Exhibit A.

A reeking waft from this steaming pile of fecal matter:

But arenÂ’t we facing a fiscal crisis? No, not at all. The federal government can borrow more cheaply than at almost any point in history, and medium-term forecasts, like the 10-year projections released Tuesday by the Congressional Budget Office, are distinctly not alarming. Yes, thereÂ’s a long-term fiscal problem, but itÂ’s not urgent that we resolve that long-term problem right now. The alleged fiscal crisis exists only in the minds of Beltway insiders.

Posted by: Monty at 05:12 AM | Comments (303)
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First of all, I'm sure you already know this (and I think cobloggers covered this already), but the media is actually deleting the parts of the manifesto that praise them.

Howard Kurtz asked, should we care about Chris Dorner's love of CNN and MSNBC hosts?

But notice that question contains no context -- the context being that the media has always treated it as supremely consequential that a murderous lunatic was a big fan of Sarah Palin. (Even when, in fact, Lougner wasn't a fan of Sarah Palin -- something the NYT has now eradicated from the record, obliterating its previous claims that Palin inspired Loughner, without acknowledging the correction and retraction.)

Now, if you just ask someone, "Does it matter if Chris Dorner, a kill-crazy maniac, was a big fan of CNN and MSNBC?," their natural reaction will be "No, of course not; what does it matter whom he watches on TV, and what does it matter from whom he takes his political cues? Politics has nothing to do with murder."

That's what a normal, reasonable, level-headed person would say. But that's not how the media has played such coverage for the past four years.

The media, of course, has attempted to claim that virtually every notorious killer of the past few years is a Tea Partier or has some connection to the right.

Now, if Howard Kurtz was asking the question properly, he'd ask, Should the media care if Dorner is a huge fan of liberal reporters, given the fact that these same liberal reporters have attempted to claim that other murders were the responsibility of commentators on the right??

Now, when you ask it that way, the reasonable normal viewer says, "Well, of course then they should take an interest; the same rule should be applied equally to all parties. And if it's a dumb rule, then the entire rule should be discarded, not just selectively applied against people in the opposite party as CNN and MSNBC."

But, because asking it that way would provoke that answer, Howard Kurtz, "media critic," doesn't ask it that way.

More: Chris Dorner's fan club continues expanding.

I am trying to find out now if a CNN host actually returned Chris Dorner's praise right back to him.

Popehat is a guy who's very suspicious of police -- he keeps up with all the stories of police abuse and corruption, so he understands what most of us miss, that is, yes, there really are some very very bad apples in the police.

So what's his position on Chris Dorner?

Well, he has a common-sense position: Given that this guy is a lunatic who's murdering the children of alleged "enemies," maybe people shouldn't go assuming his claims of persecution are true.

Pretty much every maniac who shoots up an office after a firing claims he was poorly treated by management and the Victim of Conspiracies So Vast as to Beggar the Imagination.

But reasonable people don't assume their blood-soaked Letters of Complaint are true.

And yet... some people really seem to be jumping on the Chris Dorner, Hero bandwagon.

Posted by: Ace at 03:01 PM | Comments (206)
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I didn't know the Constitution spells out special privileges for leftists.

I get the same feeling from watching this Empty-Headed Dummy read words off a teleprompter as I get when my tires start hydroplaning on icing rain: White-knuckled fear.

Via Guy Mohawk.

Posted by: Ace at 02:10 PM | Comments (262)
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Wow, I am not kidding about the seizure part

Hey, Don't Click; Poor Guy's Bandwidth is Getting Hammered. See The Screencap Below Instead; It's Less Seizurey Anyway. You'll get the gist.

AndyU. just emailed me to say, "There's one site on the web that looks worse than ours."

Update: What are they selling again?

Cars right?

Not mobile missile launchers, right? more...

Posted by: Ace at 01:31 PM | Comments (154)
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Recording artists. You have to specify these things for them.

"Buttocks cracks" are forbidden. The recording artists didn't know that.

Whenever I read about celebrities and their planned outrages, I always think of President of the Galaxy Zaphod Beeblebrox, whose real job was not to wield power, but to distract away from real power.

I suppose celebrities are useful. I don't mind being distracted on occasion. I have to admit I'm sometimes pleased by their calculated outrages.

In the American Imperial Court, celebrities are our fools, and recording artists are the fools who show their boobies and buttocks.

Still and all... it's all a bit ridiculous that these idiots hand out Medals and Trophies and Certificates of Effort to each other, and even more ridiculous that we (or at least, some of us) watch them doing so.

Oh Dear Sweet Stupid: Spoken word category?

You know it: Obama, Clinton, Ellen DeGeneres, Rachel Maddow.

Posted by: Ace at 01:17 PM | Comments (101)
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But bear in mind this is just one guy's estimation.

Still, he's a veteran security reporter, so I guess he has some basis for making this eye-catching claim. (Which really isn't even a claim: If you say something's 50/50, how can you lose? If Hagel doesn't withdraw, you just say, "That was the other 50%.")

Ricks says that Hagel "didn't do well" in his Senate hearing last week, and didn't seem "interested in the job."

"He has the votes, but not much else," writes Ricks. "His big problem is that no one much wants him running the Pentagon.... Democratic support in the Senate appears more dutiful than passionate."

Ricks says Hagel's position right now is a "problem." He writes, "The prospect of a Hagel regime at DOD is a real problem now because the next SecDef will need to do two things: Work with Congress to reduce the defense budget thoughtfully, and work with the military to re-shape the military to make it relevant to future conflict. At the moment, Hagel appears to lack the political capital to do the former, as well as the intellectual appetite to do the latter."

He barely has the intellectual appetite for cookies.

Posted by: Ace at 12:29 PM | Comments (238)
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Twice (I think) I've been asked to take part in a pretext situation. Someone in some other media wanted to ask a question of someone, but didn't want it to appear that they were pushing the question or the story, so they asked me to write up the story.

The idea is to make it appear that the question or story is just bubbling up organically, and hide the actual author (mover) of the question. The actual author can then run a post in which it appears he's actually just referencing other people's interest in the story -- "Blogs are chattering about X...."

But, point is, he actually asked for the chatter.

Just so you know, I declined to perform this service on both occasions. Don't think I'm moral or anything -- I'm just lazy. I never feel like doing anything, particularly "helping" other people. If I wanted to "help people" I'd've joineed the Peace Fucking Corps.

The reason I bring this up is because I'm pretty certain this is common -- SOP -- in the media.

And in politics.

Let me give you a completely hypothetical example.

Let's say a politician -- we'll call him Mob Benendez -- is asked by a rich donor friend -- let's call him Malomon Selegn -- for a political favor.

"Why, I can't do that!" Mob exclaims. "It's plain that we are very closely connected, and it is known -- or could be known, if the media still did stories on such things -- that you are my biggest-dollar donor. Why, if I did a favor for you, it would obviously be a favor for you. It would stink of dealing on behalf of a close crony."

"Aw shucks," Malomon says. "That's too bad. I really need someone to help me with this Sort Pecurity contract I have."

"But, on the other hand," Mob muses, "If you had some kind of media presence, and began agitating for action on your Sort Pecurity contract, then it might appear that the Voice of the People had for some reason begun shouting about this Sort Pecurity contract, you know, all passionate about it, and if that were to happen, then maybe I could call some people in the Date Stepartment to pressure the Rominican Depublic to honor your crooked contract."

"Don't say crooked," Malomon says.

"Fine," Mob says. "Your 'fair and legal contract,' we'll say. Wink."

"LOL!"

"Wink, LOL!"

"LOL!" Malomon says again. "Is it really that easy?! All I need to do is gin up a fake 'grassroots' campaign about my individual business woes and then you can use the full power of the Smerican Aenate to do Fersonal Pavors for a Mig Doney Donor?"

"It's really that easy," Mob says. "You just have to make it look like other people are asking for it."

I mention this because of two facts.

Fact One: Malomon -- I mean, Salomon Melgen -- used his "Latino news site" to agitate for action on a port security contract that I'm pretty sure no Latinos not named "Salomon Melgen" cared about.

In addition to the security company, in 2011 Dr. Melgen founded a Latino-oriented news Web site, Voxxi, which has also emphasized the need for the port security deal and glowingly depicted Mr. Menendez as a giant among Latinos. A former employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of career damage, said Dr. Melgen would often intervene in the coverage, requiring editors to play down achievements by Republicans like Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and replace it with praise for Mr. Menendez.

Which in turn provided some cover for Menendez actively campaigning on Melgen's behalf both behind-the-scenes with State Department officials and also in front of the scenes, badgering State Department witnesses about the matter in open hearings.

Fact Two: Melgen apparently started an astroturf campaign to make Bank of America a political issue. And it just so happened that Melgen had a lawsuit against Bank of America when he did this. And it just so happens that legislators maybe can rough up a big bank and maybe threaten a breakup if they're not appeased.

I suppose this is all so obvious most people don't even bother mentioning it.

But, while this point might be very obvious, at least I've gone on at great length about it.

Exit Question: How many times per day do you imagine this exact scenario plays out -- in media, in "grassroots organizations," in Congress and in the White House?

Posted by: Ace at 11:32 AM | Comments (280)
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I've given up on this story-- not because there's nothing there, but because there's too much there to even keep straight.

Menendez might be saved due to the fact he's got so many corrupt irons in so many self-dealing fires that no one can follow it all without a flowchart and a predisposition to nerdy completism. If corruption were redundant money-sucking Star Wars action figures, Bob Menendez would be George Lucas.

Just some of the latest: "Untouchable.

According the developing accounts, NJ Sen. Bob Menendez has a special relationship with mega-donor Dr. Salomon Melgen. In addition to campaign contributions, Dr. Melgen allegedly flew Sen. Menendez to the Dominican Republic on his private plane and may have provided the Senator with prostitutes. That soap opera, though, obscures a more troubling connection. According to a report in the Washington Post, Sen. Menendez intervened at least twice on behalf of Melgen in a billing dispute he had with Medicare.

[details of the dispute omitted]

According to the Post, Sen. Menendez pressed HHS officials on the matter on at least two occasions....

...

A second former federal official recounted that MenendezÂ’s name came up repeatedly when Melgen was interviewed by investigators from the Justice Department and the inspector generalÂ’s office at the Department of Health and Human Services.

“He was using Menendez more as a character reference,” the official said. “He thought he was untouchable.”

Melgen, meanwhile, set up an Occupy-style "grassroots" (really astroturf) organization to shellack Bank of America.

Why? Because of the principle? Because the bank was Too Big To Care (the name of the organization)?

Of course not. It was all about exerting political pressure to settle a private dispute over money.

But a grassroots effort may have been less important to Melgen than pressuring his allies on the Senate Banking Committee for new regulations. His friend and political beneficiary Sen. Menendez has sat on the banking committee since he joined the Senate in 2005.

Melgen has called himself a “victim” of Wall Street “greed.” In 2005 he sued Banc of America Securities, then an investment subsidiary of Bank of America, after he lost $15 million in what he claimed was securities fraud. He alleged that his entire investment was transferred into the account of a failed trader in order to help him cover a margin call.

He lost a lower court challenge and is case is now in appeals purgatory. But who knows, the stroke of a legislator's pen might make everything turn out right.

Now, all this said, it's important to keep in mind that it's hard to distinguish sleazy self-dealing from criminal self-dealing, and just because there is reason for suspicion does not mean there are grounds for prosecution.

Every man is innocent until proven guilty. Every man. Let us not betray our small-l liberal heritage by forgetting this elementary rule, nor let us snidely insinuate facts we don't know to be true.

L to R: Salomon Melgen, Bob Menendez, and a less-guilty man,
for purposes of comparison

Posted by: Ace at 10:55 AM | Comments (179)
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It's embarrassing. It's shameful. It's amateur.

Like millions of other Americans, they are feeling the bite from the sharp increase in payroll taxes that took effect at the beginning of January. There are growing signs that the broader economy is suffering, too.

Chain-store sales have weakened over the course of the month. And two surveys released last week suggested that consumer confidence was eroding, especially among lower-income Americans.

While these data points are preliminary — more detailed statistics on retail sales and other trends will not be available until later this month — at street level, the pain from the expiration of a two-percentage-point break in Social Security taxes in 2011 and 2012 is plain to see.

....

“It’s just gotten out of reach,” Mr. Andrews said.

It's an age-old political trick for the courtiers of the king to keep him away-- keep him physically away -- from any scandal or dead body. Hustle him away, so that His Lordship isn't associated with the outrage or the death.

That tradition continues into the modern day; the President announces good news on television, so that you'll associate that good news with his smug face, but the White House staff leaks out bad news on cheap paper full of dry words on Friday at 8pm with no mention of the president so that you don't associate that with him. And also, so you barely even here about it.

I expect this behavior from the White House.

What's the NYT doing? Are they now officially White House staff, or what? They won't even mention the president's name in a story about the effects of the president's policies.

Posted by: Ace at 10:34 AM | Comments (142)
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Update: @tsrblke did what I did not, but should have-- he kept clicking through to find the ultimate source of the story. I stopped at the Examiner, which isn't really gold standard.

Clicking through on their link, which they call a "news report," we find the story originates at Infowars.com, Alex Jones' paranoia site.

Sorry, I should have checked. I do not believe this story now, and won't believe it, until someone with some credibility checks up on it.

Washington Free Beacon, Washington Examiner, Daily Caller, Breitbart-- you guys want to look into this?

...

Everyone says the same thing -- can't find ammunition anywhere, they're all sold out.

Meanwhile, Federal agencies, like the IRS (?!) and Department of Education (?!?!) are buying up ammo.

Lest you peg me a Black Copter Contrail paranoiac, it's pretty obvious (especially to anybody who has experienced ammo shortages at the local gun shop) what's going on here: gun control by other means. Federally-licensed ammunition manufacturers are required by law to give priority to government purchases, ostensibly to keep military and law enforcement agencies stocked. When they have to fill a fed order of, say, a couple billion rounds, it's not surprising to see empty shelves at Gunz 'R' Us.

Iowahawk links this article, reporting that the Social Security Administration (?!?!?!) has purchased 174,000 rounds of ammunition (?!?!?!?!?!).

Posted by: Ace at 09:28 AM | Comments (465)
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