It appears that the Muslim congregation building the mosque and community center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee had received a series of threats before the arson attacks over the weekend. Our Rachel Slajda spoke to one member of the center’s planning committee, Saleh Sbenaty, a local college professor.

Sbenaty expressed shock over the atmosphere in a town he’s lived in for 30 years. For most of that time, he said, the community has been extremely supportive and welcoming. Even after Sept. 11, 2001, he said, neighbors came up to him and said, “Please do not feel scared. We know your religion has nothing to do with this.”

“It’s a wide shift, and a shock,” he told TPM. “It’s just mind-boggling.”

A series of new polls say that opposition to Health Care Reform is on the rise.

Larry Sabato had a quick tweet that raised an interesting point about the history of Congressional elections. The point is this: the House of Representatives has changed hands six times in the last three-quarters of a century — 1946, 1948, 1952, 1954, 1994 and 2006. Every time the Senate has flipped too. The reverse is not the case. The senate has flipped several times without the House. But going back to the New Deal era the Senate has followed the House every time. Read More

A series of unfortunate and unintended errors by Navy submariner Jarod Mcintosh alerted his superiors to the fact that he is gay, and now he’s being forced out of the military despite the Pentagon’s new kinder, gentler Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy.

Orrin Hatch comes out in strong support for the Park51/”Ground Zero Mosque” project. See the video.

Seattle man charged with hate crime after allegedly punching turban-wearing man at convenience store and yelling: “You’re not even American, you’re al-Qaida. Go back to your country.”

It’s not enough that we have American Muslims facing a new wave of Islamophobia on the American right, hyped up to greater extent by the coming November election. But it appears the we now have another case of a Sikh who’s fallen victim to backwoods American cultural illiteracy.

We’re looking into the case David just mentioned where a man was accused of punching a man wearing a turban in a Seattle area convenience store and yelling “You’re not even American, you’re al-Qaida. Go back to your country.”

The only problem is that Muslims don’t wear turbans that often. But Sikhs do. We’re trying to find out more about the victim’s identity. Needless to say, one should be able to choose the headgear of your choice.

Former DOJ Civil Rights Division lawyer says the Tennessee mosque incident over the weekend looks like a hate crime.

Reps. Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy are the Young Guns.

So they’ve just released a new book Young Guns: A New Generation of Conservative Leaders. And now they’ve released a special web video for the book. Which you simply must see, especially the second half. After the jump … Read More

New tweet from John Boehner: “100 economists also signed a letter urging the president to cut spending now to help create new jobs”

Too much demand and spending in the economy. Need to ramp back.

I guess we can seriously discuss the bang-for-your-buck of stimulative spending vs. concerns over longterm indebtedness. Cut taxes to create jobs? Okay, an effect, though the level is debatable vis a vis indebtedness and fiscal health. And of course it depends which taxes. But cut spending as a way to create jobs? Doesn’t that rule you out as being Speaker of the House?