Fifteen Arab-American boys wore hoodie sweatshirts celebrating the destruction of the twin towers to class on Monday. They paid $25 each to have the sweatshirts made at the Gibraltar Trade Center. Enrollment in their Dearborn, Detroit school is about 50% Arab-American.

The logo shows the school’s thunderbird mascot attacking the towers. Of course, the “hero” is represented by the thunderbird with the Number 1 on it, not the towers. “Can’t bring us down” refers to the thunderbird, not the buildings.

Like the student body, the school administration is 50% Arab-American.

Principal: Hassane Jaafar
Assistant Principal: Chadi Farhat
Assistant Principal: Dan Blessing
Assistant Principal: Sue Noland

After non-Arab students complained the principal, Hassane Jaafar, confiscated the shirts and sent the following letter to parents:

January 4, 2010

Dear Parent/Guardian,

Today, we noticed a group of male students wearing black sweatshirts (hoodies) with wordings on the front and back. The front side had: Edsel Ford, class of 2011.

The back side had a nickname for each student in addition to our Thunderbird logo and the number 11. The number eleven had a ten window design on each strand.

Beneath the number eleven, the words “You can’t take us down” were printed. The whole design gave prominence to the 9-11 tragedy. It made several staff members and students upset because of the perceived message. The students in question were processed in the main office and their hoodies were confiscated. I am meeting with their parents tomorrow to discuss this incident and its ramifications. After talking with the students, it became clear that there were no intentions of harm rather a very inappropriate and distasteful attempt to draw attention to themselves and to the class of 2011. I want to reassure everyone that the safety of our students and staff will always remain our prime priority here at Edsel Ford. Edsel Ford administration, the district’s student services and communications offices and our school police officer have all been involved in addressing this incident.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions regarding this incident.

Yours truly,
Hassane Jaafar
Principal
Edsel Ford High School
phone: 313-827-1502

No other disciplinary action is planned.

Note that the letter, as well as the surrounding news coverage, glosses over the fact that these young people feel free to dishonor America, while America supports them and provides them with freedom, opportunity, and education.

Related:

Don Surber — Arab-American students mock 9/11

Dearbornistan.

The Political Fish — Things Arabs Think Are Funny…

The kids will not be punished, a decision the ACLU applauds. After all, it’s not like they were wearing a pro-life shirt. Because then, there would be Hell to pay.

In the Crosshairs — Schooling Jihadis in our midst

If the rash of homegrown Islamist terrorism here hasn’t already got you thinking, this ought to…. What is sad is the moral equivocation and willful blindness of the folks pretending this was just a misunderstanding…. These kids knew they were glorifying terrorism and felt comfortable taking that message to their school. That is a chilling thought.

Barack Hussein Obama already has the legal authority to enslave the United States citizenry. That power was allocated to the office of President of the United States in a series of executive orders signed into law one by one throughout the last several administrations.

The persuasion for enacting these orders was to

• postulate some imaginary crisis that MIGHT occur — devastating hurricane, massive terrorist attack, virulent pandemic, and
• define draconian authority for the president to deal with the hypothetical emergency.

The tools for a Marxist takeover of the United States are already in place. All that remains is to manufacture a crisis to trigger the implementation of these executive powers. Hurricanes are still random events of nature, so the socialist revolutionaries in the executive branch must look at the other two options.

The sudden attack on the Central Intelligence Agency that we are currently witnessing will weaken our ability to forestall a terrorist attack. The vaccine for the H1N1 virus being forced on the citizens without adequate testing has the lethal ability to CAUSE a pandemic. So the flashpoint for implementing the “new order” may be one of these two catastrophes.

Most citizens are blissfully ignorant of the state defined by the executive orders, one in which the government can forcibly take control of every aspect of their lives. They are preoccupied with the activities of everyday life — working, raising their children, going to church, enjoying their vacation days. Those of us who have become aware of the “clear and present danger” must alert everyone to the scope of these executive orders — before it is too late.

And this must be done immediately, in light of the power grab currently being undertaken by the Obama administration. In a bill currently before the Senate, Obama is seeking authority to shut down the Internet. Note that he already has the power to suspend the Constitution and to nullify habeas corpus and all other personal liberties and rights, which would include the power to confiscate our guns.

The Executive Orders

Here’s a partial list of executive orders that already have the force of law — The FEMA list of Presidential Executive Orders. All of these were in place before Barack Hussein Obama took the oath of office:

• #10995 by John Kennedy, 1962: ASSIGNING TELECOMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS — Seizure of all communications media in the United States.
• #10997 by John Kennedy, 1962: ASSIGNING EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS FUNCTIONS TO THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR — Seizure of all electric power, fuels, and minerals, both public and private.
• #10998 by John Kennedy, 1962: ASSIGNING EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS FUNCTIONS TO THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE — Seizure of all food supplies and resources, public, and private, all farms and farm equipment.
• #10999 by John Kennedy, 1962: ASSIGNING EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS FUNCTIONS TO THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE — Seizure of all means of transportation, including personal cars, trucks or vehicles of any kind and total control over all highways, seaports and waterways.
• #11000 by John Kennedy, 1962: ASSIGNING EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS FUNCTIONS TO THE SECRETARY OF LABOR — Seizure of all American population for work forces under federal supervision, including dividing families as necessary according to governmental plans.
• #11001 by John Kennedy, 1962: ASSIGNING EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS FUNCTIONS TO THE SECRETARY OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE — Seizure of all health, education and welfare facilities, both public and private.
• #11002by John Kennedy, 1962: ASSIGNING EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS FUNCTIONS TO THE POSTMASTER GENERAL — Empowers the Postmaster General to register all men, women and children in the U.S.
• #11003 by John Kennedy, 1962: ASSIGNING EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS FUNCTIONS TO THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE FEDERAL AVIATION AGENCY — Seizure of all airports and aircraft.
• #11004 by John Kennedy, 1962: ASSIGNING CERTAIN EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS FUNCTIONS TO THE HOUSING AND HOME FINANCE ADMINISTRATOR — Seizure of all housing and finance authorities, to establish Forced Relocation. Designates areas to be abandoned as “unsafe,” establishes new locations for populations, relocates communications, builds new housing with public (‘tax-payers’) funds.
• #11005 by John Kennedy, 1962: ASSIGNING EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS FUNCTIONS TO THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION — Seizure of all railroads, inland waterways and storage facilities, public and private.
• #11051 by John Kennedy, 1962: PRESCRIBING RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE OFFICE OF EMERGENCY PLANNING IN THE EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT — Provides the Office of Emergency Planning complete authorization to put the above orders into effect in times of increased international tension or economic or financial crisis.
• #11490 by Richard Nixon, 1969: Assigning emergency preparedness functions to Federal departments and agencies — Combines Executive Orders #11001 to #11005 and #11051 into a single Executive Order.
• #11921 by Gerald Ford, 1976: Adjusting Emergency Preparedness Assignments to Organizational and Functional Changes in Federal Departments and Agencies — F.E.M.A. is authorized to develop plans control energy, prices and wages, credit and the money supply to U.S. banks in the event of a ‘National Emergency.’ Congress may not review a President’s decision to enforce a ‘National Emergency’ for six months. (emphasis mine)
• #12656 by Ronald Reagan, 1988: Assignment of Emergency Preparedness Responsibilities – The National Security Council given authority to determine requisite emergency powers (increased domestic surveillance, isolation of communities, restriction of movement for groups and individuals in the USA, control of airspace, use of the national guard to enforce laws and seal borders).
• #12919 by Bill Clinton, 1994: NATIONAL DEFENSE INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES PREPAREDNESS – “National Defense Industrial Resources Preparedness” delegates authorities, responsibilities and allocations of F.E.M.A.’s Executive Orders for the confiscation of ALL PROPERTY from the American people, and their re-location and assignment to ‘labor’ camps. This Executive Order also supersedes or revokes eleven (11) previous Executive Orders [from 1939 through 1991] and amends Executive Order #10789 and #11790. The declaration of a ‘National Emergency’ by the President may immediately lead to the implementation of all or part of these provisions and if he so desires he may implement martial law, suspend the Constitution, nullify habeas corpus and all other personal liberties and rights.

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UPDATE, Sept. 2, 12:29AM:  A reader refers to A PRIMER ON “MARTIAL LAW” by Dr. Edwin Vieira, Jr., Ph.D., J.D.

It is difficult these days not to come upon some pessimistic patriotic commentator expressing the fear that something called “martial law” may soon be imposed on this country, as the General Government’s response to a new “terrorist attack”, or to the economic and social chaos arising out of a collapse of the monetary and banking systems, or to some other dire event that frightens hapless Americans into trading a sure and certain loss of their liberties for a dollop of conjectural safety.

An optimistic patriot might scoff at such fears. But both pessimists and optimists typically share the same implicit first premise: namely, that the form of “martial law” they have in mind is legitimate. Most of the time, this is a rather glaring and dangerous error.

This is a detailed and scholarly analysis (our correspondent calls it a “two-cup-of-coffee” article) but it only deals with various modes of martial law under the US Constitution. It does not take into account the damage done by the Executive Orders if the Constitution is suspended, and that is exactly what we are trying to warn our readers about.

After a catastrophic event occurs, legal challenges to government oppression during the post mortem may indeed show the illegitimacy of Orwellian measures. But by then the legal status is moot. For those who believe it cannot happen, let me point out that it already has. During the crisis of hurricane Katrina, New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin had his police force confiscate the guns of the law-abiding citizens. Then they were forced to watch helpless as marauding mobs vandalized and looted their homes.

The National Rifle Association brought suit against the City of New Orleans and won after a three-year legal battle. Only then could the citizens try to recover their property. Some never did, and others had watched as police deliberately smashed their heirloom firearms out of perversity. All had been without their means of self-defense for three years.

Barack Obama misrepresented gun numbers during his trip to Mexico last week in a way that amounts to lying. Appearing with Mexican President Felipe Calderón on Thursday, Obama spoke about the drug violence in Mexico:

“This war is being waged with guns purchased not here but in the United States. More than 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States, many from gun shops that lay in our shared border.”

Here’s the truth. When the Mexican government confiscates guns, it sorts out those that appear to be made in the United States and sends them to us so we can trace them by serial number. But the guns that they send to us are only a fraction of the total number of guns that they confiscate.

Of the subset of guns sent by the Mexican government to the US, 90% turn out to actually be from the US, and the rest were mistakenly identified. That’s where the 90% figure comes from. But the guns that are actually from the US used in the Mexican gun war are really only about 17% of the total number of guns confiscated by Mexico.

Nevertheless, Obama is using these misleading assertions to promote the Inter-American Arms Treaty, first unsuccessfully proposed in 1998 and now being revived in the new effort to disarm America. The Washington Times notes Obama’s real agenda:

Democrats aren’t alone in repeating phony gun statistics. The New York Times, CNN and numerous networks continue to repeat the 90 percent figure with no reporting to back it up. The hysteria is used to create the notion that a major problem exists with American guns – and Mr. Obama is anxious to step in to solve that problem with a $400 million program to stop U.S. guns from going to Mexico. That initiative would include clampdowns on U.S. gun shops.

It is ridiculous for Mr. Obama to blame Mexico’s lawlessness on Americans as if the longstanding corruption of Mexican elected officials, judges and law-enforcement officers has nothing to do with it. …his real agenda is to pursue gun control here at home.

During an interview with National Public Radio when he first ran for the US Senate in 2004, Barack Obama said that he supported a ban on concealed carry of guns:

“Well I, I, I, I continue to, I continue to, uh, uh, support a ban on concealed carry laws.”

Listen to that audio clip.

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During another speech, he let slip that the reason he would not confiscate privately owned guns was only because he could not get the support in Congress!

The WSJ Washington Wire describes a rally in Pennsylvania, you know, the place where the bitter folk cling to God and guns:

A woman in the crowd told Obama she had “heard a rumor” that he might be planning some sort of gun ban upon being elected president….

“If you’ve got a gun in your house, I’m not taking it,’’ Obama said. But the Illinois senator could still see skeptics in the crowd, particularly on the faces of several men at the back of the room.

So he tried again. “Even if I want to take them away, I don’t have the votes in Congress,’’ he said.

So now we know. He really wants to take our guns away, and it is just a matter of time until he gets the votes.

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Well, my friends, it looks like we had better put in a good supply of powder and lead!!!!