This morning, co-host Don Wade of 890 WLS radio’s Wade and Roma show in Chicago threw a question at ABC World News Tonight anchor Charles Gibson that I suspect was on many listeners’ minds:

Don: Okay, here’s my news question. A Senate bill yesterday passes, cutting off funds to this group called ACORN. Now, we got that bill passed and we have the embarrassing video of ACORN staffers giving tax advice on how to set up a brothel with 13-year-old hookers. It has everything you could want – corruption and sleazy action at tax-funded organizations and it’s got government ties. But nobody’s covering that story. Why?

Keep in mind that James O’Keefe’s and Hannah Giles’s first pair of videos at BigGovernment.com showing an ACORN office engaged in the activity described appeared in the early morning on September 10. That was five days ago.

But until that moment, the topic apparently wasn’t on Gibson’s mind. Here’s Gibson’s jaw-dropping answer, with additional follow-up banter (HT to Rush on the air; transcribed by Michelle Malkin, who also has audio):

Gibson: HAHAHAHAHA. HEHEHE. I didn’t even know about it. Um. So, you’ve got me at a loss. I don’t know. Uh. Uh. But my goodness, if it’s got everything including sleaziness in it, we should talk about it this morning.

Roma: This is the American way!

Gibson: Or maybe this is just one you leave to the cables.

Roma: Well, I think this is a huge issue because there’s so much funding that goes into this organization…

Gibson: I know we’ve done some stories about ACORN before, but this one I don’t know about…

Roma: Jake Tapper did some blogging on it. I know he’s blogged at least once on this scandal.

Gibson: You guys are uh really up on the website.

Gibson, as John Stephenson and P.J. Gladnick of NewsBusters noted in September of last year, as a result of his interview with GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, twisted her words, with the help of selective editing, to portray her as some kind of out of touch, excessively religious, militaristic rube.

With the above interview, no editing is required. Who’s out of touch now, Charlie?

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

_______________________________________

UPDATE: Rush and some NB commenters are speculating that Gibson may have said “I haven’t heard about it” because the only other alternative would be to say a completely damning “We didn’t think it was important.” Gibson’s laugh at the beginning of his response does seem to be a bit nervous.

UPDATE 2: Here’s are the relevant posts of Jake Tapper at his ABC Political Punch blog:

• Sept. 11 – Census Severs Relationship With ACORN
• Sept. 14 – Senate Votes to Keep Housing Funds from ACORN
• Sept. 15 – House Republican Leaders Ask IRS to Sever Ties with ACORN

Tapper may be the only real journalist remaining at ABC now that John Stossel is going to Fox Business/Fox News.

Wow:

I heard Glenn Beck reveal his “shocking” secrets to success yesterday: Tell the truth, and be yourself.

Maybe if Fox News’s ankle biters (once known as “competitors”) reported the truth and stopped acting like stilted, boot-licking apparatchiks, they might see their ratings come back. Even then, thanks to their accumulated baggage, that would be many years from now.

In the past 4-5 days, they’ve handed Fox a virtual monopoly on James O’Keefe’s and Hannah Giles’s work on a silver platter. Ignoring their work is the business equivalent of unassisted suicide.

From New York City:

Kim Clijsters cradled the baby in one arm, the trophy in the other.

The joy of motherhood. The joy of winning the U.S. Open.

Clijsters made history Sunday night, capping a comeback from two years out of tennis to become the first unseeded woman to win the Open – and the first mom to win a major since 1980 – with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over No. 9 Caroline Wozniacki.

When it was over, Clijsters collapsed to the ground and started crying – tears of joy, probably mixed in with a little bit of shock, too. Her 18-month-old daughter, Jada, watched from a suite with a pacifier in her mouth, but later came down to the court to take part in the celebration.

Guess what mommy got for you, sweetie! A Grand Slam title.

“It still seems so surreal,” Clijsters said. “Because it wasn’t in the plan. I wanted to come back here, get a feel for it, play a Grand Slam so I wouldn’t have to come back next year and learn the new experiences all over.”

…. Some might have called this the mother of all upsets, but by the time she reached the final, against the resilient-but-still-learning 19-year-old from Denmark, it was hard to view it that way.

Clijsters beat both Williams sisters and two players seeded in the teens. She matched Venus and Serena power shot for power shot and showed she could play Wozniacki’s patient game – and play it better.

“She’s playing because she thinks it’s fun and because she likes it,” said Wozniacki, who is too young to have played Clijsters during her first career. “I really think she might be a better player now than she was before.”

This one was nothing like the Williams match – before it turned sour – which was filled with short, hard-hitting rallies in which Clijsters moved one of tennis’ best players at will and made her hit shots from places she normally doesn’t.

Instead, it was a waiting game, and when Clijsters fell behind 4-2 in the first set, she showed she was willing to play it.

A 29-shot rally here, a 25-shot rally there. Drop shots and lobs. Clijsters did that. Went for more, too, and finished with two more winners than unforced errors (36-34) – a good ratio on any day – and 26 more winners than Wozniacki.

“Against the Williams sisters, you feel if you hang in there, they might give you some easy points,” Clijsters said. “She didn’t do that. You had to be patient, but not play along with her game.”

After getting back on serve, Clijsters held off two break points at 5-5, then broke Wozniacki for the fourth time to win the first set. The second set was easier and before they knew it, Jada was on the court posing for photographers.

Clijsters didn’t even have a ranking coming into this tournament because she hadn’t played enough tournaments to get on the list. She’ll come in at around No. 20 when the new rankings are released this week, but probably won’t try to improve on that right away.

“It’s the greatest feeling in the world being a mother,” she said. “I just can’t wait to spend next the few weeks with her and have her routine schedule at home again.” ….

Go here for the full story.

Somebody really needs to find the Associated Press’s Martin Crutsinger some OCD therapy. It seems that he has a not-magnificent obsession with the two major theaters of the War on Terror (yeah, I still call it that), and that he seemingly won’t be able to conquer it without outside intervention.

In his report on August’s federal budget deficit, the AP reporter continued to cite the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as contributors to the increase in the federal budget deficit, when they are in fact virtually if not totally irrelevant. Additionally, he betrayed a critical misunderstanding of how the government has decided to account for “investments” the Treasury Department has made in many financial entities, General Motors, and Chrysler.

This is the third consecutive month for Crutsinger’s war-connected crud:

• In July (covered at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), addressing June’s Monthly Treasury Statement (MTS), he wrote that “The deficit has been widened, and …. The cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan also is a major factor.” Even if the entire $33 billion year-over-year increase in military spending at the time were due to those two wars (and it’s not, as NB commenter Arminius roughly demonstrated), that would have explained less than 5% of the $723 billion year-over-year deficit increase.
• In reporting on July’s MTS in August (covered at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), Crutsinger falsely went to the military spending well again, citing “the cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan” as a major factor in the deficit increase. This time, the year-over-year defense spending increase of $40 billion compared to a deficit increase of $878 billion over the same period.

The third time’s not the charm, Martin. Here are key paragraphs from Crutsinger’s early Saturday report on the August MTS (bold after title is mine):

Federal deficit hits $1.38 trillion through August

The federal deficit surged higher into record territory in August, hitting $1.38 trillion with one month left in the budget year.

…. Private economists worry the country could face the grim prospect of seeing interest rates soar in future years and the dollar weaken as foreigners dump their U.S. holdings.

The Treasury Department said Friday that last month’s deficit was $111.4 billion, below the $152 billion that economists expected. Still, the imbalance added to a flood of red ink already accumulated through the recession and massive spending needed to stabilize the banking system.

The Obama administration last month trimmed its forecast for this year’s deficit to $1.58 trillion, from an earlier $1.84 trillion. The recovery of the banking system led to the reduced estimate as it meant the administration did not need to get an additional $250 billion in bailout support for banks.

The $1.58 trillion estimate for the full budget year signals that that administration expects the imbalance in September to be around $200 billion. That would be a sharp deterioration from September 2008 when the government closed out that budget year with a $45.7 billion surplus.

Many private economists have slightly smaller deficit estimates for the full year but all agree that 2009 will be a record-holder by a large margin. The previous record deficit in dollar terms was $454.8 billion last year.

The administration’s revised budget forecasts issued last month also underscored how much the government’s fiscal picture has deteriorated. It is now projecting the deficit over the next decade will total $9 trillion, $2 trillion more than its estimates from a few months ago.

The deterioration partly reflects the country’s deep recession, the worst since the 1930s. That downturn has cut into government receipts and pushed up spending in such areas as unemployment benefits and food stamps, along with the cost of fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In addition, the government is using a $787 billion economic stimulus program passed by Congress last February to jump-start growth and is spending massive amounts from the $700 billion financial bailout package passed in October 2008 to stabilize the financial system.

So, here we go again.

This time, referring to Table 3 of the August Monthly Treasury Statement, total defense spending through eleven months of the fiscal year was $576 billion, up 6.3% from $542 billion at the same time last year. That $40 billion difference, which is narrower than last month’s cumulative $40 billion difference, hardly is “major” in the context of a total deficit increase of $867 billion so far this year ($1.378 trillion through August 31, compared to $511 billion last year).

Our year-over-year military spending in the two War on Terror theaters (oops, there I go again) has not increased that much, if at all; recall that the Surge took place largely in fiscal 2008. If Arminius’s 15% estimate for the cost of the two wars as a percentage of the total defense budget is accurate, you can’t possibly come up with a difference between the two fiscal years that would be a material percentage of the monstrous deficit increase.

Bigger contributors to the enlarged deficit on the spending side include the following:

• HHS, up $76 billion, or 11.6%.
• Department of Labor, up $70 billion, or 132% (you read that right).
• Social Security Administration, up $60 billion, or roughly 10%.
• “Other” (all within Treasury Department itself, not described in detail anywhere else), up $247 billion, or 229% (you read that right).

The deterioration in collections, which Crutsinger did mention, is a far, far bigger problem, as seen here:

As the government defines them, receipts are down by about $365 billion. Receipts from economic activity, ignoring last year’s stimulus payments, which the government treated (in my opinion erroneously) as negative receipts, are down by about $450 billion, or over half of the $867 billion worsening of the year-over-year deficit.

Crutsinger’s claim that the “The recovery of the banking system led to the reduced (deficit) estimate (of $1.58 trillion) as it meant the administration did not need to get an additional $250 billion in bailout support for banks” is flat-out false. As I noted in late May (“The Federal Deficit Gets Nearly Indecipherable”), Treasury doesn’t characterize TARP and other “investments” as “outlays” any more, making whether or not funds were accessed irrelevant to the immediate deficit calculation.

Of much more relevance, and apparently not reflected in August’s MTS, are estimated TARP and other investment losses. Treasury’s investments in GM and Chrysler alone amount to $81 billion. To say that a lot of that isn’t coming back is drop-dead obvious, and in fact the government has conceded that point. The only question is what a good estimate of the loss should be when the fiscal year ends.

It will be interesting to see if Treasury attempts to mark its “investments” down to true “Net Present Value,” as it is supposed to under its convoluted accounting scheme, or if it will in the name of reporting a lower deficit try to pretend that their value is largely unimpaired. Write-downs are treated as “outlays” in the convoluted Net Present Value accounting Treasury uses, and would increase the deficit if recognized.

Based on his performance during this and prior months, it’s fair to ask whether Martin Crutsinger or other establishment media reporters will even know that they should follow up on this.

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

With permission, the following email was sent to Tony Perkins, head of Family Research Council in response to his “Value Voters Summit” commercial that has been running on local radio stations.

The ad invites people to attend the summit next weekend, September 18-20 and the first speaker they mention of course, is “Mitt Romney…” the man who has become this conservative’s “Newman!”

Dear Mr. Perkins,

As a once loyal advocate, I must speak the truth to you with as much love & respect as I can muster at this point. I heard your “Value Voters Summit” commercial on the radio today and was appalled at the line-up lead. My husband and I have spent a considerable amount of time (since 2004) vetting out the policies that Mitt Romney instituted in Massachusetts; and I cannot believe that you consider him a viable candidate let alone a credible source to speak at the VV forum.

In addition to the fact that without any legal precedence or binding statute, he single-handedly advanced gay “marriage” and $50 abortions-on-demand more so than the left could have ever dreamed; the economic mess in which his policies have left the state is unequivocal.

RomneyCare has devastated Masachusetts. And instead of manning-up and admitting that “universal healthcare” (two words that should NEVER come out of a conservative’s mouth) failed on his watch, his pride & arrogance continue to assert that “he” could still make it work nationally. Are you kidding me? With all that we know about universal healthcare?

The nickname that countless people (many of whom used to trust you) are giving him is “Mandate Mitt.” And in many circles, you are quickly becoming known as the man who enables him for reasons unknown. Although at this point, given all the facts, it simply looks as if you’ve been purchased. What could be worth being a kept man?

No one needs to trash Mr. Romney…his unrepentant defense of his detrimental policies have accomplished that much. But he should be held accountable as others have, for not doing so is why this country is at its particular crossroads…and you I’m afraid, are complicit.

There is a way to be truthful AND gracious without compromising your principles. If you don’t find that way, FRC will become as obsolete as the Republican Party.

Funny, the Summit schedule doesn’t have Mitt Romney speaking with those on traditional marriage. I wonder why…

Nor is he included on the healthcare discussion. I wonder why…

Mitt Romney, ladies and gentlemen, Human Events’ #8th-ranked RINO in 2005. The unmitigated moderate over whom conservative women swoon is STILL being shoved down our throats by those who claim to be fighting the good fight on our behalf.

Clearly, Mitt’s millions have left many too spellbound to see that he will morph into any position necessary in order to grab the power that those millions could not buy last year.

My guess is that a slot at the Value Voters Summit will turn out to be an awful expensive consolation prize…for both organizers and their “main attraction.”

ACORN Baltimore.

ACORN DC.

Now ACORN New York City:

ACORN’s hysteria now includes their self-equation with Willie Horton in 1988 (or “Willy Horton” — zheesh, they can’t even spell).

Horton was a furloughed Massachusetts convict who disappeared and went on to commit criminal acts, including rape.

Two points about Horton:

• If ACORN wants to equate itself with a criminal and rapist, by all means, go right ahead.
• For the record, it was Democrat Al Gore who first brought up the Massachusetts furlough program during the 1988 presidential primaries against Michael Dukakis:

Dukakis, as seen above, “staunchly defended” the program, making every aspect of it fair game for the general presidential election. Leftists haven’t stopped whining for 20 years about this. Too bad, so sad, you were had.

The criminal enterprise known as ACORN and the rest of its entities must be defunded.

From Mexico City:

Sep 11, 2009 / 05:25 pm

The State Congress of Oaxaca has passed a constitutional reform making it the 16th Mexican state to protect human life from abortion. The reform guarantees that human life will be protected from conception to natural death.

A press release from the Congress indicated 31 votes in favor of the changes to the State constitution granting legal protection to the unborn. “The inhabitants of the State shall enjoy all of the rights and freedoms enshrined in this Constitution, without distinction of origin, race, color, sex, language, creed, public opinion, social condition or position,” the new text reads.

State representatives said that the new measure is intended to strengthen the family, where respect for life begins. Without respect for the fundamental right to life, they said, “the rest of individual rights could not exist.” The dignity of the human person shall be defended, especially that of the women and children of Oaxaca, they continued, as “with the new constitutional norms the rights of the mother and the unborn are not in conflict, nor is one place above the other. Both complement each other,” they stressed. ….

Go here for the rest of the story.

In a Sunday “uh-oh” review of 2010′s electoral landscape as it applies to nationwide congressional races, the Associated Press’s Beth Fouhy insulted GOP voters while effectively implying that they are the only ones who oppose ObamaCare, “reckless spending, and high debt.”

The foundation of Fouhy’s piece is a fear that Democrats may be in peril of losing their House majority in 2010. Funny, when they were in the minority and gaining ground in national sentiment, I recall that the press meme was “Democrats Gaining!” Now that they’re in control and faltering, it’s “Democrats in Danger of Losing (Somebody Do Something)!” The perspective always seems to be about the rising or falling fortunes of Democrats, which of course serves to validate the contention of those who say that the establishment press is the mouthpiece of the Left and the Democratic Party.

Now let’s look at Fouhy’s infuriating fulminations (red underline is mine):

Yes, Beth Fouhy called the GOP base “confused” about ObamaCare. In Beth’s world, those rubes in the GOP base are just too dense to understand the infinite wisdom of Dear Leader’s healthcare contraption. Additionally, the administration’s spending and high debt really aren’t reckless, they’re only “considered” so by those same dummies.

No Beth, millions of people, many if not most of them not in whatever remains of the “GOP base,”  aren’t “confused” by ObamaCare. They know and understand what’s in it quite well. The also understand that the President is bitterly clinging to fundamental untruths about his and his party’s designs on the healthcare system.

Specifically, as I pointed out on Thursday at BizzyBlog (last item at link), to believe that Barack Obama and his party are telling the truth, you have to believe that each and every one of the following are lying:

• The Congressional Budget Office (in five different instances cited by Doug Ross).
• On coverage of illegal immigrants, Senator Robert Menendez and La Raza.
• Obama himself, in previous years, in several ways, not the least of which is his previous video-captured support for a single-payer system.
• In regards to the provision for coverage of abortions — Every pro-life organization and publication that I’m aware of that has read various versions of proposed legislation; Fouhy’s own Associated Press, which has said it’s in there; and roughly one dozen Democratic congresspersons on Matt Drudge’s list of supposed health care “reform” opponents, who in essence acknowledged in a June 25 letter that abortion coverage is in proposed legislation.

This list barely scratches the surfacce. The list of others who must be lying for Barack Obama and the Democrats to be telling the truth on health care legislation is actually much, much longer.

Does this “confuse” you, Beth?

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

From an NBRA email I received Friday:

OBAMA – A CHARMING LIAR?
By Frances Rice

President Barack Obama is a charming liar. That assertion was made by a liberal talk show host on Air America, a far left-wing radio station.

Where is the caterwauling about racism or a lack of “civility” from Democrats and liberals in the mainstream media or else where.  When ardent Obama supporters start calling him a liar, it’s a sure sign that the wool has been pulled off of the Obama wolf.

In a laughable attempt to keep the Obama fig leaf of truthfulness in place, Democrats and their media allies are now castigating Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina for spontaneously and truthfully calling Obama a liar during Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress.  There was no such hand wringing when Democrats booed President George W. Bush when he addressed Congress.

Ignored is the fact that Obama during his speech trashed as liars average Americans, Republican leaders and all who do not agree with Obama’s radical government-run, rationed health care agenda.  Lost in the media coverage is the fact that laughter erupted in Congress during Obama’s speech when he readily admitted that details of his healthcare plan still need to be worked out.  Sadly, Obama’s duplicitous speech was an insulting campaign ploy to further deceive Americans and divide our nation.

… His dogged determination to turn our country into a failed socialist nation was in full evidence when Obama nationalized General Motors and Chrysler.  He gave to the unions control over the two giant automobile manufacturers, while freezing out retired investors and allocating billions of taxpayer dollars to this socialist power grab.  As a further slap in our economic face, he expanded the corporate bailouts, including giving billions to AIG without pre-conditions.  Then, to add insult to injury, Obama doubled our national debt with his out-of-control spending.

… The lack of any check on Obama’s power, due to a veto-proof Democrat-controlled Congress and a lap dog liberal media, has caused Obama to boldly assert his radical agenda and surround himself with a stable of over 30 advisors called “Czars”.  These unaccountable Obama-appointees are beholden only to Obama.  They are not unanswerable to Congress or the American people, as was intended by our Constitution which requires congressional confirmation hearings and oversight of  political appointees.  Among those Czars are Communists, Marxists and other characters with troubling backgrounds and questionable credentials who should not be allowed anywhere near the White House.  Gone is media outrage over abuse of power or an imperial presidency, as well as any angst about the shredding of our Constitution.

… Other Marxist methods include controlling the media, exploiting ethnic hatreds and demonizing the opposition, as has been done to average Americans protesting Obama’s disastrous public option, rationed-health care scheme.  Obama and his supporters scoffed at parents and called them racist for not wanting their children indoctrinated by Obama with his K-12 speech.  Obama’s talking about the value of education was not the problem.  What rankled citizens was the lesson plan from the Department of Education – before it was changed under pressure from the public – that required children to write papers about how to help Obama achieve his radical agenda.

… Charles Krauthammer in his article “Obama, the Mortal” recounts how Obama in his first address to Congress gave the boldest social democratic manifesto ever issued by a U.S. president.  Krauthammer demonstrates how Obama is laboring under the mistaken belief that his election imbued him with the kind of “banana-republic plebiscite” to enlarge state power and increase our national debt with massive spending.  Obama’s actions to implement his socialist vision for America inspired a powerful outburst of public outrage at tea parties and town hall meetings, legitimate anger that Obama and his minions derided as mob-like and “racist”.  Krauthammer points out that while Obama was castigating protesting Americans, Obama’s administration was “cutting backroom deals with every manner of special interest – from drug companies to auto unions to doctors – in which favors worth billions were quietly and opaquely exchanged.”

… During the 2008 election the liberal media helped Obama hide who he really is from the voting public. Then, when Obama took the oath of office as president, he vowed to protect and defend our Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We now find that Obama and his appointed Czars have formed a sinister, shadowy government of domestic enemies against whom we have no defense.

Obama’s ultimate insult is that he has no remorse.

The whole thing can be found here.

Not that any of this will surprise anyone, but it should go on the record nonetheless.

The New York Times’s home page as of its 10:15 a.m. update looked like this (click to enlarge in a separate window):

You’ll note no mention of the D.C. rally yesterday that drew an estimated 1-2 million people.

You’ll also note a link boxed in red to a Times story about President Obama’s speech yesterday in Minnesota. More on that in a bit.

If even the low end of the D.C. rally estimate holds, it would be the largest-ever gathering in Washington not related to a presidential inauguration — larger than the misnamed Million Man March (October 16, 1995; while others claimed almost a million were there, the National Park Service estimated 400,000), larger than Moratorium Day (November 15, 1969; Wikipedia says it had 500,000; other sources report lower numbers), and larger than the day of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech (August 28, 1963; 250,000).

If the high end of the estimate holds, it would be the largest gathering of any kind in Washington, exceeding the 1.8 million claimed to have attended Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration.

Scrolling further down the NYT’s home page, one finally finds a mention of the rally at the third screen (click to enlarge in a separate window):

At last, there’s a link to Jeff Zeleny’s D.C. rally story. Actually, as you’ll see from the red boxes, there are actually two links to it.

Then note the blue-boxed item listed first in Politics in between those two red boxes. That link goes to the very same Obama report noted earlier that is linked near the very top of the home page.

If you need to quickly explain to anyone why establishment media is dying, you need look no further than the two pictures just noted.

But if you need a third, here’s a picture of the National Edition of the Times’s front page today:

There is a picture below the fold, and it goes to Zeleny’s story about the rally — on a distant page in Section A.

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

From Nairobi, Kenya:

Sep 13, 2009 / 02:38 am

The investigation into the possible beatification of the widely loved former Archbishop of Nairobi, Cardinal Maurice Michael Otunga, has begun with the appointment of the postulator of his cause.

Cardinal John Njue, the present Archbishop of Nairobi, has appointed Fr. Anthony Bellagamba as postulator. A Consolata Missionary, Fr. Bellagamba is a former professor of pastoral theology at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). His appointment coincided with the sixth anniversary of Cardinal Otunga’s death, the Catholic Information Service for Africa (CISA) reports.

Fr. Bellagamba was born in central Italy and first worked in Kenya from 1958 to 1963. He came to know Cardinal Otunga from 1984 to 1994 while teaching at CUEA, where the cardinal was chancellor.

The priest, a former Vice General Superior of the Consolata Missionaries in Rome, now works at Allamno House, the Consolata seminary in Nairobi.

He described Cardinal Otunga as a man who possessed “a great sense of the Divine” and a great sense of the supernatural.

“His prayer life was exceptional. His gentleness, kindness, was very, very attractive. He would take time to talk to you,” Fr. Bellagamba said, according to CISA. “He was so simple – not simplistic, because he was shrewd – but he was simple in the sense that he was not double-faced. What he believed, what he thought, he said.”

As postulator, Fr. Bellagamba will coordinate the beatification investigation and will lead a commission of church experts who collect all information from written and oral testimonies about the candidate’s life. If the archbishop of Nairobi thinks the results are suitable, they will be presented to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome. ….

Go here for the rest of the story.

From Matt Barber writing at Renew America:

Obama lied, his credibility died
By J. Matt Barber

On Wednesday night President Obama threw a universal healthcare Hail Mary. The call? Incomplete pass.

His much anticipated address to a joint session of Congress promised to finally — for real, this time — provide details about his “healthcare reform plan” (the government takeover of about 20 percent of America’s once free market).

…This was Obama’s umpteenth healthcare homily amid an average of more than one speech per day since he’s taken office. True, it’s better he should run his mouth than actually attempt to govern, but, nonetheless, it’s become annoying that he continues to stubbornly refuse America’s, “Not only no but h— no,” answer to his persistent “pretty please.”

…As for the speech: I’ll leave it to other pundits to tackle the President’s arrogantly partisan, condescending and less-than-convincing Windy City tough-guy tone. Instead, I want to address — at the risk of being “called out” by chief thug, Rahm Emanuel (scary, I know) — the fact that Obama, with a straight face, repeatedly lied to the American people (the teleprompter made him do it). I was reminded of my eight year-old, standing before me with chocolaty crumb covered cheeks, saying, “Cookie? What cookie?”

The presidential untruths were plentiful, ranging from “death panel” denials to promises of illegal immigrant exclusions. But, for now, let’s focus on one POTUS’ double whopper:

During his speech the President assured us: “Under our plan no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws will remain in place.” So, naturally, Planned Parenthood, NOW, NARAL and all the other lefty pro-abort wactivist groups are up in arms today, decrying the President for discriminating against women and setting back “reproductive rights” by decades.

…The Capps Amendment even affirmatively permits taxpayer funded insurers to cover abortions, requiring “that at least one insurer in the federal insurance exchange” does so. Furthermore, the Secretary of Health and Human Services — pro-abortion radical Kathleen Sebelius — gets “to decide if the public option itself would provide abortion coverage.” (Wonder how that’ll work out for the unborn?)

…The abortion mandate alone is a deal breaker for the majority of Americans and Obama knows that. So he had to lie. It’s just too bad for him that the American people aren’t nearly as stupid as he gives them credit for.

Read the whole thing here.

P.S. Mitt Romney, call your office…