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Posted by: Open Blogger at 02:23 PM | Comments (166)
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Talk about tunnel vision.

I didn't hear about this.

The last month has been a horror show for the U.S. economy, with economic data falling off a cliff, according to Mike Riddell, a fund manager at M&G Investments in London.

"It seems that almost every bit of data about the health of the US economy has disappointed expectations recently," said Riddell, in a note sent to CNBC on Wednesday.

"US house prices have fallen by more than 5 percent year on year, pending home sales have collapsed and existing home sales disappointed, the trend of improving jobless claims has arrested, first quarter GDP wasnÂ’t revised upwards by the 0.4 percent forecast, durables goods orders shrank, manufacturing surveys from Philadelphia Fed, Richmond Fed and Chicago Fed were all very disappointing."

"And thatÂ’s just in the last week and a bit," said Riddell.

Pointing to the dramatic turnaround in the Citigroup "Economic Surprise Index" for the United States, Riddell said the tumble in a matter of months to negative from positive is almost as bad as the situation before the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.

And they mean a very bad surprise.

Posted by: Ace at 01:35 PM | Comments (295)
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Heading out to have a drink or five. I think Wolf Blitzer just turned me into an alcoholic.

Posted by: Ace at 01:21 PM | Comments (138)
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Only good question: "You would know if this was your underwear, right?" Answer: Laughs, changes topic (thanks for flashing that again to me).

He is now alleging that picture may have been doctored. His private security firm will get to the bottom of it. Keeps hitting "when you're named Weiner you get jokes like this" crap.

Refuses to say if he ever took a picture like that of himself. Suggests "Who knows," because it could be "manipulated."

Goes on to claim this happens hundreds of thousands times per day. (!!!) It does?

Cybersex does. I don't know about hacking a Congressman's account.

Now using the word "spoof" a lot. "Every day, Wolf, things happen to people like this."

Not a federal case.

Why is Wolf Blitzer not asking him if he DM'd her?

Why does he not ask why he was following her?

Why does he not ask about 545InSeattle?

Oh now he's asking that. "It's a terrible coincidence."

Uh huh.

Ah, now he's saying how "feisty" he is, being "combative" with Republicans. Says "maybe someone punked him back." Says that is more "reasonable" interpretation.

Now says "why go after this person," this prankster. Claims he's protecting the person who "punked" him, because he doesn't want to expose him to this media onslaught.

Asks about Ginger Lee (the porn actress/stripper). "Another person who's gotten dragged into this... A fairly pro-forma thing." Claims it was some kind of automated thank-you. But when pressed on this, will only say it was "most likely" that. Will not commit to that.

And now attempting to claim that this poor woman must not be dragged through the mud as way to get out of question. Um, we're not dragging her through the mud. She's not the wrongdoer.

"Are you protecting anyone?" Jeeze Lousie, set him up more, Wolf. He says: "Yes. My wife." He's protecting her, you see.

We have now officially entered "please respect my family's privacy."

Notice that on every question he has a human shield-- he claims that he can't answer questions about himself because of these other people.

Takes shot at Breitbart, claiming Breitbart is attacking these other people.

A new human shield: His sister in law. Can you believe someone noted he was following his sister in law? Leave this poor woman alone!

Now Wolf is essentially congratulating Weiner for handling today's kitty-cat interview better than yesterday's. Also tells him how wonderful his wife is.

Good Lord All Mighty, he hits the "Weiner joke" non-excuse again. Folks, this is just because his name is Weiner. Happens thousands of times a day, to people named Weiner.

Oh my God, attempting to get Weiner to help himself, Wolf puts the words in his mouth, "And you're not ruling out law enforcement?" Weiner again declines, again. But Blitzer takes it as a "maybe," so he's innocent.

Motherfucker. And he congratulates him with a hand-shake and says to Weiner, "You should have done this yesterday." Good job, Anthony! With me playing press agent, instead of Dana Bash playing reporter, you almost didn't embarrass yourself!

CNN anchor comes back and hits the "Weiner joke" again, it's all just that.

The Dana Bash interview never happened.

It is now to be suppressed in favor of Take Two with Walking Vagina.

It never happened. It is an unterview.

Update: Saving The Public Fisc, One Step At A Time:
ABC: At one point, Weiner suggested he was saving taxpayer money by not calling for an investigation into such a trivial matter.

Yeah, first thing I thought too. He's cutting the deficit. Doin' what he can.

Thanks to momma.

Posted by: Ace at 12:23 PM | Comments (311)
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Recovery Summer II is looking an awful lot like the original.

The Labor Department will release May jobs data in Washington Friday, but ahead of that, private payroll firm ADP reports fewer than expected new jobs in May.

The company's National Employment Report says nonfarm private employment grew by 38,000 jobs, far short of the average economist forecast of 175,000 new jobs, as surveyed by Bloomberg.

That plus more bad news from Greece and dismal US manufacturing numbers added up to a bad day on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) fell 245 points, or 2%, with all but one of the blue chip index's 30 components lagging.

With economic news like this, I'm guessing Obama is trying to find a way to merge the Sarah Palin vacation tour with Weinergate to keep his name out of the news as long as possible.

Posted by: DrewM at 12:19 PM | Comments (45)
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I sense this is mostly political. I can conjure up a legitimate reason in my mind: Maybe, as far as timing, we're waiting for all of the troops to come home.

But I don't really buy that.

There is no rule that says veterans of a hard-fought war only get one ticker-tape parade.

Is there? Did I miss a rule they only get one tour through the Canyon of Heroes?

Jeeze Louise, sometimes defeated sports teams get more than that.

They fought hard. They won. Despite horrific odds, they won.

In fact, liberals should be the first ones to call for this: Their belief is that Bush sent them on an unwinnable war.

And yet they won.

So shouldn't they get extra credit for that?

Even if you hate Bush, if you really do "love the troops," as everyone claims and some really feel, then let's have a proper expression of gratitude.

Via Hot Air's headlines.

Posted by: Ace at 11:30 AM | Comments (119)
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Wait wait wait: Did I predict that on Saturday, and then Sunday, and then Monday, and then Tuesday?

Did I predict that? Oh yeah, I guess I did.

Gee, how is it I seem to know every move he'll make?

Am I psychic?

Or am I simply capable of wargaming this out from the first assumption that he's guilty?

Oh, and this idiot also just said that someone else sent the Tweet, but he can't say "with certitude" it's not his junk.

What?

Andrew Breitbart had a picture of his junk?

How did Andrew Breitbart get that?

What other people does Andrew Breitbart have junk-pictures of?

Video Up: At the Right Scoop.

I'm sensing... panic... desperation... an inability to talk his way out of this... increasing skepticism... I sense.. he's really working on his wife to finally give that interview, which so far she's refused to do, where she sits next to him and holds his hand as Diane Sawyer asks, in soft-focus, about "the normal problems people have in a marriage"...

These are my psychic premonitions. Do not misuse them. These are gifts.

From Satan.

But still gifts, and we still shouldn't treat them dismissively.

Even Satan has feelings.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:19 AM | Comments (661)
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Yeah, that's all I'll say. "Martin Bashir." This sentence (or independent clause, if you're going to be a dick about it) needs no verb, no object.

The sentence "Martin Bashir" stands as a communicative unit, a declarative statement. It says it all.

Via Hot Air, where the comments are jumpin', or at RCP.

Don't believe me?

Martin Bashir.

That's all that needs to be said.

Oh I guess I can say one more thing: Looks like MSNBC is really, really looking to talk about something besides what everyone else is talking about.

Posted by: Ace at 10:01 AM | Comments (134)
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Sorry, got caught up in a spat, but here's something.

I honestly am going to let this thing pass. I know it's too much. Turns out, not today.

I guess I picked the wrong day to quit Weiner.

Posted by: Ace at 09:23 AM | Comments (208)
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Hero.

An Army Ranger who lost his right hand and suffered shrapnel wounds after throwing a grenade away from his fellow soldiers will receive the Medal of Honor July 12, the White House announced Tuesday.

Sgt. 1st Class Leroy Arthur Petry will be the second living Medal of Honor recipient from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Petry, like Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, who received the nationÂ’s highest award for valor in November, will be honored for actions while serving in Afghanistan.

Petry, 31, will be recognized for his actions during combat operations May 26, 2008, in Paktya, Afghanistan.

The action for which SFC Petry will be decorated occurred in May of 2008.

The Army News Service said Petry and another soldier came under fire as they searched a courtyard. Petry was shot through both legs and the other soldier also was wounded, the news service said. When another sergeant arrived to assess their wounds, insurgents threw a grenade that exploded and wounded that sergeant and the other soldier again.

As two more Rangers tried to reach them, another grenade landed beside the three wounded men, the news service said. Petry grabbed it and tried to throw it away from the others, but it exploded as he released it, blowing off his right hand. He placed a tourniquet around the injury and radioed for help.

The two unhurt Rangers engaged the enemy, but one was killed in the firefight. The two wounded men with Petry then opened fire and killed the last attacker, the Army News Service said.

"If not for Staff Sgt. Petry's actions, we would have been seriously wounded or killed," Higgins later wrote in a report cited by the Army News Service.

3 years to get to this point? I'm pretty sure the first Medals of Honor were awarded before December 7, 1944. Something is terribly wrong with how we are handling the process to recognize our servicemen and women (yes, it's "we" who are responsible. In our system the military, like all government agencies answer to the people, therefore we are ultimately responsible for how it acts).

While I'm very glad that the military is no longer treating the Medal of Honor as an exclusively posthumous award, they are still be very, very stingy about awarding it. Yes, I know the Medal is not something to be handed out like candy but we've been in two wars for the better part of a decade. Petry will be just the ninth recipient as part of the War on Terror.

I'm very confident that there are more individuals who deserve to be recognized with the Medal of Honor. This isn't simply about recognizing extraordinary individuals. A cadre of Medal of Honor recipients (especially surviving ones) will be an important resource, link and example for future generations of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines to all the heroes of the last 10 plus years.

Men like SFC Petry don't do what they do for medals or recognition but that doesn't mean we shouldn't ensure they all know how thankful we are to them and amazed by what they do.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:56 AM | Comments (115)
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