Lockheed Martin's "HULC" Combat Exoskeleton
— Ace

Not the big powered frame from Aliens but nevertheless very neat. But power is still very limiting:

From the vid, the HULC certainly seems a step forward on Raytheon's rival XOS mechwarrior suit, which at last report still trails an inconvenient power cable to the nearest wall socket.

Not so the HULC; four pounds of lithium polymer batteries will run the exoskeleton for an hour walking at 3mph, according to Lockheed. Speed marching at up to 7mph reduces this somewhat; a battery-draining "burst" at 10mph is the maximum speed.

The user can hump 200lb with relative ease while marching in a HULC, however, well in excess of even the heaviest combat loads normally carried by modern infantry. There'd be scope to carry a few spare batteries. Even if the machine runs out of juice, Lockheed claims that its reinforcement and shock absorption still helps with load carrying rather than hindering.

An hour? Not a lot you can do in an hour.

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Posted by: Ace at 10:33 AM | Comments (93)
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Blame the Gringos, Part Deux
— Russ from Winterset

Good work by Purple Avenger here. When I read this, I couldn't help feeling a strange sense of deja vu. I wonder why?

Is it just me, or does any other conservative out there feel like a Kindergarten Teacher on a daily basis? You keep telling the little cretins to stop eating their paste, and every time you turn back around from the blackboard they're wearing creepy little "Children of the Corn" grins with a thick pasty lather around their ignorant little pieholes.

Next time you talk to a gun rights person who voted for Obama, despite his Marxist background, please do me a favor: Take their guns (out of their cold, dead hands if necessary) and shove those guns right up their cold, dead squeakholes.

Posted by: Russ from Winterset at 08:41 AM | Comments (106)
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Old But New to Me
— Ace

Gingrich met with some bloggers and students and talked a bit about general strategy. He focused a lot on card check.

Private sector unions -- nevermind the police, teachers', civil servants' unions -- already have $7 billion per year in dues. In addition to destroying the rest of our economy, card check would bring in another $3-5 billion per year in additional dues, and, since the infrastructure is already taken care of with the $7 billion, that $3-5 billion would go directly to politicking.

Year in, year out.

This ad is old but I'd never seen it. more...

Posted by: Ace at 08:05 AM | Comments (18)
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Agita Alert: Cliff Kincaid Suggests Obama Not Born in US to Applause from CPAC
— Ace

It's the kind of throwaway line guaranteed to get laughs and applause.

But is it worth it?

Nope. We conservatives are already alienated from the rest of the country by about a 65/35 split on a lot of critical issues. We're already marginalized. We really don't have to increase the marginalization by pushing silly nits like this.

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Joe the Plumber: Hell's Yeah I'm Suing
— Ace

I met Joe the Plumber briefly last night. I doubt this is news, but he had hemmed and hawed initially about whether or not he'd sue the state of Ohio for the egregious violation of his privacy.

He's not hemming and hawing now. He's suing. He hooked up with Judicial Watch for some aspect of the suit, though I assume (or hope) that's a side-thing about FOIA or the like, and that he has a regular private interest attorney handling his suit.

He said it wasn't about the money; it was about showing the state it couldn't shred citizens with impunity.

Well, that's what he said.

Oh: Could not connect on blogger's row yesterday. Not even the T1 cable got me on to the internet. So, as I do in life, I gave up and began drinking.

Right now I'm back at the hotel blogging, since I can get a connection here without a problem.

Posted by: Ace at 06:49 AM | Comments (94)
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An Army of Joes (chad)
— Open Blog

with apologies to Glenn Reynolds.

Earlier this week Patrick Ruffini lamented the fact that Joe Wurzelbacher has become the spokesman for conservatism:

If you want to get a sense of how unserious and ungrounded most Americans think the Republican Party is, look no further than how conservatives elevate Joe the Plumber as a spokesman. The movement has become so gimmick-driven that Wurzelbacher will be a conservative hero long after people have forgotten what his legitimate policy beef with Obama was.

A movement self-confident in its place in American society would not have made Joe the Plumber a bigger story than he actually was. Since its very beginnings as a movement, conservatism has bought into liberalism's dominant place in the American political process. They controlled all the major institutions: the media, academia, Hollywood, the Democratic Party, large segments of the Republican Party, and consequently, the government. Liberalism's image of conservatives in the '50s and '60s as paranoid Birchers gave birth to a conservative movement self-conscious of its minority status. As in any tribe that is small in number and can't fully trust its most natural allies (i.e. the business community or the Republican Party), the meta-debate of who is inside and outside the tribe is magnified exponentially.

I was one of those agreeing, not because I have anything against Joe, but because I believe that no one can live up to the hype that has been built around him. This morning however I saw something at Bits Blog that made me change my mind and suggested a media strategy for the GOP:

If Pat really thinks, as he says, that the “Republicans thrive as the party of normal Americans — the people in the middle culturally and economically”, then how is it that the only ’serious’ candidates are those of the intellectual class? The connection Pat’s never made, in my sight, is that such a middle class party doesn’t feel the need of intellectual leadership… a beholding to an advanced inner circle.

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Posted by: Open Blog at 06:33 AM | Comments (25)
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Recessions are for the Little People
— Slublog

Mmmm...cake.

I called the White House to check if that quote was accurate. It was. An aide explained that first lady Michelle Obama "has taken a particular interest in showcasing the work of young up-and-coming designers who have chosen fashion as their path and who are artists in their own right and who are introduced at places like Fashion Week."

It's hard to put Herrera, Karan and Jacobs in the up-and-coming category, but never mind: Perhaps we'll be seeing punky, funky ponchos and Day-Glo metallics at some future White House function. I asked whether the first lady considered Rogers' hitting the fashion shows a little frivolous, given the seriousness of our times. "I think you're assigning a value judgment to the fashion industry," I was told. "She doesn't think it is frivolous at all."

We do this a lot, but just imagine if a Republican first lady were so mind-numbingly tone deaf to the mood of the country? Actually, we don't have to imagine. Read the next-to-last paragraph in York's story to find out what the press said when a Republican was in office.

h/t: Allahpundit.

Update - In the comments, reason reminds us of a much more recent example of media OUTRAGE! over GOP spending:

Remember the outrage over Sarah Palin's New York shopping spree? Remember the savaging over Cindy McCain's $300K RNC outfit?

Yeah. Neither does anyone else, I guess.

Can you blame them? Maintaining consistent standards would get in the way of their attempts to make Michelle the new Jackie.

Posted by: Slublog at 06:26 AM | Comments (16)
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Obama's Rosy Assumptions
— Slublog

Greg Mankiw looks at the economic forecasts in the Obama budget and finds them a bit...optimistic when compared to consensus forecasts. He links a story that wonders whether "Rosy Scenario" is back.

Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Global Insight, a major private forecasting firm, called the administration's forecasts "way too optimistic" and said it could represent a return to the overly optimistic forecasts of previous administrations confronted by surging budget deficits.

"They used to joke during the Reagan years that the highest ranking woman in the administration was Rosy Scenario," he said. "We may be seeing a return of Rosy Scenario."

Obama's assumptions are particularly rosy, considering his plans to burden the economy with a crushing tax plan.

The 'rich' are going to get especially soaked. Basically, Obama is making the very dangerous assumption that increasing taxes don't affect taxpayer behavior.

Needless to say, he's wrong. And we all get to see just how wrong in a few years. Won't that be fun?

Posted by: Slublog at 06:19 AM | Comments (23)
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Top Headline Comments 02-27-09
— Gabriel Malor

Friday!

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:04 AM | Comments (9)
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Overnight Open Thread: Economy Collapses, Entrees Hardest Hit (genghis)
— Open Blog

You can haz any subjectÂ…as long as it relates to zombies or pirates. Even better if you combine the two.

Episode #537 on the economy regarding things no one else gives a flying fuck about except journalists who live in Manhattan. Courtesy of AP, via MSNBC Sharing entrees no longer “gauche” at restaurants during downturn.

” NEW YORK - Can we split that?”

“The question — once considered a bit gauche in some circles — is now being asked by diners of all kinds at restaurants in every price range. With the economy still souring, splitting an appetizer, dessert and even an entree is becoming, for many, an easy way to save a few dollars without sacrificing the indulgence of a dinner out.”

Yeah, none of us have ever split an appetizer, but fair enough. Times are tight and all. Our intrepid AP reporter heads out on the mean streets to get the lowdown from Joe Six-Pack:

” "People are splitting things like they never have before," said David Pogrebin, general manager of French restaurant Brasserie in New York, where a hamburger costs $18 and an entree can rise above $30.”

So true. And so sad. Why just the other day when I was purchasing a 30-day dry-aged, hand-carved USDA Prime Choice McRib at my favorite corner bistro, I witnessed a family of four partitioning a Royale with Cheese into 4 sections so they could each have at least a taste of the succulent delicacy.

If you’d like more information, the definition of “gauche” may be found here.

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

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