BREW A CUP ‘O OSAMA’S MAMA

A new coffee company that pairs satire with fresh roast has been wooing Republicans with their politically incorrect – but saucy – messages.

Handing out samples of blends like “Roast the French,” “Jumpin’ Jihad Java,” and “Osama’s Mama,” the company, Political Grounds, is using the Republican Convention to build name recognition for its new coffees lines, which will be launched nationally in a week.

“Whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, left, right, you have to be pretty thin-skinned to be offended,” said Political Grounds’ founder and CEO, Michael Wilson, a registered independent. “Well, I suppose if you’re Islamic you might be offended,” he added.

Mr. Wilson also promoted the officially nonpartisan coffee at the Democratic Convention, but he said the coffee has gotten a better response in New York. “Republicans obviously have a better understanding of humor and how to laugh,” he said.

The label for “Say Howdy Saudi,” a “premium decaf” with a “medium body and light sweet flavor,” displays a caricature of President Bush atop a tiny camel greeting the Saudi Family, with oil fields burning in the desert horizon.

“Kerry’s Camelot Cafe” showcases Senator Kerry, big chinned and grasping a bottle of ketchup in front of Camelot with a “For Sale” sign hanging from the gate. “Will the real JFK Please Stand Up,” reads the label. “This pure Colombian is no imitation.”

Political Grounds debuted as a joke during the Whitewater Congressional Hearings, when Mr. Wilson had two Washington insider friends take 250 bags of “Yasser-R-A-Rat” Golden Sumatran and “Say Hay Paula and Monica” espresso to the White House press corps.

According to Mr. Wilson, they were thrown out of the White House, but the press picked up the story and sales on Politicalgrounds.com boomed.

– Daniela Gerson

PROTESTERS STAY IN ‘NEW YORK’S GUANTANAMO’

“Oily grit” covers the cement floors of the makeshift detention center at Pier 57 in Chelsea, protesters said at a press conference yesterday, also claiming there may be asbestos contamination that could have long-term effects on prisoners’ health.

Some of the 1,747 prisoners processed there since Thursday described a huge room sectioned into 10-by-12-foot cages, with a layer of oily sediment on the cement floors.

“The floor is cement covered with greasy, oily dirt,” said a woman, Rebecca Vaughan, who was arrested Friday as part of the “Critical Mass” bicycle ride.

A prisoner arrested Monday night was taken to the emergency room because of a “head-to-toe rash” allegedly caused by lying on the floor to get some sleep,said her lawyer, Katya Komisarak.

“The conditions at Pier 57 are abominable, absolutely abominable. It’s like New York’s Guatanamo,” said the president of the New York chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, Martin Stolar.

At a press conference yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg said the center is working “exactly as planned.”

“It is not Club Med. Don’t make any mistake about it. And it is not supposed to be Club Med and I don’t think there is anyone in this city that wants to make it Club Med – which I used to go to all the time and I always found great. This is not supposed to be great,” he said.

The Police Department opened the center in July in the same building where the Hudson Bus Company had parked and maintained buses for 30 years. A prominent civil rights attorney, Norman Siegel, sent a letter Monday asking the police to deal with issues of asbestos contamination left over from the vehicles.

“Contrary to uninformed allegations concerning conditions at the department’s Arrest Processing Facility, tests conducted last night found no problems with air quality at the Pier 57 location,” said the NYPD’s deputy commissioner of Public Information, Paul Browne.

Detainees describe the terminal as a vast cement room separated into cages by chicken wire topped by razor wire. The cage is divided into a front portion and a back portion, with prisoners held, in cuffs, in the rear on four backless benches. The front portion holds a porta-potty, which prisoners must get permission to use.

– Eric Wolff

CARRIE DOESN’T SPEAK FOR THEM

Though “Sex and the City” is so over in this city, the Sarah Jessica Parker’s impact lingers on. But not in a way that sexy conservative girls approve of.

That’s why Jessica Boulanger, a 27-year-old Capitol Hill staffer, got together with friends to make two t-shirts with a point as sharp as a stiletto.

In pink letters on black cotton, the shirt reads: “Carrie doesn’t speak for me.” And on the back: “Neither does Kerry.” A lavender tank top comes with the message: “Pro-Manolos, Pro-Bush.”

Ms. Boulanger and her crew hope to convey the message that “Sex and the City’s” main character, Carrie Bradshaw, may represent the elan of young, sexy women, but she doesn’t represent their political views.

Because Ms. Parker is so closely associated with the fictional character, her Democratic activism could be interpreted as the natural thing for such girls, too.

“Sarah Jessica Parker was all over the place and wearing John Kerry Tshirts,” said Ms. Boulanger. “We love all the things that Carrie Bradshaw loves as well.We don’t want people to assume that just because we love her shoes, we love her views.”

The $30 T-shirts can be purchased by sending an e-mail to: Icouture@gmail.com. Any profits made from the shirts will be given to charity. – Pia Catton

BARR, NORQUIST CRITICIZE BUSH OVER PATRIOT ACT

The Bush Administration drew fire yesterday for its legal tactics in the war on terror and the attacks came from an unusual source: conservative Republicans in town for the party’s national convention.

A former House member from Georgia, Bob Barr, and

a prominent conservative activist, Grover Norquist, led the charge against the administration at a panel discussion sponsored by the Arab-American Institute and the American Conservative Union.

“Particularly since 9/11,our civil liberties in this country are being greatly diminished,” said Mr. Barr, who serves as consultant to the American Civil Liberties Union on privacy issues. He took particular aim at the Patriot Act, the anti-terrorism law passed weeks after the September 11,2001,terrorist strikes.

However, Mr. Barr said that the government is also undermining the priva cy of its citizens in other ways by developing databases to screen airline passengers and to search financial records.

“It’s bad policy. We ought not to stand for our government developing dossiers on law-abiding citizens or lawful visitors to this country,” Mr. Barr said.

Mr. Norquist called on conservatives to become more active on questions of civil liberties.

“It’s very healthy for the right to focus on civil liberties and not think that this is something that the left takes care of,” he said.

Messrs. Norquist and Barr called for legislation that would limit use of the surveillance and search powers in the Patriot Act to terrorism cases. They also urged Congress to make all the provisions in the law subject to renewal every few years.

A former director of public affairs at the Justice Department, Barbara Comstock, said the concerns about the Patriot Act were overblown.

“It just allows us to use the same tools that investigators used before in drug cases and in mob cases,” she said. “It is designed to be very respectful of civil liberties and that is how it is operating.”

A former general counsel at the Treasury Department, David Aufhauser, said the financial aspects of the act had helped disrupt terrorist networks, but would never be able to prevent attacks entirely. “That deterrent is very powerful and very necessary,” he said, but adding, “It’s a very clumsy tool.”

Mr. Aufhauser said he favored some changes to the controversial law. “There are portions of the Patriot Act which really should be reconsidered,” he said.

Pressed by reporters as he left the event, Mr. Barr was coy about whether he would support Mr. Bush in November. He indicated he might support a Libertarian or other third-party hopeful.

A former chief of staff to President George H.W. Bush, John Sununu, joined in the criticism of the administration. Mr. Sununu, who is an Arab American, said officials have been too slow to admit error and to clear those suspected of ties to terrorism.

“When prosecutors begin on a terrorist prosecution and end up nowhere and grasp at the straws of perhaps finding a technical IRS violation or a technical immigration violation to justify the stupidity of three years of investigation, then this nation is in serious trouble,” Mr. Sununu said. “There are many, many cases of that.”

– Josh Gerstein

FROM THE PLATFORM:

“This is the man who wants to be the commander in chief of our U.S. Armed Forces? U.S. forces armed with what? Spitballs?” – Senator Miller of Georgia

SANTORUM LEADS AIDS ROUNDTABLE

While many officials spent the day making the rounds at delegate meetings and donor parties, Senator Santorum ventured to Bedford-Stuyvesant yesterday to lead a roundtable discussion on AIDS-an issue and a community not typically associated with the GOP.

After a tour of the neighborhood Family Health Center, which treats the neighborhood’s AIDS patients, the Pennsylvania senator sat down at a meeting that mixed local activists and students with Washington power players, including Senator Coleman, a Republican of Minnesota, and outgoing MPAA president Jack Valenti.

Mr. Santorum, an outspoken critic of homosexuality and one of Congress’ major AIDS policy backers, made little reference to his party or politics during the discussion.

“Believe it or not, there’s not a whole lot of political mileage in this is sue. It’s just something you should do,” Mr. Santorum told The Sun. “I doubt there will be any [political benefits] in this election but we’re solving a problem and that’s always a good thing.”

Aside from some references to the Bush administration’s recent AIDS policy, which has pledged $15 billion to fight AIDS overseas, speakers also brought attention to the crisis in Brooklyn, which some say has the nation’s highest incidence of HIV/AIDS.

Meanwhile, Democratic Rep. Major Owens, who represents nearby district 11 and who was not invited to the roundtable, saw it as a PR event. He said the appearance-one day after Mr. Santorum visited Jewish community centers in Boro Park-was a sign that Republicans were resurrecting an image of compassionate conservatism.

“This foray is not an accident; it’s carefully plotted; they don’t give a damn whether it reached anybody or not, but it’s about what gets in the press.”

– Alex Pasternack