The times they are a-changin'

The Mayor lost his majority on council, based on the primary results. In particular, the wins for Sumi Kailasapathy and Sally Hart Petersen mean trouble for Hizzoner, since in the words of Tony Derezinski, one of the losing candidates, "... they ran on — stopping various things ..."

Since, in the opinion of this blog, the primary thing Ann Arbor needs is someone to hold up a hand and say, "Wait! You want to do what? For how much money?" the outcome is probably a good one. Too bad for the Mayor, since by and large, his heart is in the right place, but the recent image projected by city hall -- a kind of Soviet-style "we never make mistakes" arrogance -- is not one that has endeared them to a lot of people.

The ironic thing is that although Hieftje will be running for re-election himself this year, we'll still be voting for him, regardless of any symptoms of hubris he may or may not have exhibited, since the "Independent" running against him is a full-blown looney. Albert Howard is our own little Thad McCotter, right up to the voices in his head that told him to run for President in 2008. So far, he hasn't been indicted for anything.

Freeze, sucker! You're busted!

The Michigan Attorney General is charging four of Thad McCotter's half-witted staff with actual crimes -- conspiracy, mostly -- related to their recent process improvement efforts. Going the conspiracy route was necessary, apparently, since Michigan's law against being an imbecile was repealed last year, thanks to efforts by the same pressure groups that now want to repeal the Emergency Manager law.

Wood-Charles has discovered that McCotter's team held a Kaizen event sometime in 2007, at which they determined it was a waste of effort actually to contact people and get signatures, when technology to photo copy repurpose the signatures was readily available. Unfortunately (for them -- it's great for Michigan,) their photoshop skills weren't up to the task, and as so often happens when production corners are cut, defect escapes occurred.

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Update: at least one of 'em has been convicted.

Ah, the Irish - keep 'em away from microphones

Erin go barking mad ...

This is the absolute best sports commentary I've heard in years. Let me know if the link stops working, since I understand the IOC aren't especially happy about it.

"And what do we have here? More idiots."

Here's another link to the same content.

And speaking of city council

Here is the list of people running in the upcoming primary who will, they claim, not automatically support everything the Mayor proposes. They're all Democrats, nominally, so voting for or against them in the primary is crucial; whoever gets on the ballot will win.

Name	Ward	Notes
Sumi Kailasapathy	1	Running 2012 - anti Hieftje
Vivienne Armentrout	5	Running 2012 - anti Hieftje
Sally Hart Petersen	2	Running 2012 - anti Hieftje
Jack Eaton	4	Running 2012 - anti Hieftje

I like rail transit, for the most part ...

... but even I'm baffled by the rose colored glasses the Mayor seems to be wearing when he looks at the need for a new train station in Ann Arbor.

"Hieftje said he wouldn't be surprised if the number of Amtrak passengers riding the rails between Detroit and Chicago doubled in just a few years."

Is there even a shred of data to support that point of view?

Maybe Romney's VP candidate has emerged?

His wife's horse has a better foreign policy track record than Mitt does, per this article.

"Never for a second during her seven-minute performance did a hoof stray dangerously mouthwards, nor did she do anything at all to offend or upset the host nation."

Believe it ...

... when it happens. Yet another "coming soon" announcement regarding Georgetown.

Pretty darn grim

Things is not too good over there ...

Beijing flood
India power outage
Somalia comedian assassination
Mali sharia law
Penis-shaped Olympic mascots
God prosecutes rock band in Russia

Makes things here look reasonable.

It's the PacRim, Stupid

"Challenge the US?"

Anyone who believes that all Putin is trying to do with his effort to secure naval bases in other countries is challenge us doesn't understand the Russian / Chinese dynamic. A Soviet Russian naval base in Vietnam, in particular, gives the PLAN (People's Liberation Army Navy) a strategic problem bigger than it gives us.

Or that is, it would if the Russian navy was something more than an echo of Rozhestvensky's 1905 model.

Coincidental Juxtaposition

In today's Guardian "top news" page, these two articles are presented one after the other:

"Syrian government forces move in on rebels in Aleppo "
"Mitt Romney moves on to Israel"

Which one will result in greater damage to US interests?