Quick Stop

Now I don't want to think about it again until the ballots are counted and there's a clear winner.  I'm so tired of ugly I can't even stand it.

Yippee, Skippy!

Rahm's back on the ballot for now:

This is a strong indication that the court will accept the case and, perhaps, of which way the justices are leaning.

Chicago politics -- there's never a dull moment. And I'll bet neither Mr. Chico nor Ms. Mosely-Braun are happy about this news.

PSA

Did you?
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Keep your fingers crossed:

Saturday Ramblings

From the Department of Too Darned Cute:



I want one of each!
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This is beautiful news, given that Illinois is another state that's dead guilty of not getting ballots into the hands of military members serving overseas on time:

A Maryland federal court ruled today that it is a violation of a soldier’s constitutional rights to not receive his complete ballot on time. The court ruled that the John Doe officer stationed in Iraq had standing to sue based on deprivations of their constitutional rights.

This is an enormously important decision which will affect the 2012 elections.

This means that military members need not wait on the bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., at the Justice Department to sue. It may end the monopoly on DOJ’s oversight of military voting, which is a good thing for everyone in uniform. It means that in 2012, during the presidential election, we won’t have to wait for the DOJ to act. It means that the Eric Holder military voting disaster of 2010 might not happen again.

Booyah!

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Joan has posted a hilarious video that not only reminds me how much I love Bill Cosby, but also brought on another long-forgotten tale of the Princess Mom. Go watch the video and then check out the comments!

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Og mixes his wife's chili with sleep and conjures up Alton Brown in his dreams.

My dreams lately have been of the all night long variety, including one that involved not one, but two VPs from my place of work and large amounts of stress, but I'm blaming last night's lulu on the muy guapo and talented Jose, who added a drop of butterscotch schnapps to my usual nightcap Cherry Garcia (good vanilla vodka, Cuarenta y Tres, Godiva Chocolate Liqueur, a dollop of creamer and some other super-secret magical goodness shaken with ice).

Anyhow, somehow Perez Hilton,* poncy pink hair and all, appeared in my dreams. He apologized for offending me in the past and begged for the privilege of a spot on my blogroll. Yes, he owes the world an apology for the load of bile he regularly unleashes on the glitterati. I don't care that he's recently realized just how hurtful his words are and that he's terribly sorry that he's been guilty, guilty, guilty of being two-faced in his judgment of others.

All I care about is that he was in my dreams and I don't want him there. Make it stop! (And, Og? Could you send Alton Brown my way? Dinner across the table from him in my dreams would be a fun thing!)

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My Conservative Identity:

You are an Anti-government Gunslinger, also known as a libertarian conservative. You believe in smaller government, states’ rights, gun rights, and that, as Reagan once said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”

Take the quiz at www.FightLiberals.com

Blame LL.

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*No, I'm not linking the SOB. I refuse.

Drive-Bys

Between the shooting on campus that killed six in 2008, the very recent suicide and now this apparent murder, my first alma mater has really been knocked for a loop.

If you're the praying kind, please keep the family of Toni Keller, and the students, faculty and staff of NIU and their families in your prayers. (And pray they find the bastard who did this, too -- and fast.) My heart goes out to all of them.
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Portland residents will vote Nov. 2 on a proposal to give legal residents who are not U.S. citizens the right to vote in local elections, joining places like San Francisco and Chicago that have already loosened the rules or are considering it.

I had no idea that Chicago allowed this, and I am adamantly against it. If you want a vote in this country, you should have to be a legal citizen.

Abdirizak Daud, 40, moved to Minneapolis 18 years ago before coming to Portland in 2006. He hasn't been able to find a job. Some of his nine children have attended Portland schools, and he'd like to have a say in who's looking over the school system and the city, he said.

But between his limited English and the financial demands, Daud hasn't been able to become a citizen.

You've had18 frigging years, pal. If you couldn't find a job or scrape up the money or learn the freaking language in all that time, what the hell have you been living on and what have you been up to?

To become a citizen, immigrants must be a lawful permanent resident for at least five years, pass tests on English and U.S. history and government, and swear allegiance to the United States.

Supporters of Portland's ballot measure say the process is cumbersome, time-consuming and costly. The filing fee and fingerprinting costs alone are $675, and many immigrants spend hundreds of dollars more on English and civics classes and for a lawyer to help them through the process.

Allowing noncitizens to vote fits with basic democratic principles, Hayduk said.

Sorry, but that offends my basic democratic principles. I've known too many people who've worked to hard to get that citizenship to think for even one second that unless you've worked for it, too, you should get a vote. After 18 years you should either man up and do what it takes to become one of us or go the hell home.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington, D.C., group that advocates tougher immigration enforcement, says voting is a privilege and should be limited to citizens.

"People who are legal immigrants to the United States after a five-year waiting period can become citizens and become enfranchised," spokesman Ira Mehlman said. "But until then, being here as a legal immigrant is a conditional agreement, sort of like a trial period. You have to demonstrate you are the type of person we would want to have as a citizen, then you can become a citizen and vote."

Too right.
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My one big bitch with Amazon's Kindle is that you can't share books with other Kindle owners, unlike Barnes & Noble's Nook. Well, lookee here:

Amazon.com Inc. is going to allow the lending of e-books purchased from its Kindle Store.

The online retailer announced the upcoming feature in a discussion forum for the Kindle on its website Friday, saying that later in the year it will start letting Kindle users and people who use its free Kindle apps loan books to others for a two-week period. During the loan, the book's owner will not be able to read the book, Amazon said.

Only some Kindle books will be available for lending; Amazon said that the decision is up to the book's publisher or rights holder.

Thanks, Mr. Bezos! That made my day!
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Giggle of the Day:

Drive-Bys

One of the benefits of being on the board of an Irish theater company is that you stumble across some interesting things on the sets. Me? I want this whole Feckin set.

(P.S. -- This weekend is your last chance to see The Weir. Go see it! You'll thank me.)
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Giggle of the Day:


see more Lolcats and funny pictures
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Actually, you could probably say this about any of the women President Tin-Ear chose to take to Washington, D.C.:

"You kind of have to drop the standard for the [insert name here], right?" the official explained late Thursday. "I mean, she's pretty well liked and probably doesn't know what she's doing."

No, we don't have to drop that standard (unless of course, she's a New Black Panther, and that's a whole 'nuther kettle of fish).

She's supposed to lead by example and follow the law like every other citizen of this fair land.

I'm with J. Christian Adams:

Is this the worst thing to afflict an election? Of course not. Armed New Black Panthers were obviously much worse. In the larger scheme of things, Michelle Obama’s lawbreaking is authentic “small potatoes.” But someone in her position has a higher obligation to the institutions our nation treasures, like the rule of law.

The stand-up response from the first lady, and the White House press shop, would be to admit a mistake, affirm they believe in respect of the rules that protect election integrity. But this isn’t a stand-up administration. Like the stonewall that followed the New Black Panther dismissal, we have learned that this is an administration incapable of admitting they screwed up.

But they're only allowed to find fault with others -- never with themselves.
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As the National Football League investigates whether quarterback Brett Favre sent lewd photos of himself to a female employee of the New York Jets in 2008, many women -- and men -- are asking the question: Why would any grown man send photos like that in the first place?

I have my own theories about that, including that for a lot of men, sex is affection and he's showing you just how much he likes you. In fact, he's probably showing you who he thinks he is.

But since I'm not a guy, I'm throwing this out to my male readers. I'm not saying you would do this, but help a girl out and give me the hows and whys of some guys thinking this is a good idea.
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Okay, it's not just me -- the number of suicides in this area has been much higher than normal:

[T]he number of people who have taken their own lives so far this year already is approaching or has overtaken 2009's overall tally.

Boy, I hope we can get our arms around recognition and prevention very soon.

If you know something, speak out. Don't think someone's kidding if they talk about ending it all.

A 2010 study by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that adults ages 18 to 25 were far more likely to have seriously considered suicide in the last year than those ages 26 to 49, and nearly three times more likely than those 50 or older.

If they're talking about it at all, find help fast.
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Who knew the Reb Smuley was this smart and open minded?

Homosexuality is a religious, not a moral, sin. A moral sin involves injury to an innocent party. Who is harmed when two unattached, consenting adults are in a relationship? Homosexuality is akin to the prohibition against lighting fire on the Sabbath or eating bread during Passover; there is nothing immoral about it, but it violates the divine will.

I am in favor of gay civil unions rather than marriage because I am against redefining marriage. But gay marriage doesn't represent the end of Western civilization. The real killer is the tsunami of divorce and the untold disruption to children who become yo-yos going from house to house on weekends.

Just so.

(A tip of the cap to the Advice Goddess.)
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I'm off to an architectural pub crawl in Bridgeport tonight -- four Irish pubs! Thus, my Ear Worm of the Day is distinctly Irish:


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P.S. -- Jihad Gene says, "It's Friday! Let's Dance!"

I'll be doing a jig. How about you?

PSA

There are people in this world that do good things for others. Erik Johnson is one of them.

4 years ago [my good friend] Rob told me he was diagnosed with Chondroblastic Osteosarcoma, a childhood form of bone cancer, and I decided that it was my responsibility, as a friend and teammate, to help him and his family. My way of helping Rob and his family was to raise money to help cover some of the extreme expenses they were sure to have; therefore I decided to start a fundraiser in Rob'sname. I talked with the captain of the competition dance team at the University of Wisconsin- La Crosse (UWL) and organized a dance benefit show with the dance team and 12 football players (Rob and I were teammates on the UWL football team). I was responsible for bringing all the dancers and football players together and creating an amazing event that we never thought would last more than one year. The first two years the show took place I danced in the show and organized a large majority of the responsibilities. The last two years I took a step back and helped on a behind the scenes basis. As the spokesperson for, The Rob Wagner Dance Benefit Show, I feel I deserve to win one of the 3 Lionheart's for the Grand Award because of the tremendous impact this event has had, not only on myself and Rob, but the dozens and dozens of other young men and women who have put in hours upon hours of hard work, sweat, tears and emotion to help another person in need.

Help him out by voting here so that he can win $10,000 towards this worthy cause. He's done all the work. All you need to do is click your mouse.

Thanks!