Wow, they're all for everyone exercising their right to free speech, until someone decides to alert the authorities about a possible threat. Then, suddenly, it turns out the right to free speech may in fact be burdened by coercive means such as lawsuits.

Nuance.

Posted by: Ace at 02:56 PM | Comments (26)
Post contains 56 words, total size 1 kb.

The enemy among us.

Posted by: Ace at 02:43 PM | Comments (20)
Post contains 18 words, total size 1 kb.

No idea who this guy is. I look forward to FoxNews unraveling the mysterious mysteries of his mysterious mystery-death, however.

BREAKING: Geraldo suspects Kronus might have been taking steeeeriods. More on this fast-breaking mystery as it mysteriously develops.

Posted by: Ace at 01:09 PM | Comments (47)
Post contains 76 words, total size 1 kb.

And other corrupt terrorist-sympathizers to be named later.

What a great idea. I'm not sure what I like the most about it. I love the idea of giving over the national sovereignty to an unaccountable group of left-wing terrorist-symps, but I need Kofi Annan lining his pockets further with money corruptly extracted from the world's productive citizens.

Can we get Al Gore on this global super-team of political incompetents and malefactors as well? Pleasepleaseplease?

Meanwhile, back at the Hall of Anti-Americanism...

Posted by: Ace at 12:37 PM | Comments (122)
Post contains 113 words, total size 1 kb.

After they get done adding up late trades it might go under or go higher, but either way it's another record close.

Posted by: Ace at 12:02 PM | Comments (31)
Post contains 32 words, total size 1 kb.

No exceptions for an actor playing a role, Volokh says, based on court precedent (and the statute's enumeration of several exceptions which do not include one for entertainment).

I think this rule has been misconstrued -- the law says

If any licensee shall permit any person who is a legally qualified candidate for any public office to use a broadcasting station, he shall afford equal opportunities to all other such candidates for that office in the use of such broadcasting station...

The question is whether airing a show in which someone is a paid employee is "permitting him to use" the station -- which seems to imply affording a candidate time on the station to air his views which would not otherwise have been provided, save for that express purpose. NBC obviously is not "permitting " Thompson "to use" their stations; quite the opposite. Thompson, by agreeing to appear on an NBC broadcast show, is permitting NBC to use his image and talents.

None of this really makes sense -- if Thompson, appearning not as himself nor making the best case for a Thompson candidacy, shows up for a total of two minutes on a Law & Order, this means that Ron Paul gets to appear as himself and speak words he's written himself to advance his candidacy, rather than repeating words written for him to serve the plot of a tv show? Really? Is Thompson's two minutes as Arthur Branch really equal to Ron Paul's two minutes as Ron Paul? Shouldn't Ron Paul at most get like 10 seconds -- just to show his face, which is, really, all Thompson is being allowed to do to actually advance his campaign rather than advance the plot of police procedural?

I guess this is actually a big reason why Thompson is holding off -- he was paid a lot to co-star in these shows, and now his candidacy would result in all his episodes (most of them, I imagine) being yanked off the air when they're needed the most (i.e., the summer repeat schedule). Can't help but imagine he feels a certain obligation to not screw over a business associate.

Doesn't really make sense, though, and I don't think the Democrats will rush to change this rule.

Meanwhile, of course, it's now confirmed that Thompson did in fact lobby on behalf of a pro-abortion group.

The New York Times piece is fairly detailed, if you're interested. About 20 hours of work, 3.3 hours of lobbying "administration officials" (the first Bush administration), $5000 in fees all told. Apparently trying to get the first Bush to undo the "gag rule" preventing federally-funded family planning centers from bringing up abortion when consulting with clients.

The campaign emphatically denied this; Thompson said he had "no recollection" of ever having lobbied for them. Obviously, he did, and the "no recollection" defense only apparently works for Hillary Clinton.

Posted by: Ace at 11:51 AM | Comments (36)
Post contains 503 words, total size 3 kb.

Declares that money coerced from taxpayers, to be funneled corruptly into porkbarrel local projects, is his by Divine Right.

Rep. Don Young attacked his fellow Republicans on the House floor Wednesday, as he defended education funds allocated to his home state of Alaska.

"You want my money, my money," Young stridently declared before warning conservatives that "those who bite me will be bitten back."

...

During his brief tirade Wednesday, Young suggested Republicans lost their majority because Garrett, whom he did not specifically name, and others had challenged spending during the GOP's tenure.

...

And lest we forget, Young, who used to chair the House Transportation Committee, is responsible for the so-called "Bridge to Nowhere," a proposed span connecting Ketchikan, Alaska, with the tiny island of Gravina that would have cost $315 million -- and eventually came to symbolize profligate spending under Republican rule.

Oh, and he has spent more than $250,000 on legal fees so far this year at the same time that federal investigators probe some of his campaign's biggest contributors.

We need a cull.

Posted by: Ace at 11:21 AM | Comments (20)
Post contains 199 words, total size 1 kb.

Or something. Who can remember. (No details at the link.)

Hopefully with this late unpleasantness over Valerie and Joe can go back to the lives of dignified anonymity they've so long craved.

Grounds: Sounds like a dismissal for failure to state a grounds upon which relief can be granted; that is, no recognized legal theory as to why she should be entitled to damages, even if everything she claims is correct.

The judge also says he doubts he has jurisdiction.

Posted by: Ace at 11:15 AM | Comments (24)
Post contains 112 words, total size 1 kb.

On FoxNews now.

Perhaps this means we should withdraw from the region entirely? Our presence there seems to be "making more terrorists than we're killing," right?

Posted by: Ace at 09:52 AM | Comments (19)
Post contains 44 words, total size 1 kb.

Dude, those maps in the beginning of every Conan book? Totally real.

A flood of biblical proportions cut the British Isles off from mainland Europe sometime between 450,000 and 200,000 years ago, according to a new study.

The research, based on three-dimensional sonar mapping of the English Channel, provides the strongest evidence yet that a catastrophic megaflood broke a land bridge that once connected what is now Britain and France.

"It is probably one of the largest floods ever identified," said Phillip Gibbard, a geographer at the University of Cambridge who wasn't involved in the study.

At its peak, the flood would have discharged water at a rate of about 264 million gallons (a million cubic meters) a second, gushing at speeds of up to 62 miles (100 kilometers) an hour, the researchers say. This is roughly equivalent to ten times the combined flow rate of all the rivers in the world.

...

The flood also marooned many animals and plants, so those species gradually evolved into different forms than their mainland cousins.

And humans appear to have avoided the newly made island altogether, leaving it unoccupied for over a hundred thousand years.

...

The great flood could help explain why Britain remained an uninhabited region for a large chunk of the archaeological record.

"There seems to be a large gap in the evidence for human occupation [of Britain] during cold and warm phases from about 180,000 until about 60,000 years ago," said Nicholas Ashton, an archaeologist at the British Museum in London.

...

"It wasn't until 60,000 years ago," Ashton said, "that humans—late Neanderthals—had the technological capabilities, such as more effective clothing and shelter, to survive the cold conditions."

Posted by: Ace at 09:22 AM | Comments (32)
Post contains 290 words, total size 2 kb.