1. What he did.

As Curt over at Flopping Aces points out, this deal really isn't that hard to understand: In 1998, Reid bought the land, zoned for residential use, for $400,000.

In 2001, Reid sold the land for no profit to a friend, getting a share of the limited liability company that held the property.

The LLC tried to get the land rezoned for commercial use, but was rebuffed by the Clark County Zoning Commission.

The LLC then appealled the decision to the full Clark County Commission and lobbied the commission, going so far as invoking Reid's name to the commission in a public hearing on the matter.

The zoning commission's original decision was then vetoed, and they rezoned the property for commercial use.

In 2004, the property was sold for $1.6 million, netting the LLC $1.2 million profit.

Reid never reported the sale of the property to the LLC, as he is required by law to do.

2. Why he did this.

THE BEST CASE for Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) is that he was sloppy about financial disclosure rules in accounting for a real estate deal on which he made a $700,000 profit. The more unattractive case is that the senator's inaccurate description of the investment was an effort to disguise his partnership with a Las Vegas lawyer who's never been charged with wrongdoing but whose name has surfaced in federal investigations involving organized crime, casinos and political bribery since the 1980s. As of now, the evidence points toward sloppiness; Mr. Reid's friendship with Jay Brown isn't exactly a secret in the state. But either way, an Associated Press report about Mr. Reid's dealings doesn't cast the senator in an attractive light. Neither does his response to the AP story, which indicates a casual disregard for the importance of accurate reporting of lawmakers' financial affairs. . . .

Mr. Reid's professions of transparency and full disclosure are transparently wrong. His investment was not reported in a manner that made clear his partnership with Mr. Brown. It's true -- under the inadequate financial disclosure rules -- that even if Mr. Reid had listed the newly formed corporation, Patrick Lane LLC, that wouldn't have by itself demonstrated Mr. Brown's involvement. Nonetheless, that Mr. Reid no longer owned the land, but instead had sold it for an interest in the Patrick Lane corporation, was not some mere "technical change," as the senator would like to brush it off. It's an essential element of financial disclosure rules, the purpose of which is to know how and with whom public officials are financially entwined.

That's from the Washington Post, by the way.

Instapundit has more on the link.

3. Even more reason why he did this.

Land deals are the meat-and-potatoes of government corruption, sometimes illegal, sometimes merely smelly. Behind every crooked politician, there's a crooked land deal. My first big story was the existential essence of the land deal: a couple of the local pols used insider advance knowledge to buy up land around a proposed freeway interchange for resale under the name of a dummy company.

The goverment builds on, buys, sells, or rezones land. Said land increases in value. Pols, friends, relatives invariably exploit the change. Harry's part of a grand bipartisan tradition. If more reporters were covering this stuff at City Hall, there would be many fewer bad guys of either party in Congress.

4. How the media is covering it. Short answer: It's not. Although Instapundit links several print editorials about the scandal, the TV media is almost entirely embargoing it. Just keep scrolling at Newsbusters to see that it hardly rates a mention, anywhwere, while Mark Foley continues getting multiple mentions per newscast.

The most brazen and absurd non-coverage comes, of course, from the New York Times.

They do mention the story.

Check it out:

New York Times reporter Philip Shenon covers the possible financial scandal involving House Minority Leader Sen. Harry ReidÂ…very carefully. For one, "Senator Offers to Amend Financial Forms" is the most benign headline imaginable -- as if Reid is doing everyone a favor by offering to follow the law.

Contrast that with the negative headline over the Times' AP story about Republican Sen. George Allen from Monday, which has no problem focusing the blame: "Virginia Senator Did Not Disclose Stock Options."

Posted by: Ace at 11:23 AM | Comments (24)
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This is a pretty substance-free "interview." O'Reilly doesn't debunk any of their claims; actually, the truther never gets around to making any specific claims.

Because O'Reilly keeps stating, as an objective fact, that the guy is "nuts" and "crazy" and "a loon."

O'Reilly is at his best when he's simply ranting. When he tries to be "fair" and "objective" -- as he was the other day, when he told Laura Ingraham not to make any "personal attacks" after she noted that Ted Turner was dumb -- he comes across as a pompous douchebag.

On the other hand, when he is making personal attacks, giving voice to popular frustrations in simply insulting those who are beneath insult, he's a pompous hoot.

Well worth watching. Lots of fun.

Meanwhile, Kevin Barrett, late-life Islamist convert and university professor who teaches his students Bush blew up the World Trade Center, has of course required his students to purchase a book containing his 9/11 Truther essay. From which he receives royalties, of course. (As noted on O'Reilly the other day, the students aren't actually required to read the essay. But so what?)

As of yet, it is unclear how Bush "orchestrated" a British Muslim's courtroom admission of guilt in plotting to explode a radiological bomb in London, for the express, admitted purpose of killing as many innocent civilians as possible.

It's time to eject these lunatics from the universities. It's one thing to have opinions; it's another thing to continue peddling disproven facts. They continue to claim that jet fuel does not burn high enough to melt steel, thus "proving" a controlled demolition brought down the Towers. It is simply a scientific fact that steel does not need to actually melt into liquid form to lose a great deal of its strenght; its strength degrades as it heats, and jet fuel burns plenty hot enough to degrade it well below the strength needed to support a rather large building.

This is a proveably false assertion by the Truthers, and yet they continue offering it to students. It is simply a lie -- not only not peer-reviewed, not only peer-refuted, but peer-decimated as not even rising to the level of wrong. It's simply a lie. And yet university professors are allowed to retain their academic credentials peddling proven lies?

Bonus: Greg Tinti at the Political Pit Bull has posted the entire South Park Truther episode on his site, in case you'd like to see the whole thing. The dookey jokes and Hardly Boys' cluerections are funny enough, though not a scream.

Another Bonus: I hate to admit it, but Jon Stewart is actually funny here, and his impression of Bush's style of simplistic declarations is pretty accurate.

Posted by: Ace at 11:04 AM | Comments (18)
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Booyah:

Lower gasoline prices encouraged Americans to spend more on clothing, furniture and building materials, and propelled consumer confidence to the highest level in more than a year.

The largest decline ever in gas-station receipts pushed overall retail sales down 0.4 percent in September, the Commerce Department said in Washington. Excluding service stations, purchases climbed 0.6 percent, three times the gain in August. The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index jumped to 92.3 in October from 85.4 the prior month.

The pickup in sales supports the Federal Reserve's predictions that the expansion will survive a housing slump and pick up in coming months as gasoline prices retreat. Treasury notes weakened and the dollar rallied as traders speculated that the numbers diminish the chances the central bank will reduce interest rates early next year.

``The consumer is showing an extreme amount of resilience,'' said Anthony Chan, chief economist at JP Morgan Private Client Services in New York. ``It shows housing will not cripple the consumer. I see nothing to suggest the Fed will move away from its status quo.''

We'll see if this gets us to 12,000:

Posted by: Ace at 10:04 AM | Comments (23)
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A previous report proved wrong. Well, wrongish.

This time it's real. And the Smoking Gun has the bankruptcy filing to prove it.

Brian Maloney of the Radio Equalizer has been blamed a lot on the left for "falsely" reporting Air America was about to file for bankruptcy. Guess it's time for a victory lap. (The pic now at the top of this post was swiped from his site, by the way.)

A long time ago, back when the New York Times was endlessly writing stories about the not-yet-debuted network, an Air America official was quoted as saying the station would become a must-listen, with millions of Americans asking each other at the water-cooler, "Did you hear what Al Franken said yesterday?"

I wrote a top ten about that, which I reposted below. I'd say it turned out to be pretty much spot-on. more...

Posted by: Ace at 09:48 AM | Comments (46)
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A stunt? Of course. But a brilliant one. To illustrate the joke of border "security," Raj of the Apprentice -- and now a Congressional Republican candidate for Congresss in Pennsylvania -- decided he'd "sneak" across the US-Mexican border on an elephant, accompanied by a mariachi band.

He got through without any problems.

If Republicans had been smarter -- both in terms of policy and politics -- we could be running hard on this issue.

Alas, you don't go to an election with the party you want; you go to an election with the party you have.

And There's The Tax Issue: Charlie Rangel really shouldn't have promised to raise everyone's taxes.

Posted by: Ace at 09:08 AM | Comments (53)
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What a joke.

Results from an initial air sampling after North Korea's announced nuclear test showed no evidence of radioactive particles that would be expected from a successful nuclear detonation, a U.S. government intelligence official said Friday.

The test results do not necessarily mean the North Korean blast was not a nuclear explosion, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the sampling results.

Maybe they don't prove it, but given how small the blast was, it looks like another spoof by the Norks.

Posted by: Ace at 09:04 AM | Comments (16)
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Threatens Nuclear Annihalation, Noogies

I didn't excerpt the funniest stuff. Worth a visit.

The aim of the Iowahawk nuclear fireworks program is clear: to contribute to defending the peace and stability all about the blogosphere, and the area around it, if the blogosphere knows what is good for it. And what is good for blogosphere is also clear: more linky-linky for Iowahawk.

For too long the bellicose agressors of international blog "A list" gangstery -- Instanpundit, Blair, NRO, LGF, Ace of Spades, Hewitt, Malkin, Taranto, Allah, and their running-blog puppet lackeys -- have sabotaged progess and prosperity and page views of Iowahawk and the developing blogosphere by denying him rightful links and tip jar revenues. Be on notice, the day of your comeuppance has finally up-come, for today we possess the tools to thwart your frantic and silly attempts to stifle us!

Judging by the trackbacks, his plan works.
You, our thoughtful readers (morons) may well ask why AOSHQ is succombing to such obvious link-extortion and thuggery. Or as you might phrase it, "Unh?"

Let's just say that Ace had a whole bag of low-carb candy last night and is feeling somewhat....flammable.

Thanks to Hollowpoint.

Posted by: LauraW. at 05:52 AM | Comments (30)
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Faithful AOSHQ commenter Amish Of The Many Names says that Stevie Ray Vaughan has the best version of Little Wing. It's completely guitar.

He has a point.
more...

Posted by: Ace at 07:09 PM | Comments (70)
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If you like the sax, here's some more early David Sanborn. more...

Posted by: Ace at 06:44 PM | Comments (9)
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A Hendrix song done by Eric Clapton and Sheryl Crow. That's David Sanborn on the sax. more...

Posted by: Ace at 05:05 PM | Comments (23)
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