Volume 2 Issue 140

October 6, 2003

Arnold or Bill?

Is Schwarzenegger different from Clinton, why humans and tigers don't mix, and flaming dogs in Idaho

So over the past few days, Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign in California has been hit with various allegations that he groped women over the past 30 years in various settings. Arnold's opposition has pounced on these allegations to say that Schwarzenegger is unfit to be governor, and Arnold's poll numbers have fallen in recent days.

What's interesting to me is that, while more numerous, the accusations against Schwarzenegger are not much different from those that were always leveled against Bill Clinton by many conservatives. And suddenly Democrats are making a big issue of it, while Republicans say its no big deal. Perhaps the circumstances are different, and there are folks on both side who have not changed their opinion of both Bill and Arnold's alleged actions, but it seems to me that there's some major hypocrisy going on out there...

Arnold and the rest of the California Chaos: More women continue to come forward saying that Arnold groped them, as Schwarzenegger tries to keep his lead in tomorrow's election -
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/recall/la-me-recall6oct06,1,6543517.story?coll=la-home-headlines

And even if Schwarzenegger slays Davis tomorrow, don't look for too much rejoicing from the Bush White House -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/06/politics/06CALI.html?pagew anted=all&position=

Bad John Edwards Photo of the Day:

Where am I? Why am I here?

Fixing Iraq: In a stunning admission that the reconstruction of Iraq has been bungled, the White House is forming a new task force to run the show -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/06/international/06PREX.html? hp=&pagewanted=all&position

Leaving all of the Children Behind: New Jersey issued it's first report on the state's high schools as required by the No Child Left Behind Act. The results? Over 75% of schools in the state are failing criteria, and could be labeled "failing" in a few years. By the way, this includes some of the best high schools in the nation (including the one I went to! I'm the product of a failed school! Yay!). More proof that the hailed law is a failure, as it makes good schools jump through hoops while letting bad schools off the hook -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/04/education/04JERS.html
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/new_jer sey/6930384.htm

Happy Hunting: Also in the Garden State, the US Attorney for New Jersey says his numerous corruption cases over the last year have only begun to scrape the top of the heap. He likened the ingrained corruption in NJ to Chicago -
http://www.southjerseynews.com/issues/october/m100503b.htm

The Leak: Joe Wilson did the talk show rounds this weekend, keeping the leak story alive -
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/10/05/cia.leak/index.htm l

Stalling on the Railroad: As Congress continues to refuse to give it the money it deserves, Amtrak will cut back it's new Acela service to try and improve it's performance -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49456-2003Oct5.html

Stopping for tolls: A new report comes to the astonishing conclusion that the idiotic barrier tolls on the Garden State Parkway are an inefficient means of financing highways. No kidding. Unfortunately, many anti-toll advocates will use the study as a reason to get rid of the tolls. In reality, what needs to happen is to make a system that collects them efficiently, such as requiring EZ-Pass and making all the lanes high-speed electronic toll collection. Besides, as the report notes, if you got rid of tolls, other taxes would have to be raised to pay for the roads -
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/new_jer sey/6928675.htm

Tigers the nation over: In New York this weekend, police had an interesting time getting a 400 hundred pound Bengal Tiger out of a public housing apartment. Ok, I would have trouble envisioning living with a dog in my apartment, I can not really imagine living with a 400 pound man-eating animal in a smaller public housing apartment -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/06/nyregion/06TIGE.html?pagew anted=all&position Hÿ

Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, workers on the Siegfried and Roy show held a vigil outside of Roy's hospital room. The entertainer was mauled by one of his tigers on Friday, and is in critical condition. The moral of the two stories here? Um...don't play with tigers -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/06/national/06ROY.html?hp=&am p;pagewanted=all&position

Bad Dog Day: An Idaho dog was lucky this weekend after it was ignited on fire while in a car, then started a brush fire when he rolled in the grass to put himself out. Fortunately, there were no injuries, and the dog was unhurt -
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Dog-Fire.html