Bob Novak Dies

Columnist Bob Novak has passed away after battling cancer for over a year.

The Chicago Sun Times remembers Novak:

WASHINGTON — Chicago Sun-Times columnist Robert Novak, one of the nation’s most influential journalists, who relished his “Prince of Darkness” public persona, died at home here early Tuesday after a battle with brain cancer.

“He was someone who loved being a journalist, loved journalism and loved his country and loved his family,” Novak’s wife Geraldine told the Chicago Sun-Times.

The left showed its usual intolerance towards people with differing opinion – American Power – Reactions on the Left

Hamas Distributer CNN Caught Peddling a Hoax

Paliwood at its finest!

Confederate Yankee details the hoax:

But what marks this story as a hoax, and what elements point to media collusion in promoting this video as propaganda? Please watch the video above again, and we’ll go through those elements step-by-step.

They are:

* basic medical procedures are poorly faked
* known propaganda actors are used in this film
* the site of the attack is poorly-constructed and inconsistent with a military attack.
* the body doesn’t act like a body

CNN has pulled the video but left a transcript of the events in its place. This is the same organization that hid Saddam’s atrocities in order to maintain media access to these thugs. There is no bar they will not crawl under in order to maintain a working relationship with terrorist organizations.

10 Silver Stars

Fox News reports: US Military Unit Earns 10 Silver Stars

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — Capt. Kyle Walton remembers pressing himself into the jagged stones that covered the cliff in northeast Afghanistan.

….

Months later, Walding wants back on the team even though he lost a leg. Morales walks with a cane.

The raid, the soldiers say, proved there will be no safe haven in Afghanistan for terrorists. As for the medals, the soldiers see them as emblems of teamwork and brotherhood. Not valor.

“When you go to help your buddy, you’re not thinking, ‘I am going to get a Silver Star for this,”‘ Walding said. “If you were there, there would not be a second guess on why.”

Heroes all. Well done and thank you for your service.

Interview with Al Jazeera

It is interesting who strikes up a conversation with you in the Press Filing Center:

Myself and Marathon Pundit were both interviewed by a roving reporter for Al-Jazeera English.

I Cannot Tell A Lie

…..unless my name is John Edwards.

Former presidential hopeful John Edwards admitted to an affair Friday with his former videographer, Rielle Hunter, though he firmly denied tabloid reports that he is the father of her child.

Edwards released a statement late in the day saying he made a “serious error in judgment,” after telling ABC News’ Nightline in an interview scheduled to be broadcast Friday night that he repeatedly lied about the affair during his failed presidential campaign.

If he was capable of repeatedly lying about this affair, we are now to believe him when he claims the child is NOT his? Uh huh – show me the paternity result excluding Edwards as the father.

PC Absurdity in NYC

9/11 relatives asked to remove U.S. Flag:

I could see this happening in West Chester, Pa.

H/T: Lady Sheepdog

Great Letter To The Editor – Philly Inquirer

I found this gem of a Letter To Editor in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Racial Divisiveness

A local Barack Obama team leader hysterically warned about an imminent onslaught of racist attacks against the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee (Letters, June 25). But the racial divisiveness against Obama has come from within the Democratic establishment itself: the recent “off-mike” comments of former Democratic presidential hopeful Jesse Jackson and the troubling cover art from Democrat-friendly New Yorker magazine.

In the interest of a respectful and honest dialogue during this election, campaign team leaders should renounce their fear-mongering tactics about race and start looking in the mirror. Maybe some honest introspection will cure this psychological projection.

Now it seems the racial divide is deepening, and it is not coming from the so-called GOP Attack Machine, as Karen Porter so described it in her LTE on June 25.

Jackson uses the “N-Word”

CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports that, although Jackson did not directly address the slur he used in a conversation he believed was private, he apologized Wednesday “…for the pain and sorrow that I have caused as a result of my hurtful words.”

The words, leaked to and posted Wednesday on the TVNewser blog, were from the same hot-mic conversation in a Fox News Channel studio that got him into hot water last week.

While waiting for an interview on the “Fox & Friends” news show earlier this month, Jackson said “see Barack been um, talkin’ down to black people, on this faith based … I want to cut his n–s out.”

Those comments first aired on Bill O’Reilly’s program on Fox News, but the network decided not to air another portion of the same conversation, when Jackson used a more controversial n-word, completing the sentence: “Barack…he’s talking down to black people … telling n—–s how to behave.”

Let us call out the race-baiters for whom they are, instead of deflecting the debate with politically expedient bogeymen during an election cycle.

Farewell, Tim Russert

WASHINGTON (AP) - Tim Russert, host of NBC’s “Meet the Press” and its Washington bureau chief collapsed and died at work Friday after suffering an apparent heart attack. He was 58. Russert, of Buffalo, N.Y., took the helm of the Sunday news show in December 1991 and turned it into the most widely watched program of its type in the nation. His signature trait there was an unrelenting style of questioning, sparing none of the politicians, business giants and even sports figures who appeared on his show.

H/T: Flopping Aces

A real go getter reporter, he will be missed.

Time 100 Finalists for 2008

Meet Rain

Go HERE and vote for RAIN in Time Magazine’s online “Most Influential People in the World’ Poll.

Do you really want Steven Colbert , Jon Stewart or Hilary Clinton to take the lead from Rain? After watching the videos below, I don’t think you would want that either.

Compare and Contrast

Two stories this weekend have peaked my interest – saddam not withstanding. They both revolve around the concept of ‘free expression’. Each story offers a contrasting viewpoint of how best to protect and promote freedom of expression.

In Venezuela, Chavez claims the role of sole arbiter of what constitutes a threat to national dignity and independence:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said he will not renew the licence for the country’s second largest TV channel which he says expires in March 2007.
In an address to troops, Mr Chavez said he would not tolerate media outlets working towards a coup against him.

Radio Caracas Television, which is aligned with the opposition, supported a strike against Mr Chavez in 2003. “There will be no new operating licence for this coupist TV channel called RCTV. The operating licence is over… So go and turn off the equipment,” Mr Chavez said.

Mr Chavez said the channel was “at the service of coups against the people, against the nation, against national independence, against the dignity of the republic”.

In Iraq, members of the US Airborne division have worked together with local Iraqi’s to build a radio station where once there was none. The Mayor of Balad Ruiz notes that “This is a free station, the people can say what they want, and they can speak freely.” No mention of was made of shutting down any news outlet to better protect the citizens.

BALAD RUIZ, Iraq -In a city where there is no means for releasing information to its people, coalition forces have developed a project to give the people a chance at free speech.The ribbon cutting ceremony for the Al Noor radio station, also known as the The Light, located here, opened its doors to many with high hopes and happy faces from the Iraqi Army and police department as well as city officials of Balad Ruz and members of the 5-73 Cavalry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. “This is a great day for Balad Ruiz and its people,” said Mayor Mohammed Maroof Al-Hussein, city mayor. “I think this is a new stage for our city and a new way to serve our people.”This is a free station,” he continued. “The people can say what they want, they can speak freely.”

“This is a pro-government radio station that counters what terrorists are saying,” said Pratt. “It also lets the people know what the coalition forces are doing in their area to help them.

I find these two articles to be a great litmus test for an individuals political leanings concerning free speech.

Those who support the Chavez-Sheehan power coupling would find no fault in Chavez’s actions.

Others to the right of this power couple applaud the tenacity and hard work that the good guys are doing in Iraq in the name of democracy.

Where do you stand?