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Archive for the ‘video’ Category

Tom Leppert And ACORN

Monday, May 9th, 2011

Matt S. Dowling has a post up up claiming that not only was Tom Leppert playing footsie with the SEIU, but he also sought the endorsement of everyone’s favorite pimp assistance agency, ACORN.

Unfortunately, he hasn’t actually provided the links to the evidence. When I pressed him on the issue in comments, he said “You ask and you shall receive….on Wednesday.”

Well, I like things sooner rather than later, and I wonder if he was hinting at this video showing Leppert hobnobbing with ACORN. Here’s the embedded MySpace version of it (I know, in the age of YouTube that’s like asking you to listen to a Victrola, but that’s the format it’s in):

Tom Leppert Supports ACORN for Dallas Mayor

bird | Myspace Video

The video, with a date of June 1, 2007, looks like it was put together an ACORN/Hispanic outreach video for Leppert’s mayoral campaign. (Don’t ask me why they put the sepia-tone wash over everything.) And here’s a screen capture of the pledge it shows Leppert signing:

Assuming the date is accurate, and there’s no funny stuff in the video editing, it does indeed show that Leppert sought ACORN’s endorsement, and pledged to support some of their initiatives.

How damaging will this be to Leppert’s campaign? I don’t know. So much RINO baggage has tumbled out of Leppert’s closet that I don’t know how much more damage another skeleton can inflict.

I do look forwarding to checking in with Dowling on Wednesday to see what he’s dug up…

Tags:2012 Election, ACORN, Dallas, Matt S. Dowling, pic, RINO, Texas, Texas Senate Race, Tom Leppert, video
Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas, video | 6 Comments »

Osama Bin Laden IS Norma Desmond!

Saturday, May 7th, 2011

So the Pentagon has released captured video of Osama Bin Laden watching footage of himself on TV:

Setting aside why he would have had anyone filming him watching TV (maybe he was testing a new camera, or maybe he was looking forward to an “I’m So Meta” Hitler parody video), what this reminded me of most was Norma Desmond watching herself in Sunset Boulevard. That is to say, someone who was once a big international star the world had passed by and was now a has-been, watching faded footage of the glory days, delusional about still being important, unwilling to go outside and largely forgotten.

I’m not going to say that was a fitting end for him, as that was having U.S. soldiers forcibly evict large portions of gray matter from his skull. But it is a fitting prelude to a fitting end.

He was ready for his close-up.

Tags:Norma Desmond, Osama bin Laden, Sunset Boulevard, video
Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad, Media Watch, Military, video | No Comments »

More Bin Laden Fallout

Monday, May 2nd, 2011

First, I called it on the ISI’s involvement in hiding him, since he was taken out in a “former” ISI safehouse.

Belmont Club’s Richard Fernandez connects the dots:

Ironically the circumstances surrounding the death of Osama Bin Laden tends to confirm the theory that terrorism, rather than being a spontaneous meme that floats above the planet, is in fact deeply rooted in the intelligence agencies and regimes of certain states. Thus, neither Hamas nor Hezbollah are creations of some kind of rage any more than than September 11 was wholly the result of some kind of amorphous resentment. Osama Bin Laden had backers; people with uniforms, ranks and the resources of bureaucracies behind them. Those who believe that the War on Terror is nothing but a law enforcement problem must ask themselves whether it is really rather larger than that.

How did we find out Bin Laden’s whereabouts? Harsh interrogations of high-value terrorists at secret prisons. Presumably at the Andrew Sullivan Executive Waterboarding Room at the Rendition Hilton…

Americans gather in crowds across the country to celebrate Bin Laden’s death…including in front of George W. Bush’s house.

Old and Busted: Birthers. The New Hotness: Deathers. That’s right, Cindy Sheehan (remember her?) doesn’t think than Bin Laden is dead. Oh, she also refers to The United States of America as “This lying, murderous Empire.” Remember when all the left was crowing about her “absolute moral authority”? Whatever happened to them?

David Pryce-Jones says that Bin Laden’s death marks the end of his monstrous fantasy of a 21st century Islamic caliphate. I’m not so sure. Dreams, even wicked, impossible dreams, have a way of lingerong on long past their expiration date, and both Saudi Arabia and Iran have smaller-scale versions of that dream as part of their national strategy.

And now I need to embed the totally sweet Tiawanese animation on the event:

(Hat tips: Ace of Spades, Instapundit, the Right Side of Austin.)

Tags:al Qaeda, Cindy Sheehan, Jihad, Osama bin Laden, Pakistan, Pakistani ISI
Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad, Military, video | 2 Comments »

When The Levee Breaks

Sunday, May 1st, 2011

Rains have been so heavy (at least and north of here; in Austin, we’ve gotten squat in the way of rain the last two months) that the Army Corps of Engineers is planning on blowing the levee at Bird’s Point, Missouri, to prevent Cairo, Illinois from flooding. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has refused to issue an injunction against demolishing the levee.

More here.

The issues are complex and daunting. However, that won’t prevent me from using that as thinly-veiled justification for posting the late Blues guitarist John Campbell’s version of “When the Levee Breaks.”

(Hat tip: Instapundit.)

Tags:Cairo (Illinois), flooding, Mississippi, Missouri, weather
Posted in video | 1 Comment »

Texas LinkSwarm for Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

Texas leads all states in attracting major plant openings. Includes extensive quotes from Governor Rick Perry on why Texas does so well.

By contrast, companies are streaming out of California. How’s that Blue State model working out for you, Golden State?

Holly Hansen endorses Brian Sellers and David Dziadziola for the Round Rock Independent School District election coming up in May.

In a non-political Texas story, wild fires continue to rage out near Possum Kingdom Lake. I mention that mainly as an excuse to embed the finest song the Toadies ever did:

(Hat tips: Texas Iconoclast, Smart Girl Politics)

Tags:Brian Sellers, California, David Dziadziola, Holly Hansen, Possum Kingdom, Rick Perry, Round Rock ISD, Texas, The Toadies
Posted in Texas, Uncategorized, video | 2 Comments »

Obama to Troops: Drop Dead

Friday, April 8th, 2011

When I first read on Ace of Spades that Obama intended to let our soldiers go without paychecks during the shutdown, I was somewhat incredulous. After all, even Obama should be able to see how lousy the “optics” are with withholding paychecks from troops involved in no less than three ~~wars~~ kinetic military actions overseas. Surely not even Obama could be that stupid?

Evidently I was wrong. Obama would rather let our troops go without pay than stop taxpayer funding of abortions.

To dramatize the issue, I’ve actually created a small film about the topic. I’ve taken the details of who all will still be getting checks in a shutdown from this piece up on Reason (which was, in turn, taken from The New York Times, saving you the 15 seconds it would have taken you to defeat the paywall…) Keep in mind that I’m putting it up in advance of the actual shutdown, so the details may vary…

I did this quick and dirty, and I didn’t see any actually U.S. soldiers as part of any character sets…

(Hat tips: Dwight, Ace, and Insta.)

Tags:abortion, Afghanistan, Budget, Iraq, Libya, Military, Obama, shutdown, video
Posted in Budget, Democrats, Military, video | 1 Comment »

This Week in Jihad for March 3, 2011

Thursday, March 3rd, 2011

Another week, another Jihad roundup. I’m not sure I can keep up…

Both sides suck in Libya.

Moammar Gadhafi’s top ten international ass-kissing toadies.

The man who threatened South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone is sentenced to 25 years in prison for trying to join a terrorist group. “Screw you, ~~hippie~~ Jihaddi!”

There’s one unqualified success story in the Middle East that Arab countries could use as a template to improve their societies. The problem? It’s Israel.

Member of the Muslim Brotherhood says that peace treaties between Egypt and Israel are null and void.

Our kids may play Cops-and-Robbers or Cowboys-and-Indians. Pakistani children play suicide bomber.

Daniel Pipes (hardly a pushover) is cautiously optimistic about events in the Middle East.

Another reason to get tough with Somali pirates: One fifth of their money goes to jihadests.

Mosques in London start putting up “Gay Free Zone signs.

Here’s a good place to start cutting the budget deficit: u.S. government spends $770 million to restore mosques in the Middle East.

A Muslim might have converted to Christianity? That’s a school burning.

(Hat tips: JihadWatch, Instapundit, Michael Totten, Creeping Sharia.)

Tags:Daniel Pipes, Egypt, Islam, Israel, Jihad, Libya, Moammar Gadhafi, Muslim, Muslim Brotherhood, Pakistan, pirates, South Park, This Week in Jihad, video
Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad, video | No Comments »

Bullettime (Guns Firing in Slow Motion)

Friday, February 4th, 2011

With snow and ice here in Austin, it’s been a bit of slow day. And what better for a slow day than some slow-motion gun porn?

I chanced across one of these researching information on the Lugar for a story I’m writing, and thought it provided a nice view of the Lugar’s feed and ejection mechanism, giving viewers a chance to see how it differs from the M1911’s mechanism for accomplishing the same thing. So I concentrated on videos that show mechanism cycling rather than bullet impact.

(None of these are my videos, I collected them off of YouTube, so I can’t take any credit (or any blame for the musical choices).)

The Lugar: