Author: lux

According to this NY Daily News article, not only is retired General Wesley Clark not a registered Democrat, but he’s not abiding by the rules of the Federal Elections Commission:

Wesley Clark was registered as a lobbyist when he jumped into the presidential race, but he has yet to actually register as a presidential candidate – or even enroll as a Democrat.

Clark has yet to change his voter registration in his home state of Arkansas from independent to Democrat, BusinessWeek reported yesterday.

“This has been a whirlwind two weeks. There are a lot of things we have to do, and that’s one of them,” Clark spokesman Mark Fabiani told the mag.

The Federal Election Commission also said yesterday it still hasn’t received a statement of Clark’s candidacy, although the rules say a candidate must file a declaration within 15 days of spending or raising $5,000.

Clark announced his candidacy Sept. 17 – exactly 15 days ago – and his aides say they’ve already raised more than $2 million.

Maybe it’s just an oversight, but IMHO not good news for the Clark campaign. And it’s extremely stupid of them to not change Clark’s registration before he launched his campaign. It makes the “carpetbagger’ label seem all that much more plausible.

The Post is a Murdoch publication, with all that implies about their political leanings, but still, it looks like they’ve gotten their facts right on this one.

Lots of political posts lately. It’s that time of year, I guess. I TiVoed the CA Governor’s debate since I wouldn’t get home from work early enough to watch it. Scott and I plopped down on the couch with some Chinese takeout and watched.

IMHO, Camejo and McClintock actually came out the best of all of them; Hufffington’s attacks on Bustamante and Schwarzenegger drove things off topic and divided those candidates’ attention from their answers. By staying out of Huffington’s firing line, the other 2 had the chance to actually answer some questions and talk about issues. Bustamante did do some talking about issues, but I also noticed that he ducked at least one question to go off on unrelated issues. Schwarzenegger did OK considering how much he was getting sniped by Huffington, who didn’t miss a chance to attack.

I wateched the debate hoping I would figure out who to vote for but have not come to any firm conclusions. Here’s where I am now:

-Huffington’s a joke.
-McClintock is too right wing.
-Camejo is too left wing.
-I don’t like Bustamante and his $4 million Indian casino donation shell games.
-Then there’s Schwarzenegger – but I think he doesn’t really grok how different running a state is from running a company and his inexperience will cause problems. Plus I have a hard time voting for any Republican knowing that a Republican governor will make things harder for the Democratic nominee in next years’s election.

I suppose I could vote for one of the no-names, but I don’t want to waste my vote either.

I don’t have to be at the store until noon today, so I’m scanning the headlines today. And I found this howler of a quote on Yahoo!

Bush said he insulates himself from the “opinions” that seep into news coverage by getting his news from his own aides. He said he scans headlines, but rarely reads news stories.

“I appreciate people’s opinions, but I’m more interested in news,” the president said. “And the best way to get the news is from objective sources, and the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what’s happening in the world.”

Am I the only person who finds it scary that the President of the United States can’t be bothered to read the news personally and make his own judgements on what’s happening and what’s important?

Heard on the radio as I was driving home from work tonight…. the US occupation of Iraq was called “Compassionate Colonialism”.

Unfortunately I don’t know who originated the phrase, but I’ll try to find out.