What have I done?

Posted by: Ace at 12:45 PM | Comments (18)
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New Republican "Talking Points Memo" Declares: "We're Just Plain Fuckin' Evil!"

I just can't believe this.

When I first heard about this alleged "Republican talking points memo," I almost plotzed with laughter. Remember, talking points memos are supposed to be bullet-points of what you want to convey to the public. That's why they're "talking points."

They're not supposed to reveal your cynical political strategems. See, you don't talk about those. At least not publicly.

So you can imagine my reaction when I heard this "Repubican talking points memo" basically laying out -- as a talking point -- the GOP's intention to cynically use Terri Schiavo to pander to the religious right, stating flat-out that we GOP'ers will do this to excite our religious conservative base.

Uhmmmm... yeah.

Here's the thing: I have absolutely no doubt at all that that is what many cynical Republicans think of when they think of Terri Schiavo.

But of course it is beyond ridiculous to imagine someone would type that up and distribute it so that other Republicans would admit to such cynical motives when chatting up Katie Couric.

Did they also bother to type up the "Mwu-ha-ha-ha's" and stage-direct the twisting of the moustache?

And of course it is non-sourced. No one will say where this "memo" came from; I have a feeling it came from Democratic sources. But they swear they got it from a guy, who got it from a guy, who got it from a guy who voted for Jack Anderson in 1980 and who has occasionally "considered" voting for a Republican in subsequent years.

Anyway, Michelle -- Malkin, that is, without the obscene anti-Anka bias -- has a good round-up.

As does Powerline, of course, who are making a cottage industry out of exposing Democrat frauds.

This story is so ludicrous on its face that I'm having trouble even being outraged about it.

But give me time.

Top Ten Submissions Requested! I'm working on the "Top Ten Exposed 'Republican Talking Points,'" which of course will all be ridiculous "admissions" concocted by liberal moonbats.

Trouble is, I've only got two, and nothing else is coming. And I'd like to bang this out so I can take a little "porn-break."

I meant "go to the bank." Of course I meant "go to the bank." I don't even know what this so-called "porn" is.

So-- smoke 'em if you got 'em.

Posted by: Ace at 11:27 AM | Comments (23)
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Fat Kid (who posts a link to a boardgame you definitely wouldn't want to play; it's genuinely offensive) tells me that Michele at ASV is inviting guest bloggers to post about their favorite song-writers.

Michele has pre-emptively ruled out any possibility of a discussion of the enormous gifts and contributions of Mr. Paul Anka.

I don't want to de-link Michele. I really don't. But what choice do I have?

When good men do nothing, evil men are permitted to rule.

On the other hand, doing nothing is a lot easier than doing something. Doing nothing... I don't know. It just "feels right" to me, somehow.

And maybe evil men should be allowed to rule, come to think of it. They generally seem to be highly-motivated and good at organizing.

Ah, the hell with it. I'm a Republican. I pretty much exist to insure that evil men rule.

Posted by: Ace at 10:59 AM | Comments (17)
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A bit pixie-ish for my taste, but it's good to see the Protest Babe Phenomenon continuing to spread freedom by being all hot 'n shit, this time in Krygzstan.

Thanks to Ray Midge, who is apparently only interested in world events to the extent they can be used as "marital aids."

Bless 'im.

Posted by: Ace at 10:15 AM | Comments (23)
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The New York Times and LA Times both discount the opinion of Dr. Cheshire, who argues on behalf of sparing Terri's life, because he's "pro-life." The NYT quotes another doctor, a Dr. Cranston, calling him a "bogus, a pro-life fanatic."

The Times leaves something out of its fair-and-unbiased reportage:

It turns out Dr. Cranford has been a speaker for the Hemlock Society, which is a doctors group affliated with End of Life Choices a pro-euthanasia group.

As Marion Ravenwood said, "Must've slipped his mind."

Meanwhile, Pundit Guy wants to know why the media keep using old, boyish pictures of America's newest Mass Murderer, displaying him a cheerful cherub, when more recent (and accurate pictures) make him look like, well, a potential mass-murderer.

Is this just part of the media's bias in favor of sensationalism? "Killer Kid" is more interesting than "Killer High School Loser"?

Or does the media want to remind you: This could be your child, this little fresh-faced tyke, unless we impose much stricter gun-control laws?

It could be either.

Either way, though, the more recent pictures are more accurate, and I don't see any reason to continue displaying him as a cherub.

Posted by: Ace at 10:08 AM | Comments (17)
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Boy, do liberals hate inside-traders and global currency manipulators... except when they donate to MoveOn:

Billionaire investor George Soros was found guilty of insider trading by a French appeals court, upholding a 2002 conviction in a case that he's been fighting for 16 years.

The Paris appeals court ruled that Soros's 1988 purchase of Societe Generale SA shares with the knowledge that the bank might be a takeover target broke French insider trading laws. The court today confirmed an earlier order asking Soros to pay back his 2.2 million euros ($2.9 million) in gains. Prosecutors didn't ask for punitive damages and Soros faces no other penalties or restrictions in France.

...

The verdict marks the only legal stain on Soros's 40-year investing career. It comes at a time when Soros, 74, is no longer actively investing and has turned his attention to political and charitable activities. Soros contributed $26.5 million to a failed effort to defeat President George Bush in last year's U.S. presidential elections.

The only legal stain? Why is this reporter so helpfully pointing that out to us? Is Martha Stewart's conviction for obstruction of justice also noted to be her "only" legal stain?

Jeepers-- it's almost as if this reporter approves of George Soros or something!

Thanks to Ogre Gunner.

Posted by: Ace at 09:59 AM | Comments (2)
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I think the "Glimmer of Hope" headline of this story has been undermined by unfolding events-- there's very little that can be done now; the Florida legislature won't act, and every court has rejected appeals on Terri's behalf-- but at least Andrew McCarthy is documenting the judicial travesty:

Judge Wilson, a former United States attorney in Florida whom President Clinton appointed to the Eleventh Circuit in 1999, disagreed — intensely. Principally, he seized on a new issue — not considered below by Judge Whittemore, but now raised by both the Schindlers and the Bush Justice Department under Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who intervened by filing a supportive “Statement of Interest” with the court. That issue is the All Writs Act (28 U.S.C. Sec. 1651).

This act is a special power of courts to issue orders in aid of their own jurisdiction. As Judge Wilson explained, the authority of a court to command that an action (such as the reinsertion of TerriÂ’s feeding tube) be taken under the All Writs Act is significantly different in its purpose from an order having the same effect but issued as a preliminary injunction. In the latter case, the injunction is for the benefit of the litigant, who is thus called on to satisfy the test that requires a demonstration of probable success on the merits. To the contrary, the All Writs Act is for the protection and integrity of proceedings before the publicÂ’s courts. It does not allow courts to create jurisdiction, but it does empower them to preserve the jurisdiction they already have by staying the hand of outsiders whose actions could prevent the court from considering issues and bringing litigation to a natural, rather than a forced, conclusion.

Most of the judges of the 11th Circuit ignored this, of course. Perhaps, as Kevin Pollack said, they were absent on the day they taught law at law school.

Several commenters here have noted that "many judges" have reviewed this case. But it must be borne in mind that those "many judges" all showed the same deference to Judge Greer's original rulings that the federal courts did here-- despite the fact that the act passed by Congress, and signed by President Bush, specifically and unabiguously authorized a de novo (i.e., new, without any deference to previous rulings) of the case for any possible constitutional violations.

So, to say that "many judges" have reviewed this is misleading. Even when authorized to do a complete de novo review, they balk and simply affirm Judge Greer's earlier findings, stating that there's no evidence Greer "abused his discretion" or the like.

Posted by: Ace at 09:25 AM | Comments (19)
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A good top ten of the sorts of questions the press wants to ask, and occasionally pretty much does ask, of the Bush Administration.

Given that you are unanimously hated by every single individual in the rest of the world, how do you expect your nomination of John Bolton as Ambassador to the U. N. to be received?

You know they want to ask that. They just word it in a slightly more, ahem, "neutral" fashion.

What got Jeff Gannon into trouble wasn't a partisan, loaded question, which is the stock-in-trade of the Washington press corps. It was that (of course) it was conservatively partisan, and that he wasn't as accomplished as the rest of the reporters in phrasing loaded questions in a passive-aggressive manner.

Posted by: Ace at 09:19 AM | Comments (1)
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Now Kyrgyzstan:

Protesters stormed the presidential compound in Kyrgyzstan on Thursday, seizing the seat of state power after clashing with riot police during a large opposition rally. President Askar Akayev reportedly fled the country and resigned.

An opposition leader, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, was at the scene, and state TV appeared to be in the hands of the opposition - underscoring the impression that it was consolidating control. Another leading opponent of the Akayev regime, Felix Kulov, was freed from prison and praised the "revolution made by the people."

Based simply on the seredipity of his name, extradimensional Superman tormentor Mr. Mxyzptlk also announced he would be seeking the Kyrgzstan presidency. If he doesn't win, he says, he'll just turn Superman into a giant purple frog, "just to keep [his] hand in the game."

Thanks to Capt. Anthony.

Posted by: Ace at 08:05 AM | Comments (6)
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Well, it served me well, but the old death-card:

had to be retired, for a couple of reasons. First, I thought the skull was too small and, well, a little goofy-looking. Second, I sort of want to sell t-shirts, and I couldn't track down whether that image was still copyrighted; I decided to err on the side of caution and get a new design. Third, it was a little too smallish in its details to look good on a t-shirt anyway. Those skeletal hands... always figured out they'd wind up looking like Snoopy's paws.

Riehl World View did the original death card for me, basing it off an old Vietnam-era death-card. Great design, of course, and I miss that connection with real military history... but there are lawsuits to consider. Plus, I wanted a more classically piratical design, to go along with the killer Mencken quote.

I asked George from Snapshot to design me a skull-and-crossed swords design, swords behind the skull to fit on the ace. I also asked him, "Make the eyes both look vaguely menacing and vaguely jovial." That's a pretty hard thing to accomplish, but George nailed it on the first try.

Cool swords, too. You have no idea the f'n' exasperation I put him through over those swords. I swear, I had him try out every possible blade and hilt combination from a Scottish Claymore to a +3 Flame Tongue.

George was busy with business or family this past week -- or perhaps he went crazy from my annoying and constant suggestions for minor changes in the design -- and I asked Riehl World View to come in and pitch relief and finish the design up-- shrinking down one larger-than-the-other hilt, adding some blood to the blade, making the double-curved Arab-esque blade look a little more realistic, superimposing it on an ace, and adding it to a new banner with a crisper look. He knocked the whole thing together, beautifully I think, in two days.

And boy, you have no idea the problems I gave Riehl World over the blood.

Now, there's some loose shit going on with the page-borders and stuff-- yeah, I know, the BlogAds creep up into the banner, and I've got to fix the background color to match the slightly different gray Riehl World used -- but I've contacted Web Diva to try to get that all up to snuff, so the site should be looking like it has integrity again pretty soon. And cooler, I think.

Thanks so much to Snapshot and Riehl World View for putting up with my annoying demands. I'm a real taskmaster-- or, should I say, quartermaster, arrrgghh -- and they put up with more of my bullshit than any human should be expected to. As Riehl World told me tonight, "It's a good thing you ain't married yet, or you'd be dead already."

The new card isn't a perfect duplicate of a Vietnam-era death-card, of course, but it's similar in the basics to ones used by the military. This, for example, is one I found on-line, used by troops in Iraq:

Cool, yeah, but... I like George's skull a lot better. And to hell with crossed bones. You can't slit a throat with a bone. At least not without a lot of wasted effort.

Anyway, that's the new logo. I love it. I hope you guys like it too.

Aaarrhhh.

Loose Shit That Will Be Straightened Out: For now, the logo is a work in progress. I'm going to lose the blood -- too garish, plus it obscures the cool shape of that sword -- and I'll move those little "A's" in the corner so that they don't conflict with the logo, or ditch them entirely.

And yes-- the BlogAds overlap with the logo, and the background/border is now the wrong shade of gray.

Web-Diva has been alerted!

Posted by: Ace at 09:48 PM | Comments (53)
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