Yes, but will they blame Gray Davis?

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Senator Reid may very well be a genius

Found this little tidbit in the news today. I'm becoming more and more fascinated by how well Harry Reid is doing as Senate Minority Leader. He's played this whole battle over the "nuclear option" (Bush refers to it as the "nucular option") of eliminating Senate judicial filibusters perfectly. After whipping up the "faithful" (I use that term loosely) during Justice Sunday, Frist couldn't back down, and now Reid (and the Democrats) are the ones who come out looking like statesmen, true compromisers in the best sense of the word, and Frist is the one who looks like a small child who takes his toys and goes home if he can't get his way.

Reid gave Frist an out; he said that if he skips the few most radical, most extreme nominations, the others would go through without a hitch. But that wasn't good enough for Frist. It's scorched earth politics, where almost all just isn't good enough. It wasn't good enough that 95% of Bush's judicial nominees have sailed through the Senate. They need the full 100%, even if we're talking about people who side with cross-burners, or let our children die and deny their parents financial relief in order to side with big business.

Another Republican resigns in disgrace

This time it's San Diego Mayor Dick Murphy. Yes, you heard right... After all that time and money spent in lawsuits claiming that the man who got fewer votes deserved the Mayorship, his Honor decided he couldn't stand the heat. Pension scandals, fiscal woes, a suspended credit rating, none of it seemed to matter until Time magazine recognized him as one of the three worst mayors in the U.S. Yes, that includes Alaska and Hawaii, and even Alabama!

All that's left now is the crying. And the special election.

Real Time

If you don't watch Real Time with Bill Maher (and you receive HBO), then you really should. I recommend it only slightly behind The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which stands as the most brilliant commentary on news (and fake news) on any cable channel.

Interesting quote from Robert F. Kennedy Jr.:

"All the things that we need to do to solve global warming are things that we ought to be doing for our economy and to assure our prosperity anyway. If we raise fuel-efficiency standards by one mile per gallon, we can yield more oil...twice the amount of oil that's in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. If we raise fuel-economy standards by 5.6 or 7.6 miles per gallon, we can end our Persian Gulf imports into this country. We would be able to end our dependence on foreign dictators who hate democracy, who are despised by their own people."

In other news, SUV sales are declining, possibly in reaction to gasoline prices hitting $2.55/gallon. But hybrid sales are up 81%.

Well, it is a hard language

And the hits just keep on coming. Schwarzenegger blamed his "faulty English", well, he has only been in this country since 1968, and I'm sure he immediately moved into a large community of German-speakers, thus hurting his assimilation.

Now, some might say there's an element of racism here, and this was Arnold's way of throwing bones to groups like "the Minutemen" who really do want to close the border with Mexico. I'd hate to think that was true, and that he's resorted to using coded language.

I do notice, though, that he didn't call to close the border between the U.S. and Austria.

Straight from the North County (San Diego) Times...

College students demand education they can afford. How dare they. I mean, really.

A projected 8 percent increase. This is on top of the 14 percent increase in 2004, the 30 percent increase in 2003, and the 10 percent increase in 2002. But hey, I saved a couple hundred bucks on my VLF, so it's all good.

You see, Republicans like to blame Democrats for raising taxes, but they still get the money; they just raise fees, instead. So lets take stock. So far, the big losers are: College Students (and their parents), Workers (high cost of health insurance), the Elderly (ditto, plus prescription drugs), and anyone who drives a car. The winners are: Corporations. Did I miss anyone?

Well, that didn't take long...

Apparently a right-wing "organization" is running ads in Ohio against Senator Voinovich. They're accusing him of "playing hooky" from the hearings and then showing up just to "stab President Bush in the back."

I'd like to think of this as an attack of conscience for the Republican Senator, if the RNCC didn't force them to sign an anti-conscience pledge before receiving campaign funding.