January 22, 2015

Here's how you get around the problem of having to apologize for misreporting "no-go zones" when you're Fox News: Put Bobby Jindal on the air to contradict your retraction.

Listen very carefully to how Jindal phrases his claim, though. Instead of saying these so-called "no-go zones" exist in concrete terms, he instead says there are "some places they're reluctant to go."

Reluctance isn't no-go. Sorry, Bobby. God forbid Cavuto would have actually forced Jindal to name even one of these mythical zones.

No-go zones are beside the point, though. What Jindal really wants the audience to hear over and over again is the term "radical Islamic jihadists". Because fear. Be very afraid.

"If people don't want to come here to integrate and assimilate, what they're really trying to do is set up their own culture, their own communities," Jindal said. "What they're really trying to do is overturn our culture. We need to recognize that threat."

"If we don't, we're gonna see a replica of what's happening in Europe in America," Jindal continued. "We're gonna see our own no-go zones if we're not serious about insisting on assimilation and integration."

Cavuto also asked Jindal to comment on former MSNBC guest Arsalan Iftikhar who on Monday accused Jindal of "trying to scrub some of the brown off his skin."

"It's foolish that MSNBC even gave somebody like this a platform," Jindal said.

He also discussed his parents' decision to come to America.

"We need to stop calling ourselves African Americans, Indian Americans," Jindal said, "My parents came here over 40 years ago…. If they wanted us to be Indians, they would've stayed in India."

Cavuto then asked whether he'd take anything back.

"Absolutely not," Jindal said.

Jindal's own cultural bias against Muslims goes way back. India is primarily a Hindu nation, and the 1947 partition was intended to segregate Muslims in Pakistan. Conflicts have raged ever since, mostly over Kashmir. Jindal may have assimilated, but I somehow doubt he forgot the deep-seated prejudice he likely grew up with.

Every Republican in the clown car has his purpose at this point. Jindal's is to keep the Islamophobia running high, while stoking some hate and fear. Romney and Bush are the billionaires' boys. Huckabee serves the religious right contingent. Rand Paul, the libertarians, and so on. By splitting the wedges into tiny slivers, Republicans can hog endless news cycles with a lot of nothing while tossing red meat to their base.

As long as Fox News is willing to give them the air, they'll blow some heat in it.

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