Down the Drain

As I monitored C-SPAN yesterday with the immigration reform debacle, at times it was simply too irritating to continue. What with Harry Reid whining on the Senate floor that they would have to work late last night and today to get the pending amendments disposed with, and horror of horrors, they may actually have to work on Friday, too, you would think they were unpaid volunteers. I think with the more than generous compensation package awarded to these people, they would be too embarrassed to behave as slackers. He insisted on putting cloture up for a vote, originally slated for yesterday before the loyal opposition found their collective backbones and demanded to be heard through at least some of their amendments before Reid rammed the most extensive legislation in decades through the Senate, without benefit of committee hearings prior to coming to the floor for a vote. Need I remind you it was Teddy, the swimmer, Kennedy who began this push to change the demographics of America in 1965 as he was being upstaged by his older brother the president and his other older brother, the Attorney General, on civil rights? How's his grand ideas worked out so far?

One of the programs I watched from my taped assortment during a break from the illegal immigration irritation was a program on C-SPAN about the recent PBS series, America at the Crossroads, a themed series concerning the world post 9/11 and the world of Islam. Why would PBS want to silence moderate voices of Islam? That is the question.

As background, the series was a $20 million project of PBS consisting of 12 one hour documentaries on Islam today. Research and development grants were awarded to 35 out of 440 proposals submitted. Of the 35, 12 were chosen to be aired. However, only 11 of the 12 were actually aired. One was rejected and not shown with the rest of the series.

One documentary was blacklisted after submission. Yes, blacklisted in 2007, just like the bad old days in Hollywood. The name of the documentary is "Islam vs. Islamists" and it was made by three partners, one of whom is Frank Gaffney. Gaffney filled the role of co-executive producer. He was not involved in the writing of the narrative. It was his first film making venture. Gaffney is often criticized by the left as being one who pushes a conservative agenda. That's interesting since he is a Democrat. Since he founded the Center for Security Policy in 1988, an agency that strives for bi-partisan consensus on national security, it is assumed he must be a conservative. Talk about a fish out of water at PBS.

After rising to the level of selection as one of the 35 documentaries issued a development grant, there was a four month delay in the partners receiving the promised grant. That is when the discovery of the blacklisting occurred. The proposal was encountering opposition from some who wanted to edit and change it. Then the finished product was labeled as 'failing to meet their (PBS) standards', according to Gaffney. It was not aired. Again, because Gaffney and his partners would not allow their work to be edited and changed.

I'm sure it is just a coincidence that Gaffney's project was the only documentary, as it turns out, to be a true forum for the moderate voice of Islam. By balancing the radical agenda of the Islamofacists with moderate, professional Muslims like doctors, journalists and politicians, a more true picture is captured. This documentary shows the agenda of the Islamists as the political agenda striving to a totalitarian dominance of the free world. Islamists are much like the Nazi thugs in brown shirts pre-World War II. The Islamists are developing parallel societies with Sharia code as the governing force in European countries and we've all ready seen the problems with Islamic extremists in countries like France and England. Networks are establishing in America with the same goals in mind. In Sharia code, it is a violation of Islam to participate in democratic politics. Moderates are pronounced as non-Muslims and are issued death threats.

Gaffney hopes to one day have the freedom to show his documentary to the American public. At present time it is out of his hands. PBS spent $675,000 of taxpayer monies on this project and has no plans to air it. They have tossed him a small bone recently, however, as it all comes into the sunshine of the public light. They now have told him PBS may show it on 'off' hours, other than prime time programming. You know, like in the middle of the night. And certainly the documentary will not receive any publicity from them. The very liberal elitists at PBS are the exact same Americans the Islamists would kill first.

$675,000 of taxpayer money down the drain because of popular elitist thought. PBS may want to think all we have to do is try to be friends with the radical Muslim population and they will not harm us. How naive. What were we doing on 9/11, other than going to work, taking our children to school, going about our day?

Frank Gaffney began public service in 1975 by working for Scoop Jackson, a Democrat. Still a Democrat, he moved into the Reagan administration. Richard Perle, a Democrat at the time, is a former boss. Now Perle is assailed as a 'neoCon' and Gaffney suspects his previous professional association with him may have been the cause of the blacklisting. Who knows. PBS has no courage to be honest and open minded to the ways of the world. It's their way or the highway, which is also how the left characterizes the governing of President Bush.

The person who axed the showing of the documentary is Sharon Rockefeller, wife of Senator Jay Rockefeller. She is the President and CEO of WETA, D.C.'s PBS station behind the project.

Gaffney has a website: www.freethefilm.net and will keep it updated with any news on when the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, created by the Federal Government, which owns the distribution rights to the film, will allow it to be aired. Gaffney and his partners own the film but not the distribution rights.

Why would PBS want to silence moderate voices of Islam?