Watching the news tonight it was mentioned that many people are leaving teddy bears in memoriam to Caylee Anthony.

I said to my husband, “I hope someone is gathering them up before the weather gets to them and gives them to a local hospital.”

Have you seen those roadside memorials with stuffed animals that have been ruined by the weather?

It does the dead person no good. It could do a live person a lot of good.

Please, if you feel you need to memorialize someone, give the stuffed animal to a local hospital to give to one of their patients in the name of the person you want to remember.

The hospital knows which patients need a lift. The elderly patient with no visitors, the child who could use every bit of love he can get…

This type of gift could make the difference and could help a patient get better faster.

On Meet the Press yesterday, Attorney General Lisa Madigan (D-IL) said that there are indications that Governor Rod Blagojevich (D-IL) may step aside as early as today.

“I don’t know if that means he will resign or take another option that’s provided under the Illinois constitution where he can voluntarily recognize that there is a serious impediment in his ability to carry out his duties and therefore temporarily remove himself,” she said.

If Blagojevich opts to temporarily remove himself, he can potentially keep his salary, Madigan said. (source)

Even if he does either resign, or temporarily remove himself, a special election still needs to be held. A Rasmussen poll reveals

Sixty-six percent (66%) of all Illinois voters say the state should hold a special election to fill Obama’s Senate seat rather than let Governor Rod Blagojevich or his successor appoint a replacement. (source)

There is a level of distrust in the administration that would go against any appointment for the office of Junior Senator from Illinois. Some of the arguments against a special election are that it will cost too much. We can just wait until the next scheduled elections in April and put that office on the ballot as well. For those that think that’s too long to go without a junior senator, I will answer that with the fact that we have pretty much been without a junior senator for the last two years and that four more months won’t really matter so much.

Related: Blagojevich Arrested
A Special Election?

This is one of the funniest videos I’ve seen lately.

It starts automagically so adjust volume ahead of time.

Then you can go to Beware of the Doghouse…

On Monday I tried to place an order with Amazon for almost $500 worth of Christmas gifts for the family.

I had 24 items in my shopping cart. I pressed the checkout button. I tried to choose a shipping address. I pressed the Ship to this address button and nothing happened. I could not advance to choosing a shipping method or payment method.

This was 9 pm central so I went to the help page and clicked the Contact button and then had Amazon call me.

The customer service rep was unable to help me and suggested I try again in a half hour or so and call back if I still couldn’t advance past choosing a shipping address.

I tried again and couldn’t advance past choosing a shipping address. By then it was too late for me to call back so I went to bed.

Tuesday morning I tried again to place the order and once again I couldn’t advance past  choosing a shipping address so I called again.

I was on the phone with the customer service rep for 38 minutes. He couldn’t help me either. He wanted me to put my credit card information in the One-click settings. I don’t use One-click because I don’t want to associate a particular card with a particulr address. I use different accounts depending on what I’m purchasing. He told me he was going to escalate the issue to the team. I received an email shortly thereafter that said, in part,

Greeting’s from Amazon.com

I have forwarded your concern to the techinical team and they will work on this issue.  Rest assured,  they will get back to you within the next 24 to 48 hours.  I apologize for this inconvenience.

Please be assured that we are here to make things easier for you and will do whatever we can to prevent you from bearing any kind of loss.

So on Wednesday I tried again several times and still couldn’t get past choosing a shipping address. I was also getting messages that items in my cart had been removed because the item was no longer in stock and the price went down slightly on one item.

This morning at about 5:30 I tried once again. At the shopping cart there were notices that two of my items had risen in price (one was the item from yesterday that had decreased in price) and two items were no longer available. My order from Monday that had 24 items and was nearly $500 in price was now just over $400 and only had 19 items in it.

I was finally able to advance past choosing a shipping address. When I got to shipping options I chose super saver shipping because the front page at Amazon said that I still had 7 days to order and be able to receive my order by Christmas. But the next page told me that the microwave/convection oven I had ordered would not arrive by Christmas with super saver shipping and if I wanted it by then I should choose a faster shipping option.

So I called Amazon  once again. I explained to the customer service rep that I had been trying to place this order since Monday. That there were issues with their site that prevented me from placing the order, that I had lost items from my shopping cart because I hadn’t been able to place the order when I wanted to, and now at least one item in my order (the most expensive one) wouldn’t make it by Christmas unless I spent more on shipping.

I asked for free 2 day shipping  on my order because of all the inconvenience that I have had with this order so far. She put me on hold while she found out if she could do that.

About 5 minutes later she came back on the line and said that 2nd day shipping for the order would amount to around $100 and that they could only give me a $30 credit towards the shipping costs.

I told her if that’s all she could do then I would cancel the order. And then I hung up and canceled the order.

Shortly thereafter I received an email saying that I could have a free trial of Amazon Prime and that after the trial period I could pay the $79 annual fee. It did say that I could go into my account and decline to upgrade to the full annual Amazon Prime if I so chose.

Well, the order is canceled and I will now do my shopping at brick and mortar stores for this Christmas and I have only 2 weeks to do it. I actually have to get it done by next Friday because the kids will be out of school after that and one just can not take the children with when buying Christmas presents…

Hubby has an order in with Amazon for an out of stock book that he needs for work and he may well cancel his order too. That book is $100…

So needless to say, I am not a happy camper with Amazon right now.

The Illinois General Assembly is getting ready to strip Governor Rod Blagojevich (D-IL) (Happy 52nd Birthday Rod!) of his power to appoint a replacement for President Elect Obama (D-IL) in the US Senate.

The state’s top two legislative leaders Tuesday said they will move fast to seize control of the process of selecting a replacement for

In separate statements, House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President Emil Jones said they will call a special legislative session next week to repeal the state law that now gives the governor the power to fill Mr. Obama’s seat. Both said they will press instead for a special election to fill the remaining two years of Mr. Obama’s term.

“I am prepared to convene the House next Monday to change state law to provide for a special election for the U.S. Senate replacement,” Mr. Madigan said. “I would urge U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin to take note of this action.”

This would be great! A special election will work even if Blagojevich does resign his seat as we called for yesterday and will at least give Illinoisans  a chance to seat a Republican as the Junior Senator from Illinois.

Let’s have that special election!

Governor Rod Blagojevich [Blah-GOY-o-vich] (D-IL) arrested this morning!

Just yesterday he said, “I don’t believe there’s any cloud that hangs over me. I think there’s nothing but sunshine hanging over me.” (source)

And this morning he was arrested at his home.

More very good information at The Capitol Fax Blog.

Like OJ, it seems that Governor “Hair” felt he’d gotten away with stuff for so long that nothing could touch him.

This blog calls on Governor Blagojevich to resign instanter so that Lt. Governor Quinn may assume the duties of Governor and appoint someone without any taint to complete President Elect Obama’s Senate term.

Merry Fitzmas!

More coverage:

Ann Althouse: Governor Blagojevich Arrested!, Hot Air, Instapundit, Michelle Malkin, Gateway Pundit, Outside the Beltway, Classical Values, Real Clear Politics Blog, Don Surber, Volokh, Political Byline, American Princess, Sister Toldjah, Fausta, Patterico’s Pontifications

Our post on Blagojevich’s quote about “Testicular Virility” is here.

Movies we saw over the past week include Hancock with Will Smith, Charlize Theron, and Jason Bateman. It was pretty good with a surprising twist.

Then we watched Wanted with Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman, and James McAvoy. Another good movie, and since much of it was filmed in Chicago, there were familiar places.

We also rented The X-Files: I Want to Believe and Space Chimps. X-Files might well signal the end of the franchise as the storyline seemed to flow that way.

Space Chimps was well loved by the 8-year-old, who watched it three times. I watched it twice. It was very cute. Jeff Daniels was incredible as Zartog.

Zartog

The voice went so well with the character and you wouldn’t know it was Daniels by listening. It’s quite funny with enough on the adult level for adult viewing. I highly recommend it as a Christmas or Hannukah gift for the kids.

Yesterday I went to the store for cookie ingredients so I’ll be baking soon!

Early on a beautiful Sunday morning 67 years ago, the world changed.

At 7:55 a.m. December 7, 1941 the attack begins.

The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor to remove what it saw as a threat to the empire’s southern expansion. The Pearl Harbor attack hurt us badly, but it also hardened our resolve and brought us fully into WWII.

Snopes has some photos that were purported to be found in an old Brownie camera years after the attack. The story was untrue, but the photos are archival and genuine.

Pearl Harbor Attack

The U.S. Navy has a Pearl Harbor site with more photos.

Chris at A Large Regular has linked to this National Geographic Pearl Harbor site in the past. It has a multimedia timeline, survivor stories, kid’s section, and more.

We’ll probably pop in our DVD of the blockbuster movie Pearl Harbor
.

Interesting question and answer in the Q&A following Obama’s announcement and Richardson’s acceptance.

Obama: Vincente?

Vincente: Thank you Mr. President Elect. What do you think about the articles like the one today in the New York Times that say or mention that the announcement of Bill Richardson for Secretary of Commerce is somehow the consolation prize for Latinos and Hispanic politicians and groups are calling Latinos to be included in your cabinet. It seems many were expecting or hoping that Bill Richardson was going to be Secretary of State.

Obama: Commerce Secretary is a pretty good job. It’s a member of my key economic team that is going to be dealing with the most significant issue that America faces right now. And that is ‘how do we put people back to work and rejuvenate the economy?’ Bill Richardson has been selected because he is the best person for that job and is going to be outstanding in helping me strategize on how do we rebuild America, how do we get businesses moving, how do we export effectively, how do we open up new markets for American products and services? His mixture of diplomatic experience, hands-on experience as a governor, experience in the cabinet, experience in Congress, means that he is going to be a key strategist on all the issues that we work on. And so the so I think the notion that somehow the Commerce Secretary is not going to be central to everything we do is fundamentally mistaken. With respect to Latino cabinet members I have appointed about half of my cabinet so far. And I think that when people look back and see the entire slate what they will say is not only in terms of my cabinet but in terms of my but in terms of my White House staff I think people are going to say this is one of the most diverse cabinets and White House staffs of all time. But more importantly they’re going to say that these are all people of outstanding qualifications and excellence. So you know one of the strong beliefs that I’ve always held and has been proven to be correct throughout my career has been that there’s no contradiction between diversity and excellence. I’m looking for the best people first and foremost to serve the American people. It just so happens that Bill Richardson’s one of those people.