The Skinny: Copy cats and dogs

If imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery, then Fox News's Glenn Beck is sincerely making us blush. On August 4, Beck did a little item on the Assembly's decision to expunge the vote on Chuck DeVore's oil-drilling bill, which died on the Assembly floor. We listened to Beck's item, and heard a lot that sounded familiar. We hard the quote from DeVore about how "George Orwell would be proud" of the Assembly's action. We heard another DeVore quote about how the expunging of the vote was futile, since the video record exists in the CalChannel archives. This was all stuff that was in the original Capitol Weekly story on the oil-drilling vote last week. But we didn't hear those four little words that we've come to expect when we break a story that other media outlets use: "According to Capitol Weekly." Hey, don't get us wrong, Glenn: We're all for plagiarism, too. We just want a little credit…Absentee voting is underway in the 10^th Congressional District. The race features a three-way Democratic battle between John Garamendi, Joan Buchanan and Mark DeSaulnier. Something to keep in mind: If Garamendi emerges as the Democratic nominee in September, that means the governor may have a lieutenant governor appointment to dangle during the next round of budget negotiations. The plot thickens…