Y’know what? I like getting mail. I’ve hounded the mailbox my entire life. I like the internet, too, but email doesn’t compare with what I sometimes find in my mailbox. With that in mind, I’m linking to this love letter to the post office.

Now that the post office is in fiscal distress, pay particular note to the debunking of the argument to “just privatize it.” We’ve all got complaints about the occasional postal mistake, but please bear this in mind when you hear the GOP propose privatizing mail delivery (as I heard someone do again today):   Private operators would strip off the profitable routes, jack up the rates, and leave rural America underserved or overcharged.

Count another fan of the Canadian health care model:  Sarah Palin. In this interview, she says she used to “hustle over the border” for health care in Canada. I guess she wasn’t worried about the death panels over there because, well, they would be Canadians. She says her preference for health-care options up north is “ironic.” I can think of a few other words.

For the record, I have been an opponent of the various Democratic healthcare initiatives partly because I think they don’t go far enough, and partly because I can’t stomach the idea of the U.S. government forcing you to buy something, as I discussed here. But (speaking of stomaches) now I’m having second thoughts because Rush Limbaugh has promised to leave the U.S. if this passes. As of today, count me as a strident supporter.

Another elected Republican official has come stumbling out of the closet against his own will. This time it’s California state senator Roy Ashburn. Here’s the story. He was arrested for drunk driving, but what’s really done him in is the discovery of where he was coming from:  a gay bar in Sacramento. Faced with the facts, he went public about his sexuality on a Bakersfield radio station this morning. I imagine the local response was akin to the response to the crowd of GOP voters on last night’s episode of “Big Love” when Bill Henrickson came out as a polygamist.

As the Times says:

The episode, widely discussed on Internet blogs, in newspapers and on TV, spurred charges of hypocrisy against the senator from gay-rights activists who noted that Ashburn, a divorced father of four, had voted several times against legislation favoring gays and lesbians. On Sept. 1, 2005, Ashburn voted against a bill that would have allowed same-sex marriages in California. The bill was later vetoed by the governor. Ashburn also was among the minority in voting against legislation last year that designated May 22 of each year as Harvey Milk Day.

Ashburn’s defense against this charge? That his votes reflected the will of his constituents. So much for leadership. I also wonder, when they were voting for him, if they intended to vote for driving drunk and telling lies.

Hey, look! Jerry Brown is actually running for governor. Now it’s fair game for him to actually ask me for support. Plus, he made the announcement while there’s still snow on the Sierras.

I have to say, I like the message in his announcement video very much. And I look forward to the specifics.

My friend Doug Hackney digs through the finances of retiring Congressmen and finds that it wasn’t just AIG and Goldman Sachs who got enriched by the government.

Wonder why the federal deficit is so high? Perhaps it’s because the last administration in its twilight had to commit billions to bailing out the banks who underwrote the near-collapse of the global economic system, and because the present administration has had to commit billions to bailing out the general economy in the form of stimulus programs.

But perhaps it’s also because that first group did things like build a big three-and-a-half mile fence — at a cost of $57.7 million.

Which directs me to my true wonderment:  From 2001-2009, where were all the deficit hawks of the party of Glenn Beck? Why were they so willing to drink the tea back then?

Albert Brooks on mainstream media response to Barack Obama, one year later. (And “mainstream” means Fox.)

On Wall Street, nothing quite equals success like enormous, obvious failure.

Par example, witness the resurrection of detested Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain, a man who held Bank of America hostage in its forced acquisition of his company — so that he could pay out $5.8 billion (that’s with a “b”) in bonuses to the people who’d led it to failure. His latest coup? He’s going to lead CIT Group, which has the distinction of being “the first company in which the government realized a loss under its $700 billion federal bailout program.” My kids ran their lemonade stand better than anything Thain has done lately, and for less money, although his new pay package is a mere $500,000 a year, plus $5.5 million in stock. But then, my kids’ business actually made money.

Read more here and feel your blood boil all over again. And remember:  One way or another, you and I are paying for all of it.

California: You DO think I’m fixable, don’t you, Jerry Brown? [pause] You didn’t answer me right away. You had to think about it first, didn’t you? If you really had thought I was fixable, you would’ve spoken right up. You would have actually entered the race by now. I know when I’ve been insulted. I KNOW WHEN I’VE BEEN INSULTED.

Jerry Brown: Good grief.

California politics never ceases to entertain.

The other day, Steve Poizner, one of the GOP candidates for governor, accused rival Meg Whitman  of “extortion and bribery” for suggesting that her campaign should explore ways to get Poizner out of the race. The LA Times’ George Skelton, often the voice of pragmatism, says that either this “wild-eyed accusation” is an “attention-grabbing stunt by a desperate dark horse” — or, essentially, Poizner is nuts. (Others might say both.)

In other news, the California Democratic Party has taken to calling disastrous Hewlett Packard CEO — and now Senate candidate! — Carly Fiorina “Carly Failorina.” That made me laugh out loud. They’ve even launched a website — and here it is. Hey, if some of my CDP donations have gone to this, I have to write a bigger check.