One thing you can say about California politics: We get lots of great video spots. This one amuses me greatly. (Although the notion of Senator Fiorina does not.)

I’ve read many Founding Fathers biographies. Still, I learned a great deal about George Washington from this one. Much of this stuff should give the Tea Partiers pause.

At least this book is from someone who has read a book.

If you’re tired of hearing a patient or family member’s private conference with a doctor misconstrued as a “death panel,” you may enjoy this:

Public radio’s Ira Glass, on his show “This American Life,” devoted his show this weekend to a fact-based analysis of California gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner’s book “Mount Pleasant,” which details Poizner’s semester as a volunteer teacher at a high school in  East San Jose. Here’s part of what he found:

“I’ve been in great schools, I’ve been in dangerous schools — urban schools, suburban schools. Mt. Pleasant is definitely one of the better public high schools I’ve ever visited. And I know it may seem like I’m belaboring all this, putting this book under a microscope point-by-point, but so many of the political discussions in our country seem so disconnected from reality. Every year there are egregious examples of politicians and commentators who believe if they repeat some non-fact over and over, it becomes true. And the more I looked into Poizner’s book, the more it seemed like one of those rare cases that’s so obviously and provably untrue. “

I’m looking forward to Poizner’s response to this. (And I’m surprised we don’t already have it.) Here’s my prediction: This is another example of “liberal media bias, made worse because this is public radio, funded by taxpayer dollars.” Or something like that.

Here’s the LA Times’ coverage of this fun episode, where you can download the transcript or click to listen to the broadcast.

Would you read a book by someone you’re not sure has read one?

How about a “candid account” by someone either relentlessly confused or flat-out lying?

How about a book about how “key decisions” were made, even though every single one of them was the wrong decision?

If so, here’s the book for you.

Sarah Palin is like a parasite that has overtaken the host body of John McCain. He created her, and now he needs her to survive. And in prostrating himself, he’s had to reject everything he once believed in.

I don’t remember the U.S. Census being so openly reviled in the past, but now it seems that no matter where you stand politically, if you fill out your census form it’s like you’re obliging a government conspiracy.

Last week I was visiting a gay couple when the one partner got a call from a gay friend distraught about some series of questions on the census, and my friend was telling him, “No. NO. They do NOT need to know these things about you!” It sounded like a fear of the government knowing you’re gay — even though everyone else in your very gay neighborhood knows. Not being in the situation, I’m not one to judge.

Someone else I know gave this response to “the asinine race question”:  She checked off the box “Some other race” and then wrote in “Lightly tanned.” Granted, once upon a time a lot of people didn’t fit into that form at all (including my friends who are what was once called “mulatto”). But now there are more racial options on that form than ever before. I understand the resistance:  I don’t like being categorized either. Some people claim that if “communities” are under-represented, then there are fewer programs directed to them. Maybe. But starting with my college applications I always checked “Native American” — after all, I was born in New Jersey — and I never got a single grant or scholarship.

I’d like to thank Rielle Hunter.  Because not only is she stupid, she’s tenacious, which means she will never ever ever stop dogging John Edwards — which means we’ll never ever ever find him serving in public office again. In Dante’s Inferno, the punishment serves the crime; for the pretty and formerly media-hungry John Edwards, Rielle Hunter is the succubus who will drain him for the rest of eternity.

Every week in one of the political science classes he teaches at the University of Southern California, my friend Dan Schnur throws a student Republican, a student Democrat, a Republican spokesman and a Democratic spokesman into a locked cage and throws away the key until the assembled class’s pizza runs out. Yesterday, the Republican spokesman was Jonathan Wilcox, a speechwriter for Pete Wilson when he was governor of California. For better or worse, the Democrats had me.

We weren’t there to advocate for specific candidates, although I couldn’t help agitating against Carly Failorina. The assigned topic was the U.S. Senate race in California, so it seemed like fair game: It’s a seat that Failorina — okay, “Fiorina” — is seeking. I find her candidacy especially galling, given her disastrous recent history: nearly destroying a storied American company (Hewlett Packard), and so poorly serving John McCain as a spokeswoman in 2008. I can’t imagine the basis for her campaign, unless we have a burning desire for more leaders drawn from the ranks of CEOs who jumped out with millions of dollars while their companies plummeted to the ground. (Although I was vastly entertained by her demon sheep campaign video. I hope she spent a lot of money — her own — on it.) Think I’m just a partisan standard bearer? Let’s hear from a Republican on the subject, one with the last name of Packard.

Wrote Arianna [Packard]: “I know a little bit about Carly Fiorina, having watched her almost destroy the company my grandfather founded. So, allow me to disillusion you of a few of your stated reasons for supporting her,” Arianna Packard wrote to Sens Jon Kyl, R-AZ, Tom Coburn, R-OK, and James Inhofe, R-OK.

“You write that she is a ‘proven business leader.’ This may be how she spins her career, but most business commentators consider Fiorina’s tenure at HP to be a disaster,” Packard writes.

That letter gladdens my heart. Although I did feel somewhat badly for the Republican student who took my bait after I linked “Fiorina” with “Failorina” — he then discoursed against the notion, repeating the word “failure” four times in four sentences with the name “Fiorina.” I pointed that out, and Dan pointed out that one of his upcoming classes teaches one to be careful about repeating the opponent’s talking points. That’s only a taste of what Barbara Boxer is going to do to La Failure should she get the nomination.

The Republican end of the table seemed to think that the Democrats in California are going to be in real trouble. Maybe. But it’s eight months until election day — an eternity in politics — and, as I said on the panel, you can’t beat somebody with nobody. Fiorina isn’t getting any traction in the Senate race. Re Meg Whitman, whom Jon compared to “Avatar” (as the biggest, best, and hardest to beat), well, I submit the video below. If you can’t work your own press event, how well are you going to do when Jerry Brown shows up and asks you real questions? That’s a debate I’m looking forward to watching.

Bad enough that Mexico provides public health care to its citizens.

And that they outlawed the death penalty in 2005.

Now it turns out that Mexico allows gay marriage.

Talk about un-American!