Thursday, March 24, 2011

"Media watchers said it was a 'news article' -- Reuters' term for its regular excretion of Leftist propaganda."

President Obama prefers to use the term Kinetic Military Action for War. And Man-Caused Disaster for Terrorist Attack. And, like Big Brother, certain media outlets have embraced the Statists' doublespeak. Exhibit A: Reuters, attempting to cover yesterday's horrific terror bombing in Jerusalem that killed one woman and wounded 30.

A bomb planted in a bag exploded near a bus stop in a Jewish district of Jerusalem on Wednesday, killing a woman and injuring at least 30 people, in an attack police blamed on Palestinian militants.

...Police said it was a "terrorist attack" -- Israel's term for a Palestinian strike. It was the first time Jerusalem had been hit by such a bomb since 2004.

...Over 500 Israeli civilians died in 140 Palestinian suicide bomb attacks from 2000 to 2007. More than 4,500 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the same period. [Ed: Moral equivalence alert.]

...On Tuesday, Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip killed four Palestinian civilians, including three children playing football, and five militants, medical officials said.

...Israel launched a three-week war on the impoverished coastal enclave in 2009, killing about 1,400 Palestinians and drawing heavy international censure. Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in a 2007 coup, had mostly held fire since then.

Gaza is impoverished because it is an armed military camp at war with both Egypt and Israel. The West Bank is an armed military camp at war with both Jordan and Israel.

The barbaric assaults on Israeli civilians have been going on for decades, not because of any "peace movement", but because Hamas wants to exterminate infidels. Hell, it's in their damn charter.

A more despicable propaganda piece you'd be hard-pressed to find, which is why Reuters deserves its handle of Al Reutzeera.


Hat tip: Memeorandum.

Photo Album: The $1 Home and Other Phenomena of Democrat Governance

Yesterday's news that Detroit lost 25% of its population in the last decade should come as no surprise to those familiar with the unholy alliance of corrupt Democrat politicians and union bosses. Besides Michigan, the states of California, Illinois and New York are next on the chopping block. Decades of unchecked Democrat rule have left cities and states wastelands akin to a Mad Max movie.

Go to Zillow and look at a aerial photo of Detroit... You can buy homes all over Detroit for less than $10,000. For less than $500,000 you could buy 4 or 5 city blocks, build a mansion, surrounded by razor wire of course... Property taxes on a Detroit $400k house of $15,000 / yr. as compared to West Palm's $6,800. If they would cut those taxes they might still have some people wanting to live there.

Let's do a fly-over, shall we?







When President Obama talks about affordable homes for all, I have a feeling this is what he has in mind.


Update: For those refugees still nostalgic about Detroit, there's always the burned-out Detroit Lego home.

Larwyn's Linx: Let's export Ken Salazar to Brazil

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

Let's export Ken Salazar to Brazil: Malkin
Gov. Walker: “It’s pretty clear the law is on our side”: Cubachi
CAIR Officials Sought Gaddafi Money: BigPeace

We have officially entered the Twilight Zone: babalu
Why would we expect the children of illegals to like America?: RWN
Impounds and Illegals: Dunphy

Waiting for the WI Court of Appeals: LegalIns
Rubio on the anniversary of Obamacare: Cubachi
Pence: it's 'still a government takeover of health care': Cubachi

Economy

'We Are at War' – NEA’s Plan of Attack: Greenroom
Don't you feel sorry for these retiring government workers?: RWN
IRS Sits By As Inmates Collect Fraudulent Tax Refunds: JW

Top 10 Things Obama Never Told You About Obamacare: ATR
An Obamacare Weiner-Waiver for New York City?: Malkin
Packing Up for Texas: RWN

Unreported Soros Event Aims to Remake Entire Global Economy: MRC
Pity, compassion, and Obama's welfare state: Elephant
New-home sales plunged in February to record low: AP

Media

Union Thuggery: Why Isn't It News?: Power Line
Lefties Defend Obamacare: Surber
Legally Speaking: Jamie Gorelick: Washingtonian

Media Matters Pundit Boot Camp: RightSphere
How Kristol, Wehner and Co. Hijacked Reagan's Foreign Policy Toward The Left: Riehl
What Would Palin Do?: PJM

Governor Palin Speaks to Sold-out Crowd in Naples, Florida: Con4Palin
Media Coverage of Bus Bombing Emphasizes Settlements, “Palestinian Victims”: Commentary
Van Jones’ Color of Change Fails To Oust Breitbart From Huffpo; Huffpo Defends: BigJourn

World

What’s Really Behind Those Horrific Photos; And Will Obama Get The Blame?: BigPeace
Unreal. Obama Releases Statement on Jerusalem Terrorist Bus Bombing – Talks About Palestinian Victims: GWP
Sympathy for Evil: Zilla

Hacker Collective Anonymous Issues Open Letter To Citizens Of The United States: ZH
Virginia Military Institute celebrating Islamic conquest of Spain: Creeping
Mother Jones Attacks Franklin Graham for Exposing Muslim Brotherhood in Obama Administration: NewsReal

SciTech

That was quick: Four lines of code takes out The New York Times’ paywall: NiemanLab
Google, Yahoo, Skype targeted in attack linked to Iran: CNet
StatCounter: Firefox 4 Has Already Eclipsed Internet Explorer 9: TechCrunch

Cornucopia

The Best Tweets of Twitter's First Five Years: Atlantic
Why it's tough to make fun of President Obama: Ross Bennett
First pictures emerge of the Fukushima Fifty as steam starts pouring from all four reactors: DailyMail (UK)

MS Fix-It Out of Beta: C&S
Late night comics start in on Obama: PolFin
Remember When Following Our Leaders Blindly Was Not Cool?: LegalIns

Image: C&S
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Wisconsin's Recall Integrity Center

QOTD: "When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that justifies it." --Frederic Bastiat

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

It just keeps getting better and better: 'Mistress of Disaster' Jamie Gorelick On President Obama's Short List for FBI Director

Word around the Beltway has it that longtime Democrat operative Jamie Gorelick is one of the favorites for the FBI director role under President Obama. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, for starters, it's not often that the same person plays key roles in two -- count 'em, two -- trillion-dollar disasters.

In 2004, observers were "astonished" to discover that a key member of the 9/11 Commission had a fatal conflict-of-interest. Jamie Gorelick had served as a Deputy Attorney General under Bill Clinton from 1994 to 1997.

It was later revealed that Gorelick had established a pre-Patriot Act "wall" that prevented the foreign intelligence and criminal investigative communities from collaborating.

Her 1995 memo, entitled "Instructions on Separation of Certain Foreign Counterintelligence and Criminal Investigations", stated explicitly that they would "go beyond what is legally required, [to] prevent any risk of creating an unwarranted appearance that FISA is being used to avoid procedural safeguards which would apply in a criminal investigation."

The result: shortly before 9/11, Gorelick's wall "specifically impeded the investigation into Zacarias Moussaoui", the so-called "20th hijacker."

At the time, an enraged FBI investigator wrote a memo to headquarters which included the sentence, 'Whatever has happened to this -- someday someone will die -- and wall or not -- the public will not understand why we were not more effective..."

The 2004 disclosure that Gorelick's service as a 9/11 Commissioner was the archetypical conflict-of-interest should have triggered a cacophony of complaints and demands for a new investigation. Instead, the mainstream media turned deaf and dumb and the controversy faded into the background.

Gorelick's "wall" wrapped a blindfold around America just when it needed its vision to stop the attacks that killed thousands and which sucked a half a trillion dollars out of the economy.

Where did Gorelick turn up next?

Though she had no training or experience in finance, Gorelick was appointed the Vice Chairman of Fannie Mae and served in the role from 1997 to 2003. During that six-year period, she earned over $26 million.

During Gorelick's tenure, FNMA suffered a $10 billion accounting scandal, an ominous harbinger of the firm's looming troubles. One of the falsified transactions helped FNMA hit earnings targets for 1998, which triggered bonuses for top executives including nearly $800,000 to Gorelick.

Put simply "Jamie Gorelick was one of the Fannie executives who benefited from inflated bonuses based on Enron-style accounting."

In 2002 Business Week interviewed Gorelick concerning the health of FNMA. She responded, "We believe we are managed safely. We are very pleased that Moody's gave us an A-minus in the area of bank financial strength -- without a reference to the government in any way. Fannie Mae is among the handful of top-quality institutions."

Less than a year later regulators "accused Fannie Mae of improper accounting to the tune of $9 billion in unrecorded losses."

Today, of course, FNMA is on taxpayer-funded life support, currently trading at 27 cents a share. Its implosion devastated investors around the world. And because it was thought to have been "managed safely" (Gorelick's words), many top-flight financial services companies held its stock.

In 2008 it was revealed that top insurer AIG was toppled, in part, because it held $600 million in Fannie and Freddie. Roughly $4 billion in those stocks were held by insurers before the implosion, according to rating agency A.M. Best.

Put simply, FNMA's collapse helped touch off the entire financial crisis.

It's not often that one person plays such a key role in two unmitigated disasters.

Democrat Jamie Gorelick is just such a person; that is why she has earned her nom de guerre "The Mistress of Disaster".

What do you call someone with a Midas Touch, only instead of gold everything they touch turns to s***? That's what Gorelick's got.

Oh, and did I mention that Gorelick was also involved with subprime mortgage securitization?

I'm guessing we could link her family to a few other catastrophes if we did the legwork. Where were her parents when the Hindenberg exploded, for instance?


Update: "AFTER HER 9/11 AND HOUSING DEBACLE BACKGROUND who better for FBI Director than Jamie Gorelick?"


Linked by: Michelle Malkin, Ace o' Spades and Legal Insurrection. Thanks!

Escape From Detroit

The incomparable Mark Levin often likens Democrats to locusts. Their policies destroy their own cities and towns, at which point many up and move to new places. Like red states. And they begin their destruction anew. And never once do they contemplate the rationale for their move -- that it is their collectivist ideology that eviscerates societies, as it has for centuries.

And nowhere is evidence of that phenomenon more apparent than Detroit, where Democrats have controlled every apparatus of city and county government for eons.

The population of Detroit has fallen back 100 years.

The flight of middle-class African-Americans to the suburbs fueled an exodus that cut Detroit's population 25% in the past decade to 713,777, according to Census Bureau data released Tuesday. That's the city's lowest population level since the 1910 census, when automobile mass production was making Detroit Detroit.

The decline, the fastest in city history, shocked local officials, who had expected a number closer to 800,000. Mayor Dave Bing said the city would seek a recount.

"If we could go out and identify another 40,000 people that were missed, and it brings us over the threshold of 750,000, that would make a difference from what we can get from the federal and state government," Mr. Bing said at a news conference Tuesday.

So Mayor Bing wants more money from the state and federal governments.

Here's a news flash, genius: both are broke.

Be proud of your wondrous city! Be proud of what the Democrat Party has done for Detroit... for Michigan... for New York, California and Illinois! Take some credit, Mayor Bing! Rejoice, for you are the Party of Locusts!


Hat tip: D&S.

But don't worry, the Fed says there's no inflation risk: Experts predict collapse of dollar as commodity prices skyrocket

Runner-up headline: Mission Cloward-Piven nears completion

Jeff Clark of Casey Research, writing at Zero Hedge, offers us the transcript of a roundtable featuring some of the world's best macroeconomic minds, Peter Schiff and billionaire Jim Rogers among them.

The "highlights":

Q: A lot of economists, including the government, believe the worst is behind us economically. Do you agree? If not, what should we be on the lookout for in 2011?

Jim Rogers: It is better for those getting all the government largesse, but the overall situation is worse. More currency turmoil. State and local problems, plus pension problems.

Bill Bonner: None of the problems that caused the crises in Europe and America have been resolved...

Peter Schiff: ...We are [like] an indebted family going out for an expensive meal to celebrate getting approved for a new credit card. It might feel good (at the time), but we're still simply delaying the inevitable...

John Williams: An intensifying economic downturn – what formally will be viewed as the second dip of a double-dip depression – already has started to unfold. The problem with the economy remains structural, where household income is not growing fast enough to beat inflation...

Steve Henningsen: ...What I will be watching for this year is sovereign and U.S. municipal debt corpses floating to the surface sometime in the months ahead...

Krassimir Petrov: ...No, the worst is yet to come. No structural changes have been made, no problems have been fixed. Printing money, a.k.a. Quantitative Easing, is a quick fix that has postponed the problem, yet also made it a lot worse. I would say that we are still in the early stages of the crisis and have another 4-8 years to go.

Bob Hoye: The worst of the post-bubble economic adversity is not behind us.

...Q: The U.S. dollar ended 2010 about where it started; does it resume its downtrend in 2011, or are fears about its demise overblown?

Jim Rogers: No, but further down the road...

Peter Schiff: It's hard to pinpoint exactly when the dollar will collapse, but it will take a miracle to avoid that outcome in the near term. It really depends on when the creditors of the United States realize that they are not going to get their principal returned to them in real terms, but rather in grossly devalued dollars. We have already seen the average duration of U.S. Treasury debt drop below that of Greece. No one wants to buy a 30-year bond with negative real interest rates as far as the eye can see...

John Williams: There remains high risk of a dollar selling panic unfolding in the year ahead, as the U.S. economy tanks anew, as the Fed continuously expands its easing, and as dollar holders dump the U.S. currency and dollar-denominated paper assets. Such would be a precursor to the inflation problem.

Thanks to reckless borrowing and spending programs like the "Stimulus" program, which failed to stimulate anything but government hiring, the U.S. dollar is tanking. The charts above represent the day's spot price of gold, oil and silver, respectively.

They continue to shoot to new highs, seemingly on a daily basis.

But Ben Bernanke, who completely failed to predict the housing crisis, now insists that long-term inflation risks are "unlikely."

In other news, Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President just stated that the U.S. is at a "tipping point" and that it is "on a fiscal path to insolvency."

And America's current entitlement programs -- Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid -- are all headed for collapse if left untended. And rather than fix those problems, Democrats rammed a new entitlement program, Obamacare, down our throats last year; it will be the largest such program in world history.

As James Simpson aptly put it, "It is time to cast aside all remaining doubt. President Obama is not trying to lead America forward to recovery, prosperity and strength. Quite the opposite, in fact."

And now we have proof: the Left is trying to collapse our society.

Our only choice in 2012 is to politically eradicate the traitorous Democrat Party; to vote for the most conservative candidates possible; and to try and restore the rule of law in this country.

Anything less condemns our country to an ugly fate: the exact kind of collapse advocated by Cloward and Piven.

2012 is right around the corner. What are you doing to help reestablish Constitutional conservatism?


Larwyn's Linx: The 12 Worst Features of Obamacare

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

The 12 Worst Features of Obamacare: IBD
DOJ Memo Confirms Terrorists Have Crossed the Border: PJM
13 Illegals Arrested Wearing US Military Uniforms: Powers

Sen. Rand Paul on his nearly $4 trillion budget cut: Cubachi
Obama's War on the Middle Class: AT
Obama's health care reform is unhealthy for hospitals: BaltSun

Obama, the Left, and War: Kerwick
Adam and the Eve of a New Election Cycle in Florida: NRO
How Washington Ruined Your Washing Machine: WSJ

Economy

President Obama's Crony Capitalism: IBD
If I Were President: Obamacare, One Year In: Romney
Fed Official: US Approaching Insolvency: CNBC

It's About the Power Struggle: Knish
NJ judge rules money grows on trees: WyBlog
Japan and Libya - the Week That Was: Sargen

Climate & Energy

President Obama Can’t Wait to Buy More Foreign Oil: Foundry
Everything Old is New Again--Or Maybe Not: Elephant
Berkeley Prof Explains 'Trick' to 'Hide the Decline': BlogProf

Media

Valor Without Irony: Hayward
Armchair Barbarism :Spectator (Phillips)
So, How Did Rube Andi Sullivan Really Do?: Riehl

Sell Out: How I Started Working With Breitbart: Stranahan
'Too Good a Pleasure to Forego': RSM
Repeating History: ProWis

Black, Brown, White: Leftists Come in All Colors: BMW
Was Adam Smith the 18th-century’s Paul Krugman?: Hayek
IBD Poll Suggests 30 Million Americans Seeking Job: IBD

World

There are some things you simply don’t farm out — and national security is one of those things: Bookworm
Coalition of Confusion: Spiked Online
After the Tsunami: Japanese Return Home: ABC

Iraq vs. Libya: Obama Takes a Swipe at Bush for… What Exactly?: Malkin (Powers)
Understanding Obama: His One-World View and Foreign Policy: PJM
Multiculturalism in France: CBN

A Chavez Terror Network?: Fausta
What do you want for $4 million an hour?: Pundette
Obama To Brazil: ‘We Want To Be One Of Your Best Customers": SHN

SciTech

7 Implications of an AT&T/T-Mobile Merger: PopMech
Amazon, Android and Open Source: NetworkWorld
Court rejects Google Books settlement: CNet

Cornucopia

Stemless at the Stern: MOTUS
Woman Caught Lover Going To Opposite Field: TSG
Joint Chiefs Explain Libya War Goals: PacIntel

The Work Behind the 10 Most Creative Commercials Ever: BizPundit
Real Men of Genius - Salute to Mr. Combat Reflective Belt Sash Wearer: BlackFive
A Few Sunday Thoughts: PRS

Image: Tulip Landscapes in Spring
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague." --Marcus Tullius Cicero (h/t: D&S)

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

10 of the strangest toys in history

Words fail.











Hat tip: R-Lo.

Didn't FDR execute a few people for doing what this ex-SEIU official is caught on tape espousing?

Runner-up headline: Caught on Tape: Ex-SEIU Hack Openly Plots to Collapse America's Free Market System and Overthrow the United States Government

I've said it before and I'll say it again. You can't be a progressive and honestly take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. The progressive agenda is completely, utterly at odds with America's highest law.

And no one makes this more clear than ex-SEIU official Steve Lerner, who patiently explained a few days ago how the Democrats, the unions and the Soros globalists are helping to destroy the United States from within.

The headings are my "reader's digest" version -- but the words are those of the Leftists who are plotting to destroy you, your children and your way of life. But don't listen to me: listen to them.

W: We’re going to hear from Steve Lerner next, of SEIU, the Architect of the Justice for Janitors campaign. Currently, he’s working on partnering with unions and groups in Europe and South America, it’s building campaigns to hold financial institutions accountable.

The Left's Goal: to Destabilize the United States Financial System


S. Lerner: It seems to me that we’re in a moment where we need to figure out in a much more, through direct action, much more concrete way how we really are trying to disrupt and create uncertainty for capital, for how corporations operate. And it may sound like that’s a crazy thing that in a moment of weakness we could deal with it, but the thing about a boom and bust economy, it is actually incredibly fragile, because it’s not based on real way, well, it’s based on gambling and all of that. And so there are actually extraordinary things that we could do right now that would start to de, destabilize the folks that are in power and start to rebuild a movement...

Start by Collapsing the Banks


...And for example, 10% of homeowners, going back to where you started, who are under, a quarter of all people who own a home are under water. Right? Their home is under water, they’re paying more for it than it’s worth. Ten percent of those people are now in strategic default, meaning they’re refusing to pay but they’re staying in their homes. That’s totally spontaneous. Right? They figured out it takes a year to kick me out of my home because the mort, the foreclosure’s backed up. I’m going to say I won’t pay. It’s just what business does, it’s a good, a good business decision. If you could double that number, you would make banks, put banks on the edge of insolvency again.

How the Left Will Accomplish Collapse of the System


And so the question would be, what would happen if we organized homeowners in mass to do a mortgage strike. Just say if we get, and, and, if we get half a million people to agree, we’ll all not, we’ll agree we won’t pay our mortgages, it would literally cause a new financial crisis.

Let's go after J.P. Morgan!


...So, a bunch of us around the country are thinking about who would be a really good company to hate? We decided that would be JP Morgan Chase. …. And so we’re going to roll out over the next couple of months what will hopefully be an exciting campaign about JP Morgan Chase that is really about challenge the power of Wall Street. And so what we’re looking at is in the first week of May, we get enough people together – we’re starting now – to really have a week of action in New York with the goal of … I don’t want to go into any details because I don’t know which police agents are in the room, but the goal would be that we would roll out in New York the first week in May—

We're Going to Foment Civil Unrest and Break Down the Civil Society


[We] …connect three ideas – that we’re not broke, there’s plenty of money; they have the money, we need to get it back; and that they’re using Bloomberg and other people in government as the vehicle to try to destroy us. And so that we need to take on those folks at the same time and that will start here. We’re going to look at a week of civil disobedience, direct action all over the city, then we’ll roll into the JP Morgan shareholder meeting, which they moved out of New York because they were afraid, I guess, of Columbus, where there’s going to be a ten state mobilization to try to shut down that meeting. And then looking at bank shareholder meetings around the country and try to create some moments like Madison, except where we’re on offense instead of defense. Where we have brave and heroic battles challenging the power of the giant corporations, and we hope to sort of inspire a much bigger movement about redistributing wealth and power in the country.

'Create Conditions of Ungovernability' (Overthrow the Government)


W: You were talking about why unions are so invested because of their pension plans and why ungovernability, as Frances Fox Piven and Cloward taught us, you know, poor peoples’ movements are successful when they create conditions of ungovernability. And then you win victories...

If we had a real Attorney General, Lerner would be arrested on the spot for plotting to overthrow the United States government. For waging war against the American people and our Constitution.

I hear that used to be a crime. In fact, if memory serves, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt executed a few American citizens on that charge.


Hat tip: Protein Wisdom.

Crony Capitalism Today: Ma Bell 2.0 Invested $15.5M to Lobby Federal Government Just Prior to Its Planned Takeover of T-Mobile

AT&T's recent announcement that it will buy wireless provider T-Mobile is yet another potentially crippling blow to the free market. In the exploding world of wireless, crony capitalism is helping to destroy competition.

And it's all been facilitated by horrific policies set down by the FCC and Congress, who have benefited mightily over the decades by thoroughly abusing their power to regulate.

AT&T is rallying its already massive lobbying efforts in Washington D.C., to get regulatory approval of its plan to buy Bellevue-based T-Mobile USA for $39 billion.

The WSJ reports that AT&T has a sizable lobbying army in D.C., with 93 lobbyists working its behalf. AT&T spent $15.5 million to lobby the federal government last year...

Gee, but I'm sure that's all coincidental.

And it looks like money will win out over the interests of the consumer as even the left-leaning FCC chairman appears to be open to the deal.

Executive Summary: the FCC is going to help reconstitute Ma Bell all over again. Let's call it Ma Bell 2.0.

The damage to the economy will be significant as it results in less competition, less risk-taking, less entrepreneurship, and less innovation. Higher prices for consumers and a step backwards for the U.S.

I can prove it.

Think of the most unregulated marketplace in the U.S. One with the least government intervention. If you answered software and Internet applications, you're a winner.

Over the last 25 years, the largely unregulated world of software has created untold trillions in value creation: Amazon, Microsoft, Google, eBay, Oracle, Facebook... the list goes on and on. Anyone with a good idea and some hacking skills can create a business worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.

No regulation. Unfettered competition.

But our disastrous telecom policy-makers can't stop regulating. If the federal government wants to spend money, it should subsidize fiber optic and wireless infrastructure to every home and every business to help give consumers more choice of pipe. Nowadays Internet connectivity is as basic a service as water or sewer lines.

The government should be there to promote commerce, not inhibit it.

The country that invented the Internet is quickly turning into a technological backwater thanks to the crony capitalism of the FCC, Congress and the telco/cable duoply.

They are invested in the past -- and no possible good can come from this deal. I'll put it this way: do you trust America's entrepeneurs or a Ma Bell reconstituted by a bunch of hacks in Washington?


Related: Beltway Comix: the FCC watchin' out for the little guy

Vying for the Krugman award, liberal econ blogger Barry Ritholtz markets the standard progressive fare: Fox-bashing propaganda

What exactly this story has to do with economics is beyond me, but Barry Ritholz's popular econ blog -- The Big Picture -- ran a headline earlier today that read "Fox News: Less Honest than Dictatorships."

Well, the post is nothing but a copy-paste of a CNN rush transcript that boils down to the following dialogue.

WOLF BLITZER, HOST: On another related – unrelated matter – maybe it is related – I want you to explain what you know about this suggestion Fox News reporting that you, a Reuters crew, some other journalists, were effectively used by Gadhafi as a human shield to prevent Allied fighter planes from coming in and attacking a certain position.

Explain what you know about this.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this allegation is outrageous and it’s absolutely hypocritical. You know, when you come to somewhere like Libya, you expect lies and deceit from the dictatorship here. You don’t expect it from the other journalists...

...So for them to say and call this – to say they didn’t go and for them to call this and say this was government propaganda to hold us there as human shields when they didn’t even leave the hotel, the correspondent didn’t leave the hotel and go and see for himself, is ridiculous.

We were taken there. We went in through the security. We filmed the building. We were given 15, 20 minutes to do that, five minutes in Gadhafi’s tent and then we were taken out... And I was literally physically pushed back on the bus when we left... That’s how quickly the government officials wanted to get us out.

Of course, the real story is simple. Jennifer Griffin simply reported what her sources in the defense community told her. No less a source than the left-leaning MediaBistro reported after CNN's diatribe that "Jennifer Griffin [is] sticking by report on journalists being used as human shields in Libya".

Griffin did not get into the media-on-media fracas touched off by her report earlier today in which British sources told her their mission last night was cut short because of the presence of the Western journalists and several Libyan civilians...

“They felt that the civilians and journalists had effectively been used as human shields and that was frustrating to them,” said Griffin tonight. “It was a very close call. In fact one official told me that there was a Reuters crew literally on a spot where they were going to drop a missile.”

...Griffin is sticking by her original report that “the Libyan government is using journalists as human shields.”

In fact, yesterday The New York Times -- not exactly a mouthpiece for the conservative right -- ran a story headlined "At Qaddafi Compound, a Human Shield."

For that matter, earlier today London's Daily Express ran with a screaming all-caps lede that read "COLONEL GADDAFI’S SUPPORTERS SURROUND HIS HOME AS HUMAN SHIELDS."

Finally, Amnesty International -- a true right-wing conspiracy if there ever was one -- even published a FAQ regarding Gaddafi's use of human shields ("What about reports that Libya is using ‘human shields’?"

It's in CNN's interest -- given that its ratings are trailing the Hallmark Channel and airport radar -- to foment a "controversy". And leftist econ blogger Barry Ritholz is more than happy to oblige, so long as it means his analysis consists of typing an inflammatory headline, followed by [Ctrl]+[C] and [Ctrl]+[V].

Somewhere, Paul Krugman is green with envy.


Larwyn's Linx: Pence - Fund government a day at a time if necessary

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

Pence: Fund the government one day at a time if necessary: Cubachi
Awesome: Obama unveils 'Conservation Youth Corps': GWP
Claire McCaskill 'forgot' to pay $200K in taxes on her plane: GWP

Union-bought Dems rush to aid of NLRB?: RS
Majority of emailers supported Scott Walker's stance: Cubachi
CORE Rejects Trumka's MLK Comparison as 'Absurd', 'Insulting': AmSpec

Obama writes Congress from Chile, explains 'discrete' attack: WZ
Chicago’s Most Notorious Priest Finally On Way Out?: RWN
Allen West Mimics Harry Reid: SharkTank

Economy

Obama's Secret Tax Hidden in Budget: Ace
We Already Tax the Rich More Than Any Western Nation: RWN
Union members should know their leaders are betraying them: WashExam

Obamacare turns 1 with 21 new or higher taxes: ATR
Whoa: Some WI teachers got 90 sick days a year: GWP
'Queering' California History Books: The Final 'Frontier': RWN

Climate & Energy

Another Gulf Oil Spill Near Deepwater Drilling Site – W&T’s Matterhorn SeaStar: SHN
The Fall of the House of TEPCO: AT
Oh, Noes, Globull Warming Caused Rising Seas Threaten New Jersey: RWN

Obama: Drill, Brazil, Drill!: IBD
Energy Secretary Chu Embraces High Gas Prices, Again: Foundry
AGW Assclown Non Sequitur Of The Week: CBullitt

Media

Hey, NPR: Fund your own lame liberal humor — and leave my family alone: Malkin
Democrats Celebrate One-Year Anniversary of ObamaCare by Lying About It: Ace
Liberal Media Stunned: Emails Show Public Favored Scott Walker’s Union Bill: GWP

Why Are NRO And Heritage Undermining Conservatism's Future?: Riehl
What Are You Waiting For?: TL In Exile
They F***ing Hate You: BSFootprint

The Compliments Just Keep Pouring In For Obama In Libya: RWN
Tingles: “Right’s Support of Israel Not Based on Friendships or Values… Just a Weird Right-Wing Thing”: WZ
Paul Krugman and The Know-Nothings: AT (Lewis)

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Editor On WI Union Violence: ‘You Reap What You Sow’: BigJourn
Minnesota Republicans Seek To Arrest Poor People For Carrying More Than $20 On Their Persons: Ace
The Two Modes of America's Child Emperor: No Sheeples

World

Five Of The World’s Most Dangerous Places to Be a Christian: AllAm
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Accuses Obama of “Lying”: WZ
Freedom-Loving Jihadists Stone Mohamed ElBaradei in Cairo: Atlas

Stumbling into the Libyan War: PJM
Syria: The Revolt Continues: Ledeen
Official Photograph: Governor Palin Meets Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: GWP

Soros Invests $811 Million In Brazilian Oil: S&L
(PJM Exclusive) Iran Orders Attacks on Saudi Interests Worldwide: PJM
Army Braces For Worst As Trophy Photos of Murdered Afghan Civilians Leak: Ace

SciTech

Sprint dials up Google Voice for all subscribers: CNet
Twitter turns 5, goes from 0 to 140 million tweets a day: CNN
BlackBerry PlayBook priced at $500 for 16GB WiFi model, pre-orders begin today: Engadget

Cornucopia

Sammy Hagar: Aliens Uploaded My Brain in An Experiment: AllAm
'Young' Love for Tiger: Post
Thank you for your support: www.findmarizela.com: Malkin

Image: iOwnTheWorld
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Stop Obama's EPA from Increasing American Energy Costs!
QOTD: " Barack Obama has now been responsible for firing more cruise missiles than all other Nobel Peace prize winners combined.

He’s still in 2nd place for number of Arab deaths caused (and 3rd place for Muslim deaths) behind Yassir Arafat and Mikhail Gorbachev." --bgates