It looks like the Federal Government is finally going to investigate certain fishy aspects of voting machines. And no, we're not talking Diebold. We're talking about Oakland's very own Sequoia Voting Machines. Why? Because one of their investors is a group of wealthy Venezuelan’s thought to have ties to Venezuelan crazy guy Hugo Chavez. Cause remember folks, throwing U.S. elections is for Americans and Americans only. Oh, and Republicans too. ...

Since we've been doing a bunch of postings about our super-exciting congressional race, we'd love to come up with some clever title along the lines of "Everybody Hates Chris" but we are coming up with nothing. Sorry-- we're a little jet-lagged these days. Needless to say, we do have some Pelosi & Pals news today as the Washington Post has a big feature on some anti-lobbying bill she's been working on for awhile that could see the light of day if she does become Madame Speaker. Lots of bans on travel and gifts are involved and we'll see what happens the moment she does become Madame Speaker. Our guess is that it'll pass with loopholes a' plenty....

No, not Air America -- David Barsamian, the host of the Alternative Radio show on KALW, is hosting an evening of high-falutin' discourse at the Brava Theater with New Left Review commentator Tariq Ali (the author of Pirates of the Caribbean: Axis of Hope, on Hugo Chavez and Latin America), and music by the Kronos Quartet. The event is a benefit for the Media Alliance, which is celebrating 30 years of responsible left-wing media representation.......

Houstonist reports on cross-dressing thieves and undressing educators this week. A Peeping Tom defends himself with a papaya and an outraged onlooker asks Ken Lay, "TATER TOTS OR FRIES?" Also, FEMA wants it's money back. LAist are a bug bunch of geeks. They're Star Trek geeks, David Duchovny geeks and Frank Gehry geeks. During their Cochella preview their readers reveal themselves to be Depeche Mode geeks. Seattlest saw their basketball team preparing to leave for......

Dick Cheney and President Bush can draw a sigh of relief this morning as Chris Daly's resolution calling for the impeachment of the President was scuttled off to committee by Sean Elsbernd. The resolution directs the Clerk of the Board of Supes to send copies of the resolution to statewide political leaders, the Democratic National Committee, and members of the House Judiciary Committee where it will probably sit in a very large in-box on all of their respective desks along-side credit card offers, Value Pak coupons, and pleas from Hurricane Katrina victims for more money to keep them from being evicted. ...

One of the ways bloggers can leverage their collective influence is through a good, old-fashioned pile on. We don't have to necessarily break the story, but if a critical mass of bloggers start addressing it simultaneously, the s**tstorm will finally hit the mainstream. Just ask Dan Rather. The worldwide blogosphere was shocked -- shocked -- at the implications of a recent Chicago Sun-Times article. Turns out that armed with someone's phone number and a......