BOSS: "Hey, there's a new rocket, so let's like...commit two non-replaceable payloads to its maiden flight! What could possibly go wrong?"

ENGINEER: "Well, it could get weird since its untried and the RSO might have to blow it up? Just a thought..."

BOSS: "Racist hater! Launch the bird!"

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 06:52 AM | Comments (35)
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Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 06:05 AM | Comments (15)
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Openblogger and friend Alice H has been mingling with the anarchists and will be filming and taking pictures of events in Denver all through the week. Her YouTube channel is here.

In this video, bandanna-ed youths chant "Two, Four, Six, Eight, this is a police state." I confess: sometimes they tempt me.

The saddest thing about this protest is that many of these folks are quite serious and yet they couldn't have found an activity less likely to achieve anything. On the bright side, I don't think they vote.

Maybe I played too much super-soaker cops-and-robbers as a kid, but the sight of people wearing bandannas always makes me want to hit someone with a water balloon.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:59 PM | Comments (100)
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The coroner is willing to rule his death due to natural causes, but only if she can see Miller's ass first.

Posted by: Ace at 05:11 PM | Comments (116)
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...the Russian Navy, that is.

Still, hotness is hotness, and this is a very smart military blog, after all.

It's important to do recon on the enemy's, umm, resources.

Bikini babes below the jump. more...

Posted by: LauraW at 11:18 AM | Comments (121)
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Dems restore full delegate voting rights to Michigan and Florida.

I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 11:01 AM | Comments (35)
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Well, he's addressing "Frank" here, but I think "Frank" simply represents most of us, in Joe Biden's estimation.

The boast would be annoying enough if it were true. It turns out -- no, it's really not true at all.

He didn't get a full scholarship, and the partial scholarship he received was based purely on financial need, not academic excellence. He graduated 76th of 85 students, not "in the top half" of his class. He didn't get "three degrees" in college; he got one degree in a double major, which is hardly some sort of amazing feat. (Where did he get three degrees from? No idea. Captain Ed suggests that math was obviously not one of the three.)

The only thing which may or may not be true is that "outstanding student in political science" thing.

As Mickey Kaus notes, it's easy to feel sympathy for Biden at the question itself -- the sort of credentialist crap we expect from the media (who tend not to be the brightest coins in the piggy bank, either) -- but that sympathy evaporates due to his arrogant answer. Which turns out to be not merely arrogant, but in fact almost completely dishonest to boot.

But surely this was merely a youthful indiscretion when he was but a callow lad of 40-such, right? Well, no. He also conjures up a trio of ridiculous Biden Under Fire scenarios to show what a globe-hopping tough-guy he is, too. And he did that at this season's debates.

Posted by: Ace at 10:58 AM | Comments (55)
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Many people are asking why pictures don't display properly on the "new site."

The main reason is because that site doesn't work yet. Stop going there. Come to ace.nu.mu, where pictures post properly and the sidebar headlines work.

I think the reason pictures don't work is that, for some reason, when I load pictures on the ace.mu.nu server they can't be accessed by the "new site" server. I don't know if that can be fixed.

Either way, the ace.new.mu.nu site isn't really the site... not yet, anyway. I only activated that because this site went down for a day and I needed a back-up.

Some people have problems posting comments here, by the way. One reader found that the problem was that he hadn't made the site a "Trusted" or "Most Trusted" site or something like that in their browser options, and for some reason the browser's protective software was blocking his comments from posting. In other words, the problem was on his end, not on the site's end.

Not sure if that's the problem for others, but maybe give it a try.

Fixed? If anyone is viewing this on the "new" site, let me know if the Barack America picture is now displaying properly for you over there (assuming that it wasn't displaying before).

Posted by: Ace at 10:21 AM | Comments (38)
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Just a little harmless fun to remind Democrats who the number two vote getter during the primary was.

There's a chance an ad like this could backfire. It's one of those things where I can pick on my family but if you do it, well, that's a different matter entirely. McCain has to be careful about being seen to get in the middle of the Democrats intra-party fight. It probably works since it's likely to be a one or two day thing just to grab a little attention between the Biden roll out and the start of the convention.

'Zactly [ace]: Drew mentions the reason, I think, this ad is so frickin' lame.

Sure, McCain could have made the ad a hell of a lot punchier, quoting Hillary not just knocking Obama but savaging him, and stating that he was frankly unqualified for the office while she -- and McCain! -- were qualified.

But they have to restrain themselves. I imagine there was an awful lot of discussion about the right tone to this ad. If they go too strong and too hot, they piss off the Hillary fans by appearing to be interlopers attempting to manipulate their anger for their own benefit. Sure, they are that and really can't avoid that appearance, but they can at least not push that button all that hard.

If they appear too obviously trouble-making here, they could actually push Hillary voters to Obama. Right now Hillary's oddly-devoted voters have fixed on Obama as a cause of anger; they certainly don't want to make themselves a replacement for that cause of anger.

So I guess this ad is deliberately weak and light-hitting. They'll see how it flies. If it works a bit, they'll roll out stronger stuff. If it appears to backfire, they'll stop running this sort of ad entirely, and leave Hillary's fans to stew at Obama undisturbed.

And I'm not sure how to exploit this... but if you've talked to Hillary supporters, you know that they're the world's most recent and most enthusiastic converts to the Anti-Media Bias Party. It's almost funny how life-long Democrats are now sputtering angrily about media bias, the way we've been fuming for most of our lives. They know damn well the media propped up Obama while working to take down their girl.

That might be McCain's angle here in stating that Hillary lost because "she told the truth." That could resonate with some Hillary voters, who saw the media covering for Obama and counterattacking Hillary whenever Hillary raised fair criticisms of The (Media) Chosen One.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:06 AM | Comments (44)
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Coordinating through an Iraqi blogger. I plan to send a bunch of computer engineering, compiler design, graphics etc stuff I'll never use again but would be useful to some undergrad. The "wish list" is mostly industrial engineering concentrating on water treatment and handling.

Saddam had lots of money for palaces but not so much for sewers and public water supply.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 08:03 PM | Comments (24)
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