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No matter what your political colors are one cannot help but be impressed by today’s activities in Washington DC. In case you have been sleeping in a hollowed tree stump the past three months, today we transferred power from one president to another. The size of the crowd and their spirit could be felt just by watching it on television.

If you think by reading this that I am going to launch into some type of soliloquy about the new President you will be disappointed. What was most impressive about the day was that way the United States changes our leadership. The real story is about how we as a country can change leadership without a coup, or revolution, or other type of upheaval.

Whether you like President Obama or not one has to be impressed by the way we treat the institution of the executive office and the way in which we move from one leader to another. The ceremony, the crowds, the parade, the news coverage and the entire day, was electric and deeply satisfying.

The way we do this makes me very proud of our country, and bodes well for the future.

Unfortunately someone got into the surplus vodka in the old town garrison in the ol’ mother country. Reports today indicate that the folks in Lettland got a little out of hand in the capital city Riga. Rioting took place after what was an apparent peaceful rally protesting the current government’s handling of the recession that is impacting Latvia hard these days. an official said he was surprised, that they didn’t know who the instigators were.

Here is some video. Originally I was going to use another one,but I like the anchor. Ron Burgundy he his not, but a pretty snappy haircut. I believe the coverage is from an Estonian station. I didn’t recognize it as Latvian. Also 3/4 of the way through they interview a Latvian official and he answers in near perfect English, which I find a bit odd.

The video and others I found seem to have a lot of people out in the street protesting something in earnest, followed by liquor induced shenanigan’s. The demeanor and hooting and howling one hears reminds me of some post World Series or Super Bowl celebration, or since it is Europe, a soccer party about to ensue. Riot, I am not so sure.

A good analysis of their economic situation can be found in the RGE Monitor by Nouriel Roubini.

OK, I understand that most of you don’t care about Latvia, but the point is that I do and I am writing this blog. Seriously, it shows how deep and far this recession has had impact.

I woke up this morning to a fresh 4 inches of snow. Looking out the window at 6:00 am I was welcomed by the clean white freshness of crystallized frozen water glowing and lending light to the still early morning. My neighbor across the street was already outside using his snow-blower on his own driveway his neighbors, and the sidewalk leading up to the grade school. Oh, how I wished he would come across the street and do my driveway!

When I lived in Freeport back in 2002, I wrote an occasional column for the alternative paper. The column follows. Anyone who knows me well will recognize this rant. Please take in the good humor it was meant to be provided:

What have we become? Cold weather has a lot to say about what kind of society we have become. As I go from store to store or from place to place I hear nothing but comments about how cold it is. If it came from “young” people, meaning little ones under the age of 16, I would have some empathy, however when it comes from people from my generation or older I am puzzled.

First of all there is nothing we can do about the weather except take shelter. Scientists have attempted for years to see if there is anyway to seed clouds to cause rain in drought areas. These attempts have largely failed. We are at the mercy of a higher power when it comes to weather. Tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding rains, lightning, hail, drought, heat waves, cold snaps, wind shear and microbursts are all items we have had to deal with for centuries. Not to mention other associated crises and curses like flash floods, mudslides, forest fires and brushfires, Santa Anna winds, windchill factor, acid rain, dust storms, locusts, air and water, starvation, pollution, nuclear proliferation… sorry, I digress.

Weather is weather and there is nothing you can do about it. When it is hot out, find air conditioning, strip down, or find a lake. When its cold out, find a furnace, put on a coat and hat or find fireplace. It is really that simple. Talking about it won’t help. It won’t change if you complain about it enough.

Then there are the people who are at a total lack of words, that they have absolutely nothing else to say to you when they see you other than comment on the weather. You know how it goes. The standard winter phraseology is “Cold enough for you?” . This is the exact inverse of the standard summer phrase of “Hot enough for you”. I can’t help myself and usually reply with some smart retort like, “Heck no, I wish it were colder. I want to see just how cold it can get. I like it when my the insides of my nose stick together as I inhale, or I want to feel the 40 mile per hour wind whipping against my exposed skin, giving it that lovely pinkish glow, followed quickly by the sickish blackness of third degree frostbite; I want the temperature to dive so low that the cheap plastic parts of my car shatter and break at the slightest touch: I want scientists to start talking about how we are entering another ice age; I want to see Eskimos in dog sleds: I want to sponsor the “Central Illinois Iditarod”; I want it so cold schools, business and government shuts down for weeks at a time. So no, no it’s not cold enough for me.” (read with your voice escalating, increasing speed and a high level of stress)

Part of our weather issues, I believe, come from the constant barrage of weather news we receive in our modern world. We have too much information about weather. We have all become junior meteorologists. Farmer’s used to be the best predictors of weather. Now we have storms teams, super duper extra terrestrial hyper active Doppler radar. We have entire television networks devoted to weather. Web sites can give you up to the minute radar in Africa, the south pole or Boogerville, Alabama. Emergency weather radios can be purchased, so you can learn about flooding in weather calamities long before they happen. The local weather guys fight like mad to be the first to place little icons on the bottom of your television screen telling you of the latest advisory. What is most annoying is that after it has been on for twelve hours you would think we got the idea. The weathercasters scramble to have live remotes of events that have nothing to do with weather. They stand in front of the screen blabbering on about cold fronts, occluded fronts, what the computer models say, on and on. Just tell me the weather: Temperature today, temperature tomorrow, whether its going to rain, snow, or be sunny. Be simple.

The “closing notices” have also got out of hand. Without the risk of sounding too old, when I went to school we walked barefoot in the snow 40 miles uphill carrying 50 pound sacks of flour (plus our homework and books) on a trail of sharp carpet tacks both directions during a blinding snow storm every day!

Today, It gets just a little cold and we are canceling everything. Plus you get to see it on the bottom of the screen (another twelve hour telecast). This school district, that daycare, St. Joe’s quilting circle, the judo class, Aunt Edna’s appendectomy. You now what I’m talking about. When did we get to be such wimps?

Here is another phenomena that I have never understood. You wake up to a day of rain. Immediately upon meeting some people you will hear this: “Oh its just so rainy out, I ‘m so depressed. Isn’t this rain awful, I wish it would quit raining; its such a dreary day, its so cloudy, blah blah blah…. It’s so cloudy? You mean to tell me that your day is going to be based upon whether its cloudy or sunny? And in case you missed it science class, we need rain to make things grow. Otherwise we would live in something called a desert. A lot of sand and a lot of sun. Then we could talk about something people call “dry heat”, which would take an entire additional treatise on my part about how annoying I think that phrase is.

What have we become? Weather wimps, that’s what. C’mon people, let’s get with the program. There is nothing you can do about the weather. Nothing. Live with it! And above all quit your yammering about it.

(Next time: How we can be a more polite society if we avoid talk of weather)

On Monday, I went to Joliet to witness the in-district swearing in of Congresswomen Debbie Halvorson of the 11th Illinois Congressional District. She is taking the seat vacated by Congressman Jerry Weller. Weller, although fairly young decided that he had enough of Washington D.C. and decided to move on.

I was impressed by Congresswomen Halvorson’s speech and her sincerity. She is a Democrat that was elected in what is thought to be a largely Republican district. What impressed me about Debbie is that you only need to meet her once and the second time she will meet you she will remember you. She will look you in the eye and whether she actually does remember you, you feel like you have been old friends with her for a while. You don’t always get that with elected officials. Even in my position, I have to remind people from time to time who I am and what I do.

In her speech she talked about how she is committed to the people. Ok, you might say that all politicians will say that, but for some reason when Debbie talks about it you know she means it. I am looking forward to working with Congresswomen Halvorson.

We’ll be going to Washington D.C. on our annual One Voice trip. It will be refreshing to meet with her there and to work with her. Oh, and I guess we will need to meet with Senator Burris as well.

I am announcing that I am going to Latvia to cover the devaluation of the Lat (their currency) on behalf of a consortium of obscure monetary economic newsletters. How did I get this gig, you may ask? Well, I’m the only guy who was interested. There are others who are interested in this topic. I’m not kidding.

Seriously, I merely jest. I’m going nowhere. I do this in light of the breaking news that Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, a.k.a. “Joe the Plumber” is going to Israel to cover the fighting between Hamas and Israel.

Two things bother me about this story. First, that it is an actual story. Why does this even appear in the Chicago Tribune? I know, I know, I am feeding into the frenzy by commenting on it, and perhaps that is what Joe’s publicist wanted me to do, but I could not go without saying something considering the name of this very Blog is an ode to his moniker.

Second, what about his business? I want to know if he ever bought the plumbing business he was talking about during his encounter with President-elect Obama. Is there a lady in Toledo still waiting for Larry, excuse me “Joe” to come by to unplug her sink? Why don’t we hear about the issues he initially confronted Obama about during the campaign trail. I think that would be the more interesting story. Let’s hear about the struggles of the entrepreneur business man. Let’s hear how ol’ Larry is coping with the economy. How did he go from plumber to journalist? Does he actually have any skills as a journalist?

Is he going to make it or is he just using all this to acquire his fifteen minutes of fame and operate a website? By the way, his website has no mention of his plumbing business. He ought to at least have a phone number. If he has any traffic at all he could be drumming up some business!

I will sit and patiently wait for his dispatches from the front and hope that the EDC Board gives me a leave of absence to pursue my journalistic career.

Everyone always says that we are lucky here in Bloomington-Normal. We have an economy that is immune from the travails of the national economy. Indeed to a large extent this is true. According to Ken Springer, the EDC’s Project Analyst, who has been tracking the numbers:

2008 set a new record for foreclosures in McLean County, but did so only by a slim margin. The County experienced a 3.93% increase in total home foreclosures over 2007, up to 503 filings from 484 a year ago. While the sheer number of foreclosures is alarming, the week-by-week trends may be cause for some hope: 10 out of the last 15 weeks of 2008 had either the same or fewer foreclosures filed than in the same period in 2007. This indicates that the foreclosure crisis may be tapering off in McLean County going into 2009.

The McLean County Association of Realtors reported through October that new homes sales increased by a total of 0.9% (3 homes) year over year comparison with 2007. The dollar volume increased 5.9% ($5.3 million) and the average price of new homes increased 4.9%. The bad news is in the sale of existing homes. Dollar volume has decreased nearly 12%. However the average price remained steady with an increase of 1.7%. So in McLean County, the average price on new and existing homes has been able to increase by 4.0% overall even though total dollar volume is down almost 8%. It will be interesting to see the final numbers for the year.

Nouriel Roubini’s RGE Monitor reports that we are in the fourth year of a housing recession and it continues. A survey of 20 metro areas show 14 of the 20 metro areas are reporting new record rates of decline. As of October 2008, the 10-City Composite is down 25.0% from its mid-2006 peak, and the 20-City Composite is down 23.4%(S&P).

Have you bought a home this year? I know two of my staff members have purchased homes and one is building a new one. All of them plan to stay in their homes for a while. I’m sure they are hoping for a long term turn-around over the next three to five years. Roubini says that the trough or loss in value over the next year will be between 38% and 44% loss in value before things start turning around. Consider ourselves fortunate.

I meant to write this on Saturday, but ran out of time. I went to Traffic School today to assure that my ticket won’t be on my record. I acquired a ticket on October 2nd right outside Redbird Arena. I was on my way to pick up a colleague and told him under no circumstances will he keep me waiting. Officer Krupke slowed me down and I was late nevertheless.

Traffic school is a unique mix of people. Young, old, male, female, friendly and grouchy. I am amazed by people who exhibit disgust or anger at being at the class. As far as I know everyone who goes gets their traffic charge removed from their record, which means a savings in the cost of their insurance.

I counted at least 14 times someone said something completely stupid or took out their anger for being there at the instructor by saying in either despondent or recalcitrant manner, “I dunno”. What a bunch or morons!

No one wants to be there. We all know you DIDN’T speed, run that stop sign, cause that accident or (fill in the blank). Neither did I. You didn’t impress me with your smart-ass answers, sitting the ENTIRE time with your arms crossed, or falling asleep. And you certainly didn’t impress anyone with your visual and loud display of throwing your workbook out in the trash can at the front of the room.

I though going was a good deal, and at the end I found it interesting and helpful. So if you ever get a ticket, take my advice, go to the class.

There is never a reason to speed!