Stupid Groundhog

Evidently, Punxsutawney Fucking Phil the groundhog saw his shadow this morning. 6 more weeks of winter. Stupid rodent.

Ned?

Obama is here. Everything will be fine tomorrow.

President Obama was inaugurated yesterday, and I watched his speech. It was interesting to compare it to the campaign speeches he gave earlier. He really dialed back the rhetoric and told people how it was: things suck right now, they are going to suck for a long time, but eventually, with hard work, we can make things better. Good message, but certainly different from what we heard before.

I think it will be interesting to see how the public's perception of Obama changes over the next 6 months -- I predict his approval rating drops 20%. Current favorable/unfavorable polls show (from RCP):

RCP Average: 73% Favorable -- 14.8% Unfavorable
ABC News/Wash Post: 79% Favorable -- 18% Unfavorable
CBS News/NY Times: 60% Favorable -- 9% Unfavorable
Fox News: 76% Favorable -- 15% Unfavorable
NBC News/WSJ: 66% Favorable -- 14% Unfavorable
USA Today/Gallup: 78% Favorable -- 18% Unfavorable
Pew: 79% Favorable -- 15% Unfavorable

I'm not trying to put down Obama -- I think he'll be a good president (although given my expectations of a president, that may not be saying much). I just don't think that the president really has any power to effect true change. People's expectations are sky high right now, and unfortunately many of them expect that change to come in the next few weeks.

Govenors are Funny

Right now, every Illinois governor for the last 10 years -- since 1998 -- is in federal custody or federal prison.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blagojevich

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Ryan

In case you missed the news, our governor was arrested this morning for trying to sell a Senate seat (he gets to appoint Obama's replacement).

Working the Crowd

Maybe it's because I have a 9 month old who just learned to wave (at EVERYONE), but I thought this was hilarious.

[deleted]

B.H.O.

I'm not worried. Really. Everything will be fine.


So Obama got elected (but let's be clear, it was not a "landslide" -- he crushed the electoral college but won the popular vote by 5.5%), and the GOP generally got their butts handed to them. One thing to note, though, is that the true majority of voters voted for Obama. Over half. Finally, someone who we can all say truly, without a doubt, won a democratic election.

The reasons I'm not worried:
1. Things are already in the shitter. Really, how much worse can Obama do?
2. He isn't going to touch my guns because the Heller decision just came out of the Supreme Court. The last thing a first term president wants to do is take or support any action that is later found to be unconstitutional.
3. Obama would love to raise my taxes, but until the economy improves, he is handcuffed on that point. Just to be perfectly clear, anyone, regardless of party, who believes that the best way to help the economy break out of a recession is to increase taxes on businesses and investors needs to have their head examined. That $1,000 tax break on the middle class doesn't look so appealing to a person who just lost their job because their employer went under.

Why I'm hopeful:
1. Finally, the religious right completely and utterly FAILED to get anyone elected. They got crushed by young voters, moderate voters, independent voters, and everyone else who doesn't believe that the most important issues faced by this country are abortion and gay marriage. It's time for the GOP to wake the fuck up and realize that social conservatism is going to be their downfall. It didn't help them in this election, and it will continue to cost them elections until they distance themselves from the crazy people.
2. With a minority being elected as President of the United States, maybe Jesse, Al and Louis can just shut the fuck up now. I think that this will wake people up to the fact that the real issue is socio-economic status, not race.
3. Obama won without the help of Kennedy, Pelosi, Reid, et. al. He hasn't leaned on them so far, and I hope that means he'll continue to avoid the lunatic left.

One of my favorite non-share partners at my firm (we have a two-tier partnership -- one for the money, two for the show) has a great saying. He says when they make you a partner, your reward for years of wading through hip-high shit is a bigger pile of shit. Obama inherits a country fighting two unpopular wars, with almost no good will among foreign governments, and floundering in one of the worst economic cycles since the 30s. Congratulations, Mr. President.

Aaaaahhhhhhhh.

It's been busy, but work is officially slowing down. I have a few active deals and a few in the pipeline, but I'm no longer here in the middle of the night, so that is great. The last few months have been like this (which, for my litigation and prosecutor friends, means "busy") -- some deals were separate sign and close, and some were simultaneous sign and close:

4/19 Sign Deal #1
5/2 Close Deal #2
6/23 Close Deal #1
8/27 Sign Deal #3
9/16 Sign Deal #4
9/22 Close Deal #5
9/30 Close Deal #3
10/10 Close Deal #4

So, basically, every two weeks from August through October we were either signing up a deal or closing a deal. We closed 5 deals worth over $300 million in 6 months. September was my highest billable month ever, and I took three days off for my sister's wedding.

All in all, not something I'm looking to repeat. Ever. But, all is well now, because I get to go to Iowa and shoot things this weekend.

Fun like a monkey.

This was the opening line of the last email I sent out:

"Please use the following dial-in for an all hands call to confirm closing status and finalize any open items at 2:45 am est/11:45 pm pst."

Really, conference calls in the middle of the night are fantastic. Be a lawyer. Really. Lots and lots of fun.

Blah.

I'm tired.

I think I'll take tomorrow off.





And, while I'm wishing for the impossible, I'd also like the Bears to get a damn quarterback.

Palin

WORST. DECISION. EVER.

There are very few people that McCain could have picked for a VP candidate that would make me choose not to vote for him. Palin makes that list. Fucking politics.

However, I did hear that she was the vice president of her high school Art Club, so that should really come in handy when McCain kicks off and leaves her to, you know, run the most powerful country in the world. That, and I'm guessing that handling all of those high level, critical issues while acting as mayor of a town of 7,000 two years ago will really give her a leg up when it comes time for diplomatic trips to the middle east, Russia, blah, blah, blah.

Still, that being said, I think McCain has a huge chance here in Illinois. In fact, yesterday I saw two cars that didn't have Obama stickers on them, and I read on the news that Illinois teens are apparently having babies, so that should play in McCain's favor.

I'm voting libertarian.

Dovey, Dove, Dovealicious.

Where oh where are you tonight? Why did you leave me here with no guns? I searched the world over and landed in Chi-town, but there are no doves here, no guns and no fun.


Kansas Dove Season Opens September 1st. Needless to say, I will not be blasting the hell out of the little fuckers for yet another year. Maybe I'll get lucky and my bus will hit a pigeon on the way to work Monday -- just something to tide me over until pheasant season.

I have a beautiful wife, a perfect baby girl and a big fucking new house, but if I don't get to go dove hunting next year, I'm calling it a wash. Seriously, only hunting 3 or 4 days a year is no way to live.




P.S. I used the phrase "It's nut-cutting time" yesterday on a call. Highlight of my legal career so far.

Hippies.

I gave peace a chance. Then I chambered a round.




If I don't shoot something soon, I'm going to go nuts. Fuck.

Congratulations. You are a Dickhead Scholar

According to ESPN, Pat Summitt, the Lady Vols' coach, endowed a $100,000 scholarship in honor of her parents -- Richard and Hazel Head. A great gift, but perhaps "The Head Family Scholarship" or something would be more appropriate (or at least less likely to make people laugh at the awards ceremony.

Stupid Bulls.

Stupid Bulls. In the draft, the picked the hometown guy, flash in the pan, Derrick Rose instead of the clear number 1 (and K-State freshman), Michael Beasly. The Miami Heat took Beasly at number 2, and met up with the Bulls last night.

The Bulls got rocked. Beasly was good. Rose did nothing. Boy, this season ought to be a lot of fun.

Couple of highlights from the S.I. story:

"Beasley scored 28 points in 23 minutes, lifting Miami past Chicago 94-70 Monday in the Orlando summer league opener for both teams."

"He was 9-for-21 from the field, with nine rebounds and 19 points in the second half -- matching the total that Bulls forwards Joakim Noah and Tyrus Thomas, both second-year NBA pros, managed in the entire game. The Bulls started with Thomas guarding Beasley, switched to put Noah on him midway through the first quarter, and neither had much of an answer."

"Meanwhile, Rose had some moments, but simply never took over the game the way Beasley did offensively."

On a side note, the guy guarding Rose most of the night was Mario Chalmers -- the KU player who hit the 3-pointer at the buzzer to send the NCAA championship into over time.

Must be something in that Kansas water.

Update -- Guns, Tattoos and Tornados (and Jackasses)

Lots of stuff to update:

First, the US Supreme Court bitch slapped Washington DC and told them that the Bill of Rights provides an individual right to bear arms. Chi-town is next (suits against the handgun ban were filed within 15 minutes of the decision), so I'm bringing my P90 home soon. Fan-fucking-tastic.

Second, even though the in-laws were in town this weekend, it was just too hard to pass up the body art expo at Navy Pier on Saturday. For my next one, I'm looking at working with Rodney Taylor at Speakeasy (formerly of Insight Studios), P at Mystic, or someone at Chi-Town Tattoo (only if it turns out this is the next generation of Miami/LA Ink, which means they brought a bunch of really good artists into one new shop).

Third, I'll pull together a full post on the Chapman tornado soon. There have been several charities set up (still checking to see if they are 501(c)(3)'s) and the rebuilding and cleanup is moving forward.

Finally, Democrats are stupid. Obama has now contributed to Hillary's campaign, because poor, poor Hillary put her campaign $20 million in debt. How anyone can view this as anything besides making Hillary a paid mouthpiece for Obama ([insert Bill/Monica joke here]) is beyond me.

Guns Guns Guns

The US Supreme Court is expected to hand down its decision today on District of Columbia v. Heller. Heller is the case challenging Washington D.C.'s ban on firearms, and is the most important second amendment case in 68 years (since they talked about sawed off shotguns, which, by the way, kick ass), or arguably ever.

At issue is whether the right to bear arms is an individual right or a collective right of a militia. The bottom line is whether the government, like the city of Chicago, can tell its citizens, like me, that they have to leave their guns at the city limits.

My prediction: The court will decide that the right to bear arms is an individual right, and the government may not restrict that right except in very important circumstances. Any restrictions will be subject to "strict scrutiny" (remembered that term from Con Law) just like restrictions on free speech or religion.