I don't even want to hear any words that begin with "o."

Thanks to dri.

Posted by: Ace at 09:51 PM | Comments (37)
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Facts on the ground:

For the first time since losing control of Congress in 2006, Republicans are back on offense in the political struggle over the Iraq war, as Democratic plans to force a change in strategy by President Bush through peeling away his GOP support continue to yield few results.

Republicans are increasingly buoyed by perceived divisions among Democrats, seeming signs of progress on the ground in Iraq and the fact that the first brigade of U.S. troops started coming home Tuesday.

...

[A]fter a summer of bitter partisan battles over the war, Democrats are going into an Iraq funding battle this week with little hope of dividing Bush and Republicans on Capitol Hill, and they privately seem resigned that the White House will continue to have its way on funding the long-running conflict.

The House is set to debate an Iraq funding bill that liberals believe isnÂ’t strong enough, Republicans refuse to embrace and the president plans to veto.

The Senate, meanwhile, is expected to take up the bill Thursday. But with Republicans insisting on a 60-vote, filibuster-proof threshold and Democrats saying they wonÂ’t send a bill to Bush without a troop withdrawal timetable, the measure is doomed.

There is a pervasive sense among Republicans, and even some Democrats, that the war debate has been reframed by signs of success and that both sides need to adapt to facts on the ground.

“I think momentum has been lost for the argument that the surge has failed,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of Bush’s strongest supporters in Congress. “The momentum is to allow the surge to continue. I don’t see anyone defecting from our side. If there’s any change in votes, it will be on their side.”

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), a moderate Democrat who supports a change in mission but not a mandatory troop withdrawal, said, “People understand that there has been a military success in Iraq. ... There’s an expectation that more of that will happen.”

... it has been clear over the past week that there are divisions among Democrats over the $50 billion “bridge” fund. Last week, House leaders pulled their Iraq measure because Democrats needed more time to explain the measure to their caucus. In the Senate this week, Democrats will vote on a “goal” of troop withdrawal, but if it does not gain 60 votes, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says the president won’t get his money.

That makes some Democrats uncomfortable, since they want to fund the troops even while Congress disagrees over how to end the war.

The whole article is worth reading. Not a lot of bombshells, but it's nice to see it noted in the media that with monthly violence falling, the Democrats are hellbent to stress only total cumulative casualties, because obviously that number can't go down, now can it?

Also worth reading just for the sweet glow of confirmation is Rich Lowry's column noting that the media has lost interest in Iraq almost entirely since the war turned in our direction. Now the media only wants to talk about Blackwater.

Odd. When the macro news is bad, they focus on the macro. When the macro news is good, they focus on the worst micro news at hand. Sense a pattern?

Oh: I think this Tony Blankley piece on the underreported victories in Iraq might even be better.

Posted by: Ace at 09:36 PM | Comments (39)
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...hair bands. Always on the forefront of finding novel ways to reuse nasty shit, the PRC is selling used condoms. 10 for $.03 -- such a deal, eh?

...In the latest example of potentially harmful Chinese-made products, rubber hair bands have been found in local markets and beauty salons in Dongguan and Guangzhou cities in southern Guangdong province, China Daily newspaper said.

"These cheap and colourful rubber bands and hair ties sell well ... threatening the health of local people," it said.

Despite being recycled, the hair bands could still contain bacteria and viruses, it said.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 08:01 PM | Comments (27)
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It reminds me of the Shamnesty debates. How many fucking "no goddamnit's" do you have to hear before you get it?

Well it appears he "got it". Or gave up. I don't really care which. Enjoy him some more, New York.

God damn what a putz*.

* Texas term for "putz".

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 07:25 PM | Comments (16)
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And not far behind Romney, either, as the Drudge siren flash notes.

Thanks to JackM.

Posted by: Ace at 03:31 PM | Comments (39)
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Very funny video, but take note of the strong (but silly) content advisory. Definitely not safe for work.

But funny.

Thanks to Krakatoa.

Posted by: Ace at 03:25 PM | Comments (19)
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Hi.

How's it going?

Funny weather we've been having.

Did you just rape me? I'm pretty sure you just raped me.

The lack of any jail time may be attributed to the fact that 1, it's Britain, where I'm not even sure that actual rapists get jail time any more, and 2, she's bugfuck crazy.

She certainly doesn't have those "crazy-eyes" or anything.

Via Hot Air.

Posted by: Ace at 03:14 PM | Comments (35)
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A vast right-wing conspiracy, conspiring to topple flags in my vicinity.

Not a Good Day: And I thought I was having a good day blogging.

Well, here's your Correction: I'm informed this website is, in fact, a parody site. Oh well. Kind of funny, I guess. I might find it funnier if I weren't steaming with embarrassment and fail.

Here's the actual video. *

Now here is a bona-fide Internet Detective, hot on the case. Is this a joke? I dunno, it doesn't read like one. It just reads like a frigging lunatic.

Here's the one picture worth a thousand words:

People just don't walk from behind curtains, you know.

Thanks to Doubleplus Undead, who's discovered what could be the undoing of the entire environmentalist movement.

* Bonus Hillary's-A-Lesbian Angle: Retired Geezer says: Isn't that well-dressed dark-complexioned woman the famous "Huma" we've been hearing so much about?

Indeed it does seem to be.

Posted by: Ace at 02:55 PM | Comments (26)
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A 1974 poem by Mailer, to his hero and better Hemingway.

I'll try to reproduce it here but he's doing that stupid shit with strangely placed indents and centerings and crap so really this isn't going to give you the full Artistic Impact of the poem.

Gladiators

For Hemingway

Dust returns to dust
even if
dust is a psychic integuement
equal to boredom.

Not all who die are dead.

Some die in one's arms.

One acquires a glimpse
of the beyond.

All hail fucking.

Some even die ine one's arms
in such a way
that you acquire
a glimpse of the beyond
which may be
beyond.

All hail fucking.

-- Norman Mailer

Norman Mailer poetry slam? Kimball's articles instructs that Mailer cared passionately about the following leitmotifs: booze, getting laid, his dick, boxing, other sweaty sports which show off brutality and manliness, his dick, pretending to be the new Hemingway, war, attacking better writers as "minor talents," his dick, pretending to be a really hard-assed guy who gets a lot of ass and will kill you for a carton of cigarettes, buggery, being a dedicated murder-groupie and serial killer jock-sniffer, stabbing women with knives, depicting all sexual relationships as transactional and a "battle" not unlike boxing or other sweaty sports, and stabbing women with his dick, which is much like a knife, except it brings such exquisite pleasure, because he's such a fucking man.

He seems rather Beauchampian, if I may be so bold as to honor him thus. Sort of David Mamet without the cadence and talent.

Anyway, I've come to really hate this prick in the past 24 hours and thought we could give him the send-off to hell he deserves.

Posted by: Ace at 02:49 PM | Comments (48)
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A reference to Hillary, of course.

Correction: JackM. corrects my loose shit. 1, a woman asked the question, and 2, McCain immediately offered to "translate" the question, deflecting it with some humor.

The lefties are wagging their fingers of shame at McCain for not immediately telling the woman not to call Hillary a bitch, a right reserved to Bill Clinton, his drinking buddies, and the entirety of the 107th Congress (including all staffs and family members).

Fine. McCain should have cautioned that this characterization of Hillary was as unwarranted as it was true.

I expect TPM and the rest of the lefties to similarly demand that the Democratic candidates inform the Truthers that they are lunatics the next time they're pitched a Truther question, rather than pandering to them and suggesting they'd like to see "any additional information" the Truthers may have.

And while you're down there (that's what she said), might as well note that Edwards seems to think she's a bitch, too.

Posted by: Ace at 02:34 PM | Comments (16)
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