CNS' Jeffrey Still Pushing Kagan Recusal (And Ignoring Thomas' Conflict of Interest) Topic: CNSNews.com
Terry Jeffrey is still trying to force Elena Kagan to recuse herself from ruling on the constitutionality of health care reform.
An Oct. 14 CNSNews.com article by Jeffrey details CNS' latest attempt to obtain internal documents from Kagan's tenure as solicitor general in an attempt to demonstrate that Kagan played some role in defending the Obama administration's position on health care reform. All Jeffrey can come up with, however, is that Kagan named a deputy to handle the issue, and that efforts were made to wall off Kagan from handling the case in anticipation of a Supreme Court nomination.
This time around, a judge ruled that CNS and the right-wing group Judicial Watch could not obtain emails Kagan "sent from her DOJ email account to people in the White House—in which she discussed her recusal decisions as solicitor general—because the emails were 'used for a purely personal objective.'"
As per usual, Jeffrey does not mention conflict-of-interest issues regarding a conservative Supreme Court justice. Clarence Thomas' wife is a a right-wing activist who has attacked health care reform as unconstitutional. Thomas also failed to disclose his wife's income from activist groups for several years.
Indeed, a search of the CNS archives indicates that it has never reported on Thomas' conflict of interest.
WND's Erik Rush Goes Conspiracy-Happy Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily columnist Erik Rush manages to squeeze two unproven conspiracies into one blog post.
Writing at something called Terrible Truth, Rush spins a conspiracy theory around the claim that "One of Barack Obama’s first official acts upon being sworn in as President of the United States was to return a bust of British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill to Britain." In fact, the bust was on loan to the United States, not a gift, and was scheduled to be returned at the end of the Bush presidency.
Despite that non-factual basis of his assertion about the bust, Rush goes on to blather that "many observers surmised that this was a symbolic slight meant to punish the British government’s imperialistic policies of the past – in particular, those which had detrimentally affected the people of Kenya, from whence Barack Obama Sr., had come."
But that's not to be the craziest thing Rush writes. This is (emphasis is Rush's):
There is a more likely explanation, if one understands that the President’s biological father was in fact Malcolm X, rather than Barack Obama Sr. The slight against the Obama’s sensibilities was far more painful.
Just three days before his father’s assassination, England had considered banning Malcolm forever from its soil.
[...]
I suppose Obama figured that since England dissed his daddy, it was his duty to pay them back. So, he kicked England out of America the way they tried to kick Malcolm out of England.
So Rush is a birther too. He is a WND columnist, after all.
Tom Blumer devotes an entire Oct. 14 NewsBusters post to the supposition that coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protests is driving down the ratings of network evening news programs. Blumer has no proof of that, of course, which he eventually admits: "It's a little early to ascribe the ratings drop to Occupy Wall Street. Another reported drop next week would be more definitive. It certinaly bears watching."
Blumer surely knows that correlation does not equal causation. Doesn't he?
Does Larry Klayman Want Obama Killed? Topic: WorldNetDaily
Larry Klayman's Oct. 14 WorldNetDaily column is a long screed against Iran , with the typical swipesat President Obama and Hillary Clinton. He concludes it by writing, "The bottom line is this, my friends. It's time to take the mullahs out, whatever the cost."
Now, Klayman has repeatedly libeled Obama by calling him a Muslim, and, morespecifically, the "mullah-in-chief." Klayman has also called for an "Assault on Washington," though he claims he does not advocate "violent revolt."
Has Klayman changed his mind about violence? Is Obama is among the "mullahs" Klayman wants to take out, whatever the cost? Obama is the "mullah in chief," after all, so Klayman likely wants him taken out even more.
In an Oct. 17 FrontPageMag article, Jamie Glazov writes that "WikiLeaks recently released a secret cable revealing that President Obama tried to apologize to the Japanese for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during his tour to that country in 2009." Glazov went on to add, "That Obama sought to apologize to the Japanese for ending a brutal war that they started and for doing it in such a way that it saved millions of lives on both sides is a disturbing testament to the destructive mindset of the man that leads the United States." At the end of the column, Glazov asserted again that Obama was "planning to apologize for the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
Glazov is lying. In fact, the WikiLeaks cable in question says no such thing; rather, it repeats speculation from "anti-nuclear groups" on whether Obama would apologize, but goes on to state that "the idea of President Obama visiting Hiroshima to apologize for the atomic bombing during World War II is a 'non-starter.'"
Even Fox News has apologized for reporting that an apology was planned. Now it's Glazov's turn to apologize.
Occupy Wall Street Derangement Syndrome (WorldNetDaily Division) Topic: WorldNetDaily
Tea-party activists are salt-of-the-earth, hardworking Americans who, previous to their activism in 2009, had never marched with placards or attended rallies or town halls. Their rallying cry is the rule of law and getting government off their backs. On the other hand, the Wall Street Occupiers are jobless, directionless riff-raff who don't think government can ever be big enough if their every need is not being addressed.
[...]
And who are the "occupiers"? Have you heard them interviewed? Do any of them sound like they know what they are talking about? Do they have a plan other than to agitate and make noise? Do they really not understand they are promoting a form of tyranny rather than liberty? Do they seem like people who understand the way the world works? Are they people of accomplishment? Do they have a work ethic? Are they the kind of salt-of-the-earth Americans you would like as neighbors?
Maybe it's just me, but that's not what I see.
These demonstrators sound like spoiled children.
I've yet to hear a cogent articulation of their grievances from any one of them.
It sounds like they hate free enterprise and blame capitalism for the economic crisis America is experiencing – when, in fact, what we are experiencing is a government-made economic mess that is getting worse with each new initiative from Washington.
Former Gov. Huey Long of Louisiana once said, "Fascism will come to America, but they'll call it 'Americanism'!" Strike out "fascism" and put in "communism," and you've got the wisest comment so far on the matter of the "Occupy Wall Street" vent-a-thon. If Stalin were alive he'd drop dead from hearing all the pure communist battle cries reverberating through the capitalist canyons of Wall Street. Even Stalin's Communists felt the need to accuse rich capitalists of illegality. Now the mask is off. Now it's OK to say, "Nobody needs that much money," and "Share the wealth!" Communism killed and enslaved many more people over much more of the earth's surface for far longer periods than even Hitler's Nazis. Obviously, American communists would prefer to call themselves "progressives" or "redistributionists." Sometimes they don't call themselves anything. They just say, "Here are some bills we have to get passed!"
My concern goes far beyond any foothold communism under any name might seize in America. We know the danger of firearms and high explosives in the wrong hands, trains carrying ethanol that turn over and burn, fallen electric wires sputtering in the grass, bears popping up in your pup tent and others. A mob is a "wild animal" that can likewise explode and kill.
(Forgive me again, Mark Twain. The difference between a mob and an orderly demonstration is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug!)
Condoning a mob, as the president has done along with hordes of prominent Americans, is quite literally condoning someone driving at top speed with a glass of straight vodka in his sipping hand. (Beer doesn't work here; it's not strong enough or fast-acting enough.) Condoning a mob is allowing a male pilot to fondle a female flight attendant in the cockpit of a fully loaded passenger jet at 32,000 feet. And that's just CONDONING! Encouraging, promulgating, organizing are even higher crimes.
And that's "flat-field-sunny-day," when national nerves are normal. In today's America such mob-ism is pleading for catastrophe. And Nancy Pelosi says, about the mobsters, "God bless them!" How odd that those who hate guns love mobs!
I have heard that rich left-wing knuckleheads are paying some of the folks camping out on Wall Street and in financial districts around the country. At first, it only amused me to think that people who refuse to be paid minimum wage to flip burgers, which is at least a job that can lead to better jobs and is understood by everyone to be an actual job, were quite willing to be paid a minimum wage to stand around in filthy clothes and defecate on the sidewalk.
As a career, I suppose it offers certain advantages; namely the freedom not to shower, show up at a given time or deal with those pesky dry cleaners. On the other hand, I had always assumed that even liberal-arts majors generally aspire to become something other than a bum.
If today, as my wife's magazines keep insisting, 70 is the new 60, 60 is the new 50, and 50 is the new 40, these young guttersnipes remind us that 20 is the new 10.
That's not to say that they are all young and spoiled, because some are obviously old and spoiled. They are the aged hippies, still hanging on to their granny glasses and ponytails. They're the sad relics who show up at the airport, having no place to go, but merely in the hope that some obliging TSA agent will pat them down.
As the Internet and social media help increasingly well organized Marxist protesters bring their "Occupy Wall Street" mobs to cities across America, the sense that history is repeating could not be more keen. Not since French peasants dragged nobles to the guillotines have so many been so excited about emptying the pockets of so few.
In Glorious Leader Obama's America, this is not a fad, and it is not a passing trend. This is, instead, a cultural shift that sees whining entitlement, peevish jealousy and naked covetousness become the public norm for the liberal left and the Democratic Party in America.
A hilarious image posted online sums up the hypocrisy of the protesters, who snarl and growl about "evil corporations" while clothed in, decorated by, transmitted across and connected through the products of the capitalist industries they mindlessly condemn. Amusing as this may be, there is nothing funny about the proliferation of "occupy" protests. These demonstrations are blooming like fungus throughout our beleaguered nation. They are a threat to every productive citizen.
Occupy Wall Street – and the contrived movement growing from its ranks – is warning writ large. It is not surprising that the loitering, bleating legions of spoiled communist hippies have trashed the areas in which they squat, nor should anyone be surprised that they've graduated to terrorizing business executives and their families at home. What too few people understand is that the twin calls for violence and redistributive social justice are inseparable. You cannot take the contents of a man's wallet without first shoving the barrel of a gun in his face or the point of a knife in his ribs – and you cannot have a revolution without lopping off a few heads.
Violence, which liberals so adore when it serves their re-imagining of our free republic as an "enlightened" totalitarian state, is the pragmatic means to their impractical egalitarian ends. Exhortations to this violence, so perfectly expressed by lib union thugs, are not theoretical, figurative, or metaphorical. They are real, and they are the future of a society whose leftist president has done everything he can to further a national narrative of class warfare. Every time Obama mewls about those who are not "paying their fair share," he is really demanding that government thieve from producers under threat of violent retribution.
[...]
The mobs will kill you to take what they believe they're owed. They'll do it in the name of a social "contract" you've never signed. They'll do it en masse, with rage in their eyes and Marxist slogans on their lips.
When the occupation gets to your lawn, remember that.
The dreams-from-my-father moment appears to be nearing as riots, sit-ins and protests grow throughout the country. "Social-justice" miscreants – a whole new generation of '60s hippies – have escaped their cages and are running wild in New York, Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago and other U.S. cities. And, make no mistake about it, they're looking for red meat.
This weird mixture of commies and cuckoos are ecstatic over what BHO's policies have done to the U.S. economy in less than three years, and must surely be drooling over the thought of five more years of economic destruction. They believe – or at least they believe they believe, in the greatest of all contradictions – that by destroying wealth, there will be more wealth to share with "the masses" … you know, like in Mao's China, Lenin's and Stalin's Soviet Union, and Castro's Cuba.
The occupiers of Wall Street were silent as the president of the United States approached the podium in downtown Manhattan and began to speak. Obama was expected to embrace the protesters, but much to their surprise, he delivered a stinging attack.
"You have disgraced yourself by your public displays of indecency, the disrespect for your fellow citizens who live and work here and by trashing this park and the restrooms of nearby merchants. Just look at some of the signs you are carrying. 'Jump you F---ers,' pigs in police uniforms and 'Shoot Sperm not Bullets.' Is that who you really are?
"I know that many of you are worried and frustrated with this economy, but don't take it out on the job creators. While some in my party have expressed solidarity with you, I cannot condone a group that blocks traffic and defecates on a squad car. You should be ashamed of yourselves!
"Go home and make this country a better place. If you don't have a job, take advantage of one of our programs to retrain for the jobs that go unfilled. While you are collecting unemployment checks, do something positive with your time. Begin cleaning up your neighborhood or work as a volunteer at a local hospital."
The alarm clock jarred me from my sleep. It had all been a dream!
I've been following the antics of the Wall Street protesters over the last few weeks with a combination of amusement, pity, tolerance and disgust.
On one hand, their list of (cough) demands is so laughable that they defy logical response. Open-borders migration? Free college education? Guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment? (That was probably the funniest.)
But I also feel some pity for these poor people. They can't help what they feel. All their lives they've attended liberal bastions of progressive brainwashing (government schools) and have never been exposed to any diversity of thought or opinion, much less real-world experience. They've been thoroughly indoctrinated into socialistic ideals, slurping down the progressive agenda like candy.
[...]
These protests are so valuable to the dark forces that are now controlling the actions, demands and purpose of the protesters. Yes, it's true: These young people are coming over to the Dark Side of the Force.
I call it the Dark Side because this force – progressivism, socialism and ultimately communism – is antithetical in every way to the principles laid out in our Constitution. Up to this point the protesters have been comparatively innocent, the natural offshoot of a lifetime of privileged existence and socialist education. But now they're being actively programmed by the Dark Side. These evil influences are altering the protesters' lines of thinking and behavior into paths that ultimately will shape not only their future, but potentially the future of our nation as well.
But our modern Darth Vaders don't paint it that way. They say they want to be "compassionate" and promote "equality" and "social justice." What they don't say is that these goals can only be achieved at the point of a gun and at the expense of freedom and liberty. It's a seductive thing, this Dark Side, and the young and gullible are easily swayed by it, particularly after a lifetime of being spoon-fed government educational twaddle.
For the past month, the liberal fascist mobs have been protesting American exceptionalism, capitalism and its symbolic embodiment, Wall Street in Manhattan. These legions of largely white hippie-types, are unwashed, unshaved, unemployed, unemployable masses; prone to violence, conspicuous drug use, rantings, cursing, public defecation on police cars and promiscuous sex – yet are clueless as to what, why or who they are even protesting.
For example, some of the young liberal fascists say they are protesting Wall Street corruption, government bailouts of Wall Street, capitalism and the banking industry, yet they seem ignorant to the fact President Obama and his socialist and crony-capitalist policies are behind all of the Wall Street bailouts – TARP I, TARP II, QE1, QE2, GM/Chrysler bailouts, Obama's green energy scams like Solyndra, First Solar, SolarReserve, SunPower Corp. and Abengoa SA.
Don't these nitwit socialists know anything about Obama's union bailouts, which are naked slush funds and kickbacks schemes to his $1 billion re-election campaign? Moreover, 20 percent of Obama's campaign contributions in 2008 were from Wall Street money, and surprise, surprise, surprise … these Democrats want to elect this same Marxist-Leninist in 2012 who gave us higher taxes, higher deficits and more job-killing regulations.
[...]
As the useful idiot mobs rant and rave daily against capitalism in New York and throughout America holding their fancy iPhones, iPods, iPads, Blackberries, Twitter and Facebook accounts, wearing their Gucci gym shoes and marijuana-scented designer clothing, we are witnessing Lenin's famous prophecy come to pass before our eyes – "The capitalists would sell us [communists] the noose to hang them with."
Obama Derangement Syndrome Watch, Wayne Allyn Root Edition Topic: Newsmax
My businesses are all run with Apple computers. And imagine this — all of those advances were accomplished without government involved. What a remarkable legacy. Steve Jobs goes down in history as one of the great American inventors and visionaries with Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison, Walt Disney, and Henry Ford.
Compare this amazing legacy to that of Barack Obama. Steve Jobs was the great job maker; Obama the great job taker. Jobs was the great creator; Obama the great destroyer. Everything Jobs touched turned to gold; everything Obama touches turns to coal. Jobs’ great creations were the iPhone, iPod, and iPad; Obama’s are iDeficit, iDebt, iInsolvency, and iBankruptcy.
Jobs lived for risk and adventure, and asked for nothing from government — the epitome of rugged individualism, self-reliance, and American ingenuity. Obama lives for the safety net and expects government to do everything — from creating jobs, to picking winners and losers in the business world, to protecting us from cradle to grave.
Examine the results of Obama’s devotion to big government. Obama’s legacy is the loss of our country’s AAA credit rating for the first time in history; the worst economy since 1929; the worst collapse of housing in history; the collapse of retail sales and consumer confidence; true unemployment in the 20 percent range; a resurgence of inflation; the great “green energy” fraud that cost taxpayers billions; bailouts of automakers that cost taxpayers billions; a massive failed stimulus that cost taxpayers billions; more debt created than all other presidents combined; the greatest number of Americans in history on food stamps (45 million); the ban of offshore oil drilling costing tens of thousands of jobs; lawsuits against Arizona and Alabama for trying to enforce U.S. immigration law; and not surprisingly, the fastest collapse on record of a new president’s popularity.
Obama has bested Steve Jobs in one way. He has done more damage to America in three short years than all the great things Jobs could create in 30 years.
Jobs Maker. Or Jobs Killer. Which vision better embodies the American character? The iPhone or the iPhony?
WND Columnist's Race-Baiting: Scary Black People Are Coming To Get You Topic: WorldNetDaily
Could Colin Flaherty's Oct. 13 WorldNetDaily column be more race-baiting? Doubtful:
Thank God for YouTube. Or else we never would have know that hundreds of times in more than 50 cities since 2010, groups of black people have been roaming the streets of America – assaulting, intimidating, stalking, threatening, vandalizing, stealing, shooting, stabbing, even raping and killing.
But today the denials are crumbling. The curtains are lifting. We now can see what so many public officials and media have been curiously desperate to deny: Race riots are back.
[...]
In February 2010, at a Macy's department store a few blocks from city hall, more than 100 black people erupted in fights and destruction.
In July 2011, hundreds of blacks created an "astonishing" amount of violence at downtown Philadelphia restaurants, hotels and bars.
July 4, 2010 – stop me if you've heard this before – hundreds of black people storm the streets of South Philadelphia: beating, looting, destroying.
July 4, 2011, 10-20 black people assault and stab a student and his dog from LaSalle University. He's still alive, though many people do not know why. The dog probably saved him.
March 17, 2010, dozens of black people fight in a clothing store while onlookers laugh and cheer.
In Spring of 2010, police break up a black flash mob in the Tioga-Nicetown section of Philly. Kids were bored and acting stupid, said the reporter. The video tells another story.
In the Summer of 2011, Jeremy Schenkel recounted the attack on him to CBS3 Eyewitness News. He says the kids were laughing as they beat and kicked him, and not only was there the attacking mob, there was also a group of kids cheering them on.
"Almost like an admiring group that was following them, just kind of ragging on people, and one of those guys said, 'It's not our fault you can't fight,'" Schenkel recalls.
Then came the reader comments to the race-neutral stories: Hundreds and hundreds wanted to know why reporters repeatedly refused to identify the race of the attackers.
People knew two things were important: One, large groups of black people were systematically assaulting people in their town; and two, lots of people seemed way too heavily invested in not talking about the central organizing feature of the crime: The gangs of violent criminals were black.
[...]
The list of cities goes on and on. As do the denials and excuses.
In Chicago, congressman and former Black Panther leader Bobby Rush says this kind of crime is common in black neighborhoods, and the only reason anyone is noticing now is because white people are getting hurt.
Rush is probably right. Which means this problem is hundreds of times worse than we think.
In sum: Scary black people are coming to assault all you good white people and steal your stuff, just like black people do. Obviously, the solution is to make more white babies.
The NewsBusters Comedy Police Have Spoken! Topic: NewsBusters
Who knew that NewsBusters has a division that decides what is and isn't a joke?
Last month, if you'll remember, NewsBusters' Tom Blumer was in freakout mode because he decided that North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue was dead serious when she said that "I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years," going on to attack anyone who portrayed it as a joke.
Conversely, an Oct. 12 post by Ken Shepherd asserts that Michele Bachmann was totally joking when she said that "When you take the 9-9-9 plan and you turn it upside won, the devil is in the details," and that it's bizarre for MSNBC's Chris Matthews to take her seriously and think that it "may be something more sinister, or at least cynically calculated to appeal to 'strange, far right' Christian voters."
For some reason, Shepherd didn't fully quote Bachmann, only the "devil's in the details" part.
Well. Glad we cleared that up. But should an organization that puts out a painfully unfunny "comedy" webcast really be trusted to make judgments about what is and isn't a joke?
Dishonesty: WND's Farah Blames 'Major Media' For Mistake His Own Website Made Topic: WorldNetDaily
We've detailed how WorldNetDaily is publishing the memoir of notoriously corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Now it's carrying water for Abramoff with a show of dishonesty that must make Abramoff smile.
An Oct. 15 WND article reports, under the emphatic headline "Court did not order garnishment on Abramoff book":
WASHINGTON – Despite reports in the Washington Post, USA Today and many other news outlets, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has not issued a garnishment order on Jack Abramoff's earnings from his upcoming WND Books release "Capitol Punishment: The Hard Truth About Washington From America's Most Notorious Lobbyist."
While the Justice Department made a request to the court to garnish all of Abramoff's earnings from the book, no order has been signed or issued to WND, said Joseph Farah, chief executive officer of both WND and WND Books.
"It's just another case of the major media getting the story all wrong," said Farah.
You know who else got that story "all wrong"? WorldNetDaily.
A now-deleted Oct. 14 WND article states, under the similarly emphatic headline "Court garnishes Abramoff's earnings from WND Books expose":
Any further money convicted ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff earns from his upcoming book "Capitol Punishment: The Hard Truth About Washington From America's Most Notorious Lobbyist" must be used to pay back his former clients, a federal court in the nation's capital has ordered.
The Oct. 11 order issued by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia explains to Abramoff's publisher, WND Books, that he still owes a balance of $22.7 million on the $23.1 million he was ordered to pay as restitution after his conviction in 2006 of fraud, corruption and conspiracy in lobbying deals.
Most of the money is owed to Native American tribes Abramoff represented who were seeking influence in Washington for their gaming interests. The scandal led to the convictions of 20 people for payoffs in exchange for political favors, including Republican Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio.
That story is still in Google cache. Here's a screenshot:
Yet nowhere does Farah admit his own website reported the exact same "all wrong" thing he complains the "major media" did. He simply made the original story magically disappear -- WND regularly violates journalistic ethics by trying to make its mistakes magically disappear without offering corrections.
Did Farah really think he could get away with this deception? Does he not know how easy it is recover altered or deleted material on the Internet?
Farah is so utterly craven and dishonest that he will blame others for something his own website did.
This is not journalism -- it's the work of a soulless hack who acts like he has something to hide. And it's yet another reason WND simply cannot be trusted.
UPDATE: The story remains live on the beta version of WND's redesigned website. Oops!
UPDATE 2: WND has now deleted the follow-up story too. But never fear, it's still in Google cache, and here's a screenshot:
How stupid does Farah think WND readers are? Very stupid, apparently.
WND's New Rehab Project: Jack Abramoff Topic: WorldNetDaily
Newsmax now has some competition in the conservative imagerehabilitation business.
WorldNetDaily picked a rehab project with a high degree of difficulty: Jack Abramoff, the notorious lobbyist who served more than three years in federal prison for fraud, corruption and conspiracy. WND is publishing his autobiography, which purports to tell "the hard truth about Washington corrpution" -- and, of course, whitewash Abramoff's own deeds:
The name Jack Abramoff is synonymous with Washington scandal, but the fascinating facts of his case are either largely unknown or wildly misunderstood. His memoir will serve as a corrective - an engrossing, informative work of political nonfiction that is also a gripping real-life thriller.
The biggest surprise twist comes in the form of Abramoff himself, a smart, funny, charming, clear-eyed narrator who confounds every expectation of the media's villainous portrait. He's a perfect bundle of contradictions: an Orthodox Jew and upstanding family man with a staunch moral streak, caught in multiple scandals of bribery and corruption with an undercurrent of murder.
Abramoff represented Indian tribes whose lucrative casinos were constantly under threat from proposed changes in law; though he charged the tribes many millions, he saved them billions by ensuring votes to support the livelihoods of their reservations.
Much of Jack's share was funneled not into his own coffers, but to charities. Abramoff on the front pages could not be further from the Jack Abramoff who's ready to tell his honest and compelling story.
Uh, yeah.
If you'll recall, WND largely ignored Abramoff's corrpution when it was first being reported -- it couldn't be bothered to devote an original "news" article to his misdeeds at the time, even though WND claims to be dedicated "exposing wrongdoing, corruption and abuse of power" -- so one could say that WND is the ideal publisher of Abramoff's self-aggrandizing memoir.
Another way these two were destined to be together: WND has engaged in some Abramoff-esque deception and double talk about a story it did on Abramoff.
Newsmax Baselessly Portrays Clooney Movie As 'Flop' Topic: Newsmax
James Hirsen devoted his Oct. 10 Newsmax column to slagging the new George Clooney-Ryan Gosling movie "The Ides of March," under the headline "Clooney's Leftist Movie Flops at Box Office":
George Clooney’s latest movie, “The Ides of March,” debuted over the weekend and left Sony studio execs scratching their heads over the less-than-expected box-office take of $10.4 million.
Audiences weren't exactly raving about the film either, but they still liked it enough to grant it a "B" at CinemaScore. By comparison, “Real Steal,” the weekend's No. 1 box-office movie, hauled in $27.3 million and scored an "A."
After decent reviews from critics and a warm reception at the Venice and Toronto film fests, Sony executives were expecting a lot more from “Ides.” But now future hopes of profitability rest with the awards that the film may potentially garner.
Hirsen doesn't b ack up his claim that studio executives expected a bigger opening weekend from the movie. In fact, it appears tohave performed close to industry expectations. Entertainment Weekly's John Young, for instance, predicted it would earn $12 million.
Hirsen goes on to discredit his own depiction, noting that "the movie’s production budget after rebates came in at about $12.5 million." That means it will recover its production costs and much of its marketing costs through the theatrical run alone; the DVD release and cable and streaming rights will mean that it turns a solid profit.Only in Hirsen's world, apparently, is a film that makes money considered a "flop."
Hirsen's real reason for attacking the movie, though, is because it allegedly advances a political agenda he opposes:
The movie, which is based on Beau Willimon's 2008 play titled “Farragut North,” is a left-of-center dream sequence. The truth is that Clooney’s character would only be able to obtain a nomination from a major political party or be elected to high office in a make-believe world.
The character's No. 1 issue is greener energy, which he claims is the pat solution to end warfare in the world. He also wants to outlaw the internal combustion engine and is proud of not being religious minded, even going as far as to belittle opponents who talk about their faith.
A.O. Scott of The New York Times called the movie "an image of the liberal heart's desire," and the Los Angeles Times described Clooney's character as "a hardcore liberal's dream candidate."
“Ides” portrays members of the GOP and centrist Democrats as dastardly villains, which should strike the fancy of many of the voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who may just toss some nominations at the film.
Casting false aspersions simply because you oppose its message may make Hirsen a loyal conservative, but it also makes him a highly irresponsible and unethical journalist.
WND Launches Anti-Mormon Attack on Romney Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily has never been terribly fond of Mormons: WND columnist Mychal Massie once declared that Harry Reid was a racist because of his "inbred familial heritage" as a Mormon. Nor has WND particularly liked Mitt Romney; editor Joseph Farah declared that Romney is "the worst possible choice to succeed Obama" because he "is insulting to the intelligence of any real conservative."
Put the two hatreds together, and you getan Oct. 12 WND article by Joe Kovacs, which uses Romney to engage in anti-Mormon fearmongering:
"While he attempts to portray Mormonism as just another Christian religion, Mitt Romney counts on his skills to shift our attention away from what he truly believes," says Tricia Erickson, author of "Can Mitt Romney Serve Two Masters? The Mormon Church Versus the Office of the Presidency of the United States of America."
"If the American people knew what he truly believed, they would surely not place him in the highest office in the land."
Yet others, such as professor Richard Bushman, a Mormon and previous missionary himself who has taught at Harvard, Columbia and Brown Universities, are defending the faith. He calls Erickson "disillusioned" and someone who "instead of walking away felt an obligation to discredit [her] former faith."
[...]
Erickson says Romney believes:
He will become a "god" in the afterlife and be given his own planet
Satan is Jesus' literal brother
Jesus was not born of a virgin birth
He will be given his own afterlife kingdom where he will have sexual relations with his wife, Ann, to populate his kingdom with spirit children as God the Father Himself has a wife on His own planet.
"Mormonism teaches we pre-existed on God the Father's planet as spirit children before we were planted in our mother's wombs," Erickson told WND. "And the reason why we're here according to Mormonism, is so that we can work out our own progression to godhood and our own planets themselves."
The author, who herself was married in a Mormon temple at age 19 but now considers herself a non-denominational Christian, says there's a secret agenda Mormon officials don't like to talk about publicly.
"A complete takeover of the government," she said. "They have more people in the CIA, the FBI. They have an employment office for Mormons in D.C. to be able to infiltrate them into the government."
"They've been trying since the beginning to get someone in the presidency, because they believe they have to establish their authority so when Jesus comes to Earth, the Mormon Church will take control of the government and the Mormons will be the government of God on Earth," she continued.
It's funny that an online stalker wanting to keep his weapons is not extreme in the eyes of WND, but the idea of a Mormon president is. Strange priorities there.
Shortly thereafter, Graham retweeted it, with a crucial modification:
Yes, Graham wants us to be aware that an Obama appointee is a lesbian. Why? It's not like the appointee's sexual orientation has any irrelevance whatsoever to the story.
As just one example, this time from the Democratic side of the aisle, our president, Barack Hussein Obama, Muslim under Islamic law as his father was Muslim and clearly Muslim in his heart, is in the process of orchestrating what Netanyahu branded "theatre of the absurd" with regard to Israel, a vital ally and one that is essential for U.S. national security in the oil-rich region of the Middle East. Having disparaged Israel and its leaders for the last three years, sided with Arab states bent on its destruction, supported a false "Arab Spring" that resulted in the removal of vital allies like former President Mubarak in Egypt, giving rise to the ascension of the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood in not only Egypt but several other Arab states which surround Israel, it should come as no surprise that the Palestinian Authority, which already was granted autonomy by Israel to govern itself on the West Bank, and its comrade in arms, Hamas, the terrorist group which rules Gaza and subjects Israelis to constant rocket attacks, has circumvented direct negotiations with Israel and gone to the "terrorist friendly" United Nations to impose a Palestinian state on the world. Coupled with the appearance if not reality that Obama and his administration – including the self-hating ultra-leftist Jews Obama surrounds himself with for political cover in the White House – are anti-Semitic, the Palestinians obviously felt emboldened to pursue this course. They have a not-too-stealth ally in the president of the United States and his sleazy minions. In effect, Obama stood by and let this happen.
But now that recent polls and election results show that Obama and his fellow Democrats are rapidly losing their traditional hold on Jewish political donors and fundraisers, our glib "mullah in chief" – two faced as ever – seeks to create the newly crafted impression that he is now solidly behind Israel and direct negotiations, rather than a United Nation's imposed Palestinian state.
Poor President Obama. His leftist backers have momentarily fallen out of love with him for not destroying the country fast enough. Obama must ask himself, "What would Hugo Chavez do?"
[...]
Obama's birdbrained policies are so exasperatingly ridiculous he's lucky no one is invoking the 25th Amendment to challenge his mental capacity to serve.
-- David Limbaugh, Sept. 25 column published at WorldNetDaily
We know that President Obama has enjoyed a great deal of political latitude because he is black; one might offer the axiom "for better or worse," but mostly it has been for the worse, since his intention remains essentially to kill America off. I believe that if Obama were just another old white guy, he would have long since been impeached. Had he avoided removal from office, right now sage Democratic elders would be advising him not to seek their party's nomination.
[...]
Even if we ignore Obama's ushering-in-a-collectivist-totalitarian-state agenda, we can examine his relative commercial viability and find plenty of reasons why he should be relegated to the scrap heap of history. There's the fact that he took a bad economic situation in America and made it markedly worse. There's his foreign policy, which has made America a mockery on the international stage. There's his exacerbation of racial and class tensions in America. Finally, there's the fact that very few Americans are currently satisfied with his performance – and, as we all know, the customer is always right.
Congress and the courts have allowed an illegal usurper with no public background, multiple Social Security numbers, a forfeited law license and whose released birth certificate clearly shows he does not meet the qualifications in the Constitution – to occupy the office of the presidency.
They have allowed illegal gun running by government agents at taxpayer expense that has killed Border Patrol agents. They have passed unconstitutional legislation by the bushel. They have created an illegal federal police force that runs roughshod over travelers' constitutional protections. They have engaged in massive political corruption to enrich themselves and their friends at public expense. And they have protected the criminals from justice with the our own Department of Justice.
With early polls showing them facing massive losses, why wouldn't they go for the elections?
Let's get something straight: To suspend the Constitution (which every elected official has sworn an oath to uphold), you would have to be greater than the Constitution. Is that how North Carolina's Evita-in-waiting defines herself? Is that how the Kenyan community-organizing paper hangar [sic] in the White House defines himself?
Liberals such as Obama would have us believe that they enthusiastically embrace the American ideal and that they just want to expand the safety net a little bit to help the poor. They are the champions of the middle class.
Sorry, with their decades-long track record of failure, they no longer get a pass for their allegedly good intentions. Obama is a human wrecking ball single-handedly destroying our economy and bankrupting the nation. Hardest hit: the middle class. For him to masquerade as the grand protector of the middle class is like Winston Churchill passing himself off as a pacifist.
-- David Limbaugh, Sept. 29 column, published at WorldNetDaily
But despite all that time and effort, and despite the fact Obama thinks his catering to militant Hispanics will assure him the whole, Spanish-speaking enchilada on Election Day - the truth is, the man who is president can't even be assured his divide and conquer strategy is working.
He promises whatever the militants want. He argues against the common sense of a nation having secure borders. He ignores the welfare and safety of American citizens living along the border. He uses the power of the Justice Department to bring legal action against states that take steps to protect themselves from the encroachment of illegal aliens in their jurisdiction.
He spouts the rhetoric of "equality" but avoids it at every turn.
I suspect Obama forgets that just because people don't speak English, it does not mean they're stupid.
I'm not sure that anyone has ever asked Michelle Obama what woman in public life she has admired the most. I'm guessing that, being the lover of the high life that she is, Eleanor Roosevelt and even Hillary Clinton are just as unlikely to be her response as Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir or Sarah Palin. If injected with a dose of truth serum, I'm betting it would be Eva Peron or Imelda Marcos.
Whether by unintended consequences or by inexplicable design, Obama's latest bill once again will repress the market – as opposed to creating jobs (or "saving" them, as he likes to say).
Since we are speaking of the Chicago-machine politician schooled in Sal Alinsky tactics, we cannot overlook the possibility of Obama trying to create yet another group of aggrieved government dependents. First, expand a "power base" by creating a "new norm" of perpetually high unemployment rates. Then, extend new government "rights" to this base, thus creating a larger Democratic voting bloc. Add this new aggrieved group to the list of fragmented constituencies, and voila: Obama might be able to squeak out a win in 2012!
Whether the Professor-in-Chief is malignant, clueless or both, he his proactively impairing the prosperity of the country.
When I look at the photographic evidence of Barack Obama – or whatever his name really is – standing with members of the virulently racist NBPP, I can't help but long to see him bodily dragged from his current residence like a common criminal for daring to so profane the People's House. Of course, this desire will be viewed as extreme. Dragged, like a common criminal? Where's his respect for the office?
To those I would reply that Obama killed off any sanctity of the office of the president on the day he parked his vile carcass in the White House.
There are quite a few other parties deeply involved in this sordid tale, people in power who knew what Obama was when they decided to support him. If there is any justice left in our land, one day they will be wearing orange jumpsuits right alongside him.
