Good. Link away GOP.

Rep. Adam Putnam (R-Fla.) and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) will greet ObamaÂ’s arrival with a news conference in which theyÂ’ll assert that Reid (D-Nev.) and Pelosi (D-Calif.) are holding up votes on offshore drilling in order to protect Obama.

They’ll also begin to use “Pelosi-Reid-Obama” in the all-in-the-same-breath way that Democrats now use “Bush-McCain” — to make the parties’ popular candidates indistinguishable from their less beloved incumbents.

Hanging these two millstones around Obama's neck seems a fair response to "Bush-McCain" blathering. Tying it to their stubborn refusal to relent on offshore drilling is even better.

The price of energy is a pocketbook issue now, front and center. It's the kind of issue that sways the middle. It's not enough by itself, but it ain't nothing either. Ace suggested a week or so ago that if Obama was smart, he'd outflank McCain on drilling.

Well, he's not smart. Not that smart anyway. And if the GOP moves on this now it'll be too late for him to jump on that bandwagon.

Remember, it's not that $4 a gallon is too much, we just got there too fast, i.e. a lot of Americans are pissed off about it now and that doesn't help the Chosen One™.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 05:43 AM | Comments (60)
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Stickied in the left sidebar...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:01 AM | Comments (14)
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They may put up with the antics of Critical Mass in Seattle but in New York? Not so much.

Alas, shoving a biker and filing what might be an inaccurate, to be kind, arrest report is not kosher either.

A rookie cop - the son of a highly respected New York City detective - has been stripped of his badge and gun after being caught on video viciously attacking a bicyclist who was part of a Times Square demonstration. '

... What the video doesn't show is (Officer Patrick) Pogan arresting Long for attempted assault in the third degree, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct - charges that kept the Bloomfield, NJ, man behind bars for 26 hours before his release late Saturday.

Adding insult to injury, the criminal complaint drafted by Pogan bears little resemblance to what was witnessed by onlookers and recorded on video.

In court papers, Pogan accused Long of purposely swerving his bicycle to block traffic and then using it as a weapon to run down the officer, knocking him off his feet and causing a "laceration" on his forearm. "You are pawns in the game. I'm going to have your job," Long told Pogan, as he flailed and kicked his arms and legs, according to the complaint.

Please, if any of you morons are coming into NYC for the big meet up, leave the bikes at home and take a cab to get around town.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:23 PM | Comments (96)
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Cool guy.

The Democratic Party, in its quest for power, has managed a propaganda campaign with subliminal messages, creating a God-like figure in a man who falls short in every way. It seems to me that if Mr. Obama wins the presidential election, then Messrs. Farrakhan, Wright, Ayers and Pfleger will gain power for their need to demoralize this country and help create a socialist America.

The Democrats have targeted young people, knowing how easy it is to bring forth whatever is needed to program their minds. I know this process well. I was caught up in the hysteria during the Vietnam era, which was brought about through Marxist propaganda underlying the so-called peace movement. The radicals of that era were successful in giving the communists power to bring forth the killing fields and slaughter 2.5 million people in Cambodia and South Vietnam. Did they stop the war, or did they bring the war to those innocent people? In the end, they turned their backs on all the horror and suffering they helped create and walked away.

Those same leaders who were in the streets in the '60s are very powerful today in their work to bring down the Iraq war and to attack our president, and they have found their way into our schools. William Ayers is a good example of that.

One thing that strikes me is that -- while of course I agree with him 99% -- celebrities, both on the left and right, seem too passionate when they write about politics. Passion has its place, but often the message is undermined by the stridency with which it is written.

From Alec Baldwin to Steven "Don't I know who I am?" Weber -- to, a bit, Jon Voight -- there's a bit of Method-acting overemoting from celebrity pundits. I think they'd be more effective if they dialed it back a bit. Maybe that's the nature of the profession.

Anyway, I'd like to think that when Jon Voight was writing this, he was channeling his Cuban (?) snake-hunter from Anaconda, giving a pretty young Obama cultist a lesson in conservative resolve.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 03:22 PM | Comments (54)
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UPDATE: Bumped, in case you missed it the first time. A number of infamous morons have announced their intention to attend in the comment thread...

No one has thoughts or objections on the date (now tentatively 8/14 or 8/16)? Particularly the out-of-towners. Actually, any non-New Yorkers who are considering or planning a trip, please send me an email at blog dot someone at gmail dot com. I'd like to make the plans as accommodating as possible for you folks.

Morons Take Manhattan 2: Electric Boogaloo. It's finally happening.

When? In about 2+ weeks, unless somebody from out of town wants to come at another time. August 14 (Thursday), maybe? Or the weekend right after.

Where? Similar to last time: a bar in NYC.

Who? Well, morons. Socially inept men and some surprisingly attractive (married) women.

What? Val-U-Rite. Hobos. Ewok-baiting. Lamenting New Blogging Thingy. You know the drill.

Please discuss, comment, invite yourself, etc. in the thread below. Remember that to see all comments you have to check the new site.

Posted by: Open Blog at 09:16 AM | Comments (71)
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In related news, this guy says he hates Greta VanSustern for never giving OJ Simpson or his legal team the benefit of the doubt during his trial.

Not really.

But I'll bet I could get him to say that if I feigned a friendly "I'm one of you" manner and bought him five or six drinks.

Thanks to CJ.

Posted by: Ace at 01:36 PM | Comments (36)
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Apparently not to Obama though.

...The growing Obama clout derives not from national polls, where his lead is modest. Nor is it a gift from the press, which still gives free passes to its old bus mate John McCain...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 01:35 PM | Comments (24)
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Precisely who is a "likely" voter this cycle is a mystery; given the wild-eyed zealotry of Obama's cultists, I know that previous voter-turnout models are wrong. I just don't know how wrong. Will all the disaffected leftists turn out for Obama in hopes of re-starting the Age of Aquarius, and how many of those old smelly hippies are there, anyway? Will all those stupid liberal college students finally put down their bongs and cast a vote this time? Maybe, but we hear that every four years.

On top of that, there's the Bradley Effect, where lots of dumb white people lie to perfect strangers on the phone about their eagerness to vote for the black candidate, because they want to appear tolerant to a college student making $7.00 on hour to interrupt them during dinner. It's not a racist thing; but determined to show they're not racist, people tend to claim support of minority candidates they don't necessarily feel.

In yet another complication, Dick Morris postulates that in this particular election, Obama is effectively "the incumbent" -- meaning that most undecided voters will break against him (as most undecideds/late-deciders break against the incumbent). I suppose this is because most elections are a referendum on the incumbent, and if you don't like him, you vote against him. In this case, the election turns on whether you want a flashy, shallow, glib incompetent with a nice smile and good pecs or a less risky choice.

Obamamaniac turnout is a huge X factor in this election. It could be the old rule of thumb -- that if a Republican is only behind by a smidge pre-election, he'll win -- is reversed, and this time we'd expect McCain to lose unless the last polls show him with a comfortable 5 point lead.

Or maybe not. There are many who bitterly cling to their lack of hope and indifference to change.

So what do polls mean? We say it every four years, but this time it's more true than ever: They don't mean anything. We simply have too many important variables we can't account for. We can't even assume people are expressing their honest preference in polls, or accurately prophesizing how likely they are to vote at all. (Obama's ranks are filled with a lot of people swearing they will vote for him even if doing so conflicts with attending a mandatory Phish tribute band practice; but we don't know if they really will or not.) We don't know what the electorate turning out this time will actually look like.

We're looking at numbers when the really crucial numbers are almost completely hidden from us and simply can't be polled or estimated.

Posted by: Ace at 01:23 PM | Comments (58)
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Former position: "No; no."

New improved position: "Nothing is off the table."

I'm sort of agnostic on the general point -- without some changes to, say, Social Security, the system goes bankrupt resulting in lower payments; so we are faced with a lot of unattractive choices -- but a promise is a promise.

Unless it's made in a primary season, in which case, I guess, it doesn't count.

Posted by: Ace at 01:10 PM | Comments (27)
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"Islamaphobia" is now defined as opposition to terrorism. They really ought to be more careful of what they're implicitly defining as "Islam." Sort of gives the game away.

Let us read the charges against him:

A lawyer and former federal prosecutor who has squared off with Mr. Kromberg in court, Henry FitzGerald, said the prosecutor has acquired a reputation for leaving no stone unturned in cases relating to terrorism or funding for Islamic militant groups.

"Kromberg is absolutely relentless in his pursuit of everything that could be pursued in the way of forfeiture or prosecutions in this area. He's just indefatigable, relentless, tireless," Mr. FitzGerald said. "If you say he's doing the country's work to fight terrorism, that's good, he's a good fighter, but a lot of people say it's overkill, he doesn't listen to reasonable arguments. Everything is black until somebody takes him to court to prove it's white."

Sami al-Arian and his lawyers want to compel him to defend himself against the allegation of "anti-Muslim bias" in his prosecutions.

More crimes:

Al-Arian's lawyers claim that in 2006, when Mr. Kromberg moved to obtain new testimony from the former professor following his guilty plea in Florida, the prosecutor "became agitated" in response to a defense lawyer's request that the testimony be put off until after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. "They can kill each other during Ramadan. They can appear before the grand jury; all they can't do is eat before sunset," Mr. Kromberg responded, according to a declaration written by one of Al-Arian's attorneys, Jack Fernandez. Mr. Fernandez said the prosecutor described the request for a postponement as "all part of the attempted Islamization of the American justice system." Mr. Fernandez wrote that he viewed the comments as exhibiting "apparent bias against Muslims."

Mr. Fernandez also said Mr. Kromberg called the 57-month prison sentence Al-Arian received "a bonanza" for the Palestinian Arab activist. He had faced the potential of life in prison for acting as the leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in America, but a trial in 2005 resulted in his acquittal on eight counts and a mistrial on nine others where jurors could not reach a verdict. Al-Arian's lawyers contend that the dogged pursuit of their client is retribution for the outcome of the Tampa trial, which was widely seen as a failure for the government.

FYNQ.

Thanks to someone.

Posted by: Ace at 12:57 PM | Comments (16)
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