It looks like the declaration by Louis Farrakhan that Barack Obama is the new Messiah, as you can see in this video, is not an isolated belief. It seems this bizarre theology of Obama worship has spread to our college campuses. In particular this belief in the sanctity of a certain sacred Chicago machine politician now seems to have devout acolytes in hallowed halls of Smith College, the nation's largest liberal arts college for women, located in Massachusetts. And the high priestess singing praises of The One is one Maggie Mertens, the associate editor of the Smith College student newspaper, the Sophian.

It isn't every day that gun grabbers can invent a whole new catch phrase to use against our Constitutional rights under the Second Amendment, but the Orlando Sentinel is giving it the old college try just the same. Sentinel staff writer Henry Pierson Curtis extrapolates "an alarming trend" that he is calling "disposable AK-47s" out of the words of a Florida police officer. So, now we have a new worry that the gun grabbers can use to scare people into accepting the destruction of our Constitutional rights.

Using an incident in Orlando to drum up their newest gun grabbing meme, the Sentinel tells the tale of some criminals that perpetrated a double killing and then ran from the scene abandoning two AK-47s, two handguns and a shotgun behind them. The Sentinel warps a quote from an Orlando Detective into the new catch phrase.

Remember how the media had to play catch-up with the National Enquirer and blogs after rumors that begged for investigation were ignored?  Many enjoyed that.  Will the media repeat the same mistake again now that strong rumors are surfacing of an Obama affair?

The rumors are swirling, but I never heard them. The first I heard of them was in this preemptive defense calling them smears. Larry Johnson is talking this up, but he isn’t the most reliable source…however when Jammie Wearing Fool has info and predicts this will be a scoop I listen.

From Sharon Churcher’s preemptive defense piece:

Reprinted with full permission from Wake Up America:

The media has been busy reporting the “anger” of the conservatives at the McCain/Palin rallies, how supporters want McCain to get tougher on Obama and force Obama’s terrorist associations into the eyes of the public and how McCain has been forced to “defend” poor little Barack Obama…..but where are the media reports about Obama supporters wearing t-shirts calling Sarah Palin a C*nt?

Have you seen this reported anywhere at all?

Please let me know where and I will add the link as an update.

This picture came to me via email, the email text is below:

Sunday's CBS Evening News ended with a feature piece on a 106-year-old nun in Rome who plans to vote for Barack Obama, her first time to cast a presidential ballot since the New Hampshire native voted for Dwight Eisenhower in 1952, because Obama is “a good” and “honest” man. From Rome, reporter Allen Pizzey related how her “simple, old-fashioned standard for politicians,” which apparently does not include the Catholic church's opposition to abortion, inspired her to decide to vote for the first time in 56 years. Sister Cecilia Gaudette explained: “As I say, a good straight man; good private life, honest and politically able to govern, of course.” As she put her hand over an Obama button on her clothing, Pizzey cautioned that though she's decided “the Democrat fit the bill,” she's “not about to campaign for him.” (She'll leave that to the news media?)

Earlier, the newscast aired a report on young voters in New Hampshire, leading anchor Russ Mitchell to set up the look at the nun: “Finally this evening, we just heard how the presidential election in New Hampshire could be decided by the youngest voters. Then again, it could also hinge on the vote of one Roman Catholic nun whose 100th birthday is well behind her.”

Given that the topic of this post is the Associated Press, I guess I should be pleased to report that one of its two reports tonight about the dive in the stock market last week is correct.

In one article ("Gov't eyes plan to take ownership stakes in banks"), AP's Harry Dunphy and Tom Raum correctly said that "the Dow Jones industrial average just completed its worst week ever, plummeting more than 18 percent." This is sadly true, at least if you "only" go back to 1921 (even I will give AP a pass for not wanting to dig through the muck of 1920, 1907, 1903 and 1901, which the New York Times was using as "hey, it's not that bad" benchmarks as Black Tuesday approached in 1929):

Mehdi Kalhor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's media consultant and Iran's Vice President of media affairs announced on Saturday that Iran is setting two preconditions before it will engage in any talks with the United States. (h/t Wizbang).

The announcement was made in an interview with the Islamic Republic News Agency and has been reported independently by both the Fars News Agency and Al Jezeera. Strangely though there does not appear to be any mention in the US media according to a Google search. (all emphasis mine throughout)

Vice President for Media Affairs Mehdi Kalhor said on Saturday that Iran has set two preconditions for holding talks with the United States of America.

In an exclusive interview with the Islamic Republic News Agency, he said as long as U.S. forces have not left the Middle East region and continues its support for the Zionist regime, talks between Iran and U.S. is off the agenda.

The Toledo Blade's lead editorial on Sunday, October 12, is a seeming plea to institute in America a chief communist principle: the "right" to a job. As anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of the Constitution knows, of course, there is no such "right." Nor should there be. But this hasn't stopped the Toledo Blade from pushing this anti-American notion and pleading for Barack Obama to take it up anyway.

Basing its article on the failed ides of FDR, our most socialist president, The Blade revisits Roosevelt's showy, populist idea of creating a "second Bill of Rights" giving Americans a "right" to a job. The Blade calls FDR a "forward-looking president" and extols the unAmerican specifics of his plan as a solution for today's problems, even making it seem as if U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is calling for the revival of this onerous new "Bill of Rights."

Poor Karl Ritter and Matt Moore of the Associated Press must have a lot of time to kill, a dearth of ideas, and a studied disinterest in accuracy as they await the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Economics in Stockholm, Sweden on Monday. A list of past winners is here. 

Besides lamenting that no woman has ever won the Economics Prize (so?), the AP pair felt the need to relate the financial bailout passed by Congress and signed by the President a week ago, and the current steep stock market decline that followed it (or, as yours truly and Investors Business Daily would argue, occurred because of it), to who might win the award.

Along the way, they, as AP reporters are wont to do, erred, and quite seriously.

Here's how their report, weirdly entitled "Amid the meltdown, economics Nobel no easy pick," began (bold is mine):

There's some good news out of the EU this evening that I wanted to pass along. This might make your Sunday a little brighter, and (fingers crossed) could supply some much needed stability to global markets this week.

First, European leaders agreed to some steps to shore up their banking system and credit markets:

The key measures announced were: a pledge to guarantee until the end of 2009 bank debt issues with maturities up to five years; permission for governments to buy bank stakes; and a commitment to recapitalize what the statement called ``systemically'' critical banks in distress. 

This has been positively greeted by the electronic currency markets -- "The euro rose the most in three weeks against the dollar and the yen after European leaders agreed to guarantee bank borrowing and prevent big lenders from going under" -- as well as S&P 500 futures -- "Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures expiring in December added 36.6 points, or 4.1 percent, to 927.6 as of 8:58 a.m. in Tokyo."

Stay tuned.

President George W. Bush is choking on a pretzel in the White House and falls from a sofa. Saddam Hussein is there with him. Later Bush flies on a magic carpet over Baghdad as he bombs the city. Eventually Saddam returns to the White House to scream insults at him. These were actual sequences that were originally in Oliver Stone's 'W.' movie which is opening this Friday. However, since they were finally cut from the movie, Stone is now patting himself on his back for his forbearance.

Politico's Roger Simon claimed Sunday that John McCain and Sarah Palin are responsible for the anger being expressed towards Barack Obama by their supporters.

Unfortunately, he had nothing to say about who's responsible for the hatred being expressed towards Sarah Palin on television, at rock concerts, and even at sporting events.

I wonder why.

Appearing on Sunday's "Reliable Sources," Simon gave the following response to host Howard Kurtz's question concerning whether or not it's fair of the press to blame McCain and Palin for some recent ugliness at campaign events (file photo):

The fervent cheerleading for Barack Obama by the Los Angeles Times continues to roar. We've documented the staunch pro-Obama position at the Times several times before: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here - for starters. Now check out the images from today's front page (Sun. 10/12/08). While a comfortable Barack Obama happily basks in the sun in a bright backdrop of red, white, and blue, a frail-looking John McCain is pictured in the dark with a faint and blurry flag in the distance. Equal coverage? Not even close.

Then there's the accompanying article, "Obama rides a wave of bad economic news." The Times happily cribs from the hackneyed "lifelong Republican-turned-Democrat" playbook:

While many in the media are accusing the McCain campaign of throwing everything they have at Barack Obama in the closing weeks of this presidential election cycle, other than Mark Hyman's Washington Times commentary today and World Net Daily's online coverage, little is being discussed about Obama's support of Kenya's tyrant Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

This popular internet video at 6:26 in cites Obama's connection and support for Odinga. An edited version of this internet video exists here and an Obama/Odinga on the campaign trail is here.  All 3 video embeds are at Eyeblast.tv.

The Odinga association may be even more devastating than the Bill Ayers link, because Obama cannot make the "I was only eight years old when this bad stuff happened" excuse.   Also,  questions are being raised if Obama may have violated the Logan Act.  Additionally, Odinga's thugs were involved in the slaughter of thousands of Kenyans.

Hyman's article in the Times says the following (my emphasis throughout):

The New York Times took the unusual step of quickly editing and replacing a hysterical post by hockey blogger Lynn Zinser that covered Sarah Palin's appearance at the Philadelphia Flyers home opener where she was invited to drop a ceremonial puck. In her original post Zinser exaggerated the boos by the crowd, attacked Flyers owner Ed Snider for inviting Palin to the event and appears to have fabricated the discomfort felt by NHL players Scott Gomez and Mike Richards.

That account has since been changed. Somewhere along the line Zinser gutted the original article and replaced  it with a new one that came a bit closer to reality. However the repost didn't occur before the original article shot across the internet where it was eventually picked up by Greg Mitchell at Editor & Publisher and flogged as a "political scoop". (update below: Rangers Scott Gomez voting for McCain-Palin)

CBS News relies on the Associated Press for information on Sarah Palin's use of taxpayer funds for "religious purposes." But before taking into consideration what the AP "reports," one must first take into account what the AP "knows" about American history. You'll find this "knowledge" in the third paragraph of their report:

An Associated Press review of the Republican vice presidential candidate's record as Wasilla mayor and Alaska governor reveals her use of elected office to promote religious causes, sometimes at taxpayer expense and in ways that blur the line between church and state. The U.S. Constitution provides for the separation of church and state.

No. It. Doesn't. Nowhere in the Constitution does it mention such a term.

As a result of the stock market collapse in the last four weeks, the economy has become the most important issue on the minds of voters.

Yet, as Barack Obama has clearly benefitted in the polls during this period, the media have refused to examine the records of the two presidential candidates as it pertains to policy proposals they have recommended or supported that might have averted this crisis.

Is this because John McCain has clearly been more out in front of this issue than Obama, and if the press actually did their job and told the American people this it might negatively impact the junior senator from Illinois's campaign?

Consider what McCain said during Tuesday's debate after being asked a question by Tom Brokaw concerning the condition of the economy (photo courtesy ABCNews.com):

CNN's Rick Sanchez is absolutely incredulous over the fact that there might be some black people out there who don't support Barack Obama. In an incredible double standard, Sanchez on his League of First Time Voters show has trouble believing that a black person could not be supporting Obama yet you will never hear him express shock that a white person could decide to vote for Obama. Sanchez asks one of the men if there is "any source of pride" that would cause them to vote for Obama. Of course you would never hear Sanchez ask the same thing of a white voter whether his pride would make him want to vote for John McCain.  Sanchez also brings up the point as to whether the men he interviews are considered "sellouts." Watch the video and you can see that Sanchez seems to treat these men as if they were some sort of bizarre oddballs for not wanting to vote for Obama.

On August 27, 1996, in the midst of that year's Democratic National Convention in the Windy City, the Chicago Tribune had interesting news (posted in full at my web host for fair use and discussion purposes) about what was then a new Internet initiative.

That Tribune story serves to confirm why the distancing from and supposed ignorance of the past activities of William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn by presidential candidate Barack Obama and other members of the Democratic Party ring very hollow.

James Coates's Tribune piece begins with an all-too-typical whitewash of the pair's violent past. But what's revealing is what Ayers and Dohrn were involved with, and who else was involved with them (bolds are mine):

Bernardine Dohrn and William Ayers took to the streets 28 years ago to protest what they considered the injustices in the world, especially the war in Vietnam.

The former leaders of the Weather Underground still are fighting injustice, but--adapting to the changing landscape of American politics--their current arena is the World Wide Web.