Papa needs to spank his employees in NYC.

(CNN) -- Papa John's Pizza fired a cashier at one of its New York restaurants and apologized to an Asian-American customer for a receipt that identified her as "lady chinky eyes."

 

"We were extremely concerned to learn of the receipt issued in New York," the company said in a statement posted on its Facebook page Saturday.

 

Minhee Cho, a communications manager at nonprofit investigative journalism group ProPublica, posted a photo of the receipt on her Twitter account Saturday morning and by the afternoon it was picked up by a local newspaper.

 

Along with the receipt, Cho tweeted "just FYI my name isn't 'lady chinky eyes.'"

 

The receipt had been viewed online almost 200,000 times by Sunday afternoon, according to the counter on the Twitpic page.

 

Cho did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment, but her boss did.

 

"This blew up far beyond Minhee's expectations," ProPublica spokesman Mike Webb said in an e-mail. "She has reporters coming to her apartment, and that's annoying. So she wants it to blow over and she has nothing more to say."

 

Cho was a customer Friday night at the Papa John's on Broadway in Manhattan's Hamilton Heights neighborhood, according to the receipt.

 

"This act goes against our company values, and we've confirmed with the franchisee that this matter was addressed immediately and that the employee is being terminated," the pizza company said. "We are truly sorry for this customer's experience."

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/08/us/new-york-papa-johns-receipt/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

All-American Bigotry

Islamophobes would like you to believe that they're not anti-Islam. They're only anti-Islamic extremism.

So why is it that Islamophobes are always going after mainstream Islam? They lampoon Muhammad. They want to burn not the writings of Osama bin Laden but the Quran itself. They target an Islamic community center in downtown New York City that's the brainchild of an interfaith dialogue proponent and an overseas emissary of the George W. Bush administration. 

 

And now they're venting spleen at an innocuous cable TV show called "All-American Muslim." This reality show on TLC follows five Muslim families in Dearborn, Mich. It explores typical family situations (getting married, having a baby), cultural traditions (hookah, bellydancing) and religious experiences (wearing the hijab, converting to Islam). There's a cop, a football coach, a businesswoman, a tattooed rebel. The program showcases the diversity of the community. 

 

It's so all-American, so earnest in its efforts not to offend anyone, that it verges on boring. Sure, the show does address some provocative issues, such as anti-Muslim sentiment and 9/11. And there are the usual inter-personal tensions familiar to reality-show connoisseurs. But all in all, it's light on outrageousness and exhibitionism, two critical qualities for successful television these days.

 

You'd think that social conservatives would embrace ventures like "All-American Muslim." The show features people who are hard-working, religious and family-oriented. But that's not how bigotry operates. Otherwise, social conservatives would be the first in line to support gay marriage and the repeal of don't ask, don't tell in the military. 

 

It was no surprise, then, that the Florida Family Association, an evangelical Christian outfit infamous for its intolerance, called on advertisers to boycott "All-American Muslim." Several businesses cravenly followed suit, most prominently the home improvement chain Lowes. In mid-December, Lowe's issued a half-hearted apology but refused to reinstate its ads on the show, which will air the final show of its first season on Jan. 8.
 

Both Florida Family Association, and noted Islamophobes like Pamela Geller who have supported its campaign, complain that "All-American Muslim" is not representative because it doesn't dwell on sharia law or feature a terrorist or two. 

 

But although it might boost ratings considerably -- and "All-American Muslim" has seen its viewership slip recently -- the inclusion of a terrorist in the program would not be representative. Political extremism is in fact extremely rare in the Muslim-American community. 

 

Since 9/11, there have been only 11 cases of Muslim Americans who have committed terrorist acts in this country, resulting in 33 deaths. Between 1980 and 2005, according to FBI statistics, approximately 6 percent of all terrorist attacks in the United States were conducted by Islamic extremists. These perpetrators of violence are not representative of the 2.75 million Muslim Americans. Moreover, Muslim American organizations have all condemned terrorism, and the FBI has long relied on the help of the community to identify the few individuals who are inclined toward violence. As for sharia law, except for one minor case in New Jersey that was subsequently overturned, it has had no impact on the U.S. court system.

 

In other words, the attempts by Islamophobes to rationalize their bigotry on factual grounds is just plain wrong.

 

I'm no fan of reality shows. But if "All-American Muslim" can prove to mainstream America that Muslims are as boring, community-minded, socially conservative, occasionally wacky and celebrity-obsessed as the rest of us, then it deserves a place on TV. And companies like Lowe's should support it. 

 

It's one thing for big mouths on the margins to voice their extremism. There's a long American tradition of that, from anti-Catholic Know Nothings and the Ku Klux Klan to anti-Semitic preachers and homophobic radio hosts. 

 

But it's quite another matter when these extremists block community centers, win passage of ludicrous anti-sharia laws and convince major U.S. businesses to join their Islamophobic campaigns. There's an equally long American tradition of denouncing bigotry. In the TLC show, Muslims amply demonstrate that they're ordinary, mainstream Americans. Now it's time for the rest of us to do the same by standing up to the Islamophobes.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-feffer/allamerican-bigotry_b_1179872.html

 
John Feffer's latest book is the forthcoming 'Crusade 2.0' (City Lights).

SANTORUM LOSES BY 8 IN IOWA

After losing by 8 votes in Iowa, Rick Santorum boasts.

Dallas teen missing since 2010 was mistakenly deported

I GUESS BEING BLACK AND SPEAKING ABSOLUTELY NO SPANISH ARE GROUNDS FOR DEPORTATION TO COLUMBIA.

________________________________________

DALLAS - “It's very frustrating," Lorene Turner said.

She has spent hours on Facebook trying to find her granddaughter, Jakadrien.

"Once I get home I am up until 3 or 4 in the morning searching and looking," Turner said. "It's all I can think about. Finding my baby."

Turner has been searching for Jakadrien since the fall of 2010, when she ran away from home. She was 14 years old and distraught over the loss of her grandfather and her parents’ divorce.

Turner searched for months for a clue.

"God just kept leading me," she said. "I wake up in the middle of the night and do whatever God told me to do, and I found her."

Turner said with the help of Dallas Police, she found her granddaughter in the most unexpected place - Colombia.

Where she had mistakenly been deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in April of 2011.

"They didn't do their work," Turner said. "How do you deport a teenager and send her to Colombia without a passport, without anything?"

News 8 learned that Jakadrien somehow ended up in Houston, where she was arrested by Houston police for theft. She gave Houston police a fake name. When police in Houston ran that name, it belonged to a 22-year-old illegal immigrant from Colombia, who had warrants for her arrest.

So ICE officials stepped in.

News 8 has learned ICE took the girl's fingerprints, but somehow didn't confirm her identity and deported her to Colombia, where the Colombian government gave her a work card and released her.

"She talked about how they had her working in this big house cleaning all day, and how tired she was," Turner said.

Through her granddaughter’s Facebook messages, Turner says she tracked Jakadrian down.

U.S. Federal authorities got an address. U.S. Embassy officials in Colombia asked police to pick her up.

But that was a month ago, and the Colombian government now has her in a detention facility and won't release her, despite her family's request.

"I feel like she will come home," the grandmother said with tears in her eyes. "I just need help and prayer.”

There are still many unanswered questions about how an African-American girl who speaks no Spanish is mistaken for a foreign national. Immigration officials are investigating and released a statement late Tuesday.

  

"ICE takes these allegations very seriously," said ICE Director of Public Affairs Brian Hale. " At the direction of [the Department of Homeland Security], ICE is fully and immediately investigating this matter in order to expeditiously determine the facts of this case."

 

ICE officials also noted there have been instances where ICE has seen cases of individuals providing inaccurate information regarding who they are and their immigration status for ulterior motives.

E-mail rlopez@wfaa.com