Blagojevich: How I missed thee!!!! Er: How I will miss thee!!!

I was just thinking yesterday, in fact, that we hadn't heard from Rod Blagojevich lately. Considering myself a Daughter of Illinois, I was concerned about the troubled former Governor. Concern myself no more: he's back in the news!!!

Beyond all the other things he'd be facing (conspiracy and fraud charges), he was also indicted today by a Grand Jury on 16 felony charges.

In a completely unrelated story, the state of Illinois will be holding elections to replace the guy Blago appointed to replace Obama. Burris it turns out did try to help Blago's campaign but failed. So, the State of Illinois is scraping the bottom of the barrel. They can't even get successful corrupted officials.

We will never get anyone elected from Illinois in the White House again. We are smeared.

Head's Up: An early and incomplete version of Wolverine origins has been leaked unto the web. Sounds more like a viral campaign. But spokedevils... sorry, spokespeople for 20th Century Fox, the film's distributor, are claiming they will prosecute the culprit to the fullest extant of the law. Wow, all that for a song and dance man from down under who put on some claws and growled.

Don't download it. At least wait till its out in theaters to pirate a film. Have some decency will ya (I don't promote piracy. Its against the law hence the word PIRACY. Don't do it if you know whats good for you).

Stocks make it a 3 day rally but small business lending is down 57%. Well, thank you news people for raining on whatever parade we had going!!!

Life on Mars ended. Jury is still out on whether the ending hit the mark. Not sure if anyone noticed this rare gem of a show. Not sure if anyone notices anything anymore.

Tonight, ER ends and as many entertainment critics are saying, its the end of an era. The 2nd golden age of television is over. Now the better shows are on cable. They're right. But having those shows on the big network that only require bunny ears (oops... not even that is enough anymore) was nice. So long ER. I'm gonna miss ya! With BSG gone, I have like nothing left to watch. Which is really ok.

They threw the bum out!

Milorad Blagojevich, Governor of Illinois, was removed from office after a brief, and famously boycotted, Impeachment trial. The Illinois State Senate voted 59-0, with one vote at the end caught in a technical glitch, to remove the 52-year-old father of two from office for alleged abuse of power. The Governor has been accused of using the Senate seat recently vacated by now President Barak Obama to leverage political and individiual gain. Though he claims that he was trying to gain projects for the people of Illinois, tapes of recorded conversations, obtained by the FBI, allegedly prove otherwise. It has been released that within the tapes are conversations where Blagojevich attempts to procure lucrative jobs for himself and his wife.

End yourself!

The Senate confirmed Geitner. I actually sat through Chris Dodd, Democrat from Connecticut, go on about all the economic woes besieging our great nation. It made me want to commit suicide. How the hell are we going to ever get out of this hole?

Geitner has been praised up and down mostly by Democrats such as the aforementioned Dodd and Harry Reid of Nevada. When the vote happened almost all Democrats voted for him. All (not including Al Franken. He's still here in Minnesota, twiddling his thumbs) but 3 Democrats voted against the confirmation: Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Tom Harkin of Iowa and Robert Byrd from West Virginia, the oldest and cootiest coot in the Senate and the Dean (I think Byrd is lonely now that Ted Stevens is a criminal and Ted Kennedy is in the process of kacking Both named Ted...). Eleven Republicans also voted against him. This includes John McCain, Susan Collins, Richard Lugar and Arlen Specter. These are republicans Obama wants to bring into his sphere of influence. There may already be problems. The margin 60-34 which according to Bloomberg news, is the smallest margin for confirmation of Treasury Secretary. Wow. Someone had little to nothing to do.

Seriously, I'm gonna start using "Honest Mistake" on my tax forms pre-emptively. If they come after me for soing them badly I won't even fall back on ill-written tax code. I'll just invoke the Geitner doctrine. During the White House Press Briefing one astute reporter asked that if say Wesley Snipes, a notorious tax evader, were to have been nominated, would he too have seen his tax case handled with kid gloves? Compelling... Nah! Now that Geitner's done we got Daschle to look forward to now. Oh, break out the popcorn!

On to other things. Rod Blagojevich continues his media blitz. He is now officially a broken record. He need only record himself citing the 6th Amendment, presumption of innocence and the non-contextual snippets of recordings of him speaking with censored expletives. Is there anyone that is convinced that this man is actually telling the truth? He's a democrat so if he can't even get to believe in his so-called good intentions, then he's as good as dead.

Lets make something clear: Impeachment trials are not Judicial Trials. There is no burden of proof. FOR ANYONE! Its a political process that has more to do with viability and public trust than aftual verdits of guilt! It basically amounts to the Illinois State Senate believing that they have cause enough to show him the door.

Blagojevich knows he's toast. He's doing this blitz with several possibilities in mind. 1) He's tryin to taint the prospective jury pool. This may or not be the case. He is a former prosecuter who has gone on record saying that he is censoring himself from talking about details of a pending criminal trial. He has also commented that he thinks this a good choice. I concede that he may honorable on this issue. Or is he? The fact remains, when the public has little to no access to the evidence, we can't verify what he is or isn't leaking. He may well be telling enough to taint future jury pools and just enough.

2) He's gunning for a book deal. Everyone can write a book these days. Someone gave Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly and Dick Morris all book deals so its not much of a stretch to imagine that scenario. Sarah Palin, aka Moose Hunter Barbie, is hoping to snag a $11M book deal. (Really. She really is a self-important hack.) I can see that possibility. By upping the ante and taking his case to the American People, likening himself to Gandhi, MLK and Nelson Mandela and referring to his trial as a an West shootout, he has created a very important ingredient in National politics and public relations: a brand. You need a brand to sell peanut butter and you also need one to sell yourself to the public whether that be food, a tv, a talk show, President or a failed but colorful former governor from one of the most politically corrupt states in the Union. Yeah...

3) He really is pleading his case to the people of Illinois. Realizing that most state news outlets will be more concerned with the Impeachment trial proceedings, he got the last outlet left to him. National Media needs something else besides the latest Obama event like going to the bathroom and kissing his daughters good night. But if he thinks this may actually win the people over, good luck! I consider myself an Illinoisan. Its where my hometown is (Bloomington-Normal, just northeast of Springfield). I still have family living there. On election night, I had a long conversation with my sister, Mary. I would describe my sister as a casual politico. She's not a junkie, an addict or a fanatic such as I am. But even she hated Blago then and knew of plenty of people who wanted him out of office... in November! You think finding out that he might also be guilty of corruption, abuse of power and... oh yeah.... extortion. Keep digging!

Besides, he's got two daughters and his wife lost her job as a fundraiser. And she's also named in the probe of the Governor. Turns out there are questions about her receiving commissions from state contractors and Rod's political supporters when she was still engaged in her real estate business. I think the Blagojeviches should take a hint from the Gov's aforementioned westerns and get the hell out of Dodge!

Thats it from here. Its freaking cold as hell and I think I have frostbite on my toes. No joke. If they turn black and fall off I'll blog about and include snazzy pictures. Till then!