My Podcast On The Juan Williams Controversy

Is here.…

If You Believe Juan Williams Shouldn’t Have Been Fired, Where Were You About Imus? Sanchez? Ward Churchill?

Glenn Greenwald makes some good points about the inconsistency with which we judge the acts of others. Juan Williams should not have been fired, but those who agree with that didn’t always have similar opinions about others who made comments that were not very PC and which offended, resulting in termination.

Professor Ward Churchill was the bogeyman of the right which eventually succeeded in pushing the University of Colorado to fire him for his unpopular speech.  Churchill is still fighting to get his job back. It’s especially chilling when professors at institutions of higher learning have to watch what …

On Thursday’s Radio Show…

• Can the Democrats hold on? DNC Chairman Tim Kaine joins Alan to discuss his party’s fight to save the majority.

• Scott Atran, author of Talking to the Enemy: Faith, Brotherhood, and the (Un)Making of Terrorists, reveals what goes on inside the mind of a terrorist.

• Famed psychic medium John Edward, author of the new book Infinite Quest, tells Alan how the average person can hone their psychic abilities and improve their lives.…

Is Sarah Palin Giving Up On Christine O’Donnell?

Political Wire reports that Delaware’s Christine O’Donnell is still waiting for a promised visit from Sarah Palin to help her U.S. Senate race.

Said O’Donnell: “Well we’ve tried to schedule it. We’ve been talking to her going back and forth exchanging dates and I don’t know if we’ll be able to get it in within the next 2 weeks, we’re both trying very hard… I don’t know. Time is getting short.”

Will she or will she not?

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Juan Williams Is No Bigot And Should Not Have Been Fired For His Comments

I’ve known and worked with Juan Williams for many years.  He is not a bigot, and it is a shame that after 10 years of service to NPR, he was summarily dismissed without so much as a face-t0-face meeting.  I don’t always agree with Juan. I don’t share his feelings about what he experiences when he sees Muslims at airports. However, it is quite worrisome that in today’s environment one has to be so careful about what is said for fear of losing a job that there is a constant walking on eggshells.

If NPR had a problem with Juan …

If You Care About The Deficit, It’s The Medicare, Stupid

by Stuart Shapiro

With the current anger at government, the common theme echoed by Republicans across the land is that government spending is out of control.  The deficits are indeed scary but few Republicans have any proposals to deal meaningfully with them (indeed they want to allow the Bush tax cuts to continue which would explode deficits further).  David Leonhardt argues that without talking about Medicare, talking about deficits is meaningless:

It won’t be possible to pay the bill by cutting other programs. They’re not big enough. Making big cuts to everything but Medicare and Social Security — shrinking the …

Angle, Miller And O’Donnell Just The Tip Of The Tea Party Iceberg

By William K. Wolfrum

While the proudly ignorant like Sharron Angle, Rand Paul, Joe Miller and Christine O’Donnell make the biggest headlines, the Tea Party and far-right Movements of the GOP have a host of other candidates that make Macchiavelli look like Michael Dukakis.

And while Tea Party candidates have wildly different opinions on numerous issues, there are nearly three dozen of them in competitive Congressional and Gubernatorial races around the country, as well as countless others in smaller races. And they all bring their own brand of crazy. Here’s a look at just a few far-right Republicans running …

Koch Brothers Get Their Buddies On The Supreme Court In Trouble

By Yashwanth Manjunath

Hey remember the Koch brothers, Charles and David? They are the two New York City billionaires organizing and funding the so-called “grassroots” Tea Party movement. Well it turns out that twice every year they host confidential meetings “to review strategies for combating the multitude of public policies that threaten to destroy America as we know it.” So what policies do the Koch brothers think are threatening to destroy America?

According to a a personalized letter signed by Charles Koch their priorities include battling “climate change alarmism and the move to socialized health care,” as well as …

Christine O’Donnell Is Unable To Name A Democratic Senator

Delaware U.S. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell and Chris Coons debated again, and it didn’t get any better for Christine O’Donnell, who previously showed herself to be unfamiliar with the First Amendment.   This time, when asked to name someone on the other side of the aisle she could work with, she couldn’t name one, but was able to identify Hillary Clinton as a former senator.  Then, as Coons was speaking she suddenly remembered the name of a Democrat: Joe  Lieberman! (Which she blurted out as though she had Tourette Syndrome).

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Did Sarah Palin Desecrate The American Flag?

At a tea party event in Reno, Sarah Palin appears to have signed an American flag, which would be a violation of the flag code.

The evidence is imperfect, but if she did put her signature on Old Glory, it would be a clear violation of the Flag Code. Subsection 8, part (g) reads: “The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.”

The photo here captures Palin signing the flag at 1:37 in, and visible …

Proposed Florida Immigration Law Would Target Only Latinos

Florida wants to be the next Arizona, based on a law proposed by Attorney General Bill McCollum, Republican Rep. William Snyder (pictured) and supported by tea party gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott.  But there is at least one item in the law that makes it worse than the Arizona immigration law. (h/t Think Progress)

What few observers seem to have noticed, though, is a bizarre clause Snyder included on page 3. Even if an officer has “reasonable suspicions” over a person’s immigration status, the bill says, a person will be “presumed to be legally in the United States” if …