Links and Minifeatures 07 06 Thusday

Calderon wins Mexican presidential race By about 250,000 out of 41 million votes cast. Just half a percent, and both candidates won about 35% of the vote. Mexico has no electoral college. His opponent, Obrador, is vowing to fight it in the courts. He wants his supporters to demonstrate, and is blaming fraud, which is likely true to a certain extent, if in both directions. ("What am I supposed to do, accuse him of cheating better than me in front of the others?") Obrador is vowing to fight in court. Let's hope the battles stop there.



Don Surber found an article where the Mexicans are basically saying they would not be supportive of unsportsmanlike conduct.

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If at first you get people mad, Keep trying and maybe they'll get mad anough to smack you down like the self-important nincompoop you are.

"Our military will continue with missile launch drills in the future as part of efforts to strengthen self-defense deterrent," said the statement, carried in state-run media. "If anyone intends to dispute or add pressure about this, we will have to take stronger physical actions in other forms."

What are you going to do, starve in their vicinity?



More:

U.S. officials: Second long-range missile test unlikely

The long-range missile, the Taepodong-2, which some fear is capable of hitting the western United States, failed almost immediately after launch, said a senior U.S. official with direct knowledge of the intelligence on the testing.



It spun out of control seconds after it was launched and the North Koreans never had operational control of the missile, the official said. It failed so quickly, the official added, that the United States was never able to ascertain in what direction it was headed.

Okay, this is good news in context, but who spilled the beans and why does he (or she) still have a security clearance and why isn't he (or she) in jail?



Belmont Club is noting that even the hardcore european critics of missile defense are getting interested.



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As if it weren't already obvious: Bush: I'd rather be right than popular

"When history looks back, I'd rather be judged as solving problems and being correct, rather than being popular," Bush said.



"The president that chases the opinion poll is the president that will have failed policy," Bush said in an exclusive joint interview along with his wife, Laura, at the White House.

I can hear his predecessor saying "D'Oh!" from here.



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Lieberman to Opponent: 'I'm Not Bush'



Joe Lieberman is a pretty leftwing kind of guy, if you look at his overall voting record. But he's also a decent human being and looking out for the best interests of the United States, and he's willing to to vote with the political opposition to those ends, so the NutRoots want him purged, a la Trotsky.



I don't know why I suddenly wanted to filk this song:

One purge over the line, Sweet Stalin,

One purge over the line

Sittin' out east in a gulag baby,

one purge over the line

Scrappleface, as usual, has me beat.



LGF has the video.



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If you ever wondered why most of the movies made are a waste of your time, here's your answer: Hollywood's Hottest Investments



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Beastly Colors: Mammoth Blondes and Really Hairy Brunettes Blonde Mammoths??



I'd say something snarky about "THAT explains extinction!" except that then the blondes of the world would...



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Age of the Sierra Nevada revealed At least 40 million. The results are indirect circumstantial information, but we're not talking criminal convictions here, so enough circumstantial evidence becomes convincing.





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Sometimes the obvious needs to be said: How Eisenhower solved illegal border crossings from Mexico



Now, blaming Bush for thirty-odd years of what came before his term, as the article does, is simply unreasonable. But the article illustrates that the problem is solvable, if only someone spends the political capital.

Edwards says: "When we start enforcing the law, these various businesses are, on their own, going to replace their [illegal] workforce with a legal workforce."



While Congress debates building a fence on the border, these veterans say other actions should have higher priority.



1. End the current practice of taking captured Mexican aliens to the border and releasing them. Instead, deport them deep into Mexico, where return to the US would be more costly.



2. Crack down hard on employers who hire illegals. Without jobs, the aliens won't come.



3. End "catch and release" for non-Mexican aliens. It is common for illegal migrants not from Mexico to be set free after their arrest if they promise to appear later before a judge. Few show up.

Well, duh!



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Read it: neo-neocon on The Pied Pipers of Palestine. Old news to me. But every once in a while one should be reminded exactly how sick the enemies of civilization are.



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Big Lizards has some questions about Townhall.com website amalgamation.



I hope the day is not fast coming where it's a choice of which major amalgamation we join, and if we don't, there's zero chance of getting traffic from anyone. First Pajamas Media, now Townhall. If anyone hasn't noticed the Pajamas Media brethren becoming far less willing to link outside their group, you haven't been paying attention. Now it appears Townhall.com is pulling the same sort of nonsense. Okay, that's their right - but where do they get the new writers, and how do they determine what's good?



Of course, the jury is still out on whether the business model will work. But one thing every business model needs is prospecting for new products, and being willing to look wherever it takes to find them. I just don't see it happening with current amalgamation groups.



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Armies of Liberation notes than a journalist has been killed for an anti-regime article, and the killers cannot be aprehended because (wait for it!) they're being sheltered by the powerful.



Reading Jane's site gives me a keen appreciation for what democracy advocates (and accountability and transparency advocates) go through anywhere else other than the United States.



They may call him Chimpy McHitlerburton, but no matter how many opposition articles are written criticizing his administration, I've never heard of any retaliation on the part of the administration part on any level beyond verbal lamentation. Not credibly, anyway. Most of us do not understand how incredibly good we have it.



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Captain's Quarters continues to do yeoman's work on reporting on the Iraqi WMD discoveries.





Chemical Projects in 2003



Anthrax and Saddam



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Volokh Conspiracy has a rather neat article about housing discrimination and restrictive covenants. Restrictive covenants are where property cannot be sold to a given ethnicity, in this case, "yankees" (people from above the Mason-Dixon Line).



These are actually fairly common, almost more common than not, with properties that are old enough. The covenants still run with the land, but are unenforceable. The subsequent owners bought under the covenant, and so it becomes part of the consideration, and as such, cannot be removed without potentially risking the property. But they cannot be enforced either - the attempt runs afoul of more federal and state laws than I can name. But if those laws were ever removed, the covenants would once again be in force. This would have some interesting effects in law, as most of them here in San Diego are in areas with large amounts of minorities.



Now what they should do is pass a law removing restrictive covenants as may currently run with the land. That way, if bigots of whatever ethnicity ever did manage to get ahold of the government, they wouldn't have such ready made lever in the case of a large number of properties being already restricted. At a minimum, it would force them to start from square one. Besides, this removes a little more of the stain of racism, at no cost to anybody.







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Warren Buffet, you missed out. Here's the charity you should have donated your $37 billion to, at least in my unworthy opinion: Tau Zero Foundation