Posted by: Ace at 04:30 PM | Comments (253)
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This contradicts most other polls, but I think it means something. Maybe Rasmussen is +2 points or so too friendly to Republicans, but even so, rumors of the demise of Romney/Ryan have been greatly exaggerated.

Posted by: Ace at 11:19 AM | Comments (790)
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Still getting used to that Dallas upset in the Meadowlands, and by "getting used to" I mean "oh f'n hellsYEAH".

Here's your footballs yammerin jabba jabba thread. Still workin with the coaching staff on pick results, one of our coaches has been defending the nation this week and a tad busy. We'll figure it all out.

God bless America.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 08:33 AM | Comments (214)
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"What are you laughing at? We're serious journalists."

Good morning morons and moronettes and welcome to the completely fair, unbiased and totally down-the-middle objective Sunday Morning Book Thread.

Media Bias? What Media Bias?

We all know that the mainstream media is so completely in the tank for Obama that they need snorkels and scuba gear. Thay want him to win, they will help him win, and I can't think of anything they wouldn't do to help him win. And boy, was it on display this week. Here is how Zombie from PJMedia described it:

When the world erupted on September 11 and the Obama administration groveled at the feet of our barbarian attackers, the major news outlets — knowing that this was a disastrous turn of events for the Obama campaign which could not be spun in his favor — decided the only solution was to brazenly change the subject to a fabricated peripheral side issue: that Romney had committed some kind of “gaffe” by criticizing the government’s weak-kneed response.

Here is a particularly jaw-dropping example of this I pulled from he the sidebar.

Of course, there have been many books written about media bias.

Media Mischief and Misdeeds: Reed Irvine is the original "old hand" at observing liberal bias. He founded the first conservative media watchdog group, Accuracy In Media (AIM), in 1969. This book was published in 1984, so it's probably way out of date and probably doesn't anticipate how despicable the current MSM has become.

Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News must be really irritating to liberals since Goldberg used to be one himself, and adding insult to injury, he once worked in the belly of the beast, CBS News. The book starts out by Goldberg analyzing a "fact check" by CBS News on a statement made by a conservative politician, and he exposes it as nothing more than just another biased, liberal opinion. And it gets better from there. Goldberg has gone on to write other books in the same vein, notably

A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (And Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media. This is another one which is probably outdated, since it was published in 2009, and the Obama knob-slobbering it describes has only gotten worse.

On a more sober note, Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind is an atteant to use rigorous academic research methods and precise, quantitative techniques to measure the extent of media bias. Here's a spoiler of the book's conclusions:

(i) all mainstream media outlets have a liberal bias; and (ii) while some supposedly conservative outlets—such the Washington Times or Fox News’ Special Report—do lean right, their conservative bias is less than the liberal bias of most mainstream outlets.

Of course there are are books written by those who believe that the media unfairly favors the conservative perspective (this book and this book, for example). The moonbats are fond of using the phrase "corporate-owned media", as if "big corporations" are automatically conservative. Also, Rush Limbaugh. And that's it. That's pretty much the extent of the liberal argument that the MSM favors the right.
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Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:06 AM | Comments (165)
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A couple of good pieces for your reading enjoyment this a.m.:

* Roger Simon (the good one) demands to be arrested.

* Glenn Reynolds agrees that Eva Longoria should pay more taxes.

They're not really related except that they both touch on the extreme cognitive dissonance it takes to be a liberal or progressive or whatever they're calling themselves these days.

Posted by: andy at 03:39 AM | Comments (424)
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You wouldn't know it by the amount of media coverage it has gotten compared to previous election years, but This Week In History, Gas Prices Have NEVER Been Higher. Must be because a Democrat is the incumbent.

Much has been said this week that it's like 1979 All Over Again. Sure feels like it. Gas prices are high, inflation is rising, embassies are being stormed, Americans are getting killed, foreign policy a shambles, economy in ruin, etc. I hope that 1979 Fashion Isn't Coming Back Too.
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Posted by: CDR M at 05:50 PM | Comments (890)
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This is not America.

The Muslim Brotherhood President of Egypt demanded that those responsible for blasphemy be prosecuted, and look what's happened:

Skip to 0:35. more...

Posted by: Ace at 02:57 PM | Comments (753)
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I'd steal it, but that would be, well, stealing.

It's a corker.

Remember, it's all about a video, and using the power of government and the media to deprive one (for now!) man of his American rights. There are no deeper issues to be hashed out here.

Posted by: Ace at 12:31 PM | Comments (391)
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Just redefine the problem as being something small and trivial and decidedly not the problem, but something you are capable of "solving."

The problem we're seeing in the Middle East is manifold. Not all of this is Obama's fault, and further, many of the problems are not even capable of being "solved," as most people would define solved.

The real problem is that there is a core of extremist Islam which wishes to impose its values on the West -- and the whole world -- and will continue doing so until they are either killed or discredited.

That's a tough problem to solve. It's certainly not going to be solved by preemptive surrender to the Islamists.

So what does Obama do?

He, and his media allies, redefine the problem. The problem is not, in their telling, that a vicious, murderous strand of Islam is in great need of serious pushback, discrediting, and ultimately reform. That's difficult, that would involve unpleasant things like championing the ideals of the Enlightenment (which, it now turns out, are racist), and that certainly could not be accomplished on the 50 day schedule Obama needs it accomplished on.

So he redefines the "problem" to be something trivial. Something he could actually manage.

He redefines the problem as the video.

Now, "success" will judged if he can use threats to the freedom and physical security of the flimmaker to get him to pull the film, or denounce it.

If he can -- if his media allies can continue drawing a big map showing MURDER TARGET IS HERE, and his agents in the federal "law enforcement" community can threaten him with prison (another place he'd likely be killed, incidentally) -- they can claim "victory."

Then the Islamists will say they are appeased -- for the moment! -- and, in a transaction which benefits both Obama and the Islamists, order their minions to stop protesting. Oh, they'll be doing the same thing over Charles Krauthammer in a year (which is why this is such a dangerous precedent), but Obama doesn't care what happens in a year, and he doesn't really care about Charles Krauthammer either.

What is important to him is chalking up a "victory." Not a victory for American values or interests or the Constitution. But some kind of deliverable to show he "did something." He sicced the feds on a guy making a movie, that guy got scared for his life, and took down the movie. And the Islamists stopped burning things (for the moment).

That's a "win." Or it will be a "win" as the media tells the tale. Overlooking the fact that this "win" consists of Obama, via unilateral executive action, imposing anti-Islamic blasphemy laws in the US.

And that's how it's done. If you can't solve the actual problem, claim the problem is some other "problem," something easily accomplished. Even at the expense of a US citizens' right to free speech (and, um, life and liberty). Even if the "solution" is worse than the problem you set out to solve.

Just solve that narrowly-defined "problem," the easy thing, and claim victory. And then sit back and wait for the hoseannas from the "Watchdogs in the Media," the "Fourth Estate" of government, the class which makes its livelihood due to the First Amendment.

More: Treacher has more on the State Department Stonewall.

Oh: To really drive it home that This Is Not America, watch the video at the end of Nolte's piece.

Here, a minion for Obama gleefully says that a man who actually has not committed a crime -- except the non-crime of blasphemy -- is "lawyering up."

Posted by: Ace at 11:15 AM | Comments (265)
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Three days' warning.

Plus the stonewall.

And Obama's Palace Guard sees nothing of any news interest here.

Posted by: Ace at 10:50 AM | Comments (116)
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