A Washington Post writer took bait thrown out by a fake Congressional candidate with a Twitter account. Jonathan Capehart, who writes a political opinion column in the Post, responded to a Tweet by Republican Representative Jack Kimble of California's 54th Congressional District. Kimble wrote, "Check the budget, Bush fought 2 wars w/o costing taxpayers a dime." Capehart responded by describing Kimble's statement as a "stunning bit of fiscal ignorance" and analyzing the country's budget and fiscal problems. The only problem was, California only has 53 Congressional districts, and Jack Kimble is a fake member of Congress who is running a fake re-election campaign. Kimble has a Twitter account page crammed full of corporate logos. He has a blog called "Kimble's Corner", where he keeps his "constituents" up to date about his magnificent wins in fake debates. He has political ads (like the one at right) posted on the Internet promoting his re-election. Kimble advocates doubling the Bush tax cuts, fining the unemployed for their choice "not to do their fair share," and warns that Obama is working with Nancy Pelosi "right now to pass a law making it illegal for grandchildren to visit their grandparents." He promotes the virtues of corn dogs over funnel cakes, saying corn dogs are the most Republican food, and is certain that the voters of his mythical 54th District are "far too sophisticated" to fall for his opponents "lies and half truths."

The Koch Industries-funded astroturf group Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is attacking a regional greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program organized by the ten northeastern and mid-Atlantic states. Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont are all participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the first mandatory, market-based effort in the U.S. to reduce climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions. The states organized RGGI as a reaction to the U.S. Senate's inability to pass a climate bill. RGGI sets an energy-sector carbon cap for participating states, and then auctions off the rights to product emissions. AFP will protest at the first event where the program will auction off allowable emissions. AFP is claiming the auctions are "secretive," which is untrue; information about them is posted to a public web site, and there is even an RSS feed to get information about them. AFP also calls the program a "stealth energy tax" and claims that the program will lead to drastically higher energy bills. The cap will actually account for between 0.4 and 1 percent of energy bills. RGGI calims that investments in energy efficiency will eventually lead to reductions in energy bills of 20 to 30 percent, and the program will create new jobs in renewable energy. AFP tries to keep the appearance of being a grassroots organization, but a recent article in the New Yorker magazine revealed the group is bankrolled by billionaire oil company owner David Koch, who has a history of campaigning against climate change legislation and funding climate change deniers. Koch Industries is also one of the nation's top ten polluters, and fossil fuels are the company's mainstay.

Terry JonesTerry Jones, the controversial pastor in Gainsville, Florida who is calling for an"International Burn A Koran Day" on September 11, may have a personal motive for inflaming national hatred of Muslims: lining his own pocket. Jones and his wife Sylvia operate a Web site called Islamisofthedevil.com that sells mugs, hats and T-shirts bearing the words "Islam is of the Devil," as well as copies of a book he authored titled Islam is of the Devil: Know the Spiritual Truths That Will Bring the Christian Church Back to its God-Given Position. The couple also operates furniture business out of their church, the Dove World Outreach Center. Jones' most recent tax return, from 2006, says that program services account for 30.5 percent of the church's expenses, and "Administrative costs" account for 69.5 percent.The Dove World Church building itself is also for sale for $2.9 million. Jones' church lost part of its tax-exempt status this spring, after an appraiser determined the church had to pay property taxes on the 1,700 square feet of the building that Jones uses for his for-profit business.

The Internet-based market research agency YouGov compiles a weekly report called the Brandweek BrandIndex, that measures "buzz," or consumer perceptions of the most talked-about brands. A big loser in the agency's September 3, 2010 report is Target, which drew fire after the retailer donated $150,000 to the Republican-leaning political action group, Minnesota Forward. After receiving the donation, MN Forward ran TV ads supporting Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, who openly opposes equal rights for gays and lesbians. News about Target's support of Emmer led to a movement to boycott Target. While Target's buzz score rallied modestly August 12-24, it dropped again after a rash of major newspaper op-eds, blog posts and publicity surrounding television ads promoting the boycott produced by MoveOn.org. YouGov interviews 5,000 people every weekday from a representative U.S. population sample, and respondents are drawn from an online panel of 1.5 million individuals.