Today's Posts

Vital Signs Ministries: Come Join Us for "Pro-Life First Saturdays"

Will Barack Obama Sign Away U.S. Sovereignty Next Month?

The Media's Complicity in Forcing ObamaCare Down Our Throats

ObamaCare Is Free Health Care for Illegal Immigrants, Abortion, and the Bankrupting of America. You Got a Problem with That?

Obama Plan Fails -- Jobless Rate Soars -- Media Goes Mute

Don't Buy that "Pro-Life Amendment" to the Pelosi Bill -- It's Counterfeit.

Pelosi Health Care Bill Is "The Worst Ever"

Vital Signs Ministries: Come Join Us for "Pro-Life First Saturdays"

Tomorrow morning (Saturday, November 7) Claire and I will be joining several of our Christian pro-life colleagues for a special demonstration outside the Council Bluffs Planned Parenthood at 1604 2nd Avenue. (That's 2 blocks south of Broadway on 16th Street.)

This is the PP center where we used to regularly picket and sidewalk counsel before they stopped committing surgical abortions there last year. We now do our sidewalk counseling on Monday mornings at the Bellevue abortion clinic.

However, the PP center in Council Bluffs remains a very wicked and lethal place: distributing deadly abortifacient poisons as well as advice and enablement for sexual promiscuity. So Vital Signs Ministries has selected Planned Parenthhood facilities to be on the list for our team pro-life demonstrations to be held the first Saturday morning of the month.

This particular facility will not be open tomorrow so we will be concentrating on prayers (corporate and private) as well as informing the public driving by that intersection. We'll be at the facility tomorrow morning at 7:30 for an hour (maybe a bit more).

And, in addition to some of our regular signs and banners (babies, "Every Heartbeat Is a Gift from God," the white cross on a color banner, etc), we'll be carrying signs made by Kurt Oyer that read:

* Every Year PLANNED PARENTHOOD Receives $265 MILLION OF YOUR TAX DOLLARS

* PLANNED PARENTHOOD: America's Largest Abortion Business. They're Making a Killing. Literally!

* 240,000 Surgical Abortions: Done Every Year By PLANNED PARENTHOOD

* The “Morning-After” Pill and RU-486 ENDANGER YOUR HEALTH TOO!

* PLANNED PARENTHOOD Racist -- Elitist -- Barbaric And You Are Paying the Bill!

If you'd like to join us tomorrow morning, please do. We'd love to have you aboard. And if you'd like to be on the call list for other First Saturday demonstrations, just let us know.

Will Barack Obama Sign Away U.S. Sovereignty Next Month?

A couple of weeks ago, Lord Christopher Monckton was in St. Paul, Minnesota to speak not only about the bad science (and even "badder" political purposes) behind the global warming hype, but also about the imminent danger of America signing away her sovereignty to global socialists at the United Nations Climate Change talks in Copenhagen next month.

The following video clip is only about 4 minutes long but I'm sure you'll find it riveting, inspiring...and scary. (Thanks to Jesse Bagwell for alerting me to the clip.)

The Media's Complicity in Forcing ObamaCare Down Our Throats

The liberal media wants ObamaCare to pass almost as much as Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and George Soros do. That's why the newspapers and network news shows are splashing around the AMA's endorsement of Congress' 1,990 page health care reform bill.

But they are being careful to avoid telling you that the AMA represents only 17-24% of the profession.

Indeed, as I pointed out from an Investor's Business Daily poll last September, two of every three practicing physicians opposed the medical overhaul plan that was then under consideration in Washington. Hundreds of thousands were considering shutting down their practices or retiring early if it were adopted.

And that was then. The final bill created by Nancy Pelosi and other liberal Democrats is now much more extreme, expensive and intrusive. The numbers of doctors opposing it would be even higher.

But the MSM coverage conveniently (unjustly is the better word) leaves these facts out.

Nor does the MSM tell us about the state medical associations of Ohio, Illinois, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida who are considering a bolt from the AMA endorsement.

Nor do they tell us that former AMA president Stormy Johnson is preparing a resolution to rescind the endorsement.

Nor do they tell us that the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons announced their firm opposition to the House bill.

So please pass this on to your friends who are only hearing the media's slant in this debate. We can't rely on Katie. We have to get the truth out ourselves.

ObamaCare Is Free Health Care for Illegal Immigrants, Abortion, and the Bankrupting of America. You Got a Problem with That?

Don't let your "moderate" Democrat Congressmen and Senators fool you with their blather, lies and knowingly false promises. Even the Washington Post openly admits that the 1,990 page monstrosity that is the Obama/Pelosi "health care reform" bill requires abortion coverage that taxpayers must finance AND free health care for illegal immigrants.

Obama Plan Fails -- Jobless Rate Soars -- Media Goes Mute

The Department of Labor announced today the economy shed another 190 thousand jobs in October, pushing the unemployment rate to 10.2 percent and the running Obama jobs deficit to 5.7 million. Earlier in the week the Obama Administration released figures purporting to show the Obama stimulus had saved or created 640,000 thousand jobs.

Only in Washington can jobs be saved by the thousands while being lost by the millions.

(J.D. Foster, "Obama Jobs Deficit Hits 7.7 Million and Climbing," The Foundry at the Heritage Foundation)

And yet despite a hugely unsuccessful stimulus bill and this soaring jobless rate, the media criticism of the Obama administration is almost nil.

What happened to all those journalists who savaged George W. Bush for much less damaging numbers?

Don't Buy that "Pro-Life Amendment" to the Pelosi Bill -- It's Counterfeit.

Mary Harned, writing on the Americans United for Life blog, deftly dissects that bogus "pro-life amendment" which is expected to be introduced today. Known as the Ellsworth Amendment, Democrats are touting it as an important victory for pro-life forces.

They're lying. It isn't that at all.

In this post Harned lists the specifics of the Ellsworth Amendment and gives a brief commentary on how they will affect you. It is an excellent analysis, one that you'll need to counter the false claims that will be made by "moderate" Democrats and the press.

Pelosi Health Care Bill Is "The Worst Ever"

This Wall Street Journal editorial is a must-read.

And not just for you.

In fact, I encourage you to forward this post to everyone on your e-mail list. We must take seriously our responsibility as American citizens (and, I should add, as citizens of heaven also) to oppose this horrendous and immoral power grab.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has reportedly told fellow Democrats that she's prepared to lose seats in 2010 if that's what it takes to pass ObamaCare, and little wonder. The health bill she unwrapped last Thursday, which President Obama hailed as a "critical milestone," may well be the worst piece of post-New Deal legislation ever introduced.

In a rational political world, this 1,990-page runaway train would have been derailed months ago. With spending and debt already at record peacetime levels, the bill creates a new and probably unrepealable middle-class entitlement that is designed to expand over time. Taxes will need to rise precipitously, even as ObamaCare so dramatically expands government control of health care that eventually all medicine will be rationed via politics.

Yet at this point, Democrats have dumped any pretense of genuine bipartisan "reform" and moved into the realm of pure power politics as they race against the unpopularity of their own agenda. The goal is to ram through whatever income-redistribution scheme they can claim to be "universal coverage." The result will be destructive on every level--for the health-care system, for the country's fiscal condition, and ultimately for American freedom and prosperity...

As Congress's balance sheet drowns in trillions of dollars in new obligations, the political system will have no choice but to start making cost-minded decisions about which treatments patients are allowed to receive. Democrats can't regulate their way out of the reality that we live in a world of finite resources and infinite wants. Once health care is nationalized, or mostly nationalized, medical rationing is inevitable—especially for the innovative high-cost technologies and drugs that are the future of medicine.

Mr. Obama rode into office on a wave of "change," but we doubt most voters realized that the change Democrats had in mind was making health care even more expensive and rigid than the status quo. Critics will say we are exaggerating, but we believe it is no stretch to say that Mrs. Pelosi's handiwork ranks with the Smoot-Hawley tariff and FDR's National Industrial Recovery Act as among the worst bills Congress has ever seriously contemplated.

Today's Posts

Quick Hits

Destroying Human Embryos for Immoral, Counter-Productive Experiments

Yes, Abortion Is In the Democrat Health Care Bill. What Are You Going To Do About It?

Another Case of Hollywood's "Brave New People" Cowering to Islamic Fanaticism

V as an Allegory for Obamamania?

Man Commits Murder to Pay for a Murder

CNN Spirals Downward While Fox News Soars

Quick Hits

* A New Zealand politician is proving once again that you can't talk out loud about elitist, eugenics philosophy. That stuff is apparently okay to motivate population controllers and Planned Parenthood officials who are still carrying out the racist claptrap of their founder Margaret Sanger. But you can't go on the radio and openly talk about paying the "appalling underclass" not to breed.

* Al Gore is poised to become the world's first "carbon billionaire," reaping huge profits from the global warming hype he has been so successful in generating. Never mind the hard science. Never mind the defensiveness of this New York Times profile of Gore's business activity. Follow the money and see if you don't think there's something besides "Al-truism" going on here.

* "Senate Democrats have blocked a Republican attempt to require next year's census forms to ask people whether they are a U.S. citizen." You would think this would be a common sense reform, right? But the Democrats are not interested in true reform any more than they are in fairness, accountability, transparency in government, or justice for taxpayers.

* John Nolte at Big Hollywood gives the lyrics to 11 new "Obama praise songs" that educators are coaching schoolkids to sing. Yes, these are in addition to the ones you've already watched in disgust. Be be forewarned -- several of the video clips Nolte offered have already been removed by You Tube which is becoming well known for its unjust censorship policies.

* The administration's figures about the number of jobs "created or saved" by Congress' boondoggle stimulus continue to be shown up as super-inflated. And though the media are generally going along with the gag (i.e. not bothering to inform the public of the truth), some of the more independent and responsible journalists like ABC's Jake Tapper are shining the light on the lying numbers.

* The New York Times tries in this story to present Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn's "Dr. No" image as an irascible Republican curmudgeon. It just doesn't work. The truth comes through that Coburn is a common sense, Constitutionally-minded, hard-working, morally responsible physician and Senator -- a fellow that most Americans would not only trust but who would like to go fishing with.

* Erick Erickson over at Red State says that the administration and most of its lapdog press will keep telling you that Tuesday's Republican gubernatorial victories in Virginia and New Jersey are anything but a rebuke to Team Obama policies. But he then lines up the facts that are squirmingly uncomfortable to the White House and, more importantly, to those Democrat politicians who must soon face their own reelection bids.

* And oh yes...the New York Yankees won the World Series.

Destroying Human Embryos for Immoral, Counter-Productive Experiments

Chip Maxwell, the executive director of the Nebraska Coalition for Ethical Research, fires both barrels (and hits both targets) with splendid op/ed columns for both the Omaha World-Herald and the Lincoln Journal Star. They are both well worth reading so do check them out.

* "Let Ethics Drive Research Debate"

* "Find Other Stem Cell Research Options"

Yes, Abortion Is In the Democrat Health Care Bill. What Are You Going To Do About It?

Just like we knew it would be...just like we've been saying all along...there's abortion coverage in the Democrat health care reform bill.

And it's not in the nuances. It's not in the penumbra. It's right there in plain English (well, as plain as legalese ever is) that the President Obama/House Speaker Nancy Pelosi government-run health care bill will require a monthly abortion premium.

Here is the straight skinny as posted in the House Minority Leader John Boehner's blog, "On line 17, p. 110, section 222 under 'Abortions for which Public Funding is Allowed' the Health and Human Services Secretary is given the authority to determine when abortion is allowed under the government-run plan. The Speaker’s plan also requires that at least one insurance plan offered in the Exchange covers abortions.

What is even more alarming is that a monthly abortion premium will be charged of all enrollees in the government-run plan. It’s right there on line 16, page 96, section 213, under 'Insurance Rating Rules.' The premium will be paid into a U.S. Treasury account - and these federal funds will be used to pay for the abortion services.

Section 213 describes the process in which the Health Benefits Commissioner is to assess the monthly premiums that will be used to pay for elective abortions under the government-run plan. The Commissioner must charge at a minimum $1 per enrollee per month.

Speaker Pelosi’s 2,032-page health care monstrosity is an affront to the American people and drastically moves away from current policy. The American people deserve more from their government than being forced to pay for abortion.

House Republicans are offering a common-sense, responsible solution that would reduce health care costs and expand access while protecting the dignity of all human life. The Republican plan, available at HealthCare.GOP.gov, would codify the Hyde Amendment and prohibit all authorized and appropriated federal funds from being used to pay for abortion. And under the Republican plan, any health plan that includes abortion coverage may not receive federal funds."

I know some of you worry that you're going to be considered pests if you keep on writing, calling and e-mailing your Congressmen and Senators about your opposition to these Democrat atrocities. But hey! It's your money! It's your country! It's your government!

Be courteous, of course. But, by all means, keep the pressure on. After all, these guys make a lifestyle out of posturing and pontificating and playing the American citizen for a patsy. So, don't let them get away with it that easy any more. Tell them politely (but with vim and vigor) that you're tired of runarounds, tired of broken promises, tired of excuses, tired of political schemes that exploit taxpayers rather than inform and respect them.

And, above all, let them know the depth of your disgust for abortion disguised as health care reform.

Another Case of Hollywood's "Brave New People" Cowering to Islamic Fanaticism

When I interviewed director Roland Emmerich a few months ago about his upcoming disaster flick "2012," the first question I asked was, "Why do you like killing the world?" His response: "It makes for a good story."

Over the past fifteen years, Emmerich has crafted some great tales about global doom, featuring some spectacular scenes of destruction. He had aliens zap the White House in "Independence Day," he let a massive lizard flatten New York City in "Godzilla," and he sent killer tornadoes through downtown Los Angeles in "The Day After Tomorrow."

For "2012," Emmerich set his sites on destroying the some biggest landmarks around the world, from Rome to Rio. But there's one place that Emmerich wanted to demolish but didn't: the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure located in the center of Mecca. It's the focus of prayers and the site of the Hajj, the biggest, most important pilgrimage in Islam.

"Well, I wanted to do that, I have to admit," the filmmaker told scifiwire.com. "But my co-writer Harald [Kloser] said, 'I will not have a fatwa on my head because of a movie.' And he was right."...

Emmerich has no qualms about wrecking other major landmarks, however. The massive dome of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican rolls on top of a crowd of churchgoers. The huge Christ the Redeemer statue that looms over Rio de Janeiro disintegrates. And, of course, the White House gets crushed when a wave drops the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy on top of it.

(Jonathan Crow, Yahoo Movies, November 3)

V as an Allegory for Obamamania?

Chalk up Glenn Garvin, entertainment writer for the Chicago Tribune, as another fan of V...and another who perceives just how uncomfortable the new ABC series might be making Team Obama.

Imagine this. At a time of political turmoil, a charismatic, telegenic new leader arrives virtually out of nowhere. He offers a message of hope and reconciliation based on compromise and promises to marshal technology for a better future that will include universal health care.

The news media swoons in admiration -- one simpering anchorman even shouts at a reporter who asks a tough question: "Why don't you show some respect?!" The public is likewise smitten, except for a few nut cases who circulate batty rumors on the Internet about the leader's origins and intentions. The leader, undismayed, offers assurances that are soothing, if also just a tiny bit condescending: "Embracing change is never easy."

So, does that sound like anyone you know? Oh, wait -- did I mention the leader is secretly a totalitarian space lizard who's come here to eat us?

Welcome to ABC's "V," the most fascinating and bound to be the most controversial new show of the fall television season. Nominally a rousing sci-fi space opera about alien invaders bent on the conquest (and digestion) of all humanity, it's also a barbed commentary on Obamamania that will infuriate the president's supporters and delight his detractors.

"We're all so quick to jump on the bandwagon," observes one character. "A ride on the bandwagon, it sounds like fun. But before we get on, let us at least make sure it is sturdy."

The bandwagon in this case is conspicuously saucer-shaped. "V" starts with the arrival of a couple of dozen ships from outer space, piloted by creatures who look like humans except a lot prettier. "Don't be frightened," says their luminously beautiful leader Anna (Morena Baccarin, "Serenity"). "We mean no harm."

The aliens -- who become known as V's, for visitors -- quickly enthrall their wide-eyed human hosts.

A handful of dissidents hold out against the rapturous reception given the V's. Some are simply uneasy, such as the youthful priest Father Jack (Joel Gretsch, "The 4400"), who sharply criticizes the Vatican's embrace of the V's as divine creations: "Rattlesnakes are God's creatures too."...

Man Commits Murder to Pay for a Murder

Alveda King points out the horrid irony in this San Antonio case wherein a teenager is accused of burglarizing the home of a neighborhood restaurateur and brutally killing her with an arrow -- all because he wanted $300 to pay an abortionist to kill his girlfriend's baby.

The murderer, openly and without duress, confessed to the crime and to the motive.

But sleazy lawyers are trying to get him off on absurd technicalities.

For instance, the defense attorneys want the court to 1) throw out the murderer's statement about the abortion motive (along with other statements he made to police); 2) throw out evidence obtained from a search of the man's pockets (a key belonging to the victim, two of her credit cards and a tube of her hair gel) because there wasn't cause to search him in the first place; 3) throw out the confession because the detective "glossed over" the man's Miranda rights; 4) throw out other evidence obtained from the murderer because he was "illegally intimidated" by the arrest in which officers knocked on the door to his parents' house with a battering ram and handcuffed him while he still was in bed; 5) throw out other evidence obtained from the murderer because he was questioned "with his hair disheveled and wearing only basketball shorts."

And they call this the justice system?

CNN Spirals Downward While Fox News Soars

* "For the first time in more than two years, CNN fell out of the top 30 cable channels last week in prime time (total viewers). Fox News ranked 3rd, behind USA and ESPN, while MSNBC was 26th. It was the 43rd consecutive week Fox News finished in the top 5 cable channels in prime time. In total day, FNC was #5, CNN #27 and MSNBC #31." (Mediaite.com, yesterday morning)

* "Highlighting even further the ratings erosion at CNN in prime time, the “Most Trusted Name in News” finished in fourth place among cable news outlets during election coverage last night. Fox News was #1 by a mile, followed by MSNBC, then CNN sister network HLN and CNN in 4th place. They were fourth in both total viewers and the A25-54 demographic." (Mediaite.com, yesterday afternoon)

Today's Posts

Love Lasts! Denny & Claire Chalk Up #38

Stan Parker Remembers "The Eye in the Sky"

Isn't Spending Money Fun? Just Look at What We Bought with the Stimulus Bill!

Another Muslim "Honor Killing." Another Yawn from the Press.

"Dare We Say It, Socialism"

A Public Pulse Letter You Won't Read in the WH

With Republican Victories, MSM Sings a Different Tune

Your Wednesday Tea Break (Again with the 1960s!)

Love Lasts! Denny & Claire Chalk Up #38

38 years and counting, Claire and I commemorate our marriage anniversary today.

And as we celebrate we remember:

* Being married in the county courthouse with a few friends standing by.

* Home Bible studies throughout the 70s with dear friends like Jim and Jeannie Lawson, Linda Scheffler, Pat Osborne and others.

* Tough economic times. Living in cheap apartments with cheap furniture...but precious friends, a vibrant faith and each other.

* Working as a commercial silk screen printer, Claire as a nurse aide and then a high school English teacher.

* University then graduate school.

* Trips together to Colorado, California, England, Canada, Poland, Austria, Switzerland, Germany. My travels, alas, without her to Belarus, Russia, India, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and Poland.

* Our pro-life ministries over the last three decades. Bad times (heartbreak, jail, discouragement, difficulties) and good times (honoring God's call, investing in eternity, lives saved, the honor of serving alongside heroes).

* Loving our house and yard. (Claire only had to wait 33 years for her own place.)

* And so many other things -- those terrific Christmases...years of radio programs...special times of teaching ministry in George, Iowa and now at Faith Bible Church here on the near south side of Omaha...picnics...times with family in Lincoln and Denver (some terribly sad moments there too)...sidewalk counseling in all types of weather...prayer meetings...day trips to Kansas City...rallies...listening to music...reading books...our fabulous Notting Hill Napoleon Literary Society...watching old movies...the Chesterton conferences...going to high school football games...Claire running and me playing softball, racquetball, tennis, and pickup basketball games with the Mexican kids in the neighborhood...watching fireworks over Rosenblatt Stadium...letter-writing...cooking...ever so much entertaining...and always love and gratitude and hope.

I could go on. But we're going to go celebrate now. And remember these things together.

Thank you Lord for our marriage. May it be sweeter and more effective in preparing us for heaven in the years to come.

Stan Parker Remembers "The Eye in the Sky"

One of the frequent blessings of being on Facebook is to read and then ponder for awhile the devotionals shared there by Stan Parker, co-founder and co-Director of Mission Nebraska. I asked Stan if I could re-print this one, an illuminating and memorable reflection on Hebrews 4:13 that emerges from Stan's days as a standout football player for the the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers. I think you'll like it, quite possibly enough to ask to be his Facebook friend too!

"And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account." -- Hebrews 4:13

When I played football at Nebraska, there was a video camera way up at the top of the stadium and that camera capture EACH AND EVERY play we ran the entire practice! Every one! Every day!

The slightest pre-snap twitch that would have been penalized during an actual game was captured on tape! We all knew it!

"The eye in the sky doesn't lie!"...we used to say when someone was not owning up to a mistake made they made! You see we also knew that the next day during team meetings that very same video was going to be played back, and we were going to be held accountable for every misstep and every blown assignment! Needless to say, that one reality profoundly effected the way each and every player approached a practice!

The soberness...

The intentionality...

The preparation...

The determination...

We made every effort to run each and every play right! No plays were "taken off" by any of us!

It also made us quick to own up to it when we did make a mistake! Even if the coach didn't seem to have caught it "live", we would often bring it to light ourselves, owning it and receiving real time correction! The meeting the next day went FAR better when we did! The tape still got run, but my mistake didn't get replayed over and over and no comment was made on it. It was as if it had never happened!

What a perfect picture and a powerful parallel this provided for me today while reflecting on Hebrews 4:13! Every day, every thought, word and deed... seen and CAPTURED by God, our heavenly Coach!

To live conscious of this reality is to live differently!

Isn't Spending Money Fun? Just Look at What We Bought with the Stimulus Bill!

Yesterday's Facebook browsing yielded a tip from Tim Nobles to check out Susan Ferrechio's priceless (pun quite intended) list of items that your tax dollars are paying for -- thanks to Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat Party.

The article can be read in full (and should be) in the Washington Examiner.

But I'll print here just a few of my favorites.

"The $787 billion stimulus bill was passed in February and was promised as a job saver and economy booster. Here is where some of the money went:"

* $300,000 for a GPS-equipped helicopter to hunt for radioactive rabbit droppings at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state.

* $30 million for a spring training baseball complex for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies.

* $11 million for Microsoft to build a bridge connecting its two headquarter campuses in Redmond, Wash., which are separated by a highway.

* $219,000 for Syracuse University to study the sex lives of freshmen women.

* $2.3 million for the U.S. Forest Service to rear large numbers of arthropods, including the Asian longhorned beetle, the nun moth and the woolly adelgid.

* $3.4 million for a 13-foot tunnel for turtles and other wildlife attempting to cross U.S. 27 in Lake Jackson, Fla.

* $6 million for a snow-making facility in Duluth, Minn.

* $300 apiece for thousands of signs at road construction sites across the country announcing that the projects are funded by stimulus money.

* $1.3 million on government arts jobs in Maine, including $30,000 for basket makers, $20,000 for storytelling and $12,500 for a music festival.

* $2.5 million in stimulus checks sent to the deceased.

Guys, these aren't jokes. Well, okay; they are jokes. But they're also all too real. As is the economic crisis in the United States because we've turned our country over to loons.

The specific items above, as the Examiner article points out, come from documented news reports and from the office of Sen. Tom Coburn. Please use them in letters to editors and urge your friends to do likewise.

Another Muslim "Honor Killing." Another Yawn from the Press.

20-year old Noor Faleh Almaleki will never see her 21st birthday.

The pretty young Iraqi woman is dead after succumbing to massive injuries caused by her father who deliberately ran her down with his Jeep because she had become "too westernized."

Police said her father mowed down both Ms. Almaleki and her boyfriend's mother as they were walking in a parking lot in Peoria, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix. It was, by his own admission, a Muslim "honor killing."

Comments Mark Steyn, "If there were a Matthew Shepard murder every few months, Frank Rich et al would be going bananas about the 'climate of hate' in our society, but you can run over your daughter, decapitate your wife, drown three teenage girls and a polygamous spouse, and progressive opinion and the press couldn't give a hoot. Indeed, as The Atlantic notes, it's merely an obsession of us right-wing kooks.

During the IRA's long campaign against Her Majesty's Government, British officials had a cynical phrase about containing Northern Ireland to 'an acceptable level of violence.' I wonder what the silent U.S. media will settle on as the 'acceptable level of violence' against Muslim women. Ten honor killings a year? A couple dozen? A hundred?"

"Dare We Say It, Socialism"

Where's that valiant, principled and independent press that we depended upon for fair, thorough coverage of the news?

They're still traveling in Team Obama's bus.

How else can you explain the media's ignoring this?

A new video of Jeremiah Wright has surfaced, showing Barack Obama's pastor of 20 years praising Marxism and discussing his ties to communists in El Salvador and Nicaragua and the Libyan government. Equally important, Wright is being introduced in the video by Robert W. McChesney, co-founder of Free Press, an organization which has come under scrutiny for its links to the Obama Administration and dedication to the transformation and control of the private media in the U.S. [McChesney is shown at left.]

In an article in the socialist Monthly Review, "Journalism, Democracy, and Class Struggle," McChesney declared, "Our job is to make media reform part of our broader struggle for democracy, social justice, and, dare we say it, socialism."

In the video, which captures Wright's appearance at a September 17, 2009, anniversary celebration of Monthly Review, Wright said that while the "corporate media" provide a "binary lens" of the world, in such terms as "communist versus Christian," Monthly Review offers what it calls "no-nonsense Marxism."

He added: "You dispel all the negative images we have been programmed to conjure up with just the mention of that word socialism or Marxism." He called America "land of the greed and home of the slave."

During the 2008 presidential campaign, as Obama was trying to distance himself from figures such as Wright and Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers, Wright gave a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. and repeated a discredited Soviet propaganda claim that the U.S. Government had manufactured the AIDS virus to kill black people.

The McChesney introduction of Wright provides more insight into the political network, based largely in Chicago, that launched Obama's political career and still influences him.

A professor at the University of Illinois, where Bill Ayers is also employed, McChesney was an editor of Monthly Review but now serves as a contributor to the publication and a director of the Monthly Review Foundation.

Fox News' Glenn Beck, who has focused critical public attention on McChesney's influence in the "media reform" movement and on the Obama Administration, has noted that McChesney co-authored another piece for Monthly Review, "A New New Deal Under Obama?," in which he said, "In the end, there is no real answer but to remove brick by brick the capitalist system itself, rebuilding the entire society on socialist principles."

Ironically, McChesney's Free Press organization has received at least $1 million from the Open Society Institute of billionaire George Soros, a mega-capitalist who seems to have dedicated his life to overturning the system that made him wealthy...

Read the rest of Cliff Kincaid's article over at Accuracy in Media. It's a doozy.

A Public Pulse Letter You Won't Read in the WH

Over the weekend, Pat Osborne sent me a copy of a note he wrote to the Omaha World-Herald in response to the sophomoric yet vicious attack on pro-lifers which they published by staff writer Robert Nelson. (See "Nebraska Newspapers Are In the Tank for ESCR -- Is It Time for You to Cancel Your Subscription?" from last week's Vital Signs Blog.)

The newspaper won't print Pat's note. But that doesn't mean you have to miss it. It's acerbic, no doubt, but witty and spot on about just how unprofessional and distorted the World-Herald has become in covering pro-life issues, especially embryonic stem cell experimentation.

And, judging from what I've heard, the depth of disgust Pat feels is not uncommon.

I was told of this article by a friend and didn't have to pay for a paper to read it.

My, my, my. That article wasn't worth printing on toilet paper.

I hope your subscription numbers continue to decline. Printing that kind of silly ranting just shows how rabid you guys are about attacking pro-life sentiments of any kind. It's probably news to you that there are many in the medical and scientific community who oppose where the Med Center is wanting to go on this issue. But printing something like that would involve someone at the OWH actually doing some objective research.

And who has time for something like that when you can just wind up Mr. Nelson and let him blather on for a few hot air paragraphs of enlightenment?

Oh well, I most often found your opinion columns better than the comics...May your numbers continue to decline and your revenues fall.

With Republican Victories, MSM Sings a Different Tune

What a difference a day makes.

The AP's Liz Sidoti told us yesterday that Republicans were making way too much out of polls that showed substantial strength for their gubernatorial candidates in New Jersey and Virginia. In fact, Sidoti carefully explained that even if the Republicans could win one (or even both) contests, it really wouldn't matter much. They were too divided, too far behind the pace the Democrats had established nationally with Barack Obama's historic win last year.

But after the alternative press had a field day criticizing the biased coverage of the MSM (yesterday's Vital Signs post is but one small example) and after the Republicans won big last night -- 5% in the New Jersey race, 18% in Virginia -- the tone has definitely changed.

Here's what Ms. Sidoti writes this morning:

Independents who swept Barack Obama to a historic 2008 victory broke big for Republicans on Tuesday as the GOP wrested political control from Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey, a troubling sign for the president and his party heading into an important midterm election year.

Conservative Republican Bob McDonnell's victory in the Virginia governor's race over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds and moderate Republican Chris Christie's ouster of unpopular New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine was a double-barreled triumph for a party looking to rebuild after being booted from power in national elections in 2006 and 2008...

Democrats in swing-voting states and moderate-to-conservative districts may be less willing to back Obama on issues like health care after Virginia and New Jersey showed there are limits to how much he can protect his rank and file from fallout back home.

The president had personally campaigned for Deeds and Corzine, seeking to ensure that independents and base voters alike turned out even if he wasn't on the ballot — and voters still rejected them. Thus, the losses were blots on Obama's political standing to a certain degree and suggested potential problems ahead as he seeks to achieve his policy goals, protect Democratic majorities in Congress and expand his party's grip on governors' seats next fall.

Interviews with voters leaving polling stations in both states were filled with reasons for Democrats to be concerned and for Republicans to be optimistic, particularly about independents — the crown jewel of elections because they often determine outcomes...

It's also difficult to separate Obama from the outcomes after he devoted a significant chunk of time working to persuade voters to elect Deeds in Virginia and re-elect Corzine in New Jersey.

Your Wednesday Tea Break (Again with the 1960s!)

The first selection for your midweek tea break is one of the very best from the One-Hit Wonder Department, The Left Banke's lovely "Walk Away, Renee." It's a terrific song. And check out the little guy belting out that deep bass voice. Man.

The second comes from Three Dog Night. Sure, it's a lip-sync performance but they usually were in the TV performances of that day. The song is "Eli's Coming."

And the third is "Be My Baby" by the incomparable Ronnie and the Ronettes. 60's music doesn't get any better than these stylish girls. Brew up and enjoy.

Today's Posts

If Pelosi "Health Care" Plan Doesn't Include Abortion, Why Is Leroy Carhart with Her at the News Conference?

Nebraska Ultrasound Law Means More Women Visit Pro-Life CPCs

A "Bombshell" Presentation from Gardasil Researcher

Remember Their Chains: Christians Imprisoned for Their Faith

Pro-Choice Advocates Flunk Out on a 2nd Grade Science Question

Team Obama's Remarkably Misplaced Priorities

While Conservatives Show Renewed Power, the Liberal Media Spins

If Pelosi "Health Care" Plan Doesn't Include Abortion, Why Is Leroy Carhart with Her at the News Conference?

From Concerned Women for America comes this bit of evidence that the Congressional version of ObamaCare does indeed promote and require payment for abortion.

The abortionist who failed to overturn a ban on partial-birth abortion prominently sported a sign at a press conference in support of Nancy Pelosi’s health care bill that she unveiled today. LeRoy Carhart is currently under investigation by the Nebraska Attorney General for unsafe medical practices.

CWA President Wendy Wright spotted Carhart and responded, “Nancy Pelosi’s bill has gained the support of the nation’s most notorious partial-birth abortionist who is under investigation for alleged unsafe medical practices. Pelosi’s bill can now be rightly called an abortionist’s dream. Under her bill, government money will pay for abortions, even the kind that Carhart commits – late-term abortions against viable babies that put women’s health at risk.”

Carhart faces criminal allegations of allowing non-licensed persons to give injections, start IVs and administer controlled substances. In 2007, his legal challenge to overturn a federal ban against partial-birth abortions failed at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Nebraska Ultrasound Law Means More Women Visit Pro-Life CPCs

The effects of Nebraska's new ultrasound law (LB 675, the Mother's Right to See Her Unborn Child) are already having life-saving effects. As Michelle Sullivan of the AAA Center for Pregnancy Counseling describes on her Facebook page, "Because of a new law in Nebraska, the abortion clinic is referring patients to the CPC for the free ultrasound that is required by the new law."

"The abortion clinics do have ultrasounds [but] the new law requires that they give the patient the name of a provider that does ultrasounds for free...that would be us!! The abortions clinics won't do it for free."

Michelle closes with this. "Go God! Use whatever it takes to reveal the truth! Lord, change the hearts and minds of the women who come to the Center!"

This, of course, is absolutely terrific news and we should be praying more fervently than ever for those women facing unplanned, unwanted or otherwise problem pregnancies. And we should be making sure we're supporting the pro-life CPCs in our area: the AAA CPC, A Woman's Touch in Bellevue, EPS in Omaha, and Gabriel's Corner in Council Bluffs.

It also means we should make sure to honor Tony Fulton who introduced and fought hard for that legislation when he was a Nebraska State Senator. (Tony is now running for State Treasurer, a position whose importance is certainly emphasized by this post from yesterday's Vital Signs Blog).

We should also honor all those who voted for the ultrasound bill AND those who voted against it or ducked away from the controversy by not voting at all. Here's that breakdown:

Voting for the ultrasound bill: Adams, Ashford, Carlson, Christensen, Coash, Cornett, Dierks, Fischer, Flood, Friend, Fulton, Gay, Giese, Gloor, Hadley, Hansen, Harms, Heidemann, Janssen, Karpisek, Langemeier, Lathrop, Lautenbaugh, Mello, Nelson, Nordquist, Pahls, Pankonin, Pirsch, Price, Rogert, Schilz, Stuthman, Sullivan, Utter, Wallman, White, and Wightman.

Voting against: Campbell, Council, Haar, Howard, McGill, and Nantkes.

Present but not bothering to cast a vote: Avery, Cook, Louden

Absent from the chamber: Dubas, McCoy

A "Bombshell" Presentation from Gardasil Researcher

Dr. Diane Harper, lead researcher in the development of two human papilloma virus vaccines, Gardasil and Cervarix, said the controversial drugs will do little to reduce cervical cancer rates and, even though they’re being recommended for girls as young as nine, there have been no efficacy trials in children under the age of 15.

Dr. Harper, director of the Gynecologic Cancer Prevention Research Group at the University of Missouri, made these remarks during an address at the 4th International Public Conference on Vaccination which took place in Reston, Virginia on Oct. 2-4. Although her talk was intended to promote the vaccine, participants said they came away convinced the vaccine should not be received.

“I came away from the talk with the perception that the risk of adverse side effects is so much greater than the risk of cervical cancer, I couldn’t help but question why we need the vaccine at all,” said Joan Robinson, Assistant Editor at the Population Research Institute.

Dr. Harper began her remarks by explaining that 70 percent of all HPV infections resolve themselves without treatment within a year. Within two years, the number climbs to 90 percent. Of the remaining 10 percent of HPV infections, only half will develop into cervical cancer, which leaves little need for the vaccine.

She went on to surprise the audience by stating that the incidence of cervical cancer in the U.S. is already so low that “even if we get the vaccine and continue PAP screening, we will not lower the rate of cervical cancer in the US.”...

Ms. Robinson said she could not help but wonder, “If this is the case, then why vaccinate at all? But from the murmurs of the doctors in the audience, it was apparent that the same thought was occurring to them.”

However, at this point, Dr. Harper dropped an even bigger bombshell on the audience when she announced that, “There have been no efficacy trials in girls under 15 years.”

Merck, the manufacturer of Gardasil, studied only a small group of girls under 16 who had been vaccinated, but did not follow them long enough to conclude sufficient presence of effective HPV antibodies.

This is not the first time Dr. Harper revealed the fact that Merck never tested Gardasil for safety in young girls. During a 2007 interview with KPC News.com, she said giving the vaccine to girls as young as 11 years-old “is a great big public health experiment.”

At the time, which was at the height of Merck’s controversial drive to have the vaccine mandated in schools, Dr. Harper remained steadfastly opposed to the idea and said she had been trying for months to convince major television and print media about her concerns, “but no one will print it.”

“It is silly to mandate vaccination of 11 to 12 year old girls,” she said at the time. “There also is not enough evidence gathered on side effects to know that safety is not an issue.”

When asked why she was speaking out, she said: “I want to be able to sleep with myself when I go to bed at night.”

(The Bulletin, October 25)

Remember Their Chains: Christians Imprisoned for Their Faith

Elam reports that early last month a more promising development had been made in the case of Maryam and Marzieh, two young Christian women who have been in an Iranian prison Iran for their faith since March. They had been charged with propagation of the Christian faith, apostasy, and anti-state activity.

But a new judge dropped the last charge. That's very good news because it means their case will now be transferred from the revolutionary court to the general court. But they are still in great need of your prayers -- as are so many Christians who are being intimidated, persecuted and even brutalized around the world.

As I have several times before here on the blog, I encourage you to pursue prayer and advocacy efforts in behalf of the persecuted Church with help from such news organizations and outreach ministries as Elam, Compass Direct News, Open Doors, Christian Solidarity, and Forum 18, the Hudson Institute, International Christian Concern, and Voice of the Martyrs.

Pro-Choice Advocates Flunk Out on a 2nd Grade Science Question

Team Obama's Remarkably Misplaced Priorities

If ever a cliche needed to be retired, it's the one about "speaking truth to power." And if the recent use of this self-congratulatory phase, by top White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, doesn't put us out of its misery, nothing will.

Jarrett was being interviewed by CNN's Campbell Brown about the White House's criticism of Fox News. Brown, bless her, was asking tough questions that placed Jarrett on the defensive. In a last gasp effort to defend her position that Fox's conservative opinion show hosts are more worthy of criticism than their left-liberal counterparts on MSNBC, Jarrett stated that the White House was "speaking truth to power."

Can we be far from "newspeak"when the most powerful office in the world holds itself out as speaking truth to power when it criticizes a cable news network?

Either Jarrett is an air-head or the Obama administration is a serious threat to freedom. The answer is, some of both, I think.

(Paul Mirengoff, Power Line, October 30)

While Conservatives Show Renewed Power, the Liberal Media Spins

I print below an excerpt from the Associated Press/Liz Sidoti story (which made the Yahoo Headline feature) in which the reporter deftly manages to skip over entirely the positive effects the Republicans will make with their showings in today's elections in New York, Virginia and New Jersey. Indeed, the story stubbornly sticks to the line that the G.O.P. is all but done for. No matter what happens today, at least in Ms. Sidoti's world, the momentum remains fully in Democrat control.

For Republicans, an election win of any size Tuesday would be a blessing. But victories in Virginia, New Jersey or elsewhere won't erase enormous obstacles the party faces heading into a 2010 midterm election year when control of Congress and statehouses from coast to coast will be up for grabs.

It's been a tough few years for the GOP. The party lost control of Congress in 2006 and then lost the White House in 2008 with three traditional Republican states — Indiana, North Carolina and Virginia — abandoning the party.

So even if political winds start blowing harder behind them and even if they can capitalize on Democratic missteps, Republicans still will have a long way to go over the next year because of their party's own fundamental problems — divisions over the path forward, the lack of a national leader and a shrinking base in a changing nation.

The GOP would overcome none of those hurdles should Republican Bob McDonnell win the Virginia governor's race, Chris Christie emerge victorious in the New Jersey governor's contest, or conservative Doug Hoffman triumph in a hotly contested special congressional election in upstate New York.

In fact, 2009 seems to have underscored what may be the biggest impediment for Republicans — the war within their base...

Now I'm making no predictions about how the Republicans (or in one case, the Conservative Party) are going to do in today's elections. But I do know they are going to fare way better than they were supposed to following the election of Barack Obama a year ago.

We were told then that conservatism was dead, that the benevolent tyranny of the Democrats would be the new order for the rest of time.

But then came the Apology Tours, the massive boondoggle of the stimulus bill, the collection of czars, the soaring narcissism of Team Obama, and the Democrats' reckless power grab badly disguised as health care reform.

And bingo... it turns out that conservatism is anything but dead after all. The polls show conservative values (and even the term) is on the rise while the ratings for Obama and Congress are tanking.

Therefore, today's political contests are very important bellwether events. Everybody knows that including the DNC who spent a lot of money in those races and Joe Biden and the President himself who made personal investments there. And the liberal press knows that too. So, they're using the ignoble tools of their trade to omit, distort, and cover up what's really happening.

But despite the press spin, despite the big money of the DNC, despite personal visits of Joe Biden and the O himself, the conservatives are looking awfully healthy in those races. Thus, the mainstream media with their overtly liberal bias are heavily downplaying the results -- even before they come in. Ms. Sidoti's slanted report is just one example of many such stories floating around today.

For the media knows that a strong showing by the Republicans (especially in these northeastern areas of the country) would be a most important story indeed, an indication that the spell Barack Obama tried to cast on the American people just hasn't taken.

Oh yes, these races are very important. So watch them closely...and pray.

Today's Posts

"Waste and Fraud" in the University of Nebraska System

NFL Commish Nixes Rush But Is Cool with Multi-Felon Snoop Dog

Andre Agassi Tests Positive for a Toupee

And to Hillary Clinton This Isn't a Joke

Planned Parenthood Director Quits, Converts and Now Works for Life

V Isn't a Good Omen for O

Democrat Insiders Break from Obama: Fox News Is Popular, Professional and Powerful

"Waste and Fraud" in the University of Nebraska System

That bad odor coming from the University of Nebraska isn't from the athletic locker rooms. It isn't even from the shady shenanigans of the NU leadership pushing to promote yet more human embryos be lethally exploited for gruesome experimentation. (Though it sure could be that.)

No, this particular odor comes from the infamous pairing of "waste and fraud" that bureaucrats so love to engage in.

Here's the story from Nebraska Watchdog.

In the last few years Nebraska state funds were used to buy a $628 fountain pen from Borsheims, a $750 dollar picture frame, a $219 golf club, and a $250 Nintendo Wii game. By the way the Wii was never used, the golf club can’t be found, and according to State Auditor Mike Foley the purchases, “have the appearance of being inappropriate.”

Those are just some of the findings in a 233 page audit of the University of Nebraska’s credit card system released today by Foley. Foley said the credit cards have been issued to over 2,000 University employees.

As Nebraska Watchdog first reported on Wednesday the audit has turned up questionable credit card purchases, including first class airline tickets which are strictly prohibited by the University. Foley said today that $283,000 in first class tickets were purchased by University employees between July 1, 2007 and December 31, 2008.

20 of the tickets cost more than $5,000 each, five cost more than $10,000, and one round trip first class ticket to China cost over $15,000.

According to the audit Harold Maurer, Chancellor of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, used his University credit card to purchase three first class tickets. Maurer went to China, Germany, and Hawaii. The China trip cost $11,886.46, the Germany trip cost $4,751.03 and the Hawaii trip cost $2,111.84.

The audit also notes that John Christensen, Chancellor of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, used his NU credit card to buy plane tickets to a conference in Minneapolis for his wife and son. The tickets cost $302.60 each. According to the audit the purchases, “were not properly approved.”

Foley said the credit cards have been given to over 2,000 University employees.

The audit also revealed a technique Foley called “pyramiding” which found employees circumventing the credit card’s dollar limitations. Foley said most of the cards had a dollar limit on any single purchase but the audit discovered that employees got around the limit by dividing large purchases into several smaller purchases. According to the audit the pyramiding transactions totaled over $330,000.

The audit also found that while all credit card purchases are to be approved by two people on many occasions they were only approved by one person, the same individual who made the credit card purchase. Foley said a serious weakness in the University’s accounting controls allowed the card’s primary user to log in to the system, change their user name, and avoid the approval by a second individual...

So far the bureaucrats in charge are stonewalling, passing the buck (no pun intended) and saying, as they always do, in the broad scheme of things, this is no big deal.

NFL Commish Nixes Rush But Is Cool with Multi-Felon Snoop Dog

While NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was calling conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh too "divisive" to own a professional football team, rapper Snoop Dogg was appearing in television ads for ESPN's "Sunday NFL Countdown."

I guess Goodell and other higher-ups within the league weren't concerned with having a man possessing multiple felony charges against him including murder do commercials for the highly-watched Sunday pre-game show on the nation's leading sports cable network.

(Noel Sheppard, NewsBusters, October 29)

If you'd like more about a writing a principled response to Roger Goodell's hypocrisy, see this Vital Signs post from last week, "NFL Commish Fumbles Away His Character...Again."

Andre Agassi Tests Positive for a Toupee

No kidding, Andre? That long-haired mullet look of yours that graced so many magazine covers back in the 80s was fake?

...The deception came to a head in the 1990 French Open final, when his toupee fell apart the night before the match, forcing him to play with the wig clamped down with hair clips. "During the warm-up training before play I prayed," he wrote. "Not for victory, but that my hairpiece would not fall off."

Ecuadoran Andres Gomez won the match.

And to Hillary Clinton This Isn't a Joke

Hillary Clinton when commenting on the low tax rates in Pakistan made this candid statement (I'm sure with no small amount of pride) -- "We (the United States) tax everything that moves and doesn’t move."

Planned Parenthood Director Quits, Converts and Now Works for Life

A Facebook friend, Dan Conner, alerted me to this terrific story coming out of College Station, Texas. Check it out in this superb KBTX story.

And then please consider passing along to KBTX your appreciation for their fine work on the story.

V Isn't a Good Omen for O

Is ABC's new sci-fi series an unwitting metaphor for the Obama administration?

For anyone who has seen the trailers playing on the network, it's kinda' hard to miss the parallels. The visitors seemingly come out of nowhere with unearthly powers and grandiose promises to bring hope, peace and universal health care to the whole world. But don't look too close. Don't question them. Don't resist. Just give them full control over your lives.

This "soft tyranny" leads to mass protests as people decide that freedom itself is worth more than any of the gifts the benevolent masters dole out.

Now I doubt that the originators of the series designed it this way. It was, after all, produced last year and is but a remake of an older series that starred alien lizards taking over the world.

But the show debuting as it does during the administration's full court press for health care reform and after its paranoid attack on Fox News and conservative talk radio makes the similarities of V to O all too eerie.

Watching a teaser on the ABC web site (with a musical background featuring singers repeating "They will not control us. We will be victorious.") certainly implies that the theme of the show will be a principled revolution against the V. And the good guys in V (all too clearly reminiscent of last summer's tea-parties) are the protesters.

For Team Obama which has also promised hope and universal harmony but requires as a trade-off that citizens relinquish to the government more and more of their personal freedoms, the arrival of the V on ABC can't be a good thing. It strikes too close to home and will inevitably provide a whole lot of material for conservative pundits, late night comedians, and witty techno-geeks who come up with clips like this one:

Democrat Insiders Break from Obama: Fox News Is Popular, Professional and Powerful

In a Politico story that made Yahoo's top news headlines, Daniel Libit reports on high-level (and very visible) Democrats who are willing to say that the Obama administration's attacks on Fox News have been unfair, counter-productive and rather silly.

Democrat Bob Beckel, for instance has been under contract with Fox News for six years. “I talk to more persuadable voters in a month than anybody on MSNBC and CNN talks to in a year.” No doubt about it. As Libit writes, "Fox is where the viewers are — No. 1 in the prime-time news ratings and drawing more than twice as many viewers on weeknights as either MSNBC or CNN."

But it's not just about the numbers.

Lanny Davis, the former White House counsel for Bill Clinton, who provoked mindless liberals everywhere when he said that Fox News was the fairest of any of the cable networks in its treatment of Hillary Clinton, says that the claims of conservative bias directed at Fox are without foundation. And those claims come from hypocrites.

Asks Davis, “Is there a difference between Fox and MSNBC?” You count the number of guests on Rachel [Maddow] and Keith [Olbermann] who are conservative Republicans. If you get to double digits, I’ll buy you dinner for each one.”

Liberal Susan Estrich is another regular on Fox and she has encouraged others to join her there particularly for Fox News' high standards. “They are the most professional network of any I have dealt with. If you are a Democrat who wants to deliver mindless talking points on Fox, it’s probably best to go to MSBNC and hope you get a chance to recite them. I think Fox encourages critical views of all sides, asks different kinds of questions and wants to have diversity of view.”

Beckel agrees and says Fox viewers are more open to the Democratic side of the story than stereotypes might suggest.

Are you getting any of this, President Obama? Your much-touted war on Fox News has backfired badly. It has made you look intolerantly partisan and imperially egotistical -- even to Democrat insiders.

(A tip to those of you who write letters to editors -- the above paragraphs provide a wealth of material. Please use it.)