By Steve Rhodes
“The Defense Department mistakenly shipped secret nuclear missile fuses to Taiwan more than 18 months ago and did not learn that the items were missing until late last week, Pentagon officials acknowledged Tuesday,” the Washington Post reports.
Somewhere in Changhua County a farmer is still wondering why the lights in his house are so bright.
Obstacle Course
A recent study of Chicago neighborhoods finds that poor people who don’t exercise aren’t lazy, they just don’t find a morning run all that appealing if they have to dodge bullets along the way. [h/t: NYT]
Pork Chop
“A top aide to Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) has used his employment with the House to help win local races, repeatedly claiming in campaign literature and public meetings that he is responsible for securing millions in federal earmarks for the village of Oak Lawn, while also racking up thousands in campaign contributions from companies with business before Lipinski’s Congressional committees,” Roll Call reports.
The aide is also an aspiring Oak Lawn mayoral candidate, Carol Marin writes this morning.
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I’m not sure if Barack Obama supported change in the Third District but I doubt it.
Wright vs. Oprah
“When Oprah goes to church in Chicago, she has been known to attend Trinity United Church of Christ, located on the city’s South Side, “Christianity Today reported in 2002.
“Trinity is the largest church in its denomination, with more than 8,000 members, several subsidiary corporations, and an annual budget of about $9 million. It is an Afrocentric church with a membership composed largely of upper middle class blacks. These elements, no doubt, appealed to Oprah’s roots in the church, her longtime interest in black history, and her concern for social justice.
“According to Trinity’s senior pastor Jeremiah Wright, however, Oprah has not attended a service there in the last eight years. When she first came to Trinity in the 1980s, it seemed that she would become an active participant. Says Wright, ‘She walked the aisle to become a member, publicly claimed us as her church in Ebony magazine, and when I would run into her socially, like at a United Negro College Fund dinner, she would say, Here’s my pastor! But Oprah never completed the membership classes and after awhile her attendance dropped off,’
“Today Oprah’s relationship with Trinity and Jeremiah Wright seems strained. In a column for a recent issue of Black Collegian magazine, Wright mentioned Oprah as an example of African Americans who forget their roots in the church after finding success. ‘A lot of us do not even like the word faith anymore,’ he wrote. ‘We prefer the more chic-sounding word, spirituality! We are caught up in an Oprah-generated mentality and a 12-step vocabulary that prevents us from using the very words and the very bridge that ‘brought us over!'”
“Oprah Winfrey did not respond to CT‘s request for comment about the article, but Wright stands by his statement. He is clearly put off by the direction Oprah’s faith seems to have taken.
“‘She has broken with the [traditional faith],’ he says. ‘She now has this sort of “God is everywhere, God is in me, I don’t need to go to church, I don’t need to be a part of a body of believers, I can meditate, I can do positive thinking” spirituality. It’s a strange gospel. It has nothing to do with the church Jesus Christ founded.'”
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Oprah.com’s messages boards are aflame.
Go West, Young Man
Kwame Kilpatrick would be a killer ballot name in Chicago.
Truth in Headlines
“As The Globe Warms: Chicago Editor Goes Back To Warming-Denial Group”
– St. Petersburg Times [h/t: Romenesko]
Rock Survivor
The Empty Bottle cat is 75.
Vallas Ballast
The Chicago coterie in New Orleans. [h/t: District299]
George vs. Rod
Former Gov. George Ryan deserves to be in prison, but it occurs to me that the corruption that was the bedrock of his administration was at least part of an actual governing philosophy – that this was the way to get things done. And he did get things done.
There doesn’t seem to be any such philosophy to the behavior of the Blagojevich administration; he’s getting nothing done in return for letting his pals run wild. He’s running a fake government, built on Potemkin press releases.
Maybe he’ll learn a few lessons from George when he joins him in the pokey.
Best Political Team
CNN anchor: “We’re waiting for the details, but until then, let’s speculate.”
Reporter: “We can’t be making that kind of speculation right now.”
Anchor: “Just asking the question.”
Conversation prefaced by the anchor saying she would like to “give fodder” to conspiracy theorists wondering if the Clinton campaign had anything to do with the breach of Obama’s passport.
Dead-Enders
Now meeting up in Tinley Park: “The VERTICAL REPUBLICAN Spoilers of Latterday Huckabees.”
Dealbreaker
“She snorted when she laughed. She always snorted when she laughed, but one day I knew I couldn’t spend another minute listening to it.”
– Bill, in a Tales From The Front column about last straws
The Beachwood Tip Line: Don’t be shy.
Posted on March 26, 2008