Think Progress

‘24′ Producer Pulls Endorsement Of Anti-Muslim DVD ‘Obsession’»

In recent weeks, newspapers reaching 28 million households nationwide (although primarily in swing states) have been carrying an advertising supplement containing the DVD “Obsession.” The film features “graphic images of terrorism, video of anti-American speeches from Mideast television and comparisons with Nazi Germany.” According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the people interviewed in “Obsession” “constitute a veritable who’s who of Muslim-bashers,” including someone who said last year, “Islam is not the religion of God — Islam is the devil.”

The “anti-Muslim” film has launched protests around the country. Although a few papers refused to carry the DVD, the ones who did have received hundreds of angry phone calls and cancellations over the propaganda. “It’s among the heaviest reaction I’ve gotten to anything,” said Ted Vaden, public editor for The News & Observer in Raleigh, NC. Protestors have picketed the Oregonian’s offices with signs reading, “Hate — Not in Our Town.”

A pro-Israel think tank, the Endowment for Middle East Truth, has already pulled out of the project. Now, Howard Gordon, the executive producer of the Fox show “24″ has announced that he is also withdrawing his endorsement of the film:

After being contacted by a number of people whose opinions I respect and after reviewing Obsession with their criticisms and concerns in mind, I have asked the film makers to remove my endorsement from the Obsession website and from any future promotional materials. While I remain committed to the film’s essential message — that the hate-mongering promoted by radical Islamism presents a real threat to western values of tolerance and pluralism — I also appreciate that the goal of co-existence and tolerance is not being served by films like Obsession.

A shadowy nonprofit called the Clarion Fund — whose purpose is to address “the most urgent threat of radical Islam” — has spent millions distributing “Obsession” in battleground states and refuses to disclose its board members or funding sources. This month, Clarion is set to release “The Third Jihad,” about “the threat of radical Islamists right here in America.”

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Rep. Wilson: Any Criticism Of ‘American Policy’ Is Unpatriotic»

Today on CBS’s Face the Nation, Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) defended Gov. Sarah Palin’s (R-AK) new comments that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) is “someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country.” When host Bob Schieffer asked Wilson if she was therefore implying that Obama is “unpatriotic,” Wilson refused to disagree, noting that Obama has criticized “American policy”:

WILSON: Well, he has talked down about America. You know, we’ve always had this history of saying, “Well, you know, politics ends at the water’s edge.” It didn’t for Barack Obama. He’s been critical not only of the President but of American policy and hence has kind of a negative view of America in the world. That’s not unusual frankly among liberals in kind of post-Vietnam America, to say that America is the problem.

Watch it:

The Bush administration has been setting American policy for the past eight years. Therefore, any criticism of the Bush administration, according to Wilson, is unpatriotic. This category doesn’t just include Obama and other “post-Vietnam America” liberals, but also military officers, former Bush administration officials, the Supreme Court, and the majority of the American public who disapprove of Bush and his policies. Even Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has tried to criticize Bush’s policies, in an effort to separate himself from the current administration.

Criticizing the Bush administration’s policies doesn’t mean that a person doesn’t believe America can be a “force for good,” as Wilson alleges. Instead, it recognizes that destructive policies over the past eight years have diminished America’s “exceptional” status. Countries around the world once held a predominantly positive view of the United States. Under Bush’s destructive policies, however, those views have plummeted.

Transcript: Read the rest of this entry »

Cheney: Wildlife Conservation Has Been A ‘High Priority’ Of Bush Administration»

Yesterday, Vice President Cheney spoke at the White House Conference on North American Wildlife Policy in Reno, NV, claiming that the Bush administration has championed wildlife preservation:

As all of you know very well, President Bush made wildlife conservation an early and a high priority of his administration. We’ve carried out that commitment in these eight years — and we’ve been proud to have people like you as partners in the enterprise.

The men and women in this room understand what conservation is all about. It means reverence toward creation, and a commitment to faithful stewardship. It means guarding our spectacular wildlife populations — not just for our own time, but for all time.

In fact, the League of Conservation Voters concludes that the Bush administration “has arguably been the most anti-environmental in our nation’s history.” Some highlights of officials putting special interests over wildlife:

– Rules proposed by the Bush administration would effectively gut the Endangered Species Act, no longer requiring federal agencies to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service to determine whether a project would harm an endangered species.

– Earlier this year, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff used his power to waive federal laws, including the Endangered Species Act, in order to expedite building the U.S.-Mexico border fence.

– In September, a federal judge dealt the Bush administration a setback by ruling that its plan “to allow more than 500 snowmobiles a day into Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks was not in keeping with the National Park Service’s responsibility to protect the parks” and would disturb wildlife.

– Officials have repeatedly refused to acknowledge and protect wildlife threatened by global warming.

– In March 2007, Salon reported that the Bush administration had “granted 57 species endangered status, the action in each case being prompted by a lawsuit. That’s fewer than in any other administration in history.”

– In a 2005 survey, Fish and Wildlife scientists reported that they had been “forced to alter or withhold findings that would have led to greater protections for endangered species.”

Bush had originally been scheduled to speak at the conference but sent Cheney instead at the last minute. “In my place I have sent my favorite hunter,” Bush explained, alluding to Cheney’s 2006 hunting accident.