From @benk84's round-up.

Well see this makes me want to do this, actually. That's not a completely rational response, I guess, but Iran wants to remind us that they're sorely lacking a Attitude Adjustment Airstrike themselves.

The U.S. has intercepted an order from Iran to militants in Iraq to attack the U.S. Embassy and other American interests in Baghdad in the event of a strike on Syria, officials said, amid an expanding array of reprisal threats across the region.

...

The Iranian message, intercepted in recent days, came from Qasem Soleimani, the head of Revolutionary Guards' Qods Force, and went to Iranian-supported Shiite militia groups in Iraq, according to U.S. officials.

Oh, and the Nobel Peace Laureate will address the nation on Tuesday night to explain why we have to go all Them Duke Boys on Syria's ass.

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Posted by: Ace at 07:15 AM | Comments (517)
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• Tehran Plans To Bomb US Embassy In Iraq If We Attack Syria
  
• Obama's Syria Plans Have Changed At Least 50 Times
  
• McCain Heckled At Town Hall
  
• Kerry's Syria 'Expert' Questioned About Her Credibility
  
• Terrorist Links Led US Military To Cut Ties With Syrian Opposition Leader
  
• Weiner Is Going To Keep Running For Other Offices
  
• Detroit Fallout Spreads In Bond Markets
  
• Work Force Rate At Lowest Since '78
  
• Cooke: Obama's War On Language
  
• Congress On Syria: Going In On A Wing And A Prayer
  
• Rothman: Will Democrats Forgive Obama For Blowing His Second Term?
  
• Taranto: Quagmire At Home
  
• Full List Of Senators With Public Positions On Syrian War Authorization
  
• Hilarious: Writers, Artists, Musicians, Actors Likely To Lose Health Coverage
  
• Man Partially Decapitated By Remote Control Helicopter He Was Flying
  
• NFL Players Makes An Extremely Stupid Play Last Night
  
• Alec Baldwin Lands A Talk Show On MSNBC
  
• The Star Wars That Almost Was
  

Follow me on twitter.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:36 AM | Comments (460)
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Hey there's some rocket action going on tonight on the East Coast. NASA's Lunar Atmosphere Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) will blast off from Wallops Island, VA tonight around 11:27pm.

The speeding rocket – barring any clouds – should be visible from eastern North Carolina, Richmond, Va., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Hartford, Conn., and Boston. It will be harder to see from eastern West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Binghamton, N.Y., Syracuse, N.Y., Montpelier, Vt., Bangor, Maine and Presque Isle, Maine.

Posted by: CDR M at 05:50 PM | Comments (854)
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Happy Friday!

We laid down a good podcast track with Mediaite's Noah Rothman last night. It should be posted around 4pm.

Posted by: andy at 02:56 AM | Comments (334)
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From the UN's PROTOCOL AGAINST THE SMUGGLING OF MIGRANTS BY LAND, SEA AND AIR (page 3)

For the purposes of this Protocol:

(a) “Smuggling of migrants” shall mean the procurement, in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit, of the illegal entry of a person into a State Party of which the person is not a national or a permanent resident;

(b) “Illegal entry” shall mean crossing borders without complying with the necessary requirements for legal entry into the receiving State;

Migrants shall not become liable to criminal prosecution under this Protocol for the fact of having been the object of conduct set forth in article 6 of this Protocol

An Australian opposition pol was recently taken to task over his use of "illegal" and vindicated by a "fact check" that cited the United Nations protocol language.

Heh, so "sanctuary cities" could, in theory, be prosecuted via national laws without violating the UN protocol because they're "Enabling a person who is not a national or a permanent resident to remain in the State concerned without complying..." [Article 6, 1(c)].

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 11:19 PM | Comments (53)
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Quote of the Day I: Unspeakable Truths

There are facts that were once known, sometimes generally known, that are now known to but a few.   Some of this information loss is caused by changes in occupational patterns -  farmers automatically know something about heritability, clerks and workers in dark satanic mills, not so much.

But mostly these facts are unpleasant, at least to some ears.  People who mention such facts are punished - generally in terms of their careers, not being invited to parties, etc.  That's enough to cause a 10 or 20-fold drop in visibility, which ought to tell you something about how brave people are. Many people assume that everyone is secretly aware of those unpleasant facts, but that is not the case.  A generation that has grown up never hearing those facts will be almost entirely unaware of them, in part because their personal life experiences don't impinge on those patterns much. This means that they can and sometimes do make serious mistakes that those 'secretly aware' types never would.

...Someone I know at TAC opined that everyone knows this stuff, and talking about it is just mean.  I think he is mistaken: you have to state important facts every so often, or nobody knows them anymore.

Political correctness is mostly about making uncomfortable facts unspeakable.

And Is It Wrong That This Thought Occurs to Me About Once a Week?

Plus via the Ewok courtesy of @bert_huggins:

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:49 PM | Comments (601)
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If true, this is pretty damning.

..."What they say in The Daily Caller is that [intercepted communications] would lead one to the opposite conclusion," Grayson said. "I don't know if it's right or wrong, [but] there's a very simple way to find out, that's for the administration to show me and other members of Congress" translated transcripts of the intercepts, he said.

Members of Congress are "not being given any of the underlying elements of the intelligence reports," according to Grayson...

I've seen and produced enough executive summaries in my day to know you want to see the raw data. Every layer of distillation adds a layer of unreality and spin.

Whoever is ONT'ing tonight, stomp away...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 06:24 PM | Comments (127)
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Obama is considering his own debilitating gas attack.

President Obama is considering a high-profile address to the nation on the need for military intervention in Syria — a speech that could come as early as this week — according to top lawmakers and administration officials.

...

“I think the president needs to sit in the Oval Office, look at every American in the eye, and explain the reason why this is important,” Menendez said on “Morning Joe.” ”And I think he’ll do that.”

Oh and the whip count on "no's" is at 217, just short one vote of a majority.

MSNBC is literally pumping out pro-Obama BuzzFeed-style memes.

A 26-year-old "expert" informing McCain's and Kerry's views on Syria is herself an advocate for the Syrian rebels.

What a CURVEBALL no one could have seen coming.

The woman whose opinion lawmakers are relying on to go to war in Syria is also a paid advocate for the war-torn countryÂ’s rebels.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry encouraged members of the House of Representatives to read a Wall Street Journal op-ed by 26-year-old Elizabeth O’Bagy — an analyst with the Institute for the Study of War — who asserted that concerns about extremists dominating among the Syrian rebels are unfounded.

“Contrary to many media accounts, the war in Syria is not being waged entirely, or even predominantly, by dangerous Islamists and al-Qaida die-hards,” O’Bagy wrote for the Journal on Aug. 30. “Moderate opposition groups make up the majority of actual fighting forces,” she wrote.

But in addition to her work for the Institute for the Study of War, O’Bagy is also the political director for the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF), a group that advocates within the United States for Syria’s rebels — a fact that the Journal did not disclose in O’Bagy’s piece.

Earlier, Drew noted a Reuters piece pushing back against Kerry's assertions that the "moderate democrats" were in control in the Free Syrian Army.

Paper: no evidence of Global Warming in Germany for 20 years.

If you weren't certain, they're still lying about ObamaCare.

I demanded that Bruce Springsteen explain his complete silence on #Syria.

Is it possible the Mumbling Tribune of the People now supports this jingoistic War On Brown People just because his Democratic Dreamboat is in office?

There's more. That's not the best joke.

If you missed it, I wrote my funniest post ever.

And now, an old video, which you've probably seen, but it's new to me: A kitten makes the acquaintance of a Hedgehog.

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Posted by: Ace at 03:37 PM | Comments (264)
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Indeed. This small, vulnerable minority has been the subject of so much suspicion, dark mumblings, and hatred -- we should not add to the new superstitions about them.

I guess.

“I even talk to Republicans and they disagree with everything I say,” said Paul. “I’m going to a conservative Catholic group that is pro-peace and want to hear my foreign policy and my take on economy.”

Paul added that he “wouldn’t be on this station [MSNBC] if I had to have a litmus test.”

Wagner said that, unlike the Fatima Center, MSNBC has not published columns “opposing Jewish naturalism, about Satan’s plans against the [Catholic] Church, among which include the granting of full citizenship to the Jews.”

Paul said the allegedly anti-Semitic columns were part of “disagreements within the Catholic Church” and told Wagner that it “sounds to me like you have me on here to bash Catholics.”

You know, that's not what it sounded like to me. It sounds like she was specifically criticizing this specific cult and their defrocked leader and his beliefs about the Jews being Satan's Catspaws against the Church.

“You ought to be more courteous to them and give them a break,” Paul added. “Why can’t we have discussions with people that might have a difference?”

If you read Alana Goodman's article, she re-reports a conversation with this Not-A-Father Gruner. She asked him about this Holocaust Denial allegation, and he forcefully denied it.

The Holocaust I mean. I mean, he said he wasn't a Holocaust denier, and then began questioning if the Holocaust happened. The numbers just don't make sense, he insists.

It's pretty funny. You should read it.

Coming next from Ron Paul: Holocaust, or Hollow Claim?

And hey man, you show some courtesy.

I just got four million emails from Jews saying "Oy vey."

And I don't think they were supposed to be on their computers today, either.

Courtesy

You Damn Jews know you cooked the books on the Holocaust to get sympathy and take over the world.

Now show some respect.

Posted by: Ace at 02:51 PM | Comments (220)
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Syrian Air-Snubs. I crack myself up.

Anyway.

Fund begins by noting that Obama's Case for War is essentially nothing but rank appeals to partisan tribalism. You should read that part, but I can't swipe the whole thing.

On to Bolton and his Mustache of Destiny:

The White House has other inducements for members who are still resistant. “I think the White House candy store is open,”said John Bolton, a former U.N. ambassador under President Bush who opposes a military strike against Syria, on Fox News Tuesday. “What do you need for your district or state? A post office? A new military facility? What do you want? I think anything you want you’re going to get because the White House is going to do whatever it takes to get a majority.”

So we have the irony that, even as the administration’s arguments for intervention become less coherent, its chances of prevailing by playing on tribal loyalties and the use of “non-policy” arguments are increasing.

And people thought the pressure and the wheeling and dealing that forced through passage of Obamacare were unseemly.

At Hot Air, Pelosi says she doesn't think she can corral enough cats to deliver Obama his SCOAMF AUMF.

A whip-count puts it at 49 Yea in the House, with 200 Nay. But be aware most of those not yet signalling a leaning will wind up going the unpopular route (a Yea). If they had plans to vote the more-popular way, they'd just say so.

(By the way, I wrote that before I saw the update at Hot Air saying basically that.)
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Posted by: Ace at 02:11 PM | Comments (181)
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