O MY

Congratulations to our next president, Barack Obama, and I hope I'm wrong about him and his party. We really need leadership in Washington to not suck right about now, but I look down to DC at the Rangels and Bachmanns and Murthas and Icebox Bill Jeffersons and think...

...we gave THEM the power too.

And as for here in New York, the Democrats will control both houses of the legislature as well as the governor's office. This is bound to work out wonderfully for all concerned.

Looks like we'll be flying into some turbulence shortly.

THE WISE HEADS OF THE SENATE PREVAIL FOR OUR CHILDREN

Hey, great. The Senate passed their version of the bailout bill, just tweaked a teensy bit from the original so that it's no longer a measly 3 pages, but 451.

Here's the full, gruesome PDF. Skip ahead to page 300 for the good stuff, to wit:

Subparagraph (A) shall not apply to any shaft consisting of all natural wood with no laminations or artificial means of enhancing the spine of such shaft (whether sold separately or incorporated as part of a finished or unfinished product) of a type used in the manufacture of any arrow which after its assembly-
"(i) measures 5⁄16 of an inch or less in diameter, and "(ii) is not suitable for use with a bow described in paragraph (1)(A).''.
"(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.-The amendments made by this section shall apply to shafts first sold after the date of enactment of this Act.

And so, parents of America, the answer to all our problems from the learned men and women of the Senate: yes, you WILL still be able to warn your kids that they'll put their eyes out playing with that stuff.

RESISTANCE...GROWING...WEAKER

Gaaaah, my day job is eyeing my recreational bloggage and saying "how YOU doin', baby?"

I promise to you that if when I give in to these base impulses I'll put the political stuff and other ranty things off on some other blog entirely, lest I destroy the goodwill built up with you and among my vast cadre of readers, who now number so many that they could easily fill a minivan.

O, THE GLAMOROUS LIFE OF A CAMPAIGN REPORTER

There are times when I don't feel so bad about having spent many an evening sitting glazed-over at a local zoning board of appeals meeting, waiting to get that soundbite from the board chairman on why the arch signs at the proposed McDonald's can be 24 feet high but not 28 feet high. I feel pretty good about the dues-paying days of my broadcasting career when I see pictures like these grizzled veterans, from the Hillary Clinton press office in Austin, Texas:

You must forgive me, I'm not used to seeing men's rooms in a political context without wondering if there's a senator behind stall door number three, trolling for a bit of strange.

Hat tip: Gawker.

UNSURPRISING ELECTION SCREW-UP OF THE WEEK

Had some folks 'round these parts calling the radio station all atwitter because their polling places were closed on Tuesday - that was because most polling places in New York didn't open until noon. I remain gratified that there are New Yorkers with shorter attention spans than mine.

Look. Shiny! What? Oh.

I also remain gratified that there were voters in Wisconsin, Virginia and Texas who showed up a week or two early for their primaries, and positively delighted that Florida remains our champion for electoral cluelessness. Great job showing up a week late there, Floridians:

"It's funny that they want to argue with us about it," said Janet Olin, assistant elections supervisor. "We absolutely have had more than a handful, and they are a handful."

Many thanks to Florida elections officials for keeping these folks occupied, and thus less likely to come up here where they might (gasp) drive.

HART'S LOCATION, REPRESENT!

The town where I got married is in the news again, same as it is every four years. Mrs. J and I had no idea of Hart's Location's unique history the first time we stayed there - we were just looking for a place halfway between Montreal and Boston on our first road trip together, and wound up finding the Notchland Inn. We liked it so much we got married there. Speaking of which, hearty congratulations to innkeepers Ed and Les for finally getting their civil union after 30 years.