Bound in a Nutshell

The NYT today reports that likely Republican nominee John McCain might have had an affair, and might have been induced by that affair to try to influence bureaucrats to help his lover.

I no more care about this than I cared about President Clinton’s affair: a politician’s romantic life is, for the most part, none of my business. Yes, the influence peddling is more of an issue; but it’s also a sin that I expect most politicians to have been guilty of at some point in their lives.

Can we move on, now, please?

Clinton’s been trying to go negative on the guy, and it’s not working, because people literally just do not want to hear about it. At this particular moment in time Clinton could unearth a video of Barack Obama eating live kittens while wearing nothing but an oiled thong at an S&M party hosted by Larry Craig, and she couldn’t do anything with it because if she did people would wonder why she was being so mean to Obama, and her polling would suffer.

That’s funny.

Obama hasn’t even gotten the nomination and already he has coattails. In congressional district MD-04 in suburban Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties surrounding D.C., there was a fierce battle in the Democratic primary for a seat in the House of Representatives. In that district, a progressive young black community organizer, Donna Edwards, challenged and beat a popular eight-term incumbent Democrat, Albert Wynn. Edwards ran against him in 2006 and lost. The difference this time was all the enthusiastic young Obama supporters who showed up to vote. Since MD-04 has a PVI of D+30, she can go visit Nancy Pelosi today to start discussing office space and committee assignments. The Washington Post has a story about her upset win. In MD-01, Wayne Gilchrest (R), was defeated by state senator Andy Harris (R) in a primary.

This bodes very well for the likelihood of “change”. Imagine what the world would be like if the Democrats had a solid majority in the House and Senate, instead of razor-thin ones.

That world hasn’t existed since the 1980s. Put it together with a Democratic President and it hasn’t existed since the *1960s*.

The estate of “Lord of the Rings” creator J.R.R. Tolkien is suing the film studio that released the trilogy based on his books, claiming the company hasn’t paid it a penny from the estimated $6 billion the films have grossed worldwide.

Big Hollywood corporations are often very … reluctant … to pay money that they have agreed to pay. They’re going to be completely unwilling to pay money that they haven’t agreed to pay.

As if it isn’t bad enough that 50,000 votes won’t be counted due to LA County’s bizarre ballot system for nonpartisan voters (which, incidentally, the Registrar now promises will be fixed in time for the June primary), the Registrar is now putting forward ridiculous explanations for why they can’t be counted.

According to this article, the registrar is concerned that these ballots might have been lined up against placards aligning republican or minor party candidates with the bubbles, and therefore it isn’t possible to tell who the voter intended to vote for.

But … wouldn’t that be true if they’d filled out the bubble indicating the party, too? I mean, surely the likelihood of this being a problem doesn’t depend on whether or not a particular bubble was filled in?

I’ve never been that in touch with the music listened to by the people who run the Grammies, so it shouldn’t surprise me that there is exactly one song in the list of this year’s winners which conscious of having heard.

It’s a good song, at least.

Rick Hasen reports that LA County has been using its bad ballot design for several years, and that in 2004 and 2006 only 40 percent of the county’s DTS ballots were counted.

You know, when 60% of the people who try to use a system *consistently* fail to use it correctly, it’s a pretty clear sign that the system is badly designed and ought to be replaced with one which people find easier to understand.

The fact that LA County has failed to do this is irresponsible, and if it continues to fail to address the problem, the state legislature should step in and prohibit this kind of system.

San Mateo County turnout was pathetic:

Total Registered Voters 357,075
Precinct Ballots: 88,080 (24.7%)
Early Voting Ballots: 941 (0.3%)
Absentee Ballots: 53,554 (15.0%)

Total Ballots: 142,575 (39.9%)

Even in the Democratic Party, with a hotly contested race, total (precinct + absentee) turnout was only 47.8%.

The Democrats may be having a prolonged nomination battle, but at least they’re not entangled in a high-profile corruption investigation:

Top House Republicans were told in recent days that a former employee of their campaign committee may have forged an official audit during the contentious 2006 election cycle and that they should brace for the possibility that an unfolding investigation could uncover financial improprieties stretching back several years, according to GOP sources briefed on the members-only discussions.

From Dave, who found it courtesy of Digby, a bit of electoral skullduggery from the California election: in Los Angeles county, decline to state voters who request a Democratic ballot are given a ballot with only Democratic candidates, but must also fill in a seperate bubble on the scantron form, indicating that they have selected a Democratic ballot.

This procedural requirement may violate State law. But even if it doesn’t, it’s clearly a bad idea: it’s an unnecessary added step that will simply be missed by some people, resulting in their vote not counting.
Maybe that was the point?