A "hacker" obtained a bunch of emails from climate scientists at the University of East Anglia and posted them to some website, and for some reason Matt Drudge and the right-wing media have decided that these emails are proof of a massive conspiracy to make up global warming, for fun. The emails are mostly scientists complaining about political pressures and people they dislike and things that make their job—and their job is attempting to reconstruct climates of hundreds or millions of years ago based on fucking ice floes and tree rings—harder.

There are precisely two emails that even sound scandalous: one in which a scientist refers to borrowing another scientist's "trick"—which skeptics interpret as falsifying data and which actual legitimate scientists say means "a clever way of doing something"—to "hide the decline," which is a poor way of saying he is attempting to correct for the fact that tree rings don't reflect modern warming trends that are well-documented by actual thermometers.

The other email that is terribly scandalous is even better. As George Monbiot explains:

One of the most damaging emails was sent by the head of the climatic research unit, Phil Jones. He wrote "I can't see either of these papers being in the next [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] report. Kevin and I will keep them out somehow - even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!"

One of these papers which was published in the journal Climate Research turned out to be so badly flawed that the scandal resulted in the resignation of the editor-in-chief.

So the scandal is that a researcher thought a paper was flawed and said he would do anything to keep it from being published, not because it said something dangerous that he is trying to keep hidden, but because he thought it was bad science. And then it turned out to be bad science.

Ahem:

Half of the journal's editorial board, including editor-in-chief Hans von Storch, resigned from the journal's editorial board because they felt that publication of the paper in question represented a breakdown in the peer-review process. The publisher had refused to allow von Storch to publish an editorial on the topic, but later the president of the journal's parent company stated that the paper's major findings could not "be concluded convincingly from the evidence provided in the paper. [Climate Research] should have requested appropriate revisions of the manuscript prior to publication."

So. The scandal, again, for those keeping score at home, is that academics are bitching to each other about papers they think are bad, written by people they dislike, that are being published in journals they dislike.

Also the scandal is that someone made Andrea Peyser's child sing a song about global warming!

The Post's resident sex goddess and outrage factory reports from the front lines of the Obama/Soros/Polar Bear Indoctrination Campaign:

My daughter came home from school recently with a spring in her step and a song on her lips. With no foreshadowing — or time to call an exorcist — out came this chilling refrain:

"...You can hear the warning — GLOBAL WARMING... "

By the time her father and I removed our jaws from the floor, we had learned that:

A) All the kids had been coerced into singing this catchy ditty, which we called "The Warming Song," at a concert for parents.

B) Further song lyrics scolded selfish adults (that would be us) for polluting our planet and causing a warming scourge that would, in no short order, kill all the polar bears and threaten the birds and bees.

C) There was no deprogramming session on the menu. And no arguing allowed.

Well, we're sorry you weren't allowed to "argue" with a school assembly, Andrea. That must've been hard for you! Also we're sorry that someone is scolding grown-ups for polluting the planet, but, you know, it really can't be argued that that is anyone else's fault.

We can all agree, as patriotic Americans, that the House of Representatives should only pass bills that name post offices after Ronald Reagan and honor country music's contributions to America.

What Congress should not do, ever, is try to vote on bills that are long.

Despite the badness of long bills full of evil Government words, every Congress passes thousand-page bills on transportation, energy, and education. No Child Left Behind was 1,033 pages long. The House Conference Report on the 2005 highway bill: 1,231. All of this is in the public record. You can download PDFs of any bill you like from the Library of Congress and Adobe Reader will tell you, right there at the top, how many pages of unreadable bureaucratese passed right by the Republican majority.

What is awesome here is that Politico is not simply playing into a meaningless Republican talking point, they are lovingly assisting in the creation of a meaningless Republican talking point.

Wouldn't it have been much more terrifying for conservatives if Nancy Pelosi's health care reform bill ended up being short? Like, it coulda been a four-page Jack Chick tract of jackbooted Americorps thugs throwing insurance company executives to the "death panels," which are grizzly bears, obviously.

But to answer your question, Mr. Drudge: it is in part because he's black, yes. And it's also because he represents the emergence of an urban elite/black/immigrant/gay/poor coalition that poses a threat to the rural/suburban white Christians who've been told for a century that they are Real America, making this guy who is patently not a member of that group a False American.*

This is what Carter said:

"I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African American," Carter told NBC in an interview. "I live in the South, and I've seen the South come a long way, and I've seen the rest of the country that shared the South's attitude toward minority groups at that time, particularly African Americans"

Continued Carter: "And that racism inclination still exists. . . . It's an abominable circumstance, and it grieves me and concerns me very deeply."

And, in reference to Joe Wilson's little outburst:

"I think it's based on racism," Mr. Carter said at a town-hall-style meeting at his presidential center in Atlanta. "There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president."
[...]
"Those kind of things are not just casual outcomes of a sincere debate on whether we should have a national program on health care," he said. "It's deeper than that."

It's funny because all of that is obviously true. But no one wants to hear it from Jimmy Carter! As Michael Tomasky explains, it is a Bad Idea in Politics to Tell the Truth, because it is called a "gaffe," and it seldom goes over well.

So this is the stupid state of our stupid discourse. To say the intensity of the opposition to Barack Obama indicates a deep vein of racial prejudice and the right is obviously purposefully stoking race-based paranoia as they have done more or less openly since Nixon is met with I can't believe you're calling everyone who opposes the President a white-hooded racist who wants to lynch him.

The best part is that even if you don't think Joe Wilson shouted "you lie" at Barack Obama because he hates black people, there's no way to spin the fact that the portion of the black man's speech that upset him so much was the imagined prospect of filthy Mexicans getting health care. Not that we'd accuse people who are completely obsessed with illegal immigration of being motivated by racism, but they sure do hate Mexicans a lot.

But, you know, no one wants Jimmy Carter to say anything, ever.

*We coastal elites do so enjoy repeating and mocking the "Real America" thing, all the time, in the sneering sort of tone that we are famous for, but for the life of us we cannot imagine liberals seriously calling anyone False Americans. Not Reagan, not Bush, not even Cheney. There was lots of "he's not MY president" and "not in our name" and "a village in Texas is missing its idiot" and even some half-hearted succession talk but everyone acknowledged that Bush was obviously, uniquely American in his own foul way. Which is both liberal inclusiveness (everyone gets to be a part of America!) and that jaded realism about America's history and make believe "innocence" that makes conservatives like Peggy Noonan gravitate to genial fools like Reagan. (We produce monsters too! They're not all born in Kenya!) Anyway this was neither here not there just something we were think about.

The New York state government took $140 million of the Obama stimulus money, and, along with $35 million from Soros, decided to give it to poor kids. But only poor kids! Sure, they are going to immediately go spend that money on school supplies, because poor families are not traditionally known for saving and investing effectively, and that will "stimulate" the economy and help poor kids, but we all know that giving money to poor kids is pointless and irresponsible.

That is why Drudge highlighted this miserable story of mothers in the Bronx taking the free money to buy uniforms for their kids, this morning. Presumably we're meant to skip to this bit at the end:

Paterson's Republican critics blasted the giveaway, saying he should spend the money to reduce property taxes.

"It is a plan that is ripe for fraud and abuse," said Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos. "This is a totally irresponsible use of federal stimulus money."

Yes, right, lowering property taxes is definitely what should've been done with this $140 million of cash, because that is how stimulus spending works. Actually Paterson should've just given it directly to landlords, probably.

[Photo: Getty]

Our Secretary of State was in Mexico, at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and she was all, where did that neat picture come from? Who painted that? The US media is already picking up the story, based on one source, of course: the Catholic News Agency. Here is how they reported this:

The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was miraculously imprinted by Mary on the tilma, or cloak, of St. Juan Diego in 1531. The image has numerous unexplainable phenomena, such as the appearance on Mary's eyes of those present in the room when the tilma was opened and the image's lack of decay.
[...]
After observing it for a while, Mrs. Clinton asked "who painted it?" to which Msgr. Monroy responded "God!"

Yes, of course, everyone knows that. God painted it.

There is, of course, no proof of this conversation having taken place, at all, besides the words of the Catholic News Agency, who, as we just saw, happily reported as fact the idea that god came down with his cosmic oil paints and drew the lady he'd knocked up 1500 years earlier on a cloak for laughs.

Funny story: there is this one reporter named Tim Shipman who writes for The Telegraph, in London. He just publishes whatever he hears from anyone without "corroborating it," which leads to a lot of stories that are kinda made-up!

In the past year he reported that close allies of Gore were pushing him into the Democratic race to end the Clinton-Obama standoff, that former President Bill Clinton warned that then-presidential candidate Barack Obama would have to "kiss his ass" to get an endorsement and that a source close to the new president worried that the insultingly cheap gift of DVDs he gave to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown meant that Obama was "overwhelmed" by his job. Democrats who worked with those campaigns told TWI that these stories were, respectively, "a total lie," "just not true," and "something nobody thinks is true."

Shipman is amused by the criticism. "I never report what I'm not told," he said. "If I have one source who tells me this, I will write that in." After the campaigns or furors are over, he said, the stories hang together, "except, obviously, for the bit about Gore."

Which would be the end of it, because hey, who cares, it's just some English paper. But then there is Mr. Drudge! He pushes these stories into what we charmingly refer to as "the mainstream," which is a bunch of screaming psychopaths on cable news and the narcissistic theater kids who make up the White House press corps.

Not that you can entirely blame the foreign press, of course. There is also Maureen Dowd.

So, look for this amusing Clinton gaffe to go, uh, somewhere. Because Hillary didn't know that God painted that pretty picture.

Because he didn't read the actual story before linking, Drudge (or Breitbart!) missed the most important part: "Researchers have found its venom also stimulates an hours-long erection in men." See, Matt, that would've made an ever better headline than your weird knee-jerk anti-hippie "organic is stupid" first response.

The Obama want to restore the idea of The White House as The People's House so they're hosting weekly black-tie cocktail partiesin the historic East Room for governors, lawmakers, and Stevie Wonder.

The governors' dinner was "a great kickoff of what we hope will be an atmosphere here in the White House that is welcoming and that reminds everybody that this is the people's house," Obama told the state chief executives after they had dined on Maryland crab, Wagyu beef, Nantucket scallops and citrus salad.

And then Earth, Wind and Fire played and the assembled VIPs formed a Conga Line.

Drudge's headline on this story about how the Obamas are inviting legislators over to flatter them into supporting their policies is headlined "DANCING THE RECESSION AWAY: CONGA LINES, PARTIES, COCKTAILS AT OBAMA WHITE HOUSE...." You know, they're drinkin' and dancin' and partying while we all starve, right? Ha ha patently ridiculous! But, of course, APPEARANCES DO MATTER, so maybe they shouldn't party every Wednesday? 'Cause they're one Michelle Obama couture dress price scandal away from the populist outrage visited upon John Thain and his commode on legs (the purchase of which was supervised by Obama White House decorator-designate Michael Smith!).

We do so like to see the glamorous people enjoying themselves during down times, but the Obamas are not exactly Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert.

So let's have a poll to decide what we think!

What is "the Swedish Model"? That's temporary nationalization of failed banks. See, you seize control of them, clean up the balance sheets, and auction them off. In other words, it's socialism. It's also really the only remaining option, as the current "throw money at them and watch them hoard it because they don't want to reveal that they're insolvent" model just created some zombie banks, like in Japan, and we'd much rather become Sweden than Japan. (Though the food is better in Japan, of course.)

It's a terrifying prospect, this "Swedish model," or at least Mr. Drudge certainly hopes it sounds scary, to claim our great empire will become a lowly Scandinavian constitutional monarchy, ranked number one on The Economist's Democracy Index. Well, either he's hoping to scare us with the prospect of boring Nordic democratic socialism or he's just using the term "Swedish model" to further the old Republican talking point that all the bailout money is going to porn.

What Drudge neglects to mention in his scary headline: Alan Greenspan also moved toward Sweden's sexy, sexy model.

All hail King Gustav! God natt, American Dream!

The plan is for Big Hollywood to be kind of like a conservative version of the early plan of Huffington Post, where Hollywood Republicans—whose voices have been squelched for so long, by Alec Baldwin—can finally have their say.

Big Hollywood is not a “celebrity” gabfest or a gossip outpost - it is a continuous politics and culture posting board for those who think something has gone drastically wrong and that Hollywood should return to its patriotic roots.

Big Hollywood’s modest objective: to change the entertainment industry. To make Hollywood something we can believe in - again. In order to give millions of Americans hope.

Ambitious! But we'll get back to the McCarthy era yet, just you watch. So far the top stories on the site are mostly about Big Hollywood itself, and how it will, you know, change the entertainment industry and give millions of Americans hope. Among the "big minds from the fields of politics, journalism, entertainment and culture" who already have posts up: veteran actor and Calvin Coolidge's second cousin Orson Bean, US Rep. Thaddeus G. McCotter, and others.

Breitbart is a savvy guy, so we expect this site to be just professional and snappy enough to give us lots of good scoffing material. Of course, launching this on the eve of Obama guarantees it will become a cult site for a small minority with delusions of persecution and when the nation inevitably swings Republican again it will be looked back upon wistfully as the germinator of a flowering conservative Hollywood revival, just watch. [Big Hollywood]

The infamous shirtless photos of the 56-year-old "Prime Minster" of Russia caused quite a stir back east when they surfaced last year, and we all laughed at the Russians for gushing over their thick, evil leader. Then of course we elected Barry Obama and today's New York Post headline is "FIT FOR OFFICE." So the joke is on us!

But Matt Drudge's readers hate liberals even more than they hate commies, or ex-commies, so they all think Putin with his pants cinched way up like an old man on his fishing trip in Siberia is "hotter" than Barry hanging out in Hawaii. Really, this battle of the bare-chested middle-aged world leaders is just weird. We wonder what would happen if Drudge polled Obama versus Sarkozy.

Oh, wait, BREAKING:

GLOBAL MAINSTREAM NEWS MEDIA REPORT - KHNL HAWAII

Obama expected to surf

This changes EVERYTHING.

Let's closely examine these two paragraphs from the New York Times exclusive on the Oval Office meeting:

While Mr. Obama campaigned on a promise of bipartisan conciliation, his choice for his White House chief of staff, Representative Rahm Emanuel, indicated on Sunday that no such deal linking auto-industry aid and a stimulus package with trade pacts was in the cards. “You don’t link those essential needs to some other trade deal,” Mr. Emanuel said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Democrats close to both Mr. Obama’s transition team and to Congressional leaders seemed willing to call Mr. Bush’s bluff, calculating that he would not want to gamble that G.M. — an iconic, century-old American corporation with business tentacles in every state — would fail on his watch and add to the negative notes of his legacy.

Hmm..... who is both close to Mr. Obama's transition team and to Congressional leaders? Who'd take a hard-line stance and threaten to call the president's bluff? Who'd use the Times to undermine the sitting president and make Obama look ready to support the auto industry if it weren't for stupid Bush and his stupid free-trade agreement?

Maybe, just maybe, Congressional Democratic leader and Obama chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel! You know, the same Rahm Emanuel who is known for just calling up Times reporters to shoot the breeze! Like when, as Ben Smith reported, he called up Times congressional reporter Carl Hulse for a nice little chat.

The Bush people fired back:

Bush advisers view the leaks as an effort to undermine the president's remaining days in office.

"Senator Obama may not be familiar with a long-standing tradition of presidents holding their private conversations, private," a senior adviser explained to the DRUDGE REPORT.

As for who this is, who went crying to Drudge, we don't know and don't care. Lame duck! Losers! Just go away and let Obama buy Detroit a million fuel-efficient puppies!

Among the other voters who have shown up to vote at Shoesmith Elementary School this morning, where Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., will vote: Louis Farrakhan and William Ayers.

He's palling around with a domestic terrorist and a radical black person! The real Barack Obama is revealed at last! It's not too late to vote for the white guy, America! Unless you voted early! Curses!

Like, for example, Bill Ayers, radical domestic terrorist and respected professor, did not write Barack Obama's book. This was revealed when California businessman Robert Fox and his Republican Congressman brother-in-law paid an Oxford don to investigate similarities between Dreams From My Father and Ayers' Fugitive Days. The charges were "laughably unsubstantiated."

But of course Obama is still a secret Muslim foreigner, right? He was totally born in Indonesia, right? Ha, the Director of Hawaii's Department of Health has actually bothered to respond to the lunatics. You may be shocked to learn that Barack Obama's birth certificate is real.

So really all that's left is to basically accuse Obama of everything in the world, all at once, like in this 100% real robocall now being made in Pennsylvania.

Barack Obama. His pastor preached God damn America. His aunt is living in America illegally. This illegal alien aunt is living in public housing. Barack Obama accepted illegal campaign contributions from his illegal alien aunt. Call Barack Obama at 202-224-2854 and tell him you are against illegal immigration. This message was paid for by NewModelsUSA.org and is not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee, 866-283-3421.

ILLEGAL ALIEN GOD DAMN AMERICA AUNT. And soooo rude! Just look at him:

Barack Obama: secret dick to John McCain, secret dick to America.

As a charming young man revealed to KDKA news, Ashley Todd is a member of the National College Republican Committee. The National College Republican Committee is famous for its race-baiting stunts and media savvy (or, at least, attempted media savvy). Every little College Republican basically considers him or herself a Lee Atwater in training. But they're so, so bad at their stupid stunts!

Back in 2006, a Michigan College Republican named Justin Zatkoff claimed to have been beaten senseless by blacks and/or violent homosexuals. His photo showed a nasty black eye and he was certain the culprits were either militant blacks or militant gays. He just couldn't remember which ones did it! The Ann Arbor police finally revealed, shockingly, that Zatkoff was just beaten up by his high school buddies.

And Ms. Todd's story? Well it is different now, as we said:

"We have learned that the victim's statement has a few inconsistencies in it and her statement has changed," said Richard

Richard said Todd now says she isn't sure if it was a bumper sticker on her car or a campaign button on her jacket that angered the attacker. Richard said Todd added new details to the attack, saying at one point she lost consciousness.

"She also indicated she was sexually assaulted as well. She indicated that when he had her on the ground he put his hand up her blouse and started fondling her. But other than that, she says she doesn't remember anything else. So we're adding a sexual assault to this as well," Richard said.

Sheesh. It might've been a campaign button, instead of a bumper sticker! That makes more sense, because before it seems like she maybe pointed out, to her mugger, which car was hers.

Now the police, according to the Telegraph, would like Ashley Todd to take a polygraph test! Ha, sure, whatever. Did Todd know reporting made-up crimes was itself a crime? Maybe she can take out her pocket constitution and get out of this one like she did that traffic ticket she actually seems to have had to pay!

And hey, about that MySpace page we mentioned? According to a blog entry on it, and one of those cute online quizzes you can take, Todd is certain she will die, someday, from a Political Assassination. It may be a self-inflicted political assassination, but that still counts, right?

Just for fun, here are the results of more of her quizzes, which paint her as an evil sociopath. College Republicans!

Oh, but look, she got the attention she wanted! John McCain and Sarah Palin both called her and wished her a speedy recovery!

The McCain-Palin campaign also released a statement saying, "The McCain campaign is aware of the incident involving one of its volunteers. Out of respect, the campaign won't be commenting. The campaign also confirms that Senator McCain and Governor Palin have both spoken to the woman."

So God Bless Ashley Todd, American Hero. We hope we don't have to write another word on her until the police release their report calling her a crazy person and she disappears forever until she's tapped to be Mike Huckabee's running mate in 2016.