Via facebook.

For months now, my wife Kimberley and I have received encouragement from family, friends, colleagues, and supporters from across South Dakota and the country to run for the presidency of the United States. We have appreciated hearing their concerns about where the country is headed and their hopes for a new direction.

During this time, Kimberley and I and our two daughters have given a great deal of thought to how we might best serve South Dakota and our nation. That process has involved lots of prayer.

Along the way, we have been reminded of the importance of being in the arena, of being in the fight. And make no mistake that during this period of fiscal crisis and economic uncertainty there is a fight for the future direction of America. There is a battle to be waged over what kind of country we are going to leave our children and grandchildren and that battle is happening now in Washington, not two years from now. So at this time, I feel that I am best positioned to fight for AmericaÂ’s future here in the trenches of the United States Senate.

I want to thank those who have encouraged us and prayed for us during the past several months. We are forever grateful for all the support.

John and Kimberley

Personally, I wasn't so hot on the guy. Senators with no executive experience aren't on the top of my list of candidates I want to see run.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:10 AM | Comments (91)
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It's about 40 minutes an hour (and counting) in and he seems to just be warming up. (It's over, he clocked in a bit more than an hour of crazy).

He's like an evil Bluto...he's rolling.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi vows to fight on and die a "martyr," calling on his supporters to take back the streets from protesters demanding his ouster, shouting and pounding his fist in a furious speech Tuesday on state TV.

Gadhafi, swathed in brown robes and turban, spoke from a podium set up in the entrance of a bombed out building that appeared to be his Tripoli residence hit by U.S. airstrikes in the 1980s and left unrepaired as a monument of defiance. The speech, which appeared to have been taped earlier, was aired on a screen to hundreds of supporters massed in Tripoli's central Green Square.

Shouting in the rambling speech, he declared himself "a warrior" and proclaimed, "Libya wants glory, Libya wants to be at the pinnacle, at the pinnacle of the world."

What does President Present have to say about the turmoil that is rocking the world oil markets? Nothing.

There are reports that Libyan naval vessel has defected to Malta.

Added: CNNI says they think Gadaffi is speaking from the compound we bombed (no thanks to the French) in the '80s. One thought: Prompt Global Strike...When you have to kill someone within an hour, accept no substitutes.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:45 AM | Comments (105)
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Damn.

Four Americans, including a couple from Southern California, who were taken hostage by Somali pirates were fatally wounded by their captors while negotiations between the pirates and U.S. military forces were underway in the Gulf of Aden, U.S. Central Command said Tuesday.

The four were aboard the vessel Quest, which was captured last week.

"We express our deepest condolences for the innocent lives callously lost aboard the Quest," said Marine Gen. James N. Mattis, commander of Central Command.

You know, it might be time for some punitive raids along the coast. The US Marines were really good at that at one point in time.

More: Via Galrahn of the indispensable Information Dissemination, the Navy's release on the incident. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 06:34 AM | Comments (267)
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Or maybe not so much.

This WaPo article makes many of the same points I've made myself. Though US debt now as a percentage of GDP has been almost as high before (particularly during the World War II era), we were at the beginning of a high-growth curve then. Now? We've got a rapidly-aging workforce, a slow-growth economy, sky-high personal debt, and a public sector that groans under the weight of debt and unfunded entitlements.

Another problem is that too many of our elected officials are relying on the least likely scenario (i.e., a high-growth economic spurt) to pull us out of the debt-spiral. Obama's recent budget makes this belief explicit, but it's common among politicians of both parties. There is a prevailing belief that the interest-rate environment will remain stable, that inflation will remain low, and that we can continue to place our debt at low rates of interest. Given the upheavals in the middle east and the resultant spike in the price of oil, and the "hidden" inflation caused by spikes in the price of food and fuel, these seem like faulty assumptions -- yet most politicians, Democrat and GOP alike, speak blithely about managing the debt in terms of decades rather than years.

I just don't know why they think we have that much time.
more...

Posted by: Monty at 04:02 AM | Comments (198)
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If you can't do something smart, commence primary ignition. *

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:50 AM | Comments (89)
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I know a lot of people are concerned about CaliGrump, so I wanted to re-post this message from his brother that was posted in the comments section:

All,

I don't know how to reach Ace or any of the other bloggers/commenters so I'll announce it here. My brother is GrumpyCali and I just heard from my niece that he just walked into the Kaiser Hospital in San Francisco.

I talked to her and she hopes this will be a major turning point in his life. He has a lot of people who love him and there's no shame in struggling because we all have, or will struggle eventually. I wanted to thank all the beautiful people on this site for the outpouring of love for a stranger.

When he gets better, I'm sure he will thank all of you for it. You recognized what was happening early on and may have saved his life from the prayers and love. I've never commented before and I provided my email address in the box provided so that I can be reached there by any of the moderators for confirmation that I am his brother. Thanks for everything, you all did a wonderful job and my family and I appreciate it.

EM

-Warden

Posted by: Code Red at 06:58 PM | Comments (194)
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50 Movies Every Guy Must See

No titles - just pictures, so you pretty much have to have seen them to know what they are.

And it's obviously not a complete list (and some choices I would quibble with), but it should give a pretty good idea of how solid your background in Guy Movies is. There were 8 movies I haven't seen yet so I guess I got me some watching to do.

Oh and a word on commentiquette: Proper ripostes should have the form of "No $(MY_FAVORITE_MOVIE)? This list SUCKS!!!". more...

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:09 PM | Comments (1042)
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Libyan state media said he would be making a statement and so he did. No funeral parlor like setting like Mubarak had for Gadaffi. No he prefers things a bit more informal.

The statement.

"I want to show that I'm in Tripoli and not in Venezuela. Do not believe the channels belonging to stray dogs," he said, under a large umbrella, leaning out of the front seat of a van.

State television said he was speaking from in front of his Tripoli house.

"I wanted to say something to the youths at the Green Square and stay up late with them but it started raining. Thank God, it's a good thing," he said in the 22-second appearance.

The video.

Er, sweet ride you got there Colonel.

For all the talk about possible US intervention, I'm not even 100% sure the position of the US government is that Gadaffi has to go. Here's Hillary Clinton's statement.

"The world is watching the situation in Libya with alarm. We join the international community in strongly condemning the violence in Libya. Our thoughts and prayers are with those whose lives have been lost, and with their loved ones. The government of Libya has a responsibility to respect the universal rights of the people, including the right to free expression and assembly. Now is the time to stop this unacceptable bloodshed. We are working urgently with friends and partners around the world to convey this message to the Libyan government."

She decries the bloodshed and talks about universal rights but nothing about the murderous and illegitimate government.

And Obama? He didn't say anything publicly today. I guess he thinks today is a holiday honoring him, so why should he have to work?

Posted by: DrewM at 04:38 PM | Comments (162)
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6.3, shallow and close to Christchurch.

The Fire Service has confirmed that there have been deaths.

National Civil Defence Controller David Coetzee says the damage is worse than from the 4 September quake.

...Civil Defence Minister John Carter says the situation is very serious.

He says the emergency headquarters in the Beehive have been activated and the head of Civil Defence, John Hamilton, is on his way there.

Telecom says it is working to determine which services have been affected by the quake, and getting them restored as soon as possible.

Civil Defence is asking people stay off their cellphones to allow calls from injured or trapped people to be able to get through to emergency services.

They also are asking that if people are injured or trapped to keep trying on 111.

A couple of f-bombs in the video below, so content warning.

Posted by: DrewM at 04:14 PM | Comments (48)
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There is an interesting conversation being had on twitter right now between Jeff Emanuel, John Noonan, and Dan Foster about whether the United States or other western powers should intervene in Libya on behalf of the protesters who are being killed by Gaddafi's air forces. One proposal, apparently being made by the Libyan ambassador to the United States (who has now defected to the protesters), is to establish a no-fly zone over the country.

There are a few questions wrapped up in the proposal: (1) Is such an intervention, which is essentially a declaration of war on Gaddafi loyalists fighting in their own sovereign nation, moral? (2) Is it legal? And (3) Do we (or NATO or other western powers) actually have the practical ability to intervene right now?

My armchair sense of the situation says that the answers are probably yes, no, and yes, though there are few questions on which I am less equipped to opine than U.S. military capabilities. What do you think?

And why? I'm particularly interested to know why there is a distinction between intervening to prevent the loyalist air forces from massacring protesters, but not to prevent the ground-based military from doing the same. Is that a moral distinction, a legal distinction, or a practical distinction being made?

Incidentally, if you're not already following the three guys I linked above, you probably should be.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 12:32 PM | Comments (582)
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