Equally freaking worthless to anyone looking for intelligent, informed commentary. Up next Will on sub-machine guns and Uncle J on bow ties. Also for free, and worth the money Matthew Yglesias on anything.

Posted by: Uncle Jimbo at 08:12 PM | Comments (27)
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Does the ONT need a theme song? I think the answer is self-evident: No, it doesnÂ’t. But is that gonnaÂ’ stop us from deciding on one? Probably. IÂ’ve posted my suggestion below the fold but you can try and change my mind by suggesting something different in the comments. For all the good thatÂ’ll do you.

But first, a disturbing tale of censorship as a city bus driver defends his nude decals. (No, theyÂ’re not on the bus, but if they were I might actually consider taking public transit once in a while.) Anyway, read on:

EDMONDS, Wash. - A Metro bus driver refuses to budge in what he calls a fight for his right to free speech. Before Ron Dunn hits his bus route, he parks his own car at the North Base off of Interstate 5. But the man who shuttles dozens of people to and from work every day may no longer be able to drive himself to work. The reason: his truck features artwork his boss finds offensive. The artwork in question are three decals of nude women. The stickers, Dunn's boss told him, violate King County's sexual harassment policy.

Well, thatÂ’s just the way things are here in George W. BushÂ’s Fascist Amerikkka. But Dunn isnÂ’t giving up, despite the very real threat heÂ’ll be sent to the gulags along with all the protesters where he likely faces daily waterboarding sessions under the direct supervision of Dick Cheney.

”Dunn plans to keep the stickers covered up until he hears from his union's lawyer, but said he's not about to give up. "All the way. Let's take it all the way to the Supreme Court," Dunn said.”

WeÂ’re with yaÂ’ brother.

Now some musicÂ…

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Posted by: Open Blog at 06:34 PM | Comments (9)
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Now, I think Zogby Interactive polls consist of having self-selecting people agree to be polled on various topics every couple of months. They are not, I don't believe, considered as credible as a normal random-dial poll.

Still... 42-48 is a bad number.

The new decline comes from a drop in Democratic support. It might be, though, that online Democrats are more affluent, educated, and informed than run-of-the-mill Democrats, so he may have a skewed sample here.

Even so -- that same pool of Democrats gave him much higher marks a month ago.

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Posted by: Ace at 04:34 PM | Comments (4)
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I posted this in the sidebar a few days ago but I think it's well-done enough for a main post.
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Posted by: Ace at 03:13 PM | Comments (8)
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Joining 60% of Democrats.

[F]orces should be substantially reduced to serve a comprehensively revised policy: America should do only what can be done from offshore, using intelligence, drones, cruise missiles, airstrikes and small, potent special forces units, concentrating on the porous 1,500-mile border with Pakistan, a nation that actually matters,” Will writes in the column, scheduled for publication later this week.

...

In the column, Will warns that any nation-building strategy could be impossible to execute given the TalibanÂ’s ability to seemingly disappear into the rugged mountain terrain and the lack of economic development in the war-plagued nation.

Compare: An Afghan had his nose and ears cut off by the Taliban for voting.

Via Hot Air.

Kagan: Will Doesn't Know Math Outside of On Base Percentage. Kagan challenges Will's claim that it would take "hundreds of thousands" of coalition forces to quell the insurgency, according to COIN theory.

The article is here.

Posted by: Ace at 02:15 PM | Comments (6)
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Feisty chick.

Charles S. LiMandri, attorney for Miss Prejean, released the following statement regarding the complaint:

“Over the past two months we have worked hard to provide overwhelming evidence that Carrie Prejean did not violate her contract with Miss California USA and did not deserve to have her title revoked by Keith Lewis. We will make the case that her title was taken from her solely because of her support of traditional marriage. Keith Lewis has refused to clear her good name or even to admit any wrongdoing. Therefore, Carrie Prejean is left with no alternative but to take her case to court where she expects to be fully vindicated.”

She was fired, supposedly, for failing to clear her interviews and appearances through the organization, as her contract required. If that's true, she may have no case... of course, the officials may have deliberately sat on all of her duly-filed requests without taking action, deliberately attempting to set up a breach by effectively forbidding her to speak a single word in public. If that's the case, she's got a, uh, case.

Posted by: Ace at 01:57 PM | Comments (9)
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10. Quote: "That guy can really fill out a pair of Hagar's"

9. Spends hours dreamily scripting the name "David Brooks-Obama" on the cover of his Trapper Keeper

8. Obama almost never says "imply" when he means "infer"

7. Three words: Throbbing. Engorged. Deficits.

6. Has never gotten over childhood trauma of not being sexually assaulted while in boys' boarding school; looks to Obama as sensitive, caring pedophile English teacher he never had

5. He's "our kind of chap," by which we mean "guy looks like he's walking around with a fungo bat between his legs"

4. Has most important prerequisite for president -- a "first-class badonkadonk," much like Millard Fillmore

3. Soft artists' hands are gentle and comforting, and yet insistent and demanding

2. Was taken with Obama's clever reworking of a line by Edmund Burke: "Was your father a thief? Because he stole the stars and put them in your eyes."

...and the Number One Other Reason David Brooks is So Enthused with Barack Obama...

1. Every time Obama walks into a room, Brooks experiences a full-spectrum sensation that can only be described as "having an epileptic orgasm while listening to Lincoln's Gettysburg address as if it were mixed using Phil Spector's 'Wall of Sound' technique"

Dramatic Reenactment: Of when David met Barack. Mild Content Warning (Anchorman).

From LurkingPoet.

Posted by: Ace at 12:37 PM | Comments (7)
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By "us," he means dime-a-dozen pundits.

Cheap date, eh?

Another bit of fun there actually comes from Obama. When Brooks showed up with genuine Republican pundits to chat with him over dinner, Obama greeted him by asking, "What are you doing here?" (i.e., "Are you sure you're with the right group?").

That first encounter is still vivid in Brooks’s mind. “I remember distinctly an image of--we were sitting on his couches, and I was looking at his pant leg and his perfectly creased pant,” Brooks says, “and I’m thinking, a) he’s going to be president and b) he’ll be a very good president.” In the fall of 2006, two days after Obama’s The Audacity of Hope hit bookstores, Brooks published a glowing Times column. The headline was “Run, Barack, Run.”

...

Brooks concedes that his place on the political spectrum has shifted somewhat over the years. “I used to think conservatives were right about the big things--the Soviet Union, economic growth,” he explains. “Now, on a lot of issues, I think liberals have been right about some big things, like rising inequality. Both sides of the education divide are within the Democratic Party. . . . The Republicans are sitting this one out. And, then, the war in Iraq has caused me to rethink things in a much more modest [way], and that is Burkean, too.”

He recognizes something similar in the current president. “Obama sees himself as a Burkean,” Brooks says. “He sees his view of the world as a view that understands complexity and the organic nature of change.” Moreover, after the Bush years, Brooks seems relieved to have an intellectual in the White House again. “I divide people into people who talk like us and who don’t talk like us,” he explains. “Of recent presidents, Clinton could sort of talk like us, but Obama is definitely--you could see him as a New Republic writer. He can do the jurisprudence, he can do the political philosophy, and he can do the politics. I think he’s more talented than anyone in my lifetime. I mean, he is pretty dazzling when he walks into a room. So, that’s why it’s important he doesn’t fuck this up.”

More accurately, that's why it's important that David Brooks and other MSM bootlickers cover up Obama's failures. Obama already has FUBARed the nation. There is no un-FUBARing it, at least not without a regime change.

So Plan B is simply to spin his failures into glowing successes.

Updated: Right right right right. I had wanted to include that business about Brooks thinking Obama would be a great president based partly upon his immaculately creased pantleg.

AHFF Geoff reminded me so I put it in.

That is Matthews level. Or below Matthews level.

I wonder what sartorial detail and/or badge of privileged elite upbringing did it for Chris "Rara Avis" Buckley. Maybe the jaunty, elegant manner in which he converted payoffs from Tony Rezko into a fashionable home.

Posted by: Ace at 11:53 AM | Comments (12)
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She taunts this retired policeman on the way out, too.

I skipped over this over the weekend figuring the guy was disruptive. He wasn't. In fact, he was calling attention to the union enforcers/paid cheerleaders who aren't even from the district (if Mr. Purple Shirt's silence can be taken as an answer, which I imagine it should be).

The full background is that this woman got elected as an anti-war demonstrator/disruptor but now sics the cops on you if you dare to ask a question. Asking questions is for people who get permission.

New Hampshire voters, take note. She serves the first district.

Serves? Well, let's say she draws a paycheck.

She has a good challenger. In what even the Daily Kos acknowledges as a "recruiting success," Frank Guinta, mayor of Manchester, is challenging her.

And would you believe it? He has a donation page and everything.

And don't forget about his volunteering page, either.

By the Way: Yes, I feel kind of silly calling these union rent-a-mobsters "thugs."

They're not your classic thugs. They're almost all fat as [redacted] things which are fat.

A lot of them are service union employees, after all. When teamsters sit on their asses, they're deliberately slowing down the job. With service union employees, sitting on their asses is their job.

Still, the unions are putting forth a parade of Husky-sized dudes and Queen-sized ladies. They might not have a lot of muscle, but weight is of course a factor.

Posted by: Ace at 11:27 AM | Comments (1)
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A bit of good news:

August 31, 2009: As police expand their search of Pakistan's Swat valley, looking for any remaining Taliban, they are finding that local tribal militias, who have openly declared war on pro-Taliban tribesmen, have been there first. Over two hundred bodies, of pro-Taliban men, have been found so far. Many local men in Swat sided with the Taliban, and participated in the brutal Taliban rule. These guys have not been able to get transport out of the area, because of all the army roadblocks, and the difficulty of going cross country for long distances. So the tribal militias are hunting down and killing known Taliban thugs.

Is it true? Pakistan is now holding off on sending its army into South Waziristan, deciding to back up the militias with gunships and such and let them "finish the job" themselves. But Pakistan always seems to be looking for, and finding, some reason or other to take no action against the Taliban.

On the other hand, the situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating.

Not Really Related But Sort of: Pakistan's reality shows are a bit less professional than ours. A contestant drowned while attempting to swim a river with a 15 pound weight attached to his back.

Hmmm... River. Swimming. A heavy weight attached to your back. It's like lightning struck here. No way to predict this mishap.

On the plus side, he has immunity in next week's vote.

Thanks to Arthur for the serious tip and OgreGunner for the silly one.

(Um, well, a death isn't really silly but, you know. He died in a silly way.)

Posted by: Ace at 10:23 AM | Comments (5)
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