CNN Insane To Jab At Reagan

As a conservative, I often question my sanity for spending time each day scouring the headlines and blog titles from liberal sources such as CNN, MSNBC, the Daily Kos, the Washington Post, etc. I know what I will usually find; melancholy accounts of the Iraq War, new revelations in the so-called scandals of the Bush administration, and unconcealed glee that the Democrats control the House and Senate. Each visit to these sites is a contributing factor to my gradually rising blood pressure, but it is important to monitor what is written and how it is presented to the public. While it is perfectly normal to question one’s own sanity for self-inflicting such political torment, it is not normal for a news channel to question the sanity of a revered former American president. That is, unless that channel happens to be CNN.

Thanks to an alert World Net Daily (WND) reader who, like me, wades through the media quagmire that is CNN.com, CNN was caught in the act of linking Ronald Reagan with “insanity” through a news headline on the CNN.com main web site page. The reader alerted WND and screen shots were captured from CNN.com last night that clearly demonstrate CNN’s original headline and the one editors replaced it with after WND blew the whistle on them.

Headlines on respectable news sites are expected to refer in some way to the topic of an article, but CNN apparently went out of its way to link the terms “Reagan” and “insanity” with the clear knowledge that the AP article had nothing to do with insanity or any mental illness. Where did CNN get the idea to link Reagan with insanity? The AP article, titled “Reagan’s wit, humor comes through In detailed diaries,” included one vignette of Reagan’s struggle with then teenage daughter Patti, who despised the limitations a Secret Service detail placed on her activities. Reagan wrote of Patti’s tantrums and literal screams at him and the agents to get rid of her protective detail, “Insanity is hereditary. You catch it from your kids.”

That humorous (and true, as any parent of a teenager knows) remark by Reagan is the only reference to “insanity” in the AP article, but in referring readers to the story, CNN chose to replace the AP headline with a disingenuous and completely out of context headline of its own: “Reagan diary gives new take on insanity.”

This despicable act by CNN is an object lesson in why conservatives must and do track the news from a wide variety of sources, even liberal outlets that our natural instincts tell us are not worth viewing. While some CNN.com readers were misled by the deplorable headline in the time it was on the site, WND’s rapid reaction in confronting CNN was a victory for truth. Small victories often turn the tide of war. WND deserves credit for confirming the reader’s report and confronting CNN immediately about its misleading Reagan headline. It is no coincidence that all of the GOP candidates for the 2008 nomination are attempting to embrace Reagan’s brand of conservatism and to emulate him as much as possible in their campaigning. CNN cleverly (so it thought) understood that linking Reagan with “insanity” would also link anyone trying to imitate him to “insanity” as well, thus the headline was an affront to all Reagan conservatives.

This headline story had a happy ending, as reported by WND:

In the wake of WND's exposure, CNN.com changed the Reagan headline on its homepage, removing any reference to "insanity." The updated headline read: "Reagan's wit comes through in diaries."

From wit to insanity, and back to wit again. The truth took a major detour under the direction of CNN’s editorial department, but the truth, as it always does, overcame. CNN’s executives have been pulling their hair out wondering how Fox News rose to #1 and remains firmly entrenched in that spot. They also puzzle ‘till their puzzlers are sore over how to regain credibility and viewers. The solution to CNN’s woes is simple and scriptural, which explains why they have missed it for so long: “the truth shall set you free.”

DNC Led in Prayer for Global Conversion to Islam: Ignorance of Islamic Terminology Rampant in Washington

On Saturday, World Net Daily reported that at Friday’s Democratic National Committee (DNC) winter meeting, attendees bowed their heads and were led in prayer by a popular Michigan religious leader. The party usually associated with ACLU positions on prayer religion’s role in public life, appeared in its winter meeting to be eager to show its reverence for religious practice. On the surface this would appear to be a welcome change for the DNC, but when it comes to the DNC and its quest to cast itself as mainstream America, nothing is as it seems. As the DNC bowed and listened to a prayer seemingly for peace, brotherhood, and an end to global strife, what was actually prayed for by the religious leader went completely unrecognized and unchallenged by DNC members.

In a remarkable, but sadly not uncommon (Rep. Silvestre Reyes, Chairman House Intelligence Committee unaware of whether Al Qaeda was Sunni or Shiite), display of Washington’s chronic cultural ignorance of Islamic culture and symbolism, DNC members prayed for their own conversion to Islam, liberation of the world from religions other than Islam, the end of American and Israeli “occupations” in the Middle East, and the destruction of Israel. More troubling is that none of them appear to have realized they had done so.

The meaning of the prayer, spoken in English by Husham Al-Husainy, Shiite imam of the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center, a mosque in Dearborn, Michigan, was clearly understood by those with knowledge of Islamic symbolism, but not by any DNC members, many of whom already hold or aspire to occupy the most sensitive policy making positions within the US Government. Senators, Congressman, presidential aspirants, and key staffers, the power-wielders in the party now controlling Congress suffer from a deplorable ignorance of traditional, let alone radical Islam. Lest Republicans gloat about their rival colleagues’ shortcomings, a similar ignorance of Islam exists in that party as well, though displayed less transparently than Rep. Reyes and the DNC have illustrated.

Robert Spencer, Director of Jihad Watch, reviewed a transcript of the prayer and provided a concise explanation of terms as they relate to Islamic culture, history, and teachings from the Quran. The prayer was delivered as follows:

“In the name of God the most merciful, the most compassionate. We thank you, God, to bless us among your creations. We thank you, God, to make us as a great nation. We thank you God, to send us your messages through our father Abraham and Moses and Jesus and Muhammad. Through you, God, we unite. So guide us to the right path. The path of the people you bless, not the path of the people you doom. Help us God to liberate and fill this earth with justice and peace and love and equality. And help us to stop the war and violence, and oppression and occupation. Ameen.”

Spencer pointed out that in Islam, the term “straight path” refers to Islamic Sharia, the body of Islamic law that governs politics, economics, behaviors and all other aspects of life under Islamic rule. All other paths, or governmental forms, are errant and must be corrected. Likewise, the phrase “the path of the people you bless” refers to peoples living under Sharia law. All other religions or nations not under Sharia rule are doomed.

It is significant that the next sentence importunes God to “liberate and fill the earth with justice”. Liberate whom, and what form would justice take? “Liberation” in Islamic terminology denotes conversion of all nations to Islam, or liberation from errant religions, and “justice” equates to Sharia, the Islamic code of laws Muslims would implement after “liberating” nations oppressed by other religions, such as Judaism and Christianity.

Imam Al-Husainy concluded with the obligatory reference to Israel, calling for an end to the Israeli state and its presence on (occupation of) disputed Arab land, as well as and end to the US “occupation” of Iraq. To embrace a prayer with such references and wishes is ironically stunning for the DNC, which is supported with fierce (though clearly misguided) loyalty by American Jews. Donating to campaigns of candidates from a party that invites clerics to pray for global conversion to Islam is, one would reasonably conclude, not in the interest of members of any other religion or no religion at all. Under Sharia there is no special consideration or immunity granted to atheists, agnostics, or naturalists. ACLU secular crusaders would face beheading for attempting to separate Church and State under Sharia law.

That the DNC sought to demonstrate its conveniently new effort to appear religious by inviting an imam to pray is not objectionable. That the DNC did not recognize or have courage to criticize the content of the prayer should stir outrage among all Americans of either party and of all religions. Our elected officials and the parties funding them either lack basic knowledge of Islamic culture and the teachings of the Quran, or if they have such awareness lack the fortitude to point out and condemn thinly veiled calls for the overthrow of America and Israel, especially when those calls come from a popular imam.

Secretary of State Rice recently bowed to “political correctness”, referring to HAMAS as a “resistance movement” rather than a terrorist group (despite the State Department’s official designation of HAMAS as a terrorist organization). Even those tasked with recruiting allies in the War on Terror are afraid of offending terrorists by calling them terrorists. It should come as no surprise that the DNC imam had the audacity to pray for such things by invitation in front of a prominent political organization. That he did so and no one in Washington noticed or cared should be a clear warning sign to all who are not on the “straight path” that radical Islam is winning the political, media, and culture war here while our soldiers are fighting the physical war in the Middle East.


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