I'm a big mariachi fan -- and I'm leaning heavily towards Obama -- but... I gotta say, the so-called corrida kinda... sucks.... I mean, it doesn't even rhyme! Can anyone point to any corrido in the whole history of Mexican music that doesn't rhyme? The rhythm is all off, too. And that line -- "hasta con plan de salud" -- what the...?!?! Like a committee decided to stick it in there. "It's part of his platform!" "They'll all know that Hillary's got a health plan -- we have to mention that Obama has one, too!" "Latinos will go for it!" Gimme a break.... The reggaeton song, on the other hand, truly rocks. Even though I don't care much for the genre.

Am I imagining things, or is this an homage to what I remember as the funniest thing I ever saw on TV -- Albert Brooks' pseudo-documentary (or was it a pseudo-infomercial?), "Famous Comedians School"? It has been more than thirty years since I saw it, and it remains the single funniest human artifact ever. Super-Fun-Pak Comix is starting to run a close second!

A link to a real strip, Kukuburi ...

http://www.kukuburi.com/

And Harold's remix of KOF, which turns this vapid mess into something watchable and even enjoyable ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zjvuVHpk10

I don't care if Tom and Toni or whatever there names are stop or keep going, so long as the KOF letter writers keep up the good work!

"Napolitano drew criticism in 2007 when she signed into law a bill sanctioning employers who hire illegal immigrants.... Napolitano drew criticism in 2007 when she signed into law a bill sanctioning employers who hire illegal immigrants."

Echo?

And: "...nearly three in voters undecided..."

Likely explanation: Nobody took Huckabee seriously when the other candidates got their caricatures drawn. No doubt there are very good cartoons of Giuliani and Fred Thompson sitting in a circular file somewhere.

Gut feeling: Huckabee is his own caricature. He doesn't need a cartoon.

I've been thinking today about one of the many ways our pre-election (primary, caucus, whatever) system sucks. As a Michigan voter, I have more than the nationwide average share of things to complain about, but this is what was getting me today:

Wouldn't it be a lot smarter to hold primaries from, say, May through August, with a convention in September, so that the momentum from the primary season would have some chance of carrying straight through to early November? (Or even: primaries June through September, convention in early October, just four weeks before the election!)

As it is, just imagine: if by any chance Obama or Clinton can clinch the nomination tomorrow -- February 5! -- the voters will have a full NINE MONTHS to cool off and cease to care before November rolls around. And the dirty ops people will have the same nine months to dig up and/or make up all sorts of dirt about whoever the nominee is. Why give them so long?

I'm with "peeps" on this. I won't speak to Florida -- not my state -- but Michigan was indeed a biased survey. The DNC promised they would not count this "primary" and I took them at their word. They better not dare take it back. Seating the "delegates" from this fraudulent election would be the last straw. Memo to Michigan Democratic leadership: get over it and hold a real caucus that will count.

I am more than pissed off -- spitting mad is more like it -- at the stupidity and obduracy of the Michigan Democratic party establishment. Brewer, Granholm, Levin, Dingell, the whole lot of them. I have never felt so disenfranchised from the primary season as I do this year. But the party establishment has gotten what want out of this messed-up, anti-democratic and anti-Democratic election -- they've delivered the state's nonexistent delegates to their chosen candidate -- so why should they give a s*** what the mere peons, the voters, think? If the national convention agrees to seat the Michigan pseudo-delegation, that will just be rubbing salt in the wound. The only acceptable solution is to hold a real caucus in Michigan, with all the candidates actually running and on the ballot. Anything less is a farce and a fraud. But with the party establishment we've got, fat chance we'll see any justice this year.

TT's cartoon is funny and pointed in its way, but it points to a narrow problem among a select group of highly opinionated political junkies. Most Americans are just happy to get a chance to vote for Bush's replacement, and they are turning to Democrats to make their choices.

So far in the primaries Democrats (as a group) have been outpolling Republicans (as a group) by a factor of about 3 to 2. See the NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/29/us/politics/29gap.html?hp

There is energy, excitement, and enthusiasm on the Democratic side; disarray and demoralization on the Republican side.

The Democratic presidential field is an embarrassment of riches. The Republican field is simply an embarrassment.