Here's some truly damaging dirt about a candidate who's actually, as of now, got a chance:

Ouch. I want to call him a liar on all of those points, but I don't quite think that helps him.

Less damaging is this 1989 Giuliani ad, featuring a testimonial from his now ex-wife Donna Hanover. I'm not sure what that's supposed to prove except he was married to her ten years ago and now isn't.

Allah notes it was put up by a guy with no prior YouTube history. Not saying it's a dirty trick -- information wants to be free and all that. Still, seems to be an indication that McCain's or Romney's net-guys are earining their pay.

You know how 1960 was the first television campaign?

This might be the first real internet campaign. Fundraising, blogging, sure, we've had those on-line. But now all the really good, really cutting negative ads will come via YouTube.

And does McCain-Feingold require the campaigns putting out such negative ads to identify the source?

Really, I'm not defending Rudy here or trying to slam his opponents. (Waaah-- they said meeeean things about my guy.)

I think this is perfectly fair. I'm just curious to see this stuff now starting to play so big on the Internet. And I'm wondering if McCain-Feingold ever contemplated this. Just as a bit of legal trivia. Could give a fig about the law myself.

On the other hand... Rudy's still got that electability thing going for him.

A new poll shows Rudy Giuliani taking two of the three crucial swing states of Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio from Hillary Rodham Clinton by winning over independents and nearly breaking even with her bread and butter - female voters.

In the head-to-head showdown, Giuliani thumps Clinton by 11 points in Pennsylvania and bests her by 5 in Florida - while the former first lady edges America's Mayor by one point in the Buckeye State.

Giuliani crushes Clinton nemesis Barack Obama in all three states, racking up 12-point leads in Florida and Pennsylvania and a 4-point cushion in Ohio.

The Quinnipiac University poll found an eye-popping 51 percent of Pennsylvania voters back Giuliani - including 20 percent of Keystone State Democrats - over Clinton, who pulled in 40 percent support. Clinton eked out only a 1-point edge with women.

The poll's assistant director, Peter Brown, said Pennsylvanians are keenly interested in homeland security - the fourth plane involved in the 9/11 attacks crashed in the state - and hold Giuliani in high regard.

Giuliani, who has the highest favorability of any 2008 candidate, got his biggest thumbs-up from Pennsylvanians, at 61 percent.

...

In Florida, Giuliani leads Clinton 47-42 percent, aided by a 50 percent backing from independents.

...

Ohioans narrowly prefer Clinton - 44-43 percent - due in large part to her sizable 9-point advantage among women and 31 percent support among Evangelicals.

And I didn't see this coming. I may have to back down from my Hillary Is Toast thesis. Are women really going to vote for Hillary, just because she's, allegedly, a woman?

Well, Democratic women are that dumb, apparently.

But female Democratic primary voters are propelling Clinton to substantial leads over Obama in the swing states surveyed: 25 points in Florida (31 among women), 13 in Ohio (20 among women) and 11 in Pennsylvania (17 among women).

More Ouch! Other videos you've probably seen, rapping McCain and Romney.

And of course Romney was lit up pretty good by this internet-hit classic:

Still dig this moment of Romney's, though:

Posted by: Ace at 02:18 PM | Comments (79)
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Got tipped by a source who is in a position to have heard this stuff first-hand from witnesses to Richardson's behavior. Note that that makes this source second-hand, and did not in fact witness any of the behavior personally.

The source is solid, I trust the source, but it's only one source, and it's second-hand. So this is not quite up to, say, Hard News Dan Rather's standards.

But still. At the moment I can't confirm much more than what's already out there, but I'm digging a bit. What I can confirm is that Richardson's unwelcome touching was not confined to his Lieutenant Governor, but seems a longstanding practice of his inflicted on quite a few people.

Here is my paraphrase of the source's report, with as many word choices changed as possible as to scrub out any sort of identifying tics of languange, and I've also removed the crucial background of how this source might know, to insulate the source from identification.

Wording has been changed, but nothing's been hyped uo. Downplayed, a bit, because some word choices were overly charged and I don't have enough to back them up. (A later report may clarify in this regard.)

I've run this paraphrase by the source to confirm it accurately reflects the original tip.

My source is in good position to have been in contact with the various people Richardson might have offended throughout his career. Their claims are "horrifying."

At least one senior member of Richardson's staff was disgusted by the behavior.

First-hand witnesses to Richardson's behavior have spoken of him pawing at women during meetings with numerous other witnesses present, apparently unconcerned about the women's feelings, or even of being seen acting in this fashion.

He seemed to lack any sort of normal restraint or social embarrassment in this regard.

Steve Clemmons' "question" for Richardson substantially recapitulates what the source has heard of Richardson. Not the crotch grabbing, but the openness with which he engaged in other inappropriate behaviors. Clemmons was, incidentally, a former Democratic operative in Richardson's home state of New Mexico, working for Bingaman, my source thinks.

This story will not go away, my source says, but will build the longer Richardson remains in the race, because it's true and there are too many witnesses to it.

Again, I'm hoping to get in touch with a first-hand witness to this to find out exactly the limits of the inappropriate touching -- specifics, not this vague stuff. My source, not having been present, can't supply such specifics to me.

Should hear back within a few days. I don't know if there's anything really bad here, apart from what appears to be an odd social retardation that disinhibits him from touching people in an uncomfortably over-familiar manner. But this seems to be a widely known problem.

PS: Based on another source, the year 2000 might be the time-frame we're talking about as regards the Milano Cafe lead.

Old But Kinda Funny-- Richardson Not Molested By Kansas City Royalss: He long maintained he'd been drafted to play in the big leagues, but the big leagues didn't seem to agree.

After checking his records, he discovered, to his astonishment, that he had not been drafted to play in Major League Baseball after all!

That happened to me one time. For several years I was convinced I was quarterback of the Denver Broncos, and then one day I'm sitting there watching the Broncos on TV, and I'm thinking, "WTF...? Did they cut me? Who's this lousy son-of-a-bitch wearing my number?"

And then I remembered, "Oh yeah, wait, that wasn't me, it was John Elway."

Boy was my face red.

I'm still waiting to break it to my parents. I think I'll finally tell them during the All-Star break, when I have a little extra time. (Or maybe I won't have a little extra time -- fingers crossed!!!)

Posted by: Ace at 01:07 PM | Comments (78)
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Kind of cool military robot used by the Israelis. Also known as a Sy-Borg.

Posted by: Ace at 12:41 PM | Comments (28)
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There are other clips of Erin Gray (and guest star Jamie Lee Curtis) in tight spandex, but I didn't figure any of you Edwardses would be interested in that.

Bonus Bill Richardson Link! I gypped Pupster out of a link earlier. So here's Tyra Banks getting all "gubernatorial" on Katherine McPhee's breasts.

Posted by: Ace at 12:19 PM | Comments (41)
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It's like our whole world's been turned upside down due to Halliburton, which is almost certainly attempting to xenoform our world to be more comfortable for our coming alien overlords, like in The Arrival.

When his chickens started disappearing a few weeks ago, a farmer in eastern India figured dogs or jackals were to blame - until he discovered his calf making a meal of his poultry.

...

"To catch the culprit, Moloy got up very early ... and to his disbelief found that it was his calf which came out from the cow shed and was eating the chickens alive," Debjyoti Chatterjee, a local resident who filmed the calf eating a chicken, said Thursday.

The local veterinarian was at a loss for an explanation.

"I've never read or heard about cows turning carnivorous," said Mihir Tripathy. "They eat grass and other vegetarian food but not fish or other non-vegetarian stuff."

PETA just issued a press release stating that this cow was now "officially on our s-list."

I think they just taught the cow to eat chicken as part of this movie's viral marketing campaign (graphic carnivorous-sheep violence warning):

Thanks to Pupster.

Posted by: Ace at 11:50 AM | Comments (54)
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...at least as regards her likely nomination to the Council on Foreign Relations.

Jolie, 31, has been nominated for a five-year "term" membership. There are no specific academic or social requirements, but it helps that Jolie has served as a UN Goodwill Ambassador and made more than 30 trips around the world on behalf of refugees, AIDS orphans, and victims of natural disasters

It also helps that she's hot—a point not lost on Kissinger, who answered questions last night from Columbia School of Journalism graduate students. "It's my only chance to meet Angelina Jolie," he said.

"Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac," Dr. Kissinger stated. "But close behind is a really kickin' set of knockers."

Thanks to PetiteDov.

Posted by: Ace at 11:40 AM | Comments (16)
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The political fun of it. The problematic nature of it for Bush, etc.

She's grinning about the fun of political implications of this. She says she doesn't want him to go to jail. She seems to have convicted simply to cause trouble for Bush, and get back at Cheney, Rove, etc. -- which is precisely what Fitzgerald asked her to do (quite impermissibly) in his summation.

We're supposed to believe she was an unbiased juror?

Lady, I'm not sure if he's going to need a pardon.

Posted by: Ace at 10:35 AM | Comments (63)
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In the thread on "robot rights," some posters began offering hateful slurs against our New Robotic Overlords.

Cuffy Meigs started it rolling with "Circuit monkeys."

Tom offered up "Gearchuckers" as well as "plugphuckers" (which I think works better as "socket-humpers," but YMMV.)

Not ignoring the rest, just trying to avoid putting the harsher ones in a post.

Anyway, seems like a funny premise.

Posted by: Ace at 09:48 AM | Comments (98)
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Wow, it's Dirty Thursday or something.

I came across this via Geraghty's mention of Mickey Kaus' allusion to dirt on Governor Richardson. Some are suggesting that the Governor is a mite touchy, perhaps in a Schwarzeneggerian fashion, as regards women he encounters.

He also writes:

Kf 's tip for reporters and others hoping to help the pecadilloes make the ontological transition from unfounded to founded: Ask around at Cafe Milano, D.C.

Which I find rather odd of him to say -- look, I realize he's in LA, not DC, but if he actually knows something about what a woman at Cafe Milano might say, why not report it himself? Why is he hinting he knows what she'll say, but asking a reporter to ask around rather than just reporting it himself?

At any rate, calling all DC bloggers: Cafe Milano. Go forth and make news.

The Politico, based in DC, is reporting on these whispers; can't they just ask? Why all the masque and mystery?*

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's 2008 presidential campaign has been burdened by unusually public discussion about his behavior with women.

The lieutenant governor of New Mexico, Diane Denish was quoted in the Albuquerque Journal saying she avoids standing or sitting near Richardson because of his physical manner, which she said was not improper but was "annoying." The governor, she said, "pinches my neck. He touches my hip, my thigh, sort of the side of my leg."

On repeated occasions, Richardson has been pressed by reporters or Democratic activists on whether his personal conduct can withstand public scrutiny.

Richardson, in an interview with The Politico, denied behaving inappropriately, calling the talk "mean-spirited." Still, the concerns have become enough of a headwind for Richardson's campaign that the candidate has a more substantive response -- that his personal conduct was vetted, and effectively given a seal of approval, when he was considered for the vice presidential nomination by John F. Kerry in 2004.

"The Kerry people vetted me for vice president," he told The Politico last week. He knew this, he said, because Jim Johnson, the veteran Washington lawyer and Democratic insider, "has said so."

But that line of defense may be less effective in shutting down speculation than Richardson hopes. After five days of phone calls and e-mails, and an initial refusal to comment, Johnson released a one-sentence statement saying Richardson had been "vetted" but offering no details about what that entailed.

"The Kerry campaign vetted Governor Richardson, and nothing was found that would have prevented him from being chosen as John Kerry's vice presidential candidate," Johnson said.

...

Denish -- a Democrat who ran on the same ticket as Richardson -- said that she sometimes finds Richardson's physical style "irritating and annoying" but that he had never touched her in an improper way. Still, she said, his behavior was inappropriate in public because it could be misconstrued.

...

Richardson chalks the rumors up to his campaign style.

"There's nothing I can do except just basically continue," he said. "I've never touched anybody inappropriately. No one's accused me of it. I shake hands a lot. I hold a handshaking record. I believe in the physical side of campaigning. I guess I hug people sometimes. That's me. That's my character."

There's a difference between groping -- plainly out of bounds -- and touching innocently but in a way that suggests an intimacy which doesn't exist. So far the allegations seem about the latter.

The old Albequerque Journal article about this (mentioned above) is here, but you have to sit through a 30 second commercial to get it. And, considering we're talking about not-very-powerful charges leveled against a third-tier candidate (for Vice President, don't let his claims of a presidential run fool you), I don't know if it's worth sitting through. Here's some of the juice:

Gov. Bill Richardson likes to touch people. He hugs, pokes, jabs and tickles. If he sees a man with a bald pate, he rubs it. Looking to start a conversation, he might lean forward and head-butt someone— male or female.

Richardson says he's just joking and teasing to ease tension and boredom.

Lt. Gov. Diane Denish says she finds the practice irritating. She said she tries to avoid sitting or standing next to the governor at public events.

...

"I think it's irritating and annoying," Denish said in a recent interview.

"I try not to put myself in that situation, trying not to stand or sit next to him."

...

Denish, who also used the terms "teasing," "adolescent" and "silly," made the comments after looking at photos taken at a groundbreaking ceremony for a train depot in Bernalillo.

Seated next to Denish, Richardson reached his hand behind her chair, turned to her and grinned.

Denish said the governor was poking at the side of her leg.

It went on for five or 10 minutes— the state's bored governor picking at the lieutenant governor, who tossed him some exasperated glances as he caught her eye and laughed.

"He pokes me," Denish said when she was asked about the incident.

At other times, she said, "He pinches my neck. He touches my hip, my thigh, sort of the side of my leg."

She said that he has never touched her in an improper way but that such physical contact in a public setting was inappropriate because it could be misconstrued.

Richardson said he didn't remember much about the Bernalillo event except that it was hot, long and boring.

"I have a short attention span," Richardson said. "I get bored easily."

"Sometimes, when she's sitting next to me, I'll tap her sort of like, 'Can you believe they said this?' '' he said. "It's innocent. I'm teasing. I'm playing around."

Richardson said he picks at Denish like he does everyone on his staff— innocently and playfully.

"I tease Diane. I touch guys. It's my way of lessening tension," he said.

Again, this seems like boorish behavior, but non-sexually so, not respecting people's boundaries and autonomy. A bit worse than a close-talker, but not lecherous.

But, again, Kaus is hinting: Cafe Milano. As I imagine Richardson's former Lt. Governor doesn't hang out there 24 hours a day, I'm assuming he's talking about a waitress. And there are only so many places to touch a waitress as she's whisking by.

The leads are good. There's money out there just waiting for you to take it. Are you man enough? Are you man enough? Go and do likewise, gentlemen.**

* Where?

** Seems too easy, but where? (I know it's not exact.)

Crotchety, Too? Allah has some stuff on this too, including an accusation from an unlikely source -- a blogger at the Huffington Post.

Steve Clemmons "asks" Richardson (I put "asks" in quotes, because Clemmons, for some reason, thinks that the word "question" belongs in quotes):

I will frame this as a “question” for Bill Richardson.

Have you behaved inappropriately or not in public settings with female members of your government administration, jokingly or not? Have you gestured to female public servants and political appointees — who work as colleagues with you — and made lewd gestures, specifically pointing to them and then pointing at your crotch with a room full of media and other politicos there in the room?

I ask this not to demean or undermine Richardson.

I ask it because I was not in the room when this particular incident occurred but many others were — and rumors have long swept around Santa Fe that Bill Richardson makes a constant festive joke out of demeaning women.

I hope Richardson "answers" this allegation "promptly."

Posted by: Ace at 09:21 AM | Comments (52)
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Many have suggested Obama would be brought low when Hillary! began unloading on him. Is she unloading on him? Well, reporters sure don't go digging for dirt on Democrats on their own, now do they?

Geraghty notes that Obama invested in two little-known companies that then stood to benefit from legislation he pushed for immediately after taking office.

Shockingly, it's playing on page one of the New York Times. Geraghty, writing The Hillary Spot, is baffled at who in New York could possibly have the motive and means to push the story to page one of the New York Times.

Trouble with this scandal is that it isn't sexy, and Obamessiah didn't make a great deal of money off the investments. Which, of course, is entirely irrelevant; when one invests, one intends to make money, and if one should just happen to use one's power to help those investments along, it really doesn't matter if one's efforts weren't successful.

Like, you know -- as was the case with Whitewater. Hillary! should know all about the "My corrupt dealings didn't actually wind up making me any money!" defense.

Not all investments can be as lucrative as cattle futures, after all.

But if this is what Hillary! has on Obama, I really don't think it's quite enough. Honestly, corruptly using the power of government to fatten one's wallet really isn't something she can cry foul on. Her supporters, now defecting to Obama, have never shown much concern about her own shady dealings; why should they suddenly care that someone else is doing it too?

Posted by: Ace at 08:10 AM | Comments (18)
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