Here’s a cartoon to send to any pabulum puking liberals you might happen to know. Its finally a something that explains what we Republicans are all about and might help them get a clue in life (but don’t hold your breath!)

http://www.youtube.c...

Well the media has spoken - Kerry has apologized. Game over.

Amazingly the media refused to give Pope Benedict the same benefit of the doubt back in September. Remember when the Pope used some ancient text regarding Islam during a speech and Muslims went off on another version of the Cartoon Jihad? The Vatican released a statement on behalf of Pope Benedict in response to the Muslim reaction. Here is a snip from the statement...

"The Holy Father thus sincerely regrets that certain passages of his address could have sounded offensive to the sensitivities of the Muslim faithful, and should have been interpreted in a manner that in no way corresponds to his intentions."

The media's coverage left no doubt that the Pope's statement was not an apology...

This evening on CNN's "The Situation Room," anchor Paula Zahn hosted a brief discussion on the Iraq War with writers Andrew Sullivan and Christopher Hitchens.

She began with:  "Let's bring in a pair of conservatives with distinctly different points of view, Andrew Sullivan and Christopher Hitchens."

But Mr. Hitchens wasn't going to let that introduction pass:

ZAHN: Good to see both of you.

So Christopher, at a time...

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, "VANITY FAIR": I'm not a conservative.

ZAHN: Our pleasure.

At a time when the time American population....

HITCHENS: No, no, wait. You didn't get it. I'm not a conservative.

ZAHN: Not a conservative?

HITCHENS: No, thank you.

ZAHN: How would you characterize yourself?

“The John Kerry flap may have been the major political story yesterday, and even today,” Brit Hume accurately noted in his Wednesday “Grapevine” segment since, indeed, the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts led with it both Tuesday and Wednesday night. But he observed, “you might not have known that from the newspaper coverage. Not a single front-page headline in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal or USA Today. The Times cast it as a chance for the President to attack Kerry. Not until the 15th paragraph, on page 18, does a reader learn what Kerry actually said.” Hume also picked up on how ABC framed the story: “On ABC News, the Kerry flap was described as quote, 'an object lesson in how in this day and age an idle political remark gets seized upon.'" A late Tuesday night NewsBusters posting, "ABC's Gibson: Kerry's Dumb 'Get Stuck In Iraq' Merely an 'Idle Political Remark,'" distributed in Wednesday's MRC CyberAlert, highlighted the characterization by World News anchor Charles Gibson.

And Hume relayed how ABC News Political Director Mark Halperin, on the Hugh Hewitt's radio show, “says well over 70 percent of the people working on his network's political coverage are liberal, and would vote Democratic.”

The front page headline in today's Los Angeles Times (Wednesday, November 1, 2006) is, "Campaign fireworks fly as polls show Senate in play." Good grief. Like clockwork, the Times has continued its well-established practice of downplaying and/or obfuscating unflattering news for Democrats. As for the headline, "Kerry warns students, insults troops: Don't 'get stuck in Iraq?", you won't find it at the Times.

Apparently, the Times' headline wants readers to believe that these "fireworks" just happened on their own. Even the sub-headlines make no mention of Kerry's actual words from Monday. In fact, the Times baselessly drags the GOP into the mix. "New flap in Virginia race; Bush and Kerry battle like it's 2004." "Missouri could be the key." (bold added)

CNN has already made it crystal clear that the cable network is taking sides in the midterm election. Political reporter Bill Schneider reinforced that view with a report on Wednesday’s "American Morning" that sounded like something straight out of Democratic talking points. During the segment, he offered occasional asides that "spoke" for the voters. Here’s one example:

Bill Schneider: "When Americans concluded the Vietnam war was unwinnable, they turned against it. When they began to see Iraq as a civil war between rival Islamic sects, their frustration mounted. Why should that be our war? Six months ago 44 percent of Americans felt the United States would never accomplish its mission in Iraq. Now, a majority feel that way. The administration's response? Turn the question on the Democrats. What's their alternative?"

At the MRC's Business & Media Institute (BMI), we've tracked CNN's war on the economy. Today, Fox News's Brenda Buttner took on the media's negative slant with some cold hard facts:

“If you listen to the Democrats or listen to much of our media, our economy is in dire straights, but pay attention just to the numbers, well they tell a very different story... Number one, Americans employed, there's essentially full employment in the U.S..."

Buttner added that despite media talk of the housing slowdown, the "bottom line [is that] more and more of us today are fortunate enough to enjoy a piece of the American Dream" as 70 percent of Americans own their home.

ABC World News anchor Charles Gibson visited the ladies of The View Wednesday morning to discuss a range of topics, from next week’s midterm election and John Kerry’s controversial remark to liberal media bias. Gibson argued that the controversy surrounding Senator Kerry’s recent statement that those who fail to make use of their education will end up "stuck in Iraq," was in reference to President Bush and that Republicans "grabbed" onto the statement to energize the GOP base. When asked by Elisabeth Hasselbeck about a perceived liberal bias in the media, fellow co-host Rosie O’Donnell laughed off the notion, while Gibson stated that balance is something he strives for:

Elisabeth Hasselbeck: "What do you think about the, the fact that a lot of people are talking about a media bias? You know, that they can see seventy-some odd percent of the news stories that come out have a liberal slant versus maybe twelve that, that have a more conservative slant? How do you respond to that?"

Rosie O’Donnell: "I would say that’s a Fox poll and I don’t think it’s accurate..."

Charles Gibson: "...There is no such thing as objectivity, there is just lesser degrees of subjectivity...And you have to, all the time, say to yourself, are we being fair? Are we being down the middle, as we can? And I simply can tell you that is something which, which I try to implant on everybody at World News."

The real fireworks on today’s chat fest, however, occurred prior to the segment with Gibson, between Hasselbeck, the View's token conservative, and liberal Joy Behar:

Wednesday’s "Early Show" on CBS highlighted Senator John Kerry’s disparaging remarks about the American military in three separate segments, but instead of expressing outrage at Kerry’s comments, CBS seemed more concerned that the Republicans may use them for political gain in the midterm elections. While CBS omitted mentions that some Democrats have refused to campaign with Kerry and others have asked that he apologize, the network pondered if the outrage expressed by Republicans was an effort to "fire up the base" or simply a "desperate" attempt to change the subject.

Co-host Hannah Storm inquired of White House Press Secretary Tony Snow if President Bush’s demand that Kerry apologize to the troops was genuine or:

This thread is for all the neo-cons who think that Islamic terrorist pulled of 9/11.  Please cite proof for these accusations with references to the source of the information.  I am very interested in what will be included as "proof", as most of you contend that it is an undisputable fact.

Laura Ingraham drove home the point this morning that Kerry's remark should have more resonance, not only because of his slurs on American soldiers going back to 1971, but also a pronounced liberal tendency to equate the military with the proverbial poor, uneducated, and easy to command, as the Washington Post once described the religious right. She cited (and Brent Baker originally reported) actor Richard Belzer on the Bill Maher show on HBO in March, who said it was "BS" to ask the soldiers their opinion on Iraq:

Belzer:  They're not, they don't read twenty newspapers a day. They're under the threat of death every minute. They're not the best people to ask about the war because they're gonna die any second.”

The Bush administration once again is caught in an outright lie. The bill signing for a border fence following the deployment of the National Guard to the border is a farce, as the Security and Prosperity Partnership is well on it's way to destroying the sovereignty of this country by planning and overseeing the contruction of a NAFTA superhighway stretching from Canada to Mexico and beyond, creating the North American Union.

http://www.cfr.org/publication/8102/

For more information, simply type North American Union into any search engine.  A resolution has already been created by a group of congressmen and senators denouncing any such plan. 

Today's USA Today pumped up inflation worries but devalued the currency of a new report showing strong wage growth.

My full story can be found here.

Can't be because this is 6 days before an election, right?

At any rate, it seems even a liberal pundit cited in the cover story isn't falling for the Lou Dobbs lament that the halcyon days of the middle class are behind us:

“Looking back” with nostalgia “to a golden age of the middle class doesn’t wash,” the USA Today reporter wrote, citing Jason Furman of the liberal Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. “Overall health care is better now, for example, and far fewer people a generation ago expected to go to college,” Waggoner conceded.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/010647.php

Despite the fact that former Vice President Al Gore invented the information superhighway, Market Wire reported Wednesday that more Republicans use the Internet than Democrats (hat tip to Drudge): “Nielsen//NetRatings (NASDAQ: NTRT), a global leader in Internet media and market research, announced today that 36.6 percent of U.S. adults online are Republicans, 30.8 percent are Democrats and 17.3 percent are Independents. With campaign Web sites becoming increasingly important to reaching the electorate, candidates need to keep their fingers on the political pulse of the Internet.”

The article continued:

For those who already suspect the New York Times has a liberal bias, the Halloween night Times Talk at the New York Historical Society on Manhattan's Upper West Side didn't provide too many scares.

"Writing About Politics in an Age of Contention" featured Editorial Page Editor Gail Collins, Managing Editor Jill Abramson, and Assistant Managing Editor Richard Berke, along with non-Times people Al Hunt, formerly the executive editor for the Wall Street Journal, and Dick Polman, reporter-blogger for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The usual liberal conventional wisdom prevailed, with little disagreement about anything (everyone seemed convinced Democrats would win the House, but warned that Democrats had been sure of victory before).

The firestorm ignited on Tuesday concerning Sen. John Kerry’s insensitive remarks in front of a group of students in Pasadena, California, once again demonstrates the media’s double-standard regarding jokes made by politicians: if you’re a Democrat, the press get it; if you’re a Republican, fuggetaboutit!

Whether you buy into Kerry’s explanation that this was all a botched joke is irrelevant. The reality is the media have, and they’re out in force pushing this line of thinking to douse water on this firestorm as quickly as possible. The much larger issue is how this compares to previous events when the press weren’t as forgiving of a joke that went awry, in particular, what occurred in December 2002 when Trent Lott made an innocent comment at the 100th birthday party of Strom Thurmond. If you recall, that forced him to resign his position as de facto Senate Majority Leader. These were Lott’s comments on that fateful day (video here):

Today's starter: Our friends at Olbermann Watch have prepared a lexicon of the far left's favorite "news" anchor, made up entirely of actual Olbermann usage.

Writing at National Review, Byron York recounts the story behind the recent incident where a left-wing activist was tackled at a George Allen campaign event after asking a question about the senator's ex-wife:

The question might not make much sense to anyone who hasn’t kept up with both the race between Allen and Democrat James Webb and the commentary of the left-wing blogosphere. If you have kept up, you know that left-wing bloggers have been agitating for the release of the records from Allen’s divorce from his first wife, Anne. There is a rumor among those bloggers that the records will reveal an allegation that Allen spit on Anne Allen, and the bloggers have been angry that press outlets have not reported the story.

Last week, when the Allen campaign pointed to sexually exotic passages in Webb’s novels, some of those bloggers saw an opportunity. On Thursday, Josh Marshall, of TalkingPointsMemo, wrote that Allen had crossed some sort of line by “mining Jim Webb’s novels for sex scenes.”

“If Allen really wants to play rough,” Marshall wrote, “maybe it’s time for some Democrats to start going on the shows and asking about that sealed divorce records of Allen’s. All those reporters have a pretty good idea of what’s in there. But Sen. Allen (R-VA) just won’t agree to let them see it.”

Since Kerry's "the troops are stupid" remarks were reported on Newsbusters yesterday, the story has truly grown some legs. This has caused the MSM to bend themselves into pretzels to explain away Kerry's typically anti-military remarks and leading the pack, as always, is the "Paper of broken record", the New York Times.

In a piece titled ”Bush Attacks Kerry for Remarks on Iraq Troops”, the Times spends nearly the entire story making this out to be a Bush/Republican issue and barely even takes the time to mention what it is that Kerry said to initiate the incident in the first place, casting the entire story into the rote Republicans-are-at-fault mode.

The story, by Adam Nagourney and several other contributors (amusing that it took a whole committee to make this spin up), nearly ignores Kerry’s actual remarks not even bothering to mention the phrase that caused this whole dust up until the 15th paragraph.

The 14 paragraphs before that has some anti-Bush doozies, too.

There are occasions in the news coverage of campaigns where fevered imagination kicks in and calm, comparative reason takes a holiday. Here we go again, and this time it’s Harold Ford Jr., the Democratic contender for the Senate in Tennessee who is getting the red carpet media treatment. Ford is an attractive black “rising Democratic star,” whose only obstacle is Tennessee’s inability to get beyond its sordid racist past.

The East Coast media recently parachuted into Tennessee to explore if the state was still so backward as to elect yet another Republican. On its front page, The Washington Post began a story with John Layne, aging white Republican, who came to a Ford rally because he has emphysema and worries about health care. "Oh, sure, there's some prejudice," Layne said. "I wouldn't want my daughter marrying one." But apparently, he’ll vote for one if the government benefit checks are good.

Just yesterday a reader brought to my attention the sudden TV ubiquity of John Harwood. He pointed out that - CNBC and Wall Street Journal credentials notwithstanding - Harwood is a predictable liberal voice. And sure enough, it was none other than Harwood that David Gregory chose for a comment on L'Affaire Kerry on this morning's 'Today.' And darn if that reader wasn't right about Harwood's leftward tilt. Let's read and analyze Harwood's statement:

"It's difficult to see, in a campaign dominated by unhappiness about the Iraq war, how these comments will be a driving force in the last few days."

While some tabloids capture the drama of John Kerry's uneducated-people-stuck-in-Iraq joke ("KERRY KALAMITY," says the New York Daily News), the nation's biggest newspapers have headlines draining the drama out of the story, and certainly leaving the contents of the "joke" out of the headline:

New York Times: "As Vote Nears, Stances on War Set Off Sparks."

Washington Post: "Bush Calls Kerry Remarks Insulting to U.S. Troops."

(The Post wins some sort of prize for partisanship. Kerry's on A-8. On page one, the big headline is "Campaigner in Chief Has Limited Reach: An Unpopular President Avoids Many Key Races.")

Yesterday the Washington Post published a below the fold story under the headline “Black Democrats Cross Party Lines To Back Steele For U.S. Senate”. Naturally it didn’t take long for the AP to circle the wagons with their own report headlined “AP Poll: GOP Outreach to Blacks Falters”. In fact it took less than a day.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- So much for the Republican charm offensive toward minorities. Black voters are far less likely to approve of the way President Bush is doing his job than voters generally and they are more likely to feel that the country is on the wrong track, disheartening news for a Republican Party that has been trying to curry favor with minority voters in recent years.