America is destroying itself through Balkanization by “diversity.” Here’s an example described in this article from Townhall:

“I pledge allegience to my black people”
Mar 15, 2006
by Michelle Malkin

One of the nation’s fastest-rising poetry prodigies is a 7-year-old New York girl whose poisonous demagogic advocacy of black separatism makes Al Sharpton look like Mister Rogers.

Autum Ashante’ of Mount Vernon, N.Y. … recites her verses not only in English, but also in fluent Swahili and Arabic (she attended the Islamic Darul Arkam School in Mount Vernon).

Most recently, as New York Post education reporter David Andreatta reported this weekend, she was invited to perform at public middle and high schools in Peekskill, N.Y., for Black History Month….

Autum’s performance also included commanding white students to remain seated as she led black students in a recitation of the “Black Child’s Pledge,” by Black Panther Shirley Williams….

Complaints from shocked students and parents led to a tape-recorded apology sent to all parents apologizing for the performance. Autum’s father condemned white district officials as “racist crackers.” Autum defended her poem by explaining to the Westchester Journal News that white people are “devils and they should be gone. We should be away from them and still be in Africa.”….

Autum Ashante’ is the natural offspring of militant multiculturalism and government-sanctioned identity politics. We reap what we sow.

Do you want to know, dear readers, how truly incompetent the CBS journalism is?

On the evening of February 19, 2006, the CBS program 60 Minutes discussed the cartoon controversy in Denmark. (Transcript here.) In a piece titled The State Of Denmark, Correspondent Bob Simon gave a biased presentation that misrepresented the situation so egregiously that many Danish citizens, journalists, and bloggers were offended.

The next day one of the Danish folk who had seen the broadcast wrote to Michelle Malkin. She posted his fairly long letter in which he contradicted the CBS portrayal of Denmark:

….as I am anxious to let off steam I hope you don’t mind me writing to you….The reason for my upset is the CBS ’60 Minutes’ programme of last night. You see, I have always enjoyed this programme thinking it was based on sound journalistic research. But now I have gotten serious doubts.

This time I am in a position to judge the validity of the statements about Denmark made in the programme by Bob Simon as I am Danish and have followed the cartoon issue since the beginning….

Expose the Left was quick to point out the bias in the television program:

February 20, 2006
60 Minutes Piece Makes Danish Look Responsible for Muslim Riots

On last night’s edition of 60 Minutes, correspondant Bob Simon did the first investigative report about the Mohammed cartoons and how they have effected the Muslim world. In an extremely sarcastic tone, Simon referred to the Danish newspaper who published the cartoons as a “bastion of free speech”. The report makes Denmark look like an unfriendly country….

Kim Priestap summed up the situation with one well-aimed sentence:

It is unfair for the Danes to be portrayed the way they were by 60 Minutes. It’s slanted journalism at its worst.

Five days later, Blue Star Chronicles drew the obvious comparison between the Danish fairy tale and the bad journalism:

The Emperor’s New Clothes
Saturday, February 25, 2006

I watched a 60 Minutes segment the other night in which Bob Simon ‘investigated’ the roots of the Cartoon Riots. With an air of authority and superiority, he portrayed the Danes as child-like and living in a land of fantasy. He implied the whole affair had been set off by the naivete of the Danish nation. He implied the Danes were shocked by the realities of the world focused on them. Oh really? As I was watching this display of overt propaganda, I was seroiusly offended….

Yesterday, the Danish blog Punditokraterne posted a terrific response by a highly respected and impeccably credentialed Danish journalist. Samuel Rachlin, a Danish TV anchor, is a graduate of Copenhagen University and the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University and the Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. From his guest commentary on the blog:

The Correspondent’s New Clothes
By Samuel Rachlin

The picture of Denmark presented by CBS and its 60 Minutes magazine on American TV as a country of aggrandizing, arrogant bigots, blond models and happy-go-lucky fools out of tune and touch with the real world has nothing in common with the country I call home….

This kind of journalism does not have much in common with the tradition of Ed R. Murrow or what his associate, Fred Friendly, taught me at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University when I took my degree there in the late 70ies. The snide asides and sarcasm that permeated the narrative do not mix with the high quality journalism I have learned to expect from 60 Minutes. What we got was a presentation so biased, distorted and corrupted by so many inaccuracies and innuendos that it was impossible to recognize Denmark. I am sorry to say it, but it is shameful for the profession that both Bob Simon and I belong to….

We urge our readers to visit Punditokraterne and read all of this excellent article.

We first discovered this piece through a post at Pia Causa, so a tail wag goes to that blog.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006
60 Minutes: Go Dig Your Grave

Samuel Rachlin is sharp and to the point, – and he sums it up on behalf of all of us….

Do you want to know, dear readers, how truly incompetent the CBS journalism is? When we studied journalism (as an elective, not our main field of endeavor) we learned that the first rule was — to spell the last name of the subject correctly. If you got nothing else right, if you couldn’t spell, if you were dreadful at grammar, at least write down the last name of the person being written about, and make sure it was spelled correctly. Our teacher called it “the first rule of journalism.”

The whole cartoon controversy began when a Danish author of books for children had difficulty finding an illustrator who was willing to draw the pictures for the book. So this author is at the heart of the whole story. His name is KÃ¥re Bluitgen.

Here are some paragraphs from the CBS transcript:

….The riots, reaching from Jerusalem to Jakarta, can all be traced back to the most unlikely of places: a cluttered work space in the apartment of Kare Buitgen, a writer of children’s books.

“Well, it’s sad to see what happens now,” Buitgen says. “I wrote a book about the Prophet Muhammad to promote better understanding between cultures and religions here in Denmark.”

Buitgen had trouble finding someone to illustrate his book. Muslims don’t permit representations of their prophet, and illustrators were afraid of offending the Muslim community in Denmark.

Buitgen’s problem became known to the editors of Denmark’s largest newspaper. Its cultural editor, Flemming Rose, said he was offended by what he called this self-censorship. He explained himself in an interview that aired on the BBC….

CBS consistently misspells Bluitgen’s last name.

Previous coverage:

The Jyllands-Posten Cartoons: article

The Jyllands-Posten Editorial Cartoons: images

The Jyllands-Posten Cartoon Wars, A Perspective: article

Origins Of The Cartoon Wars: article

The Bluitgen Illustrations: images

General Michael Hagee, Marine Corps commandant, has announced that he will step down from that office a few months before his expected retirement date. From the online news service Inside Defense:

Inside the Navy
March 13, 2006

Marine Corps Commandant May Retire Early, DoD Seeks Successor

Gen. Michael Hagee, who is challenging Pentagon plans to cut his service’s end strength by 5,000 Marines, may step down as Marine Corps commandant months before his four-year term expires next January.

By law, Hagee will no longer be commandant Jan. 13, 2007. But in a brief interview last week with Inside the Navy, Hagee signaled the change could come sooner. He said he would step down as commandant “sometime between now and the 13th of January.”

Service and defense industry sources tracking the issue said Hagee is likely to step down by this summer or early fall.

Hagee said the exact timing is up to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who must pick the new commandant in consultation with the president. “That will be up to the secretary of defense as he looks as to who the individual will be who relieves me, and then of course he’ll talk to the president about that,” Hagee told ITN March 8.

Rumsfeld is interviewing candidates for Hagee’s job and other senior positions, according to military and industry sources….

Hagee is not known for publicly fighting with Pentagon leaders, but at a recent breakfast with reporters he voiced his disagreement with the Quadrennial Defense Review’s recommendation to slash Marine Corps end strength from 180,000 to 175,000 by fiscal year 2011. Hagee reiterated his views when senators questioned him at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing March 9….

This would be a tragedy if General Hagee is stepping down because he went against Rumsfeld on the end strength issue from the QDR. Of course it would not be that big of a surprise, would it? Rumsfeld gets rid of anyone who does not agree with him.

On a related note, there is an earlier article in Inside Defense about Hagee’s initial response to the QDR’s recommendation to slash Marine Corps end strength:

QDR’S CALL TO SHRINK FORCE SPURS MARINE CORPS TO DO ITS OWN STUDY

Inside the Navy, Feb. 21, 2006 — Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Michael Hagee, who disputes the Quadrennial Defense Review’s recommendation to slash his service’s end strength by 5,000 Marines, is launching his own study to re-examine the issue.