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CNN host Howard Kurtz on Sunday blasted News Corp chief executive Rupert Murdoch for an "atrocious" suggestion that stereotyped the "Jewish owned press" as having a hidden agenda.

In a tweet on Saturday, Murdoch had lashed out at what he called the "Jewish owned press" for its coverage of a recent conflict between Hamas and Israel.

"Why is Jewish owned press so consistently anti-Israel in every crisis?" he wrote.

The Daily Beast's Peter Beinart quickly noted that Murdoch's tweet managed to offend both journalists and Jews.

"It’s offensive to journalists because it implies that institutions of the 'press' should reflect the ideological biases of their owners," Beinart wrote. "Reading Murdoch’s tweet, it would be logical to conclude that he believes that any newspaper he owns should reflect his right-wing views, even in its news coverage."

"Murdoch’s tweet is offensive to Jews because he’s suggesting that when it comes to Israel, Jewish media-owners should let their Jewishness guide their journalism. ... Murdoch seems upset that Jewish media owners are not Israel-firsters. He wants their tribal loyalty to a Jewish state to trump their professional obligation to oversee fair-minded, unbiased journalism."

In his Sunday media analysis on CNN, Kurtz also tore into Murdoch.

"Last night, he went beyond outrageous to offensive," the media critic said of Murdoch, observing that most media organizations -- with the exception The New York Times -- were owned by public companies like Viacom, Comcast, Disney and Time Warner.

"And beyond that, this media mogul who isn't shy about interfering in his own newsrooms is suggesting that Jewish Americans have a hidden agenda in which their religion trumps their commitment to journalism," he added. "That is atrocious and it is beneath Rupert Murdoch."

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George Pataki is really a piece of work. After conflating Islam with terrorists while doing his bit fear mongering over the Islamic center to be built near ground zero, listen to him twist himself in knots after Dylan Ratigan asks him if all Muslims are being associated with terrorism. Now it's not the mosque that everyone's carping about, it's the HUGE community center being built near "hallowed ground" and the man who wants to build it refusing to condemn Hamas. Sure George. Then how do you explain this?

Across Nation, Mosque Projects Meet Opposition

Ratigan: Why is it inherently wrong for a mosque to exist near ground zero? And the reason I ask the question is this, are we operating as a society on the presumption that all Muslims are terrorists that want to kill us and as such any Muslim gathering place is a higher statistical probability of our own death or subjection to terrorism by the mere mathematical equivalency of Muslims equals terrorists?

Pataki: No... no, no. Dylan of course not. If this were a corner mosque for a local community, I don't think you would hear this reaction at all, but this is supposed to be a major center of Islamic... ah... whatever... tolerance... it's 12 to 15 stories high. This is not the neighborhood mosque... (crosstalk)

Ratigan: But what's the difference with it being Muslim?

Pataki: This is a symbol of Islam being built two blocks... (crosstalk)

Ratigan: What's wrong with that?

Pataki: Let me tell... the point is that it was Islamist terrorists who attacked us on September 11th they weren't Buddhists, they weren't Episcopalians (crosstalk)...

Ratigan: But they were Christians that bombed Oklahoma City, in other words we're making the leap between people who were subscribing to Islam and some interpretation who clearly attacked us...

Pataki: Right.

Ratigan: And saying that that subscription then applies in theory to all Muslims where we could do this with Christians...

Pataki: No... no... no! (crosstalk) Not at all... not at all. Dylan I'm kind of confused by your logic here or forgive me but lack of logic.

The only one confused here is Pataki after his talking points got stepped on.

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John Cornyn believes the killed pro-Palestinian activists that were killed in a clash with Israeli defense forces were asking for it.

ABC's Jake Tapper asked Cornyn how the U.S. should react after Israeli commandos killed, Furkan Dogan, a U.S. citizen in the process of raiding an aid flotilla bound for Gaza.

"We don't know all the circumstances yet. But It appears to be a premeditated provocation of Israel and an attempt to run the blockade that's existed since Hamas took over Gaza," Cornyn said Sunday.

"They are entitled, as matter of their self-defense to look to see if weapons or other items are being smuggled in," Cornyn continued.

"This was pretty clearly a premeditated provocation and it's unfortunate that lives were lost. I think it should have been a situation like it had been before if the people organizing this flotilla had been committed to peaceful activity, as opposed to provocation, this would not have occurred and Israel would have been able to examine the contents of the flotilla and they would have been delivered to the people of Gaza who needed help," said Cornyn.

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Jeremy Scahill debated Ed Koch about the Israeli attack on the flotillas headed for Gaza with humanitarian aide. Jeremy Scahill wrote in his post at The Nation:

During the commercial break during my debate with Koch, the former mayor called me a "terrorist supporter." I told him, "Say it on the air." He didn't.

Figures. Scahill would have torn him up more badly during the interview than he did already. Here's more from Scahill's blog at The Nation. My TV Debate with Ed Koch About Israel's Gaza Flotilla Massacre:

On MSNBC today, I debated former New York Mayor Ed Koch about the deadly Israeli attack on the humanitarian Flotilla attempting to deliver much needed goods to the people of Gaza, who are forced to live under a constant state of siege and blockade imposed by Israel. Among the dead is reportedly a 19-year old US citizen, Furkan Dogan, who was shot four times in the head and once in the chest.

Israel and its apologists like Mayor Koch attempt to portray the humanitarian Flotilla as terrorist-affiliated, a "hate boat" in the words of Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu, "capable of smuggling large amounts of weapons" that "was trying to break the naval blockade of Gaza, not bring humanitarian aid." But Koch and the Israeli spokespeople conveniently leave out the fact that there were no weapons being smuggled on the Flotilla and that members of the Flotilla included former US diplomat Ann Wright, who helped reopen the US embassy in Kabul after 9-11 and former US ambassador to Iraq Ed Peck, as well as a member of the Israeli parliament and other international politicians and diplomats.

On the show today, I read from a list of the items Israel has banned from entering Gaza. Among these are such dangerous spices as sage, cardamom, cumin, coriander, as well as children's toys, fruit preserves, ginger, fishing rods, chocolate, fresh meat and well-known terrorist sympathizers such as horses, donkeys, goats, cattle and chicks. See a list of the banned and permitted items for yourself here [PDF].

As Dov Weisglass, an adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister, said earlier this year. 'The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet."

When I asked Koch how a goat or a horse or a children’s toy could be used as rocket to hit Israel, Koch responded by saying only, “that’s nonsense.” When I pointed out that there were respected international diplomats on the Flotilla, contrary to his characterization of it as a terrorist vessel, Koch would only say, "I don't want to argue with you."

h/t Marcy and as she and Jeremy noted, here are some of the items prohibited by the blockade.

* sage
* cardamom
* cumin
* coriander
* ginger
* nutmeg
* chocolate
* seeds and nuts
* fishing rods
* various fishing nets
* fabric (for clothing)
* sewing machines and spare parts
* size A4 paper
* writing implements
* notebooks
* razors
* toys

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Israel needs someone to support them and surprise, surprise... their neocon chickenhawk defender John Bolton crawls back out of the woodwork and into the studios of Fox News.

AlterNet published an article on John Bolton back in 2005 which takes an extensive look at Bolton's career if anyone needs a reminder of how sleazy this guy's background is.

The Armageddon Man:

A comprehensive look at John Bolton's career reveals a man who champions extremism in the service of expediency.

When Irving Kristol regarded by many as the "godfather of neoconservatism" described a neoconservative as a "liberal who has been mugged by reality," he was not describing John Bolton. Unlike many of his supporters in the Bush administration, the U.N. ambassador-designate did not start out his political career on the center-left either as a liberal, social democrat, or socialist.

In the 1950s through the 1970s, the political forerunners who established neoconservatism as the defining trend within American conservatism went through a left-right transformation. In that political morphing, the neoconservatives have redefined U.S. politics from the Reagan administration through the current Bush administration.

Bolton shares much with the closely knit neoconservative political camp: their red-meat anticommunism, their obsession with China, their support of right-wing Zionism in Israel, and their glorification of U.S. power as the main force for good and against evil in our world. Bolton has also forged close links with neoconservatives while a scholar at the Manhattan Institute and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Although sharing most of the neoconservative ideology, Bolton is not himself a true-blue neocon.

It's not only his political origins that separates him from other middle-aged neoconservatives. Bolton also stands apart from the neoconservative camp because of his longtime association with moderate conservative James Baker and the close ties he had with Dixiecrat Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC). Unlike most neocons, who stay removed from electoral politics, Bolton has repeatedly immersed himself in the mundane and often dirty politics of ensuring Republican Party electoral victories.

One political label that certainly fits Bolton is that of "hawk" or militarist. Like most other Bush administration officials, Bolton is a militarist who has never gone to war which according to some detractors makes him a "chickenhawk." In his work in the Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush administrations, Bolton has become known as the right's most effective and strident opponent of the United Nations and all forms of global governance and international law not controlled by the U.S. government. Read on...

Transcript below the fold via Lexis Nexis.

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January 16, 2009 C-SPAN

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni spoke about the prospects for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Gaza Strip. She responded to questions from reporters at the National Press Club.

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January 12, 2009 BBC World

January 09, 2009 C-SPAN

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December 29, 2008 CBC The National