HATING MUSLIMS

Every now and then you run across someone or something that affirms your faith in the lowest common denominator.

Witness the latest example -- this enlightened motorist and his/her collection of bumper stickers. The only thing missing is an I slam, you slam, we all slam for Islam sticker.

AN AGONIZING COLLISION

Say this, if nothing else, about the current administration -- it really does create its own reality. Not as tasty as making your own gravy (unless you believe Nick Lowe was right about that whole cruel-to-be-kind business), but it's fascinating to watch. Almost funny in a macabre way, until you realize it's happening in the United States.

Thursday's New York Times rolled with a deep, detailed story about the redefinition of torture by this country's leaders. The skinny: Congress outlawed “cruel, inhuman or degrading” treatment of prisoners. In a legal opinion, the U.S. Department of Justice agreed. But in a secret opinion, Justice said things like waterboarding, sleep deprivation, sensory overload and blows to the head are not cruel, inhuman or degrading.

Problem solved. Secrecy preserved -- until The Times opened a few windows so all of us can see what the government is doing in our names.

Do yourself a favor, if you haven't already. Read the story and go from there.

KEITH ELLISON RISES ABOVE

He's the first Muslim member of Congress and hails from Minnesota. On Thursday, he was sworn into office, taking the oath with a Quran that Thomas Jefferson once owned, a two-volume work that was published in 1764.

Some conservatives say Ellison shouldn't have been allowed to use anything but the Bible to take an oath of office. Some even claim (wrongly) that no one has used a Quran to be sworn into office.

The Associated Press reports:

Ellison had already planned to be sworn in using a Quran, rather than a Bible. He learned last month about Jefferson's Quran, with its multicolored cover and brown leather binding, and arranged to borrow it.

Although the Library of Congress is right across the street from the Capitol, library officials took extra precautions in delivering the Quran for the ceremony. To protect it from the elements, they placed the Quran in a rectangular box and handled it with a green felt wrapper once inside the Capitol. ...

The Quran was acquired in 1815 as part of a more than 6,400-volume collection that Jefferson sold for $24,000 to replace the congressional library that had been burned by British troops the year before, in the War of 1812. Jefferson, the nation's third president, was a collector of books in all topics and languages. ...

Some critics have argued that only a Bible should be used for the swearing-in. Last month, Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode (R-Va.), warned that unless immigration is tightened, "many more Muslims" will be elected and follow Ellison's lead.

Ellison walked up to Goode on Thursday and invited him to coffee. After, Ellison said: "Look, we're trying to build bridges." Goode's office offered no comment. Not a surprise response from a guy who thinks tightening immigration will keep Muslims out of the U.S.

MORE FEAR, LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS

Majed Shehadeh is 62, a Syrian living in Germany. He flew to the U.S. last week to surprise his daughter. He's the one who got a big surprise -- a four-day detention in a Las Vegas jail cell. According to this report from Fox News:

Shehadeh flew from Frankfurt to Las Vegas last Thursday, hoping to meet with his wife and drive to Bakersfield, Calif., where his American-born daughter had just gotten news she'd passed the California bar exam. Instead, he wound up shivering in a holding cell without ever being told why he couldn't enter the country, he said.

Roxanne Hercules, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, confirmed Tuesday that Shehadeh was denied entry, but would not discuss specifics of his case. She said Shehadeh's visa waiver could have been denied because "he could have a criminal record, or it could be a terrorism issue."

Officials told Shehadeh's family he was on something called a "look-out list."

'BLIND CLERIC' NEAR DEATH IN SPRINGFIELD

Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman is an inmate at the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Mo. Now he is reportedly dying, and the feds are worried. Fox News reports:

The FBI has sent a bulletin to state and local law enforcement warning of possible terrorist reprisals as the health of an incarcerated terror mastermind fails, FOX News has learned.

Although the FBI said there is no credible indication that a plan for retribution is in place, the agency sent the warning as Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman was treated in Missouri for bleeding.

The blind sheik, who was the alleged architect of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, has called for revenge should he die in U.S. custody.

Last week, Abdel-Rahman was given blood transfusions at St. John's Regional Health Center in Springfield, Mo., after spitting up blood in his prison cell. A tumor was reportedly found on his liver.

Abdel-Rahman was convicted of plotting to blow up the United Nations.

GOOD RIDDANCE, RICK SANTORUM

The U.S. senator from Pennsylvania lost his reelection bid last month, in part because of his infamous bursts of verbal insanity about man-on-dog sex.

The radical right still loves Rick Santorum, however. He did not disappoint them on Wednesday when he voted against the nomination of Robert Gates to be the nation's defense secretary.

According to this Washington Post story:

Two Bush allies, Sens. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., and Jim Bunning, R-Ky., voted against Gates, citing his criticism of the war and his view that the U.S. should engage Iran as part of a solution.

"Mr. Gates has repeatedly criticized our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan without providing any viable solutions to the problems our troops currently face," Bunning said. "We need a secretary of defense to think forward with solutions and not backward on history we cannot change."

Santorum mocked the idea of engaging dictators and talked at length of the evils of "radical Islamic fascism." When it comes to reaching out to Iran to discuss the security of Iraq, Santorum said of Gates, "I think he is in error."

Santorum still hopes to rise from the ashes of his political career and become the leader of the theocons. Beware.