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Sunday, July 15, 2012
Dear Joseph Farah...
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Your long association with unrepentant domestic terrorist and convicted felon G. Gordon Liddy -- i.e. regularly guest-hosting his radio show -- undermines any moral authority you might claim in berating Salon for having "completely given itself over the dark side" by reprinting articles from the Southern Poverty Law Center (which had the temerity to accurately report the paranoid remarks you sald to fellow paranoid Alex Jones).

Hugs,
ConWebWatch

P.S. Hey, here's a picture of Farah warmly hugging the dark side:



Posted by Terry K. at 12:35 AM EDT
Saturday, July 14, 2012
CNS Has Freakout Over Idea of Rice As VP
Topic: CNSNews.com

The possibility that Mitt Romney might select Condoleezza Rice as his vice presidential candidate -- floated by a speculative, anonymous Drudge Report item -- has sent CNSNews.com into a tizzy becuase Rice is not rabidly anti-abortion and doesn't hate gays.

A July 13 article by editor-in-chief Terry Jeffrey carried the alarmist headline "Romney Considering Pro-Choice Architect of Bush Foreign Policy for VP." Jeffrey seemed particularly upset that Rice considers herself "mildly pro-choice." Jeffrey wrote up Rice's position on abortion before he got around to discussing her foreign policy experience.

This was followed by another article the same day by Patrick Burke, who was alarmed that Rice said that "there needs to be some way for people to express their desire to live together through civil union."

CNS ultimately followed up with an article by Melanie Hunter reporting that Rice had denied interest in the VP slot.

CNS also gave the same passive-aggressive Heathering treatment to Romney himself for being insufficiently anti-gay. A July 13 article by Pete Winn highlighted Romney's statement to the NAACP that "I hope to represent all Americans, of every race, creed and sexual orientation."


Posted by Terry K. at 11:53 PM EDT
Updated: Sunday, July 15, 2012 12:06 AM EDT
Obama Derangement Syndrome Watch, Supersize WorldNetDaily Edition
Topic: WorldNetDaily

I can’t ignore the glaring irony here. Freeman says there’s going to be trouble if we don’t re-elect Obama. Freeman surely doesn’t mean the guys “on the other side of the fence” – the conservatives – are going to cause disorder if Obama is defeated. Who, then, does Morgan Freeman fear will cause the “big trouble” if we fail to re-elect Obama? Is Freeman telling me the trouble will be germinated and generated by those on the other side of the fence from me? Is superstar Morgan Freeman telling me he’s afraid of me and my people, but if Obama loses, I’ve got to be afraid of him and his people? Sure sounds like it.

-- Barry Farber, June 26 WorldNetDaily column

End the madness. All those who think this corrupt crowd is going to leave office voluntarily in January 2013 have never recovered from the drug-induced stupor of their youth. The election will be litigated, and they will stay in power during the interim, which will go on forever. Voting anomalies (i.e. voting other than Democrat) will be “investigated” by Eric Holder.

Just end it. Indict Obama, Biden and Holder for treason, sedition, bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors. Lock them in the congressional bathroom during the interim. The exact charges can be determined by acting President John Boehner and his new Justice Department during the investigation that follows.

-- Craige McMillan, June 27 WorldNetDaily column

In 2008, 52.9 percent voted for Barack Obama – and that’s well within the margin of error on the Gallup poll.

I know what you’re going to say.

“Obama’s not an atheist! He says he’s a Christian.”

Right.

He’s a “Christian” who made his profession of faith in Jeremiah Wright’s church of hate and indignation. Excuse me, that’s not Christianity. That’s politics. It’s liberation theology. It’s Marxism with a few doses of opiates for the masses.

-- Joseph Farah, June 27 WND column

Barack Obama and his cadre of Obamaviks are counting on this depravity to win in November and finish the job of burying the remnants of America’s great experiment. Our government is now saturated with Retrogressive politicians and bureaucrats who view the Entrepreneur as the evil enemy because he stands in the way of their desire to control all aspects of every individual’s life.

Retrogressives are dangerous people. They lie; they steal; and, above all, they believe in the use of force. You cannot change them. You cannot reason with them. The only solution is to defeat them.

The reality is that the United States is now embroiled in a second civil war. The divide between liberty and tyranny is irreconcilable, and it’s time for those who believe in liberty to come to grips with the reality that the agenda of the Retrogressive is to transform the United States into a collectivist utopia where the government plans, controls and, yes, owns everything.

-- Robert Ringer, June 27 WND column

Who does President Barack Obama think he is that he can change the wording of the Declaration of Independence? Again and again he presumes to quote the great Declaration while making a significant change: He omits the word “Creator.”

[...]

Obama has done this so often that it can’t be a slip of the tongue or a glitch of the teleprompter. Changing the words of the Declaration of Independence is part of Obama’s determination to remove everything religious and every mention of God from every aspect of our public life in order to fundamentally transform us from “one nation under God” into one nation under the federal government, especially the executive branch, with no higher power recognized.

-- Phyllis Schlafly, July 2 WND column

Although Obama’s immediate reaction to the court’s decision was one of unbridled glee, by the time this all plays out, he may find himself like the fencing master in the cartoon who apparently dodges his opponent’s sword, and says, “Aha, you missed!” a second before his severed head drops to the floor.

-- Burt Prelutsky, July 10 WND column

Romney was far from my first choice as the main challenger to Barack Obama – but now he’s the only one who can rid us of Obama. Remember the message from Obama through Russia’s then-President Medvedev to Vladimir Putin: “After my election, I’ll have more flexibility.” “Flexibility” to do what? God forbid we have to find out! I classify an Obama win as a national disaster. Many of you pretend to agree.

-- Barry Farber, July 10 WND column

I have a confession to make.

It might help explain why I fear a second term of Barack Obama so much.

I understand what Obama is and what he is doing because I was once like him: I am a former communist.

[...]

The only difference between Obama and me is that he never changed. He is as radical today as he was when he launched his political career in the living room of Ayers and Dohrn. He loathes all America stands for today as much as he did when he worked as a lawyer for the political racketeering ACORN.

I understand him. I can decode his rhetoric. I still know how the extreme left thinks. I know what their goals are. And I know how badly Obama and his entourage want to “fundamentally change” America.

That’s why this election year represents America’s last chance to save itself from ruin, from catastrophe, from irreversible calamity, from revolution.

-- Joseph Farah, July 11 WND column


Posted by Terry K. at 8:29 AM EDT
Friday, July 13, 2012
Newsmax Image Rehabilitation Watch
Topic: Newsmax

A July 11 Newsmax article by Todd Beamon and John Bachman features, for no apparent reason, former Republican Rep. Vito Fossella opinion on Mitt Romney's chances of winning the White House, among other election-related topics.

As we've previously detailed, Newsmax has been trying to rehabilitate Fossella's reputation after he left office in disgrace when a DUI arrest led to the revelation that Fossella had a mistress in Washington and had fathered a child with her.

Beamon and Bachman are careful not to explain how Fossella became an ex-congressman.


Posted by Terry K. at 4:07 PM EDT
Alan Caruba Misleads About Terrorism Study
Topic: Accuracy in Media

Alan Caruba writes in his July 11 Accuracy in Media column:

A study, “Profiles of Perpetrators of Terrorism”, commissioned by the Department of Homeland Security identified the following characteristics of potential “terrorists.”

# Americans who believe their “way of life” is under attack;

# Americans who are “fiercely nationalistic (as opposed to universal and international in orientation)”;

# People who consider themselves “anti-global” (presumably those who are wary of the loss of American sovereignty, opposed to the United Nations, etc.);

# Americans who are “suspicious of centralized federal authority”;

# Americans who are “reverent of individual liberty”;

# People who “believe in conspiracy theories that involve grave threat to national sovereignty and/or personal liberty.”

This is a President who called for a “Civilian National Security Force” on July 2, 2008, one that would be “just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded as the U.S. military.”

Obama is putting in force everything a tyranny requires to replace the Republic.

As we detailed when WorldNetDaily tried the same misleading distortion, the study in question describes those "Perpetrators of Terrorism" as pepple involved in paramilitary or survivalist groups first and foremost, who may alsobe “suspicious of centralized federal authority” and “reverent of individual liberty.” Caruba dishonestly omits the study's reference to paramilitary or survivalist traits.

As for the "Civilian National Security Force" stuff -- which WND also has lied about -- Obama has specifically stated that it refers to an expansion of the foreign service.


Posted by Terry K. at 9:48 AM EDT
Noel Sheppard Laughably Claims 'New Study Thoroughly Debunks Global Warming'
Topic: NewsBusters

Under the headline "New Study Thoroughly Debunks Global Warming, Will Media Notice?" global warming denier Noel Sheppard writes in a July 11 NewsBusters post of a new study he claims, yes, debunks global warming.

Of course, it does no such thing. As Media Matters details, the study, in the journal Nature, estimated temperatures going back 2,000 years by analyzing the density of tree rings taken only from northern Finland and Sweden, and the record they produced only reflects temperatures between June and August. There's nothing "global" about the study.

Further, the study doesn't cover the past 100 years, which Sheppard sorta admits by including a graph in his post showing a sharp rise in temperatures in the past century.

Sheppard seems to know that the facts don't live up to his screaming, overstated headline. By the second paragraph of his post, he was already altering what he claimed the study found, that it "completely debunks all previous claims that temperatures in recent decades are in any way historic." But if he looked at that graph, he would see that the rate of temperature in the past century is arguably surprisingly rapid for such ashort period of time, especially compared with the slow overall rate of decline the graph shows over the previous centuries.

As is his wont, Sheppard took a cheap shot at Al Gore, calling global warming "Nobel laureate Al Gore's favorite money-making scam." Sheppard didn't say how much money he has made by being a professional denier.


Posted by Terry K. at 12:31 AM EDT
Thursday, July 12, 2012
'It's No Crime To Feign Enthusiasm': WND Writers Unenthusiastically Back Romney
Topic: WorldNetDaily

So, what’s the matter with you? Do you suppose there’s some kind of political “heaven” where your eventual admittance will be a lot smoother if you can show you weren’t all that keen on Romney in the first place? Are you aware Mitt Romney is the only American with the ways and means to save us all? England begged America, in 1940, when England stood alone, “If you cannot help us, please don’t hinder us.” That’s an apt message from the Romney campaign to all who see the need to stop Obama.

Nobody’s asking you to lie, or even spin. Just select which pro-Romney truths glide most comfortably off your tongue and let’s hear them; loudly and with enthusiasm. It’s no crime to feign enthusiasm, in a worthy cause. Enthusiasm is vital in politics. Your own vote requires no enthusiasm. But your ability to get others to the polls, to donate, to volunteer, to get good things going – that demands enthusiasm. Morale is major. And with early love of Obama gone four years sour, Romney is much better positioned today to generate higher and wilder waves of morale.

If I can show enthusiasm for Romney, without a single day of acting school, you’ve got no excuse. Blunders. Failures. Disappointments. Cosmic idiocies. We’ve got them all, and our production rate is sure to climb in these remaining weeks. But that’s no excuse for failure to get in there and yell and scream and fight and produce and get it done for Mitt Romney.

-- Barry Farber, June 10 WorldNetDaily column

Based on his long and contradictory political record, I do not have much hope that Romney is going to do a 180 if he wins. I don’t think he will steer the nation on the U-turn course that is absolutely necessary to save us from the brink of disaster.

However, the idea of a second term for Obama genuinely scares me. I don’t believe America could ever recover from such a cataclysm. The country will suffer irreparable harm, if it hasn’t done so already.

While I remain a principled constitutionalist who doesn’t believe in voting for anyone who does not understand and embrace its limitations on federal power, I believe 2012 is one of those rare election years in which freedom-loving Americans will, out of necessity, be forced to vote defensively.

I won’t be voting for Romney because I think he will save America or reverse our dangerous course. But I will likely be voting for him to buy America the time it needs to avoid catastrophe. It’s just that simple – and sad.

-- Joseph Farah, July 10 WND column


Posted by Terry K. at 10:23 PM EDT
MRC's Idea of 'Research': Cherry-Picked Quotes
Topic: Media Research Center

We're all too familiar with the Media Research Center's idea of "media research." Here's another example.

A July 9 "special edition" of the MRC's "Notable Quotables" feature purports to document "the media’s continuing love affair with Barack Obama." The headline on it reads, "Special Edition: Still Slobbering Over Barack Obama."

But the MRC has a peculiar definition of "still" and "continuing." Only two of the 26 quotes listed are from this year; many of them date from 2009. But really -- 26 cherry-picked quotes over four years somehow proves that "the media" is "still slobbering" over Obama?

The MRC also fails to distinguish between reporters and commentators. It even throws in as one example "Simon & Schuster’s promotional language for The Promise: President Obama, Year One, a book released May 18, 2010, by Newsweek senior editor Jonathan Alter." Press releases are part of "the media"?

The MRC, it seems, is so obsessed with treating any positive description of Obama as "slobbering" that its manufactured outrage over it is utterly meaningless. Its supporters, though, seem unable to tell the difference between it and genuine outrage, so such shoddy "research" must be working out for the MRC.


Posted by Terry K. at 5:54 PM EDT
Newsmax Now Publishing 'Dr.' Alveda King
Topic: Newsmax

Newsmax has added anti-abortion activist Alveda King as a columnist. But that's not all -- Newsmax is calling her "Dr. Alveda King," as the header on her column archive shows:

But as we've noted, and others have pointed out, King has never earned a doctorate degree; the one being referenced here is honorary.

People who have never earned a Ph.D. don't get to call themselves "Dr." -- and anyway, standard news style is to reserve that title only for those with medical degrees -- but Alveda King does, and Newsmax, which should know better, is allowing it to happen.


Posted by Terry K. at 9:48 AM EDT
WND Is Now Defending Its Race-Baiting
Topic: WorldNetDaily

We've detailed WorldNetDaily's massive race-baiting effort by hyping alleged incidents of violence by "mobs" of blacks. The latest effort, a July 11 article by race-baiting expert Colin Flaherty repeating an unsubstantiated claim that "99.9 percent" of defendants in "murders, rapes, robberies and home invasions" in one city were "Afro-American," adds for the first time an editor's note explaining said race-baiting:

Editor’s note: Colin Flaherty has done more reporting than any other journalist on what appears to be a nationwide trend of skyrocketing black-on-white crime, violence and abuse. WND features these reports to counterbalance the virtual blackout by the rest of the media due to their concerns that reporting such incidents would be inflammatory or even racist. WND considers it racist not to report racial abuse solely because of the skin color of the perpetrators or victims.

But isn't it racist to report only violence committed by blacks, as WND is doing? WND doesn't seem to want to answer that question. It's more happy to pretend it's offering "balance" when WND has never practiced such balance on its own website.

Note also WND's weasel words claiming that there "appears to be a nationwide trend of skyrocketing black-on-white crime, violence and abuse." Not that there actually is one -- WND is clearly interested only in appearance, not fact.

Indeed, WND is a tad defensive about its race-baiting. Responding to ConWebWatch's highlighting of a recent Flaherty piece, WND tweeted: "Reporting facts is not 'race-baiting' Chicago is a war zone right now. So is Baltimore."

WND seems to think that reporting "facts" is a sufficient defense for its race-baiting. But it has never claimed that it reports all the facts -- and it's there the problem resides.

Posted by Terry K. at 12:38 AM EDT
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
CNS' Jeffrey: Sterilization Is 'Mutiliation,' Like Cutting An Optic Nerve
Topic: CNSNews.com

So, what does sterilization do to a woman? And why does Obama want all women "with reproductive capacity" to be offered one for free?

Specifically, sterilization mutilates part of a woman's body so it can no longer carry out its natural and healthy function.

By analogy, if a doctor severed a woman's optic nerve her eyes would no longer see. Here, a doctor severs a woman's fallopian tubes so her womb can no longer conceive a child.

Obama manifestly believes offering this particular mutilation free of charge to all women — but not men — is good. But why?

-- Terry Jeffrey, July 11 CNSNews.com column


Posted by Terry K. at 9:46 PM EDT
WND's Klein Still Shilling for Assad Regime
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Aaron Klein continues his cozying up to murderous Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad with a July 10 WorldNetDaily that even grants anonymity to a member of Assad's regime.

From the article:

At least 5,000 global jihadists are positioned near Syria’s borders with Turkey and Lebanon attempting to infiltrate Syria to aid the opposition fighting Bashar al-Assad’s regime, a senior Syrian government official claimed to WND.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Syrian military hopes to quell the opposition entirely by the start of Ramadan, July 19.

Is a spokesperson for a regime accused of killing thousands of its own people really worth granting the privilege of anonymity? Klein apparently thinks so. Then again, this isn't the first time Klein has granted anonymity to terrorists.

Klein also uncritically repeated the Assad regime's spin that "it was a group affiliated with al-Qaida, armed by Turkey, that slaughtered more than 100 civilians in their homes in Houla in May." As we've previously noted, numerous named eyewitnesses have confirmed that the massacre was the work of the regime, while those pushing Assad's spin are anonymous.

Maybe that's why Klein signed on as an Assad shill -- he loves those anonymous sources. He did the same thing for Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak.


Posted by Terry K. at 4:07 PM EDT
NewsBusters Hides The Facts Behind GM's Sales Figures
Topic: NewsBusters

Seton Motley screeched in a July 10 NewsBusters post that "The Jurassic Press was in full-throated ObamaChorus mode in reporting on General Motors (GM)’s allegedly strong June sales," while supposedly overlooking the fact that the increase was driven by "government purchases."

Motley cited a claim from the right-wing National Legal and Policy Center that "government purchases of GM vehicles rose a whopping 79% in June," but that claim is presented without context -- it's never explained where the number came from, or what the actual numbers they're based on are. It's an empty, undocumented number, but it suits Motley's purposes, so he continued to screech:

Meaning Barack Obama is now campaigning on the “success” of - the government buying cars from...the government’s car company. With our money.

That’s like you setting up a lemonade stand for your kids. You buy them the lemons, sugar, cups and pitchers - and then buy most of the lemonade yourself.

Except you are President Obama. Your kids are the United Autoworkers Union. And the lemonade cost $50 billion.

At least you get to tax your neighbors for the $50 billion.

Again - in what Bizarro-world is this auto bailout the “success” the Jurassic Press incessantly reports it is?

Meanwhile, more credible and non-hysterical sources had a more realistic take on GM's numbers.  The Detroit Free Press points out that fleet sales, under which government sales fall, typically peak this time of year:

GM’s increase was helped by an increase in fleet sales. GM’s sales to fleet customers increased 36% in June while retail sales increased 7.9%.

McNeil said GM’s big increase in fleet sales is was driven by seasonal deliveries.

“Next month you can expect our fleet volume and our fleet mix to be down,” McNeil said.

For the year, GM expects fleet sales to government agencies, daily rental companies and commercial customers to account for about 25% of its sales.

Further, Bloomberg reports that the percentage of fleet sales at GM is actually smaller than that of a certain other auto manufacturer that didn't take a bailout:

GM sales to fleet customers, such as governments and rental-car companies, rose 36 percent last month, making up 32 percent of the company’s sales. Ford said its fleet sales accounted for 35 percent of its deliveries, down from 37 percent a year earlier.

Don't wait up for Motley to tell the full truth about GM's sales numbers.
That's not the business he's in.


Posted by Terry K. at 11:39 AM EDT
NEW ARTICLE: Joe Kovacs vs. 'Real News'
Topic: WorldNetDaily
The WorldNetDaily executive news editor says he joined WND to report "real news" -- you know, like anti-Obama conspiracy theories or what Rush Limbaugh says on his radio show. Read more >>

Posted by Terry K. at 12:34 AM EDT
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
AIM's Kincaid: Fox News Isn't Biased Enough Against Obama
Topic: Accuracy in Media

Fox News' anti-Obama bias is already pretty prodigious. But it's not enough for Accuracy in Media's Cliff Kincaid -- he wants Rupert Murdoch to order his channel to hurl even more dubious smears against the president (and bring back the discredited Glenn Beck while he's at it).

From Kincaid's July 6 AIM column:

While O’Reilly and Sean Hannity have examined some of the controversy over Obama’s socialist agenda, there is a bigger story to tell—one that could win the channel a major journalism prize. It is the Obama connection to Communist Party member Frank Marshall Davis.

Of course, if Murdoch wants to get tough, he could start by bringing back Beck—Glenn Beck, that is. Glenn Beck wasn’t afraid to tell the truth about Obama—and his associates, such as Van Jones, and Obama’s patron, George Soros. That may have been what got him fired.

[...]

At about the same time, Joel Gilbert’s provocative film, “Dreams from My Real Father,” is scheduled for official release. Fox News could and should cover it now. I’m sure Gilbert would provide a copy to them, if they do not already have it. I have seen this film in advance. It, too, is devastating. It will make you wonder what we really know about Obama, not in terms of where he was born, but his political agenda and personal loyalties.

[...]

These two researchers, [Paul] Kengor and Gilbert, could explain, better than anyone, the mystery in the Oval Office. All that it would take is an order from Murdoch to Roger Ailes, president of Fox News, to get to the bottom of the controversy over Obama’s Marxist roots. Four years after Obama was elected president, isn’t it about time for what the late Andrew Breitbart called “the Vetting?”

As we've pointed out, the central argument of Gilbert's film -- that Davis is Obama's real father -- is nothing but conjecture and speculation, based on photos of a woman he can't even prove is Obama's mother who posed nude for Davis. It's nothing more than a sleazy smear piece designed to make money off Obama-haters.

But Kincaid is gullible enough -- and enough of an Obama-hater -- to fall for it, and that's all that matters at AIM.


Posted by Terry K. at 10:07 PM EDT

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