Why are John McCain and Hillary Clinton advising California voters?

I just received a letter from Arizona Republican Senator John McCain urging me to vote for California proposition 77. This message was paid for by Governor Schwarzenegger's California Recovery Team. Last week, I received a "special message" from New York Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton urging me to vote no on proposition 75. This message was paid for by the California Democratic Party.

Maybe I should be happy: 1 Republican senator and 1 Democratic senator wrote to give me advice.

I'm more concerned about why these senators from out-of-state think it's in their best interest to give advice to California voters on their issues at home.

[[Originally, I posted my opinions on these propositions - I think that detracts from my primary message/concern, and so I've removed that here]]

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More Fair Trade Coffee

As I posted earlier, I only recently discovered the whole notion of Fair Trade Coffee somewhat accidentally, by venturing to this site while perusing current del.icio.us links. Since I enjoy drinking coffee, I decided to learn more about this type of coffee... in particular, where could I get some, and would it be really expensive?

I started by visiting my local Trader Joe's... and was surprised that I could only find one package that was labeled Fair Trade. Other prominent labels included "organic" and "shade grown". I ended up buying some coffee (not the Fair Trade stuff) that I wasn't really satisfied with in the end...

Some time passed. I found myself visiting relatives in northern California, and remarked that I particularly liked the coffee that they drank on this particular occasion. They said they got it from the local Long's drug store... The coffee we drank was labeled "Brazilian Hazelnut" from Santa Cruz Coffee... (normally I don't like flavored coffees, but the Hazelnut was very subtle). I visited the Long's, hoping to buy some coffee to take home, and found the shelves almost entirely bare.

So, I found the website of Santa Cruz Coffee, and decided to order 4 pounds of it. It arrived nicely packed a few weeks ago. ALL of their coffees are labeled Fair Trade Organic! The stuff is really great - I can't recommend them highly enough. And visit their website. It's got an informative education section. So far, I've tried the Brazilian Hazelnut, the Nutcracker Cinnamon Hazelnut, the Santa Cruz Full City, the Bean of the Earth, and their Vanilla Viennese Decaf.

Ok: Why did I get flavored coffees if I said I didn't like flavored coffees? Because there's some confusion about which coffee is which on the website. At my relatives' house, I had tasted the "Brazilian Hazelnut", but there was no such coffee listed on the website... so, I tried ordering both of the hazelnut-like coffees. It turns out that the coffee described on the website as "Hazelnut" arrives labeled as "Brazilian Hazelnut"... so: that was the one I was looking for.

My least favorite is the Cinnamon Hazelnut. My favorite oscillates between the Brazilian Hazelnut and the Full City.

I seem to like mildly nutty-flavored coffees. Next, I'm going to look for a Chickoree flavored coffee from New Orleans...

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Steven Colbert's Ears

I can't get them out of my mind... at least while watching the show - the Colbert Report. You may know that the "Colbert Report" is a show on Comedy Central... following Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show". Steven Colbert used to be a correspondent (?) on the Daily Show, and has since spun off his own show - "The Colbert Report".

Ok: what's the problem? The other night, I was watching the Colbert Report, and early in the show, Steven mentioned that his show was getting all sorts of critique in the blogosphere... including a comment on how one of his ears sticks out differently than the other one. Wow. I had never noticed that. Although I've faithfully watched "The Daily Show" for years, I had never noticed this before.

Now, I can't help but notice it. It's now very distracting. It takes away from my concentration on the heavy thoughts expressed in The Colbert Report. Watch it.

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