Eh. Seemed like an okay guy.

I'm guessing a suicide. But who knows.

I'll just never understand drug use by the incredibly rich and famous. Guys? You're lives are already an ecstatic surreal hallucination of nonstop pleasure and thrills. Why the hell do you have to gild the lily?

This is going to make his supposedly starmaking turn as The Joker even creepier. I wonder if they'll have to reshoot the ending -- if The Joker dies at the end (not sure he will, of course) they'll probably not want Ledger dying on screen so soon after his actual death.

Which wouldn't bother me at all. The Batman films have killed off far too many of his villains; lock them in Arkham as they do in the comics.

Ledger As The Joker: Michael Caine said that everyone would be talking about his performance, and Michael Caine hasn't lied to me yet.

Well, he did mislead me quite a bit with Jaws IV: The Revenge. And The Island. And Blame It On Rio. And... well, about half the movies he's made.

Okay, Michael Caine has pretty much lied to me nonstop since I first met him at age 6, but I still think he's cool.

An Underrated Movie: A Knight's Tale was goofy but fun.

Posted by: Ace at 02:03 PM | Comments (59)
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Please, only bona fide Fredheads on this (honor system). No Romney supporters voting for Romney or the like.

Clarification: This poll isn't about predictions. It's meant to ask genuine Thompson supporters what their current intentions are. I didn't mean to ask non-Thompson supporters for speculations about what Thompson supporters will do, though I admit the question isn't phrased very well.

I guess I should have made the question Who Will You, Genuine Thompson Supporters, Support Now? Take that to be the actual question.

No speculation and no non-Thompson supporters.

I've omitted Ron Paul as a choice for obvious reasons. If Ron Paul were on the list, we'd find that 99.9% of former Thompson supporters were suddenly on board with the rEVOLution.

Early Results... It's a small sample and not scientific but I think it's somewhat representative as it seems to track with the new preferences expressed in the comments.

So far, it looks like Fred's 10% of supporters won't have a major impact on the race. About half will go to Romney, giving him a nice but hardly decisive bump, and a quarter to Giuliani, giving him almost nothing (except perhaps if that tiny bump is enough to put him just barely past McCain in, say, New York).

The last quarter splits evenly between McCain and "Write Fred In" with a tiny showing for the Huckster.

If Giuliani doesn't win Florida -- which he might or might not -- he's all done too, and then his pocket of voters will have a hard choice too.

Posted by: Ace at 12:56 PM | Comments (116)
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I didn't see Norbitt, but I did check out I Know Who Killed Me.

I don't think Eddie Murphy his absolute worse can hold a candle to that fiasco.

Posted by: Ace at 12:44 PM | Comments (8)
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Very brief story here.

Security video here.

I can already see his defense coming -- his poor grandmother was sick and in desperate need of life-saving butt-plugs.

Incidentally, if you let that video play 'till the next one, you get to see the pants-dropping subway stunt, where people strip off their pants to strap-hang. Not really all that titillating or deserving of a content warning, as most seem to just drop trou to reveal boxers.

Thanks to Teh Sniper.

Posted by: Ace at 12:40 PM | Comments (2)
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The "Saddam-era dumping ground," with its yarmulke children's skulls, turns out to have been, as everyone else said, just an old farm with animal bones in the ground.

So nothing he wrote was true.

As the Forbes Online reporter (Steve Zahn) said in Shattered Glass, "Well there is one thing in this article that checks out... there is, apparently, a state called 'Nevada.'"

Posted by: Ace at 12:10 PM | Comments (6)
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So says Marc Ambinder.

I wanted to get this up in a hurry, so I haven't had time to confirm this -- but Ambinder was the one who reported, possibly erroneously, that "sources" close to Thompson had him dropping out earlier, didn't he?

Be that as it may, Carl Cameron is also reporting this, and he says Thompson has personally already informed his campaign HQ of the decision.

The announcement, Cameron says, will either come tonight or tomorrow.

Over the Wires (No Link Yet): Thompson told his Nashville staff he was "closin' up shop and heading back home to Virginia."

Official Announcement: DrewM. writes that FNC just reported he issued a statement making it official.

Here it is: Today's offical Quote of the Day:

"Today I have withdrawn my candidacy for President of the US. I hope my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort. Jeri and I will always be grateful for the encouragement and friendship of so many wonderful people." -- Fred Dalton Thompson, statement issued to media

FWIW, Thompson's online guys just emailed me the statement as well.

Posted by: Ace at 11:23 AM | Comments (113)
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He's got time to heal.

Monday during the day, Tom Brady had a walking cast on his right foot. Monday night, after having dinner with girlfriend Gisele Bundchen, Brady was not wearing the boot.

Is Tom Brady a member of the Walking Wounded?

The website TMZ.com has video that it says is the Patriots glamour quarterback arriving Monday with girlfriend Gisele Bundchen and several others at an apartment in New York City. But -- in a scene that makes Patriots fans worry about the fate of the perfect season -- the Patriots superstar is limping from his vehicle as he carries flowers and a bag to the front door, all while declining comment as the narrator congratulates him on making his fourth Super Bowl. (Must be fun to have the paparazzi chasing you around.)

TMZ has video of Brady limping around what appears to be Beacon Hill in his cast.

Question: Is this a Bill Bellichick mindfuck? Seriously, I would not put something like this past him. He's big into the Sun Tzu total war idea. I think he gets off on stuff like this, chuckling villainously.

BTW, I'm not knocking Billichick for this. I think deception is perfectly fair so long as he doesn't violate actual league rules (like listing Brady as injured if he's not). I just think he's the sort of guy who enjoys fake-outs of this kind.

Not Beacon Hill: DrewM says it's not Beacon Hill, Boston, but the West Village in NY, and I believe him.

A supermodel in Boston? Ah, I should have realized how silly that notion was.

Posted by: Ace at 10:51 AM | Comments (25)
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Maybe Squeaky Fromme at worst.

McCain is starting to show a certain attraction to many bedrock conservatives that must be based on his war record and service, and this trumps their worries about his less than conservative fides — or at least allows them to accept McCain's won't-make-that-mistake-again changed views on closing the border, tax cuts, etc. Privately many conservative voters have looked at the polls and know McCain does best against the Democrats.

Sure, we're aware of that. But we always, in every cycle, have the option of fairly easily winning an election by nominating a virtual Democrat. But we usually don't, because we don't just want our party to own the White House, but our ideas and our policies too.

Via BamaPachyderm, who has thoughts on a McCain-Clinton showdown.

Posted by: Ace at 10:47 AM | Comments (33)
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Already well-covered by Black Five, but this Chicago Tribune account is worthy.

ay Grodner, the Chicago lawyer who keyed a Marine's car in anger because the car had military plates and a Marine insignia, finally got his day in court last week.

Grodner pleaded guilty in a Chicago courtroom packed with former Marines. Some had Marine pins on their coats, or baseball jackets with the Marine insignia. They didn't yellor call him names. They came to support Marine Sgt. Michael McNulty, whose car Grodner defaced in December, but who couldn't attend because he's preparing for his second tour in Iraq.

Grodner was late to court for the second time in the case. Grodner called Assistant State's Attorney Patrick Kelly, (Marine Corps/Vietnam 1969-1972), informing Kelly that he would be late to court.

"He wanted to avoid the media," Kelly said Friday. "So he's coming a half hour late."

"I don't run my courtroom that way!" responded Judge William O'Malley, ordering Grodner be arrested and held on $20,000 bail when he arrived. Finally, Grodner strolled in. A short man, wide, wearing a black fedora, dark glasses, a divorce lawyer dressed like some tough guy in the movies.

Grodner told me he'd describe himself as a "radical liberal" who's ready to leave Chicago now with all this negative publicity and move to the south of France and do some traveling.

Judge O'Malley has also traveled, but in his youth. He was a police officer on the West Side during the riots before law school. And before that, he performed another public service. Judge O'Malley served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1961-1964.

During the proceedings, the judge described the offense as anger rose in his voice, especially as Grodner started balking on a plea arrangement he'd made with prosecutors.

"Is this what you did? Yes or no," Judge O'Malley asked Grodner.

"Without knowing, yes," Grodner said, sticking to his I-might-have-done-it-but-didn't-really-mean-it defense.

O'Malley asked again, in a stronger voice, not that of a judge but of a cop on the street or a Marine who meant business.

"DID YOU KNOWINGLY CAUSE DAMAGE TO THIS CAR?" O'Malley asked.

Grodner bowed his head, meekly, and responded in an equally meek voice:

"Yes," he said.

...

"You caused damage to this young Marine sergeant's car because you were offended by his Marine Corps license plates," said Judge O'Malley.

Grodner stood there, hands behind his back. He grasped the fingers of his left hand with his right, and held it there, so they wouldn't wiggle.

"You're probably also wondering why there was a whole crowd of people here, Mr. Grodner," said Judge O'Malley.

"I don't want to wonder," said Grodner, continuing in his new meek voice, not in his tough divorce lawyer voice, but the gentle, inside voice he'd just learned.

"That's because there is a little principle that the Marine Corps has had since 1775," the judge continued. "When they fought and lost their lives so that people like you could enjoy the freedom of this country. It is a little proverb that we follow:

"No Marine is left behind.

"So Sgt. McNulty couldn't be here. But other Marines showed up in his stead. Take him away," said the judge and former Marine.

The reporter notes Grodner still shows no remorse and indeed won't admit, except when demanded to by a judge, he actually keyed the car.

Thanks to Right Wing Sparkle, who has some thoughts on the Frontline special "Growing Up Online" and the strange new world of kids on the internet.

Posted by: Ace at 10:41 AM | Comments (40)
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Bravely striding the path of least resistance.

President Bush is unlikely to defy Congress on spending billions of dollars earmarked for pet projects, but he will probably insist that lawmakers provide more justification for such earmarks in the future, administration officials said Monday.

Fiscal conservatives in Congress and budget watchdogs have been urging Mr. Bush to issue an executive order instructing agencies to disregard the many earmarks listed just in committee reports, not in the text of legislation.

More than 90 percent of earmarks are specified that way, not actually included in the texts. White House officials say such earmarks are not legally binding on the president.

Congressional leaders of both parties, who are scheduled to meet on Tuesday with the president, said Mr. Bush would provoke a huge outcry on Capitol Hill if he ignored those earmarks.

Lawmakers, including the House Republican whip, Roy Blunt of Missouri, have cautioned the White House that a furor over earmarks could upend Mr. BushÂ’s hopes for cooperation with Congress on other issues, including efforts to revive the economy.

I find the idea that the Democrats would commit political suicide by blocking a stimulus package over wasteful, corrupt earmarks somewhat fanciful.

Posted by: Ace at 10:32 AM | Comments (14)
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