Not sure what the damage was, but the whole mu.nu/mee.nu system went down.

Comments aren't up yet but Pixy's sprinkling his magic fairy dust over everything so pretty soon rainbows should be beaming out every blog post.

Rainbows that arc right into your pants, yo.

I stole that from Cracked.

Posted by: Ace at 04:26 PM | Comments (14)
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After all, I'm such a big fan of his work.

Both Palestine Today and Palestine Press Agency report that Egyptian officials invited Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shalah to visit Cairo to meet Jimmy Carter but Shalah refused, saying that Carter is following an “American/Israeli agenda.” Shalah has been harshly critical of Khaled Meshaal’s planned meeting with Carter.

It would appear that Carter initiated this request to meet with the arch-terrorist. All of the reasons that Carter uses to justify meeting with Hamas - that Hamas has supposedly offered a truce, for example, or that most attacks are not initiated by Hamas - do not apply to Islamic Jihad, yet Carter apparently wants to give legitimacy to Islamic Jihad terrorists anyway.

Thanks to CJ.

Oh... And Carter laid a wreath at the grave of fellow Nobel Peace Prize Winner Yasser Arafat.

Gay Patriot wants the Senate to censure him.

Thanks to Deb for those.

Breaking My Rule: What Jimmy Carter says to the head of Islamic jihad.

thanks to Liberrocky for that.

Posted by: Ace at 10:38 AM | Comments (21)
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Will the Excitable One demand a court-martial?

Thanks to Jen.

Posted by: Ace at 10:34 AM | Comments (11)
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KevinM tips me to this, and generally my tipsters never mislead.

I'll see if I can verify, but I'm taking this as provisionally true.

Gee, that's awfully convenient, huh? For a year we heard the flag pin represented an association he didn't like. Now all of a sudden he's got the stars and stripes on his breast.

I guess whatever sacred principle kept him from wearing it before turned out to be not as sacred as previously thought, huh?

Partly Confirmed: I can't quite see it, but on MSNBC, he sure does appear to have a flag pin on his lapel. It's the right shape, but the distance is too long to positively ID it as the flag.

But damn it sure looks like one.

Posted by: Ace at 09:34 AM | Comments (59)
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L to R: A savage, barbaric offshoot of mankind;
a Muppet offshoot of Frodo Baggins

The article's really about an attempt to synthesize what speaking sounds Neanderthals could make based on their physiology.

Robert McCarthy, an anthropologist at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton has used new reconstructions of Neanderthal vocal tracts to simulate the voice. He says the ancient human's speech lacked the "quantal vowel" sounds that underlie modern speech.

Quantal vowels provide cues that help speakers with different size vocal tracts understand one another, says McCarthy, who was talking at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in Columbus, Ohio, on April 11.

"They would have spoken a bit differently. They wouldn't have been able to produce these quantal vowels that form the basis of spoken language," he says.

...

Though subtle, the linguistic difference would have limited Neanderthal speech, McCarthy says.

...

People missing a copy of FOXP2 suffer from language and speech disorders, and humans have a version of the gene that is different from other animals – including chimpanzees, our nearest relatives.

Yet other genetic evidence suggests that spoken language shaped the recent evolution of humans. John Hawks, a biological anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, also spoke at the Ohio meeting. He says that some genes important to hearing changed rapidly in modern humans, perhaps because the genes helped decode new, more complex spoken languages.

"Something's changing in the last 40,000 years," he says. "Maybe this is because our ears are becoming tuned to listening to sounds that have recently been changing."

Recent evidence has undermined previous theories that humans killed off the Neanderthals. New studies suggest that the Neanderthals died out when they lost their primary food supply, which had consisted of sweet crystalline structures made from beet sugar constructed by the Doozers (Homo miniaturus constructus).

Boring, I know.

But I haven't made a Dark Crystal reference in a while, so. I had to post it.

Via Hot Air Headlines.

BTW: If these references seemed 1) obscure and 2) gay, be aware that there is one movie I will never reference:

Willow.

I have my standards.

Posted by: Ace at 09:02 AM | Comments (40)
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Why, itÂ’s almost like they didnÂ’t like living under a radical, Iranian puppet.

Three weeks after Iraqi troops swarmed into the southern city of Basra to take on armed militiamen who had overrun the streets, many residents say they feel safer and that their lives have improved.

Â…The port of Umm Qasr is in the hands of the Iraqi forces who wrested control of the facility from Shiite militiamen, and according to the British military it is operational once again.

Â…"I am very happy about the situation right now. The deployment of the Iraqi army has made gunmen and gangsters disappear from the streets," said court employee Mahdi Fallah, 42.

"The gangs were controlling the ports and smuggling oil. Now the ports are back in government hands. Everything in Basra is better than before."

Taxi driver Samir Hashim, 35, said he now felt safer driving through the city's streets and was willing to put up with the traffic jams caused by the many security checkpoints.

"We feel secure. Assassinations have ended, organised crime is finished and armed groups are no longer on the streets," said Hashim.

"I think Basra will be the best city in Iraq," he added optimistically. "We are finally beginning to feel there is law in Basra."

"We feel comfortable and safe and secure," said civil servant Alah Mustapha.

Yes there were initially problems with some troops deserting or not performing well and yes everything in Iraq is fragile and reversible, but it seems the reports of the failure of the Iraqi government and Army were, um, premature.

This was an Iraqi planned and executed (with US logistical and air support) operation. Isn't this idea of Iraqis taking control of their own country suspiciously like what the US has been trying to accomplish all along and Democrats are demanding happen RIGHT NOW?

Boy, we better withdraw faster before things get any better worse.

h/t The Corner

Posted by: DrewM at 09:01 AM | Comments (12)
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Thanks to Anwyn, who sent this last night. I know it looks like I just ripped it off Hot Air, but I didn't. I was waiting to post it, but Allah forced my hand.

Posted by: Ace at 08:39 AM | Comments (22)
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Radical.

It's extremely dangerous to begin talking about prosecuting and jailing one's political opponents for the temerity to have disagreed with you politically.

What the fuck.

“What I would want to do is to have my Justice Department and my Attorney General immediately review the information that’s already there and to find out are there inquiries that need to be pursued. I can’t prejudge that because we don’t have access to all the material right now. I think that you are right, if crimes have been committed, they should be investigated. You’re also right that I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as a partisan witch hunt because I think we’ve got too many problems we’ve got to solve.

Thanks to CJ.

Posted by: Ace at 08:18 AM | Comments (81)
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Left to Right: the Right One, the Left One

Like most women, she's surprised anyone noticed:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel did not predict that the dress she wore to the opera on Saturday -- with its very plunging neckline -- would draw as much attention as it did.

"The chancellor was a bit surprised that this evening dress caused such a splash" Thomas Steg, the government's deputy spokesman, told reporters Monday.

"That wasn't the chancellor's intention," Steg assured reporters, adding: "When there's nothing more important in the world to talk about than an evening dress, then you probably can't help it."

...

Photos of Merkel's cleavage provided fodder for headlines around the world. The Daily Mail British tabloid, for example, ran the title "Merkel's Weapons of Mass Distraction."

I'd hit that like the Luftwaffe hit Madrid.

Well... okay. Maybe not. But for a chancellor, she's hittable. Beats Von Hindenburg all to hell, I can tell you that. He was only a C-cup.

Hot Air.

Posted by: Ace at 07:27 AM | Comments (96)
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Well! Controversy over!

There is no mystery here. Except for people who have been hiding in caves or living in denial, it’s pretty widely understood that a substantial number of those voters — in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and elsewhere — will not vote for a black candidate for president.

...

Senator Obama has spent his campaign trying to dodge the race issue, which in America is like trying to dodge the wind. So when he fielded the question in San Francisco, he didn’t say: “A lot of folks are not with me because I’m black — but I’m trying to make my case and bring as many around as I can.”

Instead, he fell back on a tortured response that was demonstrably incorrect. Referring to the long-term economic distress of many working-class voters, Mr. Obama said: “It’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or antitrade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

He danced all around the truth. Unless youÂ’re Fred Astaire, if your dance steps get too intricate youÂ’re bound to make a misstep. This was a big one.

That's the third inconsistent media defense I've heard for Obama's Redneck Rampage speech.

Let's see:

1) He could not possibly have intended something so offensive and absurd.

2) But he's 100% right about that offensive and absurd characterization.

and now three:

3) He can't be held responsible for his offensive and absurd characterization, because he misspoke; he actually intended something more insulting.

Via Hot Air, which also claims, rather optimistically, that the "media" is moving beyond "bitter" in reporting on/analyzing Obama's remark.

First of all, this isn't the "media." It's Slate, or as I term it, the amateur leftist Webzine Slate. It's the media like I am.

Second of all, on-line writers have a big honking incentive to write provocative stuff -- and even provocative stuff which has the benefit of being the unpopular truth. It drives traffic. "The media" doesn't have this sort of incentive, or at least they don't react to it; witness the fact that most major media companies continue chasing the same 30% liberal slice of the market. They have built-in audiences and do not worry much about "traffic spikes."

Third, John Dickerson, being an online writer, is probably more exposed to conservative writers' complaints about the speech. It's even possible he bothers to read a conservative column or blog from time to time, just to keep tabs on the other side. I'm guessing it's easier for the real MSM to cocoon themselves in nothing but warmly stultifying liberal opinion. They really don't have to listen to anyone but themselves.

And finally -- the MSM is very heavily invested in claiming this is all about "bitter" and defending Obama and attempting to declare it a non-story which is not worth discussing. They've been doing that since the story broke; it would take an awful lot to reverse themselves at this point.

They would have to admit -- gasp! -- they got the story almost entirely wrong from the get-go, and mostly because they're so uniformly liberal that neither they nor anyone they even know could imagine what could possibly be offensive about the remarks apart from "bitter."

Thanks to markytom.

CQ Prediction: Hillary Will Gain a Whole Three (!) Delegates from Pennsylvania: Wow. Is that all we're talking about here?

Update: Anwyn writes:

Don't forget that in addition to the HuffPo-reported remarks, he actually did say (paraphrase) "these people don't believe the message when it's coming from a 46-year-old black guy named Barack Obama," to which the billionaires laughed appreciatively. So when Herbert says Obama couldn't come right out and say they're racist, well, he did.

True, and the whole bit about fearing/hating people who don't look like them (wink, wink) made that point to.

It seems pointless to pile on Bob Herbert though. He's a fucking idiot. As Evan Coyne Maloney pointed out, he basically turns in the same three barely-rewritten columns week after week after week.

He even put together this nifty Automatic Bob Herbert Column Generator which samples from his cliched and endlessly recycled oevure to create "new" Bob Herbert columns.

No one reads Bob Herbert, including Bob Herbert.

Another Update: Vid here.

Posted by: Ace at 06:21 AM | Comments (52)
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