Franken is trying to hold off a recount until a few more (say, 216?) "previously uncounted" ballots appear:

The Franken campaign filed a brief Monday asking the Canvassing Board to consider including improperly rejected absentee ballots in today's official tally. Granting that request would make it practically impossible to proceed to the recount on Wednesday.

However, the state attorney general's office later issued a three-page opinion requested by Ritchie that said the board's job today is purely administrative, not to determine the eligibility of a voter or whether absentee ballots were properly accepted.

Wrote Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Raschke Jr.: "Courts that have reviewed this issue have opined that rejected absentee or provisional ballots are not cast in an election." Improperly rejected absentee ballots can be challenged in court, he wrote.

In two weeks he managed to whittle down Coleman's 725 vote lead. In the meantime, he's decided to simply act like he's won. Today he's in Washington, D.C. meeting with Senate Democrats.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:21 AM | Comments (95)
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Posted by: Ace at 09:50 PM | Comments (44)
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Don't feel bad for her. Feel bad for her husband. It was his retirement account she squandered -- even after being repeatedly informed it was a scam and she needed to stop sending money.

An Oregon woman who is out $400,000 after falling for a well-known Internet scam says she wasn't a sucker or an easy mark.

Janella Spears of Sweet Home says she simply became curious when she received an e-mail promising her $20.5 million if she would only help out a long-lost relative identified as J.B. Spears with a little money up front.

Spears told KATU-TV about the scammers' ability to identify her relative by name was persuasive.

"That's what got me to believe it," She said. "So, why wouldn't you send over $100?"

If someone can successfully toss out a name that may or may not be a relative (and may or may not even be a living person), why wouldn't you believe him?

Spears, who is a nursing administrator and CPR teacher, said she mortgaged the house and took a lien out on the family car, and ran through her husband's retirement account.

"The retirement he was dreaming of — cruising and going around and seeing America — is pretty much gone for him right now," she said.

It's gone for him right now? Unless her husband is actually Bear Sterns, I'd say it's gone forever.

...

Her family and bank officials told her it was all a scam, she said, and begged her to stop, but she persisted because she became obsessed with getting paid.

...

The scammers sent Spears official-looking documents and certificates from the Bank of Nigeria and the United Nations. President Bush and FBI Director Robert Mueller were also involved, the e-mails said, and needed her help.

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"The hope is [other people] are not going to fall as hard as I fell," Spears said.

Little chance of that, lady.

In related news, I need only 50 (fifty) thousand US to get my brother, Stinky, the Crown Prince of Madeupistan, out of prison.

Via Hot Air.

Posted by: Ace at 07:08 PM | Comments (167)
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Rank ignorance. They don't know which party controls Congress, and never heard of Reid, Frank, or Pelosi, but damn, do they know the media-approved misinformation that Palin wore a $150,000 wardrobe. more...

Posted by: Ace at 06:39 PM | Comments (186)
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Is Obama really prepared to deliberately lose a war almost entirely won?

We'll see. Fortunately, he has the nuance of thought allowing him to repudiate almost every prior position.

. THE BOTTOM LINE:

a. The United States is now clearly in the end game in Iraq to successfully achieve what should be our principle objectives:

• The withdrawal of the majority of our US ground combat forces in Iraq in the coming 36 months.

• Leaving behind an operative civil state and effective Iraqi security forces.

• An Iraqi state which is not in open civil war among the Shia, the Sunnis, and the Kurds.

• And an Iraqi nation which is not at war with its six neighboring states.

b. The security situation is clearly still subject to sudden outrage at any moment by Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) or to degradation because of provocative behavior by the Maliki government. However, the bottom line is a dramatic and growing momentum for economic and security stability which is unlikely to be reversible. I would not characterize the situation as fragile. It is just beyond the tipping point.

• Daily attacks hit a high of 180+ in July of 2007--- they are now down to 20+ per day.

• Civilian deaths dropped from 3700 per month in Dec 2006 --- to 400 + in October 2008.

• US military deaths dropped from 110 in May of 2007---to 10 in October 2008.

• Iraqi Security Forces KIA dropped from 310 in June 2007--- to 50 in October 2008.)

[UPDATE-PA] Link to the whole West Point memo (PDF format). I'd been working up a post on this and was going to cite the original source, but Ace beat me to it, so here's the original.

Posted by: Ace at 04:48 PM | Comments (82)
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I guess now we'll see if her purported "toughness" was all a ruse to persuade centrist Democrats or genuine.

Obama's advisers have begun looking into Bill Clinton's foundation, which distributes millions of dollars to Africa to help with development, to ensure that there is no conflict of interest. But Democrats do not believe that the vetting is likely to be a problem.

Well whaddaya know. Vetting the Clintons won't be a problem for Democrats.

Vetting Joe the Plumber for his position as Citizen, on the other hand...

Didn't Clinton have some role as lobbyist for Dubai in that ports case? Why yes, he did.

Clinton would be well placed to become the country's dominant voice in foreign affairs, replacing Condoleezza Rice. Since being elected senator for New York, she has specialised in foreign affairs and defence. Although she supported the war in Iraq, she and Obama basically agree on a withdrawal of American troops.

Clinton, who still harbours hopes of a future presidential run, had to weigh up whether she would be better placed by staying in the Senate, which offers a platform for life, or making the more uncertain career move to the secretary of state job.

Open Senate seat for Rudy?

I am geuninely surprised by her decision. There is no "first" here, she'll serve at the behest of a President whose foreign policy is, supposedly, much more left-wing and pacifist than her own, and she just wrote off any hope of becoming president.

Thanks to Jones.

Posted by: Ace at 04:18 PM | Comments (113)
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Guess what I did this weekend?

Three stars. The actor Jason Segel either decided to write himself a movie, or the writer Jason Segel decided to write a movie and then thought he should star in it. Either way, it was a good decision: The writing's very good and Segel, despite having a place on the long list of People I've Never Heard of or Seen Before in My Entire Life, is a good actor who easily holds the movie.
more...

Posted by: Ace at 03:33 PM | Comments (28)
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Angry gays continue tolerantly, lovingly assaulting anyone who disagrees with them... or anyone who simply sings Amazing Grace.

Vid at Hot Air, plus links. Not only is there a good chance the California Supreme Court will overturn a constitutional amendment for being, um, unconstitutional (neat trick that), but our own beloved Anthony Kennedy may step in and write another one of his Mysteries and Wonders of Human Sexuality opinions overturning it on a 5-4 vote. They did something sort of similar with the Colorado anti-special-gay-protections amendment.

Whether you believe in Prop 8 or not, judges, supposedly, derive their power to overturn legislation based on laws' purported conflicts with The Constitution -- it is the Constitution from which their power derives entirely.

How on earth can they claim that constitutions themselves are unconstitutional?

This is a simple admission that they do not base their opinions on the Constitution at all, but simply upon their own sense of That Which Is Good. Shorn of any theory which even plausibly hints at such a residuum of judicial power, their decisions are now lawless and themselves unconstitutional, without even a pretext of principled, limited theory of judicial intervention legitimizing their actions.

Posted by: Ace at 02:39 PM | Comments (156)
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Ah, another left wing hero, friend of the common man.

His employee, Dan "Hard News Man" Rather, will probably not be doing any exposes on this. Nor will his pet director Brian DiPalma do a Redacted-style "found document" movie about the crime.

The complaint claims that in 2004 Cuban learned of a private offering of Mamma.com (now known as Copernic) that would decrease the value of his 600,000 shares. It says he then sold off his stake and as a result, reportedly saved $750,000.

Buyer's Remorse: Mark Cuban's having a bit of it over Obama, noting there's not a single entrepreneur on his transition team.

Trouble is, entrepreneurs are all idiots, like that moron Sarah Palin, who wasted her time starting successful businesses instead of organizing communities.

Posted by: Ace at 01:33 PM | Comments (35)
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