Politically Incorrect Toy Firearms

 
Suitably Flip tags the Nerf N-Strike Longshot CS-6 as the next hot Christmas toy certain to be banned by Chuck Schumer.

This is the season when a boy's thoughts turn to gifts and my thoughts turn to the one gift I never got. I was jealous of the kid next door for a whole year because he had a Johnny Seven OMA.

In the sixties, Johnny Seven OMA (One Man Army) was the ultimate toy firearm. It integrated seven distinct weapons (thus the Johnny Seven) into a single chassis:

* Grenade * Anti-Tank Rocket * Armor-Piercing Shell * Anti-Bunker Rocket

* Repeating Rifle * Tommy Gun * Automatic Pistol

All of the firing mechanisms were attached to the main rifle assembly - the pistol inserted from the bottom to provide the rifle grip (the pistol also held caps for authentic firing sounds). The main ammunition included various sized white bullets that would "shoot" from the barrels via spring-action. The rockets and grenade also fired via spring-action. The weapon featured a working bipod that provided stability for the various rockets and grenade. The stock could be removed to shorten the weapon while in Tommy Gun mode. The toy when fully assembled is over three feet long.

Decades later, I still remember the Johnny Seven and how my parents never bought me one. But I'm not bitter. *Sniff*

That's what I'm talking about, Nerf people! When you can beat the Johnny Seven, then we'll talk!

Honestly, though, if you saw a kid walking around with a Johnny Seven these days, someone would call in a SWAT Team, a hostage negotiator and the police psychologist.

New record at the Nürburgring Nordschleife

 
If you like fast cars, you'll definitely want to check out this Autospies video. Pro racer Richard Göransson of Sweden took the project car Loaded -- a BMW M3 CSL Supercharged -- on a record-setting lap 'round the legendary Nürburgring.

The 7:22.8 pace for the 20.6 kilometer (just a hair over 12.8 miles) track crushed the old record by more than five seconds, putting every other supercar to shame. The video is a rush. Literally.

Redacted: CNN's transcript of the Democratic Debate

 
CNN's entire Democratic debate appears to have been a sham from the first minute to the last.

And now it's been nearly a week and LaShannon Spencer -- one of CNN's "undecided voters" (and former political director for the Democratic Party in Arkansas, which CNN forgot to mention) -- remains missing from the transcript of the Las Vegas debate.

Redacted is in the news, only it's the concept that CNN is cleaning up its post-debate mess and not the movie.

But it's only been a week. Perhaps CNN needs more time to finish up its "rush" transcript.

Politics o' personal destruction: Hillary's scandalous Obama info

 
So my Dad is in for Thanksgiving and he offered an interesting insight related to Robert Novak's disclosure. You know, that Hillary staffers are keeping a scandalous secret about Barack Obama close to the vest:

Agents of Sen. Hillary Clinton are spreading the word in Democratic circles that she has scandalous information about her principal opponent for the party’s presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama, but has decided not to use it. The nature of the alleged scandal was not disclosed.

My Dad noted that only hours later, Sen. Obama admitted a sordid past related to drinking and drugs.

The venue was quite unexpected: in front of a large group of high school students.

Obama addressed the issue after the principal at Central High School in Manchester, N.H., asked the Democratic presidential candidate to give the students a sense of his "human side," and what his life was like when he was in school...

In response..., the Illinois senator said: "I will confess to you that I was kind of a goof-off in high school ... I made some bad decisions that I've written about. There were times when I got into drinking and experimented with drugs ... There was a whole stretch of time when I didn't really apply myself a lot."

Why would Obama offer that disclosure then? Why there? My Dad's speculation is that Hillary's rough-and-tumble political operatives are fully prepared to launch some devastating salvos related to Obama's past.

Update: Vince Foster at NHC has other interesting ideas about Novak's column.

It takes a village to raise a suicide bomber

 
Gateway Pundit links to this BBC story:

And asks: See if you can find any reason why Olmert would be pictured in flames from the content? Hint: there isn't one.

Meanwhile, the Beeb and other MSM outlets ignore the real stumbling blocks to peace in the Middle East.

Say, for example, a cult of Hamas death-worshipers more committed to infanticide than education.

Remember: it takes a village to raise a suicide bomber.

Global Incident Map: where Reality meets Sesame Street

 
Bruce Kesler at the Democracy Project:

Stop arguing with your liberal friends about what a dangerous place the world is, and just send them this website. A friend just sent it to me. It’s called Global Incident Map: A Global Display of Terrorism and Other Suspicious Events.

You have to see it to believe it, and I really mean to believe it: The world is a very dangerous place.

Of course, the truly hardcore liberals progressives will simply blame Chimpy J. Rumsfeld and then go back to the WTC 7 discussion board where like-minded geniuses debate the controlled demolition methods employed by Cheney McHalliburton.

Interior Decorators at Hamas Headquarters

 
Yep, you guessed it: exclusive photos of Hamas' interior decorators at work.



I can't quite put my finger on what these pictures have in common.

Hat tip: LGF

Separated at Birth?

 
Gen. David Petraeus and Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman?

Is Muni Wireless turning the corner?

 
Municipal wireless -- the promise of inexpensive broadband wireless hotspots provided by cities and towns -- may be turning the corner. After a series of deployment problems, Steve Stroh's blog highlights technical breakthroughs that could accelerate muni wireless rollouts. In so doing, consumers may finally break the back of a reconstituted telco monopoly seemingly more interested in locking down networks than improving customer experience.

Wavion's offerings use Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA) to form individual wireless "beams" to multiplex links from a single access point.

SDMA augments beamforming by providing a higher level of processing enabling simultaneous downlink communications with multiple users over the same frequency channel...

Wavion's SDMA technology creates up to four downlinks to four different users simultaneously, transmitting one data stream per user. Each stream is "beamed" by means of beamforming in such a way that the user receives only the stream directed to him, while the other steams are received below the noise level. This quadruples downlink capacity.

Breaking the back of the telco/cable duopoly will happen someday soon. And SDMA may be one way to offer real broadband to consumers, bypassing the duopoly altogether. It couldn't happen soon enough.

The many emotions of Hillary

 
Sen. Hillary Clinton's sensitivities are under appreciated. Many conservatives consider her a cold, heartless individual. That's simply not true: she inspires loyalty and a deep, abiding appreciation. Consider her many, varied emotions.

Disdain

Cold, calculating fury

Deep and sincere appreciation for a large, bundled donation

Crafting a triangulating answer to a difficult question

Crafting a quadrangulating answer to a difficult question

Satisfaction at executing a little payback

Plotting revenge in the form of an IRS audit

Contemplating her own run at the record book

She truly is a uniter and not a divider.

Hot Air Video: CNN and the Politics of Planting

 
Outstanding.

Line o' the Day: The Sesame Street Party

 
Jules Crittenden has the winning entry, commenting on Thomas Friedman's tongue-in-cheek Obama-Cheney ticket:

I'm sure there must be a Sesame Street episode that deals with how much trouble you can get into if you tell [a lie]. But the mullahs don't watch that show and haven't exactly developed a reputation for truthfulness. They've lied about Iraq. They lied about Afghanistan. They lied their support for al Qaeda. They've lied about Lebanon and Gaza. They appear to have lied about involvement in Lockerbie. They've lied about the Beirut barracks bombing. Let's suppose the Iranians … bear with me here … prevaricate about their nuclear program and these other issues, and it is decided the big Tony Soprano bat must be used. Will Friedman have any more stomach for rough stuff than he did last time he advocated a war over nukes? And would President Big Bird ever swing that bat?

This is (one of) the problem(s) with President Big Bird and the rest of the Sesame Street Party's candidates. They cannot be relied on to protect U.S. and world security interests, because they are convinced they can chase the clouds away and make it a sunny day.

I'm a Uniter, not a Divider

 
I can die happy. I've been linked by the incomparable Rush Limbaugh, The Spectator and Randi Rhodes all on the same day.

See, I am a uniter and not a divider!

In all seriousness, credit goes to the earliest leaders on this story. Instapundit, Dan Riehl, Gateway Pundit, Jammie Wearing Fool, and the indomitable Larwyn were the first folks calling attention to it.

And Suitably Flip wins the headline award: Botanical Explosion Among Cnnium Genus.

If you missed the back-story, see 'All six of CNN's "undecided voters" were Democratic operatives' and 'CNN's purges its "Protect CliNtoN" debate transcript'.

* * *
Other great lines from CNN's debate meltdown (aside from the easy out of using the phrase Wolf Blitzer as an all-purpose punchline):

* Dan Riehl: "You can't spell Clinton without C-N-N."

* Dinah Lord: "You practically needed a machete, the plants were so thick on the ground in the Dem's Vegas debacle debate."

* Information Dissemination: "This strikes me as business as usual for the Clintons, as I sit and observe entitlement in America in action enabled by the media supposedly intended to protect the citizens from people in power, but has become the vehicle for those in power to do as they please.."

* SnafuBar: "That they would all be Democrats would be unsurprising, that they would all be party operatives just shows you how hollow are the positions espoused by those on the left.."

The United States of America vs. the MSM and Hollywood

 
Gateway Pundit has the latest numbers:

Violence in Iraq is down by 50%.
Civilian casualties in Iraq are down by 60%.
Baghdad casualties are down by 75%.
Basra violence is down by 90%.
Terrorist attacks in Iraq are down by 80%.

Even AFP is running positive stories on life in Iraq, so you'd think our mainstream media would've started to get the picture. But let's not hurry them.

"Even two or three months ago we would have been afraid to come here at night," said 20-year-old Hussein Salah, an off-duty soldier, slurping a milkshake with his wife, Shihad, at the Mishmesha (apricot) juice bar in Baghdad's relatively safe Karrada suburb.

"Now we sometimes sit outside here till one or two in the morning. It is quite safe. The security situation is vastly improved," said Salah, the orange light from a nearby flashing palm alternatively brightening and dimming his clean-shaven face.

Of course, Hollywood is sticking with their bankruptcy-inducing meme: the U.S. military is a bunch of bloodthirsthy, homicidal rapists. Michael Medved's review of Re****ed (you see, I've redacted its name) is short and to the point:

It could be the worst movie I've ever seen ... "[T]he out and out worst, most disgusting, most hateful, most incompetent, most revolting, most loathsome, most reprehensible cinematic work I have ever encountered. ... It portrays the members of our Marine Corps in the most disgusting way imaginable... This film is an atrocity. It is zero stars... I honestly was close to vomiting when I saw the film... It is a slander on the United States of America... Everyone associated with this film ought to be ashamed... Will it inspire future terrorists? Of course it will!

Back in the real world, TigerHawk compares 1864 and 2008:

In 1864 Americans were fed up with the Civil War, in which there were days on which more soldiers were killed than have died in four years of the Iraq war. "Mr. Lincoln is already beaten," wrote Horace Greeley, perhaps the leading journalist. And three months before the election Republican leaders told president Lincoln that he had no hope of reelection. As Peter Wallison of AEI recently recalled, the Democratic platform denounced "four years of failure" in the war effort and Gen. George B. McClellan, the Democratic candidate opposing Lincoln recommended making peace on Southern terms.

But on September 1 the news reached Washington that Atlanta had fallen to the Union army, and on election day it appeared as if the North was on the way to victory. Lincoln was decisively reelected. And, according to historian Allan Nevins, "The damage done to the Democratic Party by the platform could not be undone. Its … stigmatization of the heroic war effort as worthless gave the Northern millions an image of the Democratic Party they could never forget….and would cost the party votes for a generation."

Remember Senator Harry Reid's infamous proclamation declaring that "the war is lost"?

My prediction is that after a GOP rout in 2008, Mr. Reid will no longer have a job as Senate Majority Leader.

Cartoon: Ramirez. A Texas-sized tip o' the hat to Larwyn

CNN's purges its "Protect CliNtoN" debate transcript

 
CNN's Democratic debate last week -- hosted by Wolf Blitzer -- appears to be nothing more than an infomercial designed to shield Hillary Clinton from tough questions. All six of the "ordinary people, undecided voters" who were selected by CNN to ask questions appear to be Democratic operatives.

Ordinary citizen LaShannon Spencer was a randomly selected participant in the Democratic debate on Thursday. She was described as one of several "undecided voters", but her presence has now been utterly purged from CNN's transcript of the event.

Her debate performance now lives on only in my mind. Oh, and also in the International Herald-Tribune version of the transcript.

CNN identified her only as a member of the First African Methodist Church and not as a director of political affairs for the Democratic Party of Arkansas. Spencer was also associated with the Kerry-Edwards campaign and a member of the Arkansas Democratic Delegation in 2004. But she's just another ordinary citizen, just like you or me.

As Dan Riehl says, you can't spell Clinton without CNN. But what's their point in altering the transcript? It's all too little, too late.

Update: Received an anonymous message that deserves attention:

I guess in a city of almost 2 million, CNN couldn't find just one stay-at-home minivan mom, a cocktail waitress, an insurance salesman, a plumber, a bank manager, or even a librarian in the audience to ask their scripted questions.

What a sham. This was nothing more than an over-produced infomercial. No genuine exchange of political ideas.

Line o' the Day: Giving white trash a bad name

 
Don Surber:

"Agents of Sen. Hillary Clinton are spreading the word in Democratic circles that she has scandalous information about her principal opponent for the party's presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama, but has decided not to use it..."

...The reality is that the Clintons are so dirty, so sweaty from the sewer that they are the last people in the nation who can sling mud... What possibly dirt can they have that is worse than their dirt?

Is Obama having affairs with staffers, groping widows or sending state troopers to procure women?

Has Obama lied under oath?

Has Obama taken money from agents of communist governments?

Is one of Obama's top fund-raisers a convicted felony and fugitive from justice?

Has Obama accepted money in exchange for presidential pardons?

Are Buddhist monks and nuns being used to launder campaign money from friends in Hollywood?

Has Obama dug up any 40-year-old affairs to leak to the press?

Is he hiding 3 million pages of public record from the public?

The problem with the Clintons is that they give white trash a bad name.

And that's the problem with Surber: he's so guarded and circumspect that it's hard to tell what he's driving at.

Oh, about the picture. I have no idea how that got in there.

Blogosphere highlights you can't afford to miss!

 
The Hsu's on the other foot: Gateway Pundit notes another heavyweight Clinton donor is in trouble for fraud (and accused of groping as well - why, how very Clinton-esque?).

What happened to the other 176?: Annie Jacobson describes TSA Suspicious Incident #177, in which a Federal Flight Deck Officer (FFDO - armed pilot) was alerted by crew-members to four suspicious individuals who repeatedly entered and exited the same lavatory, when other lavatories were available. When the FFDO later checked the lavatory, the mirror had been unlatched. The TSA believes this area was indicative of a concealment area for terrorist materials and that the entire incident had "many of the elements of pre-operational terrorist planning." In July, I posted some background on several incidents that likely constitute one or more of the other 176.

A thing of beauty: Why carrying a gun is a civilized act (hat tip: Glenn Reynolds).

Sir Edmund Hilary: Why Hillary should not be trusted (a book review in The Bulletin)

The Dema Sutra explains all of Hillary's many positions

 
* Chapter 1: On Iraq.

* Chapter 2: On immigration.

* Chapter 3: On Iran.

* Chapter 4: On the solvency of Social Security.

* Chapter 5: On NAFTA.

If you can keep all of these positions straight, you may have a future in Pro Chess.

The Contenders: Pickens vs. Kerry for $1 million

 
Sen. John Kerry, whose 2004 presidential campaign was shredded by critics of his Vietnam War record, said Friday he has personally accepted Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens' offer of $1 million to anyone who can disprove even a single charge of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Pickens faxed a letter to Kerry on Friday indicating his acceptance, "I am certainly open to your challenge," but he said he would not pay Kerry unless the senator first provided him with copies of his wartime journals, any movies he filmed while on patrol and his complete military records for the years 1971 through 1978.

In addition, Pickens proposed a counter-challenge: "If you cannot prove anything in the Swift Boat ads to be untrue, that you will make a $1 million gift to the charity I am choosing -- the (Congressional) Medal of Honor Foundation."

I'm looking forward to seeing Kerry's magic hat from his tippity-top secret "Christmas in Cambodia" mission.

All six of CNN's "undecided voters" were Democratic operatives

 

UPDATES BELOW - CNN hits bottom and digs: All six debate questioners appear to be Democratic Party operatives. So much for "ordinary people, undecided voters". To paraphrase Junior Soprano, CNN is so far up the DNC's hind end, Howard Dean can taste hair gel.

In a nutshell, CNN's six "undecided voters" were:

A Democratic Party bigwig
An antiwar activist
A Union official
An Islamic leader
A Harry Reid staffer
A radical Chicano separatist

Wow. This looks "rather" like a scandal. Hot Air:

...You’d think the network’s audience might want to know who among the questioners has had a paid, formal relationship with the party.

...I went back to the beginning of the debate to see how Blitzer introduced the format. Did he offer any details on who’d be doing the questioning? Why, yes. After mentioning that the debate was sponsored by the national party — something likely understood by most viewers as a mere formality — he described them as “ordinary people, undecided voters.” Note: not even “undecided Democrats.” Just undecided.

Word on the street is that Hillary's staffers are extremely pleased with CNN's Wolf Blitzer for his softball questioning of Sen. Clinton during Thursday's Las Vegas debate. Blitzer "was outstanding, and did not gang up like Russert did in Philadelphia. He avoided personal attacks, remained professional and ran the best debate so far."

Who were the questioners upon whom Blitzer called? According to CNN, they were "ordinary people, undecided voters.” Like these folks:

Plant #1: LaShannon Spencer, whom Blitzer introduced as an "undecided voter", was tagged by Dan Riehl: in truth, she served as the political director of the Democratic Party of Arkansas.

Plant #2: Khalid Kahn, who expressed concern about profiling and the Patriot Act, asked "[m]y question is that -- our civil liberties have been taken away from us. What are you going to do to protect Americans from this kind of harassment?" Classical Values notes that Mr. Kahn is the president of the Islamic Society of Nevada, who has hosted conferences like this one (with guest speakers like Muzzamil Siddiqi). In fact, Kahn in no stranger to CNN, appearing on a show called Keeping the Faith in Sin City.

Plant #3: Suzanne Jackson -- mother of a three-term Iraq war veteran -- is aso a well-known antiwar activist. She appeared in the Las Vegas Review Journal protesting -- with a poor monkey, no less -- outside of Harry Reid's office in May. Note: Suzanne Jackson may have been mistaken with Jeannie Jackson, another vet's Mom. See Update IX, below.

Plant #4: Maria Luisa -- the UNLV student who asked Hillary Clinton whether she preferred "diamonds or pearls" -- wrote that CNN forced her to ask the "frilly" question instead of a pre-approved query regarding the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste facility.

Update: Andy writes to point out the eerie similarities between Maria L. Parra-Sandoval and "Maria Luisa." Regarding Ms. Parra-Sandoval, the UNLV website states:

This spring she will serve as the political communications intern for Senator Harry Reid in Washington, D.C. Currently a junior at UNLV, Maria is... is an immigrant on a quest to become a United States citizen.

In other words, she's not even eligible to vote, unless the Democrats changed the rules when I wasn't looking (Added later: Commenter wjb states that "Maria Parra-Sandoval was sworn in as U.S. a citizen in Las Vegas by Magistrate Judge Lawrence R. Leavitt in March 2006." So presumably she really is eligible to vote).

Update II: rumors are flying of a fifth plant. An anonymous commenter at Gateway Pundit writes that the "50-ish lady who 'asked" her memorized question was a union offical. Gee, lucky she got in!" Judy Bagley, a 27-year cashier at Fitzgerald's was quoted in RGT Online (a gaming magazine) in an article about Culinary Workers Union Local 226's collective bargaining agreement.

Update III: Judy Bagley was definitely a fifth plant. An anonymous email alerts me to this portion of the debate transcript:

Obama: Well, first of all, Judy, thank you for the question, and thanks for the great work you do on behalf of the culinary workers, a great union here.

Update IV: an anonymous email alerts me to a possible sixth and final plant. George Ambriz is an Executive Director of the ¡Sí Se Puede! Foundation and is a recruiter at UNLV. His bio states:

George joins our team from Douglas, Arizona, having earned his associate’s degree in administration of justice from Cochise College in 2000. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in political science and criminal justice from Western New Mexico University. He is currently completing a master’s degree in ethics and policy studies at UNLV. He plans to pursue doctorate and law degrees, practice corporate law, and become active in politics.

Care to guess which party's politics George is active in?

Update V: Andy writes to add some more background on Suzanne ("Jeannie") Jackson. On September 20, 2001, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) cast the only vote against the resolution authorizing President Bush to use "all necessary and appropriate force" against anyone associated with the terrorist attacks of September 11th.

Jeannie Jackson wrote a supportive note on the Mother Jones website. She's active on the site of Soros front group Americans United for Change and hangs out at Dem site Think Progress. She also had a harsh antiwar letter published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Andy's snarky question: "Just another undecided voter I guess. Right?"

Update VI: A commenter at LGF provides an insightful summary:

Wow this is a scandal.

A Dem activist from Ark
An anti-war activist
A union activist
An Islamic leader
A Harry Reid staffer

All being presented by CNN as undecided voters.

Update VII: An anonymous email alerts us to Kahn's background as a heavy Democratic contributor (e.g., $2000 to Harry Reid earlier this year):



Update VIII: Another helpful email points us to lefty blogger Live from Silver City:

Ambriz was just before my time at WNMU, but I later met him in Las Vegas at a model United Nations conference. Like me, Ambriz was heavily involved in student government and other clubs while at WNMU — he served as president of MEChA...

What ic MEChA?

According to this website, "The official national symbol of MEChA is an eagle holding a machete-like weapon and a stick of dynamite... The acronym MEChA stands for Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan or Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan... [it] is an Hispanic separatist organization that encourages anti-American activities and civil disobedience... [they] romanticize Mexican claims to the "lost Territories" of the Southwestern United States -- a Chicano country called Aztlan. In its national constitution, MEChA calls for self-determination by its members to liberate Aztlan."

From all appearances, MEChA wants to overthrow the United States government. The American Patrol has more.

In a discussion board post, George Ambriz states "my name is George R. Ambriz, former student of Western New Mexico University, more importantly, a former M.E.Ch.A. President... we worked in sync... with the local and state Democratic Party to inform many people about the importance of voting..."

Update IX: An alert reader notes that Catherine Jackson and Jeannie Jackson -- both Mothers of Iraq War vets -- may have been mistaken for each other by several bloggers, yours truly included. More info to come.

Update X: A pro-Obama blog links to this story and offers some additional insights:

A conservative blogger reports that the “Diamonds vs. Pearls” questioner was a former staffer for Nevada Democratic Party Chair, Harry Reid. Reid’s son heads Hillary Clinton’s Nevada campaign.

LaShannon Spencer, the woman who asked about court judges, is a high-level staffer for the Arkansas Democratic Party and has been so since the 1990s. Bill and Hillary hail from Arkansas.

Update XI: It appears CNN has removed Ms. Spencer from their copy of the transcript!

* * *
Dan Riehl also notes that of 1,000 tickets given to UNLV, a measly one hundred made it to students.

I'm glad CNN randomly selected ordinary people like you and me. We wouldn't want anyone to think that Hillary was shielded from all of the tough, grueling questions that Tim Russert asked.

Seriously, it looks like CNN and Hillary's staffers (but I repeat myself) really had this thing rigged from the get-go to avoid a Russert-esque browbeating.

Hat tip: Larywn. Instapundit, Gateway Pundit and Jammie Wearing Fool were on this from the very start. And even the New York Times is criticizing CNN's Hillary bias.

Linked by Instapundit, Ace of Spades, American Thinker, Captain's Quarters, Dan Riehl ("you can't spell Clinton without CNN"), Dr. Sanity, Ed Driscoll, Gateway Pundit, Jammie Wearing Fool, Jawa Report, National Review's Campaign Spot, Patterico's Pontifications and Polipundit. Thanks!

Notes: Captain's Quarters and the NRO are somewhat underwhelmed with the magnitude of the controversy. Frequent commenter jpm100 put it best when he said:

It isn't that they are Democrats.

It's that their careers are either with the Democratic Party or need a good Relationship with the Democratic Party.

They basically could be counted upon to softball Hillary because their careers depended on it.