Clearing The Zone

I’ve had a lot of short-shot observations get backed up in my mind over the past two weeks or so. Now’s the time to clear those out and move on — with our last season of Big East football on the way, a disappointing hockey pre-season for the Canes about to close, and politics only bound to get more heated as we approach Iowa and New Hampshire, there’s certain to be more fun stuff coming.

So off we go!

The reinstatement of the California recall was one of the bigger news stories of the week. While it’s very tempting here at BTN Central to poke fun at all of California over the mess they’ve made, it’s just too easy. So I’ll skip it. Instead, I’ll point out one interesting bit, via Larry Solum’s Legal Theory Blog, via the Godfather. The opinion notes that “[p]laintiffs allege that minority voters disproportionately reside in punch-card counties and that, even within those counties, punch-card machines discard minority votes at a higher rate;” the ACLU et al. plaintiffs used this as an argument that the recall vote would violate the Voting Rights Act. It’s probably verifiably true that more minority voters reside in punch-card ballot counties than not. The second part is pretty disturbing, though — they’re arguing either that (1) punch-card vote tallying machines are sentient beings and can tell when the hand feeding in a punch-card isn’t white, or (2) minority voters in general are too stupid to fill out a punch-card ballot correctly. Assertion (1) is unspeakably dumb, and assertion (2) is racist.

For leading participants in this fray, we have the California Republicans, who can’t win for losing. These days, the California Republican Party looks a lot like the national Democrats in terms of relevance to the given constituency. Both parties are controlled by the extremist (by local standards) wing, and both wind up nominating wing-nuts with no centrist appeal and no chance in the general election. Tom McClintock, you’re a good guy, and (based on my superficial knowledge) here in Virginia I’d vote for you in a second, because you’d be a competent centrist here. That said, please bow out of this election. Don’t be the guy who gets Cruz Bustamante elected. Better to compromise with Schwarzenegger than to put another incompetent, this one with Chicano-supremacist links, in the governor’s mansion.

Now we’ll move slightly east, to Las Vegas. Eric McErlain reports that secret negotations to move the Montreal Expos there have been underway for months. All I can do is roll my eyes at this one, and mention the very realistic scenario I see unfolding on four consecutive days in November:

• Day 1: Expos announce move to Las Vegas.
• Day 2: Bud Selig rescinds Pete Rose’s ban from baseball.
• Day 3: Expos hire Rose as manager.
• Day 4: World ends.

Lileks has a dual G5. I am insanely jealous. Once Panther comes out, exercising restraint in the face of 12” PowerBook G4s with SuperDrives at the Apple Store down the street is going to be very difficult.

Notre Dame to the ACC? Gregg Doyel of the Charlotte Observer certainly thinks so. I really hope not. We’ve got a great conference here, and I’d rather add Pitt, WVU or UConn — maybe even Syracuse — before the Domers any day. Let them take their attitude to the Big 10 or the Big East. On the other hand, I’m not really sure who would be worse if given the choice between Fredo and NbcD. The Domers may have their noses stuck up so high they’d drown in a light rain (to say nothing of a hurricane), but at least they’re not treacherous idiots like their Baaaahston-based wannabes.

I think that’s enough for now. If you enjoy short potshots like those above at people who richly deserve it (particularly politicians), let me direct you to a great source for more of that sort of thing: Paul Jané of Frozen in Montreal, particularly his Random Idioting category. Enjoy the weekend; I’ll be back Sunday or Monday with post-UConn observations.