemble a kaffiyeh.

In Malkin’s twisted world anything “Arab,” even a scarf, is “terrorist.” This is the same line of thinking promoted by the Bush administration in the wake of 9/11, when thousands of Middle Eastern men living in the United States were rounded up and falsely imprisoned. Some were even tried on phony “terrorism” charges. It is the same line of thinking that was used to promote the racist war drive against Afghanistan and then Iraq.

The fact that a giant corporation like Dunkin’ Donuts quickly pulled the advertisement is a sign that the pervasive racism, chauvinism and xenophobia peddled by right-wing bigots is a real danger. This is a classic tactic of fascist intimidation and demonization of an entire population.

We demand that Dunkin’ Donuts immediately apologize to the Arab-American community for this disgraceful surrender to racism. Until that apology is issued we will refuse to shop or buy any products marketed by the Dunkin' Donuts Corporation.

Please lend your name to the boycott by clicking this link and send a letter to Dunkin' Donuts. Be sure to circulate this call to your friends on list serves and social networking sites.

Winter soldier: Iraq

Read about it here

Warning: video contains graphic scenes

(Thanks for forwarding Brian)

Global Deforestation

ON GLOBAL DEFORESTATION

Important Lecture given
01/04/2006

In this lecture period, we wish to learn:

* What do we mean by "deforestation"?
* How have the old-growth forests been affected by humans?
* What are the consequences of loss of forest habitats and ecosystems?
* What management strategies are in place to preserve, manage and restore forests?

1.Introduction

It is impossible to overstate the importance of humankind's clearing of the forests. The transformation of forested lands by human actions represents one of the great forces in global environmental change and one of the great drivers of biodiversity loss. The impact of people has been and continues to be profound. Forests are cleared, degraded and fragmented by timber harvest, conversion to agriculture, road-building, human-caused fire, and in myriad other ways. The effort to use and subdue the forest has been a constant theme in the transformation of the earth, in many societies, in many lands, and at most times. Deforestation has important implications for life on this planet.

Just think, originally, almost half of the United States, three-quarters of Canada, almost all of Europe, the plains of the Levant, and much of the rest of the world were forested. The forests have been mostly removed for fuel, building materials and to clear land for farming. The clearing of the forests has been one of the most historic and prodigious feats of humanity.

Area of Forest Ecosystems (World total:~ 34 million km2)

About one half of the forests that covered the Earth are gone. Each year, another 16 million hectares disappear. The World Resources Institute estimates that only about 22% of the world's (old growth) original forest cover remains "intact" - most of this is in three large areas: the Canadian and Alaskan boreal forest, the boreal forest of Russia, and the tropical forest of the northwestern Amazon Basin and the Guyana Shield (Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela, Columbia, etc.)

Today, forests cover more than one quarter of the world's total land area, excluding polar regions. Slightly more than 50% of the forests are found in the tropics and the rest are temperate and boreal (coniferous northern forest) zones.

Seven countries (Russia, Brazil, Canada, the United States, China, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) account for more than 60% of the total.

For millennia, humankind has influenced the forests, although much of the impact has been relatively minor. Today, the impact is enormous. Deforestation is expanding and accelerating into the remaining areas of undisturbed forest, and the quality of the remaining forests is declining. Today we examine global patterns in deforestation, assess the human and ecological costs of forest loss, and discuss some of the steps that can help to rectify this alarming situation.

Continues here with charts, graphs, pics...

A little Art Appreciation...

The Doha deal: another defeat for US policy in the Middle East

The US better get used to the new rules of the game. Interesting article in the International Herald Tribune, excerpts below:

The accord that has resolved the immediate political crisis in Lebanon is the latest example of the new political power equation that is redefining the Middle East. It reflects both local and global forces, and 18 years after the Cold War ended, provides a glimpse of what the post-Cold War world will look like - at least in the Middle East.

Several dynamics seem to be at play, but one stands out as paramount: We are witnessing the clear limits of the projection of American global power, combined with the assertion and coexistence of multiple regional powers (Turkey, Israel, Iran, Hezbollah, Syria, Hamas, Saudi Arabia, etc.). These local powers tend to fight and negotiate at the same time, and ultimately prefer to make reasonable compromises rather than perpetually wage absolutist battles.

The Doha accord for Lebanon was much more than simply a victory for Iranian-backed Hezbollah over the American-backed alliance. It is the first concrete example in the Arab world of a negotiated, formal political agreement by local adversaries to share power and make big national decisions collectively, while maintaining close strategic relationships with diverse external patrons in the United States, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria.

The Lebanese agreement (unlike the failed Fatah-Hamas unity government) is likely to succeed because all the parties know that to live together peacefully they must make mutual compromises. This accord has been forged in the furnace of Middle Eastern demographic and political realism, in contrast to the hallucinatory absolutism that often drives American-Israeli policy in this region.

This is not a full defeat for the United States - it's more like a draw. It puts into concrete political form the most powerful force that has defined the Middle East in recent decades: the willingness of individuals, political movements and some governments to openly defy, challenge, resist and occasionally to fight the United States, Israel and their Arab and other allies.

Continue here

I do not think it is fair to compare this deal to the one between Fatah and Hamas because the two situations are very different. For one thing, only a very small part of Lebanon is under Israeli occupation. Plus, the power and resources of Hamas are not comparable to those of Hizbullah.

But back to Lebanon - the deal is definately historical and is another blow to the US and its allies. The wisdom of the Lebanese resistance and opposition parties has gotten the Lebanese out of a very critical situation.

Congratulations Lebanon!

Finkelstein Arrested in Israel

And the American academic Norman Finkelstein has been arrested and ordered deported from Israel. Finkelstein arrived in Tel Aviv earlier today on his way to the Occupied Territories. He was immediately detained and told he is banned from Israel for ten years. He’s expected to be deported tomorrow. Finkelstein is known one of the most prominent academic critics of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

Source.

Reflection From a UC Berkeley Islamo-Jihadist

My name is Bilaal Ahmed, and I'm the former leader of your local jihadist organization, the Muslim Student Association (MSA) at UC Berkeley. I don't know if you noticed, but two weeks ago my cover was blown by a paid political advertisement in the Daily Cal from David Horowitz's Freedom Center, which revealed that we, the MSA, are a "campus front group for jihad." To think that the hard work of Muslims in America over the past 40 years to construct this front could be uncovered so easily pains me greatly.

I am writing to admit to you, attentive reader, that Horowitz once again is absolutely correct just like he was this past October with Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week. Unfortunately, we are still waiting for a terrorist state to be established so that we can all devote our lives to it and place its well-being above our own.

Since Horowitz already let the cat out of the bag, let me tell all of you just a few ways your MSA at Berkeley has supported terror this past year: We made terrorism-laced sandwiches on Sproul to give to homeless people at least once a month, hoping that they would join our cause; we organized a team of 70 Muslims to participate in Relay for Life on behalf of the American Cancer Society, hoping that one day we will be able to use cancer as a biological weapon; we held a charity event and raised $1,000 for Save the Children (of terrorists, of course). Oh, and before I forget, we've occasionally held ice cream socials, dinners, bowling nights, barbeques, broom-balling, ski trips and get this, we play football on some Fridays to pretend that we love America. As you can easily tell, all our activities are designed to foster extremely close relationships among the members of our terrorist organization so that when one of us goes out for a jihadi terrorist mission, we can all get super depressed when they do not come back alive.

We also spearheaded a massive campaign to recruit others to stand in solidarity with our terrorist cause. We had to do this in the most creative manner possible so we voiced our concern as the need for "peace" (May God protect us from it!). You may have heard of the so-called "Peace Not Prejudice Week." Unfortunately, our plan backfired and we ended up uniting groups for the "worthy" cause of peace and not prejudice which was by no means our intention. We preferred the slogan "Prejudice Not Peace," but that did not seem to go over well with other members of the coalition.

Not to mention we also host weekly self-betterment series for our members, in which we help them hone their terrorism skills and encourage open dialogue about issues in Islam-oh I am sorry-Islamo-Fascism. We are currently working on expanding our services to include TIP, the Terrorism Improvement Project, in an effort to network with other local terrorists and help our members reach out to leaders in the greater terrorist community. TAP (Terrorism Awareness Project), take that!

Clearly, MSA is just not doing a good enough job of hiding its terrorist activities. In fact, we would like to thank Horowitz for spending so much of his own private funding and time on an ad that got us free publicity and landed us on the map. If you see our table on Sproul, please stop by, ask questions and leave with a better sense of terrorism in Berkeley. Oh and don't forget to pick up some pamphlets about Islamo-Fascism and give them to your friends!

Source: Daily Californian

Bush- Please Be Quiet

Disclaimer- bad words like "hell" and other wonderful descriptive words in relation to Bush and his cronies- but you GOTTA LOVE IT!!!

Honoring Malcolm X on His Birthday

Malcolm X

(born Malcolm Little; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965),
also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz,[ was an American Black Muslim minister and a spokesman for the Nation of Islam.

After leaving the Nation of Islam in 1964, he made the pilgrimage, the Hajj, to Mecca and became a Sunni Muslim. He also founded the Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Less than a year later, he was assassinated in Washington Heights on the first day of National Brotherhood Week.


Historian Robin D.G. Kelley wrote, "Malcolm X has been called many things: Pan-Africanist, father of Black Power, religious fanatic, closet conservative, incipient socialist, and a menace to society. The meaning of his public life — his politics and ideology — is contested in part because his entire body of work consists of a few dozen speeches and a collaborative autobiography whose veracity is challenged. Malcolm has become a sort of tabula rasa, or blank slate, on which people of different positions can write their own interpretations of his politics and legacy. Chuck D of the rap group Public Enemy and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas can both declare Malcolm X their hero.

Make it Plain -an essential documentary(Part 1)
[parts 1-14 can readily be watched ion YouTube-Gatsby]


Malcolm X returning from Mecca, Saudi Arabia on 21 May 1964, after having performed Hajj.


Oxford University Debate:

"I read once, passingly, about a man named Shakespeare. I only read about him passingly, but I remember one thing he wrote that kind of moved me. He put it in the mouth of Hamlet, I think, it was, who said, "To be or not to be." He was in doubt about something. Whether it was nobler in the mind of man to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, moderation, or to take up arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them. And I go for that. If you take up arms, you'll end it, but if you sit around and wait for the one who's in power to make up his mind that he should end it, you'll be waiting a long time. And in my opinion, the young generation of whites, blacks, browns, whatever else there is, you're living at a time of extremism, a time of revolution, a time when there's got to be a change. People in power have misused it and now there has to be a change and a better world has to be built and the only way it's going to be built is with extreme methods. And I, for one, will join in with anyone, I don't care what color you are, as long as you want to change this miserable condition that exists on this earth.” –MX

From his very last speech:

"Recently when I was blessed to make a religious pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca where I met many people from all over the world, plus spent many weeks in Africa trying to broaden my own scope and get more of an open mind to look at the problem as it actually is, one of the things that I realized, and I realized this even before going over there, was that our African brothers have gained their independence faster than you and I here in America have. They've also gained recognition and respect as human beings much faster than you and I. Just ten years ago on the African continent, our people were colonized. They were suffering all forms of colonization, oppression, exploitation, degradation, humiliation, discrimination, and every other kind of -ation. And in a short time, they have gained more independence, more recognition, more respect as human beings than you and I have. And you and I live in a country which is supposed to be the citadel of education, freedom, justice, democracy, and all of those other pretty-sounding words. So it was our intention to try and find out what it was our African brothers were doing to get results, so that you and I could study what they had done and perhaps gain from that study or benefit from their experiences." Malcolm X makes it plain that he is opposed to the philosophy of Martin Luther King.” –MX

Eulogy by Ossie Davis: