Discussion: Chair Of Foreign Affairs Won't Boot Omar From Cmte: 'Not Looking To Punish Anybody'

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Once again there is a rush to conflate any criticism or Israel or policy toward Israel as an attack on Jews. Israel is a foreign country. We need to be able to criticise US policies toward it as toward any other country. And we should be able to criticise US organisations that promote foreign governments.

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Sounds as if the backlash is working. I read someplace that resolution is being delayed. Let’s hope so.

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Let’s instead focus on the Orange Elephant in the room, folks…

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Joe (“You lie!”) Wilson sits on this committee and no one is looking to kick him off.

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But Gym Jordan is stepping down from his committee assignments after his $tyer tweet, right?

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I read that they want to add an anti-Muslim part to the resolution. Great idea.

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Democrats hate Minnesota, they are railroading Omar the way they did with Al Franken, They will regret it as well.

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Say…how about we start with the anti-Semitic President where there’s actual hard evidence of racist and bigoted behavior?

And why don’t we police racist behavior as well? For example, anyone engaged in voter suppression tactics should be brought to account.

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The Dems are going to have to get through this. We’ll be better off for having this discussion in the long run, but I’m remembering that feeling I got when I was a child listening to my parents argue. So much to do and so little time.

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“when she insinuated that pro-Israel advocates have an allegiance to a foreign country…”

In cases like this, you really have to quote the remarks verbatim. Otherwise you’re joining one crew of tendentious interpreters or another.

Also useful, though it requires a bit more work: compare to others who have not been characterized in the same way, even though they’ve gone far beyond insinuation.

E.g. “Republicans haven’t just rejected Obama. They have adopted Netanyahu as their leader.” –Will Saletan, Slate.

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That will guarantee that Republican’ts will vote against it…

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One night in 1988, Elliot Engel provided millions of New Yorkers with a moment of deep happiness, when he defeated possibly the most corrupt congressman of all time, the Dishonorable Mario Biaggi, a former NYC Cop, who became emblematic of the Ed Koch Era in NYC politics and the rampant corruption of the time.

One of the great segments in Wayne Barrett’s and Jack Newfield’s book, City for Sale, is a wiretap transcript of a phone call after Mario Biaggi gets information that the SDNY (Rudy Giuliani) was investigating the sewer that the Democratic Party hierarchy had become in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. The increasingly frantic Biaggi was trying, in code, to warn Brooklyn boss Meade Esposito. Esposito, not getting the code, was asking Biaggi what the fuck was the matter with him.

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Could not agree more.

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That asshole got reelected? Damn.

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I understand you’re not focused primarily on this, but since it keeps cropping up in comments, I feel someone has to point out that, in nearly 70 years, we’ve never made time to care enough about what’s happening to the Palestinians. If not now, when? Because there’s been plenty of time, more than plenty of time, already.

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I thought her comments could’ve been worded better and that she needs to be more mindful going forward, but the pile on is beyond ridiculous. It doesn’t require this much consternation and I’m glad Rep. Engel isn’t looking to punish her. Yes, talking about Israel is tricky, that’s especially so for a Muslim woman, and she will have to be particularly careful going forward.

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If only she hadn’t been wearing that thing on her head when she said it…

This “controversy” has never been about the message, only messenger.

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With Christian fundagelicals, it’s all about the real estate, the place is important to them not the people who live on it. Israel, the geographic place, is the issue. Jesus is only coming when American Christians nail down the property rights.

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TPM has really gone down about 5 notches with this trope tripe:
“perpetuating an anti-Semitic trope about Jewish Americans’ loyalty to the U.S”
She did no such thing, but I guess now it has been etched into stone by lazy or agenda driven journalists. I know TPM has a real revulsion to anyone who upsets the Dem establishment (see Bernie Sanders), but this is shameful reporting and is itself anti-Semitic.
I support Omar, hopefully the Dems don’t something so stupid as to remove her from the committee.

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