Posted 11:54 AM by Floyd

Evan Kirchhoff has posted a perspicacious essay about Schwartzenegger's transition team and the choices likely to be made by them and by the governor. Evan -- and Floyd's -- libertarian fantasy: Issue $7500 per student vouchers and line the educational establishment up against a wall. Real-life best case: Borrow 20 big ones, freeze spending, and hope that California can grow its way out of its deficit.

The transition team is being hailed as bipartisan because it includes Republicans and Democrats. The press has a fetish for bipartisanship, I imagine because bipartisanship is really one-party rule. In this case the "one party" is that of the incompetent. Does it really befit a man of "the people" to invite every hack and retread south of Oregon and west of Nevada? Check out the list:

• James Hahn, Mayor of Los Angeles, who nearly lost 40% of his residents in a secession revolt.
  
• Richard Riordan, former Mayor of Los Angeles. Lost the 2002 Republican gubernatorial primary because he could not bring himself to associate with Republicans.
  
• Willie Brown, Mayor of San Francisco, a decrepit city which by now has become practically synonymous with "urine-soaked."
  
• Carly Fiorenta, CEO of Hewlett-Packard, a gigantic, lumbering, decaying corporation. (Will propose union with Nevada.)
  
• Susan Estrich, chair of Michael Dukakis' 1988 presidential campaign.
  

Posted 11:36 AM by Floyd

How dare people interfere with the affairs of their betters! First Gray Davis, and now this:

Anyhow, the whole point of this post, I've decided to take inspiration from my home state of California, and I'm starting a recall of Black Leaders. All of them.

The way we'll do it is, we'll start with Jesse Jackson and move our way down.

Fortunately there is no shortage of powerful people willing to save us from ourselves. Dan Weintraub talks to State Senator Sheila Kuehl:

DW: How are you feeling?

KUEHL: I am really sad. I’m more angry than anything. And I haven’t even started thinking about what the Senate will need to do in order to save the state.

DW: Save the state from what?

KUEHL: From ignorance. This guy has no idea how to run a state. ...

Posted 11:26 AM by Floyd

It's always fun to read James Donald:

During the four day run up to the election, the press was full
of weeping women and references to Hitler. It was the press
vs Arnold, and the press was willing to stop Arnold by any
means necessary.

Arnold's poll numbers did not shift an inch, showing that the
public concluded that the press were lying scum.

I was watching the TV news as the results came out -- some of
the anchors were close to tears. You know how they put on a
phony face of concern when they report a child has been
sexually mutilated, or some US soldiers blown up in Iraq --
well when Arnold won, you saw the real face of concern.

Posted 4:19 PM by Floyd

For great recall schadenfreude check out Marc Cooper's column in the LA Weekly:

The toxic Gray Kool-Aid so vigorously and blindly lapped up by Democrats and liberals over the past week seemed fully ingested by the time the polls closed Tuesday night. As the 8 o’clock hour ominously tolled at the Biltmore, the ballroom bleachers sagged under the weight of 200 or so journos, and a couple of very bored white-shirted fire marshals milled at the doorway, but nary a single living human being could be found on the floor of the Davis election-night party, a neat little reproduction of Jonestown.

The previous columns linked at the bottom of the page are fun too.

Posted 11:09 AM by Floyd

My therapist has recommended that I post articles unrelated to the Oakland A's. In that spirit:

Arnold Schwarzenegger is governor of California. (No link; if you can't find this news online, you're hopeless and need to buy a Web Browsing for Dummies book). I will link to the Secretary of State's official results. "Do recall" beat "don't recall" 55-45. Schwarzenegger received 48.4% of the vote, compared to 32% for Bustamante, 13.3% for McClintock, and 2.8% for commie Camejo.

Proposition 54 set out to ban collection of racial statistics by state government, with exceptions made for health providers and police. The race lobby knows no shame save that of losing power; the anti-Prop 54 crowd blatantly lied in claiming that health care would be adversely affected. Prop 54 lost 64-36.

I am not overjoyed at seeing Schwarzenegger take power, because it appears that power is all that interests him. The modern cult of celebrity is disgusting, and it was on full display during the campaign as Schwarzenegger was mobbed by thousands of people who wanted only to bask in the glow of his famous presence. (The only thing more pathetic than these people are the libertarians who mouth nonsense like "Schwartzenegger is socially liberal and fiscally conservative." Said libertarians are happy when politicians pander, not to them, but to voters who have something in common with them.)

But the recall was a good thing. Specifically, because it rid the state of the vile pay-to-play Governor Davis. Generally, pour encourager les autres (as Voltaire said approvingly when an admiral was hanged for cowardice.) Here's Mickey Kaus on the subject:

Does the punishment of a humiliating recall fit Davis' crimes? Maybe not. But the issue isn't fairness to Davis. It's the future of the state. If the voters brutally and unfairly punish a state-of-the-art pol who overspends in boom times and puts off tough decisions until after he's reelected, that doesn't seem to me a terrible precedent to set. It seems a useful precedent.

Posted 8:30 PM by Floyd

And so it ends, with Terrence Long striking out. (Full marks to Grady Little for not intentionally walking him this time.)

That bunt by Hernandez was a sweet play (he advanced runners on first and second with no outs), but it doesn't look so smart now after Oakland burned two more outs.

Posted 7:10 PM by Floyd

Oakland scored a run when Tejada got a double (which I think lifts Tejada above the .100 mark). Now Ted Lilly is pitching!

I'm going to do a little more work and head home.

Posted 7:04 PM by Floyd

Well, you blink and Boston scores four runs on you. The A's have been really lucky that Boston's big bats haven't done much this series. Not that the A's have done much with their luck.

And Chavez just struck out with Durazo on base. At some point you have to wonder if Macha shouldn't start utility infielder Frankie Menenchino. Chavez is something like 1-for-23 in this series.

Posted 5:29 PM by Floyd

Bottom of the first inning. Who would have imagined this:

Chavez batting, 0 balls, 2 strikes.

On the next reload, a few seconds later:

Chavez struck out swinging.

Posted 3:55 PM by Floyd

I wish I had comments as interesting as Aaron Haspel's:

My knowledge of arsenic poisoning comes nearly entirely from the experience someone I know had when he was poisoned by his Russian mail-order bride. He gave a colleague a sandwich prepared by his beloved and, when that colleague became terribly ill, the colleague was tested for arsenic poisoning. When the colleague tested positive, he too was tested and found to be have abnormally high blood levels of the stuff. Apparently, the sandwich was to be the coup-de-gras.

Posted 2:43 PM by Floyd

Two hours. Thirty minutes.

Red Sox closer Byung-Hyun Kim is Korean, but has learned a lot about America. He knows the capital of Massachusetts. He knows the largest city in Arizona. And he knows the New Jersey state bird:

Kim initially tipped his cap when his name was announced, then when fans began booing he lifted his right hand and put up his middle finger.

Within 10 minutes after Boston's win in Game 3, the Red Sox issued a statement on behalf of Kim.

"I apologize to the fans of the Red Sox, the people of New England, and baseball fans throughout the world," said Kim. "It was an instant, reflexive reaction that I regret."

This was a classless move, but I sympathize with Kim. Fans who boo their own team are scum. Red Sox fans boo Pedro Martinez. They are vermin.

In 216 BC the Roman general C. Terrentius Varro led four legions into battle against the Carthaginian Hannibal at Cannae. Hannibal annihilated them. Only a few escaped, Varro being one of them. When he returned to Rome, the citizens showed up to greet him. Even though Varro was a disaster as a general, he did his best in the service of Rome, and the Romans thanked him for that.

Posted 1:17 PM by Floyd

Three hours, 45 minutes.

The Chronicle is reporting that Tim Hudson got in a fight with a Red Sox fan at a bar the night before his Game 4 start. Hudson left the second inning with a strained oblique muscle (a muscle in your side that keeps you from choking).

Posted 10:56 AM by Floyd

Six more hours.