Somehow, I don’t think you’d find it very menacing at a political rally in Minnesota.
Yes. And our first line of defense against radical Muslim terrorism in the United States are vigilent AMERICAN MUSLIMS. Unlike Europe the United States doesn’t have large communities of alienated second- and third-generation Muslim immigrants to provide a breeding ground for terrorist cells. But treating loyal Americans like traitors and second-class citizens is an excellent way to foster the sort of resentment and isolation from the mainstream that makes terrorist recruiting easier.
The most menacing thing at a political rally in Minnesota is the hotdish…
Really? If there’s been violence near you that’s been led off with “Allahu Akbar” there have got to be some cites you can give us.
-Joe
An understandable reaction, as I said.* But there are reactions and reactions. I’m sure you would never be such an offensive dicktard as to think that your “bit of a chill” feeling entitled you to request a Muslim Congressman to prove that he’s not a terrorist conspirator, for fuck’s sake. Or even to tell him openly that you “feel” like making such a request.
*I felt a little freaked out myself one weekend afternoon at the office recently when a co-worker upstairs started jumping up and down overhead and loudly screaming “Al-hamd li-Allah! Al-hamd li-Allah!”
Turned out to be due to the Egyptian soccer team having just scored a goal; he hadn’t realized there was anybody else in the building to hear him. 
Not everyone can deal with the intensity of a MN political gathering, with its raw, brutal undercurrent of savage violence…
Beck was absolutely on target. He was also on CNN, not Fox.
Bolding mine.
Assuming that the target he was aiming for was “looking like a paranoid, clueless, bigoted asshole”, I’d have to agree with you on that.
Who in this thread has claimed that Beck’s interview with Ellison was on Fox? Nobody, AFAICT. The Fox references were to a different story, linked in the OP.
If by “on target,” you mean “sounded like a bigoted retard then I agree with you.”
So?
I didn’t post that link as evidence against Fox, but just because 'lucy suggested throwing it into the thread.
Well of course not. I HOPE I’m not THAT much of a dicktard. 
I DID say I thought the whole thing stupid after all…I was mostly just pulling DtC’s chain (which he seemed to have gotten with his Minnesota comment). Admittedly, that phrase DOES tend to chill the blood…and I DO tend to associate it (rightly or wrongly) with violence and impending explosions. But you are quite right…its more than stupid to accuse someone of wrong doing because some folks, excited by your win, chanted praises to god in their happyness. And in THAT context, it probably would NOT be a chilling phrase.
Careful reading of what I wrote does not indicate I mentioned ‘near me’…I just mentioned when I hear that phrase these days I tend to associate it with violent acts. Cites? TV mostly, with a few first hand experiences during my various trips to the region. Hm…well, I heard this phrase quite a bit (not first hand) during that Somolia dust up. Then there was that the whole Iran revolution thing (again, not first hand). I was in Pakistan once and heard it quite a bit during a riot (first hand…sorry, no cite). Then there are the periodic uses of it during violent events in Palestine (never been there myself, mind). Then there is…well, I’m sure you get the point. What IS your point exactly? And who exactly is ‘us’ here?
-XT
p.s. My post is my cite…
Too funny! I found myself wondering, “Hey, where’s the stellar one?” and then I remembered.
…to quote World Net Daily, the originator of the story, there is no real evidence that a ransom was paid at all:
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52974
I’ve never seen any reason to trust a story from WND, and I don’t see any reason to start now. The true story of the release of Wiig and Centanni involved the co-operation between the British, New Zealand governments and the people of Palestine, as well as with the help of Fox News, and of course, former BBC reporter and Wiig’s wife Anita McNaught. There are a hundred and one reasons to slam Fox News, the story in the OP being one of them. But this story isn’t one of them…
“Just because the Dems won, the war on terror isn’t over?” Gimme a break.
It is not a news channel It is an arm of the fundies. It presents one sided and slanted stories and commentary.Not news.
Its a darn awkward way to talk about it though.
Minneapolis has a large Somali population - I can’t find stats, but I doubt most of them are current U.S. Citizens. Takes a while to get citizenship (at least five years) and while many of them have been here that long, I’m not sure most of them have - and I’m guessing that for most people it takes longer than five years. Plus, as large as Minneapolis’ Somali population is, they aren’t large enough to be Ellison’s margin of win. Voting is a great way to integrate, but Ellison won the election by being a respected Democrat in a respected Democratic district - not by being Muslim in a Muslim district. There are probably still a lot more Lutherns than Muslims in the fifth district. And integration and the Somali population is an interesting question as well. They are integrating - I have a lot of Somali classmates at school, I see Somali women in the restaurant when I eat, but its a strange integration - particularly for the women yet - very few Somali women wear Western clothes (almost all wear headscarves even if they do wear Western clothes) or are comfortable outside their communities. Somali men seem to be integrating better (though they all want to move somewhere warmer - adjusting to the weather here seems to be a huge thing). We’ve made great strides in helping them integrate - having ESL programs for Somali kids in school, learning what religious requirements need to be met in the schools and places of employment (my employer has a prayer room available) - but a lot more needs to be done - which I’m sure Ellison is well aware of.
In other words, I don’t really know what Ellison was agreeing to. I think he was just trying to get out of a akward moment because if he wanted to discuss Somali integration or the changing demographics of America, I think he’d have said something very different.
I think the clarification was necessary, though. I assumed it was on Fox when I first read the post that brought it up, since the recommendation in that post to the OP was to “include” it, presumably in the OP (which is about Fox News).
I should have clarified that the Ellison interview wasn’t on Fox when I posted the link. It probably should have been a separate thread, for that matter.
My bad. Sorry for any confusion.
Fox News – So Slanted, It’s Horizontal!