A respected state climatologist resigns his post citing inability to do his job due to political pressure. Sounds exactly like the "inconvenient truth" scenario that Al Gore complained about in his book and documentary. Only thing is in this case it's a Democratic governor, Tim Kaine of Virginia, arguably silencing a climatologist who believes the globe is warming, but that the Gore-ian forecasts of doom are overwrought.

So how did the Washington Post report Dr. Pat Michaels's complaint of political pressure infringing on his academic freedom? By penning an article downplaying an arguable intrusion of political influence in the sanctuary of scientific inquest.

While the Post has been keen on furthering the meme that President Bush and his administration have conducted a campaign to silence scientists who believe in man-made global warming, staffer Jackie Spinner spun out an article on page B3 of the Saturday Post that found no substantial loss to the Old Dominion's citizens in Michaels's resignation.:

As you may have seen on CNN or elsewhere, the annual G.I. Joe convention was held this weekend.  The guest panel featured straight-up info on the movie.  Here's the latest_facts per Entertainment News International.

 - Michael Richie, the director of marketing for GIJoe starts the panel off, indicating that they will be talking about the new movie and new product coming out in the coming year. The movie is due out in 2009.

- They are going to start off talking about the movie. It's from Paramount. The same team that did Transformers will be doing GIJoe, Lorenzo di Bonaventura's production company. The director will be Stephen Sommers who do the Mummy movies, he currently working as executive producer on Mummy 3. So far Hasbro feels that Stephen is on the same page on how they want the movie to go. This will be GIJoe vs. Cobra. They are working on the script right now. 

Here's something you don't see every day on the front page of a major American newspaper: an article about how the rising demand for ethanol has sent corn and grain prices so high that it's resulted in more people around the world going hungry.

Even more shocking: the article in question was on the front page of Saturday's New York Times.

In a piece entitled "As Prices Soar, U.S. Food Aid Buys Less," author Celia W. Dugger shockingly presented the dirty little secret about soon-to-be-Nobel Laureate Al Gore's grand solution for manmade global warming that NewsBusters has been writing about for months while most in the media remained silent (emphasis added, h/t Glenn Reynolds):

It has been regularly reported by NewsBusters that media are doing everything in their power to withhold from the public the financial ramifications of global warming alarmism.

Be it the marketing of totally useless carbon offsets, or proposals for additional taxes on consumers and corporations, press outlets have been seemingly coordinated in their silence regarding such matters.

Another fine example of such a boycott occurred last week when House Energy and Commerce Committee chair John Dingell (D-MI) discussed a rather elaborate tax plan with the Associated Press Wednesday that virtually no major media outlet outside of Detroit bothered to report (emphasis added throughout):

Original caption:

In this photograph provided by 'Meet the Press, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., is seen on a television monitor as she appears via satellite for an interview with Tim Russert on 'Meet the Press'' Sunday, Sept. 23, 2007, at the NBC studios in Washington.

Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama might have talk show host Oprah Winfrey in his corner, but a new study from the Pew Research Center found that such celebrity endorsements have little impact on voting habits.

In fact, state governors carry more weight with potential voters than celebrities.

How delicious.

Here were some of the study's key findings:

Today's Washington Post carries the story, "Justice Thomas Lashes Out in Memoir." The article focuses on Justice Clarence Thomas's memoir "My Grandfather's Son" and begins:

Justice Clarence Thomas settles scores in an angry and vivid forthcoming memoir, scathingly condemning the media, the Democratic senators who opposed his nomination to the Supreme Court, and the "mob" of liberal elites and activist groups that he says desecrated his life.

The piece later notes that "Thomas has particularly caustic comments about the Democratic senators who opposed his nomination."

Settling scores. Angry. Scathingly condemning. Caustic comments.

It all sounds pretty mean-spirited, to use one of the liberals' favorite adjectives.

Compare this article to the Washington Post's appraisal of former President Clinton's "My Life." The June 28, 2004 review by Walter Isaacson noted:

In March, a NewsBusters headline asked, "Is Bill Maher Becoming the Rosie O'Donnell of Cable Television?"

On Friday, the host of HBO's "Real Time" once again proved he has, for in coming to the defense of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Maher rationalized the Iranian president sending munitions to kill American soldiers in Iraq by asking, "Doesn't Bush have American blood on his hands?"

Maybe worse, Maher said that Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust, and statements that "Israel should be wiped off the map," are just "things he says to get elected," and "are the equivalent of when the Republicans in this country say, ‘Gay marriage will lead to death.'"

After introducing his panel, Maher began the discussion with Ahmadinejad's visit to New York City stating (video available here, relevant sections at 1:28 and 5:00):

Remember that BBC-produced children's guide to 9/11 that blamed it on America's foreign policy?

It's now facing some real public pressure in the form of Pauline Neville Jones, a former British spy and now powerful member of that country's Conservative party. She's also a former governor (aka board member) of the BBC. And she wants some changes to the program:

Britain’s former spy chief accused the BBC of “parroting” Al Qaeda propaganda to children as young as six.

The Clarence Thomas book story wasn’t the weirdest book story on the front page of Saturday's Washington Post. That would be Bob Thompson’s story on presidential daughter Jenna Bush and her new book on an HIV-afflicted single mother titled "Ana’s Story." Here’s the first sentence: "Jenna Bush wants to clear up this pregnancy nonsense right now." Having dropped that bomb of a rumor on page one, the Post then leaves that matter totally unresolved for six paragraphs, until the jump onto page A9:

"‘I’m not pregnant,’ she deadpans, then throws her head back and laughs. Voice raised, she repeats the point for emphasis. [This means the reporter suggested he didn’t believe her?] It’s as if she’s trying to outshout the din of unsought celebrity that has engulfed her since she was in her teens. "I’m not even pregnant!" she says. (Italics theirs.)

Other than Cal vs. Oregon, what are today's big games and big upsets?

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R-Iran)

This week, Alan Colmes proved, yet again, that Fox News has its own liberals willing to say crazy things. The host asserted that right-wingers should have embraced the visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad because the dictator is a "conservative" like them.

Those Hateful Republicans

Speaking of angry liberals, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann has claimed that the reason that "white wing" Republican presidential candidates are skipping minority debates is because they want to re-segregate America. Of course, given the host’s insensitive comments during a football broadcast, perhaps he shouldn’t be throwing stones.

The top of Saturday’s Washington Post front page reads "Justice Thomas Lashes Out in Memoir: Book Attacks Liberals and the Media, Breaks Near-Silence on Anita Hill." The story by Robert Barnes, Michael Fletcher, and Kevin Merida begins by describing an "angry and vivid forthcoming memoir, scathingly condemning the media," Democrats and a "mob" of liberal activists. But the reader would be frustrated if he wanted details on the condemnation of the media: it’s never described.

Instead, inside on A7, there are snippets on racism in the Catholic Church, on Anita Hill, on his father, his mother, abortion, and "affirmative action," but no snippet on the media. Did someone edit out the media stuff after the headline and opening were written? We were hoping for some attack snippets on his NPR tormentor, Nina Totenberg.

I would defy anyone to label Maureen Dowd by party affiliation or ideology. I've known her and worked closely with her for 20 years and I can't tell you the answer to either one -- Andrew Rosenthal, editorial page editor of The New York Times

What would be worse: that when Times editorial page editor Rosenthal claims not to know Maureen Dowd's politics he's not being honest -- or that he is?

Freedom has been defined as “the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action.”

I therefore have no freedom to live a life free from obscenity. The liberal mindset has put a constraint on my life in this manner. I am constantly bombarded by it in advertising, in news broadcasts, and in my daily interaction with others.

I think that a majority of the public would now disagree with me because of the liberal judges ruling long ago. A large number of conservatives would also defend these limits on my freedom.  Which side of the culture war do you take?