Sticky Notes has pics and a recap.

Andy the Squirrel questions the timing of the attack. I'm not endorsing this theory, merely "airing" it. But it seems possible that this was a put-up job to make the Syrians appear anti-terrorist. The terrorists may have been sent by the same people who then dropped dime on them to the Syrian authorities.

Or maybe no dime needed to be dropped at all, as they were sent by the Syrian authorities, only to be butchered in a propaganda play.

Again: "airing."

Posted by: Ace at 08:01 AM | Comments (6)
Post contains 94 words, total size 1 kb.

Ensign (R) now ahead for Senate in Nevada.

Also, the national political mood, seen as boosting the Democratic Party, has cooled somewhat. "A month ago, even two weeks ago, the Democrats nationwide were doing better than they are today," he said.

Gibbons campaign manager Robert Uithoven said he believed the polls to be correctly reflecting the direction of the race. "Our TV message is working, we're doing a good job of holding on to the Republican base, courting independents, and we even have about 10 percent of the Democrats," he said. "We hope to continue to grow those numbers and make sure Republicans show up to vote."

Both Democrats preferred to call attention to the polls' large swing and said they found it difficult to believe so many voters could change their minds in just a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, Santorum and DeWine have closed the gap to four points against each of their opponents, and Tom Kean Jr. of New Jersey is ahead of his opponent.

Lieberman, however, showed slippage, but is still ahead by four points.

Meanwhile... Democrats are worrying about failing to pick up Congressional seats in the big swing state of... New York.

Posted by: Ace at 07:01 AM | Comments (33)
Post contains 207 words, total size 2 kb.

Is it one "n" or two? I forget.

Doesn't matter. Washed up nobody Keith Olbernamm (whom?) tries to stick it to Bush without sounding pissy.

Is it just me or are they trying to go for the erection theme in that Keith graphic?

Probably just me.

He laments the lamentable. Personal suffering. I can't knock it. I won't elevate it above anyone else's though. We'll just leave it at "he suffered too".

Then he blames the hole in the ground and the lack of a memorial or anything on Bush.

First overreach.

Then he makes a "Lincoln good Republican, Bush baaad Republican" comparison.

Lincoln used those words to immortalize their sacrifice.

I'm on the edge of my seat here.

Today our leaders could use those same words to rationalize their reprehensible inaction. "We cannot dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground." So we won't.

Second overreach.

We gave him every chance. We tried to let him heal us. Honest we did!

Those who did not belong to his party -- tabled that.

Those who doubted the mechanics of his election -- ignored that.

Those who wondered of his qualifications -- forgot that.

Third overreach.

Terrorists did not come and steal our newly-regained sense of being American first, and political, fiftieth. Nor did the Democrats. Nor did the media. Nor did the people.

The President -- and those around him -- did that.

I'm going to stop counting, cause you're gonna get sick of this.

Somewhere in this mess he uses the expression "impeachment". He crept up on in like a Viking waitress. I believe it's surrounded with "he misled us he lied" crap. Honestly I don't feel like digging it out. It's recycled BushBad pap.

It descends into nonsense from here. And by that I mean most of it will find its way into John Kerry's stump speeches.

I loved this one though.

How dare you, Mr. President, after taking cynical advantage of the unanimity and love, and transmuting it into fraudulent war and needless death, after monstrously transforming it into fear and suspicion and turning that fear into the campaign slogan of three elections? How dare you -- or those around you -- ever "spin" 9/11?

Because I can imagine Bush replying with "whassa matter big guy? Ah think somebody needs a hug. C'mere Olbermeister. C'mere, big feller"!

UPDATE: Yes, I know, Olbermann (who?) says it. But he doesn't really make any case for it, he just throws out a couple of lefty assertions, then mentions it coyly, and then runs away giggling like a little girl.

But I could have been more clear.

Oh and the Purple Avenger declares, Clinton's legacy is officially deceased.

requiescat in goofem

Posted by: Ace at 08:25 PM | Comments (83)
Post contains 479 words, total size 3 kb.

Did I say "asshat"? I meant, of course, "Democratic Congressman". In my thesaurus they are listed as synonyms.

Anyway, Arlington, Virginias pride and joy, Rep. Jim Moran was up to his usual tricks at a local remembrance ceremony this afternoon.

From the article:

"U.S. Rep. Jim Moran, D-8th, lauded the “perfect professionalism” of Arlington's public-safety personnel, who responded to the Pentagon after the crash and won worldwide accolades for containing the damage with no additional loss of life.

He also praised the community-wide outreach effort that occurred after the attacks.

“Arlington has woven together the fabric of a community that can't be torn apart,” he said.

But Moran then maneuvered into more sensitive ground, suggesting that the country was not safer and intimating that the Bush administration's foreign policy was headed in the wrong directions.

“More people hate us,” Moran said, a comment that drew an outburst from the crowd.

“My brother died on 9/11 - don't make this political,” a woman in audience cried out.

Moran continued, calling on the nation to address the root causes of terrorism by the 10th anniversary of the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.

He's a regular, one man Wellstone funeral, Moran is. And what's with this brainless aspirational goal to "address the root causes of terrorism by the 10th anniversary of the attacks." Listen up, Jim, unless your idea to address the root causes involves the systematic destruction of terror organizations and the downfall of the Nation States that sponsor them by means of American military might, you are part of the problem and not part of the solution.

But this appears to be the Democrats 2006 campaign platform in a nutshell. Empty, freakin', we had it coming rhetoric, followed by endless amounts of tolerance for those who seek our destruction.

Good luck with that, Jimmy.

And to think, I lived in his district for 2 years. I never felt cleaner than the day I moved out.

Posted by: Ace at 08:07 PM | Comments (24)
Post contains 335 words, total size 2 kb.

Yummy.

If you want to get rid of a pest, why not use another pest to plague it?

That's the approach approved last week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which will for the first time allow the use of bacteria-eating viruses as additives to foods.

From now on, these viruses -- known as "bacteriophage," or phage -- can be sprayed on ready-to-eat cold cuts and luncheon meats by manufacturers to prevent listeriosis, the most deadly of all foodborne illnesses.

The FDA spent four years evaluating the safety and effectiveness of the "cocktail" of several phage at the request of Intralytix Inc., a Baltimore, Md., biotechnology company. In presenting its petition, Intralytix referred the government to more than 20 studies documenting the power of viruses to fight infection, many of them performed in Russian and Eastern Bloc countries where phage therapies have long been popular in treating certain infections.

Intralytix also conducted studies of its own, trying out its phage mixture (consisting of six different viruses that attack the food-poisoning bacterium Listeria ) on more than 10 different kinds of deli meats, including sliced turkey, roast beef, bologna, chicken and even raw hot dogs, and found that it killed all strains of Listeria.

Phage are everywhere - in the water, soil and human intestines and mucus membranes. Experts say the virus is the most abundant life form on Earth. They are far tinier than bacteria: If you stacked every one of them end to end, you would have to travel at the speed of light for 200 light years to get to the top of the stack, said Fischetti, who is a consultant to a biopharmaceutical company exploring the use of phage in treating anthrax. About 10 million commonly reside in a single milliliter of unpolluted water, he said.

UPDATE: [Johnny M. Coldcuts]

"From now on, these viruses -- known as "bacteriophage," or phage -- can be sprayed on ready-to-eat cold cuts and luncheon meats

Ain't nobody sprayin' nothing on me.

I'm jus' sayin'.

Posted by: LauraW. at 07:09 PM | Comments (40)
Post contains 400 words, total size 3 kb.

And a righteous one, at that.

Mary Katharine Ham takes no prisoners with today's post about the whack-job "Truthers" and their disgusting sycophants in the ivory towered halls of "academia" and the kudzu-covered walls of "modern liberalism".

Who are these "truthers" you ask? MKH has the answer:

It’s important for those of us who know what took the lives of 3,000 Americans five years ago today—four commercial planes with full loads of jet fuel and passengers driven by 19 murderous maniacs—to understand that there is a disturbingly large and vocal segment of the American population that doesn’t believe that.

A recent Scripps poll found that more than a third of Americans believe 9/11 was an “inside job.”

Truthers are professors and Democrat candidates for Congress.

The Truthers believe the American government planned and carried out the carnage of Sept. 11 on its own people, and they’re determined to tell the rest of us all about it. Today, the “Loose Change” kids planned to be at Ground Zero handing out free DVDs. On their website, they offer a free DVD to anyone who lost someone in the 9/11 attacks, and proclaim it everyone’s “duty” to watch the film.

I’m sure the relatives of the victims Avery mocks with his “theories” appreciate that.

MKH noted in the above passage that as part of their carnival of crazy, the "Truthers" plan to give out free DVD's at Ground Zero today.

Her advice?

Be prepared with the actual truth when you meet up with one of these guys.

Which is all well and good, and illustrates why she is a much better person than I.

Because, as someone who once counted Barbara Olson as a friend, I think I would be hard pressed to subject these ghouls to nothing more than the truth, were they to approach me and start waving their Anti-American crap in my face.

Unless, of course, the "truth" in question related to the amount of teeth that could be lost due to a series of well aimed punches to the face.

Not that I'm advocating violence. Heaven's no. I simply think it's time that a well organized gang of Neocons engaged in a spectacularly complex conspiracy to remove Dylan Avery's teeth from his head. Or, failing that, to return his head to its rightful place between his buttocks.

Posted by: Ace at 01:10 PM | Comments (116)
Post contains 398 words, total size 3 kb.

I hate these cocksuckers.

Posted by: Ace at 11:37 AM | Comments (109)
Post contains 28 words, total size 1 kb.

As Blogger Ale notes, the well-intentioned outreach efforts the Religion of Peace keep seeming to be misinterpreted. Even Buddhist schoolteachers are packing heat.

Teachers have one of the deadliest jobs in southern Thailand, with 44 killed by the bombs and bullets of an Islamic insurgency since 2004.

So the teachers are learning how to shoot back.

The Chulabhorn naval base, on the Gulf of Thailand in Narathiwat province, opened its heavily guarded gates on a recent Sunday to a training course for 100 public school teachers, mostly Buddhist men and women who say bringing a gun to school has become essential.

"You'd never see a teacher anywhere else in Thailand carrying a gun," said Sanguan Jintarat, head of the Teachers' Association that oversees the 15,000 teachers in the villages and towns of the restive south. "But, we need them, or we'll die."

That teachers -- not to mention Buddhist monks, bank tellers and motorcycle mechanics -- have become targets in the insurgency illustrates how badly law and order has degenerated in southern Thailand since the violence flared in January 2004.

At first insurgents targeted mainly civil servants, soldiers and police officers. Attacks then spread to businesses that serve soldiers: restaurants, outdoor markets, garages. And now come attacks that seem to have no rationale at all, such as the murder last month of an elephant trainer who was shot seven times by gunmen who had lined up with children to buy tickets for a show.

More than 1,700 people have been killed across Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat -- the only Muslim-majority provinces in this otherwise peaceful, tourist-friendly Buddhist country.

Among them was a teacher gunned down at his blackboard in July as his 4th graders watched in shock, and a Buddhist art teacher clubbed by a village mob in May until her skull shattered.

Teachers may be targets, officials say, because they are symbols of the central government's authority, or be taken hostage to be traded for captured insurgents, or because the militants want to do away with secular schools, sending the message that only Islamic schools -- which have been spared violence -- are safe.

But almost everything about this insurgency is a mystery. It isn't clear whether the militants want a separate Islamic state in what was a Malay sultanate where insurgent violence has waxed and waned over the past century. No goals are stated, no responsibility is claimed for attacks, and no allegiance to foreign Islamic groups is declared. Authorities insist the uprising is purely domestic, but have been unable to arrest any leaders. They have flooded the area with 20,000 troops, but some local officials compare the predicament to that of the U.S. military in Iraq.

Their motives are a mystery only to those who are determined to avoid the motive the murderers proudly declare themselves.

They do not hate you because of Iraq.

They do not hate you because of Kyoto.

They do not hate you because of "US foreign policy."

They do not hate you because of "American hegemony."

They do not hate you because of globalization -- at least as that term is typically understood.

They hate you because their lunatic understanding of their religion compels them to hate you, and to murder you, and to convert the world to Allah, and murder those unwilling to accept his Religon of Extortion.

They hate you because Allah, they believe, has dictated that the most fanatical, most piously murderous of Muslims shall be the kings of the earth and the masters of all creation, and your very existence -- free, prosperous, technologically advanced, happy -- is a blasphemy to them.

They cannot hope to overtake the West, or even the modernizing parts of Thailand, in fifty years, or even a hundred years, or even in five hundred years, through attempts to raise the Islamic world up.

Which means they are commanded to lay the Western world down low.

The West is despised because it offers an alternative to the thuggish, primative, barbarous, woman-enslaving, honor-killing culture-cum-twisted-religion in which they believe. And which therefore threatens the power of the lunatic theocrats to keep control over their populations.

You can't keep them down on the madrassa once they've seen the big city.

They don't hate you because of your freedom -- not exactly.

They hate you because you are a living demonstration that freedom works, and that their ways are backwards and barbarous.

And they will not stop hating you until you are either dead or enslaved along with them in their dark death-cult.

Posted by: Ace at 11:25 AM | Comments (31)
Post contains 769 words, total size 5 kb.

It feels like 2002 again as Jonah Goldberg speculates that the latest AQ tape features Zawahiri because Osama bin Ladin has a scheduling conflict, due to his current assignment in Hell.

There have been long gaps between Osama videos, and they always give rise to suggestions that he may already be dead. It's plausible -- why not offer proof of life if it's possible? -- but there has always been an alterative reason for his camera shyness.

Politicians don't want to be photographed when an announcement of bad news is made. They prefer simply offering a Friday night press release. For good news, they of course rush to be in front of the cameras. But when there's bad news, they keep their face as far away as possible.

Despite the claims that Al Qaeda is "reconstituted" or even "winning" this War on Terror, the fact is that there isn't much for Osama bin Ladin to crow about or celebrate. If there is another specutacular attack, trust that a tape will appear on Al Jazeera within a week and a half. But the terrorists simply do not have much good news, and have not had a successful attack in America for a full five years.

Al Qaeda is winning the War on Terror? Iraq is the greatest Al Qaeda recruitment tool in history?

The media-savvy bin Ladin's reluctance to appear on camera would seem to belie that.

Posted by: Ace at 10:27 AM | Comments (34)
Post contains 242 words, total size 1 kb.

Strong, tough. Tin-eared.

Posted by: Ace at 08:57 AM | Comments (33)
Post contains 17 words, total size 1 kb.