From Instapundit.

Posted by: Ace at 01:50 PM | Comments (186)
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I went through this once before.

This is the last time I am going through it.

Either some of you can begin exhibiting some sense and judgment, or I can begin exhibiting it on your behalf through permanent bannings.

There will not be any cautions. The next comment I see that goes over the line will simply be sent to Pixy for a permanent banning.

If you're not sure it's over the line -- guess what, it is. Don't post it.

As Instapundit once said, regarding his decision to not have comments on his site: It's not the people who disagree with you who are the problem. It's the people who agree with you and support you, basically, who embarrass you by making over-the-line statements.

In case some of you fucking retards haven't noticed, there is a major fucking election at hand. You are embarrassing our candidate and our party.

You can bring yourselves down, but you're not going to bring me down, and I won't let you bring McCain/Palin down. There are over 40,000 readers here a day. I can afford to shed a hundred or so of them.

And I will. Because I know -- like last time -- some people think they're above The Rules or they think that this particular hilarious joke (which has been repeated thousands of times since 1953, always by dullards) they just came up with is too precious to not share with the group.

As I said last time: Make it count, because it will be the last time your thoughts are ever shared on this site.

In the Comments: Here are some of my thoughts. If you're inclined to take things over the line, seek guidance and a warning below.

Irony does not mean what some of you seem to think it means.

I had to close a thread because some of you made it so ugly it was an outright embarrassment.

Do different rules apply to me? Yes. I know what the fuck I'm doing. Most of the time, at least.

Some other people know what they're doing too. But that doesn't mean you're one of them.

Does this sensitivity apply to gays, too? Yes, I'm afraid it does.

Be aware that can-you-top-this riffing in sensitive areas will almost always wind up in an ugly place.

And if you really don't get how what I'm doing is different than what some of you are doing, then, really, you probably do not understand irony, and you should internalize that fact, and recognize that maybe you're just not getting it and never will. And refrain from adventures in this area entirely.

Posted by: Ace at 01:21 PM | Comments (480)
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Read.

Trish Castiglione, a Republican, was sold on McCain-Palin before Wednesday's event. Now she's not so sure — particularly after hearing Palin answer questions from the public for the first time since becoming McCain's running mate.

...

"The only thing she knows about is oil. She was kind of wishy-washy," said Trish Castiglione, a 38-year-old foundation officer at Grand Rapids Community College, which held the event. "I came in knowing I would vote for them — I don't know now."

...

"I came in thinking I would vote for them, but I don't know now," said Trish Castiglione, who works at the college in Grand Rapids where the event was held.

...

Her husband Joe, an undecided voter, sat listening carefully to both speakers. He said: "I liked McCain, he knows his stuff, but she needs to work on her delivery. There were not a lot of facts. The only thing she knows about is oil. Other than that she was wishy-washy. "

Note she and her husband provided the exact same quote: "Wishy washy, all she knows is about oil." Almost as if working off a script of some kind.

Who is "Republican" Trish Castiglione?

Well a Goggle search finds that one "Trish Castiglione" works for the: Rapids Community College Foundation.

Hey, she is a "Director of Annual Giving."

They sponsored events like "Rock the Vote:"

September 8, 2008 Grand Rapids, MI – On Sept 10, 2008, GRCC students will ROCK THE VOTE from 10 am to 2 pm in an event featuring a variety of voting-related activities, local bands/artists, and interaction with local political leaders including Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, Mayor George Heartwell, and State Representative Michael Sak among others.

An “Ask the Clerk” booth, staffed by Lauri Parks the Grand Rapids City Clerk who will also be recruiting poll inspectors.

...

A resource fair of political organizations offering information and diverse angles on the issues to students

The event is the result of a partnership between GRCCÂ’s Campus Activities Board, the GRCC Black Student Union, The GRCC Student Congress, the Grand Rapids City ClerkÂ’s Office and the Grand Rapids Alumni Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.

Other events

October 2 – Health Care in America: How Can We Make it More Affordable?
October 16 – What is the 21st Century Mission For our Public Schools?
October 30 – Racial and Ethnic Tensions: What Should We Do?

How did this one woman find not one but two newspapers to talk to in a rally of 3000? Was she wearing a sign around her neck? "Ask me for juicy scripted quotes against Palin?"

Also note she really didn't show up for the event as a Palin supporter -- the event occurred at the college she works at. It seems more likely she was there as an employee of the university and not as a Palin supporter who became disillusioned hearing her speak.

How did both papers verify she was a Republican and her husband "undecided"?

Is there no suspicion whatsoever that she may not, in fact, be a Republican, given that she works in the most liberal sector in America (the academy)? This resume does not exactly scream "Republican."

3000 people showed up for this event, not because their job required them to, but because they wanted to hear Palin speak. Could the SacBee and telegraph not find enough of such people to interview?

Thanks to A Random Person.

Posted by: Ace at 12:18 PM | Comments (74)
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Racism Week Continues:

So far, we've had:

Tuesday:

Kathleen Sebelius.

and

Jack Cafferty.

Wednesday:

Rush Limbaugh Ad.

Today:

NYT on Raines ad.

and

Ohio Obama Surrogates Say Not Voting For Obama= Racist.

Hmmm... ya think it's a coordinated attack? naaaa... couldn't be. I mean we're talking about the post-partisan, post-racial, Lighworker, right? It not like he's ever played the race card...much... errr.. nevermind.

(All of the above thanks to Damiano.)

Posted by: Ace at 12:16 PM | Comments (52)
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I see no mention of Adam Gadahn in this description.

Posted by: Ace at 12:04 PM | Comments (19)
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Read it. (Make sure you click to give him the traffic; he deserves it, and I'm swiping a lot of this post.)

Obama, on the trail in New Mexico, had this to say of McCain:

"And today he accused me of not supporting what the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Bank did with AIG despite no evidence whatsoever that thatÂ’s what I had said."

To recap, when I wrote earlier today that Obama supported the bailout, I quickly was instructed by his staff that this was not the case. He just didn't oppose it, I was told.

Now he's so adamant about not opposing the Fed's move that he's complaining about McCain's portrayal.

This is the man who would be president. He doesn't support the bailout; he also doesn't oppose it. And if you say he doesn't support it, he angrily fires back, "Not so, I merely said I didn't support it."

This is the guy who's going to lead us. This fucking guy.

Captain Bullshit.

Senator Present.

Thanks to Racer X.

Update: Bernacke and Paulson briefed the Republican Congressmen today to convince them to support the bailouts.

The words used: "Dire."

The worst financial crisis in the post-war period. (Which is itself a softer way to say "The worst financial crisis since The Great Depression, which is really what they mean. But can't say that. If they say that, they actually cause a panic and create a new fucking Great Depression..)

"Spreading."

Failing to intervene will be "catastrophic."

I do not pretend to know whether this is well-advised or if these megainstitutions should be allowed to fail, as they deserve.

But I do know one thing.

You're not allowed to vote "present" on this crisis, you fucking unqualified poser pussy.

You built this bomb by lobbying for looser and looser credit. Demanding banks extend mortgages to credit-poor buyers. You inflated the housing market by artificially injecting it with new trillions of government-guaranteed dollars backing the mortgages of people who couldn't afford a mortgage in a normal market, nevermind the increasingly-inflated bubble market you created.

And now, your own bomb having detonated, you refuse to say whether you wish to intervene further or let these institutions -- that you yourself substantially undermined -- fall.

And further -- you get angry when someone "distorts" your position from "not supporting" to "not opposing," or "not opposing" to "not supporting."

You're all about the nuance, aren't you, cocksucker? All nuance, no responsibility. No accountability. No leadership.

Let me guess: It's racist to demand you take a position on your own disaster. Right?

Posted by: Ace at 11:31 AM | Comments (80)
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Nothing to do with anything, really. Nothing. To do. With anything. more...

Posted by: Ace at 11:22 AM | Comments (15)
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On Monday I blogged about a column in the NY Post claiming that on his visit to Iraq Obama urged the Iraqi government to delay negotiations with the US until a new administration took office.

It looks like the skepticism was the right choice after all.

Lending significant credence to Obama's response is the fact that -- though it's absent from the Post story and other retellings -- in addition to Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, this July meeting was also attended by Bush administration officials such as U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and the Baghdad embassy's Legislative Affairs advisor Rich Haughton, as well as a Republican senator, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska.

Attendees of the meeting back Obama's account, including not just Sen. Jack Reed, D-RI, but Hagel, Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffers from both parties. Officials of the Bush administration who were briefed on the meeting by the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad also support Obama's account and dispute the Post story and McCain attack.

The Post story is "absolutely not true," Hagel spokesman Mike Buttry told ABC News.

Â…Buttry said that Hagel agrees with Obama's account of the meeting: Obama began the meeting with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki by asserting that the United States speaks with one foreign policy voice, and that voice belongs to the Bush administration.

A Bush administration official with knowledge of the meeting says that during the meeting Obama stressed to Maliki that he would not interfere with President Bush's negotiations concerning the US troop presence in Iraq, and that he supports the Bush administration's position on the need to negotiate as soon as possible the Status of Forces Agreement, which deals with among other matters US troops having immunity from local prosecution.

As I noted in my original post, this wasnÂ’t the first time Obama and the Iraqi Foreign Minister had differing opinions on a conversation. If it had happened the way the Post column claims youÂ’d think someone else (not Chuck Hagel but either a committee or embassy staffer) would have come forward at some point to confirm it.

Absent some other form of confirmation, itÂ’s looking like Obama didnÂ’t cross any lines on his trip. Thank Heaven for small favors, I guess.

Posted by: DrewM at 10:55 AM | Comments (43)
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I've been stewing about this since I first saw it on Patterico late last night -- Obama's boosters in the media yet again crying racism, this time over the fact that a McCain ad actually dares to associate Obama with his, um, associate Franklin Raines.

Who is black, as we all now know.

Cuffy Meigs is all over this. So is Hot Air.

I've been mulling how to put this, or if I should even try putting this at all. I don't want to be called racist, or play into the Boy Who Cried Racism narrative of The One.

But I think it needs to be said.

The provocative headline is maybe too provocative. What I'm getting at is not the good side of affirmative action, of course. Expanding recruiting and candidate searches to include minorities who might be otherwise overlooked; attempt to compensate for possible unconscious racism in a company or college, etc.

What I'm talking about is of course the bad side of affirmative action. The notion that is sometimes put forward that someone is owed a position simply because he is black (or, rather, is not white), and that no criticism of him can be tolerated -- again, simply because he is black.

Barack Obama continues to play this disgusting card. This isn't merely Karen Tumulty making the charge. It's quite possible she came up with this silly fart of an idea on her own.

However, we know that Barack Obama's surrogates are constantly calling the media to play the race card whenever an attack line rises that Barack Obama 1) views as a real threat and 2) does not wish to confront directly. He doesn't wish to confront it -- often because he has no good defense -- and so calls the media to peddle his tales of racism! to get his buddies in the media to bury the story. He has no answer to the charge, so he demands the media embargo the charge entirely.

Because, you know, questioning the qualifications, judgments, and longtime associations of a candidate is racist. Certainly we've never done so with any white candidates for that office!

Whether this will work as a campaign strategy, I don't know. I do know for a fact that it cannot work as a governing strategy. Presidents are pilloried on a daily basis; for god's sakes, one sixth of the country demands that George W. Bush be put on trial for murder.

And how will Barack Obama handle criticism once in office? Based on his performance so far, we can guess:

Unemployment Rate Rises to 6.3%; Barack Obama Charges It is Racist to "Associate" a Black President with a High Unemployment Rate
Slams Critics for Stirring "Age Old" Stereotypes of Black Unemployment

Vladimir Putin Flatly Rejects Obama's Call to Withdraw Troops from Lithuanian Border
Secretary of State Hints Putin Just Doesn't Like Black Men in Positions of Power

Barack Obama's Hand-Picked Head of the Resolution Trust Corporation Indicted for Embezzlement, Self-Dealing
Obama Roars Back: "This is nothing but a racial witch-hunt playing upon old fears of black presidents and white collar crime"

Senate Panel Faults Obama for "Anemic" Response to Coordinated Al Qaeda Bombings of European US Embassies
Issues Four Page Rebuttal Titled, "Is This Because I'm Black?"

Al Qaeda Acting Head Ayman al-Zawahiri Blasts "Arrogance" of US
Obama Spokesman: That's Just Using Another Word for 'Uppity'"

I can see the future, and I see nothing but excuse-making and attempts to silence critics for Obama's coming miscues and incompetencies. Franklin Raines was a Barack Obama adviser of some capacity. Franklin Raines said so himself. The Washington Post reported it-- after fact-checking, as they say they always do, with the Obama campaign itself. Franklin Raines is a corrupt bastard who lined his own pockets at the expense of the taxpayers and only barely escaped prosecution.

It is not only legitimate for McCain to mention this as Fannie may disintegrates -- it is obligatory. It would be political malpractice to not mention Obama's adviser Franklin Raines. And for Obama and his campaign surrogates and his media allies to suggest noting Obama's chummy relationship with the Marauders of the Mortgage Market is racist is intolerable. And cannot be tolerated.

And, goddamnit, will not be tolerated.

Mr. Obama, you claim we should look past the fact you don't "look like other presidents." I strongly suggest you begin looking past that too, and stop trotting out the accident of your race as an all-purpose get-out-of-jail-free card to be played whenever you're caught out in a lie, a hypocrisy, or a 20 year association with a radical hate-preacher.

Obama says that his 19 months of campaigning are a good surrogate for actual experience as President. I'm willing to accept that notion, provisionally. And what I see of Obama's "first nineteen months in office" is a nonstop stealth campaign of media spin attempting to shut down every legitimate line of questioning or criticism by crying racism.

You want to be The Man in the Arena, Obama? Stop making excuses for yourself and demanding you be graded on an Affirmative Action Curve. It's time to stand on your own two feet, whatever color they are.

Posted by: Ace at 10:54 AM | Comments (94)
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Aaaaaand, I'm spent.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:22 AM | Comments (62)
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