Digby weighs in on the mess that is the Democratic Party candidate selection process in Democracy And Democrats.

I really wanted to like this, I did. Things were going so well and the situation in Florida was presented accurately for a change and then this:

In a campaign that looks like it’s going to cost a billion dollars, I think the money can be found to hold new primaries in both states. Since neither of the candidates campaigned in the first round neither should complain. It’s not cheap, but it’s doable. Chris Bowers (who also believes that supedlegates [sic] should represent their constituents) suggests that the Florida delegates should be seated as is and offers some solid reasons as to why that makes sense. But since legitimacy is a problem with this whole thing and I’ve heard talk of “marching in the streets all the way to Denver” I think we can assume that seating those delegates in a way that would tip the results is a non-starter. So, I’m for a new election. It’s not that difficult.

She doesn’t see the problem. We’ll just wave a wand and have an election. Everyone will be happy.

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CNN, and everyone else, is reporting 6 shot dead, including gunman, at Northern Illinois University.

Normally I wouldn’t mention it, but Michael at Musing’s musings works and studies there. He’s OK, but it won’t be over for a while – not for Michael or anyone else in the area.

The Associated Press reports the Pentagon to shoot down broken spy satellite

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon is planning to shoot down a broken spy satellite expected to hit the Earth in early March, The Associated Press has learned.

U.S. officials said Thursday that the option preferred by the Bush administration will be to fire missiles from a U.S. Navy cruiser, and shoot down the satellite before it enters Earth’s atmosphere.

The cruiser is part of the “doesn’t actually work” missile defense system, so the satellite is probably going to hit North America, if the current tracking is correct, in rather large flaming chunks with a lot of hydrazine available to make things sicken and die which will be good news for the Shrubbery after the media get done reporting. No doubt the possible death and destruction will prove to have prevented another terrorist plot.

In other news, the BBC reports South Korea to send ‘kimchi’ to space. Kimchi consumed in a closed environment like the space station should certainly test the effectiveness of the air filtration system, both pre- and post-consumption. I’m fairly certain this violates laws about space-based weapons.

Why are you being hustled by street vendors to buy sad and drooping former roses, vegetative matter that missed the cut for bouquets, or were too late to the hospital?

Blame Esther A. Howland (1828 – 1904) of Worcester, Massachusetts. Her guilt is writ large by the Greeting Card Association’s Esther Howland Award for a Greeting Card Visionary. She imported the concept to the US from Britain to bolster her father’s stationery store in 1847.

Of course, it wasn’t long before the stationers had infiltrated school boards and imposed the now mandatory exchange in the classroom to push the low end product of Asian children and prisoners.

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