U.S. News and World Report's Bonnie Erbe came down strongly Friday on the $100 million "bribe" given to Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) in the Senate's healthcare reform bill.

What makes this shocking is Erbe's consistently far-left leaning views regularly reported by NewsBusters.  

Readers are advised to strap themselves in tightly, for the following blog posting by Erbe is quite a departure from her normal liberal views:

CNN's John King on Thursday claimed Attorney General Eric Holder intentionally avoided Sen. Lindsey Graham's "stumping" question during the previous day's Senate Judiciary Committtee hearing because he didn't want to admit that trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other 9/11 suspects in a criminal courtroom is indeed precedent setting.

As NewsBusters reported Wednesday, Holder appeared stumped when Graham asked, "Can you give me a case in United States history where a enemy combatant caught on a battlefield was tried in civilian court?"

Speaking with WOR radio's Steve Malzberg Thursday, King said, "He knew the answer to the question. He just wasn't going to say it because...he did not want to be the one saying this is the first time we've ever done this" (15-minute audio available here, relevant section at 6:50, partial transcript follows along with embedded video of Graham-Holder exchange):

E-mail messages between high-ranking scientists appear to indicate a conspiracy by some of the world's leading global warming alarmists to falsify temperature data in order to exaggerate global averages.

Those involved allegedly include: James Hansen, Director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies; Michael Mann, famous for Mann's "Hockey Stick"; Gavin Schmidt, NASA climate modeler, and; Stephen Schneider, Stanford professor and Al Gore confidant.

A statement released Friday by the alarmist website RealClimate has confirmed that e-mail servers at the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit (CRU) in Norwich, England, were hacked recently with contents illegally made available over the Internet. 

Although the authenticity of all these e-mail messages has yet to be proven, what's currently available points to a coordinated attempt to manipulate climate data by those directly involved in advancing the theory of anthropogenic global warming.

New Zealand's Investigate magazine reported Friday that it has verified these e-mail messages are indeed real:

UPDATE AT END OF POST: Gore prominently quotes Deuteronomy, "I’m offering you the choice of life or death."

The cover of Nobel Laureate Al Gore's new book "Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis" was intentionally doctored to exaggerate the appearance of hurricanes in the northern hemisphere as well as reduce the amount of ice present in the Arctic.

Maybe even more ominously, Florida was so diminished it's almost totally gone.

As reported by Florida State University hurricane expert Ryan Maue at the website Watts Up With That, the truth was apparently inconvenient for the Global Warmingist-in-Chief (h/t NBer Blonde):

If a prominent white man said all white men in Congress should vote for or against a pending piece of legislation, what do you think the media firestorm would be like?

As you ponder, consider that Jesse Jackson on Wednesday told a reception held by the Congressional Black Caucus, “You can’t vote against healthcare and call yourself a black man.”

Although the comment was first reported by The Hill at 5:42 PM EST Wednesday, LexisNexis and Google news searches identified astonishingly little media coverage.

Here's The Hill's report:

The attacks on former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin took an interesting turn Wednesday when MSNBC's Chris Matthews suggested that racism is at the heart of her support.

Much like mainstream media coverage of this year's Tea Parties, Matthews and "Hardball" guests Norah O'Donnell and Salon's Joan Walsh made an issue of how "white" the crowd was at a Palin book signing event in Michigan.

"This is a largely white -- almost no minorities in this crowd," reported MSNBC's O'Donnell live from the scene.

Matthews reiterated, "Well, they look like a white crowd to me," later claiming, "I think there is a tribal aspect to this thing, in other words, white vs. other people."

Walsh added, "I think you`ve got that same kind of paranoid tea party, maybe even birther crowd that talks about the Constitution, without really understanding what they are talking about" (video embedded below the fold with transcript, h/t Greg Hengler via NBer Thomas Stewart):

During Wednesday's Justice Department oversight hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) stumped Attorney General Eric Holder on what should have been a fairly routine question for America's top law enforcement official.

Maybe more surprisingly, NPR reported it at its website.

As NPR's Frank James noted, "The exchange started with Graham stumping Holder with a question one would have thought the attorney general would have been prepared for."

I quite agree (video embedded below the fold with partial transcript, h/t Steve Malzberg):

The Left and the media may hate her, but Sarah Palin is a ratings sensation.

Such appears to be the case given the announcement that Monday's episode of "Oprah" was the most watched for the daytime talk queen in two years.

Palin even drew more viewers than pop singer Whitney Houston when she sat with Oprah earlier this year.

Just imagine all the sighs and rolling eyes in newsrooms from coast to coast.

As THR.com reported Wednesday (h/t TVNewser):

For the second time in only six days protesters have emerged at venues where Nobel Laureate Al Gore was scheduled to speak about global warming.

Vandals on Thursday spray-painted graffiti on the walls of Keller Auditorium in Portland, Oregon, just hours before the former Vice President will talk about his favorite bogeyman.

This follows Saturday's protests against Gore in Boca Raton, Florida. 

The Oregonian reported moments ago:

For several years as uneducated sycophants in the media gushed and fawned over every utterance from former Vice President Al Gore, NewsBusters has informed readers of just how absurd the junk science he's peddling really is.

Last Thursday, NBC "Tonight Show" viewers got a perfect example of how the Nobel Laureate basically makes things up, and that his poor grades in college were quite an indicator of just how little he understands about science.

So egregious was his departure from reality that the following clip should be mandatory viewing for all his fans in the media who seem to be just as scientifically-challenged (video embedded below the fold with partial transcript, h/t Hot Air):

One of the media members who made the disgusting term "teabagger" popular did a victory lap Tuesday after the New Oxford American Dictionary declared the epithet a finalist for its 2009 Word of the Year.

Like a child giggling as he tries to say "truck" with his fingers in his mouth, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann was not only visibly pleased with himself as a result of this announcement, he also used the occasion to juvenilely offer his tiny "Countdown" audience numerous double entendres in perverse celebration.

The following makes one wonder if THIS is what the White House considers REAL NEWS (video embedded below the fold with partial transcript, h/t Hot Air):

As NewsBusters reported Saturday, President Obama caused a bit of an international incident this weekend when he bowed before Japanese emperor Akihito.

Not surprisingly, his adoring fans in the media have done everything in their power to cover for this peculiar demonstration by the most powerful man in the world.

With this in mind, the College Republicans at the University of Connecticut have put together a marvelous video to demonstrate how world leaders across the globe have addressed the emperor recently without bowing (video embedded below the fold, h/t Andrew Malcolm):

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has responded to Newsweek's cover of her, and needless to say she was none too pleased.

As NewsBusters reported Saturday, Newsweek ran a cover story on Palin in its most recent issue, and the picture they decided to use was of her in jogging shorts and sneakers.

"The out-of-context Newsweek approach is sexist and oh-so-expected by now," wrote Palin in a posting at her Facebook page Monday evening:

UPDATES AT END OF POST: Picture has been changed!

USA Today's Oval blog Monday used a picture of a Sarah Palin-hating book called "Going Rouge, An American Nightmare" instead of the former Alaska Governor's "Going Rogue."

This despite the opening paragraph of the piece actually referring to Palin's book:

In her much-discussed new book, former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin praises Hillary Rodham Clinton for her 2008 presidential campaign.

As the Huffington Post reported last month, "Going Rouge" was created by the editors of the far-left magazine The Nation with the expressed intent of mocking Palin:

Comedienne Joy Behar on HLN Monday jokingly accused former Miss California USA Carrie Prejean of releasing seven additional sex tapes "just in time for the holidays."

Surprisingly able to do simple arithmetic, Behar quipped, "Maybe she made one for each night of Hanukkah."

This nicely set up guests Perez Hilton, Heidi Montag, and Spencer Pratt to join in the Prejean bashing.

Particularly vile and hateful was Hilton who called Prejean "a hypocrite and a liar" and claimed she "makes Heidi Montag look like a genius" (video embedded below the fold with transcript, h/t Story Balloon):

Naomi Wolf on Monday accused former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin of being part of a "cabal" involving George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Karl Rove.

The feminist author and political consultant made this accusation on CNN's "Larry King Live."

Fortunately, former Bush adviser Mary Matalin was there to contest Wolf's absurdities:

[T]his is why people think liberals are such fringies. I mean you -- you run around saying that she's such a dope, but you were all duped by the dope. That's what you've said about George Bush, too.

In the end, the paranoia on display, as well as the unchecked hatred for Palin, was nothing less than remarkable -- but Matalin was there to bring some sanity to the discussion (video embedded below the fold with transcript, h/t Story Balloon):

The New Oxford American Dictionary on Monday named its 2009 "Word of the Year," and listed as one of the finalists "teabagger."

Fortunately, its definition was different than the sexual connotation many media members and liberal bloggers conveyed by using the term.

Regardless, its inclusion is still quite offensive to millions of Americans.

I guess the good folks at NOAD weren't concerned with that when they wrote the following press release:

President Obama told Chinese students in Shanghai Sunday that he doesn't use the website Twitter because his "thumbs are too clumsy to type in things on the phone."

Are media going to buy this (audio available here, h/t Steve Malzberg)?

After all, the press were almost as smitten with candidate Obama's Blackberry as he was.

Have they forgotten that he fought to keep it after he was elected?

In fact, on January 23, ABCNews.com reported that Obama won the Blackberry Battle:

CNN on Monday featured a fifth grade student who is refusing to say the Pledge of Allegiance in his classroom until gays and lesbians have equal rights.

Not surprisingly, he was treated with far greater respect by the cable news network than Tea Party and town hall meeting protesters were earlier in the year.

The boy and his father appeared on CNN's "American Morning," and John Roberts began the segment:

A 10-year-old boy from Arkansas is taking a stand by sitting down. Will Philips is refusing to pledge allegiance to the flag in his fifth grade classroom until there really is, as the pledge says, liberty and justice for all. He says until gays and lesbians have equal rights. 

During the interview, the boy's father accurately noted, "Well, actually before we heard from anybody, my first thought was oh, my God, this is the type of thing you see on CNN" (video embedded below the fold with transcript, h/t NBer SkipperMLM):

Amazon has announced its 2009 best selling books, and Mark Levin's "Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto" and Glenn Beck's "Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government" are number two and three respectively.

This will certainly ruin Chris Matthews' day, as the MSNBCer back in September agonized over there being "so much right-wing crap on the best seller list these days."

And who can forget Arianna Huffington last Monday wondering if "The New York Times [should] create a separate bestseller list for conservative blockbusters?" 

With this in mind, we at NewsBusters hope the following announcement by Amazon brings tears to liberal media members' eyes from sea to shining sea: