I was lied to by a person representing himself as an AP reporter.

And I don't like it one bit.

Saturday night, I was sitting in my den at Mullings Central and I got a phone call from a guy named Doug Daniel who said he wrote for the AP. He asked if I had a few minutes to talk about Gov. Sarah Palin's comments earlier that day that Barack Obama "is palling around with terrorists."

I told him what I thought, and he quoted me correctly as saying "There appears to be a newfound sense of confidence in Sarah Palin as a candidate, given her performance the other night. I think that they are comfortable enough with her now that she's got the standing with the electorate to take off after Obama."

The only reason I know this is because I have a "Google Alert" on myself. I used to tell people that I needed to be certain I had been quoted correctly, but now I 'fess up to the fact that I have an ego the size of Wyoming and I like seeing my name in print - or the Internet equivalent of it.

Old Doug also quoted Mull-Pal Jenny Baccus, a huge Obama supporter, as saying: "It's a giant changing of the subject. The problem is the messenger. If you want to start throwing fire bombs, you don't send out the fluffy bunny to do it."

Which is a funny line and is why I love Jenny. Jenny and I disagreed, but it was clear that Daniel was asking us about the tactics of using Palin.

He said that there were "some people" who claimed it was pretty late in the day to launch that kind of an attack.

The "some people" dodge does not work with me and, if it hadn't been Saturday night it would have set off alarm bells because big-time reporters don't resort to that "some people" crap.

I asked "who were the 'some people' who said that?" He said, after a long pause, "Ron Fournier" who happens to be the chief of the Washington bureau of the AP.

The only other person (besides Gov. Palin) quoted in the piece was best Mull-Friend, Joe Gaylord who said:

"The four weeks that are left are an eternity. There's plenty of time in the campaign."

So, the three people quoted were all asked about the tactics and timing of the Palin attack.

Here was the headline on the piece: "Palin's Words Carry Racial Tinge."

Whoa! Check Please!

Racial Tinge? Where the hell did that come from? Continued...