There's nothing wrong with Roland Burris and there's nothing wrong with the appointment

-- Roland Burris [Read more]

The following list of ten defense strategies may or may not have been found near a trash bin outside Rod Blagojevich's home, and may or may not be a list of ten things he thought of to defend himself and to discuss with his lawyer, Ed Genson.

My Top Ten Secret Legal Strategies, by Rod Blagojevich

10.  That Was Illegal? No shit. [Read more]

Barack Obama's inauguration later this month is the signal moment in a realignment that has taken place in American politics -- a political realignment Obama both helped to forge and rode to a seven-point victory over John McCain.  Yet this realignment is much more than one election of one President.  It is a sign of this realignment that the Democratic Party in 2008 won more votes for its Presidential candidate for the fourth time in the last five elections.  While most visible at the Presidential level, this realignment is also deeply anchored in party identifications, in state Congressional delegations, in statewide election results, and most deeply, in America's changing issue and demographic landscapes that create [Read more]

Ah, vindication.

Yesterday, I felt like I was the only one criticizing the Roland Burris pick for Roland Burris (as opposed to Blagojevich having the gall to make an appointment in the first place).

Today, the truth about Burris and his planet-sized ego is coming out.

Some fun links:

Burris already has his grave site, complete with a massive memorial.

The Chicago Sun-Times documents Burris' belief that he is divinely directed to hold office. [Read more]

Roland Burris? I haven't paid much attention to Illinois politics in a while, but when I was still paying attention, Roland Burris, a once respected elected official, had turned into a sad caricature of himself.

Some highlights:  [Read more]

The Obama Presidential Transition continues to be one of the speediest ever -- this bodes well for the new president's ability to decisively govern in these chaotic times. While the team has tried to keep some things -- like the vetting of potential cabinet officers -- close to the vest, in other ways the transition process has been one of the most open and interactive in history. The Obama team is playing it smart, and converting their grassroots machinery from that of a get-out-the-vote operation to policy participation. This also bodes well for the new president's style -- because when it's all said and done, people just want to know they've been heard. [Read more]

In my most recent question column earlier this week, I asked for readers' predictions for the upcoming year ... aside from Genghis bravely predicting that Obama would become POTUS, I didn't get too many responses.

So I'm going to ask for your predictions again, while repeating some of the predictions I made and adding a couple of more, before I revisit some calls I made this year.

First, the predictions for 2009. I'm sticking mostly to economics, with a few foolish forays into other areas (I was going to make a call that Prophet would finish his Top 10 2008 Albums list next February, but I see now he's picked up the pace):

Economy [Read more]

It was Sept. 18. Lehman Brothers had just gone belly-up, overwhelmed by toxic mortgages. Bank of America had swallowed Merrill Lynch in a hastily arranged sale. Two days earlier, Mr. Bush had agreed to pump $85 billion into the failing insurance giant American International Group. The president listened as Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, laid out the latest terrifying news: The credit markets, gripped by panic, had frozen overnight, and banks were refusing to lend money. Then his Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., told him that to stave off disaster, he would have to sign off on the biggest government bailout in history. Mr. Bush, according to several people in the room, paused for a single, stunned moment to take it all in. [Read more]

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Ah Democracy...freely elected legislators dutifully fulfilling the will of the people by blockading themselves in a locked room while the honorable opposition attempts to dutifully fulfill the will of the rest of the people by breaking down the door with a sledgehammer and other sundry power tools. Full video after the jump. [Read more]

Dear fellow Liberals,

Listen up.

Obama's decision to ask Rick Warren to give the invocation at the inauguration is not a slap in the face. It's not a betrayal. It's not an indication that Obama is a secret conservative who is going to force you to have babies with a non-same-sex partner.

It's a freaking prayer. [Read more]

Last Saturday I got a call from my parents in Athens.  It was around seven o'clock here in Pittsburgh, so it must have been around two in the morning for them.  They were calling on their cell-phone.  They were trapped by riots in a tavern in downtown Athens.  But they were not frightened.  In fact, they sounded excited, and they held the cell-phone up for me, so that I could hear the chanting of protesters and the explosions of stun-grenades and tear-gas canisters nearby.
 [Read more]

There's this interesting theory floating around over at Crooks and Liars: Eliot Spitzer was investigating Madoff.  While the initial evidence offered up is pretty thin, to the tune of some anonymous comments made on an investment forum a couple of years ago, there's also this piece by Greg Palast and this one from Project Censored, which points out that Spitzer's February 14th WaPo editorial was published just a day after his n [Read more]

It's hitting the headlines from the WaPo to the HuffPo.  In a terribly fun twist, Jesse Jackson Jr. has apparently been an informant to the FBI about Blagojevich's pay-to-play scheme since this past summer.  This information has just surfaced, so there's no telling yet what this will come to mean exactly.  Does this mean that Jackson's supposed offer could have been part of an FBI sting?  At this time, Jackson maintains that he's been told by the FBI that he's not under investigation.  Perhaps this is part of the reason why?

This just in:  John McCain ate lunch at El Charro Cafe in Tucson, Arizona today. 

Articleman went there on a business trip, and met up with a Tucson business contact.  As I walked in, the host saw my Blackberry holster, which bears an Obama '08 logo sticker.  "Is that an Obama sticker on your phone?" he asked.  "Yes," and I pulled open my suitcoat to show it.  "You might want to keep it covered.  I just seated John McCain." [Read more]

And here's the inevitable Bush-Austin Powers mashup: [Read more]

I've been trying for years now to track down the video of the hypothetical 'State of the Union' done by Will Farrell on the eve of the 2000 election, but the best I could ever come up with was a transcript.  If you remember, Darrell Hammond also did one where Gore went over homework that he had given out to the different States while sitting in front of a supercomputer.

I suppose now that it's almost all over, NBC finally feels that it's safe to unearth this eerie piece of prophesy that aired on November 3rd, 2000.

Watch it without crying, I dare you...(after the jump) [Read more]

My reading of The American Presidency by Alan Brinkely continues. Chapter Two: John Adams. Here's what I learned...

Adams grew up in the country town of Braintree, Massachusetts. They later changed the name of the town to Quincy to disguise the fact that the uncommon intelligence of the townspeople was attributed to a tea made from the leaves of the magical tree.

When he was a boy, Adams really wanted super really bad to be famous. He thought and thought about which path he should take to worldwide superstardom and ultimately went with becoming a lawyer. It wasn't his last miscalculation. [Read more]

The mob has gathered round the house of Governor Rod Blagojevich, waving their virtual pitchforks and shrieking for justice. Our own Deadman has even called him "ugly," and Articleman has expressed condescending "sadness." Shame on them. Governor Blagojevich may not be married to a hot Star Trek actress, but he's a fine looking man, if a bit jowly. And no one is fooled by Aman's crocodile tears; we know that he yearns to return to his hometown and claim the office of Governor for himself. (When asked who would replace Blagojevich as Governor, he innocently shrugged in mock ignorance.) [Read more]

Like everyone except the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune (and hey, they're entitled to some glee today, after the criminality apparently directed at them by Rod Blagojevich!), I am saddened by the news that Illinois Gov. Blagojevich was not only arrested, but will apparently have to plead, ala O.J. circa 1994, Absolutely 100% Guilty.  The man makes his incarcerated predecessor, former Illinois Governor George Ryan, look artful by comparison.  I am sad for a personal reason -- I grew up in Illinois, spent most of my life there, practiced law there, was trained there by some former U.S. [Read more]