Apparently those of us who thought Barack ObamaÂ’s magical healing powers were limited to saving America have underestimated him. It turns out, he is also the only hope for the entire world.

From an Israeli newspaper column...

It took almost 50 years for me to understand how my father felt on that night (when JFK was elected). I had the same experience of unabashed joy in the early morning hours of January 4th when I learned of Obama's victory in Iowa. This was not the joy one feels when one's favorite team wins a championship. Rather, it was the feeling that something very significant happened that could, potentially, affect the whole world.

Â… Obama is, indeed, an audaciously hopeful human being who exudes positivity and shuns cynicism...

Put yourself in the shoes of a youngster in Africa, Iraq or Indonesia: can you imagine what effect it would have to see the non-white face of Obama –of Barack Hussein Obama - as the figurehead of the United States? Do you know how vital it would be for the psychology of youngsters in the developing world to be infected by the relentless positivity that Obama exudes? Do you think Hillary Clinton's image and message would have the same effect? Or McCain's?

Not by a long shot. Only Obama can re-inspire the lost confidence in America. And every youngster inspired by Obama is one less potential recruit or Osama.

What else might the Obamassiah be able to gift to the world?

A perpetual motion machine?

The true answer to life, the Universe and everything?

The ability to split atoms with our minds?

At last an answer to the age old question, "Where's Joe"?

Tell you what Senator, hook me up with Diane Kruger and youÂ’ve got my vote.

With the Obamassiah all things are possible!

Posted by: DrewM at 11:35 AM | Comments (35)
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No, she didn't marry her surgeon if that's what you're thinking..

A German retiree is taking a hospital to court after she went in for a leg operation and got a new anus instead, the Daily Telegraph is reporting.

The woman woke up to find she had been mixed up with another patient suffering from incontinence who was to have surgery on her sphincter.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 10:57 AM | Comments (35)
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I'm burned out and either I'm just going to dump this all or I'll never get around to it. Contra my crap blogging today, there's news busting out all over.

Hot Air: Hillary pushing Wright story on superdelegates. She has her predicate: I never understood why the superdelegates would turn to her, trailing in both delegates and popular vote, when she was the weaker candidate. But now Hillary -- Hillary! (?) -- appears that she may be stronger. She can thus make a decent pitch; Sure, I'm a little behind, but that's only because the media didn't do its job and expose Obama for the flawed (perhaps fatally) candidate he really is.

Obama racked up his small lead before the Wright stuff broke. Once again, the media's lack of "intellectual curiosity" for any story that might bite a Democrat in the ass hurts the Democrats: They can protect Democrats, but not forever.

Be sure to watch that interview with Anderson Cooper. Note that Obama... eh, I'll save that for a full post.

Newsbusters: Yes, a study of the Craig, Vitter, and Spitzer scandals demonstrates conclusively that Republicans are always tagged with party identification in a sex scandal, while Democrats almost never are.

Hot Air: Obama sinking like a rock in important state polls (general election swing states and upcoming primary states), both against Hillary and especially McCain.

Gotta watch that hate, son. One day it's gonna burn you up.

Hot Air: Media continues insisting McCain made a "mistake" in stating that Iran assists Al Qaeda. Military intelligence, and simple normal human intelligence, strongly disagrees.

NewsBusters: And on that point-- NBC desperately flailing to change the story from Wright's wrong remarks to McCain's right ones.

CNN: Governor Breesden of Tennessee suggest a "Superdelegate Primary" -- that is, a pre-convention convention -- so that superdelegates can cast their votes before the convention and stop the bloody brawl between Clinton and Obama while the wounds still have time to heal.

LGF: Washington Post forced to correct reporter's completely made-up quote, supposedly by Brit Hume, that Rev. Wright "blames whites."

MKH: Obama squandered his opportunity to actually start this whole "healing" process we've heard so very much about. Squandered? Bullshit. He never had any intention of healing anything except his own ailing political fortunes.

Update: Geraldine Ferraro: Oh hell's no he didn'!

Oh yes he did: He just equated you to his hate-spewing Spiritual Guru.

Posted by: Ace at 10:54 AM | Comments (49)
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Today is the last day before the Michigan legislature goes on vacation for two weeks. That's bad news for folks wanting to negotiate a second primary (some blogs say that this is the final deadline for setting a new primary date, but I don't know if that is true). Clinton supporters who have hoped to use Michigan's delegates to make up for part of Obama's lead are nervous that if they don't get either a re-vote or agreement to seat the delegates according to the "renegade primary" by today, they never will.

I think the stress is getting to them, if Jeralyn Merritt of TalkLeft is any gauge. She and her main coblogger have been in the tank for Clinton for most of the last year and it colors their posts. Now she's really letting Obama have it, accusing him of trying to "steal the election" and "demanding 50% of the delegates in Michigan."

The major problem with this claim is that Obama hasn't demanded anything. One of his supporters, Chris Dodd, has suggested that they split the votes 50-50, so that the Michigan delegates can at least participate at the convention. The Obama campaign said they thought that would be a good solution if the legislature fails to approve a re-vote. And, of course, "steal the election" is fighting words among the Left, even if it doesn't come close to accurately describing the situation.

Jeralyn focuses on the Michigan primary voters who supported Clinton, saying that she should get at least 55% of the delegates while the uncommitted votes should be free to chose whichever candidate they like. Anything else would be disfranchisement and unfair in Jeralyn's mind. Except that this ignores those voters who chose to sit-out or vote in the Republican primary, knowing that the Democratic primary wouldn't count.

It's exactly the type of slimy curve-ball that we've come to expect from Clinton. She's the only name on the ballot, but voters are assured that the results won't count. Only now she wants them to count exactly as they were cast. Surprise! Obama-supporting Democrats should really have seen that one coming.

Anyways, it's nice to see Leftists who didn't swoon over Obama's speech.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 10:53 AM | Comments (7)
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Just tipped by Liberrocky.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows John McCainÂ’s lead growing against both potential Democratic opponents. McCain currently leads Barack Obama 49% to 42% and Hillary Clinton 51% to 41% margin (see recent daily results). African-American support for Clinton has collapsed, falling to 55% in the general election match-up. [ed. -- !!!] Obama, on the other hand, earns solid support from African-American voters but attracts only 36% of white voters in a match-up with McCain.

Over the past month, McCain has gained ground in Ohio, Michigan, Colorado, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania. Both Democrats continue to lead in New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and California....

In the race for the Democratic Presidential Nomination, Obama now leads Clinton 46% to 43%. Before the story broke about his former Pastor, Obama led by eight.

Posted by: Ace at 10:02 AM | Comments (51)
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I guess at least on this one point, Al-Sadr disagrees with Hillary, Barack, Nancy and Harry.

Surge protection:

The principal reason for Sadr's ability to augment his power during these years was the absence of security in Baghdad. This vacuum left the Shiite community completely vulnerable to an unrelenting wave of terror attacks from the Sunni insurgency and al Qaeda. With the U.S. Government's failure to engage in serious counterinsurgency and make it a priority to provide basic safety for Iraqi civilians, Sadr and his Mahdi militia moved quickly to fill the void.

...

In 2007, the U.S. military shifted approach, putting in place for the first time a comprehensive counterinsurgency strategy backed by a surge of troops to support it. The new strategy paid large dividends against al Qaeda and Sunni insurgents, as attacks dropped to 2005 levels and Iraqi deaths due to ethno-sectarian violence declined 90% from June 2007 to March 2008. As Sunni attacks against Shiite civilians declined, so did the rationale for Sadr's authority.

As the International Crisis Group concluded, one "net effect" of the surge "was to leave the Sadrist movement increasingly exposed, more and more criticized and divided, and subject to arrest."

Other factors also contributed to Sadr's marginalization. But the increased security provided by more U.S. forces was essential in removing an underlying rationale for the Sadrist movement. Newsweek's 2006 profile had predicted that "the longer the American occupation lasts, the less popular America gets -- and the more popular Sadr and his ilk become." But as a recent ABC News poll of Iraqis makes clear, Shiite support for local militias has plummeted over the past year. The full implementation of the surge helped weaken Sadr, not make him more popular.

Video report from FoxNews.

Related: Thoughts on the likely death of Osama bin Ladin, and the media's desperation to keep him alive. more...

Posted by: Ace at 09:47 AM | Comments (16)
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Backdoor connections.

Affairs, casting couches, putting mistresses on the payroll... as they say, politics is just show business for ugly people.

Thanks to someone.

Posted by: Ace at 09:03 AM | Comments (28)
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Don't look it up. I know it. I'm asking you as a trivia question.

Laura and I were debating Peaches vs. Herb and Captain vs. Tenille and Carpenter vs. Carpenter and this came up.

Yes, I'm going to do that big Obama round up thing. I am so sick of Obama I cannot begin to tell you. Yes, we're winning. Yes, he's falling like a stone. No, I don't want to talk about it because I have had to deal with this jackass for 72 hours straight.

So for now, this idiotic post.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 08:19 AM | Comments (90)
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With everything going on here with the Presidential campaign, itÂ’s easy to get caught up in the horse race aspect of the process. However, itÂ’s important to remember that one of these people is going to have to deal with some serious shit come January of next year.

Take the current situation in Tibet for example.

China acknowledged Thursday that anti-government riots have spread to other provinces since sweeping through Tibet last week, as communist authorities announced the first group of arrests for the violence.

In India, the Dalai Lama told reporters he was "always ready to meet" Chinese leaders, in particular President Hu Jintao, though he said he would not travel to Beijing to do so.

Â…Armed police and troops poured into far-flung towns and villages in Tibetan areas of adjacent provinces to reassert control as sporadic demonstrations continued to flare. Foreigners were barred from traveling there and tour groups were banned from Tibet, isolating a region about four times the size of France.

If that werenÂ’t enough to make things interesting, adding to the concerns about a possible confrontation is the fact that Taiwan is holding its presidential elections this weekend. These elections usually raise tensions with the PeopleÂ’s Republic making lots of noise about Taiwan being a part of China. This year however, both candidates in Taiwan have preached the importance of closer economic ties with the mainland and China has responded in a generally favorable way.

The one possible sticking point is a referendum on whether or not Taiwan should apply to the UN for membership under itÂ’s own name. ItÂ’s a non-binding vote but itÂ’s the kind of thing China usually isnÂ’t very happy about.

With so much going at stake the US is obviously deeply concerned and involved.

As Galrahn at the naval blog Information Dissemination points out, the US has a good portion of the Pacific Fleet at sea right now.

There are some major military movements taking place in Asia right now, and it should come to no surprise to anyone that the US Navy is about to have more ships at sea in the Pacific than any other time in recent memory, including all 4 available Carrier Strike Groups.

Â…Basically every major naval platform you would want at sea in the 7th Fleet theater is at sea right now, and there are reserves on the wayÂ…

I donÂ’t think anybody expects a shooting war to break out with China but that doesnÂ’t mean it isnÂ’t a situation worth watching and one US presidential candidates should be asked about it.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:23 AM | Comments (14)
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Yes, I know it's Thursday. But Thurdsay doesn't begin with a W, now does it, Pointdexter? Boy, you're a good little Worker Bee in The Hive Machine, aren't you, knowing what "day" of the "week" it is, huh?

Free your mind and your ass will follow, baby.

So I trust everyone remembers the AA-12, the fully automatic shotgun/marital aid.

Bunk.

But that's not all you get. Thanks to the amazing innovations from On-Target Solutions, you can get not one but two AA-12 recoilless automatic shotguns... carried aloft by a remote-control robotic Killcopter, a helicopter of death.

Now how much would you pay?

Order now and we'll include the amazing miracle dicer for no extra charge. Think about making lovely corkscrew potato garnishes and dicing onions so quickly you won't have time to cry. Except for tears of sexual satisfaction verging on the spiritual.

Thanks to DelD.

PS: I guess everyone wants to pretend otherwise -- I know I do -- but this just doesn't look like a very useful weapon. It's pretty large, it seems to have a short range, and so it's going to be pretty easy to shoot down before it gets anywhere near close enough to do some damage.

Still, it's a prototype, a knock-together, pretty much. The HK's from Terminator didn't start out as ferocious plasma-beam spitting chromoceramic deathbots, either.

So let's all just sshhhh like we're at the movies and enjoy the ride.

Posted by: Ace at 06:12 AM | Comments (25)
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