Shep Smith Blows Up over Stalling of 9/11 First Responders Bill

Smith: How do they sleep at night after this vote on 9/11 First Responders?

...

We've cover this hear, and let people know they didn't pass it. Jon Stewart is absolutely right, whose going to hold these people's feet to the fire? We can give tax cuts to billionaires who don't need them, and we can't help these people? Everybody who voted against it should stand up and account for himself or herself. We spend more money giving Warren Buffet his tax return.

Yes, amazing isn't it - that someone on Fox news, including Chris Wallace who concurs fully, would actually come out this forcefully on this issue?

Shep was responding to these two awesome clips from Thursday Nights Daily Show.

Part 1


Part 2



For some time now Shep Smith has been the new Alan Colmes at Fox News, with occasional uncontrolled explosions of truth seeping out around the edges.

He has previosly Ripped Fox News over it's handling of the Shirley Sherrod Fiasco. He's ranted about the AIG Bonuses.

Slammed Fox for it's Shameless Defense of BP. He even argued in Favor of the Public Option in Health Care. The "We Don't Fucking Torture" rant. His response to Birther Hate Mail. And most famously, his empathetic response to Hurricane Katrina.

While his most recent rant is commendable, it's also tragically flawed. There's a reason that The More You Watch Fox, The Less You Know and this segment is no different.

No where in this segment does Smith utter the word "Republicans".

He rails about "They" and "Them" and he asks "Whose going to hold THEM accountable?" - But he doesn't bother to Name them, not once.

The list who voted to block this act is HERE. Every Democrat (except Reid, which allows him to bring the measure up again), voted for the measure - except for Sam Brownback who didn't vote, Every Republican Voted AGAINST This.

NAYs ---- 42
Alexander (R-TN) Barrasso (R-WY) Bennett (R-UT) Bond (R-MO) Brown (R-MA) Bunning (R-KY) Burr (R-NC) Chambliss (R-GA) Coburn (R-OK) Cochran (R-MS) Collins (R-ME) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) Crapo (R-ID)	DeMint (R-SC) Ensign (R-NV) Enzi (R-WY) Graham (R-SC) Grassley (R-IA) Gregg (R-NH) Hatch (R-UT) Hutchison (R-TX) Inhofe (R-OK) Isakson (R-GA) Johanns (R-NE) Kirk (R-IL) Kyl (R-AZ) LeMieux (R-FL)	Lugar (R-IN) McCain (R-AZ) McConnell (R-KY) Murkowski (R-AK) Reid (D-NV) Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Snowe (R-ME) Thune (R-SD) Vitter (R-LA) Voinovich (R-OH) Wicker (R-MS)
Not Voting - 1 Brownback (R-KS)

That's who THEY are. That's who should be held "Accountable". This vote was blocked by Republicans to Give Warren Buffet, Paris Hilton and the Koch Brothers a Tax Bonus, they DON'T NEED!.

But will Shepard Smith say THAT on the air?

I'll bet that he won't, and neither will anyone else at Fox. Just as they haven't held Republicans Accountable for holding the Unemployed Hostage. Just as they haven't reported that it has been Republicans who are punishing Children for the Sins of thier Parents by blocking the Dream Act. Just as they won't admit woh has been putting our National Security at Risk by stalling and delaying the START treaty. They won't admit that the party they openly and shameless cheerlead for have been the ones screwing this Counry UP for years. They won't tell people the truth, even while pretending to.

Yes, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is moments away from being repealed and that's a great thing - but we can't forget one simple fact.

FOX and REPUBLICANS can't be trusted. But at least this outburst gives us just one more chance to make that fact obvious.

Vyan

Update DADT Repeal has just passed the Senate 65 - 31, now they begin to take up the START votes.

The Height of Insensitiviy - Man Burns Qur'an Pages at 9/11 Memorial

Guess what? Pathetic Pastor Jones isn't the only one with a almost complete lack of sense, this demonstrator in front of Park 51 actually did burn several pages of the Qur'an before being led away by NYPD.



The perpetrator doesn't say much, and what he does say doesn't make much sense.

Reports: Sir, what's your name? Why did you do it?


Perp: I have chosen to put the torch to the Qur'an.

Or some such, it's hard to make out over all the heckling he's getting.

Frankly, I don't want to know his name, his 15 seconds of fame has already been too long. But Maybe this guy who has over 5 Million youtube views can help shed some light on why someone would do such a thing.

Apparently it's not enough that almost 3,000 people had to lose their lives in a hideous act of religious mass murder, and the religion that murdered them is allowed to build a towering triumphalist mosque on the ground where they died. Is America losing it's mind? It saYS a lot about the people behind this scheme that hey had the bad taste to propose building a mosque in such a place, but to describe it as they have as a "tribute to the victims" is beyond bad taste, and shows a profound contempt for those who died. It would had to imagine a more provocative gesture short of standing on their graves and burning and American flag.

I'm not even American but it makes me sick to my stomach to think that there could be a mosque anywhere near Ground Zero.

Well, not being American I guess you fail to understand that we don't check people's religious credentials at the door in this country, because there already is a mosque just 4 blocks from Ground Zero, plus one in inside the Pentagon just yards from where the plane impacted. Imam Feisal Rauf's current mosque - which has been there for 28 years in Tribeca - is just 10 blocks from Ground zero.

Besides the fallacy of believing the Crazy 72 Virgins Crowd represent the core of Islam, it's not as if Tim McVeigh, the IRA, the KKK, Christian Identity Groups like Stormfront, The Knoxville Tennessee Shooter, The Holocaust Museum Shooter, the Hutaree Militia, Repent Amarillo, Rev Donald Spitz and his "Army of God", Scott Reoder (Killed George Tiller), Eric Rudolph (Olympic Park Bomber), Paul Hill (Shot an OB/GYN and his bodyguard) and Shelley Shannon (Firebombed Abortion Clinics, Shot George Tiller in both arms) represent the core of Christianity, because they don't. Muslims died in the Twin Towers when they collapsed. Muslims died who served on the police force, in the fire dept, and as EMT's. Muslim's fight along side us - and apparently you're countrymen - in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Muslims are our allies in Jordan, in Kuwait, in Saudi Arabia, in Indonesia, in Chechnya, in Pakistan and in Europe.

We can not afford to treat 1.5 Billion people in the world - who have had nothing to do with any attacks on us - as our enemy, that is just insane.

Whose side of this conflict are these people really on?

This is how they have responded in Afghanistan to the threat to burn Qur'ans by Pastor Jones, even though he ultimately didn't go through with it.



I don't think they're going to be happy with Mr McBurns-a-lot on the streets of New York, but perhaps seeing how the crowd reacts to him and the following people who were also there might be able to help them realize the proper way to show their opposition and displeasure. (Dueling Demonstrations from New - CBS Local News)



As opposed to these people:



Somebody seriously needs to tell these people that THIS is what the Park51 Facility will contain.

Park51 will grow into a world-class community center, planned to include the following facilities:
outstanding recreation spaces and fitness facilities (swimming pool, gym, basketball court)

. a 500-seat auditorium
. a restaurant and culinary school
. cultural amenities including exhibitions
. education programs
. a library, reading room and art studios
. childcare services
. a prayer space, intended to be run separately from Park51 but open to and accessible to all members, visitors and our New York community
. a September 11th memorial and quiet contemplation space, open to all

A basketball court and a culinary school that includes a Memorial to 9/11 and prayer space open to Christians, Jews and Hindus as well as Muslims. THIS IS WHAT THEY'RE Up in arms about.

Just imagine the Horror if they were going to include a Badminton Court?

This place is essential a YMCA, with an open prayer space for persons of all faiths to use and a 9/11 Memorial for persons of all Faiths to sit and contemplate our collective loss, and our collective hopes.

It is essentially what Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf describes at the beginning of this video - a place for the overall community to interact with those of the Muslim faith and gain both understanding and common purpose. It's an olive branch, not a "triumphant Victory Mosque"




All of this tells me this country still has a long way to go. I look at this and I see that we haven't learned from the tragic mistake of Iraq, where we attacked and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslims who had nothing to do with 9/11, did not have a stockpile of WMD's or an active Nuclear program in place - and lost another 4,000 of our own in the bargin, plus thousand more wounded, traumatized and brain damaged.

9 years after 9/11 and we have not fully understood that Islam is not our enemy, that we are not engaged in a "Holy War" or a "Crusade" against them, that instead we need to build trust and marginize the extremists until they have no more friends in the words, no more places to hide, no more allies who will protect them.

To Attack Islam - instead of al Qaeda - is going the wrong direction.

When are we all going to figure that out?

Vyan

The True Lesson of 9/11 - It's Just Us.

It is so much better to now have a President that can, off the cuff, articulate the true American heart in such a clear and heartfelt way.


Everyone has talked about this in the last day, but listen to him - really listen to him.

"I think I've been pretty clear on my position here. And that is, is that this country stands for the proposition that all men and women are created equal, that they have certain inalienable rights; one of those inalienable rights is to practice their religion freely. And what that means is that if you could build a church on a site, you could build a synagogue on a site, if you could build a Hindu temple on a site, then you should be able to build a mosque on the site...

On the day nine years ago, America was attacked, America was wounded. America was broken and in response we lashed out. We attacked and invaded Afghanistan in pursuit of those who attacked us.

Then America got off track. And we connected Saddam to 9/11 and al Qaeda. We began to go after them - everywhere. We invaded a secular nation, in search of a pack of Sunni Religious Extremists. Finally that war is winding down, nearly ended - the first Afghanistan War is beginning to reach it's conclusion.

And our new President, even if not entirely according to his plan, is leading us out of that darkness and back into the courage and the light of our true ideals.

"We are not at war against Islam. We are at war against terrorist organizations that have distorted Islam or falsely used the banner of Islam to engage in their destructive acts. And we've got to be clear about that. We've got to be clear about that because ... if we're going to successfully reduce the terrorist threat, then we need all the allies we can get. The folks who are most interested in a war between the United States or the West and Islam are al Qaeda. That's what they've been banking on.

We are at War not with Islam, but with Extremists who would distort Faith into Hate. Who would kill in order to "save" us from ourselves. Islam is not our enemy and never has been. Some of us have known this all along, others still seem to be ignorant of it.



On this day, we should strive to remember not only our collective shock, horror, pain and grief on that day, but also what binds us all - what common hopes we all have, what common values. We should not let those who wish to continue to divide us, be they American Conservatives who wish to Demonize Islam as Rachel describes here, or be they radial Islamicist radicals overseas who attempt to do the same.

We can only defeat and out argue all of these forces if we do so together - rather than separately.

"And fortunately, the overwhelming majority of Muslims around the world are peace-loving, are interested in the same things that you and I are interested in: how do I make sure I can get a good job, how can I make sure that my kids get a decent education, how can I make sure I'm safe, how can I improve my lot in life. And so they have rejected this violent ideology for the most part, overwhelmingly.

"And so from a national security interest, we want to be clear about who the enemy is here. It's a handful, a tiny minority of people who are engaging in horrific acts and have killed Muslims more than anybody else.

A tiny minority of people. Just 19 guys on a set of airplanes. Just about 100 guys in Afghanistan. Just about 30-50 people in Gainseville Florida. All it takes is a few people will to stand up against that hate, like those who fought through the smoke and fire on that day, to undo all the harm that they wish to do.

"The other reason it's important for us to remember that is because we've got millions of Muslim-Americans, our fellow citizens, in this country. They're going to school with our kids. They're our neighbors. They're our friends. They're our coworkers. And, you know, when we start acting as if their religion is somehow offensive, what are we saying to them?

"I've got Muslims who are fighting in Afghanistan, in the uniform of the United States armed services. They're out there putting their lives on the line for us, and we've got to make sure that we are crystal clear for our sakes and their sakes: They are Americans. And we honor their service. And part of honoring their service is making sure that they understand that we don't differentiate between 'them' and 'us.' It's just 'us.'"

Ultimately this battle moving into the future is not simple a War of bullets and bombs, but a War of Ideals and Ideas.

It is not "Them" vs "Us" across a religious gulf. It's Just Us!.

That is the true lesson of 9/11. Many died during the attack on towers. Many more died in the invasion and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. In then all of those people - combatants, non-combatants, military, civilian, innocent, guilty - are just us.

We live on one world. We are one people. We are one race - the human race.

God bless us all.

Vyan

Obama's Weekly Address on This Day.



My own Video Retrospective/Tribute to all of what we've seen and done these past 9 Years: