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Big Brother 12 winner Hayden Moss full recap

Posted on September 16, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Hayden Moss, 24, a college student from Tempe, Ariz., is shown in Los Angeles. Moss is a finalist to win $500,000 on “Big Brother 12.” Hayden Moss, a 24-year-old college student, won “Big Brother 12” in a 4-3 vote Wednesday night. Lane Elenburg got second place. Hayden gets $500,000 and Lane gets $50,000. Britney Haynes was named America#39;s Favorite Player and got $25,000. Here#39;s a full recap of Wednesday#39;s show. *** When the episode kicks off, Lane, Enzo and Hayden remain in the co

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LeAnn Rimes Shape photo 2010

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

“I understand why people are disappointed in me, especially since I grew up as America#39;s sweetheart,” the country singer LeAnn Rimes, 28, tells the October issue of Shape, on newsstands Sept. 20. “I think any relationship is hard to get out of, and I don#39;t think the way I did it was right.” Her time with Dean Sheremet was “great” but LeAnn Rimes says the two ultimately couldn#39;t make their marriage work – and she#39;s not proud of how she ended it. Rimes, whose nearly eight-year marria

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LeAnn Rimes Shape photo 2010

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On CNN, Bill Maher Says Tea Party Has ‘No Policy Points,’ Obama Has No Domestic Terror on His Watch

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

It could be a real contest for which thing Bill Maher said on CNN’s Larry King Live was the most ridiculous. It began with the assertion “Christine O’Donnell, like all these tea baggers, has no plan, no agenda. No policy points. They have one advantage. They’re running against Democrats. That’s their big advantage.” But for a sheer lack of factual grasp, it might be this statement, that domestic terrorism has apparently vanished under Obama: “And by the way, Obama has been president for 20 months and there has not been an attack. Bush was president for nine months when we got hit. So on that score, he’s kept us safer.” Did Maher sleep through the Fort Hood mass murder, not to mention the failed attacks in New York and Detroit?   Larry King typically asked Maher about the “crazed fringe” on the right and their hatred of Obama. King never asked Maher about his own “crazed fringe” on the anti-Bush left suggesting the last president was a Nazi, a chimpanzee, and mentally ill or disabled:  KING: What do you make of this whole — the anti-Obama thing which has gotten kind of, in a sense, crazed? No, he wasn’t born here. He’s a Muslim. He is against America. What do you make of that fringe? MAHER: I was talking about it with Jay Leno last night. I suggested maybe he’s not even a mammal. He might be a werewolf, Larry. We don’t know that. KING: That’s right. We don’t know. MAHER: I mean it was bad enough when we had these people called the birthers who thought he was not born here. KING: They’re still around somewhere, though. MAHER: Many of them. Yes. No, they haven’t gone away. But I was saying last night that I’ve identified this new group and I’m calling them the churchers. KING: The churchers? MAHER: The churchers. They’re the people who don’t think that he is a Christian. They think he’s — KING: He’s the first president ever to issue a press release that he is. MAHER: He’s a secret Muslim, Larry. I guess you haven’t been paying enough attention. KING: Secret Muslim. MAHER: When I talked to him, he told me about his plan to use drinking water to sterilize white people. I get — whoops, I’ve said too much. KING: Oh my gosh. MAHER: No, it’s the — what’s really scary is that more people think he’s a Muslim now. KING: How did we get to this, though? MAHER: Well, you know, I have a theory that the Internet makes people stupider. And Also Fox News makes people stupider. You know the Pew group did a study recently and they found out that 10 years ago, Democrats, Republicans and independents basically got their news from the same sources, probably more from CNN, for example. Then we had this polarity. And now, you know, John Edwards said we have two Americas. We do have two Americas. We have the America that’s living in reality. The people who understand that Obama is a centrist liberal from Hawaii who is trying to dig us out of the hole we’re in. And then we have this other Fox/Matt Drudge/Rush Limbaugh reality where he is a Muslim sleeper cell, Manchurian candidate who was sent over by his Kenyan father imbibe — you hear — KING: What kind of intelligent person would believe that? MAHER: Intelligent person? Larry, we’re broadcasting in America. How ridiculous. Well, no, I don’t think intelligent people do believe it. But, you know, then we’re going to get into partisan bickering because more than half of Republicans agreed with the state that said Obama is trying to impose Islamic law on America. I mean that is a very radical thing to believe. And it’s more than half of Republicans. Not tea baggers. Not radicals. The mainstream Republican people. KING: Is there a racist tone in this? Is there — in other words, is this racist — is this inherent racism? Where’s it come from? MAHER: Does the Pope go to the bathroom in the woods? Yes, Larry, it’s extremely racist. I mean it’s so funny because the tea baggers, the one thing they hate is black people. For all Maher’s talk of “two realities,” he’s too arrogant to contemplate that he’s mangling the facts on the Tea Party or terrorism, or just smearing the entire Tea Party as racist. King let his buddy Bill Maher unspool a long soliloquy against the insanity of the entire prospective field of Republican presidential contenders about to assemble: MAHER: I cannot wait to see the Republican debates in 2012 when you think about who is going to be on that panel. Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Haley Barbour, John Bolton, Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney. How are they going to out-fire breath each other? I mean where this rhetoric has gone to at this point? It’s only 2010. And we’re having Newt Gingrich, as we were talking about before, calling him an anti-colonial Luo tribesman. Luo tribesman. That’s the new Kenyan, Larry. And Kenyan, of course, was code for nigger. But that’s where they are. They can’t say it out loud. But that’s where this whole campaign is going to be. You asked about racism. It’s all about racism. They cannot fathom this idea that there is a black president. And that’s what they are going to fight about. The other thing about Sarah Palin is that if you read that “Vanity Fair” article this month, if you read the “Newsweek” cover story a few months ago where she was praying on the cover, she’s a true religious snot. I know people are saying, oh there goes, Bill Maher. He’s always talking about religion. Well, read the article. Read about her. There’s a part where it says they were giving her books to study up on. And they came back and said, did you read any? She said, No, I haven’t looked at the books. I’m just reading the e-mails from my prayer warriors. Prayer warriors. These are people — and she’s one of them — who believe there are demons in the world. Everything in her world view is about demons or angels, people who are with us and people who are against us. You know, when liberals say things like, well, when you fight the mosque, building the mosque in New York, you’re just encouraging a war with Islam, they don’t understand, people like Sarah Palin want a war with Islam. That’s what it says in the Bible. Bring it on. Let’s get it over with. That’s who could be running our country in four years — two years.

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Rachel Maddow Hits Two-Year Mark at MSNBC With Signature Dishonesty

Posted on September 14, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Not how I’d mark an anniversary, but MSNBC is flexible in its alleged standards. On Sept. 8, Rachel Maddow told viewers it was two years since her cable show started on MSNBC. And what better way to enter her third year of televised liberal polemics than with Maddow’s trademark melding of smarm and deceit.  The following night, Maddow railed at Newt Gingrich and Citizens United for producing and marketing a documentary warning Americans of the threat from radical Islam, after she complained about Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck charging admission to a meet-and-greet on Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks (first of four parts in embedded video) — Do you want to know who else has realized the merchandising potential of the 9/11 anniversary this year? In partnership with Citizens United — yes, the same Citizens United that won the Supreme Court case that says corporations can pour limitless cash into American elections — former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has put together a very scary new movie. It’s called ‘America At Risk’ and they have decided to give ‘America at Risk’ its national launch date on (pause) 9/11, whereupon it can be yours for the low, low price of $19.95 plus $4 shipping and handling. Act now, operators are standing by. The trailer for the new launched-on-/9/11 movie is already up online. Here’s an excerpt and I actually should tell you up front that I admit to modifying this excerpt to be able to put it on this TV show in a way that allows me to live with myself. For the first few seconds of this video, I’m not actually going to show you the video part of what Newt Gingrich decided to put on screen while making the argument you will hear him making here. Because the video in the original, the video that he shows while making this argument, the images he chooses to use to sell this stuff, what he is showing is graphic video, graphic video from the real 9/11. And I am not going to help him market that. So, I will show you this clip so you know what this is, you will hear what he says, but I am not going to show the 9/11 ‘sploitation video that he shows while he says it. Ah, how noble. And the “graphic” images Maddow couldn’t bear to share with viewers? There were two, blurred out of focus by Maddow (and both can be seen at the trailer here , starting at 1:01) — the towers from a distance of about a half-mile, the north tower burning, the south tower not yet hit. The second image is of a man giving his coat to a female traffic cop at a dust-clogged Ground Zero and the woman quickly putting the coat to her face to help her breathe or cover an injury. The fleeting images are seen for all of three seconds, if that. One could make the argument that every image from 9/11 is graphic and painful to witness. What Maddow claims here as especially graphic is a stretch, to put it kindly.The first of the two images is smoke billowing from one of the towers, from a distance, with not a single person visible in the frame. Given the brevity of the footage of that follows, of the woman holding a coat to her face, it is difficult to determine if she had been burned or otherwise injured or was gasping for breath.  What Maddow does here is a version of what liberals have done for nearly a decade — airbrushing 9/11 from our history. Toward that end, they stake a proprietary claim to any and all images from the atrocity, at least when cited by conservatives, and proceed to deem the images too graphic for public consumption. Why? To avoid the most awkward question of all — why did it happen? Such discourse leads inevitably to Iraq, as liberals are keenly aware. Not to Iraq as complicit in the planning and execution of the attack, of which there is no evidence. No, Iraq as the rationale for al Qaeda attacking to begin with, due to the jihadists’ towering twin grievances of infidel troops in the Peninsula of Muhammad and UN sanctions on Iraq for flouting Security Council resolutions to disarm in good faith. Maddow also talked on Sept. 9 about the controversy surrounding Dove World Outreach Center pastor Terry Jones’s vow to burn copies of the Koran on the 9/11 anniversary. Members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., notorious for their obnoxious protests outside the funerals of American soldiers, claimed to have burned a Koran in public in Washington, D.C., in 2007, and garnered scant attention. Here’s Maddow’s take on then and now (second clip in embedded video, starting at 2:24) — What’s different now, the reason no one paid attention to crazy Fred Phelps’ Koran-burning antics and almost literally everyone in the country is paying attention to the Koran-burning antics of this equally crazy Florida guy, is because today the sentiment behind I’m-a-crazy-guy-who’s-gonna-burn-me-some-Korans-on-9/11 is being carried into the mainstream by a current of extreme anti-Muslim, we’re-at-war-with-Islam rhetoric. You really want to know why we’re all suddenly paying attention to one lunatic in Florida who’s been threatening to burn copies of the Koran? This is why — … whereupon Maddow shows an excerpt from the “America at Risk” trailer again, starting with remarks by Newt and Callista Gingrich — as if the Gingriches and this documentary warning of radical Islam motivated Jones in his vow to burn copies of the Koran. For anyone not in a coma over the last month, a more obvious explanation comes to mind — Jones was responding to Imam Rauf’s proposal to build an “Islamic community center” near Ground Zero, and doing so in an equally odious, constitutionally protected provocation. After the “America at Risk” trailer is shown again, Maddow says this (starting at 3:24 in video) — Not just crazy guys who scream at house plants, like the Florida pastor, but supposedly serious political figures like Newt Gingrich have been banging this drum on the right that we in America are at war with Islam. Not with terrorists, with Islam, with an entire religion, with anybody who is a Muslim. And that’s why we’re all talking about the Koran-burning kook in Florida. Sorry, no. The actual reason “we’re all talking” about this is due to allegedly moderate Imam Rauf, the one who describes America as “sharia compliant,” and who humbly seeks to build a Muslim shrine — in a building damaged on 9/11. (In other words, at Ground Zero) That’s the context here, Ms. Maddow, your grasping contortions to the contrary. For Maddow to say Gingrich claims America is at war with “Islam”, with “an entire religion,” isn’t just a stretch, it’s dishonest. Gingrich — as he has since well before 9/11 — is warning of the peril from radical, militant Islam, not Islam itself. It’s not just in the trailer to “America at Risk” where Gingrich makes this distinction. While the documentary was being made, Gingrich spoke at the American Enterprise Institute in late July on the same subject and said this (link to transcript here ; first quote on page 10) — Let me just say I believe that it is very important to draw a distinction between radical jihadis, which I define simply (as) those people who seek to impose sharia, and those Muslims who seek to practice their religion within a framework of the modern world. I would allow each Muslim to define themselves in that sense, but I would be unequivocal about the fact that radical Islamists are not compatible with the modern world and not compatible with civilization as we know it and therefore we are engaged in a long struggle. To Maddow and her ilk, any criticism of radical Islam becomes condemnation of all Muslims, just as any criticism of a (liberal) person of color is immediately deemed racist.  Later in her show Sept. 9, while talking with New York Times columnist Gail Collins, Maddow make this telling remark (third part of video, starting at 3:50) — MADDOW: I made the case in the opening segment, in which I yelled and I’m sorry but I feel a little emotional about it, that the reason that this is getting driven the way it is, and sort of why this kook guy without a congregation who otherwise would be very happily ignored by everybody involved in the creation of news in this country … … which is how Maddow sees her role, “happily” involved in the “creation of news” — as opposed to “coverage” of news. You know, the sort of thing done by actual journalists. “Creation of news,” for example, taking the form of ignoring actual threats to this country — from jihadists — while manufacturing alleged threats, from those warning of jihad.  Maddow revisited the “America at Risk” documentary the following night after showing remarks from President Obama at his press conference that day, juxtaposed with those from President George W. Bush after 9/11 (final clip in video, starting at 4:11) — MADDOW: It sounds like all-American rhetoric when a president, any president, makes the case that Muslim-Americans are Americans too, that we are at war with terrorists, we’re not at war with Islam, that religious freedom wasn’t just a founding principle of this country, it is a living principle of this country. Yes, you heard right — “we are at war with terrorists.” Mark your calendar, it’s not often you hear a left winger acknowledge this. And hitting high above her average, Maddow gets it two-thirds’ correct. Yes, we’re at war. Yes, it’s with terrorists. What she can’t bear to point out is that we’re not at war with Basque or Tamil Tigers or any of dozens of other terrorist groups around the world — it’s with Islamic terrorists. Such is the practice of useful idiocy. As Gingrich also said at the American Enterprise Institute in July (transcript here , page 10 for following quote) — The left’s refusal to tell the truth about the Islamist threat is a natural parallel to the 70-year pattern of left-wing intellectuals refusing to tell the truth about communism and the Soviet Union. If you go back and look at all the years of disinformation, all the years of denial, that were the left’s response to communism, why would you think that the next threat to Western civilization will be more accurately studied? This is why the secular-socialist system is itself such a threat. It is the natural pattern of secular-socialist intellectuals to prefer our opponents to us and to accept their lies over our truths. If you doubt that, go look at any study of the 70-year pattern in which the left consistently apologized for the Soviet empire, and look at the shock of the left when Ronald Reagan described the evil empire. Or the pattern of the last decade in which the left demanded that jihadists were spared from harsh interrogation, and condemned Bush and Cheney as greater war criminals than bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.

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CBS Analyst Marks 9/11 By Hoping For ‘Backlash’ Against Ground Zero Mosque Opponents

Posted on September 14, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

On the September 11th Saturday Early Show, CBS News Middle East analyst Reza Aslan slammed opponents of the Ground Zero mosque as having “unapologetically politicized” 9/11 and being part of a “whole wave of anti-Muslim sentiment.” While he denounced others for trying to “take advantage of this symbol for their own political purposes,” Aslan made his comments only seconds after live coverage of the first moment of silence for victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks. Co-host Chris Wragge accepted Aslan’s characterization of the controversy and responded: “…this is not an opportunity to add controversy into the mix. If there’s one day, you know what, to keep our mouths quiet and let’s just reflect on the lives lost, today is it, you don’t mess with that.” Aslan followed up by admitting: “I’ll be honest with you, I hope that there is kind of a backlash against what’s going on right now. As you know, at 1pm today there’ll be a rally in support of the so-called Park 51 project, at 3pm there’ll be this international rally against it. So, I’m hoping that Americans all over the country see these images and think we’ve gone too far.” He later specifically condemned mosque opponents: “…particularly in the case of this sort of international anti-Islam rally that’s being brought by this group called Stop Islamization of America. And they’re inviting all these European anti-Muslim politicians in to speak. I mean, that’s really now taking this to a whole other level.”    Wragge also brought up Florida Pastor Terry Jones’s initial plans to burn the Koran on Saturday which were later cancelled: “It just seems as though we’re kind of, I don’t know, exacerbating some negative stereotypes that exist out there. I mean, can Muslims look at what’s going on here and say we can take – we can maybe hopefully take a positive away from this at some point?” Aslan replied: “I think Muslims in the United States can….Now, if you’re in Egypt or Syria, you don’t see that part. As far as you’re concerned, this isn’t about a crazy pastor, this is about America and anti-Islam fervor in the United States.” At the top of the broadcast, Wragge interviewed Dr. Zuhdi Jassar, a Muslim scholar opposed to the Ground Zero mosque. Jasser proposed a very different course of action from Aslan: “…it’s time for Muslims to look less about promoting ourselves, less about victimology, and more about feeling the pain of the families of 9/11 and understanding what we have to do to repair the house of Islam.” Wragge still attempted to mischaracterize mosque opposition: “Do you feel that – that since 9/11 America has become Islamophobic, so to speak?” Jasser replied: “I have to tell you absolutely not. I do think that we’re becoming – we’re getting a crash course on Islam and I we think we Muslims have to do more work to separate spiritual Islam of the faith that we love from political Islam that creates the Nidal Hasans, the Faisal Shahzads and has a continuum from moderate to radical…. It’s a fight within the house of Islam that we need to focus in and not just focus on victimology.” Here is a full transcript of Aslan’s rant: 8:46AM SEGMENT: CHRIS WRAGGE: You’re looking at live pictures of Ground Zero. Nine years ago today, American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center right there. Every year on September 11th at this time we pause to reflect those who lost their lives at Ground Zero, this is the first of four moments of silence. The next will be at 9:03, when the second tower was struck and then again, the two later moments of silence will correspond with the times that the towers fell. Reza Aslan is with us right now, our Middle East expert here at CBS, to talk a bit about the way the world has changed here the last nine years with what’s been going on, especially here the last few weeks, with this controversy of the Islamic center downtown. And let’s begin with that. Your thoughts on what’s transpired and how now, you know, with this Pastor Jones, how it’s really kind of taken on a life of its own here. REZA ASLAN: Well, I think the thing that’s most surprising to a lot of Americans is the way in which 9/11, and particularly Ground Zero, has become so unapologetically politicized in a way that, I think, is surprising to a lot of Americans. That would have been surprising even a year ago. Now, what is the cause for that? Some might say that the Islamic community center, you know, sparked this whole wave of anti-Muslim sentiment but I think maybe we’re far enough away, nine years now, where people do feel like they can take advantage of this symbol for their own political purposes. WRAGGE: You think, though, that’s a big chance to take? Because the one thing that I’m hearing, especially talking from a lot of people not only down in the area, living here in the city, but also family members that say, you know, this is a day of remembrance, reflection, this is a day that changed the world as we know it now, this is not an opportunity to add controversy into the mix. If there’s one day, you know what, to keep our mouths quiet and let’s just reflect on the lives lost, today is it, you don’t mess with that.   ASLAN: And you know I’ll be honest with you, I hope that there is kind of a backlash against what’s going on right now. As you know, at 1pm today there’ll be a rally in support of the so-called Park 51 project, at 3pm there’ll be this international rally against it. So, I’m hoping that Americans all over the country see these images and think we’ve gone too far. This is just too far now. No matter where you fit on this controversy. REBECCA JARVIS: And what’s the end game, then? ASLAN: Well, I think, you know, people are just going to continue to use this to fuel their own political or economic, you know, ideologies, as it is. And I do believe that Mayor Bloomberg said something very interesting. He said that by this time next year, we’ll have the memorial finished. And I do think that once that’s done, then there will no longer be this void, this vacuum, this space that can be filled up with other people’s notions and other people’s ideas. Let’s hope so, anyway. WRAGGE: Today, with these protests that will be going on, those in support, those that are not in favor of this Islamic center downtown at 51 Park, do you think it takes away from what we’re really supposed to be focusing our attention on here? ASLAN: Most definitely. And, you know, particularly in the case of this sort of international anti-Islam rally that’s being brought by this group called Stop Islamization of America. And they’re inviting all these European anti-Muslim politicians in to speak. I mean, that’s really now taking this to a whole other level. The point of this is remembrance, mourning, if anything, we should be coming together as different religions and different ethnicities. JARVIS: I- WRAGGE: I’m sorry. It just seems as though we’re kind of, I don’t know, exacerbating some negative stereotypes that exist out there. I mean, can Muslims look at what’s going on here and say we can take – we can maybe hopefully take a positive away from this at some point? ASLAN: I think Muslims in the United States can. In fact, one of the things that’s most remarkable about this stunt with the Koran burning in Florida, is the enormous response of Muslim, Jewish, and Christian leaders that have come together and really wanted to use this as a way of promoting interfaith cooperation. Now, if you’re in Egypt or Syria, you don’t see that part. As far as you’re concerned, this isn’t about a crazy pastor, this is about America and anti-Islam fervor in the United States. That’s a real problem, we’re engaged in two wars. JARVIS: Reza, thank you. We appreciate you being with us and we will be right back. Here is a full transcript of Wragge’s interview with Jasser: 7:06AM ET SEGMENT: CHRIS WRAGGE: One Muslim scholar is sharply critical of the planned Islamic Community Center and prayer room near Ground Zero. Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser is president of the Islamic Forum for Democracy in Phoenix. Dr. Jasser, thank you for joining us this morning. We appreciate it. ZUHDI JASSER [PRESIDENT, AMERICAN ISLAMIC FORUM FOR DEMOCRACY]: Thanks for having me. It’s a pleasure. WRAGGE: Let me ask you if you heard a second ago, in Elaine Quijano’s piece, there are two competing rallies at Ground Zero today adding controversy to this – this sacred day. How do you feel that this situation can be calmed, if at all? [ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Ground Zero Divided; Rallies Planned For And Against Islamic Center] JASSER: Yeah, I think today is – especially a day as we remember and reflect upon 9/11 and –  and looking over that pit of devastation there and feeling that – and today, we look through that lens as Americans, not as a Muslim, not as of any faith. I – I don’t look through this lens of trying to repair my – trying to promote Islam. It’s about fighting the forces that caused this. And I think if we’re able to unite under that. That’s why 71% of Americans are against this. It’s not because they don’t want mosques there, there’s even other mosques closer. Many of us have built over 2,000 mosques in the United States with very little problem. And – but I think what unites us is the freedoms and liberties that our Constitution gives us and it’s time for Muslims to look less about promoting ourselves, less about victimology, and more about feeling the pain of the families of 9/11 and understanding what we have to do to repair the house of Islam. WRAGGE: You’re a Muslim. You’ve seen this controversy. Do you feel that – that since 9/11 America has become Islamophobic, so to speak? JASSER: I have to tell you absolutely not. I do think that we’re becoming – we’re getting a crash course on Islam and I we think we Muslims have to do more work to separate spiritual Islam of the faith that we love from political Islam that creates the Nidal Hasans, the Faisal Shahzads and has a continuum from moderate to radical. That’s what we have to do to separate them. And there’s some confusion there, understandably, because it’s not a binary equation of good Muslim non-violent, bad Muslim violent. There’s a continuum that’s confusing. But that is some part of the educational process, part of the war of ideas that we have to fight within. This isn’t a fight between Islam and Christianity or Islam and the West. It’s a fight within the house of Islam that we need to focus in and not just focus on victimology. WRAGGE: Can I ask you your – your thoughts on why there was such a visceral reaction to – to Pastor Jones? JASSER: Well, because, book burning has never been anything that’s been followed by anything good in history. Book burning is something that is clearly against the Constitution and the First Amendment and shows a complete disrespect and he’s a speck of humanity of just thirty congregants and doesn’t represent America. But yet, he feeds into the Islamist narrative overseas, across the world, that America is against Islam, America is against Muslims. So he used it to have his fifteen minutes of fame- WRAGGE: Yeah. JASSER: -and it fed into that narrative. WRAGGE: Alright. Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, thank you very much for taking the time. We appreciate it. JASSER: Thank you for having me. WRAGGE: Alright.

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President Obama Urges Students To ‘Get Schooled’

Posted on September 14, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

‘The farther you go in school, the farther you’ll go in life,’ he says during his annual back-to-school speech. By Gil Kaufman President Barack Obama shakes hands with students at the Julia R. Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Tuesday Photo: Tim Sloan/ AFP/ Getty Images President Barack Obama gave the second “back-to-school” speech of his presidency on Tuesday (September 14), and his message was very clear. “Nobody gets to write your destiny but you,” he told the students at Julia R. Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School in Philadelphia. “Your future is in your hands. Your life is what you make of it. And nothing — absolutely nothing — is beyond your reach. So long as you’re willing to dream big. So long as you’re willing to work hard. So long as you’re willing to stay focused on your education.” That hope-filled exhortation to the National Blue Ribbon School, one of the best in Philly due to its students’ high achievement, was aimed both at the kids and the parents, teachers and school leaders who help the students perform at a high level. The president described how he and his wife, first lady Michelle Obama, have been preparing their children Sasha and Malia for school over the past few weeks and how the Masterman kids are probably lamenting the end of summer, even as they get excited about new possibilities. “I’m sure there will be times in the months ahead when you’re staying up late cramming for a test, or dragging yourselves out of bed on a rainy morning, and wondering if it’s all worth it,” he said, adding that he also suspected they were nervous about how the recession and the ongoing war in Afghanistan were forcing them to “act a lot older” to be strong for their families. “Let me tell you, there is no question about it. Nothing will have as great an impact on your success in life as your education.” He said he understood that some of the students are worried about their futures and whether they will achieve their dreams. Which is why he promised them that education is more important than ever. “More and more, the kinds of opportunities that are open to you will be determined by how far you go in school,” he said. “In other words, the farther you go in school, the farther you’ll go in life. And at a time when other countries are competing with us like never before; when students around the world are working harder than ever, and doing better than ever; your success in school will also help determine America’s success in the 21st century.” Obama, who admitted he wasn’t always the best student, said it will take a group effort from parents, politicians, students and teachers working their hardest to transform those educational aspirations into reality. “That’s what we have to do for you. That’s our responsibility,” he said. “That’s our job. But here’s your job. Showing up to school on time. Paying attention in class. Doing your homework. Studying for exams. Staying out of trouble. That kind of discipline and drive — that kind of hard work — is absolutely essential for success.” Stay tuned to MTV News for more information about how you can get the president to speak at your commencement celebration at the end of this school year.

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President Obama Urges Students To ‘Get Schooled’

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WaPo Implies U.S. ‘Islamophobia’ Emerges in a ‘Vacuum’ of Ignorance, Lack of Diversity

Posted on September 13, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Washington Post religion reporter Michelle Boorstein is generally a careful reporter, not prone to outbursts of liberal bias. But the general liberal-media bias that ignorance breeds “Islamophobia” came through between the lines in a Monday story on the aftermath of the Koran-burning publicity stunt week in Florida:   In fact, like much of the country, Gainesville’s racial and religious diversity is minimal. Personal contact with Muslims is limited. Nationally, more than half of the respondents in a recent Pew poll said they knew little or nothing about Islam. In that vacuum, violence overseas in the name of Islam defines that faith for many. The implication is that truly learned people who have diverse human contacts have no logical reason to be concerned about the negative impact of Islam. (The story is not yet online.) It’s also a little odd to suggest that “violence overseas” defines negative views of Islam, when violence in the United States is more powerfully suggestive, from 9/11 to the Fort Hood shooting. There can be a great difference between questioning a mosque that seems peaceful and a mosque that spreads the “spiritual advice” of imams like Anwar al-Awlaki that inspires terrorism. But the Post and other media outlets can have trouble identifying which is which. What’s underplayed in stories about America’s tolerance of Islam is the question of how tolerant Islamic countries are of other faiths. Boorstein’s piece alluded near the beginning to how “more nuanced and franker conversations” are occurring after the Terry Jones stunt, such as “What was worse to see: churches torched in India or Nigeria or a few books in a remote exurban field?” That was the only sentence in the story that dared to imply that Islam is often not a tolerant faith when it dominates the state. Of course, it should seem somewhat obvious that if the public knows little about Islam, that perhaps might be the fault (in part) of the news media, which generally disdains covering religion except when something (or someone) blows up. For example, in a 2005 study of religion and the networks , Ken Shepherd and I found the networks couldn’t find the time to describe the theology behind the Sunni-Shi’ite “civil war” in Iraq:  “In all of their coverage of Iraq’s religious factions and their political aims, none of the broadcast networks ever gave a basic explanation of the key religious differences between these sects of the Islamic faith. For all their warning of impending civil war, they haven’t explained why their differences on matters of faith have proven a consistent source of conflict. ”

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WaPo Implies U.S. ‘Islamophobia’ Emerges in a ‘Vacuum’ of Ignorance, Lack of Diversity

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Amanpour Uses ABC’s This Week to Continue Her Crusade to Smear America as Islamophobic and Tout Rauf’s Cause

Posted on September 12, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

ABC’s Christiane Amanpour used Sunday’s This Week to again shame Americans for their presumed irrational intolerance and Islamophobia as she railed against the ignorance of too many Americans, provided a friendly forum to Iman Faisal Abdul Rauf, whom she prompted to ridicule Sarah Palin, and then brought aboard a group of three “leading thinkers on faith” to “discuss religious tolerance and Islamophobia in America.” That brings Amanpour’s show tally to six guests in favor of the Ground Zero mosque versus zero opposed (four today, two on the August 22 program). Unmentioned by Amanpour or her guests: A report presented Friday by former 9/11 Commission Co-Chairs Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton about, according to Reuters , a needed “wake-up call about the radicalization of Muslims in the United States.” The report warned: “The U.S. is arguably now little different from Europe in terms of having a domestic terrorist problem involving immigrant and indigenous Muslims as well as converts to Islam.” At the top of Sunday’s show, Amanpour noted the 9/11 anniversary and used it to frame her agenda: “Nine years later, the growing hostility towards American Muslims.” In a lengthy set-up piece leading into Rauf, Amanpour fretted that “the plans to build an Islamic center close to Ground Zero have whipped up anti-Muslim sentiment” and insisted: “Not since 9/11 has the country seen such anti-Muslim fervor.” She asserted “Muslim-Americans are feeling vulnerable, with attacks on mosques in California, Wisconsin, and Tennessee. And the latest fuel poured on the fire, a threat to burn Korans…” And “these tumultuous events have created a global backlash. From Washington, to the Vatican, to Afghanistan.” She cued up Rauf: “Sarah Palin made a famous tweet saying please reconsider, the feelings are too raw. What did you think about that?” Rauf rejected the advice as he regurgitated Amanpour’s spin: “I thought it was disingenuous to a certain extent. The fact of the matter is, this has been used for political purposes and there’s growing Islamophobia in this country.” Amanpour tried to portray a nefarious trend: “In the latest poll that ABC’s conducted, only 37 percent of those who were asked expressed a positive feeling about Islam. Do you think that Muslims, people such as yourself, others here, can actually have a place to practice their religion freely, to live freely as Americans, given that figure? It’s the lowest figure since 2001.” But, it’s “the lowest figure since 2001″ by “just two points,” within the margin or error, ABC’s polling chief, Gary Langer, pointed out on ABCNews.com . Nonetheless, she empathized: “Do you think Muslims feel more afraid today, here in America, than they did right after 9/11?” She next set up her panel of “leading thinkers on faith” to “discuss religious tolerance and Islamophobia in America,” namely: “ Eboo Patel , he serves as an inter-faith adviser to the President, by Irshad Manji , author of The Trouble with Islam Today, and by Richard Cizik, founder of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good.” Citing “this fervor that is being whipped up, this rising tide of anti-Islamic sentiment,” she highlighted a poll number that’s actually held steady since 2003: Eboo, you have done a lot in interfaith dialogue, trying to really build bridges here since the disaster of 9/11. What does this say to you, this fervor that is being whipped up, this rising tide of anti-Islamic sentiment in this country? Because let me read you, actually, some of the poll numbers which are interesting here. ‘Mainstream Islam encourages violence against non-Muslims.’ That was a question by ABC News and 31 percent of the respondents said yes. The next question, ‘do you have a good basic understanding of the teachings and beliefs of Islam?’ 55 percent of the respondents said no. So what has all your work done over the last nine years? Langer: “Just 54 percent call Islam a peaceful religion, while a substantial minority, 31 percent, thinks mainstream Islam encourages violence against non-Muslims. This view has held steady since 2003.” (Manji, while in favor of proceeding with Rauf’s project, is at least a critic of moderate Muslims for not doing more to denounce radical Islam.) From Thursday night: “ Amanpour Paints Rauf’s Protection Racket as ‘a Matter of Vital National Security ‘” My August 22 NB posting, “ Amanpour on One-Sided This Week: ‘Profound Questions About Religious Tolerance and Prejudice in the U.S .’” Amanpour’s set-up leading into the session with Rauf pre-recorded Thursday in New York City: CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: As much as the President wanted to talk about the economy this week, he also found himself having to speak to the country about religious tolerance. Yesterday, at Pentagon ceremonies to observe the 9/11 anniversary, the President reminded Americans that they’re not at war with Islam. The plans to build an Islamic center close to Ground Zero have whipped up anti-Muslim sentiment to the extent that a pastor with a handful of followers can cause an international incident. In an ABC News poll released this week, nearly 50 percent of Americans say they have an unfavorable view of Islam now. Not since 9/11 has the country seen such anti-Muslim fervor. President Obama is now calling for religious tolerance, just as President Bush did in 2001. PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH, SEPT 17, 2001: The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. JOHN ESPOSITO, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: America has a significant Muslim problem. And I think that what we’ve seen now really shows what is the tip of the iceberg. A reality that most people didn’t notice. Unleashed out of Manhattan, then becomes a series of acts, hates, protest. MAN: I feel like Islam has been under attack. WOMAN: I think there’s definitely an increased level of fear because it used to that we’d just walk around and be a normal citizen, a normal part of American society and now you get a lot more suspicion. PROTESTER: No mosque here! AMANPOUR: Muslim Americans are feeling vulnerable. With attacks on mosques in California, Wisconsin, and Tennessee. And the latest fuel poured on the fire, a threat to burn Korans by a fringe pastor with a flock of 30. I went to what’s become the flash point in this debate, the proposed Islamic center just blocks from Ground Zero where I found visitors from out of town. MAN: Certainly it’s a time to draw together, not do things that would divide us and make us more divisive. It sends the wrong message around the world. WOMAN: That is not America. That is not what Americans are about. AMANPOUR: And journalists from around the world. WOMAN: This whole thing is like a huge international issue. MAN, YELLING: We don’t have to agree with Islam. We have to agree on the constitution. WOMAN: I lost both my parents! AMANPOUR: These tumultuous events have created a global backlash. From Washington [Hillary Clinton], to the Vatican, to Afghanistan [Karzai]. ESPOSITO: We have two dangers right now. One is that the civil liberties of Muslim Americans will be even more eroded. Two, and more broadly, we will wake up one day and realize that the America we like to celebrate, you know the America we point to people around the world when we look down on them and say, we’re a democracy, we believe in pluralism, we believe in human rights. That, in fact, all of that, with the exception of this group. And that’s a very dangerous and slippery slope to go down. AMANPOUR: And in New York City yesterday, 9/11 ceremonies were marked by protests for and against plans to build that Islamic center nearby. The imam in charge of the project says that he has no intention of moving it right now, or of meeting with the controversial pastor who wants to burn Korans. I sat down for an exclusive interview with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf.

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Amanpour Uses ABC’s This Week to Continue Her Crusade to Smear America as Islamophobic and Tout Rauf’s Cause

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Never Forget – But Have We?

Posted on September 11, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Never forget. Those are the two most prevalent words uttered or typed on this tragically historic day.  Never.  Forget. For many, September 11, 2001, was a day that will forever be seared into the minds of those who were witness.  On that day, the nation was awoken by a harsh reality that some people want nothing more than to destroy our freedom, our way of life.  It was a day that 19 hijackers, four airplanes, two towers, and one deranged ideology brought the threat of terrorism to the forefront in our country. But a mere nine years after 9/11, has the leadership of this nation, both administrative and media related, already forgotten? Yesterday, on the eve of the anniversary of 9/11, the President of the United States of America had the tone deaf audacity to ignore the concept of time and place, choosing to defend the building of the Ground Zero victory mosque.  In his news conference, President Obama said that the proposed New York City mosque has run up against the “extraordinary sensitivities around 9/11.”  In other words, he hears the sensitivities, he simply does not care.  Obama elaborates: “As somebody who relies heavily on my Christian faith in my job, I understand the passions that religious faith can raise.  But I’m also respectful that people of different faiths can practice their religion, even if they don’t subscribe to the exact same notions that I do…” This demonstrates Obama’s willingness to cling to the concept that the mosque controversy is based on freedom of religion.  It is not.  Controversy surrounding this building has nothing to do with religious tolerance.  Muslims are not being prohibited from practicing their religion.  They are simply being asked to display a sense of decency by building the mosque in an area not directly involved in such an emotional event for our nation; away from the site where thousands of lives ended in a declaration of war from radical Islam. Americans overwhelmingly oppose this project, because they understand common sense and decency.  It appears our president does not.  And on the eve of 9/11, Obama wasted a major opportunity to stand up and actually play the role of a leader.  To stand up and say, ‘I’m with the American people, not against them .’  Essentially, to start acting like a President.  Instead, he chose to lecture Americans on the legal right for Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf to build his mosque.  Unfortunately Mr. President, part of your job is to guide a country still healing from the emotional scars of 9/11.  You’re not teaching Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago anymore.  You’re no longer a community organizer. Most of us remember 9/11 a little differently than our liberal leaders.  We remember being attacked on that day.  We remember watching over 3,000 of our friends and family dying that day.  We remember the screams of the heroes on Flight 93, the screams of women and men, mothers and fathers, wives and husbands, who desperately made an attempt to take back a plane scheduled for a suicide mission which surely would have killed many more. Yet the President would prefer to stand up for the rights of an imam with questionable motives, planning to build a mosque practically on the gravesite of those killed on 9/11.  This isn’t the only example however, of a forgotten tragedy. In 2003, this same imam of current fame, Abdul Rauf, said in the midst of a training session with the FBI that “the U.S. response to the Sept. 11 attacks could be considered a jihad.” Along those same lines, Fareed Zakaria of Newsweek recently penned a steaming column in which he claimed the American response to 9/11 was an overreaction. Zakaria claims that, “September 11 was a shock to the American psyche and the American system. As a result, we overreacted.” Susan Crawford , Convening Authority for the Guantanamo military commissions, claimed in 2009 that some prisoners complicit in the murder of over 3,000 people were (gasp) tortured, and what she discovered in that job left her aghast. What torture tactics left her aghast? Standing naked in front of a female agent; Strip searches; Insults to the detainee’s mother and sister; Threatened (not attacked) with a dog; Forced to wear a woman’s bra; Having a thong placed on the head during interrogation. The BBC portrayed two inmates at Guantanamo Bay, one of whom had confessed to attending an Islamist training camp where he learned how to operate an AK-47, as a real-life Harold and Kumar, innocently sightseeing and smoking dope. Both the media and the administration spent a great deal of effort in trying to portray Nidal Malik Hasan , a man who had contact with radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, carried a business card with the acronym SoA (Soldier of Allah), shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’, and subsequently murdered 13 soldiers and an unborn child, as anything but a terrorist. This is but a short list that calls to question the liberal administration and liberal media’s remembrance of 9/11.  Imagine being privy to the knowledge of the above referenced events just days after the actual attack.  You would say that it would be impossible.  It would be impossible, because it would mean that we had forgotten.  Have we? Crossposted at The Mental Recession

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Never Forget – But Have We?

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Slate Affiliate Equates Newt Gingrich With Koran Burner Jones

Posted on September 11, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Imagine for a moment you were the editor of a magazine owned by the Washington Post and Newsweek. Would you a day before the ninth anniversary of 9/11 publish an article with the following headline: The Talibanization of America Viewed from Pakistan, the rise of U.S. Islamophobia looks depressingly familiar.  Seems rather inflammatory hours before such a solemn day in America, don’t you think? Yet, such was published Friday by Foreign Policy magazine, an affiliate of the Slate Group.  Sadly, the contents  – which in paragraph three equated former House Speaker Newt Gingrich with prospective Koran burner Terry Jones – will likely be even more offensive to the vast majority of Americans  especially  on September 11: In Pakistan, “Talibanization” is a label used to describe regressive and parochial conservatism, not just the political ascendancy of Mullah Omar and his extremist disciples. When we use the label “mullah,” it is not the same thing as honoring someone by calling him “Father” or “Reverend.” Instead, we’re most likely referring to a person’s narrow-mindedness, bigotry, and possible racism. So when we try to explain to fellow Pakistanis how the United States is much grander than the pettiness of Quran-burning circuses or mosque-defying extremists, we don’t use the same labels that Americans would. Describing the ideological kith and kin of opponents of the Park51 project — including the fringe element of folks like Terry Jones and his flock at the Dove World Outreach Center — with terms like the moral majority, far-right evangelicals, or even neocons is useless. Instead, when we try to explain what is happening in America, we simply say that a great country is going through a kind of Talibanization — led by mullahs like Newt Gingrich, Pamela Geller, and the occasional Terry Jones. Isn’t that special? So, as far as this author is concerned, the highly-esteemed former Speaker of the House is the same as a nutty Pastor in Florida that up until a few weeks ago almost nobody in America ever heard of. But that was just the beginning of the nonsense on display at this Slate affiliate: What if we didn’t present the Quran-burners and mosque-attackers as part of a fringe movement of ideologically driven extremists? Then of course, the only other possibility is for us to accept that International Quran Burning Day and the controversy over the Park51 community center both in different ways signify mainstream America’s growing discomfort with Islam. Simply put, if the Islamophobia of an American fringe is in fact not on the fringes, but in the mainstream, then the United States has an Islamophobia problem. But therein lies the problem, for this whole idea of Islamophobia is a fiction created by America’s press that’s been negligently presented as a mainstream fear rather than a fringe sentiment in a dishonest attempt to change the public’s view of the Ground Zero mosque. If the media had done a better job of describing what this issue was really about when the Islamic center was first proposed rather than taking sides and presenting a distortion that impugned the overwhelmingly large percentage against the project, this wouldn’t have resulted in as significant a controversy here or abroad. That our press, as they have been doing at almost every turn lately, championed the minority view against the very citizens they serve is at the heart of this so-called Islamophobia. As it pertains to Jones, had these same media outlets completely ignored his attention-getting stunt, this too wouldn’t have represented a problem either here or throughout the Arab world. Unfortunately, that’s not the way this FP op-ed contributor saw things: In the places where the 9/11 attacks were planned, financed, and conceived, meanwhile, the warm and fuzzy Islam of America’s suburbs is a nonexistent fantasy. On the Muslim Main Street, in Saudi Arabia, in Afghanistan, and in flood-ravaged Pakistan, Muslims can’t see past the Talibanized narrative of the U.S. mid-term election. Just as the mainstream news media in America cannot be held responsible for transforming Terry Jones from a walking punch line into an international celebrity, mainstream media in a country like Pakistan can hardly be blamed for reporting Jones’s shenanigans to 180 million — mostly Muslim — Pakistanis. On Sept. 10, as Afghans celebrated Eid, many decided to protest against the Islamophobic events planned in Florida. During the protests, NATO troops, surrounded by angry protesters, opened fire, killing at least one person in Badakshan province. It is easy to become partisan in assigning blame for this death. Many will blame Terry Jones. Others will blame the media. Many others will blame the mullahs who stoked Afghan anger. No doubt, some pundit at Fox News will blame the protester himself, and most people in Afghanistan will blame NATO. It barely matters anymore who pulled the trigger in Badakhshan. The point is that progressive thought is being lost in the places where it would matter the most. In the nine years since 9/11, there has not been a single domestic Muslim reawakening in any of the Organization of the Islamic Conference’s almost 60 Muslim-majority countries. In countries like Pakistan, mosque leaders still make the same anti-American references. They still exhibit the same resistance to change. They still get treated with kid gloves by governments that are run by culturally dislocated Muslims. Is this America’s fault? The United States today is a nation deeply divided along political lines. It’s currently impossible to generate a consensus view on how to stimulate our economy, how to bring down healthcare costs, or how to solve the looming crises involving the unfunded liabilities associated with Social Security and Medicare. In fact, we can’t even create a consensus as to whether or not Social Security and Medicare are looming crises. But we should be held responsible for what foreigners think when we can’t even get our own people to agree on simple matters facing our own country? This seems especially absurd when one considers the number of things many Americans are deeply confused about. As Newsweek humorously noted  a few weeks ago:  21 percent of Americans believe in witches 20 percent believe the sun revolves around the earth 41 percent don’t know Judaism is older than Christianity Less than 25 percent can name two members of the Supreme Court 63 percent of young Americans can’t find Iraq on a map; 90 percent can’t find Afghanistan 60 percent can’t identify the three branches of our government With all of our money, media, and education, we can’t properly inform our own people. Yet we should be responsible for controlling the thought processes of foreigners thousands of miles away with governments employing their own methods of propaganda to reach their own goals? Preposterous!  With this in mind, maybe this FP op-ed contributor should look at himself for answers, for he is more a part of the problem than the solution. After all, nowhere in his article did he mention the facts concerning the canard that is American Islamophobia. Maybe if he informed his readers that FBI statistics show hate crimes against Muslims in this country are a rarity compared to those against blacks, Jews, and gays, they’d realize that this really isn’t the problem the media are making it out to be. And maybe if he ignored Terry Jones, rather than mentioning him six times in this piece, the exploits of this fringe Pastor wouldn’t be a propaganda tool in the Arab world. At the very least he and his ilk should go to great lengths telling their readers that a tremendously small percentage of Americans support Koran burning as a protest against Islam. What this FP op-ed contributor and virtually all our liberal media don’t seem to understand is that America’s enemies abroad are looking to conflate anything that happens here or involves us internationally to foment anti-American hatred in their countries. This has been going on for decades and didn’t start after 9/11.  As such, if this FP op-ed contributor and all liberal press members would more accurately report events here rather than sensationalize everything in order to paint the most negative picture of the average American citizen, our enemies would have less fuel to add to their propagandist fires. I would say this was pretty darned obvious if not for that Newsweek presentation previously mentioned. 

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Slate Affiliate Equates Newt Gingrich With Koran Burner Jones

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