Talk about trying too hard to get on the news — Rep. Bob Filner made English teachers cry during a speech against a proposed new Blackwater compound outside San Diego:

Blackwater is a black mark on American democracy. We can’t let them blackmail us into this so they can blackmail democracy further. What they’re doing is playing blackjack with the environment. We’re going to stop them.

Note to hack speechwriter: The last line should have been “We’re going to blackball them.”