As "experts" wonder in awe at lagging box office receipts, the worst summer in history, and no improvement in sight, can I just suggest that there are a few of us who won’t subsidize the blame America first crowd in Hollywood? Now Donald Sutherland, who heretofore was rather quiet about all things political, is making an ass out of himself for all the world to see. For all Bush’s many, many faults, the war on terror is not one – no attacks since 9-11 on our soil would be the barometer to measure the outcome by. If you choose, you can link to Sutherland’s comments here.

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The million dollar question is: Will State Senator John Campbell hit the 50% plus one vote mark he needs to win the 48th District Congressional seat outright on Tuesday, October 4 or be forced into a run-off.

The race has 17 candidates, but only a few with a prayer of even making a real showing:

Campbell of course had the edge from the get-go (see the Probolsky Poll [insert rolling of the eyes for my shameless self promotion here] from June). Former Assemblywoman Brewer has spent real money to try to be a player again and Minute Man founder Jim Gilchrist has parlayed his boarder protection volunteering and KFI radio’s John and Ken appearances into something.

Its important to note that the Dems will vote, some will listen to Brewer’s appeal that says a Democrat can’t win so vote for me a… Read More

Late last week, former State GOP Chairman Shawn Steel sent out an e-mail announcing that his wife, Michelle, had been appointed Deputy to Board of Equalization Member Claude Parrish. This becomes important because in the race between Michelle Steel and Assemblyman Ray Haynes to get elected to the Board of Equalization in this sprawling district (OC, SD, Riverside and parts of LA and San Bernardino Counties), ballot title is a huge advantage!

It was reported in a FlashReport analysis of this race back in August:

You can check out the e-mail that I got from Shawn below.

In tennis parlance: "ADVANTAGE: STEEL."… Read More

If you live on the Peninsula, you don’t have live near the Caltrain tracks to know the train wreck that is Stanford football — a wreck that shows no sign of grinding to a halt. This weekend, a merely 27,000 fans showed up to see the Cardinal get blown out by Oregon. That, after a humiliating loss to UC-Davis (a 1-AA school fer cryin’ out loud!). A quick look at the remainder of Stanford’s schedule shows the distinct possibility of the home team going 0-for-Palo Alto in 2005.

Compounding Stanford’s woes: the success of chief nemesis Cal-Berkeley, now 5-0 and seemingly destined for showdown on Nov. 12 with top-ranked USC. The Bears, playing across the Bay on the same day, drew twice Stanford’s crowd last Saturday. Stanford’s reaction to the high times in Berkeley?

Call it the Evil Empire Syndrome. Cardinal fans suggest that Berkeley bends the rules academically and imports junior-college players to reload its football program as opposed to honestly rebuilding.… Read More

Arnold Schwarzennegger is running behind. So why is his campaign running like they’re ten points ahead?

I respect the people around him: I’ve worked with most of them and they’re a talented group that does very good work. But there’s a lack of urgency surrounding the initiative campaigns that doesn’t make any sense. Mike Murphy talks about having enough money to drop a "grand piano" at the end of the campaign, which is the right approach, especially when the other side has more money. Hopefully that piano is a message that can change the dynamic of the debate, because so far it seems like pretty standard stuff.

Schwarzenegger himself is saying the right things on the stump, although tying the special election back to the recall is something they should have suggested to him in January rather than August. The ads are OK, but they’re the type of messaging for when you’re ten points ahead. Worse, they feel like boiler-plate campaign commercials that Pete Wilson, Gray Davis… Read More