If you get bored while you're watching the debate tonight, stop by Jack's place and check out this outstanding post taking down the supposed "cream of the crop" of questions posed by NYT readers.

Sample after the jump ...

California, which has battled the automotive industry over new global warming regulations for years, sued the world's six-largest automakers yesterday, demanding that they pay for environmental damage caused by the emissions of their vehicles.

"Global warming is causing significant harm to California's environment, economy, agriculture and public health," said the state's attorney general, Bill Lockyer.

"Vehicle emissions are the single most rapidly growing source of the carbon emissions contributing to global warming, yet the federal government and automakers have refused to act."

I realize hit-and-run posts are frowned upon, but I have little to add.  If it's true that some auto companies have had but have suppressed cleaner technologies, and if there have been internal debates on paper or on email about the merits of moving forward, the document discovery process could get very interesting ...

NYT coverage here.

Meanwhile, the Buckeye State Blog considers Paul Hackett (D) a potential replacement for Studebaker.

Hackett doesn't live in OH-3, but the Buckeye State Blog likes his chances anyway ...

If you live in a blue state, you are Jewish. It doesn't matter even if you're Catholic; if you live in a blue state, you're Jewish. If you live in Crawford, TX, you're going to be goyish even if you're Jewish.  If your red state is trending blue, we're holding an appointment at the mikveh for you in November.

I have a friend who's in charge of hiring someone to (re-)design a website for a Congressional campaign.  He's your basic Internet user (email, wb) but he's not knowledgable as far as website design, manitenance, etc.

What advice would you give someone in his shoes?  What should he look for, ask for?  What kind of $$ should he expect to pay?  (He's in a mid-size media market.)  How long should he expect it to take?  Is he hiring too late in the season or are there still good folks available out there?

Would love any answers, guidance, opinions and/or links to same.  Apologies if this has been asked and answered.

Thanks ...

From the NYT this morning, I give you: "I Saw a Deadhead Sticker on a Bentley."

Hope everyone's having fun in LV this weekend.  Wish I could be there and meet all the fine folks whose posts and comments I've read, nodded along with, argued with, shuddered in disbelief at ...

For the past 88 years, a lot of secrets have been kept in Montana families, especially those of German descent, about a flurry of wartime sedition prosecutions in 1918, when public sentiment against Germany was at a feverish pitch. . . .

But the silence -- and for some families, the shame -- has ended. The convictions will be undone on Wednesday when Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a descendant of ethnic Germans who migrated here from Russia in 1909, posthumously pardons 75 men and three women. . . .

"I'm going to say what Gov. Sam Stewart should have said," Mr. Schweitzer said, referring to the man who signed the sedition legislation into law in 1918. "I'm sorry, forgive me, and God bless America, because we can criticize our government."

In case it hasn't hit you yet, see below the fold for the quote explaining why this is so relevant today, and not just some random, isolated act of historical correction.

Oh, and amen.

First, on the one hand, here's the conclusion at which the election supervisor of Leon County, FL, arrives:

"Was it possible for a disgruntled employee to do this and not have the elections administrator find out?" Sancho asked. "The answer was yes."

So if you're like me, you're reading along and go, "that's who they're worried about manipulating election results?  Some guy who thinks his boss hates him?"  Which ... well, argh.  Fortunately, he gets much better.  Diebold, predictably, does not:

Diebold took a dim view of the experiments. On June 8, a senior company lawyer faxed Sancho: "You have willfully and intentionally allowed the manipulation of memory cards related to your elections. . . . We believe this to have been a very foolish and irresponsible act."

Sancho's fine response on the flip.

Boies: BP, Exxon Mobil Acted 'Collusively' to Eliminate Competition
Matt Volz
The Associated Press
12-21-2005

An antitrust lawsuit filed against Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP PLC claims the two oil giants are restricting the nation's supply of natural gas and keeping prices at record highs.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Fairbanks, Alaska, says the two companies acted together to eliminate competition for the exploration, development and marketing of natural gas from Alaska's North Slope to U.S. markets.

"The only reason for them to collusively not to sell is to try to continue the scarcity that has driven natural gas prices to historic highs," said David Boies, the attorney for the Alaska Gasline Port Authority, which filed the lawsuit.

[...]

You can read the rest here (or just about anywhere else).

Disclosure: I work for Boies's law firm.

Update: Senator Cantwell, who sits on the Energy Committee, weighs in.

Though the opportunity was welcomed by Black Box Voting, negotiations remain on the procedures. Black Box Voting contends that the proposed testing violates California Election Code §19202, which governs the request for voting machine testing formally submitted to the state of California by Black Box Voting on June 16, 2005. Also, Black Box Voting identified areas of bias in the proposed procedures, which would violate normal scientific protocol and cause voters to lack confidence in the results.

At issue is Diebold's insistence on being involved in setting up the testing procedures, and Diebold's provision of hand-picked machines, using new voting systems not currently in use in California.

"Discrimination" is a word that had meaning not long ago.  That definition has been much abused of late---admittedly, my own political allies bear a lot of responsibility for this. . . .

[But w]hy do conservative Christians believe they're the victims of discrimination?  I don't have a global understanding of how that could be possible, but something Ira Glass played on the radio a few months ago struck me as a bizarre, if plausible, explanation. . . .

Read the rest at his blog so he gets the hits.  (It's not long.)

I've not read Galloway's autobiography, nor do I know more than the average reader about Iraqi history.  But I'd love to hear some knowledgeable Kossacks' takes on what Hitchens has to say, a  taste of which I've included below the fold.

If Hitchens' characterizations are more or less accurate, perhaps we shouldn't be so excited about Galloway being the one to deliver that thrashing to the Senate subcommittee last week ...

For a legislator, his resume is pretty unusual:

<obligatory plea for campaign strategists to take note></plea>

The DNC ought to make "71%" the most famous statistic in politics since "$87 billion."

I was aware (see prev diary entry) that most bankruptcies aren't of the abusive sort the lending industry has scapegoated, but the failure of this amendment to close the loophole at the other end of the spectrum is pretty scandalous:

Some political points below the fold.

Full story, worth reading: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=594&e=2&u=/nm/20050202/hl_nm/health_bank ruptcy_dc

This is incredible data, and ought to be part of the policy debate.  This ought to be appreciated alongside the fact that many people, rather than exercise their entrepreneurial spirit, stay stuck in dead-end jobs just to hang onto their health insurance.  In short, it's becoming easier and easier to make the case that guaranteed health care is good economics, good for capitalism, and good for everyone's bottom lines.  There ought to be an intensified, concerted, sustained effort to press ("frame?") this point.

(Note also, for another day, this interesting item: "He said fewer than 1 percent of all bankruptcy filings were due to credit card debt. 'That truly is a myth,' Cauthen said in a telephone interview.")