Ken Silverstein has a fantastic piece in this month’s Harper’s magazine (excerpt here) detailing his undercover investigation of the Washington lobbying establishment. Specifically, Silverstein posed as a consultant for the fictitious, London-based “Maldon Group” which supposedly has a financial stake in spiffing up the image of the neo-Stalinist nation of Turkmenistan.
Silverstein found two high-profile lobbying […]

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Everybody knows that the world is full of stupid people
But I’ve got the pistol, so I’ll keep the pesos… yeah, that seems fair.
Busy today, light posting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfZbFh7qlCQ

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…as my 5-year-old son would put it. On the front page of today’s Lancaster New Era is this story, about how farm preservation groups are saying that unless we continue to preserve farms - unless the county continues to borrow money in order to preserve farms - then we face “devastating consequences” in the future.
Nonsense.

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Glenn Greenwald catches Jonah Goldberg inadvertently speaking the truth:
That, of course, is the defining mentality of the Authoritarian Mind, captured in its purest essence by Jonah. Our Leaders are Good and want to protect us. Therefore, we must accept — and even be grateful — when they prevent us from knowing what they are doing. The […]

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It’s a good bet that two-thirds of the traffic coming past Penn Square today has no idea whatsoever that North Queen Street is blocked off for the fireworks show…

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Wolcott on why Mitt Romney is likely bummed the whole immigration thing is over:

To exploit the bill’s unpopularity, Romney’s crack team of advisors had planned to strap an illegal alien to the top of Romney’s motorcade limo and chauffeur the undocumented worker around New Hampshire from campaign stop to campaign stop. This publicity brainstorm was […]

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Impeach Cheney, writes Bruce Fein in Slate.com.

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So Drudge has the big headline this morning, “Panic in Picadilly: Terror car defused in London.”
“Terror car.”
You know, it strikes me that even though this particular car bomb didn’t explode, this incident was a total and complete victory for the “terrorists,” whichever particular group is responsible for this (I’m sure it’ll be al Qaeda, whether […]

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GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio has done a huge survey of Republicans. As reported by Marc Ambinder at The Atlantic Online, it confirms a few things:

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Hilarious. Fox News poll asks, “If there is an all-out war between the United States and various radical Muslim groups worldwide, who would you rather have in charge — Democrats or Republicans?” The results:

Democrats
41%

Republicans
38%

Both the same
(not listed)
9%

Don’t know
(not listed)
12%

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Cheney’s acting like Julius Caesar and must be stopped, writes Steve Clemons:
If the Vice President thinks that there is no authority to which he reports, then he has committed a high crime against this nation and its democracy.

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Went down to Place Marie to interview Jack Howell of the Lancaster Alliance earlier this week, they’re still pushing the streetcar idea in Lancaster (so there’s a head’s-up for you, that will be in this weekend’s paper).
Hadn’t been to Place Marie for a while - since Cafe Aroma Borealis pulled out, actually - and was […]

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So Ann Coulter gets blindsided by Elizabeth Edwards on “Hardball,” and apparently she’s having a very, very difficult time taking what she’s so fond of dishing out.
Check out this clip from Scarborough - she’s practically crying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDpuo2QuugQ

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Just got off the phone with an aide to a local Republican state legislator, who was carping about the phone calls they’ve been getting this week. “YOU TELL THAT GUY TO VOTE AGAINST THE IMMIGRATION BILL!” Which of course state legislators have nothing to do with.
Wonder how many state legislators are getting such pinhead winger […]

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Noting a BBC story that reports Iraqis are saying the 17 dead “al Qaeda” we offed in a June 22 attack were actually civilians, Atrios nails it:
What’s the truth? Who knows. But the bigger point is that US military has no idea if these guys were “al Qaeda,” or, more specifically, “al Qaeda in Iraq,” […]

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And who didn’t see this coming?
“It’s unfortunate that congressional Democrats continue to choose the route of confrontation,” said presidential spokesman Tony Fratto. Yeah, keep this up buddy and they’re going to choose something a little more severe - and have a real nice percentage of the country in their corner.
Let’s be clear: The White House […]

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Tinfoil hat time:
Doctors could soon be storing essential medical information under the skin of their patients, the American Medical Association says
Devices the size of a grain of rice that are implanted with a needle could give emergency room doctors quick access to the records of chronically ill patients, the nation’s largest doctors group said in […]

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Suburban Philly kids trash house, get a “sweet deal” from the judge, aren’t even on the hook for the $18,000 in damages they caused - and the victim feels like she’s the one being published:
Imagine having your house ravaged by hard-drinking teenagers who doused your clothes with urine, pooped on your piano, and played catch with […]

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Interesting piece up at Antiwar.com on why conservatives ought to be anti-war:
The military is the most bloated and opaque organization in the United States, perhaps in the world. Yet few conservatives criticize this shadowy arm of the state. Are these really the same people who would have us believe that they champion good, clean, simple […]

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Chris Matthews inexplicably has Ann Coulter on Hardball. Elizabeth Edwards calls in, confronts Coulter for the things she’s printed about how the Edwards family “exploits” their dead son. Coulter whines; Edwards rips her a new one. Crowd applauds.
God bless America.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j9UXMrTHNA

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