'Bank Robbery': when banks -- or in this case, huge financial interests like AIG -- do the robbing.

Can we send in the Marines?

Forbes puts out a report saying billionaires are worse off this year than last and every media outlet in the country reports this as news.

"Calling into question the legitimacy" of Bush's signing statements, Obama just announced that none of them would be recognized as valid until they were reviewed by Attorney General Eric Holder:

In his directive, Mr. Obama said that any signing statement issued before his presidency should be viewed with doubt, placing an asterisk beside all of those issued by Mr. Bush and other former presidents.

Commenting briefly on Quigley's win in the Special Primary for Congress in IL-05, Steven Benen points out:

Netroots favorite Tom Geoghegan came in a disappointing seventh in the multi-candidate primary.

'Netroots favorite'? Actually it was only the 'Netroots' who weren't paying attention. It's amazing how dismissive some of these people were.

It says something about a public official when amid the euphoria of them winning election, there's a nagging tinge of regret for what they're leaving behind.

That's what I feel about Mike Quigley winning the Democratic nomination in IL-05. Finally a bit of good news coming out of Illinois! On the other hand, I think most people feel it's going to be a challenge at the local level to find someone to fill his shoes.

My first reaction to hearing that Paul Harvey had died -- to be honest -- was surprise that he was still alive.

It's not like I followed his career all that much. In fact, while he may have broadcast in Chicago, the first time I heard of him was in the wild squatter scene of West Berlin in the 1980s when one of the few radio stations in English was Armed Forces Radio and he was on that.

I'd be completely happy with Tom Geoghegan as congressman in IL-05 but I have no idea why his campaign is passing around the endorsement from this guy:

"Democratic primary voters face a choice ... between a brilliant independent progressive intellectual and a handful of legislators with strong organizational links, a veneer of independence, and little indication of profound progressive commitment or intellectual imagination."

First, the Award for Most Depressing Story of the Week has to go to NPR's David Greene for a piece called "Mailman Finds Delivery Route Altered By Recession".

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former CBO Director (2003-2005) and spokesman most recently for John McCain on economic matters, has been making the rounds giving his opinion on various Obama initiatives. Here he is on NPR this morning passing judgment on Obama's budget.

I'm not sure why they consider him an authority. Here's what he had to say about all the fake numbers that used to come out of the Bush Administration:

So according to the Chicago Tribune, reaction in the Chicago area to Obama's Address was "mixed". Here's their headline:

"Chicago Area Residents Give Barack Obama's Stimulus Bill Mixed Reviews"