Politics and other nightmares

I had cereal for breakfast this morning. Yesterday, I had eggs and bacon. Before that, I had sausage gravy and biscuits, and before that, pancakes swimming in Log Cabin syrup. (And some of you suspected I wasn't capable of having an adventurous vacation!) Alas, only today's breakfast would win approval in San Francisco:

This is a followup opportunity that just can't be ignored. Yesterday, I noted that JG Editorial Page Editor Tracy Warner, though enthusiastically supportive of the $17 million Renaissance Square extravagance, chastised the "usual suspects" on City Council for delaying work on the building at a whopping extra cost to the city of $11,000. The post also mentioned that the extra cost was but a fraction of the money the city planned to waste on a consulting term to teach officials how to best use social media.

It's comforting to know that while I'm on vacation, there are people like Tracy Warner keeping an eagle eye on how my tax dollars are being spent:

The City Council's inclination to block Mayor Tom Henry's proposals first and ask about them later apparently cost city taxpayers about $11,000.

There might be an interesting evolution of "American opinion" unfolding:

While California's marijuana ballot initiative is garnering a lot of attention this election cycle, Gallup finds that nationally, a new high of 46% of Americans are in favor of legalizing use of the drug, and a new low of 50% are opposed. The increase in support this year from 44% in 2009 is not statistically significant, but is a continuation of the upward trend seen since 2000.

Every game has a risk:

Democratic Rep. Brad Ellsworth has portrayed himself as a friendly moderate who would work with those on both sides of the aisle in the U.S. Senate. But he's trailing in polls and fundraising, which has forced the cornered underdog to bare his teeth, though Republicans don't seem intimidated.

Kevin Leininger has a fascinating column in tonight's paper about one small-business owner's struggle to comply with a 20-year-old sign ordinance "that can seem goofy even to the people who must enforce it." The sign for his business would extend a few inches above the top of the wall, and that can't be permitted, which even City Planner Bryan McMillan can't explain:

Amount of money that will have been spent on this year's election: $4 billion.

Amount of interest paid on the national debt this year: $414 billion.

The possibility that the former might have some effect on the latter: Priceless.

I miss Larry Hayes. When he was editorial page editor of The Journal Gazette, he had a way of pouring out liberal diatribes that gave my day a fist-through-the-wall, spittle-on-the-chin, howl-in-the-soul start. He could always help me get to work wide awake and ready. And I certainly tried to return the favor for him from time to time, to make sure he was teeth-grindingly alert on his drive home. Since his departure, the JG editorial page seems somehow diminished to me. Oh, they're just as wrong just as often as they always were, but the fires seem banked a little.

Just when I was getting ready to throw all the Big Government rascals out, here comes Joe Biden to set me straight on my dependence on the government:

I'm not sure how much stock we should put in this speculation about Mike Pence's plans, since it is attributed only to "a source familiar with his deliberations," but it's not too early to start talking about which conservative candidate to put up against President Obama (and Pence clearly qualifies since, as the article notes, he is "a darling of the conservative movement").