Despite being convicted of stealing gift cards intended for poor Baltimore residents and using them for her own personal shopping spree, outgoing Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon (D) will still be able to collect a mayoral pension after she resigns from office early next month.

Reported Baltimore Sun's Julie Scharper:

Dixon pleaded guilty last week to one count of perjury for failing to disclose on city ethics forms the gifts she received from a developer. As part of a plea deal, she will keep her $83,000 pension. She will receive probation before judgment for the perjury count and the embezzlement conviction. She also must donate $45,000 to charity and is banned from seeking city funds to pay her legal bills or working for the city or state during her probationary period.

This development, understandably, has quite a few Baltimoreans outraged, so Sun editors gave Scharper 25 paragraphs to report on incoming interim mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's pledge to look into the pension system and sew up loopholes that allow for convicts like Dixon to benefit from taxpayers in their retirement from public service. 

Yet nowhere in Scharper's January 12 article was Dixon's Democratic Party affiliation mentioned, nor the fact that Council President Rawlings-Blake and the rest of the city council are likewise all Democrats.

<p>Last night the Baltimore City Council became the first in the nation to pass a law that would require pro-life crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) to post in writing disclaimers noting that they do not provide abortion services or contraceptives nor refer women to persons or clinics who do.</p><p>Reporting the story in the November 24 paper, the <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bal-md.abortion... target="_blank">Baltimore Sun's Julie Scharper</a> quoted the bill's author and council president Stephanie Rawlings-Blake (D) heralding the passage of the bill as &quot;a step towards making sure that women have the information they need to make the right decision for their health and their future.&quot;  </p><p>Yet Scharper failed to point out to readers that Rawlings-Blake actually voted against an amendment that would also apply her standard to abortion clinics. Reported <a href="http://www.catholicreview.org/subpages/storyarchnew.aspx?action=7193" target="_blank">George P. Matysek Jr. of The Catholic Review</a> on November 17:</p>

<p><a href="/issues-events-groups/media-bias-debate/name-party" target="_blank"><img src="http://media.eyeblast.org/newsbusters/static/2009/09/namethatparty.gif" vspace="3" width="200" align="right" border="0" height="143" hspace="3" /></a>It's time once again for our favorite media parlor game, <a href="/issues-events-groups/media-bias-debate/name-party" target="_blank">&quot;Name That Party!&quot;</a></p><p>The theft trial of Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon (D) began yesterday, but in covering the story, the Baltimore Sun failed to note Dixon's Democratic party affiliation. </p><p>The <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/10/AR200911... target="_blank">Washington Post, syndicating the story</a>, also failed to note Dixon's affiliation in their caption to an Associated Press photo of the mayor which reads, &quot;Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon is accused of buying personal items using gift cards donated to her office.&quot;</p><p>The unsigned story by the Sun notes that Dixon is alleged to have practically stolen from her city's poorest residents for her own personal gain:</p><blockquote>

It was a good run while it lasted.

Word from the conflict became more dire almost by the day as Obama's cabinet squabbled. The American media, having sensed Afghanistan could be lost without action, chose to cover for their favorite president and begin the process of mentally preparing the public for defeat.

The Washington Post published a perfect example of the new meme in Howard Kurtz's column on October 23. Kurtz attacked Republicans as "armchair quarterbacks" for their criticism of Obama's stalling and said it was "rich" of Dick Cheney to demand a new plan. As for what that plan might be, Kurtz's Vietnam defeat song sounded all too familiar:

<p>Earlier today I blogged about how a Baltimore Sun environment blog is<a href="/blogs/ken-shepherd/2009/09/21/confess-your-biggest-eco-sin-baltimore-sun-win-green-prize" target="_blank"> urging readers to confess their most mortal &quot;eco sin.&quot; </a></p><p>Not to be outdone in the pious-sounding eco-rhetoric, the San Francisco Chronicle's <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/green/detail?blogid=49&amp;entry_id=... target="_blank">Thin Green Line blog </a>today warns tech geeks and video game aficionados against the original sin of technological advance:</p><blockquote><p>Technology, at times, offers a magic key into the environmental garden of Eden, where humans can use energy and feel good about it. But, at times, it can be the serpent tempting us to eat the apple that will mean our eviction.</p></blockquote><p>Blogger Cameron Scott goes on to explain that the wages of tech are carbon, tons and tons of carbon:</p><blockquote>