The town I grew up in was swindled (via the vagaries of bankruptcy law) out of one $322,000 firetruck. And they’re not happy:

from Irvington Village News <———@———-.com>
reply-to ———@———-.com
date Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 1:13 PM
subject Trustee Pat Ryan resigns from Village Board

At a meeting of Irvington Board of Trustees held July 21, 2008, Trustee Pat Ryan resigned from the Board. Mayor Erin Malloy thanked Trustee Ryan for her service to the Village and for being a “terrific colleague and terrific running mate.” Trustee Ryan was first elected as Trustee in 2006 and in her second term after winning re-election in March 2008.

In announcing her resignation, Ms. Ryan cited that “there is a decision before the Board that is very complicated and very difficult — It is a decision that I believe I cannot support.” Ms. Ryan was concerned that the Board’s decision to seek recovery of the lost fire truck funds from a fidelity bond held by the Village on behalf of former Clerk/Treasurer Edward Ritter could have personal financial impacts on Mr. Ritter.

Mayor Malloy, it’s worth noting, was the coin-toss loser of the exciting mayoral election of 2005 that ended in an exact tie. She actually had one more vote, but after a lengthy court battle a sealed ballot cast by one of her supporters was thrown out.   She won in 2007.

My home town’s politics are fantastic!

NYTimes has the most misleading headline of this political season: “Cast of 300 Advises Obama on Foreign Policy.”

The Boston Globe’s Big Picture blog today focuses on the lives of Barack Obama and John McCain. This picture of Obama with his mother caught my attention:

What, you don’t see it? Maybe if I blend them together for you?

Huh. I think they have similar eyes and eyebrows. Still not seeing it? Well, happy Fourth of July regardless.

It just occurred to me that, after the success of Hypnobama ‘08, I should make an election bumper stick for the surprising candidacy of Joss Whedon and Wil Wheaton. I haven’t yet decided who will be at the top of the Wheaton/Whedon ‘08 ticket.

Through a combination of garbage picking, oddly colored food and unfulfillable requirements, the Democrats plan to have the least fun convention ever!

Will flip-flops once again be prominently featured at the GOP presidential nominating convention?

Obama 2007:

Question I-B:
If you are nominated for President in 2008 and your major opponents agree to forgo private funding in the general election campaign, will you participate in the presidential public financing system?

Yes… If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.

Obama’s Spokesperson, 2007:

Obama’s spokesman Bill Burton said the senator “is pleased FEC took this important step in preserving the public financing system, which is why he sought the opinion. If Senator Obama is the nominee, he will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.”

Obama 2008:

Sen. Barack Obama told supporters Thursday that he has decided not to accept public financing for his general election campaign.

Hmm…

The GOP Ven(-ish) Diagram:

Click to big-ify

Via BadlyDrawnJeff.

Mitt Romney is joining me in southern California.

Yahoo News: “Hillary Clinton also has called for Guamanians to be able to vote in presidential elections.” Guamanians?

Descriptive, not divisive. Can’t he be both?

After CrazyMonk’s reports on the Nevada state Democratic Convention, it’s not all that surprising that the Republican convention was equally interesting. Ron Paul’s people, as usual, showed up en mass and overwhelmed the traditional republicans:

They seemed to make up more than half of the 1,300 or so state delegates to the convention. They won a key procedural vote on the rules, and their boisterous presence created significant delays, causing the convention chairman, Bob Beers, a state senator from Las Vegas, to recess the convention without selecting delegates to the national convention. The state convention is to resume at a later date.

Wherever Ron Paul goes, chaos follows. I like it.

Via Reddit.

My favorite image from the Daily Show clip that CrazyMonk linked to:

It looks like a Soviet propaganda poster. Hell, it looks like THIS Soviet propaganda poster:

Now, let’s combine them:

UPDATE: For CrazyMonk:

The 14th Amendment strips full citizenship from those who participate in rebellion against the United States. It has thus far only applied to certain Confederate States of America officeholders. In the 1970s, Congress retroactively restored full citizenship to Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee.

Governor Rendell, did Governor Rendell’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton make you, Governor Rendell, more likely to vote for Hillary Clinton? Absolutely.

Duverger’s Law “is a principle which asserts that a plurality rule election system tends to favor a two-party system.”

A statistical analysis comparing the years of public service to likelihood of presidential greatness  shows that it’s all basically random (scroll down a little bit).

In honor of today’s big primaries, here’s a quick snapshot of CNN’s Exit Polls from the recent Florida Republican primary:

Notice a theme? Even Ron Paul couldn’t get above N/A. Where’s Alan Keyes when you need him?

Is it possible that the right wing of the Republican party has a two-fold agenda in its recent vocal series of attacks on John McCain (see, from the past week, Pat Buchanan, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, James Dobson)?

1. The straightfoward - they genuinely would prefer that Romney was the nominee and they’re not all that thrilled by McCain’s ideological divergence from standard conservative values.
2. The devious - they recognize that they’re facing an uphill battle this year to win  moderate conservatives and a very strong uphill battle to win moderate liberals, especially if Obama is the Democratic nominee.  To confront this problem, the far right of the Republican party is publicly making a lot of noise to show their displeasure with McCain, advertising that their displeasure is because McCain is SOOOO moderate.  Every time Ann Coulter tells Fox News’s right-leaning audience not to vote for McCain, she’s giving him credibility in the center.  Notice that these attacks didn’t ramp up until it seemed clear (or at least likely) that he was going to win the party’s nomination — this sort of strategy wouldn’t work if they actually derailed him.  For this to be functional, they have to loudly complain only after he’s essentially locked up the nomination.  The efforts they’re making will both scare him to the right AND encourage moderates to vote for him.  Pretty good strategy, eh?

Anyone agree?

Everywhere you look today there’s a story about how Obama’s huge victory in South Carolina “transcended race” or how voters were “not swayed by racial politics.” Maybe those people are looking at different exit poll numbers than I am, because when Obama takes in 80% of the black vote and comes in last in the white vote he didn’t transcend race — he was lofted to victory almost exclusively ON race.

Now that race has become an issue (which it wasn’t in Iowa), I’m curious how he’s going to play in white America.  Could this sweeping victory actually be Barack Obama’s campaign’s death knell?

Click to big-ify

Daniel Kells points to this 3 minute NPR clip in which people are asked to describe various presidential candidates in one word. I’d like to see this question incorporated into polls, it makes for an intriguing perspective on voters’ overall perceptions of a candidate.

Guess which candidate this was: Mayor, 9/11, 9/11, Tough…

On the topic of Presidential candidates’ children, Nacho pointed out Ben Romney’s MySpace page which includes this clueless, yet entertaining message from “Republican Headquarters“:

Sep 13 2007 5:05 PM

Dear Reader thanks for being a proud member of the Republican Party, your participation through this process in the next election is greatly needed. Please pick a Republican canidate you feel is the best and send us back a comment stating just the canidates name.

thank you,

Your Republican Party

I wish, so badly, that that were the real Republican Party MySpace page.

Better blog: The Romney Boys or Meghan McCain?

If we’re judging based on title graphics alone, Meghan’s stylish drawing wins over the Romneys’ blurry photo. Also, can someone with musical knowledge tell me if Meghan’s playlists are any good?

I don’t think any other candidates’ children have blogs.

… is not a lawyer.

Via Lorelei.