We'll have RNC Chair Ken Mehlman on, for like ten minutes, tops.

Pretty cool, but he's not going to be there long.

Here's a direct link to the audio stream.

In case you're wondering: My regular show was supposed to be on this past Tuesday, but I flaked. And Liz, my producer, who usually reminds me, flaked too. So I didn't know I was supposed to do a show until ten minutes into its scheduled slot.

So this is sort of my make-up show, I guess.

I'm so unprepared it's absurd. Should be yet another trainwreck.

Posted by: Ace at 10:54 AM | Comments (4)
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Long story short: On most issues, the President got what he wanted.

On the purely symbolic and semantic issue of whether or not the Geneva Conventions would be expressly "modified," McCain got what he wanted. The Conventions will not be modified. The War Crimes Act, by which infractions of the Conventions are punished, will, on the other hand be modified.

In other words, the Conventions are being modified indirectly but inarguably, but McCain gets to claim he won on that issue.

On the critical issue of waterboarding, they seem to have punted. Unable to come to any agreement on that, they left it vague.

There will be no lawsuits; no private causes of actions are allowed. The Congress gets to define "grave breaches," which will give rise to prosecutions; anything less than a "grave breach" may be defined as acceptable by Executive Order. Does the president have the power to define waterboarding as non-"grave" if the Congress has defined "grave breaches" as including techniques that inflict "serious mental harm"?

Who knows. No one does. There was no meeting of the minds on this point.

Victory for coercive interrogations? Not quite. But the issue remains open, and may be revisited.

The politics of it are clearly a win for Republicans. The Democrats no longer have the cover of war hero/torture victim John McCain. Most Democrats in competitive races will have to support this compromise if they want a chance of actually winning. Democratic Senators who aren't up for reelection, and those in safe Congressional districts, will be able to vote against this and slam it as permitting torture.

The Democrats hope that this strategy will immunize their candidates in competitive races against the issue, while the rest of the Democratic Party plays to the soft-on-terror base and assures them they're still the party of guaranteeing the Bill of Rights for terrorists.

So, on this issue, Democrats will try to keep it local (hey, Bill Nelson voted for the compromise!) while Republicans will try to nationalize it, and portray the whole of the Democratic Party as soft-on-terror, mitigated only by a few cynical go-along-to-get-alongers in key races.

The issue will still cut against Democrats, though. Their strategy may help some candidates avoid it, but there is little doubt as to what would happen should the Democratic Party take Congress.

Posted by: Ace at 10:51 AM | Comments (19)
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Now this is pretty cool. And pretty ambitious.

One of the main presenters talks about it here.

And here's a trailer for the start-up.

When you think about it-- what is a TV news service, anyway? A camera, a studio, a presenter, a radio mast... and access to the same Reuters and AP dispatchers everyone else has.

Sure, there's more to it than that. There's also a big staff able to track its own stories. But it's the 20/80 principle -- 20% of the investment and resources and energy and time can get you 80% of the results. The last 20% takes 80% of the effort and money, and they'll just have to punt on that.

It won't be the channel anyone turns to for breaking news that requires farflung news bureaus. But 80% of the news isn't the breaking sort, is it?

80% on a shoestring budget? Not too shabby. FoxNews started out pretty creaky, too.

Via Instapundit.

Posted by: Ace at 10:18 AM | Comments (25)
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A cartoon running on Adult Swim, basically a hyperviolent parody of Conan, with some D&D jokes tossed in for good measure.

More amusing than howlingly funny... until Korgoth starts laying down the smackdown, at which point it turns into an Itchy and Scratchy style gorefest. That stuff rates a decent chuckle.

A bunch of episodes are collected at the link.

Thanks to Pupster.

Posted by: Ace at 09:58 AM | Comments (14)
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The MSM blasted Pelosi's and Rangel's coordinated and calculated anti-Chavez message so as the public wouldn't get the, ahem, wrong idea that Democrats support a vicious communist tyrant, but they weren't so keen on repeating Harkin's off-message statement.

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, a democrat, today defended Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's United Nations speech in which Chavez called President George Bush the devil. Harkin said the comments were "incendiary", then went on to say, "Let me put it this way, I can understand the frustration, ah, and the anger of certain people around the world because of George Bush's policies." Harkin continued what has been frequent criticism of the president's foreign policy.

...

Harkin says, "We tend to forget that a few days after 9-1-1 thousands, thousands of Iranians marched in a candlelight procession in Teheran in support of the United States. Every Muslim country was basically on our side. Just think, in five years, President Bush has squandered all that." Harkin says the U.S. has put billions of dollars into the Iraq war, when it could be helping poor countries with things like clean water, medical aid and education.

Just another example of bias. When the Democrats want to get their message out, the MSM is eager to assist them. And they're willing to protect the Democrats' consensus message of the day by embargoing any off-notes.

On the other hand, the MSM loves exposing unpopular GOP utterances, and undermining the GOP's own attempts at a unified message.

And what about all that "good will" pouring out of the Islamic world after 9/11?

You probably haven't forgotten most sickening image after the 9/11 mass-murder-- the old Palestinian crone handing out cake in celebration of the deaths of 3000. Neither has Patterico.

Posted by: Ace at 09:49 AM | Comments (7)
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A surprisingly candid assessment of the MSM from an actual MSM reporter. Senior political correspondant for the WaPo in DC, so he's not exactly a nobody.

TE: And I agree that whatever you want to call it, mainstream media, presents itself as unbiased, when in fact, there are built into it, many biases, and they are overwhelmingly to the left.

Hugh likes to grill reporters on this. Few cough up the truth. Here's a question I wish he'd ask: the MSM has had panels and roundtables galore exploring possible media bias against blacks, women, Muslims, etc. And yet it seems that, if anything, the MSM is biased in favor of these groups' greivances, agendas, and claims.

When are they going to do a prominent roundtable on the most obvious bias of all?

Posted by: Ace at 09:37 AM | Comments (9)
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There's really nothing like fair food.

Six Flags Great America is offering visitors of its Halloween-themed FrightFest a chance to get out of waiting in long lines to get on rides. From October 7 through October 29, customers who eat a live Madagascar hissing cockroach get unlimited line-jumping privileges.

Posted by: LauraW. at 08:13 AM | Comments (18)
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The coolest plane ever . . .

. . . will no longer be patrolling the Danger Zone.

By Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY

VIRGINIA BEACH — Today the Navy holsters the F-14 Tomcat, the top gun in its Cold War arsenal and one of the most recognizable warplanes in history. Maintenance costs for the F-14 have soared, and its replacement, the F/A-18 Super Hornet, is more versatile and cheaper to maintain.

The Super Hornet is unlikely to surpass the F-14's following. Furiously fast, deafeningly loud and lethal to enemy aircraft, the Tomcat had attained legendary status by the 1980s. The 1986 film Top Gun, in which Tom Cruise portrayed an F-14 pilot in training, cemented the supersonic warplane's reputation in the popular culture.

"There's something about the way an F-14 looks, something about the way it carries itself," says Adm. Michael Mullen, chief of naval operations, the Navy's top officer. "It screams toughness. Look down on a carrier flight deck and see one of them sitting there, and you just know, there's a fighter plane. I really believe the Tomcat will be remembered in much the same way as other legendary aircraft, like the Corsair, the Mustang and the Spitfire."

Navy retires F-14

Posted by: Ace at 01:40 AM | Comments (77)
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Drudge was running the following photo of Hugo Chavez on his site for most of the day today when it struck a chord in my memory.

The chord? C#. But that's besides the point.

What it reminded me of was the last time I saw a photo of a child so uncomfortable in the presence of such a caring, benevolent, and compassionate man like Hugo Chavez.

Did I say "caring", "benevolent" and "compassionate"? I meant "evil", "tyrannical" and "barbaric".

That photo was taken over 16 years ago. Anyone remember this?

That's right. That is none other than deposed tyrant Saddam Hussein posing with a "guest" of his regime, a 5 year old English lad named Stuart Lockwood.

Lockwood was just one of dozens of hostages that Hussein was using as human shields in 1990 in the futile hope that their presence as "human shields" would deter the American-led coalition from liberating Kuwait.

I find this quote from then-British Foreign Minister Douglas Hurd to be particualrly apt for both of these photos:

The manipulation of children in that sort of way is contemptible.

Anyway, for a blast from the past this link will give you a summation of the Hussein/Lockwood story.

Make of the pictures what you will.

I just thought they were interesting. And quite telling.

Posted by: Ace at 12:54 AM | Comments (26)
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There hasn't been one of these things posted in a while, so I figured now would be a good time to open the floor and let you knuckleheads talk about pretty much whatever you wanted.

Plus, that will buy me time to go out and play a round of golf this morning.

So fire away! Just remember that even though I will be MIA for a few hours, Ace and LauraW will still be around to supervise your behavior. (Yes, Amish, I'm talking to you!)

Michael will probably be around too. And you know how sensitive he can be.

So, have fun, and vent a little. This one's on me.

Posted by: Ace at 11:15 PM | Comments (43)
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