Monday clips

Monday clips

The Packer A List gets involved in the Battle of Madison as defensive captain (and NFLPA union rep) Charles Woodson shows his solidarity:

It is an honor for me to play for the Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers and be a part of the Green Bay and Wisconsin communities. I am also honored as a member of the NFL Players Association to stand together with working families of Wisconsin and organized labor in their fight against this attempt to hurt them by targeting unions. I hope those leading the attack will sit down with Wisconsin's public workers and discuss the problems Wisconsin faces, so that together they can truly move Wisconsin forward.

Still waiting to hear from union rep and Super Bowl MVP Aaron Rodgers.

Texas Democrats offer practical advice to the cheeseheads about life on the lam, including: "If you are going to be out more than two weeks call your spouse for conjugal visits."

Here in Iowa Craig Robinson notes that, desptite Tampa snaring next year's Republican National Convention, Florida is playing primary date leapfrog. Right now they're scheduled for January 31, which is not just before their window but before Iowa.

Remember that last cycle it was the GOP, in full control of state government, that drove Florida to play leapfrog; the Dems were just dragged along. In contrast, it was Democrats, led by caucus hater Carl Levin, who pushed Michigan, and while Florida just wanted to be a player, Michigan was explicitly about killing off Iowa and New Hampshire.

Other stuff: An interesting map that re-imagines the Mississippi river watershed as a metropolitan subway system. Kinda cool but with one big flaw from my admittedly local angle: In the name of simplification it depicts the Iowa-Cedar system as one river and thus places Iowa City downstream from Cedar Rapids, rather than as part of a separate system that meets below both cities at the Greater Columbus Junction Metroplex. A point of confusion that buffaloed all my out of state family and friends during June 2008.

And on the all-important Lady Gaga front: after just five days of availability at radio and three days at online retailers (people BUY music on line?!?) rather than the full week, "Born This Way" debuts at Number One. That makes it, by coincidence of timing, the 1000th chart-topper in the history of the Billboard Hot 100.