Saturday, August 23, 2008

AP writer criticizes Biden pick: Leftosphere explodes in outrage!


Uh oh. AP writer Ron Fournier dared criticize the Biden pick saying that it exuded "a lack of confidence."

The barking moonbatsphere erupted with the expected indignation. How dare the mainstream media -- and the AP no less? -- criticize a major Democratic decision. Most observers believe that such a thing hadn't occurred since '63 with JFK's Bay of Pigs debacle. The wanknuts' reactions ranged from high-pitched shrieking to overt threats of personal harm.

Washington Monthly: "[His] objectivity covering the presidential race continues to look shaky... We learned not too long ago that Fournier exchanged emails with Karl Rove about Pat Tillman [and] Fournier was also one of the journalists who, at a gathering of the nation's newspaper editors, extended McCain a box of his favorite donuts [with sprinkles]." (Jeez, sprinkles? That's really crossing the line!)

FireDogLake: "ACTION: Tell AP To Remove Ron Fournier From the Presidential Beat. As recently as last year, Ron Fournier considered working for the McCain campaign. Instead he took a job as Washington bureau chief for the AP, but it looks like he's still working for McCain... It's time to crank out [letters to the editor] again. Ron Fournier must be taken off the Presidential beat. He's got an obvious conflict-of-interest." (As opposed to Barack Obama's millions in earmarks to his wife's hospital, which coincidentally tripled her salary.)

The ill-named Grasping Reality: "Why oh why can't we have a better press corps? ...Don't trust them. Don't patronize their advertisers. Don't believe them. Listen, instead, to people with substantive expertise and knowledge trying to convey that knowledge rather than the ignorant trying to score points with their owners, editors, and sources." (Like... 'Grasping Reality'?)

MyDD: "If pure Republican spin and McCain talking points are what we are to expect out of the AP under Fournier, it's going to be a long hard slog full of truth squading between now and election day." (Because that's what the AP is known for -- pure Republican spin.)

The well nigh unreadable "AMERICAblog": "I know that the Associated Press considers it a point of honor to promote someone whenever they do something incredibly biased and their impartiality is seriously compromised, but after their top presidential reporter, Ron Fournier, interviewed for a job with the McCain presidential campaign, it's simply abominable that AP would keep him on the presidential beat.." (Whew. Take a breath, Sparky. I haven't seen so many commas since ee cummings retired.)

Strand-Craft Stingray Speedboat


Autoblog:

The '63 Corvette Stingray split-window coupe may not have been quite as aerodynamic as GM would have us believe, but it does remain one of the most iconic designs of all time.

So iconic, in fact, that one shipyard is considering taking it to the water to see if the shape is seaworthy...

...The blueprints call for a carbon-fiber hull and a big block engine with competition prop drives (we see two engines powering the one above).

I can see Timmy Dalton driving one of these in the next Bond flick.

Oops: Reliapundit gently reminds me that the current Bond is Daniel Craig. But of course!

Exclusive look at Obama's new campaign poster


Backstory: Obama taps Neil Kinnock for Running Mate.

All-time best Biden quote (New Republic, 2001): "Seems to me this would be a good time to send, no strings attached, a check for $200 million to Iran".

Linked by: Denny. Thanks!

Obama Taps Neil Kinnock for Running Mate


This is the real transcript of a Joe Biden commercial from his '88 presidential campaign.

The White House isn't the place to learn how to deal with international crisis, the balance of power, war and peace, and the economic future of the next generation. (Doesn't this disqualify his running mate?)

A president has got to know the territory. (Ditto)

Joe Biden sees the presidency as a pulpit from which America sets an example for the world. He believes that developing nations once saw America as more than a place. They saw us as an idea, a goal to reach for. (This fits perfectly with Obama's world-view... that America sucks)

He knows they lost confidence in us, that they see us losing our way, our resolve, our ideals. (So even 20 years ago, Democrats were using the exact same rhetoric about how the rest of the world hates our guts)

Joe Biden thinks it's time to remind the world of what America stands for: freedom, equality, justice, opportunity. (Yes, it's high time that Joe Biden returned America to the greatness he -- I mean -- it deserves!)

Biden dropped out of the 1988 campaign after videotape emerged in which he used the words and the life story of British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock.

NEIL KINNOCK at Welsh Labour Party conference May 1987:

"Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Was it because our predecessors were thick? Does anybody really think that they didn't get what we had because they didn't have the talent or the strength or the endurance or the commitment? Of course not. It was because there was no platform upon which they could stand"

JOE BIDEN IN Sept 1987 during his first presidential campaign:

"Why is it that Joe Biden is the first in his family ever to go a university? Why is it that my wife... is the first in her family to ever go to college? Is it because our fathers and mothers were not bright? ...Is it because they didn't work hard? My ancestors who worked in the coal mines of northeast Pennsylvania and would come after 12 hours and play football for four hours? It's because they didn't have a platform on which to stand."

The video was sent by the Dukakis campaign to officials of the New York Times. The resulting firestorm of controversy caused Biden to withdraw.

* * *

At the start of this campaign season, Biden praised Barack Obama:

"[he is] the first mainstream African American [presidential candidate] who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man.

Jesse Jackson was unavailable for comment.

In a videotaped exchange with a supporter last June, he said, "You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts [in Delaware] unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking."

Pleased to be listening to you, Mr. Joe!

Links via Memeorandum: EIB: Oh please let it be Biden. Pajamas Media: The neophyte and the plagiarist, or Obama makes his choice. Betsys Page: Obama-Biden. Slate: The Prize Biden Moment. New Republic (2001): "Seems to me this would be a good time to send, no strings attached, a check for $200 million to Iran". OTB: Tapping Biden. Linked by: Don Surber and Newsbusters. Thanks!

SF Follies: The Anti-Military Sanctuary City Strikes Again


Unbelievable.

SF Chronicle: Family blames sanctuary policy in 3 slayings:

San Francisco's immigrant sanctuary policies played a "substantial" role in the slayings of a father and two of his sons by allowing city officials to shield the alleged killer from deportation, despite his violent history, according to a legal claim filed Friday on behalf of the victims' family.

Bologna, 48, and his sons Michael, 20, and Matthew, 16, were shot to death on a street in the Excelsior district June 22. Edwin Ramos, 21, of El Sobrante, who authorities say is a member of a street gang, has been charged with three counts of murder... Tony Bologna's wife, Danielle, and other relatives denounced the city's sanctuary practices after The Chronicle reported that Ramos, a Salvadoran native suspected of being in this country illegally, had committed felony attempted robbery and assault as a juvenile.

The Chronicle reported that officials with the Juvenile Probation Department, relying on their interpretation of San Francisco's sanctuary city ordinance, had not referred Ramos to federal immigration authorities for possible deportation. The ordinance bars city officials from cooperating with federal crackdowns on illegal immigrants.

SF Chronicle: Pelosi censors poster of troops:

The tale of Pelosi's folly begins with Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C. He wished to pay tribute to the service members of Camp Lejeune who had been killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Accordingly, Walter placed a poster flat against the wall in the corridor outside his office showing their names and pictures... It was altogether fitting that Jones saluted the fallen soldiers on congressional premises. Congress authorized the wars that occasioned their tragic deaths. Congress appropriated the money that dispatched them to mortal danger...

The posters communicated to congressional visitors that war is a combination of heroism and hell. Voters would leave with more informed judgments about the costs of the twin wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There was no tension between Jones' wall poster and the ordinary use of the House Rayburn Office Building to host direct communications between Members of the House and the public. On one occasion, for instance, a mother from Minnesota entered Jones' office with tears in her eyes to thank him for displaying the picture of her son who had been killed while serving the nation.

Speaker Pelosi apparently took umbrage. Under federal law, she is empowered to issue and enforce rules and regulations governing the use of the House office buildings. A 1999 rule prohibits "displaying any flag, banner, or device designed or adapted to bring into public notice any person, party, organization or movement..." On April 17, Pelosi issued a sister hallway policy to improve compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Occupational Safety and Health Act by restricting "the display of flags and the placing or storing of any items within a hallway exit access, exit or stairwell of the House Office Buildings."

Friday, August 22, 2008

Fox News crushes MSNBC and CNN. Combined.


The Hollywood Reporter (via Jammie Wearing Fool):

Political-themed programming this week has worked wonders for the already high ratings of the Fox News Channel... profiles of the two presidential candidates scored high in the cable news ratings...

On Monday, the Barack Obama documentary hosted by Bill Hemmer averaged 2.3 million viewers, Nielsen Media Research said. That compared with 1.1 million viewers for MSNBC's "Countdown" and 687,000 for CNN's "Election Center"... Tuesday's documentary on John McCain averaged 2.6 million viewers, compared with 1.3 million for MSNBC's "Countdown" and 499,000 for CNN's "Election Center." The McCain documentary averaged 569,000 in adults 25-54, while "Countdown" averaged 436,000 and "Election Center" 178,000.

That's all atop Fox News Channel's win last Saturday among the three cable newsers of the Saddleback Presidential Forum, where both Obama and McCain were interviewed by Pastor Rick Warren. Fox News Channel's two-hour coverage averaged 2.8 million viewers with CNN's 1.9 million and MSNBC's 871,000. Among the adults 25-54 demo, Fox averaged 678,000 viewers to CNN's 556,000 and MSNBC's 395,000.

I wonder what Keefus Olbermann has to say about that.

Hat tip: Jammie Wearing Fool.

Agenda for Democratic National Convention


Junior Cub Reporter Biff Spackle located the tippity-top secret agenda for the DNC.

2008 Democrat National Convention
Schedule of Events

 7:00 pm OPENING FLAG BURNING
 7:15 pm PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE UNITED NATIONS
 7:20 pm Ted Kennedy PROPOSES A TOAST TO Barack Obama
 7:25 pm OPENING PRAYER - Reverend Jeremiah Wright
 7:45 pm CEREMONIAL TREE HUGGING - Darryl Hannah
 7:55 pm Ted Kennedy PROPOSES A TOAST TO Joe Biden
 8:00 pm GLOBAL WARMING OMFG!!!!!!!!! - Al Gore
 8:15 pm GAY WEDDING PLANNING - Rosie O'Donnell
 8:35 pm Ted Kennedy PROPOSES A TOAST TO Hillary Clinton
 8:40 pm CHARGING OUR TROOPS WITH WAR CRIMES - John Kerry
 9.00 pm MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR SADDAM AND HIS SONS - Cindy Sheehan and Susan Sarandon
10:00 pm ANSWERING MACHINE ETIQUETTE - Alec Baldwin
11:00 pm Ted Kennedy PROPOSES A TOAST TO Evan Bayh
11:05 pm COLLECTION FOR THE OSAMA BIN LADEN KIDNEY TRANSPLANT FUND - Babs Streisand
11:15 pm FREE THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS FROM GUANTANAMO BAY - Sean Penn
11:30 pm OVAL OFFICE AFFAIRS - William Jefferson Clinton
11:45 pm Ted Kennedy PROPOSES A TOAST TO Nancy Pelosi's Rack
11:50 pm HOW GEORGE BUSH BROUGHT DOWN THE WORLD TRADE TOWERS - Howard Dean
12:15 am FREE THE MINUTEMEN IN IRAQ'S PRISONS - Michael Moore
12:25 am Ted Kennedy PROPOSES A TOAST TO Paris Hilton
12:30 am SATELLITE ADDRESS - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
12:45 am NOMINATION OF BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA - Nancy Pelosi
1:00 am Ted Kennedy SINGS NATIONAL ANTHEM
1:05 am CORONATION OF BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA
1:30 am Ted Kennedy PROPOSES A TOAST TO Ritt Momney
1:35 am Bill Clinton asks Ted Kennedy to drive Hillary home.

Linked by: SondraK. Thanks!

Moonbat message o' the Day


Papa B sends us this shaky photo from the ATL. It reads:

WHY SHOULD OUR CHILDREN DIE
FOR A COMPULSIVE LIAR'S LIES?
HE'S A SOCIOPATH


Logical, reasoned debate. That's what today's left is known for.

Teleprompter breaks; Obama rips U.S., praises China and Russia


Take away the teleprompter and simply wait a few seconds for the hilarious Obama hi-jinx to begin!

[China's] ports, their train systems, their airports are all vastly superior to ours now... if you're a corporation deciding where to do business, you're starting to think, 'Beijing looks like a pretty good option!' Why aren't we doing the same thing?

Uhm, because we're not a Communist dictatorship keeping the vast majority of its people living in rural areas on $10 a week?

Why does Barack Obama hate America?

Powerline adds:

Barack Obama without a teleprompter is an accident waiting to happen. Sometimes he reveals his ignorance of history, sometimes he stumbles incoherently, and sometimes he blurts out what he really believes. That's what happened today when Obama tried to talk about Georgia, a topic that has embarrassed him more than once already, beginning when, in the first hours after the invasion, he parroted the Russian line.

Today Obama equated Russia's invasion of Georgia with our toppling of Saddam Hussein: “We’ve got to send a clear message to Russia and unify our allies,” Obama told a crowd of supporters in Virginia. “They can’t charge into other countries. Of course it helps if we are leading by example on that point.”

So our "charging into" Iraq-- with dozens of allies, supported by a U.N. resolution, as a last resort after six months of build-up and negotiations, to unseat one of the cruelest dictators of modern times who had twice invaded neighboring states, was in violation of more than a dozen U.N. resolutions and was responsible for the deaths of something like two million people, who was shooting at American aircraft and had tried to assassinate a former President of the United States, in Obama's childish mind, was just like Russia's "charging into" Georgia, which resembles Saddam's Iraq in no respect. And, of course, we invaded a horrifying charnel-house so as to establish a democracy, whereas Russia invaded a peaceful democracy that it wants to re-incorporate into its empire.

Is Obama an idiot? I don't think so, really. But one of the many problems with being a leftist is that it leads you to say lots of stupid things. Today, the Obama gaffe machine went into overdrive. By November, I suspect that most voters will have heard enough to know that Barack Obama is unqualified to be a middle-manager in a well-run company, let alone President of the United States.

Update: Dan Riehl lands a hay-maker:

In Britain it took as long to conduct a public inquiry into the proposed construction of Heathrow's Terminal Five as it took to build Beijing's new airport terminal from scratch.

There was no consultation with the public on the terminal. Nor was there any public debate about the construction of Beijing's third runway, notwithstanding the noise pollution already suffered by thousands of nearby residents.

Chinese official Xu Li said, Once a plan is made, it is executed. “Democracy”, she says, “sacrifices efficiency.”

For Beijing's airport expansion, 15 villages were flattened and 10,000 residents resettled. They were barred from unemployment benefits and other welfare privileges though their farmland had been grabbed. Officials threatened them with violence if they refused to leave.

The World Bank says that roads are sometimes built only to convert countryside into revenue-generating urban land. Combined with a lack of adequate public transport, Beijing's polluted air and congested streets, to which 1,000 cars are added daily, are evidence of the problem...

Hat tip: Gateway Pundit.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Moonbat message o' the day


If this is a troll, he deserves a Trollie Award.

I am a very ardent supporter of Obama. I heard and read his remarks about not needing to drill for oil if we all “inflate our tires and tune-up or cars”.

I went to the GM dealer where I bough my 2005 Chevy Cobalt and was told that it can not be tuned-up!!! They said it was controlled by a computer, that would send a “OBD code” and light the “check engine light” if it had a problem or was out of spec. What is this, they said I need only oil changes? The spark plugs are good for 100,000 miles.

I now know that GM and Ford are in the pockets of the Republicans. Why would one of the smartest people in the world (Obama) say to tune-up my car, but the dealer says it is run by a computer and cannot tuned-up?? (My dad used to time and tune the fuel system on our 1966 Ford all the time)

I am the only Democrat that drives an American car; all my friends drive Toyotas and Hondas. Now I know why. I am going to the Toyota dealer on Monday to trade in my GM for a Toyota. The Republicans all drive Fords and GM’s. Look at George W Bush, he drives a Ford F250, his wife drives a Lincoln, and his daughters drive Fords.

GM and Ford are lying to make Obama look bad, why would they not tune-up my car? To make Obama look bad, that is why. Never again an American car for me.

The runner-up?

Tuning-up my car to eliminate the need for foreign oil is funny? Being Green and saving the worlds eco-systems is funny? What's in you [sic] Kool Aid?

Obama said by inflating our tires and tuning-up our cars, we will not need to drill for oil. Republicans just do not get it. Go ahead and drive you [sic] Gas Guzzling American Car, I will have New Toyota Next Week! No more of the Republican indoctrination “Buy American for me”. I just made an appointment with the Toyota Dealer on Monday! GO OBAMA!!!

These guys are frickin' awesome!

Update: Argh! We have a new winner:

Who really cares if Barack Obama is a communist or socialist? Compared to the last 7 long years of having this idiotic moronic bloodthirsty murderous corrupt pathologically-lying sociopathic demonic fascist slimeball known as Dumbya in the White House, America would be well served to have a large amount of corrective action put in place by a communist or socialist. The simple fact is that President Cheney and his little dummy have easily been the worst leaders this country has ever had, and certainly ever will (arguable the worst in world history). I mean they even make Adolph Hitler look like a great guy. At least Hitler took care of his own people. You can’t even say that about Dictator Bush. I doubt you’ll ever find anyone more universally despised across the universe than George W. Bush. He has become so mentally deranged that today he even said we’re not in a recession...

Holy Crap: AutoSpies has photos of the Infiniti G37 Convertible


Many moons ago, I had a black G35 Coupe. It was very, very sweet. But I still yearned for a rag-top.


Looks like the Infiniti engineers have made those dreams come true. Autospies has the story.

Iran says it will send a man into space


Iran's state television says that the Iranian space agency aims to send an astronaut to space within 10 years:

The report Thursday quotes Space Agency chief Reza Taghipoor saying the mission's timing will be decided over the next year. It gives no other details.

...Iran has stepped up its space ambitions in recent years, worrying world leaders already concerned about its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

I also hear they're having trouble getting volunteers.

While they've promised to send a man into space, they haven't committed to getting him back to Earth.

Update: LGF commenter MilkOfMalfeasance adds Iran says it will Photoshop a man into space.

Military Humor


Papa B send these along...

















Obama: "John McCain doesn't know what he's up against"


Barack Obama on the campaign trail: ""I don't intend to lose this election. John McCain doesn't know what he's up against raht now."

Oh, I think he does. He's up against a Chicago politican with disturbing, suspicious ties to convicted felons; a man who lies about his far left abortion record on a routine basis; a man whose every mentor was a Marxist or an out-and-out Communist; a man who won't release any of his records (from the Annenberg Challenge, to his law-firm records, to his state legislative background or even his medical records); a man who sat for twenty years in a church that spewed the most virulent forms of racism and hatred (and then lied about hearing any of it); a man who promised his MoveOn pals that he would disarm America; and a man who routinely changes positions for partisan advantage, sometimes in a matter of hours.

And a man who treats John McCain, a certified war hero and ex-POW, like a punk. That's who John McCain is up against.

Barack Obama's brother found living in a shantytown in Nairobi, Kenya


The London Telegraph reports that Barack Obama's 'lost' brother was found living in a shantytown in Kenya. George Hussein Onyango Obama, the senator's long lost brother, was tracked down by Italy's Vanity Fair magazine.

George Hussein Onyango Obama living in a hut in a ramshackle town of Huruma on the outskirts of Nairobi... [he is] 26, the youngest of the presidential candidate's half-brothers, spoke for the first time about his life, which could not be more different than that of the Democratic contender.

"No-one knows who I am," he told the magazine, before claiming: "I live here on less than a dollar a month."

According to Italy's Vanity Fair his two metre by three metre shack is decorated with football posters of the Italian football giants AC Milan and Inter, as well as a calendar showing exotic beaches of the world... ...he had a front page newspaper picture of his famous brother - born of the same father as him, Barack Hussein Obama, but to a different mother, named only as Jael.

...He has only met his famous older brother twice - once when he was just five and the last time in 2006 when Senator Obama was on a tour of East Africa and visited Nairobi... The Illinois senator mentions his brother in his autobiography, describing him in just one passing paragraph as a "beautiful boy with a rounded head".

No word on whether The Huffington Post or NPR will pursue this story with the fervor of their blockbuster scoop that revealed Cindy McCain's half-sister has been ignored by the family.

Photo: Guy Calaf, Vanity Fair, Italy.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Busted! Barack Obama and Bill Ayers exposed


STACLU:

Obama took the gloves off and threw a sucker punch at McCain today with a new ad. McCain turned around and body slammed Obama...

“Barack Obama’s ad is ridiculous. Because of John McCain, corruption was exposed and people like Jack Abramoff went to jail.

“However, if Barack Obama wants to have a discussion about truly questionable associations, let’s start with his relationship with the unrepentant terrorist William Ayers, at whose home Obama’s political career was reportedly launched...

...Mr. Ayers was a leader of the Weather Underground, a terrorist group responsible for countless bombings against targets including the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon and numerous police stations, courthouses and banks. In recent years, Mr. Ayers has stated, ‘I don’t regret setting bombs … I feel we didn’t do enough.’

“The question now is, will Barack Obama immediately call on the University of Illinois to release all of the records they are currently withholding to shed further light on Senator Obama’s relationship with this unrepentant terrorist?” —McCain spokesman Brian Rogers

I think we can safely say that Obama made a stupid move here. What’s that saying about throwing rocks when you live in a glass house?

And to which records is Rogers referring?

SC&A's excellent article ("Busted! The cozy relationship between Barack Obama and Bill Ayers") provides the critical introduction:

...in late 1994 or early 1995, Obama made what I think was likely the key move in his career. He was named Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a $50 million grant program to funnel money into reform efforts at Chicago schools. It turns out that the architect of the Annenberg Challenge was Bill Ayers, who designed the grant proposal... The purpose of the program was to defend the clearly failing local schools council effort that had been put in place back in 1988...

...It is highly unlikely that a 30-something second year lawyer would have been plucked from relative obscurity out of a left wing law firm to head up something as visible and important in Chicago as the Annenberg Challenge by Bill Ayers if Ayers had not a lready known Obama very well. Obama likely proved himself to Ayers in the battle for local school control when at the DCP in the 80s. One guess as to why Obama does not play up his educational experience more thoroughly now – it certainly could be of use to him one would think in beefing up his “I have the experience to be President” argument – is that it would lead to a renewed discussion of the Bill Ayers connection, which is clearly toxic for Obama. This likely explains why Obama tried a kind of head fake when asked about Ayers in the recent TV debate. Obama said Ayers was a “professor of english.” Yet, Obama chaired the Annenberg Challenge for three years and served on its board for another three years, working closely with Ayers on grants to Chicago schools...

Shouldn't it then be straightforward to research the Annenberg Challenge? Like so many records associated with Obama's background, the answer is no. Stanley Kurtz explains:

There are new developments in my quest to gain access to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge records, to prevent them from being returned to their original donor, and to preserve them from tampering. (For background, see my piece, "Chicago Annenberg Challenge Shutdown?") The Associate Press has reported on the story. Over at JustOneMinute, Tom Maguire makes note of the fact that the AP story fails to mention the contradiction between Obama’s Annenberg connection and his claim that Ayers was just "a guy who lives in my neighborhood..."

...If you would like to keep up the pressure on UIC to protect these documents, to release the name of the donor, and to make this material accessible to me and to the public, you can email University of Illinois President B. Joseph White (PresidentWhite@uillinois.edu). Phone numbers for President White’s two offices are (312) 413-9097 and (217) 333-3070...

Contact President White now -- be polite and firm.

The University of Illinois is responsible for releasing these records, unredacted, to the public. Make your voice heard.

Related: Ace of Spades lands a haymaker. McCain Blogs has more.

Monastery Life


A young monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to helping the other monks in copying the old canons and laws of the church by hand.

He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript. So, the new monk goes to the head abbot to question this, pointing out that if someone made even a small error in the first copy, it would never be picked up! In fact, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies

The head monk, says, 'We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son.'

He goes down into the dark caves underneath the monastery where the original manuscripts are held as archives in a locked vault that hasn't been opened for hundreds of years. Hours go by and nobody sees the old abbot.

So, the young monk gets worried and goes down to look for him. He sees him banging his head against the wall and wailing.

'We missed the R ! We missed the R !

We missed the R !'

His forehead is all bloody and bruised and he is crying

uncontrollably. The young monk asks the old abbot, 'What's wrong, father?'

With A choking voice, the old abbot replies,

'The word was...

CELEB R ATE !!!'


Hat tip: Papa B

Exclusive Photo: Denver offers Haircuts for the Homeless


The LA Times reports that Denver’s homeless are getting free haircuts to look good for Obama and the Democratic National Convention (via LGF).

According to Rick Sallinger of the CBS TV station, Denver Human Services has been handing out coupons for free homeless haircuts... The idea was to make the homeless feel better about themselves. And maybe then they’d get jobs or something.

Rusty Johnson told Rick he hadn’t had a haircut in three or four months and, frankly, didn’t much care about the Democrats caring about his appearance. “I just want to look good and feel good for myself,” he said.

There's a John Edwards joke lurking somewhere in that story.

'Activist' sentenced to prison, but not before endorsing Obama


The New York Times (via Patriot Missive):

A Muslim activist and frequent critic of the Los Angeles police was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to trying to bribe a witness in a criminal case involving his daughter. The activist, Najee Ali, 45, was sentenced Monday. A two-year sentence was doubled because of a robbery conviction in 1992, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney. Mr. Ali was a gang member before converting to Islam and founding the group Project Islamic Hope...

The Project Islamic HOPE website features a photo of Barack Obama with Najee Ali and a ringing endorsement of "change we can believe in".

Somehow I don't think this is helping.

'Wake up and prepare for the war'


IOL (South Africa) reports that Al Qaeda's North African wing has issued a call for 'holy war' in Mauritania. The statement comes on the heels of a military coup that overthrew the government led by President Abdallahi.

"Raise the banner of jihad and let us bleed and have our limbs severed until we bring back a caliphate styled along the lines of the Prophet's way," the leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Abu Mus'ab Abd el-Wadoud, said in a statement posted on the Internet on Tuesday.

Abd el-Wadoud said the soldiers who toppled President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi in the northwestern African state last week were probably acting upon a green light from "infidel states; America, France and Israel". "Wake up and prepare for the war."

Under the deposed president, Mauritania, which spans Arab and black Africa, was an ally of the United States in its war against al-Qaeda... An al-Qaeda attack on the Israeli embassy in February highlighted Mauritania's status as one of the few Arab countries with diplomatic ties with the Jewish state.

Tuesday's web statement condemned what it called "apostate regimes ruling the Islamic Maghreb ... that enslave their people (and) have always raised the banner of democracy in their fight against Islam, while people see that most of them assumed power through military coups," el-Wadoud said.

The United Nations issued a strongly-worded memo condemning the coup.

In related news, the AP reports that twin bombings in Algeria killed 11 people a day after a suicide bomber killed 43.

No group has claimed responsibility for either attack. The bombings, however, follow a string of violent attacks claimed by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The extremist group started off as a local insurgency movement but has more recently tied up with Osama bin Laden's global terror network, adopting the al Qaeda name.

The group has claimed responsibility for a series of suicide bombings and other attacks against government and Western interests in Algeria. In December, near-simultaneous car bombs exploded outside United Nations offices and a government building in Algiers. The death toll in that attack was 41, including 17 U.N. workers. The group also claimed responsibility this month for a suicide attack on a police station in northern Algeria.

I believe that militant Quakers are likely behind this series of attacks.

Photos: Getty Images/AFP and ABC.Net Australia/AFP.