First Muslim elected to Congress

[CoryKS]

Ellison is going to use Thomas Jefferson's copy of the koran for the swearing-in ceremony. Here's an interesting article by Christopher Hitchens - What Jefferson really thought about Islam. Somewhat misnamed, IMHO, since he never really presents any of Jefferson's views, but a good read.

 

[tellner]

I've been reading Hitchens in The Nation for about twenty years. He used to be a bright, articulate, thoughtful columnist. Over the last ten years or so his decline has been tragic. Now he's reduced to being one of Bush's few supporters on Iraq and the GWOT and - if the reports are true - hitting the sauce pretty hard. I think his "the Muslims are coming!" shtick is largely a reflexive reaction to Alexander Cockburn's visceral hatred of Israel and anything Jewish. The two have been sniping at each other for a very long time.