24thState

Immigration Reform: Discussed At A Higher Level Than The US Senate

Justice Stevens, I Have Some Foreign Jurisprudence For You

Certain members of the Supreme Court, the American Society of International Law, and "nuanced" members of the reality-based community believe in a principle called "Legal Comparativism" which in layman's terms is the cherry-picking of the opinions of foreign courts to decide American law.

Of course the use of the word cherry-picking would be debated - but what else do you call it when they selectively go through courts around the world and find people who agree with their opinions?

If they were serious, and if legal comparativism had a future, then the recent arrest and threated lashing of a children's school teacher for naming a Teddy Bear Mohammed would be met with new laws in this country.

So Justice Stevens, I look forward to your next opinion.  Teddy Bear Jihad seems a like a good title for FindLaw.

More Plants At CNN

A week ago, CNN was accused of planting questioners in the audience that were favorable to the Democratic contenders.  Last night, CNN had more questioners that were favorable to Democratic contenders, asking questions at the Republican debate.

Including a Hillary Clinton advisor, a Barack Obama supporter, and a John Edwards supporter.

Which is not a surprise, as the only people who watch CNN are Democrats, precisely because they are so clearly not an objective news source.  CNN says they were duped, but as Wizbang points out, it took Bloggers a few hours to do searches to find these people.

The real question is how long has this been going on.  How many years?  And how many voters have been influenced to vote against Republicans based on these kinds of shenanigans.  Could Democrats be elected in this country if they didn't have the full throated support, underhanded, and non-disclosed support of the media?

Maybe I'm A Prude, But This Is Just Wrong

I'm not quite sure how to handle this story.

I'll just let you read for yourself.  It seems that 50 year old wealthy white women think that the disgusting process of trolling for young flesh by older white wealthy men deserves a response.

Welcome to Kenya's new sex trade.

Of course, the final statement makes you think -

"It's a social arrangement. I buy him a nice shirt and we go out for dinner. For as long as he stays with me he doesn't pay for anything, and I get what I want -- a good time. How is that different from a man buying a young girl dinner?"

The answer is there is no difference.  They're both prostitution under a different name.  At least Angela Bassett did it for love, and not for money.

I guess we can finally put to rest the idea that women are better than men.  It seems all they needed was opportunity, and money, and they can be just a dirty and exploitative as men.

I wonder who the female Woody Allen is going to be?  Can we expect to see Meryl Streep heading off to Thailand? 

Maybe we can get rich selling teeshirts that say "Hot Grandma with Lots Of Sugar For Ya."

Flashing a dazzling smile and built like an Olympic basketball star, the 22-year-old said he has slept with more than 100 white women, most of them 30 years his senior.

Hmm - I wonder if the British Health Care System will cover the price of AIDS treatments for wealthy women out sowing their wild Irish Oats.  Is that something covered in socialized health care, or do you lose your benefits, like you do with your life insurance when you skydive?

Trent Lott Resigns

Lott Resigns.  It was an embarrassment having him in the Republican leadership, with his ridiculous stance on bringing home the bacon.

Now if Republicans could only get Ted Stevens to take a bow, they might have a chance at portraying themselves as fiscal conservatives once again.

I Agree With Markos Zuniga

I never thought to write those words.  When it comes to Kos and his website, the all-seeing, all-powerful DailyKos.com, I have some history.

I was banned from the site way back in the day - way back when they only edited the comments of conservatives.  I consider it a badge of honor.

Kos is part of the nutroo...excuse me, netroots, the progressive online left that makes Missouri Democrats look like rightwing nutjobs (I've always found it curious that Republican friends of mine in New York, who are routinely called fascists, are more liberal than almost every registered Democrat in Missouri  (I'd lay even money that Claire McCaskill would comfortably be elected as a Republican in California or Massachusetts).

Recently, Kos was named as a columnist for Newsweek for the 2008 election.  Right bloggers went crazy!  They couldn't believe that Newsweek, which already significantly supports liberal positions, was giving Kos  a platform prior to the election.  Kos, in response, warned his people that Newsweek was announcing a conservative that would make the heads explode of those on the left.

And now they have.  Meet the Newsweek Columnist, Karl Rove.

It makes me want to pee my pants, it's so funny.  Sadly, while I think it's a brilliant move, and really, really funny - I think Newsweek will lose more subscriptions then they gain with this stunt.  Both righties and lefties will cancel subscriptions rather than read their hated nemesis.  And since mostly lefties read Newsweek, or at least pay for it - they will leave in droves (since they already can read Kos), while few conservatives will sign up just to read Rove.

Still - it's very, very funny.  For deranged, NSFW lefty response, check out Rachek Sklar the Huffington Post. 

A New Campaign Finance Narrative

There's a new story about the '06 election.  You're not seeing it play out in the media, but all but the most ridiculous of the "progressives" admit the media plays favorites.

The new narrative:

The Democrats, out of power since 1994, and tired of losing Congressional elections, decided the way to power was to raise money.  Using every means at their disposal, they took money from every source possible, and thus were able to defeat the Republicans, not on ideas, but with cold, hard cash.

Of course, there's some blowback, and as Jim Hoff notes, it catches Claire McCaskill in yet another embarrassing position - accepting campaign cash from a shady source - in this case, A TEXAS "lawyer' named Mauricio Celis? When, I say when, will Texas Money stop polluting Missouri politics?

From OpenSecrets.org:

Results:

4 records found in 0.1563 seconds. Total for this search: $8,200

Search Criteria: Donor name: celis Recipient: mccaskill Cycle(s) selected: 2008, 2006, 2004 Start another search

Contributor	Occupation	Date	Amount	Recipient
CELIS, MAURICIO CORPUS CHRISTI,TX 78414	OWEN AND ASSOCIATES/ATTORNEY	3/22/2006	$2,100	McCaskill, Claire
CELIS, MAURICIO CORPUS CHRISTI,TX 78414	OWEN AND ASSOCIATES/ATTORNEY	3/22/2006	$2,100	McCaskill, Claire
CELIS, ROSA I CORPUS CHRISTI,TX 78414	SELF-EMPLOYED/HOMEMAKER	6/30/2006	$2,100	McCaskill, Claire
CELIS, ROSA I CORPUS CHRISTI,TX 78414	SELF-EMPLOYED/HOMEMAKER	6/30/2006	$1,900	McCaskill, Claire

Of course, the big recipient here is Clinton, and McCaskill was just a challenger in a contested state, but it's another example of how lying down with dogs, means you get up with, well - you know the rest.

Vote Fraud And Tracking Elections

Last week, I reported from the BlogWorldExpo on comments I heard from a presentation from Ravi Singh on the state of election reporting.  In that post, I made the mistake of combining past history with my present post. 

Ravi made the comments that there are over a 1.2 million individual elections that are run each year in the US, and State Secretaries of State don't know who is running in those elections until a winner is announced.  In writing the post, I made the offhand comment that Robin Carnahan, Missouri's Secretary of State, claims there is no vote fraud when she can't even know who runs in every race.

That was a mistake.  My comments on the elections were not meant to serve as proof that Secretary Carnahan was wrong - it was a sarcastic, throw-away line I put into the text, and which clouded my message.

After writing the post, Howard Beale of the FiredUp Missouri blog, which prominently features Jeanne Carnahan (mother of Robin, wife of the late Mel Carnahan, and former Senator for Missouri), and is well-known in political circles for being connected at the hip with the Carnahan family, took me to task for making the claim.

So let me separate the two statements.

I do believe it's a political statement (and a stunt) that Robin Carnahan claims that there is no vote fraud in Missouri.  I covered this topic here, based on the court ruling against the US Attorney's office.  Former posts are here, and here on the subject.

I am still shocked that Secretaries of State don't know who is running in every election in their state.  It's not fair to single out Robin Carnahan's office for this - as it is a national problem of failing to modernize our voting system.  Quite frankly, it should be an easy thing to create a simple database that allows candidates to register for office, and provides a centralized listing for voters to look up online quickly and easily, at anytime prior to the election. From a technological standpoint, it's a simple thing.

That it isn't done speaks more to our view of what government is responsible for, and capable of.  We don't trust government to get our driver's licenses right - how can we possibly trust them with our elections?  Currently, the local election boards have this information, but if there is an area where government should be involved, it's in the voting process.

That we expect, and accept so little, is a sign of fatigue with political promises.  If we can't even track who we are electing until election day, how can we possibly expect to handle individual medical bills?  The truth is that government is broken - and most of us don't seem to care.

Personally, I find that shocking.

Meet The Old Boss, Same As The New Boss

You want to know what effect video is going to have on the election?

How come this can't be played on our nightly news casts?

Coming from NoStrawMen.

Listening To The Hugh Hewitt Show

The conference is over, and I'm sitting here at the townhall booth at the end of the day, listening to the Hugh Hewitt show.  The first good news is I can now download the Hugh podcast from Townhall.

The second thing is I actually had the chance to meet Hugh, which was fun, because I used to listen to him in LA, and he's been a big name in political blogging for sometime.

A good way to end the conference.

I'l be responding to Howard Beale's comments later - it's clear we both made snarky comments, but I think it will be clear when I'm done that I accurately reported information about how state elections are run, and how they can be better.