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Say this for Eliot Spitzer's judgment: it's gratifying that NY may soon have the first legally blind governor in U.S. history. Give Spitzer the "bone"-headed at least one point for choosing David Paterson as his running mate.

Maybe something good will come of this. Besides 1001 wisecracks and "Love Gov"/"Eliot Mess" headlines.

Y'know, I don't have a water cooler here in my home-based workplace. So permit me to observe among the weirder ironies in all this: Spitzer is one of maybe 347 males in NY state ever to have learned that inducing a prostitute to cross state lines is a greater crime--a *federal felony*--than picking her up on the street corner.

And maybe the only one to discover that detail before getting arrested. (Granted, I'm just presuming that someone who has prosecuted two prostitution rings would have absorbed this....)

From the wisecracks: my wife's pal Bill Bragin observes that it's a shame that Spitzer couldn't stick to his campaign promises—the governor at least could have patronized a brothel from some economically depressed town upstate.

I just saw in Slate that Barack Obama has been sending a messenger to Canada to tell them (who he has to tell, Slate doesn't specify) that his whole Anti-NAFTA thing is just a show to impress the yokels in Ohio. Don't worry, he's really a free trader just like us. He just needs to say these things to get elected so that he can protect NAFTA.
It reminds me of LBJ sending messengers back to Houston to tell his financial backers that he didn't really believe in Civil Rights, that he only said these pro-civil rights things so that he could keep control of the Senate from the Northern Liberals and Republicans. Really he was a segregationist just like them. Really.
He has taken a page from the Master, while Clinton is sampling Walter Mondale.

An American politician who speaks intelligently about religion? Really?

Ishbareaders will remember the sleuthing work that Alex B. did in uncovering the Misleading Water Filter Comparison Chart, which ranks "Aquasana" as number one but hides the fact that it's sponsored by... Aquasana. There's been some back-and-forth between President of Sun Water Systems, maker of the Aquasana water filters, me, and various other folks who feel that Mr. Strand was not being above board.

Yesterday a satisfied Aquasana customer, "Miguel," posted here about his wonderful experience with Aquasana.. "After all, I wanted a water filter that would do the best job, not the one who I thought had the best marketing team," says "Miguel."

Curious, I looked up where "Miguel" was posting from. Hmmm -- his IP is 67.152.98.19 in Fort Worth, TX, home of... Sun Water Systems! And it's the same IP used earlier by.... Charles Strand, President of same!

As Henry David Thoreau said, "Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk." Ladies and gentlemen, we have a Sock Puppet. This from a man who wrote here: "I've always been suspicious of people who make defamatory remarks, but use aliases to do so. If you feel good about what you are saying, why use an Alias..."

You lose! Good day sir!

Update: He wrote again, still claiming to be Miguel, and clearly not understanding what an IP address is. I've closed the thread, since I really have better things to do than argue with a sock puppet about water filtration marketing.

Colin sent over a link to this video inspired by a Barack Obama speech:

Here's the backstory. Compare and contrast with Mosh.

I've been mostly avoiding writing about politics, but I'll put it out here now: I'm pulling for Obama. (And not just because Scarlett Johansson tells me to -- or Caroline Kennedy.)

I'm pulling for him because he's inspirational. And I think in electoral politics today, it's all about turnout. Inspiring voters will increase turnout. You win the turnout game (in the right places), you win the election.

Now, I know that Hillary can be inspirational too. The problem is that she also inspires hatred, among many. I think (and this is of course without evidence) that she'll inspire as many people to turn out against her as she will for her. People love to hate Hillary. I'm sure the GOP would love to have her as the Democratic nominee.

Many people to whom I've advanced this argument have asked, "Isn't the country too racist to elect a black man?" Maybe yes. Maybe there's a reason there are so many lies being spread about Obama and so many people willing to believe them.

But then again, maybe not. (I mean, as Thudfactor points out, wouldn't John Edwards be the front-runner if this were the case?)

Or maybe this will be the year that Reverend King's prediction -- "I can foresee the Negro vote becoming consistently the decisive vote in national elections" -- will come to pass. Maybe turnout from all those inspired by Obama will wash away those who could not pull the lever for someone who looks different from them.

I guess we'll find out tomorrow. See you at the polls.

I haven't posted in a while, so it is unfortunate that my reappearance is to share with you the demise of our beloved Yankee Doodle. No, not the one with the macaroni. The famous lunch counter in New Haven, wedged between Tyco and a corner spot with a rotating assortment of proprietors. (It was a Wawa when I was a student, but has since been a swanky shoe store, inter alia.)

Some may say that the place was doomed in an age of no trans fats and increasing flexitarianism. Or it could be that as Yale has spiffed up the area surrounding it, students had more and better choices for their comestibles. Less well known, though, is that the Doodle record went to a professional competitive eater some years back, which I think took away some of the attraction for the plus-size men on campus.

In any case, its doors are closed, apparently for good, and we will miss you, O fair Doodle!

In an April 1995 memo, Bush invited his staff to come to his office to look at a painting. … The picture is a Western scene of a cowboy riding up a craggy hill, with two other riders following behind him. Bush told visitors—who often noted his resemblance to the rider in front—that it was called A Charge To Keep and that it was based on his favorite Methodist hymn of that title, written in the eighteenth century by Charles Wesley. As Bush noted in the memo, which he quoted in his autobiography of the same title: “I thought I would share with you a recent bit of Texas history which epitomizes our mission. When you come into my office, please take a look at the beautiful painting of a horseman determinedly charging up what appears to be a steep and rough trail. This is us. What adds complete life to the painting for me is the message of Charles Wesley that we serve One greater than ourselves.” Bush identified with the lead rider, whom he took to be a kind of Christian cowboy, an embodiment of indomitable vigor, courage, and moral clarity.

Only that is not the title, message, or meaning of the painting. The artist, W.H.D. Koerner, executed it to illustrate a Western short story entitled “The Slipper Tongue,” published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1916. The story is about a smooth-talking horse thief who is caught, and then escapes a lynch mob in the Sand Hills of Nebraska. The illustration depicts the thief fleeing his captors. In the magazine, the illustration bears the caption: “Had His Start Been Fifteen Minutes Longer He Would Not Have Been Caught.”

Bush's Favorite Painting

Naples Pizza Now Wall Street Pizza

Noooooooooo!

Thanks to Sandra for ruining my morning with this terrible news. What's next, renaming the Doodle "Beckwith's Bistro"? Perhaps "Post-Modern Apizza"?

Corpse Wheeled to Check-Cashing Store Leads to 2 Arrests

Just sign here, Mr. Lomax....

GOP Candidates :: Buffy Villains Mapping. Also the Democrats.

And, you're probably tired of hearing about Iowa, but the Brooklyn Paper's coverage of the caucus in Brooklyn, Iowa is great.

At least for New Yorkers:
A great plan for Governors Island and the return of the 2nd Avenue Deli!
Merry Happy Xmas, Solstice, Kwanza, (Eid) al Adha, Boxing Day, and New Years!

So the Mayor of San Fran wants to tax sugary soda. How do we feel about that? Kinda regressive. But city kids are getting fatter every year and that will put a strain on the health system of SF and the nation. But where will this slippery slope end? Taxing everything that CAN be bad for you if taken in large quantities? And if these drinks are so bad for kids why not just outlaw them? They have already banned them from some schools; why not pass a "no soda under 17" law? At least that way parents will control what their children drink.

This headline, from CNN.com, sums up the hypocrisy of Americans, politicians, and almost all religious people. Basically he said yesterday: I believe something, but don’t worry because what I believe doesn’t affect the way I behave. I will always act in accordance with your beliefs, whatever they are. ALL of you, regardless of what crazy thing you believe. Even if they contradict each other. Because deep down I know we all have the same core belief: we are religious only when it is convenient.

Naomi Wolf deplores lack of civic information among the young, blames the Left for making them cynical. Look, Ms. Wolf, I'm a big proponent of civic education and civic engagement. Wrote my college thesis on it and everything (for Dahl of all people, who I was lucky to have for a senior seminar.) But blaming the Left for making youth cynical about democracy is like blaming your mom for making you wary of strangers.

While I appreciate the drugs that are keeping my low-grade flu at bay, I do not need your "Cool Burst Caplets" that taste minty for the two seconds that they are in my mouth. Plus, they turn my tongue blue.

That is all.

FBI Hoped to Follow Falafel Trail to Iranian Terrorists Here

Like Hansel and Gretel hoping to follow their bread crumbs out of the forest, the FBI sifted through customer data collected by San Francisco-area grocery stores in 2005 and 2006, hoping that sales records of Middle Eastern food would lead to Iranian terrorists.

The idea was that a spike in, say, falafel sales, combined with other data, would lead to Iranian secret agents in the south San Francisco-San Jose area.

Via Boing Boing.

"It's not the dead that concern me about Halloween. And it is not the impact of all that sugar on the weight of our kids. No, it's the dead-weight loss, or pointless lost utility of the entire enterprise. That likely has a dollar value that exceeds $1.5 billion annually. American citizens squander more than a billion and a half dollars a year on an economically inefficient holiday."

-- Halloween Is an Economist's Biggest Nightmare

Via Rebecca's Pocket.

...KKK?

"We are opposed to the ignorance and stupidity as displayed by the individuals that thumbed their nose at the area churches by continuing to use racial slurs, threats and avoided Christian deportment."

Members of one Klan group plan to protest another in Cullman. Via Cynical C where the People’s Front of Judea joke has been duly made.

Bushs Media Slip-Ups Reach Niagara Falls. Via Frank.

Yet another reason why torture is bad for national security. Or, the segment in which I agree again with Andrew Sullivan and find myself wondering if either of us has a goatee ...

"Al Qaeda continues to have a deep interest in acquiring weapons of mass destruction... I can trace the story of a sernior terrorist operative telling how Iraq provided training in these weapons to al Qaeda. Fortunately, this operative is now detained and he has told his story."

The man who spoke those words was Colin Powell at the UN. The "operative", we now know, was Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libbi. He was waterboarded and given Bush-approved hypothermia treatment, i.e. frozen till he could take it no longer. It was only then that he told of al Qaeda's links with Saddam's WMDs... the CIA subsequently found al-Libbi "had no knowledge of such training or weapons and fabricated the statements because he was terrified of further harsh treatment." So I now realize that part of the reason I believed the WMD case for war against Saddam was because the Bush administration had been secretly torturing suspects and got false confessions. The biggest intelligence failure in recent US history - the WMD case in Iraq - was partly created by the torture policy. [Link]

Emily on the destruction of Radnor Middle School and its rifle range.

Andrew Sullivan lays it down on torture. I wish our presidential candidates would speak out as clearly and unequivocally

First: I do not believe that torture does save people's lives, because I do not believe it gives us reliable intelligence and because the use of it historically leads to its becoming the primary method of intelligence gathering, and so undermines our extreme need to develop better intelligence gathering, especially human intelligence... And I do not trust those in power who tell me otherwise, because there is no check on them whatsoever, no oversight that they have not cheerfully avoided, and any admission of guilt on their part would lead to war crime prosecution...

But secondly: yes, I do think that in a choice between legalizing torture and the loss of American lives, I would choose the loss of American lives, including my own.

This is not righteous victimhood. It is righteous self-defense. There are some things worse than avoiding all casualties in warfare. One of those things is abandoning the core meaning of what a country and a civilization stand for. If America does not stand against the torture of individuals seized without due process by an unchecked executive power, then American stands for nothing. In fact, if this standard had applied two centuries ago, America would not exist at all... To destroy the constitution, the rule of law, and habeas corpus and to legalize torture in the false hope of saving lives is the action of those who do not understand freedom and who do not understand America. It is the action of cowards and slaves.

What part of "Live Free Or Die" do these people not understand? [Link]

I've more or less quit blogging about the Iraq war, but sometimes things are so absurd I just have to note them:

• Thudfactor quotes: "One senior intelligence official in Washington has noted that Iraqis fatally shot through the back of the head are considered victims of sectarian attacks, while those shot in the front are deemed victims of ordinary crime." And if you get shot in the knees, it must be the Mafia? Buckshot to the face? Must be Cheney.

• President Bush grants himself retroactive immunity from any future war crime prosecution concerning the use of torture etc. (Via Keywords.) He's also put the Democrats on double-secret probation. And, he's rubber and you're glue.

Does anyone know why almost half of the Democrats voted to continue funding for the war? They were all on board with Webb's amendment the day before (which would cause a drawdown in troop levels by mandating longer times between Iraq tours for soldiers). I can't figure it out.

Waaay back in 2004, I wondered why the media companies didn't just flood P2P networks with fakes. Of course, they did, and more. MediaDefender is a company that's hired by the likes of HBO and BMG to fight piracy. But they're not merely "flooding the zone" with decoy files. MediaDefender, which apparently can't hire a decent web designer, just had months of internal emails leaked -- to BitTorrent, of course. Petard, hoist, etc. The emails reveal that the company tried to set up its own video sharing site (Miivi.com) for the sole purpose of snagging illegal file-sharers. More on this story over at Ars Technica.