Aljazeera will straighten American Media

You may disagree with me but a majority of American Media personnel have un-neutralized themselves for a long time. During the Iraq’s shameless shock-n-awe war, the CNN, FOX and other media were truly ‘embedded’ with our government; they became mouth pieces for the government.

Thomas Jefferson made a strong statement about the role of media in a democracy when he noted, “If it were left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

Describing the role of the press, George A. Krimsky, the former head of news for the Associated Press’ World Services and co-author of Hold the Press, writes, “In the wake of America’s successful revolution, it was decided there should indeed be government, but only if it were accountable to the people. The people, in turn, could only hold the government accountable if they knew what it was doing and could intercede as necessary, using their ballot, for example. This role of public ‘watchdog’ was thus assumed by a citizen press, and as a consequence, the government in the United States has been kept out of the news business.”

The US Congress, the Senate and the Media all acted like sycophants of our President during the Afghan and Iraq wars.  I am glad the then Senators Obama, Paul and late congressman Murtha had the guts to speak their minds while others sheepishly following the pied piper.

Could the Iraq war have been prevented had our media asked the right questions? We could have saved the lives of our soldiers; we did not have to carry the guilt of massacring the innocent Iraqis and Afghans – for one Bin Laden?  Would the American families have suffered had we not had the budget deficits resulting from the wars?

Our cavalier attitude towards the administration, the senate, congress and the press was shameful.  Enough is written and talked about the collective guilt and I hope the future generations forgive us.

Thank God we have the NPR, PBS and BBC to give us a semblance of another point of view. I am looking forward to Aljazeera to set the new standards in journalism by asking dare devil questions that most of the American reporters dare not ask and risk their jobs.  What are you afraid of?

The Aljazeera Show “Empire” gathered Carl Bernstein, Amy Woodman and a few other media stalwarts about the role of media.  The questions the facilitator asked were incredible! He said “the American media acted as the mouth piece of government” and indeed we sounded like the state television of Gaddafi. 

The essence of democracy is the ability to question everything without worrying about censure against such inquiry. How many journalists from the mainstream media have failed this test in recent times?

I have seen Anderson Cooper grill a few right wingers a few times, more of it is needed. We should question every damn politician if we want our freedom to prevail over their interests and I am glad he still has his job unlike Helen Thomas.

I welcome Aljazeera to pave the way to American Journalists or hire them to regenerate their guts to report the facts and not what Rupert wants them to say in critical matters.  We must cherish, nourish and fight from freedom, nothing is more valuable than freedom.

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A note to Aljazeera: Please show the names of the anchors or reporters. I still did not get the name of the news anchor and the host of the Empire.

Mike Ghouse is committed to offer pluralistic solutions and work towards building a cohesive America. His work is listed at http://www.mikeghouse.net/

Glen Beck barks in the dark,

 When you shoot in the dark, it is likely to hit some one.

Glen Beck apologizes for comparing reformed Judaism to radical Islam. That is how much the man knows about Judaism, Islam or anything.  

An idiot randomly says things that may suit one at a given time, but that should not encourage the one to support the idiot, in the long run; he will nail every one unintentionally.

I am glad the Jewish groups took action; actually we all need to join hands together against stupidity. Muslims should join them and vice versa.

http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/joannabrooks/4299/glenn_beck_apologizes_for_comparing_reform_judaism_to_%E2%80%9Cradical_islam%E2%80%9D/

Fox, Hannity, Spencer, Bolton and Ghouse

Egypt, Israel and American policies

I will be on two segments with Sean Hannity Show on Fox News tonight, One with Robert Spencer and the other with John Bolton, former US Ambassador to the United Nations - http://www.hannity.com/

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Any foreign policy that is based on relationships between individuals is likely to collapse when they are gone. The peace treaty is between the people of the Israel and the people of Egypt and not between Begin and Sadat or Netanyahu and Mubarak.

Both Israel and the US in the past have made mistakes by siding with dictators, their intelligence was wrong and rarely reliable.  Even on Egypt, the right wing Israeli politicians were urging us to support Mubarak… what kind of intelligence do they have. How wrong we would have been had we listened to them.

Much of what they say about Brotherhood is unreliable. Egypt will change them, but then they will jump the topic to Iran or something else.  Fellow Americans like Brigit, Spencer and others are out to frighten the crap out of people – for money or whatever reason.

We need to find solutions and not create chaos.

EGYPT

It is a fulfillment of the aspiration of people for their sovereignty; it is the beginning of the freedom, liberty and justice for the people of Egypt.

This is the first time in history that Muslims have chosen non-violence as their path to bring about a change and those attitudes must be encouraged. Do we really mean we support democracy? If we do, the time is now.

BROTHERHOOD

The right wingers hype it beyond the need about Brotherhood, look at the crowds and the generation that is involved in the uprising, it is all youth accustomed to Twitter, Facebook and the likes… Brotherhood will have no room to dominate; they will be in fact subservient to the people. Indeed, we need to be cautious about them but not base our policies centered on them. The moderate majority should be our focus.

UNITED STATES

This is the first time; an American President has said and done the right thing; to be with the people. Most of the previous administrations were war mongers and were itching to go to losing wars.

We were playing in the hands of Saudi Monarchs and acting out for them to be belligerent towards Iran and antagonizing them. Do they know what diplomacy means?

ISRAEL

Caution is always good.

The right wingers in Israel, Palestine or America have always been wrong, their intelligence has been wrong…why do you trust them? They rather see chaos than find solutions.

What is needed is an uprising in Israel, where the majorities of the people speak up and get their leaders to represent them in finding peace. Blaming others will not cut it, the bottom line is the right wingers have cheated the Israeli people out of peace with their attitudes.

Even if they are right, they need to be pragmatic and work on making lemonade out of lemon.

Push Brotherhood to the corner, they will dig in their heels just like the right wingers, there is no difference between the two – they are committed to annihilate each other, they can choose to do that. But for God’s sake leave the People of Israel, Egypt and America out of it.

Mike Ghouse is a thinker, writer, speaker, futurist and an activist of Pluralism, Interfaith, Co-existence, Peace, Islam and India. He is a frequent guest at the TV, radio and print media offering pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. His work is reflected at three websites and 21 Blogs listed at http://www.mikeghouse.net/

Egypt: Freedom at last

The beautiful journey of the Egyptian People and their Celebrations - Pictures:

It's one of the most beautiful days of my life; seeing a people get their freedom though non-violence and peaceful means. Prophet Muhammad, Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and folks like them must be smiling with approval.

TV CLIPS
CBS 11 - http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2011/02/11/egyptian-celebrations-planned-in-downtown-dallas-frisco/

Some of the joy-teary moments that I can recall are - release of Mandela, fall of the Berlin wall, Obama's election night, Aung San Su Kyii’s release and Freedom at last for the Egyptian people. I have written extensively on the last two events.

As an American I am proud of my President for telling the people that they have a friend in America, and that was the right thing to say; to support the people, and that is what democracy is all about.

I wanted to be with the Egyptian people in their joy. This is also a historic moment in the Muslim Arab World – breaking the cycle of violence and achieving the goals through peaceful means.  I have written a lot about it and will share the links below including my advice to President Obama.

I sincerely wish the Jewish people join the Egyptians, and they will earn tremendous good will, I wish the few hawks understand emotions and feeling of people rather than itch for chaos and scheme to jeopardize things. I like to see an uprising of the Jewish people to have their government represent the Jewish Values. It will happen and the Jewish people are tired of the right wingers among them, just as Muslims, Christians and Hindus are tired of their right wingers, who spend time dismantling rather than building. I invite them to join the peace movements and their support will take the battles out of the world.

I was on three Radio Stations today; the KBOO 90.7 FM in Portland and Sean Hannity Fox Radio and have no idea who they were, they called and I talked.

A friend called and said the Egyptians are celebrating at Fadi's Mediterranean Restaurant in Frisco; I drove right to it, talked with Abdulla the organizer a young fellow in his mid twenties. 

I was the only visible non- Egyptian look like in the Restaurant, all the TV cameras honed on me – Local Affiliates of ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, Telemundo… first interview was 4 microphones shoved in my face, then three more individual in each corner of the restaurant. There were more important things for them to report than my take, as they talked with a few Egptian women and I hope they show them, they had great things to say. Richard from Fox had done a few interviews of me in the past including the coverage of the Holocaust and Genocides event a few years back.
Invariably the asked why I was out there? Was I an Egyptian? The answer is simple I share their sentiments of jubilation and freedom, and the whole world is one family and certainly I feel that. I walked with nearly 5000 Mexicans and spoke to them at the rally down town, was in the rally in support of Gazans and stood up with Jews and GLBT against the hateful demonstration by Fred Phelps across the Holocaust Museum and the Synagogues. That is my sentiment, feeling part of the universal energy that we are all part of.

Any way, I have written way too much in the last week  and thank God, people won, Mubarak left, no blood shed took place and those whose life’s was a sacrifice in the process will be happy to know that their sacrifice was for the right purpose; freedom of the people.

I am glad to be a part of it.

The links my articles are at:

 http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2011/02/congratulations-to-egyptian-people.html

Mike Ghouse doing my share of building cohesive societies

http://www.mikeghouse.net/

Hannity, Ghouse and Schoen on Egypt

I will be Hannity with Doug Schoen, the democratic pollster. You can check the the listing for your radio at: http://www.hannity.com/stations 

Just finished the talk with Hannity and Doug Sheoen.
Doug is a right winger to the core and does not believe in dialogue to find solutions.
The right wing approach has never worked

You cannot push people to the choicelessness,

you can get away with your might,

but deep inside you are jeopadising the long term security.

 you have got to give them choices.

You cannot be mirror the terrorists.

Unless you dialouge, you are as bad as the terrorist

# # #

My appearance on Fox, talk on two Radio stations and write up in Dallas Morning News and several places:

Congratulations to the Eyptian People
http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/02/congratulations-to-egyptian-people.html

Advise to Obama, Dallas Morning News

http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2011/02/advise-to-obama-on-egypt.html

Israeli blunders
http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2011/02/israeli-blunders.html

Egypt: A positive change in the making
http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/02/egypt-positive-change-in-making.html

 Mubarak Hangs on
http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2011/02/mubarak-hangs-on.html

Radio with Hannity and Shoebet

http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/01/egypt-making-lemonade-out-of-lemon.html

Ghouse on Hannity show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYHm2fafBu0

Horowitz frightens the Jews
http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2011/02/horowitz-frightens-jews.html

Mike Ghouse on KBOO Radio in Portland
http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/02/mike-ghouse-on-kboo-907-fm-portland.html

Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer. He runs the Foundation for Pluralism championing the idea of co-existence through respecting and accepting the otherness of other and is committed to nurturing the pluralistic ideals embedded in Islam through the World Muslim Congress.

Mike is available to speak on Pluralism, Islam, Civil Societies, and Peace & Justice at your place of worship, school, work place, seminars or conferences.  He is a media commentator offering pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. 

Mike's work is reflected at three websites & twenty two Blogs listed at http://www.MikeGhouse.net/

Congratulations to Egyptian People

May the aspirations of Egyptians for self governance come true, Amen! Thank God, Mubarak listened to the people and hopefully retains some dignity. It is good for him and good for Egyptians and it will be good for Israel and the region.

Israel need not worry, it is a people to people relationship and not between Netanyahu and Mubarak to die off. The right wingers in Israel need to re-think their overtures and focus on building bridges, their fears are legitimate but they need to shape the future through participation and not wishing and scheming.

United States should always side with the people, if not we will lose them all. We talk democracy and time to act democracy.  I know Obama will do the right thing and I have a five step advice for him.

Americans together was formed on 2010 Christmas day, honoring Jesus the Pluralist to build cohesive societies.

My appearance on Fox, talk on two Radio stations and write up in Dallas Morning News and several places:

Advise to Obama, Dallas Morning News

http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2011/02/advise-to-obama-on-egypt.html

Israeli blunders
http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2011/02/israeli-blunders.html

Egypt: A positive change in the making
http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/02/egypt-positive-change-in-making.html

Mubarak Hangs on
http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2011/02/mubarak-hangs-on.html

Radio with Hannity and Shoebet

http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/01/egypt-making-lemonade-out-of-lemon.html

Ghouse on Hannity show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYHm2fafBu0

Horowitz frightens the Jews
http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2011/02/horowitz-frightens-jews.html

Mike Ghouse on KBOO Radio in Portland
http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/02/mike-ghouse-on-kboo-907-fm-portland.html'

Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer. He runs the Foundation for Pluralism championing the idea of co-existence through respecting and accepting the otherness of other and is committed to nurturing the pluralistic ideals embedded in Islam through the World Muslim Congress.

Mike is available to speak on Pluralism, Islam, Civil Societies, and Peace & Justice at your place of worship, school, work place, seminars or conferences.  He is a media commentator offering pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. 

Mike's work is reflected at three websites & twenty two Blogs listed at http://www.MikeGhouse.net/

American Media cannot do it

Is there any one in American Media except NPR and perhaps MSNBC who can do an interview of this kind without risking their jobs? What is amazing is it happens in Israel, the Israeli media  questions the Israeli Government policies, whereas the American Media risks the wrath.

We need to grow up and be fair in our dealings - we need to support Israel's security but should not be unjust to the Palestinians, its a burden on our conscience.

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/rizkhan/2011/02/2011289482599902.html

Obama throws me off compeletely

Advise to Obama on Egypt.

 http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/02/obama-throws-me-off-compeletely.html

What throws me off completely is that every time I write about Obama, within a week he uses similar words in his speech. It's happened time and again. I feel certain that he will speak similar words within a day or two, I just want to register with you before it happens. The article is pasted below.

Ever since I read Obama's speech to the Illinois senate, I have followed him and have written over a dozen articles about him, despite being a Republican, I have voted for him and held two rallies in Carrollton in support of him. He is the right man to bring cohesiveness to America and influence the world with the ideas of inclusivism.

Oddly, unasked, I was considered for two positions with his admin, the last one was special envoy to the OIC. I was told that the state department and particularly Hilary Clinton reads my write ups, whether she does or not, I am thrilled to share the same with you.

This will appear in Dallas Morning News today;

The President must remain focused on aspirations of the people and facilitate a sustainable change with grace and dignity, rather than leaning on individuals. 

We must not forget that the basis of our relationship is between “the People of the United States,” and “the people of Egypt,” and not between Mubarak and Obama.

I would advise the President to have a five fold agenda to develop a sustainable outcome.

President Obama must boldly support the aspirations of the Egyptian people and laud them for breaking the cycle of violence.  We must admire them for giving life to one of the most civilized forms of a political change; non-violence. It is a new experience for the Arab world and due encouragement will pave the way for others with similar aspirations. 

To Mubarak, he could say, “Mr. President you have dutifully served the interests of your people by relinquishing them from wars, anxiety and disruption of their lives through the peace accord with Israel, and now I urge you to honor the wishes of people and earn their respect and live a dignified life as a proud civilian, it is good for you and your people in every imaginable way.”

The legitimate fears of Israel are to be addressed. While assuring our support, we need to ask them to trust the Egyptians and support their aspirations for self determination.

The less we alienate the people the better off we would be, and it would be wise to give room to the Brotherhood to re-align themselves with new realities of the region instead of pushing them to dig in their heels, a Hamas mistake we must not repeat.

The security of region hinges on partnerships rather than aggravations, whether it is the Israelis or the Egyptians, people in distress remember and stick with those who will stand by them.

President Obama is blessed with this Golden opportunity to become a catalyst in shaping the world of democracy particularly in the Arab world. He should not miss a beat in nurturing our relationship with the people; it gives permanency to our policy.

He must reward them for becoming the pioneers of change and offer them a forum to map out their future.

11 Other members of the Texas Faith Panel have shared their opinions as well  at Dallas Morning news - http://religionblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/02/texas-faith-how-would-you-advi.html

# # #

Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer. He runs the Foundation for Pluralism championing the idea of co-existence through respecting and accepting the otherness of other and is committed to nurturing the pluralistic ideals embedded in Islam through the World Muslim Congress.

Mike is available to speak on Pluralism, Islam, Civil Societies, and Peace & Justice at your place of worship, school, work place, seminars or conferences.  He is a media commentator offering pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. 

Mike's work is reflected at three websites & twenty two Blogs listed at http://www.MikeGhouse.net/

Juan Williams defines Muslim garbs

1. Juan Williams is frightened when he sees Muslim 'garbs', really?

2. Juan Williams is pandering to the fears of the "frightened”*

3. Juan Williams signs up $2 Million contract

4. Juan Williams makes a fool of the right wingers

5. Juan Williams - http://tinyurl.com/2al7s2j

6.  Juan Williams - http://tinyurl.com/27zx43n

CHECK OUT THE MUSLIM GARBS
http://muslimswearingthings.tumblr.com/

The frightened souls are those who seek a false sense of security by creating chaos and pitch one American against the other.

Mike Ghouse is a speaker on Pluralism and Islam offering pluralistic solutions to the media and public on issues of the day. His blogs and sites are listed at www.MikeGhouse.net