from salon.com: - Michele Bachmann wins: How the anti-Muslim fringe hacked the media

A new report shows that it's not just Fox News. Anti-Shariah groups are pulling the conversation to the fringe

By Alex Seitz-Wald

In the months following 9/11, Republican President George W. Bush spoke passionately about the need to respect Muslim-Americans and “the vibrant faith of Islam, which inspires countless individuals to lead lives of honesty, integrity, and morality.” This year, every Republican presidential candidate united in seeing Islamic Shariah law as a threat to the United States, despite a total lack of evidence.

Anti-Muslim attitudes are now much higher than they were immediately following 9/11. Islamophobic rhetoric once unacceptable in public discourse is now commonplace. And there are now over 50 controversies raging across the country about whether Muslims should be allowed to construct houses of worship. How did we get from there to here?

In a new quantitative analysis published in the American Sociological Review, Bail reports that radical anti-Shariah groups’ messages have been “heavily overrepresented” in the public discourse, whereas pro-Muslim voices have been largely underrepresented. The lopsided media coverage has had far-ranging consequences, elevating the visibility of these radical groups, their perception of their credibility, and creating “a gravitational pull on the mainstream” that moves it towards the fringe position.

Bail used plagiarism detection software to trace how the language from press releases of over 120 different groups with a diversity of views on Muslims ended up in the media. He compared the language in the press release to over 50,000 news articles and TV transcripts and found the fringe views to be vastly more represented than mainstream or pro-Muslim views. Meanwhile, looking at IRS disclosure forms, he found that over time, fringe groups increasingly shared board members and personal ties with mainstream conservative groups like the American Enterprise Institute as their views were mainstreamed by the media.


http://www.salon.com/2012/12/05/michele_bachmann_wins_how_the_anti_muslim_fringe_hacked_the_media/

surprise, surprise the most outlandish racism and bigotry is allowed if it is directed against

Palestinians:


At Tue Dec 4, 2012, 08:25 PM you sent an alert on the following post:

You obviously haven't learned a lesson.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=324379

The reason for the alert was:

This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate. (See <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=aboutus#communitystandards" target="_blank">Community Standards</a>.)

You added the following comments:

This is an outrageously bigoted and hateful comment that has absolutely no place on any progressive forum. By focussing on racial/ethnic hatred this poster is attempting to appeal to the darkest insticnts and reject not only the basic humanity of the Palestinian people but to completely reject the principle of Jews and Arabs living together in peace. Please, please hide this post and please refer this post to admin for futher consideration.

A randomly-selected Jury of DU members completed their review of this post at Tue Dec 4, 2012, 06:24 AM, and voted 2-4 to keep it.

Thank you.

as a Bona fide "radical leftist" I STRONGLY, STRONGLY support Chuck Hagel's nomination

for a senior cabinet level national security position. It is not that I agree with Chuck Hagel's politics or his foreign policy ideology. It's not like he is some kind of dove or a neo-isolationist or even a moderately liberal Republican. Yes, OF COURSE I KNOW- he has a right-wing record on almost every domestic issue. He is essentially an old style Reaganite movement conservative. But he also is and would be a voice of restraint when it comes to the use of military force. He is an old style hard nosed foreign policy pragmatist. He believes in restraint, multi-national alliances, the limitations of military power, advancing the peace Middle East peace process and defusing tensions in the Middle East, and around the world and building international consensus - a multi-lateralist as opposed to a go-it-alone unilateralist. This is in sharp contrast to the foreign policy neoconservatives. If we want to establish resistance against foreign policy neoconservatism and even the equally dangerous excesses of liberal internationalism (neoconservatism on valium) - we need conservatives with gravitas on board. Liberals and doves alone cannot win the war on war. The selection of Chuck Hagel to a senior cabinet level national security position in the Obama Administration will be a step away from war and a step toward peace. What could possibly be more important that that?

Peter King's Greatest Hits As Homeland Security Chairman

Peter King's Greatest Hits As Homeland Security Chairman

By Ryan J. Reilly | TPM – 2 hrs 57 mins ago

He drew comparisons to Joe McCarthy, hunted fugitives in his free time and maintained his grip on one of the most powerful roles in Congress in the post-9/11 world. Now, Rep. Peter King's time as House Homeland Security chair is coming to an end.

Muslim Radicalization Hearings

In December 2010, King announced his intention to hold hearings on the "radicalization" of American Muslims. It sparked criticism as soon as he went public. His decision to appear on a television show produced by an anti-Muslim group shortly before the hearings certainly didn't help matters. King fought back against the criticism, claiming he wouldn't allow political correctness to "obscure a real and dangerous threat." But by the time of King's first hearing in March 2011, the focus had changed to whether it was a good idea to hold the hearing in the first place.

Ground Zero Mosque Investigation

King called in July 2010 for an investigation into the source of the funding of a mosque set to be built in lower Manhattan, near the site of the World Trade Center attack of Sept. 11, 2001. Earlier that year, he said building a mosque in that location was "very offensive" and wrong but that it could not be stopped because of the First Amendment. No investigation was ever launched.

Too Many Mosques

It wasn't only the Ground Zero Mosque that King had an issue with -- he told Politico in 2007 that there are "too many mosques in this country" in general. King later said he was taken out of context or misspoke. He said he meant to say that "too many mosques in this country do not cooperate with law enforcement."

http://news.yahoo.com/peter-kings-greatest-hits-homeland-security-chairman-193151607--politics.html

Rick Santorum ‘open’ to running for president again

By Chris Moody, Yahoo! News

Political Reporter

By Chris Moody, Yahoo! News | The Ticket – 2 hrs 40 mins ago..

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/ygM12rLzeaSH8Wa3me8plA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/
Rick Santorum (Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

"I'm open to it, yeah," Santorum told reporter Michael Warren. "I think there's a fight right now as to what the soul of the Republican Party's going to be and the conservative movement, and we have something to say about that. I think from our battle, we're not going to leave the field."

Santorum surprised many Republicans by securing the most votes in the Iowa caucuses in January, the first electoral contest of the presidential election cycle. He went on to win 11 states in total before dropping his bid and conceding to Mitt Romney in April.

Since then, he has launched an advocacy group called Patriot Voices and written a book, "American Patriots: Answering the Call to Freedom."

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/rick-santorum-open-running-president-again-215701762--election.html;_ylt=AivF3bDGfvxq2wa5SERHi3nNt.d_;_ylu=X3oDMTFtMDRsMXFqBG1pdANFeHByZXNzIFRpY2tldCBsaXN0IG1vZHVsZQRwb3MDMQRzZWMDTWVkaWFMaXZlQmxvZw--;_ylg=X3oDMTM1cjNwNW8xBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDZmNlZDMxM2YtZGY1Yi0zMjU4LTlmMTgtZDQ5NDE1YmM4NzFlBHBzdGNhdANwb2xpdGljc3x0aGV0aWNrZXQEcHQDc3RvcnlwYWdl;_ylv=3

Peace Is Increasing / Prof. Joshua S. Goldstein .

San Francisco lawmakers set to vote on nudity ban

Source: Associated Press

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Associated Press/Marcio Jose Sanchez - Demonstrators gather outside of City Hall in San Francisco for a protest against a proposed city-wide nudity ban, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco lawmakers are getting ready to bare their decision on a proposed ban on public nakedness that has sparked indignation in a city known for flouting convention and flaunting its counter-culture image.

The 11-member Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote Tuesday on the ordinance, which would prohibit exposed genitals in most public places, including streets, sidewalks and public transit.

Scott Wiener, the supervisor who represents San Francisco's predominantly gay Castro District, introduced the measure in response to escalating complaints about a group of men whose dishabille is an almost daily occurrence.

"Some people have tried to paint this issue as some sort of a gay rights issue, and it really isn't," Wiener, who is gay, said. "It has nothing to do with gay rights. This is about behavior in our neighborhoods and trying to be respectful of one another."

A federal lawsuit claiming the ban would violate the free speech rights of people who prefer to make a statement by going au naturel was filed last week in case the ordinance passes.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/san-francisco-lawmakers-set-vote-nudity-ban-074703352.html

George McGovern at the 1984 DNC

the margin of victory

Accuser recants sex claims against Elmo puppeteer: report

Source: Reuters/Yahoo News

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Reuters/Reuters - Voice actor Kevin Clash arrives with the puppet Elmo for the 2010 Peabody Award ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria in New York in this May 17, 2010 file photo

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The man who claimed he had underage sex with the puppeteer behind "Sesame Street" character Elmo recanted his claims on Tuesday, U.S. media reported.

The unnamed man, now 23, had claimed that Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash had a sexual relationship with him when the accuser was 16 years old, potentially engulfing one of the biggest childhood brands in an underage sex scandal.

"He wants it to be known that his sexual relationship with Mr. Clash was an adult consensual relationship," the law firm Andreozzi and Associates, who represent the man, told U.S. media outlets in a statement.

Clash, 52, the voice of Elmo for nearly three decades, had acknowledged a past relationship with his accuser but said on Monday the pair were both consenting adults at the time. He termed the allegations "false and defamatory."

"I am a gay man. I have never been ashamed of this or tried to hide it," Clash said on Monday, saying he was taking a break from the TV show to deal with the situation.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/sesame-street-elmo-puppeteer-takes-leave-sex-allegations-012713740.html