As we've come to see all too often, MSMers who are supposed to be the gatekeepers of the truth in reporting instead print misleading headlines to drive traffic to their stories that in the end only contradict their own story. Case in point: GOP VP candidate Rep. Paul Ryan told so many distortions in his speech in Tampa that it forced fact checkers to be a bigger event than the speech itself.

And yet, less than four weeks since being introduced as Mitt Romney's running mate, Ryan has given rise to a furious fact-check revolution, with analysts warning his claims -- about everything from Health Care reform to his best marathon time -- could imperil what many had painted as his cardinal virtue: Honesty.

Bill Clinton gave a rousing speech Wednesday night that was met with high acclaim by many pundits, bloggers, ordinary people and the Commentariat. Conservatives quickly played the backlash politics game that they created decades ago and charged liberal bias, complaining that the MSM didn't bother to fact-check BIll Clinton like they did Ryan. And then the fact-checkers replied that Clinton's claims about the GOP rang true.

On Thursday night President Obama took to the stage in North Carolina to accept the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party and to deliver his speech. It was a good speech, not his best certainly, but still, the early polls indicate he has received an approval bounce, while Mitt Romney's numbers remained flat.

Conservative fact checkers were laying in wait for Obama, just hoping to catch him in some Ryanesque storytelling so they could play the equivalency game. Now we come to Reuters. Let's look at their front page headline read all day Friday:

Did Obama's speech play fast and loose with the facts?

The headline slyly refers to the fast and furious scandal that Republicans have been ginning up for months now. Was that just an editing decision on what they thought sounded good or was it purposefully used to influence people leaning right or who wouldn't even read the article?

Here's the first paragraph of the article.

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama delivered a 40-minute, 4,458-word speech at the Democratic National Convention, and a fact check shows that most of his references were accurate. But there were a few caveats.

Say, what? Reuters hinted, prodded and slanted this headline to make it appear that President Obama was indeed playing a deadly game of mendacity in his big speech that rivaled Republicans mounted attack on the FBI, but lo and behold, he was HONEST!

I think Reuters needs to explain itself on this editorial choice. Was it based on conservative criticism and a major right-wing talking point that could be levied against President Obama? I want to know.

Oh, Megyn! Could you be any more breathless in this segment? Of course, Fox did "break" this news as if the world were ending, so I suppose you can't be the only one to blame. But really, you must do better on how you read polls, dear.

I've been taken to task for misstating polls here on C&L, so I'm pretty careful about not taking them at face value anymore. Megyn Kelly, not so much, especially when it plays into the Fox News agenda of reassuring their viewers that the President is doomed to be a one-termer.

In this segment, Megyn is practically breathless with joy as she announces to the world that the President's poll numbers have dropped a full ten points in a week! Oh no, the sky is falling. Only, those numbers didn't smell right, so I looked a little closer at the graphic.

It's a Reuters/Ipsos poll, and while I can't link up the actual poll questions since Reuters hasn't published it, the sample of independent voters was huge (not) -- 181 people out of a total of 1,040. The margin of error on that question was +/- 7.4%, while the overall margin of error was +/-3.1%.

Then we have Megyn-clone Monica Crowley chime in. Her stunning analysis that his poll numbers improved with independents in December - February because he was "acting more like a Republican than a Democrat" is pure fantasy with absolutely no basis in fact other than to continue lying to viewers and make everyone think the majority in this country are conservative.

Here's what Megyn didn't bother to report from that very same poll:

Weighing in on the Washington budget debate, 59 percent of Americans prefer to cut existing programs while 30 percent would rather raise taxes to reduce deficit spending.

And they prefer to cut defense spending rather than programs that affect them more directly like Medicare and Social Security.

Again, I don't know the specific margin of error on that question, but that's a pretty significant piece of information, don't you think? Well, it is unless you're Fox News. If you're Fox News, Megyn Kelly and Monica Crowley it's worth dramatic music, a flashing "alert" sign, and breathless announcements that the President's approval is "tanking" with independents. Tanking if you think a margin of error swing of 7.4% is anywhere near accurate, anyway.

Lies, damn lies, and statistics.

Oh dear. If this is verified, how likely is it that we'll ever leave?

KABUL, Aug. 15, 2010 (Reuters) — Afghanistan said on Sunday it had discovered an oilfield with an estimated 1.8 billion barrels in the north of the war-ravaged country, where U.S. and other foreign forces are trying to tame a Taliban-led insurgency.

The discovery of the basin between northern Balkh and Shiberghan provinces was made after a survey conducted by Afghan and international geologists, said Jawad Omar, a spokesman for the ministry of mines.

"I do not know its price in the market. But the initial survey says there are 1.8 billion barrels of oil and I think there will be more than what it is estimated," he told Reuters.

Various estimates of Afghanistan's hidden wealth have been made in recent years, but the challenge of exploiting the resources in a country at war and with little mining infrastructure is daunting for most investors.

Omar gave no more details on how the estimates were made but said the country will offer the reserves for development along with other minerals in the coming months.

Afghanistan hopes that untapped mineral deposits valued at $3 trillion could help reduce the need to rely on Western cash for bankrolling its impoverished economy and for its soldiers to maintain security when foreign troops draw down numbers.

(h/t David at VideoCafe)

I think it's a clear indication that the Republican reflexive obstructionism has reached absurd levels when even Chris Wallace calls you on your crap. All that pearl clutching over the deficit--something that mattered not a whit during the Bush years--now requires that Obama offset the costs of extending unemployment insurance but not for the Republican answer for all societal evils, tax cuts for the wealthy. Wrap your mind around that cognitive dissonance.

WALLACE: Congressman Pence, why is it that extending unemployment benefits has to be paid for according to Republicans but extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy which would cost $678 billion, that doesn’t have to be paid for?

PENCE: Well, let me…look, Republicans, me included, have supported numerous extensions of unemployment benefits. We’re anxious to do so again. But look….the deficit this year is a trillion dollars for the second year in a row and more. The American people have had it with runaway federal spending, deficits and debt and they want to begin to see the men and women in Washington DC begin to make the hard choices and prioritize spending. The other part of it too…

[crosstalk]

WALLACE: But you’re not answering the question. I can understand the argument: pay for the unemployment benefits. Why then not pay for the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy?

Pence weasels out of it again. Because clearly, there are no justifications for this except craven political ones. He then argues that the tax cuts expand the economy, despite the fact that the expressed concern up to this point has been reducing the deficit.

At this point, I think it's important to add a little GOP-dreaded facts into the discussion. As a method of stimulating the economy, something we all agree must be done, tax cuts don't help nearly as much as extending unemployment insurance:

Lowering taxes puts money in consumers' pockets quickly, but economists worry that with uncertainty running high, many households will choose to save rather than spend the money. While most economists would like to see the U.S. saving rate rise from its current low level of 1.2 percent, a sudden jump in savings would deepen the recession.

Many economists are pushing for targeted benefits such as food stamps or extending unemployment benefits. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com, estimates that every dollar dedicated to increasing food stamps puts $1.73 into the economy. Increasing jobless insurance benefits typically gets a return of $1.64 per dollar. (here)

Obama also is expected to support tax cuts for businesses, which would raise corporate profits and may help the stock market. Unless the economy recovers quickly those tax reductions would probably do little to encourage companies to step up hiring and investment, Deutsche Bank economist Peter Hooper said.[..]

In congressional testimony last year, Zandi said tax cuts delivered the least bang for the buck, with a dollar's worth of temporary nonrefundable rebates worth $1.02 with a one-year lag. Permanent tax cuts yielded less than 50 cents of additional spending.

So by his own admission, Pence wants to do the least effective method of expanding the economy and add hundreds of billions to trillions to the deficit all the while gnashing and wailing about those irresponsible Democrats growing the deficit. Wow. Nice game if you can get it.

Transcripts below the fold

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Fingers crossed as we wait to see if this new cap works:

(Reuters) - A larger, tighter-fitting containment cap was installed on Monday atop BP's ruptured wellhead on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico in a move the British energy giant said it hopes will fully contain the deep-sea oil gusher.

Crude oil continued to spew into the sea for the time being, but BP Plc said it planned to begin testing the new cap, and the internal pressure of the well, on Tuesday by closing off valves on the device to constrict the flow of oil.

If the test goes as intended, it would mark the first time since the April 20 explosion and blowout of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that the flow of oil from the crippled well has been halted, at least temporarily.

But BP, in a statement announcing the installation of the new cap, warned that success was not certain.

"It is expected, although cannot be assured, that no oil will be released to the ocean for the duration of the test," the statement said. "This will not, however, be an indication that flow from the wellbore has been permanently stopped."

BP said it does not expect to plug the undersea geyser for good before mid-August, after intercepting the rupture point with one of two relief wells now being drilled.

Former U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, overseeing the U.S. government's spill response, said that if the cap works it will be used to resume the siphoning of oil to ships on the surface until the ruptured well can be permanently plugged.

The new cap-and-seal stack, which is larger than the one removed on Friday and bolted over the top of the wellhead rather than clamped loosely over it, is designed to capture three times more leaking oil, or virtually the entire flow.

In the Washington Post:

Next will come the critical "integrity test." It's really a pressure test. How the well performs in the test will shape everything that follows.

Before the test begins, BP will stop collecting oil from the well. Although the top hat, which funneled oil to a surface ship, is no longer in the picture, there is still oil flowing to a surface rig called the Q4000 via a line attached to the blowout preventer. The Q4000 has been burning about 8,000 barrels (336,000 gallons) of oil a day. On Monday, a new ship, the Helix Producer, began siphoning oil through a different line connected to the blowout preventer. That ship potentially could capture up to 25,000 barrels a day if ramped to full production.

To test the well's integrity, BP will gradually shut down the flow of oil and gas until the flow stops -- nothing out the top, nothing to surface ships. BP engineers and government scientists will scrutinize the pressure building in the well.

"Higher pressures are good news. They indicate that the well bore has integrity," said Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer.

If the pressure doesn't rise as expected, that will suggest that the well has been damaged below the seafloor. Suttles played down the possibility that the test could damage the well and cause leaks into the surrounding rock formation.

Peaceful G20 protest at Queen & Spadina from Meghann Millard on Vimeo.

You may ask yourself, why aren't lefties rioting in the streets because of the economy just like what we're seeing at the G20?

Digby has the answer: The Miami Model.

People keep asking where "the left" is and why they don't take to the streets in light of these neo-liberal policies wreaking havoc on working people everywhere. Where is the populist uprising from the left and why there isn't more direct confrontation of the corporatist mindset. It's a good question, but you have to wonder why we never cite these regular protests and why we don't bother to comment on the tactics that are used against them. Are we on the American left really not part of this? Do we philosophically disagree with the critique, even now, after everything that's been revealed during this economic crisis? Are these people wrong?

Now, I understand that these folks have gotten the reputation for being thuggish and destructive, largely based on the Seattle protests over a decade ago. But it's quite clear by now that this is a phony image, conjured up by the authorities to justify their police state tactics against the protesters:

They call it the Miami Model...read on

I'm going to do another post on this soon, but the shorter version is that beating the crap out of people after tasering them and then arresting them does put a damper on things.

Protesters were beaten with tear gas, sticks, rubber bullets . . . You can watch police stun cowering protesters with Tasers on YouTube. Last year, the city agreed it had trampled citizens’ right to free speech by forcing marchers back from planned protests and settled out of court with Amnesty International.

The above video shows protesters singing 'Oh, Canada,' and for no reason at all the police open fire and viciously attack them. It's safe to say that they have been emailed the Miami model and are implementing it quite nicely. Now they can add "singing" to their long list of actions that are forbidden by law enforcement when they encounter protesters.

Mother Jones: In 2008, BP touted it's new tech to measure oil flow. This may be why it stopped working

the glttering eye: Making excuses

cab drollery: Balance

The Reaction: Belgium on the brink: Parliamentary elections could lead to a split

World-O-Crap: Physician, Heal Thyself

ANNALS OF JOURNALISM: Beck promotes book of Nazi sympathizer...Make it stop, please...The siege of Helen...Just shoot me...MoDo misunderstands irony, writing...LA Times employs a full-time wingnut...MSM ignores blogger's work...Cold water on their meme...Lie and Spin

As U.S. and coalition forces mass outside of Khandahar, Afghanistan, for another major combat operation, a spokesman for NATO forces decides to try some Newspeak on Reuters' journalists.

"We would like to call it a process that is encompassing military and non-military instruments," Brigadier General Josef Blotz, the spokesman for NATO forces, told reporters this week.

Ominously, there has been a surge in attacks and political assassinations in Kandahar city recently. Residents fear more bloodshed as some 10,000 troops move into their neighbourhoods.

Most of the troops will stay in rural areas trying to cut off access routes into the city while a 3,500-strong U.S. army brigade will aim to push into Kandahar city, accompanied by almost 7,000 Afghan police.

And for those who would like to consider the former Helmund province offensive process a success, there is this note in the Reuter's article.

A report by policy think tank the International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) this week found that 61 percent of 400 men interviewed in and around Marjah felt more negative about NATO forces than before the operation.

"In other words, the objective of winning 'hearts and minds' -- one of the fundamental tenets of the new counter-insurgency strategy -- was not met," ICOS said in the report.

Meanwhile, CNAS analyst Andrew Exum insists that the failure to progress in Afghanistan is due to political, not military, strategy shortfalls. Really. I'm not sure if he's referring to President Obama's decision to continue the Bush legacy or the continuing lack of a cooperative government in Kabul with which to work. But hey, let's keep rolling those military campaigns until the political leadership figures out what it wants to do in Afghanistan. Maybe we can surpass the Vietnam war record of 12 years of continuous engagement with insurgent forces using "the process."

Reuters is speculating that, three years after Katrina highlighted Bush's who-gives-a-f*** attitude towards his poorest "subjects" (he was presenting a birthday cake to McCain) and brought the Third World to America, Hurricane Gustav could bring all those memories back just in time for the GOP's convention.

Greatscat!:

From Reuters yesterday afternoon:

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp [..] will sell eight U.S. television stations to private equity firm Oak Hill Partners for about $1.1 billion.

I couldn't help but wonder who was buying up tv stations in an election year, so a quick check of Oak Hill Partners :

Oak Hill Capital Partners traces its roots to Robert M. Bass, one of the four brothers who founded Bass Brothers Enterprises in Fort Worth, Texas.

From Texas, eh? A little more checking as a Texas based company raised my eyebrows right away:

Robert Muse Bass is a Texas billionaire worth approximately $5.46 billion as of 2006.

Bass was born into an extremely wealthy family with an uncle, Sid Richardson, worth $810 million. He and his three brothers Lee, Ed, and Sid Bass all attended Yale University, where they solidified their moneyed and political connections. Ed Bass was a classmate and personal friend of George W. Bush, and the brothers, especially Lee Bass, helped Bush financially both before and throughout his political career.

As Diane points out on her blog, it would be interesting to monitor these stations to see what kind of coverage they offer during the election and what impact, if any, it might have.