Ace of Spades HQ gets results!:

"Any prisoner of war suspected of having committed any type of crime can be charged and tried," said Antonella Notari, chief spokeswoman of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Notari said she wanted to make clear the neutral ICRC has no desire to see the release of any POWs, including Saddam, who are suspected of criminal acts.

"Nobody in the ICRC is calling for the release of Saddam Hussein. Absolutely not," Notari told The Associated Press from the Geneva headquarters of the humanitarian agency, which serves as a watchdog to ensure adherence to the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of warfare.

I'm not sure this affects the fundamental brief against this organization as being anti-Jew, anti-American, and devoutly leftist, though.

Posted by: Ace at 10:26 AM | Comments (6)
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This is sort of a vanity, but everyone seems to like lists of things.

John Hawkins of RWN polled bloggers on their favorite fictional characters. You will not be surprised to learn that geek culture is very well-represented, or that Breakfast at Tiffany's Holly Golightly fails to make the list.

You'd almost think that bloggers were nothing but a bunch of comic-book-collecting, Klingon-fluent male doofuses living over their parents' garages. Almost.

Unfortunately, one of my entrants, Ignatius C. O'Reilly from A Confederacy of Dunces, missed the cut. All the others made it, which is proof that I have an utterly predictable and mundane mind.

Posted by: Ace at 10:14 AM | Comments (19)
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The Right Wing Conspirator has a useful little quiz testing your knowledge about the world's greatest "peace" organization.

Apart from the US Army, the US Marines, the US Navy, the US Air Force, and the US Coast Guard, of course.

Posted by: Ace at 10:04 AM | Comments (3)
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Stop donating to them.

Will people be hurt by this? Yes, but that's not our fault. We didn't decide to make the Red Cross an expressly Marxist, anti-American organization. Those who have hijacked the organization have put their leftist, anti-American politics above their stated mission of comforting those in need.

If they've decided they serve the despots and terrorists of the world, let them seek contributions from their masters.

No more from us.

If anyone knows of more-deserving organizations with approximately the same stated mission as the Red Cross, please inform me.

The pro-terrorist left doesn't seem to understand that just because someone isn't being "charged with a crime" doesn't mean they should be set free. 99% of all Nazi prisoners during WWII were never charged with a crime, having committed no crimes. Fighting in a war, despite the claims of the left, is not in fact a crime.

That doesn't mean we just took the Nazis prisoners, fingerprinted them, and then released them back to fight us against us. No, we held them until the war was over.

The war with Saddam's government doesn't end with our formal occupation of the country. We might no longer be at war with Iraq, but we are still at war with the terrorists and Baathists. I haven't heard of them signing an armistice; can the Red Cross present such a document for my inspection?

No?

Didn't think so.

Perhaps Andrew "80% of those held in Abu Ghraib haven't been charged with a crime" Sullivan can provide me with the armistice or treaty signed by the terrorists and Baathists. Perhaps Andrew "80% of those held in Abu Ghraib haven't been charged with a crime" Sullivan can provide examples to me of enemy combatants taken prisoner during a war being released, absent a prisoner exchange, before the cessation of hostilities.

It's time to call these organizations what they are, and treat them for what they are.

And it's time to call out the flighty, unserious cretins within our ranks, like Sullivan, who believe that enemy combatants taken prisoner during warfare can only be held after arraignment.

Update: Several comments point out that the International Red Cross is not the same organization as the American Red Cross, and that the latter shouldn't be boycotted. Fair enough.

As for alternatives, there's the Magen David Adom in Israel, and of course the Salvation Army.

If you donate, be sure to cc the International Red Cross, just to let them know you're not donating to them.

Posted by: Ace at 06:16 PM | Comments (23)
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But that day looks a long way off.

Wonkette is multitalented, by which I mean she is capable of being not-funny in a variety of formats. One of her favorite not-funny japes is to analyze the latest asinine warblings from chicbrit Tina Brown and "translate" their actual meanings.

Content Warning. Contains tasteless humor at Wonkette's expense. more...

Posted by: Ace at 06:07 PM | Comments (23)
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Kronology has the numbers:

"We've lost 16 Americans so far this month, compared with 81 and 135 in May and April respectively. "

Nick also made an interesting catch. Peter Jennings mentioned a quote from a reporter whose name Jennings said he couldn't recall at the time.

Nick tracked down the reporter in question. He writes for the far-left TruthOut, and he writes this sort of fair and balanced commentary:

Forget what you know of fair play. Leave aside notions of decency. Ignore hypocrisy and scream at the top of your lungs until they burst. The soul of this nation is at stake, the culture war continues unabated, and it is time for the Left to storm the battlements. It is past time. If you are cowed by tall Presidential ratings, you are of no use. If you have no stomach for a dirty fight, you aid the enemy. If you cannot take joy in the sound of a sword striking meat and drawing blood, step aside.

So, there you go. That's the sort of writer informing Peter Jennings, who then informs the American people.

And of course I'm not claiming that Jennings doesn't have the right to consume all the rabidly left-wing rantings he likes. I'm just saying he doesn't have the right to lie to our faces about his political leanings. He can be a far leftie if he likes; but he doesn't have the right to lie about that fact, simply because he finds that the truth would hurt his ratings.

There's more at Nick's site.

Posted by: Ace at 05:19 PM | Comments (1)
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The beginning of the end for Kerry? Or just a bit of statistical noise and evanscent nostalgia for Reagan?

Hard to say. But Bush maintains his three point lead over Kerry for a second day, sees his job approval rise to a stratospheric 53% (well, okay, not stratospheric, but high compared to a month ago), and Republicans rise to 39% on the generic congressional question.

Posted by: Ace at 01:46 PM | Comments (2)
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I always wondered why I never heard about Walken dating. Turns out he's been married for 36 years.

And then there's this:

Finally, he's "conservative" in his life.

"I believe in saving money. I believe in having a house. I believe in keeping things clean. I believe in exercising," he says. "Slow and steady is a very good thing for me. It works for me."

Chris Walken? Actor... Dancer... Republican?

It couldn't be. Could it?

One thing's for sure. When we hear about those big Dem fundraisers, we never hear about Chris Walken.

The Dog That Didn't Bark Update: The FEC shows no political donations from a Christopher Walken or Chris Walken.

Of course, all the liberal actors are like virulent rashes on the system. Liberals actors are still donating to Dennis Kucinich, for crying out loud.

So the fact that the man who played superstar record producer Bruce Dickenson isn't in the system is... interesting. Tom Selleck and Bruce Willis also show no donations.

"Christopher Walken" isn't his original name; he was born Ronald Walken. But no actor or self-employed person named Ronald Walken living in California shows up in the system, either.

It's not proof. But it is interesting.

Update: No listing for his wife, either, under either her married or unmarried names.

Okay, that's enough of my Internet Detective-work. This is beginning to feel intrusive.

Posted by: Ace at 12:11 PM | Comments (12)
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Al Qaeda's Number Two coward derides the US strategy thus:

A new audiotape believed to be from al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri alleges that a U.S. plan for reform in the Middle East is really a bid to replace Arab leaders.

....

"America has no relation with reform. What it is really looking for is to replace the existing regimes with new ones," said the voice on the tape. "The so-called American reforms will not bring to us our independence or our dignity."

Notice he doesn't claim that reform is a bad thing. He implicitly embraces the notion of political and social reform by instead criticizing the US for not being serious about that reform.

Just like with Reagan, when your opponents (here, not just political opponents, but sworn enemies and killers) begin attempting to claim bits of your agenda for their own, you're scoring points.

Posted by: Ace at 11:23 AM | Comments (4)
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"The Marines have been aggressive, relentless and successful," Mansager said. "They have demonstrated that there is no refuge for the terrorists."

Mansager went on to report that the Marines are doing to the Taleban what Whitesnake singer David Coverdale did to Tawney Kitaen in a back-closet at the 1987 Video Music Awards. "We've got the Taliban bent over an empty cigarette machine, and we're giving it to them with all we've got, standing on a broken Marshall amp for added leverage. But we're not butt-slamming them in a gay way, you understand," he added. "It's more... like a Viking."

Meanwhile, Pakistani troops are also going at Al Qaeda like a Viking.

Posted by: Ace at 11:11 AM | Comments (3)
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