“As Americans become even modestly wealthier their affinity for Democrats apparently falls off. With middle income voters, it is Democrats — the self-described party of the middle class — who are running far behind Republicans, the oft-described party of the rich.”

In the words of Nelson Muntz: Haa Haa .

“This month’s issue of Blueprint, a magazine published by the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, has several articles looking at statistics similar to Third Way’s income data, such as Mr. Kerry’s losing married parents of young children by 19 percentage points, taking 40 percent of the group compared with Mr. Bush’s 59 percent. Those parents made up 28 percent of the electorate. “

Anyone catch the continued abuse of justice, due process, and well common sense in Washington? Christine Gregoire who “won” the election for governor after multiple recoutns and by only a handful of votes won a key course decision that likely means she will serve her term as an illegitimate governor. Its a shame, and I doubt Rossi throws his hat in against Cantwin(well).

Rossi ran an impressive campaign that could be a model for light-medium blue state Republicans. He hit hard on the bad economic shape the state is in and how government largess, intrusion, taxes, etc are responsible. ::Hint hint, GOP Challengers to Ed Rendell should go hire Rossi’s campaign manager::. He won the election and had it stolen from him in King County (where Seattle is).

Sound Politics has the best coverage if you want to go catch up on a true American travesty. The one serious upside is that this will likely have medium-long term effects on the Washington state political scene. Rossi consistently is seen by 60%+ of the population as the “legitimate” Governor. Stealing elections in broad daylight is risky, let’s just hope the Washington Dems catch the rage of the voter in ‘06, though I doubt it.

This liberal mantra about Thomas being an idiot is so amusing and gets even more so when we get a chance to read his opinions that are like manna from heaven. He sticks it to Scalia on this one, siding with the proper federalist view that the Federal government has no business regulating the growth/sale/use of marijuana in states.

Now, I am not for legalization at all, but even those of us who are against this incessant banging of the legalization drum should cheer Thomas. States have the right to decide what is legal on the issue of drugs. If a state wants to have an influx of pot-smoking hippies, hey that’s their perogative. I am very disappointed in Scalia’s ends justify the means approach. Chief Justice Thomas!!! At least he understands federalism.

H/T: The Agitator

Right near the top would have to be liberals who claim to be unable to sleep because of the unholy trinity of Dick Cheney/Tom Delay/Karl Rove (second section). Jim Jeffords tried to claim the same thing, he said it made him leave the GOP.

Perhaps it’s just their guilty conscience keeping them up?

Rush Limbaugh now has a podcast (members only, the podcast, not the link). I might consider signing up just for his content just so I can download that MP3 and listen in China (they don’t carry Rush in Beijing wouldn’t you know). Here is Rush talking about how amazing the response has been.

I no longer feel bad about hogging the blog (great turn of phrase that). Y’all should be posting more stuff, it’s almost been a whole freakin day now and Andrew, Alex (with his timely update) and me have been holdin down the fort.

Sorry for the post-glut, but when you see good stuff ya gotta share it. Now I normally don’t like David Limbaugh’s stuff, not because I disagree with him per say, but because I find his prose a tad dry. This time however I didn’t find my mind wondering as I read his article about the Amnesty International charge that Gitmo is a “gulag” and how different mindsets have reacted to the charge. Again sorry for flooding the blog with just my perspective but this is good stuff that I think anyone of us would post.

I wrote about the Newsweek American-flag-in-a-trashcan scandal last month here. Well I somehow missed it, but on June 2nd Larry Elder wrote an excellent article that chronicles more of the disparity between the “domestic” and “international” versions of Newsweek. This is well worth a read and another reason why Larry Elder should be checked regularly because you’ll miss great stuff like this.

Like Thomas Sowell? I do, he is probably one of the most clear-thinking men alive today. When I read him I can feel the ideas he writes about hardening in my head. Going from soft fuzzy peat, to coal, and then into crystal-clear diamonds: hard, pure and far more valuable than what they were before. Read this article, one of many floating around these days, that contrasts society’s attitude regarding Iraq II vs. WWII. Then tell me that Sowell isn’t one of the best, yet ignored, thinkers of this age.

With all of the (much deserved) criticism of the Senate recently, there is one man who deserves especial mention. Senator John Kyl (R-Arizona) has released a very interesting policy paper on the “what ifs” surrounding a possible North Korean nuke test. I wasn’t able to post this last week when I ought to have, but here is a senator who is doing his job. I know, I know crazy isn’t it?

It is called “Anticipating a North Korean Nuclear Test: What’s to Be Done to Avert a Further Crisis.” An arresting title, but read the report (it’s short and sweet) and you’ll find some lucid thinking that one normally doesn’t find on capital hill. This is top notch stuff, something you would expect to find in NRO and not a GOP policy paper. Senator Kyl knows his stuff, at least on foreign policy. Another fascinating thing the report reveals is how poorly South Korea (its current leadership anyway) is viewed by the GOP.

Any nuclear test by North Korea would raise the obvious question: Why did the PRC let it happen? The answer would be either because it couldn’t stop North Korea or because it wouldn’t stop North Korea. Either answer would result in a strain in relations between Washington and Beijing. As U.S. pressure for a stern response mounted, Chinese reluctance would lead U.S. policymakers to assess that Beijing did not share America’s concerns and was not a willing partner in developing a constructive security dialogue in Asia. A North Korea nuclear test would show the world that the PRC was not the constructive, influential, emerging global (or even regional) power that it has implied itself to be.

Not the rarified language of the Senate is it?

Hat-tip: The Marmot’s Hole a great blog on Korea.

Hilarious, must read.

The “Chinese Century” is already over, political observers said yesterday. It ended about 95 years before it was supposed to a modern record for a country’s unrealized hegemony.
“It actually ended a couple weeks ago,” said Martin Vanderhorst, head of Meaningless Monikers, Inc. “We didn’t get around to notifying Chinese authorities until today. They’re pretty peeved, to say the least.”

Hat-tip: Simon World

Chen Yonglin, a mid-level Chinese diplomat recently attempted to defect to Australia. He has been denied asylum. Apparently he wasn’t even allowed to speak to anyone of importance within the Australian government, in addition the claim was rejected within 24 hours.

Chen is understandably confused and hurt:

I didn’t think it would happen like this,” Chen said in an interview published in Monday’s edition of The Sydney Morning Herald.

“Australia is a democratic country. I thought they would help me. My family is desperate. We are helpless. We need to be in a safe place.”

The Chinese ambassador to Australia, Fu Ying stated that Chen wasn’t in any danger:

“I don’t think there is any reason China would punish him,” she said. “There are laws which would guarantee his freedom.”

I can assure you that this guy is as dead as the dinner you had last night. There is no rule of law in China, especially not for traitors like Chen. I hope he isn’t deported from down under and if he is I hope his family remains safe, because you can be sure that he won’t be. I laughed out loud when I read the above quote. Think of it as dark humor.

It is a pity that Australia has refused to help this fellow because the moment he crossed the Rubicon so to speak they became responsible for keeping him alive. He gambled and lost that human rights mean more to Australia than a whole helluva a lot of mine/oil/timber contracts.

Oh well, lesson learned I guess. America remains your best bet if you are looking to defect, ask the Cubans.

UPDATE:
It would appear that Mr. Chen’s claims of 1,000 Chinese spies in Australia is supported by more than just his word. I can’t read this article because it has been blocked for obvious reasons here in Beijing, but it would appear it is at least helpful to Mr. Chen’s cause.

UPDATE:
My bad, I foolishly libeled China (though they deserved it) without thinking of other reasons for the article not being able to load. The way in which it failed to load made me think it was blocked, but I was wrong. So sorry China, I was wrong this time, but you are still anti-freedom. By the way, the article does confirm that Chen holds valuable information. Perhaps he should flee to the US embassy, we can always use fresh intel.

UPDATE:
Peking Duck has more on this story. It gets worse, the Aussies knew he was trying to defect and warned the Chinese ahead of time, but all to no avail. The man has repeatedly stated that he is in danger yet his claim for asylum was categorically rejected. Why? No one knows at this point.

UPDATE: Alarming News has more:

By the by, diplomats generally lead easy lives. Can you imagine how bad China must be for regular people if their diplomats are making a run for it? This reminds me of the story of the rumor that swept Havana that said that Mexico was going to be taking in refugees. People swarmed the Mexican embassy in Havana, climbing the walls and breaking through the gates.

- Alex

UPDATE:
I didn’t do that last update BTW and I don’t know who did. Though I am guessing Mark because Alarming News was the source. This has become a multi-blogger post here, so enjoy. Peking Duck picked up on my comments and made an excellent post here. Also Gordon over at the The Horses Mouth (another good China blog) has some good commentary on Chinese espionage.

Keep Hope Alive!