Washington Times Features Doctored Photo Of Kagan In A Turban To Claim She’s Subservient To Shariah Law
Six days ago, after Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) absurdly tried to link Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan to “oppressive tenets of Shari’a-type law,” The Wonk Room’s Matt Duss jokingly predicted that anti-Islamic bigot Frank Gaffney would “claim[] that Elena Kagan ‘may still be a Muslim.’” Sadly, Duss’ prediction largely came true this week. In a Washington Times op-ed run alongside a doctored photo of Kagan in a turban (pictured to the right), Gaffney ropes Kagan into a bizarre fantasy involving Shariah law, the Muslim Brotherhood, and, somehow, the beleaguered Troubled Assets Relief Progam:We have nicotine gum to help people addicted to tobacco. Too bad there isn't something that will help conservatives get off their addiction to conspiracy theories that are never supported by the facts.
Dean Kagan had an even more direct connection to the Saudis’ Shariah-recruitment efforts at Harvard. She personally officiated in 2003 over the establishment of an Islamic Finance Project at the law school. The project’s purpose is to promote what is better known as Shariah-compliant finance (SCF) by enlisting in its service some of the nation’s most promising law students. [...]
Shariah-compliant finance dates back to the 1940s, when it was invented by leading figures in the Muslim Brotherhood. This international organization has as its stated mission “destroying Western civilization from within … by its own miserable hand.” [...]
Ms. Kagan’s Islamic Finance Project also has played a prominent role in encouraging the U.S. government to endorse Shariah-compliant finance. Notably, a founding adviser to the project, Harvard professor Samuel Hays III, conducted a “seminar for the policy community” in November 2008. It was sponsored by a former Goldman-Sachs-executive-turned-assistant-treasury-secretary, Neel Kashkari, who at the time was responsible for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The signal thus sent could not have been clearer, either to Mr. Kashkari’s colleagues in government or to those in the financial sector: At a moment when the very viability of major banks and investing institutions critically depended on this individual’s favor, it would be advisable to embrace Shariah-compliant finance.
Drawing Glenn Beck-like conspiratorial connections between Obama’s judicial nominees and plots to destroy America appears to be a conservative hobby. Both the Washington Times and Sean Hannity called district court nominee Judge Edward Chen “another Obama nominee who doesn’t appear to love America” because Chen correctly worried that the 9/11 attacks would harm race relations and religious tolerance in the United States. During the confirmation of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a right-wing organization with close ties to Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), John McCain (R-AZ) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL) launched an ad claiming that Sotomayor “led a group supporting violent Puerto Rican terrorists.”
Right-wing media push Kyl's flatly denied claim that Obama said he won't "secure the border". The same right-wing media that were happy to echo Kyl's bizarre claim doubled down - Right-wing media vouch for Kyl's honesty despite his history of false claims
Right-wing media have vouched for Sen. Jon Kyl's (R-AZ) "integrity" in the wake of a video in which Kyl accused President Obama of refusing to "secure the border" in order to force the GOP to support immigration reform, a claim the White House has flatly denied. However, these media have ignored Kyl's history of making false claims.Kyl should be removed from office for being mentally unfit, dishonoring the Senate and his country and gross unethical conduct. Write your senator and Congressman today and demand that Kyl resign or be removed from office.
...Kilmeade: "Jon Kyl's integrity is beyond reproach." On the June 22 edition of Fox News Fox & Friends, discussing the video of Kyl making the flatly denied claim that Obama said he won't "secure the border," co-host Brian Kilmeade asserted, "Jon Kyl's integrity is beyond reproach."
...KYL FALSEHOOD: Kyl falsely claimed that he did not say Republicans would filibuster immigration reform. According to an April 12 PolitiFact.com post, on the April 11 edition of ABC's This Week, host Jake Tapper asked Kyl, "You said the other day in Yuma, Ariz., that Republicans will use the opportunity to filibuster. Are you going to help with the filibuster of immigration reform?" Kyl reportedly replied: "I don't think I said that, Jake, but what I did say is that the conditions for immigration reform no longer exist.
FACT: PolitiFact rates Kyl's claim "False." PolitiFact rated Kyl's claim that he didn't say Republicans would filibuster immigration reform "False." From PolitiFact:
Kyl's staff told us he only meant that Republicans would filibuster a purely partisan bill, not the kind of bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform that Kyl put forward with Sen. Edward Kennedy in 2007. That's why Kyl objected to Tapper's premise.
Still, Tapper's question -- "You said the other day in Yuma, Ariz., that Republicans will use the opportunity to filibuster. Are you going to help with the filibuster of immigration reform?" -- remains an fair summary (though not a quotation) of Kyl's town hall remarks. The video showed that Kyl predicted a Republican filibuster. So Kyl's statement -- that he didn't say Republicans will use the opportunity to filibuster -- is False.
KYL FALSEHOOD: Kyl falsely claimed that "most of the jobs created are government jobs" in March jobs report. On the April 4 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday, Kyl falsely claimed of the March jobs report, "Most of the jobs created are government jobs."
FACT: Private employers added 123,000 of the 162,000 jobs in March. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that private employers added 123,000 of the 162,000 jobs in March, which was the biggest gain in nearly three years.
KYL FALSEHOOD: Kyl falsely claimed that the Recovery Act had "very little effect." As Media Matters Action Network documented, Kyl claimed on the April 4 edition of Fox News Sunday that "[i]n terms of stimulus, I think what Republicans will do is look very carefully at any more spending plans because, as it turns out, we have spent hundreds of billions of dollars to very little effect."
FACT: In February, CBO stated that Recovery Act "added between 1.0 million and 2.1 million" jobs in the fourth quarter of 2009. In February -- prior to Kyl's claim -- the Congressional Budget Office stated that "CBO estimates that in the fourth quarter of calendar year 2009, ARRA added between 1.0 million and 2.1 million to the number of workers employed in the United States, and it increased the number of full-time-equivalent jobs by between 1.4 million and 3.0 million." CBO added that the Recovery Act "[l]owered the unemployment rate by between 0.5 percentage points and 1.1 percentage points."
KYL FALSEHOOD: Kyl falsely suggests individuals will see premiums "continue to go up" because of health care reform. Media Matters Action Network noted on March 10 that Kyl claimed "that insurance premiums will continue to go up" as a result of health care reform.
FACT: CBO found law will not raise premiums for majority of Americans. CBO estimated that the large group and small group markets make up 83 percent of the insurance market and that premiums in those markets would essentially remain unchanged and could decrease. Further, a January 27 PolitiFact.com analysis labeled the claim that health care reform would cause premiums for most Americans to increase "pants on fire" false and stated, "The CBO reported that, for most people, premiums would stay about the same, or slightly decrease."
KYL FALSEHOOD: Kyl falsely claimed that health care bill "will add to the deficit." As Media Matters Action Network noted, Kyl claimed on March 10 that the Democrats' health care reform bill "will add to the deficit" and that "it isn't deficit neutral."
