Tag Archives: corruption

Moral Decay Within the Pentagon the Cause of Leaks Revealed by Wikileaks

Posted on December 12, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Comments Off on Moral Decay Within the Pentagon the Cause of Leaks Revealed by Wikileaks

Corporate corruption of the defense industry is at the heart of the motivation that leads insiders to leak information to Wikileaks. Honest everyday people that work for the government and its myriad of private contractors in the capitalist world are morally repulsed by the information that they are being charged with keeping secret represent to their sense of honoring their other sense for justice and truth. They cannot help themselves but reveal the corruption because it is morally repugnant to them. +++ The leak may have come from the State Department itself The controversy and the caliber of the information have led some political analysts to the conclusion that it could only have leaked from the State Department itself, which puts its efficiency under question. Vitaly Leibin, the chief editor of Russian Reporter, a magazine which claims to officially collaborate with WikiLeaks, also believes that the leaks are the result of people inside the US government wanting the information exposed. “These leaks would never have happened if not for the number of insiders who are ready to leak this information. It looks like it’s linked to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan when officers understood that they are working for a not exactly fair business, and this moral decay inside the Pentagon caused these leaks,” he said. “The main thing this leak has done is break the illusion that the State department has everything under control. There have been exposed mechanisms – not secret, but quite simple and cynical. Partners of the US will be more careful now. It’s another sign that the US is no longer dominating the world,” he added. What the WikiLeaks incident shows is how the whole intelligence community has become over-reliant on technology, said former intelligence officer Glenmore Trenear-Harvey. He pointed out the inherent problems with the Secret Internet Protocol, a system of networks used by the US Defense and State Departments to transmit classified information that is one of the alleged sources of the leak. “The idea was for an exchange of information after 9/11, when the intelligent services weren’t sharing their information together,” he said. “Now what has happened is that whereas maybe 40,000 people within the intelligence community would have access, suddenly, bizarrely, diplomats, military people and, indeed, intelligence people – there’s over 2 million people that had access to it.” +++ Now that these revelations are making governments reconsider their security I would venture to say that this is going to lead to an extended cyberwar along with resistance from states to support some of the security measures that will likely be proposed by US lawmakers. added by: jubal

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Democrats Attack WikiLeaks or Remain Silent, but Republican Ron Paul Says: ‘State Secrecy is Anathema to a Free Society’

Posted on December 12, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Comments Off on Democrats Attack WikiLeaks or Remain Silent, but Republican Ron Paul Says: ‘State Secrecy is Anathema to a Free Society’

The Obama administration condemns WikiLeaks in the most extreme terms, with White House spokesman Robert Gibbs referring to the people involved in the leaking and distribution of diplomatic cables as “criminals,” and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton describing the latest WikiLeaks revelations as an ” attack on America's foreign policy interests.” Attorney General Eric Holder talks of using the Espionage Act and other tools to go after WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Democrats in Congress echo the criticisms—with Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair John Kerry ripping Assange for having done “real damage” to US interests—or simply remain silent. Some are openly working with neoconservative Republicans to come up with new laws to restrict the flow of information about US foreign policy, Is anyone in official Washington standing up for transparency? Is anyone saying that we should be more concerned about the revelations of wrongdoing than killing the messenger? Yes, if you count Texas Congressman Ron Paul as a resident of official Washington. The Texas Republican who has long been the sternest critic in Congress of the imperial ambitions of presidents of both parties, rejects the notion that WikiLeaks is the problem. Full Story: http://www.thenation.com/blog/156870/democrats-attack-wikileaks-or-remain-silent… added by: Radical_Centrist

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Comment is free

Posted on December 12, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Comments Off on Comment is free

I have lost count of the politicians and opinion formers of an authoritarian bent warning of the dreadful damage done by the WikiLeaks dump of diplomatic cables, and in the very next breath dismissing the content as frivolous tittle-tattle. To seek simultaneous advantage from opposing arguments is not a new gambit, but to be wrong in both is quite an achievement. Publication of the cables has caused no loss of life; troops are not being mobilised; and the only real diplomatic crisis is merely one of discomfort. The idea that the past two weeks have been a disaster is self-evidently preposterous. Yet the leaks are of unprecedented importance because, at a stroke, they have enlightened the masses about what is being done in their name and have shown the corruption, incompetence – and sometimes wisdom – of our politicians, corporations and diplomats. More significantly, we have been given a snapshot of the world as it is, rather than the edited account agreed upon by diverse elites, whose only common interest is the maintenance of their power and our ignorance. The world has changed, not simply because governments find they are just as vulnerable to the acquisition, copying and distribution of huge amounts of data as the music, publishing and film businesses were, but because we are unlikely to return to the happy ignorance of the past. Knowing Saudi Arabia has urged the bombing of Iran, that Shell maintains an iron grip on the government of Nigeria, that Pfizer hired investigators to disrupt investigations into drugs trials on children, also in Nigeria, that the Pakistan intelligence service, the ISI, is swinging both ways on the Taliban, that China launched a cyber attack on Google, that North Korean has provided nuclear scientists to Burma, that Russia is a virtual mafia state in which security services and gangsters are joined at the hip – and knowing all this in some detail – means we are far more likely to treat the accounts of events we are given in the future with much greater scepticism. Never mind the self-serving politicians who waffle on about the need for diplomatic confidentiality when they themselves order the bugging of diplomats and hacking of diplomatic communications. What is astonishing is the number of journalists out there who argue that it is better not to know these things, that the world is safer if the public is kept in ignorance. In their swooning infatuation with practically any power elite that comes to hand, some writers for the Murdoch press and Telegraph titles argue in essence for the Chinese or Russian models of deceit and obscurantism. They advocate the continued infantilising of the public. Nothing is new. In 1771, that great lover of liberty, John Wilkes, and a number of printers challenged the law that prohibited the reporting of Parliamentary debates and speeches, kept secret because those in power argued that the information was too sensitive and would disrupt the life of the country if made public. Using the arcane laws of the City of London, Alderman Wilkes arranged for the interception of the Parliamentary messengers sent to arrest the printers who had published debates, and in doing so successfully blocked Parliament. By 1774, a contemporary was able to write: “The debates in both houses have been constantly printed in the London papers.” From that moment, the freedom of the press was born. It took a libertine to prove that information enriched the functioning of British society, a brave maverick who was constantly moving house – and sometimes country – to avoid arrest; whose epic sexual adventures had been used by the authorities as a means of entrapping and imprisoning him. The London mob came out in his favour and, supplemented by shopkeepers and members of the gentry on horseback, finally persuaded the establishment of the time to accept that publication was inevitable. And the kingdom did not fall. Over the past few weeks, there have been similarly dire predictions from sanctimonious men and women of affairs about the likely impacts of publication, and of course Julian Assange finds himself banged up in Wandsworth nick, having neither been formally charged with, nor found guilty of, the sex crimes he is alleged to have committed in Sweden. Making no comment about his guilt or innocence, or the possibility of his entrapment, I limit myself to saying that we have been here before with John Wilkes; and the reason for this is that authorities the world over and through history react the same way when there is a challenge to a monopoly of information. It is all about power and who has access to information. Nothing more. When those who want society to operate on the basis of the parent-child relationship because it is obviously easier to manage, shut the door and say “not in front of the children”, they are usually looking after their interests, not ours. I don't argue for a free-for-all, regardless of the consequences. In the WikiLeaks cables, knowledge and the editing and reporting skills found in the old media, combined with the new ability to locate and seize enormous amounts of information on the web, has actually resulted in responsible publication, with names, sources, locations and dates redacted to protect people's identities and their lives. America is sore and naturally feels exposed, but the state department would have had much less cause for regret if it had listened to Ross Anderson, the Cambridge professor often quoted here in relation to Labour's obsession with huge databases of personal information. His rule states that it is a mathematical impossibility to maintain a large and functional database that is also secure. Hillary Clinton must rue the day that the Bush administration built a great silo of cables that could be accessed by three million staff. The Chinese and Russians would never have been so trusting. There has been more than a hint that China and Russia have empathised with the Americans. The unseen affinities of the powerful may also be responsible for the unforgivable behaviour by Amazon, which pulled the plug on hosting WikiLeaks, and PayPal, Visa and MasterCard, which unilaterally stopped customers making donations to WikiLeaks. There was not the slightest consideration of principles about free information or the freedom of their customers to make up their own minds. What next? Will these corporate giants be blocking payment to the New York Times and the Guardian? It is hard to feel much regret over the cyber attacks on their websites because, in the end, they did not seem much better than Shell and Pfizer, the companies that appear to be running so much of Nigeria like the worst type of imperial powers. Nothing but good can come from revelations about these companies, and in this brief moment when we have a glimpse of how things really are, we should relish the fact that publication of the cables, as well as the shameful reactions to it, have brought light, not fire. http://bit.ly/eYBsaU added by: ras_menelik

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‘An Absolute Disgrace’: CNN’s Parker Spitzer Finds Blast of Dissent Against Tax-Evading Rangel

Posted on December 5, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Comments Off on ‘An Absolute Disgrace’: CNN’s Parker Spitzer Finds Blast of Dissent Against Tax-Evading Rangel

While the “objective” network newscasts strenuously sought to hornswoggle the public into thinking everyone in Washington was sympathetic to unethical tax-evading liberal Rep. Charlie Rangel getting censured on the House floor for 45 seconds, CNN's Parker Spitzer asked about Rangel on Thursday night and received a dissenting blast from sports journalist Stephen A. Smith, who called him an “absolute disgrace” and said “I'm done with him.” Former Air America host Sam Seder, so enraged by the corruption of the Bushies, was just as partisan in insisting Rangel didn't commit a crime and shouldn't receive a censure and was “open with the committee.” Eliot Spitzer didn't want to dwell too long on the ethical-politician subject: SPITZER: All right, guys. Does he persuade you? Should Charlie be shown the exit or has Charlie persuaded you he deserves to continue on fighting for central Harlem? SMITH: Well, I'm not going to sit there and say he deserves to be shown the exit, but he certainly hasn't convinced me. I think it's an absolute disgrace that he, of all people, conducted himself in this fashion. read more

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‘An Absolute Disgrace’: CNN’s Parker Spitzer Finds Blast of Dissent Against Tax-Evading Rangel

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Indonesian maid tortured in Saudi Arabia, another beaten to death

Posted on November 20, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Comments Off on Indonesian maid tortured in Saudi Arabia, another beaten to death

DEAR VANGUARD JOURNALISTS / PRODUCERS: PLEASE INVESTIGATE THESE CASES — IT NEEDS TO BE HEARD, IT NEEDS TO BE SHOWN, IT NEEDS TO BE STOPPED. added by: dryeraser

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ABC’s George Stephanopoulos Hits Michelle Malkin With White House Spin on Dem Corruption

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

Conservative pundit Michelle Malkin made a rare appearance on Wednesday’s Good Morning America and highlighted the issue of Democratic corruption. Co-host George Stephanopoulos responded to criticisms of a Colorado Democrat by touting White House talking points. Malkin made the point, almost entirely ignored on GMA, that now-defeated candidate Andrew Romanoff was apparently offered administration jobs in order to not challenge the incumbent senator. Stephanopoulos promptly defended, ” Which I should say, [the allegations] were denied by Romanoff and by the White House about whether or not he was offered a job to get him out of the way. ” [MP3 audio here .] Malkin then mentioned e-mails released by the Denver Post backing up the claim of job offers. This prompted the former Democratic operative turned journalist to weakly protest, “Well, except he had been going for the job before the campaign began.” Of course, Stephanopoulos and GMA have showed little interest in the subject of Andrew Romanoff’s troubles. Other than a brief mention by Jake Tapper on June 3, 2010, the morning show has ignored the allegations of job offers from the White House. Even though Malkin was on the program to promote the paperback edition of Culture of Corruption, Stephanopoulos focused on potential Republican problems: “[Democrats] believe that when tea party candidates like Ken Buck in Colorado, like Sharron Angle in Nevada, like Rand Paul in Kentucky win, they actually give the Democrats a better chance of winning in November.” It should also be noted that the Malkin segment aired at the very end of the show, at 8:48am EDT. A transcript of the August 11 segment follows: GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Last night’s primary results have set the political landscape for the fall campaign. What did we learn about President Obama, Sarah Palin and what may happen come November? Here with her always provocative point of view, Fox News contributor and author of the New York Times number one best-seller Culture of Corruption, Michelle Malkin. Good to see you. MICHELLE MALKIN: You too, George. STEPHANOPOULOS: Let’s start out. Quick take on last night. MALKIN: You know, there’s no inevitabilities in politics. And I live in Colorado now which, of course, had a bunch of very high-profile primaries. And the White House is patting itself on the back but probably more exhaling with ultimate relief that its candidate in the Senate race, the appointed incumbent Michael Bennet eked through and he faced a very scary challenge from a far left progressive candidate, Andrew Romanoff. And you’ll recall that there is a culture of corruption angle to this because this was the race where allegations of attempted bribery, in essence, came up because- STEPHANOPOULOS: Which I should say, they were denied by Romanoff and by the White House about whether or not he was offered a job to get him out of the way. MALKIN: Of course. The Denver Post had reported last fall that White House chief of- the deputy chief of staff Jim Messina had approached Romanoff and offered a plethora of White House administration jobs to get him to drop out and Romanoff released E-mails that essentially confirmed that. STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, except he had been going for the job before the campaign began . But, let’s talk about Colorado- MALKIN: Well, I think the point there though is it’s not just conservatives and people on my side of the aisle that are talking about this stench, this culture of corruption that seems to stick to the Chicago team and Obama. This was a Democrat who blew the whistle and he blew the whistle after Joe Sestak came forward and made similar allegations. STEPHANOPOULOS: You talk about the stench. And there is just no question that all across the country there is a real anger at Washington. But in some ways, you can say it’s kind of bipartisan . You talk about Colorado last night, the President’s candidate survived. On the Republican side, you had the tea party candidate win the primary against the more establishment Republican figure. I know you’re deep in the middle of the Tea Party, Tea party supporter. B ut how do you respond to what a lot of Democrats believe? They believe that when tea party candidates like Ken Buck in Colorado, like Sharron Angle in Nevada, like Rand Paul in Kentucky win, they actually give the Democrats a better chance of winning in November. MALKIN: Look, you can look at this as purely from the electoral standpoint or you can look at it if you’re a grassroots conservative like I am, and I live out in the west now, I live in Colorado. And we have a longer view about moving the party to where we think it should be. Committed to conservative principles and we were very dispirited during the Bush administration at seeing beltway Republicans capitulate and essentially become big government versions of the people that they say they opposed. And that’s what’s making 2010 such an interesting period because no establishment Republican is safe. STEPHANOPOULOS: That’s clear. MALKIN: We saw it in Utah. Bob Bennett is no longer in office because grassroots conservatives kicked him out. STEPHANOPOULOS: So, are you saying it’s better to be pure than to compromise for victory? MALKIN: Well, that’s always been my position as a grassroots conservative. And I think that’s what the Tea Party has always tried to say. I was covering the Tea Party movement before it was called a Tea Party movement. And this was in the days around the stimulus debate when it was getting shoved down the American taxpayers’ throat and something unfortunately the mainstream media refused to acknowledge that it was a bottom-up movement that could never have been coordinated by beltway Republicans, that they were tired of a lack of corruption. That they were tired of a lack of transparency and the trampling over the deliberative process. And, of course, Obama and the Chicago team and the Democrat majority have been at the center of that. But nobody is immune to that kind of criticism and revolt and that’s why these beltway Republicans have been under fire. STEPHANOPOULOS: So, given that and you say you take the long-term view. Let’s jump ahead then to 2012. Who is the potential Republican candidate for 2012 that most embodies the Tea Party principles? Is it Sarah Palin? MALKIN: Well, certainly she is a favorite and she’s spoken at tea party conventions and she embodies this outside the beltway mentality. She gets it. She has an authenticity that I think that a lot of these beltway Republicans and old tired names have been lacking. But, just getting back to the culture of corruption for a moment, we didn’t talk about Connecticut where you have this outsider Republican Linda McMahon who easily won against the more establishment candidate Rob Simmons. I think people need to be reminded that the reason that race is happening in the first place is because voters were sick of corruptocrat Chris Dodd. STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, the computer’s going to cut us off. I could talk to you all morning. But, thank you very much. The book is called Culture of Corruption. The paperback is in book stores now. You can read an excerpt on ABCNews.com/GMA.

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ABC’s George Stephanopoulos Hits Michelle Malkin With White House Spin on Dem Corruption

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Rachel Maddow Edits ‘Factor’ Video to Make Bill O’Reilly Look Racist

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

Rachel Maddow on Friday highly-edited a video from the previous evening’s “O’Reilly Factor” in order to make the Fox News host look racist. For some background, Bill O’Reilly wrote a syndicated column Friday in which he chastized Maddow and David Letterman for “without a shred of evidence” claiming on CBS’s “Late Show” Tuesday that FNC intentionally runs stories about “scary black people” in order to frighten white folks into voting for conservatives. Maddow responded by calling this “bullpucky,” and presented video “evidence” from “Factor” programs to prove that this indeed is what Fox does. Unfortunately, in the most damning clip, Maddow’s minions conveniently edited out that O’Reilly was referring to a recent Gallup poll about how blacks and whites have differing views of President Obama. Ironically, this came moments after Maddow scolded O’Reilly for airing the edited version of former USDA official Shirley Sherrod on his July 19 program (videos follow with transcripts and commentary): RACHEL MADDOW, HOST: This time, the case against me is in his nationally syndicated column which I`m sure is read by millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of people. The headline is, quote, “Only far-left loons scared of Fox News.” Guess who the loon is? Yes. Talking about me on David Letterman`s show this week, Mr. O`Reilly says, quote, “Speaking with far-left MSNBC news commentator, Rachel Maddow on his program, Dave listened as she put forth the preposterous theory that wants to frighten white Americans by reporting negatively about black Americans.” “In the past, paranoid, dishonest rants like that would have been dismissed as fringe-speak. But not anymore. Without a shred of evidence, a guest on Letterman`s “Late Show,” which by the way, gets trounced in the ratings by Fox News Channel every night, defines an entire news organization as a racist enterprise and Letterman goes along.” Mr. O`Reilly`s repeated insistence that must be right because Fox has high ratings is a many-splendored thing particularly because this week – if you believe Mr. O`Reilly, this week means we`re all wrong and only sharksploitation(ph) is right. But there is something else going on here that isn`t just an ad populum fallacy about ratings or an ad hominem collateral swipe at the lovely creature that is the loon. It is something stupid, something stupid enough that it doesn`t even get dressed up in Latin phrasing. It`s him saying that there`s no evidence to back up my claim that Fox News consistently runs stories it says are news, but that nobody else really covers, stories that are ginned-up, exaggerated, caricatured, in some cases, just flat-out made-up scare stories designed to make white people feel afraid of black people, designed to make it seem like black people, or in some cases, immigrants are threatening white people and taking what is rightfully theirs. You may not like that diagnosis of what Fox has been up to, but to say there`s no evidence, not a shred of evidence, as he said, that`s bullpucky. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) O`REILLY: Speaking at an NAACP event in March, Department of Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod was caught on tape saying something very disturbing. Seems a white farmer in Georgia had requested government assistance from Ms. Sherrod. Wow. Well, that is simply unacceptable and Ms. Sherrod must resign immediately. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: Of course, the Shirley Sherrod story ended up being exposed as total bullpucky, manufactured by nifty video editing. Mr. O`Reilly had to apologize for that statement. But it`s not like the Shirley Sherrod story stands alone. Readers are encouraged to remember her comment “exposed as total bullpucky, manufactured by nifty video editing.” Also, if this was an example of Fox trying to scare white people, why did O’Reilly apologize the next day? Not every member of the news media that broadcast the original Sherrod video clip issued an on air apology like O’Reilly, but I digress: (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) O`REILLY: The collapse of ACORN – that is the subject of this evening`s “Talking Points Memo.” Here`s the latest scandal. You`re not going to believe it. Because federal authorities have not done much policing of ACORN, two private citizens, James O`Keefe and Hannah Giles, launch an undercover sting investigation themselves. The two pose as a prostitute and a pimp and asked a number of ACORN officials to help them get housing for a prostitution enterprise. The latest sting was in California, where an ACORN employee engaged the young woman posing as a prostitute. ACORN is a tax-exempt organization that should immediately lose that status. And Attorney General Holder should begin an intense investigation. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: Of course, the ACORN story ended up being exposed as total bullpucky, too, also manufactured by nifty video editing. Remember after the California attorney general looked into the full tapes and then arrested all those ACORN folks for those crimes that Bill O`Reilly showed them committing on tape? Yes, you don`t remember that? Me, neither, because it never happened. Bullpucky again. But still, very scary. Readers are encouraged to once again remember Maddow’s phrase here “total bullpucky, too, also manufactured by nifty video editing.” Secondly, that the far-left Jerry Brown chose not to prosecute ACORN employees by no means invalidates the corruption that was exposed at this organization or vindicates it. A Democrat-controlled Congress and a Democrat President have still not lifted the government ban on ACORN funding. Beyond this, the notion that O’Reilly reporting this matter was racially motivated is in itself racist. But Maddow and her ilk seem to miss this irony when they point such fingers at others: (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) O`REILLY: A guy like Van Jones who is a friend of the president, and he comes in and he`s a hardcore Marxist. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s not a hardcore Marxist. O`REILLY: He is. He admits it. All I keep hearing is from people like Eugene Robinson who traffics in racism every time you turn around. Once again, the idea that reporting on Van Jones was to scare white people is pathetic. Are all reports concerning black people involved in wrong-doing racist? As such, this was another tremendously weak point by Maddow in no way proving O’Reilly was trying to scare white people. But here’s the best part: O’REILLY: White Americans don`t like the huge expansion of the federal government. They also oppose the big spending increases that the president has imposed. It`s simple. White Americans fear government control. They don`t want the feds telling them what to do and they don`t want a bankrupt nation. For decades, African-Americans have supported a bigger federal government so it can impose social justice. The vast majority of blacks want money spent to level the playing field, to redistribute income from the white establishment to their precincts. (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW: Black people want white people`s money. They want to redistribute income from the white establishment to their precincts. But remember, Mr. O`Reilly says there is not a shred of evidence that Fox News hypes stories about scary black people taking white people`s stuff. I am not interested in playing cable news insult ping pong with Mr. O`Reilly. But as much as he keeps insisting that I`m no one worth arguing with, that I`m an uber-leftist – he called me that in his column, and a loon twice now. And a slightly larger percentage of one percent of the population watches his show than the proportion of one percent of the population that watches my show, for all he complains about how unimportant I am, my criticism scares white people on purpose to politically benefit conservatives, damn the consequences for the country, that criticism appears to have struck a nerve over at Fox. It appears to have gotten under Mr. O`Reilly`s skin. Good. Well, not so fast, Rach, for why didn’t you provide the full context of that last report by O’Reilly? Here is the unedited “Talking Points Memo” from Thursday. Notice just how much different this really is from the highly-edited version Maddow dishonestly showed her viewers: O’REILLY: Hi, I’m Bill O’Reilly. Thanks for watching us tonight. Black and white Americans differ over President Obama. That is the subject of this evening’s “Talking Points Memo”. A new Gallup poll says 88 percent of African-Americans continue to support President Obama, but just 38 percent of white Americans feel the president is doing a good job. That is a 50 point differential in the president’s job approval rating, which is stunning. So what is going on? Let’s take the white situation first. According to the polls, most white Americans don’t like the huge expansion of the federal government. They also oppose the big spending increases that the president has imposed. It’s simple. White Americans fear government control. They don’t want the Feds telling them what to do. And they don’t want a bankrupt nation. That attitude was on display in Missouri this week when 71 percent of the voters approved a state statute blocking the federal government from forcing them to buy health insurance. 71 percent said no to that. Since Obamacare is the centerpiece of the president’s domestic strategy so far, you can see he’s in some trouble. But black America has a totally different view. For decades, African- Americans have supported a bigger federal government, so it can impose social justice. A vast majority of blacks want money spent to level the playing field, to redistribute income from the white establishment to their precincts, and to provide better education and health care at government expense. So the African-American voter generally loves what President Obama is doing. As for Hispanic-Americans, 54 percent now support Mr. Obama but that is down nine points since April. The social justice component is there as well. There’s no question that there are now two Americas. The minority community continues to believe that society is not completely fair to them. And they want a huge government apparatus to change that. And while the white community may sympathize with the minority situation, they apparently believe that more harm than good is being done to the country with the cost of social justice programs. My own belief is that President Obama is well intentioned, but if the wild spending continues, this country will be gravely damaged. As far as social justice is concerned, strict oversight on fair rules, but not the imposition of expensive entitlements is the answer. The USA is the strongest country on earth because of self reliance and the industry of honest, hard working people, who don’t want to be told how to live. Independence and self-reliance is what has made this country great, powerful and generous. And that’s the Memo. As such, O’Reilly was commenting about a Gallup survey just released Tuesday with the title, “Blacks and Whites Continue to Differ Sharply on Obama.” By the end of his “Memo,” he was even crediting Obama with being “well intentioned.” Sound “scary” to you? As for Gallup, here’s what it reported: President Obama’s job approval rating averaged 88% among blacks and 38% among whites in July, a 50-percentage-point difference that has been consistent in recent months but is much larger than in the initial months of the Obama presidency. Obama’s job approval ratings among blacks, whites, and Hispanics in July are all at their lowest levels to date, although the overwhelming majority of blacks still approve. Maybe Maddow should call the Gallup folks racist, too. Regardless, Maddow and her minions completely removed this context from the video they edited thereby dramatically altering what O’Reilly said.  Isn’t that just as bad as what the anonymous person that sent the excerpted Sherrod video to Andrew Breitbart did? Maybe more importantly, isn’t this actually worse than what Fox and every other news outlet did with the Sherrod video, for none of them were involved in the editing. In Maddow’s case, her own staff edited out major portions of O’Reilly’s opening remarks on Thursday completely changing the meaning of his words. This MSNBC host should certainly not be pointing fingers at others for bullpucky manufactured by nifty video editing when she and her staff are doing the very same thing.  With this in mind, maybe Maddow on Monday should play the entire video for her audience and apologize to O’Reilly. Readers are advised to not hold their breath. 

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Rachel Maddow Edits ‘Factor’ Video to Make Bill O’Reilly Look Racist

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Wyclef Jean Says Earthquake Motivated Presidential Run

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

‘The quake drove home to me that Haiti can’t wait another 10 years’ for leadership, ‘Clef says. By Gil Kaufman Wyclef Jean Photo: Michelly Rall/ Getty Images Although he’s not expected to officially announce his plans to run for president of Haiti until a Thursday night (August 5) appearance on “Larry King Live,” Wyclef Jean has given a number of interviews this week in the lead-up to the confirmation, explaining his motivation for seeking one of the most challenging jobs in the Western hemisphere. “If not for the earthquake, I probably would have waited another 10 years before doing this,” Jean told Time magazine. “The quake drove home to me that Haiti can’t wait another 10 years for us to bring it into the 21st century.” The January 12 quake, which killed more than 200,000 and left nearly 2 million homeless, flipped a switch in the rapper, who was born in Haiti and raised in Brooklyn. The devastation he saw in the days and weeks that followed as he helped on the ground in flattened capital Port-au-Prince to save lives made him realize that there is no contradiction between his artistic and political ambitions. “If I can’t take five years out to serve my country as President,” he said, “then everything I’ve been singing about, like equal rights, doesn’t mean anything.” The filing deadline for the November 28 election is Saturday (August 7) and Jean — who once recorded a tune called “If I Was President” — plans to make a splash on King’s CNN show in order to kick off his campaign with a bang. In a country where half the population of 9 million is under the age of 25, Jean’s musical pedigree will surely be a huge asset to his campaign, and his celebrity promises to keep the often-wandering eye of the international press on his country’s most urgent needs. “The suffering of the people of Haiti, the youth of Haiti — which is the majority of the population — can’t take another five years of the corruption that’s been going on for the past 200 years. This is why I’m running,” Jean told People magazine. The 37-year-old married father said he’s aware that cynics will question the motivation for his run, his lack of political experience and the reports of financial impropriety within his Y

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Kyra Phillips Falsely Claims Pope Benedict XVI Hasn’t Said He’s Sorry

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

CNN’s Kyra Phillips completely got it wrong on Friday’s Newsroom as she reported on Pope Benedict XVI’s latest apology for the priestly sex abuse scandal. Even after she reported that Pope was ” begging for forgiveness ,” Phillips repeatedly claimed that ” there are two simple words we haven’t heard: I’m sorry .” The Pope has actually used those words and has made multiple apologies. The CNN anchor led the 9 am Eastern hour with the pontiff’s request for forgiveness, which he made at a Mass in St. Peter’s Square to close out the Catholic Church’s Year for Priests, which began on June 19, 2009 and ends June 19 this year: “Here’s what we’re working on right now. Sex abuse in the Catholic Church- the Holy Father begs forgiveness, promises never again . But why is it that being Pope means never having to say, I’m sorry .” Despite the continuing the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico and other top stories, Phillips highlighted the Pope’s comments, along with the teenager stranded at sea and the opening of the World Cup in South Africa. After her promos for those three stories, the anchor introduced a live report from CNN correspondent Paula Newton and included a clip from Benedict XVI’s homily: PHILLIPS: We begin with Pope Benedict XVI is begging for forgiveness. Today, he told thousands of his followers gathered at the Vatican that he will never allow priests to abuse children ever again. But is this plea for forgiveness enough? Well, not for critics. Here’s what the Pope said. POPE BENEDICT XVI (through translator): We too insistently beg forgiveness from God and from the persons involved, while promising to do everything possible to ensure that such abuse will never occur again. And that in admitting men to priestly ministry and in their formation, we’ll do everything we can to weigh the authenticity of their vocation. PHILLIPS: Okay. As you just heard, the Pope is asking for forgiveness, but still, there are two simple words we haven’t heard: I’m sorry . CNN’s Paula Newton, live in Rome- so Paula, why can’t the Pope just say, I’m sorry for this global sex scandal? Actually, Kyra, Benedict XVI did use those “two simple words” in his March 19 pastoral letter to the Catholics of Ireland , and added an extra word when he directly addressed those who were abused by priests: “You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry . I know that nothing can undo the wrong you have endured….It is understandable that you find it hard to forgive or be reconciled with the Church. In her name, I openly express the shame and remorse that we all feel .” Moreover, isn’t “begging for forgiveness” another way of saying “sorry”? The Pope also met with some of the victims of abuse during his April 2008 visit to the U.S., and addressed the scandal during a homily in New York City . Later that year, he apologized again , this time for the sex abuse in Australia while he visited that country. Phillips’s colleague Jessica Yellin made the same false claim nearly two months earlier during a April 16 segment . Yellin asked, “Why is he [the Pope] having such a hard time saying he’s sorry?” Newton then compounded Phillips’s falsehood by answering, “Centuries of theology says that he can’t. A very formal mea culpa was really not going to happen here, Kyra, although that’s what victims’ groups said that they wanted.” She spent the rest of the report delivering the talking points of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP): NEWTON: You know, in listening to what the Pope said, victims’ groups we spokes to said- look, they were gratified that at least he was speaking about it openly. And he said- he asked for forgiveness in a way that he has done privately, but not so publicly, in front of the audience of priests the way he did.   But, you know, I spoke with a Barbara Doris, of the survivors’ network SNAP, and she was quite critical. I want you to listen to this, Kyra. She said to me, ‘This was not very meaningful without the reform. The words ring hollow. It’s like I slapped you, I say I’m sorry, and I continue to slap you.’ Her bottom line, Kyra: not one child is any safer today because of those words. Her point is that reform- true reform at the Vatican has not been started. What she wanted to hear was the Pope address- say I’m sorry, do the mea culpa, which would have been historical, and then also, tell priests- look, if you know of anyone who has abused children around the world, turn them in right now, whether it was in the past or going on right now. Beyond that, they believe the Vatican has a corrupt bureaucracy, and they want that reformed. They say the Pope is a long way from doing that. Kyra? PHILLIPS: Corruption that has to be dealt with- Paula Newton, thanks. Phillips has made no secret that she supports left-wing changes to the Catholic Church. During a March 26, 2010 segment , she brought on three heterodox Christians who advocate the acceptance of homosexual behavior and the ordination of women without anyone from the opposing side and endorsed their agenda: “I think all three of you need to head to the Vatican and institute some change.” The anchor brought back two of those guests nearly a month later on April 21.

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Kyra Phillips Falsely Claims Pope Benedict XVI Hasn’t Said He’s Sorry

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Review: Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising

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

Over the years, Relic has delivered several titles that have come to redefine strategy gaming on PC. Last year, the Canadian development team unleashed Warhammer 40,000:

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