Today is something of a mini Super Tuesday with primaries in Arkansas, California, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Montana, North Dakota, New Jersey, Nevada, South Carolina, South Dakota and Virginia. Some of the races are pretty quiet. In North Dakota it’s pretty much a coronation for the next US Senator but in other states we’ve got some big races. In Arkansas we could see the 3rd US Senator go down this year, in California we’ve got some interesting ballot propositions, in Maine we’ve...

I am a huge fan of the TV show Glee but a scene in a recent episode just took my breath away. For a little background, the plot of this scene involves a gay teen (Kurt) and his widowed father (Burt) and the son’s football jock friend (Finn). Bert is a mechanic, very blue collar and is dealing with his son’s sexuality. Although he does not totally understand everything he has always been supportive. The father has fallen in love with the Finn’s mother and has invited them to move...

The controversy has reached its ultimate end, with Thomas announcing today she will retire. I have to feel a little sad at this news. While I have not been a fan of Thomas for some time, she has been an institution at the White House for half a century and that is a pretty big deal. My bigger regret is that in recent years she allowed her partisanship to mar a long period of service. NOTE: Due to a system glitch this post appeared earlier but vanished. It is being reposted now. UPDATE: There will...

Betty White is now the only surviving Golden Girl. RIP Rue.

Reports are coming out that they might have made a major blunder when they drafted health care reform. One of the standard things included in any bill passed by Congress is what they call a severability clause. The basic intent of the clause is to say that if one part of the law is found to be invalid that the rest of the law remains in effect. But the final version of HCR seems to be lacking such a clause, so if just one part of the law is found to be unconstitutional then the entire law would likely...

Reports are now surfacing that at the time of his death Gary Coleman and his wife were divorced. Nothing is clear yet but if they were divorced she did not have any authority to make medical decisions (unless there was a power of attorney, which seems unlikely). She and the hospital may have a lot to answer for.

According to breaking news reports Al and Tipper Gore are going to divorce after 40 years of marriage. I didn’t see that one coming

Now this is the way our troops should be honored

“There are 24 cemeteries throughout the world — not in America — where we have 125,000 buried. So that means there are 125,000 that never came home, they died in places like France, Germany, Belgium and in Italy. And so there is this whole international thing there that we not only defended our own borders, we helped defend the world. We tried to preserve freedom around the world, & that’s pretty significant” Remember those who served.

Reporters from all the networks have been commenting on the odd response from President Obama regarding the firing/resignation/etc of the head of MMS. He indicated that he’d heard about it but didn’t know the details or whether she’d quit or been fired. The response surprised reporters enough that they even followed up on it but got nothing much more in response. I find it kind of hard to believe he wouldn’t know all the details, especially since the story broke and was big...

In what could be a big plus for the GOP, Dino Rossi is expected to announce he will run for the US Senate, challenging Democrat Patty Murray. Rossi has run twice for Governor and lost one race by a few hundred votes. Polls have shown the race to be close, giving the GOP a possible gain here. Even if Murray wins, Rossi will force the Democrats to spend more money in another state.

Republicans have won a special election for the 1st Congressional District in Hawaii. Many have labeled this as President Obama’s home district since this is the seat he grew up in. The victory gave the GOP 40% of the vote while the rest was split between 2 Democrats. Because the Democratic candidates won 60% of the total vote many consider the Djou victory a fluke but the 1st District does have a GOP base. In addition no incumbent has ever lost re-election in Hawaii. In fact this has happened...

In one of the least surprising events of the year, New York AG Andrew Cuomo has announced he will accept his coronation as the next Governor of the Empire State. Polls have shown Cuomo with about 70-80% of the Democratic primary vote and 60-70% of the general election vote. Of course polls are just a snapshot and things could change between now and November but I think that my chances of being the next Governor of New York are not much worse than the odds of the eventual GOP nominee. So what do the...

Well since I am not a network and have nothing to lose by doing it, I’m calling the Pennsylvania Senate primary for Joe Sestak. Sestak is at this point leading 53-47 and most of the big returns are in from Philadelphia. Even there Sestak is winning around 40% which is amazing for a big machine city. The rest of the state is largely going for Sestak. I feel sort of bad for Specter, he had a long and distinguished career of public service (even if you don’t entirely agree with his politics...

In Kentucky it looks like it will be Paul versus Conway, though the Democratic race is tight the networks have begun to call it for Conway. In Pennsylvania the Gubernatorial race will be between Republican Corbett versus Democrat Onorato. Toomey is the easy winner in GOP Senate primary and while it’s still too close to call I think Specter is toast and it will be Toomey versus Sestak. Democrats look likely to win the 12th special election but that is also too close to call now. In Arkansas...

One of the big contests tonight is, of course, the Pennsylvania primary between Democrat turned Republican turned Democrat Arlen Specter and Congressman Joe Sestak. At this point it’s pretty much a tie with Specter leading narrowly (check out Politico.com for results on all races). Obviously the key here is WHERE the results are from. According to both Dailykos and 538.com there are more results in from Philadelphia than from the rest of the state. If so, this would be very bad news for Specter...

Every once in a while we need a story that makes us feel better. Zach Lipson was born eight weeks premature and had to endure countless surgeries as a child. He has a spinal deformity that will prevent him from ever growing much past four feet tall. His childhood was a mix of hospital stays and enduring the teasing that came from some of his grade school classmates. By any standard he has every right to feel sorry for himself but he has done just the opposite. Drawing on his Christian faith he realized...

Reports are that they may be making some progress in stopping the leak, though given the past few weeks I am not sure it’s for real yet. Progress

Dean Baker, one of the few experts to predict the last housing slump says that those who think that things are picking up are ignoring reality. He calls for continued slow markets and even a new slump in 2011. Not the best of news but this guy called it once and might well be doing so again.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has officially tendered his resignation. This means David Cameron will, at least in the short term, be the new PM of the United Kingdom

Following up on rumors that started late last week, NBC is reporting that President Obama will name Solicitor General Kagan as his nominee to replace retiring Justice Stevens. Kagan has widely been seen as the probable nominee from the time Stevens announced his retirement and would be the fourth woman to serve on the top court. Expect the usual partisan scrambles but an easy confirmation should she be the pick.

Does not look like there is any chance of a Conservative majority so not much point in going on for now. We will have to see where the deals end up but almost certainly we will have a short term Conservative government, the real question will be if they keep in power or we have another vote in the near term. But for now, check out final election reports above. 9pm: 60th Conservative gain, so they are doing well but probably not well enough **** Big blow for Conservatives in Morley & Outwood....

Different day same chaos. The nation of Greece is in trouble again as they try to work out the austerity programs needed to balance the budget (one which makes even California look semi rational). The result has been violent riots that have paralyzed the daily lives of many in Greece. People dependent on the government programs are not pleased at the idea of having to get a job, and in fairness the weak economy does not present a lot of options. This in turn has led to a free fall today in the stock...

While we in the US have about six months before the midterms our friends over the pond go to the ballot box tomorrow in a race that could leave the country in a psuedo 2000 mess. When the campaign began it seemed likely that David Cameron and his Conservative party would win a fairly easy victory over Gordon Brown and his Labour party. After 12 years in power the Labour party has fallen well out of favor with the voters. However one of the big surprises of the campaign has been Nick Clegg and the...

Long time Congresscritter David Obey (D-WI) is expected to announce his retirement. This race was already considered a possible GOP pickup and with Obey out of the race that could improve GOP odds. Although since part of the issue was Obey’s 40 year plus service it could be an open race will help the Dems. In either case another retirement.