Anybody who has spent even a little time reading the left-wing blogs on the Web have probably run across frequent political "conversion" stories. The theme is all too familiar. A friend or relative is an insensitive Republican who just won't listen to the enlightened liberal soul posting the story. However, due to the perceived excesses of the evil Bush administration or the ever wise arguments of the liberal author, the Republican finally sees the light and either ends up supporting the Democrats or becomes a Democrat himself. Of course, the veracity of these "conversion" stories usually crumble after just a bit of analysis.

One big "tell" that the author is somewhat less than truthful is the amazing ability to quote long blocks of dialogue from weeks, months, or even years in the past. Sometimes it is even easier to find out that a political "conversion" story is primarily a work of fiction.

I'm not sure what got into Howard Kurtz Sunday morning, but the Washington Post/CNN media analyst, and "Reliable Sources" host, really laid into the press for their horrible coverage of the presidential campaign.

Maybe more surprising, Kurtz voiced his displeasure with both print and television news coverage, as well as what was being written and said about the candidates on both sides of the aisle.

So go get some popcorn, and prepare yourself for a media bashing guaranteed to put a smile on your face:

I propose that john McCain choose alaska governor sarah palin for VP.

She is the perfect person to get the conservative vote, she is pro ANWR and loved by all.  Plus it would be great to hear all of the reckless clinton supporters backtrack after hillary is gone.

In changing his tune on whether delegates from Michigan and Florida should be able to vote their preferences at the Democratic National Convention based on the results of those states' primaries, Harold Ickes has gone from DNC hack to Hillary Clinton flack.

Yesterday, Associated Press reporter Hope Yen gave Ickes an open microphone to "explain" himself, and showed no skepticism regarding Ickes's hopefully conflicting positions (bolds are mine):

Harold Ickes, a top adviser to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign who voted for Democratic Party rules that stripped Michigan and Florida of their delegates, now is arguing against the very penalty he helped pass.

http://video.google....

I got this link from one of my "conspiracy" friends..hmm think you can watch it? What a conundrum! :)

UPDATE 02/20: This issue has been dealt with. I'm very-very happy with the outcome, and any fears I may have had about the admins have been laid to rest.

We can move on from here, and this thread can now be locked.

-PJ

Admin: It's locked now

I guess hate is "More Than a Feeling" for aging rocker Tom Scholz, former member of the band Boston. Scholz, it appears, is none too happy that presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was using his old Boston tune,"More Than a Feeling" on the campaign trail and he wants him to stop it.

Like John Mellencamp -- who got his leather pants in a bunch over McCain's usage of one of his pop tunes -- Mr. Scholz is another musician who imagines that people are so stupid that when they hear a song at a campaign rally, they must automatically imagine that the producer of the song supports the candidate in question.

As reported by the AP, Scholz sent a letter to the Huckabee campaign telling Huckabee to dump the song and Don't Look Back.

The Washington Post carried the usual double standard on political ethics – highlight the party affiliation of the Republican, bury the party affiliation of the Democrat – all in one edition of the paper on Saturday. In the Metro section (page B-5), the headline proclaimed: "GOP’s McKee Resigns After Home Is Searched" (for child pornography). On the front page of Style (page C-1), a story on Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s adultery and lying was headlined, "In Detroit, Not Exactly LOL LOL! His Steamy Text Messages Turn Up the Heat on Motown’s Young Mayor."

Skeptics

Deniers

Dissenters

Climate Realists

Climate Optimists

If you have a weak stomach, steer clear of today's New York Times, particularly their "Cruise Issue" which contains a travel article reviewing a cruise that will make you lose your lunch.

The author, Henry Alford, gushes over every detail, painting it literally as "The Love Boat for Policy Wonks" in a fashion that is so over-the-top it's almost a self-parody of what you'd expect the Times to write about a cruise hosted by the left-wing Nation magazine:

When 460 of the more ardent readers of a 142-year-old leftist weekly get together on a cruise ship, things can be a little topsy-turvy. “It’s like an S.D.S. reunion on the Love Boat,” said a guest speaker, Mary Mapes, the former CBS news producer who helped break the Abu Ghraib story among others, before being fired over her involvement in a “60 Minutes” piece on George W. Bush’s military record.

Minus that little detail, Mapes is fantastic and wonderful person. More:

One of the aspects of anthropogenic global warming that typically gets ignored by America's green press is that solutions being offered to solve this as yet unproven problem are untested and might in the end create other financial and/or environmental maladies in the future.

On Sunday, a New York Times editorial surprisingly went after one of the darlings of the climate alarmism crowd, the compact fluorescent light bulb, for this very reason.

Hold on to your seats, ladies and gentlemen, for the Times offered some inconvenient truths about this supposed environmental panacea that folks like Nobel Laureate Al Gore and his sycophantic devotees work tirelessly to hide from you (emphasis added):

For a guy who's supposedly a savvy pol, Chuck Schumer has sure made a damning admission about the Dem presidential candidates. The senior senator from New York has suggested that their word is worthless.

On today's Meet the Press, Tim Russert quizzed Schumer about the change in heart of the Clinton campaign regarding seating delegates from Michigan. The DNC ruled last year that none of Michigan's delegates would be seated at the convention, in punishment for the state having moved up the date of its primary in violation of party rules. Hillary would now like those delegates to be seated since she "won" the primary -- in which Obama's name wasn't on the ballot.

TIM RUSSERT: Senator Schumer, Senator Clinton said in October "you know it's clear this election they're having in Michigan is not going to count for anything." Is that your position?

CHARLES SCHUMER: Well, no. Here's the bottom line once again, Tim. Each candidate of course takes the position that benefits them at the moment.

For general discussion and debate. Possible talking point: Did Obama get votes robbed from him in New York (paragraph breaks removed):

Barack Obama's primary-night results were strikingly under recorded in several congressional districts around the city - in some cases leaving him with zero votes when, in fact, he had pulled in hundreds, the Board of Elections said today...Unofficial primary results gave Obama no votes in nearly 80 districts, including Harlem's 94th and other historically black areas - but many of those initial tallies proved to be wildly off the mark, the Board of Elections confirmed...Truth is, in some districts getting a recount, the senator from Illinois is even close to defeating Hillary Clinton.

Isn't this the state in which Hillary is senator? Are the Clintons at fault, and is this a foreshadowing of what they'll do at the convention to steal the nomination from Obama?

Let's have some fun deconstructing Frank Rich's NY Times column of today. The gist of The Grand Old White Party Confronts Obama is that it will be nearly impossible for McCain to defeat Obama because the Arizona senator reflects the politics of an almost all-white GOP in the age of a changing America.

Rich begins by mocking the the "collection of sallow-faced old Beltway pols" who flanked McCain during his victory speech on the night of the Potomac Primaries. Adding insult to injury, Rich replays Letterman's line about the GOP presidential hopefuls looking like “guys waiting to tee off at a restricted country club.”

Eyeblast has the video: On CNN's The Situation Room on Friday, former NBA star (and current TNT basketball analyst) Charles Barkley trashed conservatives as "fake Christians." You could tell how much CNN was going to enjoy this. At the top of the hour, anchorman Wolf Blitzer promised: "Plus, he's rooting for Barack Obama and he's taking shots at Republicans and the religious right. You're going to find out who NBA great Charles Barkley is calling fake." The screen graphic also read: "Barkley Takes on the Right: Blasts 'Fake' Christians." Blitzer made no attempt to ask the basketball star how a "real" Christian can whole-heartedly support Obama's liberal social agenda.

Ted Turner may no longer own CNN and TNT, but his spirit -- "Christianity is a religion for losers" and pro-lifers were "bozos" and "idiots" -- is still strong in his former properties. Does TNT really want to invite all this political and religious controversy to turn people away from watching their basketball broadcasts?