What?! I Have to Follow the Rules?!
In another blow by the white power structure against the forlorn hopes of the Untermenschen, the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a lower court's ruling, saying that Dhimmicratic gristleheads do, in fact, have to vote in their own precincts. The court

ruled that a provisional ballot cast outside a voter's home precinct isn't valid, agreeing with Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell. Federal law allows people to get provisional ballots if they are in the right jurisdiction. Blackwell, a Republican, defines that as a precinct, while Democrats say it's the voter's county.

Why would someone have trouble knowing where they're supposed to vote? It sounds to me like the Democrats just wanted to introduce the greater chance for fraud on the (correct) assumption that a Democrat is more likely to be a semi-literate mouth-breather who can be bused around the county, trying to cast a provisional ballot or two ---either out of ignorance or for a six-pack.

There've been several such stories in the past week or so, and it has jogged a small fact in the back of my mind that I picked up in college.

Most of us know that democracy is a Greek term, meaning the "rule of the people" or somesuch. But that isn't precisely right ---at least not as our Hellenophile Founding Fathers meant it. The demos (or deme) to which that term originally applied is not so much "people" as it is one's own home district. That would be your barrio, ward, or neighborhood, in modern terms.

The deme was the basic unit of political identity in Ancient Greece. It superseded old tribal identities and fostered a kind of local control and involvement in the politics of the city-state that had never really existed before. America's Founding Fathers recognized that this sort of thing was very conducive to the Federal structure that would emerge. That is why we have precincts and "places" in our local jurisdictions that guarantee that distinct entities like old neighborhoods are able to act or speak with unity in the rough and tumble of the larger scale political divisions, such as counties and states, to which they belong.

This is also why dumbasses who want to end the Electoral College in favor of pure numerical majorities should be ignored. Local entities must continue to exist with some kind of autonomy if minority rights are to be preserved.

Thus, it is important that state laws requiring that voters vote in the precincts in which they are registered be upheld. In ancient Greece, men would have to return to their own demes if they wanted to exercise their voting rights. How much simpler it is today with early and absentee voting. The very least we can do is respect the logic of voting where your stakes are claimed and where you expect to be represented at the local level.

Proxies
Mood:  happy
Here's a fun little "travelogue" thang by Richard Rushfield that I got from Slate. It is a day in the life of a guy wearing enemy colors on the other gang's turf. Good stuff.

I enter the faux-rustic Brentwood Country Mart, a collection of shops intended to look like an olde-time barnyard. On the central patio, I pass a woman who looks up from her gaggle of children to see me passing and exclaims, "Ick! God!" A group of teen skater boys waiting on line to buy the Mart's famed "Chicken Basket" discuss whether Bush will be removed from office by the time they turn 18, thus saving them from the draft. I sit down to eat. Dining nearby is a young girl who looks to be about 6-years-old; she gazes at my shirt with a look so forlorn, I expect to learn that Dick Cheney just stole her crayons. Her mother arrives and gives her a hug of consolation. The girl starts to talk, but I can only make out "Bush shirt," which she says to her mother as she points my way. The mother turns and glares, shaking her head at me. I start to wonder what sort of person I am to inflict this on a poor child.

Heh, heh. Rich liberals. Is there anything funnier?

Freak, Out
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who was disgusted and appalled at Lawrence O'Donnell's insane meltdown on Joe Scarborough's MSNBC program last night. O'Donnell was enraged at John O'Neill, spokesman for the Swift Boat Veterans, literally screaming "LIAR!" at him 20 or 30 times. What a fucking nutjob. Of course, old Patrick Buchanan, who was subbing for Scarborough, had no control over O'Donnell, but neither did O'Donnell have it over himself.

I don't know much about this "senior political analyst" for MSNBC except that he was a consultant to the Clintonistas' must-see wet dream known as The West Wing and that he appears sometimes with John McLaughlin on the latter's weekly shout-fest on PBS. But I do know that he should be removed from his job if he has that little civility and self-control. What's this fucking bastard going to do Election Night when his man is losing in a landslide? He'll probably pull his clothes off and shit on Tom Brokaw's desk.

Not at all incidentally, O'Donnell is just one of the many Big Media hacks who now routinely assert that the claims of the Swift Boat Veterans have been debunked. It is as inarguable with them as any fact of their lives. But the truth is that very little of what O'Neill and the others have said has even been addressed by Kerry, let alone disproven. And it is the lingering doubts about Kerry's truthfulness on this score that so enrages pieces of shit like Lawrence O'Donnell. They know that the Swifties have hurt Kerry and all they can think to do is lash out with the kind of emotional violence that was to be seen last night on the Scarborough show.

MSNBC needs to keep O'Donnell away from their studios until after the election. Lawrence O'Donnell, that is. Kelly O'Donnell can stay. In fact, I'd like to see her do a lot more reports, preferably in a muslin chemise on the floor before my fireplace.

Spitting on a Veteran?
Mood:  on fire
Courtesy of Professor Reynolds, here's a story at Milwaukee talk radio host Charlie Sykes' blog about Jerry Boyle, a local Republican candidate for Congress who was spit on at a recent debate appearance at Alverno College by, I would assume, a Kerry supporter. It seems that the man didn't like Boyle's answers and spit on him because, in addition to being a candidate for Congress, Boyle is also a major in the United States Marines who served his country in the War for Iraq. The following is part of a narrative provided to Sykes by a listener, Matt Lambert, who received it from one of Boyle's campaign aides (emphasis mine):

As Boyle was walking from the stage to the reception, a graduate student from UWM spit on Boyle as he passed by.

Boyle, restraining himself, went to the restroom to clean up let this incident go.

I, however, did not.

After seeing Jerry wipe the spit from his jacket, I asked him what was going on and asked the young man why he spit on him.

Although it was witnessed by several people (at least five) he denied it and approached me looking for a confrontation. He walked up to me and got right in my face.

I asked him why he spit on Jerry and he said he didn't but should have because Jerry didn't answer his question to his satisfaction.

He called me an imperialistic pig and said that I was a puppet for an imperialistic regime. I asked him if that was a new term he had just learned in school and that I was very proud of him for using it in a complete sentence.

There's no mention of this lousy pussy's name in Sykes' report (although the aide knew that he was a graduate student at UWM, which I guess is the Milwaukee campus of the University of Wisconsin), but that may be the only blessing this thing is likely to know, so long as it may.

I'd really like to know who this graduate student is so that I can help share his identity with everyone.

The thing about it is that deliberate acts like this really can't go unanswered.

You spit on a veteran in my presence and I'll fucking drop you. Doubt that? Find out. You'll get my knee bearing down on your sternum and as many punches as it takes to shatter your jaw and destroy your nose.

I'm through with bullshit, friends. If these degenerate commie assholes want to vandalize and steal from Republican campaign offices and commit fraud to steal this election and spit on men who served in war, then they ought to at least stand up and acknowledge what they've done. But this "graduate student"? He wouldn't even admit that he had spit on a man with whom he disagreed.

Cowards.

Catch I Am August Tomorrow Night
Be sure to check out the new Austin-based band I Am August at Antone's tomorrow night, Saturday, 23 October 2004.

As best I can tell, things start happening around 9 PM, but don't quote me on that. Go to the link for Antone's number to get the best info.

Oh, Well
As a Texan, I'm disappointed that the Astros couldn't get to the World Series, but I'm still very pleased for them that they were able to finally win a divisional playoff after 43 years on the job. They had a great run this year and should be proud of themselves.

I don't know who to root for now, though... If the Red Sox win the Series, people will take it as a good sign for Kerry.

So, GO CARDS!!!

(Boy, that was easy.)

Why Did Francona Put Pedro In?
What the hell is going on here? Derek Lowe was doing great. Why pull him and put Pedro Martinez in?! What a dumb move. An 8-1 lead is shrinking for no good reason.

A Quick Note Before I Go to Lunch
Say, Hanoi John, get a clue: the War for Iraq IS the War against Islamofascist Terrorism. Why do you not understand that? Did you happen to catch Zarqawi's latest message? He's down with Osama. And he's in Iraq. Get it? There are al-Qaedists fighting us in Iraq.

Those subhuman Submitters aren't fighting us here in America; they're fighting us in Iraq.

The only "profound diversion" facing America is the stupidity of your candidacy.

Dumbass.

Listen Up, Red Sox!
Mood:  energetic
Because of my weird work schedule, y'all have cost me a lot of sleep lately. It's not that I mind because coming back from an 0-3 start in the ALCS to tie it up has never happened before ---and I've been enjoying watching you do it and make history.

But you guys've gotta seal the deal tonight. You gotta beat those bums and break their spirits.

I'll be pulling for you because I hate the Yankees with a white-hot passion.

Just get it done.

Learn Or Be Burned
Mood:  on fire
As I read in the Kerry Spot at NRO, it looks like the advocates of voter dumbassery have lost their cases in Floriduh and Colorado. Jim Geraghty quotes a story in the Washington Times:

In a unanimous ruling in Florida, the seven justices of the state Supreme Court said the votes of residents who cast ballots at the wrong precincts do not have to be counted, upholding a state law that labor unions argued unconstitutionally deprived residents of the right to vote if they did not know their polling place.

In Colorado, a Denver district judge yesterday upheld a new state law requiring voters to show identification before they cast their ballots and also said residents' can vote only at their predetermined precinct.

Is there any fathoming these sorts of joke lawsuits? There's a Constitutional protection of not knowing what goddamned precinct you vote in?! What, you can't read the precinct number on your registration card? You don't know how to get to the polling site? THEN FUCKING ASK, JACKASS!!!

And then what was the objection to having to show identification to vote in Colorado? Who the fuck is opposed to that?! Is it even possible to have a legitimate reason to be opposed to that?

These fucking moron Democrats want to make Election Day as fucked up as they can imagine so as to lay a foundation ---if not in law, then in public opinion--- for all sorts of sorry tales of disenfranchisement and minority voter suppression. Just fuck off. If you can't figure out where you're supposed to go to cast your ballot, then you don't deserve the privilege. And unless you're an illegal fucking alien, what possible reason could you have for not showing your identification at the polls when you come and represent to your local jurisdiction that you are who you say you are?

Just fuck off.

Stop It Or I'll Tell Dad!
The paper tigers of Europe and the IAEA are sharpening their claws and pencils for some more of that productive diplomacy with Iran. As Reuters reports:

Senior diplomats from France, Britain and Germany will meet top Iranian officials in Vienna on Thursday to offer Tehran a final chance to halt uranium enrichment plans or face possible U.N. sanctions.

"What will be sought Thursday will be discussions about Iran's compliance -- not with any conditions laid down by the three of us but by the (International Atomic Energy Agency) board of governors," said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

Why do these people think Iran is going to cooperate? Iran's government is a psychoto-Islamic theocracy that hates Jews, Americans, and all the other little satans. To get a nuke is high on their agenda because they see us at their doorstep and know that, if we don't act to stop them, the Israelis will.

But, while you consider that, enjoy this observation of Uncle Sam's role in this drama later on in the Reuters piece:

The United States has accused Iran of having a secret nuclear weapons program and has threatened to press for U.N. sanctions. Tehran says its nuclear efforts are only for power generation.

Very interesting. See how that works? The Europeans are negotiating with the mullahs based on some charge that the Great Satan has leveled ---and not because they themselves can see that Iran is up to no good. That's very trusting of them, considering how wrong we were about the whole weapons of mass murder thing in Iraq.

Oh, but France and Germany were wrong about it, too. It's just that we and the British were the ones who went in and made sure. And we're sure. Right?

Don't trust. Verify.

(Image courtesy of Eyeranian.net)

The UN's Girlfriend
Mood:  don't ask
Courtesy of the BeldarBlog, who writes about it here, have a look at this article in today's Washington Post. (Emphasis taken from Beldar.)

Kerry's belief in working with allies runs so deep that he has maintained that the loss of American life can be better justified if it occurs in the course of a mission with international support. In 1994, discussing the possibility of U.S. troops being killed in Bosnia, he said, "If you mean dying in the course of the United Nations effort, yes, it is worth that. If you mean dying American troops unilaterally going in with some false presumption that we can affect the outcome, the answer is unequivocally no."

What the fuck does this even mean? As Beldar puts it:

The simplest reading of this weird statement is that the cause an American soldier fights and dies for is worthwhile if -- but only if -- it's been duly blessed by the United Nations.

I'll say it again, ladies: if the President can't hang this sort of shit around Kerry's neck and watch him go to the bottom, he deserves to lose.

John Kerry puts more value on the United Nations and assholes governments like Chiraq's than he does on his own. He is a sell-out and a danger. His election would unquestionably be a victory for Islamofascism.

Don't let it happen.

Thin Gruel
Remember how John Kerry's life was portrayed at the Democratic National Convention? It went from Viet Nam ---a whole lot of Viet Nam--- to some point a couple of weeks before the convention. There was like a quarter-century and more that just wound up on the cutting room floor. No Winter Soldiers, no Jane Fonda, no Michael Dukakis, no nothing.

And the 20 years in the US Senate? Not much to it, folks. An extremely undistinguished record. Go read it for yourself. It's embarrassing. Not only has Kerry accomplished jack shit in the Senate, but the only thing that can really be said for him is how wrong he's been on every important foreign policy issue you can think of. He was a pro-Sandinista, anti-Reagan, anti-Gulf War appeasenik. Against the defense spending that hastened the end of the Cold War and against the intelligence spending that would have made us safer before the atrocities of 11 September 2001.

There's no way he belongs in the White House.

Primper
Be sure to get a load of John Edwards getting pretty for the cameras.

Heh, heh.

Arafat Endorses Kerry
Enjoy this from the WorldNetDaily:

Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat is hoping John Kerry wins the presidential election in November, several Palestinian leaders told WorldNetDaily.

Arafat deputy and chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told WND in an exclusive interview that while "we do not involve ourselves in internal American politics," at the same time "our region has been sliding deeper and deeper into chaos because of certain policies over the past few years, and this needs to change."

Hmmm. What a surprise. So, the next time you hear a whining liberal Dhimmicrat get all indignant at the very idea that Kerry's election would be a disaster for us, remember this.

And remember that a vote for John Kerry is a vote for those who hate America.

Jon Stewart on Crossfire
I had heard a lot of buzz about Jon Stewart's appearance on CNN's Crossfire last Friday, in which he called Tucker Carlson a dick, but have only now found a reliable clip to it. Go to this blog, called A Whole Lotta Nothing, and there's a link to the whole thing. (It's a WindowsMedia file and the running time is about 14 minutes.)

I've always liked Stewart. My favorite stuff of his was from the classic and indispensible Larry Sanders Show on HBO. And I certainly like The Daily Show, despite his overwhelming anti-Bush attitude. But, as much as Carlson and Paul Begala deserved the ass-kicking they got for being the obnoxious hacks they are, Stewart is very obviously guilty of trying to have it both ways.

On the one hand, Stewart tries to pre-emptively exonerate himself from any responsibility for his own involvement in the media culture of this election by dismissing his show as simple comedy. That's his out. On the other hand, he is involved in this election by virtue of the partisan prejudices he brings to that forum. And we know from polls and anecdotal assessments that Stewart is an actual source of news for people of my generation. Is that absurd? Stewart would say so, but he's not shying away from that status. Among his guests from the past year or so are some of the biggest figures in our government and media. If he wants to make a point or sway some minds through his influence, he also has a responsibility. Carlson, who is a dick, was right to ridicule Stewart for the softballs he threw up when Kerry came on his show. Stewart blew a great chance to get something out of Kerry, but, in all probability, that was never in the cards, anyway. Why? Because, at that point, when John Kerry had imposed an almost complete blackout on interviews with the press, Stewart willingly played the part of a clown who was satisifed to simply roll over for the candidate. His candidate. I noticed it and so did everyone else. So, while Jon Stewart is a great wit and oh-so uber-cool, he is, in his own way, also a hack.

The Magnet for Jihadists
In an interview with CNN's Candy Crowley last Friday, Democratic Presidential nominee and incredible moron John Kerry described Iraq as an "extraordinary magnet for jihadists". And it's a fair cop. But Kerry means this as a complaint ---as though there were no advantage to our own domestic security in making Saddamite Iraq, rather than our own cities, the front line in the war against terrorists.

Did we have a right to so use Iraq? I don't see why not. Saddam was an Islamic fascist who had long used and supported terror as a weapon against us and our interests. His Ba'athist regime had been a threat in the Middle East for a generation. Saddam was a user of chemical weapons and a seeker of weapons worse than that. He had invaded three of his neighbors, committed genocide against various groups within his own country, financed the intifadists against the Jews of Israel, and had made the wretched United Nations into his personal bitch through bribery and manipulating the sanctions on Iraq that were meant to curb his excesses. His sons and associates were some of the worst psychopaths of the 20th Century and his secret police were involved in terror plots throughout the Middle East and Europe. And he was a harborer of terrorists. Don't forget that. Don't forget any of this.

The filthy animals who are murdering our servicemen and women are really the ones who have made Iraq into the battlefield of choice. Some of them are homegrown psychopaths and others are foreign terrorists. Reuters and the other dhimmi news agencies call them militants and rebels. And insurgents ---as though they are fighting for some legitimate political cause. But what these animals are doing is dying for nothing. And they're doing it there instead of here. President Bush said "bring 'em on." That is, if you want to fight Americans, try your hand against the best we got. And that's what's happening. Our men and women in uniform are making the greatest sacrifices possible to take these wretched bastards on in a place far from our own shores. And when we beat them, not only will we have killed and hauled off garbage like Abu Musab Zarqawi ---who has now pledged his allegiance to the mouldering corpse once known as Osama bin Laden--- but we will have planted the tree of democracy in the heart of their lands and used their filthy carcasses to fertilize it.

There is a method in the madness of this war. You may regard Iraq as an anode in the circuit of Islamofascist terror. It is a point meant to be sacrificed to the corrosion of these murderers' evil purposes. But in recompense for suffering through these dark days, Iraq will be rewarded with the gift of democracy and liberty. They and, eventually, that entire region will have this Administration to thank ---and the men and women of our Coalition to honor--- for making possible their liberation from the likes of Saddam Hussein.

Crackheads for Kerry
Mood:  suave
As Michael King at Ramblings' Journal says, just damn.

"Fair Game"
Regardless of what John Kerry has said in defense of his reference to Mary Cheney in the third debate, the bottom line is that Mary Beth Cahill said that raising the issue of Ms. Cheney's sexuality was "fair game." In other words, the reference was a deliberate choice of a target.

No, it is inaccurate to say that Kerry "outed" her, but his and the Edwardses' decision to raise such an irrelevant issue ---as well as breaking one of the few taboos left in electoral politics by singling out an opponent's child for any reason other than unmistakable praise--- was a foolish thing to have done.

Just watch a replay of Kerry's remarks. You can tell by the hesitancy in his delivery that he knew, even as it was coming out of his mouth, that he was making a mistake. And what he has said about it since then is complete bullshit. If he was merely trying to give an example of a gay person whose family is loving and supportive, Kerry could have come up with a generic example or made reference to Dick Gephardt's daughter or Rosie O' Donnell or Ellen DeGeneres or any number of people. But he specifically raised the issue of Mary Cheney for a reason: to introduce the element of division into the ranks of the Presidents' Christian Right supporters. Their bigotry is a problem, indeed, but what is worse is Kerry's cynicism in playing to it. That's the bottom line.

I Voted
Around noon today, all three of my brothers and I met up at the Travis County Courthouse at 10th and Guadalupe here in Austin, Texas and voted in the election of the President of the United States. It was very easy and enjoyable. I even ran into our state's Attorney General, Greg Abbott, who had apparently just wrapped up a photo op when I came in. We chatted for a minute while he waited for his wife to come from powdering her nose. Nice guy.

So it's a done deal, friends. I have now made amends for my vote in 2000 and have cast my latest for our President.

I am nervous about this election as I have never been before. But it's looking good for George W. Bush. Just gotta maintain until it's all done.

And, then, I have some letters to write.