NEW YORK (AP) — A civil rights group asked a judge Friday to find it unconstitutional for the federal government to exclude a prominent Muslim scholar or anyone else from the United States on the grounds that they may have endorsed or espoused terrorism.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the papers attacking the policy in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. The group included in its submissions a written declaration in which the scholar, Tariq Ramadan, said he has always “opposed terrorism not only through my words but also through my actions.” (more…)

Galloway: Walter Reed Hospital Scandal is ‘The Last Straw’
As The Washington Post probe proves, there’s more to supporting our troops than making “Support Our Troops” a phrase that every politician feels obliged to utter in every speech, no matter how craven the purpose. How can they look at themselves in the mirror every morning?

By Joseph L. Galloway
(February 21, 2007) — There’s a great deal more to supporting our troops than sticking a $2 yellow ribbon magnet made in China on your SUV. There’s a great deal more to it than making “Support Our Troops” a phrase that every politician feels obliged to utter in every speech, no matter how banal the topic or craven the purpose.

This week, we were treated to new revelations of just how fraudulent and shallow and meaningless “Support Our Troops” is on the lips of those in charge of spending the half a trillion dollars of taxpayer’s money that the Pentagon eats every year.

The Washington Post published a probe, complete with photographs, revealing that for every in-patient who’s getting the best medical treatment that money can buy at the main hospital at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, there are out-patients warehoused in quarters unfit for human habitation.

Some of the military outpatients are stuck on the Walter Reed campus, a couple of miles from the White House and the Capitol, for as long as 12 months. They’ve been living in rat and roach-infested rooms, some of which are coated in black mold.

There was outrage and disgust and raw anger at this callous, cruel treatment of those who have the greatest claim not only on our sympathies, but also on the public purse.

Who among the smiling politicians who regularly troop over to the main hospital at Walter Reed for photo-op visits with those who’ve come home grievously wounded from the wars the politicians started have bothered to go the extra quarter-mile to see the unseen majority with their rats and roaches?

Not one, it would seem, since none among them have admitted to knowing that there was a problem, much less doing something about it before the reporters blew the whistle.

Within 24 hours, construction crews were working overtime, slapping paint over the moldy drywall, patching the sagging ceilings and putting out traps and poison for the critters that infest the place. (more…)

Red sky in morning sailors take warning,
Red sky at night sailors delight.