WND's D.J. Dolce Descends Into Birther Nonsense
Topic: WorldNetDaily

A little bit of our soul dies every time we watch D.J. Dolce's alleged comedy video at WorldNetDaily, so we try to limit our exposure as much as possible. Still, we try to check in every once in a while to see if Mrs. Molotov Mitchell's homophobia and Obama-hate have approached anything that could even remotely be considered "funny." (They haven't.)

But we checked in on Dolce's latest video, and darn if she wasn't spewing birther crap as part of some weird rant about the U.S. buying Russian helicopters for the "Muslim army" in Afghanistan. Dolce baselessly claimed that the U.S. wouldn't buy the helicopters from Boeing because "Boeing doesn't take crap from unions."

Dolce added: "Then again, we started it when we imported a president from Kenya instead of buying local."

Dolce's hubby is a huge birther, and there's no reason not to think Dolce isn't one herself.

MRC's Double Standard on Taking A Joke
Topic: Media Research Center

NewsBusters' Matthew Sheffield has decided that liberals can't take a joke:

Just as cigars sometimes can indeed be just cigars, so too can jokes. Yet this is a point which seems to be lost on several left-wing media writers who have taken great umbrage at the mockery that has been had at the expense of one Ethan Krupp, better known as “PajamaBoy.”

Unfortunately for Sheffield, he wrote his post the day before his boss, Brent Bozell, spent an entire column raging at a punk band named Bad Religion for releasing a Christmas album:

But there's another kind of Christmas denial: the kind that simply stomps on Christianity as ridiculous and kicks over the nativity set. Take the atheist punk band Bad Religion and its new record of Christmas songs they found "hilarious" to record.

Co-founder Brett Gurewitz told LA Weekly, "Clearly, it's a satire. We were rolling on the floor a lot of the time ... it felt like a Monty Python skit to me."

Greg Graffin, the other co-founder, is a part-time professor of biology and author of the book "Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God." This is Graffin in a nutshell: "Our faith should be expressed in working toward a better planet for our children and not the selfish, juvenile hope for a better afterlife for ourselves. I don't think anyone is going to Hell, because it only exists in the minds of people who wish ill will on others."

Bad Religion's "Christmas Songs" album is concluded by a song called "American Jesus," which rips on America and Christianity. The lyrics start with an apparent conservative Christian's take: "I feel sorry for the earth's population/'Cause so few live in the U.S.A./At least the foreigners can copy our morality/They can visit but they cannot stay."

Earth to Bozell: A band named Bad Religion recorded a Christmas album. And the MRC is accusing liberals of not being able to take a joke?

But Bozell wasn't done:

Since this band believes churches are a blight on society, it's unsurprising that 20 percent of their sales proceeds will go to suing the Catholic Church through the "Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests," a group as despicable as it is dishonest. Only a group like SNAP could accept money from a band called Bad Religion.

It's "despicable" to hold the Catholic Church accountable for the predatory behavior of its priests? Really? Of course, the MRC does employ as a blogger someone who whitewashes and downplays abuse by Catholic priests at every opportunity.

WND's Cashill Pushes Conspiracy In Hawaii Official's Death, Because Why Wouldn't He
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Like any good conspiracy-monger, Jack Cashill knows how to glom onto the news in order to peddle his favorite conspiracies. He does exactly that in his Dec. 18 WorldNetDaily column:

Loretta Fuddy, the Hawaiian official responsible for the release of Barack Obama’s birth certificate, died last week in a small-plane crash off the island of Molokai.

The plane crashed was enough to raise suspicions among those who follow these things. That she was the only one of the nine onboard to die heightened those suspicions, especially given the conflicting accounts of how she alone failed to survive.

More than a few people have asked my opinion on this given that I wrote a book on a case with some parallels – the death of then-Commerce Secretary Ron Brown in an April 1996 plane crash in Croatia.

[...]

At this stage of the Fuddy case, there is not nearly enough evidence to accuse anyone of anything, but there are enough unanswered questions to want to know more.

But as with Brown, don’t expect any help from the media. The New York Times lost a reporter in the Brown crash, and even the Times did not bother to request the USAF report.

This is what Cashill does. Why wouldn't he latch onto Fuddy's death?

Newsmax-Peter King Presidential Boomlet Watch
Topic: Newsmax

It's been a little quiet on the Peter King front lately at Newsmax -- you know, the guy to whom Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy gave the idea to run for president -- but that has changed.

King got a big front-page push in the form of a Dec. 19 Newsmax article by Todd Beamon featuring King's assertion that fellow Republican Sen. Rand Paul should apologize for likening Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to document-leaker Edward Snowden, complete with picture of a scowling King:

Beamon makes sure to add that King "confirmed to Newsmax in July that he was considering a bid for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016," though not that it was his boss who planted the idea in King's head.

WND's Unruh Plays Stenographer Again for Disbarred Anti-Abortion Attorney
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Last week, WorldNetDaily "reporter" Bob Unruh played stenographer for the supporters of disbarred anti-abortion attorney Phill Kline by whitewashing the offense that led to the suspension of Kline's law license.

Now, Unruh has managed to find a way to be even more sycophantic to Kline. He writes in a Dec. 14 WND article:

The Kansas Supreme Court has come up with a response for when its own justices are accused of being biased toward the abortion industry and against a former state attorney general who investigated alleged criminal activity there.

Stonewall.

That’s the result of a petition to the court that was filed on behalf of former Attorney General Phill Kline.

Kline probed alleged illegal activity by abortion provider Planned Parenthood and the late abortionist George Tiller, eventually filing charges against them after getting the counts approved by several trial judges in the state.

However, the pro-abortion political atmosphere in the state spelled defeat for Kline in the next election, and his foes launched criminal investigations into his probe of Planned Parenthood and Tiller.

Among the political powers Kline defied was then-Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who had partied with Tiller.

Now the justices on the state’s highest court have refused even to consider evidence that uncovers their bias against Kline, and have refused to explain their decision or provide a comment to the public.

The slanted assertions Unruh is presenting as unassailable fact are, in truth, merely the opinions of Unruh and attorneys for Kline. Just because the Kansas Supreme Court refused to hear Kline's appeal and did not publicly explain why, for instance, does not equal a "stonewall."

Unruh makes no effort whatsoever to fact-check the claims of Kline's attorneys, nor does he bother to tell the other side of the story -- it's a totally one-sided effort designed to puff up Kline and attack the Kansas Supreme Court for daring to suspend his license. Unruh snidely wrote that "A court official, contacted by WND with a request for a comment, said the justices refused to comment. Or explain."

Unruh also manages to whitewash Kline's offenses even more, falsely claiming thatthe only reason Klinbe's license was suspended involved "an alleged failure to make sure grand jurors understood state law after he explained it to them." In fact, Kline violated 11 rules governing the professional conduct of attorneys.

Unruh used to write for the Associated Press, but he flushed any sense of journalistic ethics and fairness he might have gained working for that organization the day he joined WND. He's just another reason why nobody believes WND.

CNS' Hollingsworth Has A Fit of Lazy Journalism
Topic: CNSNews.com

Barbara Hollingsworth writes in a Dec. 18 CNSNews.com article:

Faith in Public Life, a group that has been funded by atheist billionaire George Soros, is behind an attack on The Catholic University of America (CUA) for accepting a $1 million donation from the Charles Koch Foundation, says Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.

“The real story here is not the money being given to Catholic University by successful entrepreneurs; it is the source of the money being given to those who initiated the attack.

"To wit: Faith in Public Life spearheaded this highly politicized assault, and it is funded by left-wing zealot George Soros,” said Donohue, who praised CUA President John Garvey for “wisely standing his ground.”

“Soros is an atheist billionaire who is no friend of the Catholic community. In fact, he funds causes that the Catholic Church works hard to oppose: abortion, euthanasia, drug legalization, and many other radical initiatives,” Donohue said.

In 2008, Faith in Public Life received $200,000 from Soros’ Open Society Institute, according to the institute's IRS filing. (See 990.pdf)

Patrick Reilly, president of the The Cardinal Newman Society, agreed. "Faith in Public Life is a political organization that uses the Church as a vehicle to further its political aims." he told CNSNews.com. "For that organization to tell Catholic University what to do is like a parishioner who has not been to church in 10 years telling the pastor what to do.

"This is nothing but a political attack on the Koch Foundation," Reilly noted, adding that Faith in Public Life "is not looking to build up the Church."

What Hollingsworth didn't mention: Her boss, Media Research Center chief Brent Bozell, is on the Catholic League's board of advisers as well as the Cardinal Newman Society board.

This is Journalism 101 -- disclosing your conflicts of interest. Why is Hollingsworth so incapable of doing this one simple thing?

Hollingsworth committed another act of journalistic laziness in her article (which she's apparently prone to): She made no apparent effort to permit Faith in Public Life respond to the attacks from Donohue and the Cardinal Newman Society.

WND Columnist to Blacks: Go Back to Africa!
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Mychal Massie rants in his Dec. 16 WorldNetDaily column:

Many blacks felt they were owed special dispensation because of slavery and Jim Crow, and whites on both sides of the aisle agreed with them. Even though Democrats fought against it, Lyndon Johnson, owing to the indefatigable efforts of Republican Everett Dirksen and his fellow Senate Republicans, signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And it was President Nixon who ushered in race-based affirmative action. Blacks were given special entrance to universities and colleges based on skin color and quotas. This was later concealed under the cloak of diversity, but, in reality, it was still skin color and quotas. Employers were forced under penalty of law to have the correct color-coded balance in the workplace. And that extended to management positions. Standards were lowered to ensure those blacks who were not qualified would be employed and promoted.

Penitence has been made for slavery and Jim Crow. But, not unlike the retail customer who refuses to be satisfied, I believe there comes a time when we must give those who refuse to be satisfied the option of going elsewhere. Yes, I’m saying what you think I am saying. If, despite, America’s best efforts, blacks argue they are not treated fairly, that they are not given the same opportunity to succeed that whites are, if bad decisions that result in bad outcomes are the fault of white society, why stay here?

If blacks are so mistreated, if the realities of life that beset people of every description are more onerous because of white people here in America, why stay?

[...]

It’s a conundrum to me as to why a group of people – who supposedly are as mistreated and persecuted as blacks are in America – would want to stay here. Let them leave, and let them take liberals, socialists and the Obamas with them. Because it’s obvious that America cannot satisfy any of them.

Let them go to Liberia. Maybe they can do more with it than Marcus Garvey was able to. But by all means, let them leave here, so that We the People who love America and what she represents can live in harmony enjoying the traditions that made her the envy of the world.

But alas, they won’t do that. They’ll stay here and spread immiseration and complaint because, in truth, they understand there is no other nation that will work as hard as America has to accommodate their malcontent.

Massie is black, which means he can invoke black conservative privilege and get away with saying things that would be considered utterly racist if said by a white person, i.e., using the word "Negress" to describe a black woman.

If Massie finds America so intolerable populated by people with whom he disagrees -- and his Obama derangement shows he's at least as much of a malcontent as he accuses others of being -- why doesn't he move to Africa? He doesn't say.

CNS' Starr Unhappy That Gays Are Representing U.S. At Olympics
Topic: CNSNews.com

Penny Starr, CNSNews.com's most homophobic reporter -- something of an achievement considering that some level of homophobia is apparently a requirement for working there -- has struck again.

On the heels of being annoyed that President Obama committed the offense of acknowledging that gays exist, Starr used a Dec. 18 article to grouse about Obama sending "at least two homosexuals" to represent the U.S. at the Winter Olympics:

President Barack Obama has named at least two homosexuals to the delegation that will represent the United States at the upcoming Olympic winter games in Russia.

The move is seen as a jab at the Russian law that bans propagandizing about homosexuality to children.

Retired tennis star Billie Jean King and Caitlin Cahow, an Olympic medalist in women’s ice hockey, are both open lesbians. King will attend the opening ceremony and Cahow will attend the closing ceremony.

Despite Starr's description of the law in question, observers have called it "vaguely defined and definitively antigay," so let's not pretend it's limited to "propaganda" aimed at "children."

The general huffy tone of Starr's article suggests she would like to see a similarly restrictive law in the U.S.

Larry Klayman Is Still An Incompetent Lawyer (But WND Doesn't Want You To Know That)
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Jerome Corsi slobbers all over Larry Klayman in a Dec. 16 WorldNetDaily article celebrating a ruling Klayman somehow managed to win:

The attorney who won a high-profile federal court fight Monday with the National Security Agency over its invasive telephone-call spy program says he was put under surveillance – and more – by the agency when he filed the case.

Larry Klayman, a WND commentary contributor and founder of Judicial Watch and, more recently, FreedomWatch, told WND that once his allegations that the federal government was violating the Constitution with its “watch-every-call” strategy hit the courts, he noticed problems with his email.

“People began receiving from me emails that I had never sent,” Klayman told WND, suggesting harassment in response to his work. “The government just wanted me to know they were watching me.”

What Corsi won't tell you: The judge in the case rejected Klayman's paranoid arguments.

As Dr. Conspiracy notes, Judge Richard Leon wrote in his ruling:

Likewise, I find that plaintiffs also have standing to challenge the NSA’s querying procedures, though not for the reasons they pressed at the preliminary injunction hearing. 

[...]

I specifically asked Mr. Klayman whether plaintiffs had any "basis to believe that the NSA has done any queries" involving their phone numbers. … Klayman responded: "I think they are messing with me" … then went on to explain that he and his clients had received inexplicable text messages and emails not to mention a disk containing a spyware program. … Unfortunately for plaintiffs, none of these unusual occurrences or instances of being "messed with" have anything to do with the question of whether the NSA has ever queried or analyzed their telephony metadata, so they do not confer standing on plaintiffs.

In other words, Klayman won the injunction in spite of his lawyering, not because of it. Corsi won't tell you that, of course. Nor will he mention the numerous examples in which Klayman wated his clients' money by his incompetence -- like his representation of WND in suing Esquire magazine for defamation, in which Klayman introduced fraudulent evidence and wouldn't concede that WND editor Joseph Farah admitted that Esquire's blog post about Corsi's birther book was satirical before it became "inconvenient" for him to do so.

But Corsi wasn't done slobbering over Klayman. The next day he wrote:

Fresh from winning a restraining order against the National Security Agency’s telephone surveillance, attorney Larry Klayman declared that the misdeeds of Richard Nixon, who resigned in disgrace, pale in comparison to President Obama’s.

“In Watergate, Richard Nixon faced impeachment for breaking into the offices of the chairman of the Democratic National Party,” Klayman told WND in an interview.

“Obama has broken into the homes of 300 million Americans.”

WND asked Klayman if he was calling for the impeachment of Obama.

“Yes,” Klayman responded. “The NSA and the Obama administration are engaging in criminal behavior, and both are lying.”

Again, no mention of the fact that Klayman's lawyering skills had little to do with his "win."

NewsBusters Misses the Point About Obama Selfie Coverage
Topic: NewsBusters

The Media Research Center is so obsessed with President Obama, they don't understand when they're being criticized.

Randy Hall uses a Dec. 15 NewsBusters post to complain that the photographer who shot the Obama selfie photo at the Nelson Mandela memorial service was complaining that the photo dominated coverage. Hall then quotes a right-wing blogger who purports to read the photographer's mind to find out what was really saying:

I broke news -- I’m a successful wire service photog! But I broke news that made Mr. Obama look bad. I’ll never hear the end of this from my peers standing around the Monsieur Coffee machine in the AFP break room in their Paris HQ.

I am a failure of a photographer. I’ll never be stupid enough to break news again. Mon Dieu! Where did it all go wrong?

Except, of course, that the photographer, Roberto Schmidt, said no such thing. If Hall had actually read what he pasted in his post about what Schmidt said, it's clear that Schmidt is lamenting the selfie got coverage at the expense of anything having to do with the actual event -- the Mandela memorial. At no point does Schmidt express any mortification at making Obama "look bad."

Hall is simply putting words into Schmidt's mouth, and he apparently never read what he's writing.

 

NEW ARTICLE: Deep In the Heart of Whiteness, Post-Mandela Edition
Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily relies on cherry-picked statements -- and a few pro-apartheid dead-enders -- to trash Nelson Mandela after his death. Read more >>

MRC Still Obssessing Over Bashir, But Gave Limbaugh's Misogyny A Pass
Topic: Media Research Center

Martin Bashir hasn't worked for MSNBC for a couple weeks now, but the Media Research Center still can't stop talking about him.

In a Dec. 16 MRC item, Kyle Drennen complains that NBC's "Today" highlighted Fox News host Megyn Kelly's oddball insistence that Santa Claus is white, while NBC "censored any mention of its own cable news host – MSNBC's Martin Bashir – calling for Sarah Palin to defecated on. Bashir later resigned as a result of the disgusting attack."

The MRC has done all it could to pile on Bashir -- and continues to do so even though, as Drennen admits, Bashir resigned some time ago and his attacks no longer prove anything.

By contrast, the MRC worked hard to distract attention from Rush Limbaugh's three-day tirade of misogyny against Sandra Fluke -- the strongest thing coming form Brent Bozell's mouth being "Let’s all agree Limbaugh crossed a line," ev en though Limbaugh's dozens of sleazy attacks were at least as disgusting as Bashir's single comment about Palin. Bozell's MRC employees not only condoned Limbaugh's sleaze, a few gleefully piled on.

You will never see Drennen call Limbaugh's attacks on Fluke "disgusting" -- Limbaugh must be protected at all costs, after all, and Fluke is a liberal woman who deserves to be denigrated for speaking about birth control in public.

WND's Ellis Washington Hides History to Bash Mandela
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Ellis Washington rants in a Dec. 13 WorldNetDaily column:

Here’s the truth about Mandela: On Jan. 31, 1985, the state president of South Africa, P.W. Botha, speaking in parliament, offered Mandela his freedom on one condition: that he “unconditionally reject violence as a political weapon.” This offer of freedom was repeatedly made to Mandela during his 27 years in prison at Robben Island where all of his co-conspirators rejected political violence and were eventually set free. Mandela, the so-called “man of peace,” repeatedly rejected all offers of freedom. Why? Because unlike the phony, global adulation of this man, Mandela and the ANC were brutal murderers of children and innocent civilians. Just look at who attended his funeral celebration earlier this week – a veritable rogue’s gallery of every tyrannical communist, Islamic and Marxist dictator on the planet, with the socialist Obama leading this pack of wolves. Indeed, birds of a feather do flock together.

As we pointed out when his boss, Joseph Farah, made the same claim, Mandela actually said in response to Botha's offer:

What freedom am I being offered while the organisation of the people remains banned? What freedom am I being offered when I may be arrested on a pass offence? What freedom am I being offered to live my life as a family with my dear wife who remains in banishment in Brandfort? What freedom am I being offered when I must ask for permission to live in an urban area? What freedom am I being offered when I need a stamp in my pass to seek work? What freedom am I being offered when my very South African citizenship is not respected?

Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts.

In other words, his freedom would be meaningless in a country that still practiced apartheid.

Washington went on to grouse:

According to the original 1963 and 1964 indictments of the Rivonia Trial: The State v. Nelson Mandela et al, Supreme Court of South Africa, Transvaal Provincial Division, Mandela was not charged for being a political dissident but for four acts of TERRORISM. Specifically, he was originally incarcerated for involvement in 23 different acts of sabotage, conspiracy to overthrow the government and treason. He and his fellow terrorist conspirators of the ANC and the South African Communist Party (SACP) were caught by the police while in the possession of 48,000 Soviet-made anti-personnel mines and 210,000 hand grenades! Mandela lied when he confessed that the ANC only adopted violence as a means of protest “when other forms of resistance were no longer open to us.”

Again, context matters (though not to Washington). Here's the full text of what Mandela said, again from the 1985 response to Botha:

I am surprised at the conditions that the government wants to impose on me. I am not a violent man. My colleagues and I wrote in 1952 to Malan asking for a round table conference to find a solution to the problems of our country, but that was ignored. When Strijdom was in power, we made the same offer. Again it was ignored. When Verwoerd was in power we asked for a national convention for all the people in South Africa to decide on their future. This, too, was in vain.

It was only then, when all other forms of resistance were no longer open to us, that we turned to armed struggle. 

Washington also ignores that the ANC did not embrace violent protest until after the Sharpesville massacre in 1960, when South African police killed 69 black anti-apartheid demonstrators and wounded dozens of others.

For Washington to claim that Mandela "lied" requires him to ignore inconvenient facts. We also suspect that Washington won't be as harsh with anyone who resorts to violence against his hated President Obama.

Newsmax Buys Into Myth of A Non-Conservative Megyn Kelly
Topic: Newsmax

Newsmax goes into stenographer mode in a Dec. 15 "Insider Report":

Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly asserts that she is a "straight news anchor" and not an "opinion host" or "conservative operative" on the highly-rated network.

When Kelly made her inaugural appearance on NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on Monday, Leno asked her: "People assume, if you're on Fox News, you have a certain bias. How do you deal with that?"

Kelly, whose show "The Kelly File" airs weeknights at 9, responded: "I'm a straight news anchor. I'm not one of the opinion hosts on Fox. But I always laugh, because I'll have a conservative pull me aside and say, 'I love your conservative principles,' and I'll say, 'You assume too much.'

"And then the liberals will pull me aside and say, 'I know you're one of us,' and I'll say, 'You assume too much.'

"But I always tell people if they think I'm this conservative operative, ask Karl Rove if that's true."

[...]

Kelly told Leno: "The way we do it on the Fox News Channel is the straight news anchors like myself give a hard time to both sides. And my legal background plays right into that," added Kelly, who practiced law for nine years before launching her news career.

"I don't care about pandering to the left or right, I care about protecting my audience," she said. "My boss Roger Ailes pays me a decent amount of money to go out there and ask questions, because he thinks that I know the questions my audience wants answers to.

Newsmax doesn't mention that Kelly has more conservative-leaning guests on herFox News show than that of unabashed conservative Sean Hannity, which does raise legitimate questions about Kelly's objectivity. Newsmax simply took Kelly at her word and didn't investigate whether she really does give an equally hard time to both ends of the political spectrum. 

WND Again Disappears Far-Right Israeli From List Of People Banned From Britain
Topic: WorldNetDaily

A Dec. 13 WorldNetDaily article reports on an invitation by the Oxford Union to right-wing radio host Michael Savage to take part in a debate over NSA leaker Edward Snowden, lamenting that "The popular, nationally syndicated San Francisco-based talk host was banned in 2009 from entering the United Kingdom by Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government along with Muslim extremists and leaders of racist groups for 'seeking to provoke others to serious criminal acts and fostering hatred.'"

That generic description obscures the fact that another WND favorite is on the banned list.

As we documented when the list first appeared in 2009, it includes Mike Guzovsky, aka Yekutiel Ben Yaacov, a one-time leader of the now-outlawed far-right Kahane Chai movement in Israel. Guzovsky/Ben Yaacov has been a trusted source for WorldNetDaily's Aaron Klein -- so trusted that Klein endeavored to whitewash his extremism. Klein has quoted the man under both his Guzovsky (Guzofsky) and Ben Yaacov (Yekutel Ben Yaacov) names, failing to explain that they are the same person.

Klein ran to his source's defense at the time, whitewashing the Kahane movement as a group that merely "seeks to ensure that Israel retains biblically-rich territories, such as the West Bank and Jerusalem" -- without mentioning it also seeks to expel Arabs from Israel. Klein claimed without substantiation that "The only camps Guzofsky currently runs are to train dogs to protect Jewish communities in the West Bank"; but in a 2004 New Yorker article, Guzovsky bragged that "The Arabs are very scared of dogs. Muslims think they’re unclean."

(Remember, Klein has expressed his Kahanist sympathies, so Guzovsky's views are hardly alien, let alone odious.)

As WND's articles about the ban have centered on Savage, WND has disappeared Guzovsky's name from the banned list, speaking of its non-Savage members only in vague terms.

So is WND conceding that Guzovsky is a racist by saying that "leaders of racist groups" were banned? Perhaps, but it apparently doesn't have the guts to identify Guzovsky by name as the leader of a racist group.