I'm completely sure this is a spoof, but damnit, it seems to have a valid URL.

British tourists have left the residents of one charming Austrian village effing and blinding by constantly stealing the signs for their oddly-named village.

While British visitors are finding it hilarious, the residents of
F---ing are failing to see the funny side, The Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported.

Only one kind of crimimal ever stalks the sleepy 32-house village near Salzburg on the German border -- cheeky British tourists armed with a sense of humour and a screwdriver.

But the local authorities are hitting back and with the signs now set in concrete, police chief Kommandant Schmidtberger is on the lookout.

"We will not stand for the F---ing signs being removed," the officer told the broadsheet.

...

Guesthouse boss Augustina Lindlbauer described the village's breathtaking lakes, forests and vistas.

"Yet still there is this obsession with F---ing," she said.

"Just this morning I had to tell an English lady who stopped by that there were no F---ing postcards."

Thanks to Kevin.

Snopes Says: Real. Includes a picture of one of those highly-prized signs.

Thanks to Matt and Jack.

Posted by: Ace at 08:31 AM | Comments (6)
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And I do mean that. It's not exactly a secret that the CIA is waging a political civil war against the Pentagon and Bush Administration. But I think Chris Hitchens, in an article worth reading for other reasons (including a long list of reasons to be proud of the war in Iraq), sums up the situation neatly:

Childishness is one thing[, but] puerility in adults is quite another thing, and considerably less charming. "You said there were WMDs in Iraq and that Saddam had friends in al Qaeda. . . . Blah, blah, pants on fire." I have had many opportunities to tire of this mantra. It takes ten seconds to intone the said mantra. It would take me, on my most eloquent C-SPAN day, at the very least five minutes to say that Abdul Rahman Yasin, who mixed the chemicals for the World Trade Center attack in 1993, subsequently sought and found refuge in Baghdad; that Dr. Mahdi Obeidi, Saddam's senior physicist, was able to lead American soldiers to nuclear centrifuge parts and a blueprint for a complete centrifuge (the crown jewel of nuclear physics) buried on the orders of Qusay Hussein; that Saddam's agents were in Damascus as late as February 2003, negotiating to purchase missiles off the shelf from North Korea; or that Rolf Ekeus, the great Swedish socialist who founded the inspection process in Iraq after 1991, has told me for the record that he was offered a $2 million bribe in a face-to-face meeting with Tariq Aziz. And these eye-catching examples would by no means exhaust my repertoire, or empty my quiver. Yes, it must be admitted that Bush and Blair made a hash of a good case, largely because they preferred to scare people rather than enlighten them or reason with them. Still, the only real strategy of deception has come from those who believe, or pretend, that Saddam Hussein was no problem.

[H]aving debated almost all of the spokespeople for the antiwar faction, both the sane and the deranged, I was recently asked a question that I was temporarily unable to answer. "If what you claim is true," the honest citizen at this meeting politely asked me, "how come the White House hasn't told us?"

I do in fact know the answer to this question. So deep and bitter is the split within official Washington, most especially between the Defense Department and the CIA, that any claim made by the former has been undermined by leaks from the latter. (The latter being those who maintained, with a combination of dogmatism and cowardice not seen since Lincoln had to fire General McClellan, that Saddam Hussein was both a "secular" actor and--this is the really rich bit--a rational and calculating one.)

There's no cure for that illusion, but the resulting bureaucratic chaos and unease has cornered the president into his current fallback upon platitude and hollowness.

Posted by: Ace at 06:01 PM | Comments (58)
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'Bout bloody time:

Britain was preparing to round up a clutch of Islamists for deportation as its crackdown on "unacceptable behaviour" kicks in, newspapers said on Sunday. BritainÂ’s interior minister announced on Wednesday his intention to bar or throw out foreigners who "foment, justify or glorify terrorist violence", in response to the London terror bombings which killed 56 people in July.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke unveiled a string of "unacceptable behaviours" and said he would use his powers to deport and exclude foreigners engaging in any of the numerous activities listed.

The Sunday Times said the internal security service MI5 had drawn up a list of 50 "preachers of hate" who face expulsion under the new rules. The weekly said MI5 had passed on to the government its list of extremists considered to pose a threat.

This gentleman seems to have gotten the message:

The Sunday Times understood the list to include London-based Saudi dissidents Mohammad Al Masari and Saad Al Faqih, plus Egyptian dissident Yasser Al Siri. Masari hastily shut down parts of his controversial website on Saturday, blaming the clampdown for the closure. His Internet site featured videos of beheadings and suicide bombings in Israel and Iraq.

The left is fond of quoting (as is most everybody) the aphorism that all it takes for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.

The trouble with the left, of course, is that it is so busy justifying evil -- defending it, "contextualizing" it, blaming the evil not on the evildoers themselves but on "root causes" and "western imperialism," falling over themselves to "understand" those who have sworn themselves to nearly demonic violence -- that they consistently do nothing in the face of evil.

And then have the gall to call themselves superior to the good men actually standing up to evil.

Clem Hafford: Is there gonna be a fight, Wyatt?

Wyatt Earp: I think there must be.

...

Doc Holliday: What do you want to do?

Wyatt Earp: Kill them all.

-- from the horribly underrated Wyatt Earp

Posted by: Ace at 05:41 PM | Comments (10)
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Less than three weeks to go. Obviously, it would create a major change in German, and European, positioning vis a vis America.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said on Sunday he is counting on undecided voters to save him from defeat in an election that polls show he is likely lose.

In an interview he also pledged to fight to the last minute for re-election, adding the fact his Social Democrat Party (SPD) trailed in opinion polls only fired him on.

"We are fighting to become the largest party. Certainly the circumstances have been more favourable in the past, but that merely spurs me on," Schroeder told ZDF television.

"I am counting on the last 14 days, that is the decisive time when undecided voters make up their minds."

Three weeks before Germany's general election, Angela Merkel's conservatives (CDU/CSU) have a 12-to-14 point advantage, boosted by voters' appetite for change at the top after years of chronic unemployment and weak economic growth.

Next Sunday Schroeder faces Merkel in a head-to-head television debate, where he is expected to hold an advantage, as the more charismatic and experienced screen performer.

On the other hand, the CDU/CSU has apparently been running against East Germany (Germany's communist stronghold, of course) and is alienating East German voters.

Posted by: Ace at 12:33 PM | Comments (6)
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27% of Republicans favor him; 24% favor McCain. 13% are in fantasyland and favor non-candidate Condoleeza Rice, while Frist garners only 9%.

No cite; it was mentioned on Chris Matthews' show today.

Did I mention that Rudy Guiliani could easily win in New York, even against Hillary, and there is no possible Democratic scenario for winning the presidency without winning New York?

Just sayin'.

Posted by: Ace at 12:23 PM | Comments (43)
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On the MacLaughlin group today. Repeatedly referred to our soldiers as "mercenaries."

She didn't even distinguish as the Daily "Screw 'em" Kos did between non-military contractors and regular soldiers.

She based this claim on the fact that they were volunteers, and hence fought "for money."

Whoops! Of course I meant "mercenary army" in the headline.

Posted by: Ace at 11:41 AM | Comments (31)
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According to the latest measurements, Hurricane Katrina looks like a Cat 5.5, carbon copy of Camille.

Some astounding pictures.

Keep scrolling down that site. It's unbelievable, and looks like its about to happen again.

Update: The text is incredible too.

In a truly biblical tale, one survivor told of sitting in his home during Camille, and watching as the ocean water spread through his yard and eventually flooded the first floor of his home. Retreating to the attic, the water was quickly neck deep, forcing him to kick out the small attic window and swim to a large transmission tower at the rear of his property. As he struggled to climb up the tower, he watched in horror, as the roof of his home went under water. He had lived 2 miles from the ocean.

Posted by: LauraW. at 09:37 AM | Comments (43)
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Phelps is a disgusting nutbag homophobe and all-around crank and I've said so before.

The MSM seems interested in his vile protests. Because they believe they can link him to the right. (Although, as my commenters pointed out, he is a Democrat.)

But only the conservative-leaning Cybercast News Service has any interest in the ultra-left-wing peace-whores of Code Pink protesting our America's wounded heroes.

Protesting the wounded. Criminy.

Left-wing trolls will argue they're not really "protesting" the wounded per se. And yes, they're not calling the babykillers or claiming "they got what they deserved." But I don't think someone who just lost a leg can be happy to see this sort of sloganeering outside his window:

Washington (CNSNews.com) - The Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., the current home of hundreds of wounded veterans from the war in Iraq, has been the target of weekly anti-war demonstrations since March. The protesters hold signs that read "Maimed for Lies" and "Enlist here and die for Halliburton."

...

Among the props used by the protesters are mock caskets, lined up on the sidewalk to represent the death toll in Iraq.

Code Pink Women for Peace, one of the groups backing anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan's vigil outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford Texas, organizes the protests at Walter Reed as well.

...

On Aug. 19, as the anti-war protesters chanted slogans such as "George Bush kills American soldiers," Cybercast News Service observed several wounded war veterans entering and departing the gates of Walter Reed, some with prosthetic limbs. Most of the demonstrations have been held on Friday evenings, a popular time for the family members of wounded soldiers to visit the hospital.

But the anti-war activists were unapologetic when asked whether they considered such signs as "Maimed for Lies" offensive to wounded war veterans and their families.

"I am more offended by the fact that many were maimed for life. I am more offended by the fact that they (wounded veterans) have been kept out of the news," said Kevin McCarron, a member of the anti-war group Veterans for Peace.

Kevin Pannell, who was recently treated at Walter Reed and had both legs amputated after an ambush grenade attack near Baghdad in 2004, considers the presence of the anti-war protesters in front of the hospital "distasteful."

When he was a patient at the hospital, Pannell said he initially tried to ignore the anti-war activists camped out in front of Walter Reed, until witnessing something that enraged him.

"We went by there one day and I drove by and [the anti-war protesters] had a bunch of flag-draped coffins laid out on the sidewalk. That, I thought, was probably the most distasteful thing I had ever seen. Ever," Pannell, a member of the Army's First Cavalry Division, told Cybercast News Service.

"You know that 95 percent of the guys in the hospital bed lost guys whenever they got hurt and survivors' guilt is the worst thing you can deal with," Pannell said, adding that other veterans recovering from wounds at Walter Reed share his resentment for the anti-war protesters.

"We don't like them and we don't like the fact that they can hang their signs and stuff on the fence at Walter Reed," he said. "[The wounded veterans] are there to recuperate. Once they get out in the real world, then they can start seeing that stuff (anti-war protests). I mean Walter Reed is a sheltered environment and it needs to stay that way."

Bias? Nahhhh. Just all that j-school-instilled "news judgment" we're always hearing so much about.

Posted by: Ace at 09:08 AM | Comments (22)
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You'd almost think they weren't interested in "peace" at all, but rather in the destruction of the state of Israel entirely:

The bombing raised pressure on Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to crack down on militant groups. Israel has said any progress in peacemaking after the Gaza withdrawal will require Abbas to disarm the militants -- a step he so far has been unwilling to take.

Abbas denounced the bombing as a "terror attack," and called on Israel to show restraint and continue to respect a shaky, six-month-old cease-fire. "We condemn such attacks. We don't accept them, and we call on everyone to refrain from retaliation," he said.

Odd that leftists are very high on disarming American citizens but seem to care not a whit about disarming mass-murdering Palestinian terrorists.

Posted by: Ace at 08:52 AM | Comments (5)
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Just a head's up; got an early confirmation, so I want to let everyone know early.

He has agreed to talk about the Huffington Post. He's not a fan. He's also not shy about saying so.

Posted by: Ace at 08:41 AM | Comments (14)
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