Wal-Mart’s bright idea

Evil Wal-mart plans to change the way we illuminate our lives with a huge push on compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs).

What that means is that if every one of 110 million American households bought just one ice-cream-cone bulb, took it home, and screwed it in the place of an ordinary 60-watt bulb, the energy saved would be enough to power a city of 1.5 million people. One bulb swapped out, enough electricity saved to power all the homes in Delaware and Rhode Island. In terms of oil not burned, or greenhouse gases not exhausted into the atmosphere, one bulb is equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the roads.

In the next 12 months, starting with a major push this month, Wal-Mart wants to sell every one of its regular customers–100 million in all–one swirl bulb. In the process, Wal-Mart wants to change energy consumption in the United States, and energy consciousness, too. It also aims to change its own reputation, to use swirls to make clear how seriously Wal-Mart takes its new positioning as an environmental activist.

It’s a bold goal, a remarkable declaration of Wal-Mart’s intention to modernize and green up a whole line of business using market oomph. Teaming up with General Electric, which owns about 60% of the residential lightbulb market in the United States, Wal-Mart wants to single-handedly double U.S. sales for CFLs in a year, and it wants demand to surge forward after that.

Diane Lindsley, the hardware buyer who decides what goes in the lightbulb aisles at Wal-Mart, thinks 100 million swirls is perfectly reasonable.

But California still isn’t so sure.

Thanks, McCain

Freedom of speech gets a big wedgie when a proposal to loosen political ad spending within 60 days of an election gets shut down.

Plame Pallywood

What to make of Armitage? David Corn and Michael Isikoff try to draw the curtain on their three-year old manufactured soap opera with the release of their new book “Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War.”  

How much time, money, and energy has been spent to investigate this matter when the original leaker was known from the beginning of this scandal?  How much ammo has this scandal given to the “Bush Lied, People Died” comic troupe?  This is a good indication of how some media will try to get huge mileage out of a contrived situation and steer public dialogue, sometimes for years on end.
This was one of the fundamental narratives of the Angry Left, and it’s withering away awfully quick.    What other invented storylines are out there?  Top contenders have to be the current hysteria over global warming and the debate on Iraq.

More “Fake but accurate” from CBS

Couric pics from last May are just a prelude of what’s to come.

Who placed the hold order?

Growing speculation on which US Senator placed the anonymous hold on earmark reform legislation. Would the responsible party please raise his/her hand?

(update)  Looks like Alaska’s Ted Stevens is the culprit. Thanks, Teddy!

Now it looks like another hold has been placed, this time by a Democrat.  Bipartisan Porking!

Science rears its revisionist head again

Astronomers reclassify Pluto as a non-planet!  This is offensive, especially since the widow of Pluto’s discoverer is still alive, at age 93, in NM!

Mega-angry at the United Nations?

Say it with metal. 

Populist Pricing

This Slate article by Daniel Gross dissects the ‘fuel surcharges’ commonly found on many service invoices.  Apparently, the weak and stupid among us are getting RIPPED OFF by predatory pricing by unnaccountable corporations.

Perhaps a “Press this key to accept $2.50 surcharge and continue transaction” clause is needed down at the UPS Store.

This dude rocks…

“I spit on your accolade…and I believe in nothing”

(Editor comment:  V, you’ll need to add a ‘math’ section to the site now). 

 

Michael Moore lovingly flattered

In Sunni militant propaganda.

Misunderpostulating about nothing

Sullivan “airs” a conspiracy theory that should be suffocated to begin with.

Happy Birthday Fidel Castro

Some coverage from last week’s momentous birthday event, as celebrated in the San Francisco area. Pure idolatry.

CNN becomes ‘Fair and Balanced”

“Now more than ever you need to know your enemy” is the tagline for CNN’s upcoming special ‘In the Footsteps of bin Laden’ airing later this month. Did CNN slip and go jingo on us?

How to win hearts and minds

Hezbollah can rebuild Lebanon and be “welcomed“, while reconstituting Iraq is an ill-informed endeavour.

If Israeli troops must leave Lebanon upon the arrival of the UN force, why shouldn’t Hezbollah? Lebanon is a non-state, and once again the West, with its obedience to the concept of territorial sovereignty and other dignified notions, will lose.

The goons of Chavez

Here’s your SudAmericana axis of weasles in action.

Mike Wallace and his Exclusive Interview

The taxi driver speaks with Mike Wallace, and will likely echo America’s leftwing talking points. This excerpt already suggests this notion:

They (the Bush administration) want to build an empire. And they don’t want to live side-by-side in peace with other nations. The American government, sir, it is very clear to me they have to change their behavior and everything will be resolved. (George W. Bush) believes that his power emanates from his nuclear warhead arsenals.

This is must see TV if you like to get your news straight up! Set your DVRs to Thursday night.

Pallywood Part XXI

The hits keep on coming!

We know the propaganda from Hezbollah won’t stop, but we should reasonably be able to expect that media outlets should be able to check some of this. Maybe they’re too busy working with anonymous sources and sharpening their daggers of political subterfuge.

Here the NYT has a chance to set the record straight on some staged photos but instead issues this lame correction:

A picture caption with an audio slide show on July 27 about an Israeli attack on a building in Tyre, Lebanon, imprecisely described the situation in the picture. The man pictured, who had been seen in previous images appearing to assist with the rescue effort, was injured during that rescue effort, not during the initial attack, and was not killed.

The correct description was this one, which appeared with that picture in the printed edition of The Times: After an Israeli airstrike destroyed a building in Tyre, Lebanon, yesterday, one man helped another who had fallen and was hurt.

In today’s fake-but-accurate newsworld, the NYT believes that ‘fallen’ and ‘hurt’ are the same as ‘playing dead’.

Ask a record store clerk

The merits of reading local newzines.  How else would we have gotten to look inside such a FASCINATING personality?

More Reuters photodoctoring

I feel so betrayed! Reuter’s “photographers” are another man’s “freedom fighters”

Half of U.S. Still Believes Iraq Had WMD

A  pretty selective assessment of the WMD story from  AP’s Charles Hanley.  There’s not a single counterargument in the whole article.

Cheney look-alike terrorizes Code Pinkies

A weird altercation in in Kansas City between Code Pink protesters and random gas station customers.

Hell has frozen over - Bizarro World II

Who would have thought we would ever see this headline? Hallelujah and can I get an amen…

Bizarro World for Lieberman

Some “Loserman” vs. Lamont thoughts at Firedoglake blog.  According to the major polls, ol’ Joe seems to be in dire trouble, but I have a feeling that next week’s primary will be much closer than these polls are predicting, with the winning edge possibly handed to Lieberman.

Is this the face of hatred?

Hilarious!!!  Sure he’s a raging lunatic/bigot…but how can you hate a dude w/ that mug?  I’m submitting this for best pic in Life Magaine for ‘06.  I bet in a year’s time that pic (eyes gazing to the christian heaven) will be in every other male dorm room across america.

Swift Boating Hezbollah.

Some links for possible media manipulation (Pallywood) by Hezbollah here and here. Perhaps Nic Robertson’s fecklessness. in the long run, actually gave Israeli resolve a shot in the arm.
Much has been said about the blogosphere’s ability to keep newsmakers honest. Now, an international consortium of willing bloggers may mount a bigger challenge to Hezbollah’s decades-long string of PR successes than bombs and diplomacy ever did. Keep the pictures coming.