The "Rusty" Award
Last night, Muzammil Siddiqi was given some sort of award by the Orange County Human Relations Commission leader Rusty Kennedy at the Grove in Anaheim. About 30 protesters (including little 'ol me)gathered outside to protest. We were even live-streaming, whatever that means. About 20 counter-protesters stood on the opposite side of the street with some big banner that said something about love. There were no problems, but the Anaheim police were out in force. We figured we had one cop for each protester. In fact, there were almost as many horses (police-type) as I saw at the royal wedding last week.
Prior to the event, one of the protest organizers drove into the Grove parking lot and was confronted by a distinguished-looking man in a nice suit who was behind the wheel of another car.
"Hey! You can't park in here!", said the man in the car. (I am paraphrasing of course.).
"Oh yeah? said my friend. "Who are you?"
"I am Rusty Kennedy." (I am paraphrasing, of course.)
When that didn't prove to be the magic phrase, Kennedy stated that he was going to call the police. My friend invited him to do so, and the indignant Kennedy drove off to find a cop (preferably one on horseback).
I forgot to ask my friend if Rusty was wearing his empty suit.
What else? Oh yeah, the head chingon of the Southern California CAIR chapter, Hussam Ayloush, was there. No, he wasn't getting any awards, I guess he was just there to hold Siddiqi's horse while he walked up to claim his Rusty Award. For some reason, after recording us on his cell phone, blackberry, I-pod or whatever it is, he came over to antagonize us. He sure did have on a nice suit. At this point, one of my other friends tried to engage Ayloush in conversation on film. Ayloush quickly saw he was over matched and one of his own horse holders (also in a nice suit) came over to lead him across the street to the safety of the "love crowd"-not before my friend had a chance to tell him that he (Ayloush) represented a despicable organization (CAIR). I am not paraphrasing here.
Earlier, that same friend was approached by a young lady who was attending the event, and she said she was skeptical of our claims. My friend bantered back and forth with her for a few minutes, but she was clearly over-matched. At one point, she made a definitive statement about some point and was asked what empirical evidence she based that statement on. Her answer?
"I watch CNN."
Anderson Cooper or Wolf Blitzer?
At that point, my friend told her she was in over her head and mercifully left her.
Anyway, the Orange County Register was there and filmed the festivities even interviewing a couple of fellow-protestors. I overheard much of the interviews and our side acquitted themselves well in my view, explaining why we objected to this particular award to this particular person.
A couple of ladies did get a bit obnoxious toward the end. I asked them not to antagonize the other side. They told me to go pound sand, and that's what I did. Things were wrapping up, and it was dinner time. Afterward, a group of us (not the aforementioned ladies) walked into a seafood joint for dinner. It was located right behind the counter-protesters. We told them the beer was on us, but they said nothing. So much for dialogue.
Oh, if you are interested, here is this morning's OC Register "hard-hitting" account of the event.
http://www.ocregister.com/news/-299380--.html
7 comments:
There has been ample information about Siddiqi's past associations. These associations have revealed that Siddiqi's "moderate" pose is a cover-up of monumental proportion. Muzammil is an Islamist, period. But, the OCHRC leader, Rusty Kennedy will not recognize his mistake. So the "Rusty" award, with the blessing of the rest of the Commission and Supervisors was bestowed upon the Tiqiyya master.
What do we do now? When you get into the voting booth, vote out the stupids who know no better than to provide an award to those who would wish for our demise. They are all dust in my minds eye.
Squid
A person of integrity, possessed of the courage of their convictions, should always be able to walk over and chat with the opposition, without having to be led away by a handler. Barack Obama has been quite good at it, which is one reason he was elected president.
to a lesser degree, I equate the OCHRC awards with that of the Nobel peace prize. lets see, the last notable to get the Nobel peace prize is a person who is now causing the US to fight three wars, and his name is President Obama who promised us change we could believe in like ending the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. another notable was Yassar Arafat, the leader of the palestinians who refused to negotiate for Israeli-palestinian peace and instead continued to attack Israel. Siddiqi, don't feel sad that after you got all dressed up all you got was a chump change award and nod of approval forthe OCHRC, it could be worse, it could have been the Nobel peace prize
fullerton, I guess you weren't on the OFA mailing list, or you would have seen the email the night President Obama was notified he had been selected for the Nobel Peace Prize. He very candidly said that he didn't think he deserved it.
I don't think there was any gracious way for him to refuse though, and I doubt that anyone else placed in a similar position would have done so.
He candidly said, at the ceremony awarding the prize, and informally on other occasions, that it is a contradiction for someone who is commander in chief of a nation involved in two wars to receive the prize.
However, he did not get us into Afghanistan, and he opposed going into Iraq as a "dumb war." Unfortunately, he was not in a position to make that decision at that time. Presidents do not get to wave away what their predecessors have done, with a magic wand, nor do they have many opportunities to turn on a dime without causing more damage than they alleviate.
He's doing a reasonably good job at extracting us from a mess he himself said we had to be as careful getting out of as we were careless going in.
As for Libya, he is doing the right thing, not so much as John McCain wants, but not so little as the nit-pickers would have liked. Defending civilians against a ruthless military juggernaut in the service of a self-centered lunatic has its place.
When is the last time you saw a Muslim population thanking the U.S. and NATO for defending them?
How quickly and conveniently some of us forget. This was reported about his campaign for the Presidency in 2008
"In what is being billed as a major policy speech, Obama declared this morning that if elected president, he would redirect attention and US forces to Afghanistan."
That was from the Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/07/obama_afghanist.html
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siarlys you said "He's doing a reasonably good job at extracting us from a mess he himself said we had to be as careful getting out of as we were careless going in."sorry, siarlys, you are wrong.obama is digging us in deeper in afghanistan because in his own words he confessed to oprah winfrey, he is a B plus president. and we the people need an A plus president who will quickly extract us from these protracted wars that accomplish nothing but more heartbreak for those whose loved ones have made the ultimate sacrifice for ? bribing our enemies with US dollars and military hardware has proven to increase the resistence and fortitude of our enemies. witness pakistan's duplicitous behavior towards US when it was revealed pakistan harbored bin laden. obama's arab world foreign policy is obsequious at best and at is worst is a direct threat to american civilians on our nation's soil.
We haven't had an A+ president this century. We've endured plenty of C+ and B-, and I'd give Nixon and Bush Jr. a D- apiece. Kennedy might get a B and FDR a B+, but no A's since A. Lincoln.
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