Whenever I see a story like this with an Iowa byline, I cringe in anticipation of all the crap the whole State of Iowa is going to have to take on account of one mouth-breather.

Well, whaddya know. This time, the dumb criminal is from Illinois. Thank God for small favors.

Posted by: Russ from Winterset at 12:06 PM | Comments (22)
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Tea leaves:

Pawlenty cancels all media appearances for next few days;

It's not Fred, alas;

and Romney's sister (?) gets a Secret Service security sweep, while Allah worries (as I do) McCain is hell-bent to pick Liebs.

Social cons warn that McCain will face a fight if he does that:

One possible strategy is a revolt by some of the 18 state delegations who supported either Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee—and who have not yet turned over to McCain.

Those delegations could—and sources say, likely would–revolt against Leiberman and put in their own recommendation. In the nomination process, a candidate needs five delegations supporting the nomination.

Posted by: Ace at 11:53 AM | Comments (52)
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Papers dropping the AP service, that's what.

And banding together to create their own shared-news alternatives to AP.

Thanks to Pat Riotic (not his real name).

Posted by: Ace at 11:35 AM | Comments (29)
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And they say Microsoft doesn't innovate anymore.

MicrosoftÂ’s latest Internet browser includes a piece of software that allows Internet users to hide the audit trail of websites they have visited.

The new InPrivate feature on Internet Explorer 8 — now in Beta release, and dubbed by many in the Web development community as “porn mode,” a nod to its most obvious use — when enabled automatically conceals sites visited by wiping clean browsing and search history, cookies, form data and passwords. It also clears the browser cache at the end of each session.

Once the setting is chosen, others using the same computer will not be able to see which sites have been accessed, the company said. Other browsers have similar functions, but this one is far more prominent. Although casual users cannot see the previous userÂ’s search history, authorities such as the police will be able to access it if necessary.

Rival developer Mozilla said it is working to add similiar features to its Firefox browser, the New York Times reported.

The software may be hailed as a victory for privacy campaigners, but it represents a serious threat to Microsoft’s bigger rival, Google. In allowing surfers to access websites but conceal their browsing behavior, Microsoft prevents Internet sites from collecting information about their users — data that is then used to sell targeted advertising.

Another feature will, at the touch of a button, digitally convert the actors in pornographic movies to appear to be nothing more than mischievous animals in a nature documentary. Microsoft officials say this will help many marriages, as wives will now walk in to see large-breasted badgers pissing all over each other and/or and barking foul commands at each other in German.

"Which sounds like badger-language anyway," a Microsoft programmer noted.

Win-win-win. Except, of course, kids will be able to hide stuff from their parents, and they're always more tech-savvy about such stuff, so parents probably won't be able to figure out how to deny them access to the mode.

So, actually, kinda bad.

Thanks to JG.

Posted by: Ace at 11:25 AM | Comments (27)
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Could be an outlier or bad poll. Rasmussen shows it tied, which represents a 1% "bounce" for Obama.

If Gallup's right, I'm a bit mystified. The convention to me has seemed weak. My impressions, though obviously informed by partisanship, nevertheless seem confirmed by the despair of liberal Ezra Klein and, um, conservative Andrew Sullivan, who are both experiencing Panic At The Disco.

It's possible their glumness was based mostly on polls, of course. And now that Gallup finally shows a bounce, they will praise the convention as pure awesome.

Posted by: Ace at 10:54 AM | Comments (119)
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Amazing article which absolutely demolishes Ayers', Obamas', and the media's attempt to minimize and abstract to the point of meaninglessness the nature of the Weathermen's terrorism.

This wasn't mere "radicalism" or idealistic teenage rebellion. They were blowing up buildings and murdering human beings.

Wish we could get this guy to speak at the Republican convention... and that McCain had the balls to put him on the speaker list.

During the April 16 debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, moderator George Stephanopoulos brought up “a gentleman named William Ayers,” who “was part of the Weather Underground in the 1970s. They bombed the Pentagon, the Capitol, and other buildings. He’s never apologized for that.” Stephanopoulos then asked Obama to explain his relationship with Ayers. Obama’s answer: “The notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was eight years old, somehow reflects on me and my values, doesn’t make much sense, George.” Obama was indeed only eight in early 1970. I was only nine then, the year Ayers’s Weathermen tried to murder me.

...

Early on the morning of February 21, as my family slept, three gasoline-filled firebombs exploded at our home on the northern tip of Manhattan, two at the front door and the third tucked neatly under the gas tank of the family car. (Today, of course, weÂ’d call that a car bomb.) A neighbor heard the first two blasts and, with the remains of a snowman I had built a few days earlier, managed to douse the flames beneath the car. That was an act whose courage I fully appreciated only as an adult, an act that doubtless saved multiple lives that night.

...

Though never a supporter of Obama, I admired him for a time for his ability to engage our imaginations, and especially for his ability to inspire the young once again to embrace the political system. Yet his myopia in the last few months has cast a new light on his “politics of change.” Nobody should hold the junior senator from Illinois responsible for his friends’ and supporters’ violent terrorist acts. But it is fair to hold him responsible for a startling lack of judgment in his choice of mentors, associates, and friends, and for showing a callous disregard for the lives they damaged and the hatred they have demonstrated for this country. It is fair, too, to ask what those choices say about Obama’s own beliefs, his philosophy, and the direction he would take our nation.

At the conclusion of his 2001 Times interview, Ayers said of his upbringing and subsequent radicalization: “I was a child of privilege and I woke up to a world on fire.”

Funny thing, Bill: one night, so did I.

Posted by: Ace at 10:38 AM | Comments (38)
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More on the MSNBC farce. Best bits:

Meanwhile, in the past few hours we've spoke to a number of 30 Rock staffers in Denver, New York, and Washington — some of whom thought it more productive to speak to us than attend to the on-going live DNC coverage — and the common wisdom is: 1) Nobody can believe how much Keith Olbermann is getting away with, even if he does draw ratings;

...

3) MSNBC head Phil Griffin is alienating staffers by publicly defending Olbermann while privately bashing him, and it's left many wondering when that will leak (oops);

...

5) You don't want to run into Chris Matthews anytime soon, especially en route to the bathroom, because he has zero pleasant things to say right now;

...

7) None of this is helping ratings, with MSNBC scoring the lowest numbers against Fox News and CNN in convention coverage.

And one last thing: Nobody, including all of MSNBC, believes Phil Griffin when he says "MSNBC does not have an ideology Â… We hire smart people who are passionate about their love of politics and love of news." Says one veteran off-camera staffer: "Bullshit Â… It's a total farce."

On that: Is MSNBC fair and objective the way countless other media types have assured us their own networks are fair and objective? Phil Griffin of course uses the same words to insist his network is unbiased.

Are we to believe he's the only MSM type who's willing to lie about this?

NBC has a partial way out here. They have another cable network, CNBC. They could admit MSNBC is biased to the left, but state they're simply trying to offer the audience opinion "journalism" of all types, and recast CNBC's primetime lineup as an expressly right-leaning opinion channel to "balance" MSNBC.

Hell it might even work. CNBC, so recast, could turn out to be a ratings performer.

But they won't do that, because 1) they're too used to lying about their bias and getting away with it, and 2) they're just unwilling to "help the bad guys" (i.e. conservatives) by pushing their message.

Thanks to CJ.

Even Jon Stewart's Goofing on MSNBC: Backstage at the Muppet Show.

What a joke.

Thanks to AQ.

Posted by: Ace at 10:21 AM | Comments (24)
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Stanley Kurtz has been the driving force examining the links between Barack Obama and domestic terrorist William Ayers. You can read about his efforts to here.

Last night Kurtz went on WGN radio to discuss his efforts to get the University of Illinois at Chicago to release documents from the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, of which Ayers was a founder and Obama a onetime board chair.

It was at that point that The Chosen One issued a vicious rant and important action alert to his avenging angels.

What followed was two hours of an hour and a half of conversation (which the Obama camp was invited to participate in but declined) and 30 minutes of apparently mostly incomprehensible rantings and personal attacks on Kurtz for having the temerity to wonder just how close Obama was to this terrorist bomber.

Guy Benson was at the studio and describes the scene.

... It didn't take long to discover that the Obama campaign—which had declined invitations to join the show for its duration to offer rebuttals to Kurtz's points—had sent an "Obama Action Wire" e-mail to its supporters, encouraging them to deluge the station with complaints.

Why? Because, naturally, Kurtz is a "right-wing hatchet man," a "smear merchant" and a "slimy character assassin" who is perpetrating one of the "most cynical and offensive smears ever launched against Barack."

Evidently, much of Obama nation is comprised of obedient and persistent sheep. They jammed all five studio lines for nearly the entire show while firing off dozens of angry emails. Many vowed to kick their grievances up the food chain to station management. After 90 minutes of alleged smear peddling, Milt Rosenberg (a well-respected host whose long-form interview show has aired in Chicago for decades) opened the phone lines, and blind ignorance soon began to crackle across the AM airwaves. The overwhelming message was clear: The interview must be put to an end immediately, and the station management should prevent similar discussions from taking place.

One female caller, when pressed about what precisely she objected to, simply replied, "We just want it to stop!" Another angry caller was asked what "lies" Kurtz had told in any of his reporting on Barack Obama. The thoughtful response? "Everything he said is dishonest." The same caller later refused to get into "specifics." Another gentleman called Kurtz "the most un-American person" he'd ever heard. Several of the callers did not even know Stanley's name, most had obviously never read a sentence of his meticulous research, and more than simply read verbatim from the Obama talking points.

As the saying goes, read the whole thing.

Apparently not much effort was made to actually refute the charges, just call names, question Kurtz's character and above all shut down an inconvenient inquiry.

Add this to the Obama campaign's attempt to bring criminal charges against an independent group who produced an ad bringing attention to the Obama/Ayers relationship and you see that Obama's new style of politics look pretty damn familiar.

If the Obama people are getting this worked up over whatever Kurtz is looking into you have to think they are worried about what might turn up.

Good luck Stanley.

*I changed the title because Brownshirts overstates the case. We've listen for 8 years to dumb ass comparisons of Bush to Hitler and I shouldn't sink to that level. Sorry, I got a bit carried away.

Below the fold...in case you missed it is the American Issues Project ad that has the Obama campaign demanding a federal criminal investigation. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 08:34 AM | Comments (53)
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Look, it isn't easy taking on a Messiah. Especially one that comes with his own custom designed Presidential seal and a handcrafted temple that would have embarrassed the Oracle of Delphi with it's ostentatiousness.

So when you are battling an Olympian God, it is inevitable that you are gonna have to bring in a little heavy artillery of your own. And who better than Apollo to help even the slate?

Apollo Creed brings a lot to the table. He's an African-American who has ascended from the mean streets to the top of his profession through hard work and dedication instead of government sponsored preference programs. His friendship with Rocky Balboa (his chief rival) shows that Apollo is capable of reaching across racial boundaries and, in many ways, indicates that Apollo gives more than just lip-service to the notion of a post-racial candidacy.

While some would be messiah's marry women who are ashamed of their country and pal around with domestic terrorists, Apollo Creed was never ashamed of America. While some Presidential candidates refuse to sully their dignity by wearing an American flag pin, Apollo Creed was willing to incorporate the design of the American flag into his "work clothes."

And, unlike ObamaZeus, Apollo Creed is a strong advocate of the capitalist system. He worked hard for his millions, and he isn't embarrassed about the lavish lifestyle he has created for himself. Can any of the Democrats claim to be ardent capitalists? No, my friends.

Finally, Apollo Creed also brings much more foreign policy gravitas to the table than The One. After all, Apollo has been fighting the Russkies since the late 1980's. And, sure, he got killed by one of them. But the Dems are always lecturing us about "sacrifice", aren't they? What greater sacrifice can a man make than to sacrifice his life for his country?

So...."Authentically" black in an age of identity politics, self-made, cross-boundary racial appeal, patriotic, embraces free market capitalism, willing to lay his life on the line in front of his nations enemies, and an Olympian God.

Could you ask for anything more out of a VP nominee? I say "No."

I'll give the Democrats their Zeus. Me? I'm backing Apollo for Veep.

Posted by: Jack M. at 08:19 AM | Comments (30)
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The decisions has been made.

Tomorrow is the official announcement but Drudge has a tease up saying the news will break at 6 tonight.

Consider this your official speculation and prediction thread.

Once again we'll be awarding a month's worth of free AoS HQ content to the winner. Since we know the day and time of the announcement, the tie breaker will be the first person in the thread to correctly predict the nominee.

And now for something to look at while you contemplate your prediction.

Megyn with the glasses....oh yeah, that's the stuff.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:47 AM | Comments (147)
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