Then there's all the bad news: Southern California is aflame; coordinated carbombings are killing and wounding scores of people in Baghdad and Fallujah as the Pentagon struggles to reformulate tactics; and despite talk of the economy "turning the corner" it's still losing jobs and not adding new ones. But fear not, citizens -- a quick trip over to the White House website yields this reassuring quote from Paul Bremer: "Well, a lot of wonderful things have happened in Iraq since July." Hmmm, they must know some things we don't...or, more likely, vice versa.

Let's zero in on the Iraq situation -- did you know that Deputy Defense Secretary/Prince of Evil Paul Wolfowitz was nearly killed in one of the Baghdad bombings yesterday? Or that Iraqi civilians working in the new police stations and the Red Cross headquarters (the Red Cross, people!) were specifically targeted? Probably not -- but there's 24/7 news coverage of the fires in California -- not that they're unimportant, but where are all those "embedded" reporters these days? Guess they only like to burrow into good news. Eric Boehlert has a piece on Salon today on this -- get the day pass to read it all.

As for what to do about the wildfires, the ever-clever Mark "Bruckheimer" Schwartz has come up with a screen treatment/policy analysis that would be a perfect vehicle, er, initiative for Gov. Ahnald:

Imagine the state of Kal-ee-four-knee-iah being ravaged by wildfires and there’s no one to save us. BUT WAIT. There’s Gubernor Ahnald, and despite the fact that he lacks any political experience whatsoever, he HAS experience as a former fire fighter in ‘Collateral Damage’. So, I see Arnold in a suit behind his desk (we see the state flag in the lower right hand corner) watching CNN and getting the news that domestic terrorism (formerly known as arson) is threatening the entire state. He jumps up and exclaims, “Sum-ting mest be dun”. Fast forward to Arnold at 18,000 feet in a tight jumpsuit (with arms exposed and all lotioned up) about to jump out of a plane screaming (a la Bruce Willis in "Die Hard") and fighting the fires on his own. Of course, there will have to be ‘bad guy’ firefighters whose arms he’ll need to rip off and necks he’ll need to break. But, it’s a great story of this former fire fighter who gets a boring desk job as Governor and then when the state is threatened, he reverts back to his old self and kicks the fire’s ass when it threatens his various mansions and real estate holdings.

I smell a big opening weekend for this one!