And now, some sort of news.

• Giuliani is concerned that children of illegal immigrants that are born here might receive money from Hillary Clinton's $5,000-to-every-baby program. Last time I checked, anyone born within our borders is a citizen.

• Hillary plans to build a metaphorical "Bridge to the 20th Century" (or at least, after 1925 or so).
  
  
• Why have I seen not just one but multiple news stories about Barack Obama's lack of a flag pin?
  
  
• In a surprise twist, representatives of Iowa and New Hampshire have come out against reforming the country's totally dysfunctional primary system.
  
  
• It pains me to say this, but I have to. Chertoff has a point: using immigration law as a way to get gangbangers off the street is a worthwhile strategy, just the same as busting Al Capone on tax evasion. On the other hand, I disagree with his statement that he has to go ahead full-steam and bust all of those illegals anyway, just because Congress can't get anything done. He's got limited resources just like anyone else. Why should he feel obligated to spend all of his budget and manpower chasing down landscapers and guys with elote carts when the DHS could be spying on American citizens, waterboarding people, and hassling travelers about those two suspicious strings coming out of their shoes (laces? They look more like fuses to me!)
  
  
• Chicago remains a magnet for the disreputable. I love this town.
  
  
• The RIAA really needs to be stopped. The music business is evolving, and certain people (who know nothing about music, just marketing) will no longer be able to make themselves rich on an epic scale by robbing musicians and fans. So what are they doing? They're trying to milk a quarter of a million dollars out of a single mother of two. Who needs that money more? Jammie Thomas and her kids or Richard fucking Branson? Pitchfork:

  According to the Chicago Tribune, Thomas shared files by such artists as AFI, Aerosmith, Green Day, Journey, and Guns n' Roses. Thankfully, now these struggling entertainers will be able to feed their families.

  The complete list includes Sara McLachlan, Richard Marx and Linkin Park. It could be argued that Thomas was really just being penalized for having bad taste: if she had been swapping Public Enemy tunes, Chuck D would have come to her defense.
  
  
• Obama: Iowans know what arugula is. Iowans: No, we don't.
  
  
• The Cubs curse has nothing to do with the Greeks, it's actually a diabolical GOP conspiracy.
  
  
• If these numbers hold, Romney is the nominee. He takes the first two states by eight points each, despite all the coverage saying that he's lagging. That gives him a bump in South Carolina, where he can tie and potentially beat Fred Thompson, and then he can come in a respectable second in Florida. This effectively puts Law & Order re-runs back on 24-7 again and Rudy's on the run, campaigning for his life in big delegate states in a desperate attempt to make it look close, but the rest of the states will follow the lead and pick the guy who looks like a president and not someone who's desperately scrambling to save face. On the other hand, Romney himself is saying that what's going on now has squat to do with what happens in January.
  
  
• Ed Rollins, explaining why the GOP is losing the money race: "The Democrats, they’re out there, they’re hungry. We just got fat, dumb, and happy.”
  
  
• Torture? We don't tortu . . . hey, rich people! Next question!
  
  
• Seriously, it's nice when people push Democratic leadership to do what they need to do. Seniority be damned, I'd be fine if large portions of the Democratic leadership, who have been a large part of "guiding" the listless political drifting the DNC had been doing before the 2006 elections, were pushed out for the newbies (say, ambitious Jim Webb types) who pushed out Republicans on a platform of doing something worth a damn.