Cinton W. Taylor snarks:

Because let's face it: obsequies for Castro are just sooooo state school.

Posted by: Ace at 07:24 AM | Comments (8)
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With The Count as Big Brother/George Bush, and Oscar the Grouch as the rightwing propagandist/Rush Limbaugh.

Can't hear any sound because it's on You Tube (and You Tube gives my fragged machine no audio love), but it looks damn funny.

Thanks to MacStansbury "Maximum Blorg Commander."

Posted by: Ace at 07:13 AM | Comments (2)
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Another Latin American country falls. Bolivia nationalized its natural gas fields yesterday.

It will be interesting to see what the fallout will be for burning Brazil.

Mr Morales came to Brasilia with a track record of activism as a former coca-growers' union leader, as well as a commitment to economic reforms that would benefit Bolivia's impoverished indigenous majority.

But at the same time, he needed to reassure Brazilian investors - especially Brazil's state-owned oil and gas giant, Petrobras - that he would take a business-friendly approach.

Petrobras, which has invested more than $1bn in Bolivia and controls 45% of its gas production, was duly placated. The company's boss, Jose Sergio Gabrielli, said he expected an excellent business climate under Mr Morales.

Now the mood in Brazil is one of betrayal and humiliation.

And ten years from now, just like in Cuba, half of the fields wont be in operation and then let the foreign subsidies begin!

UPDATE: Iblis comments:

Better start building that fence with Mexico post-haste.

Posted by: LauraW. at 05:45 AM | Comments (20)
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Eighteen more months in prison, then deportation.

As part of the plea agreement, he admitted being associated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad since the late 1980s and providing "services" for the group, which included filing for immigration benefits for key members, hiding the identities of those men and lying about his involvement.

Al-Arian's attorneys argued during his trial that although he and his co-defendants were vocal advocates for the Palestinian cause, the government had no proof they planned or knew about specific acts of violence. They said the money the defendants raised was for legitimate charities.

The judge, however, said he believed Al-Arian was "an active leader" in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad who raised money for suicide bombings in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Dismissing the defense contentions that money was raised for charities, Moody said: "Your only connection to widows and orphans was that you create them."

U.S. Attorney Paul Perez claimed victory, saying the pursuit of Al-Arian allowed federal agents to identify and disrupt a terrorist cell operating in this country.

According to the article there is some confusion as to where he should be deported. Seems a little strange to me, letting a terrorist go home.

Posted by: LauraW. at 03:42 PM | Comments (21)
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"The Edward R. Murrow of our generation." I don't think much of Murrow, and I still think that's hyperbole.

Not that it matters, but I really didn't mind Colbert busting on the President much. Which he didn't do all that much of, anyway. Sure, some. But that's why he's there.

What annoyed me was his attacking the media.

I'm not a media defender, of course. I'm annoyed he attacked the media as being too "right wing." And of course the media takes this sort of criticism seriously. We on the right have been documenting the media's shameless shilling for Democrats for twenty, thirty years now, and yet when the far left suddenly begins making specious claims about a "right wing media," or the media being "poodles" of the GOP, they take that as important criticism that they have to consider seriously.

Every time a left-leaning group charges the media with bias against them, the media is all too willing to consider the charges, and they often admit some degree of guilt, and promise to do better. All through the eighties and nineties I saw "Special Editions of Nightline" where, for example, a panel of media donyennes would consider if the media were too bigoted against blacks, or not sufficiently "fair" as regards the black liberal agenda. The media-types would flagellate themselves, saying "We're not doing enough," etc.

Same with women, gays, Muslims, Hispanics. The media is quite willing to admit it's biased against groups associated with the leftist coalition.

But, of course, there's one sort of bias they dismiss out of hand. There's one sort of bias they do not devote special hour-long town-hall discussion panels to exploring. There's ONE group on the entire planet they insist they are congenitally incapable of being biased against.

Methinks they doth protest too much. Surely if they're willing to admit the possibility of unconscious racism, a group of people who votes 90% Democratic can show the courage to admit the possibility of unconscious media bias towards the people they're consciously biased against politically.

Bill Keller, editor in chief of the NYT, said he got a lot of letters from people charging the NYT with being conservative or rightwing. But at least he had the smarts and honesty to admit what that sort of letter-writing campaign was: an attempt at ideological "Mau-Mauing" by leftists who know damn well the NYT is liberal as the day is long but want it to be more liberal, or at least make no concessions whatsoever to fairness to Republicans.

The whole Kabuki theater aspect of this annoys the hell out of me. It's a dumb-show, a pantomime played out by morons who actually think they're fooling someone. Maybe they think of us as retarded children, delighted by the Punch and Judy act.

So, Colbert and Stewart and Alterman and the Midget Comedian Bill Maher and the rest of the leftist hacks pretend to believe the media is too rightwing, and the media pretends to believe their criticism that they're too rightwing, and therefore decides it's about time they stopped being so damn rightwing and started being tough on Bush, the GOP, conservatives, and religious Christians and Jews.

The media feigns offense at being attacked by Colbert, while actually they're delighted, the same as they're delighted to be Mau-Maued by liberal interest groups. It gives them the license they want to move even further left than they already are, and rebut charges of liberal bias by noting that sages Colbert and Stewart and Alterman and the rest say they're too right-wing, so, gosh, they must be pretty fair, right?

Right.

I'm sick of the arrogance of these people. I could give a shit about Colbert's opinion about Bush-- it's his opinion and he's welcome to it.

But when it comes to an incontrovertible FACT -- like the FACT that the media is overwhelmingly liberal, sympathetic to Democrats, and slants their stories in that fashion, both unconsciously but more frequently consciously -- I'm afraid I can't just dismiss this bullshit as an agree-to-disagree situation.

It's a goddamned lie. The media is lying, the Mau-Mau left is lying, Colbert is lying, they're all goddamned lying about things they know to not be true, and I'm sick to death of it.

Posted by: Ace at 03:19 PM | Comments (167)
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Sorry for the unexpected pause in blogging. Not feeling terribly well.

If you're not watching Prison Break, you're not watching the best suspense show on TV. And it's also way too late to start watching, because it's pretty intricate. So, basically, you're screwed.

Johnny Coldcuts saw tonight's episode last week and he thinks he can remember enough of it to explain how they're going to escape now that every guard in the prison knows they're trying to escape. more...

Posted by: Ace at 02:56 PM | Comments (22)
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A movie features ELF-in teenagers heroically vanadalizing machinery and property to save a stupid friggin' owl habitat.

Obviously, they succeed, and face no repercussions for their crimes.

Just to repeat the obvious: When Hollywood releases a movie like this, they claim that movies don't affect people's behavior, so there's nothing to get worried about.

But at Academy Awards time, they can't stop patting themselves on the back for how they shape and "advance" public attitudes with their "brave" filmmaking.

So which is it? It can't be both, guys.

Violence and criminality are always in vogue for the left, so long as the right people are being victimized.

There is, of course, one happy note here: Only about nine people in America are going to see this stupid movie.

Posted by: Ace at 08:24 AM | Comments (54)
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Let's call them "undocumented Americans." They went from "illegal immigrants" to "undocumented workers;" why not just jump a step ahead and acknowledge them as Americans who haven't finalized their paperwork?

Anyway, as "undocumenated Americans" attempt to coerce actual, documented Americans on this communist holiday, it's interesting to examine the alleged jobs that "Americans just won't do."

A couple of weeks ago Newsbusters featured this interesting article about "jobs that documented Americans won't do." It seems that undocumented Americans are doing jobs that adult Americans usually won't do -- dishwasher, landscaper, grocery bag-boy and stockboy, etc. -- but that documented American teenagers used to do.

And now they're unemployed at near-record numbers.

Shock! The Country Hasn't Degenerated Into Mad Max Highway Barbarism Yet! Update Karol dares to leave her apartment on this scary day, and finds that, gee willickers, life seems to be going on just fine without the undocumented Americans.

Michelle Malkin has a big update on The Day America Died For Five Seconds And Then Revived Itself Healthy And "Refreshed."

It turns out the "jobs Americans just won't do" aren't really all that critical to the US economy after all.

Posted by: Ace at 07:42 AM | Comments (124)
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Johnny Coldcuts' prediction of Dow 12,000 by July may have been too cautious.

Stock prices soar; those seeking to buy stocks must do so at all-time high prices; women, minorities hardest hit:

Without much fanfare...

Really? The MSM isn't trumpeting the Bush Boom as it did the Clinton Boom? Well blow me over with a feather.

... the Dow Jones Industrial Average is closing in on its all-time high, set at the beginning of 2000 before Americans became disenchanted with stocks and turned to real estate.

Despite soaring oil prices, the Dow, watched as a barometer of the economy and Main Street, has regained more than 4,000 points that slipped away after the dotcom bust and the 2001 recession. Now, the average is closer than it's ever been to its Jan. 14, 2000, high of 11,723 - a number that brings back memories of taxi drivers talking about their stock portfolios and a book predicting a 36,000 level for the Dow.

Behind the rebound is a solid economy, emphasized last Friday when the Commerce Department reported that the nation's gross domestic product grew at a swift 4.8 percent, the best growth in 2-1/2 years. Indeed, the healthy economy is pumping up corporate earnings, which have been growing at double-digit rates. Some of the fastest-growing engines of economic growth are at the nation's smallest companies, whose stocks have averaged about a 20 percent gain per year for the past five years.

Some analysts expect the next leg in the economy to be powered by the capital spending of cash-rich companies.

"The economy is fundamentally sound," says Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James & Associates in St. Petersburg, Fla. "Even though economists have been expecting the economy to slow, recent data suggest it's not that soft."

Last week, companies from Chevron to Microsoft to GlaxoSmithKline reported healthy earnings increases. "The last few years, Wall Street analysts have continued to underestimate earnings, and that's true today. The majority of companies are beating the estimates," says Art Nunes of IMS Capital Management in Portland, Ore.

At some point, you would imagine that simple shame would compel the media to actually do their jobs and report the news -- and just as loudly and insistently as they did under Clinton.

Of course, that's before the shocks of the 2000 election and 9/11 ramped up partisanship throughout the nation, especially our fair and balanced press corps.

This is not the economic boom you're looking for.

"This isn't the economic boom we're looking for."

It's the worst economy since Herbert Hoover.

"It's the worst economy since Herbert Hoover."

Nothing to see here; drive on.

"Nothing to see here; drive on."

The Media Mind Trick.

You betcha, sweetie.

Thanks to John for the pic.

By the way, a lot of people send the link to the Busted Tees "More Cowbell" t-shirt. Yes, I know about it.

Posted by: Ace at 07:10 AM | Comments (55)
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An environmental nitwit claims that some lawn pesticides may reduce your penis size.

I'm surprised, really, that they don't try this one more often. They've claimed that global warming causes everything, including global cooling; why not try the old "global warming makes your winky dinky" ? Can't hurt.

Thanks to Craig.

Posted by: Ace at 06:30 AM | Comments (30)
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