from The Pew Research Center
Benedict XVI Viewed Favorably But Faulted on Religious Outreach
Summary of Findings
The Muslim and Mormon religions have gained increasing national visibility in recent years. Yet most Americans say they know little or nothing about either religion’s practices, and large majorities say that their own religion is very different from Islam and the Mormon religion.
A new national survey reveals some notable similarities, as well as major differences, in the ways that Americans view these faiths and their followers. Public impressions of both religions are hazy - 58% say they know little or nothing about Islam’s practices, while 51% have little or no awareness of the precepts and practices of Mormonism. The number of people who say they know little or nothing about Islam has changed very little since 2001.
Most Americans believe that their own religion has little in common with either Islam or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Fully 70% say that their religion is very different from Islam, while 62% say this about the Mormon religion. The proportion who say that Islam has little or nothing in common with their own religion has increased substantially since 2005 (from 59% to 70%).
The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, conducted Aug. 1-18 among 3,002 adults, finds that overall evaluations of Mormons and Muslim Americans are on balance positive: 53% say they have a favorable opinion of Mormons, while an identical percentage views Muslim Americans favorably. As in past surveys, more people have a positive impression of “Muslim Americans” (53%) than of “Muslims” (43%).
Two provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional because they allow search warrants to be issued without a showing of probable cause, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as amended by the Patriot Act, “now permits the executive branch of government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment.”
Portland attorney Brandon Mayfield sought the ruling in a lawsuit against the federal government after he was mistakenly linked by the FBI to the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people in 2004.
This is wonderful news. The evil military dictators in their country may be able to ban journalists, but they’ll never get all the cellphones and computers out of the country. God Bless those who care about their freedom. Anybody here in America “hear” that last sentence?
OSLO, Norway - Cell phones and the Internet are playing a crucial role in telling the world about Myanmar’s pro-democracy protests, with video footage sometimes transmitted one frame at a time. Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday the junta has cut some cell phone service.
On the other side of the world in Oslo, a shoestring radio and television network called the Democratic Voice of Burma has been at the forefront of receiving and broadcasting such cyber dispatches by satellite TV and shortwave radio.
Chief editor Aye Chan Naing said the station, founded in 1992 by exiled Myanmar students, is able to pass on nearly real-time images and information about anti-government protests - unlike in 1988, when a similar uprising was shut down in a bloodbath that left more than 3,000 dead.
On Wednesday, the military opened fire after a month of mostly peaceful demonstrations by tens of thousands led by Buddhist monks, and the government confirmed at least one demonstrator killed and three wounded. Activists reported the death toll was five.
Bush: I want $190,000,000,000 more for the war on terror in Iraq!!!
Congress: NO!
Bush: Roll over and play dead.
Congress: Plop.
Bush: Nice dog.
WASHINGTON - President Bush and Congress are headed toward another showdown on war spending, this time sparring over nearly $190 billion the Pentagon says is needed to keep combat in Iraq afloat for another year.
Sen. Robert Byrd, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, vowed Wednesday not to “rubber stamp” the request and said it was time to put Bush’s policies in check.
“We cannot create a democracy at the point of a gun,” said Byrd, D-W.Va., whose speech during a Senate hearing on the spending request was interrupted several times by cheers of anti-war protesters.
“Sending more guns does not change that reality,” Byrd said.
The tough rhetoric was reminiscent of last spring, when Congress passed and Bush vetoed a bill funding the war through September but ordering troop withdrawals to begin by Oct. 1. Democrats still lack the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto.
If approved, Congress would have appropriated more than $760 billion for the two wars, having already approved of $450 billion for Iraq and $127 billion for Afghanistan.
Testifying before Byrd’s panel, Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged that America’s “difficult choices” on the war “will continue to be a source of friction within the Congress, between the Congress and the president and in the wider public debate.”
NEW YORK (AP) — Umpire Mike Winters was suspended by Major League Baseball for the remainder of the regular season on Wednesday because of his confrontation with San Diego’s Milton Bradley last weekend.
The Padres claimed Winters baited Bradley, who has a history of losing his temper. Bradley tore a knee ligament when his manager spun him to the ground while trying to keep him from going after the umpire during Sunday’s 7-3 loss to Colorado in San Diego.
Winters was suspended because the commissioner’s office concluded he had used a profanity aimed at Bradley, a baseball official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the reasoning for the suspension was not announced.
Padres manager Bud Black declined to comment.
“In this case, I think it’s best for my position to just stay away from it,” he said by phone from San Francisco, where the Padres were to finish a series against the Giants on Wednesday night.
The 48-year-old Winters became a major league umpire in 1990 and worked the World Series in 2002 and last year.
Winters became the first umpire suspended since 2003, when Bruce Froemming and John Hirschbeck each were suspended for 10 days. Froemming made an anti-Semitic slur about an umpiring administrator and baseball said Hirschbeck threatened a senior official in the commissioner’s office.
I was looking through some old files, records, and CDs today. I came upon this song and listened to it, marveling at how relevant it is today, September 26, 2007. Almost 40 years have passed since this song was first released about 1970. - JS
UNITED NATIONS - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki warned the U.N. General Assembly Wednesday that the continued flow of weapons, suicide bombers and terrorism funding into his country would result in “disastrous consequences” for the region and the world.
Al-Maliki, who met with President Bush Tuesday, urged the international community and countries in the region to support Iraq’s national reconciliation process to rid terrorism from the country and bring peace to the region.
“National reconciliation is stronger than the weapons of terrorism,” he said. “Today we feel optimistic that countries of the region realize the danger of the terrorist attacks against Iraq, that it is not in their interest for Iraq to be weak.”
Al-Maliki said his country had reduced sectarian killings and brought stability to some regions, such as Anbar province in the west. He said thousands of displaced families have been able to return to their homes.
He said Iraq also has hundreds of political parties active within 20 political alliances; more than 6,000 civil organizations; hundreds of newspapers and magazines and 40 local and satellite TV stations. But terrorists are targeting this “new Iraq,” he said.
“Terrorism kills civilians, journalists, actors, thinkers and professionals. It attacks universities, marketplaces and libraries. It blows up mosques and churches and destroys the infrastructure of state institutions,” al-Maliki said.
Clinton voted for it…… Obama didn’t vote. I haven’t agreed with all of Jim Webb’s votes….but he is spot on on this and should have been listened to. Fuck Clinton. Fuck Obama.
Senators who voted against the resolution were Senators Biden, Bingaman, Boxer, Brown, Byrd, Cantwell, Dodd, Feingold, Hagel, Harkin, Inouye, Kennedy, Kerry, Klobuchar, Leahy, Lincoln, Lugar, McCaskill, Sanders, Tester, Webb and Wyden.
Senators Obama and McCain did not vote on the resolution. Click here for the full Roll Call vote.
Senators Lieberman and Kyl dropped paragraphs 3 and 4 under Section (b), the Sense of Senate section, in attempts to alleviate concerns that the resolution might be taken as an authorization for the use of force against Iran.
[tag]
Senator Webb[/tag] stood up once again to oppose the bill, noting that if the administration proceeds as recommended in the resolution, it would be the first time that the US has desinates an entire military as a terrorist organization and this could be taken as a defacto authorization for use of force. Mr. Webb again noted that there has not been one hearing on this matter and that the amendment should be withdrawn and considered in the appropriate committees.
Meet Doug Brooks, whose trade group represents the private military industry’s biggest players. He makes hired guns sound like U.N. peacekeepers.
Last Wednesday afternoon, amid news that Blackwater USA security contractors had killed 11 Iraqi civilians and wounded 12 others in a Baghdad firefight, members of the antiwar group Code Pink gathered outside the Washington office of the International Peace Operations Association, a trade group that represents a who’s who of the private military industry. There to greet them when they arrived was Doug Brooks, the IPOA’s founder and president, who’d been tipped off to the protest earlier that day by an anonymous caller. “He was on the street with an assistant with an armful of IPOA magazines,” said Code Pink’s Gael Murphy, who heads the group’s Washington office. “He had a smile on his face the entire time as though it were some kind of industry expo day, and he kept [smiling], even as we were asking him about some pretty dreadful matters.” Brooks spent about an hour fielding questions and even escorted some of the protesters upstairs to see his office. I asked Murphy if Brooks had managed to change any minds. “No,” she said. “We were not fooled just because [Blackwater] has a network to cover them-that they’re somehow more legitimate than they were the day of the killings.”
Doug Brooks tells a different story. The day after the protest I met him at a bar near his office. He wore a dark suit and wire-frame glasses. “I think we developed some fans,” he said, still smiling. “One guy, for example, said, ‘I don’t like the concept, but I guess if we’re going to have companies doing this stuff, we need this kind of organization doing the oversight.’” Brooks seemed energized by the experience, which, despite its being a protest, he treated as an opportunity to convert the opposition. “Their questions were really good,” he continued. “We gave them paperwork. We gave them journals. A couple of them even took away IPOA pins.” He pulled one from his bag and placed it in my hand. It bore the image of a sleeping lion, the IPOA’s logo. “Just got a new batch in,” he said.
The Muslim and Mormon religions have gained increasing national visibility in recent years. Yet most Americans say they know little or nothing about either religion’s practices, and large majorities say that their own religion is very different from Islam and the Mormon religion.
Last Wednesday afternoon, amid news that Blackwater USA security contractors had killed 11 Iraqi civilians and wounded 12 others in a Baghdad firefight, members of the antiwar group Code Pink gathered outside the Washington office of the International Peace Operations Association, a trade group that represents a who’s who of the private military industry. There to greet them when they arrived was Doug Brooks, the IPOA’s founder and president, who’d been tipped off to the protest earlier that day by an anonymous caller. “He was on the street with an assistant with an armful of IPOA magazines,” said Code Pink’s Gael Murphy, who heads the group’s Washington office. “He had a smile on his face the entire time as though it were some kind of industry expo day, and he kept [smiling], even as we were asking him about some pretty dreadful matters.” Brooks spent about an hour fielding questions and even escorted some of the protesters upstairs to see his office. I asked Murphy if Brooks had managed to change any minds. “No,” she said. “We were not fooled just because [Blackwater] has a network to cover them-that they’re somehow more legitimate than they were the day of the killings.”
