October 2010

There He Goes Again

ArchPundit October 19, 2010 No Comments

Mark Kirk claims Phoenix the 2nd in the World in Kidnappings.  There is no evidence for this, but there isn’t much evidence for anything he says:

Summing up: “Kidnapping capital” turns out to be a headline-grabbing label; no wonder it caught Dewhurst’s attention. Still, it’s incumbent on him — and news organizations bandying the No. 2 description — to check it out. So far, we’ve seen no evidence that it’s accurate, or even close.

Phoenix has experienced hundreds of kidnappings over the past few years. However, we couldn’t find reliable around-the-planet evidence to confirm that only Mexico City experiences more of them. In fact, experts advise that such rankings can’t be made based on available information. If they could, they speculate, other cities would prove to have more kidnappings than Arizona’s capital.

Punch line: Nothing confirms Phoenix as No. 2 in kidnappings worldwide. We’ll revisit this turf if compelling evidence surfaces, but for now Dewhurst’s statement is False.

Just Keep Repeating It

ArchPundit October 19, 2010 No Comments

Kirk claiming recent convictions of vote fraud, but as I pointed out, that was with absentee ballots which wouldn’t be helped by ‘voter integrity’ program.

Going back to this, Alexi said never which is not true either, but in recent years there hasn’t been more a handful of cases where people voted more than once and that was across state lines and in no way coordinated.  Of course, monitors won’t stop that, good list maintenance would.

Daily Dolt: Bob Delaney St Clair County Clerk

ArchPundit October 15, 2010 No Comments

A reporter friend of mine always joked that the biggest thing you had to do as a reporter was listen as someone got themselves in trouble.  Bob Delaney has lots of people listening. Rich has been all over this story.  From a link Rich provides

St. Clair County Clerk Bob Delaney acknowledged Thursday that 1,297 military ballots were mailed out two weeks after a deadline set by federal law, including 223 absentee ballots sent out to troops overseas.

Delaney blamed the missed deadline on his decision to wait on an appellate court ruling on whether Constitution Party candidates may remain on the Nov. 2 ballot.

Delaney, a Democrat, said if he had mailed out the ballots before the court ruling had come down, putting the Constitution Party back on the ballot, “I would have had to redo the whole thing again” — at a cost of $2 per ballot, Delaney said.

“I thought it was the safe way to wait,” he said. “I was trying to be prudent. I was trying to be wise.”

You may have thought that, but that would make you an idiot.  A really big one. As I pointed out yesterday, unless a court enjoined you from mailing the ballots, you didn’t have a choice.  Complying with federal law on voting is not an optional activity.  It’s never prudent to violate voting rights laws.  It may cost you extra money if the Illinois Court had ruled in favor of the Constitution Party, but that’s the cost of being in the voting business.

Rich points the ISBE might not have entirely clean hands, but Delaney is the person primarily responsible and this would seem to me to be an offense that could easily get you removed from office.

Dear Edward McClelland of the Ward Room

ArchPundit October 15, 2010 No Comments

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hfYJsQAhl0[/youtube]

Worst analysis ever:

Awesome

ArchPundit October 15, 2010 No Comments

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTtiieTSe4I[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8xi_YwMOQM[/youtube]

Pretty similar, but there’s a payoff at the very end that’s worth it in the second.

It Gets Better

ArchPundit October 15, 2010 No Comments

This is a really moving story told by a Council Member in Fort Worth Texas.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax96cghOnY4[/youtube]

Visit the Trevor Project for more

While my mother is conservative, homophobia in its strongest forms was not in our home.  She had friends who were gay and viewed them as they are–normal people.  One friend likely died of AIDS largely in secret because Central Illinois was just not the place that gay men were out 20 years ago. 

My mother had a strange history with gay men–she married one in her second marriage (I wasn’t born yet).  He was a Naval Officer and she was his unwitting beard.  While in Morocco he was discovered by the Military Police. They came and got my mother and sister and packed up their stuff and they never saw him again.  While she was hurt and bitter, it later taught her how difficult and unfair that was. 

As a kid, I didn’t bully other kids–but I am guilty as many if not most of us at my age of teasing and laughing at guys who weren’t traditionally masculine. I can never take that back, but I can hope that young people today learn better and I certainly raise my children that way. 

Cruella Da Brady Updated X2

ArchPundit October 15, 2010 No Comments

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nvBtioirsg[/youtube]

Cruella De Vil: Any way you want. Poison them, drown them, bash them on the head. Got any chloroform? I don’t care how you kill the little beasts. Just do it, and do it NOW!

Get me those puppies!

Sorry, it was just too easy.  Quinn is getting a lot of press making fun of the ad and while I tend to have a far more complicated view of animal rights (I don’t see why we can’t slaughter horses if we slaughter hogs) it’s  a legitimate issue.  Just because it sounds like a parody doesn’t mean it’s not a valid issue.  Is it as clear cut as Quinn makes it in the ad?  No, but it’s also not the first political campaign ad to be a bit sensationalistic.

That said, it’s not my fault the Republicans didn’t nominate Kirk Dillard.

I am interested to see how Brady is going to respond to this.  Most of the ways I’ve imagined it so far don’t do much good. Imagine, “I only want to allow dogs to be gassed when…”

UPDATE: Aaron has a slightly different take–I’m not sure the pure emotional strategy isn’t the best, but he has some good points about this being an example of responding to the wishes of an individual constituent.

Photo Credit: Birdwatcher  Thanks!

Countdown on Kirk

ArchPundit October 15, 2010 No Comments

Dorf did a great job putting the comments in context:


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS64U_Q8uts[/youtube]


And, of course, the site gets listed as a source.  Not much, but for a small state blogger, hey!

Worst Person in the World

ArchPundit October 15, 2010 No Comments

Chicago Board of Elections:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7D5W5ct400[/youtube]

Thought I’d do the last segment first, didn’t ya!

From The Comments

ArchPundit October 14, 2010 No Comments

Sigh

Hey NUTSUCKER LOVER show me where in the Commerce Clause it states that the Commerce Clause of the Constitution DEMANDS I HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE. You can’t can you little NUTBAG LOVER. You NUTSUCKER, BAG LICKER’S are going to find we are feed up with you little pussy coward asses, NUTBAG LICKING, dope smoking, can’t shower, basement dwelling little COWARD’S. SEIU THUG’S? What an oxymoron. (S)PECIAL (E)D (I)DIOT’S are (U)S. Bash the face of any Union pussy that screws with YOU is my motto. You Procrap’s wanted a WAR and YOU got it. We will find you and destroy you as we destroy any THREAT to this GREAT COUNTRY.

The thing that still baffles me about these is the use of caps.

I’m also trying to decide if that’s an actionable threat…your thoughts.

For the old inhabitants of usenet-one guess on what service provider the IP is from.