Let the showdown begin. As mentioned yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Reid has announced that the military will get no Iraq War funding this year unless congressional Republicans and President Bush accept a deadline for retreat.

Republicans in the Senate just blocked the short-term funding bill that contained such restrictions. Well, most Republicans. Frequent fence-jumpers Gordon Smith, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, and Chuck Hagel voted for the bill and retreat.

I still think Democrats are underestimating just how bad this looks:

In the meantime, Democrats say, the Pentagon can use some of its $471 billion annual budget without being forced to take drastic steps.

"The days of a free lunch are over," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Yes, a Democratic senator just referred to funding an ongoing military operation as a "free lunch." Presumably, he meant a "free lunch" for President Bush--a sentiment that probably plays well for the Far Left.

But note that Democrats aren't even trying to actually defund the war. They're quick to assure us that the Pentagon can just move funds around without causing a problem (something that Secretary Gates said yesterday was not possible; see first link above). That makes this nothing more than a ploy to appease their base, who are still waiting for Democrats to make good on their Election 2006 promises.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 09:44 AM | Comments (19)
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Eh, kind of interesting. I'd throw it in the sidebar but I like the picture:

Thanks to... I forget, I've had it open since yesterday, sorry.

Posted by: Ace at 09:40 AM | Comments (17)
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How are we expected to take Ron Paul seriously when his supporters resemble some eerie melange of the Cenobites from Hellraiser and Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem?

Federal agents, in a move that could have an impact on the presidential race, raided the Indiana office of the issuer of a private currency known as the Liberty Dollar — and seized tens of thousands of coins bearing the likeness of a presidential candidate, Rep. Ron Paul.

Overall, agents on Wednesday hauled away more than 2 tons of copper coins and 500 pounds of silver coins, as well as records and computers, the founder of the currency system, Bernard von NotHaus, told The New York Sun by phone from Miami.....

The raid has the potential to alter the campaign of Mr. Paul, the Republican candidate of Texas whose visage appears on the more than 50,000 seized copper coins, as well as on lesser amounts of gold and silver coins. Mr. Paul is basing his presidential campaign in part on the argument that the federal government has been debasing the dollar. Mr. von NotHaus, a supporter of the presidential candidate, said he put Mr. Paul's image on the dollars to raise attention for the candidate. An eclectic nationwide crew of libertarians and coin enthusiasts exchange the coins.

...

The reason behind the raid is unclear. The Justice Department's position, according to a year-old consumer alert on the Web site of the United States Mint, is that using Liberty Dollars "as circulating money is a federal crime." Mint officials said the Liberty Dollar looks similar to legal tender, with inscriptions that say, "Trust in God" and "USA."

Posted by: Ace at 09:35 AM | Comments (171)
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To get this, you have to know what the videogame Guitar Hero is. It looks like this:

Okay, anyway, so here's "Cowbell Hero:"

Thanks to SarahW.

Posted by: Ace at 09:22 AM | Comments (12)
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Worth watching, if you want to be angry. For highlights skip towards the end of the first video to watch them attempt to block a moving vehicle with a dumpster they roll out into the road, and skip to about 3:00 in the second one as they block normal traffic and one asshole sarcastically whines, "We're sorry you were inconvenienced for five minutes while millions of people are dying in Iraq! We're sorry!"

Who's Calendar? Our Calendar!

Who's Calendar? Our Calendar!

Meh. I hate them.

Posted by: Ace at 08:51 AM | Comments (34)
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How else can we explain the fact that he keeps putting poison-pill issues on the map. He did it with his driver's licenses for illegals plan, which managed to confound Clinton for weeks and tie Obama firmly to an unpopular idea. Now, he's done it again, resurrecting the issue of gay marriage just in time to poll the candidates.

Spitzer, a gay-marriage proponent, pledged to help Democrats next November win the three [New York] Senate seats they need to gain the majority.

"One of the first things we're going to do when [Senate Minority Leader] Malcolm Smith is [majority] leader is gay marriage," the witness recounted Spitzer as telling some 60 people who paid up to $10,000 each to attend the event in Greenwich Village Wednesday night.

You'll note that gay marriage, civil unions, DADT, or other gay rights issues weren't mentioned at all during last night's Democratic debate. The omission was not unintentional.

Gay issues, like immigration issues, sharply divide the Democratic Party. A candidate who is vocally in favor of gay rights risks alienating moderates and blacks, the same two groups that are already mad about immigration. On the other hand, the first candidate to come out against gay rights will be in trouble with the Far Left voters who drive the primaries.

Personally, I'd like to see these issues discussed in the national debates, and not just in special-interest debates like that hosted by Human Rights Campaign and LOGO.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:45 AM | Comments (213)
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The Washington Times has an article on a topic that got some attention here in the last few weeks. It discusses the few well-known Republican-leaning actors and makes some speculation about others. The idea that Hollywood is a Democratic town is emphasized:

While Democrats enjoy very public support from Hollywood's top actors and musicians, who often hold lavish events for their favorite candidates, Republican supporters in Hollywood try hard to keep their political views quiet.

"They learn very quickly, if they know what's good for them, to donate to the Democratic Party," said Andrew Breitbart, co-author of "Hollywood, Interrupted." "If they were to donate to the Republican Party, they would be exposed to career-ending ridicule, period."

For what its worth, I've had two Republican-voting, well-known actors tell me that it's not that black-and-white, at least not once the actor has become "a star" (and, therefore, a money-maker). On the other hand, anyone who wants to make it to that level of success has to fly under the radar until then.

I got a chuckle over this quote, responding to rumors that Terri Hatcher is a Republican:

"Please be advised that Ms. Hatcher is not a Republican, but more importantly does not choose to have her political affiliation or viewpoints on any particular candidate or issue in the current presidential campaign included in your proposed article," lawyer Barry W. Tyerman said in an e-mail.

Maybe this puts the lie to the folks I mentioned above.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:26 AM | Comments (53)
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Yeah, that wasn't hot. Neither is Teeth, a Sundance award winning horror film about vagina dentata. Trailer here.

I'm not sure why they felt the need to gimmick up the monster here with predatory teeth; those things are scary enough as it is. Why gild the lily? It's like making a serial killer movie and then giving him laser-beam eyes. The science fiction detracts from the real-life horror.

If I were making a horror film I'd call it Perfectly Normal Vagina and let the screams, and box office, wash over me.

Thanks to mob.

Horrifying Puppets: Kratatoa just sent this, and even though it's old, it's related. Scare yourselves silly with these realistic (?) vagina puppets.

Posted by: Ace at 08:21 AM | Comments (22)
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Global warming scientists are like OJ Jurors, looking about for unlikely conspiracies when there's a guy dripping with blood right in front of them.

The BBC spends the bulk of its ink trying to debunk the theory, but at least they noted it:

Henrik Svensmark and his collaborators at the Danish National Space Center (DNSC) believe the missing link between small solar variations and large temperature changes on Earth are cosmic rays.

"I think the Sun is the major driver of climate change," he says, "and the reason I'm saying that is that if you look at historical temperature data and then solar activity and cosmic ray activity, it actually fits very beautifully.

"If CO2 is a very important climate driver then you would expect to see its effect on all timescales; and for example when you look at the last 500 million years, or the last 10,000 years, the correlation between changes in CO2 and climate are very poor."

When hugely energetic galactic cosmic rays - actually particles - crash into the top of the atmosphere, they set in train a sequence of events which leads to the production of ions in the lower atmosphere.

The theory is that this encourages the growth of tiny aerosol particles around which water vapour can condense, eventually aiding the formation of clouds.

And the link to the Sun? It is because cosmic rays are partially deflected by the solar wind, the stream of charged particles rushing away from the Sun, and the magnetic field it carries. A weaker solar wind means more cosmic rays penetrating the atmosphere, hence more clouds and a cooler Earth.

The theory makes some intuitive sense because over the last century the Sun has been unusually active - which means fewer cosmic rays, and a warmer climate on Earth.

"We reconstructed solar activity going back 11,000 years," relates Sami Solanki.

"And across this period, the level of activity we are seeing now is very high - we coined the term 'grand maximum' to describe it. We still have the 11-year modulation on top of the long-term trend, but on average the Sun has been brighter and the cosmic ray flux lower."

There is evidence too that cosmic rays and climate have been intertwined over timescales of millennia in the Earth's past.

One of the scientists who doubts this theory -- apparently a fan of carbon-based warming -- has a precious quote: Proponents of this mechanism have tended to extrapolate their results beyond what is reasonable from the evidence.

Ummm, yeah.

Posted by: Ace at 08:14 AM | Comments (19)
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You may remember Kayla Ebbert who was told to cover up while flying on Southwest Airlines earlier this year. Well, in one of the more predictable turns in the story, she is going to appear in nude in Playboy.

But donÂ’t worry, apparently the pictures are quite tasteful.

Playboy contacted Ebbert's attorney to pitch the idea of posing. After "a little bit of talking" to convince her mother, Ebbert agreed. She said her boyfriend supported her decision, but "the most hesitant one was my dad."

Â… Ebbert worked at a Hooters in San Diego but said wants to become an attorney, and doesn't think posing nude should get in the way of her professional aspirations.

"This was beautiful and classy. I don't see why it would affect a professional position," she said. "I'd do it again in a heartbeat."

From Hooters to Playboy to a lawyer, Kayla truly is living the American dream.

UPDATE: [Dave in Texas] From Cuffy Meigs, links to some of Kayla's latest business endeavors. I haven't seen them, but the link to him is reasonably safe, after that we are advised not so much for work. Have fun.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:06 AM | Comments (20)
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