It's at times like this I think about my darkest hours during the war, when I fought the aggressive, expansionistic Doozers by eating the beet-sugar crystalline structures they made.

Update: It's unclear if a couple of Republicans flipped at the last moment, but either all Republicans voted against it or all but one or two.

As the below-excerpted WSJ editorial stated:

This is supposed to be a new era of bipartisanship, but this bill was written based on the wish list of every living -- or dead -- Democratic interest group. As Speaker Nancy Pelosi put it, "We won the election. We wrote the bill." So they did. Republicans should let them take all of the credit.

Huzzah.

Posted by: Ace at 02:14 PM | Comments (288)
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Same old, same old. A deserter tells the MSM precisely what they want to hear about combat in Iraq, quits alleging war crimes and abuses, becomes a celebrity on the left, and garners huge praise for his "brave" book by major MSM organizations.

Trouble is, it sounds like 99% bullshit.

Is that Sgt. Rock or author of A Deserter's Tale Joshua Keys? Hard to tell, I know.

Anyway (click though to the blogs linked by Blackfive for these details) this cat claims a lot of stuff. In some accounts, he's a patriotic war-machine who can't wait to take on terrorists, enlisting after 9/11 with that intent. In other accounts, he claims he was assured he would never be deployed overseas (after 9/11? Really?) and thus was recruited via a lie.

He was a combat engineer in a unit that only saw five deaths the entire time the unit was deployed in Iraq (not just during Keys' stint), and yet has a lot of kill-crazy action-hero war stories. Such as:

My sergeant let loose with his .50 cal Machine Gun. Blasting away with bullets about 6 inches long, he shot the car and brought it to a halt. I saw a trail of gas leaking from the car. The sergeant shifted his gun, aimed at the trail of gas, and shot again. The line of gas caught fire, and flew back toward the truck, and when it hit the gas tank, the truck exploded in a ball of fire.

That happened to me, too. Last week. Villains had just kidnapped my daughter and were threatening to kill her unless I went to South America and assassinated a political leader for them.

Also, I got to third base with Rae Dawn Chong.

Now if that seemed a touch cinematic, check out this wonderful passage from his book:

Then something happened that haunts my dreams to this day. All the women were led back inside the house and our entire platoon was ordered to stand guard outside it. Four U.S. military men entered the house with the women. They closed the doors. We couldnÂ’t see anything through the windows. I donÂ’t know who the military men were, or what unit they were from, but I can only conclude that they outranked us and were at least at the level of first lieutenant or above. ThatÂ’s because our own second lieutenant Joyce was there, and his presence did not deter them.

Normally, when we conducted a raid, we were in and out in 30 minutes or less. You never wanted to stay in one place for too long for fear of exposing yourself to mortar attacks.

But our platoon was made to stand guard outside that house for about an hour. The women started shouting and screaming. The men stayed in there with them, behind closed doors. It went on and on and on.

Finally, the men came out and told us to get the hell out of there. It struck me then that we, the American soldiers, were the terrorists. We were terrorizing Iraqis. Intimidating them. Beating them. Destroying their homes. Probably raping them. The ones we didnÂ’t kill had all the reasons in the world to become terrorists themselves.

Why, it's so vivid. I can almost see precisely this happening in my mind's eye.

My mind's eye is seeing something a bit like this:

Incidentally, that happened to me, too. That's why I hate Sean Penn so much. He put a grenade under me when I was going to the bathroom in an aluminum shithouse. And so I was all like, "Screw you, Sean Penn, most rikki-tik. Totally uncool, Sean Penn. Beaucoup uncool."

I also suspect Sean Penn had something to do with killing my beloved Jesus-like sergeant Willem DaFoe, but I can't prove it. Yet.

There is of course the inevitable hippie guitar ovation to the brave Joshua Keys, over at BlackFive. Who says tears are still streaming down his face from laughing so hard.

I'd read this guy's book, but it would force me to relive too many nightmares. Like the time I went to this millionaire's island and wound up being hunted by t-rexes and velociraptors for two hours.

By the way, I got to third base with Laura Dern, too. I think she dug my suppressed-but-evident Australian diction.

By the Way: Although I kind of want to trap them, let me pre-but the lefties coming in to say "at least he served" and call me a chickenhawk:

For one thing, he deserted. Let's not put too much stress on that "at least he served" crap.

For another thing, the war in Iraq is winding down with few casualties and troops shipping out every month, the war in Afghanistan (which lefties claim to be all gung-ho to fight) is winding up with at least 20,000 soldiers soon to be deployed there, and your boy is now President.

So, um, before you fall back on your old chickenhawk slur...

Let me preemptively dump it on you sorry pansy-assed chickenhawk fucks. Why aren't you signing up to fight the war you claim we can and must win, fighting under a President you helped elect?

More Tales from "In the Shit:" Wiserbud is shopping his memoir:

This one time, when I was deep in the shit, I discovered that a bomb had been attached to my Jeep. My fucking prick battalion commander then came on my walkie-talkie and told me that if my speed dropped below 50mph, it would detonate the bomb.

If it wasn't for the help of the smoking hot Vietnamese chick who looked a little like Sandra Bullock, I'd be dead right now.

Later, I fucked her.

True story.

That also happened to me. Right before I took the red pill and got all sorts of karate superpowers.

Another Rave Review: This one from "Scott Beauchamp" himself:

His mindthoughts create eyetears on my headface.

Posted by: Ace at 12:58 PM | Comments (274)
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The CIA continues covering itself in glory.

The CIAÂ’s station chief at its sensitive post in Algeria is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for allegedly raping at least two Muslim women who claim he laced their drinks with a knock-out drug, U.S. law enforcement sources tell ABC News.

Officials say the 41-year old CIA officer, a convert to Islam, was ordered home by the U.S. Ambassador, David Pearce, in October after the women came forward with their rape allegations in September.

The discovery of more than a dozen videotapes showing the CIA officer engaged in sex acts with other women has led the Justice Department to broaden its investigation to include at least one other Arab country, Egypt, where the CIA officer had been posted earlier in his career, according to law enforcement officials. Â…

I added the emphasis to the "convert to Muslim" only because I'm pretty sure Al Jazeera won't.

I wonder how much of a career boost he got for being a Muslim convert, on the theory that this would make him a more effective operative and reduce frictions with the locals by running a more "culturally sensitive" station.

That doesn't seem to have worked out very well.

Posted by: Ace at 12:27 PM | Comments (111)
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We need to act. Now.

Do something, even if it's stupid as fuck. Obama and the Democrats have a plan for the economy: They're going full-on retard on it, coming at it like a whirlwind of badly-aimed punches and tapioca-studded drool. Giving it their full retard strength.

Thanks to CJ.

A Forty-Year Wish-List: Democrats are wasting no time wasting all the money they were prevented from wasting since Reagan.

This has probably already been linked, and it repeats most of what you know. But still. Repetition is sometimes useful.

In selling the plan, President Obama has said this bill will make "dramatic investments to revive our flagging economy." Well, you be the judge. Some $30 billion, or less than 5% of the spending in the bill, is for fixing bridges or other highway projects. There's another $40 billion for broadband and electric grid development, airports and clean water projects that are arguably worthwhile priorities.

...

Add the roughly $20 billion for business tax cuts, and by our estimate only $90 billion out of $825 billion, or about 12 cents of every $1, is for something that can plausibly be considered a growth stimulus. And even many of these projects aren't likely to help the economy immediately. As Peter Orszag, the President's new budget director, told Congress a year ago, "even those [public works] that are 'on the shelf' generally cannot be undertaken quickly enough to provide timely stimulus to the economy."

...

This is supposed to be a new era of bipartisanship, but this bill was written based on the wish list of every living -- or dead -- Democratic interest group. As Speaker Nancy Pelosi put it, "We won the election. We wrote the bill." So they did. Republicans should let them take all of the credit.

Not only is the money being pissed away now, the bill commits us to pissing away future dollars, too. The nice thing about fixing a bridge is that once it's fixed, there is no ongoing demand for additional federal dollars every year.

But the crap the Democrats are spending your money on are, of course, intended to be -- and will become -- permanent additions to the federal budget. And will increase every fucking year.

All Obama Promises Come With an Expiration Date, Part 427: From his inaugural address:

And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account -- to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day -- because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

That was a week ago.

Thanks to Slublog for that.

And Fish wonders if this gives him the license to go full-on Geithner on his tax returns:

[GIBBS:] "If we get focused on this number and that number, and two-one-hundreths of one percent of the spending...

Right on Gibbs, and when I complete my 1040 this year, I will also not focus on this number and that number. It's just not important as you so in-eloquently stated. Gibbs, you unconscionable prick.

It's not that they lack time. It's that Obama lacks balls, leadership, and executive experience. And anything resembling a Clintonian impulse to hug the center.

Posted by: Ace at 11:28 AM | Comments (97)
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Steven Chow is in talks for the Miyagi role.

Ummm... why? The original movie made a lot of money, and everyone saw it, largely because it was, for a period of a year, on HBO every four hours. I thought HBO really got mileage out of Rocky III, but that was nothing compared to the rotation Daniel-san got.

So sure, it's well-known, but it never attained the status, I don't think, of beloved; it was just your basic mentor-student movie, stuffed with gratuitous amounts of wish fulfillment fantasy (they really poured it on when Miyagi gave Daniel-san that sweet car), and going on for a ridiculously long running length. (IMDB says it's only two hours and six minutes, but it felt more like 2:45.) Sure, it spawned catchphrases, but largely as goofs.

It's an okay movie, for what it is. But a remake? Only 20 years later? And once again they're breaking the key rule of remakes: Don't remake a movie that pretty much got it right the first time around. You have nowhere to go but down.

This seems like the ultimate vanity project, or the most expensive gift a dad's ever given his son.

Thanks to Thomas.

Not So Finally: IllTemperedCur points out that this story is a year old.

But the remake is in pre-production, slated for a 2010 release. Jackie Chan is in talks to play Miyagi. Jaden Smith is still slated to star, but Will Smith isn't listed as the director. Presumably (certainly) he's still the producer.

Not only would Smith have probably done a piss-poor job as a director, being a neophyte (and being a bit too close to his star, too), but it's just a dumb financial move for an in-demand actor to take a directing job. It takes about two years to direct a movie, without any time available for other projects. As an actor he could appear in four or five movies over that span.

Posted by: Ace at 11:26 AM | Comments (59)
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This chart shows the expansion of the money supply over the course of a hundred years. Notice how dramatically the line spikes -- it actually becomes, what's the word?, asymptotic.
more...

Posted by: Ace at 11:03 AM | Comments (105)
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Um, it didn't.

It's an interesting thing. Democrats claim to be all about the infrastructure. Even Neocon Nazis like myself don't mind government spending if it's actually being used to build and improve roads and bridges.

And yet it never actually gets done. There's always some brighter, shinier bauble for Washington to piss our money away on.

This was discussed on this blog some time ago-- a year ago? Two years? Three? I forget. I had myself suggested during one of these stimulus debates -- how they all blur together -- that we ought to kill two birds with one stone and just start spending money to improve roads and bridges. A commenter, who seemed to know what he was talking about, told me that wouldn't work, as it would take 9 months to a year or more to even begin such products, so the "stimulus" part of that idea was a non-starter.

I believed him. As we now know -- again -- there simply aren't a lot of "shovel-ready" projects ready to begin on a short time frame. Having conceded he was right, I suggested that there really ought to be some office in DC that does nothing but survey, plan, get the necessary permits, etc. for new infrastructure work on a moment's notice, and constantly update such plans and permits so that they never go stale.

Well, of course no one did that. (I don't mean to suggest DC should have jumped at my offhand suggestion; just that my offhand suggestion was common sense and should have occurred to someone.) So here we are again. All this money for kill-two-birds stimulus and infrastructure work, but we can't kill two birds, because if we work on infrastructure the money won't be stimulative now as it won't begin flowing for up to to years (or more), and if we "stimulate" the economy, it's going for condoms and diaphragms, because, apparently, you don't need as many engineers or permits or EPA impact analyses to give people birth control.

And so the money gets pissed away on a large number of smaller-bore new spending initiatives.
more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:53 AM | Comments (30)
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Conservatives are pretty pissed right now so it's probably not the time for elected Republicans to talk shit about the most high profile conservative around. Just ask Georgia Congressman Phil Gingrey.

Yesterday Gingrey said Rush wasn't all of that. Today, Gingrey called into Limbaugh to apologize.

"I regret and apologize for the fact that my comments have offended and upset my fellow conservatives - that was not my intent."

..."Everyday, millions and millions of Americans - myself included - turn on their radios and televisions to listen to what [Limbaugh and other conservative radio hosts] have to say, and we are inspired by their words and by their determination," said Gingrey.

"At the end of the day, every member of the conservative movement, from our political commentators and thinkers to our elected officials, share an important and common purpose in advancing the cause of liberty, reigning in a bloated federal government and defending our traditional family values."

Naturally, Rush was gracious in accepting Gingrey's apology.

Right now on Rush...noted conservative and Jew (but mostly Jew) Eric Cantor is on talking 'stimulus'.

*Just to be clear, those Gingrey quotes are from a written statement his office released but he was on with Limbaugh earlier today and basically covered the same ground.

Posted by: DrewM at 09:37 AM | Comments (69)
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Because that's what he does.

I know that some are skeptical about the size and scale of this recovery plan. I understand that skepticism, which is why this recovery plan will include unprecedented measures that will allow the American people to hold my Administration accountable. Instead of just throwing money at our problems, we'll try something new in Washington – we'll invest in what works. Instead of politicians doling out money behind a veil of secrecy, decisions about where we invest will be made public, and informed by independent experts whenever possible.

What exactly is new that this so-called "stimulus" is going to try? The Wall Street Journal took a look at it and didn't seem to find much that's new or likely to work.

"Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things you couldn't do before."

So said White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in November, and Democrats in Congress are certainly taking his advice to heart. The 647-page, $825 billion House legislation is being sold as an economic "stimulus," but now that Democrats have finally released the details we understand Rahm's point much better. This is a political wonder that manages to spend money on just about every pent-up Democratic proposal of the last 40 years.

We've looked it over, and even we can't quite believe it. There's $1 billion for Amtrak, the federal railroad that hasn't turned a profit in 40 years; $2 billion for child-care subsidies; $50 million for that great engine of job creation, the National Endowment for the Arts; $400 million for global-warming research and another $2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects. There's even $650 million on top of the billions already doled out to pay for digital TV conversion coupons.

And then it gets really bad, from so-called tax cuts welfare payments to new cars for government cars, this is simply a catch-all for more and bigger government. The worst part is, unlike true stimulus which supposed to be quick and temporary, this spending orgy will become the floor for all future spending levels.

Now if Obama wanted to try "what works" and was "new", he might support a payroll tax cut. Yeah, not so much.

Any Republican who votes in favor of this crap needs to be hounded out of office.

UPDATE: Are House Republicans getting the message?

Dear Leader won't be happy about this. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 08:35 AM | Comments (64)
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It's never a good sign when the Russians are happy about our missile defense plans.

The (Russian Defense) official suggested that Mr Obama's White House had made clear it would not prioritise executing the Bush administration's plan to install a missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

As friend of the HQ McKitrick points out at the link, this is coming as news to those working on the projects. Good to know who Obama talks to and who he doesn't.

BTW-won't slowing down or killing missile defense put a lot of highly paid and skilled people out of work? Maybe Robert Reich thinks there are too many white people working on it.

Kind of related...Ahmadinejad outlines what kind of change he wants to see from the US before he decides to engage in diplomacy with the US, vigorous or otherwise.

Mr. Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that the “slogan of change was good, but it could be of two kinds — a fundamental change or a tactical one,” the official IRNA news agency said. It would soon become clear, IRNA quoted the Iranian leader as saying, whether Mr. Obama’s comments were “just a change in tone.”

“Change means that they should apologize to the Iranian nation and try to make up for their dark background and the crimes they have committed against the Iranian nation,” he said in the speech broadcast live on Iranian television.

It's almost like our enemies know Obama will come to them, now they want to see if that includes crawling through broken glass. My bet is yes, yes he will.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:33 AM | Comments (112)
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