Casualties of War

It was announced today that the Department of Defense is lifting the 1991 ban on photographing the coffins of our military casualties set in place by Bush #41. Expect myriad flag-draped coffins to flood the media. Although this kind of thing breaks my heart, as I have a weak constitution for war (still haven't seen Schindler's List), I do think the people should be reminded of their sacrifice.

Word of the day

Nepotism.

While waiting for the bus this morning, I saw this headline on the cover of the SunTimes: Burris' Son Got State Job From Blago. And, of course, the story doesn't end there. He (the son, Roland W. Burris II. Mini me, anyone?) it seems is embroiled in...what's that you say?...a scandal. No! Something about an apple and a tree?

Junior allegedly didn't pay taxes on his house for a few years, has been issued a tax lein for over $34K and is being foreclosed on. Hmm...and his new job is a lawyer for, you guessed it, the Illinois Housing Development Authority. Only in Chicago.

The best part is that he built this house on land purchased from the city for -- insert drumroll here -- $1. I'm sure if Daddy can hold on to his Senate gig, this might all go away, but I get the sense that the wee peoples of Illinois are getting really tired of this crap. Heads may roll -- and no, this is not racist Bobby Rush, et al., this is gaming the system and it is colorblind and wrong.

Tiger Beat

Tinka the tiger in Switzerland enjoying her day.

Picture: c/o BBC News' "Day in Pictures"

Cooking Tip

Don't use soy milk when making instant pudding. It doesn't set.

:(

Baby goose is under the weather.

Keeping Track

Yet another wayfor accountability.

Quote of the day

from one of Andrew Sullivan's readers -- on last night's speeches (Obama'a and Jinal's rebuttal):

"That was like watching Will Smith vs. Urkle ... Who do you think the American people are going to listen to?"

Reader Response (my first)

I watched the non-state-of-the-union speech last night with my friend Chris. Here's his take on it:

Last night, our nation witnessed the glimmering oratory skills of a leader
sincerely vested in the best interests of those who count, the American
People. President Obama's address was not directed toward his base or
merely those that voted for him, but to the American People. Today, the
People's reaction is overwhelmingly favorable. Only 8% of those polled
responded negatively.

Despite all of the theatricality of last evening's production, I continue
to be enthralled by this man. It's such a refreshing change to see a
president who can be forceful without being petty, honest without being
condescending, and optimistic without being delusional. And it doesn't
hurt that he can speak in complete sentences with minimal grunting.

But even more shocking was the "response" (to what, I'm head-scratchingly
unsure) by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. A Republican invoking wasteful
spending as the hallmark of THIS administration and mentioning the failures
in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as an example of how big government
does not work is laughably offensive and effectively demonstrates how
stupid he and his ilk believe Americans to be. Aside from those obvious
gaffes, Jindal came across as supremely naïve and childish, out of touch
with poor and lower middle class citizens of his state, and, frankly, just
out of his league. If Fox News says so, you can bank on it.

If you must respond to a congressional address by a popular sitting
president, one does not want to call out their own party's mistakes as
those of your opponent's. Neither does one want to balk at popularly
supported ideas such as a high speed rail infrastructure and volcano
monitoring - should not Louisiana be at the forefront of the call for
natural disaster warning measures? First and foremost, one does not want
to have to follow the stylings of B. Hussein Obama.

Furthermore, and on the unrelated topic of President Obama's name: our
favorite nut-job-bag-of-antlers, Mann Coulter, AKA Skeletor has
relentlessly attempted to demonize him by consistently referring to him as
B. Hussein Obama. I suggest that we embrace it and even use it liberally.
In so doing, we demonstrate that the racial and ethnic prejudices to which
we were previously beholden no longer apply thereby robbing Mann of the
demonizing effect that she intends.

Just my $.02

CRS

**The writer's note at the end of this post has been removed. It offended some.

O in da House

The first big speech in front of The Congress. How did he do?

This is my attempt to "Live Blog" after I've already seen it. This should be fun.

1. He was so excited, he didn't let the Speaker introduce him. (Kind of cute, endearing).

2. Ooh - this should be #1. Michelle in eggplant is hot! He gave her props and found her in the crowd before he started. And (looking gorgeous) she mouthed "I love you" and blew him a kiss...yeah, I'm a sap -- and you know they're gonna hit it later.

3. Pelosi should not wear green.

4. I thought he knocked it out of the part on delivery -- really, the kid can give a speech -- but, for me, it was a bit long.

5. Is Pelosi on a spring? Boing. And she's out of her seat again...

6. Really, he can give a f-ing speech. It seems a bit over-produced.

7. And she's up, clapping again.

8. I love him.

9. He's gettin' tough.

10. Aw, the young school girl said "We Aren't Quitters." (*photo op w/ First Lady)

11. There was a couple of jokes/humorous moments in there too.

12. Boo Republicans.

13. Is that Elvis sitting next to Roland Burris?

14. America Rocks!

15. And, in closing...something about SeaBiscuit.

16. I don't remember such an ovation at the start or the autograph signings at the end before...

17. Seriously, who let the smart, black kid in?

18.. Bad economy - yay America.

19. Um, we have the majority. I'm not bragging. It's just visually obvious for once. There is occular proof.

20. Whew. He did good.

Again.

Remove Yoo

Ok, cop out or not, I'm linking to another article I found via Kos. Here is a long, but thoughtful piece on why John Yoo should be relieved of his teaching position at Berkeley from one of the University's Econ Profs, Brad DeLong. I strongly concur.

SOS on Love

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Seoul, Korea yesterday - as reported by AFP via Google News -- and somehow got on the topic of love. Here is the money quote:

"My husband is my best friend," she added. "We have an endless conversation...we never get bored.
"I just feel very fortunate...that I have a relationship that's been so meaningful to me in my adult life."

After all the jokes and speculation, it is truly nice to hear of that kind of respect and love.

Daddies

Here is an article I read the other day on The Huffington Post. I consider myself pretty gay-friendly (understatement of the year) and well-versed in many gay rights issues, but this made me see things a bit differently. I don't know if I just never really thought about it or what, but I never considered what gay adoptive parents might go through on a daily basis.

Happily, this story ended on a light, enlightening note (I like those kind of stories.)

Morning

I'm working the early shift today. 7am start time! I'm NOT a morning person (ask anyone who's seen me before 10am), but I guess there are certain not-so-bad things about getting up early -- as long as it doesn't become a habit.

1. The buses come much more frequently.
2. You get to see the sun rise over Lake Michigan from said bus. (It was glowing bright red this morning. Blinding. It reminded me of the red sun from Krypton.)
3. I pampered myself with a mocha latte from Starbuck's. (Rumor has it that it has as many calories as a Big Mac. Ooh, I wish they sold Big Mac's at 6:45am.)
4. It is very quiet at work for the first two hours.
5. Hmm...no, that's it.

Cop Out

I've recently been told that minute posts that link to another article or posting just a picture is a cop-out, so I will be attempting to pen longer, more thoughtful pieces in the future.

(Translation: I won't be posting as much!)

Pres Approval Rating

62.8% acoording to an RCP poll.

Happy Birthday Abe!!!

Here is an insightful article on him from The Nation.

Dick Move of the Day

Senator Judd Gregg withdrew his name from nomination for the Commerce Secretary position. He suddenly realized his Republican views aren't in align with the president's agenda. Really? All of a sudden?

It isn't the fact that he withdrew, but the timing that is suspect. He waited until Obama was going on stage in Peoria to hold his presser -- WITHOUT letting the White House know first that he was going to withdraw. I think, perhaps, his fellow GOPers gave him too much grief...and they are looking for any way to make the POTUS look bad at this point.

Or maybe no one wants the Commerce job?????

Quote of the day

from Bob Ceca's article -- "President Obama is Driving Republicans Insane" -- on The Huffington Post today:

But I don't think we ever anticipated that the presidency of Barack Obama would, among other things, send the far-right into a freakazoid display of shockingly deranged conniptions and outright crazy talk -- their manic hyperdrive engines, fueled by Rush Limbaugh's gesticulating arm flab, blasting them out of their political Mos Eisley cantina scene and expelling them a thousand parsecs beyond the zero barrier of insanity.

Love that guy...

Another petition

:)

Ain't grassroots fun?

Unbelievable!

(Pun intended.)

A gallup poll came out stating that only 39% of Americans believe in evolution. Yep, cutting education funding sounds like a great plan GOP.

2 Women

One I love and one not-so-much.

Super Cool!

My friend Chris (hallah!) showed me this cool web site last night. You can make yourself into a super hero.

Mine has angel wings and a blow torch!

Cloture

Just in case you didn't know what it meant (I didn't):

cloture - The only procedure by which the Senate can vote to place a time limit on consideration of a bill or other matter, and thereby overcome a filibuster. Under the cloture rule (Rule XXII), the Senate may limit consideration of a pending matter to 30 additional hours, but only by vote of three-fifths of the full Senate, normally 60 votes.

From the US Senate web site glossary.

Mmm!

From the web site thisiswhyyourefat.com. At least one of the pics is from Taste of Chicago. Lots of meat on a stick -- always good!!


Hat tip: A. Sullivan

Quote of the day

from one of Andrew Sullivan's readers...

It is very interesting to watch how this crisis reveals and highlights character: the sniveling privileged Wall Street upper-crust, the semi-hysterical, uninformed punditocracy, the puerile Republican opposition -- and Obama, cool as a cucumber, playing his game, five steps ahead, setting up moves that won't come to fruition for months or years, while his opposition flails at the thin air where he used to be. I love it.

Vogue

First Lady Michelle made the cover for March.

Top 3

Chicago made a Forbes list.

I'm thinking this isn't a good thing.

What a great idea

From a TPM blogger...

BOA = Bank of Assholes

Last week I read this story about how Bank of America tried to milk money out of a deceased's relative. Bottom line -- your are not responsible for paying a family member's outstanding credit balance (although they will try to make you believe differently).

This part got my attention:

The former rep said that employees responsible for collections receive "feedback" about their phone performance from managers who monitor the calls. (When you hear "this call may be monitored for quality assurance purposes", the "quality assurance" oftentimes isn't quality of service from the customer's perspective -- it's quality of performance from the rep, who's being trained to be as effective as possible at extracting money from callers.)

That's new to me, but makes perfect sense.

Caffeine

I've had too much today.

Hanging up her shoes

New York City Ballet prima ballerina Darci Kistler will be retiring next season at the age of 44. She is the last remaining "Balanchine ballerina" and has been dancing with NYCB since she was 16.

Holding steady

A little over two weeks in office and the Prez's approval rating is at 61.8% (according to RCP polling).

Once a showgirl...

Once upon a time I was a showgirl believe it or not. This picture was taken of our entrance at Cherry Ball in DC . We entered down the marble staircase from behind and made our way through the crowd to the stage. It was pretty cool, but not without a few glitches (of course, I was involved, right?).

First of all, I've always had an issue with finding my cue when the dj is mixing into the intro (just tell me when to go!), but with the headdresses on, it also made it extremely hard to hear. So, we're waiting and talking and -- "isn't that our music?" -- shit! Go! Go! Go! Four not-so-glamorous showgirls flat out running to make our entrance (and perhaps pushing and cussing along the way). We made it -- literally with one beat to spare. Turn and smile. Don't fall down the stairs.

The other girls had performed the number before and I was added just before the trip. Hindsight tells me that practicing in full costume probably should've been on my agenda. While I had practiced with the fans (really, me and props=impending disaster), I hadn't in the headdress or with the gloves on. The headdress was heavy and deafening and the gloves were not condusive to holding on to much of anything, especially a slippery plastic fan. Thank goodness they were wired open, so all I had to do was hold on which I did by shoving my thumb through a slat and utilizing the cramping in my hands to work as a death clamp. Pretty.

I also soon realized that two feet of feathers on top of your head, not only make you look like a freakish bird, but also make it nie impossible to circle your hand over your head without either knocking off said headdress or knocking your ass over. Smile. Breathe. Try not to look like you're terrified and have never danced before.

My saving grace was a girl sitting on the edge of the stage in front of me. She was smiling and clapping and genuinely enjoying my performance. That always makes it worth while. Later, at the after party, I found out she was just hitting on me.

That was one of my favorite performances, harried moments and all. The next time I performed it (in Toronto at the Fashion Cares After Party) my headdress fell off as soon as I came down the stairs, so I ended up doing the entire number with my crazy pinned up hairdo and a HUGE smile. But, considering we didn't go on until after 4 am, I'm sure no one noticed.

A little R & R

Recovery and Reinvestment, of course.

The White House released a 102-page report that breaks down the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan state by state. You can download the full report here.

Some highlights for Illinois:
*creating 157,700 jobs over the next 2 years (not sure how they came up with that number?).
*providing a "making work" tax cut of up to $1000 for 4,890,000 worker (ooh, I hope one of them is me!).
*and, providing funding to modernize at least 412 schools in IL

SCHIP Passes

Finally. Some good news...

Today Obama signed a bill that gives $32.8 billion to the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) which, ABC News reports will help approximately 4 million uninsured children. The House sent the bill directly to the White House after a 290 - 135 vote. The funds are being raised by raising the federal tobacco tax.

New book

My campaign crush David Plouffe is getting a book deal. Viking reportedly offered him 7 figures to write "The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama's Historic Victory" (due out next fall).

I know I'm getting a copy.

Crabby Cathy!

Wow! I have been in a mood this week - and it's only Tuesday.