What A Day * Open Thread
By Bronwyn's Harbor on October 21, 2010 at 10:00 PM in Current Affairs
BRAIN FLASH — I Think I Know Why NPR Fired Juan Williams … Now The Free Speech-Muzzling Liberals Have Trained Their Sights On Mara Liasson … The Daily Caller Has a Fascinating Story: “Muslims speak out against NPR’s political correctness” … Harry Reid Claims That, But For Him, “We’d Be in a Worldwide Depression” … The Drastic Austerity Program (or Programme) to Slash the UK’s Deficit
Here’s my speculation as to why NPR fired Juan Williams. First, there’s the $1.8 million from Soros to hire 100 journalists, and surely with that money came a couple “suggestions” from Mssr. Soros. Then, there’s the notable fact that this is the fundraising week for all NPR affiliates, and I’ll bet you anything that the local stations are getting a LOT of heat from their subscribers for Juan Williams appearing on Fox News.
And, knowing those snotty, bratty Daily-Kossack liberal hardheads, I bet you that they are demanding that NPR fire Williams or they won’t subscribe anymore to NPR. And I’ll bet you too that NPR’s local stations are in a frenzy because renewal and new subscriptiions are down, down, down this year, and they are begging the national headquarters to do something!
Hence, national NPR makes headlines for firing Juan Williams, which the hardhead liberals just LOVE! The hardheads think they’ve really won a victory, so they’re more apt to donate to NPR.
Just some guesses.
Now They’re Going After Mara Liasson: From the lefty media investigative group, Media Matters:
News that Juan Williams’ contract with NPR was terminated over comments he made about Muslims while appearing on Fox News shines a spotlight on the radio network’s evergreen controversy: Its continued affiliation with Fox News. Specifically, NPR’s Mara Liasson and her long-running association with Fox News has often raised questions. This might be the proper time for NPR to finally address that thorny issue.
What’s strange about this is that I can’t remember the last time that I saw Mara Liasson on Fox News. She used to be a regular on Bret Baier’s panel, but it’s been at least several months, hasn’t, since she’s been on? Has she already shied away because she’s afraid?
Here’s a snippet from The Daily Caller’s post, “Muslims speak out against NPR’s political correctness“:
While a Muslim advocacy group, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), was instrumental in getting National Public Radio (NPR) to fire Juan Williams, some Muslims are speaking out against succumbing to the censorship of political correctness.
Tarek Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, took issue with those who wrap themselves in feel-good sensitivity, while denying the fact that the majority of terrorists are Muslim.
Indeed, the threat is real enough even for Fatah, a liberal Muslim, who looks at women in burkas with skepticism. “I am scared when I see women in burkas, how do I know what is behind that?” Fatah said, noting that many Muslims share his concerns.
“We are victims of these guys. A number of suicide bombers who have attacked have killed people [while] wearing the burka,” Fatah said. “This is the truth, we should be speaking the truth rather than what people expect us to say. ”
[...]
According to Jasser, the fact that the vast majority of national security threats emanate from the Muslim world makes Williams’ fear reasonable. Without open discussion, however, those concerns will never be conquered.
Do read the entire story. It’s fascinating.
Reid: ‘But For Me, We’d Be in World-Wide Depression’, Via Breitbart TV:
Check out all the cuts that the UK is enacting, via “Cut to the Bone,” published in The Economist:
A TIDE of austerity has swept over much of Europe since markets rebelled at high debt levels in Greece and elsewhere in the spring. Still, the world is watching in amazement as Britain’s new government prepares to enact budget cuts that have not inaptly been called revolutionary. Yesterday, George Osborne, the government’s chancellor of the exchequer, stood before Parliament and detailed the scope of the plan, which will slash government spending by £81 billion over four years in an aim to reduce Britain’s deficit from its present 11% of GDP to 2%.
[T]he scale of the cuts is…breathtaking. The police budget will fall by 20%. Spending on social housing will fall by three-fifths, with the difference to be made up from higher rents charged to tenants. Local council funding from central government will drop by 28%, a classic strategy in which ministers hope that voters will take their anger out on town halls instead of Whitehall. Spending on the arts will fall by a third. Nor will the damage be confined to the public sector. The government is a significant buyer of goods and services from private firms, after all. PwC, a consultancy, said the other day that it thinks that another half a million private jobs could go over the coming five years as a direct consequence of public-sector austerity, although the chancellor insists that his medicine will be good for the country in the long run.
If the private sector does trim half a million jobs due to austerity, it will come on top of the half million public sector positions that will be done away with as part of the cuts. Buttonwood does a good job explaining why such austerity is unthinkable in much of the world, and especially America. And he notes:
The second lesson concerns the division between spending cuts and tax rises. History suggests that it is better to concentrate on the former if you want the plan to succeed. But there is no getting away from the fact that this will affect the poor most; since they are the chief recipients of benefit payments. The current government argues that the total package hits the rich more but that is largely because of a tax rise introduced by the last government. Inevitably, this will have a bigger impact on consumption since the poor have a higher marginal propensity to consume. Then there is the politicial/moral issue. The package creates the understandable impression that the poor are paying the price for the folly of the bankers. That is why the government is introducing a further bank levy today and why it cut back on child benefit for high earners. Spreading the pain is essential.
YOUR turn!
by Ronald Scott
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