The new Brown Shirts will be blue

Hat tip, DHP.

To be or not to be...THOR!!!

If it happens, this would be the oddest choice to direct a comic adaptation ever. Then again, so was casting Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man.

Definitely another indication how seriously people are regarding these properties today. That, or indication of how desperate Branagh is to know the soft, warm touch of commercial success.

Hot tamale!

A 33-year-old British man just died from eating too-hot chili.

Are the British even capable of making chili? How hot can a turnip get??

Yet another word they don't spell right, too, I see.

Burning down the house!

This is phenomenal. Phenomenal. Not so much the production values, but the facts contained herein. Watch it and pass it on, because the Left is 1) lying through its teeth and 2) well positioned to walk off with the election on this issue if the truth isn't shouted from every rooftop and laptop in the land.

Fact: Clinton Era policy and recent Democrat crony capitalism caused this financial meltdown.

Fact: Bush and McCain tried to put the breaks on this mess, first in 2003, then in 2005.

Fact: Barack Obama has received more money from Fannie Mae than any senator in the past 20 years. A lot more.

I welcome all attempts to refute these facts. I'm even turning the comments on briefly for that express purpose. But you'd better use facts to refute facts.

And with even The New York Times confirming McCain and Bush Administration efforts to reign in the subprime insanity through tighter regulation, you've got your work cut out for you.



Favorite fact I'd like to see refuted: #3 above - How Barack Obama didn't receive 20 times the political contributions from Fannie Mae of any senator going back a full two decades -- 49 times the amount McCain did. ($42,116 to $862... How long were these two gentlemen in office respectively again?) And how sub-prime king and former Fannie CEO Jim Johnson wasn't a campaign staffer for Barack Obama until he resigned amid controversy earlier this year.

Seriously. If McCain isn't game enough to ride this pony to victory in the debate tonight, he's a fool who deserves to lose.

Death in the Corn III

2 Para's Jason Rawstron, KIA Sept. 12, 2008

Part three of Michael Yon's FOB Gibraltar series is up.

"Every single person I talk with in Helmand, Kandahar, Kabul and Jalalabad -- whether Afghan or expat -- can see that the Taliban are growing stronger, and nobody respects the government in Kabul. It’s patently obvious that we are losing this war."

Winning every engagement, but losing the war.

"My first month back in Afghanistan leaves mixed impressions. Clearly we are losing and the clock is ticking. But then, we nearly lost Iraq in 2006, yet that war was turned around at the very brink of disaster. Losing doesn’t mean lost. It means try harder and try smarter. Keep slugging and keep thinking."

If you're not checking Yon's blog on a regular basis, you're missing out in a big way. The origins story of the local farmer/sniper here is the kind of eye-opening stuff you'll find nowhere else short of being there yourself.

Then, just for fun, help him identify an ancient coin and some slightly less ancient rifles found in a Jalalabad market in his Whatzis? post. Fantastic photos.

So it IS their fault!

Barney Frank: hand on fanny, hands OFF Fannie

And here I was quietly thinking Rush Limbaugh was embarrassing us by trying to pin the financial crisis on just the Democrats. Then I read this... From the New York Times, no less. Note the 2003 dateline.

"Among the groups denouncing the [BUSH ADMINISTRATION] proposal today were the National Association of Home Builders and Congressional Democrats who fear that tighter regulation of the companies could sharply reduce their commitment to financing low-income and affordable housing.

'These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. 'The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.' "

Evidently the 'Times' assumed this was egg on Republican face, so it repeatedly reminds which party stood where:

"Representative Melvin L. Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, agreed.

'I don't see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing,' Mr. Watt said. "

The Republican response to Democrat obstructionism back in 2003?

" 'The regulator has not only been outmanned, it has been outlobbied,' said Representative Richard H. Baker, the Louisiana Republican who has proposed legislation similar to the administration proposal and who leads a subcommittee that oversees the companies. ... 'This is not world-class regulatory work.' ''

Did I mention that was in 2003? As for John McCain...

"...Oh, and there is one little footnote to the story that's worth keeping in mind while Democrats point fingers between now and Nov. 4: Senator John McCain was one of the three cosponsors of S.190, the bill that would have averted this mess."

No wonder getting back to D.C. was looking like a better PR opportunity for John McCain than Friday's debate.

Yep. They gave away the store, and the poor were "helped" from their apartments right onto the street with a brief detour through some really nice pads.

Can't wait to see how Obama's plans for free college, energy and health care turn out.

Now excuse while I start stockpiling canned goods and batteries.

Cage gets medieval on our hinies

I like Nicholas Cage as much as the next guy, but get ready for the best worst Euro accent since Kevin Costner as Robin Hood. Maybe since Tony Curtis in The Black Shield of Falworth. Maybe worst ever.

Biden quote of the day

Ah, gees... He's talking again?

Katie Couric sat down to give Joe Biden a massage recently and was evidently shiatsu'ing so loudly she missed a rare but beautiful compound Bidenism...

"When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed. He said, 'look, here's what happened.' "

Clearly The Plagiarizer with the higher IQ than you has a thing for recycling the words of others, but this one's a work of art. I'd retort with something really funny at this point, but Jesse Walker over at Reason already did:

"And if you owned an experimental TV set in 1929, you would have seen [FDR]. And you would have said to yourself, 'Who is that guy? What happened to President Hoover?' "

The only positive from Obama in the White House (not including P. Diddy partying with bitches and ho's in the Lincoln Bedroom) would be a guaranteed four years of Joe Biden healing the lame with the sheer wattage of his intellect.

Obama and Ayers sittin' in a tree...

Ironic

God bless the WSJ for doing what the rest of journalism has studiously avoided -- reporting. (God bless Dirty Harry for the link.)

Amnesty for Stupidity

Business end of the Bull

Looking for some wider perspective on this whole bailout thing? Pat Buchanan has it.

"...About one thing we may be sure. The U.S. deficit and national debt are going to soar. The credit rating of the United States, as this nation of non-savers has to borrow abroad to save its banks, and their banks, is going to fall. We are going to be a poorer nation and people."

Pat Buchanan speaks the truth.

Emmys at 60 running on fumes

Seriously, Emmys... This is all you've got?

This was the 60th anniversary of the Emmys -- essentially the 60th anniversary of TV. Yet apart from the obligatory shot of Lucy on the assembly line, Clint Eastwood on 'Rawhide' and a few other mini moments, there was a glaring lack of respect for anything made before 1965. (Pre-activist TV/Norman Mailer era, ya see.)

Trotting out a flaming-lib, near-senile Tommy Smothers for a totally political award about summed it up.

And in the montage of stars who had passed on this year, note who got applause and who didn't...

No applause:
Charlton Heston
Richard Widmark
Deborah Kerr
Syd Charisse
William F. Buckley

Much applause:
George Carlin
Bernie Mac
Tim Russert (But only when it became apparent he was interviewing Hillary Clinton in the clip.)

The show was lame, lame, lame even without the liberal grandstanding. The opening bit featuring a grip of reality TV hosts was physically painful to watch. Then came the avalanche of politics... Oscar-like wins for stuff nobody has seen ('Recount')... Martin Sheen back in his 'West Wing' Oval Office telling us to vote... Colbert and Stewart making prune jokes about John McCain... (Ironically, Stewart mainly skewered his leftist audience when he hosted the Oscars last year. What, is it an election year or something?)

Worst of all, 'Lost' and 'The Office' were shut out.

Josh Grobin's theme song medley was kinda cool, as was Ricky Gervais reclaiming his Emmy from Steve Carell. Funny, clever stuff. Other than that... Wow.

'War Heroes' big screen bound?

I won't be confused for a fanboy anytime soon, but here's word of a comic-based project that really intrigues.

Members of the U.S. armed forces are already superheroes, so I appreciate the subtle symbolism likely at work here. Nice to see mass-murdering Middle Eastern terrorists as the bad guys for a change, too.

I'm not familiar with the novel, but Millar's military family background, the fact he's a gun collector, and the premise of the story itself all suggest a right-leaning property crafted around a killer, highly commercial concept.

Now, looks like Hollywood has come a calling. If this turns out as subversively conservative as 'Dark Knight,' expect serious box office.

Elementary, my dear Watson!

This kick-arse Sherlock Holmes project just gets cooler with every update. Fast floating to the top of my must-see list, right below the Spielberg/Peter Jackson Tintin project.

Obama fever heats up the NBA!

Doesn't do the Olympics or national anthem, but...

Obama supporters -- the gift that keeps on giving, yo.

" 'The Star-Spangled Banner' is going on. I don't celebrate this [expletive]. I'm black. Obama '08."

So does this make Howard Obama's No. 1 Fan? Still has to compete with him, him, him and them. Oh, and him. (Luckily he preferred Hillary. At least in the primaries.)

But actually, Josh Howard just needs to learn some communication skills, says Mav's owner and ultra-liberal billionaire/ultra-liberal movie mogul Marc Cuban. Josh is really a great guy.

No disciplinary action expected from the NBA. Shocker.

Death in the Corn: Part I

Michael Yon's latest dispatch takes us to a British Forward Operating Base in remotest Afghanistan. As always, it's something special you'll find nowhere else in the mainstream media and more than worth reading.

This war is just beginning. Great war is in the air. ... Afghanistan is a time machine. Primitive men fight with modern weapons, radios and telephones. The Taliban’s eagerness to embrace ignorance will doom them eventually, but how many of us will they kill first? They are a relic of the beasts in our nature.

The asides about rampant Taliban, Afghan and Iraqi homosexuality are particularly creepy. The resolve and emotional resilience of NATO troops is particularly inspiring.

Talk about life on another planet.

If you're up for some more, don't miss Yon's reporting on the sucess of an amazing logistics feat deep in hostile territory in his Where Eagles Dare dispatch from late last month.

Virtual Frontiers

Man, I hope I live long enough to see this, because I gotta get me one of these.

(Thanks to Floyd over at DHP for the heads-up.)

Hurricane Ike hates brown people

There's nothing funny about the storm set to pulverize Texas, but how can you not get a smile from something CNN en Español's Glenda Umaña actually just said on Gringo CNN...

"There is a clear and strong alert from Homeland Security to illegal immigrants: 'Please evacuate.' "

Actually, she said "Home Security," but that's a whole nuther joke. And I'm not racist.

Actually, she said "Ham Secoorty," but that's a whole nuther nuther joke. And, seriously, I'm not racist.

In all seriousness though, despite the name of this blog, our prayers do go out to the approximately 25% of people down there in at least one area reportedly still in Ike's way after declining to evacuate.

Somehow, I have a feeling I'd be one of them if I didn't have a family to worry about. In fact, I'd probably be out on a longboard right about now. (Sadly, I can guarantee I'd be the dork in the photo above.)

Journey to the center of the world

American flag near a Russian checkpoint in Central Georgia

Today we welcome Michael J. Totten to the blogroll. Just found him via Michael Yon, and I'm glad I took the time.

Like Yon, Totten has been to more dangerous and interesting places than most mainstream media stars combined, usually alone and armed only with laptop and digital camera. Which he puts to good use chronicling a few facts you won't find in the MSM either.

"Someone planted an American flag on the side of the road.

'Look at that,' Goltz said.

It isn't likely that an American planted that flag."

His journey from Azerbaijan to as far inside South Ossetia as mohawked militia men would let him is a great read.

"...The road was otherwise empty until we came upon another Russian checkpoint. Two soldiers stood next to an armored personnel carrier and a Russian flag they had erected on a pole. The American flag we had passed earlier was perhaps only five miles behind us. An American flag and a Russian flag were planted just a few minutes away from each other inside a third country. Georgia felt like the center of the world."

The piece covers everything from the finer points of travel by old Soviet rail in Georgia to the gay porn requirements of surviving modern Russian military training.

He definitely has a gift for putting the reader right there with him.

"The irregulars were not wearing full uniforms, but they were armed with rifles and had unsheathed hunting knives tucked into their belts. Unlike the uniformed Russians, these two had blonde hair and blue eyes. ... One had shaved his head over his ears and wore what looked like a wide mohawk. He was built like a heavyweight wrestler.

I did not even think of taking their picture. These men narrowed their eyes and stared holes through me. They looked distinctly like psychopaths, as though they wanted to kill us and only didn't because they did not have permission. They said nothing and kept back a bit from some of the uniformed Russians, as though they weren’t the ones in charge, but I knew it was time to leave when one of them wrapped his fingers around the hilt of his blade."

Not that we met anyone like that, but the whole piece reminds me of the time my family smuggled relief supplies to persecuted Christians into Eastern Bloc countries in the mid '80s.

Yes, make no mistake. The Soviet Union is alive and well. Totalitarianism, Islamic and otherwise, is still on the march. And thanks to American efforts as a beacon of freedom in the Middle East -- contrary to all that "diminished in the eyes of the world" talk the Left uses for political gain -- oppressed people the world over look to America for justice as much as they ever have.

Another interesting nugget...

"Georgia was one of the most pro-American countries in the world even before Russia invaded. According to Gallup International's 2004 survey of global opinion, the world's most pro-American countries, in the following order, were Kosovo, Afghanistan, Israel, and Georgia."

Do tell.

Click here for the whole piece.

It's getting cold in here

To paraphrase Dumb & Dumber, I thought global warming would be a little more warmier than this.

Seriously though, this is intriguing. Farmer's Almanac is calling a global cooling trend, making a good case for the cyclical, non-man-made reality of global temperature fluctuations. With at least as much science to back it up as anything the Green Gestapo has foisted upon us. And if anyone can be trusted on the subject of weather prognostication, the good folks at the Almanac can, right? Don't miss the timeline they have up, too.

I'm pretty sure they're right. During his speech at the Democratic convention, Al Gore's man boobs were totally nippin' out.

"Barack Obama was unmoved"

Suffer the little children...

If you think talk of Barack Obama "supporting infanticide" is all hyperbole, watch this heartbreaking short clip of nurse Jill Stanek, who testified publicly -- to Obama's face -- about leaving infants to die in a dirty linen room. Which subsequently remained standard practice thanks to his efforts.

Stanek points out how Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy and every single member of the U.S. Senate passed this legislation when it hit the national level.

"Even NARAL went neutral on this bill."

Yet, even with Stanek telling how she cradled one baby for 45 minutes until it died -- the infant being issued both birth and death certificates pursuant to Illinois law...

"Barack Obama was unmoved"

That is the face of extremism.

To those "Christians" who think God will look the other way, to those Christians who don't think abortion is a big deal in this election, I defer to Al Gore at the DNC convention...

"...When as many as three Supreme Court Justices could be appointed in the first term of the next President, and John McCain promises to appoint more Scalias and Thomases and end a woman's right to choose, it is time for a change!"

Or take it from Barack himself from behind a Planned Parenthood podium.

"It's time for a different attitude in the White House. It's time for a different attitude in the Supreme Court. It is time to turn the page and write a new chapter in American history."

Watch for yourself below.

Then vote to allow Barack Obama's political life to die in November.

Boing!

What was that I was saying about Palin/McCain closing the gap? Looks like we got ourselves a gen-u-ine bounce!

Barak's inconvenient 'truther'

Bill Ayers - S.O.B. F.O.B. waaaaay back in 2001

This photo is raging through the blogosphere, so allow me to pile on. (If it was a gang brawl on YouTube, I'd be the guy outside the scrum angling for shots with my steel-toed biker boots and tube sock full of ball bearings.)

Amazing. Obama still refuses to distance himself from both his Jew-hating "pastor" and the above pictured unrepentant, self-described terrorist, and yet he still maintains a lead in the polls. Narrowing, thank God, but still a lead. Over a guy who voluntarily served seven years in a hellhole out of the opposite sentiment for his country.

Good call, America.

Obama shrugged it off months ago, maintaining that all the bad stuff went down when he was a kid, but Ayers hosted a political fundraiser in his home for li'l Barry at an age the lad was old enough to know better. And sat on a board or two together. For his part, Ayers is happy to admit he's the same man he was back in the day.

So, would Mr. Ayers do it all again, he is asked? ''I don't want to discount the possibility,'' he said.

But the real question isn't how well did Obama know Ayers. It's what does Ayers see in Obama. Because that he does is beyond dispute.

And if that photo is artistic enough to earn a pass from some liberals and big-event-enamored independent voters, here's a cheesy outtake that shows him as the lame-o a-hole he is.

Personally, here's my favorite photo of Bill "Friend of Barack" Ayers.

And my favorite quote from Bill "Friend of Barack" Ayers, published in the New York Times September 11, 2001...

''I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough.''

Obama: The Wizard of Wall Street

"No problem, bro. We'll take care of you."

Go on, Jon Stewart... Tell me again how the GOP is the party of the rich and powerful.

You've no doubt heard about Barack Obama's massive campaign cash lead on John McCain, the implication being that the common folk have! spoken! Pooling what's left in their piggy banks and couch cushions since Dick Cheney personally ran through their house with a ski mask and pillow case. (With getaway driver Karl Rove waiting outside. In a Halliburton company car. Paid for by Iraq war proceeds.)

Now we hear Sarah Palin's speech -- no joke, just her speech -- scared these poor folks so bad, they coughed up another $10 million literally overnight.

What you may not have heard is that much of Obama's huge war chest, and most of this latest $10 million, was in fact largely raised by...Wall Street.

CNBC's Charlie Gasparino just reported today that Street power brokers including Laurence Fink, Steven Rattner, Blair Effron and Roger Altman took one look at Sarah Palin and immediately "hit the phones" to put more cash in Barry's bulging pockets.

"Really? Those Monopoly Guy tycoons??"

Oh, yes indeedy. The Left has historically vilified them as pork-faced moneychangers with pinstripe suits and hundred-dollar-bill-lit cigars. (Couldn't find a visual for that, so enjoy Gov. Bill Richardson, Dem., above.) But Wall Street has been cozying up to the Left big time in recent years. This year in record numbers.

"But I thought all they cared about were taxes."

They're already paying taxes out the wazoo. Taxes are the cost of doing business by now. The thing about socialism on the scale proposed by Obama is that it represents a shortcut to profits through taxation. Not to mention short-term profits for traders, investors and...monster hedge fund chiefs like those manning the phones for Obama Wednesday night.

True, "big government" was the enemy back when actual communism was a threat. Socialism, on the other hand? Hey, that's state-mandated capitalism, baby! Why mess with all that R&D, marketing and risky, free-market competition when Barack and Congress can simply order customers to hand over the cash? It's all about jockeying for position in the government queue.

Certain sectors will gain much from government patronization -- energy, big pharma, banks. But at least the dirty, nefarious, all-knowing, all-powerful "Republican Military/Industrial Complex" will be put in its place, right? Wrong, suckas!

CNBC prognosticators also recently pointed out that defense companies remain the sole safe bet regardless of which party wins. The Democrats will merely shift away from large force logistics expenditures in favor of tidier push-button toys. (Sorry, Spartan Motors... Ka-CHING, Raytheon!)

The big money knows all this. The big money has placed its bets and gotten in line early. Therefore, no fourth quarter, Reaganomics end-run around all their plans can be tolerated.

Which explains how li'l Sarah Palin could so terrify BlackRock CEO Laurence Fink and his $1.3 trillion investment firm, doesn't it?

I'm guessing he reached for the phone nanoseconds after she bragged about putting the great state of Alaska's Gulfstream IV on eBay.

Ooo...Barracuda!

Wow. I don't even know where to begin.

Want to know how effective Sarah was tonight? CNN's Campbell Brown actually responded to this speech as a mother. Yeah. You heard me. And she was visibly upset at Harry Reid's sexist use of "shrill" in response to Palin's speech.

Need further proof? Check out the impotent rage behind all those tight smiles and dead-end "rebuttals" by the Democrats on 'Larry King' immediately after.

Also, several sources (including my brother) say MSNBC reported later that Sarah's teleprompter was on the fritz for a portion of the speech, yanking the rug out from under one of the few remaining criticisms available to dazed talking heads during the post-event analysis.

And finally, unconfirmed reports are also reaching us that Keith Olbermann looked like a whipped puppy throughout the speech, piddled his booth halfway through, and could barely muster the strength to sniff Chris Matthews' hiney after. (Ok, I made some of that up, but evidently he looked full-case-of-chocolate-mini-donuts depressed.)

Me? I haven't been this engaged, enthralled, pumped up, filled with--um, hope--and excited about--uh, change we can believe in--since I don't know when. I'd say "since Reagan," which is about as far back as I go, but she's even smoother than the Gipper in his prime and looks waaay better than I imagine he would in a skirt, not that I have.

I'd have more insightful commentary, but luckily Dirty Harry did all the hard work for me.

Althouse commenter: “From now on, when a Democrat says ‘But what if McCain drops dead on his first day in office?!?!?!’ I’m going to say ‘dude — don’t tease me like that.’”

Indeed.

And finally, for you liberal busybodies interested in a few details on the surprise appearance of Bristol's young fiance, click here. (Best line in the article -- Todd Palin referring to himself as the "First Dude.")