Extremists

Letter writer Al Eisner betrayed his political bias ("Libya attack a direct result of Obama foreign policy weakness," Sept. 16) when he characterized President's Barack Obama's Middle East foreign policy as "left-wing" and "weak" - the partisan talking point of the Republican Party. Those who keep up with political comments from the Middle East know that the rioters constituted but a handful of extremists - in the mere hundreds. In Egypt, the young revolutionaries who overthrew Hosni Mubarak were noticeably absent from the demonstration.

It is amazing how differently different people see things. I suspect much of these differences boil down to simply which news broadcasts and talk show hosts we tune to. If only we could have news stations like the BBC, which believe it or not, actually broadcasts news. We could then take the facts that are reported as the basis for making up our own minds. Instead, we have "facts" that are manufactured by people from either the extreme left or right, which are then played full strength over and over.

Apparently, part of the Republican Party in Washington has been taken over by a religious cult. This cult is righteous, dogmatic, disciplined, intolerant and dictatorial. It is quite willing to hijack the legislative process to ensure that its demands are met. As demonstrated in the last few days, its members are willing to become suicide bombers, threatening the entire U.S. economy if they don't get their way. These people are the American Taliban. Our domestic Taliban adheres to several fundamental beliefs: •No new taxes for anybody, anytime, whatever the circumstances.

Mitt Romney was a bad candidate facing a president saddled with a bad economy, but he could have won if he hadn't been critical of President Obama's auto bailout plan. All he had to say was that the auto rescue was the right path and that he hoped it would work. He also should have taken the issue of rape, pregnancy and abortion off the table. All he had to do was insert language in the party's anti-abortion platform calling for exceptions in cases of rape, incest or to protect the life of the mother.

It is amazing how differently different people see things. I suspect much of these differences boil down to simply which news broadcasts and talk show hosts we tune to. If only we could have news stations like the BBC, which believe it or not, actually broadcasts news. We could then take the facts that are reported as the basis for making up our own minds. Instead, we have "facts" that are manufactured by people from either the extreme left or right, which are then played full strength over and over.

Under our Constitution, a strong president should protect and defend the nation and the presidency from dangers both foreign and domestic. The question isn't whether Washington handled the debt ceiling crisis effectively. It didn't. The important question is why a small rogue ideological group was allowed to hold the American government hostage and create a dangerous precedent that future extremists, from the left and the right, will try to exploit. The president and congressional leaders should have resisted attempts to link two totally disparate issues: a short term self-imposed debt ceiling; and a serious recession, job shortage and long term growth and fiscal problems.

Mitt Romney was a bad candidate facing a president saddled with a bad economy, but he could have won if he hadn't been critical of President Obama's auto bailout plan. All he had to say was that the auto rescue was the right path and that he hoped it would work. He also should have taken the issue of rape, pregnancy and abortion off the table. All he had to do was insert language in the party's anti-abortion platform calling for exceptions in cases of rape, incest or to protect the life of the mother.

Brian Phillips is the head of communications for the NYC General Assembly, the group primarily responsible for occupying Wall Street. I learned about him while listening to National Public Radio's "Morning Edition. " According to NPR, Phillips is "an ex-Marine with a bachelor's in computer science. Today he is wearing a sock on his head. " "My political goal," Phillips says, "is to overthrow the government. " Note: That's not some random nut job pulled from his Lyndon LaRouche desk or tricked-out refrigerator box/time machine.

WASHINGTON -- An international manhunt has been launched to track down 20 Muslim extremists -- 15 of various Asian and Mideast nationalities and five Filipinos -- linked to Ramzi Ahmed Yousef's terrorist operations in the Philippines, according to Philippine and U.S. officials.The extremists are widely believed to make up the central core of a cell operated by Mr. Yousef, who was arrested last week in Islamabad, Pakistan, for allegedly masterminding the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in Manhattan.

NOT LONG ago at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, Jewish students, faculty and staff sat down to a Seder. As their forebears had done for thousands of years, they broke bread, retelling the story of the Jews' deliverance from slavery.They also broke tradition. That evening, they were joined by African-American students and staff, who read from their books and sang with the Gospel Choir, celebrating their liberation from slavery.The issues for this Seder were race, ethnicity, religion and freedom -- and the problem of communication between these two groups, not only at UMBC, but everywhere.

One may wonder what role God plays in the eyes of those proportionally few extremists among the Christians as well as the Muslims if everyone considers himself both judge and executioner and feels impelled to predate the Day of Judgment. It is those very violent extremists, associating themselves with the religion of Islam, who through their actions insult their prophet most. Because the Quran does not imply any worldly punishment for blasphemy, let alone condone vigilantism. Quite the contrary, the Quran states repeatedly "Bear patiently what they say" and also "And when thou seest those who engage in vain discourse concerning Our Signs, then turn thou away from them until they engage in a discourse other than that.

Letter writer Al Eisner betrayed his political bias ("Libya attack a direct result of Obama foreign policy weakness," Sept. 16) when he characterized President's Barack Obama's Middle East foreign policy as "left-wing" and "weak" - the partisan talking point of the Republican Party. Those who keep up with political comments from the Middle East know that the rioters constituted but a handful of extremists - in the mere hundreds. In Egypt, the young revolutionaries who overthrew Hosni Mubarak were noticeably absent from the demonstration.

The attack on the American consulate in Libya that left four dead, including our ambassador to that country, Chris Stevens, is outrageous and deplorable. The senseless loss of life there should be a cause of mourning for Americans, not a flash point in the presidential election. That said, Mitt Romney has a point in criticizing some of the Obama administration's statements about the attack. The violence in Libya and simultaneous unruly protests at the American embassy in Cairo were ostensibly sparked by outrage over an obscure, unreleased film that is said to depict the Prophet Muhammad negatively and criticizes the Muslim religion.

Like the ghosts of Shakespeare's Banquo or Dickens' Jacob Marley, the specter of the late commie-hunting congressman from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, will always be with us. It is summoned up today, by some on the left, who use it as a tool to thwart legitimate questions about people and ideologies that seek to destroy America. According to many commentators, the McCarthy spirit has inhabited Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann. In several letters to high-ranking government officials, Ms. Bachmann has raised questions about Huma Abedin, a Muslim-American, who is deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Don't you find it odd that the word "extremism" seems to apply only to conservative Republicans? Terminology often drives political discourse, and those who control the terms often determine the outcome. Establishment Republicans have too often been uncomfortable in their own skin. When they win elections, they sometimes seem unsure of what to do next. Democrats never seem to have this problem. They operate according to their core convictions and are never considered extreme. Instead, they are moderate, even normal.

Your article on cost cutting at the Postal Service is an ominous indication of the progress of the far-right campaign to destroy the U.S. Post Office, which has served our nation since its beginning and is enshrined in Article I of our Constitution ("Postal Service cost-cutting may deliver blow to Easton," March 10). Contrary to the lies being propagated by those who would leave us at the mercy of FedEx and other private competitors, the USPS is not broke and has not used any taxpayer money since 1971.

WASHINGTON -- After a third white soldier was charged in the killing of a black couple in Fayetteville, N.C., Army officials said that they were examining whether there were any patterns of extremist activity at Fort Bragg because the three harbored Nazi flags and white supremacist literature.Maj. Rivers Johnson, a spokesman for the Army's 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, said in a statement Friday that the shootings were an "isolated incident," but he acknowledged that the division was "reviewing the units" for any evidence of "patterns of activity that are incompatible with Army policy."

JERUSALEM -- As a state inquiry began into the security failures that led to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, the Israeli Cabinet said yesterday that it would crack down on Jewish extremists.The government established three committees to study ways to disband Jewish extremist groups, to bar Jewish extremists from entering Israel and to cut off funds to institutions believed to incite against democracy, Cabinet Secretary Shmuel Hollander said."The government declares that extremist, violent, racist and terrorist organizations pose a great threat to the democratic regime of Israel, to the security of the state and the safety of the public," Mr. Hollander said.

The effort by the Democratic Party, the UAW, Michael Moore and - disgracefully - Rick Santorum himself to orchestrate Democratic crossover votes against Mitt Romney in the Michigan Republican primary fell well short of its goal ("Santorum and Romney fight their own class war in Michigan," Feb. 27). Mr. Santorum's unholy alliance with big government, big labor and extremists underscores his shortcomings as an economic lightweight and an all-too-frequent shill for the unions during his years in Congress.

At first, it seemed as if Rick Santorum was questioning President Barack Obama's religious faith. Now, it appears that what he meant was to question the faith of all Americans who believe clean water, air and land is in the public interest. For someone running for secular office, the former Pennsylvania senator has expressed a lot of thoughts about Catholicism, Christianity and religion in general, but even his supporters must have been surprised when he denounced President Obama as embracing a "phony theology" during a recent campaign appearance in Ohio.