Thanks to spongeworthy.

And another miracle invention: the SuperToilet. (Moderate Content Warning.)

Thanks to entropy.

Posted by: Ace at 01:40 PM | Comments (26)
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Past imperfect:

RUSSERT: You were in Iowa, and you’re talking about Saddam Hussein, and you said, it was, “He was certain former Iraqi leaders Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, a point of contention in the four and a half years since the war began. ‘We can’t forget the fact that although at a particular point in time we never found any WMD down there, he clearly had’” “‘WMD. He clearly had,’the beginnings of a nuclear program,’ Thompson told the audience of about 60 at a Newton cafe.”

The Duelfer Commission, David Kay, all the weapons inspectors said they did not find any WMD. And yet you’re—you seem to be raising the whole herring again...

THOMPSON: No, no, IÂ’m not...

RUSSERT: ...of chemical, biological and nuclear.

However, the story in question, which appeared in the Des Moines Register, actually quoted Thompson saying that Saddam "had had" WMD and the beginning of a nuclear program, not that he "had" them at the time of the invasion as Russert's reading of the article suggested. Here's the exact quote:

Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson said Monday he was certain former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction prior to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, a point of contention in the 4 1/2 years since the war began.

“We can’t forget the fact that although at a particular point in time we never found any WMD down there, he clearly had had WMD. He clearly had had the beginnings of a nuclear program,” Thompson told an audience of about 60 at a Newton cafe.

Similar to Olbermann playing a videotape in which Giulinai clearly says "Assad" but then immediately claiming he said "Osama," Russert actually put the actual, correct, "had had" quote on the screen when asking the question -- but then omitted a "had" when putting the Dowdified quote to Thompson.

Am I to believe that our very professional media corps, who are all such masterful students of the English language and are, as I understand the claim, the only people properly trained and credentialed to analyze the news and statements from newsmakers, are altogether ignorant of the concept of the past perfect tense?

Or do they just make shit up when they feel like it?

I'm going with the latter.

Uranium from Niger, baby. Uranium from Niger. The 16 famous words so incredibly famous not a single media organization has managed to quote them correctly since they were first uttered.

Memo to Tim Russert: A "Gotcha Quote" only works when it is, in fact, a quote.

Via Instapundit.

And since I guess it's Fred Thompson day, might as well link this Volokh bit on Fred's federalist answer on the question of gay-marriage and anti-abortion amendments.

I especially like his position on the gay marriage amendment -- do not ban it outright, which would be frankly impossible as the nation apparently resists that measure, but rather pass an amendment forbidding judges from imposing gay marriage on states. Or the nation, presumably. Allow states to, if they choose, enact gay marriage laws by majoritarian democratic legislative process; simply forbid the judiciary from writing the law for the people. It's a damn fine idea, and one I've been in favor of for years.

I'm uncomfortable with gay marriage. But what I am incensed about, just plain angry about, is not gay marriage itself, but judges taking it upon themselves to act as superlegislators and impose gay marriage upon us. And I think there are many like me more angry about the process than the substance of gay marriage.

On abortion, similar deal: The human life amendment has no chance whatsoever of becoming an amendment to the Constitution. It's brought up to keep the suckers thinking outlawing abortion is just within reach. It's not. If abortion is to be outlawed at all (which I doubt, but let's speak in hypotheticals), the first step is overturning Roe v. Wade and allowing states to set their own abortion policies. Only if America becomes comfortable with that regime would it even be possible to begin speaking realistically about a full-nation ban.

Posted by: Ace at 12:51 PM | Comments (72)
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BUMPED because we are at this minute officially tied with Michelle Malkin for first place. Now, I love Michelle as much as the next guy, but don't you guys want to make Ace cry fat, happy tears of joy?

Does it help if I tell you that moron Entropy is "such a swell guy and so godawful crazy sexy"? No?

Go vote anyway!

Original post:

Here's your friendly reminder to vote for Ace's place in the 2007 Weblog Awards.

Last time, I used the carrot and offered a hump dance from LauraW and a poem from Jack M. Today, it's time for the stick: vote now or I will complete all fourteen parts of my treatise on international law.

Ace of Spades HQ is in the "Best Conservative Blog" category.
Moron-coblogger Slublog is in the "Best of the Rest" category.
Moron-commenter Nice Deb (and she really is) is in the "Best New Blog" category.

There are others who should probably get mentioned here, but I always forget who they are. My apologies (and feel free to pimp yourselves in the comments).

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 12:25 PM | Comments (43)
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I linked this in the sidebar but couldn't really explain it. (Moderate T&A Warning) Spammers want to get past those CAPTCHA blobs that allow you to sign into a site -- where letters are printed all distorted and funky so that computers can't read them - and so enlists horny geeks to decode the messages for them with a girl who strips her clothes off with each decoded CAPTCHA code.

Except I've read she never actually gets naked. So the spammers are screwing us double.

Thanks to SteveL.

Posted by: Ace at 12:04 PM | Comments (12)
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Not bad. I'd've liked the Law & Order ching-chongk at the end.

Though... that initial part with him touchin' the folks? Stagey.

Posted by: Ace at 12:01 PM | Comments (44)
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At DickMorris.com, not exactly a deep analysis, but he channels his inner Maureen Dowd to slam her.

Hillary Clinton, quintessential Alpha Female, is whining about the boys who share the presidential debate stage with her.

She says that theyÂ’re picking on her! TheyÂ’re ganging up on her.

And she doesnÂ’t like it.

Her aides say itÂ’s just because sheÂ’s a woman.

But HillaryÂ’s the one whoÂ’s playing gender politics. Not them. When the going gets tough, Hillary always pulls out the female victim card.

The fact is that the reason that Hillary is under attack is because she is a doubletalking panderer who canÂ’t give a single straight answer. ItÂ’s not because sheÂ’s a woman, and itÂ’s not because sheÂ’s a winner.

And now sheÂ’s furious.

How dare they!

These small annoying men that she’s tolerated for the past eight months – as if they were actually candidates of her high caliber – are all taunting her!

LetÂ’s take a close look at who these men really are:

TheyÂ’re men who:

• have never organized a seating chart for a State Dinner,
• never redecorated the White House,
• never visited eighty-two countries on Air Force One as the President’s wife,
• never lit the White House Christmas Tree, or organized a carnival on the Front Lawn, and
• certainly never presided over the biggest debacle in domestic policy since Roosevelt’s Court Packing Plan in 1936

In fact, these petty little men have never even had the power to ingle-handedly cause the President of the United States to lose control of both houses of Congress, like she has.

ItÂ’s just not fair!

Bonus: Bill Clinton claims that yes-or-no questions are too "cutesy" to ask his wife.

I'm pretty sure he thought it was too cutesy for his wife to ask him yes-or-no questions throughout their marriage, so I guess he's being consistent.

She Answers This Cutesy Yes-or-No Question Pretty Firmly:

Posted by: Ace at 11:59 AM | Comments (14)
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This CBSNews/60 Minutes story is interesting, though very slanted. The story seeks to pin blame for Curve Ball on the Bush Administration, though a fair reading would note he was 1) a German source who 2) the Germans believed and 3) the CIA never even got to directly interrogate, at least until long after the war.

The story also mentions that another defector to Germany, a Dr. Basil, told German intelligence that pretty much everything Curve Ball was saying about biological weapons was a lie. CBSNews rather stupidly lets this hang:

"Rafid Alwan ["Curve Ball"] told German intelligence that you personally were fully involved in the project to use Djerf al Nadaf for mobile biological weapons," Simon tells Dr. Basil.

"Big lie," the doctor replies.

If something were going on there, Dr. Basil says he would "definitely" have known about it.

"There are people in the American intelligence communityÂ…who believe that seed purification is a cover for biological weapons production," Simon remarks.

"No. It was, it was really seed purification," the doctor replies.

Dr. Basil pointed out that if he had been working on something top secret, why did Saddam let him emigrate from Iraq in 1999?

That's CBSNews playing stupid, of course. There is an easy answer to that question: Saddam let Dr. Basil emigrate precisely so he could tell German intelligence that nothing funky was going on in Iraq's laboratories. Of course that does not seem to have been what actually happened -- Curve Ball was lying, and Dr. Basil was on the level -- but CBSNews, in order to make the case against the case for WMDs stronger, is reduced to childishly pretending they can imagine no reasons whatsoever that Saddam Hussein might allow a defector to leave Iraq in order to begin telling foreign intelligence agencies that Iraq had no active WMD program.

Almost as absurdly slanted is CBSNews not noting that liberals and leakers at the CIA have long claimed that Curve Ball was fed to the US by Chalabi's INC, in order to lie us into war. CBS' own reportage indicates that's completely wrong, but only implicitly; Curve Ball wasn't fed to anyone by anyone, he was a guy, they conclude, just looking to get a Green Card from Germany, and telling whatever lie he thought he needed to tell to get it.

And yet it's the INC which has to issue a press release stating that this age-old slander -- "the INC gave us the liar Curve Ball" -- is apparently 100% untrue.

Simon's report had fresh information there; it was news that the INC had nothing to do with Curve Ball. And yet Simon deliberately un-scoops himself by not reporting it. Why?

Overall it's a good read, once you get past the typical amount of heavy liberal breathing, if only to realize just how little our intelligence (ahem) agencies actually know, and how much they "know" is based merely on the say-so of a single dubious source.

Thanks to CJ.

Posted by: Ace at 11:12 AM | Comments (71)
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I'm beginning to lose confidence in that "Made in China" label that once indicated quality workmanship.

A 19-month-old boy was in a Queensland hospital after ingesting a toy that was yesterday banned interstate.

Bindeez have been found to contain a chemical that converts into the toxic illegal drug GHB, also known as fantasy, when ingested.

The toy has been banned across the country.

...

"Apparently he's unconscious,'' he said.

Chinese-made Bindeez, which won the 2007 Australian Toy of the Year award at the Melbourne Toy and Hobby fair, contains hundreds of beads which can induce seizures, drowsiness or a coma if eaten.

They got a little carried away. They could have still won the Toy of the Year award for just inducing seizures. Adding on a coma was just gilding the lily.

Posted by: Ace at 10:44 AM | Comments (25)
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The Secure America with Verification and Enforcement (SAVE) Act is unveiled today in the House as a new solution to illegal immigration.

Republican Brian Bilbray and Democrat Heath Shuler introduced the bill, which has already got some big names attached, including Republican presidential candidate Duncan Hunter, John "Slanderer" Murtha, and Tom "Immigrants!? Don't let them touch you!" Tancredo.

One of the more controversial provisions would make the so-called E-Verify program mandatory, a move that raises major concerns with industry officials.

Proponents of the E-Verify program say it allows employers an inexpensive way to ensure they are hiring legally documented workers. They maintain that the program has been successful, but is only being used by a small percentage of employers.

[...]
The Shuler-Bilbray bill would also close existing loopholes that allow illegal immigrants to use the same Social Security number and will require information-sharing between the Department of Homeland Security, the Social Security Administration and the IRS.

In order to increase border security, the bill seeks to provide an 8,000-agent increase for the U.S. Border Patrol and an expansion of the investigative abilities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

So far, neither Democratic nor Republican leadership have endorsed the bill. The Democrats don't want to see enforcement increases. The Republicans are waiting to see how much fuss gets put up by business.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 09:10 AM | Comments (91)
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As if his horrible policy proposals weren't reason enough to oppose his candidacy (or his questionable donors, approving treatment of truthers, or complete misunderstanding of what it legally takes to go to war in this country), Ron Paul gets approving posts from Glenn Greenwald and Andrew Sullivan today*.

Greenwald writes: "The Paul campaign is now a bona fide phenomenon of real significance, and it is difficult to see this as anything other than a very positive development."

Sullivan writes: "The Ron Paul phenomenon is real. The Christianists and neocons will decry it because it affects their power over the GOP. And because when a conservative stands for freedom again, it resonates and threatens them."

I like that both writers had to take the time to assure us that Paul's candidacy is, in fact, real.

*No linky as per standing policy.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:43 AM | Comments (86)
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