John Kerry's "terrorizing kids and children" (both groups, you know) is featured prominently.

Are Democrats still friends with America's national security? Absolutely. Do they talk? No.

Thanks to Michelle, who also has the story of a controversial creation-science opponent being, supposedly, beaten by two unidentified white men.

Malkin raises the possibility that it's a hoax.

No idea myself, of course. I wasn't there. (And I can prove that if I have to.)

But we on the right have taken notice of numerous left-leaning folks who claim "random beatings by political opponents" or "racist/homophobic/anti-Muslim/anti-feminist death threats" in order to garner emotional support for their cause. Michelle links some of those hoaxes.

Major Correction: I misread the article (skimming) and thought the man in question was a supporter of creation science. He isn't; quite the opposite. So my praise for Michelle for her skepticism about the claims of a "political ally" was misplaced.

Thanks to Sissoed for pointing that out.

Posted by: Ace at 10:42 AM | Comments (10)
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Apparently he hadn't heard the news that she'd changed residence.

He believes that he is "destined" to marry Chelsea Clinton.

He also believed that vaulting the fence would let Ms. Clinton know this wasn't a Paul Metzler situation, but rather a predator-prey situation. Apparently the Secret Service and Justice Department agree with that assessment.

Thanks to Scott.

Posted by: Ace at 10:06 AM | Comments (9)
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Good, I'd been so worried.

Speaking of his new lifemate, the non-placating thespian said, "YouÂ’re not gonna give me the time of day and lay down for me, well, somebody else in this town will because IÂ’ve got this thing thatÂ’s working, you know? And I'm very gracious for that."

Apparently the new flame Lindley Gardner competed for his affections with another woman, and Mr. Klein reports it "was very exciting, to say the least."

Thanks to Allah.

Update: Press Junket A-Go-Go: I guess I shouldn't pick on him for this, because all of these celebrities keep getting asked the same questions about their new movie over and over, and of course they pretty much answer the same way every time.

Still, I'm getting tired of hearing about his (gasp!) braces.

With Katie Holmes engaged to Tom Cruise and having his baby, Chris Klein is firmly in the "friend zone" with his ex-fiancee. Although the "Just Friends" co-star isn't terribly broken up about his current situation, he recalls the pain of having a strictly platonic relationship with a girl he liked.

"Her name is Natalie. I remember my freshman and sophomore year of high school I was absolutely in love with her, but she was always busy dating older guys," said Klein. "I had braces and I was kind of a late bloomer pubescence-wise. So I didn't have the juice needed to get out of that. I was in jazz choir and things like that, and she was interested in all that stuff too, so we'd go on the road together. She dated a baseball player. I had no chance."

...

Klein's own confidence grew once he outgrew his scrawniness and became a football player, which helped improve his love life.

"Growing up in Omaha, Nebraska, that's kind of what you do: You play ball and you're good at it and you can have a girlfriend," said Klein. "Luckily, I did play and I was all right at it. So I did get a girlfriend."

The guy has a thousand different ways to say "when I hit puberty," and all of them are wrong.

There's one new Kleinboast there-- good at football. And also-- jazz choir. A very interesting mix of pursuits for this 21st Century Renaissance man.

So we have two more clues regarding this fascinating enigma we call Chris Klein. But, as with all things Kleinian, the more we dig, the deeper the mystery seems to become.

That's from an article by Hanh Nguyen appearing on Omaha.com.

Posted by: Ace at 09:40 AM | Comments (27)
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Good to know:

In an argument sure to be challenged in certain sectors of the blogosphere, a story in The New York Times magazine coming up this Sunday declares that conservative blogs continue to best liberal blogs in political and electoral influence.

The title of the piece by Michael Crowley in the magazine’s 5th Annual Year in Ideas cover package says it all: “Conservative Blogs Are More Effective.”

Why are they more effective? Certainly Kos and King of All Open Threads Atrios have bigger numbers than even Lord Instapundit. Here's one theory put forth by the piece:

But he explains that “Democrats say there’s a key difference between liberals and conservatives online. Liberals use the Web to air ideas and vent grievances with one another, often ripping into Democratic leaders….Conservatives, by contrast, skillfully use the Web to provide maximum benefit for their issues and candidates.”

Ah. They engage in thoughtful, open debate and criticize their leaders, whereas we all just push the party line. Certainly there haven't been any major debates between bloggers over Terri Shiavo or Harriet Miers, or no criticism of Bush & Co. for overspending, Plamegate, torture, the mismanagement of the war, etc.

Conservates are just "poor, uneducated, and easily led," as the Washington Post once famously announced.

It's the all-purpose generic universal explanation for liberal failure.

Here's a competing theory: Unlike the liberal bloggers and readers, conservative bloggers and blog-readers are not, as a rule, diagnosable paranoid schizophrenics and general lunatics.

Conservative bloggers tend to discuss live, real issues. They take reasonable positions, certainly mainstream among conservatives, and reasonable even to moderates. (Even if moderates don't agree with this or that, it's not as if the position is simply absurd.)

Liberal bloggers tend to be obsessed with conspiracy theories, criminal investigations unlikely to result in convictions (and unrelated to actual policy debate, in any event), and general moonbattery. The basic dynamic of the sinestrosphere is everyone attempting to out-crazy each other, and, last time I checked, it's a million-way tie for first place.

It All Depends On Whose Gore Is Being Oxed Update: Strange Women Lying In Ponds offers:

The reason why conservative bloggers are more effective is that we don't have the MSM to count on to toe the party line. Having the MSM as a mouthpiece for the Democratic Party allows the left-wing bloggers more freedom to play to the bleacher seats. Meanwhile, we conservatives (and libertarians) are forced to hone our message in order to cut through the crap of MSM bias.

The Mary Mapes situation is a perfect example.

Yep, that's a good point. We're trying to drag the media from the soft left to the center, whereas they're trying to drag it to the hard left.

PS: Every vote Ace of Spades recieves makes Bill cry one delicious tear.

Posted by: Ace at 09:29 AM | Comments (23)
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When you screw with Santa, Dick Cheney gets angry.

And you wouldn't like Dick Cheney when he's angry.

(Before Bill snipes, yes, I saw the Florida Cracker tip on your site.)

You know what would really annoy Bill? Me winning Best Conservative Blog, that's what. Make it so.

Posted by: Ace at 08:50 AM | Comments (8)
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Again, now that things seem to be going rather well, critics -- who once deemed Afghanistan "The Forgotten War" -- seems to have forgotten all about it.

Also note this overlooked part of Howard Dean's "unwinnable" quote. He wants to withdraw all reserve troops from Iraq immediately. Which is a problem, as that's half the force, and furthermore most of the specialized-support forces that keep the warfighters, well, fighting wars.

Posted by: Ace at 08:46 AM | Comments (15)
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Even Moqtada al-Sadr is getting aboard the politics train:

[H]undreds of black-clad followers of the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr -- who decried balloting 10 months ago as something imposed under American occupation -- beat their backs with chains and stomped across a large poster of former interim prime minister Ayad Allawi. Sadr's political wing has joined forces with the alliance of Shiite religious parties that leads Iraq's current government and opposes Allawi's secular movement.

As Iraqis nationwide prepare to go to the polls for the third time this year on Dec. 15 -- this time for a new parliament -- candidates and political parties of all stripes are embracing politics, Iraqi style, as never before and showing increasing sophistication about the electoral process, according to campaign specialists, party officials and candidates here.

"It is like night and day from 10 months ago in terms of level of participation and political awareness," said a Canadian election specialist with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs....

Evidence of political evolution is plastered all over Baghdad's normally drab concrete blast walls and hung on lampposts at nearly every major intersection: large, colorful, graphically appealing posters conveying a wide variety of punchy messages.

Television and radio airwaves are replete with slick advertisements costing anywhere from $1,250 per minute on al-Sumariya, a Lebanon-based satellite station focused on Iraq, to $5,000 per minute on al-Arabiya, a network based in the United Arab Emirates that is popular across the Arab world.

In one 30-second spot, a smartly dressed and smiling Allawi -- normally known for his brusque demeanor -- is shown seated on a stool in a dimly lit studio. "My faith is in Iraq," he tells the camera, to underscore his secularism.

Even the arrival of American-style negative campaigning is evidence of a growing political sophistication, the election trainers said. In recent days posters have started to appear in Sadr City, the vast Shiite slum in north Baghdad, bearing the slogan "vote for the Baathist slate," along with a composite photograph of a face -- half Allawi's and half Hussein's. Allawi was a member of Hussein's Baath Party until the mid-1970s, when he joined Iraq's opposition.

More from Iraq the Model, including an editorial cartoon spoofing the Iraqis' ad-happy campaigning.

If it's negative campaigning they want, they should disseminate this guest editorial al-Sadr did for me some time back.

Oh, and I'm tired of having that "Vote for Me" post at the top of the page, as I'm sure you are. I'll just include reminders to vote at the end of posts.

Posted by: Ace at 08:19 AM | Comments (11)
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Although I'm pretty sure the media wants to keep the Dick-Cheney-esque economy a secret, there's only so much they can do. Stories have momentum, and at some point that momentum may become irresistable -- sparking a rash of "economic boom" stories which furthers the momentum (and also further increases public confidence and optimism).

Even the French polling firm IPSOS reports growing confidence.

The RBC CASH Index, based on polling by Ipsos, showed that consumer confidence clocked in at 85.5 in December, the second-highest reading of this year.

The pickup builds upon the rebound in consumer confidence staged in November, when the index jumped to 81. That revival came after confidence had been stuck in the doldrums in September and October, reflecting worries about sky-high energy prices and other fallout from the Gulf Coast hurricanes.

Economists attributed the December improvement to a retreat in gasoline prices, a ramp up in hiring and solid growth being logged by the overall economy.

...

At present "consumers are cautiously optimistic," said Lynn Reaser, chief economist at Bank of America's Investment Strategies Group.

...

The biggest over-the-month improvement came from a measure looking at consumers' economic expectations over the next six months, including conditions where they live or work and their own financial positions.

That expectations measure rose to 53.9 in December, up from 44.5 in November.

So much of the economy is dependent on psychology. You don't hire new workers, or invest capital, or even spend a lot at Christmas if you imagine there's a recession on the horizon. It's pretty impressive that hiring and growth and spending are as high as they are given that 43% of all Americans think we're in a recession.

What happens when they stop thinking that?

This isn't entirely a media conspiracy (although they're doing their darnedest to conspire away). Objective economic guages were fairly strong (or at least decent, and suggesting reason for hopefulness) at the end of Bush I's term and into the first 18 months of Clinton's first term, and yet I remember the MSM, and the public generally, being pretty dour as regards the economy. Eventually, of course, it began to register we were in a period of strong growth, and then the economy exploded.

Public perceptions are the third-most lagging indicator of an economy's strength. Media perceptions are the second-most lagging indicator, and media perceptions during a Republican administration are the most lagging indicator of all.

Posted by: Ace at 07:49 AM | Comments (6)
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Finally, some Democrats are uniting behind a viable Iraq policy.

Is Howard Dean's shutting up enough to win the war in Iraq? No. But it would be a very encouraging Step One.

Nothing Says It Better Than A Photoshopped WWII Propaganda Poster: Seriously, Howie. Shut your piehole.

Thanks to Dave in Antarctica.

Posted by: Ace at 07:26 AM | Comments (6)
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Headlines stated that the US would continue to control it, Accuracy In Media's Cliff Kincaid says a careful reading of articles indicates the UN is getting its fingers into the pie.

It wasn't emphasized that the conference agreed to put U.N. boss Kofi Annan in charge of an "Internet Governance Forum" to decide the future of the World Wide Web.

You had to read to the end of the stories and understand the fine print. For instance, the UPI story noted that the "deal" left the current regime in place but established "two sets of multilateral talks, one focused on oversight and public policy issues, the other on problems like spam, security issues and virusesÂ…" That's U.N. doublespeak designed to conceal what will be going on behind the scenes.

H/t to The Conservative Voice.

Posted by: Ace at 07:22 AM | Comments (9)
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