Chris Cross, Joel Buckingham the Angry Clam and JCA passed the bar. Congrats to all.

Here’s one for everyone’s favorite “conservative,” who I hear is also a big fan of SUVs. The bad news is that if you ride in one and the driver falls asleep at the wheel, you might end up getting killed in an accident. The good news is that if this happens, your family will get filthy rich. Via Uncle.

UPDATE: Apparently, it’s not just the SUVs that turn over and kill people when you fall asleep at the wheel. Buses do, too.

The Florida Supreme “Court,” that lovely institution that believes Al Gore is President, legislatures can’t change laws after courts have interpreted them, and any guy who says his wife wants to die must be telling the truth, has stepped in it again by voting unanimously to discipline Fort Lauderdale attorneys John Pape and Marc Chandler for running ads comparing themselves to pit bulls. Chief “Justice” Barbara Pariente non-explained the court’s decision thusly:

What First Amendment?

OK, so she didn’t really say that, she only meant it. What she actually said was this:

Pit bulls already get a bum rap. How dare these two … spit … lawyers make matters even worse by comparing these beautiful dogs to … spit … trial lawyers? Oh, the caninity.

Indeed.

You can’t gloat here, and you’re not supposed to gloat here, so feel free to gloat here, instead.

On the heels of passing its doubly illegal handgun ban, Frisco wasted no time taking advantage of S.B. 861, the new law which will allow doggie racism effective January 1. Coming next: a new ordinance declaring Wiccan the official religion of Frisco, and another redefining “probable cause” to authorize warrantless searches of the homes of anyone who has publicly expressed opposition to gun control, breed control, or any other law banning possession of anything Frisco has taken it upon itself to ban. Tom McClintock had some choice words for this turkey:

Proponents of this measure have said this is a matter of local control. The reality is that local officials can be just as despotic as state officials and Senate Bill 861, at its core, is a despotic bill.

There are two types of laws. One type of law holds individuals accountable for their own actions. In such a society, the irresponsible, reckless one percent who endanger others are held accountable for those actions, and we have laws that punish them. They hold the individual accountable for his actions, they punish the reckless people and they leave the other 99 percent of law-abiding individuals alone.

The second type of law treats all people as if they were irresponsible and Senate Bill 861 would create such a law. These are the kind of laws that destroy freedom and create societies of subjects rather than citizens.

I ask you to consider what direction we are taking society when we begin passing laws that treat all individuals as if they were all irresponsible. That’s what this bill does. It is an insult to California’s law-abiding citizens and is an affront to a free society.

Attorney Dawn Capp is leading the charge for a referendum to overturn S.B. 861. Time is of the essence; we only have until Tuesday, January 3. You can download the petition here.

Take that, Houston.

Here we have yet another helpful poll telling us George W. Bush’s ratings have slipped to an all-time low, and that he might not get re-elected President if an election were held the third Saturday of next March. If you’re as annoyed by these polls-for-polls’-sake as I am, do us all a favor. If any pollster calls you and asks you any questions about George W. Bush, give the most negative answer you can think of in response to every question. At least that way, the polls will reach their real bottom a little sooner, and the news will shut up about them for a while.

If you listen carefully, you can hear the world’s smallest violin. Hat tip to Patterico, who seems all broken up over it too. As the eternal optimist, I like to think that the dog is half-trained.

UPDATE: Or maybe not. Dumping Scheer was a smart move, but dumping Michael Ramirez was not.

A friend in Germany recently passed on an amusing interview of Siemens CEO Heinrich von Pierer as Chancellor of Germany. If you read German, enjoy. If you don’t, I’ll provide a translation when I get around to it, which may be a while.

Today’s the day. All the polls say Arnold’s much-needed reforms are going down, and my intuition says that by this time next year, all the voters are going to be pissed off at Arnold for failing to rein in the unions, balance the budget, level the playing field between unions and other special interests, and/or establish a real democracy instead of the self-selecting Legislature we have now. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to prove them and me wrong.

Once again, here are links to the blogger election guides of which I’ve been made aware:

1. Dafydd ab Hugh
2. Stephen Bainbridge (update here)
3. BallotBrain
4. BoiFromTroi (73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 80)
5. Tammy Bruce
6. California Conservative (see also)
7. Cobb
8. Matthew Hoy
9. K.G. at California Mafia
10. Lonewacko
11. Hugo Schwyzer
12. Smash
13. Verix
14. Michael Williams
15. Yami Monkey
16. Xrlq

BFL Special Election blog