(Headline corrected.)

Why?

The answer is sickening.

Iran's mulling on whether to prosecute three American tourists who wandered over the border for espionage, by the way.

As I've written before, Obama needs the Mullahs more than they need him.

Obama's strategy is not to disarm Iran -- he know he can't achieve that, at least not through any means (such as airstrikes and/or blockade) he's willing to contemplate.

What he needs from the Mullahs is a fig leaf, a pretext, a false hope which he will use to justify his own lack of action as the mullahs get closer to their nuke.

This policy is not motivated by any real desire to advance American interests, but to advance Obama's interests as he fails to act in the American interest.

And thus he needs to the Mullahs to oblige him by chatting pointlessly with him.

But the mullahs don't need that themselves. They know who Obama is, and they know they have the green light for the bomb. They will only do Obama this service if paid off for it... such as by the administration being the first in the Western civilized word to recognize Ahmadinejad as a legitimately elected leader.

Posted by: Ace at 12:01 PM | Add Comment
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Cat painting -- real phenomenon or photoshop?

I think this is Dum-Dum the Dummy's cat.

Thanks to Pistolero.

Answer: False. Snopes says photoshop.

In fact, it was a deliberate hoax to see if the actual phenomenon of cat-painting could be inspired by an internet prank.

Ah, well. Thanks to Sharp as a Marble for answering. Turns out it's an old gag.

Posted by: Ace at 11:33 AM | Add Comment
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I have to wonder what they got out of it, though.

Maybe just the attention of having an American star visit them.

Posted by: Ace at 11:17 AM | Add Comment
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I've goosed the headline a bit. But that's his plan.

He will continue spending, spending, spending until we're at the edge of ruin and then he'll say, "Well, I didn't want to raise your taxes, but since you seem to be demanding I do so, okay, I give. Uncle. You win."

The liberal establishment is even further along in finally admitting that Mr. Obama wasn’t, er, telling the truth. A piece in the New York Times over the weekend declared in a headline that “the Rich Can’t Pay for Everything, Analysts Say.” And it quoted Leonard Burman, a veteran of the Clinton Treasury who now runs the Brookings Tax Policy Center, as saying that “This idea that everything new that government provides ought to be paid for by the top 5%, that’s a basically unstable way of governing.” They’re right, but where were they during the campaign?

In an editorial on February 26, “The 2% Illusion,” we wrote that the feds could take 100% of the taxable income of everyone in America earning more than $500,000 and still have raised only $1.3 trillion even in the boom year of 2006. The rich are fewer and less rich now, while the Obama budget is nearly $4 trillion.

Democrats already plan to repeal the Bush tax cuts, but that won’t raise enough money. So they’re proposing an income tax surcharge on “the wealthy,” but that won’t raise enough either. Democrats have no choice but to soak the middle class because only they have enough money to finance the liberal dream of yoking the middle class to cradle-to-grave government entitlements.

...

The undeniable reality is that you canÂ’t run a European-style welfare-entitlement state without European-style levels of taxation on the middle class (and eventually without low European-style growth and high jobless rates). ItÂ’s looking more and more like Mr. ObamaÂ’s no-middle-class-tax pledge was one of the greatest confidence tricks in American political history.

Read the whole thing.

He promised he wouldn't try to screw me if I came up to his room, but I walk in there and am surrounded by lotions and balms and suggestive covers from Boys Life.

Oh: And taxing the wealthy doesn't really work when you're ridding the country of the wealthy hand over fist.

Posted by: Ace at 11:07 AM | Add Comment
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Yeahp, just what a straight man wants to see in his friggin' popcorn movies.

GUY Ritchie's plan to put a gay spin on the relationship of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in his new movie about the detective and his sidekick could backfire.

Robert Downey Jr, who plays Holmes, has revealed the crimebuster will sleep with and have sweaty grappling scenes with Watson, played by Jude Law, in "Sherlock Holmes," due out Christmas Day.

"We're two men who happen to be roommates, wrestle a lot and share a bed. It's bad-ass," Downey told Britain's News of the World. Added much-in-the-news Law: "Guy wanted to make this about the relationship between Watson and Holmes. They're both mean and complicated."

But Michael Medved, a former Post movie critic, says Downey and Law must be joking. "There's not a seething, bubbling hunger to see straight stars impersonating homosexuals," Medved told us. "I think they're just trying to generate controversy . . . They know that making Holmes and Watson homosexual will take away two-thirds of their box office. Who is going to want to see Downey Jr. and Law make out? I don't think it would be appealing to women. Straight men don't want to see it."

Yeah, maybe he's joking, or maybe it's in there, but just briefly.

I don't know. Robert Downey Jr. isn't doing the movie any favors with this joke, if it is a joke. I anticipate a full-media blitz of a walkback in 24 hours.

Incidentally, this isn't new at all. Billy Wilder's The Secret Private Life of Sherlock Holmes promised a look a Holmes' supposed homosexuality. It must have been very subtle, or substantially edited out of the film, because I missed it entirely and didn't even know about it until I saw mention of this angle on Wikipedia.

And Saturday Night Live did a spoof about this. And I'm sure they weren't first.

Regarding The Two Living Together: First up, this was an economic decision. Holmes was just out of university with his kooky idea of being the world's first and only "Consulting Detective," and Watson was on pension, back from Afghanistan with a crippled (or impaired) arm and without a job. They didn't shack up because they liked each other. They were introduced by a mutual acquaintance who knew Holmes was looking for a roommate and Watson needed a room.

Second of all, they didn't live together very long. Very early in the series Watson married a very rich woman -- and moved out, of course. (Duh.)

The idea they were always living together is pushed by TV and movies, which probably are catering to people who have, maybe, only read the first several stories and expect them to be roommates. Or who only know them from movies and TV shows, and would think it's an "error" if they were depicted as living apart. Catering to ignorance.

I don't even know if most filmed depictions actually specify they're still roommates. They probably skirt the issue entirely by just having Watson present at Holmes' drawing room and never say whether he came in through the front door as a guest or in through a bedroom door as a resident.

Anyway, very annoying.

Posted by: Ace at 10:23 AM | Comments (3)
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Carnak the Magnificent says:

(puts envelope to head)

"Transparency, accountability, unicorns."

(cuts open envelope, blows into it, takes out slip of paper and reads question written thereon)

"Name three things promised to us by Obama which are as mythical as Atlantis."

The Obama administration is refusing to release government records on its "cash for clunkers" rebate program that would substantiate — or undercut — claims of its success.

President Barack Obama wants $2 billion more to boost car sales, days after the first $1 billion was made available. Obama has promised greater transparency, but Transportation Department officials say they don't have time to turn over sales data provided by car dealers.

The limited information shows most buyers are not picking Ford, Chrysler or General Motors vehicles, and six of the top 10 vehicles purchased are Honda, Toyota and Hyundai. The Associated Press has sought release of the data since last week. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Sunday the government would release it.

Good for AP.

Posted by: Ace at 09:53 AM | Add Comment
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And back when a liberal Democrat in good standing with the party made an issue of it, Meredith Vierra of the Today show actually asked him a question about his evolving stance, asking "Where's the consistency?"

His answer is that he couldn't hear the clip (how convenient!) but he's "always been consistent," which is of course his third favorite lie after "Let me be clear" and "It's just a distraction."

But now that mean old Republicans are noting the same thing, the question becomes illegitimate and beneath the MSM's standards.

Bonus! He claimed then that a different statement, made in a debate, probably didn't include "the full context of his remarks."

He also claim he was only talking about going to single payer if we were starting from scratch, but, having the current system, we must "build" upon that.

He does not mention this Special Secret Caveat in his 2003 remarks.

Via Nice Deb.

Posted by: Ace at 09:43 AM | Add Comment
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Update: Drudge and Breitbart fire back by posting the unedited, uncut version of Obama's remarks. Judge for yourself if he's being taken "out of context."

...

Linda Douglass, the reporterette who made it official and started drawing a paycheck from Obama, claims that that viral video of Obama and Barney Frank discussing the private option as a pathway to eliminating private insurance is racist.

Well, they don't say racist, but racist is defined as anything Obama doesn't want to discuss.

No wonder Obama holds Sonia Sotomayor in such high regard. Like that judge, Obama too has been taken out of context in his prepared, scripted, clearly phrased remarks.

Oh, and they'll be using astroturfing to counterattack.

Dan Pfeiffer, the White House deputy communications director, said: “We intend to use a lot of the grassroots viral Internet techniques from the campaign to beat back the campaign of misstatements and outright falsehoods about the president’s efforts to reform health insurance.”

Thanks to AHFF Geoff.

Posted by: Ace at 07:39 AM | Comments (4)
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"serious risk of an extended malaise"

Ah yes "MALAISE". Only seven letters, but evoking recalled images of a rich tapestry of exquisite suffering. Gas lines, WIN buttons, cardigan sweaters, Iranian hostage crisis, and a level of governmental ineptitude that would make a Forest Gump administration seem like it was led by Lincoln himself.

These are the best of times my friends, there will be fond memories scars collected here that will last a lifetime. Savor the moment, live for today.

Malaise has scheduled a nationwide comeback tour and we're all getting FREE TICKETS to the show!

more...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 07:26 AM | Comments (2)
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"Enough is enough", "Stop your fucking turf wars", says the man Obama promised is essential to financial recovery:

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner launched an "expletive-laced" tirade against top U.S. financial regulators in a meeting on Friday, demanding that they halt their turf battles over the administrationÂ’s proposed regulatory overhaul, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Frustration apparently has been building in the White House as individual regulators have publicly voiced objections to parts of the plan, including giving the Federal Reserve more oversight of the financial system and creating a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency to police lending products.

Does this sound like a man in control?

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:20 AM | Add Comment
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