Commentary and analysis on American politics, culture, and national identity, U.S. foreign policy and international relations, and the state of education
- from a neoconservative perspective! - Keeping an eye on the communist-left so you don't have to!
One of the ultimate protections of being a tenured faculty member, historically, has been being immune from layoff in all but the most extraordinary circumstances. Under policies issued by the American Association of University Professors and largely accepted by higher education leaders, only institutions that declare "financial exigency" -- a state so dire that it "threatens the survival of the institution as a whole" -- can eliminate the jobs of tenured faculty members.
Given the strict criteria on when an institution can declare exigency, and the obviously unwelcome scrutiny such a declaration would bring about, institutions have hesitated to invoke that status. As a result, while institutions eliminate adjunct positions all the time, the tenured faculty member has been protected.
But maybe not so much anymore. In a series of recent actions, colleges appear to be ignoring the exigency requirement either when eliminating tenured jobs or considering the possibility of doing so. Administrators defend their moves as necessary to manage institutions in tight financial times, but faculty leaders see an erosion of a key right.
Consider these developments ...
There's a list of institutions moving in that direction, at the link.
Only public sector employees enjoy this much economic and workplace protection -- all on the taxpayers' dime. And I know, I'm a professor. But cost-rationalization has to start someplace, and I don't see unions as realistic in burden-sharing in hard times.
I'll have more on these issues, especially given California's big protests scheduled for this week.
In celebration of the 2010 World Cup, Budweiser is casting "Bud House," a Web-based reality show that will feature a house full of "passionate" soccer fans -- one from each of the 32 qualifying countries -- and, very likely, beer.
Not since the "Jerry Springer Show" has there been a better recipe for a fistfight.
The project is looking for both male and female soccer fans to live together under the watchful eye of the Internet audience. Budweiser has promised "luxurious accommodations, thrilling excursions," and a once-in-a-lifetime chance for soccer fans. Thousands have apparently submitted applications, and whoever makes the cut will get flown to the actual Bud House in Capetown, South Africa, home of the 2010 World Cup.
Budweiser has enlisted the help of the Feed Company, the online buzz firm that has helped light the fuse on viral spots such as "Guy Backflips into Jeans."
A Tea Party Test: The Tea Party movement in Texas is as strong, organized and active as any in the country. Debra Medina is seen as the candidate of the Tea Party movement in the state and has openly courted its supporters in her underfunded bid for governor. Medina was rising in the polls -- thanks, in no small part, to voter disgust with the back and forth between Perry and Hutchison -- but that upward trajectory appears to have slowed in the wake of her remarks that seemed to suggest that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were an inside job. (Perry, too, has worked to hard to co-opt the energy of the Tea Partiers and will enjoy some segment of support among the group). Rightly or wrongly, Medina's showing will be taken as a baseline for the Tea Party movement in the state; the higher she goes, the bigger national story the race will become. Also keep an eye on Rep. Ron Paul's primary race. Even though Paul is regarded in many circles as a founding member of the Tea Party crowd, he is facing several primary challengers more directly affiliated with the movement. Be careful not to read too much into how much of the vote Paul's opponents get, however. There is a certain segment of Republicans in his 14th district who make it a policy every two years to vote against him; Paul's primary challenger in 2008 got 30 percent of the vote.
It was immediately clear that this woman was a radical progressive. But William's post is vital in illustrating not only her rank duplicity, but her utter sleazebag depravity. Ms. Park is a longtime Democratic Party operative and a major organizer for the Barack Obama presidential campaign. Left Coast Rebel has the details: "Bitter cup of Coffee Party: Digging up the AstroTurf on Annabel Park and the Obama Administration.'
And William links to a bunch of Ms. Park's tweets, for example:
The more shady activity we see from the Obama "diversity" goons the more clear the Democrats' total panic mode becomes. AND HAVE NO DOUBT: Leftists are scuzzy, dishonest, totalitarian extremists. Remember the famous saying that "dissent is patriotic." Well, again, that's only if you're a radical leftist.
This is only my personal opinion: What the GOP obstructionists are doing is not democratic. They should not be in the business of representing ordinary Americans. If they can't change their ways right now, we've got to let them go.
The link there goes to the meme that the GOP has set a record for the filibuster, but of course, the question of protecting minority rights in a democracy is central to the political philosophy of limited government. I've written about the deathwish Democratic Party tyranny of the majority many times. We're just getting the latest iteration with the coffee party apparatchiks. Also at that Facebook link, a "coffee party" video:
Listen to that. It's pretty pathetic, really.
As Moe Lane wrote the other day, the rise of the coffee parties, after just one year of the Obama administraion, is "a tacit admission that the Tea Parties have pretty much brushed aside the existing, decades-old infrastructure of Lefty activist groups to become the standard by which community activism is judged."
I don't follow this show all that closely. I've basically watched every other week. My wife likes it so we've been hanging out on the couch watching shows. But it's powerful television, despite all the nasty things people say about all the participants on the gossip websites. I would have probably proposed to Tenley. I like her even more than Ali at this point. But I don't begrudge Vienna a bit. She's a Hooters girl. And that makes her scum for some folks? And oh, she posed nude, so she shouldn't have a chance for love and prince charming? I'm happy for her. That said, The Bachelor is more about broken dreams than anything else. I'll update if I can find it more video, but Tenley defines class in her response to Jake. He's a good man, and I can see why women love him, but he need to rein in the love a bit. He tells everyone he loves them. But you can only have one. Readers can tell me otherwise in the comments, but I think Jake and Vienna did the nakie -- they went for a test drive, so to speak. I don't see that level of intimacy with Jake and Tenley, and that's just it: Jake needed something more risque. I'm the other way around, for example, when I married my wife. I was rogue, and I married pure beauty. I'm the luckiest guy that way. But maybe Jake wanted to walk on the wild side for once, being the cookie-cutter stud that he is. In any case, hard all around, but that's why people watch.
The video cuts off Tenley too soon. The whole segment is heartbreaking.
If Republicans are to have a serious chance of capturing control of the Senate in November, they are going to have to win in traditionally Democratic states like California, where Senator Barbara Boxer, a three-term Democrat, is showing signs of vulnerability.
But before Republicans get a clear shot at Mrs. Boxer, they will have to overcome deep divisions within their own party — divides that reflect both the grass-roots energy surging through the conservative movement and the tensions between the party’s moderate and conservative wings.
And here's this on moderate Tom Campbell :
Mr. Campbell is a self-described fiscal conservative who supports abortion rights and same-sex marriage. “He would have more appeal to moderate voters than any other Republican nominee — other than Arnold or Pete Wilson — has had here for the past 25 or 30 years,” said Bill Carrick, a longtime Democratic consultant in the state, referring to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mr. Wilson, the former California governor.
But the positions that might help Mr. Campbell in a general election are a burden in the Republican primary. And the hurdle is not only on social issues. When Mr. Campbell was finance director for Governor Schwarzenegger, he supported temporary tax increases to deal with the state’s worsening fiscal crisis, and Ms. Fiorina and Mr. DeVore have criticized him for that.
Campbell's frankly RINO. His positions on traditional marriage and abortion are a joke, IMHO. But he's caught in an even larger issue -- tepid support for Israel -- that may well torpedo his campaign. The Los Angeles Times defended Campbell last weekend. See, "Tom Campbell's Israel Problem." But Philip Klein debunks the Times' editorial. See, "Campbell Defended Muslim Donor Who Rallied Support for Hamas, Hezbollah":
The Los Angeles Times editorial page has decided to give U.S. Senate candidate Tom Campbell the benefit of the doubt -- for now -- on his past voting record on Israel and his numerous past associations with terrorist-linked radicals. But the editorial acknowledges that "His positions are fair game" and urges those who are concerned to challenge him within the confines of reasonable debate. I'm happy to oblige.
The editorial board was not pursuaded by Campbell's relationship with Sami Al-Arian, the former University of South Florida professor who donated to the Campbell campaign and later pled guilty to conspiring to help associates of the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad. (More on their relationship here, here, here and here.) But in the Al-Arian case, Campbell defenders can claim that when he defended Al-Arian on civil rights and academic freedom grounds, Campbell didn't know the full extent of the evidence that would later link Al-Arian to terrorism. It's much harder to make that excuse, however, in the case of many other radicals with whom Campbell was connected. Let's take the example of another supporter, Abdurahman Alamoudi of the American Muslim Council, whose views in support of Hamas and Hezbollah were well known -- and captured on videotape back in 2000. Yet Campbell was still defending him even as other politicians were running for cover.
Here is a video (originally from the Investigative Project on Terrorism) of Alamoudi rallying a crowd at Lafayette Park in Washington, DC on October 28, 2000, declaring, "We are all supporters of Hamas" and "I am also a supporter of Hezbollah."
That's the video above. Read the rest of Klein's piece here. It's devastating.
It turns out that my campus will host a big union actionon Thursday. The protest is part of a statewide labor mobilization against budget cuts to education. The LBCC Viking has the story, "Budget cut rally set for March 4":
LBCC full-time teacher's union President DeWayne Sheaffer said, "The purpose of the rally is to let people know that public education in California has taken enough cuts."
The union has sent e-mails to LBCC faculty as well. The action is billed as a push to "Stop the CUTS," and outside agitators from CSU will be on hand, not to mention AFT and LBUSD activists. A roundup of local actions is here.
Duane Campbell is Professor Emeritus of Bilingual/Multicultural Education at California State University-Sacramento. He's also a member of the Sacramento Progressive Alliance, a neo-communist organization boasting an announcement as well, "March and Rally for Education: IT IS UP TO US ! 11AM. North Steps. State Capitol." Campbell is the author of Choosing Democracy: A Practical Guide to Multicultural Education, a handbook for "progressive" eduction. (See Campbell's entry for February 28th, "March 4: Rally for Education.")
Campbell links to Californians for Democracy, an allied organization chaired by Berkeley Linguistics Professor George Lakoff. Julian DelGaudio, a Marxist Professor of History in LBCC's History Department, is listed there as well.
Some of the promotional materials sound all sweet and wonderful. Educate for the Future, for example, argues that radical mobilization is necessary for a "Truly Sustainable Democracy."
We will no longer take this lying down. We will no longer wait for a political solution to homelessness and affordable housing that the ruling class will never deliver. We seek not reforms, but a new reality. If we need real housing, we must take it ourselves. If we need real education, we must create it ourselves. If we need a new society and economy we must build it ourselves. We reject the disenfranchisement of our society and recognize that we must take the power back – we must begin by creating realities from our dreams. We must take back the power and the control of our lives, no longer will it be left to the international corporations, local business interests, and governments to decide how our lives will run from their cozy boardrooms and country clubs.
The actions of students in California have so far been contained in the Universities but it cannot remain that way; the conditions in the schools are inseparably tied to the conditions in our communities, across the state and across the world. The privatization of schools and social services parallels the privatization of our society. Our current social reality tells us it is unacceptable to demand more money and resources for schools as that money must come through the decimation of other social services. We recognize it is futile to demand action from a removed, alien body. We will become that action we want and we will build and create those resources we need. We seek new spaces and unheard of relations. We will begin to create our own realities and our own services. We must find real freedom in thought and action, not this manufactured lie that is spit out to us in every living moment. We seek the creation of new forms of life, built upon common understanding and solidarity instead of competition and alienation.
We seek to overcome the false separation of the student struggle that keeps us from realizing our common reality with all sectors of society. We are all denied a creative life by the global powers, denied the possibility for the exploration and elaboration of new forms of being besides this exploitation and oppression they force us to endure. We now join comrades across the state who have already begun this struggle – the people who fight against the criminalization of life. Our path to liberation is bound with theirs, we all share an absent future and the possibility for a new life. If they take our means of survival, rights to housing, education, welfare, union jobs, and other public services, we will take their banks. It remains for the people of this state to seize what is rightfully theirs.
Occupy Everything!
And here's the statement on the March 4th mobilization from "Occupy Boston":
In order to break the illusion of this future that is laid out before us we must to take matters into our own hands. To break the illusion, we must take what we need. No more asking politely. We are to take and appropriate. We are to occupy and live.
March 4th is not just a National Day of Action to Defend Education. It is also the National Day of Action to Stop Police Brutality. It is also the National Day of Action Against Capitalism. It is also the National Day of Action to Fight for Our Lives: To Fight for Our Futures.
We are with you California and New York and everyone else (you know who you are).
Occupy Everything for Everyone
See you March 4th
Given all of this, I am requesting a formal statement from CCA President DeWayne Sheaffer. Where does CCA stand? Demonstrably, the March 4th union action is the spearhead of a national revolutionary movement. Top leaders in the state labor movement are speaking "truth to power" through their calls for hardline mobilization. And clearly, these radical militants don't want "more funding" for schools. They want power and expropriation.
But the state crisis is an opportunity for people of goodness and truth. Will local union members join their campus vanguards in fomenting revolution? Do the rank-and-file really endorse this union alliance with America's domestic enemies. Or will teachers of gentle heart and warm spirit repudiate their leadership, who are literally working to topple the state?
These are the issues being raised this week.
We'll see how events play out on Thursday. Check back here for full coverage.
Over a period of four days spanning from February 23 to Feb. 26, Reynolds published a total of 287 links to 144 separate domains. In that small space of time, there were 26 domains that he linked to three times or more.
The two domains he linked to most often — Amazon.com (22) and Pajamasmedia.com (19) — aren’t surprising; Amazon has a referral system that allows Reynold to get a cut out of every click-through sale and Pajamas Media hosts his own blog. PJTV.com — also a Pajamas Media outlet — received a high number of links as well.
Of those domains that received three or more links, many of them were right-wing, but a few weren’t, including BoingBoing (9), Autoblog (3), New Scientist (3), Popsci.com (4), Popular Mechanics (4), Slate (3), and others. As is evident from the above list, though many Instapundit links are political in nature, he also often links to non-political stories — usually tech articles.
Below is a breakdown of all the domains Reynolds linked to three times or more ...
Go to Simon's report for the full tabular data, here.
I've actually gotten a good number of Instalanches. Most recently, Glenn linked to my post on "Keith Olbermann's Plantation."
One thing I've noticed is that Glenn links to his lawyer-friends often, especially Ann Althouse. Beyond that, he provides readers with an incredibly wide range of topics and breaking news -- it's a wonder sometimes, and that's coming from someone who's no slouch at the aggregating businesss himself.
So, head on over there to check it out (here), and don't forget The Other McCain as well. I would have never gotten an Instalanche in the first place had I not adapted some of Robert Stacy McCain's rules of the road!
With healthcare legislation mired in partisanship, "tea party" activists on the march and GOP leadership dominated by conservatives, Capitol Hill looks like a parched landscape for the withered moderate wing of the Republican Party.
But green shoots are sprouting in Washington and on the campaign trail. A small band of Republican moderates in the Senate broke a logjam on jobs legislation. They added to their ranks with the arrival of another New England Republican, Scott Brown. And several moderate Republicans are in a good position to win Senate seats in November.
Rep. Michael N. Castle, one of the most liberal Republicans in the House, is heavily favored to win an open Senate seat in Delaware.
Rep. Mark Steven Kirk, the GOP nominee for the U.S. Senate seat in Illinois, handily won the party's primary despite opposition from conservatives.
Other centrist Senate candidates -- such as former Reps. Tom Campbell in California and Rob Simmons in Connecticut, and Gov. Charlie Crist in Florida -- still face conservative opposition in primary contests that are seen as battles for the ideological soul of the party.
But more is at stake. Additional moderates in the Senate could provide a more durable foundation for breaking logjams than any White House summit or lecture on bipartisanship.
"Casting votes that are opposed by the party leadership is very difficult," said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, one of five Republicans who voted with Democrats to end a filibuster on the jobs bill. "I'm very optimistic the elections this year are going to bring back a resurgence of the center."
That seems paradoxical as Democrats prepare to enact President Obama's healthcare bill without any Republican support. Senate Democratic leaders are moving to use a fast-track procedure known as reconciliation to protect the effort from filibuster. The idea is for the House to pass the Senate's healthcare bill, then for both chambers to pass a companion bill by a majority vote.
In a CNN interview Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he expected no Republicans to vote for the bill.
In a separate interview, Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said on "Fox News Sunday" that House Democrats were short of votes to pass the Senate healthcare bill, but that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) probably would find a way to pass it.
"I wouldn't count her out because she is very good at muscling votes," Ryan said.
Although conservatives have dominated legislative strategy and intraparty debate over the future of the Republican Party, centrists have a stronger hand in swing states.
Obviously, the Dems need more RINOs to hammer through their legislation. Scott Brown's victory prevented a Democratic victory in the race for Ted Kennedy's seat. That was good. But in other circumstances, conservatives will reject Democratic-enabling candidates. RINOs are out.
P.S. There's some talk about Tom Campbell, who's running for Senate in California, at the article. If he's a model for today's "moderate" Republican, then no thank you. And see, the Weekly Standard, "Tom Campbell's Israel Problem."
My good friend Anton thanked me for my post on "Let it Be." And I thought about it: We all have unique relationships to music. Anton has a collection of over 500 vinyl LPs, and he was able to record them all to tape and then to digital, thus preserving the newness and quality of his record albums. Recall that Anton does the Sunday Night Music Club over at PA Pundits International, and I check over there for inspiration from time to time.
The funny thing is, at the bottom of my post on "Let it Be" I noted that, "Maybe I'll catch Paul McCartney in concert before he retires!" That was Saturday night and I hadn't yet heard about McCartney's new concert tour. A second show was added for a historic Hollywood Bowl performance, but tickets sold out in minutes. I checked the Twitter stream for McCartney and there was some grumbling about it.
Don't know when I'll get to see him in concert, given the incredible demand. But it'd be hard to think of rock history coming more alive that a McCartney event. I'll keep trying. In the meantime, enjoy "Silly Love Songs." It turns out that McCartney was taking a lot of heat in the '70s for his pop-music turn, and he recorded "Silly Love Songs" in response, as a smackdown on his critics. The song went Number One at Billboard UK, etc. My favorite section is the vocal arrangement at the end of the number, especially in the studio version:
I love you I love you I love you
(BGV# 1 I can't explain the feeling's plain to me, say can't you see?) I love you (BGV#1 Ah, he gave me more, he gave it all to me, say can't you see) I love you (BGV#1 I can't explain the feeling's plain to me, say can't you see?) (BGV#2 How can I tell you about my loved one?) I love you (BGV#1 Ah, he gave me more, he gave it all to me, say can't you see) (BGV#2 How can I tell you about my loved one?) I love you (BGV#1 I can't explain the feeling's plain to me, say can't you see?) (BGV#2 How can I tell you about my loved one?) I love you (BGV#1 Ah, he gave me more, he gave it all to me, say can't you see) (BGV#2 How can I tell you about my loved one?)
You'd think that people would have had enough of silly love songs. But I look around me and I see it isn't so. Oh, no Some people wanna fill the world with silly love songs. And what's wrong with that?
I'm searching around for information on Paul McCartney's concert tour. Checking Google's Blog Search, I find that my good friend Tim at Left Coast Rebel tops the chart:
There's a disclaimer at the bottom of the page, "The selection and placement of stories on this page were determined automatically by a computer program."
The weather's different in New Jersey. We had tsumami warnings in SoCal over the weekend, but it's snow-white for TigerHawk's "Walk Around the Princeton Cemetery":
Can't make out that headstone? Great historical personality. Well, check TigerHawk for that identity and more ...
I'll tell you: I still don't tell some people that I write a hard-hitting (neo)conservative blog. Frankly, most folks at my college wouldn't even know if it weren't for the impotentleftists making desperate but endless workplace threats (hoping to get me to STFU).
While it is pretty well known to my family and immediate friends, I don’t usually talk about it to my co-workers or new acquaintances. I’m not sure if I was born this way or if it developed over time though the passion definitely increased over time and my exposure to others of the same bent. Hearing how others talk about it, the demeaning language, the sneering, the derision, causes me to be very guarded. There have even been stories in the news lately about people being beaten up because of it.
Sure, going to parties where everyone else is of the same orientation makes it easier to let my guard down for awhile but, I still am uneasy in case I say the wrong thing in front of the wrong person and it comes back to haunt me. It is a worry when applying for a new job because unlike race and creed, this isn’t protected.
Online is a lot easier because it is more anonymous than the real world. Hiding behind a screen name allows for a freer interaction, but even then it has to be in the right chat room, Twitter feed or Facebook environment because I’ve been slammed, called names, and had my beliefs attacked viciously when I’ve opened up to people.
Coming out of the conservative closet is akin to coming out of the closet as gay or lesbian. Now, before anyone gets all bent out of shape because of the analogy please take a chill pill. I have greater respect and understanding of those who have any type of “secret” that affects their outlook on the world and how the world looks at them.
Well, the Orange County Tea Party Patriots had an event scheduled yesterday in Laguna Beach, but it was cancelled due to weather conditions and tsunami warnings. I left the Temecula rally a little after Noon hoping to catch the tail end of the Laguna rally. I texted my good friend Megan and got word the event had been cancelled. I thought I'd hang out a little bit anyway. Walking down the boardwalk, tourists check out the surf conditions at the main beach lifeguard station:
A closer look at the tower:
The conditions at about 1:30pm:
Walking back across PCH now, looking north. That's Laguna Canyon Road at the second intersection with the green light. It's normally bumper-to-bumper at this stretch on the weekends, especially in the summer. Not too many folks heading to the beach on this day. Notice the movie theater up the road at right? I'm heading over that way, to the Starbucks just before it:
But I checked out the newsstand first. Actually, I didn't need to buy anything, which is unusual for me. I can read the New York Times online, at least for now, and I wasn't in the market for fashion or gossip rags:
Okay, here's a quick couple of shots of the Laguna Cinemas. "The Hurt Locker" is playing (Jules Crittenden's got an interesting post up on that today, "The Ass-Kick Locker"):
Heading back over to the coffee shop, which was doing good business:
This is the Fingerhut Gallery, featuring a life-size Cat-in-the-Hat sculpture. Asking price was $150,000:
The place might use some of that cash to hire a landscaper -- that ivy foilage needs a trim!
The obligatory surfer-boutique-on-PCH photograph:
I said hello to Thomas, who was cruising the sidewalks for recyclables. Nice guy. He was kind enough to pose for a picture:
Here's the sculpture of Eiler Larsen (1890-1975), the Laguna Beach Greeter:
The plaque's a little hard to read, but there's more on Eiler at the Los Angeles Times:
Okay, heading back south (which is an incline here, next to the Laguna Hotel, along with the Miranda Galleries):
Okay, walking back to my car now. Here's the obligatory downtown Laguna Beach cottage residence photograph. A beautiful home:
Now this is the ultra-obligatory Laguna Beach enviro-Subaru-owner's-car-with-a-Barbara-Boxer-for-Senate-2010-bumper-sticker photograph. I was about to hop into my car and I noticed the Boxer-for-Senate sticker and said to myself: Yes! It doesn't get any better than this. Orange County is known as the heartland of California conservatism, but the Laguna artists' colony is a left-wing bastion in south county. Laguna, which includes a substantial gay community, voted overwhelmingly against Proposition 8 in 2008:
Okay, that's it for today ... more great blogging throughout the week -- so tell a friend!
Okay, time to lighten things up around here for a while. From my good friend Anton, "Sunday Music – Let It Be":
Anton offers a wonderful background discussion on the various iterations of the recording.
But what I always found interesting was the Phil Spector intervention that gave the recording the "wall of sound" manifestation for the full album:
On 26 March 1970, Phil Spector remixed the song for the Let It Be album. This version features the "more stinging" 4 January 1970 guitar solo, no backing vocals (except during the first chorus), an echo effect on Ringo's cymbals, and more prominent orchestration. The other guitar solo can be heard faintly through the right speaker, as the original was planned. The final chorus has three "let it be..." lines, as the "there will be an answer" line is repeated twice (instead of once as on the single) before the "whisper words of wisdom" line to close the song. On the album, as the preceding song "Dig It" ends, Lennon is heard saying in a falsetto voice, mimicking Gracie Fields: "That was 'Can You Dig It' by Georgie Wood, and now we'd like to do 'Hark, The Angels Come'," and then giggles. Allen Klein brought in Spector to mix the album without telling McCartney or asking for his agreement, because McCartney had not signed Klein's management contract. McCartney later complained that he was not happy with Spector's production of the recording.
"Let it Be" is one of those songs that reminds me so powerfully of my childhood. I must have been about 8 or 9 years-old when I first heard it on the radio. I had a little wooden box radio in my bedroom, and I'd fall asleep listening to music. I didn't understand the lyrics, but "Let it Be" is spiritual. And I wonder now how folks feel about The Beatles today. Sure, John Lennon is hip with the radical left, but he warned against "minds that hate," so there you go.
Maybe I'll catch Paul McCartney in concert before he retires!
A Labour minister says his party has been infiltrated by a fundamentalist Muslim group that wants to create an “Islamic social and political order” in Britain.
The Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) — which believes in jihad and sharia law, and wants to turn Britain and Europe into an Islamic state — has placed sympathisers in elected office and claims, correctly, to be able to achieve “mass mobilisation” of voters.
Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph, Jim Fitzpatrick, the Environment Minister, said the IFE had become, in effect, a secret party within Labour and other political parties.
“They are acting almost as an entryist organisation, placing people within the political parties, recruiting members to those political parties, trying to get individuals selected and elected so they can exercise political influence and power, whether it’s at local government level or national level,” he said.
“They are completely at odds with Labour’s programme, with our support for secularism.”
Mr Fitzpatrick, the MP for Poplar and Canning Town, said the IFE had infiltrated and “corrupted” his party in east London in the same way that the far-Left Militant Tendency did in the 1980s. Leaked Labour lists show a 110 per cent rise in party membership in one constituency in two years.
In a six-month investigation by this newspaper and Channel 4’s Dispatches, involving weeks of covert filming by the programme’s reporters:
IFE activists boasted to the undercover reporters that they had already “consolidated … a lot of influence and power” over Tower Hamlets, a London borough council with a £1 billion budget.
We have established that the group and its allies were awarded more than £10 million of taxpayers’ money, much of it from government funds designed to “prevent violent extremism”.
IFE leaders were recorded expressing opposition to democracy, support for sharia law or mocking black people. The IFE organised meetings with extremists, including Taliban allies, a man named by the US government as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and a man under investigation by the FBI for his links to the September 11 attacks.
Moderate Muslims in London told how the IFE and its allies were enforcing their hardline views on the rest of the local community, curbing behaviour they deemed “un-Islamic”. The owner of a dating agency received a threatening email from an IFE activist, warning her to close it.
George Galloway, a London MP, admitted in recordings obtained by this newspaper that his surprise victory in the 2005 election owed more to the IFE “than it would be wise – for them – for me to say, adding that they played a “decisive role” in his triumph at the polls.
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