Charlie Hebdo Cartoon

Charlie Hebdo’s moment: Why some media outlets are afraid to run the cover

In the television business, I like to say that people vote with their remote controls.
In Paris right now, people are voting with their francs.
They are buying up the new issue of Charlie Hebdo in such waves that many French newsstands sold out before 7 a.m. yesterday. The usual print run of 50,000 had been boosted to 3 million, and when that was quickly snatched up, it was upped to 5 million.
If there’s been another time in modern history when an entire country — and much of the civilized world — has come together in a passionate embrace of free expression, it doesn’t immediately come to mind.
I think the cover image — Muhammed shedding a tear, with the headline “All Is Forgiven”—is uplifting. And yet many American news organizations won’t run the cover, even as they report on the story.
The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, CBS and Fox News, among many others, have carried the cartoon. But CNN, ABC, NBC, MSNBC and the New York Times are among those refusing to do so.
This is very different than last week’s debate on the refusal to publish the offensive anti-Islam cartoons from the satirical newspaper, which helped precipitate the deadly terrorist attack at Charlie Hebdo’s office. Many critics called that decision cowardly. But news executives had to weigh the safety of their employees, as well as their usual practice of not running images that are gratuitously offensive to religion. (Yes, I know that some have run anti-Christian images in the past but seem to be more skittish about offending Muslims.)
The new cover, though, represents fresh news on a huge story, and is not offensive except perhaps to a small minority. It does not mock religion. That doesn’t mean that publishing it is without risk. A former British radical leader, Anjem Choudary, told the Independent that the new image was an “act of war,” one that would draw the death penalty in a Sharia court.
But it’s important that the world press not be intimidated, any more than the more than 1 million people who filled the streets of Paris on Sunday.
Margaret Sullivan, the Times public editor, disagrees with her paper’s decision:
“The new cover image of Charlie Hebdo is an important part of a story that has gripped the world’s attention over the past week.
“The cartoon itself, while it may disturb the sensibilities of a small percentage of Times readers, is neither shocking nor gratuitously offensive. And it has, undoubtedly, significant news value.
“With Charlie Hebdo’s expanded press run of millions of copies for this post-attack edition, and a great deal of global coverage, the image is being seen, judged and commented on all over the world. Times readers should not have had to go elsewhere to find it.”
Columnist Joe Concha whacks the news outlets that have just said no:
“As for CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times and NPR, please save your breathless reports about Charlie Hebdo being an inspiration to us all.
“You just rewarded the objective of terrorists everywhere: Intimidation wins, Sharia Law rules, First Amendment loses, expression is silenced.”
Renald Luzier, the cartoonist who drew the cover sketch – and who is alive only because he was late for work last Wednesday – told reporters that his depiction of the prophet was “nicer than the terrorists’ Muhammad.”
It’s clear that the world prefers the peaceful version. Too bad that some news outlets don’t feel comfortable showing it to their readers and viewers.

IRS chief warns of refund delays, poor customer service this tax year

Taxpayers could see delays in getting their refunds this year -- as well as "unacceptable" customer service -- as the IRS commissioner warns budget cuts are forcing the agency to cut back. 
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, in an email sent to workers and obtained by Fox News, predicted a messy tax season on several fronts. 
"The effect of these cuts will hurt taxpayers and our tax system," he wrote. 
He said the cuts could force the IRS to shut down operations for two days later this year, resulting in unpaid furloughs for employees and service cuts for taxpayers. 
But in the near-term, the commissioner said cuts in overtime and temporary staff hours could cause delays in refunds. 
"People who file paper tax returns could wait an extra week -- or possibly longer -- to see their refund," he wrote, adding: "Taxpayers with errors or questions on their returns that require additional manual review will also face delays." 
He warned that IRS customer service, which already has faced heavy criticism, could be "diminished further." Koskinen set a low bar for what taxpayers can expect. 
"We now anticipate an even lower level of telephone service than before, which raises the real possibility that fewer than half of taxpayers trying to call us will actually reach us. During Fiscal Year 2014, 64 percent were able to get through. Those who do reach us will face extended wait times that are unacceptable to all of us," Koskinen wrote. 
Further, he warned of delays to IT investments of more than $200 million, predicting this would delay "new taxpayer protections against identity theft." 
The IRS has faced tough congressional scrutiny over the last two years in large part over the scandal involving the targeting of conservative groups, and some lawmakers are reluctant to pour more funding into the agency. 
But Koskinen says the agency's $10.9 billion budget is now the lowest level of funding since 2008. When adjusted for inflation, the budget hasn't been this low since 1998, he said. 
He said a short-term shutdown may loom. 
"Unfortunately, this means at this time we need to plan for the possibility of a shutdown of IRS operations for two days later this fiscal year, which will involve furloughing employees on those days," Koskinen wrote in the email. "Shutting down the IRS will be a last resort, but I want to be upfront with you about the problem." 
Koskinen said the agency will extend a partial hiring freeze through the end of the budget year in September. He said fewer enforcement agents will cost the federal government at least $2 billion in lost tax revenue. 
"IRS employees are doing their best to handle the rising demand for their services, but they will simply not be able to keep up," said Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union. "I have urged the IRS not to make any decisions on furlough days this early in the fiscal year and to work with us to find other alternatives."

US announces transfer of 5 Gitmo detainees; 4 to Oman, 1 to Estonia

Everyone with half a brain Knows Why Obama is Letting these Creeps Loose from Gitmo.

The Department of Defense announced Wednesday that five Yemeni terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay had been transferred out of the facility after more than a dozen years in captivity. 
Al Khadr Abdallah, Muhammad Al Yafi, Fadel Hussein Saleh Hentif, And Al-Rahman Abdullah Au Ahabati and Mohammed Ahmed Salam were sent to Oman, while Akhmed Abdul Qadir was transferred to Estonia.
This marks the first time either country has accepted former Guantanamo prisoners for resettlement. The men had been cleared for release since at least 2009 but the U.S. has balked at repatriating Guantanamo prisoners back to Yemen, where the government is battling an Al Qaeda insurgency.
All five were captured in Pakistan and detained by the U.S. as suspected Al Qaeda fighters. U.S. officials later determined it was no longer necessary to detain them but have struggled to find other countries willing to take them in. The men are all in their 30s and 40s, including one who was 17 when he was sent to Guantanamo.
The release of the five brings the number of detainees at Guantanamo Bay down to 122.
The transfers of these individuals comes in the wake of Republican senators introducing a new legislation to clamp down on President Obama's ability to transfer terror suspects out of the detention facility. These senators called for a "time out" on releasing more detainees after the Paris terror attacks.
The measure would repeal current law that allows the administration to transfer prisoners to foreign countries to reduce the population at Guantanamo. The bill also would prohibit transfers of terror suspects to foreign countries if there has been a confirmed case where an individual was transferred from Guantanamo and engaged in any terrorist activity.
Any transfers to Yemen would be shut down for two years.
Obama has pushed to close the detention facility since his inauguration in 2009. However, opponents say that Guantanamo is the best location for terror suspects since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
"Now is not the time to be emptying Guantanamo," Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., said at a news conference hours before the latest transfers were announced, during which she warned of fresh terrorist threats.
The administration has been transferring detainees cleared for movement to other countries. Five men who were held for a dozen years without charge at Guantanamo were sent to the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan for resettlement in late December.
Nearly 30 prisoners were resettled in third countries last year as part of Obama's renewed push to close the detention center.
"We are committed to closing the detention facility. That's our goal and we are working toward that goal," said Ian Moss, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department on Guantanamo issues.

School district to stop interrogating Christian homeschool kids

A Virginia school district has decided to scrap a policy that allowed it to interrogate Christian homeschool teenagers and their parents about their religious beliefs.
Last November Douglas Pruiett and his wife received a letter from Goochland County Public Schools about updated procedures to the district’s requests for religious exemptions for homeschool students.
Under the updated rules, once a child turns 14-years-old, the district requires that homeschool parents reapply for a religious exemption to public education.

It sounds to me like some sort of modern-day religious inquisition – hauling Christian kids in front of the school board to be interrogated about the authenticity of their relationship with Jesus Christ.

The Prueitts have seven children, three of whom were impacted by the revised policy.
“Each application must be completed along with a statement of your bona fide religious beliefs and a statement from your child age 14 or older stating his/her bona fide religious beliefs,” the policy reads.
In other words, the homeschool kids have to prove to the school board that they love Jesus. And then there was this rather ominous paragraph:

“The School Board reserves the right to schedule a meeting with the parent(s) and, in the case of a student age 14 or older, with the student. The parent of a student younger than age 14 may choose to have his or her child attend the meeting. The purpose of the meeting is for the School Board to determine whether the request for exemption is based upon a conscientious opposition to attendance at a public school or at a private, denominational, or parochial school due to bona fide religious training or beliefs. Such meeting will be conducted in a closed meeting of the School Board.”

It sounds to me like some sort of modern-day religious inquisition – hauling Christian kids in front of the school board to be interrogated about the authenticity of their relationship with Jesus Christ.
“The policy provided the school board the right to call the child before them (and I call it interrogation) to defend those beliefs so they could determine whether indeed the child and the parents still held bona fide religious beliefs to qualify for the exemption,” Prueitt said.
His immediate reaction was to reject the district’s mandate – even though his refusal could have had landed the family in court. He cited the Virginia religious exemption statute which gives families a right to an exemption from school attendance based on the religious training the parents are providing to the child – regardless of what the child believes. The local policy, he said, violates that right.
So like a good citizen, Pruiett contacted the school superintendent.
“When I spoke with the school superintendent about this issue he stated that part of the rationale in changing the policy was to allow the board to ascertain if a home schooled child really wants to be home schooled so that they, ‘can be given the opportunity to go to public school,’” he said.
The Home School Legal Defense Association also weighed in – warning the school district they were in violation of state law and there was no legal ground to force the Pruiett family to do what they had been ordered to do.
“We are still a nation of ‘We the People,’” he wrote. “If liberties are taken away, it is because we did not stand. In a wonderful country like ours, we should desire that all our institutions and policies be characterized by a respect for individual God-given freedoms.”
And that brings us to Jan. 13^th when hundreds of parents piled into the Goochland School Board meeting to show their support for the Pruietts and other homeschool families in the community.
The school board heard the will of the people and voted to repeal the policy. They also decided to suspend any religious exemption letters that were sent to other families.
It took a village to change what was a very bad policy – but it’s proof positive that “We the People” can still engage the political process.
“The board acted honorably to repeal this thing,” Prueitt told me.
But it’s also a reminder that the government seems to believe they know what’s best for our children.
“We are Christians and we homeschool our children so that we can instill in them Christian values – from an educational standpoint so that they will acknowledge God in every discipline of life,” Pruiett told me. “You’re not going to find that in public schools.”
So let what happened in Goochland County, Virginia serve as a warning to school boards across the fruited plain. “We the People” will not tolerate busybody school marms meddling in the private religious affairs of American school children.

ISIS control of Syria reportedly expands since start of US-led airstrikes

The Islamic State terror group have increased the amount of territory they control in Syria as the U.S.-led bombing campaign approaches its four-month anniversary, according to a published report. 
The Wall Street Journal, citing U.S. government and  independent assessments, say that Islamic State, commonly known as ISIS, has control of a large swath of northeastern Syria and is creeping toward key cities in the country's west, including Aleppo, a center of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. 
The Journal reports that ISIS' expansion of control can partially be attributed to the U.S. focus on Iraq, where it is working closely with Baghdad to roll back gains made by ISIS last summer. However, as a result, ISIS fighters are flowing into Syria unchecked. In other cases, Syrian rebel groups who once fought against ISIS have been convinced to join their side. 
The paper also reports that nearly three-quarters of the U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria since Sept. 22 have concentrated on the fight for Kobani, a town near the border with Turkey that has seen fierce fighting between ISIS and Kurds. The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the airstrikes had helped Kurdish forces gain an estimated 80 percent of the town, in what would be the first major defeat for ISIS since their current campaign of terror began. 
However, experts tell the Journal that whatever good the strikes have done in Kobani, they have not prevented ISIS from consolidating their control elsewhere, a truth that some U.S. officials readily acknowledge.
"Gaining territorial control in Syria has never been our mission," Col. Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, tells the Journal. "That wasn’t the objective of our airstrikes." Ryder calls the Syria airstrikes "shaping" operations, meant to weaken ISIS' hold on key parts of Iraq. 
Matters also are complicated by the lack of a ready-made partner, like the Iraqi government, to take the fight to ISIS on the ground. The U.S. plans currently call for the arming and training of moderate rebels in Syria, associated with neither ISIS nor Assad. However, that plan is still some time from coming to fruition. 
"Absent a partner on the ground in Syria, ours is still an Iraq-first strategy," one defense official told the Journal. "You've got to have forces on the ground."