Newsmax Falsely Claims Obama Not Familiar With Health Reform Bill Topic: Newsmax
A July 21 Newsmax article by David Patten asserts:
Members of Congress haven't read the 1,018-page proposed healthcare-reform legislation, but then, apparently neither has President Obama.
The president recently confessed he is "not familiar" with key provisions of the legislation.
Patten goes on to write that during a conference call with bloggers, "a blogger referenced an article in Investor's Business Daily indicating Section 102 of the House bill would 'outlaw' private insurance," and that Obama responded that he was "not familiar with the provision you are talking about."
Actually, that IBD "article" is an editorial, and the claim that the bill would outlaw private insurance is false. Why should Obama be familiar with a section of the health care reform bill that doesn't exist?
Patten even concedes the point later in the article: "No version of the legislation now under consideration 'outlaws' private insurance coverage." But then he adds: "However, it increases its cost relative to publicly subsidized plans in a way that leads some experts to believe private insurance would no longer be a viable option."
The only "experts" he cites to back up his point, however, is the decidedly partisan and anti-reform Heritage Foundation. Then again, Patten's false claim that Obama is unfamiliar with the bill is lifted from Heritage as well (not to mention the Drudge Report).
New Article: Meet Molotov Mitchell Topic: WorldNetDaily
The WorldNetDaily video commentator claims he's talking "for the record," but his version of the "record" is filled with lies and smears. Read more >>
WND Still Trying to Claim Obama Birth Certificate Is Forgery Topic: WorldNetDaily
If Joseph Farah thinks the authenticity of the birth certificate issued by Barack Obama's campaign "was never the major issue of contention" -- or, as it appears now, he appears to accept that the certificate is authentic -- why is WorldNetDaily still touting claims that it's a forgery?
Bob Unruh does exactly that in a July 20 article, rehashing previous WND claims that "a document expert contends Obama's "Certification of Live Birth" image itself doesn't stand up to scrutiny." At no point does Unruh acknowledge that the person making that claim, "Ron Polarik," is hiding behind a pseodonym, nor does Unruh mention that Polarik's research has been largely discredited -- even though WND purports to offer "the full story" on Obama's "eligibility."
The truth about Ron Polarik and his research is yet another thing that WND is hiding.
Oh, and Unruh completely fails to mention that WND itself declared the certificate to be authentic. And we thought that WND had finally come around to basic journalistic concepts like reporting the truth.
By the way — if after all that you're a Columbia University economics professor, and you ever gave a student named Barack Obama an A, YOU MIGHT BE A SOCIALIST.
WND Thinks Telling the Truth About Obama Is News Topic: WorldNetDaily
Only WorldNetDaily could consider correcting articles to that they tell the truth to be newsworthy.
A July 17 WND article makes a big deal out of an article on a Ghana news website changing a reference in an article about Barack Obama's visit to Ghana from Africa being "the continent of his birth" to "the continent of his father's birth."
but then, reporting the truth about Obama is a novel concept to WND.
Declaring that "it’s clear that neither President Barack Obama’s economic plan nor his world peace plan is working," Ronald Kessler makes misleading claims in his July 20 Newsmax column to attempt to prove his point.
Kessler asserts that "Funneling money through the federal government has no multiplier effect and does not give businesses incentives to expand and hire more people. ... If Obama had instead offered tax incentives, as the Republicans proposed, rather than planning to raise taxes, businesses would have felt more confident about hiring more workers." In fact, government spending does have a stimulative effect; further, according to economist Mark Zandi, government spending has a higher multiplier effect than do business tax cuts.
Kessler went on to claim: "While the administration promised immediate results, Obama is now saying the stimulus was meant to have an effect over two years." In fact, White House chief economic adviser Larry Summers said in February that while there would be some immediate effects, "the effect will build over time."
Kessler also falsely claimed that Obama, in a 2001 radio interview, "expressed regret that the Supreme Court hadn’t engaged in wealth redistribution." That's a lie -- as we've detailed, Obama said no such thing, no matter how manytimes Kessler insists he did.
Of course, Kessler is a serialoffender in making misleading claims about Obama, so none of this is a surprise.
Another Empty Article from Aaron Klein Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily's Aaron Klein serves up an empty July 19 article in which not a single person he cites has a name.
Klein cites:
"a top official from Syria's Information Ministry"
a "U.S. official"
"other diplomatic sources"
a "senior U.S. official"
a "senior Middle East diplomatic source"
Not only are none of these people named, Klein offers no explanation for why he granted them anonymity.
This is a follow-up of a July 14 article in which Klein also failed to quote anyone on the record.
Such blanket anonymity appears to go against WND's policy on using anonymous sources, which editor Joseph Farah has dismissed as "usually quotes made up out of whole cloth to help make the story read better."
This is the latest in a string of emptyarticles from Klein, in which the anonymous sources he cites can't actually prove the claims they make.
But the biggest vampire population of all is huddled together in Washington, D.C. Mostly Draculas of the Dem kind, they’re sucking the lifeblood out of us. And they’re doing a number on our spirits as well by demoralizing us with talk of crises, urgencies, and things getting even worse if we don’t heed their words and offer up our necks willingly.
How many days till “The Vampire Diaries” airs?
The lib undead dig up health scare reform to suck the soul out of the free market. G.M. is prevented from going through a normal bankruptcy process and is turned into a corporate zombie for the ghoulish unions to feed on.
Maybe I’ll catch a midnight preview of “Thirst.”
C’mon GOP. And Blue Dogs, too. Save us from death by a thousand bites.
Your WND Hate Crime Lies of the Day Topic: WorldNetDaily
A July 18 WorldNetDaily article by Bob Unruh is a veritable compendium of falsehoods and distortions about the hate-crimes bill.
Unruh begins with a distorted, pejorative description of the bill as creating "federal protections and privileges homosexuals and others who have chosen alternative sexual lifestyles" and that it "essentially makes homosexuals a protected class of citizens."
Unruh also repeats the false claim, as forwarded by the right-wing group Liberty Counsel, that "Matthew Shepard is touted by homosexual advocates as a hate crime victim, but the evidence now shows he was not targeted because he was homosexual but was killed because of a drug deal." As we've detailed, by promoting this claim, Liberty Counsel has chosen to believe convicted killers and known liars over law enforcement and the official record of the case.
Unruh calls the bill "The Pedophile Protection Act" without mentioning that, as we've also documented, the bill does not protect pedophiles. Unruh also repeats claims that the bill will lead to "prosecutions of pastors and churches for teaching the biblical injunction that homosexual is sin" without mentioning that the bill contains a clause stating, "Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, shall be construed to prohibit any expressive conduct protected from legal prohibition by, or any activities protected by the Constitution" -- which would include the First Amendment protection for freedom of religion.
Like we said -- a perfect storm of lies and bamboozelement from a writer with a long record of lies and bamboozelement.
Newsmax takes the next step in its Bernard Kerik rehabilitation project by giving him his own archive, his own bio page (which, of course, mentions nothing about the numerous charges of corruption he faces trial on) and a place on Newsmax's "blog" page (which aren't blogs at all but renamed opinion columns).
This coincides with a new column (sorry, we're not calling them "blogs") by Kerik.
NewsReal Falsely Asserts Obama Health Reform Modeled on Canada Topic: Horowitz
In a July 20 NewsReal post, Claude Cartaginese asserts that the Canadian health care system is "the same system that President Barack Obama has chosen as a model for this country to emulate as he takes us down the path towards socialism.
Examiner Complains Second City Isn't Anti-Obama Enough Topic: Washington Examiner
In another example of the Washington Examiner's right-wing bias spreading to all areas of the newspaper, a July 20 review by Nancy Dunham of a Washington performance by the comedy group Second City wasn't hateful enough of President Obama and -- perhaps more egregiously -- dared to make fun of conservatives.
Dunham complained that the show, while funny, was "unabashedly pro-Obama" and that it didn't repeat right-wing talking points: "Nope, the 57 states to which Obama referred during the campaign or even his ardent use of a Teleprompter -- which has even prompted Vice President Joe Biden to joke about Obama -- aren't mentioned at all during the almost two-hour show."
Dunham saves her main ire, though, for Second City's lampooning of conservatives:
But the second act is where things get a bit -- let's just say -- ugly, when the troupe takes on ardent Republicans, including radio personality Rush Limbaugh and political commentator Ann Coulter. What makes the sketches troubling is while the other targets were part of good-hearted even if raucous ribbing, Limbaugh, Coulter and former President George W. Bush were portrayed as lone wolf buffoons who want to sabotage the U.S. economy and social policies for their own personal glories.
Whatever your party affiliation, it's tough to swallow some of those arguments. Calling Limbaugh a lone wolf is especially ludicrous when you consider Arbitron notes he has 13.5 million listeners.
Dunham went on to add: "Surely, many will say that this criticism is based on my own political beliefs. That's fine to believe and may well be partially true." The more interesting question, though, is why Dunham's review dovetails so well with the Examiner's editorial policies. Would her review have been published if she wasn't approaching the Second City's performance with a right-wing lens? We have to wonder.
If the Examiner's right-wing bias not only can't be confined to the editorial page but drives things like entertainment reviews, there's little reason to trust anything the Examiner publishes.
ConWebWatch Scoops WND on Bogus eBay Certificate Topic: WorldNetDaily
A July 19 WorldNetDaily article by Drew Zahn appears to concede that a purported Barack Obama birth certificate being sold on eBay doesn't exist and that the seller has a "lengthy criminal record."
Zahn claims his conclusions are the result of a WND "investigation," but we have to question how much work WND actually did. After all, we got our information from a blogger at Barackryphal, who did much of the legwork on the seller's background. Yet Zahn doesn't credit Barackryphal, even though his article is accompanied by a photo that also appeared on Barackryphal.
This may be as close as we'll ever get to an explicit apology from WND for reporting bogus claims before fully investigating their veracity. Yet even that would be a change in policy for WND, which tends not to correct or apologize for reporting bogus claims involving Obama -- see Larry Sinclair and African Press International.
Corsi Couldn't Find Doctor Linked to Obama Birth -- But We Did Topic: WorldNetDaily
A July 12 WorldNetDaily article by Jerome Corsi asserts: "Despite an in-depth search, the name of any physician or medical attendant who might have helped deliver the baby Barack Obama at Honolulu's Kapi'olani Hospital in 1961 remains shrouded in mystery."
There is no way Corsi could have done any kind of "in-depth search." How do we know? Because we found it at Snopes.
Snopes cites a Buffalo News article about a woman who was a former teacher at the Hawaii school that Obama attended:
When Barack Hussein Obama places his hand on the Bible today to take the oath of office as 44th president of the United States, Barbara Nelson of Kenmore will undoubtedly think back to the day he was born. It was Aug. 4, 1961, at Kapi’olani Medical Center for Women & Children in Honolulu.
“I may be the only person left who specifically remembers his birth. His parents are gone, his grandmother is gone, the obstetrician who delivered him is gone,” said Nelson, referring to Dr. Rodney T. West, who died in February at the age of 98. Here’s the story: Nelson was having dinner at the Outrigger Canoe Club on Waikiki Beach with Dr. West, the father of her college friend, Jo-Anne. Making conversation, Nelson turned to Dr. West and said: “‘So, tell me something interesting that happened this week,’” she recalls.
His response: “Well, today, Stanley had a baby. Now that’s something to write home about.”
The new mother was Stanley (later referred to by her middle name of Ann) Dunham, and the baby was Barack Hussein Obama.
“I penned the name on a napkin, and I did write home about it,” said Nelson, knowing that her father, Stanley A. Czurles, director of the Art Education Department at Buffalo State College, would be interested in the “Stanley” connection.
She also remembers Dr. West mentioning that the baby’s father was the first black student at the University of Hawaii and how taken he was by the baby’s name.
“I remember Dr. West saying ‘Barack Hussein Obama, now that’s a musical name,’” said Nelson, who grew up in Kenmore and went to Hawaii in 1959 to be in Jo-Anne’s wedding party.
Curiously, Corsi makes no mention whatsoever of Dr. West or Barbara Nelson's story, which tells us that any "search" Corsi did was obviously not "in-depth."
Corsi didn't even have to do that much of a search for this story -- in January, WND's Bob Unruh wrote about Barbara Nelson. But then, Unruh's goal was to discredit her.
Unruh claimed to have spoken with Nelson, who said she never claimed that West delivered Obama: "Being one of the leaders in obstetrics in Hawaii, he could have had physical or informational access to all of the obstetrics [on the islands]."
But the online version of the Buffalo News article does not indicate any correction has made to it, nor does the version of the article in the Nexis database. If Nelson was as concerned as Unruh portrays her about the newspaper's purportedly misleading portrayal, surely she would have sought a correction or clarification from the paper. But there's no indication that she did.
Corsi already has a long history of derelict journalism when it comes to Obama, and his failure to even mention Rodney West or Barbara Nelson is just another example of how Corsi will ignore facts to pursue his anti-Obama agenda.
A July 17 post at NewsReal, the David Horowitz Freedom Center's new blog, by Claude Cartaginese baseless touts the F-22 fighter jet without mentioning its significant shortcomings.
Cartaginese writes:
Imagine a fighter jet that would give the United States complete air superiority in any conflict. An aircraft that’s faster, has longer range, and is more fuel-efficient at high speeds than any aircraft ever built. A plane virtually invisible to radar and deadly accurate, almost guaranteeing that any selected target would be destroyed. An aircraft so advanced that the armed forces of every country on earth are scared to death of it and know that they would be defenseless against it for years to come.
We have that plane. It’s called the F-22 Raptor, and our President and Commander-in-Chief, Barack Obama, hates it.
[...]
According to the Pentagon, we need more F-22’s in order to maintain air superiority. At a cost of about $150 million each, however, Mr. Obama deems these planes to be too costly.
In fact, the F-22 has significant problems -- notably that it requires 30 hours of maintenance for every hour it flies, is way over budget, and has problems with its radar-absorbing skin. It was designed to win dogfights with Soviet fighters -- not a problem these days -- and it has never flown over Iraq or Afghanistan.
Further, the Pentagon is split over canceling the F-22. As the Washington Post reported, the Air Force's top two civilian and military leaders support cancellation, though other officials do not.
NewsReal's motto is "Keeping The Cable Guys Honest." Looks like we're going to have to keep NewsReal honest.
