Tag Archives: muslim

Geist: Showing Plane Flying Into WTC ‘Always In Bad Taste’

Posted on August 10, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

More in sorrow than in anger, I’m about to record a personal blogging first: airing a gripe about Willie Geist.  When writing of the Morning Joe sidekick, my habit is to append adjectives such as “affable.”   Willie is indeed a likable guy, patently comfortable in his own skin.  And while I don’t suspect him of being a closet conservative, neither is he anything of a raging liberal, typically striking a regular-guy’s middle ground on most issues. All of which makes his comment of today that much more surprising—and regrettable.  Geist was commenting on an ad by an anti-Ground Zero mosque group to be displayed on NYC buses, which shows a plane flying into one of the WTC towers.  Although defending the anti-mosque group’s rights, Willie opined that it’s “always in bad taste to show the plane flying into the building.” Really? The ad was illuminating for another, chilling, reason . . . Have a look at the screencap below showing the mosque’s proposed design [note that the anti-mosque group wasn’t misrepresenting the design.  See mosque architect’s rendering here ].  Sure looks a lot like the WTC towers themselves, doesn’t it?  Hard to imagine that’s a coincidence. A certain implicit triumphalism involved? Note: Introducing the segment, Chris Jansing [subbing for Mika] said that “New York’s transportation agency has approved a controversial advertisement protesting a planned mosque near Ground Zero.”  True. But what Chris [who generally seems to be playing things straight] didn’t say is that the MTA only approved the ad after the group sued the agency, which had demanded various changes to the ad, including the removal of the plane.

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Chris Matthews: Do Republicans Oppose Obama Because of His Race?

Posted on August 6, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Chris Matthews on Friday actually asked a GOP Congressman if Republicans oppose President Obama because of his race. On the 5PM installment of MSNBC’s “Hardball,” Matthews brought on Rep. Bob Inglis, the Congressman from South Carolina who easily lost his primary fight in June to Tea Party candidate Trey Gowdy and has been badmouthing his Party ever since. Early in the conversation, Matthews asked, “What is it that`s gotten into your Party`s water supply, the Republican Party`s water supply, that makes them strangely hostile to the president, not just against his policies, but personally? Is it race?” Fixated on racial conspiracy theories, the “Hardball” host later in the interview asked, “If we had about a million Heide Klums trying to cross the border, the Mexican border of the United States, you know, the gorgeous blond from Germany or whatever, do you think that would be a problem with immigration right now, or is it really just ethnic?” (video follows with partial transcript and commentary): CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Welcome back to HARDBALL. After voting for TARP and telling voters not to listen to Glenn Beck too much, South Carolina Republican Congressman Bob Inglis was outvoted in his primary this year. Now he`s offering up some very honest advice for his party and some very scary stories from his time on the trail. Here`s how Mr. Inglis described one campaign donor meeting to David Corn at “Mother Jones” — quote — “They say, `Bob, what don`t you get? Barack Obama is a socialist, communist, Marxist, who wants to destroy the American economy, so he can take over as dictator. Health care is part of that, and he wants to open up the Mexican border and turn the United States into a Muslim nation.`” Congressman Inglis joins us tonight from Greenville, South Carolina. Well, that was a funny conversation. Somebody actually thought that the Muslims would be pouring over the Mexican border. The Rio Grande protects us from Islam. These people have got a problem. (LAUGHTER) REP. BOB INGLIS (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I guess so. It`s — I think it`s generally not seen as a Muslim nation, but — Mexico isn`t. MATTHEWS: Well, what is — what is — let`s talk about the conspiracy theories. What is it that`s gotten into your party`s water supply, the Republican Party`s water supply, that makes them strangely hostile to the president, not just against his policies, but personally? Is it race? Later in the conversation, Matthews actually said the following: MATTHEWS: I can`t resist asking this. I got to ask this question. If we had about a million Heide Klums trying to cross the border, the Mexican border of the United States, you know, the gorgeous blond from Germany or whatever, do you think that would be a problem with immigration right now, or is it really just ethnic? The people from a different ethnic background. If Heidi Klum, by the million, was trying to cross the border, I figure a lot of guys would be down there welcoming her personally. What`s your view? I want to make this a little ludicrous because I think it`s obvious it`s ethnic. And I want people just to admit it. So, in Matthews’ distorted view, Republicans oppose Obama’s policies because of his race, and Americans that are against illegal immigration only feel this way because those coming across the border are Mexican. And this guy has his own show on a cable news network. Tough to believe, isn’t it?

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ABC Shoves Back at Shales, Insists Amanpour’s Memoriam for ‘All Who Died in War’ Borrowed from Her Catholic Church

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

ABC is fighting back against Washington Post critic Tom Shales asking if ABC’s new Sunday show host Christian Amanpour meant to send flowers and regrets to members of the Taliban in her overbroad eulogy on her debut as This Week host. Justin Elliott of Salon’s War Room blog  found remarks from Jeffrey Schneider, senior vice president at ABC, that Shales’ criticism here is “utterly fabricated.” He can’t admit that Amanpour left the door wide open to speculation. Brent Baker noticed the slight, where Amanpour made no moral distinctions among the world’s war dead: “We remember all of those who died in war this week. And the Pentagon released the names of eleven U.S. service members killed in Afghanistan.” Technically, “all of those who died in war” could include a suicide bomber or an executioners of whole families. But Schneider insisted Amanpour’s Catholic upbringing played a role:  “Christiane took the language from a prayer that she says in her Catholic church every weekend. It’s a bidding prayer,” Schneider said. I’m a lifelong Catholic and have never heard the phrase “bidding prayer” — which could be a British usage . We often call them “prayers of the faithful,” where lectors read out general prayers, each specific to its parish. It wouldn’t be surprising for Catholics to pray for an end to war, but it might be eyebrow-raising to pray with the loophole phrase for “all who died in war.” That includes innocents, and could include terrorists. Schneider also accused Shales of “trying to create some kind of controversy out of something that is utterly well intentioned — which is to honor both U.S. soldiers that have died in battle as well as civilians and ordinary people who die in war all the time. Seems like a fairly non-controversial thing to do.” But wait — Amanpour said “all those who died in war,” not just U.S. soldiers and civilians.  Perhaps Amanpour goes to church every week, as Schneider suggested. But that’s not the impression many Christians have after her special “God’s Christian Warriors” in 2007. In one interview at that time, TV Guide asked about her own faith, and it came out much more muddled: TVGUIDE.COM: In the course of reporting this, did people ask you if you believe in God? AMANPOUR: They did. I always find it a difficult question. I’m born of a Catholic mother and a Muslim father and I’m married to a Jewish husband. So I have all of God’s wonderful shapes in my DNA. It has helped me have an inclusive look at what religion is all about. I instinctively retreat from division. I don’t want politics or religion to be a reason for division in my life or in other people’s lives. I see so much war, killing and hatred; I can always see why it shouldn’t be like that. Amanpour doesn’t declare she’s Catholic there at all. She seems like a natural fit for the secular liberal media elite.

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ABC Shoves Back at Shales, Insists Amanpour’s Memoriam for ‘All Who Died in War’ Borrowed from Her Catholic Church

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Court Filings Show ’60 Minutes’ Hero Donzinger Colluded with Ecuadoran Government to Defraud Chevron

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

These are some of the outtakes that the Ecuadoran plaintiff lawyer Steve Donziger probably wished were left on the cutting room floor. Back in May 2009, CBS’s “60 Minutes” featured a story on the legal conflict between Chevron and an eco-group called the Amazon Defense Coalition for $27.4 billion in so-called environmental damage in Ecuador’s rain forest from then-Texaco Petroleum’s (Texpet) operation of oil well sites over a decade ago. However, in 1998, the government of Ecuador certified that Texpet , a minority partner in an exploration and production venture state-owned oil company PetroEcuador, had met Ecuadorian and international remediation standards and had released Texpet from future claims and obligations. During that May 3 broadcast, Donziger was portrayed by CBS “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley as a shining individual with a deeply rooted compassion for the indigenous people of the Ecuadorian Amazon. “We traveled downriver in search of an Indian tribe which is part of the group suing Chevron. For centuries this has been the territory of the Secoyas,” Pelley said. “We sat with two of their leaders who said they had never seen oil until it was on the river. Humberto told us oil looked like flowing black blankets and ruined the fishing. The Secoyas took us to their community hut, where we saw the driving force behind the suit, Stephen Donziger, a New York lawyer, far from home.” However, the National Association of Manufacturers blog ShopFloor.org , in a post by Carter Wood, reports a legal filing from Chevron with a transcription of outtakes from the movie “Crude” by Joe Berlinger , which were left out of the actual film, portrays Donziger in a less-the-flattering light, or as he would say, “a bunch of smoke and mirrors and bulls**t.” (filings available here ): “Hold on a second, you know, this is Ecuador … You can say whatever you want and at the end of the day, there’s a thousand people around the courthouse, you’re going to get what you want. Sorry, but it’s true.” “Because at the end of the day, this is all for the Court just a bunch of smoke and mirrors and bullshit. It really is. We have enough, to get money, to win.” Wood also pointed out those filings suggest a “sordid orchestration of the claims against Chevron, with Steven Donziger being the cynical conductor” – that this random figure $27.4-billion figure was in fact not assigned independently: The Crude Outtakes Show That Plaintiffs’ Counsel and Consultants Planned and Created the Supposedly Independent $27.4 Billion “Global Expert Assessment” The outtakes that Chevron has reviewed so far leave no doubt that Plaintiffs arranged for Cabrera’s appointment and decided what Cabrera’s report would say, and that Plaintiffs’ lawyers and their U.S. consultants – not independent experts working for Cabrera – drafted Cabrera’s initial work plan and ultimately his damages assessment in the Lago Agrio Litigation. In a separate post also dated Aug. 3, Wood shows these filings suggest there’s probably more to be revealed in these outtakes:  “It would strain the Second Circuit’s Order to include only footage of counsel and not footage of those working on behalf of or in concert with Plaintiffs’ counsel. There is little question that groups such as Soltani’s Amazon Watch and Amazon Defense Front have been working on behalf of or in concert with Plaintiffs’ counsel in connection with the Lago Agrio Litigation, and thus footage of personnel from those groups should be produced pursuant to the Second Circuit’s Order. Indeed, recognizing the role that personnel from such organizations have played on behalf of Plaintiffs’ counsel, Berlinger has treated Luis Yanza and other members of Amazon Defense Front as part of Plaintiffs’ litigation team, and has already produced footage including Luis Yanza. See Ex. U. Nonetheless, during the meet and confer, Berlinger’s counsel stated that Mr. Berlinger has taken the position that communications with or film involving Amazon Watch and the Frente are privileged, even though they stand effectively in the same position as Yanza. But Plaintiffs have asserted in the District Court in Colorado that the Frente, Amazon Watch, and Karen Hinton are so closely aligned that they fall within the circle of attorney-client privilege. Ex. QQ. They cannot possible contend here that communications with “Plaintiffs’ counsel” do not include Karen Hinton, the Frente, and Amazon Watch.” There have been a lot of questions surrounding the legitimacy of case. Last September, an undercover camera showed the judge in the case willing to participate in a $3 million bribery scheme . Will “60 Minutes,”and also The New York Times as well, run follow-up pieces about the questions surrounding the case they touted as important to the people Ecuador? Time can only tell.

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NY Times Reporters Hail Mayor Bloomberg’s Weepy Defense of Ground Zero Mosque

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

The front page of Wednesday’s New York edition of the New York Times featured the news that a controversial plan to build a mosque two bocks from Ground Zero was approved by the city’s landmarks commission: ” Mosque Plan Clears Hurdle In New York — Bloomberg Pleads for Religious Tolerance .” But reporters Michael Barbaro and Javier Hernandez actually led with NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s weepy speech about religious tolerance, falsely asserting that that denying permission to build a 13-story Islamic center topped by a mosque would somehow be “denying the very constitutional rights” that New York City police and firefighters died protecting. And the Times again insinuated that opposition to the mosque is coming mostly from outsiders, while New Yorkers have gotten on with their lives and don’t oppose it — a half-truth at best, as shown by results of a poll of New Yorkers. Times reporters were very impressed with the speech. Both Jodi Kantor and Brian Stelter linked to speech coverage on their Twitter feeds, Kantor calling it a “must-read” and Stelter calling it ” worth reading .” Here’s the Times’s lead: As New York City removed the final hurdle for a controversial mosque near ground zero, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg forcefully defended the project on Tuesday as a symbol of America’s religious tolerance and sought to reframe a fiery national debate over the project. With the Statue of Liberty as his backdrop, the mayor pleaded with New Yorkers to reject suspicions about the planned 13-story complex, to be located two blocks north of the World Trade Center site, saying that “we would betray our values if we were to treat Muslims differently than anyone else.” “To cave to popular sentiment would be to hand a victory to the terrorists — and we should not stand for that,” the mayor said. Grappling with one of the more delicate aspects of the debate, Mr. Bloomberg said that the families of Sept. 11 victims — some of whom have vocally opposed the project — should welcome it. “The attack was an act of war — and our first responders defended not only our city but also our country and our Constitution,” he said, becoming slightly choked up at one point in his speech, which he delivered on Governors Island. “We do not honor their lives by denying the very constitutional rights they died protecting. We honor their lives by defending those rights — and the freedoms the terrorists attacked.” Bloomberg’s idea of freedom is quite selective — he can get blubbery over building a mosque near Ground Zero, but as his mayoralty has shown, his love of liberty doesn’t extend to gun ownership, smoking in bars, or eating food made with hydrogenated vegetable oil. National Republican leaders, like the former House speaker, Newt Gringrich, and Sarah Palin, the 2008 vice presidential nominee, assailed the proposal, calling it offensive. On Friday, the Anti-Defamation League, an influential Jewish civil rights group, declared its opposition, distressing many in the interfaith community. For the second time in recent days, the Times misleadingly implies that it’s mostly a bunch of outsiders opposed to the plan: The disagreement has underscored how differently the World Trade Center site is viewed by those in New York and those outside of it. In the city, the space has returned, haltingly, to the urban grid, sprouting new office towers and train stops. But beyond New York’s borders, it looms as a powerful symbol of the war on terror and the lives lost on that day. A Quinnipiac University poll from early July found that while Manhattanites themselves approved of the project by a 46 margin, the outer boroughs of New York City (Brooklyn, The Bronx, Queens and Staten Island) oppose it. DNAInfo reporter Julie Shapiro wrote: ” New Yorkers as a whole weighed in against the mosque, with 52 percent opposing the plans and just 31 percent supporting the project .” The Times again danced around the fact that the funding of the project (Saudi Arabia is rumored to be involved) remains a secret: There were signs that the intense backlash had left moderate American Muslims uneasy about the plan for such a large center near ground zero. “There is some ambivalence within the community,” said Hussein Rashid, a visiting professor of religious studies at Hofstra University who specializes in Islam in America. “We still want to know who is going to be involved in this. So far, we have heard from just a few Muslim voices. If this is meant to be a community center, who in the community will be involved?”

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Media Mocks Palin Over ‘Refudiate,’ But Obama Given Pass For Gaffes

Posted on July 20, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

George W. Bush’s linguistic difficulties , such as “Is our children learning,” “If the terriers and barrifs are torn down, this economy will grow” and “They misunderestimated me” made him the butt of many a joke back in the day, especially since they used to be played on cable news channels. Yet the current occupant of the White House—not to mention his vice president—does not seem to have found the media’s funnybone. Even Barack Obama’s teleprompter problems never got that kind of coverage, neither did that fact that his speeches are written at two grade levels below Bush. Then there was the time in Februrary, when Obama mispronuncicated “corpsman” as “corpse-man” and the media ignored it, or when he said he had been to 57 states and they excused it, the media has jumped all over Sarah Palin’s invention of the word “refudiate.” The word was coined on Fox News July 14, in response to the proposed Cordoba Center in New York City, a $100 million community center and Mosque three blocks from the World Trade Center site, but developed into a full-blown meme Sunday when she posted to Twitter: “Ground Zero Mosque supporters, doesn’t it stab you in the heart as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate.” The Los Angeles Times noted that the tweet was quickly edited to say “refute” instead of “refudiate,” writing “While not correct, ‘refute’ was a step up—it can actually be found in the dictionary.”  “Fergalicious,” “truthiness,” “blatherscythe,” “bloviate,” and “sternutation” can also be found in the dictionary—although one might need the unabridged Oxford English Dictionary for that last one. The merciless mocking of Palin by the mainstream media, which began when John McCain selected to be his running mate in 2008, has led to Keith Olbermann almost constantly calling her an “idiot” and a false item from a blog claiming she thought that Africa is a country. The same media outlets which have suddenly become such ardent defenders of the English language and attacked Palin with verbal vorpal blades, have never cared whenever Obama erred in his oratory, rarely bothering to post it in their blogs like they have done with “refudiate.” Jacob Heilbrun at The Huffington Post wrote “Palin isn’t simply trying to bring down big government, but the English language as well.” Liberals, of course, have never tried to coin new words, they just change the definitions of existing ones.

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Media Mocks Palin Over ‘Refudiate,’ But Obama Given Pass For Gaffes

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Today Show Highlights Sarah Palin’s ‘Refudiate,’ Skipped Biden Gaffe

Posted on July 20, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

NBC’s Peter Alexander, on Tuesday’s Today show, mocked Sarah Palin for making up a word, ‘refudiate’ in her tweets about the Ground Zero mosque controversy. However when Joe Biden, the gaffe machine that he can be, made an arguably much more embarrassing mistake back in March, of falsely asserting that the Irish prime minister’s mother was dead, the Today show, as Newsbusters’ Scott Whitlock reported then , ignored it. Alexander, after initially reporting about the former Alaska governor wading into the controversy surrounding the building of a mosque at the Ground Zero site, then poked fun at Palin combining two words: PETER ALEXANDER: The former vice presidential candidate is, herself, coming under fire for both her substance and style. Palin tweeted “Ground Zero mosque supporters, doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours, throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, please refudiate. But, of course, “refudiate” isn’t an actual word, more like a blend of two words with similar meanings: refute and repudiate. Bloggers quickly pounced. “If Republicans can demand that immigrants speak English,” one tweeted “can’t we demand same for Sarah Palin?” For what it’s worth, Palin has refudiated before. CLIP OF PALIN ON FOX NEWS: They have power in their words. They could refudiate what it is, that this group is saying. Alexander, then went on to remind viewers of another Republican who got “creative with words.” ALEXANDER: The former Alaska governor isn’t the first politician to get creative with words. CLIP OF GEORGE W. BUSH: They misunderestimated what our campaign is about. However, back on March 19, Alexander, nor any one else on the Today show, highlighted the following quip from Biden during a St. Patrick’s Day event at the White House: JOE BIDEN SPEAKING ABOUT IRELAND’S PRIME MINISTER: His mom lived in Long Island for ten years or so. God rest her soul. And- although, she’s- wait- your mom’s still- your mom’s still alive. Your dad passed. God bless her soul.” The following is the full Alexander segment as it was aired on the July 20 Today show: MATT LAUER: Sarah Palin is wading into the controversy surrounding a proposed mosque near the World Trade Center site. And it’s the language she used on Twitter to express her opinion that’s getting the most attention. NBC’s Peter Alexander is in lower Manhattan. Peter, good morning to you. [On screen headline: “Controversial Comments, Palin Asks Muslims To Reject Ground Zero Mosque”] PETER ALEXANDER: Matt, good morning to you. This is what the battle is all about. A proposed 13-story building to go right here with a gym, an auditorium and a mosque. But as we spin the camera around, let me show you what the problem for many people is. It’s the proximity to what many Americans view as sacred ground, at Ground Zero, just blocks away. Add Sarah Palin to the mix, and it’s a full-blown controversy. She is America’s self-proclaimed “Mama Grizzly” and now Sarah Palin is dipping her paws into another polarizing debate, criticizing a proposal to build a mosque near the World Trade Center site in New York City. Palin tweeted: “Peace-seeking Muslims, please understand Ground Zero mosque is unnecessary provocation; it stabs hearts. Please reject it, in interest of healing.” This latest controversy has unleashed a wave of strong opinions from visitors. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: She does not need to be saying anything about anything that’s over here. She doesn’t even live over here. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN#2: It’s her personal opinion. I don’t think she’s speaking for, you know, speaking for New York or for Alaska or for America. I think she is speaking out of her own, her own thoughts and opinions. ALEXANDER: Developers of the planned $100 million community center and mosque had this response. SHARIF EL-GAMAL, PARK 51 DEVELOPER: I wish she would pick up the phone and come down and say hello to us. Where we are today is all about healing. Is all about building bridges. Is all about outreach. Is all about reaching out to the community, to let them know that there is a moderate Muslim, that there is a voice for the moderate Muslim. ALEXANDER: The former vice presidential candidate is, herself, coming under fire for both her substance and style. Palin tweeted “Ground Zero mosque supporters, doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours, throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, please refudiate. But, of course, “refudiate” isn’t an actual word, more like a blend of two words with similar meanings: refute and repudiate. Bloggers quickly pounced. “If Republicans can demand that immigrants speak English,” one tweeted “can’t we demand same for Sarah Palin?” For what it’s worth, Palin has refudiated before. CLIP OF PALIN ON FOX NEWS: They have power in their words. They could refudiate what it is, that this group is saying. ALEXANDER: The former Alaska governor isn’t the first politician to get creative with words. GEORGE W. BUSH: They misunderestimated what our campaign is about. ALEXANDER: As she reminded followers, in yet another tweet, “‘Refudiate, ‘misunderestimate,’ ‘wee-wee’d up.’ English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words, too. Got to celebrate it! And Sarah Palin will have plenty of time to coin some new words going forward Matt. The scheduled groundbreaking of the site is still years away. LAUER: Alright. Peter Alexander in lower Manhattan for us this morning. Peter, thank you very much.

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Today Show Highlights Sarah Palin’s ‘Refudiate,’ Skipped Biden Gaffe

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NYT Finds ‘Bellicose’ Bloggers Against ‘Monument to Religious Tolerance’ (i.e., a Mosque) at Ground Zero

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

The New York Times continues its delicate, sympathetic coverage of NYC-centric Muslims issues with its treatment of the controversy over the Cordoba House, a proposed Muslim community center, to be topped by a mosque, that would be raised at the sight of the World Trade Center. Wednesday’s Metro section story by Javier Hernandez, ” Planned Sign of Tolerance Bringing Division Instead ” certainly made a lot of positive-sounding assumptions (starting with the headline) about the ideas behind the mosque, but failed to probe the secret details of the financiers behind it or to question the propriety of building an Islamic worship site at the same spot where thousands were murdered by radical Muslims in the name of Islam. The Cordoba House was supposed to be a monument to religious tolerance , an homage to the city in Spain where Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived together centuries ago in the midst of religious foment. Its 15 stories, home to a Muslim community center and a mosque, would rise two blocks from the pit of dust and cranes where the twin towers once stood, a symbol of the resilience of the American melting pot, its supporters said. But instead of inspiring mutual respect, the center has opened deep divisions marked by vitriolic commentary , pitting Muslims against Christians, Tea Partiers against staunch liberals, and Sept. 11 families against one another. And so what began as a gesture of combined good faith by Muslims and non-Muslims has turned into a familiar game of New York City political football. The bellicose discourse was on full display on Tuesday in an auditorium at Hunter College in Manhattan as the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission considered whether to grant one of the buildings that would be torn down for the project, at 45-47 Park Place, status as a protected landmark. The entire center would occupy 45-51 Park Place. …. In recent days, politicians have called for an investigation of the group’s finances and expressed concerns about the views of its leader, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf , who has held services in a small mosque in TriBeCa since 1983. The Internet has featured fury from all sides, and some bloggers have labeled the proposal a sub-rosa effort to spread extremist Islam. Many Muslim-Americans have been taken aback by the intensity of the reaction, saying it was a sign that discrimination was alive and well nearly nine years after 9/11. But they said the vigorous opposition underscored the need for the $100 million center, which would include a 500-seat auditorium and offer a range of programs modeled on the Y.M.C.A. and the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan. El-Gamal refuses to say where the funding for the $100 million project is coming from, a detail Hernandez skips even while saying the project “began as a gesture of combined good faith by Muslims and non-Muslims.” So who are they, exactly? Hernandez wasn’t curious. Neither did he raise Rauf’s recent refusal to call Hamas a terrorist group . A 9-11 victim’s group that opposes the construction rounded up details on The Cordoba Initiative, the consortium backing the plan, the name of which didn’t appear in the Times’s article. The Times has a history of soft, sympathetic pseudo-coverage of local Muslim initiatives and controversies, going so far as to blame rival papers like the New York Post for ” relentless criticism,” in the case of principal Debbie Almontaser, dismissed from a Muslim academy in Brooklyn for defending distribution of a T-shirt by a related organization that read “Intifada NYC.”

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NYT Finds ‘Bellicose’ Bloggers Against ‘Monument to Religious Tolerance’ (i.e., a Mosque) at Ground Zero

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Burqa ban passes French lower house overwhelmingly – CNN.com

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

Paris, France (CNN) — France's lower house of parliament Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a ban on any veils that cover the face — including the burqa, the full-body covering worn by some Muslim women. added by: irishlonewolf

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WaPo Finally Runs Story on NASA Administrator Bolden: Eight Paragraphs On Page A13

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

In a June 30 interview with “Talk to Al Jazeera,” NASA administrator Charles Bolden revealed that President Obama had tasked him with “find[ing] a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.” The media largely ignored the story, with a few exceptions, such as Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer .  Among the media outlets that blacked out the controversy was the Washington Post, which didn’t cover the Bolden controversy until today. Even then, the paper printed on page A13 a brief 8-paragraph item by the Reuters news wire : White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Monday that NASA administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. was wrong to say that reaching out to the Muslim world was a top priority of the U.S. space agency. Bolden raised eyebrows in the space community and outrage among conservative pundits by telling al-Jazeera television recently that President Barack Obama had instructed him to work for better outreach with the Muslim world. He said Obama told him that one of his top priorities was to “find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math and engineering.” Improving relations with the Muslim world was a top foreign policy priority for Obama upon taking office last year, and he delivered a major speech on the topic in Cairo in June 2009. Last week, the White House sought to clarify Bolden’s comment, saying Obama wanted NASA to engage with the world’s best scientists and engineers from countries such as Russia, Japan, Israel and many Muslim-majority countries. That failed to end the controversy. Gibbs was asked at his daily news briefing why Bolden had made the comment. “I don’t think — that was not his task, and that’s not the task of NASA,” Gibbs said. The question was posed by CNN’s Ed Henry and can be found at 18:45 on the video linked here (transcript via WhiteHouse.gov ): Q    I wanted to ask you, there are some comments that the NASA Administrator, Charles Bolden, made a couple weeks back that drew some interest, specifically from conservatives who are wondering why we he said that one of the charges that the President gave him when he got the job was that he had to focus on outreach to the Muslim world.  Why is the NASA Administrator doing that? MR. GIBBS:  That’s an excellent question, and I don’t think — that was not his task, and that’s not the task of NASA. Q    So did he just misspeak? MR. GIBBS:  I think so. Q    Has the President spoken to him about that clear it up? MR. GIBBS:  No. Q    Anybody here at the White House? MR. GIBBS:  I’m sure people — people at the White House here talk to NASA all the time.

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WaPo Finally Runs Story on NASA Administrator Bolden: Eight Paragraphs On Page A13

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