Hmmm…

Did ACORN chicanery elect Al Franken? That’s the import of this tactfully phrased Minneapolis Star Tribune column.** Franken won by 312 votes. ACORN claimed to have registered 48,000 new Minnesota voters. If just 1% were ineligible but cast ballots, or had ballots cast for them illegally, and survived the recount process … that’s 480 votes, almost certainly overwhelmingly cast for Franken. … Maybe in pristine Minnesota even ACORN is clean. If so, the state would apparently be an outlier. …

And that is the point, dear liberals – no one thinks that ACORN created millions of votes to overwhelmingly win…but by their fraud, they can create just enough votes to allow a Democrat to win in a squeeker. That is how voter fraud works, ya know? Oh. I didn’t realize. Sorry, I thought everyone knew that. Well, lets take a look at this:

In 1948, Texas Governor Coke Stevenson ran for a U.S. Senate seat against Texas Congressman Lyndon Baines Johnson:

“Early indications were that Congressman Johnson had lost. Six days later, however, Precinct 13 in the border town of Alice, Texas, showed a very interesting result. Exactly 203 people had voted at the last minute — in the order they were listed on the tax rolls — and 202 of them had voted for Johnson.

Trying to manufacture a lot of votes to turn a big loser in to a winner is (a) nearly impossible and (b) might spark a revolution. But when its really, really close…as long as you have the guts to try, officials who are willing to be complicit or at least turn a blind eye, and an MSM which is on your side, it can be done. Democrats have always done this – and I mean going back to the foundations of the party in the early 19th century. Ask anyone of an old, Irish-Catholic family and you’ll get some stories…

Democrats did this in Washington State in 2004, attempted it in Florida in 2000 and, very likely, pulled it off again in Minnesota in 2008. It seems there were many tens of thousands – and perhaps hundreds of thousands – more votes than voters in Minnesota in 2008. Almost certainly, fraud was perpetrated and while it might have just run up Obama’s big win, it seems to have been just enough to pull Franken over the finish line.

This is why we need to have stricter controls on voting – picture IDs, period purging of the rolls (preferably every 4th year), heavy (life terms?) penalties for voter fraud…even if its just telling someone to go out and get fraudulent registrations. The only legitimacy our government has is because of the voters – if the vote becomes tainted and people lose faith in the democratic system, then its all over for the American republic. Voter fraud is, in many respects, treason – and it should be treated as such.

UPDATE: Yes, should I ever be in a position to do so, I’ll try to have the 2008 Minnesota result looked in to.

They don’t understand it:

Europe’s Socialists Suffering Even in Downturn

A specter is haunting Europe — the specter of Socialism’s slow collapse.

Even in the midst of one of the greatest challenges to capitalism in 75 years, involving a breakdown of the financial system due to “irrational exuberance,” greed and the weakness of regulatory systems, European Socialist parties and their left-wing cousins have not found a compelling response, let alone taken advantage of the right’s failures.

This is hilarious! “Even in Downturn” – because, you know, its natural for people to look to the Nanny State when things get rough…heck, all the liberals the NY Times knows do it, right? “Challenges to capitalism”…hey, I know there are capitalists hip deep in the poop on this, but what crashed wasn’t capitalism – it was the abuse of capital by Big Corporation and Big Government. “Have not found a compelling response”…because the whole set up was theirs to begin with. This is the ultimate failure of socialism – even the soft, cuddly socialism of the Euro-left.

Topping off the joke is that the NY Times is serious – they really are flabbergasted at this turn of events. And there is in this the dark hint: What if the American people turn out to be just like this? What if, even during a down turn caused by the failure of capitalism, they move away from Obama and his Democrats? The thought is making them break out in a cold sweat.

Nothing but fun from now until November of 2010, boys and girls…

Nothing like the infamous tsunami of a few years ago, but still pretty bad:

LOS ANGELES/WELLINGTON (Reuters) – Authorities canceled a Pacific tsunami warning on Wednesday after a huge sub-sea quake sent waves over the Samoa islands, reportedly killing about 14 people but falling short of a regional disaster.

Tsunami waves hit American Samoa, a U.S. territory, killing 14 people, and also struck the nearby nation of Samoa, killing an unknown number of people, local media and officials said. There were unconfirmed reports of waves taller than 4 meters (13 ft).

“As of right now, everybody is up in the high mountain ranges,” said Senetenari Malele, announcer for local radio station Showers of Blessings. He said the local weather authority had released a statement with 14 dead in the last hour.

All of these events should remind each of us, every day, that the time of Judgment is always near – so, do the right thing…and remember to be kind to those you love: it may be your last chance.

He was 46 years old when he drugged and raped a 13 year old. Nothing else matters – he knew what he was doing.

Send him to jail.

The story:

Stimulus funds boost number of federal jobs

The $787 billion economic recovery package also is stimulating growth in the federal government as agencies hire thousands of workers and spend millions of dollars to oversee and implement the package, according to government records and spokesmen.

Fourteen of the top federal agencies responsible for spending under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act say they’ve hired about 3,000 workers with stimulus money. That’s helped fuel the continued growth of the federal government, which increased by more than 25,000 employees, or 1.3%, since December 2008, according to the latest quarterly report. During that time, the ranks of the nation’s unemployed increased by nearly 4 million, Labor Department statistics show.

Overall, there are about 2 million federal workers, the data show.

In a time of economic crisis, we shouldn’t be adding workers to the government…but that, of course, is all liberals know how to do. After all, they find it distasteful to do work outside government…unless it is in media or education. How are we to employ the next crop of liberal, ivy league graduates if government employment shrinks? They can’t all work at NPR, ya know?

This, by the way, isn’t a bug – its a feature. Its the whole point of the exercise. There are now 25,000 more people to provide union dues to AFSCME, which will then lavish the funds on Democrats; and if the Democrats do lose, there is a pool of 25,000 more government employees who can, perhaps, be convinced to sabotage a GOP government from the inside (remember that 2007 NIE which asserted Iran had stopped its nuke program years earlier? Well, that got the issue off the front plate all through 2008…only now we know it was a bald-faced lie when it was written…and it was written, I am certain, on purpose in order to undercut the GOP). Essentially, this is just one more step in the liberal plan to lock themselves in to un-elected power while also increasing overall dependence on govfernment – thus making it ever less likely that people will bite the hand which feeds them and vote GOP.

We’re being slowly enslaved – and the liberals are using our own money to purchase us. We really, really have to stop them…and that means not just winning, but cleaning house from top to bottom when we do win. We might have only one more shot at this, fellow Americans…once more liberal after Obama and we’re cooked.

What are the liberals really up to?

When under the pretext of fraternity, the legal code imposes mutual sacrifices on the citizens, human nature is not thereby abrogated. Everyone will then direct his efforts toward contributing little to, and taking much from, the common fund of sacrifices. Now, is it the most unfortunate who gains from this struggle? Certainly not, but rather the most influential and calculating. – Frederic Bastiat

From NRO’s The Corner:

The Law Library of the Congress of the United States (LLC) has issued an opinion on the removal and expulsion of Manuel Zelaya as president of Honduras. The LLC’s conclusion: Zelaya’s removal was legal but his deportation from the country was not.

Here is the summary of the opinion:

The Supreme Court of Honduras has constitutional and statutory authority to hear cases against the President of the Republic and many other high officers of the State, to adjudicate and enforce judgments, and to request the assistance of the public forces to enforce its rulings. The Constitution no longer authorizes impeachment, but gives Congress the power to disapprove of the conduct of the President, to conduct special investigations on issues of national interest, and to interpret the Constitution. In the case against President Zelaya, the National Congress interpreted the power to disapprove of the conduct of the President to encompass the power to remove him from office, based on the results of a special, extensive investigation. The Constitution prohibits the expatriation of Honduran citizens.

And, so, all that talk about a coup and the Honduran government being “de-facto” and how we all have to help Honduras resolve its internal issues is just so much BS. It was all put out, of course, because Zelaya is a darling of Chavez and Castro…and we know how the American left views these men. The left was hoping to have yet another leftist regime to oppose the United States.

Obama owes the people and government of Honduras an apology – but, I doubt one will be forthcoming. Obama doesn’t apologize for his own actions…

The title of her upcoming memoir. And it is, indeed, a bit of what we all need to do…heard today that Wall Street is showering money on Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in order to buy protection against regulation. Anyone want to bet on whether or not they’ll get it?

Only new people from outside the establishment can make this right…

As night follows day:

New companies will be crucial to the strength of any economic recovery. Businesses in their first 90 days of life accounted for 14% of hiring in the U.S. between 1993 and 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But this recession is taking a particularly heavy toll on business creation, as sources of small-business funding dry up…

And why are sources of small business funding drying up? Two things:

1. Government is on a borrowing binge…each dollar borrowed by Obama is a dollar which can’t be borrowed by a new business.

2. By bailing out the big banks, all we did was allow them to cover their losses…and they are holding on to what we gave them, because they’ve got even more losses to come in the next wave of home foreclosures and the surging commercial foreclosure rate.

Now, bailing out the banks was a bi-partisan bit of idiocy, but Obama is driving the last nail in the coffin by soaking up all remaining funds for his various “stimulus” projects. We’re taking away money for new start ups and giving it to people to buy cars they don’t immediately need, thereby hiring back – for a few weeks – a few thousand auto workers at the same, old dinosaur companies. Ditto with the credit for new home buyers – its nice to help youngsters in to homes, but people need jobs more than new homes right now: we can get new homes once the economy is back on track.

On and on it goes – its all just a waste of time. Of course, Obama and Co are getting ready to scream “recovery” at the top of their lungs once the numbers for the third quarter come in…I mean, just wait for it. As far as the left and the MSM will be concerned, this will be the biggest boom in human history, all ushered in by Obama and his Spendulus. Relentlessly it will be hammered home that everything’s great and we all owe Obama our very lives…meanwhile, the concerns about rising unemployment and continued contraction by everyone not receiving a government hand out will be ignored or downplayed.

And it all may work, for a while – Obama’s popularity might rise, Democrats might start feeling a bit bullish about the political future…and then its all going to come crashing back down. We can’t spend our way to wealth, and when you’re broke, the worst thing you can do is borrow more money. This is not opinion – this is basic, common sense.

A libertarian acquaintance of mine and I share a number of views in common; we are both for smaller and less intrusive government, as well as the right to pursue happiness in ways of our own choosing.

Where my libertarian acquaintance and I part ways is the question of abortion, and a woman’s so-called right to choose whether or not to maintain the developing life inside her womb. Although this acquaintance is personally pro-life, she appears to think that it is not necessarily the role of government to dictate whether a woman must carry a baby to term.

I wrote,

“I can get behind much of what you believe in.

Except for the abortion part.

You see, my right to do what I want with my fist ends with your face.

And the right of what a person can do with his or her body ends when that person’s choice interferes with another innocent person’s God-given right to live, no matter what station in life or life stage one finds oneself. (read it in the preamble to the Constitution)

The woman’s so-called right to “choose” is not a question of freedom. It goes much deeper than that. It’s a question of one’s fundamental right to exist. When that is called into question, the right to “freedom” is moot.”

Yes, one has a right to engage in the behavior that may or may not produce a life. But one does not have a right nor necessarily the freedom to escape dealing with the consequences of one’s choices, especially when that choice impinges on another’s primary and fundamental right of existence.