Moseley Braun addresses Islamic Convention

[gottaB]

Carol made an unnanounced appearance at the Islamic Society of North America's annual convention. Story from Sun-Times, here's a snippet:

Kareem Irfan, chairman of the Council of Religious Leaders of Greater Chicago, introduced Braun as "the darling of the Muslim American community," for her opposition to the war in Iraq and the USA Patriot Act, which many critics believe has eroded important civil rights in the name of fighting terrorism.

I'm hunting down a transcript or fuller report (having trouble with mozilla reading js on the isne.net web site) and will update this as soon as I find something.

[jiacinto]

1. There goes her chance at the nomination

An anti-Israel candidate will go nowhere.

[indigo32]

2. Ummm Carlos

I didn't read anything about her being "Anti-Isreal" How the hell does talking to Mulsim-Americans amount to being "Anti-Isreal"??????

[Tinoire]

8. The usual defective reasoning that blinds him to 3-8 million Muslim votes

To that you can add Black Muslim votes, Middle-Eastern non-Arabic votes, Green and Black Muslim votes. Some find it easier to throw away all of those votes and eternally blame the Greens- everyone but the Democratics and its money-driven intransigeance. Go figure :shrug:

--------------
Imagine that, 3-6 million Muslim votes that some people are willing to sneer at because it might cause the Party to budge from its regressive stand on the I/P issue and it's enabling support of the PNAC agenda to destabilize the Middle East.

http://kcal9.com/politics/politicsla_story_244080527.html

Muslim leaders made their first unified endorsement in a presidential race in 2000, backing George W. Bush. Many thought he would take a harder line against Israel, and, based on statements he made while campaigning, would protect the rights of immigrants facing deportation.

Muslims say they have been bitterly disappointed on both counts.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, President Bush won points with American Muslims by visiting a mosque and declaring Islam a peaceful religion.

But since then, the federal government has detained hundreds of immigrants, shut down U.S. Muslim charities suspected of terrorist ties and gained broad new powers to monitor citizens under the USA Patriot Act.

Estimates of the number of U.S. Muslims vary dramatically from 2 million to 6 million. But immigrant Muslims generally are highly educated professionals with the means to make significant campaign donations.

<snip>
http://kcal9.com/politics/politicsla_story_244080527.html

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Estimates vary on how many Arab Americans and Muslim Americans live in the United States. Some Muslim groups put the figure between 6 million and 8 million — many of them African-Americans — though some Jewish groups contend it is much lower. The Arab American Institute estimates there are around 3 million Arab Americans. Some estimates have pegged the Arab American population as high as 4 million.

“Without the Muslim vote, no Democrat will be able to defeat Bush,” said Raeed Tayeh, public affairs director for the Muslim American Society’s Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit Islamic education group in Falls Church, Va. “It’s a constituency that can’t be ignored anymore.” ((Like the Green dontcha know :) ))

<snip>
http://www.arabamericanbusiness.com/July%202003/mw_arabamericanvote.htm

[jiacinto]

14. And there are many more Jewish voters

who would be turned off by the Democrats becoming anti-Israel. There are more Jewish voters than Muslims. I guess that you would rather have them all join the Republicans. Americans don't hate Israel.

[Forkboy]

15. And all the Muslims do hate Israel?

Why dont we try to get both groups of voters?

[gottaB]

16. You haven't explained your reasoning

and you're back on this thread repeating your discredited arguments?

:wtf:

[gottaB]

3. You've already written off her candidacy how many times?

Your post is inflamatory and dishonest on at least four counts: (1) Carol is not speaking against Israel; (2) You don't know what the winning position on the Middle East will be, you're merely reporting your desires as if they belonged to all Democrats; (3) You've dodged the issues you know that she raised and which could be the subject of meaningful discussion; (4) You've never held the view that she had a chance at the nomination.


Would you care to explain your reasoning?

[Mairead]

4. "Would you care to explain your reasoning?"

Given the steadfast uniformity of Carlos's responses, gB, what makes you suppose there's reasoning behind them? Sounds more like emotion, to me.

[gottaB]

5. The emotional response

in my view is not merely a sign of a troubled personality, but signifies what might be called a crisis of difference, a profoundly cultural sense of unease. I think it's better not to let such differences persist without being subject to analysis and discussion. At a certain level Carlos must want to talk about it (otherwise he wouldn't bother to post against Carol at all), but so far he's been dodging any genuine engagement, so I can't know whether it would be fruitful.

The appeal to reason, you know, is in large part rhetorical. It has its uses, like in the way it presents certain criticisms of Carol as not worth taking seriously. When I ask Carlos for his reasons though, I'm really asking him to either talk about his views or go away, either of which would be appropriately grown-up things to do.

[Forkboy]

6. What a knee jerk reactionary

shallow mind=shallow thinking.

Please Carlos,just get it over with and switch parties.Your shtick will fit right in and as a bonus you'll get to bitch about the left all you want and people will actually like you for it.

I also think there's more to Carlos criticisms of the black candidates.

[jiacinto]

11. Okay

If you think I am such a racist then why am I supporting Barak O'Bama in Chicago and why did I donate to Ron Kirk in Texas?

[Forkboy]

12. Geez Carlos,I never said you were racist

that would be like,oh I dunno,accusing people who dont like Lieberman of being anti-semetic.

[Tinoire]

13. Thanks for cracking me up on the last post I read before going to bed!

If I'm ever in your neck of the woods (or v.s.) I'd really like to meet you!

[gottaB]

7. Voter Registration Drive

AP and AFP put out stories about the conference theme of greater political participation. They're aiming to register 1,000,000 voters. They're not endorsing any Dem yet, but you can bet they won't be backing Bush this time. The big issue is the rejection of PATRIOT Act and the Ashcroft DOJ, etc:

By focusing on civil rights in 2004, Muslim leaders acknowledge they could end up endorsing a candidate who would disagree with them on foreign policy, particularly on backing the Israeli government over the Palestinians.

Until recently, the plight of the Palestinians dominated political discussion among American Muslims. But Muslim leaders say they must now be pragmatic as they seek greater influence in government. They are pledging to broaden their alliances by working to improve education, fight crime and protect the environment.

Said Awad: "We are not a one-issue community."

(Excerpt from the AP story via cbs.)

Also read the AFP story via Common Dreams.

Still haven't found a transcript or webcast of Carol's speech, but it's a good thing she made an appearance. These "swing voters" in conjunction with CAIR's GOTV effort could make a huge difference in November 2004.

[Tinoire]

9. Kucinich doing real good with Arab Americans

I believe Dean has quite a bit also but not as much as Kucinich. Kucinich was the first to accept an invitation to come speak with them as a candidate. Thought this was interesting. I'm glad Braun went and I hope she can start getting her message out more.

6-8 million votes here and I guarantee you they won't go to anyone being "regressive" on Arab-American or Muslim issues.

Peace

Kucinich Tops Arab American Institute's Scorecard of Issues

The Arab American Institute has released a scorecard for Congress for 2003 (PDF). This ranks how members of the Senate and House of Representatives voted on measures the Arab American Institute considers important. The PDF document explains what measures they looked at and how they selected the rankings.

Since six of the presidential candidates are members of Congress, the scorecard allows us to get some idea of how responsive these candidates are on issues of interest to Arab Americans.

Since not all of the candidates voted on the same issues or the same number of issues, it's hard to compare their scores directly. I have ranked the candidates by their net score: is it overall more positive than negative to Arab Americans, or the other way around. I then give details. The candidates are listed in order from best net score to worst.

Positive on Arab-American issues

Dennis Kucinich
Net score: +5
Details: Kucinich took what AAI considers the right position on 5 issues and did not take what AAI considers the wrong position on any issue.

Robert Graham
Net score: +2
Details: Graham took what AAI considers the right position on three issues and took what AAI considers the wrong position on one issue.

Negative on Arab-American issues

John Kerry, Joseph Lieberman, Richard Gephardt
Net score: -1
Details: All of these candidates had a net score of minus one. Kerry took what AAI considers the right position on one issue and what AAI considers the wrong position on two issues. Lieberman took what AAI considers the right position on two issues and what AAI considers the wrong position on three issues. Gephardt took what AAI considers the right position on one issue and what AAI considers the wrong position on two issues.

John Edwards
Net score: -3
Details: Edwards took what AAI considers the right position on one issue and took what AAI considers the wrong position on four issues.

The seven issues that AAI ranked Senators on were Iraq, Syria, Immigration Reform, Hate Crimes, Civil Liberties, Road Map (Israel/Palestine) and a Miscellaneous or "Special" category. Graham did well on Iraq, Immigration Reform, and Civil Liberties and poorly on Israel/Palestine. Kerry did well on Civil Liberties and poorly on Iraq and Israel/Palestine. Lieberman did well on Immigration Reform and Civil Liberties and poorly on Iraq, Syria, and Israel/Palestine. Edwards did well on the miscellaneous category and poorly on Iraq, Syria, Civil Liberties, and Israel/Palestine.

Overall, we can see that all of the Senators did poorly on foreign policy issues (Graham voted against the Iraq war resolution - but because he thought it should include Syria as well as Iraq so it shouldn't really be a positive mark for him). Graham, Kerry, and Lieberman did better on domestic issues, but Edwards did poorly here too.

The eight issues that AAI ranked Representatives on were Iraq, Syria, Immigration Reform, Hate Crimes, two Israel/Palestine issues (unbalanced resolutions in favor of Israel, and the road map), U.S. aid to Lebanon and a miscellaneous category. Kucinich did well on Iraq, Immigration Reform, Hate Crimes, Israel/Palestine, and the special category. He did not do poorly on any issue. Gephardt is a mixed bag on Israel/Palestine, doing well on part and doing poorly on part. He also did poorly on Iraq.

Overall, we can see that Kucinich is the only one of these six presidential candidates who scored well on foreign policy issues as well as domestic issues.

I happen to think that foreign policy is one of the key issues in the 2004 campaign. Will we continue Bush's warmongering ways or will we follow a new path based on diplomacy and fairness? On this measure it is clear: Kucinich is the one.

http://www.muhajabah.com/muslims4kucinich/archives/006343.php

[gottaB]

10. Thanks for the input

Generally I don't put a whole lot of stock in scorecards, because there's so much that gets left out of an issue, and in presidential races you have the problem of congress critters skipping votes. (Not Kucinich, of course. He's tireless.) . Anyway, it does say something, so I'm glad you posted it.

On foreign policy, I think you are right that it will be a key issue, but I think the point about the I/P conflict not being the sole concern makes sense. What do you think of e.g. Barney Frank? He recieved a minus for Syria and a resolution on I/P, but otherwise had +++, and you know on immigrant rights he's a great leader and on civil liberties he's no slouch. On balance I think he would be a good choice for Arab Americans in South Eastern Massachusetts (as if anybody would be crazy enough to oppose him).

Since you were posting numbers in your other post, what do you think of the GOTV effort? Is a million new voters realistic? If turnout is high and concerted, which states will be affected? Do you see any red states turning blue?