Ayn Clouter's Blog

PRIORITIES:

For more evidence that the falsely-named Democrats are the party opposed to majority rule, look at Our Noble Lame Duck's own home state:

With the threat of a filibuster and crafty maneuvering with Senate rules, Democrats derailed a Republican-led bill to require Texas voters to show photo identification before casting their ballots. ...

Supporters of the voter ID measure say it will root out voter fraud. Opponents have said it will disenfranchise thousands of Texans who do not have identification, especially those who are poor, minorities, elderly, students and disabled.

Those without photo identification would be required to present two other forms of identification, such as a birth certificate, utility bill or concealed handgun license.

There is good news buried in this report of anti-democratic maneuvering. According to the state's own site, a regular driver's license only costs $24.00 for adults. Concealed handgun licenses, shown on another page, are more expensive:

Q: How much will a concealed handgun license cost?
A: For most Texans, the license will cost $140. But for senior citizens or indigent Texans, the cost is only $70.

The authors of the blocked bill would not have included those listed alternative IDs unless they were likely to be widely possessed by possible Texas voters. So the state legislature (or at least most of its Republican membership) believes that many people who don't feel they can afford a driver's license still think that they must have a concealed handgun license, at three to six times the cost. A visit to the Lone Star State will convince you quickly that this is not because public transportation is so readily available that folks see no need to own a car. It does my heart good to know there is at least one place in the union where weapons come first in voter's hearts.

HOW TO INCREASE VOTER TURNOUT:

As the French vote on the E.U. Constitution tomorrow, those overseas got to vote early. Pascal Riché reports here:

A l'étranger, on votait aujourd'hui, un jour plus tôt qu'en France. Il y avait la queue au consulat de Washington. Des sandwichs au pâté étaient offerts.

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR:

A message from the future, explaining why Frist won the filibuster fight, and who benefitted from it. It's found at "J'Accuse!".

FOOD FIGHT IN THE NURSERY:

She has returned from her vacation, but her rest doesn't seem to have helped her brain cells, long atrophied by liberal mockery of Our Noble Lame Duck. Mad Kane is still using trivial nursery rhymes as the model for her parodies, but now she's added insult to injury. Her lastest one is based on *ugh* a French model, namely "Alouette", where she urges the Senate to "save the filibuster".

Since she's not only wrong on the issue, but using toddlers' songs from appeasers, I felt the proper response was to go all enfant terrible on her, and use another example to urge the opposite. Hence this ditty, based on "Frere Jacques":

U. S. Senate filibusters
Must end now before Bill
Rehnquist leaves and Al is named as his replacement
As Chief of the high Court.

Take with one ruling from the Veep, and repeat as needed until obstructions disappear.

IT'S JUST THIS LITTLE CHROMIUM SWITCH HERE:

It was easy to find the patsy, the new Oswald to take the blame for last year's version of the Texas two-step. It just took reading through lefty web sites and user groups. Sure enough, there was a Bush-hater and former Texas National Guard type who would know that the memo was accurate, in its content at least. Lure him on with a conspiratorial "leak" so that he would excitedly give it to the media. When they bite, show that it was a fake. What happened? The whole true story of dodging the draft and ducking the pilot medical exam got discredited. Any liberal reporter that fell in the trap and died of radiation exposure would just be gravy. Who knew it would be the kid clomping about in Cronkite's big boots himself? We laughed all the way to the inauguration.

This year's bait-and-switch was quite similar. Sure, our interrogators at Guantanamo flushed pages down the toilets and told prisoners that those leaves came from the Koran. It was as true as that "menstrual blood" we used to humiliate them. Naturally, the caged ones told each other about that. We wanted them to, in order to destroy their morale. Then someone had a brainstorm. Let's let that story leak, with a phony report. When it is discredited, we preclude any serious investigation into any future charges by released prisoners. We also get a bonus, by wounding the reputation of whichever media tool steps into this noose.

Unlike last year, we had a specific target in mind. No, not Newsweek. Who cares about that poor man's Time? We're getting back at one of the two main foes that drove our last Plantagenet from office in 1974. When this riot-driving brouhaha hurts the magazine's sales and ad revenues, it will be that publication's owners that suffer. Revenge is a dish best served cold, and in this case, it's Post toasties. Liberals are so gullible, it's almost no fun setting them up for a fall.

WHAT IF KEITH MOON HAD LIVED AND STARTED A SECOND CAREER IN POLITICS:

Four Ecuadorean legislators were permanently expelled from Congress on Thursday for getting drunk and smashing up a hotel in Peru last month. ...

Congress fired all four, who belonged to different political parties, for violating its code of ethics and said they had "damaged and discredited the country's international image in a shameful and disgraceful incident." ...

The legislators damaged a hotel room and the lobby and assaulted a bellboy and a receptionist, according to the congressional report.

TURNABOUT:

U.S. textile and clothing manufacturers are praising the Bush administration for re-imposing quotas on Chinese-made cotton trousers, cotton knit shirts and underwear, saying the quick action was needed to save thousands of American jobs. But retailers are complaining that the new limits on Chinese imports and more that are expected to be imposed on other clothing categories will simply mean higher prices for American consumers.

The cheap prices of its commodities are the heavy artillery with which it batters down all Chinese walls, with which it forces the barbarians' intensely obstinate hatred of foreigners to capitulate. It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production....
--The Communist Manifesto

MERE TOTALITY IS FOR WIMPS:

I am: 112% Republican.

"The only way left to save the democratic ideals of the Founders is to overthrow the elected administration in a patriotic revolution!"

Are You A Republican?

HIS HOLINESS, CANUTE THE FIRST:

Pope Benedict XVI said today that the media can spread peace but also foment violence, and he called on journalists to exercise responsibility to ensure objective reports that respect human dignity and the common good.

GLENDOWER: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
HOTSPUR: Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come when you do call for them?
--Henry IV, Part I, Act 3, Scene 1

THE VERMEER CODE:

I mentioned here three weeks ago that I had suffered through the agonizing task of reading a certain repulsively-written popular novel, just because it made such a tempting target. It's finally done. You can find this copiously illustrated immorality tale of a libidinous ex-President, a bibulous Presidential daughter, an ambitious Congresswoman, a light-intoxicated Old Master, and warring secret ancient cults of Persian religious fanatics, with some names changed to protect the gelt, at The Vermeer Code.