NewsWeek and Jon Stewart Decree the War on Christmas is Over…

By Marion Algier – The War on Christmas verses the Spirit of Christmas Series at AskMarion – 12

Leftist comedian Jon Stewart recently introduced his annual skewering of the “war on Christmas” with a montage of Fox News personalities breathlessly reporting the latest outrages against the holiday’s religious origins. “Let’s face facts, the annual Fox ‘war on Christmas’ has become a little predictable”, Stewart said, kicking off his own predictable seasonal faux war on Fox and especially Bill O’Reilly.

Illustration by Sean McCabe; Source: Ryan McVay / Getty; Peter Breiehagen / Photographer's Choice-Getty; Stockbyte-Getty; Stockbyte-Getty; Jamie McCarthy / Getty)

The Daily Beast: For several years now, there have been signs the war on Christmas is running out of ammunition. Google Trends shows a peak in news articles mentioning the Christmas clashes in 2005, after which they slowed to a small annual blip. In 2007 the Springfield, Ill., State Journal-Register remarked that the paper had received hardly any letters about the war on Christmas. “If there still is a War on Christmas going on, its soldiers must have gone underground,” they wrote in a Christmas Eve editorial. Despite occasional flare-ups, like 2010’s “billboard war” between Catholics and atheist groups outside New York City, the battle over the December holidays gradually became the stuff of social-media memes, Onion parodies, and Daily Show takedowns.

Hmmm… or is it just that the mainstream media has stopped reporting on the War on Christmas?!?

How did this cultural flash point slide into oblivion, with Bill O’Reilly virtually the last person continuing to fight?, the Daily Beast asks.  Some Christmas soldiers say it’s because their side won. According to the American Family Association, 80 percent of the ­retailers the group profiled for its inaugural “naughty and nice” list in 2005 used religion-neutral terminology like “holidays” in their advertising and store signs. Now an overwhelming majority have ­reverted back to using the word “Christmas.” ­Randy Sharp, a spokesman for the AFA, says that “there has been a correction.” Retailers, he says, realized “people weren’t offended by being wished a ‘Merry Christmas,’ but those of us who celebrate the historical significance of the birth of Christ are offended when you downplay that.”

Bill Donohue, the president of the conservative Catholic League, which has skirmished with atheist groups over Christmas displays, said his organization has received far fewer reports of alleged discrimination against Christmas this year.

Though the war on Christmas may no longer be an annual ‘news’ event, its legacy remains in ongoing local battles over religious expression in schools and on government property. Anecdotally, some Americans say that anger over the perceived purging of Christmas from society was simply absorbed into the right’s more general resentment toward the forces of multicultural inclusion. “It’s become part of the background noise,” said Charlie Digiglio of Waxahachie, Texas, describing conversations he’s overheard among friends and co-workers. “For many people, it’s just an assumed reality that’s hardly worth mentioning anymore.”

Don’t tell these people the war on Christmas is over:  Atheists intimidate Santa Monica into eliminating Nativity… And So the War on Christmas and Freedom of Religion Continues – Churches Thwart Nativity Ban By Putting Up Living Displays In Santa Monica Or how about the seniors who were told no Christmas Trees? Or the school that had to change their field trip to see a live version of A Charlie Brown Christmas because it was taking place at a church?

Jon Stewart addressed one of Bill O'Reilly's more impassioned "War on Christmas" moments during a Monday Monologue about guarding America from creeping secularism.

Video:  Bill O'Reilly Confronts Atheist Leader Over The War On Christmas

O'Reilly, who is the undisputed leader of "War on Christmas" coverage, had a slightly shouty (by which we mean it was surprising chairs weren't thrown) conversation with an atheist on his show last week. Besides calling his guest a "fascist," he also claimed that Christianity is a philosophy, not a religion.  Followed by an interview with Dennis Miller.

Video: The War On Christmas Discussed - Dennis Miller Time - Bill O'Reilly - 11-28-12

But we are here to say to the Daily Beast… “Not so fast!!”  The war on Christmas is alive and well and the war on religion… on Christians and Jews has accelerated in the United States and around the world!!  Let us all remember that just because the mainstream media isn’t reporting on something does not mean it isn’t so or isn’t happening.

Related:

The Need For A Christian Worldview of Freedom And Economics

BECK GOES GLOBAL, MEETS WITH CATHOLIC CLERGY & INTERNATIONAL TEA PARTY LEADERS IN ROME

Carolling… or Caroling and Christmas Music

Nativity – The Reason for the Season

Christmas Trees

Hanukkah, Hanukah, Chanukah

European Markets or Christkindlmarkts Capture the Christmas Spirit

St. Nickolas Day

So Where Is the War on Christmas Coming From? – A Worthwhile Read!

Best Holiday Movie Classics – A Merry Christmas From Hollywood

God Rest Ye Merry Merchants – Christmas: An American Holiday and Tradition to Love and Preserve

Advent – The Season of Anticipation and Hope

The War on Christmas verses the Spirit of Christmas Series at AskMarion – with comments from Ben Stein

Red Kettles & Bell Ringers

Black Friday Holiday Shopping Kick-off Overshadows True Meaning of Christmas

What Movies in History Best Captures the Spirit of Thanksgiving?

“Holidays Are Great and Fun To Share With Our Pets, As Long As We Avoid the No-No Foods” - Animal Nativity

Christianity & Gun Owners in the Crosshairs: Chilling Tactic Exposed

How Should Christians Respond to Atheist ‘Hatred’ & the War on Christmas? This Priest Has Some Advice

A great read: Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media’s Attack on Christianity

Technorati Tags: War on Christmas,Christmas,spirit of Christmas,charity,holidays,Hanukah,American Traditions,American values,War on Christianity,War on Religion,The War on… The War on Christmas,Jon Stewart,Dennis Miller,Bill O'Reilly,atheists,secularism,religion,war on religon,Christians,Jews,Catholics sue

The Beck Factor

My pal Glenn Beck is leaving his program on Fox News Channel later this year. This has caused great joy among some uber-liberals who object to free speech, as well as to anything Beck. The Media Matters outfit took just seconds to misstate why Beck is changing venues, but what else is new? George Soros partially funds Media Matters, so why would the website ever say anything truthful when far-left propaganda is so much easier to dish?

When you get past all the rubbish, Glenn Beck is really Norm, the guy on the sitcom "Cheers." He sits on a symbolic bar stool and vents. He sees bad things happening to his country and objects. Because his rap is so interesting, millions of Americans want to hear it. What on earth is wrong with that?

If you just got off the plane from Mongolia and dialed into the left-wing U.S. media, you might think Glenn Beck is the Antichrist. The hue and cry about Beck is downright hysterical. Why do they care? Beck isn't an elected official; he's not even a journalist. He's just a guy with an opinion. So what's the beef?

Well, again, it goes to free speech. Many hard-core ideologues in both camps simply do not want to hear opinions other than their own. And if someone is successfully bloviating views that differ from their orthodoxy, they go ballistic. And Glenn Beck is certainly successful.

Remember that he's the guy who exposed President Barack Obama's "green jobs czar," Van Jones, as a communist sympathizer and 9/11 truther. Jones said a quick goodbye before the White House door hit him in the butt. Beck also drove a campaign against ACORN, which was taking taxpayer dollars and using them to commit voter fraud in some places. Subsequently, Congress defunded ACORN.

Those are big accomplishments, the kinds of things that can get powerful people upset. Thus, Beck became a target, an object of derision and hatred for some in the media.

But it is Glenn Beck who will have the last laugh. His media empire is now so expansive that he doesn't need the daily grind of TV news analysis. The guy has a hot website, The Blaze, has a syndicated radio program and even has an imprint at a prestigious publishing house. Plus, his speaking fees could reduce the national debt considerably.

So three cheers for Glenn Beck aka Norm, a regular American who loves his country and is willing to suffer the slings and arrows to make his voice heard. We'll miss seeing him so often on Fox News, but his voice still will resonate throughout the media. And to those who respect Glenn Beck, that's all that really matters.

Veteran TV news anchor Bill O'Reilly is host of the Fox News show "The O'Reilly Factor" and author of the book "Pinheads and Patriots: Where You Stand in the Age of Obama." To find out more about Bill O'Reilly, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com. This column originates on the website www.billoreilly.com.

COPYRIGHT 2011 BillOReilly.com  -  DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM

Bill O'Reilly  -  Bill O'Reilly is host of the Fox News show "The O'Reilly Factor" and author of "Who's Looking Out for You?" and Pinheads and Patriots: Where You Stand in the Age of Obama.

Bill O‘Reilly and Glenn Beck don’t always see eye-to-eye — they don’t always agree on everything. But one thing that O’Reilly is agreeing with Beck on now is that there are those on the left who would love to see an economic collapse so that they can remake the system. Chief among those cheerleaders, O’Reilly says, is Beck’s “spooky guy” — George Soros.

While discussing who won the budget battle during his “Talking Points” segment last night, O’Reilly said “the far left wants the government to control the economy” and they want a “recast” of the economic system. The only way to do that? An economic collapse. O’Reilly also featured The Blaze’s video of Rep. Markey’s tirade against the pollution-loving GOP. You can see both The Blaze video and the O‘Reilly’s thoughts on Soros starting at about 1:30 below:

See Video at: O’REILLY FEATURES BLAZE VIDEO & ACCUSES ‘SPOOKY GUY’ SOROS OF WANTING ECONOMIC COLLAPSE

Congrats to Bill O’Reilly for sticking up for his friend Glenn Beck!!

As the week has gone on since Beck announced that he will be leaving Fox later this year, the support for him has increased…  Perhaps the uber-liberal thugs aren’t so smart after all??  some say never to kill your opponent because you just make them a martyr and then you have something worse.  Well, who said Washington thugs were smart?  I have heard a new battle cry from more than one source “Remember The Beck”!  

I encourage you to go Vote for Beck on the Time 100 Most Influential Poll:  http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2058044_2060338_2059895,00.html as well as a surprising number of Conservative names on the list of 204 including: Michele Bachmann, Marco Rubio, John Boehner, Sarah Palin, Ron Paul, Roger Ailes, Paul Ryan, Chris Christie, Mitt Romney, Nikki Haley, John Huntsman Jr… and I probably forgot a few others.  Voting closes the 14th.  Wouldn’t that just be a kick in the head to the left if he was #1~

ZONATION: Oh, How Liberals Contradict Themselves

This is great!! You have to watch this!!!

ZONATION: Oh, How Liberals Contradict Themselves – Video

ZONATION: Oh, How Liberals Contradict Themselves

by Alfonzo Rachel – Posted at Big Hollywood

Obama, Haiti and the Bold & Fresh Tour

"Glenn Beck and I are here on the Gulf Coast to do two sold-out Bold & Fresh shows. We knew when we signed on for the tour that creepy far-left people would be stalking us, and they are. After our first show, the loopy Media Matters rejoiced in saying that I had compared the South Side of Chicago to Haiti. Here's what I said: 'If you've ever been to the South Side of Chicago, it's a disaster. It's like Haiti. I support some charities there, but Haiti just never gets better, no matter how much money you put in there ... but Obama really believes the government can do it.' Those comments deeply offend far-left kool-aid drinkers, even though every word is true. For decades Chicago's South Side has been a pocket of poverty and brutality; Barack Obama's well aware of that because he worked there. An enormous amount of federal and state money has poured into the South Side, yet it remains a major problem. The situation directly parallels what's happened in Haiti - massive aid, few results. Self-reliance is the key to success in life; a nanny state chokes that. If the President and I have one area of disagreement, it is big government. I believe it can not solve problems, he believes it can level the playing field, at least somewhat. That hasn't happened on Chicago's South Side, has it?"

The Rise of the Black Conservative Voice

CNN – Complete Sellout For Obama?!?

'Factor' Exclusive: Dobbs Says CNN Aims to Please Obama

Lou says network didn't want to offend president

Lou Dobbs said yesterday CNN was eager to show him the door because its top execs didn't want to offend President Obama.

Dobbs made the claim last night on Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor," saying he took on President George W. Bush's immigration policy with equal force but didn't draw any CNN flak then.

"I discern more of a difference between then, which was under the Bush administration when I was criticizing, and now, when it is the Obama administration -- and an entirely different tone was taken," said Dobbs.

He claims both Bush and Obama are soft on illegal immigration.

CNN bosses told Dobbs -- a strong opponent of illegal immigration -- that the network wants to aggressively market itself as the neutral alternative to left-leaning MSNBC and conservative Fox, he said.

The Post reported that CNN paid Dobbs an $8 million severance to leave 1½ years before his contract expires.

Dobbs said he found CNN's drive to the middle oddly timed to the beginning of Obama's term.

"I don't know whether that was the distinction that triggered any sort of response or a difference in perspective on the part of CNN's management, but it is the only difference between the way I was conducting myself under this administration and the previous administration," said Dobbs, who did his last show for CNN on Wednesday.

Host Bill O'Reilly bluntly asked Dobbs if he'd consider a run for a New Jersey US Senate seat, and the former CNN anchor didn't dismiss it.

"A lot of things are on my mind, I'm not going to be coy about that," Dobbs said.

"My wife and I are thinking about a lot of opportunities. I'm very blessed that I have a lot of opportunities. I guarantee you 100 percent I'm going to remain in the public arena."

And Dobbs showed some political moxie when O'Reilly fired an odd query at him: "Final question, Barack Obama, is he the devil?"

Dobbs didn't take the bait, but offered a well-measured answer to satisfy O'Reilly's decidedly conservative viewers.

"He's not the devil, but he is certainly a man who is right now not making it easy to understand why he's making the public-policy choices that he is," Dobbs said.

david.li@nypost.com

CNN Hosts Palin Forum with No Palin Supporters

Posted by: Greg Hengler at 4:42 PM

I guess you could call CNN's idea of "fair and balanced." Sanchez appears to be using a Luntz-style forum to test the Palin-approval waters.

I put this up there with CNN's fact-checking the Obama SNL skit.

Reminder: This is an Obama-approved "news" network. Big H/T to Lee Habeeb for spotting this.

It appears that CNN has sold out to be part of the lame stream media, joining NBC, CBS and ABC… leaving us one US network FOX, and Obama is obsessed with controlling them.

Fox, Beck, Limbaugh, Palin, Hannity, Bachmann, Buchanan… If you stand up against them or just report or tell the truth you are on the enemies list and on their radar to be Quaylenized… (George H.W. Bush’s V.P.), now Palinized.

Obama Aide: Fox News Our 'Opponent'

“If you can’t take the heat… get out of the kitchen!” And if you want to be a leader, step up and talk to your critics!!

Fox News seems to enjoy being on the White House's enemies list. The last president to keep a press enemies list was Richard Nixon.

Singling out a so called enemy or source usually works out well for the “enemy” and not for the White House.

A festering enmity between the Obama administration and the cable network boiled over Sunday when The New York Times quoted White House communications director Anita Dunn as saying of Fox: “We’re going to treat them the way we would treat an opponent.”

Fox Senior Vice President for News Michael Clemente fired back at what he called the White House’s “attack mentality.”

“Perhaps the energy would be better spent on the critical issues we are worried about,” Clemente said in a statement the network issued.

If Fox’s ratings are any clue, the administration’s attacks seem to be having the opposite of their desired effects. As of last week, the network has averaged 1.2 million viewers throughout the year, up from around 1 million viewers a year ago. This surpasses the network’s previous viewership record of 1.1 million viewers, which was set in 2003, the year the war began in Iraq.

In June, President Obama attacked Fox without mentioning it by name, saying it was devoted entirely to attacking his administration and that its coverage of his actions were all negative.

“Every time they [attack], our ratings go up,” Bill Shine, Fox’s senior vice president for programming, told the Times.

A Fox executive who declined to be identified said the attacks could solidify the network’s base. He quoted Fox Chairman Roger Ailes as having said: “Don’t pick a fight with those who like to fight.”

Paul Rittenberg, the network’s top ad executive, said, “People who watch Fox News believe it is the home team,” but Democrats don’t see it that way because of its critical coverage of the president and his political agenda.

Dunn’s comments followed press reports that Ailes had met with top Obama adviser David Axelrod for coffee in New York in what Politico called “a Fox summit.”

The White House communications director also took aim at controversial comments various Fox hosts have made against the administration.

These have included comments by immensely popular host Glenn Beck, whose 5 p.m. show has become a “cultural phenomenon,” with 3 million viewers, according to Shine.

Beck was credited with forcing the resignation of former green jobs czar Van Jones, whom he described as a “communist-anarchist radical.”

Weeks earlier, Beck came under attack from the Color of Change, a group Jones helped found, after he called the president “racist” during a Fox and Friends segment, which prompted several advertisers to pull their spots from his program.

Rittenberg, however, says the boycott has had no impact on Fox’s revenue because the advertising has been shifted to other parts of the day.

The administration also bristles about certain hosts' advocacy of the Tea Party movement.

Fox recently bolstered its Fox Business unit by hiring libertarian journalist John Stossel away from ABC, and it reportedly is trying to woo administration critic Lou Dobbs away from CNN. Dobbs met with Ailes last month over dinner, the Times reported.

“As they are undertaking a war against Barack Obama and the White House, we don’t need to pretend that is the way legitimate news agencies behave,” Dunn said.

Last month, the president appeared on all of the major networks’ Sunday talk shows except for Fox News Sunday, which the White House called an “ideological outlet.” This prompted Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace to call the administration “the biggest bunch of crybabies I have dealt with in my 30 years in Washington.” Similar statements have been made by media from both parties.

Dunn dismissed Wallace’s comments as juvenile and said the administration would talk with Fox but said the White House would not "legitimize them as a news organization.”

The network defends its presentation of the news as objective during its news hours of 9 a.m.-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m., including the anchor Sheppard Smith's evening newscasts. Dunn even acknowledged that Fox reporter Major Garrett, its chief White House correspondent, is fair.

Fox news is now the most popular news outlet on both cable and so called mainstream media. They now have more viewers at 3a.m. than CNN has at prime time. In an independent poll of all the major outlets Fox also showed that their viewership is the most balanced of all the networks and cable channel, including conservatives, independents and yes… even liberals who voted for Obama, say that they got the best range of information from Fox, whose motto for their news programs is ‘fair and balanced’.

By: John Rossomando - © 2009 Associated Press

Posted: Knowledge Creates Power - Cross-posted: Daily Thought Pad

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Mainstream Media Ignores Conservatives; WH & Dems Shun Conservative Input While Conservative Media Soars

Glenn Beck Wins Wednesday's Cable News Ratings Battle

Big Beck: Goes over 3 million viewers, beats O’Reilly in demo: Cable News Ratings for Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Power Grab

Obama’s War on Talk Radio

Glenn Beck's Common Sense

A Slobbering Love Affair

End of Free Speech - Endoffreespeech.com

Culture Warrior

What Barack Obama Fails To Understand About America

The stunning collapse in public opinion for President Obama's health care plan demonstrates a weakness in the president's overall vision. According to a new Gallup Poll, 55 percent of Americans now believe Obama is doing a poor job on health care reform, his signature issue. The main reason for this is that few understand what the deuce is going on. I analyze the news for a living, and I can't explain what the House bill would do. It's more than a thousand pages long, for crying out loud, and reading it could cause your head to explode.

Americans elected Obama to change things that are failing. No question but that the health industry is in chaos. Price gouging, frivolous lawsuits and poorly run hospitals all add to the apprehension of the regular folks. But the president is not reforming, he's reinventing. He wants the government to set up a parallel health care apparatus, a giant entanglement of entitlements.

Did I mention that no one can explain it?

It's not only confusion that is causing Americans to bail on Obamacare. Most of us value freedom and have a healthy distrust of government. Time after time, we have seen the feds screw things up: Iraq, Katrina, immigration, Vietnam, the war on drugs, public schools, the list is endless. And we are going to put our troubled appendix in the hands of these people? (And then add to this Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans Affairs including their healthcare, the IRS, and the Post Office… and ask yourself if these are really the people you want running healthcare and making major decisions about your and your family’s healthcare.)

If the president's plan were clearly presented with the costs spelled out, I believe it wouldn’t have a chance of passing. But just about everybody knows the USA might be facing bankruptcy, which would damage Americans far more than a troubled health care system. Even though he will not admit it, there is huge financial risk in Obama's health care vision, and Americans are starting to wise up about the danger.

Finally, there is the freedom factor. Your health is obviously personal. You want to have as much control as possible when you get sick. In Canada, where the government runs the health care industry, there are waiting lists for treatment in some places and a shortage of doctors in others. Americans fear that if medical choices are dictated by the feds, that kind of chaos will happen here.

Also, federal health care means all of your medical records are in the hands of the government. Do you want that? (And who knows what else that information could be used for?)

Don't be surprised if the federal health care plan goes down in flames and Obama is dealt his first major setback. This whole thing is poorly thought out, rushed and full of peril.

It's almost enough to make you sick.

By: Bill O’Reilly - Veteran TV news anchor Bill O'Reilly is host of the Fox News show "The O'Reilly Factor" and author of the books "Who's Looking Out for You?" and "A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity."

Posted: Daily Thought Pad

The Destruction of Miss California… And Freedom of Speech

Checked on your freedom of speech lately? If not, consider the plight of 21-year-old Carrie Prejean, a student at San Diego Christian College who was selected first runner-up in the Miss USA pageant last month. During the question and answer part of the competition, Prejean was asked whether every state should legalize gay marriage. Smiling brightly, the young woman said: "I think that I believe a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anyone out there."

Most polls show that the majority of Americans agree with Prejean, including the president of the United States. Yet since she made that statement as Miss California, the woman has been persecuted in the media.

MSNBC allowed a guest to call her vile names, and the far-left cast of characters on that cable network has delighted in mocking and demeaning Prejean almost nightly. The left-wing blogs have been especially vicious, and now, even her own pageant is turning against her: She's being investigated for possibly violating pageant rules by giving unapproved interviews. Of course, she gave those interviews trying to defend herself against media assaults.

This is a disgraceful exposition with wide implications for all of us. Here we have an American citizen answering a direct question respectfully and honestly and being punished for it. You don't get more un-American than that. Where is the American Civil Liberties Union on this? That great defender of free speech has been totally silent. Once again, the ACLU displays its biased hypocrisy like a giant float-balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

And where is the National Organization for Women? A young woman is being victimized by hate speech, actually being called a "b*tch" on a variety of television programs, and NOW has no comment? Again, the hypocrisy is breathtaking.

Finally, where is the homosexual community? Do they not respect freedom of speech? They don't want to be punished for their expression, right? It would be incredibly smart for a gay leader to pull a Voltaire and publicly state, "I don't agree with what you say, but I defend your right to say it." So, who's going to be courageous and step up on this one?

Gay marriage has been defined by some of its supporters as a civil rights issue. Isn't freedom of speech a civil rights issue? Therefore, let's call this Miss California deal exactly what it is -- a gross violation of the spirit of America. If a 21-year-old pageant contestant can be persecuted for uttering an opinion based upon a sincere belief, then all of us are at risk, as well.

By Bill O'Reilly - Veteran TV news anchor Bill O'Reilly is host of the Fox News show "The O'Reilly Factor" and author of the book "Who's Looking Out For You?"

Related Articles:

Trump Says Miss California Can Keep Her Crown - Good Man... Good Job... Good For Freedom of Speech

O'Reilly on Obama's First 100 Days

Video of Town Hall Meeting 

April 29, 2009

Bill answers your questions on President Obama's first 100 days in office.

GE, NBC, MSNBC Ceo's In The Bag For Obama

Updated Exclusive! Entire GE CEO Confrontation!

"Factor" producer (and GE shareholder) Jesse Watters attended the annual GE shareholder meeting on April 21 in Orlando, Florida. During the Q&A period, Watters asked Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt about the recent ugly comments by Janeane Garofalo on MSNBC. Here is how Immelt - and the room full of stockholders - responded to the confrontation.

GE is the parent company of MSNBC and NBC News.  NBC is the most left leaning Obama pro network on the air that portrays itself as just "reporting the news".  They helped elect Obama and report pro Obama, pro Democratic Liberal Congress pro the Green movement to benefit themselves.  GE, a failing company, is hoping for rewards from the White House to promote Green Energy and help keep GE afloat; bailout money for Wind Turbine Energy.

The Mighty Acorn

In conservative circles, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, is the devil. This group mobilizes left-wing voters and champions liberal causes, sometimes using tax money in the form of state and federal grants to pay expenses. That makes right-wingers seethe with indignation.

ACORN employees across the country have been indicted for voter fraud, and by its own admission, the group has submitted at least 400,000 questionable voter documents, according to a New York Times report dated Oct. 24, 2008.

Now two whistleblowers, Anita MonCrief and Marcel Reid, who used to work for ACORN have testified under oath before the House Judiciary Committee that the organization took money to intimidate capitalist organizations like the Carlyle Group and H&R Block, and worked closely with the Obama presidential campaign to get voters to the polls. It is here where the story begins to rise to the next level.

According to MonCrief, New York Times reporter Stephanie Strom was getting close to documenting a story directly linking the Obama campaign to ACORN through the "Project Vote" organization. Barack Obama worked for "Project Vote" in the 1990s. There is speculation that "Project Vote" did a number of illegal things last November during the voter registration process. Strom was allegedly zeroing in on the situation.

But the Times' investigation suddenly stopped dead, prompting a call from Strom to MonCrief, her source. A voicemail from Strom was left on Oct. 21, 2008:

"Hi, Anita, it's Stephanie. I've just been asked by my bosses to stand down. ... They want me to hold off on coming to Washington. Sorry, I take my orders from higher up."

The Times did run a story about ACORN's left-wing partisanship, but stopped there. The paper would not make Strom available to talk with me. Spokeswoman Catherine Mathis sent a statement saying: "Every day we make news judgments about which stories to publish and which ones not to pursue. Political considerations played no role in our decision about whether to cover this story."

The motto of The New York Times is "All the News That's Fit to Print." "Standing down" on a story with presidential implications does not seem to fit that motto. Or am I wrong?

But Congressman John Conyers, a fervent Democrat and head of the Judiciary Committee, is not standing down. He is calling for a full House investigation of ACORN's role in the presidential election and beyond. Good for him.

The story is somewhat technical, and thus does not hold much appeal for TV news operations. But it is important. According to the whistleblowers, ACORN is a corrupt organization with close ties to the Obama administration. That sounds kind of ominous. Let's hope Conyers continues to step up.

By:  Bill O'Reilly, Veteran TV news anchor and host of the Fox News show "The O'Reilly Factor" as well as author of  many best-selling books including  "Who's Looking Out For You?"

Pursuing the ACORN story is also important because the Obama government is now using ACORN to collect the census information.

Letterman Rude, Oblivious and Condescending, Calls O'Reilly A Goon -- To His Face

Calling your guest a goon is bad host etiquette under any circumstances,  yet David Letterman did exactly that to Fox News's Bill O'Reilly, on Tuesday's "Late Show" 

He also told the "Factor" host, "You're too smart to believe what you say." 

And some actually said 'all in all, it was a friendlier encounter than might of been expected', the following lowspots not withstanding:

• Dave began his negative comments about O'Reilly, and how he (Letterman) would react to O'Reilly, while O'Reilly was still backstage.
• After O'Reilly gave his background before becoming the "Factor" host, Letterman responded, "When you say working your way up, does that really apply to Fox?"
• Holding up O'Reilly's best-selling book, Letterman chided, "Here's what breaks my heart about this: In my mind, I think of you as a goon! But then, when you look at, look at this picture, look at how sweet and adorable that kid is, and it breaks my heart because I have a sweet, adorable kid like that, and I think, 'Oh, great, what if he too becomes a goon?"
• When the discussion moved in the direction of whether or not Rush Limbaugh is now the head of the GOP, O'Reilly asked Letterman why he wanted that to be the case. Letterman responded: "Well, he's tubby. He's, he for a long time had his housekeeper buying illegal drugs. And I thought, 'Well, if this is what the Republican Party needs, there you go.'"
• Still on Limbaugh, Letterman said: "It just seems to me that he's too smart to believe what he's saying. And I feel the same way about you. You're too smart to believe what you say."
• When the discussion moved in the direction of former President George W. Bush, O'Reilly said, "Obviously, he presided over an economy that collapsed. That's on his sheet." Letterman quipped, "Presided or ignored?"

As the segment wound down, Letterman made a truly telling admission:

As ignorant as I am, and there are few people more ignorant than I am, I didn't, I didn't realize the deficit that this country had established for itself, or had been forced into for eight years until the previous tenant left the House...the state of the United States globally, until we got a guy in there who was actually, and who knows if he's doing the right thing, but at least he's doing something. But to me, the United States government was essentially closed for eight years.

Amazing.... 

• How Letterman was oblivious to everything that occurred in Washington, D.C., until Obama was inaugurated... 
  
• How Letterman thought it was okay to insult a guest on his show, let alone a man that was being honored for being the number one Cable News Program for 100 months in a row or... 81/2 years.
• How Letterman and other Hollywood types and show hosts think it is their right to use their show and fame as a forum to continuously spout off about their politics and opinions, even when they are totally uninformed.
• How Letterman went off on this man and then ultimately admitted that he had never even watched his program.
  

Or maybe not so amazing?!?

The question is... why would anyone want to go on Letterman's show and take the chance of being treated that way?  Letterman was rude, obviously oblivious to what goes own outside his narrow minded world, condescending and showed his ignorance.  In fact, Dave's finest moment was admitting that he was ignorant, but it didn't keep him from blabbing on!  Tells you a lot, (about Letterman) doesn't it?

By:  Marion Algier/Ask Marion for Daily Thought Pad