Click here to view this media The chief suspect in the would-be domestic-terrorism bombing of a Colorado shopping mall was arrested today outside another mall: Earl Albert Moore, 65, was taken into custody by the FBI, but it wasn’t immediately clear where he was being held. Police spokeswoman Kim Kobel told KMGH-TV that a shopper spotted Moore in a coffee shop inside the King Soopers grocery store in Boulder at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday. The shopper called 911 after alerting a store manager. Moore left the store when police arrived, but when officers ordered him to lie on the ground, he complied, Kobel said. Authorities have been searching for him since the explosives were discovered April 20 at the Southwest Plaza Mall in the south Denver suburbs. The bomb and tanks were found after a fire, but they didn’t detonate. No injuries were reported. There is a high likelihood that Moore was associated with some kind of white-supremacist belief system, since he has tattoos indicating such a background, as well as a history of tax resistance and many years in prison. We’ll be monitoring the case closely as a result. One of the experts interviewed by 9News who (accurately) predicted the search would not last long had this to say about the would-be bomber’s motives: While the majority of his crimes seemed to benefit himself, this latest bombing attempt could have caused serious injuries or death, had the device worked properly. “This was more a vengeance, more of an attempt to deliver a message to someone or some company or institution,” Pence said. “By doing it, it is going to instill fear in a lot of people, particularly when you do it in a public place.”
Continue reading …Florida’s Rep. Dan Webster shouted down in Town Hall over proposed Medicare cuts
April 26, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media I didn’t like the vitriol during last year’s August Town Hall’s were subjected to over HCR, but that was whipped up by fearmongering and hysteria coming from RWNM. Dan Webster is the extreme Christian right candidate that beat Alan Grayson in the midterms. Orlando Sentinel: A town hall meeting held in Orlando by U.S. Rep. Dan Webster degenerated into bedlam Tuesday, with members of the crowd shouting down the freshman Republican congressman and yelling at one another. It was the last of a series of town hall meetings Webster has hosted during Congress’ spring recess, which ends Monday. While the others were civil and largely uneventful, the 300 people at Tuesday’s meeting were so raucous they were scolded by a police officer to act “like grown people.” Webster tried to go over a series of charts showing growing levels of federal spending and debt, and the reason he supports the federal budget plan put forward by Rep. Paul Ryan , R-Wis. But he was interrupted at every turn by shouts from his critics, including members of progressive groups such as Moveon.org and Organize Now. Boos and shouts of “liar” were mixed with angry accusations that Ryan’s plan to change Medicare would leave those now under 55 without health insurance in their retirement, calls to eliminate the tax cuts first put in place by former President Bush and the need to raise corporate taxes rather than cut entitlement programs. Did you hear Republicans tell the August Town Hall zombies to act like adults, once? When one man who said he was a veteran yelled that he wanted to know why Webster was cutting Medicare and veterans’ benefits, his answer came from the audience instead. “We can’t afford it, you moron!” a red-faced man screamed. Two Orlando police officers moved to the front of the room and flanked Webster, and pleaded for decorum when the congressman could no longer be heard. “It’s not going to be solved by yelling and screaming and hollering,” the officer said. “Let’s conduct ourselves like grown people.” Unlike Democrats, who feared for their lives during the summer of madness, Republicans don’t have to run for the hills, but they are getting a small dose of reality because of the draconian nature of Paul Ryan’s budget.
Continue reading …Florida’s Rep. Dan Webster shouted down in Town Hall over proposed Medicare cuts
April 26, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media I didn’t like the vitriol during last year’s August Town Hall’s were subjected to over HCR, but that was whipped up by fearmongering and hysteria coming from RWNM. Dan Webster is the extreme Christian right candidate that beat Alan Grayson in the midterms. Orlando Sentinel: A town hall meeting held in Orlando by U.S. Rep. Dan Webster degenerated into bedlam Tuesday, with members of the crowd shouting down the freshman Republican congressman and yelling at one another. It was the last of a series of town hall meetings Webster has hosted during Congress’ spring recess, which ends Monday. While the others were civil and largely uneventful, the 300 people at Tuesday’s meeting were so raucous they were scolded by a police officer to act “like grown people.” Webster tried to go over a series of charts showing growing levels of federal spending and debt, and the reason he supports the federal budget plan put forward by Rep. Paul Ryan , R-Wis. But he was interrupted at every turn by shouts from his critics, including members of progressive groups such as Moveon.org and Organize Now. Boos and shouts of “liar” were mixed with angry accusations that Ryan’s plan to change Medicare would leave those now under 55 without health insurance in their retirement, calls to eliminate the tax cuts first put in place by former President Bush and the need to raise corporate taxes rather than cut entitlement programs. Did you hear Republicans tell the August Town Hall zombies to act like adults, once? When one man who said he was a veteran yelled that he wanted to know why Webster was cutting Medicare and veterans’ benefits, his answer came from the audience instead. “We can’t afford it, you moron!” a red-faced man screamed. Two Orlando police officers moved to the front of the room and flanked Webster, and pleaded for decorum when the congressman could no longer be heard. “It’s not going to be solved by yelling and screaming and hollering,” the officer said. “Let’s conduct ourselves like grown people.” Unlike Democrats, who feared for their lives during the summer of madness, Republicans don’t have to run for the hills, but they are getting a small dose of reality because of the draconian nature of Paul Ryan’s budget.
Continue reading …Ron Paul announces the formation of an exploratory committee for President
April 26, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media It looks like Poppa Paul will be in. Ron Paul will move one step closer to a long-shot presidential bid Tuesday, when he announces the formation of an exploratory committee in Iowa. The Texas congressman confirmed his plans Monday night on Fox News, after news reports of his plans for a late-afternoon announcement in Des Moines had circulated online hours earlier. A Paul source told POLITICO that he’ll also roll out his campaign team for the first-in-the-nation caucus state Tuesday. “I’m going to start an exploratory committee,” Paul confirmed to host Sean Hannity. “That might lead to the next decision. “It depends on what kind of reception I get on your show tonight,” Paul joked. “If I get booed maybe I shouldn’t do it.” Three members of the state party’s central committee will co-chair Paul’s campaign in Iowa, a source said. This time FOX News will be forced to treat him as a legitimate contender instead of making him out to be their crazy uncle. FOX tried to stash him in the basement back in 01/7/2008, by not inviting him to one of their televised GOP primary events But Fox News has a thing about Ron Paul . They don’t just stop at refusing to invite him to participate in a debate, even though Paul is the biggest money-raiser in the race this last quarter. Fox News is even editing Ron Paul’s name out of Associated Press stories . Yeah, they erased Ron Paul, tried to rub him out! Fox News figures if they don’t include Ron Paul, then he’ll go away, but Ron Paul just nearly beat a nine year old in a poll , so he’s serious, at least as much as any other Republican candidate! They would do it again, but they used him as much as possible to whip up the Tea Party anger against Obama when it was first formed. Donald Trump doesn’t understand the heat he’s going to take from his supporters if he continues with his CPAC approach to Paul: Most humorous was watching a large amount of supporters for Republican Congressman Ron Paul who chanted Paul’s name get smacked down by Trump who, with his trademark candor, broke the news to them that “Ron Paul cannot get elected, I’m sorry to tell you.” Instead, Trump was eager to inform everyone “if I ran and if I win, this country will be respected again.” He declared he was pro-life, against gun control, and would fight to end Obamacare and replace it with something that won’t bankrupt the country. .
Continue reading …Ron Paul announces the formation of an exploratory committee for President
April 26, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media It looks like Poppa Paul will be in. Ron Paul will move one step closer to a long-shot presidential bid Tuesday, when he announces the formation of an exploratory committee in Iowa. The Texas congressman confirmed his plans Monday night on Fox News, after news reports of his plans for a late-afternoon announcement in Des Moines had circulated online hours earlier. A Paul source told POLITICO that he’ll also roll out his campaign team for the first-in-the-nation caucus state Tuesday. “I’m going to start an exploratory committee,” Paul confirmed to host Sean Hannity. “That might lead to the next decision. “It depends on what kind of reception I get on your show tonight,” Paul joked. “If I get booed maybe I shouldn’t do it.” Three members of the state party’s central committee will co-chair Paul’s campaign in Iowa, a source said. This time FOX News will be forced to treat him as a legitimate contender instead of making him out to be their crazy uncle. FOX tried to stash him in the basement back in 01/7/2008, by not inviting him to one of their televised GOP primary events But Fox News has a thing about Ron Paul . They don’t just stop at refusing to invite him to participate in a debate, even though Paul is the biggest money-raiser in the race this last quarter. Fox News is even editing Ron Paul’s name out of Associated Press stories . Yeah, they erased Ron Paul, tried to rub him out! Fox News figures if they don’t include Ron Paul, then he’ll go away, but Ron Paul just nearly beat a nine year old in a poll , so he’s serious, at least as much as any other Republican candidate! They would do it again, but they used him as much as possible to whip up the Tea Party anger against Obama when it was first formed. Donald Trump doesn’t understand the heat he’s going to take from his supporters if he continues with his CPAC approach to Paul: Most humorous was watching a large amount of supporters for Republican Congressman Ron Paul who chanted Paul’s name get smacked down by Trump who, with his trademark candor, broke the news to them that “Ron Paul cannot get elected, I’m sorry to tell you.” Instead, Trump was eager to inform everyone “if I ran and if I win, this country will be respected again.” He declared he was pro-life, against gun control, and would fight to end Obamacare and replace it with something that won’t bankrupt the country. .
Continue reading …The New York Times offered a distorted glimpse into the prison at Guantanamo Bay and the Bush administration's treatment of suspected terrorists in a series of reports published on Sunday and Monday. Scouring hundreds of leaked military documents, Times reporters used emotionally-charged phrases and cherry-picked anecdotes to paint an unflattering picture of the facility that has jailed hundreds of enemy combatants captured in the War on Terror. In a story headlined “Judging Detainees' Risk, Often With Flawed Evidence,” reporters Scott Shane and Benjamin Weiser accused the military of imprisoning “hundreds of men for years without a trial based on a difficult and strikingly subjective evaluation of who they were, what they had done in the past and what they might do in the future.” While it factually correct to note that some jihadists have been locked up for years without a trial, it is hardly the place of ostensibly objective reporters to employ terms like “strikingly subjective” to describe the process of conducting risk assessments. Shane and Weiser also opined that the U.S. detention camp is nothing more than a “lottery” where the “tiniest details” were “seized upon” by military analysts “as a potential litmus test for risk.” After revealing a number of cases in which the military “sometimes ignored serious flaws in the evidence,” the intrepid reporters engaged in blatant political activism, calling for an independent investigation: “Such frustrating case studies seem to beg for an independent evaluation of the evidence, some way of shedding light on the quality of the Guantanamo analysts’ work.” In another piece, Charlie Savage, William Glaberson, and Andrew Lehren portrayed enemy combatants as victims who “fought back” against the Bush administration's harsh interrogation techniques: Yet for all the limitations of the files, they still offer an extraordinary look inside a prison that has long been known for its secrecy and for a struggle between the military that runs it – using constant surveillance, forced removal from cells and other tools to exert control – and detainees who often fought back with the limited tools available to them: hunger strikes, threats of retribution and hoarded contraband ranging from a metal screw to leftover food. The Times was eager to discuss “America's most controversial prison,” but unwilling to refer to the group that leaked the classified files, WikiLeaks, as anything more than an “anti-secrecy organization,” even though critics accuse the organization of being overly secretive with its own finances. Ending their stories on a somber note, Shane and Weiser lamented the “haunting conclusion” of the leaked files, while Savage, Glaberson, and Lehren decried “an American limbo.” –Alex Fitzsimmons is a News Analysis intern at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
Continue reading …
Leeds-based agency Catholic Care told it must consider gay and lesbian couples as prospective parents A Catholic adoption agency has lost a two-year battle to be excluded from laws that ban discrimination against homosexuals. Leeds-based Catholic Care wanted exemption from the 2007 Sexual Orientation Regulations, which require it to consider gay and lesbian couples as prospective parents. But a ruling on Tuesday by the Charity Tribunal upheld an earlier decision from the Charity Commission. The bishop of Leeds, the Right Rev Arthur Roche, said he was disappointed with the tribunal’s ruling. He said: “It is unfortunate that those who will suffer as a consequence of this ruling will be the most vulnerable children, for whom Catholic Care has provided an excellent service for many years.It is an important point of principle that the charity should be able to prepare potential adoptive parents according to the tenets of the Catholic faith.” Roche had told the Charity Tribunal the agency would suffer financially if it was forced to accept applications from homosexual couples because donations would dry up. But the tribunal said it was “impossible” to conclude that Catholic Care’s income would suffer it were to operate an open adoption service. It said: “There was evidence before the tribunal that some Catholics do offer financial support to adoption agencies which provide services to same-sex adopters but no evidence from the charity that it had considered how it might attract alternative financial supporters if it did not discriminate.” It conceded there would be “a loss to society if the charity’s skilled staff were no longer engaged in the task of preparing potential adopters to offer families to children awaiting an adoption placement”, but said it had to balance the risk of closure of the charity’s adoption service against the “detriment to same-sex couples and the detriment to society generally of permitting the discrimination proposed”. Gay rights group Stonewall welcomed the tribunal’s decision, saying there should be “no question” of publicly funded services being allowed to “pick and choose their service users on the basis of individual prejudice”. The row over exemptions for faith-based adoption agencies dates back to 2007, when the regulations were introduced. At the time, the then Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, warned that the 11 Catholic adoption agencies would close rather than place children with gay couples. But the then prime minister, Tony Blair, said there was “no place” for discrimination in British society. The Tory leader David Cameron called for a compromise solution because Catholic adoption agencies did a “fantastic job in placing hard-to-place children”. While some agencies have closed, others have severed their links with the church in order to stay open. Catholicism Adoption Gay rights Children Christianity Religion Riazat Butt guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …WMAL radio host — and friend of NewsBusters — Chris Plante gave a shout-out on his program this morning to our parent company the Media Research Center and our publisher, Brent Bozell. The topic: the media's bias and double standards on gas price reporting. We
Continue reading …
Two Scottish men charged over sectarian statements, while in Northern Ireland police react to alleged BNP Facebook post Two men have appeared in court charged with posting bigoted and sectarian statements on the internet relating to Glasgow’s Rangers and Celtic football clubs. David Craig, 23, from Paisley, and Stephen Birrell, 27, from Glasgow, were charged with breach of the peace after being arrested by police at their homes early on Saturday. They made no plea and were released on bail. Their arrests, which led to the seizure of mobile phones and computers, are not connected to a police operation to identify those behind an attempted letter bomb campaign against Celtic manager Neil Lennon, his lawyer Paul McBride, and Celtic fan and former MSP Trish Godman. Four viable devices, which used bottles of explosive liquids wrapped in nails and were capable of causing “real harm”, were posted to Lennon, McBride and Godman over a seven-week period from the Irvine and Kilwinning areas of north Ayrshire. Meanwhile, in an unconnected development, police in Northern Ireland said they would investigate any complaint made about apparent threats against Lennon allegedly made by Steve Moore, the British National party’s candidate in the Stormont assembly election, . On a Facebook page in the name of Moore, the BNP candidate for East Antrim, readers were asked to choose between shooting Lennon and paedophiles. A picture was posted of the former Northern Ireland player beside an anonymous postage stamp image with the word “paedophiles” above it, captioned: “You have TWO bullets only, who dies??” Matthew Collins from the anti-Nazi magazine Searchlight, said the comments “really reflect how stuck in the dark ages the BNP are with regard to Northern Ireland”. Collins added: “A couple of months ago the BNP were backing dissident Republicans, now they’re taking enjoyment in the threats to the life of a football manager. This party is suffering from time warp sickness.” This is the BNP’s first major foray into Ulster politics where the British far right have traditionally failed to make a breakthrough. In the early 1980s the National Front was humiliated in a local government election after their candidate in North Belfast received just 26 votes. The attempted letter bomb attacks stunned Scottish football, and the legal and political establishment, leading to the personal intervention last week of the prime minister, David Cameron, and the Lord Advocate, Elish Angiolini, the head of the Scottish prosecution system. It is understood both were in direct contact with Stephen House, the Strathclyde Police chief constable, last week. Cameron suggested the Scottish authorities had failed to tackle sectarianism. Crime Scotland Football violence Northern Ireland Severin Carrell Henry McDonald guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
With polls pointing to win for no campaign at AV referendum, mobilising Labour vote seen as yes camp’s last chance Labour voters will be urged to kick Cameron not Clegg in the 5 May referendum on the Commons voting system, as the party’s yes campaign steps up its drive to corral swing Labour voters into backing the alternative vote. As the latest polling shows a strong lead for the no campaign, a swing to yes from undecided Labour voters is seen as the last chance for the yes team. Labour Yes will produce a set of posters showing a happy David Cameron and George Osborne with the caption: “Wipe the smile off their faces. Hit them twice on May 5th. Vote Labour in the council elections and yes.” The poster is an admission that the yes campaign is only likely to win if it turns the referendum into a verdict on the prime minister, and persuades Labour voters not to see it primarily as a chance to punish the Lib Dems’ decision to form the coalition with the Conservatives. It also marks a shift away from the claim that a yes vote will be a blow to the “complacent” culture that led to the MPs expenses scandal. Alan Johnson, the former Labour home secretary, called the no campaign “a Tory campaign almost exclusively funded by Tory donors”. He said: “The no campaign is not a genuine cross-party campaign. If Labour voters and others are fed up with the Tory-led coalition, they should send a clear signal by voting yes to AV.” Johnson will be joined on Wednesday by Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence party, and Tim Farron, the president of the Liberal Democrats. But another former Labour home secretary, David Blunkett, said: “The Labour no campaign now includes over half of Labour’s MPs, four out of five councillors, and thousands of Labour activists.” The renewed efforts to win over the critical undecided Labour supporters came as another poll suggested the no camp is likely to win, mainly due to a hardening of Tory voter opinion against change. An Angus Reid poll published on Tuesday showed the no camp leading 41% to 30%, a 13-point increase in the no vote since its last survey in mid-April. The yes camp has slipped 2 points from the same date. Once the “don’t knows” are removed, the result is 58% to 42%. The pollsters said: “The big jump in support for the no side is coming from people who voted for the Conservative party in the May 2010 general election. In January, 30% of these voters were in the no column. The proportion rose to 43% earlier this month, and has now reached 65 %.” The proportion of respondents who are “very informed” or “moderately informed” about the alternative vote system continues to rise as referendum date draws near, and now stands at 67%, up 10 points since mid-April. The pollsters add: “The drastic shift observed in this survey can be traced back to Cameron’s speech on 18 April, where he described the alternative vote system as ‘obscure, unfair and expensive’.” The yes camp is only ahead in London and Scotland, but there is expected to be a low turnout in the capital. Putting forward the yes camp’s latest argument , Lord Mandelson said: “If there’s not a no vote successfully obtained, the Tory party will never forgive David Cameron. “It will put an instrument, a weapon, in the hands of his critics and detractors in the party and greatly destabilise him and might even cost him his leadership. “What I’m saying to my party is, think strategically. How is it best to collapse the coalition? In my view, you have to pull the rug from under David Cameron much more significantly than any damage you might inflict on Nick Clegg.” One Labour yes campaigner argued: “Clegg is already down and he is going to stay down.” The same campaigner nevertheless vented fury at the way in which Clegg had decided to raise his profile in the campaign, saying: “Every time he pops up, our poll rating goes down.”Clegg’s friends claim privately there has been a breach of trust since Cameron promised he would not take a high-profile role. They say he has instead made the no case a central feature of his local election campaign. The yes and no camps have been struck by the extent to which the campaign has turned into a bout between party politicians, rather than a wider debate about the future of democracy. AV referendum Alternative vote Labour Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …