Politics and other nightmares

OK, all you Sarah Palin-bashers, where are you now?

So, where was the Secret Service? Even if the agents were too surpsied to take a shoe for the president, shouldn't they have been ready for the second shoe? Or:

While the shoe was in the air, were you like, "Oh, its just a shoe."

This isn't very encouraging:

One of President-elect Barack Obama's top immigration advisers oversaw a Clinton-era program that awarded U.S. citizenship to thousands of convicted criminals and failed to conduct adequate FBI background checks on foreigners during a push to reduce a backlog of naturalization applications.

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We editorially urged Mayor Henry to veto the light-pollution amendment to the noise ordinance, and he didn't, so consider this sour grapes if you wish, but WHAT IN THE BLUE BLAZES was he thinking?! The mayor signed the ordinance, saying it's up to the City Council to decide what legislative action is appropriate for the community. Not that he didn't have reservations:

It's official. Members of the Electoral College are voting today, so Barack Obama really will be the president-elect. Of course, maybe you're like this guy and think we should just scrap the whole system so that the election is over and done with when the popular vote is counted:

Do we still get what we pay for? Price tag of the bailouts so far (maximum commitments): $8.5 trillion. Inflation-adjusted cost of the Marshall Plan, the Louisiana Purchase, the race to the moon, the S&L crisis, the Korean War, the New Deal, the invasion of Iraq, the Vietnam War and all of NASA's efforts, combined: $3.92 trillion. Who can possibly defend this insanity?

Does this fall in the "hard times justify extraordinary measures" category?

Mayor Tom Henry on Friday put out the welcome mat for more gambling in Fort Wayne - a prudent response, he said, to the “uncertain, unsettled economic times” that only an hour earlier had come to include the temporary closure of the local General Motors truck plant.

If you heard that a state legislator was offering a new provision on highway safety, how many guesses would you need to name him?

A state lawmaker is drafting legislation that would ban young motorists from sending text messages on their cell phones while they're driving because of the heightened risk of crashes involving distracted motorists.

For the "Let's pretend your vote counts" file (it's like those "Thank you for not smoking" signs -- you mean I have a choice?): Time invites readers to help select its Person of the Year. Here's how the Fark link describes it:

Time magazine invites people to vote for 25 choices for 2008's Person Of The Year before they pick Barack Obama regardless

Any bets against Obama?

Who wanted the auto bailout? The Deomcrats and George W. Bush.Who stopped it? Senate Republicans (or UAW members who drew a line on wage cuts, depending on how you see it). And now Bush will come to the rescue. In a statement by Press Secretary Dana Perino: