My sister got her pilot certificate just to get me to shut up about jumping out of planes ("why jump from a perfectly-landable airplane?"). And if you think I love my dog, well, she outdoes me there, too. The combination means she has two dogs who each have their own airplane ear protectors. I can't imagine Parker in a Cessna, but I think he'd be at least as cute as this:
By the way, she named her dog Codey, after the final approach fix on the runway 15 IFR GPS approach at Lincoln, Calif. Seriously.
Effective Sunday, Illinois has a plum political vacancy. Let the games begin!
The choice of who will fill the remaining two years of Mr. Obama’s term now goes to Gov. Rod Blagojevich. ... Among those interested in the seat are U.S. Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr., Jan Schakowsky and Luis Gutierrez, all Chicago-area Democrats; state Veterans Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth, and retiring Illinois Senate President Emil Jones Jr.
Now, for those outside Illinois, you have to understand that Illinois politics can get, shall I say, colorful. The people named above (with the exceptions of Schakowsky and Duckworth) are right now starting a lobbying war in Springfield the likes of which we haven't seen in decades. Part of the problem: Gov. Blagojevich has been on a political death-watch for close to a year, as a corruption investigation and an inability to play nicely with others (notably Mike Madigan, the Illinois House speaker) have reduced him to near-irrelevance.
He's once again relevant for a few days, and with his own political future doubtful, we're all wondering what capricious and arbitrary decision he'll make.
Maybe he'll surprise us and appoint Schakowsky, who's the most competent in the bunch. Duckworth I'm betting will go off to Washington as Secretary of Veterans Affairs; Jones and Jackson are at times profound and at others, clowns; and there's some speculation he may appoint either himself or Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to forestall a primary election in 2010 he's sure to lose against her.
He'd better act fast. With up to 10 new senators taking their seats on January 3rd, and so much Senate inside baseball depending on seniority, not to mention that Obama's resignation means we're down a Democrat in a tight lame-duck session, every day counts.
Update: Chicago Public Radio's Ben Calhoun has a good analysis. Plus, we should always remember Blago's Daily Show fiasco from 2006, if only for context.
Ed Kilgore at TPM Cafe has a good analysis:
If today's conservatives succeed in convincing each other to embrace a more forthright message assaulting entitlements, progressive taxation, public education, regulation of corporations and Wall Street, just to cite a few domestic policy examples, they are almost certainly cruising for more electoral bruising.
...[C]onservatives today have almost completely internalized their own rhetoric about Obama's "radicalism," "socialism," "anti-Americanism," and so forth. If you have read or listened to movement conservative pundits recently, it's hard to avoid the impression that they truly think this temperate man pursuing Clinton-style centrist policies is determined to enact "socialized medicine," create vast new "welfare" programs, legalize infanticide, surrender to terrorists, and use the power of the state to censor or perhaps even jail his opponents.
Just minutes under 68 days until Obama takes office. And I'll be there—possibly so will Parker—along with 1.2 million of my best friends.
Mark Begich, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Alaska against convicted felon Ted Stevens, leads by three votes:
The elections division still has over 10,000 ballots left to count today and thousands more through next week, but the latest numbers show Mark Begich leading Sen. Ted Stevens 125,019 to 125,016.
The new numbers, reflecting nearly 43,000 absentee ballots counted today, are from all over the state. Election night, Ted Stevens led the Democratic Begich by about 3,000 votes.
Alaska's House seat is also too close to call. Someone should send Ted an email about it...
I took a couple of days off to visit my dad for his birthday. Any chance I get, I go to San Francisco, even though Chicago has become the center of the Universe temporarily. The Chicago Tribune reported this morning another bit of happiness from home: the original Goose Island Brewpub will remain open, instead of closing at the end of the year as threatened:
John Hall, Goose Island's founder and chief executive, said he reached a last-minute deal with the pub's landlord to stay at 1800 N. Clybourn Ave. for three to five years, averting the closing of the home for Honker's Ale and other brews.
"I'm thrilled," said Hall, who bought everyone in the place a beer. "They called me last week and said we want to try to do a deal. We compromised in a week on something we couldn't do for a long time."
Hall said he couldn't talk for the other side, but he indicated the weak real estate market may have helped get the agreement done. In April, Hall had said that the landlord, CRM Properties Group, had asked for a significant rent increase, reflecting the popularity of the trendy neighborhood.
Possibly I'll go there tomorrow to celebrate.
I'm in the Illinois 5th, which has had quite some turnover in the past 15 years: Rostenkowski (1994), Flanagan (1996), Blagojevich (2002), and now Emanuel. Emanuel was by far the best of the bunch, and I'll be sorry to lose him in Congress—but he's the right guy to be Obama's Chief of Staff.
In other good news, Obama officially won North Carolina, bringing his total electoral votes to 364.
The Chicago Tribune has a photo essay on what Obama's victory may mean to Chicago. Key points (to me, anyway): The unfair outflow of state resources to the Fed (we get about 70c of every Federal tax dollar we pay, compared with, say, Alaska that gets about $2 back), our Olympics prospects, and what happens when Air Force One lands at O'Hare.
Another Democratic pick-up: Oregon Senate to Merkley.
Via Talking Points Memo, Newsweek found that the $150,000 estimate of Palin's spending spree may have been, ah, conservative:
One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family—clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent "tens of thousands" more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband. Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost. An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.
The same article notes another gift Sarah "Real American" Palin's bestowed on the world:
The Obama campaign was provided with reports from the Secret Service showing a sharp and disturbing increase in threats to Obama in September and early October, at the same time that many crowds at Palin rallies became more frenzied. Michelle Obama was shaken by the vituperative crowds and the hot rhetoric from the GOP candidates. "Why would they try to make people hate us?" Michelle asked a top campaign aide.
Why, indeed?