Give Love on Christmas Day

I'm on Christmas vacation but this is one of my favorite songs ...

Give Love on Christmas Day

People making lists, buying special gifts,
It's a time to be kind to one and all
It's that time of year when good friends are dear
And you wish you could give more
Than just presents from a store

Why don't you give love on Christmas day
Oh even the man who has everything
Would be so happy if you would bring
Him love on Christmas day (on Christmas day)
No greater gift is there than love

People you don't know smiling out hello
Everywhere there's an air of Christmas joy
It's that once a year, when the world's sincere
And you'd like to find a way
To show the things that words can't say

Why don't you give love on Christmas day
The man on the street and the couple upstairs
All need to know that there's one cares
Give love on Christmas day
No greater gift is there than love
What the world needs is love
Yes the world needs your love

Why don't you give love on Christmas day
Oh every little child on Santa's knee
Has room for your love underneath his tree
Give love on Christmas day (Christmas day)
No greater gift is there than love
What the world needs is love
Yes the world needs your love

Give love on Christmas day ...

It's A Prayer Folks!

Look, it's not like I'm a big fan of the religious right. However, as far as crazy Evangelicals go, I actually like Rick Warren more than I do the other ones. I even bought his book some years back. It's not like he was appointed to Obama's cabinet or that he will be his spiritual adviser. Living in California where 75% of black folks voted FOR Proposition 8, it's not like I don't know more than my share of homo-bigots and people who are anti-choice despite the stupefyingly high number of out of wedlock children in the community. I think Obama is showing that his Presidency will not shut out anyone who doesn't agree with him the way Dubya did. That game is old and it set us back domestically and internationally. Let the man say his prayer for our President and for the future of the country. If he gets up there and says that all "sissies" are going to hell, everyone can be outraged then.

For more than two years, cozying up to Rick Warren has been one of Barack Obama's favorite ways of showing evangelical Christians that he might not be so scary, after all -- and for just as long, palling around with Obama every once in a while has been Warren's way of trying to show more secular-minded people that he's not so bad, either.

So about the only thing less surprising than the outrage that news of Warren's selection to give the invocation at Obama's inauguration is prompting among gay activists, liberals and Obama supporters generally is probably Warren's appearance on the program in the first place. Obama and Warren have often used each other to demonstrate that they'll be willing to listen to people they disagree with -- and yes, also to let everyone know that they'll be willing to anger their friends. This isn't one of those political controversies that pop up out of nowhere without warning; whether they want to admit it or not, it seems Obama's advisors brought on this fight with his own supporters knowing full well what was coming.

Having Warren speak at the inauguration might make more sense for Obama, now that he's been elected, than going to Warren's Saddleback Civil Forum in August in search of evangelical votes did from a campaigning standpoint. When the ballots were counted he only did marginally better among white evangelicals than Gore and Kerry; the idea now, apparently, is to signal that Obama will be a president for all Americans, whether they voted for him on Nov. 4 or not.

"This is a farewell kiss, you dog!"

I think that about sums it up!

In Iraqi culture, throwing shoes at someone is a sign of contempt. Iraqis whacked a statue of Saddam with their shoes after U.S. marines toppled it to the ground following the 2003 invasion.

See the "footage."

It's A Shame That It Even Came To This

I have no idea (well I guess I do) why this company thought it could get away with this is It's just beyond me.

The word came just after lunch on Dec. 2 in the cafeteria of Republic Windows and Doors. A company official told assembled workers that their plant on this city’s North Side, which had operated for more than four decades, would be closed in just three days.

There was a murmur of shock, then anger, in the drab room lined with snack machines. Some women cried. But a few of the factory’s union leaders had been anticipating this moment. Several weeks before, they had noticed that equipment had disappeared from the plant, and they began tracing it to a nearby rail yard.

And so, in secret, they had been discussing a bold but potentially dangerous plan: occupying the factory if it closed.

By the time their six-day sit-in ended on Wednesday night, the 240 laid-off workers at this previously anonymous 125,000-square-foot plant had become national symbols of worker discontent amid the layoffs sweeping the country. Civil rights workers compared them to Rosa Parks. But all the workers wanted, they said, was what they deserved under the law: 60 days of severance pay and earned vacation time.

And to their surprise, their drastic action worked. Late Wednesday, two major banks agreed to lend the company enough money to give the workers what they asked for.

JJ Is Candidate 5?

I'm not sure I buy this. I thought that prior to this, Jesse Jackson Jr. had eyes on the Mayor's office. I'd say that maybe this alleged emissary is from Mayor Daley's camp trying to get Jackson the job so that he doesn't end up battling him for his job next time around.

Representative Jesse Jackson Jr., long seen here as someone who was willing, even happy, to clash with this city's old power structure, found himself tangled up on Wednesday in the fallout from the arrest of Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois — now a symbol of that old, unseemly political way.

Jackson was described in an affidavit filed in Blagojevich's arrest as one of at least six people being considered by the governor to fill President-elect Barack Obama's unfinished term in the United States Senate in exchange for money or a new job.

Specifically, federal authorities said, Jackson is "Senate Candidate 5," associates of whom, the governor said in a wire-tapped conversation, were willing to raise money for Blagojevich in exchange for the seat.

Jackson, an ambitious Democrat elected to Congress 13 years ago and the son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader, made a defiant appearance before reporters in Washington on Wednesday, denying unequivocally that he had offered Blagojevich anything in exchange for the Senate seat or had sanctioned any offer by an intermediary, as Blagojevich seemed to suggest in recordings.

"I did not initiate or authorize anyone at any time to promise anything to Governor Blagojevich on my behalf," Jackson said. "I never sent a message or an emissary to the governor to make an offer, to plead my case or to propose a deal about a U.S. Senate seat, period."

Why Did He Get 15 Minutes In The First Place

Why is he still talking?

With the dust still settling from the 2008 presidential race, one of its biggest celebrities lashed out Tuesday at the man who made him famous.

Joe "The Plumber" Wurzelbacher, the Ohio voter who challenged President-elect Barack Obama on his tax plan and later became a hero of John McCain's presidential bid, said Tuesday he felt "appalled" at some of his interactions with the Arizona senator, and soon felt the need to ditch his campaign.

Speaking with conservative talk-radio host Glenn Beck, Wurzelbacher said he was specifically at odds with McCain's support over the massive $700 billion bailout, a measure many conservatives opposed despite McCain's attempts to shepherd the bill on Capitol Hill.

“When I was on the bus with him, I asked him a lot of questions about the bailout because most Americans did not want that to happen,” Wurzelbacher told Beck. “I asked him some pretty direct questions,” he continued. “Some of the answers…they appalled me, absolutely. I was angry.

"In fact, I wanted to get off the bus after I talked to him."

Is Blagojevich Really This Stupid?

I've been hiding from my own blog over the past few weeks (I seem to be posting everything to Facebook) but good GOD if this didn't make me peek my head out!

llinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested Tuesday on charges of conspiring to get financial benefits through his authority to appoint a U.S. senator to fill the vacancy left by Barack Obama's election as president.

According to a federal criminal complaint, Blagojevich also was charged with illegally threatening to withhold state assistance to Tribune Co., the owner of the Chicago Tribune, in the sale of Wrigley Field. In return for state assistance, Blagojevich allegedly wanted members of the paper's editorial board who had been critical of him fired.

Blagojevich also was charged with using his authority as governor in an attempt to squeeze out campaign contributions, prosecutors said.

Then again, this is "Chicago" so I am shocked ... but not appalled!