Contemporary American athletics has been a success story in that those on the field have embodied the dream Martin Luther King professed at least publicly where achievement would be measured not by the color of one's skin but rather by the content of one's character and ability.

Washington's racist mayor Anthony Williams thinks he knows more than both historical wisdom and the invisible hand of economic forces in that he believes the city's new baseball franchise, the National's, should not be sold to the most competent managers but rather to ones whose primary qualifications happen to be the pigmentation of their skin in that this whiney politician insists minorities need to be given a portion of this lucrative prize.

In the running for ownership is one group of investors with former Secretary of State Colin Powell and another featuring retired Redskins Art Monk and Charles Mann. Since Monk and Mann have darker complexions than Powell, does that mean they are more deserving of the team than Powell?

Rep. Alan B. Mollohan, a Democrat from West Virginia, resigned on Friday from the House ethics committee "amid accusations that he used his congressional position to funnel money to his own home-state foundations, possibly enriching himself in the process," according to the Washington Post and other news outlets. One place you won't read about this resignation, however, is in today's Los Angeles Times (Saturday, April 22, 2006). (A puny 291-word story about the charges appeared back on April 9.)

This continues a repeated practice at the Times of either delaying or simply ignoring news stories that are unflattering to Democrats. NewsBusters has already cataloged a number of instances of this in 2006:

• NY Times, LA Times Skip Charges for Illegal Democrat Raid on Steele's Personal Info (March 18, 2006) ...

• LA Times Silent On Al Gore's "Terrible Abuses" Remarks (Feb. 15, 2006) ...

• Los Angeles Times Silent on Hillary's "Plantation" Remark (Jan. 17, 2006) ... (finally (Jan. 19, 2006)) ...

• LA Times Has No Room For Fine of Hillary's False Campaign Reports (Jan. 6, 2006) ...

On the 35th anniversary of his famous "Genghis Khan" testimony before the Senate, John Kerry has a piece on The Huffington Post today reflecting on his actions then and his feelings about the war in Iraq now. The basic argument Kerry makes is that speaking out against "a policy that is wrong" is the most patriotic thing a person can do and those that use "Swift Boat-style attacks...hurt our democracy even more than they wound their target." Like many of Kerry's arguments, however, he tries so hard to hit every liberal talking point that the core of his argument is rendered incoherent. Here's a taste:

Just as it was in 1971, it is again right to make clear that the best way to support the troops is to oppose a course that squanders their lives, dishonors their sacrifice, and disserves the American people and our principles.True patriots must defend the right of dissent and listen to the dissenters. Dissenters are not always right, but it is always a warning sign when they are accused of unpatriotic sentiments by politicians trying to avoid accountability or debate on their own policies.

As they did all week, on Friday night the three broadcast network evening newscasts again hyperventilated over the “record” high price for a barrel of oil, though adjusted for inflation, the only competent way to measure any price over time, current $75 per barrel oil is $12 short of the real record high set in January of 1981. ABC anchor Elizabeth Vargas falsely cited how “a week of skyrocketing oil prices ends with another record today,” erroneously claiming that “records were set on four out of five days, and today the price for a barrel of crude topped $75 for the first time ever.” CBS's Bob Schieffer announced that “we end the week as we began it, and that is not good news because we began this week by reporting that the price of crude oil had reached a record high.” Over on the NBC Nightly News, fill-in anchor Lester Holt had as little regard for accuracy as had Brian Williams the rest of the week. "Pain at the pump,” Holt teased, “Yet another record high for oil.”

Friday's World News Tonight also featured a preview of a taped session with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger set to air on Sunday's This Week. Vargas passed along how the liberal Republican “warned that price-gouging on oil and gas will not be tolerated. He told ABC's George Stephanopoulos he would not rule out taxing oil companies on their enormous profits." In the brief excerpt then shown, Stephanopoulos cued up Schwarzenegger: "So do we need a windfall profits tax?" (Transcripts follow)

MRC's Mike Rule noticed CBS's "Early Show" on Friday was going to extremes to play up the drama of recent gas price increases. People are now suddenly pawning items for gas money?

Julie Chen: “Oil prices reached a new record this morning, at one point they topped $73 a barrel. That's not helping high gas prices; some are going to extremes to pay for gas, pawning their belongings.”

The Washington Post's Web site on Friday posted the Reuters' dispatch, "At 74, Ted Kennedy still roars." The piece was largely favorable, lauding the Massachusetts senator for "speaking out on such trademark issues as civil rights, education and health care." It's noted that Time magazine recently named Kennedy one of America's ten best senators and that he "has helped enact legislation to protect civil rights, expand health care, upgrade schools, increase student aid and crackdown on discrimination."

Naturally, no mention is made of the costs associated with Kennedy's initiatives or their impact on expansion of Federal power. There are two references to Chappaquiddick, identified as the "scandal that tarnished his reputation and prospects of becoming president." Later, the article states: "Kennedy was dogged by personal problems early in life, most notably a 1969 accident in Chappaquiddick, Massachusetts, that took the life of a young woman who drowned when his car plunged off a bridge after a night of partying."

Liberals who believe both Fox News and CNN have become cheerleaders for the war in Iraq may have another alternative: Al Jazeera International.

The Rocky Mountain News reports that the nascent English-language channel has finally found at least one carrier in the U.S. who is willing to put the channel in its lineup.

EchoStar's Dish Network is the only cable or satellite operator in the U.S. publicly willing to consider carrying controversial Arab news channel Al Jazeera's planned English-language spinoff.

Even on Dish, Al Jazeera's attempt to provide an alternative to Western news outlets like BBC World and CNN International isn't likely to appear on any of the satellite-TV operator's popular programming tiers. "We have several offers and options under consideration, including with EchoStar, but have not yet signed anything," said Rana Jazayerli, a Washington-based spokeswoman for the news channel. "We will make our plans public after we have finalized."

On Friday's Countdown show, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann plugged the Rolling Stone cover story by historian Sean Wilentz which argued that George W. Bush may be the worst President ever, citing the opinions of over 400 historians. As he introduced his interview with Wilentz, Olbermann sympathetically referred to the recently fired CIA employee who leaked classified information on the agency's use of secret prisons in Europe in the War on Terrorism, calling her a "whistleblower," and asked the question: "President Bush, whose administration is now firing, perhaps prosecuting whistleblowers, is he simply the worst?"

While introducing the segment, Olbermann listed several of Wilentz's attacks against Bush without challenging their validity, including accusations of "fabricated evidence" of WMD, a "retro fiscal policy" of "massive tax cuts" for the wealthy that "racked up monstrous deficits," and a criticism citing an unnamed Republican strategist who claimed that the Republican Party is "the first religious party in U.S. history." Olbermann, who perennially makes comparisons between George Orwell's novel 1984 and the Bush administration, managed to work in yet another reference to Orwell as he ended the interview mocking the administration's use of the term "pre-9/11 thinking," charging that Bush would accuse Wilentz and the other historians of being "guilty of pre-9/11 thinking, as George Orwell might have said." (Transcript follows)

Every year the White House Correspondents Dinner is protested by members of the conservative site FreeRepublic.com. Known as "FReepers," they gather each year to protest liberal media bias as they "freep" the event.

The protest, planned for next Saturday evening, was announced on FreeRepublic.

All FReepers and lurkers in good standing are invited to join the D.C. Chapter of Free Republic at our 8th annual freep of the White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday, April 29, 2006 in Washington, D.C.

This is our most fun freep of the year. You never know who in the media and political world you'll meet there. Over the years, we've met and debated the likes of Al Franken, razzed Paul Begala and James Carville, been filmed by Drew Barrymore, cheered on Fox News reporters and freeped the liberal media with humor and serious barbs.

When Ellen Ratner went a couple weeks without any major liberal loopiness, one wondered whether perhaps Jim Pinkerton was having a salubrious effect on her. But things got back to normal this morning when Ratner let Pinkerton goad her into boasting that she supports "open immigration."

The opening topic on today's 'Long & the Short of It' segment on Fox & Friends Weekend dealt with Howard Dean's recent claim that job # 1 in his view is tougher border security.