One of the worst ledes (yes, that's how it's spelled) I have ever read:

Davis on Letterman tonight
:

"Maybe it was only a matter of time, but still-Gov. Gray Davis has gone Hollywood. Well, maybe not Hollywood, but tonight he will go late night, 'Late Night with David Letterman' to be exact."

1 in 5 doesn’t speak English at home

"Nearly one in five Americans speaks a language other than English at home, the Census Bureau says, after a surge of nearly 50 percent during the past decade. Most speak Spanish, followed by Chinese, with Russian rising fast."

I found the study that the article article is based on. Portuguese ranked so low that they had to lump it in with Portuguese Creole. Yes, there is such a language. Considering the size of Brazil that can mean: 1) Not a lot of Brazilians emmigrate or 2) They all speak English, even at home.

I'm doing my part to make sure the latter is true.

Arnold's revenge on the L.A. Times

And on any newspaper, for that matter: ever try fitting "Schwarzenegger" into a headline with a subject, verb and object? Copy editors can't use "actor" as a substitute anymore, and his new position makes "Arnold" too demeaning. California journalism just got a lot tougher.

And for the record, I think this might be the first governor most people have seen naked.

Fox distorts, we deride

Study hits war views held by Fox fans


"Heavy viewers of the Fox News Channel are nearly four times as likely to hold demonstrably untrue positions about the war in Iraq as media consumers who rely on National Public Radio or the Public Broadcasting System, according to a study released this week by a research center affiliated with the University of Maryland's School of Public Affairs"

A big reason why homes cost so much in California

From today's San Jose Mercury News: "Because of the city's strict voter-mandated residential growth control initiative, the group had to go through the city's competitive application process multiple times to secure approval to build their 100-unit project in two separate phases, said Tom Iamesi, the group's director of housing development.
The city program, enacted by voters in 1977 and updated in 1990, established a formula that limits growth to about 200 homes per year, with 20 percent of those new homes allotted to affordable housing annually, said Jim Rowe, Morgan Hill planning manager."

And a primary motive for the growth-control measures, of course, is the state's wacky property tax laws, which reward cities for businesses, but not the residents who live there.

Why are Republicans so wasteful of tax dollars?

Questions are Raised on Awarding of Contracts in Iraq

From the New York Times:


"Last month the Iraqi Governing Council questioned why the American occupation authority had issued a $20 million contract to buy new revolvers and Kalashnikov rifles for the Iraqi police when the United States military was confiscating tens of thousands of weapons every month from Saddam Hussein's abandoned arsenals.

On Wednesday the Iraqi council, in a testy exchange with the occupation administrator, L. Paul Bremer III, challenged an American decision to spend $1.2 billion to train 35,000 Iraqi police officers in Jordan when such training could be done in Iraq for a fraction of the cost. Germany and France have offered to provide such training free."

Of course, the real question is not why the Republicans are so wasteful, but why they're so brazenly corrupt. They're spending like this so their contributors can get nice hefty government contracts.