Boring, Boring: Same old, same old media bias

The Washington Post tells us that McCain has a "Curious Mind". Not exactly complimentary. Dean Barnett comments below:

A couple of days ago, we glanced at a Jonathan Chait column that whined about the way Democratic general election candidates are always labeled flip-floppers. Well, today it's the Republicans' chance to whine. Every presidential election since 1976, the press has determined that the Republican candidate is less intelligent than his big-brained Democratic opponent. The Republicans who got away with such a simple comparison were the lucky ones. Others like both Bushes and Ronald Reagan were lampooned as dunderheads.

The narrative never really fit. The first blog post I ever wrote that anyone other than Mickey Kaus noticed posited that John Kerry wasn't so bright. I based this conclusion on his failure to get into Harvard Law School in spite of his undergrad degree from Yale and his impressive pedigree as a war hero cum war protestor. I argued that only his grades at Yale could account for his strange failure to attend Harvard Law, and concluded that his grades had to be so dreadful they could accurately be labeled "sub-Bushian." You should have seen the hate mail I received.

The media preferred the narrative regarding Kerry's intellect that Howell Raines peddled. Raines, then the recently deposed editor of the New York Times, said in a 2004 op-ed piece, "Does anyone in America doubt that Kerry has a higher IQ than Bush? I'm sure the candidates' SATs and college transcripts would put Kerry far ahead." When Kerry released his transcripts in 2005 long after his national ambitions had been extirpated, his grades turned out to indeed be sub-Bushian. Naturally, every single lefty who wrote me a piece of hate mail regarding my blog post wrote a subsequent letter to apologize and Howell Raines publicly acknowledged his error and conceded that respectable journalists shouldn't substitute biased speculation for actual knowledge. At least that's how I like to picture our noble friends on the left.

Anyway, today the Washington Post puts John McCain's brain under its microscope. Marc Ambinder a short while ago referred to Barack Obama's "talented, incredible gift of a mind." Obama's no dummy, but any evidence of Obama being an original or particularly insightful thinker is hard to find. Regardless, Ambinder certainly won't be drawing the same conclusion after reading this glib Post expos‚ on McCain's intellect. The "curious mind" sobriquet in the story's title doesn't sound nearly as impressive as a "talented, incredible gift of a mind." And thus, the Post continues an ignoble tradition - the facile and knee-jerk conclusion that the Democratic candidate is always the smarter one.

************************

Rock the House: What should Republicans do now?



"Hit hard, hit fast, hit often." That was the advice Marine hero Chesty Puller gave his men. That's the advice congressional Republicans should follow.

On Friday, GOP members led a revolt on the floor that rocked the House, energized the conservative base, humiliated the feckless Democrat majority, and brought visiting tourists to their feet cheering in the gallery. (Oh, and not coincidentally on Friday afternoon, Barack Obama followed John McCain and flip-flopped on offshore drilling. If you lead, conservatives, the flip-floppers will follow.)

While Do-Nothing Nancy Pelosi jetted off on her pathetically-performing "Know Your Power" book tour and Democrats adjourned for a five-week recess, scores of Republican congressional representatives stayed on Capitol Hill-or rushed back in shorts with suitcases still in hand - to press for votes on energy independence and drilling. Though Pelosi turned the lights out on the House floor, Republicans got their message out-via Twitter, Qik, the blogosphere, talk radio, and grumbly MSM types who derided the upstart effort as "bizarre." Leave it to Beltway snob journalists to call House Republicans who refuse to take vacations while the public's business goes unfinished "bizarre." One of my favorite moments from Friday's revolt:

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) just pretended to be a Democrat. He stood on the other side of the chamber and listed all of the GOP bills that the Dems killed. He then said, "I am a Democrat, and here is my energy plan" and he held up a picture of an old Isetta with a sail attached to it. He paraded around the House floor with the sign while the crowd cheered.

Much more here

************************

ELSEWHERE

An anniversary coming up: On August 6, 1945 the USA first dropped an atom bomb on Japan. I don't think the resultant slaughter is anything to celebrate but nor it it an occasion to condemn the USA. A blogger in Eugene, Oregon is fed up with the Leftist pretences at mourning on the anniversary and wants to mount a counter-demonstration.

Dems On Defense And In Denial: "With upwards of 70% of Americans convinced increased domestic oil production may at least help bring down gasoline prices, the Congress became a calamity today as ham-fisted Democrats, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, squashed debate to cut and run on five-week paid vacations at home and even abroad in some cases - with all travel and gasoline expenses footed by American taxpayers, many of whom might just be staying home themselves this summer as a result of rising fuel prices. With a party beholden to extreme environmentalist, who have stifled nuclear generation and increases in domestic oil production and refining for decades, the Democrats are in denial if they think the Republicans will not pull out all the stops to place the current gasoline situation squarely in their laps where it belongs. Meanwhile over in the Senate, Democrats refused to support emergency measures for relief even if gasoline rose to the ridiculous price of $10 a gallon. House Speaker Pelosi has as much as admitted that they fear debate as it will allow Republicans to place blame for the energy situation on Democrats"

Wal-Mart mobilises against unions and Democrats: "WAL-MART Stores is mobilising its store managers and department supervisors across the US to warn that if Democrats win power in November, they are likely to change federal law to make it easier for workers to unionise companies -- including Wal-Mart. In recent weeks, thousands of Wal-Mart store managers and department heads have been summoned to mandatory meetings at which the retailer has stressed the downside for workers should stores be unionised. According to about a dozen Wal-Mart employees who attended such meetings in seven states, Wal-Mart executives claim that employees at unionised stores would have to pay hefty union dues while getting nothing in return, and might have to go on strike without compensation. Also, unionisation could mean fewer jobs as labour costs rise... Wal-Mart's worries centre on a piece of legislation known as the Employee Free Choice Act, which companies say would enable unions to quickly add millions of new members. "We believe EFCA is a bad bill and we have been on record as opposing it for some time," Mr Tovar said. The bill was crafted by labour as a response to more aggressive opposition by companies to union organising activity. The AFL-CIO and individual unions such as the United Food and Commercial Workers have promised to make passage of the new labour law their No1 mission after the November election."

180 Palestinians flee to Israel: "The majority of more than 180 Fatah supporters who fled into Israel from the Gaza Strip were in Israeli custody yesterday after a dramatic escape from a Hamas crackdown that left nine people dead in fierce fighting in Gaza. Wary Israeli troops allowed the Gazans to cross the heavily guarded border on Saturday, stripping them first to make sure none was wearing explosives. Mortar shells hit near the crossing as the Palestinians fled their homes for the territory of their long-time enemy. The Israeli soldiers prepared stretchers, and ambulances rushed the badly wounded to nearby hospitals. The incident punctuated one of the new realities of the conflict: Palestinian infighting has become so bitter that some fear Israel less than they do each other. The violence began on Saturday when Hamas forces launched a raid on a crowded Gaza City neighbourhood dominated by the Hilles clan, linked to Fatah. The sides battled each other with mortars and machine guns."

Great: Schwarzenegger slashes 20,000 government jobs: "Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed an order cutting 20,000 government jobs and slashing the pay of 200,000 other employees to save California from "a full-blown cash crisis". The state's Republican governor said the action was necessary given California's failure to enact a budget for the current fiscal year, which began on July 1. The state faces a massive $15.2 billion deficit and Democratic and Republican lawmakers have so far been unable to agree on a spending plan. Officials say if a budget is not approved within the next few weeks, the state could be forced to turn to Wall Street for expensive loans in order to pay its bills. Mr Schwarzenegger denied his move was political and aimed at forcing legislators to break the stalemate, insisting it was vital to free up funds given the "terrible situation". Slashing seasonal and part-time jobs and cutting state wages could save up to $1 billion a month, according to estimates."

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and Paralipomena

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

****************************

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

****************************