http://ap.google.com/…

Obama has a 2-to-1 lead over McCain among 18-to-34-year-olds, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released last week. The same poll gave Obama an 8 percentage point lead among registered voters nationwide. In an AP-Yahoo News poll in July, the two were virtually tied among voters overall.

But does “coolness”_ or the perception of it at least — really matter to young voters?

“I don’t think you can ignore that factor,” said James Kotecki, a 22-year-old political video blogger who achieved fame on YouTube last year after he interviewed former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul in Kotecki’s Georgetown University dorm room.

“What Obama’s been able to do is capitalize on his hipness, at least as far as younger voters go,” said Kotecki, whose video commentaries now appear on Politico.com, the Web site for the Washington political newspaper. “I think it’s not that they don’t support his issues and his policies, but younger voters are more willing to work for him and work passionately for him because he’s someone who resonates more on their wavelength.”

“Coolness” is often associated with youth, but elder status doesn’t automatically signify “uncool,” Kotecki said.

Ron Paul, 72, amassed a considerable following among younger voters, largely because his libertarian message was deemed countercultural, Kotecki said.

“You can certainly be cool at any age,” Kotecki said. “Look at Hugh Hefner. He’ll be cool til the day he dies. But for him and for Ron Paul or anybody who’s elderly and who’s cool, part of it is what they represent that makes them that.”

Largely? Really? I’ve met a lot of Ron Paul supporters. Many of them ‘younger.’ I can’t say that a single one would have said anything about libertarianism being counterculture nor did I get the feeling that was why they were there. Federal Reserve, war, growing police state, 9/11 is what I heard. I’m not saying there weren’t a notable number who joined the bandwagon… but many that did learned a lot and stayed on for serious reasons. I don’t see Obama supporters saying the same thing. In fact the opposite.

http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/91536

Even in an age when cynical sleuths can hyper-analyze stories for truth and accuracy, the occasional hoax still slips through the cracks. Such was the case with a so-called “lost Amazon tribe.”

A few months ago, mainstream news outlets (including, ahem, Yahoo!) reported that a photographer had found a lost tribe of warriors near the Brazilian-Peruvian border. Photos of the tribe backed up his claim.

As it turns out, the story is only half true. The men in the photo are members of a tribe, but it certainly ain’t “lost.” In fact, as the photographer, José Carlos Meirelles, recently explained, authorities have known about this particular tribe since 1910. The photographer and the agency that released the pictures wanted to make it seem like they were members of a lost tribe in order to call attention to the dangers the logging industry may have on the group.

The photographer recently came clean, and news outlets, perhaps embarrassed at having been taken for a ride, have been slow to pick up the story. Now, the word is starting to spread and articles in the Buzz are picking up steam. Expect a lot more brutal truth in the coming days.

How totally not surprising that they will lie in order to drum up attention.

http://money.cnn.com/…
http://www.kansascity.com/…
http://www.nationalpost.com/…
http://people.ronpaul2008.com/…

No wonder Ron Paul recently won the Wall Street Chatter presidential poll: he’s the only candidate who has been warning us of the threat inflation poses to our economy — a threat that looms larger every day. Now news is breaking that in 2007 wholesale prices rose at their fastest rate in 26 years. Yahoo! Finance tells the story:

The Labor Department reported that wholesale inflation was up 6.3 percent for all of 2007, reflecting a huge increase for the year in various types of energy costs ranging from gasoline to home heating oil.

And that’s not the only trouble in our economy:

The economy skidded to a virtual standstill in the final three months of last year, raising fears the country could fall into a recession, unable to withstand the multiple blows from the prolonged downturn in housing, a severe credit crisis and soaring energy costs.

Already, unemployment is rising. The jobless rate jumped to 5 percent in December, up from 4.7 percent in November. That was the biggest one-month surge in unemployment since October 2001 in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The various economic threats have sent consumer confidence plunging and pushed the economy to the top of voters’ concerns.

How are the politicians in Washington responding to all this? They’re planning to raise our fuel taxes — by up to $0.40 a gallon over the next five years. Dr. Paul today condemned this idea in the strongest terms: “This is a great example of how out of touch big government and big business are with the American people. With gas at three dollars a gallon and a slowing economy, the last thing we need is a tax increase to be paid by Americans who can least afford it.”

Not only is inflation up but the Federal Reserve is trying to curb the crunch by making $30 billion more cheap money available and rumoring to lower interest rates by as much as 75 basis points… making even more cheap money available. Prolonging the bubble… prolonging the pain.

Why Libertarianism is a Crock

Jonathan Swift couldn’t have thought up a better satire. John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market and avowed libertarian, just got caught exploiting imperfect market information and scheming to rip off consumers by building an organic food monopoly. Libertarians claim the market should be left alone to regulate itself, while progressives have long argued that investors need accurate information from companies about their finances and consumers need competition to get the best price. Apparently John Mackey is just the kind of nefarious businessman we need government to regulate.

Brook, like many who attempt to shoot down libertarian ideology, fails to see the big picture and wallows in ignorance.

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