The AP photog snapped thousands of pics with the Marines.

Funny how Anja Niedringhaus chose this particular photo to represent the fighting in Fallujah:

Wow, Anja. That's pretty much a lefty editorial cartoon in itself. Now we just have to dress the leg in Uncle Sam striped-pants and label the dead terrorists "The Peace-Seeking World" and maybe stick in a pig labled "Ariel Sharon" somewhere in the mix.

Thanks to GregS.

And Now AFP:

Why the hell is the military letting them take these pics?

GregS again. He's a bear for photos.

Posted by: Ace at 12:05 PM | Comments (19)
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An old sparring partner of mine at the Perfect World, Pincher Martin seems pretty high on a new political history tracing the origins and triump of the American conservative movement, The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America, by Micklethwait and Wooldridge, apparently two British journalists with The Economist who know their beans.

He sums up:

The authors obviously know their subject well. They spent a great deal of time on AmericaÂ’s roads going to everything from evangelical church functions to right-wing scholarly seminars. The writing is incisive and smooth, moving easily and fluently across wide swaths of modern U.S. political history. But it never feels forced. While the two Brits are clearly fascinated by a mainstream political philosophy they admit has no counterpart in Europe, they write sympathetically of its aims, even as they maintain a proper critical distance. This book can remind Americans that, whatever tensions might currently exist across the Atlantic, when intelligent, fair-minded Europeans focus their attention on the United States, there are no finer observers of its politics and society. This is the best book IÂ’ve read this year.

Hmmm. Sounds kinda good.

George Will agrees, for whatever that's worth.

At some point one of these publishers really has to start sending me free books for review. I don't just watch bad television upwards of 21 hours a day. I do know how to read, and I'm occasionally willing to do so. So long as there's nothing good on.

Posted by: Ace at 11:00 AM | Comments (10)
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On FoxNews now.

A Yahoo print report. It may just be a common cold, they say.

Well, maybe. I kinda doubt it. Wish him well.

Unhinged Left Update! Well, as you might expect, not everyone's wishing Dick well. A commenter at the Daily Kos, for example, wishes him a "slow and painful death."

Yeah. People can advertise on that hate-site, but my site's too potty-mouthed and right-wing for advertisers. Okay.

More Death Wishes From the Loyal Opposition: You'd have to be as stupid as a Republican to not want this crowd in charge.

Posted by: Ace at 09:56 AM | Comments (7)
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This guy is looking for a Bush supporter to beat up.

Actually, he's kind up-front and straight and honorable about it. He's announcing his intent, and seeking a consenting adult to fulfill his wish. He wants to "beat the shit" out of you, and he says he wants to do so in a "fair" fight. You can't claim he's being evasive.

Somehow, though, I have a feeling he'll only show up if he sees (from a distance) that you're much smaller than he is.

But, if any of you are interested... Give him fisticuffs like the dickens, and knock him right in his snoot.

Posted by: Ace at 11:58 PM | Comments (16)
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Good point-by-insipid-point debunking of the "stolen election" ravings of the frothy left.

My favorite bit is the one about votes already appearning on machines before voting started in Pennsylvania. For one thing, this was a Republican charge against Democrats, made against machines in Democrat-controlled precincts.

For another, it turned out to be bunk.

But the left, eager for "evidence" that Kerry Won! (TM), simply fudges the allegations a bit and turns it into proof that Pennsylvania was stolen from Kerry (except of course that Kerry Won! (TM) Pennsylvania).

Guys? A suggestion? For once, and for real, it's time to MoveOn (TM).

Thanks to JimM.

Posted by: Ace at 09:29 PM | Comments (32)
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Awesome article. Turns out technology really can solve a lot of our problems:

The daytime optical camera on the Pioneer Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, or UAV, yields rich colors, and so the quick red flashes from the mosque courtyard instantly caught the Marines' attention. The operation to seize back Fallujah was going well on the afternoon of Nov. 8. Seven battalions were advancing from the north, and the Pioneer was circling a four-square kilometer district to the south, called Queens. Long the lair of criminal gangs, terrorists, kidnappers, and jihadists, Queens was a jumble of a few thousand drab cement two-story houses and dirt roads, with scant vegetation.

Spotting insurgents was not a problem for "The Watchdogs"—Marine Air Wing unit VMU-1 that operated the Pioneer. Based in a tent next to a runway a few miles outside Fallujah, the Watchdogs had flown several hundred surveillance missions over the city during the past five months. The insurgents had no place to hide. When they came out of doors, they were seen, tracked, and attacked—day after day. Several times the Watchdogs had seen pickups suddenly swerve into empty lots, the occupants jumping out, setting up long tubes, firing a few rockets and scurrying off before a response attack could be launched.

"We followed one pickup after it fired some rockets," Staff Sgt. Francisco Tataje, the intelligence chief, said. "It swung up onto the main highway and we had it intercepted. The driver had a perfect ID. No incriminating stuff. We gave the interrogation team a copy of our video. They called back to say the guy confessed."

Posted by: Ace at 07:45 PM | Comments (16)
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Yet another of those "We're sorry, World, Waaaah," dudes, this one who makes a dual statement about intelligence:

1) About the collective intelligence of the left being greater than that on the right;

and

2) About his own intelligence being approximately equivalent to that possessed by a chicken, and not a particularly bright chicken at that.

Oh, don't listen to me. I'm just jealous to find out the intelligent is not my side.

Update! A reader tips me to what I wanted to do a week ago, if I had any sort of technical savvy or, well, ambition. WereNotSorry.com tells the world that, um, we're not really very sorry at all.

If fakey-lesbian pics worked for Wonkette, why not for these guys?

Now that's a little fauxmo action I can get behind.

More on Fan-Fave Femme Fauxmo Wonkette: Apparently Llama Butchers has a poll about which mid-range blogger will be the first to top Wonkette.

The Jawa Report is offered as a choice. So, um, am I.

Personally, I think that's sorta dreaming at this point. The chick is getting 95,000 uniques a day. I hate to say admit this, but Wonkette is, currently, out of my league.

Then again, who knows? Alcohol is the great equalizer.

And I've got plenty of Val-U-Rite discount vodka.

Posted by: Ace at 06:10 PM | Comments (15)
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It's one of the most serious conflicts I've encountered.

On one hand, there's a photo of Andrew Sullivan massaging his own ass -- kinda two-handed -- on Bill Maher. Now, I don't think this is such a big deal -- keep a camera on me long enough and you'll catch me spreading Marshmallow Fluff on my feet (it makes me feel sexy; don't judge me) -- but it is certainly embarassing for Sullivan, who deserves it. For other reasons, maybe, but this one will do.

But the problem is that this photo is linked on Wonkette. Who I really don't want to give any traffic or attention to.

See the problem here? This is trickier than the old "Would you assassinate Hitler as an innocent child?" hypothetical. The moral dimensions of this are just too vast to contemplate.

Dilemma Solved! Well, the initial reader response was pretty cool. Seemed to be on the vibe of "It's beneath even you; don't bother."

I should have remembered the Prime Directive of Blogging: Wonkette is not funny. And the corollary: As Wonkette is not funny, anything she posts is, ipso facto, not-funny.

Dilemma Avoided! This guy has the pic, too.

Ohhh... okay! Now that I see it on his site, it is sorta funny.

Thanks to Demure Thoughts/Temple of Jennifer.

Posted by: Ace at 06:03 PM | Comments (10)
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Scott Peterson killed his wife and unborn child. Not really a newsflash.

But it's not over yet, unfortunately. We still have the death-penalty phase to go through.

Posted by: Ace at 12:22 PM | Comments (38)
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PoliPundit says Bush's vote-count has now passed 60 million, and I believe them.

Posted by: Ace at 10:39 AM | Comments (9)
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