Has Dennis Hastert even formally announced his resignation?  Who cares?  Illinois' favorite ultra-conservative millionaire struck out in the past trying to buy a U.S. Senate seat and a Governorship, so now he's set his sights on Dennis Hastert's still warm seat.

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

Hunter S. Thompson, aka Dr. Gonzo, said that a long time ago.  Thompson is dead, but a night like tonight was made for his writing.  Somewhere, HST should be firing up a powerful electric typewriter, and selecting a powerful menu of recreational substances to get him through the grim writing that needs to be done.  He should be making plans to move the National Affairs desk poolside for the hearings that should happen if Congress would do what it should do.  On a night when the Bush administration has reached a new low, I miss Thompson's writing more than ever.

The White House announced a press conference for 11 am.  One can only guess why.

Tammy Duckworth gave a very gracious concession speech.  While conceding, she asked everyone to look at the big picture, that the Democratic party had gained a majority!  She also pointed with pride at how well they had done, including building an organization in DuPage County.

How to steal an election by hacking the vote is an article at respected technical site Ars Technica by Jon Stokes.  It's currently on the front page of slashdot, so the site may be a little slow if you click through.

Jon Stokes has decided that the current arguments and anecdotes of security irregularities and vulnerabilities are too abstrat.  They're not making an impact, and they haven't led to changes needed to ensure election security.

With a little over two weeks left until the election, the election commercials come fast and furious at the end of the 10:00 PM news.  And there's finally a little good news for this DuPage County resident!

I stepped out of my apartment to avoid 9-11.  It was a sad day, and if I'm going to consider history, I figured I would at least contemplate the truth.  Instead, I was hoping to meet Wombat down at the J&J for a few games of pool and a couple of beers.

The J&J is like a couple of hundred old bars in a couple of of hundred cities.  An old bar along the side.  Dingy floor tiles with some tables scattered around the room and a pool table in the back.  One tv, turned down, that I was pretty much counting on to be showing football.

Like I said, a typical bar.  You don't go there, expecting to run into one of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, you go to hang out.

A heavily censored report was released that shows the number of cases opened by the FBI has dropped across the board since 9-11, as the FBI focused on the threat on terror.  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9579414/

<quote>
The decline was steepest in drug investigations and extended to organized crime, bank robberies, civil rights, health care fraud, corporate fraud and public corruption, Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said in a 194-page audit, which was censored because it contained sensitive law enforcement information.
</quote>

This is based on an article in Crain's Chicago Business dated 7-25. I searched dKos for mention of this, so hopefully this isn't a repeat. I figured I'd document this in case any other media outlets pick up on this story.

The headline is:

Fitzgerald hire raises eyebrows
Staffer played key role in selecting prosecutor

and it appeared on the cover of Chicago business weekly "Crain's Chicago Business" the week of July 25, 2005.