Posted 12:30 PM by Scoobie Davis

Winning the Media War
The Left has made great strides in exposing and marginalizing the right's media attack machine sicne the 2004 elections. One recent bad sign: allow the right to frame the debate over Weley Clark's comments about John McCain. Jane Hamsher has more.

Posted 12:19 PM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Terence Samuel on Ralph Nader:

But I think that Nader sounds like a man whose time has passed him by and who fundamentally does not understand that Obama's success is a function of a generation of young people who have claimed him and this election as their own, and it has nothing to do with their guilt. It is just their time.

"Talking white," is a relic of a lost time. What we need is someone who can talk sense; it has timeless appeal.

For Nader, silence is an option.

Posted 8:30 AM by Scoobie Davis

Exclusive: Moonies Censor My YouTube Bush/Holy Wine YouTube Video
In March, I posted a video on YouTube of Unification Church president Michael Jenkins explaining to church members how he got former president Bush to participate in the church's creepy "Holy Wine" ceremony. As I explained in the post for the video:

The meaning of the Holy Wine Ceremony: According to Moon's theology, those who participate in this ceremony become part of Moon's "blessed family," giving the recipient what Moonies believe is a pure, untainted "lineage." In Unification theology, "lineage" is a central concept. Moon believes that Adam and Eve were perfected beings whose lineage was corrupted by Eve's sexual seduction by Lucifer. Since the Fall, humanity's blood line has been corrupted. Moon believes that Jesus emerged to save humanity but failed because he was crucified before he could fulfill his mission to marry and produce perfect children. Moon believes that he is the second Messiah who will restore humanity to its uncorrupted state and create the kingdom of heaven on earth. Drinking the church-sanctioned wine is part of the process of becoming, in Jenkin's words, "engrafted into the lineage of Heaven" by separating from Satan's lineage and becoming one of Moon's "blessed families"--the "chosen people" that Jenkins mentions near the end of the video. As Moon himself claims, as a consequence of participating in the Holy Wine Ceremony, "[y]ou are going to be in ultimate infinite faith to God, to True Parents [Rev. Moon and his wife], grateful to them and obedient to their will."

When I checked my e-mail this morning, I received an e-mail from YouTube with the subject heading, "Video Removed: Copyright Infringement." When I opened the email, I received the following message:

Dear Member:

This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a third-party notification by Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity claiming that this material is infringing:

George Bush and the Moonie Cult's "Holy Wine" Ceremony: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkq44UTt5pI

Please Note: Repeat incidents of copyright infringement will result in the deletion of your account and all videos uploaded to that account. In order to prevent this from happening, please delete any videos to which you do not own the rights, and refrain from uploading additional videos that infringe on the copyrights of others. For more information about YouTube's copyright policy, please read the Copyright Tips guide.

If you elect to send us a counter notice, please go to our Help Center to access the instructions.

Please note that under Section 512(f) of the Copyright Act, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification may be subject to liability.

Sincerely,
YouTube, Inc.

The location where the video used to be informs people that "[t]he video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity."

When I posted the video, I did not edit it for the following reasons:
1) At that time, I didn't have easy access to editing equipment.
2) I wanted to include the entirety of the video I had so that viewers could draw their own conclusions.

In the near future, I will take portions of the videos and edit them with an explanation of the holy wine ceremony. If the Unification Church attempts to take the video down due to an alleged copyright infringement, I believe I have a strong case for fair use of video excerpts.

The video in question was not intended to be viewed by non-Moonies. Because I and others posted it, the video has been an embarrassment to Moon, the Unification movement, and especially to former president Bush. One way to counter the Unifications movement's actions is to publicize the deleting of the video and create the "Streisand Effect."

Addendum: It is revealing that since I quoted Moon's words regarding how participating in the holy wine ceremony makes a person "obedient to [the] will" of the True Parents, the Unification Church removed the sermon from their web site containing the quote. When I clicked the original link to the sermon on the church's web site, I discovered that it is now a dead link.

Posted 6:35 AM by Scoobie Davis

The Moonies Removed My YouTube Video!
More later today.

Posted 6:07 AM by Scoobie Davis

Post on Regnery Publishing
1. Sorry about the delay. I just arrived in Columbus, Ohio to go to the annual Comfest (I haven't been to it since 1999). So I won't post the article I promised until After Sunday.
2. I noticed on my Statcounter stats that the people at Regnery know that I'm writing the article. I got a hit to this site from Eagle Publishing,Inc., the parent company of Regnery Publishing and other wing-nut ventures as Human Events, The Conservative Book Club, Evans-Novak, and Redstate.com.

Posted 6:15 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Joe Conason on this year's political hitmen: Floyd Brown, Jerome Corsi, James Dobson, and David Freddoso,

Posted 2:53 PM by Scoobie Davis

Greg Palast
Quick note: I have some work to do the next couple days, so the post on Regnery Publishing won't be up until after Wednesday. In the meantime, check out the trailer for Greg Palast's Free For All:

Posted 8:56 AM by Scoobie Davis

Synchronicity!
I was working on a long post about Regnery Publishing (tenatively titled "Regnery Publishing's Wat On America") when I found out (via the Huffington Post) that Regnery is planning to publish a hit book on Barack Obama by David Freddoso’s titled The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media’s Favorite Candidate. I hope to have the post up in the next couple days. Stay tuned.

Posted 5:22 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Jeff Cohen on "unfair" campaign contributions.

Posted 9:49 AM by Scoobie Davis

Amway's Dick DeVos Running for Governor of Michigan Again?
I discuss this on the anti-Amway blog.

Posted 9:04 AM by Scoobie Davis

The Real Obscenity
I agree with Josh Marshal that it's a bit much for Michael Gerson, who helped to empower Bush, Rove, and Cheney, to get on his fainting couch over some bawdy words by Al Franken.

Posted 4:00 PM by Scoobie Davis

Bankrupting Amway: A Worthy and Attainable Goal
Check out my article on the anti-Amway blog.

Posted 4:50 AM by Scoobie Davis

Roger Ailes' War on Journalism
I enjoyed reading Salon’s interview with Kerwin Swint, the author of the forthcoming biography of Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. The interview provides no surprises, just support to things I have written in the past about the fair and balanced channel such as how to reach out to Fox News viewers and a refutation of Bernard Goldberg's numerous sophistries about FNC.

This also makes me glad that Hillary will not be the Democratic Party's nominee. Senator Clinton and her operatives such as Terry McAuliffe and Lanny Davis have put the cause of journalism back by not only legitimizing Ailes and FNC but they have praised the propaganda network. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Posted 10:53 AM by Scoobie Davis

David Horowitz Rejects My Offer
Check the update on HorowitzWatch.

Posted 6:40 AM by Scoobie Davis

Saint Timothy
Okay, Tim Russert wasn't that bad if you compare him to the rest of the DC press corps (of course, that's not too high of a bar), but the cloying worship of the man that I'm reading on the net is too much. Russert couldn't hold a candle to Greg Palast, Robert Parry, or Jeremy Scahill (qucik note, read Scahill's chilling report on Blackwater USA's involvement in the spying business).

I met Russert four years ago.

Posted 10:52 AM by Scoobie Davis

I'm taking David Horowitz's $500 Challenge
Details on HorowitzWatch.

Posted 6:21 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Paul Krugman on why our food is less safe than it used to be.

Posted 5:41 AM by Scoobie Davis

I'm Voting Republican:

Posted 4:47 AM by Scoobie Davis

Wish I wrote It
From of all people, Bay Buchanan: "In reality there is only one candidate. Barack Obama. In November he will win or he will lose. John McCain is relevant only in so far as he is not Barack Obama. The Senator from Arizona is incapable of energizing his party, brings no new people to the polls, and has a personality that is best kept under wraps."

Posted 11:08 AM by Scoobie Davis

Must Read
Robert Parry on John McCain's straight talk.

Posted 10:25 AM by Scoobie Davis

The Case Against Deprogramming
On the Moon blog.

Posted 6:37 AM by Scoobie Davis

5000 Plays
My YouTube video "The World's Most Powerful Cult" has just reached the 5000 mark. That's not out of the stratosphere but it's not bad.

Help to spread the video in any way you can whther it's watching it, e-mailing it to a friend or member of the media, or by mentioning it on an Internet forum. Thanks in advance.

Posted 6:26 AM by Scoobie Davis

Long Post later today

UPDATE: Maybe not. My Wi-Fi is acting up.

Posted 7:28 PM by Scoobie Davis

Been Traveling
Sorry about the dearth of recent posts. I have been out of town. Posting soon.