Finally, two brave legislators stand fast (scoll down) against the rising tide of anti-supermodel-immigrant hysteria sweeping out from the red states:

Because there aren't enough gorgeous glamazons on these shores already, Reps. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) have co-sponsored a very special bill for supermodels. Introduced last month, HR 4354 would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to establish a separate, nonimmigrant classification for fashion models -- in short, make it easier for beauties from Brazil, Russia, the Czech Republic and other far-flung locales to strut their skinny little butts on our runways.

Weiner, a 41-year-old bachelor, says he's trying to end a shortage that makes American modeling agencies lose business internationally.

Remember, by walking the runways for thousands an hour, dating greasy-haired N.Y. euro-trash and snorting up coke like a Hoover, theyÂ’re only doing a job Americans wouldnÂ’t touch anyway. (at least that euro-trash part).

Posted by: Dr. Reo Symes at 12:22 PM | Comments (25)
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I've been avoiding this topic, but nothing beats a poetry-parody:

So much depends
upon

a Haitian guy who gets
on my nerves

and should probably
be in jail.

Unscheduled Unauthorized Poetry Slam! Even though you guys call me a homo when I post a good poem by Robert Frost, man, you cannot seem to lay off the poesy, can you?

Posted by: Ace at 12:20 PM | Comments (27)
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As Allah says, someone better kill this guy double-plus-good quick:

For those who believe, the devotion is real. Tears stream down the cheeks of 2,000 men ripe for the return of the Mahdi, the 12th Imam they expect will soon emerge to bring justice and peace to a corrupt world.

Eyes stare upward and arms open wide to receive God's promised salvation. The storyteller's lyrical song speaks of tragedy on the path to salvation, prompting cries of anguish and joy.

...

Among the true believers is Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who predicted with "no doubt" his June election victory, months in advance, at a time when polls gave him barely 1 percent support. The president also spoke of an aura that wreathed him throughout his controversial UN speech in September.

"O mighty Lord," Mr. Ahmadinejad intoned to his surprised audience, "I pray to you to hasten the emergence of your last repository, the promised one, that perfect and pure human being, the one that will fill this world with justice and peace."

...

A spokesman last week dismissed the video as fake (other sources confirm it is authentic), and denied that Ahmadinejad bases decisions on "heavenly affairs." But this presidential obsession with the Mahdaviat [belief in the second coming] yields a certitude that leaves little room for compromise.

From redressing the gulf between rich and poor in Iran, to challenging the United States and Israel and enhancing Iran's power with nuclear programs, every issue is designed to lay the foundation for the Mahdi's return.

Posted by: Ace at 12:05 PM | Comments (13)
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Controversial provisions would be renewed more or less intact, but with Specter's word that they will be discussed later and possibly amended.

Seems like a decent compromise.

Posted by: Ace at 11:57 AM | Comments (9)
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The coolest Cool Fact About Dick Cheney: he gets to cast a deciding vote when the Senate is tied.

The Republican-controlled Senate passed legislation to cut federal deficits by $39.7 billion on Wednesday by the narrowest of margins, 51-50, with Vice President Dick Cheney casting the deciding vote.

The measure, the product of a year's labors by the White House and the GOP in Congress, imposes the first restraints in nearly a decade in federal benefit programs such as Medicaid, Medicare and student loans.

"This is the one vote you'll have this year to reduce the rate of growth of the federal government," said Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, in a final plea for passage.

But Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada countered that the GOP was advancing "an ideologically driven, extreme, radical budget. It caters to lobbyists and an elite group of ultraconservative ideologues here in Washington, all at the expense of middle class Americans," he said.

Dick Cheney then cast the tie-breaking vote to have Harry Reid sodomized by a pack of hyperactive priaptic wolverines. "It was very exciting, to say the least," he later remarked.

Posted by: Ace at 11:53 AM | Comments (17)
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The dead horse will be beaten until someone notices:

Most of these [fresh leaks about black prison sites, CIA secret airwings, and eavesdropping] are highly classified programs whose revelation could provide real aid to our enemies — far more aid than revealing the name of a CIA officer who worked more or less openly at Langley, Va. We don't know what damage the latest leaks may have done, but we do know that past leaks about U.S. successes in tracking cellphones led Al Qaeda leaders to shun those devices.

So I eagerly await the righteous indignation from the Plame Platoon about the spilling of secrets in wartime and its impassioned calls for an independent counsel to prosecute the leakers. And wait Â… And wait Â…

I suspect it'll be a long wait because the rule of thumb seems to be that although it's treasonous for pro-Bush partisans to spill secrets that might embarrass an administration critic, it's a public service for anti-Bush partisans to spill secrets that might embarrass the administration. The determination of which secrets are OK to reveal is, of course, to be made not by officials charged with protecting our nation but by journalists charged with selling newspapers.

Related: Not worth getting all bothered about when Clinton conducts warrantless searches, it seems.

Posted by: Ace at 11:47 AM | Comments (11)
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He pities the fool who makes mother-jokes.

Posted by: Ace at 08:38 AM | Comments (2)
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He don't take no shite.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday told officials in his hometown in Austria to remove his name from a sports stadium and stop using his name to promote the city.
The governor's request came after politicians in Graz began a petition drive to rename the stadium, reacting to Schwarzenegger's decision last week to deny clemency to condemned inmate Stanley Tookie Williams. Opposition to the death penalty is strong in Austria.

So how did the officials of Graz, highly principled moral superiors, respond to Arnold's request?

They accepted this as the price of taking a stand. They stood firm to their moral beliefs.

Oh, wait, no, they didn't. They folded like a handkerchief in Arnie's breast pocket.

JackM blogged this on Letters From Desolation Row already.

Check out the comments section in that post.
Seems some Euroweenies are very much in a twist about some blogger's opinion.
Feel free to opine, especially if you sprechen-zee-deutsch.

Posted by: LauraW. at 08:35 AM | Comments (16)
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The power of the blog must not be misused, Jack.

I thought it was pretty smart of me to pick fights with other bloggers. Nothing draws a crowd like a fight, I reasoned. JackM. has taken that to a whole new level and picked a fight with an entire country.

JackM. posted his happiness about Schwarzenegger giving his Austrian hometown the finger after that town decided to name a building after convicted, executed murderer Tookie Williams.

One of Austria's biggest newspapers linked him, and the Austrians are angry with him. For some reason, though, they think it's Bob Dylan's blog.

It will be amusing when Bob Dylan has to make a statement that he's not connected in any way with Letters from Desolation Row.

Below the Fold Update: Dr. Symes weighs in, flooding the zone more...

Posted by: Ace at 08:35 AM | Comments (16)
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I support Hillary!, and I'm against Instapundit.

Instapundit thinks this is dumb, and 7 Sins raises to "criminally stupid."

I'm not sure I understand why.

It is counterproductive and freedom-limiting to clamp down on books, movies, and games sold to adults (unless they feature genuine illegality with a victim, like child porn does).

But we're talking about children here. Are the libertarians actually saying that, as regards children, it's Thunderdome, and the state has no interest in or power to restrict the sale to pornography to minors?

Some might say videogames aren't porn... well, some are on the edge already, and it's stuff kids shouldn't be sold. There are, after all, Japanese videogames about picking up bikini girls on the beach and then having sex with them.

And the videogame industry does seem to be attempting to outdo itself as far as shock-content every year. I don't think it will be long before there's a fully-pornographic game, with well-rendered models and realistic (sorta) hardcore sex. Should such a game -- hypothetical at the moment, but likely coming down the pipeline -- be sold to a kid without the vendor being punished?

If so, why are we bothering to fine 7-11s for selling cigarettes to kids?

I think libertarianism is an important part of conservativism -- it's an intellectual undergirding of the small goverment/leave me the hell alone strain of conservative politics -- but I'm always surprised by the libertarian absolutists who apparently want no restrictions on almost any behavior at all, even when it comes to kids.

Libertarians will point out that this is a bunch of symbolic politics, and the "For the children" mantra is always a dangerous one. Well, sometimes, but not always. I don't want people to take away my choices, made as competent adult, "for the children." On the other hand, taking away some of children's opportunities to buy drugs, fireworks, cigarettes, and porn "for the children" seems pretty reasonable.

I think part of the unexpressed reservation about measures like this is that kids buy a lot of this stuff, making it commercially viable, meaning that adults who might want a very violent or hypersexual game can buy it too. Without teenagers buying some of this stuff, there's just not enough of a market for it to make it a decent seller, and thus it won't be made at all, and therefore yes, indirectly, keeping it out of the hands of kids also may keep it out of the hands of adults. Adults, to some extent, are free riders on the market for inappropriate entertainment sold to children and teenagers.

But if that's what's going on -- if these products can't be economically viable if sold only to the people they're claimed to be intended for, actual adults -- then the games probably shouldn't be made in the first place.

Am I crazy? Am I too statist here? The only thing I've ever agreed with Bill Maher on is his observation that, for many liberals and libertarians, children are just "little adults," and should be treated as such when it comes to sex and the like.

Well, no. They're children. There are some things that should not be sold to them, and if that's the case, I don't really see why a toothless "voluntary" rating system is to be preferred over a mandatory one with actual penalties.

Yes, yes, yes-- the slipperly slope. If we try to regulate the sale of patently-inappropriate products to children, suddenly the government will take all R or X rated materials from adults and we'll all be forced to watch Barney the Dinosaur for the rest of our lives.

I don't buy the slippery slope, especially here. American adults are not giving up their porn or their racy/violent/profane TV series on HBO or the like. It's just not going to happen.

Posted by: Ace at 08:25 AM | Comments (29)
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