WHILE CALIFORNIA BURNS, BUSH FIDDLES AND GIULIANI PLANS TO DILUTE THE STATE'S ELECTORAL VOTES... AGAIN

Raging wildfires have forced over half a million 900,000 Californians to evacuate their homes. But while the southern part of the state burns-- and while CNN anchor Glenn Beck revels in the thought that liberals and others he disagrees with politically are losing their homes to fires-- Giuliani and his partisan allies are back again trying to dilute California's electoral power.

By Tuesday, more than 400 square miles in seven counties had been consumed by some 16 fires, flames fueled by high desert winds and hot temperatures that remained largely impervious to air attacks, garden hoses, fire retardant or prayers for relief.

The authorities said the blazes, raging from the Simi Valley northwest of Los Angeles to the Mexican border, were responsible for two deaths, and possibly five others. At least 25 firefighters and civilians were reported to have suffered burns.

By late Tuesday, the fires had consumed well over 1,000 homes and commercial structures, with the authorities reporting that 68,500 homes remained threatened. At least 500,000 people were estimated to have evacuated and thousands more had been ordered to move, making the evacuation effort roughly half the size of that from the New Orleans area after Hurricane Katrina. The authorities said firefighters were overwhelmed as new blazes sparked and existing ones thrashed in new directions, impeding efforts to focus energy and resources. By midday, a new fire began in San Diego County even as fires elsewhere became partially contained.

Before I get into Giuliano's attempt to screw with California's electoral votes while peoples' atttention is focused elsewhere, I have something to say about an even lower-life piece of crap Republican, xenophobic maniac and vicious nazi hatemonger Tom Tancredo (R-CO), who "alerted federal officials Tuesday to an event that he said would be attended by 'several illegal aliens.'”  The event that the mentally unbalanced and hysterical Tancredo went running to the police about was a "Dream Act"  Senate staff briefing attended by Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) and several students who were asked to testify.I wonder if Tancredo also called the police on the "60 Mexican firefighters from the border cities of Tijuana and Tecate [who] crossed into the United States on Sunday to help fight the fires."

Now to the foul Giuliani. Last month we reported that Giuliani's nefarious plot to steal the presidential election by screwing with the California electoral system had been uncovered and the culprits had slinked away in shame. They're back!

When the Californians are busy putting out fires, Giuliani's team is re-starting them. The most thorough explanation of what exactly they are up to was written yesterday by Frank Russo in the California Progress Report.

In a scene reminiscent of a grade B horror movie, a new set of characters have taken over the effort to put on the June ballot a change to California's award of Electoral College votes so they can win in June what they know they cannot win in November. Why they would be doing this for a measure that polls at 25% support and has been lambasted as a naked partisan power grab by newspapers up and down the state (including the Orange County Register!) is just one of the questions. It smacks of desperation--and a number of roads continue to lead back to Rudy Giuliani--who denies any connection with this.

Again, they refuse to divulge who is pouring the millions of dollars into the state to try to hijack the election, an effort that will lose badly and "further brand the Republicans as last in war, last in disaster relief and first in election fraud." If you want the definitive story and every in and out, read Russo's powerful piece. A simplified version is available from the L.A. Times, which makes the point that the effort is being led by GOP slimebuckets who have shadowy connections to both Bush and Giuliani-- David Gilliard, Ed Rollins, Anne Dunsmore, and Mike Arno. "Until recently, Dunsmore oversaw fundraising for Rudolph W. Giuliani's presidential campaign."

Oh, and one more thing about the fires: Bush didn't set them any more than he caused Katrina to drown New Orleans. His venal and incompetent regime-- and the philosophical premises they're run on (if you want to dignify concepts like "greed," "selfishness," bigotry," etc that way)-- made bad matters much worse. Just a few months ago the G.A.O. warned the Regime this was bound to happen and Bush's response to the warning was identical to his response to when he was warned that bin-Laden would attack New York and when he was warned Katrina was about to devastate the Gulf Coast. He buried his head... in the sand.