10/26/15

ThinkProgress/FactCheck.org should apologize to Ted Cruz

By: Renee Nal
New Zeal

Ted Cruz via Breitbart [screenshot] Courtesy Judd Saul

“Had America admitted hundreds of thousands of German refugees during Would War II, would the Nazis have missed the opportunity to infiltrate agents and sleepers among them? Would they have been that stupid??” -Author and speaker Trevor Loudon

Earlier this month, the Soros-funded “news” organization ThinkProgress slammed Ted Cruz for paraphrasing a statement made by James R. Clapper, who “warned about the dangers of ISIS operatives infiltrating Western countries through the flood of migrants,” as reported last month at Breitbart.

In their scramble to discredit Ted Cruz, the highly partisan FactCheck.org also weighed in, claiming that Cruz did not take into account that Clapper “added that the U.S. has a ‘pretty aggressive’ screening program” and that Clapper “was particularly concerned about refugees being taken in by European countries that might not have such tight screening.”

Cruz was quoted as saying:

“The director of national intelligence has said that among those refugees coming into Europe are no doubt ISIS terrorists. Now it makes no sense whatsoever to bring in ISIS terrorists coming to wage jihad and murder innocent Americans.”

With Cruz’s statement in mind, consider Clapper’s quote:

“And, of course, as they descend on Europe, one of the obvious issues that we worry about, and in turn as we bring refugees to this country, is exactly what is their background.

I don’t, obviously, put it past the likes of ISIL to infiltrate operatives among these refugees. So that is a huge concern of ours. We do have a pretty aggressive program for those coming to this country, for screening their backgrounds. I’m not as uniformly confident about each European country that is going to be faced with welcoming or allowing refugees into their countries. So this is a huge issue for all kinds of reasons. The security implications are just one small part of it. The economic, the social impacts, are huge.”

Both outlets sought to assure their readers that America should not worry about ISIS terrorists trying to infiltrate with legitimate refugees. ThinkProgress quoted White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest as saying:

“Refugees go through the most robust security process of anybody who’s contemplating travel to the United States.”

Ted Cruz must be a xenophobic fear monger.

However, Ted Cruz was right to worry if a largely unreported exchange during a House Judiciary Hearing this week means anything.

As reported at TrevorLoudon.com, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey revealed to Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-01) that it would be “challenging” to confirm the identities of the refugees.

Here is a partial exchange:

Gohmert: “How can you be sure that anyone [refugees] is who they say they are…?”

Comey: “The only thing we can query is information that we have,” Comey said. “So if we have no information on someone… there will be no record of them… so it will be challenging.”

Watch here:

Not one to back-peddle, Senator Ted Cruz repeated his statement on Saturday as reported (only) at the Examiner, saying that the idea of “importing potentially hundreds of thousands of Muslims to America” is “absolute lunacy” and further doubled down on his statement about Clapper, saying:

“…The Director of National Intelligence has told us it’s very likely that among those refugees going into Europe are a substantial number of ISIS terrorists.”

ThinkProgress and FactCheck.org will likely not apologize for their role in sweeping a very real threat under the carpet in their clear partisan effort to discredit Ted Cruz.

07/3/15

#WeWillShootBack: ThinkProgress glorifies black militant violence

By: Renee Nal
New Zeal

A protestor uses a lighter and an aerosol can to burn one of two American flags during a protest in the Chinatown area of Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2014. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Author Trevor Loudon predicts that Communist-driven violence is ‘imminent’
New violent hashtag #WeWillShootBack glorified by Soros-funded ThinkProgress
ThinkProgress announces “black-only” weapons training
The Nation of Islam planning an October 10 rally in D.C. menacingly titled “Justice….or else!”

Trevor Loudon, expert on socialist and radical movements from New Zealand, predicts that the same rabid pro-communist organizations that incited both the Ferguson and Baltimore riots are applying the pressure for a “black spring” which will further terrorize America in the coming months.

Loudon pointed to an “article” titled “‘We Will Shoot Back’: Meet The Black Activists Who Aren’t Ready To Forgive” published at the Soros-funded “news” outlet ThinkProgress on Saturday glorifying violent hashtag #WeWillShootBack.

The entirely irresponsible violence-inciting article from ThinkProgress confirms that the violent rhetoric is being ramped-up by groups such as the Nation of Islam, who are planning a rally menacingly titled “Justice….or else!” to be held on October 10, 2015 in Washington, D.C.

Some of the comments on a Facebook video featuring Minister Louis Farrakhan illustrate the intense emotions that Farrakhan inspires. One man was rewarded with 220 “likes” for declaring, “…this is the first time a Black leader is openly threatening the government to give us justice or else we’ll ‘clap back’. October 10, 2015 will not be for punks.” Another writes, “I was born for a moment like this…. We are all going to die anyway but if we must die…it must be for something….. THINK ABOUT IT…….” Still another declares passionately, “This time it is a ‘do or die’ situation. If you are not ready to die for justice for our people then stay home!!!!!!”

Ferguson protesters burn American Flag via Twitter

ThinkProgress also notes that Taurean “Sankofa” Brown, “a self-described revolutionary and proponent of militant self-defense” started the hashtag #WeWillShootBack and wants those who advocate for peace to remember that “black people have always had to take arms up against those who used violence to intimidate them and limit their progress in the United States.” Brown continued,

The point of this movement is to educate and let black people know that we too have the right to protect our families and communities by any means necessary.

The ThinkProgress article, written by Sam P.K. Collins, went on to state that “black trained firearms instructors” will be teaching “[B]lack people across the country” about “gun laws in their state and attend community trainings where instructors will show them how to use and clean their weapons as part of National Gun Registry Day, tentatively scheduled for early August.”

“There is no doubt that pro-communist organizations want to break down civil society in America,” the author of his latest book, “The Enemies Within: Communists, Socialists and Progressives in the U.S. Congress” told Broadside News.

Progressive Labor Party via YouTube

Back in January, Loudon wrote about Ferguson organizers joining with anti-Israel radicals in the Palestinian Authority and predicted:

Communists and their Islamic allies are looking to build on 2014’s Ferguson riots, to create major havoc in America this year.

In a must-read article published in January, Loudon explains that in addition to gathering in the Palestinian Authority, radical activists around the globe attended a conference in Moscow in part to address the “…ongoing uprising against racism and police brutality in the United States…”

Organizations such as CAIR, the Nation of Islam, the New Black Panther Party (NBPP), the Revolutionary Communist Party, Communist Party USA, the Progressive Labor Party and the Worker’s World Party have been actively inciting race hatred in order to spark riots across the country.

Communist Organization Worker’s World Party via Twitter

“They want to destabilize America,” Loudon continued.

“A polarized society sets up the conditions that radical elements need to convince citizens that all-powerful government is society’s only hope.”

As rabid anti-capitalists, pro-communist groups seek to control society by fundamentally dismantling America, ultimately spreading communism across the globe.

The ThinkProgress article also featured New Black Panther Party leader Hashim Nzinga, who previously hijacked a Ferguson press conference, as reported at Broadside News.

At the time, Nzinga ranted that President Obama is from Kenya, calling him a “Mau Mau” and further declared:

The Black male is being exterminated…The ones who are not being exterminated, they’re pushing them to be gay and fags so they won’t be productive on reproducing babies. This is about genocide.

‘We Will Shoot Back’: Meet The Black Activists Who Aren’t Ready To Forgive via ThinkProgress

The Soros-funded “news” outlet ThinkProgress laughingly claims to be “non-partisan;” but based on their promotion of radical black militants, this author recommends that the outlet update their “about” section to indicate that they are nothing more than a mouth-piece for the radical left.

This article was cross-posted at Broadside News.

04/30/15

Black Mom Changes Leftist Narrative on Violence

By: Cliff Kincaid
Accuracy in Media

The reaction among responsible black and white law-abiding citizens to the black thugs rioting in Baltimore was captured by Toya Graham, the black mother who smacked her son around when she found him on the streets joining the attacks on police. Even liberals in the major media applauded her efforts.

“I don’t want him to be a Freddie Gray,” she told CBS News, referring to her son and the black youth who died under mysterious circumstances while in police custody.

CBS reported, “Graham, a single mom with six children, denounced the vandalism and violence against police officers. She said rioting in Baltimore is no way to go about getting justice for Freddie Gray and that she doesn’t want that life for her son.”

Graham then appeared on the CBS This Morning Show to discuss the incident and the struggle to raise her children.

The important teaching moment represented by this dramatic incident, a brief moment of sanity in the media, undercut the left-wing effort to somehow blame the police for the riots. As a result, the “progressives” had to go on the attack against the black mother.

Over at Think Progress, the blog of the pro-Obama Center for American Progress, Graham was attacked as a “misguided” mother who exercised bad judgment in holding her son accountable. Writer Kira Lerner said the issue was alleged police violence, not rioting in the streets by black youth.

She quoted a woman with a group opposed to “police brutality” as saying that “While she doesn’t condone the looting that was highlighted by the media in Baltimore Monday night, she said she understands where the violent protesters are coming from.”

Meanwhile, over at Hot Air, a piece by Noah Rothman ran under the headline, “Don’t let urban unrest derail conservative criminal justice reform.” While the riots were underway, he insisted that “a consensus opinion” had emerged on both the left and the right in favor of getting soft on criminals and letting more of them out of prison.

In the wake of what has happened in Baltimore and Ferguson, the Republican primary electorate might be tempted to embrace a “tough on crime” candidate, but “That would be a mistake,” Rothman informed Hot Air readers.

What’s more, he lectured them, the war on drugs has “failed” and there is no alternative to letting “non-violent offenders” out of prison.

In fact, the war on drugs did not fail. David Evans, a special advisor to the Drug Free America Foundation, notes that marijuana use went down among young people by 25 percent from the advent of the Reagan administration’s “Just Say No” campaign to the inauguration of President Obama. “If we had had a reduction in any other health problem in the U.S. of 25 percent, we would consider it an outstanding success,” he said.

Being “tough on crime” is precisely what many observers, including that courageous Baltimore mom, have concluded needs to be done in the inner cities.

Going soft was precisely what the Baltimore mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, had done, accounting for the weak police response to the riots. Former police officer Michael Tremoglie points out that the Baltimore police knew that the mayor had said she wanted “protesters” protected and room furnished for them to “destroy,” and that “They knew that the DOJ [Department of Justice] was ‘monitoring’ what was occurring during the riots.”

Before he came to Hot Air, a site owned by Salem Communications, a Christian firm, Rothman had sung the praises of the pro-marijuana voices in the media such as MSNBC’s Touré. On another occasion, he had highlighted how comedian Kevin Hart and rapper Ice Cube had attacked commentator Nancy Grace’s anti-marijuana comments.

Hot Air, which claims to be the most heavily-trafficked conservative blog on the Internet, has emerged as a forum for pro-marijuana and soft-on-crime viewpoints, most of them articulated by Rothman, a former libertarian writer for Mediaite.

It is certainly true that the Rothman perspective on “criminal justice reform” has been embraced on the left.

As Accuracy in Media noted recently, in an article about a “criminal justice reform” conference held in Washington, D.C., there is a White House-directed effort to enlist conservatives to join with various progressive organizations to weaken laws against a series of violent and non-violent crimes.

Hillary Clinton joined the campaign on Wednesday, saying that “It’s time to end the era of mass incarceration.”

Some readers at Hot Air were astounded by the advice given by Rothman, who cited the Obama Justice Department as a reliable source of information on criminal justice issues, including alleged police violence.

One said, “Isn’t it great when we can come to Hot Air to read some halfwit ‘conservative’ columnist agree with Eric Holder about root causes?”

Another said, “I don’t think this is a very timely post. At least not whilst the animals are burning, looting, robbing, raping, killing each other and forming alliances with opposing gang bangers to destabilize the structure of society.”

Still another called attention to Heather MacDonald’s piece in the New York Post, “The Perilous New Push to Excuse Lawlessness,” as being “a hundred times better than Noah’s.” The writer said, “She’s an actual conservative who lived through the times when ‘law and order’ were questionable values, and conservatives had to fight hard to implement them.”

MacDonald had referred to “a wide-ranging movement [which] is already under way to transform the criminal justice system in order to avoid a disparate impact on blacks.” But since blacks commit a disproportionate amount of the crime, she said that fulfilling this promise “would require gutting murder statutes, and most other criminal laws,” and that the country’s two-decade-long crime drop would be in jeopardy.

Despite cities like Ferguson and Baltimore going up in flames and the rare story of a mother like Toya Graham making a plea for law-and-order, the liberal media are going to make sure that the movement for criminals’ rights that now operates under the goal of achieving “criminal justice reform” will get the lion’s share of the publicity.

Indeed, Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show” just ran a favorable story about the “Coalition for Public Safety,” which is trying to make the ACLU sound like a reasonable organization conservatives can work with. Based on what was reported, it looks like some conservative groups are taking the bait.

02/5/15

Can You Handle the Truth About Vaccines?

By: Cliff Kincaid
Accuracy in Media

NBC accuses Republicans of accepting bad “science” on vaccines, while Fox News fires back, accusing liberals of spreading bad “science” on vaccines. Each side is trying to score partisan political points. The message from both sides is that vaccines are completely safe. But that message is absolutely and demonstrably false.

As I noted in a recent column, the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program exists to compensate victims of vaccines. The latest Statistics Report shows nearly 4,000 claims were awarded financial damages.

Why do both sides of this “debate” pretend that vaccine-related injuries do not occur? Why not just report the facts? It doesn’t take a lot of work to dig them out.

Barbara Loe Fisher of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) tells me that she has given more than 100 interviews in the last two weeks on the subject of the measles outbreak, but that the media simply will NOT report on the existence of this federal program and the implications for the subject of vaccine safety.

“Vaccines are the only pharmaceutical products that government mandates and completely indemnifies,” she notes. She is referring to federal legislation that takes legal responsibility for their actions away from the companies making the vaccines.

“I’ve been talking about it in every interview I do and I have been bringing it up. But whenever I talk about liability protection for the companies—that this is the only pharmaceutical product that is mandated by government and indemnified by government—they [the media] don’t want to talk about it,” she said.

Observers believe the glaring omission reflects the power of pharmaceutical companies or their advertising agencies in the major media. It is in the interest of these companies to make pariahs out of those favoring vaccine choice by playing down—or even suppressing—questions about vaccine safety.

Simply put, the evidence and history show that the vaccine makers have been given total liability protection for injuries and deaths caused by government-mandated vaccines. Vaccine safety is not “settled science,” as we have been hearing repeatedly in the media. To the contrary, for purposes of the law, vaccines are considered sometimes unsafe, even deadly.

The “Vaccine injury table” associated with the legislation includes a list of the injuries, disabilities, illnesses, conditions, and deaths resulting from the administration of such vaccines.

But why is it so difficult for the media to report on the existence of these health problems?

The vaccines that are covered include:

diptheria and tetanus vaccines
pertussis vaccines
measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines
polio vaccines
hepatitis A vaccines
hepatitis B vaccines
Haemophilus influenza type b polysaccharide conjugate vaccines
varicella vaccines
rotavirus vaccines
pneumococcal conjugate vaccines
seasonal influenza vaccines
human papillomavirus vaccines
meningococcal vaccines

As I reported in my column, the one exception to this drumbeat of misleading and inaccurate coverage about “vaccine safety” is on the local level, where correspondent Michael Chen of ABC 10 News in San Diego, California noted a case of a boy who suffered serious injuries, including fever, seizures, nervous tics and autism, as a result of two vaccines. The mother, almost in tears as she described what happened to her son, was paid $55,000 in damages through the federal program. But the damage award didn’t cover the autism diagnosis. She said she wished she had more thoroughly researched the safety of vaccines.

The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program grew out of the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act. Fisher explains what happened: “The companies threatened Congress that they were going to leave the people without any childhood vaccines if they did not get liability protection. The companies wanted this liability protection and it was mainly for losses at that time for DPT and oral polio vaccine. MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella) vaccine at that point was a relatively new combination vaccine.”

The DPT vaccine had been associated with brain inflammation and brain damage, while polio paralysis can be caused by the vaccine.

Fisher explains what the federal protection means for the companies: “Nobody who makes or profits from the sale of the vaccine, nobody who regulates the vaccine, who promotes the vaccine, who votes to mandate the vaccine—nobody is accountable or liable in a civil court of law in front of a jury of our peers when we get hurt because we’ve been told we have to take it, or when the vaccine fails to work.”

The compensation program, with total liability protection for injuries and deaths caused by government-mandated vaccines, was upheld by the Supreme Court in a 2011 case in which vaccines were acknowledged to be “unavoidably unsafe.”

My column actually underestimated the total financial damages paid through the program. The figure is actually $2.8 billion to the victims or the families of victims themselves.

Liberal and conservative media are trying to make political points over who’s right and wrong about vaccine safety. But Fisher says people who support her group and vaccine choice come from across the political spectrum and include Democrats, Republicans, libertarians, and independents. In the media, however, each side is trying to smear the other side, as if there is a partisan divide.

The coverage has led to cases of strange bedfellows, such as the George Soros-funded blog Think Progress running a story praising Megyn Kelly of Fox News under the headline, “Megyn Kelly Speaks Up For Mandatory Vaccination On Fox: ‘Some Things Do Require Big Brother.’”

Indeed, Kelly defended mandatory vaccines, saying, “…some things do require some involvement of Big Brother.”

What she and many others in the media have consistently ignored is the role of Big Brother in shielding the companies making the vaccines from the side effects of their products.

As I asked in my column: If there are no problems associated with vaccines, then why did Congress pass the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, which created a national Vaccine Injury Compensation Program?

The media on the left and right have no answer to this question. So they pretend there is no debate or dispute over the safety of vaccines. They simply point fingers about one side or the other being guilty of ignoring what they pretend is settled science.

The only thing “settled” about the science is that while vaccines work for a large majority of people, they can also cause serious health problems, even death, for some.

The commentators who ignore the truth are either lying or so utterly ignorant that they should not be in a position of offering “news” on a national basis. Whatever the case, the public is being denied the facts about decisions affecting the lives of their children. Fortunately, the public can go to sites like www.aim.org and the National Vaccine Information Center for information that is being denied to them.

A troubling aspect of the current debate is how people in the media act like experts on subjects that they know so little about. They seem to think that by huffing and puffing and sounding authoritative, they will be taken seriously. They have large staffs which seem incapable of making phone calls or doing elementary research.

If news organizations on the left and right can’t even dig out the facts in life-and-death matters involving children, then what can they be trusted to report accurately on?