Go Ahead. Make My Holiday.

Yes because packing concealed heat during the holidays (especially at the malls or the Xmas family dinner) is always a good thing.

They assume that a “rational” person would be deterred by all those guns. 100% of the time, they’re right when people are “rational.” On the other hand, I think that if you’re harboring a very serious desire to kill as many people as you can that odds are extremely good that you are not “rational” and you don’t give a flying fuck about humanity blah blah.

Also, the fact that most people can’t shoot worth shit (including me) and thus turn any mall into the finale of any Quentin Tarrantino movie.

Plus the old problem of identifying the actual bad guy. I have the odd feeling that most of the people hit would be hit would be the non-whites (obviously the most scary according to the white people waving heat) while ignoring the crazy eyed white guy (the vast majority of those who go round the bend and never come back) who is screaming “It’s dying time.”

OK, I must admit I’m more of an RML libtard. I believe in certain gun rights (though I believe that there’s no FSM-given right to an Uzi or AK-47, and background checks are OK in my book), however, I believe that the whole “better allow guns at universities and schools and malls so that a brave hero can stand up and shoot a loonbag” theorem reeks of overmacho bravado from people looking for glory.

@rptrcub: That’s gun owning liberal Democrat. Here, the gangsters still only shoot each other at the mall.

@rptrcub: It’s insane. The argument is exactly backwards. The problem arises because it’s so laughably easy for the loony to arm himself in the first place.

I have no patience whatsoever with the second amendment – which clearly has to do with militias in a time when there was no standing army – being distorted to lend support to a theory of ‘freedom of speech’ which is entirely divorced from reality. Guns kill people. The more guns there are, the more people get killed. All the research supports this.

By all means go out hunting but let’s not pretend there is any moral high-ground to be stormed in the act of purchasing an automatic handgun.

Breaking: Gov. Blagojevich arrested, finally.

@mellbell: I totally pulled a Hillbot and cackled when I heard that on npr this morning. Then I texted HF to share the joy. Apparently, he was all set to sell Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder. Merry Fitzmas, everyone!

“The breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering,” U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said in a statement.
“They allege that Blagojevich put a ‘for sale’ sign on the naming of a United States senator; involved himself personally in pay-to-play schemes with the urgency of a salesman meeting his annual sales target; and corruptly used his office in an effort to trample editorial voices of criticism.”

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2008/12/source-feds-take-gov-blagojevich-into-custody.html

flippin eck: This is beyond awesome. According to the radio: the Cubs are involved, as Rod wanted people on the Trib editorial board shitcanned, and would hold up the purchase of Wrigley Field by the state if they weren’t. Also: favors for appointing Barry’s Senate replacement to unions and other players.

Yes, give credit to Fitzy. But he was shooting at an empty net. Srsly.

Oh, and he wanted to be HHS Secretary, too. God damn, what a clown this guy is.

Mind: if the GOP had any bench at all in 2006, we would have gotten rid of him with a big, fear-inducing heave. But he’s gone now. There’s no freaking way people will stand for this guy appointing a Senator after this.

@flippin eck: @chicago bureau: Just when you thought being in Chicago couldn’t get any better. Book him & cook him!

Sorry to be the policy wonk in the mix, but who is the Illinois Lieutenant Governor who will be replacing Blago and therefore now have the power to name Black Eagle’s replacement?

What a colossal fucktard. He didn’t know the feds were watching him like a hawk?! I knew and I don’t follow Illinois politics.

He deserves at least 10 years in the pokey for felony stupidity.

homofascist: Don’t kid yourself. The arraignment judge is a no-nonsense type. He might get thrown in the slam. No bail.

(Yes, yes: I’m totally wrong. He’ll probably get a signature bond just like everybody else who is powerful and rich and stuff. But a boy can dream.)

@chicago bureau:
@homofascist:
@flippin eck:

But but but he’s a Demrat! Aren’t you supposed to defend even the corrupt ones? I mean, what kind of people are you?

Sorry, that was my inner Republican there. Seriously, what a shithead.

@SanFranLefty: This was my wife’s question also. Can’t you guys just enjoy the richness of Chicago politics for a while?

@SanFranLefty: According to the google, it’s someone named Pat Quinn, but his site is down.

SanFranLefty: Pat Quinn’s your Lt. Gov. A Democrat, and no friend to Rod. Set himself up as a straight shooter (which obviously means that he’s as crooked as everybody else but nobody’s found out yet).

Note: Rod ain’t the not-Governor yet. They may have to impeach him, but at the moment he’s got allies in the Senate that would not convict. The House, and its leadership, hate his living guts, however. You might see a special session announcement around nowish if Michael Madigan has his way.

@ManchuCandidate: Silly. There is no such thing as Democrat or Republican here. There is only the Machine Party, and everyone’s a member (except….Unicorn? maybe?)

@Jamie Sommers: It’s a he, and I know almost nothing about him. I don’t think he and Blago really like each other. According to the experts on our local NPR show, Blago is still in power.

Oh, BTW: That whole move to get Gov. George Ryan (R-JAIL) pardoned? No fucking way that’s going to happen now.

Consolation: Oxford, Wis. in winter is gorgeous.

@chicago bureau: When does the Unicorn’s replacement need to be named? Rod can’t realistically hang on to name a replacement in the midst of these allegations, can he?

A vacancy is a vacancy. It can get filled whenever, in theory. (And, given the lopsided Democratic set-up, it can wait.)

Look: if Blagojevich appoints, the seat will flip to the GOP in 2010. Guaranteed. Everybody from Howard Dean to the guy who just signed up as a member of the College Democrats on the UIC campus yesterday (hi, Jimmy!) will scream BLOODY MURDER if Rod makes a pick under this cloud.

(Incidentally — cloudy, cold rain in Chicago today. Perfect weather for a perp walk.)

The complaint repeatedly makes reference to conversations secretly recorded by federal authorities. The criminal complaint alleges Blagojevich expected an unnamed highway concrete contractor to raise a half-million dollars for his campaign fund in exchange for state money for the tollway project. “If they don’t perform, (expletive) ’em,” Blagojevich said, according to the complaint.

Soooo sloppy….what a moran.

@ManchuCandidate: The timing is perfect, as my glee at William Jefferson’s upheaval is slowly waning. Now if only Harry Reid (who I just last night discovered was not only a staunch supporter of Harriet Miers, but actually put forth her name for consideration) would go away.

Today is the first time I’ve seen a picture of him. Is that thing on his head real?

@Jamie Sommers: His hair is on the list of his Federal indictments…or should be.

All right, all right. Let’s back up here. The players in the continuity-of-government deal:

The Illinois House is led by Michael Madigan. The Illinois Senate, at the moment, is led by Emil Jones, but he’s retiring in favor of John Cullerton. All of these guys are Democrats from Chicago.

Generally speaking, Michael Madigan (who, incidentally is the father of Lisa Madigan, the Attorney General — more later) is Rod Blagojevich’s archenemy. Emil Jones, generally speaking, is Blagojevich’s biggest ally. So you will see nothing that comes to pass this month from the impeachment side of things. Cullerton is a bit of a enigma at this point, but is generally regarded as a capable person, who is not nearly as far in hock to Blagojevich as Jones is.

So, starting next month, he is going to have two legislative leaders who want nothing to do with him. The Republicans, generally, want nothing to do with him either. The impeachment proceedings will be relatively quick and painless. (I’m trying to get the rules and regs on impeachment, but the Illinois website has had to call in replacement hamsters.) And so, unless Rod is completely brain-dead, he will probably have to resign.

And thus, you would believe, the Democrats will lose power at the 2010 elections in a massive overcorrection. But wait! Lisa Madigan is generally regarded as a (gasp!) competent, not-corrupt government official. This, as the saying goes, is news.

The same cannot be said for Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, who is mobbed up something serious. Secretary of State Jesse White, meanwhile, is known only for long lines at the DMV and the Jesse White Tumblers (coming to an inaugural parade near you, per today’s paper). And so the Democratic bench is really thin. It may be, however, that the Republicans bench is even thinner — which is a problem, as Chicago, notwithstanding this mess, will still roll with the Democratic pick.

So it’s Lisa against God Knows Who in the election in 2010; Republican favored 5 : 11, at this early posting.

flippin eck: Joke around here is that he’s switched recently to a new, improved hair gel that has screwed with his brain waves. But, according to the indictment, his brain waves have been screwed with since 2002, back when he started getting into the whole mail/wire fraud thing.

I don’t understand this country.

Article IV, Section 14 of your Illinois Constitution basically sets up the same rules as you will find federally: majority of elected-members of the House to impeach, two-thirds of elected Senators to convict (so absences don’t lower the target number). The power to decide what is and is not impeachable, or convictable, rests with the Houses themselves. So there.

Benedick: Forget it, Jake. It’s Chicago.

@Benedick: We’re a complicated mess of contradictions but it’s what makes us so damn lovable!

@chicago bureau: Oh, you forgot one important detail. Besides being Blago’s archenemy, Michael Madigan is also Blago’s FATHER-IN-LAW. You really can’t make this shit up people. Nevermind – I am an idiot.

@chicago bureau: This is very clear, thanks.

@Benedick:

Too much liquor and jazz.

@chicago bureau:
Illinois sounds a lot like British Columbia, our most fucked up province politically (yes even more so than Quebec.)

Only one premier (gov eq) avoided going to jail or being charged for various reasons including corruption and DUI in the last 40 years (including two from the sainted NDP.) That fellow (Dosanjani who was the first Indo Canadian Premier) is now the health critic for the Liberals.

@chicago bureau: I also disagree about the Senate seat going GOP in 2010. If Rod does appoint someone, that person would just serve the two years and while he/she could run, I seriously doubt they would get past the primary. I also can’t imagine a quality GOP candidate that they could put up – I mean, they had to import Alan Keyes in ’04. And trying to get a Repub into the Senate on Obama’s watch (and into his former seat)? I just ain’t seeing it.

@Original Andrew: I thought that was just a musical. I didn’t realize it was a fact-based exercise in Brechtian-style political theatre.

@Jamie Sommers: And scary. Don’t forget, you people are armed to the teeth.

homofascist: No no no, I think you’re thinking of Dick Mell, the alderman who went to war with Blagojevich over that landfill deal a while back.

Per a Tribune article posted this morning —

He [Rod] has accused lawmakers of spending “like a bunch of drunken sailors,” attacked the state school board as a “Soviet-style bureaucracy” and proclaimed he had the “testicular virility” to confront his estranged father-in-law, Ald. Richard Mell (33rd). Mell once accused Blagojevich of trading campaign contributions for jobs—a comment he recanted under threat of a lawsuit.

[BTW: Yesterday was a bad day for the Tribune. Today is a day colored with hues of AWESOME for the Tribune.]

@homofascist: Best soap opera evah! When does Oprah make a cameo?

Jamie Sommers: Nice try. But there’s another talk show host in Chicago that will jump at this first, particularly given the family intrigue.

Notably, there are no trailer parks involved. Nevertheless: JERRY! JERRY! JERRY!

[ADD: Thread dedicated to Blagojevich just posted. Hey Hey!]

@chicago bureau: And for all of you appreciators of fine man meat (which CB is not, so wouldn’t be expected to mention it) – our state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias is fine. Real damn fine. Smokin’ hot fine. Hit the googles ladies – he ain’t bad. Sure he probably funded some mob figures through his family bank (which coincidently is at the end of my block), but who hasn’t dreamed of being a mafioso girl? All of the shopping and big burly men and great tables without reservations? Sign me up!

@chicago bureau: D’oh! Yes, it was Mell that helped his rise. Those ‘M’ names…

@SanFranLefty: My first thought as well. Are we focused, or what?

@Mistress Cynica: That would be Pat Quinn.

@Benedick: “Semi-automatic” handgun, perhaps? Tip: most pistols are either revolvers (single or double action; single actions require the hammer to be cocked for every shot while double actions fire and rotate the cylinder with every trigger pull ) or semi-automatic (fires every time you pull the trigger, unlike a fully automatic weapon that fires while the trigger is depressed until released, you run out of ammo, you have a jam or your position is overrun by the Hun, or worse, by zombies) . There are also some single shot pistols available for hunting or target use.

@Benedick: True, in my case, but my family, friends and I are on your side.

Why you really need to get armed up.

@redmanlaw: I can understand sport/hobby/collecting and stuff. I don’t see how that in any way invalidates the need for tight licensing and controls over distribution. We are, after all, talking about lethal weapons. No? I don’t want to be in a supermarket knowing the fat guy with the unhinged expression shopping for gallon bottles of discount vodka is packing heat. I think it’s crazy. Ditto allowing guns in a school let alone advocating such a move.

In Phoenix, when I was there for work, the theatre (one of the most beautiful new theatres I’ve seen with impeccable sound) had signs on the doors declaring that no weapons were allowed. WTF?