War of the Roses

A couple of big battles are heating up. In, what may shape up to be a domestic battle played out on the political stage, it looks like both Arianna Huffington and her ex, Michael Huffington might throw their respective hats in the ring for California Governor in the upcoming recall election. David Talbot has this portrait of Arianna on Salon (membership or daypass required), which Mickey Kaus seems to find to be too much of a love letter. Though, I'm of the opinion that Arianna is great and along with David Brock, proof that conservatives are not a lost cause.

In another major battle heating up on the domestic front, SFGate.com reports that the far superior Peet's Coffee of Berkeley has landed in the heart of the competitions territory by opening their first store in Starbuck's hometown of Seattle. Cafe Nervosa look out.

On the international front this morning, the LA Time's Robert Scheer takes on the missing 28 pages and on the other coast, Paul Krugman in the New York Times looks at spin. Both worth a read.

And I'd like to know whose idea this was. Here is Josh Marshall's take. I especially liked this graph.

"In the old days, all you could accomplish with mass-casualty terrorism was physical destruction, human suffering and death on a massive scale. Now, through effective market manipulation, you can achieve those ends and reap immense profits. Maybe even enough to fund the next terrorist attack. "