The Dream Dies

Wyclef Jean's bid for Haitian President has come to an abrupt end, as an election commission has ruled he is not qualified to run. Something about having to live in Haiti for the last five years.

Oh well.

Reality Can Sometimes Suck Less

Remember Viktor Bout, the real life "Lord of War?" The highly evil arms dealer and inspiration for the movie. Well in the movie (spoiler alert) the arms dealer is arrested but released, due to his powerful friends in the United States government.

Well, as it turns out, sometime you can be too cynical. Not only are the Feds not springing Bout, they are extraditing him from Thailand and are going to try him on a whole host of charges.

So hey, the world doesn't suck as much as you though. We get the Hollywood ending in real life.

Just Add Congress

Want to make the baseball steroid scandal even better? Just add Congress. Sure you can lie to the public, the media, the fans. But lying to Congress is a crime. A crime which Roger Clemens now stands accused indicted of.

Sure when Congress held those steroid hearing it was a show and everybody, players and Congress-critters did their grandstanding, but in the end, you swear to tell the truth, and it looks like Clemens didn't.

Couldn't have come at a better time. Let's hope this circus takes attention away from the Cordoba House. If we have to burn baseball to keep religious freedom in America. I'm ok with that.

So Confused

Ted Olson stands up for the Cordoba House.

Howard Dean is opposed.

Ann Coulter is getting in trouble on the right for being too nice to gay people.

Did somebody declare opposite week?

Blago Semi-Walks

The jury hung on 23 counts and convicted on just one, the charge of fibbing to the Feds. Looks like the government is going to refile and try again. We get the whole circus over again!

Countdown

Nothing helps gin up a war like a sense of crisis. Remember how Iraq was so close to building a nuke and we HAD TO ACT RIGHT NOW. Well, I'm pretty sure there is exactly zero interest in the United States in getting into a third Middle Eastern war at the moment, but the warmongers are trying to get it going.

Here's everyone's favorite anti-diplomacy diplomat John Bolton calling on Israeli to bomb Iran in the next 8 days. The warmongers are trying to impose a sense of crisis and fear to override common sense. And if this deadline passes? Well, we will soon have another deadline, which if bombs don't drop, SOMETHING TERRIBLE will happen.

Freedom From Freedom

I find Tea Party opposition to Net Neutrality to be fascinating, because it represents just how far their anti-government agenda will go. The Tea Party world view is pretty simple - government is the opposite of freedom. No matter matter what. The tea vanguard would rather be screwed by corporation every day of the week and twice on Sundays rather that accept government action. It doesn't matter that corporations trying to set up a multi-tier Internet are the true threat to free speech and free markets. To the right-wing, the only threat can come from government. Corporations can loot your pension, but the true threat is Social Security checks. Tea party-ites will fight to the death for the right of a corporation to give your child cancer. Because a government with the power to stop your child from getting cancer is too powerful in the Tea Party worldview. They would have the internet burn to ground rather than let government put out the fire.

Just Wondering

If this guy had found his victims in the on-dead-tree want ads and not on The-List-Named-After-Me, would we have ever heard of him?

Anyway, good job Craigslist killer-guy, for sparing us all the cost of a trial. And from hearing the phrase "Craigslist Killer" ever again.

Now, a Pep Talk from Al

Rock Hard

Son of Quayle

Ben Quayle, son of every late-night comedian's favorite Vice-President, is running for Congress. Of course ,being a Quayle, upon bursting on the public scene he immediately stepped on a rake and fell down a hole. Its a very crowded primary field, but for the sake of comedy, we can only hope he pulls through.

Let's Get Ready to Rumble

Linda McMahon won the Republican Primary for Senate in Connecticut. That Linda McMahon of the pro-wrestling McMahons. As in, her husband owns the WWE and she helped run and appeared on-camera as part of the whole men-in-tights, women-in-bikini drama. Really Republicans? This is your family values candidate? A woman who runs a company where two women compete to rip each others cloths off on national TV? When people complain about sex and violence on TV they are not talking about The Good Wife, they are talking about the WWE. And Linda McMahon is running for US Senate. As a Republican. What a freak show.

The Danger of Privilege

Former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, who helped make Alaska a State and gave us "the Internet is a series of tubes" has died today along with four others in the crash of a small plane in Alaska. Being killed in a small plane crash is one of those particular dangers that politicos face. TPM has a rundown. It is a surprising long list. I'm still sad over loosing Paul Wellstone. Politicians have to get to some out of the way places to campaign, and they are the sort of privileged folks who get private planes. But the truth is, small private aircraft are much, much more dangerous to ride in that the big commercial jets.
 ,
So just think how safe you are, stuck back there in coach. Those privileged suits in front of you in their private little puddle jumper are the ones in danger

Disapointment is Certain

Every four years Newt breaks my heart. He flirts with running for President and bringing his own special brand of wacky policy wonk and soulless money-grubber. He just reeks of massive potential for an entertaining President run. The kind of disastrous spectacle best selling novels and a flood of blog posts are made of. But as part of a truly epic and highly recommended profile of Newt in Esquire, someone who's been even more disappointed than I makes it clear that I will never see my dream realized: His ex-wife Marianne Gingrich.

She gives a jaundiced look. "There's no way," she says. She thinks he made a choice long ago between doing the right thing and getting rich, and when you make those choices, you foreclose other ones. "He could have been president. But when you try and change your history too much, and try and recolor it because you don't like the way it was or you want it to be different to prove something new ... you lose touch with who you really are. You lose your way."

Marianne, by the way is Newt's second wife. He divorced her in 2000 to marry a much-younger aid that he was boffin while he tried to impeach Bill Clinton for...well...that. 


Deep down, I know she's right. Newt just can't do it. But still, hope lingers

Russia on Fire, Choking on the Smoke

Every so often we see some conservative know-nothing present some version of the argument that "there's snow on my driveway, what is this global warming you speak of?" Then the whole conversation become an argument of weather vrs climate and so on.

Well, Russia, land of cold, is suffering from the worst heat wave since, well...

Alexander Frolov, head of Russia's weather service, said judging by historic documents, this heat wave could be the worst in up to 1,000 years.

"Our ancestors haven't observed or registered a heat like that within 1,000 years," Frolov said at a news conference. "This phenomenon is absolutely unique."

So a thousand year heat wave covers Russia, but it was cold in some places last winter, so it all balances out.

President Jean?

Wyclef Jean is running for President of Haiti. Haiti has been badly served by Presidents in the past, some merely corrupt, some beyond that. Maybe a Grammy winner is what they need.

What Happen to Don't Be Evil?

Is Google cutting a deal with Verizon to ensure priority access to the Internet? That seems to be the story. This really is the very thing that net neutrality (NN primer here) advocates have been warning about. This is the kind of thing that will ruin the web. Google pays more and Google products (which power this blog) get better access through the web. Somebody comes along with better software the run a blog, it doesn't matter, because the new guys don't get the access that Google does.

Not Good

Prop 8 Goes Down

A Federal Judge has struck down Prop 8. It turns out "gay marriage make me feel funny" isn't really a compelling argument. The case continues to grow for some sort of judicial review of Props before they go to the ballot. Like prop 209 before it (denied services to the undocumented) we could have all been saved a lot of time, trouble and attack ads if only the judges had gotten a crack at this first.

Of course, the courts being the courts, this isn't over. No tux rental just yet. This sucker is getting appealed and appealed again. Supreme Court, here we come.

Born Free

Once again, what was once a crazy idea talked about on the far right has become the stated policy of Republican Senators. Not that the GOP is truly serious about taking away birthright citizenship. Amending the Constitution is really, really hard, not to mention that opening this can of worms might even come back and bite white people in the ass.

Think about it.

I know conservative think that birthright citizenship is solely the domain of brown people come fresh to America. But most white people came to the States in earlier eras, where the paperwork of immigration was much less or non-existent. So you have to show your parents papers to prove you're a citizen? Where is your Mom's papers? Your Grandma's? Your Great-Great-Great who came over back when. If only citizens can give birth to citizens, then you have to prove your ancestor were here legally. Could you do that? Remember, in the new tea party regime, having a birth certificate is not enough.

That's just one complication. How about mixed marriages? What if mom is a citizen and Dad's student visa has expired?  Is the kid legal? There's a reason why we have birthright citizenship - in a nation of immigrants and ever-changing immigration laws, it keeps things simple. Born here, citizen.

Kill it With Fire

I've always held contradictory positions on burning the the American Flag in protest. I've always argued that the act is free speech, protected by the first amendment. Second, that its a piss poor way to protest stuff. As a symbol, the American flag is just too big a symbol. It represents too much. Its boy scouts and school class rooms and bombs and coffins. You try and burn all that, and no one gets that you're after just the one thing.

But burning the Confederate flag is an idea I can get behind. Nothing good about a Confederate flag. It was the symbol of those who would destroy this Country in order to preserve their right to own other people. And in the modern age it is a symbol of racists. Burn that sucker.

I am Evolved!

It turns out that the eating of meat helped us evolve intelligence. Turns out, its hard to have both a big brain and the internal pluming to handle an all vegi diet.

So my love of a good New York strip is not an indication that I am an unevolved primitive. It shows advancing intelligence.

Drawdown

It gets completely lost with the ongoing leakfest and debate over Afghanistan, but Obama is steadily moving down the checklist to get the hell out of Iraq. Today marks the "end of combat operations."

I would just like to note, in this age of total Republican opposition to every single thing the Obama Administration does, from health care to appointing the Assistant Deputy Secretary for Relations, there is complete radio silence on Iraq withdrawal. Not one Republican is quoted in the Times story about how Obama is endangering the nation with this move. The Weekly Standard, war central for all these years, doesn't have a single story on the front page about Iraq.

Considering how much it dominated American politics for the last eight years, it shocks me how unremarked on Iraq is these days.

Rock On

Rock On

Rarr!

Time for a pissed off Congressman:

Day Without a Mexican

Well, a judge put a hold on all the juicy bits of Arizona's "show me your paper's" law, but the message is sent. And that message is "Mexicans, Stay Out."

I wonder if the grumpy old white people of Arizona really know what they were asking for. Because if you listen to right-wing radio all day, you would think that Arizona is losing a horde of brow rapist and drunk drivers and gang-bangers and such. But really what Arizona is loosing is thousands of workers, and customers and home owners. Guest what, you loose all that, the economy shrinks. For everyone, even grumpy old men with Rush on too loud.

The End of the Maradona Show

One of the most entertaining parts of the just concluded World Cup was the Diego Maradona show. The legendary Argentine player made one hell of an dramatically bad coach. The man had a hundred quirks and sub-plots, from wearing two watches to fighting with opposing fans. He also had no idea what he was doing, and managed to take some of the best players in the world and crash out.

Sadly, we will not be seeing a repeat performance in four years. Maradona was tossed as coach of Argentina’s national team. He was offered a new, four-year contract, but apparently his demands were so outrageous, Argentine Football Association vote his ass out.

Well maybe some pro club will hire him. Sure they won't win, but people will watch.

High Profile

Call it a new phenomenon: the rise of the celebrity spy. The busted Russian are famous. Angelina Jolie has invited busted Russian spy Anna Chapman to the Moscow premier of her new spy thriller. It was bound to happen sooner or later, fictional spy fill our media wall to wall. And the busted Russians are perfect. Clean-up, sexy, and they didn't hurt anybody. They were here to spy on our cocktail circuit and did a bad job of it. Nice,friendly spies we can put on magazine covers and invite down the red carpet.

Cross Promotion

Attention.

Completely off-topic new blog called Questionable Stoppage has been created by me to cover Mix Martial Arts and such. MMA is like politics, only cleaner. There are rules.

The Russian Front

Anybody else watch Hogan's Heroes? The threat hanging over all the Germain prison guards if they screwed up was being sent to the Russian Front. Well, it look likes everyones favorate oil company CEO is going to be sent off to the BP Russian front. I wonder if this counts as "getting your life back."

Oh, and I'm with Atrios. I love British accents. I'm totally charmed each and every time I hear one. I hate BP not for the accent, but for LARGEST ECOLOGICAL DISASTER IN THE HISTORY OF THE NATION!

The Afghanistan Papers

A huge trove of classified documents about the war in Afghanistan has gotten out and are currently rolling Washington. Different media take different things from the docs, but I'm with the NY Times and the focus on our feckless Pakistani "Allies":

Americans fighting the war in Afghanistan have long harbored strong suspicions that Pakistan’s military spy service has guided the Afghan insurgency with a hidden hand, even as Pakistan receives more than $1 billion a year from Washington for its help combating the militants...

That right, they take our money and work with our enemies. Nice work if you can get it. That billion dollar would be better spent on literally anything. We could light it on fire and it would do more to protect us, rather than put it in the hands of those who help those that do us harm.

Hey It Worked

Blog still here. What do you think? Lost a lot of the clutter from the old version. Anything you miss?

Get it Online or It Doesn't Count

On the theory that nothing really counts till its online for everyone to see and with the magic of a scanner at my disposal, here's my opinion piece from last week's Ledger-Dispatch:

Under Construction

Going to be doing some Upgrading (?!?) which I'm pretty sure will all end in heartbreak and tears. Here's some BNL to pass the time:

This Week's Ignored Defeat

Climate legislation has died the death of the Senate.  Yeah,  a majority of Senator support it, but that's how the rules work in the Senate. So yeah, let it all burn.

Just Do It

This is a story that brings a smile to my face. The Valencia Club shut down in June. You know, economy. Well, this guy just went in over the weekend, opened her back up, and started serving. The owner had no idea. Our rogue bar operator started with a six pack from the local convenience store and reinvested his profits. He was up to 12 bottles of the hard stuff before he got busted. Sure it all ended in tears and a jail cell, but you got to love the man's initiative.

Today's Ignored Major Victory

I know this totally got lost in the race matter, but President Obama did sign a massive new piece of legislation regulation the financial industry. We will be living with financial regulation long after everyone has forgotten the name of Shirley Sherrod.

I Know Who Breitbart is

Toby: I just figured out who you were. 
Kiefer: He's gonna say Satan. 
Toby: No, you're the guy that runs into the 7-11 to get Satan a pack of cigarettes.

West Wing, 20 Hours in L.A.

Andrew Breitbart is a cancer. He lies, with words and with video tape. His lies get people fired. He is a hateful, evil man.

Will the Crazy Hurt the GOP?

There's a school of thought out there in the political realm that, given the nature of the economy and the fact that Democrats control everything, Republicans are to make huge gains in the fall. The out-party almost always makes gains in off years, and incumbents do badly when the economy does badly. These are pretty hard and fast rules of political science.

However, some are starting to notice the potential for mitigating factors, that may cushion the coming GOP blow. Namely, that the Tea party has driven the GOP to the hard, hard right.  Jon Chait, notes that in at least 4 Senate races, tea party right has made things easier for Democrats with their nuttiness. The most famous example being Harry Reid, who looked to be in real trouble till the tea party handed him an opponent that is completely nuts.

Here's Kevin Drum noting that the D's are picking up ground with independent voters. Could they be turned off by the tea party? Stay tuned.

Vast and Growing

Today's must read is a special report from the Washington Post on the nation's vast and growing intelligence-industrial complex. Intelligence in this country is first and foremost an industry and there is a lot of money to be made. A lot of people make a living pumping out top secret reports. The question is, is mass-producing reports like Ford puts out cars really the way to keep America safe.

Question of the Day

Who would you rather sleep with?

The Old Spice Guy:



or the Most Interesting Man in the World?

Craig-on-Dead-Tree Alert

Check out today's Amador Ledger-Dispatch. The opinion section features an opinion column by yours truly.

Craigorian Chant Goes to a Tea Party

That’s right; your humble correspondent has attended a meeting of the Motherlode Tea Party. Here is what I found. Lots of flag being waved, both your standard American and the more confrontational “don’t tread on me” rattlesnake flag. The sound of Lee Greenwalds cheesy classic “Proud to be an American” was playing over the PA system as I walked in the door. Good turnout, maybe a couple hundred people. The crowd was pure white, which doesn’t tell you much in Amador County, every crowd in the Motherlode is pure white. More men than women, but not overwhelmingly so. About a quarter of the crowd raised their hands when veterans were asked to show themselves.  The most striking feature of the crowed was its age. This is not a young and spritely group.  If the Tea Party ever did get the heavy hand of government off the back of the American people most of their members would die of disease and starvation once Social Security and Medicare went away. The meeting opening consisted of the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem and God Bless America and an invocation. The speaker for the “Constitutional Minute” didn’t do his prep and stumbled though a reading of the first and second amendments. Then came the committee chairs, pitches to join in and help spread the word, give money, give time, buy a tea party tea shirt and wear it proudly. Frankly, I was disappointed in the complete lack of anger. Health care passed. Financial reform is about to pass. The GOP is projected to do well in November. These are conservatives who’ve taken their lumps and have hope for the future.

The keynote speaker was one Dr. Angelo Codevilla, professor and former Reagan Administration official. He gave a rather rambling speech, a sort of conservative intellectual history in which he objected to both sides of the Civil War, Woodrow Wilson, FDR and Obama. Think about your oldest, tiredest college professor and you’ll get a pretty good sense of his style. The crowd was very generous, eager to clap strong points and laugh at dumb elites, but they were not given much red meat. The only concrete suggestions the speaker made were 1. Vote Republican 2. Break up the School District and 3. EPA officials should be elected. Huh?

So in the end, the Tea Party is the Republican Party with a name change. You could have hung “Republican Central Committee” outside that door and nothing would change. Less people, cause the Republican brand is dirt, but the same kind of people, same rhetoric and same goal – get Democrats out of office and replacing them with Republicans. And you know what, that's fine. “I didn’t like how the last election turned out” works pretty good as a platform. It was my guiding principal for the years 2001 to 2006. But the Tea Party is no revolutionary movement. Its members are too old and too content with their lives, their policy goals too vague and contradictory. Conservative Republicans are now the Tea Party. It’s a rebranding, like Kentucky Fried Chicken becoming KFC to seem healthier or ValueJet Airlines renaming itself Airtran after a crash.

They are trying to say “Forget about conservative Republicans, who gave you war and economic disaster, we are the Tea Party, a fresh force in American politics and life.”

They are not.

Can You Un-Defect? Is that allowed in this Game?

If intriguing international spy stuff keeps hitting the front pages like this, I may not need to start watching Covert Affairs to get my tradecraft fix. Of course Piper Perabo makes a strong counter-argument. I could stand to get hotness with my spying. But wait! Real life offers that too!

Lord What Fools These Mortals Be

In the spirit of high-minded professionalism, I've generally stayed away from the more-tabloidy side of the Sarah Palin saga in order to focus on calling her stupid thoughtful criticism of her policy positions. But the latest turn of Bristol and Levi saga is just fascinating. Despite the best efforts of Sarah Palin, an evil tabloid culture tracking their every move and their own teenage dumbness, these kids have gotten back together. And they didn't even tell her! They let her read about it in US Weekly!

Victory Mother F***ers!

God bless you, first Amendment. A federal appeals court struck down the FCC indecency rules yesterday. So once more the world is safe for Bono to utter "fleeting expletives" during award shows. I'm not sure if this ruling makes it safe for Janet Jackson's boob, but we can always hope.

Scary Killer Robot. A Real Scary Killer Robot!

The British Ministry of Defense has just unveiled a new combat drone aircraft and it is easily the scariest looking thing I've ever seen:

I mean just look at that thing. Its clearly about ten seconds away from becoming sentient and starting to hunt us all down!

The Palin Stratigery

Marc Ambinder breaks down what Sarah Palin is up to, politically speaking. She not doing exactly what you are supposed you do to become President, but then, she's gotten this far hasn't she?

On the Unbelievable WW2

This is the most brilliant thing I've read today. Do you really expect us to believe all that? No one is that evil!

Today's Moment of Zen

 Spanish announcers totally losing it after Spain scores the winning goal.

Tax Cheat

The national deficit is created by a simple equation. Money spent - taxes collected = deficit. Note how there are two sides to the equation, spending and taxes and how they have an equal impact on the deficit? I.E. if you increase spending by a billion dollars it has the exact same impact on the deficit that cutting taxes by a billion dollars does.

The GOP want to pretend that taxes don't affect the deficit, that spending is the only part of the equation. Here's  Sen. Jon Kyl, the other Republican from Arizona, claiming that you should never have to offset the cost of a tax cut, as if that's some kind of accounting rule. 


No.


A tax cut adds to the debt. Bush's tax cuts to the wealthy will cost $678 billion just as sure as spending $678 billion on tanks, or health care or free pie for everyone in America. Tax cuts raise the deficit.

Rock On

Tradec for Value or Numbers

Looks like the spies we caught are going to be made part of a swap for ones the Russians caught. My question is - do we trade for quality or just numbers? Is one James Bond worth three ordinary hack spies, or are they ranked by the secrets they stole. Of course, if you get caught that means that you are not the best.

BP: The Game

Fun for the whole family. Watch out for the oil spill card!

Happy B-Day America

Cutting

The 100 best insults in movie history. Not even close to safe for work

The Funny Parts

The Top Five Jokes of the Kagan hearings.

There you go Ma'am, disarm those crusty old Senators.

Price of Prefection

Problems with Jabulani ball caused because it is "too perfect."

This is why I always strive for some small flaw. That's not a typo, that's a small deliberate flaw to prevent problematic perfection.

The Old "Brush Pass" Move

Great real world/spy world match-up in the headlines, with ten members of Russian spy ring caught and a Federal indictment that reads like Smiley's People.

Robert Byrd, Dead.

The longest serving Senator in history has died at 92. He served 51 years. There's some good to praise in Byrd. There is something amazing about longevity in itself. Just showing up to work every day for that long shows something. He was a clear voice against the Iraq War. He brought classic old-fashion oratory to the Senate floor. He could pull off a seersucker suit, which is a rare thing these days.

But there is a lot to criticise about Byrd, not to speak ill of the dead, but to speak ill of the system from which he comes. There is no way you can be an effective Senator at age 92, and I say that as a guy who helps take care of his 93 year old grandfather. But Senate rules reward seniority, and voter love to send the same guys back to DC year after year. Byrd was a master of pork, sending project after project to a West Virgina that wouldn't rate them otherwise. All the power that comes from seniority and Byrd used it to fund the Robert Byrd Center for the Study of Coal or a airport for a town not big enough to rate a airfield. That is the sum total of his legacy. No legislation to address the problems of the nation. Just a lot of goodies of his home state.

So that is legacy of Robert Byrd.

Sad

Bristol Palin, worlds most famous teen mom, tries to play teen mom on TV show, fails horribly.

Acting is tough, even acting as yourself.

USA! USA!

Plane Rides of Shame

Gen. Stanley McChrystal flight to the White House.

French National team's flight home.

The French flew coach. Ouch. Not sure how the general is flying.

No Kill Switch

I must admit I was rather drawn to the idea of a Presidential Kill Switch. It appealed to my sense of drama, if no my sense of civil liberties. Carry it around like the nuclear football. The nerd hero, the President's personal hacker, storming into the Oval Office "Mr. President, the virus continues to spread. We must pull the kill switch or lose the Country."

Turns out to be a myth.

Who Stands Up for the Oil Company

Texas Republican Joe Barton that's who.

You can destroy anything you want to. The GOP has got your back.

Free The Minidress 30

Wearing hot orange should not be a crime.

Now With Legos

U.S. - England, recreated with LLegos:

The Theological Implication...

...are staggering.

A six-story-tall statue of Jesus Christ with his arms raised along a highway was struck by lightning in a thunderstorm Monday night and burned to the ground, police said.

What does it all mean? No idols? No tacky idols? Some other god is jealous? (I suspect Zeus, lighting is his style) The random workings of a random universe?

The Saudi Arabia of Lithium

So it turns out that Afghanistan is sitting on a massive storehouse of valuable minerals. Is it just me, or is this not really the best news for a Country with a massively corrupt, barely functioning government still wracked by civil war? Oil hasn't solved the problems of Sudan or Nigeria, and being called the Saudi Arabia of X doesn't imply a clean and democratic future for your government. But hey, at least we won't be facing a cell phone battery shortage in the future. That could be as bad as peak oil,

GO VOTE

NOW!

Headline of the Day

Sword-Wielding Porn Actor Dies After Falling Off Cliff In Stand-Off

I could offer comment or a joke of my own, but really, I've got nothing to top this.

A Tribute to Reality Bites

All kinds of good stuff.

"I don't have a lawyer. I don't have a dentist."

Being A Republican Makes You Dumb

A person can be smart as can be, but put them in a GOP primary and dumbness breaks out.

2/3 Bad, 1/2 Good

More on how the two-thirds is wrecking government in California.

Voter Guide

Woo, I know you've been look forward to it and so have I. Propositions are my life:

Prop 13. Seismic retrofits. Gives a tax break to fix up existing builds to better withstand earthquakes. Which do happen from time to time here in California. Anything that makes it less likely that I will be buried under a pile of masonry when the big one hits gets my support. The Chant recommends Yes.

Prop 14. Open Primary. Creates an "Open Primary" for California elections, where all candidates run on the same ballot and the top two run the general, regardless of party. I know this isn't popular in this post-partisan era, but parties are important. Knowing if a (D) or (R) comes after a names tells you a lot, even if you know nothing else. This prop blurs those lines and could even end up with with two D's or two R's. Vote for me, I have the same legislative program as this other guy. The Chant recommends No.

Prop 15. Public Financing of Elections. Actually, just a big toe in the water of public financing of elections. Its just for Secretary of State and just for a couple of election cycles, but its a start. You want big money of politics? This is how you start. The Chant recommends Yes.

Prop 16. Voter Approval of Public Utilities. Biggest scam on the ballot. Purely funded by PG&E, this requires a two-thirds majority vote before forming a public utility. Two-thirds votes are impossible, which is why California can't pass a budget and the US Constitution is never amended. Plus, public utilities can't spend money on campaigns. So PG&E can completely block any competition (public utilities like SMUD in Sacramento are much cheaper) This is why Propositions suck. The Chant recommends No.

Prop 17. Auto Insurance. The second biggest scam on the ballot. Look, I know the commercials say this is a deal, but do you really think that a insurance company is going to go to all the trouble of getting the signatures, put this on the ballot and spend millions on commercials JUST TO SAVE YOU MONEY? Sure. The Chant recommends No.

In the Democratic primary, I'm going to go with Jerry Brown (I know, I know, but he's what we got) Gavin Newsom for Lt. governor (Sexy pol of the future) and Kamala Harris for Attorney General. Don't even think about voting for Mickey Kaus for Senate, not even as a joke.

You Republicans are on your own, but I must say, if Steve Poisner was as liberal as Meg Whiteman's commercials say, I might vote for him. But its all probably lies, anyway.

One week till election day. Have fun.

This Weeks Middle East Crisis

Drama on the high seas. I'm not saying the "freedom flotilla" was wholly pure or wasn't looking for trouble, but commandos vrs aid workers will never result in good PR for the side with the commandos. Israel is destined to look bad these days. Israel, justified or not, is basically trying to starve out Hamas and 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza strip. Much like millions of gallons of oil in the water, there are some things that just can't be spun.

My Coleman Tribute

He's in this, just wait for it:

All in Fun Till Somebody Gets Assaulted

I know the right wing has all kinds of fun being crazy about the census. The government is going to count how many teeth you have so they can better steal your teeth and so on. But now people are getting hurt. Some folks pulled a gun on census worker here in Nor Cal, the police got called and a women died. So lay off the census, ok?

If you claim to love the Constitution, then you should love the Census, cause its right there in the document. Go Look (Article 1, Section 2) I'll wait. So greet your Census worker with a smile and fill out the damn form.

Just Waiting

Top Kill.

At least the name is cool. I wonder what the clean up will be called. Something less cool like "shitty mess" or "slow death from petrochemical exposure"

Deadline

Today is the last day to register to vote in California. Get on it!

Craigorian Chant Brought to You by Nike

Not because they pay me but because they make epics.

How Far Does He Want to Go with This?

All the way back to segregated bathrooms, apparently. The Republican-of-the-moment is way out there.

Bye Specter

Arlen Specter, who has been in the Senate for as almost as long as I've been alive, is done. Beaten in a Democratic Primary after he switched parties to avoid a conservative challenge in the Republican party. Irony is not dead, even if Senator Specter's political career is.

So basically this is exactly the Reward the Traitor scenario envisioned by myself this time last year. I mean, we welcome the traitor, we could use his vote, but we can never really trust him, can we?

Its not often that I come up with such a spot-on prediction and remember to write it down, so I'm linking to it again.

Conspiracy Theory

I've got one for you:

The Glenn Beck media empire is a vast conspiracy to foist gold on the public.

Let me show you on my blackboard...

Update: Deeper into the conspiracy.

Great Achievements in Bikining

That's right, this is American, land of opportunity. Give us your tired, your poor, we will put them in bikinis and make them stars. I'm going to count the first win for a Muslim Miss USA as a win for decadent Western values. The fundies can never beat us. We have bikinis.

Oh and it turns out, they are still asking political questions. Miss Oklahoma got asked about Arizonans "papers please" law. Again, I ask - Why?

Oh and no way should anyone give the new Miss USA grief over the pole dance contest pics. You can't pick and chose what kind of sexy women get to do. She's the best in the country at walking around in a bikini. You can't take some other kind of sexy like dancing on a pole and label it evil.

And now I'm done beauty pageant blogging for anouther year.

Iran Nuke Deal

They are shipping their uranium to Turkey.

Good news. No, great news. Iran will no longer have the stuff to make a bomb, everyone can take a deep breath, the war-mongers in both countries are deeply undermined.

Puppies for everyone!

Your West Wing Moment of Zen

Best story ever.

Life In California

I'm at the gym and they have this bank of TV. One is showing a Meg Witman ad attacking Steve Poizner for being a big old liberal. The one next is showing a Poizner attacking Witman for being a big old liberal. So either they are all liars or no matter who wins, these two or Jerry Brown, we are going to get a big old liberal.

Winner

Well, we now have a winner in Britain. Tory David Cameron is now PM as head of a coalition government between the conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. The LDs really do lean to the left on most issues, so this strikes me a bit of an odd marriage. But I'm not a British MP, so I have very little say in the matter

Best Stories

You only get the best stories after their gone. Angus Thuermer, 92 CIA agent is now gone, so we can tell his story.

My favorite: he once smuggled Joseph Stalin's daughter out of New Delhi in his luggage.

He also served as the top CIA public affairs official, which I imagine is a pretty easy gig. "No Comment."

Kagan Day

President Obama is nominating Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. Kagan, in the new style of such nominees, doesn't have a clear judiciary record and thus, is a blank slate upon which we can project all of our hopes and fears. This being the SCOTUS, mostly fears.

Meet the Protest Dog

His name is Kanellos.

UK Election! UK Election!

Hot three way action. No really, a true three-way race has broken out this election cycle in Britain, with the perennial third party, the Liberal Democrats, making a really strong run this year.

And because of the time difference, I won't have to stay up late to see how it turns out.

Machete

A movie for our time.

Today's Reading

Malcolm Gladwell on espionage

The Question on Our Minds

Is Lost a Repeat?

If They Worry, We're Doing Fine

As soon as you see happy lobbyists, start to worry.

White House Correspondents Dinner

Presidential jokes! Also Jay Leno doing his thing, which kind of sounds like jokes, but ain't.

Uplifting, Once You Think About It.

America

Who's ready for a fresh immigration debate?