Sorry, boys and girls, just don’t have a blog post in me right now for the AM. Have at it. But here’s a poem, if you need enlightenment and entertainment:

A Song of Defeat

The line breaks and the guns go under,

The lords and the lackeys ride the plain;

I draw deep breaths of the dawn and thunder,

And the whole of my heart grows young again.

For our chiefs said ‘Done,’ and I did not deem it;

Our seers said ‘Peace,’ and it was not peace;

Earth will grow worse till men redeem it,

And wars more evil, ere all wars cease.

But the old flags reel and the old drums rattle,

As once in my life they throbbed and reeled;

I have found my youth in the lost battle,

I have found my heart on the battlefield.

For we that fight till the world is free,

We are not easy in victory:

We have known each other too long, my brother,

And fought each other, the world and we.

And I dream of the days when work was scrappy,

And rare in our pockets the mark of the mint,

When we were angry and poor and happy,

And proud of seeing our names in print.

For so they conquered and so we scattered,

When the Devil road and his dogs smelt gold,

And the peace of a harmless folk was shattered;

When I was twenty and odd years old.

When the mongrel men that the market classes

Had slimy hands upon England’s rod,

And sword in hand upon Afric’s passes

Her last Republic cried to God.

For the men no lords can buy or sell,

They sit not easy when all goes well,

They have said to each other what naught can smother,

They have seen each other, our souls and hell.

It is all as of old, the empty clangour,

The Nothing scrawled on a five-foot page,

The huckster who, mocking holy anger,

Painfully paints his face with rage.

And the faith of the poor is faint and partial,

And the pride of the rich is all for sale,

And the chosen heralds of England’s Marshal

Are the sandwich-men of the Daily Mail,

And the niggards that dare not give are glutted,

And the feeble that dare not fail are strong,

So while the City of Toil is gutted,

I sit in the saddle and sing my song.

For we that fight till the world is free,

We have no comfort in victory;

We have read each other as Cain his brother,

We know each other, these slaves and we.

GK Chesterton

Drip, drip, drip comes out the thick, nauseating syrup of corruption that is Chicago politics…from Legal Insurrection:

The media is all atwitter over the decision of the Illinois House committee considering articles of impeachment against Gov. Rod Blagojevich to deny the request by Blagojevich’s attorneys to subpoena Obama aides Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett. The House decision comes at the request of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who is concerned that the subpoenas may interfere in the criminal case against Blagojevich.

The media has it both right and wrong. Right, the House apparently made the decision not to issue subpoenas. Wrong, that Emanuel and Jarrett won’t have to testify at some point. The media is failing to draw the distinction between the House proceedings drafting articles of impeachment, and the actual trial.

The legislative process to draft articles of impeachment is under the complete control of the House Democratic majority, which among other things, has denied both Blagojevich and House Republicans the right to issue subpoenas. The legislative process is purely political, and the politics of the Democratic majority and Fitzgerald are perfectly aligned for now. Once the articles of impeachment are passed, however, the political process and Fitzgerald lose some measure of control.

Article IV, Section 14 of the Illinois Constitution provides that once the House has impeached the Governor, “[i]mpeachments shall be tried by the Senate. When sitting for that purpose, Senators shall be upon oath, or affirmation, to do justice according to law. If the Governor is tried, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court shall preside. No person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the Senators elected.”

The key provisions are the requirement that the Senators do justice “according to law,” and that the Chief Justice “shall preside.” While there will be plenty of legal arguments over what this means, it is clear that these provisions impose a higher level of due process than the purely legislative House proceedings, which are not limited by such provisions.

At trial, we can expect Blagojevich to renew his request to call any and all witnesses necessary for his defense, and to invoke standards of relevance similar to what prevails in court. Unless the articles of impeachment are so narrowly drawn as to exclude any use of any information in the Criminal Complaint (or anticipated Indictment), it is likely that the testimony of Emanuel and Jarrett will be relevant to the issue, among others, of Blagojevich’s alleged attempt to sell Obama’s open U.S. Senate seat.

One does begin to wonder if Fitzgerald has blown his case – at this point, Blago is just entirely indifferent to what people think about him, or he’s seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. The trouble for Obama is that the light might be rather far down the tunnel and so this problem might continue on for months. Obama has a lot on his plate and he needs to have his senior aides called to testify in a seedy political corruption case like he needs a hole in his head. Trouble is, how does Obama get out of this and bury the whole problem?

He will become Fitzgerald’s boss on January 20th – and he can order Fitz to call off the dogs, fire Fitz or (worst case scenario) confirm to Fitz that his job is secure due to his mishandling of the Blago case which resulted in Blago not actually being sent to jail where he might be induced to spill all the beans about Chicago corruption. Doing the first would be fatal to Obama’s image as an agent of change. Ditto with the second alternative. If its the third, then its just a matter of time before it all comes out with the result that Blago becomes Obama’s Whitewater. There is a fourth alternative – Obama can come completely clean in this, but that is only possible if Obama and his senior aides really did nothing wrong (if Obama and aides are clean, is there still a chance that they’d refuse to clear the air – yes, because even a clean Democrat worries that a full airing of a case will just open up a can of worms).

We’ve got an economy on the fritz, a campaign to win in Afghanistan, a Russia getting out of control, a Venezuela which needs to be curbed, a China on the verge of an economic collapse, a new flare up in the Israeli-Arab War…in to this toxic mix we don’t need to add a corruption scandal. Too bad, then, that we elected a product of the hopelessly corrupt Chicago Democratic machine – Obama might be clean, but all those around him are deep in the Chicago muck.

In how life in America is reported starting on January 20th, as noted by Victor Davis Hanson:

By July, we will come to feel that 2009 will be one of the most upbeat years in our history, as what used to be the news media∗ begins to get behind America and report on all the mysteriously wonderful things that are suddenly taking place.

All the campaign talk of the Great Depression, a Vietnam-like war, and our shredded Constitution will now thankfully subside as the Obama administration assumes office and solves problems with conciliation, dialogue, and multilateral wisdom, rather than shrillness, unilateralism, preemption, and my-way-or-the-highway dogmatism. We will hear that, by historical levels, unemployment is still not that bad, that GDP growth is not historically all that low, and that deficits, inflation, interest rates, and housing starts are all within manageable parameters. “Depression” will transmogrify into “recession” which in turn by July will be a “downturn” and by year next an “upswing” on its way to boom times.

Indeed, almost supernaturally crises will be solved with the departure of the hated Bush: no more flooding streets from cracked water mains that were a result of a President’s neglect of infrastructure, and no more spontaneous crashes of Mississippi River bridges due to diversions of critical federal aid from cash-strapped states to Iraq. And when the temperatures rise or drop, the wind howls, the clouds burst forth or go away, the snow melts or piles up, it will be, well, nature that caused the havoc, not the current occupant of the White House who failed to sign Kyoto.

As we watch the innocent die from natural mayhem, it will be due to the breakdown of local responders who now suddenly kill people, not federal inaction—except perhaps for an occasional few Bush federal holdovers that have not yet been rooted out. Human nature, of course, now will be seen more culpable, more selfish, as in needlessly resisting wise and caring federal interventions, rather than being inherently noble but shunned by an uncaring Washington. Yes, when dikes collapse and planes collide on crowed runways, it will be due to a cruel and unpredictable nature, or intrinsic design flaws, or improper local use and maintenance, or the past President’s nefarious legacy, not current government policies. (But if you still must bash the government, it will be wise to do it in 1950s style of inattentive state and local officials, prone to regional and tribal prejudices, blocking the infinite wisdom of a caring federal government.)

It will be an amazing transformation – and it will happen rather quickly. There will be that fine line where one day a blog post out our economic ills will bring lefty comments about its still all Bush’s fault, and the next day it will bring lefty comments about how Obama is already on it and we conservatives are just talking down the economy. We’ll also very swiftly discover that dissent is not the highest form of patriotism. And it won’t take subtle shifts to get the left to do this – they learned their lesson long ago and know that no matter how swift and absurd the change in the party line, it must be obeyed.

There is nothing so mindlessly predictable than liberal/left thinking – we already know what they will do what they will say and how they will react to events. But we also know something else – liberal/left policies uniformly fail, and the most strictly they are applied, the more spectacular the failure. So, the MSM and the left will be “happy/happy joy/joy” gladhanding us while Obama and his Democrats drive us off the cliff, unless Obama has the wisdom to govern from the center. If things go as we fully expect them to, then we’ll be putting a smiley face on disaster, until the disaster grows so large that even the MSM will be forced to report it.

I am happy to tell our loyal readers here that on Christmas morning I asked my girlfriend Beth to marry me…

…and she said yes.

I have lots more to say… but I also have an apartment that is in serious need of cleaning after a long battle with wrapping paper and scotch tape… so I will tell you all more later.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: Congratulations, Matt and Beth!!!

UPDATE, by Matt Margolis: …and for those who have been asking about the ring:

And Hamas – regardless of the rightness or wrongness of the overall Palestinian cause – are sinning when they launch random rocket attacks on southern Israel. And now they have been paid with the death they have so richly and many times over earned, and may be paid even more:

Israeli warplanes rained more than 100 tons of bombs on security sites in Hamas-ruled Gaza Saturday and early Sunday, killing at least 230 people in one of the Mideast conflict’s bloodiest assaults in decades. The government said the open-ended campaign was aimed at stopping rocket attacks that have traumatized southern Israel.

Most of the casualties were security forces, but Palestinian officials said at least 15 civilians were among the dead. More than 400 people were also wounded.

The unprecedented assault sparked protests and condemnations throughout the Arab world, and many of Israel’s Western allies urged restraint, though the U.S. blamed Hamas for the fighting.

But there was no end in sight. The first round of strikes began around noon Saturday followed by successive waves of attacks that continued into the early hours Sunday.

Israel warned it might go after Hamas’ leaders, and militants kept pelting Israel with rockets – killing at least one Israeli and wounding six.

Hundreds of Israeli infantry and armored corps troops headed for the Gaza border in preparation for a possible ground invasion, military officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity under army guidelines.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said late Saturday that the goal was “to bring about a fundamental improvement in the security situation.” He added, “It could take some time.”

The number of civilian casualties is surprisingly low, considering how cowardly Hamas is about hiding behind the skirts of women and the playgrounds of children. Israel must have carefully researched just where the Hamas forces are and hit hard right where they needed to. Urging restraint upon Israel is probably not necessary – if this is like the rest of Israel’s military actions, it will stop just short of winning a complete victory. I hope it is otherwise this time – that Israel will keep at it until Hamas in Gaza is crippled and other forces – perhaps more inclined to deal with reality rather than Islamist fantasy – may arise with whom Israel could do business.

War is not policy – it is one of the tools a State may use to implement a policy. Israel has to figure out what, precisely, they want out of the Palestinians and then keep fighting and fighting and fighting – without let up for even a moment – until the Palestinians agree to give it. Until there is a white flag run up the pole in Gaza and the senior Palestinian leadership goes over to the Israelis to sign a public statement of surrender and acceptance of Israeli terms for peace, there will be no peace. Peace, in this case, cannot be negotiated but must be imposed. The problem with Israel is that it has been engaging in a peace process for 60 years – peace isn’t a process, it is a condition: you have it, or you don’t. Until Israel knuckles down to the fact that peace will only come with victory, there will be no peace – but Israel also has to decide what victory is, and then state that condition for the world to see, and then force the Palestinians to agree to it.

Anything else would work out to a useless effusion of blood on both sides – if one is to make war, then one takes on the moral responsibility of ensuring that the dead on both sides are honored in their sacrifice by a better situation being created at the end of hostilities. Killing out of a desire for revenge; engaging in battle merely to secure some temporary political advantage; making war for any other purpose than securing peace – these are horrors no human being should contemplate. I urge Israel to fight this war and fight it to a finish because that is the right thing to do, for the Israelis, for the Palestinians and for the whole world.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Sen. Harry Reid will command the biggest party majority of any Senate leader in a quarter century when the new Congress convenes in January. But the Nevada Democrat is already worried about his own re-election fight in 2010…

…Sen. Reid…faces a potentially tough fight. A recent Research 2000 poll of likely voters put his approval rating at 38% and his disapproval rating at 54%, a possible reflection of voters’ displeasure with gridlock and partisanship in Washington. And while Nevada broke for President-elect Barack Obama by 12 percentage points in November, the state voted for President George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004.

As Senate majority leader, Sen. Reid is expected to play a critical role in shepherding Democratic priorities through the Senate, with a full docket of legislation up for consideration in the first year of the Obama administration.

In Reid’s favor is the fact that the current GOP governor is unpopular (and, indeed, I have called for his resignation over his extra-marital affair – can’t be loyal to your wife, who can you be loyal to?), the current GOP Lt. Governor has been indicted (perhaps a bogus charge – such things are known to happen for political purposes in Nevada, but its still a heavy blow), while Rep. John Porter lost his re-election bid in November (which proved we had a very large anti-GOP wave in this State as his opponent – Nevada Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus – is a political barnacle who also has a voice which grates on your ears like fingernails on a chalkboard). In short, the GOP bench is shallow right now, and that is Reid’s only real hope. And thus my concerns about Lt. Governor Krolicki’s indictment on a rather bizarre charge of misappropriating funds with the funds appearing to stay in State hands and being usefully engaged for the benefit of the State – adding to the concerns is that our State AG is a Democrat.

Be that as it may, all the top GOPers are at least damaged goods as we start our run-up to 2010. Still, Reid is entirely beatable. He’s entirely lost touch with Nevada and has become the merest lapdog for Nancy Pelosi and her San Francisco values. It is time for those who, perhaps, have never taken a direct hand in politics to work out plans for an insurgent campaign to take advantage of Reid’s weakness.

From Political Punch:

President-elect Obama stopped by the Marine Corps base in Hawaii Kaneche Bay where servicemen and -women were eating Christmas dinner in Kailua Thursday evening.

“Just wanted to say hi, hey guys,” Obama said as he walked into the Anderson dining hall which was decked out in Christmas decorations.

The diners represented seven military units — Marine and Navy — some of whom were joined by their families for Christmas dinner.

As Obama entered the room, it was absent of the regular fanfare of cheering and clapping. The diners were polite, staying seated at their respective tables and waited for the president-elect to come to them to stand up.

Obama, dressed casually in a blue polo shirt and dark khaki trousers, worked his way around the room — table by table — and took pictures with the service members. He slapped them on the back at times, shook hands, and signed some autographs.

“Hey guys, Merry Christmas,” The president-elect said as he walked from table to table.

To be clear about this – once he’s sworn in, if Obama gives an order, it will be “yes, sir!”, without hesitation from these magnificent men and women. They know the drill – they serve the nation, not the man and an order from the President is an order from the United States of America. But it is important that Obama start to build a relationship of trust between himself and the men and women he will lead.

It is not at all helpful to Obama that he’s called our effort in Iraq a mistake and advocated a cut and run – a lot of the men and women in the armed forces have served in Iraq and/or know people who have, and some of them have lost friends over there…no soldier wants to hear his commander saying that his friends died for a mistake and that we should have lost the war. Say what you will about President Bush, but the military loves him – he’s done good by them and stuck by them when the political chips were down. In an institution with an ingrained memory of political betrayal in Vietnam, President Bush’s steadfast support has been reciprocated with a devotion above and beyond the call of duty. Both incoming Obama and outgoing Bush will get the “yes, sir” expected of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines – but there will be an element of trust lacking when Obama gives his orders.

Come what may, Obama must bridge this gap – and I give him a thumbs up in his visiting the troops. Can’t break down the barriers unless you, well, break them down. These men and women want to serve to the best of their ability, and they want a leader they can depend on – Obama has to prove himself that sort of person. Once he does, there is no task he can set our military which will prove impossible as long as there is political backing for it. Bill Clinton’s stock in the US military never really recovered from his cut and run from Somalia – and I hope that Obama has laid that lesson to heart.

Mostly good news for the GOP:

Texas will lose some influence in Washington when President George W. Bush leaves the White House, but a new study finds that the Lone Star state will be the big winner in the upcoming congressional reapportionment.

The study, from the firm Election Data Services, projects that Texas will pick up three seats in Congress. Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Utah would gain one seat each. Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania would each lose one.

There are some caveats noted later in the story – the slowdown in population growth in some States (such as my Nevada) due to the economic crunch could alter projections, but there is also the chance that California – for the first time since statehood in 1850 – might lose a House seat. Meanwhile, a surge of people returning to Jindal’s Louisiana might preserve all of Louisiana’s House seats. If this happens, it will be all the proof needed that liberalism, however applied, is a complete failure while conservatism, properly applied, is a success. In IA, MA, MI, NJ, NY, OH and PA you have something in common – Democrats running the show. For the most part, same thing in CA – sure, there is a GOP governor, but Democrats so completely dominate the legislature, courts and bureaucracy that the governor doesn’t matter all that much. Meanwhile, TX, FL, GA, NV and UT have Republicans, while AZ is the lone growing State with a Democratic governor (soon to be out of office due to being appointed to the Cabinet by Obama just in time to avoid the liberal chickens coming home to roost).

People are voting with their feet – rapidly fleeing the bastions of liberalism in favor of conservative governance.

So says governor Patterson:

Gov. Patterson put up a caution flag Wednesday to those ready to anoint Caroline Kennedy New York’s next U.S. senator.

“How is she a front-runner?” Paterson shot back when a reporter used the term referring to Kennedy.

Paterson, just back from his troop visit to Iraq, Afghanistan and Germany, did not rule Kennedy out of course.

Still, he made it clear he is growing tired of the constant speculation about JFK’s daughter. Paterson has the sole decision on who will replace Hillary Clinton, who is leaving to become secretary of state.

He said the process is “sounding more like the prelude to a high school prom than the choosing of the United States senator.”

Paterson has repeatedly said he won’t choose anyone until after Clinton is confirmed.

Which is reasonable – the chances of Hillary not being confirmed are small, but until the deal is done, she’s still a Senator and thus the governor is being entirely right and proper in reserving judgment.

As for me, I’m wondering which power players in the Democratic party are pushing Ms. Kennedy – after all, she’s a complete political zero. I’m sure she’s a nice person, but there is no indication that she’s some sort of secret political genius just waiting in the wings for the right moment. Other than the Kennedy family trying to burnish their rapidly fading political star, I can’t see why anyone would want Ms. Kennedy in the Senate unless she happened to run for it and win in her own right.

Smokescreen for Blagojevich or is there something to it?

An attorney for Gov. Rod Blagojevich has asked the Illinois House committee considering whether to impeach the governor to subpoena more than a dozen witnesses, including President-elect Barack Obama’s incoming chief of staff and a senior adviser.

State Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie said Thursday that the House committee received a letter from Blagojevich attorney Ed Genson asking it to subpoena Rep. Rahm Emanuel, Valerie Jarrett and more than a dozen others, including Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.

Ms. Currie, the head of the committee, said she didn’t yet know what the committee’s response to Mr. Genson’s request would be. However, she noted that the U.S. Attorney’s office has already denied the panel’s request to interview a list of people named in the criminal complaint against Mr. Blagojevich.

There was no immediate response Thursday to calls seeking comment from Mr. Genson, the Obama transition team and Mr. Jackson.

And the wheel of Chicago corruption continues to turn..