CNS Launches Biased Attack on Dem 'Super Committee' Members Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com is serving up furtherevidence that it's abandoning real journalism to be a Republican attack dog.
When Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid named his three Democrats to the congressional "super committee" to negotiate federal budget issues, CNS responded with an Aug. 10 article by Susan Jones headlined "Three Liberal Dems Named to Deficit Reduction ‘Super Committee’," in which the first person she quotes is Republican National Committee chairman Reince Preibus, who declared that the selections "absolute proof that Democrats are not serious about deficit reduction."
After Republicans named their House and Senate picks to the super committee, Jones penned another article merely naming who they are, failing to quote Democratic reaction to the picks.
The double standard continued after the three Democratic House picks were named. An Aug. 11 article by Terry Jeffrey declared that all six Democrats "compiled voting records last year that earned them grades of 'F' from the National Taxpayers Union."
Not only did Jeffrey not report how the Republican members did on a liberal-leaning scale, he insisted that the NTU is "a nonpartisan organization," ignoring that the group is beloved by conservatives and funded by right-wing foundations.
WND Columnists Are Ready To Rumble Topic: WorldNetDaily
Columnists at WorldNetDaily have been edging closer to advocating armed insurrection against the Obama administration.
Robert Ringer complains in his Aug. 10 WND column that not enough was cut from the budget in the recent debt ceiling, attacking MSNBC's Martin Bashir (whom he misidentifies as being with CNBC) claiming that the tea party "could potentially become a violent movement." He adds:
Maybe the tea-party people do need to get violent, given that the left will continue to accuse them of doing so regardless of how civil they act. Even if they throw out of office enough RINOs who still don't get the tea-party message and bring in a whole new group of Republicans who are willing to take a chainsaw to the budget (rather than just getting excited about "changing the terms of the debate" in Washington), the violence that Messrs. [Martin] Bashir and [Stanton] Peele so worry about is sure to happen anyway.
However, violence that results from real (as opposed to imaginary) spending cuts won't come from the tea-party folks. It will come from those who are unwilling to give up the good life they've become so accustomed to as a result of the government's redistribution-of-wealth policies.
But let's see the spending cuts first. We can worry about the violence later.
Remember that Ringer once wrote a book called "Winning Through Intimidation," and you have an idea of where he's coming from.
Meanwhile, WND columnist is calling for an "Assault on Washington" next month. From an Aug. 9 press release:
Today, Larry Klayman, the founder of Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch, called for a peaceful "Assault on Washington," to make it known to our nation's politicians and so called leaders that their days are over and that they should resign or face other strong peaceful action by "We the People." These "leaders" include but are not limited to President Barack Obama, his Treasury Secretary Timothy Geitner, Speaker of the House John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Canter, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Klayman stated:
"All of these entrenched Washington establishment politicians sold the country out in the last weeks when they agreed to a phony deficit reduction package, which they crowed about for days as if they had accomplished a 'Godly' feat, only to see that Standard and Poors and the financial markets saw through their deceitful and traitorous charade. Now the nation is in a downward nosedive, with disastrous ramifications not only for us but the world.
"All political persuasions must now unite for the good of nation, go to Washington and, Ghandi style, use 'civil disobedience' to have them removed. They cannot be removed through impeachment, since the establishment, right, left and center, will protect itself. Short of violent revolt, which I do not advocate, this is the only means to 'disinfest' our nation of these 'leaders' who are taking the nation down the primrose path of destruction. We cannot wait until the 2012 elections, as time is short as the nation sinks further into an abyss.
"I therefore call for all concerned Americans to join the 'Assault on Washington' beginning on September 17, 2011, and throughout the week. Fittingly, this is Constitution Week! Further announcements will be made to organize this.
"I welcome the participation of all persons and groups who peacefully want to now rid our nation of the Democrat and Republican self serving political leaders who are in the process of destroying our nation, before it is too late."
Klaymanis calling for an "Assault on Washington" and he thinks it will be peaceful? Really?
Klayman expands on this in his Aug. 12 WND column:
Please contact me through my website and notify your compatriots that strong peaceful action is now necessary. Whether we succeed at removing some or all of the "leaders" who have destroyed the nation is not the only objective. We the People must make it clear to these corrupt establishment hacks that there is a price to be paid for their destructive acts and that now is the time to shape up or ship out. Civil disobedience is not the only means short of violence, the latter of which I do not advocate. We must be prepared, though, to ratchet up the pressure!
Lets keep our beloved country afloat and instead figuratively send the "traitors" to the bottom of the ocean. Now is the time that tries all men's souls. And, in the words of another Founding Father, Patrick Henry, "Give me liberty or give me death." If our Founding Fathers would risk their lives, then we can certainly take strong action, too. The establishment has repeatedly ignored our grievances, just as the British crown did in the years leading up to 1776. And, with each new crop of "elected" so-called conservative and libertarian representatives in the current world of Washington, D.C., most of these "Tories" are co-opted by the likes of John Boehner, a phony conservative if there ever was one. This has left us with no other option. The market collapse of this week, our downgrading as a credit-worthy nation – the first time in American history – and the spreading violence in Europe more than underscores this reality.
Klayman's rhetoric is still clashing: You can't smear the opposition as "traitors" and invoke Patrick Henry and then insist that you will remain peaceful.
Newsmax's Patten Misleads About Health Care Reform Ruling Topic: Newsmax
An Aug. 12 Newsmax article by David Patten promotes the 11th Circuit U.S. Couirt of Appeals ruling against the individual mandate in President Obama's health care reform law, citing various "experts" to inveigh against the law and in favor of the ruling. But all of Patten's "experts" are conservatives not identified as such, Patten ignores another appellate court ruling in favor of the reform law, and he misleads about the nature of how judges have ruled on the law.
Patten quotes "healthcare expert" Betsy McCaughey -- a longtime serial misleader on health care reform -- asserting that the ruling is "a very important day for all Americans who care about individual liberty, and a very important day for those who are concerned about the economic growth urgently needed by this nation" and that it "effectively puts the brakes on cash-strapped states’ implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act." But Patten buries the fact that the Sixth Circuit federal appeals court ruled in favor of the constitutionality of the law in June, writing only that "In June, a Cincinnati court ruled in favor of the law in a case brought by the Thomas More Law Center." Patten failed to identify that ruling as coming from a federal appellate court, just like the 11th Circuit ruling.
Newsmax published no analysis of that ruling, only a short AP article.
Patten wrote the "Cincinnati court" ruling "was notable because one of the judges in the majority was a Republican," adding:
So far, federal judges in Florida and Virginia have ruled against the Act, while judges in Michigan and Virginia upheld it. Judges appointed by Democrats have consistently upheld the law, while Republican judges generally ruled against it. But Friday, one Republican judicial appointee and one Democratic judicial appointee concurred that the individual mandate is unconstitutional.
As Patten hinted but didn't explain, just like in the 11th Circuit, the Sixth Circuit ruling had a Republican-appointed judge and a Democratic-appointed judge in concurrence in favor of the law. Indeed, that Republican judge was appointed by President Bush with 41 Senate Democrats voting against him.
As we've detailed, Patten as a long history of slavishly following conservative talking points in his reporting.
AIM's Kincaid: Newsweek Attacking Bachmann Because Barry Diller Is Gay Topic: Accuracy in Media
Cliff Kincaid has identified the real culprit in Newsweek's criticism of Michele Bachmann. From his Aug. 11 Accuracy in Media column:
What has been ignored in the controversy is the fact that Tina Brown’s Daily Beast website, which acquired Newsweek, is owned by billionaire Barry Diller, identified by Out magazine as one of the top 50 most powerful homosexuals in the U.S. The publication said that Diller, who is not “out” of the closet, has “a long list of high-powered boyfriends” and a reputation as “the godfather of the velvet mafia, which includes his close friends Calvin Klein and David Geffen.”
This helps explain why Newsweek is targeting Bachmann, a supporter of traditional morality.
It's always the gays as far as Kincaid is concerned, isn't it?
Bozell Uses MRC Resources To Push Out His Partisan Views Topic: Media Research Center
Both NewsBusters and CNSNews.com devoted articles about Brent Bozell providing what CNS called his "succinct take on Thursday’s Republican debate in Ames, Iowa."
What does this have to do with the MRC's declared mission to "bring balance to the news media"? Nothing that we can see. Is using these resources to promote Bozell's partisan views legal under the MRC's 501(c)3 nonprofit status? We're no lawyers, but we suspect it isn't.
Aaron Klein Anonymous Source Watch Topic: WorldNetDaily
Aaron Klein writes in an Aug. 12 WorldNetDaily article:
Israel stopped what would have been a spectacular border terrorist attack planned from inside the Gaza Strip, according to Egyptian security officials.
The Egyptian officials said there is information the attack Tuesday was aimed at the sole pipeline that supplies Gaza with gas. The pipeline, located at the Israeli town of Nahal Oz, is manned and provided by Israel.
Israeli security officials would not comment on the matter.
Why should anyone trust anonymous "Egyptian security officials" about what's going on in Israel? Klein doesn't explain why we should.
MRC Still Unhappy That There Are Gays On Its TV Topic: Media Research Center
As NewsBusters has already shown this week, the Media Research Center doesn't like it when gays are portrayed in the media as anything other than leading deviant, sinful lifestyles. The MRC served up a big taste of that last week by attacking TV networks for depicting them at all.
An Aug. 4 MRC Culture & Media Institute article by Paul Wilson complained about the "he disproportionate airtime" given to "gay characters and issues." Wilson railed against "the mistaken notion that homosexuality is widespread in America" and whined that "the near-ubiquity of homosexual characters on television flies in the face of demographic reality," since "the homosexual population in the United States is around 2 to 4 percent."
Wilson focused on the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation's "Network Responsibility Index," which tracks appearances of LGBT characters on TV shows. Wilson huffed that GLAAD was "handing out the pats on the head" to networks for being "pro-homosexual," concluding, "So if it seems that you can't flip through the channels today without running across gay characters or story lines, you're right. You can't. And GLAAD's there to make sure of it." But Wilson offers no evidence that GLAAD "makes sure" gays are depicted on TV or punishes networks who don't.
In other words, just another anti-gay freakout from an organization prone to them.
Craige McMillan begins his Aug. 10 WorldNetDaily column this way:
Obama voters worldwide are running wild. In England, America's parent country, mobs of "youths" have taken to burning down shops, businesses, cars and buses, and beating anyone who gets in their way or tries to put out their fires. I guess they think there will be more for everyone when there's nothing left.
In Greece, Italy and the rest of the euro-zone's bankrupt socialist paradise, everyone riots at the mere suggestion that retirements can't be as generous as previously promised if the nation's loans are to be repaid.
Here in America, gangs of "youths" – if that's what you'd call racist teenage gang-bangers – drag white people from their cars and beat them as they leave the Wisconsin State Fair. "Flash mobs" – if that's what you'd call racist teenage gang-bangers – flood into stores and empty the shelves, while the police hang out at the local doughnut shop (which is always well-protected).
McMillan is claiming that Europeans and underage youths who were even more underage in 2008 voted for Obama.
McMillan suggests he might be speaking metaphorically when he later writes, "Nationality, you see, is irrelevant when one votes for a god," but otherwise, he's presenting this literally.
Oops, did we mistakenly apply logic to a columnist not normally known for such things? Sorry...
WND Smackdown: Farber Bashes Geller (Though Not By Name) Topic: WorldNetDaily
Barry Farber turns in a surprisingly strong smackdown in his Aug. 10 WorldNetDaily column:
I'm chilled by the words of "real" Jews, Jews willing to stand in the hedge and take up the gap in the fight for Jewish and Israeli survival. From the very famous to the almost famous to the obscure, it's as if some very non-Jewish thought-virus has commandeered their minds to get Oslo screamingly wrong.
No names or attributed quotes, please. I love these people and I expect to be on their side again for the rest of my life. But first, Oslo!
Their theme, crudely stated, is something like this. "Hold everything, folks. This just in! Did you know that those Norwegian children who were shot down at a 'summer camp' were being brainwashed and molded into an anti-Israel strike force planning anti-Israel boycotts and militating for the declaration of a Palestinian state? No, folks, this 'summer camp' wasn't for roasting weenies and telling ghost stories around the campfire. This summer camp was more like a 'Hitler Youth' outing!"
One extremely famous Jewish commentator even had Norway on the wrong side in World War II. One Jewish activist punctuated her comments about the Norwegian people by saying, "They just hate Jews!" (They don't!)
May I borrow my favorite line from Christianity? Namely, "Forgive them, Father. They know not what they do!"
It's true that the government of Norway is fiercely pro-Palestine and anti-Israeli. And like all governments and individuals who hold that position, Norway is factually bankrupt. They say officially that the cause of Palestinian terrorism is the Israeli "occupation." Ask them what the cause of that terrorism was before the 1967 war that led to Israel's "occupation" and the Norwegians lose their audio. Forget anything as complex as Israel never taking one inch of land that was "Palestinian" or even "Arab." All that land was an unsettled leftover of the Ottoman Empire's defeat in 1918. Norwegian officials don't want to risk the even deeper confusion that might attend an honest exploration of the facts.
For democratic, highly civilized Norway to be swine-headed over Israel is beside my point. How dare any Jew suggest that somehow Norwegians had Anders Breivik's massacre coming to them because of their anti-Israel feelings! I especially rebel at the cowardly attempt to say that without saying it. All the offending statements include assurances that, "I'm not saying Norway's anti-Israeli feelings justified the slaughter."
Oh, no? You're not! Then why do you bring it up? I don't care if the children at that summer camp were all wearing swastika armbands and learning the "Horst Wessel" song in German, that doesn't justify their murder. Neither does it justify Jewish insinuations about their "anti-Semitism" while pretending no such insinuations.
Unfortunately, as courageous as his criticism was, he wasn't so courageous as to name those who he was criticizing because, he says, "I love these people." There may be another issue as well: the top person on that list is another WND columnist, Pamela Geller.
In a post on her Atlas Shrugs blog, Geller did indeed suggest that the victims at the youth camp allegedly shot up by Anders Brevik deserved to die because the camp is part of an anti-Israel "indoctrination training center." She says the victims would have grown up to become "future leaders of the party responsible for flooding Norway with Muslims who refuse to assimilate, who commit major violence against Norwegian natives including violent gang rapes, with impunity, and who live on the dole." She also claimed that the camp's attendees were "more Middle Eastern or mixed than pure Norwegian (a claim she later deleted from her post).
It's more than legitimate to ask why WND permits a person who wrote such vile things to be a weekly columnist, but unfortunately, Farber doesn't seem interested in pursing the issue.
NewsBusters: There's A Gay In My Newspaper! Topic: NewsBusters
Mike Bates devoted an entire Aug. 11 NewsBusters post to this:
Tonight in Iowa, Republican presidential candidates will debate before a national audience. But, at least on page 14 of today's Chicago Tribune, a much bigger story concerns a little known homosexual activist, not in this evening's debate, who also seeks the GOP nomination. He admits to a childhood crush on Chuck Connors of TV's "The Rifleman," and stands about as much a chance of winning the GOP nod as the late Mr. Connors does.
The story, "Debate is gay candidate's primary aim," runs 25 paragraphs and approximately 1,200 words. Excerpted from an even longer article on the Chicago Tribune's Web site, it centers on an understandably less than optimistic candidate:
Fred Karger, Republican candidate for president, knows there is no chance he will be the GOP nominee, much less the next leader of the free world. "I'm not delusional," he says, though one might wonder what, exactly, he is thinking.
In contrast, the same page of today's Tribune carries a much smaller article, "Eyes on Iowa as GOP hopefuls set for debate," taken from an expanded piece appearing on the newspaper's Web site. The print story is seven paragraphs in length and about 300 words. Several candidates who will participate tonight aren't even mentioned.
Bates gets in one parting shot at Karger: "Maybe if Newt Gingrich confessed to an infatuation with Pa Cartwright, he'd have qualified for coverage in the Tribune story on the debate."
WND, Klayman Peddle Lies About Maddow Lawsuit Topic: WorldNetDaily
WND and its associates pretty much seem to be genetically incapable of telling the truth.
IN an Aug. 10 WND article by Bob Unruh on the lawsuit sue-happy defamer Larry Klayman has filed against Rachel Maddow on behalf of gay-bashing evangelist Bradlee Dean, there's this interesting statement:
The action seeks $50 million damages.
Klayman, the founder of Judicial Watch and now of Freedom Watch, said money is not the issue.
"This case is filed as a matter of principle," he said. "We need more Bradlee Deans in the world and hateful left wing television commentators must be made to respect not only his mission but the law."
That is absurd on its face. If money wasn't the issue, why is Klayman trying to get $50 million out of Maddow? And if respect really was part of Klayman's mission, Unruh's article wouldn't be accompanied by a picture of Maddow as she is supposedly being served with the lawsuit, with a look teased on the WND front page as "sourpuss." Apparently trying to humiliate the defendant is part of Klayman's "principles."
Unruh does his own lying in the article as well. In the midst of fluffing Dean, he writes:
Dean also is drummer for Junkyard Prophet, which has sold over 40,000 albums in the Minneapolis area alone. Bradlee is endorsed by world-class companies such as Sonor, Buttkickers, Beatnik (including his own signature drum pad), Hornet Drumsticks (including his own signature sticks) and Soultone Cymbals.
Music instrument makers rarely endorse musicians, and certainly not a lower-tier musician like Dean. Rather, companies allow musicians to endorse their products, and that is the case here. From the Sonor page on Dean:
I’m honored to endorse gear by Sonor, Buttkicker, Hornet drumsticks, Beatnik, Soultone, and Gibraltar—companies that have entrusted me to faithfully and successfully endorse their products.
Thery're not endorsing him -- he's endorsing them.
Is it too much to ask for Unruh to get basic facts correct? Apparently so.
U.S. troop deaths are not the only area in which CNSNews.com bashes President Obama while ignoring the record of the previous, Republican occupant of the White House.
The percentage of Americans saying they approve of the job President Barack Obama is doing tied its all-time low of 42 percent in the week of Aug. 1-7, while the percentage of Americans saying they disapprove of the job Obama is doing tied its all-time high of 50 percent, according to the Gallup poll.
What Jeffrey doesn't mention: President Bush's disapproval ratings were much higher. INdeed, Bush's disapproval rating in April 2008 was 69 percent, which Gallup declared was "the highest disapproval rating in Gallup Poll history."
How did CNS react to Bush's low ratings? By trying to discredit the poll. A July 8 CNS article by Carolyn Bolls noting that "only 35 percent of adults believe the United States is on the right track under President Bush's leadership" quoted a Republican operative as claiming that it's "difficult to glean any conclusion from a poll that doesn't accurately reflect the demographic makeup in this country."
It's been a few weeks, so it must be time for another gay-bashing tirade from Les Kinsolving. From his Aug. 8 WorldNetDaily column:
On July 20, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report that, in its impact of human suffering, should surely question the appropriateness – no, make that the outrage – of describing the behavior that caused it as "gay."
[...]
Ladies and gentlemen, that absolutely begs the question: Why should all U.S. taxpayers – rather than all of those outspoken, militant homosexual organizations – have to pay $21 billion on domestic HIV/AIDS?
And that is only for treating this deadly disease – not for any campaigning against the same-sex behavior in places like gay bath houses, which remain the highest spreaders of AIDS.
I am deeply grateful, as all Americans should be, for the CDC in reporting the terrible consequences of what the so-called gay lobby so rejoices, in its continuing advocacy of the behavior that is the No. 1 AIDS-spreader.
And for President Obama and his new secretary of defense to rejoice as they force our armed forces to accept the self-announced sodomites who are the nation's leading AIDS-spreaders is a national outrage that truly should be remembered at the polls one year from this November.
Kinsolving wasn't the only WND columnist in anti-gay freakout mode this week. Burt Prelutsky chimes in in his Aug. 9 column responding to a critic of a previous column in which he wrote of gay-pride parades: "What is it exactly that they're so proud of? That their sexual activity will never lead to the birth of a baby, but only, tragically on occasion, to a dreadful disease?"
To tell you the truth, I thought my article was temperate and even sympathetic. But inasmuch as Mr. Hooper and his secret admirer wish to take me on, so be it.
If I am to be taken to task for suggesting that what unites gays is solely their sex lives, they will have to come up with a logical alternative. What else are we to make of their silly parades? In what else are they displaying their pride? It's certainly not their nation, their religion, not even their personal accomplishments. It's not like the Irish showing the green on St. Patrick's Day or a VFW company offering a tribute to their fallen comrades on Memorial Day. The only unifying aspect of a Gay Pride parade is based on the sexual acts they perform together.
Finally, how is it that they ever came up with that childish insult, "homophobe"? It's bad enough that they are so arrogant that they can seriously insist that anyone who opposes same-sex marriages is suffering from an irrational fear, which is the definition of a phobia, but what are we to make of the first part of the word? After all, for years we have been lectured that the "H" word is an obscenity, every bit as offensive as the "N" word, and yet here they are tossing it around like a beach ball at Dodger Stadium.
Frankly, I'm a little surprised they didn't go all the way and come up with "queerophobe" or "fagophobe."
That way, even in denouncing the label as a lie, they could claim we were using vile language to insult them.
I guess the nice thing about being a member of a minority in America is that you can assume the moral high ground even when you're wading in a swamp.
Prelutsky is really nothing more than a garden-variety hater.
You know the really funny thing? Kinsolving and Prelutsky wrote their previous anti-gay screeds on successive days too.
MRC's Graham Unhappy That CNN Employs A Muslim Topic: Media Research Center
An Aug. 9 NewsBusters post by the Media Research Center's Tim Graham essentially boils down to a single complaint: CNN hired a Muslim.
Graham starts off by grousing that a CNN guest who spoke about Ramadan was a CNN employee, booking director Maria Ebrahimji. Graham claims that Ebrahimji "has embraced her role as a Muslim advocate inside CNN" and further complains that she "serves on several boards" inside CNN: "Vice Chair of the CNN Diversity Council and on the Turner Broadcasting Corporate Responsibility Council and Green Task Force."
The rest of the post is excerpts from other CNN appearances by Ebrahimji and a quote from the website for a book she wrote "compiling stories of Muslim-American women." Aside from an incorrect claim that Jews "sacrifice for Christ," Graham doesn't contradict or criticize what she has to say.
The only important thing here is that CNN hired a Muslim, and that's apparently too much for Graham's right-wing sensitivities.
Kessler Launches New, Wild Attack on Hillary Topic: Newsmax
Newsmax's Ronald Kessler appeared on the Aug. 9 edition of Fox & Friends with a wild claim from his new book "The Secrets of the FBI" he hasn't yet peddled at Newsmax: that Hillary Clinton drove Vincent Foster to suicide:
KESSLER: Vince Foster, the deputy White House counsel under Clinton, he was depressed. He did commit suicide. But what the FBI found that never came out before is that a week before his suicide, Hillary Clinton had a big meeting in the White House with him and other aides about her health care legislation, and she violently disagreed with the legal objection he raised, and she totally humiliated in front of all of these White House aides. "You are small town -- you are a small town hick lawyer. You'll never make it in the big time." And after that, his demeanor changed. His -- he became very withdrawn. He would break into tears. And a week later, he committed suicide. The FBI concluded that that is what triggered his decision to commit suicide.
Such an attack on Hillary Clinton would seem to conflict with Newsmax chief Christopher Ruddy's rapprochement a few years back with Bill Clinton. But Kessler has long been a Clinton-basher with special focus on Hillary, usually hiding behind anonymous sources to hurl his smears and failing to provide any documentation for them.
An April 2006 Newsmax article on Kessler's book on Laura Bush touted how it contains "an extremely unflattering portrait of the Clintons":
The book reveals that the Clintons had treated Secret Service agents and household help with disdain and made few attempts to engage them in friendly conversation.
"Bush and his wife treated you normally, decently," said one former agent. "They had conversations with us."
[...]
The Clintons had used the White House to court fund-raisers, putting up political supporters in the Lincoln Bedroom. The Bushes, on the other hand, have given overnight privileges only to dignitaries, family members and longtime friends.
When Hillary gave Laura a tour of the Executive Mansion, Laura – who had previously stayed at the White House when her father-in-law was president – was "quietly dismayed" at the condition of the residence, author Kessler revealed.
The residence décorations appeared gaudy. Carpets and furniture had been allowed to fray and there were exposed electrical conduits in several areas. But the Clintons' real irreverence for the White House came to light after Bill left office, when stories broke that the Clinton staff had "trashed" the mansion before leaving.
Clinton supporters called the report an "urban legend." In response, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer detailed some of the damage in the White House and the adjacent Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
[...]
The final, official report from the Government Accounting Office, released on June 11, 2002, did not confirm all of Fleischer's allegations, but did state that the damage included the loss of 62 computer keyboards, 26 cell phones, two cameras, 10 antique doorknobs and several presidential medallions.
It would be more accurate to say that the GAO report substantiated very few of Fleischer's allegations of vandalism.
A June 2007 article by Kessler recruited Bay Buchanan to attack Hillary, in which Buchanan claimed that "we are all fools for having let her advance to the point where she is running for president." Kessler and Buchanan also repeated a discredited falsehood about Hillary:
Of all of Hillary's prevarications, Buchanan says, none is so clear-cut or shocking as the fact that on national TV, Hillary claimed that when two airplanes hit the World Trade Center, her daughter Chelsea was at Battery Park near the towers, where Chelsea heard and saw the catastrophe unfold.
Hillary's arrogance was so profound that she did not coordinate the story with Chelsea, who wrote an article for Talk in which she described what she had been doing that day. According to Chelsea, she wasn't jogging at the World Trade Center. Rather, she was miles away in a friend's apartment on Park Avenue South. She watched the events unfold on TV.
In fact, as we pointed out at the time, Clinton did not say that Chelsea "was at Battery Park near the towers, where Chelsea heard and saw the catastrophe unfold"; rather, she said that Chelsea "was going to go around the towers."
When Hillary Clinton was running for president, Kessler rehashed anonymous anti-Hillary anecdotes from a earlier book of his for a February 2008 Newsmax column:
Secret Service agents assigned at various points to guarding Hillary during her campaign for the Senate were dismayed to find her two-faced and perpetually angry.
“During the listening tour, she planned ‘impromptu’ visits at diners and local hangouts,” a former Secret Service agent told me for my book “A Matter of Character: Inside the White House of George W. Bush.”
“The events were all staged, and the questions were screened,” the former agent said. “She would stop off at diners. The campaign would tell them three days ahead that they were coming. They would talk to the owner and tell him to invite everyone and bring his friends. Hillary flew into rages when she thought her campaign staff had not corralled enough onlookers beforehand. Hillary had an explosive temper.”
Publicly, Hillary courted law enforcement organizations, but privately she had disdain for police. “She did not want police officers in sight,” a former agent said. “How do you explain that to the police? She did not want Secret Service protection near. She wanted state troopers and local police to wear suits and stay in unmarked cars. If there were an incident, that could pose a big problem. People don’t know police are in the area unless officers wear uniforms and drive police cars. If they are unaware of a police presence, people are more likely to get out of control.”
[...]
“She decided they were not compatible with her down-home image. They were used once or twice,” an agent said. “She wanted a conversion van with picture windows and two captain chairs. So we purchased three of them, each outfitted with armor, bulletproof glass, and a system to supply clean air. Each was positioned around New York State to help reduce travel time.”
Like her husband and his White House staff, Hillary and her staff were disorganized and habitually late. “She had children running her campaign,” an agent said. “She had a lack of organization and a lack of maturity. She could not keep a schedule.”
When she stayed at the houses of Democratic supporters, “We would show up at their homes at 2 a.m., and she would sleep in the master bedroom,” he said.
During her “listening tour,” Hillary’s campaign staff planned a visit to a 4-H Club in dairy farm country in upstate New York. As they approached the outdoor event and she saw people dressed in jeans and surrounded by cows, Hillary became livid.
“She turned to a staffer and said, ‘What the [expletive] did we come here for? There’s no money here,’” a former Secret Service agent said.
Again, Kessler hides behind anonymity and offers no substantiation for these claims. We assume he has followed the same pattern for his latest attack on Hillary.
