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Tuesday, November 27, 2012
MRC's Graham Revives False, Years-Old Attack on Patty Murray
Topic: Media Research Center

The MRC's Tim Graham uses a Nov. 24 NewsBusters post to lie about Sen. Patty Murray, reviving a years-old discredited falsehood that Murray "praised" Osama bin Laden:

aturday’s Washington Post devoted the left-hand corner of the front page to hailing liberal Sen. Patty Murray, the new chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. “In a Congress of hot tempers and sharp tongues, Murray doesn’t favor over-the-top rhetoric,” oozed Post reporter Rosalind Helderman. Sen. Harry Reid added: “Everyone takes Senator Murray seriously because she does not bluster.”

She doesn’t? While the Post noted Murray had the “luck” of "intemperate" Republican gaffes on abortion and rape in the last election cycle, nobody in the media wants to remember Murray’s 2002 whopper praising that humanitarian Osama bin Laden[.]

As we first detailed way back in 2002 , Murray was not "praising" bin Laden; rather, she was trying to draw a contrast over how the U.S. is viewed in the Middle East, explaining (somewhat erroneously) that bin Laden had been "building schools, building roads, building infrastructure, building day care facilities, building health care facilities, and the people are extremely grateful. We haven't done that."

Graham cited what his boss, Brent Bozell, "reported at the time," but 1) Bozell does not "report," and 2) he was trying to distract attention away from Trent Lott's remarks about Strom Thurmond.

Graham goes on to whine, "You would be a fool to underestimate how much hot wind that liberal newspapers will blow behind a liberal Democrat like Murray, whose gaffes are rarely acknowledged and never remembered." It's only a gaffe in the minds of rabid, dishonest partisans like Graham who have to distort her words and tell lies about what she actually said in order to force it into a "gaffe."


Posted by Terry K. at 12:19 PM EST
Ellis Washington Plays the Pity (And Self-Grandiosity) Card
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Here's how Ellis Washington starts out his Nov. 23 WorldNetDaily column:

When I look at the political careers of a Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, the political hacks of Democratic Socialist Party, the Country Club Republican Party and the millions of liberals, socialists and Marxists who are thriving throughout Hollywood, academia, labor, sports, entertainment and society by bringing America to her knees while systematically deconstructing everything good this country has done for her citizens and for the whole world, then all I can say is …

Nice guys do finish last.

Exhibit A: Barack Hussein Obama (1961 -   ) It’s amazing how far a person can get in America with a little help at key times in their life from powerful and influential people who lift you up as the Manchurian Candidate by directing your life to deconstruct and undermine everything that America’s Founding Fathers gave their lives and sacred honor to uphold: freedom of religion, rule of law, liberty, culture, society, American exceptionalism, constitutionalism, capitalism, Natural Law.

Exhibit B: Ellis Washington (1961 -   ) I have been a conservative for 30 years. I wrote my first published essays for our school newspaper on culture and politics in 1982 during Christmas break my senior year in college at DePauw University, where I warned the university faculty and my fellow students of the dangers of liberalism, progressivism and socialism. For 30 years, I wrote books nobody bought or read extolling the virtues of a country I thought stood for God, liberty and truth.

Nice guys do finish last.

Yes, Washington is lamenting that his life hasn't gone as well as Obama's -- which may explain some of Washington's Obama-hate.

Oh, but Washington is not done. The bulk of his column is a letter he wrote to right-wing activist Phyllis Schlafly repeating his lament that no decent law school will hire him to teach, albeit in a overly self-aggrandizing way:

By God’s grace I have done intellectual feats that no other liberal intellectual, legal scholar, judge, justice, academic lawyer or PhD I am aware of has achieved. For example, before I completed my first semester in law school (September – December 1991), I had already achieved the following:

  1. Staff editor at the Michigan Law Review (more than two years before I attended law school; outperforming all top-tier second and third-year law students);
  2. Clerked for The 60-Plus Elder Law Clinic (outperforming all top-tier second and third-year law students);
  3. Clerk for The Rutherford Institute (outperforming all top-tier second and third-year law students);
  4. Wrote the manuscripts to two law review articles in 1989 and 1990, which later became five book chapters of my first book, “The Devil is in the Details: Essays on Law, Race, Politics & Religion” (Vantage Press, 1999);
  5. As executive editor, I edited about a dozen books, scholarly journal articles and monographs by historian extraordinaire, professor Arthur R. LaBrew, president of the Michigan Music Research Center.

Finally, I have letters in my files from members of the Supreme Court representing all three jurisprudence and ideological factions on the High Court – liberal-moderate-conservative – who have accepted several of my books and law review articles into their Chambers Library, including two law review articles of mine Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg accepted into her private Brown v. Board of Education archives.

Unmentioned by Washington, of course, are his manifesto in which he goes on at length about his inability to get a decent teaching job, as well as his repeated self-portrayal as Socrates, which -- along with his above claim to have "outperform[ed] all top-tier second and third-year law students" in "intellectual feats that no other liberal intellectual, legal scholar, judge, justice, academic lawyer or PhD I am aware of has achieved" -- suggest a narcissistic personality disorder on Washington's part rather than deliberate discrimination on the part of anyone he has encountered.

Washington even includes Schlafly's short, generalized response to his letter as evidence of ... something.

We've never met Washington, so he may indeed be a nice guy. But he is clearly a guy with a highly inflated sense of self-importance, not to mention a seething hatred of Obama. Those are hardly turn-ons for any prospective employer, and it's likely that this, rather than ideological discrimination, is the reason Washington finds himself in his current station.


Posted by Terry K. at 12:45 AM EST
Monday, November 26, 2012
Noel Sheppard -- Who Called Michael Moore 'Corpulent' -- Complains People Are Making Fun of Christie's Weight
Topic: NewsBusters

Apparently, only Noel Sheppard is allowed to make fun of people's weight.

Sheppard complains in a Nov. 24 NewsBusters post that "liberal commentator" Mark Shields "took a cheap shot" about New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's weight, harrumphing that "the larger point is how comfortable media members are at making such jokes about Christie.  Would they be doing so if he were a Democrat, a woman, or a minority?"

You can tell that Sheppard's outrage about this is utterly manufactured, because he takes cheap shots at Shields' weight, calling him a "portly PBSer," "a guy with more jowls than a Basset hound," and "hardly the poster boy for health and fitness in this country."

And as we've previously noted, Sheppard has previously taken cheap shots at Michael Moore's weight calling him "rather corpulent" and claiming that "this portly schlockumentarian has never met a cheeseburger he'd say no to."

But then, double standards are a long NewsBusters tradition.


Posted by Terry K. at 7:32 PM EST
WND Promotes Self-Proclaimed 'Forensic Profiler' Who Hates Obama
Topic: WorldNetDaily

It's amazing how much you can blame on someone when you're claiming they're admitting to things unconsciously.

The increasingly discredited WorldNetDaily has been promoting for some time a self-proclaimed forensic profiler named Andrew Hodges, who wrote a book (sold in the WND online store, natch) that through a "unique psycholinguistic technique he calls 'ThoughtPrint Decoding," Hodges can read between the lines and decode the unconscious messages President Obama gives through speeches.

Bob Unruh devotes a Nov. 24 WND article to promoting Hodges' latest claim, that Obama "is confessing to stealing the 2012 president election." How? Well, first, we have to sit through some right-wing boilerplate about purported voter fraud:

In Hodges’ assessment: “Following Obama’s presidential reelection impressive findings have emerged pointing to a fraudulent election. A brief summary reveals precincts in Ohio and Pennsylvania reported greater than 100 percent of registered voters turned out to vote. In 100 precincts in Ohio Obama got 99 percent of the votes. Pennsylvania illegally removed GOP poll inspectors from voting locations. Computer irregularities in Pennsylvania (and elsewhere) reverted to a default Obama vote no matter who the voter selected.”

He continued, “Florida prevented absentee ballots from being observed by neutral observers. Military ballots were systematically denied active-duty servicemen and women around the world.”

So he said all he had to do was sit back and wait for the confession.

And since claiming to be able to delve into Obama's subconscious by reading between the lines of Obama's words is Hodges' stock in trade, you can be sure that he will twist anything Obama says into his preconceived conclusion. And indeed he does:

“On election night after initial voting reports declared him the winner, Obama once more unconsciously pointed to a confession. Before his anxious and relieved supporters, Obama spoke of his pride in his daughters but commented, ‘But I will say this for now, one dog’s probably enough’ – on the surface referring back to promising his daughters a puppy after his 2008 victory,” Hodges said.

“But stay with his spontaneous right-brain image. Understand he could have chosen any matter on which to comment and any description but his brilliant unconscious mind which always speaks in a symbolic right-brain language – and carefully chooses its images – selected ‘one dog is enough.’

“Read his confession that America has just elected a dog of a president – and once was enough,” Hodges said.

“He suggests that he’s dogging it as president, faking it as an illegal president in a second way now with a stolen election. That he’s a real ‘dog’ for such deception. The image of a dog further suggests: a pet favored by the media and blind supporters who would not dare to explore his illegality by birth or unfair election; that he will dog or haunt America for another four years because a dog also bites especially a wounded one. (And Obama is deeply wounded beyond belief.) Once again Obama unconsciously points to his deceptive anger and indeed he has bitten/assaulted America in multiple ways, both covert and overt, and plans on more of the same.”

[...]

Further, during a Nov. 9 press conference, “Obama snapped at two senators who had criticized U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice for her erroneous declarations regarding the Benghazi attack. He challenged the senators to ‘come after me,’ not Rice,” Hodges said.

“This matches his hidden instructions in the U.N. speech that American citizens be prepared to protest unfair elections. In both his 2008 Fathers’ Day speech as a candidate and in his inaugural address he unconsciously instructed citizens to confront him as an illegal foreign-born candidate/ president,” Hodges said.

“Obama’s ideas continually reflect a preoccupation with unconscious guilt and a need to be caught and stopped. His behavior and decision-making around the Benghazi tragedy with obvious cover-up suggest more guilt – a need to be questioned, a secret confession of being a weak leader and a president who puts a U.S. ambassador’s life at risk,” said Hodges.

Hodges appears to be unware of the concept of psychological projection, because that's exactly what he's doing here. Hodges is a birther and avid WND reader (he once praised WND editor Joseph Farah for having "observed Obama falling apart beyond belief" during the first debate) who's cloaked his own hatred of Obama with a bit of pseudo-scientific silliness.

Hodges' WND-beloved book is called "The Obama Confession: Secret Fear, Secret Fury." Hodges' own anti-Obama fury isn't secret at all.


Posted by Terry K. at 6:05 PM EST
Updated: Monday, November 26, 2012 7:18 PM EST
MRC Researcher: Allowing Women To Vote Is 'Left-Wing'
Topic: Media Research Center

Media Research Center senior news analyst Scott Whitlock devotes a Nov. 22 NewsBusters post to criticizing a History Channel program on Republican President William McKinley for painting him as "a corporate stooge who took bribes and had his speeches rewritten by business titan John D. Rockefeller." Whitlock's defense of McKinley is less than persuasive: "There's no doubt that Rockefeller, Morgan and Carnegie donated heavily to the McKinley campaign and feared the impact electing the left-wing Bryan would have on business. But the documentary's fanciful dramatic sequences imply it's bribery."

Well, Rockefeller did donate $250,000 to McKinley's 1896 campaign -- which, according to this currency calculator, is equivalent to $6.65 million in today's dollars. That's a lot of money in a time when there was no mass media to buy commercials on.

Whitlock goes on to attack McKinley's opponent, William Jennings Bryan, as having a "left-wing mindset." He cites a Washington Post article noting that Bryan advocated "women’s suffrage, creation of the Federal Reserve and implementation of a progressive income tax."

Huh? We weren't aware that allowing women to vote was a "left-wing" concept. Does Whitlock oppose these things?

If he does, that puts him in the same camp as far-right libertarians like Ron Paul, Vox Day, and Ilana Mercer.


Posted by Terry K. at 10:07 AM EST
Updated: Monday, November 26, 2012 10:09 AM EST
WND Columnist Ridiculously Blames Obama for Arrests of 'Artists'
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Under the headline "Obama's America: where artists are terrorists," Marisa Martin rants in a Nov. 22 WorldNetDaily column about how artist Geoffrey McGann was "interrogated and publicly humiliated" for wearing a "strange watch" while attempting to board a plane at an airport.

Martin rather innocuously describes McGann's watch as merely having "extra springs, fuses and mechanical pieces, none of them workable or connected, as I understand." Here's a picture of said watch:


Yeah, that shouldn't freak out any TSA person at all.

Martin then launches into you standard right-wing anti-TSA rant:

The National Security Agency seems obsessed with fabricating an enemy that in no way resembles any terrorist, living or dead. They consistently deny that Islamic terrorists are Islamic, which requires some mental dexterity, a lot of paperwork and a contingent of advisers from the Muslim Brotherhood.

Of course, if Islamic terrorists know they're being profiled at airports, they would certainly do their best to not look like an Islamic terrorist, would they not? Martin seems to not have considered that. And she most certainly will do no such thing, because she's moving on to blaming Obama for repressing artists:

This may be a comical fluke by an overly zealous baggage handler and cop, but considering the plight of the pathetic little Egyptian “filmmaker” Mark Basseley Youssef, it is beginning to look like a new day for the rights of expression in America.

Youssef, the state sanctioned scapegoat tossed to our enemies, is living in a U.S.-sponsored hell. An obscure immigrant with an amateurish YouTube promo that was also unknown before the White House targeted him for attack, he was arrested in the middle of night accompanied by with hoards of reporters for … parole violations? We are to led believe that concurrent with the Benghazi mess, this man’s suddenly discovered parole violations are pressing, national news. Local prosecutors were sent to his home and federal brass brought in to deal with the grave dangers of insulting the Prophet.

Is Youssef our poster child, a reverse Red Scare campaign for artists and writers who dare to step out of line?

Obama had just delivered his menacing declaration to the U.N. that “the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.” Certainly the White House, the State Department and the U.N. offices of Susan Rice have slapped a zero tolerance sign in the face of anyone who would “offend” Muslims. They have by no means, however, made the same effort to protect the sensibilities or even the lives of Christians and Jews across the globe.

Since when does the White House denounce and micromanage artistic expression in the U.S.?

The answer is easy: Since about 2008.

Martin can't seem to decide whether Youssef, aka Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the maker of the anti-Muslim film that provoked deadly demonstrations in the Middle East, is an artist or just "pathetic." But then, she goes on to excuse his long criminal history to defend his "artistic expression":

The excuse for the abysmal treatment of Youssef was that he was a “criminal,” a fact loudly trumpeted by the castrated press who has helped with his digital lynching. True enough, he was a small time crook with a string of forgeries, false identities and drugs usage – not unlike some who have served this administration. Eight purported violations were suddenly discovered in September, just after Youssef was accused of being involved in making the “film.”

[...]

Among many who questioned this circus was Los Angeles defense attorney Mark Werksman and law professors Lawrence Rosenthal and Jonathan Turley. Former federal prosecutor Bill Otis noted that probation violators routinely “get a pass on violations far more serious,” while Youssef had every right to make a “perfectly legal video.” Will we keep those rights?

Martin also overlooks the fact that Youssef/Nakoula was never charged with anything relating to his film --he violated his probation on a felony bank fraud case by using using several aliases. Martin offers no evidence that Youssef was treated any differently than anyone else found to have violated probation on a felony. (We also thought that conservatives believed in law and order.)

Youssef drew attention to himself, and his criminal history, by making a deliberately inflammatory film. There's no evidence Youssef was engaging in anything but anti-Muslim propaganda by making this film. Nevertheless, Martin portrayed him as a martyr:

Youssef is imprisoned for a year (high YouTube crimes), still alive but not for lack of fatwas. Western artists must man up and support each other soon before this is commonplace. Artists and writers are especially good at this, exposing ludicrous rules and rash authorities. Who is the Goya or Beckmann for America, or have they all become subordinates and servants for the system?

So which system is Martin a servant to?


Posted by Terry K. at 12:18 AM EST
Sunday, November 25, 2012
CNS' Lying Headline: 'Gov't Tells Americans What to Discuss at Holiday Dinner'
Topic: CNSNews.com

A Nov. 22 CNSNews.com article by Susan Jones carries the headline "Gov't Tells Americans What to Discuss at Holiday Dinner; Declares Thanksgiving 'Family Health History Day'."

That headline suggests coersion or  a mandate -- that the government has decreed that these subjects must be discussed. That's a lie, of course -- no such government mandate exists, nor does Jones' article claim there is one.

It seems that CNS has chosen to pander to right-wing readers (and, presumably, hope for a Drudge link) by sticking a false, alarmist headline on Jones' article. How cynical can you get?


Posted by Terry K. at 9:34 PM EST
Meanwhile ...
Topic: WorldNetDaily

President Obama's re-election really seems to have sent WorldNetDaily editor around the bend.

Right Wing Watch reports on a recent radio interview by Farah, in which he fearmongers about purported voter fraud contributing to Obama's re-election (at least two examples pushed by WND are contradicted by the facts), which led to Farah fearmongering about the idea that Obama would try to remain in power beyond a second term, saying, " if you don’t believe in the Constitution and you’ve got a President who is not even eligible under the Constitution to serve, anything is possible, isn’t it?"

Farah also attacks New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for praising Obama's response to Hurricane Sandy: "Unfortunately, instead of turning to God he turned to Obama for help, that’s the problem that we have in America."


Posted by Terry K. at 9:40 AM EST
Saturday, November 24, 2012
NewsBusters Finds Bias In Fake News
Topic: NewsBusters

The Media Research Center is so obsessed with uncovering "liberal media bias," it's trying to find it in fictional news.

A Nov. 20 NewsBsuters post by Ryan Robertson complains about a story at the satirical news site The Onion, which features how "8-year-old Palestinian boy Walid Suleiman expressed both joy and astonishment Monday that he has yet to be killed in an Israeli military attack." Robertson's complaint? "At no point in the short piece does it reference the terrorist organization Hamas, the death and destruction they cause, or Hamas terrorists' penchant for firing rockets from locations that are full of innocent civilians."

Um, Ryan? It's fake news. Why waste precious MRC resources complaining about fake news?

(Of course, given the $5 million the MRC blew on an spectacularly ineffective anti-media campaign this year, maybe those resources aren't all that precious.)


Posted by Terry K. at 11:44 PM EST
WND Pushes False Voter Fraud Claim
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Here's one of the key pieces of evidence that President obama stole the election, according to WorldNetDaily:

  • On WND's "big list of voter fraud reports," it's stated that "in one Ohio county – widely considered ground zero for the election – Obama received 106,258 votes from 98,213 eligible voters – an impossible 108 percent of the vote."
  • A Nov. 12 article by Bob Unruh uncritically repeats a claim in a petition on the White House website that "In one county alone in Ohio, which was a battleground state, President Obama received 106,258 votes … but there were only 98,213 eligible voters. It’s not humanly possible to get 108 percent of the vote."
  • Andrea Shea King suggests that an right-wing blog item headlined "Good News: Obama Won County in Ohio with 108% Voter Registration" documents evidence of voter fraud.
  • WND editor Joseph Farah asserted that "In another Ohio county, Obama won with 108 percent of the voters registered."

Just one little problem: It's not true.

The Columbus Dispatch reports that the county has been identified in some places as Wood County, Ohio -- where, in fact, 61,967 Wood County voters cast a ballot on Nov. 6 out of 104,461 registered voters.

WND has never offered evidence that the Ohio over-voting claim has any basis in fact, nor has it bothered to issue a correction for this clearly false claim.

Just consider this yet another reason why nobody believes WND.


Posted by Terry K. at 10:29 AM EST
Friday, November 23, 2012
Newsmax's Walsh: Most Mexican Immigrants Are From 'Lower Economic and Uneducated Class'
Topic: Newsmax

James Walsh just doesn't get Hispanics.

Fresh off advocating a return to migrant-worker programs once called "legalized slavery"  as a way for Republicans to attract Hispanic votes, immigrant-basher Walsh is back at it in a Nov. 21 Newsmax column in which he continues to not understand why Hispanics didn't support the Republican for president:

Hispanics voters, particularly the Mexican majority, proved to be a paradox in the 2012 election. The image of Hispanics as family and faith oriented, hard-working, entrepreneurial, conservative economically, supporters of education, and opponents of legalizing drugs was debunked at the polls.

Pre-election surveys showed Hispanic voters more concerned about jobs, the weak economy, education for their children, and healthcare than they were about immigration; yet they voted for four more years of President Barack Obama.

Republicans need principled politicians such as former Gov. Jeb Bush (left) and Sen. Marco Rubio to sell U.S. values to Hispanic voters.

By doing so, they found themselves supporting attacks on religion and promoting gay marriage, abortion, legalized marijuana, fiscal irresponsibility, and “revenge” voting.

Of course, a vote for President Obama's re-election does not equal "revenge voting" -- outside of Walsh's head, that is.

Walsh then purports to offer this explanation of Hispanics in America, in which he notes that the majority of them are "the lower economic and uneducated class" from Mexico:

To understand the Mexican voter, Republicans need to look at Mexico’s history. Mexico was “discovered” by the Spaniards in 1519 and conquered by 1521. After three centuries of Spanish dominance, the Mexican people were led in an 1812-13 revolt by a Catholic priest who was later executed by the Spanish authorities.

For the next 120 years, Mexico suffered political revolutions, assassinations, internecine fighting, and turmoil. In 1857, a radical liberal Constitution was pushed through by President Benito Juarez, a Mestizo (of the uneducated class).

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, nihilistic leaders like Juarez, Villa, and Zapata led the Mestizos in attacks on business, military, and “rich” communities as part of class warfare that included attacks on religion, especially the Catholic Church.

Historically, Mexico has had three economic and social classes, Mestizos — Indians or indigenous people, and the lower economic and uneducated class; Criollos — those of mixed Indian and Spanish/European blood and the middle class; and Peninsulares — pure Spanish/ European blood (white) and the business and land-owning class. The majority of illegal aliens entering the United States are Mestizos.

As members of the lower economic class, they favor the Democrats who offer welfare programs, strong government intervention in economic affairs, and progressive taxation of the “rich.” These immigrants see Republicans as elitists (like the Peninsulares) who favor the “rich” over the “poor”— a viewpoint influenced by Mexican history.

In contrast, Mexican-Americans who have lived in the United States for decades and centuries favor the Republican political model.

Walsh goes on to write, "One Hispanic said, 'We vote with our hearts,' and another proclaimed, 'We own America. They owe us.'" Who is this "one Hispanic," where did Walsh find this purpoted quote, and how did Walsh decide that he speaks for all Hispanics in America? Walsh doesn't explain.


Posted by Terry K. at 9:39 PM EST
Updated: Monday, January 7, 2013 11:50 PM EST
WND Ignores Explanation For 'Inexplicable' RNC Consent Decree
Topic: WorldNetDaily

In trying to push the sour-grapes idea of voter fraud contributing to President obama's re-election, Bob Unruh writes in a Nov. 20 WorldNetDaily article:

Voting machines suspiciously defaulting to Barack Obama? Buses loaded with strangers appearing at polling stations? Even ballots turning out 100 percent for one candidate in precinct reports?

In short, suspicions of vote fraud?

That’s too bad, because a race-based consent decree negotiated by Democrats against the Republican National Committee a generation ago still has tied the RNC’s hands, and GOP officials could be cited for contempt – or worse – if they try to make sure American elections are clean.

Impossible?

No. Fact.

The case is the Democratic National Committee vs. the Republican National Committee, originally from 1982.

Democrats alleged Republicans were trying intimidate minority voters in New Jersey and brought the legal action. The RNC, inexplicably, decided to agree to a consent decree before a Democrat-appointed judge rather than fight the claims.

Even though Unruh links to a summary the ruling in question, he apparently didn't bother to read it, for it contains an explanation. According to the JudicialReview.com summary Unruh links to:

During the 1981 New Jersey gubernatorial election, the DNC, the New Jersey Democratic State Committee (“DSC”), Virginia L. Peggins, and Lynette Monroe brought an action against the RNC, the New Jersey Republican State Committee (“RSC”), John A. Kelly, Ronald Kaufman, and Alex Hurtado, alleging that the RNC and RSC targeted minority voters in an effort to intimidate them in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (“VRA”), 42 U.S.C. §§ 1971, 1973, and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. The RNC allegedly created a voter challenge list by mailing sample ballots to individuals in precincts with a high percentage of racial or ethnic minority registered voters and, then, including individuals whose postcards were returned as undeliverable on a list of voters to challenge at the polls. The RNC also allegedly enlisted the help of off-duty sheriffs and police officers to intimidate voters by standing at polling places in minority precincts during voting with “National Ballot Security Task Force” armbands. Some of the officers allegedly wore firearms in a visible manner.

Unruh seems not to understand that voter intimidation does not equal what he calls "ballot security activities." By that same definition, the New Black Panthers were engaged in ballot security activities" in 2008, though Unruh would certainly never call it it that. It can also be argued that the RNC's conceding to a consent decree is a tacit admission of wrongdoing.

Further, the consent decree doesn't actually prevent the RNC from engaging in post-election "voter fraud" challenges -- it simply prevents them from engaging in voter intimidation and suppression. From the JudicialReview.com summary:

To settle the lawsuit, the RNC and RSC entered into the Consent Decree at issue here. The RNC and RSC agreed that they would:

[I]n the future, in all states and territories of the United States:

(a) comply with all applicable state and federal laws protecting the rights of duly qualified citizens to vote for the candidate(s) of their choice;

(b) in the event that they produce or place any signs which are part of ballot security activities, cause said signs to disclose that they are authorized or sponsored by the party committees and any other committees participating with the party committees;

(c) refrain from giving any directions to or permitting their agents or employees to remove or deface any lawfully printed and placed campaign materials or signs;

(d) refrain from giving any directions to or permitting their employees to campaign within restricted polling areas or to interrogate prospective voters as to their qualifications to vote prior to their entry to a polling place;

(e) refrain from undertaking any ballot security activities in polling places or election districts where the racial or ethnic composition of such districts is a factor in the decision to conduct, or the actual conduct of, such activities there and where a purpose or significant effect of such activities is to deter qualified voters from voting; and the conduct of such activities disproportionately in or directed toward districts that have a substantial proportion of racial or ethnic populations shall be considered relevant evidence of the existence of such a factor and purpose;

(f) refrain from having private personnel deputized as law enforcement personnel in connection with ballot security activities.

Also, fact that there were "ballots turning out 100 percent for one candidate in precinct reports" is not "voter fraud." As we've noted, many of those precincts in which everyone voted for Obama are nearly exclusively black and Democrat.


Posted by Terry K. at 1:49 PM EST
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Now That Election's Over, MRC's Bozell Criticizes Romney (And, For Some Reason, Transgenders)
Topic: Media Research Center

The election is over, and Mitt Romney lost. Time for Media Research Center chief Brent Bozell to do some Monday morning quarterbacking in his Nov. 21 column:

So what went wrong? Let me add my analysis. Three words: Message. Messenger. Messaging.

The messenger was flawed, unwilling to take risks, unprepared for the Obama political wrecking machine, left dazed and confused Election Night.

If inept messaging could be deemed a felony, this campaign was a crime against humanity. I've never seen worse commercials more badly placed on the wrong media than this. In Virginia, we had to suffer through 10 gazillion TV ads attacking China for stealing American technology. China?

More can and should be written about the messenger and his messaging, but let's concentrate on his message. Or the lack thereof, which was the fatal problem.

The message was there in black and white. If only Mitt Romney had embraced Reagan's vision and philosophy and record and pitted it against Obama's on all counts.

Then apropos of nothing, Bozell changes the subject and decides to take a whack at transgenders:

I write all this on the Transgender Day of Remembrance. The what you say? Yes, you heard me correctly. You see, "Transgender Day of Remembrance is commemorated each year on Nov. 20 to memorialize those we have lost as a result of hate and violence all too often faced by transgender people."

Who am I quoting, you ask? It must be some extremist nut job, you say. Actually, that's true, but let me continue. "I invite you to the Secretary's Conference Room ... for a special discussion with three transgender appointees doing tremendous [sic] throughout the Administration. Deputy Chief of Staff Mary Beth Maxwell will moderate an interactive discussion with Chloe Schwenke, U.S. Agency for International Development, Amanda Simpson, U.S. Department of Defense and our own Dylan Orr, Office of Disability Employment, U.S. Department of Labor." The memo is signed by one Ana M. Ma, chief of staff at Barack Obama's Department of Labor.

It was all such low hanging fruit for Mitt Romney.

We did not realize that hating transgenders qualifies as "low hanging frult," unless Bozell was attempting a horrible pun.

Bozell's mini-rant stems from a Nov. 20 article at his CNSNews.com. Bozell's MRC has regularly freaked out about perceived transgender "propaganda" as part of its anti-gay agenda.


Posted by Terry K. at 8:44 PM EST
WND's Massie Examines "Bitter Black Mindset,' Ignores His Own
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Mychal Massie's Nov. 18 WorldNetDaily column carries the headline "Understanding the bitter black mindset." One might think (or hope) that he was writing about himself -- after all, his unhinged Obama derangement and eagerness to spread lies more than demonstrate that he's one of the most bitter and hateful black men in America.

Alas, that is not to be be. Instead, Massie ponders why "Reasonable minds are often perplexed as to why many blacks are bitter and angry at society in general and conservatives specifically." And he express his bitterness at Obama yet again:

I would bet a box of Altadis Behike cigars that 95 percent of the number of blacks who voted for Obama cannot name one policy that explains their support. That’s because the color of his skin and his code-speak (which receive infused credibility because of his wife) trump character and good governance.

This is something whites – and white so-called conservatives specifically – will never be able to overcome until they approach these people with the truth and not apologies. The strength of the truth must be allowed to stand on its own, absent of vapid, guilt-ridden apologies.

Massie might want to actually try a little self-analysis sometime -- and explain to us all why  he is so dripping with bitterness and pathological derangment against President Obama and his wife.


Posted by Terry K. at 6:30 PM EST
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
NEW ARTICLE -- Ronald Kessler: A Return to Romney-Fluffing
Topic: Newsmax
Following his dalliance with Donald Trump, The Newsmax writer goes back to his first presidential love, Mitt Romney. Read more >>

Posted by Terry K. at 11:18 PM EST

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