One argument at the beginning of the Bill Moyers PBS special on our alleged Bush-polishing press corps centered around a White House press conference just before the Iraq war began on March 6, 2003. Within hours on that night, leftists were complaining that reporters weren't harsh enough.CBS Radio's White House reporter Mark Knoller made a rare protest against the Moyers charge on their Public Eye site. I'm a little surprised that Knoller is the only White House reporter to challenge Moyers on the idea that they were all Bush patsies, just as I'm surprised that no one in the White House press corps really challenged Helen Thomas when she called them all Bush patsies.

The formulation Moyers used -- that reporters failed to "challenge the president" that he was lying about WMD -- is trumped up, and suggests that reporters should not have merely suggested that war protesters and other countries had doubts. Apparently, Moyers wouldn't have honored a reporter as challenging unless they rhetorically punched the president in the face, suggesting his case for Iraq was crawling with lies. Moyers obviously and sleazily skipped the case of ABC's Terry Moran, who insulted all his colleagues as "zombies" after the press conference. He, by contrast, should have earned an A from Moyers from challenging Bush as leading the world in arrogance:

On Friday's The Situation Room, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer gave former Democratic Senator Max Cleland a forum to rail against the Bush administration's Iraq policy, during which the former Georgia Senator charged that President Bush would be "signing in blood" his expected veto of the Democratic plan to withdraw troops from Iraq. While Blitzer did ask a few mildly challenging questions, the CNN anchor did not question some of Cleland's more dubious assertions, including his claim that half a million Iraqis had been killed, and that Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss had called Cleland "un-American" and "unpatriotic" in the past.

While the interview originally ran live during the 5 p.m. hour of The Situation Room, it was repeated during the 7 p.m. hour, which gave Blitzer the opportunity to plug the interview, quoting the former Democratic Senator's charge that Bush would be signing his veto "in blood." Blitzer: "Tonight, the former U.S. Senator, Max Cleland, charges Mr. Bush will be signing that veto in blood." Blitzer later plugged: "Vietnam War veteran and former Senator Max Cleland says President Bush could wind up with blood on his hands." (Transcript follows)

Days after the liberal blogosphere was enraged by a Washington Post column by David Broder concerning Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada), it only seems fitting that an unnamed Democrat strategist would be quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle with negative things to say about the Netroots.

For those that have forgotten, in September, Broder wrote about “vituperative, foul-mouthed bloggers on the left.”

Months later, as California Democrats gathered in San Diego at their annual convention – with their presidential candidates present and accounted for – an anonymous strategist had rather unflattering things to say about bloggers on the left side of the political aisle (h/t Hot Air, emphasis added):

During the latter part of the Clinton admin, the left media often tossed around the phrase "scandal fatigue," a term of art to explain that certain portions of the public had become upset at the Republican party for going after then-president Clinton over trivial things.

Politicians and their allies do have this tendency. But it's not just Republicans who have it. Democrats do as well.

Since President Bush came into office, Democrats have continued this tradition, cooking up a host of psuedo-scandals on everything from spying on China to Valerie Plame. None of it's stuck. Yet instead of speaking wishfully about "scandal fatigue," the left media has instead been doing the very opposite as John Hinderaker at Powerline points out:

Alright movie fans, here’s the opportunity you’ve been waiting for since you first saw “Bullitt” and “The French Connection” when you were just a kid.

The Knoxville News Sentinel’s Michael Silence posted a great question today (grateful h/t to Glenn Reynolds): What’s the Greatest Car Chase in Movie History?

Silence has not only listed nine options, but has also included YouTube videos for all of them, allowing you to review the scenes before you vote.

What else could you ask for on a Saturday night?

With that in mind, your choices are:

Original caption:

NBC's Brian Williams, left, looks into the camera as he begins to moderate the first Democratic presidential primary debate of the 2008 election hosted by South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C.

Although a quick search of the Web draws up the speech, available here (with video and audio links), rare is the online news service that links to President Bush's remarks on May 1, 2003, aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.

Notice, for example, no link to the speech in this story at CBSNews.com that follows Sen. Hillary Clinton's (D-N.Y.) latest swipe at the Iraq war. (see related post here)

Since the media don't reprint excerpts of the speech nor give readers the links to the original source material, here are some comments from May 1, 2003, that point to President Bush warning Americans of an ongoing struggle to establish Iraqi democracy and counter the threat of terrorism (portions in bold are my emphasis):

Oregon governor Ted Kulongoski got lots of attention earlier this week as he tried to show us how allegedly inadequate the Food Stamp program is (bold is mine):

Ore. gov. starts week on food stamps
By Julia Silverman, Associated Press Writer | April 25, 2007

SALEM, Ore. --If Gov. Ted Kulongoski seems a little sluggish this week, he's got an excuse: he couldn't afford coffee.

In fact, the Democratic governor couldn't afford much of anything during a trip to a Salem-area grocery store on Tuesday, where he had exactly $21 to buy a week's worth of food -- the same amount that the state's average food stamp recipient spends weekly on groceries.

Kulongoski is taking the weeklong challenge to raise awareness about the difficulty of feeding a family on a food stamp budget.

The governor put on quite a show trying to stay within that $21:

Despite being the lone Conservative on Friday’s “Real Time,” National Review contributor Lisa Schiffren might have had the best line of the evening when she accused comedian and actor Richard Belzer of emulating the “Rosie O’Donnell School of Foreign Policy.”

As the discussion moved to Iraq, Belzer advanced the common liberal meme that the war was all about oil:

And now the Democrats are stealthfully working with the Republicans to take all the oil from Iraq and give, like a little bit to the Iraqi people. You know about that? Did you hear about that? This is an oil war.

Schiffren wasn’t going to let this pass without pointing out the obvious inanity (video available here courtesy of our dear friend Ms Underestimated):

On April 22, I praised Bill Maher for doing something right:

Friday’s “Real Time” was actually a fabulous installment, as Maher’s panel for a change included two conservatives – National Review’s John O’Sullivan, and Republican strategist Amy Holmes, along with Montana’s Democrat Governor Brian Schweitzer.

Maher ought to try this format of having two liberals (including himself) and two conservatives more often, for a much more balanced discussion ensued than normal, making for one of the most interesting “Real Times” of the season so far.

Sadly,  Maher didn’t take my advice. A week later, just one Conservative was on his panel, once again creating an environment conducive to unabashed vitriol directed at President Bush.

A perfect example was Maher’s final “New Rule” on April 27 wherein he not only stated that the president is a “paranoid schizophrenic,” but also asserted that “the 29 percent of Americans who still think he’s doing a heck of a job” are similarly afflicted (video available here courtesy of our dear friend Ms Underestimated):

I have heard of journalists thinking they're gods of objectivity but this is a new one. Apparently, when you become an elite journalist, you also become a prophet.

AP reporter Nedra Pickler (her real name) filed a story on the recent Democratic presidential debate 45 minutes before the event had even started. Mickey Kaus reports (h/t Small Dead Animals):

Why have a debate? AP has already written its lede: It's 3:15. The big South Carolina Democratic debate starts in 45 minutes. But you don't have to actually watch it. AP's Nedra Pickler has already filed her story, in the past tense.

Democratic presidential candidates largely stood together Thursday in support of a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq and then sought to separate themselves on the details in the first primary debate of the 2008 race.

Don’t you love it when childless, single, media elites offer opinions about how parents should raise their children?

Such an obvious hypocrisy was on display Friday evening as HBO’s Bill Maher not only came to Alec Baldwin’s defense concerning the actor's disgraceful voicemail to his daughter, but actually said, “I think he’s going to be a hero for this.”

I kid you not.

As the discussion of this deplorable incident began, Maher said the following on national television (video available here courtesy of our dear friend Ms Underestimated):

The "Daily Show" is definitely a liberal show. However, on occassion, it does put liberals in the cross hairs. Such was the case recently when it slammed enviro-hypocrites like Matt Damon and Oprah Winfrey. Enjoy!

For weekend discussion and comment...

As NewsBusters reported Wednesday, England’s fabulous paper the Financial Times has been doing an extraordinary job exposing the scam that is carbon credits, exhibiting an honesty which America’s media sorely lack.

On Friday, FT published another article about this travesty (h/t Glenn Reynolds) which is also almost guaranteed to be ignored by U.S. press outlets far more concerned with glorifying folks like Al Gore, Sheryl Crow, and Laurie David.

In this report, FT exposed how recommendations from the British government bilked companies interested in offsetting carbon emissions out of huge sums of money by advising them to purchase what turned out to be “worthless” (emphasis added throughout):

MSNBC: Fair and Balanced

According to MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani committed "terrorism" when he suggested that the country would be "playing defense" if a Democrat was elected president in 2008. And this is the network that’s hosting a Republican presidential debate?

Americans Making Lots of Money: Good or Bad?

On Monday, an ABC graphic provided a shining example of media bias. Co-host Diane Sawer was discussing the recent surge by the stock market. During the segment, a graphic below her read, "Will Dow Hit 13,000 Today? Is Unstoppable Market Good or Bad?"

You Won’t Have Rosie O’Donnell To Kick Around Anymore

"Good Morning America" reacted to the departure of Rosie O’Donnell this week by claiming that the left-wing comedienne was a pioneer for women. (The morning program also ignored her 9/11 conspiracy theories.)

Better secure your computer from all combustibles, potables, and sharp objects, sports fans, for the Washington Post published a Letter to the Editor on Friday that is guaranteed to elicit uncontrollable fits of laughter.

Are you ready? Good.

In response to David Broder’s Thursday column about the horrible job Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nevada) is doing as Majority Leader – a sentiment likely an overwhelming majority of Americans share – Senate Democrats actually wrote the Post a complaint letter.

I kid you not.

As the Post didn’t feature this correspondence on the front page – instead including it with the other four “letters” published that day on page A22 – and since Broder wasn’t asked to make a correction or retraction, it doesn’t seem that this puff piece, hysterically titled “Sen. Reid’s Fine Leadership,” was taken very seriously (emphasis added throughout):

Did any one else want to gag at Martin's interview of General Patraeus last night. Martin could not help himself as he repeatedly tried to get the good general to admit that all was lost in Iraq.
"Is it winnable?" I do not remember all it. Someone who is more acute with tracing these things might get on it.

Here is an article I posted at Townhall:

Is It Time To Boycott All Things Black?

FUBU, BET, NAACP, Black Enterprise, Blackmeninamerica.com, Chocolatecity.cc, Miss Black America, The United Negro College Fund, Ebony, Essence, JET Magazine, Ebonics, Black Banks (yes there are banks quite readily listing themselves as serving and favoring a particular race), Black Insurance companies…well you get the point. Everyday and everywhere they are in your face. Who do they serve? Not the Anglo, not the Asian and not the Hispanic but the black or as some call it the African-(name your country of allegiance). Oh yes, you might be a recipient of some mild benefit by way of by-product but not by design. But that really isn’t the focus here; rather the focus is the question of the article. Is it time to boycott all things black?

This is an excerpt from a speech entitled "Neo-CONNED," given by Congressman Ron Paul on the House Floor on July 10, 2003:

More important than the names of people affiliated with neo-conservatism are the views they adhere to. Here is a brief summary of the general understanding of what neocons believe:

1. They agree with Trotsky on permanent revolution, violent as well as intellectual.
2. They are for redrawing the map of the Middle East and are willing to use force to do so.
3. They believe in preemptive war to achieve desired ends.
4. They accept the notion that the ends justify the means—that hardball politics is a moral necessity.
5. They express no opposition to the welfare state.
6. They are not bashful about an American empire; instead they strongly endorse it.

The Federal Communications Commission defined broadcast indecency in 1987 as "language or material that, in context, depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium, sexual or excretory organs or activities."

Brent Bozell’s culture column this week reports that ABC’s "According to Jim" had an entire plot revolve around the gag (and "gag" is probably the right word) that the Jim Belushi character ate his wedding ring and his wife waited to catch him in the act of pooping it out. It apparently lands with a "clank." His wife and her siblings then pop out of the shower with an a-ha. Brent writes: "This is certainly a plot based on (implied) excretory activities, but it’s certainly not what the regulators had in mind. I suspect that when these rules were written there wasn’t a soul at the FCC who believed ‘humor’ would ever come to this."

ESPN's Chris Berman likes to say "no one circles the wagons like the Buffalo Bills." He might add "or the Boston Globe." Its editorial of today, A telling admission, heaps of paeans of praise on Marilee Jones, who resigned her position as MIT Dean of Admissions after an investigation revealed that she earned none of the academic degrees she had claimed.

The Globe quickly gets out of the way its acknowledgement that "no doubt, Marilee Jones did the wrong thing." But you'd hardly know it from the rest of editorial:

• "I misrepresented my academic degrees when I first applied to MIT 28 years ago," she said in a statement, "and did not have the courage to correct my resume when I applied for my current job or at any time since." Admitting to that lack of courage means being brave enough to be oneself, even if one is short on credentials but long on potential.
• She deserves credit for her straightforward apology.
• This forthright admission stands in contrast to others who have denied, delayed, or justified. Last year, David Edmondson, chief executive of RadioShack, said he planned to stay in his job even after it was revealed that he had not earned two college degrees listed on his resume. Days later he resigned.
• Jones has had to face her own messy truth. She has done so in a commendable way.

The Globe comes close to excusing others who tell similar lies:

Cam Edwards at NRANews.com tipped me Friday night: The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence will have another $250-a-plate fundraiser in Washington on May 15, like their 2005 event at the French Embassy celebrating the 80th birthday of liberal political humorist Art Buchwald (one major toastmaster was CBS News legend Mike Wallace).

An ad on the Brady Campaign home page for this year’s "Stand Up For A Safe America" fundraiser (honoring Democratic Rep. Rahm Emanuel) shows this year’s Master of Ceremonies is ABC News legend Sam Donaldson. Sam just wisecracked on This Week that gun owners have their weapons "to shoot the paperboy and the relative coming home late at night."

One thing that really bothers me is when someone preaches something and does just the opposite. I want to make it clear, I am not dumping on this individual because he is a Republican

Today Randall L. Tobias resigned as Deputy Secretary of State because it seems he was one of the customers for a prostitution ring. He is a married man with children. I am no prude and realize people have lapses in judgment. What bothers me is he was known as a "AIDS Czar" and preached abstinence and being faithful.

This sort of reminds of of Mark Foley. He wanted to bring down sexual predators but ended up being one himself. Or Ted Haggard preaching about how being gay was sinful. My point is reap what you sow.