Lock up your daughters…Arnold wins handily in California. (Gray Davis, contemplate this on the tree of woe.) Y’know, I never figured Predator and The Running Man to be two-Governor pictures, but there you have it. Well, here’s hoping Schwarzenegger can find a way to extricate Cali from its disastrous fiscal quagmire…Somehow I don’t think repealing the car tax is going to help much.
Author: KcM
The Real McCain.
John McCain handicaps the Democratic field, and balks at comparisons to Dean. I dunno…a real “straight-talker” would call out Dubya a little more, I should think, particularly given the President’s recent lapses in foreign affairs. Elsewhere, Wesley Clark gets in hot water for giving paid campaign speeches. What with yesterday’s resignation, this is another indicator of a troubling lack of oversight over in Camp Clark. While he’s still getting good press for the moment, I’d think that eventually these types of avoidable gaffes are going to add up to trouble for the General.
Nickle and Dimed.
Don Nickles calls it quits, putting his Oklahoma Senate seat in play for 2004. “A businessman before coming to Washington, he championed business’s causes, including tax cuts, deregulation, curbs on damages from lawsuits and opposition to minimum wage increases.” Apparently, he decided to quit after botching his coup attempt during the Lott affair last December. Can’t say I’m sorry to see him go.
Howard’s Army.
The Times checks in with “Generation Dean.” Hey, I’ll take it over the “Hipublicans.” Also in Dem election news, General Clark loses his campaign manager in a power struggle between the DC ops and the Internet team. A bit early for Clark’s campaign to experience this type of shake-up, isn’t it?
Taikonauts go Lunar.
More details surface about China’s space ambitions, and they are soon to include manned lunar missions. Interesting…
Start Spreading the News.
The Voice releases its annual Best of NY guide for 2003. Time to start explorin’.
Doubting Dubya.
In a news conference today, Dubya voiced doubts about whether the Plame leaker will ever be caught. “‘I don’t know if we’re going to find out the senior administration official,’ Bush said. ‘I don’t have any idea. I’d like to. I want to know the truth.’ But, Bush said, ‘This is a large administration and there’s a lot of senior officials.’” Good Lord, what garbage. Perhaps an independent counsel might facilitate matters?
The End is Near.

A Danish film site releases 16 quality stills from the RotK trailer, including better looks at Oliphaunts, the Pelennor Fields, and Shelob. (And, yes, contrary to initial impressions, Baby’s definitely got back.)
The Forgetful Pachyderm.
The recall madness in California finally comes to an end. I must say, the past week or so has been enormously instructive in shedding light on the depths of hypocrisy within the GOP. Only a few years ago, the Republicans pushed America to constitutional crisis because they claimed to believe that sexual immorality was an impeachable executive offense. This week, the Republicans have shown that, not only do they not care about executive offenses, they don’t even give a whit about sexual immorality. Ridiculous and shameful. And then consider Florida, Texas, California…again and again, the GOP has run roughshod over the principle of fair elections in the name of their own lust for power. At the end of the day, is there no level below which this party will not sink?
October Surprise.
Congrats to the Red Sox on their comeback win over the Chokeland A’s last night (and to the Cubs for breaking their 95-year losing streak the night previously.) As y’all know, I don’t normally talk baseball in this space, but Sox-Yankees is one of the classic rivalries in sports. And just in case anyone got the wrong idea from my love for the Knicks, I think Yankee fans are Laker fans are 90’s Cowboys fans are Jordan-era Bulls fans are Man. U fans…i.e, some of the most aggravating, bandwagon-jumping, fair-weather-only hordes in all of sportsdom. Go BoSox all the way. Update: Speaking of the Lake Show, Phil Jackson hints at signing Jordan to replace Kobe for the duration of his trial. Ugh…how bad would that be?