If your goal is to destroy Israel, I guess it only makes sense
— Feisty

...to elect Hamas to be in charge of your government. It's a lot easier to use the tax money of all your citizens to arm oneself and train terrorists than trying to organize all those charitable pancake breakfasts and meat raffles to try to raise money.

Shockingly, Israel and the US aren't particularly excited about this exercise of democracy:

Israeli army chief Dan Halutz told a conference there was a "big potential for an escalation with the Palestinians" after the election though he did not link this directly to Hamas or offer an explanation.

Israel has said it will not discuss statehood with any Palestinians until groups like Hamas are disarmed, a process that is meant to start under the U.S.-backed "road map".

Hamas has said it will not give up its weapons.

Israel has not met its own road map pledge to freeze settlement building.

The prospect of Hamas doing well in the election is also problematic for Washington.

Having prodded Israel to clear the way for free elections, the Bush administration is confronted with the real possibility that a group on Washington's terrorism list would win an official role in a new Palestinian government.

Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups announced a cease-fire, known as a "tahdia", on January 22, 2005, but have still engaged in terroristic activities in Israel. The United States has spent 2 million dollars on the down-low to try to boost the popularity of the Palestinian Authority in these elections, known popularly as "the lesser of two evils."

WunderKraut's Two Cent Update:

My Mom, of all people, asked me if I heard what ex-prez Jimmy Carter had to say about Hamas? No, I had not heard. So I looked it up. Great, just great.

Via Little Green Footballs:

Carter told CNN in an interview that although Hamas were “so-called terrorists,” so far “there have been no complaints of corruption against [their] elected officials.”

He conceded that “there is an element within Hamas who deny Israel’s right to exist,” but compared the current situation to negotiations with the PLO, which was still outlawed as a terrorist organization during his presidency.

He drew an additional comparison with Menachem Begin’s rise to Israel’s premiership in the seventies. “The Irgun, to which Begin belonged, was also characterized as a terrorist organization,” he noted.

Hey Jimmy! Go back to building houses! Jackass.

Posted by: Feisty at 08:37 AM | Comments (21)
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The Best Cop Cars.
— Dave From Garfield Ridge

Interesting little piece at CNN showcasing how the Michigan State Police go about evaluating cars for police work.

One car they tested? The new Dodge Charger. Here's an artist's representation of what a Charger interceptor would look like, and I have to say, this thing behind me would scare the punk outta me:

Finally, a car fit for Max Rockatansky.

In related news, for the record, every non-uniformed driver who purchased either a Ford Crown Victoria or Chevrolet Impala in the past decade is a dick.

It's hard enough as it is spotting speed traps and cruising interceptors along the turnpikes. But since Uncle Al wanted his Crown Vic instead of a Buick, *I* am made paranoid every time I creep up alongside one of these cars, wondering if I'm passing a cop or the elderly. Seriously, leave these cars for the cops and the cabbies.

Jackasses.

Posted by: Dave From Garfield Ridge at 06:39 AM | Comments (16)
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NFL Championships Thread.
— Dave From Garfield Ridge

I went 0-for-4 last weekend, so my predictive abilities are worthless.

That said, the only the team left in this shindig that I care about at all is the Steelers, and that's just because they actually play, you know, football in Pittsburgh.

Carolina is scary-hot right now, and they've been to this level before, but c'mon-- it's Carolina.

Denver had their Elway years, so they're just being greedy. Although if they win, every quarterback in the league will be sporting a bad Johnny Damon haircut next year, which could finally confirm that Tampa Bay's Chris Simms is really Jake Busey.

As for Seattle. . . that's on the west coast, right? Where they have coffee and stuff? You'll have to pardon me, I don't get out much, what with Trading Spaces on all the time.

Grrr. Another Superbowl, another year without a team for me in the hunt.

Anyway-- Predictions? Prognostications?

Posted by: Dave From Garfield Ridge at 08:13 PM | Comments (56)
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A Colin Farrell Public Service.
— Dave From Garfield Ridge

As a favor to all the Ace of Spades HQ readers, I watched the Colin Farrell/model Nicole Narain sex tape. The research was challenging, but I've managed to transcribe the key scenes in the video so all of you can read for yourself just how hot and heavy the action is.

FYI, in order to keep the following description as "family friendly" as possible, I've replaced all of the naughty words with the word "Smurf." Even with these edits, I think you'll all agree that Farrell's drunken Irish sexiness still manages to smurf through.

Nevertheless, overly sensitive souls / Smurf fetishists should probably pass on this one.

When exactly did Farrell become Dr. Strange? more...

Posted by: Dave From Garfield Ridge at 06:06 PM | Comments (23)
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Damn That Global Warming
— WunderKraut

Russia's severest cold in a quarter of a century, with temperatures in Moscow at minus 8 Saturday, has killed at least 40 people and strained the nation's crumbling infrastructure, with residents piling on the blankets and heating bricks to keep warm.

Damn that ChimpyMcHitlerburton Bush and his Global Warming! Damn him to hell!

Of course you do realize that unusually cold temperatures are proof of Global Warming. As are unusually hot temperatures, unusually dry periods AND unusually wet periods, not to mention tsunamis, earthquakes, the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, puppies, butterflies and techno-music.

Also, don't forget that the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids is further proof of Global Warming as well.

Sneaky Commie Bastards!

Those Global Warming people are freaking geniuses!

Posted by: WunderKraut at 05:10 PM | Comments (21)
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Returning Abramoff Money "Taints" Tribes...
— Slublog

So says Senator Patty Murray

Sen. Patty Murray said Friday that returning contributions from Indian tribes represented by Jack Abramoff would "taint" the tribes.

The state's senior senator, a Seattle Democrat, said there was nothing wrong with accepting more than $40,000 in campaign donations from out-of-state tribes represented by the disgraced lobbyist.

Abramoff's excesses have been halted, and Congress is considering myriad ethics reforms, she said.

The donations, from 1999 to 2005, placed Murray second among Senate Democrats and ninth overall in the Senate, according to records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington, D.C., organization that tracks money in politics.

No comment, really. I just know this one will get the trolls all a-twitter.

Posted by: Slublog at 05:09 PM | Comments (26)
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Daylight Come and I Wanna Go Nuts
— Slublog

Okay, other than one really, really annoying song, why is this guy famous?

NEW YORK - Entertainer Harry Belafonte, one of the Bush administrationÂ’s harshest critics, compared the Homeland Security Department to the Nazi Gestapo on Saturday and attacked the president as a liar.

“We’ve come to this dark time in which the new Gestapo of Homeland Security lurks here, where citizens are having their rights suspended,” Belafonte said in a speech to the annual meeting of the Arts Presenters Members Conference.

Tiresome. You'd think a guy who's considered such an artist would be able to come up with something better than Bush-Hitler comparisons.

Posted by: Slublog at 04:38 PM | Comments (27)
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Kerry at Kos?
— Slublog

Saw this via the corner on National Review. John Kerry is blogging at the Daily Kos. At least, someone who calls himself John Kerry has a diary:

Real Hardball
by John Kerry
Fri Jan 20, 2006 at 03:52:31 PM PDT

There's something that doesn't sit right with me when, on the day Osama Bin Laden resurfaced in a disturbing audio tape, cable television ends up in a game of name calling as a war protester is compared to Osama Bin Laden.

That's reason to be outraged - but even more outrageous is the fact that in a flurry of sound bites what was lost was a real discussion of the fact that more than four years after the devastating attacks of 9/11, more than four years after George Bush boasted we wanted Osama "dead or alive," more than a year after Osama Bin Laden showed his hateful face in yet another video, this barbarian is still very much alive and boasting of additional attacks against the United States.

Later, he says the "full force of cable television" should be brought to bear against the Bush administration on this question. He then whines about the "chilling of dissent."

Here's a subject suited for true hard ball, on Hardball: four years of failure - enough is enough - why hasn't Osama Bin Laden been captured or killed, and how will he be destroyed before he next appears on tape to spread his disgusting message?

That discussion -- rather than criticizing American citizens who exercise their right to free speech and express dissenting opinions - is the discussion that America needs.

When are liberals like Kerry going to realize that sometimes, when you express opinions, those opinions are going to be criticized? The Constitution guarantees the right to free speech, not the right to speak without having others disagree with you.

The comments on this entry are priceless.

Comedy gold.

Posted by: Slublog at 04:09 PM | Comments (20)
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That chick who had the face transplant is using new lips to smoke
— Feisty

All she's been longin' for since the dog-maulin' is a long, hard suck....from a cigarette:

The world's first face-transplant patient is using her new lips to smoke cigarettes, alarming the French surgical team that performed the pioneering surgery in November.

The toxins in the cigarette smoke could impair blood circulation vital to the fragile, newly transplanted facial skin, taken from a brain-dead donor, her doctors said Wednesday.

Smoking also could trigger yet another episode of skin rejection for the 38-year-old Frenchwoman, a former smoker who resumed the unhealthful habit within a month of getting her new face.

Traumatically mutilated in a mauling by a dog last June, the woman lost the lower half of her face, leaving her unable to swallow, chew or speak. Those functions are returning now, along with sensation, in the transplanted nose, lips and chin.

Sources say 'Isabelle' also plans on using her new lips to ask her slimy ex-boyfriend to return her Jerry Lewis DVD collection.

[Guest-blogger Feisty, ardent practitioner of the Ace of Spades Lifestyle (TM), can be found here, yo.]

Posted by: Feisty at 03:27 PM | Comments (18)
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Brass Ones
— LauraW.

He wanted a lighter sentence because of the ignominious nature of his capture.

Lawyer Michael Knowles said Dearman was "a laughing stock" who would "never be able to hold his head up in respectable criminal company again". It was also made known that his partner had to leave town because of the humiliation.

Life just...ain't fair sometimes.

Posted by: LauraW. at 02:24 PM | Comments (6)
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