Results Show

The Results are in! Phil Angelides, powered by a last minute Craigorian Chant endorsement, has pulled out the victory in the Govenor's Race, setting up the classic nerd vrs jock dynamic in the General Election. Garimendi made it in for Lt. Govenor. The people of California ignored my wisdom with regard to Jerry Brown as attorney General. That race should be entertaining, to say the least. Both Props lost, so no preschool or new libraries for the children of California. Oh, and the voters of Amador County are too cheap to pass a vector control agency, so they are all going to die of malaria. Overall, the cheepskates showed up yesterday.

Busby (D) lost in the Duke Congressional race. Doh. It was a wild series of events that made her competitive in the first place. Have to settle for the moral victory there.

Really this is just an opening act. The big Show is coming in November.

Late Night

So every race worth caring about is too close to call. Governor , Lt. Governor , CA-50. Hell even the race for the all important State Controller is too close to call. Plus Alameda County is having troubles that could hold up the whole State. Best get some rest and sort it all out in the morning.

Today is the Day

Get they self to a voting both! Here in Cali and seven other States. Today is also 6/6/06, so I figure there is at least a 1.5% chance that the world is going to end today. Of course there is a 100% chance the date will be taken advantage of by marketers. They are releasing a "pointless" remake of The Omen today. How would they try and sell stuff during the real end of the world? "Drink gatorade to quench those burning flames that are consuming the world." And the evil Ann Coulter is putting a book out on religion and politics. Its called Godless: The Church of Liberalism. She really is evil, you know. Not movie evil, like the creepy little kid in The Omen, but genuine, pure, no feeling for your fellow human beings evil. Talk about mark of the beast

Southland Heat

All the political action is down in San Diego this election. Every political pundint worth anything is looking at the Bilbray/Busby race to replace The Duke. The polls are tied and the Dem, Busby has a real shot in a district which, in any normal year, is a complete GOP cakewalk.

San Diego is also notable for a GOP Congressional Canidate who is so pro-family-values, he had two wives. At once.

Seeking Guidence

Election Day is Tuesday. California Primary Day. As always I offer my polite suggestions. Now with a Primary, most of the action is choosing between members of the same party to determine the final showdown in November. Being who I am, this means choosing among Democrats. Picking in a Republican Primary is just picking which kind of boot you're going to kick me in the knee with.

First, the CA governor race. Phil Angelides and Steve Westly must arm wrestle to see who takes on Arnold. I got to go with Angelides here. The guy knows what he's doing, which is something the State really needs. I think the nerd will do well against Arnold in the end. A case can be made for both guys and I won't be broken up if Westly gets the nomination, but the State needs something other than flash right now. The Chant recommends Angelides.

Next Lt. Governor. A three way race between State Senators Jackie Speier
Liz Figueroa, and Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi. All three solid candidates, which is surprising for a job that consists of waking up every morning and asking "How are you feeling today, Governor?" Should Governor Angelides suffer a tragic pocket protector accident, Garamendi could step right in and take the reigns. Plus he comes with a tasteful Italian last name. The Chant recommends Garamendi.

For Controller we have Joe Dunn and John Chiang. I am going with Joe Dunn because he is a more boring sounding guy for a boring job. The Controller signs the States Checks. The Chant Recommends Dunn.

The AG race is interesting. Do you like your chief law enforcement officers conventional, or kinda crazy? This race pits former Governor and current Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown against LA City attorney Rocky Delgadillo. Brown was "Governor Moonbeam" back in the day and fairly um "eccentric." Day to day you are never sure what he is going to say or do. Delgadillo is more of what you expect in a responsible lawyer type. While I’m temped to just see what Brown is going to come up with, I got to go with the responsible choice. The Chant recommends Delgadillo.

Quick Shout-Outs for Bill Lockyer for Treasurer, Cruz Bustamante for Insurance Commissioner, Debra Bowen for Secretary of State and Jack O'Connell for Superintendent of Public Instruction. Don't ask me why, just go with me here.

Two ballot measures, they are slacking off from last time. Prop 81 is a library bond act. Libraries are how I became so smart, er, smartass. Support Libraries. The Chant recommends Yes.

Prop 82 is preschool for all. Raises taxes on those making above $800,000 per year. Preschool good and I’m nowhere near making that much money. The Chant recommends Yes.

Any questions? No really, any?

This Weekends Fun

Is Bocce.

Road Trip

Planning on a road trip this summer? Do I have idea for you:

The Mongol Rally

Its a London to Ulaanbaatar road rally. No cars with an engine bigger than 1 liter (i.e. total crap only). Last year 43 cars left and 27 reached Mongolia. Two teams were robbed at knife point, one car broke in two, and three people were banned from the nation of Turkmenistan for a year. Nobody died. Good Times.

You can follow the exploits of a New York based team on their blog. They plan to play Rock the Casbah when they reach Mongolia. I love it. The rest of their respective 200-hour-long music playlists are being sumitted to an arbitration committee. They just posted a picture of the car. They are so doomed.

Worst Ever

This idea is really starting to take hold:

In a new Quinnipiac University poll, 34 percent of Americans pick Bush as the worst president in modern history, leading the pack and bringing in twice as many votes as a guy named Richard Nixon.

So says Weisberg:

The outcome of the 2000 presidential election looks increasingly like not just a fiasco, but a tragedy. Whether or not one concurs with the judgment of the historian Sean Wilentz that he may be the "worst President in history," George W. Bush has already done enough damage to America's position in the world and its economic future to earn a spot on the bottom tier. And whether or not Al Gore would have been a successful president, it's improbable that he could have made any mistake as disastrous as Bush's unplanned, go-it-nearly-alone occupation of Iraq.

Chicks Flying High

So the Dixie Chicks now have the number-one album in American. So it turns out that being right and not apologizing does pay in the long run. I guessing it doesn't hurt that the Chicks have been literally everywhere there is a form of media to carry them. The hook of every story was "Will their politics hurt their sales?" Apart from the endless still-not-backing-down part of every interview, my favorite part (On NPR, which I will support, I swear) was when Emily Robison talked about wanting to change popular perceptions of banjo players. She's been very successful. I know that I used think of banjo players as not hot. But seeing Emily Robison, I now know that to be a cruel stereotype.

Dodge This

I now have a real job with benifits and everything which means that I don't face these problems. (My old health care plan - Don't Get Sick) But it does mean that I have lost my favorite dodge. Used to be when my local NPR station was doing a fund drive or the IRC sent me a pitch I could swear poverty. "I'm just a poor starving Grad Student, I can't give money away I'll have nothing left for Ramen noodles." But now I really could part with 20 or 50 bucks. Ok, Ok, I'll give. But who?

Storm Warning

Word is going out on Capitol Hill and that word is "Brace Yourself."

Congress is getting advanced warning on the fallout from an apparent massacure of Iraqi civillians in the town of Haditha by US Marines. Its going to be really, really bad.

The other warning going out is that GOP political operatives are warning that Democrat Francine Busby is about to win the normally safe GOP House Seat that poor old Duke Cunningham used to hold. If that happens it will be a huge sign that GOP is about to lose control of Congress.

A storm is coming.

Can't Stop the Signal

The Revolution will be blogged:

Even from his cell in an Egyptian prison, Alaa Abdel-Fattah is blogging — scribbling messages on slips of paper that make their way to the Internet and spread around the world.

The 24-year-old Abdel-Fattah's blog, which he does with his wife Manal Hassan, has become one of the most popular pro-democracy voices in Egypt. He has continued writing despite being arrested in early May during a street demonstration in Cairo — part of a crackdown on reform activists by Egyptian security forces.

"We covered the walls of our cell with graffiti of our names and slogans and Web site addresses," Abdel-Fattah wrote one time, referring to himself and fellow imprisoned activists. "We chanted and sang and the mood was great."

Guidance

Craigorian Chant's Guide to attending the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee.

1. Don't look at me like that. Jazz can be cool. Swing.

2. Fine, then think of it as the Spinich of music. It's good for you.

3. Tickets to the venues are very expensive, especially if you are still paying off student loans and are waiting for you Blog advertising check to arrive.

4. The Jubilee can be done on the cheep. A lot of venues are tents or outdoor stages. The music travels far. Just wander slowly around Old Towne and you will hear alot.

5. There are places to sit and hear music for free. A pizza joint was hosting pick-up jam sessions. This 16 year old clarient player was going off. Mop-hair, pale as a ghost. But when he did his solo, he would turn bright red.

6. The crowd is older than other music crowds, but just as drunk. Do your best to fit in.

7. Have fun.

Warmonger

Kevin Drum points me in the direction of a Charles Krauthammer piece knocking direct negotiations with Iran.

Its really clear that Krauthhammer really wants to go to war with Iran. His great fear is negociations that would resolve the nuclear issue, but leave the Iranian regime in place.

Krauthhammer is a leading foreign policy voice in this country. He has a regular column in the Washington Post, in Time magazine and a regular seat on Fox News. He used all these forums to push for the Iraq War. What kind of man sits in the ruins of Iraq and asks for more?

The trick now is to short-circuit the debate by skipping strait to the war question. Do you want war with Iran? Krauthhammer and his fellows will try and lead the debate there, but only after a long, tricky path, filled with Iran as Nazi Germany metaphors and negociation equals appeasement and all kinds of well-crafted lies. We should just skip all that and get right to question. Why do you want to go to war with Iran?

Somebody Going to Emergency...

...Somebody going to jail.

Lost. Completely Lost.

Don't read this if you're one of those TiVo types.

Sheesh, they are just messing with my mind on this show. I'm going to spend the summer wondering about the statue with four toes.

Ok, so it turns out that pushing the button did matter. I've been in the "stop pushing the button" camp all season. Like Locke, I was wrong.

But I still want to make the case for science in the shows "science v faith" debate. How did Desmond find out that the button mattered? By poring over sheets and sheets of data and then matching it up with observed phenomenon (The crash) to support a hypothesis (holy crap! The button matters! We are all going to die!). That is called science my friend.

I'm telling you it all about science. All the island stuff is caused by magnates, or something. Some very rational natural stuff is behind it all, I'm sure. The guys in Anarctica with all the instruments have it all figured out, I'm sure.

Oh and I love how the Others consider themselves the "good guys." Everybody thinks that they are the good guys. No one wakes up in the morning and says "how am I going to do evil today?"

No Sense

I have often made the case that conservatives have sense of irony. Usually this takes the form of being able to argue for months that the fact we haven't captured Saddam Hussein doesn't matter, what really matters is that he is out of power, and then to declare that now that Saddam is captured the insurgency will end and peace will reign in Iraq. Someone with a sense of irony just couldn't pull that off with a strait face.

But today it turns out that not having a sense of irony means that you take an interview done on the Stephen Colbert Report seriously. Tom DeLay's legal defense fund is spreading the word that Robert Greenwald wilted under such tough questions as "Who hates America more, you or Michael Moore?"

Maybe its like a surgical thing. Can you find a sense of irony on a CAT scan and then just have the doctor cut it out?

Zig and Zag

Lloyd Bentsen, Senator, Treasury Secretary and Vice Presidential Nominee has died. Despite a lifetime of dignified public service, Bentsen will be remembered for the Greatest Line Ever in politics.

Bentsen was the Democratic 1988 Vice Presidential nominee. He faced Dan Qualye in a debate. When Qualye compared himself to JFK, Bentsen struck with The Line:

"Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy, I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."

I always want to know where the cool moment comes from. What the back story is. In this case you can learn it in Clinton and Me a book written by Clinton's humor speech writer.

The lesson is, don't be a stationary target. Qualye was getting knocked a lot in 1988 for being young and inexperienced. After several "deer in the headlights" moments with the press he settled on the answer that he has served just as much time in the US Senate as President Kennedy did before Kennedy became President, so surely he could be Vice President. Qualye kept giving the same answer again and again, which allowed Bentsen and his staff the time to craft their devastating response. Bentsen had The Line, crafted to perfection, ready to go. Qualye walked into it, and was crushed for all time. So always come up with fresh material, cause the killer response to your zig is coming if you don't start zagging.

Don't be Sorry for Being Right

A odd thing happened to the Dixie Chicks. Suddenly buying their music has turned into some kind of Test for the Nation:

Whether the Dixie Chicks recover their sales luster or not, the choice of single has turned their album release into a referendum. Taking the Long Way's existence is designed to thumb its nose at country's intolerance for ideological hell raising, and buying it or cursing it reveals something about you and your politics--or at least your ability to put a grudge above your listening pleasure. And however you vote, it's tough to deny that by gambling their careers, three Texas women have the biggest balls in American music.

That's from the Time cover story. They are getting all kinds of media these days. Keep in mind that the Chick's "sin" was to be right about President Bush, and now not to apologize for it. In a just world, Country music should be on its belly, begging the Chick's forgiveness.

Go Read

TAP on the GOP's cult of manhood:

Terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength; they are invited by the perception of weakness.”

President George W. Bush has made that statement many times. So has Vice President Dick Cheney. And Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Multiple principals endlessly repeating themselves -- that’s the mark of a premium White House talking point. Or in this case, a kind of gospel -- poll-tested, market-driven, swing-voter–approved, and sanctioned by Kardinal Rove himself.

Like its religious counterpart, political liturgy does not reward literal interpretation. The “weakness” that invites our destruction is not a measurable, structural weakness of nations. It is more insidious than that. It is the weakness of men. Certain men of uncertain will. Unmanly men. Men who lack the grit and determination to command other men to expend their grit and determination in battle. Girly men. Men who snuggle before the domestic hearth of the Mommy Party. Men who fuss and fret over Mother Nature (when what she really needs is a good drilling). Men who wish to restrain the natural urges of natural men, to smother initiative and stifle competition beneath the suffocating pleats and ruffles of the Nanny State. Men who are effete. Men who cut and run. Men without guns or guts or glory. Men whose weakness abases and undermines the rugged individualism and frontier can-do that made the United States Numero Uno.

We have met the enemy. And he adores Judy Garland.

Issue By Request

My regular readers are such a rare and treasured breed, I do whatever I can to keep them happy. You ask for something, you get it.

Today's issue request comes from Erin of Hawaii: Network Neutrality.

Network neutrality is the principal that internet service providers, or ISP's provide the same level of service to everyone on the net. Everybody's web page loads up at the same rate.

Recently there has been talk among ISP's that companies like Google have been getting rich off their connections, so they should be getting a taste. They are proposing "preferred service" That is to say, pay us money, and your page will load faster. Don't pay and face slowdowns, er, "regular service"

There is a bill working through Congress that would put "net neutrality" into law and prevent this. The big telecoms are fighting this. You can find the latest here.

The ISP's do have a case. They are spending billions on broadband and Google and yahoo are riding that investment to a lambergini for every employee.

Still, we don't expect the phone companies to get a cut of all business deals that get concluded over the phone. Not to mention that media companies are unholy combinations of all sorts of media. When the ISP is owned by the media company, all kinds of problems show up. I do not want only Comcast-owned video to load fast from my Comcast broadband connection. Have you seen Comcast-produced porn? Terrible stuff.

Not to mention once you start picking and choosing what internet content gets priority, all kinds of mischief can result. Let's say I complain about my phone service or my Cable TV bill on my blog and all of a sudden my blog loads slow? And if I want to get really paranoid, do ISP's support Democrat's or Republicans? You can get Bush speeches with 500k streaming video, but Gore speeches only stream at 100K.

I say pass the law. Protect the Net!

Magic Asterisk

So many "facts" today need to come with an asterisk. For example, George Bush was elected President in 2000*

*The other guy got more votes.

Or the United States supports freedom in the world.*

*Except in Saudi Arabia, were women can't even be shown in the media.

So two new stories come with asterisks.

Barry Bonds has tied Babe Ruth for career home runs.*

*That whole steroid thing.

The Iraqi government, five months after the election, has managed to form a government.*

*The most importance government posts, the head of the army and police, haven't been filled because not agreement has been reached. The situation in Iraq does not hinge on who's running the tourism ministry.

Not Close. Not Smooth.

I'm shaving this morning with my new electric razor. I finally traded in my old razor after long and noble service. The old razor just wasn't working. It took forever to shave, did a bad job, and if I went a few days without shaving it would tug painfully on the longer hairs rather that slice them off cleanly. But the process of my shaver starting to suck was gradual. I really didn't notice how bad it was, till the new razor arrived. So close! So smooth! So fast!

Which bring me to this Political Animal post on how the Bush administration punished
CIA agents who reported bad news from Iraq:

One former senior agency official told me, “If I were at the CIA now and was asked to work on an NIE [on Iraq], my first response would be, 'How the fuck do I get out of this?' The most courageous, honest person in the place would be reluctant to do it because every time someone says the emperor has no clothes he gets his head lopped off.”

How can Bush get it right in Iraq if he doesn't even know how bad it is? Will a policy ever work if its not even based on the real facts?

Bush administration policy has been so bad for so long that no one even realizes how far we've come. We just put up with it, like I did with my shaver.

The American people won't realize how bad it iuntilll we get a new Administration. Only then will we know that the last six years could have gone so much better.

Bono: Secretary of State

No, really.

CO2 is our Friend

Big oil is feeling the heat (if you will) on global warming thanks to Al Gore's new film An Inconvenient Truth. They have launched a laughable attempt to clean up the battered reputation of Carbon Dioxide.

Poor Carbon Dioxide, so misunderstood. You may think its harmful, what with massive quantities being released into the air and causing Global Warming and all. When really CO2 is the most kind and helpful of gases, a vital part of the cycle of life. Leave poor Carbon Dioxide alone. Go pick on Carbon Monoxide. That's some nasty stuff. And also produced by burning oil.

Ah Ha!

I knew it! This magic story confirms its. Putting the National Guard on the border was an idea that came from Bill and six months ago even Michael Chertoff, the head of homeland security thought it was a stupid idea:

In December of 2005, Fox News talking head Bill O’Reilly floated an unlikely — even brash — idea to the Homeland Security secretary to seal off the porous southwest border.

“Why don’t you put the National Guard on the border to back up the border patrol and stop the bleeding, and then start to increase the Border Patrol, the high-tech and all of that?” O’Reilly asked.

Michael Chertoff, in those relatively calmer days before mass pro-immigration rallies, heated immigration reform politics in the Senate and cellar-dwelling opinion polls for President Bush, dismissed the idea out of hand.

“Well, the National Guard is really, first of all, not trained for that mission,” Chertoff told O’Reilly. “I mean, the fact of the matter is the border is a special place. There are special challenges that are faced there.”

Chertoff added that that it would take a huge amount of National Guard troops, that they would need new training. But couldn’t the National Guard pull it off, O’Reilly asked?

“I think it would be a horribly over-expensive and very difficult way to manage this problem,” Chertoff said. “Unless you would be prepared to leave those people in the National Guard day and night for month after month after month, you would eventually have to come to grips with the challenge in a more comprehensive way.”

Look, Bill is an entertainer. He is there to be bombastic, to give the right some read meat and Keith Olberman a target. He is not there to put forth serious ideas about how this Nation should be run. In fact, he puts out ideas that can't be used, just so he can rail about how the stupid system isn't doing the right thing. For the love of Shakira, do not take the man seriously!

UPDATE: Case in point.

One Man Media Machine

Kevin Sites is now reporting from Nepal in his grand tour of world trouble spots. There was an old Al Frankin SNL skit where Frankin plays a one-man foreign corespondent operation. He carries all his equipment, camera, satellite uplink, and so on, on his back. The joke is that the equipment is so heavy Frankin can't even move.

But today the gear has gotten so small, slick, and just plain cool, that you can become a one-man media machine. Kevin does video, pictures and text reporting and can beam it all back to base on his Satellite Modem. With just ten pounds of gear you can now cover the world. Which won't slow you down when you have to run. And judging by the list of countries he's been to, being able to run for your life seems like a requirement.

Speech! Speech!

So I just sat through a mercifully short Presidential "Primetime" speech on the immigration debate. Any East Coast people pissed because Bush stepped on the season finally of Prison Break? I think they are finally getting out of prison tonight.

As far as Presidential immigration proposals go, I'm sorting the stupid from the merely difficult. For putting the National Guard on the boarder, the first time I heard this idea it came from Bill O'Rielly, thus I'm going to assume it’s a stupid idea. The Guard can't actually arrest anybody and it seems to me that the Guard is pretty tied up with the Iraq war thing. That idea stinks of a PR stunt.

Also stupid is the guest worker program proposal. We really think that people are going to come to this country to work for six years, put down roots, and then go home? That's looking around Europe, finding the worse immigration policy you can find, and making it your own.

The merely difficult policy is the "amnesty" or "path to citizenship" part. What are we going to do about the undocumented workers that are here already? What makes this so difficult is that Bush is split down the middle on this issue. He must balance the brutish, ugly, talk-radio part of the GOP and the need to bring Latinos into the Republican Party. The proposals Bush are balancing are "send them all home" and "make them all citizens" I don't think Bush can split the difference. But working out a deal on this issue will be the main action when the Senate takes up the issue again.

Sniff

Last. West Wing. Ever. Sob.

Nice final episode last night. The rule is always leave them wanting more and I was left wondering how the Santos Administration would turn out. Josh and Donna as COS for the First Family, Sam Seaborn, Amy Garner.

But you really can't argue that this was the best place to stop. It gives the series a nice little period.

Interestingly, Commander-In-Chief seems to have died, so I am left without a political drama.

The only thing left to do is to continue to collect seasons of West Wing on DVD. I have the first two, and my birthday is coming up. Hint, Hint.

Sunday Funny

Al Gore was on SNL last night, talking about the last six years of a Gore administration. My favorite "I invented a Anti-Hurricane and Tornado Machine."

Check it out.

The Healing Power of Vegas

And you thought it was just a place to have fun:

A wheelchair-bound Los Angeles woman, who has repeatedly filed lawsuits over access for the disabled, got up and ran after police arrested her for fraud, authorities said Thursday.

Laura Lee Medley, 35, had sued in at least four California cities over injuries she claimed she sustained while trying to navigate her wheelchair before she was suspected of fraud.

Medley, who claimed to be paralyzed from a drunk driving accident, was tracked to Las Vegas where police there took her into custody and then, when she complained of medical issues, to a local hospital, Long Beach prosecutor Belinda Mayes said.

"She gets to the hospital and while she's waiting for an examination, she gets up from the chair and runs," Mayes said. "Somebody remarked, 'That's where the great miracle occurred.' "

I would say that the waters of Las Vegas having the healing mojo, but Las Vegas doesn't have any water.

Californiacation?

You guys need to do something about those housing prices if you want to keep people there. Or maybe all this is a good thing? (patients, it may take a while to load).

Mars Baby

Check out Google Mars. Your fun link of the day.

Too Soon

That happened way too fast. It didn't give me any sense of anticipation.

Bush is at 29% approval rating in the latest Harris/WSJ poll.

My cheap champaign didn't even have time to chill. Without sweet, sweet anticipation I'd just be drinking warm, cheap champaign. That's no good.

I'm changing the rules. I'll wait till Bush breaks into the 20's in three major media polls. Three make a trend. I'm holding out for widespread super-mega-unpopularity.

Someday soon he'll hit 29% in a Foxnews poll. I'll toast that.

The Scandal, She Grows

The other shoe has turned over a new rock which a knocked down the next domino. Turns out the NSA wasn't just wiretapping without warrants. It was gathering a massive database of Americans' phone calls. And by "Americans" it seems to mean all of them. Everybody. Billions of phone calls are being tracked. Without warrants

Back in High School

It kind of sneaked up on me, but we are now less than a month away from the California Primary, and the Governor’s race is heating up. There is a hotly contested race for the Democratic nomination. There are two guys dueling for the chance to take on the Govinator in the Fall. That would be Phil Angelides and Steve Westly. The three-way dynamics of this race can best be described in terms of High School.

Schwarzenegger is the class jock, the one who gets laid a lot and is wildly popular despite the fact he can't really talk and has not one bit of qualification for the job. But he is sexy and the class loved him. But now he's actually had to govern for a while and government is harder that acting. Not that he can act.

Angelides is the class nerd. He knows what he's talking about. His current job is State Treasurer and he knows numbers and knows the budget and the ins and outs of government. He is also kind of funny looking and not a gifted pol. He is surprising tough for a nerd - kind of like Marty McFly after he discovered that he could punch Biff out. He is also the only candidate offering Spinach on the menu. He says we might have to raise taxes to pay for the government we want in California. Everybody else is offering some form of free lunch.

Westley is the class President. The all-star. You know, the guy who lettered in three sports, got good grades and still had time to start a chapter of Future Business Leaders of America. He's smoother and better-looking than Angelides. He made a fortune with E-Bay and is poring that money into his campaign.

So far the race hasn't featured scorched-earth attack ads. The TV ads, which are the only type of campaign that really matters in California, have been sunshine and fluff. The two did go at it in a debate tonight. My contacts in Angelides's staff dismiss Westley as an empty suit, but right now the suit is winning in the polls. Both sides are trying to attack the other without "really" going negative. Don't worry. I'll keep an eye on the race so you won't have to.

Pants

When I was little I used to wear out pants in the knees. Now I wear-out pants in the butt. Which goes to show that I now spend a lot less time climbing trees and a lot more time sitting around on my butt.

How to

This is funny. Its a how to guide to making a zombie movie, based on the lessons learned by a 13 year-old who just finished her first picture:

Research: Basically research zombie movies and see as many as you can. Learn the general rules of zombie movies -- gore and...mostly gore. Also, no running zombies. As George Romero says, they are dead. They shouldn't be running around.

Start pre-production: Decide your cast and crew. I recommend auditions. Auditions are the best. People who show up for auditions will show up for the shoot. Do script read-throughs, that kind of thing. Don't hire your friends. Your friends won't take your direction seriously and they won't show up. I kind of lost some friends over that.

Give clear direction: When you watch a lot of zombie movies you figure out what kind of zombies you want in your film. There are different looks and styles. The zombies in my movie wanted to stick their arms out, but I told them to stop doing that, and you have to get them to move slow.

Go read it all. If she doesn't win a Oscar by age 17, I will be sorely disappointed.

Don't Panic

Gregg Easterbrook does more than football. He also writes timely takedowns of overblown fearmongering. Check out his thumping of Bird Flu Panic:

All this for a disease that since 2003 has killed 113 people worldwide. During the same span, about 4 million have died worldwide in traffic accidents. The number of these deaths is rising steadily in most nations, with road fatalities on track to become the world's third-leading cause of death—that is, traffic accidents look exactly like a pandemic. Also since 2003, at least 6 million people worldwide have died of diarrheal diseases, with about 1.5 million of those deaths attributed to rotavirus, which has spread in pandemic fashion. Yet the panic button has been pushed only for bird flu. Why?

I still believe that the best solution to bird flu remains "Stay away from any bird you see with a cough."

31

I'm going to go buy a bottle of cheap champagne and putting it in the fridge. I will open and drink it just soon as Bush drops below 30% approval rating in a major poll. Gallup now has him at 31%.

Yawn

Everybody have a good time this weekend?

This morning's topic:

It is my firm belief that the "dance mix" of a song is always worse than the original. This weekend I heard a truly terrible remix of 50 Cent's In the Club. It hurt my brain, it was so bad. It strikes me that I've never heard a "dance mix" that didn't suck it up. Can anybody cite a example of a dance mix that actually improved on the original song?

Inside Baseball

So I was flipping channels on the Sunday Morning shows, hoping to hear the some stuffy Congressman discuss the possibility that the just-resigned CIA Director was tied to a prostitution ring, but came away disappointed.

However, there was something interesting in the not-sex nerdy politics file. The GOP Chair of the House Intelligence committee Peter Hoekstra went on record as being strongly opposed to Gen. Michael Hayden taking the CIA job. Hayden used to be head of the NSA and was the guy in charge of the controversial warrentless wiretapping program. (By controversial I mean "violates the law, violates the US Constitution, evil abuse of power") Now Hoekstra's objection to Hayden isn't wiretapping, its that a military guy won't keep the CIA independent of the Pentagon. A good point. But the real point is that Bush is catching real flack from his own party on Defense and Security matters.

Mystery of Mysteries

Porter Goss, the head of the CIA just resigned. This was a total surprise. The Bush Administration has been doing some house cleaning as of late, but unlike poor John Snow, the Treasury Secretary who has been subject to firing rumors for years, Goss has only been on the job for little more than a year and didn't have any indication that he might be on the outs. There was no reason given by Goss for his resignation.

Now comes the part where everybody tries to figure out the "real" reason he's gone. I wouldn't want to speculate, but here's a hint. The leading theory starts with the letter "H" and ends with an "ookers."

I would be negligent not to point out the out big news of the day is a Kennedy in trouble. But really, when are they not?

There's a Lesson Here

Look Here:

Two voting-age sons of a northern Ohio candidate didn't go to the polls Tuesday, and their father's race ended in a tie.

William Crawford, trying to retain his seat on the central committee of the Erie County Democratic Party, and challenger Jean Miller each received 43 votes in the primary balloting.

Officials plan to conduct a recount, but the race may have to be settled by coin flip, said David Giese, the county's Democratic Party chairman and an elections board member.

You know the lesson. Anyone? That's right, its important to vote. For the sake of family tranquility. Also, elections ties in Ohio are settled by coin toss. That's an interesting fact as well.

We are now one month away from the California Primary. Go get registered. Remember, if you have moved, you need to reregister.

Get Out of the Street

Last week I was engaged in one of my new pasttimes, wandering around semi-lost through the downtown in search of fun and adventure. Right in the middle of the busy intersection of 9th and J wandered this kid, maybe 16 or 17. He seemed rather lost; he walked little to his left, and little to his right, never leaving the dead center of a major intersection. The light changed and cars started whizzing by on ether side of him. His response to this was to bend down and tie his shoe.

All I could do was stare. Was he on drugs? Suicidal? Some kind of weird performance artist? I was thinking I better do something, else this guy was going to get splattered. Just when I was starting to contemplate an action-movie-style tackle-him-out-of-the-way-just-before-the-onrushing-garbage-truck move when a construction worker on the other side of the street came up with a much better course of action. He shouted "Get out of the Goddam road, you dumb fuck!"

This seemed to get through. Our lost soul drifted over to the sidewalk with some screeching of brakes and honking of horns. He then drifted down the street, not moving with great purpose but at least out of the flow of traffic, never to be seen again, at least by your humble correspondent.

Which brings me to this George Packer piece I read via TPM on Bush and Iraq:

If there are any Wise Men available in the spring of 2006, what should they tell President Bush to do in Iraq? And, if they told him, would he listen? The government is in a strange and prolonged state of paralysis. Many officials in the Administration now admit, privately, and after years of willful blindness, that the war, in which almost twenty-four hundred Americans have died, and whose cumulative cost will reach $320 billion this year, is going badly and shows no prospect of a quick turnaround. Asked why the President doesn’t take this or that step to try to salvage what will become his legacy—fire his Secretary of Defense, for example—they drop their heads, as if to say: We know, he should, but it’s not going to happen. At the same time, they can’t quite bring themselves to abandon hope for a miracle.

Right now we are standing in the middle of the road in Iraq, not moving, just hoping that the cars are going miss and that someone is going to rescue us. Somebody needs to do the political political equivalent of yelling, "Get out of the street" so that the president can hear. More Packer:

As a strategy, this amounts to muddling through the rest of the Bush Presidency, without being forced to admit defeat, until January of 2009, when the war will become a new President’s problem.

We can't stay on this street for three more years. We have to get off the street.

Correct

The jury gave Moussaoui life in prison today. The man was vile, would kill Americans if he could, and said everthing he could to goad the system into killing him, but the simple fact was the man was already in jail on 9/11 and just wasn't responcible for 9/11. In the end the jury got it right.

The best part of this outcome is that it is now over. No death penalty means no appeals. Moussaoui plead guilty to the charges. So now he disapears for all time into a Super-Max Federal Prison, never to be seen or heard from again.

As always, go read Dahlia.

Ask, I Dare You

Ninja's are a topic we have discussed before. I now have a link to the only source of info you will ever need on the topic. I present Ask the Ninja. Finally the podcast that informs as well as entertains. I found the discussion on the Ninja's relationship with Physics to be particularly informative.

Is this the Right Room for an Argument?

Sheesh, I step out for one minute and the next thing I know, the kids are fighting, the furniture is wrecked and calls of "fascist" and "communist" are echoing through the halls. Keep up the good work.

The problem with the type of stats that Tyler cites is that the underling assumption is that the money we spend on educating or medically treating undocumented workers is completely wasted. It's not. The result of that spending is better educated and healthier people. Those people are able to be more productive, grow the economy and add to the tax base. Those taxes are then spent on more education and health care. To say that social services are wasted on illegal is to say that all social service spending is wasted.

A lot of these numbers need some context. If illegals make up 5% or 10% or 25% of the population (Depends on which City, which State), then they will be 5% or 25% of the people in the ER or in jail. They will also be 5%-25% of the child molesters and the people who get into hit and run accidents. They will also be 5% to 20% of the people who give to charity, rescue kittens from trees, or run into burning orphanages to rescue kids. We can play this game all day. Illegals are both good and bad for society. I think more good than bad and that we can increase the good by allowing them to become citizens.

Personally, I hope that Tom Tancredo (Tyler's author) runs for President like he has said he would. A few months of him screaming about how we are being overrun by the invading brown child molesters will have Latinos voting for Democrats for a generation.

"A Day Without an Illegal Immigrant!?....Can we extend that?"

I wouldn't mind extending this whole "day without an illegal immigrant" thing. Could anyone see some positives living in an America without illegals?

But if illegal aliens all took the day off and were truly invisible for one day, there would be some plusses along with the mild inconveniences.

*Hospital emergency rooms across the southwest would have about 20-percent fewer patients...

*Youth gangs would see their membership drop by 50 percent in many states, and in Phoenix, child-molestation cases would drop by 34 percent and auto theft by 40 percent.


*Colorado’s K-12 school classrooms would have 131,000 fewer students if illegal aliens and the children of illegals were to stay home...

Just a day!? Why not 20 years or forever? And Tancredo mainly addressing Colorado in this article. Think of the changes in California, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico.......Wow.

Call it a Day

May Day has turned out to be very busy. First off, it's the three year anniversary of the "Mission accomplished" Bush lands on a carrier stunt. Relevant numbers can be found here.

Steve Colbert left nobody untouched in a take-no-prisoners appearance at the White House Correspondents' Dinner over the weekend. The level of funny to be found in the performance is subject to an ideological test. The performance was found to be funny by liberals and not-funny by conservatives. Funny is one of those things that's impossible to prove or disprove. I say take a look, and decide for yourself.

Today was also the "Day Without Immigrants." rallies and walk-outs held across the County including near Craigorian Chant World Headquaters. The Craigorian Chant video feed is currently down, so just go to CNN to get your video.

And finally, Anna Nicole Smith was victorious in her appeal to the US Supreme Court.

Whew. That's a day.

Counting Down the West Wing

Just two more episodes left (Sniff) I'm going to award Michael Tomasky of TAP partial credit for his prediction that Santos would make Vinec Vice-President. The show gave us a great big head-fake in that direction, but the gig Santos ended up offering was Secretary of State, which requires a lot less magical thinking to believe. Both Clinton and Kennedy had Republican Secretaries of Defense. What actually requires a suspension of disbelief is the idea that there are Republicans out there with non-insane Foreign policy thinking. For example, check out William Kristol's short little sneer at Diplomatic efforts with Iran. Kristol is one the leading intellects of the conservative movement and he seems to think that the whole point of US foreign policy is to get into wars. Funny, I though the point of diplomacy was to prevent wars. Silly me.

PS Tomasky does more than West Wing predictions, check out this article for some big-think "Future of the Democratic Party and of the Republic."

Quack Quack

I'm off to attend the Great Sutter Creek Duck Race. Tons of fun.

Stay Cool this Weekend.

Member of Congress

Ah, it always gets down to sex, doesn't it?

According to people with knowledge of the investigation, Mr. Wade told investigators that Mr. Cunningham periodically phoned him to request a prostitute, and that Mr. Wade then helped to arrange for one. A limousine driver then picked up the prostitute as well as Mr. Cunningham, and drove them to one of [two] hotel suites, originally at the Watergate Hotel, and subsequently at the Westin Grand.
...
[I]nvestigators are focusing on whether any other members of Congress, or their staffs, may also have used the same free services, though it isn't clear whether investigators have turned up anything to implicate others.

Naturally the Watergate hotel is going to be involved. It's a karmic magnate for scandal.

Iraq and Darfur

Interesting debate on Darfur and Iraq and Liberal Hawks. First up Lawrence Kaplan, TNR resident Super-Hawk, arguing that only US military intervention can stop the Genocide in Darfur, and that liberal-not-hawks who call for withdrawal from Iraq and intervention in Darfur are hypocrites and whatnot. Enter Mark Leon Goldberg with a response, basically that there are several options to help in Darfur short of the all-out invasion that Kaplan is so fond of, and that Liberal-Hawks shouldn't try and regain the reputation that they lost in Iraq in Darfur.

I myself am pretty sympathetic to liberal hawk ideas, if not Lawrence Kaplan's rather harsh version. My formative years thinking about foreign policy were the 1990's when the debates were about stopping genocide in places like Rwanda and the Balkans. I am very sympathetic to The New Republic's project to reconcile liberals and the use of military force. The point that Michael Moore always looses me in his movies and books is when he veers into a kind of shrieking pacifism where no US military power is ever good and all we can do with the next humanitarian disaster is watch.

That said, Liberal-Hawkery took a real hit by backing the Iraq invasion. There was a case to made for humanitarian intervention in Iraq. But that wasn't Bush's case. His case was for a preventive war to stop a weapon's program that didn't exist. After the fact Bush has claimed it was all for Democracy and puppies, but that wasn't the case going in. On top of that, the Bush administration has made a complete hash of Iraq, whatever the justification for war.

Liberal Hawks are going to need to distance themselves from the Iraq disaster or else they will never convince the left (or the Country) of the need to act in places like Darfur. The fact that Iraq is making it so much harder to help Darfur is just one more sin to lay at the feet of the Bush Administration.

Fun In the Snow

It was rumor and now its fact: Bush has tapped Tony Snow, Fox News "personality" to be his Press secretary. Now the fact that someone can move directly from the studios of Foxnews to become the primary spokesman for the President pretty much writes the jokes themselves. (John Dickerson: He should get back pay! Neil Gabler: Same work, different job title!)

This is going to create a whole new dynamic. The White House press corp is a ravenous best regardless of Administration. Now faced with a Press secretary with a celebrity of his own, the confrontation will be epic. The morning press briefing was already getting pretty famous. Poor Scotty would just get eaten daily. The poor guy just couldn't lie effectively. But Tony Snow is an A grade liar, um effective spokesperson and advocate. He is very, very smooth on TV. The press corp will just be aching to take him down a notch. There are a ton of issues in play. Get the popcorn.

Victory Lap

Ok, so the King of Nepal has now agreed to reinstate parliament. The street protests have now become street parties. Its not like all the problems of the County are solved. There's a Maoist insurgency that refuses to stand down, and the County is still in desperate need of an economy, but still. Time to take the win.

Threshold

I just paid 3 bucks a gallon for gas. My problem is that I always wait too long to fill up my tank and am never able to look around for the cheap station. I was having some fun with this site to try and find cheap gas near Craigorian Chant World Headquarters. Of course, most of the time, this is only going to be useful once I get a car with wi-fi and a heads-up internet display. Or how about a car where I can just ask "KITT can you find me some cheap gas?"

I would also recommend this Billmon post on politics and gas prices and oil and foreign policy.

32%

Look at the person to your left. Look at the person to your right. Only one of you still approves of the job the President is doing.

Play the Game

A few weeks back Michael Kinsley wrote the following:

When the United States should use its military strength to achieve worthy goals abroad is an important question. But based on this record, it seems a bit theoretical. It's like asking whether Donald Trump should use his superpowers to cure AIDS. Or what George W. Bush should say when he wins the Nobel Prize in physics. A more pressing question is: Can't anyone here play this game?

I was thinking about this with last night's episode of West Wing. Turns out the fictional President and President-Elect were playing the geo-political equivalent of Good Cop/Bad Cop to deal with the (fictional) confrontation between Russia and China in Central Asia. Very clever stuff. There are lot of theories and ideas about when and where and how US strength gets used abroad. But none of those ideas matter if you can't play the game. Which brings us to Bush and Iran. I could make the case, backed up by lots of international relations theory, that the best play would be some US saber-rattling combined with a strong diplomatic effort to stop Iran's nuke program. Only it's become very clear that the Bush administration can't play the game. The same course of action could have been followed in Iraq. Bush threatened Iraq. The weapon inspectors were allowed back in the county. Saddam was backing down. But instead of taking the win, Bush blundered into war. The same thing could easily happen again in Iran, with even worse fallout than before. Bush comes up the brilliant move of "limited" airstrikes agaist Iran and triggers a wider regional conflict. The debate on US power is just going to have to wait till we someone in office who can play the game. Till then we are in damage control.

Time for a Rave Review

The deserving flick is Brick. The movie that has restored my faith in the movies, after a long, cold season. The concept is classic hard-boiled film noir, set in that more dangerous of places, high school. It sounds a little off at first, but once you get in it, who makes a better femme fatal than the head cheerleader?

The hero of Brick, Brendan Frye, is played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who you will not recognize as the kid from 3rd Rock from the Sun. He may not look like much, but the ice-cool blood of Sam Spade runs through his veins. This is a guy who will face down a pack of stoners with the line

"You wanna take a swing at me, hash-head? Huh? I got all five senses and I slept last night. That puts me six up on the lot of you."

You wish you were this cool in high school. You will not be able to look away as he tears through the clicks of his school, in a quest to out the people behind the murder of his ex-girlfriend and the people behind them. Like any good noir hero, he will beat-on and be beaten-on, and talk to lovely women who aren’t to be trusted. And the talking is great. This movie has it own slang, some of which I've heard before like "Duck Soup" for easy and "gat" for gun but also some stuff I think the film invented like "scape" for patsy (i.e. scapegoat) and "heel" for walking away. They hand out a little glossary on your way into the theater, just to help you keep up. There are also exchanges like this between the Brendan and Ass. VP Gary Trueman, who plays the flat-foot to Brendan's gumshoe:

Assistant VP Gary Trueman: You've helped this office out before.
Brendan Frye: No, I gave you Jerr to see him eaten, not to see you fed.
Trueman: Fine. And very well put.
Brendan: Accelerated English, Mrs. Kasprzyk.
Trueman: Tough teacher?
Brendan: Tough but fair.

Great stuff. Go see it if you can.

Covered

With one easy link I can cover politics, movies and my Earth Day blogging obligations. I present to you Al Gore's upcoming movie about climate change An Inconvenient Truth. The trailer alone is enough to scare the crap out of you. Go forth and try not to produce too many greenhouse gases.

Now We are Getting Somewhere

Movement in Nepal as the King has agreed to give up absolute power:

Under pressure to act quickly, King Gyanendra of Nepal told his nation Friday that he would return executive power "to the people from this day forward."

His renunciation of absolute power came in answer to the tens of thousands of protesters who took to the streets around the capital, Kathmandu, to demand he restore democracy.

Gyanendra called upon the striking seven-party alliance to suggest the name of a prime minister candidate.

It was not immediately clear whether his announcement would satisfy his political opponents.

Earlier, the U.S. ambassador to Nepal on Friday warned that King Gyanendra "will lose his kingdom," if he doesn't quickly end political crisis.

"His time is running out," Ambassador James Moriarty said in an interview with reporters. "Ultimately the king will have to leave if he doesn't compromise. And by 'ultimately' I mean sooner rather than later."

Now the details have not yet come out and the Country has a list of problems longer than my arm, but it good to see something happening.

UPDATE: This blog from Nepal seems very unimpressed with the Kings speech.

Public Service

An official Craigorian Chant seal of approval for Matthew Yglesias, who has done a tremendous service and put together the best written, most to-the-point argument against going to war with Iran I have yet to see. Go read it. Print it out and keep it on hand. In the dark days to come, it will be used often.

Shaky

We are now officially in the middle of a White House Shake-Up. The next to go is WH Press secretary Scott McClellan. (That's CJ's Job for the first 5 seasons of West Wing for those of you who need the pop culture reference)

McClellan has been done for a while now. His reputation never recovered after he swore up and down that Rove and Scooter had nothing to do with the CIA leak case when, in fact, they were neck deep in it.

Speaking of Karl Rover, he's still in the White House but has been subject to a meaningless loss of title. He is no longer 'policy coordinator.' He will still head up the WH political operation, so don't worry, the puppet master will still hold the strings.

Fixing Old Trama Through Cable News

Jack Shafer, media critic for slate, finally captures what is so compelling about the Olbermann-O'Reilly feud:

As if set on an elementary-school playground, the Olbermann-O'Reilly feud sets the sassy class wit against the bruising class bully. Nicholas Lemann's recent piece in The New Yorker pegs O'Reilly's height at 6-foot-4, and the big mook probably weighs in excess of 225 pounds. Often when interviewing guests in the studio, O'Reilly leans into them from across his table, squinting like Clint Eastwood and finger-jabbing in the direction of their chests as if his next move might be a punch or a thrown brick. He browbeats, accuses, dismisses, and intimidates like a young ruffian.

Olbermann is big, too, bragging about his size 14 feet on the air. But it's his wit and his eyes, not the threat of a sucker punch, that do the damage. Cutdown artist supreme, he has said of nemesis O'Reilly, "If he didn't do personal attacks he would be a mime."
...
In O'Reilly, Olbermann finds the perfect target of his sarcasm and sadism: somebody bigger and more powerful; somebody who takes his bait and runs every time he casts a line; but also somebody who can't fire him or make him miserable enough to quit. That O'Reilly and Olbermann compete in the same time slot is pure gravy for Olbermann. That his ratings are up in recent months is a maraschino cheery on top of the gravy.

Who doesn't want to see the bully taken down? Its a basic need that I aquired sometime in Junior High. Why shouldn't my news-watching help heal old pains? Shows that do more than inform, they heal.

Quote of the Day

[The event] "injected enormous excitement into the Roulstone campaign. It brings total cache to the campaign. He really fires everyone up and this will be a shot in the arm. This is my upset special for a Republican taking out a Democratic member of our delegation."

State Republican Chairwoman Diane Tebelius, remarking upon a campaign visit by Dick Cheney.

Prizeworthy

The Pulitzer prizes were handed out yesterday, those of the top awards for newspaper people. I would note that the staff of the San Diego Union-Tribune got one for the reporting that uncovered the corruption of Rep. Duke Cunningham. So I would urge the Sacramento Bee to get off its butt and start getting into this John Doolittle thing. We all know he's dirty, fabulous prizes await those who prove it. Ok, looks like they are on it.

Turns out there is a Pulitzer for commentary. Commentary! That's a prize I can win. I comment on stuff every day. Reporting is hard, but commentary I can do. This year the prize went to Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times. He got the prize based on his writing about the ongoing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. Turns out he didn't just sit back and comment, he did a lot of original reporting and traveled to the region many times.

Anybody want to pitch in and help send me to Nepal? There is some serious stuff going down there. My Pulitzer awaits.

Tax Day

To the surprise of absolutely no one, I have taken my full allotted time to pay my taxes. The deadline is midnight tonight, I figure I should have everything done by by about 11:47 or so. Seriously, I'm all done, I mailed mine off just now. Because I'm a political nerd, I turned on CSPAN. A bunch of anti-tax groups were doing their yearly whine about taxes. It's kind of soothing to have that on in the background when you are working on a tax worksheet that gives you back the same number you started with after seven steps. Today is the day to complain about taxes. Tuesday we will go back to using all the things that taxes pay for. The roads, the cops, the schools, the stuff I do for my day job, whatever it is that Tyler does for his day job and so on. So, today complain about the costs and tomorrow resume reaping the benefits.

Instant West Wing Feedback

It's like those DVD commentary tracks, only written. And much shorter. And not done by someone who had anything to do with the creation of the West Wing.

They did right by Leo tonight.

I've made my peace with the show ending, I think that they are doing it at the right time, but when Santos offered Amy Gardner a job in the new administration, I had a moment of real sadness that I wouldn't be able to watch a new season in that White House.

Two political lessons from tonight. First, the need to screw your friends. Screwing people who are your enemies, who screwed you in the past, that's easy. When the time comes and you have to go against your friends, when it's so important that you must go against your friends, that's the true test.

Second, no Yes Men. At one point tonight Josh tells Santos that he can't be Santos' Yes Man. To which the official sister of Craigorian Chant replied, "That is what Bush needs. Bush don't have anybody to say "That's a stupid idea, sir."

Missed Voting opportunity

I often harp on voting here at Craigorian Chant, but it turns out I missed out on a chance to vote, myself. It turns out that I could have voted in the Italian national election that was just held. The ruling right-wing party devised a plan to allow Italians living abroad to vote. But rather than just allowing ex-pats, or Italian citizens living abroad, the rules allowed for anyone of Italian descent to vote in the Italian election:

The "Italians abroad" voting scheme was designed by Mirko Tremaglia, the 80-year-old Minister of Italians in the World. An unapologetic defender of the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini, Mr. Tremaglia is said to have modelled the scheme after a Fascist scheme that defined Italians as a race.

Under Mr. Tremaglia's new electoral law, eligible voters are defined as anyone with a continuous line of male descendants going back to a man born in Italy. The voter needs only to register with an Italian consulate, and does not have to speak Italian, have visited Italy or even have parents who were born in Italy.

I have to go check the family archives, but I'm pretty sure that we have records of Baraccos going back to the Mother County. If you think about it, these rules mean that anybody with an Italian last name could vote. After all a "continuous line of male descendants going back to a man born in Italy" is pretty much proven by an Italian last name, right?

The final punchline - Berlusconi, who's party came up with this idea, lost due to the votes of Italians living abroad:

He was especially critical of the voting of "Italians abroad," who elected 12 seats in Italy's lower house and six seats in the senate. Four of those six seats went to Mr. Prodi's coalition, and a fifth, independent South American victor announced that he would also back Mr. Prodi.

That means that the "Italians abroad" determined the government, since Mr. Prodi's coalition won control of the Senate by only two seats, a margin of 158 seats to 156. Mr. Berlusconi's anger and scrutiny is now focused tightly on these votes, especially in the riding that represents North and Central America, in which Canadian votes proved decisive.

Story link came from Americablog.

Keeping you Safe From Ninjas

Your Federal Government:

If there's one thing Jeremiah Ransom is sure of, it's that he'll think twice before dressing up like a ninja at the University of Georgia again.

And he can thank agents for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms for that.

On Tuesday, Ransom — a sophomore from Macon, Georgia — was attending a "Pirate vs. Ninja" mixer at the Wesley Foundation, a United Methodist on-campus group, when he got hungry and decided to go grab a bite to eat at the nearby Snelling Dining Hall. The only problem was he was still wearing his homemade ninja costume — a pair of black sweatpants, a T-shirt and a red bandanna tied around his face.

According to university police, around 12:30 p.m., Ransom jogged from the Wesley Foundation to Snelling when a group of ATF agents — on campus to teach a Project Safe Neighborhoods workshop to local law enforcement — decided he was acting in a suspicious manner and sprung into action.

"The agents were on a lunch break, and they noticed Ransom coming through the area dressed in all black and wearing a mask. An agent claimed that he heard sirens in the distance and said that he saw Ransom holding a gun," University Police Chief Jimmy Williamson told MTV News. "They gave chase and ordered him to freeze. And then, with guns drawn, subdued him and began to search for weapons."

But it turns out that the guy only had throwing stars and num-chucks on him and the ATF can only arrest you if have firearms. Or alcohol. If the guy had had some cigars on him, he was going down. But they had to let him go. Seriously, can you blame these agents. I see a Ninja, my first guess would be that he's up to no good. Of course, if Ransom was a real Ninja, the agents would have never seen him in the first place. The ninja art of invisibility. And who knew the Methodist were so cool as to hold a "Ninja vrs Pirates" events. Do you think the ATF would arrest a guy in a pirate outfit?

Who would win a the fight between Pirate and Ninja? I would guess it depends on the terrain. At sea the pirate is clearly going to win, but if its on land, at night, I have to go with the ninja.

General Mayhem

There are many negative vibes coming from US military Generals these days. More accurately, there is a rash of former Generals who now decry the Iraq war. The movement is well-documented by Fred Kaplen in Slate:

Some of the most respected retired generals are publicly criticizing Rumsfeld and his policies in a manner that's nearly unprecedented in the United States, where civilian control of the military is accepted as a hallowed principle. Gen. Anthony Zinni, a Marine with a long record of command positions (his last was as head of U.S. Central Command, which runs military operations in the Persian Gulf and South Asia), called last month for Rumsfeld's resignation. Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, who ran the program to train the Iraqi military, followed with a New York Times op-ed piece lambasting Rumsfeld as "incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically," and a man who "has put the Pentagon at the mercy of his ego, his Cold Warrior's view of the world, and his unrealistic confidence in technology to replace manpower."

But the most eye-popping instance appears in this week's Time magazine, where retired Lt. Gen. Greg Newbold, the former operations director for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, not only slams the secretary and what he calls "the unnecessary war" but also urges active-duty officers who share his views to speak up. Newbold resigned his position in late 2002—quite a gesture, since he was widely regarded as a candidate for the next Marine Corps commandant. His fellow officers knew he resigned over the coming war in Iraq. The public and the president did not.

The rapid shift that one's attitude undergoes once you leave the service is well documented by TNR:

We've got great Iraqis who are patriots, committed to a free and democratic Iraq.

--Major General John Batiste, then-commander of the First Infantry Division, November 14, 2004


Iraqis, frankly, in my experience, do not understand democracy. Nor do they understand their responsibilities for a free society.

--Retired Major General John Batiste, CNN, today

Well, which is it? If the General was right the second time, WHAT THE HELL ARE WE DOING THERE?

Rain!

Normally, I'm a fan of some rain. I like a good walk in the rain. Washes the world, makes it clean and new. It's romantic even. But enough is enough. If I wanted this kind of weather, I would go live in Seattle. Even the meteorologists are down:

"Rain," sighed Diana Henderson, a National Weather Service meteorologist, when asked for the latest forecast. "We're looking at rain or a chance of rain through next Tuesday."

Did you catch that sigh? One more week of this. I've grown so pale I'm practically transparent. The levees are creaking and both the official Day Job of Craigorian Chant and the Craigorian Chant World Headquarters are not in as secure of locations as I would like. I'm not yet gathering up two of every animal, but I really do think we've gotten enough rain.

Around the World

Italy, official Country of origin of Craigorian Chant, just finished a nail-biter of an election. Looks like Center-Right Billionare Freak-show Berlusconi seems to have lost, barely, to boring Center-Left economist Prodi:

Final returns showed Prodi winning the lower Chamber of Deputies by one-tenth of a percentage point — 49.8 percent to 49.7 percent. Under Italian electoral law, 55 percent of seats are awarded to the overall winner regardless of the scale of victory, giving Prodi's forces at least 340 seats in the 630-member lower house.

All eyes were on the Senate, however, which Prodi also needed to win to form a government.

According to official returns, Berlusconi's conservative allies held a one-seat advantage in the Senate, with 155 seats to Prodi's 154. Six seats chosen by Italians living abroad were being counted Tuesday and would decide the election.

Look at that margine again. That's a difference of 0.1% and turnout was 84% in Italy. Berlusconi vowed to give up sex for the length of the campaign. My guess is he should have given up something else. Like the crazy:

The colorful leader made headlines throughout the election with his remarks, comparing himself to Jesus and Napoleon and branding those who would not vote for him "morons."

In Nepal, the revolution continues:

KATHMANDU (AFP) - Nepalese police battled protesters shouting "Down with King Gyanendra!" as officials clamped a curfew on the capital for a fourth day to foil demonstrations which have left three dead.

Demonstrators fought security forces with stones, pickaxe handles and bamboo poles while police fired tear gas rounds and rubber bullets and pushed back at least 2,000 protesters with batons, injuring dozens.

Down with King Gyanendra, indeed.

Case for Hope

For all those who just can't let go of their pessimism (Larry) or just think that democrat's are helpless babes (Erin) I highly recommend Not as Lame as You Think by Amy Sullivan, which makes a pretty good case that the Donkey are learning to use their teeth. Case in point - Bush's social security privatization program didn't just die on its own. It was murdered:

Most of the press corps expected the debate to be a painful defeat for Democrats. Not only were moderates predicted to jump ship and join with Republicans to support the president's plan, but Social Security-one of the foundational blocks of the New Deal social compact-would be irrevocably changed. But then a funny thing happened. Reid and Pelosi managed to keep the members of their caucuses united in opposition. Day after day they launched coordinated attacks on Bush's "risky" proposal. Without a single Democrat willing to sign on and give a bipartisanship veneer of credibility, the private accounts plan slowly came to be seen by voters for what it was: another piece of GOP flimflam.

As the privatization ship began sinking, Republicans challenged Democrats to develop their own plan, and when none was forthcoming, pundits whacked the minority party for being without ideas. But not putting forth a plan was the plan. It meant that once the bottom fell out on public support for Bush's effort which it did by early summer Democrats couldn't be pressured to work with Republicans to form a compromise proposal. It was a brilliant tactical maneuver that resulted in a defeat at least as decisive as the Republicans' successful effort to kill Clinton's health-care plan.

And now the immigration debate has blown up in the streets for the GOP. Now I have typically been pretty down on the effectiveness of street protests, but the sheer numbers of people who have come out are making everyone take notice.

Again?

So over the weekend Sy Hersh and others put out stories about how the US is planning for an attack on Iran. I'm with Drum, the big deal isn't that we are planning to attack Iran. The Pentagon is full of war planners. Whole rooms of people just thinking up new and interesting ways to attack countries. I'm sure we have dusty plans to attack Canada and less dusty plans to invade Mexico. I think the North Korean and China plans get updated more often. Iran is a major trouble spot, we should have plans. I'm a fan of planning myself, of course I'm more about building it up, rather than blowing it up.

The big deal is that it seems that the same PR campaign that brought you the Iraq War is gearing up again. There are a lot of people who would love to sell the country on an attack on Iran. Or sell this President. A plan is fine. Using those plans would be a massive catastrophe that I will run out of words trying to describe.

He Died

Weekly West Wing blogging continues, I think it will become a regular feature here. Not too regular, cause the show is going off the air, but more regular that the "quote of the day" or Craig's helpful 16 part guide to entitlement reform (still waiting on part 1, come to think of it)

So fiction finally caught up with reality tonight as Leo McGarry death reflects the death of John Spencer. Its really hard to watch really good actors reacting and know that they aren't acting. As if a down-to-the-wire election night wasn't emotionally draining enough draining enough. I actually found the parts when the lawyer types were discussing the legal issues and election-night lawyering. It helps get the mind off the actual tragedy of the moment.

Do you notice how important that concession phone call has become after Florida 2000? That election night Gore famously needed to take back his concession call. Kerry didn't call Bush until well into the next day, when it was clear that no recount was possible. It used to be the concession was just one of those little niceties that we do. Now it really means something. It means "I won't contest the election."

I will leave the speculation about the fuure episodes to Mike Tomasky, who's the Editor over at TAP. Last week he came up with the idea that Santos will pick Vinick to be his VP:

Right? This is perfect television politics: A national unity administration. Santos shows the kind of bold leadership that yada yada yada, and Vinick, for the sake of this great nation, decides that yada yada yada. They even end up seeing eye to eye on nuclear power!

The wingnut woman adviser to Vinick, who keeps pestering him to campaign in the South and forget these swing voters in these pusillanimous purple states, is put in her place (as a stand-in, of course, for the America she represents); Ron Silver probably gets a piece of the action, but he has to report to Bradley Whitford. America is healed.

The more I think about it, the more I believe that's where the show is headed. A nice warm, fuzzy ending.

UPDATE: News story in the NYTimes about how the election result came about. The original plan was for Vinick to win the election, but after John Spencer's death, the plan change to spare the viewers the emotional one-two punch. They didn't think we could take it. They would be right. Also, Martin Sheen turned down an offer to run for Senate. Read all about it.

Down with the King

One type of good time we miss out on in the modern era is the chance to overthrow tyrannical Kings. The royal families we deal with are mainly figures of fun - case in point:

Prince Harry, the third in line to the British throne, celebrated the end of his military training with a visit to a lap dancing club, British newspapers reported Saturday.

Harry, 21, watched dancers at the Spearmint Rhino nightclub in Slough, southern England, during celebrations marking the end of a year of study at a military academy, the Daily Mirror said.

I wouldn't be too hard on the guy, after all:

He will serve in the Blues and Royals regiment of the Household Cavalry -- one of the British army's oldest and most prestigious units -- and be eligible for future service in Iraq or Afghanistan.

He is putting it on the line for his country, which is more than you can say for the children of the ruling class in this country.

So while the British royalty is a mix of noble obligation and tabloid fun house, the King of Nepal is a straight-up tyrant:

Protesters in Nepal postponed a demonstration planned for Saturday after the king imposed a curfew and ordered violators shot on sight.

The current King of Nepal - Gyanendra, took power when a Prince flipped out and shot most of the Royal Family. He then went on to seize power and roll back all the democratic institutions in the country. The revolution is coming to Nepal. For more updates from the country, give this blog a try.

When Bad Things Happen to Bad Bills

Looks like the much discussed immigration reform effort has gone off the rails in Senate. Read all about how "a bill doesn't become a law." I would have to say this is a good thing. Even a compromise bill passed in the Senate would have to then be mixed in with the evil House bill, which would result in a bill that was at least 3/4th evil. (Roughly speaking, calculating the exact outcome when evil and not-evil legislation comes together is always tricky, something to do with pH levels and the absolute temperature of the space were Bill Frist's soul would reside, if he were to have a soul)

Better the bill just die.

Revealing

Today's shocking Bush revelation is, despite going on and on about the dangers of leaking classified information, the President personally authorized the leaking of classified information:

A former White House aide under indictment for obstructing a leak probe, I. Lewis Libby, testified to a grand jury that he gave information from a closely-guarded "National Intelligence Estimate" on Iraq to a New York Times reporter in 2003 with the specific permission of President Bush, according to a new court filing from the special prosecutor in the case.

The court papers from the prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, do not suggest that Mr. Bush violated any law or rule. However, the new disclosure could be awkward for the president because it places him, for the first time, directly in a chain of events that led to a meeting where prosecutors contend the identity of a CIA employee, Valerie Plame, was provided to a reporter.

Well my faith in the Bush administration is just crushed.

Seriously, this is the Bush administration finally getting caught at a game that they have gotten pretty good at. They leak classified information that makes them look good, such as a foiled bombing plot, and attack anyone who reveals embarrassing classified information, such as the warrentless wire-tapping program. Now Bush has been caught at this game, which will make it hard for him to denounce the next embarrassing leak as a threat to national security.

Migration Mitigation

Just a bit of follow-up on the illegal immigration subject, mainly riffing off what was said in comments.

There are two kinds of "guest worker" programs. The first, I'll call the "bad" type, offer the chance to work, but no chance at citizenship. This is the typical European model and the kind that Bush is proposing. The "good" kind of program offers a road to eventual citizenship. Erin in comments has pointed out the difficulties of immigration to Europe and Fareed Zakaria makes the case here:

These people must have some hope, some reasonable path to becoming Americans. Otherwise we are sending a signal that there are groups of people who are somehow unfit to be Americans, that these newcomers are not really welcome and that what we want are workers, not potential citizens. And we will end up with immigrants who have similarly cold feelings about America.

While I can and do make the case that we should steal the European model for health care, we should not under any circumstances steal the European model for immigration.

A good discussion on the struggle Bush faces on the issue, between his better and worse angles (yes he does have better angles, at least on this issue.) The one commendable thing about Bush is his move away from the old racial-baiting tactics of the GOP past. Of course, he replaced it with patriot-baiting tactics, so let's not give him too much credit.

Get it Done or Get Out

Man walk on road. Walk left side, safe. Walk right side, safe. Walk down middle, sooner or later, get squished just like grape. Same here.

Mr Miyagi

John Kerry today:

Half of the service members listed on the Vietnam Memorial Wall died after America's leaders knew our strategy would not work. It was immoral then and it would be immoral now to engage in the same delusion. We want democracy in Iraq, but Iraqis must want it as much as we do. Our valiant soldiers can't bring democracy to Iraq if Iraq's leaders are unwilling themselves to make the compromises that democracy requires.
...
Iraqi politicians should be told that they have until May 15 to put together an effective unity government or we will immediately withdraw our military. If Iraqis aren't willing to build a unity government in the five months since the election, they're probably not willing to build one at all. The civil war will only get worse, and we will have no choice anyway but to leave.

Right now in Iraq we are walking right down the middle. We aren't leaving and we are not making things any better by staying. It's our troops that are getting squished.

So the time has come: Win or go home. Time to force the issue.

Case Closed

I have often made the case that whatever our failing on election day, liberals will always remain cooler than conservatives. I believe that I have located difinitive proof. I present to you The Right Brothers singing their hit song Bush was Right.

Case Closed.

Word of the Day

schadenfreude \SHOD-n-froy-duh\, noun:

A malicious satisfaction obtained from the misfortunes of others.

DeLay is Done

Tom Delay, former Republican House Majority leader, will not run for reelection. He is announcing that he will resign from Congress. For a guy as combative and angry as Delay to give up the fight means that he must be in profound legal trouble. A whole string of Delay staffers have been pleading guilty and agreeing to testify, and as we all know from Law and Order, these things move up the chain, and Tom Delay is at the top. There will be some games to be played in Delay's Texas district, as he has to be replaced on the ballot, Salon has details.

Delay remains defiant. From Time:

Taking defiant swipes at "the left" and the press, he said he feels "liberated" and vowed to pursue an aggressive speaking and organizing campaign aimed at promoting foster care, Republican candidates and a closer connection between religion and government.

His speaking and organizing campaign not going to be very aggressive, because he's going to have to conduct them from prison. I'm sure every Republican candidate in the Nation is now going to pretend that they never new the guy.

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, it's going to be a good day, I can tell already.

Debatable

The protests have happened, the right wing gas bags have spoken, and now it's time for some good old fashioned legislating. The interesting thing about the issue is that it splits the parties. The GOP is divided between business interests who want to keep a supply of illegal workers that they don't have to pay jack, and the element of the party that is, well, kinda racist. Or at the very least, "law and order" types who want all the lawbreakers deported. A third element is foward thinking strategy types who don't want to get crushed by Latino voters in the future.

Dems are divided as well, between working class voters who are hurt by low-wage immigration and middle class voters who benefit. Not to mention that most Latinos (outside of the Cuban community) are a pretty solid democratic voting bloc, one that Republicans would very much like to steal.

So the proposals now being debated are various forms of "get tough" enforcement, or some form of guest worker program to help illegals work legally. Personally I think the calls to "protect our borders" add up to load of crap. There are thousands of miles along our southern border and there is no way we are going to spend the money to fence it all and put border guards on every inch of it. The truly effective way to prevent illegal from working in this country would be to crack down on the people who hire them. But if the GOP has one guiding principal these days, it’s never, ever cause any trouble for big business.

So the two bills we have in progress now take completely different approaches. The House bill is classic "get tough" stuff. It makes helping illegal a crime, makes being an undocumented worker a felony, and does a whole bunch of stuff that brings hundreds of thousands of people out into the streets for protest marches.

The Senate bill, a product of the meeting of the minds of Senators McCain and Kennedy, allows for a process by which illegals can get legal. Not to outline the whole process, but you pay a fine, do your paperwork, keep on the straight and narrow and many years later voila you're legal. Needless to say, this is a very different approach from being convicted of a felony and sent back to your county of origin.

This week we see "How a Bill becomes a Law" plays when you have very different bills fighting to become law.

More West Wing!

There are so few West Wing episodes left before the end, I'm feeling compelled to blog at each of them. One of the many fun things about West Wing is that it exists in a parallel universe which is exactly two years out of alignment, which means you can watch the show for all the excitement of an election when, in reality, we are two years away. It’s like methadone for political junkies.

Of course, who can talk about elections with all the sex. Donna and Josh, finally. Plus a bunch of other people just for fun. I would just like to note the magic Hollywood bed sheets, which are waist high on the guy, but arm-pit high on the girl.

Now, the death of Leo was of course, coming, and not without precedent. Dick Cheney had a heart attack, his fourth, in the middle of the Florida recount. At the time, it was spun as a "very slight heart attack." This is kind of like being slightly hit in the head with a bat or being somewhat pregnant.

Tonight's great what if of history is:

Would history have turned out different if Dick Cheney died of a heart attack in November of 2000? How would history be different?

Discuss.

PS All the West Wing you could ever want, can be found here.

PPS Slate has an excellent round-up of long awaited TV hook-ups.