As the U.S. draws down in Iraq, it is leaving behind hundreds of abandoned or incomplete projects. More than $5 billion in American taxpayer funds has been wasted — more than 10 percent of the some $50 billion the U.S. has spent on reconstruction in Iraq, according to audits from a U.S. watchdog agency.
That amount is likely an underestimate, ......
Federal officials are investigating a fire that started overnight at the site of a new Islamic center in a Nashville suburb.
Ben Goodwin of the Rutherford County Sheriff's Department confirmed to CBS Affiliate WTVF that the fire, which burned construction equipment at the future site of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, is being ruled as arson.
Special Agent Andy Anderson of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told CBS News that the fire destroyed one piece of construction equipment and damaged three others. Gas was poured over the equipment to start the fire, Anderson said
Ben Goodwin of the Rutherford County Sheriff's Department confirmed to CBS Affiliate WTVF that the fire, which burned construction equipment at the future site of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, is being ruled as arson.
These people see no irony in their fear of shari'a law while calling this a Christian nation. And in case you're inclined to think this kind of thing is justified, substitute the word "synagogue" for mosque, and then tell me that this is in no way, shape, or form similar to Germany circa 1935.
There has been no spectacular attack. Even when the "underwear bomber" episode took place by someone who WAS a radical Muslim, we didn't see this kind of response. So why do we see it now?
Why? Because it's an election year. Because Republicans sense that many Americans have a deep mistrust of Islam that lies right under the surface, and they can exploit it for political gain by reminding them of the mysterious guy in the White House with the funny name. The problem is that when you whip people into a frenzy of fear, it's hard to control what happens. Of course, the Republicans are sitting there, popcorn in hand, waiting for it to all blow up, certain that when it does, it won't be in THEIR faces.
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Connie Lowe is 47, a homemaker from Parrish, N.Y., who has never voted but plans to do so this fall, moved by a new energy in the country she can't quite explain.
"It's the economy today," she said. " I want my son" -- 8-year-old Alexander -- "to grow up and be able to get a degree and get a job."
She has struggled to find work -- in a factory or day care, but jobs are scarce. She is being supported by her boyfriend, a Vietmam War veteran who has a heating and cooling business.
Her dislike over where the country is going motivated her to climb aboard one of 23 buses that came from the Albany area. "I want to fight back, get involved in what's going on," she said.
And President Obama? "Don't get me started," she said. "It's like he doesn't care. He's always off playing golf or on vacation or something. He has no idea what's going on with our boys in Iraq. He never served a day in his life."
Did Connie manage to SLEEP through 2001 - 2008?
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Beck and cashing in on god
Beck's got this shtick down pat.
In what resembled more a revival than a political rally, conservative talk show host Glenn Beck urged the large crowds at his "Restoring Honor" event Saturday to "turn back to God" and return America to the values on which it was founded.
"Something beyond imagination is happening," he told participants who packed the National Mall in Washington. "America today begins to turn back to God. For too long, this country has wandered in darkness."
"Look forward. Look West. Look to the heavens. Look to God and make your choice," he said. "Do we no longer believe in the power of the individual? Do we no longer believe in dreams?"
Well I don't know about anyone else but as Dana Milbank points out, Beck certainly believes in his dream.
There is a telling anecdote in Glenn Beck's 2003 memoir about how the cable news host was influenced by the great fantasist Orson Welles. To travel between performances in Manhattan, Beck recounts, Welles hired an ambulance, sirens blaring, to ferry him around town — not because Welles was ill but because he wanted to avoid traffic.
Most of us would regard this as dishonest, a ploy by the self-confessed charlatan that Welles was. Beck saw it as a model to be emulated. "Welles," he writes, "inspired me to believe that I can create anything that I can see or imagine."
And so he has. Beck has created a fictional world of good versus evil where he, anointed by God no less, plays the pivotal role of savior for the huddled masses who face oppression and tyranny at the hands of an oligarchy controlled by progressives. And if along the way Beck cashes in a few hundred million, so be it. The Beckster will tell you it is all part of God's master plan.
