Obama the Blond

Have you heard the wail about McCain's Paris Hilton ad? I mean, really, the Obama campaign is so disappointed in McCain. But meanwhile they give a pass to the guy who said this:

"Andy Warhol said we all get our 15 minutes of fame. Barack Obama has already had an hour and a half. I mean, he's so overexposed, he's making Paris Hilton look like a recluse."

Know why? Because it was Obama who said it. From the WaPo:

"Andy Warhol said we all get our 15 minutes of fame," says Barack Obama. "I've already had an hour and a half. I mean, I'm so overexposed, I'm making Paris Hilton look like a recluse."

Course, the McCain ad was making the point that Obama, like Paris, was mainly famous for being famous. If the bam meister wants to refute that point, he should point to his accomplishments.... we'll be waiting on that list.

Hey, there's a reason the Obama campaign logo is a zero.



h/t: J Taranto

Hope is Great

Michelle Malkin, who seems to find everything, finds this, about Obama promises from two years ago. At that time, visiting his ancestral village:

[Obama] told the assembled press, local politicians (who included current Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga), and students: “Hopefully I can provide some assistance in the future to this school and all that it can be.” He then turned to the school’s principal, Yuanita Obiero, and assured her and her teachers: “I know you are working very hard and struggling to bring up this school, but I have said I will assist the school and I will do so.”

"I will do so" sure. In other words, have hope. Have audacity. Um, expect change. However:

Granting us access to the school and its records, Principal Obiero, 48, tells us: “Senator Obama has not honoured the promises he gave me when we met in 2006 and in his earlier letter to the school. He has not given us even one shilling. But we still have hope."

Which points up the problem with "hope". Even when specific promises are made, "hope" is just a word. You can't deposit hope. It doesn't earn compound interest, it won't buy a water pump, a desk, or a chalk board. Hell, it won't buy chalk. Obama was happy to give the school hope. Why wouldn't he be? It cost him nothing.

His supporters might think that their "Hope" is different. And it is, but only in that it hasn't been dashed yet.



***Update: Or....



And this is the Move-On Weepy-liberal Ad:

Simons Cat

I'm a dog guy, but still... har.

I'm Shocked, Shocked!

How can people criticize the former candidate for these pictures? It looks like a chance encounter on a dock to me. Just a bunch of happy people celebrating the fact that the world has begun to heal. I imagine they were out there waiting for the sea level to drop. Nothing to see here folks, move along please; go back to your homes.

Reparations Again

Oh good:

"I consistently believe that when it comes to whether it's Native Americans or African-American issues or reparations, the most important thing for the U.S. government to do is not just offer words, but offer deeds."

Yes, because the Civil War was just a gesture; now it's time for action.

It's true that I look like the people who once owned other human beings. It was wrong. I denounce it. But I swear: I wasn't there, ok? None of my ancestors were involved either. They didn't get to this country until after it was over.

Did Obama's "typical white person" grandma descend from slave owners? I have no clue, but even if she did, I'm not tempted to transfer their debts to her. It's not possible to rectify a great injustice to one group of people by, centuries later, doing an injustice to a different group.

Kiss Me Quick

You might want to try out your mad skilz on Mentos Kissfight. No ducks are involved, that's me, playing with my new Photoshop.

(clickabiggen)

Please Don't Hurt Me

This is a bit hard to swallow:

LAWYERS for three Islamic militants on death row over the 2002 Bali bombings today flagged a new legal challenge to their impending executions.

Defence lawyer Mahendradatta foreshadowed a Constitutional Court challenge next week, arguing the convicted terrorists could suffer unnecessary pain if they do not die immediately when the lethal punishment is carried out.

It is seen as another attempt to delay the executions of Amrozi, his brother Mukhlas and Imam Samudra, who could be executed at any time over the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people including 88 Australians.

The three will face an Indonesian firing squad, and would be shot a second time if the first bullet does not kill them instantly, Mahendradatta said.

"We are not closing our eyes to the possibility of Amrozi being executed,'' he told reporters.

''(But) there's time when the convicted will feel pain until he is shot a second time.

And here's where I'm not quite on the conservative reservation: I'm not a proponent of the death penalty. But where it is lawfully applied, well, you know, bon voyage boys. And it's especially hard to feel sorry for these particular bad guys. Did they offer to bomb the innocents again in case any of them were suffering and not quite killed by the first bombs? I'd be happy to see these guys locked in a box for the next hundred years, but I can't ever imagine being concerned that they're in pain.

Low Tech

Woost

Even a Stopped Clock...

What'd I say? Well, imply?:

What initially seemed to be a journalistic scoop of dubious moral propriety now seems to be a case of an Israeli paper being played by the Barack Obama campaign. Maariv, the second most popular newspaper in Israel, was roundly criticized for publishing the note Obama left in the Kotel. But now a Maariv spokesperson says that publication of the note was pre-approved for international publication by the Obama campaign, leading to the conclusion that the "private" prayer was intentionally leaked for public consumption.

Hey, this is an old-time Chicago corrupt machine politician. He can pretend to be helping the poor while advancing slum lords' fraud; why wouldn't he mock communication with God in order to gain the most powerful position in the world?

[Update as to Maariv's statement as published in Haaretz on July 28]: "Obama's note was published in Maariv and other international publications following his authorization to make the content of the note public. Obama submitted a copy of the note to media outlets when he left his hotel in Jerusalem."]

If correct, It appears that Obama made Maariv and other media an instrument of his will. The media, of course, was a most willing tool.

The campaign might be less pleased with another pronouncement by Maariv: "In any case," the spokesman said, "since Obama is not a Jew, publishing the note does not constitute an infringement on his right to privacy." Apparently, to the paper, Gentile prayer doesn't count.

No, it wasn't even a Gentile prayer; it was a sacrilege.

Cuil?

Cuil: It's a new search engine created by some ex-google engineers. I have to say I'm underwhelmed though - Cuiling "lumberjacks" doesn't seem to bring us up at all, and we're always on the first page of a lumberjacks-googling.

"we're always on the first page of a lumberjacks-googling": words that couldn't have been written 20 years ago, well, wouldn't have been written.

Least Competent Criminals

News of the Weird:

Failure to Communicate: The man who tried to rob the Cafe Treo in Salt Lake City in April likely told the employee to "fill" the bag, but when the employee reached over and earnestly started to "feel" the bag (according to police), the robber said, "You've gotta be kidding me" and ran out of the store. [KSL-TV (Salt Lake City), 4-11-08]

Another man who came away empty-handed had tried to rob a Walgreens in Port Richey, Fla., in July, handing a clerk what appeared to be a holdup note, except that nothing was written on it. The clerk, sensing the forgetful robber's cluelessness, boldly dialed 911 right in front of him, causing the man to flee. [St. Petersburg Times, 7-11-08]

Setting Up a Facebook Account in Iran

"No, you can't just say everyone is your
friend, you have to add them one at a time..."

The Pictures Have Changed

We've heard Obama on the surge:

Pressed once more on whether he gives the surge any credit for reducing violence in Iraq, Obama said he did, as one factor of many.

""No, no of course I have," he said. "There is no doubt that the extraordinary work of our U.S. forces has contributed to a lessening of the violence, just as making sure that the Sadr militia stood down or the fact that the Sunni tribes decided to flip and work with us instead of with al-Qaeda -- something that we hadn't anticipated happening. All those things have contributed to a reduction in violence."

Well, at least he praises, sincerely or insincerely, the "extraordinary (though unnecessary) work" of the troops. I disagree only with his parenthetical. He says, "yes, great work, but it was only a coincidence that success followed." He's wrong, he's lying, and I think he knows he's lying.

Sadr's army stood down because we made it clear that it was either stand down or die. The Sunnis decided turned on al Queda because it became clear that al Queda could be defeated.

Which brings me to the picture above. It is from the April 5th, 2008 edition of The Advisor, a publication of the Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq. A year earlier, April 2007, you could find this image:


Notice the difference? All the early issues of The Advisor showed Iraqis with blurred faces. And the reason was simple: they feared reprisals. And who could blame them? They were being asked to throw their lot in with a country that had politicians and moonbats screaming for us to abandon them. Get your picture in the paper and face death when the Americans pull out. After all, didn't even Harry Reed declare that the war was lost?

But the surge showed that George Bush wasn't listening, and would not listen, to the Harry Pelosis and the Nancy Reeds. We were going to win and it was safe to choose our side over the market bombers and the kidnappers. Because the market bombers and the kidnappers were going down.

Are the pictures proof? No. But the Sadr stand-down and the Sunni decision to fight weren't coincidences. It means something that there are no blurred faces in the latest Advisor. These things are the result of a country seeing that victory is possible, and in fact, victory is happening. And this situation came about thanks to the efforts of American soldiers, marines, and airmen; not in spite of them.

Nooooo!

People, Listen to me!


It's a Cook Boooooook!

Bama at the Wailing Wall

So they've published Obama's prayer note. And surprise, it's just the kind of prayer he would like published. Oh well, I was hoping he would slip up and address it to Allah, but I'm learning to live with disappointment.

Great News

Just saw:

PARIS - Democrat Barack Obama said Friday that Iran should promptly accept an international call to freeze its uranium enrichment program, which some nations see as a potential step toward obtaining nuclear weapons, and not wait for the next U.S. president.

Whew, I'm sure glad that problem is behind us, finally. Now if he would just will all people to be as one, and maybe throw in something about gas prices, we could all go home.

Pro America vs. Anti

Got the image from Drudge: In which we see one pro-American politician, and one guy who just got off a plane.

BTW, it seems the 200,000 figure for the German rally is gaining acceptance. Two things regarding that: 1) Like the big Obama rally in the northwest, there was a free concert before the rally. 2) Large German rallies don't always center around the best of leaders.

Last Lecture

Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist whose "last lecture" about facing terminal cancer became an Internet sensation and a best-selling book, died Friday. He was 47.

Professor Pausch is seen here teaching his son, Dylan, how to hunt
down and kill dolphins with his bare hands.

What an extraordinary guy.

Oh Great

It's not bad enough that the Europeans have fallen in love with a con man. Now China has gone insane:

Tiergarten Love Parade

"Come down here Obama, We give you Change!"
"Ja, Obama, we give you Berlin airlift."

***Update: Der Spiegel says that Parisians are miffed that Obama spends all this time in Germany and will grace the French with just 5 hours of his time. Heh, heh, Doesn't Obama know if he wants to be the world president he'll need the French vote as well?



The we-are-the-world speech is off-putting in so many ways. And its premise, that an American presidential candidate needs to appeal to Germans, is just plain wrong. Not that the Germans aren't important allies, but first and foremost an American president needs to put the interests of America first. The Westfalia votes don't count.

***UpdateII: It seems Hillary is getting into the spirit of the thing:




"ich kann zuhören" = "I can listen"

Der Spiegel:

"I want to be here for our 'Ich bin ein Berliner' speech," Julie Hagedorn, 38, a Canadian living with her German husband in Berlin told SPIEGEL ONLINE before the speech. "I want to hear it with my own ears when Obama says 'Ich bin ein Europäer (I am a European)."

Empty Suit Tour

Blackfive post an e-mail from Bagram:

Hello everyone,

As you know I am not a very political person. I just wanted to pass along that Senator Obama came to Bagram Afghanistan for about an hour on his visit to ' The War Zone ' . I wanted to share with you what happened.

He got off the plane and got into a bullet proof vehicle, got to the area to meet with the Major General (2 Star) who is the commander here at Bagram.

As the Soldiers where lined up to shake his hand, he blew them off and didn't say a word as he went into the conference room to meet the General. As he finished, the vehicles took him to the ClamShell (pretty much a big top tent that military personnel can play basketball or work out in with weights) so he could take his publicity pictures playing basketball. He again shunned the opportunity to talk to Soldiers to thank them for their service.

So really he was just here to make a showing for the Americans back home that he is their candidate for President. I think that if you are going to make an effort to come all the way over here you would thank those that are providing the freedom that they are providing for you.

It's Not So Bad

Sure gas is a little expensive. The nation seems infatuated with an empty suit. The idiots in congress would rather fight the opposition than solve the nation's problems.

But somewhere in the world they're having races of women in high heels. Think of it. Yeah sure, it's in Russia, and yes, this should have been an American thing, but really, regardless of the country in which this is taking place, just the fact that it's happening embiggens us all.

Get Off Your Butt Nancy Pelosi

An IBD editorial nails it:

It's bad enough that Rep. Pelosi refuses to embrace reality, evaluate facts and oversee meaningful debate. But the hissy fits she throws against President Bush and the Republican minority are worse yet. This is a sad situation.

Pelosi's reaction to Bush's lifting of the ban on offshore drilling is a perfect example. She called the action a giveaway of "more public resources to the very same oil companies that are sitting on 68 million acres of federal lands they've already leased."

The key phrase is "public" resources — not Democratic resources or Pelosi's resources — and polls clearly show Americans are behind coastal drilling. The speaker knows that.

Her demonizing of Big Oil doesn't make sense, either. The companies want to get oil out of the ground. Their exploratory technology is very effective, and they're drilling extensively. But not all lease properties have oil that's readily recoverable.

Pelosi says the president's action is a "gift of more profits for the oil companies." Does she prefer that foreign, and often hostile, nations make the profits? Well, they are. She knows that, too.

As for her allegation that drilling for domestic sources of oil are a "hoax", I have no idea what she means. I'm betting she doesn't know what she means either.

Thrill, Check - Leg, Check

h/t- Moonbattery

In the Middle East

He walks with confidence, fearing only crucifixion.

Batman

I'm sure this is somehow racist. Ah well.

The Bama Show continues, and I've been trying to get a message to the McCain campaign: If there is any bad news that they think may get out in the next couple of months, now would be a good time to just have a press conference and admit it. No press would show up, as they're all focused on the uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, other candidate.

I Request Protective Custody

William Torres is escorted by Allentown Police
from the police station to the jail on Saturday,
January 26, 2008. (Rob Kandel/The Morning Call)

So they come to arrest you at 6:00, Bam, the door gets kicked in, there are cops with flashlights and shotguns, maybe a flash-bang grenade. Pretty disorienting. Amazing it is then, that a guy could have the presence of mind to say, "Wait, can I get my slippers before we go - no, not the shag ones, the Lion King ones."

Course, he going in for a double homicide. Maybe he's the kind of guy who looks for trouble.

Survival of the Fittest

Time to scare more children.

Tigger Kills

Taking a break from the breathless Obama coverage for a bit, "Look there, Katie, he's walking over to the table and is patting one of the soldier people on the back." "Yes, he is Jim, I tell you, standing here watching this I don't know how anyone can say he doesn't support our troops."
OK, so he probably can't pick out our guys from the Canadians or the Brits, I've had enough anyway. All he really had to do was walk out onto the tarmac, put his hands on his hips, scan the horizon and nod, yup, pretty much how I thought it was going to be.

Anyway, real news, for the first time, a tigger has been caught killing a crocodile on film. Well, the story says "leopard", whatever that is. Is there really such a thing?

***Update: Pooh Helps.

SDS

Forgot to post this image from the Warped tour 08 in DC. I have to chuckle. Behind the folding card table were three of the most un-intimidating revolutionaries I've ever seen. They got fewer visitors than the Learn About Skin Cancer booth, and if I was forced to bet, I'd say the Save the Whales crew could kick the SDSer's butts.

This is a stark contrast to what the SDS, and their evil sub-group, the Weathermen, were in the sixties. The Weathermen were some seriously dangerous, and sick, people. That's why William Ayres is no joke. Domestic bombing is serious stuff. That Obama still looks on Ayers as a friend says a lot.

Chancellor Angela Merkel Meets the Obamanator

(clickbiginate)

Obamania

From what I have seen around these intertubes, the 'motivational poster' has evolved. Originally it was: an inspirational picture, with a one-word motivational concept, followed by its definition. Then, by degrees, it changed to: a funny picture, a pertinent one-word description, followed by a definition. And now we've got pretty much: any picture, any one-word description, followed by absolutely anything, including flan recipes.

It's in that spirit that thought I would point out that Chris Matthews touches himself unconsciously whenever he's around Barack Obama. That image, BTW, hasn't been photoshopped. (the second one has)

Mission Statement

Somewhere wandering loose around Mayberry is a loaded goat.

You Say Tomato

And I say, did you notice how they changed their mind on tomatoes? It went from "watch these" to "uh, and these too" to "never mind". Me, I'm just happy to get my 33% of a BLT back. Mmmm, status back to quo, marvelous quo. (BTW, Dr.H'sSAB, ROTFL)

Bad Bad People - Scientologists

You may have already seen this video of some jerk denying a disabled woman access to the sidewalk. I do a me-too post in order to vex the poor Scientoloschlub who has to sit in a back room somewhere cataloging slights to the faith. More about it here. Bad people - bad, bad.

Sure, It's All Fun and Games Until Someone Gets Hurt

Everything looks easy before you try it.

That's why they call it experience.

Great Photos

Have you seen Boston.com's Big Picture? It's a great resource for high resolution news photos. For example, these, which show paramilitary policemen displaying their skills during an anti-terror drill themed "To Welcome Olympic Games,To Ensure the Security":

Here we see them performing "tactic to frighten
terrorists who are afraid of shadows".

And here: "tactic to isolate terrorists
who fear crossing large circles."

And finally: "tactic for terrorists who don't fear
shadows and are undeterred by large circles"

Not sure how well that last one will work in the large crowds expected for the Olympics.

(oh, and clickabbigen them for the hi-res versions)

Bud Nipping

So Nancy Pelosi thinks tapping the strategic reserve will help pop this oil bubble, but drilling for many more times that amount wouldn't affect prices. From the IHT:

"We learned the hard way that oil and water do not mix on our coast," Pelosi told a key committee in 1996 as she made her case for keeping the ban in place before a Congress then controlled by Republicans.

Now, with gas prices soaring, those drilling restrictions are facing their most severe test in years as calls intensify to more aggressively pursue domestic oil. Yet despite increasing pressure from President George W. Bush, a full-bore assault by congressional Republicans and some anxiety among her own rank-and-file Democrats,
"The president of the United States, with gas at $4 a gallon because of his failed energy policies, is now trying to say that is because I couldn't drill offshore," Pelosi said in an interview. "That is not the cause, and I am not going to let him get away with it."

Her voice carries considerable weight since, as speaker, Pelosi is in a position to prevent a vote on expanded drilling from reaching the floor

And she and Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, appear intent on holding the line against calls to approve drilling in areas now off limits.

She hasn't brought it up yet, but before she invokes the Exxon Valdez, let me just nip this in the bud. According to NOAA:

Resiliency of the Sound

Recolonization at Herring Bay

What we have found is that, despite the gloomy outlook in 1989, the intertidal habitats of Prince William Sound have proved to be surprisingly resilient. Many shorelines that were heavily oiled and then intensively cleaned now appear much as they did before the spill. Most gravel beaches where the sediments were excavated and pushed into the surf zone for cleansing have returned to their normal shape and sediment distribution patterns. Beaches that had been denuded of plants and animals by the toxic effects of oil and by the intense cleanup efforts show extensive recolonization and are similar in appearance to areas that were unoiled.

As Barney said, "You go read any book you want on the subject of child discipline and you'll find every one of them is in favor of bud-nipping."

Robert Redford, Activist

The inset is of Robert Redford testifying at a House Appropriations Committee Hearing. It's from an NPR piece on how Mr. Redford is now using poetry to help save the planet:

These days, he has a new venue for environmental activism: slam poetry. Sponsored by Redford's Sundance Preserve, in collaboration with Youth Speaks, a nonprofit that presents spoken-word performances, the Academy Award-winning actor is getting his message out in rhyme.

Huh? What place does poetry have in a scientific debate? Except to express emotion, well, ok maybe that is an important point: that what motivates Mr Redford is basically a feeling. "I'd like to testify that I really have no facts to present, but I have great conviction and concern." OK, Bob, we got that point long ago.

I'd like to announce that I will now be using Performance Art to promote my view that CO2 is an innocent gas essential for life: It will involve making crude jokes at the gas pump and kicking Robert Redford in the ass whenever he crosses my path.

Recycled Photoshop

"What do you mean,'what does it do'? Just look at it! It's magnificent! Why should it need to "do" anything?"

Vans Warped Tour

Good news/bad news for lumberkid. Good news: She gets to go to the Warped Tour today. Bad news: she has to take her dad.

Regular blogging ("regular blogging"? yeah, like that might happen around here) will resume barring any injuries in the mosh-pit. ("Father Puuu-leeease, your embarrassing me.")

Lethal Camel

I finished this too late to enter in Gizmodo's Iran Tech contest. Frankly, I can't see why Ahmadinejad hasn't already come up with this. If you're going to photoshop weapons in the Middle East, it seems like a chain-gun-camel would be a no-brainer. (that's why I thought of it)

Iran Pulls a Dan Rather

FARS News "refutes":

TEHRAN (FNA)- An Iranian analyst dismissed claims by certain western media that Iran has doctored still images of the missiles test fired during the naval maneuvers last week.

"The Islamic Republic did not publish any still images during the maneuvers, it officially and through its overseas media broadcasted these footages live contrary to the claims that have been made by the West," analyst Aabedini said.

I'm having trouble understanding how that second part refutes anything. They published the still images after the exercises. One of the images, at least, had been doctored.

But leaving that image aside, analysts are saying that the tests demonstrated no new Iranian capabilities.

Funny thing, though. I no longer see the original FARS version of the doctored photo in the FARS site.

Refutation: failed

***Update: I should have looked closer. There is still a link to the image on the news page, but the image is broken. (broken image: here news page here )

Mmmm, Bacon

The reception must have been wonderful.

New Yorker

I have to say I was shocked, shocked, that the New Yorker would publish the ¡Obama Revolution! cover. I find it in very poor taste which is why I'm reproducing it here. (click to embiggen) Now this is more like it:


OK, this one isn't quite real, but only in the sense that it's completely fake. I put it together in order to express my disappointment with the New Yorker.

Sad to think the New Yorker was once my favorite magazine. (or at least I assume it could possibly once have been my favorite magazine had I ever read an issue, or skimmed through an issue, or in fact even picked one up in the doctors office, even when the choices were: one six year-old copy of Car and Driver, or the New Yorker)

***Update:
We'll have to wait to see if this is the next cover of People. Possibly it's a parody of how conservatives would try to smear Michelle Obama were any of them competent with Photoshop.

Tony Snow RIP

May God bless his soul and comfort his family.

"America has lost a devoted public servant and a man of character," President Bush said in a statement from Camp David, where he was spending the weekend. "It was a joy to watch Tony at the podium each day. He brought wit, grace, and a great love of country to his work."

Get Your Missile News Here

Drudge is saying:

IRAN MISSILE TEST BLUFF: OLD ROCKETS, BOGUS VIDEO
Fri Jul 11 2008 15:18:02 ET

Many of Iran's claims related to missile tests during "Great Prophet III" war games -- appear to be smoke and mirrors!

The missiles tested DID NOT not have 2,000-kilometer range, the NEW YORK TIMES is planning to report on Saturday.

Iran DID NOT launch a Shahab-3 missile, able to reach Israel.

It was an older missile that was out of production, newsroom sources tell DRUDGE.

And a video showing what appeared to be many missiles being fired -- is actually one missile, filmed from different angles!

NYT's Bill Broad is planning to quote military insiders.

Developing...

Cool... they faked the test, then embellished the fake, then I faked the embellishment. I'm getting dizzy.

Missiles Missiles Everywhere

FARS doesn't mind photoshopping if the pictures "need help". That's not a criticism, just an observation. (don't want to harm my chances of maybe getting a job someday)

***Update: LOL Missile (Clickabiggen) May as well make yourself comfortable, this could go on awhile. (after work)

USABMS - Uncle Sam Anti-Ballistic Missile Shield


Maybe not quite 100%: