In a roundup of news stories about Congress today, two stories were about Republicans warning Democrats about pushing through their agenda in the next Congress.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) warned Democrats today against preventing Republicans from offering amendments on the floor and making labor legislation a top priority in the 111th Congress.

Just one day after Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) won the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Republicans are seeking assurances that he won’t use his new position to push legislation that would grant California and other states the right to regulate greenhouse gases from automobiles.

Now, I understand there are some legitimate concerns about one party pushing through legislation. Legislation designed solely to cement the party's position in power or to remove checks - such as completely removing the ability to offer amendments, especially when you should be able to easily vote down the ones you don't like - would be something I'd genuinely worry about. But Republicans making threats to Democrats about passing policies that are more or less part of the platform? After this past election, I'm not quite sure what the Republicans think they have to back up their threats. Although I'm fairly sure the Democrats are capable of capitulating.

the light at the end of the tunnel

Apparently driving the I-395 tunnel is similar to a near-death experience.

I've driven that tunnel, and my experiences have been far more mundane - more bored to death, less glowing white light enveloping the end of my road...

this makes no sense to me...

I was looking at the websites of various candidates for Montana state office today, and I came across this.

That is not the current official website of the Republican candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction, but it does appear to be a website that previous was her official site, and it's the top Google link for a search on her name. Ignore, for the moment, that her official website is hosted by her AOL account. Look down the page at the endorsements she's touting, presumably to show her qualifications for this office. Then remember, this office is the State Superintendent of Public Instruction (head of state schools):

Endorsed by: National Rifle Association
Montana Right to Life
Montana Shooting Sports Association
Montana Contractors' Association
Montana Wood Products Association

None of those seems to me to have anything to do with the schools. Am I missing something?

This is just about my favorite Internet comment ever.

this is not a joke

An actual police report from a neighborhood listserv:

Theft 1
SHIFT: DAY 09/30/2008 09/30/2008
1430 UNK
GEORGIA AVE AND PINEY BRANCH RD NW
Street/Highway/Road 402 08139126
Status: Open
C1 RPTS S1-2 APPROACHED C1 AND SHOWED C1 A BROWN PAPER BAG AND
STATED THAT THERE WAS FORTY-TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS INSIDE OF THE BAG.
S1-2 TOLD C1 FOR FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS C1 COULD HAVE IT. C1 REMOVED
FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS FROM C1'S BANK ACCOUNT AND GAVE IT TO S1. S1
GAVE THE BAG TO C1 AND THERE WAS NOTHING INSIDE.


This just presents so many questions, I don't know where to begin. But it is the first time I've heard of an e-mail scam work without the e-mail.

nice touch, Apple

On iTunes AppStore today, all links work except one: when I try to see "All Free Apps" I get an error message saying the store is unavailable.

Looks like somebody wants their commission.

maybe a bit of an overstatement...

Heard while entering RFK Stadium for a D.C. United game tonight:

D.C. United has the best fans, in the history of sport.

Well, no.

cavemen

The Geico cavemen ads have clearly outlasted their humor usefulness, but that rarely stops advertising executives.

The new tennis ad simply baffles me, though. As you're sure to have seen unless you're one of those who manage to live without the pleasures of television, the caveman is playing a match against Billy Jean King. As he taunts her, she points out he's not winning and hasn't even gotten a serve in, to which he responds "you might want to look at the scoreboard." Both do, which shows that, in fact, he hasn't scored a point.

So here's my problem with all this - what's the point of the caveman appearing to not know the rules of the game? The whole premise of the Geico campaign is fact the tagline "so easy, even a caveman can do it" plays into a wrong-headed stereotype in this alternate world where cavemen simply happen to be a hirsute minority constantly struggling with the perception they have not evolved past the primitive pre-humans who lived in caves.

So either this ad is saying cavemen really are so stupid they don't know what's going on, in which case the point of the previous commercials sort of gets lost, or maybe they're indicating that the whole match is rigged, right down to the scoreboard operators, which doesn't seem very sporting, really.

I think these crazy political links of the day could become my new running feature, replacing the old running feature that didn't run very long (as this one won't; for a so-called writer, I have a real difficulty carving out time in my day to add anything to these blogs 'o mine).

Here's today's, which highlights one of the fun things about having a home state like Montana to keep track of. When I saw there were three Democratic candidates for governor on the primary ballot, I was intrigued, since we have a fairly popular Democratic incumbent.

It didn't take much research to realize Schweitzer doesn't have a lot to worry about.

For example, check out the website of this team hoping to be Governor/Lt. Governor. I can't really add anything to the experience of reading the information on the site, except to say I don't think even they really believe they're going to pull in more than a dozen votes.

Then there's this option - two high school teachers who decided to get in the race to increase the debate about education policy (if you believe their story) or to allow Schweitzer to keep a chunk of his campaign funds (if you like political conspiracies, or even just stories where money makes every motivation a little fishy).

The teachers, however, put up a site that's not near as much fun to read as Bill and Steve.

Here's my crazy link of the day.

Sure, this is a site about how and why the U.S. presidents are covering up the fact of an alien invasion, or at least government knowledge of extraterrestrial life.

Even so, as far as I'm concerned the most ludicrous statement on the site is this:

...the appearance of Cheney's name on the George W. Bush Presidential ticket, led many ufologists to feel that Cheney might represent an attempt by the government to make a disclosure on UFOs.

Read the this part on its own: "...feel that Cheney might represent an attempt by the government to make a disclosure..." In context or out of context, clearly these people had no idea what they were dealing with. In hindsight, anyone who thought Cheney was going to disclose anything was far nuttier than a simple UFO believer.

a question

This week I was listening to a news report that included a quote from a "long-time Republican" who is planning to vote for Obama. It didn't say why he was planning to vote for Obama, as that wasn't the real focus of the story. But it did make something click in my mind. I've heard reports since the early primaries that Obama was winning over independents and Republicans. But I can't figure out why, exactly, a long-time Republican would decide to switch to Obama. It's not like there's anything about his candidacy that would appeal to someone to the right of center, politically. I understand that Republicans might be dissatisfied with the general state of the party and this year's candidates (now candidate) specifically, but it seems to me it makes more sense they would just stay home rather than become inspired by Obama.

Anybody hear any reasonings as to why Obama is/was winning some Republican votes?

huh?

This is about a month late, but I figured it was time to archive the simply confusing full-page ad in a free weekly I grabbed a while back as I entered the Metro.

This is the ad, exactly as it ran. If you can make any sense out of it, you're probably in a far worse mental state than I am.

The guy behind the ad got some local blog space on DCist. Sounds like the protest went off exactly as well as his ad did.

you win one reality show dancing competition...

Surfing around Nola.com's Mardi Gras coverage, I noticed something a bit odd.

Click over and check out the caption of the first photo.

The guy has won two Indianapolis 500s, raced in the top circuits since 1998 - but after a season of "Dancing with the Stars," it's "Dancer Helio Castroneves."

(Of course, his Wikipedia page also gives his dancing career a more prominent placing. But at least it mentions the whole auto-racing part of his career.)

does this make sense to anyone else?

Apparently Scottish rugby officials have decided to stop selling game tickets on the day of the game. Only buying in advance will get you in the gate. The closest thing to an explanation this article puts forth is the claim it costs too much to pay the workers to be in place to sell same-day tickets. Also this:

"While there was some public criticism, most commentators accepted the SRU's rationale that experience had shown that far fewer people turn up without tickets than the organisation must allow for when making them available that way."

Huh? Why do you have to allow for a certain number of tickets to be available on the day of the game? You simply sell tickets for the seats which haven't already been ticketed. Bad luck if it's sold out ahead of time.

I can't figure this one out.