Unlike three years ago, the good folks of New Orleans are busily preparing for a hurricane days before it is scheduled to arrive.

This includes massive evacuations transpiring even though the storm is not supposed to hit until Monday.

Assuming these preparations are successful, and Gustav powers the same punch as Katrina without causing the same devastation to life and property, will the White House get media's praise?

Consider what the New York Times reported Saturday (emphasis added):

(Via The O'Reilly Factor on FNC) On his show last night (Fri. 8/29/08), Bill O'Reilly called it, "One of the most outrageous things I've ever seen in my 35 years of journalism."

During coverage of Sarah Palin accepting to be John McCain's running mate, MSNBC ran a graphic. Under the banner of "BREAKING NEWS," MSNBC put on the screen, "How many houses does Palin add to the Republican ticket?" Outrageous, indeed.

Add this episode to the mountains of evidence illustrating the pro-Obama bias at MSNBC.

Video of O'Reilly's segment from last night can be found at Breitbart.tv and YouTube. Here's a screen cap.

Just as my colleague Brent Baker found on Friday night, the big broadcast networks on Saturday morning showed no shyness about labeling Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin a “conservative,” with NBC Today co-host Amy Robach calling her “a staunch conservative,” CBS’s Chip Reid tagging her “reliably conservative,” and ABC’s Kate Snow finding Palin to be “quite conservative.”

But seven days earlier, as those same programs reacted to the Obama campaign’s text message heralding Joe Biden as the Democratic vice presidential candidate, none of those broadcast found a moment to call him “liberal,” in spite of Biden’s lengthy record of liberal votes as determined by the nonpartisan National Journal.

Here’s a quick rundown of how the three broadcast networks emphasized Palin’s ideology on their August 30 programs:

In an effort to run down Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, a snarling Jack Cafferty managed to insult the entire state of Alaska on CNN's Situation Room: "Sarah Palin is in her first term as governor of Alaska,  that's a  state that has 13 people and some caribou." This was one small part of an acid-laced harangue by Cafferty on the subject of Sarah Palin,  (emphasis mine): 

If you put controversial left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore and MSNBC "Countdown" anchor Keith Olbermann in the same setting - there's bound to be some sort of lunatic remark made. Their latest get-together, neither failed to disappoint.

On the August 29 broadcast of "Countdown," Moore told viewers how Hurricane Gustav, a storm with the potential to be catastrophic, reaffirmed his faith in God.

"I was just thinking, this Gustav is proof that there is a God in heaven," Moore said, laughing. "To have it planned at the same time - that it would actually be on its way to New Orleans for day one of the Republican Convention, up in the Twin Cities - at the top of the Mississippi River."

For general discussion and debate. Possible talking point: as yesterday's Sarah Palin Open Thread received from what I can tell the greatest number of reads and comments of any OT since we started doing OTs, I wanted to keep this same topic today.

As you've now had 24 hours to think about this pick, as well as hear and read other opinions, how are you feeling about this choice as we head into the convention on Monday?

Taking a look at the stories in the Old Media will show that the Media is turning attack dog ASAP on McCain's choice for vice president, Sarah Palin. Notice the main meme is her supposed "inexperience." Funny how Palin was the VP pick for about 15 seconds before the Old Media went after her "inexperience" while they have yet to hit Barry Obama on HIS inexperience at all and he's been running for president since 2004. We should also note that Palin didn't get the honeymoon that Biden got when his announcement was made. But, the worst is yet to come and the Daily Kos is doing its level best to mine the lowest of lows. In a Kos diary today, it is being alleged that Sarah Palin "faked" the pregnancy of her last child, a baby born with Down's Syndrome. The claim is that it was her teenaged daughter's child, not hers. And, true to form, the Kossacks took that absurd calumny and hate even further in the comments.

With all the pseudo gravity the Kos diarist could muster, this ridiculous story of a "cover-up" was floated for the foolish Kossacks to lap up. Inky99 gave us the scurrilous diary headlined "Palin's faked 'pregnancy'? Covering for teen daughter?," in which the Kossacks posit that Governor Palin covered up her own teenage daughter's teen pregnancy by pretending it is her own child instead of her daughter's.

You might have thought Bill Weir would have learned.  Yesterday, CNN's John Roberts was roundly condemned for suggesting Sarah Palin might neglect her Down Syndrome baby while running for VP.  But Weir, the weekend co-anchor of Good Morning America, posed a very similar question this morning. Coke Roberts, to her credit, called him out on it. Weir's guest during GMA's opening half-hour was McCain political director Mike Duhaime.

BILL WEIR: I must ask.  Adding to the brutality of a national campaign, the Palin family also has an infant with special needs. What leads you, the senator and the governor to believe that one won't affect the other in the next couple of months?

MIKE DUHAIME: In terms of her personal life?  You know, to the extent people want to look at her, she's got an incredible life story: five children, the son going into the military, she's got a  --

Weir brusquely interrupted, virtually shouting.

WEIR: She has an, she has an infant with special needs. Will that affect her campaigning?

View video here.

The folks at Yahoo News Photos section must have been greatly amused by their web page titled "Anthropology & Archaeology." The first four pictures in the slide show are various archaeological discoveries... well, except for the third one. THAT one happens to be a photo of John McCain. Yes, Yahoo seems to be saying that John McCain is an archaeological artifact! Nice ageist slap, eh?

Here's a screen shot of the original page...

Last Saturday night, in multiple stories on all three broadcast network evening shows about Barack Obama's VP pick, Senator Joe Biden was never described as a liberal. Friday night, however, CBS and NBC accurately tagged John McCain's selection, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, as “reliably conservative” or a “solid conservative” -- and that's not counting references to how she will shore up support for McCain amongst conservatives. On ABC's World News, for instance, David Wright reported: “The McCain campaign also hopes Palin can excite conservatives given her life-long support for gun rights and her opposition to abortion rights.” Listing the pros and cons to the pick, CBS's Jeff Greenfield made “delights the right” a plus. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell combined a label with Palin's potential to help McCain: “Palin is a social conservative, against abortion and for gun rights, who could energize the party's base.”

On the CBS Evening News, Bob Schieffer dubbed Palin “John McCain Jr.” since she's “somebody who is willing to take on her own party.” Anchor Katie Couric interjected: “But with conservative principles,” to which Schieffer affirmed: “Yeah, with conservative principles.” Two other straight-forward labels applied to Palin on the Friday night, August 29 newscasts:

Chip Reid on CBS: “On most issues, she is reliably conservative, agreeing with McCain on the need to cut taxes and slash spending.” He also described her as “a fierce opponent of abortion.”

John Larson, from Anchorage, on the NBC Nightly News: “Governor Palin is a solid conservative, firmly supporting gun rights and strongly opposing abortion.”

Cross Posted at Video Done Right 

John McCain had yet to announce Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, when MSNBC began flashing a graphic of informational stats on Palin. These were her age, her 80% approval rating, and that she is “facing a state investigation.”

The graphic was continuously shown at different times during the broadcast, and the state investigation graphic remained without comment until later. The Washington Times reported on the investigation. According to the article:

…aides to the Alaska Governor say they welcome a prosecutor’s probe into whether her administration improperly sought the firing of a state trooper who had divorced the governor’s sister.

Mrs. Palin has denied any connection to the divorce. She said Mr. Monegan was being dismissed for not adequately filing state trooper vacancies and because, in her judgment, he “did not turn out to be a team player on budgeting issues.”

The Washington Times also points out that Palin offered her sister’s ex-husband a job at the Alaska Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, which he turned down.

[Update, 8:25 pm ET: Audio link added below.]

CNN frequent contributor and Huffington Post's political director Hilary Rosen slammed John McCain's vice-presidential pick Sarah Palin as being unqualified on Friday's Newsroom program and accused the Republicans pandering to women, especially Hillary Clinton supporters: "Senator McCain obviously thinks this is going to go a long way to help those women who are attracted to Hillary Clinton. I think if you were attracted to Hillary Clinton, in many ways, it was because she's a qualified woman" (Rosen put emphasis on "qualified" by practically yelling the word). She later accused the GOP of trying to "change skirts and put it on another woman, and have it be an acceptable thing" (audio available here).

On Friday’s CBS Early Show, co-host Maggie Rodriguez talked to former FBI agent and body language expert, Joe Navarro about some of the controversial scenery at the Obama speech: "What did you think about the open stadium? Was it too much? Too over the top? Or was it effective?" Navarro responded: "Absolutely not. You know, months ago they were talking about decisions were going to be made behind closed doors. This was democracy at its best." Rodriguez added: "Because so many people were involved." That prompted Navarro to declare: "Involved. You know, you look at the -- everything, the people, the surroundings, the colors, the imagery. It reminds you of Athenian democracy."

On Wednesday, Navarro was on the show to analyze Michelle Obama’s body language during her convention speech: "I think it was a home run. She's a beautiful woman. You know, her hugs are genuine. She has those beautiful high cheek bones that we see in models. The broad shoulders. Look how wide her stance is. Her gestures are huge. They're very encompassing. These things draw us in."

Rodriguez did raise the controversy surrounding Obama’s backdrop during his nomination acceptance speech: "That was one of the criticisms, though. You said Athenian, that the temples made it look -- I mean, the columns made it look a little bit too much like a temple, like this was meant to worship Barack Obama as a god." Navarro completely dismissed such criticism: "Not at all. This was about that, you know, we use the images of these columns from Athens to tell us about our history of democracy, about openness, about the people. And we have a great example of this where this has been opened up, I think, for the first time and may set a precedent for future conventions. Very powerful."

originally posted at RedState at 12:55 p.m. EDT

CBN's David Brody is on the phone with CNN right now getting himself drummed out of the conservative movement.

Why?

Well, he's on peddling what happened at a private meeting at the Council For National Policy with regards to Palin. This is a huge no-no, guests are invited under the condition that meetings remain private to keep conversations candid and open.

MRC Director of Media Analysis and NewsBusters Senior Editor Tim Graham appeared on Fox News at 5:50 p.m. EDT to discuss the ABC News producer arrested in Denver as he was photographing Democratic donors from a public sidewalk.

TIM GRAHAM: Here's one of these times where ABC is actually trying to get a story that's not all puffy happy, and they're getting shoved into the street.

[...]

GRAHAM: There were media there the day before. All over that sidewalk, blocking the doors of the hotel. But somehow I think they felt that because there was not 18 reporters there but one reporter that they could be rough on the one guy. I mean you got to give ABC some credit here that they are trying to do some stories here about campaign finances.

It is a sight to behold when a journalist is so enthralled by anti-self-defense fantasy that they would contradict themselves and publicly display ignorance of the facts, especially in a newspaper nicknaming itself The Facts.

Michael Morris, assistant managing editor of the online version of the Brazosport Facts, is not happy with the Harrold school district's decision to allow trained staff carry concealed handguns on campus. Morris's editorial quickly leaps into hyperbole:

The argument is that if teachers were armed at the time these shootings started, the carnage could have been reduced or eliminated entirely. Or, some say, the idea of handguns on campus would serve as a deterrent to a would-be gunman even thinking about assaulting a school or its students.

These are fine theories put forth by those who believe every American, everywhere, at any time should be able to whip out an assault weapon, no questions asked.¹

In his book The Bias Against Guns, John Lott examined the relationship between gun availability and multiple murders. He concluded:

Of all the criticisms an apparently panicky Dem party has heaped on Sarah Palin in the hours since her selection was announced, Keith Boykin [bio] has come up with perhaps the unseemliest.  The former aide to President Clinton has accused Palin of being an "affirmative action" pick.

Boykin, a graduate of Dartmouth and Harvard Law, was debating the selection with Republican Joe Watkins at the end of MSNBC's 4 PM EDT hour. After some preliminary jousting, Boykin dropped his bomb.

KEITH BOYKIN Let me just say something about this choice.  The reason why she doesn't help, quite frankly, is because it's an insult.  It's an insult to women. I spoke to several women today at the Democratic National Convention who said it's insulting John McCain would pick somebody—an affirmative-action candidate basically—who is not qualified.