Just a bit of Monday roundup

Gee, a reporter possibly faking 'racist who won't vote for The Obama' stories? Whoda thunk it?
The piece goes on to note that Sandra Cichon had been previously interviewed by the St. Petersberg Times for a local election: eight months earlier. It had nothing to do with the presidential election. Nada. Nil. Nothing.

Looks like this guy pulled a name out of his a$$ and never imagined anyone would question it.

Which is why I find reports like these so jarring because it just sounds nearly implausible that some guy sitting in a cafe is just going to pop off to a reporter or other stranger that:

I wonder when it'll occur to the clowns in charge of the journalist liars just how badly they've screwed their 'profession' by nonsense like this?

Well, well, well, a Barack The Obama staffer doing things that are possibly illegal to spread lies about Palin? Ok, I can't say 'whoda thunk it?' because it's not a surprise. And Ace has a bunch on this, too(too many links to list, start at the top and work down).

When Biden started his "My Barack better not come after my shotguns" crap as part of the "Let's lie to gun owners to try and get their votes" strategy, my first thought was "So he can't have your shotgun, but you've got no problem with him taking my rifle and my pistol?"

Some information on a man who helped make the surge. And helped make it work.

And some interesting quotes from our betters(hey, they SAY they are!) about what's wrong with us. including this:
Ask yourself: how has ‘elitism’ become a bad word in American politics? There is simply no other walk of life in which extraordinary talent and rigorous training are denigrated. We want elite pilots to fly our planes, elite troops to undertake our most critical missions, elite athletes to represent us in competition and elite scientists to devote the most productive years of their lives to curing our diseases. And yet, when it comes time to vest people with even greater responsibilities, we consider it a virtue to shun any and all standards of excellence. When it comes to choosing the people whose thoughts and actions will decide the fates of millions, then we suddenly want someone just like us, someone fit to have a beer with, someone down-to-earth—in fact, almost anyone, provided that he or she doesn’t seem too intelligent or well educated.
I submit that this clown doesn't really understand how many people see 'elite'. Those pilots and troops and scientists are 'elites' because they worked their ass off for years to become the best. Not just 'the best they can be', the best. While far too many(especially in the case of scientists) are willing to defer somewhat to someone because 'He went to (fill in the blank) University!', generally they get that designation because they worked for it. Same for engineers and musicians and whatever. Having gone to a 'right' university or belonging to the 'right' clubs and organizations doesn't cut it for most people: their question is "What have you DONE that I should think of you as 'elite'?" And far too many of what he considers elite fall into the 'right school, right groups, says the right things' class; they may never have actually done anything, but they have the right associations so he thinks of them as 'elite'.

I once responded to someone on a 'American's don't like education and are anti-intellectual' that Americans generally have high respect for education and want their kids to do better; what tends to be classed as 'anti-intellectual' is people being willing to tell self-important fools who think they have some inherent right to control our lives to go to hell. And who says that makes them anti-intellectual? The self-important fools. Of course.

Bleah. I've got things to do.