I suppose I should have used this as an argument against the "teach 'em a lesson" brigade: Do you really think they're smart enough to learn a lesson?

Apparently not. Big-spendin' Boehner will keep his position, and pro-amnesty Mel Martiez will lead the RNC.

More spending and amnesty -- a perfect plan to win back disillusioned Republicans in '08.

A Shake-Up Is Needed: A cute video promoting Pence and Shadegg for leadership positions.

Audio: Pence Recants On Pro-Amnesty Position: Says time for compromise is over; the "massive amnesty" bill supported by Bush and the Democrats has to be defeated.

Posted by: Ace at 12:38 PM | Comments (35)
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The catch is, they'd be voting for supposed moderate Steny Hoyer (he of "slavish devotion" fame) rather than Nancy Pelosi.

And for any of this to work, they'd need near-perfect party unity on the vote, Hoyer's cooperation or at least connivance, and fifteen Blue Dog Dems to vote with them.

In exchange, Hoyer would promise (as is likely his desire anyhow) to appoint Jane Harmon as Intelligence Committee leader rather than disgraced bribe-taking impeached judge Alcee Hastings.

Of course, none of this will happen. It's too big of a dream to get 15 Democrats voting with the Republicans, and further, may Republicans may calculate that Speaker Pelosi is their best weapon for retaking the House.

In more fun at Allah's link, Democrats are bringing up Abscam -- oh yeah, that -- as a reason to deny Murtha the Majority Leader post, and of course he's outraged.

They also might want to bring up Pelosi's real estate dealings, if they really are interested in having "the most ethical Congress in history."

Posted by: Ace at 12:35 PM | Comments (12)
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The Lebanese Government may collude a bit with Hezbollah, but apparently they're not colluding enough with Iran's and Syria's proxy terrorist army.

The Lebanese government says Syria and Iran aim to overthrow the elected government in Beirut and reconquer the country. Whether they are actually trying to do this right now or not is unknown. There should be no doubt, though, that if they donÂ’t have a plan to execute now itÂ’s because they want to do it later instead.

Meanwhile, a group that calls itself “Al Qaeda in Lebanon” appeared from Lord-only-knows-where and directly threatened to destroy the March 14 government. “Al Qaeda in Lebanon” may or may not exist as a wing of bin Laden’s Al Qaeda. If they do, they’re serious. If they don’t, they’re a Syrian proxy. Either way, it doesn’t look good. This is not a prank phone call.

These threats to Beirut’s elected government are concurrent with Hezbollah’s and Amal’s resignation from the Lebanese cabinet. Hezbollah and Amal quit for two reasons. The first is that the March 14 bloc refused to give Nasrallah and friends who lost last year’s election more power in a “national unity” government. The second is because it was time for the cabinet to move ahead on the Hariri tribunal. Hezbollah will not tolerate the prosecution of their patron in Damascus.

Once again, the country is bracing itself for sectarian war in the streets. Charles Malik says Christians may sit this one out for the first time in LebanonÂ’s history. Whatever fighting there may or may not be will likely involve Sunni and Shia.

It seems the terror-masters in Syria and Iran also have a policy of "You're either with us or you're against us." And they too support unilateral wars of choice against sovereign governments.

Oddly, Michael Moore plans no documentary on this.

Posted by: Ace at 12:25 PM | Comments (3)
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This is pretty big. Remember this photo?

It appeared on Time magazine's cover, illustrating the wanton destruction Israel was wreaking on Lebanon. And, supposedly, the wreckage of an Israeli jet shot down in noble defense of the oppressed Lebanese.

In the Lightstalkers forum, where pro photographers post, the photographer who snapped the picture explains what it depicted -- and how Time refused to accurately represent what it depicted.

Snapped Shot seems to be the first to find the photog's explanation. Here's what he says:

This caption [delivered with the photos to Time] clearly says that there is no proof that an Israeli jet had been shot down and that the objective was indeed to destroy a legitimate military target.

...A week later TIME published this image shot at the same time as the first:
They choose to caption it this way (I had NO control in this matter), they HAD my original caption: “The wreckage of a downed Israeli jet that was targeting Hizballah trucks billows smoke behind a Hizballah gunman in Kfar Chima, near Beirut. Jet fuel set the surrounding area ablaze.”

Is that bad? It gets worse. Allah notes the photographer explained the situation more thoroughly in a subsequent caption/report:

Kfar Chima, near Beirut, July 17, 2006 The Israeli Air Force bombed a group of Hezbollah chartered trucks parked on the back of large Lebanese Army barracks, at least one of these trucks contained a medium range ground to ground missile launcher, at least one missile was hit, misfiring high into the sky before falling down and starting a huge fire in the barracksÂ’ parking lot.

That makes three representations thusfar by Time:

1) Hezbollah did not score a huge victory by shooting down an IAF jet.

2) The target was clearly legitimate.

3) Not only was this a legitimate Hezbollah target, it was parked on a Lebanese Army base, demonstrating cooperation between the Lebanese Government -- depicted as an innocent and abused third-party to this conflict by the media.

Is that bad? It gets even worse.

LGF notes Time refused to run a different picture which showed a Hezbollah rocket launcher disguised as a "civilian truck" parked at a Lebanese army base.

In the photographer's own words-- describing a photo Time wasn't interested in:

This is a very important piece of evidence showing probable collusion between Hezbollah and the Lebanese Army, there is little doubt that the Lebanese Army was aware of the presence of at least one missile launcher and at least one large missile on their parking lot. The size of the launcher, destroyed a couple of days later from the ground by an unknown party suggest missiles 10 to 14 meters long.

They didn't just have the photographer's word on this -- they had the photographic proof! And yet they refused to run the picture at all!

And re-wrote the photo caption -- the man-at-the-scene report by the photographer -- to triply propagandize for Hezbollah and Lebanon, knowing their caption was 100% false.

If heads don't roll over this, I don't know what to say. This is the sort of thing that should be a crime, punishable by imprisonment, except for the fact that any such law could be so easily abused to restrict press freedom.

Still: No, we can't make this illegal. But damnit, we ought to be as outraged as if a serious felony were committed.

LGF notes this isn't the work of some local stringer who might be (perhaps understandably) biased in favor of the Lebanese.

No, it was Time magazine's own photo editors who did this.

Names, please.

The Actual Accusation: You can read the photographer's story at Lightstalkers.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 11:51 AM | Comments (25)
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Ironically, the climate-change disaster warning film The Day After Tomorrow was a big contributor to actual climate-change disaster.

Special effects explosions, idling vehicles, teams of workers building monumental sets -- all of it contributes to Hollywood's newly discovered role as an air polluter, a university study has found.

The film and television industry and associated activities make a larger contribution to air pollution in the five-county Los Angeles region than almost all five other sectors researched, according to a two-year study released Tuesday by the University of California, Los Angeles.

Although Hollywood seems environmentally conscious thanks to celebrities who lend their names to various causes, the industry created more pollution than individually produced by aerospace manufacturing, apparel, hotels and semiconductor manufacturing, the study found.

Only petroleum manufacturing belched more emissions.

...

Movie production tops hotels, aerospace, and apparel and semiconductor manufacturing in traditional air pollutant emissions in Southern California, according to the UCLA study, initially prepared for the Integrated Waste Management Board. The industry is probably second only to petroleum refineries, for which comparable data were not available.

In greenhouse gas emissions, the entertainment industry ranks third, The Times reported.

Speaking of a lack of grown-ups. It's time for the childish eco-dolts to realize the simple truth is that any economically-productive activity consumes energy -- since machines and transport aren't human- or animal-powered anymore -- and the creation of energy produces dreaded greenhouse gases.

It's amazing to me that Hollywood-types actually believe that people are just consuming energy (which costs money) for shits and giggles.

My favorite rebuttal to eco-morons on the Internet was simple: Turn off the computer, you're using unnecessary electricity created from fossil fuels and thus contributing to a worldwide catastrophe by arguing with me.

For some reason, they always resisted this advice.

Could it be that energy, which produces electricity and easy travel and powers machines that spare human beings back-breaking or tedious labor, is a good thing?

Apparently not. Or rather, it's a good thing for a select group of people. One gets the sense that, in order to stave off "global warming," these idiots are willing to give up our use of energy, reducing us to pre-industrial substennance farming and the attendant increased mortality, leaving them to use all the energy they like without the guilt.

Thanks to RobG.

Posted by: Ace at 11:31 AM | Comments (24)
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Mohammed El Baradei, Hans Blix said to be "baffled" and "befuddled."

International Atomic Energy experts have found unexplained plutonium and highly enriched uranium traces in a nuclear waste facility in Iran and have asked Tehran for an explanation, an IAEA report said Tuesday.

The report, prepared for next week's meeting of the 35-nation IAEA, also faulted Tehran for not cooperating with the agency's attempts to investigate suspicious aspects of Iran's nuclear program that have lead to fears it might be interested in developing nuclear arms.

And it said it could not confirm Iranian claims that its nuclear activities were exclusively nonmilitary unless Tehran increased its openness.

"The agency will remain unable to make further progress in its efforts to verify the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran," without additional cooperation by Tehran, said the report, by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei.

Such cooperation is a "prerequisite for the agency to be able to confirm the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program," it added.

As expected, the four-page report made available to The Associated Press confirmed that Iran continues uranium enrichment experiments in defiance of the U.N. Security Council.

Both highly enriched uranium and plutonium can be used to make the fissile core of nuclear warheads, and Iran is under intense international pressure to freeze activities that can produce such substances.

The Iranian Nuclear Train is rolling, and no one's doing a damn thing. Not even Bush, who's vowed to not permit Teheran to have a bomb.

Of course, it's not as if Iran is seeking a partnership with Al Qaeda or anything. As Allah (inevitably) snarks, it's impossible for Sunni and Shiite extremists to join forces against the infidels and Jews.

Where are the grown-ups?

Posted by: Ace at 11:15 AM | Comments (102)
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This was item number 58 on Nancy Pelosi's 100 Hours To Utopia agenda, and she managed it before she even became Speaker of the House.

Kudos, Nancy.

Posted by: Ace at 04:20 PM | Comments (168)
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Good news:

senior al Qaeda leader in Afghanistan who escaped last year from Bagram prison has been captured, U.S. military sources said Monday.

Abu Nasir al-Qahtani was among six people arrested last Monday during a raid by coalition and Afghan forces in Khost province, the sources said.

A coalition military press release issued at the time of al-Qahtani's arrest described him only as a "known al Qaeda terrorist" and said he was taken into custody along with Saudi and Pakistani nationals.

Al-Qahtani was one of four al Qaeda detainees who escaped from the high-security detention facility at the U.S. base in Bagram in July 2005.

...

Another of the four escapees, Omar al-Farouq, was killed in late September in Basra, Iraq, by British troops.

Posted by: Ace at 04:17 PM | Comments (34)
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I've been searching for clips of this SNL sketch for months. I found it.

There are two decent ones here -- "Two A-Holes Buy A Christmas Tree" (top row) is the better one.

The other, "Two A-Holes At a Crime Scene," is okay. There's a third from this season that was very funny -- them at a travel agency owned by Matt Dillon -- but it's not available.

They recently did this sketch this season, and it was awful. That's "Two A-Holes At A Health Club" in Season 32.

So: No reason to watch SNL. But these clips are decent.

Thanks to yls.

Posted by: Ace at 02:46 PM | Comments (18)
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Not only is this amusing -- lampooning her promise to essentially bring utopia to America within her "first 100 hours" -- but it's very similar to our own "New Age of Freedom From Want" spoofing.

We're innovators, guys.

Allah links this Cracked piece about John Kerry's other "botched jokes."

Like I said: We're innovators.

Thanks to yls for the NPR tip.

Posted by: Ace at 12:55 PM | Comments (39)
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