Weekend Quick Hits

A few items of interest before I go out into the beautiful weather:

• With our neighbors to the north, Canada, joining Australia in eliminating outdated and wasteful incandescent light bulb technology, suddenly California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine's legislation doesn't look so crazy anymore.

• There's a primary race for Governor in Kentucky in a couple weeks, one that may mean something for Democrats, as the Republican incumbent is enmeshed in corruption scandals. Jonathan Miller appears to be a decent Democratic candidate; Bruce Lunsford is one of those Republicans in Democrat's clothing who's contributed lots of money to Republicans, publicly endorsed the governor who might be his opponent in 2003, and has generally undermined progressive ideas and principles. Hopefully, Kentucky Democrats will make the right choice.

• This is a couple weeks old, but hilarious, as a Republican candidate to replace the late Charlie Norwood in GA-10 is sending mailers claiming that Democrats are trying to "steal" the seat by "running" a "candidate" and "asking" for "money." How shadowy!

• 11 Americans killed today in Iraq.

• Um, going on Stephen Colbert is not going to hurt any Congressman, and a candidate who tries to use anything from that show as proof that the Congressman is somehow debilitated or REALLY INTO HOOKERS AND COKE (that's really what this moron is claiming) will not get any traction. Period. Americans aren't that stupid.

• Liberal groups which are only a few years old control the media according to Billo.



David Brock has more. I think that these bizarre conspiracy notions go hand-in-hand with an increase in effectiveness. Media Matters exists to quote things that media figures on the right say and give them a wider audience. That's really all they do. I'm not sure how that can possibly be described as "disinformation," and yet it is. The right is just upset that they can't speak to their base with anonymity anymore.

• Oh, relax everybody, now China's going to test for chemicals in the food products they ship abroad. Well, that's a load off.

• Tony Blair's finally stepping down as Prime Minister of England, with Iraq as his legacy. This is evident in the fact that the Scottish National Party beat Labour in municipal elections in Scotland for the first time ever. Nonetheless, Blair insisted that his party would win the next general election despite their across-the-board losses this week. He's sounding more and more like Bush every day.

• In France, conservative Nicholas Sarkozy is the next President, easily defeating Socialist candidate Segolene Royal. A conservative in France isn't all that conservative; Sarko's in the same party as Jacques Chirac. The fact that he'll be the first French President born after World War II may be a plus; Sarkozy also reached out to the United States, wanting to be an ally and a friend. Here's an example of that friendship that I think the Bush Administration would see differently:

"I want to tell (the U.S.) that friendship is accepting that one's friends can act differently, and that a great nation like the United States has the duty to not obstruct the fight against global warming but on the contrary to take the lead," he said.

• I love animals, but when activists want a chimp to be declared a person, my support for them begins to weaken.

• Finally, this is the most important legal story in the history of anything ever, and shame on you for not blogging about it. More seriously, the fact that Paris Hilton's alibi consists of "nobody told me" is proof that the estate tax is necessary and right. People that have to rely on a staff of dozens to tell them how to follow the law, who have no responsibility for their own actions, don't deserve to have government protect their lottery-ticket-by-birth. Good for this judge to maintain the law for her the same as he would for any other citizen.