Huh.

Colombia said it seized at least 66 pounds (30 kg) of uranium from the country's biggest left-wing rebel group on Wednesday, the first time radioactive material has been linked to the four-decade-old guerrilla war.

The uranium was found in a rural area long considered a Marxist guerrilla stronghold just south of the capital Bogota.

It is being examined by government experts, the defense ministry said in a statement, although it did not say where the material came from or what it could be used for.

An expert on Colombia's cocaine-fueled conflict said rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, do not have the facilities needed to make a bomb with uranium.

"This appears to have been part of a black market operation that the guerrillas were trying to use to make money," said Pablo Casas, an analyst at Bogota think-tank Security and Democracy.

"This is new for Colombia and could bring the FARC into the major leagues of black market terrorist transactions," he said.

Always remember that Hussein had no ties with Al Qaeda and Shiite and Sunni extremists can never work together. It's not as if the world's thugs and terrorists have some sort of common goal and common enemy.

It's just like in the US. None of the Sicilian crime families ever cooperate, and they certainly never cooperate with black gangs, Jamaican gangs, Russian gangs, etc. They're just too busy hating on each other to ever realize they have shared interests and could use each other's abilities in a mutually-beneficial arrangement.

Thanks to someone.

Posted by: Ace at 06:19 AM | Comments (57)
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Hmmm...

Federal prosecutors say Saddam HusseinÂ’s intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion.

An indictment in Detroit accuses Muthanna Al-Hanooti of arranging for three members of Congress to travel to Iraq in October 2002 at the behest of SaddamÂ’s regime. Prosecutors say Iraqi intelligence officials paid for the trip through an intermediary. Â…

The lawmakers are not mentioned but the dates correspond to a trip by Democratic Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and Mike Thompson of California. There was no indication the three lawmakers knew the trip was underwritten by Saddam.

Thanks to DPUD.

Posted by: Ace at 03:30 PM | Comments (53)
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You knew it ultimately had to come to this. In a letter to Pelosi:

...We have been strong supporters of the DCCC. We therefore urge you to clarify your position on super-delegates and reflect in your comments a more open view to the optional independent actions of each of the delegates at the National Convention in August. We appreciate your activities in support of the Democratic Party and your leadership role in the Party and hope you will be responsive to some of your major enthusiastic supporters...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 02:40 PM | Comments (57)
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Well, there you go.

Bad news for those with bulging bellies: fat that builds up around the waist during middle age may cause dementia decades later, say researchers who examined the health records of thousands of senior citizens.

Scientists already know that overweight adults risk developing diabetes, heart problems and other medical conditions. But over the last few years researchers have noticed that obesity in middle age is linked with cognitive problems in the aged.

Now it seems that overall body mass is not so important – it's the fat around the belly that appears to cause the problems.

Don't worry, if you drink enough you'll die of cirrhosis or alcohol-induced aneurysms long before dementia sets in. So you're all set.

Thanks to Liberrocky again.

Posted by: Ace at 02:03 PM | Comments (34)
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From Gizmodo.

Pretty Very funny.

Thanks to Benjamin.

And thanks to Atheistica for the YouTube embed.

Posted by: Ace at 01:23 PM | Comments (58)
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1) Does McCain even actually need this additional advantage anymore?

2) Will Condi actually provide any advantage? She's a) not really very conservative, b) not really a politician and not exactly charismatic in a politican's way, and c) entirely untested in this field, and d) unlikely to actually induce any women to vote R if Hillary is the nominee or blacks to vote R if Obama is the nominee. How many votes does she actually deliver?

3) Can we really afford another liberalish moderate on the ticket?

4) Is she really all that? She's not exactly John Bolton even in her sphere of expertise. I think the idea of Condi > Condi.

5) Is this really who we want for our presumptive nominee in 2016 or even 2012?

But the door is apparently open, and one would have to be a fool not to push it open a bit more and check things out.

As one major Republican operative told me yesterday:

Someone like Condi Rice doesn't go to Grover Norquist's den to talk about the Annapolis Middle East peace process. She's going to secure her future in Republican politics and to position herself as a 'potential' VP candidate on the McCain ticket.

Thanks to Liberrrocky.

Frum: isn't thrilled with Condi.

Thanks to TheGuvnah.

Posted by: Ace at 12:50 PM | Comments (101)
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[Pretend I came up with some stupid-clever way to link this to liberalism in a snarky one-liner.]

Police have closed down a circus in southern Italy after a terrified 19-year-old woman was forced to swim in a tank full of piranha fish while her younger sister endured the company of snakes and tarantulas.

Three men have been arrested and charged with holding the Bulgarian women in slavery and breaching international human rights conventions.

The trio, who are accused of running a "circus of horrors", were named as Enrico Raffaele Ingrassia, 57, the owner; his son William Ingrassia, 33; and his son-in-law, Gaetano Belfiore, 25.

...

Mr Ingrassia's daughter, who was not named, told police that a Bulgarian couple and their two daughters, aged 19 and 16, had been held as slaves "in a state of fear" since January.

They were forced to work 15 to 20 hours a day for €100 (£7 a week instead of the promised €480, with €380 deducted as "expenses for their upkeep".

An appalled spectator tipped off the police after seeing the show, in which Giusi, the 19-year-old, tried to escape from the piranha tank "trembling with terror". Her head was held down by Mr Ingrassia.

Her sister, Olga, 16, was bitten by snakes that she was forced to drape on her body, and she had injuries to her stomach where the snakes had wound themselves too tightly around her. The circus owners had rubbed ointment on snake bites on her legs but had refused to take her to a doctor.

...

Livio Togni — a former left-wing senator whose family ran Italy's best-known circus for generations — said: "I've never in my life heard anything like this. There is a strong sense of solidarity in the circus world, and violence is not part of it".

Oh there you go. Tenuous connection made.

You'll want to click on the whole story. I've given you the most sensational bits but every paragraph is chock-filled with horrors to rival the bloody battle of Tuzla.

Thanks to Mark "The Sniper" Seavey, a genuine American Hero.

And thanks to MAHJAM for suggesting the "Garlic Noses" thing.

Posted by: Ace at 12:30 PM | Comments (54)
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I don't really care. P-Diddy should be arrested for screwing up Kashmir (and pimping out Jimmy Page in doing so), but it is interesting once again that our jaded, skeptical media with its vaunted multiple layers of painstaking editorial oversight seems to have gotten its great fat tit caught in the wringer yet again, and exposed by online amateurs.

Thanks to CJ.

PS, everything I said about Puff Daddy ruining Kashmir? I lied, because I know I'm supposed to say that.

I actually like it. I'm all in favor of putting the hook from Kashmir wherever it could possibly fit. Car commercials, Levitra commercials, that-not-so-fresh-feeling commercials... I don't care.
more...

Posted by: Ace at 12:15 PM | Comments (15)
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Beth headlines this Support the War: Shoot an Antiwar Protester, a statement as irresponsible as it is justified.

Ving Rhames speaks for me vis a vis the "peace" agitators: more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:47 AM | Comments (94)
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Beauty + Beast = Bliss.

Thanks to AliceH.

Posted by: Ace at 10:23 AM | Comments (41)
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