All or nothing thinking leads to irrational choices. Something I think of as Naderite Disease, as I explain below. I fear we are seeing a mass outbreak.

Perhaps I'm just older and less prone to panic. Maybe it's just that I'm used to disappointment. But the current tone of the diaries here is almost, if not more, depressing than the votes that just took place on FISA. (And for what it's worth, Obama voted the right way.)

But here is a note from the real world. You don't get to vote for your imagined ideal candidate. All candidate will let you down. But our democracy depends on you voting for the candidate who you believe will let you down the least. We have a very real, and very stark choice between two real-world candidate. From two real-world parties.

Both are imperfect, but one is evil and the other merely incompetent. One won't defend your ideals enough, the other will use them as toilet paper.

My battle cry, remember Nader.

So, the NYT has an op-ed up about how Hillary beats McCain, but McCain beats Obama. And they have scientists to back it.

Sadly, this goes to show that people with english majors should not attempt mathematics. As is so often the case when reporters do science, the author completely misses the point the scientists were making. This is how the editorial descibes the findings.

This conclusion comes not from wishful thinking but from a new method of analysis on the statistics of polls that has been accepted for publication in the journal Mathematical and Computer Modeling. The authors, J. Richard Gott III, a professor at Princeton, and Wes Colley, a researcher at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, are not political scientists. They are astrophysicists. And one of the tasks of scientists is to clarify the apparent complexity of the universe by using the language of mathematics.

After the break, I'll discuss a bit about how the author is not fluent in the language of mathematics.

Not quite, but almost:

Calling it “a little straight talk,” Sen. John McCain told Nevada backers at a town hall meeting Wednesday he still supports the construction of a nuclear waste repository north of Las Vegas as long as it meets all the regulatory requirements.

For a westerner, he really doesn't understand much about the west. Here is Utah the Yucca Mountain proposal isn't popular, because we would be along the shipping route. Even before terrorism hit the front pages we were worried that the route made a great target.

And now we are in a battle trying to keep England and Italy from sending waste into the Energy Solutions dump outside of Salt Lake.

It won't put him in danger in Utah, though. But Nevada? See below for some reactions.

You may not have known it, but President Bush declared today Law Day, USA.

On Law Day, U.S.A., our Nation celebrates our belief in the equality of each person before God and renews our commitment to strive to bring America ever closer to its founding ideals.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, in accordance with Public Law 87-20, as amended, do hereby proclaim May 1, 2008, as Law Day, U.S.A. I call upon all the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities. I also call upon Government officials to display the flag of the United States in support of this national observance.

Of course, this happens on the same day this is realeased to the public, showing the law if pretty mutable to Bush.

As offended as we are, Clinton supporter appear to have loved this debate.  Over at Talk Left:

BTD - The biggest joke of the night is to watch Keith Olbermann of NBC say this debate was some travesty, which it was, as if NBC did not run the most offensive, most ridiculous, most unfair debates ever held. There is no doubt that the ABC debate tonight was horrendous and extremely unfair to Obama. There is no doubt that NBC's debates were all worse. How dare Olbermann critique ANY debate? Have you no decency sir, at long last? The answer? No. Keith Olbermann is the most shameless ridiculous hack on TV.

At Mydd.com:

Reviews are in and Hillary rocked in tonight's debate.  We'll get to those after the jump.  But first, Hillary's camp put up a video on YouTube of a clip from Channel 6 news in Philadelphia.  Take a look - Hillary was the overwhelming choice among WPVI's focus group of undecided Democrats.

Do these Democrats really not realize how damaging this debate was to the Democratic party?

Only the little people can fail.

Bear Stearns Chief Executive Alan Schwartz, forced to sell the hobbled investment bank to JPMorgan Chase in his eleventh week on the job, has been invited to stay on as a senior dealmaker, a person familiar with the situation said.

Meanwhile, CNBC has learned that broad Bear Stearns layoffs are set to commence later today or Tuesday, likely resulting in the eventual elimination of at least half of Bear Stearns' workforce.

Heck of a job, Schwartz. Glad to know my 30 Billion will be going to some really deserving people. More ranting below.

Isaiah 29:21 - That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproves in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nothing.

Sorry to wade into Bittergate. But after seeing this ad by Senator Clinton, I feel like I've to to put something down or I'm going to explode.

So let me get this straight, two millionaire Senators, who've spent decades in Washington, are accusing the black man from Chicago of being and out of touch elitist? Excuse me? I can't even believe the media lets this play out as anything other than comedy.

Pentagon says new Iraq fighting arises from surge's success

For a moment it was like I was traveling back in time, to the era of Rumsfield language where everything meant we were succeeding in Iraq. Car bombs, suicide bombers--that was just a sign we were succeeding. Well, I wasn't traveling back in time, it's just that they are recycling the argument that while a lack of violence means success, so does more violence.

More below, although you've heard it all before.

"The enemy remains active — deadly in its intent — and in the face of this danger, the United States must never let down its guard," Bush said.

There it is, in clear black and white. We are, in the view of the Republican party, in a war that will never end--where we must be constantly on guard against an unseen enemy. That is why our rights must be sacrificed, why the President's powers must be unlimited, why the government must work in secret with no oversight. And it will never be over. Never.

It really hit me hard last night while watching Terry Gilliam's movie Brazil. It's always been a favorite, but I hadn't seen it in years. What I saw made me sad. I'll tell you why bellow.

2000 Presidential Election
Bush      49.97%
Gore      46.46%

2004 Presidential Election
Bush    51%
Kerry    49%

And tonight it's looking like a double digit win for Clinton, thus leading to further scorched earth campaigning. Geez, Can't you guys ever get anything right!

Okay, maybe a view from the middle. But I more or less found out I'm out of work today, so I feel pretty bottom-like at the moment. I thought I'd summarize what I'd seen recently, which makes me fear we're already in deeper trouble than those at the top will admit.

I work for (or worked for) a small company that sells training into the mid-corporate and education market; things like technical certifications, sales skills, computer skills, etc. For the last few years things were going reasonable well. But an adage in the training industry is that training is the first to go.

Which brings us to November 2007...

Hey, if you've got to watch--you might as well make it fun.

(Although I have to stick to drinking soda--and running to the bathroom to relieve myself when things get to stupid. Too bad, since being drunk would probably put me more in the Republican mindset.)

Proposed Rules below, please add suggestions.:

Denny Hastert, it turns out, reached out to ex-FBI Director Louis Freeh. He wanted him to head up an overhaul of the page program, but it's not going to happen now, for the time being anyway.

This will be spun as Pelosi refusing an investigation into Foley, but that wasn't what was being proposed at all by Hastert. Instead, he wants to investigate that page program--in other words, the young men and women who were victimized.

Isn't that just like the Republicans? Don't investigate the allegations, investigate the whistle-blower. Don't go after the leaker, go after the targets or the journalists.

I can't believe the darkness I feel at what I've seen transpire over the last 48 hours, and worse, I believe that this is exactly what Bush and Rove want out of me. I keep thinking two things:

1) This is worse than people think. It not only allows, but now requires, our military to engage in war crimes at the presidents discretion; and makes "enemy combatants" of us all.

2) The whole way this went down was designed to demoralize the left. To leave us disillusioned with our Democratic leaders, and less likely to work and show up on this election. I fear it may work.

WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said Tuesday his recent trip to the Guantanamo Bay detainee camp showed excellent prison conditions, including "24/7 medical care - better than many Americans" get.

Which just goes to show the Republicans have no sense of irony at all. You see, he's probably right, but that's not a good thing.

Frist said many detainees are getting dental care for the first time from a health staff with a ratio of 1 to every 4 prisoners.

I wish I could get that kind of healthcare.

Help me see if I understand this correctly.

http://www.time.com/...

If there are two words you do not want to use with someone with a nickname for Richard, Long and Hard would probably top the list. Top that with the break right before the VP's last name.

Yikes.

First there was this exchange in the senate yesterday.

More evidence in extended copy. [update at the bottom]