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To: bentway who wrote (285909)	10/22/2010 12:52:24 PM
From: Valuepro	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

"Citizens United is a terrible decision that puts complete and total fascism in America on the fast track. 80% of VOTING Americans disagree with it." That's what I thought. You don't believe in free speech when it doesn't suit your views.

To: bentway who wrote (285909)	10/22/2010 2:24:27 PM
From: Jim McMannis	Respond to of 306849

More fuel for the TEA party. Carry on...media retards.

To: bentway who wrote (285909)	10/22/2010 9:06:44 PM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 306849

Illegal Aliens Canvass for Votes in Wash. State (backing Dem Patty Murray) foxnews.com

To: bentway who wrote (285909)	10/22/2010 9:10:33 PM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 306849

NPR's Suicide? ...................................................... investors.com Media: Did National Public Radio jump the shark? Just hours after sacking Juan Williams for making sensible but allegedly insensitive remarks on Fox, the federally funded outfit has brought itself under painful scrutiny. Williams no doubt has been riding an emotional roller coaster, both smarting from NPR's patently unjust action and reveling in a new $2 million-plus contract with the Fox News Channel. For the rest of us who are concerned with restoring integrity to the news business, there's good news in this. For one, NPR was condemned across the spectrum — at least to the far fringes of the left, where the George Soros-funded Media Matters now wants similar action to be taken against Mara Liasson, the other NPR journalist who regularly moonlights on Fox. There's also good news in the recovery by many traditional liberals of their commitment to fairness and free speech for which they were known before political correctness set in many years ago. Even the Washington Post — where early in his career Williams worked as a reporter — was so outraged that it defended its former writer in a lead editorial. NPR's reflexive intolerance also occasioned a revisiting of the left-leaning organization's many past sins. Exhibit A: the record of "correspondent" Nina Totenberg, who, on one of those soporific shows from "inside Washington" on yet another network, also doubles as a panelist. Whereas Williams thoughtfully explained the frisson he shares with millions of Americans when boarding airplanes alongside passengers in Muslim garb, Totenberg grotesquely wished AIDS by transfusion on the late senator Jesse Helms and his grandchildren. So when does she get the ax? The boiling indignation now moves to Capitol Hill, where congressional Republicans and likely a few Democrats will put NPR on the squirm seat. There it will have to explain why it shouldn't be defunded — which would be a good thing. Just months ago the Federal Trade Commission, feeling the Oba-maite impulse to nationalize, prepared a report on how the government could "save journalism" by subsidizing various news outlets and pumping up public broadcast outlets. Alarmingly, the plan was well received by some media "leaders" who once prized their independence. NPR stood to gain by the blueprint, which resembled authoritarian media practices from Ceaucescu's Romania to Chavez's Venezuela. By sacking Juan Williams, NPR may inadvertently have brought that plan to a screeching and welcome halt.

To: bentway who wrote (285909)	10/22/2010 9:18:13 PM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 306849

NPR gets earful from listeners on Williams firing by BRETT ZONGKER, Associated Press Writer 10/22/2010 news.yahoo.com WASHINGTON – NPR and its public radio stations around the country got an earful from listeners and angry citizens in the middle of pledge season Friday over its firing of commentator Juan Williams, receiving thousands of complaints and scattered threats to withhold donations. "We find ourselves kind of caught between NPR and the audience," said Craig Curtis, program director at KPCC in Pasadena, Calif., which won't hold its pledge drive until next month. He said the station had received about 150 comments on the firing, mostly disapproving, and three people asked to cancel their memberships. Veronica Richardson, 38, a paralegal from Raleigh, N.C., said the firing revealed that NPR had a "political agenda." She said she would stop listening and donating to her local station, WUNC-FM in Chapel Hill. "I think it's unfair to fire someone for a comment that was innocuous to begin with. It's how many people feel," said Richardson, who describes herself as a libertarian. Teresa Kopec, 42, of Spartanburg, S.C., backed the firing, saying, "I thought what he said was kind of offensive. I think it was probably the last straw. He had a pattern of saying things that were not appropriate." But she said his association with conservative Fox News may have been more troubling, because it damaged NPR's reputation for objectivity. At KUNC, an NPR affiliate in Colorado, general manager Neil Best said that Thursday, the start of a pledge drive, was one of the station's best fundraising days ever. Best said some callers who criticized the firing seemed to be reading from a script since they used some of the same words, such as "totalitarian." In Denver, Colorado Public Radio President Max Wycisk said the episode could boost fundraising. "It might actually help, because it reinforces how seriously public radio takes its integrity," Wycisk said. At least one station wants to distance itself from the firing. In Miami, WLRN general manager John Labonia said he was hearing dozens of complaints from angry citizens and loyal donors. He said one called to cancel a $1,000 pledge. The station's fundraising drive had already ended when the furor erupted. "We don't want that negative halo of NPR's decision to affect us, so we are making it perfectly clear that we were not part of this decision and we do not agree with it," Labonia said. "It was a short-sighted and irresponsible decision by NPR." Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said he will introduce legislation to end federal funding for public radio and television. "Once again, we find the only free speech liberals support is the speech with which they agree," he said in a statement. "With record debt and unemployment, there's simply no reason to force taxpayers to subsidize a liberal programming they disagree with." In June, Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., introduced similar legislation in the House. He said the Williams firing will help his bill.

To: bentway who wrote (285909)	10/22/2010 9:20:03 PM
From: joseffy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

NPR’s intolerant firing of Juan Williams ...................................................... By Michael Barone Senior Political Analyst washingtonexaminer.com By now you have heard the astonishing and dismaying news that NPR has fired Juan Williams for making the following comment on the O’Reilly program on Fox News Channel. “I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.” As Clive Crook has noted, back in 1993 Jesse Jackson said “There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery, then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.” Of course neither statement is bigoted. And it is apparent from Juan Williams’s further statements on O’Reilly that his feeling of worry or nervousness is, as in Jackson’s case, painful to him. Many if not all readers feel the same way. We’re all aware that most identifiable Muslims on planes, like most young black men on city streets, are peaceful and unmenacing. But we also know who hurled those planes into buildings on September 11. I’ve known Juan Williams for 28 years. In 1982, when I joined the Washington Post’s editorial page staff, I took over what had been Juan’s office and his telephone number, as he was moving from the editorial side of the paper back to the news side. In the preceding weeks, Juan had been working on stories about prostitution in Washington, and during the first several weeks I received some pretty weird telephone calls—something we’ve laughed about ever since. Over the years I’ve admired Juan’s journalism and his excellent books—a history of the civil rights movement, a biography of Justice Thurgood Marshall. Most of all I admired him for writing Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America–and What We Can Do About It, which I think was a national service—and one that exposed him to a lot of criticism. He has faced all that with steadiness which is apparent in his angry but measured response to his firing today. Reading between the lines of Juan’s statement and those of NPR officials, it’s apparent that NPR was moved to fire Juan because he irritates so many people in its audience. An interesting contrast: while many NPR listeners apparently could not stomach that Williams also appeared on Fox News. But it doesn’t seem that any perceptible number of Fox News viewers had any complaints that Williams also worked for NPR. The Fox audience seems to be more tolerant of diversity than the NPR audience.

To: bentway who wrote (285909)	10/22/2010 9:29:39 PM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 306849

Juan Williams firing may be violation of Foreign Agents Registration Act 10-22-2010 rightsidenews.com WASHINGTON, DC: On October 21, 2010, the Center for Security Policy sent urgent alert notices to Juan Williams, news analyst for Fox News and recently fired news analyst for National Public Radio (NPR); Vivian Schiller, President and CEO, NPR; Roger Ailes, President, Fox News Channel; Bill O'Reilly, Fox News Channel; and the Inspector General of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), regarding a possible violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), warning that they may have been the target of an influence operation by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) which resulted in the firing of Williams. On October 18 on the Fox News program "The O'Reilly Factor," Williams stated "I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous." Two days later on October 20, CAIR issued a press release calling on NPR to take action against Williams. CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad called Williams' comments "irresponsible and inflammatory" and complained that "media commentators who launch rhetorical attacks on Islam and Muslims normally do not suffer the professional consequences." CAIR's Awad called on NPR to "address" Williams' statements. NPR publicly announced the termination of Williams' contract the following day, October 21. Center for Security Policy President Frank J. Gaffney Jr. said, "CAIR's position that journalists like Williams should normally ‘suffer the professional consequences' apparently created a hostile climate which may have led to Williams' firing. Since CAIR's beginnings in 1994, they have conducted targeted influence operations in the U.S. attempting to censor any criticism of Islam, jihad, and Islamic Shariah law. Their targets have included dozens of reporters, elected officials and ordinary citizens, but they have never registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act." The Center's CAIR Observatory project tracks CAIR's apparent violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). The FARA states that organizations paid by a foreign principal to engage in activities to "influence any agency or official of the Government of the United States or any section of the public within the United States" must register as a foreign agent and report such activity to the Department of Justice. CAIR has never registered. CAIR received $325,000 from the Saudi Arabia-based Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to demand opposition to speech that they consider "Islamophobic." The OIC's "Ten Year Plan" calls on the U.S. government and other nations to enact laws "including deterrent punishments" to counter this so-called "Islamophobic" speech. The U.S. government funds NPR, which fired Williams, through Corporation for Public Broadcasting grants. According to Gaffney, "The foreign payment of $325,000 to CAIR, and the OIC ‘Ten Year Plan' guidance to CAIR to demand ‘deterrent punishments' - or as CAIR's Nihad Awad put it, ‘professional consequences' - appear to have directed CAIR's influence operation targeting NPR, which may have led to NPR firing Williams." The CAIR Observatory project documents CAIR's receipt of $6.6 million in contributions and $54.5 million in pledges from foreign principals in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iran, over 40 cases of meetings and coordination with those principals, and nearly 100 influence operations against government agencies, military and law enforcement, elected officials, candidates, media outlets and private corporations. Alert notices were sent to Juan Williams, Vivian Schiller, Roger Ailes, Bill O'Reilly, and the CPB Inspector General on October 21st, and formal notifications will be sent on October 22nd. Copies of this correspondence will be provided to the Department of Justice's Counterespionage Section in the National Security Division, which is responsible for enforcing FARA and prosecuting violations of that act.