« November 2006 | Main | January 2007 »
December 25, 2006
Merry Christmas!
1 And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. 3 So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.
4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife,[a] who was with child. 6 So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. 7 And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
8 Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. 10 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. 11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: 14 “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
- Luke 2:1-13 KJV
Posted by jeffgannon at 09:56 AM
December 19, 2006
AP Won't Call Attacker "Gay Rapist"
Houston police are looking for a man who robs and sexually assaults his victims. The victims all have one thing in common - they are male teens. Police suspect the perpetrator chooses his victims on the basis of their gender and appearance.
The Associated Press report never once mentions nor even speculates on the sexual orientation of the rapist. The entire story avoids using the words "gay" or "homosexual" altogether.
Therefore, readers must assume that the man being sought for the crimes is not a Republican member of Congress.
Posted by jeffgannon at 10:07 AM
December 18, 2006
CBS: Christian Bashing Stations
CBS may have reached a new low Monday. The subject of its alleged comedy program "Old Christine" was how a divorced mother deals with her son's desire to go to church. The mother, portrayed by Seinfeld alumnus Julia Louis-Dreyfus, resists taking her son to church because Christians "hate gay people." In case viewers didn't catch it the first time, the main character repeated it at another point in the program as well as expanding on her thesis in front of a church while speaking with the pastor. The pastor assured her that his was a welcoming church with many gay members in the congregation. That's the only kind of Christian church you'll see on CBS unless it's one with a clergyman who is a serial killer, adulterer or rapist. Disgraceful.
Posted by jeffgannon at 09:49 PM
December 13, 2006
AP Worried Dems Might Lose Senate
My prayers go out to Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) for a full recovery and to his family in dealing with a serious health crisis.
That being said, I am appalled at the Associated Press report of Sen. Johnson suffering a possible stroke today. It only took Mary Clare Jalonick FOUR sentences to voice her fear that if Johnson was to be incapacited or die that South Dakota's Republican governor would likely appoint a Republican to take the two-term Democrat's place. That would keep Republicans in control of the Senate by the slimmest of margins.
Jalonick is a Democratic operative in Washington, DC who reports on the South Dakota congressional delegation for the AP. She wrote the infamous John Thune story during the campaign in which she purposely misquoted him advising fellow Republicans to split with President Bush. I sat right beside Jalonick at the entire press event and Thune said no such thing.
Here's my reporting about the story:
Thune Says AP Reporter Misquoted Him (She Lied)
Posted by jeffgannon at 05:44 PM
December 09, 2006
Foley Report Says Democrats Knew In 2005
The House Ethics Committee issued its report Friday about the Mark Foley mess. An anonymous aide released a short statement prior to the press conference that would be the template for the story, stressing two points:
1. No current members of Congress broke House ethics rules in the Foley matter.
2. Republican leadership was "negligent" in protecting underage boys.
This is a prime example of the power of a leak. The wires and the networks took the statement and wrote their stories based on those two points. One key element of the story has been omitted:
Democrats knew about the emails in 2005!
Let me repeat: DEMOCRATS KNEW!
Not only did Democrats know about Foley's emails to pages, but they shopped them around to media outlets to do political damage. All that bleating about protecting children underscores the hypocrisy of these folks. If Democrats were interested in protecting male pages, why didn't they contact law enforcement of their own members of the Ethics Committee?
On page 45 of the report, the Committee reveals that Justin Field, who worked for the House Democratic Caucus, received the Foley emails to the Louisiana page in November 2005. Field shared them with Matt Miller, the communications director for the House Democratic Caucus.
Miller said that his did not provide the emails to the House Ethics Committee or law enforcement because he didn't see evidence of criminal activity. Instead, he sent copies of them to the Miami Herald and the St. Petersburg Times. Miller gave the emails to Roll Call in December.
Miller also provided the emails to the communications director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, headed by Rep. Rahm Emanuel. Somehow this tidbit doesn't jive with Emanuel's denial that he didn't know about the emails. Foley's opponent certainly did and was planning to use them in the campaign.
There are more unanswered questions outside the jurisdiction of the House Ethics Committee:
1. What was the involvement of CREW?
2. What was the involvement of gay activists?
These questions will only be answered when members of these two groups boast about the roles in taking down Foley and the Republicans in Congress. The uncurious Old Media won't be looking at it any time soon - it's too busy basking in the glow of what it accomplished in the November midterms.
Posted by jeffgannon at 07:32 AM
December 07, 2006
Clueless Hastings Reacts To Pelosi Snub
From The Hill:
What were they thinking?
By Betsy Rothstein
Last week incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) passed over Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) to be chairman of the Intelligence Committee. The congressman, in a release, stated, “Sorry, haters, God is not finished with me yet.”
Jeff Gannon, political commentator, author and former White House correspondent:
“God may not be finished with Hastings, but he won’t be the Speaker of the House in January. Pelosi will be and it appears that she is very much finished with the ‘gentleman’ from Florida.”
MORE
Posted by jeffgannon at 06:28 PM
Snow Calls Out Dem Press Corps Operative
White House Press Secretary Tony Snow smacked down impetuous MSNBC correspondent David Gregory at Wednesday's briefing. In discussing the Iraq Study Group report, Gregory gets called out for being the Democratic operative that he is:
Q On the evaluation in the report it says the following -- the co-chairs say the following: "'Stay the course' is no longer viable. The current approach is not working. The situation is grave and deteriorating." Chairman Hamilton says he is not sure whether the situation can be turned around. Can this report be seen as anything other than a rejection of this President's handling of the war?
MR. SNOW: Absolutely. And I think you need to read the report --
Q I have.
MR. SNOW: You've read the whole report?
Q No, I've gone through a lot of the recommendations.
MR. SNOW: Okay, well, I read the whole report, and I will tell you, also based on the conversations --
Q But this is from the Chairman.
MR. SNOW: Well, if you listen to the Chairman you will have noted that he's not trying to --
Q They were all quotes, Tony.
MR. SNOW: David, please. You get mad --
Q -- report, I'm just saying those were all quotes.
MR. SNOW: I know. I know they're all quotes. I'm now going to try to proceed to try to place them in context. Number one, they are not trying to score partisan points or to look back. The one thing this is, is they're not doing look-back. The second thing is that they understand the difficulties. They have adopted the goals that the administration has laid out.
Why don't you go back and read through some of these and I'll go ahead and deal with them. Go back on your notes there and give me the comments one at a time.
Q "'Stay the course' is no longer viable."
MR. SNOW: Okay, stop -- no, no, stop.
Q But --
MR. SNOW: No, no, I just want to address them in their order, and I'm going to forget, so I'd rather just let you do it one at a time.
Q It's kind of a totality question, though. How you can hear these things and not conclude that it's rejection of the President's policy?
MR. SNOW: Well, number one, "stay the course" is not the policy. And you know the President has been saying that for months...But you need to understand that trying to frame it in a partisan way is actually at odds with what the Group, itself, says it wanted to do. And so you may try to do whatever you want in terms of rejection, that's not the way they view it.
Q I just want to be clear. Are you suggesting that I'm trying to frame this in a partisan way?
MR. SNOW: Yes.
Q You are? Based on the fact that --
MR. SNOW: Because --
Q Wait a minute, wait a second. Based on quoting the report and the Chairman, and I'm asking you a straight question, which you're not answering straight, you're actually --
MR. SNOW: No, I am --
Q -- you're trying to answer it by --
MR. SNOW: No, here's the --
Q -- nitpicking it.
MR. SNOW: No.
Q You're suggesting that by quoting the report, I'm trying to make a partisan argument?
MR. SNOW: Let me put it this way. Where in the report -- what you have said is, can you read this as anything other than a repudiation of policy. And the answer is, I can. And what I was trying to do was to explain to you, for instance, when you suggested that "stay the course" was a repudiation of policy -- not true. It's not administration policy. When you talk about the fact that there's a deteriorating situation, is that a repudiation of policy. No, it's something that we have acknowledged.
So what you have asked is a series of bullet points, each of which we have been discussing and addressing, and then you're asking if that is a repudiation of policy. No, it's an acknowledgment of reality, David.
Q Okay, just one follow-up here. I just want to be clear on what your argument is, because it's not entirely clear to me. But it is that --
MR. SNOW: You're trying to frame this as an argument. We're reading it. We're taking this in.
Q I know, you're clear in suggesting that I'm trying to frame this in a partisan way, I've got you on that. You're suggesting that the representations of this report are in sync with the way the President has described the reality in Iraq and his policy toward Iraq. Is that what you're saying?
MR. SNOW: Again, go through -- rather than -- because you'll accuse me of nitpicking -- read it. I mean, I'm serious. This is not -- I'm not trying to be snide.
Watch it yourself at CSPAN.
Posted by jeffgannon at 08:02 AM
December 06, 2006
Sore Loser Moonbat Refuses To Concede
In June it was California Democrat Francine Busby who claimed to have been cheated out of a seat in Congress because of electronic voting machine irregularities, now Florida Democrat Christine Jennings is making similar charges. She lost to Republican Vern Buchanan in a race to replace Rep. Katherine Harris who ran for the Senate. Several recounts have sustained his 369 vote victory.
Jennings "moonbat" rantings speak for themselves:
“Our experts have to be capable of getting the hardware and the software so that they can tear it apart — just literally tear it apart. All I’m concerned about, at this point, is that our voters get an answer and that I get an answer as to what really happened with those machines.”
and those of her lawyer Kendall Coffey, a former Clinton appointee, stripper "biter" and Gore recount attorney:
“We’ve gone from rubberstamp recount to preordained audit, and now with those events behind us, it’s time to get to some forensic testing that’s meaningful, by outside experts.”
Jennings is going to court and seeking a revote if her recount efforts fail. In Washington State in 2004, the Democrats kept counting the votes until gubenatiorial candidate Christine Gregoire won on the THIRD try and shamelessly took the oath of office.
Several Republicans lost close races and made no claims about malfunctioning machines, fraud, supression or disenfranchised voters. Republicans should take note of the tactics being used in this race in a year when Democrats achieved their objective of taking over Congress and recognize how this scenario might be repeated many times over in 2008 if the GOP manages to regain control of the Senate or House by one or two seats.
Posted by jeffgannon at 08:25 AM
December 05, 2006
Biased NYT Reporter Weighs In On Race Case
Linda Greenhouse, the infamously liberal SCOTUS reporter for the New York Times parrots a Leftist talking point on the segregation case now before the High Court:
There seemed little prospect that either the Louisville, Ky., or Seattle plans would survive the hostile scrutiny of the court’s new majority. In each system, students are offered a choice of schools but can be denied admission based on their race if enrolling at a particular school would upset the racial balance.
There's that "hostile" word again...
Posted by jeffgannon at 08:24 PM
Editor Calls For AP To Investigate Flamegate
The Associated Press is coming under fire for its dubious story about Muslims being burned alive after being pulled from a mosque in Iraq. Mark Tapscott of the DC Examiner is calling for a Thornburgh-Boccardi style investigation to salvage whatever credibility the AP has left. I think it's too late for that, but an inquiry would be a useful and enlightening exercise.
Posted by jeffgannon at 07:43 PM
December 04, 2006
Media Bias Monday
The liberal media bias never stops. Today's featured stories:
1. The Associated Press reports on a Supreme Court case dealing with school integration. The writer, Fanny Carrier (isn't that one of those purses that you strap on above your butt?) decribes why the makeup of the current Court might look at the issue:
"What is different this time is that the court has a new chief justice, John Roberts, and a new justice, Samuel Alito, both conservatives who have shown some hostility to race-based school placements even if the goal is to further integration of society."
Hostility? That is a Leftist word for holding what it considers the wrong point of view.
2. The Associated Press exhumes Rep. John Murtha as an respected voice among Democrats even though a week ago he was too "scandal scarred" to be Majority Leader. The "unindicted co-conspirator" in the Abscam sting repeated his accustation of "Bush lied" by saying that the Rumsfeld memo was an example of how the administration has been "mischaracterizing and misstating this war." Even though the story notes that Murtha is the incoming chairman of the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee, it neglects to mention that the Pennsylvania congressman's brother is a lobbyist for a defense contractor.
3. The Associated Press has a glowing tribute to Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez who won re-election on Sunday. The AP has done about two dozen stories about President Bush's expansion of executive authority but don't seem to have a problem with Chavez's consolidation of power:
"Since he first won office in 1998, Chavez has increasingly dominated all branches of government, and his allies now control congress, state offices and the judiciary. Current law prevents him from running again in 2012 but he has said he plans to seek constitutional reforms that would include an end to presidential term limits."
Fortunately, Fidel Castro's impending death won't deprive the American media of an anti-U. S. socialist hero in the Western Hemisphere.
Posted by jeffgannon at 08:34 AM
December 01, 2006
A Twisted Webb And Other Scary Tales
Democrats' zeal to defeat Republicans, any Republican, every Republican with any Democrat by any means necessary will provide surprises and big and small for them over the next few years. Party leaders drafted candidates without regard to their records, positions and peculiarities and a helpful Old Media helped keep such “inconvenient truths” hidden with endless stories about Mark Foley’s emails and other such nonsense.
In only a few weeks after the November midterms, Sen.-Elect Jim Webb (D-WashPost) has shown himself to be unworthy of membership in the collegial and august upper chamber of Congress. His conduct is an embarrassment to the people of Virginia he is supposed to represent and serve. The fact the Webb is unrepentant for his impudence in his first social contact with President Bush, indicates that the junior senator from the Old Dominion State may provide many such painful moments for his constituents.
Even though it will be another month before any gavels are passed, Democrats have treated regretful voters to the John Murtha/Steny Hoyer fiasco, the Jane Harman snub, the Alcee Hastings near-calamity (or outrageous injustice, depending on your point of view). However, none of these things will compare to the tragicomedies that will play out once John Conyers, Louise Slaughter and the rest of the “moonbat” wing take over committees and propose legislation.
However, that is only a preview of what is to come. The new crop of Democrats in Congress will undoubtedly make their own headlines once the old guard leaders move beyond the initial burst of buffoonery that has already commenced. Here’s a few to keep an eye on:
Keith Ellison (Minnesota) – The first Muslim elected to Congress has announced that he will break the 200+ year tradition of swearing his oath of office on the Bible and use a Koran instead. The former Louis Farrakhan disciple should provide hours of entertainment in floor debates and around Washington. Note: Ellison is also the first African-American elected to Congress from Minnesota, but that seems unimportant compared to his religion. The times they are a' changin'!
John Hall (New York) – Former “rock star” with the band Orleans, most famous for the 1970s classic “Dance With Me”. A true child of the Sixties, Hall never failed mentions the dangers of nuclear energy at every campaign stop.
John Yarmouth (Kentucky)- Publisher of the Louisville "alternative" newpaper the Louisville Eccentric Observer (LEO). He has called for such brilliant things as doubling the payroll tax, putting a surtax on trucks and SUVs even though Ford manufactures those items in his district and legalizing pot.
Posted by jeffgannon at 08:40 AM