More on "Some People did Something."

Trump and the Post certainly went off the rails over this and while Ilhan Omar's words may not be sinister, they're not all that admirable either.

Let's simply look at an extended quote which, despite claims to the contrary, is not woefully out of context. In fact it's in keeping with the entire gist of the speech.

"Here’s the truth: far too long we have lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen. And frankly I’m tired of it, and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it. CAIR was founded after 9/11, because they recognized that some people did something and then all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties."

First of all she's speaking to CAIR, an organization of questionable antecedents that has been declared a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates and had an admitted association with the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) charged by the US government with funneling money to Hamas.

When the 1st trial of the HLF ended in a mistrial CAIR defended the organization claiming the charges were "built on fear not fact." All HLF defendants were convicted in the retrial and CAIR was identified as an "unindicted co-conspirator" which caused the FBI to stop working with CAIR.

Second, what civil liberties were Muslims losing? Perhaps they should compare the civil liberties they lost to those lost by the Japanese internees during WW II or blacks in the south that were kept from voting by the Jim Crow culture? More people disliking you, whether justified or not, is not a loss of civil liberties. Even Islamophobic assholes enjoy freedom of speech.

Third, let's cut the bullshit, "some people did something" is no way to refer to the events of 9/11. If we can just agree this was a bad choice of words them I'm all for calling out those distorting what she said. BUT WE CAN'T EVEN DO THAT APPARENTLY. Instead heels have to be dug into the ground and the indefensible must be defended.

Fourth, just as a minor nit, CAIR was founded in 1994 and not after 9/11. She couldn't even get the founding date of the organization she was speaking to right.

Then we can add the "allegiance to a foreign country" crack while criticizing AIPAC a while back into the mix.

But the thing that really stuck in my craw was her comparing her "some people did something" phrase to George W, Bush's "I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you! And the people -- and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon" phrase spoken on 9/14/2001, right in front of the rubble of the twin towers, claiming because he used the word "people" it amounted to the same thing she said or at least it was equally respectful or disrespectful.

No, not really, not even close.

Trump and the Post were being unethical but they were scoring lots of political points by going overboard. Trump understands the game. You have to know when to fold a losing hand and I have this bad feeling that this lady is a losing hand and always will be a losing hand.