The "conservative" LA Times(?!)

Has there been some sort of seismic shift in the polarity of the planet?  Because there are grumblings about Il Duce emanating from a most unexpected place - the Los Angeles Times!

The Times' "bashing" of the Dear Leader has reached such magnitude that noted Lefttard Eric Boehlert felt compelled to go on a major whinefest to complain about the "conservative" Times editorialists and columnists and their mistreatment of his messiah.

But now, in the aftermath of Duce's first ever Oval Office address to the nation (First ever?  In June?  Of his second year in office?), yet another Times editorialist has teed off on Obama.

But watching the president and hearing him was a little creepy; that early portion of the address was robotic, lacked real energy, enthusiasm. And worst of all specifics. He was virtually detail-less.

After almost two months of waiting through continuously contradictory reports, an anxious American public wanted to know, HOW are you going to accomplish all this?

Even Obama's cheerleaders over at MSNBC were complaining. "Where was the How in this speech?" demanded Keith Olbermann. Seriously.

Yeah. Seriously.

Every day we hear about offers of assistance to help trap the oil, or to help clean up the mess, being given the "unvite" (for those of you over 30, that roughly signifies an awkward non-invitation given under duress).  Most vexing of all is the Administration's refusal to consider a waiver of the Jones Act, a steaming pile of 1920's era protectionist BS beloved by Big Labor because it prohibits ships and/or crews from foreign countries from engaging in business in US Coastal waters.  As a result of the Jones Act, Dutch vessels with expertise in dealing with huge oil spills sit on the sidelines, unable to assist in any way in the cleanup of what is easily the greatest eco-disaster of the 21st century.

I'm starting to think that my tin-foil hat conspiracy theory actually holds water!

So The Times is now a right-wing rag, and MSNBC is criticizing Il Duce as well.  What's next?  Pigs flying? 

A side note on the Times article.  Check out the photo of Florida Governor Charlie Christ piping (for those of you over 30, that means "staring intently at") the ass of a young hottie on the beach at the top of the article.  Dirty old man!

Conspiracy theory

I usually won't "go there"...but today I'm going to "go there".  "There" is conspiracy theory land.  Conspiracy theory land is that place where tinfoil hat-wearing kooks imagine all sorts of bizarro world stuff: the Bildeburgers, Skull and Bones, One-world elite conspiracies straight from the imagination of Dan Brown. 

Please allow me to doff my tinfoil hat just this once.  I've got a conspiracy theory.

I believe that the Duce administration has intentionally allowed the oil spill off the cost of Louisiana to get progressively worse in order to create an epic environmental catastrophe. 

There I said it.  Now let me take off the tinfoil hat and explain WHY I have come to this conclusion.

The Administration has essentially done nothing in the 30+ days that this disaster has been unfolding.  Nothing.  Zero.  Zilch.  Jack Squat. This sort of neglect doesn't just happen.  It's intentional. 

Il Duce may be an extremist and a bumbler, but even the most accomplished bumbler (Jimmy Carter, anyone?) eventually will do SOMETHING.  Even if that something is wrong, they'll do SOMETHING.  So far Il Duce has...commissioned a study of the issue.  No, seriously.  That's it.

It is apparant to me that Il Duce seeks to leverage this catastrophe to gain more government control of our energy resources as well as an excuse to forever ban offshore drilling.

Think I'm nuts?  Tell me why.

Radio Wasteland

It's been four months since the stuffed-suit programming geniuses at Fox Sports Radio canned Steve Czaban.  I knew it was going to make for a worsened morning commute.  I had no idea how much worse.

The local radio options are spotty at best.  Elliot in the Morning?  Good gawd no!  The last thing I want in the morning is a cackling moron.  The Sports Junkies?  Yeah, they're awesome.  They're also on a station whose signal is so weak that I'm 20 miles into my commute before I can pick up the signal.  They also, unfortunately, have the longest commercial breaks of any radio show I know of.

But wait!  Vulture, you have XM radio!  You have options!  Eh, not so much.

Rawdog comedy is fine for the commute home...but sometimes in the morning I'm not in a comedy mood.  The music channels?  Again, great for the commute home.  But I can't do music in the morning any more than I can do cackling morons in the morning.

What about Czaban's replacement, Steven Screamin' A. Smith?  Child, please!  His act was tired at ESPN.  I wouldn't listen to him on a dare.

So I'm left with the "other" talk show options XM has.  They're a little thin.

There's Coast to Coast, Art Bell's old program, where you are "enlightened" about UFOs, aliens, various government cover-ups, the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderbergers, etc.  Not exactly my cup of tea.

There's alleged conservative "intellectual" William Bennett.  Intellectual.  Right.  The last time I listened to him...and I mean the last time...he went on a three minute rant that can be summed up in two sentences.

• Both political parties are venal, corrupt, and compromised.
  
• That's why it's so important to vote Republican this Fall and not waste your vote on a third-party candidate.

If your response to this "brilliance" was "huh?" or "WTF!", you understand how I felt as portions of my brain melted at the sheer illogic.

So I'm pretty much left with Quinn and Rose.  They're okay in small doses.  But they, like most "conservative" blatherers, are still drinking that Team Elephant Kool-Aid.  Once they start in with the "only Republicans can save us from Obama's communist agenda" nonsense, I have to switch stations.

It used to be so easy.  Get in the car.  Make sure XM-142 is on.  Listen.

Eff you, Fox Sports Radio.  Eff.  You.

Ellie Light speaks!

The Ellie Light ("photo" at left) story continues to grow legs. Updates can be found here and here.

The latest count from Patterico's Pontifications:

65 publications in 31 states and the District of Columbia.
3 national publications and a Yahoo link
2 foreign publications.

A must read, also from Patterico's Pontifications, provides more analysis of this controversy.

One of the national publications, Politico - specifically columnist Ben Smith - tries to justify their place as the first guppy to swallow the Ellie Light BS.

While conspiracy theories about the emails seem to be abounding, there's no particular reason to believe that this was something more than one person's gambit. The letter got published (again and again) because it was pretty well done, but a lot of people can write.

Commenters weren't in a forgiving mood.

It still doesn't answer the question as to why you, Ben, felt the need to post "her" email here. I have rarely seen you post entire emails from "fans". Why this time?
Posted By: | January 25, 2010 at 09:53 AM

"(T)here's no particular reason to believe that this was something more than one person's gambit." This said by the first person to give Ellie Light a forum. This is obviously part of the astroturfing army that Axelrod put into action for President Obama. Forgive me if I don't believe you Mr. Smith.
Posted By: | January 25, 2010 at 09:56 AM

Gotta hand it to Ben, he's very good at ignoring the comments that point out he's full of crap.
Posted By: Eric | January 25, 2010 at 11:34 AM

Schadenfreude, sweet schadenfreude. But I digress.

The bottom line is that Sabrina Eaton has opened a can of worms and is to be commended. By doing the work of a reporter and...wait for it...INVESTIGATING, Ms. Eaton has committed an act of real journalism. Would that more "reporters" would follow in her footsteps.

Vulture Droppings - who is Ellie Light?

Vulture Droppings is a semi-regular feature of this blog. It's a kind of "Random Thoughts" post in which I try to quickly summarize a particularly large event or series of events. Think of it being sort of like what a vulture leaves behind after devouring a horse. You don't get the whole horse, just highly processed leftovers.

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There's a viral story churning around the interwebs right now regarding a prolific letter writing grandmother by the name of Ellie Light. At least, "prolific letter writing grandmother" is the cover story for Ellie Light, an obvious pseudonym, since "Ellie" translates as "Light", and E. Lite looks a lot like "elite".

This edition of Vulture Droppings looks at the issue from three angles. First, the identity of Ellie Light - who is she/he, or is it an operative from the government or some group? Second, who is behind Ellie Light? And finally, why is this vacuous bimbo getting so much media play out of her insipid little letter when most people are lucky to get ONE letter to the editor published EVER.

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First, kudos to Sabrina Eaton of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, who brought this story to light.

Ellie Light sure gets around.

In recent weeks, Light has published virtually identical “Letters to the Editor” in support of President Barack Obama in more than a dozen newspapers.Every letter claimed a different residence for Light that happened to be in the newspaper’s circulation area.

“It’s time for Americans to realize that governing is hard work, and that a president can’t just wave a magic wand and fix everything,” said a letter from alleged Philadelphian Ellie Light, that was published in the Jan. 19 edition of The Philadelphia Daily News.

A letter from Light in the Jan. 20 edition of the San Francisco Examiner concluded with an identical sentence, but with an address for Light all the way across the country in Daly City, California.

Variations of Light’s letter ran in Ohio’s Mansfield News Journal on Jan. 13, with Light claiming an address in Mansfield; in New Mexico’s Ruidoso News on Jan. 12, claiming an address in Three Rivers; in South Carolina’s The Sun News on Jan. 18, claiming an address in Myrtle Beach; and in the Daily News Leader of Staunton, Virginia on Jan. 15, claiming an address in Waynesboro. Her publications list includes other papers in Ohio, West Virginia, Maine, Michigan, Iowa, Pennsylvania and California, all claiming separate addresses.

Altogether, Ms. Light had letters published in 62 publications in 29 states and DC, 4 national publications (including USA Today), and 2 foreign publications (hat tip to Patterico's Pontifications, where you can find the complete list of publications). Note that this is as of 7 PM Sunday night; the final tabulation will certainly be higher.

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It begs the question: who is this Ellie Light? A real person? A leftard with a lot of time on her/his hands? Or is she/he something more sinister - a government hireling? An ACORN operative? A DNC mouthpiece?

If you read the comments on Ms. Eaton's story, you see all kinds of speculation and postulates. The most common allegation is that Ellie Light is Ellyn Sunstein, the daughter of Cass Sunstein, the Obama administration's Regulatory czar who is a proponent of government infiltration of chat rooms and blog comments by paid flacks to undermine conspiracy theories (more here). Others suggest it is Mr. Sunstein's wife, the former Samantha Power. Power fits the model of Ellie Light in that Light seems to favor the British spelling of words rather than the American spelling (Power is Irish).

Others speculate that Ellie Light is an ACORN operative who is paid each time one of her/his letters is published. It does fit the ACORN model, and would explain why she/he doesn't bother to use a different name along with the different city of origin each publication is provided; after all, she/he can't get paid if they can't verify that she/he was the author.

A few wags have speculated that Ellie Light is just Il Duce himself trying to gin up some support for himself. Or Michelle Obama. Or Rahm Emmanuel. This site has a particularly amusing collection of theories.

Attempts have been made to use the originating IP address of the email to trace the source of Light's emails. One intrepid blogger traced an "Ellie Light" comment to an ISP in Saudi Arabia, although spoofing software could have masked the real source. The Free Republic fingers Obama's own Organizing for America website and its paint-by-the-numbers form letter generation software. Yet another blogger links Ellie Light to an international public relations firm.

It matters who Ellie Light is. It matters because if Ellie Light is someone on the government payroll, or even a DNC or ACORN operative, it further damages the already damaged credibility of Il Duce.

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One has to wonder: given the likelihood of a letter to the editor being published once, let alone in 72 publications - one THREE TIMES IN A WEEK - one has to ask oneself, what's up here? This stinks to high heaven. And it begs a question that has to be stated as two questions.

Who is behind Ellie Light, that she gets this kind of response?
What is it about Ellie Light that causes editorial page editors to look upon her letter with such favor?

This two-part question matters. It matters a whole hell of a lot.

If Ellie Light's prolific acceptance by 69 publications is a matter of someone powerful behind Ellie Light, then it's obviously someone with a whole lotta juice. Juice this strong points to interests that are, at minimum, engaging in disinformation; at worst, they may be breaking the law.

But if Ellie Light's prolific acceptance isn't due to someone with juice behind her...well, what does THAT mean? It means that liberal editorial page editors are swallowing whole a campaign to improve the public perception of Il Duce, and are doing so in a concerted effort to prop up his sagging popularity.

Need I elaborate on how malignant either of those scenarios is in terms of our trust in public institutions?

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It gets more interesting. Now there's evidence of letters to the editor published in various papers across the country that have identical content but different "authors".

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I'll be the first to admit that this may just be a tempest in a teapot. But it just might be something very, very big. I commend Ms. Eaton and The Plain Dealer for printing the story. I commend the Drudge Report for bringing it national awareness. And I hope with total sincerity that this isn't one of those stories that just goes away with the questions left unanswered.

Wiener of the Month - August

Last night I watched a special on the National Geographic Channel called 9-11: Science and Conspiracy. It was fascinating. NGC set out to examine via exhaustive scientific proofs the 9-11 Truth Movement's (Truthers) various theories on the attacks.

Two things quickly became evident during the course of the show. The first is that I should have gotten into a field where I could burn things and blow shit up. I was SOOOOO very entertained by the various experiments such as burning 700 gallons of jet fuel to see if it could weaken a girder (it could: in less than 4 minutes, as a matter of fact).

The second is that the so-called Truthers are impervious to, well, Truth. Each and every experiment rebutting one of their contentions was met with some lame-ass explanation as to why it was "irrelevent" or "incorporated massaged data". These people believe what they believe and neither Heaven nor Earth will move them from their wacky, tin-foil hat tenets.

The funny thing is, I'll bet the lot of them are atheists and deride believers in Jesus as being simple-minded morons. And yet each and every one of them shows the same blind "faith" in their ridiculous cause that they accuse Christians of showing with their believe in Jesus. The problem for them is that belief in Jesus makes a whole lot more sense and stands the scrutiny of the historical record a whole lot better than their little tin-foil hat conspiracy does. Ironic, no?

As someone who refuses to swallow the official government version of most events, I can understand the scepticism of the Truthers. Really, I can. But, c'mon folks! Have the decency to admit when you're wrong.

Truthers, you're the Wiener of the Month for August 2009.

Checks and balances, anyone?

Contrary to what morons like King George the Dim say, the US is NOT a democracy. Our founders were smart enough to realize that the inborn flaws of democracy are insurmountable. Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for lunch. Sucks to be the sheep...

No, our founders established a republic. And not just any republic! They specifically shackled the federal government with a set of rules under which it could operate (the Constitution) and established a series of checks and balances to ensure that one branch of government wouldn't run roughshod over the other two.

It worked REALLY well for about a decade. Then the Supreme Court ruled that it was the sole arbitrator of constitutionality....and suddenly one of the balances was heavily skewed in their direction. It's no wonder that the courts are the authoritarian's first choice for ramming through all manor of unconstitutional BS. After all, this oligarchy of seven pretty much gets to decide the legality of everything, unchecked.

To be fair, the courts have served as a check to presidential aspirations on occasion. Think about how messed up we'd be if the Supreme Court of the 1930's hadn't shot down so much of Roosevelt's overreaching!

But with Il Duce, it's different. Just as the press gives him a free ride - nay, even CHEERLEAD for him! - so too the Court has given him a pass.

In spite of the fact that Delaware law is being violated by Il Duce's handling of the Chrysler fire sale to Fiat, the Court refused to hear a plea to reject it.

Two things. First, the Court has handed a blank check to a megalomaniac. Il Duce has control over major banks and 2 of the Big 3 auto makers. Add the Supreme Court to that list.

Second, the Court has abrogated its responsibility to protect US Citizens within the rule of law by allowing this sale. A provision of Delaware law which guaranteed in the neighborhood of 90% of invested dollars for certain classes of investors like pension funds in the event of Chapter 11 bankruptcy was turned on its ear by the Obama "The American people UAW comes first!" plan.

There's an additional ripple effect beyond the hit the pension funds have taken. Do you think for one minute that foreign money is coming to American markets now that the rules have suddenly become moot? If Delaware laws protecting investors can be steamrolled by the current Fascist* administration, what other laws protecting investors will be ignored? I know if I were a European investor, I certainly would avoid investing in US markets now!

Small investors, pension funds, and 401(k) funds, their portfolios already in the toilet (my 401(k) was down 40% the last time I looked), will be even further slammed as a result of this non-ruling.

It's no wonder the conspiracy theorists are having a field day with this administration. The only people who would perpetrate the abortions of common decency and common sense that this administration has committed are the truly stupid, the oblivious, the brain dead.......or those who wish to see this nation and its economic vitality destroyed.

Personally, I think the Obama administration is a mixture of all of those elements.

* I hate to have to run this disclaimer every time I use the word "fascist" or "fascism", but we live in an age where the word has become synonymous with repression. When I speak of fascism, I speak of a governmental/economic system that includes the public/private ownership of the means of production. That and nothing more.

Toxic Culture

I think anyone who reads this blog knows that I'm a huge Steve Czaban fan. His is the only sport-talk radio program worth listening to. He's just a fun but commonsensical kind of guy who doesn't take himself too seriously.

Not long ago, the Washington Redskins paid tribute to their former strong safety, Sean Taylor, who was senselessly murdered during a home invasion burglary just over a year ago. Czabe took the occasion to opine on the root cause of the tragedy: the toxic culture that created the three thugs who took Taylor's life.

Because this poisonous lifestyle being peddled as entertainment, is not a white problem. It’s a black problem. Yes. White kids listen to rap. Yes, white kids commit crimes.

But by and large, the glorification of the lifestyle, and the destruction of lives it brings, hits overwhelmingly on the inner city, and black youths.

Bulls eye.

Here's the thing. There is undeniably a toxic culture afoot in our land - what some call the 'hip hop' culture, but what I call the 'ghetto' culture, because one who lives it can only count on ending up in one of three places: the ghetto, prison, or dead.

Hollywood and the music industry shamelessly promote this toxin as 'hip', 'cool', 'with it'. But generation after generation of young black men are ruining their lives chasing this nonsense when they should be pursuing an education or a trade - a LEGITIMATE way out of the inner city horror they currently live in.

I can't tell you whether this acid eating away at the core of the black community is part of an intentional effort to destroy black America, or if it's just greed driving the creation and promotion of movies, "music" (if you can call it that), and videos that glorify thuggery and paint women as objects to be used and discarded. But the Klan can't be upset with the results. More and more young black men are forever ruining their lives. It's beyond a tragedy. It's a crime.

One last thing: it's not racist to point out the obvious, that the 'ghetto' culture is destroying black America. It's racist to bury your head in the sand and pretend it's okay.

Flight 93 shot down?

xfloggingkylex contributed the following.

http://www.flight93crash.com/flight93_secondary_debris_field.html#2nd

Check that out. We talked for a minute in class today (terrorism and justice) about 9/11, and our teacher mentioned how she was watching BBC on 9/11 and there were reports of Flight 93 smoking before it crashed. Yeah it sounds crazy, but I think it would be wrong to completely deny the possibility of flight 93 having been shot down. Let me know what you think.

What I think. Do I go there? I don't want to be linked in with Art Bell types who wear aluminum foil helmets and get abducted by aliens. But this is something that I've suspected for some time.

Consider the sequence of events on 9/11. One plane has crashed (into WTC tower 1). Another plane has crashed (into WTC tower 2). Now a plane has crashed into the Pentagon. The FAA orders all that all commercial and private flights land immediately. The Air Force scrambles jets - there is considerable controversy now about WHEN the jets were scrambled, but my personal recollection is that I was aware of jets being scrambled before we heard anything about Flight 93.

The news is reporting that any plane that remains airborne and refuses to land will be shot down. Again, nothing has been heard about Flight 93 prior to this point. Later it was revealed that Flight 93 was indeed a target of the interceptors.

The 9/11 Commission reported that "authorities suggested that U.S. air defenses had reacted quickly, that jets had been scrambled in response to the last two hijackings and that fighters were prepared to shoot down United Airlines Flight 93 if it threatened Washington".

Now we hear that Flight 93 is down, in Pennsylvania. Was it shot down? I always suspected that it was, stories of courageous passengers storming the cockpit notwithstanding. Why would the government lie about such a thing? Why did they lie about Jessica Lynch? Or Pat Tillman? Who knows? Maybe they didn't want to own up to having killed US citizens. All I know is that it's feasible. That's all I'm saying.