Giuliani Adviser: 'Too many mosques'

Huffpo picked up this AP story:

A homeland security adviser to Rudy Giuliani came under fire Thursday for claiming there were "too many mosques" in the United States, and defended himself by saying his point was that not enough Muslim leaders cooperate with law enforcement.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., the former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and the top GOP member on the panel, said his comments to the Politico Web site were taken out of context. Democrats said Giuliani should drop him as a campaign adviser.

"I stand by everything I said other than the fact that the Politico totally took it out of context," King said Thursday.

In the Politico interview, King said: "Unfortunately we have too many mosques in this country, there's too many people who are sympathetic to radical Islam. We should be looking at them more carefully, we should be finding out how we can infiltrate, we should be much more aggressive in law enforcement."

King said later:

"...I would think that campaigns would respect someone like myself who says things that might be politically incorrect but are accurate in that too many Muslim leaders in this country do not denounce extremism."

...King said his point was not that there were too many mosques in the United States, but that too many of those mosques do not cooperate with law enforcement, a claim he made in 2003 and 2004 which also prompted criticism.

"I know of any number of mosques in New York that are under surveillance by law enforcement because they have suspicious links, at the very least radical links, that are inappropriate," he said.

FOX Censors Anti-War Speech by Sally Field at Emmys

I was watching the Emmy Awards tonight when Sally Field started talking about war. Just as I started to pay a little more attention, the camera and sound cut out, and the show was on to the next segment. It looked like censorship to me, so I searched around the web and found a few places talking about it. Here's the speech on YouTube:

Think Progess gives the beginning of her speech:

At tonight’s Emmy Awards show, the audience cheered Sally Field’s acceptance speech, which the recognized mothers of U.S. troops. “Surely this [award] belongs to all the mothers of the world,” she stated. “May they be seen, may their work be valued and raised. Especially to the mothers who stand with an open heart and wait. Wait for their children to come home from danger, from harm’s way, and from war. I am proud to be one of those women.”

The Los Angeles Times continues the quote:

"If mothers ruled the world, there wouldn't be any god -" Emmy winner Sally Field said before the Emmycast cut her off her sound and pointed the camera away from the stage so viewers would be distracted. Cut off were the words "god-damned wars in the first place."

"This belongs to all the mothers of the world - may they be seen and valued," she added when she won best actress in a drama series for her work as matriarch Nora Walker on "Brothers & Sisters."

And the LA Times gives her response to FOX's censorship here as:

"Oh, well. I've been there before!" Sally Field just said back in the press room when asked what she thought of being censored on the Emmycast.

"Good. I don't care. I have no comment other than, 'Oh, well.' I said what I wanted to say. I wanted to pay homage to the mothers of the world. And I very very seriously think that if mothers ruled the world we wouldn't be sending our children off to be slaughtered."

When she was pressed for further comment, she added, "Too bad. That's a shame. And I think I probably shouldn't have said the 'god' in front of the 'damn.'

"If they bleep it, oh, well. I'll just say it somewhere else."

It makes it seem as if we have no freedom to voice dissent anymore...but that's the thing--we still do have the freedom. It's the media shaping our perception that we can't speak our hearts. So how do we break through the false construction of a society that is intolerant of differing views? By speaking out even louder. Only then will we see that there are people who share our sympathies, that we are not alone in opposing this or any war.

The trick is how to keep it from becoming just another shouting match--which would not doubt be censored by the networks. Any thoughts?