In Dayton, Ohio, two people were hospitalized Friday after someone gassed a mosque filled with over 300 Muslims celebrating the last ten days of Ramadan. Two men were seen spraying an unknown chemical into a room where babies and children were being kept while their mothers were engaged in prayers. People inside the mosque soon began coughing, tearing up and losing their breath. One adult and one child were take to a local hospital, others were treated at the scene. Tarek Sabagh, a board member of the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton, said, “It’s very disturbing. Something like this has never happened before.”

Notes from Class Discussion

policing vs. imperialism

what world are you living in?

we all live in our own worlds--together

claims

support

assumptions

break apart these elements

must find term for "echo chamber" - filibuster!!

Claims vs. Claims: Casual Argument

http://sustainableidentities.pbwiki.com/Casual+Argument+

Genocide in the World Today

Does Democracy Exist Only In Theory?

Democracy in America exists only in theory.

is the american dream a theory then?

-- Depends what you mean by American dream. What I meant by "Democracy in America exists only in theory" is that the state of political governing in the U.S. does not truly reflect the principles of a democratic republic. There is no "free press" when the press is owned by corporations, and the ultimate priority of the media is to serve their corporate interests. Truth is filtered. Elections are rigged. It's a perversion of democracy, which is why it's so disingenuous when we claim to be bringing our beloved idea of democracy to other parts of the world. We're bad role models. -- Jesse Nevel

There is free press inside the united states, it maybe ran but a corportation, but that does not mean the government is running it and telling us what they want us to hear. On the alligation of elections are rigged....where is your proof? If you look time and time again American steps in where it is needed you say that we cram our democratic ideas down the throats of other countries is bullshit. South Vietnam, we stepped in to stop the spread of communism and dictatorship and the invasion of south vietnam, if not the spread of communism would then spread across Asian. Also to add the south vietnamese asked for the help to defend the country. Another the operation in Pannama, if you had read a history book you would have know that the US stepped in to secure the land to build the Panama Canal by rescuing them from Columbia. The operation in Panama in which 27,000 US soldiers including the eilte US Army Rangers invaded to remove Manuel Noriega, a known drug lord and dictator. As we step into the War on terror, you make statements about how we are being Imperialist....bullshit. If you are to look up the definition of Imperialism you will see it is the creating of a empire. An example of imperalism would be Nazi ran Germany invading Poland. The United States has not been practicing since the 1890's (Painter novel- Standing at Armagedon) if we have been practicing imperalism past those years why have we not made Germany a part of hte US, or Make Japan the 51st state of the United States? You make these remarks and you dont now know. The war on Terror was a retaliation to the attack on 9/11, Ill put it in terms that you will be able to understand since you lack the feeling for you own country. If someone was to attack and hospitalize a love one of yours, and you knew who it was what would you do? You would step up and make it right. That is exactly what the United states did, and when they found that Suddam Hussein was funding Terrorist activities we took it to our hands and released him from power. And when you say that why do we not police the genocide in Darfur.......Darfur started 2 years after the campaign on the war on terror started. We alread had been shunned for our actions and why would be fight two wars at once its crazy. All I say is this you speak about american as being a non democractic spot....I understand your liberal its ok......Move to Canada.- Sam

SAM WRITES: "There is free press inside the united states, it maybe ran but a corportation, but that does not mean the government is running it and telling us what they want us to hear."

You concede that the US media is under corporate ownership, but you are dead-wrong to assume this doesn't mean we are being told what the government wants us to hear. The media, especially in its pathetic coverage of the Iraq war, has behaved as a mouthpiece to the Bush administration. Real, brutal, violent and disturbing images of war are not reported. Corporate leaders engage in their own form of censorship by sanitizing the news. Our journalists are embedded with the soldiers, and as a result, we get an inherently one-sided and narrow perspective. To quote Amy Goodman, "Media monopoly and militarism go hand in hand."

When a small number of media moguls own a large number of news outlets, you shrink the diversity of perspective, a diversity which is essential to keeping the citizenry informed.

Let's talk about Fox News. Rupert Murdoch, who owns the massive, conservative Fox News Channel, is a Bush apologist who goes out of his way to assure that certain news items, depending on their political implications, are emphasized, downplayed, distorted, or skipped entirely. Refer to the documentary Outfoxed for more information on this. Or take a look at General Electric, the largest military contractor. They also happen to own NBC, MSNBC, and CNBC. NBC journalists are reluctant to report stories that might threaten GE's interests. Stories are run to promote GE products. Several examples of GE's destructive influence on the factual purity of NBC's news reporting were documented by the Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting, a national media watch group: click here for more info on GE.

If that's not bad enough for you, read up on VNRs: video news releases produced by the government and corporations, disguised as regular news segments and broadcast on major news networks. Here you go: info on VNRs.

That is not news. That is propaganda.

SAM WRITES: "South Vietnam, we stepped in to stop the spread of communism and dictatorship and the invasion of south vietnam, if not the spread of communism would then spread across Asian. Also to add the south vietnamese asked for the help to defend the country."

That's blatantly false, Sam. You've provided no evidence of this because no evidence exists. It is not conducive to discourse when you make wildly inaccurate claims like this. Stop distorting history. I'm shocked and a bit amused by the fact that, of all the examples of US military intervention, you chose VIETNAM to exemplify the US government's noble intentions. Who are you kidding?

SAM WRITES: "Another the operation in Pannama, if you had read a history book you would have know that the US stepped in to secure the land to build the Panama Canal by rescuing them from Columbia. The operation in Panama in which 27,000 US soldiers including the eilte US Army Rangers invaded to remove Manuel Noriega, a known drug lord and dictator."

I'd like to know which history books you've been reading. What you wrote does not disprove the fact that in 1976, Noriega was collecting $100 thousand a year as a CIA asset, and continued to have a friendly relationship with Bush even after Noriega's drug dealing was revealed by a DEA investigation in 1975. You have not disproved the fact that Noriega collaborated with Oliver North during the Reagan era. You have said nothing to disprove that only when Noriega annulled Panama's 1989 elections did Bush make a serious effort to unseat him. It had nothing to do with the fact that he was a drug lord or a dictator.

SAM WRITES: "The war on Terror was a retaliation to the attack on 9/11, Ill put it in terms that you will be able to understand since you lack the feeling for you own country. If someone was to attack and hospitalize a love one of yours, and you knew who it was what would you do? You would step up and make it right. That is exactly what the United states did, and when they found that Suddam Hussein was funding Terrorist activities we took it to our hands and released him from power."

That was five years ago, Sam. Five years ago. And we're still in Iraq.

How long were we in Germany, or Japan? These things take time for reconstruction-Sam

SAM WRITES: "And when you say that why do we not police the genocide in Darfur.......Darfur started 2 years after the campaign on the war on terror started. We alread had been shunned for our actions and why would be fight two wars at once its crazy."

We are already fighting two wars at once: Iraq and Afghanistan. We did not stay out of Darfur because we'd been shunned or because we were too busy fighting other wars. We stayed out because the US would not benefit financially from an intervention. We don't give a shit.

SAM WRITES: "All I say is this you speak about american as being a non democractic spot....I understand your liberal its ok......Move to Canada."

I disagree with my country's foreign and domestic policy, so you're telling me to move to a different country? Really? Are you saying there's no room for dissent and discourse in America?

-- Jesse Nevel

Imperialism in the United States

Once the WMD lie fell apart, the US government insisted that the true purpose of the Iraq invasion was to crush Saddam's dictatorship and introduce democracy to that troubled region. This is bullshit. We have no problem with dictatorships. We've given our support to dictatorships in El Salvador, Chile, Cuba, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, and many other countries in South and Central America, Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Middle-East., .. (more info: http://wais.stanford.edu/USA/us_supportforladictators8303.html)

Chemical warfare was found in Iraq, maybe not WMD but a close friend of mine a Sgt. in US army of the 82nd Airborne found mortor rounds with valves attached to them. I am pretty sure that these vavles were not containing water. When you make this remark about Cuba, do you know the last time we stepped in to help Cuba? it was the Spanish American War, to secure the land we had in Cuba for the plantation owners. We did not put Castro into power, he took power. ANd the link that you leave on your information that says he should be tried in the world criminal court, if we were to step in to stop him and take control you would make the same bullshit arrgument that you make about the war on terror and say it was not needed. When the US stepped in to help Panama in the early 1890s to secure the creation of the Panama canal. The US made a agreement after the Berlin Conferance that spilt African up to different countries (which we did not take part in) we said that the western hemiphere was our business and that we would poilce it, and the countries agreed to it. - Sam

"Pretty sure these vavles were not containing water" is not substantial justification for invading a country. And I wasn't talking about Castro. I was talking about Batista. - Jesse Nevel

In fact, there was a time (in the early 80s) when we even supported Saddam Hussein:

DONALD RUMSFELD AND SADDAM HUSSEIN

- This picture was taken at a press conference, Rumsfeld went to keep protect our allies- Sam

"Iraq received massive external financial support from the Gulf states, and assistance through loan programs from the U.S. The White House and State Department pressured the Export-Import Bank to provide Iraq with financing, to enhance its credit standing and enable it to obtain loans from other international financial institutions. The U.S. Agriculture Department provided taxpayer-guaranteed loans for purchases of American commodities, to the satisfaction of U.S. grain exporters." --- More information here: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/

In 1988, Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons to kill thousands of Kurds. And US responded by increasing its economic ties to Iraq.

The United states funded Saddam Hussein because he was fighting the fight against Communism not becuase we saw it important to aid a dictator. Fight one battle my friend, in the early 1990s the US entered war with Iraq on the invasion of Kuwait. Yes you make the arguement that we were protecting oil feilds. But if Saddam would of gotten ahold of the feilds he would have got the worlds economy in a vise grip and drained us.- Sam

The point is we did not have a problem aiding a dictator. That punctures a giant hole in your reasoning for the "War on Terror." - Jesse Nevel

In response to the above statement ("In 1990 the US Entered War with Iraq and Saved the Kurds"): that's a ridiculously inaccurate oversimplification of the Gulf War. The US did not enter war with Iraq to "save the Kurds." You're watering down a complex geopolitical conflict. The reasons for US military intervention in the Gulf War had more to do with protecting oil interests in Saudi Arabia than "liberating" anyone from the reign of Hussein. To quote a speech given by George H.W. Bush himself on September 11, 1990: "Within three days, 120,000 Iraqi troops with 850 tanks had poured into Kuwait and moved south to threaten Saudi Arabia. It was then that I decided to act to check that aggression." -- Jesse Nevel

-I was mad not because of what the dvd necessarily showed but how it was shown in. I am not muslim nor do i claim to know about their religion and i do agree that evil is when those who have to power to say something do not. My question to you is what was the point in sending this out, mailing it to homes and putting it in newspapers. This dvd i can understand if it was on the news or something along those lines but what was the point of sending this out was their a reason behind it or was it just for people remember the hate? I understand that the video had the point where is showed that all of those that can say something should but why show little kids with the guns and no i am not saying censor it at all because i do not agree that the american government should have the power for censorship. I agree that the truth is filtered but by yellow journalism the newspapers, magazines, etc. are all just trying to create a headline that people will by regardless of the truth. My fear was by sending out this dvd they created fear the fear we all felt during 9/11 i grew up in NY and i moved the year before 9/11 my friends their were not so lucky. Try going to school with people insulting you telling you to go back to your own country that you do not belong here. That is what they went through daily, someone i knew also got the house vandalized and spray painted on the walls was go back to your country.

This is what upset me and I can not imagine what they went through because we all were born in America and even though they were muslim their parents were from Guyana in South America.

Why tell people to move out of the country that seems ignorant, naive and is full of down right stupidity. I am so sick of the those stupid remarks i hope you never feel how that statement can be hurtful because it is at least to me. Statements like move to canada is beyond me why if you do not believe that we can change america for the better then why don't you move....nothing is perfect including America the government needs to learn from is mistakes and quit making the same dumb ones all over again.. they write the history books i think it might be time for them to open one.-Amelia

The video is definetely extreme. It is abusing the right of freedom of speech and press I think. I agree with amelia, what is the point of sending it out?!?! Let it be on the shelves of movies stores for sale or rent, give people the choice of receiving the information. To me this video is slander of the muslim religion. Point being if your born here your a citizen, people need to remember at one poiint in time their ancestors were immigrants and not citizens, so do not point fingers. The DVD is controversal and hurtful at the same time. WE must trust ourselfs and teach our future generations not to be narrow minded and full of hatred. that's really all we can do- Savannah Moyars

Graphic Representations of Jingoism

Counterpoint to Graphic Representations of Jingosim

isnt this ^ nationalism?