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Friday, October 25, 2013
Obama Derangement Syndrome Watch, Erik Rush Edition
Topic: WorldNetDaily

We have Obama’s abject tyranny during the recent government shutdown, which infringed upon the rights of so many that I am astounded it did not result in at least a few deaths stemming from authorities’ reactions to “overzealous” civil disobedience.

The president is in violation of Article III, section 3, clause 1, of the U.S. Constitution; this clearly states that the giving of aid and comfort to the enemy is a treasonable offense. With a wave of his hand, Obama waived that law and is now supplying weapons to al-Qaida and Muslim Brotherhood jihadists in Syria anyway. Then there’s the host of unconstitutional executive orders and under-reported crimes about which Congress remains mute.

In the background, the president has engaged in even deeper collusion with our enemies at home and abroad, among them insinuating members of the Muslim Brotherhood – an organization with a written mission to destroy America – into high places in government. His administration has conspired to sign the U.S. on to the U.N. International Arms Trade Treaty, which would impinge upon American citizens’ Second Amendment protections, as well as providing a disadvantage to our allies abroad. Through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), he is attempting to subordinate America’s economic policy to foreign interests.

[...]

Since all of the checks and balances in our government have been effectively subverted, the solutions will have to be out of the box. There is the course of civil disobedience to consider; obviously we saw elements of this in protests stemming from the recent government shutdown. There is insurrection, but of course this should be considered only as a last resort. Given the dictatorial proclivities of this president, such action might ultimately wind up being a reaction rather than being initiated by the American people.

[...]

From a preponderance of evidence gleaned from the press, intelligence operatives, military personnel and lay witnesses, it is evident that President Obama is a Marxist and Islamist sympathizer who was maneuvered into the presidency by well-heeled socialists and Saudi Islamists. The latter has become more readily apparent as a result of several revelations published recently concerning Obama’s Middle East policy.

I fear that those who still insist upon defending Obama and his ilk, whether liberal commentators or our neighbors, are those who will merely shrug their shoulders when they start kicking down doors and herding people into cattle cars. As such, they certainly shouldn’t be trusted. We have entered the time when we cannot be certain how rapidly this administration’s malignant agenda will advance, so the less such people know about each of us in general, the better.

Speak out – but be prudent, and stay safe.

-- Erik Rush, Oct. 23 WorldNetDaily column


Posted by Terry K. at 2:16 PM EDT
Meanwhile ...
Topic: Accuracy in Media
Right Wing Watch catches Accuracy in Media's Roger Aronoff claiming -- without proof, of course -- that there was a secret deal between the Obama administration and Comcast that it would ensure liberal bias at NBC and MSNBC in exchange for federal approval of Comcast's purchase of NBC Universal.

Posted by Terry K. at 10:39 AM EDT
Which Part Of His Radical Left-Wing Past Is Joseph Farah Lying About?
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Joseph Farah is quite a shameless and aggressive liar, so it's not a surprise that he would embellish his own past. He writes in his Oct. 23 WorldNetDaily column:

I officially became a Republican in 1982.

Two years earlier, I voted for Jimmy Carter for president for the second time.

But, more importantly, in the 1960s and 1970s, I was a stone cold radical leftist – literally working shoulder to shoulder with the likes of revolutionary terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn and whacked out traitors Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda.

"Literally working shoulder to shoulder"? That's not what he's said previously on the subject. In a 2012 column he wrote:

During the euphemistically named "Indo-China Peace Campaign" organized by Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda, I was given the "honor" of serving as a body guard for Fonda, recently returned from North Vietnam where she posed for photographs sitting in an anti-aircraft emplacement meant to shoot down American planes.

I was recruited for terrorist attacks such as blowing up chemical plants by older radicals who didn't have the courage to do it themselves. (I thank God today I never followed through on these plots.) I wrote for some of the most left-wing periodicals in America — the Guardian, the Liberated Guardian and more.

And my reputation preceded me. Even after college, when my views had moderated considerably, I was invited to meet Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, who were still underground for their own acts of domestic terrorism.

Serving as a bodyguard for Fonda and merely meeting Ayers and Dohrn? That's not exactly the "literally working shoulder to shoulder" Farah now claims. It seems Farah has decided to embellish his former left-wing cred.

Or is it the other way around? It could be that Farah was lying before and is telling the truth now. If he really was "literally working shoulder to shoulder" with Hayden and Fonda and Ayers and Dohrn, that means he may have been lying about not committing terrorist attacks.

Whatever the truth is, the one thing we know for sure is that Farah is lying about his past.  And if he's willing to do that, there's no reason to trust anything that appears on a "news" website Farah operates.


Posted by Terry K. at 12:21 AM EDT
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Noel Sheppard's Double Standard on Double Standards
Topic: Newsmax

Noel Sheppard uses an Oct. 24 NewsBusters post to rage against Daily Beast contributor and comedian Dean Obeidallah, who dared to respond to criticism of his tweet that he hoped "Ted Cruz and John McCain settle their feud in an Aaron Burr-Alexander Hamilton style duel":

The First Amendment is supposed to apply to everyone in our society. Unfortunately, what we have seen - particularly in the last six or seven years - is that it applies more to liberals than conservatives.

Liberal politicians and pundits - such as Obeidallah - can write and say whatever they want with total impunity.

Joe Biden can make clearly racist remarks and be excused for them. So can Harry Reid.

Keith Olbermann and Bill Maher can make misogynistic comments with narry a concern that it might impact their livelihood.

Alec Baldwin can go on a homophobic tirade and rather than losing his position as spokesman for Capital One actually get rewarded with his own show on MSNBC.

But if you're a conservative, and you make such comments, you'll be required to apologize and even that might not save your job.

Heck, if you're a conservative, you don't even have to make a racist, homophobic, or misogynistic joke to draw the left's ire.

Just criticize President Obama and there'll be people lining up to call you a racist - many of them elected officials as well as members of the media.

As such, in the plainest English I can summon, we conservatives want the same freedom of speech rights as liberals!

[...]

When his inbox fills up with hate-mail, some of it threatening, and he ends up either getting fired or having to issue a formal apology, he'll know what a double standard is.

The real question is: Does Sheppard know what a double standard is? Not that we can tell. After all, this is the guy who:

  • Heartily approved of Jay Leno insulting Harry Reid by saying of John Boehner telling Reid to "go fuck himself," then a mere 28 minutes later wailed that Arnold Schwarzenegger "took a cheap shot at New Jersey Governor Chris Christie." 
  • Lamented "the level of political discourse in America today," then approvingly cited an ugly insult by the Catholic League's Bill Donohue about President Obama.
  • Ranted against Stephen Colbert and "the toxic political tone in our nation," then five days later approvingly quoted Colbert telling CNN host Piers Morgan to "get the f--k out of Dodge." 

And Sheppard feels the need to lecture others about double standards? Puh-leeze.


Posted by Terry K. at 11:26 PM EDT
WND Promotes Fainting Trutherism
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily devoted an Oct. 24 article to reproducing a blog post purporting to prove that an incident at a recent speech by President Obama in which a pregnant woman standing behind the president fainted was staged.

This is not a surprise, of course -- publishing outlandish, barely substantiated conspiracy theories about Obama is what WND does. The only real surprise here is that it lifted somebody else's work instead of laundering it through in-house conspiracy-mongers like Jerome Corsi or Aaron Klein.

Still, WND has fully embraced the conspiracy, asking in an email blast to its mailing list asking, "Is there ANYTHING about this president that isn't totally phony?"

Stay classy, WND.

Posted by Terry K. at 6:09 PM EDT
Breaking From CNS: Sebelius Says 'I Think' 17 Times!
Topic: CNSNews.com

CNSNews.com has a weird obsession with counting specific words President Obama and other administration officials say -- or don't say. It's at it again in an Oct. 23 article by Susan Jones:

In response to simple questions asked  by CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta Tuesday night, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius often appeared vague or uncertain, frequently hedging her remarks with the phrase, "I think." She appeared to "know" very little.

Sebelius used the phrase "I think" or "we think" or "I don't think" 17 times during the interview. In fact, the first words out of her mouth were, "I think what we know is..."

Yes, that's the entire point of Jones' article. The rest of it is devoted to detailing all 17 instances of Sebelius saying "I think."

This is what passes for "news" these days at CNS.


Posted by Terry K. at 1:22 PM EDT
WND Klein Fearmongers About Foreign Ownership of Electronic Voting Firm (And, Of Course, George Soros)
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Aaron Klein sounds quite paranoid in an Oct. 21 WorldNetDaily article:

Scytl, the foreign-headquartered company that recently purchased the leading U.S. electronic voting firm, won an award for potential in growth and innovation.

The judging panel for the award included executives from Microsoft and Google and members of the news media such as analysts for CNN, BBC, USA Today and the San Francisco Chronicle.

The inclusion of Google may be instructive. WND reported in May 2012 that Scytl had announced the successful implementation of technology that allows ballots to be cast using Google and Apple smart phones and tablet computers.

Last week, Scytl was awarded the Longhorns 2013 Bully Award, which seeks Europe’s technology stars whose firms are determined to have demonstrated excellence in innovation and growth potential.

Aaron Klein’s “Impeachable Offenses: The Case to Remove Barack Obama from Office” is available, autographed, at WND’s Superstore

The award is handed out annually by White Bull, a European technology consulting firm.

According to the Bully Award website, this year’s judging panel included the San Francisco Chronicle’s David Einstein; USA Today tech columnist and former Barron’s Editor Mark Veverka; Google’s Yves Cornaz; Microsoft’s Roxanne Varza; Colleen DeBaise of Entrepreneur Magazine; and BBC and CNN analyst Ralph Silva.

Klein doesn't really explain why any of this is a bad thing -- apparently, there is some sort of right-wing alchemy in which a foreign-owned company, electronic voting and mainstream media put together in the way Klein has is supposed to be self-evidently evil, but we're not seeing it.

An Oct. 3 article by Klein on the subject, however, adds an extra ingredient that makes a little more sense from a right-wing paranoia standpoint -- George Soros:

WND has learned the firm vouching for Scytl has links to billionaire activist George Soros.

WND recently reported Scyrl acquired the software division of a non-profit election organization tied to Soros’ Open Society Institute.

WND also reported Scytl announced its technology will be deployed at more U.S. jurisdictions ahead of the 2014 midterm elections.

But that's merely invoking a bogeyman. Klein's efforts to insert Soros into the story proves nothing -- other than WND's desire to fearmonger.


Posted by Terry K. at 12:16 AM EDT
Updated: Thursday, October 24, 2013 9:39 AM EDT
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
NEW ARTICLE: Newsmax's Peter King Presidential Boomlet
Topic: Newsmax
Newsmax basically talks the New York Republican congressman into throwing his hat into the ring for 2016 -- then strangely doesn't include him in a Newsmax poll about potential presidential candidates. Read more >>

Posted by Terry K. at 9:56 PM EDT
WND's Geller Freaks Out About De Blasio Changing His Name
Topic: WorldNetDaily

The ConWeb freakout over Bill de Blasio changing his name has spread to WorldNetDaily's Pam Geller:

De Blasio has a great deal to hide: He has had a number of aliases and name changes. And it’s not surprising that he would want to cover up his past. He’s continuously scrubbing his past.

[...]

Even aside from the mystery surrounding his name, what we know about Bill de Blasio is bad enough. He stands by his fervent support for the vicious communist Sandinistas in the 1980s – even the New York Times expressed concern about de Blasio’s communist activism. De Blasio said last week that he could not celebrate Columbus Day, as “there are some troubling things in his history.” Funny, the same can be said of “Bill AKA Warren de Blasio AKA Wilhelm AKA Warren de Blasio-Wilhelm AKA Bill de Blasio.”

Geller goes on to bash de Blasio as "seditiou," and a "terror-supporting Marxist," and she promotes an anti-de Blasio press conference she will be holding with Accuracy in Media's Cliff Kincaid and foreigner Trevor Loudon later this week.


Posted by Terry K. at 5:36 PM EDT
TruthRevolt Picking Up NewsBusters' Bad Habits
Topic: Horowitz

TruthRevolt's aping of NewsBusters means that it's picking NewsBusters' bad habits.

One of them is Heathering. An Oct. 21 post attacks Business Insider's Josh Barro for deviating from the right's anti-Obamacare dogma by dismissing him as someone "who has masqueraded as the left’s favorite conservative."

Another one is promotion of discredited sources. An Oct. 22 post by Paul Bois goes after MSNBC's Chris Matthews' denial of FreedomWorks' Matt Kibbe's claim that polls showing the American public blaming Republicans for the government shutdown can be blamed on media bias:

This probably would've been a good time for Kibbe to suggest that Matthews head down to his local bookstore to pick up a copy of Left Turn by Tim Groseclose. Indeed, the book's studies reveal the heavy sway media bias (left leaning) has on the average American -- 25 points on a scale of 100 to be exact.

As we've documented, Groseclose's book -- which was promoted by NewsBusters and others in the ConWeb upon its release in 2011 -- uses a methodology that is highly flawed. Under its definition, the National Rifle Association is only slightly more conservative than the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Drudge Report "leans left" because the methodology doesn't take into account Drudge's biased presentation of the news.

The capper: Even though imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the Media  Research Center has yet to acknowledge TruthRevolt's existence.


Posted by Terry K. at 12:05 PM EDT
WND Publishes Birther's Book on Fringe Christian Conspiracy
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily has another dubious fringe Christian book to promote, as detailed in an Oct. 17 article by Joe Kovacs:

Not since Paul of the New Testament was struck blind by the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus has a Jewish man’s vision of the Messiah created such a buzz.

But the story of Yitzhak Kaduri, a legendary rabbi who died at age 108, is about to take the world by storm.

A brand-new book and video titled “The Rabbi Who Found Messiah” tells the story of the venerated rabbi who, on the Day of Atonement in 2005, had a vision that until now has received scant attention by the global media.

In the book, author Carl Gallups goes into detail concerning the startling event on that biblical holy day.

Your first warning flag is the book's author. Carl Gallups is better known as the force behind PPSimmons, the "online ministry" that's little more than an anti-Obama propaganda mill. Through PPSimmons, Gallups has promoted the idea that Obama is the Antichrist, and he is so friendly with birthers that Mike Zullo, leader of the increasingly discredited "Cold Case Posse" purporting to investigate Obama's "eligibility," is a regular guest on his Internet radio show. Gallups once used that show to invite any "Obot" to call in and prove that Obama is a citizen; when one did, Gallups cut him off.

The fact that Gallups is a rabid birther should be enough to disqualify anything he has to say, but Richard Bartholomew raises questions about the central claim anchoring Gallups' book:

Gallups’ version of the story includes the detail that Kaduri supposedly saw the Messiah “in a vision”, thus giving the tale a supernatural aspect that ties in with Christian hopes that Jesus will reveal himself to the Jews; but in 2005 I noted a slightly different version, in which Kaduri simply announced that the “soul of the Mashiach has attached itself to a person in Israel”. Kaduri also denounced “the current fascist regime” running Israel, called for the country to become a monarchy, and predicted that Ariel Sharon would be the last prime minister. That’s not how it turned out, but Gallups believes that Kaduri was referring to Sharon’s death; thus the return of Jesus related to when Sharon is finally released from his current lingering vegetative state. This is, of course, highly idiosyncratic and rather distasteful, and it has little to do with historic Christianity, Judaism, or anything even halfway reasonable.

[...]

The idea that Kaduri’s “mystical kabbala culture” could take a hold not just in Israel, but among fundamentalist Baptists in Florida and from there to a wider US Christian Right is apparently not so unlikely as one might have thought. It should be remembered that Farah is great enthusiast of “Hebrew Roots”, which seeks to appropriate aspects of Judaism within Christianity. Working with Stephen Strang of Charisma magazine, Farah has also heavily promoted Jonathan Cahn, whose book relating 9/11 to Biblical prophecy has become a bestseller.

This is basically shakily sourced claims by fringe Christian activists who also happen to be birthers. WND will probably sell a few books to its target audience of fringe Christians and/or birthers, but it's not trustworthy enough for anyone else to bother with.


Posted by Terry K. at 1:38 AM EDT
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
CNS Unemployment Numbers Distortion Watch
Topic: CNSNews.com

The government shutdown delayed release of the monthly unemployment numbers for a few weeks, but now that they're finally out, CNSNews.com has worked its usual cherry-picking magic to play up unfavorable numbers and hide the favorable ones.

The barrage this time around comes from Terry Jeffrey and Ali Meyer:

In only one of the articles is it mentioned that unemployment went down and the number of jobs went up, and that's buried in the 9th paragraph.


Posted by Terry K. at 7:27 PM EDT
WND's Massie: Republicans Are Gang-Raping Conservatives
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Mychal Massie takes a break from lying about President Obama to to make sexually charged allegations about his fellow Republicans in his Oct. 21 WND column:

Let me say this as politely as I’m inclined to allow my consternation to suffer. The Republican Party violated true conservatives, and thus the nation also, just as much as if a fraternity of mobocrats had hijacked you in a parking lot, and then, despite all of your protests, they proceeded to have their way with you. And when they had had their way with you they proceeded to tell you how good it was for you while the president of the mobocratic fraternity smiled through cigarette-stained teeth and promised to increase the cost of treatments for the injuries you sustained during the violent attack.

Yeah, I know that’s still pretty graphic, but you don’t sugarcoat the political equivalent of being sexually violated, especially when it is forced upon you by a gang. And that’s exactly what Republicans did to We the People last Wednesday evening. My question is: Are you going to punish them or turn a blind eye and say, “They really didn’t mean it; after all, I think they like me”? Or perhaps you’ll say, “It was my fault,” which would be closer to the truth because if We the People had voted them out in 2012 instead of rewarding their treachery with re-election – Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee might have had help in defending We the People from reprehensible and morally opprobrious Philistines committed to opposing our will.

See? The headline is totally accurate.


Posted by Terry K. at 3:44 PM EDT
NewsBusters Still Freaking Out About Redskins Criticism, Ignoring That Prominent Conservative Agrees
Topic: NewsBusters

The Media Research Center continues to rage against critics of the Washington Redskins name. Randy Hall ranted in an Oct. 21 NewsBusters post:

Just when you think you've seen it all, along comes a political cartoon in the New York Daily News attempting to change the name of a National Football League team that's not even in their city.

The illustration posted on Thursday featured three flags, the first containing the swastika symbol of the Nazis, then the star-filled banner of the Confederates from the Civil War, and finally the logo of the Washington Redskins with a caption that read: “Archaic Symbols of Pride and Heritage.”

[...]

Of course, if liberals with too much time on their hands and members of the tiny Oneida Indian Nation succeed in getting the Redskins’ name changed, what other sports teams are next? The Cleveland Indians? The Atlanta Braves? The Kansas City Chiefs? The possibilities for extracting sports fans’ fun are endless!

Hall joins with his fellow MRC critics in failing to note that one of those "liberals with too much time on their hands" isn't a liberal at all. As we've documented, Charles Krauthammer -- such a rock-ribbed conservative that the MRC gave him its “William F. Buckley Jr. Award for Media Excellence” last month -- endorsed a name change because word meanings have changed over the years.

There is, however, a post by Brent Baker about how Krauthammer "is capable of delivering funny lines and humorous anecdotes."

Of course, mentioning that one of its favorite conservatives has taken a position it opposes, and was not doing so using funny lines and humorous anecdotes, would be inconvenient to its agenda. So the MRC remains silent.


Posted by Terry K. at 12:29 PM EDT
WND Promote Bogus Story To Smear Transgenders
Topic: WorldNetDaily

An Oct. 19 WorldNetDaily article certainly does its best to make transgender teens sound scary and perverted:

Girls at a Colorado high school are being forced to allow an older boy to use their bathrooms as the result of a policy of transgender accommodation, and the girls say they are being threatened with punishment if their complaints don’t stop.

The debate is happening at Florence High School in Florence, Colo., located near Colorado Springs. Matthew McReynolds, staff attorney at the Pacific Justice Institute, told WND parents of several girls are seeking a legal remedy after their daughters were required to share bathrooms with a male who maintains his true gender identity is that of a woman.

“First of all, it’s our position that a teenage boy’s presence into the bathroom for teenage girls is inherently harassing,” said McReynolds, who is representing the families of the girls involved. “It’s inherently violative of their privacy rights. It’s also intimidating when you have a boy like this, who is not a freshman, going in there with younger freshman girls. They feel violated. They feel intimidated, and that’s been expressed to us.”

Strange thing, though: Nowhere in the article do McReynolds cite any specific, documented instances of behavior the transgender teen is alleged to have engaged in.

That's because there aren't any. The unbylined article waits until the 20th paragraph to mention the school district's response to the claim:

In an interview with The Transadvocate, a transgender advocate blog, School Superintendent Rhonda Vendetti claimed only one parent has complained about a transgender student using girls’ bathrooms:

“Nothing has actually been verified with us,” she said. “This is one parent basically bringing their viewpoint about this situation to the media because they weren’t getting the responses that they hoped they would get from the district, from parents of students at the high school, or from the board and myself. So I think it’s just an attempt to elevate the situation to a point where maybe some more attention can be drawn to that in the hope of having a different outcome. But to our knowledge and based on our investigation, none of those things have actually happened. We do have a transgender student at the high school, and she has been using the women’s restroom. There has not been a situation.

“All the students of these parents who say they feel uncomfortable just about the fact that the student is allowed to go into the restrooms at the high school, into the stalls, they don’t believe that that is appropriate. That’s where it stems from. … The vast majority of our parents are supportive of the student.”

WND made no apparent effort to contact the school district for an opportunity to respond to McReynold's claims. Instead, it quotes another PJI official as attacking the superintendent for speaking with a particular news outlet: "It is very revealing that the superintendent is seeking sympathy from transgender activists instead of addressing the serious concerns raised in our letter."

Further, that "transgender advocate blog" also talked to another source WND couldn't be bothered to look up -- the transgender teen's family:

After Jane came out to her parents, she then began the process of transition. “It’s not like one day you’re a boy and then the next you’re a girl, my daughter went through a process to become who she is. Over that summer, she fully transitioned and returned to school as my daughter instead of having to hide who she is.”

When she went to her old school as herself, Jane flourished. When asked if she had experienced any bullying at the time she said, “Just some name calling.” Jane’s mother elaborated, “Before she transitioned, we would go to shopping and when she would try to use the male restroom, they would make rude comments.” I asked her if she meant that men in the restrooms would verbally abuse her daughter before she ever transitioned because she was perceived to be female even when trying to present as male. “She was scared to use the restroom. They made rude comments, language that she didn’t need to hear just because she was trying to go to the bathroom that she thought she had to be in.”

“Since she changed, she’s comfortable with life. She’s really feminine, but doesn’t do tons of makeup each day. She’s just a normal girl. If people see her on the streets, people don’t… didn’t know, you know? Before all of this stuff happened, none of this bothered anyone.”

[...]

“Jane is private about everything. She’s timid and shy and tends to be afraid to talk to people. That they’re saying that she’s going around harassing people… it’s just not true. The people who are doing these stories need to realize that the kid behind these stories has feelings and gets hurt.”

WND is virulently anti-gay -- it has even served as an apologist for anti-gay activist Scott Lively's links to a proposed law in Uganda that would permit the execution of homosexuals --  so maybe its reporters think it will pick up some sort of tranny cooties if they talk to a transsexual or even somebody related to one.

Still, the fact that WND is uncritically promoting the PJI's discredited and dishonest take on this case is yet another reason why nobody believes WND.


Posted by Terry K. at 12:37 AM EDT

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