You know what, in some swisted way, they(WAPO) actually makes sense.

My initial reaction was to say, Huh! But after taking a second look, it males logical sense to me.

There is logic to this and I approve of their line of reasoning!

Do you know how ridiculous any other paper would look if they were to run this headline again? This esentially puts the rumor(s) to sleep.

Voters in the primaries have a choice between Obama and Joe Biden. Joe Biden has 35 years in the Senate, has passed bills on Crimes Against Women, Torture (1977 - the current law which Bush has violated), Crime bills, Proposals before Congress to end the War in Iraq, Collecting Money from Deadbeat Dads, Getting Pedophiles off the streets, etc.

Voters can chose Joe Biden and not be left with an inexperienced Obama or Hillary Clinton and will pick the best of the best. Joe Biden has the experience and clot in Congress to get legislation passed, so that action is not a hope, but a reality.

Joe Biden is the CHANGE in the sorrid dialogue of this campaign voters are anxious to hear from. Biden said the best way to stop President Bush from launching another war in Iran is to make sure the President understands that he will face consequences as a result of his actions, even if they are at the end of his term.

"The president has no authority to unilaterally attack Iran, and if he does, as Foreign Relations Committee chairman, I will move to impeach," Biden said, adding that, "his legacy will be marred for all time."

Finally someone who speaks truth to power!

The time is right for Obama. He does inspire me, and it's time for inspiration. Democrats have a problem with eating their young. They tend to oppose anyone that challenges Hillary, but she is old news. We need to move on. Obama is the future. We need hope. Hope is the future. Obama can do for Democrats what Reagan has done for the Republicans. I am so happy to finally have someone we can vote FOR instead of a Republican to vote against. Hillary will be sad when she loses. I feel bad for her. She's worked hard for this, but that's not enough. We have to do the right thing and vote for hope.

I was just over at the Washington Post's website and Mr Bacon is getting hammered with negative comments about his sleazy article. Last count well over 600 emails. By far the vast majority of them are negative reactions to his writings.

This rumor just in - the Washington Post is a sad joke of a paper that has had its head so far up the Republican Party's ass that they've forgotten how much it stinks!!

RUMORS CONTINUE TO SWIRL OF GIULIANI'S SATANIST PAST

Despite vigorous denials by Rudy's campaign, the internet is abuzz with accounts of Satanist rituals at Gracie Mansion. As one anonymous poster put it, "The former Mayor is well-known to eat the liver of a new-born Christian child every morning for breakfast."

Despite protestations from Rudy's intimate supporter, a prominent Roman Catholic priest who has been accused of child-molesting on numerour occasions, many believe these stories and say they have yet to see convincing evidence of their inaccuracy.

"If Rudy does not have the well-known tattoo of his Lord and Master Beelzebub on his butt," asked one anonymous poster, "why does he refuse to drop his drawers on national television? What is he hiding?"

Many seem to agree that such stories do not arise in a vacuum.

Bernard Kerric said, when asked, "Rudy is no Satanist. He is as honest as I am."

Meanwhile, in other news, Judy is reported to be anxious about the prospect of being First Lady and crossing her fingers that she won't be replaced before 2009.

It should be noted that some Conservatives, even some quoted in the article, are blasting Perry Bacon for this slimy attempt at an Obama hit-job.

Robert Spencer at Jihadwatch first quotes Bacon's article and then responds:

BACON---"Robert Spencer, a conservative activist, wrote in Human Events that "given Obama's politics, it will not be hard to present him internationally as someone who understands Islam and Muslims, and thus will be able to smooth over the hostility between the Islamic world and the West -- our first Muslim President."

SPENCER'S RESPONSE: "Was I saying in this that Obama would, if elected, be our first Muslim President in a literal sense? Clearly not. I was saying he could be our first Muslim President the way Bill Clinton was our first black President. The whole first part of the column is about his not being a Muslim..."

But since when does truth matter in politics, right?

Why doesn't someone actually research what was being taught at Indonesian madrassas in the 1970s?? That was a period of relative religous tolerance; the Suharto regime distrusted the religious conservatives; the regime also excercised tight control over education (and everything else). Also, Indonesian public schools were very crowded, and probably not very good. My suspicion is that sending your kid to a madrassa was comparable (and less reprehensible) than sending him/her to one of the so-called "Christian academies" that sprang up in this country in those days.
Are there any Indonesians here who can comment on that era?

The first direct experience I had working in journalism was my high school newspaper. My teacher/editor Mrs. Sfreddo would have handed any student's ass to him or her if they had tried to run a piece like this. She would have chided the whole enterprise as innuendo and gossip.

How can anyone believe that we have in America a mainstream press that is fufilling its duty to accurately inform the American public?

When you combine the takeover of the original TV networks by larger corporate conglomerations with the rise of right wing media outlets that shouted liberal bias at anything that challenged their narrative, you have a perfect recipe for creating a supine press that would probably print a headline as absurd as "Liberals claim sun rises in East, sets in West"

In today's headline driven news cycles, it isn't necessary to prove outrageous assertions, it is enough simply to concoct them, place them into the media and enjoy the benefits of a damaging smear campaign.

One could spend a lifetime attempting to debunk lies and innuendo...and that is exactly what those who spread lies such as the one now repeated about Obama, intend.

The smear strategy, which the Post, played into (whether by design or negligence) is to put Obama on PERMANENT defense...thus allowing false accusers to frame the debate.

The Post Smear ran on page 1. People Read It. But don't expect a correction, retraction or an apology anytime soon. Instead, look for other attention-grabbing headlines about Obama or, indeed, anyone else.

*******************
NOTE:

The Post's paid circulation has been falling since sales peaked in the early 1990's.

1,158,329 - 1992 Sunday Circulation (Peak)
832,232 - 1993 Daily Circulation (Peak)

As of November 5 of this year, the Post circulation is:

894,428 - 2007 Sunday Circulation
635,087 - 2007 Daily Circulation

********************

"Bacon can rightly say that this is a piece that 'sets the record straight.'"
Sorry Jason, but that's not the case here.
When a reporter weighs in heavily with documenting the insinuations and false claims, buries the denials, and doesn't even mention these denials (and then in an offhanded way) until deep into his piece, he can't claim that this was an attempt to set the record straight. And he didn't even try to do so on the madrassah fib. He left the reader with the impression that these claims were still in dispute. That's a journalistic failure to deliver. I don't know what was at work here, but at best it was ingenue journalism that lacked adult supervision.

Also check out the Robert Parry ariticle in www.consortiumnews.com

Great reporter. Very astute commentator on the media. Did a great deal of work on the media hatchet job on Al Gore.

Is the fact that he is black and is a top contender for the democrat nomination to run for president having much to do with this obvious slander/slur againest him?

Salon's Glenn Greenwald really kicked WaPo's butt on this issue.

Hey buster brown kenmosher, what part of the wildbill999 post was racist? Or are you just fond of tossing that little epithet around? It's a mighty cruel and powerful charge and should not be used casually. You pedophile.