The American Spectator does a nice job of deconstructing this ridiculous piece from a progressive blogger over at the Progressive Christian Alliance. The gist of the piece is this: Jesus was an illegal immigrant baby, thus if you are against illegal immigration, you are against Jesus and the entire story of the nativity is one big political story.

AS responds:

Faith dictates that churches offer their ministry and message of redemption, embodied in the Nativity story, to all people, including illegal immigrants. But there is no covert message within the Christmas narrative offering specific policy guidance on U.S. immigration law. The temptation to extract politics out of the Nativity account should be resisted. Perhaps the most infamous example was the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s 1992 Democratic Convention speech comparing Vice President Dan Quayle to murderous King Herod. The birth of Baby Jesus was significant enough by itself that it needs no political sloganeering to amplify its importance.

This religious outfit dilutes God’s word with its hippified humanism. Their “about” section reads like a vague intro to a self-help book. The emphasis is based on inclusion (Jesus Himself said He did not come to bring peace, but a sword Matthew 10:34) and accepting people as they are, regardless whether or not God’s law is followed. They are situational Christians: they love the Bible when they think they can cherry pick the Word and support leftist beliefs but are suspiciously silent on Scripture where it concerns life, marriage, law, and worship.

The Bible is quite clear on following the law where it does not conflict with faith:

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended.  - Romans 13:1-3

If you’re going to condescend to preach to the flock, you must preach all the Bible for consistency, as even the Devil can quote Scripture. A warning from Scripture to these so-called “progressive Christians” and their perversion of His Word:

(more…)

One of the Old Media’s favorite ways of attempting to hide the ideological track of a story is to somehow forget to mention which party someone in the news hails or to whom they owe their fealty. In this case, it is what they don’t report that misleads. This week we find a classic what-they-don’t-say story concerning the judge that blocked sections of South Carolina’s new immigration law. For those unaware, U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel temporarily blocked segments of South Carolina’s new immigration laws because he claimed that some of its provisions impinged on federal prerogatives, things over which the state has no jurisdiction. The South Carolina law was opposed in court by Obama’s left-wing, activist Department of Justice headed by Eric “Fast And Furious” Holder and a gaggle of civil rights groups. Judge Gergel agreed with these attackers and issued an injunction to stop implementation of the provisions in question.

The Old Media reported a lot of details in the story, of course. We learned all about who opposed the provisions, who scoffed at the injunction, in what District Judge Gergel hailed, and in some of the reports we even get to hear what Republican South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley had to say about it all. But there is one thing few news outlets seemed to report that might help readers understand the decision better. Judge Richard Mark Gergel is an Obama appointee. (more…)

Jose Antonio Vargas is obviously hoping to become some sort of disenfranchised, victimized media folk hero. You have to wonder how seriously the MSM will take him as he wags his finger and makes these sanctimonious pronouncements.

HuffPo:

Jose Antonio Vargas, the journalist who shocked the country when he revealed he was an undocumented immigrant, has challenged the media to cover the debate around immigration more comprehensively.

Vargas, a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and former editor at the Huffington Post, made headlines when he came out as an undocumented immigrant this past summer. Now, he aims to take on immigration reform, starting with changing what he believes is the one-dimensional nature of immigration coverage.

On Tuesday, Vargas lamented the media’s “familiar story line” about undocumented immigrants: that they “are a drain on the struggling U.S. economy, taking away jobs from native workers and posing a threat to American culture and livelihood.”

Vargas spoke with Charles Kenny, who penned a column for Bloomberg Businessweek arguing that hiring an undocumented immigrant is actually good for the U.S. economy. According to Kenny, covering immigration is “frustrating” and “annoying” from all different angles. For one thing, the positive side of illegal immigration is “politically dead in the water,” he said, and for another, people often assume that the negative side is true.

One way to “more comprehensively” cover immigration might be for the journalist who spoke with Vargas, Charles Kenny, to have pen, paper, and television camera ready after he discloses Vargas’ whereabouts to the Immigration Department.

(more…)

I give all but one of the GOP candidates an “F” for last night’s performance.

The very premise of the Republican presidential debate, hosted by NBC/Politico and broadcast by corporate welfare queen MSNBC proves that conservatives don’t understand the power the media is trying to exert over the next election.

It is an insult to the house of Reagan that MSNBC would try to pass itself off as a fair news organization with the eight Republican candidates giving the sneering, snobby and snide enemy a certain imprimatur of legitimacy.

The only reason the GOP is in a fighting stance in the 2012 presidential election is the Tea Party. The alternative narrative-drivers at MSNBC have spent much of the last two-plus years trying to frame millions and millions of patriotic and concerned Americans as violent, racist knuckle-draggers.

To dignify those habitual and unaccountable slanderers by appearing on that stage shows that apparently these Republicans and daily MSNBC punching bags don’t comprehend the scope of the media problem.

Barack Obama was elected due to the work of the media in 2008. Barack Obama will not cross the finish line in 2012 without the help of that same media–with MSNBC leaning forward as it pushes their wildly unpopular President from behind. (more…)

Kerry Picket had an interesting report in the Washington Times yesterday. Apparently President Obama’s uncle Omar, an illegal alien living in Massachusetts, was arrested for drunk driving after nearly smashing into a police car.

Picket also reports that the 67-year-old uncle Omar tried to, or at least wanted to, call the White House to get Barack’s help with the charges after he was arrested.

Picket writes:

“I spoke to Framingham Public Information Officer Lieutenant Delaney who told me that when Onyango Obama was asked at booking if he wanted to make a telephone call to arrange for bail, the Kenyan immigrant replied: ‘I think I will call the White House.’”

The president’s uncle, O. Onyango Obama, was mentioned in his book Dreams From My Father where Barack says that uncle Omar moved to the USA “25 years ago and never came back.” He’s been here for decades, living illegally the whole time.

It seems that uncle Omar’s time has run out, though. He’s now being held on an ICE warrant. Let’s see if he gets deported.

Now, one would think it would be big news that President Obama’s illegal alien uncle was arrested for drunk driving and is now being held for possible deportation. But few mentions of the incident have made “the news.” Worse, even many of the ones that did mention it never mention that this is President Obama’s uncle!
(more…)

Yesterday, NPR aired a story by Ari Shapiro on President Barack Obama’s attempts to court Latino voters. According to Shapiro, Obama’s “accomplishments for Latinos” include the following–purely symbolic–feats: a visit to Puerto Rico, appointing Sonya Sotomayor as “the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice” (forgetting Cardozo), and meetings “with Hispanic celebrities, activists and policy groups for summits, lunches and parties.”

Shaprio left out that fewer than 50% of Latinos say are certain to vote for Obama, and that Obama’s approval in Gallup polls is falling faster among Hispanics than any other ethnic group.

Shapiro did, however, highlight negative reaction from the National Council of La Raza to the fact that no GOP presidential candidates agreed to address its annual conference–without mentioning La Raza’s radicalism as a possible factor.

Source: Rudy Gutierrez/El Paso Times

Shapiro’s bias was most evident when applauding President Obama for his grotesque, dishonest, and hyper-partisan attack on Republicans during his recent immigration speech in El Paso, Texas:

You know, they said we needed to triple the Border Patrol. Now they’re going to say we need to quadruple the Border Patrol, or they’ll want a higher fence. Maybe they’ll need a moat — maybe they want alligators in the moat.

(more…)

The newly publicized life-story of award winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas seems to be one of those revelatory stories that tends to confirm some of the worst charges against liberals and the Old Media. The media sees no reason not to break the law, it employs people with political agendas, and all the while refuses to inform customers of the “news” that this is the case. As it happens, Vargas is an illegal immigrant in this country and has been for decades.

Vargas won a Pulitzer Prize for his 2007 coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings, he also made tongues wag recently with an exclusive interview with the reclusive founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. But his chief journalistic interest has been as a political reporter for the Washington Post.

Vargas tells ABC News that he found out that he had a fraudulent green card when he was a 16-year-old boy trying to apply for a California Driver’s license. The DMV told him his immigration card bought by his family in the Philippines was fake and “warned him not to return.”

Breakdown of the law number one was his family’s purposeful commission of a crime. Breakdown number two was a government agency assisting after the fact. The California DMV directly assisted an illegal immigrant and his entire family stay here as law breakers by telling a 16-year-old Vargas to run and hide from authorities.

Vargas took the DMV’s advice and began to train himself to speak without his native accent.

“I remember the very first instinct was, okay, that’s it, get rid of the accent… ‘Because I just thought to myself, you know, I couldn’t give anybody any reason to ever doubt that I’m an American,” Vargas said.

Notice how his “very first instinct” was to continue to break the law and compound that by engaging in subterfuge. Not to try and become a legal citizen.

(more…)

Remember when undercover, hidden camera sting operations conducted by citizen journalists were criticized and ridiculed as “not real journalism”. Remember when any report produced under those auspices were supposed to be immediately disregarded as a hoax and severely edited?

And, remember wondering if the real reason these investigations were being criticized was because the targets were left-wing sacred cows like ACORN and Planned Parenthood? And wondering if the media would be more forgiving if the target was conservatives?

Here’s your answer: ABC News has sent an actor undercover as a security guard to pretend he’s challenging the citizenship of latino-looking people in a restaurant.

Here is how reporter John Quinones sets up his under-cover investigation: So, we took our cameras down to Arizona, where a controversial, new law would give police the authority to question and perhaps deport anyone who, in their eyes, appears to be in the U.S. illegally. So, I go undercover, pretending to be someone who is about to be arrested and deported, simply by the way I look.

(more…)

The ongoing need (and demand) for a variety of media voices was evidenced, recently, in a modern morality tale featuring a preacher and his prayer.

On Nov. 16th, at the take-the-oath-of-office ceremony for incoming Oklahoma legislators, held at the state capitol, an invocation was offered by a James Hewett, interim pastor of a Methodist church in Shawnee, Oklahoma.

Kris Steele

In a puff piece about the occasion, CapitolBeatOK noted:

(House speaker-elect Kris) Steele presided over the swearing-in session, which opened with a prayer from Dr. Jim Hewett of Steele’s home church, Wesley United Methodist. Hewett prayed for “wisdom and sensitivity to circumstances” in consideration of illegal immigration, among other things.

Among other things?  Since CapitolBeatOk is too pro-establishment to go any further, let’s fill in the blanks.

(more…)

Last week, Drummond Pike took his FOX News fight to a whole new level, this time painting all of the right with a scarlet letter.  Coincidentally, Salon.com’s Glenn Greenwald had also published a similar piece in much the same vein, only a week prior.

In his opinion contribution piece to Politico titled “Why Does the Right Hate Soros?”, the founder and CEO of Tides Foundation pondered aloud the imaginary reasons he’s fabricated in his mind for the animosity toward the Hungarian born billionaire.

His conclusion?  Because we hate immigrants.

This is the typical left.  When you don’t get the response you want, inject a new element of manufactured hate into the mix – when you can’t make it about race, make it about immigration.  Drummond Pike even decided to step up the rhetoric, implying that George Soros is in danger because of right-wing media outlets and bloggers.  But the sad truth behind this piece, behind all of these public letters, boycotts and petitions is that they are all coordinated, and they are all aimed at turning the public opinion against those who do not share the ideals of the leftist agenda.

Some highlights from Pike’s opinion piece:

(more…)

Oooooh.  I’m so frightened, and it’s not even Halloween yet.

The Huffington Post mocked Tom Tancredo, former Republican congressman, now American Constitution party candidate for governor of Colorado, as a bigoted (“a healthy dislike for anything remotely Hispanic”) man of tempestuous character (“one of the larger anger-grizzlies”) with a bent for bombastic rhetoric (“We are, unfortunately, becoming a bilingual nation. You also have to also wonder about loyalties.”).

Here’s what’s scary: HuffPo’s forte for taser-tag journalism, a.k.a. the ‘art’ of taking sophomoric, cheap shots at political dissidents, ObamaCare naysayers, FOBs (Friends of Breitbart), opponents of comprehensive immigration reform, and never debating the issues.

Since the attacks, with these shallow scribes, are frequently about faux personality quirks, it’s no surprise that they would never mention one of The Tanc’s most endearing traits – that of a passionate victim rights advocate.

Watch this poignant video, featuring Marat Kudlis, a legal immigrant and Centennial State resident, which dramatically begins: “An illegal alien crashed into a Baskin Robbins store and killed my 3 year old son, Marten. The illegal alien had been arrested sixteen times but never turned over to immigration, because of the sanctuary city policies that [Denver] Mayor Hickenlooper supports.” (The latter is the Democrat nominee for governor.)

The ad ends with this dad’s enthusiastic expression of support for Tancredo’s gubernatorial campaign.

(more…)

It’s no surprise to me when the MSM pontificates about the Hispanic vote when it tries to explain the immigration policies of this administration. But I was expecting more clarity in conservative publications. A couple of recent  articles continue the myth of the “Hispanic vote.”

First, Jim Meyers wrote in “Arizona’s Illegals War Roils Country”(Newsmax)  that “Rep. Luis Guitierrez, D-Ill alluded to the fact that 68 percent of Hispanic voters backed Obama in 2008.” The article also showed pie charts detailing the percentages of the Hispanic vote in previous presidential elections. I’m always puzzled by the way the media can determine who votes for whom when we still supposedly have a secret ballot. What are they basing those percentages on- exit polling; addresses? How about voter fraud?

Immigrants from any country cannot vote unless they are naturalized although some Democrats want to do away with that provision here in NYC. Former City Councilman Bill Perkins tried to pass a resolution allowing legal immigrants the right to vote. He insisted that since they paid taxes they should have a right to choose their representatives. I pointed out in my 2005 New York Sun column (Only Citizens Have the Right To Vote ) that these individuals get benefits for their taxes, e.g. police, sanitation, etc. (more…)

It would be funny if it weren’t so funny:

The patriotic immigration reform movement lost one of its most creative warriors last week.

Terry Anderson, the self-described “prisoner of South Central,” an African-American Los Angeles talk show host, succumbed to pancreatic cancer and died on July 7.

Anderson was the loud voice of the Sunday evening The Terry Anderson Show. The show, built around the single issue of immigration, was known for “articulating the popular rage.” It aired on KRLA radio and the internet.

And rage he did. Articulately. Against La Raza, John McCain, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Janet Napolitano, Cardinal Roger Mahony, Lindsey Graham, Antonio Villaraigosa, and the Obama Administration. In short, any sanctimonious phony who had allowed the country he loved – especially his corner of southern California – to be invaded by illegals.

For an auto mechanic, whose idea of a fashion statement was donning overalls, he was a natural communicator with a commanding presence. (more…)

Let me see if I …. uh… uh… try to seek… uh… uhh… some answer on that.

Ladies and gentlemen, the great Robert Gibbs in action. The unidentified reporter ought to be heard from more often: maybe she can ask President Obama the same question, if he ever holds another press conference.

Your tax dollars at work.

One of the things the Left is particularly adept at is changing the subject, deflecting any serious  discussion of the subject at hand — in this case, the very real, post-9/11 national-security dangers of  ”immigration” across our southern borders — both by demonizing its opponents as “racist” and ignoring the substance of the argument in favor of tear-jerking, or heartwarming (depending on necessity) tales of “just want to work” folks.

And the Right falls for it every time. So fearful are they of being called you-know-what that conservatives reflexively concede the Left’s positions and only then try to argue — at which point, of course, the discussion is already lost. The Left’s trained seals and pet poodles in the media enforce this intellectual conformity by framing the polite boundaries of the discussion and ruling off-limits any outside-the-narrative attempts to actually engage in real debate.

Example A: This report by the House Committee on Homeland Security from 2006, when the Republicans still controlled Congress, “A Line in the Sand: Confronting the Threat on the Southern Border.” Despite President Obama’s recent assurances that all is well in the lands along the Rio Grande, it’s hard to read this and not weep:

Phoenix, Arizona, May 29, 2010. A peaceful protest against Arizona’s new immigration law, SB 1070. Here’s what the MSM told you the rally was about, as reported by the Arizona Republic:

Hoping to turn their frustration and anger into action, tens of thousands of protesters against Arizona’s new immigration law marched on the state Capitol Saturday and urged the nation’s leaders to hear their pleas.

“We must stand together for justice, opportunity and peace,” said U.S. Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Ariz., at the mid-afternoon culmination of what was a peaceful demonstration on the Capitol grounds. “What we need in the United States is not scapegoating immigrants.”

Sarahi Uribe, a representative of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, which helped organize Saturday’s event, said her California-based group participated to send a message to Washington, D.C. “We have a very clear demand that President Obama stop Senate Bill 1070,” she said.

And here’s what really happened, as told in these photos you never saw, such as this one:

And this one: (more…)

Ben Smith of Politico has posted a story that essentially mislead readers about what newfound conservative hero Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey thinks about immigration. Smith’s article spins Christie into an “amnesty” supporter when it doesn’t seem he is. One has to wonder: why did Smith do this?

Among many other issues, in the multipage interview with Christie, Smith broached the immigration issue. Being a governor, Christie is faced with as much trouble over the issue as any other, of course, but Smith’s characterization of Christie’s position on immigration would tend to make one feel that Christie is an amnesty supporter. In fact, Smith seems to impute several ideas or feelings into Christie’s replies that may not have been in them at all.

First off, Smith says that Christie had “long declined to ‘demagogue’ the issue” of immigration. It does not seem, however, that Christie has ever claimed to have a long record of refusing to “demagogue” the immigration issue.

Next Smith asserts that Christie says that “stringent state-by-state laws – such as in Arizona – are the wrong approach” for immigration. However, there is no sentiment about stringent anything in Christie’s reply to Smith’s questions. The word stringent did not appear at all. (more…)