I don't know if one could call it ethnic pandering, but Congressional candidate Reshma Saujani has gone out of her way to show she knows the meaning of the word "chutzpah," by criticizing her opponent, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, for being insufficiently supportive of the Young Men's Islamic Association proposed to be located at the Holy mother Coat Factory.
On August 4th, when asked about the Park51 facility Saujani said, “I think we need to make sure none of the funding is coming from any terrorist organization, I think we need a process to do that.”
This is a position that puts her to the right of GOP Attorney General Candidate Dan Donovan.
Further, Saujani then upped the ante, proving she's not only a panderer, but totally ignorant of how local government operates. Her answer to who'd conduct such a complicated investigation: “This is where I think the community board can get involved and get engaged in doing that.”
As I pointed out previously, thanks to the efforts of the boyfriend of Saujani Supporter and former Pataki Administration Banking Commissioner Diane Taylor, NYC's Community Boards barely have enough money to evaluate local zoning and monitor City services in their areas, yet Saujani wants to saddle them with national security investigations unjustified by probable cause.
This is exactly the sort of charge one would expect from a candidate financed By Wall Street, as Wall Street's lesson to others, who then attacks her opponent for taking Wall Street money.
The only encouraging aspect of this monumental display of nerve, ignorance and insincerity is that it proves that the anti-Mosque position has not been polling well among Democratic primary voters in the 14th Congressional District (or at least among those cohorts which Saujani is targeting) Incumbent Rep. Carolyn Maloney, challenger Reshma Saujani question each other's mosque support www.nydailynews.com
Wayne Barrett's article rehashes many, but not all of of the points I’ve made previously in my many pieces posted on Room 8 (sure I missed a few), so of course I love it. Reshma Saujani's Road to Congress? Right Down Wall Street. Let Me Be Your Guide. blogs.villagevoice.com
Rangel on Obama: “Frankly, he has not been around long enough to determine what my dignity is,…For the next two years, I will be more likely to protect his dignity.”
Rangel may have lost his Chairmanship and possibly his mind, but his hubris is intact. Rangel Faces Rivals at Candidates’ Night in Harlem – NYTimes.com www.nytimes.com
Leave Blakeman alone, his wife left him for the cute Beatle, and he's just feeling a bit randy. Gillibrand challengers debate, one calls her ‘attractive’ – Capitol Confidential blog.timesunion.com
Five years later and New Orleans Levee System is nearly complete, but in nine years we can't even rebuild a Greek Orthodox Church. In New Orleans, Ring of Protection Is Close to Completion – NYTimes.com www.nytimes.com
I think we've gotten an answer to the "why there?" question from the develop of the Young men's Islamic Association ("This is New York; no matter who you are, you just don’t choose a building, move in, and take over. Do you know how many places I looked at? I looked at Chambers Street. I looked at Vesey Street, Broadway, Greenwich Street, Warren Street, Murray Street. Maybe half a dozen more, I can’t even remember now. It was only after all that that Park Place came up").
Clearly, with all the five-time a day praying Muslims who work in Lower Manhattan, and prayer space already overflowing, they need more and better facilities, and this is where they found them.
What we haven't gotten is an answer to the "Where then?" question from the opponents.
Rauf's latest book "What’s Right with Islam is What's Right with America", was published by HarperSanFrancisco, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch. And it ends with a fatwa issued by five Muslim clerics on September 27, 2001, at the request of the most senior Muslim chaplain in the American armed forces, “Permitting U.S. Muslim Military Personnel to Participate in Afghanistan War Effort.”
Hope this doesn't anger too many of Rauf's supporters on the left (maybe that's why Howard Dean doesn't like him). The Subversive Theology Of Imam Rauf (Cont’d.) | The New Republic www.tnr.com
Saletan says the call for "sensitivity" is underlain entirely by foundations of “group blame" and "a failure to distinguish Islam from terrorism," and that that being the case the "sensitivity argument" is nothing more than an appeal to feelings we can't morally justify. Is a mosque near Ground Zero "insensitive"? – By William Saletan www.slate.com