Things aren’t looking good for NPR. And, we say that as big fans of NPR.

The fallout from independent journalist James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas investigation has been fast and furious. NPR is obviously in major damage control mode and throwing liabilities that look an awful lot like high-powered executives overboard just as fast as they appear on video and audio. All good and proper, but there’s this small detail that like a pebble in one’s shoe is increasingly impossible to ignore. Twice now NPR has made the declarative statement that they rejected the phony $5 million dollar donation offered by an organization posing as a Muslim Brotherhood front group. But twice now seemingly contradictory information has also been released by NPR puts those statements into question.

The first statement was release the same day the first investigative video was released, Tuesday, March 8th:

The fraudulent organization represented in this video repeatedly pressed us to accept a $5 million check, with no strings attached, which we repeatedly refused to accept.

Repeatedly refused. Strong words.

However, a second statement released later that same day appeared to contradict the first:

NPR’s David Folkenflik reports that there were clear signs that the Muslim Education Action Center Trust was not a long-standing organization …

CEO Vivian Schiller tells David that NPR became aware of those peculiarities, and that NPR was vetting the organization. And he has obtained e-mails (not from an official NPR source, but which have been verified by NPR) showing that the network last week asked the fictitious Ibrahim Kasaam for, among other things, verification that the Muslim Education Action Center was qualified as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. It was not, of course.

These seemingly dueling positions were enough of a red flag to prompt my colleague Larry O’Connor to raise the question of how these statements might be reconciled. And today, it looks as though this same scenario’s repeated itself.

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Cross-Posted: TobyToons (Conservative Political Cartoons)

From Josiah Cantrall, BG’s man-on-the-scene in Madison:

Capitol is in an uproar! A man sported a sign, “burn Walker”. Complete with a drawing of Gov. Walker withering in flames of fire.

Protesters recognized me from my Fox News appearances. One lady refused to leave me alone and began yelling my name and position to anyone who’d listen.

She approached a burly union man and continued with her, “Josiah” rant. He then followed me around for over ten minutes. I went up three floors, turned corners, visited every wing of the building and yet, he remained on my trail. He was at least two inches taller and 100 lbs heavier than me.

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Project Veritas:

On Tuesday, Project Veritas released Part 1 of its investigation of National Public Radio. The investigation, in which Project Veritas investigators posed as members of a fictional group founded by “members of the Muslim Brotherhood,” was widely reported in the media and produced a dramatic response from NPR and its board members.

The following video contains conversations between Project Veritas undercover investigator, Simon Templar, and Betsy Liley, NPR’s Senior Director of Institutional Giving.

From the Associated Press:

Wisconsin lawmakers voted Thursday to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from the state’s public workers, ending a heated standoff over labor rights and delivering a key victory to Republicans who have targeted unions in efforts to slash government spending nationwide.

The state’s Assembly passed Gov. Scott Walker’s explosive proposal 53-42 without any Democratic support and four no votes from the GOP. Protesters in the gallery erupted into screams of “Shame! Shame! Shame!” as Republican lawmakers filed out of the chamber and into the speaker’s office.

The state’s Senate used a procedural move to bypass missing Democrats and move the measure forward Wednesday night, meaning the plan that delivers one of the strongest blows to union power in years now requires only Walker’s signature to take effect.

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Last month, New York Times reporter James C. McKinley Jr. falsely reported that an FBI informant who helped to thwart a left-wing terrorist plot had actually encouraged the conspiracy. In the article “Anarchist Ties Seen in ’08 Bombing of Texas Governor’s Mansion” published February 22, 2011 online and in the print edition a day later, the Times indicated that former left-wing activist and BigGovernment.com contributor Brandon Darby urged two anarchists to firebomb the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota [emphasis added]:

Yet federal agents accused two men from these circles of plotting to make firebombs and hurl them at police cars during the convention. An F.B.I informant from Austin, Brandon Darby, was traveling with the group and told the authorities of the plot, which he had encouraged.

We brought this to your attention on February 24th when we asked the Times to correct the record. We noted that according to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota, the assertion Darby “encouraged” the plot was patently false. On February 27th, we brought in Matthew Vadum, an expert on the circumstances surrounding the plot, to provide broader context to the Times’s smear.

Still, the error remained uncorrected.

Then, last week, a source informed BigJournalism.com that the New York Times reporter acknowledged the charge they published against Darby was in fact bogus, but still, the Times did not correct the article.

As of this writing, the false charge against Darby remains in tact.

Today, Brandon Darby filed a lawsuit against New York Times for libel and defamation. An official letter from Mr. Darby:

Darby.Let.031011.Corrected –

A bold move to right an obvious wrong.

Legal brief after the jump: (more…)

Following the recent resignations of NPR President and Chief Executive Vivian Schiller and NPR Foundation Senior Vice President Ron Schiller, the heat is on. James O’Keefe’s sting reminded Middle Americans how NPR unapologetically bashes conservatives and Christians at every turn, while continuing to carry water for the Democrats that fund their existence. No wonder those who had barely begun to countenance the idea of defunding NPR following Juan Williams’ firing are now boldly (and publicly) calling for the feds to pull taxpayer monies immediately.

But as revealing as O’Keefe’s sting proved to be, there has long been another aspect of NPR operations that, although equally egregious, seems to escape many Americans: Namely, the fact that NPR has not-for-profit 501(c)(3) tax exempt status, which means they not only live off the public dole, but do so without paying taxes on the money the public is forced to give them. (It also means that when Democrat fat cats like George Soros dump tons of money into NPR’s coffers, those fat cats get to deduct the donation or at least a portion of it, from their taxes.)

Moreover, although NPR holds the same tax-exempt status as a Church, and the Church is barred from espousing political speech, NPR regularly lambasts Republicans: especially conservatives.

Thus, while both entities hold a 501(c)(3) status, of the two only the Church is required to remain apolitical or lose its tax exemption. (Apparently, the IRS has no problem with the way NPR throws its hat in with the Democrats as each election cycle rolls around.)

When did this double standard arise in our?

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From Badger 14 blog:

According to a report on the Althouse blog this morning, it appears that Cory Mason, a Democrat member of the Assembly (or a member of his staff) is Wisconsin’s Benedict Arnold — the person who last night forced open a ground-floor window (all of them had been bolted shut as a security measure) and allowed a few protesters into the building after hours, who apparently were the ones who then opened various doors to permit a mob of something like 7,000 people to invade the Capitol Building – in violation not just of state law, but of a judge’s order:  “Staying after the building is closed, is prohibited.”

Rep. Mason, a hard-left progressive who apparently has a penchant for defying orders and whose top special-interest campaign contributors are, unsurprisingly, labor unions and teachers (see here), has been a member of the Wisconsin Assembly since 2006, representing Racine.

According to the Racine Post article accompanying this photograph, in his speech Rep. Mason portrayed the budget-repair proposal currently before the Legislative as involving cataclysmic stakes, and he vowed “to fight them” literally to the death(“until we draw our last breath”), so it hardly seems a stretch to suppose that Mason is the Benedict Arnold who felt justified in prying out a few bolts and letting a few protesters in so they could perform a “Trojan horse” maneuver:

Every generation is called upon to fight for the rights it inherited and improve these rights for the future. Brothers and sisters, this is the fight of our generation.

This is history in the making.

Rarely are we as Legislators called upon to make decisions with so much consequence for the rights of our citizens.

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From BG’s man-on-the-scene, Josiah Cantrall:

They secured the building, Assembly is in session. They moved to limit debate to two hours.

Everything should be over by 4 pm.

You saw the death threats correct? Alberta Darling and Glenn Grothman’s were personalized.

Glenn’s was slipped under his door, “the only good republican is a dead republican”.

Three high schools and one middle school walked out of class in opposition to Walker.

1,100 High School students from Madison East and Madison West.

Protesters have limited access to the building, but the word is something big is being planned. Trying to get a bead on it. They are preparing to retaliate.

Only concrete thing is the Sen. Democrats are coming home Sat for the big union rallies.

In today’s The Wall Street Journal:

The unions say they are ready to accept concessions, yet their actions speak louder than words. Over the past three weeks, local unions across the state have pursued contracts without new pension or health-insurance contributions. Their rhetoric does not match their record on this issue.

Local governments can’t pass budgets on a hope and a prayer. Beyond balancing budgets, our reforms give schools—as well as state and local governments—the tools to reward productive workers and improve their operations. Most crucially, our reforms confront the barriers of collective bargaining that currently block innovation and reform.

When Gov. Mitch Daniels repealed collective bargaining in Indiana six years ago, it helped government become more efficient and responsive. The average pay for Indiana state employees has actually increased, and high-performing employees are rewarded with pay increases or bonuses when they do something exceptional.

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The death threats have been pouring in to Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin, and now Truth About Bills has found a threatening letter to Wisconsin Republican Senators. ( via 620 WTMJ )

On March 9^th 2011 this letter containing death threats was sent from a group of people to the Republican Wisconsin Senators, after passing a bill to end union bargaining rights on Wednesday night. At this time the sender has been kept anonymous pending further police investigation.

From: XXXX
Sent: Wed 3/9/2011 9:18 PM
To: Sen.Kapanke; Sen.Darling; Sen.Cowles; Sen.Ellis; Sen.Fitzgerald; Sen.Galloway; Sen.Grothman; Sen.Harsdorf; Sen.Hopper; Sen.Kedzie; Sen.Lasee; Sen.Lazich; Sen.Leibham; Sen.Moulton; Sen.Olsen
Subject: Atten: Death threat!!!! Bomb!!!!

Please put your things in order because you will be killed and your familes
will also be killed due to your actions in the last 8 weeks. Please explain
to them that this is because if we get rid of you and your families then it
will save the rights of 300,000 people and also be able to close the deficit
that you have created. I hope you have a good time in hell. Read below for
more information on possible scenarios in which you will die.

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From Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Demonstrators were carried out of the Assembly by police Thursday as Gov. Scott Walker’s administration again closed and then reopened the building to the public.

About 11:30 a.m., the statehouse was opened after police cleared the Assembly so the body could vote on Walker’s bill on union bargaining.

After protesters said they were willing to risk arrest to block a vote, police began escorting or dragging some of them out.

“Shame! Shame! Shame!” demonstrators shouted.

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A flash mob of protesters, assembled via social media and word of mouth, tried to block the exits from the Wisconsin Capitol as legislatures and staffers were evacuated after a Senate vote Wednesday night.

The Senate passed the Budget Repair bill at 6:22 pm.  As word spread among protesters, thousands immediately descended on the Capitol.  Staffers, speaking to the MacIver News Service on the condition of anonymity for their own safety, talked about the terrifying ordeal they faced trying to get home.

At the time of the vote, there were hundreds of protesters inside the State Capitol. Law enforcement cordoned off areas to separate the staff from the protestors. A group of approximately 30 staff and legislators gathered in the President’s Conference Room near the Senate Chamber to leave as one group.

“Once we open this door, we have to keep moving,” the evacuees were told by law enforcement.

“There were cameras in our faces,” said one staffer. “It was wild.”

Protesters anticipated this move, however. Dozens of them surrounded the Risser Building, where the tunnels end. As the staffers and legislators left the building to get to nearby parking garages, a group of protesters descended on them. Law enforcement quickly tried to get the evacuees back into the Risser Building.  One staffer said an officer literally picked her up and threw her back through the doors in a drastic, but necessary, move to ensure her safety.

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Please excuse my manners – I will postpone formally introducing myself to a later occasion, but time is precious.  As of now, you likely know me as “Ibrahim Kasaam” from the recent undercover videos released by James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas.

Much as with the ACORN story, you have already seen the mainstream media erecting a series of straw men to distract from the true heart of the stories produced by our Project Muslim Brotherhood.  Hint: No, Howard Kurtz, Vivian Schiller was not fired because somebody else said some mean things about the tea party, as your summary suggests.  That is securely at the bottom of NPR’s concerns right now, and I suspect that is why you are focusing on it, like much of the media.

James O’Keefe will be appearing on Hannity’s radio show today with new recordings that will drive this message home.

Don’t get me wrong – there were a tremendous number of angles we pursued in Project Muslim Brotherhood.  The richness of the content in the first video alone is extraordinary, and I look forward to pealing back the layers in my elaboration to come.

However, some astute observers have been able to see through the more salacious – and certainly quite newsworthy – aspects of our first release: namely Ann Coulter and Andrew Breitbart.

Keep in mind the title of this endeavor, as explained in my solicitation letter on www.meactrust.org, is “Project Muslim Brotherhood” (also please donate…we’re poor as heck).  I haven’t been too subtle, but see if you can pick it up:

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Last week, the Volt, GM’s signature hybrid vehicle, turned in a lackluster performance in its first series of road tests by Consumer Reports.  CR told Reuters on Monday that “when you look at the finances, [the Volt] doesn’t make any sense.”  The publication went on to note that the Volt was “not particularly efficient as an electric vehicle and not particularly good as a gas vehicle… This is going to be a tough sell to the average consumer.”

GM and the Feds are betting the farm — and their credibility — on the Volt.  As Truth About Cars editor Edward Niedermeyer wrote last year in the New York Times, the history of the Volt was never about making a “best in class” green vehicle, it was always about making the bailout look palatable – whatever the cost.  And according to Niedermeyer, it’s quite a cost:

“Start with the $50 billion bailout…add $240 million in Energy Department grants doled out to G.M. last summer, $150 million in federal money to the Volt’s Korean battery supplier, up to $1.5 billion in tax breaks for purchasers and other consumer incentives, and some significant portion of the $14 billion loan G.M. got in 2008 for ‘retooling’ its plants, and you’ve got some idea of how much taxpayer cash is built into every Volt.”

More troubling still is that the average American taxpayer who foot the bill for GM’s massive bailout, isn’t even getting a car they can afford.  In 2009, Obama’s Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry reported that the Volt “will likely be too expensive to be commercially successful in the short term.”

A Washington Post editorial last August echoed the sentiment, describing the Volt as far too expensive for average Americans and suggesting the only way to sell Volts, even to the well off, was with a large federal subsidy.  It argued that that each Volt subsidy comes at the cost of federally supported income redistribution… to America’s most wealthy.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Robert Tracinski to discuss the uprising in Libya, and Obama’s Free Range Chicken foreign policy. Then, Pejman Yousefzadeh talks about Don Rumsfeld’s new book.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Tracinski: The Intellectual Activist
Our Schizoid Foreign Policy
Time for Barack Obama to say something about Arab democracy
Ben: Myths and the Muslim Brotherhood
Pej: My Podcast Interview With Donald Rumsfeld
Tracinski: Public Unions & the Socialist Utopia
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From 620AM Radio in Wisconsin:

Since the MSM appears intent on downplaying the growing intimidation and escalating threats of violence around the union power issue, I am reprinting verbatim an email that was sent to Republican senators. The email was signed, but I have deleted the name pending what I hope will be a thorough police investigation.

From: XXXX

Sent: Wed 3/9/2011 9:18 PM

To: Sen.Kapanke; Sen.Darling; Sen.Cowles; Sen.Ellis; Sen.Fitzgerald; Sen.Galloway; Sen.Grothman; Sen.Harsdorf; Sen.Hopper; Sen.Kedzie; Sen.Lasee; Sen.Lazich; Sen.Leibham; Sen.Moulton; Sen.Olsen

Subject: Atten: Death threat!!!! Bomb!!!!

Please put your things in order because you will be killed and your familes [sic] will also be killed due to your actions in the last 8 weeks. Please explain to them that this is because if we get rid of you and your families then it will save the rights of 300,000 people and also be able to close the deficit that you have created. I hope you have a good time in hell. Read below for more information on possible scenarios in which you will die.

WE want to make this perfectly clear. Because of your actions today and in the past couple of weeks I and the group of people that are working with me have decided that we’ve had enough. We feel that you and the people that support the dictator have to die. We have tried many other ways of dealing with your corruption but you have taken things too far and we will not stand for it any longer. So, this is how it’s going to happen: I as well as many others know where you and your family live, it’s a matter of public records.

We have all planned to assult [sic]you by arriving at your house and putting a nice little bullet in your head. However, we decided that we wouldn’t leave it there. We also have decided that this may not be enough to send the message to you since you are so “high” on Koch and have decided that you are now going to single handedly make this a dictatorship instead of a demorcratic [sic]process. So we have also built several bombs that we have placed in various locations around the areas in which we know that you frequent.

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