Random

And a happy Friday the 13th to you.

Saw an interesting performance last night at UCLA of The Moth, a storytelling slam featuring Jonathan Ames, Cindy Chupack, Margaret Cho, and Darryl "DMC" McDaniels. Hearing DMC talk about his fan worship of Sarah MacLachlan was pretty damn interesting.

A quick note on 2008, which I hate to talk about before 2006 is even done, but with the Warner situation I think it merits a couple sentences: To me there are only four certain candidates that are even contenders right now: Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Russ Feingold, and Bill Richardson. All the rest have no shot, IMO. And while Feingold is my preference, even I know that financially it'll be a stretch for him. There are only three candidates not currently committed to running that could in any way impact the race: Al Gore (the 800-pound gorilla), Barack Obama (and I agree with Ezra Klein, it's too soon, he's a leader who's never led and REFUSES to lead), and one more... Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer. I've noticed that he's very quietly raised his profile as of late, endorsing the at-large candidate for the US House in his state, and starting a major fundraising drive for 2006 candidates.

Schweitzer is a popular red-state governor, smart as hell, a populist who's systematically rooted out corruption in his state, and someone who has really big ideas when it comes to alternative energy (particularly liquefied coal). Of the 7 or so real candidates on the Democratic side, he's one that definitely intrigues me. Plus, how great would it be to have someone who wears a bolo tie in the White House?

And AmericaBlog is right, Bob Ney has pleaded guilty and is now a convicted felon, and he STILL hasn't resigned from Congress, and if there's a lame duck session he'll STILL be voting. How is that OK with everyone?