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Friday, March 07, 2003

I get the feeling this won't be all over the blogosphere, (a Google search gives nothing) and the only reason I'm seeing it in the local paper is that the principal is from U City, but here we go...

Eric Vickers has resigned from his position as the head of the American Muslim Council over a discussion board post on Feb. 3 that the space shuttle Columbia disaster may have been a "message from God", according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. From what I've been able to see, there has been exactly one outcry in general (Rep. Jerrold Nadler).

Vickers' resignation after very little public outcry over his remarks was certainly different from what happened after Jerry Falwell very publicly blamed America for the 9-11 attacks, where Falwell issued a series of mealy-mouthed 'apologies' and his compadres of wingnuts blamed the liberal media for singling him out.

UPDATE: Correction - it showed up on Volokh's site after Nadler released his letter, with no other comments other than it was "accurate", which it was. Had to do a lot of hunting to get it, but that's not Volokh's problem. Even searching on his full name (Eric Erfan Vickers) gets you very little on his actual email.


Thursday, March 06, 2003

One Bill Scannell has organized a campaign to boycott Delta Airlines. Why, you may ask? Because Delta is the first airline to test the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, or CAPPS II. What it does is background checks on all passengers at booking, assigning a risk level even more simpleminded than the silly fiver-color scheme cooked up by the Shrubbery's Department of Homeland Security. Get this: it checks criminal records, credit reports and banking histories.

Yes, you read that right. If you fail a credit check, no ride for you. [Naughty language follows, so hide your eyes if you get offended by that sort of thing. Given my scant readership, I'm probably safe.]

Are you fucking kidding me? A credit check to fly? They're going to threaten to deny boardiing to someone who may have had a bank error three years ago? And even with this put in, it can still be easily defeated by a determined terrorist cell?

Just fucking outrageous.


Wednesday, March 05, 2003

TAPPED has a bit today on a proposal by TomPaine.com for Annie Free Fries and Bernie Goldberg to debate the merits of their books against Eric Alterman's What Liberal Media? on C-Span without the usual media hacks moderating. Then they came upon a sticking point for such an event that illustrates why the shrieking right-wing slobber crew goes through these exercises of untruth.

$20,000 speaking fees. No wonder the indolent right is a pack of whores.


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