I can’t believe Blagojevich appointed Roland Burris to the Senate, I can’t believe Burris accepted after earlier saying he wouldn’t, and I can’t believe that Blago just said he’s enjoyed the limelight of the past few weeks. But he did, he did, and he did. I don’t know if video of this news conference will stay up for long on most television news sites, but I’m listening to an unfiltered stream that WBEZ put up shortly after the end of the presser. I had to stop it just now to get my head together. At least the reporters had some…
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Far beyond where we are, but still a bad wreck is a bad wreck. 6 hurt in Hoffman Estate wreck – Chicago Breaking News
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Apparently, I’m actually a “cusper” instead of a “late Boomer” because I was born after 1954 and wasn’t old enough to be a hippie or protest the Vietnam War. And cuspers are suddenly cool. Obama’s a cusper, Caroline’s a cusper, and I’m a cusper too. Commentary: Baby boomers out, cuspers in – CNN.com
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This is just WRONG. I had a red wagon that wasn’t a Radio Flyer, and I was always embarrassed because it wasn’t the classic square shape and brand. It was kind of a weird streamlined shape that was actually ideal for coasting down hills because you could sit in it and dangle your legs over the curved lip while steering. This? It’s just too much. You can’t coast in this thing, it’s designed for a jogging or speed-walking parent to drag two little kids along on a workout. With tunes. Safety belts? Cupholders? GAH! But then, I did break my…
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Chicagoans, please STFU about yesterday’s snowstorm. Try driving in a hilly or mountainous place first. Example 1: Seattle, where steep hills and the occasional rare but icy snowfall do not make for a fun time driving. But their trip home for the holidays nearly turned tragic Friday when two charter buses carrying 80 students slid down a steep ice-covered Seattle street and crashed through a guardrail 20 feet above Interstate 5. The front wheels of one bus ended up dangling over the freeway. “We were all screaming,” said 16-year-old Alex Hammell of Bothell, who was aboard the second bus. “I…
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Ah, Eugene. I loved going to school there, as it was so organic and green, with a population high in altruists and granola eating next-gen hippies. But even in that idyllic little Eden at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, there are suspicious, mean people who think you’re up to no good if you offer to do something nice for them. Like old ladies, mall security types, and cops: EUGENE, Ore. — All they wanted to do was change the world, one random act of kindness at a time. Instead, they were met with furrowed brows, questioned by Eugene…
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While putting off the task of adding a personal note to holiday cards that MUST! GO! OUT!, I decided to review My Year In Blogging. January: Today, at Holy Moly, we had some excitement too. I ended up staying for both services just because there was a rehearsal for the big day after the second service. There was lots of laughter, a little girl threw up in front of the choir, Pat Kalicki stood in for Bishop Katharine in the run-through wearing a paper bishop’s mitre, and there was lots of chaos and general anarchy. Later on in February, Presiding…
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The photo gallery from the Chicago Tribune features a number of people wearing a particular kind of expression; it seems to be common to many Illinois political figures in times of stress, bad news, or legal trouble. Gov. Rod leaving for “work.” Anybody up for a spontaneous protest march past his home and/or office? I bet we could get 100,000 people, based on the latest poll. Gov. Rod in court. Yes, he was in running clothes. Even though he was called and apparently awakened by the FBI, he chose to look like this in court. Must have laid out the…
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Nearly 100 years ago, a scandal from Illinois led the nation to change the way US Senators were selected, from being elected by state legislators as originally laid out in the Constitution, to direct election by the people. The Progressives were the ones that cleaned up the mess. Predictive? Early 1900s Illinois scandal led to direct election of U.S. senators — chicagotribune.com The Chicago case of alleged corruption played a prominent role in the nation’s decision to amend the Constitution and allow state voters to elect their senators. It was a solution that seems to have worked for 95 years,…
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… do not allow this taint to stick around for long. Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune, via Moderate Voice.