Filling in for Lou Dobbs on Friday night, CNN's Kitty Pilgrim highlighted a case of bias at the “supposedly objective” Associated Press, which led a dispatch about the federal roundup Tuesday of workers at meatpacking plants, by referring to how “hordes of police” had “stormed” the plants, but “the illegal workers arrested may not have been the only victims.” Pilgrim marveled: “That's right, the Associated Press calling illegal aliens -- including some charged with stealing the identities of hundreds of Americans -- it called them 'victims.'"

Indeed, in a Friday morning AP dispatch as posted by Yahoo, "Immigration raids may affect meat prices," the AP's Roxana Hegeman led her Wichita-datelined story: “When hordes of police and immigration officials stormed meatpacking plants in six states this week, the illegal workers arrested may not have been the only victims. Consumers and the industry itself may be feeling the repercussions in a shortage of meatpackers, higher wage costs and, ultimately, higher prices for the beef that lands on America's tables at home and in restaurants....”

Today is the beginning of Hanukkah, so can't let this one pass just in case you missed it...

Just when you think you’ve heard it all—FOX News reports: “An artist who was forced to remove his Nazi gingerbread men from the window of a hardware store has set up the display in an empty storefront in another town. “The Secret Lives of Gingerbread Men” depicts a small gathering at a Nazi rally. Keith McGuckin set up the display in this northeastern Ohio city Thursday night, a day before the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah begins at sundown…

Actual caption:

U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) speaks to reporters in Manchester, New Hampshire December 10, 2006. It is Obama's first visit to the political proving grounds of New Hampshire, stoking the growing buzz about a possible 2008 White House run by the rising party star. REUTERS/Brian Snyder (UNITED STATES)

Say whatever you want about White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, there’s no denying his class, integrity, and decency. In fact, few in Washington, D.C., come close.

A fine example of what kind of a man Snow is occurred during Thursday’s press gaggle when the Secretary took a moment to apologize to NBC’s David Gregory for suggesting last week that the correspondent was being partisan in the way he framed a question. As NewsBuster Matt Sheffield reported, Snow and Gregory had quite an exchange during the December 6 gaggle over the contents of the just released Iraq Study group report (video available here).

Well, a little over a week later, and after much discussion about this encounter, Snow wanted to make amends, and said the following before answering one of Gregory’s questions Thursday (video available here):

I seriously didn’t know what to expect when I saw the New York Times profile on a Muslim woman who has joined the United States Army. Despite my expectations, or lack thereof, I had a pretty good feeling that it would be filled with the typical bombastic innuendo and mischaracterizations of the United States military that I have come to expect from a newspaper that that I admittedly loath to read.

Thus I was not surprised to see the following at the beginning of the From Head Scarf to Army Cap, Making a New Life article.

It helped, Ms. Hamdan thought, that there were so many similarities between Islam and the Army.

"Interview with former Boston Center Air Traffic Controller and pilotsfor911truth.org member Robin Hordon. Visit http://pilotsfor911truth.org for latest analysis into the events of Sept. 11, 2001"

Well, Here's just one more blatant piece of new evidence pertaining to the staged events of that day. This is a 30 minute interview with this guy detailing what should of happened and why it didn't. Please, feel free to learn the truth (yet once again) or go about your robotic business and deny deny deny...

http://video.google....

Today's (weekend) starters:

Politics: Former president Jimmy Carter refuses to debate Alan Dershowitz over his new book comparing Israel to apartheid-era South Africa.

Is the pro-life movement beginning a move toward incremental anti-abortion laws?

Media:

In case you haven't heard, Sylvester Stallone actually has gone forward with his attempt to resurrect his Rocky character. The result isn't pretty, trailers for the movie "Rocky Balboa" are eliciting laughter in theaters across the country. Stallone, meanwhile insists he's done well: "I'm proud of the way it came out. It's pretty close to the real deal."

I've heard a lot of mixed reviews of Mel Gibson's latest foreign-language effort, Apocalypto. The Weekly Standard likes it, though.

Washington Post movie critic Stephen Hunter (not a role model for the Politically Correct Movie Critic) cracks today that Will Smith's new movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" unfolds like a lecture from your "old man" about working hard to achieve your dreams.

Hunter calls it "a radically conservative encomium to trying hard, to capitalism, to salesmanship, to Dean Witter, to never saying die, and to reaping the big reward." I don't get what's so "radically conservative" or capitalistic about working hard to achieve. (Don't socialists work hard to achieve their socialistic goals? Hillary?) It sounds to me more like "I can't believe Hollywood made a positive film about a black man in a Dean Witter office."

She is one of the biggest hypocrites and loud mouths on the face of this earth.  She is pathetic.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061215/ap_en_tv/people_rosie_o_donnell

In the hullaballoo over Sen. Tim Johnson's brain surgery, there are a few facts and examples that I'm not seeing, at least in the TV coverage:

1. In the sad case that Sen. Johnson cannot continue in office, some suggest it's outrageous that replacing Johnson with a Republican would deny the voice of the majority. Just remember how tight that Senate race was in 2002. Sen. Johnson was reelected by about 500 votes -- 167,481 to 166,954. 

2. One of the recent examples of a death in office was Republican Sen. Paul Coverdell, who was re-elected to a second term in 1998, and died after a hemorrage and brain surgery in 2000, and was replaced in the Senate by former Gov. Zell Miller, a Democrat. This was one reason the Senate tipped to a 50-50 margin after the 2000 election. No one in the media fussed that the seat changed parties. (This was before Zell Miller became a thorn in the hide of the national Democrats.)

Well, it certainly was a banner day for the girls of ABC’s “The View.” First, they wondered if Sen. Tim Johnson’s sudden illness might have been part of a Republican conspiracy. Then, they showed tremendous disrespect for the current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (video available here courtesy of our friend at Ms Underestimated).

As the discussion moved to presidential hopefuls for 2008, Fox News’s Dari Alexander mentioned Condoleezza Rice. Rosie O’Donnell replied:

No. I don’t enjoy her. I don’t…No. No. No….I’m not a fan of the Condi. I’m not. I’m just telling you right now I don’t enjoy the Condi. I don’t know. Stop writing, because I’m not gonna enjoy her. And I’m not gonna apologize. (Huge audience applause.)

Co-host Joy Behar then joined in:

You might think the media, given the fact that they helped engineer a Democratic victory in the midterms, and that it’s almost Christmas (sorry, Holiday), would ease their assault on President Bush. And you would be wrong. "Hardball" host Chris Matthews recently remarked that President Bush is demonstrating "messianic nuttiness." CNN’s Jack Cafferty finds it "strange" that Democrats aren’t racing to impeach President Bush.

Over on MSNBC, the reliably biased Keith Olbermann has become completely unhinged. On December 9, he smeared Bush as "authoritarian" and the "worst ever" president. But, Keith, do you like him or not?

On CBS, "Evening News" host Katie Couric labeled Bush’s new poll numbers "devastating" and "stunning."

But not all politicians are bad, especially those with that "D" next to their names. Long time ABC reporter Barbara Walters named Nancy Pelosi the "most fascinating person of 2006." And, no, the network did not bestow a similar honor on Newt Gingrich in 1994. "The Los Angeles Times" provided an even more glowing description, calling the San Francisco Congresswoman an "American Everywoman."

http://news.yahoo.co...

Now, why did I choose to highlight this article in terms of global warming?

Read the following paragraph from the article:

"Detailed observations from the first comet samples returned to Earth are DEBUNKING SOME OF SCIENCE'S LONG-HELD BELIEFS on how the icy, celestial bodies form."

Here's an example where science was proven wrong by facts, even though it had long ago COLLECTIVELY made up its mind about the constitution of truth. Facts, however, have a way of interfering with a manufactured reality.

The same is true for global warming. Climate change is real. Is man the culprit, however? Or has it always happened, always will? We don't know, because the greenhouse gas emissions coming from warmaholics is so intense that it's drowning out ANY ATTEMPT FOR SCIENCE TO DEBATE, which is what science is supposed to do--constantly question itself. In edition to drowning out the other side (due to the media onslaught), the warmholic emissions are also raising CO2 levels and putting us all in mortal danger--GASP!

“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” - Winston Churchill

In the course of a Boston Globe column today in which she calls for a referendum in Iraq as to whether the US stays or goes, Ellen Goodman writes:

"Today we have nearly 3,000 American deaths, and by one estimate 650,000 Iraqi deaths."

Ever the environmentalist, Goodman dutifully recycles the findings of a report published in the Lancet magazine on civilian deaths in Iraq. This study, prepared by two anti-war partisans, has - as I noted here back in October - been thoroughly debunked. See more recently this piece which among other things quotes "Hot Air" thusly:

My pal Cam Edwards at NRANews.com forwarded an example of media incompetence followed by arrogance on the issue of the state of Ohio pre-empting local gun laws:

The Cleveland Plain-Dealer reversed course on the issue of firearms pre-emption laws, writing an editorial in favor of pre-emption back in August and then slamming the idea a few weeks ago. Chad Baus, from Buckeye Firearms Association, had a lengthy and funny email exchange with the head of the editorial page. You can find the whole story here.

Baus found a clear case of an editorial writer who had not read the bill he was writing about, and an editorial page editor who refused to admit they hadn't read it.

Click here for instructions on running Gaggle daily on your own site. There's also an archive of previous toons available here.

Conservatives have grown used to the New York Times being unintentionally amusing.  It's been trying to pass off leftist bias as "news" for years.

So it's kind of - well, funny - to see how the Gray Lady has trouble handling something that's intended to be humorous.

Its December 10 obituary on actor Sid Raymond ends with:

"One of his last jokes involved a son sending a prostitute over to his widowed father, in his 90s, still a self-proclaimed ladies’ man. She tells him she is his birthday present and will give him super sex.

'I’ll take the soup,' he says."

It took a few days, but someone at the Times finally figured out that the "joke" wasn't funny.  So it gave it yet another try on a December 13 correction: