So over at Talkleft, Big Tent Democrat finds issue with an insinuation at (where else) Kos that Chris Dodd carried AIG's water on the bonus issue due to his being the largest* recipient of their campaign contributions. It was true he was carrying water, but it was Obama and Geithner's.

"Lessig promulgates a false implication - that Senator Chris Dodd acted as he did because of AIG contributions. It is clear now that in fact Dodd acted as he did at the behest of the Obama administration. In fact, in last week's issue of The Economist (p. 29) (before the AIG bonus scandal broke), the following was written:

This post started out as a comment, but I'm going to make it into a post. For a discussion of the need to replace haka with a term equally fit for the purpose, see here. IMNSHO, the two best candidates that emerged from Corrente contributors were wankfest and lek. For now, I'm using wankfest, for reasons stated below. Those who prefer the alternative, please read on!

At this point [lambert blushes modestly] I'm something of a subject matter expert on the semiotics of propagating certain words (terms; memes) in the blogosphere.

Won't happen anytime soon. Why? Because there are more high ranking, trannie/gay/metrosexual/perv Republicans who worry about such a law than any large gathering of liberals and progressives could ever produce.

We're not ashamed of what we do, who we are, who we love. They are. There have been many times in history when pr0n has safeguarded freedom; this is one of them. The domestic use of the FISA laws is your guide; they spy because they expect to find us doing what they are, and they can't imagine life without hatred, fear and perversion. And they despise us not only because we can, but because we are/do.

Because my work here is done. Technorati thinks we're on the A-list. [Sings: "We're on the A list!" (tune at left)]

Fuck ! Bookers, cable weasels, you may contact our agent by leaving a note with bartender "Geoff" at the wet bar in the Fellows Lounge. The password is "specimen jar."

And before I forget:

Hey, George! You out there?  Read more…

Since we seem to be on a musical theme for titles this morning.

Cool story, found originally over at Taegan Goddard's joint, but which can actually be seen at Pollster.com. Probably everybody in the world except me knows all about "tag clouds" now, but if you've been hiding the fact you don't either, check this out. The particular examples given here are Tag Cloud boxes for the words most frequently used by each candidate in the Dem debates the other night.

As the esteemed Mark Blumenthal puts it,

Obviously, this feature is a bit off-topic for a site devoted to polling methodology, but it does deal with the graphic analysis of political data. I can certainly see potential applications of this sort of graphic for those that conduct and transcribe focus groups and other "qualitative" analysis.

But enough wonkiness. Readers, what do you see in these clouds? Our comment section is wide open...

As, of course, is ours. Just for fun, leave your droppings at both places --do you like tag clouds, find them informative, just entertaining, actively loathesome?

Some people find them about as amusing as a box of Refrigerator Magnet Poetry slips scattered about a metal surface at random; others think there are clues to be learned from them.