Important world news for you this lovely morning:

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian police have arrested three homeless people suspected of eating a 25-year-old man they had butchered and selling other bits of the corpse to a local kebab house.

In other news, Muscovite kebab houses buy meat from filthy street bums. Dear sweet Jesus.

I got the wishbone!

Look; next time you're in town, order the noodles. Take that advice from a hunchback who loves you, darling Morons.

Posted by: LauraW at 07:41 AM | Comments (87)
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Actually, the Chinese got the shirts or they did before the thugs that run the country banned them (supposedly because they might offend Obama, I don't see why one would jump to that conclusion).

As for actual accomplishments? Unless you call getting the back of China's hand an accomplishment, no, none of those were to be found.

"He came bearing a long shopping list, including Chinese support for tougher sanctions on Iran and more flexibility by Beijing on currency exchange rates, but Obama was met with polite, yet stony, silences....Not only is the U.S. president coming away without any definable concessions, but the Chinese appeared to be digging in their heels.....Perhaps most disappointing was China's failure to budge in its opposition to tougher sanctions on Iran. With their extensive oil interests influencing their policies toward Tehran, the Chinese are increasingly seen as an obstacle to reining in Iran's nuclear ambitions.....

"Obama did not meet with Chinese journalists, lawyers, human rights advocates, environmentalists or any ordinary Chinese, and an expected meeting with Hu Shuli, who recently resigned as editor of China's leading business magazine, did not materialize.Obama's limited results in part reflect the profound shift in Sino-U.S. relations and global politics, with China's rapid rise and America's weakened position, especially in the wake of the financial crisis."

That's part of a rundown of stories on Obama's failures in China by Seth Leibsohn at The Corner, go ahead, click over for the whole sad story.

Leibsohn makes the point this is all very reminiscent of the Carter years and that's true. The problem is we are only 10 months into this administration and it's already worse than the Carter years. Jimmah, for all his ability to do the wrong thing took much longer to reach this level of danger.

One difference I think is that Carter looked at a tired and weathered country (the upheavals of the 60s, Vietnam, Watergate, the oil shocks) and decided that there just wasn't anything that could be done. He was simply overwhelmed by the situation and didn't have the capacity to see another way, so he tried to put a smiley face on what he saw as an unreversable position.

While Obama certainly inherited some significant challenges, just as all Presidents have, he seems to see this set of challenges as an opportunity to remake America (his words, not mine). Instead of dealing with these problems as temporary and fixable, Obama has decided they are an opportunity, not to reinvigorate the country but to bring it to what he sees as its rightful place in the world...just another country among equals. Nothing special, except perhaps for the mistakes its made and the damage its done.

It's simply not possible to look at his attitudes and actions toward countries like Iran, Burma (I know, don't care what the thugs want to be called) and Honduras or thugs like Cavez and Putin and conclude anything other than a willful effort to be more accommodating to them.

Look at his willingness to throw the Dalai Lama, a fellow Nobel Laureate, under the bus on this trip.

The leaders of China, Russia and Iran are nothing if not pros. They have all survived tough and often deadly systems to get where they are. They are not going to be impressed or moved by Obama's 'humbleness' or 'humility'. They are going to see it for what it is, a kick me sign. And trust me, they are going to kick him and by extension us, right in the butt for the next 3+ years. Unfortunately, Obama seems to see that as a feature, not a bug of his policies.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:52 AM | Comments (106)
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And by next year, Harry Reid means...never.

Senate Democratic leaders said Tuesday they would put off debate on a big climate-change bill until spring, in a sign of weakening political will to tackle a long-term environmental issue at a time of high unemployment and economic uncertainty.

Legislation on health care, overhauling financial markets and job creation will be considered before the Senate takes up a measure to cap emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases linked to climate change, Senate Democratic leaders said Tuesday.

...Momentum for a climate bill has been undermined by fears that capping carbon-dioxide emissions -- the inevitable product of burning oil and coal -- would slow economic growth, raise energy costs and compel changes in the way Americans live.

"It's really big, really, really hard, and is going to make a lot of people mad," said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D., Mo.).

Democrats looking ahead to the 2010 midterm elections are concerned about a backlash from voters in industrial and heartland states dependent on coal. Republicans are portraying Democrats' "cap and trade" proposals, which call for capping overall U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions and allowing companies to buy and trade permits to emit those gases, as a "cap and tax" scheme.

"It's really big, really, really hard, and is going to make a lot of people mad," ...that about sums up the entire Obama agenda, doesn't it?

The House barely passed its version of this economy wrecking bill earlier this year and have now been hung out to dry by Senate Democrats. This bill was pretty much DoA this year, there's no way it's going to be coming back in an election year.

Of course, we're not out of the woods because Obama's EPA is likely to rule that CO2 is a public health danger. Such a ruling would give the agency widespread authority to regulate, well, just about anything.

Still, Obama really wanted this boondoggle in time for the Copenhagen Climate Summit. Considering that the chances of that circus producing any sort of agreement have apparently evaporated, it's a pretty bad week for the Gaia worshipers. As we all know, the tears of the Gaia worshipers are among the sweetest tears of all...plus they are carbon neutral!

Related enough...The Great ManBearPig Hunter thinks the temperature of the Earth's core is One Million Bajillion Degrees! Shut up, the science is settled.

Posted by: DrewM at 05:52 AM | Comments (192)
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I hate that we now have this awesome ability to watch funny videos of monkeys peeing in their own mouths, but now we have to doubt whether those monkey water-sports videos are real or some sort of guerrilla marketing campaign for Mountain Dew.

Anyway. I say fake but what the hell. The cameraman too-skillfully slides off the trumpet in red to the face of the angry bride.

Enjoy a drunken slattern showing up the bride at a wedding and then getting all sloppy. more...

Posted by: Ace at 06:03 PM | Comments (115)
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Welcome to the boringest night of the week.

Taylor has the best 19th birthday ever on the Price is Right
I just hope it's not all downhill from here.

Posted by: Open Blog at 06:00 PM | Comments (435)
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Apparently Universal couldn't afford the consulting fees to hire a "pro" like Dan Rather and left it up to the junior varsity team.

Universal Pictures has reached a settlement with a handful of Alaska newspapers, including the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, for using fabricated “news archives” to promote a recently released movie...

...Universal agreed to pay $20,000 to the Alaska Press Club, along with a $2,500 contribution to a scholarship fund for the Bethel-based Calista Corp...

...Universal created an elaborate series of online news articles in the promotion for its movie, “The Fourth Kind.” The movie claims to be a true story about a plague of alien abductions in Nome a decade ago...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 02:45 PM | Comments (151)
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The state is hungry. It needs feeding.

But the chairman of the presidentÂ’s Council of Economic Advisers admitted that health reform and a growing economy isnÂ’t enough to bring down the deficit. She did mention one other place that revenue could come from: letting the Bush tax cuts expire.

[James Pethokoukis]: Since Obama already wants to get rid of the income and capital gains tax cuts for wealthier Americans that expire at the end of 2010, clearly what Romer is referring to is the rest of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts. Letting all the 2001 cuts — rate reductions, child tax credit marriage penalty relief — expire would raise tax revenues by $2.5 trillion through 2019.

Oh my. If only we had had some kind of warning about this. If only we had a few uneducated, boorish, stupid, wolf-hunting/unlicensed-plumbing type people who were so comfortable in their Being There sort of retarded purity they could sounded alarm bells and asked the media to inquire into The Socialist's actual agenda and worldview.

Posted by: Ace at 01:02 PM | Comments (154)
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The upcoming fiasco in NYC as Khalid "Sheik Sheik Sheik" Mohammed and his partners in terror take the stage is as grotesque as it is shamefully partisan. Holder and Obama don't have the stones to take on the Bush administration's terrorism policies directly as their lefty moonbat fellow travelers demand. So instead they decide to let KSM do their dirty work for them. He is obviously the perfect plaintiff to bemoan the torture and lawlessness of W & Cheney, and he will make sure to use the platform he requested to remind the world of those crimes and more.

The case that this somehow validates our justice system is nonsensical as Barry himself helped pass the military commissions legislation that KSM and his pals would have pled guilty under. Well until Obama pulled the plug. I try not to worry for our country as it is stronger than any set of fools and naifs. But these guys make it tough to watch. Video beranting this below the fold. more...

Posted by: Uncle Jimbo at 12:03 PM | Comments (43)
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They don't actually say that. But since the White House previously claimed he didn't bow to the Saudi royal, and now they're admitting he's bowing his ass off in order to further "the diplomacy of deference," what other conclusion is possible?

Greeting the Japanese emperor at Tokyo’s Imperial Palace last weekend, President Barack Obama bowed so low that he was looking straight at the stone floor. The next day, Obama shook hands with the prime minister of repressive Myanmar during a group meeting. The day after that, the president held a “town hall” with Chinese university students who had been selected by the regime.

The images from the president's journey through Asia carried a potent symbolism that has riled critics back home. One conservative website called the episodes “Obamateurism.” Former Vice President Dick Cheney told POLITICO that Obama was advertising “weakness.”

But White House aides say the approach is deliberate — part of Obama’s determination to deliver on his campaign promise of directly engaging friends and enemies alike, giving America a less belligerent posture abroad.

...

On his maiden Asia swing, Obama has made a vivid display of his own trademark style — the diplomacy of deference.

Downplaying bald assertions of American self-interest, Obama in his speeches has emphasized the pursuit of enlightened shared interests with other nations. The approach also invests deep faith in the power of Obama's personal presence—a belief that a calm and reasonable style will summon calm and reasonable responses around the world.

White House senior adviser David Axelrod, who is accompanying the president on his four-nation, nine-day trip, told POLITICO that Obama is “governing in just the way that he said he would” during his campaign.

“He believes in vigorous engagement around the world — in strong alliances, in confronting our adversaries and standing up for human rights by making these points in a very public way,” Axelrod said. “He is confident. He’s someone who’s leading from strength and a deep belief in who America is and what we stand for. That confidence is reflected in the way he conducts himself on the world stage.”

So he lied.

Greg Gutfeld (was up late last night) noted the bowing controversy and called it, using Andy Levy's phrase, a "blog issue." By which he meant a topic that gets predictable heat on blogs, but when you try to discuss it in the "real world," the reaction is "ehhh."

That may be so. To be honest, I had a bit of trouble drumming up a lot of passion about this. My real beef here isn't that what Obama is doing is wrong.

My actual beef is that the crap Obama is doing is irrelevant. No one gives a flying fuck if you bow to them, or you say nice things about "working together to reach our collective goals," or this ridiculous conceit that just because of Obama's "personal presence" -- a historic presidency, drenched in drama, topped with butter-baked crumbs of hope -- is going to make a lick of difference. Nations pursue their own policy goals -- period. You change the goals a nation might pursue by offering carrots and sticks, by buying them off or making it so costly to pursue a particular goal they refrain from doing so.

"Diplomacy" is merely a polite manner of announcing these carrots and sticks.

So my point, then, is that what Obama is doing is perfectly trivial, and to get all outraged about it actually invests his empty and feckless symbolism with a power it doesn't have. Obama's bowing to a Saudi king does nothing to improve our relations with the Islamic world. And neither, frankly, does Cheney shaking his hand as an equal. Neither matters -- and the problem here is that Obama is convinced these things not only matter, but are well-nigh determinative.

This malignant narcissist thinks that nations will change their fundamental national goals based simply on the (purported) fact that Obama is charming, nice, and awesome.

It's not so much that he's doing the wrong things -- he is; but these things are utterly trivial. It's that he's investing far too much time thinking about trivialities, convincing himself that the trivial trumps the substantial, that he invests no time or effort at all in substantive manners. Look at Iran. Rather than facing the grim reality he needs to confront Iran and make it too costly for Iran to continue building nukes, he convinces himself that if only he can be charming and nonthreatening enough he will neatly avoid having to face that reality.

He is indulging in fantasy at the expense of reality, and therefore at the expense of US national interests.

Now, all that said, all that acknowledgement that maybe this is a "blog issue," as Greg Gutfeld said, let me note again something that makes it not just a "blog issue" at all: Obama lied. Gibbs lied. White House sources lie. They all denied down the line that they were offering a sycophantic servility -- bowing like an inferior -- to royalty, and they now are forced to admit it was a lie all along.

They were deliberately bowing to royalty, and just lying about it to the American public. Because, I guess, sometimes a lie is "diplomatic."

So it seems while foreign royalty gets deep bows, the American public gets lies and fast-talk about it.

Actually... also taking it out of the realm of "blog issue" is that any symbolic act stands for something concrete and real. And Obama isn't just showing the symbolism of deference, weakness, and appeasement; he's actually practicing deference, weakness, and appeasement. His symbolic gesture then is simply confirmation of objective reality.

Posted by: Ace at 12:04 PM | Comments (189)
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Ben puts us some f'n knowledge.

buzzion 88
Superfly TNT 85
Aewl 85
People's Republic of Baltimore 85
Monkey Sleeping 84
Paranoid Polly 84
Red State NY 83
Jay in Ames 83
Nam Grunt 81
Michael in MI 81
Sock Puppet Steve 81
Murph 81
Svenster61 81
Martinis at Night 81
Dave R 80
Paulie's Outlaws 80

You all are doing pretty well and I hate your guts.

Exit question: Is Bud Adams insane or just ugly and despised?

I know, trick question.

Additional thought, which I had earlier today but man today was a killer; a quarter of a million ain't jack to Bud but how much less you think it'd be if Goodell wasn't laser focused on keeping "undesirable" owners out of the "image-conscious" league?

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 10:18 AM | Comments (20)
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