It seems a member of the Baltimore City Council would like his city to be run by the police. As City Council Vice President Robert W. Curran originally told The Baltimore Sun, "Desperate measures are needed when we're in desperate situations."

Here is his proposal, from the AP article:

Under Curran's plan, the mayor could declare "public safety act zones," which would allow police to close liquor stores and bars, limit the number of people on city sidewalks, and halt traffic during two-week intervals.

Police would be encouraged to aggressively stop and frisk individuals in those zones to search for weapons and drugs.

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This week's news from Iraq is actually good news, for a change. Good for Democrats in Congress, good for congressional Republicans, good for (assumably) the Iraqis, and good for the seven-tenths of all Americans who want to see an end to American troops in Iraq. Good for almost everyone, right?

Well, not so good for the Bush White House and their "stay the course" echo chamber, but then they've really had their moment in the sunshine already, haven't they?

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Secondly, letter-writer to the Washington Post Kenneth R. Insley Jr. proposed a truly innovative, original, and downright brilliant idea for how to solve the presidential primary schedule mess for good:

I believe the fairest way to conduct the presidential primaries would be to rank the states according to voter participation in the previous election and have the primaries in that order until the winners become obvious.

He gets a bit snarky at the end, but still, his idea has a lot of merit, and is worth considering:

This change might rankle the chosen people of Iowa and New Hampshire because they would have to finally earn their coveted positions of influence. As soon as either of those states acquires an actual city, a diverse population or even a major sports team, I might actually feel the opinions held there should count for as much as my own.

Of course, like many good political reform ideas, it probably makes too much sense to ever become reality.

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Rend Al-Rahim's got the best idea I've heard in a long time for some sort of acceptible solution to the whole problem of Iraq: convene a Dayton-type meeting with all the factions, and hammer out an agreement they can all live with. Who knows what the chances of success would be, but like I said, this is the first truly original idea I've heard in a long time, so it deserves to be debated, at the very least.

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The time has come to federalize presidential elections.

I do not call lightly for this step, and realize it would face an uphill fight to becoming reality. It would probably require amending the Constitution, which is always tough. This doesn't mean it isn't worth attempting, or that it won't eventually happen.

The federal government must take control of the election process for the presidential elections, including the primaries. This would simultaneously solve two problems that have been getting successively worse with each election cycle: the primary calendar race to the front of the line, and the questionable voting practices in certain areas of the country.

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While much has been said about the French elections, the thing that struck me was the fact that 85% of them turned out to vote. In our last presidential election, south of 60% exercised their franchise. Maybe it has something to do with scheduling the voting on a weekend, instead of a Tuesday? Just a thought....

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My prediction is that some version of this will be on many Republican candidates' lips this fall. The only question is whether it will be enough to force Bush to face reality, and to finally begin to end the war in Iraq. Democrats need 17 or 18 Republicans in the Senate, and around 60 or so in the House, in order to put together a veto-proof majority. These are the numbers to watch, as only they will end the war in Iraq.

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So, today, with both prominent liberals and conservatives now calling for Alberto Gonzales to resign, and with his numbers dropping in the polls, and when the entire Bush administration is being soundly ridiculed in the pages of the Washington Post, the question remains: what do "experts agree" about Gonzales?

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. . . Did anyone else out there see the irony in America condemning Iran for the way they treated the captured British soldiers and sailors? It's kind of hard to get worked up over the Iranians' behavior when the CIA is doing worse things to prisoners in the name of the American people. In other words, it's hard for us to get on our high horse when we've abandoned the moral high road ourselves.

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So forgive me for wanting to change the channel when I hear DiFi (as she is familiarly know to her California constituents) waxing indignant over Gonzales' actions on television news. I would much prefer to hear a more consistent and believable Democratic Senator. Like Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Patrick Leahy (D-VT), for example.

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