Hey I gotta good i-deer buddy. Let’s strip the 1965 Voting Rights Act of its 30-year-old provisions helping United States Citizens who belong to locally-significant Language Minorities to better understand who & what they are Voting on.

See, making multilingual election materials available deprives You & Me of our Civil Rights because we might Notice the Furrin Language parts while we’re reading the English and, being like most real Americans very Proud of our Personal unilingualism, we’ll feel all Bothered to See that gibberish there. So, this’ll be a real good Reform, see.

Especially up here in the Northeast where we got all These People who Immigrated to America from Puerto Rico. These People are supposed to learn the Native Language of the USA before Becoming citizens here anyways, so if they don’t like English let ‘em go back to their Own country where they belong. We’ll still have more than enough Foreigners running around without the Puerto Ricans anyhow. Why, just yesterday in the grocery store there was some people speaking Roossian. Talkin’ about Me too, I just Know they were. Communist gangster terrorists I bet. Aaah this country’s goin’ to hellinaHandbasket. Whatever happened to all the good old regular Americans from Ireland and Italy?
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From The Hartford Courant ( Free Registration Required, I think) ~

WASHINGTON — When Latino voters go to Hartford’s polls this summer and fall, federal law requires that Spanish-speaking observers will be present to help them read the ballot and understand the voting procedures.

But that guarantee - now the law in seven Connecticut cities and more than 400 other areas around the country with large Hispanic populations - expires next year.

Washington lawmakers plan to begin writing an extension this week, but they could face trouble.

“I’m not favorably impressed with that provision,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. “People should come to America and be American and learn English. And they can’t do it if people live as though they’re part of a subculture.”

In contrast to which, Anglo Texan Republicans live As Though they are Not part of a subculture??? ~ the guestblogger

(more…)

A rock-band manager who caused a fire killing 100 people is sentenced to 15 years in prison, 11 years suspended. Visit CNN for the latest.

I’ve been away from the apartment since yesterday afternoon, but according to Becky, our cats have been acting very strangely for the last 8 hours or so. Normally they all get along splendidly — yeah, they have a few minor territory disputes now and then, but they cuddle with each other, groom each other, and generally hang out in close proximity to one another much more often than they fight. And when they do fight, it’s relatively playful and doesn’t last long. But this morning around 5:30 AM, Becky and Robbie were both awakened by the sound of at least two cats, maybe all three, loudly fighting with one another in the family room. Eventually Sasha retreated to the bedroom, took up a position under the bed, and growled loudly when Toby tried to walk into the room (thus keeping Becky awake for quite awhile). And they’ve all been pissy at one another ever since. Just now, I captured this video of Butter growling and hissing at Toby:

source file

Kinda creepy!

Seriously, that is very out-of-character for Butter, who is normally about as friendly and cuddly a cat as you could ask for. Sasha and Toby’s behavior is very strange, too. I really don’t know what’s gotten into them! It almost makes me wonder if they can “sense” some impending disaster, like an earthquake or something; animals are often said to have a sixth sense for that sort of thing. But, if that were the case, I doubt they’d be acting strangely for such a prolonged period of time… plus, Robbie is acting perfectly normal. So I dunno. Maybe it’s just the summer-like humidity that’s suddenly descended on South Bend… or maybe they were distraught that I didn’t come home last night because I was studying… or maybe they’re all angry at President Bush, like the whole rest of America seems to be. :)

Or maybe they’re just being typical, temperamental cats — but, as I said, this is very unusual for them.

Whatever they’re feuding about, I just hope they settle it before Wednesday, when all six of us (me, Becky, the dog and all 3 cats) have to cram into the Camry for our long drive to Arizona!

Y’all remember this sculpture of a nude Britney Spears giving birth, created as a shameless publicity stunt “pro-life” statement by a New York artist?

Well, Britney has finally spoken out about it: “I think it’s the most hysterical thing I’ve ever seen in my life. My assistant and I were totally dumbfounded when we saw it. We couldn’t believe somebody actually did this.” She added that she did not believe the sculpture was “a serious attempt to display the beauty of birth,” according to the article’s paraphrase. And she has no interest in buying the sculpture: “No thanks. They can display it somewhere, but not in my beautiful home.”

Alas, she did not say what Fark jokingly claimed she said: “No way is my ass that big.” Heh.

In a related story, my previous post about this topic has not caused a notable increase in my website’s traffic due to skeevy search-engine searches. :) My number one search term at the moment is salmon helmet.

Now he’s free calling…

Bush hits 31 percent approval ratting third lowest ever and tied with his dad’s low point. In other news Congress and the President combined for the worst “right track wrong track” result since the question has been asked…

Given that Bush caused me a serious flight delay on Monday when he decided he had to go to Florida it is good to see people realizing he is annoying… And seriously folks, when your numbers are this low, running around closing airports for hours on end is not going to win you any friends. (Although I’m sure Brendan would have live blogged seeing Air Force One on the other side of the airport.)

Because I know Brendan is also a Sawx fan, I feel I can post this …

Red Sox 14, Yankees 3. Nothing else needs to be said.

…in the process of trying not to move your left elbow around, you accidentally move your left shoulder in an awkward fashion, and pull a muscle in your already broken arm. ARRRGH!!!!!

It doesn’t hurt that much, mind you. It’s clearly a minor strain (of, um, my triceps, I think?)… nothing to be concerned about. It’s just mighty annoying to suddenly have a sore muscle directly above my broken bone. Harumph!!

I blame FedCourts. If the Federal Courts don’t stop being such a pain in my ass arm, I’m joining the Federalist Society! :)

UPDATE, 6:42 AM: My muscle feels better… just a tiny bit of soreness, but nothing major. I daresay my elbow also feels a little bit better… but that might be just because I’m getting used to it, and learning not to accidentally “go like that.” When I try to bend my arm too much, I still definitely get a very sharp pain.

Alas, both my muscle and my bone feel better than my brain does, with 2 hours and 18 minutes until the FedCourts Exam of Doom… wish me luck, I definitely need it…

Barry Bonds’s potential Bambino-tying 714th home run was caught at the top of the center-field wall by Cubs outfielder Juan Pierre in the fifth inning. I haven’t seen the replay, but if there are fans near the wall there, I’m surprised nobody tried to pull a Bartman… or, more to the point, a Jeffrey Maier.

Anyway, Bonds will probably have one more at-bat in the game. ESPN gamecast here.

Baseball Musings is liveblogging.

UPDATE: Bonds flied out to right field to end the eighth inning. So, he’s still at 713.

Back to work…