...and using his picture as publicity, without permission, in her run for a local seat.

Hardball, baby.

Now, you may be thinking, what sort of a son does this?

Well, it seems there's some bad behavior by one party or the other, because they're not really quite family anymore.

The NFL quarterback and Westlake High School graduate has told Mina Brees, an Austin attorney, to stop using his picture in TV commercials as she runs for a spot on Texas' 3rd Court of Appeals, saying their relationship is now "nonexistent" after souring six years ago.

"I think the major point here is that my mother is using me in a campaign, and I've made it known many times I don't want to be involved," he said Monday.

It's hard to say who's at fault when families fall apart.

But the fact that his mom continued using his image, against his wishes, is suggestive.

Thansk to RayF.

Posted by: Ace at 01:00 PM | Comments (15)
Post contains 178 words, total size 1 kb.

Not good, mind you. Just not awful. Hope is still alive, which is critical.

Dems lead comfortably (or so the polls say) in 210 House elections, with eighteen more polled as true toss-ups. That means they'll have to take all of the races they lead in (they'll maybe lose one or two of those) and then the lion's share of the toss-ups just to squeak a majority in the House.

Can they do it? Yes, they can. Is it a certainty? No, not hardly. No better than 60-40 at this point.

40% isn't exactly a longshot.

Republicans claim their GOTV efforts are on pace with 2004, if early voting is any indication. Which it may not be -- Allah suggests it's possible that the "diehards" are responsible for most of the early voting, and that those less determined to retain GOP control will be far less likely to vote on Election Day.

It's a plausible scenario. But it's also plausible that rumors of the death of GOP motivation have been greatly exagerated.

Meanwhile, Julia Corker's dad is up by eight over Ford in one poll.

The delectable, deliciously saucy Ms. Corker promises "Elect my Dad, and I promise I'll 'accidentally' let my sex video with Lauren Bush get put onto the Internet."

Fair news from New Jersey, Viriginia, and Missouri -- polls show them as tossups, which means the Republican has a better-than-even chance of winning, I think.

Dems Have A Massive Get-Out-The-Poll-Respondants Drive Going... and yet it's not poll respondants which determine elections. It's actual voters.

Has Tennessee -- a border state, though Southern and heartland in leanings -- really gone from an eight point GOP lead in voter identification to a one-point deficit?

In just two years?

I suppose it's possible-- after all, Republicans now trail Democrats in terms of public confidence on every single issue except terrorism, and even there, it's a tie.

On the other hand, those reports come from polls which also have Democrats leading in party identification by five to twelve points.

There's a hard number that would suggest this massive change in party ID is real, isn't there?

Changes in official party registration, right? Not "polling." Just actual counting of how people are now signed up, politically.

True enough, people often don't bother to change their actual official party ID as often as their real party leaning changes. And yet, one would think that if there were such a massive change in party ID, that would at least be partly reflected in the hard nunbers.

And if that's the case -- the media sure is being pretty quiet about it, aren't they?

Correction: I'm informed that no one really calls Tennessee a "border state," as it was part of the Condfederacy.

Which just makes my point stronger. Have eight percent of all Tennesseans given up their cross-burnin', fag-bashin', Jew-hatin' ways?

I doubt it. So many of them are stupid and uneducated that they actually join the military.

They're simply not smart enough to now be plurality-Democratic.

Posted by: Ace at 12:38 PM | Comments (21)
Post contains 519 words, total size 4 kb.

One little catch: the reviews are by Andrew Sullivan himself.

Pretty hysterical.

I was scanning over his screechblog the other day, and I did notice an inordinate number of superlatives lavished upon his book, by no less a literary light than Andrew Sullivan himself.

Taranto collected up a bunch of his biggest self-raves.

Priceless.

"This is a book about ideas, not political prescriptions. . . . It's an attempt to start the long road back to conservative intellectual clarity. . . . If you still care about those first principles, and why they are more relevant today than ever, . . . buy the book."--Andrew Sullivan

"If the book can prompt the usually level-headed David Brooks to contradict himself in order to criticize it and has sent Hugh Hewitt into conniptions, it might just be on to something about what has gone wrong with American conservativsm [sic]."--Andrew Sullivan

"They're angry. They wouldn't be if they didn't know this book exposes them in ways few yet have."--Andrew Sullivan

"These people are truly rattled by this book. I believe it's a depth charge into the degerenacy [sic] of the current conservative movement."--Andrew Sullivan
"Why are so many contemporary 'conservatives' lying about the contents of this book? The only reason I can come up with is that they are deadly afraid of its arguments. . . . Which is why you should read the book."--Andrew Sullivan

Give him props, though: At least he's willing to express his excessive self-regard under his own name. No "Wilson" or "Rick Ellensberg" here.

He's too infatuated with himself to see that maybe it's a problem.

Thanks to Larwyn.

Posted by: Ace at 12:07 PM | Comments (19)
Post contains 288 words, total size 2 kb.

Just a little refresher.

A bit telling: The audience -- all Democrats, of course -- chuckles approvingly when Kerry brands our troops uneducated morons.

Delicious: Kerry is now lying, of course. Which is just perfect. He cannot admit what he said, he cannot apologize for it. It's too big.

Sort of like Mel Gibson, in a way. Who did in fact apologize, but in a "that wasn't me" sort of way.

That keeps this a live issue. He must deny, deny, deny and claim he's actually defending the honor of the troops from chickenhawks by calling the troops morons.

Well, that's actually not what he's saying. He lies, flagrantly, and claims he was talking about President Bush.

Let's follow his quote-- and see how it fits with this claim.

“You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

Talking about President Bush? So this was actually a warning that if kids didn't get smart and educated, they would end up in the dead-end burger-flipping job of the President of the United States of America, and then, owing to the fact that they're stupid and uneducated (but apparently smart and educated enough to be elected President, something only 40 or so men in our country's history have managed) then get "stuck in Iraq" by unilaterally attacking a sovereign nation without the help of our "historic allies."

So that's what he's claiming he meant -- Kids, stay in school, or else you'll just wind up being elected President, and you'll then get us involved in a diificult war with insurgents.

Yeah.

The old "study hard or you'll end up President" motivational speech. If I heard it once in high school, I heard it a thousand times.

Speaking of Motivation... A motivational poster from RobG.

Don't Question His Patriotism: Not only did John Kerry just, um, Swift-Boat every man in uniform in the American armed forces, he basically urged young people to avoid military service at all costs.

Sort of like he tried to do, until his number was up, and he got himself put into a part of the Navy he thought would not be involved in combat in Vietnam.

And then he phonied up some fingernail-scratch "wounds" to get unearned Purple Hearts and get his rich boy ass back stateside ASAP.

Ladies and Gentleman -- your once and future (?) Democratic candidate for Presdident of the United States -- bravely, smartly, toughly doing his best to undermine miitary recruitment in a time of war.

Bravo, Democrats. Bravo.

Bonus: Self-style "truth tellers" (read: leftist pricks) like Billl Maher and Richard Belzer will feel compelled to say, "The only thing John Kerry did wrong was lie about what he said. It is true that the armed forces are a dead-end career for anyone else but the less-than-brilliant and uneducated, though I do understand thare are some racist Christian Southerners who join up so they can kill brown people without being jailed for murder."

Posted by: Ace at 11:27 AM | Comments (77)
Post contains 536 words, total size 4 kb.

Is that what they're calling it these days?

Researchers fihd that some people engage in actual sexual activity while asleep. In one case, a Virginia senatorial candidate called only "JimW" reportedly sleepwalked to Cambodia, grabbed a boy from a rice paddy, flipped him upside down and inserted his penis in his mouth. "I just thought I was dreaming," JimW. said.

Asked if that was an uncommon dream, JimW. said, "Sure, it's uncommon. I only have that dream three, four times a week."

Posted by: Ace at 11:23 AM | Comments (11)
Post contains 100 words, total size 1 kb.

Hmmm... he presents us all with a dilemma.

If we don't join the military, we're fat ("doughy" like Rush Limbaugh) cowardly chickenhawk nutjobs.

If we do join it, we're just drooling morons.

Though John F'n' Kerry attempts to claim that only non-military pussyboys are attacking him (though, in fairness, this means we're not necessarily stupid and uneducated), he fails entirely to address his "good friend" John McCain's call for an apology.

No apology thus far. Hot Air will have the video of McCain's response.

See, being "tough" and "smart" means you say stupid and nasty things and then have the arrogance to not apologize for them.

Tough, smart. Layers.

In related news, the ghost of Genghis Khan issued a press release that stated "Vengeance is best served cold, and against an emaciated Thurston Howell wannabe."

John F'n' Kerry

He's earned his right to call his fellow soldiers murderers, rapists, and uneducated retards.

Posted by: Ace at 11:08 AM | Comments (27)
Post contains 166 words, total size 1 kb.

Give 'em hell Zell bravely goes where RNC funding fears to tread.

Former Sen. Zell Miller, a Georgia Democrat who supported President Bush in 2004, will head a new group of Democrats supporting Pennsylvania GOP Sen. Rick Santorum's reelection bid.

"I am not involved in any other race in the country," Miller said during a radio interview Monday, according to a news release from Santorum's campaign. "I am only doing this for Rick Santorum. I believe in Rick Santorum's leadership that much."

Opponent Bob Casey, Jr., refused comment, part of his "No Talk Express" campaign strategy of not saying anything about anything at all. Other Democratic candidates praised Casey's wise decision, noting that if only they had made the savvy decision to be related to a well-regarded polician, they could get away with saying even less than they're saying now.

Hillary's 2000 "Listening Tour" is cited as an the inspiration for Silent Casey's innovative politicking, avoiding going negative, avoiding going postitive, avoiding going audible whatsoever. Though, Democrats admit, Hillary's model was flawed in at least one respect: "What's the point of 'listening,' anyway?" one Democratic strategist said. "These are a bunch of racist homophbic cretins. What the hell do they know about how they'd like to be governed?"

Posted by: Ace at 11:00 AM | Comments (8)
Post contains 232 words, total size 2 kb.

Ah, Democrats. Proud members of the Reality Based Community. Assuming your "reality" is the Ghost City of Carcossa and you think Hastur the Unspeakable is a "pretty good guy."

Thomas J. Connolly, of Scarborough, a prominent
defense attorney and 1998 Democratic candidate for governor was
charged with criminal threatening this morning following an incident
beside Interstate-295.

South Portland police were notified around 9 a.m. that a man wearing a
rubber Osama bin Laden mask was standing on top of a berm along the
highway carrying a sign that said "I Love Tabor," and waving what
appeared to be an assault rifle.

Four South Portland officers and two state troopers converged on the
man. They drew their guns when he did not respond to their demand that
he drop his weapon.

Police said instead he walked toward them dropping plastic hand
grenades. His costume included fake dynamite and bandoliers, police
said.

He eventually did drop the rifle, which turned out to be a toy and was
arrested, at which time the man was identified as Connolly. He was
taken to the Cumberland County Jail.

Jeeze, A couple of towers get knocked down and suddenly people get so PC and hung-up on Musilm terrorists and assault rifles.

Bill Maher was quoted as being "ecstatic" that there's someone in America who's a bigger douchebag than he is.

Thanks to Slublog, whose Halloween costume is far less risible. He's going to be Jim Webb this year, and he's looking for a "very portable" Cambodian midget he can carry around by the ankles.

Posted by: Ace at 10:43 AM | Comments (12)
Post contains 304 words, total size 2 kb.

Well! This site should provide CBS with one-stop-shopping, shouldn't it?

From an ad soliciting conservative yahoos (called those with "traditional values," here) on Craigslist:

Do you get nervous when you see a Muslim on an airplane? Have your opinions about Muslims changed since September 11? Do you have family or friends that get nervous around Muslims?

A NEW CBS SHOW SEEKS New York families who have traditional family values but are uneasy around Muslims.

Ah, yes. Their effort to "heal" the nation, through exposing white racism.

The money shot of programs like this is at least one white racist crying at the end at how terrible he is -- redemption for the retard. While the others are shown unaffected by the interviewer's (and TV psychologists') brow-beating, to further wallow in their hatred of brown people.

I don't imagine the pathological Jew-hatred of many Musims will be grist for similar treatment. No, the Muslims on the show will all be true moderates, good-looking, educated, and charming, and wholly against terrorism -- thus demonstrating how silly it is to be "nervous" among Muslims in the boarding queue at an airport.

There certainly will not be any hidden-camera footage of radical Muslim clerics preaching hatred and not-quite-subtly justifying the slaughter of innocent civilians.

Just a parade of three-tooth slack-jawed corncob-smokin' banjo-strokin' cousin-pokin' inbred white racists who believe in two things: Jesus died in order to telepathically send them good lottery number picks, and all Muslims are terrorists, except for that very nice Mr. Casey Kasem (who's really a good Christian inside, once you get past the corrupt dusky Muslimflesh).

Thanks to both JohnS. and Larwyn.

Posted by: Ace at 10:06 AM | Comments (31)
Post contains 304 words, total size 2 kb.

Shock.

Which is disappointing, while not really out of character for the games-playing Chinese, but it does demonstrate the necessity of getting them on board with the program. North Korea will never stop its nuke program with China encouraging and even facilitating it.

hina helped North Korea develop nuclear weapons and in the past year increased its support to Pyongyang, rather than pressing the regime to halt nuclear arms and missile activities, according to a congressional report

The final draft report of the U.S.-China Economic Security Review Commission also says that Chinese government-run companies are continuing to threaten U.S. national security by exporting arms to American enemies in Asia and the Middle East.

The report is based on public testimony and highly classified intelligence reports made available to its members and staff. It indirectly criticizes the Bush administration for failing to pressure Beijing into joining U.S.-led anti-proliferation programs and calls for Congress to take action to force the administration to do more.

"China has contributed at least indirectly to North Korea's nuclear program," the report stated, noting that China was a "primary supplier" to Pakistan's nuclear-arms program.

Ah, yes. Bush hasn't "pressured" China to stop proliferating.

The media gave Clinton a pass on China -- even when Clinton-donating corporations assisted China in improving their rocket technology -- with a shrug. "What can one do about China?" they said.

But they'll run with this, of course. Bush apparently need only snap his fingers to bring the billion-strong emerging superpower into line.

North Korea has meanwhile agreed to further "talks."

China, the United States and North Korea agreed in talks Tuesday to resume the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programs "at a convenient time in the near future" after a break of almost a year, a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said.

Christopher Hill, U.S. head delegate to the six-party talks, told reporters after meeting with his Chinese and North Korean counterparts that while the precise date needs to be agreed by all six parties, he believes it will be "in November, or possibly in December."

The announcement was made after a series of meetings in the Chinese capital among Hill, who is U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei and North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan on the same day.

Hill said North Korea did not attach any conditions for returning to the talks, but added the United States agreed to set up a mechanism for addressing Pyongyang's main complaint -- financial sanctions imposed on entities suspected of laundering money and counterfeiting for North Korea.

"We agreed we will find a mechanism within the six-party process to address these financial measures, that there would probably be some kind of a working group to deal with this," he said.

Diplomats expressed their optimism that the resumed talks would prove both "futile" and "fruitless."

Posted by: Ace at 09:46 AM | Comments (11)
Post contains 495 words, total size 3 kb.