Consider this an update to Ace's earlier post.

The Minnesota Supreme Court has rejected a lawsuit crucial to Sen. Norm Coleman's (R) reelection fortunes, clearing a path for the state Board of Canvassers to certify Democrat Al Franken as the state's next senator.

Mirroring its reasoning in a previous decision which rejected a Coleman suit on so-called "duplicate" ballots, the court said that Coleman's bid to include an additional 650 absentee ballots in the contested Senate race was an issue best-suited for the Board of Canvassers.

The ruling disarms Coleman of one of his last major opportunities to overcome the 225-vote lead held by Franken after the inclusion of hundreds of absentee ballots disqualified for no legal reason.

So, Franken will be declared the winner today and then it will be up to Coleman to sue or not to overturn the result of the election.

Meanwhile, the Senate meets tommorow for the first time in 111th Congress. Will they seat Franken if there are challenges before a court? Chuck Shumer says yes, John Cornyn says no.

As the man said, Worst Election Ever.

Posted by: DrewM at 09:08 AM | Comments (23)
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"MC Flow."

Think of a mixture between Tori Amos, Li'l Kim, and black hole sucking the talent out of the universe.

Posted by: Ace at 08:20 AM | Comments (95)
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His Washington Times column previews it. It's a fusion of politics and Hollywood/cultural matters, featuring posters in both. Including Congressmen and some famous names. Though, um, many of those famous names will post under a pseudonym.

Hidden amid the "dissent is patriotic" glitterati are thousands of deeply concerned artists and industry players who have mostly privately and sadly watched Hollywood reflect ideals that are not their own.

Non-left-leaning writers, producers, directors and "below the line" members of the creative community will slowly begin to tell "flyover country" that their values are shared - even in glitzy Los Angeles. In fact, to foreshadow its big message, Big Hollywood will be an invitation to aspiring conservatives to drop their political dreams for the grueling Hollywood grind.

Returning veterans of the current war, please move to the head of the line.

Big Hollywood also will offer politicians, think tank brains, pundits and sundry wonks the opportunity to show another face to the conservative movement and the Republican Party. No longer will "South Park" and Dennis Miller carry the load alone in pointing out the absurdities of the modern left.

On Day One, Congressman Thaddeus McCotter invokes the Beatles' "Dear Prudence," inviting Hollywood's "closeted" conservatives to "come out and play." Actor and raconteur Orson Bean remembers that the hopeful movies of his childhood during the Great Depression gave him and many other Americans the will and drive to succeed.

We need to discover that spirit again.

If conservatives don't figure out popular culture soon, the movement will die a deserving death. If Hollywood liberals can't learn how to play well with those with whom they disagree, Big Hollywood will have a field day at their close-minded and intolerant expense. The days of open bullying in the marketplace of ideas are nearing their end.

Consider this a warning.

Dirty Harry of Dirty Harry's place will be the top editor. Over on his site, he has a clip of Breitbart talking the venture up.

Breitbart's been a Drudge hand and set up the Huffington Post, so he knows about big-traffic sites.

I've long felt his basic point -- that liberals forever win the image/hipness battle -- is a major reason why liberalism is the default political leaning of the young. Yes, there are committed young conservatives, but the key word there is "committed." Those who don't bother to think about it go with the easy, default choice, which is liberalism.

And as most people don't think about politics all that much, that's a big slice of the pie we give away year after year.

It's probably not possible to reverse that situation. But at least putting a dent into it is crucial. We can't have millions of politically-apathetic Americans voting Democrat/liberal each cycle just because they're perceived as the "nice" party, the "hip" party, the party you vote for to show you Care and are Enlightened.

Evil needs its say, too.

Have I told you about all the advantages of Evil?

It has to be noted that the when Republicans win -- Bush, Reagan -- the party has a bit of mojo and feels a lot more like the hip, cool party to be in. Some may say that's a chicken-and-egg thing; but I think it's more culture driving politics than the other way around. People like defining themselves as good, and smart, and socially aware, and all those virtues; those who don't think about matters much will naturally gravitate to the party that gives them more of a sense of being part of the Right Crowd.

It's a stupid, ineffably superficial impulse, but peope are stupid and ineffably superficial.

Speaking of stupid and ineffably superficial -- I guess I should note that I'll be posting there occasionally too. I have to figure out what the hell to write.

Don't worry; the time won't come at the expense of this blog. I'm finally getting over a two month depression over the election and coming to terms with being in the minority.

Posted by: Ace at 07:55 AM | Comments (69)
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"Every single dubious ruling seemed to help Franken."

[T]he board has been flagrantly inconsistent. Last month, Mr. Franken's campaign charged that one Hennepin County (Minneapolis) precinct had "lost" 133 votes, since the hand recount showed fewer ballots than machine votes recorded on Election Night. Though there is no proof to this missing vote charge -- officials may have accidentally run the ballots through the machine twice on Election Night -- the Canvassing Board chose to go with the Election Night total, rather than the actual number of ballots in the recount. That decision gave Mr. Franken a gain of 46 votes.

Meanwhile, a Ramsey County precinct ended up with 177 more ballots than there were recorded votes on Election Night. In that case, the board decided to go with the extra ballots, rather than the Election Night total, even though the county is now showing more ballots than voters in the precinct. This gave Mr. Franken a net gain of 37 votes, which means he's benefited both ways from the board's inconsistency.

There's more, but that right there damns this charade. Where Franken's election night totals exceed his recount totals, they go with his election night totals. Where his recount totals exceed his election night totals, they go with the recount number.

Posted by: Ace at 07:45 AM | Comments (70)
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I wouldn't bring it up, since it's nothing we haven't heard a thousand times, but sometimes you need to shine a light on these cockroaches. If you were wondering why law students sometimes come out the ass-end of law school confused as to which way is up, I present for your ridicule: Deep Thoughts by Professor Sandy Levinson.

This may simply underscore the point that all political systems, including those we justifiably label as "democratic," contain within them aspects of "dictatorship" as well, in which decisions of life and death are made without prior approval by the demos. At least the Israeli leaders will indeed be submitting themselves to the judgment of their electorate, which is more than can be said for George W. Bush or Dick Cheney, who for 15 more days will be able to exercise whatever legal powers they possess secure in the knowledge that they will be not be accountable either to the electorate or, it appears, even the application of relevant federal statutes.

Far from continuing my standard critique of our Constitution, I confess that I see no magic solution to the problem of de-facto "dictatorial" aspects of modern government. Post-facto accountability is better than no accountability, etc., but we should always be aware of the awesome power we put in the hands of our political leaders based on little more than trust and confidence that they will use it wisely. The "rule of law" really is reduced, in important ways, to "the rule of a relatively small group of men and women" when situations are perceived as crises.

He's probably confused and distressed because he's forgotten the difference between direct democracy and representative democracy. The whole scheme, which is apparently missed by this so-called "Professor of Government", is that a small group of men and women are elected or selected to make decisions for the rest. By design, there will always be decisions of life and death made "without prior approval by the demos". The are good policy reasons for that design. Professor Levinson may want to start a short review here. He also labels the failure to get prior approval of the people an "aspect of dictatorship", which just goes to show that you can define down anything these days.

He continues the de rigeur (for the Left) Bush blaming:

If this is correct, and there is certainly no good reason to doubt it, then the responsiblity [sic] for the devastation in Gaza can be placed on our Constitution and the stupid hiatus between election and inauguration. Mr. Bush is neither gone nor forgotten, and lives are being lost as a result.

Shorter Levinson: "Stupid Constitution! How dare you wait to allow Congress to count the electors' votes before installing our next Dictator!" In case you were wondering, the electors' votes will be counted tomorrow and a winner will be declared.

Of course to any reasonable person, primary responsibility for the actions of Israelis and Gazans rests with...Israelis and Gazans, rather than a piece of parchment or a man who, to the best of our knowledge, did not order the Israelis or the Gazans to act. But what the hell do I know? Blame Bush! All the cool artards are doing it!

Finally, I think it has come time to recognize that Professor Levinson is possessed of awesome powers of extrasensory perception. How else can we explain this:

It is hard for me otherwise to understand the decisions that Israeli leaders have made, given the foreseeable failure to eliminate Hamas as a political force in Gaza.

If only he had told Israel that its one and only goal for Operation Cast Lead is to eliminate Hamas as a political force. His prediction of complete failure could have saved us all some trouble.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:25 AM | Comments (31)
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Step Two. Check to see if you're really not Jewish. Are you sure you're not even a teensy little bit Jew? Just a schmear of Jew in you? See Step One.

The jets bombed the bejeebers out of them. The ground forces invaded. They at long last suppressed the terrorists, who had conducted a long campaign of suicide bombing and planting bombs, and put an end to any notion that the terrorists and their sponsors would be granted their own state.

Many civilians were killed and wounded, yet not a single protest was made against the invasion anywhere. I am of course referring to the conquest by the army of Sri Lanka over the past few days of the last hold-out city of the Tamil independence rebels.

Kilinochchi was the last town held by the Tamil “Tiger” Rebels, considered to be a terrorist group by the United States. With it fell the last Tamil hope of setting up an independent state or even of getting autonomy inside Sri Lanka. The Tamils have their own state inside India but were not satisfied with that manifestation of “self-determination.” Kilinochchi, 579 kilometers north of Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo, was until recent months the center of political power for the rebels.

Meanwhile not a single Solidarity-with-the-Tamil-Tigers protest has been organized on a single Western campus or in a single downtown square. Mobs and “academics” have not taken to the streets to demand an end to the war of aggression against the Tamils. Leftist web sites have not proclaimed every injury of a Tamil civilian to be a Nazi-like war crime and an act of genocide.

Of course, it also helps to not be an American, either.

Thanks to Arthur.

Posted by: Ace at 07:24 AM | Comments (18)
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Good morning.

And while I'm thinking about it...

Ace of Spades HQ is once again a finalist in the Best Conservative Blog category of the annual Weblog Awards.

We (that is, Ace and the cobloggers) are pleased to be nominated and would appreciate your vote...once the polls open, which should be some time later today. You are allowed to vote once every 24 hours in each category. Polls will be open for seven days. There are, as usual, some excellent blogs in the Best Conservative Blog category and we wish them the best of luck!

Also, some friends for your consideration (these are my pretend, fakey internet friends, not necessarily Ace's or the other cobloggers):

The Anchoress is nominated in the Best Individual Blogger category.
Snapped Shot is nominated in the Best Photo Blog category.
Nice Deb is nominated in the Best Small Blog category.

If I have missed some friends-of-the-HQ, put them in the comments or 'mail me. I'll include them with tomorrow's reminder to vote.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 06:12 AM | Comments (63)
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For all the evil you didn't get to during the day.

Posted by: Ace at 08:23 PM | Comments (64)
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Stuart Smalley goes to Washington:

A state election board on Monday will announce Democrat Al Franken as the winner of the Minnesota Senate race, defeating Republican incumbant Norm Coleman, state officials told CNN Sunday.

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie told CNN the canvassing board on Monday will confirm that Franken won the race by a 225-vote margin.

It might go to the courts. Though I'd imagine Coleman realizes Republicans don't win election fights, and might just bow out.

Either way, it's over. We officially got our asses kicked.

That's 59 votes, assuming they keep Liebs with them on filibusters. Probably more, consistently, when you factor in the Maine Sisters and Spector and McCain.

Posted by: Ace at 07:29 PM | Comments (335)
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Corruption, cronyism and the Clintons? The Deuce you say!

A developer in New York state donated $100,000 to former President Bill Clinton's foundation in November 2004, around the same time that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton helped secure millions of dollars in federal assistance for the businessman's mall project.

Hillary Clinton helped enact legislation allowing the developer, Robert Congel, to use tax-exempt bonds to help finance the construction of the Destiny USA entertainment and shopping complex, an expansion of the Carousel Center in Syracuse.

She also helped secure a provision in a highway bill that set aside $5 million for Destiny USA roadway construction.

The bill with the tax-free bonds provision became law in October 2004, weeks before the donation, and the highway bill with the set-aside became law in August 2005, about nine months after the donation.

Congel and Philippe Reines, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton, both said there was no connection between his donation and her legislative work on his project's behalf. Reines said the senator had supported the expansion of Carousel mall "purely as part of her unwavering commitment to improving upstate New York's struggling economy, and nothing more."

Maybe we won't need Princess Caroline after all. Nah, Richardson might get the ax for this sort of thing but Hillary is like AIG...too big to fail.

Honestly, my guess is there isn't an elected politician in DC you couldn't find tangled up in relationships like this. I'm not saying it's right, far from it, but absent a direct quid pro quo, it's likely to be nothing more than an embarrassment (do either of the Clintons know what that means?) and a small bump on the way to Foggy Bottom.

Related: Popcorn futures reach all time high.

Posted by: DrewM at 05:33 PM | Comments (79)
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