Gapers Block published from April 22, 2003 to Jan. 1, 2016. The site will remain up in archive form. Please visit Third Coast Review, a new site by several GB alumni.
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Thursday, April 25
Gov. Blagojevich is getting national attention for another one of his missteps—appointing an aide of Louis Farrakhan to the Governor's Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes. Sister Claudette Marie Muhammad is the chief of protocol and director of community outreach for the Nation of Islam; she was appointed in August but caused no controversy until she invited the other commissioners to a Farrakhan speech last weekend, where Farrakhan made reference to "Hollywood Jews" promoting homosexuality and "other filth." Blago says he didn't realize Muhammad was associated with the Nation of Islam; presumably the same staffers charged with not telling him The Daily Show was satire are in trouble again.