Wow.

NPR's spin was that they "refused" the check multiple times. Which didn't make sense to me, as they sure were eager to pander to the "Muslim donors" by claiming that all newspapers were controlled by Jews. Why say that unless you want the money? (Unless you just really hate Jews, of course.)

So here's the reality, now available for your viewing pleasure: They just didn't want to accept the check as written, from the "Muslim Education Action Center."

They wanted it anonymous.

Sneaky-like.

Cut them off. That's it. Good-bye.

Correction: My bad; I misread. I thought that NPR was initiating the whole anonymous donation idea themselves. They didn't-- that was suggested by the "Muslim donors."

NPR merely agreed to it.

This continues showing they were lying about "refusing" the check, certainly. They were discussing terms.

Posted by: Ace at 12:37 PM | Comments (114)
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In the east of the country.

Update: Just Sam says this was rubber bullets.

Saudi police fired rubber bullets to disperse protests in the eastern province - CNBC citing WSJ

Well, that's important data. Not exactly civil, but no martyrs, either.

...

Drew notes that this wasn't even the main protest that's being organized. The House of Saud isn't playing games.

Obviously, if the state fell, it would be very bad short term, and probably long term, because terrorism, Wahabism, etc., are pretty popular over there.

Interesting: What's in the east?

Two things: Shiites, and oil.

rotests so far in Saudi Arabia have been limited to the Eastern province of the country, where the minority Shia population resides. But thatÂ’s also where the oil fields lie.

“And that’s what I worry about,” Ryan Crocker, a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq and other Middle Eastern nations told POLITICO...

There are major protests planned for tomorrow.

Some Views: This guy calls for the US to ask the House of Saud for reforms and steps towards democracy.

I think that's inadvisable myself.

Why March 11th? Oh, my. Remember this?

March 11 is a powerful date in Saudi Arabia and the day of protests was undoubtedly chosen for its resonance and symbolism. On the same day in 2002, fifteen young girls burned to death in a fire at a girlsÂ’ school in Mecca. Overzealous members of the mutawwa, the religious police, beat back the school girls attempting to escape the fire, refusing to let them out because they were uncovered. This horrific tragedy drew worldwide condemnation and led to serious introspection inside the kingdom that continues to this day.

That guy doesn't anticipate a revolution. He says that while there is agitation against all that makes backward Muslim society backwardly Muslim -- corruption and so forth -- no one is calling for the overthrow of the royal family.

Posted by: Ace at 11:55 AM | Comments (145)
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I name him by his ACU score because that is what most people want to know even before the name.

His name is Dean Heller. He's served in the Nevada House and as Secretary of State so he's experienced. (In 2006, he faced off in a primary against Sharron Angle, winning by only 421 votes.) He has generally run ahead of other Republicans in the state, winning by larger margins than others.

And, 89 out of 100.

Posted by: Ace at 11:03 AM | Comments (110)
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Democrats are just acting like jackasses. They are using some kind of dilatory tactic but a Republican just said that make no mistake, in two hours, the vote will be taken.

I don't know what that tactic was -- I came in too late. They mentioned removing someone for the cameras or something.

Posted by: Ace at 10:34 AM | Comments (776)
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Michelle Malkin is doing what she can to help find her missing cousin -- which is just getting the word out, getting her picture out there. A lot of these mysteries are solved just this way. People see stuff. Sometimes they don't realize they've seen something important until later.

She was last seen at the University District Safeway in Seattle, between 1 and 2 pm, this Saturday just past (the 5th).

If you've seen this girl -- Marizela Perez, a University of Washington student -- let the authorities know! more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:26 AM | Comments (73)
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If there is one benefit to Obama, it is that his refusal to act the role of grown-up is forcing people who have previously acted the part of adolescent to step up and act grown-up.

And that's about it.

Libyan opposition, France has become the first country to formally recognise LibyaÂ’s rebel leadership, pledging to exchange ambassadors between Paris and the Libyan opposition stronghold of Benghazi.

France became the first country to formally recognize the Libyan opposition – the Interim Transitional National Council - as legitimate representatives of the Libyan people on Thursday, pledging to exchange ambassadors with the country’s newly created transitional council in a major diplomatic victory for the Libyan opposition.

Obama's "smart power" can't even embrace purely diplomatic moves like this?

AFP reports that Sarkozy will propose "targeted airstrikes" when NATO meets.

I've been thinking of major themes in 2012. I think this hits at one of the two major themes I'd like to see our candidates (for all offices) push.

First: What do we need Obama for? On the stimulus, he let Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid write a trillion dollar waste of money; he offered them no guidance, he did not threaten to veto any pork spending. He just deferred. He did not lead; he delegated.

On ObamaCare, he expressly campaigned against Hillary Clinton's proposal of an individual mandate -- an idea so unpopular in the caucus (and the nation at large) that he made political hay over it every time the subject came up.

But when it was time to write the law that he had only vaguely alluded to, he showed no leadership again, offering silly "goals" that he wanted met (and in fact were largely not met by the ultimate legislation). Having campaigned against the individual mandate, he left it in the hands of Harry Reid and his lawyers to write the bill; they included the mandate he had made a major stand in campaigning against. Once again, he deferred to others.

In the cases of uprisings in Iran and Libya, rather than show American leadership, he once again voted present and said little and did even less. He left a leadership void in world leadership now being filled, thankfully, by the British and the French.

All of these cases illustrate that Obama really isn't bringing anything to the table. He is not contributing to the most important questions facing the country -- he does not offer ideas, or support for particular plans. He lets other people do the deciding, and then he embraces whatever consensus others have created.

A Republican candidate for President should ask: For $400,000 per year in salary, what are we actually getting? Is he actually doing his job? Couldn't anyone do what Obama has done? Put anyone in the office, someone unqualified and well over their heads, and they'd do the same thing, sit back, let other people handle it.

A Republican candidate should ask if someone being paid $400,000 per year to do a job should maybe spend less time golfing and more time doing the job.

The other major theme -- this one isn't related to Libya -- is that we are a country divided not by race but by relationship with the IRS. Most of the country is the Nation of Tax-Payers. A significant but very loud and very demanding minority is the Nation of Tax-Consumers.

And one party is the Party of Tax-Payers, representing their interests, and the other party is the Party of Tax-Consumers, representing their interests.

There are two economies in this country, sitting parallel to each other, bound chiefly by the fact that one of the economies may take money from the other economy whenever it gets into a pinch.

One economy is dynamic and competitive and forced by global market forces to make many adjustments and painful decisions -- such as layoffs and cutbacks -- as it struggles to turn a profit.

The other economy is stagnant, complacent, and insulated from market forces, because they get raises whether their employer, the Government, is turning a profit or deep in debt. Doesn't matter which. If the government is in debt, they just jack up taxes on the other America.

Whenever the Nation of Tax-Consumers thinks it's owed a raise -- and they always think that, despite the fact that almost universally they show no improvement and usually actually do their jobs more poorly every year -- they just raise property taxes and other taxes on the Nation of Tax-Payers.

The difference between the two nations is simple: In one nation, employees can choose and bribe the employers who will be negotiating their contracts.

I'm sure the Nation of Tax-Payers would love to be in that situation, of firing their boss if he doesn't accede to their every benefits-and-salary-and-time-off demand. But they're not, of course. Only the Nation of Tax-Consumers enjoys this position, and because there is no genuine negotiation going on here on behalf of the tax-payer, only between members of the nation of tax-consumers, the tax-payer is always screwed.

This is not a battle of the rich versus the poor. Since the idea of social/economic classes were invented, government civil servants and teachers have always been considered members of the middle class.

Rather, it's largely a fight between one middle class -- the middle class generating wealth -- and another middle class -- the middle class consuming the wealth the other generates.

Neither of these themes is ready to go. Neither is ready for prime time. But I think someone smarter than me can do something with them.

Posted by: Ace at 09:31 AM | Comments (162)
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I've known a few folks with disfiguring burns. One lady was making tea for her mother when she was six years old, and while standing on a chair by the stove her nightgown caught on fire. She was so scarred that she has worn longsleeve turtlenecks her entire life regardless of the weather.

Incredible. Wonderful. Kinda makes me tear up a little, to tell the truth.

...although Mr. Medical Device Salesman needs a haircut, a shave, and to put on some goddamn shoes. Tsk.

Seriously. His head resembles an ornamental chicken, and that pervy little EuroSmirk gives me the shivering douchechills. Not sure what demographic his look is supposed to appeal to, but I wouldn't let that hairy thing sell me a box of Band-Aids.

It must have taken NatGeo many bottles of Febreze to get the smell of vinegar out of their studio.

Still. Nifty invention. Hope it's for realsies.

Thanks to Man of Substance over at Splitters.

Posted by: LauraW at 09:23 AM | Comments (41)
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LauraW was complaining about the lack of dirty stories here lately.

I said she could always post the "semen makes women happy" story making the rounds. She asked -- hasn't that been posted before?

I didn't remember that it had, but I checked -- this "breaking news" story seems to be re-broken every 2-3 years. The seminal study first popped up back in 2002; then it throbbed into the news again in 2007 again; it stood proudly like a prize kielbasa in 2010; it climaxes, spent, in 2011.

One of [the chemicals in the male love suspension] is serotonin: The main neurotransmitter in antidepressants like Prozac Lexapro, Zoloft and Paxil. But wait—other mood enhancing chemicals are also present, like oxytocin, the “love hormone, “ which has been linked to such things as orgasm, social recognition, maternal instincts and anxiety reduction.

Gee, it's almost as if half the population has a vested interest in pushing this story out there, over and over again!

One day, wimmens, you will believe. Hitler's Big Lie -- Catch the Fever!

In newer filth news, Ghenjis wants you to know that had evolution taken a different turn penises would still have spines, like chimps' penises have.

Well, although they're spines, they really look like bumps.

And humans are somewhat exceptional in this regard -- a lot of male primates have bumpy penises; mice, which are rodents, have them, too.

Spined for her pleasure.

Oh: Study Claims That A Woman's Tears Turn Off A Man's Sex Drive: Like hell they do.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 08:53 AM | Comments (92)
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Chilling stuff, really.

It will be allowed to continue because the media does not report on it -- if they reported on it, it would embarrass the union thug/left-liberal side, and they would realize it is politically counterproductive.

But since the media won't embarrass them with it, it's a freebie -- they get all the upside of a death threat and none of the downside.

Plus... The above analysis only holds if this is just a threat. If it's more than that -- an actual plan to commit murder -- well, then the media will be complicit in the deaths. Not just biased, but murderous.

It's also at Big Government.

Rioters also tried to break in the windows of the senators' cars.

Senate Republicans were harried by swarming crowds. “We tried to get out of the building after the vote, because they were rushing the chamber, and we were escorted by security through a tunnel system to another building. But, after being tipped off by a Democrat, they mobbed the exit at that building, and were literally trying to break the windows of the cars we were in as we were driving away,” Republican senator Randy Hopper tells NRO. Such tactics, he sighs, were hardly unexpected. “I got a phone call yesterday saying that we should be executed. I’ve had messages saying that they want to beat me with a billy club.”

Note they had a secret method of exit, as a security measure, and a Democrat tipped off the mob, deliberately putting his fellow representatives in danger of bodily harm.

I hope the Republicans remember that.

Posted by: Ace at 08:21 AM | Comments (210)
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She makes some good points.

Her belief is that this is a crucial fight with implications for the nation and its future, and while Walker did well on the substance of the policy, he failed as regards the public persuasion part of it.

She thinks Walker should have been on TV "every night" to explain this to Wisconsinites, citing government worker abuses like the one's she writes about in her latest column. Such as a bus driver making $159,000 per year (more than $100 K in overtime).

Or the rule, "negotiated" with politicians looking for union donations, that if a public employee takes a single call of even a second's duration, that employee may bill the state for a half hour of overtime pay.

So if an employee calls out sick for two days, and the boss calls to ask if she'll be at work the next day, that's a half hour of overtime.

Ridonculous.

She keeps contrasting Walker to her obvious favorite, Chris Christie, noting that Chris Christie never would have gone dark during such a crucial fight.

Here is the point she doesn't actually make but should: Republicans have gotten into a bad habit of flinching from public fights. Commenters tell me this every day, and I think they're right.

Republicans assume from the outset that they cannot win the media war as the media itself is too biased against them to even get their words out, and that the natural stupidity of the American people makes them suckers for the Democrats' promises of endless hand-outs and Buy Now, Pay Later funding schemes.

Because they assume this is a losing proposition, they give up this fight far too early, and begin looking for ways around public opinion. Rather than taking the more direct and ultimately much more effective route of moving public opinion.

Republicans are right that this is a hard game to win. Of course the media -- the "refs" -- call every possible penalty on them (making up new ones on the fly) while letting the Democrats get away with bloody murder. And of course there is something to the idea that a people who have grown fat and flabby with government blandishments will tend to crave more of that.

But it's not true that it's an unwinnable fight. Furthermore, a strong public communications shop can turn a loss into a narrow loss -- if Walker is losing by 20 points on this issue, of course it is better to only lose by 8 points. Even if in some cases you are doomed to lose, it does in fact make a big difference that you only lose by a bit.

There is one advantage of constantly making your case to the public: If you do so, you send the signal that you have nothing to hide. That you're being honest and believe utterly in what you're saying. Hiding from the public and not engaging in the media fight sends the opposite signal.

I don't know if Coulter is right in this specific case as I frankly do not know how much Walker has been on TV. I imagine she's right in that he could have been on a lot more. And he could have made tougher arguments.

But the point is important as a general matter even if you think it doesn't apply to Walker.

But... It occurs to me that I have really liked Walker's grown-up, calm, more-in-sorrow-than-anger demeanor in his public statements, and I think Coulter is wrong, specifically, if she's suggesting a more aggressive slash-and-burn sort of style for him.

I really think it's very important to pursue a strong, principled ideological agenda while not appearing very ideological at all, and definitely not partisan.

Now I think Walker could have gotten out the sort of facts Coulter is talking about without losing that good demeanor. And I don't know if she's suggesting he become more combative-appearing. As Whoopie Goldberg might say, there is a difference between combative and combative-combative.

But as we're on the topic of Walker's performance, perhaps he wasn't on TV enough, perhaps he was talking too much about procedure and not enough about the important substance of these changes, but his measured demeanor was a good thing.

Ann's Wrong? H. Badger (ahem) says--

Walker has been on State TV and radio CONSTANTLY. That the East Coast Media doesn't like the way he goes about the business its not our problem.

It is obviously true that someone not in Wisconsin will have a limited idea of the media war that went on in Wisconsin. Outside the state, we only heard what the media transmitted.

Still, this was a major story on radio and on the internet; if there was a great deal more of the public persuasion campaign, wouldn't I have seen more of it?

Posted by: Ace at 07:31 AM | Comments (207)
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