Showing posts with label MSM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MSM. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Jan Wenner's US Magazine launches another attack on Palin


Wenner, publisher of the well-nigh unreadable Rolling Stone Magazine and the questionable Men's Journal (If you like oiled-up dudes' bodies, Men's Journal could be for you, not that there's anything wrong with that), offers another highbrow publication in the form of US Magazine.

Its current cover story on Sara Palin is entitled Babies, Lies and Scandal and could be one of the most hilariously one-sided "stories" of all time. If it's not a satirical look at the mainstream media, it very well could be.

While the title of the story mentions "lies", there are no lies described within the story.

When the story mentions Palin's husband's DWI (driving-while-under-influence) charge, it somehow neglects to mention that it occurred in 1986. Otherwise known as the era in which Barack Obama admitted smoking weed and doing "a little blow."

The story was so pathetic that its author, Bradley Jacobs, stumbled badly when interviewed on Fox News. Megan Kelly shredded Jacobs, who was reduced to a quivering and stuttering invertebrate.

Even the story's URI (slug) has a spin: sarah-palin-very-difficult-to-work-with.

Continuing with its attack today, the "magazine" has a poll that asks "Will Sara Palin's daughter's pregnancy affect your vote?"

The American people have spoken. At the present, 91% of Americans are answering "No".

With that, Wenner, I recommend you pour yourself a big, tall glass of Shut-Up Juice.

Oh, and enjoy your thousands of subscription cancellations while you're drinking it.

Update: Jammie Wearing Fool has the perfect cartoon for Wenner. Linked by: The Anchoress and Wizbang. Thanks!

Convention Highlights and Joe Lieberman's speech to the RNC


I've culled the highlights of Joe Lieberman's speech to the RNC:

What... is a Democrat like me doing at a Republican convention like this?

Well, I'll tell you what: I'm here to support John McCain because country matters more than party...

...if John McCain is just another partisan Republican, then I'm Michael Moore's favorite Democrat.

...In the Senate, during the 3½ years that Sen. Obama has been a member, he has not reached across party lines to accomplish anything significant, nor has he been willing to take on powerful interest groups in the Democratic Party to get something done...

...the real ticket for change this year is the McCain-Palin ticket.

Let me tell you, friends, that the Washington bureaucrats and the power brokers are not going to be able to build a pen that will hold in these two mavericks. It's just not possible...

...when others wanted to retreat in defeat from the field of battle, which would have been a disaster for the USA, when colleagues like Barack Obama were voting to cut off funding for our American troops on the battlefield, John McCain had the courage to stand against the tide of public opinion, advocate the surge, support the surge, and, because of that today, America's troops are coming home, thousands of them, and they're coming home in honor...

...You may not agree with John McCain on every issue, but you can always count on him to be straight with you about where he stands and to stand for what he thinks is right for our country, regardless of the politics.

The Anchoress, in a rare (for her) spate of television watching, remarks on the differences between conventions:

I don’t love prolonged chanting of “U-S-A, U-S-A” but at least these people are chanting for the whole nation, and not in the name of one man.

And Newsbusters' Noel Sheppard catches a great riposte by Newt Gingrich:

MSNBC/Ron Allen: But to be fair, her resume is not something we're familiar seeing with presidential candidates.

Gingrich: It's stronger than Barack Obama's. I don't know why you guys walk around saying this baloney. She has a stronger resume than Obama. She's been a real mayor, he hasn't. She has been a real governor, he hasn't. She's been in charge of the Alaskan National Guard, he hasn't. She was a whistleblower who defeated an incumbent mayor. He has never once shown that kind of courage. She's a whistleblower who turned in the chairman of her own party and got him fined $12,000. I've never seen Obama do one thing like that. She took on the incumbent governor of her own party and beat him, and then she beat a former Democratic governor in the general election. I don't know of a single thing Obama's done except talk and write.

I'd like you to tell me one thing Sen. Obama's done.

Allen: Thanks very much, Mr. Speaker. I'm going to leave it there. I'm not going to argue the case. Thanks very much.

Good night, Gracie.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Jack Torry's bogus analysis: the MSM covers for Obama


Jack Torry of the Columbus-Dispatch has done his level best to obfuscate Obama's connection to William Ayers. In an analysis of the "Know enough?" 527 ad regarding the Obama-Ayers connection, Torry deliberately misleads readers.

Obama's association with Ayers was raised by ABC's George Stephanopoulos in April at the Democratic presidential debate in Philadelphia. During that debate, Democrat Hillary Clinton criticized Ayers' comments and said he would be "an issue that people will be asking about."


But during that debate, Obama criticized "this kind of game, in which anybody who I know, regardless of how flimsy the relationship is . . . somehow their ideas could be attributed to me..."

Torry rates the ad a 1 out of 10 for accuracy.

Unbelievably, Torry omits any reference to the boards upon which Ayers and Obama served together.


On the board of Woods fund, for instance, they funded the group ACORN, infamous for its vote fraud crimes, and the Arab-American Action Network, founded by a PLO member named Rashid Khalidi.

Furthermore, Dan Riehl reports that the newly released Annenberg Challenge records will prove highly problematic for Obama and apologists like Jack Torry.

Continuing to follow up on what can be learned of Barack Obama's tenure as the Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC), evaluations of the program during his tenure available on line demonstrate that in his only real executive test, Barack Obama was a dismal failure squandering millions of dollars on education programs which had basically no real effect. They also strongly suggest Obama's claim that un-repentant terrorist Bill Ayers is just a teacher who lived down the block is an outright lie. The structure and tone of the CAC, addressed in the documents, leave a strong impression the two men had to work together closely over a number of years...

Torry's article is pathetic; it is symptomatic of a mainstream media that has gone off the deep end.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

AP writer criticizes Biden pick: Leftosphere explodes in outrage!


Uh oh. AP writer Ron Fournier dared criticize the Biden pick saying that it exuded "a lack of confidence."

The barking moonbatsphere erupted with the expected indignation. How dare the mainstream media -- and the AP no less? -- criticize a major Democratic decision. Most observers believe that such a thing hadn't occurred since '63 with JFK's Bay of Pigs debacle. The wanknuts' reactions ranged from high-pitched shrieking to overt threats of personal harm.

Washington Monthly: "[His] objectivity covering the presidential race continues to look shaky... We learned not too long ago that Fournier exchanged emails with Karl Rove about Pat Tillman [and] Fournier was also one of the journalists who, at a gathering of the nation's newspaper editors, extended McCain a box of his favorite donuts [with sprinkles]." (Jeez, sprinkles? That's really crossing the line!)

FireDogLake: "ACTION: Tell AP To Remove Ron Fournier From the Presidential Beat. As recently as last year, Ron Fournier considered working for the McCain campaign. Instead he took a job as Washington bureau chief for the AP, but it looks like he's still working for McCain... It's time to crank out [letters to the editor] again. Ron Fournier must be taken off the Presidential beat. He's got an obvious conflict-of-interest." (As opposed to Barack Obama's millions in earmarks to his wife's hospital, which coincidentally tripled her salary.)

The ill-named Grasping Reality: "Why oh why can't we have a better press corps? ...Don't trust them. Don't patronize their advertisers. Don't believe them. Listen, instead, to people with substantive expertise and knowledge trying to convey that knowledge rather than the ignorant trying to score points with their owners, editors, and sources." (Like... 'Grasping Reality'?)

MyDD: "If pure Republican spin and McCain talking points are what we are to expect out of the AP under Fournier, it's going to be a long hard slog full of truth squading between now and election day." (Because that's what the AP is known for -- pure Republican spin.)

The well nigh unreadable "AMERICAblog": "I know that the Associated Press considers it a point of honor to promote someone whenever they do something incredibly biased and their impartiality is seriously compromised, but after their top presidential reporter, Ron Fournier, interviewed for a job with the McCain presidential campaign, it's simply abominable that AP would keep him on the presidential beat.." (Whew. Take a breath, Sparky. I haven't seen so many commas since ee cummings retired.)

Friday, August 22, 2008

Fox News crushes MSNBC and CNN. Combined.


The Hollywood Reporter (via Jammie Wearing Fool):

Political-themed programming this week has worked wonders for the already high ratings of the Fox News Channel... profiles of the two presidential candidates scored high in the cable news ratings...

On Monday, the Barack Obama documentary hosted by Bill Hemmer averaged 2.3 million viewers, Nielsen Media Research said. That compared with 1.1 million viewers for MSNBC's "Countdown" and 687,000 for CNN's "Election Center"... Tuesday's documentary on John McCain averaged 2.6 million viewers, compared with 1.3 million for MSNBC's "Countdown" and 499,000 for CNN's "Election Center." The McCain documentary averaged 569,000 in adults 25-54, while "Countdown" averaged 436,000 and "Election Center" 178,000.

That's all atop Fox News Channel's win last Saturday among the three cable newsers of the Saddleback Presidential Forum, where both Obama and McCain were interviewed by Pastor Rick Warren. Fox News Channel's two-hour coverage averaged 2.8 million viewers with CNN's 1.9 million and MSNBC's 871,000. Among the adults 25-54 demo, Fox averaged 678,000 viewers to CNN's 556,000 and MSNBC's 395,000.

I wonder what Keefus Olbermann has to say about that.

Hat tip: Jammie Wearing Fool.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Barack Obama's brother found living in a shantytown in Nairobi, Kenya


The London Telegraph reports that Barack Obama's 'lost' brother was found living in a shantytown in Kenya. George Hussein Onyango Obama, the senator's long lost brother, was tracked down by Italy's Vanity Fair magazine.

George Hussein Onyango Obama living in a hut in a ramshackle town of Huruma on the outskirts of Nairobi... [he is] 26, the youngest of the presidential candidate's half-brothers, spoke for the first time about his life, which could not be more different than that of the Democratic contender.

"No-one knows who I am," he told the magazine, before claiming: "I live here on less than a dollar a month."

According to Italy's Vanity Fair his two metre by three metre shack is decorated with football posters of the Italian football giants AC Milan and Inter, as well as a calendar showing exotic beaches of the world... ...he had a front page newspaper picture of his famous brother - born of the same father as him, Barack Hussein Obama, but to a different mother, named only as Jael.

...He has only met his famous older brother twice - once when he was just five and the last time in 2006 when Senator Obama was on a tour of East Africa and visited Nairobi... The Illinois senator mentions his brother in his autobiography, describing him in just one passing paragraph as a "beautiful boy with a rounded head".

No word on whether The Huffington Post or NPR will pursue this story with the fervor of their blockbuster scoop that revealed Cindy McCain's half-sister has been ignored by the family.

Photo: Guy Calaf, Vanity Fair, Italy.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Obama Campaign, Mainstream Media escape Cone of Sanity


After the Warren Forum discussion on faith and values, a tacit admission that Barack Obama lost decisively came in the form of wailing and gnashing of teeth.

[Warren] had to ask McCain [additional] questions because McCain answered his questions a lot more briefly and succinctly than did Obama... it was so bad for Obama that the kook fringe began a drumbeat Saturday night of accusing McCain of cheating! Now, McCain did not cheat. McCain was driving to the event when Obama was on, and when he got there, he was put in a secure "green-room". The rule was that the guy that went second was not allowed to hear the answers of the guy who went first, and McCain didn't.

So the Obama disinformation about McCain hearing the interview, I mean, it's priceless. We've got this little man-child that is being called The Messiah. He's got this deeply ingrained sense of entitlement, and when it doesn't go his way, it's just cry-in-the-sandbox time.

That's right. Obama's campaign and its public relations arm, the mainstream media, have accused John McCain of cheating. That's the same John McCain who has never taken an earmark and has likewise never been accused of dishonest behavior like, say, plagiarism.

He insulted Clarence Thomas... When he was asked about Clarence Thomas, "Well, I don't think he has the right exper..." He caught himself and said he wasn't qualified at the time he was elevated to that position -- and here's a guy who's been to Yale, a guy who's been to Holy Cross, who spent a year on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. He worked for Ashcroft as assistant attorney general in the state of Missouri, and Obama is what? A street agitator with 140 days in the Senate, and Obama claims that Clarence Thomas is unqualified?

Obama vs. Clarence Thomas? Compare and contrast:


Thomas

Obama
• Missouri Attorney General's office
• Attorney for Monsanto
• Assistant Secretary of Education
• Legislative assistant to Sen. John Danforth
• Chairman of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
• Served on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the nation's second most prominent court
• Supreme Court Justice since 1991
• "Community Organizer"
State Senator who voted "present" 130 times to avoid taking controversial positions
• Less than four years experience as a Senator, who has never held a hearing of note in his subcommittee

By any reasonable measure, I'd say Thomas is a hell of a lot better prepared to be commander-in-chief than Obama.

But that's just me.

Linked by: Gateway Pundit and Newsbusters. Thanks!

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Irony-meter breaks: Iran blames Michael Savage for 'Islamophobia'


Iran's media claimed today that Michael Savage's radio show is "fueling Islamophobia in US" (no mention of Iran's stated plans for "the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization" as a factor).

A recent lawsuit filed by radio host and author Michael Savage against Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is one of the latest acts of racism against Muslims in the United States... Savage, who is often criticized for his fascist and racist opinions, sued Washington-based CAIR for copyright infringement, saying the council had rebroadcast over four minutes from his radio show The Savage Nation on their website as an example of the bigotry and hatred against Muslims in the US.

The excerpts had placed the San Francisco-based host's hateful comments against Islam, Muslims and their holy book, Qur'an, on their website. Savage had also linked CAIR to terrorist organizations... However, the incident has indicated that there is a good deal of effort in US media to somehow make a connection between Islam and terrorism.

In his show, Savage linked CAIR with the September 11, 2001 attacks, proving that there are radio and TV programs which can freely express racist ideas just as there are magazines which freely publish insulting images of the Prophet of Islam and a Guantanamo Bay that desecrates the Qur'an... In line with Savage's accusations, the federal government has recently claimed that CAIR had once provided Hamas with $12 million in funds. Savage's claim was also backed by US Republican Sue Myrick, who says "Groups like CAIR have a proven record of senior officials being indicted and either imprisoned or deported from the United States."

Her comments come while CAIR vice-chairman received the ACLU's 2003 Liberty's Flame Award 'for contributions to the advancement and protection of civil liberties...' ...It seems [Savage] has cleverly used the federal court as a means to attract more listeners to anti-Islam comments on talk shows such as his, which are backed by authorities as a sign of support for the so-called freedom of speech.

Interestingly, Iran's president Ahmadinejad's radio show seems just a tad more inflammatory than Savage's, because it promises the destruction of both America and Israel.

We are in the process of an historical war between the World of Arrogance [the West] and the Islamic world, and this war has been going on for hundreds of years...

...Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism? ...you had best know that this... goal [is] attainable...

Shhh... no one tell the New York Times.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Faith: guiding our votes


Heh:

The MSM justify banner coverage of the smallest malfeasance by any Christian or conservative, with or without independent verification, with the lame excuse of "hypocrisy." Hey, why didn't you say so! If all it takes to get the Edwards story into the establishment press is a little hypocrisy, boy, have I got a story for you!

Based on information currently saturating the Internet: (1) The entire schmaltzy Edwards campaign consisted of this self-professed moralist telling us how much he loved the poor and loved his cancer-stricken wife; (2) the following was Edwards' response to CBS News anchor Katie Couric's question about whether voters should care if a presidential candidate is faithful to his spouse:

"Of course. I mean, for a lot of Americans -- including the family that I grew up with, I mean, it's fundamental to how you judge people and human character -- whether you keep your word, whether you keep what is your ultimate word, which is that you love your spouse, and you'll stay with them. ... I think the most important qualities in a president in today's world are trustworthiness -- sincerity, honesty, strength of leadership. And -- and certainly that goes to a part of that."

There you have it, boys: Go to town, MSM!

Ghost town.

Is that a tire gauge in Paul Waldman's pocket or is he just glad to see you?


Need proof that the progressive movement has declared Chapter 7 Intellectual Bankruptcy? The American Prospect's Paul Waldman just filed the papers.

The message couldn't be plainer: See that itty-bitty, little tire gauge? If you vote for Obama, that's how big your penis is. If you vote for McCain, on the other hand, your penis is as big as this rig, thrusting its gigantic shaft in and out of the ground! Real men think keeping your tires inflated is for weenies.

Tire gauge? Penis.

Drilling for oil? Penis.

Gas pump? Penis.

Nuclear energy? Penis.

ANWR? Penis.

Clean-burning coal? Penis.

At 72, John McCain is himself not exactly a simmering pot of heterosexual energy, causing women to swoon at the first whiff of his man-musk... [But a] Republican campaign that didn't allege that its Democrat opponent is a little light in the loafers just wouldn't be a Republican campaign.

Hillary Clinton? Penis.

Apparently, this is what passes for respectable commentary within the modern progressive movement.

If you happen to work out at the same gym as Mr. Waldman, keep your head on a swivel while you're in the shower.

Via: Ace of Spades and Hot Air.

How the National Enquirer and the blogosphere forced Edwards to confess


Using Google Insights, we can track the number of people searching for information on Rielle Hunter, the mistress of John Edwards.

The National Enquirer first revealed Hunter's name in December. A few blogs, including DBKP and this humble journal, picked up the story because there were a variety of variables that all pointed to the fact that Edwards was a sleazebag.

I mean, besides the fact that he was among the foulest of trial lawyers in recorded history ("[Edwards] stood before a jury and channeled the words of an unborn baby girl").


Despite the mainstream media blockade, the Enquirer continued to doggedly pursue the story. In July, it released additional details and the same set of blogs continued to build upon the story.

You can see from the graph how the pressure -- represented by the public searching for information on Ms. Hunter -- built during the month of July after Edwards was cornered by the Enquirer's staff in a Los Angeles hotel.


Put simply, a tabloid and the blogosphere -- both of which have been ridiculed for years by the MSM -- broke and publicized an immense story regarding a major presidential candidate and potential cabinet member.

I keep picturing the newspapers as lemmings, jumping one after another off a cliff labeled "Internet."

Friday, August 08, 2008

Exclusive photo: John Edwards admits affair


Eh, we've only been reporting this story since December of last year!

You can view the entire series by clicking the photo.

Update: Ace says that the mainstream media has crossed its metaphorical Rubicon. Emphases mine.

Did I say this was the MSM's Waterloo? This was their crossing of the Rubicon? This was their casting of the die?

I think I did.

As has often been said: They're not even trying to hide it anymore.

But in this case, they made the mistake of not-even-trying-to-hide it on a story that the non-news-following public was actually following closely. They knew all about this story. They knew it was true.

And they got to witness, many for the first time ever, what we newshawks see day-in, day-out: The media burying/embargoing/blacking out stories based on personal and political rooting interests.

They do this all the time, of course. But for the first time, a substantial fraction of the pubic actually noticed them doing it, and must have been wondering, "What the fuck exactly is going on here? Why is this story being blacked out by so-called 'news services' which exist, supposedly, to provide me with information?"

This wasn't merely a crime; it was a mistake.

Nicely done, sir.

Beautiful.

We may yet see it carved into the MSM's gravestone. Good riddance.

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Spin Zone: O'Reilly cowed by terror apologist Ahmed Rehab


Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Barack Obama's Muslim "out-reach coordinator" had unexpectedly resigned.

Chicago lawyer Mazen Asbahi, who was appointed volunteer national coordinator for Muslim American affairs by the Obama campaign on July 26, stepped down Monday after an Internet newsletter wrote about his brief stint on the fund's board, which also included a fundamentalist imam...

...The Obama campaign is trying to strike a balance between courting Muslim American voters and dispelling rumors intended by some to link the candidate to radical Islam... In 2000, Mr. Asbahi briefly served on the board of Allied Assets Advisors Fund, a Delaware-registered trust. Its other board members at the time included Jamal Said, the imam at a fundamentalist-controlled mosque in Illinois.

The eight-year-old connection between Mr. Asbahi and Mr. Said was raised last week by the Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report, which is published by a Washington think tank and chronicles the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood, a world-wide fundamentalist group based in Egypt. Other Web sites, some pro-Republican and others critical of fundamentalist Islam, also have reported on the background of Mr. Asbahi. He is a frequent speaker before several groups in the U.S. that scholars have associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Justice Department named Mr. Said an unindicted co-conspirator in the racketeering trial last year of several alleged Hamas fund-raisers, which ended in a mistrial. He has also been identified as a leading member of the group in news reports going back to 1993.

Spinning the move as part of an organized campaign of bigotry against Muslims was Ahmed Rehab, Chicago's Council on American-Islamic Relations' (CAIR) executive director. On Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor," Rehab characterized Asbahi's resignation as a bigoted political maneuver:

I think that Mazen Asbahi is a victim of what I would call the anti-Muslim smear and fear campaign that we have seen in this election cycle time and time again. In this case, like many, the allegations started on a web site that did not corroborate what they are allegating (sic) with any evidence. They stated that he had certain links with fundamentalists, in this case the allegation was against imam Jamal Said, who I know personally to be a great American faith leader and not a radical imam as the Wall Street Journal falsely stated.

IPT deconstructs the spin for O'Reilly, who seemed unable or unwilling to counter Rehab's fabrications.

Some of Asbahi's associations with Muslim Brotherhood groups have raised legitimate questions about whether he holds radical views. There is plenty, however, to show that Said does. Asbahi's association with Said and the fund raised legitimate issues for journalistic pursuit. Start with the fact that Allied Assets is a subsidiary of the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT)... an unindicted coconspirator in the terrorism financing trial against the Holy Land Foundation [which] is set for a retrial next month...

...It is listed eighth among "A list of our organizations and the organizations of our friends" in a 1991 US Muslim Brotherhood memorandum entitled "On the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America." This document calls for a "grand Jihad" geared towards "eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within..."

...There's more linking NAIT to extremists, including payments to Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzook and his family during the 1990s... Imam Jamal Said also is an unindicted co-conspirator in the HLF case. Like NAIT, he is listed among "members of the US Muslim Brotherhood's Palestine Committee and/or its organizations." Evidence in that trial shows the Brotherhood created the Palestine Committee to advance Hamas' agenda in the United States.

Justifiably outraged, radio host Ben Barrack sent the following letter to Bill O'Reilly earlier today.

Mr. O'Reilly,

You appeared to exhibit cowardice while interviewing CAIR's Chicago Exec. Director Ahmed Rehab about the resignation of Obama's Muslim Outreach Coordinator, Mazin Asbahi on your television program on August 6th...

As you may know, Asbahi resigned due to his association with radical imam Jamal Said, who led a mosque in Chicago to become radicalized...

On your program, Rehab asserted Said was not radical or tied to Hamas. You NEVER ONCE challenged him on it, which means you either......

A.) didn't do your homework on Said
or..
B.) were intimidated by Rehab

Both are unacceptable in a "No Spin Zone"

I've attached a photo I found on CAIR's website that shows Rehab and Said together...

Very sad, Mr. O'Reilly. Very sad. Maybe you can have the Body Language lady on your next program to analyze your indisposition to live up to your show's tagline.

Where is the O'Reilly that led the charge against Sami al-Arian?? I want him back. There are a lot more al-Arian's out there, Mr. O'Reilly. In fact, Said has ties to al-Arian! Cut out the ponderous stuff like "The Body Language Lady" and do what's right in the "No Spin Zone".

Ben Barrack

Proverbs 28:23
He who rebukes a man shall afterward find more favor than he who flatters with the tongue.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

John Edwards Love Child Photo produced by National Enquirer


Did John Edwards, husband of a cancer-stricken wife, really father a love child with former campaign --- err-- filmmaker Rielle Hunter?

Enquiring minds want to know.

The Enquirer has "spy photos" that purport to show Edwards holding his love child.

Radar says the photo is "sketchy" and Hot Air's Allahpundit believes it may be "a photoshop."

The encounter in the hotel allegedly took place on July 21. Here’s an AP photo of Edwards taken earlier that same day in Los Angeles...

Compare the sideburns and the distance between his hair and his right temple. Hmmm. Still not good enough?

Well, the original Enquirer story claims he was wearing a “blue dress shirt” when he entered the building.

...There’s no collar on the shirt in the new Enquirer photo (in fact, in the smaller photo — which clearly is Edwards — it looks a bit like a hospital gown), although I guess he could have changed for whatever inexplicable reason when he got to the room.

Actually, he could have stripped off his oxford... revealing his t-shirt underneath to allow the baby to burp and spit up on the t and not the $300 Burberry oxford.

DBKP, one of the original blogs covering the story, has more info.

Update: Coulter with another instant classic:

The MSM justify banner coverage of the smallest malfeasance by any Christian or conservative, with or without independent verification, with the lame excuse of "hypocrisy." Hey, why didn't you say so! If all it takes to get the Edwards story into the establishment press is a little hypocrisy, boy, have I got a story for you!

Based on information currently saturating the Internet: (1) The entire schmaltzy Edwards campaign consisted of this self-professed moralist telling us how much he loved the poor and loved his cancer-stricken wife; (2) the following was Edwards' response to CBS News anchor Katie Couric's question about whether voters should care if a presidential candidate is faithful to his spouse:

"Of course. I mean, for a lot of Americans -- including the family that I grew up with, I mean, it's fundamental to how you judge people and human character -- whether you keep your word, whether you keep what is your ultimate word, which is that you love your spouse, and you'll stay with them. ... I think the most important qualities in a president in today's world are trustworthiness -- sincerity, honesty, strength of leadership. And -- and certainly that goes to a part of that."

There you have it, boys: Go to town, MSM!

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Bob Herbert owes John McCain an apology


On August 2nd, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert accused the McCain campaign of waging a racist attack on Barack Obama for comparing him to Paris Hilton.

[The ad was] foul, poisonous and emanated from the upper reaches of the Republican Party. (What a surprise.) [It was] designed to exploit the hostility, anxiety and resentment of the many white Americans who are still freakishly hung up on the idea of black men rising above their station and becoming sexually involved with white women.

Back in the little land I like to call reality, Newbusters' Seton Motley did the research and discovered the origin of the Obama-Hilton analogy.

This sensitive operation, possibly involving secret Rovian search engines, outstripped the vast resources and capabilities of the New York Times and Bob Herbert.

A February 24, 2005, Washington Post article reads: There's nothing exotic or complicated about how phenoms are made in Washington, and, more to the point, how they are broken... "Andy Warhol said we all get our 15 minutes of fame," says Barack Obama. "I've already had an hour and a half. I mean, I'm so overexposed, I'm making Paris Hilton look like a recluse."

Thus, Barack Obama used the Paris Hilton analogy first. I'll alert the blogosphere to be on the lookout for Herbert's apology.

Hat tip: Jerry H.

Saturday, August 02, 2008

Obama received thousands in illegal contributions (from Hamas?)


Atlas has crunched the numbers and discovered a swath of illegal campaign donations to Barack Obama. Consider the strange case of Monir Edwan of Rafah, GA (that's Gaza, by the way, not Georgia).

According to CampaignMoney, Monir has donated a total of $24,313 directly to Obama's campaign.

Yes, it's two... two... two federal election violations in one! Of course, it's completely illegal for a candidate for federal office to accept contributions from foreign nationals; and, as an added bonus, it's illegal for candidates to accept more than $2,300 from an individual in a single election cycle. As Debbie Schussel points out, since Gaza is controlled by the murderous group of terrorists known as Hamas, it's possible several other laws were violated by the Obama campaign.

A cursory search yields another Rafah resident -- Hosam Edwan -- who also illegally donated over $5,000.00 to Obama (oddly split up into ten separate donations over five days time).


In May, I reported that Obama's website appears to happily accept illegal campaign contributions. At the time I wrote:

No other presidential candidate allows such an easy channel for illegal campaign contributions. For example, John McCain and Hillary Clinton do not accept donations from abroad without a complete, written documentation packet sent via postal mail.

And, as one could have easily predicted, Obama's foreign chickens have come home to roost.

And if you're waiting for our beloved mainstream media to report this blockbuster story, I'm afraid all you'll hear are the chirps of crickets and the soft rustle of tumbleweed rolling by.

Linked by: Curmudgeonly & Skeptical. Thanks!

Monday, July 28, 2008

Saturday, July 26, 2008

The Declaration of War the mainstream media ignored


A couple of years ago, German newspapers described the imminent possibility of a U.S. first strike against Iran's nuclear infrastructure. It seemed plausible at the time, given the Mullahs' declaration of war against the U.S., Israel, and the U.K.

Wait a second. You say you didn't hear anything about a declaration of war by Iran against the West?

Lest it was missed in the 24/7 news cycle featuring Nancy Grace, Britney Spears and Madonna's troubled marriage, we call attention to Iran's top military strategist, a man named Hassan Abbasi, who publicly stated:

We have a strategy drawn up for the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization... we must make use of everything we have at hand to strike at this front by means of our suicide operations or by means of our missiles. There are 29 sensitive sites in the U.S. and in the West. We have already spied on these sites and we know how we are going to attack them.

Not inflammatory enough for you? Well, hit the play button on the tape of Iran's "President" Ahmadinejad in October, 2005:

We are in the process of an historical war between the World of Arrogance [the West] and the Islamic world, and this war has been going on for hundreds of years...

In this very grave war, many people are trying to scatter grains of desperation and hopelessness regarding the struggle between the Islamic world and the front of the infidels...

Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism? ...you had best know that this... goal [is] attainable...

Yes, my friends, you just heard a de facto  declaration of war on our country by a totalitarian, fascist nutcase. And, as a free added bonus, he's a nutcase with messianic delusions.

In his speeches, Ahmadinejad frequently mentions the 12th Imam (or Mahdi), a messianic figure who vanished in 941 and whose return will herald "the end of days." Oh, goody. And Ahmadinejad even mentioned the Mahdi in his speech a couple of years ago at the UN. And he frequently describes the realignment of Iran's government to prepare for judgment day. Dee-lightful.

In August 2004, MEMRI's Steven Stalinsky, writing in The New York Sun, reported that some Iranians in the U.S. may have been performing recon missions:

It was reported that America expelled two Iranian security guards employed by Tehran’s U.N. offices on June 29, after the mission was repeatedly warned against allowing its guards to videotape bridges, the Statue of Liberty, and New York’s subway system.This was the third time the Iranians have been caught in such activities, which could be connected to the sites mentioned in potential plans to attack America.

Pity the mainstream media can't do simple arithmetic. Take a fascist dictator with delusions of messianic grandeur, add in a burgeoning nuclear weapons capability, fling in some reconnaissance missions, and then toss in a few scoops of hatred for the West. The result? A recipe Adolf Hitler would love.

I guess this story isn't big enough for the likes of the New York Times. Or the Washington Post. Or the San Francisco Chronicle. Or, for that matter, any member of the mainstream media.

We're on the brink of catastrophe. And the mainstream media couldn't care less.

* * *

Hassan Abbassi is the head of the Center for External Security Doctrinal Analysis, a strategic component of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Abbassi has arrived at a war plan for the West that would obliterate Anglo-Saxon civilization, starting with Britain.

According to Abbassi, "Britain is the mother of all evils" seeing as how the remnants of the British Empire -- the U.S., Australia, Israel, New Zealand, the Gulf States, Canada, etc. -- turned out.

In a May 2005 lecture at Tehran University, Abbassi remarked:

...[The US has] 6,000 nuclear warheads on [its] soil. Those 6,000 warheads are the target of our plans. The guerilla groups will go and destroy those warheads there. Not Iranian guerilla groups, but groups from all... countries... [we are] working on the Mexicans and the Argentinians. We will organize everyone who has problems with America. When our Internet site goes up, the American friends should get hold of the address. We've prepared plans concerning the American Achilles' heal and their weaknesses. We have identified all of their weaknesses on land, in the air, by sea, their technological weaknesses, etc., and we will pass on addresses to the guerilla organizations of the entire world concerning these, America's weaknesses.

We have established a department that will take care of England. England's demise is on our agenda.

If America attacks us, Don't worry at all... Through the Straits of Hormuz, 67% of the world's total energy passes. You must know this. Imagine I'm gone and, God willing, you want to face America. Take a tanker to the Straits Of Hormuz and sink it there. The tanker won't sink because the water is shallow there - about 50 meters. The tanker itself is 55 meters high, and when it will lie on the surface, half of it will protrude. It will take five months until it will be salvaged. A rise in oil prices, as you have seen, causes the West fever. These are the weaknesses...

Iran isn't Somalia. It is indeed a regional power, with a stated mission of destroying -- in its leaderships' own words -- all of "Anglo-Saxon civilization."

How should we interpret this declaration of war? Our choices appear to be simple. Should the West excise Iran's ability to wage nuclear war? Or should it, in the words of Mark Steyn, "wait 'til we we've got absolute definitive 100% proof that [Iran's] got WMD - the absolute definitive 100% proof being a smoking crater where Tel Aviv used to be, or maybe London."

Pity the mainstream media can't expend the necessary energy to report this story, even if it's only to let Iran's intended victims make up their own minds.

* * *

The Guardian, a leading British newspaper, was given a top secret, 55-page intelligence assessment dated 1 July 2005 that describes Iran's quest for nuclear weapons (hat tip: Hugh Hewitt). The report was gleaned from British, French, German, and Belgian intelligence agencies and was used to brief the heads of European governments on the dangers represented by the Mullahs.

The Iranian government has been successfully scouring Europe for the sophisticated equipment needed to develop a nuclear bomb, according to the latest western intelligence assessment of the country's weapons programmes.

Scientists in Tehran are also shopping for parts for a ballistic missile capable of reaching Europe...

..."import requests and acquisitions ... [are] registered almost daily", the report seen by the Guardian concludes.

All of the factors add up. Nuclear weapons. Long-range missiles. Radical leadership that has promised to create a world without the US, Britain and Israel. Leadership that further believes the end of the world is coming within the next two years.

The Mullahs desire a nuclear Armageddon. But no one in the west, save a few blog readers, even seem to know it.

Friday, July 25, 2008

John Edwards, Rielle Hunter, a love child, and a Security Guard


A Fox News report would appear to confirm John Edwards' presence at an L.A. hotel... reportedly to visit his mistress -- Rielle Hunter -- and their love child.

A security guard at the Beverly Hills Hilton identified Sen. John Edwards, stating that he shielded Edwards from National Enquirer reporters... [he] said that he encountered Edwards in the hotel's men's bathroom as he became enthralled in a battle with reporters on the other end of the door. The reporters were bombarding Edwards with questions about an affair with Rielle Hunter.

The guard identified the man as Edwards when he was shown a picture of him, according to Fox News. "What are they saying about me?" the guard said Edwards asked.

When the guard told him that the reporters were asking him about Hunter and their rumored affair and love child, "his face just went totally white," the guard said.

Earlier this week The Enquirer reported that they "busted" John Edwards visiting his alleged lover Rielle Hunter and their young child in Los Angeles.

Vice Presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards was caught visiting his mistress and secret love child at 2:40 this morning in a Los Angeles hotel by the NATIONAL ENQUIRER.

The married ex-senator from North Carolina - whose wife Elizabeth continues to battle cancer -- met with his mistress, blonde divorcée Rielle Hunter, at the Beverly Hilton on Monday night, July 21 - and the NATIONAL ENQUIRER was there! He didn't leave until early the next morning.

Rielle had driven to Los Angeles from Santa Barbara with a male friend for the rendezvous with Edwards. The former senator attended a press event Monday afternoon with L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on the topic of how to combat homelessness.

But a months-long NATIONAL ENQUIRER investigation had yielded information that Rielle and Edwards, 54, had arranged to secretly meet afterward and for the ex-senator to spend some time with both his mistress and the love child who he refuses to publicly acknowledge as his own.

...Rielle had reserved rooms 246 and 252 under the name of the friend who had accompanied her from Santa Barbara, Bob McGovern. Rielle was in one room and McGovern was in another with her baby. This allowed her and Edwards to spend time alone, a source revealed... ...he stayed until attempting to sneak out of the hotel unseen at 2:40 a.m. (PST).

...Shocked to see a reporter, and without saying anything, Edwards ran up the stairs leading from the hotel basement to the lobby. But, spotting a photographer, he doubled back into the basement. As he emerged from the stairwell, reporter Butterfield questioned him about his hookup with Rielle.

Edwards did not answer and then ran into a nearby restroom. He stayed inside for about 15 minutes, refusing to answer questions from the NATIONAL ENQUIRER about what he was doing in the hotel. A group of hotel security men eventually escorted him from the men's room...

One of the original blogs on the story -- DBKP -- is on the case again.

For background information, see Tuesday's post or visit DBKP, the ultimate authority on this story.

Update: Donklephant thinks the ice is breaking in the mainstream media blockade.

Newsbusters' takedown o' the day


Heather Wilson (R-NM) pulverizes Chris Matthews and Sen. Robert Wexler (he of sleeping on his Mother-in-Law's couch) simultaneously using everything but brass knuckles and a two-by-four.

ROBERT WEXLER: The allegation that Senator Obama has not been effective, yet it is his view in Iraq that is now the prevailing view that the Prime Minister of Iraq has endorsed. It is Senator Obama's view that has been endorsed by the Bush administration in concept in Iran by engaging in diplomacy. It is his view in terms of adding troops in Afghanistan that's winning the day. So it's Senator Obama, before he's even president, that's affecting policy in such a great way.

WILSON: It's amazing that you can skew things that far. Senator Obama has been dead wrong when it comes to the policy in Iraq. He opposed the surge and he is now in a situation where he's trying to deny that the surge was successful. I don't think that's particularly presidential.

...

WILSON: To say that somehow there is a wall in NATO that's running somewhere down the Atlantic shows Senator Obama's inexperience when it comes to understanding where we are. You see that on a number of other things. I mean, look at his platform. He has these kind of message-tested, poll-tested things like, we should, Barack Obama will make sure we take -- he'll negotiate with the Russians to take our ICBMs off hair-trigger alert. It's a great idea: it was done 20 years ago. He seems to be unaware of American history. And that's inexperience which causes people some real concern about whether he's ready for the Oval Office.

Rumor has it that Matthews needed a hanky and Wexler an ice pack after this segment was over.

The video is priceless and is well worth the time to download (WMV, ugh... but that's PMSNBC for you).