Top Cop Goes Pop

Ashcroft on LettermanLate night television hit a new low yesterday when David Letterman had Attorney General John Ashcroft as a guest. (The Late Show’s Web site has a video clip of the segment, though it probably won’t be up there too long). The AG was a good enough sport and I’ll bet that he’s even a charming fellow if one can get past his far-right politics. But his clumsy attempts at playfulness were just maddening and disturbing given his office’s egregious abuses of power earlier that very same day.

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Vote Early, Vote Often

Instant Runoff VotingSan Franciscans have approved the use of instant runoff voting to decide their next County Supervisor. This is an idea that, in spite of its surprisingly slow propagation since the 2000 Presidential election debacle, is still bound get more traction in the years ahead. In instant runoff voting, rather than selecting just one candidate on a ballot voters rank candidates as first choice, second choice and so on. Essentially, it’s “a winner-take-all system that ensures that a winning candidate will receive a majority of votes rather than a simple plurality.” Come to think of it, perhaps the fact that its concept is not easily summed up in less than a few paragraphs accounts for its slow mindshare growth.

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Private, Keep Out

One thing that strikes me as incredibly ridiculous is the Republican belief that airport security should remain a private sector industry. Using that logic, why not use private sector companies to guard the U.S. borders to Canada and Mexico too.

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Too Close to Call

Nail-biters are exhausting, and I’m tired of them, especially when their resolutions repeatedly favor those that don’t deserve to win. Since Bush stole the election from Gore, it’s been a year of these kinds of nail-biters it seems, whether it was the Yankees losing last Sunday or the apparent loss of Mark Green to Michael Bloomberg in today’s New York City mayoral race. It’s a dark, dark time.

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