The trouble with a nominee this stealthy: to reassure conservatives, her friends have had to de-cloak her.

Mr. Dobson quelled the controversy by saying that Karl Rove, the White House's deputy chief of staff, had not given him assurances about how a Justice Miers would vote. "I would have loved to have known how Harriet Miers views Roe v. Wade," Mr. Dobson said last week. "But even if Karl had known the answer to that--and I'm certain that he didn't because the president himself said he didn't know--Karl would not have told me that. That's the most incendiary information that's out there, and it was never part of our discussion."

It might, however, have been part of another discussion. On Oct. 3, the day the Miers nomination was announced, Mr. Dobson and other religious conservatives held a conference call to discuss the nomination. One of the people on the call took extensive notes, which I have obtained. According to the notes, two of Ms. Miers's close friends--both sitting judges--said during the call that she would vote to overturn Roe.

Now she'll face even tougher scrutiny from liberals. Had she had some kind of a paper trail that showed conservative leanings, none of this would have happened.

I know: If many conservatives hadn't questioned her, this wouldn't have happened, either.

Tough call. I don't know if I buy this -- this is all second-hand stuff; who really knows what she thinks? -- and we're getting into a dicey area where some people can swear they know she's against Roe while she'll testify (probably) that she hasn't made up her mind about it yet.

Subpeonaeing Judge Hecht: A participant in the conference call, he's apparently made two contradictory statements, one that he knows based on personal information Miers will be an anti-Roe vote, two that he just can't predict what the woman will do.

Sketchy.

Posted by: Ace at 10:02 AM | Comments (10)
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Sunnis Appear to Fall Short in Iraq Vote

Yeah, they fell short all right. They wanted a bloody civil war, but all they got was a democratic constitution guaranteeing human rights.

Maybe they should make that into a T-shirt slogan or something!

How about, "My father died fighting infidels but all I got was this lousy constitution."

Posted by: Tanker at 03:24 PM | Comments (23)
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They eat faggots twice a week. Yum.

Andrew Sullivan is said to be be filled with "heart-ache" over such a gob-smackingly vile title. Or maybe crying in rapturous joy. He's not sure yet, but either way, he's bound to be pretty emotive about it.

Posted by: Ace at 01:39 PM | Comments (4)
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The pen is mightier than the bomb?

Blow a guy up with one of these, get pig blood on you.

I don't think it will work in terms of a deterrent, but it's nice to see someone thinking along these lines.

Posted by: Ace at 01:30 PM | Comments (14)
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"Have it your way" wasn't supposed to mean "Choose Your Own Drive-Thru Lane."

Man, he really wanted that crois'andwich in a hurry.

H/t to Craig.

Posted by: Ace at 01:21 PM | Comments (8)
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Insty linked to a recent Michael Barone column that's a pretty good read. It's about the left's growing subculture that disdains their countryÂ’s history and tradition.

He argues how reverence for AmericaÂ’s history gives one a sense of place, how, as in both the military and religion, ties to the past imbue a feeling that youÂ’re part of an something that makes demands on you, give you a sense of something that you have to live up to. But, Barone writes:

not all of us cherish ties to past traditions. "America's business, professional, intellectual, and academic elites," writes Samuel Huntington in his 2004 book Who Are We? have "attitudes and behavior [that] contrast with the overwhelming patriotism and nationalistic identification with their country of the American public. . . . They abandon commitment to their nation and their fellow citizens and argue the moral superiority of identifying with humanity at large." He believes that this gap between transnational elites and the patriotic public is growing. Huntington knows whereof he speaks: He's been at Harvard for more than half a century. Â…

Posted by: Dr. Reo Symes at 12:12 PM | Comments (62)
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The best, most exhaustive, most interesting, and most unbiased recap of this whole affair yet.

Longish, but stuffed with tidbits you probably haven't read before.

Why doesn't the MSM, with its ostensible mission of accurate, fully, and dispassionately reporting the facts of major stories, ever give us this sort of a report? Why is actual newsreporting left to to the non-MSM?

Posted by: Ace at 12:01 PM | Comments (21)
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Seems to have been easily carried in two of the four provinces Sunnis were counting on to defeat it.

And here are those celebrating Iraqis the media and the left demanded evidence of, and now don't seem very interested in at all.

Posted by: Ace at 11:22 AM | Comments (7)
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Anyone think that if the looters had been the Nazis they would have been called "protesters"?

Posted by: Ace at 11:19 AM | Comments (15)
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Goofy:

And one of these little UFOs came over that mountain and I was signaled from a group of persons to come. And I was beamed up into that small vehicle and carried to a larger vehicle, where I heard the voice of my leader and teacher, the Honorable Elijah Mohamed (search), saying these words to me, in early September, the president met with his joint chiefs of staff to plan a war...

And also, he wanted all information in his data-banks relating to the Genesis Device.

FarraKHAAAAAAANNNN!!!

Posted by: Ace at 11:11 AM | Comments (18)
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