I think the story of the week is about a week old now. Oh really? No, O"Reilly. Fox News is widely known to have a bit of a conservative viewpoint, and I’m all for free speech and commentators being able to publicly say whatever they want to say, but Bill O’Reilly may have stepped in it a little too deep with his comments last week about San Francisco. Even though most of you probably have read it, I don’t want to misrepresent him, so I’ll repeat it word for word. "You want to be your own country, go right ahead. And if al Queda comes in here and blows you up, we’re not going to do anything about it. You want to blow up Coit Tower, go ahead."

O’Reilly made those remarks on his syndicated radio program, but he also passes himself off as the anchor of a supposedly "objective" news program on Fox, so it’ll be interesting to see if he can ride out this little storm. If he does, the Fox network will have defined its ideological territory a little more clearly.

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We said last week that, despite getting blasted by the voters on his ballot initiatives, governor Arnold might not just walk away with his tail between his legs. Well, he didn’t. Right after getting beat up at the polls, he took off on a high profile junket to China with major media attention. China, of course, is the economic shining star of the world right now. Just walk through your favorite discount department store and read some labels. So Arnold packs a bunch of businessmen on the airplane and mugs for a few pictures in Beijing. Those businessmen, of course, would be doing the same business in China whether the governor was there or not, but his presence says one thing clearly: this guy is running.

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The Bushwhacker made one of his patented, controlled audience speeches at an army depot in Pennsylvania on Veterans Day, and he called critics of the Iraq war "deeply irresponsible." Sometimes the quotes speak eloquently for themselves in ways which the speaker doesn’t intend. As usual, Dub spoke of the global war on terror, as though Iraq has something to do with that, but check this quote: "As our troops fight a ruthless enemy determined to destroy our way of life . . ." Who is that again, George? About the only thing anyone in Iraq could do to destroy our way of life would be to cut off the oil. That business about his critics being irresponsible, though, says a lot about the state of free speech and political discourse in the U.S. these days.

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We said that this guy, Sam Alito, is a lock to be confirmed for the Supreme Court, and that’s probably still true, but some dirt is being dished. Somebody dug up his application for a job as deputy assistant attorney general 20 years ago in which he expresses his opposition to abortion, affirmative action and "big government." Duh! Who is it that didn’t know that about the guy already? That "big government" part was just a buzzword during the Reagan administration. Republican types have been shying away from that concept in recent years. Big government is fine with Republicans, now, as long as it’s doing the right business. Still, this abortion thing is getting a little tiresome. Democrats in Washington talk as though no one who is anti-abortion is qualified to sit on the Supreme Court, and that just won’t hold up in the long run. The guy who claims to be President is anti-abortion, so he’s going to appoint someone who agrees with him, and if you believe he’s actually the President, then he’s entitled to do that. If the Democrats actually want to be an opposition party, which I doubt, they’ll have to come up with a few other issues to disagree about.

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Let’s get local for a minute. This is not so much about affordable housing as it is about journalism. We’ve talked a couple of times about the city of Grass Valley’s response to the application to build a project called Berg Heights on Ridge Road. The city planning commission has rejected it and the developer has appealed that decision to the city council. The developer is claiming that it’s affordable housing but hasn’t told anyone how much these houses are actually going to cost. Pat Butler, the editor of The Union, wrote a by-line column last Saturday under the headline, "Do we really want affordable housing," and in it, he complained that he’s among the gainfully employed who can’t afford to buy a house. Then a couple of days later, The Union ran an editorial advocating the approval of Berg Heights. Butler, of course, participates in writing the editorial columns, although no one gets a by-line. So what does he know that we don’t? Does he have a deal on one of these houses? I’d take the editorial a lot more seriously if The Union would just tell me how much these houses are going to cost. I agree that the editor of the local daily should be able to buy a house, but I think the waitress and the grocery clerk should be able to buy a house too.

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