The Possum & the Politician

The wackiest Senate race in America has some new wierd -- following Rep Katherine Harris' (R-FL) purchase of a pet possum at the Wausau Possum Festival (where else would you buy one). (AP via Yahoo!)

Ney Drops Out

Rep Bob Ney (R-OH) has dropped out of a re-election effort due to damage from lobbyist scandals. State Sen Joy Padgett will replace Rep Ney on the Republican ticket. Rep Ney was plagued by his link to an ongoing probe into a lobbyist scandal.

Ealier this year, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) also dropped out of a re-election bid over mounting issues surrounding his relationship with lobbyists and his incictment on an unrelated campaign spending issue.

Polls repeatedly showed Rep Ney was taking a pounding among voters from the same influence peddling probe that landed a conviction against Rep Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA) earlier this year. Rep Ney says he will not resign if indicted over his dealings with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. But he says the campaign was taking a toll on his family. And it appears he decided he could not overcome the negative numbers in his race against Democrat Zack Space. (Forbes)

Txt Msg Vtrs & the Decider

How to use your cell phone to register to vote -- and President Bush's words come back to haunt GOP candidates.

Urban Renewal

Wanna know how hard Isreal is hitting Lebanon in their conflict with Hezbollah? You can see the impact from space.

GeoEye has a pair of stunning "before & after" satellite images showing the damage on a chunk of Beirut. The image on the left was taken July 12. The image on the right on July 31.

Their site features a movable/searchable mosaic of Beirut from the airport to surrounding areas taken on July 31. (GeoEye via Yahoo! News)

Those Crazy Kids -- at ExxonMobil

Seen that spoof of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" some kid posted on YouTube. By "some kid" we of course mean the public relations department the oil companies hired to produce the video.



The "kid" who posted it calls himself "Toutsmith," says he's 29, and lives in Beverly Hills.

The Wall Street Journal tracked down the actual street address for folks who posted it. The Internet trace led them to a computer registered to DCI Group -- a DC lobbying and PR firm whose clients include ExxonMobil. (Wall Street Journal)

The Hillary Show

Sen Hillary Clinton (D-NY) is all over the news this morning for her sparring match with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during a Senate hearing Thursday. Google News lists more than 1,300 links to the story this morning.

Why so much attention? It was good TV.

Senators are given a specific amount of time for questions during hearings. Most use up all their time delivering a speech on their view of one specific part of the issue.

Dull.

Reporters (speaking from exerience here) have to force themselves to stay awake listening for a canned soudbite -- usually read verbatim from his prepared statement.

Definitely not memorable stuff.

Sen Clinton actually used her question time for -- egads! -- questions.

Hill Press Secretaries should ask themselves why talk shows are so popular among political junkies and then ask themselves why they don't try to imitate them more often.

Sen Clinton framed her message as questions and fired them off at the Secretary. It plays well for television, keeps reporters awake, and steals the show -- because it's all show, no speeches.

Everything's Bigger in Texas -- Except Them "ASS 06" Checks

It's election year. Would you contribute money to "ASS 06?"

Seems a lot of Texans were getting that stamped on the checks they sent to Gov Rick Perry's (right) re-election campaign.

"In hindsight, it probably wasn't the best choice for an abbreviation." -- Robert Black, Spokesman for Gov Rick Perry (R-TX) re-election campaign

It actually stood for "A Small Supporter," and was stamped on checks made out for relatively small amounts.

Some protestors actually sent in checks for three-cents to protest a plan to raise a new business tax. They tend to think the code was more personal. (AP)

Sex, Lies and Videotape -- Politics in Nevada

Ya gotta love a lead like this one from the Associated Press:

Nevada's wide-open race for governor is being fought with sock puppets, cardboard cutouts, "Star Wars" parodies and Internet close-ups of an elephant's behind.

And that doesn't even get to the matter of "latent Republicanism."

This is a race that includes former lounge singer Lorraine Hunt (who's now the Republican Lt Governor), and Melody Damayo (right) -- a Republican former porn star who got her big break in "Happy Ending."

She may have inspired State Treasurer Brian Krolicki's campaign commercial in the GOP Lt Governor's primary. It's a spoof of a porn movie with a scantily clad couple entangling to the sound of cheezy sax music. He's merely claiming his opponent -- Barbara Lee Woolen -- made her fortune in the porn business. (AP)

Sacré Bleu -- Zee Fries are, How You Say, "French?"

"Freedom Fries" and "Freedom Toast" are "French" again at the Congressional cafeterias. Congress ordered their names changed in the lead up to the Iraq War when France opposed the US invasion.

Rep Bob Ney (R-OH), one of the Congressmen who led the charge to change the names in 2003, declined to comment on the menu change. (WashTimes)

Senator's Nephew Killed in Iraq

Marine Cpl Phillip Baucus -- a nephew of Sen Max Baucus (D-MT) -- has been killed in action in Iraq.

Cpl Baucus died in combat in al-Anbar province on July 29. Sen Baucus voted to authorize the use of military force in Iraq.

Only a handful of Congressmen have relatives serving in Iraq. Sen John McCain's son Jimmy volunteered for the Marine Corps last month. (Bloomberg)

Dyslexic Doctor Death

Jeremy Kohler, of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch discovered the secret identity of Missouri's state executioner. And he sounds perfect for the job -- at least he sounds like he's been training for it his whole professional career.

Dr Alan R Doerhoff has:

• Been banned from practicing in two hospitals in the state
• Been charged with malpractice over 20 times
• Received a public reprimand in 2003 by the state Board of Healing Arts

Like I said -- perfect for overseeing lethal injections since 1995 for the Missouri Department of Corrections.

Dr Doerhoff has testified in court that he is dyslexic. So he sometimes confuses names of drugs. Always something you want in a doc, huh? (Post-Dispatch, Photo: Post-Dispatch, HT: IRE)

Army Unprepared for War?

Equipment shortages have left more than two-thirds of the Army National Guard 34 brigades unprepared to go into combat.

It's a problem that'll cost $21-billion to fix.

The assessment comes from the National Guard's top general, Lt Gen Steven Blum.

It follows an announcement from the regular Army's brass that two-thirds of their brigades are also unprepared to go into combat. Though they point out that all units currently in combat are "100% ready."

They'd better be.

USA Today reports the problem is being fueled by unites leaving tanks, trucks, and other equipment in Iraq rather than bringing them home. (USAToday)

Strange Bedfellows

Republican donors are ponying up money to the Green Party candidate for US Senate in Pennsylvania.

Hey, they have a perfectly good Republican candidate -- well, sort of. Sen Rick Santorum (R-PA) (left) is imploding. He's trailing in the polls, claiming a huge stash of WMDs were discovered in Iraq, and incorrectly claimed Arab television network al Jazeera endorsed his Democratic rival, Bob Casey.

With all that going against him, the GOP figures they need all the help they can get. So they're hoping for a Ralph Nader effect -- with the Green candidate swiping left leaning votes from Mr Casey.

Green candidate Carl Romanelli himself says most of the $100-thousand he raised to get on the ballot came from Republicans. (WashPost)

Fake Flags and Cartoon Dogs in Rhode Island

Gov Don Carcieri (R-RI) put up with the Hollywood film crews taking down a chandelier from the statehouse ceiling. He bit his tongue when they replaced lamps with statues and built a false front to the Senate chamber.

But when they flew a fake flag from a fictional city over his capitol (left) -- that was the last draw.

He's looking into the way the state loans out it's state capitol for movies. Like for this particular epic -- "Underdog." It's a live action version of the 1960s cartoon that featured Marlon Brando's roomate Wally Cox (right).

Stay classy, Providence! (Boston Globe)

Billionaires Bail on Tax Payments

Rich and politically connected folks have been saving a bundle through tax shelters. It's cost Uncle Sam $40-billion a year. That's money the rest of us taxpayers have to make up.

A Senate committee will release a 370-page report detailing how millionaires and billionaires are getting out of paying taxes by using shell companies and trusts on the Isle of Man.

Among the rich and famous listed:

• Robert Wood Johnson IV -- NY Jets owner
• Sam & Charles Wyly -- brothers who've bankrolled President Bush's campaigns
• Haim Saban -- Democratic Party fundraiser who made it big selling "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers"

Ain't that rich? (WashPost)

Evidence Put Online

Practically all the eveidence from the Moussaoui trial is online for you to take a look at. You can find the evidence here.

The Washington Post reports:

With a series of clicks, Web users can hear recordings of frantic 911 calls from people trapped inside the burning trade center towers and see videos of the towers collapsing.

Zacarias Moussaoui was billed as "the 20th Hijacker" in the only trial to date on the 9/11 attacks.

A spokesman for the court says the decision to put the info online because people were interested in it. (WashPost)

I'm Right, You're Wrong -- No Need to Read this Post

Partisan political types are pretty stubborn. New research shows we listen to ideas that reinforces our world view and shut out those that disturb our world view -- or make us question whether we made a wrong choice in our opinions.

The research suggests there are parts of our noggins that regulate emotion that come into play. A politician says something you agree with -- your brain lets it in and processes it. A politician says something you don't agree with and your brain turns up the "angry" knob that lets you keep it out.

Or something like that. Hey, it's politics, not brain science or rocket surgery or whatever. (WashPost)