Boy, that “hallowed ground” sure covers a lot of square miles.  There’s a new rash of hate crimes and bigotry targeting the ground zero community center, and…

Wait, hang on. I’m being told they mosques in question are nowhere near ground zero. And the ground isn’t hallowed. It’s just… ground:

In Fresno, Calif., two signs were left at the Madera Islamic Center last week, the Fresno Bee reported. “Wake up America, the enemy is here,” one read, and the other said, “No temple for the god of terrorism at Ground Zero.”

A brick was also thrown at the mosque, the paper reported.

And the Council on American-Islamic Relations says a toy pig was left at a Sacramento Valley Islamic center with the words “No mosque in NYC” and “Mohammed the pig” written on it. Islam regards pigs as unclean, and forbids believers from eating pork.

And of course, there’s that mosque site under construction in Tennessee that some alleged arsonist thought needed some torching.

And that Muslim New York cabbie who got stabbed.

And the mosque prayer rug in Queens that some drunk peed on.

Apparently the bigots are very, very afraid of peaceful Muslims who have just as much right to practice their religion as you or I do, or even Timothy McVeigh had to practice his. And yet, ironically, these very same small-minded “patriots” don’t to seem to be the least bit bothered by talk of “reloading”.

Oh that’s right. They’re the ones doing the reloading.

This is okay, but…

…this isn’t?

Let’s recap: The not-terrorists who want nothing more than to build places of worship are being terrorized. The people who already enjoy all the trappings of religious freedom are threatening to use their Second Amendment rights as a possible solution to their disagreements with Congress, and that’s just dandy.

And they terrorize Muslims.

This is why nobody ever wrote the song “America the Logical.”

If this isn’t the textbook definition of domestic terrorism…

Still stunned from a fire that claimed excavation equipment on the site of their new mosque, Murfreesboro Muslims say they’ll avoid a peace protest in their behalf tonight at the Rutherford County Courthouse.

Federal authorities are continuing to investigate Saturday’s fire, gathering evidence today, said Eric Kehn, spokesman for the Nashville office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

(snip)

Investigators are also checking into allegations that shots were fired Sunday near the site. Sbenaty said that he was at the site of the new mosque on Veals Road on Sunday and heard shots fired nearby.

“There was one shot, and then another, and then one, two, three shots,” he said. “This was much louder than a hunting rifle.”

He also believes members of the Islamic Center will they’ll stay away from a vigil tonight organized in response to the fire.

“We are still in shock,” he said.

Cartoon via.

Things get uglier and uglier. Not only have they declared that the fire the other night was arson, seems we’re exporting our xenophobia to Japan.

Rutherford County Sheriff’s deputies are investigating a complaint about shots being fired this afternoon near the construction site of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro on Veals Road off Bradyville Pike.

The report came just hours after a fire of suspicious nature damaged construction equipment at the site.

A group of congregation members was at the site looking at the damage done to construction equipment by the fire overnight when they heard nine shots fired from two directions.

The incident occurred around 3:15 p.m. The congregation members reported hearing six shots coming from one direction, and about three minutes later they heard three more shots from another direction, said Saleh Sbenaty, a congregation member and MTSU professor.

(snip)

One piece of construction equipment was damaged over the weekend when it was burned, and three other pieces of equipment were doused with some sort of accelerant, Sbenaty said.

The sheriff’s office, FBI and Bureau of ATF are investigating the fire.

Peace and tolerance my friends.

ATF and FBI agents are investigating a Saturday morning fire that damaged four pieces of equipment and could halt construction at the site of a planned Islamic center and mosque just outside Murfreesboro.

Eric Kehn, spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said his agency has not deemed the burning of an excavation hauler as arson. He did confirm that three other pieces of equipment were damaged, but he would not comment on the extent of the damage.

(snip)

Carmie Ayash, a spokeswoman for the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, said the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Department told center officials that the fire was reported around 1:30 a.m. Saturday. The other three pieces of construction equipment were damaged when doused by gasoline, she said.

Authorities at the scene did not specify whether gasoline or some other accelerant was used to start the fire. Ayash said attempts to contact the company that owns the equipment, Ole South Properties, were unsuccessful Saturday.

“It seems like it was intentional,” Ayash said. “Probably, whoever did it got caught in the middle of the act, got scared and left.”

Ayash said the vandalism at the site “takes it to a whole new level.” A sign announcing the new center has been vandalized twice.

“Everyone in our community no longer feels safe,” she said. “To set a fire that could have blown up equipment and, God forbid, spread and caused damage to the neighbors there … we really feel like this is something that we and the neighbors don’t deserve.”

Choose life my ass.

NASHVILLE – Despite pleas by children’s advocates and testimony that babies will die, Republicans on the state Senate Finance Committee stripped funding for an infant-death reduction initiative that officials say is reducing Memphis and Tennessee’s high rates of infant mortality.

(snip)

But Bob Duncan, director of both the Office of Children’s Care Coordination and the Cover Kids health insurance program, said that effectively eliminates the program and its grants for local services in Shelby County and across Tennessee on Dec. 31. Asked what would happen if that occurs, he said, “You will see an increase in babies dying.”

(snip)

Norris voted the party line to remove funding from the program, begun in 2004 and expanded in 2006 by Gov. Phil Bredesen and the legislature to address infant-death rates that are worse in some Memphis neighborhoods than in many third-world nations.

Children’s health advocates were stunned as word spread Friday.

“I think the action by the committee is very disappointing and disturbing, and if their action is sustained through the full Senate and is the outcome of the state budget, it will have very very serious negative affects on the successful efforts we’ve made thus far on reducing infant mortality rates here in Shelby County and across the whole state,” said Yvonne Madlock, Shelby County director of health services.

By GottaLaff

President Obama is weak. President Obama is a terrorist. President Obama is a Muslim Marxist Kenyan. President Obama is clearly in over his head. President Obama isn’t one of us. President Obama will not get health care passed. President Obama is ruining the country. It’s President Obama’s economy.

President Obama is slow to respond to disasters.

Wrong. Wrongwrongwrong, on all counts. Well, he is the president, that part is true. As for that snail’s pace thing? Phil Bredesen, the governor of Tennessee, where all that horrific flooding is, would disagree:

“FEMA and the White House have been absolutely supportive,” he told reporters on a conference call.

Ding!

FEMA was quickly on the ground, and on Monday, “the president was on the phone with me before the sun came up,” he said.

Clang!

Bredesen, who has weathered his share of tornados and storms as a public official, said that he’s “never seen this kind of response.”

Ah-OOO-gah!

Dear Obama haters:

Please STFU.

Love, Laffy.

By GottaLaff

Chicken Sue of Barter, Inc.,has a soul mate! Lucky her. Now maybe she won’t feel so alone. Wackiness loves company, after all.

Rep. Mike Bell (R-TN) and Democratic state Rep. Joe Towns were discussing a possible state law– what else?– nullifying the mandate included in the newly passed health care law.

The law that passed. Legally. The law of the land. That law.

Bell was going on about how some people do just fine without insurance, and have no problem paying with cash, even when hospitalized.

That would be some big hunk-o’-cash:

Towns: You’re saying they pay cash? For organ transplants and cancer and heart cases, they pay cash?

Bell: I said they pay cash or work out other arrangements. I know for a fact. I know someone in the medical field who has been paid with vegetables from the Mennonite community.

Towns responded as we would have, that it’s a little unrealistic to expect people to schlep bags of carrots and broccoli down to, say, the electric company in return for “juice” (Bad pun; bygones).

I, for one, brought a tomato to Macy’s when they had a sale on socks. They insisted on turnips.

Oh, but I kid the mall.

But for the sake of argument…

Have either of these barter-happy nutballs figured out where places of business would store all the livestock (and the livestock’s waste) and perishable edibles?

And why anyone would need, or want, 70 pounds of brussel sprouts instead of money?

And how would the doctors then pay their own bills, not to mention the additional costs of upkeep?

Those are some sharp political minds, speaking of vegetables….

Now the real stuff…

But he was asking for it! I mean really, didn’t he know that an Obama bumper sticker is the same as just begging to be rear ended? Digby’s got something to say about that, via gsadamb.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A Nashville man says he and his 10-year-old daughter were victims of road rage Thursday afternoon, all because of a political bumper sticker on his car.

Mark Duren told News 2 the incident happened around 4:30p.m., while he was driving on Blair Boulevard, not far from Belmont University.

He said Harry Weisiger gave him the bird and rammed into his vehicle, after noticing an Obama-Biden sticker on his car bumper.

Duren had just picked up his 10-year-old daughter from school and had her in the car with him.

“He pointed at the back of my car,” Duren said, “the bumper, flipped me off, one finger salute.”

(snip)

Once he started driving again, down Blair Boulevard, towards his home, he said, “I looked in the rear view mirror again, and this same SUV was speeding, flying up behind me, bumped me.”

Duren said he applied his brake and the SUV smashed into the back of his car.

He then put his car in park to take care of the accident, but Weisiger started pushing the car using his SUV.

Duren said, “He pushed my car up towards the sidewalk, almost onto the sidewalk.”

Police say Harry Weisiger is charged with felony reckless endangerment in the incident.

ADDED- Here is an interview with the guy who was rear ended-

By GottaLaff

Hey kiddies, guess what? Another mentally unbalanced person got their hands on a gun because of guess what?

Go on, guess.

Give up?

The gun show loophole! Yayyy!

Yes, the right wing, anti-government Pentagon shooter, John Patrick Bedell, got his gun at a gun show through the gun show loophole, with no background check. Feel safer yet?

QuickDraw McLoopHole had already been declared too, er, abnormal to buy one through a federally licensed dealer, but pfft! That didn’t matter:

Two guns used in high-profile shootings this year at the Pentagon and a Las Vegas courthouse both came from the same unlikely place: the police and court system of Memphis, Tenn.

Law enforcement officials told The Associated Press that both guns were once seized in criminal cases in Memphis. The officials described how the weapons made their separate ways from an evidence vault to gun dealers and to the shooters.

Wow, hmm, gee, how’d that happen?

[O]n the day of the Pentagon shooting, March 4, the Tennessee governor signed legislation revising state law on confiscated guns. Before, law enforcement agencies in the state had the option of destroying a gun. Under the new version, agencies can only destroy a gun if it’s inoperable or unsafe.

Seems Version 2.0 needs to be updated.

But with that in mind, it’s only natural that oversight would tighten up, right?

[...] 24 states — mostly in the South and West, where gun-rights advocates are particularly strong — have passed 47 new laws loosening gun restrictions.

Gee, that doesn’t seem logical. Oops, did I say “logical”? Logic has nothing to do with this!

What, am I nuts?

No, but QuickDraw was:

[T]he weapons first went to licensed gun dealers, but later came into the hands of men who were legally barred from possessing them: one a convicted felon; the other mentally ill.

Change we can’t believe in.

But come on, realistically, what are the chances of some psycho ending up finding that one special dealer who would slip him a lethal weapon:

Law enforcement officials say Bedell, a man with a history of severe psychiatric problems, had been sent a letter by California authorities Jan. 10 telling him he was prohibited from buying a gun because of his mental history.

Nineteen days later, the officials say, Bedell bought the Ruger at a gun show in Las Vegas. Such a sale by a private individual does not require the kind of background check that would have stopped Bedell’s purchase.

But privatizing stuff is the GOP’s answer to everything. What could possible go wrong? Death? Don’t be silly. Murder? Ridiculous! Selling lethal weapons to a disturbed individual who would subsequently go on a shooting spree? Impossible!

Here’s the deal, gun owners: Nobody’s trying to take your firearms from you. But keeping them out of the hands of unstable felons and the mentally ill doesn’t do anything to threaten your freedoms.

The real and growing threat is to innocent lives, not the Constitution.