Senator Arlen Specter, the 29-year Senate veteran from Pennsylvania, announced today that he was changing his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat. In a statement, he said, "Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans." One motivating reason: Specter is lagging behind a challenger in the Republican primary. President Obama told Specter, "You have my full support. [We're] thrilled to have you," and now the Democrats have a near-filibuster-proof majority—they'll have it, if Al Franken is ever seated in Minnesota. The GOP, reportedly caught off-guard, is calling an emergency meeting. SFGate points out that Specter's "legacy as former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee was seating [the] two conservative Supreme Court justices...Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito."

Now, why the heck would all these Republicans go Democrat? This is part of "The Plot." Instigated by Rush Limbaugh, the theory is that Hillary Clinton would be easier for Republican fave, John McCain, to beat at election time. By having Republicans voting for Hils in the primary instead of Barack Obama, this will help ensure that McCain will be the victorious one in the White House. Supposedly.

While you're not (technically) allowed to change party affiliations day of the primary -- protocol calls for one to sign a pledge card promising to support that party in the future -- the article reports that "dozens and dozens of Republicans scribbled addendums onto their pledges as new Democrats: 'For one day only.' 'I don't believe in abortion,'" and were rarely challenged by poll workers on their party change.

This certainly throws a twist into why Hillary won Ohio, doesn't it?

Picture of Ohio by Natalie Dee.

Yesterday, the drug chain maneuvered through the choppy waters of bipartisan politics via Republican and Democrat Pez dispensers. Now they honor Black History Month, which starts today, by the way, with a barely squelched cotton-pickin' joke.

You slay us, Walgreens.

Credit: Nature abhors a vacuum

While perusing the colorful aisles of Walgreens this afternoon -- because nothing sooths the soul and an ADHD-addled mind like a trip to Walgreens -- we came across Pez's take on the election. It took us some time to dig through all of the elephants to find a donkey, but we did.

Rainbow Grocery should have it's own Green version available soon, we hope. Maybe a Pez-dispensing gray whale, a Nazi solider, or something annoyingly pedagogical like that.

Dear automobile driver/registered Democrat,

We heart you.

Love,
us

We found this over at Nature abhors a vacuum, and we couldn't be more tickled. This is usually the kind of image that enrages both the counter-culture neo-conservative warriors of the Bay Area the appalling politics-is-like-a-game-of-chess bullshit spouting elite. But, you see, this driver knows what time it is: just stick a democrat in the White House, because at this point, any of those bitches will do nicely, they seem to be saying. Angrily. And for that, we love this shot.

Or perhaps it's the possibly pro-Jane Austen license plate frame.

-- Girlfight tonight! Well, not tonight, but some nights ago, one presumably drunk girl stabbed another in the eye her stiletto heel at (ugh) Slide. [The Snitch]

-- "Chili finger woman" may get a more mild sentence. Hey, we thought she had a good idea there, but...alas. [CBS5]

-- No really, did Gavin think about this? [SFBG]

-- Democrat fundraiser cum fugitive Norman Hsu's suicide attempt. [Chron]

-- Ed Jew pleads not guilty, won't resign, will go down fighting. But will go down. [Examiner]

-- Bonds: aaaand he's out. [Examiner]

-- Tourist dies at the Golden Gate Bridge, this time in a jump-free incident. [CBS5]

Fundraiser, five-head sufferer, and possible one-time kidnapping victim Norman Hsu skipped his San Mateo County Superior Court appearance this morning and is now the lam! He is wanted for a 15-year-old felony warrant for grand theft. Some fear that since he was supposed to return his passport this morning, but failed to do so, he might be en route to Antarctica, or somewhere, by now.

Run, Norman, run!

Hsu has donated to such Democrat darlings as Mayor Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, Assemblywoman Fiona M, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Sen. Barack Obama just to name a few. And if you've see this man...well, why not ask him for some rent money? He seems to have tons of it seeing as how he recently posted bail at $2 million.

Now, all of this would be easy to fix if there was a paper trail but, alas, those whacky machines don't have a paper trial. Nothing, Nada, Zilch. Which means there's no way anyone can tell who really won or not. So despite the fact the Sarasota disctrict is a Democratic district, the Republican is now in Washington getting a crash course in how to be a congress person (with such classes of "What To Do if You Diddle a Page" or "Earmarks: Live It, Learn It, Love It" and for Republicans, "Why You Should Never Vote Against the President Despite the Fact He's an Idiot") while the Democrat is suing to get in, the with help from Howard Dean and the new Democratic majority .

So what does all of this have to do here in the Yay Area? The new head of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee is our very own Dianne Feinstein and DiFi is on the case. Once she moves into position of power, she promises to propose legislation that in the Senate (there's a similar bill about to be proposed in the House) would force electronic voting machine companies to supply a paper trail. She also wants it so that all of the vote counting software will be checked out and the code possibly made public.

There's a good chance that this legislation will place. By now, everyone is starting to figure out that the system as we have it is unworkable. And Democrats, for whatever reason, are a little touchy about unreliable election results.

California, BTW, is already moving in that direction.

The rise to Speaker didn't go without a hitch, however, as Pelosi's choice to replace her as House Majority Leader didn't go so well. Pelosi backed John Murtha, the big bear of a guy from Pennsylvania who became the leading anti-war Democrat, while all of her co-horts backed the previous #2 Dem, Steny Hoyer. After much back and forth and salivating from the press, Hoyer beat out Murtha. Cue stories about Democratic backbiting and infighting.

Now Hoyer and Pelosi go way back as not really liking each other. At one point, Hoyer tried to wrestle Pelosi's position away from her. They made nice for awhile but then Nancy went for Murtha over Hoyer. Most pundits thought it an interesting choice as Murtha is known for pretty much nothing other than rolling in pork and getting bribed by the FBI during ABSCAM. The thinking is because Pelosi used Murtha as cover the past year over Iraq and it was some sort of back-scratching type thing. And they apparently actually respect each other.

Now things like this happen-- Newt Gingrich had the same thing happen to him in '94 and the result was Tom DeLay. But as we all know, the Democrats are the infighting party so this falls according to script. We don’t' remember any sort of negative stories about Gingrich back then about all this the same way there's stories about Pelosi. In fact, the chattering classes are already saying it'll cost the Dem's some sort of approval point. It should also be said that the Republican Senate had a fractious debate over a new Minority Senate person, with Trent Lott winning and not only is anyone debating it, but nobody seems that upset that the Republicans once again moved somebody into a leadership position who loves those gold old days of segregation.

Indeed, a young lady was reading one night, and we had to admit: with its mostly white walls, blonde hardwood floor and table tops, Cha-Ya is a clean, well-lighted place. The high organically shaped counter facing the window is ideal for solo dining with a good read.

A clean, well-lighted place brings us naturally to For Whom The Bell Tolls, as, like Maria after an intimate encounter with Robert Jordan, we felt the earth shake. Unfortunately, it wasn't due to the satisfaction of our carnal desires, can't be in a vegan place, could it? It just so happened that the earth literally shook, 4.4 on the Richter scale in Santa Rosa.

But it did spell out the question for us: is the food really this good, or was this just another quake? The answer is: pretty good, so that we even forget that no animal product was involved. You know, there are vegetarian restaurants which serve you meatless meatloafs made of tofurkey, and you think: this ain't right. Cha-Ya does not even pretend to replace meat, and just does its own thing, traditional Japanese way. For us, it's ideal: we are not conscious of eschewing meat, we're just enjoying a fine meal. Perchance he for whom this dishes is served is so satiated, as that he knows not it is meatless. We feel the same in South Indian restaurants (say, Udupi Palace) where the novelty (to us) of the cuisine hides the fact that it's vegetarian.

* Punch line of a Rhymes with Orange cartoon last week