After a kerfuffle regarding an ill-advised tweet, Octavia Nasr has been dismissed from CNN. The tweet in question read, “Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah… One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot.”

I would be tempted to commend CNN for firing Nasr and move on. But moving on lets CNN off the hook too easily. Nasr was the Senior Editor of Mideast Affairs for the network. She had worked for CNN for twenty years. Her views could not have been a secret to her colleagues, but the network continued to allow her to work at CNN. Giving CNN the benefit of every doubt, Nasr’s colleagues and superiors thought that Nasr’s work was unaffected by her admiration for Hezbollah’s leaders, and by implication, for Hezbollah itself.

More likely, Nasr’s views were considered unremarkable, and perhaps were shared by, her colleagues. It was only when she was so gauche as to tweet her admiration for a terrorist that she got into trouble. (more…)

In an fascinating development for Sarah Palin fans, readers of People magazine, and people who think it’s best to believe a woman when she claims the infant she’s carrying is her biological child, Levi Johnston has publicly apologized to the Palin family for lying about them. Johnston tells People magazine that he “publicly said things about the Palins that were not completely true.”

“Last year, after Bristol and I broke up, I was unhappy and a little angry. Unfortunately, against my better judgment, I publicly said things about the Palins that were not completely true,” he tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I have already privately apologized to Todd and Sarah. Since my statements were public, I owe it to the Palins to publicly apologize.”

Bristol added her own statement Tuesday saying, “Part of co-parenting is creating healthy and honest relationships between the parents. Tripp one day needs to know the truth and needs to know that even if a mistake is made the honorable thing to do is to own up to it.”

It would seem obvious to any observer of human behavior that a disgruntled, publicity-hungry former fiancé is not the most reliable source for information about anyone. Caution is doubly warranted when the information offered is about a high-profile, controversial politician. (more…)

Helen Thomas, the liberal harpy bestowed with legendary status by virtue of outliving her contemporaries, has finally been forced from her seat in the front row of the White House briefing room. Thomas’s odious comments sparked an outcry in the U.S., as well they should, but the media should spare us their outrage.

Thomas’s comments are indistinguishable from the pus spewed by members of the aid flotilla and their Hamas compatriots. The “peace activists” on the aid flotilla told the Israelis to “Go back to Auschwitz.” Yet the media portray the aid flotilla as a group of humanitarians seeking to deliver relief to distressed Palestinians, and the Israelis as bloodthirsty butchers. Thomas’s comment, horrible and reprehensible as it is, is the natural child of utter historical ignorance and the media’s continual focus on the supposed evils of the Israelis and lamb-like suffering of the Palestinians.

The Palestinians certainly suffer, but most of their suffering is the result of Hamas’s insistence on killing civilians within Israel. If terrorists wouldn’t cross over into Israel, there would be no need for a fence. Egypt also fears Hamas, and also prevents Gaza residents from entering Egypt. (“Israel consistently alleged that Iranian and other weapons were being smuggled into Gaza through a series of tunnels, and with Egypt maintained tight control on the enclaves borders,” Hamas, Council on Foreign Relations.) The Israelis take extreme measures to avoid killing civilians. (more…)

I’ve been a Phoenix Suns fan of varying intensity since I was seven years old. I’ve never been much of an athlete, but I enjoy watching sports from tennis to basketball. It thrills me to watch people who are among the best in the world at what they do, whether it’s Roger Federer, Peyton Manning, or Kobe Bryant.

But mixing sports with politics? Running an interview with President Obama during an NBA playoff game?  No thanks.

So how does something like this happen? I guess you and the president just talk all the time, and he says “why don’t you come over with your TV crew?”

Marv Albert: He keeps calling! And after a while, it just gets annoying, you know?

No, we came up with the idea of doing this for a pregame show in the Western conference finals. They said yes right away. It was just a matter of trying to come up with a date. Because he’s obviously very busy, and I’m jumping back and forth between cities in the playoffs. So we finally settled on Friday, which worked out because there was a little bit of a three-day break. We did it on the basketball court, at the White House.

He was just … it was a great experience. He was tremendous. He knows his stuff. That’s apparent.

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Rep. Bart Stupak voted last night in favor of healthcare legislation that does not prohibit funding abortions. The cave came after withstanding weeks of pressure from the Obama Administration and Pelosi’s minions in Congress. Why he would choose to fold now is almost incomprehensible.

Incomprehensible, that is, except that pro-life Democrats have a history of sacrificing their pro-life convictions to political expediency. Stupak can now trudge the trail of shame blazed by Jesse Jackson, Al Gore, and Dick Gephardt, among others. (more…)

Since President Obama’s elevation to Intergalactic Superstar Caesar in   November 2008, the media has been busy writing obituaries for the GOP. Most of these unwelcome mourners have offered nuggets of advice along the lines of, “Why don’t you try being more, you know, like us? More—what’s the term? Oh yes, more moderate. Conservatism is so last season.” The day after Obama’s  election, the Huffington Post gleefully announced “GOP Civil War Begins[!!!!!!]”

Being the tenderhearted folks they are, the liberal MSM diagnosed the real problem for us: “[I]f there’s a real crisis in the House right now for the Republican Party, it’s the gradually diminishing voice of moderation.” Over a year later, MSNBC was still going strong with the GOP civil war theme, warning that an ideological purity test “threatens to derail moderate Republican candidacies in heated 2010 Republican primaries already underway.”

Obviously, there have been and are ongoing arguments about the direction of conservatism and the Republican party. The 2008 election would’ve shaken the confidence of Alexander the Great, had he been a political candidate instead of a slaughtering conqueror. But the media is missing the real story again. The story now isn’t the demise of the GOP moderate. It’s the sudden downfall of last season’s debutante, the “moderate Democrat.” (more…)

“America must always stand on the side of human dignity.” – President Barack Obama

I would like to thank the mainstream media for remembering Gao Zhisheng. One should give credit where credit is due, and in this case, it is well-deserved.

On February 4, 2009, Gao Zhisheng was abducted by the Chinese government. He has not been heard from since.

Mr. Gao is an attorney. According to The Economist, he is “one of China’s ten best lawyers.” He is also a Christian who has represented those persecuted by the Chinese government. His wife writes in the Washington Post that “he fought for those abused by the police, those who had their land stolen by the government and those who were persecuted for their religious beliefs.”

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Tim Tebow and his mom, Pam, are going to be in a Super Bowl ad. For those who aren’t college football fans, Tebow is the quarterback for the University of Florida Gators. He was the first underclassman to win the Heisman Trophy and led the Gators to two BCS championships. He’s also headed to the NFL draft, where he’s likely to be the top quarterback pick.

All right, you say, so a college football star is going to be in a Super Bowl ad. Big deal. But wait! The ad was purchased by the dreaded Dr. James Dobson’s pro-life  Focus On the Family! And Tim’s mom will discuss her decision not to abort Tim when he was in her womb. (more…)

The debate over same-sex marriage has cooled in many parts of the country. People have turned their attention to the healthcare bill and the new possibility of being blown up by guys with explosives strapped to their underpants.

In reality, however, the same-sex marriage fight is now being joined in earnest. Opponents of California’s Proposition 8, which provides that only a marriage between a man and a woman would be recognized in California, have sued in federal court. The plaintiffs—Kristin Perry, Sandra Stier, Paul Katami, and Jeffrey Zarillo—allege that defining marriage as a monogamous union of opposite-sex couples violates the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the 14^th Amendment.

The case is currently at trial in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, but it is likely to end up in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court’s decision regarding Prop. 8’s constitutionality likely will, for all intents and purposes, permanently determine whether states can limit marriage to its traditional meaning. Of course, it is theoretically possible to amend the constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage in the U.S., but practically speaking it’s almost impossible. (more…)

This morning, the Supreme Court handed down its opinion in the case of Citizens United v. FEC. The upshot of the decision is that “the Government may not suppress political speech on the basis of the speaker’s corporate identity.”   Federal law prohibited corporations from donating money “for speech defined as “electioneering speech” or for speech expressly advocating the election or defeat of a candidate.”  The Court held that corporations cannot be prohibited from speaking on political matters. Predictably, President Obama has already decried the ruling as a blow to the little guy and a helping hand to evil corporations.

Lost in most of the coverage of the decision (and conveniently ignored by President Obama, former “senior lecturer” at the University of Chicago Law School), is that, as Justice Kennedy points out, the ban on electioneering speech never applied to one type of corporation. And what type of corporation would be exempt from laws and regulations that chill the speech of all its corporate brethren? Why, the media corporation, as Justice Kennedy points out on page 35 of the opinion:

Media corporations are now exempt from §441b’s ban on corporate expenditures. Yet media corporations accumulate wealth with the help of the corporate form, the largest media corporations have “immense aggregations of wealth,” and the views expressed by media corporations often “have little or no correlation to the public’s support” for those views. (more…)