New Guinea at the Last Manatee on Friday

In case, you were following the large metallic object, you may have missed that 6 in 10 Americans now oppose the Afghanistan war or three times the amount who believe President Obama is a Muslim. A Majority feel that the Iraq War will be viewed as a failure and a mistake, while 42% hang tough that it was a success.

Franklin Graham, the spawn of Billy, said that "The President's problem is that he was a born a Muslim. He carries the seed of Islam... His father gave him an Islamic name... He has renounced the prophet Muhammed and he has renounced Islam and he has accepted Jesus Christ." What can one say? Now you know why his father insisted on meeting President Obama alone at their house and kept Franklin outside. President Obama was not born a Muslim except in the eyes of people like Daniel Pipes. His father gave him his own name, not a Muslim name. His father was an atheist and an alcoholic. Members of his tribe were Muslim. His mother was a Unitarian and he never was raised as a Muslim. Graham makes it like he converted to Christianity. And President Obama has never said ,"Boo, about the prophet Mohammed" and " he was never renounced Islam" because he never had to. Franklin also mentioned that Muammar Qaddafhi believes Obama is Muslim. The last time I heard Qaddafhi was at the AU heads of state summit meeting where he proclaimed himself "the King of Kings".

Andrew Mitchell, not the brightest bulb, said the President brought it on himself because he isn't seen going to church like Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. First off, when did you see George W go to church and Bill went to avoid the Monica Lewinski episode. But the media is awful lazy here not having seen the Obamas go to the Anglican Church across from the White House and on another Sunday to the AMZ Baptist Church where Dr. King had preached. I have and I don't keep track of such things.

During the last campaign. Colin Powell finally fed up with this nonsense said what if he were Muslim. Shouldn't Muslim-Americans grow up believing they can become President someday? Where did this recent hate of Islam come from? And what ever happened to Jeremiah Wright , who said "The Chickens have come home to roost?" This is wrecking Glenn Beck's narrative that the President is a follower of black liberation theology.

Let's flash backward to Germany just prior to WWII. German Jews did not live in ghettoes. They were one of the most assimilated groups in every part of German society. They held positions within government, universities, banks,business and the military. Three of Hitler's commanding officers in WWI were Jewish. And yet the Nazis could make Germans forget this reality and purge them first with segregation and then with liquidation. And the Nazis did this with the full compliance of the German judicial system, which were not as yet replaced by Nazis. Judges educated in democracy and the Western rule of law complied with requests to persecute the Jews.

Here in the United States as I wrote a few posts ago, Muslim-Americans are one of the most assimilated groups in our society, universally members of the middle class and possessing higher education. They have been advisers to President, served in our military,been at the forefront of medical breakthroughs, designed some of our best known buildings like the Hancock Building in Chicago and are professors in nearly every discipline in our universities. The more everyday Muslim-Americans own local businesses which we go to everyday. Why do we presume Islamophobia can't become our anti-semiticism. After all Hitler's anti-semiticism as he made clear in the first edition of Mein Kampf came from America.

We saw pockets of anti-Muslim actions after 9-11. But now with the Iraq war winding down, Obama liquidating Al Qaeda, we see the rise of anti-Muslim sentiment during a time of economic stress. We had the teabaggers hold protests against the mosque in southern California where they urged people to bring dogs. We have the church in Gainesville, Florida say they are going to burn copies of the Quran on 9/11. A planned mosque in Tennessee has generated protests and one in Wisconsin has also met with protests. The lower Manhattan project has just become the vocal point of this hate today. All generated from nothing. When Park 51 was announced in December, the New York Times wrote a favorable article, which quoted Christian and Jewish leaders in Manhattan as saying this community center would help reconciliation. Now the iman,who took trips for both the Bush and Obama administrations to speak about religious freedom in the United States, is somehow linked but not really to Hamas, and Iran and the Gaza Flotilla. And the poor man is a Sufi to boot.

Do we really want a frank and open discussion about radical Islam? Do we want to discuss the Saudi's fundamentalism of Wahabism? Do we want to discuss America's role in disseminating it? Do we want to understand our covert role in creating the Muslim Brotherhood? Or what about Al Qaeda itself? We got attacked by our own creation. The chickens really did come home to roost.

Interfaith groups both in New York and in California are now trying to tamper down this hate. Let's hope they succeed because I fear one lighted match and we could have the beginnings of a religious war. Dr.King said, "Violence turns day into the darkest night."

Speaking of religious wars, Dave Barton, Christian revisionist, is defending his buddy Glenn Beck before evangelicals saying that the Mormon Beck is more Christian than Jim Wallis of the Sojourners, Catholic Nancy Pelosi and Methodist Hillary Clinton. Barton has looked into Beck's heart and seen Putin. Beck is getting ready for his Distort Honor Rally next weekend, which he says is like the coming of Baby Jesus. Bill O'Reilly joked with Beck that he thought only abut 10,000 people would come. Beck told his television audience 100,000. The rally's organizers asked for permits estimating 300,000. No doubt, Fox News will say 2 million came and it surpassed Obama's swearing-in.

Sister Sarah Palin has alienated black evangelicals because of her defense of Dr. Laura, who let loose with a torrent of the "N" word. Listening to the tape, it's something you can't believe. It makes Don Imus and his "nappy-headed ho's" sound grandfatherly.

The Mid-Terms. The Cook Political Report raised its House forecast "from a Republican net gain between 32 and 42 to a gain between 35 and 45 seats, with the odds of an outcome larger than that range greater than the odds of a lesser outcome." In short, Republicans need a net turnover of 39 seats to take control of the chamber. So Cook is predicting that there should be more movement in this direction as we approach election day.

Maybe Cook is right but I still have doubts. I've seen the internal Republican House gameplan. It focuses on 40 Democratic seats that are shaky. But it also concedes 5 Republican seats. Now maybe the idea is that you aim at 40 for certainty but believe the tsunami is larger. But I can't see them sweeping all 40, which means they come up short. Of the computer projections, I've seen I 've seen two that have the GOP take the House by one seat.

If you want to follow a great discussion on generic vote and its meaning, check out www.fivethirtyeight.com where Nate the Great takes out after Pollster.com for projecting large gains for the GOP with 95% certainty. As Nate argues, their range is 21 to 70, which would indeed make it into 95% certainty but it doesn't mean very much in terms of actual projections.

I have also seen Senate projections of 52-54 Democrats in the Senate. The Democrats face the certain turnover in North Dakota, Arkansas, Indiana and Delaware. Yet, they can pick up some Republican seats. Matt Iglesias fantasizes that the Senate would be 49-49-1, with the old gang of 20 determining policy. Can you imagine this siuation and a one-seat majority by the GOP in the House? Talk about mayhem.

Meanwhile in Kentucky, Rand Paul blew his brains out in eastern Kentucky. Rand Paul opined that drug enforcement was not really an issue in Kentucky. This was only days after he dismissed forcing a co-ed to get stoned at a party at Baylor and worshiping the Aqua Buddha. Well, virtually every newspaper in Kentucky denounced him and most importantly every paper in eastern Kentucky, which is a Republican stronghold. That region has been dealing with a meth epidemic the last few years that have ravaged whole communities. His remarks caused the Police to endorse the Democrat Jack Conway, who has inched ahead in the polls. The lesson is that ideologues can be done in by local realities.

In Pennsylvania, Joe Sestak is fighting Pat Toomey. Polls showed Toomey opening up a lead but then he slipped and talked about his ideas for reforming and privatizing Social Security that are contained in a book. Those ideas don't go over very well in Pennsylvania and have moved the race into a toss-up.

Republican congressman Mark Kirk was a dead certain winner to take Barack Obama's old seat in Illinois but his constant lying about everything has taken a toll. Even with a Green Party candidate in the race, the Democrats still have an edge.

Queen Meg Whitman is zooming to break the self-finance record set by Mike Bloomberg. But her constant television ads are producing a backlash with more people saying they don't like her the more she appears on television. Polls show Governor Moonbeam and Whitman are tied. However, Carly Fiorina has jumped out to a five-point lead over Barbara Boxer, which indicates this will become a nail-biter.

Dino Rossi in Washington appeared to be inching toward Patty Murray but he also shoots himself in the foot believing most people living in Washngton State earn more than $250,000 and extolling the Bush tax cuts for the rich. The race is now Murray by 4 but Rossi has shown he simply can't pick up independents.

Sharron Angle--bless her heart--is not backing away from her position to phase out Social Security. In her first campaign for office as a member of the schoolboard, she objected to a local football team wanting to break its losing record by wearing black jerseys paid for by the players. She objected because the color was that of Satan. But what's scary is that Harry Reid's re-election is still so close.

The other one of God's chosen Jan Brewer crowed about how she had succeeded in attracting a large solar energy project to Arizona. The problem is that it is paid for by stimulus money and the project was lobbied for by a Democratic representative. And the newspapers noticed.

The bad news is that I've been watching the House races in Ohio and 5 incumbent Democrats do look like they will lose.

I anticipate after Labor Day that the Democratic Party will come out gang-busters. The coordination among the various Democratic organizations has been strong. Even Tom Delay, the Fixer and former Republican mastermind, warned Republicans that the Democrats have a far stronger ground game and get-out-the vote effort than the GOP. In fact, Republicans are complaining that everything is pretty much adhoc this year as the RNC is in such disarray.