DOWNLOADS: (284)

PLAYS: (3726)

Embed

Folk singer Paul Simon remembered the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 by singing the song that first propelled the duo Simon & Garfunkel into popularity.

Simon wrote "The Sound of Silence" in 1964, a year after the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The song took on a different meaning at 10:41 a.m. ET Sunday as Simon performed it at Ground Zero.

"Hello darkness, my old friend / I've come to talk with you again"

In their first 2001 episode after the 9/11 attacks, Simon had performed "The Boxer" on NBC's Saturday Night Live.

DOWNLOADS: (366)

PLAYS: (2973)

Embed

After watching the ever widening list of potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates, and hearing that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani may again consider throwing his hat into that ring, Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC's Last Word proceeded to shred Giuliani for his handling of the crisis on 9/11 and went after the BIG LIE on what happened that day.

Counter to our media's general narrative on the topic, Giuliani actually cost the lives of firefighters with his mismanagement of the disaster. O'Donnell noted Wayne Barrett's article on the topic and was pretty well reading from part of it. There's a whole lot more there, so go read the rest, but here's part of the article on BIG LIE number two that O'Donnell discussed during the segment in the video above.

Rudy Giuliani's Five Big Lies About 9/11:

BIG LIE

2. 'I don't think there was anyplace in the country, including the federal government, that was as well prepared for that attack as New York City was in 2001.' This assertion flies in the face of all three studies of the city's response—the 9/11 Commission, the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST), and McKinsey & Co., the consulting firm hired by the Bloomberg administration.

Actually, Giuliani didn't create the OEM until three years after the 1993 bombing, 27 months into his term. And he didn't open the OEM's new emergency command center until the end of 1999—nearly six years after he'd taken office. If he "assumed from the moment I came into office that NYC would be the subject of a terrorist attack," as he told Time when it made him "Person of the Year" in 2001, he sure took a long time to erect what he describes as the city's front line of defense.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (958)

PLAYS: (4111)

Embed

Republicans are going to be embarrassed at the way they've opposed a mosque -- known as Cordoba House or Park51 -- that's planned near Ground Zero, according to one conservative host.

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough told Republicans Monday that they should "speak out against Newt Gingrich and the voices of hate." While he was at it, Scarborough threatened to leave the GOP for a party "that actually believes in small government."

Last week, Gingrich compared supporters of the mosque to Nazis. Appearing on Fox & Friends, Gingrich said, "Nazis don't have the right to put up a sign next to the Holocaust museum in Washington."

Prior to that, Gingrich argued that the mosque shouldn't be built near Ground Zero until churches and synagogues are allowed in Saudi Arabia.

"This is demagoguery of the first order," Scarborough said Monday. "And people in the Republican Party need to separate themselves from these voices."

"And I talk to you, my Republican brethren," he said into the camera. "I don't know how much longer you'll be my brethren. I'll be honest. I'm looking for a conservative party that actually believes in small government and not engaging in Wilsonian wars but that's another discussion."

"I'm just talking, you know, as a friend," Scarborough continued. "I promise you this. You're going to be embarrassed. You're going to look back two, three, four years from now and this is going to be dark blot on your record if you don't speak out against New Gingrich and the voices of hate."

"This is an embarrassment and you need to speak out against it," he said.

Opponents of the mosque protested in lower Manhattan Sunday. Daisy Khan, the wife of the controversial imam backing the Islamic center, said Sunday that opposition was "like a metastasized anti-Semitism."

MSNBC's Willie Geist told Scarborough Monday that the opposition is proof that anti-Muslim sentiment is worse now than after Sept. 11, 2001.

"It shows us that we are probably farther backward that we were maybe even nine years ago in our interfaith relations," said Geist.

Jon Stewart plays six degrees of Kevin Bacon with ClusterFox for their fear mongering over the Islamic center near ground zero dust up. BruinKid over at Daily Kos was kind enough to transcribe the whole segment but here's the part where he whacks Fox.

STEWART: I get it, you feel very strongly about the event in that area. You lost friends, and a certain amount of cash and coins. But, even though many innocent Muslims also died in the towers and the Pentagon, and the Pentagon has a mosque in it with no problems, you feel there should not be a mosque down there. At least symbolically, it doesn't sit well with you. And I can accept that. I can accept that argument, I can respect that argument. Here's where you lose me.

BOLLING: We're following the money trail. Where is this money coming from? Unfortunately, with this guy, imam Rauf, he's not a great... he's not a good guy. He's being portrayed as a, you know, a moderate Muslim. This guy has questionable ties.

I mean, there's questions whether he has ties to Perdana, which was the group that sent that flotilla towards Israel, remember that whole conflict on the water? He may have ties... Perdana and Muslim Brotherhood are a handshake apart. ... And here's one we should all really worry about, where's Iran in this? Perdana, Iran, have been loosely tied to imam Rauf also. ... Do I want a mosque that may be, that may be a meeting place for some of the scariest minds, some of the biggest terrorist minds...

KILMEADE: Yeah, the next Hamburg cell could be right downtown.

Or uptown, or Midtown, definitely not the Village, I mean, the rents there....

But the very fact that the Trade Center bombing could've been hatched from Hamburg, means they don't have to be next to it when they plan. And may have ties to people who might have bad ideas that may end up getting money from relatives of people who might have, for some reason, safety deposit boxes filled with money.... It's a dangerous game of guilt by association you could play with almost anybody. All you need is a card and a highlighter. It's, it's, it's nothing. It's, ah, what is that game called? It's six degrees of people who don't eat bacon! Let me do it for you. OK, here, let's try this.

Here's Rupert Murdoch. He owns Fox News. Now, he definitely has ties to Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. Al-Waleed bin Talal owns the second largest share of NewsCorp, outside of the Murdoch family. He owns 7%, $2.5 billion dollars. Now, they say he's a liberal Muslim, but he is in the Saudi royal family, which may have ties to funding the Wahhabist mosques, the same particular brand of Islam practiced by some of the terrorists. And he may have business dealings with the Carlyle Group, whose clients include... bin Laden family, one of whose sons, now obviously I'm not going to say which son, one of whose sons may be anti-American. I'm just connecting this, I'm just reading off the highlighted card.

By the way, after 9/11, Mayor Rudy Giuliani would not... after 9/11, Rudy Giuliani would not accept $10 million from the same Prince Al-Waleed, because he had cited Mideast policy as one of the reasons that we were attacked, which is the same reason they said that the imam down at the Ground Zero mosque was a radical.

So I think that, really, when you look at this card, and you do highlight it in yellow, the only thing you can come up with is: Is Fox News a terrorist command center? I don't know. I just don't know. I'm just saying that you can draw this up.

Read on...

Go give them a recommend if you're a Daily Kos member. They put a lot of work into that post and they also have the following segment posted as well. Enjoy! Stewart knocks another one out of the park.

UPDATE: Correct embed is now in the post.

DOWNLOADS: (768)

PLAYS: (4168)

Embed

I would normally not post one of these annoying, snarky "Pete on the Street" segments from John King's show on CNN because they are generally about as unfunny and uninformative as the Jeanne Moos segments on Blitzer's show.

That said, how pathetic is it when the John King "color guy" is making you look like an idiot if you're one of the people claiming the Islamic center is going to be built at ground zero?

And note to the press, quit calling it a mosque. A prayer room on top of a rec center is not a mosque.

I could not agree more with Glenn Greenwald on this one. What the hell is wrong with Howard Dean and any of the other Democrats who have lost their spine on this issue? If we don't have the Democratic Party standing up for the First Amendment, who the hell is going to? We sure as hell can't count on the Republicans to do it. This just disgusts me to no end as it did Glenn.

Howard Dean: "Mosque" should move:

Certain things are disappointing and surprising even for the most hardened cynics. Hearing Howard Dean -- the former liberal standard-bearer -- join Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin by saying the following is definitely one of them. [...]

Making this more repellent is that he doesn't even have the "I-want-to-get-re-elected" excuse. Today, former Reagan Solicitor General Ted Olson -- whose wife, Barbara Olson, was killed on 9/11 -- said he saw no reason for Park51 to move. And Peter Beinart, expediting his ongoing transformation from TNR Seriousness Guardian into shrill liberal blogger, today called on Democrats to -- as he put it -- "Grow a Pair" by standing up to this increasingly toxic campaign. Yet here comes Howard "I'm-from-the-Democratic-wing-of-the-Democratic Party" Dean, advocating that the vicinity of Ground Zero be turned into a Muslim-free zone because some people don't want Muslims near it. It's episodes like this which breed increasing levels of pervasive disgust and even indifference about electoral outcomes.

Read on...

UPDATE: As aggravated as I was with Howard when I wrote this post before it went up for promotion to the front page and before he went on Countdown to explain himself, I respect that fact that he was willing to defend his stance and try to clarify it, but I agree with Keith, he's not doing the Democrats any favors by giving weight to the extremists in the right wing. He may not have meant to, but he did.

The victims of 9-11 are not the ones driving this or that need to be talked to. They already had a chance to have their positions heard when they had the local meetings in New York. The extremists he says should be left out of the debate are the ones pushing this.

I would not be as aggravated at Howard Dean as I am if I didn't think he was one of the good guys who's just dead wrong this time around and if I didn't think his comments were fueling those who want to spread hatred instead of tolerance. I'm sick to death of them using any Democrat to justify their bigotry.

You can watch the Countdown interview here.

DOWNLOADS: (3212)

PLAYS: (3283)

Embed

For the second night in a row Dr. Laura Schlessinger came on CNN to carp about Media Matters trying to "silence" her. So a right wing radio talk show host goes in the air and says some things that would offend most of America that doesn't listen to right wing hate talk or watch the Fox propaganda channel and when her advertisers start dropping her, she claims her right to free speech has been violated.

Sorry honey but you're free to say whatever you want on the air as long as it doesn't violate FCC rules, but if you say something offensive, others are free to exercise their right to free speech as well and let everyone know what they think about it and to ask your advertisers not to support your racism and bigotry.

I would expect Dr. Laura to be finding a cozy home over at ClusterFox some time in the near future where they welcome her ilk. John King actually did a pretty good job in this interview with her and even though she wasn't happy about it, stopped her in her tracks when she tried to distort what she said during her radio interview and some remarks by Nancy Pelosi about the Islamic center near ground zero that has the right wing going crazy.

Here is some of Media Matters' response after her appearance on Larry King's show.

In an interview this evening on CNN's Larry King Live, Dr. Laura Schlessinger announced that when her radio contract expires at the end of the year, she will not seek to renew it. Schlessinger said that she was ending her show in order to "regain my First Amendment rights." According to Schlessinger, in the wake of her racial screed last week, highlighted by Media Matters, "my First Amendment rights have been usurped by angry, hateful groups." [...]

On August 16, Media Matters released a joint statement with the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), Women's Media Center, and UNITY Journalists of Color, condemning Schlessingers comments and stating that "This week, we will hold these advertisers accountable and find out exactly where they stand." Today, Motel 6 announced that in the wake of her comments, it would be severing its relationship with the radio host. [...]

Asked how her freedom of speech was being denied by criticism of her comments, Schlessinger explained that "I don't have the right to say what I need to say. My First Amendment rights have been usurped by angry, hateful groups who don't want to debate, they want to eliminate. So, that's why I decided it was time to move on to other venues where I could say my piece and not have to live in fear anymore that sponsors and their families are going to be upset, radio stations are going to be upset, my peeps, as I call them, are going to be upset."

Schlessinger went on to criticize Media Matters directly. After King referenced "this group that was after you, Media Matters," Schlessinger said, "well, that's their job in life." She also said that a list of advertisers contacted by Media Matters who distanced themselves from Schlessinger due to her comments "proves my point." She also called Media Matters a "special interest group" that "decide[d] I should be silenced because they disagree with my point of view."

Transcript via CNN below the fold.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: 361

PLAYS: 44

Embed

Here's our own Nicole Belle and this week's Fools on the Hill segment with Nicole Sandler. It’s Not a Mosque, and it’s Not at Ground Zero!:

Of course, the “Ground Zero Mosque” came up on the Sunday talking head shows, so we’ll revisit it with Nicole Belle of Crooks & Liars when she joins in for our regular Fools on the Hill segment. (** We didn’t have time to get into this story, but you should definitely check out who the top Right Wing bloggers consider the 25 worst figures in America. Wow.

You can listen to the entire show at Nicole's site here. You can also visit there and show Nicole some love if you'd like help her keep these wonderful podcasts going. We don't get any of that George Soros money around here and neither does she.

DOWNLOADS: (1195)

PLAYS: (4477)

Embed

At least two prominent Republicans are going against the bulk of their party to say that Muslims have every right to build an Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero.

Monday Morning, Conservative MSNBC host Joe Scarborough found himself agreeing with former Bush advisor Mark MicKinnon that Muslims have a right to build the controversial mosque.

"When I was in Congress in 1994, when I got elected in '94, I was considered to be one of the more conservative guys up there," Scarborough began.

"I am feeling further and further distant from the people who are running my party," he said.

Scarborough pointed to comments where Newt Gingrich accused President Barack Obama of pandering to Muslims. The president had spoken out Friday in favor of Muslims' right to build the mosque.

"Nazis don't have the right to put up a sign next to the Holocaust Museum in Washington," Gingrich said on Fox News Monday. "We would never accept the Japanese putting up a site next to Pearl Harbor. There is no reason for us to accept a mosque next to the World Trade Center," he said.

Reflecting on Gingrich's comments, Scarborough didn't know where to begin. "To suggest that someone trying to build a -- a tolerant center for moderate Muslims in New York is the equivalent of killing six million Jews is stunning to me," he said.

"It's stunning and it is so contrary to our country's principle and the Republican party," agreed McKinnon.

"I'm glad to see we're together on this and unfortunately I think we may get our membership revoked at the Pachyderm Club," said McKinnon.

"Screw 'em," interrupted Scarborough.

"I agree," said McKinnon.

A poll taken by Fox News Aug. 10 - Aug. 11 found that 64 percent of respondents thought it would be wrong to build a mosque near Ground Zero.

President Barack Obama seemed to pit himself against public opinion Friday when he said that Muslims have a right to choose where they worship.

But let me be clear: as a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country, and will not be treated differently by their government, is essential to who we are.

But on Saturday, the president clarified that he wasn't saying that building the Islamic Center was necessarily a good idea.

"My intention was simply to let people know what I thought, which was that in this country, we treat everybody equally and in accordance with the law, regardless of race, regardless of religion," the President said during a visit to the Gulf Coast yesterday.

"I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there," Obama said. "I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding. That's what our country is about."

DOWNLOADS: (550)

PLAYS: (474)

Embed

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.