Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo and this blog go way back. So I’m disappointed in this. Specifically, I am concerned about the exact service the drug pushers are paying Marshall for. OK so. Basically everyone searches the Web. A lot of people who consume news get it from search-driven sources like Google News. Typically something…
Read More Spam is a political issueI thought it might be interesting to establish some timeline information about News International e-mail disclosures and deletions, in the light of this piece in the Torygraph. As we know, the Telegraph is now opposed to the Osborne/Gove Murdoch group in the Tories, so it has no reason to carry water for Murdoch. 31st September…
Read More Morgan Day blogging II: work in progressOK, so as well as the big demo, currently standing at 578 coaches and counting, there’s going to be a day of action on the NHS on the 1st of April – April Fool’s day, surely someone can make something creative out of that. So I thought I’d open another flank. Flipchart Fairy Tales has…
Read More There is no crisisMike Konczal and the snark: We are perpetually in a spiritual crisis that can only be fixed by a woman in the kitchen. It’s a huge win for the second half of the 20th century that this argument has been moved from leading political figures addressing graduating classes to the shadier alleyways of the Wall…
Read More Tab-clearing link fartExtremists. I can’t help but think this is a contribution to the ongoing debate about hero-of-the-blog Diego Gambetta’s work on engineers and terrorism. If stuff is upside down before you start the riot, fire, explosion, etc., your extremist cell could probably do with more engineers. Meanwhile, the SELF THOUGHT SPIRITUAL SCIENTIST guy next to him…
Read More mildly amusing roundupLaura Rozen takes us to meet the Iranian government’s loyalist bloggers. The hardliners have fielded hundreds of pro-regime bloggers, most writing in Persian, emphasizing particularly the importance of supporting the Supreme Leader. The bloggers range from students to clerics, with many claiming to be members of the Basij and children of war veterans or martyrs.…
Read More trolls of the AyatollahPerhaps we shouldn’t be so hard on the British wanktank movement. Here’s an example of the US version. It turns out that the people responsible for a break-in at U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu’s office, who apparently posed as telecoms company technicians in an attempt to “tamper” with the phones, were led by a character who…
Read More now that’s what I call wanktankeryThere is a fascinating paper here on how people believed that there was a link between Iraq and Al-Qa’ida. Essentially, if you give people enough free-floating emotional energy, they are likely to decide that if you care so much, then there must be an explanation for the holes in your logic. It’s called inferred justification,…
Read More they told me over a drink we have ways of making you thinkWhat’s wrong with PROFIT?! Death to all Marxists! Hey, I usually try to remain calm, but this is getting unnerving. Everyone with any sense knew there would be an epic wingnut freakout after the US elections – the structural forces made it inevitable, after all the time spent denying plate tectonics – but who imagined…
Read More …from the seaProponents of UAVs like to talk about the “enduring stare”; their ability to remain on station, to keep pointing at the target, rather than taking discrete reels of photos. Blogging ought to be a bit like that; keep after the story, don’t accept the official news (or bullshit) cycle. Hence, this McClatchy story, which has…
Read More can’t we, you know, move on?