Quick Hits

Getting some blogging done early today as I'll be out on GOTV operations and also visiting the newly-restored Griffith Observatory, an iconic building here in LA that just re-opened to the public. So here's some stories:

• Hope you don't like fish that much.

An international group of ecologists and economists warned yesterday that the world will run out of seafood by 2048 if steep declines in marine species continue at current rates, based on a four-year study of catch data and the effects of fisheries collapses.

The paper, published in the journal Science, concludes that overfishing, pollution and other environmental factors are wiping out important species around the globe, hampering the ocean's ability to produce seafood, filter nutrients and resist the spread of disease.

"We really see the end of the line now," said lead author Boris Worm, a marine biologist at Canada's Dalhousie University. "It's within our lifetime. Our children will see a world without seafood if we don't change things."

About 1 in 6 people on this planet depend on fish as their main source of food. The dirty secret here is that it probably has as much to do with overpopulation as it does pollution. But cleaning the world's oceans has to be a top priority.

• Yet another article on how US healthcare lags behind the rest of the globe. You can pretty much not get an after-hours appointment in this country. Because physical health goes by a schedule. Healthcare needs to be one of the major campaign issues for 2008, as it wasn't this year. It's a life-or-death issue.

• Bob Ney finally takes the hint and resigns, seven weeks after he was convicted of corruption charges. This is known as "eventual Republican ethics."

• PA-10: Soon-to-be lame-duck Congressman Don Sherwood tried to buy the silence of his ex-mistress with half a million dollars, as long as she didn't reveal the long-standing affair or the fact that he allegedly choked her until after the election. Needless to say, she didn't take the bait, as I am telling you that Sherwood choked his former mistress.

• Statehouse races don't get the publicity, but considering most state legislatures set the boundaries of Congressional districts they're incredibly important; just ask Texas. And this article suggests that Democrats will do well in those local races as well, riding the national wave. That could have good implications for redistricting in 2010, although I'd like to see that procedure go nonpartisan.

• MT-SEN: "Brokebank Democrats".



But Republicans aren't playing on anti-gay themes at all, no, it's just a movie parody.

• Wal-Mart's "always low prices" have to go even lower to attract business this holiday shopping season. Wal-Mart had close to 0% growth in October. If you want to know how the economy is really performing, don't look at the Dow or the unemployment numbers, look at how much Wal-Mart has to slash their prices to get people to shop there.

• Police arrest naked man with concealed weapon. I'll leave the rest to your imagination.