The Blog Hole: Joe the Plumber, The End of Newspapers and Cheap Houses

Joe The Plumber Fears The Fabulous: The Paris Hilton of the Conservative Movement panders to his base, a group of people with an insatiable appetite for being condescended to, and told exactly what they want to hear. For instance: gays carry gay plague. Which is why Joe the Plumber  told Christianity Today that he won't let them around his children. Ain't no son of his learnin' how to decorate. [christianitytoday.com]

In The Past, Words Were Printed On Dry Tree Guts: Larry Dignan breaks that Amazon.com will be launching a new, large-screen version of it's popular electronic book, Kindle. But, sadly, this upgrade isn't for saving the newspaper industry. Instead, it's a pivot towards the lucrative college text book market. Sorry, infosaurs. [zdnet.com]

Republicans Lost In Emo Forest: The easiest political column to write these days is the one about the GOP being in crisis — they've lost their way in the polls, with their base, and their transition to minority party has been, to be kind, awkward. Michael Van Der Galien has a little advice for Republicans: try not panicking. Your very public identity flux only benefits the Democrats. The evil, communist, baby-hating Democrats. [poligazette.com]

The Housing Market Will Improve… In, Oh, Twenty Years: Some market analysts are claiming that the housing market has hit bottom, and is going to rebound. But John F. Wasik is all "Hey, Wait A Minute!" Happy days are not here again, at least when it comes to houses. It's going to take a little while for that market to correct itself. Well, not a little while. Probably a long freakin' time. [bloomberg.com]

Tags: Economy, Joe the Plumber, Republicans, The Blog Hole