Well.... gee, I wonder then what we'd hit first.

Wait, wait, don't tell me. It'll come, it'll come.

Iran might pound Persian Gulf cities with ballistic missiles and use swift boats to attack American war ships in an attempt to dissuade a U.S. attack on its nuclear arms sites, a new report states.

Tehran likely would employ a mixed game plan against the U.S. military consisting of "advanced technology" and "guerilla tactics," according to a research organization with close ties to the Pentagon.

...

An Iranian missile barrage on Gulf population centers, he said, could lead the United States and its allies to "take out their oil refineries."

"Then, their economy grinds to a halt," Cordesman said. "If Iran can't export [oil], it can't earn. And that creates critical problems for the regime."

"Every time they escalate, they open themselves to attack on their own refineries, their own missile systems, and their navy and air force," Cordesman said.

Iran also could use new weapons, like advanced ballistic missiles, to attack U.S. bases and other forces positioned around the Persian Gulf, wrote Mark Gunzinger...

I see they've got a lot of eggs in the "functioning ballistic missile" basket.

They would, the experts say, also use "proxy groups" to attack US interests and possibly the US itself. This is a "news" piece so I guess we're not allowed to say "Terrorists and probably Al Qaeda."

I don't want to make it sound casual, but Iran does in fact plan on using those nukes.

At some point we have to confront this.

Thanks to Kratos.

Posted by: Ace at 11:06 AM | Comments (229)
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Why no, no neutral fact-finder gets to rule on this.

Why of course, unelected, unimpeachable bureaucrats get to act as judge, jury, and executioner.

Why no, there is no appeal.

Why yes, I do think this is perfectly in keeping with the conception of American liberty.

Video below of Alito asking, basically, do you think any citizen who had not been yet subject to the EPA's hearing free, evidence free, appeal free imposition of penalties would think that this could possibly happen in America?

Which seems to be the main point. There used to be a doctrine, since abandoned as too loosey-goosey and subjective, that if a process "shocked the conscience" it was was unconstitutional.

I'm not calling for a return to that rudderless standard. I'm just saying, when a "legal" process is so one-sided and renders the victim powerless to even challenge it in court, most people would say, "Sure, happens all the time in Russia."

They would not imagine this was Standard Operating Procedure in the United States' EPA. more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:29 AM | Comments (165)
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No, really. Matthews agrees completely with Gingrich on three key points:

1. Kids can and should work at school; it's how they do it at Catholic school, and it instills values.

2. Work is valuable no matter what it is. He quotes the Latin, Laborare est orare, which translates to "To work is to pray."

3. Hoo-boy, does he agree that "Only the elites despise the idea of making money."

And yet, having agreed with Newt on every single point, he pronounces Gingrich "racist" and employing "racial codes" because he pronounced Juan William's first name as "Juan."

You might say, How else would you pronounce it? I don't know. Apparently Chris hears more of a "Wan" in the "Juan" (my God, this angels-on-the-head-of-a-pin stuff) and he knows that's racist.

And a gallon of irony spills but not a drop splashes on him: He declares that this campaign is going to be all about race and all about "coaxing" people to vote with their tribes, and that's bad.

After he just... essentially made the case that even though Gingrich was right, you must vote against him (or, rather, for Obama), because of... race.

Breathtaking. Video below, plus some extra.
more...

Posted by: Ace at 09:38 AM | Comments (167)
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Apparently people are being killed as part of a human-trafficking ring, and by that, I think they mean forcing American women to work as whores.

And if you give them any guff, they cut your head off.

Three beheadings in two different states and they happened here in the United States, not Mexico.

Former DEA supervisor Phil Jordan says all three beheadings have cartel written all over them. They happened in Arizona and Oklahoma in the past year.

A murder mystery is now unraveling on a stretch of North Reservation Road in Tucson, Ariz. County workers found a headless man lying on the side of the road Jan. 6. The manÂ’s hands and feet were reportedly missing, too.

“It would lead me to believe the message wanted to be sent. This is one of the ways they do it in Mexico, Colombia and other places,” says Jordan.

Jordan says the cartels are getting bolder in carrying out their beheadings across the border. He says we only used to see these crimes in Mexico.

“They don’t have any borders,” says Jordan.

More than 600 miles from the border, a 19-year-old human trafficking victim was found beheaded in Oklahoma. Carina Saunders was stuffed into a bag and left in a grocery store parking lot.

“People know if they get on the wrong side of the fence, they’ll be dealt with,” says Jordan.

The police chief in the area says two men running the trafficking ring killed Saunders to send a message to the other victims. Jordan says the cartelsÂ’ calling card is all over this case. Trafficking and smuggling are their top moneymakers. Revenge is the price of doing business.

“Definitely a cartel hit,” says Jordan.

More at Gateway Pundit, including another news video.

Posted by: Ace at 09:10 AM | Comments (96)
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As Wikipedia and other sites go dark (and I join them in protest, by going late), Rubio retracts his support of the measure.

Eh, good. I don't even follow the issue but I like this strange new innovation that citizen input plays some role in democratic processes. Let's give this a spin, see how it plays out.

Posted by: Ace at 08:57 AM | Comments (50)
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He's going to officially reject the Keystone XL Pipeline this afternoon.

I'm sure that when Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper visits China next month, the Chinese will say no thank you as well.

"I'm very serious about selling our oil off this continent, selling our energy products to Asia," he [Harper] told CTV television in an interview last month.

The easiest way to boost oil exports to China would be through Enbridge Inc's (ENB.TO) proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, which would carry tar sands-derived oil from Alberta to the Pacific Coast. There it would be loaded on to tankers and shipped to Pacific Rim markets.

Obama is simply siding with his environmentalist base (you know those Hollywood types that write all those checks to his campaign) over unions and workers and the national security of the United States. Priorities.

People wonder if Obama is doing damage to America out of incompetence or hate. It doesn't really matter, he's simply doing a tremendous amount of damage and has to go.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:20 AM | Comments (204)
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Good interview with Carolla, who explains that he doesn't feel bad about telling people to get a job and get out of poverty because he did so himself: "I feel uniquely qualified to tell people to get off their ass." (Video embed below the fold.)

In other right-leaning comic news, Rick Moranis wants to know how hard he's supposed to think about the social effects of his buying decisions. Like the impact on unions, or local businesses (if he buys from a national retailer).

A sillier passage is about funding Al Qaeda

The traffic was terrible. Here I was, going nowhere, idling in a quick-ticking metered medallion taxi, driving up the price of oil, edging the country further into runaway inflation while spewing noxious fumes into the precious air around me. I am such a horrible person.

The driver, a pleasant Middle-Eastern man who I did not suspect was part of, or supporting, any terrorist organizations, was sipping a very large cup from one of several dozen popular coffee shop locations within a three-block radius of my home. I was pleased that at least one of us was supporting the hardworking baristas of this great nation.

I wondered out loud if the driver thought the price of his beverage would be higher or lower if baristas were unionized. He told me that in his country only men could be baristas and if a woman was caught even trying to be a barista she would be roasted, percolated and covered in scalding, foamy nonfat goat's milk. He said "Only America is free. Only America is great. God Bless America."

It sounded a bit suspicious to me. Was I seeing something? Should I say something? I threw him a 10-spot and decided to walk. I wondered how much of that $10 would wind up in the hands of our sworn enemies and felt a pang of pride in the dedication of our defenders.

Thanks to BenK; second item via Hot Air's headlines. more...

Posted by: Ace at 07:58 AM | Comments (59)
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The biggest difference between the wealthy and the poor in this country is not (purely) economic -- it lies in the adherence to what Bryan Caplan calls “the founding virtues”. Much of America’s “poor” have pretty much given up on those institutions and habits that lead to personal fulfillment as well as wealth creation: marriage, religious faith, entrepreneurship, and a strong work ethic. The reason for this collapse in social and cultural ability can be laid directly at the door of the modern welfare state and the ascendance of post-modernist schools of thought like feminism and Frankfurt School cultural Marxism.

[A] growing proportion of the people who run the institutions of our country have never known any other culture. They are the children of upper-middle-class parents, have always lived in upper-middle-class neighborhoods and gone to upper-middle-class schools. Many have never worked at a job that caused a body part to hurt at the end of the day, never had a conversation with an evangelical Christian, never seen a factory floor, never had a friend who didn’t have a college degree, never hunted or fished. They are likely to know that Garrison Keillor’s monologue on Prairie Home Companion is the source of the phrase “all of the children are above average,” but they have never walked on a prairie and never known someone well whose IQ actually was below average.

The Democrat project over the past 100 years or so has been to replace the traditional family with “benevolent” and “enlightened” government, especially for the "poor". But the government does not love you; the government can't love you. It will never care for you in the way your kin and friends care for you. At best, the government is an absent-minded leviathan that may unthinkingly crush you as it moves about; at worst, it is a voracious beast that may turn on you and devour you when when its regular food is exhausted. The so-called ‘saftey net’ of the welfare state is an illusion, and a dangerous one at that.

The American federal government, ever since the so-called "New Deal" of the 1930's, has worked to remove the ties of familial love and responsibility, and replace them with dependence and servitude to the State. The social contract, that bedrock of civilization, has been -- perhaps -- fatally weakened. And not just in America, but the entire “enlightened” western world. more...

Posted by: Monty at 04:43 AM | Comments (248)
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Happy Wednesday.

When I was in high school you'd give your girlfriend or boyfriend your locker combination. These days kids are swapping passwords.

Court fines Polish pop star Doda for insulting the Bible. She said she was merely exercising her right to freedom of speech when she said the Bible's authors were drunk.

DNC, Obama taking fire from Democrats disappointed that he's going to be giving his convention speech from a venue named Bank of America.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:50 AM | Comments (107)
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I think Team Newt will take it and move on.

“I I had to vote in South Carolina in order to keep this think going I’d vote for Newt.”

Video of full statement here.

Endorsements in general are overrated but Newt gets Palin and Mitt gets McCain...Advantage Newt.

As a Newt supporter I'm pretty happy about this. Yes, as some of you may know I'm not exactly the biggest Palin fan in the world, no it's true, but this is very good news for Newt*. After a week of his lame Bain attacks people were wondering again just how conservative Newt was. I think that's a pretty strange question, especially if you think Mitt is even remotely better but it was out there. Palin's stamp of approval helps put that to rest.

Romney is still the favorite going into Saturday's vote but after last night's debate, tonight's Palin news and another debate on Thursday...this might not be over yet.

*When it comes to these kinds of things I take the Churchillian view, "If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons". So...Go Palin!

Posted by: DrewM at 06:15 PM | Comments (163)
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