BUSH RAISES A BUTTLOAD OF BUCKS
A reader - let's call him "BrianA", so he won't be confused with this site's MIA blogger, "Brian" -- in his continued effort to provide balance to this site and keep us on our toes, points out this Reuters story:

President Bush took his re-election war chest past $110 million at his final fund-raising appearance of a record-setting year on Thursday, as Republicans trained their sights on Howard Dean as the expected Democratic presidential candidate.

We've delivered on behalf of all people who live in this country," Bush said at a re-election campaign fund-raiser where he added $1 million to his record total. "Our work is only beginning." The event brought his fund-raising total for next year's primary season to more than $110 million, already exceeding his record of about $100 million for the 2000 primary season.

BrianA then asks the following:

Two questions:
1.) What will Bush do with $110 million in an uncontested primary season?
2.) If Bush is so invincible and the Dems so ineffectual and "stupid", why all the fund-raising?

Help me out. The only answers I can come up with for question 1 is "gin and hookers" and for 2 is "huh?"

HACKERS AT BLOGSPEAK
Just noticed that the home page of Blogspeak (which provides comments software for this site and others) has been hacked. Strange culture, those hackers. I understand the thrill of the challenge (I guess), but this all that they can come up with for a message?

Defaced
by DIabOlaX #

DH0 Crew:

DIabOlaX - SgA3

::: uid=0(root) gid=0(root)
:::

Security is Nowhere, Intelligence Everywhere

Challenge... I love this Game

USA and ISRAEL are Terrorists

Greats:

Cradl3 the BIG Man - L4c0st3 - InVainCu - Kafka

DIabOlaX@DH0.ORG

Seems like a big waste of time. And what's up with the spasmodic CaPS LoCk KEy, AnyW4y? Probably time for this guy to move out of mom's basement and pick of the help wanted page.

ITS 60 DAYS BEFORE THE PRIMARY, SO SHUT UP
So says the government. Really, the federal government has passed a law that says you can't speak out in favor of your preferred candidate for political office. And the Supreme Court just said that the law is perfectly OK. Here's how the American Bar Association reports the story.

Now, I know that many resist an originalist interpretation of the Constitution, but if a right to free speech means anything as a philosphy for organizing society and its government, it must mean a right to freely speak about the government. Instead, the right is now only about art, not politics, as though the Constitution was merely a set of bylaws of some dung-smearing performance artists. More from the ABA Journal:

In their dissents, Thomas and Scalia both sharply questioned a body of First Amendment jurisprudence that allowed restrictions on political speech but disallowed restrictions on computer child pornography and sexually explicit cable programming.

"Apparently, the marketplace of ideas is to be fully open only to defamers, nude dancers, pornographers, flag-burners and cross-burners," Thomas wrote. He added that "the court today upholds what can only be described as the most significant abridgement of the freedoms of speech and association since the Civil War." For his part, Scalia called the decision "a sad day for the freedom of speech."

The effect of this law -- the only people speaking about candidates for federal office within 60 days before an election will be the candidates themselves and the news media, providing their ever balanced "analysis". The media's power increases, the people's decreases, and the incumbents are protected from those who want to speak out against them.

What a perversion.

LIEBERMAN GORED BY AL
So much for loyalty to friends and supporters, Gore endorsed Howard Dean for President, turning his back on the less-liberal Democratic Leadership Council and his 2000 running mate and only sane Democrat in the race, Joe Lieberman, who said "Clinton made our party once again fiscally responsible, pro-growth, strong on values for middle class tax cuts. Howard Dean is against all of those."

So, does this endorsement mean that Dean is no longer the candidate of the fringe, conspiracy-theory-addled angry socialist wing of the Democratic Party? Or does it mean that Gore is joining the looney left? The press will argue the former, I believe the latter. After all, he's adopting the rage language, saying only the Vermont doctor can "take America back," whatever that means.

But what's really scary is this picture. Now they both look like mannequins, with strange pasty-white faces. Rather than Gore joining Dean's nutcase coalition, maybe Dean agreed to join Gore and turn cyborg.

NO WARP DRIVE
The Bush Administration (or the Republican Congress) has defunded the NASA Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project! We'll never be able to catch up to the Vulcans or fight off a Klingon attack.

I'm voting for the first candidate to pander on this issue.

BCS DOES ITS JOB
...of proving that a playoff is needed. Come on, it's not rocket science. It's very simple and only requires to two sports-deprived Saturday's in January. We ditch the BCS but keep the big 4 bowl games. Fiesta, Rose, Orange and Sugar can be played on January 1 (might have to move the Gator, huh). The 6 big conferences send their champions and the 2 at large bids go out as usual. The winners of these games are Fiesta Bowl Champions or Sugar Bowl Champions etc. Then they go on to play the next Saturday-at least a week away. Maybe longer. The goal will be to have the final four play the weekend before the Super Bowl and the NCAA Championship Bowl will be played the Saturday before the Super Bowl.

This takes nothing away from the Bowl game system. Until this year under the BCS, only one Bowl game counts anyway (this year is different because the Rose and Sugar may crown "champions"). The real value of the bowl system is preserved, awarding bowl championships and commanding huge audiences on January 1 during the traditional hair-of-the-dog football fest. The meaningless-except-for-pride bowls, like the Tangerine, can still be played and enjoyed as usual.

The final four would play their 2 games at the same location -- imagine the economic boom of the hosting town. Every city, every stadium would want this event. Maybe even play the final there, too. Surely, a sponsor would pony up some serious jack for this event. Imagine the "UPS Championship Bowl" -- they'd like that with the Fed Ex Orange Bowl two weeks earlier.

Big TV money, too. Turning Super Bowl Sunday into super Bowl Weekend would pay huge dividends. I'd imagine ad revenue for an NCAA Championship Bowl on Super Saturday between two teams that have each won 2 playoff games against the best competition to exceed anything the Sugar Bowl will get this year. Payouts on these bowl games could go directly to the participating conferences or even to all participants in the existing BCS bowls.

Everybody wins. TV Revenue. Sponsorship opportunities. Venues. Fans. And student athletes who add only a couple of weeks of practice -- during the beginning of classes -- not during December exams.

Whoever gets this done will be a genius.