Detroit City Council Pro Tem Monica Conyers pleaded guilty to a felony today in connection with the city sludge contract hauling scandal. Detroit's top federal prosecutor said no other City Council members would be charged in connection with the contract.

Conyers, 44, spoke softly in federal court as she admitted taking bribes in connection with $1.2 billion Synagro Technologies Inc. contract the Detroit City Council awarded in 2007.

Conyers changed her position from opposing to supporting the deal to cast the deciding vote.

Conyers could be facing about three years in prison under her plea agreement. Her attorney, Steve Fishman, believes federal sentencing guidelines of 30-37 months apply.

Federal prosecutors believe she would get the full five years under sentencing guidelines.

Why am I so cynical? Because her husband John Conyers just dropped his ACORN probe, stating (really) that "the powers that be" have decided against it.

"The powers that be"? Who on earth could that mean? He's chairman of his committee. Who, exactly, outranks him on this?

So John Conyers gives up his (already half-hearted) probe into Obama's pet community organizing group just as his wife is up for sentencing by prosecutors who answer to Barack Obama.

Would he be that brazen? He could. I don't know if he will be that brazen, but he could. It's certainly not beyond his Chicago Way character.

He's firing IG's investigating his allies, after all, despite the fact he co-sponsored a bill sharply limiting the president's authority to do so.

Something tells me that the prosecutors will decide, in light of Monica Conyers' long-time service to the people of Detroit (ahem), to ask for only three months of jailtime. The rest will be probation or at-home monitoring.

Thanks to AHFF Geoff.

Posted by: Ace at 11:11 AM | Add Comment
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You're all very surprised, I know. This is so uncharacteristic of Obama.

The United States will not use force to inspect a North Korean ship suspected of carrying banned goods, an American official was quoted as saying Friday.

An American destroyer has been shadowing the North Korean freighter sailing off ChinaÂ’s coast, possibly on its way to Myanmar.

Defense Undersecretary Michele Flournoy met with South Korean officials in Seoul on Friday as the U.S. sought international support for aggressively enforcing a U.N. sanctions resolution aimed at punishing Pyongyang for its second nuclear test last month. The North Korean-flagged ship, Kang Nam 1, is the first to be tracked under the U.N. resolution.

North Korea has in response escalated threats of war, with a slew of harsh rhetoric including warnings that it would unleash a “fire shower of nuclear retaliation” and “wipe out the (U.S.) aggressors” in the event of a conflict.

As Ed's post recounts, Obama sought "tougher sanctions" against North Korea after they started shooting off missiles and detonating A-bombs like Dr. Strangelove with a bad case of priapism. The tougher sanctions, of course, were tough in language but not in action (Russia and China did not allow affirmative language permitting NoKo ships to be boarded and searched).

So as written they were a nullity, and only had teeth at all if the US President were willing to exceed the authority actually granted.

And of course Obama is not willing.

Like I was saying yesterday.

Obama's men will now fight behind the scenes to get this off of newspapers' front pages interior pages, and the media will bow to him and suppress the story.

Because his foreign policy is not to handle foreign policy crises in a way that benefits the US. To benefit the US, he'd actually have to engage with the policies and set himself up for both possible failure and likely loss of support from the hard left. Better to not engage at all -- engagement helps the US, but it hurts Obama. And that's really no contest, is it?

Obama will "solve" each and every foreign policy crisis by merely attempting to reduce coverage of them to an absolute minimum. It's a reverse ostrich technique -- if he sticks everyone else's head in the sand, they don't see the danger, so they're "safe." Or at least they are encouraged to believe they are.

Update: Pro-democracy movements in other Muslim countries find Obama inspiring threatening.

The frustration comes against a backdrop of deep-rooted skepticism among pro-democracy activists that U.S. policies under President Obama will help transform the region, despite his vow to engage the Muslim world in a highly publicized speech here last month. Some view ObamaÂ’s response to IranÂ’s protests, muted until Tuesday, as a harbinger of U.S. attitudes toward their own efforts to reform their political systems. The Egyptian government, they note, is a key American ally, and U.S. pressure on Egypt for reforms began subsiding in the last years of the Bush administration.

“When Obama does not take a stance, the very next day these oppressive regimes will regard this as a signal. This is a test for his government,” said Ayman Nour, a noted Egyptian opposition politician who was recently released from jail. “If they can turn a blind eye to their enemy, they can turn a blind eye to any action here in Egypt.”

No, but seriously, let's all credit Obama's empty words in his Cairo Speech as igniting the torch of freedom the world over. Let's not look at his lack of tangible action at all. It's words that count, not deeds. We all know this.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:23 AM | Add Comment
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Kinda gives the impression that the President doesn't have the first clue how to govern, doesn't it? This was, after all, the OMG PANIC FAST FAST FAST Spendulus program that was absolutely necessary to save us from a return to the dark ages.

Federal spending meant to jump-start the economy slowed last week, two weeks after President Obama vowed to "ramp up" the pace of that aid.

"If my boss came to me and told me to ramp something up, I'd do it," said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "If the president says it, you'd definitely expect something to happen, so I don't know why it isn't happening."

Obama says that stimulus spending will "create or save" 600,000 jobs this summer.

The editorial in today's Wall Street Journal says that the President's plan is the same one that failed in California, New York, and New Jersey.

It's hard to miss the irony that he's pitching this change in Washington even as the same governance model is imploding in three of the largest American states where it has been dominant for years -- California, New Jersey and New York.

A decade ago all three states were among America's most prosperous. California was the unrivaled technology center of the globe. New York was its financial capital. New Jersey is the third wealthiest state in the nation after Connecticut and Massachusetts. All three are now suffering from devastating budget deficits as the bills for years of tax-and-spend governance come due.

The Journal contrasts the amount of economic stimulus the three states have spent with their unemployment rates, tax burdens, unionization, and healthcare programs. The conclusion: progressive governance destroys the economy.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:45 AM | Add Comment
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Above the post update:

Once again, Obama talks about Iran respecting it's people, while Merkel says vote was tainted and calls for a recount. I know a recount isn't what Mousavi calls for but again, Germany is taking a harder line on Iran than the US. Unbelievable.

The NYT reporter asks if Obama will apologize as Ahmadinejad demands (amazingly, Obama passed on that opportunity) and if Obama will demand an apology from Ahmadinejad for comparing him to Bush.

Yes, it's the same asswipe who wanted to know what Obama was enchanted by as President.

Says direct dialogue efforts will be affected by what's happened. Doesn't know how and still maintains that it has to be done at some point soon.
.....
Original Post:

I'm guessing this guy didn't get the, "dissent is the highest form of patriotism" memo.

In Friday's central Muslim sermon at Tehran University, a senior cleric, Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami, called for harsh retribution for dissent.

"Anybody who fights against the Islamic system or the leader of Islamic society, fight him until complete destruction," he said in the nationally broadcast speech.

The cleric alleged that some involved in the unrest had used firearms.

"Anyone who takes up arms to fight with the people, they are worthy of execution," he said. "We ask that the judiciary confront the leaders of the protests, leaders of the violations, and those who are supported by the United States and Israel strongly, and without mercy to provide a lesson for all."

Khatami said those who disturbed the peace and destroyed public property were "at war with God," and said they should be "dealt with without mercy."

He reminded worshippers that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rules by God's design and must not be defied.

Meanwhile, our old friend Ahmadinejad is still complaining about US involvement (if only!) in the Iranian turmoil.

In a speech at a petrochemical plant in southern Iran, Ahmadinejad said Obama was behaving like his predecessor, George W. Bush, and suggested that talks with the United States on Iran's nuclear program would be pointless if Obama kept up his criticism. Obama, who has expressed interest in talking to the Iranian leadership about the nuclear issue, said at a news conference Tuesday that he was "appalled and outraged" by recent violence against demonstrators, and he accused the Iranian government of trying to "distract people" by blaming the unrest on the United States and other Western nations.

"Do you want to speak with this tone?" Ahmadinejad responded Thursday, addressing Obama. "If that is your stance, then what is left to talk about?"

He added: "I hope you avoid interfering in Iran's affairs and express your regret in a way that the Iranian nation is informed of it." He asked why Obama "has fallen into this trap and repeated the comments that Bush used to make" and told the U.S. president that such an attitude "will only make you another Bush in the eyes of the people."

How's that cool, detached, don't want to say a mean word pose working out Mr. Obama? He admitted during his Tuesday press conference that the Iranians were deliberately mistranslating his words to make it appear the US is involved. So why not say and do the right things since you are going to be blamed anyway?

As many of us here have pointed out, the answer isn't because Obama is so damn smart but rather because he stupidly prizes negotiations over all else. John Bolton takes at whack at Obama on this topic today. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 06:27 AM | Add Comment
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Well, it's going down today. Waxman added a last-minute 300 page addition to the bill, but that's not going to slow down any Democrats.

Michelle Malkin has a list of representatives to call (if you're from that district).

While Democrats are hell-bent on shooting our economy in the face, the rest of the world is scrapping their climate control programs as more and more people come to doubt the "settled science."

The number of skeptics, far from shrinking, is swelling. Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe now counts more than 700 scientists who disagree with the U.N. -- 13 times the number who authored the U.N.'s 2007 climate summary for policymakers. Joanne Simpson, the world's first woman to receive a Ph.D. in meteorology, expressed relief upon her retirement last year that she was finally free to speak "frankly" of her nonbelief. Dr. Kiminori Itoh, a Japanese environmental physical chemist who contributed to a U.N. climate report, dubs man-made warming "the worst scientific scandal in history." Norway's Ivar Giaever, Nobel Prize winner for physics, decries it as the "new religion." A group of 54 noted physicists, led by Princeton's Will Happer, is demanding the American Physical Society revise its position that the science is settled. (Both Nature and Science magazines have refused to run the physicists' open letter.)

The collapse of the "consensus" has been driven by reality. The inconvenient truth is that the earth's temperatures have flat-lined since 2001, despite growing concentrations of C02. Peer-reviewed research has debunked doomsday scenarios about the polar ice caps, hurricanes, malaria, extinctions, rising oceans. A global financial crisis has politicians taking a harder look at the science that would require them to hamstring their economies to rein in carbon.

Read the whole thing.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 06:05 AM | Comments (1)
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I was googling "Patrick Swayze brother" this morning, because I had a conversation with a co-worker where I mentioned that since his cancer, Patrick Swayze looks worse than his brother Don, who makes a living playing white trash characters in TV and movies. While I was on the site, I decided to check out the whole "Jeff Goldblum is dead" rumor that's been going around the internet.

You know how google always wants to finish your sentence when you start typing something into it for a search? When I typed in "Jeff Goldblum", I saw that one of the Google-bot choices for a search was.........

Jeff Goldblum is watching you poop

Buncha savages in this town, man.

Posted by: Russ from Winterset at 04:42 AM | Add Comment
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Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:24 AM | Add Comment
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Since vampire genghis seems to be in deep mourning or captured by PGiS, I'm throwing this up to keep the overnight morons from breaking things and creating havoc on the other threads.

Item 1: German Chicks Are Serious Shoppers

Item 2: 15 Common Drinking Myths Debunked

Brought to you by beer goggles

more...

Posted by: Open Blog at 07:48 PM | Add Comment
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Great.

Shep Smith is playing about a minute and a half to two minutes of Michael Jackson videos, without any reportage or over-talk, in between minute-long shots of the crowds at Neverland or wherever.

The only "news" on display during these MTV flashbacks is their chyron and crawl, which simply repeats the news that Michael Jackson's condition remains stable, and dead.

Yes, there are ratings to consider. There is also integrity and newsworthiness to consider. This story is no longer breaking and, for obvious reasons, not likely to take a sudden dramatic turn.

It's a story. You note it. You do a quick retrospective. You interview some friends. And then you move on.

More Pills: Jackson's own spokesman -- well, former spokesman now -- hints pills may in fact have been involved.

Shep Smith is now interviewing a former Jackson attorney who drops the bombshell revelation that Michael Jackson's father was very proud of the Jackson 5.

BREAKING: The attorney reveals that her "heart goes out" to Jackson's fans, whose lives, we are informed, largely turned on what music Michael Jackson was making.

BREAKING: "It's a very sad day." The attorney reveals that it's a sad day especially for his parents.

BREAKING: MUST CREDIT ACE: Former stunt-wife Lisa Marie Presley also says it's very sad.

BREAKING: Snap poll of Jackson confederates interviewed by Shepard Smith reveals that 37% of respondents say this is "sad," 44% are "shocked," and 26% are "stunned."

BREAKING: This is so hugely important even Iranian resisters can talk of nothing else.

BREAKING: Michael Jackson was very "excited" about his upcoming tour, and believed it would return him to his former prominence. Just like his previous much-hyped tours did.

BREAKING: Liz Smith notes that he didn't need to invent "new moves." His fans just loved his old ones.

BREAKING: Liz Smith "goes there:" Outpouring of grief over Michael Jackson's death will rival or exceed that demonstrated after assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

BREAKING: Shep Smith now interviewing former FoxNews anchorbabe Arthel Neville. She reveals she had his posters on his wall when a little girl. She reports "shivers" on her body as she realized he was dead.

BREAKING: "My heart is overcome with sadness." So says former "date" Brooke Shields.

I'm waiting for the "con" side on the important national debate over whether this is sad.

Posted by: Ace at 03:03 PM | Comments (7)
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Obama's date-night cost a lot more money, but that was with his wife and he didn't check out for six days.

The costs, by the way, are for his multiple trips while on official state business (kinda-sorta), though of course he had a hidden agenda in being so crazy-hot to meet with businessmen and politicians from South America.

I don't think he used state funds to pay for the latest trip.

Sanford's travels to Brazil and Argentina cost taxpayers at least $9,000 in airfare, lodging, meals and phone charges, according state records.

Eh, pretty cheap, really. Particularly when you consider there was some official reason for the trips, even if that wasn't the primary one.

But 50% want him to resign, and even if you believe he's an important voice for fiscal discipline, it's a very big question whether anyone will hear him over the furor.

It's also a very big question as to whether he wants to keep his job. He committed very deliberate political suicide, Charles Krauthammer notes, and is obviously more committed to his current infatuation than South Carolina governance.

A tidbit from Allah: He actually intended to stay in Argentina for ten days, and would have, had someone not leaked the mystery of his whereabouts to the press.

Ten days? This is a midlife criss thing. He needs to resign. Even putting aside the moral and character questions, his heart is not in his job. It's very much somewhere else entirely.

Posted by: Ace at 02:10 PM | Add Comment
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