Creepy

This story about a private company that calls itself American Police Force, which has taken over (leased) a jail in a small town in Montana to build a multimillion-dollar "training facility," is all kinds of conspiracy-freak bait. (Oh, yeah, Alex Jones is all over this one.) However, this is the part that troubled me the most (emph. added):

And where is American Police Force getting the money for this venture? Company spokeswoman Becky Shay -- until about a week ago the Billings Gazette reporter covering APF -- says they are no plans to answer that question.

I'm well aware that this is far from the first reporter to trade her soul for the easy money of a flack job, but still. Ugh.

(h/t: Jim Newell)

ACORN, Part 2

Following up on Sunday's post, here is a second segment from Rachel Maddow in which she looks at the right-wing smear campaign against ACORN and SEIU. You could spend ten minutes in lots of less useful ways.

(alt. video link)

By the way, if you're interested in the study that Prof. Peter Dreier (Rachel's guest in the above clip) co-authored, visit here. The title is "Manipulating the Public Agenda: Why ACORN Was in the News, and What the News Got Wrong."

You may also wish to have a look at Jamison Foser's latest column, which among other comments, summarizes the report's key findings.

Sure, Maddow, Dreier, and Foser come from an obvious political leaning. But you're not going to hear these perspectives in too many other places, that's for sure, so if you've got an open mind, investing a few minutes in watching and reading should be well worth your while. Dreier gets it right when he says about this coordinated effort by the right to smear ACORN and SEIU: "... it's not about public policy, it's not about misuse of federal funds. It's about destroying the power of ordinary people to have a voice in their society."

(x-posted, sort of | h/t for the vid: Twin)

Sure It Doesn't Matter. That's Why We're Against It.

On last week's Real Time with Bill Maher, someone mentioned an interesting result from a new survey that had just been done in Iowa, where, you might remember, same-sex marriage recently became legal. I just thought to look it up, and yep, here it is, in the Des Moines Register, via Towleroad, via the Google:

The overwhelming majority of Iowans - 92 percent - say gay marriage has brought no real change to their lives.

Of course, more than half of the Republicans surveyed still "strongly oppose" it and say they would vote for a law to ban it.

Question: How many of these people in the past few months have said, or applauded, a line beginning, "Keep the government out of my …?"

Pundit Contest

The WaPo is having a new pundit contest. If you'd like a chance to gain riches ($200/wk for 13 weeks!) and possible renown, start cutting and pasting typing now!

(Or badgering someone else to.)

(h/t: PreppyMcPrepperson)

Now, that's ...

... a comic book I can believe in.

Number 2 on the "most emailed" list! Which means, huzzah, America is officially a center-nerd nation!

(x-posted)

"The Lie Machine"

Tim Dickinson has an article in the latest edition of Rolling Stone about the right wing's Astroturfing organizations, their close connections with senior Republican officials, and how they work to stir up "the base."

Here's part of the excerpt they've posted online:

Far from representing a spontaneous upwelling of populist rage, the protests were tightly orchestrated from the top down by corporate-funded front groups as well as top lobbyists for the health care industry. Call it the return of the Karl Rove playbook: The effort to mobilize the angriest fringe of the Republican base was guided by a conservative dream team that included the same GOP henchmen who Swift-boated John Kerry in 2004, smeared John McCain in 2000, wrote the script for Republican obstructionism on global warming, and harpooned the health care reform effort led by Hillary Clinton in 1993.

"The insurance industry is up to the same dirty tricks, using the same devious PR practices it has used for many years, to kill reform," says Wendell Potter, who stepped down last year as chief of corporate communications for health insurance giant CIGNA. "I'm certain that people showing up at these town halls feel that they're there on their own — but they don't realize they're being incited, ultimately, by the insurance industry and the other special interests."

Behind the scenes, top Republicans — including House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, Minority Leader John Boehner and the chairman of the GOP's Senate steering committee, Jim DeMint — worked hand-in-glove with the organizers of the town brawls. Their goal was not only to block health care reform but to bankrupt President Obama's political capital before he could move on to other key items on his agenda, including curbing climate change and expanding labor rights. As DeMint told an August teleconference of nearly 20,000 town-hall activists, "If we can stop him on this, the administration won't be able to go on to cap and trade, card check and the other things they want to do."

The article names plenty of names and details the financial connections. It's well worth reading, especially if you're not familiar with how the right-wing noise machine really works.

(h/t: James Fallows, via nikkibong)

ACORN

I wish I didn't have to call this six-minute commentary by Rachel Maddow gutsy, since she's pretty much just stating facts, but evidently, telling the truth about ACORN is something almost no one else -- including most Congressional Democrats and the overwhelming bulk of the so-called liberal media -- is courageous enough to do.

This is not as much a left/right issue as it is a piss on the poor people issue. The problem is, the poor people on the right are too dumb to figure that out.

(alt. video link)

(h/t: Twin, via email)

The State of Flux in the World of Fossils

If you're at all interested in paleoanthropology, this next hour will be a treat for you. Here is John Hawks being interviewed by Razib Khan on this week's "Science Saturday." I found it fascinating, both for the subject at hand and for the discussion of how the messy business of science is conducted in the real world.

(alt. video link)

As always with Bloggingheads.tv diavlogs, if you'd rather not sit in front of your computer and watch a streaming video, you can visit the "alt. video link" and download an audio or video file suitable for playing on your preferred electronic gizmo.

[Added 2009-10-17] See a follow-up diavlog here.

OMG!!! Obama's poll numberz are plummeting!!!1!

Or not.

The lede, from Public Policy Polling:

If Barack Obama had to stand for reelection today he'd win by as much as he did last year, if not more.

He leads Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, and Sarah Palin by anywhere from 7-15 points in hypothetical 2012 contests.

This is excellent news for John McCain.

(h/t: Adam Serwer)

"Sometimes All It Takes Is MS Paint To Blow Your Mind"

Post title and image stolen from Sons Of The Internet:

(h/t: PDP, via Facebook)

Just in case ...

... you still aren't yet at the point of erupting with laughter when some wingnut refers to the Washington Post as "part of the liberal media!!!1!," read DougJ.

I mean, when even some lame-ass Twatted about this last week …

Obama Speech at the UN

Here is President Obama addressing the United Nations General Assembly, today, 23 September 2009. It's about forty minutes long.

(alt. video link)

Text of the speech available, for example, here.

Scandal! What is the Wall Street Journal Trying To Hide?

(Updated. 2x. 3x.)

The WSJ apparently had posted some excerpts from a transcript of Sarah Palin's big secret speech to Hong Kong, but then they took them down!!!

What gaffes are they trying to cover up??? It would be irresponsible NOT to speculate. And where is Trig Sarah Palin's birth certificate???

Meantime, your eagle-eyed Wonkette Jim Newell spotted the short-lived post and grabbed the best bits, to laugh at.

He also directs us to a story about The Speech That Must Not Be Repeated in the (London) Times, where it is reported that it "sounded like a pitch for the 2012 presidency and was described by several members of the audience as “long, humourless and George W. Bush-like”. And! …

Several audience members reportedly walked out of Ms Palin’s speech 30 minutes before the end, citing “more important things to do” or describing the talk as “too partisan and too much like a speech at the Republican convention”.

__________

[Added] From AFP (via, via) we also understand that …

Two US delegates left early, with one saying "it was awful, we couldn't stand it any longer".

And …

Another [attendee] said he was disappointed that she took only pre-arranged questions.

TELEPROMPTERZ!!!

Also, more hints of a conspiracy so sinister, so vast …

CLSA, an arm of French bank Credit Agricole, said it closed Palin's session to the media after she indicated that she would have to adjust her speech if reporters were present.

Clearly, Sarah Palin was plotting with French bankers in Hong Kong to overthrow the American economy.

__________

[Added2] If you absolutely must see the lost WSJ post, Newell has a way. Or just try clicking this link.

[Added3] Some interesting backstory from YAFB on Rumproast (via).

Democracy in Action!

Not an entirely new thought to us political junkies following the Sisyphean attempts to drag America's health insurance system through the Senate up to something approximating civilized society, but Hendrik Hertzberg deserves big points for saying it so succinctly:

… the fate of reform may come down to the whims of a tiny handful of preening moderates from states that are mostly empty of people …

This should go without saying, since it's Hendrik Hertzberg, but the whole post, "Lies," is well worth reading.

(h/t: GB and KK)

Well, It's Not As Though Powerline Had Any Credibility To Worry About Losing

Still, updating your blogroll to drop LGF is one thing -- Charles Johnson stopped drinking the Kool-Aid long ago -- but adding Gateway Pundit and Breitbart's Big Ho?

I don't care how far to the right you are. You cannot blogroll those clowns and claim to be at all serious about ideas. They are permanent riders on the Short Bus to Wingnuttia.

CJ yawns. JC snickers.

__________

[Added] And what the hell, I'll add LGF to my blogroll to help make up for it.

LGF was a little crazy a few years ago, and I probably still disagree with CJ's take on some issues, but to my mind, anyone who skewers hate-filled bigots like Robert Stacey McCain and Dan Reihl as well as Charles Johnson does deserves a shoutout.

Plus, he believes in science, snickers at Glenn Beck, chastises Pat Buchanan, cares about the mess in Texas, and calls out astroturfing teabagger insanity. Imagine that.

All together now, wingnuts: CHARLES JOHNSON IS NOT A REAL CONSERVATIVE!!!1!

Short Profile of Felix Salmon

Kevin Drum shows an odd moment of sartorial anxiety, but his weird choice of quote aside, thanks to him for pointing me to this profile of financial blogger Felix Salmon by Marion Maneker. Here's an excerpt more representative of the tone of the piece than the one Drum chose, I think:

But every writer scribbles with an ideal reader in mind. Salmon is no exception. He may not covet the biggest audience but he does yearn for the best and most influential reader: "It’s a known fact," he says, "that Larry Summers reads a lot of blogs."

If that sort of audience is what he’s after, I ask, why not become a regular on CNBC? "Because Larry Summers doesn’t watch CNBC and say,'‘Oh my God, that’s interesting, I should actually think about that when conducting economic policy.’ CNBC is people shouting at each other. If we were to get into a screaming match about health care reform, it doesn’t matter how smart we are, we’re not going to be shedding any light. Whereas the blogosphere is really good at drilling down very quickly to the nub of the question. People talk about it like it’s the best graduate seminar ever invented."

Ah, who knows. Maybe Drum was just goofing around.

Anyway, Felix Salmon is at the very least an interesting person who bears a listen. Maneker's otherwise worthwhile piece did not mention the channel through which I know him best: his diavlogs on Bloggingheads.tv. He's both wonky -- I've learned as much about last autumn's financial meltdown from him as I have from anyone -- and fun in lots of other ways. He has opinions on art and wine, for example, that are a delight to hear. Plus, he's on a mission to expose Ben Stein for the con man that he is. Check Felix out there on Bh.tv, and see his blog here.

Another David Brooks Column ...

... another brilliant rebuttal from Mr. Riley.

Go. Now.

You know, there's stupid, ...

... there's wingnut-stupid, and then there's Gateway Pundit.

Long after even untroubled-by-the-facts bloggers like Michelle Malkin walked back their preposterous claims of the size of the latest teabagger party ("Hey, we said 2 million, we were only off by 1,930,000"), Jim Hoft has posted some photographs of relatively uncluttered lawns taken during the recent teabagger tantrum, compared them to some carefully selected photographs of trash taken after Obama's inauguration, and concluded not "Here is clear evidence that a crowd of 70,000 is very different from a crowd of 2,000,000" but "Here is clear evidence that conservatives are CLEAN and liberals are FILTHY."

Seriously.

And yeah, he's still parroting the lie that there were 2 million teabaggers there.

In Today's Edition of "Keep the Government out of my Medicare" ...

... we present for your snickering pleasure: Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas).

What does it tell you when even the Wall Street Journal is mocking a teabagger Republican member of Congress?

(h/t: Jim Newell)

"Excellent nature photography not by me" ...

... sez the subject line of a KK email, in which the following was enclosed. Click it to big it.

Up For a Little Preaching?

First, via the Angry Professor, here is a clip from the Rachel Maddow Show, titled "You Can't Handle Evolution."

(alt. video link)

Next, via the Atheist Media Blog, here is "Mr. Deity and the Skeptic," with special guest star Michael Shermer.

(alt. video link)

If you don't know "Mr. Deity," I envy you, because you have two and a half seasons worth of goodness to catch up on. (Added: promise: in the rest of the episodes, there isn't even the hint of stridency that this one has. Pure comedy.)

Speaking of not checking the facts ...

... (which I was, at the end of the last post), it's pretty instructive to see how quickly Fox News jumped all over the latest ACORN-related nonsense -- MURDER!!!1! -- based on nothing more than Drudge tool Andrew Breitbart's say-so.

If you're interested in another example of how wingnutosphere-generated smears find their way into the MSM, Media Matters has several posts unraveling this. Start here, note the quote from the ACORN employee in question at the end of this press release, and read a good analysis/opinion piece here.

(h/t: Twin, via email)

Orly Taitz Spanked

You absolutely must read the judge's decision (14 page PDF -- a quick read, you can skip the obvious boilerplate) in the lawsuit filed by the Queen B of the Birthers. The word "birther" is used repeatedly, and even the footnotes are sarcastic. Money quote from the intro:

After conducting a hearing on Plaintiff’s motion, the Court finds that Plaintiff’s claims are frivolous. Accordingly, her application for a temporary restraining order (Doc. 3) is denied, and her Complaint is dismissed in its entirety. Furthermore, Plaintiff’s counsel is hereby notified that the filing of any future actions in this Court, which are similarly frivolous, shall subject counsel to sanctions.

This is the second time (here's the first) Taitz has found some sap in the US military to go along with an idea of "I won't go to a combat zone, because it's illegal for our illegal Commander in Chief to illegally order me to." The judge is none too kind to the soldier, either, one Captain Connie Rhodes, saying among other things:

The American taxpayers paid for her third and fourth years of medical school and financially supported her during her subsequent medical internship and residency program. In exchange for this valuable free medical education, Captain Rhodes agreed to serve two years in active service in the Army. She began that term of active service in July of 2008 and had no concerns about fulfilling her military obligation until she received orders notifying her that she would be deployed to Iraq in September of 2009.

[...]

Her “conscientious objections” to serving under the current Commander in Chief apparently can be accommodated as long as she is permitted to remain on American soil.

Expect the usual suspects to howl about the LIBERAL JUDGE DISRESPECTING THE TROOPS. You'll know, though they won't, because wingnuts rarely use the Google when the facts might interfere with the fauxtrage, that he was appointed by George W. Bush.

(h/t: Jim Newell | pic. source)

WOLVERINES!!!1!

You can't make this stuff up: Wingnut complains Washington Post is liberal (bad word!) because …

 … I can't believe I'm even about to type this …

 … because "Red Dawn" isn't mentioned until paragraph 23 of Patrick Swayze's obituary.

Quote marks are now mandatory when referring to Brent Bozell's Media "Research" Center and its blog, "News" "Busters."

Zirkle!

Who knows what prompted D. Aristophanes to bring up that name from the long ago past (April 2008), but in Googling to make up for my faulty memory, I came across a delightful bit of new news: this Republican candidate for Congress and neo-Nazi has lost his law license for, among other things, "charging clients for 'incompetent services.'"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

(pic. source | even worse hairdo here | and here)

Just Asking

How many of the wingnuts howling about the refusal of the LIEbrul meedee-uh to cover the ACORN nontroversy are the same wingnuts who were howling six weeks ago about that horrible Mike Stark and his "entrapment" of Congressional Birther Republicans?

__________

[Added] Via Juli Weiner, here are some real world consequences to the non-stop demonization of ACORN by the right-wing noise machine.

Glad to see the Democrats showing their usual steely resolve, ignoring these largely imaginary accusations, and staying focused on looking out for the most vulnerable. Now that's leadership! </sarcasm>

But seriously, it is good to see Congress denying funding to groups which have even a whiff of past fraud associated with them, amirite? </sarcasm>

[Added] More along the lines of the last paragraph, from TBogg.

Guilty Pleasure of the Day

Doghouse Riley shoots fish in a barrel looks at a recent column by David Brooks.

[Added] On a more serious note, but with nearly as brain-dead a set of targets, see also Mr. Riley's response to the Three Stooges and their recent WSJ op-ed. Who knew we had a new "central front in the global war on terror?" And come to that, I thought the GWOT™ brand was shelved halfway through W's second term. Is it possible that these three really are this devoid of new ideas?

Yes.

"Welcome" To My Country

Would you believe … a movie about Charles Darwin is "too controversial" to get American distribution?

Believe it.

Excuse me. Gotta go see how much gin is in the house …

(h/t: Andrew Sullivan, via Riley Waggaman)

[Added] Here's another reason two more reasons to want this movie here!

Eye Candy (New and Improved!)

The Sacramento Bee has a set of pictures taken by the Hubble, which, as you may recall, was refurbished and upgraded this past May. These are among the first released by NASA since then. Pretty spectacular.

Waiting from Richard Hoagland (who?) to complain that there are none of Mars in 5..., 4..., 3...

(h/t: KK, via email)

Jonah Goldberg Probably Also Thinks ...

... the only problem with battered women is they never knew when to STFU.

I guess Jeri Ryan never returned any of your fan mail, eh, Doughy?