Unconventional Wisdom

Looks like he really is serious about a Mayor bid in my hometown, Chicago!

President Obama will give his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, a send-off Friday as Mr. Emanuel officially announces his departure from the West Wing to run for mayor of Chicago, officials familiar with the decision said.

The White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, at his daily briefing on Thursday afternoon said that the president would give two personnel announcements on Friday morning from the East Room of the White House. Mr. Gibbs, admitting that he was being purposely “oblique,” would not confirm whether the announcements would concern Mr. Emanuel.
Pete Souza/The White House Pete Rouse is extraordinarily close to the president.

The two officials, who declined to be named in advance of the official announcement, confirmed that Mr. Obama planned to name Pete Rouse, a senior adviser, to replace Mr. Emanuel. Mr. Rouse has been at the president’s side since Mr. Obama arrived in Washington nearly six years ago as a senator, serving as his chief of staff.

Mr. Rouse will not be called an interim appointment, but rather will formally take over Mr. Emanuel’s title. While Mr. Rouse has expressed reservations about holding the chief of staff job for an extended period, he has agreed to do the job – for now.

With motion sickness today. Well the Tribune suggested he join the club:

The ancients got sick on boats — the word nausea comes from the ancient Greek naus, for ship. Nineteenth-century artists depicted nauseous passengers on boat decks.  Mid-20th-century tourists suffered dizziness as the travel industry boomed and they rode in cars and planes (and roller coasters!) in unprecedented numbers.

Even your dog gets queasy when he rides in the backseat, The Times recently reported. Shaky camera work in movies can bring on nausea, too.

Symptoms of motion sickness — no matter how it’s brought on — include queasiness, cold sweats, dizziness and sometimes vomiting.  While there’s some question about what causes the churning feeling to come on, most believe it’s related to a disconnect between the visual signals coming in through your eyes and the motion signals perceived by your inner ear, muscles and joints.

Barf bags on airplanes exist for a reason — this malady is common. A 2006 study in the journal International Maritime Health reported that motion sickness rates hovered around 30% in normal seas, and that “ninety percent of the general population have experienced motion sickness at some point in their lives.”

One good way to deal with air sickness — or any kind of motion sickness — is to sit in a place that will minimize the disconnect between what you see and what you feel.  In a car, this means riding in the front seat and looking ahead.  Over-the-counter medications such as Bonine, Antivert and Dramamine can help ward off motion sickness’s effects; doctors also prescribe a patch for serious cases.

I found out about this news watching a TV at a downtown Chicago Mickey D’s today. I was thinking it was more serious than that. Well hopefully it’s only morning sickness.

I actually posted this on my other blog. Seeing it got some traffic there, so I’m posting about it here. It’s more of a local story to me and related to that spectacular episode that saw Rod Blagojevich get arrested, impeached, removed from the Illinois Governorship and eventually put on trial where he was only found guilty of lying to FBI agents.

The story I excerpted is from the Chicago Sun-Times:

Before he dined with [Giovana] Huidobro and Jackson on Oct. 8, 2008, [Raghuveer] Nayak said he had a critical conversation with the congressman about the seat while the two were alone. Nayak, also a former Blagojevich fund-raiser, said that Jackson asked him to tell Blagojevich that if the then-governor appointed Jackson to the U.S. Senate, Chicago’s Indian community would raise $1 million for Blagojevich and — after Jackson was appointed — Jackson would raise $5 million for the then-governor.

Although uncertain how deep my Congressman was in the Blago scandal, I figured this would hurt. Can’t say that I imagined it would get this deep.

Since Chicago Mayor Daley opted not to run for re-election Congressman Jackson had been mentioned as a possible candidate. Well him or his wife Sandi Jackson who sits on Chicago’s City Council. Sandi may have a better chance at it thanks to the Blago taint than her Husband who has been in the House of Representatives for close to 15 years.

It was mentioned in the Sun-Times that Rep. Jackson dared the feds to “bring it on” if they have anything on him. Blago tried that as well in a less confrontational manner the day before he himself was arrested by the feds.

Also it was mentioned on the Illinois politics blog The Capitol Fax that he and his wife planned to host a jobs rally where they gave out 1500 free chickens. Rep. Jackson didn’t show citing a stomach ailment. Could it be related to this revelation.

Also from the Capitol Fax, Jackson makes a statement with regards to this story. He apologizes to his supporters.

I wrote a post about Illinois political blogger Rich Miller’s thoughts about this event over the weekend. This event was headlined by Breitbart and Glenn Beck.

If you go to Breitbart’s Big Government blog you will see video and analysis of what happened when he confronts left-wing protesters. They were so beaten apparently that they were ready to pack up and leave. Imagine that!

Mr. Goldberg at the National Review has his beliefs that President Obama is not merely the next FDR as many Obama supporters touted, but merely the next Hoover. I predicted this although Hoover’s failure may just be that he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. At that he couldn’t get the nation out of the deepening Great Depression. In Obama’s case some might say his policies has only made the Great Recession worse!

Via Instapundit!

And four members of the CBC now have problems with ethics we already know the other three, so we have a new one. A fourth one!

Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.) awarded three scholarships from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation to his stepdaughter and wife’s niece between 2003 and 2005, according to records from the nonprofit group.

Bishop is the second Democrat found to have funneled CBC Foundation scholarship funds to relatives, threatening to turn the program into a larger political problem for the party. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) recently paid back $31,000 to the foundation for scholarships that she improperly awarded to various relatives and children of a top staffer.

Rep. Donald Payne (D-N.J.), chairman of the CBC Foundation, has promised an “extensive audit of the scholarship program” run by the organization.

Bishop, though, also appears to have favored family members with CBC scholarships.

In 2003, Emmaundia Whitaker, the niece of Vivian Creighton Bishop, who is Bishop’s wife, was awarded an education scholarship. She was also given a similar award in 2005.

And in 2003, Aayesha Owens Reese, the congressman’s stepdaughter, was granted an education scholarship as well.

This seems to be a bad time to engage in sheer nepotism. This is a form of it anyway! Hat-tip Instapundit!

Crossposted @ It’s My Mind!

Patrick McDonough of ChicagoClout.com takes issue with anyone other than city workers painting fire hydrants for this reason. Oh yeah, you should also know that McDonough isn’t a fan of Mayor Daley and has no problem taking a swipe at him in this post:

I made sure some police showed up as everyone should when people tamper with the potable water supply. This is a major priority after 9/11 and posters at work inform us to not take this lightly.

It makes sense although, he may want to tell that to artistmac. Who close to three years ago was a little fed up with the city not painting fire hydrants in his neighborhood, and opted to paint them himself!

Crossposted @ It’s My Mind!