Obana blunders continue ... MSM silence continues

This again has to be filed under, "What if George W. Bush had done this?"

Michael Barone writes over at the Washington Examiner that the mainstream media have ignored the latest blunder by Barack Obama:

No one in mainstream media seems inclined to mention Barack Obama’s horrifying mistake last Thursday when, speaking at Fort Drum,  he said that SFC Jared Monti was “the first person who I was able to award the Medal of Honor to who actually came back and wasn’t receiving it posthumously.” Alas, he was mistaken. He awarded the Medal of Honor to Jared Monti posthumously in 2009 and awarded the Medal of Honor in person to SSG Sal Giunta in person in 2011. Obama later apologized for this mistake, but it’s really dismaying that a president who spoke movingly and even eloquently in awarding the Medal of Honor made a mistake of this magnitude.

Chirp, chirp, chirp....

Obama's brain hiccup and the media's silence

File this under, "What if George W. Bush did it?" ...

President Barack Obama, obviously a Democrat because the media have been quiet as mice about the incident, visited Westminister Abby on Tuesday while on an official trip to England. When signing the guest book, he wrote, "24 May 2008."

2008?

It's a slip of the pen/memory and anyone could do it. But what if President Bush had made that slip-up? It would have been headline news by a gotcha-if-you're-Republican media.

The hypocrisy continues....

Media hypocrisy ... "violent" tea party vs "peaceful" pro-illegal alien protesters

The Media Research Center has been tracking media hypocrisy in their coverage of non-existenct violence by tea party ralliers while ignoring actual violence by pro-illegal alien protesters in Arizona.

MRC provided the following examples of the MSM's hypocrisy:

- From the MRC's TimesWatch: “ 'Mostly Peacefully' Means 'Somewhat Violently' at the New York Times.”

- From the MRC, check the video contrast: “ABC: 'Mostly Peaceful' Immigration Protests vs. 'Very Ugly' Tea Party Rallies.”

- Plus, “ABC's Bill Weir to Sheriff Joe Arpaio: Will You 'Grab People on Street Corners?' ”

Brent Bozell on Tuesday's Fox & Friends to discuss violence of pro-illegal alien protesters

Media Research Center's Brent Bozell will appear Tuesday on Fox & Friends around 7:15 a.m. to discuss the media's obsession with supposed but non-existent violence by Tea Party participants while ignoring actual violence by pro-illegal alien protesters in Arizona.

MRC provided the following examples of the MSM's hypocrisy:

- From the MRC's TimesWatch: “ 'Mostly Peacefully' Means 'Somewhat Violently' at the New York Times.”

- From the MRC, check the video contrast: “ABC: 'Mostly Peaceful' Immigration Protests vs. 'Very Ugly' Tea Party Rallies.”

- Plus, “ABC's Bill Weir to Sheriff Joe Arpaio: Will You 'Grab People on Street Corners?' ”

Rush: "Never in my life have I seen a regime like this"

Barack Obama seems obsessed with conservative radio commentators and especially Rush Limbaugh even as -- and perhaps because of -- his polling approval numbers continue to tank.

Obama recently told CBS News that commentary from such people as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck is "troublesome" and filled with "vitriol," adding,"Keep in mind that there have been periods in American history where this kind of vitriol comes out."

If Obama doesn't like "vitriol," he may not want to throw too many rocks inside his glass house.

I've listened to Rush for years and never have I heard "vitriol" from this self-described puff ball. He has been passionate and articulate about his beliefs but he has not been "troubling," as this president tries to portray.

If anything, the President lowers himself and comes across as less than a statesman when making personal attacks against Rush, Beck, Fox News, and others who do not rubber-stamp liberal news and information.

Rush responded to Obama's remarks to Fox Nation:

"I have yet to have a down year at the EIB [Excellence In Broadcasting] Network," Limbaugh responds. "I and most Americans do not believe President Obama is trying to do what's best for the country. Never in my life have I seen a regime like this, governing against the will of the people, purposely. I have never seen the media so supportive of a regime amassing so much power. And I have never known as many people who literally fear for the future of the country."

Obama appears willing to quiet conservative news sources while a complicit MSM looks on. We are definitely at a crossroads in history in America. Rush talked about the latest verbal attack from Obama on his Friday radio show.

Meanwhile, Obama's approval ratings continue to drop, going down five more points since passage of the extremely controverial health care bill that was clearly opposite what the majority of voters wanted and as more Americans fear for the direction he is taking this country.

As the President trash-talks, many are paying attention to the attacks on Rush:

- Politico: Rush Swipes Back at Obama, Says Many 'Fear for Their Country'
- WE: Limbaugh Responds to Obama: 'Never In My Life Have I Seen a Regime Like This' - Byron York
- NewsMax.com: Rush Limbaugh responds to Obama attack
- The Washington Times: White House admits Limbaugh attacks unhelpful
- The Hill: Obama stiff-arms Limbaugh and Beck

The White House may want to call in their strategists because this one isn't working.

O'Keefe falsely accused of bugging phones

Liberals love to spin lies on the internet ... especially liberal lawyers posing as bloggers ... and the same holds true in the James "I Broke The ACORN Story" O'Keefe story.

From Rush Limbaugh:

James O'Keefe and another guy got caught in Mary Landrieu's office, and the original report in the Washington Post said that... O'Keefe is the guy who with the girl did the BigGovernment.com videos that blew the top off the ACORN scams. He was in there, and got caught in the phone room, and the Washington Post reported what he was doing was bugging the phone lines of Mary Landrieu. Then the police said, "No, no, no, that's not what he was doing. We don't quite know what he was doing, but he was not bugging it." [emphasis added]

Rush's theory makes sense:

These people have turned off their phones, or they're redirecting calls from constituents to go somewhere to a dead line, and then they're saying, "Our phones are jammed. Nobody can get through. We don't know what's wrong." I bet you... I don't know this. I'm just speculating. But I'll bet you O'Keefe and his buddy who posed as telephone repairmen were in there to try to find out if somebody had jimmied with the lines so that constituents could not call the office and complain.
...
I'm just wild guessing, but don't doubt me. I wouldn't be surprised if that's what O'Keefe was doing.

There's more to this story ... Newsbusters reported the media continue to falsely accuse O'Keefe of bugging the phones. Stay tuned....

"You can't teach integrity...."

"You can teach anyone policy ... but you can't teach integrity, feistiness, and honesty, qualities held by Sarah Palin."

-- Dick Morris in discussing Sarah Palin and why millions of everyday Americans identify wth her (Wednesday's Fox and Friends) [paraphrased]

Passionate caller to Rush Limbaugh

In the 2:00 hour of the Rush Limbaugh radio show today, an impassioned woman called and was so articulate that it stopped me in my tracks as I cleaned house. Susan in Glendale's passion nailed the anger and frustration of the "little people" in this nation ... the ones who pay the salary of the electeds but feel powerless against a government that is not listening.

This woman lives in California and is "represented" by Barbara Boxer. As a mother of seven, she expressed what many would like to say. Rush Limbaugh has put up the transcript of the call and the link to listen to it.

I have seen hundreds of thousands of patriots with her passion and emotion over the past eight months. It does not seem to be dying away ... it seems to be growing.

We will remember in November 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012....

Spare me faux outrage

Barticles notes today:

NYT’s Thomas Friedman is worried that the current “poisonous” political atmosphere will incite someone to attempt to assassinate President Obama. Too many people, he says, are “crossing the line between criticizing the president and tacitly encouraging the unthinkable and the unforgivable."

Remember this novel written in 2004 with a plot to assassinate President George W. Bush?

In Nicholson Baker's new novella, "Checkpoint," a man sits in a Washington hotel room with a friend and talks about assassinating President Bush.

It's a work of the imagination and no attempts on the president's life are actually made, but the novel is likely to be incendiary, as with Michael Moore's documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11."

... Alfred A. Knopf is planning to publish Baker's work Aug. 24, on the eve of the Republican National Convention. "Checkpoint" is 115 pages long and will sell for $18.
...
Though it is against the law to threaten the president in real life, a work of fiction is usually protected by the First Amendment.

Spare me the faux outrage of the left ... they made the blueprint.

Byron York: "Without Bush, media lose interest in war caskets"

Was it a political agenda that fanned the mainstream media's interest in covering the war dead as they arrived on U.S. soil? The Washington Examiner suggests that may have been the case as interest drops now that the Democrats have dropped the ban on media coverage of returning caskets of American soldiers and Marines ... and the MSM have lost interest.

Michelle Obama needs 36 vehicles to buy kale one block from White House

Been kind of quiet out there from the fringe media (formerly mainstream) and lib bloggers about Michelle Obama using 36 vehicles to go to the farmer's market to purchase certified organic Tuscan kale.

Insert the name "Laura Bush" -- and there would have been outrage. And justifiably so.

Here's what the Washington Post wrote about the necessary precautions to escort an American president's wife to the farmer's market:

The Secret Service and the D.C. police brought in three dozen vehicles and shut down H Street, Vermont Avenue, two lanes of I Street and an entrance to the McPherson Square Metro station. They swept the area, in front of the Department of Veterans Affairs, with bomb-sniffing dogs and installed magnetometers in the middle of the street, put up barricades to keep pedestrians out, and took positions with binoculars atop trucks. Though the produce stand was only a block or so from the White House, the first lady hopped into her armored limousine and pulled into the market amid the wail of sirens.

Then, and only then, could Obama purchase her leafy greens. "Now it's time to buy some food," she told several hundred people who came to watch. "Let's shop!"

Puh-leeze.

I hope someone comes up with a breakdown of how much it cost the American taxpayers -- working stiffs who were at their jobs during this debacle -- for Ms. Obama to purchase a bunch of kale. The Post opined:

Considering all the logistics, each tomato she purchased had a carbon footprint of several tons.

The hypocrisy of the mainstream -- er, fringe -- media continues to amaze as the silence is stunning.

We surround him....

Several years ago conservative radio and CNN TV talk show host Glenn Beck warned of a financial crisis in America. He saw the handwriting on the wall ... but he was dismissed as a nut and a conspiracy theorist.

In late 2008-early 2009, this nation plunged into a financial crisis.

Earlier this year Beck moved to Fox News Channel. Using his own researchers and those provided at Fox, he conducted extensive research into radical groups, leaders, and those who are around and appointed by Barack Obama. He has used his radio and TV shows to disseminate that information to the American people.

The response has been phenomenal. He has unearthed information about Van Jones, the so-called "Green Jobs Czar," who had been an avowed communist and a 9/11 "truther" (believed the U.S. Government was behind the 9/11 terrorism attacks) and much more. Beck exposed information about Jones as well as other "czars" who have not been vetted but have access to the White House, and began digging into ACORN, that group that Obama once was a part of and appears to still be utilized by Obama.

Glenn Beck began connecting the dots.

In the wee hours of the morning of September 6, Van Jones resigned from the Obama administration.

On March 13, 2009, Glenn Beck urged ordinary citizens to get together for "We Surround Them" parties to show they were not alone, that there were many others who were concerned about out-of-control spending of the government and other concerns. Thousands across the country turned out and watched his 5:00 Fox News show outlining the 9/12 Project. He urged them to regather on Sept. 12.

Now Glenn Beck is under attack from the liberal left. His life has been threatened, his family has been threatened, his staff has been threatened, and they have vowed to destroy him however they can. For what? For speaking out, for exposing those who would endanger this country, and for not stopping when intimidated by those very people.

Today's NewsMax announces that Keith Olbermann is asking for help in digging up "dirt" on Beck:

After Glenn Beck scored a touchdown for the right with the announcement this weekend that Obama’s Green Jobs Czar Van Jones had resigned, liberal MSNBC host Keith Olbermann has come out swinging.

In a post made to his Daily Kos blog, Olbermann says he wants readers to help him dig up dirt on Beck, as well as Fox News chairman Roger Ailes.

Olbermann promised his fans: “Tuesday we will expand this to the television audience and have a dedicated email address to accept leads, tips, contacts, on Beck, his radio producer Burguiere, and the chief of his TV enablers, Ailes (even though Ailes' power was desperately undercut when he failed to pull off his phony "truce" push).”

The angry left cannot respond with facts. They respond with vitriol and character assassination.

All those ordinary citizens who were assured by Mr. Beck that they were not alone have now closed in and surrounded him to let him know he is not alone.

We surround him....

MSM hypocrisy: Pelosi's swastika comment ignored ... Rush excoriated

The hypocrisy of the mainstream media continues....

Hypocritical media

The hypocrisy of the left continues today:

The Federal Communications Commission will review complaints it receives over the on-camera gutter talk of anchors for CNN and MSNBC that came as they condemned the tea party movement in which hundreds of thousands of Americans met on Tax Day to protest not just taxes but a runaway government digging the nation into trillions of dollars in debt.
...
WND reported earlier on a series of vile comments from CNN's Anderson Cooper, who made repeated "teabagging" references, and MSNBC's David Shuster, who said, "Teabagging day for the right wing and they are going nuts for it."

"Tea-bagging" is known in the homosexual subculture as a practice involving a particular form of oral sex.

Several liberal bloggers have professed "outrage" over Shepherd Smith's slip of the "f" word ... yet join in or ignore the gutter talk from their own media ranks surrounding the tea party comments.

Media Research Center President Brent Bozell released a statement asserting the coverage of the tea parties was biased and the language egregious. He also called on CNN – and fellow news station MSNBC, whose hosts made "tea-bagging" jokes even more explicit – to apologize.

"Now the news isn't just biased, it's R-rated," said Bozell. "MSNBC and CNN both allow this vulgar attack-journalism to go out on their airwaves without blinking an eye and without any sign of guilt. It appears neither woeful bias nor lowly crassness on their airwaves bothers them a bit."

Double standards and hypocrisy ... the media continue to denigrate Americans.

Double standard ... liberal hypocrisy

Marriage is between one man and one woman. Miss California was scorned in the media for her stand on that issue ... but what of Obama and Biden? Free pass....

Katie Couric says Queen Elizabeth "requested" iPod

Am I to believe that heads of state put in requests -- purchasing orders, if you will? -- for gifts from visiting heads of state?

And is it just me ... or does an iPod seem a bit tacky as a gift to present to the Queen? Who is in charge of presidential gift-giving these days?

Rush Limbaugh played the sound bite of Ms. Couric gushing over the Obamas during their trip to Europe

COURIC: He presented the Queen with a video iPod -- something she actually requested! -- loaded with classic show tunes like My Fair Lady and Camelot, also a songbook autographed by Richard Rodgers, the master himself. The moment that was really noticed was when Mrs. Obama, as you mentioned earlier, placed her arm around Queen Elizabeth!

SMITH: Mmmmumph!

COURIC: Touching, I guess initiating touching is a no, no.

SMITH: Yeah!

COURIC: But her majesty seemed to welcome Mrs. Obama's overture, so people here are just eating it up!

Rush added his commentary to the Couric clip:

RUSH: Oh, yes, American royalty meets British royalty. So now Katie Couric says Queen Elizabeth asked for the iPod. She asked for it. Now, I heard -- and I don't know, but I heard -- that she already had an iPod. She asked Obama to bring her an iPod. What did he do, stop at the Duty Free Shop when he landed at Stansted and go in there and pick one up? No, obviously, because it was preloaded with stuff. It's another thing about an iPod. You give somebody an iPod so they can load their own stuff on it. The touchy-feely... This is one of the protocol things that people were worried about. Here is the audio of Obama's chat with the Queen. Now, what this is, is Obama and Prince Philip. They had this quiet exchange yesterday at Buckingham Palace.

These media hypocrisies bother me. The Bushes could do nothing right in the eyes of the mainstream media ... but when Michelle Obama touches the Queen, a definite no-no, it's okay to Ms. Couric. If Mrs. Bush had done the same, the press would be talking about it for days claiming the Bushes must have been brought up in a barn and were horrible representatives of the U.S. for daring to break protocol and touch the Queen.

In the words of Miss Katie -- "The Perky One," as Rush calls her -- "But her majesty seemed to welcome Mrs. Obama's overture, so people here are just eating it up!"

"Eating it up"?

Oh, to have Lexis-Nexis to research what Ms. Couric said about President and Mrs. Bush.

The media's fawning over Obama....

Fellow ODBA blogger Jim Patrick in Shenandoah Valley has a good post exposing the media's hypocrisy in covering President George W. Bush versus Barack Obama. Jim wrote:

Michelle Malkin quotes the press attacks and snide treatment about George Bush’s physical fitness, and then contrasts that with their raving adoration of Barack Obama:

“. . . he was photographed looking like the paradigm of a new kind of presidential fitness, one geared less toward preventing heart attacks than winning swimsuit competitions. The sun glinted off chiseled pectorals sculpted during four weightlifting sessions each week, and a body toned by regular treadmill runs and basketball games.” –Washington Post

Barf and double barf !

That’s the language of romance novels, not newspapers. But the press adores Barack Obama. It is not "like," it is not favoritism or approval; it is fawning, nauseating adoration. The adoration teenagers have for their heroes. So here is a rule to remember in the coming presidential term:

Clinton had Monica
Obama has The Press

The honeymoon may end, but to start with we will have to endure the "my man, he can do no wrong" that star-struck lovers gush.

And so the media hypocrisy continues....

What if, indeed

Today's Richmond Times-Dispatch editorial, "Different Stories," does a good job defining the mainstream media's hypocrisy in their news coverage of Democrats and Republicans. Take, for instance, the incident several months ago of Jim Webb's assistant being arrested with a loaded pistol at the Senate office building in D.C.

The Times-Dispatch plays devil's advocate:

Playing "What if . . . " can be a silly game. On the other hand, as a speculative exercise, it may be enlightening if limited to broad themes and relatively simple matters. And it's almost always fun, so what the heck:

What if the aide to a conservative Republican senator from Virginia -- someone like, say, George Allen -- had been arrested for carrying a loaded pistol into a Senate office building?

And what if, after the arrest, the senator had refused to answer questions about the gun's ownership -- but admitted nearly three months later that he did indeed own the gun?

What if, indeed.

It is against the law to carry a handgun in the District of Columbia. And it is impossible -- without a helicopter -- to reach Capitol Hill without traveling through parts of D.C.

So what if a newspaper reporter asked our hypothetical conservative Republican senator whether he complies with D.C. gun laws and the senator's response was: "I don't think we need to discuss that anymore"?

Does anyone honestly believe the media would nod and let the matter rest? But that has essentially been the response to the real-life version of our cleverly constructed what if, which differs -- as readers have no doubt deduced -- only in that the senator is Democrat Jim Webb.

The TD openly examines the actions of its fellow MSM's coverage -- or lack of -- throughout this episode.

Truth be told, we believe the media's response to the story has been appropriate. Petty use of the law to score political points is unseemly and undermines both the integrity of the public debate and respect for the law. Webb's offense -- if there was one at all -- seems relatively minor.

On the other hand, much of the media has spent the past six years working to undermine conservative Republicans by slamming them with unproven or absurdly arcane charges of legal wrongdoing. The Justice Department seems to be doing a good job catching the real crooks in both parties, including plenty of Republicans. The media's standards are much lower.

We've heard few demands for further investigation into Webb's gun kerfuffle -- and the media display little appetite to pursue the public's right to know more about the incident. And that's probably best.

But what if Webb were a Republican? Now that might be a different story altogether.

Not "might be" a different story but "would be" a different story. We need look no further than the Washington Post and their coverage last fall of George Allen's campaign.

What if, indeed.