For anything in the Headlines, or anything I didn't mention, or anything you just want to rant about that doesn't fit anywhere else.

This was a pretty slow news day. This is day two of my scanning the wires regime, and man, there was nothing going on most of the time.

Posted by: Ace at 04:31 PM | Comments (35)
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Yeah-- I'm sure it was her saintly intervention and not the fact that his approval had dropped to a record low 41%, and that only 25% of those polled said they would vote to re-elect him.

Nah. It was Hillary. After all, a reporter said so on Chris Matthews.

Next week we'll be told she only expressed support of the program initially because Bill Clinton told her to. He'll take the blame.

Actually, supposedly this comes from someone "in Spitzer's camp" who's at "the highest levels," but it's utter bullshit, an attempt to protect a very important Democrat from the fallout Spitzer himself can't avoid.

Thanks to Stop the ACLU, which is rounding up reactions to this climb-down/credit-grab.

Posted by: Ace at 04:29 PM | Comments (4)
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Veterans are committing suicide at much higher rates than the general population!

Veterans, though, seem to be unlike the general population in that they're 88% male.

Guess which sex commits suicide much more frequently?

In a related expose by CBSNews, only 5% of veterans have breastfed their children, probably indicating either a health problem or neglectful parenting.

Posted by: Ace at 04:08 PM | Comments (18)
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Sir:

Are you fucking retarded?

When was the last time you were tested? Maybe you caught the retard bug on an airplane or something. Lot of that going around at CNN, I hear.

Don't eat anything you find under the sink,

Ace

PS, Retard Rick:

Not only did McCain do his best to deflect the question, and not only is calling Hillary a bitch in jest not particularly offensive, but is your fucking head parked so far up your ass you think this is going to hurt McCain's chances in the GOP?

...

I guess the "B-word" is the new "N-word," huh?

Speaking of "mad libs", here's one:

When I watch Rick Sanchez, I feel my brain literally _________.

Heh: Nice Deb says "McCain has lost the 'Bitch' vote."

Something Else To Go Bananas About, Rick: Phil Jackson calls a game in which his team suffered too much "penetration" a "Brokeback Mountain game."

Eesh: Some truly vile dirt on Rick below. more...

Posted by: Ace at 02:36 PM | Comments (68)
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Glad she cleared that up.

I'm no campaign expert, but this appears to have been poorly handled, and by "poorly handled" I mean god damn what a fucking train wreck THAT was.

At some point they might want to consider a strategy other than "it's all George Bush's fault". I realize that can and does work, some of the time.

Not this time.

More... [Ace]: Seems like a big enough deal to warrant an excerpt:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday came out against granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, after weeks of pressure in the presidential race to take a position on a now-failed ID plan from her home state governor.

Clinton has faced criticism from candidates in both parties for her noncommittal answers on New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's attempt to allow illegal immigrants in his state to receive driver's licenses. Spitzer abandoned the effort Wednesday.

"I support Governor Spitzer's decision today to withdraw his proposal," Clinton said in a statement. "As president, I will not support driver's licenses for undocumented people and will press for comprehensive immigration reform that deals with all of the issues around illegal immigration including border security and fixing our broken system."

So, after saying she supported it, then saying no maybe she didn't, she just supported the idea of it but maybe not so much, Spitzer then buckles under a tsunami of public opinion and Hillary! decides, "Oh yeah, that's right, I didn't support it at all. I forgot."

Leadership.

Too bad they can't have dumb college students moderate these debates. Then I bet she'd have all the answers.

But this doesn't save her, or the Democrats. This past summer immigration was a wedge issue for the GOP. Now it's a wedge issue for the Democrats -- their hardline liberal/open borders base wants amnesty and full citizenship for anyone who can sneak across the border, but the vast majority of Americans -- including half the Democratic party -- hate the idea.

This is, for the Democrat, a question with no right answer. Including, as Hillary attempted, answering it both ways and neither way at all.

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 01:57 PM | Comments (22)
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You got the lighting gun, baby.

I notice they're making a lot of advances -- lightning machines, quantum computers, invisibility cloaks, J-cup bras -- and yet no flyin' fuckin' cars, huh?

Posted by: Ace at 01:39 PM | Comments (10)
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What a wonderful world we live in.

High Street giant Marks & Spencer is to sell J-cup bras for the first time as customers demand larger sizes.

Its largest cup size was previously a G but M&S said there was a demand for the new, bigger garments.

The best-selling cup size at M&S is now 36C compared to 34B around five years ago.

The new size will be sold online first before deciding whether to put them in stores.

The chain's head of lingerie design Soozie Jenkinson said: "We are seeing a larger proportion of younger women with larger cup sizes. That is the trend."

What was that evolution thing? Did they mention women would have outrageously large breasts in the future?

Anyway, it's a rule in the media (particularly the British media) that any story about breasts or sex must have a picture to accompany it, just in case you're not sure what breasts or naked people might look like.

I'm just following the rules here, guys. The Deciders made me do this:

Thanks to rcl.

Not So Classy? I think I got Marks & Spencer mixed up with that high-end department store owned by that, uh, Dodi Al-Fayed dude's dad. I remember hearing Marks & Spencer in an Agatha Christie movie (Orient Express, actually) and so assumed it was high-end. Everything in those movies is tony.

Joanie seems to be making fun of me for this description in the comments, so I'll just edit that word out.

The only British store I know is Boots. Just because I like the name.

Posted by: Ace at 12:50 PM | Comments (65)
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If they're with Al Qaeda, it's a nice bust by the Iraqi forces.

If they're just political rivals, obviously it's not such a nice bust.

I guess we'll wait to hear from the US about this, but it seems like a legitimate anti-terrorist action. Note the troops seem to have been dispatched on the orders of an agency likely controlled by Sunnis:

Iraqi authorities seized the headquarters of the country's most influential Sunni clerical group Wednesday, sealing off its west Baghdad compound and accusing the organization of supporting al-Qaida in Iraq.

...

Iraqi security forces dispatched by the Sunni Endowment, a government agency that cares for Sunni mosques and shrines, surrounded the headquarters of the Association of Muslim Scholars at the Um al-Qura mosque about 9 a.m. and demanded the staff leave by noon, the association said in a statement posted on its Web site.

Troops shut down the association's radio station, which operated from the mosque, and told employees to remove all personal belongings and furniture, the statement said.

"The association has always justified killing and assassinations carried out by al-Qaida," the head of the Sunni Endowments, Ahmed Abdul-Ghafoor al-Samarraie, told reporters at the mosque, built by Saddam Hussein to commemorate the 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Al-Samarraie said the association had opposed the Sunni revolt against al-Qaida, which began last year in Anbar province and is spreading throughout the Sunni heartland. He said the association opposed any group formed "to purge their neighborhoods of al-Qaida elements."

The association has long opposed the U.S. military presence in Iraq and has often been at odds with the Shiite-dominated government. The association spearheaded the Sunni boycott of the January 2005 elections and has often taken public positions in support of Sunni insurgent goals.

But the timing of the move suggests that the government is more confident that it can take action against the hardline Sunni clerics without risking a backlash within the Sunni community and reprisal attacks by al-Qaida and other insurgent groups.

I hope that's right.

Consider what it might mean: Groups advocating violence and support for Al Qaeda no longer have enough popular support that the Iraqi government or coalition forces worry about taking them down.

That would be a sea-change.

Moqtada al-Sadr?

Hey, how ya doin'.

Posted by: Ace at 12:04 PM | Comments (7)
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That was shot as he filmed his upcoming movie Don't Mess With The Zohan.

I'm calling it right now: From what little I know, this movie is going to be huge, almost as big as that ridiculous codpiece Sandler's wearing for the part. Zohan is an ex-Israeli counter-terrorism commando who makes Jack Bauer seem like, well, Kiefer Sutherland. But he gives it all up because he can't take the horror of torturing Palestinian "suspects" and killing noble "freedom fighters."

No, wait, that would be the movie if Sean Penn were in it. He actually retires from the Mossad's Super-CTU to pursue his lifelong dream... of being a hairdresser in New York. And taking on an evil Land Developer (played by... Michale "Are you ready to rumble?" Buffer?) who wants to drive out all of the local businesses to make room for a new Mall of America monstrosity.

And of course he needs to use his acrobatic style of IDF kung fu to thwart them.
more...

Posted by: Ace at 11:32 AM | Comments (42)
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So says Bryan and so seem to say the polls-- particularly on the white-hot issue of immigration.

Posted by: Ace at 10:58 AM | Comments (12)
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