So says Professional Embarrassment to Republicans Pat Robertson.

Using his scary-impressive powers to read the Mind of God Himself, he speculates God caused Sharon's stroke as punishment for Sharon's decision to pull back from some Palestinian lands.

When he's not figuring out the All Mighty's Crippling Illness Causation Schedule, he can be found working dilligently in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, splitting atoms.

With his mind.

I'm tired and I can't come up with a different joke.

Sharon's Brain Badly Damaged: Hospital Source-- Won't be long now.

And Al Jazeera is reporting rumors he's already died.

St. Sullivan of the Sacred "Heart-Ache" Weighs In: You will be surprised to learn he's made a hyperemotional comparison of Robertson to Iran's Ahmadnejean, stating that "the difference" between them -- the difference, singular -- is that Karl Rove only has one on his speed-dial.

Last time I checked, only one of them was building nuclear missiles. So, you know, there's another difference.

As Allah says, only St. Sullivan could aim for a target as fat as Robertson and still manage to miss.

St. Sullivan has always been a leftist at heart, not just in his politics -- there he's just liberal -- but in his sense of politics, his style of waging it. Like many leftists, he simply is incapable of distinguishing between domestic political opponents or rivals from foreign military threats and enemies. The language of war is used for both.

What's the difference between Andrew Sullivan and Joe Stalin? Only one of them will never shut the fuck up about his beagles and bronchitis.

Posted by: Ace at 01:32 PM | Comments (23)
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Might as well just put that banner up. At least until I master the RSS feeder.

Posted by: Ace at 01:24 PM | Comments (54)
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If you're shopping for the Planet of the Apes TV shows on DVD, Walmart's software will suggest you also consider some "similar items," including a DVD about Martin Luther King, Jr.

And three other black-themed DVD's.

I was going to guess that maybe this was because black actor Michael Clarke Duncan is in the remake movie, so it's picking up on that to offer other movies starring blacks or about black themes, but no, this is the old TV series. Yeah, there was a black guy in it, but that's hardly common knowlege. Not the sort of thing you'd expect some software to pick up on.

What was his name? The actor himself doesn't even remember anymore. So that can't be it.

And I can't imagine that their software is so subtle as to be playing on the race-conflict theme of Planet of the Apes, either.

I'm having trouble imagining this as anything but deliberate, perhaps the result of racist "pranksters" doing a Google-bomb type thing to the Walmart software by looking for Planet of the Apes and then looking for Martin Luther King, Jr., making the software think the two have something in common.

Posted by: Ace at 11:57 AM | Comments (38)
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Judicial arrogance at its rock-bottom worst:

There was outrage Wednesday when a Vermont judge handed out a 60-day jail sentence to a man who raped a little girl many,many times over a four-year span starting when she was seven.

The judge said he no longer believes in punishment and is more concerned about rehabilitation.

Prosecutors argued that confessed child-rapist Mark Hulett, 34, of Williston deserved at least eight years behind bars for repeatedly raping a littler girl countless times starting when she was seven.

But Judge Edward Cashman disagreed explaining that he no longer believes that punishment works.

Well, dickhead, you may believe that, but the laws in force in the state do not, and you are appointed to enforce the existing laws, not substitute the ones you would prefer.

Anyone ever notice that it's only the liberal judges who arrogate this sort of power to themselves? When's the last time you heard of a law & order type conservative judge giving a man 50 years for jaywalking, just because he thinks "all laws are deserving of tough enforcement"?

Unbelievable.

Thanks to Craig, via Michelle.

It's Not Always Liberal Judges: Even as I wrote that, I knew I shouldn't say "only." Let's just say it's more common. A lot more common.

Geoff corrects--

Well, in fairness, I recall some judges (particularly in Texas) giving huge sentences for marijuana possession to "send a message" to other law-breakers.

I'm against that, of course. This judge, however, is a lot worse, because he's decided, on his own authority, that punishment is no longer an acceptable consideration in sentencing criminals. Even when sentencing child rapists.

Posted by: Ace at 11:47 AM | Comments (85)
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I've been adivsed that the site is displaying very strangely when an AOL browser is used. For the moment, I can only suggest using IE or another browser if you have one.

Somewhere on my site I must have some open tags which other browsers are closing but the AOL browser is not. I'll look for the open tags, but it's probably going to take me a while to find them

Posted by: Ace at 11:10 AM | Comments (20)
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"Most closely linked to Republicans:

National Republican Congressional Cmte -- $498,000

Democratic Congressional Campaign Cmte -- $354,700

A difference of $143,300, or 28.8%. Democrats received 71.2% of the money Republicans did.

National Republican Senatorial Cmte -- $436,500


Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte -- $423,480

A whopping difference of $13,020, or 3%. Democrats received 97% of the money Republicans did.

(As regards the congressional committees, that is.)

There's a much bigger difference between the donations to the RNC (around $326,000) and the DNC ($65,720), but then, the Democrats are out of power. Certainly the differences between the amounts given to the parties' congressional and senatorial campagin committees are not vast, especially not considering there are more Republican Congressmen and Senators, and they control, nominally, the Congress.

Eyeballing it, individual Republican recipients outnumbered individual Democratic ones by about a 3:2 ratio, but that sure seems pretty much a bipartisan scandal to me.

Seems to me like Abramoff spread out his largesse pretty evenly.

And yet "even Democrats... are panicking."

Thanks to Andrew's Dad.

I'm An F'n Moron Update: My first go at the numbers was completely screwed up. I compared the Republican Senate numbers to the Republican Congressional numbers, and the Dem Senate to the Dem Rep numbers.

Because I'm a stupid fatheaded imbecile.

Thanks to A Marble Desk for straightening my dumb ass out.

Posted by: Ace at 10:59 AM | Comments (35)
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Liberal economists say it's only because "discouraged workers" finally got so discouraged they actually went out and got jobs:

The number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits fell to the lowest level in more than five years last week, providing strong evidence that the labor market is shaking off the effects of a string of devastating hurricanes.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that applications for unemployment benefits dropped by 35,000 to 291,000, the smallest number since Sept. 23, 2000, when the economy was in the concluding months of the longest economic expansion in history.

The decline of 35,000 claims was much better than Wall Street had been expecting....

Oh, and then there's the Austrian gamer-girl chick, if you like that sort of thing.
more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:15 AM | Comments (17)
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The fact that over 90% of Democrats took Abramoff's dirty money is just further proof Abramoff is "most closely linked" with Republicans.

Among those named by the NRSC as the worst examples of "Democrat hypocrisy" for taking money from Abramoff and his associates are: Sen. Byron Dorgan, (D-N.D.) who received at least $79,300; Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who received at least $45,750; Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who received at least $68,941 and Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), who received at least $6,250.

This is just not going to hurt the Republican Party itself. Those who took money and did favors-- yes. But too many Democrats also took money for this to be called a "Republican scandal," even if the NYT is going to do so anyway.

This sort of corruption is usually only possible as regards non-ideological issues. On ideological issues -- party-line, hot-button issues -- politicians have to pretty much do what they promised their constituents. And even when they don't, they modify their positions based on politics, not bribery.

But corruption usually involves stuff that there is no clear Republican-Democrat divide on. Like agricultural subsidies, where everyone in a farming state, Republican or Democrat, is convinced that socialized agribusiness is the wave of the future. Or, say, Indian casinos.

Were I to believe this was primarily a Republican scandal, I'd have to believe that Republicans are just generally more corrupt than Democrats. Which I don't. I don't think either party is cleaner than the other, except on the matter of voter fraud, where the Democrats are clearly the ones in favor of having as much voter fraud as possible.

The MSM will continue to attempt to tie this around George Bush's neck, but the fact is that lobbyists give money to everyone, especially as regards non-ideological matters like Indian casinos, where everyone's vote is up for sale. Did I say "sale"? I meant up for grabs.

More... Patrick Kennedy (ooohhh!) stays bought:

Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) has decided to buck the current fashion of donating the money given to him linked to Jack Abramoff clients to charity, while the rest of Kennedy's colleagues distance themselves from Abramoff-directed contributions as fast as possible. Kennedy insists that he has nothing to hide -- since he's been taking Indian gambling money for ten years and acting on their behalf for, coincidentally, the same amount of time...

"Most closely linked with Republicans." Republicans like Patrick Kennedy.

Harry Reid's Defense:

Also, I really liked Reid's defense in yesterday's article. He said that because he comes from a gambling state, he naturally has an interest in trying to limit -- get this -- Indian casinos in Louisiana. Yeah, I'm having a little trouble following that leap of logic, too. -- Thomas Jefferson

Posted by: Ace at 09:47 AM | Comments (28)
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Amazing. And it was actually printed by the BBC.

H/t A Double-Lizzle AH.

I think I've got to avoid repeated mentions of his name. I think Google ads is seeing all these references to the A-Man and thinks this site is some kind of lefty or pro-Islamist site... that might be why there are so many Bush-bashing ads here.

Posted by: Ace at 09:23 AM | Comments (5)
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All connected with a brawl in a London nightclub involving a the daughter of a diamond heiress who was once dating her ex-fiance, also named "Paris," and jjkg0oe3jugj[oj0oj0ojh

Sorry, as I was typing that I suddenly had a narcoleptic seizure and collapsed upon the keyboard. I'm better now.

Paris Hilton makes me pine for the old days, when we could enjoy the dignity, modesty, and camera-shyness of Madonna.

Posted by: Ace at 09:01 AM | Comments (15)
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