Virtual Flash Mobbing: How to push a lie and get away with it

When a group with an agenda wants to misinform, all they have to do is lie in a press release.. and best if done in the lead paragraph:

Background: The Heartland Institute is holding a seminar in Dc for climate change sceptics. Center for American Progress, one of Geo Soros pets, want to discredit Heartland by linking it with big oil and the evil Koch brothers.

PRESS CALL ADVISORY: Climate Deniers Congregate in the Nation’s Capital

June 24, 2011
.......
Washington, D.C. – The Heartland Institute, a conservative group funded by Exxon Mobil and Charles Koch, will be hosting their annual Conference on Climate Change on June 30 and July 1 in Washington, D.C., boasting a full agenda of notable climate deniers.

The author of the piece is listed of course as an 'expert' in the environmental field. An expert political scientist, I'm thinking.. and liar.
I'm pretty sure the forked tongue witch is aware that oil companies long ago distanced themselves from anything to do with climate sceptics or conservative organizations. In the case of Exxon mobil about eight years ago... and why shouldn't they. It might affect their fortunes. Far better to be a friend of green causes and get some of that gravy.
BP, Greenpeace & the Big Oil Jackpot
As to the Koch's..they seemed to have seen this coming. Try as the left can they can never really find a smoking gun that results in days of major press headlines.
The Kochs havent been associated with Heartland for years.

And of course 'CAP' knows all this. So how do they get away with lying?

Simple. Just wait till someone picks up on it then publish a version that is more reflective of the truth, never mind the SPIN is still there.
PRESS CALL ADVISORY: Boehlert, Climate Science Experts to Discuss Extreme Weather and Refute Climate Deniers' Claims

June 28, 2011

Contact: Christina DiPasquale
Phone: 202.481.8181
Email: cdipasquale@americanprogress.org

Washington, D.C. — Climate deniers and their conservative allies will descend on the nation’s capital later this week for the annual Heartland Institute’s Conference on Climate Change, whose sponsors in years past have included groups backed by Exxon Mobil and the Koch brothers. In the face of record-breaking extreme weather, from devastating storms and floods to droughts and record-breaking heat that the world has been experiencing, the conference boasts an agenda full of notable climate deniers and presentations disputing that global warming is manmade, despite the fact that the majority of climate scientists agree that human-induced global warming is real.

Never mind the linking of just about everything having to do with weather there. And the fact that just about all the 'warming advocates have disassociated those events from actual warming theory.. and that the majority of Climate Scientists no longer are sure of the CO2 theory. Or that the globe is actually warming.
But who reads a second version, or the followup, of a press release?

More on this propagandic debacle:
CAP and blunder – but Joe Romm is still invited to ICCC6

Sunday Funnies

-Not really 'funny' but just shows if you wait long enough, there's an answer to everything. With the great movie, one of the main questions was 'WHO is Jessica supposed to be?'
For the rare few who don't know, Hendricks is the smart as a whip office manager eye candy on AMC's 'Mad Men'.

Requiem for Myspace: Every DotCom is a bubble

In Businessweek: The Rise and Inglorious Fall of Myspace
The article deserves a read, or at least I agree with it. And the subhead tells all:

It once promised to redefine music, politics, dating, and pop culture. Rupert Murdoch fell in love with it. Then everything fell apart

 Ah.. the more things change, the more they're the same:  But it doesn't address in depth the truth of the net.

 The Nature (of the 'netizen) abhors a Marketing Strategy!

Early social networking sprang from  Darpanet users, back in the '70s with college students or defense contractor employees banding together to talk about their off-work interests. 

The real inventors of the internet 

They were, as you might expect, subject oriented.  This text-only discussion paradigm essentially started with mailing lists where one moderator registered an email address and wrote script to allow multiple posting and send functions to large number of subscribers. In other words you 'friended' the moderator and if he accepted you defacto friended everyone else on the list.

- This was my own first experience with the internet: I joined the 'Mustang Mail List about 1986.

- And with the mail list, came the world's First Spam Email
- understand that, in those days, you saw every bit of the headers; which meant you scrolled down through the addressees interminably to just see the message. And that's primarily what generated the HATE. It was fixed by the eighties but the first impression was not a good one. Probably just coincidence but the firm responsible - Digital Equipment Corporation though a multi-billion dollar leader in its field at the time is no longer in business.

Later came Usenet, a special protocol based service that allowed a 'Bulletin Board' type function without clunky mail servers. It was very popular for subject insiders until Usenet was declared abolished by almost all ISP's due to the ease of posting porn and concentration of anonymous porn users.

Going mainstream is the Kiss of Death

Before there was the web, before there was AOL, before there was Compuserve, or Prodigy.. There was 'The Source'

It was actually built as a new sort of marketing service for the hip in 1979.  And it was the first to be bought by a major publisher, Readers' Digest. It quickly failed because the subscribers used it mainly for social networking and comment and were not really interested in the commercial parts.

 It should be noted that the fate of all its successors was the same, even AOL which brought the average guy onto the net was doomed from the beginning. By the time AOL merged with Time Warner the writing was on the wall. AOL wanted to totally control content and access to net features and made it very hard to actually access the REAL internet.

All that was pre-ordained by the advent of the World Wide Web and the Mosaic interface. Now commonly called the browser.

I won't go into what the folks on the 'real internet' thought of AOL'ers. It would be hurtful.  The point is that concentration on product marketing is a tricky thing.  a little too much hawking of wares will quickly turn the user against you. It just took a lot longer for it to catch up with AOL.

UNLESS that sales aspect is the unabashed FEATURE of the site or service. Witness Ebay.. then Amazon. Or Craigslist.

Combine that with the fickle nature of youth, and the impatience with 'Spam' on every level and you see the future for not only Myspace but Classmates{dot}com and ultimately even Facebook.  Which brings up Twitter.  Where's the monetization plan for Twitter?  How you gonna do it without chasing users away?

Hmmm?

Nope.. the social DotComs all have the same life paradigm:

Idea-Build-social networking self promotion-popularity critical mass- SELL!

From Reader's Digest to Time Inc to Murdoch's News Corp. The moguls will be left holding the bag.

Aint the Free Market wonderful!

Stop bitching about McD's!!!!!

PLEASE!!! Are you people really such little children?
My BS detector just got set off by a FB friend 'liking' some FB group that 'exposed' the make-up of fast-food chicken, as mostly grain products.
The last time this happened, against Taco Bell, the complainant - a rent seeking Law firm 'tried to 'quietly withdraw its allegations' and hasn't been heard from since.
  
Taco Bell Beef Lawsuit Withdrawn

McD's recently changed their menus ESPECIALLY the Chicken offerings. Their chicken now SUX from all accounts .. mainly my wife's... but PLEASE let's not invite the government to 'do something about it'. McDonalds customers will take care of the problem.
Understand I am not absolving McDonald's of any and all blame.. Supersized Fries and Corn Fructose Drinks are not exactly healthy, but are we adults or not?!!
Are we really too stupid.. or consider other adults too stupid to make their own decisions?
And what if they made those decisions based on Government Guidelines that normal natural fats are bad for you?  Answer THAT!

HHS is ALREADY getting set to tell you what you can and cannot eat.. or smoke.. if you're on the Guvmint health plan. Not 'guidelines' and nagging'.. disqualification of benefits by physicians under the plan.

Is that what you all REALLY want?

Speaking of...  here's an interesting chart.  Can you see what it really means?
 Hint: Pertains to the first 'USDA Dietary Guidlines to recommend low fat diet rather than just moderating fats..

PDF File USDA Guidelines over time
 Remember?  The Science was settled! There was a concensus!!!!
So, now that they convinced you that your ancestors were stupid and you are too unless you eat what they tell you to eat,  the same tactic used against tobacco will be used for your dinner table.

Feds look to regulate food similar to tobacco, with hopes of saving money on health care

If you believe, subsequent to that, that the health care regime isnt going to penalize or reduce your medical care based on your diet.. then, say, I got some great Carbon Cap and Trade futures I want to sell ya!

It's all Sen. McCarthy's Fault!

How 'It's a Wonderful Life', Joe MacCarthy's paranoia, and the Mortgage crisis are connected.

The internet media is fascinating. At any given time, somewhere out there is a blogger studying history and finding nuggets of truth to make us think and relate to current events.

David Goldenberg: Why Joe McCarthy Hated It’s a Wonderful Life

..what made Senator McCarthy so angry? The part involving the maligning of fat-cat banker and slumlord Henry Potter. While Bailey (who lends money to the working poor) is the movie’s hero, Henry Potter (who focuses on the financial bottom line alone) is the villain. According to the FBI’s memo, portraying a capitalist in such a negative light was a classic communist trick.

McCarthy was, of course, right when he began his crusade to expose the Left in Hollywood but, like the evil Mr Potter, he became a caricature to be vilified because of his compulsive obsession.

Fast forward to the recent past, the red-lining, mortgage industry that typically required ten or twenty percent down and no more than 25% of gross wage payment... against the sub-prime push by Fannie Mae and the 1999 CRA. So now we recognize who represents who in the Movie, right?
Well almost.
Potter WAS a crook after all, trying to keep money he knew wasn't his.
BUT...Barney Frank as George Bailey? I think not.

Meanwhile, opinions about Henry Potter’s character have changed over the years. In light of the housing-market crisis, the fiscally responsible banker may not have been such a bad guy after all. The loans that he tried to prevent George Bailey from handing out were essentially subprime mortgages. Mr. Potter may have just been trying to stop the poor citizens of Bedford Falls from over-leveraging themselves. Who’s the evil capitalist now?

Like McCarty's witch hunt ending up going much further than was necessary... after all we SUPPOSEDLY had freedom of association and speech, even back then.. shining a light on the influential person's politics should have been enough for us. And it should never go to the extremes that it did. Just let us unwashed masses know about chicanery then decide for ourselves!

The OTHER difference is that 'Wonderful Life' centered around a community, not the country. You cannot extrapolate local to global because if you do then the crooks are far more likely to get off free. Community peer image means a lot.
Nationally, it doesn't matter, apparently, as Frank's cronies have raped Fannie and Freddie pretty much at will with no political repercussions.

And all the big bank Potters seem to keep raking it in. The banks and politicians fooled us with TARP, because we couldn't be sure. Now we can be... don't try to fool us twice.

I also find McCarthy's subsequent influence on the electorate of Wisconsin fascinating -it's taking WI voters fifty years to wash the taste of idiot conservatism out of their mouths- but that's another thread.

It's the little things that bring joy

I just bought a new old car. My father's day gift to myself.
It is my third 1993 TBird in a row, #2 having given me 5 years and 150,000 miles of faithful service at a total cost to buy, repair and service of about $2000. That's right .. 2 grand TOTAL. And it always gave me fair warning when it was gonna quit. Now though #2 has 300,000 on her and she's old and tired and ready to be driven to the salvage yard.

So naturally when I saw her skin twin in a chance meeting at the auto parts store, I offered the owner $2500 on the spot. I nagged him till he sold her to me.

Sunday Morning Sermon on Liars and Fools

Years ago I confined almost all my political musings to a sub-section on a Soccer Messageboard I moderated. Since I had grown into the habit - even before there were 'web-sites', of surfing the net in the classical sense of starting at point 'A' then following links to point B'" from there to 'C" and so on. I found most my argumental backup and posted links to same.
Imagine my frustration when those who debated points against me complained of my loading my postulations with LINKS! Especially when I took care to make sure they were links to media THEY would read and or approve of.. not some RW hack site. They complained ANYWAY about my loading my posts with links!
Bottom line: they didnt care, because they weren't about to have their cozy little life-views altered by anything approaching logic and facts. Well, we're all like that aren't we.
However, since I only write this stuff to try to exercise my mental powers in the fight against the ravages of senile dementia, I carry on. And frankly I don't give a crap whether the reader follows my links or not. As long as they don't rebut with non-fact and idiocies that the links refuted.

So let me recount how my surfing went this AM:

I started at Hot Air's headline roundup:  
Virginia AG tests politics from the pulpit

Summary: the VA AG tries to help define line on political advocacy by churches, but ends up just confusing matters more.
SOMEHOW, from there I got directly to the Houston Chronicle's Op-Ed criticism by a group of 'what we used to call 'Ecumenical'  religious leaders on Gov Perry's 'Day of Prayer' to be held at Reliant Stadium: 
Day of prayer violates separation of church and state
- First, I almost agree with the headline.  Elected leaders  have to be very careful when they 'proclaim' a faith event.
Perry comes dangerously close to pandering to faith. Like the unnecessary politically inspired insertion of 'under God' in the pledge when I was a kid. 
But the arguments made.. essentially rebut their own point.   These religious pastors are from the usual suspect 'social justice' denominations.  To wit: those that actually DO preach that Jesus was a social worker / community organizer and that God just might have been a construct of man's need for order in society.

 Let me make one thing perfectly clear:  If you worry that the practice of your religious faith might offend someone not of your faith you are, by definition of Jesus and St Paul, NOT A CHRISTIAN!
Note it is not me saying that, it is clearly stated many times in the New Testament. Find me where it says otherwise! Only thing you will find is 'Pray in Private'. THAT is valid. But so is 'Make a joyful Noise'

So that article pretty much absolves Gov Perry. It is not for me to judge his motives, that's between him and God.
And I have my own opinion of the chances for salvation for those who pervert gospel for their own viewpoints but the same applies. Do you really want me to tell you what I think of Social Justice Theology? Thought not. But it is NOT 'Christian' in the theological sense.

***

Moving on to the CONTEMPORARY 'Religion of Anti-Carbon', ie; worship of all things Gaia, there's Reason magazine's

Green Shoots Bustin' Out All Over: How Much More Awesome News Can One Economy Take?

There's a good roundup of the stupidity of the Green Economy. Notable is that the $5,500,000 stimulus grant to 'Cree Lighting' - who is btw the accepted technical leader in LED lighting - resulted in a grand total of THREE JOBS created.
Need I say more? Cree did not need that stimulus money to create jobs, they needed it to subsidize the PROMOTION of their products to attempt to get volume to a critical mass. Which may or may not work, because like in every other market venture you tend to get lazy and invest in political efforts if the Guvmint is feeding you. See GE.
LED lighting to save resources is a GREAT idea. But it will succeed on the market, not on government favor.. and cost us less in the long run if government just keeps their hands off!

***

But the cake-taker for GREEN IDIOT/LIAR OF THE WEEK is Forbes' Green Blogger

Todd Woody
Green Gulfstream: Flying To Paris On Biofuels

I've said before I was terrible in school math, but I became an Engineer anyway by being able to visualize mathematical constructs and looking up the appropriate formula. Woody is a guy who apparently can not figure OR visualize mathematically. Or he's a straight out liar!

As we retrace Charles Lindberg’s 1927 pioneering flight across the Atlantic to Paris, the 50-50 blend of biofuel and petroleum aviation fuel in the right engine is burning 68 percent less carbon than the fossil fuel in the left engine, according to Rekoske.

Get that? If you suppose that the biofuel component has ZERO carbon content, my brain tells me it could reduce carbon burning by no more than 50%. What does YOUR brain tell you?
Here's a hint about 'Woody's brain':

By the time the G4 lands at the Paris Air Show, it will have saved a net 5.5 million metric tons of carbon emissions.

Yes he really wrote that. And it's on 'Forbes' and I took a screen shot of that page.
Think hard, my few readers! All we have to do is make about 250 transatlantic fights in that Gulfstream using PURE bio-jet in both engines and the ENTIRE ANNUAL US Carbon emissions are wiped away!!! Praise Gaia.. she has absolved our sins!

I'm not even gonna comment on using farmland to grow fuel instead of food. Or the fact that diesel is used to grow it.
And DON'T say 'Bio-Diesel'. Unless you believe that perpetual motion machines are possible.

If you dont get that by now you are too stupid to ever get it. Which puts you into the 'FOOL' category. Meaning the IRS should double your taxes to pay for this crap, and leave the rest of us alone.

A new Little Ice Age?.. oh.. and a piece of Africa is breaking off.

It was just a few months ago that the Sun woke up and we began seeing sunspots again after a long delayed start of a new solar cycle, but already those who study these things for a living see signs that this feeble peak activity isnt going to amount to much and we may see the next cycle skipped altogether.
Stunning Press release:“All three of these lines of research to point to the familiar sunspot cycle shutting down for a while.”
What's interesting about this is that, unlike the global temperature records, there has been a constant charting of solar activity since about the middle of the LAST global cold spell. - That would be the one that ended farming in Greenland and killed the vineyards of Great Britain.. yes the one Michael Mann and the Warmists dont want you to think about. And there's a strong scientifically noted connection between solar activity and climate.

NASA JPL on New Insights on How Solar Minimums Affect Earth

As the warmists continue to raise the cacophony on the imminent catastrophic results of a trace gas increase.. meaning.. give us your money and quit using oil and coal to save us all.. especially the children. Within a short time we're likely to see a reversal of immense magnitude and scientists running out for grants on how to prevent people from freezing to death.

***

In other interesting REAL SCIENCE news {meaning: as opposed to rent-seeking 'Climate Science'}, a formerly extinct volcano in Somalia's Eritrean region has erupted just months after new papers affirmed older ones that the rift in that area is subsiding rapidly and part of NE African continent will be isolated soon by an extension of the Red Sea.
'Soon' meaning: next month... within our lifetimes.. or within a million years.

But the real news in this is the connections to tectonic shifts - meaning the near simultaneous Chilean activity- point to yet more eruptions elsewhere, and a definite Pinataubo or Summer of St Helens effect.

Yes... even MORE cooling in the short term.

Archbishop of Assehatte Burned Again

- Iowahawk

Peter Hitchens in The London Daily Mail has a few corrections for 'His Eminence, the Asshat of Canterbury' on the subject of 'Christian Charity'

Blessed are the Spongers? That’s not what St Paul said, Archbishop

why does the Archbishop of Canterbury speak as if it was obvious that we should treat people who can work, but won’t, in the same way as we treat those who are truly in need?

As Dr Williams has decided to take up political commentating, I think I shall do a little bit of Archbishoping. Here beginneth the first lesson: In St Paul’s first epistle to Timothy, Chapter 5, we read: ‘If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.’

And in his second epistle to the Thessalonians, St Paul rubs it in, in that way he has: ‘This we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.’

This seems pretty clear to me, and a dozen generations before my own knew these words by heart and lived according to them. They gave to charity and supported the helpless and needy with all their might.

That's the best takedown of this simpering idiot, Williams, since Iowahawk did it in 2008.
Heere Bigynneth the Tale of the Asse-Hatte.

{excerpted here}

An Archbishop of Canterbury Tale
...............

75 And so it went, the pilgryms all

76 Complaynynge of the Muslim thrall;

77 To eaches same the Bishop lectured

78 About the cultur fabrick textured

79 With rainbow threyds from everie nation

80 With rainbow laws for all situations.

81 "But Father Rowan, we bathyr nae one

82 We onlye want to hav our funne!"

83 "But the Musselman is sure to see

84 Thy funne as Western hegemony.

85 'Tis not Cristian for Cristians to cause

86 The Moor to live by Cristendom's laws

87 Whan he has hise sovereyn culture

88 Crist bade us put ours in sepulture.

89 To be divyne we must first be diverse

90 So cheer thee well, thynges could be wors

91 Sharia is Englishe as tea and scones,

92 So everybody muste get stoned."

93 The pilgryms shuffled for the door

94 To face the rule of the Moor;

95 Poets, Professors, Starbucks workers

96 Donning turbans, veils and burqqas.

97 As they face theyr fynal curtan

98 Of Englande folk, one thynge is certan:

99 Dying by theyr own thousande cuts,

100 The Englande folk are folking nuts.

101 BURMA SHAVE

----------------------------------

I'm a poor Christian, performance wise. But at least I'm not an Anglican and have to pay attention to what some idiot head of a 'National Church' spouts as Social justice theology.

And God forgive me for judging others but I think I'm committing a pretty minor sin here when I say this guy, head of the Church of England, is either stupid or evil. Hmm.. can you be both? Maybe for St Peter to decide?

What could possibly go wrong?

Enterasys Wants You to Friend and Tweet with Your Switches and Routers

From CIO:

Enterasys this week rolled out software that allows network admins to access its management system via social media websites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Salesforce.com's Chatter.

Our DoE Gestapo

The first hint for many of us.. which I missed but some found curious was:

WaPo: Education Department buying 27 shotguns

Now we know WHY..

No Really: SWAT Team Raids House at 6 AM and Handcuffs Father of Three Young Kids to Execute a Dept. of Education Search Warrant for Estranged Wife's Defaulted Student Loans

STOCKTON, CA - Kenneth Wright does not have a criminal record and he had no reason to believe a S.W.A.T team would be breaking down his door at 6 a.m. on Tuesday.

"I look out of my window and I see 15 police officers," Wright said.

Wright came downstairs in his boxer shorts as a S.W.A.T team barged through his front door. Wright said an officer grabbed him by the neck and led him outside on his front lawn.

"He had his knee on my back and I had no idea why they were there," Wright said.

According to Wright, officers also woke his three young children ages 3, 7, and 11 and put them in a Stockton police patrol car with him. Officers then searched his house.

As it turned out, the person law enforcement was looking for was not there - Wright's estranged wife.

"They put me in handcuffs in that hot patrol car for six hours, traumatizing my kids," Wright said. [...]

The U.S. Department of Education issued the search and called in the S.W.A.T for his wife's defaulted student loans.

Oh.. wait!

It wasn't the Stockton SWAT team, it was the Department of Education 'OIG'.. no doubt using some of those 27 shotguns.
And it wasn't a loan default that got them called into action but possible criminal fraud..

Dept. of Education SWAT Raid Update: Not for a Student Loan, DoE Says

Well!!!!

All BETTER, then! We are INDEED becoming more egalitarian, don't you notice? Now white collar crime like fraud and embezzlement is treated exactly as if it were done by armed robbers. Besides being easier in the sleuthing side, it's more fun and you get a chance to use all that swell assault training.


As a favorite blogger of mine often sez... "They told me if I voted for McCain, {insert outrageous activity here}.. and they were right!"

Quasi-Intellect Leads to Insanity

Further proof of the imminent end-times:

Foreskin Man!
- decidedly 'Aryan Avenger' style, wot?

Yet another Joo-hate effort by the atheist quasi-intellectual bunch!
For all you soft-hearted idiots out there..

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/womens-health/articles/2009/03/25/circumcision-guards-against-stds

I'm sorry.. I'm no longer soft-peddling my views for those of you who read Lame-Stream-Media by the 'learned and Informed' who eschew the least bit of common sense because of their 4 or 7 years of academic indoctrination.

If you are stupid enough to take the word of your 'intellectual betters' over F@##$$4king common sense given you by God, you and your children deserve what you get!

Take it from one whose procedure was botched and suffered pain in adolescence because of it.. I'm STILL glad my mom did it!

H/T Hot Air!

*** 

For some more better news:

No handicap here:

***

BONUS!!!

Bank of America Gets Pad Locked After Homeowner Forecloses On It


DailyMail: President Obama wolfs down TWO chili dogs and fries... the day after his wife unveils new dietary guide

- If some of you hadnt yet noticed.. to get the REAL Scoop on some of the fascinating by-play in our government{s}, you have to read the BRITISH papers. Since it's not THEIR government.. hence no danger of being summarily excluded by Guvmint minders, they are free to look at ours.. unlike some unfortunates at the SF Chronicle who ask the wrong questions.
Good on OUR Pres. for doing .. or eating.. what he feels like with no regard to 'PC' .. shouldnt we all have that degree of choice? .. after all..

“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.”
–Thomas Jefferson

Why you MIGHT think he was talking about the corn Ethanol fuel, or GoreBull Warmening scams!!!
Or that to lose weight you need to go on a low-fat diet. After all the science is settled.. err.. well.. it WAS settled, wasnt it.?

Fannie and Freddie Frauds finally explored

Several years ago I posted on a soccer messageboard what I thought was the primary reason for the financial mess. It's all gone because someone supposedly hacked the site and the admin just wiped it out.
That was the CRA of 1999.

Funny thing is that most people using their common sense KNOW that government 'fair housing' programs incited the banking houses to get creative with those junk futures instruments. But in that thread all I got for rebuttal was mealy-mouth party memes.

But you'll get howls anytime you try to point fingers at exactly WHO was responsible. Because people will not admit that their political heroes would screw something up so badly. So far, the only politico I'm aware of who's come close is Bill Clinton. He said perhaps 'we went a little overboard'. I'll say! Before that you never heard all those mortgage brokers advertise 'no money down, up to 100% financing'.

Well someone has finally written a book on it and because of their credentials maybe someone will actually LOOK at Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and their role in the bust.

Volokh has thoughts and the link to the book:
A Book Length Account of Fannie and Freddie and Their Role in the Financial Crisis

Looks interesting. Maybe we'll get some justice in knowledge rather than just blaming the banks.

Palin exposes Media Boobs

Michelle Malkin has a precious writeup on how Sarah Palin has turned the tables on the very media that has mocked her since she's been in national politics:
Chasing Sarah: The Boys Behind the Bus

This is especially good:

The Atlantic's Garance Franke-Ruta griped that "reality TV star Palin" was "treating pol reporters like paparazzi -- needing and hating, inviting and making chase." Perhaps Franke-Ruta needs a reminder of what a truly parasitic press-pol relationship looks like. I have stacks of Obama 2008 profiles exulting over his glistening pecs and soaring oratorical skills, followed by countless spurned-lover laments from reporters disappointed about the control freaks who stage-manage his every press appearance.

As if they haven't ALWAYS treated Palin as if they were 'paparazzi'. How would you catalog Andrew Sullivan's fascination with her?

As my friend and blogging colleague Doug Powers put it: "Reporters whining about Palin are like kids who can't reach the cookie jar because she keeps moving it."

It's too bad the 'journalists' have forgotten how to do 'investigative reporting'. REAL press in the old days would be able to sniff out where she's going, obviously someone is expecting her somewhere. And you can bet it's not a union convention.

Now they'd rather just blame the stalkee for their own laziness.

And if they do figure it out that she's toying with them, they'll do it anyway:

NYT: Palin Dismisses the Media, but They Come Back for More