An Inconvienent 13%

The National Journal reportsthat only 13% of Congressional Republicans believe Global Warming is caused by humans.

Would love to know the percentage that still think tobacco is non-addictive!

This has got to be some of the strongest evidence for the continued need for Democrats to build their majority in Congress. 2006 was an amazing election year, but armed with stats like these, we should be able to nationalize the congressional elections once again and build our Senate Majority. Could use a few extra congressional members too!

Ban Childless Marriages

Gay Rights Activists are taking the battle to the next level - protecting real heterosexual marriages from the threat of non-procreating couples who make a mockery of marriage by staying childless!

Good for them!

From the Seattle Times:

A group of gay-marriage supporters could begin collecting signatures today for a November ballot initiative that would limit marriage in Washington to couples willing and able to have children.

The measure would also dissolve the union of those who remain childless three years after marrying.

Now, some may see this as another opportunity for parody, or a parody in-of-itself. Either way, it does take a stab at the argument that Gays shouldn't be able to marry because it is unnatural.

Just how natural or purposeful is a heterosexual marriage, with an average lifespan of seven years, that does not make a contribution to the next generation of rugrats and ungrateful teens?

Less is More in 2008

State leaders are moving in unison to bring the 2008 Primary Election into February - providing the state's progressives a chance to actually impact the national election. Speaker Nunez is on board, as he discusses in this Sacramento Bee article. Clearly this would have a huge impact on the national primaries. One presidential campaign staffer told me "Come Feburary 5th, it's OVER!"

But now the California Majority Report informs us that we are actually going to get dinged by the Democratic Party. I have no idea how these rules work, but as suggested by Steve Maviglio, this is a good trade for Democrats who want to impact the national election.

The Wikipedia Election

Voters nowadays have an incredible ability to do their own personal research on the candidates, but for some candidates the information is more readily available, and in the case of Steve Peace, that's a bad thing.

A Google search of "Steve Peace" comes back with the first result as follows:

Stephen Peace - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The "Steve Peace Death March", as it was known, caused many legislators to switch their votes to support deregulation, and he took credit for being "the ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Peace - 20k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Ouch.

One of the citations from the Wikipedia posting is to a San Francisco Chronicle article, which reads in part:

During a hurried two-week conference in August -- dubbed the "Steve Peace death march" for his propensity to keep negotiators at the table late into the night -- the fine points of the energy law were hashed out.

Legislators entrusted their judgment to Peace and the few colleagues who worked on the bill. There was an abiding sense by a number of participants that few members of either house knew what was in the bill or even understood it. It was passed by both houses of the Legislature unanimously and signed into law the following month.

It will be interesting how he handles this obvious shortcoming if he does run.