We expect Republicans and Democrats to reach agreement on something as big and controversial as property tax reform, and they can't even get together on something as small and universally desired as vote centers:
A bill that would allow counties to use vote centers instead of neighborhood polling places appears to be dead for the year.
[. . .]
So you're a lazy, good-for-nothing couch potato, tired of people always telling you to get up and do something productive. Well, now you can be useful:
SAN DIEGO - A community activist thinks a few couch potatoes, strategically placed on sidewalk benches in an upscale shopping district, will keep transients on their feet and on the move.
It's not that you envy and despise the rich, you say. You just wish they didn't have so much while the rest of have to do with less and less.
But you're buying into the myth of household-income stagnation. The truth is that all Americans are much better off than we used to be, including the poorest Americans:
Hillary Clinton's latest gambit -- to divert attention from the fact that she is mired in second place -- is to float an offer to Barack Obama to take the second spot on the ticket. In what alternative universe does this happen? Obama, as always, had a good answer:
OK, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer got caught on a wire tap being "involved in a prostitution ring." Hardly shocking these days. And he oozes the usual biolerplate contrition, saying he acted "in a way that violates" his obligations to his family: "I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself. I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family." Fine. Dandy.
But this part of the story stopped me:
Talk will soon turn to John McCain's choice for vice president, and it can be fun to speculate:
If McCain really wants to have it all—to refurbish his maverick image without having to flip-flop on the panderings that have tarnished it; to galvanize the attention of the press, the nation, and the world; to make a bold play for the center without seriously alienating “the base”—then he can avail himself of a highly interesting option: Condoleezza Rice.
On the campaign trail, John McCain decries pork-barrel spending by, among other things, making fun of a $3 million program to study grizzly bear DNA: "I don't kjow if it was a paternity issue or criminal, but it was a waste of money." Wait just a second, says a Washington Post story headlined "McCain sees pork where scientists see success," that project accomplished what it set out to accomplish, and it was beneficial:
USA Today and Glenn Reynolds (of Instapundit fame) square off over whether journalists should have privileges such as shield laws.
Thank God John McCain is running so that I have an old, white guy to vote for:
MAPLEWOOD, Minn. - All the world's a stage at some of Minnesota's bars. A new state ban on smoking in restaurants and other nightspots contains an exception for performers in theatrical productions. So some bars are getting around the ban by printing up playbills, encouraging customers to come in costume, and pronouncing them "actors."
