As I have been saying, the Republicans in Washington State have an insufficient lack of ethics to win a close election.  Now it looks like we know how the Democrats did it.  From Sound Politics:

It was last reported that there were 3,539 more ballots counted in King County than voters who cast them. The discrepancy is actually much larger.

The 3,539 is only the net. This comes from having roughly 1,500 more voters than counted ballots in some precincts, and about 5,000 more ballots than known voters in other precincts.

For some reason I find this incredibly funny.  I’m not sure why.   Gregoire is very anti-gun, I work in the state and probably will be living in the state in a few years.  Her election is very bad news for me.  Yet I find myself laughing.  Very odd…

The only thing that I can think of to explain my mirth is this is further evidence of the death throes of the evil party.  They are so desperate to maintain power they are willing to resort to blatant cheating.  And their getting caught at cheating, even if they get away with it this time, will further their well deserved trip into political extinction.

That’s the headline of a USA Today article.  There is a lot of hope along those lines from a number of high ranking politicians.  I think they believe that because they want to believe that.  I don’t think there is empirical evidence or a logical basis to support the conclusion that this will have any more than a very short term benefit.

I think giving aid to those victims is the right thing to do but I’m nearly certain the net results is that we will still have just as many enemies in the Islamic world as before we gave aid.  Sure, we will get some “moderates” to be more friendly to us.  But those that believe we must convert or be killed, and are our real enemies, are driven by a mindset that no amount of aid will change.  Their mindset is driven by religious conviction.  How does giving them aid change that in the slightest?  They may be extremely grateful for our aid, but that doesn’t change the fact that “god” has given them orders to convert or kill us.  The extremists among them will eat our food, drink our water, accept our medicine, then laugh at us for the folly of giving them the strength to kill us.

This is a war for the hearts and minds of an entire culture and I suspect the only way we can win this war is to destroy their culture as it presently exists.  Giving them aid doesn’t help accomplish that task but we should do it anyway.