As we wait for General Petraeus to deliver his progress report on the situation in Iraq, Moveon.org on behalf of the “Don’t Question Our Patriotism” crowd, ran an add in the NY Times yesterday titled “General Petraeus or General Betray Us?”. You can see it at a non Moveon.org link here.

Basically, the ad called the man charged with leading 160,000+ Americans in a combat zone a liar.

Since this is essentially the line Democratic leaders like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are taking, donÂ’t look for anyone on that side of the aisle to tell the morons to shut up. No, that would put the money train in jeopardy.

My fear is there arenÂ’t any Republicans willing to stand up and shout from the rafters that the Democrats are essentially the propaganda agency for terrorists worldwide.

Are Republicans really afraid that they are going to be hurt by standing up for the General and the troops he leads? You have to dig a little deep in this article (like to the end) to get to poll data that shows, shockingly! that not all Americans or even most AmericanÂ’s are with the loony left.

Meanwhile, a New York Times/CBS News Poll found that Americans trust military commanders far more than the Bush administration or Congress to bring the war in Iraq to a successful end. Five percent of Americans said they most trust the Bush administration to resolve the war, the poll found; 21 percent said they would most trust Congress; and 68 percent expressed the most trust in military commanders.

Seems a presidential candidate (teh Fred!?) could make a lot of friends by pointing out the Democrats have spent the last 30 years pimping for our enemies and running down our military.

Thanks to Hot Air for finding a copy of the ad I couldnÂ’t find yesterday.

UPDATE: There's one grown up Democrat. Guess who it is. Yep, the man DKos ran out of the party:

Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., is challenging the Democratic leadership to denounce Moveon.org's attack on Gen. Petraeus in a New York Times ad, in which the liberal antiwar group refers to him as "General Betray-us."

"We must reject the slander of this brave soldier and patriot," says Lieberman, who called the labeled the ad "an outrageous and despicable act of slander."

Posted by: DrewM. at 07:04 AM | Comments (8)
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Every dysfunctional relationship must have an enabler, the person who allows the behavior to continue, according to the participants in this anti-war strategy call Nancy Pelosi is the enabler allowing the President Bush's failed Iraq policy to continue. If she would just break the cycle of violence all would be well you see, our troops could be withdrawn; Sunni, Shia, Jew, Christian and Buddhist could live in peace together in the Garden of Eden that would spring up on the site of Baghdad. So say the participants, including Congressman Jim Moran. more...

Posted by: Open Blog at 09:57 PM | Comments (25)
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As we all know, a key component of the Ace of Spades Lifestyle^TM is sleeping to an appropriate hour, say a gentlemanly noon. It turns out that not only is this approach a physical necessity after a night of hobo hunting, itÂ’s also just plain good for you.

Generations have praised the wisdom of getting up early in the morning, but a Japanese study says early-risers are actually at a higher risk of developing heart problems.

The study, conducted by researchers from several universities and hospitals in the western Japanese city of Kyoto, revealed a link between wake-up times and a person's cardiovascular condition.

"Rising early to go to work or exercise might not be beneficial to health, but rather a risk for vascular diseases," said an abstract of the study.

See, I am not a lazy night owl who has no problem sleeping to noon if it werenÂ’t for that damn alarm. No, I am simply taking good care of my heart. And you annoying morning people who like to mock those of us who donÂ’t function well until, say 1pm or so? YouÂ’re going to die sooner than us. Ha! ItÂ’s science!

Posted by: DrewM. at 09:54 PM | Comments (11)
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The Army is providing help in identifying potential causes of disappearing bee colonies, according to this month's Popular Mechanics. It's a short article with few details, but it sounds like assistance from Aberdeen Proving Grounds has been significant:

As a trial run, CCD surveyors sent Wick samples from suffering beehives, which he liquefied in a blender, filtered using a cheesecloth, and ran through the IVDS. "They'd been working on this for six or seven months," Wick says, "so we brought in a new technology and immediately detected the pathogens they were looking for."

Go Army.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:11 PM | Comments (10)
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Like some saint said, O Lord, grant me chastity, but please don't grant it to me yet.

Thanks to Rusty.

Posted by: Ace at 06:51 PM | Comments (34)
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One might think that true close-minded stupidity was being demonstrated by such a test and the ludicrous claims it makes based on something so trivial, but that's just the sort of stupidity I'd expect from you morons.

Participants were college students whose politics ranged from “very liberal” to “very conservative.” Scientists instructed them to tap a keyboard when an M appeared on a computer monitor and to refrain from tapping when they saw a W.

M appeared four times more frequently than W, conditioning participants to press a key in knee-jerk fashion whenever they saw a letter.

Each participant was wired to an electroencephalograph that recorded activity in their anterior cingulate cortex, the part of the brain that detects conflicts between a habitual tendency (pressing a key) and a more appropriate response (not pressing the key). Liberals had more brain activity and made fewer mistakes than conservatives when they saw a W, researchers said. Liberals and conservatives were equally accurate in recognizing MÂ…

...

Sulloway said the results could explain why President Bush demonstrates a single-minded commitment to the Iraq war and Sen. John F. Kerry, the liberal Massachusetts Democrat who opposed Bush in the 2004 presidential race, was accused of being a flip-flopper for changing his mind about the conflict.

Based on the results, he said, liberals could be expected to more readily accept new social, scientific or religious ideas.

“There is ample data from the history of science showing that social and political liberals indeed do tend to support major revolutions in science,” said Sulloway, who has written about the history of science and has studied behavioral differences between conservatives and liberals.

I hope Allah forgives me from stealing almost all of his link, but I had to.

Exit question three (see Allah for first two): How, precisely, does following idiotic rules to perform a tedious test prove that one is in fact more highly mentally adaptable?

Exit question four: If the results came out the other way -- with liberals screwing up periodically, and conservatives slavishly following the simple-minded rules for the tedious, useless test, what do you suppose the odds are these researchers would have claimed that liberals inability to push keys proved in fact they were dreamers and more imaginative and more courageously free-thinking, and that conservatives were robotically efficient at performing such trivial repetitive tasks precisely due to the limitations of their troglodytic retard-brains?

Posted by: Ace at 06:48 PM | Comments (19)
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Gene Simmons was just saying something similar to this on that Terri Gross interview I linked. I thought he was talking out his ass.

I still sort of do, but then, you know, science.

Female animals that mate with multiple partners may be doing so to ensure the optimum health of their grandchildren, according to researchers at the universities of Leeds and Exeter.

...

Despite mating being a risky business for females – not least with the threat of injury, sexually transmitted diseases and vulnerability to predators - polyandry (females taking multiple mates) is widespread in the animal kingdom.

Dr Stephen Cornell (Leeds) and Dr Tom Tregenza (Exeter) have shown that polyandry may have evolved as a survival technique because it provides genetic benefits for species that either accidentally inbreed, or may have no other choice in certain circumstances.

The researchers used a mathematical model to calculate the genetic advantages of polyandry for species where inbreeding is routine – which is thought to be a very large number of species and includes social spiders and many pests of stored food such as beetles. They found that the genetic rewards are likely to be strong enough to compensate for the risks involved in taking extra mate.

...

But many species are not cabable of preferentially fertilizing their eggs and so must have a different reason for their behaviour. For these species, mating with multiple partners means that the femaleÂ’s offspring are only half-siblings, so that when inbreeding occurs the gene pool is wider, which reduces the chances of genetic defects appearing.

Gene Simmons -- behavioral evolutionist. Who knew?

Posted by: Ace at 06:32 PM | Comments (7)
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I just got this sweet email. His English is a little uneven, but it sort of makes it nicer.

Hi.,


how are you ?

hope all is well.. :-))


we are few days to september 11 aniversary

- I am sending you news about reaction in Poland on 911

- you ( and your readers ) can brightly see that America isnt lonely


wish you a calm day

greets

Jordan
www.jordan55.com

ps.feel free to publish

---------------------------------------------------------


as every year , in my little town lost somewhere at the end of the world - at seaside of Poland ,people fold flowers and inflame candles to celebrate the memory of innocent victims of the attack on WTC which were killed from the hand of animals.

From the hand of animals which shamed to all other animals

the inscription proclaims : on September 11th,2001 our hearts stopped petrified with horror - on that day we were all New Yorkers.

-on the 1st anniversary of the terrorist attack on WTC - inhabitants of Gdynia.

Thank you, Jordan. That really made my day. You and your countrymen's warm wishes are well appreciated.

Posted by: Ace at 06:17 PM | Comments (46)
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Senator Larry Craig plans to file a motion to withdraw his guilty plea tomorrow. I don't think it will help his reelection chances and I'd prefer that he make way for a viable Republican to take his seat as soon as possible. Still, he has a right to make use of the legal system.

Defense attorney Jeralyn Merritt of Talkleft conjectures that Craig's mail-in plea form was deficient because it did not advise Craig of his right to seek counsel. She has a copy of Craig's plea form here (PDF) and in depth discussion of the legal requirement of advisement of counsel here.

Senator Specter takes the opportunity to make fun of a fellow Republican on national TV:

Specter said that when he learned the details of the arrest "I was convinced that he couldn't be convicted if he fought the case."

Minnesota law is that a guilty plea may be withdrawn if it was not intelligently made "and what Sen. Craig did was by no means intelligent," said Specter.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:46 PM | Comments (11)
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I missed this over the weekend, but lovely blogger Cassy Fiano had it on Friday:

Apparently, our troops in Iraq are not worthy of the wonderful and magnificent Kucinich's presence (emphasis mine):

"I feel the United States is engaging in an illegal occupation ... I don't want to bless that occupation with my presence," Kucinich said in Lebanon, according to the Associated Press. "I will not do it."

Kucinich should be held up long and loud as an example of Lefty "support" for the troops. Even my left-voting law friends say that he's an embarrassment.

Cassy has harsh words for Kucinich, including a Coulteresque charge of treason. I can almost forgive her for being a Duncan Hunter supporter; look in her sidebar to guess why.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:19 PM | Comments (21)
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