February 2010 Archives

Most Americans watching the Olympics from Vancouver --- and according to the TV Nielsons, there are plenty of us --- seem to be quite concerned with medal count or if Team USA will defeat the friendly Canadian hockey team. Not this Hound. What's with the goofy uniforms donned by our American athletes?

Like those Farmer John pants the snowboarders were wearing. They looked like a cross between a Vermonter harvesting maple syrup and a Central Valley lettuce farmer. That's the best we can do when it comes to uniforms on the world stage? The Chinese snowboarders had nice uniforms.

One can only guess what Joan Rivers might say if there was a red carpet for the Winter Games. Or Mr. Blackwell, if the catty one were still alive. And the uniforms for Team USA hockey? They looked like rejects from the Dallas Cowboys of the Eddie LeBaron era.

The contestants on "Project Runway" could come up with better costumes. For the next Winter Olympics in Russia, let's begin now working on team costumes. Who cares how many medals we win. Style always counts. Ask Dick Button.

Every news network went live Friday so we could all watch a horn dog apologize to us for cheating on his wife with women, some which included porn stars. Should The Hound care? Nope, but Tiger Woods' sponsors sure do.

No mistake, the world's top golfer didn't do his mea culpa for his fans, the PGA or his wife. He did it to protect a withering franchise. And, like Toyota, his motoring company is floundering. Tiger didn't stray too far from his script that he was sorry, soooooo sorry. Well, who isn't when they get caught?

His public apology should have been done a few days after he crashed his Cadillac Escalade right after Thanksgiving just outside his Orlando-area mansion. Who's this guy's handlers? Especially considering all his girlfriends came forward days after the run-in with wife Elin, most of us knew he had cheated on his wife.

At least Tiger didn't cry crododile tears like most of these celebrities do after they err. He gets an eagle from The Hound for retaining the last bit of dignity he has --- on or off the course.

The Hound could quote Yakov Smirnoff about "What a country!", but in fact what happened since Feb. 2 to the Illinois Democratic Party could only take place here in the not-so-great Land of Lincoln. Dem party bosses didn't learn from the Rod Blagojevich-Roland Burris-Pat Quinn debacle. So they got a refresher course from Scott Lee Cohen, the party's former lite governor candidate.

Cohen says he's resigning from the ticket and going back to being whatever he was before: Pawnbroker, green entrepreneur, dead-beat dad, massage/spa customer. Which leaves Illinois Democrats a do-over to pick a new running mate for Quinn. The Hound figures it will be someone from outside Chicago, and not state Sen. Terry Link, D-Waukegan, who came in last in the lieutenant governor race on Feb. 2. Perhaps state Rep. Mike Boland of East Moline, or then again some nobody from Christian County with less hair than Quinn.

The Hound finds it surprising that party leaders or the two Democratic gubernatorial candidates didn't vet Mr. Cohen's candidacy. Guess that won't happen again because voters nor the mainstream Illinois media certainly didn't investigate the candidates. It's a tough job to look into a candidate's past, but some party functionary will be vetting candidates running for everything from lite gov. to precinct committeemen from now on.

But if Mr. Cohen had a shady past, what do you do with the candidate who won the party's nomination for U.S. Senate? His baggage is starting to rear its ugly side. He can talk about jobs all he wants, but he won't talk about his family's Chicago bank and loans that were made to certain individuals? The media big boys let one slip by them. The Hound believes they won't let another one off the hook.

Let's see, New York City has second thoughts about trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks, but it's OK to house similar terrorists in an Illinois prison. Guess the squeaky wheel got the grease this time around from the Obama administration.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg decided it would cost $200 million in extra security, tie up traffic, interfere with Big Apple commerce and depress real estate values during the duration of the trial. The Hound is just guessing here, but didn't Attorney General Eric Holder take all that into consideration when he said Sheikh Mohammed would be tried in a civilian court, rather than Guantanamo Bay, Cuba? Maybe that Massachusetts senatorial vote caused an Obamian flip-flop?

In the meantime, Illinois appears ripe to house terrorists from Gitmo. President Obama is including in his $3.8 trillion fiscal 2011 federal budget proposal $237 million to buy and upgrade the nearly vacant Thomson Correctional Center in northwest Illinois to house Gitmo detainees. The State of Illinois and the federal government are currently dickering over the purchase price of Thomson.

Maybe Illinoisans should start to squeak, just like the New Yawkers did.