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A Pentecostal bishop on Sunday told a rabbi and an imam that the U.S. was a "Christian nation" that was bridging religious divisions because Christians would "let" other faiths worship and "we're not going to persecute you."

Speaking to a interfaith panel on CBS News, Hope Christian Church Pastor Harry R. Jackson responded to Rabbi David Wolpe, who said that the Americans should "celebrate difference" because "God is greater than any religious tradition."

"In deference to the Christian foundation of this nation, it is that foundation that allows us freedom," Jackson explained. "I don't see this diversity in other places. So to the credit of our Christian foundation of this nation, this freedom we're experiencing is because folks came and said, 'We believe this is to be a Christian nation. We feel like we've been persecuted in the places we came from, and we're going to intentionally let this nation be founded in a way that if you come here and you're Islamic and you come here and you're Jewish, we're not going to persecute you.'"

"Although we don't worship as Jewish people, we're going to let this country be guided in a place where there's going to be liberty and freedom or worship. I feel we'd be remiss if we act like some other set of countries has operated in this way."

Imam Suhaib Webb, however, reminded Jackson that Christians persecuted Christians during the early days of the United States, while Jews and Muslims lived together in Harmony in Spain.

"You're saying I'm wrong that -- that foundation doesn't bring us to this point?" Jackson asked.

"I don't know if that was foundational or negotiated would be a better word for it," Webb pointed out.

"Negotiated by who?" Jackson replied. "Negotiated with Christians by Christians."

"Or by deists as well," Webb added. "I mean, I think we need to be really careful."

"We have strong disagreements," Jackson grumbled.

"But we still love each other," Webb said.

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Stephen Colbert had a bit of fun with Fox's resident fearmonger-in-chief Glenn Beck on his show this Monday.

TPM has more -- Colbert Pokes Holes In Beck's Egypt Conspiracy Theory With A Mummified Penis (VIDEO):

Stephen Colbert struggled last night to pin down a conspiracy theory good enough to explain the uprising in Egypt. Was it a digital revolution or, as Glen Beck has warned, the first stages of a looming Islamic caliphate?

Or perhaps most sinister of all, was it caused by the curse of King Tut's stolen manhood?

Colbert rolled a clip from Beck's program last week in which the Fox News host used Egypt as a launching point to argue that the Middle East and then ultimately the world would be brought under a new communist Islamic world order. Though Beck hedged that he couldn't say for sure if or when that would all happen, Colbert said that made the theory even more dangerous.

"The conspiracies that we know are coming but might never happen are the most dangerous," Colbert said, "because if they might never happen, how will we know if we stopped it?"

Not to be outdone by Beck's theory, Colbert then introduced one of his own. Linking the uprising to the legendary curse of King Tut, Colbert speculated that it was really a huge cover up initiated by the same dark forces behind the mystery of the "pharoah's pilfered phallus."

My favorite lines from the clip.

And sure Occam's razor says the simplest answer is usually correct. But fortunately, Glenn Beck isn't allowed near razors.

O'Reilly doesn't buy Beck's conspiracy. To him, this situation is understandable, unlike the tides. But, if in fact, if it's not Code Pink and Islamists and Communists, then who is behind this uprising in Egypt?

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Anderson Cooper brought on fearmonger Frank Gaffney -- who, as Right Wing Watch reported, has been attacking the other guest during the segment, Suhail Kahn, as someone who has ties to "radical Islamists". I'm not sure why he thinks Gaffney needs any more face time in the media, since he surely gets enough over at Fox. But to his credit, Cooper did call Gaffney out for how weak his claims are and allowed him to be confronted by Kahn.

Cooper mentioned Homeland Security Chairman Rep. Peter King's appearance on Gaffney's radio show. Our friends at Think Progress have more on that, and the witch hunt we get to look forward to now that King has taken the gavel there.

Rep. Peter King Says Muslims Aren’t ‘American’ When It Comes To War:

Rep. Peter King (R-NY), the new chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, has promised to launch a series of investigations of Muslim Americans beginning in February. “I’ve made it clear that I’ll focus the committee on counterterrorism and hold hearings on a wide range of issues, including radicalization of the American Muslim community and homegrown terrorism,” he told Newsday. King has repeatedly said that he only wants to single out “Islamic terrorism” in his hearings on domestic security, and has even claimed that there are “too many mosques in this country.”

Joining anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist Frank Gaffney on Gaffney’s radio program last week, King doubled down on his promise to launch a witch-hunt against Muslims. He repeated a falsehood that he stated earlier — that American Muslims never cooperate to combat terrorism. But in addition to this claim, King made the extraordinary smear that American Muslims aren’t “American” when it comes to war. “[W]hen a war begins,” King said, every ethnic and religious group unites as “Americans.” “But in this case,” King continued, referring to Muslims, “this is not the situation. … Whether it’s cultural tradition, whatever, the fact is the Muslim community does not cooperate anywhere near to the extent that it should”.

More there from Think Progress, so go read the rest. Here's a portion of Right Wing Watch's reporting on Gaffney, much of which Cooper mentioned in his opening.

Right Wing Boycott Movement Links CPAC to the Muslim Brotherhood:

Continue reading »

Oh good grief. The cognitive dissonance here is just astounding. Here's some of the footage Sam Seder was talking about yesterday with Cenk Uygur on Ratigan's show from Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally. Head spinning, truly.

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We've got an economy that's a mess, people who have been unemployed forever that need jobs, massive flooding in Pakistan, millions of gallons of oil and dispersants still floating in the water in the Gulf of Mexico and what is the media spending hours upon hours covering? That ginned up non-controversy over the Islamic center near ground zero and now a new poll that shows about one in five Americans think that President Obama is a Muslim. I wonder where they got that idea?

I hate that they're spending this much time on this nonsense that most people don't care about but if they're going to do it, we need to be pushing back against the lies and point out who's helping to spread them and hold the corporate media accountable when they help to push the latest right wing meme of the day and give it legitimacy.

During John King's show on CNN, Paul Begala says it's not CNN that is attributing to those poll numbers.

BEGALA: Mostly, no. You're right to just observe that as contrasted with Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter for that matter or certainly George W. Bush, this Christian president talks about his Christianity less. That perhaps makes him more like say George Bush's father, a devout Christian, a fine man who just didn't like to wear it on his sleeve as much as maybe some others.

No, in that survey, the Pew poll, most, the vast majority of people who think he's a Muslim. When you ask them why do you think that they say because of the media. And not to put too fine a point on it, they don't mean CNN, John. They mean the kook right wing media that has been attacking this president. It's fine to attack him on issues. But they're trying to attack him with any kind of crazy conspiracy theory they can.

I'd beg to differ.

A little later in the show John King brings on evangelical leader Franklin Graham who suggests that the "confusion" is being caused because President Obama was "born a Muslim" and of course if he says he's a Christian now (wink... wink) we'll just have to take him at his word that he is (but he might really be a dirty Kenyan Muslim usurper... you never know).

There are plenty of places where these rumors are being spread such as email chains, on right wing talk radio and on Fox News, but interviews like this aren't helping matters any. We got zero push back from John King against Graham's nonsense. He's really good at the false equivalency "you decide" game where he lets his viewers figure out for themselves who's telling the truth and who's spouting nonsense that should have been stopped in their tracks for telling lies but wasn't. Heaven forbid that might not make for a polite interview and we couldn't have that sort of incivility now could we?

Does anyone think John King didn't know exactly what he was going to get from Franklin Graham before he came on the air? Here's some of what happened during his encounter with then presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama back in 2008.

Franklin Graham to Obama: Are You A Muslim? (And How Obama Courted Hagee's Publisher):

Continue reading »

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While discussing the overblown "ground zero mosque" fake controversy on CNN's The Situation Room over the Cordoba House which as John noted started with wingnut extremist Pam "Atlas Shrugs" Geller, Bill Bennett decided to let America know that he thinks our illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq is "going nifty" and a "blessing for the people of Iraq". On what planet is having your country which was not a threat to us illegally invaded, millions of people displaced, your infrastructure blown to hell, being poisoned by DU, and another country occupying you so they can have military bases permanently set up on your soil something going "nifty" or "a blessing".

Someone should tell Bill Bennett that he really needs to lay off of Rush Limbaugh's drugs or whatever the hell he's taking. Un-friggin' believable... "a blessing". Hey Bennett, why don't we drop a few bombs on your neighborhood and then you can tell us how "blessed" you feel. Better yet, how about going over to Iraq yourself for a year or two to live and you can come back later and let us all know how wonderful it is there.

I recently posted Jeremy Scahill's speech talking about how terrible our "mainstream media" is and the need for more real journalists and especially those willing to go overseas and report on what's happening un-embedded from the U.S. military. Here's example 101 of the need for that... Bill Bennett, history revisionist who wants to tell us how wonderful things are going with our military occupation when I'm fairly sure he's never stepped foot in that country himself. I've never seen any reporting from Bennett from Iraq, just bloviating on the politics of our invasion as he did here.

BLITZER: So, Bill, is this going to be a huge political issue between now and November 2nd?

BENNETT: I think it will be big but it looks like Democrats are lining up against the president. 54 percent of Democrats the most recent poll don't agree with the president. I understand Harry Reid issued a statement he issued a statement saying he doesn't agree with the president. I don't know where his support is. Schumer and Gilibrand so far have been silent. This is a losing issue. He shouldn't have gotten into it. Gibbs said, the white house spokesman said for two weeks, this is a local issue. We're not going to get involve the in it, but they stepped in and now they're going to have to live in it. They're wrong on all counts and it will be an issue because you can not talk about 9/11 in this way as if you're instructing the American people as if they have it wrong. They don't have it wrong.

CARVILLE: Well, you know, I think that it's not a good idea. I didn't think it was a good idea, these wars. I don't think it's a good idea to try to change the way $1.2 billion people live.

BENNETT: I don't know what that means.

CARVILLE: That's what Donald Rumsfeld says. We're going to change the way they live.

BENNETT: What does have that to do --

CARVILLE: You're telling people you can't build a mosque at the old Burlington Coat Factory. I think the whole world is watching us.

BENNETT: That's -- that's right. We are saying it is wrong to build a mosque there because this thing was done in the name of Islam. And even though you may not have approved it, this guy Ralph's credentials are questionable. You should have the sensitivity to realize this is going to go down the wrong way for very rational reasons.

CARVILLE: I'll make the distinction. Islam did not attack us. Al Qaeda did. And we ought to be at war with al Qaeda and not Islamists.

BENNETT: Islamists did.

CARVILLE: I see the distinction clearly. We ought to be at war with al Qaeda.

BENNETT: The federal republic of Germany did not build Trablica but the federal republic of Germany should have the decency not to have a federal republic of Germany monument at the site of Trablica or Auschwitz.

CARVILLE: Again, I have many many Muslim friends that I hold their friendship dearly. They did not attack us.

BENNETT: Fine.

CARVILLE: And I see the distinction clearly. We ought to be at war with al Qaeda.

BENNETT: Have they condemned the attack?

CARVILLE: Plenty of people have.

BENNETT: Your Muslim friends? Would they come on my radio show and tell --

CARVILLE: We're nine years into changing the way they live. I don't think it's going too nifty out there, but that's me. Maybe I'm missing something.

BENNETT: Oh, you mean Iraq? Well, that is going nifty, as a matter of fact. That is a blessing for the people of Iraq.

BLITZER: On that note, we're going to continue this discussion. I'm sure in the days to come. Because I think both of you are right politically this issue is not going to go away. It's going to dog a lot of the candidates between now and November 2, and maybe even longer than that. Thanks very much, James Carville and Bill Bennett.

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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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Everybody's favorite U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut was asked by his longtime buddy Don Imus to opine on the trumped-up controversy of the construction of a Muslim community center in downtown Manhattan, the so-called Ground Zero Mosque. Lieberman employed the tried-and-true method of repeating 9/11 as many times as possible in the brief exchange.

Transcript via The Hill:

"Well, I guess I'd say I'm troubled by it. But I don't know enough to say it ought to be prohibited. But frankly I've heard enough about it, and read enough about it, that I wish someone in New York would just put the brakes on it for a while and take a look at this.

"If -- obviously in our country we give a special status to people wanting to build houses or worship. And we don't consider what religion it is. So that's what we start with, and what makes this an awkward conversation. On the other hand, if the people building this large Islamic center are just looking to build a large facility and house of worship and center in New York, why so close to 9/11, with all the sensitivity associated with that? If they're doing it so close 9/11 to try to bridge the gap and do outreach, as some have said, it obviously hasn't worked, as a lot of the people who lost family and friends on 9/11 are unhappy with it and troubled by it.

"You know, I've also read some things about some of the people involved that make me wonder about what they're involved in building this -- make me wonder about their motivations. I don't know enough to reach a conclusion, but as I said I know enough to believe that this thing is only gonna create more division in our society, and somebody ought to put the brakes on it, as I say. Give these people a chance to come out and explain who they are, where their money's coming from, and see if they can reach out to some of the families of 9/11 victims, to see if they can put their minds at ease, because right now they're not.

Lieberman has also been employing this same modus operandi for decades now: throw out unfounded accusations, try to instill doubt in others, while always maintaining his own (dubious) neutrality. Classic Joe.

Similar twisted "logic" is being employed by the ADL:

Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Director Abraham Foxman, both criticized and hailed in recent days for opposing the construction of a mosque near the World Trade Center site, told NPR that the location was needlessly provocative.

In an interview Tuesday with NPR's Steve Inskeep, Foxman stoutly defended his position. He said that his organization remains committed to fighting "bigotry, prejudice, and Islamophobia."

In 2010 Intolerance is apparently the new Tolerance.

One expects the worst from the likes of Joe Lieberman but the ADL's comments on the matter are highly disappointing.

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Media Matters has this one right. Memo to media: Pamela Geller does not belong on national television:

Numerous mainstream media outlets have recently hosted right-wing "Atlas Shrugs" blogger Pamela Geller to discuss the controversy surrounding a proposed Islamic community center set to be built blocks away from Ground Zero. However, Geller's history of outrageous, inflammatory and false claims, particularly when it comes to issues related to Islam, demonstrate that she cannot be expected to make accurate statements and should not be rewarded with a platform on national television.

Media bring Geller into the mainstream, telling nation she is a credible source

MSNBC hosts Geller, who suggests the Islamic center is a "triumphal mosque" on "conquered lands." MSNBC News hosted Geller on July 14 to discuss plans to construct an Islamic community center containing a mosque two blocks away from the ground zero 9/11 site. She speculated that funding for the Islamic center could be "tied to jihad or terror" and asserted that it is "insensitive," "humiliating" and "offensive" to build a mosque at the site. Geller further stated:

GELLER: We know in Islamic history that they build triumphal mosques on the cherished sites of sacred lands of conquered lands. So how is building a mosque, looking down at the cemetery of ground zero where they're still finding remains outreach?

Much, much more there in the Media Matters report so be sure to read the whole post. This crazy fear mongering woman should not be given a platform to spew her hatred on television.

MSNBC banned Markos Moulitsas from appearing on their network because he wrote something on Twitter that got under Joe Scarborough's skin, but Pam Geller can lash out at Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews and she's allowed to come on. As John noted in his post about Markos, "Conservative pundits can say anything at all and are never held accountable for their actions. That's a sad fact that we see over and over again."

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Authorities questioned the failed Times Square bomber for three to four hours before notifying him of his rights but Liz Cheney seems to be ignoring that fact. The daughter of the former vice president told Fox News' Chris Wallace that the Obama's administration's "first instinct" was to read Faisal Shahzad his Miranda rights.

"When the administration captures a terrorist and their first instinct is to inform him that he’s got the right to remain silent, that is exactly the wrong way to win this war," Cheney said Sunday.

"If you aren't willing to acknowledge that you're facing a committed network of terrorists as your enemies, and that it's radical jihadist Islam, then your response to that is gonna be, by definition, insufficient time and time again," said Cheney.