-- Heklina (writing for SF Weekly again) on our newly crowned drag king. [The Snitch] -- Something or other about the state budget. [SJ Merc] -- Oakland man murdered on his birthday while being a good Samaritan. Suspect still at large, or on their way to the ninth circle of hell. [Chron] -- Bonds' 756th homer ball goes up for auction. [Examiner] -- Devaughndre Broussard: soooo the fall guy. [Oakland Tribune] -- Bernal Heights......

California Governor, Leo, mad fondler, and kindergarten cop Arnold Schwarzenegger turns a still-sexy 60-years-old today. The Grandpanator will spend the big day dealing with the state budget (giggle) and quite possibly getting some sweet Shriver love later this evening. But Carla Marinucci has the Gov’s five birthday wishes right here. Happy birthday, Conan.......

The Governator made the inevitable official as he officially announced that the great pissing contest known as the "Special Election" is now going to happen. The announcement came today in a speech broadcast live, something we're sure is already causing most news operations fits as the editors try and figure out a way to justify leading with the Michael Jackson story. Basically, the election will be primarily to vote on three resolutions-- teacher tenure, a state budget cap, and the actually-not-a-half-bad-idea-redistricting plan. All told, estimates are that the election will run a tab of at least $70 million dollars, meaning that the only people psyched about this are TV stations who know they'll be rolling in ad money for the next five months. Now that the election has been announced, a feeding frenzy has broken out between partisans on both sides as they figure out a way to tickle the proverbial voter g-spot in order to get their supporters out to vote. Republicans have put on the ballot resolutions on union dues and parental consent abortion laws while the Democrats have put on the ballot resolutions on prescription drugs and energy regulation. And since the Democrats are pushing for a prescription drug plan, the drug manufacturers have pushed one of those phony baloney resolutions that have no purpose other than to confuse the hell out of everyone so that nobody votes for either one. What to expect over the next few months? Wall-to-wall TV ads, Arnie going across the country to suck up more corporate money, totally lame witticisms from political hacks, one side yelling "you are" while the other side yells "no, you are!" and friends and family from the East Coast calling to make fun of us. Hopefully, somewhere in all this, somebody will be able to answer the biggest question of all-- is this any way to run a state? ...