Do NOT buy from Discount-Mats.com

Web Site Kicks Sand in Faces of GIs in Iraq Asking for Mats to Ease Hardship of Sleeping on Ground

An American GI assigned to one of the harshest posts in Iraq had a simple request last week for a Wisconsin mattress company: send some floor mats to help ease the hardship of sleeping on the cold, bug-infested ground.

What he got, instead, was a swift kick from the company's Web site, which not only refused the request but added insult to injury with the admonition, "If you were sensible, you and your troops would pull out of Iraq."

Army Sgt. Jason Hess, stationed in Taji, Iraq, with the 1st Cavalry Division, said he emailed his request to Discount-mats.com because he and his fellow soldiers sleep on the cold ground, which contains sand mites, sand flies and other disease carriers.

In his email, dated Jan. 16, 2007, he asked the Web-based company, registered to Faisal Khetani, an American Muslim of Pakistani descent:

"Do you ship to APO (military) addresses? I'm in the 1st Cavalry Division stationed in Iraq and we are trying to order some mats but we are looking for ships to APO first."

On the same day, Hess received this reply:

"SGT Hess,

We do not ship to APO addresses, and even if we did, we would NEVER ship to Iraq. If you were sensible, you and your troops would pull out of Iraq.

Bargain Suppliers
Discount-Mats.com"

Khetani on Monday told FOX News that the person responsible for the email reply had been fired. The Web site, meanwhile, has been temporarily taken down.

Hess emailed that he has since found two mat suppliers willing to ship to an APO address in Iraq.

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Contact info:
Faisal Khetani
PO Box 270693
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53227

Administrative Contact:
Khetani, Faisal
sportsfitness@gmail.com
3259 S.106th Street West Allis
Wisconsin 53227
United States (414) 543-9634

Sohail Mohammed?

When speaking of the new season of 24:

Sohail Mohammed, a New Jersey immigration lawyer who represented scores of detainees caught up in the post September 11, 2001 dragnet, watched the episode depicting the nuclear attack with an Associated Press reporter.

"I was shocked," he said. "Somewhere, some lunatic out there watching this will do something to an innocent American Muslim because he believes what he saw on TV."


So freedom of speech only applies if you are some radical Islamic Cleric calling for the death of Israel or the U.S.? Mr. Mohammed is a lawyer, he should be well aware of what is protected speech.

America to Blame for Illegal Aliens Turning to Crime, Latino Advocate Says

Americans are to blame for some illegal immigrants becoming serial crooks because "they're picking up those bad habits of cheating, of drinking and drugs," according to an official of a prominent Latino advocacy organization.

Jesse Diaz of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) made the claim on Monday during an interview on Dallas talk radio station KRLD, and then repeated them on Tuesday to WFAA-TV.

Diaz was discussing a federal study of 100 illegal immigrants with arrest records. The study found they had each been arrested and released six times, on average.

When questioned about how living in America is responsible for them becoming serial lawbreakers, Diaz stood by his remarks, arguing that conservative Catholic values learned in Mexico start to break down once in the U.S.

Diaz pointed to an increase in teen pregnancies and broken homes in the immigrant community, and also blasted the wearing of baggy pants.

Diaz’s remarks caused shock in the Dallas area, immediately lighting up KRLD phone lines.

“My mouth just flew open,” said one listener upon hearing the comment.

KRLD DJ Jay McFarland questioned the accuracy of Diaz’s claim.

“If you have to break the laws to get here initially, what respect are you going to have for our laws,” McFarland said.

Diaz claimed the study of 100 illegal aliens with criminal records was flawed, which prompted him to speak out.

"It teaches them to hate immigrants, and the majority of these immigrants are good people," Diaz said.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency also critiqued the study, calling it neither statistically significant nor objective. ICE however also pointed out that more than 355,000 criminal aliens have been deported since 2003.

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The minute they sneak across the US/Mexico border, they are criminals. Jesse is an idiot that cannot except the facts.

Bogus Threats Against American Indian Over Chief Illiniwek Mascot

Reading a bit of news this morning I found this story:

University of Illinois Probes Threats Against American Indian Over Chief Illiniwek Mascot

on foxnews.com. After reading the story, it just seemed too simple. I am sure there are people out there who would say things like that; I have no doubt in my mind. But it seems the person who these threats were targeting is one of the activists trying to get the mascot removed from the school. I am sure a bit of research will show her identity, but that's not really the issue here. The issue is who wrote the threats? Threats like:

"I say we throw a tomahawk into her face"

and

"what they don't realize is that there never was a racist problem before ... but now i hate redskins and hope all those drunk casino owning bums die."

Those statements are terrible and people should never talk about others they disagree with like that. But, did the person who wrote those comments disagree with the targeted student? If you ask me, no. These comments were written by someone who believes the same way as the targeted student. Possibly even the student herself. My guess would be someone else though; we'll get to her next.

These comments alone don't raise a red flag; the red flag is raised later in the story.

Enter stage left: professor Brenda Farnell

It looks like foxnews went to her for a comment, and she was more than happy to climb right into the fiasco. Most professors would try and distance themselves from something like this. It's bad, bad for everyone and especially bad for the school. But not professor Farnell. She jumps right in and starts throwing punches from square one.

One faculty member said the woman who was threatened is one of her students.

"She's targeted because she has been very brave and active," professor Brenda Farnell told The AP on Tuesday. "She's been the recipient of hate speech before, to her face."

Farnell, part of the university's Native American Studies program, declined to identify the woman but said she is a graduate student and a Sioux.

Hmm, it looks like the professor is part of the university's Native American Studies program. I sure would like to know what side of the Chief Illiniwek Mascot issue she is on. Of course, my guess would be that she is against the mascot, but I am going to do a bit of research before I make that conclusion.

Research done, I can tell you it seems to me that this professor Farnell is some sort of zealot when it comes to the Chief Illiniwek issue, see below:

http://www.retirethechief.org/Dialogue/farnell.html
http://www.uillinois.edu/trustees/dialogue/Farnell_letter.pdf
http://www.nativeculturelinks.com/lsa.txt
http://www.iresist.org/
http://jss.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/28/1/30?ck=nck
http://www2.uiuc.edu/unit/senate/speakers.html
http://www.illinimedia.com/di/apr_00/apr13/news/news01.shtml
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles

A quick Google search of "Brenda Farnell" + illiniwek gave me 9 pages of hits all about her views on Chief Illiniwek. You can say it's one of her pet projects. Here is a quote:

In the United States, the Euro-American practice of using stereotypical Native American imagery and dancing in association with athletic mascots continues despite vigorous protest.

Analysis of the discursive formations associated with one such local practice—the dancing Indianmascot at the University of Illinois known as Chief Illiniwek—suggests that the dominant "race-making" population, who are the mascot’s ardent supporters, create and passionately defend a "White public space" in which any contemporary Native American presence is positioned as disorderly.

Hmm, anyone thinking what I'm thinking? She sounds a bit like Ward Churchill and seems to be marching in step with the racist "blame whitey" crowd. You can read more at the links above and come to you own conclusion.

Now back to the foxnews story.

So if I were a betting man, I would say that this Brenda Farnell or one of her cohorts made these outrageous statements against this American Indian student to try and turn the tables on the discussion. In her mind once the students are in danger, maybe the University will change its opinion on the whole mascot issue and send Chief Illiniwek packing.

From the foxnews.com story:

The university's board of trustees could discourage further threats by doing away with the mascot, Farnell said.

"They've been sitting here for years and years now," she said. "They seem to be totally oblivious of that."

So, she sees the threat against the student as a good thing and will now use it as proof to have the mascot removed. If anyone should be removed it she be this shady professor.

Maybe the professor would be happy if they change the mascot to a short drunken fighting Irish man?
-The fownews story is here-

Who is Keith Ellison?

Well for starters he is a U.S. Congressman. From his website's bio page:

Originally from Detroit, Michigan, he moved to Minnesota in 1987 to attend University of Minnesota Law School, where he graduated with a Juris Doctor degree in 1990. Ellison and spouse Kim, a high school mathematics teacher, have lived on the Minneapolis Northside for the past 17 years. They have four children ages 17, 15, 10, and 9.

-snip-

Keith has a long history of community service. For eight years he hosted a public affairs program on community radio. Before entering the legislature, Keith regularly testified before state congressional committees and legislators on issues including privacy, welfare reform, indigent defense, environmental justice and others. Keith has also organized citizens to address the issue of police community relations - in fact, Keith was directly involved in the effort to establish the Minneapolis Police-Civilian Review Board in the early 1990s.

Wow, he seems like a good guy. I would vote for this guy, who cares about the "D" next to his name. Who even cares about him swearing into office using the Koran. I don't, that's what America is all about. We are the melting pot after all and I believe that is what makes this country great. But there seems to be more to this story than meets the eye. Here's what we do know:

1. At age nineteen, while attending Wayne State University in Detroit, Ellison converted from Catholicism to Islam.
2. While a law student in 1989 and 1990, Ellison wrote several columns as Keith E. Hakim in the student newspaper, the Minnesota Daily.

• The first article defended Louis Farrakhan against accusations of antisemitism
  "[61], defended Nation of Islam spokesman Khalid Abdul Muhammad, and spoke in
  the voice of a Nation of Islam advocate."
• The second column "called affirmative action a 'sneaky' form of compensation for slavery, suggesting instead that white Americans pay reparations to blacks,"
• The third suggested the creation of a separate state for black residents[63][64].

In 1997, when Joanne Jackson, executive director of the Minneapolis Initiative Against Racism (MIAR), allegedly said that, "Jews are among the most racist white people", Ellison, using his religious name Mohammed, read a statement supporting her on behalf of the The Minneapolis-St. Paul Study Group of the Nations of Islam: "[We] stand by Ms. Jackson. We stand by the truth contained in the remarks attributed to her, and by her right to express her view without sanction.

Campaign finance has also been an issue for Ellison. In early 2006, the Minnesota State Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board reprimanded Ellison for unreported contributions, discrepancies in cash balances, and misclassified disbursements. These transgressions occurred in the years 2002-2004. In 2005 when the board tried to get more information about the problems in Ellison's reports, they got no response from Ellison or his treasurer (his wife Kim). When the board heard nothing, they opened the investigation. Ellison was subpoenaed and fined.The board has also fined Ellison numerous times for late filings, been sued twice by the attorney general, and has been warned many times for absent or incomplete disclosure.

Early in Ellison's campaign, his driver's license was suspended for failure to pay multiple tickets and fines. When asked how many times his license has been suspended, he said, "I don't know how many prior suspensions I've had; I don't keep count." Reports indicate that he had accumulated over forty parking and traffic tickets, and that his license was suspended twice. Ellison also failed to pay all or part of his income taxes five separate years between 1992 and 2000, forcing the state and Internal Revenue Service to put liens on his home. He later paid in excess of $18,000.


SOURCES listed here.

Israel PM: 'I'm sorry if civilians injured' in raid

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Four Palestinians were killed and 25 wounded, including two journalists, Thursday during an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he regretted any civilian casualties from the raid.

"I'm sorry if innocent civilians in Ramallah were injured, but you have to remember that Israel has to take the right precautions to prevent terrorists from hurting Israeli citizens," he said.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported the four Palestinians killed were civilians. CNN has not confirmed this reporting.

"Today's incursions were meant to stop terrorists who killed innocent Israelis," Olmert added, speaking in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt, where he was meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

"During that action there were shots aimed at Israeli soldiers, and I'm sorry that things developed in ways that were not planned ahead. It was not our intention, it was not our will."

-more-

This is the Palestinian Militants MO - Fight and kill as many Israelis as possible, including civilians. And if you get any casualties, you call them civilian non-combatants. Since none of them wear uniforms, who is to know. I say, if you go to battle and you do not wear a uniform, you are honor less and should be treated as a criminal assassin.

Olmert offers to free $100 million for Palestinians

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israel is willing to transfer $100 million to Palestinians for humanitarian needs, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokeswoman said Saturday night after Olmert met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

However, Miri Eisin told CNN the money will be released only if a way is found to transfer the now-frozen funds directly to Palestinians -- without going through the Hamas-led government.

"The international community was the one that defined clearly that the money could not go through that government. We want it to arrive at hospitals -- for medical supplies, for the different things that are needed to alleviate the Palestinian suffering," Eisin said. (Watch Eisin discuss what happened in the meeting )

The $100 million is only part of the revenue from tax rebates and other sources that Israel froze after the Islamic militant group Hamas came to power in March. The European Union and the United States have designated Hamas a terrorist group for its goal to destroy Israel.

In a statement released by Olmert's office early Sunday, the summit was described as a step in reviving the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, which broke down in September 2000.

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Great - give them more money to buy rockets. I hope this money goes to the good of the Palestinian people, but somehow I doubt it. Let's keep our fingers crossed.