i promise i have more fun blog posts coming but...

for now i need to express my extreme frustration with president obama and illinois politicians. the obama administration announced today that the federal government is buying a prison complex located approximately 150 miles west of the city of chicago to be used to house detainees currently held in guantanamo bay. you can read all about it here if you're interested in the details (there's also a good/funny quote from my boss on the first page of the article), but i'd also like to give you my side of the story.

president obama pledged to close gitmo this year, but had been totally unsuccessful in finding a place willing to hold the suspected terrorists (what a shock that most americans are opposed to housing terrorists on our soil near their homes). in a last ditch effort to follow through on his pledge and avoid the political backlash from a failure to close gitmo, he approached sen. dick durbin and gov. pat quinn of illinois, both fellow democrats from obama's "home" state, to call in a favor. then, without fully investigating the impact that moving suspected terrorists near america's third largest city could have, durbin and quinn agreed to make it happen, no matter the reaction from illinois' citizens. the pitch was simple - opening the thompson correctional facility will create new jobs, about 3,00 of them.

this situation blows my mind for 3 reasons. first, apparently illinois democrats in charge of the welfare and protection of their state cannot find a more creative way to create jobs than to bring in terrorists. second, our president refuses to acknowledge the reality that most americans don't want terrorists brought to their country, let alone chicago's backyard. and third, if anyone thinks that closing gitmo will stop terrorists from using this new facility in in illinois as a recruiting tool, they are completely bereft of common sense. moving gitmo to illinois will not undermine the stigma of gitmo; it will only relocate it.

that is enough of my soap box for one day :) i am loading pictures to my computer tonight so i should be posting lots more fun things soon!