As Ken cautioned, and I agreed, it's still possible that this guy was just a sicko obsessed with JonBenet, and his sick mind convinced him that confessing to her murder would be a way to unite them forever, if only in the public imagination.

An alibi from an ex-wife isn't too shabby. Ex-wives generally are compromised in the other direction.

former American school teacher said publicly Thursday that he was with JonBenet Ramsey when she died in what he called "an accident," a stunning admission after a decade without answers in the 6-year-old girl's murder. But the suspect's ex-wife said she was with him in Alabama at the time of JonBenet's 1996 death.

I don't know how you can prove he was there at the exact time, but if you can prove he was there during the basic time-period, obviously, it's kind of hard to take the red-eye to Colorado from Alabama and do a murder and yet be back home by morning without the wife knowing.

Thanks to John.

Posted by: Ace at 07:00 AM | Comments (75)
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A dark night is a criminal's best friend.

A "darknet" service that allows users to share music files anonymously on the web has been launched in Sweden.

Relakks, as the service is known, allows users to send and receive files through a heavily-encrypted connection.

It is the first commercial example of a darknet, a virtual network set up to share files between trusted users.

The service is endorsed by political group the Pirate Party which is running for election in Sweden under a banner to reform the country's copyright laws.

"There are many legitimate reasons to want to be completely anonymous on the internet," said Rickard Falkvinge, chairman of the Pirate Party.

"The right to exchange information in private is fundamental to the democratic society. Without a safe and convenient way of accessing the internet anonymously, this right is rendered null and void."

The people who are always the biggest on anonymity and privacy are the criminals. The potheads, the hackers, the childporn guys.

(Oh, and the conservative bloggers, too.)

Let's just say their absolutist political beliefs just coincidentally dovetail nicely with their criminal or near-criminal behaviors.

A darknet is a cordoned-off, anonymised section of the net where users can meet, chat and swap data.

Usually darknets are confined to small tight-knit groups such as hackers who use the secure connections to distribute information and hacking tools.

They have also been used by paedophiles to distribute images of child abuse.

Many are invitation-only services where potential members have to upload material to prove themselves to the group before they are granted full access.

Like the Mafia. Kill a guy to prove you're one of them, and not a cop or informant.

On the other hand, when a government is itself criminal, this is a hell of a handy innovation:

Similar identity-hiding tools such as Tor are used by net dissidents in countries like China to avoid persecution for their activities on the web.

Unfortunately, the Chinese dissidents' activities are mostly concerned with sending pirated avi's of pornstar Carmella Bing back and forth. "Democracy is nice and all," a dissident calling himself only "Jiu" said, "but lordy, look at the rack on this one. And she's not just dirty. She's filthy-dirty. I'm not even sure if half of the stuff she's doing is actually even sex."

Cleaning Up: It's a cold night, not a dark one, that is said to be a policeman's best friend, but close enough.

The whole thing at the end about "filthy-dirty" and "not even sure if it's sex" is an homage (i.e., direct swipe) from David Spade's character on Just Shoot Me.

Thanks to George.

Posted by: Ace at 06:55 AM | Comments (17)
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O.J. Simpson was quoted as saying, "Hey, you're preaching to the choir."

Is this a preview of his coming defense?

Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul said U.S. authorities informed Thai police on Aug. 11 that an arrest warrant had been issued for Karr on charges of premeditated murder. The warrant was sent to Thai police on Wednesday.

At the press conference, Suwat said Karr insisted after his arrest that his crime was not first-degree murder. "He said it was second- degree murder. He said it was unintentional. He said he was in love with the child. She was a pageant queen," Suwat said.

How does the defendant plead?

-- She was a pageant queen, your honor.

What?

-- Pageant queen. She looked really cute as a cowgirl.

That's not a proper pleading. It's either "guilty" or "not guilty."

-- All right: I plead guilty-- to loving a pageant queen.

You're not charged with loving anybody. You're charged with killing a six year old girl in a kidnapping case, which, by the felony murder rule, is a murder, accidental or not.

-- Okay, okay. Not guilty, by reason of adorableness.

Buddy, you're going to have a rough time in prison. I just want to warn you for that. You might want to start working out, maybe taking Tae Bo lessons.

...

Seriously, imagine the Job-like trevails of the Ramseys. To not only have a daughter murdered in your home, discoverng the body yourself, but then to be strongly suspected by an entire nation of killing her.

That is truly one of the worst things I've ever heard.

Posted by: Ace at 05:31 AM | Comments (31)
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He doesn't mention the Lieberman-Lamont primary all the world is apparently buzzing about -- one of the reasons to "question the timing" suggested by St. Andrew of the Sacred Heart-Ache.

He does, however, mention the need to "distract" from the Hezballah-Israel war, which is second reason (of three) mentioned by Sullivan.

The company he keeps lately, huh?

Good stuff, good stuff. He's got this fierce rebuttal by Janet Daley:

This enemy does not even bother to offer explanations for its actions that fall within the acceptable bounds of Western debate: it is overtly racist, explicitly imperialistic and unapologetically inhumane.

So it is left to the media to make the apologias. First, the home-grown terrorist threat was the fault of racist Britain for denying opportunity and educational advancement to Muslim youth.

Then it turned out that most of those involved in the propagation of terrorism were middle-class and university-educated.

At least two of the suspects arrested in the latest alleged plot are converts to Islam: they cannot be said to have suffered a lifetime of embittering discrimination for their newly embraced faith.

This phenomenon is more reminiscent of Baader-Meinhoff than of the intifada - a fanatical cult of rebellious malcontents who are “alienated” (the word of the moment) by the actions of their government and the mores of their country.

This pernicious nonsense is treated by the BBC as if it were the height of reasonableness.

Backlash. We have been sick of being murdered for a while.

We are growing almost as sick of being informed by Muslim apologists that we deserve to be murdered, and we are disgusted by the media's peddling of this line as if it's necessary "balance."

I don't recall the media suggesting Matthew Shepppard or James Byrd might have somehow deserved murdering as, from the point of view of their killers, there were legitimate historical grievances that had to be addressed through the political vehicle of cold-blooded murder. Nor do I remember them giving the "pro-homosexual-killing" or "pro-black-lynching" "moderates" a forum to justify the murders.

Nor should they have, of course. But neither should they be doing so now.

Posted by: Ace at 05:25 AM | Comments (7)
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Background for the gag: this hilarious "Israeli checklist" posted by an AP stringer on his anti-Israel blog.

McGurk repsonds. "Comic sans" is a reference to the idiotic font the Hezbollywood hopeful used in his checklist.

Posted by: Ace at 04:29 AM | Comments (16)
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No, seriously-- and in a non-lunatic fashion.

The LAT attempted to spin for Murtha by suggesting he had made his infamous, defamatory "in cold blood" remarks after being briefed by Gen. Hagee-- thus strongly suggesting his comments were informed by the briefing itself. Lending great credence to the "in cold blood" charge.

Other accounts contradicted this, stating that Murtha had been briefed by Hagee after-- strongly suggesting the "in cold blood" comment had come not from top military people in a position to know the facts, but rather was pulled straight from the stinking, festering nethercosm of Murtha's large, saggy ass.

Patterico contacted General Hagee's office for clarification. Doing actual reportial work -- or perhaps adding a level of painstaking editorial fact-checking the LAT couldn't get around to -- and you'll never guess what he found.

Well, you probably will.

The LAT insists its article is accurate and refuses to issue a retraction or correction.

Your very professional, dedicated-to-the-truth MSM in action.

I hope Instapundit and Malkin and other big guns link him. The LAT would like, of course, for this to just go away and continue maintaining they had gotten it right, despite all the evidence suggesting they'd gotten it very wrong; they certainly do not want to issue a retraction based on reporting and editorial fact-checking by a blog.

So I hope this gets enough attention that they can't bury it.

They are too arrogant to admit error. The only way to get these arrogant jagoffs to admit error is to embarrass them so much that admittng the error is less humiliating than continuing to maintain a lie.

Fake But Accurate?: Allah points out that it is unclear if Hagee's aide was briefing people prior to Murtha's 5/17 "in cold blood" remark.

Actually, there's no firm reason to believe he was, but then, neither is there a firm timeline to prove he wasn't.

Ergo, it's possible, though we don't know, the LAT owes a clarification, not a full correction.

However, considering that Kline, the Republican representative who issued an apology for making similar statements, was never quoted about this until the 26th, it appears that the aide in question was not briefing anyone until the 24th or thereabouts.

It's not proof, but it is circumstantial evidence that there was no "breifing" at all before the 24th, whether with an aide or Hagee himself.

Allah confirms that this is what his cite-searching seems to suggest, but can't say it proves that Murtha wasn't briefed earlier. But the evidence at hand does not suggest any pre-May 17 briefings.

I really don't see the need for great reservation. If the LAT knows of a previous, hitherto unpublicized earlier breifing by an aide, why does it not simply say so? Patterico has been in contact with them; they don't need to publish an article, they can just write "You are forgetting about a previous briefing."

There's hardly any doubt that Murtha was getting things leaked to him, but a leak is not a "briefing." A briefing is an official report expressing a consensus view of the facts. Furthermore, given its official nature, it's fair to guess that whatever comes from the briefing is, in this context, the best face the Marines can put on the incident.

A leak is just one guy expressing his own opinion.

Either way, a "leak" is not a "briefing," and the LAT cannot report Murtha received a "briefing" from Gen. Hagee if what he really received was a leak from someone else.

Key Background: Funny, and it demonstrates the LAT's insufferably prickis arrogance. Their response to Patterico's legitimate questions is very telling.

Posted by: Ace at 04:01 AM | Comments (12)
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LIES!! ALL LIES!!! I question the timing!

No, seriously, okay, he scores some damage here. It is my belief that Giuliani will make himself far more acceptable to conservatives by endorsing, at least in the main, their positions on key issues.

If he doesn't, then yes, he has no hope at all of winning.

Thanks to jfc.

Posted by: Ace at 03:48 AM | Comments (46)
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This runs against the "question the timing" stuff, as the lead has actually narrowed since the last poll by Qunnipinianainaninniac.

Still, that's a pretty good lead.

You know what I said about Lieberman dropping out of the race under pressure from Democrats? Yeah, forget I said anything about that.

Here's an additional side-benefit: With Lieberman now with a commanding, well-nigh insurmountable lead, all the attention that would have gone to Kos and the lefty nutroots is greatly reduced. Yes, they won a Democratic primary. But they can't win a general election, which is what counts.

Brit Hume was chuckling his ass off yesterday as he read Lamont's statement claiming to be a fiscal conservative. On one hand, I have to admit, laughing out loud as you read a statement from a candidate is not, precisely, "fair and balanced."

On the other hand, it was pretty funny, and I think Brit Hume should get to enjoy himself at somone else's expense every once in a while. He hasn't been on the Sunday show with Juan Williams for weeks; he needs a new mouse to bat around.

Correction: I originally wrote that the lead had opened up, as I was comparing it to the 46-41 edge shown by Rasmussen. But Qunnippiac says their last poll showed a 53-41 edge.

Oddly, both candidates lost support since the last poll (as did the Republican candidate). Lamont gained a scary 1%. I suppose that means more people are open minded and still deciding, but, with Lieberman at 49%, he doesn't need many undecideds to break his way.

Nits and Pieces: I wrote "has... shrank." I guess that's a good reason not to split up verbs. You get lost. I changed it to "has... narrowed," as "has... shrunk" sounds funny to me.

Thanks to CraigC.

And thanks, generally, to everyone, especially Phil, for being on nit patrol. Sometimes I get to these mistakes, othertimes I let them go, as I consider a rather slapdash regard for spelling and grammar an essential part of the Ace of Spades Lifestyle (TM).

The AoS Lifestyle is all first-draft, baby.

Posted by: Ace at 03:23 AM | Comments (22)
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For real, I think, unless someone's put up a quick fakey.

Probable cause right there, again.

The rest of the resume, assuming it's genuine, is copied below the fold, for whatever it's worth. I don't think that server is going to hold out for long.

Thanks to SarahW of Blue Merle.

Update: Dan Riehl thinks the resume reads like a world tour of child exploitation. I don't know. I don't see a lot of countries that raise a lot of flags to me. more...

Posted by: Ace at 05:23 PM | Comments (158)
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It does take a certain amount of hhhcchhhutzpachhh, as Those People say, to sign one's name to the bleeding obvious. I mean, sure, Hollywood isn't exactly a fountain of anti-Israeli sentiment, but still.

So they should be congratulated.

And they didn't just sign a statement against terrorism generally. No, that's for leftie wussies like Matt Damon. They named names -- like Hezboallah and Hamas.

A lot of, well, Usual Suspects on the list, like James Woods, Bruce Willis, and Dennis Hopper. They haven't exactly hidden their leanings.

Yeah, Dennis Hopper was a shock and a half a year ago, but we've known he was strong with the Dark Side of the Force for a while.

Some surprises that are really not surprises, like Danny DeVito. Jersey guy. Makes sense.

Don Johnson. I could have seen that one going either way. Either way, he would have been a little, well, Don Johnson about it. I'm glad he chose wisely. (Still want to know what the hell was the deal with the supposedly $8 billion in bank notes found in a car he was driving. That should be his next movie.)

But William Hurt? Never in a thousand years would I have guessed that one. I figured he was "that way," if you know what I'm saying. Liberal as all get out, I mean. Nick from The Big Chill but with a Sierra Club membership card.

Niccole Kidman (surprise), Kelly Preston (rrrrarrrr), Sam Raimi (should've guessed), Dick Donner (should've guessed), Ridley Scott (kinda already knew-- he's made a lot of covert conservative statements), brother Tony Scott (shoulda known -- True Romance, Crimson Tide).

On the other hand, I generally assume cool people are Republican or at least not anti-American or ultralefty and relatively sane. It's always a disappointment to find out they're not.

Prescience: A few days ago Mrs. R, also known as Wuzzademette, played with the idea that Hollywood was "scooching right."

Posted by: Ace at 04:33 PM | Comments (75)
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