Religion

Vox Writer: When GOP Candidates Talk About ISIS, They Sound Like ‘Status-Obsessed, Chest-Beating Adolescents’
By Tom Johnson | November 17, 2015 | 9:27 PM EST

Last week, ex-Bill Clinton adviser Paul Begala snarked on CNN that during the most recent Republican presidential debate, the candidates mentioned Hillary Clinton so often that they came off as “creepy…in a stalker sort of way…Maybe it's affectionate…Maybe they’re like junior high schoolboys.”

Vox's David Roberts has joined Begala in likening the GOP contenders to middle- or high-schoolers, but his concern is aggression, not affection. In a Monday series of sixteen tweets later collated and posted on the magazine’s site, Roberts argued that when the candidates talk about how they’d deal with ISIS, they sound like “insecure, hormone-ridden teenage boy[s]” and “status-obsessed, chest-beating adolescents.”

Networks Ignore John Kerry’s Suggestion of a ‘Rationale’ for Charlie Hebdo Terror Attacks
By Curtis Houck | November 17, 2015 | 8:52 PM EST

On Tuesday night, the “big three” networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC saw no reason to inform their viewers of Secretary of State John Kerry’s assertion that he could recognize there having been a “rationale” and “particularized focus” for Islamic terrorists to carry out the January attacks in Paris on the offices of Charlie Hebdo but not for the “indiscriminate” attacks that occurred in the very same city on Friday.

Mika Brzezinski: There Is Vetting Despite No Records to Verify
By Michael McKinney | November 17, 2015 | 1:56 PM EST

Morning Joe featured on Tuesday, an interview with Congressman Peter King. Early into the segment, Mika Brzezinski began a war of words with Congressman King. After Brzezinski introduced the topic, King stated, “I'm extremely concerned because what the President is telling us is not true.” Brzezinski interrupted the Congressman, saying that “there is vetting,” and arguing that he was wrong. What followed was a tense segment where the Morning Joe crew questioned King on his statements and his argument’s credibility.

Media Pushback Against Invoking 'No-Go Zones' Ensues
By Tom Blumer | November 17, 2015 | 11:10 AM EST

The Washington Post's Erik Wemple and certain "I walked through Bedford Stuy alone" reporters are contending that, in Wemple's words, "the term 'no-go zone' is best left in retirement." No sir, it needs to be defined appropriately, then used when appropriate.

Avoiding use of the term enables a dangerous detachment from reality. There is already quite a surplus of that. Patrick J. McDonnell at the Los Angeles Times, who seems to believe that he proved something by visiting the jihadi-infested neighborhood of Molenbeek and getting out alive, demonstrated how out of touch he is by referring on Monday — three days after the Paris terror attacks and at least two days after the parties involved and their backgrounds were firmly established — to "the so-called Belgian connection in the Paris attacks." Holy moly, Patrick. What about Molenbeek being "home to two" of the Paris attack terrorists who died during their attacks and to the plots' mastermind, Salah Abdeslam, do you not comprehend?

Kos: Paris Attacks Give Conservatives ‘An Excuse to Wield Their Favorite Tool -- Fear!’
By Tom Johnson | November 16, 2015 | 5:52 PM EST

Many on the left have accused conservatives of exploiting the Paris terrorist attacks for political gain. On Monday, Daily Kos founder and publisher Markos Moulitsas jumped on the pile, alleging that the right’s main reaction to the attacks was not sadness or outrage, but “excitement” over the prospect of stirring up Islamophobia -- perhaps to the point of getting the Middle East war that they supposedly want so much.

“Finally! An excuse to wield their favorite tool—fear!” wrote Kos. “Because if there’s one sentiment that defines conservative ideology, it’s fear. Fear of the blacks, the communists, the immigrants, the liberal college professors, the Mexican rapist/drug dealers, the sleeper cells hiding amidst Syrian refugees…This is a movement that can’t speak to people’s economic plight, but it sure can rail about the monsters under the bed!”

Morning Joe Sees the President Disengaged Against ISIS
By Michael McKinney | November 16, 2015 | 12:17 PM EST

Monday’s Morning Joe began with an evaluation of the actions of the White House prior to and after the attack on Paris Friday night. Joe Scarborough began by demanding to know if the roundtable thought the President actually looked involved and engaged in understanding “the level of threat.” When Mike Barnicle tried to claim the President “looks fully engaged,” Scarborough felt it necessary to confront him on it.

Two Paris Terrorists Lived in Supposedly Mythical 'No-Go Zone' Neighborhood in Brussels
By Tom Blumer | November 15, 2015 | 10:03 PM EST

Shortly after the Charlie Hebdo Islamic terrorist murders in Paris in January, the establishment press attacked those who dared to state something quite obvious about "no-go zones" in parts of Europe, i.e., that they exist. The media summarily and unilaterally declared that "no-go zones" were a myth propagated by the likes of Fox News, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, longtime terror expert Steven Emerson, and others — despite several direct references to them in media accounts, including the New York Times, going back as far as 2002.

Well, a not very funny thing has happened during the attempt to hunt down those involved in planning Friday's coordinated terrorist bloodbath in Paris.

AP Avoids Reporting Obama's Callous 'We Have Contained ISIS' Statement
By Tom Blumer | November 15, 2015 | 11:44 AM EST

As of early this morning, Matt Drudge was carrying a link to a story headlining how President Obama is "under fire for saying ISIS 'contained' just hours before Paris attack."

Well, Obama is under some fire, but Drudge's link is to coverage at the UK Daily Mail. That's unfortunately unsurprising, because there is little to no mention of Obama's naive, foolish and callous statement in the U.S. establishment press. So Obama may be "under fire" from people who are paying attention, but low-information news consumers (and voters) who didn't happen to see the original Thursday interview will likely remain unaware of it. In one such example of convenient oversight, the Associated Press published a Thursday evening story on that interview, and decided that its only newsworthy element was Obama's immigration-related criticism of GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Chad Henderson Walls Off Twitter Account After NewsBusters Criticizes His Tweet on GOP Candidates' Readiness
By Tom Blumer | November 14, 2015 | 10:56 PM EST

We'll have to live without Chad Henderson's tweets for the time being. Once again, Henderson, as he did in 2013, has taken his Twitter account private, limiting it to "confirmed followers." This time he likely did so in reaction to a NewsBusters post earlier this afternoon by P.J. Gladnick.

Henderson first gained notoriety during the initial Obamacare sign-up process in late 2013 when he claimed to have "enrolled" himself and his father when virtually no one else could even access the HealthCare.gov web site. The press unskeptically lapped up the Organizing for Action volunteer's story until Reason.com's Peter Suderman shredded it. It turned out that Henderson had only set up a profile for himself and had not purchased any health care plan. Henderson resurfaced on Twitter after the Paris terrorist attacks yesterday, asking: "Do Trump, Rubio, and Carson have the experience and knowledge to prevent and react to a similar Paris attack? Not at all, folks."

Dean, Walsh Throw Fits over ‘Disappointing’ John Dickerson Pushing Dems on Radical Islam [UPDATED]
By Curtis Houck | November 14, 2015 | 9:59 PM EST

Nearly a half-hour into Saturday’s Democratic presidential debate on CBS, Salon writer Joan Walsh and former Democratic Vermont Governor Howard Dean took to Twitter to blast moderator John Dickerson for merely asking legitimate questions of the candidates on foreign policy and whether or not the United States (and by extension, the West) is at war with “radical Islam.” 

FNC Panel: Dems Seem ‘Very Small’ on ISIS after Attacks; U.S. Hasn’t ‘Done Whatever It Takes’
By Curtis Houck | November 14, 2015 | 9:29 PM EST

A special Saturday edition of Fox News Channel’s Special Report aired due to the terror attacks 24 hours earlier in Paris with a panel of The Weekly Standard’s Steve Hayes, U.S. News & World Report’s David Catanese, and syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer. Collectively, the panel had a variety of takes, ranging from slamming the Democratic presidential candidates for seeming “very small” after the attacks to observing that the U.S. has not “done whatever it takes” to stop ISIS. 

Former MSNBC Host Blames Western Terror Attacks on U.S. Relationship with Saudi Arabia
By Curtis Houck | November 14, 2015 | 6:58 PM EST

Opining on HBO’s Real Time on Friday’s Islamic terror attacks in Paris, former MSNBC host and liberal activist Dylan Ratigan explained that the reason Islamist extremists despise the United States and Western Civilization (and thus carry out attacks) is due to U.S. “financ[ing] the capital flow into Saudi Arabia” that cause poor Muslims to commit such atrocities against innocent people in the West.