On May 18, 2006, CBS News alerted us to planned protests against President Bush during his then pending visit to Jakarta. Along with the article entitled “Jakarta Awaits Bush Visit, Bush Faces Rising Anti-U.S. Sentiment…,” we saw this photo of “Indonesian Muslim and student groups” rehearsing their protests against Bush.

A politically weakened U.S. President George W. Bush will face anger over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan when he visits mostly Muslim Indonesia on Monday for talks aimed at broadening ties with a strategic ally in the war on terror…Anti-American sentiment is mounting and Islamic hard-liners and students have held near-daily rallies this month, calling Mr. Bush a terrorist and burning effigies of the U.S. leader…Mr. Bush, meanwhile, with his popularity plummeting at home and abroad, is expected to have on kid gloves when discussing issues like Indonesia’s ongoing battle with Islamic extremism, its failure to find justice in the poisoning death of the country’s top human rights activist, and foot-dragging in fighting bird flu.

That was then. What are CBS News and the MSM telling us now about President Obama’s visit?  Answer: Little.  You have to read the news from Indonesia for information.  Here are three samples: (more…)

The stage is being set for another round of media examinations of “military culture” thanks to the ever weirder and more sordid saga of former Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY).   For the uninitiated or those awakening from a deep coma, Massa is the recently resigned congressman who is coming under microscopic media scrutiny for alleged acts of inappropriate behavior, some of it allegedly constituting sexual harassment. In recent days, the media have been drilling down into his 24-year career as a naval officer and in the process, some pretty disturbing tales have been percolating to the surface.

During Lawrence O’Donnell’s March 10 guest hosting gig on MSNBC’s Countdown show, he wondered aloud, “Who has done more damage to the image of the Navy, Congressman Massa or the Village People?” a reference to the disco group and its 1979 hit In the Navy.

The blog at The Economist goes even farther, stating that Massa’s tales of high jinks on the high seas  is entirely plausible:

Eric Massa, who is resigning from Congress over the possibility of a male staffer raising allegations of sexual harassment, has been explaining a series of jokes and misunderstandings over the years involving gay sex. Mr. Massa, who served in the Navy, says he’s a “salty old sailor.” I find this explanation entirely convincing. (more…)

The Cato Institute’s Michael Tanner remarks that President Obama’s efforts to force his health-care bill on a very skittish Congress are beginning to look like an arm-twisting scene from “The Sopranos.”

Those who back his proposal receive special favors whereas, as Tanner says, “those who oppose the president can expect the political equivalent of a horse head between their sheets.” Members of Congress are being threatened with ostracism, primary challenges, and the loss of union support. Then, among other examples, there is the orchestrated assault on the ethics of Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), who has been opposing the bill’s endorsement of abortion funding.

The progressive media are ganging up with the president against the bill’s opponents. MSNBC host Rachel Maddow recently cast suspicion on the low rent that a conservative Christian organization charges Stupak for his D. C. apartment. She even mentioned suggestively that scandal-marked South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford stayed at the same building. The Daily Kos has also been hammering away at Stupak, for instance, urging pro-abortion women to “roar back” by sending him a “money bomb” (that is, by donating money to the campaign of Connie Saltonstall, who is challenging him in a primary).

Plus ça change. Media lefties have from the get-go shilled for ObamaCare. For example, as Pamela Geller has noted, last summer ABC gave the president free prime-time to promote his health-care reforms without the nuisance of any opposing views. In addition to staging this “glorified infomercial,” as Geller called it, the network rejected advertisements that offered a free market alternative to Obama’s statist health-care vision. (more…)

You can dump only so much manure on a plant before it has to thrive on its own, and the same principle applies in journalism. An initiative that lacks grass roots can wither in the sun despite liberal doses of mainstream media Miracle-Gro—which explains why Air America found a more receptive audience in the press than in the public, and why Martha Burk’s protest against the men-only membership policy at Augusta National Golf Club drew fewer demonstrators (a couple dozen) than the total number of New York Times stories hyping her who-cares crusade (more than 100).

Having enjoyed seedling-of-the-month treatment in the MSM greenhouse since late February, Coffee Party USA—the supposedly less strident alternative to the Tea Party—designated Saturday its National Coffee Party Kick-off Day. With gatherings in “more than 350 coffee shops in 44 states,” according to its Web site, the fledgling political organization was hoping to make a statement. Instead, it merely raised questions, exposed truths and, worst of all, inspired ridicule.

So, Coffee Kiddies, you want to be like the big boys and girls in the Tea Party treehouse? Sit down and have a cup of reality. Here are 10 reasons why your Coffee Party Kick-off didn’t amount to a hill of beans: (more…)

The lengths that the media will go to when they find a story that they love. A guy on a San Diego freeway has an out-of-control Toyota Prius with a stuck gas pedal and lives are in danger, and the world is about to end! Cue the live choppers, the news crews and call the networks. They all fell faster than their own stock prices for this ruse. Why? Because they wanted the story to be true.

This James Sikes guy was not hard to figure out from the start. When I heard he called 911 while supposedly driving 90 mph down the freeway, I knew this was a fraud. Who does that? Seriously. Your car is out of control and instead of putting it in neutral or shutting it off, you call 911? Of course, it’s taken the media a week or so to finally figure out what most of us saw from the start, but what else is new? They’ve done it before, they’ll do it again and they’ll do it with many more important stories than this one. (more…)

Let us forget, for a moment, that “Earth Hour” is a pointless exercise serving only to make environmentalists feel better about themselves by marginally reducing electrical demand for 0.01% of the year. Let us disregard, for a moment, that the basic reason for having an “Earth Hour” in the first place is fatuous, because global warming alarmism has as much to do with actual science as alchemy does. Instead, as the MSM pushes this stupidity down our gullets once again, let us consider the effects of “Earth Hour,” in terms of power production and that environment. Indeed, a sober analysis suggests that “Earth Hour” doesn’t do anything to save a planet that doesn’t need saving and that it may in fact rather increase air pollution instead of reducing it.

Let us begin with a question: why is “Earth Hour” scheduled for the evening hours?  Answer: you couldn’t do it during daylight with any credibility. Electric demand is highest during the daytime hours, therefore it’s only then that peaking units (generation assets that only operate during times of high demand) kick in to fill the gap. If “Earth Hour” were held when the sun was out, utilities would respond to the drop in demand by kicking the most expensive generating assets off of the grid. This would surely include one of our more expensive sources of power: wind turbines. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA, a part of the Department of Energy) the cost of wind power is about 50% to 100% more than the cost of coal-fired electricity. It’s obvious that, in times of peak demand, a responsible public utility looking out for consumers’ pocketbooks (and their own profits) will shut down a wind farm in deference to a more efficient, less expensive coal plant. (more…)

There are no correction requests tonight. Instead, I’ve been afforded the opportunity to share with you, the Big Journalism readers, one of the very finset of my species. Lest you think alpacas’ skill set is confined to grazing, spitting, and collecting corrections from negligent media types, I would like to introduce you to Pisco, the Surfing Alpaca:

Pretty darn ignorant, to judge by this story by Ron Grossman in the Chicago Tribune:

I took a quick survey in the newsroom the other day, something between a Rorschach test and a pop quiz, asking younger colleagues to identify an iconic photograph of World War II.

While some instantly recognized the image, others couldn’t quite place it. (more…)

Kandahar, Afghanistan
15 March 2010

In David Galula’s 1964 book, Counterinsurgency Warfare, THEORY AND PRACTICE, he states:

“The ideal situation for the insurgent would be a large, land-locked country, shaped like a blunt-tipped star, with jungle-covered mountains along the borders and scattered swamps along the plains, in a temperate zone with a large and dispersed rural population and a primitive economy.”

Mr. Galula described Afghanistan almost perfectly.  Instead of jungle-covered mountains are some of the most extreme folds on Planet Earth: The “abode of snow,” the Himalaya.  Afghan elevations dwarf Mount Rainier, and make the great Colorado Rockies look like the Pygmy Snow Hills. Meanwhile, down in Kandahar and Helmand Provinces, Galula’s “swamps” are the “Green Zones,” where most of the current fighting occurs.

Yet the experienced Mr. Galula omitted a crucial factor describing the Afghan war: A heavily armed, warring amalgam of peoples, some of whose national sport and pastime is guerrilla war. British officer John Masters variously described in “Bugles and a Tiger: My life in the Gurkhas” that life, liberty and pursuit of happiness for Afghans includes vendettas, guerrilla warfare and lots of guns. (more…)

I never thought I’d live to see the day when my daughter’s grade school newspaper had higher journalistic standards than the New York Times, but perhaps I just don’t dream big enough.

In all fairness, the articles at my daughter’s paper that appeal to the editorial board (longer vacations, less homework, a make-your-own-sundae-bar on every school bus) tend to get heavier consideration and better placement than others.  Unfortunately, the same can be said for articles that meet the heavily liberal bias at the New York Times.

But unlike the Times, my daughter’s school paper actually requires articles to be based on fact, be backed up with real sources, and it takes pains to guard against people who would like nothing more than to use it to grind a host of axes.

To that end, the latest axe-grinders granted access to the once venerable, now wrinkled Gray Lady’s anemic subscribership are Canadian Robert Young Pelton and anti-US military, ex-CNN News exec, Eason Jordan.  In a piece yesterday entitled Contractors Tied to Effort to Track and Kill Militants, Messsrs. Pelton and Jordan vent their rage at losing a Department of Defense contract and take outrageous outrage to new heights by claiming that not only did they lose the contract, but that the people they suspect took over are doing an even better job:

(more…)

U.S.-Israeli relations have hit a 35-year low over the contentious east Jerusalem building project. Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren said: “Israel’s ties with the United States are in their worst crisis since 1975…a crisis of historic proportions.” This is because, according to Barack Obama, Jewish homes in the Jewish homeland “hinder peace” with Muslims. According to the Associated Press:

Israel’s already strained relationship with the U.S. hit a new low last week when it announced the construction plans during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden. The timing of the announcement deeply embarrassed the Obama administration and put plans for indirect peace talks with the Palestinians in jeopardy.

What about the timing of the Palestinian Authority’s “honoring” of a mass-murdering female genocidal bomber, for whom the Palestinians are naming a square in Ramallah? The Jerusalem Post reported: “The ceremony was scheduled to take place on the 32nd anniversary of the attack, the worst terrorist incident in Israel’s history, in which terrorists commandeered a bus and murdered 37 people, including 10 children.” It too was scheduled to take place during Biden’s visit, but was postponed for a week after Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu asked Obama’s Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, to get the Palestinians to cancel it.

“The announcement of the settlements on the very day that the vice president was there was insulting,” said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Obama adviser David Axelrod also said: “This was an affront, it was an insult, but most importantly, it undermined this very fragile effort to bring peace to that region. For this announcement to come at that time was very, very destructive.” (more…)

Here’s a street poll I would like to see.  In any city, on any given day, simply pose this question: “Are there any black conservatives in America?”

If such a poll were taken, I would bet all I have that the answers would fall into a very limited range between zero and the number of fingers on one hand.

Anyone who has partaken of mainstream media offerings in the past 40 years knows the answer that is expected.  Of course, there cannot be any black conservatives, unless they are brainwashed “Uncle Toms,” “Oreos,” “house-slaves,” or just plain, ordinary, run-of-the-mill idiots.

Even though this theory, on its very face, runs contrary to the proposition of anti-racism – that all human beings are individuals and cannot be rightly judged by the color of their skins or by any other racially defining characteristics – we have been urged by a racist media for decades to accept it.  Pigeonholing all people whose skins happen to be black into a single ideological mindset is every bit as vile and utterly racist as was Jim Crow.  Coincidentally, the very Democrat party that sponsored Jim Crow laws across the South is the same party, which now has successfully proclaimed through its media mouthpieces that people whose skins are black are not, in fact, individuals with the capacity for free thinking, but are still to be judged “politically” by their skin color alone.

Therefore, most Americans have bought the big racist lie that there are no black conservatives in America, save those unfortunate, misguided, stupid few. (more…)

In Sunset Boulevard you couldn’t help but sympathize with Norma Desmond. She made nostalgia, senility and decrepitude slightly pitiable, but also charming.

The New York Times, its stock value in the cellar while squirming under the thumb of a foreign robber baron, makes the same thing shabby, malodorous and pathetic, especially as recently dramatized by its former senior editor, the embittered Howell Raines, wheezing piteously against his former competition. “Ed Koch once told me he could not have been elected mayor of New York without the boosterism of the New York Post,” writes Raines in his Washington Post piece.

Raines implies that boosterism for a New York mayoral candidate is hideously tacky.  A truly world–class paper’s boosterism should be employed (apparently) to help Stalinists set up their killing fields and gulags. To wit: (more…)

As the Congress and the President of the United States lurch toward reconciliation, or the Slaughter Solution, or whichever form the coming debacle is going to take, let’s take a stroll down memory lane to this memorable moment in the endless debate over “health care reform.”

Here’s the media’s favorite “great communicator,”the Punahou Kid, typically tongue-tied without his TelePrompter, and attempting to think on his feet:

For some reason, the following scene comes to mind.  Boy, when things go wrong…

Your suggestions/comparisons/favorite Mel Brooks moments, etc. welcome here.

Would you pay to read the MSM?  Not if you’re like most people, according to this AP report of a Pew Research study:

Getting people to pay for news online at this point would be “like trying to force butterflies back into their cocoons,” a new consumer survey suggests.

That was one of several bleak headlines in the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s annual assessment of the state of the news industry, released Sunday.

There’s more: (more…)

Talk about social promotions! Laura Berman, a writer for The Detroit News, recently penned a column about Otis Mathis’ inability to write a coherent sentence.

Berman offered readers several examples of Mathis’ unique talent. Here’s one of his emails:

If you saw Sunday’s Free Press that shown Robert Bobb the emergency financial manager for Detroit Public Schools, move Mark Twain to Boynton which have three times the number seats then students and was one of the reason’s he gave for closing school to many empty seats.

Another:

Do DPS control the Foundation or outside group? If an outside group control the foundation, then what is DPS Board row with selection of is director? Our we mixing DPS and None DPS row’s, and who is the watch dog?

Mathis, a product of the Detroit public schools, is none other than the president of the Detroit school board – a man who “repeatedly failed an English proficiency exam” at Wayne State University (also in Detroit) but was shrewd enough to mount a legal challenge against the requirement. (more…)

Five weeks ago, on February 8, Bloomberg.com brought us assurances from Treasury Secretary Timmy Geithner concerning the stability of the U.S. debt rating.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said the U.S. is in no danger of losing its AAA debt rating even though the Obama administration has predicted a $1.6 trillion budget deficit in 2010.  “Absolutely not,” Geithner said, when asked in an ABC News interview broadcast yesterday whether a downgrade is a concern. “That will never happen to this country.”

Geithner stated that, as soon as unemployment declines, “the U.S. plans to rein in the deficit.”  This assurance came, of course, in the midst of a push to pass healthcare legislation that guarantees to increase the national debt, but who’s counting?  With economic growth coming over the next four years, the former New York Fed president said five weeks ago that deficit reduction “is within our capacity to do.”  Capacity differs from intent, though.

Today, there’s another Bloomberg.com story about the U.S. bond rating.  It’s entitled “U.S., U.K. Move Closer to Losing Rating, Moody’s Says:” (more…)

Just in time for Lent and the run-up to Easter Sunday, this “illustration by Nola Lopez, photograph by Damon Winter” of Obama the Savior ran yesterday in the New York Times’s “Week in Review” section yesterday, edited by Sam “The Death of Conservatism” Tanenhaus.  Be sure to click on this link and check out the picture.

Luckily, there’s no need for anyone to question which side of the left-right divide Tanenhaus is on:

Here’s his praise for (gasp!) Nixon — as a liberal — and for Obama being “at the center of American identity,” and for his “tremendous patriotism.” (more…)

Here is one of the sneaky tricks that the Old Media plays in order to support a cause. In this case it’s the Associated Press coming to the aid of Obamacare with “news” that a “Catholic” hospital group is coming out in support of Obamacare. Of course, the AP does not inform the reader that this purported Catholic group is not associated with the Church and is not authorized to speak for Catholics but it conflates this “Catholic” group with Catholics as if they do anyway.

With a headline that screams, “Catholic Hospitals Support Health Care Bill,” the AP’s Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar reports that the Catholic Health Association has come out in support of Obamacare despite its hidden provisions for the federal funding of abortion.

Naturally this report of Catholics in support of Obamacare is meant to fool readers into thinking that the Catholic Church itself, or some important segment of Catholics, are in support of Obamacare. If all you read is the headline and the first two paragraphs you might come away thinking that “Catholic Hospitals” support Obamacare.

Later in the story, after the lede, Alonso-Zaldivar does delve into some of the controversy amongst Catholics concerning the federal funding for abortion in Obamacare and states that the Church itself is still not supporting Obama’s takeover of our healthcare — this is good — but he never does fully explain that the group he is discussing is not a real “Catholic” organization.

You see, the Catholic Health Association is a for-profit company that works for some Catholic hospitals as a sort of trade association. It isn’t part of the Church nor does it represent any official group of religious Catholics, nor does it serve as a source of Catholic teachings. (more…)