Those cowboys in the Southwest sure have stirred up a hornet's nest by passing their own faux immigration law. They decided not to wait until the next decade for Washington policymakers to come up with some immigration reform. Instead, they decided to take the law into their own hands in the Grand Canyon State. Yes, sirree, Bob. Now that's how the West was won.

What has immigration backers scared about Arizona's move to protect the state's borders is that others may follow. Currently, 18 states are rushing to follow Arizona's lead of cracking down on illegal immigration via a state route, rather than federal law. What Arizona did may be controversial, but apparently it's popular. Polls are tracking a 60 to 80 percent support for the measure. And the state's governor certainly didn't back down when she had a meeting with President Obama.

By the way, Illinois is not among the 18 states following Arizonans' lead. But you could expect that, couldn't you?

Although some Illinois pols want to boycott Arizona for conventions, vacations, junkets and sports trips. The Hounds says Lake County officials should get involved in this rush.

The red-light ticket camera vendor in a number of county communities, including Gurnee and North Chicago, is Redflex Traffic Systems, headquartered in dry and sunny Scottsdale, Ariz.

Time to take a stand Lake County and also strike a blow for motoring freedom!

Let's see, there's about 250,000 gallons of prime Gulf of Mexico crude oil headed toward the Pelican State's coastline every day, which also is sure to hit the Red Neck Riviera of Mississippi and Alabama, along with the Emerald Coast of Florida. But Louisiana is the first to take a hit. The folks there still haven't recovered from Hurricane Katrina and now they have to deal with this ecological disaster which began April 20.

Mixing oil with gumbo isn't The Hound's favorite repast. Nor should it be anyone else's. Wait until the photos of birds soaked in oil come across your TV sets. There goes President Obama's plan to open up the Gulf and Atlantic for offshore drilling. And, where's cheerleader Dick Durbin who was behind the president's call to "drill baby, drill"?

And, is The Hound the only one who thinks the Obama administration has had the Bush slows when it comes to dealing with this marine nightmare? Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Florida Gov. Charlie Christ, who just jettisoned the GOP to go as a loner in the state's U.S. Senate race in November, marshaled their forces early. Florida folks alerted Seaworld early on to be ready to accept marine creatures affected by the growing oil slick. The Hound is taking bets on which network says the slick is as big as Rhode Island. Early favorite is Diane Sawyer.

The president shows up at the frontlines nearly two weeks after the spill. He's from the govmint and he's here to help. Sounds similar to the Bush reaction to Katrina. Does this have anything to do with Washington's inability to see beyond the Beltway? Or, for the Obama administration, just bad ju-ju?

In a statement, the game Democrat and buddy of President Obama said over the weekend his campaign "goes forward with a renewed determination to turn Illinois' economy around and to fix what's broken in Washington, D.C." Uh-huh. At least Lexi won't have to do anymore explaining about the odd loans that were generated at Chicago's Broadway Bank, some of them on his watch before he was elected state treasurer. The bank, where Giannoulias was a senior loan officer, lost $75 million last year and the feds said his family had to raise at least $85 million to keep afloat.

But this is one candidate who can't say he wants to bring business practices to government. Let's see, the state is on the verge of bankruptcy and the business of the candidate at the top of the ticket just went belly up. What else can go wrong? How about Rod Blagojevich wanting the president to testify at his trial?

Only in Illinois.

Ever notice all the Brits, Aussies, Irish and Scotch taking over the U.S. entertainment industry. Forget the recording industry (although Keith Urban is from Down Under, right mate?), The Hound is talking about televison and the cinema. Can The Hound go over to Scotland and host a late-night TV show on BBC 1? Of course not.

But, we let these Celtic folks permeate our media. Where's the Tea Party members complaining about this invasion? Drinking sweet tea, that's where.

And, shouldn't immigration start to investigate all the folks on "Dancing With the Stars"? Pretty strange surnames, what? What's with the Smirnovs and Davalantes? Anybody check their work permits?

If the sheriff has decided he doesn't want to rustle up illegal immigrants any more, The Hound suggests he take his lasso to Hollywood.

Not only put them there, but have them ready and willing to ticket motorists going to graduations or picking up their young 'uns. A recent weekend jaunt down I-57 saw dozens of state troopers wolf-packing along the highway. And, pulling those speeding and doing whatever else getting tickets. The Hound can only surmise what it was like south of the U of I on I-57 or perhaps I-24. But if the stretch from Kankakee to the U of I was any indication, can an eagle eye out for those Smokies.

For Quinn, sending a phalanx of state troopers on I-57 certainly is a gamble. After all, parents are voters, too. While he may use ticket revenue to balance the state's books, the governor certainly can lose votes if troopers become too aggressive in handing out tickets to those, who, actually are breaking the law by speeding on a roadway which in many states or nations would either have no speed limits or at least have a posted limit of 70 mph, not 62.

As The Hound notes, if heading to Urbana-Champaign: Be aware. Be very aware.

Yes, those warm few days brought back the 80s of last fall and what we can expect later than sooner. It's a cruel trick Mother Nature plays on having us get a slight taste of warm weather and then reverting to the real temps of April. March went out like a lamb, April came in like a lamb, but today we go back to cooler temperatures and Seattle-like skies.

One thing The Hound knows is that spring in Illinois can revert to winter very quickly. You'll see. And remember, you heard it here first.

Lake Forest state Sen. Susan Garrett was the front-runner in the lite gov. sweepstakes, but then she went ahead this week and said she really didn't agree with Gov. Waffle's call for a hike in the state income tax. That put the kibosh on her chances and opened the door for Sheila Simon, daughter of the late and well-liked U.S. senator, Paul Simon.

While Quinn is all a twitter about his new running mate, really, what does Ms. Simon bring to the ticket? She's a woman, a downstater who lost in her run in 2007 to become mayor of Carbondale, home of the Southern Illinois University Salukis, where Simon is a law professor. The mother of two also plays the banjo in a band with the appropriate sobriquet for a downstate band, Loose Gravel.

Quinn must be paying attention to those polls which show him trailing Republican opponent state Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington so he plucks a downstater to blunt that. Except the battleground in November will be the collar counties, where Garrett would have been a definite asset. Besides, Garrett has played well in the rough-and-tumble politics of Springfield and she's been elected in Republican-leaning Lake County enough times to qualify as a veteran pol.

Meanwhile, Illinois Republicans are licking their chops, hoping through some miracle November begins in two months. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele breezes into Chicago late next month for an "Illinois is Next" party featuring the GOP's entire statewide ticket.

That means the national party figures Illinois is in play to turn from blue to red. The tickets have been punched and the ride may be hairy over the next months.

The IMF may be the banker of last resort for Gov. Moneybags because Illinois has the lowest bond rating of every state in the union save for California. Mississippi has a better bond rating than Illinois. Uzbekistan may have a better bond rating than Illinois. What does that say about the stewardship of the Quinn, Blagojevich and Madigan triumvirate and their co-dependent Republicans these last few years? The Hound will tell you what it means: We're in a world of financial hurt, fellas.

Of course, the Democratic answer is raise taxes. The Hound wouldn't mind a tax increase if lawmakers and the governor would rein in their spending, something they haven't been able to do for years. This being an election year and with an electorate in a totally foul mood, which Lake County lawmakers will be brave enough to vote to raise taxes? There will be a few, but not in districts where there is competition.

As The Hound noted, getting a tax hike passed in the Legislature may be the easy part. Finding bankers to fund this financial sty called Illinois may be the tough part for Quinn the Waffler. If your household was this bad off, no bank would float you a loan. The first thing a bank would do to you would put you on a short-spending leash.
Lawmakers don't take kindly to any type of leash.

The Hound says we declare bankruptcy, change the state's name to Linconia, secede from the U.S. and apply for membership in the United Nations. That way IMF help is guaranteed.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Walsh's campaign thought it was clever to plunder Walsh's James Gang tune "Walk Away" in music video "Lead the Way" http://walshforcongress.com/ that glorifies the candidate and features lines like "Pelosi and Bean wanna screw ya," with Bean referring to incumbent U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean, D- Barrington.

The News-Sun www.suburbanchicagonews.com/newssun/news/2013573,5_1_WA27_WALSH_S1-100127.article asked Joe Walsh the rock star's people what they thought of the tune, and the result was the letter to Walsh and his campaign from an Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles, law firm that threatened to sue the campaign for copyright and trademark violations if the music video does not disappear.

"Given that your name is Joe Walsh, I'd think you'd want to be extra careful about using Joe's music in case the public might think that Joe is endorsing your campaign or, God forbid, is you. Or maybe you intended that. But you shouldn't have," wrote attorney Peter Paterno.

"As a candidate for Congress, you probably have a passing familiarity with many of the laws of this great country of ours. It's possible, though, that laws governing intellectual property are a little too arcane and insufficiently populist for you to really have spent much time on," Paterno wrote. "We're writing because we think laws are important, and it might be beneficial to your potential future career as a congressman if you were more aware of them."

Note to Joe Walsh the candidate - a lawsuit from a former campaign manager over unpaid bills is one thing. Provoking a legendary rock star over intellectual property is another. The Hound suggests you stay in your league.

No early indications that Walsh the candidate is shaken, though. His Wednesday morning "Message from Joe Walsh," campaign e-mail was titled: "So, you want a revolution?" Paging the Beatles' attorneys...

Surprisingly, Democrats aren't in shock after what happened in the Bay State with Republican Scott Brown now a senator-elect for a seat held by the Kennedy clan for decades. In a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by a 3-1 margin, couldn't the party have scrapped up some voters for Democrat Martha Coakley? This wasn't just a defeat of a Democrat, this was a humiliation for the president. Heck, Coakley didn't even carry the Kennedy stomping grounds of Hyannisport. It was a Mass-acre.

While national Democrats paint the election as lost by Coakley's poor campaign style, exit polls tell the true tale of the tape: Fifty-two percent of Massachusetts voters surveyed as polls closed told pollsters they opposed health-care reform. This in a state that was the lone bastion of support for George McGovern during the Nixon landslide of 1972.

Despite this defeat, or because of it, congressional Democrats appear to be full-speed ahead to pass health-care reform with or without Sen.-elect Brown's 41st filabuster-making vote. If The Hound were a Democratic strategist, that's the worse thing they could do, putting entire states in jeopardy come November.

That includes Illinois. So get ready Land of Lincoln for the Beantown bounce in the second-bluest state in the nation. It's coming.

What motive police would have to destroy evidence is beyond The Hound. But it seems to be a defense move to place the cops on trial, rather than a judge whose blood-alcohol content was .107, above the legal limit of .08. Wonder how other county police officers might feel if they were accused --- by a Lake County judge's paid messengers --- of breaking the law regarding an arrest. Might they have questions about future court appearances? It's not like Hall's attorneys are dancing around this.

Their motion contends the "Vernon Hills Police Department had the memory of the squad car computer hard drive erased" sometime after the judge's traffic arrest. Sounds like a conspiracy, what Holmes? Just bringing this allegation up casts a pall over the arrest. If they have proof, the judge's attorneys should take this information to the Attorney General's Office for further investigation and prosecution, unless they're throwing this contention out there and hoping it sticks to the legal wall. That's what well-paid defense lawyers do, after all. They work all the angles.

Regardless, the judge's attorneys are ready to argue their motion March 1, which is nearly two years from Hall's April 26, 2008 arrest on DUI and resisting charges. The attorneys also claim the blood sample taken from the Waukegan jurist at Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville also might be tainted because it was not properly preserved. Wasn't a similar allegation part of O.J. Simpson's defense? If it worked for him, might work for a judge.

Vernon Hills police and the attorney general's prosecutor contend it was an honest mistake that the video doesn't exist of the judge's arrest. Who do you believe: Cops from the mean streets of Vernon Hills or a judge's attorneys?