The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Oops: PBS Got Stung, Too

Posted on | March 9, 2011 | 15 Comments

One of my friends who has very close connections to the operatives involved in James O’Keefe’s sting against National Public Radio had hinted in a phone call that I should expect further exposures and — my, oh, my — what do we have here?

PBS confirmed Wednesday that like NPR, one of its executives attended a lunch with people who posed as members of the Muslim Education Action Center Trust, a fictional group.

Liberals: We’re So Much Smarter Than the Rest of America!

UPDATE: An interesting reaction:

Note the presumption that PBS is the innocent victim of the “right-wing” bad guy O’Keefe. We haven’t seen the video, and therefore have no idea what actually happened at the meeting, but Charles Johnson knows who the villain is!

Because he is now smarter than everybody else, now that he has “parted ways with the right.”

Category: Media Bias

‘National Palestinian Radio’ Sting Shows That Liberals Still Blame America First

Posted on | March 9, 2011 | 10 Comments

During James O’Keefe’s undercover video sting of (now ex-)National Public Radio executive Ron Schiller, “Ibrahim Kassan” — pretending to represent a Muslim Brotherhood front group that wanted to make a large donation to the NPR foundation — made a number of provocative statements about Jewish control of the media:

“Jews do kind of control the media or, I mean, certainly the Zionists and the people who have the interests in swaying media coverage toward a favorable direction of Israel,” the man posing as Ibrahim Kassam said as Schiller concurred. . . .
“The Palestinian viewpoint — since NPR is one of the few places that has the courage to really present it — there is kind of a joke, we used to call it National Palestine Radio,” said Kassam while Schiller laughs and the second executive featured in the tape, NPR’s director of institutional giving Betsy Liley, replies, “That’s good, I like that.”

As Philip Klein of The American Spectator points out, “Schiller chimes in, saying that Zionist influence doesn’t exist at NPR, but ‘it’s there in those who own newspapers obviously.’ ” Was that a shot at Pinch Sulzberger of the New York Times?

Jack Shafer of Slate attempts a defense of Schiller, saying that ” rich people . . . have a lot of crazy ideas” and “we’d last about 15 seconds in the fundraising business if every time a potential donor said something crazy or offensive, we told them to shut their pie hole.”

Nice try, Jack. But O’Keefe’s sting also involved setting up a Web site for the group “Kassam” supposedly represented, so that Schiller knew going into that lunch meeting that the agenda of the “Muslim Education Action Center” was to “spread acceptance of Sharia across the world.”

Or at least if Schiller didn’t know what “MEAC” was about, he had no excuse for not knowing. This goes back to what O’Keefe’s sting was intended to demonstrate: While NPR was so sensitive about “Islamophobia” that it fired Juan Williams for expressing concern about Islamic terrorism, NPR was willing to accept donations from an organization that was unabashed in its radical Islamic enthusiasms.

So now the news is that NPR CEO Vivian Schiller (no relation to Ron Schiller) has resigned:

“The Board accepted her resignation with understanding, genuine regret, and great respect for her leadership of NPR these past two years,” board chairman Dave Edwards said in a statement.

But as Jeff Dunetz of Yid With Lid notes, the CEO’s “resignation” was actually a firing, as NPR’s media reporter David Folkenflik said: “I’m told by sources that she was forced out — that this was, I guess, the final shoe dropping, you could say.”

What have we learned? A few years ago, it was often said that “9/11 changed everything” and, in some sense, I guess it did. But the change for most Americans — a long-overdue wake-up call to the threat of Islamic jihad — was different than the change for liberals like these NPR executives. For liberals, 9/11 was a morality tale about America’s alleged sins against the Muslim world, in which America’s ally Israel was the villain and al-Qaeda terrorists were in some sense justified in hating America. (“Chickens coming home to roost,” so to speak.)

More than 35 years ago, Jeanne Kirkpatrick described the essence of liberalism’s foreign policy instincts:

They said that saving Grenada from terror and totalitarianism was the wrong thing to do – they didn’t blame Cuba or the communists for threatening American students and murdering Grenadians – they blamed the United States instead.
But then, somehow, they always blame America first.
When our Marines, sent to Lebanon on a multinational peacekeeping mission with the consent of the United States Congress, were murdered in their sleep, the “blame America first crowd” didn’t blame the terrorists who murdered the Marines, they blamed the United States.
But then, they always blame America first.
When the Soviet Union walked out of arms control negotiations, and refused even to discuss the issues, the San Francisco Democrats didn’t blame Soviet intransigence. They blamed the United States.
But then, they always blame America first.
When Marxist dictators shoot their way to power in Central America, the San Francisco Democrats don’t blame the guerrillas and their Soviet allies, they blame United States policies of 100 years ago.
But then, they always blame America first.

Some things never change.

UPDATE: Jeff G. at Protein Wisdom points out that NPR is “an entity so practiced at building and maintaining improbable cultural narratives,” yet has now lost control of its own narrative. Permit me to suggest that the secret of NPR’s narrative-control operation was their exclusion of dissent from the discourse. But you already knew that, right?

UPDATE II: Oops: PBS Got Stung, Too.


Category: Media Bias

You Don’t Need To Be Cynical, You Need To Be Clear

Posted on | March 9, 2011 | 6 Comments

by Smitty

Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): If you haven’t told me what we’re doing to eradicate Fannie and Freddie, you haven’t told me much.

Dan at POWIP chides Stacy for insufficient cynicism.
Shag all that. Let us be perfectly clear: individual housing is not, nor has it ever been, a proper federal task. The sooner conservatives quit agreeing en passant with federal over-reach, the more quickly we can go after the bureaucratic cancer with pliers and a blow torch and un-frobnicate this modern Progressive mess.

Category: Blogging, Piece of Work in Progress

Missed Metaphor Of The Day

Posted on | March 9, 2011 | 8 Comments

by Smitty

The Blaze has a post that mentions a guy who stabs someone else halfway through a trip to the barber, then flees, serving up a great mug shot. However, for an age where everything is political, a better caption was needed:

u_s_electorate_symbol_of_the_day

David Davis's coiffeur probably did not immediately grasp the metaphorical relationship of Obamanomics to this before/after study in haircuts at the time. Ah, the shear genius of voters.

Category: Barack Obama

My Daughter Kennedy Makes News!

Posted on | March 9, 2011 | 22 Comments

She was interviewed on video by the Hagerstown Herald-Mail at the Washington County Public Schools Teacher Recruitment Fair (click the image to watch):

“I want to be a teacher because I think that every child deserves a good quality education and I think that I’ve been prepared for that through my university and the experiences I’ve had. Also, I’ve known this since I was in kindergarten. I loved kindergarten when I was in it. I’ve had Kindergarten Barbie and I taught my little siblings how to different things. So I’ve always known that I wanted to be a teacher.”

The print version of the article is also online. You’ll notice that her surname has changed, having gotten married in July. She is 21 years old and due to graduate with top honors from Frostburg State University in May. She graduated high school at age 16, worked her way through college, spent a year in Argentina in a full-immersion Spanish-language program, and has only had one “B” in her entire collegiate career. Read more

Category: Education, Family

And She’s Not Even From West Virginia!

Posted on | March 9, 2011 | 8 Comments

The world’s youngest grandmother is only 23 years old:

Rifca Stanescu was 12 when she had her first child Maria.
She urged the girl not to follow her example – but Maria gave birth to son Ion while only 11.

Because Rifca was herself born to a 17-year-old, that means Rifca’s mother is now a great-grandmother at the ripe old age 40.

And, to the everlasting relief of Don Surber, the Stanescu family is from Romania, so they can’t be a punchline for your next hillbilly joke.

Category: Rumania

Crazy? CRAZY? Who You Calling Crazy?

Posted on | March 9, 2011 | 38 Comments

So I was watching Fox News last night and Sean Hannity had an “expert” on the show, a psychiatrist who tentatively suggested the possibility that Charlie Sheen might be exhibiting symptoms of bipolar disorder.

Really?

No, I mean, REALLY? Because I would call the state medical board and demand they revoke the license of any psychiatrist who doubts that Charlie Sheen is bipolar.

The only other possibility is that Charlie’s trying to win an Emmy for “Best Dramatic Performance as a Dude With Raging Bipolar Disorder.”

For reasons unkown, there was no “Sheen’s Korner” Tuesday night, but his Monday rant was a blast of weapons-grade lunatic gibberish:

“Now, everyone’s 20 years behind my book, catching up, saying, ‘My gosh, where was all this brilliance?'”
“And I’m saying it was right there. You had the poetry in your magic fingertips the entire time, to flip my perfect pages and read my perfect words, but you didn’t go there because you judged me, you condemned me, you discarded me. Well, not anymore. Winning! . . .
“People need to hear my gold as it rolls out, not as it’s like disappearing, like so many frickin’, you know, magicians’ rabbits. . . .
“Apocalypse… me… the jaws of life.”

And more:

“I don’t give a f**k, I don’t give a f**k. This phone doesn’t even have a speaker because it was built by trolls. Keep that in mind, phones are built by trolls. . . .
“If you own the home that you own the trash can, you should never have to empty it ever again . . .
“We are in the middle of a movement here, an odyssey of epic, epic proportions. . . .
“Any time I roll anything out, my plan is the best one in the room and people are starting to realize that. . . .
“Their plan is s**t and my plan is gold. Walk into my plan and you’re going to win, win, win. . . .
“It’s a Sheen dog and it’s soul is inhabited by the soul of Betty and now it will murder people and eat trolls with it’s razor fangs and drop their spleens off with their children at tiny houses. I’m foiled by phones and trolls!”

There are schizophrenics in straitjackets locked up in padded rooms who don’t spew word-salad nonsense half as crazy as that.

Let me address myself to the California law-enforcement community: Does the phrase “a danger to himself and others” mean anything to you guys? How about the phrase “involuntary commitment”?

Within the next 48 to 72 hours, either somebody’s going to put Charlie in the hospital, or else we’re likely to be writing his obituary.

Category: Celebrities

LIVE AT FIVE – 03.09.11

Posted on | March 9, 2011 | 2 Comments

TOP NEWS
Libyan Rebels’ Call For No-fly Zone Grows Sharper

Foreign workers flee to Tunisian refugee camps

Rebel council rejects offer of Qadhafi resignation; regime denies offer was made

Loyalists Attack Rebels, Civilians From The Air As NATO Ponders No-Fly Zone

Stalemate On The Ground As Smaller Loyalist Forces Unable To Retake Ground From Larger, Disorganized Rebels

Public Standoff, Private Discussions
Possible compromise to resolve Wisconsin budget impasse?



Hispanics Increasingly Identify As White
Analysis of Census data shows Hispanics regard identity as ethnic, not racial



POLITICS
O’KEEFE STRIKES AGAIN: NPR STING HITS HARD

NPR Doesn't Need Your Stinking Money, But Don't You Dare Cut Off Federal Funds

Guerrilla conservative catches NPR exec on camera slamming Americans as “uneducated”, Tea Party as “seriously racist”; GOP drive to defund NPR/PBS strengthened?
NPR In Damage Control Mode

In Defense Of Peter King’s Muslim Hearings

Democrats Raise Stakes On Budget

Senate Backs Patent Reform To Cut Backlog



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Stock Futures Turn Mixed As Libya Crisis Continues
Politics Of Oil: Will High Gasoline Prices Spur Lawmakers To Act?
Bank Of America Moves Almost Half Its Mortgages Into “Bad Bank”
Icahn To His Hedge Fund Investors: Cash Out Now
Oil Falls For A Second Day In New York As OPEC Discusses Emergency Meeting
Facebook To Pose New Threat To Netflix? Social Network Gets Into Streaming Movie Rentals
Difficult Decisions Ahead On Mars
Google Provides Grant To Put Mandela Archives Online



SPORTS
NFL Players Reject Owners’ Offer Of Profitability Data

NFLPA leader Demaurice Smith talks to reporters

Players holding out for complete financial statements

Tiki Barber To End Retirement, Play In 2011?

Aldridge, Blazers’ Bench Roll Heat, 105-96




Texans’ Kareem Jackson Attends Dominican Cockfights, Posts Pix

Canadiens Beat Bruins, Extend Win Streak To Five

Wild Surge Past Slumping Avs 5-2

Brewers Pitcher Greinke Out 2-4 Weeks With Rib Injury

Phil Jackson Has Message For the Heat: There’s No Crying In The NBA



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Charlie Sheen’s Latest Video: Dead Man Ranting

Roseanne says he makes her look sane

Are his fifteen minutes up yet?

Alice In Chains Original Bassist Mike Starr Dead, 44

Lohan To Sue Jewelry Store Over Sale Of Surveillance Tape

“Real Housewives Of New York” To Return April 7

Lily Allen Opens Up About Tragic Baby Loss In New Documentary

Maksim Chmerkovskiy Impressed By Dancing Partner Kirstie Alley

“Tomb Raider” Reboot In Works Without Angelina Jolie?

Lady Gaga Threatens Breast Milk Ice Cream Makers With Lawsuit



FOREIGNERS
Richter 7.2 Earthquake Rocks Northern Japan
Former Iranian President Rafsanjani Loses Top Clerical Post
Ivorian Marches On International Womens’ Day End In Blood
Car Bomb Kills 24 At Pakistan Fuel Station Near ISI Office
Serbia, Kosovo To Meet In Brussels For First Direct Talks
Search For Stockholm Bomber’s Accomplices Leads To Scotland
Coptic Christians, Muslims Clash In Cairo, One Dead


BLOGS & STUFF
The Lonely Conservative: Liberal Chickens Coming Home To Roost
Don Surber: Manchin Dumps On The Won
Mark Steyn: Mamas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboy Poets
Atlas Shrugs: Congressman King Getting Death Threats, Security Ramped Up
Jihad Watch: King Is Right, Say NYPD, FBI; We Don’t Get Much Cooperation From The Muslim Community…Much Like The Mafia, MS-13, And The Drug Cartels
NRO: Lugar Opposed To House Spending Cuts…No, Wait, He Isn’t!
Weasel Zippers: NPR, PBS Breaking Law By Lobbying For More Federal Money?
Peter Suderman: Wouldn’t It Be Terrible If Sightly Fewer Individuals Signed Up For Middle-Class Obamacare Subsidies?
Neo-neocon: Ohio Matters, And Other News
Jawa Report: Brian DePalma’s “Redacted” Being Used As Anti-American Propaganda on YouTube By Islamists To “Prove” American Troops Rape Muslim Women

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Category: Live at Five
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