Cross-posted (with some mods from MuslimMatters.org)

A new chapter in the long and painful saga of the "War on Terror" has been revealed to the public. The facts are murky, the details impossible to confirm.

While there are several possibilities, there is one that most will find almost impossible to believe. We are not ready to believe that Dr. Aafia is a star terrorist-- a claim that is ironically being jointly pushed by both the US Government and Al-Qaeda. Why are these opposing sides pushing forth this nearly consistent portrait? The answer lies in each group's malicious agenda.

In one hour flat, regardless of style or performance or substance or pundit analysis, Obama successfully disarmed the GOP attack machine by catapulting above the Muslim question.  He accomplished this feat without having to even mention the term 'Muslim'.  What Obama did last night was he talked about not whether or not he's Christian but what kind of Christian he is.  In doing so, Obama forced all of god-fearing America to bear witness to his true faith.  Even better, Obama's appearance in Saddleback will continue to serve as a reference point as the GOP scrambles to contrive new attacks and give legs to fresh lies.

Today, I wandered on to the No Quarter site.  Why, you ask?  For the same reason we pick at a scab, or probe that aching tooth:  sometimes I just want to see how low people can go.

The latest on-dit on that site is the picture of a school enrollment form from Obama's school in Indonesia.  And there is so much hate and misinformation about the fact that his father wrote in his religion as Muslim, and how he MAY have been seen going to a mosque, and how he said he knew the Muslim call to prayer and once said that it was a beautiful sound.  

It's been awhile since I've posted anything here, but now that I am finding some time to do so, I have something that is a bit provocative. It's a trailer for a movie called Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West. I admit that I have mixed feelings about the subject in general. But I thought the movie would still be worth a look.

In encouraging the U.S. to defend the nation of Georgia, why did John McCain insist on labeling Georgia a "Christian Nation"?

I got another one of those ridiculous bogus viral chain emails  today. It got me so riled up I actually drafted a response. It's tough getting a mail like this from this person - as she is actually a very kind and loving person who lives in the burbs of upstate NY.
I'm sure many here would be much more effective skewering this trash, but I just needed to spout off.
I haven't sent it yet, and I'm posting it as a Diary just to let it "simmer" for a while.

The original mail below the fold, followed by my rant.

When Obama was nominated, I, a Hillary person, did not know much about him, although my son absolutely loved him.  So I started doing my homework. And I found out lots of facts that few people know.  

The FBI is saying Bruce Ivins sent the anthrax that wound up killing five and terrorizing the whole country. The deadly attack was aimed at some of our top politicians and media figures. If ever there was a terrorist attack, this was it. So, how come no one is calling Ivins a terrorist?

Let's get real. You know what the answer is. It's because he is white. It's also because he is Christian and right-wing, but I'll get to that in a second. Now, if you don't believe that they're not calling him a terrorist because he's white, let me ask you this question: What if his name was Sheik al-Abdullah Muhammad?

The Headline: A plant in Shelbyville, Tennessee, has replaced the paid holiday of Labor Day with a vacation day for Eid al-Fitr to accomadate the plant's many Somali workers.

According to a news release from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, a new five-year contract at the plant included the change to accommodate Muslim workers at the plant.  

Tyson's director of media relations Gary Mickelson said the contract includes eight paid holidays -- the same number as the old contract.

Eid al-Fitr -- which falls on Oct. 1 this year -- marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.

Union leaders said implementing the holiday was important for the nearly 700 Muslims, many of them Somalis, who work at the plant that employs a total of 1,200 people.

(cross-posted, with fun editorial cartoons, at CampaignSilo.com):

So thirteen percent of people think Barack Obama is a Muslim. An unprecedented crisis in public ignorance? "Not so," said my dad, because Will Gorenfeld is a Civil War buff, or rather a pre-Civil War buff, who knows everything about the year 1856, and believes nothing is new under the sun. "There were rumors," he said, "that John C. Frémont was secretly a Catholic."

Look, we all know he's a radical black Muslim, with a long history of hating America and what we stand for. Need proof? I saw an interview on Fox that showed an Iraqi being questions about Obama, and the guy said, "Of course, he's a Muslim. His middle name is Hussein."

But, Obama is very clever at hiding this well known fact. He even went so far as to put bacon on his breakfast tray when he ate with the troops in Iraq this week.

Much more...

We ll see a lot of weird stuff in the run-up to the election. One is an attempt to link Obama to Muslim terrorists through Kenya.

Obama did appear with Raila Odinga when the latter was running for President in Kenya; Odinga was running against the obviously corrupt and potentially authoritarian government of Pres. Kibaka. Odinga did sign an understanding with the Muslim minority, however. See what the right-wing made of it, below.

It was great seeing so many of you in Austin last week!

At least one major right-wing smear attack on Obama may be gearing up.  I'll call it the "Who Sent You" campaign.  As weird as it sounds -- and it is weird stuff -- the gist of it is that Obama's birth was part of a secret plan by communists, Jews and one-worlders to take over the world.   As you read this it is going to sound so fanatically wingnut/John Birch Society/black helicopter/precious bodily fluids weird that you are likely to dismiss it as the rantings of crazy people.  But I have learned over the years that this stuff resonates with a certain crowd, and they are remarkably effective at tapping the fears of Americans.  

Keep in mind how weird and unbelievable the Swift Boat accusations seemed -- and remember the powerful effect they had on the public and election results.  In The Swiftboaters Are Back in the Water I wrote about the effectiveness of the dishonest accusations,

...wherein we find out that there's something going off in McCain's brain.

and sometimes it's just racist. As I watched the Larry King interview last night I couldn’t help but feel a little bit of air slip out of the balloon. "He just wasn’t Presidential" said my wife, next to me on the couch, and while I agreed, I forgave him that, he wanted to be one of us, to connect with middle America, whatever that meant. No, it was more than that... it was what could have happened in that interview that deflated my balloon just a bit. I’m nowhere near walking away from Barack, the best candidate the Dems have had in years! But eventually, as my hero Billy Bragg has said, the shine is gonna wear off and we’re all gonna see that he’s just a regular person with faults too, lol! And last night, yeah... he could have really zapped us with some brilliant anti-racism, some real sock-it-to-me anti-discrimination rhetoric, some tell-it-like-it-is American melting pot discourse! But not once did he give us any hint that the New Yorker cartoon cover is even racist! Wow.

On last night's edition of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart took the time to go over the biggest Obama controversy to hit the airwaves since... well, at least a week or so. I'm talking of course about the New Yorker's satirical cover of Obama smears and mis perceptions.

I was glad to find that Jon & his writers feel the same way about this issue that I do - that its really blown totally out of proportion and that it's just a satirical cartoon. The incredible "outrage" that people in the media are displaying over such a clearly satirical spoof also comes across as disingenuous because it is people in their profession that have allowed these rumors and smears to go on without seriously being debunked. If there is no merit to these accusations why lend weight to them or treat them as serious concerns?

Here is the Daily Show clip to watch and then feel free to weigh in with your own reactions to it and/or the New Yorker cartoon:

Politico provided a partial Larry King interview of Obama.

Updated w/video

The MSM is once again wringing its hands, asking how can Obama introduce himself to the American population because 12% still believe he is a Muslim.  The talking heads then describe Obama’s failure to connect and explain who he is.  As Ben Smith pointed out, this is a part of a much larger problem in the society.  Americans believe stupid things.  It is not Obama’s problem – it is our problem.