Uh Huh

You are right Mike, the fine Govenor of Illinois trying to get paid to fill Sen. Obama's seat should be the biggest scandel since Sen Craig tried to pay to have someone fill his seat. ;)

Hope this works Mike I am sure you be interested in reading it.

http://www.californiaclassix.com/archive/40_Barn-Dodge_c154.html

Mike, you are correct in what you say. Illinois knew when they elected that dirt bag (the Gov.) exactly (ok, and Obama) what they were going to get. Much like MH...they did it anyway. Someone down the road will at some point clean up the mess from these crooks. Being from Illinois (not far from "Chicago" proper) you can bet your last buck that Obama knew that his seat was for sale and I AM SURE...was going to gain some pocket change from the event...a lot of pocket change. Will he admit it? Heck no. Some "staff member" that nobody knows will take the fall for it all and a "Memo" will be found that Obama never saw. That is how Chicago politics work. There are no secrets and they do not even TRY to cover things up. It will never come out that Obama had his hand in these events. However...it may come out in the next few years that Michelle had some "competition" while her husband was on the road. That is really how Illinois/Chicago politics work. So, hold onto your hats folks...it will be a wild ride (as it has been stated here before).

And, I wait for the day because it will come at some point in either the next 4 years or God help us, the following 4 years. Humpty Dumpty shall have a great fall one day---one day.

Mike did you order you plate or coin yet? Only 2 per house. I thought only dead presidents made it on to money? Interesting huh? I guess this is how the "new" world will work once we are all saved. What a crock!

Mike: I don't watch the main stream media but I understand Bidden has his senate seat reserved for his son. I've heard his son has had some interesting dealings as a lobbyist with his dad's help.

jtrotter,

My abs are in turmoil right now. I haven't laughed that hard for a while.

Mike, you can bet that I have noticed this, harped on it and screamed "What the HEY!" over it. Media has some old-time real journalism out there but it is few and far between. I used to watch CNN Morning News but switched over to FOX because it was so darn obvious that FOX was the only news channel that still knew how to report without an agenda. Yes, the scandal over Palin was carefully planned and strategic. Yes, I know that there is alot more to this Chicago stuff and we will probably never know the "Rest of the Story". All we can do is watch as the Puppet is pranced around the oval office, doing as he is told while the Clinton Administration is restored to power. The question that I have is who is the Puppetmaster? Is there one or do we have a line of masters waiting for their few minutes to pull the strings and make the puppet dance? Within 6 months of the Puppet Show starting, there will be a MAJOR crisis that will put the performance to a test. Lives will be affected and many will wish that they hadn't bought a ticket to the show.

Amid all the outrage (manufactured and genuine) over Blagojevich's apparent malfeasance, it's easy to forget that for most of U.S. history, the process of selecting senators was even more corrupt. Only in 1914, after passage of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, were senators elected by popular vote.

Before that, state legislatures voted for U.S. senators. And very often, senate candidates purchased those votes with money from their industrialist backers, or from their own pockets. This was the reality behind the 19th century paraphrase of a Bible passage: "It's harder for a poor man to enter the U.S. Senate than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven."

Between 1866 and 1906, the U.S. Senate heard nine cases of bribery related to newly appointed senators. So if he's charged and convicted of bartering Obama's senate seat for personal gain, Blagojevich won't be the first.

It must have been this sort of behavior that Frederick Engels, Karl Marx's collaborator, was considering when he described American political parties in 1891 as "two great gangs of political speculators, who alternately take possession of the state power and exploit it by the most corrupt means and for the most corrupt ends--and the nation is powerless against these two great cartels of politicians, who are ostensibly its servants, but in reality exploit and plunder it."

Mike I think you will find this interesting

Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not.

~ Thomas Jefferson

FIREARMS REFRESHER COURSE

1. An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.

2. A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone

3. Colt: The original point and click interface.

4. Gun control is not about guns; it's about control.

5. If guns are outlawed, can we use swords?

6. If guns cause crime, then pencils cause misspelled words.

7. If you don't know your rights, you don't have any.

8. Those who trade liberty for security have neither.

9. What part of 'shall not be infringed' do you not understand?

10 The Second Amendment is in place in case the politicians ignore the others.

11. 64,999,987 firearms owners killed no one yesterday.

12. Guns have only two enemies: rust and politicians.

13. Know guns, know peace, know safety. No guns, no peace, no safety.

14. You don't shoot to kill; you shoot to stay alive.

15. 911: Government sponsored Dial-a-Prayer.

16. Assault is a behavior, not a device.

17. Criminals love gun control; it makes their jobs safer.

18. If guns cause crime, then matches cause arson.

19. Only a government that is afraid of its citizens tries to control them.

20. You have only the rights you are willing to fight for.

21. Enforce the gun control laws we ALREADY have; don't make more.

22. When you remove the people's right to bear arms, you create slaves.

23. The American Revolution would never have happened with gun control.

IF YOU AGREE, PASS THIS 'REFRESHER' ON TO TEN FREE CITIZENS.

Calling an illegal alien an 'undocumented immigrant' is like calling a drug dealer an 'unlicensed pharmacist

Eagle Eye: Liked that post. Talking of guns and crime reminds me of a guy I worked with in Guam. He had just got to Guam and was always a jokester and one day he told me of all the crime on Homestead AFB. He said when he was first on his way down to South Florida he could see a line of stopped cars in front of him on the interstate right at the county line. Think it was Broward. He noticed all the cars would stop and then pull away from the state trooper and every once in a while the trooper would hand something through the window to the driver. When it was his turn, he pulled up to the trooper and rolled down his window, and the trooper asked if he had any guns in the car. He said no and the trooper gave him one.

MM, very funny post. Kim, very well said. Who do you feel is pulling the strings and how long will their "puppet" dance? Jack... just because the system is broken does not mean we need to continue to "feed" it. At some point, the people will need to take things back. Just because the system has been bad for many-many years does not mean it is "okay." Why do we not demand better from the people we elect that bend us over at every pass? Why?

Mike, did you order the plates and coin? Please let me know when they arrive as I really want to know if they were made in China, India or the US. Take care all.

As I write to you this holiday season, I am aware that in times of great hardship comes the opportunity for great change. I actually feel quite hopeful that if we come together now, we can enact progressive policies that will have a meaningful impact on all of our lives.

The elections have shown that America is ready for leaders to take real action on issues like health care, living wages, affordable housing, and an equitable tax system. We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to enact long-term policies that will benefit working families. In 2009, JwJ will work to win economic policies that benefit working families, including labor law reform.

After years of tacitly supporting predatory lending and ruthless policies of greed, Congress recently passed a bail-out plan without enforceable commitments to restructure the economy in a way that supports working families. Ultimately, this plan will NOT solve the problems created by an economic system that is biased toward unscrupulous corporate interests.

As JwJ forewarned during an October 1 National Day of Action, that bailout did not work. And now, even as you read this email, Congress is turning a cold shoulder to measures that could prevent the loss of millions of jobs connected to the U.S. auto industry. If we allow America's auto industry to fall into bankruptcy, we will be punishing workers and retirees for past management misjudgments and we will spiral even further into economic crisis.

Last week we organized a National Week of Action to demand that our nation's leaders pass a People's Economic Recovery Plan, which should include:

- Passing an economic stimulus/recovery package, on the scale of the emergency we face, that addresses emergency needs and supports jobs in the real economy;

- Passing the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA);

- Stopping evictions due to foreclosures;

- Passing emergency action so people losing jobs don't lose health care.

Labor law reform is a vital part of this economic restructuring. It is no coincidence that as union membership has declined, the gap between rich and poor has widened. The best opportunity for workers to get ahead economically is by uniting to bargain for better wages and benefits. Regrettably, union density has long been declining. And, as fewer and fewer of this country's working population is organized, more and more people are struggling to make ends meet.

With a new administration, we're hopeful that we can make real changes to our labor laws, so that working families can weather this crisis with greater access to economic stability and even prosperity. In 2009, JwJ activists will work with labor unions and other allies, such as American Rights at Work, to turn up the heat on Congress to pass significant labor law reform in the Employee Free Choice Act. If passed, this Act would protect workers' right to join a union from employer intimidation. We will work with allies to collect 1 million signatures in support of this Act. If you have not done so already, visit:

http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/mdv0jR51Bc-P/ to sign your name to this petition today to help us secure this important legislation.

The challenges we face are enormous. But, as we approach the New Year and a new administration, it is clear that we have the power to make change, as long as we stand together. I cannot help but think of the New Deal, an economic recovery plan for workers that would have been unthinkable before the Great Depression. We know that in times of great instability and upheaval, we can create real change that makes our society more just.

Mike...didn't John F. Kennedy's college room mate fill Kennedy's senate seat when he resigned to become President??

Procedure differs from state to state. Some states require the apppointment be of the same party as the Senator being replaced.

I'm pretty sure in most cases appointments to U.S. Senate vacancies take office until the next even year, with the seat always deferring back to the original 33-33-34 rotation at the next opportunity. For instance, Obama's seat was already scheduled to be up for election in 2010, so it goes on as planned. Joe Biden was re-elected to the Senate on the same day he was elected Vice President, so the man appointed to his vacancy, Ted Kaufman, serves until 2010, the people vote on who fills the last four years of the term, and the seats back up for election in 2014.

If I understand this correctly, if Hillary Clinton is confirmed as Secretary of State her Senate seat would be up for election in both 2010 and 2012.

I don't know of any state that has held an election for a Senator on a day other than the scheduled federal election in November of every even year.

I would look at more of a comparison between the level of coverage for Blago and for George Ryan, the Republican who proceeded him as governor of Ill. and is in jail for accepting bribes. Or David Vitter, The Republican Senator who used prostitutes and kept his seat.

Or even Democrats Ted Kennedy or Eliot Spitzer. I venture when all is said and done the level of national media coverage between all these figures will be close to even - possibly a little heavier on Blago because it was Obama's seat.

Larry Craig got harsher treatment because, I think, the national media was going to the bank off the sensationalism. And because of the particularly clumsy way he handled it.

What do all these figures, Republican and Democrat alike, have in common? None of them was trying to be a 72-year-old, cancer-survivor/POW camp survivor's heartbeat away from the presidency.

Attempting to buy sex in a restroom at an airport. Why not use one of those high priced escort services that he had used in the past? Anybody who cannot keep it in their pants till they get "home" has a larger problem than what is reported. Then---he gets to keep his job much like the police chief of MH. What is wrong with this picture? As far as good old Bill goes, nothing like a president bringing oral sex to all of our living rooms. He should have quit...if only for the fact that it had to be defined and "explained" to him. He must have missed that health class. What a waste. Ick!