Thank Goodness For Bloggers

Otherwise this democracy thingy would be really hard to understand.

Fortunately, we have rather insightful people like Mark Schmitt at Tapped who sorts out the "why" of the ongoing Florida re-vote controversy.

Clinton's only ally is uncertainty. The minute it becomes clear what will happen with Michigan and Florida -- re-vote them, refuse to seat them, or split them 50-50 or with half-votes, as some have proposed -- is the minute that Clinton's last "path to the nomination" closes. The only way to keep spin alive is to keep uncertainty alive -- maybe there will be a revote, maybe they'll seat the illegal Michigan/Florida delegations, maybe, maybe, maybe. In the fog of uncertainty, Penn can claim that there is a path to the nomination, but under any possible actual resolution of the uncertainty, there is not.

Schmitt points out that as soon as you reset Florida and Michigan, the race doesn't look close at all: Obama up by a million in the popular vote count and will undoubtedly do better in Florida than the 32% he originally got, cutting into The Math of her near parity in pledged delegates.

Perception being reality in politics, her perceived competitiveness vanishes, which is what she is counting on to sway superdelegates. Mind you, I'm of the opinion that seating superdelegates from Florida, where MSNBC's Chuck Todd informs us that she holds a decent advantage, is what the game's all about, but it was another blog by MikeVotes that ties Todd's suspicions with the tidbit that

Florida law prohibits election officials from authenticating votes cast in the Democratic Party's proposed do-over primary by mail, state officials said Thursday, a potentially fatal blow to the increasingly embattled plan.

Mike usefully provides the link to the Miami Herald article that explains what you won't see on the TeeVee, that Florida election officials take their responsibilities very (cough) seriously -- especially the Republican ones when they see an opportunity to screw a Democrat with an arbitrary and capricious whim, again.

Thanks Mike. And thanks as well to other bloggers who explain the inexplicable ... like Kagro X who makes sense out of the arcane parliamentary games that are possible when you have even the slightest congressional majority and need to fight and win the FISA battle. And make George Bush sing that old song about saving the "patriotic" telecoms so he can save his own hide.

The blogosphere will tell you everything you wanted to know, and even the stuff you didn't need to know.

It represents the collective wisdom, idiocy, and research facilities of humanity at large, which is why Avedon's admonition that Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur is so very apropos when translating the tattoos on Eliot Spitzer's call girl, "Kristin" a.k.a. Ashley Dupre.

You are so right Avedon. Everything does sound more impressive in Latin. And we'd never know how impressive this bimbo's belly was if it weren't for the IntertubeZ. (Hat Tip: Wonkette)

Oh, the tummy tatoo translation? The best my one semester of Latin combined with the collective wisdom of the blogosphere can tell is that her tatooist didn't speak Latin too well, but who does.

Best guess: "I was safely protected?" or something like that. The Post's "fair value" is fun, and that might be what Ashley thought tutela valui meant, but knowing she insisted that her performances be "safe" or You Don't Get The Sex, Dude, seems all too fitting.