The Mustache Of Understanding collects the Bronze medal in the Hack Olympics..

[Fumesucker]

http://www.salon.com/news/war_room_hack_thirty/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2010/11/24/hack_list_3

Thomas Friedman is an environmentalist, now. When he's not jetting around the world on the literally unlimited expense account his money-bleeding newspaper provides him with pondering KFC billboards he spots outside the windows of gleaming office towers in Delhi -- or when he's not lounging beside the pool at his absurd home -- the second-most-influential business thinker in the country is worrying about carbon emissions. Which is, I freely admit, a nice change of pace from back when he was telling the world that the invasion and occupation of Iraq would lead to a glorious new dawn of freedom/democracy/whiskey/iPods/Old Navy in the Middle East as a whole.

(Oh wait, what's that? What Obama needs to deal with Iran is "a Dick Cheney standing over his right shoulder, quietly pounding a baseball bat into his palm"? Hm. And your message to the people of Iraq? Oh, right, it was, "suck on this.")

Matt Taibbi's reviews of Friedman's "The World Is Flat" and its follow-up, "Hot, Flat, and Crowded, are essential reading for anyone baffled by Friedman's apparent inability to construct sentences without falling into three metaphor-shaped holes, whereupon he commences digging deeper with his many shovels.

But for some reason, his are the airport bookstore selections of presidents and CEOs. The man has lately decided that he is done with democracy itself, and he'd much prefer it if "reasonably enlightened" people (like the Chinese Communist Party) could just impose "politically difficult but critically important policies" from on high. This is the secret wish of nearly every "moderate" pundit on this list, but -- confidential to Tom, you're not supposed to wish for totalitarianism out loud.

More at the link..

[Gabi Hayes]

1. speaking of taibbi, this is pretty much the same format as his "Wimblehack," in which

he covered 64 of the biggest hacks during the 04 campaign

that said, looks like an interesting read

anybody who goes after the insufferable Friedman is on the bus

[Gabi Hayes]

2. read this column by #1 hack Richard Cohen (defends C Thomas), especially for the comments:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/10/time_to_forget_the_clarence_th.html

[Mist]

3. How this mediocrity every got such traction with decision-makers in this country is

a mystery. Well, he tells them what they want to believe I guess.

I've always got a kick out of Friedman being referred to as "the mustache in search of a brain." Don't know who came up with that but I love it.