Open Thread

Today's starters:

Media: Back during the NYT's fanatical crusade about women's golf, the paper repeatedly stopped its columnists from criticizing its support to get women allowed into the Augusta National club on the grounds that doing so would send a discordant editorial voice. Many newspapers have similar policies. Apparently not the Minneapolis Star Tribune, though, where the paper printed a Sunday editorial that explicitly undercut a columnist who had argued that the staging of a play critical of the Roman Catholic church was hypocritical and wondered whether a similar play would be produced taking Islam to task. Scott at Power Line has the details.

Politics: Is Nancy Pelosi using the media to nudge Democrats she doesn't prefer out of the limelight? John Bolton resigns. Will the Bush Admin make another push to secure Baghdad? Ed Morrissey looks at how the sudden Obama-mania might be a sign of desperation among anti-Hillary Democrats.

Society: A look at single parent conceptions (i.e. one parent having the child alone from the start).

Starters: Air marshalls decry charges from imams that they were unduly detained based on racial animus. If people become "afraid of reporting suspicious individuals out of fear of being labeled a racist or bigot, then terrorists will certainly use those fears to their advantage in future aviation attacks."

2000 redux: Democrats making a fuss over Florida election. Katherine Harris is even involved. Well at least it's for her old seat.

Should airports implement security devices that can look underneath clothing?

Iraq Commission reportedly going to recommend gradual withdrawal.

Anonymous cable news exec: "Everyone has an agenda [...] All reporters are biased. Why not be open about it, transparent? We shouldn't pretend. The audience is looking for honest opinions, for opinions they can relate to."

The military and the AP are disputing the authenticity of a man, Jamil Hussein, claiming to be an Iraqi government official. The AP says he's the real deal, the military says he's a terrorist tool.

For general discussion and chat.

Today's starter: Terrorist organizations have started using Google to further their ends.

Comment on the news of the day and whatever else you like.

Starter topic: What are you thankful for? (politically or otherwise)

Good collection of Thanksgiving cartoons.

Football is also a Thanksgiving prediction so feel free to prognosticate on today's games. In the NFL, Miami is playing at Detroit, the Tampa Bay Bucs are taking on the Dallas Cowboys, and the Kansas City Chiefs are playing host to the Denver Broncos.

There's only one college game today, Miami (the Florida one) is playing #18 Boston College.

Today's starter: With the congressional elections out of the way, the presidential race is starting to get more serious, at least on the Republican side where Mitt Romney said in an interview that it's a three-man race between John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, and himself.

It seems that way at the moment but 2008 is still a long ways away. Who do you think are some of the dark horse candidates?

Oh, and how many of you are having trouble with making links, etc. now that we have different ads on the pages?

Update 13:34. I've taken down the ads. Too many performance issues for now.

Today's starter: Teacher resigns after placing "destroy America" in students' word search. Videos of the day: the Michael "Kramer" Richards racial rant and half-apology.

Also interesting to see is Katie Couric on last night's "CBS Evening News" where a audio glitch made the show end about two minutes sooner than it should've, forcing Couric to stand awkwardly on the set.

Fill 'er up, folks!

Today's starter: How have Democrats managed to gain congressional power in states that reliably vote Republican in presidential elections?

Discuss general news and whatever else you like.

Comment on the news of the day and anything else. The New York Times thinks Dan Rather's new HDNet show "so far seems to favor Democrats who love America."

Today's starter is a delightful bit of media hypocrisy: "Movie production tops hotels, aerospace, and apparel and semiconductor manufacturing in traditional air pollutant emissions in Southern California, according to the UCLA study, initially prepared for the Integrated Waste Management Board. The industry is probably second only to petroleum refineries, for which comparable data were not available."

Republicans are in the news today with some GOP dissent over the appointment of Florida senator Mel Martinez to head the Republican National Committee. In 2008 news, Rudy Giuliani formed an "exploratory committee" for a presumptive presidential run.

Open for comment.

For general discussion and comment.

Starter topic #1: The far-left push to impeach President Bush is beginning. Will the media jump on the bandwagon?

Starter topic #2: I think Glenn Reynolds is right on the money here. Do you?

Enjoy.

For general discussion.

Starter topic: Have Republicans finally realized they need to stop being so complacent with the media?

Starter topic: Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer on the election's impact: "There are some people who want to argue that ... this was what the Republicans needed, a kick in the pants [...] But it’s also a shift of responsibility to the Democrats. They now have to join in the government in a very hard situation in Iraq and elsewhere. If things don’t go well, they will share in the blame."

Right on the money or too optimistic?

Starter: Conservatives need to get more interested in traditional media.

Here's how to connect to the NewsBusters real-time chat server:

Starter: Allegations of misconduct and fraud at polling places in Philadelphia.

Comment on the news or whatever suits you.

Today's starter: Our friends at Olbermann Watch have prepared a lexicon of the far left's favorite "news" anchor, made up entirely of actual Olbermann usage.

Today's starter: After the media led the general public to clamor for electronic voting, now they're starting to raise questions about it, possibly in preparation for a Democratic loss?

In any case, if there is a problem with electronic voting (deliberate or not), the media ought to share some of the blame.

Today's starter: Are conservatives who stay home on election day insulting the troops by not voting?

For weekend discussion...