Farah's (And WND's) Military Cluelessness Topic: WorldNetDaily
Joseph Farah spends his July 8 WorldNetDaily column bashing President Obama for a 1983 newspaper article he wrote as a Columbia undergraduate that advocated a reduction in nuclear arms -- which, of course, Farah dismissed as a "screed ... hat denounced U.S. defense policies." Farah falsely asserted that in the article, Obama "preferred to see deep unilateral disarmament by the U.S."; in fact, the article says nothing about unilateral disarmament.
Farah then repeated claims Obama made in a campaign ad that purportedly "affirmed those ideas" fromthe 1983 article. One of those claims was "I will slow our development of future combat systems," to which Farah responds, "This illustrates the man sitting in the White House today believes America should disarm unilaterally."
Farah has no idea what he is talking about. Obama was not referring to slowing development of all "future combat systems." In fact, Future Combat Systems is a specific Pentagon program launched in 2003 with the goal of modernizing Army weapons systems. It has long been troubled by cost overruns and dubious effectiveness of the planned weapons.
Even Obama's 2008 opponent, John McCain, agreed with Obama, asserting that the FCS program "should be ended" (later amended to "slowed").
Farah's problem appears to be that he's getting his information from his own website. Indeed, all the references to Obama'sstatement about Future Combat Systems in WND's archive treat the term as an all-encompassing generic reference and not the name of a specific military program. Needless to say, since WND writers are utterly clueless about the nature of the program, there's no mention of its troubled history.
So, what Farah was intending as a quick, cheap shot against Obama only exposes Farah's own ignorance.
Your WND Obama Lie of the Day Topic: WorldNetDaily
Aaron Klein writes in a July 7 WorldNetDaily article:
In a revelation that raised a few eyebrows, Obama in April 2008 disclosed he traveled as a college student to Pakistan in 1981.
[...]
Pakistan in 1981 was under military rule. It was difficult for U.S. citizens to travel to the country without assistance. It would have been easier for someone to enter Pakistan on an Indonesian passport.
In fact, as we've detailed, it was not particularly difficult to enter Pakistan in 1981 on a U.S. passport. A June 1981 New York Times article states that "Tourists can obtain a free, 30-day visa (necessary for Americans) at border crossings and airports," and an August 1981 State Department travel advisory explains how Americans can obtain visas for visiting Pakistan. Klein writes that Obama was in Pakistan for "about three weeks," which dovetails nicely with a 30-day visa.
The gist of Klein's article, by the way, is his attempt to twist Obama's description of Jakarta as a "home town" into evidence that Obama was an Indonesian citizen.
Newsmax Strikes Out in Linking Franken, ACORN Topic: Newsmax
The surprise found in a July 6 Newsmax article by David Patten is not that Patten is trying to smear Al Franken by baselessly linking him to ACORN -- Patten has alongrecord of making baseless claims about the long post-election Minnesota Senate battle between Franken and Norm Coleman -- it's that the Capital Research Center's Matthew Vadum is sticking a little closer to the facts these days.
Like Patten, Vadum has a record of playing fast and loose with the facts, particularly aboutACORN. This time, Vadum manages to resist the excesses of Patten's anti-Franken spin: While Patten asserts that Patten "stops just short of saying ACORN grabbed the election away from Coleman," he made it clear that Vadum actually stopped a lot shorter than that by writing, "Vadum says he has no evidence ACORN manipulated the outcome in Minnesota, and Coleman's own attorneys have said the same thing."
Indeed, the only involvement in the Minnesota Senate race Vadum can offer is tangental -- "ACORN helped Minnesota's secretary of state, Mark Ritchie, get elected in 2006." But Patten shoots Vadum down here too:
Vadum blames Coleman's repeated setbacks on "the permissive environment created by the secretary of state who is ACORN's man -- endorsed by them, and ACORN supporters gave money to him."
None of which indicates ACORN has done anything improper, let alone illegal, in Minnesota.
Indeed, despite Patten's article carrying the headline "Experts: Did ACORN Elect Al Franken?" Patten proves that the answer is a definitive no. Later in his article, he's moved to point out again that "None of which, it should be noted again, proves that ACORN did anything wrong in Minnesota."
Patten's "experts," by the way, are all right-wingers -- Vadum, Hans von Spakovsky, a right-wing Minnesota blogger, and the vice president of the Republican National Lawyers Association. As per Newsmax style, only the Republican lawyer is identified by ideology, and that appears to be because it's in the name of her group.
Farah Still Pushing Discredited Obama Birth Certificate Claims Topic: WorldNetDaily
In a softball interview with Examiner.com's "Orlando Republican Examiner" Blas Padrino, Joseph Farah is still repeating false and discredited claims about Barack Obama's birth certificate.
Farah referenced a "sworn affidavit from the translator of the interview with Sarah Obama, Barack's grandmother, who said she was at his birth in Mobassa." But as we've detailed, that claim has been discredited, and WND has never posted the affadavit for public view, let alone informed readers to whom the affadavit is "sworn."
In response to a question from Padrino about whether getting named "Worst Person in the World" by Keith Olbermann is "a sign that your efforts are paying off," Farah said:
When people have to lie about what you do and say repeatedly to mock and criticize you, then you know you must be doing all right. Olbermann obsesses over the fact that one WND news report seemed to challenge the idea that the certification of live birth was fraudulent. But this has never been an issue for me or WND. I have never challenged the certification of live birth as a forgery. The problem is that the real thing is meaningless to the issue of whether he is constitutionally qualified.
In fact, as we've detailed, the August 2008 WND article in question didn't merely "seem to challenge the idea that the certification of live birth was fraudulent," it specifically declared that a "WND investigation" found that the certificate was "authentic" and that Philip Berg's lawsuit questioning Obama's birth "relies on discredited claims." There is no ambiguity, despite what Farah suggests.
Further, contrary to Farah's claim that the veracity of the certificate "has never been an issue for me or WND," WND has promotedclaims attacking the certificate's veracity.
And the part about knowing "you must be doing all right" when "people have to lie about what you do and say repeatedly to mock and criticize you"? Farah must be talking about histreatment of us and anyone else who dares to tell the truth about him.
CNS Tries to Link House Global Warming Bill, Weather At Time of Vote Topic: CNSNews.com
Edwin Mora uses a July 7 CNSNews.com article to bizarrely attempt to draw a relationship between the House's passage of a bill regulating greenhouse gas emissions and the weather in Washington at the time of the vote, which "averaged more than 4 degrees cooler than normal."
It didn't work, of course -- Mora was forced to concede that "Temperatures of individual states or districts do not pinpoint what is going on globally" and quoted a scientist at the liberal Center for American Progress saying that "April was the fifth warmest April globally and it said that May was the fourth warmest May on record" -- both of which blow out of the water his suggestion that below-normal weather for a week in Washington means there's no global warming.
Still, Mora did his best to cling to his baseless theory, citing none other than Alan Carlin, an EPA researcher who wrote a report "that had raised questions about the validity of the agency's conclusions on global warming." At no point, however, does Mora mention the fact that Carlin is not a climate scientist or that actual climate scientists have disputed his research (as we've noted).
Examiner Misleads Again on ACORN Topic: Washington Examiner
The Washington Examiner's war against ACORN continues with a July 7 package of stories that leave out certain pertinent information.
One article by Kevin Mooney uncriticially repeats Anita MonCrief's attacks against ACORN without mention that MonCrief was fired by ACORN affiliate Project Vote for, among other things, opening a credit card account in Project Vote's name that she used for personal expenses.
And a section of "sound bites" quotes "blogger Weasel Zipper" -- doesn't that just exude credibility? -- calling Obama judicial appointee David Hamilton "a fundraiser for the liberal activist group ACORN" without noting that Hamilton did so for only one month after graduating from college.
A July 6 WorldNetDaily article by Jerome Corsi states:
WND is in possession of an affidavit submitted by Rev. Kweli Shuhubia, an Anabaptist minister in Kenya, who is the official Swahili translator for the annual Anabaptist Conference in Kenya, and a second affidavit signed by Bishop Ron McRae, the presiding elder of the Anabaptists' Continental Presbytery of Africa.
In his affidavit, Shuhubia asserts "it is common knowledge throughout the Christian and Muslim communities in Kenya that Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., was born in Mombasa, Kenya."
Shuhubia further states in his affidavit that he visited Obama's grandmother at her home in the village of Alego-Kogello, on Oct. 16, 2008, in order to conduct a telephone conference interview that would connect with McRae in the United States.
During the telephone interview, McRae specifically asked Sarah Obama two times, "Were you present when your grandson was born in Kenya."
"Both times she specifically replied, 'Yes,'" Shuhubia affirmed in the affidavit.
"Ms. Sarah Hussein Obama was very adamant that her grandson, Senator Barack Hussein Obama, was born in Kenya, and that she was present and witnessed his birth in Kenya, not the United States," Shuhubia continued in the affidavit.
"During the conversation, Ms. Sarah Hussein Obama never changed her reply that she was indeed present when Senator Barack Obama was born in Kenya," Shuhubia insisted in the affidavit.
As we've detailed, this claim has been discredited. The rest of the story was reported by Slate last December:
On Oct. 16 [2008], an Anabaptist minister named Ron McRae called Sarah Hussein Obama, the president-elect's 86-year-old paternal step-grandmother, at her home in Kenya. Two translators were on the line when McRae asked if the elder Obama was "present" when the president-elect was born. One of the translators says "yes." McRae contacted Berg and gave him a partial transcript of the call with a signed affidavit. He opted not to include the rest of the call, in which he asks the question more directly—"Was he born in Mombassa?"—and the translators, finally understanding him, tell him repeatedly that the president-elect was born in Hawaii.
Corsi makes no mention of the Salon version of the story, let alone make any effort to rebut it. Further, neither Corsi nor WND has ever posted online the affadavit it claims to have, so it's impossible to independently judge its authenticity or veracity -- an issue because Corsi has a history of peddling bogus documents from Kenya.
Consider the missing affadavit yet another of the many things WND has kept hidden about its coverage of the Obama birth certificate conspiracy.
New Article: Jackie Mason, Humorless Obama-Hater Topic: WorldNetDaily
The legendary funnyman appears to have given up his career in comedy to hurl bile at President Obama. Read more >>
WND's Tea Party Roundup Less Than Comprehensive Topic: WorldNetDaily
Joseph Farah proclaimed in his July 6 WorldNetDaily column that "WND's coverage of the anti-Obama tea parties this past weekend was deeper and more comprehensive than the rest of the establishment, corporate press combined," asserting that the "mainstream" press failed to offer "a sweeping overview of what happened on Independence Day in America."
But WND's tea party coverage wasn't exactly comprehensive either.
WND generated just two original articles on the subject -- an article by Joe Kovacs on one rally in West Palm Beach, Fla. (coincidentally, home of WND rival Newsmax), and an unbylined roundup of tea party highlights from across the country.
That roundup, which Farah touted so highly, presented an airbrushed version of the rallies, taking care to gloss over or ignore anything that might make the protesters look bad. For instance, WND mentioned the apperarance of Samuel "Joe the Plumber" Wurtzelbacher at one rally, but failed to mention what he had to say in an anti-immigrant screed: "I believe we need to spend a little more on illegal immigrants. Get them the hell out of our damn country and close the borders down. We can do it. We’ve got the greatest military in the world and you’re telling me we can’t close our borders? — That’s just ridiculous."
WND also touted the appearance at one Texas rally of "Gov. Rick Perry, who became the first elected official to sign the "Contract with the Constitution," a document that espouses 10 principles including limiting the role of the federal government, protecting the right to bear arms and amending the Constitution to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman." At no point does WND mention that Perry, along with Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn, also got booed.
WND fails to mention that at least two tea party attendees -- including actress Victoria Jackson -- advocated impeachment of Obama, and at least one suggested mounting a coup against the president.
A July 5 WorldNetDaily article by Chelsea Schilling proclaims Richard Botkin's revisionist take on the Vietnam War to be "a war story the state-run media hate to reveal." Schilling, however, fails to mention two salient facts that real reporters would have done in the interest of full disclosure:
AIM: Environmentalists Are Nazis Topic: Accuracy in Media
In the "personal destruction" section of Accuracy in Media's "What Liberals Say" website lists a pair of quotes under the heading "Comparing George Bush with Adolf Hitler."
Apparently, AIM doesn't consider Nazi comparisons "personal destruction" anymore: A July 2 "AIM Report" by Mark Musser describes the Nazis' purported environmentalism -- "a secular religion of nature" -- that was a part of the Nazi blend of "nationalism, socialism, ecology, race and nature protection."
While Musser himself doesn't make an explicit link between Nazis and today's environmentalists, that's clearly the goal of the piece, and the headline -- "The Green Nazi Hell and America’s Future?" -- makes that goal all too clear. Meanwhile, Cliff Kincaid says what Musser didn't in his notes at the end of the column:
The Nazis were also national socialists. And that is the path that Obama is on. This AIM Report by Marc Musser tells another story-how the Nazis adopted "green" policies. They were part of the Nazi plan for totalitarian control of peoples' lives. The "green" policies being pursued by President Obama are supported by the AFL-CIO labor union, which has been infiltrated by Marxists. In fact, AFL-CIO president John Sweeney is a socialist.
In fact, contrary to right-wingers like Kincaid, the Nazis were not leftists -- Hitler banned trade unions within three months of taking power, and among the targets of Hitler's SS paramilitary troops were socialists, communists and liberals.
But then, AIM would have to reinstate its rule against personal destruction for Kincaid to retract his false smears.
Obama-Nazi Reference of the Day Topic: WorldNetDaily
As the modern-day freedom fighters begin to organize and strategize, the government chooses not to reform, but to entrench and expand its control over the people.
The similarity is remarkable, between the rise of the Democratic Socialist Party now in control of Washington and the rise of the National Socialist Workers Party of Germany in the 1930s.
Led by an articulate orator, the German government set out to nationalize health care, transportation, manufacturing and law enforcement. The Obama government has set out to nationalize manufacturing of autos and the finance industry. The Obama-backed "cap and trade" legislation will effectively nationalize the energy and transportation industries. And Obama's nationalized health care program is on the front burner.
You know how often we'vedocumented the lies told by WorldNetDaily. Now you can tell the world about WND's mendacity with this handy bumper sticker, which looks like this:
It's now available at the ConWebWatch store. To order, click here, or click on the icon in the right-hand bar.
This time, he's latched on to the case of Steven Nary, a former Navy sailor who is serving a prison term for second-degree murder in the 1996 death of Juan Pifarre, publisher of a newspaper in San Francisco. Cashill's July 2 WorldNetDaily column laments that Nary was denied parole despite "a near perfect prison record, a long-standing conversion to Catholicism, an excellent psychiatric report, almost enough college credits to graduate, numerous letters of support, several job and living offers – including one from my wife and me – and the imperative of California's empty coffers."
So Cashill has a very personal stake in Nary's case by offering to take Nary into his home. And it's interesting that Cashill seems to think California's budget troubles should give it license to release convicted killers onto the street willy-nilly.
Naturally, as he is all too prone to do, Cashill thinks the decision against granting Nary parole is all part of a grand conspiracy:
Nary had killed a gay man, and San Francisco's political class is always eager to unruffle gay feathers.
Worse, the man Nary killed was the activist publisher of the leading Hispanic newspaper in the Bay area. San Francisco's political class did not want to ruffle those feathers either.
The assistant DA from San Francisco who attended the hearing made sure all the proper gay themes were sounded.
Cashill goes on to provide an account of the case that excuses Nary's indiscretions (Nary and a friend went "to buy some beer and drank, as sailors do, more than they should have") andtries to make Pifarre look as bad as possible by making claims not only not made during the trial but could never have been made given the hearsay nature of them. He claims that Pifarre "had too much to drink and done too much cocaine, both likely true" and was in "a sham marriage to keep him from being deported."
Cashill also claimed that Nary's description of an incident prior to the murder was "describing the precise reaction of a person who had been slipped a date rape drug, then all the rage among sexual predators in the gay community."
Needless to say, Cashill is leaving important details out. The most salient one is that Nary allowed Pifarre to perform oral sex on him, for which Pifarre offered to pay Nary $40.
Cashill claimed that Nary "subdued Pifarre, likely by choking him, although the coroner's report is imprecise." In fact, Nary told police he choked Pifarre for five minutes, and the apartment where Nary killed Pifarre was strewn with blood.
Further, seemingly contrary to Cashill's claim that "Back at the ship, Nary told the chaplain and then turned himself in," Nary originally denied any sexual contact with Pifarre and told the Navy medic who treated the broken hand Nary suffered in killing Pifarre that he had hurt it playing basketball.
It seems that Cashill thinks killing a gay man shouldn't be punish as harshly as a non-gay man -- and that a killer who initially mislead authorities should be somehow rewarded.
AIM Publishes Anti-Obama Census Screed Topic: Accuracy in Media
AIM has published a screed by Paul L. Williams smearing President Obama and non-whites over the upcoming census. It begins:
It's invasive.
It's corrupt.
It's rigged.
It's unconstitutional.
Its purpose is the legislative transformation of the United States of America into a land where conservatives, Christians, and Caucasians will become political castratos.
It is biased and prejudicial.
It serves to channel billions of dollars into bogus political action groups, such as Acorn.
It promotes gay rights and same-sex marriages.
It is a document that was not something drafted by the Berkley chapter of the Barbra Streisand Fan Club or the Alec Baldwin wing of the American Civil Liberties Union.
It is President Barack Obama's 2010 Census Form.
Williams goes on to complain that the census questions "are in English and Spanish, lest anyone think that America is an Anglo nation. Many stand in violation of the Constitution which states that a national census should concern itself solely the number of individuals in a household," and assert that "Not one of the groups" he lists as assisting with the census "represents the despised race of white Europeans who settled this country and gave their sweat and blood to make it the most prosperous nation on earth." He then claims that "Excluded from the list of census partners are such groups, as the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Elks Clubs, the Rotary Clubs, the Moose Lodge, and, of course, the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick," without providing any evidence that those groups were barred from assisting or even that they ever expressed any interest in doing so.
Williams then concludes:
The Obama budget serves to ensure that the United States will be broke.
His foreign policies will serve the cause of the Muslim world to the detriment of Israel.
And his census will make sure that the time of the Judeo-Christian standards and culture in the land of the free and the home of the brave will come to an end.
The chickens have come home to roost.
As we've previously noted, Williams is embroiled in legal action regarding his 2006 WorldNetDaily-published book, "The Dunces of Doomsday," in which he accused Canada's McMaster University of having lax security around the school's nuclear reactor that resulted in the theft of 180 pounds of nuclear material by terrorists. McMaster denied the charge and sued Williams over the claim. The school got a "disclaimer" from WND and its then-publishing partner, Cumberland House, retracting the claim, but the lawsuit, last we heard, is still pending against Williams (his legal defense fund website appears not to have been updated in a while). Williams, meanwhile, filed suit against WND and Cumberland House over the retraction, claiming he didn't sign off on it.
