Saturday Night's Alright...

Saturday night saw another Cardinals loss in game 3 but, like in politics, I'm keeping the faith as Billy Joel once said, er, sang. It's looking the the Chicago White Sox are on there way to defeating the Los Angeles Angels in that series. After tonight's game the White Sox will be up 3 games to 1. If anyone is interested, I did not become a multi-millionaire tonight...

Yoko Ono is now saying that she was misquoted by the media in a quote dissing Paul McCartney.

Despite the clarity of her original statement, at the Q Awards, Ono claimed to have been misquoted. "It's amusing at best and it's the kind of thing that I've witnessed the press to do many times," she said. "I think Paul's a great songwriter."

Ono's words have gone down like a lead balloon in Liverpool, where many still blame her for permanently removing Lennon from the city.

She recalled how her husband's angst about his talent would lead to him to complain that "they always cover Paul's songs and never mine, and I don't know why". She said she would reply: "You're a good songwriter; it's not June with spoon that you write. You're a good singer, too, and most musicians are probably a little bit nervous about covering your songs."

Her mixed feelings for McCartney were also apparent in an interview with the Liverpool Echo this week in which she said: "Paul was the one who knew how to deal with the world and John was the poet. But when John was doing his individual work, I know he felt that people were not so much into his songs."

No matter who you side with, John Lennon is missed.

Russ Feingold heard from an outsider recently.

Why not? Feingold isn’t just another Senator who wants to be president. He’s the only Democrat in sync with his party on the Iraq War. If the situation in Iraq doesn’t change between now and the 2008 Iowa caucuses, Feingold can influence the process the way Eugene McCarthy did in 1968, Ronald Reagan in 1976 or Paul Tsongas in 1992. Heck, he could be the Democratic nominee. He could even be inaugurated Jan. 20, 2009.

Americans, with almost no push from political leaders or the media, have determined on their own that invading and occupying Iraq was a really bad idea. The fact that the leadership of the Democratic party won’t capitalize on this drives Democratic activists nuts, and the Bangor listening session confirms that the activists are right. Not a single person expressed support for the war, compared to nine people who spoke out in opposition. Democrats want a presidential candidate who a) voted against the war, and b) advocates bringing home the troops. For anti-war Democrats (which is most Democrats), Feingold is the only game in town.

That gives Feingold a solid base heading into the primaries. All the other Democratic contenders -- Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, John Kerry, Joe Biden, Wesley Clark, Mark Warner, Evan Bayh -- either voted for the war, oppose withdrawing troops, or both (although Edwards is edging toward an anti-war stance). It’s easy to project the nomination quickly boiling down to, say, Russ vs. Hillary.

Okay, I was against the war from the start but agreed that Saddam Hussein had to get out of power. Let's get one thing straight here, a bulk of those who did not want war with Iraq are also anti-Zionists.

The DLC writes about the polarization within the Democratic party.

Their analysis strongly reinforces the DLC's take on the state of the two parties after the 2004 elections. As Al From and Bruce Reed said in Blueprint magazine: "Democrats can no longer operate on the assumption that we will win national elections if we just get out our vote...We need a strategy to persuade voters and turn them out."

We need to show who we are and what we stand for while running GOTV campaigns.

Senator Joe Lieberman has announced that he will be redesigning his Senate website.

The Lexington mayoral race may be a battlefield. Water may be a big issue in that race.

Of the four mayoral candidates, only Mayor Teresa Isaac is in favor of condemnation of Kentucky American Water.

Two candidates, 5th District Councilman Bill Farmer Jr. and attorney Jim Newberry, oppose condemnation.

And cigar store owner Charles Martin Jr. says he doesn’t care who owns the water company.

Bill Richardson is taking a trip to North Korea. His office has said it has nothing to do with politics. But does it?

College basketball players across the nation held their first practice last night or today per NCAA by-laws with the traditional Midnight Madness.

How did the Iraqi constitutional vote turn out? Well, it appears that the Sunnis turned out in overwhelming numbers to defeat it. Get this: 189,000 voters in Fallujah yesterday and there were only 7,000 voters in January.

We must protect our endangerd species.

Louisville's Rep. Anne Northup says there are reasons: Too much money and time are wasted on a law that she insists has failed. And anti-growth groups abuse it to delay needed projects and obstruct progress, "not because they really wanted to save a fish, bat or owl."

But do she and her allies really believe those who used the law to save the Bald Eagle (the very symbol of our country, as Rep. Ben Chandler noted) were just free-market obstructionists?

Such sweeping assignment of malign motive and such charges of deceptive intent are designed to distract from the large and serious issues of how best to be good stewards and preserve the earth's rapidly shrinking biodiversity. Hiding behind those distractions, Rep. Northup and her GOP colleagues from Kentucky recently voted in favor of the Pombo bomb.

Pombo must be defeated.

Will Paul McCartney and U2 team up again? It's a possibility in two years when the 9,500 seat Kings Dock Arena opens in two years (2007).

Apparently, Governor Fletcher's newest employee, C. Dodd Harris, has a tattoo.

Fletcher hired C. Dodd Harris IV to be executive director of the Office of Merit System Referrals, which is set to open next month in the Personnel Cabinet. It will screen recommendation letters for job applicants for evidence of improper political influence.

Harris, who previously earned $74,232 a year as a lawyer for the state's technology agency, will reject recommendations that cite applicants' politics, campaign donations, religion, family connections -- anything but relevant qualifications, said Personnel Cabinet spokeswoman Lori Aragon.

During this year's state hiring investigation, led by a Frankfort grand jury, many job recommendations have come to light that pushed Republican applicants specifically because of their political affiliation or past support for Fletcher.

Personnel Secretary Erwin Roberts knew that Harris had published a Web log, or blog, Aragon said last night. But she said Roberts never read the blog and was unaware that Harris regularly praised Republicans, jeered Democrats and published his opinions on the evils of gun control, taxes and government.

Roberts was satisfied that Harris disabled the Web site -- called "Ipse Dixit" -- when he took a state job in June 2004, Aragon said.

"No, it doesn't look good," Aragon said last night. Later, she added: "I can't say whether Erwin's going to fire him or not. But I know that Erwin's going to look into it."

How come I continued to reaad it this very year? It wasn't disabled til very recently! Erwin Roberts needs to get her facts straight. For an unbiased position, shouldn't the director be, well, unbiased?

I get plenty of hits from state employees, and several hits from Dodd's website. So Dodd, do you still read this? Thanks to web archive, your site is still active...