Kevin Mooney's blog

Explosions and fires are a common feature of today’s fictional movies as heroes dodge bullets and conflagrations in pursuit of justice. That might explain why opponents of hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) have decided to dramatize their case against scientific progress by lighting water on fire and then falsely blaming fracking for the blaze.

Thanks to a new film called FrackNation (watch it tonight at 9 pm ET on the AXS cable channel), Americans who have been subjected to such shady journalism will finally get a chance to see the full picture.

Americans who have lost out on their right to vote as a result of fraudulent activity at the ballot box should not expect to attract sympathetic coverage from the New York Times, and other self-proclaimed mainstream outlets. This is particularly true in Rhode Island where ethnic minorities and Democratic lawmakers are disproving the notion that voter identification laws are really about “voter suppression” and “racial discrimination.”  

In response to multiple voter fraud complaints from his own constituents in Providence, Sen. Harold Metts, a black Democrat, led the charge in favor of a new photo voter identification law that is now operative in the Ocean State. Metts is far from alone, however. In fact, despite what the media would have you believe, minorities are more likely to support identification laws than white Americans.

Astronomers and physicists who feel motivated to rationalize their way out of the religious implications of  the “Big Bang,” typically conjure up unsubstantiated theories divorced from the scientific rigor they claim to champion.

This disconcerting assessment is forcefully presented in a series of essays published as part of  a new book authored by David Berlinski, a senior fellow with the Discovery Institute and a noted mathematician. The same atheistic impulses at work within cosmology are evident throughout the scientific community, he argues.

Anti-human environmental extremists are advancing policies that are offensive to civil rights, dangerous to vulnerable populations and in conflict with American freedom, according to a new documentary that premiered Sunday evening.

Global warming propaganda that distorts scientific data could have severe ramifications for average Americans, just as unfounded assertions over the use of DDT triggered a ban that could be responsible for hundreds of millions of deaths in the underdeveloped world, the filmmakers claim.“Not Evil, Just Wrong” calls attention to the growing body of scientific studies that show natural variability as opposed to human activity is responsible for warming and cooling trends.

In many respects, the film serves as a rejoinder to former Vice-President Al Gore’s documentary entitled “An Inconvenient Truth,” which identifies human emissions as the primary culprit behind global warming.

Although large majorities of House and Senate Democrats have voted to cut off funding for ACORN, this rebuke could be reversed as soon as November 1st.

This is a point that has been overlooked in press coverage of the besieged left-leaning community action group. Moreover, even if ACORN (the  Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now) does lose out on public funding it continues to receive support from foundations, corporations and individual donors, including George Soros.

Despite the scope and magnitude of ongoing scandals that have ensnared ACORN officials, there remains a certain slyness to the news coverage in that the focus is on "conservative firestorms" and "McCarthyite tactics" , as opposed to potential felonies that have  been captured on tape, to say nothing of voter fraud registration allegations and financial misappropriation.

Only four Democrats joined with Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) in opposing legislation that would allow organizations with a criminal history to receive federal funding back in April. 

Scientifically unsound claims about global warming are being used to seduce young students and to cajole lawmakers into accepting the legitimacy of regulatory schemes that restrict the use of fossils fuels, according to a new documentary.

The husband-wife team of Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney co-produced and directed  “Not Evil, Just Wrong” in an effort to highlight the long history of  “anti-human propaganda” that reaches back to the scientifically inaccurate claims made about DDT (Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) in Rachel Carson’s 1962 book “Silent Spring.” The same alarmist rhetoric is now being used to rationalize severe limits on carbon dioxide (Co2) emissions that could cripple modern economies, the filmmakers warn.

Reports have been circulated in the past few months that would suggest The Federalist Society will be marginalized under a new administration that places a greater premium on “empathy” than it does on the rule of law. But this assessment overlooks the enormous progress that has been made since the early 1980s in the re-establishment of “originalist” thinking in jurisprudence as an alternative to activism detached from the fixed meaning of the Constitution. 

The dialogue now taking place in academic settings on the proper role of the judiciary and the importance of limited government that the society helped start is more vital now than ever with the nomination of Sonia Sotomayer to the U.S. Supreme Court. Although her confirmation is virtually assured, the overall ideological balance on the court is not likely to change.

Media coverage of successful counter-terrorism operation operations has been lacking and points to an overall lack of awareness toward well-funded, well-coordinated Jihadist efforts inside the U.S., a prominent Muslim-American has warned. Hatred of the West and the U.S. in particular was the primary drive force behind a plot that involved the potential use of explosives and missiles, according to a complaint filed in New York this past May.

The four suspects had planned to discharge explosives outside Jewish community centers and to attack U.S. military aircraft with missiles, authorities claim. This follows on the heels of a planned Jihadist assault on the Fort Dix military base in New Jersey last year that was also thwarted.

Remember those missing weapons that were reported by the New York Times just a few days before the election in 2004, the one where President Bush was re-elected?

"Huge Cache of Explosives Vanished from Site in Iraq," read the headline in the Oct. 25, 2004 edition of the New York Times. The facility in question contained 380 tons of weaponry that were powerful enough to take out buildings, manufacture missile warheads and even produce nuclear weapons, according to reports.

Some bloggers suggested at the time that the report was false and was meant to embarrass the Bush Administration on the eve of the election. Mohammed El Baradei, who was then the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), allegedly submitted a "false letter" about the explosives to the media in an effort to sabotage Bush, one blogger wrote.

NBC News later reported that the explosives had already been removed by the time U.S. troops arrived at the Al Qaqaa storage facility located south of Baghdad. Fast forward to 2008 and Iraq appears to be missing from the news altogether.

Fast forward to the 2008 election cycle.

On the ballot in Colorado and Nebraska are initiatives aimed at ending government sanctioned racial quotas, set asides and preferential treatment that stand a strong chance of passing, if recent history is any indication.

When presented with the opportunity in California and Michigan voters rejected race-based affirmative action practices by sizable margins, while preserving other outreach programs that operate under the banner of affirmative action.

Unfortunately, news media coverage of the campaign on behalf of race and gender neutral policies has been "deceptive, shallow and highly biased," Ward Connerly, chairman of the American Civil Rights Institute (ACRI) said in an interview.

There is very little in the way of "nuance" in media reports that fail to distinguish between preferential treatment policies that run counter to American ideals and benign practices that seek to expand opportunity, he observed.

Over the past month a Nexis search shows that civil rights ballot measures in both states have received a paucity of coverage and are usually intermixed with reports that concern other ballot questions.

U.S diplomacy has suffered in the Middle East because policymakers dismantled critical instruments of communication in the late 1990s under the mistaken assumption that ideological struggles had ended with the Cold War, a former ambassador to Syria and Israel argues in a new book.

Outlets like the Voice of America (VOA) are critically important to America's strategic interests and policy aims in the Muslim and Arab world where moderate elements are open to persuasion despite previous diplomatic missteps Ambassador Edward P. Djerejian points out in "Danger and Opportunity: An American Ambassador's Journey Through the Middle East."

To keep pace with media outlets like Al Jazerera, the major Arab satellite TV station, it is imperative to have articulate and fluent Foreign Service officers who can explain and defend U.S. policy in an effective way, Djerejian pointed out in an interview.

Although differing interests and objectives will remain evident in some areas, there is enough common ground that presents diplomats with important opportunities, he suggested.

Destructive fiscal practices that debase the value of the U.S. dollar and slow economic growth have both domestic and foreign policy implications that call out for "Reaganesque" solutions Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief of Forbes Magazine, explained during an interview at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va.

This connection between economically destructive practices on the home front and geopolitical tensions abroad has gone missing from most U.S. media outlets reaching back to beginning of the year, a Nexis search shows.

Only 63 results were produced from a search on news reports that mentioned the weak dollar in connection with Venezuela, Iran and Russia and many of these were from outside the U.S. Publications in Ireland, England and France have focused some attention on the connection between a weak dollar at home and hostile activities abroad, while U.S. news services, with the exception of Forbes Magazine, have largely overlooked this connection.

Three men brought together by their love for American freedom and opposition to communism played a critical, though largely unheralded role, in introducing Ronald Reagan to a national audience, a new book on the conservative movement explains.

Holmes Tuttle, the owner of a Ford dealership in Los Angeles; Henry Salvatori, the founder of Western Geophysical Company; and A.C. "Cy" Rubel of Union Oil Company formed the original "Kitchen Cabinet" of allies and friends to Reagan.

Their story is told in a new book entitled: "Funding Fathers: The Unsung Heroes of the Conservative Movement." Ron Robinson, executive director of Young America's Foundation (YAF) and his co-author Nicole Holpin, point out that behind the scenes key individuals made strategically important financial contributions to that conservative cause.

Prohibitions against profane and obscene language in television broadcasts will be at issue on November 4th when the U.S. Supreme Court reviews a legal challenge to the enforcement practices of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The Parents Television Council (PTC) has filed an amicus brief in the case of FCC vs. Fox Television Stations asking the justices to reject a lower court ruling that concluded government enforcement standards have been "arbitrary and capricious."

Fox Broadcasting filed suit after the FCC reprimanded the network for allowing vulgarities to be aired during live broadcasts of music award shows in 2002 and 2003. One incident involved a singer used a four letter word to rebuke her critics.

In 1978 the Supreme Court did rule in favor of allowing the FCC to police radio and television broadcasts during time slots when children were most likely to be in the audience. FCC v. Pacific Foundation involved broadcasts of the late George Carlin's "seven dirty words" monologue.

As the U.S. troop surge in Iraq has succeeded, leading to a dramatic decline in the number of U.S. casualties in that country, The New York Times’s coverage of the Iraq war also has declined, falling to an all-time low in the last two months, according to a CNSNews.com analysis of stories retrieved on the Nexis database. At The Washington Post, coverage of the war has been significantly lower this year than in previous years.

In the months leading up to the 2004 and 2006 elections, when U.S. casualties were running higher in Iraq, coverage of the Iraq war in both The New York Times and The Washington Post was greater than it has been in the months leading up to the 2008 election, when U.S. casualties have been low.

In August, September and October 2004, the months immediately preceding the last presidential election, The New York Times ran respectively 254, 328 and 383 stories that cited "Iraq" at least five times, according to Nexis searches of The New York Times. In August, September and October 2006, the months immediately preceding the last congressional election, The Times ran respectively 189, 215, and 223 stories that cited "Iraq" at least five times.

Hysteria over global warming has opened the door to restrictive energy policies that greatly jeopardize not only average Americans but also low income families in developing countries who are already beset by rising prices, according a new documentary on the modern environmental movement  

"Not Evil, Just Wrong" takes a hard look at the potential human costs associated with the demands of environmentalism in areas of the world where carbon-based energy sources are vital. The current scare surrounding man-made global warming theories should be viewed within a larger historical context that reaches back to the early 1960s when Rachel Carson's book "Silent Spring," which argued against the use of pesticides like DDT (Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane).

Carson, an American marine biologist, argued that DDT and other pesticides were harmful both to wildlife and to humans. Her book offered up a scenario where birds succumbed to insecticides and stopped singing resulting in a "silent spring."

Former Clinton Administration officials and liberal news media personalities who have been sharply critical of the "The Path to 9/11" miniseries fail to point out that top executives, editors and researchers connected with the docudrama ,who are actually quite left of center themselves, were supportive of the project, according to a new film that explores the controversy.

"The Path to 9/11" is a two part ABC television miniseries that aired on Sept. 10 and 11 in 2006. It is based in part on the 9/11 commission report and presents viewers with a dramatization of the events that lead up to the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D.C. in 2001. The film highlights the U.S. government's ineffective response to terrorism in the 1990s and in the first few months of the Bush administration.

To suggest the "The Path" was conceived for the purpose of singling out and smearing the former president as part of a "right wing hit piece" aimed against the former president simply does not square with reality, since the project was launched and conceived by several openly liberal ABC executives the new film explains.

With violence now receding throughout Iraq a new war documentary that calls attention to emerging alliances and vibrant market centers in a manner that seemed surreal during the apex of the insurgency may in retrospect turn out to be quite prescient.

This hopeful sentiment is strongly shared across the board by filmmakers and soldiers who participated in some of key footage obtained for "Brothers at War" in late 2005 and throughout 2006 when instability and violence eclipsed democratic progress. (http://brothersatwarmovie.com)

In an effort to better understand the experiences of his younger brothers serving in Iraq Jake Rademacher, a professional writer, filmmaker and actor, embedded with U.S. intelligence operatives and combat units operating in sensitive areas prior to when the "troop surge" strategy was implemented.

The end result is a documentary told through the perspective of soldiers who must endure intense fighting in Iraq and long periods of separation from their family members. On his first trip Jake traveled to Mosul, Iraq located in the Ninawa Province near the Syrian border. Here he connected with his brother Isaac Rademacher, a West Point graduate and second in command of an elite Long Range Surveillance Company.

President Clinton failed to move aggressively against Osama Bin Laden and other terrorists in 1990s because he needed to keep his approval ratings high to avoid impeachment, a new documentary on the 9/11 attacks suggests.

A detailed historical account of the tepid U.S. response to terrorist activity throughout the 1990s that lead up to the terrorist strikes on the American homeland in 2001 has been withheld from the public until now thanks to the "Clinton Machine," John Ziegler, the film's writer and director, maintains.

In 2006 the Disney/ABC television network was set to broadcast a two-night, prime time mini-series entitled: "The Path to 9/11" on Sept. 10 and Sept. 11. The critically acclaimed production was based in part on the 9/11 commission report and presents viewers with a dramatization of the events that lead up to the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D.C. in 2001.

The film highlights the U.S. government's ineffective response to terrorism in the 1990s and in the first few months of the Bush administration.

McCarthy-like tactics and techniques are being used to discredit and silence average citizens and public officials who lobby on behalf of tighter borders and vigorous law enforcement, Dan Stein, president for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) has charged in response to a report targeting his organization.

Although press coverage is still weighted against the proponents of immigration reform fewer reporters are willing to help peddle incendiary and inaccurate allegations leveled individuals and groups who have expressed concern over America's porous borders, Stein said in an interview.

Under the guise of "tolerance" The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) saw fit to label FAIR as a "hate group" in one of its most recent "Intelligence Reports." 

This quarterly magazine provides law enforcement officials and the public at large with updated information on "extremist activity," according to the organization's web site.

A "furious nativist tide" fueled in large part by white supremacists and racists linked in with FAIR were largely responsible for the defeat of bipartisan immigration legislation last year, the SPLC contends.

Left wing activists dominated commencement addresses once again for the 15th consecutive year at top schools across the country, according to a survey released through the Young America’s Foundation (YAF).

The various speakers took the opportunity to promote a variety of “recycled messages” on issues like gun rights, “greedy” oil companies, surveillance practices and the War in Iraq, Jason Mattera, a YAF spokesman noted in an interview. However, the question of global warming stood out as the dominate theme, he said.

Former Vice-President Al Gore took his message to Carnegie Mellon University where he urged graduates to help the U.S. reassume its rightful position as a world leader by confronting the challenges associated with global warming.

“Because of the current global strategy of taking as much of the carbon out of the ground as quickly as possible, burning it inefficiently and leaving it as a poisonous, dangerous residue in our atmosphere, we now face unprecedented challenges in science, engineering and public policy,” Gore told audience members.

Contrary to what has been widely reported and suggested in the domestic and foreign media outlets the U.S. actually exceeds Geneva Convention requirements for detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, a former U.S. Army JAG (Judge Advocate General) Corps. captain informs readers in a recently released book.

Allegations of intense mistreatment and torture do not square with the reality Kyndra Miller Rotunda experienced during her deployment to the prison camp at the outset of the War on Terror. In fact, the privileges extended to prisoners are so generous to the point where they actually comprise the safety and security of U.S. guards working at the detention facility, Rotunda explained in an interview.

At one point the U.S. military even went so far as to consider sacrificing a goat for detainees at the end of Ramadan but decided against it only because officials did not want to upset animal rights groups such as PETA, she tells readers.

There are no legal stipulations enshrined in Geneva or any other treaty that compels the U.S. to furnish religious articles to prisoners, she points out. Even so, the U.S. provides each detainee with a Quran and other basic items such as a prayer cap, prayer beads and prayer oil at taxpayer expense, according to the book.

If Benjamin Franklin were to step into the 21st Century, he would be an avid blogger lending his expertise on science, politics, finances, foreign diplomacy, world travel and perhaps dating.

This observation comes from Jane Hampton Cook in her just released book on the American Revolution entitled: "Battlefields and Blessings: Stories of Faith and Courage from the Revolutionary War."

Franklin, being one of the most influential founding fathers, had a powerful understanding of the ability to communicate persuasively to a wide audience Cook explained in an interview.

Although he was known worldwide for his inventions and experiments, Franklin's most enduring legacies may have been in the realm of philosophy and politics, Cook said.

"He would be one of the smartest, wittiest and clever writers on the blogosphere," she said. "The ability to instantaneously express his opinion would be irresistible to him. Blogging would thrill a man with his ability and creativity."

The overspending on Capitol Hill and the high consumption lifestyle of many contemporary Americans would probably figure into Franklin's commentary in light of his parsimonious lifestyle, the book suggests.

While it may fashionable to believe America's civil liberties have been sacrificed in the name of dubious national security claims, a careful reading of recent history suggests the opposite is true, Victor Davis Hanson told a gathering of fellow conservatives last week.

Hanson, a nationally syndicated columnist, author and senior fellow with the Hoover Institution, addressed colleagues and supporters gathered together at the Kennedy Center last Thursday for the 2008 Bradley Prizes. He was among four new recipients.

Preachers, authors and filmmakers continue to ply their trade in an unfettered fashion, even as the embrace provocative, incendiary and often tasteless material, Hanson observed in his remarks.

The threat to freedom of expression in contemporary times comes not from government censorship, but instead stems from "the tyranny of good intentions" coupled together with an unwillingness to exercise moral judgment, he argued.

In response to those in the media and elsewhere who incessantly warn against renegade government officials restricting speech rights Hanson implored listeners to stop and "think for a minute."

Contrary to what was written and said in the liberal media Jerry Falwell held political beliefs that were actually quite "middle of the road" with regard to key cultural questions such as abortion, birth control, school prayer and homosexuality, according to a new biography written by his widow.

"While he opposed abortion, Jerry would have accepted legislation that allowed it in the case of rape, incest or if the mother's life was in danger," Macel Falwell tells readers in her new book "Jerry Falwell: His Life and Legacy." Moreover, Falwell believed the civil rights of homosexuals should be safeguarded, despite harboring moral objections to the homosexual lifestyle, she explains.

The prominent televangelist and evangelical Christian pastor, who co-founded the "Moral Majority" in the late 1970s, was a congenial, likable man many steps removed from the "bizarre public persona" incorporated into media portraits, Falwell observes in one of her earlier chapters.

With Pope Benedict coming to visit the United States next week relations between Roman Catholics and Protestants will likely be the subject of media scrutiny. The pope's itinerary includes a visit to the White House with President Bush, a Protestant, who was re-elected with 51 percent of the Catholic vote in 2004, despite running against a Catholic.

Although certain doctrinal differences remain in place, conservative Catholics and Evangelical Christians have been drawing closer together in recent years, according to a new book that explores the growing influence of Christian voters.

Deal Hudson, the executive director of the Morley Institute for Church and Culture in Washington D.C., describes some of the key factors responsible for the convergence between conservative minded American Catholics and Protestants in his just released book.

Age old grievances have gradually receded to the point where Christians from various denominations have joined together to resist secular assaults on shared values, Hudson argues in  "Onward Christian Soldiers: The Growing Political Power of Catholics and Evangelicals in the United States."

War veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan have been touring the country over the past few weeks in an effort to focus public attention on recent strategic gains in the war against terrorism. Vets for Freedom(VFF) is a non-partisan organization with 20,000 members and 44 chapters. Captain Pete Hegseth, who served with the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq in 2005 and part of 2006, serves as the executive director.

The VFF's "National Heroes Tour" was launched aboard the U.S.S. Midway in San Diego, California in mid-March and included stops in Los Angeles; Phoenix, Ariz.; San Antonio, Texas; Des Moines, Iowa; Fort Campbell, Ky.; Columbia, S.C. and Virginia Beach, Va. Today the Vets are visiting Capitol Hill where they are working to persuade members of Congress to fully support the military mission in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The tour continues up to New York City tomorrow.

A critically acclaimed, widely viewed docudrama that ties in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing with the 9/11 attacks has not been released on DVD because the Walt Disney Company’s chief executive officer is protecting Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, and her husband’s legacy, a mutual fund manger argued at the company’s annual shareholder meeting last week.

Disney’s unwillingness to make the film available on DVD suggests Chief Executive Officer Robert Iger is working to advance his own political interests at the expense of shareholders, Tom Borelli, a portfolio manager with the Free Enterprise Action Fund contends. Iger has been a consistent and steady contributor to Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.), Borelli pointed out. He also asked Disney officials to explain why they have thus refused to sell the film rights to Lionsgate.

The exchange between Borelli and Iger is available here.

Iraq’s Anbar Province has awakened, the U.S. military is on the offensive, and Al Qaeda and is on the run but it is a mistake to assume this dramatic turnaround is exclusively the result of additional troops, J.D. Johannes, a former Marine and television news producer explained in an interview.

Johannes traveled to Iraq with the Marine Corps unit he previously served with in 2005 with the intention of pursuing syndicated television reports. This project grew into a documentary called “Outside the Wire: Call Sign Vengeance” that told the story of a Marine platoon on deployment in Fallujah.

Three additional documentaries followed from a subsequent trip in 2007 as part of “Outside the Wire.” The film, "Anbar Awakens," was screened during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washignton D.C. last month. It highlights the partnership between coalition forces and Sunni tribes. The film points out that in 2006 a classified report had declared the province to be lost.

Prior to becoming a serious presidential candidate in the run up to the 1964 election Barry Goldwater was on the receiving of favorable press coverage and even led a “charmed life” that he was reticent to give up, according to a new book that explores the origins of the modern conservative movement.

In the spring and summer months of 1961 Time, Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report all ran positive and often highly complimentary stories on the Republican senator from Arizona. His popularity among college students and his growing influence within the party were widely acknowledged. 

“Goldwater has more than his share of political sex appeal,” a Time Magazine piece observed.