Stein hoist to uber-kafir Patrick for this:

TAMPA, Fla., Oct. 26 (UPI) -- A Florida school district has decided that students will get no religious holidays from school after a debate over which religion should get the days.

Hillsborough County School Board members approved the 2006-2007 school year calendar with only three holiday days off -- Labor Day, President's Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Tampa Tribune reports.

Ahmed Bedier of the Council on American-Islamic Relations had hoped for a day off of school for the Muslim holy day of Eid Al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan.

Bishop Chuck Leigh of the Florida Council of Churches said the board made a mistake in not granting the Muslim holiday.

But school board attorney Tom Gonzalez told the board that it was wrong to close the school for any religion.

Students who miss class for a religious holiday will not be penalized.

Wow, I was all set to do a throwdown on this school district, because at first glance it appears that they're inconveniencing everyone just to appease CAIR. Typically, that's how these things tend to work. See: 10 Commandments monuments, et.al.

But then I took a look at my kids calendar for school, where no CAIR member dare to tread, and here are the single day holidays:

Labor Day
Martin Luther King Day
President's Day
Memorial Day

So I thought, hm, they've axed Thanksgiving to appease CAIR, but then I dug out the (PDF alert!) school calendar mentioned in the article, and there it was.

What about Christmas? Still off, because it falls under the politically correctly monikered Winter Break.

So, we can give this school district kudos for telling CAIR to shove it, albeit in an offhand way. All they did was put out a press release saying that they're going to keep the same days off that they did before, but, by adding the religious angle, they get CAIR off of their backs.

There is a dark side to the tale, however. I took a look at the calendar for (PDF alert!) this school year, and compared it to the one for next, and there was a single day holiday eliminated.

Veterans Day. (if you're wondering about Memorial Day, a look at the calendar shows these schools let out before then)

Posted by: Vinnie at 11:02 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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Who is this "Harry Etmyers" that everyone keeps talking about?

Posted by: Vinnie at 12:15 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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Good news, the last time we saw this guy he was personally helping to behead people. IÂ’ve inquired about which specific beheadings this now very dead man was involved in. When I find out IÂ’ll pass that along to you. We got his buddy too.

CENTCOM:An al-Qaeda terrorist cell leader who personally assisted in at least three videotaped beheadings and his assistant were killed during a Coalition raid of a suspected safe house in Mosul Oct. 22. Nashwan Mijhim Muslet (aka Abu Tayir or Abu Zaid) was a senior operational al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorist cell leader who operated specifically in the Mosul area. His cell was known as the primary beheading cell for Abu Talha, the al-Qaeda in Iraq Emir of Mosul who was captured in June, 2005, and Abu Zubayr, second in command to Talha and later Emir of Mosul after Talha was detained. Zubayr was killed in August, 2005.

Good riddance I can only hope it was a slow and painful death and he was very aware he was dying the whole time. Click for photos of his ugly mug and his buddy below.

more...

Posted by: Howie at 09:38 AM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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One of the joys of being a Jawa Report poster is being on the inside, being in the know, ever mindful of the fact that yes, one day, I may too become an anonymous high ranking official who asked not to be named.

And the icing on the cake is being the blogson. Being the blogson gives me access to Rusty that even Howie can only dream of.

What is the point of all this? Well, I have excellent news. Because of my special relationship with my blogfather, I am the only blogger here who has seen the fruits of his labors, the sweat of his brow, the baby that he is soon to deliver with all the pain and agony that birthing a masterpiece entails.

I have the first page of the first chapter of the book that Rusty is putting his final touches on, and I have been granted permission to post it here.

So without further ado, because he who hestitates, well, you know the rest... more...

Posted by: Vinnie at 11:29 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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After futher talks a major Sunni party has agreed to support a change to the Iraqi constitution that would allow ammendments next year rather then the eight year ban on ammendments that was in the last draft.

ABCNEWS:

The sides agreed to a measure stating that if the draft constitution is passed, the next parliament will be able to consider amendments to it that would then be put to a new referendum next year, Shiite and Sunni officials said. A top Sunni negotiator, Ayad al-Samarraie of the Iraqi Islamic Party, said that if the current parliament approves the measure, "we will stop the campaign rejecting the constitution and we will call on Sunni Arabs to vote yes." Some other major Sunni parties were not present at the negotiations and it was not clear if they too would be willing to reverse their "no" campaigns.

As always in the middle east if there are five seconds left there is still time.

Also here on Yahoo News.

California Conservative has the story on attempts to derail the vote this week.

Updated: The Iraqi assembly has approved the changes.

Posted by: Howie at 05:01 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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Here's some good news from FOXNEWS.

Some Pakistani officials said Latifi was arrested Tuesday, but the intelligence official said he was detained Sunday at a home in Quetta's Newi Killi neighborhood. The announcement of Latifi's arrest had been delayed because he was being interrogated about other Taliban leaders, the official said.

Latifi as you may recall is an if not accurate, common mouthpiece spouting Taliban propaganda.

Updated: Even better news.

Also see Chad Evans at In the Bullpen for news of the death of Al-Haj Othman. Leader of the islamic army in Iraq.

Hooray!!! The Jawa Report has extensive archives of the Islamic Army in Iraq's activities. Use the search MPJ with "Islamic Army in Iraq" and you will see just how good this is. Some question of the term Leader if not THE leader he was ONE.

Posted by: Howie at 11:35 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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