The Malcontent

Reuters' Day of Atonement?

George Bush sure has been taking a drubbing lately, and no one has drubbed quite as mightily as the "journalists" from Reuterville.  So now that Bush's poll numbers have tanked, does that mean Reuters is going softer on him now?

Take this photo from an event today, showing the "caring" side of the President:

Perhaps they are making up for this:

Or other past media sins like this from USA Today:

Or this from "NBC Nightly News":

Although I suppose that last one could have just been NBC's secret shout-out to tennis fans.

Junk Science

What is it with some people's almost pornographic obsession with Fox News Channel?  (Disclosure: I almost never get my news from television.  I don't much care for it.)

The Washington Post reports today on a "study" that purports to show that George Bush might "owe" his 2000 election victory to FNC:

"Our estimates imply that Fox News convinced 3 to 8 percent of its audience to shift its voting behavior towards the Republican Party, a sizable media persuasion effect," said Stefano DellaVigna of the University of California at Berkely [sic] and Ethan Kaplan of Stockholm University. In Florida alone, they estimate, the Fox effect may have produced more than 10,000 additional votes for Bush -- clearly a decisive factor in a state he carried by fewer than 600 votes.

My, what a modest claim to make!  But it sounds to me like a textbook case of a "Post Hoc Fallacy."  Event B occurs after Event A; therefore, Event A must be the cause of Event B.

What kind of bullshit science is this, anyway?  Actually, it is a 51-page piece of bullshit science called "The Fox News Effect: Media Bias and Voting."

Admittedly, I have not yet read the whole paper.  And maybe the authors think I am supposed to be impressed and/or intimidated by things like this:

Or perhaps they want to lull me into submission with stultifying passages like: "The Fox News effect could be a temporary learning effect for rational voters, or a permanent effect for voters subject to non-rational persuasion."

But the fact remains that, nowhere in the "study" (to my reading) or in the related media reports have they established cause, only contemporaneousness.

The argument is that Fox News was the reason that people voted more conservatively.  But couldn't the opposite be just as true?  That is, couldn't Fox owe its existence to a rightward political trend that was already in progress?

Because FNC was created in 1996, why should I not claim that the "Republican Revolution" of 1994 was the "cause" of Fox News?  Only two years separated those two events.  What explains the electoral bath the Republicans took in 1998, only two years after the creation of Fox?

And how would the authors explain the countering effect of the measured left-leaning bias of almost every other media outlet, whose combined reach is infinitely greater than Fox?  The answer is, they don't, and their failure to do so makes their agenda all the more transparent.

Admittedly, it was a great way for DellaVigna and Kaplan to get publicity, especially among the vast numbers of reporters who loathe Fox.  But if a guy like me with only one college-level statistics course under his belt can see through them, why can't the WaPo?

Suck It, Drudge

I know Matt Drudge viscerally hates all things left-wing, a category in which Stephen Colbert is now firmly ensconced, but what is this poorly punctuated bullshit about, exactly?:

So he's trying to humiliate a show that comes on at 11:30 p.m. by comparing it to the prime-time line-up of a competing network?

Isn't it also significant that "The Colbert Report," a relatively new show, is already out-pacing the entire prime-time schedules of CNN, MSNBC and Headline News, and is nearly even with Fox's 11 p.m. hour?

Stupid Walter-Winchell-wannabe queer.

Developing ...

Mind Your G's, L's, B's, T's and Q's

GLAAD claims victory in the gay language wars; vows to mount charge up Bisexual Hill.

The Minister and the Media

Everyone seems a bit up in arms about the recent appointment by President Bush of the Rev. Herbert H. Lusk II to a position on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. Whereas the other appointments to the panel seem almost uncharacteristically appropriate, I thought I'd poke and prod around a bit to figure out who the minister with close ties to Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council is. Upfront, the man is fairly hostile to us mo's. However, gay media are once again being brutally dishonest to their readers.

More Dishonesty From the Gay Media

This is getting tiresome. In this article, 365gay.com purports to give its gay readership the relevant details on the Samuel Alito confirmation hearings. What do they note? They cite Ted Kennedy's shameful McCarthyite attempts to smear Alito based on what someone else has said. The senator quoted statements written by people who Judge Alito has most probably never met, but were fellow members of Concerned Alumni of Princeton. Statement after vile statement that Kennedy attempted to use as associative guilt, even though there is no evidence - none - that Alito shares any of those sentiments. In fact, there are sheafs of testimony from women and minorities on what an exemplary man Alito has been in treating those around him with equality and respect.

What does this news article not mention? It does not mention that during Kennedy's questioning, another homosexual issue came up concerning this case where Alito ruled with the majority, "holding that a school district did not provide a high school student with a free and appropriate public education, as required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, when it failed to protect the student from bullying by fellow students who taunted the student based on his lack of athleticism and his perceived sexual orientation."

If the gay media were remotely interested in informing their readers of all the relevant facts of the hearings, at least a minor note of this case and Alito's comments on it would have been made. Instead, it seems 365gay.com and other publications are more invested in providing their readers with the Democratic highlight reel.

Are there actual journalists in the gay media, or is it safe to assume it mostly consists of mouthpieces for the HRC and other unabashedly partisan groups?

O'Reilly, "Fair and Balanced" As Usual on Gays

I actually tuned in to O'Reilly last night – something I rarely do – to see how he would handle the hubbub surrounding his Tuesday night interview on Letterman.  What I got was a lot of preening and self-congratulatory blather that, frankly, wasn't worth bothering anyone else with.

But what I also got was more of Bill's ongoing, zoo-visitor-like fascination with the gays.

While he frequently covers all things gay, last night he was just getting around to the "battle" – cable news loves that word – over gay-rights activists' decision to (quite legally) post the names and addresses of Massachusetts citizens who chose to sign petitions that would put an antigay-marriage measure on the ballot.  (The Malcontent covered this breaking news about four months ago.)

O'Reilly was positively apoplectic about this, of course, and took the side of the man representing the "family" group.  (Aside: Do you think if it were made known to organizations like AFA that when we see a queer guy, we say, "Oh, he's family!" that they would quit bogarting that word?)  It was funny how Bill's fair-and-balanced take on this "battle" doesn't also include the thousands of potentially fraudulent signatures on the petitions.  But these things do slip the mind.

This being "The Factor," there was a lot more heat than light.  But if anything good came out of it, I suppose, it is that the additional traffic Bill generated for knowthyneighbor.org produced a trickle-down effect of mouth-breathers who came to our site and goosed the readership stats.

I hope that at least they have been getting off on our "L Word" ad.

[Watch video – 7:17, WMV format, high bandwidth]

[Watch video – 7:17, WMV format, low bandwidth]

UPDATE: I should have mentioned O'Reilly's little "dolphin marriage" thing I kept at the end of the video clip.  I can't tell you how much the "slippery slope" argument pisses me off.  Anyone who truly believes this issue is a straight line to legalized marriage with aquatic mammals is not a serious participant in the debate.

Millions of my countrymen watch this idiot, and yet "Arrested Development" gets canceled.  Take me home now, Lord.

The Evil Brokeback Agenda

I waded into the morass of the O'Reilly Factor so you, dear readers, don't have to. Tonight, Bill asked whether or not there is a liberal or homosexual agenda behind the heavy promotion of Ang Lee's film in newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post.

Bill's guests included entertainment reporter Jeanne Wolf and conservative movie critic Michael Medved. It's an interesting discussion on media bias, with nice things said all around about the film, but also typical posturing about the "homosexual agenda" being "rammed down throats."

O'Reilly does have a fairly amusing response to a question posed by Wolf at the end of the segment.

Malco-vision has the clip.

[Watch video – 7:27, WMV format, high bandwidth]

[Watch video – 7:27, WMV format, low bandwidth]

Notes on a Run Down Media

Two stories in two days. Which strikes you as far more important than the other? Which do you think made media headlines while the other passed fairly unnoticed?

Story One:

Saddam Hussein loyalists who violently opposed January elections have made an about-face as Thursday's polls near, urging fellow Sunni Arabs to vote and warning al Qaeda militants not to attack.

In a move unthinkable in the bloody run-up to the last election, guerrillas in the western insurgent heartland of Anbar province say they are even prepared to protect voting stations from fighters loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.

Story Two:

Al-Qaida in Iraq and four other Islamic extremist groups denounced this week's parliamentary elections as a "satanic project" that violated God's law, but they stopped short of an explicit threat Monday to attack polling stations.

If you guessed Story Two made big headlines while Story One was largely ignored, you're merely ordinarily prescient.

For those who believe the idea of an American media cheering for American defeat is hyperbole, I need only point to the above to prove otherwise.

Capitalism is Mystifying

The economy is thriving, gas prices are falling ($1.99 here in the burbs), but worry not, pessimists of the world. The New York Times is here to ensure we feel as lousy as possible about all things in perpetuity . . . or at least until a Democrat is in the White House. Howard Kurtz lays it out:

Gregg Easterbrook's rule that All Economic News is Bad was effectively illustrated by yesterday's NYT front-pager, "Upbeat Signs Hold Cautions for the Future." The article notes several positive economic trends, including lower gas prices, but then warns darkly that

... as always with the United States economy, it is not quite that simple.

For every encouraging sign, there is an explanation. ...[snip]  Gasoline prices - the national average is now $2.15, according to the Energy Information Administration - have fallen because higher prices held down demand and Gulf Coast supplies have been slowly restored. [Emph. added.]

It's indeed deeply disturbing to learn that higher gas prices have held down demand, causing those prices to fall back to a level at which demand begins to rise again! It's almost as if some insidious law was at work--as prices rise, demand declines! As supply increases, prices fall! You can't win! ... P.S.: The price drop might be alarming if the decline in demand for gas reflected a general economic downturn. But that doesn't seem to be the case. What the NYT's Vikak Bajaj ominously describes is the market working exactly as it's supposed to, coupled with successful rebuilding efforts on the Gulf Coast. It appears to be "quite that simple." ... P.P.S.: Nor can I spot any "cautions for the future."

A New York Times reporter finds capitalism disturbing.

No. Really.

h/t Karol

I Miss You Most of All, Scare Quotes

The scare quotes have once again mysteriously gone missing in Reuterville.  The "news service" that refers to Osama bin Laden as a "terrorist" (scare quotes included) is once again struck completely credulous when it comes to pathological dissembler Kim Jong Il:

N.Korea ready to scrap nuclear plans for better ties: envoy

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea is ready to dismantle its nuclear weapons programs if it can better its relations with the United States, Japan and South Korea, China's envoy to Seoul was quoted as saying on Friday.

Chinese Ambassador Ning Fukui said in a meeting with a key South Korean lawmaker that building trust between Pyongyang and Washington was essential for advancing six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programs. [...]

After putting that story through the Truth-O-Matic 9000, it reads:

N.Korea "ready" to "scrap" nuclear plans for better ties: envoy

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea is "ready" to "dismantle" its nuclear weapons programs if it can better its relations with the United States, Japan and South Korea, China's envoy to Seoul was quoted as saying on Friday.

Chinese Ambassador Ning Fukui said in a meeting with a key South Korean lawmaker that building "trust" between Pyongyang and Washington was essential for advancing six-party talks aimed at "ending" North Korea's nuclear weapons programs. [...]

(I was originally going to call this post "Gullible's Travels" until I arrived at the current headline, after which I found someone else at a far-flung blog had already used a similar idea for Reuters.  But I decided to keep it anyway, and screw you if you think I ripped you off!)

Behold the Next Generation of "Reporters"

Robert Jensen embodies everything that is evil and self-destructive about the tenure system on U.S. college campuses:

One indication of moral progress in the United States would be the replacement of Thanksgiving Day and its self-indulgent family feasting with a National Day of Atonement accompanied by a self-reflective collective fasting. [...]

But in the United States, this reluctance to acknowledge our original sin -- the genocide of indigenous people -- is of special importance today. It's now routine -- even among conservative commentators -- to describe the United States as an empire, so long as everyone understands we are an inherently benevolent one. Because all our history contradicts that claim, history must be twisted and tortured to serve the purposes of the powerful. [Emphasis mine]

"All our history" contradicts the United States as a benevolent power.  Indeed.  This is so self-delusional and incendiary that such excrescence doesn't even merit a response.

But what's most dangerous about Robert Jensen is not that he is teaching some far-left subject steeped in identity politics and victimhood, such as "gender studies"; he is teaching journalism.  (On second thought, I am probably being redundant.)  [HT: Malkin]

What Passes for Humor At CNN

The Manhattan Offender brings us a little ho-ho-homophobia from CNN anchor Rick Sanchez.

If this had happened on Fox News, the howls of protest would be deafening.  But alas, it was on the "favored" network of the liberal elite.

The Gay GOP: Here, Queer, You Know the Rest

If you're a gay Republican or conservative, chances are that you have grown a thick skin against epithets like "Uncle Tom" or "traitor."  They are made by left-leaning echo-chamber types who are blinded by the brilliance of their own rightness, or who are just too lazy to try to understand legitimate differences between human beings.  That attitude is usually evinced by the gay press, as well, despite the duty of journalists to be dispassionate, seek truth and challenge conventional wisdom.

But sometimes the gay press can surprise, covering gay Republicans and conservatives like they don't have a third eye growing from their foreheads.

Kudos to the Gay & Lesbian Times for making quick work of the canard that such gays are "oxymorons."

America On-Left

Has anyone else noticed an awful lot of AOL headlines like the one below?  I visit AOL's main page quite often, and it seems to me that there has been a little too much GOP-derived schadenfreude going on for what is supposed to be a news site:

Mary Mapes Gets SWOTted!

Today Mary Mapes's hotly anticipated book "Truth and Duty," a behind-the-scenes look at her role in the "Ra^thergate" scandal that brought down the CBS anchorman and dealt a near-fatal blow to 60 Minutes, is released.  And The Malcontent couldn't let the moment go by without peeing all over her parade, so we are dusting off an old feature in her honor:  the SWOT Analysis.

Now, several readers in the past have asked what a "SWOT" is.  It is basically a "PR 101" technique whereby a public relations expert analyzes a client's strengths and weaknesses, as well as opportunities and threats in the external world, in order to help them better communicate.

So congratulations, Mary!  You've been SWOTted!  (Click to enlarge.)

UPDATE: Mapes makes her case (lamely) on ABC.

Sins of Omission

Can YOU find the missing word in this AP article?

Youths armed with gasoline bombs fanned out from Paris' poor, troubled suburbs to shatter the tranquility of leafier towns, torching 900 vehicles, a nursery school and other targets, police said Saturday, in the worst wave of arson since the urban violence began more than a week ago.

Hrm. Youths. Yes, youths are involved. What kinds of youths?

Liberals Dig Deep for Media "Bias"

Liberal journalists take Republic of T's advice not to cover stories where they might have a bias; newsrooms empty out from New York to L.A.

Reporter's True Calling: Porn

Not since White House reporter Cyrus Merganthaler asked if William Howard Taft was able to wash his scrotum on his own has there been such insolence among the White House press corps.

John Roberts (the CBS anchor helmet, not the CJOTUS) today asked WH Press Secretary Scott McClellan if the Samuel Alito nomination, in the wake of the failed Miers bid, amounted to a term that is synonymous with ... ummm ... having sex with someone who was just sex-had-with:

John Roberts: “So, Scott, you said that -- or the President said, repeatedly, that Harriet Miers was the best person for the job. So does that mean that Alito is sloppy seconds, or what?”

McClellan's response mysteriously didn't involve a Ninja throwing star.

UPDATE: Roberts culps mea, tone was "too casual."

Support the Troops!

I bet you're asking yourself how you can support the troops. If you're a New York Times editor, it's a no brainer. Simply selectively quote a dead soldier's last letter so the readership has no context or knowledge of who he was and what he thought of his place in Iraq. Always remember, our soldiers are children and victims of Bushitler, not free-willed, free-thinking adults with deeply held beliefs, aspirations, and convictions:

"Obviously if you are reading this then I have died in Iraq. I kind of predicted this, that is why I'm writing this in November. A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances. I don't regret going, everybody dies but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it's not to me. I'm here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. To do what they want with their lives. To me that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark."

Naturally the best way to honor one of our best Americans is for the Times to leave any and all mention of this out of the article.

In a similar vein, I'd just like to throw out a piece of advice to any MoveOn types out there who may be floating on by. When you're having a "solemn vigil" for the "deeply sad" occasion of the 2000th combat death in Iraq, it's not supposed to look like the best time you've ever had at a cocktail party.

It must be an "Irish vigil."

Big shout out to the jack-ass in the bottom picture. Because when people see a bunch of lunatic moonbats dancing on the graves of our troops, oh yeah, I want them to connect it with gay rights.

Thanks bunches, asshole.

Update/correction: In comments, Paul points out the flag in the bottom picture is most likely an Italian "PACE" flag. If so, I'm mistaken. The man is still an asshole, but not for the reason I originally assigned to him.

The Derailing of St. Valerie

Rich Leiby plays the violins for Valerie Plame Wilson:

With her career derailed, Plame, 42, the mother of 5-year-old twins, hasn't publicly signaled her plans. But privately she has said that she feels she has no future at the spy agency where she has worked for 20 years.

What he failed to mention, however, was that her career was probably first "derailed" not by a Bush administration official, but by CIA turncoat Aldrich Ames:

First, the CIA suspected that Aldrich Ames had given Mrs. Wilson's name (along with those of other spies) to the Russians before his arrest for espionage in 1994. So her undercover security was undermined at that time and she was brought back to Washington for safety reasons.

So Plame goes from her perch as a gallivanting international spook, chucking grenades and squeezing off rounds from an AK-47, to being a desk jockey at Langley – long before Scooter Libby or Karl Rove knew her name.  Yet the implication is that her career was only recently "derailed" by malevolent Bushies, even though the Kristof link above says she was already "moving away" from her non-official-cover status before the leak.

I don't mean to trivialize what Scooter Libby is alleged to have done, or the circumstances in which it has placed Plame.  But it would be nice for a little more perspective from the media and a little less beatification of Vanity Fair covergirl Plame and her dissembling husband.

Darth Condious

I loved Robbie's post on the "reimagining" of Condi Rice so much that I decided to help USA Today truly go all the way to demonize her.  Here ya go, Richard Curtis, knock yerself out!

Kneel Before Condi

With the Beltway shuddering under the weight of rumor and speculation that Darth Cheney's Sith Lord powers may be waning, it's only proper he channel his terrible powers into some worthy apprentice.

The USA Today [image] was deliberately altered to make Condi Rice look more menacing. Notice how the whites of the eyes are highlighted to make her BLACK eyes look BLACKER and HATEFUL.

All the better to strike fear into the hearts of moonbat scum.

Condi, currently aboard The Executor to better threaten logging rights on the distant ice world of Canada, could not be reached for comment.

Without a Paddle . . .

  Yes, this is real.

In a deliciously ironic twist of fate, shortly before airing a segment aimed at embarrassing the Bush administration by suggesting that it had staged a video conversation between the president and soldiers in Iraq, the Today show was caught staging . . . a video stunt.

Make sure you scroll down and watch the video.

So many levels of irony, I honestly wouldn't know where to begin.

Our media, ladies and gentlemen.

Backpedaling Rather Quickly

Remember how Dan Rather doggedly defended the veracity of "The Memos" long after every sentient human being this side of Mary Mapes knew they were phonies?  Remember how he implied that it was a story CBS had nailed like a 2x4 at a carpenters' convention, as Dan himself might say?

Well, now ... not so much.

New York magazine reports that Dan the company-man had his doubts from the very beginning:

"I knew when I did the [document consultant Marcel] Matley interview that something wasn’t right with all this."

Rather must be doing proactive spin to distance himself from Mapes' upcoming book that blames everybody except her biased little self for the massive, self-inflicted wound at the black-eye network.  From the book jacket:

"Bush didn't keep his promise to his country. He swore he would fly military jets until May 1974 in return for being removed from the danger of being drafted. He didn't even come close....He walked away from his duty. ...

 

"Reality didn't matter. Right and wrong didn't matter. Winning was the only thing that mattered to any of the people masterminding the slash-and-burn campaigns that benefited George W. Bush."

Biased?  Vendetta?  No wonder Mary had Joe Lockhart on speed dial!

It Was a Nice Honey-Moonie, Too

Memo to the Washington Times:

My gay marriage is entirely legal, and likely will be regardless of what happens in Massachusetts' highest court next week.  So cut the scare quotes around the word "marriage."  [HT: Queerty]

The Rawng Story

Sometimes the Bush-haters are so willing to believe the worst that it overrides everything else, even their journalistic sobriety.

Take the always-charming Mike Rogers.  A self-styled "journalist," he is so blinkered by leftist bloodlust that he sallied forth with a story about Harriet Miers that was egregiously incorrect from the headline forward, which was later retracted without comment.  The screen grab at right reflects the retraction, but I saved the text here:

Bush nominee Miers steered group aimed at deprogramming gays

Bush's nominee to the Supreme Court is a former board member of EXODUS Ministries, perhaps the world's largest organization that seeks to "save" men and women from a life of same-sex relationships, RAW STORY has discovered.

"Live-in" ministries don't just focus on deprogramming gays -- they also train transvestites and transsexuals how to become "normal."

Exodus promises the "fullness of redemption found in Jesus Christ, a gift which is available to all who commit their life and their sexuality to Him."

From their website:

Exodus is a nonprofit, interdenominational Christian organization promoting the message of "Freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ."

Since 1976, Exodus has grown to include over 120 local ministries in the USA and Canada. We are also linked with other Exodus world regions outside of North America, totaling over 150 ministries in 17 countries.

Within both the Christian and secular communities, Exodus has challenged those who respond to homosexuals with ignorance and fear, and those who uphold homosexuality as a valid orientation. These extremes fail to convey the fullness of redemption found in Jesus Christ, a gift which is available to all who commit their life and their sexuality to Him.

It's OK, Mikey, your fellow Bush-bashing traveler Andrew Sullivan was just as wrong as you were.

"Warmonger" vs. Hatemonger

Cindy Sheehan is at it again.  Fresh from the pokey for protesting without a permit (something that is ridiculously easy to obtain in D.C. but which many intentionally overlook for the PR value of an arrest), she's now trying to make hay out of a meeting with someone who is not even her Senator.  And, of course, the sycophantic media are right along for the ride.

First, Cindy secures a meeting with Sen. John McCain through deception.  Then, even after he had the grace to hear her views, she returned the favor by labeling the Republican-Democrats-love-to-love a "warmonger."

I have never thought it would be a simple matter for John McCain to out-class anyone, but he makes breezy work of Cindy:

"She's entitled to her opinion," McCain said. "We just have fundamental disagreements."

Meanwhile, Cindy's spokeswoman is doing about as well at making purses from sows' ears as Tom Cruise's sister.  Lame explanation for her client's dementia: "She's exhausted."

"Cindy Sheehan: The Sequel" is a turning out a little bit like William Hung's Christmas album.  The first time around, it might have had mild entertainment value.  But now it would be nice if you would just shut the hell up.

Katrina Swamps Media Credibility

Katrina has helped transmogrify the "adversarial media" into the "antagonistic media."  BoiFromTroy has the goods.

Kanye West, Deconstructed (With Video)

At some point – right around landfall, probably – Hurricane Katrina stopped being a terrible disaster and started being a political football for the left to toss around casually.

Last night, rapper Kanye West tried out for quarterback, and he's getting mad props for exercising his "right of free speech." ("Free speech" is defined by the left as "anything slurring Republicans."  It is not to be confused with "hate speech," which the left defines as "anything said by Republicans.")

Joined by comedian Mike Myers, West used his moment in the sun on NBC's "A Concert for Hurricane Relief" to baselessly perpetuate a number of outrageous memes.  He starts out strong:

"I hate the way they portray us in the media.  If you see a black family, it says they're looting.  If you see a white family, it says they're looking for food.  And you know it's been five days, because most of the people are black."

As far as I can tell, this rumor about press coverage is getting such mileage exclusively from a single event in which Yahoo News Photos has been accused of believing that black people "loot" while white people "find things."

But Yahoo does not write the captions.  The photo of the black looter came from the AP, while the photo of the white looter came from French news service AFP.  Different news organizations have different standards.

Indeed, it is to the AP's credit (or to the AP member who wrote the caption) and to AFP's shame that it uses the English language accurately and refuses to excuse criminal behavior, regardless of the race involved.  (Remember, another European news organization famously refuses even to call terrorists "terrorists.")

"So now I'm calling my business manager right now to see what is the biggest amount I can give. And just to imagine if I was down there, and those are my people down there."

West, an African-American, feels it incumbent to remind us that "most of the people are black" and that those are "(his) people down there."  If he feels that the media is unfairly dividing tragedy victims by race based on one dubious example, then why deepen those divisions by speaking so callously of non-black victims?

"With the set-up, the way America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow as possible."

There's the race card again.  ZZZzzzzz ...

While there is no doubt the response could have been faster – as is usually the case in a tragedy of virtually unprecedented scale, and a fact the President himself has acknowledged – it is (yes) anti-American to believe that your own country is "set up" to help the poor or black people "as slow as possible."  While "everyone's a little bit racist," as the song goes, it takes a twisted mind to think that our nation's rescue and protection infrastructure is "set up" to respond differently to people of differing financial means or colors.

West should try to peddle his line of garbage to all the non-blacks who have also been killed or affected, and who make up the majority population in the parishes adjoining New Orleans (to say nothing of other areas and states that were impacted.)

"We already realize a lot of the people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us."

Umm, I thought that the citizens were the ones who started shooting at their would-be rescuers.  Perhaps that's why our country was "set up" for a slow response.

OK, now it's Mike Myers' turn, and you can see exactly what is racing through his mind: I hope to God the next thing that comes up on the TelePrompTer will make sense after that absurd non sequitur!

As it turns out, Myers' next line is about rebuilding, which didn't quite follow what West said, but no matter.  West barrels blindly ahead, ending with this little coda:

"George Bush doesn't care about black people."

Mike Myers' head darts back and forth a bit nervously the entire time.  At this point he pauses, clearly wondering if West will ever decide to read from the TelePrompTer.  Then, as Myers begins to say "Please call," his microphone is cut.  The camera cuts to a clearly rattled Chris Tucker, who makes a plea for help without any of the flecks of spittle that characterized West's outburst.

Mr. West, a few words of advice before your next tirade: Get your facts somewhere other than the Daily Kos.

And the next time you fling such a loaded (and demonstrably false) charge at the President, don't do it on a friggin' telethon.  Last I checked, 50.73 percent of those who went to the polls last year voted for George Bush.  Now, ours is a country with $11.75 trillion of purchasing power, and 50.73 percent of that is ... let's see, carry the 5 ... nearly $6 trillion!  That's a lot of money you probably just flushed down the toilet, jackass.  Does your "business manager" think you can afford that?

It will be a good thing if West truly opens his wallet to those in need, and I concede that he was just "exercising his freedom of speech."  But the First Amendment does not guarantee that in doing so, you won't make a mighty ass of yourself.

[Watch video – 9.4mb, WMV format]

A "Gray" Outlook on America

The aptly named reporter Andrew Gray of the Reuters "news" service has penned a piece that spells a more dismal assessment for America than even his own surname might suggest.  His article is a laugher from its lead paragraph onward:

"The world has watched amazed as the planet's only superpower struggles with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, with some saying the chaos has exposed flaws and deep divisions in American society."

Gray continues his anti-American orgasm by quoting such headlines as "Anarchy in the USA" from Britain's newspaper The Sun or "Apocalypse Now" from Germany's Handelsblatt.

Repeatedly using the delicious term "some" that journalists routinely retreat behind to thinly disguise their own biases, Gray writes that "some view the response to (disasters such as the tsunami) more favorably than the lawless aftermath of Hurricane Katrina."

Gray then turns to the "some" who hate President Bush as an excuse to heap more scorn from abroad on the POTUS: "Some compared the sputtering relief effort with the massive amounts of money and resources poured into the war in Iraq."

Apparently, to "some" such as Andrew Gray, any dollar that goes to the very militaries that protect his right to think idiotic thoughts is a dollar wasted.

Thus, on and on goes Gray, managing to wrap everything from still-on-the-lam Osama bin Laden and America's racist nature into a piece ostensibly about hurricane relief, finishing at last with the most disingenuous of quotes:

"It's unbelievable though -- the TV images -- and your heart goes out to them."

I'm sure your heart does, Mr. Gray.  Why else would you spend every preceding paragraph trashing my country, its people, institutions and leaders?

It makes perfect sense that the piece would bear a London dateline: Anyone with an ounce of actual, firsthand knowledge of America and her citizens knows that we are a country that has suffered mightily before, and we always prevail.  And such supremely smug European assessments of the USA are perfectly illustrative of why Americans are so quick to rename our food products "freedom fries."

By the way, Mr. Gray, "some" of us think you're a big dick.

Cindy Sheehan Gets SWOTted

Can We Question Cindy's Patriotism Now?

The usually reliable Taranto had a spot-on piece yesterday about aggrieved mother and anti-war zealot Cindy Sheehan.  He catalogs several of the myriad calumnies and slurs Sheehan has made about the Bush Administration and, even more damning, her country.  (To wit: "This country is not worth dying for.")

So it would appear that Sheehan's earlier-reported intemperate comments were not isolated, nor were they the type of one-off statement made by someone in mourning.  If Cindy Sheehan is to be made a hero of the left for exercising her First Amendment rights, then surely it is fair game to hold her accountable for the manner in which she chooses to exercise them.

But to me, this is equally an issue of outright media bias among the heat-dazed White House press corps in Texas, desperate to stitch a story together out of an August vapor.  Money quote from Taranto:

The journalists will soon move on, and her political allies may do so as well. For them she is a mere instrument. The White House press corps will discard her as soon as they return to Washington where there's real news going on. Serious opponents of the war in Iraq will cast her aside if her foul statements make her an embarrassment. When that happens, we can only hope that someone still cares about Cindy Sheehan -- not as a story or a symbol, but as a human being.

What Liberal Media Bias? Part I

Politically motivated suicides seem to be all the rage these days.  Just days after a disgraced Miami politician walked into the offices of the Miami Herald and shot himself to death, America's crazy aunt in the attic (thanks, Taranto) has threatened to kill herself if Dick Cheney runs for President.  [HT: Limeshubert]

“The day I say Dick Cheney is going to run for president, I’ll kill myself,” she told The Hill. “All we need is one more liar.”

Thomas added, “I think he’d like to run, but it would be a sad day for the country if he does.”

The Malcontent once had the opportunity to push Helen down and break her porotic hip, right in front of the National Press Club, but resisted.  Sounds like Helen might be amenable to doing our dirty work for us.