ZOO WON’T LET DE BLASIO HOLD GROUNDHOG AFTER HE KILLED ONE LAST YEAR

1/10/2015
By Emily Zanotti 


The NYPD isn't the only city organization that has lost complete confidence in the esteemed Mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio.

After he dropped the groundhog during last year's Groundhog Day celebrations, the Staten Island Zoo has unequivocally banned De Blasio from holding or handling any more of their animals in a celebratory setting. 

Mayor de Blasio won’t be killing any more groundhogs — zoo handlers are forbidding the butter-fingered mayor from holding the critter at the annual shadow-sighting ceremony on Feb. 2, The Post has learned.
The ban came after The Post first revealed that the groundhog de Blasio fumbled and dropped last year died a week later of internal injuries — and then Staten Island Zoo officials covered up the death...
“No one will be allowed to touch the groundhog,” one zoo insider briefed on the new policy told The Post.

The Groundhog Day celebration actually has quite the history of controversy. Former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg was also denied the opportunity to cuddle the creature after a 2009 incident where "Staten Island Chuck" was unwilling to leave his comfortable hovel and bit Bloomberg on the finger when he tried to coax it out. In recent years it has also come to light that "Staten Island Chuck," widely reputed to be a male groundhog, was actually a female groundhog named "Charlotte."

This year, no one will touch the groundhog except for fully-authorized individuals. Instead, he (or she) will suffer through the ceremony comfortably encased in Plexiglass. 


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‘I AM NOT CHARLIE’: Leaked Newsroom Emails Reveal Al Jazeera Fury over Global Support for Charlie Hebdo

1/10/2015
By Brendan Bordelon

As journalists worldwide reacted with universal revulsion at the massacre of some of their own by Islamic jihadists in Paris, Al Jazeera English editor and executive producer Salah-Aldeen Khadr sent out a staff-wide email.

“Please accept this note in the spirit it is intended — to make our coverage the best it can be,” the London-based Khadr wrote Thursday, in the first of a series of internal emails leaked to National Review Online. “We are Al Jazeera!”

Below was a list of “suggestions” for how anchors and correspondents at the Qatar-based news outlet should cover Wednesday’s slaughter at the Charlie Hebdo office (the full emails can be found below).

Khadr urged his employees to ask if this was “really an attack on ‘free speech,’” discuss whether “I am Charlie” is an “alienating slogan,” caution viewers against “making this a free speech aka ‘European Values’ under attack binary [sic],” and portray the attack as “a clash of extremist fringes.”

“Defending freedom of expression in the face of oppression is one thing; insisting on the right to be obnoxious and offensive just because you can is infantile,” Khadr wrote. “Baiting extremists isn’t bravely defiant when your manner of doing so is more significant in offending millions of moderate people as well. And within a climate where violent response—however    illegitimate [sic]—is a real risk, taking a goading stand on a principle virtually no one contests is worse than pointless: it’s pointlessly all about you.”

His denunciation of Charlie Hebdo’s publication of cartoons mocking the prophet Mohammed didn’t sit well with some Al Jazeera English employees.

Hours later, U.S.-based correspondent Tom Ackerman sent an email quoting a paragraph from a New York Times’ January 7 column by Ross Douthat. The op-ed argued that cartoons like the ones that drove the radical Islamists to murder must be published, “because the murderers cannot be allowed for a single moment to think that their strategy can succeed.”

That precipitated an angry backlash from the network’s Qatar-based correspondents, revealing in the process a deep cultural rift at a network once accused of overt anti-Western bias.

“I guess if you insult 1.5 billion people chances are one or two of them will kill you,” wrote Mohamed Vall Salem, who reported for Al Jazeera’s Arab-language channel before joining its English wing in 2006. “And I guess if you encourage people to go on insulting 1.5 billion people about their most sacred icons then you just want more killings because as I said in 1.5 billion there will remain some fools who don’t abide by the laws or know about free speech.” [sic]

“What Charlie Hebdo did was not free speech it was an abuse of free speech in my opinion, go back to the cartoons and have a look at them!” Salem later wrote. “It’ snot [sic] about what the drawing said, it was about how they said it. I condemn those heinous killings, but I’M NOT CHARLIE.”

That prompted BBC alum Jacky Rowland — now Al Jazeera English’s senior correspondent in Paris — to email a “polite reminder” to her colleague: “#journalismsinotacrime.”

But her response triggered a furious reaction from another of the network’s Arab correspondents. “First I condemn the brutal killing,” wrote Omar Al Saleh, a “roving reporter” currently on assignment in Yemen. “But I AM NOT CHARLIE.”

“JOURNALISM IS NOT A CRIME [but] INSULTISM IS NOT JOURNALISM,” he raged. “AND NOT DOING JOURNALISM PROPERLY IS A CRIME.”

The heated back-and-forth illustrates Al Jazeera English’s precarious balance between its Arab center of gravity and the Western correspondents it employs. After being accused for years of fomenting anti-Western sentiment, most damningly by some of its own anchors, the network made a concerted effort to rebrand, hiring a slew American and European reporters — especially those whohad trouble getting jobs in their own domestic markets.

As these internal emails show, that rebranding has taken a toll on the network’s newsroom cohesion — particularly regarding stories like the Charlie Hebdocartoons, which break so sharply on cultural fault lines.

FULL LEAKED EMAIL EXCHANGE:

Executive producer Salah-Aldeen Khadr:

Thursday, January 08, 2015
Subject: AJ coverage of events in Paris

Dear Editorial colleagues,

Please accept this note in the spirit it is intended – to make our coverage the best that it can be …. We are Al Jazeera!!!!

My suggestion is that we question and raise the following points in our coverage – studio/anchors/guests/correspondents:

• This was a targeted attack, not a broad attack on the french population a la Twin towers or 7/7 style. So who was this attack against? The whole of France/EU society? Or specifically this magazine. The difference lies in how this is reported not in how terrible the act is obviously – murder is murder either way… but poses a narrower question of the “why”? attack on french society and values? Only if you consider CH’s racist caricatures to be the best of European intellectual production (total whitewash on that at the moment)
• Was this really an attack on “Free speech”? Who is attacking free speech here exactly? Does an attack by 2-3 guys on a controversial magazine equate to a civilizational attack on European values..? Really?
• “I am Charlie” as an alienating slogan – with us or against us type of statement – one can be anti-CH’s racism and ALSO against murdering people(!) (obvious I know but worth stating)
• Also worth stating that we still don’t know much about the motivations of the attackers outside of the few words overheard on the video. Yes, clearly it was a “punishment” for the cartoons, but it didn’t take them 8/9 years to prep this attack (2006 was Danish/CH publication) – this is perhaps a response to something more immediate…French action against ISIL…? Mali? Libya? CH just the target ie focus of the attack..?
• Danger in making this a free speech aka “European Values” under attack binary is that it once again constructs European identity in opposition to Islam (sacred depictions) and cements the notion of a European identity under threat from an Islamic retrograde culture of which the attackers are merely the violent tip of the iceberg (see the seeping of Far Right discourse into french normalcy with Houellebecque’s novel for example)
• The key is to look at the biographies of these guys – contrary to conventional wisdom, they were radicalised by images of Abu Ghraib not by images of the Prophet Mohammed
• You don’t actually stick it to the terrorists by insulting the majority of Muslims by reproducing more cartoons – you actually entrench the very animosity and divisions these guys seek to sow.
• This is a clash of extremist fringes…
  I suggest a re-read of the Time magazine article back from 2011 and I have selected the most poignant/important excerpt….
   http://world.time.com/2011/11/02/firebombed-french-paper-a-victim-of-islamistsor-its-own-obnoxious-islamophobia/?iid=gs-article-mostpop1http://world.time.com/2011/11/02/firebombed-french-paper-a-victim-of-islamistsor-its-own-obnoxious-islamophobia/?iid=gs-article-mostpop1
• It’s unclear what the objectives of the caricatures were other than to offend Muslims—and provoke hysteria among extremists.

 Defending freedom of expression in the face of oppression is one thing; insisting on the right to be obnoxious and offensive just because you can is infantile. Baiting extremists isn’t bravely defiant when your manner of doing so is more significant in offending millions of moderate people as well. And within a climate where violent response—however    illegitimate—is a real risk, taking a goading stand on a principle virtually no one contests is worse than pointless: it’s pointlessly all about you.

Kind regards
 

Salah-Aldeen Khadr
​Executive Producer
Al Jazeera English

U.S.-based correspondent Tom Ackerman: 

Friday, January 9, 2015
Subject: RE: AJ coverage of events in Paris

If a large enough group of someone is willing to kill you for saying something, then it’s something that almost certainly needs to be said, because otherwise the violent have veto power over liberal civilization, and when that scenario obtains it isn’t really a liberal civilization any more….liberalism doesn’t depend on everyone offending everyone else all the time, and it’s okay to prefer a society where offense for its own sake is limited rather than pervasive. But when offenses are policed by murder, that’s when we need more of them, not less, because the murderers cannot be allowed for a single moment to think that their strategy can succeed.

-Ross Douthat in the NY Times

Doha-based correspondent Mohamed Vall Salem:

Friday, January 9, 2015
Subject: RE: AJ coverage of events in Paris
“large enough group”?

Friday, January 9, 2015
Subject: RE: AJ coverage of events in Paris

Rejoinder,

 

I guess if you insult 1.5 billion people chances are one or two of them will kill you… they don’t represent the 1.5 who swallowed the insult in silence and patience in the name of free speech.

 

And I guess if you encourage people to go on insulting 1.5 billion people about their most sacred icons then you just want more killings because as I said in 1.5 billion there will remain some fools who don’t abide by the laws or know about free speech. Simply put, it’s difficult to control and tame and brake down or otherwise punish or educate all those 1.5 billion people.

Isn’t it simply wiser to respect peoples’ sacred values and sacred icons? Respect breeds respect, insult can degenerate into something worse than just insult, depending who who’s at the the receiving end.

 

Last, if you no longer have anything that you hold sacred (the death of religion and the death of God etc…), there 1.5 billion people who still have … don’t ignore their values in the name of yours, because values are a cultural construct, they vary from age to age and from culture to culture … 

 

Last, last: what Charlie Hebdo did was not free speech it was an abuse of free speech in my opinion, go back to the cartoons and have a look at them! It’ snot about what the drawing said, it was about how they said it.

 

I condemn those heinous killings, but I’M NOT CHARLIE 

 

Mohamed Vall

Senior Paris correspondent Jacky Rowland:

Friday, January 9, 2015

Subject: RE: AJ coverage of events in Paris

 

Dear all

 

We are Aljazeera.  So, a polite reminder:

 

#journalismisnotacrime

 

Kind regards

Jacky

Jacky Rowland
Senior Correspondent, Paris
Aljazeera English

Roving reporter Omar Al Saleh:

Friday, January 9, 2015
Subject: RE: AJ coverage of events in Paris

First i condemn the brutal killing. But I AM NOT CHARLIE.

JOURNALISM IS NOT A CRIME
INSULTISM IS NOT JOURNALISM
AND NOT DOING JOURNALISM PROPERLY IS CRIME
 

OMAR AL SALEH | ROVING REPORTER

ALJAZEERA ENGLISH CHANNEL
NEWS DEPT

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France’s problem: up to half its prisoners are Muslim and the jails are a hotbed for radicalization

1/10/2015

LOIC VENANCE/AFP/Getty ImagesA police officer takes up a position in Paris on Jan. 9, 2015, after a hostage-taking began at a kosher grocery store.

The 27-year-old man photographed in 2009 seemed to represent hope springing from Paris’s desperate suburbs. Part of a work-insertion program, he was about to meet then-French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who was trying to combat high youth unemployment.

French policeAmedy Coulibaly was killed Friday after seizing hostages in a Jewish supermarket in Paris.

Politicians were not exactly popular in the suburban projects, he told Le Parisien, but he nonetheless hoped to collect autographs for his family. “In a pinch, maybe the president can help me get hired,” he said.

The man was Amedy Coulibaly, who was killed Friday after seizing hostages in a Jewish supermarket in Paris, an attack he claimed was in support of the terrorist Islamic State of Iraq & Al-Sham. A close associate of Said and Chérif Kouachi, the two brothers who attacked the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo Wednesday, Coulibaly is a symbol of the huge challenges lying ahead for France.

The attack on the magazine, which left 12 dead, and Coulibaly’s apparently coordinated actions, which resulted in the deaths of a police officer Thursday and four hostages Friday, highlight the growing problem of radicalization among young, disenfranchised French Muslims.

The Kouachis — Said, 34, and Chérif, 32 — and Coulibaly, 32, were born in France, but struggled to find a place as they came of age in the suburbs outside Paris.

The brothers, orphaned at a young age, turned to Muslim extremism in their 20s. Media reports said they held menial jobs. Coulibaly fell into crime before he turned 18, and by the time he was meeting Mr. Sarkozy he had served four prison sentences for robbery and drug trafficking, according to Libération.

Coulibaly befriended Chérif Kouachi around 2005 when they were imprisoned in Fleury-Mérogis, south of Paris. Kouachi had been arrested as he prepared to leave for Iraq to join insurgents battling U.S. forces.

In prison they met Djamel Beghal, who was serving a sentence for a plot to bomb the U.S. embassy in Paris. Beghal would become something of a mentor, and in 2010 all three were arrested for a plot to break another jihadi, Smain Ait Ali Belkacem, out of prison.

Beghal, the ringleader, remains in prison. Coulibaly was sentenced to five years, but with time served was released last year. Charges against Chérif Kouachi were dismissed, although the prosecutor said he was committed to radical Islam and believed in the legitimacy of armed jihad.

The radicalization of incarcerated young men is a recognized problem in a country where Muslims make up a disproportionate share of the prison population. Statistics based on religion or ethnicity are not kept, but researchers estimate between a third and a half of French prisoners are Muslim. France has the largest Muslim population in Europe, but Muslims still make up less than 10% of the overall French population.

French police handout/AFP/Getty ImagesParis terror suspects Cherif Kouachi, left, and his brother Said Kouachi.

In 2013, Manuel Valls, French interior minister at the time, spoke of the “enemy within” after it emerged Mohamed Merah, who killed four Jews and three soldiers in Toulouse in 2012 before being shot by police, had become radicalized while jailed for theft.

“They start with petty crime, move on to drug trafficking, sometimes prison, leading to conversion to radical Islam and hatred for the West,” Mr. Valls, now prime minister, told Le Parisien. “There are several dozen Merahs in France today. Not all of them take action, but we have to guard against it.”

This week’s assaults by homegrown Islamist terrorists are expected to boost the fortunes of Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigrant, far-right National Front. But it would take a seismic shift to vault the party into power.

Randall Hansen, director of the Centre for European, Russian & Eurasian Studies at University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs, said Ms. Le Pen’s gains would be short-lived, largely confined to those who are already sympathetic to her platform.

“I might be wrong, but I’d be surprised if over the medium term she pushes much above 25% in the polls,” he said.

He said he expects rhetoric in France to toughen and security policies to be tightened, but little fundamental changes to how immigrants are treated. He noted most young French Muslims do not become radicalized, despite living in poverty.

“I’m optimistic and pessimistic. Because of all the liberal, democratic constraints, I don’t think this is going to change the situation for Muslims in France in an extremely negative way,” he said.

“I’m pessimistic because ideas matter … Nothing is harder to kill than an idea, and jihadism is a powerful, poisonous idea. We can do something about poverty. We can do something about housing. This is much harder to do something about. The problem is real and it is going to continue.”

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WH picks new director for healthy eating campaign

1/10/2015

The White House on Thursday announced first lady Michelle Obama’s pick to lead her campaign for kids to eat healthier, saying Debra Eschmeyer would take over a post that has increasingly come under fire in Republican circles.

“For more than a decade, Deb has been leading the way in teaching kids about the importance of healthy eating,” the first lady said. “From classrooms and gardens to kitchens and farms, Deb has made learning about nutrition fun and accessible for kids across the country.”

Eschmeyer will take over the position of executive director of the Let’s Move campaign, as well as senior adviser for nutrition policy, recently vacated by Sam Kass, Obama’s former personal chef.

She will step immediately into a simmering political feud with Republicans, as some conservatives have argued that the first lady’s efforts have caused school districts to lose money. Critics argue that students don’t want to eat the healthy meals offered as part of the first lady’s reforms.

The battle came to a head during the 2014 spending fight to keep the government funded and likely will re-emerge in coming months.

Eschmeyer co-founded FoodCorps, a service program offered through AmeriCorps, which places volunteers in low-income communities to provide lessons about nutrition.

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Mark Zuckerberg reveals Pakistani extremist asked that he be sentenced to death over Facebook's refusal to ban content about Mohammed

1/10/2015

• Mark Zuckerberg has responded to the recent tragedy that occurred in Paris by recounting a 2010 incident he had with a Pakistani extremist 
• 
  
• Zuckerberg revealed on Facebook that an extremist in Pakistan fought to have him sentenced to death because Facebook refused to ban content about Mohammed
• 
  
• Pakistan did end up blocking Facebook in the country over the incident in question, Everybody Draw Mohammed Day
• 
  

By CHRIS SPARGO FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Mark Zuckerberg has responded to the recent tragedy that occurred in Paris by recounting a 2010 incident he had with a Pakistani extremist.

Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook, 'A few years ago, an extremist in Pakistan fought to have me sentenced to death because Facebook refused to ban content about Mohammed that offended him.'

This as a result of the site's promotion of an Everybody Draw Mohammed Day which took place on May 20 of that year. 

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Speaking out: Mark Zuckerberg (above) has responded to the recent tragedy that occurred in Paris by recounting a 2010 incident he had with a Pakistani extremist

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Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook , 'A few years ago, an extremist in Pakistan fought to have me sentenced to death because Facebook refused to ban content about Mohammed that offended him'

And while he did not end up being charged with any crime or sentenced to death, the Pakistani government did block Facebook in their country.

'We stood up for this because different voices -- even if they're sometimes offensive -- can make the world a better and more interesting place,' explained Zuckerberg. 

'Facebook has always been a place where people across the world share their views and ideas. We follow the laws in each country, but we never let one country or group of people dictate what people can share across the world.' 

The idea for the day came after Comedy Central decided to censor a not-so-flattering rendering of the prophet on their show South Park.

This act was deemed illegal under Pakistani law, where it is a crime to defile the 'sacred name of Mohammed.'

This under Islamic Sharia law. 

Mark Zuckerberg wows crowd speaking Mandarin at Beijing event

Zuckerberg ends his statement by honoring those who lost their lives in Paris, writing; 'My thoughts are with the victims, their families, the people of France and the people all over the world who choose to share their views and ideas, even when that takes courage. ‪#‎JeSuisCharlie‬.' 

Many Muslims however are taking issue with Zuckerberg's statement, with one, Aftab Ahmed, writing; 'What about all those people in Palestine , Iraq , Afghanistan , Syria died Never seen you condemned about those barbaric acts talk about standing for right Mr Zuckerberg.'

He then added; Yet you ban countless pages for posting "offensive" things so how can you say that you refuse to let one group silence everyone when Facebook bans pages for posting humor?'

'Freedom of speech and hate speech is not the same.. Go educate yourself please...'

That comment already has close to 10,000 likes.

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SURPRISE: US to allow Mexican trucks in with screening

1/10/2015

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- The U.S. Department of Transportation says it will soon allow Mexican trucking firms to apply for authorization to make long-haul cross-border runs, potentially ending a longstanding dispute.

It says it expects the move to permanently end Mexico's on-again, off-again retaliatory tariffs on $2 billion in U.S. imports.

The department said Friday that data from a three-year pilot program that ended in October "showed that companies from Mexico had violation, driver, and vehicle out-of-service rates that met the level of safety as American and Canadian-domiciled motor carriers."

The department did not say when applications would start.

The opening is a long-delayed provision of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. It has been stalled for years by concerns it could put highway safety and American jobs at risk.

© 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

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Syracuse mayor appoints Nation of Islam leader to city’s school board

1/10/2015
Victor Skinner

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Syracuse’s Nation of Islam representative Mark Muhammad will join the city’s school board at the mayor’s request as a means of quelling violence and improving poor academic performance.

Muhammad is a graduate of Syracuse schools and teaches interpersonal communications and other classes at Onondaga Community College. He also stepped in to ease negotiations between the city’s teachers union and the district’s superintendent this summer at the mayor’s request, Syracuse.com reports.

But it’s Muhammad’s ties to the Nation of Islam – he’s Louis Farrakhan’s local representative – that have some questioning how the group’s radical views on education and race will play into his new role.

And it doesn’t appear that they will get any easy answers.

A Post-Standard reporter questioned Muhammad about his affiliation with the Nation of Islam, and how the group’s beliefs, such as the needed segregation of black and white students, will guide his leadership.

“I have seen some comments suggesting that you are not an appropriate education commissioner because of your involvement with the Nation of Islam. One of the points someone raised, for example, was the NOI’s advocacy of separate schools for blacks and whites. How would you speak to that concern?” the news site asked Muhammad.

“I would say that I am probably the best person to address some of these (race) issues. This whole problem of race we want to ignore. But it is central, an important part of the discussion that we don’t want to have,” Muhammad replied, evading the question.

“I don’t think by avoiding the discussion we make progress. I think we make progress by having those conversations that are uncomfortable for us to have.”

His answers to other questions were equally as vague.

That may be because he doesn’t want the public to focus on the Nation of Islam’s controversial views, or his close relationship with Farrakhan, who has been described as “anti-Semitic” and “anti-white” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

In 2013, Farrakhan launched a weekly lecture series online in which he spent “a significant portion of each lecture prophesying the imminent downfall of the United States and advising America to heed his warnings or face divine punishment through severe weather, natural disasters, and world wars,” according to ADL.org.

Farrakhan has claimed “nobody becomes president of the United States without going before Israel or AIPAC and promising the Zionists everything that you think will allow you access to their wealth, their influence, and their power.”

He has also claimed that Hollywood is controlled by Jews who are “promoting that which is against the will of God and … doing it purposely” to control the black community.

“You hate the fact that our rule is going to come whether you like it or not … You know this, so you want to feed us all the filth we can eat, all the debauchery we can stand, so you are now bringing the privacy of sex into public view in your movies, in your magazines, in your newspapers,” Farrakhan has said, according to ADL.

Farrakhan and his followers like Muhammad believe America must return to the “separation” of races by giving blacks “millions of acres of land.”

They believe “you’ll see the end (of the white race) by 2050,” Farrakhan said in his lecture series.

“Separation will save you,” he said. “Separation will give you more time as a white person on this earth.”

The Nation of Islam’s more radical theories suggest the American government is conspiring to kill “two to three billion people on this planet,” and claim such an effort likely is already under way in Africa, where “AIDS is slaughtering black men and women, particularly in those areas where the mineral resources of that area is necessary to keep Americans in power in this 21^st century.”

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