September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows Speaks Out in support of NYC Islamic Community Center

Donna Marsh O'Conner, September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows:

"Democracy lives in our actions. When I see the towers fall, l feel pain, but I have to acknowledge that the pain I am feeling essentially comes from 19 individual criminals, who murdered 3,000 people on our soil and it left us horrifically scared."

This makes me cry. Thank you, Donna. I am so honored and humbled to have been a small part of spreading your message to the world.

I was so happy to see September-11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows on last night's Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Donna Marsh O'Conner, who lost her daughter on 9-11, speaks out against the fear and hatemongering currently stoked by politicians and some mass media against Muslims and people of color.

Here is a direct link , to the video segment as it appeared on MSNBC, in its entirety on August 25

Here's the direct link, in case the televised segment doesn't show up here | http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/vp/38857745%2338857745

Earlier, at a dinner held to mark the end of Ramadan, NY Mayor Blooberg also addressed the issue. The Mayor had this to say:

"Compromise, is by itself, a defeat of religious freedom and what this country is all about."

Thank you Mr. Bloomberg for standing on the right side of history. You can read more about the Mayor's address here.

Bloomberg News | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-25/mosque-project-near-nyc-s-ground-zero-tests-u-s-freedoms-bloomberg-says.html

Radical Right-winged Rhetoric Gets Scarier and Scarier

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow exposes more hateful tactics from the radical "religious" right.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Obama on Death Panels: 'An Extraordinary Lie'

This conference call was truly extraordinary. The sad thing to note is how 30 religious organizations are labeled "liberal."


Obama on Death Panels: 'An Extraordinary Lie'

From Politics Daily
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/08/19/obama-on-death-panels-an-extraordinary-lie/

President Obama accused some health reform critics of "bearing false witness" during a live conference call and webcast Wednesday with tens of thousands of clergy and people of faith.

Using strong language, Obama told the religious leaders that some claims about health reform are "ludicrous." In particular, he said, "This notion that somehow we are setting up death panels" that would decide whether old people get to live or die is "an extraordinary lie."

The death panel idea has been advanced by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and dismissed as fiction by, among others, fact-checkers and some of her fellow Republicans. Obama said the provision in question -- allowing Medicare reimbursements for discussions of end-of-life care between doctors and patients -- is "entirely voluntary" and would provide an option now reserved for those who can afford "fancy lawyers."

Obama said that's only one distortion of many. He said it's also not true that the government would take over health care or fund abortions, or that illegal immigrants would get health insurance. "These are all fabrications that have been put out there in order to discourage people from meeting what I consider a core ethical and moral obligation, and that is that we look out for one another," Obama said. He added that "in the wealthiest nation on Earth right now, we are neglecting to live up to that call."

The call was organized by a liberal group called Faith In Public Life and sponsored by more than 30 denominations and religious groups across the country. Speakers on the call spanned the political and religious spectrums. The denominations and groups on the call represented "millions of people of faith from the Evangelical, Catholic, mainline Protestant, Jewish and Muslim traditions," Faith in Public Life said.

Update: The group says 140,000 people participated in the call.