WND Flails At International Baccalaureate Curriculum Topic: WorldNetDaily
An Aug. 10 WorldNetDaily article by Michael Carl is dedicated to attacking the International Baccalaureate curriculum. Why is this univerally respected program being attacked? Because a right-wing evangelist doesn't like it. And an anonymous blogger doesn't like it either. Carl makes no attempt to talk to anyone actually directly involved in IB programs to obtain any response to the criticism.
Carl manages to work both George Soros and Bill Ayers into his conspiracy that IB programs are anti-American and anti-Christian.
Carl is a former full-time WND employee who now apparently moonlights for it while serving as a pastor. That would seem to explain why Carl has no interest in telling a balanced, fully truthful story.
Erik Rush's Aug. 12 WorldNetDaily column is dedicated to attacking blogger Matthew Yglesias for writing a Washington Post piece that is, in his words, "a quintessential example of Orwellian Ministry of Propaganda fare, so surreal in its assumptions that it its absurdity is scarcely to be believed, especially to those who do their level best to avoid the Post altogether. It is also a prime example of the composition of progressive racial orthodoxy, which is illustrated very effectively and at several junctures in this piece."
But Rush is so busy trying to smear Yglesias that he doesn't bother to quote from the column to rebut anything he writes, beyond noting that Yglesias "casually" used the words "vitriol" and "xenophobia."
This, by the way, who casually likened President Obama to a prison rapist, so perhaps Rush is not a person who should complain about the word usage of others.
Shocker: MRC Admits That Conservative Bias Exists Topic: NewsBusters
As we've detailed, the Media Research Center has a long history of pretending there's no such thing as conservative media bias, which makes MRC official Tim Graham's concession to its existence noteworthy.
In an Aug. 10 NewsBusters post, Graham tries to make the case that a reporter for a Washington, D.C., TV station was suspended because he exhibited "conservative bias" in claiming that, in Graham's words, "President Obama's a major recipient of BP cash."
Of course, Graham (and, apparently, the reporter) botched the fact -- Obama received only $1,000 from BP's PAC in 2004, much less than other candidates that year, and other noted donations came from BP employees, not the company itself.
But kudos to Graham for acknowledging that conservative bias exists, which runs counter to the MRC's longstanding policy.
Aaron Klein Anonymous Source Watch Topic: WorldNetDaily
An Aug. 10 WorldNetDaily article by Aaron Klein contains not a single named source in claiming that "The U.S. is pushing Israel into conceding strategic territory."
Klein frequently hides behind anonymous sources to attack the Obama administration and shill for the Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu. Klein's record of spreading misleading claims and outright falsehoods -- as well as his association with right-wing extremists -- demonstrates that he has not earned the trust needed to use anonymous sources.
Media Matters highlights how NewsBusters' Tim Graham attacked Comedy Central's Jon Stewart for being "shameless" in criticizing conservatives' freak-out over the Islamic community center planned near the former site of the World Trade Center when he works for a network that "mocks Jesus and Christians relentlessly, but censors whenever the radical Muslims threaten them." Graham seems to have forgotten that NewsBusters praised Stewart for criticizing Comedy Central's refusal to air a "South Park" episode centered on Muhammad.
UPDATE: Graham responds in a cowardly fashion by refusing to let the name "Media Matters" cross his lips, bashing Keith Olbermann for repeating the story by "playing rip-and-read from certain Hillary Clinton-founded Fox-and-Rush watchdogs." Graham also insists that Stewart, on the "South Park" issue, "lightly made fun of the bosses, and then lightly mocked the Muslim death-threateners with Jewish-deli-and-Frisbee jokes." And the singing of the "F-You" song actually "mock[ed] Gospel choirs," not censorious Muslims.
Newsmax Picks a Side in Florida GOP Gov Primary Topic: Newsmax
When Newsmax announced in an Aug. 9 editorial that it was picking Bill McCollum over Rick Scott in the upcoming Republican primary for Florida governor, it wasn't really a surprise -- Newsmax had already been trashing Scott and puffing McCollum for weeks.
A May 23 article was headlined "McCollum: Rick Scott Linked to Healthcare ‘Fraud’."
A June 24 article by Jim Meyers carried the headline "Fla.'s Rick Scott Invested in Firm With Ties to Illegal Aliens."
A June 27 article highlights "Rick Scott’s role in the largest ripoff of taxpayers in the history of Medicare and Medicaid."
A July 7 article, headlined, "Steve Forbes: Why I Oppose Rick Scott," noted that "Forbes cited Scott's role in the largest Medicare fraud in U.S. history and even questioned his business competence, suggesting Scott was not even qualified to run a 'lemonade stand.'"
A July 14 column by Quin Hillyer, reproduced from the Washington Times, carried the headline "McCollum Is the Real Conservative in Fla. Race" and asserted that Scott "got rich in questionable ways."
A July 15 article is headlined, "Dick Morris Slams Rick Scott, Says Can't Be Trusted."
On July 21, Newsmax touted Dick Morris' endorsement of McCollum.
An Aug. 2 article by Jim Meyers carried the headline "McCollum Wins Big Endorsements, Scott's Link to Fraud Cited."
An Aug. 4 article highlighted a "hilarious new Web TV ad video" by McCollum attacking Scott was "drawing heavy traffic on YouTube as it goes viral."
An Aug. 5 article is headlined "Rick Scott's Firm Sued 10 Times, Candidate Described as 'Ruthless'."
New Article: Robert Ringer's Voice of Insanity Topic: WorldNetDaily
The WorldNetDaily columnist and author tries to intimidate through hysterical and paranoid attacks on President Obama, whom he refuses to acknowledge as president. Read more >>
Molotov Baselessly Accuses Obama of Treason Topic: WorldNetDaily
Molotov Mitchell's latest anti-Obama video rant at WorldNetDaily accuses President Obama for purportedly not enforcing border security, claiming that he has "sid[ed] with the cartels" by suing Arizona over its anti-immigration law:
For Barack Obama, who is currently responsible for securing that border, for him to stab his own citizens in the back defines the word "treason." Now, for those of you who watch "For the Record" regularly, you know I'm not the type of guy to just throw that word around, but there it is. And Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu is right when he says, quote, "our own government has become our enemy."
That ol' Molotov claims to be the kind of guy who doesn't throw "treason" around is a minor point at best, since he is the kind of guy who smears La Raza as "the tan Klan" and spread lies about Obama. He's also the kind of guy who wants to see gays killed in Uganda.
Speaking of lying about Obama: As defined by many metrics, including the number of Border Patrol agents on the job and the number of illegal immigrants that have been deported, border enforcement is actually up under the Obama administration.
Oops! It seems that ol' Molotov should be a tad more circumspect about throwing that "treason" word around by, you know, checking the facts first.
Kincaid: Limbaugh Doesn't Hate Gays Enough Topic: Accuracy in Media
Cliff Kincaid hates gays so much, he's willing to take on Rush Limbaugh over it. From his Aug. 20 Accuracy in Media column:
James Burnham’s 1964 classic, The Suicide of the West, was on my mind when I heard that Rush Limbaugh had homosexual entertainer Elton John perform at his wedding. Limbaugh is a great conservative entertainer, but he could have picked better entertainment at his own wedding. Such a decision carries great weight. It says that Limbaugh himself is giving up on fighting the social and cultural war and that he wants to “make peace” with the Hollywood left that has been so determined to vilify and destroy him.
[...]
The $1 million Limbaugh reportedly paid to hire Elton John would have been better spent on social conservative groups trying to preserve traditional values, including marriage between a man and a woman. God knows that groups like Peter LaBarbera’s Americans for Truth could use the assistance. Dozens of Marxist-led mean and angry “gay rights” demonstrators showed up in Chicago to protest LaBarbera’s premier Truth Academy. They fear the truth about the destructive aspects of their so-called lifestyle.
Even NewsBusters takes a hit for not hating gays as much as Kincaid does:
Meanwhile, in a post on the Bradley Manning homosexual military scandal, the usually reliable conservative-oriented Newsbusters site asks, “Does the possibility that [Bradley] Manning’s opinions on DADT [Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell] motivated him to leak the documents in question have any bearing on the validity of the policy itself? Of course not. No one is suggesting that Manning’s homosexuality in itself motivated him to allegedly leak these documents, and therefore that homosexuals should be banned from the military.”
There is every reason to believe that his homosexuality motivated the release of the documents. What’s more, the leaking of this classified information is an obvious reason why the current homosexual exclusion policy should not only be maintained but strengthened.
The rest of Kincaid's rant takes a predictable gay-bashing descent into using the Manning case as an excuse to keep don't ask, don't tell. Kincaid sums up:
It is not politically correct to say but this is the danger you face when a homosexual struggling with his sexual identity is entrusted with national security information. Admitting open homosexuals into the Armed Forces who continue to struggle with their sexual identity will only exacerbate this national security problem.
[...]
Admitting open and active homosexuals to the military will not solve the problem. It makes the problem worse. What these people need is real “compassionate conservatism,” of the kind that promises release from their inner torment and psychological instability. It means freeing them from a destructive lifestyle that has driven Bradley Manning to the point of suicide.
So what frees Kincaid from the inner torment that manifests itself in his rabid homophobia?
CNS Doesn't Disclose Conflict of Interest Topic: CNSNews.com
An Aug. 11 CNSNews.com article by Adam Cassandra promotes a poll by the Military Culture Coalition -- which Cassandra describes only as " affiliated with the Center for Military Readiness" -- finding that, among other things, "59 percent of Democrats think that members of Congress should consider the opinions of homosexual advocacy groups over the opinions of top military commanders when considering a repeal of the law prohibiting homosexuality in the military."
Cassandra fails to mention the bias of the group -- a operation supported by right-wing activists that opposes the repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Also unmentioned by Cassandra is that one of those right-wing activists backing the group is none other than Brent Bozell, Cassandra's boss.
CNS has a history of failing to disclose conflicts of interest in the organizations it promotes. Last year, it repeatedly promoted a group opposed to President Obama's speech at Notre Dame without disclosing that Bozell was a member of the group's board of directors.
Cassandra also failed to note the ideological slant of the pollster the group used, The Polling Company/WomanTrends. As we've previouslynoted when CNS has promoted its findings, The Polling Company's owner, Kellyanne Conway, is a partisan Republican activist.
WND Columnist's Wild Rant Against 14th Amendment Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily is a prime go-to destination for unhinged screeds, and it makes another contribution with an August 10 column by Christopher Grey attacking the 14th Amendment. The headline sets the tone: “14th Amendment is a fraud that should be repealed.”
Grey begins by explaining why the amendment is a “fraud and abomination on our Constitution”:
Let's begin with how we got the 14th Amendment in the first place. It was ratified under very dubious circumstances in the immediate aftermath of our devastating Civil War. Nearly half of all U.S. states effectively were controlled under martial law when this amendment was ratified. Procedurally, this calls into question whether or not the ratification of this amendment was even legal.
One of the major reasons for the 14th amendment, in fact, was that the Congress had passed several laws that it knew probably were unconstitutional because they illegally transferred enormous powers from the individual states to the federal government. The 14th amendment was the blunt instrument that they used to correct this problem, but it has grown over the years into a voracious monster that is devouring everything in its path.
The rant then bashes the amendment’s citizenship clause:
This clause is why people from Third World countries around the world sneak into our country to have their babies. Once they have a baby here, the child is automatically a U.S. citizen and the parents are allowed to stay here even though they came here illegally.
This is ridiculous. No other country in the world allows people to do this. This clause encourages people around the world to come here for the express purpose of raising their children on the backs of U.S. taxpayers. Our country is going broke and we still allow this to happen because we have no choice. The 14th Amendment guarantees this to everyone.
Grey goes on to declare the amendment’s equal protection clause to be something commies would do:
The Equal Protection clause guarantees that each state provide equal protection under the law to all people within its jurisdiction. Think about this statement for a moment. It sounds reasonable on the surface. However, it has been used as a justification for the creeping advance of socialism and tyranny for decades. It has been the backdoor for the federal government to place more and more restrictions on the ability of states to operate independently from Washington. It also has been used to justify more and more federal regulation of private businesses. If you think about this equal-protection clause statement more deeply, its true implication is extremely Marxist or even Leninist and Maoist.
How can a state or any government possibly provide equal protection under the law in a free and capitalist society? The answer is that it cannot. It's impossible. The only way for everyone really to have equal treatment under the law is if people all have the same resources and aren't allowed to make free choices about their own lives. This is an extreme version of socialism akin to what Mao forced upon the Chinese during the Cultural Revolution.
Using the equal protection clause to end school segregation is just not realistic, according to Grey, because it’s just too much of a pain for a “free and capitalist system” to give people the same opportunity at a decent education no matter where they live:
Let's just take a few examples to further illustrate this point. If you live in a good neighborhood, you have better law enforcement, health and safety services, schools, transportation, and the list goes on and on. There's no way that someone living in a very poor neighborhood reasonably can have protection under the law equal to a person living in a good neighborhood.
Someone might say that this isn't the intent of the equal-protection clause. That's true. It wasn't the original intent, but this is exactly how it's been used over the years. The whole point of Brown vs. Board of Education, one of the most famous Equal Protection clause cases in our nation's history, was that separate but supposedly equal services such as education were not equal enough.
It is not any stretch of the imagination to jump from this conclusion to mandating that all school districts must be of equal quality, which is of course impossible in a free and capitalist system. This was the idea behind forced busing in the 1970s, which fortunately was ended after disastrous consequences made it politically abhorrent.
Finally, Grey declares equal protection as something that’s just too impractical in a “free society.” If you’re poor and need an attorney, but you can’t afford a decent one, well, too bad:
Another clear example of how the Equal Protection clause really cannot function in a free society applies to the criminal and civil justice system. It's obvious that people who have more money have access to much better lawyers than people who don't have money. This creates a very clear difference in the amount of protection under the law that is afforded poor people versus rich people.
Specific and egregious examples of this are the acquittals of O.J. Simpson, Robert Blake and Claus von Bulow even as we know many innocent, but poor, defendants are convicted because they lack sufficient legal representation to defend themselves against the charges.
Attempts to remedy this problem by giving poor defendants a public attorney in criminal cases is like putting a fig leaf on the problem. There really is no solution to this disparity in legal representation between the rich and the poor in a free society. This is just part of the injustice that we all have to tolerate if we want to enjoy the freedoms that we have.
Right-wingers have been railingagainst the 14th Amendment in recent days, but Grey gives us a all-too-clear view of what would actually happen if it were repealed -- and how much the amendment contributes to a genuinely free and equal society. Grey has no apparent problem with poor people and minorities having fewer rights than him, but the vast majority of the country believes differently.
Farah Prematurely Delcares Victory Over Obama on Birther Issue Topic: WorldNetDaily
In his Aug. 10 WorldNetDaily column, Joseph Farah insists that President Obama haslost on the "eligibilty" issue:
Not only is it a winning issue, it is the only issue that can effectively undo the nightmare of the Obama era in one fell swoop.
There would be no need for repealing Obamacare if it turns out his presidency was a sham from the beginning.
There would be no need to wait until Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan retire or die to see them replaced on the Supreme Court if it turns out his presidency was a sham from the beginning.
There would be no need to wring our hands in hopes that future congresses and future presidents might roll back all of the damage Obama has inflicted on America if it turns out his presidency was sham from the beginning.
There would be no need to wait until 2011 in hopes that a new Republican majority might impeach Obama if it turns out his presidency was a sham from the beginning.
There would be no need to wait until 2012 for another chance to replace Obama if it turns out his presidency was a sham from the beginning.
That's why this issue is so important.
The way Farah and WND have been trying to keep the issue alive is by telling a lot of lies. An issue based on lies is hardly a winning one. And Farah keeps up the lies here:
Secondly, even in the extremely unlikely event that Obama were to produce a birth certificate that affirmed his birth story, it will merely serve to refocus the debate on eligibility. The best-selling new book "Manchurian President" devotes an entire chapter to exploring whether Obama could be constitutionally eligible as the son of Kenyan father. The clear conclusion is no – he can't be. There is no way that a foreigner could confer natural-born citizenship on a son no matter where that son was born.
In fact, as we detailed, Klein reached that conclusion by parroting birther lawyers and studiously ignoring legal analysis to the contrary, so it's hardly the exhaustive analysis Farah portrays it as. Klein's analysis also relies on defining "natural born" as having both parents be U.S. citizens -- which even WND acknowledges lacks binding legal precedent.
Further, Klein also concluded that Obama was born in Hawaii, but you won't hear Farah mention that.
Is Newsmax Columnist Endoring Anti-Gay Conversion Therapy? Topic: Newsmax
In an Aug. 9 Newsmax column running to defense of a counseling student who is suing her college because she claims the school wanted her to "renounce her faith" regarding her anti-gay views -- which would likely interfere in any counseling career -- Herbert London seems to be endorsing the controversial practice of conversion therapy to change gays' sexual orientation:
To exacerbate matters within the department, [student Jennifer Keeton] argued the “conversion therapy” for homosexuals should be entertained, a point of view that departed significantly from accepted norms within the program and according to program officials, from “psychological research.”
It is noteworthy that the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) defends the practice Keaton [sic] advocates and notes opponents of conversion therapy are often criticized by politically motivated biases, albeit, in fairness, the reverse accusation might also be made.
No, it is not "noteworthy" that NARTH endorses conversion therapy; after all, it is an anti-gay group, so it's presumably more than happy to eliminate gays by whatever means. (A NARTH board member was recently caught hanging out in Europe with a male escort, so whatever it does seems not to stick.)
Additionally, all major national mental health organizations oppose conversion therapy. Does London think all of these organizations have "politically motivated biases"?
CNS Falsely Claims EFCA Would 'Eliminate Secret Ballots' Topic: CNSNews.com
An Aug. 5 CNSNews.com article by Fred Lucas claimed that President Obama "pledged his support for a card check bill, which would eliminate secret ballots in elections to unionize workplaces." Lucas went on to write that the bill "replaces the secret ballot by allowing union organizers to publicly ask workers to sign a card in favor of unionizing."
In fact, the bill Lucas is writing about, the Employee Free Choice Act, does not "eliminate secret ballots." It eliminates the part of the law in which employers are the only ones who can demand a secret ballot in a union election. The bill gives employees the right to make a choice of approving a union through either a "secret ballot" election process or the non-secret ballot "card check" process.
Friedman Hides Reason Obama Played Hoops With NBA Stars Topic: Newsmax
Marketwatch's Jon Friedman writes in an Aug. 9 Newsmax column:
ar be it from you or me to deny President Obama a special 49th birthday present. What do you give to a man who has everything — literally? That's easy. President Obama gave himself the gift of playing a pick-up basketball with LeBron James and some of the other top players in the land.
I think it's great that my president is in touch with the zeitgeist. But I'm getting a little tired of watching him goofing around like this. I want him to show as much concern as I feel. Oh, I have no doubt that the president is engaged, perhaps even fixated, on fixing the economy and solving as many problems as he can — especially prior to the midterm elections in November.
Perhaps Andre Agassi, who may pop up on the White House tennis court someday, put it best when he once remarked famously that "image is everything."
President Obama has enough well-paid handlers around him 24/7 to understand keenly that the American people are forever scrutinizing his performance — and his image.
Do the advisers fret that their boss is undermining his prestige by playing basketball with a bunch of NBA stars? It's also questionable as to whether President Obama's image looked dicey when he was shown hanging out with LeBron James, whose own reputation took a big hit when he hyped his decision to join the Miami Heat during the off-season.
But Friedman didn't mention the reason this basketball session took place: it was to entertain wounded troops.
By hiding the full truth, Friedman is creating an image problem for Obama that doesn't exist.
