Interesting take.

He's in his time of grief, and believe me, I think the person who probably has suffered the most through all of this is him, and there are people who would disagree with me and say, 'No, it was her, she was the one who was publicly humiliated,' and blah blah blah blah blah.

I just think he has to live with himself every day. Not only survivor's guilt, but you know? He, I'm sure, has guilt, right? Look, you know, she was in remission, this happened, she got sick again. I don't know, I'm sure that it's very hard for him to live with himself and to have to deal with the public condemnation...

Yeah, plus I hear all that cheater-sex he had while Elizabeth was laid up with cancer wasn't even all that dirty. Very straight-laced sort of stuff. Poor guy. How did he soldier through it?

Posted by: Ace at 02:40 PM | Comments (138)
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Keep leaning forward on that chicken, Chris.

Posted by: Ace at 01:53 PM | Comments (86)
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The story's at Roll Call, but I think maybe Drudge just linked it because it won't open no matter how many times I refresh.

Here's a very brief blurb from another source.

"It was just expressing frustration from a very frustrated Member." — Rep.Shelley Berkley (D-NV), [characterizing] the remarks of a fellow Democratic lawmaker who said " Fuck the president " during a Caucus meeting concerning the tax Compromise.

That's a big step up from "You lie!" or a little Joker war-paint. Will the New York Times Editorial Board castigate Democrats for allowing partisan fury to overcome reason, or for creating a dark mood that increases the chance of political violence?

Answer: No.

Thanks to rdbrewer.

Yup, It's a Drudge-alanche: He links it with the simple caption "F O."

Apparently that sort of sentiment is widely shared, because the whole internet just clicked on Roll Call.

Here's the link, if you can get it to work. I saw it, half-working, for one second before it crashed again.

Who Said It? I guess no one is saying right now -- should be less than 12 hours before the presidential curser is outed -- but my guess would be either Anthony Weiner or this smug, nasty dolt who thinks it's his job to be as provocative as Jerry Springer.

Oh: Popcorn.

Posted by: Ace at 12:53 PM | Comments (180)
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Susan Collins (Idiot, ME) was trying her best to sell out the Republican pledge to hold up everything until there was a vote on taxes and a Continuing Resolution. She was trying to work a deal with Harry Reid to move on the Defense Authorization Bill before those two issues were settled.

For some reason, Reid decided he'd cut off the negotiations and call up the bill. Collins showed up on the floor to ask Reid what was going on considering she seemed to think they were close to a deal. Reid basically told her to stuff it and moved to the vote.

Congratulations to Harry Reid for finding the one sure way to piss off a moderate...personally insult them.

As for Collins...she's an idiot.

Report: Brown and Kirk vote no. It won't pass.

Joe Manchin (I'm Kind Of A Republican For The Next 2 Years, WV) votes no.

So did Murkowski.

Wow, Collins votes Aye. Reid tells her to go to hell and she says, "Thank you for that informative suggestion, I will do just that!"

Joe Manchin, Scott Brown and.....Lisa Murkowski. Susan Collins is more RINO than Princess Lisa.

As I've said before, I'm meh on DADT as a whole. What I object to with Collins' action is it sold out the GOP pledge to hold everything up until taxes and CR were done. She sold out the whole caucus, something Murkowski (or Brown) wouldn't do. Disgusting.

UPDATE: It's alive.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Thursday that he'll introduce a free-standing bill to repeal the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy.

Lieberman said that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) agreed to bring legislation to the floor to do away with the military's prohibition on openly gay and lesbian service members.

Will Brown and Murkowski stand firm with the "Gang of 42" letter or will they sellout? Let's be honest, the smart money is on sellout.

Posted by: DrewM at 11:40 AM | Comments (256)
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The old saying goes Fascism is forever descending upon America, but landing in Europe.

Similarly for the media wish-casters, Civil war is forever threating the GOP but engulfing the Democrat Party.

"Moderate," "conservative" Democrats up in arms over liberal revolt against tax cuts.

"A clear majority of the U.S. House of Representatives supports this plan," Boren said in a statement. "We are allowing the liberal wing of the Democratic caucus to hold these critically needed tax cuts hostage."

Democratic leaders, he added, "are either not listening to what the voters are saying, or they are not interested in doing what is best for the American economy."

Outgoing Representative Michael McMahon of NY-13 (beaten by Michael Grimm, one of the guys I got out the vote for) had some choice words for the revolting liberals. (See what I did there?) He called them, and I quote, "petulant children."

Moved From Previous Post To Here, Where It Belongs: On the House rejecting the Obama/GOP compromise on taxes -- I figure that the Democratic House Caucus is now almost purged of any moderates or anyone facing any kind of real challenge from the right. Their best political play might just be to let the new Republican House pass this. Then they can say they "fought" and refused to compromise (and all those other things the media praises, or at least doesn't criticize, when liberals do it, but excortiate conservatives for doing).

That would work out well for us. The Democrats will further build their reputation as the party of tax and spend, and the Republicans will build their reputation as tax cutters. (And, I dearly hope, spending cutters too.)

A Democrat Party purged of any moderate members is exactly what we want. We want Pelosi/Rangel/Waters/Weiner/Frank to be the face of the party.

Posted by: Ace at 10:23 AM | Comments (148)
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Allah's confused about what this vote means. So am I.

The fact that the tax question isn't yet resolved is sort of good news, since some Republicans will vote for this amnesty once that issue is out of the way. I'm hoping to run out the clock and get the new real Senators in.

Posted by: Ace at 09:48 AM | Comments (135)
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It actually makes sense. Since "I'm gay" is treated as high-preference statement for those seeking Visas to Europe from Islamic countries, it becomes the sort of thing that anyone's going to say, whether gay or not.

But it's also invasive. But how would you know? You can't just take someone's word on it, when "I'm gay" is being elevated to magic words conferring almost-automatic entry.

So...

If you think a TSA grope is bad, gay men seeking asylum in the Czech Republic are forced to drop their pants and get hooked up to a penile plethysmograph to find out just how gay they are. After the "peter meter" device is attached to their penises, they are subjected to all kinds of pornography to see what happens to their junk. This test then determines if they can seek asylum.

The European Union's main human rights agency, the Fundamental Rights Agency, denounced the procedure. BBC reports, "The case first came to light after a German court refused to deport an Iranian asylum seeker to the Czech Republic, saying as a homosexual he would be subjected to the test." Apparently, your religious views about viewing pornography are ignored. And it's OK, sez Czech officials, because they only do it to asylum seekers who identify as gay.

Thanks to rdbrewer for the tip and the suggestion that the Ewok would want in on this action.

Posted by: Ace at 09:38 AM | Comments (109)
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Emo drama whores.

Message: Please pay attention to us. We're important.

The Berkeley City Council will consider a resolution that would declare the Army private suspected of leaking classified information to WikiLeaks a hero and call for his release.

...

Bob Meola, who authored the resolution, tells the San Francisco Chronicle that Manning is a patriot who deserves a medal.

Top Ten Rejected Berkeley City Council Attention-Whoring Initiatives

10. Proposed: All city council members to start wearing work-boots, ripped denim jackets, and feather-earrings, and to begin letting their grades slide

9. Proposed: We should all start dating black guys and make sure our daddys know it, like, we'll say things like, "Oh, sure I'll be home for Christmas, I'll bring figgy-pudding and my dusky-hued man-stallion"

8. Proposed: Sedition is The ROXXOR

7. Proposed: Bring Your Daughter To Your Bondage-Dungeon Day

6. Proposed: Look, we're only doing this because we want to be mentioned on O'Reilly's Talking Points, so let's just cut to the chase and drop an upper-decker in his toilet

5. Declared: Let's put The System on trial!!!, whatever that means

4. Proposed: Out: Casual Fridays; In: Transvestite Tuesdays

3. Declared: No religious tyrant or moral scold anywhere in America shall take away our right to dance

2. Proposed: Just to shake up The Sqauares, begin saying "sext" as a replacement verb for any normal use of "text" or "email," like, say "I'll sext you that budget PDF later" or "I'm sorry I didn't sext you back right away, I'm so behind on my sexts" or "I just sexted my mom Merry Christmas"

...and the Number One rejected attention-whoring proposal by the Berkeley City Council...

1. Proposed: Frame Judd Nelson for terrorism so we can then declare him a "Prisoner of Conscience"

Posted by: Ace at 09:12 AM | Comments (75)
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Defiance.

Defying President Obama, House Democrats voted Thursday not to bring up the tax package that he negotiated with Republicans in its current form.

"This message today is very simple: That in the form that it was negotiated, it is not acceptable to the House Democratic caucus. It's as simple as that," said Democratic Congressman Chris Van Hollen.

"We will continue to try and work with the White House and our Republican colleagues to try and make sure we do something right for the economy and right for jobs, and a balanced package as we go forward," he said.

In addition, pushing back now only makes Obama look more weak, as Karl Rove argues in his column today. It also strengthens the GOP, since they now have the opportunity to pass a less Democrat-friendly bill when they take control of the House next month.

I certainly hope Obama's press-conference admonishing of the left felt good, because it sure didn't do much to help him pass a popular piece of legislation in a House controlled by his own party.

Last year, Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats gave you ObamaCare for Christmas. This year, they're giving you higher taxes. You're welcome, America!

Posted by: Slublog at 08:05 AM | Comments (203)
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The 'biofuels' scam is one of the great idiocies of our generation. As with most recycling efforts, it is one of those 'green' initiatives that seems worthwhile but just doesn't make economic sense (as even the grand Green Poobah, Al Gore, acknowledged recently). Yet the West pushes ahead, out of the feel-good/redistributionist leftism that wastes money and costs lives.

Laura Sullivan over at the European Voice [*] points this out at length, discussing the European Union's continued push to shift to 'renewable fuels' (emphasis mine):

Studies by ActionAid and our partners show that biofuels are often more damaging than the fossil fuels they are replacing. The EU's targets require mass land clearance and existing production to be moved. Once this change in land use is taken into account, the projected level of the EU's demand for biofuel in 2020 will result in the release of an extra 27-56 million tonnes of greenhouse gases per year into the atmosphere – equivalent to an extra 12m-26m cars on our roads by 2020.

But the production of biofuel also has huge social impacts that the Commission has chosen to ignore completely in its sustainability criteria. More than five million hectares of land – an area bigger than Denmark – is needed to grow the amount of biofuel that Europe projects it will need annually in 2020 and beyond. The national action plans clearly show that most member states do not have enough land available to meet this increase in demand. They are therefore looking to plug the gap through imports – the UK, for example, expects to import almost 90% of its biofuel by 2020.

To provide the biofuel needed to meet the EU's targets, EU companies are busy buying up land. But in doing so, they could cause another food crisis in Africa.

The land that is being bought by EU companies is not standing idle. Small-scale farmers – producers of half the world's food – are having their land taken away, often under duress, to make way for the crops needed to meet EU targets. At a time of already high food prices, they are losing their land and, with it, their ability to grow their own food.

The food security of poor communities – and nearly one billion people around the world currently go hungry – is being put at risk.

EU leaders are keen to emphasise the trickle-down effects of biofuel production for local communities. Even at the theoretical level, the trickle down will not happen quickly enough to provide new livelihoods for the farmers who sell their land to biofuel producers and for their communities. But biofuel production is generally on an industrial scale and creates few jobs. And profits, rather than trickling down, are shipped back to Europe along with the fuel.

For some African farmers, biofuel amounts to a one-time cash inflow from the sale of their land. For their communities, though, it produces few jobs, little biofuel and a greater risk of hunger. For European consumers, biofuel does not amount to the green alternative that it is sold as. Both the Commission and the member states have got the policy wrong – opting for industrial biofuel as an easy solution ahead of the more difficult option of increasing energy efficiency and reducing consumption.

So, in effect, the EU is impoverishing and starving Africans and other third-world peoples in order to feel good about the fuel they put in their tiny little cars, even though it does not help the environment. Looks as though colonialism is alive and well on the Continent.

UPDATED: Which is not to say that we don't have idiocies of our own right here in River City, and amongst the Pubs no less:

On Wednesday, Chuck Grassley, a Republican senator from Iowa, said in no uncertain terms that the new tax deal will include an extension of those ethanol subsidies. Grassley, who is a ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, made the announcement despite the fact that there is strong opposition to the subsidies from Democrats, Republicans, environmentalists, and trade groups.

Last week on the Senate floor, he defended the subsidies that flow mostly to his state, and lashed out at his fellow Republicans for pushing the Senate leadership to let them expire at the end of the year.

“Earlier this week, a number of my colleagues here in the Senate, including a few of my fellow Republicans, sent a letter to the majority and minority leaders expressing their opposition to extending the tax incentives for home-grown ethanol,” said Grassley.

“Home-grown means that we’re less dependent upon people like Dictator Chavez and the oil sheiks,” continued Grassley. “It’s important to remember that the incentive exists to help the producers of ethanol compete with the big oil industry, and remember the big oil industry has been well supported by the federal treasury for more than a whole century.”

Yet in spite of his impassioned defense, it is clear the only people benefiting from the government program are the corn farmers themselves, and not many others. And even less people actually want them.

Fools and buffoons. Fools and buffoons. ..fritz..

[*] I can read the article just fine from my iPad, which is how I got the text. However, trying to get to it from my laptop didn't work, even after I registered. Your mileage may vary.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:10 AM | Comments (227)
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