Royal Couple, Terry Jones, Donald Trump topics on News Talk Online

kerryj.com photo

Correspondents Karen Kinsey and Cassandra Wood recapped Friday’s Royal Wedding on News Talk Online on the Paltalk News Network. Followed by a discussion with Talk Radio News Service Washington correspondent Victoria Jones about President Obama touring tornado struck Alabama.

Jones also discussed Donald Trump’s use of the F-Bomb three times in a speech in a casino in Las Vegas and whether that indicates that he is really not a viable potential candidate for the GOP nomination for president.

And correspondent Joann Brady called in from Dearborn, Michigan, live from City Hall, where Terry Jones, the controversial Florida pastor, was holding forth – finally rallying against radical Islam and Sharia law – while anti-Jones protesters shouted at him from across Michigan Avenue.

Just when you thought it was safe to call Obama an American...

Taitz

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

Oh so you thought it was over, this controversy over President Obama’s birth?

You thought that, just because he finally capitulated and made public the long-form version of his birth certificate he was in the clear, did you?

Not so fast.

On Monday, the issue will be presented, once again, before a California court.

Orley Taitz, a California attorney and dentist, is due back in court on Monday, for a scheduled hearing appealing a judge’s decision dismissing her challenge of the president’s place of birth. And, by extension, his constitutional qualification to serve as president.

Taitz is using her website to  look for a Photoshop expert to bring into court with her. She’s convinced that what the state of Hawaii presented to the White House, which the White House then presented to the White House press corp, was altered. Clearly, many of her readers think she’s onto something here.

“I have no idea how the White House could release such a blatant forged document, but being in graphic design and working with Photoshop and Illustrator – you can figure this out really easy,” writes one.

“It seems the BC can be dissected  in a few programs. This administration really thinks ‘we the people’ are stupid.
No one believes this supposed scanned copy anyway and Trump seems to be letting it go now,” writes another.

Taitz, herself, is not convinced she’ll get a fair hearing.

“We have a mammoth task ahead of us,” she writes on her site, noting that all three judges on the panel were appointed by President Clinton, a Democrat.

“Is the result of the hearing,” she asks, “a foregone conclusion?”

Maybe not, but it can be safely said that, should Taitz lose again, she’ll say that it was.

Trump the 'mother effing' presidential candidate

Potty mouthed Trump

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

Three times he dropped the “F Bomb.”

Three times, in a speech in Las Vegas. One where billionaire Donald Trump assured his supporters that he is seriously considering a run for president.

The debate about whether Trump is a viable candidate or just a publicity seeking attention whore is now over. It’s one thing when you think you’re off mic and you are inadvertently heard droping the F Bomb. It’s another when you’re doing it on purpose.

If he was a stand-up comedian, opening for some act on the Vegas strip, that would be different. But Trump is no opening act. Nor is he a closing act. He’s the act alright. A one-ring circus. That somehow feeds on a media frenzy that feeds on him.

Birther-in-chief and Obama academia credential checker Trump is now a problem for the Republican Party. A problem because, polls don’t see him as a marginalized figure. In fact, they see him as the leader of the possible GOP presidential nomination seeking pack.

Royal Wedding, Obama's birth certificate topics on News Talk Online

Correspondent Karen Kinsey reported that a group of Muslims that had threatened to disrupt Friday's Royal Wedding has decided to not demonstrate against the event.

That was followed by a heated discussion about President Obama releasing the long form version of his birth certificate, featuring reporting from Jonathan Wolfman in Washington and Talk Radio News Service Washington Bureau Chief Ellen Ratner traveling with the president in New York City.

Royal Wedding, Middle East refugees, Trump & Paul topics on News Talk Online

A wide range of topics were discussed on Tuesday's News Talk Online.

Correspondent Karen Kinsey reported on the latest about Friday's much-anticipated Royal Wedding, with details about security, not just for the public and the wedding party and attendees, but over the design of the dress that Kate Middleton will wear.

Correspondent Cassandra Wood reported on the influx of refugees to many European nations - people fleeing conflicts that have broken out in various Middle Eastern and African countries.

And Talk Radio News Service Washington correspondent Geoff Holtzman detailed Donald Trump's insistence on still discussing President Obama's place of birth, suggesting that Trump is simply seeking publicity and will never become a declared candidate for president. Holtzman also predicted that Republican maverick Congressman Ron Paul of Texas will, once again, throw his hat into the ring.

Royal Wedding, Bahrain, Egypt News Talk Online topics

Today's News Talk Online on the Paltalk News Network and on TalkShoe.com focused on preparations for the Royal Wedding, with a report from England; the continuing human rights violations in Bahrain, with a report from a Bahrainian human rights activist and a look at a new Pew poll of Egyptians which finds that the majority want to annul the peace treaty with Israel.

Justin Duckham, Washington correspondent for the Talk Radio News Service, also reported on the latest batch of WikiLeaks, this time about the treatment of prisoners at Gitmo, and about the White House considering additional sanctions against Syria following the Holy Weekend massacre.

A chat with the cast of TREME

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

Sunday's debut of season two of HBO's hit series TREME, a fictional account of post-Katrina New Orleans, was celebrated with a party and screening at New York City's Museum of Modern Art.

I was there and had the opportunity to interview cast members India Ennenga, Steve Earle, Wendell Pierce and Lucia Micarell as well as creator and executive producer David Simon.

Time for an Israeli Peace Plan?

World Economic Forum photo

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

The pressure is on for a peace plan for the Middle East.

The Palestinians want a unilateral declaration of a nation based on the pre-’67 boundaries. Something that Israel rejects – on both security grounds and because unilateral is not a word in the government’s vocabulary. A negotiated, agreed-upon-by-all parties is the only solution, the government declares.

The signals from Washington are contradictory.  On the one hand, the Obama administration sides with Israel in that there needs to be a negotiated peace with the Arabs. On the other, the White House is crafting its own plan to present to both sides.

One could view such a proposal as a starting point for new talks. Or one could view it as an imposition by the United States. The choices could be: Take it. Or take it.

So, perhaps, now is the time for the Netanyahu government to step up to the plate with a peace proposal of its own. Instead of reacting to what others want, perhaps Israel should be proactive – put its cards on the table – show some leadership by leading with a plan.

Perhaps it will.

Israel President Shimon Peres is now urging Prime Minister Netanyahu to do just that. “We don’t need more peace plans, we need to implement peace,” YNetNews quotes Peres as saying.

There are those who might argue that doing so would be just another act of frustration; that the Arabs aren’t willing to embrace anything Israel offers. “Look,” they may say, “at what Ehud Barak offered when he was prime minister. Even that was rejected."

While that is true, that was then and this is now. Israel can’t control what the Palestinians do. And Israel can’t control what President Obama might do. But Israel can control what Israel does.

Instead of sitting back and bemoaning that the world and the Palestinians are unfair, isn’t it time for Israel to take some action on its own? If nothing else, it would be nice for the world to see an Israel that’s really moving toward peace.

–

Gary Baumgarten is editor of The Jewish Reporter.

Stalemate over peace

Ashwari/By Carsten Sohn

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

It’s becoming a familiar refrain.

The Palestinians want their own state. The Quartet; the EU, Russia, the USA and the UN, push for an agreement.

The Israelis want to negotiate. The Palestinians claim they do. But not so long as the Israelis continue to build on the West Bank.

Stalemate.

Now, a PLO official is rejecting out-of-hand a proposal being drafted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The AFP quotes Hanan Ashrawi as saying the plan is a “reinvention of Israeli occupation.”

The plan, mind you, hasn’t even been released yet. Ashrawi is rejecting based on reports of possible pieces of the plan that have been leaked.

Stalemate.

Those leaked reports, if accurate, reflect a proposed resolution. That’s what happens in negotiations. One side proposes. The other side counter-proposes. Somewhere along the way there is a give and take. And then, hopefully, as a result of the negotiations, there is, ultimately, an agreement. But the Palestinian leadership, isn’t interested in first seeing the proposal, then counter proposing. Any proposal, the report says, that doesn’t give them everything they want, will be rejected.

Stalemate.

The Palestinian game plan, it seems, is to say “no” to anything Israel offers even before it’s offered. In the hopes of getting the UN to believe that Israel is being unreasonable and uninterested in a negotiated settlement. In the hopes that a Palestinian state, with boundaries to their liking, will be declared and imposed. Leaving the Israelis out of the equation.

It’s not a strategy likely to work. Because, even an Obama administration that’s viewed as less-than-friendly toward Israel by many Israelis, isn’t likely to favor a non-negotiated settlement.

Stalemate.

The Palestinians want a full and unconditional withdrawal from the West Bank of all Israelis, who they argue are illegally occupying land. The Israelis argue that ownership of the land’s in dispute. But even if they were successful in displacing about half-a-million Jews, a question remains. Would that actually result in a peace?

Given that the complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza in the name of peace hasn’t stopped the rocket attacks, launched, literally, from land the Israelis abandoned, one must wonder.

Israel is placed in a poor light even when it makes a complete withdrawal. Palestinians fire rockets into Israel. Israel retaliates. Israel gets criticized. Because its military prowess and weapons arsenal so surpasses that of the Palestinians. Palestinians who wanted them to leave in the name of peace. Then continued to attack when they did.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address the United States Congress next month. Perhaps, then, he will detail his plan for a negotiated peace. Chances are, whatever he says, will be immediately rejected as unpalatable and a non-starting point by Ashrawi and company.

Stalemate.

–

Gary Baumgarten is editor of The Jewish Reporter.

Should Terry Jones be barred from Dearborn?

By Mark Taylor

By GARY BAUMGARTEN

How far does one’s First Amendment rights stretch in the United States?

If a person’s public demonstrations in Florida cause death in Afghanistan should he be barred from Dearborn?

That’s the question facing a judge in Wayne County Michigan today, after prosecutors filed a motion to bar Pastor Terry Jones from demonstratingoutside a Dearborn Islamic center on Good Friday.

Dearborn is a suburb of Detroit, once best known for being the home of Ford Motor Company World Headquarters and the sprawling Ford Rouge Assembly Plant. But it’s now probably better recognized as a community with a substantial Arab population.

Jones is the controversial church pastor who burned a Koran in Florida, then announced it on his website. When word about it spread in Afghanistan, enraged Muslims attacked UN offices, killing 11 people in protest. Even though the UN had nothing at all to do with what Jones did, it was the closest place they could think of where they could find westerners to punish for the Koran burning.

Now Jones wants to take his mission against Islam on the road to Dearborn, where he intends to protest in front of the Islamic center. The prosecutors want an injunction to prevent him from doing so, on the grounds that he will likely spark a riot there.

The Koran burning was, of course, distasteful and irresponsible, given that the U.S. government implored him to not do it because it feared violent responses by some who were offended. Responses that the government told him could put Americans and others in danger.

The lesson was clearly not learned by Jones, who now apparently wants even more fame, or perhaps infamy, by protesting in Dearborn.

While the Koran burning was distasteful, it was clearly protect under the Constitution. So is Jones’ right to protest outside a mosque in Dearborn.

If he is precluded from exercising his First Amendment rights, then who will be next? Nazis who want to march through a predominantly Jewish neighborhood?

That’s not just an academic question. It actually was once raised.

In 1977, in the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Illinois, then a community heavily populated with Holocaust survivors, a neo-Nazi group announced a march. When the village government sued to prevent the march, the ACLU stepped in and filed a counter-motion claiming that to enjoin the Nazis from marching would be a violation of their First Amendment rights.

The ACLU prevailed in court, but in the end, the Nazis never marched in Skokie.

The thought wannabe Nazis goose-stepping through the neighborhood of people who lived through the horrors of the Holocaust notwithstanding, the court made the right decision. They had the right, that they elected to not exercise, to do just that.

Similar emotions may be evoked if Jones decides to visit Dearborn. But he too, has First Amendment rights.

If we muzzle Nazis and we muzzle Jones, who knows who may be next to be silenced. Maybe Muslims. Maybe Jews.

–

Gary Baumgarten is editor of The Jewish Reporter.