Politics and other nightmares

Perhaps I was too hasty in ridiculing those who are trying to get us all to replace our incandescent light bulbs. I appear to be giving up an opportunity to fight evil:

I started reading some columnist's ramblings about the latest goings-on in Washington yesterday, but the smug, liberal, holier-than-thou condescension was so irritating I couldn't get beyond the second paragraph. I fnd that I prefer to read smug, conservative, holier-than-thou condescension. I've tried to read smug, libertarian, holier-than-thou condescension, but nobody  pays attention to libertarians, and they know it, so it comes off a little whiny. Whiny smugness is not attractive.

Boy, if I'd known David Long was going to be a traitor to his sex by giving power to the gals, I wouldn't have been so supportive:

A "state as moral arbiter" update: 

Mugger to mugging victim: It's YOUR fault.

Wasting no time in pointing up the tensions between Washington and Mexico City, Mr. Calderón also urged Mr. Bush to move more aggressively to create a temporary-worker program. Such a program would decriminalize the millions of Mexicans and others who enter the United States illegally to fill low-paying jobs.

Hillary says they're baaack! 

WASHINGTON (AP) - Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton told Democrats Tuesday the "vast, right-wing conspiracy" is back, using a phrase she once coined to describe partisan criticism.

Speaking to Democratic municipal officials, the New York senator used the term to hammer Republicans on election irregularities.

There's an interesting back-and-forth in the comments of this Fort Wayne Observed post about mayoral candidate Matt Kelty wanting to fight SOBs -- sexually oriented businesses. I'm not sure how important this issue is, given all that will be on the next mayor's plate.

Character counts:

WASHINGTON - For all the policy blueprints churned out by presidential campaigns, there is this indisputable fact: People care less about issues than they do about a candidate's character.

A new Associated Press-Ipsos poll says 55 percent of those surveyed consider honesty, integrity and other values of character the most important qualities they look for in a presidential candidate.

Good lord, Congress has actually gone and cut pork-barrel spending:

It's been a lean winter on Capitol Hill. A moratorium on the insertion of pork-barrel projects into spending bills

Oh, yeah, Scooter Libby. The only lesson is the one from the Bill Clinton imbroglio, the other famous case that involved a process crime far removed from what was being investigated in the first place: If you are speaking to officials who ask you for the truth, don't lie. Otherwise, it was an embarrassment of excess, too much made of way too little. Of course, I'm getting my marching orders to say that from one of the leaders of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, the Washington Post: