The Los Angeles Times ran a bizarrely biased October 5 article about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Qods Day speech. The Times omitted and downplayed important remarks and outright threats in the much-sanitized speech, such as twisting Holocaust denial into just asking questions.

True to form, the Iranian president railed against the ever-oppressive and all-powerful “Zionists,” but the LAT presented his speech with a tone better suited for an Iranian audience. 

The reporters, special correspondent Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran and staff writer Borzou Daragahi in Beirut, jumped right into the anti-Semitic propaganda that could just as easily have come from the Aryan Nation (bold mine throughout):

Friday's "Hannity and Colmes" featured a discussion of a recently released Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll which found that, when asked the question, "Do you personally think the world would be better off if the United States loses the war in Iraq?" 19 percent of Democrats answered "yes" while 20 percent answered "don't know," leaving only 62 percent who definitely disagreed with the idea that the world might be better off if America lost. By contrast, 87 percent of Republicans and 76 percent of Independents disagreed with the idea that a loss by America might be a good thing for the world. (Transcript follows)

Blogger "Conservative Belle" has a penchant for getting to the bottom of stories. You'll remember that a couple weeks ago, she discovered that the fallen soldier whose name David Shuster blamed Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) for not knowing had his official residence in another district. It was a Dem congressman, not Blackburn, whom the Department of the Army had notified of the soldier's death.

Conservative Belle [or "CB," as we like to call her] has gone Sherlock Holmes again today. And this time, she's discovered that "Media Matters," the outfit that denies that Hillary Clinton [contrary to her assertion as pictured here] helped start it, just happens to use as official agents a firm whose head honchos include . . . two senior political operatives from the Clinton adminstration.

Original caption:

In this photo released by CBS, former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, left, shares a laugh with host David Letterman on the set of 'The Late Show with David Letterman, Thursday, Oct. 4, 2007. It was Snow's first appearance on the show.

On Thursday's "Anderson Cooper 360," CNN's Randi Kaye filed a story in which she promoted gun control as a solution for Philadelphia's crime problems, as she pushed the argument that the city's high rate of gun violence was the result of Pennsylvania state lawmakers voting to loosen gun laws in the 1990s. And, as if criminals would bother to apply for a permit to legally carry a concealed weapon, Kaye further suggested that the availability of concealed carry permits has contributed to the city's problems. Kaye: "In 1995 there were fewer than 800 applications for concealed weapons here. 'Keeping Them Honest,' we checked, and today there are 29,000 permits to carry. And it's against the law for police to ask anyone why they want one. One law enforcement source told me permits to carry are being passed out like candy." A blog posting on the show's Web site based on this story can be seen here. (Transcript follows)

It certainly comes as no great surprise that liberal Internet denizens hate George W. Bush.

However, when this derangement syndrome sinks to the level of hoping your president dies, one must wonder what has happened to our nation for the citizenry to have so morally degenerated.

With that in mind, the liberal website Think Progress posted an article Saturday about a Fox News poll which asked respondents whether or not they prayed for the President.

Sadly, the comments posted by site members were absolutely abysmal (h/t Charles Johnson):

And yet another flashback of a phony Democrat soldier. Here is World Net Daily's exploration of the lie Al Gore told about his "gassed Uncle in WWI" during his doomed run for president in 2000... turns out Gore didn't HAVE any family that served in WWI.

Oct. 6, 2000: When Vice President Al Gore claimed, during the first presidential debate of the 2000 campaign, his uncle had been gassed in World War I while serving in Bosnia, skeptical fact checkers went to work – and they, like the campaign itself, came up empty. "And when the conflict came up in Bosnia," said Gore, "I saw a genocide in the heart of Europe, with the most violent war on the continent of Europe since World War II. Look, that's where World War I started, in the Balkans. My uncle was a victim of poison gas there. Millions of Americans saw the results of that conflict." World War I started in the Balkans, true.

"There is a legal definition of genocide and Darfur does not meet that legal standard. The atrocities were horrible but I don't think it qualifies to be called genocide," he said. Washington is almost alone in branding the 4 1/2 years of violence in Darfur genocide. Khartoum rejects the term, European governments are reluctant to use it and a U.N.-appointed commission of inquiry found no genocide, but that some individuals may have acted with genocidal intent. Carter, whose charitable foundation, the Carter Center, worked to establish the International Criminal Court (ICC), said: "If you read the law textbooks ... you'll see very clearly that it's not genocide and to call it genocide falsely just to exaggerate a horrible situation I don't think it helps."

Karter the Idiot

Are media members finally getting comfortable expressing skepticism about climate change?

Just days after CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano practically spoke heresy by stating "There are definitely some inaccuracies" in soon-to-be-Nobel Laureate Al Gore's schlockumentary "An Inconvenient Truth," a British nature-loving journalist said "I wish we could grow up about" global warming.

You gotta love it.

As reported by the British Telegraph Saturday (emphasis added throughout, h/t Marc Morano):

There's no media nook safe from liberal bias, not even sports reporting

Ever heard of New York Daily News sports writer Filip Bondy? Neither have I. But browsing through Google News this afternoon I saw a link to a story by Bondy that caught my attention: " Marion Jones drags others into selfish, steroid mess".

The gist is that it was selfish of Jones to elbow her way onto the 2004 4x100-meter Olympic relay team. Since she knew she had been taking steroids, she must also have realized that any medal the team won was in danger of being forfeited. Good point.

But then, from out of left field, this gratuitous shot [emphasis added]:

In a little blast from Clinton's past it's an avalanche of Democrats and their supporters who are turning out to be liars about their military service, lately. We are reminded of the late M. Larry Lawrence, a long time Bill Clinton donor who was such a heavy contributor that Clinton paid him off with the ambassadorship to Switzerland (1993 to 1996). Even The New York Times can't hide this one because since his false service had been confirmed, in 1997 his body had been removed from Arlington Cemetery, an honor that Clinton had strings pulled to bestow upon him after his passing from cancer in 1996 -- an Arlington burial being just another payoff for his huge donations to Clinton's campaign fund.

"Confronted with mounting evidence that M. Larry Lawrence, the late Ambassador to Switzerland, had fabricated a heroic World War II record, his widow decided today to have his remains exhumed from Arlington National Cemetery, where he was granted burial under an unusual waiver."

So what was the story? How was his military service a sham?

Let's say that MediaMatters is a Clinton front, used to respond to criticisms of the Clintons. Just for the heck of it, I'm going to say that there's nothing wrong with that. I oppose their distortions, but if it's just a site where they can respond to attacks, and feed their argument to the media, is there anything wrong with that?

I'll argue that, as long as they don't openly distort criticisms (as they did with Limbaugh, in my opinion), they have every right to use the internet this way.

Any takers?

NewsBusters' Brent Baker and Dan Gainor each did a fine job chronicling Old Media's weak coverage of yesterday's solid September Employment Situation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Here's another Old Media non-followup on yesterday's news: Failure to get a reaction from two Democratic presidential candidates who had harsh things to say a month ago when August's weak employment report was released.

That August report showed a loss of 4,000 jobs. The Old Media "recession worries" chorus was deafening. August's job-increase number was revised upward to a pickup of 89,000 as part of yesterday's report. As noted by Baker and Gainor, Old Media reaction to that revision was relatively muted. I also don't see that anyone in Old Media pointed out that the total new-jobs increase, including prior revisions, was a gain of 228,000 jobs (September's initial +110,000 pickup, August's +93,000 revision, and a +25,000 revision to July).

The two leading Democratic presidential candidates opportunistically jumped on that initial August report and its supposed implications in early September, reporter Edmund Andrews noted in a New York Times article:

Media's power was on full display last week when a popular rock singer published a song about the Jena 6.

The lyrics angered the embattled Louisiana city's mayor so much that he wrote a letter to the Associated Press complaining about how his town has "for months been mischaracterized in the media and portrayed as the epicenter of hatred, racism and a place where justice is denied."

The latest episode in this bizarre story began with the posting of this video at the website of John Mellencamp featuring his most recent song "Jena." In it, Mellencamp sings:

Oh oh oh Jena
Take your nooses down

The town's mayor, Murphy R. McMillin, wasn't pleased by this, and wrote the AP:

Great Job, Boss!

ABC anchor, and former Clinton employee, George Stephanopoulos interviewed his old boss on ABC’s "This Week." Stephanopoulos sycophantically highlighted a story in The Atlantic about the ex-President's  philanthropy. Stephanopoulos quoted the author, "'History may remember Bill Clinton as the philanthropist who happened to be President" and then asked if Clinton was "okay" with that description.

He Hates Puppies

Why did President Bush veto a federal health insurance bill "for children?" Well, ABC painted the President as uncaring and not concerned about the poor, rather than mention the program actually covers more than just the destitute.

For general discussion and debate about any subject you'd like including, but not limited to, today's football schedule.

For instance, I think Florida bounces back from last week's debacle to top #1 LSU, unranked Tennessee upsets #12 Georgia, Texas upsets overranked Oklahoma, and Nebraska upsets overranked Missouri.

Of course, the biggest shocker could be Illinois over Wisconsin.

P.S. If you want to discuss other subjects -- like proof yesterday that all this recession talk is NONSENSE, or anything political -- please do, and don't let all these football kooks intimidate you!

*****Update: Bye bye Badgers!!!

*****Update II: Bye bye Bulldogs!!!

*****Update III: Tata Trojans, if Florida beats LSU, the Bears are #1!!!

On Friday's Hardball, MSNBC's Chris Matthews tried to explain away his “criminality” allegation against the Bush administration, hailed as his “hero” a CBS News correspondent who touted Jesse Jackson as “a sort of conscience of the country” and, in showing pictures from the Thursday night party celebrating Hardball's 10th anniversary, illustrated how he was surrounded by liberals.

Comments from Matthews on his show suggested that his charge against the Bush administration -- “they've finally been caught in their criminality” -- which the Washington Examiner quoted him as saying at the party, was merely a reference to Scooter Libby. But he failed to specifically clarify, correct or deny the quote. He argued “that in one case,” Bush administration “efforts to silence critics, and to cover up those efforts, got a senior Cheney aide caught up in criminality, indeed, in a conviction for perjury and obstruction of justice.” Matthews, playing the martyr to obviously unsuccessful supposed attempts to silence him, then trumpeted “my hero Eric Sevareid,” who “once noted we cannot always be right on the facts, though we must try to be; we cannot always be fair, but we must try to be. But we must always be independent.” If only Matthews really lived up to that “independent” promise.

Imagine this scenario: A Republican Mayor of a famous city lies about his service in Vietnam and is caught at it but before that revelation comes to light he was already in trouble as he was about to be recalled by the citizenry for commonly being absent at city council meetings. What's more he also presides over a city council that has several members under investigation for sexual misconduct, drunk driving and at least one recent council member who is in jail serving a conviction for bribery. Imagine how the MSM would howl over the Republican "culture of corruption?" And yet, this scenario that I describe actually exists with but one small alteration in the particulars. The mayor in question actually exists. His city council is as corrupt as I describe. Only the mayor is a Democrat instead of a Republican... not that the MSM seems to have noticed.

Once again, the AP seems to have forgotten to mention the party affiliation of a wretchedly corrupt Democrat who is under fire for his perfidy.