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(part 1):
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(part 2):
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In any event, this particular e-mail received of Your Correspondent is the sort as is too good to not share with you readers:
For reporting that is an embarrassment to the profession of journalism,
and for being beholden to corporate paymasters rather than the citizens
of America, Fox "News" wins this week's Media Putz Award..
The MSM loves to tell us that there is Fox "News" with O'Reilly,
Hannity, and Beck and then there's Fox "News" on the rest of the time.
Fair and Balanced.
Hmmm, well, based on what we've seen lately from the "news" part of Fox
"News," their argument is as thin as the pastrami in a New York City
deli.
Chris Wallace is seen as the legitimate face of Fox "News." After all,
Wallace, son of a real journalist in Mike Wallace, has hosted "Meet the
Press" on NBC and was on "Primetime Thursday" on ABC. Certainly, Fox
plays that up when accused of news bias.
Here was the chance, the ultimate chance, to toss a few hard questions
to Rush Limbaugh, prove the naysayers wrong, show them that Fox has a
real news department. But Wallace's cushy softball interview with Rush
Limbaugh is much more typical of the style of "journalism" Wallace has
brought us for many years.
"I think you're a great broadcaster. How can you possibly be worth that kind of money?"
When you go back to Wallace's interview with former President Clinton
in 2006, you find Wallace asked some tough questions. But that Chris
Wallace, rarely seen in public, wasn't on display with Limbaugh.
"Do you think the individual mandate is constitutional? Do you think
the government has the right to tell people, You're going to get health
insurance, and if you don't get it, you're going to pay a penalty?"
This question of Limbaugh could have been phrased in a way that would
have sounded legitimate. The question, exactly the way Wallace phrased
it, sounds like he agrees with Limbaugh, described in a court of law as
leading the witness. Then again, when you are all on the same side,
every question is a leading one.
And this doesn't even factor in that Limbaugh was allowed to spew out
"facts" that weren't even close to being true, but that seemed just
fine with Wallace.
LIMBAUGH: I mean, just a couple days ago, they talked about these
650,000 jobs that they've created or saved. There's no such thing as a
saved job. Besides that, they've destroyed jobs. They've lost 3.3
million jobs in this country since Obama's stimulus plan, and it's
going to get worse.
Wallace couldn't even ask Limbaugh where he got such a ridiculous set of numbers. And Wallace wouldn't dare correct him.
Then there's Gretchen Carlson. Okay, she works on "Fox and Friends," a
pseudo-news show even by Fox standards. But they do interview
newsmakers, and they do work on a morning show on a channel that
masquerades as a news outlet.
Carlson was interviewing a rather prominent newsmaker in Rep. Michele
Bachmann recently. The interview was typical Fox fluff, including
Carlson's reference at the end to providing a link to Bachmann's "Super
Bowl of Freedom."
But no one mentioned the conflict, where George Will of all people,
disclosed that Bachmann used to be Carlson's nanny. Yet, the "news"
department at Fox didn't have an issue with Carlson interviewing
Bachmann and a lack of disclosure over their relationship. Do you think
Keith Olbermann could interview his nanny (if he even had one) without
mentioning a conflict of interest and not receive scorn from the MSM?
Carlson's two "questions" weren't any tougher than those seen on a 3
a.m. infomercial. And when Bachmann referenced the "whites of their
eyes," Carlson's eyes didn't even blink.
You have to wonder how many times Carlson has interviewed or talked
about Bachmann even before Will's disclosure. And why are we finding
out about the Carlson/Bachmann relationship from someone other than
Carlson or Fox? Not disclosing conflict of interest issues is a no-no.
Steering a conflict of interest into a 1-on-1 interview? That's how
they do it at Fox.
At least, Wallace and Limbaugh don't have a relationship. But given
Wallace's reaction to Limbaugh afterwards, you might want to start
making dinner reservations.
"I just want to give you my reaction. First of all I had never met him.
Very nice, very sweet and I've have to say vulnerable guy and if you
watch the interview you'll see because he talks very candidly about
drug rehab..."
Wallace's softball questions brought out the mean, petty, obnoxious
side of Limbaugh, which is actually all of his sides. The "very nice,
very sweet and… vulnerable guy" Wallace speaks of isn't there in the
room.
Ruth Marcus and Jake Tapper, among many many others, owe us an apology.
Fox "News" may fool the MSM into thinking it's a legitimate news
outlet. But we're paying more attention to Fox than they are, so we
really know what's going on. Chris Wallace and Gretchen Carlson -- two
reasons why Fox "News" gets put into quotes, and once again, wins this
week's Media Putz award.
Fox "News" has previously won the Media Putz award on July 9, 2009, April 16, 2009, and on May 15, 2008.
(And there is Deeper Significance behind the preceding: Buzzflash.com has just launched an online campaign known as Turn Off Fox, with the aim of getting people to have businesses change the channel away from Fox Prolefeed ... not to mention urging people to stop watching it as well.)
*************
SOMETHING THE CULTURE WARRIORS (OR SO THEY SEE THEMSELVES AS) WOULD JUST LAUGH THEIR HEADS OFF @: Not many know this, but the Australians were the first to establish a films-rating system, approving films as either For General Exhibition or Not For General Exhibition (i.e., Adults Only).
Which the film censor board in the Canadian province of Ontario refined in the mid-1930's with perhaps the first such in North America: Films were either deemed Suitable for All or Suitable for Adult Audiences after passing through the censor's shears in the name of G-d, King and Empire.
And we have the current letter-grade-based ratings system of G, PG, PG13, R and NC17 ... but if you ask me, why not just simplify things and deem films as being:
"Suitable for All"
"Suitable Only for the Elites"
"Suitable for Culturally-Deprived Environments"
"Suitable for Idiots and Morons" (as an alternative to the preceding)
(In any event, the films likely to pass in the last category, regardless of the labelling, are more than likely to be deliberately-dumped-on "elegant pornoo!" lacking any relevant plot or story because the Lower Classes thus targeted "don't have any general ideas anyway," and besides, so this line of thinking holds--the sort of line Fox Prolefeed likes promoting in the first place for all their warped delusions of Kulturkrieg grandeur--"need to be kept in their place," and deliberately.
(And the best way to do it? Nothing but cheap and cheerful "pornoo" as is little more than random and unrelated sex scenes, complete with explicit depictions of the genitalia and the obligatory "money shot." Occasionally including scenes of animal mating to break the monotony more than anything else, let alone distract Joe Sixpack from Reality. And deliberately.)
ONCE AGAIN, TARDINESS BECAUSE OF PRIOR COMMITMENTS @ THE MOTEL I DO FOR (AS IN USING THE LEAF BLOWER TO CLEAN UP THE LOT) is the order of the day, reader; hence, I would appreciate your patience and understanding in this respect.
*************
IF THERE'S A LESSON WORTH LEARNING FROM INDECISION 2009 AS CAN BE APPLIED TO INDECISION 2010 (especially when you consider easy Republican wins in the New Jersey and Virginia governors' races, not to mention Democratic victories in special Congressional elections in California and New York and Maine voters endorsing "patriotic" homophobia), it would have to be this:
Videlicet, redoubling any and all efforts to win over especially younger, lower-income and National Minority voters in voter-registry drives and @ the polls--especially so when the Secular-Progressive agenda is all the more important. And also taking challenge to conservative campaigns of voter suppression, intimidation and harrassment which they can easily excuse as "protecting electoral purity and integrity", not to mention being pro Deo et patria in case they're sent a Please Explain Letter.
=============
WHICH LEADS INTO NEWS THAT THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT, DEN HAAG (NL), is sending investigators into Kenya to look into the root causes of the infamous post-electoral violence following their 2007 Presidential elections as led to wholesale slaughter and mayhem, with an eye towards possible action under International Law for Crimes Against Humanity.
Especially the involvement of, and interconnexions with, police and other high-level officials and their acting as agents provocateur when it came to the worst atrocities thereof.
And come to think of it, you can just imagine our "morally superior" extremists seeing electoral interference as one with Moral and Patriotic Duty drooling in their Luscious Glory @ the revelations ensuing--not just in Kenya, but also @ the September rallies in Guinea which resulted in stampedes, rape and Extreme Ultraviolence, in turn translating into international sanctions by the United States, the United Nations and the European Union against the military regime.
*************
WHAT EXACTLY WAS IT THAT PROMPTED GENERAL MOTORS TO ANNOUNCE ITS ABOUT-FACE ON THE SALE OF ITS EUROPEAN OPERATIONS (as in the Opel and Vauxhall nameplates), in effect retaining its presence in Europe @ the expense of the likelihood of 12,000 jobs in Germany being cut as part of wholesale restructuring likely ensuing?
(Luckily, the Vauxhall operations in England's Green and Pleasant Land remain safe, what with the unions @ its two assembly plants welcoming the likelihood of restructuring.)
But then again, maybe it was time to ask about its Australian operations, General Motors Holden by name and stylee, and how such is being afflicted by GM's current restructuring.
*************
IN THE INTEREST OF CUTTING OFF MAJOR FINANCING AND REVENUE STREAMS FOR WEIRD AND UNWHOLESOME ELEMENTS VIS-A-VIS THE DIAMOND TRADE, the major diamond-producing centres have developed an international convention known as the Kimberly Process; the better to track the sourcing of diamonds from mines to cutters to jewellers.
Now, it looks like the Kimberly Process has its target set on the ZANU-PF regime of Robert Mugabe down Zimbabwe way, especially so in light of reports that police control of diamond mines in Zimbabwe is being used to finance ZANU-PF's corrupt and evil ways (disguised all the while as "hard currency reserves" for the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe).
*************
AS WE ALL KNOW, BOYS AND GIRLS, THE AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION'S 1972 ANNUAL CONVENTION removed homosexuality from the list of Serious Mental Aberrations Best Responsive to Treatment and Therapy.
Never mind the Elmer Gantry Institute for Religiopolitical Theology begging to differ all the while, as in invoking Biblical Majesty and Authority to insist that homosexuals are Freaks and Travesties of Nature and homosexuality as a Perversion of the Natural Order.
I mention this because the Health Ministry of the People's Republic of China has announced that the use of corporal punishment to deal with the non-disease of "Internet Addiction," especially among Impressionable Youth, in so-called "Corrective Schools" run along military boot-camp lines is to be prohibited; this on top of a July decree proscribing electroshock therapy in furtherance.
This the byproduct of the martyrdom of Deng Senshan (15), who died sadistically less than a day following his arrival for "rehabilitation" @ the so-called "Qihang Salvation Training Camp" somewhere in Guangxi Province ... and the near-such about a fortnight later of Pu Liang (14) following his sadistic beating and hazing by the principal and fellow inmates of a similar Corrective School.
As the ministry hath it in draft guidance received by Reuters (and, ultimately, quoted by the BBC), "When intervening to prevent improper use of the Internet we should ...
strictly prohibit restriction of personal freedom and physical
punishments"; the ultimate goal being, again quoting the draft guidance note, "to urge the target[ed] people to use the Internet in a healthy way." (For "healthy," as used here, read "goodthoughtful.")
OWING TO MY ANNUAL MEDICAL CHECKUP, WHICH INCLUDED THE ADDITION OF HYDROCHLOROTHIAZIDE TO THE PRESCRIPTION COCKTAIL I TAKE inasmuch as I have a Familial Predisposition to high blood pressure, heart disease and colorectal cancer, the posting of this item is rather later than usual.
For which Your Correspondent greatly and graciously apologises.
(In case you ask, hydrochlorothiazide is a diuretic used in early-stage instances of high blood pressure, the which can cause potassium loss. As well, I continue taking gemfobrozil for high triglycerides and ranitidine for acid reflux.)
Nonetheless, I hope you don't mind the brevity of this posting.
Especially when you stop and consider where, in the spirit of Glenn Beck's perceived interconnexions on that blackboard of his @ Fox Prolefeed, maybe it was time to look for likely interconnexions between the "tea party" movement (and the "astroturf" fronts backed by "the Four Hundred" controlling Joe Sixpack types falling for the ruse), the "Quiverfull/Christian Matriarchy" movement, White Low Church Christian Supremacists and neo-Nazi/Fascist types interrelated to the preceding. The interconnexions thus discovered would be rather fascinating, and would amaze even Glenn Beck to the point where The Shadow (as in "Who Knows What Evil Lurks in the Hearts of Men?") might come to haunt Beck on one of his broadcasts, in the stylee of his radio adventures over Mutual from 1937 to 1954.
Preferably spoken in a clipped South African accent, Vrystaat such preferred IMHO.
YOUR CORRESPONDENT UNDERSTANDS THAT THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION (FTC) IS NOT AMUSED about the website FreeCreditReport.com, a byproduct of credit-reporting agency Expirian infamous for its rather reechy-sounding tunes promoting what turns out being a come-on to a subscription-based credit-file monitoring scheme needlessly duplicating services that one can do free or @ nominal cost.
Especially galling is the fact that said website's URL (as in its address) is a deliberate trick to mislead especially vulnerable and easily-influenced persons from The One, True and Only Free Credit Report Site on the Information Stuporbahn Authorised by Act of Congress, which is www.annualcreditreport.com for the record. And the FTC's gone so far as to back up the claim with Public Service Announcements as essentially parody FreeCreditReport.com's adverts, tacky jingles, corny looks and all.
Which could mean that the FTC may petition ICANN, the international agency responsible for website domains and address registry, to look into FreeCreditReport.com being assigned to the Holy and Morally Superior Free-Enterprise System with intent to confuse or mislead the public, in particular such with inborn or latent naivete.
*************
TO SEE THE FOLLOWING AND NOT BE CONVINCED OF THE CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER POSED BY THE ELMER GANTRY ELEMENT to Our Antient and Peculiar Sovereignty and Sovereign Identity (by way of Ted Danson's appearing on HLN's Joy Behar Show last evening) speaks volumes of just how we "morally superior" Americans seem to have become too dependent upon Fox Prolefeed, as if suggesting where we have become what H. L. Mencken called Boobius Americanus in the extreme:
WITH THE ANNUAL HAJJ (AS IN THE PILGRIMAGE TO HOLY MAKKAH AND MINA EXPECTED OF THE MUSLIM FAITHFUL ONCE IN THEIR ADULT LIFETIMES) COMING UP,the Saudi Ministry for the Hajj has issued its annual warning to intending pilgrims not to use the Fifth Pillar of Islam for real or perceived political purposes--a veiled reference to the so-called "Islamic Republic of Iran" seeing the hajj as a propaganda weapon among such making the pilgrimage.
(The Saudis, for their part, consider use of the hajj for propaganda ends to be a safety risk, not to mention distracting pilgrims from the sachristy and significance thereof in relation to the Muslim faith. Witness the traditional uniform issued to those on hajj of a seamless white cotton pyjama, expected to signify the unity of all Muslims across the world so participant.)
*************
CHICAGO BACK IN THE GLORY DAYS OF AL CAPONE AND HIS ILK WAS NEVER LIKE THIS: A court in Chongqing, China has sentenced to 18 years' penal servitude what state media described as the "godmother" of the local criminal underworld.
By name, Xie Caiping (46).
Who, according to state prosecutors, ran illegal casinos in such venues as hotels, tea rooms and nightclubs ... illegal detention of people ... harbouring drug addicts and "social degenerates" generally ... bribing the local police and running protection rackets on the side ... and reputedly keeping a stable of 16 young men to serve her sexual desires, all along pocketing some RMB2 million during her Reign of Terror (of which she will have to pay RMB1.02 million in fines along with the jail time).
As if that weren't enough, Madame Xie's brother-in-law, Wen Qiang (himself a former local judge), faces referral to the Communist Party authorities in Beijing for Serious Disciplinary Action vis-a-vis his connexions to Madame Xie's syndicate alongside sentencing forthcoming on charges of rape, bribery, money laundering and illegal moneylending.
Not to mention Further Serious Enquiries into the Depth and Extent of Corruption in the Chongqing district which the Xie trial uncovered; on top of that, six other people were earlier given death sentences (as in a single pistol shot fired @ the temple) for murder and blackmail.
Let it be hoped such may be the tip of the iceberg into just how far corrupt the so-called "People's Republic of China" really has become, all the while claiming to be acting in the name and welfare of the Workers and Peasants towards "developing socialism with Chinese characteristics."
As well as provide some worthwhile lessons into just how low certain right-wing extremists want to take our "morally superior" United States in the name of "saving America from herself." "It's a small world, after all," as Disneyland and Walt Disney World forever remind us.
*************
COULD IT BE THAT FOX PROLEFEED MAY UNWITTINGLY BE EMBRACING COMMUNIST TACTICS AND METHODS IN THE OLD "WINNING OF HEARTS AND MINDS" THEMSELVES while parroting the trope about President Obama being some class of an unwittingly conscious "Communist dupe***undermining Our Holy and Beloved Nation" all the while?
(As in the use of confusingly misleading and deceptive phraseology with clear and present danger of harming the Great Unwashed to the point of causing confusion.)
=============
MEANWHILE, THOSE PLAYING ALONG TO FOX PROLEFEED'S DANGEROUSLY MISLEADING TUNE AND STORY about "where are the jobs?" vis-a-vis President Obama's Socioeconomic Stimulus (as in expecting the private sector to so create out of the goodness of their collective hearts and minds) may want to recall where many of the Great Depression's various make-work initiatives (among them the Civilian Conservation Corps [CCC], the National Youth Administration [NYA], the Public Works Administration [PWA], the Tennessee Valley Authority [TVA] and the Works Progress Administration [WPA], to cite the more prominent such) also had a relief component (as in providing money, by way of allotments, to the families of those so employed).
Case in point: Out of the $30/week in pay CCC workers received to engage in reforestation, soil and water conservation and construction of amenities in state and national parks and waysides, $25 went to their families as relief benefits.
Take that, ye Zealots and True Believers still expecting the private sector to create work without recourse to State blackmail or extortion, and whining about the "chronically and habitually unemployed" "not making good enough effort" to find work, let alone "knowing where to look" (as in private employment agencies operating in Bad Neighbourhoods as charge advance fees to would-be job seekers, not to mention employing "singers" to engage in "whispering campaigns" working the bars and welfare offices).
(And come to think of it, how many families of those now serving in the ur-RAHOWA Against International Terrorism are receiving allotments out of the pay of their children in service?)
IF EVER THERE WERE A CLEAR AND COMPELLING REASON FOR COMPLETE, FINAL AND BINDING HEALTH-CARE REFORM IN OUR "MORALLY SUPERIOR" UNITED STATES, it would have to be this item from the CBS News show 60 Minutes last evening.
Which, for want of giving the plot away, ought be seen by everyone.
And shared with Your Congressman, especially now that the debate over health-care reform has reached critical mass all the more. In other words, inaction now will shut the door indefinitely on serious reform while millions more (especially the Lower Classes and National Minorities lacking insurance) suffer the price of not having health cover.
(Thanks to Engrish.com for tipping me off via Twitter.)
FOLKSIES, WOULDN'T YOU AGREE THAT THE IMAGE LEADING TODAY'S POST IS RATHER APROPOS THE TIME OF YEAR, particularly among such of you in the Northern Hemisphere as are still seeing autumnal effects?
*************
PERHAPS IT WAS OVERSIGHT MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE, but perhaps it was time to add to the FAQ's I asked back on Saturday this particular one:
Why are your blog posts shown in UTC time, not prevailing local time? The reason for this is logical more than anything else: It's the World Wide Web, not the America Wide Web, that I happen to be on. And UTC time (Coordinated Universal Time, to translate from the French abbreviate; a/k/a Greenwich Mean Time, or GMT) is the international standard by agreement for establishing correct time the world over. As for the inspiration therefor, such came about by way of the German worldcaster Deutsche Welle's TV service, DW-TV, using UTC time for programme scheduling purposes (@ least when it was on cable TV here in Winona). Now you know.
FOX PROLEFEED CRONYISM @ ITS MOST PATHETIC: How many of you can be considered regular, hard-wired viewers of Fox News Sunday week after week among you readers of this blog, or reasonable facsimilies thereof?
If so, you may have noticed yesterday's show being little more than a rather pathetic exercise in idolarty towards The Oxycontin Boar, who, inter alii, insisted that the GOP's Last and Only Hope for Remaining a Viable Political Option in Our Morally-Superior United States is for them to hold dear a complacent, "stay the course" toadyism vis-a-vis the hagiographic deification of Ronald Reagan and such articles of faith holding free-market capitalism with American characteristics to be the Great White Father of especially the Lower Classes "otherwise enslaved in hopeless and helpless dependency upon State welfare and Social Security," or so the patsy would go.
Remember, holding fast a "stay the course" complacency only risks its destruction from within, as in corruption, mismanagement, waste, fraud, inefficiency and scandal; one need look no further than the Leonid Brezhnev regime in the then-Soviet Union (1964-1982) as a prime example and warning of this. (Not to mention the star-crossed attempts by his successors, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, to so perpetuate, only to be thwarted by their deaths in office within measurable distance of their assuming power.)
Instead, what El Rushbo deserves is your reminding him of the facts as above; consider referring him to this item by e-mail (politely, of course).
=============
COME TO THINK OF IT, YOU CAN JUST IMAGINE NOT JUST RUSH LIMBAUGH, BUT ALSO HIS COMRADE-IN-ARMS (SO TO SPEAK), FOX PROLEFEED'S GLENN BECK, perhaps being unwitting psychopaths whose messages, notwithstanding their playing the patsy of being "entertainers" to avoid Attracting Unwelcome Attention (or so they think), may pose Clear and Present Danger to the Community as much as to its Peace, Safety and Good Order.
With Glenn Beck probably being the More Dangerous of the two.
And made all the worse, in either case, by the fact of the core audience for both their respective programmes being the Great Unwashed, deluded into an arrogance rivalled only by the ranks of Afrikanerdom in apartheid South Africa expected to see themselves "as of natural right" being the natural Lord and Master of South Africa "by right of conquest," so to speak, as reinforced by officially-sanctioned organisations of highly-secretive and Freemasonic nature such as Die Broterbund.
What exactly would prevent someone from taking "pre-emptive" action against Beck and/or Limbaugh by way of the prevailing mental-hygiene laws both would love to see deployed against "Godless Liberals and Secular-Progressives" and other "Enemies of the Nation," real or suspected (unaware that the orders in question may be issued in a state of insanity, technically rendering such null and void under common law)?
*************
HOW DO WE KNOW THAT "ASTROTURF" MOVEMENTS AREN'T ACTUALLY IN UNHOLY AND CORRUPT LEAGUE WITH THE SO-CALLED "CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY" in the development and perfection of propaganda, mind-control and groupthink techniques to mislead such among the Joe Sixpack types expected to parrot the line of "the Four Hundred" through trick or deceit in furtherance thereof (as witness the use of deceptive-sounding stylees for their movements like "Americans For Prosperity," to take one especially noisome example)?
And how sure are we that the Scientologists' infamous "Fair Game Policy," bordering as it does on McCarthyism, isn't a cornerstone of such groupthink vis-a-vis "astroturf" in the "winning of hearts and minds" racket?
*************
A REMINDER THAT WE IGNORE THE LESSONS AND WARNINGS OF HISTORY @ OUR PERIL: The rather scholarly journal Latin American Antiquity hath it in its new number that the ancient Nazca peoples of Peru, perhaps best known for the massive displays of earth sculpture best appreciated from the air, may have planted the seeds of their own destruction in pre-Colombian times thanks to wholesale and reckless deforestation just to open up new agricultural lands.
As for, perhaps, the closest parallel to the Nazca in our supposedly "advanced" and "enlightened" times, consider the North Koreans as have themselves been forced into wholesale deforestation in recent years just to maintain its cherished neo-Stalinist agenda of juche ("self-reliance") in terms of food supply after several years of poor harvests translating into famine ... aggravated by increasingly heavy rainfalls which, in their turn, have translated into gross soil erosion on the denuded hillsides as have themselves washed out fields and crops by mudslides.
And throughout, "Great Leader" Kim Jong Il is expected to be looked upon by its starving and helplessly tired populace as a superdivine leader with mystical powers ... and his father, "Eternal Leader" Kim Il Sung, being worshipped as a deity (its Sanctii Sanctorum being the Monument to Eternal Leader Kim Il Sung in Beautiful Downtown Pyongyang, backed by a ceramic-tile picture of Holy and Sacred Mt. Paekdu, itself figuring prominently in the official pantheon of North Korean Mythology as well-documented).
*************
HOW MUCH LONGER BEFORE OFFICIALLY-SANCTIONED BLACKMAIL BECOMES THE ORDER OF THE DAY IN GETTING BANKERS TO MAKE MORE LOANS AND LINES OF CREDIT AVAILABLE TO SMALL BUSINESS, especially so in the wake of The CIT Group, heretofore the preeminent small-business loan and finance company, having gone into Carey Street?
(The whole being seen as a "pre-emptive" action against the likelihood of weird and unwholesome elements, many of them based offshore "for tax reasons," according to the official patsy, start exploiting the vacuum now opened by CIT's insolvency. Even more so where Notorious Criminal Syndicates, both from within and without, have significant involvement--especially for discreetly [or so hoped] laundering the Proceeds of Crime and/or Terrorism.)
*************
MONTY PYTHON FANS ARE PROBABLY FAMILIAR WITH THE "MINISTRY OF SILLY WALKS" SKETCH, about a supposed agency of Her Majesty's Government specialist in studying and promoting bizarre or otherwise unusual walking patterns.
Which had Your Correspondent imagining as perhaps the perfect example of Silly Walking Music none other than "Dirty Work" by Steely Dan of late 1970's vintage; I think the melody line makes it ideal to Silly Walk to its beat.
CONWEBBLOG IS NOTING WHERE JOSEPH "WORLDNETDAILY" FARAH IS STARTING TO GET PARANOID, even if it means resorting to devious, illicit and questionable pseudo-journalistic tactics to make sure the Fourth Estate (or what remains of it) kowtows to him and him alone, reinforced by the one command he knows--OBEY:
Joseph Farah's Oct. 31 WorldNetDaily column
is another whine-fest about how the rest of the media is being mean to
WND over the birther issue, and this time he's issuing threats:
I believe I have been far too kind to my colleagues in the rest of the media.
I have been playing Mr. Nice Guy.
Well, Mr. Nice Guy has been around this business for 30 years and knows where a lot of bodies are buried.
And if I have to redirect some of my attention toward reporting on the media, I will do it.
Consider that a warning.
Consider this a shot across the bow.
Uh, when has Farah ever been nice?
Well, to people who hold his same far-right views, sure--see WND's Orly Taitz protection racket. But this is a man who condones the murder of adulterers and advocates censorship through the return of the Hollywood blacklist. As we've detailed,
Farah in 2004 described John Kerry as "a privileged rich boy,"
"traitorous," "rotten to the core," and, of course, "truly dangerous
... truly contemptuous ... truly egomaniacal ... truly without
character ... truly transparent as a political huckster and charlatan."
Oh, and he called an Obama White House adviser "toga head."
This is "Mr. Nice Guy"?
What set Farah off this time was Bill O'Reilly talking about birthers:
There was pompous old Bill O'Reilly again this week attacking one of his favorite targets–"birthers."
He
had two guests on with him – neither one cognizant of the facts
surrounding the Barack Obama eligibility questions. Both of them
happily nodded in agreement to most of the tripe emanating from
O'Reilly's big, ill-informed mouth.
Night after night, show after show, network after network this goes on.
This is journalism?
Whatever happened to "fair and balanced"?
Whatever happened to getting other points of view?
Whatever happened to the idea of interviewing those with whom you disagree?
Whatever happened to the notion of representing honestly the opinions of others?
I'm getting flat-out sick of it.
Really?
If so, Farah might want to keep his reporters and columnists (and
himself) from engaging in those very same behaviors. As we've detailed,
WND's articles are not "fair and balanced," and its reporters
frequently do not gather other points of view. Nor does it honestly
represent the opinions of others, as, John Holdren and Chai Feldblum, among others, know all too well.
Needless
to say, a few paragraphs after he whines about "representing honestly
the opinions of others," Farah misrepresents facts, complaining that
"Not one of these cable networks, let alone the Associated Press, New
York Times, Los Angeles Times or the major networks, has reported the
significance of the fact that Michelle Obama admitted her mother-in-law
gave birth out of wedlock." But that's not what she did--An Oct. 27
WND article
by Aaron Klein dug up a quote of Michelle Obama saying "during a July
2008 round table at the University of Missouri" that Obama's mother,
Stanley Ann Dunham, "was very young and very single when she had him."
That's not the admission Obama was born "out of wedlock" Farah portrays
it as or even "contradicted previous claims President Obama made about
the circumstances of his birth,": as Klein writes, since it could also
describe that Dunham was estranged from her husband at the time. Farah
and Klein have simply chosen to interpret it that way.
Farah seems to be oblivious to the fact that petulant screeds like this and sloppy, biased reporting--on top of Farah's inability to handle criticism--are precisely the reason why WND isn't treated with respect, nor
does he seem to realize that there are other reasons as well, such as
repeatedly reportingliesasfact.
Then
again, maybe Farah does know this, and refuses to acknowledge it
publicly for fear of becoming even more discredited. Either way, it's
not a way to earn the respect he so desperately craves.
And it's no wonder that WorldNetDaily is not held in such high esteem by such among the Greater Blogosphere who values sanity and the freedom of the (virtual) press, when you get right down to it. It's become as if Mr. Farah, oblivious to the loss of credibility when it comes to his (supposed) Pride and Joy in the Information Stuporbahn, has started to become his own worst joke, forcing him to play the schoolyard bully in what may be a last desperate move to save what he sees as his Good Name and Repute.
And wants to stop @ nothing, Joe McCarthy-stylee, to make sure he gets his way, no matter how filthy, obscene, vile, disgusting, putrid, loathsome or scandalous it may be. (Come to think of it, about the only advertising WorldNetDaily can attract is from rather disreputable channels, the sort no mainstream online news site is willing to accept lest their good name and repute be compromised.)
In any case, WorldNetDaily needs to be told for once these same words as were the ruin of this supposed hero of Joseph Farah's: "Have you no sense of Decency, Sir, @ long last? Have you left no sense of Decency?"
The which WND would likely respond to by quoting Nietzsche's "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." (As if--!)
And how much longer before Farah turns to Al Cohol, Mary Jane Weaver, Auntie Em and/or Doctor White for inspiration and story ideas, if this isn't exactly the case already?
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