... so, here's what's been going on in the world, and what I make of it:

- Tom Tancredo is yet again proving that he's an ass, not fit for public consumption, and definitely not ready for prime time. Today, Rep. Tancredo said "If it is up to me, we are going to explain that an attack on this homeland of that nature would be followed by an attack on the holy sites in Mecca and Medina." He seems to think he can't think of anything better to deter terrorism. My question is, if he's going to go down the route of extreme warfare directed at people's religions (as opposed to, you know, specific, actual terrorists-- the people causing the problem, because let's be honest, there are a lot of Muslims who aren't part of the problem at all), mightn't he as well just go ahead and say he'll deal with Islamofascism by killing all Muslims? It seems like the ideas aren't that far apart-- and Lord knows, if we bombed Mecca and Medina, probably even more Muslims would want to kill Westerners, so to deal with the problem of Islamofascism after an event like that, an inconceivably heavy-handed approach like the other one I mentioned might just turn out to be about the only effective one. Of course, I'm not advocating that. But then I'm the one saying that Tancredo's idea is totally effing crazy, anyway.

- a dKos story from today seriously contains the phrase "the national security experts at the ACLU". I'm not going to get into a debate about whether the ACLU is a worthy institution on any level. But I will say it's not a "national security" institution, staffed by "national security experts."

- Kos is also touting these results as somehow good for the poor Louisiana Democrat stuck with the job of trying to be...

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Readers will know that I'm not exactly completely convinced by the candidacy of ex-Congressman and CO-Sen GOP candidate Bob Schaffer. This is mainly because I believe that Colorado is a state that is rapidly heading blue, and becoming less across-the-board conservative (see Sen. Wayne Allard's not-exactly-resounding 51% victory in 2002, Democrats' defeat of Republicans to take control of the state legislature in 2004, Republicans losing the 2004 US Senate race and the CO-3 House race also in 2004, Democrats winning of even more state legislature seats in 2006, and Democrat Bill Ritter's win of the gubernatorial race last year-- oh yeah, and Democrats picking up yet another House seat, and Marilyn Musgrave "winning" with 45% of the vote in 2006)-- so a Republican with a very conservative record, like Schaffer seems likely to have serious trouble running, and winning.

That's going to be even more true if things like this keep coming out. For those too lazy to open the link, the point is, Schaffer apparently cast the deciding vote to dish out a contract to a company whose owner donated to his campaign. And Schaffer hadn't disclosed any relationship with the owner of the company-- his campaign donor.

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My hometown paper has a funny story up today. Or, at least, I think it's funny.

So, the well-respected Republican who was appointed to replace the well-loved King County prosecutor and (!elected Republican in King County!) Norm Maleng (who died) is doing so well that in order for one of his Democratic opponents to challenge him, the dude is basically making things up.

He's saying he's the "only courtroom prosecutor" in the race. In other words, in order to beat a Republican in one of the most Democratic areas in the country, he's having to imply that the current prosecutor isn't really a prosecutor in the true meaning of the word. Or that he doesn't prosecute courtrooms. Or something.

Funny that this is, apparently, about the only way for a Democrat to contrast himself positively with a Republican in the land of Jim McDermott.

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