Another reason for those sky-high approval ratings:

Kinda hard to hate on a guy holding a disabled puppy with only three legs!

Via Ben Smith.

WOOT! Hey, look! We made Jeff Mapes' Oregonian politics blog for climbing into bed with the Democrats! SEXY.

After Willamette Week jumped out of bed with the Democratic Party of Oregon, the Portland Mercury was quick [to] take the place of its journalistic rival.

The Mercury is now cosponsoring an inaugural night bash with the Democratic Party and waving aside any concerns that it is compromising its journalistic integrity.

"We're an alternative paper and we make a promise that we're going to be accurate and fair," said W. Steven Humphrey, the paper's editor. "So if the Republicans ever manage to elect an awesome president, we'll sponsor their party too."

Willamette Week editor Mark Zusman said he didn't know about his paper's plans to co-sponsor the party until I called him about it last month. He quickly pulled the plug on the event and WW even made itself "Rogue of the Week."

"For journalists, getting in bed - or appearing to get in bed - with any Party (with a capital P) isn't just plain wrong," WW said as it flagellated itself. "It's downright unethical."

Unethical or no, ME LIKE TO DRINK. And me also like to drink to our newest and most awesome president ever, Barack Obama (he's a Democrat… right? Not that I care). Anyway, be sure to join us (oh, and I think the Democratic Party might be there too) on January 20th as we celebrate Obama's inauguration at the fancy-pantsy Oregon Inauguration Victory Ball at the Tiffany Center Emerald Ballroom, as well as the somewhat less fancy, but probably twice as fun Change Is Here Dance Party at Holocene!

Tell you what: Anyone who thinks it's unethical can stay home.

The arrest of Sherry Johnston—Tripp Palin's other grandma—was delayed until after the election due to apparent interference from Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's office, according to officers involved with the investigation. And it looks like someone bent the rules—federal regulations actually—so that Sarah Palin's daughter's born-out-of-wedlock son's baby daddy, Levi, could get a job.

TPM:

Norm Coleman just got a Christmas present from the Minnesota Supreme Court: A giant lump of coal.

In a unanimous decision handed down just now, the state Supremes denied Coleman any relief in a lawsuit he was waging to deal with allegations of double-counted absentee ballots, which his campaign says have given an illegitimate edge to Al Franken.... Simply put, Coleman is in very big trouble right now. With Al Franken leading by 47 votes, this lawsuit was Coleman's best shot at coming from behind. And it just failed, making a Franken win nearly a foregone conclusion when this recount finishes up in early January.

Richard Cohen in the Washington Post:

Not that he was planning to attend, but Barack Obama should know that my sister's inauguration night party—the one for which she was preparing Obama Punch—has been canceled. The notice went out over the weekend, by e-mail and word of mouth, that Obama's choice of Rick Warren to give the inaugural invocation had simply ruined the party. Warren is anti-gay, and my sister, not to put too fine a point on it, is not. She's gay.

...

She's been in a relationship with another woman, the quite wonderful Nancy, for 19 years, and she resents the fact that [Rick] Warren has likened same-sex marriage to incest, pederasty and polygamy.... There you have the thinking of the man Obama has chosen above all other religious figures to represent him in this most solemn moment. He likens my sister's relationship—three children, five grandchildren, so loving as to be envied and so conventional as to be boring—to incest or polygamy.

The conventional thing to say is that Obama has a preacher problem—first the volcanic Jeremiah Wright and now the transparently anti-gay Warren. But the real problem has nothing to do with ministers and everything to do with Obama's inability or unwillingness to be a moral leader. Sooner or later, he just might have to stand for something.

This was apparent to me almost a year ago when I reported that Obama's church, the Trinity United Church of Christ, had given a major award to Louis Farrakhan, the anti-Semitic leader of the Nation of Islam.... I never for a moment thought Obama viewed Farrakhan any differently from the way I do. But I also thought that as a U.S. senator, as a presidential candidate or even as a mere citizen, he had an obligation to denounce the award—maybe quit the church. Do something! He did nothing.

Now we have a repeat of that episode. This time it is not Obama's preacher who has decided to honor a bigot, it is Obama himself.

Read the whole thing here.

Illinois Governor Ron Blagojevich speaks:

This video, from Blagojevich's first post-arrest press conference, is pretty amazing. He quotes Kipling ("Don't give way to hating..."), he sounds like Nixon in moments, and he's every bit as feisty and petulant as you'd imagine. (But no curse words, dammit!)

Via 236.com, by Jon Friedman.

Questions That I Have for the Secret Service

1. Shouldn't you have jumped in front of that shoe?
2. Shouldn't you have jumped in front of that second shoe?
3. Second shoe = the one thrown after being removed from foot after first shoe was thrown.
4. Let's say people had three feet. Would you have allowed a third shoe to fly unimpeded?
5. While the shoe was in the air, were you like, "Oh, its just a shoe."
6. Same question about the second shoe.
7. Do you think this is funny, "Throw a shoe at me once, shame on—you. Throw a shoe—you throw a shoe, you can't throw a shoe again."
8. Is there not "protection training" for lunatics launching objects?
9. Let's say there isn't training for that—but do they tell you that if someone does throw (or shoot) something to be on the alert in case they want to repeat this behavior?
10. Where were you?

BONUS QUESTION: Do you think the Iraqis want us there? (Hint: their journalists are throwing their shoes at Bush)

Hey, I know—the man is an instant hero to millions of people in Iraq and all across the Arab world. Tens of thousands of people are demonstrating in the streets right now, praising his actions, calling for his release. So what do you say we beat the fuck out of him?

The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at George Bush has been beaten in custody, his brother said today.

Muntadhar al-Zaidi suffered a broken hand, broken ribs, internal bleeding and an eye injury, his older brother, Dargham, told the BBC. He has since been handed over to the Iraqi judiciary, a step that normally heralds a criminal case.

Remember the snow storm of 2004, and the "snow day pay" mini-scandal involving then-Multnomah County Chair Diane Linn? A recap: Linn gave county workers a snow day, telling them to stay home if they couldn't make it in through the ice and snow. Those who stayed home still got paid. Those who came in got paid double.

Not surprisingly, Linn was in hot water with the voters for paying people that didn't work, or paying them extra for coming in on a day they were supposed to come in. (She later retracted the bonus vacation day.)

Fast forward four years to today's snow day. It looks like the City of Portland is working hard to avoid getting in the same situation Linn was in. In the process, they're confusing the hell out of their employees, and potentially penalizing them, says one union official.

Last night, during Mayor-elect Sam Adams' Storm Watch 2008 press conference, he relayed a message from Mayor Tom Potter, according to KGW: "Portland Public Schools would be closed Monday and non-essential city employees were asked by current Mayor Tom Potter not to come to work before 10 a.m., the mayor-elect said." The same instructions were on the city's website.

So some city workers were surprised to find an email from the city's human resources department this morning—shortly after 10 am—noting that they'd have to cover the hours from 8 am to 10 am with their own leave, if they usually are in for those hours.

The City of Portland Professional Employees Association (COPPEA) is trying to untangle the confusion that resulted when staffers were both told to stay home, and told they'd be docked for staying home—a.k.a. "the mixed message provided by the city," according to COPPEA vice president Scott Batson.

Batson points to the notice posted on the city's website. "From the union's point of view, that appeared to be a directive from the mayor on the website," he says. Once at work, "they were met with an email message which was internal which said if they came to work late they would have to use personal vacation time or leave of absence. From the union's point of view that's an economic penalty."

The union officers are meeting tomorrow, and this topic will be on the agenda, Batson says.

I wish Blogtown had a "white powder" tag. Via the Governor's office:

Suspicious Envelope Received in Governor's Office, Turned Over to the FBI

(Salem) — At approximately 3:45pm today, a governor's office employee located in Room 160 of the Capitol building received an envelope with a return address of Texas, similar to the address listed on envelopes received by other public offices that have contained white powder.

The Governor was not on site.

The employee did not open the envelope and it is not known if the envelope contains white powder. The employee followed procedure and immediately contacted the Oregon State Police.

In response, the area, eight Governor's office employees and three other state employees present in Room 160 were immediately quarantined. The quarantine lasted for about one hour.

Oregon State Police, National Guard, Salem Fire Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation worked together in response to the incident.

There is no confirmed connection to similar mailings received at some other Governor’s offices around the country. The FBI is the lead investigating agency.

Attention fuckers calling on me to step down: Fuck. You. (For real.)

Seriously Washington Times and all 50 Democratic senators and President-fucking-Elect Obama: You want me to step down? For fucking free?

Fuck that. I'll step down as governor for $500,000.
I'll step down wearing a French maid's outfit for $750,000.
Shit, for $25,000, I'll wrestle anyone live on Pay Per View.
For $10,000, I'll shave my head, and for an additional $5,000, I'll eat the hair.

Don't fuck with me. A governorship is a fucking valuable thing. You just don't give it away for nothing. So fuck YOU, you fucking fucked up fucko.

Oh come the fuck on, Chicago Tribune. Really? You really called up etiquette experts to comment on my "foulmouthed side"?

"You expect more from a governor," said Barbara Pachter, an expert on business etiquette. "You don't always get it, but you expect more. This is just lousy behavior. We don't want our governors to be drunken sailors."

I bet she expects more. Well, I expect more from a newspaper based in fucking Chicago, you dumb fucks. Maybe this is why you're bankrupt. First of all, if I'd known there were fucking wiretaps inside every fucking phone I touched, and bugs behind even the portrait of myself in my own fucking house, then maybe I would've talked like I was just about to set a nice, warm cup of tea down on one of Barbara Pachter's little white fucking doilies. You know?

Second, Chicago newspaper writers are acting all appalled that a guy has a "foulmouthed side"? Fuck you guys. Really. Fuck you. I wish I had an FBI so I could bug that bar across the street from your offices, you fucking hypocritical lushes, and send THAT transcript to Barbara fucking Patcher for etiquette review. Bullshit. All of this.

And you know what, Lisa Madigan? Fuck you, too. "Unfit to hold office" my ass. I'm not going anywhere. Have you been living in this state with me, sweetheart? I'm just doing what they all do. And everyone acts like it's fucking Watergate.

Including that one.

Fuck ALL you motherfuckers.