Welcome to the Monday.

The 70's + Disco + Star Wars = The Donny and Marie Osmond Star Wars Special

Network prime time during the 70's - embrace the suckitude. And yes that's Kris Kristofferson as Han Solo, Red Foxx as Obi-Wan, and Paul Lynde as the imperial officer. You can watch the entire show here. If you dare. As a palate cleanser here's Richard Pryor: Cantina Bartender.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:39 PM | Comments (835)
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Two mandatory life sentences....plus some threats from the guilty.

The 30-year-old naturalized American, who was born in Pakistan and lived in Connecticut, pleaded guilty to ten different terror-related federal charges, two of which carry a mandatory life sentence.

After Shahzad pleaded guilty to the first charge, attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, Judge Miriam Cedarbaum said, "I gather you want to plead guilty to all [the charges.]

"Yes," said Shahzad, and then said he wanted to plead guilty and 100 times more," because he wanted the U.S. to know it will continue to suffer attacks if it does not leave Iraq and Afghanistan and stop drone strikes in Pakistan.

That doesn't sound like somebody who has been beaten down. That sounds like defiance.

Okay, now I'm really leaving...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:13 PM | Comments (295)
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I started my day with the extreme long-range GOP 2012 hopefuls, so I'll end with one Leftard sorta-hopeful. Ralph Nader is sick of Obama and he's not ruling out another presidential run.

Ralph Nader denounced President Obama's lack of leadership on Monday and said he was leaning against, but would not rule out, a 2012 presidential bid.

In a radio interview with liberal activist Mark Green, Nader said that Obama had resorted to "mealy-mouthed, well-composed rhetoric" on the BP oil spill but hasn't backed it up with real action, like banning BP from doing business with the government.

He added that a stubborn Congress is no excuse for not passing a strong climate bill.

"That's a cop out. Would LBJ not be able to get it through when he had 59 Democrats and an independent? [Obama] doesn't know how to deal like LBJ did. He doesn't have that fervor," Nader said.

Unfavorable comparison to President Johnson? Oh my.

Here's the thing I love about Ralph Nader. Actually, it's not really about Nader. It's about my favorite novel, Lucifer's Hammer...which bags on Nader a little bit. That book came out in 1977. When I first read it in the mid-to-late 1990s, I thought, "same Nader?" Oh, very yes it is. His call-back to LBJ is just an extension of his same old program, though it has a bit of that old geezer "when I was young" quality to it.

I'm outsies for a while, so entertain yourselves quietly.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:10 PM | Comments (67)
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There was already some rumbling in the papers and definitely in the financial blogs, but the new numbers confirm it: Obama is, in fact, dumber than a box of rocks.

A major reason so many have fallen out of the program is the Obama administration initially pressured banks to sign up borrowers without insisting first on proof of their income. When banks later moved to collect the information, many troubled homeowners were disqualified or dropped out.

[...]

More than a third of the 1.24 million borrowers who have enrolled in the $75 billion mortgage modification program have dropped out. That exceeds the number of people who have managed to have their loan payments reduced to help them keep their homes.

[...]

But analysts expect the majority will still wind up in foreclosure and that could slow the broader economic recovery.

Like most of Obama's anti-prosperity policies, this was just a way of kicking the can down the road. I'm sure he hoped it would last until after the midterms, but—goshdarn them—it turns out that people with no income to pay off their loans are unexpectedly as likely to flake on government-subsidized loans as they are the original debt.

Economics is all about incentives and Obama and the Democrats—with all their rhetoric about keeping folks in the homes they cannot afford—have given people extremely odd incentives in the housing market. It's crashing down now..and it turns out that politics is at least a little about incentives too.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 01:18 PM | Comments (96)
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Just a follow-up to my sanctions post from earlier; gosh, I feel like I've heard this story before...just can't quite put my finger on it.

A senior Iranian official said Monday that two U.N. nuclear inspectors have been banned from working in Iran after filing "untruthful" reports on the Islamic Republic's controversial nuclear program.

The move signals a more confrontational Iranian stance over its nuclear program after the country was slapped with a fourth round of U.N. Security Council sanctions June 9.

Isn't the limit 12 U.N. resolutions? Eight to go...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 12:38 PM | Comments (70)
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They will never learn:

President Obama will likely discuss setting caps on the utility sector when he meets with senators this week, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told the Wall Street Journal on Friday.

"The idea of a 'utilities only' [approach] will also be welcomed," Emanuel said, noting that "a wide range of ideas will be discussed." Obama is scheduled to meet with a bipartisan group of senators Wednesday as Democratic leadership plans its strategy for bringing an energy and climate package to the floor this summer.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) -- who is co-sponsoring a Senate climate and energy bill with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) -- said he would also consider a power plant-only cap.

I just can't emphasize it enough: the President wants to raise electricity rates (and the cost of everything in the country produced or served using electricity). This is indefensible in a bad economy. Even artards like Lieberman and Graham, who bought into the global warming bullhockey, should recognize that.

But it's also unconscionable at any time because there's no reason to believe that any of these proposed carbon caps are going to improve human lives. They're just going to make life more difficult for the people least able to pay for Democratic pipe-dreams. (See also the gasoline tax.) And in the meantime, they'll hobble the U.S. economy.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 12:10 PM | Comments (131)
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Awesome.

This morning Barnes & Noble announced that it was dropping the price of its ebook reader, the Nook, to $149 for a wifi version and $199 for the 3G version. Now, I would never buy a Nook, but I have been giving the Kindle some sideeye for the past year.

Groovy:

Reacting to Barnes & NobleÂ’s price cut on the Nook Monday morning, Amazon.com has just dropped the price of its Kindle e-reader to $189 from $259.

Both are now approaching Gabriel Malor ImpulseBuy™ levels. I've been using Kindle for iPhone on my iPod Touch for maybe a year now. In fact, when I started, I was just buying Amazon eBooks for convenience on the metro. But then, I noticed that I was irritated by the bulkiness of real books at home too. Seriously, why lug around a hardcover or lengthy paperback rather than my iPod, which I always have with me for music anyway?

So it's been a loooong time since I bought an honest-to-God book made out of paper and stuff. And while I love my iPod, I'm about ready to graduate to a full-size e-reader.

New issue: do I get the Kindle or wait around for the iPad second generation? I won't get the first version, they always need to work out so many kinks. But I'm gonna be drooling for the next iPad... Oh, and there's a rumor that Amazon is working on a touchscreen Kindle, too.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 11:38 AM | Comments (176)
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The Chicago Way.

He pulls a gun, you pull a hold on school-district funding.

As the article says, this doesn't appear criminal. In fact, it doesn't even appear unethical, or at least not so much anyone will go berserker over it.

But it is interesting that the two shared this sort of one-for-me-one-for-you relationship, and I wonder about the content of their communications about the senate seat.

President Barack Obama's chief of staff, then a congressman in Illinois, apparently attempted to trade favors with embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich while he was in office, according to newly disclosed e-mails obtained by The Associated Press.

Emanuel agreed to sign a letter to the Chicago Tribune supporting Blagojevich in the face of a scathing editorial by the newspaper that ridiculed the governor for self-promotion. Within hours, Emanuel's own staff asked for a favor of its own: The release of a delayed $2 million grant to a school in his district.

The 2006 discussion occured with Blagojevich's top aide, Deputy Gov. Bradley Tusk, and doesn't appear to cross legal lines; Emanuel couldn't speed up the distribution of the funds. But it offers a peek at ties between two high-profile Illinois politicians — one now the president's right-hand man, the other facing years in prison if convicted of political corruption.

Posted by: Ace at 11:09 AM | Comments (67)
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Several commenters point me at this today (though it seems to have come out on Friday), which...I don't get this at all.

The survey also found that Gov. Charlie Crist, running as an independent, continues to lead former Republican House Speaker Marco Rubio, with 42 percent of the vote to RubioÂ’s 31 percent. Another 14 percent favor Democratic candidate Kendrick Meek, and 12 percent still undecided. Democrat Jeff Greene was not included in the survey.

That's from the Florida Chamber of Commerce and, according to Real Clear Politics, is indeed the latest info on the Florida race.

So what's going on down there? Floridians really do love them a flip-flopper, I guess. (No, really, follow that link.)

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 11:03 AM | Comments (50)
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The Weekly Standard's John McCormack thinks that this will end J.D. Hayworth's chances of beating McCain in the GOP primary, but I'm not so sure.

"Well I don't want to shock anybody's sensibilities, but I have to use a four-letter word: Real. This is real," Hayworth said in the infomercial. "The money is out there, the opportunities are out there. And by the way, it's not something where it's the government's money -- it's really your money. You surrendered it in the form of taxation. Now's the time to take advantage of a situation where the government can invest in you. And in turn, you'll have a chance to build a business, or make a better life for yourself -- and in so doing, you'll help improve the country."

I'm trying to decide whether his solicitation to participation in a government redistribution program outweighs the populist kick he'll get by telling voters how to squeeze money out of the federal government, but I don't really know enough about GOP primary voters in Arizona to say.

The last poll I saw out of Arizona was from Rasmussen more than a month ago. It had McCain over Hayworth 52%-40%, so does this actually end Hayworth's campaign or was it already over?

What do you think?

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 10:33 AM | Comments (98)
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