Thief's Den

TD Radio: Halloween...

Probably should have posted this earlier, but I was too busy procuring foodstuffs and ammo for the coming bloodbath.

No, not Dawn of the Dead. That thing happening on Tuesday. Whad'ya think I meant?

Ah well. Enjoy.

I adopted a cute lil' ninja fetus
from Fetusmart! Hooray fetus!

Boo!

Via BerzerkeleySquare...

Update: HUG MUMMY....CUUUUUURSE!

THE CURSE REVERSED

Moral of the work: NEVER SAY DIE.

These guys will go down in history. Everyone from future World Series Managers to Little League coaches will be able to point to them and say, "They never gave up. Neither can you!"

Hats off.

Enjoy the paaaahtie, Beantown. Lord knows you've earned it.

UPDATE: Where's the Love, guys? There must be more than this...

Via Fark, one possible explanation...

TD Radio: Red Sox Nation

In honor of the Red Sox victory over the hated Yankees for the ALCS championship, TD Radio presents:

Red Sox Nation.

Oh, and Mr. Steinbrenner?

UPDATES: Allah's back, and none too pleased. Did somebody say "Naqba?"
Michelle bugged out early. Laptop was "overheating." Riiiiiiight.
Wizbang pays tribute to a Red Sox fan who made the ultimate sacrifice.

UPDATE: Via Fark -

Domestic Policy Debate

Tactical Verdict: Bush by a whisker.

Bush was confident. Very confident. He was talking about plans for a 2nd term. And most of all, he made a number of points that I think will deeply resonate with certain parts of America. Taxes are your money. (*HUZZAH!*) Education is the path to a better job, the best way to get out of Iraq is to win. (I was seriously not impressed with Bush's stance on illegal immigration, but Kerry didn't sound all that much better.) And he dropped Kerry's Senate record on him like a ton of bricks.

Kerry was on the defensive for much of the debate, especially on health care ("I'm not going to have government-run health care") and taxes ("I'm not going to raise middle class taxes"). His points seemed stale and recycled. ("Litany of complaints," indeed.) And of course, he used Cheney's daughter as bait on gay marriage. Bad form.

Strategic Verdict: Polls will start moving back in Bush's direction.

Movie Analogy: Gotta go with Rocky. They thought he couldn't do it, but he did.

It's been real, y'all.

Town Hall Debate

Tactical Verdict: Draw.

Bush came back strong tonight, went on the offensive. (Probably got some advice from Cheney on that.) Attacked Kerry's Senate record while laying out his policies with that good-ol-boy charm of his, yet he still had his usual problems. Kerry was his usual stylistic self, on the attack but able to lay out plans, though his plans were notoriously mushy.

I thought Gibson was going to be a flaming liberal and slant all the questions like the town hall debate of 2000. I was surprised... the questions seemed a lot more balanced, and even got very pointed at times. (Kerry's wishy-washiness and taxes, Bush's spending policies). By my count, of 18 questions asked, seven were from a liberal perspective (Iraqi intel, world's opinion, the draft, drug importation, the environment, the Patriot act, and Bush's mistakes), five were from a conservative perspective (Kerry's wishy-washyness, lawsuits, tax promises, stem cells, and abortion), and six from a moderate/centrist perspective ("same plan" in Iraq, Iran, terrorist attacks, spending, American competitiveness, and judges) Charles Gibson broke the rules twice and asked followups (once on legal fees, once on spending), but I'd call both more centrist than anything. <Transcript here.) By contrast, in the 2000 debate, out of 15 questions, eight were liberal, six were moderate, and one was conservative. You can thank the pajamahedeen, methinks, for the change.

Strategic Verdict: Not much change, either way, in the polls. If it had gone poorly for Bush, he would be in trouble. But he held his own, and if the polls had him up before, they'll have him up now.

Line of the night (Duh): "Want some wood?"

Because that's what this debate was, a good ol' fashioned stickfight. Got in some good hits, got angry smacked each other around a bit, a good time was had by all. (Best of all, Bush took some wood, made a stake, and put it through the heart of these stupid draft rumors. And Kerry joined in too. Good for him.)

In the end, this was Fight Club. Nothing was solved, but nothing really mattered. But I do want some wood...

My Life As A Dilbert Strip

Today's Entry from my Dilbert Calendar:

Dilbert: "Maybe I should become a teacher so I can educate the leaders of tomorrow."
Dogbert: " Maybe you should educate the morons of tomorrow so they'll stop believing the leaders of tomorrow."
Dilbert: "Maybe I'll just eat this donut and go to work."
Dogbert: "Do you have any more dreams I can crush?"

Donuts... The breakfast of cynics.

VP Debate Thoughts

Tactical Verdict:
Quoth Walter Sobchak in "The Big Lebowski:""Donny, you are out of your element."

Edwards had his chance and blew it. He stated "John Kerry has a plan" and never told us what the plan is. He flubbed the attack on Cheney and Halliburton, tried to nail Cheney for confusing Osama and Saddam, only to end up confusing the two himself.

I think the most telling moment is the question when Gwen Ifill asked Cheney and Edwards to talk about their records without mentioning Bush or Kerry. Edwards mentioned Kerry. Twice. And I really didn't see any of the vaulted "trial lawyer mojo" at work, either.

Cheney, I think, proved why he's on the ticket. He doesn't look pretty, but he knew his stuff. And Edwards unintentionally gave Cheney an opportunity to show his human side when he tried to use Cheney's lesbian daughter to attack Bush on gay marriage. Cheney simply said thanks for the nice words about his daughter, and said no more. I could see the question got to him a little. Very interesting.

Strategic Verdict: Whatever ground Bush lost, Cheney regained. Expect slight movements back in the polls. And expect the Bush team to be studying Cheney's performance very carefully for use against Kerry, especially on Kerry's vulnerable parts on his Senate record.

Best Pundit line of the night: John Stewart: "Wow. It was all going very boringly, and then Dick Cheney unhinged his jaw, and then swallowed and began slowly digesting John Edwards. When asked by the moderator to explain, he said "I need his life force."

Thanks to the fine folks at the Command Post for their Debate chat. (One more word about the Yankees, though, and I'm going to start dropping them like Don Zimmer.)

Do you want Karate?

Fear me. For I posess the real ultimate power.

Via Big Merl.

I know I'm supposed to be on hiatus...

...but this one is just too good to be true.

We have obtained, via Yahoo News and AFP, an actual pic of John Kerry's foreign policy strategy in action...

"I SURRENDER!"

Update: Welcome Instapundit readers! Enjoy your stay at the Den. If you like, enjoy my Radio Blog (Now Playing - Rathergate, the Musical) as you merrily contemplate what the good Senator from Ass..er...MASSachusetts is doing.

"Teresa...I'm ready...honey, where did you go?"

"It is so good to see you, Dear Leader. Do you have a mint? Some...Binaca, maybe?