Damned lies

Columnist Mark Steel (marksteelinfo.com) on Hillary’s Bosnia lies:

“This wasn’t just a politician’s lie, it was the pointless lie of someone who sits on their own in pubs and leans across to grab you and lie compulsively. Her next round of soft-focus adverts will probably feature her soothingly saying, ‘My fellow Americans, I drank a pint of walrus milk once for a bet. I speak fluent Eskimo. I once ate all the gherkins in Belgium. My brother’s got a yak in his loft. I fell asleep on a night bus once and woke up in Munich, and had to get a lift back on a camel. I used to live on an iceberg. I’ve got a waffle-maker that works underwater.’

“Someone who routinely lies like she does, then dismisses it as a consequence of the number of words she says has severe psychological problems. Perhaps her disorder is a result of the sort of politician she is. Like Blair, neither she nor Bill stand for anything – priding themselves in being tied to no ‘ideology.’ So a normal politician might set out with a set of principles, then lie as they compromise and betray them. But a Blair or Clinton is a politician with no purpose but their own standing, like celebrities who are nothing but celebrities. So they say whatever they feel will make them look best to the audience they’re with, regardless of whether it’s true, until they probably don’t know themselves what’s real and what’s not.”

Spitzer’s not the only one

Michael Yon (michaelyon-online.com) notes an unusual source for intelligence information in Iraq.

“Tal Afar, formerly ‘Al Qaeda City,’ is mostly quiet these days. Normally we have far less than a hundred soldiers in the city, but we do need money for civil affairs projects. This money truly is critical. Otherwise, the situation improves, though without investment this could be reversed. The few remaining serious troublemakers are being hacked off and mulched in these incessant operations, which gives the enemy no rest (in the old days, when they were murdering Iraqis and Americans by the thousands, al Qaeda used Tal Afar for training and R&R). These types of terrorists used to lay up with prostitutes in downtown Tal Afar, which isn’t so uncommon – for years brothels have been an excellent source of information against al Qaeda from Mosul to Baghdad. The al Qaeda terrorists don’t save themselves for the seventy-two virgins promised to suicide bombers. They love drugs, prostitutes, and the power of the gun.”

McCain’s misquote

Matt Lewis at Townhall.com on phrases that take on a life of their own.

“News flash: Humphrey Bogart never said, ‘play it again, Sam,’ Captain Kirk never uttered, ‘Beam me up, Scotty’ – and John McCain never promised a hundred-year war! The danger, of course, is that everybody thinks Bogie and Kirk said those now famous lines. And if we’re not careful, the public may also mistakenly believe McCain said he wanted a hundred-year war. As Churchill may, or may not have said: ‘A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.’ Of course, this lie isn’t just spreading itself. The fact that Barack Obama and Howard Dean continue to intentionally mischaracterize John McCain‘s statements – and mislead the public – obviously creates a level of difficulty that may other misquoted victims haven’t had to confront (the obvious exception is Al Gore – the man who ‘invented’ the internet). It’s easy to say McCain wants to stay in Iraq for one hundred years. That fits on a bumper sticker. But explaining the truth takes at least a paragraph.”

Abandoned homes

At the Big Picture (bigpicture.typepad.com) worries about the ghost neighborhoods that may develop from the subprime crisis.

Consider this troubling question: Do mortgage lenders have any obligation to take over a property that has defaulted on its mortgage? The short answer, it appears, is no. Typically . . . delinquency leads to default, then foreclosure proceedings. Once a lender retakes the property, the REO leads to a decision on when to best resale – immediately, or wait it out. [But according to the Chicago Tribune] ‘you see lenders who file foreclosure proceedings but don’t actually take control of the properties, because the lenders have to maintain them and pay taxes on them.’

“There are very significant costs to this. Consider what the potential impact of these property abandonments by the lender means: total write off of the loan; boarded up homes/neighborhoods; loss of tax revenue to the local school district or town; long delays before the local town, municipality, or state can take possession due to tax arrears. If this becomes widespread, we could be in the process of creating an entire new universe of suburban slums.”

SITES

Web pages to add to your bookmarks this week:

Hotair.com

New collection of insightful conservative posts from Ed Morrissey, Allahpundit and Michelle Malkin.

360cities.net

Fantastic panorama pictures of more than 50 cities worldwide.

Postcardsfrom-

yomomma.com

A blog that collects all those little notes from mom – eat right, wear a coat, and moisturize!

nbc.com/Vintage_Shows/Way_Back_Wednesdays/

Every Wednesday, another episode of “The A-Team,” “Buck Rogers” or another scary show from your youth.