Wienerlog

2011-08-16T08:05:00.000-07:00

Speculations on the 2012 Election If there's a strong anti-incumbent sentiment in 2012 it's quite possible that Republicans could lose the House but gain the Senate and Presidency. There are a lot of marginal seats in the House which went Republican during the 2010 wave, and it wouldn't be hard for some of those to switch back. Whereas Democrats in the Senate have a lot more seats to

2010-04-17T00:42:00.000-07:00

Greening the Bowels of the Earth Doesn't it just make you want to exclaim "Oh Shit!" whenever you think of all those bath tissues spiraling down the toilets of the world, billions of times every day? Year after year, trillions of little squares of paper are casually flushed away. How wasteful! How harmful to the environment! Why doesn't somebody do something about it? Well, now somebody

2009-05-03T14:36:00.000-07:00

UPDATE (8/19/2009): Well, so much for that idea... What About Brett? Now that Brett Favre has asked for and received his unconditional release from the Jets, all the speculation seems to be about the likelihood that he'll sign on with the Minnesota Vikings. Supposedly Brett is so angry with Green Bay Packers' General Manager Ted Thompson that he'll do anything to get revenge, even to the

2007-08-16T17:34:00.000-07:00

"Feel Good" Gun Control Measures [The Simi Valley City Council recently passed an ordinance requiring the reporting of Lost and Stolen Firearms. I objected unsuccessfully, by speaking at both Council meetings at which it was considered, and sending the following email to all the Council Members explaining why the arguments in favor of it made no sense.] I would like to urge you to reconsider

2007-06-11T18:31:00.000-07:00

Global Warming Skepticism I followed a link from Tim Blair to a "Denialism" blog which purports to debunk criticisms of Global Warming (mostly by labeling critics as "denialists" whose arguments therefore need not actually be refuted). The Denialism blog posting soon accumulated a couple of hundred very heated pro and con comments. So I decided to throw in my two cents worth, but inflation

2007-02-25T10:24:00.000-08:00

[The Guatemala sinkhole and the Academy Awards hoopla over Al Gore's global warming "documentary" got me thinking again about disaster movies. Back in late 2005, after watching the first half of the made-for-CBS disaster flick "Category 7: The End of the World", I realized that there was obviously an unlimited market for this genre. If this kind of stuff can get on TV and even win Academy

2005-10-27T13:21:00.000-07:00

Harriet Meirs: Another scalp for the blogosphere Yeah, I know, that’s probably an impolite way of putting it. But it’s nevertheless true. The blog echo chamber has resonated once again, and this time shattered a Supreme Court nomination. It used to be that a powerful, well-connected person could say an idiotic thing or make a stupid mistake and still get away with it: Either no one would

2005-09-27T09:57:00.000-07:00

Hurricanes, Space Elevators, Solar Arrays, and Supercomputers (A modest proposal for killing Hurricanes in their infancy using advanced technology) There have been lots of blue-sky ideas floated over the years for diverting or destroying hurricanes. Most such plans are quickly refuted, since the energies expended by Mother Nature tend to dwarf anything at the disposal of human beings. Even

2005-08-02T09:16:00.000-07:00

Immortality Problem? In response to my previous post "Should humans be allowed to live forever?" I received an email from someone named Adam which packed a lot of assertions into one paragraph, and I thought I'd respond to them: Even if they find a way to allow humans to live forever on the cellular level, that would not stop people from dieing by other factors such as disease, accidents, etc.

2005-07-31T10:18:00.000-07:00

Should humans be allowed to live forever? Back in its February 2005 issue (which arrived in January), the M.I.T. Technology Review magazine published a long critique by Dr. Sherwin Nuland of the work of Dr. Aubrey de Grey's Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS), i.e., extending human life indefinitely. Both Nuland and the Editor of Technology Review, Jason Pontin, made clear

2005-05-17T08:19:00.000-07:00

Filibuster Anticlimax? For months now the battle over judicial nominations has been one of maneuver rather than engagement. Republicans and their core supporters are trying to remold the courts with conservative and originalist appointments. Democrats and their core supporters are trying to preserve what is left of their last bastion of strength in terms of activist judges who will defend and

2004-10-29T16:56:00.000-07:00

OBL just gave Democrats a psychological escape valve. The early consensus conclusion is that Osama Bin Laden’s new video tape will seal President Bush’s victory next Tuesday. In it OBL spends much of his time bashing Bush, and no one believes that the American public will be intimidated (such as the Spanish were) into caving into OBL’s threats. It has been suggested that John Kerry might

2004-10-07T13:07:00.000-07:00

Is “Shock and Awe” a diversion? The hot rumor that’s flying around the Internet today is that the Bush campaign is about to launch its “Shock and Awe” attack on John Kerry’s liberal Senate record, and that this is their “October Surprise”. It sounds very plausible that Bush would hold his fire until the final month of the campaign, so the charges would be fresh in voters’ minds. Certainly

2004-09-28T08:45:00.000-07:00

Humor Break: Hoax Chain Letter Okay, now for something completely different. I had one of my weird "inspirations" the other night, about an email chain letter which might almost be believable in the current campaign environment. As a stereotypical engineer with too much time on his hands (except that in reality I have far too little time available) I couldn't stop myself from writing it up

2004-09-23T13:23:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: Timing isn't critical Will the Bush campaign go for the kill and demand Bob Schieffer's removal as debate moderator, as per my previous speculation? Or will Bush decide to play the part of Mr. Nice Guy? At the joint Bush / Allawi press conference today, the President at one point specifically asked for a CBS reporter to pose a question. It was a way of showing magnanimity while

2004-09-21T13:11:00.000-07:00

Sticking it to CBS and Kerry The Drudge Report claims that Bush officials want CBS News correspondent Bob Schieffer removed as the moderator for the final (Oct. 13th) Presidential debate. If true, this would appear to be a clever move to keep the story about the CBS forged document scandal in the public eye, while simultaneously punishing CBS for it's biased and shoddy journalism.

2004-09-16T14:39:00.000-07:00

MEMOGATE: The real story... I've come up with what I believe to be a plausible explanation of the entire "memogate" episode: Where the documents came from, how and why they got into CBS' hands, how Dan Rather put together his 60 Minutes II story, why CBS sent the White House advance copies, why the White House distributed those copies to other news media, why Bush has not angrily denounced

2004-09-11T22:21:00.000-07:00

CBS Entertainment torpedoes CBS News Don't underestimate the CSI Effect! A lot of people are wondering whether the news of Dan Rather's forged documents, which he trotted out on 60 Minutes to try to damage President Bush's re-election campaign, will have legs. It's absolutely certain that the documents are fakes (and not very good ones at that), but CBS News continues to stonewall, and Rather

2004-09-02T16:50:00.000-07:00

Bush will go to Russia very shortly. Especially if the hostage situation there ends badly, with scores or hundreds of children murdered by terrorists. This is shaping up to be Russia’s own 9/11 wake-up call, far more so than the October, 2002 Moscow Theater siege. Here we’ve had two jetliners blown out of the skies and a subway suicide bombing just within the past week, and now this

2004-05-11T18:51:00.000-07:00

A cute little trap for Kerry The Republicans are making political hay over the fact that John Kerry missed the vote to extend unemployment benefits. But it occurred to me that this may have been a deliberate trap to make him look bad. I suspect that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist had one or two Republican Senators in his pocket who he could have pressured into switching their votes if it

2004-04-23T15:52:00.000-07:00

R.I.P. Pat Tillman, a Son of Liberty Pat Tillman represents the best of America, and that's why he has our respect and our tears. No honest person can question his motives, not when he gave up fame and fortune to risk his life defending both his freedom and ours. He gives us confidence that our society has not become too self-absorbed or too decadent or too fearful to survive -- not while we

2004-04-03T23:29:00.000-08:00

And Kerry's choice for Vice-President is… (Drumroll) Envelope please… Al Gore?!? I know, I know, it sounds totally absurd. But think about it for a moment. Ruminate on the implications. Kerry is in deep shit. Bush is busy defining him as a dull and cautious fence-straddler who never takes a bold stance. Kerry's negatives are rising and his prospects are sinking. He just lost

2003-12-29T22:59:00.000-08:00

Miracle in the Desert That's what it's being called, and justifiably so. I'm not much for believing in miracles, but this one shakes my non-faith. Most sports contests are pretty pedestrian. Looking at it objectively, you have some highly-overpaid athletes battling each other for a silly title that has no great significance. The athletes do their thing, and one side or the other wins.

2003-11-05T15:37:00.000-08:00

“Cover Your Ass” or “Protect Your Assets”? Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference. When the Bush Administration (or any Administration) insists that intelligence-gathering details must be kept secret for reasons of “national security”, and that they’re prevented from effectively refuting accusations that they screwed up out of a need to protect intelligence assets, how do you

2003-09-29T08:52:00.000-07:00

UPDATE (9/29/03) Here comes the new storyline! Republican consultant Kenneth L. Khachigian has an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times today which picks up on the theme that Republicans should try to shove Bustamante down into third place. This is the leading edge of the new media feeding frenzy. Expect a lot more columns and stories playing up McClintock's come-from-behind charge to overtake

2003-09-28T11:53:00.000-07:00

Republicans are in full panic mode that McClintock will tilt the election to Bustamante. Democrats are in full panic mode that Bustamante is dead in the water. Polls show Davis is way behind and maybe even losing ground. Folks, it's over. Gray Davis is dead, burnt, ash of toast. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the new governor. And Tom McClintock is the new conservative hero. Everybody had

2003-09-23T13:21:00.000-07:00

A good, clean, unanimous decision. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court's decision avoided the "chop the baby in half" solution which I had predicted below. There seemed to be some sentiment to postpone Propositions 53 and 54 until the March primary, but then the 11-judge panel would have had to go to a lot of effort justifying such a conclusion. This way they simply deferred to the District judge's

2003-09-22T09:13:00.000-07:00

Sacramento Bee shoots its leg off ----- Original Message ----- From: Daniel Wiener To: ombud@sacbee.com Sent: Sunday, September 21, 2003 7:32 PM Subject: Daniel Weintraub's blog Dear Mr. Marcano, I was shocked to read that the Sacramento Bee is now trying to reign in Daniel Weintraub's superb blog. Don't you people have the slightest clue? Daniel Weintraub has become THE news

2003-09-15T13:30:00.000-07:00

UPDATE (9/16/03): I love it when a plan comes together! The 9th Circuit Court has decided to have an 11-judge panel reconsider yesterday's ruling by a 3-judge panel to postpone the recall election. This comes after the Los Angeles County Registrar revealed [catch by Daniel Weintraub] that the new voting machines can't handle both the super-long recall ballot and the large number of other

2003-08-08T17:52:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: Bustamante can't appoint himself Lt. Governor I received a private email which indicates that Bustamante, if he became Governor, could not appoint himself Lt. Governor. Article V, Section 2 of the California Constitution states that "The Governor may not hold other public office." Hence the Governor is not eligible to appoint himself to any other position, and Bustamante could not

2003-07-12T23:53:00.000-07:00

The Recall Loophole There is a legal loophole by which Gray Davis can avoid a recall election and still remain governor. Here's how it works: Davis resigns before sufficient signatures for the recall election are officially certified to the Secretary of State; the recall is instantly over, since the object of the recall is no longer in office. Lt. Governor Bustamante assumes the

2003-07-12T23:15:00.000-07:00

Will Gray Davis resign? On the one hand the idea seems inconceivable. Davis has spent his entire life climbing the political ladder, finally reaching the position of Governor, with all the power and patronage that position offers to an unscrupulous politician. At one time he harbored serious hopes for the Presidency (as does every California governor). What meaning would Davis' life have

2003-05-24T11:44:00.000-07:00

A Better, Cheaper Technological Solution to Open Government Governor Davis is proposing to save the state of California $9.3 million per year by eliminating the Brown Act mandate under which local governments and agencies must post their agendas. According to California law, the state government cannot impose "unfunded mandates" upon local governments. That prevents the state from

2003-04-06T12:28:00.000-07:00

A tragic "friendly fire" incident may cement Kurdish freedom Nothing completely eliminates the fog of war, and the news of a "friendly fire" attack which killed a number of Kurd fighters and some U.S. special force members is indeed horrible. But the indirect result may be to protect the Kurds from a Turkish invasion. Turkey fears an independent Kurdistan. Also, one of the big dangers of

2003-03-09T10:48:00.000-08:00

Gray Davis gets sucked into a Black Hole. Today's Los Angeles Times Poll is reporting that Governor Davis' favorable job rating has reached an all-time low of 27%, with 64% of Californian's disapproving. Buried within the poll data is the fact that 39% support a recall drive, while 51% oppose it. Is that a glimmer of good news for Davis? Not really. This question followed another

2003-02-12T15:20:00.000-08:00

What's in a name? The invasion of Iraq is likely to begin in a matter of days. What will the history books call it? When Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990, the United States quickly moved in forces to prevent Hussein from continuing into Saudi Arabia. The very poetic name chosen was Desert Shield. That operation continued for the next five and a half months while the U.S. prepared

2003-02-11T13:41:00.000-08:00

More ULTIMATE IRONY from France and Germany as they skewer NATO. Three of the 19 NATO countries, France, Germany, and Belgium, have vetoed an official request from NATO member Turkey for military defense assistance, thereby plunging the NATO alliance into a crisis which might well destroy it. That's fine by me. Good riddance to NATO, which long ago outlived any possible useful purpose and

2003-02-09T01:52:00.000-08:00

THE ULTIMATE IRONY: France and Germany have just eliminated the last practical chance of avoiding war in Iraq. When President Bush proclaimed that "The game is over," the French and Germans went into panic mode. They obviously are aware from their own intelligence sources that (almost) irrevocable orders have now been issued, and the U.S. countdown is underway. So they are floating a

2003-01-29T18:02:00.000-08:00

Further Update: McClintock sees the same contradiction. Today's Los Angeles Times has the following quote: "Is it a tax levy or is it not a tax levy?" said McClintock. "If it's a tax levy it requires a two-third vote. If it's not a tax levy, it's subject to referendum." The Democrat-appointed Legislative Counsel's spin is that this is a "tax levy" which reduces taxes (on vehicles worth less

2003-01-24T19:16:00.000-08:00

Car Tax referendum? California's budget battle was just racheted up a large notch. I didn't hear it myself, but this post indicates that State Senator Tom McClintock was just on the John & Ken radio talk show (KFI AM 640) an hour ago, and he threatened to lead a referendum against any hike in the Vehicle License Fee. The Democrats are anxious to raise taxes to fill the enormous hole in

2003-01-20T17:05:00.000-08:00

Oh, the Inhumanity! Just when it seems that the human race has finally groped its way upward towards a significant level of maturity, this comes along. [Article link requires paid subscription to the Wall Street Journal; see excerpt below.] It used to be that anyone outside of a person's immediate family wasn't considered to be truly human. Everyone else was a sub-human or an enemy,

2003-01-16T00:05:00.000-08:00

The Inpection Trap. According to this article, the Bush Administration is privately reassuring Republicans that it will produce the necessary evidence to marshall public support for a war against Iraq. Many skeptics have been complaining that Bush has failed to demonstrate a connection between September 11th and Saddam Hussein, but they are totally missing the politics of the situation.

2003-01-15T16:57:00.000-08:00

Russia is putting the heat on Europe over Kyoto. This is hilarious. According a Reuters news article, Russia Delays Global Warming Pact, May Wreck Deal. Russia's inaction seems to really puzzle Clara Ferreira-Marques, the Reuters reporter, since "The delay could cost Moscow billions of dollars." And why exactly is that? Pollution quotas for the protocol are based on 1990 levels, and

2002-12-20T10:55:00.000-08:00

I missed it by that much... Okay, so my timing was off. Trent Lott desperately hung on for much longer than I expected. It took 9 days instead of my upper estimate of 6. But his eventual departure was never in doubt. The pattern was just too obvious. I'll repeat my quote from a previous post on how these things happen: These events follow a trajectory. The politician lashes out at

2002-12-11T17:29:00.000-08:00

UPDATE (12/15/2002): Lott chooses the hard way. He had his chance late Friday afternoon to make a gracious, face-saving resignation. Instead he chose to close his eyes to reality and cling to power to the bitter end. Now his removal will be impossible to spin as anything other than a personal humiliation. Today Senator Don Nickles called for a new Leadership election. I'll repeat what I

2002-11-15T18:10:00.000-08:00

Saddam may go out with a whimper, not a bang. Over the years I've closely observed a number of political scandals unfold here in California and elsewhere in the country. For example, California Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush resigned last year rather than face impeachment or recall after his corrupt fundraising practices became public. Locally we had Ventura County Community

2002-11-13T13:53:00.000-08:00

Voter turnout in California was abysmal, with good reason. On the state level, our choices for Governor were pathetic. Most of the voters who dragged themselves into the polling booths are still walking around a week later with severely pinched noses. The only state-wide race which was competitive was the contest for Controller. As of this date we still don't know for sure who has won.

2002-10-29T16:46:00.000-08:00

Expect Bush to keep stalling at the United Nations for another week. I think it's politically advantageous for the Administration to drag out the U.N. debate until just after the November elections. As long as the situation remains in flux, no voter constituencies are being alienated. Consider: If the U.N. successfully passes a compromise resolution, conservative hawks will scream that

2002-10-21T13:39:00.000-07:00

Favre-able prognosis provides perspective. These days it's all too easy to become caught up in concerns about terrorism, war, elections, corruption, politics, etc. Then something will suddently come along which makes all those matters pale into insignificance, and remind us how important it is to keep our priorities straight. Just such an event occurred yesterday, early in the third

2002-10-09T13:14:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: The blood pours out of the stump of Simon's leg. Investigation of the photograph has verified that Davis did not accept the contribution in a government office, and hence stayed within the law. The backlash against Bill Simon is growing (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). Sacramento Bee columnist

2002-10-04T22:48:00.000-07:00

My POSSLQ had her letter published in the Los Angeles Daily News today, attacking Prop 52. Proposition 52 would allow election-day voter registration in California, and from among its numerous flaws Sandi chose to focus on the following: Dirtier campaigns Bruce L. Bialosky is correct that Proposition 52 won't solve the low voter-turnout problem ("Easier registration won't bring more

2002-10-01T19:27:00.000-07:00

FURTHER UPDATE: Western Political Review (10/8/02) reports L.A. Times poll bias. Knowledgeable political observers keep piling on, as indicated by the following excerpts [the Western Political Review requires a $9.95/mo subscription]: WesternPR has learned from reliable sources that the Times Poll was weighted in a way to take a larger sample of Democrats. In short, our source maintains the

2002-09-27T00:05:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: Appeals Court rules against Davis. Two months ago I predicted that the American Taxpayers Alliance would win on appeal, and now they have. The ATA had run TV ads attacking Gray Davis for his mishandling of the California energy crisis, but refused to file reports divulging its financial backers. Davis sued and got a Superior Court judge to order the ATA to reveal the

2002-09-06T17:08:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: Columnist Daniel Weintraub says pretty much the same thing in today's (Sept. 22, 2002) Sacramento Bee. All the attention is focused on California's Gubernatorial contest, but the most important race in California this fall may actually be for State Controller. The contestants are Republican Tom McClintock and Democrat Steve Westly. What makes this race so important is that the

2002-09-04T13:38:00.000-07:00

Can it get any more pathetic than this? Under heavy pressure from religious conservatives, Bill Simon has retracted the questionnaire he filled out for Log Cabin Republicans regarding gay issues. According to this Los Angeles Times article [requires free registration]: "Someone answered it for me," Simon told reporters during a campaign stop at the Calvary Christian Center in Sacramento. "

2002-08-29T16:56:00.000-07:00

Although it failed to ask about potted plants, the new Public Policy Institute of California survey out today contains some interesting data. Gray Davis is leading Bill Simon by 11%, a margin that is up from 4% compared to a hypothetical matchup before the March primary. Davis' support has actually fallen from 44% to 41%, but Simon's support has fallen even more, to 30%. [The polling

2002-08-23T18:11:00.000-07:00

I'm pleased to see that the Libertarian Party has added a notch to its belt in the continuing struggle to end the Drug War. On Tuesday, Georgia Congressman Bob Barr lost his Republican primary race, after being targeted by the Libertarian Party's Congressional candidate. Now admittedly the main reason Barr lost was because he foolishly moved from a difficult-but-winnable district into a new,

2002-08-21T15:26:00.000-07:00

One more straw in the wind indicating that Davis is heading for re-election victory: According to this Sacramento Bee story, Davis has finally started getting inquiries about whether he'd be a Presidential candidate in 2004. "I have no plans to run," he said. "I'm not doing anything like it." He strengthened his comments later, when asked whether he or Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a fellow

2002-08-15T12:39:00.000-07:00

USS Clueless, by Steven Den Beste, has quickly become one of my favorite blogs, and I consume an inordinate amount of time reading his frequent, long, and fascinating posts. Steve's comments today about John Fonte's article on Transnational Progressivism sent an eerie frisson through me as I recalled the "Tales of Continuing Time" series of science fiction books by Daniel Keyes Moran (

2002-08-06T17:46:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: Los Angeles Times gets it right. Give credit to the L.A. Times for an excellent news report on the anti-condemnation injunction. Here are some key excerpts from the story [link requires free registration]: In a stinging 36-page opinion, a federal judge Tuesday ordered a temporary halt to the city of Cypress' plan to condemn church property in order to make way for a tax-generating

2002-07-30T13:02:00.000-07:00

This is an old April Fools joke, right? The Oakland Tribune reports that State Senator John Burton is pushing a bill which would give Indian tribes a veto over public and private development on any California land that they consider sacred. I did a double take when I read this. It sounded almost exactly like an April Fools joke we pulled off back in 1997. Back when my wife [actually we

2002-07-26T19:14:00.000-07:00

Our very thin-skinned Governor Davis wants to know who's been bad-mouthing him. For the past year he's been trying to force the American Taxpayers Alliance to disclose the names of its backers, after they began running TV ads attacking his handling of the power crisis. Davis got a Superior Court judge to order the American Taxpayers Alliance to file reports as a political campaign committee,

2002-07-25T09:01:00.000-07:00

According to the old saw, a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged. These days a liberal is a conservative whose family member has had cancer. Lyn Nofziger, Reagan's White House political director, said Wednesday that he became a supporter of medicinal marijuana when his daughter was dying of cancer. Marijuana was the only drug that helped alleviate her nausea and the other side effects

2002-07-24T08:48:00.000-07:00

UPDATE ON SIMON'S TAX RETURN FIASCO As I said, it was the worst of all possible worlds. Bill Simon is being crucified in editorials and op-ed pieces throughout the state (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here) for the belated semi-release of his tax records. As usual, venerable political analyst Dan Walters puts it best: Simon could have

2002-07-23T13:01:00.000-07:00

UPDATE ON AB 1493: NO REFERENDUM After reading over various news reports from around California, I finally found a San Diego Union Tribune story which contained this nugget buried near the end: The auto industry is expected to challenge the legislation in court. Gloria Bergquist, a spokeswoman for a coalition of automakers, said states cannot independently impose fuel-economy standards,

2002-07-22T23:34:00.000-07:00

I wish I had some talent as a sketch artist. I'd like to draw a political cartoon of Gray Davis and Bill Simon as two gunslingers, facing off against each other for the climactic showdown, trying to see which one can manage to shoot his own feet off first. The Sacramento Bee reported today that Bill Simon has finally agreed to let reporters take a peek at his income tax returns. Sort of. A

2002-07-17T11:43:00.000-07:00

THIS is the reason I am so strongly in favor of the death penalty: The monster responsible for snatching 5-year-old Samantha Runnion and brutally raping and murdering her deserves to be very slowly skinned alive. Since that's not an option, the very least that should happen to him is execution. And I don't give a rat's ass what his IQ is, or whether he was abused during childhood, or any

2002-07-16T17:08:00.000-07:00

Lately I seem to be fixated on the California gubernatorial race, and that's really not my intention. But I live here in California, and it's hard not to be fascinated by the spectacle. Dan Walters has another excellent column comparing the Davis-Simon contest to the 1994 race between Governor Pete Wilson and State Treasurer Kathleen Brown. Wilson's popularity had fallen into a chasm, I

2002-07-11T16:53:00.000-07:00

UPDATE #2:Davis' spokesman has announced that the Governor will sign AB 1493 on July 22nd. Opponents are being publicly non-committal about their intentions to mount a referendum. Supporters are trying to convince themselves it won't happen. And, to be fair, there's still a chance it might not. Opponents could conceivably decide it's cheaper to fight in the courts than to finance a referendum

2002-07-11T11:38:00.000-07:00

The latest poll is not good news for Gray Davis I've been very skeptical in the past about Simon's prospects, about the competence of his campaign advisors, and about Simon's failure to aggressively define himself after his upset primary victory. And I keep pointing out that Gray Davis should not be underestimated -- campaigning and raising money for campaigning is his life. But his

2002-07-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

Davis is shitting bricks, and Democrats are trying to cover his ass. The Orange County Register and Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters are both reporting that Davis intends to sign AB 1493 (the anti-greenhouse-gas bill) to appease his liberal base, but that Democrats are scared a subsequent referendum drive will put it on the November election ballot and thereby further threaten Davis'

2002-07-02T10:02:00.000-07:00

Democrats take the Plege, but God burns them anyway. I noticed a huge discrepancy between the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll results from June 21-23 and June 28-30 on the generic Congressional ballot. Yesterday (July 1st) Gallup released an analysis from a survey taken a week ago (June 21-23) which showed the Democrats with a big lead in the generic Congressional ballot. Among regular voters the

2002-06-14T15:45:00.000-07:00

I thought the following thread about terrorism and Israel was rather revealing. Carol Moore is the leader of a minority "peace" faction within the Libertarian Party which invariably prefers to blame the United States government (and the Israeli government) for provoking terrorist attacks. She always sees Palestinians and Arab-Muslims as the downtrodden victims of aggression who have simply been

2002-05-29T16:52:00.000-07:00

Why do I have the feeling that this Internet gun-control poll won't be around much longer? The National Committee for an Effective Congress bills itself as "a vital force in American politics" that supports "progressive candidates who fight for the issues you believe in, like freedom of choice, separation of church and state, gun control, equal rights, and environmental protection". But

2002-05-26T21:53:00.000-07:00

Drudge's story is itself the story. According to "one senior Bush official, who spoke to the DRUDGE REPORT on condition of anonymity", the "White House question[s] the timing and release of PARAMOUNT's new action movie SUM OF ALL FEARS ... a movie which depicts a nuclear bomb unleashed on an American sporting event!" I'm inclined to believe it's true that a "senior Bush official" spoke to

2002-05-23T13:52:00.000-07:00

I don't think things are going well for Republican Gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon here in California. First the Field Poll (the validity of which is always open to question) showed Davis back in the lead. More recently there have been a series of stories about Simon losing momentum. Admittedly these have come from liberal newspapers like the Los Angeles Times and New York Times, which are

2002-05-18T19:16:00.000-07:00

Here's a screen shot of the CBS News story mis-identifying Bush as President in 1998. Of course they've now changed their story, so who's to say it ever really happened? I guess it's just more evidence that the rabble on the Internet need editors like the major news publications have, to avoid putting out inaccurate information. After all, you never see traditional journalists engage in a

2002-05-10T14:43:00.000-07:00

Movie Review: "Unfaithful" is a stinker! (WARNING: The review below of the movie "Unfaithful" contains spoilers. Not that there's much that isn't already spoiled.) Back on April 21st I attended a free screening of "Unfaithful", which is billed as a steamy suspense thriller starring Diane Lane and Richard Gere. Since the movie opens today, I now feel free to reveal my opinion. I'll put it

2002-05-05T10:52:00.000-07:00

We can argue about this till the cows come home... Chris Weinkopf has a brilliantly derisive column titled "Moooving debate: Happy cow ads have PETA crying foul" in today's Los Angeles Daily News. If you haven't seen these commercials, in which happy California cows chit-chat about earthquakes and the meaning of "snow" and the esthetic merits of well-built heifers, then you're missing one

2002-04-11T13:30:00.000-07:00

Why did a cop go on a killing spree last night? When I heard the story about a gunman who killed five people, the first question I had was "Why?" Was this a senseless random mass killing, or was there some understandable motive behind it. Not that the motive mattered too much to the dead victims. But motive makes a big difference in how people perceive the level of safety (or lack thereof)

2002-04-05T10:58:00.000-08:00

How about if we rename it the Nobel Piss Prize? Language matters, and it's time we stopped the expropriation of the word "peace" by the Nobel Comittee. Even though I should know better, I was still appalled when I saw the Instapundit report about Nobel Committee members who regretted giving the 1994 prize to Shimon Perez but were not the least bit concerned that they'd also given it to

2002-03-31T17:48:00.000-08:00

More support for Israel: Asparagirl explains in her blog why she has now become an American Zionist, even though she previously was never too interested in her Jewish ancestry or religion. The Arab terrorists turned her into one. I'm another non-observant fully-assimilated Jew who loves bacon and lobster tail, cohabits with a non-Jewish woman (for 25 years), and has never felt any

2002-03-29T13:31:00.000-08:00

What should be done about Arafat? I've got a brilliant plan... Right now I am so furious at the continuing and increasingly gory suicide bombings in Israel. On any relative scale you choose, it's worse for Israel than the 9/11 attacks were for us. Those attacks were ample justification for us to go after (and hopefully kill) Osama bin Laden and the Al Queda organization and the Taliban regime

2002-03-18T12:33:00.000-08:00

I'm continuing to contribute elsewhere. Today's Zero-Tolerance Watch in the Wall Street Journal's OpinionJournal "Best of the Web" contains an item I sent in about Lewis Elementary School in Barstow, CA, which outlawed kids from playing "Cops and Robbers" because they were shaping imaginary guns out of their fingers. Presumably they might have a hard time distinguishing those imaginary guns

2002-02-28T22:51:00.000-08:00

I know, I'm not exactly updating my blog on a frequent basis. But I'm not entirely shirking my duty. A couple of comments that I sent to InstaPundit were immediately published by Glenn Reynolds, and that should count, shouldn't it? In one case I suggested that Cheney could still be Bush's 2004 VP running mate, then resign for "health reasons" sometime during their second term and be replaced

2002-02-17T09:43:00.000-08:00

Ron Paul highlights LP convention Congressman Ron Paul appeared as the keynote speaker at the Libertarian Party of California's annual state convention on Saturday, February 16, 2002 in Santa Maria. Dr. Paul was the Libertarian Party's Presidential candidate in 1988, and now is a Republican Representative from Texas who has earned the nickname of "Dr. No" for his principled (and often lonely

2002-01-23T15:48:00.000-08:00

I just had a brainstorm for a great political science project or thesis. There have been lots of attempts to categorize people's politics, from the simplistic "left <---> right" axis to the somewhat more sophisticated 2-dimensional "Nolan Chart" that charts economic freedom on one axis and personal freedom on the other axis. I've seen many variations of the Nolan Chart, each usually containing

2002-01-08T17:09:00.000-08:00

I'm not the only one who thinks Brett Favre iced the game when Strahan sacked him for the record. Chis Havel, in his sports column in today's Green Bay Press Gazette, quotes former Packers great Fuzzy Thurston as suggesting the same scenario.

2002-01-07T11:10:00.000-08:00

Brett Favre may be generous but he's also devious. The uproar over Favre's gift sack to Michael Strahan near the end the the Packers' victory over the N.Y. Giants on Sunday ignores an important point: It iced the game for the Packers. Brett Favre is a good 'ol boy who loves playing football and obviously wanted his friend Mike Strahan to break the sack record. Brett Favre is also a wily old

2002-01-01T14:34:00.000-08:00

Is my daughter smart or is it just grade inflation? After graduating from Whittier College with two BA degrees, my daughter enrolled "full-time" at the local community college in order to defer her student loans (and stay on my health insurance). She spent minimum time and effort on her classes, and did virtually no homework, but still got straight A's this past semester. We all thought that

2002-01-01T12:30:00.000-08:00

Instapundit.com earns credit(?) for inspiring another blog and another non-paying customer for blogger.com. I have no idea where I'm going with this, but if blogging is the wave of the future I sure don't want to be left in a back-eddy.