Today’s Haiku

Monumental day

In Illinois politics

Blago pack your bags

What rock have I been hiding under???

Barack Obama was the Senator from Illinois for a while (though it seems like it was like 5 minutes from when he arrived in the Senate until he started campaigning for President).  Barack Obama was a candidate in the Democratic Presidential Primary (didn’t that take two years or something??)  Barack Obama was a candidate in the Presidental Election.  Barack Obama was President-Elect.  Barack Obama has been President of the U.S. for a little over a week.

So WHY did it take me this long to realize the potential of his name?  I mean seriously …

Barack Obama
United States President
How Haiku-ul is that

Barack Obama
We sent him to Washington
Why’d we keep Blago?

What? I’m a three year old??

Your Word is “Why”

You see life as complicated and intriguing. The only thing you know for sure is that you haven’t figured it all out yet. You question everything and believe very little. And whatever you believe is likely to change. You are interested in theories, philosophies, and religions… even if you don’t buy into any of them. You are also fascinated by how things work. You’d like to understand as much in the world as possible.

What’s Your Word?

Protected: If you have teens

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Hill? What hill?? I don’t remember any hill???

I’ve recently been to the doctor and got some x-rays and blood work. This song pops to mind. (NOTE — nothing really bad — just getting older).

True that

I was listening to the radio this morning — good thing I wasn’t drinking my coffee at the time …  Read through the story — with especial attention to the final (and decisive) statement.

George Ryan’s lawyers will ask President Barack Obama to release the former Illinois governor from prison. Ryan has served a little more than a year of his 6-and-a-half-year sentence for political corruption.

The Bush administration didn’t act on Ryan’s commutation request. Sometime this spring, a new application will be sent to the new president. Former Governor Jim Thompson is one of Ryan’s lawyers.

THOMPSON: President Obama knows Governor Ryan, worked with him in Springfield, and I think can feel more personally the loss that the governor has suffered.

In the past, Mr. Obama’s office declined to comment on Ryan’s request.

Thompson says the new application will hopefully include more letters of support for the Ryan’s release. But Thompson says it’ll make the same basic arguments, including that Ryan’s continued imprisonment doesn’t appear to have deterred other politicians from corrupt activities.

YA THINK!!!!

I must wonder

A short excerpt from Obama’s Inauguration speech …

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things.

I find that an interesting arrangement of words.

“End petty grievances” … “set aside childish things”

And I have to wonder …

Let’s face it — the country is in pretty bad shape these days. There’s no arguing that statement.

Something that has been argued though, is where to lay the blame. The Democrats are happily blaming the Bush administration, since they have been in the White House for 8 years, however if you listen to the conservatives, they can find a way to place this all at the hands of the Democrats. And, as I’ve said before, I think there is quite enough blame to go around.

But I have to wonder if what Obama is saying is something that I, as a parent, have said and that I’m sure many other parents have said.

I don’t care WHO started it.

Yep — at this point does it really MATTER what the exact sequences of events was that led us to this point — let’s get the he11 out.

I have to wonder if somehow it’s going to be interesting having a President that can look at politicians and look at grievances and look at arguments and see it, not from the point of view of a lawyer or a diplomat, or a politician, but see it from the point of view of a parent of young children.

I don’t care WHO started it, settle it or go to your rooms.

It’ll be a fun 4 (or years.

So long

see Sarah Palin pictures

Like I wouldn’t be on this like a puppy on kibble

Okay — anyone that knows me know that I’d take to this like a dog to a bone.

Excerpted from an article in the Chicago Tribune — and yes I’ve already written to my brand new state rep.

Puppy mill legislation proposed

By Emily S. Achenbaum | Tribune reporter
January 19, 2009

Animal welfare activists and state Rep. John Fritchey (D-Chicago) met Sunday at PAWS Chicago, a no-kill animal shelter in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, to announce proposed legislation that would regulate large-scale dog breeders and pet stores with the goal of cracking down on abusive puppy mills.

The bill, sponsored by Fritchey and state Sen. Dan Kotowski (D-Mt. Prospect) and backed by the Humane Society of the United States and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, is called Chloe’s Bill after a young female dog that was rescued from a filthy, unlicensed puppy mill in Downstate Macon County. “This isn’t something that should be considered radical,” Fritchey said. “It’s decent.”

Fritchey said opposition to the bill may be inevitable, but that he would have concerns about any dog breeder who opposed the law. Puppy mills take a factory-like approach to animal breeding: maximum puppy output with minimal cost and care, Fritchey said. He noted that’s in contrast to many reliable breeders, who take loving care of animals and only breed a few dogs at a time. The legislation, if passed in its proposed form, would:

•Create a Dog Breeder License Act, which would prevent breeders from having more than 20 unaltered (not neutered or not spayed) dogs.

•Prohibit people from obtaining a dog-breeding license if they have been convicted of a felony animal-cruelty crime, including dog fighting.

•Require dog breeders to keep dogs in buildings without wire flooring and with sufficient heating, cooling and ventilation. Humane Society officials said Sunday that many puppy mills they’ve uncovered have dogs in crates stacked high on top of each other, with the wire flooring of the crates destroying the animals’ paws.

•Require pet stores and breeders to provide potential pet buyers with the dog’s full medical history, information of spaying and neutering and information about any prior medical care. Humane Society officials said many dogs from puppy mills end up having substantial medical problems because of interbreeding and exposure to disease in cramped environments.

•Establish penalties starting with fines and escalating to having animals seized and breeding operations shut down.

“We’ve seen less enforcement by the USDA [United States Department of Agriculture] and state departments of agriculture than we’d like,” Menkin said. “This bill will change many of these horrific conditions.”

If the following video doesn’t work, click here.

Back to Crawford

Found this on You Tube.  Must admit I find it entertaining (but unlike the Blue State Cowboys, I really don’t care if the door does hit him on the ass on the way out).