Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Shoe Bomber vs. Shoe Thrower: How the Liberal Blogs Stack Up


It's Part One of our stunning, end-of-year wrap-up! Try and contain your excitement as we compare how various liberal progressive blogs covered two different Shoe Stories.

In this case, for each progressive blog, we'll contrast the number of posts mentioning a shoe-throwing journalist versus those mentioning a foiled terrorist attack that nearly killed hundreds of innocents: Richard Reid, the shoe bomber.

Let's play, shall we?

"Progressive" Blog"Richard Reid" shoe bomberIraqi journalist threw shoes Bush
Andrew Sullivan252
Brad Blog21,850
Crooks and Liars6341
Daily Kos10512,600
FireDogLake7218
Jesus' General148
Sadly, No332
Talking Points Memo30452
Taylor Marsh1118
ThinkProgress93395
Truthdig3162
Wonkette165

I'm figuring the ratio of these columns is as good a measure of a blog's level of Bush Derangement Syndrome that modern science can offer us.

Linked by: Unreligious Right. Thanks!

At 2AM all Microsoft Zunes were rendered inoperable by SkyNet


Consumerist reports that, at 2AM this morning, Zunes all over the world were suddenly rendered inoperable.

...Zunes all over the world froze up at around 2am this morning and won't reboot, and nobody knows why.

ArsTechnica says it seems to have affected all owners of the 30 gig model, and hit no matter what you were doing at the moment...

...Microsoft has been embarrassingly slow to respond to the story, but according to MSNBC they've now released the following statement:

“Customers with 30gb Zune devices may experience issues when booting their Zune hardware. We’re aware of the problem and are working to correct it. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thanks for your patience!”

We assume by "your patience" they mean "your many, many class action lawsuits."

Sounds like quite an inconvenience for all six Zune owners.



Update: Gizmodo posted a hack to get your Zune back up and running. It involves disconnecting both the battery and the hard-drive... and it may impact the warranty, so take the instructions with a grain of salt.

Update II: Best comment from the hundreds here:

What's a Zune?

Update III: WSJ reports that a Zune support thread entitled 'Help-frozen zune' currently has more than 19,000 replies.

Update IV: Looks like headline writers around the world are locked in a death-match for supremacy.

I woke up this morning and my Zune was gone - CNet
The Day Zune Music Died - CRN
The day Microsoft's Zunes stood still - Scientific American
Microsoft plague threatens 30GB Zune extinction - Register, UK
Z2K9?: Zunes everywhere freeze at midnight - National Post, Canada
Midnight mystery crash - Detroit Free Press
Zunes crash en masse - Computerworld
Worldwide Zune suicide? - MLive.com
Y2K returns 9 years later to disable Zunes? - Dallas Morning News
I sense a disturbance in the force - Newmobilecomputing.com
Zunes Going Tango Uniform Worldwide - Overclockers Club
Zune Swoon: MP3 player hit with mass glitch - WTOP, DC
Happy New Year from Microsoft - Associated Content
The Zune Screen Of Death - TechCrunch

Update V: Official Fix for the Zune Fail.

Hat tip for image: Gizmodo reader Bill Bradski.

Judicial Watch announces its "Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians" for 2008


Can I have the envelope please, Vanna? And the winners are:

10. Hillary Clinton: "...corrupt behavior... follows Hillary wherever she goes, including Chinagate, Filegate, pardons for terrorists, pardons for cash (for her brothers), White House fundraising coffees, Whitewater, Travelgate lies, doing business with the State of Arkansas while her husband was governor, Web Hubbell, smear campaigns, false financial disclosure forms, John Huang, Chinese generals, the Lippo Group, paid sleepovers in the Lincoln Bedroom, cattle futures fraud, and stealing White House furniture..."

9. Chris Dodd: "...Dodd's willingness to protect Fannie and Freddie would alone merit a spot on the 'ten most corrupt list,' but there is much more. Dodd was also nabbed for accepting preferential treatment and loan terms from Countrywide Financial..."

8. Valerie Jarrett: "Jarrett [managed] a controversial low-income housing project located in Obama's former state senate district... [the] complex was considered 'uninhabitable by unfixed problems, such as collapsed roofs and fire damage... In 2006, federal inspectors graded the condition of the complex an 11 on a 100-point scale -- a score so bad the buildings now face demolition.' ...According to documents uncovered by Judicial Watch, Jarrett is also linked to a series of other shady real estate scandals involving convicted felon and former Obama fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko..."

7. Rep. Jerry Lewis: "...Lewis, the senior Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, is under investigation for approving hundreds of millions of dollars in federal projects to benefit clients of one of his best friends..."

6. President-Elect Barack Obama: "...[his campaign was] marked with enormous corruption issues, ranging from its alliance with the sleazy ACORN operation's 'voter registration' and 'get out the vote' efforts to its acceptance of untraceable [and] illegal online contributions. There are also ...dealings with convicted felon Tony Rezko and unrepentant terrorist William Ayers, his below-market rate mortgage loans, his stock dealings and related "earmark" votes in the U.S. Senate, and his missing or non-existent official papers from his years in the Illinois State Senate..."

5. Nancy Pelosi: "...Last year... Pelosi made the "most corrupt" list for sneaking a $25 million earmark for her husband into a $15 billion Water Resources Development Act passed by Congress. This year, Pelosi ran afoul of federal election law by participating in an illegal advertising campaign funded by Al Gore's non-profit Alliance for Climate protection..."

4. Charles Rangel: "...failure to pay taxes on $75,000 in rental income he earned from his off-shore rental property; his efforts to use his influence to keep hold of highly coveted rent-controlled apartments in Harlem; and misusing his congressional office to fundraise for his private Rangel Center. Now Congress is looking into whether or not Rangel preserved a tax loophole for an oil drilling company in exchange for funding..."

As they say on the really good blogs (but I'm not bitter), read the whole thing.

Mister Greenwald's Neighborhood


A response to Glenn Greenwald's egregious support of Hamas in the form of a parable.

There's a set of gangbangers who hang out near Glenn Greenwald's mobile home in the local trailer park.

They don't like the looks of Greenwald, what with his hair mousse, his starched oxford shirt and his BlackBerry. So a few years ago, just after he moved in, the gangbangers began "popping off some caps" in his general direction.

Not well-aimed, mind you, and usually just .22 caliber "Saturday Night Specials" like Lorcins. They're primitive, inaccurate weapons and have almost no chance of hitting Greenwald from 100 yards away.

When it first started happening, back in '05, Greenwald called the cops. His first thought was that the law enforcement community would bring some order back to the trailer park and certainly stop the gangbangers from taking potshots at him.

But the cops, aside from talking, did nothing. A sergeant told Greenwald that, "the neighborhood has been real bad like this for decades... we can't do anything about it. If we stop 'em, they'll be ten more to take their place the next day."

So day in and day out, as Greenwald and his life partner entered and exited their mobile home, they would flinch and duck as shots rang out in their direction.

Greenwald himself started taking anti-depressants and anxiety meds. Every time he heard a loud noise outside, his heart raced. He had trouble sleeping.

At work one day, Greenwald happened to start a conversation with an express delivery driver who had dropped off a package at the office. Greenwald asked the driver about how he handled deliveries into the sketchier neighborhoods.

"They know me," the driver responded, "I don't have any issues. Now."

The driver went on to explain that he believed in the principle of peace through strength. After a couple of hoodlums had assaulted him and injured him badly during a delivery into a rough neighborhood, the driver used his military training to respond.

"What'd you do?" Greenwald asked, clearly interested in any tactic he could employ to deal with the ruffians.

"Before my next delivery to that neighborhood, I fitted a special vent in my van. This lets me deliver both packages and rounds from my Barrett M107 .50 Caliber sniper rifle."

"What do you mean?"

"Next time I had a delivery in the neighborhood, I parked a couple of blocks away from those same bullies who had jumped me, broken my ribs and stole my wallet. They were hanging out on the same stoop, blocking the entrance to the apartment building, smoking dope and drinking. Same as the last time."

"But this time, I put a round from the Barrett into the stoop and scattered those suckers like cockroaches in the light."

Greenwald exhaled, "wow, no kidding?"

"No kidding. You ever heard a Barrett sing? It sounds like a thunderclap... basically the end of the world."

"So, what happened?"

"Nothing. Never had a lick of trouble from those scumbags again. And I guess they told some of their friends, because whenever my van shows up now, they all seem to disappear."

Greenwald grew excited and asked the driver a question.

"If I gave you $100, could you do that for me?"

Update: Mr. Greenwald responds:

You forgot the part where I invaded their homes, camped myself in the middle for 40 years, built walls around them so that I could control who goes out and what goes in, and blockaded them to the point where their children were denied basic nutritional and medical needs.

Other than those minor omissions, the parable was very even-handed and clever.

Of course! For a moment there, I mistakenly believed that the territory in question was once Egypt's, that Egypt tightly controls its border with Gaza, that Egypt denies its Arab brothers in Gaza even the most basic foods and medicines, and that -- forty years ago -- Egypt had simply attempted to defend itself against the callous, imperialistic invasion by its neighbors.

Thanks for setting me straight -- now I know what really happened!

Update II: Dershowitz:

Over the past four years [terrorists] fired more than 2,000 rockets at this civilian area, which is home to mostly poor and working-class people... The rockets are designed exclusively to maximize civilian deaths, and some have barely missed schoolyards, kindergartens, hospitals, and school buses... These anticivilian rockets have also injured and traumatized countless children.

...The firing of rockets at civilians from densely populated civilian areas is the newest tactic in the war between terrorists who love death and democracies that love life. The terrorists have learned how to exploit the morality of democracies against those who do not want to kill civilians, even enemy civilians...


Related reading: Netanyahu says "Hamas has to go."

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Rod Blagojevich and I are pleased to announce our endorsements for the 2008 Weblog Awards


Rod Blagojevich and I are pleased to announce our endorsements for the 2008 Weblog Awards.

Voting begins on January 5, 2009. Make sure you visit and vote for any of the following recommendations, which are officially endorsed by Blago and myself.

Best Blog: Hot Air
Best Individual Blogger: Jules Crittenden and The Anchoress
Best Humor Blog: Mother May I Sleep With Treacher and IMAO
Best Comic Strip: Day by Day and Dilbert
Best Conservative Blog: Little Green Footballs, Michelle Malkin, Ace of Spades, Power Line, American Thinker and Atlas Shrugs
Best Political Coverage: American Thinker and Townhall
Best Technology Blog: Ars Technica and TechCrunch
Best Military Blog: Michael Yon and Blackfive
Best Law Blog: Volokh Conspiracy and WSJ Law Blog
Best LGBT Blog: Gay Patriot
Best Photo Blog: Snapped Shot
Best Culture Blog: SondraK
Best Gossip Blog Perez Hilton, TMZ
Best Video Blog: DemoCast TV
Best Middle East/Africa Blog: Michael J. Totten, Elder of Ziyon, IsraellyCool
Best Australia or New Zealand Blog: Tim Blair
Best Major Blog: Instapundit
Best Very Large Blog: Right Wing News, Patterico, Protein Wisdom
Best Large Blog: Jammie Wearing Fool, Sister Toldjah
Best Midsize Blog: Zomblog, Betsy's Page, Israel Matzav
Best Small Blog: Exurban League
Best Up and Coming Blog: McClatchy Watch, Daled Amos, Sundries Shack

We didn't make it this year because (a) we suck; and (b) we just surpassed the 500+ Technorati authority level, which barely pushed us into the Very Large Blog category. And we really, really, really suck compared to the other Very Large Blogs.

Video o' the day: Hitchens' sign language


Yep, that's Christopher Hitchens offering his sign language feedback to Bill Maher's audience.

From all appearances, the crowd consists of the Left's intelligentsia: Cynthia McKinney, Susan Sarandon, E. J. Dionne, Michael Moore, Maureen Dowd and Alec Baldwin.

Hat tip: LGF Quick Links.

Hamas has a website survey: should it continue rocket attacks?


The English version of the official Hamas website is hosting a survey.

It asks the following question.

Next step for Al Qassam Brigade>[?] The choices are: (a) Keep calm; (b) Resume rockets; and (c) Resume operations. Strangely enough, the choice of Stop killing Jews and live in peace was missing.

The results thus far (560 or so votes as of this writing):

Of course, the real Hamas website (in Arabic) contains no such survey.

The survey is intended for the useful idiots -- that would be the English-speaking Left and the mainstream media. But I repeat myself.

After all, the Hamas charter is quite clear on this point.

...There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad.

Got that, Glenn Greenwald?

Update: Editorial: Hamas's suicide mission

Show your support for Blago with the new 'Free Blago' blog widget!


I love this guy! I'm convinced the man is innocent. Innocent as the driven snow, I say! You can show your support by adding a FREE BLAGO blog widget to your blog and other electronic correspondence.


Please send your checks to:

Free Blago! Defense Fund
c/o Kaplan & Sorosky
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Copy and paste this code to express your support.


Blago's still the right man for the job!


Hat tip: Larwyn. FREE BLAGO widget appears at: Gateway Pundit, Marathon Pundit, Northeast Republican, Bob McCarty and FPA. If you use the FREE BLAGO blog widget, send me the link and I'll include you in the list of high-powered, mega-cool Blago supporters.

No double standard


During its interview The New York Times lobbed softball after softball at Carolyn Kennedy. And she responded with a shtick straight out of the movie Valley Girl.

It really makes you wonder: what if Ms. Kennedy-Schlossberg had been pelted with the same questions Governor Palin received? Remember?

Brian Gibson interviews Barack Obama:

How does it feel to break a glass ceiling?
How does it feel to “win”?
How does your family feel about your “winning” breaking a glass ceiling?
Who will be your VP?
Should you choose Hillary Clinton as VP?
Will you accept public finance?
What issues is your campaign about?
Will you visit Iraq?
Will you debate McCain at a town hall?
What did you think of your competitor’s [Clinton] speech?


Brian Gibson interviews Sarah Palin:

Do you have enough qualifications for the job you’re seeking? Specifically have you visited foreign countries and met foreign leaders?
Aren’t you conceited to be seeking this high level job?
Questions about foreign policy
-territorial integrity of Georgia
-allowing Georgia and Ukraine to be members of NATO
-NATO treaty
-Iranian nuclear threat
-what to do if Israel attacks Iran
-Al Qaeda motivations
-the Bush Doctrine
-attacking terrorists harbored by Pakistan
Is America fighting a holy war? [misquoted Palin]

I'm shocked -- SHOCKED -- that Ms. Kennedy-Schlossberg hasn't been attacked the way Palin was. Recall these golden oldies?

Democrats


• Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) described Palin as "disabled".
• Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) said Palin "doesn't know anything".
• Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) believed that Palin's election would be a "backward step for women".
• Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) believed that Palin's "family background, including the pregnancy of her unwed teenage daughter, should be fair game for campaign discussion."
• Obama Finance Director Howard Gutman claimed that Palin "puts [her] career above [her] family."
• Michigan Democratic operative Barbara Theaker, introducing Joe Biden, called Palin "a bucket of fluff."
• South Carolina Democratic Chair Carol Fowler: "[Palin's] primary qualification seems to be that she hasn’t had an abortion."
• Obama supporter Lincoln Chafee called Sarah Palin a "cocky wacko."
• Former Gore advisor Bob Shrum: "However much the Republican base hoots and whistles, Palin may not become their Miss November; she’s been a runner-up before."

The Mainstream Media


• The Cleveland Plain-Dealer's Connie Schultz claimed "[Palin] outed her pregnant daughter... [abortion] was never really a choice for this girl, unless she was willing to derail her mother's political career."
• The New York Times' Judith Warner characterizes Palin's selecton as a "thoroughgoing humiliation for America’s women."
• The New York Times' Maureen Dowd quotes a Palin detractor: "She’s a child, inexperienced and simplistic."
• The Kansas City Star's Mary Sanchez headlined a column "Palin is gloriously, fabulously unfit for duty."
• Chicago Sun-Times Columnist Mary Mitchell said "Sarah Palin makes me sick... [she] scares me... I couldn't help but wonder what it's really like for [her] kids."
• The New York Times' Maureen Dowd described Palin as "our new Napoleon in bunny boots."
• The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan: "She is the biggest joke to be put on a ticket in national politics... [She is] Princess of Alaska."
• The Washington Post's Wendy Doniger: "Her greatest hypocrisy is in her pretense that she is a woman."
• The New York Times' Gail Collins: "Given Palin’s affection for shooting wolves from airplanes with high-powered rifles, it’d be more appropriate to have them cowering in their dens while she aims her machine gun from a diving Cessna."
• The Boston Globe's Peter Gelzinis characterizes Palin as a "snow princess."
• Salon's Cintra Wilson said Palin is a "Christian Stepford wife in a sexy librarian costume... like one of those cutthroat Texas cheerleader stage moms."
• Salon's Juan Cole: "What is the difference between Palin and a Muslim fundamentalist? Lipstick."
• Air America's Randi Rhodes: "She’s friends with all the teenage boys. You have to say no when your kids say, ‘can we sleep over at the Palin’s? No! NO!’."

Hollywood


• Sandra Bernhard warns Palin: "[don't] come into Manhattan lest she get gang-raped by some of Sandra’s big black brothers."
• Bill Maher: I will send (Obama) whatever I have to to keep this snarling bitch out of the White House."
• Chevy Chase instructed SNL to "decimate this woman [Palin]."
• Pink: "This woman hates women... the woman terrifies me."
• Brad Garrett said Palin is "White trash."
• Roger Ebert described Palin as "A shallow, chirpy person with those vaguely alarming eyeglasses."
• Pamela Anderson said the candidate "can suck it."
• Linda Carter: "She’s judgmental and dictatorial... I think America should be very afraid."
• Lindsay Lohan: "Is our country so divided that the Republicans best hope is a narrow minded, media obsessed homophobe?"

Caroline Kennedy makes Sarah Palin look like Madame Curie.

No, there's no double standard here. None at all.

Update: Senora Kennedy is make very good Senator.

Thanks, FCC! The Colossal Text Message Ripoff


Now that the FCC, with all of its industry ties and inherent conflicts-of-interest, has allowed Ma Bell to reconstitute itself, can you guess which direction prices of mobile services are moving? Take text messages, for example.

In 2008, 2.5 trillion messages were sent from cell phones worldwide, up 32 percent from the year before, according to the Gartner Group and reported by The New York Times. But, what also rose in the last three years was the price — doubling from 10 to 20 cents per message while the industry consolidated from six major carriers to four.

And how much does it cost the telcos to send a text message? Basically nothing.

...A better description might be [that text messages] “cost carriers very, very, very little to transmit.” ...[the] messages are not just tiny; they are also free riders, tucked into what’s called a control channel, space reserved for operation of the wireless network...

All four of the major carriers decided during the last three years to increase the pay-per-use price for messages to 20 cents from 10 cents. The decision could not have come from a dearth of business: the 2.5 trillion sent messages this year, the estimate of the Gartner Group, is up 32 percent from 2007. Gartner expects 3.3 trillion messages to be sent in 2009...

...The carriers will [soon have] opportunities to tell us more about their pricing decisions: 20 class-action lawsuits have been filed around the country against AT&T and the other carriers, alleging price-fixing for text messaging services.

The telcos are effectively insulated from competition, from wholesaling requirements, from basic free-market principles by an FCC that has way too many ties to the industry to offer clean counsel to consumers.

That's why I call the telephone and cable companies the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac of telecommunications. And this sort of thing is exactly why I agree with Larwence Lessig: it's time to demolish the FCC.

The time has come for FairTax: Let's rescue the economy


If you're unfamiliar with the concept of FairTax, a nonpartisan approach to eradicating our outrageously complex tax code (and the IRS with it), now's certainly a good time to learn about it.

FairTax replaces all federal income and payroll based taxes with a progressive national retail sales tax. All Americans receive a "prebate" -- a base minimum set of funds -- to ensure no one pays federal taxes on spending up to the poverty level.

FairTax thereby removes huge accounting burdens from government, businesses and individuals. Why is it so important to remove the tax accounting burden? Because the tax code has grown so complex, so out-of-control, so immense that entire organizations are required to keep up with it.

This embedded "tax compliance burden" adds as much as 25% to the costs of all goods and services we consume. And, of course, it increases the size of government because the burden requires that the IRS, regulators, and thousands of other bureaucrats keep the taxpayers honest.

The FairTax Act (HR 25, S 1025) is nonpartisan legislation. It abolishes all federal personal and corporate income taxes, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, and self-employment taxes and replaces them with one simple, visible, federal retail sales tax administered primarily by existing state sales tax authorities.

The FairTax levies us only on what we choose to spend on new goods or services, not on what we earn. The FairTax is a fair, efficient and transparent solution to the frustration and inequity of our current tax system. The FairTax:

• Enables workers to keep their entire paychecks
• Enables retirees to keep their entire pensions
• Refunds in advance the tax on purchases of basic necessities
• Allows American products to compete fairly
• Brings transparency and accountability to tax policy
• Ensures Social Security and Medicare funding
• Closes all loopholes and brings fairness to taxation
• Abolishes the IRS

With the economy in desperate straits, it's time to eradicate our out-of-control tax code and thereby unleash American productivity.

Find out more about FairTax and send your own message to Washington. The time has come for FairTax.

Note for bloggers: Get your own banners and widgets to show your support.

Socialist States of America


In 1998 Russian academic and former KGB analyst Igor Panarin began predicting that the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. Given the recent economic turbulence, more Russian agencies and organizations are paying closer attention.

Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces -- with Alaska reverting to Russian control...

...He based the forecast on classified data supplied to him by FAPSI analysts, he says. He predicts that economic, financial and demographic trends will provoke a political and social crisis in the U.S. When the going gets tough, he says, wealthier states will withhold funds from the federal government and effectively secede from the union. Social unrest up to and including a civil war will follow. The U.S. will then split along ethnic lines, and foreign powers will move in.

California will form the nucleus of what he calls "The Californian Republic," and will be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas will be the heart of "The Texas Republic," a cluster of states that will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence. Washington, D.C., and New York will be part of an "Atlantic America" that may join the European Union. Canada will grab a group of Northern states Prof. Panarin calls "The Central North American Republic." Hawaii, he suggests, will be a protectorate of Japan or China, and Alaska will be subsumed into Russia...

[He] called U.S. foreign debt "a pyramid scheme," and predicted China and Russia would usurp Washington's role as a global financial regulator.

Georgia will join the Texican Republic? And South Carolina will ally with Northeastern states and join the EU?

Panarin must not be too familiar with these states.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Block o' the Year


It's the best time of the year for football. And Derek Kinder picks up our prestigious block o' the year award.


Click either image to check it.

Day after


Remember his over-the-top holiday decorations?

Papa B sends a picture from the day after.