The Media Research Center's Director of Communications and NewsBusters.org Contributing Editor Seton Motley appeared on the Fox News Channel's Fox News Live yesterday to discuss another New York Times hit job on the McCains, this one on wife Cindy.

Included in the Times outrages was co-author Jodi Kantor contacting friends of the McCains's youngest daughter Bridgette via Facebook email "trying to get a sense of what she is like as a mother."

Motley decries the Times sleazy, sub-tabloid tactics, points out their total fealty to Michelle Obama in a June profile and delineates the proper bounds to be observed in what is and is not fair game for the media regarding the spouses and families of candidates.

With Sen. Barack Obama's present lead in the polls, there's been hand-wringing in the media that he could possibly lose the race due to the so-called Bradley Effect, wherein racist white voters lie to pollsters on the telephone about their voting preferences in order to, well, not sound racist.

But as a former Bradley campaign staffer writes in an October 19 op-ed for the New York Times, it was Bradley's liberal policies and an aggressive get-out-the-vote effort by the GOP that put George Deukmejian into the Governor's Mansion. Writes Blair Levin (via Karen Tumulty of Time magazine):

On election night in 1982, with 3,000 supporters celebrating prematurely at a downtown hotel, I was upstairs reviewing early results that suggested Bradley would probably lose.

But he wasn’t losing because of race. He was losing because an unpopular gun control initiative and an aggressive Republican absentee ballot program generated hundreds of thousands of Republican votes no pollster anticipated, giving Mr. Deukmejian a narrow victory.

Democrat vice presidential candidate Joe Biden on Sunday guaranteed that if Barack Obama is elected president, there will be an international crisis within six months.

It's certainly going to be interesting to see how the Obama-loving media report this potentially huge gaffe by the Delaware senator.

UPDATE AT END OF POST: Is Biden basing this on national security information the Obama campaign received from the White House last week?

Kudos to ABC's Matthew Jaffe and the networks Political Radar blog for posting this Monday (emphasis added, partial audio embedded right):

You can officially add "The Daily Show's" Jon Stewart to the list of unabashed Sarah Palin haters, for while speaking in front of a crowd at Northeastern University on Friday, the comedian told the Alaska governor "F**k you!"

Unfortunately, as reported by Mary Katherine Ham at the Weekly Standard Sunday evening, there was more to Stewart's invective-filled rant.

Here are some of the lowlights (video embedded right):

 When a black republican like General Colin Powell endorses a major liberal figure like Barack Obama, it is amazing to see racial vitriol stop at a lefty website like Daily Kos:

Powell didn't just decimate the McCain campaign rationale, however. Powell also offered up an endorsement of Barack Obama in the strongest possible terms, saying that Obama would be an "exceptional president" and that he had the capacity to be "transformational."

The amazing part of all this is that Powell still considers himself a Republican. While there will never be an excuse for his role in supporting the Iraq war, one thing does seem clear: Powell's endorsement today will be a boost for Barack Obama's campaign, and therefore a good thing for this country.

How sweet of Daily Kos. Back in April of 2004 Daily Kos's love did not extend at all for General Powell. In fact, it was downright nasty:

Uncle Tom Powell Stumps for Massah Bush

Yes suh! Yes suh! Right away suh!

Mr. Powell sir, you are a liar and an apologist for a crooked regime known as the George W. Bush administration.

Charges of "RINO", "limp-wristed republican", "Rockefeller republican", and "squish" are likely among the names to be thrown at Powell from the conservative base, but John McCain has been receiving that treatment from the conservative establishment too.

And then there were four -- the Infatuated Four.

Of the sixteen most pro-Obama journalists, you have determined the four that have been the sweetest on him. 

Your righteous indignation, and your votes, have solidified the Sweet-On-Obama Sixteen's Infatuated Four.

So check the results, and vote again to pare the four down to two.  All on the way to determining the Media's Most Valuable Partisan (MVP).  

The media have shown Obama their love.  Now's your chance to show what you think of them.

Remember the intensive investigations by the press to determine if Sarah Palin had ever been a member of the Alaska Indedence Party? Contrast that with the almost total lack of interest by the media into looking at the ties (and membership) of Barack Obama in the far left New Party. Your humble correspondent has written about this lack of interest by the MSM in Obama's New Party connection but Stanley Kurtz of the National Review now provides a wealth of information on Obama's ties to both that far left party and ACORN. Kurtz documents how Obama's connection to the New Party (and ACORN) gives lie to his claims of being some sort of "post-partisan, post-ideological pragmatist." (emphasis mine):

Prices shouldn't be set by supply and demand.  They should be determined by, well, what prices "should" be.  That's the innovative theory Maggie Rodriguez propounded on today's Early Show.

The Early Show anchor's unique take on economics came in the course of a segment on the falling price of gasoline.  Rodriguez lamented to co-anchor Chris Wragge that grocery prices weren't falling along with gas prices.  In Maggie's view, grocers who set prices based on demand rather than on what prices "should" be are the culprits.

The Associated Press has once again called Governor Sarah Palin a racist. This time Rachel D’Oro for the AP bases her claim on the fact that Palin appointed minorities to her Alaska administration -- but not enough of them to suit the AP -- and because at an Alaska rally when she was running for governor one attendee once spoke to a black cameraman in an unkind manner. Yep, that's a mountain of evidence the AP has there, isn't it?

The AP also spoke to a few black ministers in Alaska and, shockingly, they announced that they felt she had no "sensitivity" to their political positions. Imagine that? A Republican that isn't receptive to demands based on a race driven agenda? No one has ever heard of that before, right?

Entertainment Weekly's Joshua Rich reported on the weekend's box office returns for the latest releases on October 19 to let us all in on Hollywood's successes and failures, because, you know, Hollywood is important and all. We find that the Chihuahua movie is still going like gangbusters ($70 million in three weeks) and the horrid movie "Max Payne" led the weekend's receipts with $18 million. Oliver Stone's slamfest "W," though, earned a disappointing fourth place on its debut weekend.

So, what was EW's excuse for this disappointing finish? According to Rich, "W" is failing at the box office because of "tough economic times.” It’s curious, though, that people have spent $70 million on the Chihuahua movie in these same "tough economic times" -- and let us not forget that the latest Batman movie has made over $300 million. Still, the excuse for the fourth place finish for Stone's pseudo-biopic is "tough economic times," just the same.

But, Rich’s excuse is a claim that even Entertainment Weekly itself has recently disputed, at least as far as the box office goes. Only a few weeks ago, the weekend that right-wing comedy "An American Carol" debuted, the same Box Office Report column said that the "economy may be tanking, but the box office remains healthy, with probably the only year-on-year metric that's seen an uptick."

In an error-ridden op-ed in Friday's Los Angeles Times (10/17/08), Pepperdine law professor Douglas Kmiec makes the outrageous claim that Barack Obama "has held himself out as a bridge builder" on the issue of abortion. Kmiec then advances a fallacious case that a faithful Catholic can vote in clear conscience for Barack Obama.

A "bridge builder" on abortion? Is Kmiec kidding?? Consider:

• Obama has forcefully vowed that his very first act as President would be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). FOCA claims a "fundamental right" to abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy, and no government body at any level would be able to "deny or interfere with" this right. Even the pro-choice NOW readily acknowledges that FOCA would literally "sweep away hundreds of anti-abortion laws [and] policies."

• Obama has a 0% rating from the National Right to Life Committee and 100% rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America.


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Fox's animated comedy "Family Guy" on Sunday showed one of its main characters, Stewie Griffin, dressed up in a Nazi uniform with a McCain-Palin button on it.

I kid you not.

The premise of the episode setting up this disgraceful political statement weeks before an important election was described by IGN TV (video of segment embedded right, h/t NB reader David M):

Military wives who meet in secret like the early Christians in the Roman catacombs who feared persecution. The only difference is that the messiah of these military wives is Barack Obama. At least that is the image presented by the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot in their story about blue military wives (emphasis mine):

The blue "Obama-Biden" yard signs are hidden in the garage. The Obama bumper stickers are magnets, easy to remove when the husband drives the family SUV to the base. When politics comes up at barbecues and other work-related events, they measure their words.

But a few military wives have stepped out this year to back the Democratic candidate as members of Blue Star Families for Obama.

Do they also make the sign of The One in the dust to secretly signal to a fellow acolyte? Now comes the pitch about how these blue military wives heroically fight against the Republican "conformism" around them:

"There's a preconceived notion that if you're in the military, you watch Fox News and are Republican," said co-founder Amanda McBreen, who lives in Suffolk with her husband, a Marine lieutenant colonel, and their children. "I'm an issues person."

Journalists on TV Sunday heralded the importance and impact of Colin Powell's long-expected endorsement of Barack Obama which he made on Meet the Press. Later in that show, NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell touted Powell's endorsement and critique of the McCain campaign as “a very powerful political statement.” On the same panel with Mitchell, Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham declared that “having Colin Powell endorse the Democratic nominee for President is like having the seal of approval from the most important military figure of the age.”

MSNBC was so excited by the news the channel produced a special Sunday Hardball devoted entirely to Powell's news. Chris Matthews teased: “Colin Powell, right in the kisser. Barack Obama gets the endorsement of the year. Let's play Hardball.” Cuing up a Meet the Press re-play at the end of the 5 pm EDT hour, Matthews celebrated: “This is history in the making, on Meet the Press, right now.”

NFL football bumped the EDT/CDT CBS Evening News, but both ABC and NBC made Powell their lead. With “Major Endorsement” as it's on-screen heading, ABC anchor Dan Harris teased, “Tonight on World News: On a roll. Obama wins a major endorsement from a major Republican.” CNN's 10 PM EDT Newsroom, which dedicated its first 30 minutes to Powell, plastered “Big-Time Endorsement” on screen before anchor Don Lemon wondered: “I know it is important, but just how important is this?”

What's bothering the Los Angeles Times's Rosa Brooks now? She doesn't like how the McCain-Palin ticket has noted that Barack Obama said on the campaign trail that our troops in Afghanistan are "just air-raiding villages and killing civilians." 

Yet Brooks declares that Barack Obama was essentially "correct" when he said this. ("Obama's no troop-hater: Lost in the debate about 'air-raiding villages' is that Obama's correct." (Sun., 10/19/08))

Press outlets around the world are reporting a major announcement about to come out of North Korea, with some speculating leader Kim Jong Il may be dead or ill.  For instance, as reported by Canada's CTV:

A Japanese newspaper has reported that its government has information that North Korea would issue the announcement as soon as Monday. Japan's largest newspaper, the Yomiuri, said it may be about Kim's possible death or, perhaps, a change in government due to a coup. The paper said North Korea has issued an order telling its diplomats abroad to remain on standby for the announcement. North Korea has also banned foreigners from travelling to the country starting on Monday, according to the paper.

Assuming this isn't a publicity stunt by Jong Il, how could a serious event out of this nuclear-powered nation impact our elections in two weeks?

The media were quick to dig into Joe Wurzelbacher's personal and private information such as tax records, and trumpet it to the world in an attempt to discredit someone that dared question Barack Obama's tax plan.  Lets see if they even report on this when they don’t have any digging to do whatsoever.

Apparently, on Obama’s released tax records, he discloses income from speaking fees. The problem? Accepting payment for speaking fees when you’re a legislator is against Illinois state law

Apparently, as an Illinois state legislator through 2004, Barack was prohibited from taking honoraria for speaking under the Illinois Governmental Ethics Act

But what about Barack Obama’s 2000 and 2002 tax returns?

2000: On his 2000 Schedule C-EZ, Barack reported that he received $16,500 as a “Foundation director/Educational speaker.”

The Obama-loving media might hate Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, but according to preliminary estimates, the Alaska governor's guest appearance on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" gave the program its highest ratings in over fourteen years.

This seems to go hand in hand with the great reception Palin got Saturday evening from the audience in attendance for the live broadcast who enthusiastically applauded as she walked onto the stage during the program's opening sketch.

Maybe even more surprising, they weren't the only typically liberal New Yorkers enthralled with the Alaska governor, for the New York Times' television critic actually gave Palin a very solid review.

But before we get there, here's what Reuters reported moments ago (emphasis added):

ABC's Sam Donaldson has validated Joe the Plumber's worst fears: socialism has indeed washed over capitalism.

Maybe worse, Donaldson is clearly less unhappy about this than our new campaign spokesman from Ohio.

Such appeared to be the case when the former White House correspondent published a rather ominous commentary at ABCNews.com Tuesday both in written and video form (emphasis added, h/t Extreme Mortman via Glenn Reynolds):

It looks like Mother Nature just hasn't gotten the word from the global warming alarmists. Instead of warming up and shrinking the Alaskan glaciers, just the opposite is now happening as explained in this report in the Anchorage Daily News:

Two hundred years of glacial shrinkage in Alaska, and then came the winter and summer of 2007-2008.

Unusually large amounts of winter snow were followed by unusually chill temperatures in June, July and August.

"In mid-June, I was surprised to see snow still at sea level in Prince William Sound," said U.S. Geological Survey glaciologist Bruce Molnia. "On the Juneau Icefield, there was still 20 feet of new snow on the surface of the Taku Glacier in late July. At Bering Glacier, a landslide I am studying, located at about 1,500 feet elevation, did not become snow free until early August.

"In general, the weather this summer was the worst I have seen in at least 20 years."