8. Pigasus the Immortal Boar

Pigasus the Immortal was a boar hog put forward by the Yippies (Youth International Party) in the 1968 US presidential race, named after Pegasus, the winged horse god of Greek mythology. The announcement of Pigasus’ candidacy was made during the heady protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Phil Ochs, Pigasus’ owner, demanded the pig was treated the same as its legitimate rivals and given secret service protection as well as access to foreign policy briefings. Unfortunately, Pigasus’ candidacy was short-lived, for barely had the official introduction at his first press conference begun, when folk-singer Ochs, Stew Albert and several others were arrested by the FBI. The humans were released later that day, but Pigasus’ fate remains unknown – he may have been taken to the Humane Society, or he may have ended up as dinner for the other candidates that evening.

7. Incitatus the Horse

The Roman Emperor Caligula became infamous for a string diabolical acts. Among his best known insanities was disinterring the body of Alexander the Great to steal his breastplate, castrating the gladiator Longinus because he had a longer penis than him, and destroying the kidneys of nobleman Valerius Catullus during an extended erotic session (no questions please). But perhaps one of Caligula’s most well-known acts of madness was his decision to appoint his favourite horse, Incitatus, as a Roman Consul (as such Incitatus didn’t strictly run for government, but we thought him worthy of inclusion on this list anyway). It seems that, unsurprisingly, Incitatus didn’t do a lot with his time in office, but he did appear to have led a fairly cushty life – according to Suetonious he had a stable of marble with an ivory manger, purple blankets, and a collar of precious stones, and others have reported that he was attended by up to eighteen servants and fed oats mixed with gold flake. Caligula even arranged for him to have a beautiful wife-cum-secretary, the finest mare in all of Rome, Penelope. Eat you heart out Bill Clinton!

6. Tai the Poodle

In 1989 residents of the small town of Whangamomona, New Zealand, objected to plans to redraw their county boundaries and declared themselves the Republic of Whangamomona. Their already wacky mandate took a turn for the worse when, in 1999, they elected a goat called Billy Gumboot as their president, setting an insane precedent for animals as their leaders. The 2001 presidential race was won by Tai, a poodle owned by the local hotel’s barman. Tai was known as a great ambassador, frequently sniffing the behinds of other dogs and making them feel welcome in Whangomomona. Unfortunately though, Tai proved that even animals are not exempt from the dirty fighting and underhand tactics that so marks human politics. Enjoying a bone one sunny Sunday afternoon, Tai was the subject of an assasination attempt when he was attacked by a larger dog. And although he survived, like Ronald Reagan, many remarked he was never the same again.

5. Cacareco the Rhinoceros

In 1958 a rhinoceros at Sao Paulo zoo called Cacareco ran as a candidate for the city council elections, protesting against political corruption. Although the establishment did not accept Cacareco’s candidacy, she eventually won over 100,000 votes – many more than any other party in the election. Cacareco’s candidacy was traced back to a group of students who had printed up 200,000 ballots with her name on them, but the ballots were all legitimately cast by voters, one of whom commented: “Better to elect a rhino than an ass.” The director of the zoo commented that he would ask Sao Paulo to pay Cacareco’s Councilman’s salary, however, election officials nullified all her ballots and a new election was held the next week. Cacareco died in 1962, but her legacy lives on through the Canadian Rhinoceros Party, led by the rhinoceros Cornelius the First, and in the phrase ‘voto Cacareco’ (Cacareco vote) which to this day is often used  to describe protest votes in Brazil.

4. Molly the Dachshund

This cute dachsund from Oklahoma named Molly was a candidate in the 2008 US presidential race, running under for the mysterious BYOB party. One would assume that the BYOB (Bring Your Own Beer?) party, were not entirely serious, but in reality little is known about Molly or BYOB. What we do know is that, unsurprisingly, she failed to pose a threat to Obama. Perhaps the video below might shed a little light on this underappreciated political candidog…

3. Tião the Chimpanzee

Tião, a chimpanzee with a reputation for being bad tempered, was put forward as a candidate by the Partido Bananista Brasilerio (Brazilian Banana Party) for the position of mayor of Rio de Janiero in 1988. The notion of having an ape run as candidate was intended to highlight the unqualified nature of the other contenders, but popular response surpassed their expectations. Running with the campaign slogan, ‘vote monkey – get monkey’, a reference to getting what you vote for, Tião received over 400,000 votes or almost 10% of the total cast, coming third in the race. Unsurprisingly, the Electoral Tribunal dismissed the election declaring the results null, but the damage was done – in the end a chimpanzee had aped the Brazilian political system.

2. Katten Mickelin the Cat

Billing themselves as ‘a party for the seriously unserious’ the Swedish Ezenhammer Plastic Bags and Child Rearing Utensils Party for many years had as their leader a black cat called Katten Mickelin (Pussy Mickelin). Fanatical members of the party referred to Mickelin as ‘The Unmentionable’, ‘The Black One’, ‘The Furry One’ or ‘The Almighty’ – and to this day there exists a book, entitled KMGB, which is said to contain the last sacred fragements of the holy text, Katten Mickelin’s Good Book. Unsurprisingly Mickelin failed to ever achive office, although he did manage to collect 102 votes in the Swedish 1994 general election, largely as a result of a terrifying alliance with the Swedish Miniature Cars and Intoxicating Beverages Association. Mickelin’s death came as sad news to a small but devoted following in Sweden and on the internet. His followers believe he has gone to a better place and is now chasing those ‘heavenly mice’, waiting to return to them – what do you expect from a party with a ‘Minister for Adhesive Tape and Small Furry Pets’?

1. Clay Henry III – Beer Drinking Goat

As the official site for mayor of the town of Lajitas, Texas, states: many towns can claim that their mayor is an old goat, or that he enjoys his beer – but not many can validly claim that their mayor is a beer drinking goat. Literally. Lajitas has that dubious honor. In the original election in the 1980s Clay Henry I defeated a wooden Indian and a local ranch dog called Buster by a landslide and the tradition continues to this day, with Clay Henry III. The town claim the goat is their political pride and joy and on most days can be found holding court at the town Trading Post, usually with a cold beer to hand. Now, we don’t know about you, but giving alcohol to animals was something that stopped being funny at about the age of 12 – bearing that in mind, it doesn’t seem to reflect well on the town that they have created an entire political system and democratic culture out of doing this. Grow up.

Images: rachdian, soggydan, azure, wikimedia

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

Cory Doctorow posted this frightening bit after looking over a leaked copyright treaty called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA):

Obama’s administration refused to disclose (the full text) due to “national security” concerns. It’s bad. It says:

* Mandatory prohibitions on breaking DRM, even if doing so for a lawful purpose (e.g., to make a work available to disabled people; for archival preservation; because you own the copyrighted work that is locked up with DRM)

Find more specific details about the treaty here.

I wonder whether this would ever pass in its current form, given that Google and Yahoo own YouTube and Flickr, respectively. The problem appears to be precisely that governments are keeping this agreement secret. The talks were initially focused on stopping counterfeit merchandise, but have expanded to public policy. If you disagree with the direction talks are going (according to the leak), or want governments to stop negotiating this treaty in secret, the EFF has more on what to do.

A new Senate proposal will offer a first time home buyer tax credit extension to homes under contract by April 30, 2010. The former deadline was November 30, 2009. The home buyer tax credit will also be offered to people who have lived in the same home for five years, according to the proposal, which at time of writing hasn’t passed yet, but has bipartisan support. Bloomberg has more:

An agreement reached yesterday by the Democrats would let homeowners who buy a new home qualify for a $6,500 credit if they have lived in their prior residence for five years, according to Regan Lachapelle, an aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

The credit would be available to individuals earning up to $125,000, or $250,000 for couples, up from $75,000 for individuals and $150,000 for couples under the current law, Lachapelle said.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office sent this veto letter to San Francisco assemblyman Tom Ammiano. Read horizontally, it looks innocent enough. But when you read vertically, it says “I Fuck You.”

According to the San Francisco Chronicle,

Schwarzenegger’s press secretary, Aaron McLear, insisted Tuesday it was simply a “weird coincidence.” He sent us veto messages the governor sent out in the past with linguistic lineups such as “soap” and “poet,” which he said were also unintended.

Maybe. But the veto message came after Ammiano called the governor a liar and shouted from the audience to “kiss my gay ass” when Schwarzenegger unexpectedly showed up at a Democratic Party dinner in San Francisco on Oct. 7.

Looks like the Governator still has a few tricks up his sleeve. Impressive.

Six state attorney generals are suing the federal government for ownership of unclaimed bonds. The AP has more:

Most American families bought at least one bond (during the national World War II bond fundraising effort) and many never cashed them in — thanks in part to a 40-year maturity in the bonds. And those same “Series E” war bonds continued to be sold by the federal government until 1980. More than $16 billion worth of the bonds are unclaimed, either lost or forgotten about with the death of the original purchasers.

It’s not like the states will get the money free of obligation, about $55 million in the case of Montana. The states would be obligated to pay bondholders no matter if it takes them decades — or longer — to show up. In the meantime, though, states usually earmark the interest earned on such unclaimed money for schools or other purposes.

States involved include New Jersey, North Carolina, Montana, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Missouri, according to the article. The Treasury Department claims it does try to find bond owners, and offers this website to help them find the bonds themselves, writes the AP. The department argues that most people are aware of their bonds. Some don’t cash them in for tax reasons, or out of patriotism, said a Bureau of the Public Debt spokeswoman in the article.

Final arguments will be based on perceived constitutional contracts between the federal government and states.

Finland has become the first country in the world to guarantee its citizens access to broadband. TechCrunch has more:

Starting July 2010, every person in Finland will have the right to a one-megabit broadband connection as an intermediate step, says the Ministry of Transport and Communications. By the end of 2015, the legal right will be extended to an impressive 100 Mb broadband connection for everyone.

According to Wikipedia, approximately 79 percent of the Finnish population use the Internet. Finland had around 1.52 million broadband Internet connections by the end of June 2007 or around 287 per 1,000 inhabitants.

This doesn’t mean Finland is offering free Internet access to everyone. Rather, it is ensuring that its network is accessible to all citizens. From the Finnish government site:

The distance from the subscriber to the nearest optical fibre or cable network should be at most two kilometres.

The user will still procure and pay the costs of their subscriber connection in the future, and also decide on the speed and technology they want for the connection. To promote equality among citizens, a domestic help credit will be extended to citizens in 2009.

FCC chairman Julius Genachowski today proposed a set of new Internet neutrality rules relating to ISPs. CNET has more:

In a speech given at the Brookings Institute, Genachowski proposed that the FCC turn its four principles of network openness official into regulation. And he suggested that the FCC add two more “principles” as part of these new rules.

Genachowski tried to alleviate fears that the FCC will overstep its bounds and create rules that hamper innovation.

The FCC has created a new website, openinternet.gov http://openinternet.gov/, to promote discussion around the issue.

Genachowski assured AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon–staid fiends of net neutrality–that they could still implement tiered pricing structures if they wanted to. How they would justify charging by bandwidth usage if the FCC made that kind of thing illegal remains a mystery.

The Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Democratic Senator Max Baucus, just released its $856 billion, 10-year healthcare reform bill. The plan will help reform efforts gain steam in the House.

You can find the full text here. The Wall Street Journal describes the bill:

The sweeping measure is designed to steer a more moderate course on health policy than other major bills moving through Capitol Hill, and it doesn’t propose to create a new government insurance plan to compete with private insurers, as proposed in rival House legislation and favored by many liberal lawmakers. Instead, the Montana Democrat is proposing to expand coverage by creating a network of nonprofit health-insurance cooperatives. The cooperatives would be seeded with $6 billion in federal money, enough to cover start-up costs and meet insurance solvency requirements.

The bill would also levy a total of $93 billion in fees on health-care-related industries over 10 years, to help offset the bill’s price tag. Pharmaceutical companies would face an annual assessment of $2.3 billion, medical-device manufacturers $4 billion and health insurers $6 billion, all apportioned according to a firm’s market share.

Some small businesses will be exempt from these taxes.

In addition, the bill would make more people eligible for Medicaid. It would create an exchange where people can buy insurance. Health insurance would be legally required. Starting in 2013, not carrying it would accrue fines ranging from $750 to $3,800.

Once again, Medicare is a contentious issue. The New York Times reports:

The Baucus plan envisions major reductions in the rate of growth of Medicare spending, by trimming payments to hospitals, nursing homes, managed-care plans and almost every other type of provider. But Democrats say those reductions will be accomplished mainly through greater efficiencies, not a reduction in benefits.

If Republican opposition continues…

…the Democrats say they have little choice but to push forward, perhaps using a hardball parliamentary tactic known as budget reconciliation, which would allow them to approve much of what is in the Baucus bill with just 50 votes in the Senate rather than the 60-vote super majority normally required to overcome filibusters.

Linda McMahon, CEO of World Westling Entertainment, Inc., will resign from her job to run against Chris Dodd in the 2010 Connecticut Senate race. The LA Times has more:

Maybe The Rock and Triple H will serve as campaign managers.

Inside the WWE, McMahon’s exit comes as the company is in the midst of an expansion. Vince McMahon, who will assume his wife’s CEO position, indicated last month that he wants to launch a cable network and is also pushing harder to make more movies with his stable of wrestling talent.

She certainly sounds like she has a fighting chance.

Fox Business has an interview with McMahon (below).