Names in the news

THUMBS UP

Subcommandante Marcos

The candidate is a Marxist rebel leader who once started a civil war, wears a ski mask, smokes a pipe, keeps a crippled rooster as a mascot and is not on the ballot for any political office.

Yet the start of a six-month national tour led by the man known as Subcommander Marcos has all the earmarks of a run-of-the-mill campaign for political office: slogans, chants, partisan songs, rallies large and small, a campaign caravan making stops in towns and cities, jabs at other politicians, cute presentations from children and hugs from local community leaders, shaking hands with admirers over a line of bodyguards, and the occasional obligation to kiss, or at least hug, a baby or two.

Marcos, a captivating speaker who now calls himself Delegate Zero, even has a stump speech of sorts, in which he blames "savage capitalism" and the sins of the rich for everything from gay-baiting to racism to domestic violence.

...Marcos appears to be trying regain the national limelight with a nonviolent campaign aimed not at winning office, but at building a broad leftist movement to pressure politicians from the outside.

THUMBS DOWN

Rat..er.. Pat Robertson (is there no limit to this man's ignoance??)

The Protestant broadcaster Pat Robertson suggested Thursday that Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine punishment for "dividing God's land."

"God considers this land to be his," Mr. Robertson said on "The 700 Club," his television program. "You read the Bible and he says, 'This is my land,' and for any prime minister of Israel who decides he is going to carve it up and give it away, God says, 'No, this is mine.' "

THUMBS CONFUSED

Arnold Schwarzenegger

An uncharacteristically humble Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger apologized to the voters of California on Thursday night and proposed a series of policies that represent a dramatic return to the political center after an ill-fated lurch to the right last year.

"It's true I was in too much of a hurry, and I've learned my lesson," Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, said in an address from the Assembly chamber broadcast statewide. "I didn't hear the majority of Californians when they were telling me they didn't like the special election. I barreled ahead anyway when I should have listened."

Myst0nia says: While it's always good to see elected officials who are responsive to the will of the people, this seems a little TOO good. This does bear watching, though.