Watch

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A watch is a timepiece that is to be worn on a person, as opposed to a clock which is not. The term now usually refers to a wristwatch, which is worn on the wrist with a strap, while a pocketwatch, the common type before World War I, is carried in a pocket and often has an attached chain to lift it out. Watches evolved in the 1600s from spring powered clocks, which appeared in the 1400s. In addition to the time, modern watches often display the day, date, month and year, and electronic watches may have many other functions.

The most common type of watch is the wristwatch, worn on the wrist and fastened with a watchband made of leather, nylon or other plastics (then called strap), metal links (called bracelet) or even ceramic. Before the inexpensive miniaturization that became possible in the 20th century, most watches were pocket watches, which had covers and were carried separately, often in a pocket and attached to a watch chain or watch fob.

In the 21st century, technological advances in metallurgy, composite materials development and physical vapor deposition greatly influence watch design and manufacturing. Solid stainless steel, titanium, tungsten carbide, carbon fiber, high-tech ceramic and ion plating processes dominate a considerable market share of today’s modern watch-making industry. Sapphire crystals are often incorporated to complement and enhance the durability of a quality watch.

Most inexpensive and medium-priced watches used mainly for timekeeping are electronic watches with quartz movements. The most accurate watches have radio-controlled movements that are miniaturized, portable versions of radio clocks. Expensive, collectible watches valued more for their workmanship and aesthetic appeal than for simple timekeeping, often have purely mechanical movements and are powered by springs, even though mechanical movements are less accurate than more affordable quartz movements.

10-13

Is the “Christian Right” Spinning Apart?

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By Rob Boston, Church and State.

Frank Schaeffer, John Whitehead and Cal Thomas have repudiated the theocratic movement they once led. Here’s why.

Frank Schaeffer spent several years making a good living writing books promoting the Religious Right’s worldview and speaking before rapturous crowds of fundamentalist Christians.

Schaeffer, the son of evangelical guru Francis Schaeffer, was the closest thing to a rock star that politically conservative fundamentalism can offer. As the Religious Right soared in the 1980s, Schaeffer was there to ride the wave. Young, bright and charismatic, he could have founded his own Religious Right group or perhaps even launched a political career.

Twenty years have passed. What does Schaeffer think of the Religious Right today? He wouldn’t touch it with the proverbial 10-foot pole — and the feeling is mutual. A spiritual and professional crisis brought Schaeffer to the understanding that the Religious Right has it all wrong.

“My doubts really began when I realized that the people we were working with on the Religious Right were profoundly anti-American,” Schaeffer said in a recent interview. “I began to get the same vibe from them I got from my friends on the far left during the Vietnam War. They seemed to be rooting for North Vietnam. When I was working with the Religious Right, they seemed be rooting for the failure of America. Bad news was good news for them.”

Schaeffer isn’t the only ex-Religious Right activist having second thoughts these days. About 30 years ago, a young lawyer named John W. Whitehead worked alongside people like Jerry Falwell to help birth the Religious Right. Hoping to give the movement an intellectual grounding, Whitehead penned a series of books attacking the separation of church and state and demanding a government based on Christian fundamentalism.

Whitehead’s books — The Separation Illusion, The Second American Revolution and The Stealing of America — made him a popular figure in Religious Right circles. With the backing of Falwell and others, he helped found the Council for National Policy (CNP), a secretive and highly influential coalition of Religious Right groups. He also formed the Rutherford Institute, a legal group designed to promote conservative Christian causes.

Venturing into the farthest fringes of the Religious Right, Whitehead was for several years close to Rousas John Rushdoony, a leader of the Christian Reconstructionist movement that seeks to replace America’s secular republic with a theocracy based on the Old Testament’s legal codes.

Whitehead repudiated theocracy years ago. It’s unlikely he’d be welcome at a CNP meeting now.

“Politics,” he said in a recent interview, “would never even figure into Jesus’ mind. He was a homeless person. He was like Gandhi. It wasn’t in the picture. Christianity was not founded on politics. It was founded on helping the less fortunate …. That’s how you impact culture.”

Schaeffer and Whitehead are two high-profile Religious Right apostates, but they aren’t the only ones. Even Cal Thomas, who once served as vice president of the late Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority, is critical of the Religious Right these days. Thomas in 2000 coauthored a book titled Blinded by Might: Why the Religious Right Can’t Save America.

In a column written shortly after Falwell’s death in May, Thomas opined, “The flaw in the movement was the perception that the church had become an appendage to the Republican Party and one more special interest group to be pampered. If one examines the results of the Moral Majority’s agenda, little was accomplished in the political arena and much was lost in the spiritual realm, as many came to believe that to be a Christian meant you also must be ‘converted’ to the Republican Party and adopt the GOP agenda and its tactics.”

What’s more, these critics aren’t shy about speaking out. Schaeffer details his years in the Religious Right in his recently published book Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One Of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) Of It Back.

The tome is a frank tell-all loaded with broadsides against the Religious Right. Schaeffer does not hesitate to speak bluntly, as the following passages indicate:

• “What I slowly realized was that the religious-right leaders we were helping to gain power were not ‘conservatives’ at all, in the old sense of the word. They were anti-American religious revolutionaries.”

• “Pat Robertson would have had a hard time finding work in any job where hearing voices is not a requirement.”

• “Long before Ralph Reed and his ilk came on the scene, Dad got sick of ‘these idiots’ as he often called people like Dobson in private. They were ‘plastic,’ Dad said, and ‘power-hungry.'”

• “There were three kinds of evangelical leaders: The dumb or idealistic ones who really believed. The out-and-out charlatans. And the smart ones who still believed — sort of — but knew that the evangelical world was sh*t, but who couldn’t figure out any way to earn as good a living anywhere else.”

Taking a more nuanced view, Whitehead outlined his thinking last year in a slim volume published by the Rutherford Institute titled God Is A Four-Letter Word. In the book, Whitehead reminds readers that Jesus was not interested in the accumulation of political power.

“Although it is a valued and necessary part of the process in a democracy, the ballot box is not the answer to mankind’s ills,” Whitehead writes. “And Christians who place their hope in a political answer to the world’s ills often become nothing more than another tool in the politician’s toolbox. Indeed, Jesus refused any type of involvement with political figures.”

In a recent Liberty magazine article, Whitehead scored the Religious Right for making Christianity synonymous with “partisan politics, anti-homosexual rhetoric, affluent megachurches, and moralistic finger-pointing.”

This is quite a change for a man who once wrote, as Whitehead did in 1982, that the Supreme Court “rejected Judeo-Christian theism as the religion and foundation of the United States” when it struck down religious qualifications for public office at the state level in 1961.

What happened? In interviews for this report, both Schaeffer and Whitehead described the factors that led them to move away from the Religious Right — the constant emphasis on far-right politics, the refusal of Religious Right leaders to examine issues like poverty and care of the needy and the crude attacks on the arts.

Both men also described personal spiritual journeys that led them to new paths. Schaeffer joined the Greek Orthodox Church. Whitehead speaks of embracing a Christianity that reflects Jesus’ teaching about the need to serve those in need and work for peace. (Whitehead is a sharp critic of the Iraq War.) Schaeffer and Whitehead remain committed Christians, but both no longer think government is the proper agent to spread that message.

Nor are Schaeffer, Whitehead and Thomas calling for a complete political disengagement. Thomas, for example, is now a widely syndicated newspaper columnist and frequently takes conservative positions. But increasingly, he argues that moral persuasion, not the raw power of government, is the best way to change people’s minds and attitudes.

Whitehead takes a similar view.

“Religion speaks to moral issues, not political issues,” he said. “That was one thing that changed me. The more I read just the teachings of Jesus, as I isolated and read them over and over, I came to the conclusion that I should challenge Christians who talk about Jesus like he would sit in the White House with George Bush. I say, ‘Hey, he fought every Roman. Everyone in leadership he fought. There was a reason they crucified him.’”

Schaeffer echoed some of Whitehead’s concerns. Schaeffer added that he became disgusted with the attitude many Religious Right activists held of the United States — that it was a decadent, amoral society that deserved to collapse.

Schaeffer was raised in Europe. When he moved to America, he said, he quickly grew fond of the country.

“The country I moved to seemed to be a good place, not hell bent,” he recalls. “When I realized that the Religious Right was rooting for American failure to prove their point, I began to really question what were we talking about. Once that process started, to put it bluntly, I decided I was on the wrong side.”

Schaeffer’s conversion was all the more startling because for many years he made a comfortable living cranking out books bashing liberals and speaking at Religious Right gatherings before crowds of thousands.

In Crazy for God, Schaeffer talks about delivering what he calls “The Speech” hundreds of times before fundamentalist audiences. He describes it like this: “Abortion is murder; secular humanism is destroying us; turn back to our Christian foundation; vote Republican.”

Schaeffer had other reasons for ditching the Religious Right. As a writer, artist and film maker, he grew disgusted over the Religious Right’s tendency to use the arts as a flashpoint for the culture wars, a point of view echoed by Whitehead, who enjoys ‘60s music and is a film buff.

Working alongside Reconstructionists, the most hardcore faction of the Religious Right, also influenced Schaeffer and Whitehead — although perhaps not in the way Reconstructionist leaders expected.

“My basic beef with the Reconstructionists is that they could never end a sentence with ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I’m not sure.’ They always ended with ‘This is how it is.’ That level of hubris runs counter to Christianity,” Schaeffer remarked.

“To me, faith and doubt are interchangeable,” he added. “You live with that. When you reject pluralism and embrace the philosophy of the Reconstructionists, you’ve said, ‘Freedom scares me. I have to be right, and even though logically my life is too short to say I know anything, I’ll say I do. When I don’t have an answer for someone, I’ll shout them down.’ The writer and artist in me rebels against that.”

Up-close encounters with Reconstructionists rattled both Schaeffer and Whitehead. In Crazy for God, Schaeffer writes about a meeting with Reconstructionist author Gary North, Whitehead and others to talk about ways to secure funding for the Rutherford Institute. Schaeffer had brought his father, which turned out to be a mistake. North refused to stay on task and kept launching into harangues about the need to hoard gold and build bomb shelters to survive a coming Soviet attack and economic collapse.

“Dad seemed lost in a depressed daze,” Schaeffer wrote about that day. “He had recently been saying privately that the evangelical world was more or less being led by lunatics, psychopaths, and extremists, and agreeing with me that if ‘our side’ ever won, America would be in deep trouble.”

Asked about that raucous meeting today, Whitehead is able to chuckle.

“I remember Frank and I went back a couple of times, drank a bottle of wine in the room and just howled,” Whitehead recalls.

A similar meeting with TV preacher Pat Robertson was also less than successful. Robertson began claiming he had killed a snake in his garage that morning and had been seeing more snakes all day. He told Whitehead they were a sign from God on the need to be as subtle as a serpent, a biblical reference from the Book of Genesis.

“I was sitting there with a group of people, his followers, and they were just ooh-ing and aah-ing like this great wisdom was coming out of his mouth,” Whitehead recalled. “Frank was rolling his eyes and looking at me, and his dad was there. His father, Francis Schaeffer, couldn’t get what was going on there.”

Over the years, Whitehead has also come to appreciate America’s religious pluralism. Last year, he sided with Americans United when the group went to bat for Roberta Stewart, a Nevada Wiccan who was denied the right to put a Wiccan symbol on the government-issued grave marker of her late husband, who died in combat in Afghanistan.

“Pluralism is the way to keep society free,” he said. “Go back to history — the Puritans of New England who killed witches. Do I think that could happen again? Yeah. I would be very fearful if fundamentalist Christians took over the government. I’d be very concerned because first of all, I’d be shunned. Second, I might be on the list of guys they eliminate first.”

These days, both Whitehead and Schaeffer know they are persona non grata among the Religious Right. (A similar thing happened to Thomas, who lost speaking engagements after Blinded by Might was published.) Whitehead said Focus on the Family’s Citizen magazine will report on some of his cases but will not mention the Rutherford Institute in print.

Schaeffer has also been shunned and notes attacks on him in the fundamentalist wing of the blogosphere. A writer on one right-wing blog accused him of having “major emotional and spiritual problems.” Another said of Schaeffer, “If I could proffer just a few words of counsel to Schaeffer, they would be the encouragement to Just. Go. Away.”

But Schaeffer sees an upside: Since publication of Crazy for God, he has been contacted by hundreds of people, including many evangelicals, who say his story resonates with them.

“That really has floored me,” Schaeffer said.

What lies ahead for the Religious Right apostates? Both Schaeffer and Whitehead say they will continue to speak out. Schaeffer has found success as the author of secular fiction, and Whitehead keeps busy running the Rutherford Institute.

Surveying the political landscape, the two diverge a bit. Whitehead believes the Religious Right is losing power and says the movement won’t be as influential in the next administration.

Schaeffer is not so sure. He said that he does not believe the Religious Right is losing power or that we’ve entered a “post-Religious Right America,” as some have asserted. He has noticed a positive sign: a new willingness among many evangelicals and religious people to distance themselves from the Religious Right.

“I don’t think the obituary is right,” Schaeffer said. “I don’t think the movement is on the way out, but when it comes to individuals, there are a lot of people who say these guys do not speak for me. The report of the death of the Religious Right has been greatly exaggerated, but at the individual level there is a growing spirit of disillusionment. If someone left this country 15 years ago and came back and looked at it now, they’d have to admit something has changed.”

Rob Boston is associate editor for Church and State Magazine.

10-12

Cost of War Incomprehensible

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Courtesy William D. Hartung

War is hell — deadly, dangerous, and expensive. But just how expensive is it?

In a recent interview, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz asserted that the costs of the Iraq war — budgetary, economic, and societal — could reach $5 trillion.

That’s a hard number to comprehend. Figuring out how many times $5 trillion would circle the globe (if we took it all in one dollar bills) doesn’t really help matters much, nor does estimating how many times we could paper over every square inch of Rhode Island with it. The fact that total war costs could buy six trillion donuts for volunteers to the Clinton, Obama, McCain, and Huckabee campaigns — assuming a bulk discount — is impressive in its own way, but not all that meaningful either. In fact, the Bush administration’s war costs have already moved beyond the human scale of comprehension.

But what if we were to try another tack? How about breaking those soaring trillions down into smaller pieces, into mere millions and billions? How much, for instance, does one week of George Bush’s wars cost?

Glad you asked. If we consider the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan together — which we might as well do, since we and our children and grandchildren will be paying for them together into the distant future — a conservative single-week estimate comes to $3.5 billion. Remember, that’s per week!

By contrast, the whole international community spends less than $400 million per year on the International Atomic Energy Agency, the primary institution for monitoring and preventing the spread of nuclear weapons; that’s less than one day’s worth of war costs. The U.S. government spends just $1 billion per year securing and destroying loose nuclear weapons and bomb-making materials, or less than two days’ worth of war costs; and Washington spends a total of just $7 billion per year on combating global warming, or a whopping two weeks’ worth of war costs.

So, perhaps you’re wondering, what does that $3.5 billion per week actually pay for? And how would we even know? The Bush administration submits a supplemental request — over and above the more than $500 billion per year the Pentagon is now receiving in its official budget — to pay for the purported costs of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and for the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). If you can stay awake long enough to read the whole 159-page document for 2008, it has some fascinating revelations.

For example, to hear the howling of the white-collar warriors in Washington every time anyone suggests knocking a nickel off administration war-spending requests, you would think that the weekly $3.5 billion outlay is all “for the troops.” In fact, only 10% of it, or under $350 million per week, goes to pay and benefits for uniformed military personnel. That’s less than a quarter of the weekly $1.4 billion that goes to war contractors to pay for everything from bullets to bombers. As a slogan, insisting that we need to keep the current flood of military outlays flowing “for Boeing and Lockheed Martin” just doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.

You could argue, of course, that all these contracting dollars represent the most efficient way to get our troops the equipment they need to operate safely and effectively in a war zone — but you would be wrong. Much of that money is being wasted every week on the wrong kinds of equipment at exorbitant prices. And even when it is the right kind of equipment, there are often startling delays in getting it to the battlefield, as was the case with advanced armored vehicles for the Marine Corps.

But before we get to equipment costs, let’s take a look at a week’s worth of another kind of support. The Pentagon and the State Department don’t make a big point — or really any kind of point — out of telling us how much we’re spending on gun-toting private-contract employees from companies like Blackwater and Triple Canopy, our “shadow army” in Iraq, but we can make an educated guess. For example, at the high end of the scale, individual employees of private military firms make up to 10 times what many U.S. enlisted personnel make, or as much as $7,500 per week. If even one-tenth of the 5,000 to 6,000 armed contract employees in Iraq make that much, we’re talking about at least $40 million per week. If the rest make $1,000 a week — an extremely conservative estimate — then we have nearly $100 million per week going just to the armed cohort of private-contract employees operating there.

Now, let’s add into that figure the whole private crew of non-government employees operating in Iraq, including all the cooks, weapons technicians, translators, interrogators, and other private-contract support personnel. That combined cost probably comes closer to $300 million per week, or almost as much as is spent on uniformed personnel by the Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marines.

By one reliable estimate, there are more contract employees in Iraq alone — about 180,000 — than there are U.S. troops. There are thousands more in Afghanistan. But since many of these non-military employees are poorly paid subcontract workers involved in cooking meals, doing laundry, and cleaning latrines, the total costs for the services of all private-contractor employees in Iraq probably runs somewhat less than the costs of the uniformed military. Hence our estimate.

So, if $650 million or so a week is spent on people, where does the other nearly $3 billion go? It goes for goods and services, from tanks and fighter planes to fuel and food. Most of this money ends up in the hands of private companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and the former Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown and Root.

The list of weapons and accessories paid for from our $3.5 billion is long and daunting:

* $1.5 million for M-4 carbines (about 900 guns per week);
* $2.3 million for machine guns (about 170 per week);
* $4.3 million for Hellfire missiles (about 50 missiles per week);
* $6.9 million for night vision devices (about 2,100 per week);
* $10.8 million for fuel per week;
* $5 million to store and transport that fuel per week;
* $14.8 million for F-18E/F fighter planes per week (one every four weeks);
* $23.4 million for ammunition per week;
* $30.7 million for Bradley fighting vehicles (10 per week).

And that’s only a very partial list. What about the more mundane items?

* “Laundries, showers, and latrines” cost more than $110,000 per week;
* “Parachutes and aerial delivery systems” cost $950,000 per week;
* “Runway snow removal and cleaning” costs $132,000 per week;
* Flares cost $50,000 per week.

Some of these figures, of course, may cover worldwide military operations for the U.S. armed forces. After all, by sticking the acronym GWOT in the title of any supplemental war-spending request, you can cram almost anything into it.

Then there are the sobering figures like: $2.4 million per week for “death gratuities” (payments to families of troops killed in action) and $10.6 million per week in “extra hazard pay.”

And don’t forget that all the death and destruction lurking behind these weekly numbers makes it that much harder to get people to join the military. But not to worry, $1 million per week is factored into that supplemental funding request for “advertising and recruitment” — not enough perhaps to fill the ranks, but at least they’re trying.

Keep in mind that this only gives us a sense of what we do know from the public Pentagon request; there’s plenty more that we don’t know. As a start, the Pentagon’s breakdown of the money in its “emergency” supplemental budget leaves huge gaps.

Even your own congressman doesn’t know for sure what is really in the U.S. war budget. What we do know is that the Pentagon and the military services have been stuffing more and more projects that have nothing to do with the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, or even the war on terror, into those war supplementals.

Layered in are requests for new equipment that will take years, or even decades, to build and may never be used in combat — unless the Iraq war really does go on for another century, as John McCain recently suggested. These “non-war” items include high-tech armored vehicles and communications devices for the Army as well as new combat aircraft for the Air Force.

Even though these systems may never be used on our current battlefields, they are war costs nonetheless. If they weren’t inserted into the supplemental requests for Iraq and Afghanistan, they might never have been funded. After all, who wants to vote against a bill that is allegedly all “for the troops,” even if it includes weapons those troops will never get?

These add-ons are not small change. They probably cost in the area of $500 million per week.

Given all of this, it may sound like we have a fair amount of detail about the costs of a week of war.

No such luck. Until the “supplemental” costs of war are subjected to the same scrutiny as the regular Pentagon budget, there will continue to be hundreds of millions of dollars unaccounted for each and every week that the wars go on. And there will be all sorts of money for pet projects that have nothing to do with fighting current conflicts. So don’t just think of that $3.5 billion per week figure as a given. Think of it as $3.5 billion … and counting.

Doesn’t that make you feel safer?

[Source Note: Readers who want to check out the latest Department of Defense supplemental request for war-fighting funds can click here (PDF file) and read, “FY 2008 Global War on Terror Pending Request” from the Office of the Secretary of Defense.]

William D. Hartung is the director of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation. He is the author of And Weapons for All (Harper Collins, 1994) and How Much Are You Making on the War, Daddy? A Quick and Dirty Guide to War Profiteering in the Bush Administration (Nation Books, 2004).

10-12

Dr.Zafar Taqvi, an Oustanding Engineer

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Dr Zafar Taqvi is currently a Senior Principal Engineer with Barrios Technology, a contractor for Boeing/NASA for International Space Station at Johnson Space center. He has been part of US Space program since 1969 in support of Apollo, Apollo-Soyuz, Space Shuttle and now ISS Communication & Tracking. He has earlier worked with Lockheed for 23 years as Advance Systems Engineering Specialist and with Dynacs/MDA for about 10 years as Staff Engineer.

Dr Taqvi has a Ph.D. (EE, ‘69) from University of Houston and a member of Tau beta Pi, Eta Kappa nu, Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Xi and Omicron delta kappa Honor societies. He has held many IEEE, ISA, and AIAA position at the section, region/district and national levels. He is an Associate Fellow of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, a Life member and Fellow of Instrument Society of America. Currently he is the Director of ROBEXS Division of ISA, and V/P ISA Automation and Technology Division.

Dr Taqvi has been honored by IEEE with Regional Leadership award twice and IEEE Millennium Medal, by ISA with Distinguished Society Service Award and Donald P. Echman Education Award, and by AIAA as Distinguished Service Award.

10-12

National Muslim-Christian Initiative in North America Launched

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WASHINGTON, D.C.–Representatives of several Muslim organizations and Christian denominations launched a National Muslim-Christian Initiative in North America at a meeting last week near Washington, D.C, the Episcopaelian News Service reported.

The work is partially sponsored by the Interfaith Relations Commission of the National Council of Churches of Christ.

Mohamed Elsanousi, director of communications and community outreach of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and the Rev. Dr. Gwynne Guibord, consultant for interfaith relations for the Episcopal Church, coordinated the meeting, which was convened as the result of consultations between Muslim and Christian organizations and leaders in the recent past.

The initiative was inspired by mutual concerns over misrepresentations of Islam and stereotypes of Muslims in North America, and further by an letter from Muslim to Christian leaders, titled “A Common Word Between Us and You,” signed by 138 leading Muslim clerics and intellectuals.

“This initiative is part of ongoing Muslim efforts to engage other faith communities in North America, and to bring about an understanding of common goals and reconciliation in our communities,” said Dr. Syeed Sayyid, national director of the ISNA Office for Interfaith and Community Alliances.

10-12

Fallon Resigns

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By Lolita C. Baldor, AP

WASHINGTON (March 11)–The top U.S. military commander for the Middle East resigned Tuesday amid speculation about a rift over U.S. policy in Iran.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that Adm. William J. Fallon had asked for permission to retire and that Gates agreed. Gates said the decision, effective March 31, was entirely Fallon’s and that Gates believed it was “the right thing to do.”

A recent article in Esquire portrayed Adm. Fallon as the lone voice in the Bush administration who opposed taking military action to stop the Iranian nuclear program.

Fallon was the subject of an article published last week in Esquire magazine that portrayed him as opposed to President Bush’s Iran policy. It described Fallon as a lone voice against taking military action to stop the Iranian nuclear program.

Fallon, who is traveling in Iraq, issued a statement through his US headquarters in Florida.

“Recent press reports suggesting a disconnect between my views and the president’s policy objectives have become a distraction at a critical time and hamper efforts in the Centcom region,” Fallon said.

“And although I don’t believe there have ever been any differences about the objectives of our policy in the Central Command area of responsibility, the simple perception that there is makes it difficult for me to effectively serve America’s interests there,” Fallon added.

Gates described as “ridiculous” any notion that Fallon’s departure signals the United States is planning to go to war with Iran. And he said “there is a misperception” that Fallon disagrees with the administration’s approach to Iran.

“I don’t think there were differences at all,” Gates added.

Fallon has had a 41-year Navy career. He took the Central Command post on March 16, 2007, succeeding Army Gen. John Abizaid, who retired. Fallon previously served as commander of U.S. Pacific Command.

Gates said that until a permanent replacement is nominated and confirmed by the Senate, Fallon’s place will be taken by his top deputy, Army Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey.

The secretary called Fallon a very able military strategist and said his advice will be missed at the Pentagon.

“I think this is a cumulative kind of thing,” said Gates, speaking of the circumstances leading up to Fallon’s decision. “It isn’t the result of any one article or any one issue.”

“As I say, the notion that this decision portends anything in terms of change in Iran policy is, to quote myself, ‘ridiculous,’ “ he said.

10-12

Not Guilty, But Jailed for Five Years: Al-Arian’s Third Hunger Strike Under Way

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Courtesy Chris Hedges, Truthdig.

The Palestinian activist Dr. Sami Amin Al-Arian, imprisoned for five years despite a jury’s failure to return a single guilty verdict against him, has gone on a hunger strike in Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Va. Al-Arian, who has abstained from food and water since March 3rd, began his hunger strike after being informed he would be called before a third grand jury. He has lost 15 pounds and has been moved to the jail’s medical unit.

“A great nation is ultimately defined and judged by its system of justice,” Al-Arian said in a statement released through his family. “When the system is manipulated by the powerful and tolerates abuses against the minorities or the weak members of society, the government not only loses its moral authority and betrays future generations, but will also be condemned by history.”

The hunger strike is the third by the Palestinian activist, who was to have been released in April and deported. During his first hunger strike, which lasted 140 days, he took liquid nutrients and lost 45 pounds. During his hunger strike last year, which lasted 60 days, he drank only water and lost 55 pounds. Al-Arian is a diabetic.

“We are very worried about his health, but we understand why he’s doing this,” said his daughter, Laila Al-Arian. “The U.S. government, through its vindictive and politically motivated behavior, has given our family no other option.”

The recent documentary, USA vs Al-Arian, detailed the absurdity of the show trial held in Florida and the hollowness of the government’s case against Al-Arian. When the film was awarded Best Nordic Documentary at the Nordic Panorama in Finland the jury wrote: “The film shows precisely how a common man becomes a victim of the situation in the contemporary world, where the Big Brother is watching you even when you’re ordering pizza.”

The decision to call Al-Arian before the grand jury was made although Al-Arian had signed a “no-cooperation” agreement. The agreement stipulated that he would not be required to cooperate with the government in other cases. The government’s attempt to force him to testify, despite the agreement, came a month before his scheduled release. It is seen by his lawyers and his family as an effort by the government to keep the activist in jail indefinitely.

Al-Arian endured a six-month show trial in Florida that saw the government’s case collapse. The Justice Department spent an estimated $50 million and several years investigating and prosecuting Al-Arian. The government called 80 witnesses and subjected the jury to hundreds of hours of often absurd phone transcriptions and recordings made over a 10-year period, which the jury dismissed as “gossip.” Out of the 94 charges made against the four defendants, there were no convictions. Of the 17 charges against Al-Arian — including “conspiracy to murder and maim persons abroad’’ — the jury acquitted him of eight and was hung on the rest. The jurors disagreed on the remaining charges, with 10 of the 12 jurors favoring his full acquittal. Two others in the case, Ghassan Ballut and Sameeh Hammoudeh, were acquitted of all charges, dealing another body blow to the government’s case.

Following the acquittal, a disaster for the government, especially because then-Attorney General John Ashcroft had announced the indictment, prosecutors threatened to retry Al-Arian. The Palestinian professor, under duress, accepted a plea bargain agreement that would spare him a second trial, saying in his agreement that he had helped people associated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad with immigration matters. It was a tepid charge given the high profile of the case. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida and the counter-terrorism section of the Justice Department agreed to recommend to the judge the minimum sentence of 46 months.

But U.S. District Judge James S. Moody Jr. sentenced Dr. Al-Arian to the maximum 57 months. In referring to Al-Arian’s contention that he had only raised money for Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s charity for widows and orphans, the judge said acidly to the professor that “your only connection to orphans and widows is that you create them.”

See more stories tagged with: war on terror, hunger strike, sami al-arian

Chris Hedges, a Pulitzer prize-winning reporter, was the Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times. His latest book is American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. Hedges wrote an investigative cover story for The Nation, “The Other War: Iraq Vets Bear Witness,” with Sami Al-Arian’s daughter, Laila.

10-12

Muslim Leader Faces Deportation

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Courtesy Elizabeth Llorente

NEW JERSEY (The Record) March 1, 2008 – One of the state’s most influential and high-profile Muslim leaders is facing deportation along with his wife and children.

Immigration officials are refusing to grant permanent residency to Imam Mohammad Qatanani, who came to the United States in 1996 on a religious work visa.

They say Qatanani, the imam for the Islamic Center of Passaic County, failed to disclose in his green card application a 1993 Israeli Military Court conviction against him for “assisting Hamas,” according to his attorney.

The accusation, which Qatanani denies, has outraged supporters of the 44-year-old spiritual leader. Qatanani is widely respected among New Jersey political and religious leaders as a devoted proponent of peace and bringing diverse groups together.

His mosque, in Paterson, has been host to interfaith gatherings that have drawn Governor Corzine and U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., among other political leaders. He was the first Muslim leader to officiate the opening of the state General Assembly. Many note he was one of the first imams in the nation to denounce the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and terrorism. He provided space in the mosque to FBI officials seeking to recruit Arabic speakers.

Immigration officials declined to comment, citing a May trial in Newark on Qatanani’s new application for legal residency for himself and immigrant family members.

Pascrell had strong words Friday on the imam’s behalf.

“I’ve seen with my own eyes a gentleman who’s had a tremendous positive influence in the community,” he said. “The immigration department is talking about something that goes way back many years, and they have every right and responsibility to look into that. But he’s done nothing but good since he’s been in the United States, and many of us are ready to stand up and go to court to testify about him if need be.”

Also on Friday, members of the state’s Muslim and Arab communities launched support campaigns, including a petition drive.

“Many in the community are very upset,” said Waheed Khalid, past president of the Darul Islah Mosque in Teaneck. “Where do we go to get justice? If he’s deported, it will be the saddest day not only for Muslims, but also New Jersey and this country.”

Qatanani, a Palestinian, and his attorney, Claudia Slovinsky of Manhattan, confirm that Israelis detained the imam for three months in 1993, having arrested him as he visited relatives in the West Bank. But they say Israeli officials made no mention of any prosecution. Such detention and interrogation was a practice they say was commonly used against Palestinian men.

“He has been consistently forthright to all U.S. government officials in providing all information he had regarding this period of detention,” Slovinsky said in a written summary. “The government makes no allegations of, or presents proof of, membership in or assistance to any questionable organizations aside from the documents from the Israeli National Police.”

Qatanani says he has only theories about why the Israelis detained him. He had left the West Bank in 1982 and worked as an imam and community college teacher for years, helping young Palestinians go study in Jordan. But he said he’s never shrunk from loudly denouncing Israeli occupation in the area, either.

“I say the occupation is unacceptable,” he said. “I am not a silent man.”

He said the Israelis confronted him during his 1993 visit.

“They said ‘Why are you talking this way?’ “

They also raised questions about the students he’d helped get to Jordan, he said, suggesting links between them and groups like Hamas. That group, now controlling the Gaza Strip, advocate’s Israel’s destruction and is branded by the U.S. and European Union as a terrorist organization.

“It is untrue that I helped Hamas,” Qatanani said. “As an imam, when someone comes to me to ask for help, I help them. I told them [the Israelis]: ‘These students come from Palestine, they are very poor. I help them find housing, get into the university.’ I don’t know everything they’re doing in their lives, I have no clue.”

Qatanani said he was detained, told little about why, then released unceremoniously.

“They just release you,” he said, “which means they have nothing to hold against you.”

Slovinsky said Qatanani did not lie when he omitted the detention on his immigration application.

Because Israeli authorities did not tell him he was being prosecuted, she said, he was unaware it was more than a common detention until U.S. authorities told him otherwise.

Slovinsky said Qatanani answered to the best of his knowledge when he said in his immigration application that he’d never been arrested or convicted in connection with a crime.

And, questioned in the last few years by FBI, immigration and other government authorities, Qatanani had mentioned the detention, she said.

“They’re not claiming that he’s a terrorist,” Slovinsky said. “There’s no proof of that. He’s got no secret agenda. His sermons, his work, all show that this is a man of peace.”

10-12

Top Ranking CIA Operatives: Al-Qaeda Is a Complete Fabrication

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Following is ommentary from the website polidics.com about a BBC documentary which argues that Western leaders invented and used the label of “al-Qaeda” to define an amorphous non-organization; the very defining of that organization justified radical military action and reduction of civil liberties–and perhaps more importantly also helps to perpetuate the staying in power of world leaders Tony Blair and George Bush, together with the neoconservative regime in Washington. Please click here to see the BBC video.

“BBC’s killer documentary called “The Power of Nightmares.” Top CIA officials openly admit, Al-Qaeda is a total and complete fabrication, never having existed at any time. The Bush administration needed a reason that complied with the Laws so they could go after “the bad guy of their choice” namely laws that had been set in place to protect us from mobs and “criminal organizations” such as the Mafia. They paid Jamal al Fadl, hundreds of thousands of dollars to back the U.S. Government’s story of Al-qaeda, a “group” or criminal organization they could “legally” go after. This video documentary is off the hook…

FOX NEWS Interview with Ian Blair (LINK):Blair said, “Al Qaeda is not an organization. Al Qaeda is a way of working … but this has the hallmark of that approach.”

Please see the BBC video on our website.

10-12

Muslim Superheroes

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By Sumayyah Meehan, MMNS

The word ‘superheroes’ conjures up images of Superman “…leaping over tall buildings in a single bound” or Spiderman swinging through the skies by his webs to save the latest damsel in distress. Perhaps the last concept that many people would associate with superheroes, or even with comic books for that matter, is Islam. However, a new breed of entrepreneur from Kuwait has turned the global comic book industry on its head by creating one of the first Islamic themed comic books that the World has ever seen.

Naif al-Mutawa, CEO of Teshkeel Media, is the mastermind behind ‘The 99’ comic book series, which is taking the Middle East as well as the rest of the World by storm. And giving more mainstream comic books, like Archie and others, a run for their money!

The inspiration for ‘The 99’ actually came from Mr. Al-Mutawa’s sister, “ She asked me to return to a writing career after I had finished my MBA. She got me thinking about the lack of positive modern day Islamic role models for children and I decided that I wanted my children (and children everywhere) to have heroes that they could call their own. That’s why we have 99 characters from 99 different countries. To show kids that heroes can come from anywhere and to counterbalance the negative depictions of Islam that are too prevalent in the entertainment field these days.”

Characters depicted in ‘The 99’ represent Muslims from all over the globe each one having their own superpower whether it is a physical power like growing to a gargantuan size in the flash of an eye or mental powers like being able to tell whether or not someone is telling the truth. Mr. Al-Mutawa has really covered the bases with his characters to give them mass appeal as readers can find one or more that they can identify with. The characters of ‘The 99’ also bring a strong sense of Islam to the storyline, which is unique given that other comics in the Middle East do not possess the finesse that Mr. Al-Mutawa has to make room for Islam in their storyboards. All the characters in ‘The 99’ are the epitome of kindness, generosity, wisdom and honesty, which are core Islamic values. Further, Mr. Al-Mutawa uses ‘The 99’ to spread a message of peace that the World really needs to hear, “Human beings have so much more that unites us than separates us. All cultures should be valued and respected. Tolerance and understanding are more powerful than force and conflict.”

‘The 99’s’ storyline begins with the sacking of Baghdad by Hulagu Khan. “We have rewritten history,” says Mr. Al-Mutawa, “to say that the Mongols invaded Baghdad specifically to destroy the great library, the Dar Al-Hikma. The librarians use a special solution of Kings water and manage to save the wisdom of the ages in 99 gemstones. The gems are taken to Andalusia where they remain safe until Ferdinand and Isabella attack. At that point one of the descendants of the librarians tries to use the power of the stones for his own purposes and the fortress guarding the gems is destroyed. The gems become scattered around the world, lost until the present day. Now they are being rediscovered, one by one, and each new gem gives special powers to a worthy recipient. Now it’s a race between Dr. Ramzi and the heroes of THE 99 and the forces that want to use the gems for their own selfish purposes.”

The creative forces behind ‘The 99’ are just as diverse and multi-talented as the superheroes themselves. “We didn’t have an existing comic book culture here in Kuwait,” shares Mr. Al-Mutawa, “so we went out and found top-level talent from around the globe.” The creative team of ‘The 99’ includes artists who have worked on other popular comic books like X-Men, Pirates of the Caribbean and The Incredible Hulk. Team members have come from all over the World to bring Mr. Al-Mutawa’s imagination and characters to life. The nationalities represented in Mr. Al-Mutawa’s creative team include Irish, Spanish, Argentinean, Turkish, Canadian, Iranian and British. Although Mr. Al-Mutawa is very keen to hire homegrown Kuwaiti artists, however, the existing talent has not produced itself as of yet.

Mr. Al-Mutawa has not spared any expense or effort to ensure that ‘The 99’ can go head to head with fierce competition from the likes of the bigger comic giants like Marvel or Disney. The uniqueness of the characters has proven to be the key to ‘The 99’s’ success as both Muslim and non-Muslim fans devour issues of the comic book as they come out. “Our goal has always been to tell entertaining stories first and foremost and I think that’s been a big part of our acceptance among non-Muslim readers,” reveals Mr. Al-Mutawa.

‘The 99’ is currently being published in the US, Kuwait, Indonesia, Malaysia and will be launched in India this spring. Teshkeel Media has also appointed licensing agents in the UK, France and Spain. So, it is only a matter of time before comic book aficionados in those regions can get their hands on a giant dose of ‘The 99’.

The future for ‘The 99’ and Teshkeel Media looks very bright. Mr. Al-Mutawa has already begun talks with other media moguls around the World to take ‘The 99’ to the next level. “We’ve had some very interesting discussions with potential partners about everything from animation to theme parks and I expect we will be making some announcements very soon. If all goes as planned 2008 will really be the year of THE 99!”

Get your FREE copy of ‘The 99’ online by visiting: www.the99.org Download ‘The 99-Origins-Issue Zero’ and discover why Forbes Magazine calls ‘The 99’ one of the Top 20 trends sweeping the globe!

10-12

Musings (V10-I12)–Keeping the Jinn at Bay

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By Imam Abdullah El-Amin, MMNS

“And the Jinn race, We had created before, from the fire of a scorching wind.”
Qur’an 15:27

I talked to a lady in my office recently that was very fearful over what she called jinns and devilish people controlling her life. These jinns were people she knew and the names she described were known to me as well. Whether they are actually jinns or not, I do not know. But that was not what was important anyway. It doesn’t matter who they are, how scholarly they are, how pretty or handsome or how glib they are. The important thing to know and understand is they do not have any power over you unless you submit yourself to them and give them that power. It was a very tense meeting, for I could see in her eyes and hear in her voice that this lady was truly fearful of those she said were controlling her life.

Now we all have knowledge from the Qur’an that the jinn do exist and can be quite dazzling if allowed to be. I also am aware that they can be in human form and can pretend to be the best human being or Muslim around while causing mischief all the time. So I could not belittle the woman’s plight or her fear of what was happening to her. I simply reminded her that when Almighty ALLAH created her, He put her (Adam) on top of everything in creation – so she only had Him to fear.

Too often we can get mesmerized by what we think are powerful people with special gifts that are superior to ours. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is NOTHING in creation more powerful or superior to us as human beings (Adam).

What is it that makes evil people try to exercise their strength on weaker human beings? It would seem that everyone would want to get along in peace. It’s certainly less stressful.

But these evil ones are not human. ALLAH tells us in Qur’an that Iblis said he would never prostrate to Adam whom ALLAH created from mud molded into shape. Iblis says he is made of fire and therefore superior to mere dirt. So ALLAH put him out and cursed him until the Day of Judgment. But he was given respite until the Day of Judgment to continue his dirty work.

And he promises ALLAH that he will use all kind of trickery to lead Adam astray. He says he will even have them thinking they are doing right while all the time they are being led astray. This is true for all men EXCEPT the chosen servants of ALLAH. ALLAH tells him he will have no power over those that choose to follow ALLAH.

This is very important because that sister had forgotten this. Most of us Muslims have read the Holy Qur’an many times and know what it says. ALLAH says Satan will not have power over anyone except those who let him overpower them. The sister only needs to follow the rules of shahada and put nothing between herself and ALLAH. In doing so, she has nothing whatsoever to fear of creation.

So remember, although evil spirits and jinns exist, they do not have the ability to harm you. They will call you, they will entice you with money, and they will even try to scare you. But as long as you put them behind you and don’t submit to them, they cannot win.

Prophet Muhammad (s) said that all men are accompanied by devils, and that he had turned his into a Muslim.

What does that mean? So as guidance to us this means for us to submit ourselves more to ALLAH, Lord of all the worlds, which automatically increases our power and decreases the ability of evil to become dominant in our life. And the Prophet (s) is our guide and example. Remember and trust ALLAH.

With ALLAH’S name, the Merciful Benefactor, Merciful Redeemer
As Salaam alaikum

(Al Hajj) Imam Abdullah Bey El-Amin

Single Sex Education

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By Elder George

The March 2, 2008 edition of The New York Times Magazine contained a cover story entitled Teaching to the Testosterone, which reported on the small but rapidly growing trend of a return to single sex education. This article filled me with elation for I have championed single sex education for 15 years, and those who have checked my website or invested in my information booklets will have noticed that the mission statement of Men’s action to Rebuild Society calls for the conducting of single sex youth education programs.

According to the article, scientific research and educational studies (Western man is in a continual process of conducting studies because he knows so little of the nature of the universe) reveal that girls and boys learn differently. They have not yet come to the conclusion that men and women are different—a realization that will require considerably more investigation by Western sources.

In my lectures and on my website I indicate that women are noun people and men are verb people. The article explains that in single sex art classes girls use bright colors and draw still lifes, whereas boys use darker colors and draw active situations. That should not have been a revelation; nouns don’t move—verbs do. Noun people accept conditions and adapt to them; verb people change conditions. These are gender characteristics, not learning abilities.

Ignoring these characteristics creates problems. The article explains all that happens when you take a toy gun away from your son and give him a doll instead is that you tell him, “I don’t like the person that you are and I wish you would be more like your sister Rema.” The continual comparing of behavioral characteristics of one sex to another creates confusion and the ultimate need for medication. It is better to teach in accordance with natural gender differences.

In single sex classes, girls are not told to stop talking; instead they do a lot of meeting in circles where every girl can share something from her own life that relates to the class. Instead of telling boys to sit still, their energy is utilized. Boys are given physical representation of number lines, relay races, and ball tossing during discussion. Females naturally sit and talk; men naturally stand and move. The approach to single sex teaching takes those characteristics into consideration.

To the West these ideas are revolutionary if not enlightening. To the rest of the world they are natural. Muslims have conducted single sex education in madrasas for centuries. Aside from catering to natural gender characteristics, single sex education avoids the sexual tension that develops when the age of puberty is reached.

The feminist drive to subvert the family in the Muslim world consists of telling the women Muslim practices regarding gender and education reflect a middle-ages mentality. Little do the feminists realize that the genderless values that they try to propagate are pre-historical—of a time when society did not know the purpose and meaning of life; when family and a God-consciousness had not yet developed.

The relationship of the Sun to the Earth, of the electron to the nucleus of an atom, and the relationship of a man to a woman are governed by the same fundamental principles. Men and women respecting each other and working in harmony together produce what is necessary to sustain themselves and grow in God’s love. That is the purpose of gender differences, characteristics, and attributes.

Elder George’s website is www.mensaction.net and he can be reached at 212-874-7900 ext. 1329.

10-12

Shh…. Quiet. It’s Israel

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By Dr. Aslam Abdullah, TMO Editor-in-Chief

Keep quiet. Don’t utter a single word of criticism, even if an Israeli minister threatens to make Palestinians taste holocaust. Don’t be critical of the Zionist State if the original inhabitants of Gaza are starved to death. Turn your eyes away from the scene of killing when the planes with emblems of Star of David bomb innocent civilian targets indiscriminately. Israel is sacred at least in the vocabulary of many vocal Americans and above all criticism in the lexicon of many Europeans.

Since the world is dominated by Anglo-Saxon elites in America and Europe as well, any attempt to even talk of justice for Palestinians is impossibly remote.

A great majority of American and European elites, both religious and secular, have their fixed notions about the Zionist State.

The religious elite in general believe that the Jewish State is a fulfilled promise of God and anyone who comes against Israel and its chosen people will earn the Divine curse and wrath. In their view, whatever is done by leaders of Israel is justified and sanctioned by God and hence it must never be questioned. More than 60,000 churches in the United States uphold this doctrine and feel unhesitant in declaring their viewpoints from their pulpits week after week.

This position is similarly reasoned to the beliefs of medieval Europeans.

In modern times, many Christian religious elites have made the continuted well being and interests of the state of Israel a part of their religious belief system. They firmly believe that the creation of Israel is a divine favor for the followers of Jesus (as).

The position of secular elites is not different from those of religious Christians, but their reasoning is different.

They view the state of Israel as a protection for the Jews who had long been persecuted in Europe and lands occupied by religiously motivated leaders. They consider the existence of Israel as a guarantee for the self-sufficiency and survival of Jews.

They believe that the root cause of the problem in the Middle east is the presence of Hamas and other similar groups who refuse to acknowledge the existence of Israel and who are bent on threatening its annihilation.

In the views of these elites, unless the Palestinians are willing to share their interpretation of history, the idea of a Palestinian State side by side with Israel is meaningless.

In the polemics and actions of the two powerful elites in America and Europe, the fate of the Palestinians has been facing uncertainty since the creation of the state of Israel.

On the other hand, in their justified desire to have a dignified existence, many among the Palestinians have reached to a level of total helplessness and despair.

Regardless of the level of frustration and helplessness, violence or terror cannot be justified from a Muslim’s perspective. However, there are many among Palestinians and others who do not agree with this perspective and who argue that violence against Palestinians must be responded against with violence. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is what they usually espouse.

Of course, this perspective can be challenged from an Islamic perspective.

The situation is so grim that no solution seems to be in sight as long as people don’t question the validity of many political ideas that are guiding the Israeli policy and the subsequent responses coming from the power elites in America and Europe.

If we want change in the Middle East, the European and American elites have to change their perspective.

This is a process that would not start from pressures from outside. Both the religious and secular elites have to view it on the basis of the voice of their conscience.

The only people who can convince the two sets of elites to rethink their perspectives are none other than the Jews who believe in the unbiased notion of justice and dignity for all human beings and who are not blinded by their animosity of others to compromise their principles.

Within Israel and outside, there are many Jewish voices that are now questioning the inhumanity that is being directed against the Palestinians.

Yet, these voices are so meek and weak at present that they are leaving no impact on anyone. The Palestinian plight should not be the concern of Palestinians or Muslims only.

Jews, being a community that has undergone a long period of persecution in human history, should also be among those who question occupation, captivity, oppression and injustices.

They should be the ones to identify with the people sufferings from the policies perpetuated in their name in a state created for their existence.

Without their identifying with the victims of injustices, the claims of Jews to be champions of justice and peace and dignity would be hollow.

Muslims have done their share in questioning the validity of violent tactics in resolving the Middle East conflict and more should be done by them.

But now it is time for the supporters of Israel to show their solidarity with the principles of justice and peace that they espouse so passionately in their synagogues and religious gatherings.

They must pursuade their own power elites that Palestinians are just as human as they are, and they, like the world’s other citizens, deserve a dignified existence in a land they have inhabitated for long.

10-12

Look Away

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By Bob Wood, MMNS

I am now watching on C-Span an amazing spectacle — a Congressional hearing which is looking into inflated CEO compensation. Only in America could some of our most corrupt citizens be so strenuously supported by our elected representatives!

Let’s be fair here: not all Congressional panelists tasked with grilling the country’s most egregiously overpaid CEOs are rushing to defend them. However, Republican Congressmen Darrell Issa and Tom Davis are leading the expressions of dismay regarding the inconveniences suffered by their CEO pals in enduring such a hearing. The hearing offers just one more example of pure political theatre to hear them tell it.

The defenders of those hugely overpaid CEOs say that all is fair in a capitalist system like ours. If the head of Countrywide Financial can be paid hundreds of millions of dollars while every other stakeholder in the company suffers massive losses, that’s just an example of how our system operates; winners and losers all exist together.

Issa, in particular, seems almost indignant in stating that these CEOs, who were paid massively while leading companies that suffered disastrously from losses and cratering stock prices, were also harmed. After all, their residual holdings in their respective companies have lost money — just like every other shareholder. Wow, really?

In the case of Angelo Mozilo, CEO of Countrywide Financial, who was paid roughly $250 million since 1998, sold company shares, which he acquired at negligible cost in the form of stock options, to the tune of another $400 million! Yet Issa seems to feel Mozilo’s pain, since his remaining shares are now almost worthless. Poor guy, eh?

Another defender of such greedy CEOs pointed out that each company has a board of directors to oversee compensation issues. If these officers were overpaid, the board failed in its oversight function. After all, the board exists to help protect shareholders from any unfair advantage taken by corrupt managers.

A recent article in the Financial Times newspaper delves into this. Relating to the level of shareholder protection offered by directors, the article says:

‘’In one instance, Mr. Mozilo sought to collect $3 million per year in benefits that he was eligible to receive under retirement while he was still employed at the company. He acknowledged that the request was ’unusual’.”

Isn’t that what is called ‘’double dipping’’? It’s also considered illegal — or certainly should be. Wouldn’t you like to start collecting Social Security payments at age 50 while still working?

‘’In another example, Mozilo said he expected Countrywide to reimburse him for taxes owed when his wife traveled with him on the corporate jet. He threatened to retire if the board did not give in to his demands. Ultimately, the directors capitulated.’’

Mozilo claimed that he deserved extensive consideration, since he had founded and built the company. While that may well be the case, the fact became irrelevant when his company went public and ownership was transferred at market prices to a wide group of owners — the shareholders.

Maybe this is not such a big deal for most companies. But the big problem at Countrywide was that, as an insider, Mozilo knew more about potential troubles than anyone at the company. And he was selling massive amounts of stock as its price slid from $42/share, less than a year ago, to its current nebulous value of $5/share.

While investors (or shall we call them “owners of the company”?) were losing in excess of $20 billion, the CEO was paid well over half a billion! And yet those Republicans on the Congressional panel say he is being treated unfairly?!

Along with the massively overpaid Mozilo is Charles Prince, former head of Citigroup. His company shares have plummeted from $55/share to today’s price of $21/share, again, in less than a year’s time. Well over $100 billion has been lost by owners of that company while Prince positioned it for massive losses that are still being discovered.

In all fairness and objectivity, we can say that Prince was massively incompetent in doing his job. We could also argue that Prince, along with all other massively overpaid CEOs, mistook himself as the true owner of the company, with all these rights and benefits expected. These CEOs apparently see their companies’ real owners as holders of secondary rights and considerations. So who really owns publicly traded companies in America?!

Why do the real owners take a back seat to their employees? One argument says the CEOs are paid so well because of the value the marketplace places in their talents. But does their performance suggest that they should have been paid millions? Were no better candidates available to run Countrywide for a mere $10 million/year? What about the people who took the place of the ousted CEO’s? Weren’t they available before, and at much lower costs to shareholders?

Apologists for these corporate criminals, such as Issa and Davis, argue that company boards of directors make wise and sensible decisions about the pay bestowed upon their CEOs. But would you, as an investor and owner, ever have approved such compensation for any manager?

Top management supporters also point out that any shareholder, when and if disgusted with such massive payouts to mediocre or outright inept managers, can sell his/her shares and move on. Unfortunately for many, they own shares in these large companies within portfolios of passively managed index funds; an example of this situation occurred when Enron fell into the dustbin of history due to its massive incompetence and self-dealing on the part of well-connected managers.

So what is an investor to do? That’s an easy call for me and has much to do with why I have advocated investing in international markets. I find the best way to protect my clients from these self dealers is to walk away from them! Currently, I allocate very small amounts in domestic shares, mainly in the energy sector.

I am sure that we have not missed very much. Besides, the domestic market is well into a long-term bear market, and with the S&P 500 still selling at about 18 times earnings, investors are overpaying for shares in companies that offer almost no protections and virtually no regulatory oversight. When was the last time you heard about the SEC’s prosecution of companies involved in frauds like these?

Many domestic corporate managers appear to be corrupt. Yet most enablers in the Enron scandal walked away Scot free. Sure, some of its firms paid heavy fines, but those penalties did not come from the pockets of the heads of the financial companies that abetted Enron’s fraud. Fines were paid from company cash – that belonged to shareholders!

As long as Congressional leaders are beholden to large corporate donors for campaign funding, do not expect much in the way of oversight and shareholder protection. The corporate management system, for the most part, is corrupt, and investors are at a distinct disadvantage when buying into any company’s shares.

Because of my strong opinions about domestic corporations, I am often asked if oversight and other protections are any better at international companies than they are here at home. That’s hard to know for sure, but then, how could they be any worse?!

What make international markets a safer bet are the better valuations available in European markets such as Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria and Belgium. In Asian markets, Singapore appears to be reasonably priced.

You may want to look away, far away, from the corruption riddled markets here at home. Go far, far away in search of better places to invest and better people to employ as managers of your companies’ futures.

Have a great week.
Bob

Bob Wood ChFC, CLU Yusuf Kadiwala. Registered Investment Advisors, KMA, Inc., invest@muslimobserver.com.

10-12

Students Helping Students

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By staff reporter-MMN News

Troy, MI: March 8, 2008–A local chapter of the MSA held a successful fundraising dinner for Al Ikhlas Academy at the Islamic Association of Greater Detroit (IAGD) on March 8, 2008.

The youngsters, high school students, put up a grand show through their measure of confidence, oratory and organizational capabilities, reassuring the audience of what the future holds.

Led by Adam Siddiqui, the Ameer of the local school chapter of MSA, said in his speech why it is important for students to help students in need.

Emphasizing the need of education in Islamic institutions such as Al Ikhlas Academy, he said by helping each other Allah (swt) will shower His Barakah on us and will create a strong student fraternity.

Nadir Ahmed, Director of Al Ikhlas Academy, applauded the efforts of the students and reminded the audience what these students are capable of doing.

We need Islamic institutions where our children are ever eager to give back to the community because of inherent Islamic moral teachings, and institutions that continue to propagate our theology, beliefs and ideology.

It is obligatory and incumbent on us to develop such institutions that cultivate our youths in the right way, explained Mr. Ahmed.

Students raised about $13,000, well beyond their declared target of raising $10,000 for the evening. Kids enjoyed pizza for dinner while the adults gorged on kabobs, chicken and biryani.

10-12

True Believers Carry On

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By Adil James, MMNS

Auburn Hills–March 9–Now, in the sunset of the Republican primary race, what remains of the stalwart and perhaps fanatical support that Ron Paul engendered among the American populace?

During the campaign he found support that earned him record-setting “money bomb” collections of millions of dollars gathered in frenetic one-day periods of time, leveraging the internet and his base of devoted supporters. He won straw polls, beat serious competitors like Giuliani in isolated races, and made strong showings nationwide.

And how is this reflected in microcosm in the Michigan area?

The Muslim Observer attended a recent March event organized by the Ron Paul campaign in Michigan. From talking to those present you might think that McCain’s supposed clinching of the nomination is just a wispy detail in the way of Ron Paul’s still-possible victory. The four attendees seemed dedicated to their quiet revolution, and had lost none of their enthusiasm.

David Lonier, an organic farmer who hosted the function, explained that “Nothing is sewn up 100%.” “Candiates drop out.”

Sen. McCain seems unlikely to drop out of the race now, unless for health reasons–and judging by his feisty 95-year-old mother’s health, he looks likely to live healthily beyond his current 72.

Mr. Lonier explained that in Michigan there were about 400-500 people involved in the campaign, from whom about 100 were very active.

The underlying feeling at the function was one of revolution–a feeling that the elections thus far have been administered unjustly and in contempt of a growing but vibrant community.

“For the first time the mainstream media did not publish straw polls,” said Mr. Lonier, which he explained Ron Paul had mostly won. He points out that in Ron Paul’s 14th District of Texas he won his congressional seat overwhelmingly, but those same voters selected McCain by 4 to 1, implying a fix.

As for the vibrancy of the campaign, it was perhaps summed up in the words of Sean House. Mr. House was initially attracted to Paul because “I liked his passion, his honesty.” He said, “we are looking beyond the election.” He excitedly listed a new-found interest among Paul’s Michigan supporters in running for local congressional seats to push forward the same agenda of civil liberarian reform.

None of the four present at the meeting seemed likely to vote for any of the other name candidates in the coming election. Just the suggestion seemed dismaying to them, and one explained “I will probably just write in Ron Paul’s name if he is not on the ballot.”

Said Dave Hoover, another supporter: “It’s a love revolution, not a guns revolution.”

True love and true belief, for Ron Paul, the Texas congressman.

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Community News (V10-I12)

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Now shop for Halal at Walmart

DEARBORN, March 6, 2008 (News Agencies)— Halal food products have finally become mainstream in the North American market. Several Canadian big name grocery chains like Loblaws, Food Basics, and Sobeys have been carrying Halal products for the past few years. Now, their American counterparts are finally catching up. A new Walmart store in Dearborn is carrying a full range of Halal products in an effort to cater to the area’s large Muslim community.

Halal meats have been shelved at the store in a separate case, reports the Detroit News. The store also carries packaged food products as well as fruits and vegetables from Egypt and Lebanon.

Another top retailer Kroger is also reportedly carrying some Halal brands. It is, however, not known whether these products are certified by any organization or their standards. Muslim Observer is investigating these products and will report back shortly.

Pace student who desecrated Qur’an: community service

NEW YORK– A former Pace University student who desecrated Islam’s holy book after supposed disputes with Muslim students was found guilty last week of disorderly conduct.

The twenty four year old student pleaded guilty as part of deal in which he will have to do 300 hours of community service. His lawyer reported that he has already completed 80 hrs of services at a local hospital.

Detective Faisal Khan, who prepared the complaint, said the student told him “he committed the acts out of anger toward a group of Muslim students with whom he had a recent disagreement.”

Honors for Muslim students at Oklahoma U.

NORMAN, OK– University of Oklahoma’s Norman campus announced its fall 2007 honor rolls last month. Several Muslim students have been listed. The students must earn a minimum 3.5 grade point average on a 4.0 scale to be included on the honor roll. Students in the College of Architecture are recognized with a 3.3 or better, and students in the College of Engineering are recognized with a 3.0 or better. The names of students who earned a 4.0 (A) grade point average also are President Honor Roll designates and are indicated by an asterisk.

The names of the Muslim honor roll students are Suhayb M. Anwar, Ahmad Mohamad Kojo, Samar Aijaz,Ahmed Abdulkarim Bin Amer, Khadeeja Fareed Elyazgi,

Shaun Amir Hajjari*, Abdullah Abduljalil Alabbad*, Emad Abbad M. Alabbad*, Rayan Abdulaziz Alidi, Ali Hussain Y. Alsafar, Mohammed Salih K. Altarooti, Hani Ataiq A. Alzahrani, Mehmet Ali Ergun,Ali Fahham, Hossein M. Farzaneh,Mohammed Samir Raslan*, Abdullah Jamal A. Sembawah.

CAIR-LA takes part in LAPD Muslim Forum

LOS ANGELES: Representatives of the Greater Los Angeles Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA), along with other community organizations, participated in the first meeting of the Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD) Muslim Community Forum on Feb. 21 at the Omar Ibn Al-Khattab Foundation.

Other groups taking part in the meeting included the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, Project Islamic Hope, Bilal Islamic Center, the Council on Pakistani American Affairs, the Islamic Educational Center of Orange County, Muslim American Society and the Islamic Institute of Orange County. The forum, which came in response to the controversy over a proposed LAPD “mapping” of the city’s Muslim community, seeks to re-establish trust and dialogue between Los Angeles area Muslims and the police department.

The “mapping” plan was abandoned after strong opposition from Muslim and civil rights groups over the possibility of profiling and other concerns.”We welcome the LAPD’s efforts to reach out to the Los Angeles Muslim community to rebuild trust, cooperation and understanding,” said CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush.

“It is important for American Muslims to continue to be engaged in their local communities in order to foster partnerships and ensure that they are treated as equal citizens.” Ayloush said the group will meet quarterly and is similar to Chief William Bratton’s other five forums with community groups of Los Angeles. Each forum has the goal of strengthening partnerships and addressing community issues. In addition to the Muslim Community Forum, CAIR and Southern California Muslims have previously initiated and participated in other partnerships with law enforcement.

These include: Multi-Cultural Advisory Committee (with the FBI Los Angeles bureau), Muslim American Homeland Security Congress (with Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department), and DHS Roundtable (with the Department of Homeland Security). These forums are designed to assist law enforcement officials in formulating policies that create a culturally-sensitive environment and a cooperative spirit between American Muslims and law enforcement agencies, while strengthening the security of our nation and local communities.

Pakistani-American Artist’s solo exhibition to debut in NYC

Fawad Khan’s Spectacle of Pride, 2007, gouache and ink on paper

Fawad Khan, a Pakistani-American painter, whill debut his fist solo exhibition on March 13 at 33 Bond Gallery in New York. He was born in Libya at a military base, where his father, a major in the Pakistani Army Medical Corp, was on contract. He was raised in Karachi and moved to USA at the age of eight. Khan says that he finds himself fascinated with images from the oppressive and aggressively militaristic cultures of my past.

“Working on paper and canvas in the past, I have recently begun expanding my designs to envelope entire rooms or cover exterior surfaces. I’ve also introduced chili peppers and pomegranates—symbols from my childhood—as formal design elements depicting motion, and in some cases, hinting at calligraphic writing. The cars are all rendered from personal reference—a Citroën I used to see on Greene Street, a Peugeot 504 from my father’s military days in Libya in the 70s, a commuter bus I photographed on the busy streets of Karachi,” he says.

“Though my recent work plays on the visceral undertones of the current political climate, my goal is to ensure that the political content is not too overt. My explosions are violent, but they are bloodless. They are chaotic, but they are choreographed. I think ambiguity is an important element of my work. If a piece answers all of a viewer’s questions, what kind of continued relationship can remain between that person and the artwork? I prefer to hear what the viewer’s background or experience brings to the picture in order to complete the conversation,” he adds.

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Houstonian Corner (V10-I12)

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MPAC Offers Unique Programs for Nationwide Community

Houston to Receive Three Programs in 2008

The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) has used in Houston a unique approach of having about half-a-dozen of coordinators to organize their activities. Rather than having a hierarchical structure (President, Vice Presidents and Assistances), MPAC-Houston has these coordinators, who helped the national MPAC arrange at Hilton University of Houston a Gala Dinner with world famous Canadian Zarqa Nawaz of Little Mosque on the Prairie and Stand-Up Comedian Preacher Moss.

With the Grace of God, more than 200 people attended and to avoid standing room, extra tables and chairs were placed for the guests. With this overwhelming support, Salam Al-Marayati, MPAC Executive Director, announced officially the revivification of MPAC-Houston and said this Chapter will continue the same concept of coordinators. Also present on the occasion were Edina Lekovic, Communications Director of MPAC (you must have seen her on O’Reiley Factor, FOX TV, CNN, etc.) and Haris Tarin, Community Development Director from Washington D.C.

Edina Lekovic effectively emceed the program. After the dinner, MPAC Houston Coordinator Afshan Jelani said that many people around Muslims in USA feel we are here to earn goodies and that we are basically rich people (as such we get big smiles from salespersons at Malls like Galleria): This image needs to be changed and for this, sincere charitable, social and political activism is not a choice anymore, it is an obligation.

Salam Al-Marayati, MPAC Executive Director, informed that rather than being watch dog, MPAC has chosen the practical stance of being allies with the Media and others (although sometimes complaining is alright, but not all the time idea). Coordinators A. J. Durrani and Dr. Sayeed Siddiqui explained how the organizers had worked at grassroots level and appreciated everyone for their participation with the large gathering. Everyone was asked to contribute towards MPAC – Houston’s yearly funds of $100,000: Aim was to collect at least 14th on the Gala Night. The room exploded with laughter, while watching one episode Little Mosque on the Prairie and the Stand-Up Comedy of Preacher Moss.

Everyone found Little Mosque on the Prairie to be quite hilarious and creator of this play Zarqa Nawaz informed that since most of the Canadian watch USA programming, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) was on the verge of closing down, when her hit show revived this Government Funded Station. Some people found the play to be too westernized and not totally reflective of true Islamic values: They found it to be more reflective of Pakistani-Indian culture and lacked much of the Arabian and other cultures: They said it is not all encompassing, while Islam is more diversified. However they agreed that it is quite entertaining and that brings to the American and Canadian viewers that Muslims are normal people, who also enjoy comedy and have fun within certain bounds.

MPAC Plans For Houston Civic Engagement – Islam-o-Phobia Seminars & Youth Summit

During the day-time, MPAC organized two free workshops: Media – & – Civic – Engagement. It was learnt that American media needs story to be told and there are different frames used in creating a viable story for the media. Foremost thing is to develop the capacity within the community by training many individuals especially Youth to tell the story. The stories are told within frames, which need to be positive: Like Pro-Life rather than Anti-Abortion and Pro-Choice rather than Anti-Pro-Life. Proper use of words and small sentences are important to convey the story in an effective and understandable manner. Avoid using very difficult words just to impress.

Like for instance, after 9/11, President Bush made many speeches, but one single small sentence became famous and will always be remembered: Either you are with us or you are with the terrorist”. He was able to not only address the world with this sentence; he also informed people in USA that if anyone goes against the policies of the Government, it will be as if he or she is with the terrorists and as such unpatriotic.

During these seminars, it was learnt that over the years, MPAC has developed mutually beneficial working relationships with Government officials and agencies, and build coalitions with civic and business organizations. They have started a successful “New Ground Program” in Los Angeles, where ten Muslims and ten Jewish Professionals work together for one year in a committee implementing various community development and societal help projects. Every year new ten professionals from each community join this project. For more information, please check www.mpac.org

It was informed to the participants of the daytime workshops that MPAC is one of the few proactive Muslim Organizations, where rather than protesting to various stereotypes and hardships being faced by Muslims now-a-days, MPAC leadership engages public at grassroots level and decision-makers at topmost governmental levels to formulate policies in resolving issues. MPAC is that civic assistance bureau that working for the civil rights of American Muslims, for the incorporation of Islam into American pluralism, and for a productive affiliation between American Muslim Communities & their Representatives. MPAC’s policy paper ACTIVATE 08 has been out for a while, which is a policy manual for the upcoming Elections of Year 2008.

MPAC also engages media into dialogue on the contemporary issues facing USA. For this purpose, they have created the Hollywood Bureau in Los Angels, which directly talks with producers and directors making movies related to Muslims and Islam. You must also have seen Edina Lekovic, MPAC Communications Director, on various mainstream American television discussion shows.

MPAC provides training to the Muslims, especially the Youth to perform various proactive roles. Some of the salient trainings include Civic Engagement (12 Hours Two Days);” Truth Over Fear: Islam-o-Phobia” (Half-Day); and Leadership Summit in Washington D.C. where 25 Muslim Youth go to National Capitol and learn hands-on how the Government operates. Such Summits are done by Local Chapters (where ever possible) with visits to the Mayor Office, County Office, Think-Tanks (like Bakers’ Institute at Rice University Houston) and Luncheon Meeting with the major media outlets’ Editorial Board. MPAC – Houston will be bringing all of these three in town during Year 2008: First the two day workshop of Civic Engagement, after that Islam-o-Phobia Seminar and later on Local Houston Youth Summit.

For more information about MPAC Houston, please call 281-731-0092 or E-Mail: SayeedSiddiqui@AOL.Com

10-12

Clinton Supporter Defends Obama Race Remarks

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By Donna Smith

Note: Geraldine Ferraro left the Clinton campaign after this article was written.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Geraldine Ferraro, the only woman to run on a major U.S. party’s presidential ticket, on Wednesday defended her comment that Barack Obama was ahead in the race for the Democratic nomination because he is black.

Ferraro, a Democrat who ran for vice president in 1984 and now supports Obama’s rival Hillary Clinton, rejected what she called attempts by Obama’s campaign to paint her remark as racist.

Obama, who has built up a strong lead in the state-by-state contest, dismissed the idea that his being black was an advantage and said Ferraro was being intentionally divisive.

Ferraro told CBS’s “The Early Show” she thought Obama had been able to mount a strong campaign against Clinton because his was a “historic candidacy” that excited the country, as her candidacy did in 1984.

“For his campaign to take that and spin it and attack Hillary and me as being racist, I tell you, it is just appalling,” said Ferraro, who is on Clinton’s finance committee.

“My comments have been taken so out of context and have been spun by the Obama campaign as racist that it’s doing precisely what they don’t want done — it’s going to the Democratic Party and dividing us even more,” Ferraro said in another interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Ferraro ignited the flap when she told a California newspaper that “if Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position.”

“And if he was a woman he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept,” she said.

Ferraro told ABC she was “absolutely not” sorry for what she said and that the media had not fully reported her comments. She said she had fought discrimination for 40 years, “not only in gender, but race, disability, the elderly.”

Clinton, a senator from New York and wife of former President Bill Clinton who would be the first woman to become U.S. president, rejected Ferraro’s published remarks on Tuesday but her campaign did not break its ties with her.

Obama’s campaign, which fired an adviser who called Clinton a “monster,” urged the former first lady to break with Ferraro to send a message about the negative tone of the campaign.

‘Slice and Dice’

Asked about Ferraro’s remarks, Obama told ABC that being an “African American man named Barack Obama” was not the quickest path to becoming U.S. president. If nominated and then elected, Obama would be the first black U.S. president.

“Anybody who knows the history of this country I think would not take too seriously the notion that this has been a huge advantage, but I don’t think it’s disadvantaged either,” Obama said.

Obama, who has run as a candidate who will change the tone in Washington and work to bring people together, told NBC’s “Today” show that Ferraro’s remarks were an attempt to divide people.

“Part of what Geraldine Ferraro is doing, and I respect the fact that she was a trailblazer, is to participate in the kind of slice and dice politics that’s about race and about gender and about this and that and that’s what Americans are tired of because they recognize that when we divide ourselves in that way, we can’t solve problems,” he said.

Ferraro, a former U.S. representative from New York, and her presidential running mate Walter Mondale lost in 1984 in a landslide to Republican Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, the current president’s father.

Obama won a Mississippi nominating contest on Tuesday with heavy support from black voters and extended his lead over Clinton in pledged delegates to the August convention which will nominate the party’s candidate for the November election.

The Illinois senator also won on Saturday in Wyoming. Both contenders are now concentrating their campaigns on Pennsylvania, which votes on April 22.

(Editing by David Storey)
(For more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters “Tales from the Trail: 2008” online at http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)

10-12

Hillary’s Math Problem

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Courtesy Jonathan Alter, Newsweek

Editor’s note: This was written the day of the Ohio and Texas primaries.

Forget tonight. She could win 16 straight and still lose.

Hillary Clinton may be poised for a big night tonight, with wins in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island. Clinton aides say this will be the beginning of her comeback against Barack Obama. There’s only one problem with this analysis: they can’t count.

I’m no good at math either, but with the help of Slate’s Delegate Calculator I’ve scoped out the rest of the primaries, and even if you assume huge Hillary wins from here on out, the numbers don’t look good for Clinton. In order to show how deep a hole she’s in, I’ve given her the benefit of the doubt every week for the rest of the primaries.

So here we go: Let’s assume Hillary beats expectations and wins Ohio tonight 55-45, Rhode Island 55-45, Texas, 53-47 and (this is highly improbable), ties in Vermont, 50-50.

Then it’s on to Wyoming on Saturday, where, let’s say, the momentum of today helps her win 53-47. Next Tuesday in Mississippi – where African-Americans play a big role in the Democratic primary – she shocks the political world by winning 52-48.

Then on April 22, the big one, Pennsylvania – and it’s a Hillary blowout, 60-40, with Clinton picking up a whopping 32 delegates. She wins both of Guam’s two delegates on May 30, and Indiana’s proximity to Illinois does Obama no good on May 6, with the Hoosiers going for Hillary 55-45. The same day brings another huge upset in a heavily African-American state: enough North Carolina blacks desert Obama to give the state to Hillary 52-48, netting her five more delegates.

Suppose May 13 in West Virginia is no kinder to Obama, and he loses by double digits, netting Clinton two delegates. The identical 55-45 result on May 20 in Kentucky nets her five more. The same day brings Oregon, a classic Obama state. Oops! He loses there 52-48. Hillary wins by 10 in Montana and South Dakota on June 3, and primary season ends on June 7 in Puerto Rico with another big Viva Clinton! Hillary pulls off a 60-40 landslide, giving her another 11 delegates. She has enjoyed a string of 16 victories in a row over three months.

So at the end of regulation, Hillary’s the nominee, right? Actually, this much-too-generous scenario (which doesn’t even account for Texas’s weird “pri-caucus” system, which favors Obama in delegate selection) still leaves the pledged-delegate score at 1,634 for Obama to 1,576 for Clinton. That’s a 56-delegate lead.

Let’s say the Democratic National Committee schedules do-overs in Florida and (heavily African-American) Michigan. Hillary wins big yet again. But the chances of her netting 56 delegates out of those two states would require two more huge margins. (Unfortunately the Slate calculator isn’t helping me here.)

So no matter how you cut it, Obama will almost certainly end the primaries with a pledged-delegate lead, courtesy of all those landslides in February. Hillary would then have to convince the uncommitted superdelegates to reverse the will of the people. Even coming off a big Hillary winning streak, few if any superdelegates will be inclined to do so. For politicians to upend what the voters have decided might be a tad, well, suicidal.

For all of those who have been trashing me for saying this thing is over, please feel free to do your own math. Give Hillary 75 percent in Kentucky and Indiana. Give her a blowout in Oregon. You will still have a hard time getting her through the process with a pledged-delegate lead.

The Clintonites can spin to their heart’s content about how Obama can’t carry any large states besides Illinois. How he can’t close the deal. How they’ve got the Big Mo now.

Tell it to Slate’s Delegate Calculator.

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