Looking Around, Festivus Edition

• The rather… interesting Xmas decorations at the White House (H/t: C2.) Which “genius” thinks he could  put pictures of Mao in them without a backlash? I mean, this is such weapon-grade stupid that it almost has to be a hoax.
• Congressional Dems already making contingency plans for 2010 drubbing? (H/t: Pi guy)
• Senator Mary Landrieu On ‘Louisiana Purchase’: ‘I Can’t Be Bought’ We’ve already established what you are, Senator: we’re just haggling about the price.
• Stupak: White House Pressuring Me to Keep Quiet on Abortion Language in Senate Health Bill…( H/t: Running bare)
• Quiz (h/t/ Pi Guy): were these acts committed by a character in The Sopranos or by an Illinois politician?
• Speaking of which: On the Twelve Days of Xmas, Illinois edition: “According to the Chicago Sun-Times, as of 2006 […] 79 elected officials [in Illinois] had been convicted of corruption in the past 30 years. Among the perps: 27 aldermen, 19 judges, 15 state legislators, three governors, two congressmen, one mayor, two turtledoves, and a partridge in a stolen pear tree.”
  
• From crooks in Crook County to corruption in Pennsylvania. (H/t Pi Guy) See also “The Eighth Day of 0bamamas“
• Jane Hamsher (of looney-left site FireDogLake!) on FOX NEWS telling people to “kill the bill”
• A “Renault Award” for Olympia Snowe? 🙂
• And the unintentional self-parody of the year award goes to the NY Times: “Maybe We Shouldn’t Eat Plants, Just Because We Can’t Hear Them Doesn’t Mean They Don’t Howl When Being Eaten...”
• While the “read before you sign” award of course goes to 0bama who just signed a bill into law that (due to a clerical error) forces armed Amtrak passengers (not just their guns) to be locked up in boxes for the duration of the trip. Almost as good as when Belgian parliament exempted from a vehicle tax “the blind and legally blind who drive their own vehicles”.
• Priceless Michael Ramirez cartoon: