You know who I blame? You know who. The same Them who trashed our own economy (according to the Iranians).

Did Iran really think that devotion to Allah would protect them from that crazy Jew-Magic?

ran has said the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries should take action to stabilise oil prices.

Expectations of weaker energy demand has pushed prices to fall below $60 a barrel for the first time since March 2007.

Gholamhossein Nozari, Iran's oil minister, said that the stability of prices "needed a far reaching decision and further measures," after prices fell from a peak of $147 in July.

"We are going to review oil market conditions and if there is a need, there might be an emergency meeting," he said on Tuesday.

Iran depends heavily on oil sales, earning 80 per cent of its revenue from oil exports, and the Islamic Republic set its annual budget on the assumption that oil would trade at $90 a barrel.

After cutting oil production by 1.5m bpd in October, an Opec source said on Tuesday the group may cut oil supplies by a further one million barrels per day (bpd) when it meets in Algeria in December.

And you know what this means? That's right -- Iran needs nuclear "energy."

A senior energy adviser to the Iranian government has said energy price instability is precisely the reason Iran needs to pursue nuclear energy, despite the face of international sanctions against the country's nuclear programme.

Of course, of course.

Oh, the falling price of oil is probably also the reason they just tested a a new long-range missile. See, in the future, most oil will be delivered ballistically.

Posted by: Ace at 12:01 PM | Comments (43)
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As offensive? More I'd say. I can't think of too many more derogatory terms myself, what with the bad teeth and experimentation with pederasty and so forth.

So I'm happy to see this hateful word "British" banned, and with it, all its connotations of chocolate-mouthed dandymen trying to solicit chubby schoolboys with cigarettes and crisps.

The word ‘British’ can be as offensive as ‘negro’ and ‘half-caste’, according to a race relations body.

The publicly-funded organisationÂ’s views have been adopted by Caerphilly council in South Wales for a leaflet advising staff on how to deal with the public.

In a section on what words or phrases not to use to avoid causing offence, the leaflet solemnly informs the council’s 9,000 workers: ‘The idea of “British” implies a false sense of unity – many Scots, Welsh and Irish resist being called British and the land denoted by the term contains a wide variety of cultures, languages and religions.’

Oh, wait. They're banning it for different reasons. Well, I wouldn't want to be called British either.

Posted by: Ace at 11:43 AM | Comments (105)
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Does it matter?

Several top Democratic senators have launched a behind-the-scenes effort to save Sen. Joe LiebermanÂ’s chairmanship, despite calls from a Democratic base seeking retribution for LiebermanÂ’s vocal support of John McCainÂ’s presidential campaign.

Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) are all involved in the effort, according to top Senate Democratic aides. These four senators — along with other Lieberman allies — are reaching out to the rest of the Democratic Senate caucus to try to ensure Lieberman survives a secret ballot vote on whether to strip him of his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

This effort, along with kind words from Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) last night about Lieberman, is giving the Connecticut senator some serious momentum heading into next weekÂ’s secret vote.

I ask if it matters because it's not clear to me that Lieberman would caucus with Republicans even if the Democrats took retribution, nor if he would vote to sustain a filibuster for a bill he thought dangerous. I just don't know if this will influence him either way.

I definitely know he's not joining the Republican Party. Connecticut is very Democratic by now.

Posted by: Ace at 11:28 AM | Comments (28)
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A joke which is not quite a joke:

Barone was speaking at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago, to the 121st annual meeting of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, which calls itself the nationÂ’s oldest higher-education association.

“The liberal media attacked Sarah Palin because she did not abort her Down syndrome baby," Barone said, according to accounts by attendees. "They wanted her to kill that child. ... I'm talking about my media colleagues with whom I've worked for 35 years.”

...

About 500 people were in the room, and some walked out.

Barrone says he was joking but went over the line. I don't think he was joking per se. I think he was overstating for effect.

It's not clear the media "wanted" Sarah Palin to abort, but it's pretty clear they didn't approve of her decision.

Palin for Senate: Some weak news as Palin responds "I'm not planning that" to a question about running for Stevens' seat.

Posted by: Ace at 11:12 AM | Comments (59)
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A boring post, but since speculation has been swirling about this ship for months, I have to link it: Apparently there's nothing going on here.

Apparently.

Posted by: Ace at 10:47 AM | Comments (21)
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Newt is apparently out and is backing Michael Steele.

Now comes word that Fred Thompson might be interested in the gig.

"I'm extremely excited that he's considering it," said Scooter Clippard, a Middle Tennessee businessman who spearheaded national fundraising for the Thompson and McCain campaigns. "It's time for a change. Fred Thompson would be the absolute best person to articulate that message for the party."

As Allah points out, this could just be a case of Thompson's supporters pushing his name. Either way, I'm sure we'll get a couple of weeks of will he or won't he stories out of it. Kind of familiar, no?

I like Thompson but I think Steele is the way to go. With so few Republicans out there the RNC chair is going to be very visible for the next few years. Steele is young (he just turned 50) and he will get the base excited.

UPDATE: The Chairman of the Michigan Republican Party has announced his candidacy. I'm sure he's a fine fellow and all but um, no thanks.

And below the fold the main reason Steele should win. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 10:07 AM | Comments (176)
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Remember when buying bad mortgages was the reason we had to pony up $700,000,000,000? Apparently that rationale is no longer operative.

Treasury is unlikely to conduct any auctions to purchase bad loans and other troubled assets -- the original intention of the $700 billion rescue plan. Instead, Treasury is expected to continue focusing its firepower on injecting capital directly into the financial sector, these people said.

"Our assessment at this time is that this is not the most effective way to use TARP funds, but we will continue to examine whether targeted forms of asset purchase can play a useful role, relative to other potential uses of TARP resources, in helping to strengthen our financial system and support lending," (Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson) said, according to his prepared remarks.

House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D., Mass.) said that Treasury disagreed with the plan to put asset purchases on hold. "We have a need to use that funding" for that purpose, Mr. Frank said at a hearing on Capitol Hill. Mr. Frank noted that Congress gave Treasury explicit authority to buy up mortgage-backed securities and whole mortgage loans as part of TARP.

Treasury has just $60 billion left in its rescue fund, and either the current or next administration will have to turn to Congress to request the second half of the promised $700 billion. Treasury has so far committed $250 billion to banks and is spending an additional $40 billion to buy preferred shares in American International Group Inc., the big insurer.

Instead of buying the mortgages, Treasury wants to inject more capital into banks, perhaps with a matching requirement of private equity.

I have to admit that I supported the bailout on the logic of buying up the mortgages and freeing the credit markets up. Now, I have no idea what they are doing. On the up or downside (depending on how you look at it), it doesn't look like Paulson or anyone else has a clue about what they are talking about either.

Update [Slublog] - DrewM was nice enough to let me add on to this post. This might not be an entirely bad plan, at least the part that requires private banks to raise some of their own capital. Greg Mankiw, the former Chairman of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisers suggested something along these lines last month. If implemented correctly, such an approach would give more power to private firms over the government.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:42 AM | Comments (144)
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Bumped. Consider this as good a substitute as any for inadvertently-posted busty lesbian pron.

How do you take out hardened, underground WMD bunkers without making it worse by spreading the nasty stuff around when you blow it up? Burn them with flaming rocket balls of course.

The Pentagon has a new secret weapon to neutralize sites containing chemical or biological weapons: rocket balls. These are hollow spheres, made of rubberized rocket fuel; when ignited, they propel themselves around at random at high speed, bouncing off the walls and breaking through doors, turning the entire building into an inferno. The makers call them "kinetic fireball incendiaries." The Pentagon doesn't want to talk about them, but published documents show that the fireballs have undergone tests on underground bunkers.

...Smaller fireball payloads have been suggested for shoulder-fired rockets and grenades for tactical use. The DTRA is known to be interested in a payload for the 84mm SMAW rocket launcher for agent defeat; at present, ground forces have no tactical options for dealing with a suspected chemical/biological lab operated by terrorists or others.

I bet the Iranians are really worried about stuff like this, at least they will be until noon on January 20th, 2009.

Posted by: DrewM at 02:22 PM | Comments (81)
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Dissent is the highest form of patriotism unless you refuse to toe the accepted liberal line. In that case, youÂ’re going to have to pay a price for having the audacity of independent thought.

Gay and lesbian artists called Monday for an artistic and audience boycott of California Musical Theatre after learning that its artistic director donated $1,000 to a campaign that backed banning gay marriage in California.

Scott Eckern was not available for comment Monday as the revelation has gained stunning momentum on the blogosphereÂ….

Richard Lewis, the organization's executive producer, said the board of directors will conduct an emergency meeting on the matter this afternoon. He said it was too early to tell how this would affect Eckern's 25-year employment with California Musical Theatre.

Personally, I donÂ’t have a problem with the theater doing this. If they think keeping Eckern on will hurt their business, well, when an employee becomes a liability and not an asset there are often consequences.

What bothers me is the rank hypocrisy of the left.

Let’s play a game of “Imagine if an evvvvvilllll entertainment corporation were holding an emergency meeting to decide whether someone who donated to a lefty cause might be fired for it”.

Can you imagine the outrage that ‘the artistic community’ would unleash if one of their own were faced with losing their job for taking a political stand they agreed with? The cries of ‘artistic freedom’ and ‘fascism’ would be deafening.

BTW- I was a bit reluctant to post this after last night’s Prop 8 video thread, lest people think this is ‘bash the gays’ season. I think this story is far more about liberal group think than it is gays or Prop 8.

UPDATE: Eckern has either been properly reeducated or really likes his job.

Eckern issued an apology Tuesday, which was printed in industry periodical Playbill. Eckern said he donated $1,000 to fight for equal rights for all. He said it was not his intent to offend anyone and he was acting on his own religious convictions.

“I have now had many conversations with friends and colleagues and I now have a better idea of what the discrimination issues are, how deeply felt these issues are and I am deeply saddened that my acting upon my religious convictions has been devastating to those I love and admire… I am deeply sorry for any harm or injury I have caused,” according to the apology in Playbill.

I'm sure he won't make the mistake again anytime soon of thinking when artists talk about freedom of expression they actually mean it. Silly man.

Update x2: He quit. Thanks to theBman for the tip.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:59 AM | Comments (152)
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Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:17 AM | Comments (82)
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