Really, France? The country that prides itself on its liberté responds to an unfunny, hateful and stupid Facebook comment by arresting the idiot who posts it? The week after holding a march honoring free speech as well as those killed over exercising free speech? France does have a long tradition of conditional liberty. I think we all know the famous quote, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it, unless you post it on Facebook, in which case you deserve to be arrested.” (This quote is really, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” It is misattributed to Voltaire but is actually a phrase used by Evelyn Beatrice Hall to describe Voltaire’s position.)
On Wednesday, French comedian Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, who goes by his first name only, was arrested for being an “apologist for terrorism” over a post he wrote on Facebook on Monday: “Tonight, as far as I’m concerned, I feel like Charlie Coulibaly,” mixing the “Je Suis Charlie” slogan in solidarity with the victims of the Charlie Hebdo shooting with a reference to Amédy Coulibaly, the man who killed four people at a kosher supermarket last week.
Every time an extremist who is Muslim commits an act of terrorism, people ask where the moderate Muslim voices condemning violence are. (Interestingly, as a Jew, I don’t usually get asked to condemn extremism when it is perpetuated by Jewish fundamentalists like Baruch Goldstein, who shot 29 praying Muslims do death, and injured 125, at the Cave of the Patriarchs, or Yigal Amir, who killed Israeli Prime MinisterYitzhak Rabin.) And the same thing is happening following this week’s deplorable, pathetic, and tragic killing of 12 people at the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
Not surprisingly, much of the “where is the Muslim outrage” outrage is coming from… Fox News, as Media Matters notes. Fox’s own Monica Crowley, for example, said that Muslims “should be condemning” the attack and that she hadn’t “heard any condemnation… from any groups.” Fox News’ America’s Newsroom guest Steve Emerson complained, “you don’t see denunciations of radical Islam, by name, by mainstream Islamic groups.” Bob Beckel, a host of Fox News’ The Five host said Muslims were “being quiet” about the shooting and accused the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) of keeping “their mouth shut when things happen.”
To be fair, it’s not all Fox News. Here’s CNN’s Don “why didn’t you just bite Bill Cosby’s penis” Lemon asking Arsalan Iftikhar, a Human Rights attorney and the founder of The Muslim Guy website, “Do you support ISIS?” on Wednesday.
So, allow me to do some of the legwork for the media… And present examples of Muslim outrage about the Paris shooting.
Let’s start with organizations, like CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which has, according to Fox, kept its mouth shut. Somehow they managed to get out this statement.
We strongly condemn this brutal and cowardly attack and reiterate our repudiation of any such assault on freedom of speech, even speech that mocks faiths and religious figures. The proper response to such attacks on the freedoms we hold dear is not to vilify any faith, but instead to marginalize extremists of all backgrounds who seek to stifle freedom and to create or widen societal divisions.
We offer sincere condolences to the families and loved ones of those killed or injured in this attack. We also call for the swift apprehension of the perpetrators, who should be punished to the full extent of the law.
When we study Islam, we see clearly that the Quran condemns this kind of violence categorically. That Prophet Muhammad said that a Muslim is one from whom all others are safe…. This is not about religion. This is about political power, this is about uneducated, ignorant youth who are being manipulated by clerics and extremists. And this is why it’s all the more important for us, as the moderates, regardless of faith, to stay united and combat this.
It’s not quite as unbelievable as the Immaculate Conception, but it’s pretty unthinkable, given the history of diplomatic “relations” between the U.S. and Cuba.
Tuesday, the wife of one of the Cuban Five gave birth to a baby girl, Gema Hernández Pérez. Gerardo Hernández was one of the three former Cuban intelligence agents, freed, after being in jail for 16 years, during a prisoner swap between Cuba and the U.S. last month, which also resulted in the release of the U.S. business man Alan Gross. But, obviously, Hernández was still in prison when his wife Adriana Pérez was impregnated. So, how did it happen? Conjugal visits, you say? Nope. Those weren’t allowed. The milk man, you say? Nope. The baby is of Hernández genetic stock.
As Hernández explained, “I had to do it by ‘remote control’.” OK. So, what does that mean?
The other day, something I wrote here– If ‘Black Lives Matter’ killed NYPD officers, Tea Party killed Las Vegas police–caused a not very surprising or remarkable Facebook fight, which evolved into a debate over Bill de Blasio’s role in and response to the murders of two NYPD officers. After people accused Bill de Blasio of being part of the problem and failing to do his job, I commented,
After I review the evidence, I will offer advice to the Mayor on how he can best move forward and redeem himself.
First, what exactly did Bill de Blasio say that has landed him in so much trouble. On December 3, after a StatenIsland grand jury decided not to indict the officer whose chokehold killed Eric Garner, de Blasio said that he was “astonished by the decision” and that it was a “very painful day for so many New Yorkers.” De Blasio also made the following unspeakable comments about how he and his wife Chirlane have worried about the safety of their son, Dante:
A new study shows that when anti-choice people hear in person accounts from women who have had abortions, they are more likely to start supporting reproductive freedom.
A public opinion research team led by UCLA doctoral candidate Michael LaCour has already demonstrated how door-to-door canvassing can change people’s opinions on LGBT issues. A study from earlier this month, for instance, determined that when conservatives talked to an LGBT canvasser for 20 minutes, they became more supportive of LGBT rights and remained supportive even nine months later.
Now, the same research team has started working with Planned Parenthood and is looking at the effect of talking to canvassers who have had abortions and those who haven’t. The preliminary results show that in-person conversations with both groups of volunteers lead to increased support of legalizing abortion. In initial surveys, 39 percent of voters said they supported legal abortion access but after talking with the volunteers support reached almost 50 percent.
Ant the effect of speaking with the volunteers who had had abortions was even stronger. For instance, people who spoke to that group were more likely to tell other members of their households about their conversations. In addition, after the Supreme Court struck down Massachusetts’ buffer zone around abortion clinics, anti-abortion attitudes were strengthened among most participants except for those who had spoken to a volunteer who had discussed her own abortion. As LaCour explains, “This finding suggests that discussion at the doorstep affected the way in which people subsequently received and interpreted the news.”
As we all know, the Right Wing has single-handedly defeated the non-existent war against Christmas. And they still have time to send out Merry Christmas greetings that are totally creepy. Come to think of it, they may be the behind an unintentional war against Christmas because these scary and sad social media shout messages are pretty much the worst PR Christmas could get. So (try to) enjoy!
Newt Gingrich’s Merry Christmas card: dead behind the eyes.
On Saturday, a lone mentally ill shooter, not from New York City and not part of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest movement, executed two NYPD police officers, before killing himself. In June of this year, a couple who had spent time on Clive Bundy’s ranch executed two Las Vegas police officers, wrapped their bodies in Don’t Tread on Me flags, and then shot themselves. Republicans, right wing media and police officials are blaming the NYPD murders on BLM. But why didn’t they blame the murders of the Las Vegas officers on the Tea Party movement?
Obviously, the way to honor the two police officers murdered on Saturday is by exploiting their tragic murder for political purposes in a way that actually defies logic. To do this, simply blame the actions of a single lone shooter with a history of mental illness and suicide attempts on a non-violent protest movement which outrageously demands that police not kill people for the crime of being Black. Also claim that Mayor Bill de Blasio, Attorney General Eric Holder and President Barack Obama are to blame but don’t bother pretending that there is any evidence for that claim because you won’t find it. But if you’re Ray Kelly, Rudy Giuliani, Patrick Lynch, George Pataki or Fox News, that’s no big deal anyway.
This week’s Senate report reveals gruesome and grisly details about the way the CIA used torture after 9/11. While the revelations are sparking outrage and disgust, few people are making the important and disturbing point that the regimented, systemized, and dehumanizing abuse actually included sexual violence and rape.
The CIA doesn’t call this torture “torture,” opting instead for the euphemism of “enhanced interrogation techniques.” But it’s hard to call the following anything but torture: beating people; “walling” people (which is slamming them against a wall using an improvised “collar,” such as a rolled-up towel); binding them with tape; hanging them from their wrists for days; waterboarding them until they turn blue; making them stand on broken feet or limbs, dragging them naked down hallways; and punching and slapping them.
Tuesday, the Senate released a 600-page report on the CIA’s use of torture. While the extent to which President Bush knew about, understood or approved of the actions of the CIA isn’t totally clear, he certainly didn’t do anything to stop it. And he continues to defend the agency, saying during an interview on Tuesday,
I’ll tell you this… We’re fortunate to have men and women who work hard at the CIA serving on our behalf. These are patriots. And whatever the report says, if it diminishes their contributions to our country it is way off base. I knew the directors, the deputy directors, I knew a lot of the operators. These are good people. Really good people. And we’re lucky as a nation to have them.
We will never know how Bush really responded to the revelations that are found in the report. Nor will we know if he became aware of them as president or more recently. But we have documentary evidence of someone who really resembles Bush: Michelle Tanner, the character from Full House, played by Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen. So, please enjoy these scary facts from the torture report along with GIFs which are the closest things we have to how Bush reacted.
The mainstream media certainly has its priorities in order. Tonight, when President Obama announces his new plan for immigration reform, you can be sure that the networks will be airing totally ignoring the speech on one of the most pressing and relevant issues facing not only the country but the world. That’s right, ladies and gentleman ABC, CBS. NBC and Fox (duh) have said they won’t be covering the speech live.
In all fairness, this makes sense. After all, why should the networks cover this issue when it is soooo stale? It’s so ten years ago. Or eight years ago, to be precise. All four networks covered President Bush’s 2006 speech on immigration. So why should they cover another speech on the same issue? I mean the president’s have totally different policies and the context is pretty different. But, still, what’s the new angle? I don’t see one. Do you? Bush announced he was sending National Guard troops to protect the U.S./Mexico border. Obama will announce an executive order that will grant legal status and work permits for as many as 5 million people. When you strip away the political jargon, aren’t the two policies identical to each other?
katiehalper.com 