May 05, 2010
Vol. 6 No. 18
Networks Fail to Expose GM's Misleading Commercial
General Motors' new commercial claiming the auto giant repaid it's government loan "in full" and five years early is so deceptive one congressman said it was "dangerously close to committing fraud." Even The New York Times has criticized the new GM advertisement, but ABC, CBS and NBC have ignored the controversy.
Sieg Bile: Media, Left Embrace Calling Right 'Nazis'
Conservatives don't dare sprechen the term, but liberals view it as a Deutsch treat.
Econ 101: The Problem with Greece
U.S. should control spending, learn from Greek debt crisis before it's too late.
You can also find Dan Gainor's commentary on The Fox Forum.
You can also check out BMI's editorial cartoon: Bottom Lines by Glenn Foden.
Follow BMI on Twitter:
@DanGainor
@MattPhilbin
@BizMediaJulia
@JPoor007
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Fwd: Networks Fail to Expose GM?s Misleading Commercial
Fwd: The Times Discovers Black Republicans
Documenting and Exposing the Liberal Political Agenda of the New York Times
Wednesday May 05, 2010 @ 04:05 PM EDT
Gail Collins Finds 'Bright Spot' in Massive Gulf Oil Spill
At least one Times columnist has her priorities straight. Gail Collins: "Polls show that the country as a whole has lost a lot of its passion for environmental issues. Maybe the oil spill will bring it back. That'd be one bright spot in all this mess."
Obama's White House 20-Somethings 'Reign Over' D.C. Social Scene
Blech: "President Obama's young staff and their senior counterparts mix seamlessly and often sweetly....The young staff members in the Obama White House have not only helped create a new social scene but also nonchalantly reign over it." Because it's important for the White House staff to be hip.
The Times Discovers Black Republicans
Jennifer Steinhauer gives the candidates their due, but can't resist a cheap shot: "Videos taken at some Tea Party rallies show some participants holding up signs with racially inflammatory language." The paper has yet to address violence at left-wing May Day rallies or at a protest against Arizona's new illegal immigration law.
Gail Collins Finds 'Bright Spot' in Massive Gulf Oil Spill
Columnist Gail Collins' usual Wednesday "Conversation" with columnist David Brooks, the Times idea of a conservative, often amounts to two liberals nodding agreement over various liberal platitudes. This time the two agree that Obama shows grace under pressure: "The Calm, Cool and Collected President."
But Collins trumped Brooks on this outing by seeing the bridge side of the oil spill in the Gulf:
Polls show that the country as a whole has lost a lot of its passion for environmental issues. Maybe the oil spill will bring it back. That'd be one bright spot in all this mess. And if it turns out that we're going to be able to pin at least part of the blame on Halliburton, there'd be a second.Obama's White House 20-Somethings 'Reign Over' D.C. Social Scene
A Sunday Magazine profile of Obama's young, hip staffers by Ashley Parker takes after MTV in its headine: "The Real World: 44." (Obama is the 44th president.) The alternate headline was more specific: "All the Obama 20-Somethings." Clearly the Times finds this new batch of idealists a welcome change from the stuffy, preppy Bushies, and Parker fawns over them, obviously comfortable in their presence and generous in her descriptions:
President Obama's young staff and their senior counterparts mix seamlessly and often sweetly. During the primaries, Axelrod once dropped by a party at the Pad -- a group house in Chicago where seven campaign staff members lived, worked and played the video game Rock Band. The rumpled, over-50 "Axe," as nearly everyone calls him, impressed the crowd by playing a game of beer pong. Now in Washington, he still makes the rare appearance at parties for junior staff members. When friends of the 31-year-old deputy communications director, Jen Psaki, gave her an afternoon engagement party at the Cork wine bar near Logan Circle, Rahm Emanuel, the chief of staff, and Axelrod came by, arriving with Lesser.
Parker prefers this hip batch of aides to the stodgy ones of the Bush White House (that is, when they're not "tabloid fodder" like the Bush twins).
Even so, Obama's young aides offer a contrast to the ones who worked in George W. Bush's administration only a few years ago. Bush promised to "restore dignity to the White House," and the mood inside the administration was subdued from the start, with a reinstated dress code that encouraged women to wear pantyhose. As Matt Latimer observed in his account of his years as a Bush speechwriter, "Speech-Less," there was no hint of Aaron Sorkin's "West Wing" sexiness. "We were more like Rob Lowe's cousins," he wrote, "the ones who didn't go out much." When they did go out, Johndroe says, they stuck to creaky haunts close to the White House like Old Ebbitt Grill or bars in the historically preppy enclave of Georgetown. "The Daily Grill was the place to go on Thursday nights, in Georgetown, and then people would go to Smith Point," Johndroe said, referring to the basement bar known for sightings of the Bush twins and its unofficial uniform of popped collars, boat shoes (no socks) and salmon-colored khakis for the men, pearls and Lilly Pulitzer for the women. The president's daughters were perhaps the city's most visible revelers, and their late-night escapades around town became tabloid fodder. (Johndroe, for the record, says he now spends more time on the U Street corridor.)
Because it's important for presidential staffers to be hip.
The young staff members in the Obama White House have not only helped create a new social scene but also nonchalantly reign over it. Washington, always known as "Hollywood for Ugly People," is now Hollywood, period. Jon Favreau landed on People magazine's most-beautiful-people list and Time magazine's Top 100 most-influential-people list in the same week. Other staff members found themselves ranked in GQ and Maxim, and in fashion spreads in Vanity Fair and Elle. Sam Kass, a 30-year-old White House assistant chef with movie-star looks, was also named one of People magazine's 100 most-beautiful people in 2009. He sometimes is teased by his co-workers with the nickname "100." The actress Rashida Jones came to Washington for the White House Correspondents Dinner and left romantically linked to Favreau. Kal Penn, who is 33, traded his Hollywood career in the "Harold and Kumar" movies and in Fox's "House" for a comparatively low-paying job as associate director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.
And would the Times have treated this incident as a "silly blog sensation" if it had been a Republican staffer groping a cutout of Hillary Clinton?
People gripe about staff assistants who, they feel, have received un-deserved press coverage, the ones who didn't start out in Iowa but still landed a plum job, like the person in the next cubicle who has the same portfolio but makes more money. They are careful, however, not to complain too loudly. They have already learned lessons the hard way. When a Washington Post reporter first e-mailed Favreau about a Facebook picture of him groping a cardboard cutout of Hillary Clinton, he couldn't believe it; he never even put the picture up online (a friend from home had naïvely posted it). But the story became a silly blog sensation during the 2008 campaign, and Favreau had to apologize to Clinton. The incident was a psychological turning point for Obama's staff. Several of them started defriending reporters from their Facebook accounts and internalized the lesson that everyone in Washington eventually learns: nothing is private; everything is on the record.
Judging by fawning profiles like this, Obama staffers should have little reason to fear embarrassing coverage of their personal foibles.
You can follow Times Watch on Twitter.The Times Discovers Black Republicans
Reporter Jennifer Steinhauer's piece on Wednesday, "Black Candidates Pick This Year for G.O.P. Primary Races," is getting some attention. It's already served the salutary purpose of making NBC reporter Luke Russert look both liberal and naive (Russert claimed, with surprise: "...it's quite interesting, these candidates are actually soliciting support from the tea party, a group that a lot of folks have claimed to be racist against African-Americans").
While managing to credit Barack Obama for the rise of viable black Republican candidates and throwing in a cheap shot at Tea Party protesters "holding up signs with racially inflammatory language," Steinhauer provided a mostly fair look at the opportunities and challenges of black Republican candidates:
Among the many reverberations of President Obama's election, here is one he probably never anticipated: at least 32 African-Americans are running for Congress this year as Republicans, the biggest surge since Reconstruction, according to party officials.
The House has not had a black Republican since 2003, when J. C. Watts of Oklahoma left after eight years.
But now black Republicans are running across the country -- from a largely white swath of beach communities in Florida to the suburbs of Phoenix, where an African-American candidate has raised more money than all but two of his nine (white) Republican competitors in the primary.
Party officials and the candidates themselves acknowledge that they still have uphill fights in both the primaries and the general elections, but they say that black Republicans are running with a confidence they have never had before. They credit the marriage of two factors: dissatisfaction with the Obama administration, and the proof, as provided by Mr. Obama, that blacks can get elected.
....
Many of the candidates are trying to align themselves with the Tea Partiers, insisting that the racial dynamics of that movement have been overblown. Videos taken at some Tea Party rallies show some participants holding up signs with racially inflammatory language.
Meanwhile, the Times failed to cover the violence at the pro-amnesty May Day rallies, or the violence at the protests against Arizona's new illegal immigration law.
Steinhauer let Florida congressional candidate Allen West rebut that accusation:
The black candidates interviewed overwhelmingly called the racist narrative a news media fiction. "I have been to these rallies, and there are hot dogs and banjos," said Mr. West, the candidate in Florida, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army. "There is no violence or racism there."You can follow Times Watch on Twitter.
There is also some evidence that black voters rally around specific conservative causes. A case in point was a 2008 ballot initiative in California outlawing same-sex marriage that passed in large part because of support from black voters in Southern California.
Click here to support TimesWatch.org!
TW Latest Headlines RSS feed
Fwd: Gallup Poll: 9 Out of 10 Americans Say Secure the Border This Year
Today's Headlines Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Gallup Poll: 9 Out of 10 Americans Say Secure the Border This Year
(CNSNews.com) - A USA Today/Gallup poll conducted May 1-2 shows that 9 out of 10 Americans say it is moderately to extremely important to them for the federal government to take steps this year to secure the border against illegal immigration. Similarly, 61 percent of Americans say they are very concerned that illegal immigrants are putting an unfair burden on U.S. schools, hospitals, and government services.
Pakistan Taliban Wants to Be Seen As Part of Global Jihad
(CNSNews.com) – Regardless of whether its claim of responsibility for the foiled May 1 car bombing in Times Square turns out to be valid, the Pakistan Taliban's threatening statements reveal its goal of wanting to be seen as part of a global jihad.
Biden Touts Computerized Health Records, Critics Have Privacy Concerns
Washington (CNSNews.com) – Washington (CNSNews.com) – Vice President Joe Biden, touting the importance of electronic health records, on Tuesday announced $220 million in grants for 15 communities to pave the way for wide-scale use of health information technology. But critics are raising privacy concerns.
Computer Problems 'Won't Stop Us' From Completing the Census,' Census Director Says
Washington (CNSNews.com) - The computer system used in the Census Bureau's door-to-door headcount
'isn't perfect,' but 'it's good enough to finish the Census,' Census Director Robert Groves told reporters on Tuesday.
Florida Democrat Supports Oil Drilling Only 'Where Existing, Producing Rigs Are'
Washington (CNSNews.com) - Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who is opposed to any expanded off-shore oil drilling operations, has proposed legislation to increase BP's liability to $10 billion (up from $75 million) for the current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Most Senators Who Questioned Goldman Sachs Also Took Money From Its PAC and Employees
(CNSNews.com) – Most of the 10 members of the Senate committee who grilled top-ranking employees of Goldman Sachs last month have accepted campaign contributions from either the bank's political action committee (PAC) or its employees.
New Campaign Finance Bill Would Force Private Groups to Publicize Donors in Political Ads
(CNSNews.com) – A new effort by congressional Democrats to curtail campaign finance spending by private groups would force those groups to make public the names of their top donors in political advertisements, both on radio and on television.
States Pondering Arizona-Style Immigration Law; White House Says This Demonstrates Need for Federal Law
Washington (CNSNews.com) – At least eight states — Utah, Oklahoma, Ohio, Missouri, Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, and Maryland — reportedly are considering legislation similar to the Arizona law, which allows police to determine a person's immigration status following a "lawful stop, detention, or arrest."
CNSNEWS.COM VIDEO
NBC's Meredith Vieira: 'Real Shocker To Me' That Obama Hadn't Done National Press Conference for 7 Months
(CNSNews.com) – Meredith Vieira, co-host of NBC's Today Show, also said that a president "should be available to the media as much as possible because that's the only way the public can get answers."
Actress Kim Kardashian: Fox News 'Very Reputable,' The 'Only News in the House'
(CNSNews.com) - Actress and model Kim Kardashian turned down CBS's invitation to attend the White House Correspondents Dinner, but told CNSNews.com that she decided to attend as a guest of Fox News' Greta Van Susteren. Kardashian said Fox News Channel, which is often criticized by liberals, is "the only news in the house" where she resides.
Actor and Activist Adrian Grenier: 'We May Starve To Death,' 'Something May Get Us Before Climate Change'
OTHER CNSNEWS.COM HEADLINES
Airlines Now Required to Check No-Fly List More Often
Pakistan Doubts Taliban's Claim of Responsibility for Times Square Bombing Attempt
Times Square Suspect Cooperating With Investigators, But His Motive Is Unclear
Timeline: 53 hours, 20 Minutes From Smoking Car to Suspect's Arrest
Two Arizona City Councils Vote to Sue Over New Immigration Law
Philadelphia Police Chief Backs Officer Who Tasered Fan Who Ran Onto Field
Voter Retain Incumbents in N.C. and Ohio Primary Elections; Turn to Veteran Politician in Indiana
Volcanic Ash Snarls Scottish, Irish Air Services
Gulf Oil Spill Is Not Deterring BP Gas Station Customers
Wisconsin Legalizes Raw Milk; May Encourage Other States
Rioting Erupts in Greece As Striking Workers Protest Austerity Measures
Donate Today!
Please help CNSNews.com keep bringing you 'The Right News - Right Now!'
Make a contribution to CNSNews.com today. It's fast, simple and secure.
Help CNSNews.com and Donate Today!
NEWSPAPER ROUNDUP:
Mass. water emergency has some reconsidering bottled water ban
EPA moves to regulate coal combustion waste for the first time
Pa. liquor ad says, Buy Mom some vodka
Virtual schools coming to Mass.; Attend classes without leaving home
Bank bill could help feds snoop, GOP warns
New York Times: 'Lapses allowed suspect to board plane'
Napolitano: Border could be 'more safe'
Obama biggest recipient of BP cash
At least 32 African-Americans are running for Congress as Republicans
House and Senate working on new auto safety standards
Texas teen killed in Mexico
Joe Lieberman's bill would strip citizenship of terror suspects
Steny Hoyer: Democrats more effective on terror
Rep. Eric Cantor blasts President Obama's 'naive' foreign policy
COMMENTARY
Dereliction of Duty: Opening Our Border to Drug Smugglers
By Terence P. Jeffrey
Pinal County, Arizona is about 140 miles north of Mexico by interstate freeway. It is deep in the sovereign territory of the United States. Yet it is on the front lines of America's drug war, because it sits astride a wide-open corridor through which our derelict federal government allows smugglers to routinely bring massive amounts of illegal drugs into the interior of our country.
Who Bombed Times Square? Must Be the Swedish Grandmother
By Ben Shapiro
There has been one high-profile violent incident perpetrated by a right-winger since Obama took office: the May 31, 2009 shooting of abortionist George Tiller. There have been a bevy of high-profile violent incidents by registered Democrats or liberals…
The Jihadists' Deadly Path to Citizenship
By Michelle Malkin
Pakistani-born bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad's U.S. citizenship status caused a bit of shock and awe, but it shouldn't have. Shahzad's path to American citizenship – he reportedly married an American woman, Huma Mian, in 2008 after spending a decade in the country on foreign student and employment visas – is a tried-and-true terror formula. Jihadists have been gaming the sham marriage racket with impunity for years. And immigration benefit fraud has provided invaluable cover and aid for U.S.-based Islamic plotters, including many other operatives planning attacks on New York City.
Charlie Crist Wasn't 'Purged'
By L. Brent Bozell III
Everyone knows that the quickest way to become a popular Republican in the media's eyes is to denounce the Republicans as too extreme and conservative. The latest example is Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who became an instant media sensation when he abandoned his dreadfully losing GOP campaign for the U.S. Senate to run as an independent.
Rough Seas for Obama
By Rich Galen
On March 31, President Obama announced a new policy toward offshore drilling off the Mid-Atlantic and Florida coastlines. Three weeks later the BP oil platform blew up and sank in the Gulf of Mexico and Obama had to reverse himself. That wasn't Obama's fault, of course, but it is the kind of thing that happens when Administrations are looking a little shaky. And the Administration's insistence that it has been involved in the oil spill "since day one" is coming under some scrutiny.
Fwd: Enterprise Update: Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) on Financial Regulatory Reform
VIDEO: A Wall Street Bailout Bill The Bill is Still Flawed Federal Workers Make Twice As Much VIDEO: GM Repaid Taxpayers with Tax Dollars In the Dodd Bill, "Bank" Could Mean Anyone Featured ResearchRep. Ed Royce (R-CA) on Financial Regulatory Reform
By Rep. Ed Royce
As the Senate moves closer to another cloture vote on Senator Dodd's legislation, we are again reminded of the several flaws found in the Dodd-Frank approach to financial regulatory reform.
Beginning with the rescue of investment bank Bear Stearns in the spring of 2008, the Federal government has committed trillions of taxpayer dollars to institutions like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, Citigroup and Bank of America, out of fear that the demise of any of these "too big to fail" institutions would trigger a systemic crisis and collapse of the global financial system. With the bailout of creditors domestically and overseas, we have seen an increase in moral hazard and a 78 basis point advantage in lower borrowing costs for those firms receiving government funds.
Instead of learning from the failures of 2008, the legislation put forward will compound the moral hazard problem. Take the House bill that passed last December. Armed with a $150 billion bailout fund backed by the US Treasury, regulators would be authorized to "make loans to, or purchase the debt obligations of a systemically risky company; purchase its assets; assume or guarantee its obligations; take liens on assets or sell or transfer the company's assets." This is a huge amount of power left to the discretion of government officials. As my colleague Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) accurately described when the bill was first introduced, it amounts to "TARP on steroids."
>> Click here to read the full report
For more information, visit Heritage's Enterprise and Free Markets webpage, which features research, commentary, blog posts, charts and additional policy resources.
The regulatory burden on Americans continued to surge during 2009, with record increases in costs thanks to both the Bush and Obama Administrations. Given ongoing regulatory initiatives at several agencies, it is very likely that this surge will continue.
Click here for more information
The Heritage Foundation | 214 Massachusetts Ave NE, Washington, DC 20002 | 202.546.4400
Fwd: Morning Bell: The Congressional Assault on Criminal Justice
05/05/2010
The Congressional Assault on Criminal Justice
If Congress drafts a law and no one can understand it, can individuals be punished for breaking it? Increasingly, to the detriment of all Americans, the answer is yes. Since our nation's founding, a core principle of our system of justice has been that no citizen should be subjected to criminal punishment for conduct that he did not know was illegal or otherwise wrongful. This principle is embodied in the requirement that the government must prove a defendant acted with intent, or at least knowledge, before subjecting him to criminal punishment. Unfortunately this cornerstone of our criminal justice system has been under assault from Congress in recent decades.
By the end of 2007, the United States Code included over 4,450 federal crimes, with an estimated tens of thousands more located in the federal regulatory code. Many of these offenses were only recently created, and far too many lack an adequate guilty-mind (known by lawyers as mens rea) requirement. According to a new and unprecedented study released jointly today by The Heritage Foundation and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), the 109th Congress alone proposed 446 non-violent criminal offenses, 57 percent of which lacked an adequate guilty-mind requirement. The report, Without Intent: How Congress Is Eroding the Criminal Intent Requirement in Federal Law, also reveals that 23 of those inadequately protective offenses were even enacted into law.
Today on Capitol Hill in a rare display of bipartisanship in Washington, Reps. Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Louie Gohmert (R–TX) are holding a joint press conference to announce the report with Heritage's Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow and former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese and NACDL's Executive Director Norman Reimer. "Without Intent" reveals several startling facts about this Congress' penchant to overcriminalize. These facts indicate that innocent Americans are increasingly at risk of criminal punishment. For example, in the 109th Congress:
Fwd: MRC Alert: MSNBC's Contessa Brewer 'Frustrated' That Times Square Bomber Is a Muslim
A daily compilation edited by Brent H. Baker, CyberAlert items are drawn from daily BiasAlert posts and distributed by the Media Research Center's News Analysis Division, the leader since 1987 in documenting, exposing and neutralizing liberal media bias.
Tracking Liberal Media Bias Since 1996
Wednesday May 05, 2010 @ 09:26 AM EDT1. MSNBC's Contessa Brewer 'Frustrated' That Times Square Bomber Is a Muslim
MSNBC host Contessa Brewer appeared on the liberal Stephanie Miller radio show on Tuesday and lamented the fact that the person arrested for the attempted Times Square bombing is a Pakistani American. She complained, "I get frustrated...There was part of me that was hoping this was not going to be anybody with ties to any kind of Islamic country."
2. ABC Sees Optimistic Terrorist: Wife Enjoys American Sit-Coms While He Dots 'i' with a Heart
Before "a disturbing change" of character in early 2009, arrested terrorist Faisal Shahzad, ABC's Chris Cuomo asserted Tuesday night, "seemed to be living the American dream" with a wife whose Facebook page "says she loves Everybody Loves Raymond and Friends" while "his signature seems to suggest optimism -- it appears a heart is dotting the 'i' in Faisal" in a job application found outside his foreclosed house.
3. On Hardball: Worried Next Terror Attack Could Strengthen Tea Party
Chris Matthews, on Tuesday's Hardball, brought on two former CIA officials to discuss the latest terror attack, and the MSNBC host agreed with Tyler Drumheller that the most recent attacker was motivated by his house being foreclosed on and also agreed with Robert Baer who feared another attack could lead to "the Tea Party being strengthened," which could lead to "people blaming the White House for a situation it didn't create." Baer also hit Matthews' sweet spot of talking points when he went on to warn that the last successful terror attack "got us into a war in Iraq we didn't need to be in."
4. MSNBC's Ratigan Worries About 'Racism' Toward Muslims After NYC Bomb Attempt
Near the top of Tuesday's Dylan Ratigan Show on MSNBC, host Dylan Ratigan fretted over American Muslims being harassed in the wake of the failed Times Square bombing: "how do you deal with these types of crimes without resulting in racism, effectively, towards people of Pakistani or Middle Eastern descent?...is there not a natural backlash to this?"
5. Misleading NYT Poll Doesn't Stop People from Favoring AZ Immigration Law
The New York Times initially spun a 60%-36% pro-enforcement gap as a "slim margin." And the law doesn't give "police the power to question anyone they suspect is in the country illegally," as the misleading poll question claims, but requires reasonable suspicion of such by a policeman, coupled with a "lawful stop, detention or arrest."
6. Lib Reporters Reminisce About Kent State on Chris Matthews Show
Tuesday marks the 40th anniversary of the Kent State shootings, and over the weekend Chris Matthews and his liberal cronies, on his syndicated The Chris Matthews Show, previewed the event as they reminisced about where they were at the time. Their memories reflect how anti-war they were back then and how that moment shaped them into the libs they are today as Matthews revealed the likes of his guests, like Newsweek's Howard Fineman and CNN's Gloria Borger, as students, were "editorializing against the war."
MSNBC's Contessa Brewer 'Frustrated' That Times Square Bomber Is a Muslim
MSNBC host Contessa Brewer appeared on the liberal Stephanie Miller radio show on Tuesday and lamented the fact that the person arrested for the attempted Times Square bombing is a Pakistani American. She complained, "I get frustrated...There was part of me that was hoping this was not going to be anybody with ties to any kind of Islamic country." [Audio available here.]
Brewer continued, "...There are a lot of people who want to use terrorist intent to justify writing off people who believe in a certain way or come from certain countries or whose skin color is a certain way. I mean they use it as justification for really outdated bigotry."
The News live host didn't explain which ethnicity or religion she had been hoping the bomber would have been affiliated with. She did defensively mention members of a Michigan militia group arrested in March and asserted that they were "from far different backgrounds than what this guy is coming from."
Attempting to understand the mind set of Faisal Shahzad, Brewer speculated, "Were there failed family ties? Did he have a strong community network here in the United States? Did he feel isolated?" She opined that these types of terrorists are "guys who are, I don't know, isolated in some ways from their families."
This isn't the first time journalists have worried about the effect of Muslim extremists being responsible for terrorist acts. On November 7, 2009, Newsweek editor Evan Thomas worried:
EVAN THOMAS: I cringe that he's a Muslim. I mean, because it inflames all the fears. I think he's probably just a nut case. But with that label attached to him, it will get the right wing going and it just -- I mean these things are tragic, but that makes it much worse.A partial transcript of Brewer's appearance on the Stephanie Miller show can be found below:
CONTESSA BREWER: I mean the thing is that- and I get frustrated and there was part of me that was hoping this was not going to be anybody with ties to any kind of Islamic country because there are a lot of people who want to use terrorist intent to justify writing off people who believe in a certain way or come from certain countries or whose skin color is a certain way. I mean they use it as justification for really outdated bigotry. And so there was part of me was really hoping this would not be the case that here would be somebody who is not the defined. I mean he's accused, he's arrested you know I don't want to convict him before it's time to do so. He's the guy authorities say is involved. But that being said, I mean, we know even in recent history you have the Hutaree militia from Michigan who have plans to, let's face it, create terror. That's what they were planning to do and they were doing so from far different backgrounds then what this guy is coming from. So, the threat is not just coming from people who decide that America is the place to be and you know come here and want to become citizens. And obviously this guy did.—Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
09:11
BREWER: What's interesting is you know we're seeing within the boundaries of the United States it's the people that they're arresting seem to be you know- these loners, in some ways. I mean, the underwear bomber had obviously been sent. There was a network behind him. But, they're guys who are, I don't know, isolated some ways from their families. It will be interesting when we hear what is the background of Faisal Shahzad as we are, you know, of course our NBC crews are on that and looking onto more background there. We'll find out more. Were there failed family ties? Did he have a strong community network here in the United States? Did he feel isolated?
ABC Sees Optimistic Terrorist: Wife Enjoys American Sit-Coms While He Dots 'i' with a Heart
Before "a disturbing change" of character in early 2009, arrested terrorist Faisal Shahzad, ABC's Chris Cuomo asserted Tuesday night, "seemed to be living the American dream" with a wife whose Facebook page "says she loves Everybody Loves Raymond and Friends" while "his signature seems to suggest optimism -- it appears a heart is dotting the 'i' in Faisal" in a job application found outside his foreclosed house. (larger jpg image)
How heartwarming.
The "big question" for a befuddled Cuomo: "Why did someone, with apparently so much to live for, simply decide to throw it all away?"
From the Tuesday, May 4 ABC's World News:
CHRIS CUOMO: Diane, we've also recently learned that Shahzad is actually the son of a prominent member of the Pakistani military. But for all we learned, the big question remains: Why did someone, with apparently so much to live for, simply decide to throw it all away? Faisal Shahzad seemed to be living the American dream. Wife, two kids, nice house in the suburbs, an immigrant from Pakistan bettering himself through education and hard work.
NEIGHBOR: They had little picnics in the backyard. They were always to themselves. The wife looked happy.
CUOMO: Her Web page, filled with baby photos, says she loves Everybody Loves Raymond and Friends. Under the photo of her husband, the caption: "He is my everything."But in this pile of trash left outside his former home, we found traces of a life left behind. This job application lists primary school in Saudi Arabia, and several schools in Pakistan. There are signs of his efforts to learn the English language, as well. He lists the "University of Auston Taxes" -- as in Austin, Texas. Yet, Shahzad would go on to earn a BS and MBA at the University of Bridgeport. Even his signature seems to suggest optimism -- it appears a heart is dotting the "i" in Faisal....— Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
On Hardball: Worried Next Terror Attack Could Strengthen Tea Party
Chris Matthews, on Tuesday's Hardball, brought on two former CIA officials to discuss the latest terror attack, and the MSNBC host agreed with Tyler Drumheller that the most recent attacker was motivated by his house being foreclosed on and also agreed with Robert Baer who feared another attack could lead to "the Tea Party being strengthened," which could lead to "people blaming the White House for a situation it didn't create." Baer also hit Matthews' sweet spot of talking points when he went on to warn that the last successful terror attack "got us into a war in Iraq we didn't need to be in." [audio available here]
ROBERT BAER, FORMER CIA FIELD OFFICER: But what I'm really afraid, Chris, is the next time one of these guys are going to get through. And what's it gonna do to this country? It's gonna rip it apart. Because people are gonna be looking for quick, immediate answers.The following exchange was aired on the May 4 edition of Hardball:
MATTHEWS: How so?
BAER: You know, they're gonna, they're gonna look, you know, crack down on, you know, who knows where it's gonna to end up? You're gonna see the Tea Party being, you know, being strengthened. You're gonna see people blaming the White House for a situation it didn't create.
MATTHEWS: Yeah.
BAER: It could affect the, you know it could affect the United States for a long time. Look, it got us into a war in Iraq we didn't need to be in...
MATTHEWS: Yeah well I agree.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: You know, Roger Cressey made a point earlier, Tyler, along the lines you're talking about, about how they recruit overseas. We've been very successful in American and I know we are, about assimilating people, it's our great strength. You can become an American in very few years. You learn a bit of the language, you make an effort to really become an American, you get into our culture, you get into our values, you're an American damn quick. And the danger, of course, is some people don't have that motive. That they may be doing all kinds of things to us. In this case, this guy radicalized, how do you figure? How do you figure the radicalization occurred?—Geoffrey Dickens is the Senior News Analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here
TYLER DRUMHELLER, FMR CIA EUROPE OPERATION CHIEF: Well I think this is, I think the, the assimilation of, of the Islamic community in the United States has protected us to this point. But I think as things go along. I mean in his case it could be, it could be an economic problem. It could be, it could be all sorts of things.
MATTHEWS: Yeah I think you're onto it. I think you're on to the economic problem.
DRUMHELLER: And, and he, his house was being foreclosed on. It's the same thing if you, what you saw in Europe. And I keep going to that because that's what I - I think that's an important lesson to learn. You have a group of disgruntled people or a disgruntled guy and all they need to do is run into one person that's a serious recruiter or a trainer or something like that. And then like Bob said, they end up in a camp, they get a, they get a degree of training, they go back. And for the Pakistani, and for the people in Pakistan there, they see this as a war with us. I mean we, we, we should not think that we can attack them and they're not going to retaliate. And so this, it's, I think it would be a mistake to think that we're looking for a specific plan. Like go to Times Square and blow it up. But I think the, what they said was, probablytrain him and said, at an opportunity do something like this. Which makes it much more dangerous. It would be easier if it was a highly-organized thing because that's easier to penetrate.
MATTHEWS: You know Bob everybody knows about people that emigrate, some successfully, and others not. A lot of people came here from Ireland, for example, and most made it in America and some had to go home. They didn't make it here, they didn't fit in. Is this an opportunity for recruitment?
ROBERT BAER FMR CIA FIELD OFFICER: Oh absolutely! With the, immigration is going up, we're getting a lot more people. The State Department effectively does not screen people immigrating to this country. And it's barely cursory. We don't know who's inside our borders. We're nothing like Israel who keeps track of people for obvious reasons. We're still very non-militarized, liberal country. But, you know, we simply don't know who's within our borders. A lot of people still don't speak English. And their primary loyalties are outside the country.
MATTHEWS: Yeah but people coming from Pakistan, generally do speak English. That wouldn't be the problem here, would it?
BAER: A lot of them don't. A lot of them just speak Urdu and Pashtun. They don't speak it very well. And they're not integrated. They're moving out into communities in Connecticut and New Jersey, and they're, they're, they're sticking together, and we don't really know who they are. This is a, this is a big statement. But we, the FBI, let's put it this way, cannot keep track of every immigrant in this country. What happened in Times Square was not an intelligence failure. In fact it was, it was a brilliant wrap-up of this guy and - but, but what I'm really afraid, Chris, is the next time one of these guys are going to get through. And what's it gonna do to this country? It's gonna rip it apart. Because people are gonna be looking for quick, immediate answers.
MATTHEWS: How so?
BAER: You know, they're gonna, they're gonna look, you know, crack down on, you know, who knows where it's gonna to end up? You're gonna see the Tea Party being, you know, being strengthened. You're gonna see people blaming the White House for a situation it didn't create.
MATTHEWS: Yeah.
BAER: It could affect the, you know it could affect the United States for a long time. Look, it got us into a war in Iraq we didn't need to be in...
MATTHEWS: Yeah well I agree. And by the way, I think coming up on airplanes, I thought this with the Christmas bomber. Tyler, you on this. I thought there was gonna be, well I'll predict it right now. We get a real bad airplane situation in the next couple of years, we're gonna have all kinds of stuff going on about who gets on airplanes, we're gonna be so close to Israel in the way that they do it, don't you think?
DRUMHELLER: I think it's gonna...
BAER: Oh absolutely! People are gonna demand it.
MATTHEWS: Your thoughts Tyler?
DRUMHELLER: I think it's gonna go more and more in that direction. And I think the other thing to worry about is the reaction. Again this is going back to your. This is the reaction of the extreme right to the, where you have a counter reaction against these communities. And that just adds to bring in more recruits for these-
MATTHEWS: Yeah explain how that happens?
DRUMHELLER: Well it's because, as, as, as these attacks occur, it feeds a certain, a certain part of the, of the extreme right that looks on immigration as a threat to the American identity and then they react, and a violent fringe of that reacts violently against Moslems in some part of the country. And the next thing you know, then the recruiters or the people on the Internet, who if they're doing it remotely, play on this and say "See, this is America, hates Moslems." I mean you hear that more and more when you talk to young, to young Moslems. That it's not, it's not a majority, but it's and Bob knows more about this, about that part of the world than I do.
MATTHEWS: Yeah I know, I know. You know Bob, the problem is really not so much people who have a lot of contact with people from the Middle East or from South Asia, like I do. It's, it's people who don't meet anybody. So they make the generalization, I assume.
BAER: Yeah.
DRUMHELLER: Yeah.
MATTHEWS: Obviously they can't differentiate among the 99 percent that are wanting to become Americans and the, and the small element is just are misfits, basically and are open to recruitment. It's a, it's a situation that takes a little bit of thought to put into it. But I'll tell ya, when it comes to airplanes, people aren't gonna be so discriminating. They're gonna want to know who's going to be getting on that airplane if we another problem like Christmas.
MSNBC's Ratigan Worries About 'Racism' Toward Muslims After NYC Bomb Attempt
Near the top of Tuesday's Dylan Ratigan Show on MSNBC, host Dylan Ratigan fretted over American Muslims being harassed in the wake of the failed Times Square bombing: "how do you deal with these types of crimes without resulting in racism, effectively, towards people of Pakistani or Middle Eastern descent?...is there not a natural backlash to this?"
Ratigan asked that of Sofian Zakkout, the director of the American Muslim Association of North America, who replied: "We should calm down, it's – thank God nobody got hurt. We all know – and also I spoke today, this morning, with CAIR and other Islamic organizations....we denounce what was going to happen." Zakkout's organization has had links to questionable Islamic organizations on its website and has voiced support for the terrorist organization Hamas.
Ratigan seemed to be following the lead of his MSNBC colleague Contessa Brewer, who appeared on Tuesday's Stephanie Miller radio show and lamented the ethnicity of the would-be bomber: "I get frustrated...There was part of me that was hoping this was not going to be anybody with ties to any kind of Islamic country."
Here is a transcript of Ratigan's exchange with Zakkout:
4:06PM—Kyle Drennen is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here.
DYLAN RATIGAN: Sofian Zakkout is the director of the American Muslim Association of North America. Sofian, welcome to the conversation. How do you – how do you deal with these types of crimes without resulting in racism, effectively, towards people of Pakistani or Middle Eastern descent?
SOFIAN ZAKKOUT: You know, how I – how I deal with that?
RATIGAN: How do you suggest it be dealt with? In other words, is there not a natural backlash to this? That variable?
ZAKKOUT: Yes, yes, yes. We should calm down, it's – thank God nobody got hurt. We all know – and also I spoke today, this morning, with CAIR and other Islamic organizations of Florida. We all understand, we denounce what was going to happen. Thank God there is nobody got hurt. Thank God the authority was open-eyed and took the car away from the people – from the surrounding population.
And we have to wait to see exactly the motives of – of this kind of act, terrorist act that was going to happen on our soil. We have to know who's behind it. What's the reasons. Then, you know, we all should also listen to all Muslim leaders around the nation.
Because it's very important to send a message from the Muslim leaders, around the nation. From California, New York, Miami, Washington, Chicago, that we – to show that we all – we've been denouncing all acts of terrorism and to condemn it strongly to send a message to the Muslims and to the non-Muslims all around the world that we are working closely with our authorities in prevention. And to try to stop any future – may Allah forbid – any future terrorist acts or terrorist activities.
As a matter of fact, we just came from Haiti, we put our life in danger for non-Muslims. We went to Haiti. We went to Katrina, we've been working to save lives. And we are against any, any terrorist attacks from any places in our soil or any Americans here or abroad. As clear as it sounds.
Misleading NYT Poll Doesn't Stop People from Favoring AZ Immigration Law
The latest New York Times/CBS News poll focused on Arizona's tough new anti-illegal immigration law, summarized in a story by Randal Archibold and Megan Thee-Brenan that only made the top of the National section, not the usual front-page placement for a poll story.
At least the print headline was strong: "Poll Finds Serious Concern Among Americans About Immigration." Here's the lead, slanted toward the protesters point of view:
The overwhelming majority of Americans think the country's immigration policies need to be seriously overhauled. And despite protests against Arizona's stringent new immigration enforcement law, a majority of Americans support it, even though they say it may lead to racial profiling.
When the poll was first posted at nytimes.com Monday evening, a teaser headline claimed that only a "slim majority" favored the immigration law, but that was misleading if technically accurate. There was nothing "slim" about the actual results.
51% say the law "is about right," while only 36% said it "goes too far," while another 9% said it "doesn't go far enough." In other words, 60% agree with the thrust of the law, with only 36% thinking it goes too far. (The "slim" modifier was dropped from Tuesday's print edition.)
Not even the liberal slant of the question posed by the Times and CBS stopped the public from showing strong support for Arizona's law. (There's a .PDF version of the poll here.)
Here's question 67:
67. As you may know, the state of Arizona recently passed a law that gives police the power to question anyone they suspect is in the country illegally, requires people to produce documents verifying their status if asked, and allows officers to detain anyone who cannot do so. Do you think this law goes too far, doesn't go far enough, or is about right?
Actually, the law doesn't give "police the power to question anyone they suspect is in the country illegally." It requires reasonable suspicion of such by a policeman, coupled with a "lawful stop, detention or arrest." Even with the slant, people favored tougher enforcement by a substantial margin. One can't help but suspect the poll would have gotten front-page play if the numbers had been reversed.
Clay Waters is editor of Times Watch. You can follow him on Twitter.
Lib Reporters Reminisce About Kent State on Chris Matthews Show
Tuesday marks the 40th anniversary of the Kent State shootings, and over the weekend Chris Matthews and his liberal cronies, on his syndicated The Chris Matthews Show, previewed the event as they reminisced about where they were at the time. Their memories reflect how anti-war they were back then and how that moment shaped them into the libs they are today as Matthews revealed the likes of his guests, like Newsweek's Howard Fineman and CNN's Gloria Borger, as students, were "editorializing against the war."
In his teasers for the segment Matthews set the table by claiming Kent State marked the time when "The sweetness of the anti-war movement turned sour" and "in the eyes of many the government lost moral authority." While the Chicago Tribune's Clarence Page was actually serving in the Army at the time, the other panelists had already begun their journey towards becoming elite members of the liberal media as Howard Fineman remembered the day this way:
"But I had just finished a year of being editor of the Colgate newspaper, and I'd written editorials questioning the war and so forth. And we reviewed a lot of the violent history of the '60s, we'd lived through it, the civil rights movement, people dying. That night, the night of Kent State, there was a mass gathering in the Colgate chapel, and I remember standing next to one of the few African-American students at Colgate at the time, and he was reflecting on that civil rights history. And he just said - out of nowhere, he said, "Man, they're killing white kids now."Borger, still an impressionable high school student then, revealed Kent State also was a watershed event for her:
"We were against the war, we were editorializing against the war. But Kent State really turned things around for us. And as somebody who was going to college the next year, I remember getting in a car with my best girlfriend and driving from New Rochelle to New Haven to go to a rally at Yale and thinking, gee, what is my college life going to be like because students were shot at a liberal arts college, that, that sort of said, wait a minute, is it dangerous?"The following teasers and segment were was aired on the May 1, Chris Matthews Show:
CHRIS MATTHEWS IN OPENING TEASER: And finally, 40 years since Kent State. Four decades ago this week the shots fired at Kent State turned the country's heart. The sweetness of the anti-war movement turned sour. The '60s gave way to the '70s. Where were you that May?—Geoffrey Dickens is the Senior News Analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here
...
MATTHEWS: Welcome back. Forty years ago on May 4th there were campus protests around the country against President Nixon's decision to invade Cambodia. But when the Ohio National Guard opened fire at Kent State and four students died, in the eyes of many the government lost moral authority. Here were Vice President Agnew's prepared remarks that same day.
SPIRO AGNEW: (From May 4, 1970) They make no bones about their hatred of our society, their contempt for traditional morality and their delight in the unbridled passions that lead them to their orgies of violence.
MATTHEWS: Well, after Kent State the fight against the war took on a darker, more violent dimension. On May 14th, two students at Jackson State in Mississippi were shot dead by police, and later that summer came the bombing of the science research lab at the University of Wisconsin. In '71, someone planted a bomb right in the US Capitol.
Forty years ago, Gloria was a high school senior. Here she is editing the school paper. Howard Fineman was a senior at Colgate - he was an Amish person then. Here's his yearbook photo. Andrea Mitchell was a local news reporter in Philadelphia. There she is in London. And recent Army inductee Clarence Page was training in good old Fort Dix, New Jersey.
CLARENCE PAGE, CHICAGO TRIBUNE: Mean green fighting machine.
MATTHEWS: And I was over in Africa in the Peace Corps in Swaziland. There I am with some pals. Clarence, you talk about that time all -and I was just thinking, you were there right in the Army. You were on furlough, I guess, at the time.
PAGE: I haven't changed a bit, have I? No, that's true. I was, I had gone back to Ohio U. just to visit. I was heading west, thinking I was going to Vietnam. And when I got to, to my old campus, everybody was watching TV. Nixon was announcing the invasion of, or the incursion into Cambodia. And, and Ohio U., Kent State, University of Toledo, Ohio State, everybody just kind of took to the streets. It was really that kind of a time. And we avoided that Kent State tragedy because the National Guard never came onto the campus. They stayed out at the county fairgrounds.
MATTHEWS: Good move. Andrea, you were on a beat already in Philly.
ANDREA MITCHELL, NBC NEWS: I was on the beat in Philly, and I remember with the incursion – incursion, not invasion – my younger brother called me from the Penn campus and said, 'Hey, we're all going down to Independence Hall. There's a protest against Richard Nixon.' And I said, well, I'm sort of curious, and I went down and started talking to some cops that I knew, whom I knew, and they said, "Are you here covering it?" And I realized I was watching my brother and all of these college kids, many of whom I knew, were graduate students I'd gone to school with, and all of a sudden that's when I realized I had crossed a divide, I was on the opposite side. I'm an observer. And from, since then...
MATTHEWS: And you'd gone to Penn.
MITCHELL: I had gone to Penn. And from then on I was an observer of events, never again a participant.
MATTHEWS: Howard. I love the beard, by the way.
HOWARD FINEMAN, NEWSWEEK: Well, thank you very much. I was thinking of bringing it back.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN: No, no, no.
FINEMAN: It'd look a little--it'd look a little different now. But I had just finished a year of being editor of the Colgate newspaper, and I'd written editorials questioning the war and so forth. And we reviewed a lot of the violent history of the '60s, we'd lived through it, the civil rights movement, people dying. That night, the night of Kent State, there was a mass gathering in the Colgate chapel, and I remember standing next to one of the few African-American students at Colgate at the time, and he was reflecting on that civil rights history.
MATTHEWS: Yeah.
FINEMAN: And he just said--out of nowhere, he said, "Man, they're killing white kids now."
MATTHEWS: Having gone through all the rioting in '68.
FINEMAN: Having gone through all the rioting and all that in '68. "They're killing white kids now." And, and I, my reaction was one of emotional solidarity. And what that did for a whole generation of kids, or at least some of them, is made them think that they were outsiders. Agnew had it exactly backwards. It wasn't that we thought we were better than America or
different from America, we felt that America was leaving us.
MATTHEWS: Gloria, you were still in high school-
BORGER: Sort of like the Tea Party.
MATTHEWS: -editorializing against the war as the editor of the paper.
BORGER: I was. And, and mostly, I went to a very diverse high school-
MATTHEWS: New Rochelle.
BORGER: -in New Rochelle, New York, where Andrea Mitchell went. I also ended up at Colgate University, where Howard went.
MATTHEWS: Yeah, there's a lot of poor kids up in New Rochelle, weren't there?
BORGER: New Rochelle, New York, was very diverse.
MITCHELL: Actually, it was. It was very diverse.
MATTHEWS: Was it really?
BORGER: Very, very diverse high school. Civil rights had really been our focus.
MITCHELL: Yep.
BORGER: We were against the war, we were editorializing against the war. But Kent State really turned things around for us. And as somebody who was going to college the next year, I remember getting in a car with my best girlfriend and driving from New Rochelle to New Haven to go to a rally at Yale and thinking, gee, what is my college life going to be like because students were shot at a liberal arts college, that, that sort of said, wait a minute, is it dangerous?
MATTHEWS: Wow.
MITCHELL: You know, and I remember only two years later I was covering the Republican National Convention, the renomination of Richard Nixon in Miami, and I guess because I was the youngest person who worked for the company then, they sent me out to cover the protests in Flamingo Park with pepper spray and all that.
MATTHEWS: Sure.
MITCHELL: And so what it started with Kent State as a candlelight vigil at Independence Hall for me with speeches and a quiet protest, by two years later it was all-out hell breaking loose in Flamingo Park.
PAGE: Yeah.
MATTHEWS: You know, I was away, out of the country from '68 to '71 in the Peace Corps in Africa, and the big difference you're talking about that happened at that moment I noticed when I came back. When I left in '68, the anti-war movement was sort of positive, upbeat, a lot of--and by the time I came back, it was very sour and angry and bitter. And I think Kent State had a lot to do with that.
PAGE: One thing about Kent State. Yeah one thing about Kent State, though, it did, that was where the rubber met the road, when kids realized, like Howard said, you can get killed doing this.
BORGER: Right.
PAGE: It wasn't just a lark to go out and demonstrate against the war or burn your draft card.
It got serious at that point. But also, Nixon ended the draft.
MATTHEWS: You were in the Army.
PAGE: Yeah...Kent State.
MATTHEWS: You got sent to Germany.
PAGE: Yeah, I wound up in Germany, yeah. But I was surrounded by Vietnam vets who were short timers waiting to get out. The military was sour by then too, really. The original mission of Vietnam had gotten all muddled. And for the troops, for us grunts, it was just, you know, protect your buddies, watch out for each other.
MATTHEWS: That was the mission.
Mr. PAGE: That was what it was about.
MATTHEWS: Thank you. We gotta go.
