As Ace blogged about yesterday Rudy Giuliani demanded that the NY Times provide him with the same ad rate that Moveon.org received for their disgusting General Betray Us ad. You can see Rudy's ad after the jump.

I hope the Republicans take this fighting stance at all levels next year. While 2008 is a long way away in political terms, the trends are troubling and not just in the Presidential race.

In the Senate John WarnerÂ’s retirement in Virginia has opened the door for popular Democratic ex-Governor Mark Warner (no relation) to get in the race. Now in New Hampshire another Democratic ex Governor, Jeanne Shaheen is running against incumbent Republican John Sununu. 5 years ago, Sununu defeated Shaheen by 4 points but the once solidly Republican Granite State has become an increasingly purple state.

While I am not all about the doom and gloom at this point, I am concerned, as I think all Republicans are. Obviously the best hope Republicans have is significant progress in Iraq but thatÂ’s out of their control. I hope more of them take the Rudy route and go on the offensive against those who have become some invested in our defeat in Iraq.
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Posted by: DrewM. at 07:21 AM | Comments (19)
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I was driving the other day and musing that the radio didn't feature a lot of the infectious party-pop songs that I remembered from when I was younger. A lot of them were so dorky and unhip and unselfconscious in their eagerness to pander to that most derided of human impulses -- giddy joy -- they just didn't seem to make 'em like that anymore, as Greg Kinh might say.

You do hear these songs sometimes, but usually in commercials now, which are of course shameless in their desire to pander, or as the now-cliched trick in movies of running a pure pop song as an ironic counterpoint to onscreen violence.

Anyway, pretty much all of these songs just make me feel good, and I don't really care how absolutely childish or gay they are. Chances are pretty good you dig 'em too. For alog the pre-video age tracks, of course, I had to pick Yu-Gi-Oh fanboy type videos, but it's the song that matters anyhow.

I limited myself to one ABBA song, because face it, you could pretty much put ABBA's whole catalogue into this post. On the other hand, I've gone with three Elton Johns.

I've included a few of the more recent attempts at this sort of happy-pop, too.

Posted by: Ace at 08:24 PM | Comments (115)
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Gaydar, scientifically proven.

Is he gay or straight? At a glance, the key to telling might be in the way he walks.

A swing of the hips or a swaggered shoulder is enough for many casual observers to identify a manÂ’s sexual orientation, according to a study published in the September issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Observers were only able to accurately guess the sexual orientation of men; with women, their guesses didn’t exceed chance. But what’s most interesting to researchers is understanding how that snap judgment can unleash a series of stereotypes — even from the most liberal-minded.

...

As the gay men walked, they slightly swayed their hips. The observers were accurate in assessing the men's sexual orientation a little more than 60 percent of the time.

“There’s reason to think that gay people can’t conceal their homosexuality,” says Michael Bailey, a professor of psychology at Northwestern University. “I don’t think it’s a performance that gay people enact. I think it’s something that either is inborn, or it’s acquired very early, perhaps by watching members of the other sex.”

Research such as Johnson's may give scientific credence to "gaydar," suggesting that people really can tell whether someone is gay or straight from visual clues.

As the lesbians walked, they slightly moved their shoulders back and forth — Johnson calls it a less exaggerated version of an Arnold Schwarzenegger-type swagger.

But when it came to identifying the sexual orientation of the women, it was all up to chance.

We really need to get these people working on curing diseases. They don't seem particularly bright, but they can at least wash test tubes for the cause.

Posted by: Ace at 05:58 PM | Comments (37)
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Coming in five minutes.

Monotonous. I hope it has more of an impact than it had on me.

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Posted by: Ace at 04:55 PM | Comments (56)
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Bump and Update: Bond was set at $5 million after the DA asked for $50 million! Citing Hsu's mysterious illness (which I think may be related to a suicide attempt), Hsu's local lawyer got the judge down to $5 million.

Hsu will waive extradition as soon as transportation to California is arranged.

Original Post:

Plenty of Norman Hsu news this morning.

First, he's been transfered from St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction to the Mesa County Jail. At his arraignment tomorrow, the DA will ask for at least a $4 million bond. I assume that the judge will also be collecting his passport.

Next, the Wall Street Journal reports that Hsu sent a suicide note by FedEx to several people and organizations, including the Innocence Project which immediately contacted the California Attorney General. Apparently, the note was sent the same morning that Hsu decided to go to the train station instead of the courthouse.

Perhaps this explains Hsu's condition on the train.

Third, the other campaigns are reacting to Clinton's (alleged) return of bundled donations. As I predicted on Sunday, the other campaigns are following Clinton's lead on this. Each is inspecting its contributions to weed out bundled donations with a Hsu connection.

And finally, we know that the Clinton campaign wasn't too competent when it came to checking Hsu before he gave them money. It looks like they're taking extra special care before they have to give money back:

Clinton's staff spent Tuesday rechecking records to ensure that all of those on the initial list of Hsu's 260 contributors were in fact questionable donations that needed to be returned. "It's possible that the number will shrink," Wolfson said.

More: I hadn't heard this before, but apparently Hsu tried to blame the Obama campaign for the WSJ stories which started this whole thing:

Hsu contended that those articles were planted "by a politician who pledged 'hope and change' " -- an apparent reference to Sen. Barack Obama, Clinton's main rival for the Democratic presidential nomination.

An Obama spokesman called Hsu's claim "sad and baseless."

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 03:40 PM | Comments (32)
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The good news is that Senators are trying to bring back some of the elements of last summer’s ‘Comprehensive Immigration Reform’ effort. The bad news? It’s the amnesty parts, not the enforcement parts.

Senate Democrats plan to use the defense authorization bill next week to revive a provision from the failed immigration overhaul that would put some children of illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship.

Meanwhile, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is working to bring to the floor another provision from the immigration bill (S 1639) that would create a guest worker program for up to 1.5 million agricultural workers (S 340).

Both efforts are likely to rekindle the kind of heated debate that engulfed the Senate when the immigration overhaul measure was being considered in June.

Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., is expected to offer an amendment to the defense bill (HR 1585) that would attach legislation (S 774) to allow children of illegal immigrants who entered the United States before age 16 and lived here at least five years to gain conditional legal status and eventual citizenship if they attend college or join the military for at least two years.

I am guessing most, not all but most, will take the college option. Oh yeah, the bill would also make sure that the illegals who select the college option will be eligible for the in-state tuition rate and of course, financial aid.

Fortunately, the right people are on the case

Indeed, one of the harshest critics of the comprehensive legislation called a news conference Wednesday to voice his objections to the plans to breathe new life into it.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said the proposals could put more than 4 million illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship. That is about one-third of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants who would have benefited from the comprehensive immigration overhaul bill he helped kill earlier this year, Sessions said.

Posted by: DrewM. at 03:10 PM | Comments (27)
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Oh, so now it's a crime to for a 48 year old man to send pictures of himself in a giant baby diaper to teenage girls' cell phones? When did they make that illegal? Was that the fascist PATRIOT Act?

Next thing you know and Bushitler will make "armed robbery" some kind of "crime," too.

Thanks to Debra.

Posted by: Ace at 02:00 PM | Comments (16)
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Nice stunt, but who reads the NYT anymore?

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) said Thursday that he is asking The New York Times for the “same heavily discounted rate they gave MoveOn.org” for his campaign to run an ad in Friday’s paper.

Giuliani, calling MoveOn.org’s controversial “General Betray Us” ad “abominable,” said his campaign is asking the paper for a comparable rate for an ad to run following President Bush’s speech on Iraq.

The former mayor said his ad “will obviously take the opposite view” from MoveOn.org, which argued in its ad that Gen. David Petraeus is “cooking the books” on Iraq and cherry-picking facts that support his recommendation to keep a large number of troops in Iraq for some time.

Giuliani continued to include Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in his criticisms for her comments that it would take “a willing suspension of disbelief” to accept at face value Petraeus’s report on the situation in Iraq. Giuliani interpreted Clinton’s remarks at a hearing earlier this week as questioning the general’s integrity.

“We think that her attack on Gen. Petraeus was a follow-up to the MoveOn.org/Times attack,” Giuliani told reporters in Atlanta.

Here's why I like Rudy, and keep pimping him, despite his obvious flaws: He's a prick. My kind of prick. To all the right assholes. I'm a little weary of the "above the fray" model of the Presidency favored by Bush. The President is a political actor and should behave as one, not pretend that such base disputes are beneath his stature.

In related news, Ken Wheaton of AdAge calls for those promoting the stupid "pro-Rudy/pro-Republican" ads to grow up and accept they're 1) not funny and 2) not fooling anybody.

The only people who seem to have believed this is the Brain Trust of wannabe-chicks at Wonkette. But then they have a history of "falling" for transparent scams.

Fred Frags The Freaks: Thompson unloads on MoveOn now, too.

The AV Club: Rudy's audio, Fred's video.

Posted by: Ace at 12:33 PM | Comments (50)
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Able to voluntarily move his knee, his ankles, and wiggle his toes. Also slightly moved his arm, but still no feeling in his hands.

Anyway, it's hopeful, and sounds much more promising than the reports in the first few days following his surgery. So here's wishing him well.

And this gives me a chance to remind those of you who actually know anything about football (unlike me), don't forget your picks this week. I'll be in the air tomorrow so I guess I'll start flipping a quarter and making my picks tonight.

It beats thinking and picking. Or as we say in Texas, if you don't think too good, don't think too long.

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 12:23 PM | Comments (7)
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I forget all the details about this piece of crap, but I think that DC had signed away an option to do a Justice League show and Roger Corman bought it up and made this quickie piece of crap just before the option expired.

Here's the opening. Note this music is not in the original; it's from the actually damn-good Justice League cartoon from three or four years ago. I'm sure the actual music was much, much worse.

But yes, that's Major Charles Winchester from MASH as Martian Manhunter.

Justice League of Atkins, I guess. Is it too much to ask that actors playing superheroes have a below-15% body fat ratio?

More of this crap at Galley Slaves.

Thanks to The Influence Peddler.

Repost of a much better JLA adaptation below. more...

Posted by: Ace at 12:20 PM | Comments (10)
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