Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

The Associated Press wants you to vote for McCain:

In March, at a conference of the nation’s newspaper editors, two of the Associated Press’ top political reporters greeted John McCain with a box of Dunkin’ Donuts. One of the reporters was careful to get McCain his favorite kind — “Oh, yes, with sprinkles!” he said — and then passed McCain a cup. “A little coffee with a little cream and a little sugar,” the AP’s Liz Sidoti said.

Shortly thereafter, at the same conference, AP Chairman Dean Singleton quizzed Barack Obama about whether he would send more troops to Afghanistan, where “Obama bin Laden is still at large.” In other words, the AP gives McCain tasty treats, and confuses Obama’s name with the 9/11 mastermind.

Since then, I can’t help but notice that the AP hasn’t exactly been neutral. A month ago, the AP ran an article about the “people who
might complicate Obama’s campaign,” including Tony Rezko and Jeremiah Wright. The piece not only read like a slam job, it actually resembled an RNC oppo dump, which for all I know, it was.

Two weeks ago, the same reporter who made sure McCain had coffee to go with his donuts wrote a scathing, 900-word reprimand of Obama’s decision to bypass the public financing system in the general election.
It was filled with errors of fact and judgment, and ignored the fact that McCain has illegally played fast and loose with the public-financing system this year.

And then this week, the AP’s David Espo wrote a hagiographic, 1,200-word piece, praising McCain’s record of reaching across the aisle. Reading it, one was unsure if maybe the AP had accidentally stuck a byline on a McCain campaign press release — Espo went so far as to laud McCain’s “singular brand of combative bipartisanship.”

Seems like it wasn't all that long ago when the Associated Press actually, you know, just reported things, instead of bringing one candidate goodies while slamming the other. And these are the same fuckwits who want us to pay for each word we quote from their stories? I think not.

In other news of insanely stupid folks, Bush thinks troops grow on trees:

For the second consecutive month, more U.S. troops were killed in Afghanistan than in Iraq. Nearly seven years after the war in Afghanistan began, June was the deadliest month for U.S. troops, and our force levels in the country are now at their highest since the war began. All of this, tragically, comes a few years after the president assured Americans that the Taliban “no longer is in existence.”

With conditions worsening, the White House now believes it’s time to send more U.S. troops into Afghanistan before the end of the year. “We’re going to increase troops by 2009,” Bush said, without elaboration.

As it happens, that might be easier said than done. Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he doesn’t have the troops for Afghanistan, until he can pull them out of Iraq.

Mind you, Bush thinks we have plenty of troops and equipment to start yet another war with. Anyone else get the impression Bush needs psychiatric help?

He's about at the same level of sophistication as Faux News:

I know I mentioned this briefly yesterday, but I’m still flabbergasted.

It’s pretty common for children to take pictures of people they don’t like and manipulate them, perhaps with crayons. They’ll black-out a tooth, draw a mustache, add glasses, draw earrings, etc.

What’s breathtaking, however, is when a major news outlet acts the exact same way, only instead of children with crayons, we have Fox News using Photoshop. If you haven’t seen this video, by way of Media Matters, be sure to take a look.

[Go to Carpetbagger for video]

You’ll notice in the clip that the hosts of Fox News’ “Fox & Friends,” Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade, are complaining about an alleged “hit piece” on the Republican network, published in the New York Times by Jacques Steinberg and Steven Reddicliffe. They showed pictures of both Times staffers.

However, Fox News digitally altered the images of both, yellowing Steinberg’s and Reddicliffe’s teeth, exaggerating noses, darkening eyes, and eliminating hair.

Yup. This country's political infrastructure sure is sophisticated. They's all growed up.