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WASHINGTON – For Republicans, an election win of any size Tuesday would be a blessing. But victories in Virginia, New Jersey or elsewhere won't erase enormous obstacles the party faces heading into a 2010 midterm election year when control of Congress and statehouses from coast to coast will be up for grabs.

Posters's Note: This is from the ACTUAL AP newsrelase!! ****************************************************** OK, can you do some more probing? New York will want to know frank's out today. i checked already, and so did zurich. they say the question is irrelevant. he answered me with the quote i used, about we knew when he was coming this time. he's been here many times in the past, we think. thx brad. aptn is aware, but unfortunately won't make it in time, but is hoping to catch tail end. i'm pushing out another writethru with some more background details before press conference. no surprise,...

— OK, can you do some more probing? New York will want to know frank's out today. i checked already, and so did zurich. they say the question is irrelevant. he answered me with the quote i used, about we knew when he was coming this time. he's been here many times in the past, we think. thx brad. aptn is aware, but unfortunately won't make it in time, but is hoping to catch tail end. i'm pushing out another writethru with some more background details before press conference. no surprise, new york is really hot on this. they particularly...

At the town hall health care meetings this summer far left LaRouche activists showed up with Obama-Hitler signs. This same extremist group held Obama-Hitler signs at several events. But, now the AP and Obama are making it sound like these protesters were conservatives. The AP reported: At the G-20 economic summit that wrapped up Friday in Pennsylvania, Obama told a story about an unnamed foreign leader who privately told the president he didn't understand the at-times contentious debate over changing the health care system. "He says, 'We don't understand it. You're trying to make sure everybody has health care and...

NEW YORK (AP) ― The Associated Press is distributing a photo of a Marine fatally wounded in battle, choosing after a period of reflection to make public an image that conveys the grimness of war and the sacrifice of young men and women fighting it. Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Bernard, 21, of New Portland, Maine, was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in a Taliban ambush Aug. 14 in Helmand province of southern Afghanistan. The image shows fellow Marines helping Bernard after he suffered severe leg injuries. He was evacuated to a field hospital where he died on the operating table.

While an Associated Press photographer was embedded with Marines in Helmand last month, a Marine convoy was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, or RPG. It struck Lance Corporal Joshua M. Bernard severing his legs. He was treated on the scene, but later died at a combat field hospital. The AP took still photos and video of the attack, and of Bernard, as he lay dying. Several weeks later, while working on a feature story about the war in Afghanistan, the AP reporter met with Bernard's family and told his father that they had photos and video of their son before...

In the Politico today, Secretary Gates admonishes the AP for publishing a photo of Lance Corporal Joshua Bernard dying in Afghanistan: Defense Secretary Robert Gates is objecting “in the strongest terms” to an Associated Press decision to transmit a photograph showing a mortally wounded 21-year-old Marine in his final moments of life, calling the decision “appalling” and a breach of “common decency.” The AP reported that the Marine’s father had asked – in an interview and in a follow-up phone call — that the image, taken by an embedded photographer, not be published. AP reported in a story that it...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is objecting “in the strongest terms” to an Associated Press decision to transmit a photograph showing a mortally wounded 21-year-old Marine in his final moments of life, calling the decision “appalling” and a breach of “common decency.” The AP reported that the Marine’s father had asked – in an interview and in a follow-up phone call — that the image, taken by an embedded photographer, not be published. Gates: “I cannot imagine the pain and suffering Lance Corporal Bernard’s death has caused his family. Why your organization would purposefully defy the family’s wishes knowing full well...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is objecting “in the strongest terms” to an Associated Press decision to transmit a photograph showing a mortally wounded 21-year-old Marine in his final moments of life, calling the decision “appalling” and a breach of “common decency.” The AP reported that the Marine’s father had asked – in an interview and in a follow-up phone call — that the image, taken by an embedded photographer, not be published.rest of story at link...

Apparently individuals who woke up this morning to read a quarter-page story published in newspapers throughout the country with the headlines "Competition lacking among private health insurers". The AP story written by Ricard Alonso-Zaldivar is a prime example of a so-called unbiased major media organization that has once again failed to actually check the factual accuracy of a story centered upon the health care debate. The story, based upon a report published by the left-wing Urban Institute Public Policy Center cites that health care reform would lower individual health care costs by more than $200 billion by offering a public...

JERUSALEM – The Associated Press is delivering to its subscribing 1,500 American newspapers content, it has emerged, penned by groups with financing from philanthropist George Soros and another far-leftist billionaire who not only campaigned for President Obama but also topped donor lists to groups like ACORN and MoveOn.org. The AP announced last month it will allow its subscribers to publish free of charge work by four nonprofit groups, the Center for Public Integrity, the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, the Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica. Controversial Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., a friend of President Obama who...

AP Reverses Itself, Admits Health Care Bills Include Abortion Funding Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Two days after LifeNews.com exposed an Associated Press article that mislead its readers on the abortion funding contained in the government-run health care plans, AP has backtracked. The news service is now reporting that the bills Congress is considering will result in taxpayer-funded abortions. http://www.LifeNews.com/nat5321.html

NEWARK, N.J. – An investigation into the sale of black-market kidneys and fake Gucci handbags evolved into a sweeping probe of political corruption in New Jersey, ensnaring more than 40 people Thursday, including three mayors, two state lawmakers and several rabbis. Even for a state with a rich history of graft, the scale of wrongdoing alleged was breathtaking. An FBI official called corruption "a cancer that is destroying the core values of this state." Federal prosecutors said the investigation initially focused on a money laundering network that operated between Brooklyn, N.Y.; Deal, N.J.; and Israel. The network is alleged to...

This morning, some 30 people were arrested in New Jersey, the fruit of a two-year federal investigation into a international money laundering scandal. Among those arrested were Democratic Mayors Peter Cammarano III (Hoboken) and Dennis Elwell (Secaucus), as well as Democratic deputy mayor of Jersey City Leona Beldini and Republican state Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt. But if you only got your news of this mass arrest from the Associated Press, you would not learn the party affiliation of these politicians. To their credit, other news outlets readily accessible to New Jerseyans such as the New York Times and the Wall...

Two major wire services- AP and Reuters- cherry picked excerpts from Pope Benedict XVI’s latest encyclical (a teaching document of the Catholic Church) on Tuesday to support left-wing economic and political positions, and all but ignored the pontiff’s traditional stances on the family, bioethics, and the environment. The AP also went so far to bring up “the state of the Vatican’s own [financial] books.” Both Philip Pullella, who regularly writes about the Pope and the Vatican for Reuters, and the AP’s Nicole Winfield zeroed in on paragraph 67 of the encyclical, which is titled “Caritas in Veritate,” or “Charity in...

The way the Associated Press is fawning over Michelle Obama and her supposed sense of fashion, you would almost think they were talking about Carla Bruni who really does dress quite elegantly and oozes glamor. To add to this absurdity, the AP also went out of its way to paint the Russian First Lady as frumpy. Um, advice to AP personnel; don't expect the Russians to go out of their way to help you in your stories in that country after that gratuitous slam on the wife of their president. First let us watch the AP's Catrina Stewart act dazzled...

Earlier, Brent Baker reported that ABC's Pierre Thomas went off the deep end with a story claiming that America's white population was increasingly prone to a "wave of domestic terror." Now the Associated Press also wades into the same murky waters with a June 11 piece claiming that the "potential for an increase in violence from whites who feel they are slipping from power is high." Naturally, the AP employed the Old Media's favorite source for the claims. It's "some say," and "others believe." Worse than the "some say" line of proof employed, this tale also relies on some experts...

the Associated Press -- the worldwide news service that every formerly mainstream news organization uses -- will distribute stories from four leftist nonprofits in addition to its own liberal reporting: Starting on July 1, the A.P. will deliver work by the Center for Public Integrity, the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University (cranks out many of the FMSM journalists), the Center for Investigative Reporting, and ProPublica to the 1,500 American newspapers that are A.P. members, which will be free to publish the material.

Starting July 1, the Associated Press will begin publishing articles produced by nonprofit organizations, all four of which are left-leaning. I guess they couldn't find any conservative nonprofits. As reported by the New York Times Saturday: Four nonprofit groups devoted to investigative journalism will have their work distributed by The Associated Press, The A.P. will announce on Saturday, greatly expanding their potential audience and helping newspapers fill the gap left by their own shrinking resources. Starting on July 1, the A.P. will deliver work by the Center for Public Integrity, the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, the Center...

There is happy-talk and then there is delusion. The Associated Press has just approached the delusional stage with its recent assessment of what the unemployment numbers mean. Absurdly, the AP seems to imagine that the continued job losses under Obama means that job hunters are experiencing "raising hopes"! It's like sitting on the Titanic pleased that taking on water raises hopes that a nice, relaxing bath is will soon be at hand. The first paragraph of the story claims that since last month saw a few less layoffs, why, that is saying that what we have here is "the...

As has been documented repeatedly, celebrities just don't find much material for humor with Barack Obama. He's just so thoughtful, so articulate, so bright, so. . . Fill in the blank, as long as it's sufficiently worshipful. With former President George W. Bush, it's just the opposite. Show biz types can't get enough of poking fun at him. This is true even at the National Geographic Bee. Yes, the National Geographic Bee. The Associated Press's story "Trebek Makes Bush Joke as Texas Teen Wins Geography Bee" details the latest:

Associated Press photo of Pres. Barack Obama, May 6, 2009. http://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb-staff/2009/05/08/weekend-captionfest

Joe Biden’s not a loose cannon, an undisciplined, motor-mouthed gaffe-machine on wheels. Nope. He’s just “known for speaking freely.” Just ask the Associated Press. From AP’s story of today, After his flu warning, Biden takes the train home [emphasis added]: "One day after saying he wouldn’t travel in tight quarters because of the swine flu scare, Vice President Joe Biden rode a train Friday from Washington to Delaware. "Known for speaking freely, Biden told NBC’s “Today” show on Thursday that he had urged family members to avoid airplanes and subways for fear of contracting the H1N1 flu virus." Well, alright...

The first couple took full advantage of the cool spring night. After a date night out on Saturday evening, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama decided to take a stroll when their motorcade arrived back at the White House. So they began walking on the driveway of the White House South Lawn while holding hands. First they passed the West Wing, then their children's swing set. They kept walking, swinging their hands together. There were no Secret Service agents right behind them - the agents stood off... (read the story for more) As the Obamas walked behind shrubbery...

The first couple took full advantage of the cool spring night. After a date night out on Saturday evening, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama decided to take a stroll when their motorcade arrived back at the White House. So they began walking on the driveway of the White House South Lawn while holding hands. First they passed the West Wing, then their children's swing set. They kept walking, swinging their hands together.

By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer Liz Sidoti, Associated Press Writer – Fri Apr 24, 11:04 am ET WASHINGTON – It didn't take long for Barack Obama — for all his youth and inexperience — to get acclimated to his new role as the calming leader of a country in crisis.

AP Analysis: Good for Obama for Knocking Down Arrogant U.S.A. By Warner Todd Huston Created 2009-04-20 05:07 ...and Once again, the AP trots out Mikhail Gorbachev and sets him up as the ideal world leader. The Associated Press has for years been good for inventing the news out of its own vivid imagination. But now, not only is the AP inventing news it is inventing an entire national self-image, then batting it down all in an effort to prop up the feckless foreign policy of its messiah Barrack Obama. Obama's "The U.S. Sucks" tour isn't over yet and the AP...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Pirates and the United States have a long history. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. When the infant country declared independence it had no navy, so battling Britain at sea was a problem. The time-honored solution: Hire private warriors — known as privateers to some, pirates to others — to do the fighting.

Proving that the left cannot tell the difference between "racism" and "criticism," the AP posted a lengthy March 30 story confusing and conflating the two as it pertains to attacks on President Obama. As far as the AP is concerned it seems the whole country is running around with burning crosses and wearing pointy hoods aiming to cast racial epithets at Obama at every turn. It may as well still be the year 1860 around here. The AP starts its piece by informing the reader that "racial slurs continue" against the president "despite" his "historic achievement." But the main problem...

Who knew that the Associated Press's Jennifer Loven has the ability to see into the future? That must be the case, because yesterday she told us what had happened at Barack Obama's sort-of State of the Union speech -- 5-1/2 hours before Obama uttered a word.

In recent weeks, I have written that the AP has become more balanced and a number of articles could be used to show that trend. At the same time, though, there are common themes which continue—sometimes subtle, sometimes blaring and glaring—to be ridiculously biased. Sometimes they are a few lines or even words in an article; at other times, the pieces read like propaganda tracts. Alas, such is the case of the article I am about to discuss. But I want to introduce it before telling you AP’s title for it. The January 25, 2009, article supposedly deals with how...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tens of thousands of abortion opponents rallied Thursday on the National Mall to mark the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade amid concerns they could face political setbacks under the new president. ---snip--- The rally stretched for about three blocks on the Mall and included many young people.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama's cherished Blackberry slipped through his fingers Friday — but it was only a butterfingers moment. Obama, who has been reluctant to relinquish the device when he becomes president, dropped his Blackberry and its hard plastic case onto an airport tarmac as he emerged from his fortified vehicle. A Secret Service agent hustled to pick it up.

He discusses with Brian Kilmeade.

This unbylined Associated Press story (HT Michelle Malkin) doesn't really require any elaboration, except to note one thing -- It ends the debate over the existence of liberal/left media bias:

Four years ago, the Associated Press and others in the press suggested it was in poor taste for Republicans to spend $40 million on President Bush’s inauguration. AP writer Will Lester calculated the impact that kind of money would have on armoring Humvees in Iraq, helping victims of the tsunami, or paying down the deficit. Lester thought the party should be cancelled: “The questions have come from Bush supporters and opponents: Do we need to spend this money on what seems so extravagant?” Fast forward to 2009. The nation is at war (two wars, in fact), and now also faces...

While, instead of simply reporting the news, the Associated Press spends its days looking for every which way it can find to attack George W. Bush, Governor Sarah Palin and any number of other conservatives or Republicans, it has a corresponding penchant to go easy on The One and his Democrat cohorts. Nothing is a better illustration of the difference between the AP's treatment of the right and left than this one little story headlined "Obama can't shake the bowling jokes." Yes, while the AP is putting snide remarks about Sarah Palin into every story in which she appears, Barack,...

The Associated Press is classy, indeed. They can't even keep sniping at Sarah Palin out of a story announcing the blessed birth of her grandson. Ah, but wait, it gets even more annoying because not only did the AP snipe at Palin in its first birth announcement story, once called on it the AP went back twice to rearrange the piece rewriting history to make it seem as if they never sniped at her in the first place. Initially, the AP attacked Palin in its very first paragraph saying that daughter Bristol's pregnancy was the thing that caused Palin's candidacy...

Five Muslim immigrants face the potential of life in prison after being convicted of scheming to massacre U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix. The five men were found guilty Monday in federal court of conspiring to kill military personnel, but they were acquitted of attempted murder after prosecutors acknowledged the men were probably months away from an attack and did not necessarily have a specific plan. Muslim leaders reacted with frustration Monday after the verdict.

Democrats, including president-elect Barack Obama and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, received more money in campaign contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than any other members of Congress. You couldn't tell that from an Associated Press article published Sunday which completely blamed Republicans for the lack of regulation and oversight of Freddie Mac. In fact, when you add it all up, Pete Yost's "AP IMPACT: How Freddie Mac Halted Regulatory Drive" is more like a blog posting at a Netroots website than something that should come from the nation's leading wire service (h/t NBer Dana Brown): Internal Freddie...

Governor Palin is in demand. Every newshound, every TV talking head, every newsertainer in the country is after her. She is being pursued for TV shows, book deals, movie roles, hounded by photographers and every hanger on in both Hollywood and the newsertainment industry. But the Associated Press wants to be sure you understand one thing: she is a FAILURE! That's right, in discussing Palin's current celebrity, the main concern AP has is to make sure you know she is a big ol' loser. The AP is so intent to remind you she lost that it has to tell you...

Ya gotta hand it to them. The Associated Press knows how to cut out all the extraneous background noise and get right to the important issues of the day. Barack Obama will surely be in the center of the vortex of some of the most important decisions in the world during the next four years and even his preparations for taking office are vitally important as a marker to what he might do in office. There are wars and rumors of wars, disasters and relief efforts and historic decisions will soon be made. But no decision is so important, as...

Governor Palin is in demand. Every newshound, every TV talking head, every newsertainer in the country is after her. She is being pursued for TV shows, book deals, movie roles, hounded by photographers and every hanger on in both Hollywood and the newsertainment industry. But the Associated Press wants to be sure you understand one thing: she is a FAILURE! That's right, in discussing Palin's current celebrity, the main concern AP has is to make sure you know she is a big ol' loser. The AP is so intent to remind you she lost that it has to tell you...

Associated Press President and CEO Tom Curley told some employees today that the AP could lose up to 10% of its staff during 2009, but likely through attrition not layoffs. AP spokesman Paul Colford confirmed that Curley had made such comments during an employee town hall meeting today, adding that "he was met with applause at the end of the meeting." Colford noted that the employee reduction would likely occur through attrition because the news cooperative has been under a hiring freeze for several weeks. He said the organization employs 4,100 people worldwide, including about 3,000 in editorial positions. Colford...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Even in reliably red states where Barack Obama has little chance of winning on Tuesday, unprecedented numbers of registrations and early votes have been tallied, and elections officials are predicting a record turnout in places where neither candidate even bothered to campaign. An aggressive and well-financed get-out-the-vote campaign helped Obama's campaign mobilize unprecedented numbers of African-American and new voters who could help decide the presidential election by swinging states like North Carolina and Virginia to the Democrat. But even in states like Alabama, Utah, Nebraska and Oklahoma, Republican strongholds where John McCain could post double-digit wins, Obama's...

Have you noticed a rash of news stories the past few weeks with the theme that John McCain supporters are depressed because they think he has almost no chance? The real purpose of these stories is to demoralize McCain supporters in a effort to make them them think things are so hopeless for their candidate that they need not bother to wait on lines at the polling stations since the Barack Obama landslide is inevitable. And now the Associated Press is using their own poll to emphasize this theme of hopelessness among McCain supporters as you can see by the...

With days still to go in the White House race, backers of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin are talking her up as a possible contender in 2012, speculation that irritates other Republicans who contend she's a drag on the ticket and that her lightweight image — unfair or not — will be hard to shed. The Alaska governor has done little to quiet the talk. In fact, she fueled the discussion this week when she signaled that she will remain on the national political scene no matter what happens Tuesday. "I'm not doing this for naught," she said in an...

Any young journalist covering a presidential campaign is likely to have read Timothy Crouse's classic book on the 1972 election, "The Boys on the Bus." In the first chapter, the author describes the pecking order of print journalists. At the top of the food chain are the wire-service reporters, particularly the reporters from the Associated Press, the oldest of news organizations -- those hard-bitten, vigilant correspondents who set the agenda for everybody else. "Wire stories are usually bland, dry and overly cautious," Crouse wrote. "There is always an inverse proportion between the number of persons a reporter reaches and the...

WASHINGTON – Joe Biden's performance as Barack Obama's running mate has been pretty predictable — even when unpredictable. The biggest knock against Biden during discussions on whether he would make a good vice presidential nominee was that his mouth tends to get him in trouble. And it has, with Biden recently raising the expectation that Obama would be tested by an international crisis soon after taking office — a comment that Obama said showed Biden's penchant for "rhetorical flourish." Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin have used that comment to suggest that Obama is not prepared to deal with such...

This is one of the headlines on Yahoo. Totally misleading. Looks like McCain is going after Joe (just like the media and Obama campaign). The story is actually about how McCain is on the campaign trail using Joe the Plumber as an example.