Come on, we're not really going to do this, are we?

21% Romney, 17% for both Hucakbee and Trump.

If we're really desperate for a different candidate with a celebrity edge -- how about begging Fred Thompson to try again? But this time, not late to the party, and not slapdash-staffed.

As others have pointed out, people like Pawlenty aren't worried at this point because a lot of it is just pure name recognition stuff. And Romney's lead is very paper-tiger-ish.

Via Instapundit.

Posted by: Ace at 02:37 PM | Comments (603)
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Media? Media? No? No interest? None at all?

Authorities also found a gun and an ammunition clip in Michael Thomas' desk drawer when he was arrested Friday, FBI Special Agent Pamela Flick testified; and Thomas told her that if they had showed up later, he would have launched a shootout with police.

Thomas is the perp -- he's the one saying that if the police showed up later, he would have been prepared for a shootout.

LePage received three letters attributed to Thomas, saying among other things that the author was willing to sacrifice his life to shoot the governor. Thomas told agents on Friday that he would follow through on the threats if he had the means, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Stacey Neumann.

"This is escalating behavior. This is a very dangerous individual," she said. "The defendant has done nothing but instill fear in the victim and in the community."

If it's not The Narrative, it's not a fact.

The wonderful thing is that once one of these left-wing political-pornography addicts shoots someone, the media is actually going to have the gall to ask, "How did this happen? Why wasn't this on our radar?"

Thanks to Stumbo.

Posted by: Ace at 02:20 PM | Comments (54)
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This stinks worse than a dead fish's taint.

Speaking of witch.

Frau Blucher just emailed me to say "Three alarm makeover emergency."

Gee, I wonder if this has anything to do with anything.

In 2004, John Kerry won Wisconsin over George W. Bush by 11,380 votes out of 2.5 million cast. After allegations of fraud surfaced, the Milwaukee police department's Special Investigative Unit conducted a probe. Its February 2008 report found that from 4,600 to 5,300 more votes were counted in Milwaukee than the number of voters recorded as having cast ballots. Absentee ballots were cast by people living elsewhere; ineligible felons not only voted but worked at the polls; transient college students cast improper votes; and homeless voters possibly voted more than once.

Um, nothing was changed. Gee, I wonder why.

Actually, I shouldn't say that, because the GOP is now in power.

Honestly, we should have acted on voter fraud first, then, after this election, worked on union reform.

Thanks to J. for the reminder from Uncle Joe. When will we learn.

Posted by: Ace at 12:51 PM | Comments (327)
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There's a key difference here, too: That $500 billion came out of seniors' hides in order to fund a completely different group. That is, no benefit at all to seniors. Except to the extent they can feel good about paying for some stranger's health care.

The program became more unsustainable -- that's what happens when you already have a dramatically-underfunded program and take away $500 billion.

The Ryan plan, while it does include the element of those 55 or younger now having to pay for more of their care when they retire in 10-65 years, also does something for that group: It actually makes it sustainable. That is, it won't suddenly go bankrupt and leave people with no health care.

So the Ryan Plan takes a bit from those 55 or younger (and not current seniors, nor near-retirement folks) but gives them something in return: a system that will actually be in place and functioning as promised when they need it. Plus -- a government that won't collapse, generally. Which is nice.

Obama, on the other hand, took a half a trillion dollars from seniors to give it to other people, the young and poor. Now, I don't have anything against the young or poor (well, the young, honestly), but you can't pretend that seniors got something out of that exchange. It was all pain, no gain.

Remember how Obama used to promise that simply taking money out of the system would "bend the curve"? You know what he meant? That if we take money away on the supply side it would force prices lower because people simply would not have as much money to pay for health care.

So... when Obama did that, that was Good and Right, but if Ryan wants to make sure that no senior suddenly has the plug pulled on him because the system collapsed (as it must -- it is a mathematical certainty), then it's trying to kill old people?

Obama's theft of a half a trillion from them for no tangible benefit -- except they get some death panels out of the deal; that's pretty good I guess -- was good for seniors and Ryan's attempt to fix the structure so it continues to exist is bad for them?

Only in liberal-land. Only in liberal-land.

Here's a video of Rush Limbaugh talking this point up.

Another thing we have to add into our lexicon and repeat endlessly: Obama stole $500 billion from seniors' Medicare jut a year and a half ago.

Posted by: Ace at 12:36 PM | Comments (59)
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Survived? Or caused?

LetÂ’s examine the apocalyptic facts

”STOCKHOLM (AP) - Honeymoons aren't always easy for newlyweds, but six natural disasters. When Stefan and Erika Svanstrom of Stockholm set out on their 4-month-long honeymoon with their baby girl, ‘Damienette,’ on Dec. 6, they say they got more than they bargained for: Immediately they were stranded in Munich, Germany, due to one of Europe's worst snowstorms, he said. But that was just the beginning.”

Just the beginning indeedÂ…

(Note: The child’s actual name wasn’t provided in the article so a random substitute is being used on this post. –ed)

After leaving most of Western Europe a frozen and desolate wasteland, the familyÂ’s dark itinerary took them to Australia, which received a triple helping of despair:

”After that, he said, they experienced the devastation of a cyclone in Cairns, Australia, and the flooding in Brisbane, and narrowly escaped the bush fires in Perth.”

“Narrowly escaped.” Yes, let’s go with that. Or was it because they already had designs on their next target:

”Just before they arrived in New Zealand, the 6.3-magnitude earthquake hit Christchurch.”

Christchurch. Doubtful it was on their primary hit list. But, the name and all, you see. Irresistible. And since they were in the neighborhood why not do a structure hit before heading off toÂ…

”…Tokyo, they felt Japan's largest temblor since records began, he said "The trembling was horrible and we saw roof tiles fly off the buildings. It was like the buildings were swaying back and forth," said Svanstrom, who also said he survived the devastating tsunami that hit southeast Asia in 2004.”

There it is again. To the fine folks at AP: This word “survived” you keep using? I do not think it means what you think it means. Or was he merely testing the proverbial waters? The couple sounds threatening optimistic about the future:

”For newlyweds "we've certainly experienced more than our fair share of catastrophes in a marriage, but the most important thing is that we're still going strong," he said.”

ThatÂ’s good to hear. CanÂ’t wait to hear what their travel plans are for this year.

Posted by: Genghis at 11:14 AM | Comments (161)
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Compared to this guy, Chris Klein is a stone-cold placater.

A young model who worked as a personal assistant for Vince Shlomi--the TV pitchman responsible for the ShamWow and Slap Chop products--alleges that he wanted her to be his “love slave,” and offered to buy her eggs for $20,000 and pay her to sleep in his bed with him, according to a federal lawsuit.

Jennifer Kosinski, 23, also charges that Shlomi stalked her ex-boyfriend, used binoculars to watch her while she was on a Florida beach, and, when she sought to visit a relative stricken with cancer, he told her, “Why don’t you just see him when he’s in the grave.”

He paid her $4500 a month to be an escort, and when I say "escort," I actually mean "escort." That is, a platonic, non-sexual pretend-date. (At least according to her version of the facts; I'm a bit skeptical.)

Is she worth that? Well, click the link. She's worth something, that's for sure.

While chaperoning Shlomi at parties, Kosinski claims that she had to make sure that her boss “did not drink too much and did not get into trouble.” Shlomi, she added, did not handle alcohol well, witness his bloody February 2009 confrontation with a prostitute.

You know you're out-of-control when your escort has to keep you from fistfights with your whores.

Charlie Sheen just emailed me to say he's going to have to up his game.

...

When Kosinski rebuffed Shlomi’s advances, he allegedly called her a “b*tch” and a “c**t,” specifically because she “would not tell him the ‘secret formula’ that he claims existed for her to like him in a romantic manner.”

Dear Woman,

Sell me your eggs so I can sleep with them.

Tell me the secret formula for making you love me so we can co-create you as my sex slave.

You won't?

Whore.

This whole "eggs" business is a new one on me. Like, asking for specific internal body parts is... um, Gein-ey.

Posted by: Ace at 09:58 AM | Comments (198)
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His show will end later this year, but he has some sort of deal where he'll continue to develop shows for FoxNews.

I guess that means specials.

I'm not a Glenn Beck TV show fan (but man do his radio bits kill me). I think I had two problems with his show: First, as an adult male, I have a subconscious and irrational dislike of being taught to. I'm not saying this is Glenn Beck's problem; I'm saying it's mine. But I'm sure there are a lot of people who are subconsciously resentful of a professorial sort of lecture.

The other problem, from what I saw, is that he seemed to have Big Theories like every week. I just don't think you can come up with a Big Theory every week. Not without an awful lot of stinkers. Giving so much of his program over to Big Theory Explication seemed to me to be a mistake. I just always wondered where that funny, loose guy from the radio went at 5 PM every day. He just became this very jumped-up Mannichean prophet.

I'd even watch his Big Theory specials. As long as I knew they were not being padded with dubious sub-theories and shaky assertions, and we're being produced just to fill the hour.

I'm sort of thinking this was largely Beck's call. Because that show must have been pretty exhausting to do.

Posted by: Ace at 09:19 AM | Comments (179)
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I feel bad because I don't have any jokes to add and yet every moment I delay is a moment of your post-Dear Woman life you'll never get back. more...

Posted by: Ace at 08:59 AM | Comments (233)
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At least for the moment.

There's a lot of frustration within the GOP over the two-week CRs. I don't really understand that. We're cutting a little every week. Why be frustrated? Every time we cut another $2 or $4 or $6 billion it's all to the good.

The strategy is working -- slowly, but what, are we children who need to win now instead of slowly over the course of weeks?

Anyway, the last CR proposed by the GOP was for a $12 billion cut and two weeks of spending, plus full funding for the Department of Defense for the rest of the year.

I thought that was a big of a big bite, the kind that would invite a shutdown.

But I see some cleverness in it: The GOP can now, if it chooses, make the grand compromise of reducing the $12 billion cut for two weeks' spending into, say, $4 or even $6 billion for two weeks' spending.

See, we're compromising, and yet, we can still come back in two weeks and play the same game again.

This Pew poll suggests that equal numbers of people would blame Obama and the Congressional Republicans for the shutdown, if it happens.

We can safely assume that almost everyone blaming one or the other is that side's partisans. The numbers are about right, 39% blame the GOP, 36% blame Obama. 17% say both. That's pretty much the D/R/I breakdown.

Now, going forward, I'd expect those numbers to change a bit as independents began taking sides but there's no very good reason to think they'd break against us.

Given the fact that a shutdown would be nearly unnoticed at all by most Americans, why make a bad deal just to avoid a not-necessarily-bad outcome?

Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries would continue to receive benefits.

...

The administration sought to put a human face on the fallout of a shutdown, casting it as a potential blow to the economic recovery.

Among other consequences cited by the administration:

-The Environmental Protection Agency would cease issuing permits and stop reviewing environmental impact statements which will slow approval of projects.

- Military personnel would not get paid beyond Friday, but would continue to earn money that would be paid to them once the government resumes.

- National parks would be closed.

That part about military personnel not getting paid is the tough one -- which is exactly why Republicans attempted to take that threat off the table (by funding Defense throughout the rest of the year) and that's precisely why Obama and the Democrats won't go for that.

I think we should return with cuts of $4 billion, funding Defense for the rest of the year (that is, paychecks continue no matter what happens), and then return to the negotiating table -- this time without our troops' paychecks being held hostage by Obama and the Democrats.

Posted by: Ace at 08:34 AM | Comments (101)
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Okay, it's not a metaphor for anything. But it must be posted.

Stay with it-- it's a little too drawn-out. If you get bored skip ahead to 2:00. more...

Posted by: Ace at 07:59 AM | Comments (52)
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