But we should trust them and stuff.

More at the Washington Examiner and Charlie Spiering, who had it originally.

Corrected: I wrote, originally, that they sat "mutely." They did offer polite applause.

Posted by: Ace at 11:08 AM | Comments (242)
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So, NBC, the most relentlessly partisan of the partisan media networks, won.

If anyone cares, Today beat GMA on Monday (as it usually does) and beat them by a bit more on Tuesday. It's easy to imagine that if not for Palin, the Couric stunt might have lifted GMA to the first-place position for that day.

Posted by: Ace at 10:41 AM | Comments (110)
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Jay Carney's on now; the party line is that the president was only saying the court would have to follow "eighty-plus years of judicial precedent" following Lochner (New Deal cases which basically ended the concept of "enumerated powers" in the economic sphere, the Commerce Clause supposedly trumping all else).

Earlier, Holder confesses the courts have "final say" on the constitutionality of laws.

"We respect the decisions made by the courts since Marbury v. Madison," Holder said Wednesday, referring to the landmark 1803 case that established the precedent of judicial review. "Courts have final say."

The comments come after a three-judge panel for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday ordered the Justice Department to explain its position by Thursday at noon....

Holder said Wednesday that "we are formulating a response now" and said the department's statement would be "appropriate."

Don't Hate Me Because I'm So Good At Constitutional Law

Green is not your color, dear.

Correction: I wrongly thought Lochner was the first of the pro-New Deal/statist control opinions, when in fact it is (rather famously) one of the libertarian/limited state power decisions that was later effectively reversed by the pro-New Deal coalition.

Lochner was a foundational case for Old Court, a libertarian-minded court,which patrolled for overreach by the federal government.

After Roosevelt threatened to pack the court, a 5-4 majority against his statist assertions of power because a 5-4 majority in favor of them. Lochner and its progeny were either expressly overruled or implicitly overruled, as no one cited them any longer.

Posted by: Ace at 10:12 AM | Comments (211)
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Well, a fossil of a T. Rex relative has preserved what scientists say is a feathery coat.

So if the relative had feathers, it stands to reason T. Rex probably did.

The new tyrannosaur species, Yutyrannus huali, is described in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. Its name is a blend of Latin and Mandarin, which translates to "beautiful feathered tyrant."

A team of Chinese and Canadian scientists analyzed three well-preserved fossil skeletons -- an adult and two juveniles -- recovered from a quarry in China's Liaoning province by a private fossil dealer. Most striking were remains of down-like feathers on the neck and arm. Though coverage was patchy, scientists suspected the species had feathers over much of its body.

It would have felt like touching "long, thick fur," co-author Corwin Sullivan of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said in an email. Another scientist, Thomas Holtz Jr. at the University of Maryland, compared it to the feathers of an emu.

Posted by: Ace at 09:33 AM | Comments (227)
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Any chance we can replace both of these dum-dums with a hot Latina?

At the Free Beacon.

CAROL COSTELLO: Such a strange spring.

STEELE: It really is. ThatÂ’s kind of the climate change we are seeing. Extremes are ruling the roost and what we are seeing, more become the norm.

COSTELLO: It makes me afraid for what next spring will bring. It might be unnaturally cold.

STEELE: Because that’s not it–this global warming is really kind of a misnomer. Global climate change—so the colds are colder and warms are warmer, and the severes more severe.

Is the CNN Weathergirl just learning that Spring has changeable, mercurial weather?

Did they not go over that in Meteorology School kindergarten?
more...

Posted by: Ace at 09:22 AM | Comments (149)
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Let's compare this to the O'Keefe Acorn tapes.

It has been routinely stated by the media, as if a fact, that the Acorn tapes were "deceptively edited." This is despite the fact that there was no deception, and no intent to deceive. (They are referring to the opening credits and interstitial shots of a ludicrously pimp-garbed O'Keefe, walking with a pimp-cane and stuff -- this is plainly comedy shot afterwards like a skit, not the Acorn tapes revelations.)

Now we have the media deliberately editing George Zimmerman to fit their "racist" narrative.

When NBC’s “Today” show aired George Zimmerman’s 911 call to police, here is what the audience heard:

Zimmerman: This guy looks like heÂ’s up to no good. He looks black.

Wow. “Looks up to no good” followed by “He looks black” sounds like Zimmerman made a conclusion of “no good” based upon an observation of being “black.” That would lend credence to the racism angle.

The problem is the conversation was edited by NBC to look that way. Here is the unedited version:

Zimmerman: This guy looks like heÂ’s up to no good. Or heÂ’s on drugs or something. ItÂ’s raining and heÂ’s just walking around, looking about.

Dispatcher: OK, and this guy — is he black, white or Hispanic?

Zimmerman: He looks black.

So the assertion “He looks black” was in direct response to a question about what color Treyvon appears to be. Zimmerman was right – he looks black. Zimmerman was not making any connection between skin color and being good or bad.

NBC's accounting of the facts, in its correction, is itself false. It was not an "error" to do this. It was done deliberately. NBC's "error" claim conjures images of a sound editor accidentally brushing a dial with his wrist as he reached for his coffee.

No, this was deliberately cooked, as so much of this story is.

The Washington Post, however, wisely refrains from following NBC in its "error" dishonesty.

They go so far as to brand it a "screw-up."

Oh: And NBC won't name the "error" prone editor, nor will it say if any punishment has attached to this error. And they do not apologize to George Zimmerman for defaming him.

Posted by: Ace at 08:49 AM | Comments (150)
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Bumped. I posted this late last night. Seems kind of funny.

Is this a multipart punking with characters and plot arcs?

Is the Daily Mail just posting patently absurd articles for web-traffic?

I think so. Mostly.

Now if you don't know what I'm talking about, there's a new internet sensation, and her name is Samantha Brick. She wrote an article Monday in the Daily Mail proclaiming that people treat her differently because she's so beautiful-- men buy her champagne, and women snipe at her due to feelings of intense jealousy.

Because she's so beautiful.

Right? Okay, so... Ancient Troy just called, and they're eager to negotiate a peace. Know what I mean?

But she's got this article saying that it isn't easy being beautiful. more...

Posted by: Ace at 08:38 AM | Comments (241)
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Yesterday Obama spoke to Associated Press' annual national meeting. When he wasn't giving them tips on the appropriate way to cover him, he was disgracing himself.

Guy Benson did his best to rundown as much of the BS from the speech as possible but it would take an entire book to get it all.

His unserious caricature of free market capitalism is hardly worth responding to. It's the equivalent of a petulant Republican president standing up and saying the Democrat vision for the country is to transform it into a North Korea-style police state. This brand of rhetoric is below the presidency, but has never been below this president. The 2001 and 2003 tax cuts helped pull America out of the recession that President Bush inherited. It led to more than 50 consecutive months of job growth and declining deficits (prior to the 2008 crisis) -- even as we spent heavily on two wars. President Obama is asking Americans to turn their backs on the "bad old days" of 5.3 percent unemployment (Bush's average) and annual deficits that look like foothills compared to today's Obama-institutionalized Himalayas of red ink. And does this president really want to gripe about previous "slow job growth"?

Lots more dismantling of Obama's strawman massacre pretending to be a speech at the link. I'm no fan of Mitt Romney (no, it's true) but he damn well better be up to the drill and beat this idiot.

One "funny" part of the speech was Obama going after Romney for using the word "marvelous".

One of my potential opponents, Governor Romney, has said he hopes a similar version of this plan [the Ryan Budget] from last year would be introduced as a bill on day one of his presidency. He says he's very supportive of this new budget and he even called it marvelous -- which is a word you don't often hear when it comes to describing the budget. [laughter] It's a word you don't often hear generally. [Laughter].

Ah, that's quite the knee slapper there!

This of course got liberal hack Tommy Christopher all excited...look Obama is race-baiting Romney! Isn't it wonderful?

Now, on the surface, this appears to just be a jab at RomneyÂ’s reputation as an ownerÂ’s box-dwelling, out of touch Monopoly guy who canÂ’t connect with voters. But is it possible thereÂ’s more to it? Has the Obama campaign made a conscious decision to draw a contrast between stiff, uber-Caucasian Romney and their looser, more relatable candidate? Can we look forward to jokes about RomneyÂ’s lack of rhythm, or hyper-vigilant style of driving?

No, it hasnÂ’t, but as much of a reach as this whole theory is, who wouldnÂ’t absolutely love to hear the right wing try to make that case?

I love the last line. Christopher writes a whole post about how awesome that line was and how only a crank conservative would claim Obama is making a race based appeal. The only problem with Tommy's theory is no one on the right said anything like that. In fact, Christopher is the only person I've seen equate "Marvelous" with "White guy". but then he denies it's his theory, just that of non-existant conservatives.

I don't think Obama was doing anything of the sort, I think he was just being a jackass. Christopher however obviously wishes Obama was doing it and was willing to goose along the idea all while being to cowardly to admit it's his pet theory.

Oh and if using "marvelous" makes you a "stiff, uber-Caucasian", meet Barack Obama, the whitest man in the world.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:30 AM | Comments (293)
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Happy Wednesday. I got nuthin'.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:54 AM | Comments (491)
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DEVELOPING: WISCONSIN PRIMARY TURNOUT BLOWOUT- 95% INCREASE (AND COUNTING) OVER 2008 TOTAL (THEN 402,699); 58% OVER 2000 TOTAL (THEN 495,769) CURRENT TOTAL: 785178 VOTES--ALSO BEATING PRIMARY TURNOUT FROM 2010 GOV RACE (WALKER V NEUMANN V PATERICK) BY 170K

WAUKESHA COUNTY FINALLY ROLLING IN, TOTAL 83K

Primary Results Links:
WISCONSIN (CALLED BY CAC @ 2104)
DC (CALLED BY FOXNEWS FOR ROMNEY @2000)
and MARYLAND (CALLED BY FOXNEWS FOR ROMNEY @2000)

Romney is now expected to sweep, the question now is the margin.
Polls close 8pm EST in Maryland and D.C., 9pm in Wisconsin.

Also of note is a ward election in Washington D.C., in which Marion Barry (who is now on twitter) is running for re-election. My twitter feed today has been about 30% Barry GOTV. If that guy can amp up his supporters for a damn ward, what the hell are we doing wrong?

CAC's Projections: Romney by >25 in Maryland, >10 in Wisconsin, irrelevantly high number in Washington D.C.

Sorry for re-bumping, but this is the highest surge in turnout over 2008 for any state this year, may bode well for Governor Walker in his fight for re-election.

From the Brookfield Patch, the scene at Waukesha County:

UPDATE 1046AM- WAUKESHA COUNTY RESULTS NOW UP ON WEBSITE: Romney 51k to Santorum's 24k in Waukesha-- Romney looks to finish statewide with 44% of the vote, Santorum with 37%

Waukesha's total R- 83k. Total votes for Prosser in April 2011 (race with twice the statewide turnout as now)- 92k.

Posted by: CAC at 07:55 PM | Comments (401)
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