Trent Lott did not do anything wrong, he did not say anything wrong,his heart was not full of malice when he got up there and made that honorable statement, or rather that benign statement for Strom Thurmond. The President of the United States stood up and stuck a knife in his chest…

— snip —

Now Chris (Matthews) is talking about getting the Jewish vote and the suburban soccer moms and all of that — the heart and soul of the Republican party is working class, middle class white folks, males, who don’t like what was done to Trent Lott.

Pat, calling it like he sees it, on MSNBC.

I think (Lott) had one chance, and that was immediately after he made this statement, he could have come out and said, “you know, of course I’m for civil rights, that had to come and it’s a good thing it came, I just thought there were other ways we might have been able to avoid all the street fighting of the sixties, and the police dogs, and the big, uh, turning the hoses on people, and the women doing awful things to each other, terrible things went on in those sit in demonstrations.”

— Chris on MSNBC a few minutes ago. I don’t know what that last bit means either.

From the Guardian of London:

“The war on terror is not a war on Islam”; “The most recent occasions the United States has gone to war has been on behalf of Muslim interests”; “We believe Islam is a peace-loving faith that condemns violence”.

American government officials have said these and similar statements so often since September 11 2001 that in many Muslim countries - such as Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation - they have become diluted and lost much of their resonance.

So recently Washington has tried a fresh approach; namely to demonstrate America’s tolerance, respect and even love for Islam by showing what wonderful lives Muslims lead in the US.

The first instalment of this approach was a series of two-minute TV films and accompanying print advertisements focusing on five Muslims who live in America.

Think they’ll focus on this?

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hundreds of Muslim men and boys are being subjected to strip searches in freezing, standing room only detention centers in southern California after being arrested for routine visa irregularities, immigration lawyers said on Thursday.

They estimated that between 1,000 and 2,500 males, some as young as 16, were spending their fourth day locked up in what they called inhumane conditions after voluntarily presenting themselves at immigration offices to register under new anti-terrorism rules.

“The situation in the detention centers is absolutely horrifying. In one center, they were ordered to strip down and given a strip search. They were only given a prison jumpsuit, without any underwear, T-shirts, socks or shoes. They were not given blankets. They are freezing,” Iranian-American lawyer Sohelia Jonoubi told Reuters.

Update: Atrios, god bless ‘im, hits the nail on the head once again. (If his site isn’t on your blog shortlist, well — um, it should be, is all.)

Look folks - imagine you’re dealing with your DMV. Imagine Flunky #1 messes up your driver’s license application and tells you to come down to the office. Then, when you do go down to the office as requested Flunky #2 notices you drove there AND you don’t have your driver’s license (because, well, they screwed up your application). Flunky #2’s boss recently decided they now had a no-tolerance policy on such things and he has you arrested and thrown in jail.
Then, of course it doesn’t stop there. The special DMV judge operates his own special DMV court which has its own rules. Speedy trial? Nah. You could be there awhile. Who will support your family? Who knows. Chances for appeal? Not really.

The DMV judge deports you back to a country you haven’t lived in for 10-15 years. Your American children wave goodbye, as does your wife.

You guys know I love the site. And we’re both part of the TAP family, so I say this as a brother, or at least an older and wiser distant cousin: Unless you’re signalling an imminent Hitchens-like ideological conversion and will soon be throwing your lot in with the smug warbloggers, you probably want to avoid the neat-o secret treehouse words like “fisking.”

And for god’s sake, don’t start talking about “anti-idiotarians.”

Just my two cents.