Michael Totten has a new report from Fallujah:

“Oh yeah,” he said. “This summer I ate dinner just about every week out there. I couldn't have done that back in January. They would have lit my tail up. You couldn't go 100 feet down the road that runs along the river without getting hit by an IED. Now we can sit there with our flak jackets and helmets off like we're sitting right here. We can do that outside in the open. We go out there and eat chow with the guys who were shooting at us a year ago.”

But don't forget the war is lost, and we must run away post-haste!

Posted by: Open Blog at 06:44 AM | Comments (35)
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~270 (current count) dead in post election violence. A church full of people fleeing the violence was torched, 50 burned alive.

Blatantly rigged elections will do it every time. Come on Kenya, stay classy. You got one of the nicer joints in Africa, don't fuck it all up.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 06:08 AM | Comments (25)
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Ouch. The only man who can save America has been dropped from the next debate.

The situation is ugly. Paul supporters are already threatening boycotts. The Stormfront crowd is stocking up on white sheets, glass bottles and gasoline. The 5th column Soros backed contingent is promising nationwide tree sitting protests, and the basement dope farmers are promising to cut back production in protest.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 05:41 AM | Comments (10)
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Kumari Fulbright, 25, charged with kidnapping, armed robbery, aggravated robbery and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon.

The former Miss Pima County, Miss Desert Sun and Miss Arizona contestant was charged along with 3 other men* with kidnapping her former boyfriend on Dec 8 and holding him for 10 hours.

Court documents said the foursome tied the man up with plastic cable ties and duct tape, holding him at two Tucson homes, during which time they pointed handguns at him, threatened his life, stole his cell phone, briefcase and wallet, taking between $500 and $600.

The newspaper also said the documents accused Fulbright of biting him several times, sticking a butcher knife in his ear, saying she was going to kill him and pointing a pistol at him.

Can you hear me now?

Fulbright was also a law student at the University of Arizona, and a former law clerk for a U.S. District judge. She may have missed a couple of classes though.

Suggested defense strategy: "It's not you, it's me. Or us."

UPDATE: Atilla (Pillage Idiot) discovers photograph of her at terrorist training camp, date unknown (other than "May").

* Other 3 men not charged at this time; one is jailed, 2 alleged accomplices sought by authorities.

more...

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 05:28 AM | Comments (41)
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Newsbusters has the most succulent slices of red meat, but I'm sure there's more tasty steak in the original article.

Today's interpreters of the weather are what social scientists call availability entrepreneurs: the activists, journalists and publicity-savvy scientists who selectively monitor the globe looking for newsworthy evidence of a new form of sinfulness, burning fossil fuels.

A year ago, British meteorologists made headlines predicting that the buildup of greenhouse gases would help make 2007 the hottest year on record. At year's end, even though the British scientists reported the global temperature average was not a new record - it was actually lower than any year since 2001 - the BBC confidently proclaimed, "2007 Data Confirms Warming Trend."

...

When the Arctic sea ice last year hit the lowest level ever recorded by satellites, it was big news and heralded as a sign that the whole planet was warming. When the Antarctic sea ice last year reached the highest level ever recorded by satellites, it was pretty much ignored. A large part of Antarctica has been cooling recently, but most coverage of that continent has focused on one small part that has warmed.

Once a cascade is under way, it becomes tough to sort out risks because experts become reluctant to dispute the popular wisdom, and are ignored if they do. Now that the melting Arctic has become the symbol of global warming, there’s not much interest in hearing other explanations of why the ice is melting — or why the globe’s other pole isn’t melting, too.

Global warming has an impact on both polar regions, but they’re also strongly influenced by regional weather patterns and ocean currents. Two studies by NASA and university scientists last year concluded that much of the recent melting of Arctic sea ice was related to a cyclical change in ocean currents and winds, but those studies got relatively little attention — and were certainly no match for the images of struggling polar bears so popular with availability entrepreneurs.

...

Roger A. Pielke Jr., a professor of environmental studies at the University of Colorado, recently noted the very different reception received last year by two conflicting papers on the link between hurricanes and global warming. He counted 79 news articles about a paper in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, and only 3 news articles about one in a far more prestigious journal, Nature.

Guess which paper jibed with the theory - and image of Katrina - presented by Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth"?

It was, of course, the paper in the more obscure journal, which suggested that global warming is creating more hurricanes. The paper in Nature concluded that global warming has a minimal effect on hurricanes. It was published in December - by coincidence, the same week that Mr. Gore received his Nobel Peace Prize.

Posted by: Ace at 09:35 PM | Comments (33)
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It’s like the 90’s all over again. Not the good parts like crazy internet and technology money. No, it's the obnoxious Clinton parts.

This time it's Hillary claims that Pervez Musharraf was going to be on the ballot in Pakistan’s now postponed elections.

On Dec. 28, during an interview on CNN, Clinton said, "If President Musharraf wishes to stand for election, then he should abide by the same rules that every other candidate will have to follow."

And on Dec. 30, during an interview on ABC's "This Week," Clinton responded to a question about whether Musharraf should step down by saying, "He could be the only person on the ballot. I don't think that's a real election."

Except, Musharraf was " re-elected" President months ago and the elections in question are for parliament. Bhutto was never going to replace Musharraf as President but the plan was for her to become Prime Minister. You'd think the smartest woman in America would have known that.

Now, most people would say, “Ooops, my bad” but not a Clinton. Nope, they double down by claiming we don’t understand the plain meaning of words.

ABC News' Brian Wheeler, Teddy Davis and Kate Snow report: The Clinton campaign says Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., did not make a mistake when she talked about Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf as a presidential candidate, in a recent interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

“Well, his party is on the ballot,” said communications director Howard Wolfson, in an interview at Clinton headquarters in Des Moines, Tuesday, suggesting that the senator knew the difference between the man and the party being up for election, but was using shorthand. “And I don’t think anybody questions that Sen. Clinton has a vast and deep knowledge about foreign policy.”

Among the many reasons to despair of a President Hillary Clinton is the need to parse every last word, in every statement. Something in Bill and Hillary makes it impossible to take their words at face value. It's probably their inherent dishonesty.

Posted by: DrewM. at 08:06 PM | Comments (29)
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ItÂ’s like the 90Â’s all over again. Not the good parts like crazy internet and technology money. No, it's the obnoxious Clinton parts.

This time it's Hillary claims that Pervez Musharraf was going to be on the ballot in PakistanÂ’s now postponed elections.

On Dec. 28, during an interview on CNN, Clinton said, "If President Musharraf wishes to stand for election, then he should abide by the same rules that every other candidate will have to follow."

And on Dec. 30, during an interview on ABC's "This Week," Clinton responded to a question about whether Musharraf should step down by saying, "He could be the only person on the ballot. I don't think that's a real election."

Except, Musharraf was " re-elected" President months ago and the elections in question are for parliament. Bhutto was never going to replace Musharraf as President but the plan was for her to become Prime Minister. You'd think the smartest woman in America would have known that.

Now, most people would say, “Ooops, my bad” but not a Clinton. Nope, they double down by claiming we don’t understand the plain meaning of words.

ABC News' Brian Wheeler, Teddy Davis and Kate Snow report: The Clinton campaign says Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., did not make a mistake when she talked about Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf as a presidential candidate, in a recent interview with ABCÂ’s George Stephanopoulos.

“Well, his party is on the ballot,” said communications director Howard Wolfson, in an interview at Clinton headquarters in Des Moines, Tuesday, suggesting that the senator knew the difference between the man and the party being up for election, but was using shorthand. “And I don’t think anybody questions that Sen. Clinton has a vast and deep knowledge about foreign policy.”

Among the many reasons to despair of a President Hillary Clinton is the need to parse every last word, in every statement. Something in Bill and Hillary makes it impossible to take their words at face value. It's probably their inherent dishonesty.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:06 PM | Comments (29)
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And he's just the man to do it.

Former "investigative reporter" Dale Cardwell has a message. He's the guy who will work for the people of Georgia, not the "big corporations who fund the campaigns of elected officials and then tell them what they can and can't do". It's time to run the crooks out of Washington.

This is a big deal.

So to call attention to his message, he will remain camped atop a 300 foot tower near downtown Atlanta "for days". He'll be up there sleeping in a sleeping bag and eating MREs for, days I suppose.

If he wins the primary he'll go up against Republican Saxby Chambliss.

There's a live video stream at his web site if you're interested. He looks cold.

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 04:18 PM | Comments (19)
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That headline, borrowed from a newspaper account, seriously overstates the "reigniting" going on here. Basically the FBI is asking for help in tracking down the now 80-year-old man, if alive.

Oversold but still sort of interesting if you like this kind of thing.

Posted by: Ace at 03:18 PM | Comments (23)
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I don't know if this means anything or not, but it's kind of making me go "Hmmmmm" if you know what I mean.

I spoke with one of the people in charge of organizing Thursday's caucus here in Madison County yesterday afternoon, to get all the details of what I'll have to do at the meeting, and he threw out something that might have some impact on the voting results. Or not.

He mentioned that his phone has been ringing off the hook, but the part that really perked up my ears was when he mentioned that a lot of his calls have been from ..... Registered Democrats, both Catholic and Evangelical Protestant. Are they dissatisfied with the Democratic field? Are they infiltrating the caucus to swing the vote towards a nutter like Ron "I fingerpaint with my own feces" Paul? Are they glad to see a fellow evangelical like Huckabee doing well on the Republican side, so they're coming over to put him over the top?

I don't get it myself. The race on the Democratic side is pretty hotly contested. You've got a populist Southerner who's banging the class-warfare drum like a screen door in a hurricane, a "clean & articulate" minority candidate with a fresh, unsullied legislative record & an endorsement from The Oprah, and a longtime political insider with a supposed expertise in foreign policy and the willingness to stoop to any depth to get as many votes as possible. I don't see this as a race where committed Democrats can say "Hey, I can live with any of the candidates, so I'll just go over to the Republican side for the night on a lark." Maybe they're just calling him out of curiousity to see how the other side lives? I'm not smart enough to answer that question.

I don't know many evangelical Democrats, but I do know lots of faithful Catholics who were born into the Democratic party, just like some people were born with red hair and others were born with large, misshapen hunchbacks. If I see any of them at the Republican caucus on Thursday night, I'll be sure to ask them who they're supporting & why, but until then, this is just another interesting factoid to help feed the Horse Race Fever.

Madison County's got somewhere around 17,000 people (accoring to the 2000 census), and my contact is thinking that this year will be an overflow crowd like '88. Our countywide caucus will be held at the Winterset High School auditorium, with the individual precincts breaking down & voting in classrooms after the joint presentations, and a crowd of more than 800 or so will mean it's "standing room only". Assuming that the county's 50-50 split between the two parties (Iowa's teetered between the parties lately, so that's probably a fair cop, if you count affiliated voters only), that means that a 10% turnout will give us somewhere around 600 people (assuming 1/3 of voters are Rep, Dem and Ind). If I'm not too drunk from the post-caucus dinner we're having, I'll come give you my impressions of the process.

Posted by: Russ from Winterset at 02:52 PM | Comments (50)
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