More Logrolling From Kessler, Keene Topic: Newsmax
Ronald Kessler shows once again how he earned that Robert Novak Journalist of the Year Award from the American Conservative Union earlier this year -- by fluffing ACU chief David Keene.
Kessler's Aug. 2 Newsmax column gives Keene free rein to bash President Obama as "on the verge of being an unelectable president like Jimmy Carter." Kessler fawningly describes Keene as "one of the country’s most astute political observers" and touts how the ACU "1 million members" and "runs the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington."Kessler, of course, doesn't mention that Keene gave him that prestigious award at this year's CPAC.
Such lack of disclosure is considered a breach of journalistic ethics -- but then, adhering to ethics isn't why Kessler got that award.
Discredited Author Attacks Kinsey Again Topic: WorldNetDaily
A few years back, we detailed how WND managing editor David Kupelian relied on the work of rabidly anti-Kinsey "researcher" Judith Reisman to attack "mad sex scientist" Alfred Kinsey, even though the Kinsey-bashing point Kupelian was pushing had been discredited.
Well, Reisman is back, and WND has her.
WND is publishing Reisman's new book, "Sexual Sabotage: How One Mad Scientist Unleashed a Plague of Corruption and Contagion on America." Guess what it's about?
Since 1948, Dr. Alfred Kinsey has been lauded as a scientific pioneer whose enlightened sexual research freed America’s repressed libido. But the so-called freedoms and new morality he “blessed” America with have proven devastating to this country’s social and moral fabric.
In "Sexual Sabotage," Dr. Judith Reisman, the preeminent Kinsey whistleblower, returns to tell the story of how the “K Bomb” was launched from a gothic limestone Indiana University building, its time-released detonation set to silently emit erototoxic radioactivity into our atmosphere – unto the generations.
During World War II and the decades that followed, Kinsey and his Indiana cohorts sabotaged our nation by entering our libraries and schools as "sex educators" – ridiculing marriage, fidelity, and chastity. They preached widespread sexual experimentation, succeeded in nationwide fraud campaigns, and gutted the tough laws that kept pornography and predators at bay.
Laying out the treacherous acts of Kinsey and Co., Dr. Reisman unveils critical new insights as to where our country went wrong, and how we can and must repudiate the soul-and-body-destroying sexual anarchy Kinsey gave us in the name of "liberation." In so doing, she says, we will reclaim the kind of noble moral character for our country – and ourselves – that is truly liberating.
"Erototoxin" is a concept of Reisman's invention, her term for the chemicals in the brain -- testosterone, oxytocin, dopamine and serotonin -- stimulated by pornography. (There is, of course, no scientific basis for this.)
In a WND article promoting Reisman book, WND editor Joseph Farah shills for it:
"Ever found yourself utterly repulsed by the latest immoral outrage – few of which are even cleverly disguised these days – and wondered, 'How on earth did America succumb to such degradation,'" asks Joseph Farah, founder and publisher of WND Books. "Judith answers that question with more alarming – and empowering – insight than anyone has yet."
[...]
"So much emphasis and energy are directed to the fight to return America to lawful, constitutional government – and rightly so,” said Farah, whose latest book, "The Tea Party Manifesto," covers such subjects. "But without understanding exactly how we traded our moral birthright for the bitter porridge of perversion, we won't realize how truly intense this fight is. And we'll fail to see that it's America's future – our most innocent and most vulnerable – who are directly targeted by the forces Judith is determined to expose."
Itseems that Reisman is promoting new dubious theories in her book as well:
Big Pharma and Big Porn – emboldened by the academic cover Kinsey's work provided – conspire in a cycle of saturating society in images of perversion, creating debased addictions that soon render men impotent, then marketing to them anti-impotency prescriptions. Mass media delivers both the disease and "the cure," as was always the intent, reports "Sexual Sabotage."
One of the things Reisman's book purports to do, besides hurling more factually dubious attacks at Kinsey, is "Why a return to pre-'50s American morality is more essential now than ever." You mean when women had few rights in marriage and gays were imprisoned merely for being gay?
That's the kind of thing that makes Reisman fit in with WND's anti-gay agenda. Somehow we suspect that she, like WND's Molotov Mitchell, endorses Uganda's proposed kill-the-gays law.
Farah Incompletely Quotes Klein Topic: WorldNetDaily
Joseph Farah's July 31 WorldNetDaily column repeats the contention, as reported in an earlier WND article, that according to Aaron Klein's anti-Obama book, that it "doesn't matter" where President Obama was born because he's not a "natural born citizen."
Like the earlier article, Farah doesn't mention Klein's contention that Obama was, in fact, born in Hawaii. Nor does Farah, like Klein, mention the existence of arguments in favor of Obama being a "natural born citizen."
This is part of Farah's efforts to shift the argument away from Obama's citizenship to his eligibility, while pretending that citizenship was never an issue.
Ed Brayton picks up on something we neglected to mention when pointing out Ellis Washington's Obama Derangement Syndrome in his July 24 WorldNetDaily column.
Washington begins his column with something purporting to be a quote from Obama: "I found solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother's race." Of course, Obama has never said any such thing. When Brayton asked Washington to correct it, Washington refused, replying, "Remember a quote can be a paraphrase of one's ideas and sentiments."
Well, no, it can't. A paraphrase is not a quote.
Earlier this year, Brayton caught Washington in another lie. Washington's end-of-column bio at WND states that he is "former editor of the Michigan Law Review." Not so much, Brayton writes: "e was never even a student at the U of M Law School. As an undergrad, he was chosen from three students to take a temporary job with the law review (replacing someone who had health problems, I believe) where he did mostly cite-checking and footnote checking. And it looks like it only lasted for one issue. 'Former editor' makes it sound as though he was the actual editor; he was not."
With such prevarication, it's no wonder Washington can't hold a full-time job.
Right now, a year and a half after Barack Obama's election as president, many Americans are experiencing what I experienced a second and a half after being confronted by an armed robber. Maybe in the broad sweep of history, years are like seconds. Or, perhaps we've all just been so indoctrinated and confused by leftist education, media and culture that it takes a while to recognize a smiling revolutionary for what he really is. In any event, for millions of us, the two seconds of denial and wishful thinking are ending as we approach the November midterms, while finally coming to grips with the outrageous reality staring us in the face:
We're being robbed. Though we've tried in vain to view what's happening as something other than what it is, the truth is, our wealth, our liberty, our lives, our happiness – and our country itself – are being stolen. If you think that's even a slight exaggeration, you really haven't been paying attention.
Obama and the far-left leaders of Congress are standing before us, not with ski masks, but with the masks of arrogant deceivers. They smile, they reassure, they act as though they care about us – but it's all one big cynical pretense. Virtually everything they do, and want to do, is irrational and destructive, violating the laws of the land, of economics and of common sense.
I think I've finally figured out who Obama really is. Not his identity and citizenship, which – unlike any other president in history – remains a mystery. No, I mean who he is. Here's a very brief biography:
"Smeagol's original name was Trahald, the Anglicized equivalent of which is Smeagol. ... In the day of his … coming of age, he went fishing with his cousin Deagol. While fishing, Deagol saw something glittering under the surface of the water, dove in after it, and came up with a glittering gold ring. Before even knowing the qualities of the beautiful ring, Smeagol's desire to own it overtook him. ... He soon developed many undesirable qualities, like stealing, eavesdropping, and being sneaky whenever he had the opportunity. ..." (TheOneRing.net)
Smeagol, of course, is Gollum, the pathetic creature in "The Lord of the Rings" who lived underground with the one ring that held the power over all the others. The ring consumed him, and in the end destroyed him. (Even if you disagree with this analogy, you must admit to the physical similarities between Gollum and Obama, no?)
And now that we have the Kenyan Kid in the White House – a Marxist who has set back race relations in the U.S. 40 years – today's stupid-tubish topic of choice is racism. Listening to all the make-believe racism silliness is like being in a time machine and going back to the 1960s. It's enough to make one yawn with excitement.
Following the continuum from the ancient cult of Gnosticism, to humanism and secular liberalism formed during the Enlightenment, to the 20th-century Progressive Movement, to post-modern times under President Barack Obama, we are faced with the fact that Obama is the embodiment of the Gnostic heresy.
Shapiro Misleads About Black Farmers' Settlement Topic: CNSNews.com
Ben Shapiro's July 29 syndicated column, published at CNSNews.com, attacks Shirley Sherrod as a "Marxist" as well as a "racial separatist and quasi-shakedown artist." He continues:
Along with her racist husband Charles Sherrod (“We must stop the white man and his Uncle Tom from stealing our elections”), Shirley founded New Communities, Inc. in 1969 with money from the Office of Economic Opportunity. New Communities was essentially a commune-style black farm that failed to turn any sort of profit. The USDA didn’t give it further loans. So, the Sherrods sued as part of the Pigford v. Glickman class action suit, an enormous lawsuit against the USDA by black farmers. The government settled the case for billions of dollars, awarding New Communities $13 million, including $150,000 each for Charles and Shirley for “pain and suffering.” It was the single largest payout in the settlement.
Pigford itself is, at least in large part, a scam. According to Rep. Steve King, who I interviewed on my radio show, the vast majority of payouts under Pigford are fraudulent. In excess of 80,000 “black farmers” have taken advantage of the Pigford settlement, despite the fact that during the period the lawsuit covers, there were only 16,000 black farmers in the entire country.
Shapiro misleads about the number of farmers involved. The 16,000 number is the number of black farmers that received money under the original Pigford settlement -- not the number of "black farmers in the entire country." But notification and communication errorskept some farmers from being included under that settlement, so earlier this year, the Obama administration announced a $1.25 billion settlement to cover those farmers.
Approximately 80,000 farmers have applied for money under this settlement, known as Pigford II -- where Shapiro is presumably getting his latter number from -- but Congress has yet to fund the appropriation, and even the head of the National Black Farmers Association has said that only about half of that 80,000 will receive money, presumably because claims will be investigated before money is paid out.
A company working on behalf of a Las Vegas newspaper has filed a spate of copyright-infringement lawsuits against as many as 80 individuals and publications since March, and now bloggers reveal the CEO may have crossed paths with Barack and Michelle Obama during their stints at a Chicago law firm.
According to Wired.com, copyright group Righthaven has filed more than 80 federal lawsuits against websites and bloggers who posted articles from the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
[...]
According to his online work profile, Steven A. Gibson, CEO of Righthaven, studied law at the Chicago-Kent University of Law and graduated with honors in 1990. The Godlike Productions blog noted Gibson worked as an associate at corporate law firm Sidley Austin LLP – the Chicago firm where Obama met his wife.
As WND reported, Michelle Obama was an associate at Sidley Austin from 1988 to 1991. Her specialty was marketing and intellectual property.
That's right -- WND is claiming that Gibson is doing the bidding of the Obama administration by enforcing copyrights -- an issue of intellectual property rights, not a political issue -- because he might have worked with one Obama or another 20 years ago.
Another thing WND fails to mention, presumably because it's inconvenient to its anti-Obama agenda: The Las Vegas Review-Journal, under the leadership of publisher Sherman Frederick, is a staunchly conservative and rabidly anti-Obama newspaper.
Actors love to display their "range," but it might be sad for fans of HBO's John Adams miniseries to see Paul Giamatti go from Founding Father to Soviet dictator. Tom Hanks and his PlayTone Productions, who made the Adams project, are now preparing a film on Nikita Khruschev's 1959 trip to America.
And that's pretty much the point of Graham's post -- he's offended that an actor would play both John Adams and Khruschev.
Even the comment thread is largely confused by why this post exists.
Bozell Rushes to Fellow Libeler Breitbart's Defense Topic: Media Research Center
Media Research Center president Brent Bozell issued a statement following Shirley Sherrod's announcement that she will sue Andrew Breitbart for libel:
"Andrew Breitbart is going to be fine. He's done nothing wrong. I wonder if Ms. Sherrod, who is such a champion of transparency, will publicly disclose who is putting her up to this. And I also hope this champion of honesty will stop lying about Fox News. I'm also waiting for Ms. Sherrod to publicly apologize for accusing anyone opposed to nationalized healthcare of being racist. Last time I checked, that was more than half the country."
Of course Bozell is rushing to Breitbart's defense -- if Breitbart is guilty of libel, then Bozell is too. Plus, Bozell has a track record of getting sued for libel and paying seven-figure sums to settle such lawsuits.
Libelers need to stick together, and that's what Bozell is doing by bonding himself to Breitbart.
Obama (And 'The View') Derangement Syndrome Watch Topic: WorldNetDaily
One could forgive [Obama] for attending an urgent meeting with Hamid Karzai, his intelligence chiefs or even his pathetic economic team. Better still if he had scheduled a meeting with a cadre of experienced economists who actually know the difference between a government giveaway and an economic stimulus, who are smart enough – and honest enough – to have paid their taxes. Wow! That would be a momentous event worthy of his undivided attention – but no!
The Boy Scouts were dissed just so he could appear on "The View" with a group of vacuous airheads. Instead of encouraging a group of young, highly motivated achievers, Obama chose to discuss political issues on a program that is designed to appeal to welfare queens and other mentally challenged ne'er-do-wells, who park themselves on couches to watch the drivel on daytime television.
(Chastain tries to hide the fact that President Reagan never attended a Boy Scout Jamboree with the redirection that "President Ronald Reagan sent the first lady to the 1985 event.")
Media Matters highlights WorldNetDaily's latest desperate attempt to stop Elena Kagan from becoming a Supreme Court justice (and, not so coincidentially, continue to fleece its readers of $24.95 for mailing letters to senators): hauling out the laughable Larry Klayman to claim he's planning to get Kagan disbarred for allegedly having "altered an official scientific report used as evidence by the Supreme Court to persuade the justices to overturn bans on partial-birth abortion."
Of course she didn't. Nor did she "ban the U.S. military from recruiting on campus." Nor is she "anti-military."
In this silly little promotion of Klayman, WND once again breached journalistic ethic by failing to disclose that Klayman has done legal work for WND, most recently its crybaby lawsuit against the White House Correspondents Association for failing to give WND as many tables as it demanded for the correspondents dinner.
WND's Conspiratorial Freak-Out Over Compulsory Service Idea Topic: WorldNetDaily
Chelsea Schilling gets downright conspiratorial in a July 27 WorldNetDaily article claiming that Rep. Charles Rangel introduced a bill reinstating "compulsory military draft during wartime and require U.S. citizens not selected for military duty to perform a 'national-service obligation' – as defined by President Obama – for a minimum of two years."
Schilling's first response to the bill was to invoke a conspiracy website: She wrote how "Prison Planet writer Rob Dew" wrote, "This echoes the sentiment of President Obama who asked Congress in February 2009 to send him a bipartisan bill in the spirit of national service."
Prison Planet is the website of conspiracy theorist extrordinaire Alex Jones. And Dew said a lot more about the bill than what Schilling quoted:
But even Emanuel aims low looking at only 18 to 25 year olds for three months of compulsory service. Under this new legislation nearly all, able bodied Americans will be sentenced to two years of forced labor. The infrastructure is already in place for those unwilling to participate in mandatory service and now the army is looking to fill it’s ranks with Interment/Resettlement Specialists.
There are very few loopholes to opt of out national service, even CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS (SEC. 109) will be forced to choose the mandatory option of A. noncombatant service (as defined by the President) or B. national civilian service. It seems the congressional commission on civic service will no longer be needed thanks to the hard work of a suspected Congressional tax cheat from New York.
The slavery bill is currently in debate in the House Committee on Armed Services chaired by Rep Ike Skelton a democrat from Missouri. Those who oppose mandatory slavery should contact Rep. Skelton. Many bills die in committee and this bill should meet the same fate.
Schilling didn't link to Dew's post. We can't imagine why.
But Schilling -- who as we've detailed is not unfamiliar with quoting conspracy theorists -- wasn't done.
As first reported by WND during Obama's presidential campaign, Obama himself called for a "civilian national-security force" July 2, 2008, in Colorado Springs, Colo.
"We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national-security objectives that we've set," he said. "We've got to have a civilian national-security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."
This is in reference to a favorite bogus WND story -- that Obama wants to start his own private army. In fact, Obama was talking about beefing up the diplomatic corps so that it's "able to deploy teams that combine agricultural specialists and engineers and linguists and cultural specialists who are prepared to go into some of the most dangerous areas alongside our military."
New Article: A Libel Lawsuit Waiting to Happen Topic: Media Research Center
Media Research Center chief Brent Bozell acts recklessly by smearing Shirley Sherrod as a racist based only on Andrew Breitbart's misleadingly edited videos. Not only won't he apologize, the rest of the MRC is trying to change the subject. Read more >>
A July 27 WorldNetDaily article rehashes birther-related claims made in Aaron Klein's Obama hate book, "The Manchurian President." There are a couple things missing.
WND repeats Klein's contention that "Obama may not fit the constitutional eligibility requirement that stipulates only 'natural born' citizens can serve as U.S. president." But as we've detailed, Klein is merely repeating arguments made by birther lawyers promoted by WND, and he makes no mention whatsoever in his book of legal arguments that contradict his claim that Obama is not a "natural born citizen."
WND makes an omission of its own: As we've also detailed, Klein wrote in his book that he found "no convincing evidence that Obama was born in Kenya, nor that his birthplace was any place other than Hawaii, his declared state of birth." That statement is nowhere to be found in the WND article -- perhaps because it contradicts WND's own reporting.
The MRC vs. Pop Music Topic: Media Research Center
July has been I Hate Pop Music Month for the professional prudes at the MRC's Culture & Media Center.
A July 9 CMI article by Katie Bell criticized NBC's "Today" for allowing Lady Gaga to perform:
Gaga’s “Today” show performance would have been best suited for an evening concert in which the kiddos were left with grandparents or sitters. Many young children were present at the July 9 outdoor morning performance.
But “Today” did not seem to mind the tawdry costumes and suggestive dance moves.
Bell was further offended that Lady Gaga "still managed to squeeze in her gay agenda, and the family-friendly Today Show allowed it."
On July 15, Alana Goodman got offended by what she thinks she heard -- not what was actually there -- in an M.I.A. song:
A controversial new pop song might have young music fans unwittingly singing about burkas, the Taliban and, especially, loving Allah.
Pop singer phenomenon Maya Arulpragasam, also known as M.I.A., has released a new song called “Lovalot” that has raised eyebrows among music reviewers, some of whom say the lyrics show M.IA.’s sympathy for radical Muslim suicide bombers.
[...]
Probably one of the most controversial parts of the song is the chorus, where M.I.A. repeats the phrase “I really love a lot” in such a way that it undeniably sounds like “I really love Allah.”
Was Goodman similarly outraged by the inherent homosexuality in Jimi Hendrix's misheard lyrics?
It was back to more Gaga-bashing, with Sarah Knoploh excoriating Newsweek for committing the offense of saying something nice about her music videos. The writer, Knoploh huffed, "point out how inappropriate her music videos truly are."
The video for the song "Telephone," Knoploh declares, is "full of nudity and suggestive dancing" and "is so inappropriate that YouTube requires viewers to confirm they are 18 years old to view it." Knoploh seems not to understand that mature scenes are not necessarily synonymous with lack of quality.
Knoploh has a funny definition of "inappropriate," given that she considers condoning the deaths of abortion doctors to be entirely appropriate.
