And speaking of Indians and wildfires...

Wampum, a blog focusing partly on American Indian issues, has a post about the effects of the California fires on Indian lands, homes and lives.

California fires

Still raging on, still killing people and destroying lives. This is now a major story everywhere in the world.

Arnold Unplugged

I promised myself I wouldn't blog about Arnold S., because the American bloggers are doing it so much, but that was before Greg Palast and others connected him securely with the Enron scandal. God, am I glad I don't live in California. (Apologies to Joani, who does, and who sent me this article.)

Another Unexpected Wrinkle in CA Recall Election

Inconceivable! Now the US Court of Appeals is saying to delay the gubernatorial recall vote in California, scheduled for 7 October. But that seems to be widely expected to be overturned on appeal.

Stallone's Mother's Psychic Dogs Predict Winner in California

Another story in the same link (see below) is about Sylvester Stallone's psychic mother's psychic dogs and their prediction for the California governor recall race. (I think Stallone's ma is more of an oracle, with the dogs being the actual psychics. They can only answer yes-or-no questions, she says, but they are never wrong.) So, are you surprised to hear that they favour Schwarznegger to win? I'm not.

California Carnival

Yes, I know, I could blog about all the serious stuff happening today - the Baghdad embassy bombing, the armed stand-off between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians - but you can read about that anywhere. Besides, it is officially the silly season (see post above) and I am going with it.
Mind you, if I lived in California myself, as my best friend Joani does, I would probably not find this so amusing. But seriously, Arnold Schwarznegger and his flotilla of Humvees? The politician who initiated the recall tearing up his entry application in tears on national TV? One team of Democrats saying no Dems are to run, we all support Davis, while another group says let's recruit 1000 candidates and crash the system? As Joani says, you could not make this stuff up.