Grab bag

Too busy to do a full post, so here's some recent items in the news. Chime in if you have any feelings about any of them.

Rudy Giuliani deals with terrorist harboring pals. (What would Republicans do if it were revealed that Clinton was making millions knowingly dealing with sheiks who harbored al Queda leaders?)

Rudy romps with a woman not his wife in the posh Hamptons and bills security cost to city agencies. (again, can you IMAGINE if Clinton did anything like that? Instead, this is the guy that Pat Robertson endorses for President!)

Trent Lott bails out just ahead of lobbying reform that would make him wait two years before cashing in.

Huckabee surging in polls. Many voters flocking to anti-Iraq "war" libertarian Ron Paul,feeling he's the only "real" Republican running. Paul is still holding on to a boost after raising millions almost overnight.

The corporate shill heading the FCC is trying to ramrod through further media conglomeration, allowing corporations to own both newspapers and TV stations in the same market, only allowing a week for public comment.

Old Henry Hyde died. Remembered for being a pompous boob leading the House impeachment "managers", invoking all the dead soldiers of WWII and solemnly saying that if they didn't impeach Clinton, the nation would crumble and collapse. Shortly after, Henry made a name for himself when it was revealed that he'd had an affair with a married woman which broke up her marriage. Hyde then dismissed the entire sordid mess as a "youthful indescretion". Hyde was in his mid-40's at the time and cheating on his wife as well. Swell guy.

The depressingly boring and embarassing mess in Springfield continues unabated.

The latest, for those of you scoring at home, is that Mayor Daley and the Chicago boys wanted the lege to sign over some big money to keep the Chicago Transit system from shutting down due to lack of funds. These funds aren't available because the lege still hasn't passed a capital budget. The senate has passed one, but the House still hasn't.

Without getting too far into the weeds, it's a battle between three primary figures, none of which is covering themselves with glory, Governor Blagojevich, Senate President Emil Jones, and House Speaker Mike Madigan.

Blago just called the 17th special session of the legislature to try to deal with this mess. (it's past the point of rationality already.)

While Speaker Madigan thinks the CTA should get their needed bailout. A coalition of downstate legislators headed by Sen. John Sullivan, of Quincy decided to attempt to play hardball to shake things loose and get the capital budget passed and finally get all the stuff for downstate that it contains. Sullivan you may recall was prominently mentioned as a possible candidate to fill Lane Evan's position as U.S. Rep.

If you're still following, it seems that this coalition, long suffering from the power of the Chicago crowd and feeling slighted when it comes to funding, has decided to try to use the CTA as a level to force the passage of a capital budget which contains funds for dozens of local projects throughout the downstate area such as infrastructure projects like bridges, etc. and various other things, such as the WIU project in Moline whose fate has been swinging in the breeze awaiting whether the state leaders can somehow get over their personal grudges long enough to pass the damn budget.

So Sen. Sullivan and his coalition told the leaders that the only way the CTA could get it's emergency funds was if it were coupled with passage of the capital budget and it's long awaited funding for downstate projects.

I get drowsy trying to read reports about this, and frankly, I don't know where things stand at the moment. Anyone who knows or cares is free to bring us up to date. But PLEASE, just state the facts and avoid trying to make it look as if one person is single-handedly saving the day, or another is single-handedly bringing the entire state crashing down. (spare us the hype.)

And it's a bit old, but very important. Little Scotty McClellan, Bush's former press flack, has come out and stated clearly that Bush himself, along with Rove, Cheney, and chief of staff what's his name, were all involved in sending him out to lie to the country and the world by catagorically denying that Rove or Cheney had anything to do with the outing of incredibly beautiful CIA agent Valerie Plame. ( you can keep Ann Coulter and her Adam's apple.)

Anything else you want to add to the list, feel free.

That'll be a little something for you to chew on while I get ready to go feel the warm sand between my toes somewhere in a more agreeable latitude.