A couple of political items worth noting

Emmy Award-winning comedian Al Franken overwhelmingly won the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate from Minnesota and now will face Republican incumbent Norm Coleman, a former Democrat who lost a governor's election in Minnesota to another celebrity, wrestler Jesse Ventura. Which makes me wonder what Kinky Friedman is up to these days.

Out West, what the New York Times calls "California's influential (emphasis mine) prison guards union" has declared formally it will seek a recall election against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Only one other such recall movement in California was successul and that came in 2003 against Gov. Gray Davis. Schwarzenegger replaced Davis and then won another term in 2006. That term ends in 2011. Gov. Davis' approval ratings were 33 percent when he was recalled. Schwarzenegger's current approval ratings are 38 percent. The union swears their recall effort has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that the governor refuses to raise the wages of this union's members. Sure. Fine. Whatever.