Ramadan, the West Wing tarp, and ritual sacrifice: where are the animal rights groups now?

To begin with, many people are wondering: Why is Obama honoring Ramadan? which began on or around August 11, 2010 and will finish on or around September 10, 2010. . .not to mention all the people who are wondering why there is also a mysterious white tarp covering the West Wing!!!

As seen from the Rose Garden, The West Wing of the White House is covered in white tarp Sunday, Aug. 15, 2010.

A tarp covers the West Wing of the White House in Washington, DC, August 16, 2010, as maintenance work, including power washing, is completed as US President Barack Obama travels the next few weeks.

Has he been gone continuously? Or does he just go back and forth???

Now, here is an interesting--but not happy--story [H/T: Carpe Diem] coming out of Maryland about a farm which caters to some of the literally thousands of Muslim immigrants in the Washington area: Business caters to Muslim immigrants seeking to fulfill ritual animal sacrifices

As Ramadan approached last week, Muslim immigrants preparing for their pre-holiday feast sacrificed goats in halal slaughterhouses -- those that conform to Islamic law -- family farms and their garages. . .

. . .or wherever they are able.

This budding sub-sector of the meat industry caters to Muslims who want to follow their faith's rules -- to be certain that the animal has been slaughtered humanely with a knife to the throat, that the animal is pointed toward Mecca and that it dies as the slaughterer recites a prayer.

Since the 1980s, the number of goats slaughtered for their meat has more than quintupled, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department. Many of those goats are killed not in mass slaughterhouses but in quiet ceremonies on farms and in back yards. . .

Or the West Wing?

To avoid the messy nature of on-farm slaughter, many customers take home live animals and slaughter them in residential bathtubs and garages. "We hold the animal on the garage floor and make sure the blood goes into the drain or the bushes," said Waqar Farhat, who grew up slaughtering animals in the hallway of his home in Pakistan.

Some of Farhat's friends slaughter goats in their showers. "But they clean up very well afterwards," he said.

Oh, do they powerwash?

What religion do people think Obama really is? Poll: Growing Number Believe Obama Is Muslim

By the way, these are the last words all the animals hear from their human slaughterers:

"Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar: Allah is the greatest."

Tarp Covers West Wing of White House: Mosque Under Construction

Maggie, a conservative blogger from Oklahoma ponders: Just kidding, of course, about the mosque, but. . .

The President should keep uppermost in his mind the biblical admonition as to what happens to those trees that do not bear "good fruit". The axe is already at the tree...

Obama’s West Wing is filled with people who are in their jobs because of their Chicago connections or because they signed on with Obama early during the presidential campaign.

One problem is that they do not have sufficient experience at governing at the executive branch level.

The deeper problem is that they are not listening to the people.

Hearing is one thing; listening is another.

Some are even questioning whether Mr. Obama has forgotten how he got elected and the promises he made to the people who elected him.

Don't take my word for any of this. Look at the clear message the American people have been sending at the polls these past few months.

Doug Wilder: Obama needs a staff shakeup

Risky business

The White House is a risky place for on-the-job training, as Barack Obama and the rest of us are learning...Mr. Obama imagined last year that he was auditioning to replace Martin Sheen on the television serial "West Wing." He's learning better now.

PRUDEN: Reality bites Obama's 'West Wing'

Ron, Ron, the neo-con

I count myself firmly in the tradition of Wilson, FDR, Truman and Kennedy…and yes, Reagan and George W. Bush. “Go anywhere, bear any burden,” “try to do our best to make a world safe for democracy.” Our national mission, a worthy and ennobling one, is to expand freedom where we can. These are revolutionary goals very much in keeping with our Founders’ vision. They are hardly conservative, let alone neo-conservative goals.

JFK reportedly remarked, “sometimes the party asks too much.” He was referring to the deal his Democratic Party made with southern segregationists to maintain control of Congress. His words are as true now as they were then. Sometimes the party asks too much.

Read the whole thing

The REAL "West Wing": White House Porn

"There were things that said 'teen,'" the White House computer expert said. "There was gay and bestiality stuff too."

Bestiality? "Donkeys, goats, dogs," explained the source, who later accessed some of the raunchier sites. "It's embarrassing."

Upon the discovery of the heavy XXX-rated traffic, White House security specialists undertook a "forensics" effort to ID the White House network users who were downloading -- and watching -- the videos on government computers and time.

Investigators, including White House Security Officer Charles Easley, looked at a number of variables to separate the habitual from the accidental Web-porn surfers. They scanned firewall logs over several weeks so they could see the repeat offenders. They also zeroed in on the large-byte files.

What they found was shocking.

"There were some significant names. I can say, yes, West Wing," said one White House source familiar with the investigation. "There were women too."

Many of the offenders also officed out of the Old Executive Office Building, including presidential personnel, sources say. One was in national security.

One of the worst offenders, however, was a senior White House computer-systems manager, who was reprimanded but allowed to stay in the White House after being treated for an "addiction" to porn. Sources say the porn abuser is so sensitive to the possibility of public exposure that he would likely take his own life if his name were disclosed here.

West Wingers downloaded gay, bestial, teen sex videos, jamming firewall system