Just to put a bow on the last post.

The freshest word -- I think -- from Kenya is that the siege is in fact over, with five terrorists dead and another 11 in custody.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday night declared that the four-day-long siege of an upscale mall in the capital by Islamist militants has ended with the deaths of five militants and 11 in custody. He announced three days of mourning for the more than 60 people killed in the attack, a death toll that is expected to rise with the recovery of more bodies from the mall, he said.

“As a nation, our head is bloodied but unbowed,” Kenyatta said in a televised address. “We have shamed and defeated our attackers.”

Kenyatta said that he could not confirm whether American and British citizens were among the heavily armed jihadists who stormed the Westgate Premier Shopping Mall on Saturday, carried out the massacre and seized hostages. But he promised a full accounting of what happened, adding that experts are conducting forensic tests to determine the nationalities of the assailants.

Earlier Tuesday, confusion had reigned as Kenyan officials asserted they had control over the mall, while the militants — who reportedly come from multiple countries — insisted they had the upper hand.

...

Throughout the past couple of days, Kenyan authorities have proclaimed the siege as nearing the end, and terrorists have claimed that all the Brave Mujahideen who shoot unarmed women and children were still alive. There were also reports of explosions after the government had declared the siege over, but they say those were cases of safe destruction of suspected explosive devices.

So why did it take so long to root the terrorists out? Because, the Kenyans say, they were trying to protect civilians (who were being held hostage by the terrorists).

And because a mall can make for a defensible battleground.

Yet the militants, who executed a sophisticated and well-planned operation and are heavily armed, remained resilient. The mall, a labyrinthine 350,000 square-foot complex, has been an invaluable asset, affording the militants food, supplies and numerous hiding places.

And while the president can't confirm the Americans and Briton presence, a general says:

[T]he militants inside the mall were “clearly a multinational collection from all over the world.” He added, “We are fighting global terrorism here.”

It is believed the terrorists were animated by Kenya's use of troops against Somalia's terrorists... such as Al-Shabaab.

The New York Times' very smart, very nonpartisan, very thoughtful Nick Kristof knows exactly why this all happened: Because Bush.

I'm so glad we have an Elite Media which provides us with such elitely nuanced thinking.

American Malls Raise Their Alert After Nairobi: Of course. As I mentioned, PurpAv has written of Zawahiri's urging of such smaller scale attacks to "paralyze" the West economically.

The fact that a similar attack was carried out in Kenya is alarming.

DHS is urging American malls to step up their security in a move that is being hailed as a "grandstanding and cynical cover your ass" exercise.

No really. What exactly do they expect mall owners to do?

So like if this happened in the US Obama and DHS can say, "Hey, we told them to 'take steps' or something."

The Department of Homeland Security is urging shopping malls in the United States to increase security in the aftermath of the carnage wrought by al QaedaÂ’s Somalia affiliate over the weekend in Nairobi, Kenya.

Malachy Kavanagh, a spokesman for the International Council of Shopping Centers, told The Daily Beast on Monday that the department contacted shopping malls on Sunday to check on the precautions they were taking against mass shooters.

Of course, the presence of armed citizens might serve as a deterrent, or, if not a deterrent, at least a mitigation of the harm.

But that's of course something the DHS wouldn't consider.

Posted by: Ace at 10:08 AM | Comments (284)
Post contains 707 words, total size 5 kb.

Lot of "maybes" in this. Before getting into it, Kenyan some officials deny it. The Foreign Minister floated the possibility, and then other officials denied it.

I don't know whether or not to trust them.

But Kenyan media reports there is some circumstantial evidence.

I don't know whether to trust them, either.

Witnesses to the Kenyan shopping centre massacre have said a woman who spoke English was one of the attackers.

The developments come as British counter-terrorism officials try to establish if Britons were involved in the attack, and whether or not Samantha Lewthwaite, already wanted for terror offences in Kenya, commanded the killers.

Lewthwaite is the widow of Jermaine Lindsay, one of the 7/7 suicide bombers.

On Monday, Kenyan officials said all the attackers were men. Hours later the foreign minister said a British woman who had repeatedly been involved in terrorist activity was among the attackers.

...

A Kenyan newspaper, The Star, said survivors recalled a woman giving orders as the attackers stormed the shopping centre.

It said two employees of the Radio Africa Group told the newspaper that "a woman appeared to be giving orders." They added: "One said her face was covered but she had a woman's arms and body. She was not carrying a gun but had a large bag around her waist."

The witnesses said she gave instructions in English which would be translated into Swahili as the attackers took hold of the shopping centre.

The paper quoted a witness as saying: "The woman was not armed but as soon as she issued orders, the men would go on a killing rampage."

Britain says there is "next to nothing" to indicate there was a Briton among the attackers. I don't know how reliable Kenyan newspapers are, but I imagine they're even worse than American ones. So this could all be trumped-up.

The FBI is investigating the claim that "two or three" Americans were involved in the siege. They report that some Kenyan officials deny that there was any woman among the terrorists.

"Two or three Americans" participated in the attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi that has left at least 62 people dead and 175 injured, Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed said.

A British woman was also among the alleged perpetrators tied to al-Shabab, the al Qaeda-linked rebel group that launched the attack on the upscale mall Saturday, Mohamed told PBS Newshour late Monday night.

She is the first official to allege publicly that U.S. nationals were involved in the attack. The FBI says it has been unable to verify that, and other Kenyan officials have said no women were involved, only men dressed as women.

Among the dead is a Ghanian poet who was in Kenya for a literary convention and decided to do a little shopping. Sixty-two people are said to be dead, including some soldiers that battled the terrorists. The terrorists (Al Shahab, or "The Youth," in Arabic) deny there were any foreign terrorists among them, which I take as confirmation that there were foreigners among them.

Here's a bit more background on the White Widow, or as I call her, Murder Whore.

She is the wife of Germaine Lindsay, a man who blew himself up on July 7, 2005, at London's KingÂ’s Cross subway station killing 26 people. At the time, Lewthwaite, denied having any prior knowledge of the attack. Shortly thereafter, she became a fugitive.

Lewthwaite, the 29-year-old daughter of a soldier, hails from Banbridge, County Down, Ireland. She converted to Islam as a teenager, and according to British media reports, has three children with whom she has been on the run.

In December of 2011, Kenyan police raided a two-room apartment in Mombasa, Kenya. They found chemicals similar to those used in the July 7, 2005 bombing in London. Lewthwaite was identified as the person who rented the apartment but she wasn't captured.

However, Jermaine Grant, who is British, was captured at the Mombasa apartment. He faces charges of conspiring to explode devices to hurt civilians, according to Kenyan police. Grant told police that he was working for Lewthwaite. She faces the same charges as Grant and another man later arrested trying to flee the country.

Via The Daily Mail, here's the Murder Whore's glamor shot:

But apparently terrorists know how to fake a FaceBook glamor shot too, because here's what she really looks like:

She's a foul-looking thing and we shouldn't use her carefully-composed Terrorist Selfies in stories about her.

Update: Just posted at Hot Air, a former British soldier with a handgun may have saved "100 lives" in the attack."

A former marine emerged as a hero of the Nairobi siege yesterday after he was credited with saving up to 100 lives.

The ex soldier was having coffee at the Westgate mall when it was attacked by Islamists on Saturday.

With a gun tucked into his waistband, he was pictured helping two women from the complex.

His story emerged as sporadic gunfire continued to ring out from inside the mall early today as Kenyan security forces battled Al Qaeda-linked terrorists into a fourth day.

Despite Kenyan police assurances that they had taken control of the building, a security expert with contacts inside the mall said at least 10 hostages were still being held by a band of attackers, possibly as many as 13.

The former soldier is said to have returned to the building on a dozen occasions, despite intense gunfire.

A friend in Nairobi said: ‘What he did was so heroic. He was having coffee with friends when it happened.

‘He went back in 12 times and saved 100 people. Imagine going back in when you knew what was going on inside.’

The former Marine is now a resident of Kenya and his name (and image) are being redacted for security reasons.

Update: The possibility of the White Widow's involvement seems to have been broached late yesterday by , by Kenya's Foreign Minister.

A British woman who has allegedly taken part in terrorist activity "many times before" was among the attackers who laid siege to a Kenyan shopping mall, the country's foreign minister has said.

Amina Mohamed said the militant acted alongside "two or three" Americans during the atrocity in Nairobi which has killed at least 62 people, including six Britons.

The announcement will fuel speculation that the British terrorism suspect Samantha Lewthwaite, who was married to the 7/7 bomber Jermaine Lindsay, was involved.

Lewthwaite is known to be in east Africa and is wanted by Kenyan police over alleged links to a terrorist cell that planned to bomb the country's coast.

Correction: I wrote this article with a chronology according to how I came across articles -- not in the order they appeared.

This is important because in the last update, I claimed that the Foreign Minister had now resolved the White Widow question in favor of her being present. That maybe there was initial confusion, but now the Foreign Minister had confirmed it.

In fact, that's not the order the stories appeared in (I think). I think first the Foreign Minister floated the possibility, and then, later, some other officials knocked his speculation down.

So it is not the case as my update originally suggested, that the Foreign Minister has the last, and authoritative, word on this. The chronology seems to be the opposite -- he floated the idea, and other officials have since disputed this claim.

So it remains unresolved, and not, as I originally wrote, settled and wrapped up neatly with a sharp little red bow.

Posted by: Ace at 09:05 AM | Comments (297)
Post contains 1296 words, total size 10 kb.

I'm actually looking. I'm just not finding. I'm not just sitting around scratching my butt.

Looks like it's going to be an Opinion sort of day.

Obama's declaration of high-level negotiations with John Boehner -- oh wait, I mean Iran -- is news, I guess.

CNN called Obama's speech "historic" before he even said a word.

This is a good catch, from the New Editor: some Democrats say that it's crazy to claim Obama rammed ObamaCare down our throats; it was Republicans' fault, you see.

On the other hand, Richard Trumka actually says Obama rammed ObamaCare down the nation's throat, and that's awesome.

Via @rdbrewer4 in the sidebar, a professor has been charged with taking covert upskirt/downblouse video of his students.

-A college professor who used a camera pen to secretly film under the clothing of two students explained to police that he was attempting to gather evidence that one of the women “was not wearing undergarments,” which he thought was “inappropriate,” according to a police report.

Pete Townshend just emailed me to say he was trying to prove all the child pornography that he was downloading was similarly "inappropriate."

The cops got him to crumble on his alibi. This is pretty funny:

After being read his Miranda rights, Samuelson (seen at left) claimed that he was “attempting to gather proof” that one of the women “was not wearing undergarments” in class. When asked about the occasions during which he “directed the camera pen at students’ breasts,” Samuelson “acknowledged that this activity was ‘inappropriate.’”

Oh sure, the downblouse stuff? That was inappropriate of me. I cop to that.

But I swear the upskirt shots were just to prove those dirty little girls were dressing unprofessionally.

Half-in half-out never works in a lie.*

*I'm lying. Sometimes it does. Maybe about half the time.

Posted by: Ace at 08:16 AM | Comments (286)
Post contains 312 words, total size 2 kb.

Yea, I know, too soon, yada, yada, yada... ...but this is the first time I've heard of anything actually eradicating the virus in a manner that might be field deployable.

I've taken the liberty of offering some rough English translations for the medical'ese in the piece.

... Here we show that regardless of the route of challenge, RhCMV/SIV vector-elicited immune responses control SIVmac239 after demonstrable lymphatic and haematogenous viral dissemination, and that replication-competent SIV persists in several sites for weeks to months.

---

[Translation: AIDS is crafty and finds all kind of nooks and cranies to hide in]

---

Over time, however, protected RM lost signs of SIV infection, showing a consistent lack of measurable plasma- or tissue-associated virus using ultrasensitive assays, and a loss of T-cell reactivity to SIV determinants not in the vaccine. Extensive ultrasensitive quantitative PCR and quantitative PCR with reverse transcription analyses of tissues from RhCMV/SIV vector-protected RM necropsied 69–172 weeks after challenge did not detect SIV RNA or DNA sequences above background levels

---

[Translation: over time, no trace of the virus could be found in any of those usual sneaky hiding places]

---

, and replication-competent SIV was not detected in these RM by extensive co-culture analysis of tissues or by adoptive transfer of 60 million haematolymphoid cells to naive RM. These data provide compelling evidence for progressive clearance of a pathogenic lentiviral infection,

---

[Translation: we shot uninfected monkeys full of tissue from the infected/treated monkeys and they didn't subsequently get infected.]

---

and suggest that some lentiviral reservoirs may be susceptible to the continuous effector memory T-cell-mediated immune surveillance elicited and maintained by cytomegalovirus vectors...

---

[Translation: This seems to work on persistent viruses like HIV and may also work on other persistent viruses good at hiding, like Herpes]

---

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 05:54 AM | Comments (503)
Post contains 232 words, total size 3 kb.

Happy Tuesday.

The EPA's new coal-fired power plant regulation contains this curious claim: "The EPA anticipates that the proposed EGU New Source GHG Standards will result in negligible CO2 emission changes, energy impacts, quantified benefits, costs, and economic impacts by 2022."

Here's what happens in the Senate between now and a shutdown. Under Senate rules, the earliest that the House could get a CR back from the Senate is Sunday -- assuming Sens. Cruz and Lee don't stop up the process. That would give the House exactly one day to act before a shutdown occurs.

Vandals torched a statue of President Reagan in a Southern California park.

NYTimes Supreme Court reporter Adam Liptak has an interesting piece on web links in Supreme Court decisions. It turns out almost half of the links Justices put in their opinions don't lead anywhere anymore or lead to, ahem, a bit of amusement.

[ RSS]

[iTunes]

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:49 AM | Comments (324)
Post contains 163 words, total size 2 kb.

It's time for a little retro-Ace....

Scandis Go Home!

In which Ace explains his journey along the road to hating the filthy Snow-Wops.

I don't remember when my Pappy first taught me hate -- hatred of the icicle-squating Scandi snow-wops. But I'll always thank him for it.

One of my earliest memories is of watching the Muppet Show, and happily laughing along to the Swedish Chef. Hur-de-ver-de-verd-e-verr, the Swedish Chef said. And I, not knowing any better, merrily repeated his dirty Scandi gutter-talk. "Hur-de-verd-de-verd-e-verr," I said along.

My Pappy walked in, agahst, and shook his head in disgust. "They're goddamned trying to brainwash these kids," he said. The next day, the television was gone, and in place of the tv was a record player and a bunch of Richard Pryor and Redd Foxx albums. "You listen to these guys," my Pappy said. "They don't truck with any goddamned Scandi luge-jockeys."

Along with their disgusting sub-human ways.

Another time I was eating dinner, but wouldn't eat my vegetables. "There are children starving in Scandinavia, you know," my Pappy told me.

"So I should eat the vegetables, and not waste them?" I asked.

"Nah, throw 'em out, let the 'possums have at them," he said. "Let the filthy Loki-lovers eat fucking snow. Human food would be wasted on them."

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:26 PM | Comments (493)
Post contains 2012 words, total size 19 kb.

Dave's Too-Early MNF Thread Is Below.

The thing is, when he announced this, he knew nothing about health care and in fact only agreed to say this last minute because otherwise he'd've had nothing to say at all.

So he decided to mask his complete ignorance in audacity.

Soon-to-be-candidate Obama, then an Illinois senator, was thinking about turning down an invitation to speak at a big health care conference sponsored by the progressive group Families USA [in January 2007], when two aides, Robert Gibbs and Jon Favreau, hit on an idea that would make him appear more prepared and committed than he actually was at the moment.

Why not just announce his intention to pass universal health care by the end of his first term?Â…

“We needed something to say,” recalled one of the advisers involved in the discussion. “I can’t tell you how little thought was given to that thought other than it sounded good. So they just kind of hatched it on their own. It just happened. It wasn’t like a deep strategic conversation.”…

The candidate jumped at it. He probably wasnÂ’t going to get elected anyway, the team concluded. Why not go big?

Here it is, fellas: The Origin Story of Captain Bullshit.

And meanwhile, the average family now has to pay $7,450 more per year for health insurance, do to no other reason besides the "Affordable" Care Act.

It was one of candidate Obama’s most vivid and concrete campaign promises. Forget about high minded (some might say high sounding) but gauzy promises of hope and change. This candidate solemnly pledged on June 5, 2008: “In an Obama administration, we’ll lower premiums by up to $2,500 for a typical family per year….. We’ll do it by the end of my first term as President of the United States.” Unfortunately, the experts working for Medicare’s actuary have (yet again[1]) reported that in its first 10 years, Obamacare will boost health spending by “roughly $621 billion” above the amounts Americans would have spent without this misguided law.

Avik Roy's figure is his own estimate, but on Special Report tonight, Jim Engel interviewed a family of four whose health insurance had nearly tripled in cost from $333 (or thereabouts) to $996 per month.

Which is somewhere about $7,000+ per year.

Oh, and the Washington Post wakes up and smells the Restricted Access to Health Care Compelled by ObamaCare.

From California to Illinois to New Hampshire, and in many states in between, insurers are driving down premiums by restricting the number of providers who will treat patients in their new health plans.

When insurance marketplaces open on Oct. 1, most of those shopping for coverage will be low- and moderate-income people for whom price is paramount. To hold down costs, insurers say, they have created smaller networks of doctors and hospitals than are typically found in commercial insurance. And those health care providers will, in many cases, be paid less than what they have been receiving from commercial insurers.

Some consumer advocates and health care providers are increasingly concerned. Decades of experience with Medicaid, the program for low-income people, show that having an insurance card does not guarantee access to specialists or other providers.

Consumers should be prepared for “much tighter, narrower networks” of doctors and hospitals, said Adam M. Linker, a health policy analyst at the North Carolina Justice Center, a statewide advocacy group.

Old and Busted: If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor

New Hotness: If you like your doctor, go &%$* yourself.

And, Open Thread.

Posted by: Ace at 04:15 PM | Comments (383)
Post contains 638 words, total size 4 kb.

Denver and Oakland in about 45 minutes now.

Seen today after the Redskins game, kinda funny: RG 0 & III

I went 7 for 7 with my picks so far, so I can't even employ the "make your picks then reverse em" strategy to improve anything.

Dallas gets to enjoy a brief moment leading the NFC East at 2 and 1, while the Eagles hold the middle and winless Giants and the Racists tie for the bottom. This is truly a pathetic Division. Next week Dallas gets to go play San Diego and then Denver at home. I fully expect to see a team with a losing record on top of the NFC East.

Although, about San Diego (from the sidebar)

Anyway, enough of that. Enjoy your Monday evening, and also thanks to Andy for picking up the slack while I was slacking this weekend.

BONUS boobies:

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 03:35 PM | Comments (184)
Post contains 151 words, total size 1 kb.

McCain is offended by Cruz's style.

I know Drew covered this earlier, or at least the nimbus of it, and observed wryly how hysterical it is that one politician could possibly object to another in terms of "grandstanding."

But to hear that McCain -- McCain! grandest of grand-standers! -- is "offended" by Cruz's attention-getting style is just the most precious thing I think I've ever heard.

Sen. John McCain does not have a high opinion of the freshman Republican from Texas, Sen. Ted Cruz.

An adviser to Mr. McCain told GQ that “He … hates Cruz” and said that the Arizona Republican is “just offended by his style.”

I don't know why the Washington Times deleted the [bleeping] there. Seems silly. Everyone else reported there was a common vulgar seven-letter gerundial intensifier in there.

Meanwhile, Ted Cruz says he's "embarrassed" to have supported McCain in 2008.

The main reason I'm posting this (both already covered and hit in the sidebar) is to explain my now deleted joke, where I linked Ted Cruz's "embarrassed to have supported McCain" line with the hyperlink text, "I'm not a witch. I'm you."

Here was my thinking on that joke (which I gave about 30 seconds thought to): McCain has called Cruz a "wacko bird," thus putting him in the same sort of fringe camp as Christine O'Donnell. My idea of the joke was that the "I'm you" line would correspond with "embarrassed to have supported McCain," a widely-shared feeling. Thus, I was suggesting that by saying that McCain embarrasses him, Cruz is saying he's like "you" (the general conservative voter).

But the joke really wasn't well-thought out and I see from negative feedback that few followed my convoluted and half-baked (if that) line of thought.

Anyway. Didn't really mean to take a shot at Cruz with that joke; it was intended to be at McCain's expense. more...

Posted by: Ace at 02:50 PM | Comments (195)
Post contains 360 words, total size 3 kb.

He's voting in favor of cloture -- which is the opposite of Ted Cruz's plan (to the extent there is one) -- and saying he's doing this to support the House's bill to defund ObamaCare, even though he and most politically aware people know it's quite the opposite of that.

Senator McConnell supports the House Republicans’ bill and will not vote to block it, since it defunds Obamacare and funds the government without increasing spending by a penny," the McConnell aide writes in an email. "He will also vote against any amendment that attempts to add Obamacare funding back into the House Republicans’ bill. If and when the Majority Leader goes down that path, Washington Democrats will have to decide—without hiding behind a procedural vote—whether or not to split with their leadership and join Republicans and their constituents in opposing the re-insertion of Obamacare funding into the House-passed bill.”

Right. His whole deal is always "Well we'll lose but we'll get them on the record... on the record as Winning. Then we'll win."

The only excuse here is that Cruz's plan probably won't work (but note that word "probably;" we know giving up definitely won't work) and that it's hard to explain why you're filibustering the House bill.

Eh. It's what I expected. Apparently we're going to just keep adding to our Winning Issues Portfolio by losing.

Meanwhile... I was just talking about this today. People become, for some reason, emotionally invested in their predictions.

Like, the thing we should have absolutely zero confidence about -- predictions about future events -- we suddenly get all ape-shit confident and emotional over.

Like the more Establishment caucus is 100% certain that the public will blame the GOP over a government shutdown, no matter how it happens, and you're a wacko bird if you think differently.

I suppose there may be some Tea Partiers that are 100% sure we'll win with this strategy (whatever it is), though honestly I haven't come across them.

But anyway, people get really upset when you suggest that they are not in fact Psychic and therefore have no reliable insight into Future Events.

The biggest screaming matches around are between This Will Definitely Happen and The Exact Opposite Will Definitely Happen people. Like they're competing Leagues of Psychics and so to disparage their powers of precognition is to slander them on a professional level.

At any rate, all that wind-up for this:

The public splits pretty evenly on who would be to blame if a government shutdown were to occur.

But note that question is asked in an absence of particulars of the hypothetical; apparently the public doesn't like the defunding tactic.

Glenn Reynolds: Obama Is Leading the Charge for a Shutdown: In his USAToday column.

So the Republican-controlled House of Representatives -- with the help of a couple of Democrats -- has voted to defund ObamaCare. In response, President Obama, declaring that the Republicans are "trying to mess with me," has accused the House of trying to shut down the government.

But the government will only shut down if Obama vetoes the budget that comes to his desk. The House budget funds everything except for implementation of the Affordable Care Act better known as ObamaCare. In truth, by refusing even to negotiate with the House leadership and threatening to veto a budget that doesn't fit his own specifications, it is Obama, not the House of Representatives, who is putting the country at risk of a government shutdown.

It's also sadly typical that Obama sees this debate as being all about him.

To some extent that's right. On the other hand, millions of Obama voters' only concern in politics is how Obama's being treated and if he's winning. Ergo, the incessant personalization of policy (a very crude, primitive thing) not only plays towards Obama's narcissism, but towards the idolatry of his minions.

Posted by: Ace at 01:50 PM | Comments (195)
Post contains 674 words, total size 5 kb.