Barack Obama: I’m always worried about using the word ‘victory,’ because, you know, it invokes this notion of Emperor Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur.”

“There is no Substitute for Victory” General Douglas MacArthur

Note to Obama: Hirohito did not come down to the Battleship Missouri and sign anything! Rachel Abrams at Weekly Standard Blog points out today:

Apparently your grandfather wasn’t there for the Japanese surrender, and thus didn’t take you on his knee when you were a child to teach you all about it. So here’s a little history lesson: See that guy in the picture signing the Japanese Instrument of Surrender on board the USS Missouri? Well, he’s not the Emperor Hirohito, he’s Japanese foreign affairs minister Mamoru Shigemitsu, (see photo below)

My opinion: Any Commander-in-Chief of our Armed Forces who sends our military into war without a clear goal of, and mandate for, “victory” should be removed and impeached! This is a stab in the back to our military who are drilled and taught that their objective is to defeat the enemy and achieve “victory”.

Wagner Todd Huston at NewsBusters writes today:

It is telling that when Barack Obama pictures “victory” he doesn’t see in his head that famous photo of the U.S. Sailor kissing the pretty girl in Times Square on Victory Day. Instead, what is immediately conjured up in Obama’s mind is the bedraggled figure of a beaten Japanese Emperor groveling at the feet of U.S. military might.

Obama’s sympathy seems to be with the Emperor that governed a nation that tried to viciously take over the entire Pacific Rim and enslave many millions of Asian peoples. It is hard to escape the feeling that Obama’s first thought when the word “victory” is broached is of our enemy, his sympathies with them, not us.

Japanese Surrender Party, Hirohito Not Present!

Japanese representatives on board USS Missouri (BB-63) during the surrender ceremonies, 2 September 1945.
Standing in front are:
Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu (wearing top hat) and General Yoshijiro Umezu, Chief of the Army General Staff.
Behind them are three representatives each of the Foreign Ministry, the Army and the Navy. They include, in middle row, left to right:
Major General Yatsuji Nagai, Army;
Katsuo Okazaki, Foreign Ministry;
Rear Admiral Tadatoshi Tomioka, Navy;
Toshikazu Kase, Foreign Ministry, and
Lieutenant General Suichi Miyakazi, Army.
In the the back row, left to right (not all are visible):
Rear Admiral Ichiro Yokoyama, Navy;
Saburo Ota, Foreign Ministry;
Captain Katsuo Shiba, Navy, and
Colonel Kaziyi Sugita, Army.
(Identities those in second and third rows are from an annotated photograph in Naval Historical Center files.)

Photograph from the Army Signal Corps Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

Be it resolved that the Alaska State Legislature hereby claims sovereignty for the state under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States.

–The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people– U.S. Constitution, Tenth Amendment

The above proclamation passed the Alaska legislature yesterday and was signed by outgoing Governor Sarah Palin. The vote: Alaska’s House 37-0 and Senate 40-0. World Net Daily reports today:

Gov. Sarah Palin has signed a joint resolution declaring Alaska’s sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution – and now 36 other states have introduced similar resolutions as part of a growing resistance to the federal government….

…While seven states – Tennessee, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Alaska and Louisiana – have had both houses of their legislatures pass similar decrees, Alaska Gov. Palin and Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen are currently the only governors to have signed their states’ sovereignty resolutions.

Read more about State Sovereignty at Tenth Amendment Center.

Patriot Samuel Adams

I hope Congress, before they adjourn, will take into very serious Consideration the necessary Amendments of the Constitution. Those whom I call the best—the most judicious & disinterested Fœderalists, who wish for the perpetual Union, Liberty & Happiness of the States and their respective Citizens many of them, if not all are anxiously expecting them—They wish to see a Line drawn as clearly as may be, between the federal Powers vested in Congress and the distinct Sovereignty of the several States upon which the private and personal Rights of the Citizens depend. Without such Distinction there will be Danger of the Constitution issuing imperceptibly, and gradually into a Consolidated Government over all the States, which, altho it may be wished for by some, was reprobated in the Idea by the highest Advocates for the Constitution as it stood without amendmts. I am fully persuaded that the People of the United States being in different Climates—of different Education and Manners, and possest of different Habits & Feelings under one consolidated Governmt. can not long remain free, or indeed under any Kind of Governmt. but Despotism.

Samuel Adams in a letter to Elbridge Gerry 1789

Some honest and responsible commentators and bloggers have been understandably reluctant to jump on the “Where’s the Birth Certificate” bandwagon out fear of being labeled cranks and nutjobs. One such person is Hasan Nurullah who blogs at Digital Publius. In a piece dated yesterday he writes, apparently inspired by the Major Stefan Cook business:

Up to and until now, I have steered clear of this whole birth certificate thing,
in an effort to set aside my credulity in believing in the overall
fishiness of all things liberal. But, when you start seeing the
bureaucratically obsessed U.S. army revoking orders without the proper
protocol being met…

For an administration touting their commitment to openness and
accountability, what is the big deal about showing a long form birth
certificate? Here in Detroit, if you lose your birth certificate, you
can go to the health department at Herman Keifer hospital, and they
will send you a new certified copy. They don’t have a health department
anywhere in the state of Hawaii if he lost his?

Never has there been a president more reticent about sharing records of the
past. It seems that his birth certificate is not the only document
unavailable for scrutiny, his records from Occidental College Columbia
University and Harvard Law have also proven difficult to obtain.

At this point, I would be reticent in believing any documents presented so
late in the game, how long does it take to forge credible documents
today? I fear that I may have to jump on the birth certificate crowds
bandwagon until the President sends a clear statement by asking
michelle to fish it out of the family safe. Lets go Mr. President ante
up, you want to play the hand before showing that you are in possession
of the stakes you need to join the game.

Also from yesterday’s news:

White House Liar-in-Chief Robert Gibbs, when questioned once again by Lester Kinsolving, continues his dissembling and obfuscation on the Obama birth certificate issue:

No, Lester, let’s finish this one. Do all of your listeners
and the listeners throughout this country the service to which any
journalist owes those listeners, and that is the pursuit of the noble truth.
And the noble truth is that the President was born in Hawaii, a state
of the United States of America. And all of this incredible
back-and-forth — I get e-mails today from people who inexplicably can
figure out very easily the White House e-mail address, and want proof
of where the President was born.

(source: Citizens against Pro-Obama Media Bias)

Imagine having to strengthen the truth by calling ones truth “noble”. Such antics point to falsehood rather than truth. Of course he could not say “honest to God truth” or something similar. That would be politically incorrect. Here’s the Audio;
more audio (Bret Baier on Fox).

And some video (Bret Baier on Fox):

When someone with Gibbs’s history of obfuscation has to qualify truth with noble I smell a lie. Another exchange between Kinsolving and Gibbs:

Kingsolving says what’s on the internet [what Gibbs referred to as barry's birth certificate] is not a birth certificate.
Gibbs I KNOW.
End of story. He admits on the official record – in the transcript and
on video and eyewitness testimony – that he knows that useless COLB is
not a birth certificate...

Liar-in-Chief Robt. Gibbs

Forced abortions. Mass sterilization. A “Planetary Regime” with the power of life and death over American citizens.

The tyrannical fantasies of a madman? Or merely the opinions of the person now in control of science policy in the United States? Or both?

These ideas (among many other equally horrifying recommendations) were put forth by John Holdren, whom Barack Obama has recently appointed Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, and Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology — informally known as the United States’ Science Czar. In a book Holdren co-authored in 1977, the man now firmly in control of science policy in this country wrote that:

• Women could be forced to abort their pregnancies, whether they wanted to or not;
• The population at large could be sterilized by infertility drugs intentionally put into the nation’s drinking water or in food;
• Single mothers and teen mothers should have their babies seized from them against their will and given away to other couples to raise;
• People who “contribute to social deterioration” (i.e. undesirables) “can be required by law to exercise reproductive responsibility” — in other words, be compelled to have abortions or be sterilized.
• A transnational “Planetary Regime” should assume control of the global economy and also dictate the most intimate details of Americans’ lives — using an armed international police force.

Perhaps even scarier than the Justice Ginsburg business,** although perhaps less immediate because of the passage of time, are the notions of John P. Holdren and Paul and Anne Erlich in a 1977 text book “Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment”. Scarier still is the realization that one of the proponents of the draconian solutions mentioned above (Holdren), is Barack Obama’s “Science Czar”

Blogger zombie at zombietime, in a great research feat, has uncovered the above mentioned book and posts some of the more outrageous strategies for population control put forward by the authors in this 1977 publication. Zombie says his first knowledge of the Holdren/Erlich business came from an article earlier this year by Ben Johnson at Front Page Magazine where we read:

Some critics have noted Holdren’s penchant for making apocalyptic predictions that never come to pass, and categorizing all criticism of his alarmist views as not only wrong but dangerous. What none has yet noted is that Holdren is a globalist who has endorsed “surrender of sovereignty” to “a comprehensive Planetary Regime” that would control all the world’s resources, direct global redistribution of wealth, oversee the “de-development” of the West, control a World Army and taxation regime, and enforce world population limits. He has castigated the United States as “the meanest of wealthy countries,” written a justification of compulsory abortion for American women, advocated drastically lowering the U.S. standard of living, and left the door open to trying global warming “deniers” for crimes against humanity. Such is Barack Obama’s idea of a clear-headed adviser on matters of scientific policy.

About his reason for doing his dissection of the book zombie says:

This report was originally inspired by this article in FrontPage magazine, which covers some of the same information given here. But that article, although it contained many shocking quotes from John Holdren, failed to make much of an impact on public opinion. Why not? Because, as I discovered when discussing the article with various friends, there was no proof

Of course, Holdren wrote these things in the framework of a book he co-authored about what he imagined at the time (late 1970s) was an apocalyptic crisis facing mankind: overpopulation. He felt extreme measures would be required to combat an extreme problem. Whether or not you think this provides him a valid “excuse” for having descended into a totalitarian fantasy is up to you: personally, I don’t think it’s a valid excuse at all, since the crisis he was in a panic over was mostly in his imagination. Totalitarian regimes and unhinged people almost always have what seems internally like a reasonable justification for actions which to the outside world seem incomprehensible.

that the quotes were accurate — so most folks (even those opposed to Obama’s policies) doubted their veracity, because the statements seemed too inflammatory to be true. In the modern era, it seems, journalists have lost all credibility, and so are presumed to be lying or exaggerating unless solid evidence is offered to back up the claims. Well, this report contains that evidence.

“Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment” is for sale by several vendors on the web and can be read in its entirety on Questia (subscription required)

**In the Ginsburg article mentioned above, Justice Ginsburg is quoted as saying:

” Yes, the ruling about that surprised me. [Harris v. McRae — in 1980 the court upheld the Hyde Amendment, which forbids the use of Medicaid for abortions.] Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of. So that Roe was going to be then set up for Medicaid funding for abortion.” (emphasis added)

Also see Jim Treacher at Hot Air July 11

Many excellent comments at zomblog

Also see Michelle Malkin July 10, and July 24.: Ghoulish Science + ObamaCare = Health Hazard

John P. Holdren

“Nothing so strongly impels a man to regard the interest of his constituents, as the certainty of returning to the general mass of the people, from whence he was taken, where he must participate in their burdens.”

–George Mason, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 17, 1788

How sad it is to declare that quotation untrue today. Most of our elected representatives at the federal level never return “to the general mass of the people to participate in the burdens” of their former constituents. The cling desperately to their offices and linger there, often for decades, amassing great wealth and influence so that, when they do leave office, they take with them their generous pensions and their riches. Later they find wonderful opportunities as lobbyists and influence peddlers having never more anything to do with the gullible folks who voted them into office time after time.

I have always opposed term limits, finding such limitations opposed to the will of the people. But, I have reconsidered and feel that now is the time to limit all elected representatives at the federal level to two terms. The present downward spiral of the republic towards bankruptcy and chaos makes the 2010 elections so crucial. We must elect everyday people and stop the influx of lawyers in congress. These folks write legislation that only they can understand assuming that they actually read what has been written. Our framers assumed that our representatives would come from the mass of ordinary people; farmers, workers, teachers, clergy, physicians etc.; that these folks would come to Washington, do the people’s business and go home to “share the burdens” of the populace in their districts and states.

It’s Time to Vote Them Out in 2010 and Bring in Fresh Faces!

The Gadsden Flag

In some old dusty attic
Undisturbed for many years
There lies a tattered banner
That is stained with blood and tears
By men who knew that freedom
Must be fought for by the free
And died to save a ragged flag
That said Don’t Tread on Me

Don’t Tread on Me
I’m a rattlesnake with
Diamonds down my back
When other men retreat
That’s just the time that I attack
Because a dream that’s worth defending
Is a dream that’s bound to be
A ragged flag that said
Don’t Tread on Me

Two hundred years of glory
And the glory’s just begun
We may have lost some battles
But these colors never run
We drew the line at Valley Forge
We held at Bunker Hill
The cannon smoke is lifting
I can see that banner still

Don’t Tread on me
I’m a mountain lion
And courage is my name
I tamed a wild country
But I’m wild just the same
And from that rocky Boston harbor
To the California Sea
A ragged flag that said
Don’t Tread on Me

This nation isn’t what we’ve done
It’s what we’ve got to do
Remember that United States
Can only start with you
We better be recalling
What this country’s all about
And rally round that ragged flag
And hear the people shout
Don’t Tread on Me
I’m a grizzly bear
That’s not afraid to bite
I don’t look for trouble
But when trouble comes I fight
Because my daddy taught me freedom
Has no lifetime guarantee
A ragged flag that said
Don’t Tread on Me

The winds of change are blowing
And they’re sure to shake this land
We stood all we can take
And now it’s time to take a stand
Let’s tell the men who make the laws
In Washington D.C.
Unfurl again
That ragged flag that said
Don’t Tread on Me

Don’t Tread on me
I’m an eagle
Who is clawing at the sky
I want that banner waving up
Where eagles dare to fly
And blazing in the sunlight
So that friend and foe can see
A ragged flag that said
Don’t Tread on Me

Don’t Tread on us
We’re Americans
And we were born to lead
Our skin is every color
And our faith is every creed
We are 300 million people
But on one thing we agree
A ragged flag that said
Don’t Tread on Me

Michael O’Donoghue
© 1983 Least Loved Music, BMI

The Gadsden Flag

The Gadsden Flag History

Janet Contreras, author of the open letter to our nation’s leaders, was interviewed, however briefly, on the Glen Beck program last evening:

Janet Contreras on Glenn Beck Show

The letter below, by Janet Contreras from Arizona, was read on the Glenn Beck program yesterday. It pretty well sums up how I, and millions of others, feel about the course set by our national leaders, in congress, and in the administration. Send this on to your elected representatives; demand a response! Tell them if they do not agree with these demands they will be ousted. Read Glenn Beck’s interview with Janet Contreras here.

Janet Contreras writes an open letter to our nation’s leaders:

I’m a home grown American citizen, 53, registered Democrat all my life. Before the last presidential election I registered as a Republican because I no longer felt the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. Now I no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me. There must be someone. Please tell me who you are. Please stand up and tell me that you are there and that you’re willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please stand up now. You might ask yourself what my views and issues are that I would horribly feel so disenfranchised by both major political parties. What kind of nut job am I? Will you please tell me?

Well, these are briefly my views and issues for which I seek representation:

One, illegal immigration. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S., I’m not a racist. This isn’t to be confused with legal immigration.

Two, the TARP bill, I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you no, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. Freeze, repeal.

Three: Czars, I want the circumvention of our checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution and honor it.

Four, cap and trade. The debate on global warming is not over. There is more to say.

Five, universal healthcare. I will not be rushed into another expensive decision. Don’t you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night and then go on break. Slow down!

Six, growing government control. I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real obligations. Why don’t you start there.

Seven, ACORN. I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes. Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census over with our taxpayer money. I don’t trust them with our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, hello. Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people. Investigate.

Eight, redistribution of wealth. No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs. That is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor person. Why do you want me to hate my employers? Why ‑‑ what do you have against shareholders making a profit?

Nine, charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.

Ten, corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we’ll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful. Have you ever ripped off a Band‑Aid? We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.

Eleven, transparency and accountability. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let’s have it. Let’s say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please try ‑‑ please stop manipulating and trying to appease me with clever wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around and meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me.

Twelve, unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now.

Take a breath. Listen to the people. Let’s just slow down and get some input from some nonpoliticians on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed reading our bills into law. I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I’m busy. I’m busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.

I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution. I believed in the checks and balances to keep from getting far off course. What happened? You are very far off course. Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to unintelligently ramble all through a bill that you signed into law without knowing what it contained? I do not. It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face. I am not laughing at your arrogance. Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it but you should expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children. We did not want the TARP bill. We said no. We would repeal it if we could. I am sure that we still cannot. There is such urgency and recklessness in all of the recent spending.

From my perspective, it seems that all of you have gone insane. I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us. We want our voice back. You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess that you are making. We will have to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on you to bring our concerns to Washington. Our president often knows all the right buzzword is unsustainable. Well, no kidding. How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don’t want your overpriced words. Stop treating us like we’re morons.

We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job we want done, not the job you want done or the job your party wants done. You work for us and at this rate I guarantee you not for long because we are coming. We will be heard and we will be represented. You think we’re so busy with our lives that we will never come for you? We are the formerly silent majority, all of us who quietly work , pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone and we are now looking up at you. You have awakened us, the patriotic spirit so strong and so powerful that it had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may surprise you. For every one of us who will be there, there will be hundreds more that could not come. Unlike you, we have their trust. We will represent them honestly, rest assured. They will be at the polls on voting day to usher you out of office. We have cancelled vacations. We will use our last few dollars saved. We will find the representation among us and a grassroots campaign will flourish. We didn’t ask for this fight. But the gloves are coming off. We do not come in violence, but we are angry. You will represent us or you will be replaced with someone who will. There are candidates among us when hewill rise like a Phoenix from the ashes that you have made of our constitution.

Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this. We don’t care. Political parties are meaningless to us. Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution and that is all that matters to us now. We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more. It is not your power. It is ours and we want it back. We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable. You are dishonest. As Americans we are ashamed of you. You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired. Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them. Because we will get you fired and they will not save you. If you do or can represent me, my issues, my views, please stand up. Make your identity known. You need to make some noise about it. Speak up. I need to know who you are. If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will replace the whole damn congress if need be one by one. We are coming. Are we coming for you?

Don't Tread on Us

She’s Brilliant, She’s Qualified, I Want to See Her Confirmed, I Want Her Walking Up Those Marble Steps and Starting to Provide Some Justice!

Thus spake Barack Obama, about Sonia Sotomayor, to the Los Angeles elite where he also touted his accomplishments so far. (here’s the video)

…and the justice to be provided by Ms. Sotomayor is Obama’s justice. As Patrick J. Buchanan points out:

When you think about it, Sonia Sotomayor is the perfect pick for the Supreme Court — in Barack Obama’s America.

Like Obama, himself a beneficiary of affirmative action, she thinks “Latina women,” because of their life experience, make better judicial decisions than white men, that discrimination against white men to advance people of color is what America is all about, that appellate courts are “where policy is made” in the United States.

To those who believe the depiction of our first Hispanic justice as an anti-white liberal judicial activist, hearken to her own words.

Speaking at Berkeley in 2001, Sonia told her audience, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion (as a judge) than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”…. Speaking at Duke in 2005, Sotomayor declared: “(The) court of appeals is where policy is made. I know this is on tape, and I should never say that because we don’t make law I know.” She and the audience joined in the laughter.

Who were they laughing at? Americans who still believe the role of judges is to apply the Constitution as the Framers intended and to interpret the law as written by our elected legislators.

In Barack Obama’s America, that is so yesterday.

Sadly this is no laughing matter. Barack Obama believes the U.S. Constitution is an impediment, an obstacle, to the attainment of his socialist agenda. So bye bye U.S. Constitution and hello another activist judge in our highest court. Sotomayor is a racist political hack destined for a lifetime sinecure, one of nine justices who are sworn to uphold the U.S. Constitution.

Day by Day Cartoon: Chris Muir

Family Security Matters contributor, Attorney John D. Hemenway , has published an interesting letter to News Corp. chief Rupert Murdock asking that he direct his Fox News people to report on the Barack Obama eligibility controversy. Hemenway writes of a “ massive collapse of the fundamentals of the electoral process (ensuring candidate eligibility)” and places Murdock’s Fox News in the midst of the controversy because of  the news division’s avoidance of the Obama  eligibility issue; saying further that  orders from on high forbade commentators from mentioning it. Hemenway writes:

There are reports that top management of Fox instructed its commentators to stay away from the subject – a strange position for a service that deservedly won a reputation for “fair and balanced” reporting. I cannot believe that you would issue such an order, with your good sense. Was it Roger Ailes or someone else?

The letter is long but well worth reading and you can do so here.

News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdock