By Joe Kaufman
With its similarity to popular online sites such as Facebook and MySpace and its links to a network of grassroots blogs, Barack Obama’s campaign website has been hailed as a testament to the candidate’s transformative politics. But at least part of the senator’s online outreach, “Muslim Americans for Obama ’08,” proposes installing Muslim prayer areas in public places and giving Muslims time off for prayer and has denounced Obama’s colleagues in the U.S. Senate who happen to be Jewish. This segment of Obama's online outreach also has ties to unindicted co-conspirators in terror trials and has recruited Obama supporters from among the ranks of fundamentalist Muslim extremists.
On the blog, which is attached to BarackObama.com, viewers can read about “the Senate pro-Israeli zionist hawk Joe Lieberman,” as well as criticism aimed at Obama himself for getting too cozy with the Israeli lobby. As stated on the blog, that last part was derived from information found on Electronic Intifada (EI), a terror apologist website based in Chicago, Illinois, Obama’s hometown. According to the site’s co-founder, Ali Abunimah, Senator Obama once told him, regarding Abunimah’s anti-American and anti-Israel writings, to “Keep up the good work!”
While the Muslim Americans ...   more »

Hesham Islam's 'resume didn't add up,' official says
Hesham H. Islam (left), Muslim aide to the deputy secretary of defense, with Muslim military chaplain Abuhena M. Saifulislam (right)
In a stunning turn of events, a high-level Muslim military aide blamed for costing an intelligence contractor his job will step down from his own Pentagon post, WND has learned.
Meanwhile, his rival, Maj. Stephen Coughlin, a leading authority on Islamic war doctrine, may stay in the Pentagon, moving from the office of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the office of the secretary of defense. However, sources say a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey is trying to block his new contract.
The top Pentagon aide, Egyptian-born Hesham H. Islam, came under a cloud of suspicion after reports raised doubt about his resume and contacts he had made with radical Muslims. He is expected to leave the government next month, officials say.
Islam and Coughlin recently quarreled over intelligence briefings Coughlin presented showing a close connection between the religion of Islam and terrorism. Coughlin's contract with the Joint Chiefs, which
But as a result of the ensuing firestorm that played out in the conservative press – led by Washington ...   more »

By christina boyle
Dangerous germs lurking around city gyms may be making you sick, the Daily News has found.
A News spot check of health clubs - including several of the city's most expensive gyms - uncovered potentially harmful bacteria lingering all over exercise mats, bicycles, drinking fountains and other surfaces
The germs could easily make you ill - especially if you're rundown, elderly or have a compromised immune system, experts said.
The equipment posing the highest risks are cardiovascular machines used by many people in quick succession and equipment, including dumbbells or mats, that are passed around.
"I believe it," said Alex Marquez, 34, from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, who ended up taking antibiotics in a hospital after his foot swelled from an infection doctors said was caught at the gym.
"They told me I probably got it when I stepped on the wet floor getting out of the shower," he said. "First my foot was itching and scratching made a cut so the infection got into the blood.
"Now when I come out the shower I wear slippers. It wasn't fun. You've got to realize that everybody uses the equipment, and you don't know where they've been."
The News ...   more »