Internal Monologue

Just because I'm online doesn't mean that I'm like, totally slacking .

Remember when I blogged about what a good idea it would be if presidential campaigns gave 10% of their money to charity ? Well it's sort of happening, but not a presidential campaign and only 5%. Democrat Charlie Brown is running against Rep. Doolittle (R-CA) again, and has agreed to give 5% of his campaign's donations to charities supporting local veterans and victims of a recent fire. Doolittle (or at least his staff) is becoming embroiled in a corruption scandal, and Brown came within 3 points of beating him in 2006. But Doolittle insists on running again .

First of all, the report won't be written by Patraeus . It'll be written by the White House. But he will testify to Congress. Here's John Cole's prediction of how it will go : 1.) Petraeus will enter the room, and Joe Lieberman and several other moderate Democrats will faint when they see him in Class A’s with lots of ribbons and medals. 2.) Petraeus will offer a mixed report, citing temporary tactical advantage and listing points of progress. Lots of cheese charts with arrows pointing in the right direction, but little to no sourcing, will be on display. 3.) Lieberman, freshly revived from his initial fainting, hears Petraeus utter the words “our brave men and women in uniform,” and promptly passes out again. 4.) Petraeus mentions, in passing, that we are facing difficulties. Democrats fail to press him. The difficulties are not mentioned specifically, but in vague generalities. 5.) Petraeus states the situation is too tenuous to drawdown troops before fall

OK, this is utterly lacking in any substance whatsoever, but it gave me a chuckle nonetheless: Fred Thompson's actual, real, on the birth certificate name is Freddie . I feel bad for pointing this out. But I can't help myself. I think I have a malignant urge to paint Republicans as ridiculous, even when it's something that's obviously not his fault.

Rep. Tauscher, quoted in this Washington Post story : "I don't know of anybody who isn't desperately supportive of the military," she said. "People want to say positive things. But it's difficult to say positive things in this environment and not have some snarky apologist for the White House turn it into some clipped phraseology that looks like support for the president's policies." Yep. Kargo X gives her props in his Kos diary : Snarky apologists? Clipped phraseology? POW! Dead on! And she even uses our kind of language to say it!

Here it is : SACRAMENTO – For the second time in two years, the California Legislature has passed legislation that would grant same-sex couples the ability to marry. With a 22-15 vote, the Senate on September 7 approved AB 43, authored by Assemblymember Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, and sponsored by Equality California. The Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act is almost identical to the bill the Legislature passed in 2005. California remains the only state in the nation that has approved marriage for same-sex couples through the legislative process. With the work of EQCA’s lobbying efforts, Political Action Committee and grassroots volunteers, AB 43 picked up three new votes in the Senate this year from Senators Ducheny, Padilla and Scott. Senators Ducheny and Scott abstained from voting in 2005. The EQCA PAC played a critical role in the 2006 elections to increase the pro-marriage majority in the Legislature. The bill now goes to the governor’s desk for consideratio

I just learned about what Jonathan Schwarz calls The Iron Law of Institutions : The Iron Law of Institutions is: the people who control institutions care first and foremost about their power within the institution rather than the power of the institution itself . Thus, they would rather the institution "fail" while they remain in power within the institution than for the institution to "succeed" if that requires them to lose power within the institution . This is true for all human institutions , from elementary schools up to the United States of America. If history shows anything, it's that this cannot be changed. What can be done, sometimes, is to force the people running institutions to align their own interests with those of the institution itself and its members. This is a pretty cool thought and it explains a lot of seemingly counter-intuitive behavior. Schwarz again: ...first it's useful to look at how the Iron Law plays out in other cases. At the