"Because of Obama!"

This isn't funny anymore.

Bourne loser

The name's Black...Jack Black

And with this announcement, we have a new one atop the "Must See Movies for Bloggers Named Splash" leaderboard.

"...A sort of comedic "The Bourne Identity," the story sees Black as an American who finds himself washed up the shores of Cuba with no idea of who he is and how he got there. He comes to the conclusion that he must be a superspy, though in reality he is far from one"

Giddyup.

Obama Youth: The Ultimate Cut

...Or put the two together, and what do you get?

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.)