Ace of Spades HQ

February 12, 2009

Top Headline Comments 02-12-09
— Gabriel Malor

Big Day.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:29 AM | Comments (131)
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February 11, 2009

Scammed!
— Ace

Since I'm traveling, I wanted to call my bank and let them know I'd be out of the country so that my card would be allowed to work.

I searched on google for the bank, Wells Fargo. The top result claimed this was Wells Fargo's official site.

After talking to the woman -- and getting a very bad vibe about the questions she was asking -- I decided I might have just gotten phished.

I called Wells Fargo. They told me they did not recognize the number I'd called as one of their numbers. And the change I asked to be put through had not been put through.

It was a fake, I had gotten a bad feeling halfway through, but I went along anyway for fear of being put on hold again, and fear of being impolite.

So, I just had to cancel an ATM card one day before a big trip, and have been scrambling to get my credit card in a state fit for use.

Watch out. Don't be an idiot like me.

Don't trust Google's sponsored links to find phone numbers like this.

Oh: The trip. At first they kept saying "don't say anything yet, we're still making arrangements." I kept asking "Can I mention this now?" but they never said yes.

So, since it's tomorrow, the Michael Totten was kind enough to mention me to the Lebanon Renaissance Foundation and I'm getting a trip/junket to Beirut, with briefings by government and military leaders.

Hopefully. My itinerary keeps getting botched and I'm currently booked to leave from the wrong coast. And I have no ticket to actually get me to that coast. Because Lebanon is 10 hours ahead, I have to wait up to get a last minute call about this in a couple of hours, so we can hopefully work this out.

Otherwise, I guess, no trip.

This Puts My Scammage into Perspective: Madness. Utter madness.

Thanks to DavidC.

Posted by: Ace at 08:47 PM | Comments (152)
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Shock Poll: Repubicans Trail in Generic Congressional By Single Point
— Ace

Could be an outlier-- but Rasmussen is pretty decent.

Barone:

Given that this generic ballot question over the years has tended to understate RepublicansÂ’ performances in actual elections, one gathers that if the 2010 election for House seats were held today, Republicans would win or come close to winning a majority of seatsÂ—which is to say, they would gain about 40 seats. By way of comparison, they gained 52 seats when they won their majority in 1994. This result may just be a momentary blip, which will pass away as quickly as it appeared, and we are a long, long, long way from the November 2010 elections. But if I were a Democratic member of Congress in even a marginally marginal district, I would be just a little bit worried.

The bad news is that Obama and the Democrats are not nearly afraid of mortgaging the next 40 years to produce a temporary economic goose in the here and now, before an election.

Posted by: Ace at 08:36 PM | Comments (43)
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Overnight Open Thread. Outrage Edition (genghis)
— Open Blog

Memo to 18.5% Porn Tax: Â”You. Shall. Not. Pass!!!Â”

But try they will. A Washington State legislator has proposed a bill which would levy an 18.5% tax on that which makes life endurable. (Article from the Seattle Times)

Â”OLYMPIA Â— A Federal Way lawmaker's push to tax pornographic materials to help counter a $6 billion state budget shortfall would likely draw constitutional challenges from the highly litigious adult-entertainment industry.Â”

Who the hell is this right-wing fascist to tell us what we can and canÂ’t do and view in the privacy of our momÂ’s basement in the middle of the night, in between commenting at AoSHQ and playing World of Warcraft Â“capture the flagÂ” sessions?

Â”Democratic Rep. Mark Miloscia said an 18 Â½ percent sales tax should be levied against Playboy and other adult magazines, as well as pornographic photographs, movies, videos, cable-television services, telephone services, audiotapes, computer programs and paraphernalia. With everyone in the Legislature struggling to find ways to solve the budget crisis, he said, he's surprised nobody else has made a similar proposal.Â”
"For me, it is a no-brainer," Miloscia said, adding that he hopes the tax money generated would go toward saving the General Assistance-Unemployable (GAU), a program that provides a temporary safety net for people unable to work because of mental or physical disabilities.Â”

Oh. Well, that sortaÂ’ changes the metric, you see. Noble cause and all. Rep. MilosciaÂ’s colleagues arenÂ’t completely on board yet, but warming to the idea, if the bill can be cleaned up (I assume they mean the language and not with tissues.) Paraphernalia though? TheyÂ’re gonnaÂ’ tax my right hand?

Â”House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, said that an attorney for the Democratic caucus has legal questions about the measure the way it is written. But Kessler said if the bill is cleaned up before heading to committee it might have a chance to pass the House and Senate.Â”
"I like the concept of having a revenue stream that would be used for something we would normally have to cut," said Kessler, who is co-sponsoring the measure. "It's not like taxing motherhood and apple pie. It's such an easy target."

As a Patriot, I was gonnaÂ’ suggest an Â“Olympia Porn PartyÂ” where weÂ’d dump all this taxable material into Puget Sound in protest, but, wellÂ…you know. WeÂ’ve all gone to great lengths to collect it. It is...precious to us.

Warning: Disgusting, completely unsafe for work picture below the fold. Once you have seen it, it can not be unseen.

Update: By request of filthy commenter "Gerry Owen," another truly disturbing image has been added below the fold. I hope the s.w.a.t. team roughs you up but good after kicking in your front door, for even suggesting this kind of swill be posted. During your term in prison, I'd advise staying out of the showers. Sick bastard.
more...

Posted by: Open Blog at 08:25 PM | Comments (89)
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God Lawsuit Still Going
— Gabriel Malor

Dave in Texas first wrote about this case in September 2007 (here and here). Nebraska state senator Ernie Chambers sued God to prove a point about frivolous lawsuits. In Chambers' opinion, "anyone can sue anybody, even God."

His lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice for lack of proof of service. So Chambers appealed, arguing that if courts allow God to take notice of oaths to "tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God" surely He has notice of the lawsuit. (He also has a fairly decent claim that the case should have been dismissed without prejudice.)

It gets stranger. The appellate court has ordered Chambers to provide a statement of jurisdiction and to show that he had notified former Nebraska state senator John DeCamp, who has asked to represent God in the suit.

"If they want to go to court, we're willing to take God's side," said DeCamp, who practices law in Lincoln. He said he legally registered "The Church of the Golden Rule" as an entity in Nebraska two decades ago, so he has religious experience.

The court has received several offers from people who would like to represent God. I'm not sure how they settled on DeCamp. Perhaps the delicious absurdity appealed to them.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:22 PM | Comments (60)
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MSM: Stocks Rebound on Dems' Agreement to Stimulus
— Ace

What?

Now, the other day, the market tanked after the stimulus passed the Senate. The MSM claimed that was entirely due to Geithner's uninspiring talk on TARP II.

I can see the logic in not imputing much negative impact to the stimulus-- it was known ahead of time, to a near certainty, that the thing would pass. So the actual passage of the monstrosity did not catch Wall Street off-guard; it was already "baked in the cake," as the expression goes. That information was already largely incorporated into stock prices as they existed.

But now the House Democrats agree to the stimulus -- also pretty much a foregone conclusion. So that information too was "baked in the cake," a known known, a fait accompli. It had, for all intents and purposes, already happened.

But now the MSM tells us the market rallied at the surprise of House Democrats agreeing to a very liberal spending bill.

Huh? Why did the market react positively to stuff it already expected to occur? And if it reacted positively there, how come the MSM won't even quote a single analyst making the connection between the nearly 400 point fall-off and the stimulus passing the Senate?

Incidentally, for those keeping score, the market is still down 300 from the beginning of the week. Some rally.

The big "rebound"? 50 points.

Thanks to CJ.

Posted by: Ace at 03:30 PM | Comments (126)
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12-Year-Old Girl Delivers Prol-Life Stemwinder
— Ace

Instead of poaching the video, I'll link The Other McCain.

I don't think the arguments are novel but the case is well-made. And dang, she's a very poised public speaker.

And yeah, as McCain notes, check out the comments from the progressives. Several proclaim they're masturbating over the girl, in order to get a dig in at her parents.

Posted by: Ace at 03:05 PM | Comments (60)
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Rasmussen: 67% think they can do better than congress. 44% think random picks from phone book would do better
— Purple Avenger

AWE. INSPIRING. CONFIDENCE.

...67% of U.S. voters have more confidence in their own judgment than they do in the average member of Congress....
...Forty-four percent (44%) voters also think a group of people selected at random from the phone book would do a better job addressing the nationÂ’s problems than the current Congress...

H/T Jules more...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 01:09 PM | Comments (109)
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In the Crosshairs- Stimulate This!
— Uncle Jimbo

David Bellavia and I discuss the massive porkfest underway in
Washington for most of the first hour and barely scratch the surface of
how horrible it is.

Stimulate This! [55:00m]: Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download

In hour 2 we have author Eric Maddox on the discuss his book Mission: Black List #1, The inside story of the search for Saddam Hussein.

David discusses allegations that his book House to House has incorrect or false info about the drugs the jihadis they encountered in Fallujah were using including Atropine, Epinephrine, Benzedrine and more.

Search for Saddam & Iraq after elections [55:00m]: Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download