August 14

In the 2006 Senate race in New York, reporters should ask one question, but they won't dare. At some point during the campaign, Hillary Clinton should be asked if she is going to run for the Presidency in 2008. Not is she planning to run, is she going to run. When she hems or haws and tries to evade the issue, the reporters should just continue to press her. It's a yes or no question. If she answers yes, then voters have to decide if they want a Senator for only two years, or really no years since to get the nomination she will have to spend nearly all of 2007 and 2008 running for that office and not devoting much time to Senate duties.

I don't care if she runs or not. She won't ever get my vote. But she should at least be honest with the voters of New York. She also owes it to the Democratic Party in New York. They will stand a good chance to lose that Senate seat if she is not in it since more high profile GOP people would jump at the chance if Hillary is not running.

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President Bush signed a bill that allows for electronic monitoring of prescriptions yesterday. In a the supremely ineffective war on drugs, this will allow law enforcement agencies to see what prescriptions you're getting from your doctor. I thought doctor/patient privilege was sacrosanct, but in this ere of whatever Bush want, Bush gets, we get to lose even more rights and privacy. Ironically, this is just the kind of thing that Rush Limbaugh supporters were railing against when legal forces were trying to get his medical records to see if he was doctor shopping.

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In case you haven't heard, the new German Pope has some new rules about things: