...after someone broke into the water facility and left behind a 5-gallon jug with a "strong odor."

You will not be shocked to learn that terrorism has already been ruled out as a motive.

Seems to me that if Bush/the government were really interested in "fearmongering," they would rule terrorism in as a possible motive once in a while. If anything, they err to far on the side of not unduly alarming the public.

No word yet on the ethnic extraction of the teenagers... which is never a good sign.

Thanks to Old Geezer.

Posted by: Ace at 08:12 AM | Comments (6)
Post contains 112 words, total size 1 kb.

I'm not just linking this because it's my blogsite name, or even just because "Ace of Spades" is a cool song.

It's probably the best hard-rock performance by Ken dolls I've ever seen. And I've seen, like, zero.

The headbangin' groupie chicks are a nice touch, too.

Thanks to Blue Merle.

Posted by: Ace at 08:05 AM | Comments (10)
Post contains 69 words, total size 1 kb.

An on-line column, and only in Kansas City (one of the myriad Kansas City's, not sure which), but still: a column.

She's a moron.

I just don't mean her politics, which are moronic. But the incredible stupidity she displays in expressing herself.

Has it really been three years? My how time flies when the Bushvolk are having fun!

Bushvolk. 'Cuzzin' they're like Nazis 'n stuff, I guess.

TheyÂ’ve already invaded two Muslim countries, Afghanistan and Iraq, and are considering a third conquest, Iran. That ought to win some hearts and minds over there.

And you thought this wasnÂ’t a Crusade!

Yes, Iran may soon get hold of the Big Kaboom, but North Korea already does.

The Big Kaboom?

Incidentally, the Southeast is handled differently than the Middle East. Unlike the Koreans, who have the means to blow us to smithereens, the Iranians do not yet have the capability to act on their threats. Both nations are controlled by oddballs, so why the disparity in U.S. foreign policy, Comrade Condi?

The Southeast? Does she mean Southwestern Asia? Or East Asia?

Or does she mean "Southeast Asia," of which Korea isn't really a part?

And of course Iran isn't part of "the Middle East" either.

What the hell is she on? Doesn't she have access to a globe or, maybe, a map-insert from National Geographic For Kids?

This was a dumb "joke." Surely it's not worth assigning countries to the wrong areas of the world to make the "joke."

And-- Comrade Condi?

When did you last hear this president mention Osama bin Laden at length? During his propaganda blitz last week that began in Ohio, Mr. Disconnect was all Iraq, all the time. Osama bin Forgotten is more like it.

I know that Kansas City isn't the most cosmpolitan place in the world, but I'm pretty sure they've heard the "Osama bin Forgotten" line before. And yet she uses it as if she's minting a fresh joke.

Unbelievable. Any moron can get a column in a newspaper if they're liberal enough.

Thanks to Aaron.

Posted by: Ace at 07:31 AM | Comments (58)
Post contains 356 words, total size 2 kb.

Francis Fukuyama supported the war when it was popular. Now that it's unpopular, he heroically steps forward to lead from behind.

He also lies about a Charles Krauthammer speech in the process, which is unwise thing to do. First, Krauthammer's speech was taped and can be checked.

Second, don't betray Krauthammer and then leave him alive.

It was, as the hero tells it, his Road to Damascus moment. There he is, in a hall of 1,500 people he has long considered to be his allies, hearing the speaker treat the Iraq war, nearing the end of its first year, as "a virtually unqualified success." He gasps as the audience enthusiastically applauds. Aghast to discover himself in a sea of comrades so deluded by ideology as to have lost touch with reality, he decides he can no longer be one of them.

And thus did Francis Fukuyama become the world's most celebrated ex-neoconservative, a well-timed metamorphosis that has brought him a piece of the fame that he once enjoyed 15 years ago as the man who declared, a mite prematurely, that history had ended.

A very nice story. It appears in the preface to Fukuyama's post-neocon coming out, "America at the Crossroads." On Sunday it was repeated on the front page of the New York Times Book Review in Paul Berman's review.

I happen to know something about this story, as I was the speaker whose 2004 Irving Kristol lecture to the American Enterprise Institute Fukuyama has now brought to prominence. I can therefore testify that Fukuyama's claim that I attributed "virtually unqualified success" to the war is a fabrication.

...

In that entire 6,000-word lecture, I said not a single word about the course or conduct of the Iraq war. My only reference to the outcome of the war came toward the end of the lecture. Far from calling it an unqualified success, virtual or otherwise, I said quite bluntly that "it may be a bridge too far. Realists have been warning against the hubris of thinking we can transform an alien culture because of some postulated natural and universal human will to freedom. And they may yet be right."

...

Fukuyama now says that he had secretly opposed the Iraq war before it was launched. An unusual and convenient reticence, notes Irwin Stelzer, editor of "The Neocon Reader," for such an inveterate pamphleteer, letter writer and essayist. After public opinion had turned against the war, Fukuyama then courageously came out against it. He has every right to change his mind at his convenience. He has no right to change what I said.

Fukuyama is of course now the darling of the left, appearing on NPR recently. He never really strongly supported the war, but now claims to have been a supporter in order to make his conversion all the more dramatic, and futhermore... claims to have secretly opposed it?

Is he in the habit of supporting wars he secretly opposes?

Thanks to Allah.

Posted by: Ace at 07:22 AM | Comments (48)
Post contains 502 words, total size 3 kb.

No word yet as to whether he complied with FISA's 72-hour-warrant-application requirement:

A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that Rep. Jim McDermott violated federal law by turning over an illegally taped telephone call to reporters nearly a decade ago.

In a 2-1 opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld a lower court ruling that McDermott violated the rights of Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, who was heard on the 1996 call involving then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.

The court ordered McDermott to pay Boehner more than $700,000 for leaking the taped conversation. The figure includes $60,000 in damages and at least $600,000 in legal costs.

McDermott, D-Wash., has acknowledged leaking a tape of a 1996 cell phone call involving Gingrich to The New York Times and other news organizations.

The call included discussion by Gingrich and other House GOP leaders about a House ethics committee investigation of Gingrich. Boehner was a Gingrich lieutenant at the time and is now House majority leader.

A lawyer for McDermott had argued that his actions were allowed under the First Amendment, and said a ruling against him would have "a huge chilling effect" on reporters and newsmakers alike.

Lawyers for 18 news organizations — including ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, The Associated Press, The New York Times and The Washington Post — filed a brief backing McDermott.

But Boehner's lawyers said McDermott's actions were clearly illegal.

By leaking the tape, McDermott "chilled the free speech of others," namely Boehner and Gingrich, said Boehner lawyer Michael Carvin.

In a written statement, McDermott said he respectfully disagrees with the majority ruling.

"My position rightly defends freedom of the press and free speech in America," he said. "The American people have a right to know when their government's leaders are plotting to deceive them, and that is exactly what was happening during a telephone call in 1996 involving Republican House leaders."

So, political leaders can have their calls illegally recorded and disseminated, because it's crucially important to know when "their government's leaders are plotting to deceive them."

Those calling Al Qaeda long-distance, however, are entitled to full privacy.

Posted by: Ace at 07:02 AM | Comments (14)
Post contains 374 words, total size 2 kb.

If I saw this shit in real life I'd drag the young lady to the ground and stomp on her, thinking I was doing her a favor.

And where do you keep them at home? Behind the refrigerator?

Posted by: LauraW. at 06:56 AM | Comments (32)
Post contains 42 words, total size 1 kb.

Just about every word except for the f-word has been edited out.

And yet it still runs 1:34.

F-bomb content warning.

Thanks to Allah.

Posted by: Ace at 09:27 PM | Comments (14)
Post contains 32 words, total size 1 kb.

Yale is kosher with a Talib official as a their newest freshman, but some beliefs are just beyond the pale.

A Christian Youth rally was held in San Fransisco. Some of the locals were less tolerant than one might expect.

Barricades separated Luce's crowd with counterprotesters about 6 feet away who said the Friday and Saturday event amounted to a "fascist mega-pep rally."

Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, told counterprotesters that while such fundamentalists may be small in number, "they're loud, they're obnoxious, they're disgusting and they should get out of San Francisco."

Compare:

"...Backlash over sex party for S.F.'s elite nearly kills bond issue...The bond measure was heavily supported by the 49ers, the city's Democratic leadership...

But the entire drive for what was known as "Proposition D" nearly self-destructed a month before the election when the campaign's manager, prominent liberal political consultant and San Francisco power broker Jack Davis, held an X-rated party attended by Mayor Willie Brown, various elected city supervisors...

The party, which featured acts of profound sexual perversion, was a 50th birthday celebration for Mr. Davis, and was organized by some of his friends. There were both male and female strippers dancing at the party, as well as live and simulated sex acts openly performed on a stage throughout the night...

The bacchanalia concluded with a "dominatrix" beating a man in front of the crowd, urinating on him in full view of the audience, and carving a satanic symbol-a pentagram-into the man's bare back with a knife. Finally, the man was publicly sodomized with a whiskey bottle...

It's become socially unacceptable to say Jesus Christ in public (at least in a non-blasphemous manner), and yet it's intolerant to not want to sit on the stool just vacated by the guy wearing nothing but assless chaps and nipple-clips.

Thanks to RCL.

Posted by: Ace at 06:36 PM | Comments (48)
Post contains 332 words, total size 2 kb.

The SciFi Channel, in partnership with Stan Lee, has a contest for the best superhero concept. The winner will get a TV show made of the hero.

On the downside, you have to submit pictures of yourself in costume as the superhero.

Thanks to Chickpea.

Posted by: Ace at 06:25 PM | Comments (13)
Post contains 61 words, total size 1 kb.

...are pretty short.

Check out this awesome commercial.

Posted by: LauraW. at 05:47 PM | Comments (9)
Post contains 16 words, total size 1 kb.