Here is some linky goodness:

• Alan Keyes, who kind of plays the Washington Generals to Barack Obama’s Harlem Globetrotters, has filed suit in Superior Court in Sacramento to stop California from awarding its electoral votes to Obama because he doesn’t fulfill the necessary citizenship requirements.  Discussion item: Keyes used to have a talk show on MSNBC.

• Assemblyman Mike Davis has filed as a candidate in the special election to replace State Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas, who is now an LA County Supervisor.  Assemblyman Curren Price is also rumored to be seeking the seat, but he hasn’t filed yet.

• One of the most interesting news items from this weekend’s Join The Impact rallies was the coming out of comedian Wanda Sykes at an event in Las Vegas.  Sykes, who was married to her partner last month, had this to say:

“Everybody that knows me personally they know I’m gay,” she continued. “But that’s the way people should be able to live their lives.”

The motivation behind the revelation: the Nov. 4 passage of a same-sex marriage ban in California that has taken the nation by storm.

Sykes said the ban (also known as California’s Proposition 8) made her feel like she was “attacked.”

“Now, I gotta get in their face,” she said. “I’m proud to be a woman. I’m proud to be a black woman, and I’m proud to be gay.”

• President-Elect Obama is raising money for the victims of the SoCal Fires on his website. The BarackObama.com landing page is now a message that links back to the Governor’s California Volunteers Page.

• Jackie Speier remembers her Jonestown nightmare. It is 30 years ago today that Congressman Leo Ryan was killed in Guyana.

• In the close races yet to be decided in California, the news remains not so great.  Hannah-Beth Jackson and Alyson Huber are now behind by more than the .5% needed for a partial recount.  Charlie Brown is within 622 votes of Tom McClintock but there aren’t a lot of ballots left in his stronghold of Nevada County. Interestingly, both Brown and McClintock showed up for the freshman orientation.

I think these open threads are working out.  Hope you enjoy them.  Here are a few thoughts.

• This is a week old, but Nick Kristof’s column about Prop. 2 (the farm animal safety measure) is well worth your time.

• It’s still up in the air whether or not we’re going to have Alan Keyes on the California Presidential ballot in November.  There’s a lawsuit between two members of the American Independent Party over who should be their nominee.  It seems to me the very definition of “frivolous,” but as someone who deeply enjoys mocking Alan Keyes I have a dog in this fight, so do the right thing, Sacramento Superior Court!

• The Log Cabin Republicans, who I also like to call “gluttons for punishment,” rolled out their No on 8 campaign last week.  The website is Republicans Against 8.  It’s the libertarian thing to do to get government out of the bedroom, so hopefully they’ll sway some folks.

• This is absolutely revolting and someone needs to go to jail:

For hundreds of homeless people, posing as phony hospital patients provided them a clean bed and cash. For the hospitals that processed them, it meant a full patient-load and a paycheck from the government.

Now some of those allegedly involved in what authorities say was a massive scheme have been charged with billing government programs for millions of dollars in unnecessary health services.

A hospital CEO was arrested Wednesday after federal agents raided three medical centers. City attorney Rocky Delgadillo’s office has also sued the hospitals, saying they used homeless people as “human pawns.”

It’s kind of the flip side of homeless dumping, or who knows, it was run in concert.  Either way, sickening.

• Jerry Lewis is trying to get a bunch of lobbyists to fund his Congressional portrait.  The worst part about this deal is that Jerry Lewis will have a Congressional portrait hanging in our nation’s capital.

Add whatever you wish in the comments.

From an email to supporters from Charlie Brown, here are the 9 – count ’em, 9 – elections that Tom McClintock has run for in California, culminating with his entry into the CA-04 race today:

Chair, Ventura County Republican Party

CA State Assembly, District 36 in Southern California

U.S. House of Representatives, District 24 in Southern California

CA State Controller

CA State Assembly, District 38 in Southern California

CA State Senate, District 19 in Southern California

CA State Controller – Again

CA Governor in the recall election

CA Lt. Governor

U.S. House of Representatives, District 04

You could conceivably make it 10, because he was prepping a run for the state Board of Equalization before bolting to head 418 miles north to Roseville to run for Congress.

All he needs is a site called “Renew America” or something, and several failed runs for President and US Senate in states where he doesn’t live, and he’d give Alan Keyes a run for his money.