Tea Party

This woman has no idea why people would be upset about out of control, unprecedented in modern times government spending. "Don't you know Illinois is getting stimulus money?" She views these people with absolute disgust - a bunch of nuts, mind-numbed robots doing the bidding of Fox News - people too stupid to understand the greatness of Obama.

The Onion

"Media Having Trouble Finding Right Angle on Obama Double-Homicide"

Great article from the Onion - I hate that Jon Meacham.

Obama Clears Obama

I was just made aware of this illustrative headline from the Politico: "Obama report clears Emanuel,  other aides." What a relief! Also, what a time saver for the busy journalist: just accept reports from the Obama administration about the Obama administration as fact. 

Best Quotes of 2008

The Media Research Center (a conservative media watchdog) has handed out its awards for best quotes of 2008. The winner is MSNBC's Chris Matthews for his comments after an Obama speech in February: "I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don't have that too often... And that is an objective assessment." The runner-up was this Reuters post-election headline: "Media bias largely unseen in U.S. presidential race." 

A couple other good ones:

"Not doing it [fighting global warming] will be catastrophic. We’ll be eight degrees hotter in ten, not ten but 30 or 40 years, and basically none of the crops will grow. Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals." — CNN founder Ted Turner on PBS’s Charlie Rose, April 1.

“When NBC News first assigned me to the Barack Obama campaign, I must confess my knees quaked a bit....I wondered if I was up to the job. I wondered if I could do the campaign justice.”
— NBC reporter Lee Cowan in an article for NBC’s “The Peacock” advertising supplement, March 23-29.

Politics of Fear

In a recent cover story, Newsweek "breaks new proctological ground for the depth and breadth of its butt-kissing of the Obama campaign," according to Jonah Goldberg in the print edition of National Review. Newsweek claims (in a cover story, mind you, not an editorial) that "the Republican Party has been successfully scaring voters since 1968, when Richard Nixon build a Silent Majority out of lower- and middle-class folks frightened or disturbed by hippies and student radicals and blacks rioting in the inner cities."

Do Republicans sometimes play on people's fears? Of course they do. Fear is a powerful motivator. Believe it or not, there are things to fear on this planet and I don't see anything wrong with addressing them. However, Republicans do not have a monopoly on fear, as Goldberg points out.

It might strike some as odd to start at 1968 when, four years earlier, the Democratic party ran its infamous 'daisy' ad suggesting that a vote for [Barry Goldwater] might well render The Children into radioactive cinder.

How Al Gore can emit so much CO2 about Bush's fear-mongering without spontaneously bursting into flames of hypocrisy is beyond me, given that his whole post-vice-presidency has been dedicated to scaring the bejeebers out of the whole planet about global warming. 'Hurricanes! Cyclones! Famine!'

Liberals, Democrats, Clintonites, and environmentalists would respond to all of these counter-examples by saying... it's 'raising awareness' and 'highlighting the issue.'

I guess it's only fear-mongering if we're not supposed to be afraid. Clearly the media, in labeling the Republican party as the party of fear, has decided for us that we should fear global warming, "two America's", and the free market, but not terrorism or porous borders.

Obamania

And from the Onion:

Issues:

Pro-hopes, also supports dreams

Favorite Way To Mollify Supporters:
Nodding solemnly while gripping podium

Political Experience:
(2005–) Junior Senator from Illinois. Working directly under Senior Senator Richard Durbin himself, duties included fact-checking and copyediting the 2006 highway appropriations amendment bill. Member, Illinois State Senate (1997-2004)

Difficulty Catching A Cab:
Moderate

Personal Best For Getting Digits:
32 seconds

Odds Of Pop-Locking During Inauguration:
1 in 12

Fox News Most Balanced in Election Coverage

A new study of the media's coverage of the '08 election shows that Fox News has been more balanced than the networks. The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason U did a scientific analysis of all 481 election news stories on the main evening news shows on NBC, CBS, ABC, and FOX from October 1 through December 15. Their findings:

• Hillary stories were 42% positive, 58% negative, Obama 61% positive, 39% negative.
  
• Huckabee was 50/50, Romney 40/60, and Giuliani 39/61.
• Fox News was 51/49 on Dems, 49/51 on Republicans, while the networks were 47/53 on the Dems, 40/60 on the Republicans.
  

Just because Fox has shows like O'Reilly's and Hannity & Colmes doesn't mean their news is biased.

CNN/Youtube Debate

I'm not sure who the winner of Wednesday's debate was, but the clear loser is CNN. They flew in a member of Hillary's campaign to debate the candidates on gays in the military when all of the questioners were supposed to be undecided Republicans. CNN would have realized that many of the questioners were actually Democrat plants if they had done a minute's worth of research online and I don't think anybody's buying their story that they didn't know who the gays in the military guy was. Many of the questions CNN chose revealed their view of Republican voters: crazy gun lovers and religious weirdos. One questioner wanted to the candidates to comment on his Confederate flag. We get the message, CNN: Republicans are kooks. CNN is a joke, yet it's the Democrats who refused to even go on Fox News for a debate.

As far as the candidates (click here for transcript), I thought Rudy got creamed, especially on illegal immigration. Thompson was good, but not great. He had solid answers to every question, I'm confident in his conservative values and character, but he just hasn't excited me yet. Huckabee was good, although he did take shots on taxes. He had a great line, when asked about expanding the space program: "maybe Hillary could be on the first rocket to Mars." No one addressed his huge weaknesses in understanding a free-market economy (see my entry below). Romney scored some points early on Rudy, but seemed to waffle on a couple questions. However, he firmly responded to criticsm from Thompson on his abortion record: "I was wrong." Romney noted that he had his change of heart soon after becoming governor and vetoed every abortion rights expanding bill that came across his desk. I think Romney made a mistake though in wasting all his ammo on Rudy. He should have targeted Huckabee's lack of conservative credentials, as Huckabee is a greater threat in the early primaries.

Iraq - A Quagmire for Al-Qaida

More good news out of Iraq: the Washington Post is reporting that attacks against civilians and US troops are down 55% over the last nine months and Jack Kelly from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (ht Rush Limbaugh) makes a compelling case that Al-Qaida has suffered big losses in personnel and in their reputation in the Muslim world. After the fall of Saddam, Al-Qaida chose to make Iraq the main battle ground against the US. Now they have been driven from most populated areas and have to hide out in the mountains. Al-Qaida's attacks have killed many Iraqis and the population has largely turned against them. Where are these stories? Kelly notes:

When U.S. troop deaths hit a monthly high in April, that was front-page news in most major newspapers, Mr. Benedetto noted. But when U.S. troop deaths fell in October to their lowest levels in 17 months, that news was buried on page A-14 of The Washington Post and mentioned on Page A-12 in The New York Times.

In the same Washington Post article I linked to above, the author wonders why Bush's approval ratings remain so low, despite the improving situation in Iraq and North Korea. Could it be that whenever a Republican President is in office we get blasted with non-stop bad news? If the war is going better, it's not reported, instead we read about global warming or an income gap.

But She's So Perky

In case CBS is still wondering why nobody watches Katie Couric (pictured after seeing her ratings), here's a clue. At the National Press Club yesterday she let this one slip (ht Moonbattery):

"The whole culture of wearing flags on our lapel and saying 'we' when referring to the United States and, even the 'shock and awe' of the initial stages, it was just too jubilant and just a little uncomfortable. "

I guess supporting, no wait, even identifying with your country in a time of war is too much to ask for of the mainstream media.

Sharpton Slip

Al Sharpton has become judge and jury of anyone uttering less than PC remarks about African-Americans as we saw in the Imus debacle. However, which is more offensive - what Imus said about the Rutgers womens basketball team or what Sharpton said recently about Mitt Romney? Sharpton said "As for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyway, so don't worry, that's a temporary situation." As Justin Hart writes in American Thinker, Sharpton argues that a non-Christian candidate doesn't believe in God and has no place in politics. How would these comments be recieved had a conservative made them and replaced a Mormon candidate with a Jewish one, or gasp! a Muslim candidate? The hypocrisy is stunning, as is the media bias. Whether you're Ted Kennedy (Chappaquiddick) or Sharpton (Tawana Brawley) it's amazing what you can get away with, as long as you're a liberal.

Romney Wins

The GOP candidates (minus Fred Thompson) had their first debate tonight. Mitt Romney (my current favorite, although I'm interested in Thompson) seemed to come out on top, despite ridiculous questions from the MSNBC moderators. Examples: "What do you dislike most about America?" (to Romney), “Thousands of reputable scientists have concluded, with almost certainty, that human activity is responsible for the warming of the Earth. Do you believe global warming exists?” (Huckabee), “Will you work to protect women's rights, as in fair wages and reproductive choice?” (Tancredo), “Bradley Winter of New York would like to know if there's anything you learned, or regret, during your time as Mayor in your dealings with the African-American community?” (Giuliani), as well as questions meant to embarrass the candidates (the difference between Shia/Sunni, how many dead in Iraq, etc.). The unscientific poll on Drudge has Romney winning the debate with 34% over Giuliani's 21% and McCain's 6%. Peggy Noonan at WSJ gives the advantage to Romney and thinks Giuliani bombed. Romney comes off as the most intelligent and polished and is certainly more conservative than Giuliani and McCain. Romney's obstacles are convincing the right of his pro-life turnaround and the whole Mormonism thing. Giuliani, as he showed by wavering tonight on whether or not the Supreme Court should overturn Roe v. Wade, rejects deeply held beliefs of much of the base. I admit that being a Mormon is a big negative, but I still believe Romney has the strength, character, experience, intelligence, and charisma to be a great president and spokesman for the conservative movement. Check out Romney's website for more information.

The Enemy of My Enemy Is My Friend

Former CIA director George Tenet is making the rounds promoting his new Bush bashing book. An intelligent man, he realizes that criticizing Bush is the best way to get a free pass from the media for his failings in providing intelligence to the administration. Tenet told Bush that the case for WMD in Iraq was a "slam dunk." Bush presented this information to the public. The media now says Bush lied by using the evidence provided by the CIA and intelligence agencies around the world, while forgetting that his comments on the issue were no different from the claims of both Clintons and John Kerry. I am still skeptical that Saddam got rid of all his WMD's without bothering to prove it to the U.N. I guess he really liked the crippling sanctions that would have been lifted had he done so. Isn't it more likely that he sent them to Syria or Iran on the eve of the war or hid them very well? Back to Tenet, it is interesting to see this Clinton holdover welcomed back into the fold by the press. However, some of the information in the book (I haven't read it, just news reports) about Al-Qaeda's plans are truly frightening. Al-Qaeda has apparently gotten very close to getting nuclear weapons from Pakistan and Tenet believes they will stop at nothing to detonate a nuclear device in a major American city.