Associated Press Declared Obama 'Kenyan-Born' in Report on 2004 U.S. Senate Race From Illinois - UPDATED!

UPDATE: Yid With Lid sends this along: "BREAKING- 2004 AP "Keynan-Born Obama" Phrase NOT From Associated Press."

Associated Press didn't not run the headline, just the main body of the story that ran in the Sunday Standard.

Either way, the fact remains the Obamas were only too happy to push the "Kenyan-born" meme. There are so many angles of duplicity now it's ridiculous.

**********

I just personally find this amazing, utterly amazing.

Recall that in 2007 the Obamas were campaigning for the Democrat nomination and touting Barack's Kenyan ancestry. So here's this news out that in 2004 AP was pumping up Obama as "Kenyan-born" in its reporting on the U.S. Senate race for Illinois. Maggie's Notebook has the report: "2004 Headline: Kenyan-born Obama Set for US Senate."

And see "INS Doc Found: U.S. Certificate Issued to One East African-Born Child of U.S. Citizen in 1961!" (via Radio Patriot).

This is frankly WND territory, for example, "Lou Dobbs Mystified by Obama-Birth 'Taboo'." But as reported widely among conservatives, it's clear that the Obamas were eager to tout Barack's Kenyan heritage right up to the 2008 presidential race. But as the story broke last week, the Democrat-Media-Complex was quick to attack the new "birther" controversy, and the explanation quickly became that a mistake was made with the initial press release reported by Breitbart the other day. Thus, the Daily Caller asks: "If Obama’s false claim of Kenyan birth was just a fact-checking error, why did it take over 15 years to fact-check it?"

But as I reported earlier, there's been too many rookie mistakes made by those on the professional left. It's going to add up and some of the stories will be too big even for the subdued Mitt Romney to avoid. We're reaching a breaking point for the Democrats. I'm more confident than ever that Barack's going to be blown out of the water in November.

See also: "Obama's Lit Agency Used 'Born in Kenya' Bio Until 2007."

IMAGE CREDIT: The Looking Spoon, "Obama's World Famous Kenyan Spaghetti Maker."

Commemorating 100 Years of Marine Corps Aviation

Via Theo Spark:

'Big Bain Backfire'

The Obama-Democrats are taking hits left and right.

Honestly, if things continue to go the way they're going, they'll be hit with the biggest presidential blowout since 1964. President Johnson was elected in his own right that year with 61.1 percent of the popular vote and the Democrats controlled the 89th Congress, starting in 1965, with a 295 to 140 majority in the House and a 65 to 35 seat majority in the Senate. Sure, that sounds miraculous, but with this economy and the circular firing squad of the Democrat Party's professional left, 2012 could at least beat the 1980 election, when Republican Ronald Reagan took 50.7 percent of the popular vote compared to 41 percent for incumbent Jimmy Carter (third party candidate John Anderson ran as an independent, taking 6.6 percent of the vote). Reagan in 1980 also took the Electoral College 489 to Carter's 49 .

It's still early, but if mainstream Democrat-Media-Complex outlets like ABC News start turning on the administration, things can't be looking good. See, "Obama Campaign Does Damage Control After Dems Question Anti-Bain Strategy" (via Memeorandum):

Chief Obama strategist David Axelrod today publicly rebuked Booker, a popular and high-profile surrogate for the campaign, saying he was “just wrong”....

Republicans have been gleeful with the apparent divide among Democrats over the portrayal of Romney’s Bain days.  The Romney campaign produced a web video – “Big Bain Backfire” – highlighting the comments, while the Republican National Committee purchased ads on Twitter to play up the Booker flap.

Here's the Romney ad:

More at Memeorandum.

Whoa! Bar Refaeli Tops Maxim's 2012 Hot 100!

Maxim did quite a number with this project.

Bar Refaeli is here.

But see it all: "2012 Hot 100."

And at the Los Angeles Times, "Bar Refaeli tops Maxim hot list; her secrets to sexiness helped."

Trayvon Martin Fight Club Video

Blazing Cat Fur reports, "Trayvon at the fight club..."

Blazing has the video on LiveLeak.

YouTube pulled the clip, but here's another. Trayvon Martin is said to be wearing the striped shirt and white cap:


And check the report at The Last Refuge: "Trayvon’s Fight Club – The Inconvenient Truth."

Plus, from Doctor Zero, at Human Events, "The Zimmerman case disintegrates: Beating people up because they looked at you funny is wrong":

The release of evidence in George Zimmerman’s murder trial quickly made a mockery of his second-degree murder charges, and threw a further layer of shame upon media and political opportunists who misrepresented a tragic, but fairly straightforward, case of lethal force employed in self-defense.

It is remarkable to take stock of this evidence and realize that it supports every single aspect of Zimmerman’s statement to the police.  His injuries are consistent with his account of physical assault by Trayvon Martin.  Martin’s gunshot wound occurred at the very short range described by Zimmerman, demolishing fantasies about a racist mall-cop wannabe stalking and murdering an innocent black kid for no reason...

Continue reading.

Suicide Bomber Kills Scores at Yemen Military Parade — On Cue, Los Angeles Times Warns Against Mission Creep in Arabian Peninsula

Well, it was almost 100, so I'm putting the number of killed in the scores. The Los Angeles Times says dozens, but who's counting?

See: "Suicide bomber kills dozens of soldiers in Yemen."

And the Times goes after the Obama administration for escalating the terror war in Yemen? I must be dreaming. From the editors, "Mission creep in Yemen":

As the United States finally begins to wind down its military presence in Afghanistan, is the Obama administration poised to replicate that intervention in Yemen? The administration insists it has no such plans, but it has been evident for months that it regards the Yemen-based group Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as the most dangerous incubator of terrorist plots directed at America. And it is acting on that conviction.

This week The Times reported that U.S. special operations troops, which were withdrawn from Yemen last year amid political turmoil in that country, have returned and are providing technical assistance to Yemeni forces. Meanwhile, at least 18 U.S. military and drone strikes have been reported against Islamist targets in Yemen since early March, a significant upsurge, and the CIA is active there....

Given the experience of the U.S. in Afghanistan, where a mission to dislodge Al Qaeda and the Taliban morphed into a decade-long exercise in counterinsurgency and nation-building, it is hardly alarmist to worry that similar mission creep might occur in Yemen, especially as the U.S. becomes more invested in the Hadi government. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula isn't the only threat to the new regime. Islamic militants have established an "emirate" in southern Yemen.

No one should belittle the danger posed by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. There is clearly a need for intelligence operations such as the one that thwarted a conspiracy to construct a potentially undetectable bomb in the month before the anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death. What President Obama — or Mitt Romney, if he is elected in November — must avoid is the sort of expansive intervention that has enmeshed this country in Afghanistan.

Right.

No one should belittle the danger, but let's not be too hasty to fight the terrorists on their home ground!

You'd think the country elected John McCain, or something. Sheesh.

Bain Capitalism 101

At the Wall Street Journal, "How does a rapacious company get repeat business?":

Watching Obama campaign ads or MSNBC, one could easily come to the conclusion that Bain Capital makes money by destroying the companies it owns. So for voters unsure about the business that Mitt Romney founded but still reluctant to trust the financial analysis offered by community organizers, some perspective might be helpful.

The basic Obama-liberal critique goes like this: Bain buys a company, loads it with debt and then sucks out cash before foisting the wounded business upon an unsuspecting buyer or a bankruptcy court. In the risk-taking world of private equity such a scenario can certainly happen, and it's true that Bain likes management fees and dividends as much as the next partnership.

But then how to explain the history of Bain Capital? Mr. Romney started the business in 1984. The company has since bought and sold many businesses and executed thousands of financing transactions....

Learning about Bain successes like Staples or Gartner or Steel Dynamics confirms the logical conclusion that Bain had to be creating value along the way—for investors, for lenders, and that means for workers too.

This is going to be a topic to watch. The left's hypocrisy on the economy is astounding, but the Democrat-Media-Complex will give the administration a pass --- well, excluding some genuinely decent reporters like Ashleigh Banfield who slammed Obama shill Ben LaBolt for that advertising hit piece posted above. That said, Romney's going to need to make the case for the virtues of the free market and the power of private equity to vitalize and invigorate the business sector. I was watching Kim Strassel on yesterday's Journal Editorial Report and that was her argument. The Democrat attacks on the wealthy --- like the Ricketts group --- are purely political and frankly demonic. But to counter this the Romney campaign has to be quick on the air with the corrective messaging. They have to remember that they're running against the media too.

Joshua Micah Marshall: Talking Points Memo 'Is Not a Website'

This is an interesting report, from Nieman Journalism Lab, "When is a website not a website? For Talking Points Memo, the turning point was in 2012":

As of late March, mobile — smartphones and tablets — accounted for 19 percent of TPM traffic. By early May, when I sat down with Marshall in his New York office, mobile traffic to TPM had passed the 20 percent mark.

“I don’t have much doubt that that number will be 30 or 40 percent in the next year or two,” Marshall said. “My only question is at what point tablets overtake smartphones.”

So what does this realization mean, from a practical standpoint, for TPM?

“More than anything else we had to shift our own thinking, because that was constraining with how you do things on mobile,” Marshall said. “Realizing that TPM is not a website — it’s a bundle of knowledge and expertise and ongoing coverage that exists inherently on no particular platform, and we are consitently trying to find ways to make it adaptable on as many platforms as possible.”

But the rethinking process also means rejecting the idea that TPM content can be one-size-fits-all, which deputy publisher Callie Schweitzer calls “a game-changer for all publishers.”

“We’re giving a lot of thought to three different kinds of consumption: Active consumption being at the desktop, on-the-go consumption being on your mobile phone, and passive consumption being in your bed, on your tablet, something like that,” Schweitzer said. “For me, it’s literally about the physical way you’re doing it. You can certainly actively consume at all of those different places but when you’re reclining, looking at a beautiful visual on an iPad, it’s very different than being on a mobile phone or sitting at a desktop.”

I've noticed some folks have been reading American Power on their mobile devices. If you haven't yet, but are thinking about it, here's the mobile URL: http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/?m=1. Looking at that link, most of the photos and embedded videos are showing up just fine. So bookmark the blog on your devices and you'll be good to go.

P.S. While I don't agree politically with Josh Marshall, I think they're doing a pretty good job over there --- and you may have noticed that I use their videos a lot.

Gay Marriage Bigots Attack 16-Year Old North Carolina Conservative Madeleine McAulay

This super intelligent young lady made a great YouTube vlog and the progressive bigots came after her like the devil himself.

See: "re: Vulgar Comments from “Controversies of Gay Marriage”."

She's a good young lady!

And see Fox News Charlotte: "Political Prodigy."

How Much Does the Average American Know About Obama's Autobiography?

This is a great clip.

These are man and woman interviews in the street, and some of these folks seem predisposed towards liking Obama. I love the dude who says, "Whoa. That's deep."

And I suspect Reaganite will enjoy this segment.

Laura Ingraham Slams Left's Double Standards on New York Times Ricketts-Romney Hit Piece

This is really good. Ingraham's on fire.

Via NewsBusters, "Laura Ingraham Schools George Stephanopoulos: 'Did Obama Give That Money Back to Bill Maher?'"

And more here, "George Will and Laura Ingraham Slam NYT for Rev. Wright Romney Super PAC Piece."

Jessica Rafalowski Swimsuit Hottie!

I mentioned Jessica Rafalowski the other day.

She's on Twitter as well.

NewsBusted: Elizabeth Warren Under Fire for False Claims of Native American Status

Via NewsBusters:

Aesha Mohammadzai Rebuilding Her Life in America After Being Horribly Disfigured in Afghanistan

CNN reports, "Saving Aesha":

Since arriving in America less than two years ago, she’s lived in three cities. She’s been showcased like a star and protected like a fragile child. She’s been passed around by well-meaning strangers, embraced by a team of women. And she’s gone after a family of her own.

Back and forth she goes, flying forward, reaching skyward.

How the Mormon Church Shaped Mitt Romney

Here's the big biography piece at the New York Times yesterday, "Romney’s Faith, Silent but Deep."

Ann Althouse calls this fascinating: "'Mitt and Ann Romney’s marriage is strong because they believe they will live together in an eternal afterlife...'"

But Joel Pollak isn't fascinated at all, at Big Journalism, "NY Times Ignored Obama's Wright, Focuses on Romney's Mormon Faith."

And pro-Romney blogger Jennifer Rubin goes after the Times, "The Mormon obsession":

The piece is a troubling, and in many cases a bizarre, attempt to picture Romney as “The Mormon candidate,” a standard that would repel most Americans if applied to another faith.

Word.

Protesters Flood Streets of Chicago Chanting 'Eat the Rich, Smash the State'

Via Glenn Reynolds:

#OCCUPYSELFPARODY: “Eat The Rich And Smash The State.” Remember, these are the folks for whom Elizabeth Warren was claiming intellectual parentage.

[VIDEO PULLED]

Bee Gees' Robin Gibb Dies at 62

An obituary at the New York Times, "Robin Gibb, a Bee Gee With a Taciturn Manner, Dies at 62":

Robin Gibb, one of the three singing brothers of the Bee Gees, the long-running Anglo-Australian pop group whose chirping falsettos and hook-laden disco hits like “Jive Talkin’ ” and “You Should Be Dancing” shot them to worldwide fame in the 1970s, died on Sunday in London. He was 62 and lived in Thame, Oxfordshire, England.

The cause was complications of cancer and intestinal surgery, his family said in a statement.

Mr. Gibb had been hospitalized for intestinal problems several times in the last two years. Cancer had spread from his colon to his liver, and in the weeks before his death he contracted pneumonia and for a while was in a coma.

Mr. Gibb was the second Bee Gee and third Gibb brother to die. His fraternal twin and fellow Bee Gee, Maurice Gibb, died of complications of a twisted intestine in 2003 at 53. The youngest brother, Andy, who had a successful solo career, was 30 when he died of heart failure, in 1988.

With brilliant smiles, polished funk and adenoidal close harmonies, the Bee Gees — Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb — were disco’s ambassadors to Middle America in the mid to late 1970s, embodying the peacocked look of the time in their open-chested leisure suits and gold medallions.

They sold well over 100 million albums and had six consecutive No. 1 singles from 1977 to 1979. They were also inextricably tied to the disco era’s defining movie, “Saturday Night Fever,” a showcase for their music that included the hit “Stayin’ Alive,” its propulsive beat in step with the strut of the film’s star, John Travolta.

But the group, whose first record came out in 1963, had a history that preceded its disco hits, starting with upbeat ditties inspired by the Everly Brothers and the Beatles, then with lachrymose ballads like “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart.”

Barry, the oldest brother, was the dominant Bee Gee for most of the group’s existence. But the lead singer for many of the early hits was Robin, whose breaking voice, gaunt frame and gloomy eyes were well suited to convey adolescent fragility. “I Started a Joke” (with the second line, “Which started the whole world crying”), “I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You,” “Massachusetts” and other heavy-hearted songs dripping with strings brought the Bee Gees to the top of the charts as one of the British Invasion’s most musically conservative groups.

“While other guys, like Ray Davies of the Kinks, were writing about social problems, we were writing about emotions,” Robin Gibb told a British newspaper last year. “They were something boys didn’t write about then because it was seen as a bit soft. But people love songs that melt your heart.”

More at the link.

I was in high school when the Bee Gees were tops in the pops. I think my older sister was more into them than I was, but you couldn't not like the Bee Gees. They were so crucial a cultural force.

William Jacobson has more, "Robin Gibb, R.I.P.":

This one hurts. I grew up knowing so many of the Bee Gees early songs by heart.

Cathy McMorris Rodgers Fights Left's War on Women, Is Rising Force in Politics

At Newsmax, "'War on Women' Catapults McMorris Rodgers into Spotlight."

The report mentions a recent Daily Kos hit piece suggesting that McMorris Rodgers needs to be "taken out." See, "Matthews Rattles Lying Mouthpiece McMorris Rodgers":

I find Congresswoman McMorris Rodgers particularly annoying. I think she's just about the biggest sellout to women there is. I hope she gets more effective challanges as time goes on. Would love to see some dirt dug up that takes her out of the picture. I really hate this.

"Particularly annoying" because she's obviously particularly effective in debunking the left's lies. So she's being targeted. No surprise. The left can't win on the merits so the mount the politics of personal destruction and intimidation.

Kudos to McMorris Rodgers for standing her ground.

L.A. Metro Bus Driver Fatally Shot by Passenger in West Hollywood

This is an awful story.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Metro bus driver shot, killed in West Hollywood."

And see the video report from KABC 7 Los Angeles, "Metro bus driver shot dead by passenger in West Hollywood."

That's So Gay-ven!

Hey, she says she's happy living her life in freedom:

'I'm living my PERSONAL life the way I'm happiest," the 26-year-old tweeted to her 350,000 followers.

See London's Daily Mail, "Setting the record straight: Raven-Symoné takes to her Twitter to address gay rumours."