I don’t know why people are surprised by this total lack of professionalism by the legacy media™, they do it to Democratic candidates all the time.

The CBS News web site featured the story by Perry Bacon Jr. that appeared on the front page of the Washington Post: Obama Dogged By Muslim Rumors Washington Post: Foes Use Candidate’s Muslim Ties To Fuel Speculation About His Faith.

The rumors weren’t being spread as quickly or widely as the corporate media wanted, so they opened the front page of a national newspaper to the bottom feeders. There is no investigation of what is being said, just the repetition of the garbage.

When this story first appeared it took me less than an hour to figure out what was going on. The sources that you need are on the ‘Net, and in English. Several European media operations contacted reporters in the area where Obama’s family lived and determined the entire scenario was bogus.

Pathetic.

R. Neal of Facing South reports the very predictable story: Local governments make run on Florida investment fund.

Why are local governments trying to get their money out of the State investment fund? Well, let’s guess – it is run by Republicans and what is the worse thing to be invested in at the moment? Got it in one, they have a big chunk of the fund in sub-prime mortgage paper. It was another Ponzi scheme that promised absurd payoffs, so of course they used the State Employees Pension fund and the Local Governments operating capital to buy into them.

Just like the derivatives mess all over again.

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A lot of people have written about this blatant violation of our civil rights, but I’ll use Declan McCullagh’s post at CNet’s The Iconoclast blog, Congress’ “anti-extremist” bill targets online thoughtcrime, to air my other complaints, i.e. those not directly related to the Stalinist nature of this “law.”

The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act (VRAHTPA) is going to establish the National Commission on the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism, a $20 million boondoogle for cronies and relatives, to sit around and surf the ‘Net. Oh, yes, they have to produce occasional reports that will be classified and, no doubt, add names to the totally worthless “No-Fly list” which will soon include everyone in the world at the rate it’s growing, and this will do what? What do the people who created and voted for this turkey think will be accomplished? What necessary function of government is implemented by this commissariat?

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It’s nice to know the Hedgemony is consistent: U.S. Students Lose Ground On Reading Tests – American Fourth Graders Score The Same As 2001, Outperformed By 10 Other Nations

(AP) U.S. fourth-graders have lost ground in reading ability compared with kids around the world, according to results of a global reading test.

Test results released Wednesday showed U.S. students, who took the test last year, scored about the same as they did in 2001, the last time the test was given, despite an increased emphasis on reading under the No Child Left Behind law.

All NCLB has proven is that you can teach children how to take a test, but that only improves their performance on that test. For those who don’t know, there aren’t many jobs for “test takers.”