In yet another example of lack of any pretense of evenness at ABC News, this is the headline about Bristol Palin’s fiancé and the father of her baby “Palin's Baby Daddy Drops Out of School”. Story here. http://abcnews.go.com/

While this seems unimportant, put it in the context of days of stories questioning McCain on his comments. He has been called racist for using the phrases “That One” or “I’m going to whip Obama’s a$$” (at the debate). Being attacked by Obama supporters for “sowing the seeds of hatred” and compared to segregationist Governor George Wallace for having the audacity to question Obama’s character.

After McCain having his racial tolerance questioned every time he opens his mouth, and ABC gladly spreading the “news”, we have this from the network itself.

Using the term ‘baby’s daddy’ has racial undertones to it, if it’s not used on a white daughter of the Republican candidate for the Vice Presidency that is. I could just see the Hell raised if Fox News ran a story about a minority teenager with this headline.

Conventional wisdom says Barack Obama is coasting to the finish line, the race is over, the fat lady is singing loudly. Is this true? Actually, we won’t know the answer to this until approximately December when the Supreme Court once again sorts out another election debacle in the United States voting system. Until then though, there are some interesting signs that the next three weeks may not be a lot of fun for the Obamanation. Perusing various sites, we are seeing signs that things may be starting to pile up on Obama.

The S word is showing up more and more. The notion that Obama is a socialist was once just found on “far right fringe sights” like this one. I am seeing it in other places now. My local newspaper, while more moderate than most dailies, certainly would not be considered conservative and the letters to the editor tend to run left of center. Lately though, the words socialism and Obama are showing up in the same sentence. Then we have this as just one example of people at McCain/Palin rallies becoming more restless and standing up and encouraging them to fight against the socialism of Obama.

The story on Obama’s trip to Iraq in which he allegedly tried to derail the withdrawal of troops until he took office at the same time he was calling for immediate withdrawal has made the big time. The Washington Times is running an article on the incident here.

The Ayers-Obama link is not going away and McCain is starting to refine it. In this article here McCain is calling the issue a matter of honesty because Obama will not tell the truth about it. This is a good strategy in my mind. First he got the issue in the heads of the public. Then when Obama didn’t explain the relationship, there is no explanation that puts him in a favorable light, McCain accuses him of being dishonest for trying to hide the relationship. It puts Obama in a damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t situation.

Then we have this an article that the Drudge Report has, well, drudged up and is running. This is a speech in which Louis Farrakhan calls Obama the Messiah. Check it out.

Something that McCain is just starting to go after Obama about today is ACORN. Story here. With a new web ad out, McCain is hitting Obama on an issue that may resonate. The federal government is investigating voter fraud in 21 states and we are hearing things like 105% of Indianapolis voters registered. Obama has a fairly long and intertwined history with ACORN from working for them, to donating money to them, to the organization endorsing him. This could wind up being quite damaging because of the money he has paid them and their committing fraud registering voters, primarily Democrats. 

In a story just developing today Obama’s “Muslim outreach advisor”, whatever that is, is drawing fire for meeting with Muslim extremists. Minha Husaini met September 15th with several Islamic organizations, some with ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. Attending the meeting were members of CAIR and organization that has members convicted of terror-related felonies. This is happening two months after Obama’s previous advisor had to resign after attending a similar meeting. To be fair now, some of these people may have been Obama supporters, he is preferred by 10 out of 10 terrorists.  

I don’t want to be accused of beating a dead horse but it has gotten to the point that it is difficult to find an article wqritten by the Associated Press or on one of the Big Three network sites that is unbiased. So called “journalists” are now nothing more than editorialists.

The latest example is this article about by Joe Milica of the Associated Press Joe Biden’s comments on John McCain’s economic plan. Article available here

The article has the usual slant, giving one side (not McCain’s) and ignoring that Obama’s plan has come under similar attacks. So, in other words, it is routine fare for the liberal media.

There are a couple of glaring examples of out and out bias though.

First of all, there is the little matter of Joe Biden’s remark that paying taxes is patriotic. The article quoted Biden as saying this: (all emphasis mine)

"We want to take money and put it back in the pocket of middle-class people," Biden said. Of those who would pay more, he said: "It's time to be patriotic ... time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut."

Somehow McCain took Biden’s remark to mean that it was patriotic to raise taxes, so the article took McCain to task for his misinterpretation.

McCain misstated Biden's remark when he told supporters at a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, that Biden had said "raising taxes is patriotic."

Then we have this:

In a new TV ad that repeats widely debunked claims about the Democratic tax plan, McCain's campaign charges that Obama would increase the federal government amid an economic crisis. Contending that "a big government casts a big shadow on us all," the ad features the image of a shadow slowly covering a sleeping baby as a narrator misstates the reach of the Obama tax proposal.

widely debunked claims (this is another liberal media trick, who is widely debunking McCain’s claims?)

We also have this fun part, though not quite as obvious, definitely twisting the facts.

Although McCain claims Obama would raise taxes, the independent Tax Policy Center and other groups conclude that four out of five U.S. households would receive tax cuts under Obama's proposals.

This statement is fun in that it may be both true and false at the same time. Maybe 4 out of 5 households would receive tax cuts, by their math though, 20% of the households are missing. Furthermore, Obama himself has said he would raise taxes, it is patriotic after all. Further, the author ignores the fact that not all of the mentioned 80% of households pay taxes and therefore cannot get tax cuts. The author obviously subscribes to the Democratic notion that people who do not pay taxes can still get a tax cut. Finally, the author himself quoted Biden as saying they would raise taxes. Unless I am guilty of misinterpreting this: “Of those who would pay more”.

As I said, it is nothing more than standard fair for the liberal media, that doesn’t mean it is any less tiresome and nauseating. But then again, maybe I’m just misstating the article.

There is a news story that has gotten more attention here in Michigan than nationally. Story here

The Detroit area Macomb County Republican chairman, James Carabelli, has been quoted by Michigan Messenger as saying “We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses,” Mr. Carabelli and the Michigan Republican party deny he made the statement and have threatened a libel suit against the site if it does not print a retraction.

The Obama campaign and the Democratic National Party have filed a lawsuit to prevent the county from doing what they may or may not be planning to do.

I can’t attest to the merit of the suit, it has turned into a he said-she said affair with no real indication of who is telling the truth. The Michigan GOP and Macomb County have strongly and consistently denied the accusation and claim they couldn’t do it if they wanted to. The claim by the county is that the voter roll does not provide enough information to practically carry a plan like this through.

Further, I am not familiar with this publication. A quick scan of the headlines on the site make their slogan, “A Center For Independent Media” a little dubious. Following is a sample of the headlines this evening:

• Fight for the soul of Michigan’s highest court  (Beginning of article): “Arch-conservative Clifford Taylor…”
•  Obama condemns “shameless” McCain campaign
•  Lose your house, lose your vote
•  DOJ politicization hurt voters’ rights, has it hurt Michigan?
•  Rove tricks? McCain absentee ballots raise questions
•  1980’s savings and loan bailout haunts John McCain
•  Conservatives looking decidedly socialist as AIG and market flounder

Borderline tabloid and decidedly liberally slanted headlines like this do harm their credibility a bit and make it a little easier to believe they may have misquoted Mr. Carabelli.

Forgetting the accuracy of this upstanding publication for now, I have a different theory on why the lawsuit was filed in the first place.

It is no secret that Michigan’s economy is in the toilet. It has the highest unemployment rate in the country and is losing population so fast that by spring it may have fewer people than North Dakota. The problem with this for the Democratic party is that we are in the second term of a Democratic governor who inherited the state from a three term Republican governor that left the state in better shape. Further half of the legislature is controlled by the Democrats. Between them they have had some really idiotic and publicly embarrassing attempts to “fix” the economy in Michigan. Staying true to the Democratic ideals, these fixes have largely comprised of increased taxes, which is exactly what a state bleeding jobs needs to do.

One thing Obama does not need, in a tight race for a state that is very important to his presidential aspirations, is to have the public notice that the Dems have run our state into the ground.