OK, I sent this to Ace hours ago, but he probably won't wake up before the official Veep announcement anyway.

So... Is this something? It's going around the blog rumor mills.

Consider this your moment of hope before Maverick crushes it by picking Lincoln Chafee or something.

Update [Slublog] - Hot Air says CNBC and the Chicago Tribune are both reporting it's Palin.

Posted by: Open Blog at 01:23 AM | Comments (220)
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Think they liked it?

Whoops, link fixed. Seriously, link fixed. It's one of my misleading headline joke thingees.

I'm giving you ice skating monkeys. Can't complain about that.

Other Reactions: Dan Collins at Protein Wisdom, Dan Riehl thinks he's heard this before.

Posted by: Ace at 07:18 PM | Comments (41)
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13 second makes ABC (seriously) the least biased of the nets.

Get me Rewrite! AP has no trouble rewriting strong growth as a new Depression.

Thanks to lawhawk.

Posted by: Ace at 05:56 PM | Comments (48)
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The jury returned a verdict after six hours of deliberation.

Jose Nazario Jr. was accused of killing four prisoners in Fallujah in 2004. Following his honorable discharge (with a medal of valor) in 2005, an overzealous NCIS investigator recommended to prosecutors in the U.S. that Nazario be charged with murder.

The defence, which did not call any witnesses, argued there was not enough evidence to prove a crime had been committed and told jurors a guilty verdict could endanger US service members by making them second-guess their actions in combat.

Nazario, who did not testify, was found not guilty of all charges, including manslaughter, assault with a deadly weapon and use of a firearm. If convicted, he could have faced 10 years in prison.

One of the jurors speaking after the verdict was read said the panel acquitted him because there was not enough evidence.

The Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act which was passed in 2000 and amended in 2004 allows the prosecution of service members in civilian courts. Of course, wartime combat is just like the sort of things that civilian juries are used to dealing with.

This case, the first of its kind, shows just how pointless the MEJA is when applied in this manner. It was originally supposed to be used to prosecute the crimes of overseas contractors, though it was expanded to include the crimes of servicemembers. In effect it serves as little more than a vehicle for harassment of our military men and women because collecting evidence of guilt in a warzone is next to impossible. The things we take for granted in civilian prosecutions like crime scene investigations and evidentiary chains-of-custody are largely impossible in a warzone. The prosecution had problem with witnesses; Nazario's fellow Marines were reluctant to rat on him, despite the contempt charges they now face.

When you get down to it, the prosecution's case was practically impossible from the start. Nazario was charged with manslaughter, assault with a dangerous weapon, and using a firearm during a violent crime. Only...the prosecution had no bodies, no location, no bullets (or bullet casings), in fact no guns. Essentially, the whole case relied on a taped phone conversation and the hope that Nazario's fellow Marines would roll over on him.

Jury didn't buy it. Oorah.

Also: Blackfive has been following this story closely and has many more details about how it unfolded.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 03:49 PM | Comments (50)
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Breaking! Excerpts from Obama's speech accepting his party's deification.

Should we do an open blog? I'm not sure I'll have the capacity for coherent human expression, and I think the sheer force of the Obamatheosis might knock out all electronic circuits, anyway, like a Love EMP.

Eh, we'll try, see how long the system holds out.

Just to get you ready for the next four or eight years... Can you spot the Secret Racist Code for "Lynch Obama" McCain has cleverly hidden in this ad?

more...

Posted by: Ace at 03:45 PM | Comments (41)
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Newsman.

Note the dishonesty and curious omissions:

Over the weekend here in Denver Tom Brokaw -- who has been utterly supportive of me to the extent that an email he sent me after a primary night in March still sits in printout form in my wallet -- is at a panel when Ed Rendell detonates about MSNBC doing (fill in the blank).

Let me fill in that blank since you're apparently too embarrassed to do so yourself: He accused you, and Matthews, and MSNBC of being blatantly in the tank for Obama. (On another occasion he said Olbermann "should be on the Obama payroll.")

Seems a rather large thing to just yadda yadda yadda over, huh?

Tom explains that while even he thought, personally, that Chris and I may have gone further during the primaries than he would have, he thought that the more reserved work of others on the air more than balanced out that minor complaint.

Brokaw did not say that. He did not say that "personally" he thought Olbermann and Matthews went "further... than [Brokaw] would have," as if it's some subjective standard he's talking about, and that Olbermann is just practicing a different style than Brokaw's, but a valid one just the same.

He said, "I think Chris has gone too far. I think Keith has gone too far." Period. Objectively, according to an external, objective standard, and not according to Brokaw's personal preferences and idiosyncracies.

Funny that Olbermann can't manage to track down such a brief quotation, especially since it is rather easy to find: There are over 250,000 Google responses for "Chris Keith gone too far."

Posted by: Ace at 03:31 PM | Comments (21)
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Rules: the first used phrase wins, and the wording must be exact. If no phrases listed are used, no one wins.

Funny stuff as we get to the longshots (and btw-- I'm not making these up):

"Let's get ready to rumble!" 250-1

"Life is like a box of chocolates." 250-1

"Always bet on black!" 500-1

Seriously, if he does the last one, I might vote for him, just out of my great respect for Passenger 57.

Posted by: Ace at 03:06 PM | Comments (88)
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Hardly out of character.

Former president Jimmy Carter called Republican presidential candidate John McCain a "distinguished Naval officer," but said the Arizona senator has been "milking every possible drop of advantage" from his time served as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

...

But he focused heavily on McCain, explaining how he was bewildered to see him during a conversation earlier this month with pastor and author Rick Warren at the Saddlebrook Church in Lake Forest, Calif. Carter said that whether the question was about religion, domestic or foreign affairs, every answer came back to his five-and-a-half years as a POW.

"John McCain was able to weave in his experience in a Vietnam prison camp, no matter what the question was," said Carter, a 7-year Naval officer who served aboard submarines. "It's much better than talking about how he's changed his total character between being a senator, a kind of a maverick at the time, and his acquiescence in the last few months with every kind of lobbyist pressure that the right wing Republicans have presented to him."

He also snipes at Joe Lieberman, and hopes the Democrats will win enough Senate seats to no longer have to deal with Lieberman.

Posted by: Ace at 02:29 PM | Comments (64)
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Pretty thin slug.

Arguing against this: Carl Cameron says he doesn't know (or implies that, at least, saying he's on the hunt to find out); it seems kinda ridiculous that he wouldn't report it immediately, unless he was promised some huge scoop/exclusive interview for withholding it.

Arguing for this: Well, it's thin, but Megyn Kelly pressed Cameron on whether or not the name would leak "within the hour," which seems oddly specific as to time-setting.

Oh -- and what the hell is this nonsense?

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe — who did not know the content of the ad until we read him the script — just told us that the McCain ad is “a very nice gesture. We wish more of his ads took that tone, but it’s a very nice gesture.”

Wow. The messiah-complexed narcissist Obama wishes that his campaign opponent paid to produce and place more ads praising Barack Obama?

Color me shocked.

Obama's not going to allow you to do anything but worship him.

Seriously. It will not be allowed.

Not allowed at all.

More Veepstuff: Several folks flying to Dayton, apparently in coordinated misdirection effort -- Huckabee and Romney both on way.

Kristol says final three were Pawlenty, Liebs, and Meg Whitman.

Posted by: Ace at 02:03 PM | Comments (47)
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Racist condescension, of course.

Script:

"Job Well Done"

"Senator Obama, this is truly a good day for America. Too often the achievements of our opponents go unnoticed, so I wanted to stop and say congratulations.

"How perfect that your nomination would come on this historic day. [Racist attack!]

"Tomorrow we'll be back at it, but tonight, Senator, Job Well Done."

Meh.

Too much "stealth racism," not enough overt racism.

Here's the ad.

Posted by: Ace at 12:36 PM | Comments (92)
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