Good news for Toyota: Federal investigators have concluded that electronic flaws are not to blame for the rash of involuntary accelerations last year, the AP reports. Instead, they blamed mechanical problems—including sticking floor mats—that have already been fixed in recalls. In some cases, drivers may have hit the…
Continue reading …In the decade since 9/11, the liberal media's patently false insistence that American Muslims were or would soon be the victims of a massive wave of hate crimes at least had the benefit of plausibility. The same can't be said of an effort to suggest that Islam can't get a fair shake in left-wing Hollywood. Yet a recent Associated Press article uncritically detailed an initiative of the Muslim Public Affairs Counsel to bring 'a more representative picture of Muslim-Americans on the screen.' MPAC has a Hollywood Bureau that lobbies network and studio executives to 'increase awareness of the diversity of American Muslims and to be a resource for writers and producers.' The problem, according to the article, is that in the entertainment industry, 'the Muslim-as-terrorist plot line has been an accepted story for years.' The article offers no examples to back up that assertion and with good reason – there's a serious shortage of them. Hollywood has in fact been extremely reluctant to paint anything but a positive portrayal of Muslims since 9/11. In the 2002 film adaptation of Tom Clancy's novel, 'The Sum of All Fears,' the villains from the book were changed from Islamist terrorists to neo-Nazis. Another film, 'The Stoning or Soraya M.' (2009), won multiple awards at international film festivals, but failed to get a single Oscar nomination. Based on a true event, the film exposes the corruption and cruelty of Sharia law as applied in a modern Iranian village. Even comedy stars Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's October 'sanity' rally featured a performance from Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens). In 1989, Islam endorsed the fatwah against the life of novelist Salmon Rushdie for blaspheming Islam in his gook, 'The Satanic Verses.' Islam said that burning Rushdie in effigy wasn't as good as 'the real thing,' and that, if he knew where Rushdie was, Islam would betray him. 'The goal [of the Hollywood Bureau] is not to spoon-feed Hollywood Muslim-friendly story lines,' the article assured readers. But given the kid gloves with which TV and movies treat Islam anyway, it's hard to imagine the Hollywood Bureau having any other purpose. The idea that Muslims are maligned in the entertainment media is absurd. That the AP would help MPAC spread it, is sadly predictable.
Continue reading …White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says change won’t come easy in Egypt, but adds there is a lot the government can do now to make it easier. (Feb. 8)
Continue reading …The city of Cranston, Rhode Island, is wrestling with what to do about an odd problem: It’s found about 600 stop signs and seven yield signs at city intersections that aren’t supposed to exist. Most were apparently put up on the sly by housing complexes in the name of safety,…
Continue reading …Omar Suleiman, the Egyptian Vice president, has been criticized by the White House for making remarks about Egypt was ‘not ready for democracy’.
Continue reading …The anti-abortion group LiveAction released a third undercover video today targeting Planned Parenthood in a James O’Keefe-style sting, which LiveAction says shows an employee in a clinic in the Bronx describing to a pimp and prostitute how to get taxpayer funded insurance for underage sex workers. Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : TPMmuckraker Discovery Date : 08/02/2011 21:13 Number of articles : 4
Continue reading …Given AOL’s jaded history… I think the first thing they should do, pronto, is get rid of that stupid name and logo… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : zero hedge Discovery Date : 08/02/2011 21:04 Number of articles : 6
Continue reading …Click here to view this media FOX’s pregame interview between Bill and the President was only a small portion of the overall interview and O’Reilly broadcast the rest of it on The Factor Monday night. I didn’t bother to count how many times BillO interrupted him, but Lawrence O’Donnell found he did maybe 42 to 43 interruptions during the SB telecast. Bill gets down to business tonight and asks President Obama what FNC could do better. No, really. O’Reilly: But you’re talking more like a professor. President Obama: No, no, but what I’m saying is that’s an example of just the facts without the spin I think would be good… O’Reilly:I think overall our guys do that but when you get over to the prime time opinion-makers that’s when you… President Obama: But the opinion makers is where you get a lot of where the viewership gravitates. O’Reilly: Absolutely, so you think you’re being treated fairly on FOX News now? President Obama: I would say that the news guys try to do a good job, although let’s face it, I think FOX News has a point of view. There’s nothing wrong with that… O’Reilly: Do you respect it? Absolutely. The Obama administration has heavily criticized FOX News before and so he had another chance to call them out for their propaganda. He chose a much softer approach this time, which is calculated at trying to win over some of their voters, as if that’s possible. Does his team really believe that it is? Because I sure do not. Maybe the Beltway bipartisan fetish that VandeHarris got honest about played a role in his answer. BillO, as usual, got impatient as Obama tried to give a thoughtful answer. He’s not used to a reasoned argument if it’s longer than thirty seconds and he’s not the one doing all the talking. Bill later read some of his emails as is his custom, and one of his viewers complained that Bill was shilling for Obama, painting him as a moderate and giving him free advertising..HAHA. See, Bill inserted that email to justify his non-ideological spin because he knows how to play the game too. Bill responded with his patented answer that “The Factor Is not and never has been, an ideological program.” “I ask the President questions, he responds and you decide. I don’t engineer anything. He asks Dick Morris the questions, Morris smears him and anything progressive for ten minutes and then you decide. He asks the questions, Karl Rove smears him and anything progressive for ten minutes and you decide. He asks Coulter the questions, she smears him and anything progressive … yada yada yada. He then brings on Juan Williams to give a Faux Liberal point of view just for kicks and it pays very well for Juan. I wonder when Bill will ever ask Sarah Palin how she feels about being hated by so many Americans. A) the next time she appears on The Factor. B) 6 months. C) When she announces her candidacy for President in 2012. D) Never I think it’s only fair. After all, Palin has much higher negatives than Obama — which means …? What say you, Bill? National Journal: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin continues to be a highly polarizing figure, with a whopping 57 percent viewing her unfavorably according to a new poll. The Bloomberg survey , released Monday, also found that the negative feelings about Palin are particularly strong. A third — 33 percent — said they view Palin “very unfavorably.” That’s the same percentage that viewed her favorably cumulatively — respondents who either viewed her “somewhat” or “very” favorably (!). The survey results indicate that Palin faces a significant image problem as she decides to run for president. Just look at how Pres. Obama’s numbers compare. Obama scored a net negative job approval rating — 48 percent said they disapprove of his performance as president while 47 percent approved, which is in line with other polls and shows the Bloomberg survey isn’t a particularly good poll for the president. However, 52 percent view Obama favorably while 44 percent view him unfavorably. More troubling for Palin is that it may be tough for her to change that perception. Only 10 percent are unsure of their opinion of her. And in a NBC/WSJ poll, she fares even worse than Pelosi: Sarah Palin rates a couple of points lower than Nancy Pelosi according to an NBC/WSJ pol l (h/t Political Wire ).Palin’s negative rating has climbed to 50%. That’s the highest negative rating for anyone measured in this poll (and it’s two points lower than Nancy Pelosi’s negative rating from last month). And get this: The only major subgroups that Palin wins in a head-to-head match-up with Obama are Republicans, conservatives, and FOX viewers. That’s it, folks. NBC/WSJ co-pollster Bill McInturff (R) says that this is “a sobering starting point” for Palin if she decides to run for president.
Continue reading …Now that Sony has started gathering the evidence it needs via discovery in the lawsuit over Hotz and friends’ PS3 jailbreak, the company has dropped a hammer by moving to reduce the amount of time the hackers have to get Sony the information it wants. Sony filed the motion — which will be heard by the court tomorrow — to better arm itself with information to oppose Geohot’s motion to dismiss, scheduled to be heard in early March. Casting its evidence-gathering net far and wide, SCEA has demanded that YouTube surrender not only information for Hotz’s account where his jailbreak video was posted, but also how many users accessed the video, the usernames of those with access to the video, and all usernames and IP addresses of everyone who posted or published comments to the vid. In addition to hitting up YouTube for dirt, Wired reports that Sony has demanded Twitter hand over the personal info of fail0verflow’s members — we’re waiting for Sony’s lawyers to don TSA gear as the next step in their search. Geohot’s attorney thinks the requests seem a bit much, but we think they make sense given Sony’s strategy of going after the entire fail0verflow team. While these goings-on make for fairly standard legal tactics, they won’t do much for Sony’s public image. Sony v. Geohot litigation heats up, SCEA demands YouTube give up Hotz and Fail0verflow’s personal info originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Feb 2011 15:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …The Obama administration’s investigation into Toyota safety problems found no electronic flaws to account for reports of sudden, unintentional acceleration and other safety problems. (Feb. 8)
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