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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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NYT Tees Up DNC Talking Points With Ethically Questionable Piece on Boehner’s Lobbyist Ties

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

The New York Times’s lobbyist double standard lives on. Since Barack Obama became president, the paper has routinely overlooked the vast disconnect between his rhetoric on lobbying’s role on the political process – there really isn’t one, if you believe Barack – and his actions on the issue. But while the Gray Lady all but ignores Obama’s deep ties with lobbyists and the industry groups they represent, the paper has hammered Republicans for their ties to “special interests.” The latest such attempt is a hack job in Sunday’s New York Times. Reporter Eric Lipton claims that House Miniority Leader John Boehner “maintains especially tight ties with a circle of lobbyists and former aides representing some of the nation’s biggest businesses, including Goldman Sachs, Google, Citigroup, R. J. Reynolds, MillerCoors and UPS.” The story makes some serious allegations – the most damning of which was sourced to an anonymous lobbyist. Intriguingly, some of the same claims undergird an upcoming DNC ad blitz against Boehner. The Leader’s staff, meanwhile, claim they were not asked for comment before the story went to press. Byron York reported Saturday: Boehner spokesman Michael Steel says he received a fact-checking email from Times reporter Eric Lipton Friday evening asking if Boehner did in fact oppose the cap on greenhouse gases, the tax change for hedge fund executives, the debit card fee cap, and increased fees on oil and gas companies. “Yes, that is correct,” Steel responded to Lipton, adding “I can tell you why, if you care.” Steel says he received no further notes from Lipton. Steel says Boehner has long held those positions and does not hold them as a result of lobbying. Hours after the email exchange, the Times story was published online, with the statement from the lobbyist that he had “won” Boehner’s backing on those matters. After Boehner’s aides complained, the paragraph was changed to read, emphasis added: One lobbyist in the club — after lauding each staff member in Mr. Boehner’s office that he routinely calls to ask for help — ticked off the list of recent issues for which he had sought the lawmaker’s backing: combating fee increases for the oil industry, fighting a proposed cap on debit card fees, protecting tax breaks for hedge fund executives and opposing a cap on greenhouse gas emissions. Mr. Boehner’s office said these were positions he already agreed with. The statement that a lobbyist “won” Boehner’s backing was changed to one in which a lobbyist “sought” Boehner’s backing. That’s a rather critical change. The Times also added Boehner’s defense that these were long-held positions. To call Boehner’s aides angry at the account would be an understatement. “They were offered the opportunity to find out if this was true, and they chose to rely instead on the word of an anonymous lobbyist,” says spokesman Michael Steel. “They intentionally refused to get the information to prove that this allegation was false.” That allegation itself is pretty serious. But it would hardly be out of step for a paper that has previously sought to demonize Republicans’ relationships with lobbyists in either complete ignorance of or contradictory to the facts. Remember Vicki Iseman? The New York Times suggested in a February 2008 article that Iseman, then a lobbyist with Alcalde & Fay, had a romantic relationship with then-presidential candidate John McCain. Not a shred of evidence was offered to support the allegation, and the Times later printed a correction claiming it had no intention of making that suggestion. If making baseless accusations against Republicans and their relationships with lobbyists were not sordid enough, the Times has also made a habit of blindly accepting any claim made by President Obama regarding ethics and lobbying at simple face value. Here’s a sampling of Times headlines since 2008: On First Day, Obama Quickly Sets a New Tone Obama’s Transition Team Restricts Lobbyists’ Role Victory for Obama Over Military Lobby ‘All Kinds of Yelling’ Expected From Obama’s Lobbyist Crackdown Obama Returns Lobbyist’s Donations Obama Issues Sharp Call for Reforms on Wall Street White House, Lobbyists Still at Odds The President Orders Transparency The Times does occasionally run watered-down, statistic-ridden pieces such as “As Donors, Lobbyists Often Favor One Party” (since it’s not in the headline, I’ll bet you can guess which party). But neither the immeasurable hypocrisy of this administration’s rhetoric on “special interests” nor the administration’s ties to those special interests are explored in any detail. So when President Obama claimed that he had “excluded lobbyists from policymaking jobs” despite the 50 lobbyists he employed (and continues to employ) in policymaking jobs, the Times failed to note any disconnect. Instead, the paper ran a story claiming Obama’s new lobbyist rules would “revolutionize how lobbyists disclose their activities and contribute money to candidates for federal office.” Beyond simply ignoring the specific hypocrisies in Obama’s rhetoric, the Times has taken a see-no-evil approach to the president’s extensive ties to the largest industry groups, while trumpeting relationships between Republicans and “special interests.” The pattern was on full display this summer, when the Times had to be reminded that Obama received seven times as much in campaign contributions from Goldman Sachs as George W. Bush did from Enron. Yet while the Times had vaguely alleged some sort of unethical relationship between the defunct energy company and the Bush administration, it made no such suggestions concerning Goldman. Given its history, the Times’s approach to the Boehner story is, though underhanded, hardly shocking. The agenda in its coverage of lobbyists and lawmakers is quite clear. And given the Times’s clear willingness to toe the Democratic line on this issue, it’s worth pondering this interesting chain of events. Just this past week, President Obama began directing his ire towards congressional Republicans, and Boehner specifically. Mere days later, as Yid With Lid notes , the Times also took up that line of attack. Then, Sunday morning, as NewsBusters reported , White House press secretary Robert Gibbs tweeted a series of quotes from and laudatory remarks about the Times piece, from the official Twitter feed of the White House press office. The Times’s piece also plays pefectly into the DNC’s election strategy. In fact, it kicks off a week in which Democrats are hoping to paint Boehner, well, exactly as he is painted by the Times piece. A DNC official told Talking Points Memo : We are going to tell Americans exactly who he is: a special interest and lobbyist loving typical Washington politician who always puts the well heeled and well-to-do ahead of middle class families and small businesses and who would, if he became speaker, return the capitol to the anything goes, DeLay-Abramoff days and ways of doing business.  So the Times blasted Boehner in the Sunday paper with a line of attack taken up by President Obama last week and touted by the White House the morning of its publication, and teed up a week of Boehner-bashing by offering the laughable veil of objectivity to de facto Democratic talking points. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the mainstream media.

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NYT Tees Up DNC Talking Points With Ethically Questionable Piece on Boehner’s Lobbyist Ties

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Amazing: AP Writers Obsess Over Negative Electoral Impact Of Upcoming Census Bureau Poverty Stats

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

It seems reasonable from their coverage in anticipation of the Census Bureua’s release of income and poverty statistics this week that Hope Yen and Liz Sidoti of the Associated Press have a roof over their heads and aren’t particularly worried about where their next meal is coming from. If so, good for them; may those circumstances continue. What’s remarkable, though, is how a government report that the media, especially the AP, has traditionally treated as an indicator of society’s alleged failure to take care of its neediest –with the blame often directly aimed at Republicans and conservatives — is now primarily a political problem for the party in power. Yen and Sidoti engage in a presidential pity party, and in the process come off as indifferent about what the numbers, for all their imperfections (and they are substantial), might mean in human terms — again, something the press normally obsesses over, especially when a Republican or conservative is president. This time, it seems that if Ms. Yen and Ms. Sidoti had their way, this unfortunate information would be held until at least November 3. What follows are graphic capture’s of the pair’s first four paragraphs, followed by paragraphs 12-16: Comments: This report comes out each September, but this one is suddently “unfortunate timing” and “another blow” for the president and his party. The AP didn’t seem to handle things the same way eight years ago, the last time a new president and his Congressional majority party faced mid-term elections. Even though George W. Bush’s administration was dealing with the aftermath of an official “recession” and the poverty rate rose, you’ll see in this unbylined AP item in the September 24, 2002 Gainesville Sun published after the release of that year’s report that there was no reference to how unfortunate the timing or the news might be for W. The AP did find the time to get a quote from Democrat Paul Sarbanes, who, in AP’s paraphrasing, said that “the Bush administration had focused too much attention on tax cuts and not enough on the needs of the most vulnerable citizens.” “Rightly or wrongly, Republicans could cite a higher poverty rate as evidence” that “Obama’s economic fixes are hindering the sluggish economic recovery.” It would have been interesting to see Yen and Sidoti try to find someone to quote on this topic. It seems only fair, given that they gave Paul Sarbanes a chance to say why George Bush was allegedly wrong. Yen and Sidoti automatically assume that blacks and Hispanics will respond to the reported rise in their poverty rate by voting as they usually do or staying home during the midterm elections. Isn’t it just a little bit possible that some of them will decide that voting for the other team might make more sense after almost two years of not so benign neglect at the hands of the party they have traditionally favored? Oh, and am I supposed to believe that the Essential Global News Network doesn’t have a homelessness-related photo dated later than the April 13, 2009 article-accompanying item seen at the top right of this post? Why, you’d think AP might be trying to imply that homelessness hasn’t gotten any worse in the intervening 17 months. But  it has .  Really . As is seemingly typical at AP, in unexcerpted material the report quoted and labeled one allegedly “conservative” political science professor at New York University while later quoting an economist from far-left American Prospect co-founder Robert Kuttner’s Economic Policy Institute (board members, including Kuttner, are listed and described  here ). Of course, the EPI “somehow” went unlabeled. Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com .

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Ed Schultz to Speak at Hastily Arranged DC Rally He Claims Not in Response to Glenn Beck’s Rally

Posted on September 8, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Remember the Seinfeld episode where George Costanza pretended to be an architect? Seinfeld thought it was a bad idea, suggesting Constanza would do better as a fake marine biologist, leading Constanza to complain, “You know I’ve always wanted to pretend that I was an architect.” Ed Schultz, liberal radio host and MSNBC flamethrower, is done pretending to be an architect. Schultz garnered plenty of attention last week with his huff-and-puff claim he could outdraw the estimated 300,000 people who attended Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor rally in Washington on Aug. 28. What made Schultz’s boast so insipid was his insistence that he not actually organize or take part in a rally to exceed Beck’s draw, if only in spirit. Schultz’s suggestion alone would suffice. No need to actually draft a blueprint or break a sweat. Perhaps the Labor Day weekend knocked some reality into Schultz. According to Brian Maloney at The Radio Equalizer , Schultz has decided to appear at the “One Nation Working Together” rally on the mall in Washington on Oct. 2, exactly one month before the midterms. Here’s Schultz talking about this on his radio show yesterday (audio available at Radio Equalizer) — The march is on, Oct. 2. Will you march with me?  And thousands upon thousands. Oh, we’ll get three hundred grand. We’ll get 300,000, absolutely. We’ll show you conservatives out there when big Eddie starts cranking on something we don’t back down until it gets done. It’s happening on Oct. 2. I appreciate all of you going to our website at wegoted.com, there’s a consortium of groups that are coming together. You see, the Republicans, they want you to quit. They want you to think that there’s a tsunami coming. What tsunami? Ain’t no tsunamis coming! Nothing’s lost until you give up! If you give up, then they have a chance. I don’t buy the polls, I don’t believe it, I believe America is smarter than this, and I think Americans don’t want to go back. … Many of you are out of work. Many of you can’t make it to the rally but a lot of you will. We have been inundated with all kinds of communication from wonderful listeners and viewers and I will be a featured speaker. There will be other speakers and there will be some groups that are going to be obviously helping out with all of this, just like FreedomWorks and the billionaires and the six months of promotion helped out the Beckster. And I want to get something very clear right now. If Beck had not done his rally, this would have happened, OK? This is about the country. This is about making sure that information is where it has to be, with the American people. And now it’s about passion, now it’s about emotion. And by the way, there will be some old and there will be some white people at the Oct. 2 rally on the mall in Washington, D.C. They just won’t be angry. And they won’t be motivated by hate and they won’t be race-baited. Schultz asserts that “if Beck had not done his rally, this would have happened” anyway. Maybe so, and I’ll temporarily set aside my well-deserved skepticism of anything claimed by Schultz. But the whiff of desperation wafting from Schultz’s reversal makes me wonder if Beck hasn’t put the fear of God in him.

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Ed Schultz to Speak at Hastily Arranged DC Rally He Claims Not in Response to Glenn Beck’s Rally

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AP Item on Judge’s Embryonic Stem Cell Action Mostly Avoids Naming Adult Cells, Dodges Efficacy Issues

Posted on September 7, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

In a Tuesday evening report , Associated Press Writer Jesse L. Holland engaged in a great deal of word massage which appears to have been designed to mislead relative newcomers to discussions about stem cell research. The news concerned Federal Judge Royce Lamberth’s refusal of the federal government’s request that he life his August 23 order blocking federal funding for embryonic stem cell research during the appeals process. Less-informed readers could be excused for believing, at least through first nine of the eleven tortured paragraphs in Holland’s report, that stem cells can only be obtained from human embryos. In Paragraph 10, Holland finally acknowledged the existence of adult stem cells, but then dubiously implied that the litigation was brought solely because the plaintiffs don’t want competition from embryonic research. The AP writer also ignored a fine piece written in early August by wire service colleague Malcolm Ritter (covered at NewsBusters ; at BizzyBlog ), who accurately reported that “Adult stem cell research (is) far ahead of embryonic.” What follows are several paragraphs from Holland’s horror, including a ridiculous title falsely implying that no federal funds are going into any kind of stem cell research (bolds are mine throughout this post): Judge won’t let stem cell money keep flowing A federal judge on Tuesday refused to lift his order blocking federal funding for some stem cell research, saying that a “parade of horribles” predicted by federal officials would not happen. Medical researchers value stem cells because they are master cells that can turn into any tissue of the body. Research eventually could lead to cures for spinal cord injuries, Parkinson’s disease and other ailments. The Justice Department argued in court papers last week that stopping the research could cause “irrevocable harm to the millions of extremely sick or injured people who stand to benefit … as well as to the defendants, the scientific community and the taxpayers who have already spent hundreds of millions of dollars on such research through public funding of projects which will now be forced to shut down and, in many cases, scrapped altogether.” U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth rejected that argument in refusing to lift the restraining order he signed after ruling that the argument in a pending lawsuit – that the research violates the intent of a 1996 law prohibiting use of taxpayer dollars in work that destroys a human embryo – was likely to succeed. … The scientists suing to stop the research “agree that this court’s order does not even address the Bush administration guidelines, or whether NIH could return to those guidelines,” Lamberth wrote in his latest order. “The prior guidelines, of course, allowed research only on existing stem cell lines, foreclosing additional destruction of embryos. Plaintiffs also agree that projects previously awarded and funded are not affected by this court’s order.” (Paragraph 10 — Ed.) … The lawsuit was filed by two scientists who argued that Obama’s expansion jeopardized their ability to win government funding for research using adult stem cells – ones that have already matured to create specific types of tissues – because it will mean extra competition. Here are a few paragraphs from the report by Malcolm Ritter that Holland ignored: For all the emotional debate that began about a decade ago on allowing the use of embryonic stem cells, it’s adult stem cells that are in human testing today. An extensive review of stem cell projects and interviews with two dozen experts reveal a wide range of potential treatments. … Adult stem cells are being studied in people who suffer from multiple sclerosis, heart attacks and diabetes. Some early results suggest stem cells can help some patients avoid leg amputation. Recently, researchers reported that they restored vision to patients whose eyes were damaged by chemicals. Apart from these efforts, transplants of adult stem cells have become a standard lifesaving therapy for perhaps hundreds of thousands of people with leukemia, lymphoma and other blood diseases. … in the near term, embryonic stem cells are more likely to pay off as lab tools, for learning about the roots of disease and screening potential drugs. The fact that so much is being accomplished with adult stem cells further buttresses the correctness of Lamberth’s ruling. It’s reasonable to contend that anything embryonic cells may someday in theory be able to do, adult cells are doing now, with the rest to follow in fairly short order. So why do researchthat involves killing embryos at all? Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com .

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CBS’s Harry Smith on Face the Nation: No Time to ‘Continue Cutting Taxes,’ So ‘What About, Say, Something Like a New WPA?’

Posted on September 5, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Filling in for Bob Schieffer as host of Face the Nation , Early Show co-host Harry Smith brought his liberal sensibilities to the Sunday show, pressing his economic panel to agree the Bush tax cuts should not be extended, the stimulus was too small and so another would be wise – even suggesting a return to an FDR-era government make-work jobs program: “What about, say, something like a new WPA?”   Presuming the pre-2003 levels are the real rates, Smith questioned Gretchen Morganson of the New York Times: “Is now the time to continue cutting taxes if there is this overwhelming deficit out there?” He soon cued up White House economic adviser Laura Tyson to agree with his premise: “Should the Bush tax cuts stay in place for the middle class but be rescinded for the top wage earners?” Turning back to Morganson, Smith showed exasperation with public opposition to government spending programs as he wondered if the stimulus wasn’t big enough: I want to go back to the stimulus because as so many of these Congress folks are going back out of their districts and people complain about the size of government, they’re complaining about the deficit, they’re complaining about TARP and who knows what all else. As we’re standing here looking at it right now, just if you can step away, was the stimulus big enough? Morganson afirmed “the stimulus was not big enough” and Smith next pushed Mark Zandi, of Moody’s Analytics: “There are plenty of economists out there, Mark Zandi, who say what’s needed is is a second stimulus. Could those words cross your lips?” After Zandi’s reply, Smith arrived at his Works Progress Administration idea: All right. Laura Tyson, what about a more significant stimulus, beyond the things, these, you know, a block here, a block here, a block here, but another say couple hundred billion dollars, what about say something like a new WPA? Tyson used that as a cue to advocate more “infrastructure” spending. The CBSNews.com posting summarizing the program reflected Smith’s agenda, “ Economists: Second Economic Stimulus Needed .” From the Sunday, September 5 Face the Nation on CBS, picking up a few minutes into the segment: HARRY SMITH: Gretchen, let me ask you this. This whole idea of the President talking about moving in the right direction, wanting to pick up the pace. Is there a pre-dominant idea of what it is that is hindering the economy from catching fire? GRETCHEN MORGANSON, NEW YORK TIMES: Definitely. It is debt. We had a debt binge the likes that we have hardly ever seen before. Frankly, Harry, it just takes a long, long time to get that out of the system. We’re still really working down the debt that homeowners took on. And it’s a difficult and really excruciating process. You can’t do it overnight. SMITH: Which brings up the whole idea, Gretchen, of this debate: Is now the time to continue cutting taxes if there is this overwhelming deficit out there? MORGANSON: Well, I think what you have to worry about immediately is job creation and let’s just forget about the deficit for the moment because when you have the unemployment rate where it is now and you have incomes really being stretched, I think that that is the key to any kind of activity and economic activity by consumers is an enormous part of our economy. That is really why we are in such dire straits. SMITH: Which is maybe one of the ideas that has to be in play is do we have the wrong model to begin with? I want to get back to that in a second. First, though, I want to talk about the Bush tax cuts which are due to expire in January. Laura Tyson, should the Bush tax cuts stay in place for the middle class but be rescinded for the top wage earners? LAURA TYSON: I think that is the right thing to do… …. SMITH, TO MARK ZANDI: Because you hear small business owners say if those tax cuts come back, I’m not going to hire a single person. I mean, that’s anecdotal, but is that really the predominant feeling among small businessmen? …. SMITH: Gretchen Morganson, I want to go back to the stimulus because as so many of these Congress folks are going back out of their districts and people complain about the size of government, they’re complaining about the deficit, they’re complaining about TARP and who knows what all else. As we’re standing here looking at it right now, just if you can step away, was the stimulus big enough? MORGANSON: The stimulus was not big enough… SMITH: One of the things you write so much about for the Times is the housing market. One of the other ideas that’s out this this week is this notion of giving people whose homes are underwater, mortgage holders whose homes are underwater, the opportunity to get out. People who are paying their mortgages, but to get out from underwater and basically handing the federal government the bill. In the short term, or even in the long term, Gretchen, does that seem like a viable option? And oh, by the way, we should say the government’s efforts on some of these levels have not been particularly good in the last two years. MORGANSON: That’s right. I mean, I think that the devil is in the details. The HAMP program has been a big disappointment. That was the helping homeowners, the initial program that treasury put out there. It’s been very disappointing. I think these matters are so complicated with so many different people and debt, second loans, first loans, it’s really very complex. And I just don’t see how it’s going to provide immediate help, the kind that we really need. SMITH: So is it time — it’s crazy to even talk about — but there are plenty of economists out there, Mark Zandi, who say what’s needed is is a second stimulus. Could those words cross your lips? MARK ZANDI: Well, we are talking about other stimulus, right? I mean, An r&d tax credit, payroll tax holiday. Job tax credit. All these things are different forms of stimulus. In fact, the federal government has provided a couple hundred billions dollars in additional stimulus beyond the recovery act stimulus that we put in place a year-and-a-half ago. We are doing that. In my view the recovery needs more help. It would be prudent, I think, to provide some additional help through some of the things that we’re talking about. SMITH: All right. Laura Tyson, what about a more significant stimulus, beyond the things,  these, you know, a block here, a block here, a block here, but another say couple hundred billion dollars, what about, say, something like a new WPA? LAURA TYSON: Well I believe that we should look at infrastructure because we know before the recession, before the great recession, we know that we were vastly underspending on the nation’s infrastructure. You can sort of, therefore, start with the notion that infrastructure spending is terrific in two ways. It creates demand right away when you go out and get the project start and get the worker started. It also creates the ability to grow and be productive in the future. SMITH: Although Japan tried that and they don’t have a lot to show for it.

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"Clean Coal" Positioned To Be The High End Energy Product No One Can Afford

Posted on September 3, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Taylorville Illinois Energy Center, a proposed “clean coal” power plant. Image credit: Illinois Times Southern Illinois has vast, easily accessible coal reserves. That coal may be sulfurous and wet and salty; but ,Southern Illinois also has good geologic features for CO2 sequestration, plus Presidential root tendrils are there. These aspects explain, in a last-year kind of way, why Obama’s Energy Department supports this $3.5 billion fantasy. (Several major conceptual design changes have been made since the Bush Ad… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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"Clean Coal" Positioned To Be The High End Energy Product No One Can Afford

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Olbermann Sarcastically ‘Thanks’ Bush for Starting Troop Withdrawal, ‘Neocons Lied to Get Us in There’

Posted on September 2, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

On Wednesday’s Countdown show, responding to conservatives who wanted President Obama to give more credit to President Bush for apparent successes in Iraq, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann sarcastically thanked the former President and charged that the war in Iraq was Bush’s “false war.” He went on to claim that, “The neocons lied about Iraq to get us in there.” Guest Jeremy Scahill of the left-wing “The Nation” magazine joined in slamming President Bush and “neocons” for the Iraq war, claimed the troop surge did not play a significant role in stabilizing the country, and ended up asserting that Bush administration members who supported the invasion “shouldn’t be able to leave their houses without being confronted with the death and destruction that their lies caused.” And, even though various news outlets reported on the presence of al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab Zarqawi in the country years before the 2003 invasion, Scahill claimed that “it was the Bush administration’s policy in Iraq that created an al-Qaeda presence in that country.” But, as previously documented by NewsBusters , back in January 2003 and again in March 2004, the NBC Nightly News relayed claims that the Bush administration had “passed up several opportunities to take [Zarqawi] out well before the Iraq war began.” Below is a complete transcript of the segment with Jeremy Scahill from the Wednesday, September 1, Countdown show on MSNBC: KEITH OLBERMANN: But praising Mr. Bush was not enough for those war supporters, unrealistic even by Bill Kristol’s standards. Former Bush National Security Advisor Steven Hadley told the Wall Street Journal, quote, “I thought I owed it to the former President that somewhere out there, somebody gives him some credit and points out that he is the one actually that started withdrawing U.S. troops.” Okay, I’ll do it. I, Keith Olbermann, do hereby give former U.S. President George Walker Bush some credit for starting to withdraw U.S. troops, except for those who were withdrawn because they were already dead – 4,427 of them – for whose presence in that nation I also credit President Bush. So, thank you, Mr. Bush, for starting to withdraw those troops lucky enough not to die in your false war. Thank you, Mr. Bush, for starting to withdraw those troops lucky enough to leave before they joined the ranks of the 31,000 whose bodies and lives and futures were shattered by your false war. Thank you for starting to withdraw after bankrupting our nation for your war after it became clear even Iraq would no longer let you stay, and just in time for America to try to accomplish something in Afghanistan, nine years after you let Osama bin Laden get away so you could fight the war for which America, we are told, should now thank you. Adding his thanks tonight, the national security reporter for the Nation magazine, Jeremy Scahill, also the author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army. Jeremy, thanks for your time tonight. JEREMY SCAHILL, THE NATION: Thank you. OLBEMRANN: All right, go ahead. Share your thanks to President Bush while we’re on this. SCAHILL: Well, Keith, you know who should be thanking President Bush tonight? The Iranian government. They have a much greater influence in Iraq now than they ever have had. Russian and Chinese oil companies that have gotten a lot of the oil contracts there. Anyone who likes to kill Americans should thank President Bush. And also among those that should thank President Bush are the people in possession of the billions of missing dollars that went missing in George Bush`s Iraq. The people who don’t have any obligation to thank President Bush are the families of the thousands of U.S. servicemen and women that died in that country, the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians that died, the millions of Iraqis that are displaced as a result of this illegal, immoral war that unfortunately, Keith, and we have to say this, was supported by Hillary Clinton when she was a Senator, and Joe Biden when he was a Senator. So the blame should be shared across the board. But George Bush is number one responsible for this, and deserves no thanks from anyone except people what could be described as enemies of this country and of security in the world. OLBERMANN: The former coalition spokesman, Dan Senor, said that the tone of the speech last night was fine. As I mentioned, Bill Kristol called the speech commendable, even impressive. Why are the others so insistent on the President praising Bush, without getting too deeply into the psychology of mass hypnosis and other things that might be relevant. Just the basics. SCAHILL: Right, well, these people have a PhD in lying, and a master’s degree in manipulating intelligence. And it’s really sobering to see this kind of brass historical revisionism happening in real time. The idea that these people want to post some kind of false flag of victory on the corpses of all who have died in Iraq because of their decisions. These people destabilized Iraq. They destabilized the Middle East with their neocon vision of redrawing maps. And they didn’t even succeed in their own stated mission. This is a special kind of pathological sickness that these individuals collectively are plagued with. OLBERMANN: The neocons lied about Iraq to get us in there, and now, as you point out, they’re lying about how we got out. Since they were not paying attention, we assume deliberately, it’s not that complicated, but can you explain the factors that actually led to the reduction of violence there, the ones that they erroneously credit to the surge? SCAHILL: Right, pardon me for introducing a little bit of fact onto cable news over these 24 hours. But the reality is there was no success of the surge. The fact is that Bush’s policy in Iraq caused massive destabilization, led to a civil war that killed upwards of a million Iraqis. There were ethnic cleansing campaigns. When the surge troops went in there, Baghdad was a walled off city. The Sunnis had been pushed out and sided with the United States. Muqtada al-Sadr responded to the announced time table for withdrawal that the neocons so opposed by saying he considered it a truce with the Americans and pulled his forces off the streets. So the entire surge myth permeates to this day. And it’s actually one big lie. OLBERMANN: The Hadley crediting of the Obama Iraq policies goes with it, arguing that Iraq was worth it. But he says that al-Qaeda in Iraq is, quote, “still capable of spectacular terrorist attacks.” And he simply asserts that somehow those are not a strategic threat anymore. Iraq’s not a threat because the Republicans don’t have the White House? Is that what it boils down to? SCAHILL: Well, let’s remember, and I’d like to remind Mr. Hadley, I’m sure he watches your show every night, Keith, that it was the Bush administration’s policy in Iraq that created an al-Qaeda presence in that country. It was their policies that destabilized that country and caused the deaths of so many Americans and so many Iraqi civilians. Steven Hadley probably sees Osama bin Laden at his corner store or hiding in his bathroom somewhere. So these people have zero credibility and have no business in public life anymore. They shouldn’t be able to leave their houses without being confronted with the death and destruction that their lies caused. OLBERMANN: Jeremy Scahill of the Nation, as always, a pleasure. Thank you, Jeremy. SCAHILL: Thank you.

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Olbermann Sarcastically ‘Thanks’ Bush for Starting Troop Withdrawal, ‘Neocons Lied to Get Us in There’

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NPR Star Terry Gross Horrified at ‘Very Extreme’ Franklin Graham Ruining U.S. Image

Posted on September 1, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

The secular-left stronghold of National Public Radio dumped on conservative Christians again last week. On the August 25 edition of the nationally distributed talk show Fresh Air with Terry Gross, the topic was Christianity vs. Islam in northern Africa. Gross’s guest was author Eliza Griswold , who Gross explained was the daughter of Frank Griswold, “the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in America in 2003, when Gene Robinson became the first openly gay person ordained as a bishop in the church.” With those PC credentials established, Gross asked about Griswold accompanying Rev. Franklin Graham to Sudan in the Bush years, when Graham asked the Muslim dictator there for the right to preach the Christian gospel, and he was refused. But NPR’s Gross was most worried that “very extreme” Graham was ruining America’s reputation in the Third World:   GROSS: I guess, you know, I’m wondering, when Franklin Graham, who was perceived in the United States by a lot of people as very extreme , when he goes to a place like Sudan, establishes hospitals there, meets with the president, is he seen as representative of what Americans believe? Ms. GRISWOLD: Very, very much so. And that is one of the more dangerous realities of how conservative evangelicals abroad can shape the perception of the West. Especially, this is especially sensitive in the Muslim world. And this is not new. You know, I mean, this really goes back to post-World War II and the foundation of the Muslim Brotherhood, which largely came out of trying to be a Muslim YMCA because the only Westerners Muslims saw at that time were Christian evangelicals coming to spread their faith. So this kind of defensive posturing of Islam, Islam is under threat by the West, unfortunately, a handful of evangelicals can misrepresent what the West is about and make Muslims feel very much under threat. So blame the YMCA for radical Muslim groups. That’s a view NPR spreads with our tax dollars. In the other interview on that August 25 show, Gross spoke (again) with leftist author Jeff Sharlet , promoting his new article in the September issue of Harper’s magazine, entitled  “Straight Man’s Burden: The American Roots of Uganda’s Anti-Gay Persecution.” Uganda’s debating a bill that would punish homosexual sex with the death penalty, and American leftists blame American conservatives for the “genocidal” threat. It turned out that Uganda’s legislators had found Sharlet through his appearances on Gross’s show. SHARLET: And because Ive been reporting on it, and here was, really, the author of this really potentially genocidal bill, saying come on over and I’ll tell you what it’s all about. I thought I had to take him up on that invitation. GROSS: How did he know your work? (Laughter) SHARLET: “Fresh Air,” actually. GROSS: Oh. (Laughter) SHARLET: Because we had spoken about this before and a sort of a report on that interview was on the front page, I believe, of major Ugandan newspaper. And it sort of amped things up a little bit. In a 25-minute interview, Gross and Sharlet didn’t really focus hard on which American Christians are for “genocide,” although Sharlet talked about evangelist Lou Engle . Sharlet talked about how Ugandan legislator David Bahati told him he’d be arrested for promoting homosexuality if he returned again to Uganda. Obviously, this being NPR, Gross wasn’t going to discuss how promoting opposition to homosexuality is beginning to get preachers in legal trouble in the West. NPR’s pledge drives ought to say “NPR is where you can learn more about the far corners of the globe, and how conservative Christians are ruining our image there, and may be responsible for causing oppression and death.”

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NPR Star Terry Gross Horrified at ‘Very Extreme’ Franklin Graham Ruining U.S. Image

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John Cusack Wants ‘Satanic Death Cult Center at Fox News HQ’

Posted on August 30, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Want a tutorial in the hypocrisy, vitriol and deep unhappiness of the American left? You don’t need to subject yourself to MSNBC, or wade through the muck of Daily Kos. Actor John Cusack’s Twitter feed is a clearing house for liberal memes and nasty rhetoric. Here’s his peaceful entry from Aug. 29 [All spelling from original Tweets, but Cusack admits: “I type with I phone fast and loose with no spellcheck.”]: Johncusack: I AM FOR A SATANIC DEATH CULT CENTER AT FOX NEWS HQ AND OUTSIDE THE OFFICES ORDICK ARMEYAND NEWT GINGRICH-and all the GOP WELFARE FREAKS Presumably, this is a reference to the controversy over the Ground Zero Mosque. And “all the GOP WELFARE FREAKS” seems to follow on this theme: Johncusack: taht’s the gop philospy.. gourge the stae while claiming to be rugged individuaist who live by the free market – biggest joke there is.. Johncusack: think of our the us treasury as the last frontier to be stripped mined if only pesky gov itelf wasn’t in the way. Johncusack: privatized gains- socialized loses– complete hippcorites But elsewhere, Cusack said Glenn Beck (at his “Restoring Honor” rally) was “unifying whites -class war of blame and fear” and said Beck was starting a “class war to capitallize on economy they destroyed” – a strange accusation from a man that claims the GOP wants to gut the treasury. And what liberal rant would be complete without the leftist’s two favorite pejorative? Back’s tactics, he wrote were “strraigjt fr tfriendly racist playbiook.” A minute later, Cusack added, “Sorry frendly fascist playbook.” Elsewhere, he wrote: “[Charles] krathhammers a joke son please do me a fav and dont watch.” He called another Tweeter a “flag sucking halfwit,” presumably for the sin of patriotism. Strong words from a man who also Tweeted about having “to weed out all the little trolls who can’t bare it when someone has an opinion they dont like.” He “blocked as many haters as i could a i still can’t get below 200 thou,” but confessed, “i guess someone turned off the automatic hate spewing machine.. i kind of miss them.” Whew! Glad some of the hate’s gone from Twitter. Cusack, who, according to OpenSecrets.org gave $1,000 to Vice President Biden’s 2008 presidential campaign, has a long history of using strident partisan rhetoric. He called the Bush administration ” criminally incompetent robber barons ,” and “the neo-con/White House Iraq Group lunatics,” and demanded that Attorney General Eric Holder imprison the guilty Bush officials . He also did an anti-McCain ad for the far-left group MoveOn.org

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