The coal industry front group embroiled in an Astroturf scandal is now arguing that mountaintop removal coal mining helps communities “hampered because of a lack of flat space.” Joe Lucas, vice president of communications for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), told the Guardian that dynamiting the tops off of mountains is actually a boon to rural Appalachia:

I can take you to places in eastern Kentucky where community services were hampered because of a lack of flat space — to build factories, to build hospitals, even to build schools. In many places, mountain-top mining, if done responsibly, allows for land to be developed for community space.

Mountain-top mining has been more accurately described as the “rape of Appalachia,” as rural communities are destroyed economically and environmentally for coal industry profit. ACCCE’s Joe Lucas — who can’t even admit that coal pollution contributes to global warming — is giving new meaning to the idea of the Flat Earth Society. The Wonk Room has more.

Appearing on Glenn Beck’s Fox News show last week, Fox anchor Kimberly Guilfoyle proposed the latest right-wing conspiracy theory about the Car Allowance Rebate System (commonly referred to as “cash for clunkers”) — that it is a secret plot to allow the government to control your computer:

GUILFOYLE: They are jumping right inside you, seizing all of your personal and private information, and absolutely legal, Glenn, they can do it [...] They can continue to track you, basically forever, once they’ve tapped into your system, the government of course has, like, malware systems, and tracking cookies, and they can tap in any time they want.

Watch it:

Guilfoyle may be worried about the “Terms of Service” on a government site. But as Hugh D’Andrade at the Electronic Frontier Foundation notes, these agreements do not give the government the right to tap into your system “any time they want.” “Moreover, the law has long forbidden the government from requiring you to give up unrelated constitutional rights (here the 4th Amendment right to be free from search and seizure) as a condition of receiving discretionary government benefits like participation in the Cars [sic] for Clunkers program,” adds D’Andrade.

The Guilfoyle-Beck conspiracy theory has been making rounds at both conservative blogs and conspiracy websites.

It joins other conservative attacks against the CARS program, which has been so successful that it has spurred the first increase in sales from any U.S.-based automaker since November 2007. The House recently voted to add an additional $2 billion to the program, and the Senate is expected to vote this week on replenishing its funds.

At the height of the crony Bush Justice Department era, the President appointed a 33-year-old attorney named Rachel Paulose, whose sole qualifications for the job appeared to be personal connections to high-ranking Justice Department officials, as the U.S. Attorney in Minnesota. Her tenure was an unmitigated disaster. Paulose mishandled classified information, retaliated against employees who were “disloyal,” and she “allegedly denigrated one employee of the office, using the terms ‘fat,’ ‘black,’ ‘lazy’ and ‘ass.’” At one point, four of her top lieutenants voluntarily demoted themselves in protest of her mismanagement of the office. Nevertheless, Paulose has somehow found a new job representing the United States in court. According to Main Justice, Paulose was hired last March as a senior trial counsel in the SEC’s Miami regional office. In light of her poor employment history, it’s unclear why Paulose was able to get this job now that her close friend Monica Goodling is no longer calling the shots.

The conservative Young America’s Foundation (YAF) is currently holding its annual conference here in Washington, DC, featuring Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), Ann Coulter, and former House speaker Newt Gingrich. Today an intern with CAP’s youth branch, Campus Progress, was kicked out of the conference by YAF spokesman Jason Mattera. The intern, Emily Rutherford, recounted her experience:

Mattera explained that the problem was that I’m a Campus Progress intern, and that since I’ve been liveblogging the conference all morning, I wouldn’t be allowed in, since blogging isn’t allowed at YAF’s conference (despite the fact that attendees have been tweeting about the conference all day). I told Mattera that struck me as bizarre, and a little bit like censorship. He suggested that I tell this to my “friends in the White House, and maybe they’ll pass a law to make us let you in.” Mattara is, apparently, unaware of the fact that it is Congress, not the White House that passes laws. [...]

Mattera laughed at me, and then replied, “Goodbye—oh wait, here, have an Obama fist bump.” I refused his proffered fist, and he added, “Why don’t you move to Canada?” He seemed to think this suggestion was hilarious.

As Rutherford noted, Campus Progress recently held its own annual conference and allowed any student — regardless of ideology — into the event. But this tactic seems to be standard for Mattera and YAF. In 2006, Mattera — who has described himself as “the surprisingly fresh face of conservatism” — refused to grant credentials to a University of Pennsylvania student who wanted to cover the conference on behalf of Campus Progress and ejected a Washington Monthly writer/Campus Progress blogger.