Just a reminder -- he wasn't interested in an Abscam bribe, "at this point."

The FBI undercover officer then suggests: "You give us the banks where you want the money deposited."

"All right," agreed Murtha. "How much money we talking about?"

"Well, you tell me," says the FBI undercover operative.

"Well, let me find out what is a reasonable figure that will get their attention," said Murtha, "because there are a couple of banks that have really done me some favors in the past, and I'd like to put some money in."

Here's what Murtha says after the public video cuts off: "Â…You know, we do business together for a while. Maybe I'll be interested and maybe I won't. ... Right now, I'm not interested in those other things. Now, I won't say that some day, you know, I, if you made an offer, it may be I would change my mind some day."

And if you mention this, you're questioning his patriotism -- and he was a Marine.

As Newsalert says, being a Democrat means never having to say I'm sorry.

Posted by: Ace at 09:57 AM | Comments (39)
Post contains 196 words, total size 1 kb.

On FoxNews.

If he did it. If.

Fox plans to broadcast an interview with O.J. Simpson in which the former football star discusses "how he would have committed" the slayings of his ex-wife and her friend, for which he was acquitted, the network said.
The two-part interview, titled "O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here's How It Happened," will air Nov. 27 and Nov. 29, the TV network said.

Simpson has agreed to an "unrestricted" interview with book publisher Judith Regan, Fox said.

"O.J. Simpson, in his own words, tells for the first time how he would have committed the murders if he were the one responsible for the crimes," the network said in a statement. "In the two-part event, Simpson describes how he would have carried out the murders he has vehemently denied committing for over a decade."

The interview will air days before Simpson's new book, "If I Did It," goes on sale Nov. 30. The book, published by Regan, "hypothetically describes how the murders would have been committed."

In a video clip on the network's Web site, an off-screen interviewer says to Simpson, "You wrote 'I have never seen so much blood in my life.'"

"I don't think any two people could be murdered without everybody being covered in blood," Simpson responds.

I hope Alan Dershowitz is proud.

And, quite frankly, the majority of the black community, which knowingly supported someone they knew was a killer just to "send a message" to all those evil whiteys.

You know, the whiteys who cut off people's heads and such.

Posted by: Ace at 09:43 AM | Comments (44)
Post contains 284 words, total size 2 kb.

It gets better and better.

Now, I hardly think it would be politic for an RNC head to announce, "My plan is to be an attack dog." You don't say that. You just do it (while denying you're doing it).

And you have to make conciliatory noises with the Democrats (falsely) sounding the same notes. A couple days after the election I saw Chuck Schumer speak, and it was a great speech -- all about reconcilliation, moving forward, thanking Americans for the "trust" they had placed in the Democrats, and vowing not to violate that trust. Yeah, that's right-- Chuck Schumer sounded good.

Now, I don't think he meant a damn word of it, but it was a good speech.

So the Republicans have to play along too.

He does offer this:

Martinez said the contest should be about "a battle of ideas" and not partisanship.

... which sounds better.

Problem is, I kind of think he's serious. He's going to try to make nice-nice, which just means more liberalism, this time endorsed, more or less, by the GOP.

In the interests of "uniting the coutry" around a program conservatives despise, you understand. You've got to have that "unity."

Plus, of course, he's now Bush's pointman on pushing through his ill-advised and politically unpopular amnesty plan. And he is the head of the RNC -- making that, I suppose, the official GOP position, at least nominally.

Posted by: Ace at 09:13 AM | Comments (55)
Post contains 252 words, total size 2 kb.

Does this suprise anyone?

I mean -- aren't you surprised that number isn't higher? I'm serious. Now that I think about it, sure, the Internet is now so big that an awful lot of communication and shopping and even light research is done via the tubes, but still, I'd have expected that to be at least... I don't know, 15 or 20%?

Even a political site like this one will occasionally post a busty lesbian link, after all.

1% of content may be porn, but I bet if you measured use-hours -- what people are actually going to see, etc. -- the figure would be higher. Closer to 20%.

Thanks to SteveL, who's outraged, because he thinks that number ought to be higher.

Posted by: Ace at 09:05 AM | Comments (21)
Post contains 133 words, total size 1 kb.

They're making all the right moves, aren't they?

Dick Morris, I think, suggested a week ago this would be a good idea. The reason is that the Senate minority has to use all the procedural checks it can to thwart the majority, and Lott knows all of them, and isn't above using them. He's been here before.

Against that, however, stand the following:

1) He's part of the disastrous old guard.

2) He's a dedicated earmarker/porkbarreller/spender, and elevating him to a high position gives him disproportionate influence in making cut-tax-and-spend Republicanism the default party position.

3) He has never been an effective spokesman for conservativism, partly because he doesn't seem to be a conviction conservative but rather just a politician who does what he needs to do to stay in power, and partly because he has all the charisma of head lice.

4) The Strom Thurmond incident. Perhaps this was overblown, perhaps it's time to forgive... but it's hardly helpful to have this guy back in a top slot.

The Republicans have learned nothing.

Posted by: Ace at 08:54 AM | Comments (24)
Post contains 190 words, total size 1 kb.

Anyone want to take a bet where most media interest will be directed?

Convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff is scheduled to report to federal prison tomorrow, over the objections of federal prosecutors who say they still need his help to pursue leads on officials he allegedly bribed.

Sources close to the investigation say Abramoff has provided information on his dealings with and campaign contributions and gifts to "dozens of members of Congress and staff," including what Abramoff has reportedly described as "six to eight seriously corrupt Democratic senators."

The sources say Abramoff was about to provide information about Bush administration officials, including Karl Rove, "accepting things of value" from Abramoff.

Rove has denied any wrongdoing in his dealings with Abramoff. But the lobbyist visited the White House at least seven times, according to Secret Service logs obtained by Judicial Watch.

Abramoff has been meeting almost daily in secret locations around Washington with Justice Department investigators who are examining thousands of e-mails and documents, according to sources close to the investigation. The convicted lobbyist was spotted in downtown Washington, D.C., yesterday, carrying a computer laptop case.

But the prosecutors' easy access to Abramoff has now ended.

So, they're sending him to prison rather than seeing what else he has to say.

This smells corrupt.

I'm more than willing to trade Karl Rove for "six to eight seriously corrupt Democratic Senators."

As a matter of fact, at this I'm about ready to throw Bush into the mix just to sweeten the deal.

Posted by: Ace at 04:34 PM | Comments (215)
Post contains 281 words, total size 2 kb.

Pupster says "It's old," but, as usual, it's new to me.

Also funny: KFC creates first advertising image visible... from outer space.

As Michael says, it's a great idea, unless the space aliens looking down on us are giant fire-breathing chickens.

Now, on his blog, he posts stuff like this. On my blog, he posts nine videos in a row of Ginger Baker playing the ass-drums on Chick Corea.

Posted by: Ace at 02:01 PM | Comments (17)
Post contains 75 words, total size 1 kb.

I say "claim" not because I doubt Al Qaeda has such plans, but because it's less likely they can actually acheive them.

Less likely, but not wholly unlikely.

There is a dangerous failure of imagination in the West. Westerners assume that because the thought of losing major Western cities is so horrible as to be unthinkable. So they don't think about it.

But unthinkable isn't the same as impossible. It's unthinkable that a healthy person might contract a serious, deadly illness and die within five years of misery. Or suffer a freak accident leaving him a quadroplegic.

So no one thinks much about that. (Except maybe Allah.)

Obviously, however, such horrible things happen all the time. They're unthinkable. But hardly imposslble. Sometimes they're not even terribly uncommon, unfortunately.

The West continues to refuse to imagine the unthinkable and confront it. And Bush is complicit in this. It's time for the American people to be informed, in no uncertain terms, they're heading for apocalypse unless they act to stop it.

Perhaps we can't stop it. But doing nothing guarantees a bad result.

They have announced their intentions, as they have so many times before. Will we continue to dismiss their claims as hyperbole?

I thought September 11th had changed that. I guess not.

At the very least we need to announce a new nuclear doctrine -- something along the lines that any nuclear attack will be met with a devastating nuclear response against any countries (including their citiies) involved in any way in proliferating nuclear weapons.

Might as well put it out there so that people understand precisely what they will suffer if they aid and abet the "unthinkable."

Posted by: Ace at 01:53 PM | Comments (110)
Post contains 294 words, total size 2 kb.

This could well be the greatest divorce ever.

Britney Spears and Kevin Federline made a four-hour sex tape...

Four hours? What the hell were they doing?

He must be gay.

...early in their marriage that he is now threatening to sell unless she gives in to his demands in their divorce case, according to a British tabloid, The News of the World.

It says Federline wants more than $30 million from Spears, along with custody of the couple's two young children, Sean Preston, 1, and Jayden James, 8 weeks. The newspaper also reports that Federline has been offered $50 million for the tape by one film company that wants to put the video online.

The tabloid says Spears fears release of the tape would short-circuit the comeback she's attempting to stage.

But on The Early Show Tuesday, Us Weekly magazine's contributing editor Katrina Szish said Spears probably needn't worry.

"If a tape does exist, I don't think it will be damaging for Britney," Szish told co-anchor Rene Syler. "We've seen her at her lowest point. She's on her way back up. This would be a tape she did with her husband when they were married. Whatever may be in that tape, it really doesn't matter anymore. "

Oh, believe me, it matters, baby.

What a genius way to kill a pre-nuptial agreement.

Former opinion on Kevin Federline: Slimy No-Talent Douchebag

New opinion on Kevin Federline: World's Coolest Slimy No-Talent Douchebag

Posted by: Ace at 12:59 PM | Comments (96)
Post contains 274 words, total size 2 kb.

On FoxNews. The accuser's boss says the woman had been passed-out drunk two nights before the "rape" and security had to move her out the club she worked at. They accidentally dropped her in a gravel parking lot, which may have caused the bruises and scratches later noted in her medical report.

Story here. Note how oddly the paper chooses to headline this:

Event told of accuser in lacrosse rape case

"Event told of accuser"? Is that even English?

Certainly it doesn't communicate much information about the "event told of."

Posted by: Ace at 12:44 PM | Comments (24)
Post contains 116 words, total size 1 kb.