Actually, I guess: Maybe this should be a thread for the completed series 24 and Lost.

I should have put up contemporaneous posts, but I don't watch either, so it didn't occur to me.

Law & Order has also been cancelled, though Dick Wolf really wants L&O to beat Bonanza for longest-running drama, and so is scrambling to get one more season on TNT. (He's tied with Bonanza right now. Or Gunsmoke. Whichever one ran the longer.) So he wants one more season just to satisfy his quest for a record that no one will care about -- hardly a recipe for creative foment should that asterisked-season occur.

I used to watch it, back when L&O was about murder and not, as it later turned into, the War in Iraq and George Bush, with murder apparently becoming so commonplace in NYC that prosecutors didn't blink at making generous deals with killers in order to get their testimony about "the real crime" behind the murder, like Gitmo, or, I'm guessing, Hurricane Katrina.

This article came into my email box from Heeb Magazine, about the "Jewyest" L&O episodes. It's kind of amusing.

Here are my Top Ten favorite L&O cliches:

more...

Posted by: Ace at 12:20 PM | Comments (229)
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60% national support for the Arizona approach will do that.

Still, shameless, shameless pandering.

President Barack Obama will send 1,200 National Guard troops to help secure the U.S.-Mexico border, an administration official and an Arizona congresswoman said Tuesday, pre-empting Republican plans to try to force votes on such a deployment.

Obama will also request $500 million for border protection and law enforcement activities, they said.

The National Guard troops will work on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support, analysis and training, and support efforts blocking drug trafficking. The troops will temporarily supplement border patrol agents until Customs and Border Patrol can recruit and train additional officers and agents to serve on the border, the administration official said.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of a public announcement, disclosed the plans shortly after Obama met at the Capitol with Republican senators who pressed him on immigration issues including the question of sending Guard troops to the border.

Not to be outdone, John "Finish The Dang Fence" McCain had this reaction after hearing from Obama.

I welcome the President's plan but it doesn't go far enough. Clearly we can not rest until we have prevented every last Mexican from coming here illegally. The only way to do that is to nuke Mexico from space, just to be sure.

I may have made that quote up but who is to say?

My guess is this will be cover for the next round of "Let's pass amnesty while pretending to secure the border" but the fact that Obama has to even pretend to care shows how this issue is cutting right now.

As always, the devil will be in the details as far as what these new troops can and can't do but next time someone calls you a racist for wanting to secure the border you can say, "yep, just like Obama!".

Posted by: DrewM at 11:58 AM | Comments (116)
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I doubt that Joe McGinnis, Jr. (apparently a novelist) was fully on-the-level here, but usually we tell jokes to get at a truth we can't say seriously.

Here's Palin, giving McGinniss a little advanced publicity for his stalker's journal, though she doesn't have much choice, given the bloodsport that is Alaska politics, I suppose. (Sigh.)

Spring has sprung in Alaska, and with this beautiful season comes the news today that the Palins have a new neighbor! Welcome, Joe McGinniss!

Yes, that Joe McGinniss. Here he is – about 15 feet away on the neighbor’s rented deck overlooking my children’s play area and my kitchen window. Maybe we’ll welcome him with a homemade blueberry pie tomorrow so he’ll know how friendly Alaskans are.

We found out the good news today. Upon my family’s return this morning from endorsement rallies and speeches in the Lower 48 states, I finally got the chance to tackle my garden and lawn this evening! So, putting on the shorts and tank top to catch that too-brief northern summer sun and placing a giddy Trig in his toddler backpack for a lawn-mowing adventure, I looked up in surprise to see a “new neighbor” overlooking my property just a stone’s throw away. Needless to say, our outdoor adventure ended quickly after Todd went to introduce himself to the stranger who was peering in...

Joe announced to Todd that he’s moved in right next door to us. He’s rented the place for the next five months or so. He moved up all the way from Massachusetts to live right next to us – while he writes a book about me. Knowing of his many other scathing pieces of “journalism” (including the bizarre anti-Palin administration oil development pieces that resulted in my Department of Natural Resources announcing that his work is the most twisted energy-related yellow journalism they’d ever encountered), we’re sure to have a doozey to look forward to with this treasure he’s penning. Wonder what kind of material he’ll gather while overlooking Piper’s bedroom, my little garden, and the family’s swimming hole?

Politico contacted McGinniss' son, who offered this response:

Sadly, she's right. We tried our best to intervene, but alas, the heart wants what it wants. We can only pray for him now. He's convinced that Todd will step aside and when the time is right, he'll be there, right next door, to pick up the pieces.

I guess maybe he intended that as a crack about Palin, rather than his dad... I don't know though. Palin didn't suggest that McGinniss had some sort of romantic obsession, just that he was creepily spying (which he is; that's going to be the marketing campaign for his book, of course). It was just the son who brought up that angle.

Posted by: Ace at 10:24 AM | Comments (246)
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I simply could never, in a thousand years, have predicted this.

Will Folks told me -- straight shooter he! -- that he was only interested in defending his sacred honor in the growing rumors (which he was in fact responsible for) that he'd shagged Nicky Haley, and, apart from a simple statement about the truthfulness of the rumors he himself was spreading, he would speak no more of this, ever again.

He managed to make it a full 24 hours.

“In the end, I think the record of communication here will end up speaking for itself,” Folks told The Daily Caller.

...

But Folks says he can prove the claim with a record of correspondence that started in November 2005 with an email sent from Haley to Folks complimenting him on an article he had written on her.

“That four-and-a-half year record of correspondence ended on Saturday, May 22, 2010 – three days ago – with a text message sent from Folks’s cell phone to Haley’s cell phone at 1:04 p.m. alerting her to the fact that he had been placed in a position where he felt that he had no choice but to address the rumors regarding their relationship on his website,” the blog said.

“Those are the bookends … but what happened in the interim?”

The blog speculates that the reason HaleyÂ’s team have not pursed any legal remedies against Folks is because subpoenas would result in the publication of the damning records.

This worries me, but I take heart in the thrust of Folks' purported evidence: He seems to want us to infer an affair from the simple fact they emailed for a number of years and then stopped.

There is room for additional worry: Seattle Slough linked an article from Monday noting that Folks had blubbered some kind of tearful confession to someone else a year or so ago. Or so the tale goes. (I believe it.)

Correction! I originally wrote the article itself appeared last year; that is wrong. It appeared just yesterday, but reported on a supposed tearful confession from last year. Thanks to Seattle Slough.

Past statements do have some evidentiary weight.

Or do they? Folks has taken money to push stories before. He now says he wasn't paid money but rather pressured by a rival of Haley's to make his disclosure. (These would be the switch-blade wielding enemies who threaten to cut off pieces of one's face in the bloodsport of SC politics... I suppose.)

The blogger who rocked the state's political scene Monday by claiming to have had an "inappropriate physical relationship" with gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley says he was pressured to disclose the affair by the campaign of fellow candidate Gresham Barrett.

In his original blog post on Monday, Folks said a "network of operatives has made it abundantly clear that in the process of ‘taking down' Rep. Haley, they will also stop at nothing to humiliate me." Folks elaborated in an email Monday night that he believes Barrett is behind the takedown. "All of my sources pointed their fingers directly at the campaign of Gresham Barrett," Folks wrote.

Haley continues to say the alleged relationship with Folks never happened, and Barrett spokesman Luke Byars categorically denied that any pressure on Folks came from the Barrett campaign. "This is absolutely not true," Byars said. "Mr. Folks seems to be full of allegations lately without any proof."

Ugh.

And he could be lying about that, of course: He may well be in the service of one of the other candidates, who he won't name, and is going for a two-fer: Take out Haley with the charge, and take out Barrett with the claim that Barrett pressured him to take out Haley.

I just don't know what to believe. On the one hand, Will Folks assures me he's a straight shooter who calls it like he sees it and is so full of integrity and courage that in some countries the oath to tell the truth is made upon one of his incorruptible bowel movements.

On the other hand, he takes secret money to plant stories and doesn't see anything wrong that and obviously need a buck and broke a promise to speak no more of this within 24 hours.

No, but seriously? This guy is loathsome and either taking cash for this or else a heartbroken stalker who really did have an affair with Haley and got obsessed with her and now is letting her know, as stalkers do, I will not be ignored.

Let me put my integrity in you.

I've Gotta Tell You... I really, really have a problem with guys who never shut up about how uncompromising and courageous and principled they are.

Sometimes someone gets into that kind of jag in the comments, and I just kind of roll my eyes.

It's too much. Braggin' on you virtue is braggin' like any other kind.

And you know, one of the greatest virtues (and I have this from no lesser authority than Jesus) is humility.

So... I am just immediately suspicious of anyone who starts waving their self-proclaimed virtue in my face.

There are exceptions to this rule, I suppose (and I say "I suppose" with the heroic, jaded weariness of a stalwart like Will Folks), but honestly, I find it's a good rule of thumb.

Posted by: Ace at 09:49 AM | Comments (280)
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Good Lord. Axelrod reassures everyone by insisting not that there was no unscrupulous act here, but that there is >"no evidence" of such.

Senior adviser to the president David Axelrod said Monday evening that there is “no evidence” that White House officials tried to keep a Democratic congressman from entering the Pennsylvania Senate race by offering him a high-ranking government job.

“When the allegations were made, they were looked into. And there was no evidence of such a thing,” Axelrod said on CNN’s “John King USA.”

Sestak says it happened, but he can't talk about it, because we shouldn't distract ourselves with cheap point-scoring politics while the economy's bad.

Oddly enough, when this charge was useful to him in his fight against Arlen Specter, he did think we could afford a little distraction from the economy.

KING: -- in these conversations. You're one of the parties who knows.

SESTAK: Someone, as I said, was asked. I answered the question --and I did -- forthrightly -- for my personal accountability in that matter.

KING: But what is the harm...

SESTAK: But if (INAUDIBLE)...

KING: What is the harm of you saying this is the person who called me and this is what they offered me so that we can go to that person and get the other end of the conversation?

SESTAK I'll tell you what the harm actually appears to be. You and I should be talking right now about how people were slammed in this economy, John.

The LAT Top of the Ticket blog headlines Gibbs latest bullshit Obama White House probe of Obama White House finds no Obama White House impropriety on Sestak:

GIBBS: Well, Bob, I'm not a lawyer. But lawyers in the White House and others have looked into conversations that were had with Congressman Sestak. And nothing inappropriate happened.

I think Republicans are continuing to dredge this up because, if you look just a couple of days after this primary, the polling shows that Republicans are already behind in a very important Senate race.

SCHIEFFER: Improper or not, did you offer him a job in the administration?

GIBBS: I'm not going to get further into what the conversations were. People that have looked into them assure me that they weren't inappropriate in any way.

SCHIEFFER: Robert Gibbs, thank you very much for being with us.

What's classic in this cover-up is that the White House won't permit anyone with actual knowledge of the call or the subsequent (alleged) investigation to answer questions about it; these flacks can say whatever they like, without fear of a perjury charge (or something like that, in the court of public opinion) because they are speaking, by their own assertion, from a position of perfect ignorance.

The people who aren't ignorant of the facts, the details, the supposed legal analysis, are not only not permitted to discuss the matter, but the White House conceals their identities so that no one can ask them.

Darrel Issa (R-CA), professional troublemaker, is calling on any US Attorney in America to look into this, noting they all have the power to do so, even without permission of the AG. And he's put it out there the crime involved is "impeachable."

Posted by: Ace at 09:14 AM | Comments (142)
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How did we lose to this guy?

With the long Memorial Day weekend on the horizon, President Obama is finally addressing one of the great broken promises of his administration: his early pledge to return home to Chicago every six weeks or so.

...

On Monday, Obama will make remarks at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery, south of Chicago - missing the usual tradition of presidents speaking at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day.

There's a certain commendable honesty to Obama. Past Democratic presidents -- Clinton, say -- were plainly card-carrying members of the would-be ruling class of the Harvard-to-DC corridor. But they feared the people, at least, and practiced gestural politics to symbolically, but deceptively, suggest they "shared the values" of non-ruling-class Americans.

Obama's kind of giving up on that ruse. His attempts to establish populist credentials were half-hearted from the outset, and now he can't even be bothered to phone it in.

Of course this might not be a sort of honesty at all but simple detachment from reality; as liberals are fond of saying of Sarah Palin, it could be that Obama is so oblivious that he doesn't know what he doesn't know.

Posted by: Ace at 08:31 AM | Comments (247)
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Not good.

North Korea declared Tuesday that it would sever all communication and relations with Seoul as punishment for blaming it for the sinking of a South Korean warship.

The North also announced it would expel all South Koreans working at a joint factory park in the northern border town of Kaesong, the official Korean Central News Agency said in a dispatch monitored in Seoul late Tuesday.

...South Korea's military restarted psychological warfare operations - including blaring radio broadcasts into the North and placing loudspeakers at the border to blast out propaganda - to punish the North for the provocation. The South is also slashing trade and denying permission to North Korean cargo ships to pass through South Korean waters.

North Korea struck back by declaring it would cut all ties with the South until President Lee Myung-bak leaves office. South Korean ships and airliners will be banned from passing through its territory and the North will resume its own psychological warfare, KCNA said.

Earlier, one Seoul-based monitoring agency reported that North Korea's leader ordered its 1.2 million-member military to get ready for combat. South Korean officials could not immediately confirm the report.

On what passes for the bright side in this kind of thing "Spook 86" writing at the military/intelligence blog "In From the Cold" reminds us we've seen this sort of thing before more than once.

Collectively, these incidents have claimed the lives of hundreds of South Koreans and U.S. military personnel. But the response to the murderous provocations have been remarkably similar. While the Pueblo capture prompted an American military build-up on the peninsula (and there was a show-of-force after the tree-chopping episode), recent reactions have been more muted, limited to diplomatic protests and attempts at expanded sanctions.

Obviously, this sort of "punishment" doesn't strike fear in the heart of Kim Jong-il and his senior generals. So, North Korea has continued its series of violent confrontations, culminating in the March torpedo attack on the Cheonan. From Pyongyang's perspective, it's a convenient way to refocus world attention on its "concerns" (read: more aid and concessions from Washingon and Seoul), and that tactic succeeds more often than not.

Follow the link for more on the history of North Korean provocations, US-Korea military cooperation and why this is the 'wrong' time of year for the North to launch a major military operation.

So yeah, we've seen this movie before but as always with North Korea, you just never know.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:03 AM | Comments (116)
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Doh. Everyone knows what happens after you've been on a bender doing punch bowls full of the finest Hells Angles crank and Peruvian marching powder.

...Meanwhile, in America bank lending continues to decline as does the velocity of money in circulation. If this persists, markets will face worryingly low GDP growth in the U.S. going into 2011. It's this prospect that's begun to be discounted in the recent stock-market correction, which has already seen the S&P 500 give up all its gains for the year. This will sooner or later pave the way for another round of fiscal easing in Washington when both the Obama administration and Congress give up on their current hopes of a normal U.S. recovery...

...A trade row between China and the U.S. on top of the growing concerns about a "double dip" in the West is the last thing markets will want to contend with. But they may have to.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 07:54 AM | Comments (87)
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Folks vs the Political class.

...while 57% of Mainstream voters think a random selection from the phone book would do a better job than the current Congress, 90% of the Political Class disagree...

...32% of all voters are at least somewhat confident that their representatives in Congress have the voters' best interests in mind [ed: the German people had more confidence in Hitler than that!]. Sixty-six percent (66%) don't share the confidence, down 10 points from October 2008.

Again, while 79% of the Political Class are confident that their members of Congress do have their best interests at heart, 84% of Mainstream voters don't see it that way...

...Most voters believe it would be better for the country if most of the current members of Congress were not elected this November...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 07:12 AM | Comments (107)
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A couple days ago he said he would stay in, even though he lost the Republican Party nomination.

But:

McMahon's personal fortune, her willingness to spend up to $50 million in the race and her win in the state convention proved too much for Simmons to overcome.

He will still be in the primary.

Posted by: LauraW at 06:58 AM | Comments (25)
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