Some thoughts from my hotel room

[Ivory_Tower]

Well, I made it to California in one piece. I'm sitting in my hotel room, with the time change catching up to me. Some random comments:

- My first instinct is to say "What in the HELL is wrong with California voters?" But to be fair, at least this fiasco wasn't a unanimous decision. But still, are people THAT star-struck? Is the hatred of Gray Davis THAT deep? Of course, I wonder if any other state would suffer the same fate in this situation. What if Martin Sheen ran for governor of New York? (Okay, that's not a fair comparison -- Sheen at least is politically and socially aware (and active). Substitute Sheen with, oh, Adam Sandler. Would New York elect him? I wouldn't be surprised.)

- On the flight out I talked with a beautiful woman (who had a boyfriend -- dammit) who was going home to Santa Cruz. I told her that I'd be nice and not talk politics -- her response was to say "I'm SOOO embarrassed." She was flying back to get home in time to vote against the recall. I hope she made it, despite this horrid outcome. We, of course, did end up talking politics, and she was not aware of the Arnold-Enron connection. Sad. I wonder how many voters were aware of it? Too few, I'm sure -- I suspect the Democrats would have fared better had they exploited that over Arnold's sexual predation.

- I have a TV in my hotel room. I've posted before about how I disconnected my antenna 2+ years ago, so this is one of those rare chances I get to surf through cable. Luckily, Fox News is not on the channel list so I don't have to sit through that dreck. But I have to ask: Is CNN always this bad? Wolf Blitzer and Judy Woodruff (I think it was Woodruff) were literally breathless in their reporting. And I mean literally. It bordered on goofy to me. On CNBC, they had Tim Russert on, who interestingly talked about the "poisoned atmosphere" in California and basically implied that Arnold is going to have a hard time. He didn't look all that thrilled about the election. Russert seemed tired, but the two hosts (some guy with glasses and some dark-haired woman) seemed almost gleeful. Very strange.

- Saw part of some network drama series on CBS (I think) that was so-so, but what struck me was how quickly they worked current events into the story line. They mentioned the UN bombing in Baghdad, and the plotline involved the East Coast blackout. They of course blew away the Arab guy at the end. But the REALLY interesting thing was the scene where they were frantically trying to identify the terrorist. The method was of course stupidly science-fiction-ish, but when they got his name and picture and linked him to the UN bombing, one of the agents said "He's a Saudi" and the director of this secret agency replied "Like 11 of the September 11th hijackers." The line went by really quickly, but I thought it interesting that an entertainment program would point out the Saudi connection to 9-11.

- I think maybe I'll stick with Adult Swim.....or read a book....or maybe just get some sleep.

[Wolfman 11]

1. Paul Begala is that you?

keep up the good work on Crossfire.