The week in review.

It's been awhile since I've done one of these so bear with me. To say that this has been a tumultuous week in politics and news would be putting it mildly to say the least.

In politics, Harry Reid said in an interview on The Ed Show on MSNBC that, "...but for me we'd be in a worldwide depression." Tall words from a small man in the fight of his life for reelection to the Senate. I find the irony somewhat sweet that the second most powerful Democrat in the country makes a wild claim about saving the world from megalithic disaster while the most powerful Democrat in the country would like to think that honor belongs to him. As usual, no outrage from the media about Reid's claim. They're too busy trying to find something new and potentially more outrageous about Christine O'Donnell. In fact, Ed Schultz never even batted an eye when Reid made that statement.

Elsewhere in politics, there's an ugly voting scandal brewing in Troy, New York. Dozens of fraudulent absentee ballots, cast for the Working Families Party, were discovered to contain forged signatures and false information. Brendan J. Lyons, senior writer for the Times Union of Albany writes,

"Documents at the county Board of Elections show the fraudulent ballots were handled by or prepared on behalf of various elected officials and leaders and operatives for the Democratic and Working Families parties. A Troy housing authority employee, Anthony Defiglio, who sources said oversees vacant properties for the Troy Housing Authority, also handled many of the fraudulent ballots, according to public records and interviews with voters who said they were duped. "

Now, before you go thinking the system is rigged on all sides, the county board of elections is run by, say it with me, Democrats. It would appear those responsible were dimwitted enough to lick the envelopes they used to send in the fake ballots. DNA testing is currently underway on the ballots and DNA samples have been collected from both the board of elections and the Troy city council. It's kind of a cross between the movie "Primary Colors" and the TRU TV show, Forensic Files. The outcome will be interesting at best.

Another interesting tidbit to be exposed this week was the list of the largest contributors in this years election cycle. And the largest is... drum roll please. The unions.

Wait. What? I thought the chamber of commerce was the largest. What with all that foreign money they have. Nope, it seems the Chamber didn't even make the top 5. The Baltimore Sun reports, "The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is now the biggest outside spender of the 2010 elections, thanks to an 11th-hour effort to boost Democrats that has vaulted the public-sector union ahead of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the AFL-CIO and a flock of new Republican groups in campaign spending.

The 1.6 million-member AFSCME is spending a total of $87.5 million on the elections after tapping into a $16 million emergency account to help fortify the Democrats' hold on Congress. Last week, AFSCME dug deeper, taking out a $2 million loan to fund its push. The group is spending money on television advertisements, phone calls, campaign mailings and other political efforts, helped by a Supreme Court decision that loosened restrictions on campaign spending. "

In common parlance, that means corporations as a person... bad, unions as a person good. I know the obvious argument from the left is that donations from corporations may contain tainted money from dark, mysterious forces that might not have our best interests at heart. On the other hand, union money comes from the salaries derived from taxpayers and in turn confiscated by the unions in the form of union dues. In simpler terms, even those of us outside the union are giving money to political candidates with which we have nothing in common. As Alanis Morrisette would say, "Isn't it ironic?"

Is it any wonder that the only sector to have shown explosive growth of jobs in this flailing economy has been the public sector? Watching President Obama grow the size of government so rapidly over the last 22 months, it almost seemed like he didn't have a clue what he was doing. It all begins to make sense now.

In the area of news, Juan Williams, political analyst for National Public Radio and part time Fox News contributor, was fired from his NPR post for comments he made on The O'Reilly Factor concerning his trepidation about people "dressed in muslim garb" in airports saying, "they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."

For those remarks he was summarily dismissed via phone call by his immediate superior. He was told the decision was final and that it had come from above her. The person above her is Vivian Schiller, CEO of NPR. Schiller later made the comment that Juan's remarks were inconsistent with NPR's journalistic standards and that he should discuss his comments with "his psychiatrist or publicist" hinting that Williams must have been mentally disturbed to say what he did or seeking a juicy sound bite that might garner him some attention in the press. Suffice to say the bulk of the attention has been focused on the ham handed firing and the not so subtle hypocrisy of Schiller's statement about NPR's journalistic standards.

The only standards NPR is currently ascribing to have more to do with political correctness and the obvious notion that Williams had gone off the reservation of liberal group think and must be tamped down. NPR's Nina Totenberg once said of Jesse Helms,

"I think he ought to be worried about the -- about what's going on in the good Lord's mind because if there's retributive justice he'll get AIDS from a transfusion or one of his grandchildren will get it."

That statement, apparently, is perfectly in line with NPR's high journalistic standards. I will expand on this story and add a bit more of my own opinion at a later time. On a happier note, Fox News has offered Williams a contract and an expanded role on the network offering the other side of the ideological spectrum. It seems only fitting for a network who's tag line is "Fair & Balanced". That's more balance than you'll see on MSNBC at least. Remember Ed Schultz?

On a related note, George Soros has donated 1.8 million dollars to NPR to expand their reporting of local politics. Who thinks that money will be used for honest, fair reporting? Soros has after all, collapsed 4 economies in his lifetime and has been the largest single contributor to Democrat/liberal candidates since record keeping began. I wouldn't hold my breath hoping for anything that resembles true journalism coming out of NPR from this point forward.

Well, a little over a week to go until the midterms and it's getting tense out there in the heartland. Rhetoric is currently being ratcheted up, campaign cash on both sides is being flung around like candy from pinata and the climate is one of exuberance on the right and guarded. if irrational, confidence on the left. I must say though through it all, that this is perhaps the most contentious and important midterm election that I can recall. I can't wait until November 2nd. I'm planning on staying up all night to watch the returns in California. I've even made my own little congressional scorecard so I can keep up with how wide a margin the Republicans win by. For a political geek like myself, this is the NFC Championship game and the winner determines who goes to the big dance in 2012.

Let the games begin!