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On Sunday’s CBS 60 Minutes, commentator Andy Rooney read from some viewer letters: "It's always fun to read the letters people send, I get a lot of them, although, to be honest, if I took all the letters seriously I wouldn't ever say anything again. I get quite a few bad letters and, of course, I pay least attention to those. I don't want you to see me cry." Some of those "bad letters" came from viewers who criticized Rooney’s and the media’s pro-Obama bias: "Thomas Overley writes from Oceanside, California. He's mad because he thinks I like President Obama....

“In this world ye shall have tribulations, but be of good cheer.” John 16:33 “Receive every man with good cheer.” From Judaism’s Ethics of the Fathers The Judeo-Christian tradition teaches us to be of good cheer. But Barney Frank seems to have raised the sour puss to an art form. It struck me today while watching his appearance on Fox News Sunday, alongside Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) and economist Mark Zandi of Moody’s. In the normal course of an interview, you’d expect people to flash a smile at least twice: when they’re introduced and when their host bids them goodbye....

Tom Brokaw Cheers Obama Inauguration Like 'Velvet Revolution' By Geoffrey Dickens January 20, 2009 - 17:27 ET Reflecting on the mood of the crowd at Barack Obama's Inauguration, NBC's Tom Brokaw likened it to when he was present for the fall of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. During NBC's live coverage of Obama's swearing-in on Tuesday, Brokaw declared, "It reminds me of the Velvet Revolution," and while Brokaw noted "a communist regime," was not being overthrown he pointed out, "an unpopular president is leaving and people have been waiting for this moment." [audio available here] The following Brokaw blurb was...

Sitting in a Washington bar with the Morning Joe crew on MSNBC Tuesday morning, former NBC anchor grew emotional remembering the 1960s. "I get very emotional. It has been hard for me to walk through the streets. And I think that the day is going to be very emotional." Brokaw even grew bold enough to tell the "bigots and rednecks" he met in the Sixties "when we were evolving as a country" to suffer through the Obama inauguration: "Take this. You know?" The Morning Joe crew was discussing how Barack Obama was so different than past administrations in their lack...

Like much of the mainstream media, CNN anchor Jack Cafferty has set aside any pretense of objectivity in this year's presidential election. On today's Situation Room he used a "Cafferty File" segment, in which a question is posed to viewers for their response, to attack GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. He prefaced the question: But McCain chose Sarah Palin, who immediately became a national joke to everybody, except the conservative base of the Republican Party. Even some Republicans are convinced the Palin selection showed a total lack of judgment on McCain's part. Oh, what about Florida Governor Charlie Crist?...

Regular CNN commentator Jack Cafferty may be "on the mend" after a three-week break for a "unanticipated encounter with a surgeon’s scalpel," as he put it, but he certainly hasn’t recovered from his Palin Derangement Syndrome. He launched a new attack on the Alaska governor on Wednesday’s Situation Room. This time, Cafferty returned to the issue of Trooper/Taser-gate and brought up two additional issues that came up this week -- how the RNC spent $150,000 on Palin for new clothing, make-up, and hair care for Palin, and how she used taxpayer’s money to pay for her children to travel with...

After the votes were taken, The Washington Post expressed shock that some 83 percent of retiring Republicans voted for the bailout while no GOP freshmen did so. To the Post this was evidence not that elected representatives sometimes actually listen to their constituents, but that the Republican freshmen are too ideologically oriented to deal with reality. It never even occurred to the Post writer that perhaps the retiring members have as a group been in Washington so long that even had they been facing reelection the voters mattered less to them than the demands of the Washington establishment. Establishment praise...

CNN commentator Jack Cafferty, true to his form over the past several weeks, launched another attack on Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin on Tuesday’s The Situation Room. During his regular "Cafferty File" segment during the 4 pm Eastern hour of the CNN program,he played a clip from the latest interview the Alaska governor did with CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric, in which she partially answered her critics’ questioning of her readiness to be vice president by repeating the list of offices that she has held over the years. After she concluded with her past position of Alaska oil and...

To show the empty "logic" that Jack Cafferty of CNN employs in his political commentary all one need do is check out his September 16 Political Ticker blog post on why the race for the White House is so tight in the polls. Reason: the country is filled with racists. Yes, folks, if you are voting against Obama (and no matter who or what you are actually supporting and why) it must be because you are a racist. It isn't because you stand against what Obama stands for, it has to be because you are a racist. This delusional, preconceived...

According to CNN’s Jack Cafferty, the explanation for the close poll numbers between Senators McCain and Obama - the only reason – is race. It has to be, according to him. What else makes sense? Read the story here. The same way Democrats can never simply disagree with a Republican without labeling him or her as bad, or underhanded, or corrupt, or acting with an ulterior motive, so goes their interpretation of the poll numbers. Racism, for example, must be the reason the polls are as tight as they are. Add to that the fact that Republicans are masters in...

To show the empty "logic" that Jack Cafferty of CNN employs in his political commentary all one need do is check out his September 16 Political Ticker blog post on why the race for the White House is so tight in the polls. Reason: the country is filled with racists.

CNN: Harry Reid releases statement, attacking Palin's speech as "shrill".. The talking heads are somewhat aghast, noting the sexist implications of the term "shrill"..

Reviewing speeches at the Dem convention, Keith Olbermann was like a mother describing her child's performance in a middle-school musical. "A grand slam across the street," enthused Olbermann over Hillary's effort, only to outdo himself by calling Obama's speech's "spellbinding" and "extraordinary." But when it came to reviewing Fred Thompson's speech at tonight's Dem convention, Olbermann suddenly morphed into Frank Rich with a migraine back in his theater critic days. Sniffed Olbermann: "We have heard two speeches in the last forty minutes or so, Chris, first from President Bush and now from former Senator Fred Thompson. I think it's fair...

This week the Republicans gather for their convention. For four days, they will labor under the illusion their party is still relevant. It's not. It is entirely fitting that the headliner for this masquerade is a feeble looking 72-year-old white guy who doesn't know how many homes he owns. It's more than symbolic that when a million Americans are losing their homes to foreclosure, the Republican candidate for president has lost track of his holdings. McCain surrounds himself with people like former Republican Sen. Phil Gramm who called America a "nation of whiners" and said we are only suffering a...

At a breezy 38 minutes, HBO's "Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House" (9 p.m., Monday) gives the veteran White House reporter all the attention she merits.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The nation's longest-serving U.S. senator tells candidates John McCain and Barack Obama that to be the great president America needs they need to be what George W. Bush was not. Be humble, honest and contemplative, Sen. Robert C. Byrd writes in his latest book, "Letter to a New President: Commonsense Lessons for Our Next Leader." Seek dissenting opinions. Reject the politics of fear. Admit and learn from your mistakes, the 90-year-old West Virginia Democrat advises. Byrd has long been a critic of the president, and his latest book offers a scathing assessment of Bush: a "son of...

Deciding to showcase the allegations in Ron Suskind's new book which “says President Bush committed an impeachable offense” by ordering “the CIA to forge a letter to bolster his case for the war in Iraq,” CNN's Jack Cafferty posed as one of his “Cafferty File” questions on Tuesday: “What does it mean, do you suppose, if the White House did, in fact, order the CIA to forge a letter in order to bolster its case for the war in Iraq?” (Anchor Wolf Blitzer marveled: “We're just hearing now, Jack, that there may be an effort in the Congress to now...

At a screening of a forthcoming HBO documentary honoring liberal journalist Helen Thomas in Washington, she was asked whether most White House reporters are liberal. "Hell, no!" she thundered. I'm dying to find another liberal to open their mouths. Where are they?" Is this Grande Dame of Journalism serious? The answer is yes. Since Ms. Thomas is dying to find vocal liberals in the news media, the least we can do is point her in the right direction. Let's see . . . • ABC's Claire Shipman says the taxpayers, not the politicians, should sacrifice to close the budget deficit:...

Searching high and low for someone to blame for contaminated tomatoes, CNN’s Lou Dobbs tried: imported produce; a “moronic” Food and Drug Administration; and finally, President George W. Bush. In the June 16 edition of “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” Dobbs slammed the FDA and the president for not controlling the salmonella outbreak. After claiming that the FDA is “led by complete moronic, unengaged incompetents” and calling them “idiots,” Dobbs proceeded to link the spread of salmonella to Bush. “As for this administration, were a responsible president at the helm of this country, I would wonder why he is not taking action,...

US needs 100 years to recover from Bush From correspondents in Madrid June 15, 2008 02:15am Article from: Agence France-Presse IT will take the the United States a century to recover from the damage wreaked by President George W Bush, US writer Gore Vidal said in an interview published today. "The president behaved like a virtual criminal but we didn't have the courage to sack him for fear of violating the American constitution,'' Mr Vidal told the El Mundo newspaper.