Didn't see that one coming...

It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world...so it's easy to understand how a busy person can miss some of the important things out there. So as a service to you - and some of the folks here - The Bliss Index™ presents the following collection of news and information you probably didn't see coming...

News item: Iran agrees to nuclear exchange, will send enriched fuel to Turkey - The deal, brokered with the help of Brazil, could be a breakthrough in the long diplomatic deadlock over Tehran's nuclear program. Ahmadinejad calls on the West to resume talks. Experts are saying Iran scored a a”nuclear coup.” Hey, how’s that diplomatic dialogue working for ya?

Add Iran: Meanwhile Israel is taking Iran at its word and preparing to ensure “never again” isn’t a hollow promise…

Add Israel and the Middle East: "Residents in Southern Gaza who supported Hamas because Israeli troops were beating them and bulldozing their houses have just been beaten and had their houses bulldozed. By Hamas." (h/t: fark)

Last add Middle East: Meanwhile Israel is taking Iran at its word and preparing to ensure “never again” isn’t a hollow promise…

Hope and no change...

Meanwhile, elsewhere...

Are you telling me she didn't see this coming?: Barbara Boxer is facing her toughest race since 1992, according to most pollwatchers. (Boxer, btw, has never polled well, it's just that she's been incredible lucky to have horrible GOP opponents in general elections.) In this article, Democratic challenger Mickey Kaus shows that California's junior senator is having a difficult time connecting with moderates...

Five years ago in L.A.: It seems like just yesterday Antonio Villaraigosa was elected mayor. It’s been downhill there ever since…

Looks like someone has some ‘splainin’ to do: Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D), who is seeking the U.S. Senate seat belonging to the outgoing Christopher Dodd (D), appears to have talked up his military record - actually, exaggerated is more like it...

The day the laughter died and with it, a career...

Add stolen valor: As the terrific Instapundit blog points out, “if by chance Blumenthal is elected, he wouldn’t be the only Democrat in the Senate caught lying about serving in Vietnam.”

From the "No Duh" department: “States’ Tax Collections Falter, Widening Budget Gaps.” Yes, some legislators still think it’s a good idea to raise taxes (driving business down…or out of state)...

Totally unpredictable (not): Jerry Brown lashes out at GOP candidates - California's AG calls his gubernatorial rivals Whitman and Poizner "the apostles of darkness and ignorance." This from the man who sold (out) California for 30 pieces of silver back when he was governor -the first two times...

Pondering the future-past (passed?)...

Here's a shocker (not): ACLU sues to stop Arizona's immigration law. Because, you know, illegal immigrants are due their American rights...

Add Arizona's immigration law: Remember the LA City Councilman who led the charge to boycott Arizona because of the "racist" law? Turns out he's never even read the law...

Speaking of "not having read the Arizona law" - Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano admits she hasn't read the Arizona immigration law, but passed judgment on it anyway. "That's not the kind of law I would have signed," she declared. "I believe it's a bad law enforcement law. I believe it mandates and requires local enforcement and puts them in a position many do not want to be placed in," Napolitano said. "When I was dealing with laws of that ilk, most of the law enforcement agencies in Arizona at that time were opposed to such legislation," she claimed. (h/t: RealClearPolitics)...

Number of federal law enforcement/public safety officials in photo who criticized Arizona's immigration law: 2 (two).

Number of federal law enforcement/public safety officials in photo who have actually read Arizona's immigration law: 0 (zero).

Finally, last add Janet's Reading List - Here's "Big Sister" in living color, admitting she's never read the law which she's been harping on. (Oh, and don't forget, prior to being head of DHS she was governor of...ta da - Arizona!):

What's news?

A quick rundown of the people and events making news that matters to you:

California / the West

The Los Angeles Times endorses San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom over L.A. City council member Janice Hahn on the Democratic side for lieutenant governor, saying "whoever fills the job must be ready to become governor at a moment's notice. Newsom, for all his cockiness, is a dynamic leader — one who is more suited than Hahn to guide the state." LAT editorial

Meg Whitman is coming off an extraordinary successful quarter – at least when it comes to adding money for her campaign. California Watch. Plus: Her tax return for 2008 shows Carly Fiorina and her husband had income of more than $2.75 million. LAT

Tom Campbell: Arizona immigration law is constitutional

Poizner's tilt right is in keeping with record

Building sell-off slammed - Report says guv's plan to unload buildings would lose state $1.5 billion...

CA gov backs health overhaul...

Franken to raise money with SNL alums at LA event...

Weren’t we supposed to be boycotting California for its homophobia?...

Tourism chief opposes Arizona boycott - SF's Joe D'Alessandro says it could hurt the very people it is trying to support...

Newsom edging toward the boycott bandwagon...

SF's Proposed Arizona Boycott Threatens Job Program...

‘Little decisions’ could have big impact - The bad news we already know: San Francisco has a $483 million budget deficit that must be resolved before June 1.


Gavin - he was against the post of Lt. Gov. before he was for it...

The Economy / Wall Street

Volatile Jobs Data Point To Uneven Recovery...

Goldman's Gift to Democrats - "Lawmakers have been haggling over financial reform for 18 months, but it took Goldman Sachs just one day to get it done," the Washington Post reports. "Of course, the Wall Street giant wasn't intending to get the financial legislation done. Quite the opposite: Like most in the investment world, Goldman would generally prefer that regulators leave it and its billions of dollars of profits alone. But when Goldman executives faced a Senate panel on Tuesday, their performance was so obnoxious, their contempt for lawmakers so palpable, that their appearance had the effect of dissolving the Republican resistance to what Democrats are now calling 'Wall Street reform.'"

U.S. / Politics

Bush Was Right - Obama’s predecessor would have passed immigration reform if not for 9/11. He was correct to shift focus then—and Obama shouldn’t let the Arizona debacle force him to push for a new law during an election year...

Senate Dems will move campaign finance legislation before July 4...

Republicans Eye Three Symbolic Senate Seats - Washington Post: ""Every now and then, there comes a congressional race so fraught with history and symbolism that it becomes as much about sending a message as winning a seat. This year, Republicans are looking to hit the trifecta in the Senate. As things stand now, they are well within striking distance of winning President Obama's old seat in Illinois and Vice President Biden's former perch in Delaware, and of toppling Majority Leader Harry M. Reid in Nevada."

Senate Democrats to unveil immigration plan

Reid Still Trails Badly - A new Rasmussen survey in Nevada finds Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) still struggling against his possible Republican challengers. Sue Lowden (R) is ahead 52% to 39%, Danny Tarkanian (R) leads 51% to 41%, and Sharron Angle (R) is in front 48% to 40%.

Al Gore buys $8.8 million ocean-view villa...

The Most Polarized Congress in Modern History - William Galston: "The current Congress -- the 111th -- is the most ideologically polarized in modern history. In both the House and the Senate, the most conservative Democrat is more liberal than is the most liberal Republican. If one defines the congressional 'center' as the overlap between the two parties, the center has disappeared."

Motor City Madman Backs Palin - Rock star Ted Nugent endorses Sarah Palin: "We who are driven to be assets to our families, communities and our beloved country connect with the principles that Sarah Palin embodies. We know that bureaucrats and, even more, Fedzilla, are not the solution; they are the problem. I'd be proud to share a moose-barbecue campfire with the Palin family anytime, so long as I can shoot the moose."

McCain Holds Double-Digit Lead Over Hayworth - A new Public Policy Polling survey in Arizona finds the Republican U.S. Senate primary much closer than a Rocky Mountain poll released yesterday. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) leads challenger J.D. Hayworth (R), 46% to 35%, though a majority of Republicans think "he's too lenient on immigration" and a plurality feel that "he's too liberal in general." Hayworth actually leads McCain 46% to 38% with conservative voters. But McCain's 60% to 15% advantage with moderates is so overwhelming that it allows him the double digit lead...


Al Gore - feeling the heat over his new digs...

International

Tribal elders refuse to return to former Pakistani Taliban base, jeopardizing military gains...

Saddam's loyalists in Syria blast US...

Gordon Brown's Disastrous Day - The British prime minister’s spectacular gaffe has further imperiled his faltering campaign. Alex Massie on how upstart Nick Clegg is taking advantage—and what he wants...

All hail the success of Hugo Chavez's bolivarian socialism: "What we're seeing in Venezuela is a phenomenon where productivity, private activity and private business is falling"...

Latin America Will Expand In 2010...

AHMADINEJAD TO ATTEND CONFERENCE AT UN NEXT WEEK...

US Navy has encounter with Iranian jet...

US gives $2.5 million more to help pay for Charles Taylor war crimes trial...

Iran's Ahmadinejad - coming soon to a UN near you...

Defense / Terrorism-related

Could drone pilots be tried for war crimes?...

Navy to allow women to serve on subs...

Health/tech/science/Environment

APPLE WANTED A “PUBLIC EXECUTION” in the iPhone case?...

Steve Jobs' scathing bash of Flash - Apple CEO lays out 6 reasons why he won't support the Adobe technology on the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch...

Water Ice and Organic Material Found for First Time on Asteroid...

U.S. Escalates Oil Spill Response...

Microsoft Tablet Project Shelved...

Google to Show TV Software in May...

Boss Jobs...

China / Asia

South Korea ship sinking may be perfect crime for North...

The U.S. and China are locked in a kind of mutually assured economic destruction that will force cooperation even as security disputes simmer...

Japan Forces Bureaucrats to Defend Spending...

So, Ready for War With North Korea?...

Thai Political Tussle Intensifies...

The start of something bad?

Hat tip (sources): Los Angeles Times, NY Times, LA Observed, SF Chronicle/SFGate, SF Examiner, The Hill, Legal Insurrection, KCBS, Forbes.com, the Wall Street Journal/Online WSJ, the Drudge Report, Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire, Gawker, Instapundit, Philly.com, BBC, PopSci.com, AP News/MyWay, Boing Boing, Breitbart.com, The Daily Beast, Comcast.net, Korea Times, the Washington Post, Reuters, California Watch, TIME, Rheilworldview.com, Telegraph UK, Big Journalism, Moonbattery.com

This Isn't Going To Be Good For Anyone...

The FBI: Coming to a bank near you?

"The FBI is investigating four major U.S. financial institutions whose collapse helped trigger a $700 billion bailout plan by the Bush administration, The Associated Press has learned."

Your tax dollars at work.

"A former Iraqi official estimated yesterday that more than $13 billion meant for reconstruction projects in Iraq was wasted or stolen through elaborate fraud schemes."

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (By Ben Heine.)

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is visiting the United Nations and using the opportunity to spew more ___________ (fill in the blank). The weasel says the world can take a flying leap. Iran is going to build all the nukes it wants. Note to Iran: You know that "doomsday clock" on the wall? You don't really set the time on it, Israel does.

Extra: Since we're on the topic of things that are bad for you, how about the 2,300-calorie Baskin-Robbins "Death Shake?"

Death with a straw.