Darylsurat

Fox News stoked fears that the Obama administration's new policy to allow families of hostages to engage in private ransom negotiations will endanger Americans and encourage kidnappings, despite previously criticizing the White House for its policy preventing families from paying ransoms.

Obama Administration Announces New Policy Allowing Families Of Foreign-Held Hostages To Privately Negotiate Ransoms

Obama Administration Will Allow Families Of Hostages To Negotiate Ransom Without Threat Of Prosecution. The Obama administration announced a new policy directive June 24 mandating that the government "will no longer threaten criminal prosecution of the families of American hostages who are held abroad by groups like the Islamic State if they try to pay ransom for the release of their loved ones," according to The New York Times:

The change is part of a broad overhaul he is ordering to fix what the administration has acknowledged is a broken policy on United States captives, senior administration officials said.

In a presidential directive and an executive order enshrining the changes, Mr. Obama also plans to make it clear that while he is keeping a longstanding federal prohibition against making concessions to those who take hostages, the government can communicate and negotiate with captors holding Americans or help family members seeking to do so in order to ensure their safe return. [The New York Times, 6/23/15]

Justice Department: We Have Never Enforced No-Ransom Policy. On June 24, the Justice Department released its own statement noting that it "has never used the material support statute to prosecute a hostage's family or friends for paying a ransom for the save return of their loved one." [Whitehouse.gov, Office of the Press Secretary, 6/24/15; Justice.gov, 6/24/15]  

Fox News Hyped Fears That The New Policy Will Endanger Americans And Encourage Kidnappers

Fox's Ed Henry Suggests Obama's Directive "Encourages More Kidnapping And Endangers Men And Women In Uniform." On the June 24 edition of Fox & Friends, Ed Henry suggested that the Obama administration's new hostage policy "encourages more kidnapping" and "endangers our men and women in uniform because if, all of the sudden, you are negotiating with terrorists and say, okay, the family of an American who unfortunately, tragically, has been kidnapped, if you allow them to come up with a million dollars, two million dollars, and then they get freed, that could encourage ISIS to kidnap more people." [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 6/24/15]

Fox News Contributor: White House Hostage Policy Change "Increases The Odds" Of Kidnappings. On the June 24 edition of America's Newsroom, Fox News contributor Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer said that changing the policy "increases the odds of U.S. citizens being captured and held hostage. Any time you essentially endorse something, you get more of it. Any time you actually do something like this, you're going to actually put lives of U.S. citizens in danger." [Fox News, America's Newsroom, 6/24/15] 

Fox Host Melissa Francis: New Hostage Policy "Really Encourages Hostage-Taking." On the June 24 edition of Outnumbered, Host Melissa Francis said the new hostage policy is "like hanging out an 'open for business sign'"  because it "really encourages hostage-taking." [Fox News, Outnumbered, 6/24/15]

But Previously, Fox News Figures Slammed The Obama Administration For Banning Private Hostage Negotiations

Megyn Kelly Lamented That The U.S. Government Prevented Families From Paying Ransoms Themselves. On the September 11, 2014 edition of The Kelly File, host Megyn Kelly interviewed John Foley, father of hostage James Foley, and lamented that U.S. government policy prevented families from paying ransom privately in a hostage situation (emphasis added):

FOLEY: No, no. We're appalled by the situation. You know, it went past not doing everything they could into -- they were actually in a penance they got in our way. And that's what really you know, bothers me to the core. You know, we were -- I was specifically threatened by the Department of State about, you know, raising funds towards, you know, ransom demands for my brother. You know, we were smart enough to look past it, but it slowed us down, we lost a lot of time trying to regroup.

(CROSSTALK)

KELLY: Wait, they didn't want you to do it privately? It's one thing that the American government won't do it. That's been our long standing policy. But they didn't want you to do anything privately? [Fox News, The Kelly File, 9/11/14, via Nexis] 

Fox's Geraldo Rivera:  Government Threat Of Prosecution For Paying Ransom Is "Really Low Down And Dirty." On the September 12, 2014 edition of The O'Reilly Factor, Fox contributor Geraldo Rivera said the U.S. government's policy of preventing the families of hostages from raising money for ransom was "really low down and dirty. And it's a symbol really of ... arrogance" (emphasis added):

RIVERA: Well, I certainly relate to that, brother. If it were my brother, God forbid, I would do everything I could to negotiate with anybody I could to save his life. I totally relate to this family. The country has a policy that the nation doesn't negotiate with terrorists. That's the headline. Of course the headline is a lie also. We negotiate with terrorists. We have at various times throughout our history. When you have a war -- a declared war against someone like the United States against Germany or Japan - you have prisoners of war, you have prisoner exchanges.

BOLLING: Fair enough. But talk about what Foley's brother said right there. He was specifically threatened by the State Department if he were going to go ahead and raise money to try to get his brother back.

RIVERA: I'm not going to defend that. I totally believe him. I think that the bureaucracy is blind.

BOLLING: Can you imagine that though?

RIVERA: I think it's really low down and dirty. And it's a symbol really of the arrogance, I think, of the yuppies that they have in the State Department.

BOLLING: Right. Josh Earnest was asked about that today, by the way, at the White House. He kind pushed it over to the Department of Justice and asked them about that. They kind of denied it but man, here's a young guy going, 'I wanted my brother back. I wanted to raise money, we were going to do it and the state pushed back.' [Fox News, The O'Reilly Factor, 9/12/14, via Nexis]

Sean Hannity: "Who Are We To Stop" Families Of Hostages From Negotiating Ransoms? On the September 15, 2014 edition of Hannity, host Sean Hannity suggested that families of hostages should be allowed to privately pay ransoms without the threat of prosecution from the government (emphasis added):

HANNITY: Last question. Diane Foley, the mother of James Foley, in an interview reported by the UPI, actually said that her and her family were intimidated three times and they were forbidden from going to the media, and if they attempted to raise money to pay off ransom for their son, and that they were threatened with prosecution three times. Now, this becomes a delicate issue. I don't think the United States should be involved in it, but if they wanted to individually do that, who are we to stop them? [Fox News, Hannity, 9/15/14, via Nexis]

Fox News has reduced President Obama's recent comments about the complex role of race in America to the question of whether or not it was appropriate for him to use the word "nigger" during that discussion, with one network contributor claiming this indicated Obama is the "rapper in chief."

Obama discussed the history of racism in America during an interview with the comedian Marc Maron for his WTF podcast, saying:

OBAMA: The legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination in almost every institution of our lives -- that casts a long shadow, and that's still part of our DNA that's passed on. We're not cured of it.

MARON: Racism. 

OBAMA: Racism. We are not cured of --

MARON: Clearly.

OBAMA: And it's not just a matter of it not being polite to say nigger in public. That's not the measure of whether racism still exists or not. It's not just a matter of overt discrimination. Societies don't overnight completely erase everything that happened two to 300 years prior.

Much of the media have highlighted Obama's use of "the n-word" in their reports on his comments. But Fox in particular has focused its discussion of the interview almost solely on the propriety of his use of the word. 

During a segment on America's Newsroom, anchor Bill Hemmer asked if Obama's use of the word was "too blunt" and asked if it was "necessary." Contributor Deneen Borelli said Obama had "lowered the stature" of his office with his "insane, crazy comment" and termed him the "rapper in chief."

HEMMER: Touchy, touchy, touchy deal here. Was it necessary? 

BORELLI: We're talking about the president of the United States using the "n-word," Bill. He has really dragged in the gutter speak of rap music. So now he is the first president of rap, of street? Come on, he has lowered the stature of the high office of the president of the United States and the question is why did he do this? ...

You see all of the people coming together in the streets of Charleston, South Carolina, black, white and otherwise, coming together, praying, supporting each other. And here you have the president make this insane, crazy comment of using the "n-word" to really distract. This is all a distraction, grand distraction to take away from the people uniting and then the president in chief, the rapper in chief, now further dividing our country. I find it outrageous.

Hemmer later declared, "As a white American, my entire life I know that that is an electric word and you stay away from it," adding, "this is something that we thought was entirely off limits and now you have the president using it."

Fox & Friends also fixated on Obama's language, with co-host Steve Doocy saying that "today people are going to be talking, Bret, about whether or not it is appropriate for the president to use the 'n-word' and whether or not it is beneath the dignity of his office."

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Pillars of Eternity offers an homage to classic CRPGs like Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale, and Baldur's Gate. Its promise of classic gameplay delived by famous designers made the game a runaway success on Kickstarter, but it modernizes many systems to show how fun and relevant this old school style of games still is. Their way of delivering lore offers one example: the game gives the character an ability to sense other people's past lives and emotions, allowing them to reveal the history of the world through engrossing vignettes that have a personal touch.
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Bonus Facts are on vacation this week. Share your favorite tidbits about Pillars of Eternity in the comments below!

Just two days ago, in an editorial called "The Other Terror Threat", the NY Times warned us:

Despite public anxiety about extremists inspired by Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, the number of violent plots by such individuals has remained very low. Since 9/11, an average of nine American Muslims per year have been involved in an average of six terrorism-related plots against targets in the United States. Most were disrupted, but the 20 plots that were carried out accounted for 50 fatalities over the past 13 and a half years.

In contrast, right-wing extremists averaged 337 attacks per year in the decade after 9/11, causing a total of 254 fatalities, according to a study by Arie Perliger, a professor at the United States Military Academy’s Combating Terrorism Center. The toll has increased since the study was released in 2012.

Other data sets, using different definitions of political violence, tell comparable stories. The Global Terrorism Database maintained by the Start Center at the University of Maryland includes 65 attacks in the United States associated with right-wing ideologies and 24 by Muslim extremists since 9/11. The International Security Program at the New America Foundation identifies 39 fatalities from “non-jihadist” homegrown extremists and 26 fatalities from “jihadist” extremists.

read more

Fox's Sean Hannity gave 2016 GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush a platform to claim that the gun policies he supported as governor of Florida helped create "a less violent society," even though he signed the nation's first "Stand Your Ground" law, which studies show has actually contributed to more violence.

Bush appeared on the June 16 broadcast of Hannity for a wide-ranging interview in front of a studio audience. Hannity asked, "Should citizens, if they are law-abiding, no records, have the right to carry a weapon?"

Bush responded, "Absolutely, and in Florida, you know who leads the nation in concealed weapons permits by far? Over a million. It's Florida. It creates a ... less violent society and crime goes down when law-abiding citizens that don't commit crimes have guns."

But experts say controversial "Stand Your Ground" laws, like the one the jury used to acquit George Zimmerman of killing unarmed Florida teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012, make society more violent.

In my last post, I told you about Rick Perry's campaign song, a rewritten version of Colt Ford's "Answer to No One" with new Perry-centric lyrics:

In the lyrics of the original song, Ford says, "I'm a flag flyin' bible totin' son of a gun." But what flag is Ford flying? As TheHatist wrote in the comments to the last post,

I also imagine that this guy owns more than one southern flag, which means he loves America so much he wants to leave it, just as soon as he's done celebrating his right to own people as property, as long as they are dark enough. Just after he appropriates more of their culture.

That was a pretty good guess. Here's a photo of Ford:

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The Disney XD cable network has posted a promo and listing for the new season of Doraemon. Season 2 of of the localized version of anime's classic robot cat for the future premieres Monday, June 15th at 1PM.

 

Since the Doraemon's manga launch in 1969, the anime has been broadcasted in 35 countries/regions, mainly in the Southeast Asia. It aired nationwide network in the US for the first time last year with some changes to names of characters and items, for example Nobita to "Noby," Gian (Takeshi Goda) to "Big G," Takecopter to "Flapper", and Dokodemo Door to "Anywhere Door."

 

 

via WTK

 

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Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime.

2 anime shows to premiere on August 8 & June 20

Tomokazu Sugita, Kaito Ishikawa, Nobuhiko Okamoto join cast

 

The Fist of the North Star manga and anime by Tetsuo Hara and Buronson is a classic tale of doomed romance, human frailty, and brotherly love set in a post-Apocalyptic wasteland. More importantly, it's a martial arts adventure where the main character, Kenshiro, knows a secret art of assassination that makes his enemies freaking explode.

 

 

Normally, it goes something like this: the bad guys do something terrible. Kenshiro gets mad, sad, or both. He then hits them with a secret technique, such as the Hokuto Hyakuretsu Ken ("100 Crack Fist"). Often this is accompanied by Kenshiro's signature battle-cry, which is something like: "ATATATATATATATATATATATATA!"

 

 

Since Kenshiro has manipulated the bad guys' internal energy by pressing special secret pressure points, the bad guys proceed to explode gruesomely, but not before shouting various nonsense phrases, such as "hidebu!" and "abeshi!".

 

 

Many fans have wondered over the years if these particular phrases had any significant meaning to them. Well, wonder no longer, Fist fans, because on a recent episode of the Nakai no Mado variety show that aired on May 27. 2015, manga artist Tetsuo Hara explained the origin of these nonsense words.

 

 

"Hidebu!" is actually supposed to be "痛ぇ ブー", a modification of the Japanese phrase "ittai desu" ("it hurts!"), but since the villains are in the process of exploding, the vocal sounds are shifted. Hara observes that when something really hurts, one is more likely to let out an exclamation like "achi!" or "hoachi!" than a grammatically correct word. 

 

"Abeshi!", on the other hand, is the combination of a powerful "Aaaaaa!" scream - like the kind you would make if you broke a limb - with "べしっ" ("besshi"), the Japanese onomatopoeia for getting punched in the face.

 

Now you know, and knowing is half the battle. (The other half is making your enemies explode with your fists.)

 

Source: Narinari.com

 

Paul Chapman is the host of The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast and GME! Anime Fun Time.

A seemingly innocuous Twitter post from scientist Bill Nye linking historic flooding in Texas to climate change sent conservatives into a frenzy this week.

According to Scientific American, Houston saw 10 inches of rain within 24 hours on Monday, causing what Republican Gov. Greg Abbott called the "the biggest flood this area of Texas has ever seen."

For climate scientists like Brenda Ekwurzel of the Union of Concerned Scientists, the link to a warming planet was obvious.

“When you have a warmer atmosphere, then you have the capability to hold more water vapor," Ekwurzel explained. "When storms organize, there’s much more water you can wring out of the atmosphere compared to the past.”

So, Nye's tweet urging meteorologists to explain the link to their audiences did not come as a shock for most of his followers.

"Billion$$ in damage in Texas & Oklahoma. Still no weather-caster may utter the phrase Climate Change," Nye wrote.

However, many conservatives on Twitter lashed out at the famous scientist.

read more

This year's 27th issue of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine is revealing on Monday that Daisuke Ashihara's World Trigger manga will take a one-week...

Fox News largely ignored the controversy surrounding Josh Duggar following his recent admission that, as a teenager, he molested young girls, including several of his sisters. The revelations are particularly stunning given that, under the guise of protecting children, the Duggar family has played an active role in the fight against LGBT equality.  

On May 21, In Touch magazine revealed that in 2006, Jim Bob Duggar - patriarch of TLC's hit show 19 Kids and Counting - had waited more than a year before telling police that his son, Josh, had confessed to molesting several female minors, including his sisters, when he was a teenager. TLC has since pulled episodes of 19 Kids from its schedule.

The revelations drew widespread criticism in the media, with many outlets pointing out the Duggar family's reputation as a torch-bearer for conservative values and strong involvement in Republican politics and anti-LGBT activism. The revelations look to many like hypocrisy from a family that's become a political powerhouse in socially conservative circles in recent years by wielding its reality show influence to stump for "family values," Republican politicians, and the repeal of legal protections for LGBT people.

But while MSNBC and CNN have reported heavily on the Duggar scandal, Fox News has largely ignored the story. According to a Media Matters analysis, Fox News spent less than two minutes covering the story between May 21 and May 25, compared to almost an hour of coverage from the other cable news networks.

During the May 24 broadcast of Media Buzz, Fox News' media critic Howard Kurtz even criticized other media outlets for "piling on" by highlighting the Duggar family's ties to prominent Republican politicians:

Because you demanded it! Inferno Cop, the acclaimed directorial debut of Ninja Slayer From Animation's Akira Amemiya, has now inspired a set of stickers for messaging app Line. Now you can bring order to chaotic texting with justice himself, INFERNO COP! (with some help from the girls of Little Witch Academia).

 

 

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Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime.

Iowa talk radio host Jan Mickelson's regular interviews with White House hopefuls each presidential election season have turned him into something of a kingmaker, despite his record of pushing conservative misinformation, Islamophobia, and anti-gay views.

Jan Mickelson Exercises Major Influence Over The Iowa Caucus And GOP Presidential Nominating Process

Bloomberg Politics: Jan Mickelson Is One Of "The Most Powerful Republicans You've Never Heard Of." As Bloomberg Politics reported, Jan Mickelson's unparalleled access to presidential candidates in the run up to the Iowa Caucus gives him incredible power when it comes to vetting the field of Republican candidates:

Jan Mickelson, who hosts the morning block, gets his own time with would-be senators and presidents. Steve Deace, who used to host Conway's block, now broadcasts a syndicated show with less meddling and many of the same guests. When candidates stump in the Quad Cities at the eastern end of the state, they typically sit with former reporter Jim Fisher.

Iowa's Republican caucus-goers have an outsized influence on who becomes the party's presidential nominee. Iowa's radio talkers have the same power, just in greater quantity, spread among fewer people. They can't be handled with precious walk-and-talk interviews or soundbites, like the national press. They can't be blown off like newspaper editorial boards; Republican voters are more than three times as likely to trust their talk radio hosts than to trust their local fishwrap. [Bloomberg Politics, 2/23/15, emphasis added]

Los Angeles Times: Mickelson Enjoys "Sway Over National Politics." Reporting on a disagreement between Mickelson and then presidential candidate Mitt Romney in 2007, the Los Angeles Times reported that Mickelson's top-rated show and access to candidates gave him outsized influence over national politics:

Every weekday morning, from 9 to 11:30, Mickelson presides over the No. 1 talk-radio show in Iowa, giving him more sway over national politics than perhaps all but the biggest names in the broadcast business.

Most Iowans live in cities. However, there is plenty of space in between -- long stretches of interstate, endless acres of corn and soybeans -- where the radio offers a welcome companion. From his perch here in the studios of WHO-AM (1040), Mickelson reaches about 350,000 Iowans a week, twice the audience of his closest competition. That may be a pittance by big-city standards. But for a Republican campaigning in Iowa, which traditionally holds the first vote of the presidential race, the program is a must-stop -- and a pathway strewed with hidden perils. [Los Angeles Times, 9/7/07]

Des Moines Register: The Republican Party "Will Need To Work With" Mickelson And Other "Loose-Cannon Conservatives." Steffan Schmidt, a political science professor and blogger for The Des Moines Register, wrote that Mickelson and other prominent talk radio hosts play a big role in shaping the views of GOP nominees:

I would add to these three wings of the GOP the conservative talk radio faction. They include Deace, Rush Limbaugh, Jan Mickelson, Simon Conway and the many other loose-cannon conservatives who are not controlled by anyone in the GOP.

They represent themselves as the "conscience" and "guardians of conservatism." They dance to their own music, and if the Republican Party wants to fine-tune its message for 2014 and 2016, the party will need to work with these folks. [Des Moines Register, 5/14/13; accessed via Nexis 5/14/15]

Mickelson In The Morning Regularly Features Interviews With Republican Hopefuls

Mickelson Has Already Hosted Several GOP Presidential Candidates. Since January, Mickelson has interviewed many Republican politicians who have announced, or are considered likely to announce, White House bids, including Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul , former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio , Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. (click to enlarge)

In His Own Words: Mickelson's Extremist Views On Homosexuality And Islam:

Obama Has "Infused The Military With Sexual Activists" Who Promote "The Gay Agenda." During a March 10 broadcast of Mickelson in the Morning, Mickelson claimed the Obama administration was placing "sexual activists" in the military to change the culture and promote "the gay agenda." [Mickelson in the Morning, 3/10/15; Media Matters, 3/11/15]

Gay Rights Activists Are "Same Gender Nazis" And Part Of A "Gay Taliban". On his March 2, 2015 show, Mickelson said people who fight for marriage equality are part of the "gay Taliban" and create controversies to further their cause. He also referred to them as "same gender Nazis." [Mickelson in the Morning, 3/2/15; Media Matters, 3/03/15]

"Two Guys Pretending To Be Sexual Mates Are Making A Mistake." Speaking at a 2010 fundraiser for the Iowa Family Policy Center, Mickelson reportedly made a series of disparaging comments about the homosexual community. According to The Iowa Independent:

Christians can't "tolerate" same-sex marriage because to do so would be to give up beliefs and accept the homosexual lifestyle as "healthy and normal," radio host Jan Mickelson said while introducing GOP gubernatorial hopeful Bob Vander Plaats and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at a public event Wednesday. [...]

"Personally, I think two guys pretending to be sexual mates are making a mistake," he said. "More than that, they are violating the design of their bodies. More than that, they are sinning against their maker. More than that, they are likely to shorten their lives in this world and impair their destinies in the next." [Iowa Independent, 2/25/10; Media Matters, 3/10/15]

Ex-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Is Right, Homosexuality Is "Ugly Behavior." Commenting on a televised interview with then Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in which he denounced homosexuality as "ugly behavior," Mickelson agreed with Ahmadinejad, saying, "I've got to go with that Iranian fellow." [Mickelson in the Morning 9/25/12; Media Matters, 9/25/12]

God Invented AIDS To Punish Homosexuality. Mickelson once suggested that the spread of AIDS in the gay community was an example of "lifestyle oriented diseases" resulting from homosexuality and said being gay is a "sexual disorder":

During the broadcast Mickelson made a multitude of offensive anti-gay comments, and put forth a host of inaccurate claims about HIV/AIDS. The Independent excerpted a portion of those remarks:

"For the chairman of the Republican Party to say, 'AIDS doesn't discriminate,' well of course it does," Mickelson said. "It discriminates against people who engage in stupid behavior."

"Lung disease doesn't discriminate, but it's probably a good idea to stop smoking," he said. "Cirrhosis of the liver doesn't discriminate, but you should probably dry out and stop drinking like you've been doing. Heart disease and diabetes doesn't discriminate, but you should probably take that weight off, lard butt. Of course lifestyle oriented diseases tend to reward those lifestyle afflictions disproportionately to the behavior of those doing them. This isn't rocket science."

Mickelson said it all comes down to God's law, or natural law, which "also applies to sexual disorders."

"So, does God punish homosexuality? Does he punish sodomy? Well, no, he doesn't get off his throne and say, 'Hey, I'm gonna get that guy.' Well not directly," he said. "Most of God's laws, which another way of saying God's law would be natural law, that is, law that is consistent with the nature of the universe because it was built in such a way, most of God's laws are self-enforcing. God doesn't have to do anything. So if you skydive without a parachute, does God punish people who do that? No, but one of his inventions does. Gravity. If you skydive without a parachute, you're going to die. Should you blame God for that?" [GLAAD, 8/26/10]

UN Commits "An Act Of Jihad" When It Sends Muslim Refugees To America. During a February 24 broadcast of Mickelson in the Morning, Mickelson claimed that the United Nations committees responsible for placing refugees "is made up mostly of countries that are hostile to the United States" and that sending Muslim refugees to the U.S. is "an act of jihad." [Mickelson in the Morning, 2/24/15; Media Matters, 2/25/15]

"There Is Something Wrong With" Somali Muslims Working At Airports. During a discussion on immigration with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Mickelson claimed that there were over 1,000 "Somali Muslims working at the airport" and declared, "There is something wrong with that." He also suggested that dozens of them had been arrested for working with ISIS. [Right Wing Watch, 5/14/15]

"Nobody From Iowa Cares A Sliver About Immigration... What We Do Care About Is Illegal Gate Crashers." During a discussion of Iowans' political priorities in the 2016 presidential election, Yahoo News reported that Mickelson claimed Iowans did not care about immigration but wanted to stop "illegal gate crashers.":

The tone, from the outset, was gloomy. America is "mired in darkness," said David Bossie, a conservative filmmaker and activist who organized the event. Conservative talk show host Jan Mickelson opened the event by saying, "Nobody from Iowa cares a sliver about immigration. All of us came from somewhere. What we do care about is illegal gate crashers." Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin called President Barack Obama "an overgrown little boy" for his executive action last year on immigration. And television personality Donald Trump criticized Bush for saying last year that some illegal immigrants come to the United States as an "act of love" to provide for their families. [Yahoo News, 1/24/15]

"Pistol Whip" Nuns Who Protested Ryan's Proposal To Cut Social Programs. On his June 22, 2012 show, Mickelson criticized a group of nuns who were demonstrating against cuts to social programs proposed in Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-WI) budget and asked his guest, Rep. Tom Latham (R-IA), if he had the authority to "pistol whip" the nuns:

A conservative radio host says that the Catholic nuns who have embarked on a nine-state bus tour to protest the injustice of Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-WI) proposed budget deserve to be beaten with a handgun because they "threw the first punch." "There's a bus full of nuns headed towards Washington to lobby against the Ryan plan," radio host Jan Mickelson told Rep. Tom Latham (R-IA) last week. "Do you guys, do you have any power to pull the nuns on the bus over and pistol whip them?" "They say he is evil, they say he is fake Catholic," he added. "They're the ones that threw the first punch." [Raw Story, 6/25/12]

Obama Is "Evil" For Leaving "Endowed By Our Creator" Out Of Remarks On The Declaration Of Independence. In March, Mickelson's extensive remarks at the Conservative Principles Conference , hosted by Rep. Steve King (R-IA), were broadcast by C-SPAN:

MICKELSON: Interesting that President Obama has left out "equally endowed by our Creator" several times now from the "rights" clause of the Declaration of Independence, even after he's been told several times that he's an Arab.

Therefore, this is NOT an accident. This is NOT an oversight. It's deliberate. It's purposeful. It's evil. [C-SPAN, Jan Mickelson at the Conservative Principles PAC Conference, 3/26/11; Media Matters, 4/28/11; emphasis added]

Mickelson Has Pushed Candidates To Accept His Extreme Views

Mickelson "Prodded Cruz To Embrace The Idea" That States Should Not Allow Undocumented Children To Attend Public School. While interviewing presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Mickelson urged him to agree that undocumented students should not receive public education:

WHO host Jan Mickelson, an immigration hardliner, peppered Cruz with questions about Plyler v. Doe, a Texas case in which the justices ruled 5-4 that states must provide public education for students in the country illegally. Jim Plyler was the school superintendent in Tyler, and Doe referred to families living and working there when Texas cut funding for students living in the country illegally.

Mickelson argued that states should now defy the court and ignore the precedent, and prodded Cruz to embrace the idea.

The senator, a top student at Harvard Law School and former clerk to Chief Justice William Rehnquist, stepped carefully. But he agreed that the court got it wrong.

[...]

Mickelson didn't sound entirely satisfied, and he again pressed Cruz to embrace a "nullification" tactic. Cruz parried that such efforts won't work without political victories, because federal courts will keep enforcing Supreme Court rulings.

"We need to actually win these fights. So I'm focused on how do we repeal every word of Obamacare. How do we stop illegal immigration. Plyler v. Doe becomes a lot less relevant if you don't have 12 million people living here illegally because we're securing the borders... and we have a legal immigration system that works properly," he said.

Mickelson: "I would love to be on the other side of this argument in the Supreme Court."

Cruz: "I'm not sure you and I would have a whole lot of disagreement." [The Dallas Morning News, 3/9/15]

Mickelson Has Promoted Immigration Conspiracy Theories During Interviews With Candidates. Mickelson has asked several candidates, including Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Marco Rubio (R-FL), if they believe a debunked Dick Morris conspiracy theory that the Trans Pacific Partnership has a provision to include unrestricted immigration into the United States. [The Jan Mickelson Show, 4/24/15; Washington Monthly, 4/23/15]

Last weekend, North American publisher Dark Horse announced a slate of new manga licenses at Anime Central that included Kengo Hanazawa’s award-winning zombie manga I am a Hero, set to be released in special omnibus volumes that will each collect two of the original Japanese books. Dark Horse Manga Editor Carl Horn has shared his thoughts on this manga, which has sold over four million copies in Japan and is slated to be adapted into a live-action feature. 

 

 

I Am a Hero is the saga of Hideo Suzuki, a struggling, mentally unstable manga artist who isn’t sure he can believe what he sees one night—a pedestrian, leg twisted and neck broken by an auto collision, gets up and keeps on walking. It might snap the sanity of most people. But when the dead are beginning to rise all over Tokyo, there are two things that might allow even a crazy man like Hideo to survive: the fact he feels destined to be a hero, and a certain possession of his that’s quite rare in Japan—a gun…

 

Writer and artist Kengo Hanazawa depicts the horror of a zombie apocalypse amid the crowded streets and dwellings of the world’s largest metropolis, as the densely-populated city explodes into a chain reaction of infection. Starting off in Tokyo, I Am a Hero takes us to the small towns and countryside of Japan as the survivors flee—and the world outside the island nation is no safe haven either! Hanazawa’s documentary-style and detailed yet action-packed and paranoid storytelling is in the more realistic manga style of artists like Gantz’s Hiroya Oku, with crossover appeal to comics fans as well as manga fans. Attack on Titan has been promoted as “The Walking Dead of Japan,” yet it is I Am a Hero that truly fits the description, not only for its story but also its critical acclaim; in Japan, I Am a Hero comes from the same magazine as did Naoki Urasawa’s multiple Eisner Award–winning 20th Century Boys, and won the same Shogakukan award for general excellence in 2013 that 20th Century Boys did a decade earlier in 2003.

 

Philip Simon will be the editor of the Dark Horse edition of I Am a Hero, taking charge of this new manga project after more than a decade on the recently concluded epic Blade of the Immortal. Every volume of the Dark Horse edition of I Am a Hero will be double sized, containing two of the Japanese volumes each, to get readers rapidly into the story. The fully painted color story pages by Hanazawa that begin each volume will be reproduced in color as well. Translation will be by Kumar Sivasubramanian (Eden, MPD-Psycho) with lettering by Steve Dutro (Vagabond).

 

We at Dark Horse, North America’s second-oldest manga publisher, have previously licensed manga from two of Japan’s “big three” manga companies, Kodansha and Shueisha. But I Am a Hero is Dark Horse’s first series with the third, Shogakukan, since we began releasing manga in 1988 with Kazuhisa Iwata’s Godzilla. This development shows how much the landscape has changed for the English-language manga industry, and we have been able to work with Shogakukan and acquire I Am a Hero due to the persistent work of our director of Asian licensing, Michael Gombos.

 

I Am a Hero is from Shogakukan’s magazine Big Comic Spirits, and, speaking as the former manga editor of the pioneering English-language seinen magazine PULP, it is a tremendous honor for Dark Horse to be able to publish a work from Spirits, which was also the original home of PULP titles such as Tekkonkinkreet and Dance till Tomorrow. More than a quarter century after Dark Horse began releasing manga, we have lost none of our enthusiasm for it and are proud to bring this new creator and publishing relationship into our diverse Japanese line. The 512-page I Am a Hero Volume 1, the first in an ongoing series, will be released in North America on April 6, 2016.

 

—Carl Horn
Manga Editor

 

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Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime.

Night after night Bill O'Reilly doles out his opinions on the problems that face minorities, black teenage girls and their money grubbing families, but when it comes to his own family and children, it appears he's got many more flaws to deal with.

Gawker:

Three weeks ago, a Nassau County Supreme Court justice ended a bitter three-year custody dispute between Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly and his ex-wife, Maureen McPhilmy, by granting custody of the couple’s two minor children to McPhilmy. Though nearly all documents pertaining to New York family court cases are sealed, Gawker has learned that the justice in the case heard testimony accusing O’Reilly of physically assaulting his wife in the couple’s Manhasset home.

According to a source familiar with the facts of the case, a court-appointed forensic examiner testified at a closed hearing that O’Reilly’s daughter claimed to have witnessed her father dragging McPhilmy down a staircase by her neck, apparently unaware that the daughter was watching. The precise date of the alleged incident is unclear, but appears to have occurred before the couple separated in 2010. The same source indicated that the daughter, who is 16 years old, told the forensic examiner about the incident within the past year.

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We’re back, fully licensed and fueled up to have some more Anime Fun Time with our special guest Basil from the OSMCast. This time we’re talking about the 2009 anime film, Redline, directed by Takeshi Koike. Topics of discussion include this under-appreciated film as well as Tom’s staggering Ranma 1/2 addiction and Basil’s improbable fascination with shojo and sports anime. CLICK HERE or on the Youtube banner above to download our review of the film. While you’re at, you can watch Manga Entertainment’s official English dubbed version of the film here.

Final Thought:

Let’s look at a few results of the “Screencap a Random Scene from Redline to Use as Your Computer Wallpaper” Challenge.

We didn’t talk enough about the Boin Sisters.

Princess Supergrass is best princess.

It’s a dog-eat-dog world.

Bang-bang.

Just chillin’.

Yep, we missed an entire month, but Shirobako is all about missing deadlines, as Clarissa points out this episode. Visit www.animeworldorder.com for full show notes and supplemental links.

From the May 15 edition of Fox News' Outnumbered:

Previously:

Fox's Tantaros: "The Last Acceptable Form Of Discrimination In This Country Is Against White Men"

"Let Men Be Men": Fox News Hosts Defend Catcalling

The Show That Sexism Built: Fox Drops All Pretense With Outnumbered 

Heading off those June brides, Charapedia went in an anti-romantic direction with its latest 10,000 reader poll, asking fans which anime couples they'd happily bid farewell to. Whether due to jealousy, annoyance, or desire to see a different match, 46 couple break-ups were suggested by a poll of respondents that was 53.6% male and 76.1% in their teens and 20s. 

 

The top 10 included

 

10. Naruto and Hinata

9. School Days'  Makoto Ito and Sekai Saionji 

8. True Tears' Shin'ichirō Nakagami and Hiromi Yuasa

7. Gundam SEED's Kira Yamato and Lacus Clyne

6. Naruto's Sasuke and Sakura

5. Nisekoi's Raku Ichijo and Chitoge Kirisaki

4. School Days' Makoto Ito and Kotonoha Katsura

3. Crayon Shinchan's Yocchi and Micchī

2. Sword Art Online's Kirito and Asuna

1. Detective Conan's Shinichi Kudo and Ran Mori

 

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Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime.

Fox News is outraged that President Obama called out the network's horrible record on covering poverty, insisting they are simply an "honest messenger." Media Matters looks back on the worst of Fox's attacks on low-income Americans.

President Obama Calls Out Fox News For Disparaging Treatment Of The Poor 

President Obama: Fox News' Coverage Of Poverty Suggests The Poor "Don't Want To Work, Are Lazy." President Obama called out Fox News for their slanted coverage of poverty while speaking at the Catholic-Evangelical Leadership Summit on Overcoming Poverty at Georgetown University on May 12:

THE PRESIDENT: And over the last 40 years, sadly, I think there's been an effort to either make folks mad at folks at the top, or to be mad at folks at the bottom.  And I think the effort to suggest that the poor are sponges, leaches, don't want to work, are lazy, are undeserving, got traction.

And, look, it's still being propagated.  I mean, I have to say that if you watch Fox News on a regular basis, it is a constant menu -- they will find folks who make me mad.  I don't know where they find them.  (Laughter.)  They're like, I don't want to work, I just want a free Obama phone -- (laughter) -- or whatever.  And that becomes an entire narrative -- right? -- that gets worked up.  And very rarely do you hear an interview of a waitress -- which is much more typical -- who's raising a couple of kids and is doing everything right but still can't pay the bills. [Remarks by the President in Conversation on Poverty at Georgetown University, 5/12/15] 

Fox News Feigns Disbelief Over Criticism Of Their Poverty Coverage

Fox Hosts: Our Coverage Is "Honest," And Those Who Don't Wish To Be Poor Should Get A Job. On May 13 Fox & Friends hosts and Fox Business host Stuart Varney discussed their confusion over why Obama criticized the network for slanted coverage of those in poverty. Varney claimed Fox News was simply "an honest messenger." Co-host Steve Doocy agreed, lamenting that if those in poverty "don't want to be poor," they should just get a job. [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 5/13/15]

Fox Correspondent: Obama Is "Insulting The Intelligence Of The American People" By Criticizing Fox. During the May 12 edition of The Kelly File, Fox's chief Washington correspondent James Rosen claimed that Obama was "insulting the intelligence of the American people" by criticizing the network in his speech.. [Fox News, The Kelly File, 5/12/15]

Fox Contributor: Obama Has "A Distorted View Of Fox." On Special Report, Fox contributor Stephen Hayes complained that Obama's comments on the network's coverage of poverty showed he has "a distorted view of Fox [News]."  [Fox News, Special Report, 5/12/15]

Fox's Coverage Of Poverty Persistently Smears The Poor As Lazy, Entitled, And In Need Of More Stigma

Fox Repeatedly Hyped "Obama Phones" As Poor People's Incentive To Vote For Obama. Prior to President Obamas's 2012 re-election, Fox News repeatedly hyped a video of "an Obama supporter touting her 'Obama phone'" to disparage recipients of federal programs. Frequent Fox guest and then-National Review writer Mark Steyn claimed on Fox & Friends that "the 'Takers' were able to out-vote the 'Makers'" and that the American Dream was being thwarted by Democrats, who "bribe people with the Obama phones." Steyn was repeating claims made by Fox's Sean Hannity on his radio program, where Hannity suggested voters supported Obama in order to receive an "Obama phone." Yet "Obama phones" never existed -- the federal program offering subsidized phone service has existed since 1996 and was expanded to include cell phones under President George W. Bush. [FoxNews.com, 9/29/12] [Fox News, Fox & Friends,11/8/12] [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 10/2/12]

Fox's Poster-Boy For Food Stamp Recipients Is A "Blissfully Jobless California Surfer." Fox's 2013 special "The Great Food Stamp Binge" championed the so-called "blissfully jobless California Surfer," Jason Greenslate, who misused the program, as the face of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, also known as food stamps). Although Greenslate bears no resemblance to the overwhelming majority of SNAP recipients, many of whom are elderly, children, disabled, or rely on the program for a short time while looking for work, the network nevertheless shamefully featured him in an attempt to mischaracterize beneficiaries as freeloaders. [Media Matters, 8/9/13]

Andrea Tantaros: I'd "Look Fabulous" If I Lived On Food Stamps. In November 2012, on the eve of Thanksgiving, Fox News host Andrea Tantaros dismissed the plight of hungry Americans and claimed that she would "look fabulous" if she were forced to try to subsist on $133 for food per month for an extended period of time, the amount that SNAP participants in New Jersey receive. [Fox Business, Varney & Co., 11/21/12]

Stuart Varney On The Poor: "Many Of Them Have Things -- What They Lack Is The Richness Of Spirit." In August 2011, Fox Business host Varney defended himself from criticism by The Daily Show's Jon Stewart by claiming he was simply "telling the truth about poor people," before asserting that for the poor, "many of them have things -- what they lack is the richness of spirit." [Fox Business, Varney & Co. at Night, 8/25/11]

Varney: "The Rich Suffered More Than You." During a February segment on America's Newsroom, Varney tried to spin a report finding that income inequality had not actually risen since the recession, due in part to income losses incurred by the wealthiest one percent during the financial crisis. Despite historically troubling levels of income inequality, Varney nevertheless still concluded that that "the rich suffered more than you." [Fox News, America's Newsroom, 2/17/15]

Charles Payne: There's Not Enough "Stigma" Directed At Food Stamp Recipients. In March 2013 on America's Newsroom, Fox Business host Charles Payne alleged that federal benefit programs trap people in poverty and complained that there wasn't enough "stigma" directed at poor Americans for using food assistance programs:

PAYNE: I know there's a big thing trying to de-stigmatize food stamps, but the good part about the stigma is it actually does serve as an impetus to get people off of it. I'll be quite honest with you. When I was growing up there was a point when we had food stamps and people in our building did, but if I was in the store buying something and my friend who lived upstairs one flight from me came in, there's no way in the world I would let him see me using food stamps. They're trying to take that stigma away. They're telling more people they should use it. [Fox News, America's Newsroom, 3/28/13]

Bill O'Reilly: "How Can You Be So Poor And Have All This Stuff?" In July 2011, O'Reilly Factor host Bill O'Reilly and Fox Business host Lou Dobbs cited a misleading report from the Heritage Foundation about the ownership of certain kitchen appliances by the poor in order to question the severity of poverty in the United States. Pointing the report,  O'Reilly asked, "How can you be so poor and have all this stuff?" To which Dobbs responded "Amen, brother." [Fox News, The O'Reilly Factor, 7/20/11]

Fox Wondered If Children Should Work For Free School Meals. In April 2013, Fox News asked viewers if school children should be forced to work in exchange for free school meals, after a Republican lawmaker in West Virginia proposed such a requirement for a new law intended to combat child hunger. [Fox News, Fox & Friends First, 4/25/13]

Fox Contributor Lamented That "The Sense Of Shame Is Gone" From People Using "Entitlements." During a May 2012 appearance on Fox & Friends, network contributor and New York Post columnist Michael Goodwin lamented that "the sense of shame is gone" from enrolling in government anti-poverty programs, which has helped lead to an "explosion of entitlements":

GOODWIN: Well, it's interesting. The thing I write about in here is the idea that shame used to be part of this. In other words, people didn't want to accept a handout because they were ashamed to do it. There was a kind of social contract that said you don't do it. You're independent, you're reliant. That was part of the American founding virtue, as Charles Murray calls them.

And yet now we look at them, we see this explosion of entitlements. The sense of shame is gone. So I focus this week on food stamps, which I think is a real cultural issue, because it's now 47 million people in the country are on food stamps. [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 5/21/12]

Steve Doocy: Are Low-Income, Disabled People Just "Moochers?" Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy questioned why the number of low-income Americans receiving federal disability benefits had increased since 1960, asking, "Are more people getting sick and disabled, or are we just wasting more money?" Later, he asked, "Has the number of people on disability gone up because they are moochers, or because more people need help?" [Fox News, Fox and Friends, 12/6/12]

O'Reilly: Only An "Infinitesimal" Number Of People Would Be Impacted By A Minimum Wage Increase. On the January 21 edition of The O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly and network contributor Eric Shawn undermined Obama's recently proposed minimum wage initiative and diminished the number of Americans that would be impacted by the policy. O'Reilly asserted that only "a very low number" of people make "minimum wage anyway," falsely claiming that the number of people who would be impacted by the change would be "infinitesimal" and saying Obama has been "misleading everybody" by insisting a raise would have a big effect. According to experts, such a move would give 27.8 million Americans a raise. [Fox News, The O'Reilly Factor, 1/21/15]

Payne: After Thanksgiving, People "Take Their Welfare Checks And Bum Rush" Wal-Mart. In October 2011, Charles Payne claimed one could understand why people were poor in America by going to Wal-Mart after Thanksgiving, and watching people on welfare benefits "bum rush" the store. [Fox News, Hannity, 10/3/11]

Fox Contributor Compares Public Pensions To "Ponzi Schemes," Laments That More Stigma Isn't Attached To Welfare. In August 2014, Fox contributor Charles Gasparino attacked government benefit programs, claiming that public pensions were in fact "Ponzi schemes" and lamenting that more "stigma" isn't attached to receiving federal aid or "living in a housing project." [Fox News, Happening Now, 8/21/14]

President Obama named names during a panel on poverty at Georgetown University on Tuesday.

Speaking about those who work but never seem to get ahead, Obama noted that the question boils down to this: "Who are you mad at?"

"Over the last 40 years, sadly, there's been an effort to make folks mad at the top, or to make folks mad at the folks at the bottom."

"And I think the effort to suggest that the poor are spongers, leeches, don't want to work, are lazy, are undeserving, got traction. And it's still being propagated," he continued.

He then proceeded to assign some well-deserved blame to the likes of Fox News specifically, saying, "If you watch Fox News on a regular basis...they will find folks who make me mad. I don't know where they find them."

After referencing to the way Fox News magnified the "Obamaphone," he called them out for rarely showing stories about the waitress with two kids who is struggling to get by but playing by all the rules.

"If we're going to change how John Boehner and Mitch McConnell think, we're going to have to change how our body politic thinks, which means we're going to have to change how the media reports on these issues and how people's impressions of what it's like to struggle in this economy looks like, and how budgets connect to that," he concluded.

Watch:

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Someone needs to explain to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio that there's a difference between the movies and real life. After listening to his speech over the weekend at the latest GOP wingnut cattle call, he seems a bit confused between the two.

Marco Rubio Outlines a Liam Neeson Foreign Policy in South Carolina:

Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio summed up his hawkish foreign policy in a speech at the South Carolina Freedom Summit on Saturday with a reference to the 2008 thriller Taken.

“On our strategy on global jihadists and terrorists, I refer them to the movie Taken. Have you seen the movie Taken? Liam Neeson. He had a line, and this is what our strategy should be: 'We will look for you, we will find you, and we will kill you,'” the Florida senator said in Greenville.

The line—referring to Neeson's character, a CIA operative threatening a human trafficker who had kidnapped his daughter—earned the top-tier candidate thunderous applause.

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