Volume 1 Issue 19

December 9, 2002

Going Postal

A Republican embracing segregation, the Bayou is finally done, and having a rough life

So, finally, early Sunday morning...my street got salted. Considering the last snowfall stopped around 3pm on Thursday, that means 59 hours passed before the street had any attention from road crews. I'm not talking about major plowing action here, everything was packed down and converted to ice, but 59 hours for a salt truck?! Also, what ever happened to those "you must clear your sidewalk in 48 hours" laws? Today, when walking to the Metro from where I parked my car, no one had touched the sidewalks! And, since people still needed to walk on it, instead of snow (which is easy to walk through for those of you without the experience) they're sheets of ice (significantly more difficult to walk on). Sadly though, it looks like this recent storm was an improvement for the DC government, which usually couldn't even get downtown arteries cleared. So, we'll take progress one storm at a time...

So offensive, even Strom was shocked: Trent Lott is getting flak for his segregationist comments at Strom Thurmond's birthday party, when he commented that the nation would have been better off had Thurmond been elected President in 1948 -

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20730-2002Dec6.html

Jesse Jackson has called for Lott's resignation in light of the comments, and Al Sharpton is apparently getting involved too...big surprise there -

http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/4697608.htm

The Bayou Wrap-up: So Mary Landrieu won re-election this weekend in Louisiana, 52-48, a close race, but in the end a crushing blow to Republicans, who also lost a contested congressional race that was once held by a Republican. Perhaps the Democrats have begun to apply some of the lessons they learned after November's defeat...and the Louisiana victory has already helped the Democrats, as they got the GOP to agree to only have a 1-seat Republican majority on Senate committees.

The Post has a good summary of how the GOP may have been outsmarted by Democrats in Louisiana -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27966-2002Dec8.html

President Clinton apparently played a big role in Landrieu's win, and Bush may have in fact been a detriment to Turrell -

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/washington/index.ssf?/newsstory/senate09.html

Louisiana has never elected a Republican Senator -
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/newsstory/senate08.html

The LA Times declared the Democratic Party "not dead yet" -
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-south9dec09,0,1322536.story?coll=la%2Dnews%2Da%5Fsection

Look Who's Running for President: The New York Times begins a series of profiles on Dem candidates with John Kerry -
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/09/politics/campaigns/09KERR. html

And look who shouldn't be running: Stuart Rothenberg has a list of candidates he'd prefer not to see running again anytime soon -

http://www.rollcall.com/pages/columns/rothenberg/

Also Running: Reports today say that Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) will run for a 5th term in 2004. This sets up a possible primary challenge for Specter, as conservatives are pushing Congressman Pat Toomey to run. It's also interesting that these forces may be led by the other Senator from Pennsylvania, the ultra-conservative Rick Santorum. -

http://www.post-gazette.com/election/20021207electbriefp9.asp

The Machine lives!: Chicago mayor Richard Daley will run for his 5th term as mayor next year....like that's a surprise -

http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/12/08/chicago.mayor.ap/i ndex.html

Speaking of corruption...a NJ town clerk has admitted to writing herself extra pay checks totaling over $250,000 to feed a gambling habit -

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/new_jer sey/4693170.htm

What is Dick doing? Construction at the Naval Observatory in Washington has some neighbors pissed off, and others speculating about just what they're building there -

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24386-2002Dec7.html

At least the Pope fires people personally: Boston Cardinal Bernard Law suddenly cancelled his schedule this weekend and went to Rome, apparently at the Vatican's beckoning. With recent developments regarding the cover up in his Archdiocese, and the pending bankruptcy filing, this does not bode well for his future career prospects. Also, individual Priests in Boston are beginning to revolt against Law, with almost 100 signing a public letter calling for him to quit. My guess would be that Law doesn't return from Rome and is given some cushy job there, but hey, unlike Bush with Paul O'Neill, at least John Paul does his firing personally -

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/09/national/09BOST.html

The People to the North: The Canadians are at it again...this time a Toronto newspaper editorial says that Canadians are morally superior to Americans -

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?GXHC_gx_sessi on_id_=5b854edc16f9b625&pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1035775286060&call_page=TS_News&call_pageid=968332188492&call_pagepath=News/News

So how's life today? The New Yorker says research can not prove that life is too hard, and gives some really depressing facts to back it up...and some really stupid ones -

http://www.newyorker.com/printable/?shouts/021209sh_shouts

Well, maybe they're right: A bunch of drivers in Kentucky might agree with the New Yorker after hundreds of cars got flat tires when a truck dropped 50,000 screws on an interstate highway -

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Spilled-Screws.html

AU Basketball Anniversary: Today is the 25th anniversary of the evening when L.A. Laker Kermit Washington (the only American University player to ever play in the NBA) punched Houston Rocket Rudy Tomjanovich, almost killing him. Tomjanovich recovered after a few years and has been an NBA coach, but Kermit Washington was quickly punished and has never been re-accepted. -

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/GMA/GoodMorningAmerica/GMA021 209ThePunch_feature.html

Vanishing Icons: The phonebooth is all but vanished from America now...could the pay telephone be far behind? -
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/08/nyregion/08PHON.html?8hpib

Christmas Greetings: President Bush has finished sending his Christmas cards...all 1 million of them, a new record. Apparently there's a lot of politics about these things. Oh, and would you liked to have been the person who put individual stamps (that's right, they all went first class, no bulk mail for these chestnuts...) on them! And...apparently they were mailed from Crawford, TX. This is a town that has 1 stoplight. Can you imagine working at the post office and having a truck dump a million Christmas cards!?! No wonder they go nuts -

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/09/national/09LETT.html

Gift item of the day: The hottest Christmas gift this year? Gift cards, to the delight of retailers (who like that 15% of people never spend them) and to the dismay of folks like Miss Manners -

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/09/business/09GIFT.html

The British are nuts: A British Newspaper recently gave out an "award" for the worst sex passage from a book in the last year -

http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,853588,00.h tml

The Big Vote: Ok, down to 4 suggestions for titles, again, all who read can feel free to vote...if you've already voted for something up here, your vote still counts, if you voted for something else, feel free to vote again!

1. From the Swamp
2. The World According to Greg
3. Mysterious Squiggly Lines
4. Start the Insanity!

Trivia Time!!! OK, who was the last President who opposed the death penalty? Winner will get a free copy of the New Yorker, to show them that life can be enjoyed.

OK, have a great Monday everyone!

Gregory S. Gadren