The right wing "mirror image" disinformation technique

This is an excellent discussion of Rovian disinformation tactics by Billmon. Eric Cantor was practicing this tactic when he announced the strange story of the bullet that apparently fell from the sky into a window in a building some of his campaign adviser groups use.

Spock with a Beard: The Sequel
This is the beginning two paragraphs

For some years now, I’ve been morbidly fascinated by the political dark arts -- especially the very dark art of disinformation: the systematic creation and dissemination of false narratives designed to discredit your opponents and/or drive undecided audiences away from their cause.

The difference between disinformation and just plain lying is in the scope of the enterprise: A lie is intended to conceal a specific truth (e.g. "I did not have sex with that woman"). Disinformation, on the other hand, is aimed at constructing an entire alternative reality -- one in which the truth can find no foothold because it conflicts just not with a specific falsehood, but with the entire fabric of the false reality that has been created. It puts the "big" in big lie, in other words.

Rick Perlstein on Why Obama will not be a transformational President

This is about a one hour lecture with half an hour of questions and answers. The sound focuses on Rick so the questions are faint at best.

That said, it is an extremely insightful analysis of the Obama Presidency and the current times.

Rick Perlstein at Vanderbilt, March 22, 2010.

Yes we can; No you can't. Boehner is wrong.

This was too good not to blog.



h/t to Talking Points Memo.

Best short analysis of the recent banking crisis so far

Want a short overview of what all went wrong with Wall Street in 2008? Here is a floor speech by Senator Ted Kaufman that does a superb job of summarizing the set of problems and how they worked out in the crisis.

It's already a summary, so I won't try to summarize it here. Go read it.