The Ghost In The Machine Edition OTB Caption ContestTM is now over.

Michelle Malkin has decided that the loon, Omeed Aziz Popal, is in fact, just your garden variety loon and not some sinister Jihadi that is carrying out a cunning plan of slowly killing Americans over the course of several millenia. Of course, this hasn’t stopped her from pumping up her image as one of the [...]

Conrad Burns can’t seem to keep his foot out of his mouth. Republican Sen. Conrad Burns, whose recent comments have stirred controversy, says the United States is up against a faceless enemy of terrorists who “drive taxi cabs in the daytime and kill at night.” During a fundraiser Wednesday with first lady Laura Bush, the [...]

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Gerry Daly points to an interesting new RT Strategies/Cook Political Report poll showing that, despite Rudi Giuliani being inarguably less conservative than John McCain on the key social issues, the former is more popular among likely Republican voters. Key figures from the crosstabs [PDF] extracted below. Personal likeability on a scale of 1-100 (registered voters): [...]

At least 27 die as US occupation fails to ensure supply of sufficient flashlights; “The looters seized the security vacuum yesterday as the police protecting the pipeline withdrew from their posts,” said Dr. Hussain al-Janabi, director of the Diwaniya hospital. He said he was told that the explosion took place when one of the looters [...]

Is upholding a British court publication ban; The New York Times said on Tuesday it had blocked British Internet readers from seeing a story detailing elements of the investigation into a suspected plot to blow up airliners between Britain and the United States. The story was published in Monday’s paper. Under British laws, courts will [...]

Unlike most on the right side of the blogosphere, I took Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld to task for suggesting that those who disagreed with administration policies in the war against Islamist terrorists are akin to those who appeased Fascism in the 1930s. Last night, Keith Obermann got into the act, with a 6:41 monologue [...]

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is likely to be fined for falsely certifying that he had completed required continuing medical education on his license renewal forms despite having failed to do so. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist will probably be fined and have to make up for failing to do continuing medical education that Tennessee [...]

Steve Bainbridge has an interesting look at illegal and unethical billing practices engaged in by law firms. He notes several that are obviously immoral and several that are perhaps merely “unsavory.” Two that aren’t slam dunk cases: “But for” billing: But for the stupid client, I wouldn’t be getting up at 4 AM to catch [...]

Time for the Thursday OTB Caption ContestTM (AFP/Peter Parks) Winners will be announced Monday PM

In an a new attempt to show that he really isn’t a Republican, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger endorses a bill that will “combat global warming”, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic leaders endorsed landmark legislation Wednesday that could serve as a national model for combating global warming and, according to Silicon Valley business leaders, spur a [...]

Two months ago, Dr. Joyner related the report that the US Army is a bunch of hate-group/neo-Nazi/gangland thugs, and said it was BS. Finally, on Monday, the Provost Marshall (Chief of Police) of Fort Lewis (WA) finally refuted the AP story, though it isn’t so clear, as this isn’t a black-and-white issue. There is little [...]

This post is related to James’ post about gasoline prices in that it looks like the Fed may have stopped raising interest rates at just the right time. The reason for this is that many of the key drivers for inflation seem to be heading south in terms of their prices. James Hamilton has a [...]

$2.50 a gallon gasoline might be right around the corner: Gasoline prices are falling fast and could keep dropping for months. “The only place they have to go is down,” says Fred Rozell, gasoline analyst at the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS). “We’ll be closer to $2 than $3 come Thanksgiving.” And just in time [...]

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The noted expert on US-Iranian relations, Jimmy Carter, has agreed to host talks with former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami to help iron out the differences between the two countries. For an event that would turn a page in American history, former president Jimmy Carter has agreed in principle to host former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami [...]

Writing for USA Today, Bruce Kluger uses some rather strained logic to argue that the power of the blogosphere is largely mythological. His evidence? Bloggers failed to kill of Joe Lieberman’s independent campaign for the Senate and “Snakes on a Plane” had only modest success at the box office. On Aug. 8, Connecticut businessman Ned [...]

Yet another incident where a Muslim man goes on a rampage and starts running people over with his SUV. As many as 14 people were injured [Tuesday] afternoon by a motorist who drove around San Francisco deliberately running them down before being arrested by police, who believe the same driver struck and killed a man [...]

Matthew Yglesias has announced that he will henceforth be blogging at Matthew Yglesias (DotCom) and not at Matthew Yglesias (TypePad edition) or Matthew Yglesias (TPM Cafe Edition) or TAPped. Hat tip to Jim Henley, whose announcement I saw on my RSS feed I saw before winding down to one of my two RSS feeds of [...]

Today’s NYT has a poignant story about comedian-magician-actor Harry Anderson’s decision to leave New Orleans. In the weeks after the storm, even before the power was back, Mr. Anderson opened his club for what he called French Quarter Town Hall meetings. The weekly gatherings, which at first offered little more than camaraderie by candlelight and [...]

America’s high school kids are getting infinitesimally dumber, as evidenced by the biggest SAT score drop in 31 years. The high school class of 2006 got stuck with a new, longer version of the SAT and didn’t fare well on it. Average reading and math scores fell a total of seven points — the sharpest [...]

Widely-respected legal writer Stuart Taylor takes to the pages of Slate to thoroughly evicerate a rather pathetic effort by the New York Times to rehabilitate the efforts of Durham’s Keystone Kops and bumbling DA Mike Nifong in the interminable Duke lacrosse investigation. Quoth Taylor: Like the headline, the piece cultivates a meretricious appearance of balance. [...]

A friend of mine emailed an MSNBC reprint of an AP story reporting that Don Rumsfeld today likened critics of the Iraq War to those who tried to appease Hitler in the 1930s. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday accused critics of the Bush administration’s Iraq and counterterrorism policies of trying to appease “a [...]

America’s Muslims Aren’t as Assimilated as You Think Geneive Abdo If only the Muslims in Europe — with their hearts focused on the Islamic world and their carry-on liquids poised for destruction in the West — could behave like the well-educated, secular and Americanizing Muslims in the United States, no one would have to worry. [...]

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An Iraqi man was denied the right to board an airplane because he was wearing a t-shirt with the words “We Will Not Be Silent.” An Iraqi architect says he was not allowed to board a Jet Blue flight at JFK because of the Arabic inscription on his t-shirt. REPORTER: Raed Jarrar was wearing a [...]

Al Hunt reports that smart observers of both parties believe the Democrats will retake the House and quite possibly the Senate. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Chairman Charles Rangel and Chairman — again — John Dingell. Those titles will soon sound familiar. Barring an unexpected and big event, Democrats will win control of the U.S. House of [...]

Recent remarks by Republican senators may hurt the party with minority voters, according to an AP story. One Republican senator described his house painter as a “little Guatemalan man.” Another called an Indian man a “macaca,” a type of monkey. Just as the GOP is pushing for minority voters, the two recent gaffes have fed [...]

The Nucular Finger Edition OTB Caption ContestTM is now over.

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The search for JonBenet Ramsey’s killer will begin anew, as DNA tests have excluded confessor John Mark Karr from the list of suspects. The DNA sample taken from John Mark Karr does not match DNA found on JonBenet Ramsey’s body when she was murdered in 1996, CNN affiliate KUSA is reporting. KUSA, based in Denver, [...]

Previously I have argued that one way to control costs of health care in a nationalized system is to control access. And one way to do that is to control wait times (see here and here as well). Well, it now looks like the United Kingdom’s health care system is going to make my prediction [...]

Thomas Barnett passes along word of a week old announcement that I’d missed about the closing of the Office of Force Transformation. I was an admirer of the late Admiral Art Cebrowski, the OFT’s founding and only director, but Barnett is right in his assessment of the move: [The Long War is simply taking over. [...]

Matthew Yglesias has just rented a posh new DC pad and offers some anecdotal ruminations on the purported housing bust leavened with a pinch of cunning logic. This was the third time I’d looked for a new place in Washington, DC and there was something . . . different about House Hunt 2006. An extremely [...]

An article in today’s NYT discusses the concerns of Democratic leaders that Joe Lieberman’s “independent” senate campaign will bring more Republicans to the polls, hurting the Democrats’ chances of winning a couple of key House races. As Senator Joseph I. Lieberman begins to mount a vigorous and well-financed re-election campaign as an independent, many Connecticut [...]

Here’s a video of a discussion of dirty record lyrics on CNN’s “Crossfire” from March 1986, featuring a much younger Bob Novak and one Frank Zappa. It’s interesting on a variety of levels, including a snapshot in time of the television debate show. It’s somewhat ironic to see the discussion of how suggestive lyrics in [...]

Gmail is now offering a corporate version. Starting Monday, Google will offer Google Apps for Your Domain, a free package of programs for businesses, universities and other organizations. Workers will be able to send e-mail with Gmail, Google’s two-year-old Web-based mail service, but messages will carry their company’s domain name. The package also includes Google’s [...]

Time for the Monday OTB Caption ContestTM (AP Photo/Katsumi Kasahara) Winners will be announced Thursday PM

Via Robot Guy who quips “This is going to piss off Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.” Spaceports on the first Iranian scheduled to fly to the International Space Station; As a child, Anousheh Ansari begged her mother to let her sleep on the balcony of their home near Tehran, Iran. She would gaze into the velvety [...]

Kidnapped FOX News journalists Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig have been released unharmed. Two Fox News journalists were released Sunday, nearly two weeks after being seized by militants, ending the longest-running drama involving foreign hostages in the Gaza Strip. American correspondent Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig of New Zealand were dropped off at Gaza [...]

Guess what, Georgetown University is a Jesuit Catholic School Protestant groups that have been ministering to Georgetown University students on campus for years say they are stunned that the Catholic university has decided to eject outside ministries from campus, a decision that affects only Protestant organizations. Georgetown’s Protestant chaplaincy, part of the office of Campus [...]

Weekend Caption Jam Linkfest. . . and now also Saturday Traffic Jam for those who wish to link. Rodney is makin’ point. Wizbang is in the little league. The Right Place has a headache Willisms is taking a bath. Bullwinkle is the toolman. Commonwealth Conservative is looking for one just the right size. Timmer is [...]

Christopher Hitchens gave the finger to Bill Maher’s audience and, for the benefit of those unfamiliar with that gesture, verbalized the message. Brent Baker provides this transcript (which I’ve sanitized slightly): Christopher Hitchens: “Who wants a Third Word War? The Iranian President says that one member state of the United Nations should be wiped physically [...]

Joe Lieberman willnot endorse Conneticut’s Democratic candidates for Congress, he announced yesterday. Declaring himself a “non-combatant,” U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, in remarks at a New Haven press event Friday, raised anew the question of whether his “independent” candidacy will help Republicans hold onto three Congressional seats in Connecticut — and control of the U.S. House [...]

Defying U.N., Iran opens nuclear reactor – Yahoo! News An Iranian plant that produces heavy water officially went into operation on Saturday, despite U.N. demands that Tehran stop the activity because it can be used to develop a nuclear bomb. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated the plant, which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes. The announcement [...]

The The Picture of Andorian Gray Blue Edition OTB Caption ContestTM is now over.

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“What Would You Rather Have: The War in Iraq, or $1,075?” That’s the question asked by CATO’s Justin Logan in a post linking to a UPI report that the war’s expenses have totaled that amount per citizen. Ezra Klein seconds the question. Frankly, I’m astounded that the cost is that low. Indeed, let’s rephrase the [...]

In today’s LAT, Jonah Goldberg dubs the Left’s obsessions with the subject of the world’s number one retailer “Wal-Mart derangement syndrome.” More people shop at Wal-Mart every week (127 million) than voted in the 2004 presidential election, according to a company website. They are disproportionately low-income folks who, by some estimates, are collectively saving hundreds [...]