Showing the Left Hand What the Right Hand is Up To

We still get those crazy Conservative Alerts: emphasis is mine

This CONSERVATIVE ALERT prepared for The Funny Farm:

ISSUE: As you probably know by now, everyone is buzzing about the possibility that at least one -- and maybe two or three -- Supreme Court justices are likely to retire in the next month, giving President Bush the opportunity to finally establish a solid conservative majority in that long-liberal institution. But what many are NOT discussing is the fact that, as things stand now, the President won't stand a chance of actually getting ANY Supreme Court nominee through the radical Left's Senate gauntlet. That's because (1) the liberal Senators have so far successfully implemented filibusters against several of President Bush's lower court nominees and haven't been stopped, and (2) the leaders of these Senate liberals are now even boldly demanding that President Bush nominate ONLY the people THEY suggest to him! Do you get it?

As things stand right now, there is NO WAY our President could get a new conservative Supreme Court justice approved. Under current Senate filibuster rules, obstructionist Democrats can continue to block his nominees. Well, now we have a chance to change all that. Senate Republican leaders are considering a bold, new approach to get the President's judicial nominees confirmed. Pundits are calling it one of the "nuclear options" for the nominating process. Recently, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) introduced a resolution amending Rule 22, which governs the filibuster. Sen. Frist's resolution seeks to gradually lower the threshold required to break a filibuster on executive nominations, starting at the current 3/5th supermajority of 60 votes on the first cloture motion, then 57 votes on the second, 54 votes on the third, and finally just 51 votes on the fourth cloture motion to end debate and force a vote on confirmation. If this change had been in effect at the beginning of the year, Miguel Estrada would have been confirmed in March, when a third cloture motion received 55 votes.

As it currently stands, we've now lost at least six cloture vote on Estrada as well as at least two vote on Priscilla Owen. As noted by Gary Bauer [address not accessible from the Funny Farm], "this is a bold step for Senator Frist and the GOP leadership. Senate Democrats will no doubt scream and holler about how Republicans are trashing the 'rights of the minority,' and Robert Byrd will pontificate endlessly about the prestige and traditions of the Senate being torn asunder." Sen. Frist deserves tremendous credit for advancing this proposal. There is no way -- after committee hearings and four subsequent cloture votes and all the debate in between -- that anyone can claim a nominee had not been sufficiently debated. This is a balanced approach that preserves the traditions of the Senate, while protecting the right of the President to make appointments and the obligation of the majority to govern.

Ironically, Frist's rules change is modeled after a plan originally proposed by leading Senate liberals, Tom Harkin of Iowa and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut! The difference is that Frist's plan only applies to executive appointments, whereas the Harkin/Lieberman proposal was sweeping and would have also applied to regular legislation. Nine currently serving Senate Democrats supported the Harkin/Lieberman change to the filibuster. They, as well as all of their colleagues, need to be overwhelmingly encouraged to support Frist's more narrowly crafted measure. And that's where YOU come in.

Together, we can make a difference NOW in the nomination process, to ensure easier approval of Pres. Bush's upcoming Supreme Court nominations. ACTION ITEM: Every single Senator -- Republican, Democrat, Independent -- needs to be *inundated* with messages from Americans across the nation, demanding that they support this bipartisan rule change so that the Senate's Constitutional duty to "advise and consent" in the judicial nomination process can finally be carried out. The radical minority of leftist Senators that have so far successfully obstructed President Bush's highly-qualifiedconservative nominees needs to be brought down, and the business of the U.S. Senate needs to be completed.

Americans need to make their voices heard... LOUDLY. And Conservatives have set up just the way for you to do that. Now you can send "Blast Faxes" to ALL 100 SENATORS -- every single one of them! -- telling them to support Sen. Frist's resolution amending Rule 22, which governs the filibuster. The cost is only $21 -- about what it would cost you in time & long distance fees to do it yourself. Go to our site below to send your 100 faxes NOW: [address not accessible from the Funny Farm]

NOTE: If all of the Senators find their offices buried under a sea of faxes in the next 2 weeks before heading home for their July 4th recess, demanding that they support Sen. Frist's resolution amending Rule 22, then we could finally see an end to the "judicial armageddon" imposed by the Daschle Democrats for the last two years, and set the stage for President Bush to see future conservative Supreme Court nominees actually pass through the Senate. WE CAN FINALLY WIN THIS!

We'll need a concerted demonstration of solidarity to force the Senate to act, though. Send your "Blast Faxes" to EVERY SINGLE U.S. SENATOR *TODAY* -- and be sure to forward this e-mail to everyone you know that wants to help make sure President Bush's judicial nominees finally receive the up-or-down vote they deserve. And as always, you can contact your Senators for FREE at [address not accessible from the Funny Farm]. Thank you!
You are receiving this communication because you requested to be e-mailed regarding issues and offers of interest to conservatives, either when you sent an e-mail to Congress, signed an online petition, sent a FedEx, faxgram or mailgram, or when you donated to a conservative cause or candidate on the Internet or through postal mail.
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Man, this bunch is really incredible. And they charge their suckers shills constituents for the privilege of talking to their elected representatives. What’s that word again?

(cough cough LyingHypocriticalWhores cough cough) Republican. Yeah, that’s it.

It’s Official

Or, at least, what passes for official here at the Funny Farm. Yar’s Revenge has completed his game of quagmire, so we must be in one. I’d link to the exact post, but Yar hasn’t updated his archives since he wrote this post (I’m guessing), and the link to the post doesn’t go anywhere but blogspot’s dead zone. So you’ll just have to go here and scroll down.

In other news, it seems the rest of the world is waking up to what us folks on the Fashionable Left Bank of Blogistan have known for some time now: the current Usurper pResident has been lying, repeatedly, to the peoples of the earth, especially his own. And, not about whether he’s keeping his Dick in his pants, but rather about whether you’ll have Social Security when you get old. And whether you deserve to pay less taxes, or whether you’re a freeloading parasite of the greatest democracy the world has ever seen. And whether we needed to run off half-cocked and kick some countries’ asses half way around the world, because a very bad man has WMD and is forty five minutes from launching them at us.

I see only one tyrant with WMD at his disposal. All kinds of them, too, in many areas. And he has almost brought the world back into the twentieth century already, after only a few short years. Luckily others are trying to pick up the slack. It’s just so disheartening when the guy who you thought was going to lead the team to victory instead turns out to be the one who doesn’t even care about the game at all.

And, finally, in local news, I have almost caught up on posting the noxious excretions pouring from the orifice of El Chupa Cabra. That’s right, campers! Tonight I will verify and check the June 9, 2003 show, and then post it to pigsqueal. And I have already picked up my few chunks for the next show, from Monday the Sixteenth. I only have about two and a half minutes of the vile one to stomach transcribe when I get home from my real job, and start my volunteer work for the evening. I love it when a plan comes together!

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Everybody is just so on to things in the heart of the left of the blogsphere these days, I feel as though I would not be adding to the debate by talking about what’s going on. I mean, in order to find out what’s going on, you need to go to Atrios, Hesiod, Kos, and This Modern World to see what’s on the left’s radar. Then it's off to Buzzflash, Alternet, Cursor, Tom Paine, and Common Dreams to get details about everything that the big guns didn’t already display for us.

Then there are a number of others who hone in on certain aspects of what is going on in today’s media coverup circus farce hype. And manage to entertain and amuse us while doing so. I would be remiss is I went any further without mentioning BartCop. He was the new habit I picked up a little over a year ago. Issue 795 to be exact. We all need to go back and keep on telling everybody about the things we see there.

BartCop got me thinking about BartFest in Vegas 2002. Then my good friend Ann Slanders was stranded only a few miles away from the best party of the year. So I helped out with a lift to the festivities. In the course of the party after the party, I was extremely privileged to talk with Willy (who runs awolbush), Brew of the Daily Brew, Baconslab, and Ann, along with a gentleman named Alan from Houston. And of course the love of my life was there for the discussion – her first with some very progressive rational viewpoints all the way around the table. The whole trip to Vegas and back stirred something in me. Something that led to the acquisition of this humble abode in the Fashionable Left Bank of Blogistan.

Since then, I have tried to find a way to explain how I look at life, the universe, and everything. Without boring myself to tears. And hopefully entertaining a few of you along the way.

And maybe pointing you to places that will regularly stimulate your noggin. The Funny Farm Links Zone to your left is a starting point for your adventures. Most of the places there are also chock full of interesting links of their own, too! Please pay them a visit for your own peace of mind. There are so many good bloggers out there right now, just in my own neighborhood here in Blogistan, that it’s hard to keep up with them. And of course I have only seen a few of the many, many blogs out there. On the left side of the equation. I can only guess at some of the rest of the debate.

Enough introspection for one more silly post onto the Net. Go and check out everybody you see in the links zone to your left. And maybe send me some suggestions for other places you think should be over there - I hope to do a major revamp of that part of the page sometime soon. Drop me a line if you feel so inclined. And come back once in a while and say hello. You never know what could be going on around here...

Breaking News

GOP Reports Record Second-Quarter Profits.

Why does parody sound like reality, and reality sound like parody?

It couldn’t be because of the Couch Monkey who’s ‘running’ the country these days, could it? I mean, we had, supposedly, the worst president in the history of the United States. For eight years! And things were okay for most people. Now, supposedly, we have the best. And everything is turning into kimchee – if it hasn’t by now. So, what’s the deal?

Could we have been lied to by this badministration? Is the Pope Catholic?

Ah well. I suppose I should just be glad to still have a job, right?

Buzzy Factoid of the Day

Uggabugga points us to the Pickasso, a guitar created at the request of Pat Metheny:



Surely Douglas Adams is laughing his ass of about this irony in another dimension - this guitar was made in 1984, and has 42 strings, the most strings of any instrument in the history of life on earth and everything. Maybe one day we'll get the design for the Photon Ajuitar, too!

I hope this toy sounds cool enough to justify all the time and effort involved in its creation.

Just thought you’d like to know...

A Golden Weekend in the Great White North

I’m now back from a nifty fifty hour odyssey in Canada’s Sun Parlor. It was good fun, and lots of fun was had by all. Of course it was Dad’s Day on Sunday. Not being a Dad myself, it kind of felt funny to see my youngest brother basking in the glory of the ultimate alpha male status symbol. Gaze upon my progeny in wonder and amazement, for I am master of all that I survey, as well as the shaper of their destinies. Very biblical stuff – and somewhat unfamiliar to Your Humble Narrator. So of course I did what I have for countless eons – I got away from an uncomfortable (to me alone, and of course in no way generated by any actions on the part of my brother, or my sister, or any of the younglings of either species which I was privileged to encounter over the weekend) situation, and went to somewhere much more, um, situationally friendly, to me. And then back home via the ferry that goes between Walpole Island and Algonac, Michigan. Five dollars in either currency, and a ten minute ride across the St. Clair River. Which just happened to occur this weekend while the sun and the boaters were out in force. A great way to end a great weekend.

The potential for more and varied commentary to be appearing here at the Funny Farm was also mentioned, and discussed at some length. I am happy to say that some people were interested in contributing essays and sharing their views on life, the universe, and everything.

So we shall see what goes on. The Funny Farm could move and/or adopt a few aliases over the fullness of time, if Blogger stops being French . Or Marc Perkel and Tommy Mack and Bart will see the value in bringing me along on their whirlwind ride to the top of their internet media Fact Finding Mission, which will be the crucial factor in bringing the (S)elected Clown Dunsel down in the Impeachment Trial of the New Millenium! Or we could actually elect an honest politician in an honest election. Any bets on which one will happen first?

By someone other than Bill Bennett?

What Hesiod Said