Ummm...

So? What's the issue? It's true. Blacks commit crime at a rate of greatly increased proportion to their population as a percent of the whole.

Read the "he went on to say" part. It's pretty critical.

Good for him

Plaudits to the Governator for this move.
In the light of what I posted about earlier, this is a good move.

Gay Marriage

Folks, I'm not anti-gay, homophobic, or anything else.
As to this issue, I'm anti two things.
One: calling it marriage. Marriage is a sacred institution that's been around for thousands of years. No need to play.
Two: this.


Who says there's no slippery slope?

Roberts Vote

Crow on Chafee, right on Rockefeller and Akaka. I figured that which ever way the first Hawaiian went, the second one would go as well.

Surprised about Chafee. Maybe Rove extorted the vote in exchange for re-elect support?

Two more

Jeffords aye, Inouye no

If Chafee's an aye, it's 77-21, Akaka and Rockefeller unknown
If Chafee switches against the thinking, it's 76-22 with Akaka and Rockefeller unknowns.

O'Connor nomination thought to be coming Friday.

These people....

...offend me.

Come on, folks! Satis, satis est.

Wednesday night update

Well, I'd like to some credit and eat (some more) crow.
Carper and Lincoln, as I said, will vote aye.
Murray will also vote aye, against my guess, bringing my total to a fantastic 2 out of 5, 4 remaining.

Sooo.
Approximate tallies:
55-0-0
+ 21-20-3 (Akaka, Inouye (HI), Rockefeller (WV))
+ 0-0-1 (Jeffords (VT))
= 76-20-4

My guess is that all but Rockefeller will vote against, as will Chafee.
Ergo...76-24 in favor.

Oh, I am good...

Ego sum stultissimus.

Well, you don't want to come here for info on the Roberts confirmation vote.

Here's the update from the prior post (Whip Counts):
Harkin (IA) is voting Nay.
Wyden (OR) is voting Yea.

Now...according to Bully Pulpit--(but read him anyway)
55-0-0 (Rep)
18-20-6 (Dem)
0-0-1 (Ind)

My picks on this are thusly altered:
I predict that Carper, Lincoln, and Rockefeller will vote for; Akaka, Inouye and Murray against, leaving the Dems at 21-23 (w/o the traitor).
Jeffords will still not vote to confirm.
I think Linc Chafee's going to end up voting against Roberts, putting Republicans at 54-1.

Numbers are still 75-25, with 21 Democrats joining 54 Republicans against the remaining 23 Democrats, the other Republican, and the independent.

More later.

Whip Counts

Hat tip to this guy...he says this, in short (read it, though.)

Rep: 55-0-0.
Dem :17-19-8
Ind: 0-0-1.

Unknown dems: Akaka, Carper, Harkin, Inouye, Lincoln, Murray, Rockefeller, Wyden
(+Jeffords)

My picks (it's nearing midnight, Wednesday morning)
Reps will vote 54-1 for confirmation, thus sealing it; Chafee's the no. It looks good in Rhody...
Dems will vote 21-24 against confirmation (the 21 is for it); the 17 listed on BullyPulpit + Carper, Harkin, Lincoln, and Rockefeller. Akaka/Inouye I think are moderately weak nays; stronger nays would be Murray and Wyden. (and Jeffords)

My comfort factor (in order) with those picks above (least to greatest, each):
Yeas in order of iffiness: Rockefeller, Harkin, Carper, Lincoln
Nays in order of iffiness: Inouye, Akaka, Wyden, Murray, Jeffords

...leaving a lovely 75-25 split.

Umm...

Chicago, meet Pakistan. Pakistan, Chicago.

Yikes...

Hat tip to RedState's Adam, over on the RedHot forum...

Oh, man...

Satis, satis est. Satis dicit.

From redstate

LA Times piece, so don't go shooting the messenger, please.

What thinketh we?

This gem...

...from LGF.

Right. A sinister cabal of Jews and freemasons and the Worker's World Party, plus Winona LaDuke, Luke Skywalker, and the mayor of Kabul. Uh-huh. Does this conspiracy also include some rogue elements from the Outer Rim, Mr. Thompson?

Oh, my.

Words simply cannot express the incredulity I feel at this. They just can't.

How 'bout winning an election?

My eighth-grade history teacher once told us a story when we were on one of our many random topics in his class. He said that he had once debated the issue of making stuff "look like America" with a college professor once, and his college professor told him this (it's paraphrased): the guy was going to have heart surgery in a couple of months, and he, quite frankly, didn't want a team of surgeons that looked like America, he wanted the best team of surgeons he could get. We can apply these same lessons to the Supreme Court: Do we want the best set of nine judges in the country (or, at the very least, do we want to have that ideal in our selections), or do we want a group of people who "look like America."

Guess what? Clarence Thomas was picked because he made the Court look like America. Do I dislike the views of Clarence Thomas, and/or do I disagree with his style? Not really. I disagree with why the first Bush picked him.

And guess what--if we're going to make the court "look like America", why don't we make EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING, look like America. Is this going to be a series of straw-men? Perhaps. Am I fond tonight of asking rhetorical questions? Apparently.
Black people make up perhaps 12% of America; they have thus no complaint about being underrepresented on the Court, because 1/9 is 11%, and 11 is a lot closer to 12 than 22 (and do we really want halves of people, given some of the half-wits on the Court now (cough, Kennedy, cough)).
So...should we develop another Court-packing plan, and make sure the Court "looks like America?" Or should we all place more emphasis on looking like we have a brain and devote ourselves to getting rid of the nonsense that absolutely everything has to be a microcosm of American society? What's next, should we put MBAs and chemistry PhDs on the court, because it would "look like America?"


There are a few political concepts that really, truly annoy me, and all the stuff I write about tends to come down to these three things.
1)Everything has to "look like America."
2)Every culture is equally good and valid AND the hand-in-hand idea that there is no such thing as a fact or objective truth.
3)Black people (or pick your minority) deserve special treatment b/c past wrongs.

Aye-yae-yae.

I can't stand people who race-bait like this...

But the choice has stirred anger among some readers and other critics, particularly in the black community. They have argued that "refugee" somehow implies that the displaced storm victims, many of whom have been black, are second-class citizens — or not even Americans.

"It is racist to call American citizens refugees," the Rev.
Jesse Jackson said, visiting the Houston Astrodome on Monday. Members of the
Congressional Black Caucus have expressed similar sentiments.

politics1.com/ri.htm

Some humor, for a change

This from the great folks over at the Center for Individual Freedom (which, shockingly, does not mean defending NAMBLA and the Nazis!)

Freeper Post

I found this to be quite useful...

MEC

Bit of an update here--the claim that in twenty years (assuming Ami. Kyoto passage by the Gore Admin, because the hurricane was definitely Bush's fault), ocean waters drop .7 degrees centigrade...Guess what: for those of who use the Fahrenheit scale, listen to this. Every Celsius degree is 5/9 of a Fahrenheit degree. There was 92 degree water near Lake Pontchartrain and surrounding waters during the hurricane. In twenty years, the water would have dropped to...90.74 degrees. But that'd have been in 2021. So pro-rating it...we're about twenty percent into this hypothetical twenty years, and so the water drops to a temperature of... hey! 91.685 degrees. And so perhaps we end up with about 149.5 mph winds, not 150. Guess what: no president causes natural disasters. Except perhaps the king of Ethiopia, because his bloodline goes back to Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

How genial of them...

Wow. Wow. Wow. Just when I though the dKos types couldn't sink any lower...

Good pick

No link in this one, just a couple of threads.

Do we give enough foreign aid? How does this relate to the American tax system?

Is John Roberts a good pick? Who would you select as O' Connor's replacement? Why is Chuck Schumer being a disingenuous and transparent political hack by suggesting that Bush wait a year so that he and Pelosi can try and scare the hell out of people into voting Democratic in 2006?

Two down...

and but seven left.

RIP, Mr. Chief Justice.

Better late...

... than never. But a link, because I want to. Title...

So, data please?

So, how much French aid is pouring into New Orleans now? Korean? Chinese? German? Russian? Other-schmuck-governments-who-are-dependable-for-depending-on-us-but-saying-screw-you-rednecks-in-OUR-times-of-need?

Cheapness

Oh, and brief update--this stuff, like John Roberts, the Howard Fineman seems to think is so $#%^& important, simply ain't that much of a deal now. Why is it that these scum seem to think this tragedy so ripe for exploitation for their own damn ends? Why? Why? They've got about as much sense as the big-screen TV idiot.


Because that's what's important--scoring cheap political points (anti-war, anti-Bush) in the midst of a tragedy. I don't believe in everyone shutting up whenever something sobering is going on (I don't believe everyone has to be utterly sober 24/7 just because we're in a war--I'd hope no one seriously believes this), but there are limits. People did a damn fine job for a few weeks of coming together and responding to the attack on 9/11 just four short years ago. But this stuff, like by Fineman and the Kos-sacks, is cheap and it's also bull. Vermont Nat'l Guard troops being in Iraq has no real effect on the LA pickup--what does is drugged-up, jackass young black guys in New Orleans firing at FEMA workers and stealing big-screen TVs, and preventing charity hospital rescue efforts because the convoy-drivers and aid workers are being fired at. Al Sharpton, who says that if we'd only given more money to his band of idiot race-baiting anti-Semites (for anyone, Mr. Parker, who doesn't believe THAT, please look at Crown Heights and Tawana Brawley), deserves nothing more than a muzzle; as does Keith Olbermann, who is using this tragedy as an important platform for...attacking Rush Limbaugh. Does this sound like a stream of consciousness? It should. Because I've been hearing nothing BUT this stuff for about four days now, because I have cousins from New Orleans currently living with me ad infinitum.

Oh, and not-so-confidential to idiots who couldn't evacuate and are now complaining about martial law, etc? Wow. The rescue workers who are trying to get people the-hell-out-of-Dodge are being shot at. Control these bunch of morons, and we'll be a lot better off. Call me a racist, call me an elitist, hell, call me anything short of fascist scum (or worse, a liberal :)) but guess what---it ain't the Orthodox Jews stealing big-screen TVs.