Just in time for the next election cycle, Republican Sen. Ted Stevens has been indicted. Media outlets are naturally going out of their way to make sure everyone knows his political party… if only they applied the same rules to Democrats:

[Newsbusters] Hmmm. When Congressman William Jefferson of Louisiana was caught with bushels of money stuffed in a freezer, I do not recall Jordan or anyone else writing about the negative prospects for Jefferson’s fellow congressmen- some of whom were also under investigation. And I certainly do not recall that the Associated Press was particularly interested in following lobbyist Tony Rezko’s money trail when it appeared to be getting close to Obama. I have no sympathy for Stevens. if he did what he is accused of, he deserves to pay the price. It is things like this that dampen American enthusiasm for politicians. However, I don’t recall a similar hue and cry from the AP about serial defaulter Laura Richardson and her sweetheart deal, nor any interest in following the sweetheart deals for California Senator Dianne Feinstein’s husband. If only the Associated Press was as industrious in following up cases like this as they are when the target has an ‘R’ after his or her name. but that of course would require both objectivity and professionalism- something the AP has proven time and again that they sadly lack.

Even worse, William Jefferson is still serving.

On that note, here’s another measurement of the mainstream media’s clear slant and affection for Obama. Newsbuster’s research found that the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts gave Barack Obama ten times the air coverage during his 8-day trip overseas compared to John McCain’s 7-day trip in March. 92 minutes to just 8.5 minutes of coverage.

The MRC’s Peter Sasso calculated that the CBS Evening News was the most obviously tilted, with more than 34 minutes of Obama coverage during the eight days from July 20 through July 27. Back in March, McCain’s seven-day trip garnered a piddling ten seconds from CBS, a ridiculously lopsided 200-to-1 disparity. For its part, ABC’s World News gave Obama nearly as much coverage as CBS (about 33 minutes), or roughly 15 times more attention than they provided McCain’s trip (slightly more than two minutes). NBC Nightly News spent nearly 25 minutes covering Obama, or about four times more than they gave McCain back in March (a little over six minutes).

Great op-ed by Cindy McCain, wife of John, on her recent trip to Rwanda:

…With some education, training, basic rights and empowerment, women will transform a society — and the world.

Women today make up a disproportionate percentage of the Rwandan population. In the aftermath of the genocide, they had to head households bereft of fathers. They had to take over farms, and take jobs previously done by men. But there were opportunities, too: Today, 41% of Rwandan businesses are owned by women… A new constitution ratified in 2003 required that women occupy at least 30% of the seats in parliament. (In our House and Senate only about 17% of the seats are filled by women.) Some wondered at the time whether it was feasible to meet this target. Now, nearly half of parliament and a third of the president’s cabinet posts are held by women. Rwanda today has the world’s highest percentage of female legislators.