It just hit me again that it's been more than seven years since the 9/11 attacks. If you'd told me at the time that:

1) bin Laden will still not be caught after the end of two Presidential terms, and
2) anyone would still vote for the Party that President headed during those terms,

I would have stared at you like you'd grown a new head. If 1, then Libertarians. But (1) I would have viewed as simply impossible. No one could care that little.

As folks here have probably deduced, I like to ride the bikes. I started just six years ago, and I made a ton of mistakes, so I'd like to share some of what I've found out.

Thing I found out 1: Bikes are really different from each other.

Center for Constitutional Rights:

it turns out there were some RNC ads already cut decrying the bailout and waiting to be played as soon as the vote was over. In fact, they're already playing, since the ad time was already bought.

Kinda puts the relative Party composition of the vote totals into perspective.

Or: Why it isn't yours, even when it's yours.*

Let's play a game. It's pretty simple: when you start your professional life, you can either make $40,000 a year for the rest of you life, or you can get 1d12 x $10,000. (I love doing examples for D&D geeks.) Call $40k a year outcome B, and the variable result outcome A.

Here's a pic in the standard notation:

So, apparently, the RNC essentially gave the Minneapolis/St. Paul police a $10 million indemnification against being charged with police brutality.

So, now we know. If anyone wants to hire a major metropolitan police force to brutalize a group of folks, the going rate is currently $10 million.

Digby notes that we're bailing out yet another industry.

Hey, wow, looks like a bunch of rich white guys rode a foolish conservative economic policy set to personal financial gain, then left the taxpayers holding the bag.

Of course, this is completely different from Iraq War profiteering, the S&L crisis, the energy deregulation leading to the Enron collapse, $600 Reagan screwdrivers . . .

So, now that gas has hit $4 a gallon, shipping costs have gone up. Way up, as a matter of fact.

Hey, I'll be around occasionally to check up on my bets, but the reality:truthiness ratio has just gotten way too low for it to be interesting to participate. Might be back after the election. Gonna tend my (neglected) garden.

So, I was wondering if Governor Jindal was an actual phenomenon of some sort or just a particularly bizarre expression of Louisiana's damaged political culture. I think I pretty much have my answer.