From Wuzzadem:

Frustrated that its recommendations have not been accepted and implemented by President Bush after nearly twenty-seven hours, the Iraq Study Group filed documents with the Federal Election Commission today to create a a presidential campaign committee.

"The media sent a clear message yesterday," said former Secretary of State James Baker, speaking on behalf of the group. "Our press conference was carried live on every major network, all of the cable news networks, and even on MSNBC. Whatever President Bush is doing, they want leaders who will do the opposite, and that's exactly what we intend to do."

The media sent a clear message. That is perfect. Soooo perfect.

What a ticket:

Allah has commentary, and a very funny video of what this all actually is.

Posted by: Ace at 09:21 AM | Comments (17)
Post contains 139 words, total size 1 kb.

Michael Ladeen on the impending death of a tyrant.

Three days ago, Iran’s dictator, Supreme Leader Ayatollah ali Khamenei, was rushed to the vast medical facility traditionally known as “Vanak” hospital (it now has an Arabic name that means “the 12th Imam Hospital”), a 1,200-room facility that saves half of its beds for the leadership.

Khamenei is known to be suffering from cancer, and taking considerable quantities of an opium-based pain killer. He has lost more than 17 pounds in the past ten months, and was told last spring that he was unlikely to see another New Year (In the Iranian calendar, the New Year begins at the end of March).

...

On Wednesday, thousands of students demonstrated on the campus of Tehran University, chanting “death to despotism,” and “death to the dictator.” And in Mazandaran Province, up by the Caspian Sea, thousands of angry workers protested in front of Ahmadi-Nezhad himself, announcing they were starving and demanding the government honor its promise to improve the lot of the poor.

Ledeen notes the suspicions among Iranians that a suspicious series of plane and helicopter crashes, killing a large number of high-ranking military (Revolutionary Guards) commanders, may have been the result of sabotage.

On the other hand, Ahmadinejad wants his spiritual/psychopathic mentor installed in the new top spot. So things may actually become much worse.

Related: Iranians Hit Wall On Uranium Enrichment. They're still expected to overcome these technological problems, just as the Pakistanis did, however. By late 2007.

Still, that gives us a little time.

To plan the airstrikes, I mean.

New Sec. Def. Gates: Iranian Nukes No Biggie: Anyone miss Rumsfeld?

When asked by a senator whether he thought Iranian President Ahmadinejad was "kidding" when he denied the Holocaust and called for "wiping Israel off the map," Gates responded: "No, I don't think he's kidding. But I think that there are, in fact, higher powers in Iran than he, than the president. And Â… while they are certainly pressing, in my opinion, for a nuclear capability, I think that they would see it in the first instance as a deterrent.

"They are surrounded by powers with nuclear weapons - Pakistan to their east, the Russians to the north, the Israelis to the west, and us in the Persian Gulf."

The senator followed up, "Can you assure the Israelis that they will not attack Israel with a nuclear weapon, if they acquire one?"

Gates responded coldly, "No, sir, I don't think that anybody can provide that assurance."

These are shocking responses, not so much for what they say about what the US will do, but for what they reveal about the thinking of the man poised to become the top defense adviser of the president of the United States. Gates's first instinct when asked about Iran's potential nuclear capability is not to explain why he views such a prospect as inimical to US interests, but why it might not be such a dangerous thing.

Gates assures us that although Ahmadinejad may be wacko, his Iranian leadership higher-ups have got to be more responsible. These moderate, reasonable, Iranian leaders, Gates calmly explains, have perfectly understandable reasons to want nukes to defend themselves. Not to worry, it's just the Cold War Iranian-style. Israel, the US, and Pakistan have nukes, why not Iran?

But what if this sunny analysis is wrong and Iran lobs a weapon of mass destruction at Israel? Well, that's a risk that Gates seems willing to take.

In another response Gates said, "I think that the consequences of a conflict - a military conflict with Iran could be quite dramatic. And therefore, I would counsel against military action, except as a last resort and if we felt that our vital interests were threatened."

Posted by: Ace at 09:03 AM | Comments (21)
Post contains 636 words, total size 4 kb.

Stealth correction? Or what?

I imagine it's a stealth correction, as Captain Ed thinks, becuase I'm not sure the JPost would go into the tank for the Democrats on this issue.

Posted by: Ace at 08:47 AM | Comments (25)
Post contains 55 words, total size 1 kb.

A parody of NBC's "To Catch a Predator" sting operations, where they catch predators trolliing for sex with underage kids.

But this time, they catch The Predator.

Via HotAir.

Posted by: Ace at 08:41 AM | Comments (9)
Post contains 37 words, total size 1 kb.

Check out my two new favorite videos over at Dave in Texas, featuring some slackjawed idiots scrabbling to escape the bounds of American poverty.

Some of them have been cleverly posed to make it look like they are operating complex equipment. Adorable! Like the painting of dogs playing poker.

I will never figure out how they hid the drool cups and tapioca stains from the camera. You almost get the feeling that they're normal human beings.

Some of you might think its wrong to anthropomorphize them this way, but I say, what's the harm? Its not like they know what's going on.

Posted by: LauraW. at 08:11 AM | Comments (16)
Post contains 106 words, total size 1 kb.

If this is true -- and it may not be -- at some point we're going to need actual prosecutions and convictions to let the various foreign-policy gadflies understand that President makes foreign policy, and makes treaties with the advice and consent of the Senate.

I hate saying the obvious so frequently, but this unconstitutional, illegal, borderline seditious action would not be permitted were a Democratic president overseeing a Republican Congress.

Hamas officials have managed to smuggle more than $66 million in cash through the Rafah border crossing in the past eight months, a member of the Hamas-led government revealed Wednesday.

Meanwhile, sources close to the Hamas-led government claimed that Hamas representatives recently held talks with officials from the US Democratic Party at a secret location.

Eh, no matter. Somewhere there's a secret emanation and penubra in the Constitution that says the Democratic Party will have the foreign policy making power, whether they have the White House or not.

If this turns out to be true, I guess the Democrats won't be able to slam Reagan for negotiating with terrorists anymore, ne c'est pas?

Posted by: Ace at 04:24 PM | Comments (82)
Post contains 202 words, total size 1 kb.

I t hink it's pretty obviously Putin myself. Allah wonders why anyone would spend a million dollars on a hit. To me, that sounds pretty cheap. How expensive was it every time we attempted a smart-bomb strike on Saddam?

Assassination is one of the most cost-effective sorts of politcal warfare. Even when it's on the pricey side.

Anyway, here's British Intelligence pretty damn sure this was a Kremlin plot:

Intelligence services in Britain are convinced that the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko was authorised by the Russian Federal Security Service.

Security sources have told The Times that the FSB orchestrated a “highly sophisticated plot” and was likely to have used some of its former agents to carry out the operation on the streets of London.

“We know how the FSB operates abroad and, based on the circumstances behind the death of Mr Litvinenko, the FSB has to be the prime suspect,” a source said yesterday.

The involvement of a former FSB officer made it easier to lure Mr Litvinenko to meetings at various locations and to distance its bosses in the Kremlin from being directly implicated in the plot.

Intelligence officials say that only officials such as FSB agents would have been able to obtain sufficent amounts of polonium-210, the radioactive substance used to fatally poison Mr Litvinenko only weeks after he was given British citizenship.

MI5 and MI6 are working closely with Scotland Yard on the investigation. A senior police source told The Times yesterday that the method used to kill the 43-year-old dissident was intended to send a message to his friends and allies.

“It’s such a bad way to die, they must have known,” the source said. “The sheer organisation involved could only have been managed by professionals adept at operating internationally.”

On the other hand, there is the Islamic-convert-Litvinenko-intended-a-nuke-strike theory:

The death of Alexander Litvinenko by radiological poisoning points to the possibility that the former Soviet spy may have been involved with Islamic terrorists in the preparation of tactical nuclear weapons for use in the jihad against the United States and its NATO allies.

...

According to nuclear expert David Morgan, killing a spy or political dissident with a grain or two of polonium-210 is as ludicrous as shooting a rat with a howitzer.

Again, I find that absurd. States don't sweat a million bucks when it comes to taking out an enemy without being blamed for it, as the plan seemed to be.

How much would just the assassin's fee be for such a high-profile hit? Has to be at least $100,000. So we're going to quibble over the price of the poison?

Litvinenko, who was born an orthodox Christian, was a convert to Islam with close ties to the Chechen rebels. His last words consisted of his desire to be buried “according to Muslim tradition.”

In recent years, considerable attention has been paid to suitcase nukes that were developed by U.S. and Soviet forces during the Cold War. Reliable sources, including Hans Blix of the United Nation, have confirmed that bin Laden purchased several of these devices from the Chechen rebels in 1996. According to Sharif al-Masri and other al Qaeda operatives who have been taken into custody, several of these weapons have been forward deployed to the United States in preparation for al QaedaÂ’s next attack on American soil.

The article notes that Polonium 210 forms part of the trigger of such suitcase nukes, but decays quickly, so it must be periodically replaced. Ergo, Litvinenko poisoned himself while transporting Polonium 210 to re-trigger his suitcase nuke.

I don't buy it for a second. If Al Qaeda had those bombs, they'd have been set off already.

Update: British cops finally say it -- it was murder. They had refrained from stating the obvious because of the great stakes involved, and importance of not rushing to conclusions.

But now it's a murder. Officially.

Posted by: Ace at 01:39 PM | Comments (27)
Post contains 667 words, total size 4 kb.

Every once in a whilel there's a breeze of sanity from the Islamic world.

The empty niches that once held Bamiyan's colossal Buddhas now gape in the rock face - a silent cry at the terrible destruction wrought on this fabled valley and its 1,500-year-old treasures, once the largest standing Buddha statues in the world.

It was in March 2001, when the Taliban and their Al Qaeda sponsors were at the zenith of their power in Afghanistan, that militiamen, acting on an edict to take down the "gods of the infidels," placed explosives at the base and the shoulders of the two Buddhas and blew them to pieces. To the outraged outside world, the act encapsulated the horrors of the Islamic fundamentalist government. Even Genghis Khan, who laid waste to this valley's towns and population in the 13th century, had left the Buddhas standing.

Five years later, the Taliban have been removed from power and Bamiyan's Buddhist relics are once again the focus of debate: Is it possible to restore the great Buddhas? And, if so, can the extraordinary investment that would be required be justified in a country crippled by poverty and a continued Taliban insurgency in the south and that is, after all, overwhelmingly Muslim?

...

Meanwhile, archaeologists have been taking advantage of the greatly increased access that became possible, once the statues were gone, to make new discoveries - and to pursue ancient tales of a third giant Buddha, possibly buried between the two that were destroyed.

Apparently almost all of the rock the Buddhas were built from is still there. Broken up, of course, but who knows, perhaps able to be reconstructed with an awful lot of mortar.

Would make for a nice kiss-off to the Taliban and Islamofascism generally.

Posted by: Ace at 01:21 PM | Comments (9)
Post contains 306 words, total size 2 kb.

Now this is a protest.

However... it's being counter-protested by liberals. And Muslims, of course.

MUSLIMS, socialists, unions and other groups will conduct a counter-rally against bikini protesters who plan to march on a Brunswick mosque on Saturday.

Police will monitor the demonstrations, with white supremacists claiming to have infiltrated bikini protest ranks, increasing the potential for confrontation.

Organisers of the "Great Australian Bikini March" had planned to march against the Michael St mosque last Saturday, anniversary of the Cronulla riots in NSW.

Though the bikini march has been postponed until Australia Day next year, some supporters say they will still hold the rally on Saturday.

The march has been promoted on white supremacist websites.

Moron, it's being promoted on every website that hears about it.

Posted by: Ace at 01:16 PM | Comments (29)
Post contains 148 words, total size 1 kb.

She's keen on showing her breasts, which she calls "my girls" and "my feminine wiles."

Her tits are her wiles? Well, makes a kind of sense, I guess. Most accurate definition of "wiles" I've heard yet.

Parody: Britney Spears' Vagina Asks For Privacy. Kind of funny.

Posted by: Ace at 11:59 AM | Comments (31)
Post contains 62 words, total size 1 kb.