Left-Leaning Pew Study Finds, Shockingly Enough, Democrats Got More Favorable Coverage Than McCain
— Ace

Well knock me over with a feather.

Posted by: Ace at 12:18 PM | Comments (17)
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Nancy Pelosi Puts Credit for Surge's Success Where It Belongs: The Goodwill of IRAN
— Ace

Oh. My. God.

Having blurted out, probably accidentally, that the surge was in fact successful, Granny Rictus McBotoxImplants now scrambles to credit the enemy nation murdering our troops with the victory our troops accomplished through blood, sweat, tears, and more blood.

It's not our troops. It's not Petraeus' leadership. It's not the Iraqis turning on the Al Qaeda murderers. No -- it's Iran's goodwill.

Well, the purpose of the surge was to provide a secure space, a time for the political change to occur to accomplish the reconciliation. That didnÂ’t happen. Whatever the military success, and progress that may have been made, the surge didnÂ’t accomplish its goal.

And some of the success of the surge is that the goodwill of the Iranians-they decided in Basra when the fighting would end, they negotiated that cessation of hostilities-the Iranians.

Pardon my blasphemy but Jesus Christ All Mighty.

Will she also thank Al Qaeda for scaling back its beheadings and bombings?

Let's check in with one of our best officers on Iran's boundless "goodwill:"

[T]his sometimes happens in the media when you see the word “alleged” in front of when you know in line of Iranian activity, I was just want to say, come on, man. Because you know if I was, as an Army Colonel to say something, to make a statement about that, there would always be some sort of effort to confirm what I’m saying.

In the case of what Iran is doing in Iraq, it is so damn obvious to anybody who wants to look into it, I think, that is drop the word “alleged” and say what they’re doing, which is, we know for a fact organizing and directing operations against the government of Iraq and against our forces.

Maybe this is why Obama is so eager to meet Ahmadinejad -- he wants to give him a thank you gift.

Now on Drudge... with red font. Upper right hand of page.

Nancy Pelosi proudly declares Iran has agreed to a 25% reduction
in the terror-bomb murdering of our troops. She says she hopes that
further "goodwill" from Iran might result in 33% reductions in the "near furture." ""With further careful diplomacy," she says, "it could be that only 15-25 American troops are being murdered by our Iranian friends per month."

Pic Credit: The Slublog Collection.

UPDATE [Dave in Texas]: several moron commenters provide a link to the audio of the interview, it's 80 minutes long or so, catmman says jump to the 62 min mark.

Posted by: Ace at 10:41 AM | Comments (124)
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Pelosi Ready to Step In and End Race
— Ace

Which is sort of par for the course of her; she's been threatening to end the War in Iraq even as US and Iraqi troops are pretty much ending it themselves, and now she threatens to end the Democratic presidential primary two or three weeks after even Hillary Clinton realized it was over.

illary Clinton has hinted that she is prepared to take her fight to fully seat Florida and Michigan all the way to the party's convention in late August, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says that's not going to happen.

In an interview with her hometown newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, the California Democrat said she is prepared to "step in" if the presidential race does not resolve itself by the end of next month.

"I will step in," Pelosi told the paper. "Because we cannot take this fight to the conventionÂ…It must be over before then."

Pelosi, who will serve as chair of the convention, has largely stayed on the sidelines during her party's prolonged primary race. But the House Speaker has said Democratic superdelegates should not overturn the pledged delegate winner, and has warned of irreparable harm if they do so.

Sounds like a quagmire to me.

Thanks to Aurvant.

Posted by: Ace at 09:58 AM | Comments (44)
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California Gay Marriage Fallout In NY
— DrewM

New YorkÂ’s non-prostitute using Governor is ordering state officials to get ready to recognize gay marriages performed in California.

Paterson spokeswoman Erin Duggan said the May 14 memo is intended to guide the actions of state agencies. It states that agencies must change policies and regulations to make sure "spouse," "husband" and "wife" are clearly understood to include gay couples.

The memo says failure to include gay marriages in the dispensing of state services such as health care benefits could violate state human rights law. The agencies could face sanctions for any violations, it warns.

The agency changes can be instituted through internal memos or changes in regulations and would not require legislative action, Paterson counsel David Nocenti said in the memo, first reported by The New York Times.

Strangely enough, gay marriage was shot down in the New YorkÂ’s courts and state legislature but now same sex New Yorker couples can go to California and get married, come back and prestoÂ…New York has de facto gay marriage.

I am sure someone will sue to try and stop this but who would have standing to challenge this type of executive action and on what grounds would a court over turn it?

Posted by: DrewM at 08:34 AM | Comments (37)
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Economy Grew 0.9% in First Quarter
— Ace

The second but still not final revision to the 1st Q GDP number is in, and it's not exactly helpful to the media's drumbeat for recession. 0.9% isn't good -- 1.6% or so seems to be the minimum level for decent if not stellar expansion -- but it's a hell of a way off from a contraction.

The federal government said the economy grew 0.9% in the first quarter in its second estimate of gross domestic product, a slight increase from its first read and in line with expectations.

The growth outpaced the 0.6% the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported last month in its advance estimate. Economists had forecast 0.9% growth.

Chris Matthews' leg declined comment on this story.

Thanks to dri.

Posted by: Ace at 08:30 AM | Comments (24)
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Skynet Meets Caesar From Planet Of The Apes
— DrewM

This is not good. Not good at all.

Using only its brainpower, a monkey can direct a robotic arm to pluck a marshmallow from a skewer and stuff it into its mouth, researchers said on Wednesday.

"They are using a motorized prosthetic arm to reach out, grab and bring the food back to their face," said Andrew Schwartz of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, whose study will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Nature.

Â…The monkey guides the robot arm the same way it does its natural limbs, through brain signals.

Schwartz' team picks up those signals through an array of microelectrodes half the size of a thumbtack that has been implanted in the monkey's brain. These signals are amplified and relayed to a computer that operates the robotic arm.

I for one welcome our new robot controlling monkey overlords.

Actually itÂ’s pretty cool stuff that could lead to great things for amputees.

Still, I worry about the idea of letting manÂ’s two greatest threats, smart monkeys and robots, team up.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:08 AM | Comments (57)
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Creepiest Mental Disorder Ever. (genghis)
— Open Blog

Body Integrity Identity Disorder. People who feel compelled to amputate perfectly healthy limbs in order to feel, umm..."whole" (like that makes any sense.)

"Josh" says he was fully prepared when he amputated his left hand with a power tool. He says he had tried to cut it off before—once putting it underneath a truck and trying to crush it (the jack didn't collapse right); once attempting to saw it off with a table saw (he lost his nerve). He even spent countless miles driving around with his hand dangling out the window, hoping to get side-swiped.

You know where this is leading, of course.

Surprising as it may seem, Josh is not alone. He has what some scientists are calling Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID), an exceedingly rare condition characterized by an overwhelming desire to amputate one or more healthy limbs or become paraplegic. The desire to be disabled seems so bizarre and contrary to basic human instincts that those who suffer from BIID have largely kept their compulsion a secret. But online communities of those with BIID have formed over the last decade, galvanizing a small movement to bring the disorder into the open.

Sometimes they fight back

Urgent: I have it on good authority that LauraW is considering amputating a perfectly functional and healthy hump. Please talk her off this ledge. Stop the madness!

Posted by: Open Blog at 02:56 AM | Comments (76)
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More Warming Alarmism - The Great Lakes are expected to recede a whole bunch. (Aurvant)
— Open Blog

It's "likely" they say.

You can tell that Summer is almost here, can't you? The driving season is going to ramp up so expect more news on "evil, destructive, oil men" and since, ya know, the seasons are changing then the recent influx of climate news shouldn't be surprising.

Climate change could further reduce scant ice cover observed in recent
winters, increasing evaporation rates and dropping water levels in the
five lakes that collectively make up 20 percent of the world's surface
fresh water.

Well, when you say it like that....

Last year, Lake Superior water levels receded to their lowest in 77
years before rebounding, and the report by the Healing Our Waters-Great
Lakes Coalition predicted global warming could lower lake levels by up
to 3 feet (1 meter) over the next century.

Whoa whoa whoa, I thought that the Gorebot said that we'd all be killed in huge torrents of floods due to the complete melting of the icecaps? Surely all that new water released upon the world would, oh, I don't know, evaporate and then RAIN down all over the place. I'm just sayin'....trying' to use common sense here.

Don't fret though, the lakes receded last year, but then rebounded so a lot of this is pretty much speculation based on information gathered from last year. Still, here comes the true crux of the matter as to why this story is being pushed kinda loudly:

The report said global warming added to the urgent need for the U.S.
Congress to act on more pieces of a $20 billion Great Lakes restoration
plan, proposed back in 2005.

It's all about the money. It's always about the money. That's right congress! spend that taxpayers money on some environmental programs that we can bleed cash in to year after year! We need more useless programs so that at least when we all go stark-raving mad from hunger or suffer hardships from huge economic collapse at least we'll have a nice fucking view.

Posted by: Open Blog at 01:51 AM | Comments (30)
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Gore Curse Strikes Climate Tour Icebreaker
— Gabriel Malor

The excellent climate blog, Watts Up With That?, noticed that a "See it before it's gone!" touring arctic icebreaker was held up on the arctic ice sheet after trying to force its way through the Northwest Passage. The passage is, according to hysterical environmentalists, almost ice-free these days and getting worse.

But not for the climate touring icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov. Watts Up With That? has details on the ship and more:

According to Quark Expeditions, they’ve even fitted this icebreaker with a heated indoor swimming pool, exercise room and sauna, and a theater-style auditorium for “Expedition Team presentations” ( presumably so you can watch Gore’s AIT polar bear tears while in situ ). It is quite a difference from the travel conditions that Robert Peary experienced just 99 years ago when he reached the North Pole.

So at least they were comfortable during their melodramatic stay on the ice:

I am on the bridge of the massive Russian icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov, and the tension is palpable. We have hit ice - thick ice.

[...]

The ice master studies the mountains of white packed around the ship while the 24,000-horsepower diesel engines work at full throttle to open a path. The ship rises slowly onto the barrier of ice, crushes it and tosses aside blocks the size of small cars as if they were ice cubes in a glass. It creeps ahead a few metres, then comes to a halt, its bow firmly wedged in the ice. After doing this for two days, the ship can go no farther.

The ice master confers with the captain, who makes a call to the engine room. The engines are shut down. He turns to those of us watching the drama unfold, and we are shocked by his words: "Now, only nature can help this ship." We are doomed to drift.

I'm sure the experience was wasted on the passengers. After all, who are they more likely to believe: Al Gore or their own lying eyes?

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:56 PM | Comments (48)
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Media Talking Points In The McClellan Story?
— DrewM

Newsbusters has a story up about Katie Couric accusing Ari Fleischer and other former administration officials of using White House talking points in response to questions about Scott McClellanÂ’s book

Couric insisted “it sounds as if you all are operating from the same play book,” before asking: “Did you get together and discuss how to respond to this?”

Fleischer denied Couric's assumption: “No, I think that it's just that we all worked shoulder-to-shoulder with Scott for so long and we never heard Scott talk about manipulation, talk about propaganda.”

ThatÂ’s kind of interesting considering thatÂ’s exactly what Chris Matthews accused Fleischer of on Hardball (sorry about the HufPo link but itÂ’s the only transcript and video I could find)

FLEISCHER: I don't think this sounds like Scott. My point here is that this is not, it doesn't sound like Scott McClellan. And if Scott harbored these doubts, if he had any nagging questions inside him, the principled thing to do would have been not to accept the press secretary job. I find this book myself, to be puzzling. I think there is a lot –

MATTHEWS: That's the White House talking point, Ari. You're using the word puzzling. That is White House talking point.

FLEISCHER: Chris I just agreed with what Dana said. What's wrong with agreeing with what somebody says? It's an accurate observation. I think it shouldn't surprise you that people might agree.

MATTHEWS: The exact lingo you're using.

FLEISCHER: You said it and I agreed with it.

MATTHEWS: I find that there is an amazing synchronicity of reaction that sounds like it's regimental.

So is the media using the same talking points on how to go after people (or maybe itÂ’s just Ari Fleischer) in the Scott McClellan story? Of course Couric and Matthews didn't get together and discuss this, it's just as liberals they share the same set of assumptions. Yet for some reason they are shocked that people who worked in the same administration share similar assumptions.

Even if they are using talking points, so what? It happens every day in politics.
Funny but I don't remember the media ever going after Democrats for using the same talking points yet for some reason in this case it's some sort of scandal.

Posted by: DrewM at 05:31 PM | Comments (59)
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