Moonbat murders dutch student as war protest
— Purple Avenger

I don't know how this one kinda slid by, but it could be a harbinger of an escalation by the anti-war left.

During Vietnam, they were kinda selective about their targeting, but this one failing to find a soldier anywhere, decided to just randomly murder some student standing on a train platform.

A U.S. citizen has confessed to using an axe to kill a Dutch student after failing to find a soldier to attack, his lawyer said Tuesday.

The suspect, Carlos Hartmann, 41, of Tecumseh, Mich., has confessed to the Sept. 8 killing on a train platform in the southern city of Roosendaal, defence lawyer Peter Gremmen said.

Gremmen said Hartmann wanted to punish the Netherlands for its support of the war in Iraq. ..

As far as I'm concerned, the left owns this guy lock stock and barrel. They programmed him with their bullshit and wound him up like some killbot and set him loose on the world. Words matter. When you use hyperbolic bullshit as a political tool and insist its not hyperbole, there are going to be some percentage of weak minded idiots like this who really take that bullshit seriously and act on it. Its very Newtonian and predictable. Action, reaction. Its the exact same thing as the abortion clinic bombers which the left always loves to point out.

Well guys - you got your very own murderous poster boy now. Enjoy him. You earned him.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 08:01 AM | Comments (20)
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Recount: An Election 2000 TV Movie?
— Gabriel Malor

Kevin Spacey, Dennis Leary, Laura Dern, and Ed Begley Jr. have all signed on to make a "political drama" about the 2000 election. The TV movie is called "Recount" and will air next year.

The political drama, set to start shooting next month, will trace the story behind the acrimonious ballot recounts in Florida at the end of the 2000 race between Democrat Gore and then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush, a Republican.

Spacey will play Gore's chief of staff and head lawyer. Dern is going to play Katherine Harris. Leary will be a Dem pollster and Begley will be another Dem lawyer. British actor Tom Wilkinson will play Republican James Baker.

"Move on" is just not in these people's vocabulary, is it?

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:48 AM | Comments (45)
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Swarms
— LauraW.

I'm sure you guys are way ahead of me in tech news, but I just thought this was so cool.

Resembling the seed of a silver maple tree, the single-winged device would pack a tiny two-stage rocket thruster along with telemetry, communications, navigation, imaging sensors and a power source.

The nano air vehicle, or NAV, is designed to carry interchangeable payload modules -- the size of an aspirin tablet. It could be used for chemical and biological detection or finding a "needle in a haystack," according to Ned Allen, chief scientist at Lockheed's fabled Skunk Works research arm.

They're designed to be delivered by air en masse as a swarm, and controlled remotely. That's right. No nano-pilots yet.

Frickin' brilliant. Little scary. But mostly brilliant.

Posted by: LauraW. at 06:24 AM | Comments (15)
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More Charges Possible for Vick
— Dave In Texas

County prosecutor Gerald Poindexter presenting evidence to the grand jury.

"Most of the matters that I'm presenting have already been admitted in sworn statements authored by the defendants in the federal proceedings," Poindexter said.

I imagine he feels pretty good about his chances.

Poindexter didn't provide details on the indictments he'll pursue, except to note they are focused on different crimes than those from the federal investigation.

UPDATE: Indictments handed down, one count of beating or killing or causing dogs to fight other dogs and one count of engaging in or promoting dogfighting. Some additional counts for the other co-defendants. No on the animal cruelty charges.

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 05:34 AM | Comments (16)
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Military Commissions Are Back on Track
— Gabriel Malor

The U.S. Court of Military Commission Review has issued its first opinion.

The ruling allows military prosecutors to address a legal flaw that had ground the prosecutions to a halt. The decision, by a three-judge panel of a newly formed military appeals court, was an important victory for the government in its protracted efforts to begin prosecuting some of the 340 detainees at Guantánamo.

The commissions were put on hold in June when a tribunal judge ruled that the Military Commissions Act allowed only prosecutions of those prisoners who were "alien unlawful enemy combatants." To that date, combatant-detainees had only been classified as "enemy combatants" by their CSRTs.

The decision by the appeals court allows prosecutors to present evidence of the unlawfulness of combatant-detainees at their trials. Presumably, the military commission in each case would first consider jurisdictional issues, including the lawfulness of a detainee's combatancy, before moving on to the merits of the case.

First up will be the case of Omar Khadr, who was captured fighting for Al Qaeda in Afghanistan when he was 15. That case is an interesting one because, aside from it being first and therefore something of a test-case for the new commissions, it is one of the very few cases where the U.S. faces the issue of children soldiers.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 11:00 PM | Comments (4)
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UK Driver Sentenced For Driving 172 MPH
— Gabriel Malor

This poor fellow borrowed his new (and now former) employers' Porsche 911 turbo and just let her rip. He set a new record for fastest speed recorded by the police for a car on British roads.

The police were already handing out a ticket for some other fellow driving 115 mph. I'd think that was a big enough catch for one day (do people regularly drive that fast here in the the U.S.?).

PC Peter Billingham, who was carrying out checks with a speed gun, discovered that the Porsche was travelling at 172mph - 77 metres a second. PC Mark Gulliford, stationed further down the dual carriageway, stepped out on to the road and raised his hand, and Brady slammed on his brakes. The car wobbled along for 681 metres before the heavy braking paid off.

I've actually seen that done on Pacific Coast Highway, and it takes guts to walk out into lanes, put your hand up, and hope that the oncoming car stops. That's just crazy. Honestly, I'm impressed that this guy didn't just go around the police officer.

The judge called the driver "criminally self-indulgent," sentenced him to 10 weeks imprisonment, forfeiture of his license for three years, and payment of costs amounting to around $1000.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 10:32 PM | Comments (50)
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Oh Fiddlesticks
— Dave In Texas

I've given Ken Burns a shot.

It's night two, and I'll be goddamned if he isn't STILL going on about internment.

Last night it was 1/4 to 1/3 of the program (according to reports from friends, I admit I was flipping channels between the Bears/Cowboys and The War. I do that. I'm an idiot from Texas. But I did see several scenes last night on internment, even channel flopping).

Tonight, I'm watching it, and it goes on still. "Barbed wire. Some who tried to escape were shot".

Fuck this, and fuck you Ken Burns. America sucks, blah blah blah. You took something that could have been so good, so well done, with your ability, your very impressive ability,

and you shit all over it with your goddamn "America sucks" apologia/guilt.

To hell with you. It's time for Titans and the Saints in HD, for this redneck.

Oh, and you were a pussy in Gettysburg.

Additional Rant: Dave at Garfield Ridge points out in the comments that he called this last night, and yeah, you did buddy. With age comes wisdom. I admit I was having too much fun giving mesablue the business over the game, and I only caught it on the periphery.

That said, I wanted to watch this. I wanted to see how Burns would deal with it, how he would paint the story of something so significant, with video, pictures and interviews. I wanted to appreciate what he could bring to this, in the way that I appreciated his work on The Civil War and Baseball.

I think it's a damned shame, but there it is. I'm not going to dig through the pig shit for the emerald.

Dave in Texas: When you Want Bad Metaphors, I'm Your Man

UPDATE again, the last one. He can't let it go.

I'll agree with those who have posted, there is some really good, masterful work in this. I'm watching it now, and I wholeheartedly agree.

But like a troll gnawing on a bone, he can't stop. He demands your attention to the internment, as if that were the totality of the moral argument for or against the war.

Fuck you Ken Burns. You apologia does not buy you a pass on your work, and I'll grant you, your work is good. You know how to tell a story.

Talent. Attitude. Need a hug?

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 04:58 PM | Comments (135)
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"Die Hard" Director Sentenced to 4 Months in Prison for Lying to FBI
— Dave In Texas

I kinda missed all this. Director John McTiernan (Predator, Die Hard, The Hunt for Red October and The Thomas Crown Affair ) sentenced to 4 months and a $100,000 fine for lying to FBI investigators about his association with private-eye Anthony Pellicano.

McTiernan said the only time he used Pellicano's services was during his divorce, however investigators learned he had hired him to wiretap producer Charles Roven, who worked with him on Rollerball.

Authorities say Pellicano is the ringleader of a scheme that was used to get dirt on clients in legal disputes. He is alleged to have illegally wiretapped Sylvester Stallone and others in the industry, and collected information from law enforcement on more than 60 others, including comedians Garry Shandling and Kevin Nealon, through government databases. He is scheduled to go on trial next year.

McTiernan claimed he was exhausted from a trip to Asia, and was taking medication for a sinus infection when he spoke with FBI agents. The judge's response?

"I find these arguments completely lacking in credibility," she said.

Missed it by that much.

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 02:10 PM | Comments (39)
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Bush: Okay with Iranian Madman Talk at Columbia
— DrewM.

Old Bush v. New Bush:

Right after 9/11

Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. (Applause.) From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.
-George W. Bush 9/20/01

2002 State of the Union Address

States like these (North Korea, Iran and Iraq), and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world.
-George W. Bush 1/22/02

Today

President Bush said Ahmadinejad's appearance at Columbia "speaks volumes about really the greatness of America."

He told Fox News Channel that if Bollinger considers Ahmadinejad's visit an educational experience for Columbia students, "I guess it's OK with me."
-George W. Bush 9/24/07

I miss the old George Bush.

UPDATE: Below the fold are reactions from Republican candidates, which are more, shall we say, appropriate. more...

Posted by: DrewM. at 12:12 PM | Comments (73)
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No Homos In Iran [AndrewsDad]
— Open Blog

The wording I heard was "We don't have homosexuals" in Iran. "I don't know who told you we had it," and "we do not have this homosexual phenomena". I loved the use of the word phenomena, that is the line that is going to produce some red on red action.

Hot Air has some video.

Whatever you do, do NOT post in the comments Rosie inspired reactions to this revelation.

2 hear U say that
My eye Q goes low

Posted by: Open Blog at 11:38 AM | Comments (54)
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