President Bush gave a speech today, VeteranÂ’s Day, at a Pennsylvania Army Communications center, signaling a switch to offense:

President Bush forcefully attacked critics of the war in Iraq on Friday, accusing them of trying to rewrite history and saying they are undercutting American forces on the front lines.

"The stakes in the global war on terror are too high and the national interest is too important for politicians to throw out false charges," the president said in his combative Veterans Day speech.
Â…

"Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and mislead the American people about why we went to war," Bush said.

He said those critics have made those allegations although they know that a Senate investigation "found no evidence" of political pressure to change the intelligence community's assessments related to Saddam's weapons program.
He said they also know that the United Nations passed more than a dozen resolutions citing Saddam's development and possession of weapons of mass destruction.

"More than 100 Democrats in the House and the Senate who had access to the same intelligence voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power," Bush said.
Â…

"We will never back down. We will never give in. We will never accept anything less than complete victory," he said Friday.

This is, hopefully, just a start. For too long, the PresidentÂ’s been absent from the debate. Maybe he thought it was over. After all, itÂ’s been a couple years now. But, of course, anyone watching the news knows it's never stopped.

The left has continually criticized the U.S. presence in Iraq, undermined the effort and move to build Iraqi democracy because success there would mean they were wrong. The moments of triumph, purple fingers and Constitutions, have shamed them into semi-silence only momentarily.

They wonÂ’t stop. And neither should Bush.

Time will tell if this speech was just a one off job. It shouldnÂ’t be. The loony-left needs be combated like the viral infection it is. One time shots wonÂ’t permanently suppress it. A steady course of antibiotics, continued long past the point its fever seems broken, is the only prescription.

Bush must follow up on this speech.

Posted by: Dr. Reo Symes at 10:03 AM | Comments (11)
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Shamelessly stolen from Joystiq:

1. Participate in LAN parties with minors
2. Quit your job to pursue a pro-gaming career
3. Start a Star Wars themed PC case mod in the living room
4. Ever use the jargon OMG, BBQ and WTF together in the same phrase
5. Pirate games - shouldnÂ’t you have an income by now?
6. Find the idea of teamkilling funny
7. Choose a female avatar so that you can try to upskirt her
8. Refuse to play games that are rated lower than mature
9. Tea-bag a downed opponent in Halo 2
10. Play any game with Princess Toadstool in it more...

Posted by: Harry Callahan at 07:00 AM | Comments (26)
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Boohoo, boohoo.
It seems that Jordanians all of a sudden are upset that Islamist Terrorists exist.
But why is it that they are only upset when they attack in Jordan?
Why aren't they grieving when their Muslim brothers and sisters in Iraq are the victims?
As a matter of fact, why is it that they celebrate Jordanians who commit mass murder in Iraq?
Has everyone forgotten Hilla already?

A Jordanian family celebrates the martyrdom of their terrorist son who perpetrated the bloodiest single car suicidal attack on February 28 in the town of Hilla south of Baghdad killing and injuring more than 300 Iraqi civilians. The family (named as, Albanna) joyfully announced to the public in Jordan on Friday March 11, 2005 that they are accepting “congrats” and invited people to join their celebration for the “martyrdom” of their son.

Its just like the degenerates at the BBC.

Islamist Terrorists who kill Israelis are militants.
Islamist Terrorists who kill Iraqis are insurgents.
Islamist Terrorists who kill Russians are armed gangs.
Islamist Terrorists who kill Londoners near the BBC headquarters are terrorists.

Posted by: Tanker at 06:38 AM | Comments (5)
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Manga is coming to U.S. funny pages:

"Doonesbury" and "Peanuts," make way for "manga." Come January, the Sunday funnies of several major North American newspapers will have doe-eyed women in frilly outfits, effeminate long-haired heroes and other trademark images of the Japanese comic style.

The reason? Newspaper editors want to attract more young readers. A study released earlier this year by the Carnegie Corporation put the age of newspaper readers at 53 and climbing — hardly a recipe for circulation growth. [And the rest of the industry numbers ain't reassuring either]

"Van Von Hunter," by Ron Kaulfersch and Mike Schwark, is a horror spoof about a warrior and his female sidekick who dress in Gothic-inspired costumes and are on a mission to fight evil.

The quirky "Peach Fuzz" explores conflicting views of reality. It depicts 9-year-old Amanda's desire to become friends with her pet ferret, Peach, who harbors delusions of being a pampered, veil-donning princess.

Okay, those sound harmless. Not that crazy raped-by-space-alien-tentacles-and-evil-tree-roots manga. Quite a relief. Call me a prude, but I, for one, feel quite strongly thereÂ’s little room for tentacle rape in newspaper comic strips, even if tastefully done. (Been getting racy enough lately as it is, what with all the bed-hopping that silver fox Mary Worth's been up to. And Rex Morgan, M.D.? Have you read it lately? Sex Organ M.D. is more like it.)

To get a head start, you can find strips of Van Von Hunter here. And ladies, a little info on that adorable Peach Fuzz here.

For those of you depressed by what this augers, grumbling and mumbling yourself into some deep, funny-page-nostalgic-funk, Slate did a nice slide-show essay earlier this week on the best strip ever, Calvin and Hobbes. Read and remember.

Posted by: Dr. Reo Symes at 09:00 PM | Comments (14)
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The Purple Avenger strikes again, noting that...

The Palestinian Special Forces, under the command of the Bashir Nafeh - also a member of the unofficial "disengagement talks" - have logged a number of key arrests lately, some in coordination with the IDF and the Shin Bet.

Purple Avenger speculates that the other two bombings were merely cover to hide the actual target of the strike.

It would explain what is otherwise baffling-- killing scores of Jordanians for no very good reason except to make another group of people hate Al Qaeda. Although, to be fair, that seems to be Al Qaeda's whole gig.

Premature? Coincidence morphing into conspiracy? I don't know, but it is interesting.

Thanks to cutaway.

Posted by: Ace at 08:23 PM | Comments (4)
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Is it really so hard to be out of the spotlight for six minutes, Ralph?

It's official: Our civil rights are perfectly secure. They must be, or else Ralph Nader wouldn't be reduced to standing up for downtrodden $200,000+/per week oppressed superstars like Owens.

And what's next for Ralph? A class-action lawsuit against the public for not buying Madonna's bomb American Life.

Posted by: Ace at 07:06 PM | Comments (15)
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Apart from genuine gratitude, they probably think that kissing up to us will keep us in their corner.

And I have to say they're right in that regard.

The campaign's called "The Other Iraq," which seems to carry two messages: 1, we're the good Iraqis, 2, we're not really Iraqis ("the other Iraq") and we'd really like full independence.

Although I've previously been a fan of letting the three Iraqs go their separate ways ("What about Turkey?": fuck Turkey), I'm not sure if I like the idea of an indepedent Sunni-stan becoming the new Afghanistan. Someone has to keep those assholes under control.

I suppose "maintenance bombing," as one wag dubbed our need to constantly bomb the "contained" Saddam Hussein, might work in a pinch, if it were necessary. And of course they'd be cut off from all oil revenues from oil-rich Kurdistan and Shiastan, increasing their rage but decreasing their ability to do too much about it.

Would be awfully nice to hear a thank-you from the Shi'ites.

Thanks to Megan.

Posted by: Ace at 01:27 PM | Comments (18)
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Fun video of some full-auto shootin' festival, where six year old girls get to sit behind heavy machine guns and blow away moving cars.

Radio-controlled, I'm assuming.

Man, it does look like fun.

Posted by: Ace at 01:12 PM | Comments (24)
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Steve, who sends the tip, wonders if this is evidence of a power struggle there, perhaps linked to the killing of the PA general in the Amman bombing.

I'm sure the CIA has answers to such questions. They know everything.

Posted by: Ace at 01:08 PM | Comments (6)
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A brief and sketchy history of the Corps. Really, the only part worth reading is the slightly blasphemous story of God creating the Marines on the eighth day, "in His image."

More in depth stuff about the Marines here.

Posted by: Ace at 12:59 PM | Comments (2)
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