June 09, 2009
— Gabriel Malor How about a moron challenge? Here's the law:
“The left turn shall be made to the left of the center of the intersection and so as to leave the intersection or other location in the extreme left-hand lane lawfully available to traffic moving in the same direction as such vehicle on the roadway being entered.”
So what does that mean and is it clear enough that a driver who violates it can lawfully be ticketed? No peeking, no Googling (honor code, people!) and I'll post the answer a little later.
Later: Answer is below the fold. more...
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06:44 AM
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— DrewM Turns out a crazy dictator with nuclear weapons might threaten to use them for less than peaceful purposes after all.
Pyongyang raised tensions a notch by reviving its rhetoric in a commentary in the state-run Minju Joson newspaper Tuesday."Our nuclear deterrent will be a strong defensive means ... as well as a merciless offensive means to deal a just retaliatory strike to those who touch the country's dignity and sovereignty even a bit," said the commentary, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
It appeared to be the first time that North Korea referred to its nuclear arsenal as "offensive" in nature. Pyongyang has long claimed that its nuclear weapons program is a deterrent and only for self-defense against what it calls U.S. attempts to invade it.
The tough talk came as South Korea and the U.S. lead an effort at the U.N. Security Council to have the North punished for its nuclear test with tough sanctions.
And just in case you thought they were kidding, don't forget there were reports last week of another North Korean long range missile being prepared for launch.
Obviously, this is the perfect time to cut funding for, er, missile defense.
The North Koreans also have two American reporters in jail at the moment. Some might consider them insurance of a sort.
You'd think the people who are so indifferent (at best) to Iran acquiring nukes would realize just how dangerous this is. You can make the argument that Iran won't use the nukes or give them away for use (though that's a dangerous bet and a stupid one in my opinion) but as North Korea is showing us, you don't have to use nukes to get your money's worth out of them. Aside from making you virtually attack proof, you can saber rattle when ever you want and you are guaranteed attention, at the least.
Imagine what fun the Iranians will have with world oil prices and the balance of power in the Mideast just with a press release. A press release backed by nuclear weapons.
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06:32 AM
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— Gabriel Malor Hans A. von Spakovsky writes a stellar op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today about the new course set by Obama's DOJ when it comes to voting rights. He starts with the New Black Panther voter intimidation case we wrote about here at the HQ a few weeks ago:
Justice won the suit by default when the Black Panthers and three individual defendants didn't show up in court to deny the allegations. But instead of following through and getting an injunction to prevent this behavior in future elections, the department, now under Mr. Holder, dismissed the lawsuit against all but one of the defendants (the nightstick holder). Even then, Justice requested only a watered-down penalty: an injunction to prevent him from carrying a weapon in a polling place. But only in Philadelphia and only until 2012!
He then moves to AG Holder's DOJ abuse of the Voting Rights Act, again for partisan purposes:
Justice recently stopped Georgia from implementing a key provision of the Help America Vote Act. Passed in 2002, the act requires states to verify the accuracy of information voters provide on their registration forms by comparing it with state driver's license and Social Security records -- a sensible requirement. With input from Justice Department lawyers in 2008, Georgia implemented this verification process, including checking the citizenship status of applicants.Has this verification process depressed minority voter turnout, as some claim? Hardly. There has been a 140% increase in Hispanic turnout and a 42% increase in black turnout since the 2004 election.
But Georgia is still covered under the outdated Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires the state to submit any "change" in voting to the Justice Department for preclearance to assure it is not "discriminatory." On May 29, the department vetoed the state's verification program based on the spurious claim that it would have a "disparate" impact on minority voters -- particularly Asians and Hispanics, who are supposedly "twice as likely to appear on the list" of potential noncitizens than whites. Never mind that only 35% of Hispanics and 58% of Asians in Georgia are citizens. Or that not one eligible individual has come forward to claim this program prevented him from voting in the November election.
Read the whole thing.
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06:12 AM
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— Gabriel Malor
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04:15 AM
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June 08, 2009
— Open Blog With FatherÂ’s Day fast approaching, donÂ’t forget to visit the overnight open thread online gift shop on your way out tonight and pick up some overnight gear. Once we actually create some that is. Meanwhile, hereÂ’s some alternate ideas for yaÂ’:
Item #1: This really needs no explanation (but feel free to add one anyway): The Death Star Grill. Of course any true Jedi would just levitate that porterhouse and grill it with their mind but we know youÂ’re just not all that.
Item #2: So dear olÂ’ DadÂ’s already got himself a fancy Death Star grill, no? Well, why not wander over to Cracked and peruse their selection of 7 Safety Products for the Incredibly Paranoid. Personally, I think that title is overly harsh and judgemental. In fact, I canÂ’t really see any reason for not owning all of these items which exude an aura of awesomeness and not paranoia. Well, that is except for maybe #4. ItÂ’s safe to say (I hope) that none of us of the male species should really have any fear of this thing since weÂ’d never take the kind of action that itÂ’s meant toÂ…well, not prevent, butÂ…Anyway, the point is, this is the sort of thing that haunts our nightmares and makes us curl up into a fetal position, sobbing uncontrollably.
Item #3: So rather than that, letÂ’s think about more pleasant things such as, say Auto-Erotic AsphyxiaÂ’s Deadly Thrill. ABC News (Health Division) tells us as much, and maybe even a little bit more, than we need to know about this sexual practice following last weekÂ’s death of David Carradine. No point really in quoting any of the article here except for maybe this:
”Stone statues dating back to 1,000 AD suggest it was known to the ancient Mayans in Mexico. The Marquis de Sade, whose name was given to the practice of sado-masochism, described it in his 1791 novel, "Justine."”
Given how hard stone-carving is in the first place, there were Mayan sculptors who actually spent time carving statues of this activity? No offense, but that almost seems like the equivalent of a modern-day sculptor carving out a statue of, say, a blog commenter, particularly at this place. IÂ’m sure the Mayan sculptors had a tough time with the details, such as the ligature and so forth, but how would a modern-day sculptor accurately represent in stone such things as a half-eaten bag of Cheetos (much less the powdered cheese residue on the fingers and keyboard), the various stains and bodily fluids on the clothes (or lack thereof...clothes, that is), the three-day facial hair growth (and thatÂ’s just among the wymyn here), and the permanently bloodshot eyes (itÂ’s gottaÂ’ be a bitch to carve out all those little blood vessels.)
But who am I to tell people how to spend their time (by which I mean you are instructed to spend every waking moment at your computer reading and commenting here).
Tonight’s overnight thread is sponsored by The Vice President of the United States of America.”
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06:12 PM
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— DrewM 'Cause you can never have enough 'cuda.
Talk amongst yourselves.
In case you missed it or don't want to wait, the video is below the fold. more...
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04:00 PM
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— Ace There's a lot of badwill about GM and Chrysler. It's going to get worse.
Most people support unions up until the point the unions start reaching into our pockets to subsidize them.
Via PetiteDov. more...
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03:51 PM
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— Russ from Winterset As featured at Instapundit. Rifles with "smart" bullets that can chase down their targets and blow them up. Blows 'em up REAL GOOD. Allegedly*.
When contacted about this story, Gene Simmons replied "Not only did I nail 10,000 women during my career, but I was out there playing with cutting edge technology 25 years before the rest of those pointy-headed geeks even figured out how to make it work outside their wildest fantasies."
* (I'm torn. Yeah, I love technology as much as the next geek does; however, "Murphy's Law" would dictate that this ammunition will either
A.) prove to be just more "magic beans", like cold fusion in a jar, interactive holographic technology & realistic sex robots.
B.) be extremely susceptible to environmental conditions and require that our soldiers sally forth on their missions from "clean rooms".
C.) be so expensive as to make it an impractical wonder-weapon that just barely outperforms a $1 per pop 173 grain full metal jacket 7.62x51 sniper round.
or
D.) become self-aware immediately after going on line and conspire to kill all humanity and take its place as the dominant life form on the planet.
I'll stick with dumb bullets and smart shooters, thankyouverymuch.)
Posted by: Russ from Winterset at
03:34 PM
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— Ace Actually, kind of funny.
Also, this uncaptioned picture on Drudge:
Michelle Obama must be angry at herself for always upstaging former top international model Carla Bruni. As the media has told us she does.
Thanks to Kurt.
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01:11 PM
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— DrewM In November NY Democrats took control of the state Senate for the first time in 30 years. 6 months in to the session, they may have lost it. Two Democrats have switched sides and now the Republicans have 32-30 majority.
"An historic change in leadership is taking place at this moment and a new bipartisan, coalition is being established that is bringing real reform to the Senate RIGHT NOW," according to a news advisory sent out by the GOP.The Associated Press reported that two Democrats -- Hiram Monserrate of Queens and Pedro Espada, Jr. of the Bronx -- are poised to announce that they have decided to caucus with the GOP out of anger at Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith.
The Democrats had trouble organizing the Senate in January as 3 Democrats flirted with the idea of caucusing with Republicans. Same sex marriage was a major part of the battle then. There seemed to be agreement that same sex marriage wouldnÂ’t come up and the Democrats were able to take control. However, as Gov. PattersonÂ’s numbers tanked (heÂ’s polling lower than Client No.9), he tacked left and decided to go for it.
That may not have been the main motivation however as only one of the two involved in todayÂ’s move was part of the hold up in January.
Right now, the new “Republicans” are making noise about government reform and it looks like billionaire Tom Golisano (who has run for Governor before and says he’s leaving NY for Florida over high taxes) is some how involved.
The Democrats meanwhile, shut off the lights and pulled the plug on the TV feed on the way out. They say they are still in charge and will go to court if necessary.
I'm looking forward to Rudy running for Governor next year. He might announce soon to capitalize on the chaos or he may wait. If he goes now Andrew Cuomo will likely jump in and that might help the Democrats rally together. The election isn't until '10, so there's no rush.
The problem for Cuomo is ran against Carl McCall in 2002. McCall was the first black elected statewide (he was Comptroller) and the first serious black candidate for Governor. People were not thrilled with Andrew. I donÂ’t think he wants to be the guy who keeps running against black Democrats. Especially if at the end of that road is an ass kicking from Rudy.
Either way the Democrats are about as fucked as you can be in a state like NY.
Not Great: One of the new Republicans, Hiram Monserrate, is under indictment for assault on his girlfriend.
Sen. Martin Golden, a Brooklyn Republican, said Monserrate should resign -and he blasted Democratic leaders for continuing to support Monserrate."If we're going to protect people that would abuse women and abuse any body in this fashion, there is something wrong with that," he said.
I'd love to hear Senator Golden's new tune.
Extra Awesome! The second new Republican has some campaign finance violations to deal with.
As someone once said, politics makes for strange bedfellows.
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12:53 PM
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