Dr. James J. Zogby, founder and president of the Arab American Institute, is touring Iowa next weekend. A couple Cedar Rapids stops Saturday (for the uninitiated: CR has a long-established Arab community and one of the oldest mosques in the United States) and an Iowa City talk Sunday night.
Lecture 6:00 pm (Free and open to the public)
Iowa City Public Library, Room A (123 S Linn St, Iowa City, 52240)
The Iowa City event will start at 5:30 pm with a cello performance by Tareq Abuissa. The outside doors to the library are locked at 6 pm, so please arrive early.
Zogby has a guest piece in today's Press-Citizen centered around the recent dustup when Obama dared say things are kinda rough for the Palestinians:
Other than his expression of some real concern of the suffering of the Palestinians, Obama's observations weren't novel, nor inconsistent with U.S. policy. But the remark about Palestinian suffering prompted some hard-line supporters of Israel to demand a clarification.
I think this was an effort to teach a lesson to Obama -- much as had been done in 2004 when Howard Dean called for a more balanced U.S. role in peacekeeping, and when John Kerry criticized Israel's West Bank wall. The intent was to shut off debate by making it clear that this issue was off limits.
My experience exactly.
While I'm pressing hot buttons:
Many were angry about a White House plan that would grant illegal immigrants work visas but require them to return home to apply for U.S. residency and pay a $10,000 fine.
"Charging that much, Bush is going to be even more expensive than the coyotes," said protester Armando Garcia, 50, referring to smugglers who transport people across the Mexican border.
Insert another chorus of my four year old buddy singing "The Immigrant Song": AhhhAAAAAH Ahhhhhh - AH! AhhhAAAAAH Ahhhhhh - AH!
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