"The fact that theyÂ’re debating whether legislators can be forced to go on the record with their votes tells you everything you need to know about the state of transparency and entrenched power in SC."

And since everyone thinks I'm a stealth liberal now, let me say that Knotts' curious argument -- that it's unconstitutional to require legislators to record their votes and report them to the public -- is the sort of stupidity I hear too often from partisans on both sides, as a stupid, dishonest, and ghastly "Because I said so" non-argument of last resort.

If you can't argue the merits of your position, just make some daffy claim your hands are tied because to do otherwise would be unconstitutional, so you're not defending some evil status quo, but rather nobly contending for some abstract constitutional principle which just, sadly enough (sniff sniff), demands an evil result in the instant case.

But you don't want that evil resort, of course. Heavens no-- it's just this greater constitutional principle demands it. Sacred Honor, etc.

This isn't to say that all such arguments are suspect; just that some just reflexively play the Constitution Card at the drop of the hat because they don't have anything else.

Look at liberals and the Arizona border enforcement law. Liberals cannot argue the merits of their position -- Open Borders Now, Open Borders Forever! is unpopular as hell -- so they simply claim that the Constitution requires open borders (well, they argue that the Constitution forbids any and all efforts to close the borders, hence, in effect, the Constitution, and not crass identity-group politics, requires Open Borders, as it permits of no other option).

They evade arguing their actual position-- both meritless and unpopular -- by derailing the argument into some nonsensical twaddle about James Madison encoding open borders into the Constitution in invisible ink, employing Freemason symbology.

There are real constitutionalist arguments and there are specious ones. Obviously, Knotts is making a specious argument -- this nation was founded in a conception of legislators' right to keep their votes secret from the public that elected them? Really? Which Federalist Paper argued for a new Right of Kings? -- and it doesn't surprise me that this Mensa Chapter President again tars the movement by making constitutionalism seem like the Last Refuge of the Scoundrel.

But I often find the whole argument usually debased in the first place, where "The Constitution says so" is used too frequently as a tarted-up way to say "Because I said so."

But seriously -- what the hell is going on in South Carolina? This state needs a serious reform movement, stat.

Posted by: Ace at 03:45 PM | Comments (75)
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No.

No.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 03:05 PM | Comments (123)
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FFFFFfuuuuuuuuuu......

Posted by: Monty at 02:26 PM | Comments (144)
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Daylight Savings Time? Something the Sikhs made up so they could sell us more schmattas on our way home from work.

(That's either a Dave in Texas joke or a Monty joke.)

Posted by: Ace at 02:07 PM | Comments (175)
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Ohmygod.

You know what? I'm really starting to understand how someone could be a liberal. If this is Republicanism... Oh my God.

It's not just the stupidity, small-mindedness, and racism. It's the utter shamelessness about this. This guy is stupid -- dumb as a stump -- and racist, but he's proud of that; that just proves he's "authentic" and "represents his constituents well."

This is really a lot more eye-opening that expected... or wanted.

Pictured-- Front: State Senator Jackie Knotts;
Rear: A Unidentified Figure of Wild Eyes and Savage Menace

“She’s a f#!king raghead,” Knotts said.

He later clarified his statement. He did not mean to use the F-word.

Thank God for a small gesture towards social acceptability.

Knotts says he believed Haley has been set up by a network of Sikhs and was programmed to run for governor of South Carolina by outside influences in foreign countries. He claims she is hiding her religion and he wants the voters to know about it.

“We got a raghead in Washington; we don’t need one in South Carolina,” Knotts said more than once. “She’s a raghead that’s ashamed of her religion trying to hide it behind being Methodist for political reasons.”

...

Knotts, a former boxer and cop from West Columbia, said he wasnÂ’t worried about being called a racist for the remarks he made. He says he was elected to the Senate to represent his constituents which he says he does well. He says many of his supporters are black.

Some of his best friends, too. Like that colored fella who pumps gas at the Circle-K. What's his name? Oh, right, everyone calls him "Blackie."

“This is Jakie Knotts trying to let the people know,” he said...

What is this 3rd person thing?

He says heÂ’s called her a raghead before.

Knotts is backing Republican Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer for governor.

Of course.

....

After the broadcast, Knotts stood in a corner on the deck of the bar and defended his remarks.

“This isn’t the first time I’ve said it,” Knotts said. “I’m not on a crusade to downgrade her, but if someone asks me I’ll tell ‘em. And look here, someone wants to vote for her knowing the truth, vote for her.”

Knotts said that South Carolina is a religious community.

“We need a good Christian to be our governor,” he said. “She’s hiding her religion. She ought to be proud of it. I’m proud of my god.”

Ohmygod.

Knotts says he believes HaleyÂ’s father has been sending letters to India saying that Haley is the first Sikh running for high office in America.

And? Oh right, she is secretly a Sikh. Or a Thuggee. Or a hashashim. One of those dark-complexioned bad guys who wear fezzes and poison-powder skull rings.

He says her father walks around Lexington wearing a turban.

Well there you go.

Nikki Haley's father (artist's conception);
Life motto? "Soon Kali Mal will rule de world!"

“We’re at war over there,” Knotts said.

Asked to clarify, he said he did not mean the United States was at war with India, but was at war with “foreign countries.”

He's such a super-patriotic American he can't even be bothered to learn which countries we're at war in and which enemies we're at war against. It's just all kind of a brownish muddle to him. And that's enough knowledge of the war for Jackie Knotts.

I just heard he's a strict constructionist and therefore favors a formal Declaration of War Against Those People (You Know, Those People).

All this stupidity and nastiness, however, aren't something you should be worried about, because it was all intended "in jest."

The trouble is, some people do in fact think that calling someone a "raghead" is a real knee-slapper. This is not the defense they imagine it to be.

“My ‘raghead’ comments about Obama and Haley were intended in jest,” Knotts said in a statement. “Bear in mind that this is a freewheeling, anything-goes Internet radio show that is broadcast from a pub. It’s like local political version of Saturday Night Live."

Lenny Briscoe just emailed me to say, "Yeah, I'm sure it's a regular Algonquin Club Round Table."

More at Hot Air, including a link to Jenny Sanford's wishful cry that "We're better than this."

This Just In... I just got an email from Adolf Hitler. He's defending Mein Kampf as misunderstood -- "I mean, it was a freewheeling, anything-goes sort of thing... the Teutonic version of Saturday Night Live."

Another Email: This from Jackie Knotts. He writes:

"This picture depicts one of the earliest known sketches of The Groundlings."

Today's Ku Klux Klan

Faith.

Heritage.

Improv.

Posted by: Ace at 01:10 PM | Comments (351)
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He didn't say that, exactly; Bush said something like that about terrorism in Israel.

But -- his actions say that.

I've never seen a guy golf so much during a crisis -- or, as Obama calls a crisis, "Mental Health Hooky Month."

This should go viral, and probably will.

The entire Gulf Coast is threatened by a lethal oil slick. I guess that calls for a seven-iron.

I think the nuclear football must now be disguised as a nuclear seven-iron. I can think of few other reasons why that club should never leave his hand.

Based on a photo essay at PolitiPage, via Hot Air.

Posted by: Ace at 12:17 PM | Comments (205)
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Wow, sacred honor seems to be a very elastic term among the South Carolina political class, justifying every selfish impulse one has.

I think I'm moving there. Sacred Honor or bust!

Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer challenged GOP gubernatorial opponent Nikki Haley today to take a lie-detector test to prove that she didn't have an affair, as his former campaign consultant claimed.

...

"Nobody has been a better friend of transparency than Andre Bauer," Bauer said in a news release.

Well, his motives certainly are transparent. I'll give him that.

"Ms. Haley, on the other hand, speaks of transparency, but apparently only for other people, not for herself. ... Now, we learn that she is refusing to release phone and text messages which could clear up some of the unfortunate recent allegations."

Bauer also said Haley is "not the person she is pretending to be."

Compare to this statement he made in the last debate, that this campaign should be "on the issues" and that he has nothing to do with Larry "Crusher of Ass" Marchant's own sacred-honor-disclosures.

Meanwhile, Haley says she'll resign if she's proven to have lied.

"If something were to come out that validates the claims against you in terms of stepping out on your husband, on your marriage," Cohen asked, "would you resign as governor?"

"Yes," Haley said.

I'm no longer sure of the point of all this, given what I now know about South Carolina politics. If Haley is proven to have cheated on her husband with a wife-beater and a wife-ignorer, and to have lied vigorously about that, can we not say that Sacred Honor compelled her to do so?

Thanks to Tobias Took.

Posted by: Ace at 11:52 AM | Comments (156)
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Ugly on so many levels.

Swiped from Jim Treacher's Daily Trawler blog.

As Allah points out, Helen is essentially taking the Ahmadinejad line on Jews in the Mideast.

Speaking of Israel, David Ignatius writing in the Washington Post sums up Obama's approach to the Mideast.

Beyond crisis management, administration officials have begun to urge Israel to use this incident to untangle the Gaza mess. U.S. officials hope Israel will take action on its own, before international condemnation grows any louder or another relief convoy tests the blockade. "The humanitarian aperture is not wide enough," argues the U.S. official. "We need to convince the Israelis that not everything can be made into a weapon."

The Obama team recognizes that Israel will act in its interests, but it wants Jerusalem to consider U.S. interests, as well. The administration has communicated at a senior level its fear that the Israelis sometimes "care about their equities, but not about ours."

This cautionary message -- that Israel must act as a more reliable and responsible partner -- may be the most important one conveyed this week.

...The trickiest problem in the first hours of the crisis was dealing with Turkey, whose leaders treated the commando raid as a pirate attack on Turkish citizens. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Gen. Jim Jones, the national security adviser, met with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. Then came a lengthy phone call between President Obama and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Obama told Erdogan that "we need to find a solution" for the Gaza humanitarian problem, according to a U.S. official. Erdogan is said to have agreed with the president that a good relationship between Israel and Turkey was crucial for regional stability -- and that Turkey didn't want to see any further degradation.

This is so typical of the wishful thinking/blame Israel worldview. Israel is the only party to have to modify its behavior and then everything will be alright.

Well, what about Turkey? Why are they suddenly so interested in Gaza that they let this convoy head into what they knew would be a confrontation? Why not lean on them to stay the hell out of this?

We can't do that you see, Turkey is a friend and vital link between the west and the Islamic world. Mustn't upset their delicate sensibilities for fear of pushing them further towards the Islamists.

Let's be honest, it's getting to be a little late for that.

Turkey wants to be a player in the region and they are stepping up their efforts to shape events there (see their efforts to broker a uranium deal with Iran before this). That's fine, that's what nations do but let's not give them a pass while only insisting that Israel is to blame for every flare up in tension. If Turkey wants to be in the game, that means taking shots as well.

Strangely missing from the post raid reaction (well, not really) is much mention of Hamas and Iran. You want things to improve in Gaza? Go talk to Tehran in addition to Jerusalem.

Of course western observers never expect anything from Iran because they either agree with their support for Hamas or they realize there's no point in going there. Iran is immune to criticism and public opinion, Israel isn't. If you are going to grandstand and demand action, you're going to aim it where it might get some results.

The Gazans made their choices and now they have to live with the consequences. I don't see why it's up to Israel to make their bad choices pay off for them.

I understand why both sides over there pretend to not acknowledge certain realities about the conflict. For example, the Arabs don't really give a damn about the Palestinians, they just want a focal point of rage to keep their people distracted. I just wish administrations of both parties in the US didn't buy into them as well.

Posted by: DrewM at 10:52 AM | Comments (424)
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It's a Rasmussen poll, so you know it's Hitler approved.

Congressman Joe SestakÂ’s post-primary bounce appears to over, and he now trails Republican rival Pat Toomey by seven points in the U.S. Senate contest in Pennsylvania.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Pennsylvania shows Toomey with 45% support, while Sestak earns 38%. Five percent (5%) prefer another candidate in the race, and 12% are undecided.

...Nearly three-out-of-four voters in the state say they have been following news stories about the secret Obama White House job offer to Sestak in hopes that he would drop his primary challenge of Specter, and 52% say that offer is at least somewhat important in terms of how they will vote. Forty-one percent (41%) view the job offer as unimportant. This includes 29% for whom it is Very Important and 20% who say itÂ’s Not At All Important.

Toomey is playing it smart on the job offer by letting surrogates handle it while he focuses on more meat and potato issues.

I'm glad Specter was gone but I really wish he had survived long enough to let Toomey administer the finishing blow. It's the sentimentalist in me.

Posted by: DrewM at 09:08 AM | Comments (168)
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This guy's lawyers have their work cut out for them.

Attorneys for Curtis Michael Allgier are afraid the murder suspect's head-to-toe tattoos -- which include swastikas, neo-Nazi symbols and the words "Skin Head" written across his forehead -- could negatively influence a jury.

Nooooo. No, no, no.
Really?

Nobody ever notices my thoughtful eyes

They want him to cover up his ink in court somehow. I'd hazard the solution will be that heavy makeup that burn victims use.

Damn. This citizen has obviously invested lots of time, pain, and money into looking like a homicidal menace.

It's a shame that in this day and age, he must cover himself in order to accommodate a jury's typically backwards bias against people who look like malevolent goblins.

We haven't really come very far as a society, have we?
It's disappointing. I really thought we were better than that.

Tip for the makeup artist: Don't fuck up.

Thanks to skinbad.

UPDATE: Below the fold, a previous portrait of our Hero thanks to DngrMse in comments. more...

Posted by: LauraW at 08:00 AM | Comments (262)
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