And oh yeah, "Rahm Emanuel is son of the devilÂ’s spawn".

I guess this is his story and he's sticking with it.

Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) says the House ethics committee is investigating him for inappropriate comments he made to a male staffer on New Year's Eve — and that he's the victim of a power play by Democratic leaders who want him out of Congress because he's a "no" vote on health care reform.

"Mine is now the deciding vote on the health care bill," Massa, who on Friday announced his intention to resign, said during a long monologue on radio station WKPQ. "And this administration and this House leadership have said, quote-unquote, they will stop at nothing to pass this health care bill. And now they've gotten rid of me and it will pass. You connect the dots."

Massa voted against the original House bill because it wasn't liberal enough. He famously told some nutroots group that he'd vote for a single payer system even though his district didn't want it. Massa is also the guy who said Sen. Charles Grassley committed treason because of the wording of his opposition to government run health care.

Massa was definitely a guy Pelosi needed to flip but not because he was a 'conservative' or even 'moderate' Democrat who thinks the whole thing is too much but rather because he's a progressive who wants a plan that goes further to the left. It seems he's more likely to be the type (and he's not alone) who has to be assured this is just the beginning not the end. That's a lot easier sell, even with the prospect of the Democrats losing the House, simply because history shows all government programs grow beyond their promised scope at some point. It strikes me there's easier ways to get his vote than this.

As to the sexual harassment charge, Massa says he was a staff members wedding on New Year's Eve and he and some of his staffers had a few, um, beverages and then this occurred.

"I said goodnight to the bridesmaid. I sat at down at the table where my whole staff was, all of them, by the way bachelors. One of them looked at me and — as they would do after, I don't know, 15 gin and tonics and goodness only knows how many bottles of champagne — a staff member made an intonation to me that maybe I should be chasing after the bridesmaid. His points were clear and his words were far more colorful than that.

"And I grabbed the staff member sitting next to me and I said, 'What I really ought to be doing is frakking you,' and then tossled the guy's hair and left, went to my room, because I knew the party was getting to a point where I shouldn't be there."

"Was that inappropriate of me? Absolutely."

If he had only added "like a viking" to the end of that it would have been no harm, no foul.

It strikes me that given Massa's over the top performances in the past he was simply ill suited to a life in politics (not sure how he got through a Navy career like that but I guess he did). The guy is just weird. Sometimes that can be charming and sometimes it gets you kicked to the curb, it's a fine line.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:00 AM | Comments (107)
Post contains 591 words, total size 4 kb.

Last call for the weekend. Might as well start it early since some people have the 'work thing' tomorrow.

Is Obama a Legal Phony?

Well he has never released his law school transcripts, he was Editor of the Harvard Law review yet never published any papers, and after graduating he seems to have never tried a case. And now it turns out that his vaunted Professor of Constitution Law gig was really a patronage sham and he was nothing but a politically appointed part-time lecturer.

The other professors hated him because he was lazy, unqualified, never attended any of the faculty meetings, and it was clear that the position was nothing more than a political stepping stool. According to my professor friend, he had the lowest intellectual capacity in the building.

So given his recent public mistakes about Constitutional law, you start to wonder how much does he really knows about the law and whether his entire career has been a successful con. The only objective evidence of his competence is that he passed the bar in 1991, but given that it was in Illinois I'm not sure I'd bet the farm on it being completely above board. Also why did both he and Michelle both give up their law licenses (his in 2008, hers in a voluntary surrender in 1993)?

Oh and it seems like he also phoned it in during his brief term as Senator:

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:03 PM | Comments (881)
Post contains 648 words, total size 6 kb.

I'm not a movie guy, haven't seen any of these films and I'm not watching.

There. That's my take on the Oscars.

Actually, I do hope Sandara Bullock wins tonight. I'm not a fan of hers, nor do I dislike her but she seems like a nice woman and then there's this...she won a Razzie today for Worst Actress and actually showed up to accept it.

Showing good humor, Bullock accused members of voting for her just because she promised to attend.

"I said I would show up and then I miraculously won!" she said, adding that her victory is further proof in Hollywood that "all you have to do is show up and you get an award."

"I brought the shooting script," she added. "I'm willing to go through page by page, read the line the way I did it in the film and, if anyone wants to give me a line read of how I could've done it betterÂ…. We can do this till about 4 o'clock in the morning. Or you guys can just watch the movie and rethink your decision, and I'll show up next year and we can go out for a drink afterward." The audience cheered and applauded.

Bullock also took issue with her second Razzie win, which she shared with "All About Steve" costar Bradley Cooper as worst screen couple.

"Again, if you had seen the film, seen it with your eyes, it's pretty much a film about a woman stalking a man," she said. "That doesn't really set up the premise for a loving couple. So giving us the worst couple award is kind of duh."

In a world and profession where people take themselves way too seriously, anyone who can have fun while being called the worst is ok with me.

Video Update [Gabe]: Video of Bullock accepting her Razzie is below the fold. She's pretty cool about it. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 04:08 PM | Comments (700)
Post contains 322 words, total size 2 kb.

Lots of focus on the violence but the real story is that none of it stopped the people of Iraq from having a voice in how their country is run.

On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said voter turnout was "high if not higher" than expected, according to Reuters. Expectations prior to the national election were approximately 50 percent voter turnout.

...In Azamiyah, Walid Abid, a 40-year-old father of two, was speaking as mortars landed several hundreds yards away.

"I am not scared and I am not going to stay put at home. Until when? We need to change things. If I stay home and not come to vote, Azamiyah will get worse," he said.

About 6,200 candidates are competing for 325 seats in the new parliament, Iraq's second for a full term of parliament since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion seven years ago this month.

It's been said many times because it's true, democracy is a process not an event. Today's vote is part of that process. There's still going to be tensions as parties negotiate to put together a governing coalition and concerns how legitimate that government will be in the eyes of Iraqis who supported other candidates.

I've linked to this before but I think today is a good day to revisit David Bellavia's piece which includes his remembrances of the first vote in Iraq.

As they came to line up earlier that morning, the men thanked us and clasped their hands over their heads, striking a triumphant pose. Some of the women cried. The kids were on their best behavior.

The gunfire began that afternoon. Insurgents started to shoot them. My unit ran to the road and formed a protective position between the killers and the citizens going to the polls. As we scanned the palm grove in front of us, bullets cracked and whined, then mortars start thumping around us. My squad pushed into the palm grove. I stayed on the road, overseeing their movement and coordinating the heavy fire from the Bradleys.

The firefight ebbs. The mortar fire ceases. A few last stray rounds streak past. A cry from behind causes me to turn. Lying in the road is a young Iraqi woman. I run over to help. SheÂ’s caught a round just below her temple. Her stunning beauty has been ruined forever.

She cries, “Paper! Paper” over and over until the ambulance arrives to take her away. An old lady emerges from the schoolhouse-turned voting site, sheets of blue paper in hand. She gives one to the wounded girl, who clutches it to her like a prized possession even as the ambulance carries her away.

The ballot was her voice. All she wanted was a chance to exercise it, just once, before she died.

The old woman returns to the school house, but drops another ballot along the way. It drifts in a gentle breeze across the bloodstained asphalt. I stoop down and pick it up. It is all in Arabic, and I have no idea what each set of candidates advocate. ThatÂ’s not my place, and it doesnÂ’t really matter. I helped make this day happen. This ballot represents the reason why weÂ’re here, why my friends had to die.

Carefully, I fold the ballot up and put it in my pocket. Even though I was 29 at the time , IÂ’d only voted once.

I had taken something so precious for granted for far too long.

If you told people 7-8 years ago that Iraq would be holding it's 3rd nationwide set of elections, run and secured for the most part by Iraqis, a lot of people would have thought you were insane. Problems and all, Iraq is an emerging democracy in a part of the world where there wasn't much reason to believe it would take hold. The Iraqi people, the men and women of the US military and yes, George W. Bush, deserve a lot of credit for today's vote.

Posted by: DrewM at 02:26 PM | Comments (78)
Post contains 676 words, total size 4 kb.

Here we go again.

Earlier it was reported by Pakistani media that intelligence agents had arrested Adam Gadahn, the American-born spokesman for al Qaeda, in an operation in the southern city of Karachi.

It was further reported by the Associated Press and Reuters that Gadahn had been arrested, sourcing security officials.

CBS News was told by sources in the Pakistan government that it was Gadahn, even after U.S. officials refused to confirm it was the California native for whom a $1 million reward has been posted.

Now, CBS News' Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad writes that earlier reports the detained individual was Gadahn proved false. According to a Pakistan security official who spoke with CBS News on condition of anonymity, the arrested individual is in fact "a Taliban militant leader who is known as Abu Yahya."

There's been so many stops and starts with this guy, who knows. On the upside, if it's not him that means he's still available for a special Hellfire missile delivery via a Predator drone.

Thanks to 'trailortrash' for the heads up in the original thread.

Posted by: DrewM at 01:44 PM | Comments (121)
Post contains 190 words, total size 1 kb.

Above the post update [DrewM.]:

Looks like this time we got the bastard.

Adam Yahiye Gadahn, a California-born spokesman for al-Qaida, has been captured in Pakistan, government sources said Sunday.

The word came from sources cited by The Associated Press and Pakistani news Web sites.

An intelligence source confirmed the reports to NBC News, and photographs supplied to NBC of the detained suspect corroborated the accounts.

Gadahn was detained in Sohrab Goth, a suburb of Karachi, and was later moved to the capital Islamabad, the source added.

Gadahn, 31, grew up on a goat farm in Riverside County, Calif., and converted to Islam at a mosque in nearby Orange County.

A goat farm?

Original post:
Just breaking and this isn't the first time we've had a false report on the chubby traitor, but word is trickling out that someone has captured the Twinkie Terrorist in Pakistan.

More to come...

[DrewM.]: As Gabe said, there's been false hopes before with this bastard but here's one report on the supposed capture.

If it is true, I wonder if any of the al-Qaida Seven will resign their DoJ positions to defend him. Nah, they can do more to help him where they are.

The traitorous bastard just released another one of his videos, this time praising the Ft. Hood terrorist.

Al-Qaida's American-born spokesman has called on Muslims serving in the U.S. armed forces to emulate the Army major charged with killing 13 people in Fort Hood.

Adam Gadahn, who was raised in California, describes Maj. Nidal Hasan as a pioneer who should serve as a role model for other Muslims.

He urges Muslims in America to carry out attacks against U.S. and Western targets.

Here's hoping they get to meet soon. Right after their respective execution.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:52 AM | Comments (540)
Post contains 313 words, total size 2 kb.

In today's NYTimes, the aging civil rights organization complains that Obama is just Bush all over again. Click the pic to go to the full ad (PDF):

This is the pushback I expected after White House staffers started leaking that Obama would flip flop on the New York 9/11 trials and throw Holder under the bus.

Will the whimpering of the ACLU change Obama's mind? Does it matter? Congress isn't going to let the President bring terrorists here for trial anyways. This was money down the toilet. I approve this message.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:17 AM | Comments (58)
Post contains 105 words, total size 1 kb.

Reloads on the ONT seem busted, so let's start fresh and bust a new one. Suggested topics might include, what was the most dangerous/stupid thing you ever did that could/should have killed you, but you managed to walk away from.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 08:15 AM | Comments (104)
Post contains 64 words, total size 1 kb.

Hello, hello all M&Ms. Welcome to your regularly scheduled Saturday night ONT.

And as usual brought to you for the low, low price of $0. Of course Ace is too proud to proud to beg but just remember that bandwidth is not free and hobo flesh is not a complete diet. So give if you can.

Nic Cage Punches a Woman While Wearing a Bear Suit
Sure why not - it's fitting start to the evening. It's probably the best 26 seconds of the entire movie, but then an entire movie about Nicolas cage running around in a bear suit attacking people would be...awesome! Of course I haven't seen the remake - just the original Wicker Man which was pretty disturbing when I saw it on TV as young moron. Looking back on it I'm pretty sure it was the first movie I ever saw where evil triumphs in the end.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:42 PM | Comments (1001)
Post contains 427 words, total size 4 kb.

OK, so you throw a switch, and hear something that sounds ominously like a fresh bowl of Rice Crispies snap crackling and popping and think there's maybe some grim shit going south in the wall conspiring to burn your crib down.

I just got done straightening one of those scary situations out for one of the neighbors.

In their case it was due to something commonly known as "backstabbing". On the really cheap residential grade switches and receptacles, there's usually a "feature" on the devices that allows for quick/easy(and bogus) attachment of #14 wire (commonly used on 15 amp circuits).

To backstab, all you do is strip the wire and poke it into a little hole and some internal spring fingers grab it and make the connection. It is quick, it is easy, it is UL and NEC legal for #14 wire, so an inspector is compelled to pass an installation that's done using backstabbing. However, backstabbing will also invariably FAIL over time.

Those little spring fingers get weak, the connection goes bad and starts to arc (that may be the ominous crackling noise you're hearing), or in some cases the wire falls right out the back of the device and you wind up with nothing.

In my neighbor's case, all I had to do to get their shit working again sans-drama, was eliminate the backstabs, loop the end of the wire and use the screws on the side of the device. Easy/cheap fix. If the original cretins installing the stuff had done it that way, the problem would never have developed and his wife wouldn't have been panicking about the joint burning down.

Moral of the story -- don't let your electrician backstab you.

more...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 04:23 PM | Comments (346)
Post contains 437 words, total size 3 kb.