Courtesy of your friends at Doubleplusundead, HERE is a helping of weapons-grade stupidity that could keep Hollywood awash in Lifetime Network Special Social Issue Movies of the Week for the next decade or two.

It seems that a Canadian couple gave birth to a premature baby this weekend in Hamilton, Ontario. Since Canada is just another Third World Hellhole where brain surgery is done with a 16" Poulan and a 6-pack of Moosehead, its not exactly a shock that NOT. ONE. SINGLE. Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU for short) bed could be found for the child. I know what you're thinking: Russ, they couldn't find one single NICU bed available in the City of Hamilton for this baby? NO. They couldn't find one single NICU bed available for this baby in the entire PROVINCE of Ontario. You know, a PROVINCE? Sort of like a STATE, only 196% more ghey?

Luckily, Canada just happens to be the mildly retarded cousin of the United States of America; and like most families, we look after each other - even if the slow relatives are complete window-lickers who eat their own boogers in public. The baby was brought to Buffalo, NY, where she is enjoying the fruits of America's evil profit-driven health care system. If this was the end of the story, I'd be willing to smile and wish the happy hosers well with the addition to their family; however, as Paul Harvey used to say, there is ..... the rest of the story. more...

Posted by: Russ from Winterset at 02:52 PM | Comments (4)
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Here's my thinking when it comes to women's sports...cheer for the American, unless the other chick is hotter. It seems that qualifies me to schedule center (centre for our UK friends) court matches at Wimbledon.

When it comes to choosing which women play on Centre Court, good looks count for more than big shots.

While a succession of easy-on-the-eye unknowns have appeared in Wimbledon's prime arena, the top women's seeds have been relegated to lesser courts.

...And last night, the All England Club admitted that physical attractiveness is taken into consideration.

Spokesman Johnny Perkins said: 'Good looks are a factor.'

..A BBC source said: 'It's the Wimbledon play committee, not us who decides on the order of play.

...'Our preference would always be a Brit or a babe as this always delivers high viewing figures.'

First of all, duh.

Second of all, I'm pretty sure the first rule of babe-centric scheduling is, "don't talk about babe-centric scheduling". This is the kind of thing everyone knows but the second you start talking about, it's over. Why the hell would Wimbledon admit this? Now there will be protests and they are going to have go the other way next year. Idiots.

The interesting thing is, attendance is down at matches with unranked hot babes. Either the jokes about Brits having teh ghey are true or they really are committed tennis fans. You decide.

Now if I were in charge, this is who I would schedule on Center Court, every day, all day. Even if she did get knocked out in the second round. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 01:06 PM | Comments (3)
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What, me meddle?

Odd that Obama's rich, nuanced concerns over perceived "meddling" fly out the window when he has the chance to support a leftist thug.

According to Fausta (and most others, apart from Obama and Hugo Chavez), Zelaya was the one attempting to illegally engineer a coup, attempting to re-write the Constitution through ballot initiative despite the fact that the Constitution disallows such maneuvers six months before a scheduled election. Like Chavev, he sought to erase term limits on himself and become, per the bad old Latin American tradition, El Jefe for Life.

Who opposed him? Well, the military, for one, which refused to distribute his ballots, because they were illegal. The courts, which ruled the ballots were illegal and the attempt to rewrite the constitution so close to an upcoming election impermissible. His own party, which similarly felt Zelaya was breaking the law, executing a "self-coup."

On the other hand, there's Barack Obama and Hugo Chavez.

The military acted pursuant to a court order.

Honduras's Supreme Court gave the order for the military to detain the president, according to a former Supreme Court official who is in touch with the court.

Later, Honduras's Congress formally removed Mr. Zelaya from the presidency and named congressional leader Roberto Micheletti as his successor until the end of Mr. Zelaya's term in January. Mr. Micheletti and others said they were the defenders, not opponents, of democratic rule.

"What was done here was a democratic act," Mr. Micheletti, who was sworn in as president Sunday afternoon, said to an ovation. "Our constitution continues to be valid, our democracy continues to live."

Mr. Micheletti is a member of Mr. Zelaya's Liberal party. But he had opposed his plans for a referendum that could have led to overturning the constitution's ban on re-election, allowing Mr. Zelaya to potentially stay in power past January, when his term ends.

Mr. Zelaya, a frequent critic of the U.S., has been locked in a growing confrontation with his country's Congress, courts, and military over his plans for the referendum -- planned for Sunday -- that would have asked voters whether they want to scrap the constitution, which the president says benefits the country's elites.

The Supreme Court had ruled the vote was illegal because it flouted the constitution's own ban on such referendums within six months of elections. The military had refused to take its usual role of distributing ballots. But Mr. Zelaya fired the chief of the army last week and pledged to press ahead.

Gee, I wonder what makes Obama suddenly pipe up with such enthusiasm and so few cares about being perceived as "meddling" in this case.

Whoops: I see Drew just posted this. Well, I'll leave it up, just for the additional quotes and links.

Posted by: Ace at 11:43 AM | Comments (1)
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Wow, so much for not taking sides as Iranians Hondurans debate their political future.

This isn't some one man, tin pot coup against a democratically elected President. It's pretty much the entire government of a country standing up to a guy who wanted to trash their country's constitution in order to preserve his personal power.

Funny how Obama dithers to stand with those who fight for freedom in Iran but doesn't hesitate to buck up a wanna be thug like Zelaya.

America...on the wrong side of every foreign policy matter since January 20, 2009.

Thanks 52% for electing not a liberal as President but an out and out leftist.

Also..Remember how Obama kept using the word "justice' and not freedom or democracy regarding Iran? Well now, when justice seems appropriate (you know, stopping illegal actions like amending the constitution by referendum and getting rid of the head of the military) Obama doesn't seem that interested in "justice" anymore.

Obama pledged the U.S. to "stand on the side of democracy" and to work with other nations and international entities to resolve the matter peacefully.

"One man, one vote, one time" isn't democracy, Mr. Obama.

Posted by: DrewM at 11:28 AM | Comments (1)
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Color me shocked, but Iran's Guardian Council says the partial recount shows Ahmadinejad won.

State television reported that the Guardian Council presented the conclusion in a letter to the Interior Minister following a recount of a what was described as a randomly selected 10 percent of the almost 40 million ballots cast June 12. Press TV said "few or no errors" were found.

...The recount conducted Monday had appeared to be an attempt to cultivate the image that Iran was seriously addressing fraud claims, while giving no ground in the clampdown on opposition. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Council already had pronounced the results free of major fraud and insisted that Ahmadinejad won by a landslide. And even if errors were found in nearly every one of the votes in the recount Ahmadinejad, according to the government's count, still would have tallied more votes than Mousavi.

Iranians do not seem to be impressed.

Clashes reported in Tehran after people take to the streets protesting the Guardian Council's ruling

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the Iranian government faces a "huge credibility gap" with its people. Actually, the word she should have used is "legitimacy".

Of course the Obama administration can't talk about legitimacy because they want desperately to talk to the mullahs. You remember the mullahs, of course. They are the ones who made Neda's father go on TV and blame protesters for her death. Yeah, let's talk to those guys.

Posted by: DrewM at 10:43 AM | Comments (4)
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100% survival rate in tests on mice so far.

Australian scientists have developed a "trojan horse" therapy to combat cancer, using a bacterially-derived nano cell to penetrate and disarm the cancer cell before a second nano cell kills it with chemotherapy drugs...

...said they had achieved 100 percent survival in mice with human cancer cells by using the "trojan horse" therapy in the past two years...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 09:56 AM | Comments (16)
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Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak is on his way to Washington today to continue the "dialogue" between PM Netanyahu and President Obama on settlements. I think Israel is sending a message too:

Israel said Monday it authorized the construction of 50 new residential units in a West Bank settlement, defying rising pressure from the U.S. and the international community for a building freeze in territory claimed by the Palestinians as part of a future state.

The expansion of Adam, a settlement near Jerusalem surrounded by three Palestinian villages, is part of a defense ministry plan to relocate 300 residents of the unauthorized hilltop outpost of Migron.

In a speech earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that while Israel will not establish new settlements, construction in existing settlements should be permitted to allow for demographic expansion.

Obama has laid down a hard line on this, saying that Israel must not establish any new settlements or expand the existing ones. Someone has to blink.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 09:45 AM | Add Comment
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Andrew Young was the aide who falsely took the paternity rap for John Edwards' love-baby. His family, and Reille Hunter, were moved to California (IIRC) and paid off/"helped" by Texas fixer Fred Baron.

Fred Baron is now dead and Andrew Young is disgraced. So he's shopping a tell-all book to publishers.

Allegedly, the proposal alleges that John and Reille made a sex tape.

It certainly seems plausible that the narcissist Edwards would make a tape of himself, in order to admire his own loveliness. But there's also a good chance this is all nonsense. There are two allegedlies here -- reports claim the proposal allegedly contains the claim, and the claim is only alleged by Andrew Young either way, who probably needs the money and needs as juicy a proposal as possible to get a decent advance.

Thanks to Edward.

Posted by: Ace at 09:25 AM | Comments (11)
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The worst story you'll read all week.

Posted by: Ace at 09:19 AM | Comments (1)
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Today is major milestone in the battle for Iraq and not too many people seem to notice or care. At least that's the case here in the US. Understandably, Iraqis are pretty excited.

Iraqi government TV has been playing patriotic music to celebrate the U.S. military withdrawal from cities, towns and villages across the country, officially set to be completed by Tuesday June 30th.

Iraqi military vehicles were also covered with flowers to celebrate the event, and military parades, complete with band music, were organized in Diyala and Diwania provinces.

The government declared a "Day of National Sovereignty" to mark the event, and has invited ordinary citizens to join evening celebrations at Baghdad's Zawra Park for a festival of music and poetry.

Interior Minister Jawad Boulani told journalists the U.S. withdrawal is almost complete and Iraqi forces are capable of maintaining order across the country.

He says he believes Iraq's security situation is under control. "I do not think we need to declare a curfew," he insisted.

There's been an uptick in bombings, some causing substantial Iraqi casualties but that's not going to impact implementation of the security handover agreement. From the safety of my desk, I'd say that's the right thing. Any transition point is going to be an opportunity for the deadenders to do their thing (kill and maim) no matter when it happens. We all knew at some point the Iraqis were going to have to take on this responsibility. According to General Odierno, the Iraqis are ready and now is the moment.

In fact, the transfer has already taken place ahead of schedule.

"It's time for this partnership to have an Iraqi lead, it's time for this partnership to have the Iraqis out in front."

Odierno said U.S. troops still will be training and advising Iraqi forces and Americans will be conducting operations outside Iraqi cities after the deadline. U.S. forces are expected to withdraw from the country by the end of 2010 as part of a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement.

People always asked what victory in Iraq would look like, well this is another piece of that image. Two and half years ago a lot of people wanted to give up on Iraq and this kind of progress was thought impossible by many if not most. Yet, here it is.

We should never forget the hundreds of thousands of Americans who left their homes to remove a dangerous regime and then fight a bloody minded insurgency led by terrorists. Tens of thousands of them were wounded and to date, over 4,200 died in this effort.

Good luck to the people of Iraq, hopefully they will build a nation worthy of and their and America's sacrifices.

Posted by: DrewM at 09:09 AM | Add Comment
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