MoCo Opposes Anti-Muslim Bigotry
It must be weird being a Montgomery County Republican. I saw their booth at the Takoma Folk Festival this past weekend -- it was an island of emptiness in a sea of happy humanity, a dead zone. It was as if someone had put a barbed-wire fence around the plot of land extending ten feet out from the booth, with "Beware of Dog" signs. No one wanted to go near them.
The only time they make the news is when get into fistfights over debts they owe one another. One leader of the county's Republican Party made the papers when the gender identity nondiscrimination bill passed into law, shouting, "Wait until little girls start showing up dead all over the county because of freaks of nature." That was 2007. Tell us, Adol. how long are we supposed to wait?
There have been rumblings since the Chevy Chase Republican Women's Club invited an anti-Muslim bigot to speak at their meeting in a couple of weeks. As Maryland Juice noted:
I admit, I never watched "The Love Boat" and wouldn't know Gopher if he stuck his head up out of a hole in my yard.
Some of our elected leaders signed a letter to the Chevy Chase Republican Women's Club, asking them to reconsider this speaker. It will be in the Gazette tomorrow but Maryland Juice scooped them online. Here it is:
The last time I checked, there was not a single Republican elected to any position in the county. There might be one, let's just say that an "R" next to your name on the ballot is poison here in one of the bluest regions of the country. So it is hardly an act of courage to stand up to the Chevy Chase Republican Women's Club. On the other hand, our county has a sizable Muslim population and they have to feel uncomfortable with all the stupid stuff about "Ground Zero Mosques" and communities banning Sharia law. There is a lot of anti-Muslim sentiment in the country and it is good that our elected leaders stand up for these neighbors of ours.
The only time they make the news is when get into fistfights over debts they owe one another. One leader of the county's Republican Party made the papers when the gender identity nondiscrimination bill passed into law, shouting, "Wait until little girls start showing up dead all over the county because of freaks of nature." That was 2007. Tell us, Adol. how long are we supposed to wait?
There have been rumblings since the Chevy Chase Republican Women's Club invited an anti-Muslim bigot to speak at their meeting in a couple of weeks. As Maryland Juice noted:
Fred Grandy is a former member of the U.S. House from Iowa, but he is better known as "Gopher" from the television series the Love Boat. He recently gained notoriety after being fired from his most recent gig as a morning radio personality on WMAL. Grandy's increasingly anti-Muslim show was pushed off the air after on-air comments his wife made…
I admit, I never watched "The Love Boat" and wouldn't know Gopher if he stuck his head up out of a hole in my yard.
Some of our elected leaders signed a letter to the Chevy Chase Republican Women's Club, asking them to reconsider this speaker. It will be in the Gazette tomorrow but Maryland Juice scooped them online. Here it is:
We have learned that the Montgomery County Republican Party is hosting an event in Chevy Chase on September 24 featuring former actor and former Congressman Fred Grandy as the featured speaker. Grandy will ostensibly be speaking about the topic of “Islamic Extremism”.
Fred Grandy is a former actor and former Congressman who has been an active leader in the nationwide movement to incite bigotry against American Muslims. Usually this is done under the guise of "Anti-terrorism", "Counter-Jihad" or "Fighting Islamic Extremism". In reality, these labels are often thinly-veiled excuses to spread lies about American Muslims and incite mistrust against them by claiming they are a threat to America, they are trying to implement "Creeping Sharia" and they are seeking worldwide domination.
On their WMAL radio show, Fred Grandy & his wife Catherine have repeatedly referred to Muslim people as "Sharia Compliant" and found it necessary to "warn" others that Muslims work in Government. This radio show was recently cancelled allegedly because of their anti-Muslim prejudice.
So-called “Anti-Sharia” bills have been introduced in numerous state capitals. Such legislation and accompanying rhetoric have been criticized as attacks on religious liberties or attempts to stigmatize American Muslims by a broad spectrum of organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union, Agudah, the Orthodox Union, American Jewish Committee, Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and the Council on American Islamic Relations.
Fighting terrorism of all kinds is an important endeavor. But this cannot be used as an excuse to vilify an entire religion. It is inappropriate for the Montgomery County Republican party to be hosting an anti-Muslim speaker. Montgomery County is home to thousands of people of all races and religions. Divisive rhetoric of the kind Fred Grandy is known for has no place in Montgomery County or in our civic discourse.
Signed,
Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett
Maryland State Senate Majority Leader Rob Garagiola
Maryland House of Delegates Majority Leader Kumar Barve
Maryland State Senator Richard Madaleno
Maryland State Senator Roger Manno
Maryland State Delegate Sam Arora
Maryland State Delegate Alfred Carr
Maryland State Delegate Bill Frick
Maryland State Delegate James Gilchrist
Maryland State Delegate Benjamin Kramer
Maryland State Delegate Eric Luedtke
Maryland State Delegate Ana Gutierrez
Maryland State Delegate Tom Hucker
Maryland State Delegate Aruna Miller
Maryland State Delegate Heather Mizeur
Maryland State Delegate Kirill Reznik
Maryland State Delegate Shane Robinson
Maryland State Delegate Craig Zucker
Montgomery County Councilman Craig Rice
Montgomery County Councilman Hans Riemer
Montgomery County Councilman George Leventhal
Montgomery County Councilman Marc Elrich
Montgomery Democrats Issue Letter Condemning Local GOP Extremist Speaker
The last time I checked, there was not a single Republican elected to any position in the county. There might be one, let's just say that an "R" next to your name on the ballot is poison here in one of the bluest regions of the country. So it is hardly an act of courage to stand up to the Chevy Chase Republican Women's Club. On the other hand, our county has a sizable Muslim population and they have to feel uncomfortable with all the stupid stuff about "Ground Zero Mosques" and communities banning Sharia law. There is a lot of anti-Muslim sentiment in the country and it is good that our elected leaders stand up for these neighbors of ours.
posted by JimK at 4:28 PM
33 Comments:
"It must be weird being a Montgomery County Republican."
Jim, Jim, Jim.
Everything changes come November 2012.
I actually had a long chat with our next Senator from Maryland last week.
We have plans.
Here's a little about him:
"A former Secret Service agent who has provided protection for President Obama has decided to make a bid for Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin's job.
Daniel Bongino, who resigned from the agency last month, plans to seek the Republican nomination to challenge the freshman Democrat.
Bongino's campaign biography says he worked as an agent for a dozen years after serving in the New York City Police Department.
Bongino "believes in real answers and straight talk and plans to challenge the political establishment directly on the important issues of the day," according to his campaign website.
Former Republican candidate for Maryland Governor Brian Murphy is Bongino's campaign chairman."
Don't believe?
As we speak, New Yorkers in Queens and Brooklyn are electing a Republican to replace Anthony "Look at Me Now" Weiner.
just across the line from MC, Dems are doing a great job in the White House:
"WASHINGTON -- Even though the Great Recession technically ended in 2009, incomes fell, poverty rose and the number of Americans without health insurance jumped again in 2010, the federal government announced Tuesday.
The nation's poverty rate increased to 15.1 percent in 2010, up from 14.3 percent in 2009 and the highest level in decades, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's annual Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage report for 2010. An additional 2.6 million people landed in poverty last year, bringing the total to 46.2 million -- the highest number since the government started tracking poverty in the 1950s.
"Income down, poverty up, health insurance coverage down or flat," said Ron Haskins, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, in a statement. "The news on economic well-being in the U.S. is not good. Worse, children’s poverty increased for the fourth year in a row and is at 22 percent. Child poverty has been higher than the 2010 level in only three years since the mid-1960s."
NEW YORK — It sounded improbable on the surface that a New York City congressional district where Democrats have a 3-1 registration edge and have held office for nearly a century could even come close to electing a Republican to the U.S. House.
But voter frustration over the sour economy and President Barack Obama's policies made the improbable a reality, as a Republican political novice, Bob Turner, scored an upset victory in a special election Tuesday over David Weprin, a Democratic assemblyman from a prominent local political family. The surprising results in the Brooklyn and Queens-area district portend a perilous national environment for Obama as he prepares to seek re-election next year.
Turner said as much when he stepped before cameras to claim victory Tuesday night.
"This message will resound for a full year. It will resound into 2012," said Turner, a retired broadcasting executive. "I only hope our voices are heard, and we can start putting things right again."
Also Tuesday, Republican Mark Amodei won a landslide victory in a U.S. House special election in Nevada, an important presidential swing state.
NEW YORK — It sounded improbable on the surface that a New York City congressional district where Democrats have a 3-1 registration edge and have held office for nearly a century could even come close to electing a Republican to the U.S. House.
But voter frustration over the sour economy and President Barack Obama's policies made the improbable a reality, as a Republican political novice, Bob Turner, scored an upset victory in a special election Tuesday over David Weprin, a Democratic assemblyman from a prominent local political family. The surprising results in the Brooklyn and Queens-area district portend a perilous national environment for Obama as he prepares to seek re-election next year.
Turner said as much when he stepped before cameras to claim victory Tuesday night.
"This message will resound for a full year. It will resound into 2012," said Turner, a retired broadcasting executive. "I only hope our voices are heard, and we can start putting things right again."
Also Tuesday, Republican Mark Amodei won a landslide victory in a U.S. House special election in Nevada, an important presidential swing state.
quote of the week is from Jackie Kennedy in a newly released interview by Arthur Schlesinger, a few weeks after the assassination:
"Martin Luther King is a phoney."
MLK has a monument now and JFK doesn't?
if schools can't educate kids about their religious heritage because they are a branch of government, what good are they?
time to get rid of public schooling:
"RICHMOND, Va. -- Civil-liberties groups are suing a southwest Virginia school board for posting the Ten Commandments, contending that the display violates the Constitution's guarantee of separation of church and state.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia filed the lawsuit Tuesday against Giles County School Board in U.S. District Court in Roanoke on behalf of an unidentified Narrows High School student and the student's parent. The lawsuit says the display unconstitutionally promotes a specific religious faith and serves no secular purpose.
It seeks to have the Ten Commandments removed from school walls and a ban on further display of the biblical documents."
Dems can't win in parts of NYC that have voted Dem for generations and, now, things don't look good in California
if Obama doesn't carry NY and California, he really doesn't have a chance
socialist policies have their price
Dems will pay big time:
"(Reuters) - Concern about the economy has pushed President Barack Obama's approval rating below 50 percent in California, a state assumed to be an easy win for him in next year's presidential election.
Obama carried California in the 2008 election but Field Poll findings released on Wednesday show he is having trouble in the most populous U.S. state, where most disapprove of his handling of the economy.
It is the first time since Obama took office that his approval rating has slipped below 50 percent in the poll, which
showed an 8 percentage point decline since June.
"Most would consider this a reliably blue state and if he's having problems here it's fairly ominous for his standing in the rest of the nation," said Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll.
The poll showed 54 percent of California voters disapprove of how Obama is handling the economy, compared with 40 percent who approve and 6 percent with no opinion."
Most people are apolitical, and just want results.
The economy is sputtering, and people are understandably upset.
Given the low turnouts, it is clear that many just give up, so the most motivated win the day.
Next year, there will be a stark choice about how we should deal with the mess we are in. We can repeal the 20th Century or we can figure out how to navigate the 21st, building on what worked and being cognizant of what created crises in the 1930s and in 2008.
It will be quite a debate. Sadly, it is likely to include a lot of "revisionist history" which will have no connection to what actually happened.
that is sad, David
Obama was never a great speaker
his appeal, and what got many people excited, was the chance to make history by electing the first black President
that won't be a factor this time around
oh, there are many people who generally agree that we should take money from the successful and divide it up amongst the rest of us, but not enough of those people vote to re-elect Obama
people who don't believe in that kind of institutionalized theft are more motivated and certain of their convictions
2008 was a blip
history resumes in 2012
btw, Obama has repeatedly argued that we should spend money now and it will so rev up the economy that we can tax everyone later without depressing the economy
that didn't happen in 2009, 2010 or 2011
his latest "later" is in 2013, after the election
read the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal today and read about all the new taxes on "rich" people (over 200K) that will go into effect on January 1, 2013
Obama has currently set up a huge tax wallop to hit the economy in 2013 when even he says unemployment will still be 7.4%, but we all know it will be higher
we're not going to let him get away with it
if you read page of today's WSJ, you'll find a reason to think twice about contributing to Democratic politicians
the poor internal controls at Democratic campaign offices have allowed millions to be stolen by campaign officials for their own personal expenses
after this, it should be hard to motivate giving to Democratic candidates!!
"We can repeal the 20th Century"
hey, David
you think Jackie O might be right about MLK?
was he, perhaps, a phoney baloney?
you guys laugh I refer to Barry O as a personal acquaintance
well, here's an e-mail he just sent me:
"Friend --
I'm writing to invite you to dinner.
If that sounds familiar, it's because we've done this before. I've asked the campaign to organize small, five-person dinners with supporters like you as a regular thing.
These dinners are important to me. Not just because they help me stay connected to supporters like you who are doing the hard work of building this campaign, but because they set us apart.
No matter what our opponents do over the next 14 months, we have chosen to put people at the heart of our campaign -- and we're focused on building it one grassroots donation at a time.
I'm asking you to make one today.
Will you donate $5 or more today to be automatically entered for a chance to join me for dinner?
I read a few letters every day from the many that come to the White House. Those personal connections with the people who put me here drive me and remind me why I set out to do this job in the first place.
Our focus on everyday Americans and their stories has always made our organization more than just a political campaign.
From the very beginning, we've set out to practice a different kind of politics -- proving that we don't need checks from Washington lobbyists or unlimited special-interest money to win an election.
That's why I'm asking you to step up and donate today. When you do, you'll be automatically entered to win a place at dinner:
http://my.democrats.org/Dinner
Maybe I'll get to thank you in person.
Barack"
me and Barack, we go way back
he even agrees with me about gay "mariage"
If you want to believe that Obama was elected in 2008 BECAUSE he is black, not in spite of it, you are entitled to your opinion. You might want to reflect on why you believe that.
It might have helped him the the Democratic Party nominating process at bit (although the desire not to relive the Clinton soap opera was, along with his and Clinton's diffeerent positions on invading Iraq in 2002-03 were very significant), it certainly was not an advantage in the general election. I doubt there were many non-Democratic white voters who voted for Obama because of his ethnicity. The most underestimated factor was that lots and lots of people read his two books and, like me, were extremely impressed with both the substance and tone.
The Kennedys all felt pressured by Dr. King, and were basically shamed by him into belatedly starting to do the right thing. Jackie's comment likely reflected that discomfort, and how the inner family circle processed it. Bobby really tried to make amends before his was murdered.
I have no idea what Jackie thought subsequent to 1964. Maybe Caroline can enlighten us. In any event, it does not matter.
maybe he should offer a free package of pop rocks with each donation
"it certainly was not an advantage in the general election"
didn't it help energize voters, specifically other blacks and young voters to turn out in greater numbers than they ever had before?
that won't happen this time
the old patterns will likely return and doom his chances
btw, I have friends who have also told me how great Obama's books were
I didn't read them myself
So jim
I had no idea there was a Chevy Chase women's republican club.
I was just thinking how I wanted to get more involved this election season....
thanks for the tip...
I am going to join
Theresa, I think you live near Brian Murphy, who is Daniel Bongino's campaign manager
he lives in the neighborhood across Connecticut Ave from CC Supermarket
you should get involved in the campaign
I'm going to
it's going to be a year when few Democrats survive anywhere in the country
so, now, mentioning that God created everyone equal is banned in public schools but deviant sexuality lessons are required
it's time to end public schools and go to vouchers
when parents are free to choose whatever school they want, the liberal-lunatic complex will no longer have an excuse to attack God:
"A federal appeals court in California ruled Tuesday that a San Diego-area math teacher does not have the constitutional right to display banners referring to God in his classroom.
Bradley Johnson, a math teacher for Poway Unified School District, is 30 years into his career and had banners he believed celebrated "the religious heritage of America," according to the Los Angeles Times.
Johnson had displayed the approximately 7-foot-by-2-foot banners -- one of which had the four phrases "In God We Trust," "One Nation Under God," "God Bless America," and "God Shed His Grace On Thee" -- in his classroom at another school for nearly 20 years. But when he came to Westview High School, Principal Dawn Kastner said the banners were "a promotion of a particular viewpoint" and ordered Johnson to take them down, the LA Times reports.
The second banner stated, "All Men Are Created Equal, They Are Endowed By Their CREATOR," according to the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm that filed the lawsuit on Johnson's behalf. Tuesday's ruling overturns a February decision by California Federal District Court Judge Roger T. Benitez that said the school districted violated Johnson's constitutional rights.
Johnson argued that school officials discriminated against Christians by forcing him to remove the banners, noting that other teachers were allowed to hang Tibetan prayer flags or lyrics to a John Lennon song that references heaven, hell and religion, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The appeals court said Tuesday that Johnson's role as a state-employed math teacher was to do as his job title conveys, not to "use his public position as a pulpit from which to preach his own views on the role of God in our nation's history to the captive students in his mathematics classroom," Christian Science Monitor reports.
Judge Richard Tallman of the appeals court wrote in the ruling that while Johnson can make his views known on the nation's religious history beyond the schoolyard, it is not appropriate for him to do so in the classroom."
yes, we need to restructure our society so that teachers are not government employees but employees of the students' parents
more bad news for Barry:
"Pennsylvania Republicans are planning an electoral college shakeup to try and oust President Obama in the 2012 election.
Their plan would end the state's winner-take-all system for electoral votes, replacing it with a system that awards candidates votes based on the results of each congressional district. The statewide winner would garner an additional two votes.
Pennsylvania is largely considered an important election battleground. In 2008, Obama won the state's 21 votes with just 54.7% of the vote.
In a close election, winning a large state like Pennsylvania can be make or break for a candidate.
John Fortier, an electoral college expert told Reuters, "It would be harder for Democrats to win in a close election if this goes through.""
I see Jeff Waldstreicher didn't sign the letter to the CC hate club, er Republican women's club.
Does he hate Muslims too like Gopher and the Republican Women of Chevy Chase, Maryland?
Hmmm.
Oh!
Chevy Chase is rich grounds for raising campaign funds so maybe he's just kinda pandering to try and get some of that moolah.
"So jim
I had no idea there was a Chevy Chase women's republican club.
I was just thinking how I wanted to get more involved this election season....
thanks for the tip...
I am going to join"
There you go, girl!
You can enjoy their first hate-speakers, Mr. and Mrs. Gopher, next weekend, you lucky dog!
Maybe you can sit next to Jeff and cheer the Gophers' we-hate-Muslims speeches together.
Sounds like fun, huh?
Be sure and come back tell us all about it after the meeting's over.
We'll all be waiting here, just dying to know all about the warm welcome the Republican Women of Chevy Chase give these "pushed off the air" hate-speakers.
I know here in this socialist bastion, we're supposed to just accept anything told us by our "Democratic leaders" and Jim, but could anyone actually provide a quote by Fred Grandy that is supposedly anti-Muslim so we can judge for ourselves?
btw, you read a lot of anti-Christian rhetoric here
is there a new policy at TTF of not mischaracterizing religions?
or is this a hate site?
Maryland Juice is run by David Moon, a Democrat operative. The facebook Ali references was created by an Organizing for America intern named Elizabeth. One panelist for their debate is Corey Saylor, a CAIR official, who has targeted Fred Grandy. All of this for an event at a private home for a private audience. And Ike even signed this letter. Something smells rotten here.
yes, it smells like a rotten apple
go ahead, take a bite, Dems
don't mind the maggots
or the Apple ballots
One also wonders how Jim Kennedy, (are you still a federal employee? How's that Hatch Act working for ya'?), is justifying his defense of a religion that calls for the death of homosexuals. Don't drink the KoolAde, James.
guys, it's really not fair to attack Jim for being a government employee
however, the other point is interesting
in Iran last week they executed three homosexuals publicly for engaging in sodomy
where's the outrage from gay advocacy groups?
why don't they seek action from the U.S. government?
I heard that show frequently when driving home after dropping my son off at school, since I was driving carpool on Fridays and Fridays was when the show was on.
She was primarily concerned that a number of the mosques were being used to organize terrorist activities and about the spread of Sharia law. both legitimate concerns. She didn't say anything bigoted, to the contrary the information was factual and she had a lot of it.....
sad that it was shut down. so much for free speech.
"the spread of Sharia law" is a legitimate concern???
when you try to use it to replace US law, yes it is.,
And you think that's going to happen?
in certain places in Europe, it already has
it won't happen here because of the vigilance of people like Fred Grandy
In an era of growing intolerance to Christian beliefs and corporate skittishness to pressure from gay activists, the world’s largest global electronic payments service provider says its clients’ religious freedoms trump homosexual activists’ preferences.
AllOut.org — a gay activist petition site — recently targeted PayPal, taking umbrage at the fact that nearly a dozen ministries and charities that don’t endorse homosexuality use PayPal in their fundraising efforts. “We won’t stop speaking up until they drop [the] 10 sites and ban all anti-LGBT extremist groups,” All.Out.org writes in its petition. The accounts in question are predominately U.S.-based nonprofits.
The petition states that it’s “PayPal’s responsibility to make sure this technology doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.”
Rod D. Martin, a member of the Internet legend’s pre-IPO startup team and former special counsel to the company’s founder Peter Thiel, said that from the very beginning, PayPal has tried to accommodate all views while remaining family-friendly.
“One of the first ‘tough’ calls Peter made was to ban porn and gambling sites from the service,” Martin said. “It’s good to see the company still honoring our early standards, refusing to sacrifice the rights of the vast majority of Americans.”
Take two minutes to thank PayPal for standing up for free speech and religious freedom.
PayPal customer service: 1-888-221-1161.
It won't happen here because we have separation of church and state and will not allow it, by law, any more than we allow the schools to teach fundamentalist superstition.
You cannot force people to accept homosexuality, especially if it is against their religious belief. You can, however, be kind and show them that even if they dislike the 'sin', they can like the 'sinner'. Fighting people 24/7 only furthers a divide.
"It won't happen here because we have separation of church and state and will not allow it, by law,"
sharia? it's principles can be followed without any reference to religion
"any more than we allow the schools to teach fundamentalist superstition"
the schools teach superstitions now
they teach that life spontaneously arose from primordial pool of chemicals and that homosexuality is innate and that it is not dangerous to pursue the homosexual lifestyle and that MLK was not a hypocrite
"You cannot force people to accept homosexuality, especially if it is against their religious belief. You can, however, be kind and show them that even if they dislike the 'sin', they can like the 'sinner'. Fighting people 24/7 only furthers a divide."
what's really divisive is trying to enact laws that force people to associate with and expresstheir feelings about homosexuality
if lunatic fringe homosexual advocates would stop seeking governmental endorsement and preferences, the whole temperature of this could be turned down
laws are enforced 24/7
homosexual advocates should stop trying to push their agenda
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