Really sweet video, actually! more...

Posted by: Ace at 09:18 PM | Comments (48)
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Just posted:

Twelve more days of this.

More: I don't have much to add to what Ace said earlier, except that I'm genuinely puzzled at folks who say they'd rather the seat be Democrat than in the hands of a RINO. Given the number of Senate seats now in play, this is tantamount to declaring that they'd rather have a Democratic Senate than a Republican one.

I'm saying, it might be different if Republicans were going to have control of the Senate anyway. Then, heh, no real harm to letting our "problem Senators" know what we expect in the future. Same thing on the flipside. If the Democrats were going to have insurmountable control of the Senate...again, it doesn't matter so much whether the Democrat or the RINO wins.

But we're talking about taking control of the Senate, something that only now is turning into a real possibility. And that's going to take putting up with folks like Collins and Snowe and Castle. As infuriating as they are, I'd rather put up with them than watch the Democrats run the country into the ground under another two years of Majority Leader Reid (or his successor).

It's just astonishing that folks -- good, genuine, GOP people -- are actually advocating for a path that leads to Democratic majority in the Senate. Over Delaware, a blue state that we have the unimaginably good fortune to be poised to take way from the Democrats until 2014!

Think about it. Turning a Democratic state Republican for long enough that the folks there might actually learn something. Isn't that what we want? Turn the blue states red? Why would we pass up a gift like this?

Why do we want a Republican Senate? Aside from totally crushing the Democrats' spirit, control of the Senate means that our guys will be the chairmen for each committee and subcommittee. This means that they will have control of the calendar. It means that if Obama wants something, he'll have to negotiate with Republicans, rather than his own sycophantic party members.

A concrete example: Do you imagine that Elena Kagan would be a Supreme Court Justice right now if Senator Sessions had been Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee? Hell no, she wouldn't.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:18 PM | Comments (417)
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To be fair, before the State Department realized the Holy Land Foundation was a terrorist front.

So, like, this guy couldn't have known or anything. No one could possibly have known that the Holy Land Foundation was really a terrorist front. Because we know all the Muslim money flowing into Palestine was going to buy books & babyfood.

Oh wait, no, that was our money, and oh yeah, Israeli money.

Just a big misunderstanding, really.

One of the key players in Sharif El-Gamal's Mosque near Ground Zero is Egyptian born businessman, Hisham Elzanaty. Fox 5 News has learned exclusively and confirmed with Mr. Elzanaty’s attorney that Elzanaty made a “significant investment” in the development of the mosque near Ground Zero.

...

Fox 5 News has also learned that in 1999 Hisham Elzanaty sent money to an organization that would later be deemed by the U.S. government to be a terrorist group.

The organization was the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, also known as HLF. The now defunct groupÂ’s 1999 tax records show Elzanaty contributed more than $6,000 to HLF.

Two years later, in 2001, HLF was shut down by the federal government and designated as a global terrorist. After a mistrial in 2007, in 2008 five HLF leaders were convicted of providing material support to Hamas.

In related news: Islamaphobes!

I thought this was a pretty snarky/real point by the way:

maybe you can tell me; how's it an issue of religious freedom if the building isn't a mosque but a community center?

Via Cubachi, or "Cubachi," as she's known on Twitter.

Posted by: Ace at 07:01 PM | Comments (38)
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Happy Thor's day all. Which reminds me - tonight might be a good time to get your hammers out and oil and polish them in preparation for Nov. 2nd.

What It Looks And Sounds Like to Fall From Space

Here's video from a camera mounted on one of the solid rocket boosters during a recent space shuttle launch (STS-124). I believe the numbers at the top left are the number of seconds since launch. Not much happens until the 2:00 mark when the SRBs separate at 146,000 feet and then tumble back towards Earth. Via a transducer you can hear the steadily growing roar as the SRB falls through the thin air at that altitude. Eventually the parachutes deploy and 405 seconds after launch the SRB lands in the ocean.

Normally the SRBs are recovered, refurbished, and eventually reused on another shuttle launch. But since STS-135 scheduled for June of next year will be the last shuttle flight, it's unlikely this SRB will ever see space again.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:09 PM | Comments (796)
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So is Pro Football, but that's Sunday (lots of preseason stuff tonight but preseason just ain't all that interesting unless you're follow a particular player or you're done sorting all your socks).

College games tonight are just the usual so so, with a couple of big teams working over a couple of little teams, Miami Florida is kicking the crap out of Florida A&M right now, Ohio State playing Marshall, Pitt against Utah and way out in the Pacific at 11 eastern, USC and Hawaii.

Couple of ranked matchups this weekend, LSU and UNC, and Oregon State against TCU.

Speaking of TCU...

Yes. Yes you can haz cheerleader.

OH. I forgot Iowa State, but in my defense a lot of people do that. Buncha 1AA schools at it tonight too. Thursday night, it's like high school JV.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 04:45 PM | Comments (90)
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Who proposed that? Oh yeah, I did. And so did thirty thousand economists.

Two years ago. On the theory -- see if you can follow this logic, because it gets twisty -- that if you reduce the cost to employers for hiring and maintaining staff, they might actually hire and maintain more staff.

Did you follow that? I know, it's heady. Let me try again:

If costs for a thing go down, you can afford more of it.

No? Still too complicated?

Here, here's a talking sandwich then.

Hey, fucklebuns! It's easy as baby-shit, see?
If hookers lower their prices by 5% you can buy 21
cooch-whores for the cost of 20! What are you, touched?!

You get it? Yeah, well, see, Obama didn't get it, and I think they had to invite time-travelling baloney sandwich Johnny Coldcuts to the White House to make him understand.

But now, facing a double-dip Great Recession largely of his own design, suddenly he's willing to confront all sorts of disturbing scenarios, such as the bizarre notion that when taxes are reduced, economic activity increases.

The staff-level discussions are in preliminary stages. But with the unemployment rate expected to rise again in new jobs numbers due out Friday, such a move could serve both to spur hiring and to combat Republican charges that ObamaÂ’s tax policies would hurt small businesses.

More spending on infrastructure – particularly transportation projects – is also under discussion, sources said. But a person familiar with the talks said it would be easier for a package consisting purely of tax cuts to “avoid the stain of a ‘bailout’ or ‘stimulus’ label.”

I had a number crunching blogger run the numbers for me, and he said that the "Stimulus" of around $900 billion could have paid for a full and complete payroll tax holiday for employers for 2 1/2 years, or a full payroll tax holiday for both businesses and employees for 1 1/4 years.

$300 billion is... well, it's a lot less, isn't it?

Meanwhile Mike Pence says extend the Bush tax cuts for everyone. And then some.

"Well, we're going to stay focused on Election Day. But I think before that, we're going to continue to demand that this administration and this Congress make it clear that no American will see a tax increase in January of next year," Pence said during an appearance on CNBC.

"So the first thing that we will do is try to preserve the tax relief of 2001 and 2003 for all Americans — for all small businesses and family farmers. But we also want to look at the kind of across-the-board tax relief, the kind of tax relief that will encourage capital formation, to get this economy moving again," the Indiana Republican and potential presidential candidate added.

On Twitter, Steven Hayes is writing to Gibbs, confronting him with Obama's past declarations that raising taxes during a recession would be disastrous.

Posted by: Ace at 01:58 PM | Comments (332)
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I didn't tell you what happened last time because it was a downer -- he lost. A couple of films started getting big votes and he lost.

Thought, eh, maybe not mention that, since it's a downer.

But, now there's another round of voting to send the remaining short films to the finals.

If you don't mind -- check out The GameRev (under "T," because it's a dumb list) or just vote for it on my recommendation.

Posted by: Ace at 01:33 PM | Comments (34)
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Ace has spent a lot of time going over the reasons why conservatives should suck it up for Mike Castle in Delaware and not take a flyer on Christine O'Donnell. I thought it might be nice to focus on another race where a novice candidate, businessman Ron Johnson, seems to be doing well with a conservative message...in Wisconsin. Against Russ Feingold.

The Real Clear Politics average has the race a tie but Johnson is a self financing candidate who is spending a lot of money to generate name recognition and get his message out.

What message is that? According to his website, Johnson is:

Pro 2nd Amendment rights

“Criminals should be fearful of the ramifications of our nation’s laws, not law-abiding citizens who exercise their gun ownership rights protected by our Constitution.” – Ron Johnson

Ron will be a staunch defender of our right to keep and bear arms.

Ron does not support licensing or registration of firearms, and the people of Wisconsin can trust him not to play politics with our Constitutional rights.

Unlike Russ Feingold, who voted for every anti-gun justice on the Supreme Court today, Ron will only support Supreme Court Justices who correctly interpret the Constitution and protect our right to keep and bear arms.

In favor of repealing ObamaCare.

“And in their spare time, contrary to the very vocal wishes of the American public, they passed legislation that will do great harm to the finest health care system in the world. The Health Care Bill is the greatest assault on our freedom in my lifetime. It must be repealed.”

In favor of less spending and lower taxes.

Ron believes we reduce spending by reducing the size of government.

...

The more government spends, the more government will eventually have to take from you, your children, your grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Robbing the bank accounts of future generations of Americans while creating unsustainable debt is a threat to our freedom and we must stand together to stop it.

There's more but it's all the right stuff.

On the surface, the guy sounds great. I'm not intimately familiar with Wisconsin politics so maybe there are some Cheesehead Morons around who can put me some knowledge about something I'm missing.

Normally a Republican in Wisconsin wouldn't generate much interest or attention but with Kos' own pollster saying the Badger State (along with California and Washington) is now the battleground where Democrats have to make their stand, I think we should start taking a look at the guy.

First reaction? I like.

Added bonus, at least in this TV spot he comes off as refreshingly normal. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 01:26 PM | Comments (46)
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(Link to Hot Air.) We just can't get out of our own way, can we?

His new running mate is a veteran (super-conservative, then) and, I hear, a record of speaking very critically about Jesse Jackson and other civil rights leaders.

Do we really need to play into the media's hands with picks like this?

Posted by: Ace at 12:37 PM | Comments (181)
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That's right, you heard me, Jerk-Asses. What did I say? This is Pat Caddell brain-porking you with a truth-hog.

IÂ’d like to share another point from my conversation with Caddell. Reflecting on the Carter years, Caddell says that when Carter stumbled, the press hounded him. Obama, he says, does not face similar media criticism.

“Obama has an uncontested narrative,” Caddell says. This, he believes, is a short-term advantage for Obama — it enables him to coast unchallenged — but a long-term weakness. “With many members of the press cheerleading for his success, he does not get the same kind of pushback that modern presidents — Reagan, Clinton, Carter — normally received.” Obama, he says, ends up “unaccustomed to adapting and changing along with the country . . . he manages to avoid dealing with political reality but struggles to find a narrative — any narrative — that actually connects.”

This sort of point has been made before. I think either Krystal or Goldberg (or both) pushes this idea, that the MFM loves Democrats to Death.

But this is Pat Freakin' Caddell here, Jack.

Thanks to Arthur.

Posted by: Ace at 12:25 PM | Comments (60)
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