Farah Prematurely Delcares Victory Over Obama on Birther Issue Topic: WorldNetDaily
In his Aug. 10 WorldNetDaily column, Joseph Farah insists that President Obama haslost on the "eligibilty" issue:
Not only is it a winning issue, it is the only issue that can effectively undo the nightmare of the Obama era in one fell swoop.
There would be no need for repealing Obamacare if it turns out his presidency was a sham from the beginning.
There would be no need to wait until Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan retire or die to see them replaced on the Supreme Court if it turns out his presidency was a sham from the beginning.
There would be no need to wring our hands in hopes that future congresses and future presidents might roll back all of the damage Obama has inflicted on America if it turns out his presidency was sham from the beginning.
There would be no need to wait until 2011 in hopes that a new Republican majority might impeach Obama if it turns out his presidency was a sham from the beginning.
There would be no need to wait until 2012 for another chance to replace Obama if it turns out his presidency was a sham from the beginning.
That's why this issue is so important.
The way Farah and WND have been trying to keep the issue alive is by telling a lot of lies. An issue based on lies is hardly a winning one. And Farah keeps up the lies here:
Secondly, even in the extremely unlikely event that Obama were to produce a birth certificate that affirmed his birth story, it will merely serve to refocus the debate on eligibility. The best-selling new book "Manchurian President" devotes an entire chapter to exploring whether Obama could be constitutionally eligible as the son of Kenyan father. The clear conclusion is no – he can't be. There is no way that a foreigner could confer natural-born citizenship on a son no matter where that son was born.
In fact, as we detailed, Klein reached that conclusion by parroting birther lawyers and studiously ignoring legal analysis to the contrary, so it's hardly the exhaustive analysis Farah portrays it as. Klein's analysis also relies on defining "natural born" as having both parents be U.S. citizens -- which even WND acknowledges lacks binding legal precedent.
Further, Klein also concluded that Obama was born in Hawaii, but you won't hear Farah mention that.
Is Newsmax Columnist Endoring Anti-Gay Conversion Therapy? Topic: Newsmax
In an Aug. 9 Newsmax column running to defense of a counseling student who is suing her college because she claims the school wanted her to "renounce her faith" regarding her anti-gay views -- which would likely interfere in any counseling career -- Herbert London seems to be endorsing the controversial practice of conversion therapy to change gays' sexual orientation:
To exacerbate matters within the department, [student Jennifer Keeton] argued the “conversion therapy” for homosexuals should be entertained, a point of view that departed significantly from accepted norms within the program and according to program officials, from “psychological research.”
It is noteworthy that the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) defends the practice Keaton [sic] advocates and notes opponents of conversion therapy are often criticized by politically motivated biases, albeit, in fairness, the reverse accusation might also be made.
No, it is not "noteworthy" that NARTH endorses conversion therapy; after all, it is an anti-gay group, so it's presumably more than happy to eliminate gays by whatever means. (A NARTH board member was recently caught hanging out in Europe with a male escort, so whatever it does seems not to stick.)
Additionally, all major national mental health organizations oppose conversion therapy. Does London think all of these organizations have "politically motivated biases"?
CNS Falsely Claims EFCA Would 'Eliminate Secret Ballots' Topic: CNSNews.com
An Aug. 5 CNSNews.com article by Fred Lucas claimed that President Obama "pledged his support for a card check bill, which would eliminate secret ballots in elections to unionize workplaces." Lucas went on to write that the bill "replaces the secret ballot by allowing union organizers to publicly ask workers to sign a card in favor of unionizing."
In fact, the bill Lucas is writing about, the Employee Free Choice Act, does not "eliminate secret ballots." It eliminates the part of the law in which employers are the only ones who can demand a secret ballot in a union election. The bill gives employees the right to make a choice of approving a union through either a "secret ballot" election process or the non-secret ballot "card check" process.
Friedman Hides Reason Obama Played Hoops With NBA Stars Topic: Newsmax
Marketwatch's Jon Friedman writes in an Aug. 9 Newsmax column:
ar be it from you or me to deny President Obama a special 49th birthday present. What do you give to a man who has everything — literally? That's easy. President Obama gave himself the gift of playing a pick-up basketball with LeBron James and some of the other top players in the land.
I think it's great that my president is in touch with the zeitgeist. But I'm getting a little tired of watching him goofing around like this. I want him to show as much concern as I feel. Oh, I have no doubt that the president is engaged, perhaps even fixated, on fixing the economy and solving as many problems as he can — especially prior to the midterm elections in November.
Perhaps Andre Agassi, who may pop up on the White House tennis court someday, put it best when he once remarked famously that "image is everything."
President Obama has enough well-paid handlers around him 24/7 to understand keenly that the American people are forever scrutinizing his performance — and his image.
Do the advisers fret that their boss is undermining his prestige by playing basketball with a bunch of NBA stars? It's also questionable as to whether President Obama's image looked dicey when he was shown hanging out with LeBron James, whose own reputation took a big hit when he hyped his decision to join the Miami Heat during the off-season.
But Friedman didn't mention the reason this basketball session took place: it was to entertain wounded troops.
By hiding the full truth, Friedman is creating an image problem for Obama that doesn't exist.
CNS Can't Decide Whether Children Have Rights Topic: CNSNews.com
Terry Jeffrey attempts an attack on Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling overturning California's Proposition 8 banning gay marriage in an Aug. 9 CNSNews.com article by blaring what he perceives to be the most damning aspect of it:
U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker, who ruled last week that a voter-approved amendment to California’s constitution that limited marriage to the union of one man and one woman violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, based that ruling in part on his finding that a child does not need and has no right to a mother.
Nor, he found, does a child have a need or a right to a father.
Jeffrey doesn't explain from where he divines these "rights" he's talking about. It also contradcts CNS' promotion of those who oppose the idea of a child having rights.
In fact, just three days before, a CNS article by Christopher A. Guzman promoted Republican Sen. Jim DeMint's attack on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, a convention signed onto by every country in the world except the U.S. and Somalia. Among the rights enumerated in the convention are that "Governments should respect the rights and responsibilities of families to direct and guide their children" and that "Children have the right to live with their parent(s), unless it is bad for them. Children whose parents do not live together have the right to stay in contact with both parents, unless this might hurt the child."
So why is CNS giving people space to attack these rights? According to DeMint, the treaty would allegedly place parental rights under the jurisdiction of the international community.
CNS published annother attack on the U.N. convention in a November 2008 article by Penny Starr, in which Michael Smith, president of the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, asserted that the convention "could damage relationships by giving children 'rights' to question their parents’ decisions on a range of issues, including discipline, religious training and education."
It seems that CNS needs to figure out whether children have rights or not, or whether those rights depend on what sexual orientation the parent is.
Dear Newsmax: We Can't Follow You If You Won't Let Us Topic: Newsmax
In an Aug. 8 "Insider Report" item, Newsmax touts its Twitter account:
Visitors to Newsmax’s website are continuing to link to the social networking services Twitter and Facebook in increasing numbers.
Newsmax’s Twitter account now has more than 2,000 followers, up from 1,670 in June. Twitter enables its users to send and read messages known as “tweets,” text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to subscribers known as “followers.”
On Twitter, Newsmax posts links to stories on politics, health, money and other topics, to be shared by followers and spread to other Twitter users.
Well, not everyone -- Newsmax has blocked us from adding it to our ConWeb Twitter feed in the right-hand bar of ConWebBlog. It joins WorldNetDaily's Aaron Klein in blocking us for no apparent reason.
WND's Birther Lies On Top of Lies On Top of Lies Topic: WorldNetDaily
Joseph Farah headlines his Aug. 9 WorldNetDaily column "Lies on top of lies on top of lies." Unfortunately, he's not talking about the ones he and his website have told.
As we've detailed, WND is the leading purveyor of falsehoods over Barack Obama and his eligibility to be president. WND has also been piling up falsehoods to cover up its mendacity, such as pretending that it never questioned Obama's citizenship, an effort that still goes on today. In a July 21 WND article, Aaron Klein claimed that WND "has never reported Obama was born outside the U.S." -- a claim contradicted by WND's promotion of an "Kenyan birth certificate" it couldn't be bothered to confirm the authenticity of before publishing.
Last week, WND asserted that newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan worked on birther cases as Obama's solicitor general -- a claim so utterly false that even WND was shamed into correcting it.
Farah is the last person who should be throwing stones at the supposed lies of others.
Those attacks, meanwhile, are couched in technicalities and theoretical suppositions, not fact. Here's Farah's response to the idea that contemporaneous announcements of Obama's birth in Honolulu newspapers are sufficient evidence of his Hawaiian birth:
I'm still shocked by the fact that so many press outlets, media pundits and otherwise certifiably skeptical news people accept newspaper birth announcements as the equivalent of a birth certificate. I would like any of them to try using newspaper birth announcements as a substitute for a birth certificate in any venue that requires the original document. I'll save you the trouble. It won't work. The newspaper birth announcements only provide some corroborating evidence that a certification of live birth was likely generated by the Hawaii health department. And even the certification of live birth is not a legitimate substitute for an original long-form birth certificate – nor should it be – to get a driver's license, a passport or to enroll in Little League sports. There are just too many ways to generate such a document without documented, eyewitness accounts of the actual birth.
Farah, of course, has no evidence that Obama was not born in Hawaii -- even his reporter Aaron Klein concedes this, though WND won't report it -- so he must take refuge in the theoretical (and arguably infintesimal) possibility that Obama's parents might have lied to Hawaii officials about where Barack was born in order to obtain a Hawaii birth certificate, with the presumed intent of making Barack eligible to run for president 47 years hence.
Farah doesn't care about the truth -- he only cares about peddling hate. If he's accusing others of telling lies, you can be sure he's really just trying to cover up his own.
CNS is trying to create yet another controversy where none exists.
A July 21 article by Eric Scheiner reported that "The Justice Department is not saying whether Solicitor General Elena Kagan has been taking the full federal salary of solicitor general since she 'ceased' performing the full responsibilities of that position more than two months ago." This was followed on Aug. 5 with Fred Lucas asserting that "Neither the White House nor the Justice Department are saying whether Elena Kagan has been collecting her full government salary since she 'ceased' performing her full duties as solicitor general after May 10 when President Barack Obama nominated her to serve on the Supreme Court."
What's missingfrom both of these articles is any historical examination of the subject. For instance, both Sam Alito and John Roberts were on the government payroll as judges when they were nominated to the Supreme Court, and both presumably had to cease performing their full duties as a result of their nomination. Yet neither Scheiner nor Lucas tells us whether their pay was reduced during that time, which they seem to demand Kagan's pay to be.
Nobody begrudged Alito and Roberts their full pay during the nomination process. Why does CNS want Kagan to be docked when there's no established historical precedent?
David Swindle maintains the David Horowitz cult of personality in an Aug. 8 NewsReal post devoted to "The 10 Most Important David Horowitz Books to Read":
One of the most common queries I’ve gotten from NewsReal Blog readers and bloggers alike is some guidance on which of David Horowitz’s books to read. Which are the most important? Which will help them understand his political approach and analysis of the Left the best? Which will be most useful in their own political fights?
It’s not an easy question as different people have different interests and will be moved by different books. Never the less, I’ve decided to create this guide listing what — in my personal opinion — are the ten most important of David’s books to read — and I’ve ranked them in order.
Thanks for sharing. Not quite the wonk-Tiger-Beat tone of previousposts, but still yet another reminder that it's still all about the increasingly Lenin-like visage of Chairman David.
NewsBusters Misleads to Paint 9th Circuit As Overly Liberal Topic: NewsBusters
An Aug. 4 NewsBusters post by Matt Hadro complained that PBS "watered down" the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals' "infamous history of liberal rulings, saying that though it may be liberal, it is not more so than any other U.S. Circuit Court." Hadro continues:
The Ninth Circuit has a long history of being stacked with liberal judges since the days of President Carter, and infamously struck down "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance in 2002. The Court has arguably inched to the right with the addition of moderate and conservative judges, but is still widely regarded as the most liberal of the circuit courts.
James Taranto, member of the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, described the court as "notoriously liberal," in his piece about the reversal of Proposition 8. Ashby Jones, writing for the WSJ's law blog, said that the court has a reputation for being "packed with liberal judges."
The sentiment isn't confined to conservative-friendly publications.
The Los Angeles Times reported last year that 15 of the court's 16 cases reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court were reversed. "Judicial analysts attribute the high reversal rate at least partly to the 9th Circuit's reputation as a liberal-dominated bench, even though more recent conservative appointments have diluted that influence," the paper reported.
Indeed, the New York Times reported this past spring that "outside experts who have examined the circuit for quantitative evidence of its leanings say that over all, it is indeed the most liberal circuit – but not by all that much."
But in addition to contradicting history in suggesting that the 9th Circuit's reversal rate is abnormally high, Hadro is selectively quoting from those aforementioned newspaper articles. The Los Angeles Times article he cites puts the reversal rate in context:
Most analysts dismiss statistics on reversal as of little significance, given the small number of cases reviewed from most circuits. The 6th and 8th Circuits, which together comprise 11 states from Tennessee to the Dakotas, saw 100 percent of their cases reversed this term, respectively five and four of the Supreme Court's 83-case docket.
But Mr. Samaha, a former law clerk for Justice John Paul Stevens, said it was common knowledge that decisions made by panels that include certain liberal judges get closer scrutiny than others.
"Is it really a circuit being profiled, in a sense, or really a smaller set of judges who set off alarm bells?" Mr. Samaha pondered. "I would suspect it's the latter."
The New York Times article Hadro cites also adds context to reversal rates that Hadro didn't see fit to include:
Susan B. Haire, an associate professor of political science at the University of Georgia, has done extensive research into the rate of reversal for the various circuits and said that, in fact, the reversal rates for the Ninth are generally higher than for other circuits. However, Ms. Haire noted that the Ninth hears far more cases than any other circuit.
In the context of the total volume of cases, she said reversals are “marginally higher than the other circuits, but such a teeny-tiny difference from a substantive perspective even if it is statistically significant, people might say that’s to be expected when you have such a high volume” of cases.
Tom Goldstein, an expert on the Supreme Court, said there was “no evidence of the Ninth Circuit being out of control or of the Supreme Court thinking it is out of control.” He said that there were “old-school, Carter-era liberal appointees on that court who are out of step with the current Supreme Court and are quite strong willed.” He added that those judges “get a lot of attention from the justices” of a Supreme Court that has itself moved significantly to the right over the years.
The highest court in the land, he suggested, so clearly rankles at the views of Judge Reinhardt that litigators hoping to get his decisions overturned will go out of their way to cite him by name in their briefs.
It seems that mentioning the 9th Circuit's size and the even higher reveral rates of other circuits are relevant to any attack on the court's alleged liberal bias. Too bad Hadro didn't think so.
WND Caught Peddling Birther Falsehood, But Copies of the Lies Persist Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily has longpushedfalsehoods about Barack Obama, his administration, and his birth certificate, but only rarely does it feel sufficiently chastened to correct the record.
On Aug. 4, WND published an article by Joe Kovacs, headlined "Elena Kagan tied to Obama's birth certificate cases," stating:
Just when you thought there couldn't be any more players in the ongoing soap opera over the hunt for President Obama's original birth certificate and his constitutional eligibility for office, there comes yet another name: Elena Kagan.
Yes, the same Elena Kagan nominated by the commander in chief to be the next justice on the U.S. Supreme Court has actually been playing a role for some time in the dispute over whether Obama is legally qualified to be in the White House.
Here's the connection. Kagan served as solicitor general of the United States from March 2009 until May of this year.
In that role, she legally represented the U.S. government in numerous cases coming before the Supreme Court.
A simple search of the high court's own website reveals Kagan's name coming up at least nine times on dockets involving Obama eligibility issues.
Searching the dockets at the U.S. Supreme Court's website reveals Elena Kagan's name coming up numerous times on cases challenging President Obama's constitutional eligibility for office. (Supreme Court screenshot with name highlighted by WND, Aug. 4, 2010)
Docket No, 09-724, for instance, comes up with this in the search result:
Title: The Real Truth About Obama, Inc., Petitioner v. Federal Election Commission, et al. Reply of petitioner The Real Truth About Obama, Inc. filed. The Real Truth About Obama, Inc. Elena Kagan
Clicking on any of the dockets reveals who the original petitioners were, as well as what proceedings and orders were issued in each case. Here's another docket, with Jamal Kiyemba v. Barack H. Obama.
Elena Kagan's name is noted as solicitor general for cases involving Obama's consdtitutional eligibility. (Supreme Court screenshot with name highlighted by WND, Aug. 4, 2010)
The fact Kagan handled these cases and is now Obama's first choice for the high court is raising some eyebrows.
"She was the solicitor general for all the suits against him filed with the Supreme Court to show proof of natural-born citizenship," notes WND reader Carl Jorgensen of Farmingdale, N.J. "He owes her big time."
"All of the requests were denied of course," Jorgensen continued. "They were never heard. It just keeps getting deeper and deeper, doesn't it? The American people mean nothing any longer. It's all about payback time for those that compromised themselves to elect someone that really has no true right to even be there. We should be getting so sick of all of this nonsense. The USA has finally become the laughing stock of the world. God help and deliver us."
But Kovacs is completely wrong. As Snopes details, none of those docket items has anything to do with "eligibility issues." The Kiyemba case involves a Ugandan who was incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay for four years beginning in 2002, and the suit originally named President Bush as the defendant. Even the one involving "The Real Truth About Obama, Inc." is centered on an allegation that the Obama administration "chilled its right to disseminate information about presidential candidate Senator Obama's position on abortion."
Snopes goes on to note that WND scrubbed the heck out of Kovacs' article after its debunking appeared. Indeed, the article has been completely rewritten and Kovacs' name removed from it. It now begins with a correction (though it's not called that):
Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described a series of cases for which Elena Kagan represented the government as eligibility cases. Those cases, in fact, were a series of unrelated disputes pending before the Supreme Court and the references have been removed from this report.
The article now lamely focuses on the "Real Truth About Obama, Inc." case.
Will Kovacs face any sanctions at work for his egregious error? Probably not -- he did what he gets paid to do in floating his attack on Obama, no matter how false. CopiesofKovacs' liesremainallovertheInternet. The damage has been done.
Rewriting the story is not enough. WND needs to act in a responsible manner and alert the websites that have copied the article to the fact that it's been utterly discredited.
Then again, other WND liars have not noticably suffered for their falsehoods -- heck, WND had to officially retract an Aaron Klein article because he had so falsely smeared an Islamic charity, and he's now WND's star reporter, spreading more lies and conspiracies with impunity.
There are far more uncorrected falsehoods at WND than corrected ones. What's the official ratio? 10-to-1? 20-to-1? What is WND's corrections policy? There is none stated on its website. Shouldn't this correction be more prominently placed?
The apparently random nature of its corrections -- which seem to come only when there is sufficient public notice of the error, or when a lawsuit is filed or threatened (Clark Jones, anyone?) -- and the apparent lack of any formalized procedure for handling them (WND simply deleted another false birther-related attack without explanation or apology) is yet more evidence that WND should not be taken seriously as anything except a propaganda mill.
AIM Repeats Bogus Claim on DOJ, Military Votes Topic: Accuracy in Media
An Aug. 4 Accuracy in Media column by Paul R. Hollrah regurgitates the baseless claim that "the Obama Justice Department is now urging the states to use waivers to avoid having to abide by provisions of the MOVE Act," which sets standards for state and local officials to get absentee ballots to members of the military in time to be counted in elections.
In fact, there is no evidence that DOJ is "urging" states to apply for waivers; even the FoxNews.com article Hollrah cites to support his claim offers no direct evidence of DOJ officials doing anything beyond instructing officials about the law, which includes a waiver process that must be signed off on by both DOJ and Department of Defense officials.
Further, the two former litigators in the Voting Rights Section pushing this accusation are both conservative activists, and one, J. Christian Adams, has been a key figure in pushing bogus allegations regarding the DOJ's investigation of the New Black Panther Party. Adams has since walked back the allegation, now claiming that he didn't say DOJ was deliberately suppressing military votes.
NewsBusters Upset That Historic Event Is Described As Historic Topic: Media Research Center
MRC VP Brent Baker was channeling Stephen Colbert -- for him, the facts really do have a liberal bias.
In an Aug. 6 MRC item, Baker portrayed the evening news programs' noting the historic nature of Elena Kagan being confirmed to the Supreme Court -- making the first time in American history that three women have sat on the high court -- as making them, in the words of Baker's headine, "as Giddy as Liberal Democrats":
“The number that really excited Democrats is three: Think Ginsburg, Sotomayor and Kagan,” NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell excitedly announced Thursday night while leading into a clip of Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, who exclaimed as he bounced on his heels on the Senate floor: “Three women will serve together on the United States Supreme Court for the first time in our nation's history!”
The news equally excited the TV network journalists. “History was made in this country today when the Senate confirmed Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court,” declared fill-in NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt as viewers were treated to a “Making History” on-screen graphic.
“Tonight on World News, a day of high court history. Elena Kagan confirmed. For the first time ever, three women will be part of deciding the law of the land,” spouted a giddy Diane Sawyer in matching NBC by making Kagan her lead story. Sawyer could hardly contain her excitement[.]
Baker, it seems, has a little trouble letting his partisan hate blind him to history.
Shocker: WND Debunks Crazy Right-Wing Talking Point Topic: WorldNetDaily
Surprisingly, it appears there are things too crazy for even WorldNetDaily to promote.
Right Wing Watch notes that an Aug. 3 WND article shoots down the idea that right-wingers don't have to recognize court decisions they didn't like by claiming that the Supreme Court has "original jurisdiction" in "all cases...in which a State shall be Party." WND cites not one but two "constitutional experts" pointing out that the "original jurisdiction" is not exclusive.
Bozell's Newsweek Tunnel Vision Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center's notorious tunnel vision surfaces yet again in Brent Bozell's Aug. 4 column, which begins:
There’s something oddly funny about the cluelessness of liberal media companies when their ratings fall or their subscriptions collapse. They just refuse to admit, or even consider that the business problem could be (at least in part) their own incessant liberal agitating. Instead, they seem to double down and make things even worse.
[...]
Here’s another case in point: Newsweek’s subscriptions collapsed a couple of years back. How could it not be (at least in part) the umpteen Obama-worshipping cover stories that caused some subscribers to cancel. Then they really abandoned the “News” half of their title and wrote cover stories like “We’re All Socialists Now” and “Is Your Baby Racist?”
Newsweek was put on the market, and the market has spoken: a $1 sale.
By the same logic, the fact that conservative newspapers like the Washington Times, the Pitsburgh Tribune-Review and the New York Post do not make enough money to be viable, and remain in operation only through the good graces of their billionaire owners, must mean that their conservative-leaning content does not sell. Of course, Bozell will never admit such a thing, even though it's more true than his rantings about Newsweek.
