I saw Jonah Goldberg goof on Amish Sexts yesterday. Like "Who is thine daddy?" or "Taketh mine manhood."

Yeah, so. Amish -- but not dead.

Pennington said that after the girl started getting the texts, she turned her cellphone over to her mother and the mother acted as if she were the girl.

"The mother made sure this person understood that this girl was 12 years old," Pennington said.

Pennington said the messages started out innocently, but eventually the man texting wrote that he was a 21-year-old Amish man named Willard and asked the girl to send naked pictures of herself and asked if she wanted to "make out."

Pennington said the man continued to send texts and the mother turned the cellphone over to police.

Pennington said Yoder also sent five pictures and two videos to the girl's cellphone, some of which included naked photos of him. Police then used the cellphone to set up the meeting.

The Amish Chris Hansen interviewed him at the house, asking, "I see you brought a lot of things with you... some mead. Honeymead? Why would you bring honeyed mead to the home of a 12 year old girl?

"And what are these? Lambskins? What were you planning to do with these oiled lambskins, Mr. Yoder?

"And a butterchurn? Were you planning on having her making fresh butter? Oh, you were planning on having her make fresh butter. I guess that's not illegal but that's still not right."

Posted by: Ace at 02:56 PM | Comments (100)
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Couple updates on PostWeinerGate at Patterico: Gennette admits she sent the DMs talking about flirting with Weiner, but, in a comment left at Patterico's, seem to be claiming they were put-on DMs intended to punk the sockpuppets, and of course Stranahan continues asking, "Hast seen the White Whale?"

For those who were wondering where the hell Weiner's actual resignation letter was -- if you, like me, began to suspect he was going to un-retire like George Foreman -- it was supposed to be read in the House today.

Now, a lot of you have grown impatient with this story. I... I just lost interest myself, so I get that.

However, you gotta admit, some of this possible skullduggery might be interesting:

According to [Page 6], [NYTC Mayor Mike] Bloomberg's former political mastermind Kevin Sheekey has been going around boasting that he used his knowledge of Weiner's "kinky ways" to persuade him to exit the [mayoral race against Bloomberg in 2009]. Sheekey has reportedly been telling people he's been onto Weiner since he was a City Council member. A spokesman for Sheekey denies the claim, but one can't forget the suspiciously well-timed stories about Weiner and a bunch of young foreign models that hit the Post within weeks of his withdrawal from the race.

Hmmmm...

Okay, I get it, it's still boring.

Speaking of boring, there's the untalented, unfunny, unsmart Cenk Uygur, who, per this flashback, will inform you it's "proven" that Anthony Weiner was hacked, and then goes on to declare the story "over."

Seriously, does the Make a Wish foundation work with people in their 30s? And is "uncomfortable, jerky camera presence" now a recognized disease?

more...

Posted by: Ace at 01:59 PM | Comments (125)
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So, the Westboro Satanic Cult showed up.

I don't think anyone doing this Slutwalk is my kind of people, but I have to admit, this girl made me chuckle.

You can click on the sideshow but I'm telling you right now there are no boobies. Not even the boobies of a horrendous girl who you almost don't want to see her boobies anyway but then you're like, oh what the hell, sure, I'll give them a charity look, because they are boobies and you're just programmed that way.

Just a lot of piercings and painted sneakers.

By The Way: Go figure, few of these girls are dressed as sluts. They're dressed as post-punk jeans and crappy t-shirt hipsters.

The girls at Hot Chicks With Douchebags dress like sluts.

But they don't go to these crunch-granola rallies where they yell and chant and form indigenous-craft drum-circles and try to convince people they're in very great danger of being cat-called at any moment.

They're too busy being hot and awesome.

Not at the Slutwalk.

And, of course, hooking up with douchebags.

Posted by: Ace at 01:21 PM | Comments (94)
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I don't really believe in predictions this far in advance, but people have to fill their things up with content.

He predicts that Republicans are likely to win Republican Senate seats in North Dakota, Missouri, Montana, and Nebraska. He also sees chances for the GOP to take seats in Virginia, New Mexico and Wisconsin. A sweep would give the Republicans 54 Senate seats and make Sen. Mitch McConnell the majority leader.

And in jarring news for the Democrats, he said that the GOP can "compete" and possibly take Democratic-held seats in Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, West Virginia, and Hawaii. Additional victories in six of those would give the GOP a filibuster-proof 60-seat super majority that would effectively ice President Obama's agenda, if he's reelected, or greatly boost a GOP president.

Yeah, if we get 59, I'm going to blow a fuse over it, if you know what I mean, and I think you do.

Rove says Obama's the One. Termer.

Among the obvious factors -- the economy is bad and it does not look like it's poised for V-shaped rebound any time soon -- is... well, more obvious factors.

And his health-care reform still holds its unique place as the only major piece of social legislation that became less popular after it was passed. According to yesterday's Pollster.com average of recent surveys, 38% approve of ObamaCare, while its survey average when the bill was passed in March 2010 showed that 41% approved.

And one non-obvious one:

Finally, Mr. Obama has made a strategic blunder. While he needs to raise money and organize, he decided to be a candidate this year rather than president. He has thus unnecessarily abandoned one of incumbency's great strengths, which is the opportunity to govern and distance himself from partisan politics until next spring. Instead, Team Obama has attacked potential GOP opponents and slandered Republican proposals with abandon. This is not what the public is looking for from the former apostle of hope and change.

It plays to his only strength, which is, apparently, the Job Interview Process.

The Job Doing Process, not so much.

Posted by: Ace at 01:03 PM | Comments (128)
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Miserable. As Miserable as the end of the Carter/Reagan recession, with one big difference: At this point in Reagan's term, we were about to post a quarter of 10.9% GDP growth and grow (with one brief pause) through the end of Clinton's second term.

Andy notes "break out the parachute pants and the Madonna cassettes." Indeed, that's an excellent way of noting, in a tangible way, exactly how long it's been since it was this bad.

And I can't resist posting 80s videos anyway.

Pulling from this list, the Misery Index has not been this high since the below songs ruled the radio.

By the way, I'm including a few bad songs too, because it's bad songs that date things. Good songs tend to stick around for a long time and thus don't particularly implicate a time, while bad songs are quickly forgotten.

So when you hear Gloria, you know: Oh, right. That was 1983.

It hasn't been this bad since people bought Laura Brannigan's album, Brannigan.

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Posted by: Ace at 11:43 AM | Comments (388)
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This is why I hunt them.

So, a woman uses a port-a-john at a Yoga conference. She notices something moving under the toilet-hole -- let's euphemize this sludge-pit as "the tank" -- and runs out. She asks a man to check, and yup, there's a dude down there, wearing a tarpaulin, covered in what you'd imagine he'd be covered in.

He is described as a white male, about 20 years old, 6ft 4ins to 6ft 8ins tall, thin build, with short dark hair and wearing dark grey sweatpants and no shirt or shoes.

Witnesses say the suspect had several cuts on his back and legs. The suspect was also wearing leather bracelets on each wrist, officials said.

Police are trying to trace the man who is being sought on charges of criminal attempt to make unlawful sexual contact.

One witness told officers he believed the suspect uses the name 'Sky,' and that he may be a transient.

You know what they call it when hobos do this? A "Soup Kitchen."

America is on the decline. When I was a lad, we always dressed properly in button-down shirt and dress shoes when we hid beneath toilets like deranged trolls, laying in wait for women to relieve themselves.

This couple appears wholesome by contrast.

Thanks to rd.

Posted by: Ace at 11:12 AM | Comments (263)
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The media of course has been slanting this story all along.

They claim the Republicans "won't agree" to a debt limit increase. What they mean is that Republicans won't agree to a debt limit increase on the Democrats' terms.

Funny, they never report the corollary: That Democrats refuse to agree to a deal on the Republicans' terms.

Seems both sides are bargaining here but only one is called out for not simply agreeing to the other's opening position.

Now the Democrats have made it clear what they want.

What they always want.

What they always have wanted.

What they always will want.

In the future, when time travel is a mature technology, and we develop (per Douglas Adams) 50 new verb tenses to describe events which technically will happen in the future by means of changing the past -- What they all-whens habben willen ur-wanten.

They want tax increases.

Why knock me over with a frigging feather.

One of the Democrats participating in bipartisan debt discussions said he's "very disappointed" his Republican counterpart has ditched negotiations over an impasse on taxes, but says he hopes to continue working with the group in a different context.

He also made an impassioned case that new tax revenues be part of any deal to raise the debt limit that involves significant cuts to entitlement programs.

"I'm disappointed that Leader Cantor's withdrawn," said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus during a hearing on health care spending. "I think we should stay at the table. I think we should keep working, difficult as it is, and try to balance between Medicare cuts -- additional Medicare cuts -- so long as there is commensurate additional revenue. We need balance here."

The Democratic Party

The Government must endure, The Government must prosper, The Government must triumph.

Posted by: Ace at 10:23 AM | Comments (143)
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The power of the passive voice.

As you know, the passive voice is disfavored precisely because it conceals the actual human actor in a sentence. Often this is done out of laziness. Sometimes it's done because, as seems to be the case here, there is a human actor pushing the story, but the reporter wishes to hide that fact from the readership, and pretend that this state of affairs has arisen organically and ex nihilo (ex nihilo is Latin for "a liberal spinner in the reporter's Verizon Friends & Family Circle who will write the reporter's article for her so all she has to do is sign her name at the top and hit 'send'").

Althouse picks up on it, as does Instapundit.

Posted by: Ace at 10:00 AM | Comments (120)
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Still not confirmation...

A Republican campaign veteran tells us that Texas Governor Rick Perry has decided to run for President, though the official word from Team Perry is still a definite maybe.

Our normally reliable Republican source reports that Mr. Perry has surveyed the field and decided to get in the race later this summer, perhaps around the time of the national prayer meeting that Mr. Perry is hosting on August 6 at a Houston football stadium. Our source also reports that Mr. Perry is aiming to compete in the Iowa Straw Poll, even though it occurs just a week later, on August 13. The thinking is that apparent front-runner Mitt Romney "does not reflect the Republican Party" and is therefore vulnerable to a credible challenge from the right, especially after Mr. Romney's recent squishy remarks on global warming.

Yeah, I don't know about waiting so long, but whatever.

Pretty much everything Perry does is consistent with a run, from talking to Giuliani (and, hear tell, Wall Street money-men), and checking out the lay of the land in New Hampshire.

Bryan Preston wonders why Politico is relying upon bottom-feeding wannabe-political-hatchet-man no-account no-name nobody blogger Mike Stark, who could not possibly know anything about this, as a background source for its Perry rumors article.

I'm trying to get comment from Ben Smith on Twitter, but he's just deflecting, not denying. I don't know if he knows the answer or not (it wasn't his article).

Meanwhile -- and I admit, this looks bad -- Rick Perry's red Prius was recovered by state troopers, abandoned at a highway rest stop.
more...

Posted by: Ace at 09:32 AM | Comments (261)
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CBO Director Doug Elmendorf is testifying at the House Budget Committee today and is pretty much ripping up the administration's approach to the budget and economic policy.

You may remember that the Senate voted 97-0 to not take up the budget Obama submitted. The excuse Democrats gave for not supporting their President's budget was that it was superseded by Obama's deficit reduction speech.

Well, today Elmendorf said, "just words".

Ouch.

Jim Petholoukis is live tweeting the hearing. A couple of more nuggets from Elmendorf:

Boom Boom Pow! CBO's Elmendorf: "Higher marginal tax rates do reduce economic activity ."

Ka-Blam! CBO Elmendorf: Raising tax rates on rich hurts more than raising tax on everyone else. (Dem wasn't expecting that answer)

I'm going to guess the liberal won't be so quick to call the CBO the "Gold Standard" of budget analysis anymore.

Related: Looks like the GOP is pulling out of the Sheriff Joe led debt reduction talks. It's almost as if this was simply a stalling tactic by the administration or something.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:56 AM | Comments (84)
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