Coon 2: Hindsight
Tags: SOUTH
PARKEric Cartman,more...

The most expensive campaign.................

PASADENA, Calif. – It's hard to turn off Meg Whitman. The most expensive campaign for governor in U.S. history — about $162 million and counting — is inundating California voters with an unprecedented array of TV and radio ads, glossy magazines, smartphone messages, Facebook videos, postcards and phone calls that will test how far a Republican dollar can go in a state Democrats often dominate. A typical TV viewer in Los Angeles will see 23 of her commercials this week alone, many roughing up Democrat Jerry Brown, according to Democrats tracking her ad buys. The story of the Silicon Valley billionaire is being told in four languages — English, Spanish, Mandarin and Cantonese. There are book-like mailers, billboards and text messages reaching voters and supporters, all while she's jetting to appearances across the state.Link

Whatever Happened to the Antiwar Movement?

Remember all those marches, all those placards, those giant puppets and loud displays of moral outrage? It’s vanished! Gone! Evaporated like morning mist! At one point, millions were marching in the streets in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, people all over the world, and then – nothing! Never in the history of politics has a movement retreated faster and more completely – but in this case, it was a voluntary retreat, an act of self-abolition.Link

California to get another $900M from feds.

Federal lawmakers say the state of California is getting another $902 million in federal funding to advance the design and construction of a high-speed rail system initially running from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The funding announcement is being made in the days leading up to a high-stakes election featuring Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and Republican Carly Fiorina. One of the key battlegrounds in that race is the Central Valley, where the vast majority of the new funding is going.Link

The Strikes are about Debt.

France's massive strikes are costing the national economy up to euro400 million ($562 million) each day, the French finance minister said Monday, as workers continued to block ports, oil refineries and trash incineration plants to protest a plan to raise the retirement age to 62. France's 12 refineries remained shut down Monday after nearly two weeks of protests despite raids last week by riot police that forced some to open access to fuel stocks. At ports in Marseille and Le Havre, dozens of tankers are still anchored offshore, waiting to unload.Link