I don't know how the Tiger Beat Media can continue praising Obama as a demigod hero after this unmitigated debacle, but I'm also sure they'll endeavor to persevere.

“In their private moments, Mr. Obama’s allies said even the argument that his presidency would for all intents and purposes be over did not sway some unsympathetic Democrats, frustrated over how few victories there have been to hang on to in Mr. Obama’s fifth year in office.”

Imagine if Bush tried to whip votes for a War of Choice with the argument that people needed to support a war in order for him to maintain his domestic policy momentum on, say, cutting taxes.

Imagine it.

And yet the media reports this matter-of-factly, without any negative commentary, as if this is what presidents always do.

Meanwhile, Obama's classified briefings are pushing people off the fence -- but in the wrong direction, as far as Saving His Fifth Year of Political Legacy goes.

After listening to a classified briefing from five senior administration officials this evening, two more lawmakers came out in opposition to strikes against Syria, one went from undecided to leaning against, while another dozen hardened their positions from “lean against” to opposed…

Perhaps more troubling for President Obama are the tougher positions of many lawmakers who, until the briefing, had been only leaning against the resolution.

Obama has now asked for a vote on the Air Snub to be delayed.

AllahPundit asked what the hell would Obama talk about tonight now. I have thought the speech would be cancelled, but if it goes forward, I imagine he'll just improvise an Andy Rooney-style curmudgeonly rant.

"What's the deal with Red Lines, anyway? Why do they have to be Red? Red's a nice color. Why is being cast as the heavy? Stoplights are Red too. Red's being typecast as the villain, and I don't think that's fair.

"Now, you might say Santa Claus is Red too and he's nice. But is he? Santa Claus judges you and leaves you coal if you're bad. Once again Red is the Hockey Goon of primary colors.

"What about Green Lines? Maybe we should call them that. That sounds nicer. That sounds more positive. We could say, in a positive way, that if you cross the Green Line, you have given us the gift of permission to kindly share some cruise missiles with your army and your children.

"Have you ever thought about Alarm Clocks? I have. Now I'm going to talk about them for nine minutes because my nurse isn't monitoring my medication like she's supposed to and also she's stealing my pills to pay for her boyfriend's alpaca business."

Or something. I haven't thought this speech was actually going to happen for 24 hours.

Posted by: Ace at 10:52 AM | Comments (370)
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And this has nothing to do with anything, but I had to give credit:

The below video, from the Second City Comedy Network (which I assume is what it sounds like), is just wonderful.

But note who the target really isn't.
more...

Posted by: Ace at 09:57 AM | Comments (265)
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And the Court praised the wisdom and courage of the King.

So Obama agreed to the obvious face-saving political ploy we all knew he'd agree to.

The New Republic is a huge fan of the plan.

This, in other words, is no light at the end of the tunnel. This, to borrow a phrase from a Congressional staffer at his wits' end, "is an unmitigated clusterfuck."

I always wanted to start my morning with honey-coated Unmitigated Clusterfucks but all I had was Kaboom.

Oh, and now Russia's like, "Yeah. About that."

Russia is not keen at this stage for a binding U.N. Security Council resolution that would provide a framework to control SyriaÂ’s chemical weaponsÂ’ stocks, FranceÂ’s foreign minister said after talks with his Russian counterpart on Tuesday.

“As I understood, the Russians at this stage were not necessarily enthusiastic, and I’m using euphemism, to put all that into the framework of a U.N. binding resolution,” Laurent Fabius told French lawmakers after a telephone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

So, if I understand this right, Russia's position is that the fake initiative to permit Obama to save political face will not have any real teeth, eh?

It sounds like they want to make sure everyone understands this is just a fig leaf and that they won.

OBAMA: I'll give you whatever you want, Putin. Just allow me to keep... My Illusions.

PUTIN: Nah bro. They go too.

And as if to underline his point, Syria began (conventional) airstrikes against the rebels again.

[J]ets returned to the sky to bomb rebel positions in Damascus for the first time since the West threatened force.

Posted by: Ace at 08:54 AM | Comments (421)
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• Game Over: Syria Accepts Russian Weapons Proposal
  
• Election Day In NYC
  
• JohnE's Buzzfeed Post Gets A Mention On Fox's The Five
  
• Obama's Craven Embrace Of Accidental Diplomacy To Save His Presidency
  
• David Axelrod Tries To Spin Obama's Syria Humiliation
  
• Wow.
  
• Can The Syria Debacle Get Any Worse? Yes It Can
  
• Sowell: No Token Military Action
  
• Obama Tells Unions That the US Owes Them A Debt Of Gratitude
  
• VDH: A Fundamental Absence Of Seriousness
  
• Syria Back To Killing Rebels With Conventional Weapons
  
• Non-Tenure Track Professors Are Better Teachers Than Tenure Track Professors
  
• Is This The Worst Advertisement Ever? Yes, Yes It Is.
  
• Jeb Bush To Award Hillary A Liberty Medal On Eve Of Benghazi Anniversary
  
• Fourth Porn Actor Tests Positive For HIV
  
• Lawrence O'Donnell Interview With Anthony Weiner Is Pretty Embarrassing
  
• Remember, They're Just Anti-Israel, Not Anti-Jew
  
• State Probes Mysterious Dog Illness
  
• Car Deal Cal Worthington Died
  

Follow me on twitter.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:21 AM | Comments (120)
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Hola, Tuesday.

Okay, so, to me, the media reports yesterday about George Zimmerman's wife's 911 call, his alleged threatening of her father with a gun, and the possibility that he would lose his gun permit were not worth reporting on. A domestic disturbance about people neither I nor you, I expect, care about should not be newsworthy, at least not until President Loudmouth decides to insert himself into the situation.

That being said, liberals breathlessly spread the story, probably because they're so pathetically invested in making George Zimmerman out to be a villain. And that makes this next bit too good to pass up. Unfortunately for liberals and despite all their wishing and hoping and snide remarks and childish glee, Zimmerman's wife has retracted her claim. She didn't see Zimmerman with a gun and the police recovered no gun from the scene when they arrived following her 911 call.

In case you missed it yesterday, Syrian rebels, led by Al Qaeda fighters, seized, sacked, burned, and beheaded their way through a Christian village over the weekend. Quote from one of the residents: "Where is President Obama to see what befallen on us?" Apparently, this man is unaware that Obama proposes to aid the rebels that befell on his town.

The Senate is delaying a planned vote tomorrow on the war authorization. In light of the Syrian offer to allow weapons inspections, Democrats are hoping they won't have to line up behind an unpopular war just so Obama can save face. It's unclear to me whether anyone really thinks Syria will hand over weapons, but the accidental foreign policy of President Obama is racing towards an accidental solution anyway. Obama can read the writing on the wall.

The president will address the nation from the Oval Office this evening at 9pm Eastern to make his case for war . . . or possibly for weapons inspections or possibly for whatever accidental diplomacy turns up in the next 14 hours. At this point they've probably got VP Biden duct-taped and stashed in a closet, y'know?

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:50 AM | Comments (309)
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I wrote "Is this fake? I don't even know if I can believe in suspiciously well-timed viral videos anymore."

Well... Actually the timing was sort of happenstance. The video was filmed and posted two months ago, according to Jimmy Kimmel, but I guess it only blasted off into millions of views post-Miley-Cyrus.*

Here's the reveal. It's worth watching-- it's a bit of commentary on the media and our Viral Culture.** more...

Posted by: Ace at 08:24 AM | Comments (118)
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A trainwreck of an interview between Lawrence O'Donnell and Anthony Weiner, though I think the real derailment is on Lawrence O'Donnell's side.

The most amusing part of this, to me, is Lawrence's self-righteous fury as to Weiner continuing to cling, like a good leftist, to the government/media Gramscian power-structure that gives his life meaning.

Good question!

But... the person asking this is... Lawrence O'Donnell, a good leftist who has clung to the government/media Gramscian power-structure that gives his life meaning for kinda all of his life.

What is the point of this? Tomorrow, in the Democratic mayoral primary, Anthony Weiner will lose. This is not in much dispute. Weiner is appearing on O'Donnell to keep up appearances. Candidates do not announce "Well I sure was an asshole running for this thing" the night before an election.

There is no actual threat of him winning, then. So why the heavy preening by O'Donnell?

Well, partly for the same reason Jerry Springer used to book Nazis and Secret Babydaddies: Crude carnival barking ratings-whoring. Grabbing that "Watercooler Moment."

By the way if you're at a watercooler and you're talking about Lawrence O'Donnell, you should slap yourself in the genitals. But whatever.

The other reason, of course, is that while Anthony Weiner no longer poses a threat to reign as mayor over New York City, he does pose a threat to Hillary Clinton, by continuing to remain in the spotlight and thus reminding everyone of who her husband is, and who her Special Aide Who's Just the Most Incredible Executive Assistant the World Has Ever Seen had the lack of good judgment in marrying.

Thus, the left has turned on Weiner, massively, hypocritically, and hive-like. The Warrior Insects of the Collectivist Hive have gotten the signal by pheromone -- Protect the Queen, PROTECT HILLARY, Drive Out the Intruder -- and so they have.

It's just an ugly display of principle-free politics -- the Politics of Personal Destruction, in fact, as the Smartest Woman in the World once called it. (Caveat: It turns out the Smartest Woman in the World was merely a rather typical corporate lawyer in a smallish city in Arkansas. I would've thought maybe "Physicist," but no, it turns out "so-so corporate lawyer" whose greatest accomplishment as a jurist was not realizing that the WHITEWATER project she was working on was in fact the same WHITEWATER project the FBI was asking her about.)

I also don't understand Lawrence O'Donnell's hypocritical insistence that while, if you're in "show business," you can engage in any sort of deviancy you like, no one hoping to hold political office can. (Like Bill Clinton?)

I do enjoy the massive out O'Donnell gives himself there -- if you seek elective office, you can't do these things, but if you're a political hack and wannabe TV star, you can.

"Don't you know there are rules for people who wish to serve in public life?!!" shouted a man who's probably been spotted holding bigger mounds of fine Colombian than Sophia Vergara's bra.

Posted by: Ace at 06:02 AM | Comments (366)
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Hirsute Hipsters and Modern Shaving

Razor sales are falling and P&G blames hipsters. And the Chinese.

Procter & Gamble (PG), which rules the category with Mach-3-maker Gillette, said its razor sales are falling in developed markets. This followed yesterday's announcement by Energizer (ENR) that unit sales of its Schick men's razors have dropped 10 percent in the past year-a literal decimation.

Energizer blames the sales slide on aggressive promotions, specifically P&G's. Meanwhile, P&G focused on its gains abroad and glossed over its losses in major markets. Euromonitor points to another culprit: "the vogue for stubble" and a "growing acceptance of the unshaven look in the workplace." In other words: hairy dudes. And this is one market where China may not save the day; Euromonitor claims Chinese men are relatively "nonhairy."

But Stephen Green points out it's also the sheer cost of cartridges.

I'll tell you what's really killing them, and that's $4 razor cartridges. If you're a kid in your 20s, stuck living at home because of Obamanomics, you'll save money wherever you can - and there's a good chance your boss at your McJob doesn't care if you have stubble or not. The worst part for manufacturers is, how they gonna get those kids back on the cartridge farm, once they've seen hairy Par-ee?

I haven't shaved with a disposable in years, and it was the price (and the promise of a better shave) that chased me away. I used to go through two Fusion cartridges each and every week, for a total annual bill of almost $420 on blades alone. But if you're willing to take a few extra minutes in the morning, and a few weeks to learn a new skill, you can save a bundle by switching to old-school double edge safety razors.

And that there's a cheaper way:

...I love Merkur's Futur razor and can't recommend it highly enough. It's adjustable, so you teach yourself to shave on the safest setting, and dial it up as you get better at it. After about a year, I got mine dialed up to 5 - it goes up to 6. The 5 setting provides such a close, fast shave, that 6 frankly scares me. Maybe 6 is what you use if you ever find yourself trapped in the jungle without a machete.

Anyway, buying the best of the best products was about $200 up front to get in, then annual expenses of about $100 or so a year. You could easily spend just half of that, if you really wanted to save the money.

Swayed by the same logic about 5 years ago I bought a Merkur razor and razor accessories and switched over. But sadly my experience wasn't as happy as Stephen's: even after a few months no matter how careful I was I still was getting nicks and cuts if I went any faster than glacial.

It was a nicer shave but I finally decided that my time, convenience, and still relatively unscarred face was worth the extra money for Mach 3 cartridges which just worked. So as awesome as old-school safety razors can be there's also a reason that the disposable razor cartridges still remain popular.

Oh and any one want to buy a pre-owned Merkur razor with low miles on it?

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:34 PM | Comments (531)
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Per Slate's and MSNBC's style guide, I am not permitted to tell you who the Philadelphia Eagles are playing tonight. In the interests of cultural sensitivity, I will just say they're a Washington-based franchise, their colors are red and yellow, and sometimes they go "on the warpath."

Oh and they're all drunks.

And don't forget the general-interest Evening Round-Up Open Thread, directly below.

Posted by: Ace at 04:33 PM | Comments (303)
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Well, it's off to the races for a media which desperately wants an Obama Comeback Narrative and also is a little punchy from having to deliver Obama's Bushian soundbites and pretend to not notice they were Bushian.

So now we're into the Media's OverPraising of Obama for once again choosing the easy way out and also for completely contradicting himself again.

@rdbrewer4 drafted the word "steely," as used to modify "resolve," and I offered to trade him my solid college prospect "masterful" for it.

I also drafted a potential Chris Matthews statement: "Did John Kerry just River himself a Royal Flush?!?!? Wow!" This statement has bad hands but blinding speed -- if we can train it to catch a ball, it could be a real offensive weapon.

Other things maybe worth discussing:

"The Five" mentions JohnE's post at Buzzfeed on Anti-War Celebrities who Apparently Have Been Kidnapped.

He got something like 600,000 views on that so that made an impact.

Laura Ingraham notes that Obama gaffed himself into a Red Line threat he never intended to follow through on, and John Kerry blundered the administration out of it.

Three dueling perspectives on Obama's Foreign Policy:

W.R. Mead makes the case for Stupid;

Norman Podhoretz makes the case for "Evil" (as in Obama is deliberately reducing America's influence);

and Glenn Reynolds makes the case for Stupid.

So there's your rubber match. "Stupid" wins.

John Fund, though, makes a case for Lazy.

Jim Hoft, a Warrior Among Warriors, is out of surgery, but not yet out of danger. Prayers, and visit Gateway Pundit: Those pitching in for Jim have a big story:

13 Democrats Charged With Embezzling $16 Million In Federal Grants For AIDS Charities And Other Needy Programs! Rev. Wright Daughter Among Those Charged

Alyssa Milano leaked a Sex Tape. Well... okay not really. She leaked something purporting to be a Sex Tape as a bit of social commentary. It's reasonably clever, at least for the typical crap that appears on Funny or Die.

As you can well imagine, RS McCain has continuing-round-the-clock coverage on the Alyssa Milano Sex Tape.

Including Alex Jones railing about it. All I'll say about this is that if Alex Jones thinks his ugly yelling (calling Milano a "War Whore," even though her video does not actually agitate for war) moves opinion, well, he's right. He just doesn't know the directionality of that movement.

There are a lot of people who seem to think that Yelling and Ranting are the Keys for Success. We call them Lunatics.

And while you're over there, Australia's new Liberal (that is, conservative) president has some hot daughters and you need to make yourself aware of that fact.

I hope this isn't rude but that Blonde? When I was done with her she'd look like Daffy Duck after a safe falls on him. You'd have to peel her off and shake her out like a beach-towel until she got all of her dimensions back.

Did Harvard Business School destroy itself for Wymyn's Studies?

Oh and on Saturday, when you guys don't read the site, I did a review of Now You See Me, the movie equivalent of Interstate Speeding Sex -- so dumb, but a fun way to kill the hours between Dallas and Houston.

And finally, there's not just a Rule 34 of Porn, there's a Rule 34 of Cute. I googled "dogs on a waterslide" and got a few hits. more...

Posted by: Ace at 03:52 PM | Comments (208)
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