Tag Archives: democrats

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough Ridicules ‘My Party,’ Lectures GOP on Immigration

Posted on August 4, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough on Wednesday again decided to slam the Republican Party (Scarborough is a former-GOP Congressman). He chided, “My party. What happened to my party?” Democrat Co-host Mika Brzezinski made sure to notify Scarborough that, “Your party is over!” Scarborough was astounded that some Senate Republicans are calling for hearings on the 14th Amendment regarding birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants. Instead of examining the indictment or even giving a conservative viewpoint, Scarborough denounced his colleagues saying, “Instead of tearing up the Constitution of the United States, why don’t we just enforce the immigration laws that are on the books right now?” Scarborough based his reaction on a false conclusion that the Republicans’ intention is to repeal the 14th Amendment, which is not even possible for them to do on their own. Yet, Scarborough screamed, “They are going to hold hearings on getting rid of the 14th Amendment.” Scarborough seemed to be ignoring the stated goals of the GOP senators, examining the amendment and determining its intent. Laying out this question: Whether or not someone who happens to be born in this country to parents who are not citizens, or in this country legally, should be automatically granted citizenship and all the benefits that come with citizenship? Nevertheless, Scarborough mocked the idea alleging, “We are going to ban Santa Claus next.” Scarborough is developing an appetite for attacking Republicans. For example, the time he blamed Republicans for the continued war in Afghanistan , or the time he called Republicans “Genuinely Stupid” for criticizing Obama’s oil spill response or perhaps the time he cited that Arizona’s immigration law was “Un-American.” This attempt is just another example of Scarborough, the show’s “voice of the right,” taking every opportunity to belittle his “party.”

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MSNBC’s Cenk Uygur Assails Hateful Conservatives Who Opposed Women and Blacks

Posted on August 4, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

MSNBC News Live guest host Cenk Uygur on Wednesday railed against opposition to gay marriage, asserting that conservatives ” fought against women’s rights and they lost. They fought against civil rights for blacks and they lost .” He also touted the supposed moral superiority of liberals, lecturing, “This country is fundamentally progressive.” [ MP3 audio here.] To bolster this case, Uygur quoted Marting Luther King: “‘Cause as a very smart man once said in the middle of another civil rights battle, ‘The arc of history bends towards justice.'” Yet, liberals hardly have a spotless record when it comes to human rights. In 1972, Jane Fonda famously parroted communist propaganda while sitting on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun. Many progressives have also fawned over the communist murderer Che Guevara . Uygur derided, “And at some point, some conservatives will pretend they were never against [gay marriage] and that they’ve always been for equality for all…We know better. But, all of that will be irrelevant, because in the end there’s only one thing this country does with conservative ideas when they fight against progress, they throw them in the trash bin of history.” Here, Uygur, the host of the liberal radio show The Young Turks , was just being historically sloppy. Ronald Reagan made Martin Luther King’s birthday a holiday. When the historic 1964 Civil Rights Act came up for a vote, a higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats supported the bill. (Republicans were in favor 138 to 34. Democrats supported it 152-96.) Finally, it was Lincoln and later the Radical Republicans who made the progress for civil rights in the 19 th century. A transcript of the August 4 segment, which aired at 3:07pm EDT, follows: CENK UYGUR: Now, look, let’s go to “My Take.” Will there be gay marriage all across the country one day? Of course there will. Hear me now. Quote me later. It is inevitable. ‘Cause as a very smart man once said in the middle of another civil rights battle, “The arc of history bends towards justice.” This country is fundamentally progressive. When our founding fathers started a revolution for the idea of self-rule and democracy, it was arguably the single most progressive act in history. Conservatives fought against women’s rights and they lost. They fought against civil rights for blacks and they lost . They’re fighting against gay rights and they will lose, because this country believes in progress and human rights. That is what it’s absolutely based on. So, we will go through this drama for some time more, but the final act is clear. And then looking back many years from now, Americans will shake their heads and say how could people have possibly thought that? As they say now about people who fought against integration and a woman’s right to vote. How could they have possibly thought that? And at some point, some conservatives will pretend they were never against it and that they’ve always been for equality for all. And some of them might even pretend to be fans of famous gay rights crusaders like Harvey Milk as some now pretend to be big fans of Martin Luther King. We know better, but all of that will be irrelevant, because in the end there’s only one thing that this country does with conservative ideas when they fight against progress, they throw them in the trash bin of history .

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MSNBC’s Cenk Uygur Assails Hateful Conservatives Who Opposed Women and Blacks

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SEC Claims Information Opacity, But Media No Longer So Concerned With Transparency

Posted on August 4, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

It seems that not even the truth can possibly overturn the narrative that President Obama and the Democrats in Congress have brought transparency to Washington. Last Wednesday I wrote about how the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory bill Obama signed into law last month contains a provision exempting the Securities and Exchange Commission from Freedom of Information Act requests. Such an exemption would surely have been grounds for a media outcry during the Bush administration, yet apart from The Wall Street Journal and CNN, only blogs have been following the developments. The latter opted simply to parrot the administration’s claims without challenge. Other media ouetlets, such as National Public Radio and MSNBC, completely ignored the controversy, in stark contrast to their extensive coverage of the Bush administration’s attempts to curtail the scope of the Freedom of Information Act. NPR’s Don Gonyea said “When conflicts arise over what should or should not be open, the administration does not hesitate to invoke the memory of 9/11. And while it’s true that 9/11 changed the security landscape, it’s also true that the administration was tightening the control of information much earlier . . .” Some journalists are simply accepting the official SEC double-talk at face value. Unlike The Wall Street Journal , which actually bothered to talk to people familiar with the SEC and the bill, CNN just repeated what Chairwoman Mary Schapiro said in her letters, starting off their story with: “The Securities and Exchange Commission was not seeking a blanket exemption from public information laws . . .” Contrast this “see no evil” approach with CNN’s coverage of similar controversies during the Bush administration. In August of 2007, CNN’s Jack Cafferty covered the Bush administration’s attempt to exempt the White House Office of Administration from FOIA, noting the administration’s claims that certain federal officers were exempt from the law. “What do you suppose is in the millions of missing White House e-mails that President Bush doesn’t want anyone to see?” Cafferty asked, rhetorically. And in March of 2004, CNN analyst Ron Brownstein hammered home the alleged lack of transparency in the Bush administration, as evinced by its stance on FOIA. “They’re [the Bush administration] very tough on executive privilege in general, and on the flow of information more broadly than that,” Brownstein claimed. “Everything from the Freedom of Information Act to the Cheney Commission on Energy.” But with Obama in office, CNN doesn’t seem to be particularly concerned about the SEC’s apparent disdain for transparency. All it’s doing is reprinting talking points, after all. MSNBC, another news outlet that has yet to devote a single word to the SEC exemption, was also far more concerned with openness during the previous administration. Mike Barnicle, guest-hosting Hardball in 2007, said in reference to Bush’s Office of Administration: “The White House says the Freedom of Information act doesn’t apply to the office that handles their e-mails, even though their Web site says it does. Are they breaking the law?” Meanwhile, Rachel Maddow claimed on the day after Obama’s inauguration that secrecy was “the hallmark of the Bush years, the thing that often made Bush administration law-breaking possible because nobody knew it was happening. The best tool that we, the people, have to break through government secrecy is often the Freedom of Information Act. It was treated as an annoyance, an obstacle to be overcome by the Bush administration.” Again, these are a concerns this cable network has yet to extend to the SEC. Chairwoman Schapiro has written letters to Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Ct) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-Ma) explaining that the law doesn’t really exempt them from responding to FOIA requests. She asserted that entities regulated by her agency under the new financial “reform” legislation must “be able to provide us with access to confidential information without concern that the information will later be made public.” Schapiro claimed in her letter that the provisions in question are “not designed to protect the SEC as an agency from public oversight and accountability.” The mainstream press has apparently decided to take her word for it. How nice of them. It’s not like federal bureaucrats have ever failed to follow their agency’s guidelines . . . This press’s attitude, of course, stands in sharp contrast to just a few years ago, when members of the media were outraged by Republican attempts to restrict FOIA requests. Many in the media have, like NPR, decried the Bush administration’s use of 9/11 to curtail transparency, but thus far no one has criticized the current administration’s use of financial reform for the same goals. The double standard is telling.

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SEC Claims Information Opacity, But Media No Longer So Concerned With Transparency

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Was WikiLeaks Leaker Lashing Out Against ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’?

Posted on August 4, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Army Spc. Bradley Manning may face some serious charges for allegedly leaking tens of thousands of classified military documents to the website WikiLeaks. The leak could have serious consequences for the war effort. Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Adm. Mike Mullen claimed that WikiLeaks “might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family.” In investigating the leak, will the media explore every plausible motivation on Manning’s part, even in spite of strong resistance from the forces of political correctness? We’re about to find out. Manning was openly gay, and possibly transgendered. The UK Telegraph gleaned a number of posts from his Facebook page in which he expressed what seems like intense depression, and occasionally disdain for the US military. There is evidence that he took part in protests against the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Did he leak the information in question as an act of protest or vendetta against military policies of which he disapproved? It’s not at all clear. But shouldn’t the mainstream press at least note that possibility? The evidence of that motivation, mind you, is at this point far from conclusive. But given the evidence, it is appropriate to pose the question. The UK Telegraph reported last week (emphasis added): The US Army intelligence analyst, who is half British and went to school in Wales, appeared to sink into depression after a relationship break-up, saying he didn’t “have anything left” and was “beyond frustrated”. In an apparent swipe at the army, he also wrote: “Bradley Manning is not a piece of equipment,” and quoted a joke about “military intelligence” being an oxymoron… Mr Manning, who is openly homosexual, began his gloomy postings on January 12, saying: “Bradley Manning didn’t want this fight. Too much to lose, too fast.” At the beginning of May, when he was serving at a US military base near Baghdad, he changed his status to: “Bradley Manning is now left with the sinking feeling that he doesn’t have anything left.” Five days later he said he was “livid” after being “lectured by ex-boyfriend”, then later the same day said he was “not a piece of equipment” and was “beyond frustrated with people and society at large”. His tagline on his personal page reads: “Take me for who I am, or face the consequences!” … Pictures on Mr Manning’s Facebook page include photos of him on school trips during his time in Wales and at a gay rights rally, where he is holding up a placard demanding equality on “the battlefield” . Does the possibility that Manning’s opinions on DADT motivated him to leak the documents in question have any bearing on the validity of the policy itself? Of course not. No one is suggesting that Manning’s homosexuality in itself motivated him to allegedly leak these documents, and therefore that homosexuals should be banned from the military. The only relevant issue is Manning’s motivation in committing the alleged offense – the rantings on his Facebok page provide a key insight into a possible motivation that any responsible reporter would be remiss in dismissing out of some concern for political correctness. Of course the media has not been keen on drawing out possible motives when the explicit mention of those motives could offend some protected group. We saw the same trend after the Fort Hood shootings, when journalists simply could not bring themselves to proclaim that Maj. Nidal Hasan was a Muslim and motivated by his faith. He may have yelled “Allahu Akhbar” while opening fire on unarmed servicemen, but the first five media outlets to report on the shooting didn’t mention the shooter’s religion. Chris Matthews wondered whether it was “a crime to call al Qaeda” – as Hasan had – and CNN actually misquoted a soldier shot by Hasan to cast doubt on the cries of “Allahu Akbar”. So far in the case of Bradley Manning and WikiLeaks, the mainstream press seems similarly averse to even considering the possibility that the Army Specialist was acting out against military policy to which he was strongly opposed. Ace contends that “If it doesn’t advance The Narrative, it never really happened,” and that the press will remain silent. Is he right? We’ll see.

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Was WikiLeaks Leaker Lashing Out Against ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’?

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Bozell Column: Newsweek, Still Devolving

Posted on August 4, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

There’s something oddly funny about the cluelessness of liberal media companies when their ratings fall or their subscriptions collapse. They just refuse to admit, even consider that the business problem could be (at least in part) their own incessant liberal agitating. Instead, they seem to double down and make things even worse. ABC’s Sunday show “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” could never beat NBC, so what did the ABC braintrust do? They promoted the Bill Clinton spin artist to an everyday anchor job on “Good Morning America.” Then they doubled down and replaced him with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, who is married to another Bill Clinton spin artist, Jamie Rubin. Can it get more insular? Here’s another case in point: Newsweek’s subscriptions collapsed a couple of years back. How could it not be (at least in part) the umpteen Obama-worshipping cover stories that caused some subscribers to cancel. Then they really abandoned the “News” half of their title and wrote cover stories like “We’re All Socialists Now” and “Is Your Baby Racist?” Newsweek was put on the market, and the market has spoken: a $1 sale. Washington Post Company chieftain Don Graham wasn’t going to let the unwashed “rabble” of journalism win this Cracker Jack prize. So he turned away the conservatives at Newsmax magazine, as well as the publishers of the National Enquirer and TV Guide. “In seeking a buyer for Newsweek, we wanted someone who feels as strongly as we do about the importance of quality journalism,” Graham said in a statement. That means nobody broke up into laughter in front of him over whether the notion of “quality journalism” is demonstrated by racist-baby exclusives. Of course, The Washington Post wasn’t going to take that dollar (and unload its obligations) with some conniving Murdoch. They obviously wanted another liberal elitist to take the reins, and so they accepted the bid of Sidney Harman, the husband of Rep. Jane Harman (D.-Calif.). This passed with flying colors for radicals like Katrina VandenHeuvel of The Nation, who hailed him on Twitter as a “decent & longtime liberal.” Twitter also contained lots of mockery. Jim Geraghty of National Review joked: “Sidney Harman bought Newsweek, the institution, for $4.95 less than the cost of Newsweek, the print edition.” And: “Newsweek’s cover story next week is ‘MERCIFUL ATHENA: How Jane Harman balances toughness and tenderness in a dangerous world.’” Mr. Harman has donated $85,000 to the Democratic National Committee (most recently $25,000 in 2004). He’s also contributed to liberal politicians from Ted Kennedy to Barbara Boxer to Geraldine Ferraro. There’s only one Republican on the list, Scott McInnis of Colorado in 2001. As for the potential that Harman would do his wife’s bidding, there are occasions where both Harmans contributed to Democrats at the same time, according to federal election records. Both donated to leftist Mark Green on July 9, 1997; to Ellen Tauscher on February 6, 1998; to Max Cleland on June 29, 2001; to Paul Wellstone on August 21, 2002; to Joe Lieberman on March 31, 2003; and to John Kerry on April 16, 2003. Even without the major conflict of interest that the owner of Newsweek is married to the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Harman has liberal-elite credentials. He was president of Friends World College, a “worldwide experimental Quaker” peace college, in the early 1970s. He’s on the board of the Aspen Institute. Harman was an undersecretary of commerce under Jimmy Carter and is a trustee emeritus of the Carter Center and a former board member of the Martin Luther King Center for Social Change. But the media elite still sold this unconvincingly as one “centrist” selling to another. Mike Allen of Politico relayed that Washington Post Company chieftain Donald Graham “felt comfortable with Harman’s centrist politics, and was comforted by the idea of selling to a stalwart of the Washington establishment.”   This is the magazine that couldn’t send one greenhorn reporter to the scene of the earthquake in Haiti this year, choosing instead to rely for its “quality journalism” on a cover story written by (and about) President Obama. Two months later, they awarded their cover story to Michelle Obama to publicize her initiative on childhood obesity. With this kind of shilling for the White House, it won’t be at all shocking if Sidney Harman’s Newsweek seems run by a left-wing activist. That would mean the status quo is intact. But that wouldn’t mean that Newsweek will stop losing money. This ship is still sinking, and the captains have no plans to plug the leaks.

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Bozell Column: Newsweek, Still Devolving

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ABC Skips Label for Liberal Media Matters During Shootout With ‘Conservative’ Andrew Breitbart

Posted on July 21, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Conservative journalist Andrew Breitbart and Eric Boehlert of the liberal organization Media Matters debated each other on Wednesday’s Good Morning America, but ABC only identified the ideology of the right-leaning guest. Boehlert was simply the ” senior fellow with the watchdog group Media Matters for America .” [MP3 audio here. ] Yet, Breitbart’s website was described in a previous segment as “conservative.” In a follow-up piece, news anchor Juju Chang labeled him “a conservative blogger.” Breitbart and Boehlert were appearing to discuss the firing of USDA employee Shirley Sherrod, following the posting of a tape of her on Breitbart’s website. A number of topics not usually highlighted on network television were discussed. Host George Stephanopoulos actually allowed Breitbart to raise the 2008 case of voter intimidation by the New Black Panther Party, a story previously ignored on GMA. He also explained how the mainstream media ignored factual challenges to the assertion that African American congressmen were called the N-word during protests in Washington. After pointing out that videos of the day’s events don’t back up the Democrats’ claim, Breitbart challenged, “When I showed four exculpatory videos that it did not happen, the mainstream media would not show it, because the lie is so massive, it was meant to hurt the Tea Party.” An odd moment at the end of the segment occurred when Stephanopoulos turned to Boehlert and wondered, ” Why not show the four videos he’s talking about? ” Boehlert simply replied, “You can show them.” George Stephanopoulos hosts a two hour, daily program on a major network. If he was interested in the subject, he certainly could have shown the videos at some point in the past. A transcript of the July 21 segment, which aired at 7:33am EDT, follows: GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And joining us now to debate all this fallout, Andrew Breitbart, publisher of BigGovernment.com, which started this firestorm by posting that video of Shirley Sherrod. Also, Eric Boehlert, senior fellow with the watchdog group Media Matters for America . You guys are on different sides, obviously, of this issue. But, Andrew, let me begin with you. After seeing the whole tape, White House calls Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. He’s now reconsidering this firing. Any second thoughts for you? ANDREW BREITBART: I have no second thoughts regarding the course that Vilsack took. I have no idea why a video that was posted to draw attention between the conflict of the Tea Party and- the Tea Party- and the Democratic party, are trying to attack- STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me stop you there. Because, your original column said that the video lays out, in stark detail, that her, Shirley Sherrod’s federal duties, are managed through the prism of race and class distinction. When you see the whole video, that’s clearly not true. BREITBART: No, she does talk about race and class distinctions in it. But this was always- STEPHANOPOULOS: But, not in the context of her job as a federally appointed executive bureaucrat, which is what you say in the column. BREITBART: What this video clearly shows is a standard that the Tea Party has not been held to. The NAACP shows people in the audience there, applauding her when she discriminates against a white farmer. That was the point that I was trying to make. Because what the NAACP is arguing about the Tea Party is that there are people in- STEPHANOPOULOS: But, you said she did this as a federally appointed bureaucrat. BREITBART: Let me finish my point. There are people in the crowds of tea parties. And they’re rebuking the tea party on that behalf. And I’m telling you, that this is a standard. If you want to talk about people clapping racist behavior, that’s exactly what you see in the video. STEPHANOPOULOS: Eric? ERIC BOEHLERT: Well, Andrew had no idea what the context of the comments were. But that didn’t stop him from launching the smear campaign. That’s what Andrew Breitbart and Fox News and the right-wing media does. And they’ve been doing it for a long time. And it’s sort of ugly and contemptible. If he had decency, he would apologize to Shirley Sherrod. And he would also stop with the race-bating that we’ve seen all summer. BREITBART: He talked about race-baiting here. The context is laid out here by an icon within the civil rights movement. Mary Francis Berry, who was appointed by both Clinton- STEPHANOPOULOS: Former head of the Civil Rights Commission- BREITBART: Civil Rights Commission- said this. Appointed by Clinton and Carter said this: “Tainting the Tea Party movement with the charge of racism is proving to be an effective strategy for Democrats. There’s no evidence that Tea Party adherents are any more racist than any other Republicans and, indeed, many other Americans. But getting them to spend their time purging their ranks and having candidates distance themselves should help Democrats win in November. Having one’s opponents rebut charges of racism, is far better than discussing joblessness.” An ally as you described, Think Progress, has been at the forefront of pushing out false videos, which you didn’t show here, in which they take infiltrators of the Tea Party, who put up artificial racist signs, to improperly taint the racist- STEPHANOPOULOS: False videos? BREITBART: Yes or no? Yes or no? Yes or no? Yes or no? BOEHLERT: Andrew gets very excited about this charge of racism. I think he knows Mark Williams. Mark Williams is a national spokesperson for the Tea Party, who was expelled for making racist comments. The NAACP called out the Tea Party for racist elements. There are clearly racist elements. If you look at the Tea Party media, Glenn Beck is saying Barack Obama is orchestrating a race war. Rush Limbaugh is saying Obama is keeping unemployment artificially high to exact revenge on white America. There’s elements that the race-baiting is out of control. And Andrew’s smear on Shirley Sherrod is- BREITBART: This was never about Shirley Sherrod. BOEHLERT: So, apologize to her. BREITBART: This was not about Shirley Sherrod. STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, you did say- BREITBART: This was not about the Tea Party. This was not about Shirley Sherrod. It’s about the smears that have gone about the Tea Party. Including the primary one that led the charge that got reinstigated by the NAACP, condemning the Tea Party by saying the N-words were hurled at congressmen Carson, Lewis and Eldridge Cleaver. That did not happen. When I showed four exculpatory videos that it did not happen, the mainstream media would not show it, because the lie is so massive, it was meant to hurt the Tea Party. STEPHANOPOULOS: Let’s get into this. Because, this was during the health care debate. BREITBART: Yes. The day before. STEPHANOPOULOS: And you say that you have videos of the members of Congress showing that they were not- BREITBART: They were walking down the steps. They said- Congressman Carson said as he was walking down the steps that the N-word was said 15 times by 15 different people. 400 People gathered around him. He thought there would be rocks being thrown at him. The police finally interceded. When they isolated that it happened on those steps, we found four videos that show them walking down briskly. Cleaver, who says that he was with them, is not in the video. But Congressman John Shadegg from Arizona, is walking behind them. And you can hear, “kill the bill. Kill the bill” and “you arrogant bastards.” But, there was no N-word. And it became the basis- STEPHANOPOULOS: So, what’s your response? BOEHLERT: My response is this is sort of a he said/he said, between Andrew and John Lewis. I’ll take John Lewis any day over Andrew Breitbart. John Lewis is an American icon. Andrew Breitbart is a propagandist. BREITBART: Four videos that nobody would show. Four videos tell the story. And the thing is, once they were out there, camera-hogging, saying the event happened, the second we said we had four videos and we offered $100,000 to try and show that this was- this was concocted, the people hogging the cameras wouldn’t take response, even from Associated Press. Jesse Washington from the Associated Press, could not get responses from Carson, Lewis or Cleaver. STEPHANOPOULOS: How about the broader point- BREITBART: This is the basis of the smear against the Tea Party movement. It’s a massive smear. If we can prove that three Congressmen were participants in a hoax of that proportion, that’s why we’re here today. And I was trying to make a huge point here. If they’re going to create a false argument against the Tea Party-

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Poachers kill last female rhino in South African park for prized horn

Posted on July 19, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

PHOTO: The last rhinoceros cow in Krugersdorp park, South Africa, bled to death on Wednesday after poachers hacked off her horn. Photograph: Reuters Poachers kill last female rhino in South African park for prized horn – Record levels of poaching are endangering survival of rhinoceros in South Africa South African wildlife experts are calling for urgent action against poachers after the last female rhinoceros in a popular game reserve near Johannesburg bled to death after having its horn hacked off. Wildlife officials say poaching for the prized horns has now reached an all-time high. “Last year, 129 rhinos were killed for their horns in South Africa. This year, we have already had 136 deaths,” said Japie Mostert, chief game ranger at the 1,500-hectare Krugersdorp game reserve. The gang used tranquilliser guns and a helicopter to bring down the nine-year-old rhino cow. Her distraught calf was moved to a nearby estate where it was introduced to two other orphaned white rhinos. Wanda Mkutshulwa, a spokeswoman for South African National Parks, said investigations into the growing number of incidents had been shifted to the country's organised crime unit. “We are dealing with very focused criminals. Police need to help game reserves because they are not at all equipped to handle crime on such an organised level,'' she said. Rhino horn consists of compressed keratin fibre – similar to hair – and in many Asian cultures it is a fundamental ingredient in traditional medicines. Mkutshulwa said poaching was also rife in the Kruger Park. Five men were arrested there in the past week alone – four of whom were caught with two bloodied rhino horns, AK-47 assault rifles, bolt-action rifles and an axe. Krugersdorp game reserve attracts at least 200,000 visitors every year. It is also close to a private airport, which may have been used by the poachers. “The exercise takes them very little time,” Mostert said. “They first fly over the park in the late afternoon to locate where the rhino is grazing. Then they return at night and dart the animal from the air. The tranquilliser takes less than seven minutes to act. “They saw off the horns with a chainsaw. They do not even need to switch off the rotors of the helicopter. We do not hear anything because our houses are too far away. The animal dies either from an overdose of tranquilliser or bleeds to death.” The committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) warned last year that rhino poaching had reached an all-time high. The Cites conference in Geneva in July 2009 heard that Asia's economic expansion had fuelled the market in rhino horns. The horns are also used in the Middle East to make handles for ornamental daggers. Cites said demand for them had begun to soar in recent years. In the five years up to 2005, an average of only 36 rhinos had been killed each year. Conservationists estimate that there are only 18,000 black and white rhinos in Africa, down from 65,000 in the 1970s. Mostert, who has been a ranger for 20 years, said the animals fetch up to 1m rand (

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GOP Privately Embarrased about Michele Bachman’s Tea Party Caucus

Posted on July 19, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

By E.J. Dionne I don’t think Rep. Michele Bachmann, the very right-wing Republican from Minnesota, is doing her party any favors by creating a Tea Party Caucus in the House of Representatives. In fact, I imagine that this is the first thing Bachmann has done in a long time that will make Democrats happy. Not surprisingly, Bachmann declared herself chair of the caucus, for which she filed paperwork on Thursday. “This caucus will espouse the timeless principles of our founding, principles that all Members of Congress have sworn to uphold,” she declared. “The American people are doing their part and making their voices heard and this caucus will prove that there are some here in Washington willing to listen.” That last part, about proving that “there are some here in Washington willing to listen,” is what I suspect will make many Republicans nervous. This will put a lot of people on the line, and force some into an unappetizing choice. A lot of Republicans would like the Tea Party to rally as many right-of-center voters to the polls as possible but not have to take any responsibility for the movement’s more radical stands or the unseemly rhetoric that issues from some of its supporters. (That now-infamous billboard in Iowa made even some Tea Party people unhappy.) Bachmann’s move will make it harder for them to avoid the question of whether they are with the Tea party or against it. Those Republicans who do sign up could turn off more moderate voters. Those who don’t might have to worry about future primaries supported by the Tea Party. We’ve already seen how even very conservative Republicans — Sen. Bob Bennett of Utah is Exhibit No. 1 – can be declared not-right-enough by these folks. Bennett himself issued a warning to his fellow Republicans about the Tea Party in an interview with the Associated Press. “With the tea party creating the mischief that it is in Colorado, we may not win that seat,” he said. “My sources in Nevada say with Sharon Angle there's no way Harry Reid loses in Nevada,” he said about the Tea Party Republican challenging the Senate’s Democratic majority leader. He added that Rand Paul, another Tea Party favorite, could lose the Republicans what had looked like a safe seat in Kentucky. But Bennett credited Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell with “pulling [Paul] back from some of his more dangerous statements.” The clearest sign of Tea Party damage to the G.O.P. was a Mason-Dixon poll for the Las Vegas Review-Journal released today. It lends support to what Bennett’s sources in Nevada have told him. As Laura Myers reported for the paper: The Mason-Dixon poll showed that if the general election were held now, Reid would win 44 percent to 37 percent for Angle. Ten percent were undecided, 5 percent would choose “none of these candidates,” and the remaining 4 percent would pick another candidate on the ballot. That is the best Reid has done against Angle this year in a series of Mason-Dixon polls. Previously, the two had been locked in a statistical dead heat with Angle finishing just ahead of Reid in February, 44 percent to 42 percent, and in June, 44 percent to 41 percent, and Reid finishing just ahead of Angle in May, 42 percent to 39 percent. The phone survey, taken Monday through Wednesday of 625 likely voters in Nevada, is the first in which Reid has finished ahead of Angle outside the margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. By the way, “none of these candidates” is actually an option on the Nevada ballot, which could help Reid by draining off protest votes. So at the very moment many Republicans are trying to figure out how to finesse the Tea Party, Bachmann is setting out to make the finesse a little bit harder. You wonder if some in her party will try to talk her out of forming her new caucus. Very quietly, of course. added by: jubal

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HuffPo Celebrates ‘Great’ Novels Giving Teens Gay Role Models

Posted on July 19, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Do you know what your teens are reading? The folks at the Huffington Post do, and they’re happy to report the emergence of gay role models in teen-focused literature.  In a July 19 post, contributors Jessie Kunhardt and Alexandra Carr highlighted 13 “great” novels for gay teens who want to explore teen homosexuality or find “fictional role models.” Kunhardt and Carr praised the books as “worth a read” despite many of the books having generated complaints from parents and bans from schools and libraries. The list included brief summaries and, in some cases, excerpts of positive reviews from mainstream publications including Publisher’s Weekly and Booklist. The reviews praised the books for themes like “celebration of human differences,” “be proud of who you are” and “love can lead to acceptance.” One highlighted book, “Kissing Kate,” was written by Lauren Myracle, an author whose “TTYL” series topped the American Library Association’s list of Most Challenged Books in 2009. The books, written in “instant message” format, have been criticized for offensive language and nudity, according to the ALA. Another book, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky, was celebrated as a teen literature “classic” by the HuffPo writers. “Perks” was the ALA’s third most-challenged book for its depictions of “homosexuality, sexually explicit, anti-family, offensive language, religious viewpoint, unsuited to age grou, drugs, [and] suicide.” The Huffington Post is a vocal advocate for the mainstreaming of homosexuality through teen literature. Last June, the liberal blog posted an Associated Press article noting that there were “finally” books offering gay role models to teens. And despite the ALA’s list of Most Frequently Challenged Books, the organization has repeatedly shown its approval of the LGBT agenda in children and young adult novels. A report by the Culture and Media Institute found that in 2009 alone, more than 40 pro-gay books were given ALA awards.

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AP Shills for NAACP Against Wishes of Black Citizens in North Carolina

Posted on July 19, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

The Associated Press on Monday published a news item that would more correctly be called a shameless press release on behalf of the NAACP. Writer Allen G. Breed followed the liberal group to Raleigh for a recent show of kabuki theatre. The cause? Getting the Wake County school system to continue the antiquated method of forcibly busing students to far-flung neighborhoods in pursuit of racial integration. Never mind that the minority-heavy county brought sweeping changes to the school board by giving Republicans control last year – on the very platform of ending integration. And never mind that the majority of African-Americans living there are either opposed or indifferent to school integration. The NAACP knows what is best for them. Breed predictably began with the headline ” Fear of ‘Resegregation’ Fuels Unrest in NC .” What followed was a history lesson obviously designed to drum up more fear: In the annals of desegregation, Raleigh is barely a footnote. Integration came relatively peacefully to the North Carolina capital. There was no “stand in the schoolhouse door,” no need of National Guard escorts or even a federal court order. Nearly 50 years passed – mostly uneventfully, at least until a new school board majority was elected last year on a platform supporting community schools. The result has been turmoil. When a mainstream media news item uses a delicate word like “turmoil,” you can usually take that as a sign of some unhinged liberal getting arrested. In this case, that’s exactly what happened : four activists, including the NAACP state leader, disrupted a school board meeting in front of media cameras, sat in the chairs belonging to the school officials, and waited to be pulled away by police. This apparently made them heroes in the eyes of Breed, who contacted at least one of them for a quote: “We’re not going to sit idly by while they turn the clock back on the blood, sweat and tears and wipe their feet on the sacrifices of so many that have enabled us to get to the place we are today,” says the Rev. William J. Barber II, head of the state NAACP chapter and one of the four protesters arrested for trespassing at the June 15 board meeting. If Barber is so worried about those trying to turn back the clock, his outrage is aimed in the wrong direction. The new school board was elected to do that very thing by voters in the county, many of them minorities, tired of the pointless practice of integration. Raleigh’s local News and Observer provides information from 2009 that got conveniently ignored by the AP: Winning candidates in Tuesday’s Wake County school board elections achieved their victories by tapping into widespread resentment about the schools and offering up the rallying cry “neighborhood schools.” So these proponents of localized education were swept into power by a population ready and willing to “turn back the clock” on school integration. But wait, it gets worse: Interviews with candidates and supporters showed that other factors in the near-sweep by opponents of current school board policies included:   Lackluster support for current board diversity policies by Democrats and even opposition by a significant percentage of African-Americans, as reflected in a private poll taken by a Democratic operative last month. A core of discontent not only with board policies on diversity but also with year-round schools and what opponents called an arrogant and distant board and administration. Indeed, that internal poll conducted by a Democrat campaign operative in September 2009 found that some 46 percent of black voters opposed forced busing, 14 percent had no opinion, and only 39 percent approved. In other words, the NAACP is staging protests and spouting about civil rights against the very wishes of nearly half the African-Americans in Wake County.  The AP did eventually get around to admitting that some folks wanted to repeal integration… only to reprimand them for being ignorant: With 140,000 students in 160 schools, Wake County was the largest of about 70 districts across the nation using socio-economic status to maintain diversity. The system was considered a model for those looking for a way around race-based assignment scheme rejected by the courts. “It (the Wake County system) really was a beacon, a flag around which more and more people were rallying as they saw the positive effects of this,” says sociologist Gerald Grant, a professor emeritus at Syracuse University and author of the book “Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There are No Bad Schools in Raleigh.” But some parents grew tired of sending their children off on long bus rides. Others said the policy may have brought whites and blacks together, but it wasn’t really helping blacks educationally. And there are those who say people forgot how bad the bad old days were. “For folks who were there and lived through it, there’s a real sense of a collective forgetting, a collective amnesia,” says James Leloudis, a history professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who was in high school when the county system integrated. “There is a kind of tragic disremembering.” Part of the story is that Wake County is increasingly populated by people who did not grow up here and do not feel the tug or burden of that history. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about half of Wake County’s residents were born outside North Carolina. So let’s break this down. First, courts kept striking down racially-driven school district schemes, but the geniuses in Wake County circumvented this by calling their scheme economically-driven, and this trick was heralded by liberal community organizers nationwide. Yet despite the apparent brilliance of this scheme, voters were unable to appreciate their good fortunes. Kids didn’t like being stuck on a bus for an hour, parents didn’t like PTA meetings on the other side of the city, and minority children were still not matching white peers on performance. The whole scheme was wasting money, time, fuel, and resources, all for very little gain. And then outsiders moved to Raleigh with their silly ideas of attending the school nearest home. Impressionable young black families, who don’t harbor resentment from the 1950s, are being convinced that forced busing is a stupid idea. Middle age NAACP activists are the true voice of the black community and know what is best for these naïve young blacks. This is what the Associated Press calls an informative news report about a complex issue. But it wasn’t done yet! No article on race would be complete without a random shot at tea parties: A columnist for The News & Observer in Raleigh recently called Margiotta and Tedesco “a couple of carpetbagging Northerners.” And Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker referred to the board majority as “people who are not from the area, who don’t share our values,” and announced the formation of a group to ensure that any new student assignment plan doesn’t violate the state constitutional guarantee of a sound education. The NAACP’s Barber admits busing supporters were caught napping last fall. But with five seats – including Margiotta’s – up for grabs next year, they are determined to keep up the heat to counter what “the anti-diversity, right-wing, tea party-sympathizing, resegregationist caucus is doing in Wake County.” That’s right, folks. If you think it’s pointless to make a black student sit on a bus for an hour to attend a school miles away from friends and family, you’re a right-wing bigot. The AP did not quote one single black voter who disagreed with the NAACP. It didn’t cite any polling data on how local minorities felt, and it didn’t share any facts on how ineffective the scheme has been. How kind of the AP to care so much about the plight of poor minorities in North Carolina. Perhaps when the news wire gets done propping up liberal activist groups, it can return to reporting on actual news from that state – like say, perhaps, the ongoing investigation against former governor Mike Easley, which the AP has all but ignored in recent months. Since the local affairs of North Carolina are of so much interest to readers nationwide, it would only make sense to report on all of them. Or do nationwide readers only need to hear about the NAACP’s grasp at relevance?

See the rest here:
AP Shills for NAACP Against Wishes of Black Citizens in North Carolina

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