By stating that Iran isn't a threat because they spend much less on defense than the US, Obama displays a complete ignorance of how asymmetric warfare operates. The AQ "defense budget" for pulling off 9/11, was by comparison to the US, essentially zero.

An analysis of the Iranian order of battle and where they've been spending their defense dollars over the past 10 years would show that they are a serious threat in certain specific areas. They've been investing heavily in coastal batteries, anti-ship missile systems, silent diesel electric subs, and such. They could turn the narrow strait of Hormuz into an unnavigable scrap yard faster than the US Navy could stop them or the US Air force could neutralize those batteries and missiles.

Are the Iranians going to bomb NYC or invade Chicago? No. Can they be a major PITA to the rest of the world if they decided to suicidally squeeze oil shipments through the straight? Absolutely. more...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 08:34 PM | Comments (59)
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Caught red handed it would seem. The graphic at the top of his web site is using Yon's famous Major Bieger cradling the little girl picture.

Yon, of course is less than ecstatic that Moore ripped his work to promote an idea Yon disapproves of.

Michael Moore:

• Social Crusader
• "Documentarian"
• Thief

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 08:16 PM | Comments (24)
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Noted in the sidebar earlier, a radio-controlled flying dick interrupted a Gary Kasparov speech.

Below, the video. more...

Posted by: Ace at 06:25 PM | Comments (35)
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Bunk. I don't know why that's a big deal -- obviously it's a lot easier to hit a ground target than a flying missile -- but there's just something so satisfying about laser bolts hitting the earth.

Gives me a Grand Moff Tarkin in my pants.

The so-called Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) programme is one of two flying raygun projects underway at Boeing. The other is the Airborne Laser, or ABL, a monstrous jumbo-jet mounted energy ray intended to disintegrate threatening nuclear missiles from hundreds of kilometres away. Both ATL and ABL use toxic chemical fuels to generate higher-intensity laser beams than can currently be produced by electric equipment.

The ATL, rather than frying hostile ICBMs from across a country, is seen more as a ray-cannon for everyday tasks. Relatively handy at 20 tons all up - the sealed chem-laser module itself weighs six tons, the rest being aiming gear, controls etc. - the ATL can be fitted into a normal C-130 military transport rather than needing a jumbo. Drawing a comparison with existing C-130-based "gunship" aircraft, which fire a broadside of ordinary projectile cannon against ground targets, Boeing have previously dubbed the ATL the "Laser Gunship".

The Laser Gunship, if it performs to spec, is expected to take out targets such as individual vehicles or cellphone towers, silently and from as far as 18-20km. People in the vicinity of an ATL strike might not realise what had happened until well after the event, if at all. This could be especially handy for Boeing's initial customer - the US military's secretive Special Operations Command.

...

"Later this year, we will fire the laser in-flight at ground targets," confirms Fancher.

The article actually coins the term "raygunship" in the headline.

Posted by: Ace at 06:05 PM | Comments (46)
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If the numbers on the economy won't go sufficiently downwards, then, by golly!, we'll just have to raise the threshold for non-recessionary growth upwards!

Jesus they are just parodies at this point.

By the way, did you know that April saw record-breaking tax revenues despite the lower tax rates?

You probably didn't, because a recession-obsessive AP business writer failed to note April's bounty in order to focus-laser like on the fact that the net surplus for April fell from last year by ten percent (and last year was a record, by the way).

Now, of course, if the surplus declined despite revenues hitting record heights, that's because of increased spending, not decreased tax revenue.

But the AP doesn't want you getting confused into thinking that tax cuts may increase wealth as well as tax revenues so they omitted that fact and misleadingly suggested tax revenues were down. And, wouldn't you know it, the rest of the press followed that same storyline for the day.

Eddiebear.

Posted by: Ace at 01:44 PM | Comments (78)
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This guy, I'm pretty sure, is sitting on that huge stack of cash that he uses to fund Democrats because he's the asshole that brought the Might Morphin' Power Rangers to the US.

Anyway, the claim is made on the Huffington Post. The guy denies it.

Thanks to Conservative Belle.

Posted by: Ace at 12:33 PM | Comments (23)
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Half a million bricks.

Posted by: Ace at 12:30 PM | Comments (12)
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Drew covered Obama's curious assertion that his wife was absolutely off-limits for any criticism whatsoever, even when she's giving political speeches and being criticized for the toxic nature of them.

I guess he forgot to mention that rule to his DNC buddies.

Posted by: Ace at 12:13 PM | Comments (32)
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Economic forecast rises for second month:

A forecast of US economic growth climbed for the second month this year in April, another sign that the economy may be in better shape than some had feared, according to figures released Monday.

The US leading index climbed 0.1 per cent, and six of the 10 economic indicators that form the index were up in April, the private New York-based Conference Board said.

The increase followed a 0.1 per cent increase in March.

'The small increases in the leading index in both March and again in April could be a signal that the economy may not weaken further,' said Ken Goldstein, a Conference Board economist, in a statement.

The measure points to the direction of the economy over the next three to six months.

Even a German press agency notices. The American media won't, though. They have an election to cover win.

It has been nearly a foregone conclusion that the world's largest economy was slipping into recession, if the wasn't already contracting. But there was an abrupt change in the drumbeat this month, with warnings of economic peril becoming suddenly fewer and less threatening.

'Recession? Not so fast,' says the Wall Street Journal.

...

'A couple of months ago it seemed like we were on the abyss,' said Jay Bryson, global economist with Wachovia Corp. 'Things have changed. ... The numbers we've seen recently haven't been as bad as we were led to believe just a few months ago.'

Unemployment figures are below those of past recessions. US consumer spending, the cornerstone of the economy, beat expectations for April, except for weak car sales.

'So far, most of the economic data outside of homebuilding and house prices have not met the recession forecasters' downbeat expectations,' Business Week reported.

The US stock market, which often rebounds in the months ahead of an economic upturn, has rallied from its low point in March.

Posted by: Ace at 11:55 AM | Comments (26)
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The first part of the letter is concerned with selective editing. I have to say that while Bush's remarks were edited, I don't find them to have been Dowdified to suggest that Bush "agrees" with the premises of reporter Obama mouthpiece Richard Engel. (The link to the interview as aired is at the bottom of the letter.)

I liked this part though:

On November 27, 2006, NBC News made a decision to no longer just cover the news in Iraq, but to make an analytical and editorial judgment that Iraq was in a civil war. As you know, both the United States government and the Government of Iraq disputed your account at that time. As Matt Lauer said that morning on The Today Show: “We should mention, we didn’t just wake up on a Monday morning and say, ‘Let’s call this a civil war.’ This took careful deliberation.’”

I noticed that around September of 2007, your network quietly stopped referring to conditions in Iraq as a “civil war.” Is it still NBC News’s carefully deliberated opinion that Iraq is in the midst of a civil war? If not, will the network publicly declare that the civil war has ended, or that it was wrong to declare it in the first place?

Lastly, when the Commerce Department on April 30 released the GDP numbers for the first quarter of 2007, Brian Williams reported it this way: “If you go by the government number, the figure that came out today stops just short of the official declaration of a recession.”

The GDP estimate was a positive 0.6% for the first quarter. Slow growth, but growth nonetheless. This followed a slow but growing fourth quarter in 2007. Consequently, even if the first quarter GDP estimate had been negative, it still would not have signaled a recession – neither by the unofficial rule-of-thumb of two consecutive quarters of negative growth, nor the more robust definition by the National Bureau of Economic Research (the group that officially marks the beginnings and ends of business cycles).

Furthermore, never in our nation’s history have we characterized economic conditions as a “recession” with unemployment so low – in fact, when this rate of unemployment was eventually reached in the 1990s, it was hailed as the sign of a strong economy. This rate of unemployment is lower than the average of the past three decades.

Are there numbers besides the “government number” to go by? Is there reason to believe “the government number” is suspect? How does the release of positive economic growth for two consecutive quarters, albeit limited, stop “just short of the official declaration of a recession”?

Mr. Capus, I’m sure you don’t want people to conclude that there is really no distinction between the “news” as reported on NBC and the “opinion” as reported on MSNBC, despite the increasing blurring of those lines. I welcome your response to this letter, and hope it is one that reassures your broadcast network’s viewers that blatantly partisan talk show hosts like Christopher Matthews and Keith Olbermann at MSNBC don’t hold editorial sway over the NBC network news division.

I've been beating that drum about NBC having the duty to either reaffirm or retract its "official editorial position" on Iraq being in a state of civil war for some time -- and I don't think I've read anyone else making that point.

So, I'm going to pat myself on the back for that.

Posted by: Ace at 11:48 AM | Comments (21)
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