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RedditAh, the dog days of autumn, when the media are full of hoaxes because nothing much else is going on.
Last Thursday, the Heene family of Colorado gave us a homemade version of the movie Up!, sending their six-year-old into the wild blue yonder of the garage attic while their UFO-shaped balloon led authorities on a wild goose chase across our TV screens.
A day earlier, four House Republicans called a press conference to demand an investigation into the Council for American-Islamic Relations, a civil liberties lobby, for supposedly trying to "infiltrate" the Capitol with Muslim intern spies. This dastardly threat was uncovered by a stalwart young American who had grown a beard, read up on Islam, and passed himself off to CAIR as a Muslim convert committed to their goals. Once inside, he (the son of a co-author of the book Muslim Mafia, with a foreword written by Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC), the leader of the intern-busters) discovered that CAIR was actively involved in...lobbying.
Of course, that's nothing (so far) compared to the pimp-and-prostitute sting of ACORN, in which a couple of white conservative activists dressed like Huggy Bear and Sweet Lips and asked unsuspecting employees how to lie to the IRS and set up a prostitution ring of underage girls from El Salvador. The two hidden-camera filmmakers may have been outrageously fake, but they had real results, leading Congress to vote to ban federal funding for the community outreach group.
This gaggle of hoaxes merely points up the bubbling stew of hoaxes that the 24-hour news cycle is, day in, day out, feeding to us. It's common knowledge that a lot of the stuff on cable, as the White House has said specifically of Fox News, isn't news. Instead it's composed largely of stunts, shticks, and switcheroos, adding up to a grand political punking of the People.
How else to account for persistent phenomena like Glenn Beck's tears, or Bill Kristol's claim on our attention after he's been wrong about everything from Iraq to Palin, or Sean Hannity's desperate campaign to hound "dangerous" radicals like former Harvard professor Cass Sunstein out of the secret socialist/Nazi cabal that runs the Obama administration?
In fact, we've been debating Grand Inquisitorial hoaxes now at least since the Summer of Tea-bagged Love. Little of this opposition to Obama and the Democratic Party's takeover of power in Washington has been anything but an Astroturfed hoax. From birth certificates to death panels, from Fox's wall-to-wall coverage of the 9/12 march to the media's nearly complete silence on the roughly same-sized gay rights march one month later, what usually counts for political debate in this country has rung about as true as an alien abduction story.
It's almost as if real reporting--like it's not enough that it's being defunded everywhere--was being punked by a 13-year-old kid, a last kick in the pants before it passes through the door of history.
Meanwhile, with the Balloon Boy story still afloat, the anti-corporate pranksters the Yes Men, working with the activist group Avaaz, held a fake U.S. Chamber of Commerce press conference to announce that the Chamber had searched its heart and flipped from opposing climate change legislation to championing it--forcing its leadership to deny any such interest in the public weal.
Now, that's a hoax--perhaps not as big as the one the Chamber has been promoting for years, that it has 3 million member businesses instead of the 200,000 to 300,000 it really has. But for some reason, the Yes Men and the whole Chamber hoax were no match for Balloon Boy.
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meanwhile,
back at goldman sachs...
Posted by frosty zoom at 10/21/2009 @ 12:22pm
In fact, we've been debating Grand Inquisitorial hoaxes now at least since the Summer of Tea-bagged Love. Little of this opposition to Obama and the Democratic Party's takeover of power in Washington has been anything but an Astroturfed hoax.
First of all, stop with the sexual innuendo jokes; you don't like it from the other side, why are you using it? Second, people protesting the government's takeover of the financial system, GM, AIG, Citicorp, and the internet is not a hoax. Are you just trying to discredit people who don't conform to you views?
Posted by abell12ct at 10/21/2009 @ 1:20pm
C'mon, don't slight The Street. Them, too. They work hard for their scams, bailouts & bonuses.
Posted by sloper at 10/21/2009 @ 1:31pm
The balloon boy was a hoax, but when I think of hoaxes, the first person to enter my mind is Tawana Brawley. Next is the Duke "rape" case. There was also a couple of black women professors who claimed a damaged car and racist scrawlings on her door. Both were self-inflicted for the purpose of perpetrating hoaxes. Now it turns out the story out of W Va was also a hoax. The woman, Megan Williams, who claimed she was kidnapped and tortured by six white racists in W Va has recanted. She says she was just dating the son and got mad at him.
What does it say about racism in America that the MSM is falling all over themselves in order to report a white-on-black rape, but they can't find any?
According to one story I read on the recanting, "[t]he story received MASSIVE international attention because actual white on black violent crime [in the US] is so rare." This is especially true of serial murders and rapists. They tend to "hunt" within their own racial groups.
Does this this jive with the perceptions of people here? Or can any of you remember instances of highly publicized white-on-black violent crimes that weren't hoaxes?
Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 10/21/2009 @ 1:39pm
In fact, we've been debating Grand Inquisitorial hoaxes now at least since the Summer of Tea-bagged Love. Little of this opposition to Obama and the Democratic Party's takeover of power in Washington has been anything but an Astroturfed hoax.
First of all, stop with the sexual innuendo jokes; you don't like it from the other side, why are you using it? Second, people protesting the government's takeover of the financial system, GM, AIG, Citicorp, and the internet is not a hoax. Are you just trying to discredit people who don't conform to you views?
Posted by abell12ct at 10/21/2009 @ 1:20pm
I believe the MSM and the Left Media are as homophobic as the average American.....they just like to mouth their compassion and tout equal rights.
They're out to educate us as to what "Teabagging" means. I had no idea of what it meant, now, I'm edumycated! Every time I hear that word, I think of what `stuff' gay men do w/each other.....I think that's what the Left wants, to consciously remind us of gay mens' sexual practices as a divisive technique.
Posted by Happy at 10/21/2009 @ 2:09pm
SAVAN: "Little of this opposition to Obama and the Democratic Party's takeover of power in Washington has been anything but an Astroturfed hoax."
You can fool SOME of the people ALL of the time....
You can fool ALL of the people SOME of the time....
But you can't fool ALL of the people ALL of the time.
Now, pick from the above as to where the Magic administration is......then, ask, are the opposition full of "hoax" or just authentic Memorex?
Posted by Happy at 10/21/2009 @ 2:15pm
Hoaxes, fake hate (the WV story 2day) stings (FBI on a roll), black flag ops an straight up conspiracy made passed off as bona fide processes. Add in Bruno de-trousering in Ron Paul's dressing room, .....
Lost our country - America Lost our State - New York Lost our City -- Binghamton -(add ur own) Lost our University -- .. ..
Let's not let them have our blood, too. Resist all vaccines. *****
The fact that Obama has not produced a valid birth certificate, after all the uproar; punctuated with queersmear of those who point it out; puts the hoax onus on somebody besides extremist right wing white supremacist homophobic anti-semitic mysogynous gun worshipping off the wall nutjobs. This is why the charge of reverse Nazi-Communists fits -- with Mengele 'health resorts' planned.
If one wanted to get metaphysical about it, the biggest hoax of all would be use of the term "American" by this disfathered brood of themselves.
Posted by jones at 10/21/2009 @ 2:32pm
Good post.
It's difficult to overstate how badly FUBAR our reality has now become. On one end is the right wing noise machine that accuses the Obama administration of countless transgressions, mostly along the histrionic lines of Maoism to m. On the other hand, the Obama administration and its "progressive" defenders are genuinely guilty of anything from gross negligence and journalistic malfeasance to --essentially-- high treason.
And the space between these two sides must now be defined by quantum physics as a dimension unavailable to our access.
I'd say we're ed, but that would be in the real universe that apparently no one is in touch with at this juncture in time.
One small fragment of the puzzle:
tinyurl.com/yzwkjth
While short-selling was the weapon used to bring down both Bear and Lehman, it would be preposterous to argue that the practice caused the financial crisis. The most serious problems in this economy were the result of other, broader classes of financial misdeed: corruption of the ratings agencies, the use of smoke-and-mirrors like derivatives, an epidemic tulipomania called the housing boom and the overall decline of American industry, which pushed Wall Street to synthesize growth where none existed.
But the "phantom" shares produced by short-sellers are symptomatic of a problem that goes far beyond the stock market. "The only reason people talk about shorting so much is that stock is y and so much attention is paid to the stock market," says a former investment executive. "This goes on in all the markets."
...The nation's largest financial players are able to write the rules for own their businesses and brazenly steal billions under the noses of regulators, and nothing is done about it....
Posted by b_kool_66 at 10/21/2009 @ 3:02pm
Corrections:
"histrionic lines of Maoism to f ascism"
"I'd say we're f$#^ed"
"stock is s ex y"
Posted by b_kool_66 at 10/21/2009 @ 3:06pm
This is gettin' pretty funny....a profound reflection of our reality perhaps.
f @ s c i s m.
There, I've said it!
Posted by b_kool_66 at 10/21/2009 @ 3:08pm
Leslie, how dare you catagorize the ACORN sting as a hoax. These two enterprising young journalists did the job that the MSM was too afraid to do. They uncovered some pretty serious behavior on the part of ACORN and their employees.
As we all know, the Obama administration and democrats in general were heavily invested in making sure that ACORN's real activities weren't uncovered, that is, until the you know what hit the fan, thanks to two young people who did yeoman's work and are now facing lawsuits. Imagine that!
It never ceases to amaze me how people, in this case, progressives, could have blinders on when it's their own interests that are being outted, but are so quick to throw stones when it's not. Such childish behavior by all politicians. Yes, conservatives are also guilty.
Posted by gunslinger1 at 10/21/2009 @ 3:09pm
Does this this jive with the perceptions of people here? Or can any of you remember instances of highly publicized white-on-black violent crimes that weren't hoaxes?
Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 10/21/2009 @ 1:39pm
Well, since you've asked about any highly publicized white-on-black violent crimes, Amadou Diallo and the four white cops who gunned him down comes to mind as just one instance of the many black people who have been and continue to be killed or assaulted by police officers, usualy though not always, white.
And then you have white mobs beating, killing or chasing to their deaths black men such as the famous Howard Beach incident in New York City from the late 80's. And the black Texas man with a noose around his neck dragged to his death behind a truck driven by white men.
Don't forget, Darin, that hoaxes - often perpetrated by cops or prosecutors and also aided and abetted by the mainstream media - can go the other way, too. For instance, the black boys jailed for the Central Park Jogger case for years, or those folks who claimed that their kids (North Carolina) or their wife (Massachusetts, I think) were kidnapped and/or killed by black men.
Posted by cka2nd at 10/21/2009 @ 3:12pm
Posted by cka2nd at 10/21/2009 @ 3:12pm
Let's not forget the recent news story out of Pensacola Florida about a cop (Jerald Ard) who attempted taser a black man riding a bike out of his car window ... and then proceeded to drive over him - which killed him. I think there is a lot of this kind of thing that just doesn't make the news at all.
Posted by ficheye at 10/21/2009 @ 3:27pm
HERE'S A HOAX FOR YOU:
headline:
Obama Administration to Order Steep Pay Cuts for Bailed-Out Companies
Under the plan, the seven companies that received the most government aid will have to cut annual salaries by about 90 PERCENT from last year for the 25 highest-paid executives.
but way down:
The seven companies are: Bank of America, American International Group, Citigroup, General Motors, GMAC, Chrysler and Chrysler Financial.
Total compensation for the top executives at the seven firms will decline, on average, by ABOUT 50 PERCENT, according to a person familiar with the administration's decision.
two things:
where are jpmorgan and goldman?
and
who really believes this is going to happen?
Posted by frosty zoom at 10/21/2009 @ 3:40pm
Posted by cka2nd at 10/21/2009 @ 3:12pm
Byrd in Texas is a good example. I don't think Diallo counts, because I don't think the cops were convicted of a crime. (But if over-reacting was a crime they would have been.) But it did remind me of the convict who was sodimized with a plunger by his guards. I tended to believe that was more related to the fact that he was a criminal rather than because he was black, but it was a white-on-black violent crime.
The Cental Park jogger case was not a hoax. Someone beat her into a coma. The only reason the boys convicted were getting a second look is because the victim was beaten so badley that the brain damage prevented her from identifying the attackers after she came out of the coma. Their lawyers saw this as an opportunity to sow doubt, but they weren't convicted on her testimony in the first place and I don't believe they had their convictions overturned.
I don't remember the NC kids, but I do remember Susan Smith (?) who drown her kids by buckeling them in the car and submerging it and then blaming a black guy. It is a hoax, but it isn't white-on-black violent crime
The Rodney King incident, again, was related to criminal behavior (PCP) not race, but the video made it look that way, but this led to the Reginald Denny incident. I can see a moral distinction between cops beating a suspect resisting arrest after they just chased him at 80 mph through neighborhoods and a guy beating and kicking and throwing a brick at a guy's head (for being white) then dancing.
But that's me.
Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 10/21/2009 @ 3:42pm
"...when I think of hoaxes, the first person to enter my mind is Tawana Brawley. Next is the Duke "rape" case. There was also a couple of black women professors who claimed a damaged car and racist scrawlings on her door. Both were self-inflicted for the purpose of perpetrating hoaxes..."
~The Harlot from Charlotte
I agree with "Darin", when a hoax comes to mind it should always be strictly proscribed to one's individual prejudices.
Well done, "Darin". Bravo.
Posted by b_kool_66 at 10/21/2009 @ 3:53pm
Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 10/21/2009 @ 3:42pm
From Wikipedia: "In 2002, convicted rapist and murderer Matias Reyes, serving a life sentence for other crimes...declared that he had committed the [Central Park Jogger] assault, and that he had acted alone. The DNA evidence confirmed his participation in the crime and identified him as the sole contributor of the semen found in and on the victim..."
"Based on Reyes' confession, the DNA evidence, and the questionable confessions, the Manhattan District Attorney recommended that the convictions be vacated" and a NYS judge did so. This move was opposed by the ADA who had prosecuted the case and the detectives who worked on it - who viewed the boys as Reyes' accomplices - but I think they're full of it. The coerced confessions - promptly recanted - and the media circus around the case at the time raises this to the within the spirit if not the letter of a hoax.
But then most of us turn a blind eye to the amount of cop, prosecutor and judicial misconduct that goes on, and the thousands in jail for crimes they did not commit because of it.
Susan Smith was the North Carolina mom. Charles something was the guy who killed his wife and claimed a black carjacker (?) did it. I wasn't saying that these were white-on-black crimes but examples of black-on-white crime hoaxes; in other words, pointing out that a Tawana Brawley situation can play out with the colors of the cast reversed.
Amadou Diallo was neither a criminal nor engaged in criminal activity. The Diallo cops were not convicted but should have been (as the most prominent conservative columnist in New York's Capital Region, Carl Strock, argued).
Both the Reginald Denny attack and the Rodney King beating were criminal.
Posted by cka2nd at 10/21/2009 @ 4:14pm
"Now, that's a hoax--perhaps not as big as the one the Chamber has been promoting for years, that it has 3 million member businesses instead of the 200,000 to 300,000 it really has."
After the Obamanation and the Demoncrats rewarded Wall St., the Bank industry, and the Unions who were their supporters with the $787,000,000,000. "porkulus bill" there was nothing left for small businesses who make up 50% of the economy and almost as many jobs so its NO WONDER that they have FEWER members!!!
Posted by BigPasture at 10/21/2009 @ 4:30pm
Both the Reginald Denny attack and the Rodney King beating were criminal.
Posted by cka2nd at 10/21/2009 @ 4:14pm
The cops in the King beating were aquited of brutality charges. It was the acquitals that led to the Denny attack.
To calm the riots the officers' Constitutional rights to avoid double jeopardy were tampled and they were found guilty of civil rights violations.
Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 10/21/2009 @ 5:16pm
Conservative Darin: wrong about Global Warming, wrong about Racism
Posted by DPGrassley at 10/21/2009 @ 5:25pm
Conservative Darin is one of the TOP Republican Global Warming experts, they ONLY send him in here when they're serious. Now Darin, you go up there on the internet, they're talking about Global Warming - go up there and tell them it's a hoax - if that doesnt work then just see if you can change the discussion to the Republican Party's position on the Rodney King Beating
Posted by DPGrassley at 10/21/2009 @ 5:41pm
where are jpmorgan and goldman?
and
who really believes this is going to happen?
Posted by frosty zoom at 10/21/2009 @ 3:40pm | ignore this person | warn this person
As Banks Repay Bailout Money, U.S. Sees a Profit - NY Times ZACHERY KOUWE Published: August 30, 2009
'The government still faces potentially huge long-term losses from its bailouts of the insurance giant American International Group, the mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the automakers General Motors and Chrysler. The Treasury Department could also take a hit from its guarantees on billions of dollars of toxic mortgages.'
Now supposedly, JP and Goldman have paid the gov back with interest.
I am betting that the reduced executive compensation will be compensated for through relief on outstanding indebtness to government in some form or fashion. A deal we likely will never hear about.
Posted by OneVote at 10/21/2009 @ 7:02pm
Posted by b_kool_66 at 10/21/2009 @ 3:02pm
"The most serious problems in this economy were the result of other, broader classes of financial misdeed: corruption of the ratings agencies, the use of smoke-and-mirrors like derivatives, an epidemic tulipomania called the housing boom..."
You left out one major player - the Community Reinvestment Act, which required banks, under pressure of government sanction, to make sub-prime ('predatory', in lefty-speak) loans to people who could not afford to repay them (originally intended to help poor people, but the resulting dilution of credit standards ended up making bad loans all the way up the property ladder). And then you had Dodd and Frank corrupting FNMA and FreddieMac, taking all that bad paper and passing it around the financial system, causing the resulting collapse.
It was government interference in the mortgage industry that caused the housing bubble.
Posted by pontificus at 10/21/2009 @ 7:25pm
Oh, and Hoaxville USA - that applies to global warming, or climate change (whatever that means), or whatever the people itching to raise more government revenue through energy taxes are calling it today.
Posted by pontificus at 10/21/2009 @ 7:27pm
meanwhile, back at goldman sachs... Posted by frosty zoom at 10/21/2009 @ 12:22pm |
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/ business/21volcker.html?ref=business
<His disagreement with the Obama people on whether to restore some version of Glass-Steagall appears to have contributed to published reports that his influence in the administration is fading and that he is rarely if ever in the small Washington office assigned to him.
So Mr. Volcker scoffs at the reports that he is losing clout. "I did not have influence to start with," he said.>
Posted by snowball777 at 10/21/2009 @ 7:57pm
First of all, stop with the sexual innuendo jokes; you don't like it from the other side, why are you using it? Second, people protesting the government's takeover of the financial system, GM, AIG, Citicorp, and the internet is not a hoax. Are you just trying to discredit people who don't conform to you views? Posted by abell12ct at 10/21/2009 @ 1:20pm |
No, just wondering where the f*** they were last year when Dubya and Comrade Paulson were engaging in Bear and Lehman's 'death panel'.
Posted by snowball777 at 10/21/2009 @ 7:59pm
Posted by BigPasture at 10/21/2009 @ 4:30pm |
Open your eyes, dumbass.
http://www.sba.gov/recovery/
<The bill provides $730 million to SBA and makes changes to the agency's lending and investment programs so that they can reach more small businesses that need help.>
$375 million for temporarily eliminating fees on SBA-backed loans and raising SBA's guarantee percentage on some loans to 90 percent.
$255 million for a new loan program to help small businesses meet existing debt payments.
$30 million for expanding SBA's Microloan program, enough to finance up to $50 million in new lending and $24 million in technical assistance grants to microlenders.
$15 million for expanding SBA's Surety Bond Guarantee program.
Posted by snowball777 at 10/21/2009 @ 8:02pm
It was government interference in the mortgage industry that caused the housing bubble.
Posted by pontificus at 10/21/2009 @ 7:25pm
beyond stupid, ponti.
please, please, please wake up.
Posted by frosty zoom at 10/21/2009 @ 9:05pm
Posted by frosty zoom at 10/21/2009 @ 9:05pm
"please, please, please wake up."
You're going to have to do more than post inane remarks to change anyone's mind, FROSTY. I realize it is the standard fantasy of leftists everywhere that capitalism causes all the evils in the world, and all we need is a government takeover to set things right, but this is a delusion I do not share.
Perhaps you could start by telling me the difference between a subprime loan mandated by the government pursuant to the Community Reinvestment Act and a 'predatory' loan decried by leftists as an example of capitalist greed. It might do you some good to actually think about these things, rather than blindly accept the narrative you are spoon-fed by the statists.
Posted by pontificus at 10/21/2009 @ 9:46pm
Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 10/21/2009 @ 5:16pm
Yes, I know the sequence of events.
I do agree about double jeopardy, though.
Posted by cka2nd at 10/21/2009 @ 10:05pm
rather than blindly accept the narrative you are spoon-fed by the statists. Posted by pontificus at 10/21/2009 @ 9:46pm
Are you talking about him or you? It's not really clear.
Are you one of the 20% of americans who still say they are republican (or RAPE-ublican)?
Pontificus slowly taps his scepter on the throne, wondering what he can do next to confound the dreaded leftists before his own pay grade is reduced. His brow furrows... the engrams pulse with confusion. Who is he and when is the next dose of medication?
Posted by ficheye at 10/21/2009 @ 10:26pm
Posted by snowball777 at 10/21/2009 @ 8:02pm | ignore this person | warn this person
Just short of 1.5 billion, so it does not seem to add up to $787,000,000,000. not including the money to bail out the UAW buying Chrysler and GM?! But then you think its great just like the Obamanation!
Posted by BigPasture at 10/21/2009 @ 10:28pm
Chamber executives told Fox News that since word of open warfare with the White House began to surface, membership has spiked. They warned White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel not to imagine the Chamber will retreat from spending heavily in the mid-term election cycle.
"Let's not make any mistake. The United States Chamber of Commerce will be active, we will be visible and we will be very engaged in the 2010 elections. Rahm, I'm sure, well appreciates that," said R. Bruce Josten, executive vice president for the Chamber of Commerce.
Obamanation is doing a bangup job of invigorating everyone on his White House Enemies list!!!
Posted by BigPasture at 10/21/2009 @ 11:23pm
ponti:
"The US financial crisis is always and everywhere caused by the triumph of short term greed in support of Ponzi schemes and frauds, perpetrated by a handful of Wall Street bankers and their accomplices in the political process and the media, facilitated by the wholesale weakening of the American mind and character and European and Asian greed and gullibility."
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2009/10/je sses-grand-unified-theory-of-american.html
Posted by frosty zoom at 10/22/2009 @ 12:41am
ponti:
is this mall part of your cra-cra-cracker?
"A $29 billion trail from the Federal Reserve's bailout of Wall Street investment bank Bear Stearns ends in a partially deserted shopping center on a bleak spot on the south side of Oklahoma City."
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/
Posted by frosty zoom at 10/22/2009 @ 12:48am
Posted by pontificus at 10/21/2009 @ 9:46pm |
"I realize it is the standard fantasy of leftists everywhere that capitalism causes all the evils in the world, and all we need is a government takeover to set things right, but this is a delusion I do not share."
Not capitalism, but definitely capitalists. They don't cause the evil per se, but they're always around to make a buck off of it.
"Perhaps you could start by telling me the difference between a subprime loan mandated by the government pursuant to the Community Reinvestment Act and a 'predatory' loan decried by leftists as an example of capitalist greed."
Subprime loans DIDN'T EXIST when the CRA was passed...how do you reconcile this?
Nor did the "financial innovations" of CDOs, Mort-backed securities, and all the other fecal sausage-works we've witnessed since Boesky and Milken.
Why didn't all those loans to poor black folks cause a problem between 1979 and 2005, Ponti?
And what makes you think that only poor people are being foreclosed on? Did you forget the speculators? And the not-poor who simply tapped into their equity when they shouldn't have?
And why is it bad for a family to want to live in a home of their own and make a bad choice to buy, but okay for the banks and mort bundlers to make thousands upon thousands of stupid decisions in the name of short-term profit?
"It might do you some good to actually think about these things, rather than blindly accept the narrative you are spoon-fed by the statists."
You'll have to do something more than gesticulate wildly about the CRA before anyone will believe you've achieved anything resembling 'thought'.
Posted by snowball777 at 10/22/2009 @ 12:55am
cra? what a joke. por favor:
"I am outraged at a Fed that purports to be "inflation fighters" when the only source of inflation in the word are central bankers, and their fractional reserve lending policies.
I am outraged that Greenspan and Bernanke could not see a housing bubble that 1000 bloggers could see.
I am outraged at the selective memory of Bernanke when speaking to Congress about these problems.
I am outraged that Bernanke's one sided response to asset bubbles, letting them grow without end, then bailing out the financial institutions that cause them.
I am outraged the Fed exists at all. It is a useless organization that cannot see bubbles, that panders to banks, that supports inflationary policies that are tantamount to theft by fraud."
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/ 10/fed-sponsored-feedback-loops-and-fed.html
Posted by frosty zoom at 10/22/2009 @ 01:02am
...The nation's largest financial players are able to write the rules for own their businesses and brazenly steal billions under the noses of regulators, and nothing is done about it....
Posted by b_kool_66 at 10/21/2009 @ 3:02pm
b_kool, If that article is correct, then the Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley are the new fed. If they are short selling treasury bills, doesn't that put them more in control over the value of the dollar than the fed itself? All the fed can do is adjust interest rates. These aholes can devaluate the dollar at the drop of hat. If this doesn't wake people up at the SEC and in Washington, nothing will.
Posted by Wolfgang1 at 10/22/2009 @ 06:21am
Now Darin, ... they're talking about Global Warming - go up there and tell them it's a hoax - ...
Posted by DPGrassley at 10/21/2009 @ 5:41pm
For what it is worth, I did not say AGW is a hoax, and I do not believe it is a "hoax" as some of my bretheran have charged.
The key element of a hoax is that the person leveling the charge must know the charge is untrue. Often, the person leveling the charge also fabricates evidence to support the charge. (Fabricated evidence isn't necessary or sufficient for a hoax. The LA DA fabricated evidence against OJ (the planted glove) because they truly believed he was guilty. That doesn't mean the Brown and Goldman murders were a hoax.)
I beleive the theory of AGW is wrong, but I know the people who believe it are true belivers. I do not believe the people arguing in favor of AGW are doing so disingenously for personal gain.
Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 10/22/2009 @ 06:53am
Subprime loans DIDN'T EXIST when the CRA was passed...how do you reconcile this?
Posted by snowball777 at 10/22/2009 @ 12:55am
There was a lot in your post to discuss, but I've got a meeting starting in one minute and this jumped out.
"Subprime" loans have existed since before America was a country. Investment bankers may have coined the term "subprime" to describe loans with various characteristics regarding the borrowers only recently, but loans made to people with a history of poor credit quality have existed for centuries.
Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 10/22/2009 @ 07:02am
Leftist and thier national liberal biased media friends buy all hoaxes "hook, line, and sinker"! Then you never hear again anything else about the lies that lent them credulence being just that!!!
When a black woman told West Virginia authorities in 2007 that seven white people had raped and tortured her over several days in a racially motivated attack, minority rights groups rallied to her support.
The Rev. Al Sharpton and Black Lawyers for Justice urged prosecutors to pursue hate-crime charges. The lawyers organized a march on Megan Williams' behalf. Sharpton addressed a rally in Charleston and donated $1,000 to Williams' family as a Christmas gift.
More than two years later, Williams, now 22 and living in Columbus, recanted her story on Wednesday, and the groups that supported her stood at arm's length from the woman whose mother had described her as "slow."
Sharpton has asked a prosecutor to vindicate anyone wrongfully convicted.
Posted by BigPasture at 10/22/2009 @ 07:53am
Posted by Wolfgang1 at 10/22/2009 @ 06:21am |
Wolfie, there's a difference between shares (which are easy to short sell, naked or otherwise) and bonds, like T-bills, that are not.
You've got the right culprits and even the right problem (their ability to devalue the dollar), but their debasement is achieved via credit bubbles, as Frosty said above.
The SEC is frozen on the stick and I'd love to see Chris Cox spend some time in jail for his criminally useless tenure there.
Posted by snowball777 at 10/22/2009 @ 08:08am
Wolfie, there's a difference between shares (which are easy to short sell, naked or otherwise) and bonds, like T-bills, that are not.
Posted by snowball777 at 10/22/2009 @ 08:08am
What's the difference? They both need large institutions with securities lending programs that have the investments available for lending. Ultimately, you can't short an instrument that isn't lent by an owner. The institutions with securities lending programs are no less likely to have bonds than shares.
Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 10/22/2009 @ 09:31am
And w.r.t. belief in AGW, a recent Atlanta Journal Constitution shows I not alone in my disbelief.
Only 57% believe that the earth has gotten warmer.
A smaller percentage believe it is caused by humankind.
A smaller percentage yet, believe that expensive methods of curbing greenhouse gasses are justified in trying to aviod finding out what the costs of a a warmer planet will be.
Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 10/22/2009 @ 09:49am
Posted by BigPasture at 10/22/2009 @ 07:53am
Yep, all kinds of hoaxes out there.
Who can forget the black church burnings early in the Clinton presidency? After they arrested a couple of black guys setting fire to black churches, the scandal kind of went away.
Or the swastikas appearing on doors in some Fort Bragg army barracks? Yep, another ethnic minority angry that America wasn't as racist as he thought it should be, so he painted those on himself to stir controversy.
Or when Professor Kerri Dunn vandalized her own car with hate speech and swastikas, which led to protest marches and the school being closed?
But all of these pale in comparison to global warming, which has tried to unsuccessfully morph into "climate change" now that any fool can see our temperatures have not been climbing due to greenhouse gas emissions. Temperatures have not been climbing at all. But this lie is desperately clung to because it is still the best bet in hobbling developed countries, reducing their standard of living, and redistributing their wealth to the third world.
Posted by Citizen_Carrier at 10/22/2009 @ 09:56am
Posted by BigPasture at 10/22/2009 @ 07:53am
Yep, all kinds of hoaxes out there.
Who can forget the black church burnings early in the Clinton presidency? After they arrested a couple of black guys setting fire to black churches, the scandal kind of went away.
Or the swastikas appearing on doors in some Fort Bragg army barracks? Yep, another ethnic minority angry that America wasn't as racist as he thought it should be, so he painted those on himself to stir controversy.
Or when Professor Kerri Dunn vandalized her own car with hate speech and swastikas, which led to protest marches and the school being closed?
But all of these pale in comparison to global warming, which has tried to unsuccessfully morph into "climate change" now that any fool can see our temperatures have not been climbing due to greenhouse gas emissions. Temperatures have not been climbing at all. But this lie is desperately clung to because it is still the best bet in hobbling developed countries, reducing their standard of living, and redistributing their wealth to the third world.
Posted by Citizen_Carrier at 10/22/2009 @ 09:56am
Posted by Citizen_Carrier at 10/22/2009 @ 09:56am |
Or that ignorant twit with the 'B' carved in her face!
Posted by snowball777 at 10/22/2009 @ 10:01am
Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 10/22/2009 @ 09:49am |
I'm sure frogs in boiling water have the same depth of insight that you do with respect to their 'beliefs'.
Posted by snowball777 at 10/22/2009 @ 10:03am
Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 10/22/2009 @ 09:31am |
Tell you what.
Call your broker and tell him you want to short CUSIP 912828JU5 and let us know what he says.
Posted by snowball777 at 10/22/2009 @ 10:16am
Yo'... NoSay AllBay,
I just wanted to point out a mild disagreement regarding a post of yours at Editors Cut:
"I read the article too, and, while I find Taibbi moderately amusing to read, I find his analysis of the fall of Bear Stearns to be missing some very important elements....like their getting hip-deep in CDOs.Naked short selling is a problem, but blaming the guy that threw the cigarette after dousing yourself in gasoline is disingenuous."
I'd say you didn't read the whole article, or you're being disingenuous since here is a summary paragraph from the lengthy (and outstanding) Tabbai article:
"While short-selling was the weapon used to bring down both Bear and Lehman, it would be preposterous to argue that the practice caused the financial crisis. The most serious problems in this economy were the result of other, broader classes of financial misdeed: corruption of the ratings agencies, the USE OF SMOKE-AND-MIRRORS LIKE DERIVITIVES, an epidemic tulipomania called the housing boom and the overall decline of American industry, which pushed Wall Street to synthesize growth where none existed."
I know your're smart, NoSay, and I respect your insights, but like many of us --myself included-- we sometimes need a nudge away from know-it-allism.
Just sayin'.
Peace out, ~B
P.S. And the Walter Kirn piece in The Atlantic that I posted awhile back was specifically aimed at the know-it-all, and lock-step mindsets often found in the Meritocracy. To rip Kirn for being sort of snotty and self-important was a bit below the belt in my opinion.
Posted by b_kool_66 at 10/22/2009 @ 12:47pm
Posted by Citizen_Carrier at 10/22/2009 @ 09:56am |
Or that ignorant twit with the 'B' carved in her face!
Posted by snowball777 at 10/22/2009 @ 10:01am
Which was backwards - because she looked in a mirror to do it. Sort of a reflection of all the glaring misspellings on signs at the Tea party rallies.
My favorite: Thanks Fox News for keeping us all infromed.
Posted by ficheye at 10/22/2009 @ 2:43pm
And w.r.t. belief in AGW, a recent Atlanta Journal Constitution shows I not alone in my disbelief.
Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 10/22/2009 @ 09:49am
oh, you mean the same folks who believe in angels and satan?
Posted by frosty zoom at 10/22/2009 @ 3:21pm
Talk about a hoax-- FAUX SPEWS: flare un-balanced
"The issue is not whether it was a good idea politically for the White House to say that the emperor has no clothes. The issue is that the emperor actually has no clothes. In other words, the administration's comments about Fox News aren't the story. Fox News is the story.
Criticizing Fox News has nothing to do with criticizing the press. Fox News is not a news organization. It is the de facto leader of the GOP, and it is long past time that it was treated as such by our nation's media.
The evidence supporting such a reality is overwhelming. To begin with, Fox News CEO Roger Ailes has described his station's confrontation with the Obama administration as "the Alamo." Fox News senior vice president Bill Shine said Fox was "the voice of opposition." In other words, the entire operation has an explicit political agenda, not just a few hosts. There is no separation between Fox News' "opinion" programming and its "news" programs. Bret Baier's Special Report, the closest show Fox News has to a straight newscast, portrays Obama in a negative light 77 percent of the time, according to a recent study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs."
http://tinyurl.com/yfzg7cj
Posted by hsuBfools at 10/22/2009 @ 5:29pm
Posted by hsuBfools at 10/22/2009 @ 5:29pm
What was MSNBC's percentage of portraying Bush in a negative light? Coulter wrote the other day that she cannot believe the White House is having this discussion about media outlets in a world in which MSNBC exists.
Here's an interesting little bit from NewsBusters, on the objectivity of America's most "respected" newspaper:
"The Times consistently cites liberal blogs far more than ones on the right, undermining the claim that they missed these two stories [ACORN and Van Jones] because they don't monitor online media. A Nexis search reveals 477 combined mentions of five of the left's top blogs: Huffington Post, Think Progress, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, and Media Matters.
But a search for five of the right's top blogs, Hot Air, Pajamas Media, NewsBusters, RedState, and TownHall turns up only 18 combined mentions from the Times.
The left-wing Talking Points Memo, run by Josh Marshall, was recently praised by NYT's Executive Editor Bill Keller. It's a favorite source for Times reporters. Liberal columnist Maureen Dowd took its name too literally when she plagiarized it."
Posted by Citizen_Carrier at 10/23/2009 @ 07:55am
Posted by hsuBfools at 10/22/2009 @ 5:29pm
What was MSNBC's percentage of portraying Bush in a negative light? Coulter wrote the other day that she cannot believe the White House is having this discussion about media outlets in a world in which MSNBC exists.
Here's an interesting little bit from NewsBusters, on the objectivity of America's most "respected" newspaper:
"The Times consistently cites liberal blogs far more than ones on the right, undermining the claim that they missed these two stories [ACORN and Van Jones] because they don't monitor online media. A Nexis search reveals 477 combined mentions of five of the left's top blogs: Huffington Post, Think Progress, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, and Media Matters.
But a search for five of the right's top blogs, Hot Air, Pajamas Media, NewsBusters, RedState, and TownHall turns up only 18 combined mentions from the Times.
The left-wing Talking Points Memo, run by Josh Marshall, was recently praised by NYT's Executive Editor Bill Keller. It's a favorite source for Times reporters. Liberal columnist Maureen Dowd took its name too literally when she plagiarized it."
Posted by Citizen_Carrier at 10/23/2009 @ 07:55am
Some more White House chicanery. An exchange between Press Secretary Gibbs and Politico reporter Carol E. Lee:
Carol E. Lee, Politico: Does that mean the White House doesn't believe they [Fox News] should be part of the press pool?
Gibbs: The press pool is decided by the White House Correspondents Association.
Lee: So you have no opinion on whether they should be ...
Gibbs: I'm not going to delineate for the White House Correspondents Association how the pool is conducted. That's not my job.
Well, that was Tuesday, the 20th. By the 22nd the White House decided that they DO INDEED think they have the right to delineate who is in the press corps. They told the press corps that everyone except Fox News was invited to a 5 minute press session with "Pay Czar" Kenneth Feinberg.
All the other networks, in a show of solidarity, refused to interview Feinberg unless Fox was included.
Apparently THEY seem to consider Fox a news organization, even if the White House doesn't.
Posted by Citizen_Carrier at 10/23/2009 @ 08:15am
Some more White House chicanery. An exchange between Press Secretary Gibbs and Politico reporter Carol E. Lee:
Carol E. Lee, Politico: Does that mean the White House doesn't believe they [Fox News] should be part of the press pool?
Gibbs: The press pool is decided by the White House Correspondents Association.
Lee: So you have no opinion on whether they should be ...
Gibbs: I'm not going to delineate for the White House Correspondents Association how the pool is conducted. That's not my job.
Well, that was Tuesday, the 20th. By the 22nd the White House decided that they DO INDEED think they have the right to delineate who is in the press corps. They told the press corps that everyone except Fox News was invited to a 5 minute press session with "Pay Czar" Kenneth Feinberg.
All the other networks, in a show of solidarity, refused to interview Feinberg unless Fox was included.
Apparently THEY seem to consider Fox a news organization, even if the White House doesn't.
Posted by Citizen_Carrier at 10/23/2009 @ 08:15am
Posted by snowball777 at 10/22/2009 @ 12:55am
Snowball (is that Snowball from Animal Farm? That would be ironic), I am not 'gesticulating wildly' about the CRA. I simply state the fact that when the government mandates that large numbers of previously unqualified borrowers be given loans with little or nothing down, and that when the government creates and guarantees a market for the resulting securities, and that when that at the same time and as a result of the intervention by the govt, banks dilute lending standards for all borrowers - it's hardly a surprise that an asset bubble could be created. All of this is stated quite simply in my previous post, and yet you continue to ask questions that indicate you either did not read or did not understand the original post. I think you should take things in smaller bites, one question at a time - the entirety of the thesis seems to much for you to grasp at once.
Posted by pontificus at 10/23/2009 @ 12:26pm
Posted by Citizen_Carrier at 10/23/2009 @ 07:55am
Well lets include some facts why don't we...
Oh wait, FAUX SPEWS: flare un-balanced, doesn't; they create their own facts devoid of reality!
That's the problem with your contention, the factual detail realm is counter to FAUX SPEWS: flare un-balanced.
Fact checking will always show that from day to day, week to week, MSNBC vs FAUX SPEWS: flare un-balanced, MSNBC 80-90% factual - FAUX SPEWS: flare un-balanced 10-20% (if you take out the weather and AP News, being reported as such).
Posted by hsuBfools at 10/23/2009 @ 12:29pm
Posted by hsuBfools at 10/23/2009 @ 12:29pm
"Oh wait, FAUX SPEWS: flare un-balanced, doesn't; they create their own facts devoid of reality! "
Could you give us a few examples? Fox was the only network to air stories, for example, about Van Jones, a communist and 9/11-truther (a situation which, when it came to light, caused his resignation), and about ACORN offices throughout the country who were seen on tape to encourage and enable prostitution, tax-evasion, statutory rape, and pedophilia (which resulted in votes to defund the group by Congress). If one relied only on news sources other than Fox, these stories would never have existed. But the stories are real, and the results are real - based on this, I would say that it is YOU who are living in the unreal zone, and Fox is trying (unsuccessfully, apparently), to take you out of it.
Posted by pontificus at 10/23/2009 @ 2:00pm
Posted by pontificus at 10/23/2009 @ 2:00pm
Punti panti pinti, oh please, you already know all the BS FAUX SPEWS: flare un-balance, dumps in livings or in your case a garage.
But the view that FAUX SPEWS: flare un-balanced, is just that, has been around for a while. Lest you get your head out of your ass you might be able to see and hear info other than your own rumblings.
http://discuss.epluribusmedia.net/how_fox_justifies_news_distortions
http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/networks/foxnews/foxnews.html
http://tinyurl.com/yzrc5ts
http://tinyurl.com/m6dwbr
http://foxattacks.com/facts.php
http://www.newshounds.us/bush_administration_lies/
Posted by hsuBfools at 10/23/2009 @ 2:49pm
er, dumps in 'living rooms' or in your case a garage.
Posted by hsuBfools at 10/23/2009 @ 4:45pm
Posted by pontificus at 10/23/2009 @ 12:26pm |
You clearly have no conception of what the CRA was for or what the act entailed, but keep slurping Rush's propaganda...maybe you'll get a proxy oxy high, dimwit.
Posted by snowball777 at 10/23/2009 @ 9:43pm
http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/10.09/warnning.html
Posted by YourJomamma at 10/24/2009 @ 07:13am
Posted by gunslinger1 at 10/21/2009 @ 3:09pm
ACORN!!!!
Bankrupting American coffers and VALUES
ACORN!!!
ACORN!!!!
Worst scandal since Teapot Dome!!!
Why, they may have scammed thousands of dollars from gunslinger, who is MOST concerned about corruption in America.
And PONTIFICUS makes his triumphant return to pile onto ACORN, ACORN!!!! ACORN!!!
But, where were these patriots the last few years when NON-ACORN!!! corporations were stealing them blind with the hoax of good work? They were supporting the corruption and misdeeds... because THE LEFT was opposed, I can't think of any other reason to support the theft of nearly $130,000,000 while ACORN!!!!! was using 15 million over ten years.
"Friday, October 23, 2009
WASHINGTON -- The new $736 million U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, which American diplomats have occupied for 18 months, contains "multiple significant construction deficiencies," and the U.S. government should try to recover more than $130 million from the contractor that built it, according to a report released Thursday.
The report, by the State Department's inspector general, cites flaws in numerous systems throughout the embassy complex and says that the contractor, First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Co., failed to properly design, construct and commission the largest U.S. embassy overseas. "-statesman.com
Now, that is a hoax worthy of tax payer anquish, totally ignored by PONTI and gunslinger...because ACORN!!! ACORN!!! was registering people that never voted .
Posted by crabwalk at 10/24/2009 @ 08:03am
Does this this jive with the perceptions of people here? Or can any of you remember instances of highly publicized white-on-black violent crimes that weren't hoaxes?
Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 10/21/2009 @ 1:39pm
The Missing Bride was allegedly kidnapped by Spics or wetbacks.
-----
Do any of the cons remember the HOAX of the "real journalist"/ homosexual prostitute given preferential treatment by George W. Bush in press briefings?
Probably not, as Al Sharpton was around then.
Posted by crabwalk at 10/24/2009 @ 08:10am
Posted by Citizen_Carrier at 10/22/2009 @ 09:56am
Or when the woman claimed Obama supporters kidnapped her...except she painted the "B" backwards on her own head!!!
Seems each side has it's share of dimwits, and more dimwits willing to follow along.
"We know where the weapons are, in and around Tikrit, northeast of Baghdad."
"there is simply no doubt Saddam has reconstituted his nuclear programs".
"Muhammed Atta met with Iraqi intelligence in Prague."
"Those held at Guantanamo Bay are the worst of the worst."
But hey, that is NOTHING compared to the damage done by ACORN!!! ACORN!!!!
Posted by crabwalk at 10/24/2009 @ 08:17am
then of course there is the hoax of George W Bush the "conservative".
At one point the Nation cons hoaxed themselves into telling us he was one of the top ten best presidents EVER, mostly because of his conservative credentials.
Now, not so much.
Turns out he was a closet liberal.
an 8 year hoax.
How did ACORN pull that off?
Posted by crabwalk at 10/24/2009 @ 08:22am
What was ACORN doing in the Blakans?
in 2007 "... KBR - formerly known as Kellogg, Brown & Root - separated from Halliburton and is now the Army's largest contractor, according to its Web site. It holds a multibillion-dollar contract to provide basic services including food and shelter for U.S. soldiers.
It agreed in 2006 to pay $8 million to settle six-year-old claims that it overcharged the Army for construction and other support services in the Balkans."
So, in 6 years KBR tried to steal 1/2 of what ACORN used in 10 years. Not stole, used.
Any outrage about that hoax, JOMMAMA?
How much has ACORN been charged with stealing John? Do you have even the slightest idea?
Posted by crabwalk at 10/24/2009 @ 08:29am
PONTI is spot on, as usual, FOX should be focusing it's "journalists" on the ACORN scandal, because some fraud may have taken place.
Where was FOX in 2007?
"In May, an internal audit from the Defense Department's inspector general of about $8 billion paid to U.S. and Iraqi contractors found that nearly every transaction failed to comply with federal laws or regulations aimed at preventing fraud"
Any outrage in congress, any new law that would remove these ACORN!!!! like contractors from federal contracts.
Maybe PONTI can link us to the FOX story about this new law passed in 2007. I am sure that FOX'x correspondents went out to the offices of said defense contractors and talked to them about ACORN like offenses. That would only be fair and balanced.
Posted by crabwalk at 10/24/2009 @ 08:33am
Then, of course, do the cons remember Jessica Lynch going down in a hail of returned gun fire as she bravely fought off republican guard soldiers prior to being raped?
Or how about Pat Tilmans death at the hands of Afghani fighters?
Or the documents that from Niger that proved Saddam was trying to purchase uranium for his reconstituted nuclear programs?
But hey, all of that pales in comparison to ACORN!!! ACORN!!! ACORN!!! because no real harm was done by the Bush hoaxes, whereas ACORN!!! has caused irreparable harm to the very foundations of our republic by registering non-voters that never voted.
Posted by crabwalk at 10/24/2009 @ 08:44am
Next up, PONTI compares ACORN!!! ideas at hiding money to avoid to avoid taxes to those at UBS, and proves to us all that ACORN!!! manipulation of tax codes cost us all far more than UBS.
You go Ponti!
Posted by crabwalk at 10/24/2009 @ 08:51am
FAUX SPEWS: flare un-balanced, only job approval poll showing Obama moving down below 50%:
http://www.pollingreport.com/obama_job.htm
Posted by hsuBfools at 10/24/2009 @ 10:10am
Posted by hsuBfools at 10/22/2009 @ 5:29pm
"Criticizing Fox News has nothing to do with criticizing the press. Fox News is not a news organization. It is the de facto leader of the GOP, and it is long past time that it was treated as such by our nation's media."
Ahh, shub, the Democrats can always rely on you to parrot whatever spin is being sold today, can't they? So now, only news organizations with the Obama seal of approval are legitimate? Niiiiiiice. I see you checked whatever integrity you had at the door a long time ago.
And I presume the Van Jones scandal and the ACORN scandal are not real news, since the Obama-approved media saw fit not to cover them? Tell that to Van Jones and ACORN.
You brainwashed lefties can avoid Fox, and hold your hands over your ears and say 'NUHNUHNUHNUH..." - but the real world moves on.
Posted by pontificus at 10/24/2009 @ 10:45am
It's interesting, SHUB, that in Venezuela, Chavez also defines news organizations that he doesn't like as 'illegitimate', and in those cases he actually shuts them down. So, he and Obama have a similar philosophy regarding how the legitimacy of news organizations is defined, it's just the Chavez has just taken it that one bit further (although Obama has attempted to shut down Fox News by getting other news organizations to go along). Interesting, the similarities between Obama and Chavez, no? I would say the only important difference is that Obama's democracy is not quite ruined yet. I'm sure he considers that a great pity.
Posted by pontificus at 10/24/2009 @ 10:51am
Ponti, projectionest extraordinaire.
Posted by Denise29 at 10/24/2009 @ 11:34am
Posted by Denise29 at 10/24/2009 @ 11:34am
"Ponti, projectionest extraordinaire."
Don't they teach spelling in Obama school? I do hear they consider ignorance to be strength, so I guess that makes sense.
Posted by pontificus at 10/24/2009 @ 11:42am
Is that suppose to be a cut Ponti? I'm hurt, NOT!
Posted by Denise29 at 10/24/2009 @ 12:11pm
the Van Jones scandal and the ACORN scandal are not real news, Posted by pontificus at 10/24/2009 @ 10:45am
True it was made up. FAUX SPEWS: flare un-balanced, created that as news-- that's how propaganda works.
p on ti fi cus : suc if it no p
Uhmmmm, now that's as interesting as perhaps what you say per your inability to think.
Posted by hsuBfools at 10/24/2009 @ 1:10pm
democracy is not quite ruined yet. Posted by pontificus at 10/24/2009 @ 10:51am
Yet, new con repubs never cease to stop trying.
Posted by hsuBfools at 10/24/2009 @ 1:12pm
Posted by hsuBfools at 10/24/2009 @ 1:10pm
"True it was made up. FAUX SPEWS: flare un-balanced, created that as news-- that's how propaganda works. "
Oh - so it was propaganda that forced the resignation of Van Jones - and the passing of bills to defund ACORN? No truth to any of it, Obama just went along with right-wing slander?
Nice little fantasy world you got there, SHUB. Don't let me disturb it. Go back to sleep.
Posted by pontificus at 10/24/2009 @ 1:18pm
Posted by pontificus at 10/24/2009 @ 1:18pm
p on ti fi cus : suc if it no p
It is true that propaganda works or it wouldn't be used by the more dishonest types. As it's also true that advertising works and why billions are spent on doing it.
The Obama admin is definitely reevaluating why they've been tolerating FAUX SPEWS: flare un-balanced, bull shit.
I'd definitely make sure the FCC was investigating FAUX SPEWS: flare un-balanced, fining them for every lie and possibly consider they were unregistered/undocumented campaign advertising beyond its public limitations.
Posted by hsuBfools at 10/24/2009 @ 4:23pm
I do hear they consider ignorance to be strength, so I guess that makes sense. Posted by pontificus at 10/24/2009 @ 11:42am |
Then you must have positively superhuman 'strength'.
Posted by snowball777 at 10/24/2009 @ 4:41pm
Posted by snowball777 at 10/24/2009 @ 4:41pm
"Then you must have positively superhuman 'strength'."
I'm sure that qualifies as a clever, witty riposte in your circles. But I must say, this type of childishness seems to have become the standard among the lefties here at the Nation, and a mighty thin gruel it is. We give you substance, and you give us elementary school quality insults. You guys are really getting boring, and that's much worse than stupid.
Posted by pontificus at 10/24/2009 @ 4:53pm
Posted by hsuBfools at 10/24/2009 @ 4:23pm
"The Obama admin is definitely reevaluating why they've been tolerating FAUX SPEWS: flare un-balanced, bull shit."
So, now the First Amendment only exists because Obama tolerates it? You think the FCC should investigate a media channel if the President disagrees with it? How would you feel about this policy under a Republican President? One thing about the Nation site, it sure is educational; we have fascists among us, and that's for sure.
Posted by pontificus at 10/24/2009 @ 5:23pm
So, now the First Amendment only exists because Obama tolerates it? You think the FCC should investigate a media channel if the President disagrees with it? Posted by pontificus at 10/24/2009 @ 5:23pm
p on ti fi cus : suc if it no p
Why is there an FCC? Is it because there's freedom of speech or because there are laws regulating the public airwaves? Are there laws regulating the financing of political campaigns and their use of advertising? All questions that must apparently remain only questions to you.
p on ti fi cus : suc if it no p
You must really hate looking in the mirror...
Posted by hsuBfools at 10/24/2009 @ 5:47pm
Posted by pontificus at 10/24/2009 @ 4:53pm |
Please show us one post with what you call 'substance'.
I've yet to see anything beyond the usual braying and posturing.
Posted by snowball777 at 10/24/2009 @ 5:49pm
We give you substance, and you give us elementary school quality insults. You guys are really getting boring, and that's much worse than stupid. Posted by pontificus at 10/24/2009 @ 4:53pm |
Don't they teach spelling in Obama school? Posted by pontificus at 10/24/2009 @ 11:42am |
Uh, yeah...pot, kettle, do the math.
Posted by snowball777 at 10/25/2009 @ 12:27am
Posted by hsuBfools at 10/24/2009 @ 5:47pm
It just occurred to me SHUB that it must really chap your socialist ass that Fox News is by far the most popular news source on cable television, with a viewing audience larger than all their Obama-approved competitors combined. And with the President attacking them and bringing them more free publicity, that situation only stands to get worse for you. Maybe it bothers you even as much as it does your socialist President. No wonder you're crying for the FCC to investigate and fine them. Good luck with that, I encourage you to continue, because the whole country is watching, and I think they'll start to figure out what you're up to.
Posted by pontificus at 10/25/2009 @ 01:43am
Posted by pontificus at 10/25/2009 @ 01:43am |
Congrats on snowing the ill-bred flyover sheeple, but popularity won't make it a news source...only actual news could manage that.
No chapping here, it doesn't do much but make us laugh (especially Beck...what a rabid howler monkey) and allows us to spot morons more quickly when they mention that they watch that banal crap.
As for the FCC, my wife and I decided to be more pro-active and used the parental controls on our nephew's TV to block Fox News (and to think we said the clipper chip was a bad thing).
Posted by snowball777 at 10/25/2009 @ 05:43am
p on ti fi cus : suc if it no p You must really hate looking in the mirror... Posted by hsuBfools at 10/24/2009 @ 5:47pm |
Sufi con pit?
If NP, coitus?
Cops, tu fini?
Posted by snowball777 at 10/25/2009 @ 07:30am
No wonder you're crying for the FCC to investigate and fine them. Good luck with that, I encourage you to continue, because the whole country is watching, and I think they'll start to figure out what you're up to. Posted by pontificus at 10/25/2009 @ 01:43am
You mean like what FAUX SPEWS: flare un-balanced, did to Acorn?
No, there's no reason to make FAUX SPEWS: flare un-balanced, violations and propaganda up. It's all taped already!
Unlike the Nixon tapes, we won't need the courts to get them; per on the public airwaves.
On it must really mess your head up that only stupid people believe what FAUX SPEWS: flare un-balanced, broadcasts is really news and just bad comedy.
SURVEY: Daily Show/Colbert Viewers Most Knowledgable, FAUX SPEWS: flare un-balanced, Viewers Rank Lowest
Despite significant technology shifts, however, Pew found that "today's citizens are about as able to name their leaders, and are about as aware of major news events, as was the public nearly 20 years ago."
The results about Fox News echo findings of previous surveys. In 2003, University of Maryland researchers studied the public's belief in three false claims -- that Iraq possessed WMD, that Iraq was involved in 9/11, and that there was international support for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
The researchers stated, "The extent of Americans' misperceptions vary significantly depending on their source of news. Those who receive most of their news from Fox News are more likely than average to have misperceptions." Fox News viewers were "three times more likely than the next nearest network to hold all three misperceptions."
http://tinyurl.com/2gaxuz
FAUX SPEWS: flare un-balanced, a vast blight wing stage of confusion detrimental to our national security.
Damn straight--- FCC investigate.
Posted by hsuBfools at 10/25/2009 @ 09:22am
BTW:
It just occurred to me SHUB that it must really chap your socialist ass that Fox News is by far the most popular news source on cable television, with a viewing audience larger than all their Obama-approved competitors combined. Posted by pontificus at 10/25/2009 @ 01:43am
But still you lost most elections? Uhmmmm, more people obviously get their news from other sources than FAUX SPEWS: flare un-balanced.
I know new con repubs a la FAUX SPEWS: flare un-balanced, are trying to dumb down the USA, but it didn't work. (so far) Hopefully we can start to reverse the FAUX SPEWS: flare un-balanced stupid misinformation is good trend.
Posted by hsuBfools at 10/25/2009 @ 09:30am
Posted by snowball777 at 10/25/2009 @ 05:43am
"As for the FCC, my wife and I decided to be more pro-active and used the parental controls on our nephew's TV to block Fox News (and to think we said the clipper chip was a bad thing)."
You see, snowball, that's the difference between you and me. I read lefty stuff like the Nation because I like a diversity of sources, and I feel my viewpoint is enriched and expanded by the exposure. You, in contrast, go to the extent of not only NOT watching Fox News, but actually censoring it off your TV. One might even think that you're afraid of watching Fox for fear that your comfortable little world might be shaken, a fear which I find reasonable. Perhaps you would even agree with your fellow traveler, SHUB, that Fox should be investigated and fined into oblivion because the President disapproves of its news reporting. This is the difference between us classical liberals and you on the left, you see.
Posted by pontificus at 10/25/2009 @ 10:07pm
Alexander Cockburn -- CounterPunch.org -- 28-29 April, 2007
'...Now imagine two lines on a piece of graph paper. The first rises to a crest, then slopes sharply down, then levels off and rises slowly once more. The other has no undulations. It rises in a smooth, slowly increasing arc. The first, wavy line is the worldwide CO2 tonnage produced by humans burning coal, oil and natural gas. On this graph it starts in 1928, at 1.1 gigatons (i.e. 1.1 billion metric tons). It peaks in 1929 at 1.17 gigatons. The world, led by its mightiest power, the USA, plummets into the Great Depression, and by 1932 human CO2 production has fallen to 0.88 gigatons a year, a 30 per cent drop. ... Then, in 1933 it began to climb slowly again, up to 0.9 gigatons.
And the other line, the one ascending so evenly? That's the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, parts per million (ppm) by volume, moving in 1928 from just under 306, hitting 306 in 1929, to 307 in 1932 and on up. Boom and bust, the line heads up steadily. These days it's at 380.There are, to be sure, seasonal variations in CO2, as measured since 1958 by the instruments on Mauna Loa, Hawai'i. ...The two lines on that graph proclaim that a whopping 30 per cent cut in man-made CO2 emissions didn't even cause a 1 ppm drop in the atmosphere's CO2. Thus it is impossible to assert that the increase in atmospheric CO2 stems from human burning of fossil fuels....
...In fact, when it comes to corporate sponsorship of crackpot theories about why the world is getting warmer, the best documented conspiracy of interest is between the Greenhouser fearmongers and the nuclear industry, now largely owned by oil companies, whose prospects 20 years ago looked dark...'
Posted by HonestLiberal at 10/26/2009 @ 08:04am
'Apparently THEY seem to consider Fox a news organization, even if the White House doesn't.' -- Citizen_Carrier 23 October, 2009
But 'THEY' were the ones who hired Dan Rather, so how do 'THEY' expect to be believed?
Posted by HonestLiberal at 10/26/2009 @ 08:23am
http://tinyurl.com/yl93qfd
Posted by hsuBfools at 10/26/2009 @ 11:16am