The Senator from Illinois provided me with much needed comic relief this morning.

“The arguments of liberals are more often grounded in reason and fact,” the Illinois Democrat wrote in “The Audacity of Hope,” a memoir published last year.

Ok, so when my Mother-In-Law (a liberal Democrat holding an important position within the state party) argues that Clarence Thomas ‘took the black person’s spot on the Court so he should think more like a black person’…that’s reason and fact?

HAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Hang on a moment while I wipe the tears away.

Whew, I needed that.

My home town is FINALLY known for something other than the Rodney King trial. Forget the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Jack Bauer just put Simi Valley, CA on the map.

I am a dork, but this is not news.

No, it’s not The Prom Queen’s minimum wage proposal - it’s a Do Not Call list for political campaigns.

One evening last election cycle, I received 6 phone calls from JD Hayworth supporters in an hour. The calls were all recordings of important conservatives telling me why I should vote for JD The Windbag. They clearly didn’t give a hoot about interrupting my dinner - just that The Windbag get my vote.

I’m a pleasant gal on the phone. I’m never rude to the poor call center folks, they’re just doing thier jobs. But by the time Rudy called twice I was getting a tad bitchy. Especially since I’d planned on voting for JD anyway - calling me endlessly doesn’t do any good, it just annoys me. It’s not like I can vote harder and make it count more.

Hmmm, I wonder if this had anything to do with The Windbag’s loss. Someone should look in to that.

What do you think the government would do with $15,000 worth of Jell-O? Feed the homeless, donate it to The Salvation Army…or make a replica of the city of Scottsdale, AZ?

Yep, $15,000 of my hard earned tax dollars went to an ‘artist’ from San Francisco (not surprising) to make a city out of Jell-O.

Scottsdale’s latest public art project is a bit shaky but will definitely provide food for thought.

It is a sculpture of parts of downtown Scottsdale created from nearly 40 pounds of gelatin.

Scottsdale in Jell-O will be unveiled to the public at 10 a.m. today in the atrium of the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts.
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The sculpture covers two large tables and depicts much of downtown Scottsdale, including the Scottsdale Civic Center Mall and the new Scottsdale Waterfront, a retail-condominium project, along with a backdrop of Camelback Mountain. Everything is to scale.

A free artist reception is planned from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday.

Not surprisingly, Jell-O will be served.

Award-winning San Francisco-based artist Liz Hickok has been working for the past week to create the temporary, $15,000, publicly funded installation, which will run through Monday.

That $15,000 could’ve paid my house payment for the next year, or my car payment for the next two. Last I checked, that was 1/3 the starting salary of a police officer. My $15,000 could’ve paid for numerous other goods or services to benefit the public.

Instead, I’ve just paid for some whackjob ‘artist’ to play with food. What a waste.

There was something political going on tonight, wasn’t there? For the life of me I can’t remember what it was… Oh, yes. The State of The Union address was tonight. I was busy getting my butt kicked at the gym and I wasn’t able to watch the faces The Prom Queen made behind Bushie’s back. A bit disappointed in that, I bet it was great fun.

I’ve ve read the transcript of the speech, and I have to say I was less than impressed.

It’s the same old pig with a new shade of lipstick - control spending, Social Security reform, education, healthcare, immigration…etc., etc., blah blah blah. It’s like he was working with rookie speech writers who simply looked at what they did last year, and did the same thing this year. He couldn’t get these things done with a Republican controlled Congress, does he really think he’s going to get this done with The Prom Queen holding the gavel? Even he can’t be that stupid.

I’m glad I didn’t waste my gym time.

Sorry, but I can’t help but laugh at this.

Tuttle said McCain’s stance on immigration in which he favors amnesty for illegal immigrants hurts with the Phoenix-area Republicans as well as the GOP’s rank and file across Arizona, a state that like California shares a border with Mexico.

“That and his attempt to appeal to the center of the political spectrum have not played with the conservative people here in Arizona,” Tuttle said during a telephone interview.

Little trouble at home Senator?

Discussing 24 with our friend the Liberal Avenger this morning, I realized there was something I completely missed last night.

Torture works.

So maybe there is hope.

The business reporters at The Arizona Republic are messing with me. They delight in ruining my day.

Bastards.

So like every other righty blogger I watched the season premiere of 24 tonight. I wasn’t that impressed.

-Warning, spoiler alert-

Yes Jack Bauer still kicks ass, he always does. But this year’s opener got a little predictable and a whole lot preachy. You knew Jack was going to escape from Fayed, you knew he was going to stop that suicide bomber. It’s Jack, he always saves the day. Even his inability to torture information out of that terrorist, his going soft if you will, was predictable. The man spent two years in a Chinese prison. Of course he’s going to lose his edge. I would’ve been more surprised had it made him more of a badass.

And of course the emphasis on Palmer’s Chief of Staff’s (hereafter to be known as The Biscuit from his Ally McBeal days) suggestion the President revert to FDR style holding camps. I always thought 24 did a very good job at presenting all political implications in a fairly balanced manner. This season, so far anyway, it seems like they’re exaggerating them. Almost like the producers are making them seem so extreme they come off as comical, preachy. I wanted to throw my remote control at the TV when Karen spouted off with the shredding of the Constitution nonsense. I don’t like to be preached to when I watch TV.

If 24 starts heading in that direction, I’ll turn it off. I’ll give it another chance tomorrow night, but I’m not holding out much hope. It is still Hollywood after all.

Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democrats in the House are hard at work towards world domination Pinky & The Brain style. They’re latest hairbrained idea that will ultimately fail - granting union rights to TSA airport screeners.

Thompson’s provision would require the Homeland Security Department to apply the same management system to all TSA employees, including screeners. With that change, screeners would have the right to decide whether they wanted to be represented by a union and would be given job protections if they blow the whistle on waste, fraud and abuse.

The 9/11 commission did not address union rights or personnel rules but urged improvements in airport screening operations. AFGE maintains that collective bargaining rights help smooth agency operations because labor-management contracts provide a structure for addressing employee issues, including job performance.

Are we living in opposite land? Is black now white, and up now down? I didn’t think I’d been gone that long.

Since when does unionizing a workforce IMPROVE job performance? The poor job performance of the TSA screeners isn’t the fault of a not being represented by a union. And if it is, then those screeners really should be replaced with someone who would stop whining and stfu up about collective barganing, and do the job of protecting the public.