Kurtz: Partisan adulation in the media

At least they’re being honest about it.  MS-NBC has been the All-Obama Network for over a year, with Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews vying for Top Media Sycophant honors.  Besides, Bill Press has never given any pretense at being objective; he’s an opinion journalist, a pundit.  The problem isn’t the Bill Presses of the world — it’s the supposedly objective media, who profess detachment on air and in print, but on Facebook issue updates like this:

• “voted for change”/”change is coming”/”yes we did”/”is thrilled.”
• “is hoping the American people elect to leave behind the dark ages and step back into the hopeful light. It’s been a long time.”
• “helped turn her state blue.”
• “I live in the United States of America again.”
• “is getting out the vote for Barack Obama.”

Kurtz finishes with this warning:

After broadcasting half-frozen from the Newseum roof, watching endless television and attending all these media parties (I know, tough job, somebody has to do it), I can report that there really is an electric feeling in the city, unlike any I’ve seen before, going back to Jimmy Carter. But on Wednesday, we’ll still be in a financial mess and mired in two wars. Nobody expects Obama to solve these problems overnight. The media will need to aggressively chronicle what he’s accomplishing and where he’s falling short.

But after the year-long mediagasm, they have little credibility left.  Who’s going to trust them to report honestly and not cheerlead for The One?  The hagiographic journalists who report on his accomplishments will sound like propagandists for the new administration, not reporters.  And it says something deeper about media bias that Kurtz detects this “electric feeling” after attending so many media parties.

President Bush delivered his farewell address this evening. He leaves a mixed legacy. I give him credit where it is due and blame where it is due. But one thing is unadulterated: The pure contempt of the man from the MSM.

Here’s how the Associated Press headlined its dispatch about the speech:

Bush address includes laundry list of back patting

And there you have it: One final, BDS-tinged kiss-off masquerading as news.

Yes, I think I hear cheering from the AP newsroom, too.

Schools close when fuel turns to goo

The Russians discovered the problem with diesel fuel during World War II.  In cold weather,  the fuel in the tanks solidified, making them both useless and defenseless.  The Americans stuck with gasoline, which had bigger safety problems but proved reliable for combat.

Apparently, biodiesel makes the problem worse.  The school district tried getting a waiver from the state to allow their buses to use regular diesel fuel, to no avail.  Instead, buses stalled throughout the district and across the state.  Children had to be treated for hypothermia by school nurses after either waiting for buses that arrived far too late in -20F weather or on buses that stalled and whose heaters don’t function without running engines.

This is an absurd requirement for school buses in a state that sees these kinds of low temperatures every year.  If the fuel cannot be used in -20F weather, then we should be using fuel that works when it gets that cold.  Having school children stand or sit in that kind of weather for any extended period of time is dangerous.  To think that using a politically-correct form of fuel is more important than their safety or education demonstrates an obtuseness that simply boggles the mind.

Defacing the flag in honor of the inauguration of Barack Obama?

Well, don’t you dare question their patriotism.

Baltimore Sun photo

Title 4, Chapter 1, Section 3 of US Code

US Flag Code: “The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.”

Over the last three months, Mr. Obama has quietly consulted Mr. McCain about many of the new administration’s potential nominees to top national security jobs and about other issues — in one case relaying back a contender’s answers to questions Mr. McCain had suggested.

The House speaker suggests to "FOX News Sunday" that the law might compel Democrats to press forth on some prosecutions of Bush administration officials, saying they may not "have a right to ignore" them.

Browner: Redder Than Obama Knows - Incoming White House energy-environment czar Carol Browner was recently discovered to be a commissioner in Socialist International. While that revelation has been ignored by the mainstream media and blithely dismissed by her supporters, you may soon be paying the cost of Browner’s political beliefs in your electricity bill. (Steven Millioy, FoxNews.com)

Obama’s anti-oil team - The president-elect is poised to hand environmental policy to people who want to punish petroleum

The environmental lobby is positively rapturous over Barack Obama’s new “Green Dream Team,” appointed to stomp out our carbon footprint. In sharp contrast to the president-elect’s relatively moderate — if not downright stale — picks for other cabinet posts, the green teamers are widely regarded as unwavering in their devotion to more stringent regulations and steeper taxes. To the extent they accomplish their goals, Canada will suffer as America’s foremost petroleum supplier and leading trading partner. (Diane Katz, Financial Post)

Inclusive Science - Because their specialized knowledge confers authority, climate scientists should make every effort to be accurate and complete when communicating to the public about the politically divisive issue of climate change. Unfortunately, there are several points where Alexander Bedritsky's thought-provoking article "Meteorology and the War on Climate Change" (Summer 2008) fails to do this.

Bedritsky states that "human activities are altering the climate at an increasingly alarming rate." However, according to data from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the rate of planetary warming that was established in the mid-1970s has been remarkably constant, varying only slightly from 0.17°C per decade. (Patrick J. Michaels, Harvard International Review Fall 2008)

Hillary adopts W's climate policy? 'India need to be part of climate change agreement' - WASHINGTON: The US Secretary of State-designate, Hillary Clinton, has said countries including India must be made part of any agreement on climate change and announced that the Obama Administration would appoint a Climate Change Envoy for the purpose.

"As we move toward Copenhagen and attempt to craft a climate change agreement, all the major nations must be part of it. You know, China, India, Russia, and others, they have to be part of whatever agreement we put forth," Clinton said during the course of her nomination hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday. (Economic Times)

Actually what she's saying is there will be no climate agreement since India has already categorically refused to limit per capita emissions below that of Western nations (i.e., a many-times GHG emission increase).

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Last Wednesday, the Washington Post's Bob Woodward recounted how Susan J. Crawford, in her first interview since being named convening authority of military commissions by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, said the treatment of Mohammed al-Qahtani, 9/11's 20th hijacker "met the legal definition of torture" and "that's why I did not refer the case" for prosecution.

"The techniques they used were all authorized, but the manner in which they applied them was overly aggressive and too persistent," Crawford said.

There "was not any one particular act; this was just a combination of things that had a medical impact on him, that hurt his health. It was abusive and uncalled for. And coercive. Clearly coercive. It was that medical impact that pushed me over the edge" to call it torture, she said.

Crawford, who dismissed war crimes charges against al-Qahtani in May 2008, said in the interview that she would not allow the prosecution to go forward. But, she admits, "He's a very dangerous man. What do you do with him now if you don't charge him and try him? I would be hesitant to say, 'Let him go.' "

Mohammed al-Qahtani, also known as Detainee 063, is a dangerous man.

He had tried to enter the U.S. via Orlando International Airport in August 2001 when he was stopped by suspicious immigration officials. Just yards away, waiting to pick him up, was Mohammed Atta, ringleader of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

According to federal investigators, al-Qahtani was to have been the fifth hijacker on United Airlines Flight 93, the "muscle" that was to have guarded the cockpit door. Had he been there, the passenger rebellion that steered the 757 into a Pennsylvania field might have been unsuccessful. Had Atta collected him in Orlando, flight 93 might have reached its destination and plowed into the U.S. Capitol.

The ACLU took it a step further, claiming in a press release that the charges against another Guantanamo detainee, Abd al-Rahim Hussain Mohammed al-Nashiri, should be dropped because he had also been "tortured" by being waterboarded. Nashiri is a notorious al-Qaida terrorist, responsible for orchestrating the USS Cole bombing, which killed 17 American servicemen, as well as other attacks.

We will never know how many Americans are alive today because we made the likes of al-Qahtani, al-Nashiri and Khalid Sheik Mohammed uncomfortable. But they are and we are, and it is precisely because we have been "aggressive and persistent."

We hope the new administration ignores the sob sisters and strives to keep it that way.

Video: Obama launches the permanent campaign

Obama backpedaling on stem cells?

The irony here is that adult stem cells can deliver the pluripotentiality of hEsc products now, with much more stability.  There is little reason now to fund embryonic stem-cell research, which is one of the reasons why hEsc projects can’t find enough private financing.  Bush didn’t block hEsc research, as some claim, but only federal funding for research into new lines, and since that time, it’s been shown as unnecessary — and hEsc has never actually led to any therapeutic solutions anyway, while adult stem-cell therapies have had considerable success.

Now Obama wants to back away from his pledge to end the executive order, but clearly Politico’s headline, “Obama may not lift stem cell limits,” is either irrationally optimistic or simply ignorant of what follows.  Obama intends on having the policy reversed, but instead of doing it by himself, he wants Congress to initiate the changes.  Can Congress override an executive order?  I don’t believe they can, so at some point Obama will have to vacate it — but he’s not going to impose the actual policy change by executive order.

That makes some sense from a procedural point of view.  Congress should initiate most policy, and the executive should work with and through them to get his agenda passed.  It fits with Obama’s statements from the campaign about his views of the relationship between the White House and Capitol Hill, and his criticisms of Bush’s views on that subject.

That doesn’t make the policy right, however, nor does it amount to a reversal on hEsc funding, unfortunately.  Obama knows he can get Congress to initiate federal funding for research built on the destruction of human embryos.  If he can get that kind of political cover, why not use it to the fullest?

• Some time after he gains unfettered authority to spend $350 billion in bailout money, but before he spends all of his $825 billion economic stimulus money, Obama plans to hold a “[9] fiscal responsibility summit.”
• A majority of those surveyed believe Obama will be able to achieve every one of his 10 major campaign promises and some supporters say he’s even “[10] making strangers on the street friendlier.“
• The New York Times reports that the latest use of financial bailout money “[11] Hints at Nationalization.”
• The U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review declassified an August 2008 opinion holding that [12] President Bush’s terrorist surveillance program is constitutional.
• In his farewell address last night President Bush said: “[13] As the years passed, most Americans were able to return to life much as it had been before 9/11. But I never did.“

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URL to article: http://blog.heritage.org/2009/01/16/morning-bell-the-borrowing-bailout-parade-must-end/