In today’s postcards from the edge we meet the (non-Muslim) black guy who happened to be walking by the anti-mosque protest near the old Burlington Coat Factory outlet down town yesterday. Good times were had by all.
Like TPM Reader JB, it occurs to me that the sudden and single-minded focus on Muslims has let the country’s collective guard down against Mexicans trying to invade the US and take over our ranches.
When I type “ground” into Google, the first suggested search term is “ground zero mosque.” It comes ahead of “ground beef recipes,” “groundhog” and, perhaps most tellingly, “ground zero” itself. Read More
Federal judge in Washington issues preliminary injunction stopping federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research under Obama administration’s new guidelines.
We’re making calls to determine what the implications are of this preliminary injunction halting federal funding of stem cell research, particularly the legal implications. But I wanted to get input from our reader-experts, too.
It’s only a preliminary injunction, but the judge in the case, Royce Lamberth, strongly telegraphs where this is heading: he doesn’t buy the government’s argument at all. But here’s the thing, it’s not just the argument of the government’s lawyers in this case. It’s the same argument NIH has been making for more than a decade. It comes down to whether the 1996 federal law banning the government from funding research that involves the destruction of human embryos applies to research done on stem cells derived from embryos. Read More
It’s very dangerous and full of Arabs. Otherwise, have a great time.
TPM Reader JW chimes in on the stem cell decision …
I don’t know much about stem cells, but I know a lot about administrative law (which I’m gearing up to teach again this semester), and I’ve read the opinion. It’s true that if this ruling holds up, then it changes the legal terrain dramatically — Lamberth is saying that no government money can support stem cell research until Congress enacts a budget without the Dickey-Wicker language. But there are two big caveats in order here. Quickly:
I truly have to wonder what is up with, what’s happened to and just what the hell is going on at the ADL when I read stuff like this.
He’s back! Efraim E. Diveroli, the Miami dude/arms dealer we covered extensively at Muckraker when he was busted for supplying outdated Eastern European munitions to the U.S. government, has been arrested again on new federal firearms charges, the New York Times reports. He’s not even been sentenced yet for his first conviction, but told an undercover agent a couple of weeks ago, “Once a gun runner, always a gun runner.”
We rundown the list of pluralistic, tolerant, Constitution-respecting national Democrats who have forcefully defended the fundamental right to build a Muslim community center in Lower Manhattan.