The Daily Parker

Politics, Weather, Photography, and the Dog

Today's Daily Parker

Parker has discovered birds:

Also, a definition. I've arbitrarily defined "Daily" to mean "once per weekday," and also (because I'm a total geography nerd) defining "day" as starting at midnight Universal Coordinated Time (which is 7pm Central Daylight Time). Today, being Saturday, is a bonus TDP, you lucky dog.

Parker is going to the office later today, too, so there may be yet another bonus TDP if you check back later.

Today's Daily Parker

Today Parker is (probably) 18 weeks old, and he's growing fast. We've noticed his ear cartilege firming up a bit, so right now he often has a one-up-one-down look that Anne finds particularly precious:

Here's a comparison shot from six weeks ago:

Also, he slept more than 7½ hours last night, a new record. Sadly, though, he spent 5½ hours in his crate yesterday, also a new record, the poor dear. But when we discovered an exposed wire on a power cord that (fortunately) wasn't plugged in, we realized his free reign of the bedroom had to come to an end. We mitigated his confinement with a peanut butter-infused Kong, which distracted him long enough for us to make good our escape before the crying started.

Tribune endorses Bean

The Chicago Tribune has endorsed two suburban Democrats in one week. How unexpected. Imagine the Wall Street Journal endorsing Hillary Clinton or Maxine Waters, and you have some idea why I'm surprised. Today they've endorsed Melissa Bean:

Rep. Bean has recognized the need to listen very carefully to her constituents--she's a Democrat in a district that gave 56 percent of its vote to President Bush in 2004. She has charted a moderate, independent course and earned the support of Republicans and Democrats. She has been strong on national defense. She took a risk by voting for the Central America Free Trade Agreement. She knew that would anger some in organized labor—but that it would help businesses in her district expand and create jobs. She is an advocate for small business, gaining her the endorsement of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. She has the Tribune's endorsement for a second term in the 8th Congressional District

Of course, they managed to be flip and condescending in their endorsement, headlining it "Melissa Bean's Moxie," but still, it's a step. They go on to refuse, pointedly, to endorse my representative, Jan Schakowsky; but since no one knows who's running against her, and last time she won with 76% of the vote, I'm not too worried.

Go Tammy!

Congressional candidate Tammy Duckworth (D, IL-06) is on WBEZ-Chicago's 848 right now, wiping the floor with her right-wing opponent, Peter Roskam. Tune in if you aren't already listening.

"Well, Peter, I've been to Iraq, where I had steak and lobster every night but I didn't have armor on the truck I drove that carried 5,000 gallons of aviation fuel."

Update: The show is available for download (.mp3, 26.2 MB).

Disclosure: I have contributed money to the Duckworth campaign.

Today's Daily Parker

It rained a lot yesterday, but Parker doesn't care. In fact, he's not too fond of the toweling-off process that follows a good splash through the dog park. Maybe he'd prefer a blow dry? (Um, no.)

This conversation may be monitored for quality purposes

Bruce Schneier writes today about a pernicious loss of privacy and our complacency about that:

Fewer conversations are ephemeral, and we’re losing control over the data. We trust our ISPs, employers and cellphone companies with our privacy, but again and again they’ve proven they can’t be trusted. Identity thieves routinely gain access to these repositories of our information. Paris Hilton and other celebrities have been the victims of hackers breaking into their cellphone providers’ networks. Google reads our Gmail and inserts context-dependent ads.

Want a better Congress?

Here are three ways to help, right in TDP's back yard. You can contribute a few bucks to Melissa Bean, running for re-election to Congress from Illinois' 8th district, to Tammy Duckworth, running for Henry Hyde's seat in the Illinois 6th, or to Dan Seals in the Illinois 10th.

Duckworth is currently polling within the margin of error against her opponent, Peter Roskam, who continually sinks to new depths in his desperate campaign to keep the seat in Greedy Old Party hands. The GOP has just given almost half a million dollars to Roskam, all for negative ads attacking Duckworth. So her campaign might need a little more than the other two right now.

Update: Duckworth picked up the Chicago Tribune's endorsement today. The Tribune generally leans right of center, in much the same way that Ronald Reagan did; so their endorsement is notable.

Disclosure: I have contributed money to all three campaigns mentioned in this post, and I plan to volunteer for Duckworth on election day (19 days, 4 hours).

Today's Daily Parker

Last one from Meramec:

(By the way, most of the photos on the site are displayed at one-quarter size; you can open them in a new browser window, or save them to disk, to see them at larger sizes.)