Rick Santelli - Scam Artist UPDATED

So... Rick Santelli's rant from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange turns out not to have been spontaneous... at all! Santelli's smear of "The Losers" and his call for protests turns out to be a well-orchestrated astro-turf campaign by a well-funded group of Republican organizations famous for their fake grass-roots efforts. Veteran Kremlin watchers, Mark Ames and Yasha Levine, noticed the similarity of the direction and speed which Santelli's outburst traveled with the way the Kremlin generated fake grass-roots effects.

So they started turning over a few rocks... and they found a conspiracy for which Santelli was the willing front-man and CNBC clearly participated. Read the whole thing. You'll learn that one of the richest families in the US is behind the whole thing.

Then amble on over to Crooks and Liars where even more evidence is being dug up and John Amato is calling for Santelli's head.

Why would a second-rate hack like Santelli do such a thing? Read Ames and Levine for the answer.

Justice would be a yapping mutt like Santelli finding himself out of work and short for his next mortgage payment.

Cathie wonders how Olbermann will handle this one on Monday. Not to mention Jon Stewart.

IT GETS BETTER

Take a walk through the Democratic Underground. Prepare to scare yourself.