Bush Will Step Down At The End Of His Term

Bush is constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term, but supporters have called for a referendum on amending the country's laws to allow him to stay in power.

Some more excerpts:

"In all, I can say we are satisfied with how the country is developing, including the economy," he said.

Bush said contract killings had declined in recent years and authorities were becoming more successful in cracking down on financial crimes.

"The obligation of the state is to bring any such investigation to the end — this concerns the killings of mass media representatives and killings in the economic sphere," Bush said.

Okay, here's the real article.

That old saw, "America, Love It Or Leave It," doesn't really sound so stupid anymore.
But a neo-fascist Rethuglikkkan like me isn't nuanced enough to understand how exactly alike this country is to an authoritarian regime.

Posted by: LauraW. at 08:23 AM | Comments (21)
Post contains 200 words, total size 1 kb.

Remember how Republicans let Gore win the most votes in 2000, only to take the election away via the Electoral College?

Remember how Republicans were set to lose dozens of Congressional seats in 2002, beofre a last-week wave of Republican enthusiasm boosted the GOP's numbers?

Remember how Republicans deliberately refused to answer exit polls in 2004, justl to give Democrats the belief they had won the election, so that their hearts would be crushed when real numbers began coming in?

Are you dirty, vicious, spirteful little vindictive bastards doing it again?

I love you guys.

The only way to permanently defeat an opponent is to either kill him or so demoralize him he defines himself as defeated, permanently, and cannot even imagine the state of being victorious. Leave him humilated and heartbroken so he cannot muster the will to further oppose you.

Well, we're not technically allowed to kill liberals (although I think Rosie O'Donnell was just saying the Patriot Act allows us to do just that, I can't find a citation at the moment).

So that leaves us with that faggy defeat-them-in-their-minds thing.

Still, it's something, even if a bit kissing-your-sister-ish.

Posted by: Ace at 05:37 PM | Comments (314)
Post contains 202 words, total size 1 kb.

The lead singer of The Killers slams Green Day's anti-Americanism in filming cheering crowds in England and Germany for their song "American Idiot."

Greg Packer, meanwhile, has duped another major newspaper into quoting him. Packer was good for a a blogosphere laugh when Kaus (I think) caught New York newspapers, especially the New York Times, constantly quoting Greg Packer as a "typical man on the street."

He wasn't, and he isn't. He has some weird fetish about being quoted in newspapers, and tries to show up in crowds where media are present to hoax newspapers into putting his name into print yet again. Basically, he's John McCain without the Senate staff.

Patterico catches the St. Louis Dispatch getting Pack'd this time.

As he told E&P in 2004:

“I do not think members of the press are pansies, but there are times when I go home and laugh because I can’t believe that I made the newspaper pages again,” Packer says.

Okay, the guy from the Killers did not say Green Day was anti-American, thoug htat was his thrust.

And Packer said he did not think the press were "pansies," buuuuut... So that's his jist.

Gotta bend the headlines sometimes, you know.

The MSM taught me that.

Something Else You Already Knew... Rick Ellensburg is a pathologically dishonest and useless little prick.

I hope Ann [Althouse] is aware that by defending herself against dishonest attacks by Greenwald, even once, she is automatically labeled as being “obsessed” with him. Commenter Macswain makes that accusation in comments below — even though this is the only post Althouse has ever done about him. That how his commenters operate: in classic Catch-22 style. If you don’t respond, it’s because you can’t refute his excellent arguments. If you do respond and defend yourself (even once, like Althouse), you’re “obsessed.” Yossarian would have been impressed.

What a sniveling, ludicrous little bitch of "man."

Posted by: Ace at 03:51 PM | Comments (140)
Post contains 337 words, total size 2 kb.

The Note's pretty liberal, but every once in a while they go on these insane truth-telling, career-stalling jags and admit that the media -- which they are definitely a part of; they work with and know these people -- is hopelessly biased in favor of Democrats and liberalism.

This is one of those times.

How the (liberal) Old Media plans to cover the last two weeks of the election:

1. Glowingly profile Speaker-Inevitable Nancy Pelosi, with loving mentions of her grandmotherly steel (see last night's 60 Minutes), and fail to describe her as "ultra liberal" or "an extreme liberal," which would mirror the way Gingrich was painted twelve years ago.

2. Look at every attempt by the President to define the race on his terms as deluded and desperate; increasingly quote Republican strategists saying that the President is hurting the party whenever he enters the fray.

3. Refuse to join the daily morning Ken Mehlman-Rush Limbaugh conference calls, despite repeated invitations.

4. Imbue every Democratic candidate for whom Bill Clinton campaigns with a golden halo.

5. Paint groups that run ads or do turnout for Republican candidates as shadowy, extreme, corrupt, and illegitimate; describe their analogues on the left as valiant underdogs, part of a People's Army (with homage to Rich Lowry).

6. Care more about voter disenfranchisement than voter fraud.

7. Take every Republican quote expressing some trepidation about the outcome and banner it.

8. Drop any pretense of covering good news from Iraq (uhm&.) or good news about the economy, including some upcoming positive macro numbers....

One question:

How is this two-weeks-before-the-election agenda any different from the other 50 weeks of the year?

Thanks to beloved former co-blogger Dr. Reo Symes.

Posted by: Ace at 03:18 PM | Comments (28)
Post contains 305 words, total size 2 kb.

Oh dear. Influence Peddler notes that liberals are about to spring an October Surprise upon themselves.

The very, very liberal New Jersey Supreme Court -- proud former stomping grounds of William Brennan -- is expected to hand down a pro-gay-marriage any day now.

The Influence Peddler thinks this is as good as gift-wrapping the election for Tom Kean Jr. in New Jersey.

The trouble is: the judge can continue "working on" (i.e., delaying for political effect) the opinion until after the elections.

Which seems the prudent, and dishonest, course of action which will be taken.

Kausfiles notes that if the court does hand down its opinion (which it won't -- remember, dishonesty is key for pushing policies on a hostile public in a democracy) it could well have effects outside of New Jersey.

Strangely, the media is silent on this.

Yes, very strangely.

Posted by: Ace at 03:12 PM | Comments (15)
Post contains 188 words, total size 1 kb.

Heh.

Oct. 23, 2006 - In April, 1975, in an issue mostly taken up with stories about the collapse of the American-backed government of South Vietnam, NEWSWEEK published a small back-page article about a very different kind of disaster. Citing "ominous signs that the earth's weather patterns have begun to change dramatically," the magazine warned of an impending "drastic decline in food production." Political disruptions stemming from food shortages could affect "just about every nation on earth." Scientists urged governments to consider emergency action to head off the terrible threat of . . . well, if you had been following the climate-change debates at the time, you'd have known that the threat was: global cooling.

More than 30 years later, that little story is still being quoted regularly—as recently as last month on the floor of the Senate by Republican Sen. James Inhofe, chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee and the self-proclaimed scourge of climate alarmists. The article's appeal to Inhofe, of course, is not its prescience, but the fact that it was so spectacularly wrong about the near-term future. Even by the time it appeared, a decades-long trend toward slightly cooler temperatures in the Northern hemisphere had already begun to reverse itself—although that wouldn't be apparent in the data for a few years yet—leading to today's widespread consensus among scientists that the real threat is actually human-caused global warming. In fact, as Inhofe pointed out, for more than 100 years journalists have quoted scientists predicting the destruction of civilization by, in alternation, either runaway heat or a new Ice Age. The implication he draws is that if you're not worried about being trampled by a stampede of woolly mammoths through downtown Chicago, you don't have to believe what the media is saying about global warming, either.

But is that the right lesson to draw? How did NEWSWEEK—or for that matter, Time magazine, which also ran a story on the subject in the mid-1970s—get things so wrong? In fact, the story wasn't "wrong" in the journalistic sense of "inaccurate."

That's an interesting distinction, eh?

What they mean is you're not wrong for accurately reporting what someone claims, even if that person is, himself, wrong. But the media do not think of themselves as mere stenographers; they are not indifferent to whether what they are reporting as having been said is actually true or not.

And they do take sides on such questions, all the time.

They reported all of this nonsense uncritically (as late as 1992, Newsweek itself notes, when they reported "Global Warming" could cause a new Ice Age) and not only report it, but actively endorse it now. Newweek's entire piece is written to convince you that what they're now reporting is in fact quite accurate:

The point to remember, says Connolley, is that predictions of global cooling never approached the kind of widespread scientific consensus that supports the greenhouse effect today. And for good reason: the tools scientists have at their disposal now—vastly more data, incomparably faster computers and infinitely more sophisticated mathematical models—render any forecasts from 1975 as inoperative as the predictions being made around the same time about the inevitable triumph of communism.

How they give themselves away, eh?

Posted by: Ace at 02:44 PM | Comments (61)
Post contains 584 words, total size 4 kb.

Sounds about right. Three and a half years for the murders of 202 people.

Did I say "people"? I meant "infidels." Different rules apply, of course.

The sentences were reduced (from "outrageously short" to "disgustlingly brief") to mark the end of the "holy month" of Ramadan.

But whatever you do, don't link Islam and mass-murder. I mean, just because the most populous Muslim nation sees such a connection, that doesn't free you up to notice it.

The Religion of Peace

We're downright mellow when it comes to mass-murderers.

Posted by: Ace at 02:15 PM | Comments (16)
Post contains 98 words, total size 1 kb.

From the Kinsley people, the folks who polled prisoners and found that 10% of the ppulace engaged in gay sex, and 7% engaged specifically in gay sex in the shower room after a stomp-down.

Some doubt the study, charging that the Kinsley folks, as usual, skewed the results to the outcome they expected/desired. Let's test it:

Thanks to CraigC.

Posted by: Ace at 02:05 PM | Comments (89)
Post contains 189 words, total size 2 kb.

Pollster Dick Morris sends from his DickMorrisReports company:

06 ELEX: BACK TO TOSS-UP

By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN

October 24, 2006 -- The latest polls show something very strange and quite encouraging is happening: The Republican base seems to be coming back home. This trend, only vaguely and dimly emerging from a variety of polls, suggests that a trend may be afoot that would deny the Democrats control of the House and the Senate.

With two weeks to go, anything can happen, but it is beginning to look poss- ible that the Democratic surge in the midterm elections may fall short of control in either House.

Here's the evidence:

* Pollsters Scott Rasmussen and John Zogby both show Republican Bob Corker gaining on Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr. in Tennessee, a must-win Senate seat for the Democrats. Zogby has Corker ahead by seven, while Rasmussen still shows a Ford edge of two points.

* Zogby reports a "turnaround" in New Jersey's Senate race with the GOP candidate Tom Kean taking the lead, a conclusion shared by some other public polls.

* Even though Sen. Jim Talent in Missouri is still under the magic 50 percent threshold for an incumbent, Rasmussen has him one point ahead and Zogby puts him three up. But unless he crests 50 percent, he'll probably still lose.

* Even though he is a lost cause, both Rasmussen and Zogby show Montana's Republican Sen. Conrad Burns cutting the gap and moving up.

* In Virginia, Republican embattled incumbent Sen. George Allen has now moved over the 50 percent threshold in his internal polls. (He'd been at 48 percent.)

Nationally, Zogby reports that the generic Democratic edge is down to four points, having been as high as nine two weeks ago.

...

Why are Republican fortunes brightening?

The GOP base, alienated by the Foley scandal and the generally dismal record of this Congress, may have fast forwarded to the prospect of a Democratic victory and recoiled. They may have pondered the impact of a repeal of the Patriot Act, a ban on NSA wiretapping and a requirement of having an attorney present in terrorist questioning - and decided not to punish the country for the sins of the Republican leaders.

...

Right now, we would have to say that control of Congress has gone from "lean Democrat" to a "toss-up." And that's progress for the Republicans.

Eileen McGann co-authored this column.

Fred Barnes, especially, has been hyping this Last-Minute-Surge-of-Republican-Strength possibility for a while.

Dare to dream.

NOTE: All polls were conducted before wide exposure of allegations that a group of high-ranking Republicans have joined Slade Gorton in his notorious "Most Dangerous Game" human-hunting parties.

Look, I'm not defending human-hunt parties, nor of Congressional Republican leaders making trophies of human skulls and wearing them as outsized belt-buckles. And I don't like waking up every night to see Slade Gorton peering down at me, wearing a bloody leather apron and clutching a bone-saw, whispering to me "I will bathe in your blood before the Children of Babylon."

Admittedly: It's creepy. There's an ick factor there that can't be denied.

But let's be grown-up about this: Everybody does it.

And let's also be clear on something else: Nancy Pelosi is a hell of lot worse. You think that's her own skin she's wearing?

Slade "The Blade" Gorton

Vote Republican, or Dick Cheney and John Bolton "forget" to chain him up tightly after his evening feeding.

Posted by: Ace at 12:30 PM | Comments (50)
Post contains 591 words, total size 4 kb.

An ad pokes at Harold Ford for attending a Playboy party (complete with Bunnies) by depicting a white Playboy-ish bunny telephoning Ford.

Racism! Willie Hortonism! The black men are coming to steal our white Playboy Bunnies! (And you are left defenseless.)

A candidate faults his opponent for belonging to a Hamas-connected organization and attending a virulently anti-Jew, anti-American terrorist rally

Racist! Guilt by association! You can't call him guilty just because he chooses to associate with terrorist-friendly associates!

Note: These special Racial Force Fields protecting people from being criticized during elections no longer apply to Jews, or, as the left prefers them, "Dirty, Scheming Child-Murdering Jews."

Racist Murder! Update: A special report from David Corn places Slade Gorton at the scene of all the Atlanta Child Murders.

Slade "The Slayer" Gorton

Wrong on education. Wrong on murdering 40 black children.

The DNC... is now running what I think is pretty obviously a push-poll.

Look, there's no doubt the situation with Slade Gorton is getting worse, and threatens to spiral out of control at any minute. And yes, I know about the "Grim Milestone" of the 1000th victim, as the left likes to crow.

But we must stay the course. Sure, one in three of us are going to get kidnapped by Slade Gorton, mummified and filled with sawdust, and bent into shape to make a comfortable, if macabre, ottoman for his living room.

That's hardly any reason to start abandoning the GOP.

Only Nixon can go to China. And only Dick Cheney can restrain the murder machine we know as Slade Gorton.

Posted by: Ace at 12:06 PM | Comments (20)
Post contains 287 words, total size 3 kb.