How bad is it?

This bad.  All it is is a story about bad weather in the Middle East, and the comments are outrageous.  The most recent, presently at 10:35pm, are as follows (and remember, this is just a story about bad weather):

"allah mad"

"Heavy rains? It's o.k. I have seen many pictures of the Middle East- everyone wears a hat."

"Its Israels fault! They trained the storm to hit the other countries around them. Watch out for the Mossad ... I'm joking of course"

"Couldn't happen to a nicer group!"

"One thing is for sure. The sociopathic powers that be of the extremist countries in this region will find a way to blame this on the West and/or Israel, and the masses will believe them. Sometimes I think they rival cold war Russia when it comes to propoganda [sic]."

This is the kind of thing that will be looked back on the way we remember the segregationists or the McCarthyists.

Let's hope.

[shutters.]

Juan Williams isn't stupid.

No, I don't think NPR should have fired Juan Williams over last week's comments on The O'Reilly Factor.  I think NPR should have fired him when he fabricated comments by would-be Times Square bomber Faisal Shazad, a huge no-no as any Journalism 101 student could tell you. I think NPR should have fired him when, despite many clear warnings from his employers, he continued to violate the standards of journalistic conduct that NPR holds each of its analysts to.  But, seeing how NPR failed to terminate his contract following any of those incidents, ousting him after his highly bigoted comments on the Factor was the next best thing.

Of course, none of this has stopped the talking heads at Fox News from railing on about how Williams' supposed "First Amendment rights" were violated.  And of course, Fox News was happy to take in the poor, oppressed Williams and offer him a $2million contract, thus giving us a clear answer to the question, "What does it take to get a job at Fox News?"  (In Williams' case, all you have to do is make some bigoted comments on one of their programs and get subsequently fired from what they see as a "liberal think tank.")

The firing issue, my friends, was not just that the comment was inflammatory.  The issue was that Juan Williams made an appearance on The O'Reilly Factor as a representative from NPR's analyst team.  He was not appearing as an individual, as the screencap on the left shows, but as a contributing journalist from NPR. When you appear on a television program as a representative of your employing agency, you're accountable for what you say and do.  This is nothing Williams didn't know.  That's just how employment works, period.

Even if Williams had appeared as an individual, NPR's code of ethics expressly prohibits journalists from "participat[ing] in shows, electronic forums, or blogs that encourage punditry and speculation rather than rather than fact-based analysis."  Whether or not this standard stifles free speech is not the issue; Williams knew this code, he knew he was acting in violation of his employer's policy, and he chose to appear on The O'Reilly Factor anyway.

One could speculate that Williams appeared on the Factor to make inflammatory comments specifically so that his contract with NPR would be terminated.  He could have well known that the supposedly "pro-free speech" (read: pro-Islamaphobia) Fox News would play Good Samaritan and offer him, let's face it, a much more lucrative contract.

What's the other issue here?  Are we "too politically correct" about Muslims, Islam, and people from the Middle East?  Is it really "too politically correct" to expect someone to not be a racist?  Or do conservatives sense the tide turning away from knee-jerk Islamaphobia and cry "free speech" whenever one of their own is held accountable for their bigoted actions?

No, Fox News' interest in Williams has precious little to do with freedom of speech.  Their interest stems from their goal of keeping Islamaphobia the norm.  They would not have reacted so compassionately if Williams had been fired for, say, denouncing Christine O'Donnel's credibility or for saying something inflammatory about the Tea Party Movement.  Why would they?  They have no vested interest in promoting that way of thinking, and in the above cases they would have shunned him outright.  But when Williams comes under fire for his repeated racist, bigoted, and highly-editorialized "analysis," well, the corporate news dogs have got his back: Fox News chief Roger Ailes says Williams' right to say bigoted things will be "protected by Fox News on a daily basis."

Let me make one thing clear: Juan Williams is not the victim of a First Amendment violation.  He said what he said, and he is still a free citizen who does not have to worry about his government locking him up, or worse.  He exercised his right to say something bigoted, and NPR responded by exercising their right to fire his ass.  And in terms of how this ugly scenario turned out, I wouldn't worry much about Juan Williams.  Just because NPR isn't on the market for an Islamaphobe doesn't mean other news agencies aren't.  I think he'll be just fine.

Concord man charged in clinic violence plot

According to the News and Record, Justin Carl Moose of Concord, NC has been charged by federal authorities for providing information meant to aid in the bombing of a North Carolina abortion clinic. 

Moose is a supporter (at least) of the extremist organization Operation Save America.  When OSA held a national event in Charlotte this past July, I went to Family Reproductive Health to successfully hold off the antis and defend the clinic.  It was there that I first encountered the man who goes by "Moose."  He was one of the more aggressive protesters.  Several times, he ran from across the street directly at the clinic's gate as if he meant to run straight through.  At the last moment, he stopped, turned to all of us defenders with our cameras rolling, yelled that we were pathetic, and went back to his fellow demonstrators.  He did this at least three times before a Charlotte police officer told him he would be arrested if he did not stop.

Moose currently makes all of his information available on Facebook, which is where the initial complaint originated.  According to the complaint, he is being charged with "violating Title 18, United States Code, Section 842(p)(2)(B), Distribution of Information Relating to Explosives, Destructive Devices, and Weapons of Mass Destruction."  If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison up to $250,000 in fines.

Throughout his Facebook page, Moose alleges that he is a "freedom fighter" with little to no disregard for the law.  This is interesting because he also rants on and on about Islam, jihad, and acting against organized terrorism.  I guess it only counts as terrorism if it's based in a system of beliefs that are different from one's own?  Most troublesome, however, are his interests and "likes."  An admitted "right wing extremist," Moose is a "fan" of the Army of God, a radical fringe organization that supports and condones the murder of abortion providers and boasts such members as Eric Rudolph and Paul Hill.  He is also a fan of a group called "Pardon Scott Roeder," referring to the man who shot and killed Dr. George Tiller last year. 

In his bio section, Moose lays out exactly where he stands: "End abortion by any means necessary and at any cost ... Save a life, shoot an abortionist." An August 23 post reads:

"To all the feds watching me: You can't stop what is in motion.  Even if you bring me in, my men will continue their mission.  Furthermore, I will not go peacefully.  Do you really want another Waco?"

One wonders if he did, in fact, go peacefully when he was detained on Tuesday.  

An August 2 post links viewers to a website that contains information about the addresses of abortion clinics and their employees (some including the employees' home addresses) with the instructions, "Do with it what you wish."  The remainder of his page is a smattering of anti-Islam rants, Islamaphobic jokes and jibes, and links to gun and ammo websites, one reading, "Check out the flamethrower ammo!"  An August 24 post reads:

"I ask of all my associates this September 11 to not go out and burn a koran [sic].  Who not go out and burn a mosque!  That'll show those camel humpers who's boss!"

An August 3 post links readers to a how-to website on TATP explosives, complete with Moose's own specific advice on using TATP to manufacture a bomb.  Another links to Ted Kaczynski's manifesto, with fellow radicals singing his praises ("Kaczynski has a brilliant mind in my personal opinion").  One from August 18 glorifies the murder of Dr. Tiller and reads, "Make a bomb and light the fuse, another Hero in the news.  The monster dead, with whole in head.  His end was made and babies were saved," again followed by praises from fellow antis.  Unfortunately, I don't believe his cheering section will also be investigated.

Moose is scheduled for a detention hearing in Greensboro, NC on September 13 at 2:30pm.  My guess?  Look for an influx of antis in our neighborhood very soon.

Be careful out there, everyone, especially those of you who work directly in women's health.  Trust women!

Updated: 9/10/10 at 5:00pm

Moose's Facebook page has been taken offline, either by law enforcement, a family member, or Facebook itself.  I know that law enforcement sometimes removes internet content that they plan on using to argue a case, but Moose was also in obvious violation of Facebook's Terms of Use. 

"Everything I need to know about Islam..."

I find the New Left Media's in-the-field interviews with the Tea Party to be incredibly enlightening.  Now of course, I understand that there are factions of the group that aren't ignorant red-necks.  There are many well-educated capitalists who just plain ol' don't like Obama because they ain't up on their Marx and think he's worse than Stalin (funny, I haven't heard tell of any big socialist push). 

Then there's the rank-and-file, once again exhibited beautifully by NLM just letting people do the talking for themselves:



The most interesting thing, however, is the expose on anti-Islam sentiment.  It's frightening, really, that people can be so ignorant, so racist, so xenophobic... if this is truly the "voice of America," I'm sad for my country.  There is a moment at 9:38 where a man says, "I learned all I needed to know about Islam on 9/11."

The first thing that came to mind was an article that was published recently on The Onion:

Man Already Knows Everything He Needs To Know About Islam

It's one of those things that's both hilarious and tragic: hilarious because The Onion captured and lampooned the sentiment so brilliantly, tragic because they didn't have to go to any great lengths to make it ridiculous.

To respond to the gentleman (?) in the NLM video...

What if I were to say that I learned all I needed to know about Christianity on May, 31, 2009? Or March 10, 1993? Or July 27, 1996? Or January 16, 1997?  January 29, 1998? What if I then decided that, by virtue of your religious convictions, you must be an anti-abortion terrorist and should therefore be shunned by society? Or that you must be a member of the Westboro Baptist Church?

What if you heard an Iraqi saying he learned everything he needs to know about America between March 20, 2003 and the present?

What if a Native American said she learned everything she needed to know about white people in 1492?

A gay man saying he learned everything he needs to know about heterosexual men on October 12, 1998?

Just admit you're a crotchety old man that's completely unwilling to to accept that you're not the only human being on the planet.  Also a racist.