Somali Pirates in Discussions to Acquire Citigroup

By Andreas Hippin

November 20 (Bloomberg) -- The Somali pirates, renegade Somalis known for hijacking ships for ransom in the Gulf of Aden, are negotiating a purchase of Citigroup.

The pirates would buy Citigroup with new debt and their existing cash stockpiles, earned most recently from hijacking numerous ships, including most recently a $200 million Saudi Arabian oil tanker. The Somali pirates are offering up to $0.10 per share for Citigroup, pirate spokesman Sugule Ali said earlier today. The negotiations have entered the final stage, Ali said.

"You may not like our price, but we are not in the business of paying for things. Be happy we are in the mood to offer the shareholders anything," said Ali.

Apparently Citi employees will be required to wear eye patches.

News that actually affects my life

Spam email cut by two-thirds.

The volume of junk e-mail sent worldwide dropped drastically today after a Web hosting firm identified by the computer security community as a major host of organizations allegedy engaged in spam activity was taken offline, according to security firms that monitor spam distribution online.

While its gleaming, state-of-the-art, 30-story office tower in downtown San Jose, Calif., hardly looks like the staging ground for what could be called a full-scale cyber crime offensive, security experts have found that a relatively small firm at that location is home to servers that serve as a gateway for a significant portion of the world's junk e-mail.

The servers are operated by McColo Corp., which these experts say has emerged as a major U.S. hosting service for international firms and syndicates that are involved in everything from the remote management of millions of compromised computers to the sale of counterfeit pharmaceuticals and designer goods, fake security products and child pornography via email.

But the company's web site was not accessible today, when two Internet providers cut off MoColo's connectivity to the Internet, security experts said. Immediately after McColo was unplugged, security companies charted a precipitous drop in spam volumes worldwide. E-mail security firm IronPort said spam levels fell by roughly 66 percent as of Tuesday evening.

Yep. The spam coming into my acepilots email account has dropped off by more than two-thirds.

Good news that we can all agree on.

Palin to the Palestra

Perfect!

from USAToday:

Having spent the campaign season wrestling with the issues, Sarah Palin now has an offer to join pro wrestling.

Alas, no, the Republican party's candidate for vice president isn't being asked to ascend to the top rope, take flight and dig a spiked heel into an opponent. But Palin has been offered an honorary position -- and a $50,000 paycheck -- to sign on with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

TNA tells Fox Sports it hopes Alaska's governor will make an appearance at its Dec. 7 Final Resolution pay-per-view event.

Fox also poses the what-if question of what Palin would use as her closing move, if she were a wrestler: The Bridge to Nowhere? The Pitbull Piledriver? The Wasilla Thrilla? Plumber's Helper?

Brooksie nails it

Brooks is amazingly inconsistent. He'll go weeks in row with unimpressive, routine, sometime bizarre, hash. Then, he'll nail one.

Like this one on the future of conservatism (aka the Republican Party).

Without taking sides, or expressing any personal preference, this last paragraph seems to be absolutely correct:

The debate between the camps ("Traditionalist" vs. "Reformist" Conservatives) is heating up.

Only one thing is for sure: In the near term, the Traditionalists are going to win the fight for supremacy in the G.O.P.

They are going to win, first, because Congressional Republicans are predominantly Traditionalists. Republicans from the coasts and the upper Midwest are largely gone. Among the remaining members, the popular view is that Republicans have been losing because they haven’t been conservative enough.

Second, Traditionalists have the institutions. Over the past 40 years, the Conservative Old Guard has built up a movement of activist groups, donor networks, think tanks and publicity arms. The reformists, on the other hand, have no institutions.

Yep. the reformists, seem to me, to consist of Brooks and Ross Douthat and a few other columnists. Wow, are they gonna get clobbered in the coming years of the GOP.

Socialist Negro wins 3 Southern states

Isn't that what this group should be discussing?

Now Barack Hussein Obama is no peanut-farming, triangulating, "big government is dead" Clinton/Carter type bubba Southern favorite son. Yet he won Virginia, Florida, and North Carolina. And Georgia was a close call, and the demographic trends in Texas will make future Socialist Negroes competitive there. Yikes.

Is this map all that's left of Nixon's vaunted Southern Strategy?



So, what will it be for the Republicans?

I'm betting on a 'doubling down' strategy, promoted by the Limbaugh-Palin-Malkin-Hannity wing. "We were not conservative enough!" I actually heard Rush Limbaugh Explaining It All (live on my car radio), which Ross Douthat picked up on, transcribed, and commented. It's well worth reading, to understand the thinking of that wing of the party.

Even more "true conservatism."

Oh yeah, that's the answer. Go for it, GOP!

We did it!

Barack Obama elected 44th President of the United States.

obligatory scary negro image of the day

Black Panthers (DOUBLE SCARY) blocking Republican voters from voting in all-Democratic precinct of north Philadelphia.