Newsmax Cruise Features Obama Fabricator Topic: Newsmax
The upcoming Newsmax cruise includes the usual suspects as" guest speakers" -- Christopher Ruddy, Dick Morris and Ronald Kessler, as well as rehabilitation subject Ralph Reed. One name caught our eye, though: James Humes, who will give a talk about Winston Churchill.
You may recall that last March, Humes wrote a Newsmax column in which he asserted that President Obama said of a bust of Churchill in the Oval Office, "Get that goddam thing out of here." In fact, there's no credible record of Obama ever saying such a thing. Nevertheless, Humes anted up with a ugly smear suggesting that Obama "took umbrage at Prime Minister Churchill’s actions in 1953 of wiping out the Mau-Mau, the Kenyan terrorists who made a specialty of slitting throats of sleeping white and Black Kenyans."
After Humes was caught in the fabrication, his column was quietly altered to concede that "the story was never fully substantiated, despite frequent repetition on radio talk shows" -- but, again, Humes offered no evidence that any radio talk show forwarded the claim at all, let alone "frequently." (The Mau-Mau smear, meanwhile, remained intact.)
It says a lot about Newsmax that it has rewarded the purveyor of this kind of hate and mendacity with the free cruise he's presumably getting for being a "guest speaker."
On the morning of Feb. 2, the Newsmax front page carried this promo:
But the Associated Press article to which the promo links doesn't claim that Obama will raise taxes on "working couples" or "successful business owners." Rather, it states that Obama's budget "would also impose nearly $1 trillion in higher taxes on couples making more than $250,000 and individuals making more than $200,000 by not renewing Bush-era tax cuts for them. Obama would extend tax cuts enacted under former President George W. Bush for families and individuals making less."
The article also states that Obama would "increase taxes on U.S. companies with major overseas operations, and plans to increase taxes on oil and gas companies." The budget would also "Change the way profits made by investment fund managers are taxed, raising an additional $24 billion over the next decade." Is Newsmax pretending that multinational conglomerates known for creative ways of evading taxes are nothing more than small businesses?
Marylou Barry's Feb. 2 WorldNetDaily column, headlined "Rules for living in my country," is an incredibly condescending screed that, though she doesn't use the word, is clearly anti-Muslim:
So, then, let's go over some of the principles our first two centuries of immigrants intuitively understood and that many of today's immigrants, for some reason, apparently do not. I don't mean to insult you by belaboring the obvious, but better too much clarity now than a big surprise for both of us down the road.
You cannot own people here. This includes domestic servants and family members. You cannot beat or mutilate your children. You cannot force, threaten, or sell them into arranged marriages. You cannot keep adult relatives from marrying the people they choose, getting jobs, or moving out of your house. You cannot hold your employees captive, beat or rape them, or refuse to pay agreed-upon wages. It took us 200 years to get rid of institutionalized slavery, and we are not about to reinstate it because one of your holy men thinks it's acceptable behavior.
You cannot kill people here. Not your wife. Not your children. Not your grandchildren. Not people who question your honor or hurt your feelings. Not people who quit your religion. Not people of other faiths or ethnicities whom you regard as apes, pigs, monkeys, or dogs.
You cannot take over our lawful institutions and subvert them to you own purposes. If you are a communist and want to overthrow our government, we don't want you. We have enough of our own, so try Cuba or China. If you are a Nazi sympathizer we don't want you either; a Middle Eastern country may be more to your liking anyway. If you are coming here to convert us to any ideology that abrogates our dignity or freedom, don't even get off the plane. We don't care what it says in your holy book; we are not here for you to colonize.
You need to ask questions before you accept employment. If your belief system requires a special place to bathe your feet or time off to pray at work, tell your employer before you hire on. If you are going to refuse to work next to a person of the opposite sex or refuse to perform some required function of the job, your interview is the time to make this plain. Come to think of it, before you leave your country of origin would be even better. It would also give you more time to find an employer willing to make special accommodations, not an easy sell in these times of strong competition and 10 percent unemployment. Just remember that U.S. companies are under no obligation to adapt to your newfound needs after hiring has taken place.
You get only one wife. If that's not enough, it's called bigamy -- and you would be subject to state laws regarding that particular felony. Some states also have laws against cohabitation, which is the legal definition of what you would be doing. Also, please note that the rest of us do not intend to support any surplus "spouses" with our tax money through entitlement programs.
Only one wife? Better kick out those fundamentalist Mormons, then. And arguing against colonization by religion seems to also rule out Christian evangelism, which, as a self-proclaimed "Christian Zionist," she presumably has no problem being done by Americans in other countries. And you can't hold your employees captive? Guess Wal-Mart is getting kicked out too.
But Barry doesn't just despise brown people -- it's all foreigners that give her the heebie-jeebies:
Still want to come here after knowing these things? As you may have heard, right now we are full up. If, however, someday we manage to elect a government with the intestinal fortitude to find and deport an estimated 10-20 million illegal intruders and overstayers, and if we determine that the loyalty and skills you have to offer could benefit our already great nation, then there might be a place for you here.
And, it seems, if one's skin isn't quite so dark...
Kinsolving Spreads Lie in White House Question Topic: WorldNetDaily
A Feb. 1 WorldNetDaily article documents the questions longtime right-wingtoady Les Kinsolving asked at that day's White House press briefing. The second question Kinsolving asked is based on a lie: "There have been news reports that the president's nominee for EEOC commissioner, Chai Feldblum, and the ACLU support the acceptance of polygamy. Does the president believe our armed forces should begin recruiting polygamists?"
In fact, as we've detailed when WND first started peddling this lie, Feldblum has never endorsed polygamy.
BMI, Hedgecock Peddle Obama-Toyota Conspiracy Topic: Media Research Center
There's a new conspiracy making the rounds: President Obama forced the recall of millions of Toyota vehicles in order to tarnish the competition and boost General Motors and Chrysler vehicles, which the government is bailing out.
No, really.
A Jan. 29 MRC Business & Media Institute article by Jeff Poor approvingly highlighted the remarks of Republican Rep. Jeff Sessions hinting at such a conspiracy:
Sessions expressed his concern over that possibility and noted the amount of money the federal government had recently pumped into GMAC, the auto financing arm of General Motors.
“Well, you know – we were in until late last night and I hadn’t heard that,” Sessions said. “I worry about those kind of things. I worry about Ford working hard and having to compete against the federal government. With an unlimited – they just gave $3 billion more to GMAC. The President’s got to be careful here. He can not be playing politics and union politics or regional politics with the economy of this country.”
Since Toyota (NYSE:TM) announced the recall, the shares of the auto manufacturer have dropped more than 15 percent in the last seven trading sessions, down $2.10 on Jan. 28 after a $7.01 slide the day before.
Roger Hedgecock followed up by wholeheartedly embracing the conspiracy in his Feb. 1 WorldNetDaily column:
Disclosure: My family drives Toyota cars (a Prius and a Lexus SUV), and we have never had a problem with these excellent products. On our cars (and every other Toyota vehicle I've seen), the floor mats are firmly secured by hooks and cannot interfere with the gas pedal. And the gas pedal works just as it should – press down and the car moves faster. Ease up and the car slowly decelerates.
Nonetheless, Toyota faces a perfect storm from SUA. But is government "greed" a factor here? As a co-owner of Toyota rivals GM and Chrysler, is the Obama administration and its jihad against Toyota "consumer protection" or revenge against a successful, non-union, red state based rival? Given what Rahm Emanuel said about crisis as an opportunity to "advance the agenda," this question deserves closer attention.
[...]
A year ago, Toyota was riding high. With non-union manufacturing plants in Georgia, Texas, Mississippi, Kentucky and Indiana, Toyota made the most popular and most highly regarded vehicles in the U.S. Rivals GM and Chrysler were imploding, and the president stepped in with massive taxpayer cash infusions and took over these companies as joint ventures between the federal government and the UAW.
Hedgecock goes on to falsly claim that the Pontiac Vibe is not on the recall list, even though it's a twin of the recalled Toyota Matrix. In fact, the Vibe is on the NHTSA recall list.
Given that one of Hedgecock's cars (the Prius) is on the recall list, we wonder if he will refuse to get it fixed just to spite Obama. Does he drive the Prius himself, or does he make his wife or child drive it?
He's also curiously mum about the fact that at least 24 deaths and hundreds of injuries are connected to the Toyota problems -- sticky accelerators and accelerators getting trapped under floor mats.
Is Hedgecock so conspiratorial that he's willing to put himself and his family at risk of injury just to prove a point? We shall see.
Meanwhile ... Topic: Media Research Center
The Washington Independent's David Weigel catches the Media Research Center's Tim Graham whining that a Washington Post article about conservatives uses the word "conservative" a lot.
WND Falsely Portrays Judicial Watch Study Topic: WorldNetDaily
A Jan. 29 WorldNetDaily article by Bob Unruh falsely portrayed a Judicial Watch mini-attack on the use of Air Force aircraft by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, repeatedly portraying the $2 million spent on the flights as solely for the benefit of Pelosi and her family. In fact, the amount covers congressional delegations arranged by Pelosi's office.
Since Unruh was rewriting a Judicial Watch press release, he ignores the same things that Judicial Watch does -- namely, that Republican Dennis Hastert arranged similar CODELs when he was House speaker, that Republicans also went on the Pelosi-arranged CODELs, that Republicans were permitted to bring their wives on some of these trips, and that members of Pelosi's family who make use of the aircraft are obligated to reimburse the government for it.
Meanwhile, over at NewsBusters, Noel Sheppard similarly misportrayed the flights as being for the benefit of Pelosi only.
MRC Still Misportraying Quote About Kennedy Topic: WorldNetDaily
The Media Research Center clearly won't be issuing an apology to Charles Pierce anytime soon.
In a Feb. 1 NewsBusters post, Brent Baker writes of Boston Globe writer Charles Pierce:
Pierce is infamous for his 2003 Globe Magazine tribute to Ted Kennedy in which he ludicrously postulated: “If she had lived, Mary Jo Kopechne would be 62 years old. Through his tireless work as a legislator, Edward Kennedy would have brought comfort to her in her old age.”
As we've documented, the MRC has repeatedly taken Pierce's statement out of context, portraying it as praise of Kennedy when, in fact, it's a criticism.
Baker goes on to describe Pierce as "cocky" and declare Pierce's book "Idiot America" "denigrat[ed] Sarah Palin, amongst others."
It took the MRC nine years to apologize for misleadingly stringing together quotes from Howell Raines' book and falsely portray them. Looks like Pierce has at least another two years to go before he gets his well-deserved apology.
Newsmax, Sheppard Give Ailes a Pass Topic: Newsmax
Roger Ailes' appearance on ABC's "This Week" was unsurprisingly touted by both Newsmax and NewsBusters' Noel Sheppard, who called a "marvelous fireworks display" and claimed that "The one standing at the end likely didn't vote for Barack Obama." But also unsurprisingly, neither Newsmax nor Sheppard held Ailes accountable for his misinformation and questionalble claims.
Both Newsmax and Sheppard highlighted Ailes' statement that Glenn Beck "did say one unfortunate thing, which he apologized for." In fact, Glenn Beck has said numerous "unfortunate" things, the most notorious of which -- calling President Obama a "racist" with a "deep-seated hatred of white people" -- he has yet to apologize for.
Both also noted an exchange between Ailes and Paul Krugman, though only Sheppard repeated Krugman's statement that Fox News misrepresented Obama's explanation of why his health-care reform plan was not a European style plan to portray it as Obama supporting a "European-style" plan. Both Newsmax and Sheppard failed to note that Krugman was right.
Kincaid Can't Stop Misleading About Anti-Gay Uganda Bill Topic: Accuracy in Media
Accuracy in Media's Cliff Kincaid used an appearance on the radio show of Des Moines, Iowa, host Jan Mickelson to spread his misinformation about the anti-gay law in Uganda.
Kincaid ironically asserted that it's "misinformation" that the Uganda bill is a "kill-the-gays" law and went on to praise the bill as countering "this so-called livestyle": "They want to prevent what has happened to countries like the United States, where ... the courts and certain politicians have accepted this [homosexual] lifestyle. They want to prevent that from happening to Uganda, and I say more power to 'em. And they ought to be able to do that without getting interference from the likes of Rick Warren or anybody else.
Kincaid is loath admit that there's a death penalty in the bill; rather, he states that there are "certain provisions" that are "controversial" because it "emphasizes punishment rather than rehabilitation." He insisted again that the "basic thrust" of the bill is "to try to get control of a lifestyle, so-called, that has been spreading AIDS"-- even though AIDS in Uganda is mostly spread through heterosexual contact.
When Kincaid finally gets around to mentioning the death penalty, he insists that it's limited to "aggravated homosexuality," which he portrayed as limited to "child abuse, child rape, spreading AIDS and so forth." In fact, the death penalty could also apply to those caught engaging in homosexual sex more than once, as well as those who merely test positive for HIV.
Kincaid then claims that the U.S. has "a lot to learn from Uganda. They're doing it right way. We're doing it the wrong way. ... These are brave Christian people. We should be supporting them, not betraying them like Rick Warren did."
Klein Still Attacking J Street Topic: WorldNetDaily
Aaron Klein keeps up his history of attacks on the liberal group J Street with yet another article baselessly smearing it as "anti-Israel." As per usual, Klein's right-wing, pro-Israeli-terrorist bias prevents him from permitting anyone from J Street to respond to the attack (and again, Klein never actually quotes anyone calling J Street "anti-Israel").
Klein adds a new twist this time by touting a new group called Z Street. As one would expect, Klein refuses to properly label it as a right-wing group, even though it clearly is -- group official Lenny Ben-David has a historyofsmearing J Street. Rather, Klein describes the group only as "pro-Israel."
In his Jan. 29 WorldNetDaily column, Joseph Farah asserts that media outlets portraying those that foment controversy over Barack Obama's eligibility for the presidency as "just unfounded doubts propagated by a 'birther movement'" are engaging in "propaganda." Farah does himself no favors by engaging in his own propaganda campaign that, as wehavedocumented, is much more dishonest than the reporting from non-birther outlets.
Another example of WND's dishonest propaganda comes in the form of a Jan. 29 article by Bob Unruh, in which he touts Orly Taitz's latest filing. As per Slantie-winning WND practice, Unruh fails to disclose to WND readers Taitz's long history of shoddy lawyering in the case -- from botched filings to the $20,000 fine for filing frivolous claims to the allegations of suborning perjury.
Unruh, unsurprisingly, allows misleading claims and falsehoods by Taitz to parade as fact. He quotes Taitz asserting that Kenyan prime minister Raila Odinga is "Obama's first cousin" -- a claim that has been discredited.
In yet another effort to discredit the birth certificate Obama has released -- which even Farah concedes is authentic -- Unruh faithfully reports Taitz's claim that the state of Hawaii "allows registration of births out of state" without offering any evidence that any out-of-state birth has been registered in Hawaii as an in-state birth.
Then again, Unruh can't tell the truth -- it would derail WND's cash machine.
A Jan. 29 WorldNetDaily article by Bob Unruh highlights how "Vanderbilt University is distancing itself from a Muslim chaplain after he told a gathering of students homosexuality is punishable by death under Islam."
Unruh also recounts a question-and-answer exchange between a Christian activist and a Muslim student group, in whcih the activist is quoted as saying, "Yes, Christianity does consider homosexuality sinful, and Christians pray for homosexuals because of it, while Islamic law says they should be punished with death. See the difference?"
Molotov Mitchell doesn't. Does that mean WND's proud endorser of Uganda's anti-gay law -- which permits the death penalty for homosexuality -- is Muslim? We're shocked.
WND Whitewashes Tea Party Convention Implosion Topic: WorldNetDaily
We've previously noted how WorldNetDaily has studiously avoided reporting on controversies regarding the upcoming National Tea Party Convention WND editor Joseph Farah is speaking at -- from accusations of profiteering to barring of news media except for those guaranteed to provide fawning coverage (like WND).
Now, the convention is seeing major speakers drop out -- Republican Reps. Michele Bachmann and Marsha Blackburn. Both cited the for-profit nature of the convention, which, as right-wing blogger Erick Erickson summed up, "smells scammy."
WND does its best to spin this in a Jan. 29 article by Chelsea Schilling, which portrayed the withdrawals as the result of "conflicting advice" over whether a sitting membe of Congress could take part in a for-profit event.
Schilling further whitewashes the nature of the criticism of the convention itself, stating only that "Critics contend that the Tea Party Nation should have filed for nonprofit status" and giving organizer Judson Phillips ample space to defend himself without any of those nasty facts to contradict him:
Phillips said the idea of sending out letters to supporters and telling them, "The world is ending, but for $50 we can put it off for a couple of weeks," didn't sit well with him.
"My vision for Tea Party Nation was to use the capitalist system to support our activities," he said. "The whole idea of begging for bucks is absolutely repugnant to me. I'm not saying people who have nonprofits and seek donations are bad people or anything like that. I'm just saying, for our group, I don't like it."
[...]
For critics who suggest Phillips might turn a substantial profit on the convention, he had these words: "That's not why I started this. It's not true. I haven't quit my day job, nor do I anticipate quitting my day job."
He joked, "I think we're going to have just enough to take a few of the volunteers out for a lunch on the dollar menu."
No mention of the blackout of non-sycophantic media. No mentiton of the massive speaking fee Sarah Palin is reportedly receiving. NO mention of Erickson's "scammy" quote.
Such slobbering coverage (plus the fact that the boss is on the speaking schedule) is presumably why WND got one of those scarce press passes -- and why it can be counted on betray its proclaimed principles and not raise a First Amendment ruckus over such hostility to the First Amendment as it did with the United Nations.
