Randomotica

• Welcome to the age of plebiscitary democracy.
• "[A] 15-page study just released by the minority staff of the House Appropriations Committee [...] finds that the number of home-state projects earmarked in various bills has skyrocketed under the GOP, despite the party's rhetorical commitment to reining in a profligate federal government. Moreover, it contends, Republicans 'have opened up broad new areas of government to the practice of earmarking that were previously not subject to earmarks.'"
• Diebold, leading manufacturer of hacker-vulnerable electronic voting machines, apparently makes virus-vulnerable ATMs too!
• McSweeney's offers these hillarious Inaugural Speeches from Our Action Heroes.