Via Drudge, this call to arms against socialism from traders on CNBC.

Note the CNBC hosts keep calling the traders "the mob" and so forth.

When Obama stampedes people into the stimulus, that's not mob-like behavior. But this is.

Posted by: Ace at 08:27 AM | Comments (268)
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I added this as a long edit to the last post. Figured I should pull it out of there and make it its own post.

Met most of the heads of the March 14 coalition here. (That's the sovereignty-independence coalition, the ones who united after the assassination of Rafik Hariri to demand Syria get the hell out of their country.)

Here are some impressions:

The country works, surprisingly enough. After a bitter 14 year civil war, the feuding factions are mainly peaceful and friendly towards each other. With the big exception of Hezballah in the south, of course. And, again with that major exception, it's very moderate. Not just moderate politically, but moderate in terms of religion -- except in Hezballah controlled areas, people can drink and women can dress sexily and so forth.*

Just on the edge of Hezballah territory -- this area controlled by a more moderate Shia faction -- we passed a sex shop and then a lingerie shop with the odd name "Jolly Corner," which I'm taking to be some reference to the vagina, and might just start using myself.

Israel gets discussed differently here than in other Arab countries. (Or at least as I've seen it discussed in other Arab countries, in their press.) About one quarter of the population, I'm told (and I think I believe this) actually supports Israel, at least to the extent they pound the hell out of Hezballah.

Another quarter has the typical grievances about the Palestinians, but it is discussed in a more adult fashion. Israel is discussed as a threat or even an "enemy" state (the PM Signora called it such when we met him), but not as an apocalyptic one, not as a fantasy one. Those who don't like Israel tend to discuss it in the way Americans might discuss France, rather than if it were Satan's Asshole. Don't get me wrong -- a lot of people here don't like Israel. But there's a difference between opposing a state on political grounds and opposing it on apocalyptic grounds.

I observed, talking to someone, that in Lebanon, they really can vote and make political choices and so forth; thus they tend to discuss real politics. In other Arab countries, without any sort of democratic tradition, there is no sense discussing real politics, as no one has any power whatsoever to contribute meaningfully to a real politics. So what gets discussed is fantasy politics exclusively; a fantasy world of Zionist Enemies and Great Satans and omnicompetent CIA agents able to do just about anything.

Without a meaningful stake in genuine politics -- where outcomes can actually be influenced -- discussions turn to the surreally theoretical and from their into fantasy and conspiracy-mongering. After all, if you're talking about stuff over which you have absolutely no power whatsoever, why confine yourself to trivialities like water projects and taxes? Why not bullshit about big stuff like the worldwide Zionist conspiracy?

I suspect this is what happens in American universities, too, actually, but without so much gunfire.

In Lebanon, however, the discussions tend to be about real shit, like how do win the upcoming June 7 elections, will Jumblatt flip over to the Hezballah coalition, will Michel Aun flip back to the March 14th coalition, etc.
more...

Posted by: Ace at 08:03 AM | Comments (66)
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I'm trying to do a bit of blogging but I'm a bit out of the loop here.

And yes there is the trip. I want to post about that but that's essay-type stuff that takes a bit. Hard to just dash it off.

As for why no blogging: Two reasons. First of all, they had us booked to do stuff pretty much 12-14 hours a day, sometimes more, with just an hour or two between events.

Second -- internet was dodgy the whole time.

Posted by: Ace at 07:15 AM | Comments (37)
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Ah, yes. Smell the hope and change.

You’ve heard a lot about the astonishing spending in the $787 billion economic stimulus bill, signed into law this week by President Barack Obama. But you probably haven’t heard about a provision in the bill that threatens to politicize the way allegations of fraud and corruption are investigated — or not investigated — throughout the federal government.

The provision, which attracted virtually no attention in the debate over the 1,073-page stimulus bill, creates something called the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board — the RAT Board, as it’s known by the few insiders who are aware of it. The board would oversee the in-house watchdogs, known as inspectors general, whose job is to independently investigate allegations of wrongdoing at various federal agencies, without fear of interference by political appointees or the White House.

In the name of accountability and transparency, Congress has given the RAT Board the authority to ask “that an inspector general conduct or refrain from conducting an audit or investigation.” If the inspector general doesn’t want to follow the wishes of the RAT Board, he’ll have to write a report explaining his decision to the board, as well as to the head of his agency (from whom he is supposedly independent) and to Congress. In the end, a determined inspector general can probably get his way, but only after jumping through bureaucratic hoops that will inevitably make him hesitate to go forward.

If we assume that all spending is stimulative -- including corrupt spending -- then I suppose this makes sense.

We probably won't need any corruption investigations anyhow.

Posted by: Ace at 06:59 AM | Comments (48)
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Thanks Dianne!

It's 2 years old, and the image isn't available anymore, but when you've got a fat-lipped US Senator confirming it, and photos like this, it's going to be a helluva lot harder for Zardari to keep pretending to look the other way.

It's almost like fighting an enemy with one hand tied behind your back. And the other one in a wood chipper.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 05:04 AM | Comments (47)
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Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:01 AM | Comments (25)
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Now with even more randomness and irrelevancy

Vodka-Related Update: From the Seattle Times: Judge Orders Hendrix Vodka Pulled From Shelves, $3.2 Million Settlement.

Item #1: A comparison of Various Economic Models and Economies. From an e-mail sent in by a listener to the host of “Ye Olde Tyme Dori Monson Talkie Show,” we have Economics Made Easy, using two cows to illustrate the differences. Looks like it’s one of those e-mail jokes that’s probably circled the globe on the intertubes at least 30 times, so probably everyone but me has seen it. Still seems heh-worthy though. An example or two:

”RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have some vodka.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You have some more vodka.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
The Mafia shows up and takes over however many cows you really have..”

“REPUBLICAN
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
So?”

” QB - Shavodrick Beaver, Tulsa” (my nominee for the “Name Heisman”, but Fiu picked someone else, -ed.)

“DL - Mister Cobble, Kentucky”

Item #3: Still More “Demotivational Posters.” Always a crowd-pleaser, the delightfully named Despair, Inc. has some pretty good ones, such as:

I ran across the site looking for a “demotivational” stimulus poster. There are also a huge number of them over at Motifake, but the quality is quite a bit more hit and miss there.

Notice: Posted by permission of AceCorp LLC. Please e-mail overnight open thread tips to xgenghisx@gmail.com. Otherwise send tips to Ace.

Posted by: Open Blog at 08:28 PM | Comments (82)
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Yes, it's old. I was in first grade when this happened. But I've never even heard of this. How many of yous guys remember?

On April 25, 1976 at Dodger Stadium, Rick Monday of the Chicago Cubs, grabbed and secured the American flag from two muslims attempting to burn our flag in the middle of the playing field. It was an outstanding display of American Patriotism.

UPDATE: Ace of Spades commenters continue to be the best truth-checkers and editors.
So, CORRECTION to the youtube description: they were not muslims, but an ordinary hippy-commie and son.

Thanks, guys.

Posted by: LauraW at 06:21 PM | Comments (95)
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Lefty blogs have the details of this wrong.

I wasn't there. I was there, however, for the immediate after-action report, and have heard it told ten times by now, including most of it from Hitchens. Although I didn't really bother asking much, as I'd already heard it.

Hitch and two others were out on some or such errand. One guy was just telling Hitchens that the Syrian Nazi party had little support in the country but was paid by Syria to kill people, and that he'd been told they're the one party you don't fuck with.

So five minutes later they come across the poster for the Syrian Nazi Party on an abandoned bagel shop -- abandoned, if I had this right, after Hezballah had attacked it last year due to the overly Jewish connotations of bagelry.

So Hitchens immediately takes out a pen and writes "No, no, Fuck You" on the poster. I don't know if he'd digested the story and decided to fuck with them anyway, or else he was just reacting to the modified swastika on the poster.

Now, the Syrian Nazis are not popular and neighborhoods have tried to get their posters taken down. But then they threaten people and cause problems.

So the state leaves them up. To avoid getting their posters defaced or torn down, they post a paid Nazi watcher to keep an eye on their posters.

Well, when this Syrian Nazi goon saw Hitch do this, he confronted him and kinda-sorta attacked him. I say kinda sorta attacked, because what his main intent was was to delay Hitchens from leaving -- until the ten Nazi goons he had just texted on his cell phone could arrive.

There was some kicking and pulling and hitting. Hitch and the others attempted to get into a cab -- the Syrian Nazi goon got right in the cab with them, still hitting Hitchens. They could not force him out. Eventually they all exited, and attempted to get a fresh cab, but other cabbies were now hip to the fact the Syrian Nazis had been riled and wanted no business from them, so two cabs passed refusing their fare.

Now at this point the ten Nazi goons showed up (about five minutes into this-- they came quickly) and Hitch and the other two were probably going to get the crap beaten out of them, at best. However, they finally managed to get a cabbie who was either brave or didn't know the trouble he was getting into and got in, this time without the goon, and left the other ten behind.

Now, as far as the damage Hitch suffered, it wasn't much. He did get some lumps -- a knock on the leg, a scrape on the face. And also his writing hand had been stomped on. He'd been roughed up a bit, but didn't have "the shit beaten out of him." If I hadn't been told the story I wouldn't have known he'd been fucked with at all. Apart from a bit of pain walking and some more pain typing, he was fine.

So, that's the story. I was holding off on it until we were out of the country, but some rat we ran into apparently began blabbing it to his rat-like kin.

And to be honest, I'm personally kinda sick of hearing it myself, and it felt like gossip, but as the early reports are wrong in the details, I'll have a go.

It didn't happen in a bar. It happened mid-day on the street. It wasn't a drunken brawl. I have no idea if Hitchens had drank at all, but if he had, it was like his typical lunch-time bloody mary. (I'm not saying he didn't get drunk-- just not then.)

And no one had the shit beaten out of him. The lefty bloggers saying they've "confirmed" this are apparently talking to people not in a position to confirm it at all.

Re-Posted: I took this down but I see it's everywhere, including Forbes, so I guess I'm not protecting anything. I'm not confirming any other details though.

Update: I got it a bit wrong on how much Hitchens had been roughed up and the exact sequence here.

He had underplayed it, I guess. From another witness I got that he'd been roughed up more than he let on.

First of all, there weren't ten goons, but around six.

Second, the goon squad, and not just the look-out man, did in fact get to Hitchens. They knocked him down to the ground, kicked him while he was down, and stamped on his writing hand (which I'd known). I had thought they escaped the gang, but they didn't, not quite; they got roughed up by them before a cabbie got them away.

Oh, and the errand they were on: Well, they were on their way to a bar. But they hadn't gotten there yet. It was about, oh, 3 or so in the afternoon. We had downtime between events (which were scheduled around the clock pretty much) and I guess they just wanted to check out a local watering hole.

Here's what I know word-of-mouth about the Syrian Nazis: They're actual Nazis, first of all, having taken inspiration from Hitler and sporting a modified swastika on their posters and flags. They're a small party, I'm told. They had been banned years ago but are back, but not in force. There are about 300 of them (again, this is what I am told) and are more of a street-gang of bullyboys than an actual party. However, they have the backing of Syria, and they do, when called upon, murder people.

Posted by: Ace at 11:09 PM | Comments (206)
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Oh good, the perfect story to follow up the Holder 'cowards' story.

Says Rev. Al...

The cartoon in today's New York Post is troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys. One has to question whether the cartoonist is making a less than casual reference to this when in the cartoon they have police saying after shooting a chimpanzee that "Now they will have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill."

Being that the stimulus bill has been the first legislative victory of President Barack Obama (the first African American president) and has become synonymous with him it is not a reach to wonder are they inferring that a monkey wrote the last bill?

Here's the cartoon and here's link to the story that inspired it.

A couple of thoughts...

No more comparing Presidents to chimps (though clearly that wasn't what happened here)? fficial&client=firefox-a">HuffPo and Dkos contributors hit hardest!

Secondly, Al Sharpton is a walking piece of shit who would do us all a favor if he shut the hell up and went away forever.

And thirdly, for our idiot friends on the left, here's the inspiration for the Post's joke.

Eric Holder has yet to comment on whether this is what he had in mind or not.

Posted by: DrewM at 01:29 PM | Comments (148)
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