You. Must. Read. To believe.

Watch as he attempts to claim that Wright is "merely" quoting a former Reagan advised Edward Peck. Just putting that quote into context.

Tell me-- do you see a "quote" here? You know-- with quotation marks?

He slips that little nugget in at the end. Did Peck say, orgasmically, "The chickens... have come home... to roost"

Even more stunningly, while CNN's cocksucker apologist/DNC freelancer attempts to claim this is all just a "quote" from Edward Peck and he's just doing his job as a journalist putting things into "context," he deliberately refuses to provide the actual quote so we can compare Peck's quote to Wright's noxious anti-American venom. He would like us to just take his word for it that Peck says essentially what Wright does.

Blatant partisanship? Naked assertions without evidence to back them up? Willfully withholding crucial evidence so that the public may actually make an informed judgment as to whether the writer is flat-out lying to him?

SOP at CNN, sadly.

One of the most controversial statements in this sermon was when he mentioned “chickens coming home to roost.” He was actually quoting Edward Peck, former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq and deputy director of President Reagan’s terrorism task force, who was speaking on FOX News. That’s what he told the congregation.

He was quoting Peck as saying that AmericaÂ’s foreign policy has put the nation in peril:

[Wright:] “We took this country by terror away from the Sioux, the Apache, Arikara, the Comanche, the Arapaho, the Navajo. Terrorism.

“We took Africans away from their country to build our way of ease and kept them enslaved and living in fear. Terrorism.

“We bombed Grenada and killed innocent civilians, babies, non-military personnel.

“We bombed the black civilian community of Panama with stealth bombers and killed unarmed teenage and toddlers, pregnant mothers and hard working fathers.

“We bombed Qaddafi’s home, and killed his child. Blessed are they who bash your children’s head against the rock.

“We bombed Iraq. We killed unarmed civilians trying to make a living. We bombed a plant in Sudan to pay back for the attack on our embassy, killed hundreds of hard working people, mothers and fathers who left home to go that day not knowing that they’d never get back home.

“We bombed Hiroshima. We bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon and we never batted an eye.

“Kids playing in the playground. Mothers picking up children after school. Civilians, not soldiers, people just trying to make it day by day.

“We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff that we have done overseas is now brought right back into our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.

“Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred. And terrorism begets terrorism. A white ambassador said that y’all, not a black militant. Not a reverend who preaches about racism. An ambassador whose eyes are wide open and who is trying to get us to wake up and move away from this dangerous precipice upon which we are now poised. The ambassador said the people we have wounded don’t have the military capability we have. But they do have individuals who are willing to die and take thousands with them. And we need to come to grips with that.”

If all he's doing is "quoting" Peck, asshole -- where is the Peck quote in question? Did Peck claim we had no right to be "indignant" over the unprovoked mass murder of 3000 innocent civilians?

I rather doubt Peck said "terrorism begets terrorism," or accused the US of terrorism against the Indians, or ended with the orgasmic flourish:

So, CNN: He was just quoting Peck, huh? Just putting Peck's quote into "context"?

Gee, funny how such a key quote -- the one you claim lets Wright off the hook -- is entirely absent from your lying article.

Scumbag.

Incidentally, as a commenter pointed out, when Wright gave this speech, no one yet knew how many had died -- it was believed the figure was far higher than 3000. In the tens of thousands, perhaps.

Here's this Roland Martin's digest of the sermon:

His sermon thesis:

1. This is a time for self-examination of ourselves and our families.

2. This is a time for social transformation (then he went on to say they wonÂ’t put me on PBS or national cable for what IÂ’m about to say. Talk about prophetic!)

... [elaboration on this "theme"]

3. This is time to tell God thank you for all that he has provided and that he gave him and others another chance to do His will.

Hah, hah, hah, hah. The three points he makes -- and no reference at all to the rather important Theme 4. You know, the one where we are terrorists, have no right to be "indignant" over the mass murder of 3000, and of course... "America's chickens... are comin' home... to roost."

Guess you missed that theme, huh, Roland?

This doesnÂ’t explain anything away, nor does it absolve Wright of using the N-word, but what it does do is add an accurate perspective to this conversation.

The point that I have always made as a journalist is that our job is to seek the truth, and not the partial truth.

I am also listening to the other sermons delivered by Rev. Wright that have been the subject of controversy.

And let me be clear: Where I believe he was wrong and not justified in what he said based upon the facts, I will say so. But where the facts support his argument, that will also be said.

Oh, sure, we'll all be waiting with bated breath for your next brutally honest, straight-shooting commentary.

I'd smack you in your lying fucking mouth but I'd get charged with a hate crime for knocking Obama's cock out of it.

I wish Anderson Cooper, Roland Martin, and the rest of CNN had the simple professionalism to wipe their chins off before appearing in pubic.

Posted by: Ace at 09:48 AM | Comments (96)
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Erin go rock.

Well, McDonald's has the Shamrock Shake. I guess it's a good idea.

I have an image of a leprechaun lighting a glass pipe.

And dancing to this:

Thanks to 3rdBird.

Posted by: Ace at 09:23 AM | Comments (11)
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Based on this ridiculous video report the Guardian posted yesterday.

Several Lefty bloggers are jizzing in their shorts over the report's claim that the surge is failing because Iraqis who joined "Awakening counsels" are rumbling about a strike. How messed up is that? Apparently the surge will succeed or fail based only on the anger of some Iraqis in Diyala.

But back up a minute. They want Al Qaeda to stop beheading their children and burying people alive, but not enough, I guess, to fight back unless the U.S. pays them for it. So they're striking. WTF, mate? That's a dangerous game. Will the Americans pay off these patriots mercenaries before Al Qaeda shows up? Stay tuned.

I love this quote from the report:

"...for the last year, these men have been doing the unthinkable: working with the Americans to rid their town of Al Qaeda extremists."

Working with the Americans is "the unthinkable"? What about simply defending your homes? How much do we have to pay you to do that? Jebus.

On the other hand, the piece unequivocally describes Al Qaeda's terror activities in Iraq and the purported blessing Osama bin Laden gave to targeting members of the Awakenings. I hope that means we won't have to hear any more "reality-based" screeds about quiting Iraq so we can focus our resources on fighting Al Qaeda.

Bonus: Taiwan's government just announced that they are "on strike" until someone pays them to oppose the PRC and assert autonomy. The Lebanese foreign minister quickly followed suit, saying "Unless Western aid arrives we're just going to cede the whole place to Syria."

Quick, I don't have my Stuff Jefferson Said, 5th ed. with me. Anything in there about strikes?

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:41 AM | Comments (7)
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I guess Obama isn't going to have that issue of being oppressed by The Man he was hoping for.

NBC News has learned that McCain's passport file was also apparantly breached, and we have confirmed that Sen. Clinton's was as well.

Secretary of State Rice called Clinton today to notify her that her passport file was breached in 2007.

I should talk, but Andrea Mitchell misspelled "apparently."

So, some contract workers in a low-level civil servant hack position thought they'd have some fun looking through some fairly innocuous records. They got caught by the Bush Administration and fired, and the aggrieved parties were duly and promptly notified.

But on the left, I'm thinking this is Valerie Plame Part II.

Thanks to tmi3rd.

Posted by: Ace at 08:34 AM | Comments (17)
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You know it's a major peeve of mine. Clapper humor. Jokes that aren't really funny, merely pandering to an audience's political biases or sometimes just feel-good PC-ness. You're not going for the laughs, but the claps and the forced chuckles of political approval.

Yes, I do clappers myself. Can't avoid them. In my defense, I'm writing frigging 30 jokes a day and I can't wait to put up a post just because I haven't figured out a non-hack, non-clapper joke to run with it.

But to rely on clapper "humor" almost exclusively? Tina Fey should talk, of course, as the headline suggests. She does this too -- a lot. But not as much as Jon Stewart, and it takes some pretty big balls to call him out on this.

COMEDY queen Tina Fey says that while she makes people laugh, political pundit Jon Stewart only makes them uncomfortable.

Fey tells Reader's Digest she prefers it when audience members laugh rather than applaud because, "You can prompt applause with a sign."

She added, "My friend Seth Meyers coined the term 'clapter,' which is when you do a political joke and people go, 'Woo-hoo.' It means they sort of approve but didn't really like it that much. You hear a lot of that on [whispers] 'The Daily Show.'

Thank you.

You go girl.

Thanks to Mary Katharine Ham. Just made my freakin' week.

Posted by: Ace at 08:22 AM | Comments (49)
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That certainly didn't take long.

Victor DiMaio, a Democratic Party activist from Tampa, filed the lawsuit in 2007 accusing the party of disenfranchising Florida's Democratic voters by barring them from having their say in choosing their party's nominee. The party stripped both Florida and Michigan of their national convention delegates because they moved their primaries to January dates that were earlier than party rules allowed.

Seems the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals just tossed it because the plaintiff lacked standing, since he didn't actually vote in the primary process that "disenfranchished" him, or I guess would have disenfranchised him, I suppose, had he actually, you know, voted. because the primary hadn't taken place yet? Is that what they're saying?

Whoops: I ran right over the filing date of the lawsuit, he hadn't voted cause it hadn't happened yet. No idea if he did in January, probably did. Eh.

So they didn't deal with the whole "national parties have a right to manage their own internal affairs (see what I did there?)" issue. Might come up again I'm thinking.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 08:08 AM | Comments (2)
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Might have? Um, let's just take that as the "Oh hell's yeah" it really is.

Best part? He entered the expenditure as "constituent services."

Governor Joe Bruno (R). It's not a crazy notion anymore.

Thanks to McP.

Not really all that nefarious... so I'm not giving it its own post. Assume the worst: He pulled strings to get his squeeze a job she isn't particularly qualified for. Is this a big deal? And isn't this how half of all jobs in the media are gotten, anyway?

It's not what you know, it's who you know Biblically.

Thanks to CJ.

Posted by: Ace at 07:38 AM | Comments (18)
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Is it just me, or does some of this play as a sly parody of Rev. Wright's racist talk?

Thanks to Cuffy Meigs.

Posted by: Ace at 07:32 AM | Comments (31)
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Hillary was right: The war can't be won. She just was a little off on her implied subject.

growing number of foreign fighters are leaving or attempting to flee Iraq as U.S. and Iraqi forces have weakened al-Qaeda and forced its members from former strongholds, U.S. military officials say.

The trend reflects a broad disenchantment among foreign fighters, particularly since al-Qaeda has lost sanctuaries in parts of Baghdad and Anbar, a Sunni province west of the capital, U.S. military intelligence officials say.

"They're being told in their countries of origin by facilitators that, 'Hey, we're basically winning the war against the apostates,' " said Brig. Gen. Michael Flynn, intelligence director for Central Command, which oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East. "They go there and find out it's not quite the case."

Foreign militants constitute about 10% of al-Qaeda's strength in Iraq, but Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said they make up about 90% of the suicide bombers.

...

The number of foreign fighters entering Iraq has declined to about 40 to 50 a month from a high of about 120 a month last year, according to Multi-National Force-Iraq. Most enter from Syria.

....

Many were lured with the promise of killing Americans but learned on arrival that their attacks would be directed at fellow Muslims, Smith said. Some were pressured to be suicide bombers, he said.

...

Before February 2007, estimates of al-Qaeda in Iraq's strength varied widely, from 5,000 to 10,000 members, according to U.S. military statistics. By December 2007, the group was estimated to have 2,800 to 3,900 members. The latest estimates put the number at 1,800 to 2,800.

I think this comment from "Nick from Ks." is emblamatic of the left's response:

So in other words, they're going home to their families, their jobs, thier friends while our troops are stuck over there policing a country that would fall into civil war in short order without them?

Hurrah?

"Hurrah?," indeed, Nick.

Patriotism questioned? Check.

Admiral Akbar graphic swiped from the Liberal Avenger.

Posted by: Ace at 06:19 AM | Comments (31)
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Oh, and... Super-balancing terrain-defeating quadrupedal dogbot/flybot:

Background and stuff.

I didn't link this before, despite numerous tips, because, frankly, as amazing as it is, it just doesn't look like a robot should. It's... hideous.

Aesthetics count, man.

Thanks to Cornholed and everyone else who tipped me.

Posted by: Ace at 08:33 PM | Comments (46)
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