veiled4allah

go and read

Joshua Micah Marshall of Talking Points Memo has one of the best and clearest explanations I've seen of what Bush's plans for Social Security really mean. I very strongly recommend reading it if you want to understand what Bush is proposing and why we need to oppose it.

over there

Blacks and Islam, past and present, with quotes from and links to stories about two recent lectures on the title topic, is up at NNet.

worth reading

Just want to highlight three very thoughtful blog posts I've read recently. Allen Brill and Nurse Ratched (who are both my colleagues at Open Source Politics) offer their thoughts on Mahathir Mohammed's anti-semitic remarks. Also, rickydoc talks about Ghettopoly and Pimpjuice and the ongoing struggle of African-Americans to heal dysfunction among their people and their culture. Permalinks don't seem to work right on this blog, so look for the entry called "Really Big Pimping" of October 18. The Malaysian prime minister's comments are symptomatic of a growing dysfunction in Muslim communities. I discussed the issue at length here and have posted again about it on other occasions (see this, this, this, this, this, and this. The more intellectually adventurous might also want to read this and be sure to read the comments as well)

elsewhere

I have a new post up at Open Source Politics tonight called The Secret Court. It's about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which sets out rules governing the investigation of people suspected of being agents of a foreign power (this includes terrorist groups as well as countries). Do check it out, inshallah.

a must read

Billmon wrote an incredibly moving post yesterday about his experiences growing up in the South before and during the Civil Rights era. We've come a long way since then but we must never forget how much wrong was done that we have to undo. Go read it now.

to read this weekend, inshallah

Patriotic or Unconstitutional? The Mandatory Detention of Aliens Under the U.S.A. Patriot Act (PDF), an article in the Stanford Law Review arguing that section 412 of the Patriot Act is unconstitutional because it violates due process rights.

this was a fascinating article

Reflections of an Arab Jew by Ella Shohat. Link found via Interesting Monstah.

do check it out!

Wander-Lust profile of Al-Muhajabah's Islamic Blogs is up now!

check this out, inshallah

Political science grad student Paul of Casus Belli has an excellent, thought-provoking post about the nature of terrorist groups and the threat they present. It's good to see some serious analysis at a time when there's so much hysteria.

check this out, inshallah

Personal manifesto by Cowbody Kahlil. He takes a look back at the last year and a half and how the war on terrorism has been going.