Gratuitous trash

In yesterday's LAT, James Gerstenzang reported that President Bush issued Presidential Medals of Freedom to six people including Laurence H. Silberman, a former federal appeals court judge. The reporter cites Silberman's contributions on national security issues and then quotes liberal law professor (Gerstenzang's description) Herman Schwartz as saying Silberman has been "fiercely partisan, pugnacious and very political." Presumably, that means Silberman tooks some positions that Schwartz didn't like. Citing the quote was entirely gratuitous. It served no purpose except to take down Silberman a little.

LAT cheerleading for Dems

LAT reporters, including Dem propagandist Noam Levey, speculate this morning that Congressional Dems will be able to push Obama's agenda. This is news reporting, LAT style.

LAT mindset: Michelle O mistreated

According to the LAT, it's not what Michelle Obama has said publicly during the campaign that's the problem but rather that her husband's opponents will want to make sure that voters know what she has said. It takes a certain mindset to conclude that and the LAT obviously has that mindset. Inside on page A18, the LAT calls it "picking on the potential first lady."

Politics on the sports page

This morning, the LAT's Kurt Streeter writes in the sports section about ... what? Sports? No, race. Streeter writes about the old white Celtics and the old black Lakers and about Barack Obama as a presidential nominee. The present day Celtics are black and the present day Lakers are "international" and Barack Obama is a partly black presidential nominee. Connect those thoughts and what do you have? Answer: A racist, pleased that a presidential nominee is partly black. But what does that have to do with sports?

LAT puts lipstick on legislative pig

The LAT argues that the defeat Friday in the Senate of cap and trade legislation was actually a victory because fewer Senators opposed it this time than last. Your position on that legislation, assuming you are not a politician, depends on your belief in the god of global warming, for global warming is more a religion than anything else. If you believe, if you have faith, then facts don't matter. All that matters is that you propagate the faith.

To others, belief in global warming is like television evangelism. Routine fluctuations in temperature are presented as evidence of future catastrophic climate change. Fanciful assumptions are plugged into computer climate models developed by true believers. The debate is over, they argue, citing such eminent climate scientists as Al Gore, lawyer and politician.

LAT annoints Obama-Clinton

The LAT argued Saturday that neither Obama or Clinton won the contest. Instead, the LAT says, the American people won. Obama and Clinton "share a triumph with the American people," the LAT says.

But what do the American people know about Obama except that he's half black and talks a good game. He has no record of any significance. A vote for Obama is a pig in a poke. No one has any idea what he or she will get from a President Obama.

Having it both ways

The LAT and others have been arguing that we're in recession even if the statistics don't show it, at one point even suggesting we might be in a depression like the great one in the Thirties. They've been saying that the unemployment rate, which has been under 5 percent, doesn't reflect the bleak employment picture. Finally, on Friday they got what they wanted -- a half-point jump to 5.5 percent. Now the unemployment rate is important to them because it proves their point: the economy is in trouble and only a Democrat president and Congress can revive it.

The selective use of statistics to prove whatever you want to prove is fraudulent and the people who do it are frauds.