Glenn Beck Has A ‘Plan’ To Sell Books With March On Washington On The Anniversary Of MLK Speech
Glenn Beck Has A ‘Plan’ To Sell Books With March On Washington On The Anniversary Of MLK Speech
Yesterday, while promoting his latest book at “a festive campaign-style rally” in The Villages in Florida, Fox News host Glenn Beck announced that he was crafting “a 100 year plan” that will be “radical” and will “restore our nation to the maximum freedoms we were supposed to have been protecting.” In his speech, which Media Matters captured on video, Beck told his followers, “we need to start thinking like the Chinese“:
BECK: I’ve done a lot of reading on history in the last few years and I was amazed to find that what we’re experiencing now is really a ticking time bomb that they designed about 100 years ago, beginning in the progressive movement. And they thought, “you know what, if we just do this and this and this and this, over time if we do it in both the Republican and Democratic parties, we will have our socialist utopia.” Well, I say again, two can play at that game. I am drafting plans now to bring us back to an America that our founders would understand. … We need to start thinking like the Chinese. I’m developing a 100 year plan for America. A 100 year plan. We will plant this idea and it will sprout roots.
Watch it:
At the rally and in a letter on his website, Beck said that he planned to organize a series of conventions in seven regions of the country, where his supporters can go to learn about “self-reliance, community organizing, the economy and how to be a political force in your own neighborhood and country.” The conventions will culminate in a new book by Beck called The Plan and a march on Washington to launch it:
- All of the above will culminate in The Plan, a book that will provide specific policies, principles and, most importantly, action steps that each of us can take to play a role in this Refounding.
- On August 28, 2010, I ask you, your family and neighbors to join me at the feet of Abraham Lincoln on the National Mall for the unveiling of The Plan and the birthday of a new national movement to restore our great country.
Hot Air’s Allahpundit notes that the date of Beck’s DC event “happens to be the anniversary of the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech” by Martin Luther King, Jr. “Eschewing the title of ‘leader’ is thus a curious display of modesty from a guy who thinks his book launch is worthy of a modern-day March on Washington with him in the MLK role,” writes Allahpundit.
But not everyone thinks Beck is just elaborately promoting his next book. “He might just be trying to sell books, but there are much simpler ways to sell books,” Media Matters’ Ari Rabin-Havt told the New York Times, adding that “Beck sounded more like a presidential candidate than a pundit.”
- Comments
- 230
Speaking with Palin, Dennis Miller transitions from calling Newsweek cover ’sexist’ to insulting Hillary Clinton.
Speaking with Palin, Dennis Miller transitions from calling Newsweek cover ’sexist’ to insulting Hillary Clinton.
Earlier this week, Sarah Palin wrote on her Facebook page that Newsweek’s choice to use a Runner’s World photo of her in running shorts for its cover was “unfortunate” and “sexist.” Palin’s criticism has since been echoed on both the left and right. Interviewing Palin on his radio show yesterday, Dennis Miller added his voice to those calling the cover “sexist.” But he then did something that most of the other critics haven’t done. He immediately followed it with a joke about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that could also be easily characterized as sexist:
MILLER: Listen, Sarah, I have to ask you. This Newsweek cover. First off, I have two thoughts on this. To me it seems blatantly sexist and secondly I’m just glad they didn’t decide to do it with Hillary during the primaries. But your thoughts on it. You a little POed at this? I mean this was for another magazine, right?
PALIN: Yeah, yeah, it was for a health and fitness profile where I could tout the great outdoors of Alaska in Runner’s World months ago. And yeah, Newsweek. That was really snarky and cheesy and quite indicative though too, Dennis, of the state of journalism today. I think it stinks.
Listen here:
As ThinkProgress noted yesterday, it is conventional wisdom on the right that conservative women get harsher treatment than liberal women. But Miller’s hypocritical comments and Palin’s lack of concern with them, give weight to those who argue that Palin and her conservative followers have a selective perception of social bias.
GOP Lawmakers Complain About Revised Mammogram Guidelines While Opposing Requirements For More Tests
GOP Lawmakers Complain About Revised Mammogram Guidelines While Opposing Requirements For More Tests
On Wednesday, a group of women GOP lawmakers held a press conference to denounce a new recommendation by the federal Preventive Services Task Force that women receive mammograms less frequently. “This is how rationing begins,” said Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). “This is the little toe in the edge of the water.”
“Women in particular may lose a great deal of clout in decision making,” said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN). “We don’t know how far government will go in this bureaucracy,” she added, noting that they “want to empower women” and “want to have all the data on the table so individuals can make the best decision they can.”
On MSNBC this afternoon, Dr. Nancy Snyderman took Blackburn to task for getting the “public health message lost in the politics.” “Now, there’s nothing that came out of this panel recommending rationing,” said Snyderman. “Just a prudent use of screening tests.” When Blackburn tried to claim that the guidelines meant “bureaucrats deciding what they’re going to allow,” Snyderman pointed out that Blackburn was acting as a “bureaucrat” standing between patients and “the best possible evidence”:
BLACKBURN: It is troubling also that another of our colleagues has said many times, we. And that we means bureaucrats deciding what they’re going to allow.
SNYDERMAN: But you’re one of those bureaucrats. You’re my bureaucrat!
BLACKBURN: But I’m not, no. And you see, I don’t think a bureaucrat should be between a patient and a doctor. See, I don’t want to be that bureaucrat.
SNYDERMAN: Excuse me, I think that’s exactly where you are right now.
Watch it:
As the Washington Independent’s Mike Lillis notes, the concern of the congresswomen about rationed mammograms is especially ironic considering that they oppose legislation that “would require insurance companies that cover diagnostic mammograms also to cover routine, annual breast cancer screenings for all women 40 and older.”
Carlson: ‘You Don’t Hear As Much About The Scrutiny’ Of Pelosi Because Conservative Women ‘Get More Attacks’
Carlson: ‘You Don’t Hear As Much About The Scrutiny’ Of Pelosi Because Conservative Women ‘Get More Attacks’
On Fox and Friends this morning, the hosts discussed a recently released Fox News poll that measures the favorable opinions that Americans have about former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The poll found that 47 percent of respondents had a favorable opinion of Palin while only 28 percent had a favorable opinion of Pelosi.
“Also, 61 percent of you feel that governor Sarah Palin, former governor, has been treated unfairly by the mainstream media,” commented Steve Doocy. Co-host Gretchen Carlson suggested that Pelosi’s numbers are low even though she doesn’t get much “scrutiny” because “if you’re a conservative woman, you get more attacks“:
CARLSON: It’s interesting because even though that number shows that Pelosi has a much higher unfavorable rating, you don’t, you don’t at least hear as much about the scrutiny of Nancy Pelosi as you did about Sarah Palin. And that may go back to that whole age old argument that if you’re a conservative woman, you get more attacks than if you have liberal points of view.
Watch it:
The contention that the media treats conservative women worse than liberal women is conventional wisdom on the right. But Carlson’s claim that scrutiny of Nancy Pelosi is under the radar is surprising considering her own network’s often times downright mean treatment of the first female speaker of the House:
– On the November 10 edition of Fox and Friends, for instance, radio host Laura Ingraham said that “Pelosi basically did everything except sell her own body” to pass health care reform.
– On Nov. 4 on the O’Reilly Factor, Dennis Miller said Pelosi had a “sub-reptilian intellect” and likened her face to a “lizard laying on a hot rock.”
– On October 30, Fox and Friends laughingly re-enacted protesters calling for Pelosi to “burn in hell.”
– On October 21, Bill O’Reilly mocked Pelosi, saying, “If there wan’t Botox involved, with all due respect, there might have been more expression” on her face.
– On August 6, Glenn Beck joked about putting poison in Pelosi’s wine.
– On May 20, Hannity guest Jay Thomas said, “I think if you waterboarded Nancy Pelosi, she wouldn’t admit to plastic surgery.”
– On May 19, Dennis Miller called her a “train wreck” and a “shrieking harridan magpie.”
On Fox, a progressive woman like Pelosi doesn’t just get “scrutiny,” she gets insults.
Fred Thompson Declares The War In Afghanistan ‘Has Been Lost’
Fred Thompson Declares The War In Afghanistan ‘Has Been Lost’
In April 2007, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said that the war in Iraq was “lost” and that the surge was “not accomplishing anything.” Conservatives and war hawks ripped into Reid for the comment, calling it “reckless,” “disturbing” and “playing to the worst elements of the antiwar left.”
One of the fiercest critics of Reid’s Iraq war stance was former senator Fred Thompson, who accused him of “encouraging our enemies”:
But Reid’s comments are not meant for logical analysis. He proclaimed the war lost some time ago, and the surge as a failure even before the additional troops were on the ground. The problem is that every one of Reid’s comments I’ve noted here has also been reported gleefully by Al Jazeera and other anti-American media. Whether he means to or not, he’s encouraging our enemies to believe that they are winning the critical war of will.
But now Thompson is singing a different tune on the appropriateness of declaring an American war “lost.” In a commentary on his radio show today, Thompson declared that the Afghanistan war “has been lost”:
“It really doesn’t matter how President Obama divides the Afghan baby, how he splits the difference between McChrystal and Biden. Because the war has been lost,” Thompson said on his radio show today. “I say this because of one sad and simple fact. The president does not have the will and determination to do what’s necessary to win it. His heart’s not in it, and never has been. The Taliban knows it. Al Qaeda knows it. Our allies know it. And the American people know it.
“Our enemies are now emboldened and our friends are discouraged. We cannot prevail if the American people are not willing to make the sacrifices necessary for an extended effort. The case has not been made to them to justify this effort. The case can only be made by the president. This president is unable or unwilling to make that case,” Thompson said.
Listen here:
According to Thompson’s own logic, his declaration of defeat today — “whether he means to or not” — is “encouraging our enemies to believe that they are winning the critical war of will.”
Foxx: Republicans ‘Passed Civil Rights Bills Back In The 60s Without Very Much Help’ From Democrats
Foxx: Republicans ‘Passed Civil Rights Bills Back In The 60s Without Very Much Help’ From Democrats
During a debate on the House floor today over designating 21 miles of the Molalla River as “wild and scenic,” Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), who opposes the legislation, tried to claim a progressive environmental record for her party. “Actually, the GOP has been the leader in starting good environmental programs in this country,” said Foxx.
Foxx then extended her claims of the GOP’s progressive history to the issue of civil rights. “Just as we were the people who passed the civil rights bills back in the ’60s without very much help from our colleagues across the aisle,” said Fox. “They love to engage in revisionist history.” When Foxx finally yielded her time on the floor, Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-CA) passionately rebuked her:
CARDOZA: Today, what I’m hearing on the floor really takes the cake. The gentlelady from North Carolina, in her statement just now, indicated that the Republican GOP had passed the Civil Rights Act legislation with almost no help from the Democrats. I can’t believe my ears. It was the Kennedy and Johnson administration where we passed that Great Society legislation. It was over the objections of people like Jesse Helms from the gentlewoman’s state that we passed that civil rights legislation. John Lewis…
FOXX: Would, would the gentleman yield?
CARDOZA: No, I will not yield. John Lewis, a member of this House, was beaten on the Edmund Pettus bridge to get that civil rights legislation passed. Tell John Lewis that he wasn’t part of getting that legislation passed.
When she was given a chance to respond, Foxx could only say that Jesse Helms wasn’t elected to the Senate until 1972. Watch it:
Foxx’s claim that Republicans were the real engine behind the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a common notion among conservatives. But as Cardoza points out, it was President Lyndon Johnson who “choreographed passage of this historic measure in 1964.” In fact, the Republican presidential candidate in 1964, Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-AZ), voted against the legislation.
To support the claim that Republicans were actually the architects of civil rights, conservatives often point out that a “higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats supported the civil-rights bill.” But this ignores the “distinct split between Northern and Southern politicians” on the issue. When this is taken into account, the facts show that “in both the North and the South, Democrats supported the 1964 Civil Rights Act at a higher rate than the Republicans.”
Texas gay marriage ban may have outlawed all marriages in Texas.
Texas gay marriage ban may have outlawed all marriages in Texas.
In 2005, the state of Texas adopted an amendment to its Constitution that said marriage in the state could only be between one man and one woman. The amendment also declared: “This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage.” Now, Barbara Ann Radnofsky, a Houston lawyer and Democratic candidate for attorney general, is saying that the second section effectively “eliminates marriage in Texas”:
She calls it a “massive mistake” and blames the current attorney general, Republican Greg Abbott, for allowing the language to become part of the Texas Constitution. Radnofsky called on Abbott to acknowledge the wording as an error and consider an apology. She also said that another constitutional amendment may be necessary to reverse the problem.
“You do not have to have a fancy law degree to read this and understand what it plainly says,” said Radnofsky, who will be at Texas Christian University today as part of a five-city tour to kick off her campaign.
Abbott’s spokesman Jerry Strickland replied to Radnofsky’s charge by saying, “The Texas Constitution and the marriage statute are entirely constitutional.” This isn’t the first time the reach of the second section has been questioned. Before the amendment passed, a group called Save Texas Marriage warned that a judge could potentially void all marriages in the state if the language became part of the Texas Constitution.
Dick Cheney shoots down his daughter Liz’s hope that he’ll run for president in 2012: ‘No chance.’
Dick Cheney shoots down his daughter Liz’s hope that he’ll run for president in 2012: ‘No chance.’
During a discussion of President Obama’s bow before Japanese Emperor Akihito on Fox News Sunday this past weekend — after host Chris Wallace aired a videotape of Vice President Cheney choosing not to bow before the Emperor in Feb. 2007 — Liz Cheney quipped, “you could also look at the comparison and think, Cheney 2012.” On Fox News yesterday, Cheney further explained her promotion of her dad, saying, “I have to tell you, he’s my candidate. But I have yet to get him on board with the concept.” In Texas yesterday to endorse Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) in the Texas governor’s race, the former vice president adamantly rejected the idea:
When she took the stage, Hutchison noted a Sunday cable show in which daughter Liz Cheney suggested her father might be a good presidential candidate in four years.
“I wasn’t sure when I saw Liz Cheney on TV Sunday, I thought this might be the start of Cheney 2012,” Hutchison said.
A member of the crowd shouted, “We need you, Dick.”
Cheney shook his head.
“No chance,” he said.
Watch it (Via Jason Embry):
Palin On Muslims In The Military After Fort Hood: ‘I Say, Profile Away’
Palin On Muslims In The Military After Fort Hood: ‘I Say, Profile Away’
After the tragic shooting at Fort Hood by Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who reports now indicate had some contact with a radical Islamic cleric, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey expressed concern over “a backlash against some of our Muslim soldiers.” Predictably, some conservatives have called for a crackdown on the American Muslim community, including those serving in the military. Now, in an interview with her hagiographer, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has called for increased profiling of Muslims in the military:
She commented on the trail of evidence linking the alleged Ft. Hood shooter, Maj. Nidal Hasan, to militant Islam. “There were such clear, obvious, massive warning signs that were missed,” she said. “This terrorist, even having business cards” that identified him as an “SoA” or soldier of Allah. Palin blamed a culture of political correctness and other decisions that “prevented — I’m going to say it — profiling” of someone with Hasan’s extremist ideology. “I say, profile away,” Palin said. Such political correctness, she continued, “could be our downfall.” If the upcoming investigations into the attack reveal bad decision-making on the part of senior officials, Palin continued, those officials ought to be fired.
In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, which is set to air in full tonight, Palin predicted the backlash that would come from her embrace of profiling. “Because I use the word profile, I’m going to get clobbered tomorrow morning,” said Palin. “The liberals, their heads are just going to be spinning, they’re going to say, ’she is radical, she is extreme.’” Watch it:
“I say profiling in the context of doing whatever we can to save innocent American lives, I’m all for it then,” concluded Palin.
Coburn vows to read the entire health care bill on the Senate floor.
Coburn vows to read the entire health care bill on the Senate floor.
Speaking to reporters last night, the Senate’s top obstructionist, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), said that he would attempt to slow down progress on health care reform by insisting that the 1,000-page-plus health care reform bill be read aloud on the Senate floor. “The American people are going to get to hear this bill read, period,” said Coburn, adding that “he would also block other legislative shortcuts” in an effort to delay the bill, such as requiring “the Senate to use up the entire 30-hour debate period called for after a filibuster has been broken.” According to Roll Call, “earlier this month, Republican leadership aides said Coburn was unlikely to make such a move without the blessing of GOP leaders.”
Washington Times op-ed: Obama lacks ‘blood impulse’ for what America ‘is about’ due to his ‘Kenyan father.’
Washington Times op-ed: Obama lacks ‘blood impulse’ for what America ‘is about’ due to his ‘Kenyan father.’
In a column today criticizing President Obama’s bow before the Japanese Emperor, Wesley Pruden, the editor emeritus of The Washington Times, claims that President Obama “seems never to have studied much American history” because he apparently doesn’t know that “the essence of America is that all men stand equal and are entitled to look even a king, maybe particularly a king, straight in the eye.” Pruden then claims this lack of understanding of America’s “essence” is “no fault of the president” because Obama’s father was Kenyan and his mother was “attracted to men of the Third World”:
But Mr. Obama, unlike his predecessors, likely knows no better, and many of those around him, true children of the grungy ’60s, are contemptuous of custom. Cutting America down to size is what attracts them to “hope” for “change.” It’s no fault of the president that he has no natural instinct or blood impulse for what the America of “the 57 states” is about. He was sired by a Kenyan father, born to a mother attracted to men of the Third World and reared by grandparents in Hawaii, a paradise far from the American mainstream.
Pruden has a history of writing racially-charged items. In 2005, he wrote a column criticizing the Senate for passing a resolution that apologized for never enacting an anti-lynching law. As Media Matters noted at the time, Pruden had previously made numerous “sympathetic statements about the Confederacy” and employed “a neo-Confederate activist in the Times newsroom.”
Sarah Palin Lies To Oprah
Sarah Palin Lies To Oprah
On the afternoon of Oct. 2, 2008 — the day of the vice presidential debate last year — Politico’s Jonathan Martin broke the news that Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) presidential campaign was “pulling out of Michigan.” The next day, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin told Fox News’ Carl Cameron that she disagreed with the decision. “I fired a quick e-mail and said, oh, come on. Do we have to call it there?” said Palin. “I want to get back to Michigan and I want to try.”
But in her interview with Oprah Winfrey, which aired yesterday, Palin claimed that she only “went rogue” on the Michigan message because she “didn’t know we pulled out of Michigan”:
WINFREY: Didn’t several times they say to you when actually you mentioned, when you were talking about pulling out of Michigan and you said I wished we’d stayed in Michigan. Weren’t you told then, Sarah just stay on script?
PALIN: Right, told after wards and that, that was always puzzling to me because if I were to respond to a reporter’s questions very candidly, honestly, for instance, they say, “what do you think about the campaign pulling out of Michigan” and I think, “darn I wish we weren’t. Every vote matters, I can’t wait to get back to Michigan” and then told afterwards that, “oh, you screwed up. You went rogue on us Sarah, you’re not supposed to be.” And my reminder to the campaign was, I didn’t know we pulled out of Michigan. My entire VP team, we didn’t know that we had pulled out. I’m sorry, I apologize, but speaking candidly to a reporter.
Watch it:
Clearly, if Palin told Cameron that she had sent an e-mail to the McCain high command disagreeing with the move, she knew that the decision had been made. Additionally, in their reported book on Sarah Palin, former Fox News embed Shushannah Walshe and CBS News digital journalist Scott Conroy reveal that Palin knew she had made a mistake in her interview with Cameron:
The e-mail that Palin sent was, in fact, essentially how she described it to Cameron. She wrote to her traveling staff and top McCain advisers, “If there’s any time, Todd and I would love a quick return to Michigan-we’d tour the plants, etc. . . . If it does McC any good. I know you have a plan, but I hate to see us leave Michigan. We’ll do whatever we had [sic] to do there to give it a 2nd effort.”
A senior aide replied, “Michigan is out of reach unless something drastic happens. We must win oh and hopefully pa.”
Palin replied that she “got it,” but her subsequent interview with Cameron had shown that she hadn’t. She acknowledged as much in a post-interview e-mail to senior staff, writing, “Oops-I mentioned something about that to Carl Cameron and it’s now recorded that I’d love to give Michigan the ol’ college try.” Later in the day, she tried once more. “It’s a cheap 4hr drive from WI. I’ll pay for the gas,” she wrote.
This isn’t the first claim that Palin has made in her book and during her promotional tour that has been contradicted by campaign e-mails. In her book, Palin wrote that “from the beginning” she liked the idea of appearing on Saturday Night Live. But in an e-mail thread from the campaign that was provided to the Huffington Post, Palin said she was “not thrilled” about the idea of going on the show because “these folks are whack.”
In an interview with Walshe and Conroy, The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder noted that their book chronicles “fairly persuasively, a large number of what seem to be fairly egregious distortions” by Palin. “Sarah Palin is quick to cast aside people who cross her in even minor ways, and her unwillingness to tolerate much dissent often leads to an infallibility syndrome,” replied the authors, who later added that she has a “tendency to wildly exaggerate the truth.”
We kicked the next morning off with a lot of prep for the day's events, including an on-camera interview atop the hotel with Fox News reporter Carl Cameron, with the St. Louis Gateway Arch framed in the shot behind me. Among his other questions, he asked what I thought of the campaign pulling out of Michigan.
"Yes, I read that this morning," I answered, then said I wished we weren't pulling out of Michigan -- that evvery single person and every single vote mattered, and I sure didn't want anyone to give up anywhere. No harm giving a little shout-out to the Great Lakes State, I though. No one had mentioned to the VP staff or me that the campaign was even considering pulling out of Michigan, much less that we already had. So when I was asked about it, I was caught a bit off guard, but I answered truthfully about having read about it in the newspaper. We moved on to the next question and wrapped up the interview. No big deal.
But we soon heard that back at headquarters, it was a big deal.The word came hurtling down that I had been "off script" with Cameron. Of course, it's pretty easy to issue candid, off-script messages when there is no script to begin with. It wasn't the end of the world, though, and I hoped headquarters would forgive me and move on.
They didn't. One or more McCain senior staffers would later anonymously tell reporters that I was "going rogue."
‘Teabagger’ was an Oxford Word of the Year finalist.
‘Teabagger’ was an Oxford Word of the Year finalist.
In February, when conservatives began protesting against President Obama with tea parties, the Washington Independent’s Dave Weigel photographed a protester carrying a sign that declared, “tea bag the liberal Dems before they tea bag you!!” Soon after, the term “tea bagger” became a ubiquitous and often derogatory handle for right-wing protesters. Now, Mediaite reports that the term “teabagger” was a finalist in consideration to be the New Oxford American Dictionary’s Word of the Year:
In a press release touting “unfriend” as the word of the year, the New Oxford American Dictionary may have unwittingly made a more controversial move than the New Oxford American Dictionary pretty much ever does.
No, it wasn’t another cutesy tech neologism: they included “teabagger” as one of their Word of the Year finalists.
According to the release, they define “teabagger” as “a person who protests President Obama’s tax policies and stimulus package, often through local demonstrations known as ‘Tea Party’ protests (in allusion to the Boston Tea Party of 1773).”
Retired Military Chaplains Announce Support For Repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
Retired Military Chaplains Announce Support For Repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
Last week, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) revealed the legislative timeline for a repeal of the military’s discriminatory Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy. “Military issues are always done as part of the overall authorization bill,” Frank told the Advocate. “’Don’t ask, don’t tell’ was always going to be part of the military authorization.”
Now, the movement to repeal the ban on gay men and women from serving openly in the military has gained even more momentum. Three former military chaplains are announcing today that they support a full repeal of the DADT. In a Q&A released by VoteVets, the three men, Charles D. Camp, Chaplain (Colonel), USA (Ret.), John F. Gundlach, CAPT, CHC, USN (Ret.), and Jerry Rhyne, Chaplain (Colonel), USAF (Ret.), also addressed implementation concerns regarding a repeal:
What would be the impact of changing the current law on unit cohesion and morale?
The 2009 Joint Forces Quarterly article states clearly, “After a careful examination, there is no scientific evidence to support the claim that unit cohesion will be negatively affected if homosexuals serve openly.” A 1993 RAND Corp. report concludes the same, as do several other military-commissioned reports. In addition, 68 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan troops said, according to a 2006 Zogby poll, they either knew for certain (23%) or suspected (45%) there were gays in their own unit. That means there are tens of thousands of known gay service members currently working and fighting alongside their straight peers, and there is no demonstrable negative impact on unit morale, cohesion or combat readiness. In fact, 73% of troops in the poll said they were “comfortable” in the presence of gay peers. [...]
Polling data from current U.S. troops combined with the experience of our foreign military allies demonstrate that known gays in a unit do not degrade morale, cohesion or operational readiness.
Disputing the claims often made by supporters of DADT, Camp, Gundlach, and Rhyne argue that repealing the policy would actually help the military’s recruitment and retention:
What would be the impact of changing the current law on recruiting and retention?
Repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” would help recruiting and retention. The recent issue of Joint Forces Quarterly, an article—reportedly signed off on by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen–convincingly makes the case that current law has been “costly both in personnel and treasure,’’ referring to the cost of discharging service members and recruiting replacements, including those with language or other specialized skills. Approximately two service members are discharged each day under DADT. This number includes linguists, physicians, pilots and others highly trained personnel in mission critical specialties. Costs for the training of replacements are in the hundreds of millions. According to the UCLA’s Williams Institute, an estimated 2500-3000 service members either leave the service, or choose not to re-enlist, because of the law. When the number of involuntary discharges under “don’t ask, don’t tell” is combined with the voluntary attrition because of this law, the result is an annual loss of 4000 trained, experienced and often combat tested troops. Replacing these veterans with recent graduates of recruit training or newly commissioned officers would naturally reduce unit readiness.
VoteVets is “gathering names of veterans to give to the White House and Congress to let them know now is the time to overturn this discriminatory policy.” Veterans can sign the petition here and civilians can sign a petition of support here.
Access the full release and Q & A here (pdf).
Report: In her memoir, Palin says she doesn’t believe in evolution.
Report: In her memoir, Palin says she doesn’t believe in evolution.
In the past, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has been cagey about her views on creationism and evolution, saying that she believes “we have a creator” but she didn’t want “to pretend I know how all this came to be.” But in her new memoir, Going Rogue, Palin apparently writes that she doesn’t believe in evolution. New York Times reviewer Michiko Kakutani writes:
Elsewhere in this volume, she talks about creationism, saying she “didn’t believe in the theory that human beings — thinking, loving beings — originated from fish that sprouted legs and crawled out of the sea” or from “monkeys who eventually swung down from the trees.” In everything that happens to her, from meeting Todd to her selection by Mr. McCain for the Republican ticket, she sees the hand of God: “My life is in His hands. I encourage readers to do what I did many years ago, invite Him in to take over.”
While running for governor in 2006, Palin said that she was “a proponent of teaching both” evolution and creationism in Alaska’s schools. ” In September 2008, she told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that because she grew up “in a school teacher’s house with a science teacher as a dad,” she has “great respect for science being taught in our science classes and evolution to be taught in our science classes.”
G. Gordon Liddy Says ‘I’m Convinced’ That ‘Barack Obama Is A Muslim,’ Gary Bauer Doesn’t Disagree
G. Gordon Liddy Says ‘I’m Convinced’ That ‘Barack Obama Is A Muslim,’ Gary Bauer Doesn’t Disagree
On his radio show today, G. Gordon Liddy hosted former Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer to discuss his Human Events column on the Fort Hood massacre, in which Bauer — echoing his close personal friend Bill Kristol — declared that “[p]olitical correctness has been radical Islam’s greatest asset in its war against America. Let’s execute it.” “Accommodation of Islam pervades our schools,” added Bauer in his column.
In the beginning of their discussion, Liddy said that political correctness towards Islam “precedes the Obama administration” because President Bush proclaimed that “Islam is a religion of peace.” “You know that’s just not true,” said Liddy. Later in the conversation, after Bauer complained that Obama’s Homeland Security adviser John Brennan would lead the investigation into what the U.S. intelligence community knew about Nidal Malik Hasan before his attack, Liddy announced his belief that President Obama “is a Muslim”:
LIDDY: I’m convinced that despite his protestations to the contrary, that Barack Obama is a Muslim. I don’t believe that he’s a Christian at all. I believe he’s a Muslim.
BAUER: Well, you know the church that he famously or infamously attended was, was odd in many ways. Not only the rantings of its pastor, the clear racist rantings of its pastor, which the President chose to listen to year after year with his family and his children. You know something that still in my view has never been adequately explained. But it was also a church that had some real strange ideas about Islam and Christianity. I’ve seen a number of suggestions that there were many people in the congregation that considered themselves both Christian and Muslim. Something that I’m sure both real Christians and real Muslims would deny is possible.
Not only did Bauer not disagree with Liddy’s claim that Obama is lying about his Christianity, he went on to praise Liddy’s contribution to America’s political debate. “You do an outstanding job on your show bringing people the information they need,” said Bauer. “I commend you for the good work you do every day.” Listen to it here:
It’s not surprising that Liddy would hold such a fringe view. After all, he is a prominent birther who thinks that Obama is an “illegal alien.” Bauer, on the other hand, has previously written that he doesn’t want to “question the sincerity of Obama’s faith.” But in playing along with Liddy, that’s exactly what he has done.
Report: Dobbs to appear on The O’Reilly Factor next Monday.
Report: Dobbs to appear on The O’Reilly Factor next Monday.
On Wednesday, when CNN anchor Lou Dobbs announced his resignation for the network, speculation began about whether he would join the Fox Business Network. Fox put out a statement saying that they had “not had any discussions with Lou Dobbs for Fox News or Fox Business.” But Daily Finance’s Jeff Bercovici reported last night that Dobbs first big post-CNN interview will be on Fox News with Bill O’Reilly:
The network is set to announce that Dobbs will be a guest on Monday night’s edition of Bill O’Reilly’s show, DailyFinance has learned. Warm feelings between the two men goes back to last summer, when O’Reilly publicly defended Dobbs against critics who wanted him fired for repeatedly showcasting the claims of “birthers” who allege President Obama wasn’t born in the U.S. Dobbs offered to be interviewed on The O’Reilly Factor then, but quickly backed out, prompting speculation that CNN had ordered him not to appear on a competing network.
Monday’s appearance could be a make-good for that…or it could be a not-so-subtle signal that Dobbs is inclined to sign on with Rupert Murdoch’s legions, as many believe he will. (On his radio show today, callers were reportedly urging Dobbs to do just that.)
As Bercovici notes, O’Reilly has defended Dobbs on the air multiple times. Dobbs has replied by calling him “a stand up guy.”
Hannity admits he ‘screwed up’ by using old footage to increase the size of Bachmann’s tea party.
Hannity admits he ‘screwed up’ by using old footage to increase the size of Bachmann’s tea party.
On Tuesday night, The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart called out Fox News’ Sean Hannity for using images from the 9/12 rally in Washington to make it seem as though Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) “house call” rally attracted a larger crowd last Thursday. On his Fox show last night, Hannity confessed that he “screwed up,” claiming that it was “an inadvertent mistake.” “It pains me to say: Jon Stewart was right,” said Hannity. Watch it:
Media Decoder’s Bill Carter notes that “Hannity did not address specifically how the mistake came to be made.”
Fox News Regular Bo Dietl: ‘Ten Years Ago, [Katie Couric] Looked American. Today, She Looks Oriental’
Fox News Regular Bo Dietl: ‘Ten Years Ago, [Katie Couric] Looked American. Today, She Looks Oriental’
On Monday during an appearance on Don Imus’ radio show, which is simulcast on the Fox Business Network, former George H.W. Bush appointee and Fox News regular Bo Dietl used sexist and racist language to attack CBS News anchor Katie Couric. “Katie Couric, the cougar,” said Dietl. “If she gets her eyes done anymore, she’s going to look like a split face.” As Imus meekly attempted to defend Couric, saying “she’s fine,” Dietl unleashed a derogatory rant about Couric:
DIETL: She looks like a Halloween cartoon. She’s got her eyes pulled so far, she’s starting to look Chinese herself. Enough with these face lifts, alright Kate. And enough with the young guys Katie. You’re over the top baby. You’re over fifty. Start going out with guys your own age. This cougar stuff don’t work.
After some cross talk, Imus tried to get Dietl to “leave Katie Couric alone.” But as Dietl approached the end of his rant, Imus offhandedly called Couric “a rodent” as he tried to end the conversation:
IMUS: I’m just saying that if she wants — leave Katie Couric alone. She’s fine.
DIETL: Oh no no no. You like her eyes the way they look?
IMUS: She looks fine to me.
DIETL: They’re getting smaller and smaller.
IMUS: She looks fine.
DIETL: Ten years ago, she looked American. Today she is an oriental.
IMUS: She is a rodent. Leave her alone.
DIETL: She doesn’t like you either pal. She never stuck up for you.
Watch it:
This isn’t the first time that Dietl and Imus have had a racially-charged discussion live on the air. In May 2008, after Dietl said that then-President Bush should fly to Saudi Arabia to talk to “those little hamel humpers over there,” Imus replied, “It’s, uh, ‘camel humpers.’” An advocate of having law enforcement “go out to the Muslim communities,” Dietl, who is a birther, has referred to Muslims as “Aba Dabba Doos.”
Dietl has appeared on Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly and Neil Cavuto’s Fox News shows and is someone for whom Fox News CEO Roger Ailes personally vouches. “I have known Bo Dietl both personally and professionally for many years,” says Ailes in an endorsement letter posted on Dietl’s website. “He does excellent work and personally is a man I trust.”
Former Bush officials ‘are leading a new business push into Iraq.’
Former Bush officials ‘are leading a new business push into Iraq.’
In 2008, Tim Shorrock reported for Salon that while “working inside America’s ’shadow’ spy industry, George Tenet, Richard Armitage, Cofer Black and others are cashing in big on Iraq and the war on terror.” Now, the Financial Times reports today that even more Bush administration officials are eyeing profits in Iraq:
Senior Bush administration figures including Zalmay Khalilzad, former US ambassador to Baghdad, and Jay Garner, the retired general who led reconstruction efforts immediately after the war, are leading a new business push into Iraq.
The two one-time senior officials are among a raft of former US soldiers and diplomats either leveraging their war experience helping foreign companies to enter the Iraqi market or starting businesses there themselves.
Recently, former American diplomat Peter Galbraith, who was a key adviser to Iraqi Kurdish politicians, admitted that “he has had business dealings involving oil companies in Iraqi Kurdistan since 2004.” “The business interest, including my investment into Kurdistan, was consistent with my political views,’’ he told the Boston Globe. “These were all things that I was promoting, and in fact, have brought considerable benefit to the people of Kurdistan, the Kurdistan oil industry, and also to shareholders.’’
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll