Friday, December 21, 2007

Wyatt Edwards

 
Ray Robison catches an awesome moment from a John Edwards campaign video. When a prospective voter shouts a question at Edwards:

"You're going to have to be Wyatt Earp, are you up to it?"

Edwards' response demonstrates all the machismo of Jimmy Carter fighting off a rabbit with an oar. He winks, extends his hand and fires a simulated finger-weapon:

"I'm ready!!!"

Reportedly, no rabbits were harmed in the filming of this campaign video.

The Best of Pookie Today

 
Here are several brilliant editorial cartoons from today's Pookie collection.




Is that dirt? Or another byproduct of Hillary's campaign?

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Exclusive Photo: John Edwards' Love Child!

 
This is an exclusive first look at John Edwards' controversial love child.

Don't bother asking how I acquired this photo. Sources and methods, my friends. Sources and methods.

Illustration o' the Day

 
EIB's 'Clinton, Inc. Assaults Obama Votes' wins the prestigious prize.

...and your little dog, too!

It's a Hillbilly Christmas!

 
PVC and Mountain Dew: a powerful combination.






The sheer beauty of this holiday spectacle brings a tear to my eye.

Hat tip: Chris

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Military prepares for Democratic budget cuts

 
Over the course of his eight years in the White House, while terrorists relentlessly attacked the United States and its allies, Bill Clinton slashed the country's defense and intelligence budgets.

The military is preparing for a possible second Clinton administration by testing several new weapons systems that fit into a typical Democratic military budget (via Thomas Lifson).





In addition, there are rumors that the DOD is close to a deal to acquire over a dozen terrifying Johnny Seven "One Man Army" weapons.

Al Qaeda attempts to access a Pakistani nuclear weapon

 
Pakistan's Daily Times reports that Al Qaeda is pursuing a nuclear weapon (hat tip: LGF):

A former senior US official said that Pakistan was the “real front line in the war against Al Qaeda”, but it is the “most frightening concern” that Al Qaeda was in pursuit of a nuclear weapon...

Bruce Riedel of the Brookings Institution said that Pakistan was the world’s only Muslim state with nuclear weapons, and that in the last decade a former CIA chief George Tenet had said that Al Qaeda was making efforts to get its hands on a Pakistani nuclear device. “Today, it has a secure operating base in the country, its leadership is issuing constant guidance to its global supporters, it is threatening NATO’s position in Afghanistan through its Taliban allies and it is now a growing force in Pakistan itself. The current political crisis in Pakistan is endangering the secular democratic forces in the country, polarising the debate about the country’s future and strengthening Al Qaeda’s Islamist partners.

...Writing in the Combating Terrorism Centre Sentinel — a new publication of the US Military Academy, West Point — Riedel is of the view that Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al Zawahiri could well be in any of Pakistanan’s areas that are now increasingly getting out of the control of the central government and essentially lawless...

“It seeks to destroy the secular political leadership and civil society that offers an alternative to its extremist Salafist Islamic preaching. Al Qaeda’s goal in Pakistan is to polarise the country into warring factions, break the back of civil and secular society and ultimately see its allies in the Pakistani Islamist movement seize power.


Remember, John Edwards says the so-called war on terror is only a "bumper sticker slogan," so we can safely ignore this news.

As for Al Qaeda spokesman Suleiman Abu Geith's promise --

We have the right to kill 4 million Americans - 2 million of them children - and to exile twice as many and wound and cripple hundreds of thousands. Furthermore, it is our right to fight them with chemical and biological weapons, so as to afflict them with the fatal maladies that have afflicted the Muslims because of the [Americans'] chemical and biological weapons... America knows only the language of force. This is the only way to stop it and make it take its hands off the Muslims and their affairs. America does not know the language of dialogue!! Or the language of peaceful coexistence!! America is kept at bay by blood alone...

-- consider it simply an unfortunate coincidence.

Line o' the Day: Sleepin' on the Job

 
In light of the 'Edwards Love Child' fiasco, Jim Geraghty wins our line o' the day award.*

Boy, ironic time for Newsweek to put John Edwards on the cover with the headline, "The Sleeper", huh?

Revised headline, in light of the National Enquirer story: "The Sleepin'-With-Somebody-Else-Besides-Elizabeth-er"?

UPDATE: Also, in retrospect, there are better poses than looking like you're about to remove your tie...

* The winner receives a year's supply of pancakes at Jed's Discount Breakfast Shoppe, ten feet of chicken wire and forty gallons of paint thinner. What the winner does with these items is anyone's guess, since no one has ever bothered to pick up their winnings.

Hat tip: Larwyn

Lenin Lite wins Time's Person of the Year Award

 
Fausta alerts us to mainstream media's version of "earth-shattering news": Russian President-for-Life Vladimir Putin is Time Magazine's Person of the Year.

The 2007 honor went to the Russian leader because of Putin's "extraordinary feat of leadership in taking a country that was in chaos and bringing it stability," said Richard Stengel, Time's managing editor.

Hate to break the news to you, Richard, but the major contributing factor to stability in Russia was oil prices, not a penny-ante dictator like Putin.

Time's headline: "A Tsar Is Born." Who's writing these captions: Paris Hilton?


Time Magazine's Richard Stengel congratulates Vladimir Putin

Macsmind's line is a keeper: Time names KGB Agent of the Year.

Good luck with fixing your circulation woes, Time. Meanwhile, General David Petraeus is the Person of the Year from the perspective of most Americans. Perhaps Time has decided to stop concentrating on the American market, though, which would explain their choice of Lenin Lite.

Update on 12/21: The Guardian reports that Putin may have enriched himself during his reign by as much as $40 billion.

The Enquirer's 'John Edwards Love Child' article disappears!

 
Eight or so hours ago, the online version of the National Enquirer published a scandalous article on John Edwards' reputed love child. The page looked like this:


Now, the article (link) appears to have been unceremoniously purged from the Enquirer's site:

Drudge still has the story. But it begs the question: what the heck is going on?

Just a content management glitch? Or is it some kind of heavyweight infighting going on within the Clinton campaign?

Update: the story is back, albeit with a different URL. Thanks to Pookie for the heads-up.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

I warned them and warned them and warned them.

 
I warned them and warned them and warned them.

Who?

Every one of 'em. I told them what would happen if they got close in Iowa.

What?

That they could expect the worst.

What's the worst?

For, lo, ignorant one. It has been foretold by the brothers Rodham and writ in stone by the forty-second King. It has been anointed with the blood of Hsu and Paul, then sealed and glazed in the fire of the satanic Hillraisers. Those who arise to throw off my yolk and who seek to stop my ascent to the throne shall themselves be destroyed. THEY WILL DROWN IN A SEA OF THREE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS! THE RED STATES WILL BLEED BLUE BLOOD AND ALL WHO OPPOSE ME SHALL BE MADE TO SUFFER FOR ALL ETERNITY!

Why are you shouting? And why did the sky just turn red for a moment?

Oh, er, uhm, I'm not sure.

Anyhow, I take it that's how you rationalized releasing publicity of Obama's drug use and Edwards' secret love child?

You've got it, Sparky.

With apologies to the Daily Show, circa 2004

A Clinton link to a John Edwards' Love Child Scandal?

 
Update 12/27/2007: John Edwards' Love Child Saga, the NBA, and the MSM. Original updates are below -- including the Clinton link to the National Enquirer and an alleged girlfriend named by several investigative reporters.

Drudge just broke the story about a forthcoming National Enquirer shocker. Granted, it's the Enquirer. And maybe I'm just cynical, but doesn't this have the vague whiff of a Clinton caper? Ace says maybe not.

Presidential candidate John Edwards is caught in a shocking mistress scandal that could wreck his campaign, The NATIONAL ENQUIRER has learned exclusively.

Sources have come forward to charge that the “other woman” previously worked on Edwards’ campaign and followed the 54-year-old candidate on trips across the U.S.

A source close to the woman, whose name is being withheld by The NATIONAL ENQUIRER, says that she confessed to having an affair in phone calls and emails, saying that her work with Edwards soon exploded into romance. The shocking allegation — if proven true — could devastate the Democratic hopeful’s campaign, especially because John’s devoted wife Elizabeth is locked in a desperate battle with breast cancer.

“The affair started about 18 months ago,” a friend says the woman confessed to her. “When they met at a bar, sparks flew immediately... She never expected it would turn sexual since John is married and is running for President. But it soon did — and she fell for him.”

In one bombshell e-mail message provided to The NATIONAL ENQUIRER, the woman confesses to a friend she’s “in love with John,” but it’s “difficult because he is married and has kids." In another e-mail, she writes: “Last night and this a.m., he actually has amazed me. He is a great man. My heart is loud and my head is silenced.” Disclosed her friend: “She initially confided in a few of her closest pals that she was sleeping with ‘a married man named John.’

“It became clear the married man was John Edwards. They got together whenever they could, mostly at hotels where Edwards and his campaign staff stayed.” The woman later spelled it out in a phone call to her pal and talked openly about having an affair with Edwards. The friend says the woman told her that she “had a crush on John. One thing led to another, and they soon ended up in bed together. But she knew there was no way he was going to leave Elizabeth, a wife battling cancer.”

The ex-Senator’s wife was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004. This past March, the couple announced her cancer had returned, but said his campaign would continue. His spokesman said that allegations Edwards had an affair are “false, absolute nonsense.”

The woman’s friend told The NATIONAL ENQUIRER: “As the affair went on, she said that both she and John began to feel real guilty and they decided to end it.”

The ENQUIRER made exhaustive but unsuccessful attempts to reach the woman for comment regarding this article but she would not return phone calls or emails or come to the door of the house where she is staying.

My take is that if this pans out, it definitely benefits Obama, but Mrs. Bill... not so much.

Update: RightPundits:

The name of the woman allegedly having an affair with John Edwards was supposed to be a campaign secret, but we can reveal the suspect is Rielle Hunter, formerly known as Lisa Druck. She is reportedly in hiding with her flowering tummy unavailable for comment, if one is to believe the rumor. One hopes that she has proper medical attention because far too many women are lacking basic medical care in this country. One can finally understand why a lawyer would be constantly pitching taxpayer funded health care. His campaign pitch is an attempt to shirk his financial responsibilities.

Rielle Hunter was a campaign worker paid $114,000 to make web commercials touting his virtues, a position which reportedly required her to follow John Edwards around the country. She has been surprisingly unavailable for comment, although our sources say her cheeks are looking rosy.

Update II: Commenter Tom Blumer (creator of top-notch business blog BizzyBlog) observes:

This is odd, because I'm pretty sure the Enquirer is controlled by Clinton cronies... Odd, because if I am right about that, this will be pinned on the Clintons, whether they want it to be or not.

I don't see how this helps her, but in their minds, they must think they pick up most of Edwards' current supporters.

Yep, a Clintonista owns the National Enquirer.

Update III: More on Rielle Hunter and the Edwards campaign from HuffPo in October: "Edwards Mystery: Innocuous Videos Suddenly Shrouded In Secrecy." HuffPo's Sam Stein asks:

Questions do remain. Why is the Edwards campaign so reluctant to disclose such innocuous footage? Why are there virtually no traces of Rielle Hunter on the Internet (unusual for someone in the movie business)? Why are all members of the production company refusing to talk to the Huffington Post, even regarding topics as mundane as the process of making political films?

An email sent to Mimi Hockman and the YouTube poster, MissingVideos, were not answered as of publication.

Update IV: In October, New York Magazine ran an interesting timeline including this bullet:

• August 27, 2007. The Post's "Page Six" runs the following blind item: "WHICH political candidate enjoys visiting New York because he has a girlfriend who lives downtown? The pol tells her he'll marry her when his current wife is out of the picture."

Update V: Overlawyered covered Rielle in September:

Who is the "formerly hard-partying girl who claims that she found enlightenment" who met John Edwards in a bar and was paid six digits by the campaign to make videos of him that "lingers over the former senator's behind as he tucks a starched white shirt into his pants," and why is the campaign suddenly hiding the webvideos she made of Edwards on questionable legal grounds? Mickey Kaus is curious after reading this Sam Stein post. Separately, Garance Franke-Ruta notes the irony of Edwards stumping the SEIU for votes and donations on the leftist union's "Lobby Day." For other Edwards campaign shenanigans on Overlawyered, see Sep. 19.

Update VI: Just saw the National Enquirer story pop... and the scoop gets weirder. Former Edwards campaign bigwig Andrew Young claims the baby is his:

The woman linked to Presidential candidate John Edwards in a cheating scandal is more than six months pregnant and telling a close confidante that Edwards is the father of her unborn child... the political bombshell comes just weeks after Edwards emphatically denied having an affair with Rielle Hunter, who formerly worked on his campaign.

...The ENQUIRER has now confirmed not only that Rielle is pregnant, but she is also living in Chapel Hill, N.C. in a gated community, just a few streets away from Andrew Young, who has been a key official in Edwards' campaign... In a bizarre twist, Young, a 41-year-old married man with young children, now claims HE is the father of Reille's baby.

But others are skeptical about his claim and talk of a political cover up is heating up... Reille, when contacted in person by the NATIONAL ENQUIRER, denied that she was Reille Hunter. Later, she hired a lawyer and issued a statement, saying that Young is the father... But a source close to the 43-year-old divorcee says Rielle has told a far different story privately.

"Rielle told me she had a secret affair with Edwards. When she found out that she was pregnant she said he was the father."

Rielle loves Edwards and will do anything to protect him, the source said... The NATIONAL ENQUIRER has obtained exclusive photos of a visibly pregnant Rielle...

Monday, December 17, 2007

I wouldn't recommend drinking from hotel glasses

 
Be warned. The following hidden camera video exposes the disgusting practices that some hotels have employed to "clean" drinking glasses.

It wasn't just one hotel.

It wasn't just one set of cleaners.

It happened over and over again. Drinking glasses squirted with toxic cleaning fluids, handled by folks washing toilets, dried with dirty towels and then rinsed and placed on a doily as if they were sanitized.

I think I feel nauseous.

Hat tip: TR

Line o' the Day: the Toxic Texan fails to destroy the Earth

 
Mark Steyn (hat tip: Gateway Pundit):

In the past third of a century, the American economy has swollen by 150 per cent, automobile traffic has increased by 143 per cent, and energy consumption has grown 45 per cent. During this same period, air pollutants have declined by 29 per cent, toxic emissions by 48.5 per cent, sulphur dioxide levels by 65.3 per cent, and airborne lead by 97.3 per cent. Despite signing on to Kyoto, European greenhouse gas emissions have increased since 2001, whereas America's emissions have fallen by nearly one per cent, despite the Toxic Texan's best efforts to destroy the planet.

The Most Ethical Congress in History

 
Oops. Wrong headline. I meant the most earmarks of any Congress in History. Ace puts it at a neat 10,000 earmarks -- up nearly 400% since last year -- and quotes Robert Novak:

This solution is designed to win bipartisan support because it will contain the earmarks for pork barrel spending back home dearly desired on both sides of the aisle. It became clear a week ago that Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell was in negotiation with Majority Leader Harry Reid for a bill to finance multiple new earmarks by means of across-the-board reduction in government programs. What's more, a little rules chicanery will hide an estimated 12,000 new earmarks, including pork that previously had not been passed by any chamber and is "airdropped" into the bill. The wily legislators have found a way to get around new ethics rules that require disclosure of all such spending.

And one of the worst offenders?

None other than tired ol' Hillary Clinton, of whom HuffPo says is "landing earmarks for campaign contributions."

At least eight Hillraisers -- Hillary donation bundlers who've achieved the $100,000 level -- are linked directly to her earmarks. One is James Flaws, CFO of Corning Inc. Corning employees have given Clinton nearly a quarter of a million dollars since 1999.

Since taking office in 2001, Clinton has delivered $500 million worth of earmarks that have specifically benefited 59 corporations. About 64% of those corporations provided funds to her campaigns through donations made by employees, executives, board members or lobbyists, a review by the Los Angeles Times shows...

All told, Clinton has earmarked more than $2.3 billion in federal appropriations for projects in her state since her election to the Senate... Clinton does significantly more earmarking than most others with her relatively low level of seniority...

Her record stands in contrast with others in the Senate seeking the presidency, particularly John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.). McCain, who has long opposed earmarks, does not write them... Among other Democratic presidential candidates who serve in the Senate, there is a correlation between donations and earmarks for private entities, though none of the contenders have been as consistent as Clinton...

Looks to me like this Congress -- led by the Pork Queen, Hillary Clinton -- may be the most unethical in history.

Update: Commenter Just a dude asserts that the omnibus spending bill gets worse. Much worse: "It has been discovered there is an amendment in the omnibus bill that in effect defunds the border fence or at least makes it where it is no longer required to be built."