The Rest Of The Week In Review

OK, one day late. Actually, I've been playing catch-up all day so it feels like a Sunday.

• Every now and again I praise Governor Schwarzenegger for saying the right thing, and his warning to legislative Republicans not to blame illegal immigrants for current budget problems (as they're doing through pernicious legislation) is one such occasion. Of course, Schwarzenegger is simply making a political play, mindful that immigrant-bashing is electoral suicide.

• Barack Obama comes down on the right side of the most important issue in this election: abolishing the penny.

• Joe Lieberman is an unreconstructed liar. It's a good thing people are starting to notice.

• Kind of funny to see Fourthbranch Cheney say that Hamas is stopping peace talks with Israel when the United States is using Egypt to broker a Hamas cease-fire. Funny how that all goes.

• A promised spot in the White House for Samantha Power would make me support Barack Obama that much more.

• Aside from everything else, Bill Clinton is simply too quick to be cowed by his own notion of reality to advocate for anything remotely transformative. And I fear his wife would act the same way. Politicians are by their nature cautious, but the Clintons turned it into an art form.

• Here's a good timeline of the Spitzer investigation.

• Errol Morris is maybe my favorite filmmaker, and so his disclosure of hundreds of Abu Ghraib photos in conjunction with his latest film "Standard Operating Procedure" just validates him more. Not only is he a brilliant storyteller, but a committed advocate for justice.

• Is it me, or is the fact that North Korea has expelled all South Korea officials from their territory a somewhat bigger story than it has been made to be thus far?

• John McCain just loves cigarettes, Big Oil, destroying the climate and about a new war every two weeks. Lindsay Graham is right - he's not any different than Bush.

• Pervez Musharraf had to install a cabinet with dozens of his former rivals, and watched the chief justice he fired and imprisoned set free. How much longer before this dictator snaps?

• Finally, a Finnish man has been arrested for chipping off a piece of the ear of one of the statues on Easter Island. I have no joke for this that doesn't reference the show "Nip/Tuck," so I think it's best just to leave it alone.