It's never too early to start thinking about pumpkin carving ideas for Halloween.

This year, why not try something non-traditional like a Jack-O-Barfer, or a Jack-O-Brain Eating Zombie? How about a Jack-O-Lantern with no less than four power tools sticking out of his noggin?

Extreme Pumpkin video, here.

Posted by: Open Blog at 03:14 PM | Comments (13)
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Obamessiah told a bunch of corn-fed Iowa hicks that the military should scrap it's "don't ask, don't tell" policy today.

Freakin' Iowa. They gave us Ethanol and Tom Arnold and these people think they should have the 1st choice in the presidential process?

I have nothing good to say about Iowa except this: at least they aren't Nebraskans

Anyway, the story pretty much speaks for itself. Read it if you care.

UPDATE: I've received word from the John Edwards campaign that upon hearing this news, John Edwards immediately called for reinstating the draft...in his pants.

"I'll see you one and raise you one, Barry," Edwards allegedly and oh so coyly said.

Posted by: Jack M. at 01:36 PM | Comments (40)
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I originally posted about this on my blog last week when all the talk was about the Bush / Anzar transcripts and how they showed that no matter what President Bush was going to invade Iraq.

Not the way I read them but people can disagree.

What I can't figure out is how Juan Cole gets from there to here:

The second claim that I made was that Bush was aware of, and rejected, an offer by Saddam Hussein to flee Iraq, probably for Saudi Arabia, presuming he could take out with him a billion dollars and some documents on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs. Both provisions were intended by Saddam to protect him from later retaliation. The money would buy him protection from extradition, and the documents presumably showed that the Reagan and Bush senior administrations had secretly authorized his chemical and biological weapons programs. With these documents in his possession, it was unlikely that Bush would come after him, since he could ruin the reputation of the Bush family if he did. The destruction of these documents was presumably Bush's goal when he had Rumsfeld order US military personnel not to interfere with the looting and burning of government offices after the fall of Saddam. The looting, which set off the guerrilla war, also functioned as a vast shredding party, destroying incriminating evidence about the complicity of the Bushes and Rumsfeld in Iraq's war crimes.

Aznar asked Bush if he would grant Saddam these guarantees, and Bush roared back that he would not.

I'm not a regular reader of Cole's blog but the last time I did read it he didn't seem quite so unhinged. Maybe the fact that we may actually succeed in Iraq despite his and every other Democrats best efforts has finally pushed him around the bend.

Posted by: Open Blog at 12:19 PM | Comments (35)
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Why not. I'm around but not overly so, as Thomas Jefferson said.

Posted by: Ace at 11:11 AM | Comments (18)
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For those of you so inclined.

I guess the big matchup today is LSU (1) against Florida (9). South Carolina (11) upset Kentucky ( , 38-23 on Thursday (don't play Thursday games), Ohio State (4) plays forsomereasonranked Purdue (23) tonight at 8pm EDT.

Texas (who got their asses handed to them by Kansas State last week. argh, 19) and OU (10) today at 2:30 my time. I only give you "my time" for games I'm watching.

Tomorrow, 13 NFL games (get your picks in) and the Cowboys, who ace once called the gayest name for a football team ever but I don't fuckin think so see Dolphins Browns Giants Ravens, gawd Ravens?? and the Bills on Monday night.

GIANTS! We're GIANTS! RAAARHH!

Homos.

Add Bills to that list. Gay. Extremo.

Seahawks is faggy too.

And 49ers.

I don't much care for Buccaneers either. Swishy.

UPDATE: Rams?!?

You know what I'm sayin here.

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 10:39 AM | Comments (59)
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Officials seem to suspect far more secret signals than actually seem sent, but who knows.

The federal government says a tape of Yousef MegahedÂ’s brother Yahia shows him using secret code through facial movements and then sign language to communicate with Megahed. The government told a federal judge, thatÂ’s why Megahed is a danger to the community.

And when the government first played that tape of what it said was MegahedÂ’s brother sending secret signals to him when he was talking to him while he was in jail it looked as if it had a real smoking gun. Unfortunately for the government at the time the tape was made, Megahed was in his cell and couldnÂ’t see it and MegahedÂ’s brother says he was just seeing himself on camera and making faces because he was bored.

Adam Allen, MegaheadÂ’s attorney, says he thought it was rather funny and comical that the government would make such assumptions of a 24-year-old. Although MegahedÂ’s attorney wouldnÂ’t go as far as saying the government tape was embarrassing, he canÂ’t understand how prosecutors could tell a federal judge that this was part of dark conspiracy.

They don't have to allege a dark conspiracy. Just a conspiracy. And given these nice kids were caught with explosives and are now known to have been shopping for a high-powered rifle, none of this can be called "rather funny and comical."

Dan Riehl was kind enough to send me a half-speed version of the "signaling video," which I've uploaded to YouTube.

Eh. The faces seem to me to be playing around, and that makes it seem likely he's just playing with his hand to watch how it looks on the video. The signals don't seem to have the crispness one would expect from actual signals, and with so few of them, what message could be communicated?

Posted by: Ace at 10:34 AM | Comments (13)
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Two Shia leaders that have been at each other for months, fighting that boiled over into Karbala in August.

They've promised to "protect Iraqi blood and enhance cooperation between the two movements for the Islamic and national interests and to save the nation.''

U.S. response? Thanks. Appreciate it. Any of your assholes running around startin shit are still in the crosshairs. And one wonders how much control you actually have.

Wonders in a bad way, so watch yourself.

Can't complain too much. Edging away from internal clashes is a good thing.

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 09:44 AM | Comments (3)
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Ed and Elaine Brown were holed up in their home for months and threatened a violent response if authorities attempted to take them into custody. Marshals disguised themselves as supporters of their cause (who have been hanging around there for months), and after having been invited in for a visit, arrested them without incident.

It's a bit more than a tax evasion case now.

By their continuing actions, allegedly, to obstruct justice, to encourage others to assist them to obstruct justice, by making threats toward law enforcement and other governmental officials, they have turned this into more than a tax case," (U.S. Marshal Stephen) Monier said.

Live free or die. Or have a picnic. Whatever.

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 05:24 AM | Comments (23)
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Hi everyone.

Ace of Spades will be moving to a shiny new server (quad Xeon with 6GB of ram) tomorrow. We'll be staying in the same datacenter, so commenters shouldn't see any downtime (or at most, a few minutes). People posting on the blog might find that the post doesn't update properly if you end up on the old server while the move is happening, but it will still save the post.

Sorry about the slowness earlier; that was me copying all the files across. The utility that I have to use to keep it all in order is hideously inefficient, but at least it's done now.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 12:51 AM | Comments (19)
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We've all seen the story about Atlantic City Mayor Robert Levy's disappearance in the face of challenges to his accounts regarding his Vietnam service.

I'm stuck on a peculiarity. This article confirms he was the recipient of two Bronze Stars, but challenges his claim to the Combat Infantryman's Badge.

I am perplexed. The Bronze Star is, what's the word I'm looking for, something. Quite significant. How could you earn two Bronze Stars and not qualify for the CIB?

Help me out vets. I know you know things I don't, like who's gonna cover the spread in the Giants/Jets game this weekend.

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 09:04 PM | Comments (42)
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