Unassociated Press

Washington, D.C.

A museum security guard, Stephen Tyrone Johns, was shot and killed today, June 10, defending his post at the front entrance of the Holocaust Museum. The shooter, 88 year-old James Von Brunn, is a World War II veteran and, ironically, Holocaust denier. Von Brunn is the author of a self-published online book called “Kill the Best Gentile” detailing his anti-Semitic views and a Web site, www.HolyWesternEmpire.org.

Further irony is apparent in the timing of the violent incident, which occured on a day when the museum was scheduled to host a play written by Janet Langhart Cohen, wife of former Defense Secretary William Cohen, in which Anne Frank and Emmett Till have a conversation with each other. The play, said Cohen during an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, is about overcoming racially based hate. The interracial couple were headed to the museum when the shooting occured, and were acquainted with the security guard who was killed.

As of posting, the D.C. Police believe the gunman acted alone. However, this is not his first clash with the law.

Von Brunn’s Web site states on his biography page that, “In 1981 Von Brunn attempted to place the treasonous Federal Reserve Board of Governors under legal, non-violent, citizens arrest. He was tried in a Washington, D.C. Superior Court; convicted by a Negro jury, Jew/Negro attorneys, and sentenced to prison for eleven years by a Jew judge. A Jew/Negro/White Court of Appeals denied his appeal. He served 6.5 years in federal prison.”

The shooting occurs only a few days after another shooting of a doctor in Kansas, who was gunned down in his church by religious extremist Scott Roeder for performing late term abortions. These incidents, along with numerous others that have occured in the recent past, are causing newscasters to examine the possibility of an unsettling trend of right-wing extremists turning to violence.

Algerian native and prominent Houston area imam Zoubir Bouchikhi has been detained in a north Houston immigrant detention center since December of last year, leaving the Abu Bakr Siddque mosque in southeast Houston and its congregation without the popular leader and youth advisor.

Bouchikhi, who has been living in the country with his family for 11 years, came to the U.S. with a student visa and attended the School of Islamic and Social Sciences in Leesburg, Va.  In 1999, he moved to the Houston area and applied for a religious worker visa and began working for The Islamic Society of Greater Houston, an organization of elected volunteers that govern 16 mosques and community centers in the area, in 2001.

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Imagine tomorrow morning you or someone close to you woke up with testes that suddenly began producing eggs instead of sperm. Now imagine the cause of this strange malfunctioning of the gonads was an invisible, unscented, and otherwise undetectable chemical in your everyday drinking water.

Don’t get too thirsty, because according to the research of Dr. Tyrone Hayes at the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, a common herbicide is causing this dramatic feminization in frogs, resulting in populations in some areas with as high as 92 percent hermaphroditic individuals.

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Though I try to remain objective in my recent postings, as is the requirement of the journalism courses I’m taking, tonight I take a moment to comment and editorialize–though I assure you I won’t stray too far from that long forgotten middle-road that so many in the news world, including some of my favorites, have strayed from.

In fact, my first comment stems from the drastic differences between the cable news networks’ coverage of the inauguration.

Fox News, in it’s characteristic blind conservative style, cared more about mocking the security force surrounding President Obama as he drove through the crowd than I would expect, even from them. The silly comments about how the security teams riding in the various cars surrounding the president’s limosine were “leaving a big carbon footprint” were both unnecessary and, honestly, strange coming from a network that does little to cover environmental concerns other than frivilous sarcastic remarks about a parade.

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Former Press Secretary to Sen. Ted Kennedy and current University of Texas lecturer Bob Mann describes his 30 year friendship with Garry Mauro with a husky laugh and ear-to-ear grin often displayed by those who share a common bond from shared nostalgia.

“I’ve worked with him three to four different times,” Mann said to his students Wednesday night, most of whom were too young to understand a pre-Inconvenient Truth era when global warming was little more than a budding theory, “he made history with the land office.”

Mauro, the longest serving Land Commissioner in Texas history, is credited by many for taking the lead on important environmental issues and pushing legislation in Texas to reduce air pollution during his four terms.

In 1998, Mauro ran unsuccessfully against George W. Bush, who was the incumbent governor running for re-election at the time.

“My greatest political disappointment was not communicating what a sorry governor Bush would be,” said Mauro, “he doubled the budget but there’s nothing to show for it. He was a lousy governor. He just managed the status quo.”

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“I was here 44 years ago when my father was elected president,” said a radiant Luci Baines Johnson, the sound of her voice periodically muffled by the cheers from the crowd at the historic Driskell Hotel in Austin, Texas as they watched swing states cross, one by one, to the blue side of America.

“My father knew when he signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965 that he would hand over the nation to Republicans for the next generation, but he said if that’s what it takes it’s worth it.”

The daughter of President Lyndon B. Johnson wore an impeccable blue suit with a button on the lapel that read “America’s Next First Family” above a serene picture of Barack and Michelle Obama with their two young daughters.

“Tonight, his dreams are coming true. Tonight society has justice. Congratulations to all of us.”

The party, held by the Obama for America Campaign, began like an electric Super Bowl game-the massive crowd, almost impossible for one trying to get to the bar to navigate through, booed as the opposing team won the reliable Republican states.

The booing, however, was heard only occasionally.

As states that went red fours years ago swung over to Obama, the crowd, which could not be characterized by any race, age, gender or income demographic but did distinctly smell of sweat and alcohol, cheered so loudly that the $8.50 Blue State Martini glass in the hand of a young woman near the smokers’ balcony began to vibrate; its contents seemingly trembled with excitement.

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As if we didn’t have enough evidence that Bush has taken America back into the dark ages, Nicholas D. Kristof, op-ed columnist for The New York Times, wrote an interesting piece about U.S. foreign policy failure in Somalia. Though I had heard briefly about what went on, I am ashamed to admit the circus that is this ever-lasting presidential campaign has distracted me from following up on the story. Kristof manages to insert the Somalian tragedy in a story supposedly about Sen. John McCain’s recent endorsement by Al Qaeda, so that yet another article is written about the election.

During the past two years, has anyone heard anything about those two little wars we’re in? When did they stop being important? All I’ve been hearing is something about mavericks and Joe the Plumber and socialism…but I digress:

Read about the endorsement, the failed Somalian policy, and an analysis of America’s Islamophobia here–> The Endorsement from Hell - Nicholas D. Kristof

“Mr. Baker did they call your cab already?” asked co-owner and manager Regina Estrada of Joe’s Bakery and Coffee Shop on East 7^th Street in Austin, Texas, her voice loud enough to be heard over the robust lunch crowd by the elderly black man slowly walking with a cane to the exit.

Estrada, whose grandparents, Joe and Paula Avila, founded the bakery in 1962, quickly and gracefully slid out of the corner booth, put her hand on Mr. Baker’s shoulder and walked him to the door.

Giving personal attention to customers, especially to the elderly, is typical of Estrada, who attributes her personable demeanor as being based in Mexican American culture.

“To us, it’s not about getting bigger,” said Estrada, who graduated from Texas State University in 2002 with a business degree, “it’s about doing the best with what we have and taking care of family, employees, and customers and making people feel at home,” said Estrada.

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Though technology issues is a slight deviation from normal subject matter here at Unassocited-Press.com, my fiance over at ZenCollegeLife.com posted an article on keeping your computer clean that I’m sure will be of benefit to many.

Check it: Keep Your Computer Clean

Young Muslim American voters are an untapped reserve available to the presidential candidate who can appeal to them on important issues like healthcare, foreign policy and the economy, but many in this emerging voter demographic feel ignored and avoided by the presidential campaign.

Some, like University of Texas student Zignat Abdisubhan, claim the fault lies within the Muslim community. “We don’t have a large lobbying group,” she said, “If we say something the ball doesn’t get rolling.”

Aasiyah Baig, a senior in high school and first-time voter, agreed, “I don’t think we have a big presence when it comes down to voting and things like that. Not many Muslims go out and vote. It’s not the government’s fault.”

Others claim that the silent treatment stems from negative public opinion about their faith.

“It’s almost a hindrance if, like, the Muslim community supports a candidate,” said Sabina Mohammed, who gets her political information online at CNN.com. (more…)