Smythe's World

Comments are now fixed, so flame away.

While most commentators have seen the Valerie Plame scandal for what it is, as an attempt by the White House to intimidate a foe by potentially putting his spouse in danger, there is a dissenting view, one where the real scandal is the conspiracy that has been hatched by CIA spooks, "Arabists" in the State Department, and the lib'rul news media over this incident to bring down the neo-conservatives in the Pentagon. I'm still waiting for Christopher Hitchens to call Ms. Plame a "f***ing fat slag", or Lyndon LaRouche to weigh in on the role of the Council on Foreign Relations in this whole tawdry matter.

Surest sign that Cruz Bustamante has packed it in: his schedule has no campaign events today.

In what is a blow to soccer fans the world over, FIFA has rejected the joint bid of Libya and Tunisia to host the 2010 World Cup, in spite of the best efforts of Saadi Ghadaffi, number one son of the Libyan strongman. I guess we'll have to settle for North Korea's bid.

If I've seemed morose lately, my best and only excuse is that I turn 40 a week from tonight. This blog has been a good escape for me, but lately I seem to feel that posting is a chore. I'm not that into the recall election. I would rather watch sports than write about them. My law practice, such as it is, doesn't keep me occupied often enough, and there is only so much I can write about the local bankruptcy court. As hard as I try, I just can't motivate myself to have a take on those issues that seem to obsess others, like whether the Bush Administration is deliberately exposing CIA agents, or whether Howard Kurtz is a tool.

One of the nice things about my blog is that it's small; if "Smythe's World" were to disappear tomorrow, few would notice. So maybe I'll just give this site a rest for awhile. Or maybe not; it really depends on whether my sense of outrage can triumph over my feelings of melancholy and entropy.

For those of you who are interested, a b-day party is being thrown on my behalf (dig that passive tense !!) at 14-Below, in Santa Monica this Saturday. Hopefully, the hosts are providing an open bar, and since anyone who visits this site is a friend of mine, I would be honored if you ventured out that evening. I'll be the bald man in the corner, getting blind-drunk, and picking fights with younger men.

With Ahnolt opening up a sizable post-debate lead in at least one poll, it now appears that California may replace one a-hole governor with...an even bigger a-hole. Focusing on A.S.' past in the world of bodybuilding, this article reveals the character of the new darling of state Republicans:

"Sometimes, Schwarzenegger enjoyed disgracing his targets in full public view, veteran bodybuilders said. Gold's Gym regular Norman Williams recalled the time an earnest young man walked in seeking advice from his hero. No matter how hard he worked, he told Schwarzenegger, his muscles wouldn't grow.

Schwarzenegger told him to remove his shirt and slather his body with oil used to lubricate the weight equipment. He then ordered him to start flexing and to bellow louder with each pose. Only then, Schwarzenegger said, would the muscles bulge.

'Pretty soon, the gym was filled with this guy screaming,' Williams said. 'The guys were turning their backs trying not to crack up, but Arnold kept a straight face. He loved making a fool out of people.'

The young man, exhausted, wanted to wipe off the oil. 'Oh no,' witnesses quoted Schwarzenegger as saying. 'It needs to saturate the muscles. It's the only way to get bigger.' The guy walked out with oil bleeding through his shirt.

When asked to respond, Schwarzenegger's spokesman chalked up the incident to 'locker room humor.'"

Yeah, that's a thighslapper.

CAL 34, USC 31 [3OT] : I RULE !!!!

The author of Money Ball, Michael Lewis, has a must-read piece on the recall circus, which he concludes stems from the personal dislike many people have for Gray Davis (some of its biggest supporters are literally his next-door neighbors). The highlight: his encounter with the mysterious (and all-too-human) "S. Issa".

Former Crimson Tide football coach Bill Curry pays a touching tribute to his friend (and one-time co-author) George Plimpton.

LA Times business columnist Michael Hiltzik has a fascinating piece on one of the most oft-repeated cliches in California politics, that this state has the "world's fifth largest economy":

"The main implication is that California's economy is under the state government's control, in the same sense that the U.S. economy is under Washington's control. This is patently false.

State governments can't wield the economic tools available to federal policymakers to manage economic trends. They can't raise or lower tariffs to protect domestic industries such as farming. They can't manage interest rates. They can't spur demand by generating red ink.

'If California were a country we wouldn't have these problems,' notes UCLA's [Senior Economist Tom] Leiser. 'We'd just run a deficit.'"

This goes back a few months, but it shows that California is not the only state where there are concerns that attacks on "Indian Gaming" are racist.

Matt Welch has some interesting comments about a new poll, focusing specifically on the racial/ethnic breakdown of support for the recall and the various replacement candidates. One thing to note: Bustamante is underachieving right now with the African-American vote, even though he is marginally ahead in the polls. If he starts picking up, the race could be over, regardless of whether McClintock drops out or not.

When I mentioned what I thought was the rather unsubtle racist aspect of the "Indian gaming" issue in this campaign, I believed I was going to be alone on this issue. After all, if the fact that Ahnolt was an unlicensed contractor scamming white subarbanites in the early 70's wasn't considered a big deal, why would his attacks on a relatively small ethnic group (in terms of registered voters) be noticed.

That was, until I read this posting tonight, from the "BeeBlogger" himself, Daniel Weintraub. He, after all, is a conservative, pro-A.S. columnist, who has not been afraid to attack Bustamante on everything from his qualifications to his relationship with the Latino Caucus. If even he is uncomfortable with these attacks, then maybe I'm not crazy after all. It would be almost like a vicious, wedge-issue attack on a non-WASP ethnic group offending Mickey Kaus !! Pete Wilson must be losing his magic.

Billy Beane for President?!? Not so fast....

I wonder which Pete Wilson aide had the brilliant idea to have Ahnolt use the "Terminator 4" line on Arianna Huffington tonight. Their candidate has a serious gender gap problem. He has chosen to participate in only one debate. Yet he allows himself to get baited by an also-ran into making a reference to a movie where he recently admitted he wanted to shove the face of a villainess into a toilet that had something "floating" in it. That should rally the soccer moms around their candidate !! I mean, it's not as if the misogynist voting bloc is up for grabs in this election.

In what was an entertaining evening, the clear winners of the debate on both substance and style points were Bustamante and McClintock. Cruz has been the target of a rather unsubtle attack concerning his intelligence, and just by acting mature and adult, he seemed to counter that. Other than a few throwaway lines by Arianna, the "Indian gaming" issue never came up.

And McClintock, as Aaron Brown noted on CNN, was quite impressive. Had he been the G.O.P. nominee in 2002, he might have beaten Gray Davis. He has an earnestness about him that is quite appealing; whereas A.S. can pretty much take any position on issues ranging from Prop. 13 reform to gun control to stem cell research, and not have that hurt him in any way with the Republican establishment, McClintock actually has principles. If he were to come out in favor of the Brady Bill, or in opposition to the ban on late-term abortions, it would seriously impact his public image. It's no wonder he was the only G.O.P. nominee to come close to winning last November; after all, for many liberals, Barry Goldwater has been their favorite conservative, and he didn't equivocate either.

UPDATE: If anyone has a different take on what Ahnolt meant by his Terminator reference, please feel free to respond. Is there another reference that I'm missing that would also be humorous?

Doesn't the whole issue of "Indian gaming lobby" seem, well, a bit racist? If A.S. were to begin making attacks on the "Jewish entertainment lobby" or the "Korean liquor store lobby", he would be rightly attacked. So why is there a double standard?

It sucks to be right: My office mate and crony John Byrne and I have a line that we use every time the Dodgers are in a slump. If someone isn't hitting his weight, or if a player is coasting through the season, one of us will say, "...but at least he's great in the clubhouse". It's a line that has become imbedded in the subconscious of every Dodger fan since the local media hacks chased Gary Sheffield out of town; in spite of his numbers and his absolutely-hate-to-lose attitude, he was described by local sportswriters as a "cancer" on the team, and was traded to Atlanta in 2001 for Bryan Jordan and Odalis Perez. The Braves are about to win yet another division championship, while the Dodgers have a magic number of 3 before they get eliminated from the wild card race.

One of those hacks, Bill Plaschke, is having second thoughts about his instrumental role two years ago in running Gary Sheffield out of town. Since the trade is history, I prefer that he have second thoughts about his bullying Odalis Perez into starting on Monday, which turned into a predictable disaster when Perez couldn't grip the ball properly. Rather than harping on something that can't be undone, the media needs to look at its own role in this mess, and hopefully learn from it. An athlete, an actor, a politician, can be a loathsome creature, disagreeable to the core, and yet still possess some hard-to-define talent, an ability to make the world a better place, in spite of their personality. And nice guys sometimes finish last for a reason.

"PLAY BALL !!" sayeth the Ninth Circuit. The election will go on as originally scheduled, for October 7, or for those in the know, the day after I turn 40.

It seems Ms. Stewart isn't the only truth-impaired Coulter-wannabee out there: Tapped elegantly tears a new one into former Dartmouth Review bundist Laura Ingraham, while also explaining how Regnery Publishing performs its magic.

Baseball may have once been our national pastime, and football is our national sport, but basketball truly is the American game: David Stern, commissioner extraordinaire, comes to the defense of Kobe while simultaneously ripping the Patriot Act.

The San Jose Mercury News puts more meat on the story about Ahnolt's bricklaying venture in the early-70's. Not only does the story confirm what was originally reported here about European Brick Works not ever having possessed a contractor's license, but it further explores the legal ramifications, both in terms of A.S.' immigration status at the time, and the legal requirement in California for a bricklaying company to possess a license to charge over $100 for any job. [link via Calif. Insider]

HORSE RACE UPDATE: The Washington Post reports that a poll by the non-partisan Public Policy Institute shows Bustamante continuing to lead Ahnolt, 28-26, with McClintock trailing at 14%. Since most of the stories about Cruz have been negative, the fact that he maintains a small lead over one of the most famous people on earth indicates that A.S. is dead in the water, and he may need a K.O. in the debate this week to resuscitate his campaign. Support for the recall continues to collapse, with only 53% now in favor, and 42% against, a margin that will tighten further if the Big 3 do nothing but attack each other Wednesday.

As a follow-up to yesterday's post on Jill Stewart, I thought I would post links to the actual legislation the left-coast version of Ann Coulter refers to in her article. The bills are: AB 1245, AB 1309, AB 587, AB 1742, SB 796, SB 892, and AB 231. Since fact-checking and due dilligence seem to be rare commodities in blogtopia, I thought I would at least try to make a difference.

The Ninth Circuit has agreed to rehear this week's decision on the recall. My guess is that the panel will overturn the decision but still require the District Court to set a new date for the election (poss. the first week of November) so that the appeals can be properly heard.

UPDATE: Eight of the eleven judges on the en banc panel were originally nominated by Democratic Presidents, but none of the three who made the original ruling made it.

UPDATE [2]: The oral arguments before the Court of Appeals will be televised !!

He's not just your run-of-the-mill slimy politician, he's eeeeevvvvvviiilllllll:

Jill Stewart, on Gray Davis:

If the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals delays the recall, pity the voters who will be subjected to months of Gray Davis faking he likes church...and faking he's a good man.

The rest of her article is even better, if you like mendacious summaries of legislation (which she doesn't link to) with your breakfast. She even attacks a law that would punish schools if they don't keep sanitary bathrooms after getting 30 days notice to clean up !!

Anyone who saw Oscar de la Hoya kick the ass of Shane Mosley last Saturday must have been as baffled by the media reaction after the fight as the ridiculous decision by the three judges that created the fiasco. Sports contrarian Allan Barra explains why the viewers at home have a much better seat, and a more legitimate position, in determining who won the fight than the judges and reporters at ringside. One of the reforms he'd like to see for title fights is to allow judges to have access to the same TV angles of the fighters, and the same PunchStat numbers, that the TV audience has. [link via Off-Wing Opinion] It won't stop a crooked judge from overlooking the fact that one fighter landed over a hundred more punches than his opponent, but at least it's a start.

You know it's mid-September when the evenings start to get a little cooler, the kids are back in school, and Bill Plaschke has a column blaming the Dodgers' annual collapse on a non-white player. This time it's Odalis Perez, the team's most consistent (and hardest-working) pitcher, who gets attacked because he asked for (and received) a day off because one of the cuticles on his pitching hand broke off. Seems like a minor injury, sure, for those of us who don't have to put extreme pressure on that area of our body 100 times a night. Earlier this year, he attacked Kevin Brown for trying to pitch through injuries; now he rips a player for needing a day off because of an injury. Of course, the guy who replaced him in the rotation pitched brilliantly, and the team got shut out again, a problem that wouldn't have happened had Plaschke not driven Gary Sheffield out of town two years ago.

Ever since such stories became fashionable, nothing has been more boring to me than accounts of "political correctness" at schools and universities. I usually end up sympathizing with the person or group that has been attacked for taking offense at some alleged act of bigotry, due as much to my skepticism about the truthfulness of the account, rather than any political connection I might feel. Invariably, closer scrutiny of the story will reveal that either the Wall Street Journal editorial has once again taken the incident out of context, or that the frat boy really did use the "n-word", and the entire story will be revealed as a sham created out of thin air to attack some mythical stereotype of feminism, or to minimize the reality of bigotry by drawing a false moral equivalence between institutional racism and the misguided antics of some student groups.

Therefore, I think it is incumbent on me to comment on this little bit of outrage, which as far as I know has not been commented on by the usual suspects on the right. Here, you have an attempt to boycott the L.A. Daily News being organized by the Simi Valley teachers' union, to protest the newspapers criticisms of educational policy that the union finds unacceptable. The Daily News has a policy of providing free newspapers to local schools, and the United Association of Conejo is upset that the paper's policy of using often-hysterical headlines to publicize the editorial opinion on its news pages is giving short-shrift to their positions on teacher pay and the like.

Boycotting a newspaper is a reasonable political tactic, one that can be embraced as a worthy expression of free speech by those who do not have the funds, or the megaphone, that come from publishing a newspaper. I have defended the right of college students to toss student papers in the trash as an expression of that right, and oppose the efforts of people like Nat Hentoff to criminalize or punish such conduct. And, of course, conservatives themselves have used much the same tactics, when it comes to trying to censor the BBC or CNN because they were insufficiently supportive of both U.S. foreign and Israeli domestic policy.

But the teachers union has adopted an indefensible position on this issue, one that redounds to their discredit. Rather than using the paper's position as a starting point for the discussion of education issues in the classroom, or as a way of "teaching against the text" in better educating their students, and thereby using the paper to illustrate to impressionable children that simply because someone speaks from a position of authority doesn't mean that the person or institution is correct, instead the union is using its position to censure a contrary opinion, an opinion against their pecuniary interests.

Not surprisingly, as with any banned publication, that only makes the contents more alluring to their students. It is as unconstructive an educational policy as banning Huckleberry Finn or Catcher in the Rye because of objectionable language, and it only leads to making the rather banal political positions of a newspaper seem like forbidden fruit. [link via L.A. Observed]

Good summary of the political ramifications if the Supreme Court decides to get involved in the recall fracas. I'm still waiting for Volokh Conspiracy to weigh in on this; to date, the conservative reaction has spanned the range from ad hominem attacks on the three justices (here, here, here, and here) to strained efforts (here and here) at distinguishing Bush v. Gore, none of which has redounded to their credit, either politically or intellectually. I happen to believe that the Ninth Circuit's decision was a reasonable one from a legal standpoint (in any event, I have always thought that being the "most overturned appellate court" in the era of Rehnquist, Thomas and Scalia was the highest honor that could be given to a federal circuit; no one has any problems today with the dissents of either of the Harlans, for example), but may be questionable from a factual standpoint (are the methods of counting ballots to be used in March really that more accurate than the punch card system, so much that there is no "rational basis" to hold the quickie election?) I'm no law-review rat, so I'd be happy to read more learned opinions on this issue.

WHY I'M PROUDLY PALEO: This has to be the most clueless blog posting since the recall was scheduled, from Kausfiles:

Here's an anecdote from the Recorder's account that pretty much captures the seemingly condescending, museum-quality paleoliberal mindset of at least one of the three judges on the appelate panel:

[Judge Harry] Pregerson then playfully pointed out that education [in how to avoid punch card errors] might not work on tired workers, or workers harried by trying to find their polling place. Then he said those problems might be more of a concern to minority candidates (sic) who may have more reason to be tired at the end of the day than whites.

"In L.A., if you look around, see who's working and who isn't," Pregerson said, drawing laughter from the near-capacity courtroom.

I guess the definition of a neo-liberal is someone who believes non-whites don't work.

In a not-unexpected development, a justice on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has requested that the full circuit hear the appeal of yesterday's ruling on the recall circus. They will decide sometime tomorrow or Thursday whether to hear the appeal.

As you probably know already, the Ninth Circuit postponed the recall election until such time as each of the counties has done away with the archaic punch-card voting system. There isn't really a good argument for having the election in October, anyway, other than the fact that the arbitrary deadline for scheduling it was written into state law ninety years ago. It is generally a good thing in any democracy to allow voter passions to cool, which is why the recall proponents wanted (and needed) a quickie election.

If the Court's ruling stands, the election will likely be held in March, 2004, on the same date as the Presidential primary; that should improve Davis' chances of beating the recall (more Democrats will be voting then), but diminish the hopes of Bustamante (more time until the election allows the GOP to consolidate behind one candidate, who can spend Cruz into the ground over the next seven months). Since both Bustamante and A.S. have apparently stalled in the polls, any delay only serves to help the other candidates get their campaigns off the ground, or in the case of McClintock, to continue his momentum.

BTW, what a clever touch to base their decision on Bush v. Gore !!

Everyone have a nice weekend. I'm off to Santa Monica (prob. Over/Under) for some college football, followed by Mosley-de la Hoya tonight.

UPDATE: Never again !! Anyone (besides the de la Hoya haters) who thinks Mosley won that fight should be prevented from handling sharp objects. But it was nice to see Bill Plaschke finally find an African-American athlete he could get behind.

This may not mean much of anything, but readers of Kausfiles know that one of his current obsessions is about an appearance A.S. had on the Tonight Show a couple of decades ago, in which he boasted about being a part of a chimney repair scam when he first came to the country. The nation's paper of record fills in some of the gaps. The name of the venture, European Brick Works, was formed by the candidate and his pal and fellow bodybuilder, Franco Columbu, after the 1971 Sylmar earthquake, to "repair" masonry devastated by the disaster. According to the records of the Contractor's State License Board, no entity by that name has ever been licensed in the state of California, either as a general contractor or a C-29 masonry specialist, nor do the names "Columbu" or "Schwarzenegger" appear as either officers or personnel of any licensed contractor.

Understand, I've only handled a few construction cases in my legal career, and I have only a passing knowledge of contracting law as it stands today, much less what it was like in the early-70's. "European Brick Works" may have obeyed the law in every respect, and the stories Ahnolt was telling Johnny Carson may have been apocryphal, like the now-infamous "gang-bang" story, designed to showcase the non-conformist, outlaw rep that he thought would sell his screen persona.

But I have a feeling that state law back then would have frowned on anyone, even skilled bricklayers, from falsely claiming they were licensed contractors, and I find it hard to believe that the typical Valley homeowner (or, for that matter, the homeowner's insurer covering their earthquake claim) would have employed an unlicensed business to "fix" their chimneys.

Being a friend sometimes requires you to tell someone that what they are doing is wrong; sycophancy and friendship are incompatible. It's called "tough love". If your friend has had too much to drink, and is acting in a belligerent and irrational manner, you call him a taxi, or you try to settle him down. You don't tell him he's okay to drive home.

Since September 11, 2001, Tony Blair has not been a very good friend to the United States. When we needed allies, instead we got co-dependents.

The latest L.A. Times poll is out, and it pretty much affirms the findings of the Field snap-shot earlier this week: Bustamante maintains a five-point lead, 30% to 25%, but he's pretty much hit the ceiling as far as his potential support is concerned; Ahnolt is failing to generate much excitement; and McClintock is hanging in there, with 18%. If this poll is accurate, there is absolutely no reason for McClintock to drop out. Support for the recall remains at 50%, but Davis has narrowed the gap to within the margin of error in the poll; he now trails by only 3%. If the big three in the replacement election continue to go negative on each other, the voters are going to choose the devil they know. Davis will probably survive, in spite of himself.

This is way beyond belief. How can any country that considers the Barbie doll to be a "Jewish" plot against Islamic morality be considered an ally in fighting terrorists? [link via Adam Felber]

If the blogosphere is the next big thing, then it will have to produce a writer as eloquent, as insightful, as fearless in speaking truth to power, as Prof. Krugman. We may all have to wait awhile on that one...UPDATE: My, what a stupid thing to post. Not about Krugman; he's still god. But about the blogosphere...what was I thinking? I only visit this site twice a day, this site several times, and wish that this site would resume posting. And the author of this article is what each of those blogs have in common. If the L.A. Times doesn't give him a bi-weekly column soon, their shareholders will hold them accountable.

The latest Field Poll has Bustamante maintaining a five-point lead over the pack...UPDATE: here's the actual polling data. At first glance, it appears that Bustamante may have problems getting above his current total, while A.S. continues to under-achieve, and McClintock may actually have an outside shot of pulling off a shocker. Wiser men than myself have already analyzed the significance of the ethnic and gender breakdown in the poll; what I think is interesting is the fact that almost a fifth of the self-described conservatives polled are undecided, as opposed to only 6% of the liberals polled. With his name recognition, Ahnolt should have already nailed down this group, so the fact that so many are still on the fence indicates that they have a hard time rationalizing a vote for him, but still remaining skeptical about McClintock's chances. If that attitude changes, if the State Senator actually starts running a halfway-decent media campaign, if Bustamante doesn't find a way to expand his current support beyond African-Americans, Latinos and women, and/or if A.S.' idiosyncracies become too hard for the typical Dana Point/Palos Verdes elector to stomach, McClintock could be our next governor.

TODAY'S DEBATING TOPICS:

Resolved: Any writer who continues to translate the MeChA slogan Por La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada as "For the Race, everything. For those outside the Race, nothing," is himself a racist.

Resolved: Anyone who says that MeChA is morally equivalent to the Nazis or the KKK, is himself sympathetic to the methods(if not the specific aims) of the Nazis and the KKK.

Resolved: Any blogger who denounces MeChA, or similar groups, as "misguided identity politics", has proven why "identity politics" is still going to be embraced by many non-WASPs.

Discuss.

Howard Owens, who's been taking me to task recently for my sympathies to MeChA and La Raza, has a lileksian piece on record collecting that's worth your time. I used to have a pretty decent and comprehensive collection of British Invasion LP's, but like the rest of my albums they all were ruined when the roof of my bedroom collapsed as a result of the Northridge Earthquake. BTW, do they even sell turntables anymore?

The usually-excellent conservative legal blog, Volokh Conspiracy, had this unfortunate cheap shot yesterday on the Alabama budget crisis. Quoting the nation's paper of record:

The Horror!

After the rally at Troy State, Lucy Skellett, a sophomore cheerleader, explained how the budget woes affected her. Last year, the cheerleading squad got to travel with the football team. This year, there is no money for away games.

"Four games," Ms. Skellett said. "That's all we get to cheer now, is four games. You know how hard we work out for that?"

If Alabamians won't vote for a $1.2 billion tax increase to help out Ms. Skellett ... well, I'm just speechless. Oh, the humanity!

As an unabashed and unapologetic fan of cheerleaders and cheerleading, I feel it incumbent to defend the honor of Lucy Skellett and the rest of her teammates on the Troy State squad. Unlike college football and basketball players, cheerleaders don't get paid for what they do. A great deal of work and practice goes into it, and their only reward (besides an improvement in their social life) is to hear the third-rate cracks from the geeks and nerds they won't go out with (like me).

More to the point, however, is the fact that this budget cutback is happening at Troy State. Not Alabama. Not Auburn. Troy State. I guarantee you, if the Crimson Tide were forced to cut back on any aspect of its football program due to budget cuts imposed by an outdated tax code, the powers-that-be in that state would rise up, and demand higher taxes !! But since the cutbacks are occurring at a "lesser" state school (no doubt similar sacrifices are going on at the historically black colleges in that state as well), well, we can laugh at the poor girl who has to work her ass off (figuratively speaking) for the honor of being treated like a joke by her home state.

One month from today, I turn 40. Another day closer to the grave, as Reid Fleming would say. Any words of consolation?

Ahnolt's not the only one who is finally answering questions about his positions. Here are some responses from Georgy Russell after a speech yesterday in Berkeley, including the promise that she will move to Sacramento should she win the election. Go Georgy Go !!!

Hud-Dogg ? Angel TV-announcer (and longtime former big league journeyman) Rex Hudler got busted in Kansas City over the weekend with possession of pot and certain drug paraphenalia, which, for anyone who has ever listened to him, explains a lot.

UPDATE: Now that I think about, Hudler was hospitalized a couple of years ago with a brain hemorrhage that almost took his life. Like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, whose usage of marijuana is tied to his problem with migraine headaches, it is entirely possible that Hudler is smoking weed for "medicinal purposes". Not that it makes it any more legal to do so in the state of Missouri, but it does add some context to this incident.

Bowing to the inevitable, Miguel Estrada withdrew his name from nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeal in D.C. His defeat may well mark a turning-point in efforts to pack the courts to reflect a certain ideological bias by Presidents, with five other nominees currently being blocked by the Senate. Liberals like myself should bear in mind that the shoe was on the other foot just a few years back, and it will be again in a few more years, so the filibuster, powerful weapon that it is, should be used as sparingly as possible. Still, a bracing defeat for Bush. Remember, it's both advice and consent.

I used to think the stories in Oui Magazine were fictitious, until recently.... Man, did he bungle this. I think like most fair-minded voters, I felt that the statute of limitations had expired on taking the "gang bang" incident seriously; Lord knows, the last thing I want is to have those all-night Spens-Black orgies from 1983-5 revisited by my many enemies. And, like some people, I even suspected that Ahnolt's participation in group sex might have been apocryphal, a story he made up to impress an interviewer from a skin mag.

But c'mon, waiting a week before you suddenly remember that you were lying back then? Let's examine the thought process here: you have this 25-year old interview with a now-defunct magazine brought to light last week. The story that gets all the play (other than a rather lame attempt to claim that A.S. was homophobic) is your boast in the interview that you took part in a high-impact group cardio exercise at Gold's Gym. Then a week later, you suddenly "remember" that the whole story was made up, in order to hype Pumping Iron and the world of bodybuilding. C'mon, have you been in so many similar activities that you forgot which ones were real? Or did it take a week for you to remember that, no, come to think of it, I've never participated in an orgy?

BTW, the first debate is at 4:00 p.m. PST.

Reporter-turned-blogger David Neiwert has the last word in the smear against Bustamante and MeChA (thank god, b/c the subject is starting to bore me), placing it in the context of similar attacks against groups like the Anti-Defamation League and the NAACP: that groups which fight discrimination and defend minorities are "secretly racist".

UPDATE: Collaborative bloggees Crooked Timber also publish a handy primer for this issue, for any of you who are still interested. [links via Atrios]

The Post-Modern Presidency: Fine Washington Monthly article by Joshua Marshall about the "revisionist mindset" at the heart of the Bush Administration, out of which has arisen the President's very unique contribution to the fine art of mendacity:

Everyone is compromised by bias, agendas, and ideology. But at the heart of the revisionist mindset is the belief that there is really nothing more than that. Ideology isn't just the prism through which we see world, or a pervasive tilt in the way a person understands a given set of facts. Ideology is really all there is. For an administration that has been awfully hard on the French, that mindset is...well, rather French. They are like deconstructionists and post-modernists who say that everything is political or that everything is ideology. That mindset makes it easy to ignore the facts or brush them aside because "the facts" aren't really facts, at least not as most of us understand them. If they come from people who don't agree with you, they're just the other side's argument dressed up in a mantle of facticity. And if that's all the facts are, it's really not so difficult to go out and find a new set of them.

Been checking out the brand-spanking-new page for the English language site for the Fox News of the Arab World, Al-Jazeera, and came upon this article; you'd think that even if they don't know if this is the legendary Nefertiti, they would still be able to figure out whether the mummy was male or female. The sports section is worthless; no mention of SC's shut-out of Auburn. Nothing on the recall, either.

One sign that Ahnolt's campaign may be bleeding from within is his decision to back out of this week's debate between the replacement candidates. Not only is it a sign of weakness, but it is a tactical blunder as well: regardless of whether he is represented by an "empty chair", each of the other candidates has an incentive to bash him, and he won't be able to defend himself. It will also be an ideal time for Cruz Bustamante to smack questions by those who've been hinting that he has dual loyalties out of the ballpark.