But in Texas of all places, there is one Muslim social Justice figure who is starting to find a niche in talk radio.

Here is a story from the Lone Star Iconoclast:

Sipping green tea across from The Lone Star Iconoclast at a Starbucks in Dallas last week, Hadi Jawad scratched his head. He didn’t know what to make of this lack of news. To him, the new verdict was huge. The jury found all the defendants guilty on all counts for basically giving charity to children in Palestine.

“I would have thought that the outcome this verdict in the second trial, the retrial, would have made national news. It didn’t. The first one did. This one is regional. It’s in this area. It didn’t make New York or LA. That’s startling. You’d think it’d make big news,” he said.

The retrial had been more “intense” for Jawad than the original one. He spent up to three hours each day outside of the building with Hungry For Justice (H4J), a group working in support of the five defendants outside the Earle Cabell Federal Court Building.

“I didn’t miss a day. We had a totally different action going on. We probably served 5,000 meals there during lunch. We fed the homeless. We did this whole action the two months we were out there,” said Jawad.

The local glossy city magazine wagged its finger at H4J’s feeding program. A writer with D Magazine said the H4J support group had exploited the Dallasites that are homeless in order to manufacture more sympathy for the defendants. Jawad, of course, disagreed.

“I’m not giving them a sandwich for free and say, ‘Stand over there and hold this banner.’ I’m not doing that. I told them what the issue was and why they are getting this food, and if you want to stand in support, we’d appreciate it,” he said.

Jawad knows how this game is played, though. The 56-year-old Pakistani immigrant (reared on the Shia side of Islam) has been an active advocate on social justice issues all his adult life. In high school, he organized an effort to clean up the campus’ dilapidated restrooms. In 2004, he co-founded the Crawford, Texas Peace House. And three weeks before the latest HLF verdict, Jawad entered the radio business seeing the need to bring the voices of American Muslims to the airwaves.

Jawad’s hour-long radio show “American Muslim Voices” can be heard on KMNY 1360 AM Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. This opportunity came four months ago with the help of his friends at the upstart Rational Radio , a progressive talk radio station in North Texas. In fact, last year he had introduced the station’s founders, Tunde Obazee and Dave Clifton. Obazee’s wife, Kelli, later approached Jawad for program ideas catering to the local Muslim community.

Indeed it seems this old medium that previously and in many ways still is monopolized by the mostly white conservative male Rush Limbaugh or James Dobson. And although it by and large still is, talk radio as a medium seems to be undergoing a transformation, much like the rest of American society. More woman are gaining a voice in talk radio. African -American and Latinos are gaining more prominence in the medium as are gays. Liberals too are creating their own patch in the radio landscape as well.

Dick Cheney’s brazenness and utter disgust for the American system of checks and balances has been striking. How such a despot ever rose to such a position of prominence is distressing as it is disgusting. First he flaunts the fact he approved acts that many consider torture, some of which are inquisition style tactics used by our enemies in World War II and the Khmer Rogue in Cambodia, was a badge of honor and now he is saying that consulting congress before sending troops into harms way in accordance with the 1973 War Powers Act, is unconstitutional when in fact the the power to declare war officially is in the hands of the legislative branch.

Politico.com:

With regard to the powers available to the president on national security, Cheney, a former congressman, continues to disagree with Congress writing into statute limits on presidential power, and even deemed the 1973 War Powers Act “a violation of the Constitution.”

“The War Powers Act is still in force out there today, that requires him to grant certain notifications to the Congress and give them the authority to supercede those by vote if they want to when it comes to committing troops,” Cheney said. “No president has ever signed off on the proposition that the War Powers Act is constitutional. I would argue that it is, in fact, a violation of the Constitution; that it’s an infringement on the president’s authority as the commander-in-chief. It’s never been resolved, but I think it’s a very good example of a way in which Congress has tried to limit the President’s authority and, frankly, can’t.

Well here is what the Constitution says DICK!

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.

The sad thing about this is despite all the talk of Cheney finally being accountable for his deeds, he will likely get away with this. With a guy like this and his we need to bomb the village in order to save it mentality, it is a wonder we aren’t all in camps enclosed in barbed wire. Cheney remains me of Mrs Iselin in the original “Manchurian Candidate”, she apppears on the outside as a Joe McCarthy anti-communist, working to squelch dissenting opinions and old rivals so she and her marionette puppet of a husband (which I guess Bush is the metaphor for here) can rise to power, but she does so surreptitiously so she can destroy what makes it great and unique and open it to America’s enemies.

Anyway the UK Daily Mail has an interesting piece on some rare phonograph recordings found and made public. They date back to 1913-1917 and feature the voices of a British family in the midst of World War I as the European continent and the world were enduring turmoil and devastation on a scale then unprecedented in Global History. The casualties would be numerous and three European Empires and the European Continent would undergo some of the most dramatic and historical shifts since the Napoleonic Wars.

They are heard celebrating either Christmas, as they sing carols and discuss their father being away at war. The roles were found by a man unrelated to the family who are identified as the Smith family. From a link embedded in the article in the Daily Mail you can hear the recordings.

There will be a drum circle, art, DJ Brando, and the Afro beat band Shokazoba will be playing and more. The Soyal is celebrated by the Hopi and Zuni Indians to celebrate the awakening of the sun. This will be an early celebration since the solstice and the Soyal celebrations are actually the next day on December 21 which is also the shortest day of the year.

W Mark Felt the man who was later revealed to be “Deep Throat”, probably the most famous anonymous source in American History when he revealed to Reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein that tied burglars at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters to the Nixon White House and led to the downfall of America’s 37th President, died Friday at the age of 95.

Despite Nixon being reviled by history and many Americans there is a minute band of Nixon defenders (many like former Nixon speech writer and adviser Pat Buchanan and former Watergate burglar turned Miami Vice Guest star and Radio talk show host G Gordon Liddy) are former employees of Nixon.

The conservative site Hotair.com has an interesting piece on Felt.

In my estimation, Felt was neither hero nor traitor. He didn’t disclose the information to Woodward and Bernstein from a noble calling to Truth and Justice. After Hoover died in May 1972, everyone in his inner circle assumed that each of them would succeed him as Director. Nixon had no intention of perpetuating Hoover’s corrupt influence, however, and appointed L. Patrick Gray to the position while having Felt handle the actual operation of the Bureau. Felt considered that a betrayal, and struck back by undermining Nixon.

But that doesn’t make Nixon innocent, either. Felt knew that Nixon had skeletons in his closet and made sure they got exposed. In truth, most whistle blowers don’t act entirely out of a sense of self-sacrifice, and Felt was no exception. And as in the case of many whistle blowers, the information was accurate and the offenses were serious. Nixon needed to go, and Felt played a major role in sending him packing.

True. I think the best way to sum up Felt and his motivations is that he committed a courageous act for the wrong and self serving reasons.

The Bush/Cheney administration, the Christian right, and the Middle East theocratic governments they now condemn and brand as evil for denying many of their citizens equal rights stand together in this instance. The U.S now is the only western country standing against a United Nations declaration that calls for the decriminalization of homosexuality.

Now in the United States homosexuality is not illegal. But there are still parts of the nation where an employer can terminate the employment or refuse to hire a homosexual, where hate crimes against people of that sexual persuasion are committed, couples are denied the benefits that would be afforded to heterosexuals, and are barred from so much as speaking freely about their sexuality if they are in the U.S Military.

But even worse in many non western countries, especially some in the Middle East where it is acceptable to execute homosexuals. Yet the United States which positions itself as the island of tolerance, justice , and freedom between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans is now in affect tolerating that, by standing with such countries in opposition to this resolution. So much for compassionate conservatism.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Alone among major Western nations, the United States has refused to sign a declaration presented Thursday at the United Nations calling for worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality.

In all, 66 of the U.N.’s 192 member countries signed the nonbinding declaration — which backers called a historic step to push the General Assembly to deal more forthrightly with any-gay discrimination. More than 70 U.N. members outlaw homosexuality, and in several of them homosexual acts can be punished by execution.

Co-sponsored by France and the Netherlands, the declaration was signed by all 27 European Union members, as well as Japan, Australia, Mexico and three dozen other countries. There was broad opposition from Muslim nations, and the United States refused to sign, indicating that some parts of the declaration raised legal questions that needed further review.

Now the U.S in the United Nations says they are opposed to this because it could make the Federal government impede on some functions normally reserved for the states. Funny, Marriage is usually a legal function reserved for states and municipalities, yet Bush/Cheney and their social conservative allies seem not to hesitate to do just that when the issue comes to banning marriage between gays.

Everyone knows that Dick Cheney has never been a proponent of the kind of open and accountable government, you know like the well-informed citizenry that Thomas Jefferson and our founding fathers envisioned centuries ago. One could even debate whether or not he believes in the traditional American form of government as we know it.

See Cheney seems to believe that he is not a public servant, that he is not in the role of vice president (or in his case puppet master) because he wants to sustain the laws and systems that have guided our country. He believes that this is a country where the masses need to be fought and that a small wealthy and powerful elite which he is a member of are at war with. Its secrecy and tyranny so authoritarian it would make his old mentor Richard Nixon cringe.

So its not surprising that Cheney now believes he can reverse any law he sees fit including the 1978 Presidential Records Act that states that all public documents of an administration be turned over to the National Achieves at the end of an administration, to be viewed and studied by scholars, journalists, historians and the general public.

Yahoo.com

WASHINGTON – Dick Cheney’s lawyers are asserting that the vice president alone has the authority to determine which records, if any, from his tenure will be handed over to the National Archives when he leaves office in January.

That claim is in federal court documents asking that a lawsuit over the records be dismissed. Cheney leaves office Jan. 20, potentially taking with him millions of records that might otherwise become public record.

“The vice president alone may determine what constitutes vice presidential records or personal records, how his records will be created, maintained, managed and disposed, and are all actions that are committed to his discretion by law,” according to a court filing by Cheney’s office with the U.S. District Court on Dec. 8.

Cheney is being sued by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a government watchdog group that is trying to ensure that no presidential records are destroyed or handled in a way that makes them unavailable to the public.

The 1978 Presidential Records Act requires all presidential and vice presidential records to be transferred to the National Archives immediately upon the end of the president’s last term of office and gives the archivist responsibility to preserve and control access to presidential records. The law ended the tradition of private ownership of presidential papers, opening White House records to the public and historians.