Our Stupid Thing of the Week actually started last week, but like many stupid things, it probably won’t end anytime soon. So with shaking heads and looks of disbelief, we present our weekly award to one of Charlotte’s all-time champions of Stupid Things, Rep. Sue Myrick.
Last week, Myrick announced at a press conference that she had written the foreword for a new book, Muslim Mafia, which charges that the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a nonprofit advocacy group, has, among other things, planted radical Islamist spies as Capitol Hill interns. Written by former Air Force investigator P. David Gaubatz and journalist Paul Sperry, the book’s primary piece of evidence is a one-page CAIR “strategy document.” This insidious CAIR document shows conclusively that American Muslims are planning to conduct a, umm, well, actually, they plan to conduct a pretty standard PR and lobbying plan, including “placing Muslim interns in congressional offices.” And that’s it. No kidding, that’s the “evidence.”
Er, Sue? Couple of problems. First, lobbying while being Muslim isn’t a crime. Second, there’s no mention, much less proof, of “radical Islamists” applying for congressional internships anywhere in the book you recommend, nor in the authors’ “smoking gun,” i.e., the strategy document. Yet, Sue, you claim the authors uncovered documents proving that radical Islamists “live among us and are carrying out their subversive plan.” Again, Sue, where is the evidence for this supposed plot that has you all agog and bug-eyed again?
The charges, as have been pointed out by a multitude of congressional staffers, members of Congress, foreign policy experts, journalists, and even a former Republican N.C. cabinet member, are laughable at best. I’ll go one better and call Myrick’s statements what they are: batshit crazy paranoia. Then again, delusional nuttiness with a nasty undertone has been Myrick’s stock in trade for years.
Myrick’s looniness — or, to be more genteel, her overexcitability blended with paranoia and a dash of authoritarianism — is familiar to anyone who’s followed her political career. Does anyone else remember her City Council days, when she got all wigged out about heavy metal and “Satanic” rock groups, and wanted to set up a panel to judge which rock groups coming to Charlotte were suitable for teenagers, whom she branded as “lemmings”? And don’t get me started on the talking coffeepot, or the homemade altar on the beach, both of which were sources of God’s guidance for Sue. Or her previous comments on how Muslims were taking over the country because so many of them run convenience stores. Yep, rabid Goofballism has long been Myrick’s “approach” to governance, which in a way, I suppose makes her a kind of pioneer for the off-the-wall comments coming from the GOP these days.
Yes, it’s all funny in a ridiculous way, which is something we’ve come to expect from Myrick, but here’s what’s not funny: millions of Americans eat this kind of junk for breakfast and, like Sue, believe themselves in a world that’s crawling with evil people, probably brown ones, who are out to get them. It’s way too reminiscent of the 1950s’ red-scare era for comfort. What’s next — making American Muslims wear crescent-and-star patches on their clothes? Here’s Sue on CNN, talking about this latest bit of craziness. Warning: watching this could be painful, because, seriously, you’re about to watch one really sad human being.
This article appears in Oct 20-26, 2009.
Long before “Muslim Mafia” was published several members of Congress had warned of CAIR’s disturbing origins. One of the first consistent and fearless critics of CAIR has been Democrat Senator Charles Schumer who said: “We know [CAIR] has ties to terrorism…intimate links with Hamas.” Senator Schumer made these statements during a September 2003 Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security where the evidence against CAIR was laid out in detail. CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad was invited to testify at this gathering, but chose to avoid the meeting and instead submitted a crude and absurd written statement listing CAIR’s “accomplishments” and childishly attacking critics.
Senator Schumer continues to give unapologetic support in efforts to investigate and exclude CAIR from involvement in government programs, including “training” the FBI. In February of 2009, Senator Schumer joined Senators Kyl and Coburn in contacting the FBI to state their support for the FBI severing ties to CAIR saying “We certainly support that action…”
Democrat Senator Barbara Boxer has also called out CAIR. She recalled an award to CAIR’s Basim Elkarra when she researched and learned of his involvement with CAIR and CAIR’s ties to Hamas. In addition to recalling the award, Senator Boxer also told CAIR to remove her statement endorsing CAIR from their web site. CAIR blasted Senator Boxer saying her actions were rooted in “Islamophobia.” Senator Boxer made clear her feelings about CAIR when she said: “To praise [CAIR] because they haven’t been indicted is like somebody saying, ‘I’m not a crook'”
When Representative Sue Myrick was joined by congressional colleagues and members of the Anti-Terrorism Caucus at a news conference to announce their request for the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate efforts by the CAIR to lobby congress illegally and place CAIR interns in sensitive agencies, CAIR thought they had an easy mark with eager media assistance to vilify these Republican representatives as “attacking Muslims” and deflect the attention away from the evidence of CAIR’s dubious ties to terrorism. However, Sue Myrick founded the bipartisan Anti-Terrorism Caucus which consists of over 120 congressional members and includes Representatives Bud Cramer (D-AL), Kay Granger (R-TX), and Jane Harman (D-CA) who are the Caucus co-chairs. A Caucus statement demonstrates that CAIR is a serious problem for all Americans, not just an issue for one political party:
“Terrorists don’t target Democrats or Republicans. They target Americans, and this is why
we must face this issue as Americans. Members of Congress and the American public must know the threats we face from radical jihadist terrorists. The Anti-Terrorism Caucus will give Congress the tools and resources it needs to communicate those threats to the public, as well as help them make more informed decisions when it comes to terrorist issues.”
Dre you have got it going on!
Thanks for bashing the silly liberal over the head with the truth. Almost every post by these guys are deeply partisan and leave out relevant information to try and make thier case.
I was going to write that CAIR is a bad guy but I only knew the gist of it. Dre knows the dirt on CAIR extremely well.
I thank you for shedding some much needed light on this topic and Grooms indirectly.
CAIR was STARTED for Hamas by Hamas members for the support of Hamas.
Founder Omar Ahmad on FBI wiretaps spoke of starting an organization in the US for Hamas. He went on to say:
“Registering an organization is easy. I can register 100 organizations in 100 cities in one day…”
He then said: “I mean, we don’t really have available people whom we could dedicate
for the work we want to hide…”
http://www.txnd.uscourts.gov/judges/hlf2/09-29-08/Philly%20Meeting%207E.pdf
What work were these CAIR founders going to try to “hide”?
Why would any “civil rights organization have to “hide” anything from anyone?
Answer? Work in support of Hamas.
CAIR was built on a foundation of religiously mandated fascism and death. They and anyone associated with CAIR have no business in our government.
John Groomes=ignorant lefist.
CAIR is a terrorist supporting organization that admits that they want Islam law to dominate the USA.
But here is good ole’ John, standing up for them.
John, if you ever want to actually educate yourself on Islam check my site on a daily basis.
http://www.islaminaction08.blogspot.com/
OK, not sure whom to believe.
So i used my brain and visited the CAIR website to learn about it. If this is such a bad organization how come tons of public officials, Jewish and Christian leaders, and law enforcement people are praising it? Here is what they say:
http://www.cair.com/AboutUs/WhatTheySayAboutCAIR.aspx
CAIR was started by HAMAS…Hamas was created by Israel to counter Arafat.
We kill muslims on the daily. Muslims want to kill us. Muslims do suicide attacks, we drop cluster bombs and use predator drones.
We give foreign aid to both sides.
War begets war, hate begets hate.
Either or neither nor…. hahaha
@Luke2008.
Yea, that explains everything. So if we pull out, the world will be peaceful again, right? Conflicts all over the world, ALL involving muslims, will just end, right?
And Spain terror attacks are because Spain is also killing muslims i guess.
The “we did something, they did something” argument is the most common cover up, for what is really a “peaceful religion” followed to the text.
What muslim country can attack and defeat us?
Better yet what country can defeat the US?
Why are we in the middle east?
Why did they attack us? What motivates them? They even stated, we meddle over there. Have been for decades.
Spain gets attacked. Why? Maybe because they had troops in Iraq and Afghanistan? Uh can someone say blowback?….notice they pulled out immediately.. no attacks in 5 years…no patriot act, no dept of homeland security.
Is it fighting for turf? fighting for oil? Resources? Promoting a welfare state? Promoting democracy? Fightin ’em ova there instead of here?
Whats the difference between what the US is doing over there and what the Crips and Bloods do?
Not much.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMLJJEDDDGc
Here. Educate yourself.
Educate yourself “video” — lacking in facts, short on history.
I won that argument. You obviously cant respond to the questions.
You are dealing with an enemy empowered by years of western meddling. This enemy has no army, no navy, no marines, no airforce.
How in the world did we beat the commies? They had the USSR and nuclear missles right off of our coast. Diplomacy.
Ya know, insert commies in for fundamental islamists and you get the same thing.
People like you depend on a centralized tyrannical govt to defend you. You elect to give it more power year after year. This same entity the (CTG) has done everything in its power to disarm its own citizens while fighting useless wars, expecting no blowback.
With thats said, here’s how you beat “terrorism”.
Stop meddling in foreign affairs.
Trade and have diplomacy with all.
Repeal ALL gun laws, let people defend themselves.
— case closed.
At least we agree on one thing: Fundamentalist Islam is the new Communism.
Bad thinking leads to more bad thinking. To admit how horrible the Islamic terrorista are, and how widespread their support is among Muslims, and that they must be defeated, contradicts the whole post modernist/moral relativist world view, a belief system that is religion to many on the left. But, since Bush is Hitler and conservatives are wrong about everything, and the reason the Islamic murderers want to murder us is the fault of America, meaning conservatives, and there is no objective truth, no absolute moral standard, escept that conservatives and Christians want to enslave and opress and kill everyone, and did you hear about more of those Baptist and Methodist terrorists blowing up mosques and NOW meetings and vegetarian restaurants, and what have the terrorists ever done to us that wasn’t our fault anyway?!!!!!!!!