1 I'm at work, so I can't, but perhaps someone funemployed can look at HA and Patterico and get deep into the exploding astroturf scandal.  Fucker's coming apart.  Looks like Ellie Light is just one of many.

2 Ditto

3 Looks like "Brangelina" is not splitting up.  Wow, am I relieved!  /sarc

4 No beau.  Housing tanks.  I think the moral of the story is that many of us who are on the Good Team are still influenced by the Bad Team's BS and cheerleading.

Also, I don't think Palin is running in 2012.

Have a nice day.

5 This just in, snack and travel-sized pudding sales have unexpectedly rose 40%.

6

This f--king engagement idea was f--king awesome!

http://tinyurl.com/ybgmamf

Via Mere Rhetoric

More smart diplomacy!  More smart diplomacy!  (*come on everyone!*) More smart diplomacy!

7 You'd think just one of the editors punked by "Ellie" would be pissed enough to overcome their latent tendency to protect the One and try and figure out exactly who this "Ellie" is.

8 By what standards does one measure the bigness of ewokses?

9 This blog is open like a cup of butterscotch Snack-Pack!

10 I hope this week is as good as the last!

11

What's bizarre is that the AxelTurfers used the same name on all those letters.  It's like the scene in "Blazing Saddles" when Hedley Lamarr reads the oath of office to the desperados, and says, "Your Name" and the desperados all repeat back, "Your Name". 

Is Axelrod, Soros & Company running out of dummies who can forward a prewritten email competently?  Maybe the recession has caused AS&Co to cut the pay of their minions, so they're getting a lower performing crop of dummies?  Are these the jobs Americans won't do??

 

12 HIST 266 is dog-ass boring.  Furthermore, anything and everything good in the modern world was invented by the Chinese and Muslims.  That's what I'm going to write on my final.  What think?

13 @7 - The two major (liberal) Philly papers haven't even addressed or discussed the Ellie Light issue.  Go figure.

14

#12 anything and everything good in the modern world was invented by the Chinese and Muslims.

China yes.  Then they got complacent and lazy, and it was game over.  Sound familiar?

15 Boots:  I've seen the form letter programs they use.  I use Organizing For America to spam key newspapers on topics important to me (since there's no oversight on what you actually write).  It's not possible to send the same letter to different papers with different names-- but the program does select a local adress for each paper.

16 I want more reporting on Israel's disproportionate response to the Haiti earthquake.

17 Wow, an unexpected and unprecented open thread day!

18 Something about Elle: letters were purportedly from different places in the county, but all were essentially the same letter defending the empty suit. so what had to happen is someone in a high position at the white house contacted the various editors and said 'publish this letter, but change the location' but they forgot to say 'oh, and change the name, too.' enterprising bloggers -- this is too important to be left to the legacy media -- are already combing through previous published letters to the editor, where the letter was the same, but the editors did manage to change the name. a cynical person might think that this has happened before, many times before. this has the possibility to become the new watergate. like watergate, where over-reaching resulted in stupid behavior that would not have had that great an impact even if it had worked, and caused great self-inflicted damage when it blew up, and i'm waiting for it to be termed letter-gate. never has the legacy media been caught so complicit in being lackeys for the donkeys, and there is no way this doesn't go right back to the white house. many of these letters were supposed to have been emailed. if they were, they can be traced right back to the very location they came from. if they were not emailed, but manufactured by the editors of the papers that published them, that, too can be determined with relative ease, unless they were willing to scrub their entire email system, and i don't think they'd do that even if they knew how. if ip-anonymizers were used, that by itself says that this was done by high level, well-financed, tech-savvy but street stupid players. where it really has the chance to blow up is when the empty suit and his gang turn on the legacy media. the chicago thugs think they run the country, but the legacy media think that they run the country. when hilary's campaign went south was when she put the reporters in the men's bathroom, and the legacy media needed to show her who was in charge. i think this has the potential to produce many 'friendly-fire' casualties on the left, and like when gang-members shoot each other and produce 'public service homicides,' this has the same potential for doing great good. i predict that rush will be all over this in the next week, and hopefully it will blow up big time before the sotu on wednesday. you know on 'the simpsons' where when bart is about to do something wicked, he says 'hoo hoo baby'? this coming week might be a real hoo hoo baby of a week. it's hard to believe that a year ago it was so incredibly bleak, but i think i see a light at the end of the tunnel, this time coming from the left setting each other ablaze with their own arrogant stalinist stupidity. hoo hoo baby indeed. semi ot, you think jell-o is wondering what the hell happened that they sold 80 zillion things of pudding last week? if this keeps up they won't be able to make the stuff fast enough. we can hope.

19 Has anyone seen anything on the exec. order that creates council of govs.? Oh, and good morning morons.

20

What's the deal with the cowbell?  And why is the Ace of Spades called "the Death Card"?

 

to KilltheHippies:  This story is far too complicated to make a big dent in the fabric of America.  People will see that the White House asked papers to print some letters.  People who like Toonces will yawn, and people who don't, will gnash their teeth.

21 Gabe, what is this "Open Blogger" thing?  Do you all have a secret group or does that just mean we all blog shit while the Ewok is getting a back trim?

#18  HA comments section has discovered "Elle" email came from Italy and Saudi servers.  Sounds like a pretty organized effort.

22 How did so many enlightened editors all pick the same letters to publish out of a stack of hundreds? I think that is at least as important as who Ellie Light is.

23 The Obama administration awarded a no-bid contract for Afghanistan work to a democrat campaign donor. 

24 Just heard  White House will announce "new plan" to "help the middle class."

Can't breathe.  Is there no end to their helpfulness?  We're dead.

25 Am I missing something or does Drudge really suck now? I mean, really, why would I want to load his site any more when I am already aware of everything posted?

26

25 Am I missing something or does Drudge really suck now? I mean, really, why would I want to load his site any more when I am already aware of everything posted?

Drudge has sucked since Breitbart stopped working for him

27 Ace of Spades death card?

http://tinyurl.com/2vpkt2

Hope my hyper link works!

28 Re: Ellie Light. I think I've now read most of the stories/posts, etc. Hard to tell because every time I refresh, someone finds a new example of the letter being published. Anyway, here's my take... If any member of the Government participated in this scheme, then that changes the whole ball game. Whether a first year staffer or a member of Obama's inner circle, it's unacceptable. There is nothing legitimate about this tactic, the Government doesn't lack for opportunities to make their views known. Seeding public discourse with self-aggrandizing alibis while writing under a pseudonym is about as insane an act of narcissism as I've ever seen. Never mind what it says about the paucity of ideas in the Obama "machine". If any person that is drawing a Gov't paycheck (or a grant or "stimulus" money, etc...) got within ten feet of this Ellie Light character/charade, they must go.

29 Ok, my name now takes you to a site called the new american with the story on the exec. order.  It lengthy, and I'm on break so no time to figure it out.  Besides, it will probably take someone with more brains and time (hello Drew, PA, lauraw) to come up with the real low down on this.

30 Rumors of an Edwards sex tape. My version of an excerpt: "Spank me, President Pretty! Spank me!!!!!!" Ahem.

31 Yeah, an Edwards sex tape.  That's just what I needed to hear about before lunchtime.

32

The latest at Patterico....

You can sign up at Organizing for Bullshitting America to see the talking points template they are giving folks to submit to their local opinion pages.

The stupid fraks aren't even trying to hide it.

33

Al Qaida invents new sport:

http://tinyurl.com/y9ddobq

PULL!

34 Ellie Light is effin' brilliant.

35 Lacey, that's what I use to spam key newspapers.  I take their talking points, set them on their heads, and click send.  I'm the reverse-Ellie Light

36 I was never that impressed with Drudge, especially compared to Instapundit.

  Note for the coming year. Obama's following "Rules for Radicals" to a fault. Constantly trying everything. He's only got one problem.

  Those rules are for the old media environment. The openness of the Internet with an educated moron-cloud monitoring his every move can predict and respond to his moves before he even makes them.

  The next three years will be good ones for us insomniac morons here at Ace's place.

37 #27

Point well taken!  He's a lazy fart now. Don't work but half a day and never on the weekends.  I guess he figures news comes to him now, instead of making it, he's just passing it on.

38

That Edwards tape was alleged about six months ago. Something else the MSM failed to report.

What hillbilly trash. Whatever, make a tape if you must. But to think you can do that and run for President?

Bitch, please.

39

Well it looks like all the Dem spokesassholes have settled on the "communication meme".

I'll repeat, how did we lose to these idiots? (rhetorical question).

40

Am I imagining things, or was there something on HA this morning saying that President Toonces DIDN'T use a teleprompter when speaking to the kids last week?  There was even a "Raw Video" clip put up to replace the one that was on WhiteHouse.gov this weekend.

I saw the clip over the weekend, and sure enough, there O was, giving a boring stump speech, complete with teleprompters, podium, and monitor speakers.  Now they have removed that clip, and are telling everyone that what we saw we really didn't see.

However, when I got back from dropping the kids off at school, I couldn't find the link to the story on HA (the "Raw Video" clip, however, is still up at the WH site).  I don't know if I am in a "Twilight Zone" episode, or if I just need more caffeine.....

41 I'm noticing it with Drudge too.  Seems like his news are always stale by two days now, not that he even cares anymore, what with collecting all his ad revenues and bashing bloggers and stuff.

42 # 41 Teresa in Fort Worth, TX wrote, "Am I imagining things, or was there something on HA this morning saying that President Toonces DIDN'T use a teleprompter when speaking to the kids last week? There was even a "Raw Video" clip put up to replace the one that was on WhiteHouse.gov this weekend."

The latest word is that Obama spoke to the kiddies in a "closed session." So we don't know.

  The video was of Obama giving an informal press conference at the school. Which apparently requires the teleprompters, "Reverse Jesus" pulpit, big black audio speakers, and lack of eye contact with the audience.

43 back to you lincolntf at #29: that this wasn't coincidence, that it HAD to come from the white house saying to the editors: publish this -- that's the big story here. we all knew the legacy media cooperated with the donkeys, but when they get their direct orders from the WH, and this Elle fiasco essentially PROVES that...now we got ourselves a story. what i don't see from patterico et al is them making that connection. this is way more than zillions of identical emails, this is state controlled media goebbels could only have dreamed about.

44 Anyone else heard the news about the initiative to nationalize college debt funding?  I'm wondering if this is one of the things OPR and Co. are wanting to fly under the healthcare reconciliation radar?  It would be the capstone on the education system, now wouldn't it?

45

Good news out of Iraq, Chemical Ali is finally executed:

BAGHDAD — Saddam Hussein's notorious cousin and henchman "Chemical Ali" was executed on Monday, Iraq's government said, eight days after he was sentenced to death for the 1998 gassing of thousands of Kurds.

46 Drudge has a pic up of Obama using teleprompters in elementary school.  Give me "My Pet Goat" anyday. 

47

From Hotair:

Congressman Mike Pence is reportedly considering running against Bayh. At this time, he attracts 47% of the vote while Bayh picks up 44%.

48

Wow sad news from Fox: 

 "Former Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan's brother was arrested and charged with assault in connection with the death of their father, who was found unresponsive inside the family's home on Sunday."

 

49 unknown jane at January 25, 2010 12:40 PM

Nah, it's just one element of a broader scheme [debt forgiveness, bah bah bah . . . ] to coax the 'youth vote' back to the polls this November.

At least that's my read.

Expect more such 'initiatives', i.e.- bribes, to various voting blocks in the hope of getting them to turn out in November.

For Teh One, it's a lot easier than admitting he fucked up and calling a halt all the economy-killing legislation waiting in the wings, and thereby losing his moonbat base.

All soaring [and combative] rhetoric aside, they can read the poll numbers; if they don't turn things around quickly, they're fucked.

And they know it.

50 Oh great.  I get a few free minutes.  Could have been having a good discussion on eschatology, and no one's been here for a couple of hours or so.  Figures.