Several Republicans were kicked off committees for casting votes against leadership's wishes, rebelling from the right. But many Republicans have rebelled from the left -- voting for Cap and Trade, for god's sake -- and remain untouched on their own committees.

Second look at Sweet Meteor of Death?

Posted by: Ace at 09:22 AM | Comments (287)
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Scott, an African American Representative, is said to be Jim DeMint's preference for the appointment.

Posted by: Ace at 08:38 AM | Comments (152)
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And menorahs, too. We all have equal rights to be equally miserable.

Residents in a Newhall senior apartment complex are protesting an order from management to remove their beloved Christmas tree from the community room because, they were told, it's a religious symbol.

On Tuesday, Tarzana-based JB Partners Group Inc. sent a memo to staff at The Willows senior apartment building demanding they take down Christmas trees and menorahs in communal areas.

The company has owned The Willows for four years, but this is the first time it's given such a directive to staff.

On Wednesday, two dozen residents in the 75-resident complex gathered in the lobby to place a neon green sign that read: "Please Save Our Tree."

"We're all angry. We want that tree," said Fern Scheel, who has lived at the complex for nearly two years. "Where's our freedom? This is ridiculous."

Posted by: Ace at 08:15 AM | Comments (308)
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Wow.

South Carolina U.S. Senator Jim DeMint will replace Ed Feulner as president of the Heritage Foundation. Mr. DeMint will leave his post as South Carolina's junior senator in early January to take control of the Washington think tank, which has an annual budget of about $80 million.

Sen. DeMint's departure means that South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, a Republican, will name a successor, who will have to run in a special election in 2014. In that year, both Mr. DeMint's replacement and Sen. Lindsey Graham will be running for reelection in South Carolina.

In a lot of ways it makes sense. He's not a team player and in Congress in general and the Senate in particular, that's the name of the game (well, if you're a conservative. Liberal Republicans can go rogue whenever they want with out paying a price. In fact they are often rewarded for it by leadership).

In light of the direction of the country, I think conservatives need to reclaim their own identity and seperate themselves from Republicans.

The fact is conservatives overestimate their popularity. We are far more impressed with ourselves than anyone else is. We think we took over the GOP, the fact is the GOP just kisses our ass every now and then.

We as conservatives should go back to being an intellectual movement and leave the elections to the Republicans. We're not as good at them as we think we are.

UPDATE: Nikki Haley appoints a temporary replacement who will have to run in the next general election (2014 I guess). Lindsay Graham is also up in 2014, so Demint's leaving probably kills any chance of getting Graham out.

Here's DeMint's statement.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:28 AM | Comments (422)
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• Star Trek Trailer Released(Video autoplay)
  
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• Obama Invites Tax Cheat To The White House
  
• McConnell Offers Geithner Cliff Plan In The Senate, Harry Reid Won't Allow It
  
• Why Tax Hikes Will Never Be Enough
  
• Chuck Hagel May Be Nominated For SecDef
  
• Right To Work In Michigan?
  
• Rhode Island's Blue Civil War
  
• Protests In Egypt Turn Deadly
  
• Army Clearing Presidential Palace Area Of Protesters
  
• Japan's Aging Infrastructure
  
• Obama Expected To Push Gun Control In Second Term
  
• Geithner Dodges Questions On Where The WH Has Compromised
  
• EU Can't Agree On Anything
  
• Detailed Photos Of Earth From Space
  
• Hugo Chavez Health Problems Getting Worse
  
• Online Sales Tax Added To Defense Authorization Bill
  
• Furor Over Black National Anthem At Highschool
  
• Voter Supression Debunked
  

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Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:07 AM | Comments (239)
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Looks like Gabe's MIA this morning.

Posted by: andy at 04:07 AM | Comments (209)
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Conservative Blogger Poll: Who Should the GOP Choose as its Nominee in 2016

AoSHQ was not part of this particular Kool Konservative Bloggers Poll so you'll have to send your pipe bombs and cobras to someone else this time. :-)

Here are the top 10:

1) Which of the following candidates would you most prefer to see as the GOP's 2016 candidate?

1) Marco Rubio (FL Senator) 20.5% (16 votes)
2) Rand Paul (KY Senator) 14.1% (11 votes)
3) Scott Walker (WI Governor) 11.5% (9 votes)
4) Bobby Jindal (LA Gov) 9% (7 votes)
4) Paul Ryan (WI Congressman. VP candidate) 9% (7 votes)
6) Jeb Bush (Former Fl Governor) 6.4% (5 votes)
6) Sarah Palin (Former AL Governor. VP candidate) 6.4% (5 votes)
8 ) Mike Pence (IN Governor) 5.1% (4 votes)
9) Susana Martinez (NM Governor) 3.8% (3 votes)
10) Chris Christie (NJ Governor) 2.6% (2 votes)

And then you have the bottom 10 :

3) If the list were narrowed down to the following 10 candidates, then which one would you **** LEAST LIKE **** to see as our 2016 nominee?

1) Chris Christie (NJ Governor) 32.5% (25 votes)
2) Jeb Bush (Former Fl Governor) 26% (20 votes)
3) Rand Paul (KY Senator) 14.3% (11 votes)
4) Scott Walker (WI Governor) 11.7% (9 votes)
5) Paul Ryan (WI Congressman. VP candidate) 5.2% (4 votes)
6) Susana Martinez (NM Governor) 3.9% (3 votes)
7) Brian Sandoval (NV Governor) 2.6% (2 votes)
8 ) Bob McDonnell (VA Governor) 1.3% (1 votes)
9) Marco Rubio (FL Senator) 1.3% (1 votes)
10) Bobby Jindal (LA Gov) 1.3% (1 votes)

So doing the differential math it looks like it's gonna be Marco Rubio/Bobby Jindal in 2016.

Let the pre-criminations begin!

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:22 PM | Comments (656)
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A while ago I read something about Vaughan that seemed to indicate he wasn't liberal. Which I took for code for "might be a conservative."

And Ralphie too? Well, Ralphie has been a frequent producer on Vaughan or Favreau movies, so he's part of the deal. I don't know if we can infer anything about Ralphie.

Anyway, they'll be doing a show called "Pursuit of the Truth," in which they will make a documentary about... well, making a documentary.

The show is called “Pursuit of Truth,” and it pits 20 documentary filmmakers against one another, with the grand prize being the financing and distribution of their documentary film.

"I am proud to announce that Vince Vaughn and I are going to be the executive producers," Beck said Wednesday. "That should make everybody's head spin. What the hell is Vince Vaughn doing with a crazy man? I know, that's what my friends say. Glenn, what are you doing with the crazy man Vince Vaughn?"

By the way, I saw "The Watch" a couple of weeks ago. It stars Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, and Jonah Hill.

I think a fair review would be this: Three very funny guys team-up for a high-concept, low-ambition bit of money-making movie-making and while none of them are exactly working hard in this movie, it's still good for a painless few laughs, so long as you don't mind a lot of dick and sex jokes.

No one's re-inventing the wheel as far as their on-screen personae here. Stiller does the Control Freak persona he does all the time (Royal Tannenbaums, for instance) and Vaughn plays a slightly stupider version of his Good Time Charlie Frat-Boy type. Jonah Hill I guess does something a little different -- he kind of steals Seth Rogan's character from Observe and Report, the dark, crazy wannabe cop who should never actually be a cop.

Three or four bits are clearly improvised, and... you guys? Three of the funnier people in the world? This was your best take?

It's not a great movie but here's the thing: I did re-watch the whole last half of the film soon after watching it the first time, to enjoy a couple of jokes again (and to also spot the Lonely Island guys (Andy Samberg & the other two) who show up for a cameo). So while a lot of these jokes are shopworn (the whole montage where they pose with the alien is very similar to the ending montage of The Hangover), they're still decent jokes with a little bit of life in them.

Low ambition, very little work or thought being put in... Basically guys just showing up for a reasonably cute premise and doing what they usually do in movies. It's a cash-in sort of movie where they do actually manage to barely earn their checks.

Given how godawful and unfunny most comedies are, I give it a positive rating of two stars out of four. I did not hate it at all. It's sporadically pretty funny and even when it's not funny -- the basic plot of a suburban neighborhood watch uncovering a massive alien infiltration is just a pretty fun idea.

The nagging feeling is just that: Shouldda been better. But, still, not so bad. Set expectations to low and it's a good enough timewaster.

Posted by: Ace at 01:25 PM | Comments (259)
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@moelane sent this over, and old piece by Josh Trevino, posted at Free Republic. Apparently he spent some time with Ms. Judd on a YouthAIDS trip to Africa.

Some highlights follow.

As I read the Glamour piece, familiar things came back to me: Her need to mention her "perfection." Her relaying of third-party affirmations of her attractiveness and personal integrity. Her desire to make others' suffering about her. Her sly digs at her sister. And of course, her need to tell us all about it.

On religion:

She was prone to making pronouncements about her spirituality. After an interviewer asked her about it, she replied: "Church and religion are SO important to me. The God thing, the Jesus thing, the Buddha thing, so important to me."

On her own capacity to inspire:

My first meeting with her was in the South African Airways lounge in Cape Town. She showed us this photo of her rallying the Cats fans at a Kentucky basketball game. She said, "Have you SEEN this photo? I LOVE this photo. We weren't doing so well, and so I came out at halftime -- even though I was on crutches! -- and rallied the crowd. And they SAY...." -- dramatic pause -- "....that that made the difference in bringing us victory."

More on religion, and how You're Doing It Wrong:

The road to the De Beers mines in Cullinan is a long one, and so there was plenty of time for Ashley Judd, teapot in hand and this time with a cup, to hold forth on the critical issues of the day to the captive audience in her Land Rover. I sat behind her and listened to her monologues on her constipation, her preferences in clothing, and her water temperature preferences:

"You have to drink warm water -- body temperature is best -- because otherwise the cold makes your gut clench up and the body has to expend energy warming it. That's why I never use ice."

No one, including those who understood that this was utter nonsense, contradicted her.

Sidenote: The body does have to expend calories to warm cold water. On the other hand, there's nothing wrong with that; it's good to raise one's metabolism.

After all, she also believes in qi energy and the manipulation thereof by healer-acupuncturists. And that's not all she believes in:

"We got this little wood ring....what was the tree called? Anyway, you burn it because, according to African folklore, it wards off evil spirits. Sort of like Native Americans and sage -- which I carry lots of and burn all the time."

And then there was her little amulet around her neck:

"That? That's Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of Montana."

No further explanation was offered. The amulet, by the bye, rested underneath another, cross-shaped one. [Ed. note: as I look up Lakshmi, I see that she is sometimes perceived as the Hindu goddess of money, so in fairness, perhaps I mis-heard that one.]

And then there was her participation in the great moral struggles of the modern era:

"I was so thrilled to meet Bishop Tutu. He has been such a hero to me.... He so inspired me, with his fight against these forces that totally perverted and distorted what spirituality and religion are supposed to mean. I really think that his fight then echoes my fight today in my own country. I've gone and spoken with so many of these Evangelicals and these conservative churches, trying to open their eyes to what faith is supposed to be about." Sigh. "It's so much like Bishop Tutu's struggle."

On egalitarianism:

"I will never fly Virgin again. Last time, Dario and I were in the first-class section, and they seated us where we could hear EVERYTHING going on in the galley. Clink, clink, clink, the whole time. I asked them to stop, and the little motherfuckers gave me such attitude. It was horrible -- my husband saw what was coming, and he reached out to hold my hand, and I bawled all the way from Los Angeles to London."

On her endless capacity to suffer on behalf of others:

Later, emerging from a Catholic-run mental-retardation care facility with some particularly horrific cases of human misery, she leaned over to confide, "My sister could never handle this. Not like I can."

But that suffering has limits, you know:

I asked the YouthAIDS senior person whether maybe Ashley was a bit spoiled, and she told me the story of how Ashley refused to do their first promotional tour to Cambodia unless she was allowed to fly British Airways first class all the way. "That's quite an expense for us as a humanitarian organization....but we ended up having to do it."

The whole thing makes me want to have The Conversation about her sanity. And I didn't even include the demand for a Chinese accupuncturist in the middle of Africa.

Posted by: Ace at 12:54 PM | Comments (243)
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The GOP is threatening -- I hate even to use the word "threaten" -- to demand some kind of future fiscal sanity from Obama in exchange for a present increase in the debt limit.

Obama considers that unfair and racist. And also, a game.

Meanwhile, an analyst offers four different scenarios for raising the debt limit. Two involve breaking the Constitution. None of them involve spending less money and solving the country's solvency crisis.

A normally mild-mannered writer offered these thoughts:

One of the problems the GOP is that they have a negotiating partner who never seems to learn the right lessons.

His first term was full of failures, stumbles, mistakes, etc., but who has a remarkable ability to shift blame. Stimulus wasn't "shovel-ready"? Not his fault. Economy stinks? "Headwinds." Scott Brown wins in a warning shot against Obamacare, and he charges ahead anyway. His received a stunning rebuke in the midterms, but didn't change his approach. Debt ceiling debate? "Don't call my bluff, Eric."

Now he sees in his reelection absolute and total vindication of everything he's done as president. This is why I'm skeptical of Keith Hennessey's theory that Obama is more willing to deal than his public stance suggests - I think Obama's not nearly as afraid of going over the cliff as he ought to be.

One way or another, Obama will be in office for the next four years. So maybe what is needed most is a giant "teachable moment" for Obama - some mess so big and so vast, even he has to realize he screwed up.

Over the cliff? Higher tax rates for everybody? Double-dip recession? If the country is in even worse state by the end of 2013, perhaps Obama will realize he's presiding over five years of recession, a depression that will define his presidency, and he'll start being more conciliatory, and negotiating in good faith again?

Call it the Let It Burn program, Cool Hand Luke subroutine.
more...

Posted by: Ace at 02:35 PM | Comments (590)
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