Didn't Democrats accuse Bush 43 of imperialism or colonialism or a dozen -isms for interfering in the politics in other countries? Vulgar fourth-grade wisdom had the truth of Democrats then: "Whoever smelt it dealt it."

Obama proved it with Honduras.

There is a lesson there for small democracies. If they abide by democratic principles, sustain a united front domestically, and refuse to accede to the arrogance of Foggy Bottom and the White House, they can control their own destiny. (Hmm, seems to also have worked out in Israel.) That it should require such a Herculean effort to resist the strong-arming tactics of the United States is sobering and distressing.

Sobering, distressing, heartbreaking, and infuriating. The President of the United States was helping to overturn a free and democratic government for no other reason than he wanted to help a socialist Chavista. This should be the blackest mark on Obama's record so far (though by no means is it the sole count against him). But, hoo-hum, the Left and the legacy media (BIRM) just look right past it.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 09:48 AM | Comments (39)
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You still have an hour or so to get your picks in.

A couple of good games today with the Cowboys and Giants in the premier late game. You might think you don't care about this game but no matter what happens, either Ace of Dave in Texas will be sad when it's over. That's a win for the rest of us right there.

Two other interesting games...Saints at the Redskins and Titans at the Colts.

Yeah, the Saints are undefeated and the Redskins are to be charitable, awful. Still it's an outdoor game and it's cold out and the Saints haven't been as dominant away from the Super Dome as they are at home. Saints probably win but it could be a trap game coming off the big win over the Patriots last Monday night.

The Titans started 0-6 and have 5 in a row since switching to Vince Young. The Colts are undefeated and will probably win but something will give and it'll probably be an entertaining game. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 07:56 AM | Comments (200)
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The headline was supposed to be Chaz Is A Liar, but I can't fault him for it anymore.

Because just as a beautiful butterfly emerging from the chrysalis can no longer conceive of its prior existence as a caterpillar, Chaz cannot remember his own life from just two years ago.

And it's not a lie if you really believe it.

At Weaselzippers.

Note the Lizard King's first sentence: "A few years ago, I used to doubt that there really were climate change denialists"

Ummmm, Chuck, you were one of them....

From March 4, 2007:

Follow the link and check out the screen captures.

Thanks to Mare at H2.

Posted by: LauraW at 05:41 AM | Comments (208)
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Some very hot pink on pinko action here.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 09:01 PM | Comments (175)
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Welcome to just another edition of CatSaturday. Now with 6% more spite.

The BMW Police Interceptor
Because sometimes the polizei have to go fast to catch speeders on the autobahn. Or at least that's what they tell the politicians. Here's an interceptor model based on the BMW 123d which has 204 hp, scores a mid-6 second 0-60mph time and gets 40 mpg. The police had the engine boosted to 241 hp. Let's hope they don't end up like the Italians who just totaled their Lamborghini.

Posted by: Open Blog at 06:00 PM | Comments (646)
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There was a "whoa moment":

By early October, it was clear that a process initially envisioned to last a few weeks would take much longer. McChrystal had assessed that the worsening situation in Afghanistan could be turned around only by a full commitment to protecting the Afghan people and building up the government, with massive new U.S. resources over many years. But the commander himself had still not had the opportunity to formally explain his position to them.

His chance came at an Oct. 8 meeting of Obama's principal advisers, presided over by [National Security Adviser James L.] Jones -- the "dress rehearsal" for a full-scale National Security Council gathering the president would hold the following day. Speaking by video link from Kabul, McChrystal began with the policy underlying his approach, established by the White House review hastily compiled in February that led to Obama's March 27 strategy announcement and the deployment of nearly 22,000 new troops over the spring and summer.

In June, McChrystal noted, he had arrived in Afghanistan and set about fulfilling his assignment. His lean face, hovering on the screen at the end of the table, was replaced by a mission statement on a PowerPoint slide: "Defeat the Taliban. Secure the Population."

"Is that really what you think your mission is?" one of the participants asked.

In the first place, it was impossible -- the Taliban were part of the fabric of the Pashtun belt of southern Afghanistan, culturally if not ideologically supported by a major part of the population. "We don't need to do that," Gates said, according to one participant. "That's an open-ended, forever commitment."

But that was precisely his mission, McChrystal responded, enshrined in the Strategic Implementation Plan -- the execution orders for the March strategy, written by the NSC staff.

"I wouldn't say there was quite a 'whoa' moment," a senior defense official said of the reaction around the table. "It was just sort of a recognition that, 'Duh, that's what in effect the commander understands he's been told to do.' Everybody said, 'He's right.'"

Well, not everybody. NSA Jones' excuse for not even knowing what McChrystal had been ordered to do manages to demonstrate his own low-functioning retardation:

"It was clear that Stan took a very literal interpretation of the intent" of the NSC document, said Jones, who had signed the orders himself. "I'm not sure that in his position I wouldn't have done the same thing, as a military commander."

That's General Stan to you, spaz.

The problem with these Obama folks is that they're so naive, so irreducibly ignorant of anything other than the inside of a classroom, they don't realize that when you give the U.S. armed forces a mission, they actually try to get it done.

What is this bullshit? "Oh, I told him to kill the Taliban, but I didn't think he'd take it so literally." What. The. Fuck.

What could it possibly have meant except "kill the Taliban." I mean, with Obama, you never know, maybe he meant "hug the Taliban." But he wouldn't use the military for that, he'd go himself, right?

This is the college professor excuse. Nothing is meant "literally" in academia. Obama wanted McChrystal to interpret he was really supposed to do. I suspect a proper interpretation of "Kill the Taliban" would have been "hide" and "please don't make me look bad in front of cameras."

Of course, NSA Jones doesn't have that excuse. He's a retired general and should, therefore, have known better.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:54 PM | Comments (201)
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Cincinnati.. what a game!

Alabama, showed the grit. And won.

Texas up.

Show me the hate.

You want to.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 04:35 PM | Comments (299)
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Between 112 and 130 people died when a fire broke out at the Lame Horse nightclub in Perm, Russia on December 5th. The blaze started when fireworks set off inside the club ignited decorations during the business's 8th anniversary celebration. An equal number of people were also injured in the conflagration.
The fire seemed eerily similar to The Station club fire in West Warwick RI that killed 100 people in 2003.

Always remember the golden rule when attending any public event: As soon as you arrive, locate at least one exit that is different from the doorway you entered through. If something bad happens during the event, everyone will try to exit out of the same doorway they entered through. Everyone that is except you.

Posted by: Open Blog at 03:04 PM | Comments (67)
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They are pushing an initiative to return the legislature to part time status with a 50% pay cut.

The theory is that will help cut the power of the legislature and by extension their special interest group buddies. Personally I like the idea. I'd like to see it extended to Washington DC. The house would be allowed to meet for 30 days in August and the Senate for 90 in June, July, and August. No air conditioning would be allowed in the capitol or House and Senate office buildings.

Seriously though I think this is a big deal. If the Peoples Republic of California is willing to start looking at smaller government a major corner has been turned.

Posted by: Open Blog at 12:58 PM | Comments (76)
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I'm giving this the flaming skull for other reasons. I'm not sure if Britain's Met Office is really saying they won't be supporting the global warmist agenda for three years, or if that's just the reporter's gloss on the story.

Even if that's just gloss -- they're going to spend three years doing a transparent reconstruction of the lost temperature records. All the shabby and amateurish statistical nonsense these half-wits did to get their preferred outcome will, presumably, now be reviewed and approved by real experts in this branch of mathematics.

It doesn't sound like a cover-up... at least not yet.

But check it out: Gordon Brown's government is attempting to stop the science.

That's pro-science, right? Stopping a scientific reconstruction of "lost" data and a reexamination of the evidence? Yes, I think so. That's what science is. Science = not science. QED.

The Met Office plans to re-examine 160 years of temperature data after admitting that public confidence in the science on man-made global warming has been shattered by leaked e-mails.

The new analysis of the data will take three years, meaning that the Met Office will not be able to state with absolute confidence the extent of the warming trend until the end of 2012.

The Met Office database is one of three main sources of temperature data analysis on which the UNÂ’s main climate change science body relies for its assessment that global warming is a serious danger to the world. This assessment is the basis for next weekÂ’s climate change talks in Copenhagen aimed at cutting CO2 emissions.

The Government is attempting to stop the Met Office from carrying out the re-examination, arguing that it would be seized upon by climate change sceptics.

1, Of course it will, and 2, So what? This is science? Halting a scientific inquiry because it might undermine theories for which there is currently no existing evidence?

The Met is seeking temperature records from the world's weather stations, which they say they're "confident" they'll get. I'm not so sure.

The IPCC says it needs to consider the full implications of these leaks, and whether they cast doubt on "the science." I already know their conclusion, but it is something that at least they've been required to make that admission.

Gordon Brown's belief in the Cult of the Virgin Gaia is, I'm sure you're surprised to learn, only strengthened by this test of his faith.

That's what Goddess Gaia does -- she tests you with trials and tribulations to make certain that your faith is pure.

Mr Brown last night insisted that the science on climate change in settled, and accused those who question the consensus of being outdated.

He said: “With only days to go before Copenhagen we mustn’t be distracted by the behind-the-times, anti-science, flat-earth climate sceptics. We know the science. We know what we must do.”

Greg Clark, the Conservative shadow energy secretary, told the Daily Telegraph the emails were a cause for concern.

“This has clearly concerned a lot of people, including myself. You need to be able to rely on the scientific opinion. It is important that we should be able to have confidence in the research,” he said.

Announcing a review of the case, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said the matter could not be “brushed under the carpet”.

Did any of you ever think that this would happen? It's like a fantasy. I often say of some Happy Ending Machine theories (like Obama's supposed ineligibility for the presidency) that Life doesn't work like that. Life never just like totally blows your mind and gives you every Christmas present you wanted.

Except... well, every once in a long, long time.

Abort Code: A programming expert interviewed on the BBC said this code is so rife with errors as to be amateurish, and no, we should not make trillion dollar bets on such shoddy programming.

A global warming cultist calls a skeptic an a-hole on live tv.

More: The WaPo Discovers ClimateGate, Scooping Most of the Rest of the Media in Mentioning it a Mere Two Weeks After the Story Broke. And longer vid of the a-bomb the climate "scientist" dropped on TV.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 11:59 AM | Comments (158)
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