Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
by Tim F| 5 Comments
This post is in: Science & Technology
Apropos of nothing in particular, some scientific reports have an undeniable cool factor:
As a purely leptonic, macroscopic quantum matter–antimatter system this would be of interest in its own right, but it would also represent a milestone on the path to produce an annihilation gamma-ray laser.
Bwahahaha. Read more here to find out what the hell that was all about.
by Tim F| 6 Comments
This post is in: War on Terror aka GSAVE®, Republican Crime Syndicate - aka the Bush Admin.
NYT:
Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, on Wednesday recanted his claim that the new surveillance powers recently given to the government helped foil a terrorist plot in Germany.
“Information contributing to the recent arrests was not collected under authorities provided by the Protect America Act,” Mr. McConnell said in a statement issued late in the day.
A Bush official admitted that he was wrong. Pegging signs of the imminent apocalypse is Michael Stickings’ purview so I won’t speculate about whether this means that the dead will soon rise out of their graves. But it sure doesn’t happen often*.
(*) Excepting abu Gonzales, who made a sort of side career out of correcting himself.
by John Cole| 62 Comments
This post is in: Blogospheric Navel-Gazing, General Stupidity, I Read These Morons So You Don't Have To
How things get ‘proven’ in Greater Wingnuttia:
1.) Wingnut #1 asserts that the NY Times gave MoveOn a super-sweet deal on the ad because they hate America, and not out of general business practices.
2.) Wingnut #2 repeats the claim, links to wingnut #1, and goes on a rant about the perfidy of the NY Times, to include a link to the NY Times stock performance in 2006.
3.) Wingnut #3 links to wingnut #2, and states:
Having done its best for the past four years to undermine the war effort, disrupt national security, aid and abet our enemies, and provide comfort to terrorists, the New York Times has now gone one step further in its efforts to undermine the war.
Newsbusters is reporting that MoveOn.org was given a discount from the New York Times for its anti-Petraeus advertisement. Mind you, it received the political advertising discount that every political advertiser gets, but received an additional $102,000.00 discount.
Verdict: PROOF the NY Times hates America. No one, of course, has examined NY Times past rates, no one has asked the NY Times for their input. Doesn’t matter- we have three links! IT IS FACT.
FYI- Pariser of MoveOn stated, on Hardball, that the ad cost “about 70k.” Tapper reports it was approximately 65k. Now I don’t know about you, but 65k is not “about 70k” in my book. I smell a CONspiracy. Someone better get to the bottom of this, because that 5k discrepancy is important. I am guessing the NY Times overcharged them, and then spent the five thousand off the books on hair dye for Osama’s beard so he looked good in his latest video. Or maybe they funded some underage abortions. Who knows? With the NY Times, anything is possible!
*** Update ***
And now Rush Limbaugh and the NY Post are in the act. Any truth to the matter- well, we still don’t know, no one has actually investigated, but repeat something often enough and it is fact! Add fact-free McQ to the mix.
Is one person going to actually investigate this- like, for example, ask about NY Times normal business practices? Sniff around and find out what other people actually pay, rather than the list price? Maybe ask Ari Fleischer or his group what they paid? or is it just FACT because enough droolers repeated it?
by John Cole| 33 Comments
This post is in: Military, General Stupidity, I Read These Morons So You Don't Have To
That deep-thinker Michael Goldfarb at the Weekly Standard thinks he has the Leftards foiled again:
But the key point for these folks prior to the hearings was that Petraeus was merely a White House stooge, a politicized general spewing the administration’s talking points. Now that he shows up and behaves exactly as a general should–no opinion on the policy, serious analysis of tactics and strategy–they act as though Petraeus has admitted he doesn’t believe in this war.
You can’t have it both ways. Which is exactly what Fred Kagan explained over the weekend at NRO–commanders in the field have one job: win the war. Their job is not to question the policy and its broader implications, just to win the war.
And how would these folks respond if Petraeus had given some impassioned speech about how Iraq is the central front in the war on terror, and we are fighting them there so we don’t have to fight them here, etc. etc.? Instead he acts like a professional, and responds to the question from Warner:
“I don’t know, actually. I have not sat down and sorted in my own mind.”
The left should be lauding him for this–he diplomatically extricated himself from a question that would have required him to sell the policy of war in Iraq. He balks, and he gets attacked anyway–now he’s not a true believer. Petraeus responded to this question exactly as he should have.
ProTip: If you are four+ years into a war, and it is, at that point, STILL a legitimate question for a Senator to ask whether the war makes us safer, and if you have to ask in the first place, AND THE TOP GENERAL RUNNING THE WAR CAN NOT IMMEDIATELY SAY YES, you have a problem.
Bonus fun: the title of the post by Goldfarb is “Petraeus Shouldn’t Know if Iraq Makes Us Safer.”
Screw it. On to Iran, amirite?
by John Cole| 82 Comments
This post is in: Military
Two of the seven NCO’s who penned the op-ed in the NY Times (and promptly had their loyalty and patriotism questioned) are now dead:
The Op-Ed by seven active duty U.S. soldiers in Iraq questioning the war drew international attention just three weeks ago. Now two of the seven are dead.
Sgt. Omar Mora and Sgt. Yance Gray died Monday in a vehicle accident in western Baghdad, two of seven U.S. troops killed in the incident which was reported just as Gen. David Petraeus was about to report to Congress on progress in the “surge.” The names have just been released.
Gen. Petraeus was questioned about the message of the op-ed in testimony before a Senate committee yesterday.
The controversial Times column on Aug. 19 was called “The War As We Saw It,” and expressed skepticism about American gains in Iraq. “To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched,” the group wrote.
It closed: “We need not talk about our morale. As committed soldiers, we will see this mission through.”
Depressing. And for what?
by John Cole| 39 Comments
This post is in: Sports
The Patriots cheat:
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has determined that the New England Patriots violated league rules Sunday when they videotaped defensive signals by the New York Jets’ coaches, according to league sources.
NFL security officials confiscated a camera and videotape from Patriots video assistant Matt Estrella on the New England sidelines when it was suspected he was recording the Jets’ defensive signals. Sources say the visual evidence confirmed the suspicion.
Goodell is considering severe sanctions, including the possibility of docking the Patriots “multiple draft picks” because it is the competitive violation in the wake of a stern warning to all teams since he became commissioner, the sources said. The Patriots have been suspected in previous incidents.
They should have to forfeit the win, too.
by Tim F| 16 Comments
This post is in: War, Democratic Stupidity
Apparently it’s made up of a significant fraction of the third and fourth columns.
You know, the Constitution lets Congress call any military commander to testify at any time. Apparently a non-trivial number of them think that Petraeus is full of shit and have the data to back it up. Yet, somehow, the only significant voices on Capitol Hill this week are the two guys with the longest history of substance-free cheerleading. Way to go Dems.