SO I’M GETTING SPAMMED from a dating site called Mate1.com, which I had never heard of. Do they spam like this in general, or has some joker set up a fake account in my name?

If it’s the latter, well, sorry to disappoint you, ladies, but while I may be hyper-masculine, I’m not in the least bit available . . . .

PRESSURING RAHM EMANUEL TO RESIGN? But then who in the White House will stand up to Reid and Pelosi?

LOTS OF big electronics markdowns.

OUCH: Illinois Attorney General Gets a Grade of “C-“. “Is the Attorney General really suggesting that the Illinois Supreme Court should reach a conclusion to strip the elected Governor of the State of his executive powers because his political opponents think it would be best? Can’t the State’s chief legal officer come up with something better? . . . What is most shocking about the AG’s papers is that I expected so much more. Some case authority. Something other than strained arguments based on the dictionary. Something more high-brow than quoting Barack Obama and Harry Reid. The AG may end up winning this case, but not on the strength of her papers. C-”

I’d say it’s more a question of whether the fix is in. But maybe I’m too cynical about Illinois justice.

UPDATE: Bill Quick thinks the fix is in. But he’s such a cynic.

A SHOCKING FAILURE OF DIVERSITY: No Southerners yet in Obama Cabinet.

VIDEO: Bush with troops in Iraq.

PRAISE FOR GOOD journalistic citizenship at the Chicago Tribune.

BLACK AND WHITE AND dead all over.

SURPRISE! Bush visits Afghanistan. “The rally for over a thousand military personnel took place in the dark, cold predawn hours — it was about 5:30 a.m. local time when the president strode into the hangar to loud cheers.”

A BUNCH OF jewelry on sale, at Amazon.

MORE BIG-MEDIA RETRENCHMENT: Denver Post owner seeks to slash expenses by $20 million.

SOME VERY COOL family-photoblogging from Melissa Schwartz.

JOHN TIERNEY: “If we want our children to be scientifically literate and get good jobs in the future, why are we spending precious hours in school teaching them to be garbage collectors? That’s the question that occurred to me after reading about the second-graders in West Virginia who fought for the right to keep recycling trash even after it became so uneconomical that public officials tried to stop the program. As my colleague Kate Galbraith reports, their teacher was proud of them for all the time they spent campaigning to keep the recycling program alive. . . . I’ve always thought of recycling as essentially a religious sacrament –a fine activity if pursued voluntarily, but not something that should be mandated or taught in public schools.”

SOME HOLIDAY party-food recipes. I used to make hummus a lot, and this reminds me that I haven’t whipped up any in a while.

Of course, there’s always the delicious bacon-and-cheese roll. It’s got bacon!

UPDATE: Via Bob McManus, a link to delicious bacon rice-krispie treats. With bacon!

A HOME STATE PAPER ON Chris Dodd’s “Inept Handling of Conflcts.”

For the first time in his Senate career, Christopher J. Dodd, the senior Democratic senator from Connecticut, is politically vulnerable. In part, that’s because both the Senate Ethics Committee and the Public Integrity unit of the Justice Department are looking into mortgage loans he got from Countrywide Financial.

The Justice Department investigation is broader. It seeks details not just of Dodd’s loans but also of other loans made under Countrywide’s VIP program meant to seek better loan terms for FOAs (Friends Of Angelo, a reference to then-Countrywide company Chairman Angelo Mozillo). NBC news has reported that the program made mortgage loans to a variety of politically powerful Washington insiders over a number of years.

Plus this:

The always voluble Sen. Dodd is uncharacteristically silent about his failure to call attention to what was the increasingly reckless lending practices of the banking industry.

A key figure in this scandal, Countrywide Financial, saw its low-income loan portfolio grow from $1 billion in 1992 to $80 billion in 1999, and to $600 billion in 2003. This was a result of a revision of lending regulations made in 1995 that effectively eliminated traditional income and down-payment requirements to encourage wider home ownership, particularly among minorities. In effect, it was an affirmative action program for the loan business.

The senator did pay attention to Countrywide Financial and to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since he received more than $700,000 in loans at below-market rates from Countrywide. Fannie and Freddie also provided $165,400 in political contributions to Sen. Dodd, making him the No. 1 recipient of such funds, ahead of Barack Obama at No. 2 with $126,349.

Ouch. Plus, an Open Letter to Chris Dodd:

It was so amusing when congressmen — many with good haircuts by the way — pressed the Big Three honchos about the way they travel, the hotels they stay in and the places where they eat.

Those are questions that need to be asked of guys who hire folks who carry lunchbuckets to work rather than wear Guccis.

Speaking of expensive clothes, I’m noticed that you were in such a hurry to give $700 billion to the Wall Street guys that you didn’t ask any of them to step down.

But really, no one would expect you to make that demand of your friends. I mean, you are a “Friend of Angelo,” which means you got low-interest, no-points loans for a $500,000 refinancing on your Washington, D.C., townhouse and a $250,000 refinancing on your Connecticut home.

The cheap loans came from Countrywide, and some sticklers think that was a violation of federal law. But you said you got the good deals because you were a good client and not because you are chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

To be honest, even the New York Times didn’t buy that.

Ouch.

KEITH OLBERMANN spotted in Iraq. “Some Iraqi journalists stood up to apologise.”

UPDATE: Roger Simon: “But more importantly and more apposite to today’s event was that other, oft forgotten, reason Bush went to war in Iraq – that the only way to bring true peace to the Middle East would be through democracy. He wanted to spread the democratic system preemptively. A lot of people have sneered at that idea lately, but while they were sneering Iraq has inched forward toward a democracy. It’s even turning into a (somewhat) decent place to live. That buffoon-like shoe chucker – his name is Muntazer al-Zaidi from Al-Baghdadia channel which broadcasts from Cairo – proved it. No matter what happens to al-Zaidi now (and it won’t be much if anything), it will be nothing like what would have happened to him if he had hurled a shoe at the president during the previous Iraqi administration of Saddam Hussein.”

PHYLLIS CHESLER: President-elect Obama: Are We Our African Sisters’ Keepers?

BELDAR PREDICTS: Blagojevich won’t be impeached until convicted in court. That would be bad news for Obama, if so.

UPDATE: Bad reviews for A.G. Lisa Madigan: “The legal argument in the brief is embarrassingly inadequate.”

THOUGHTS ON failed states, cholera, and “preventive action.”

INTERNET ATTENTION SPAN: 40 Inspirational Speeches in Two Minutes.

IS THE G.O.P. on the comeback trail?

A DAMNING COMMENT ON OUR POLITICAL DISCOURSE:

“The single best thing about the election of Obama,” he says, “may be that we now have a chance to view the terror threat without the distorting lens of Bush hatred.”

Indeed.

NEW JOBS IN Solar Power. I’d install a solar system if I could get a good deal. I wish Elon Musk’s Solar City were operating in my area. Not only would solar save me some money, but it would substitute for the backup generator I’ve been meaning to get.

UPDATE: Dan Cleary sends this link to a story about a new solar factory in Tennessee.

THE END OF OBJECTIVITY AT GOOGLE? “Google this week admitted that its staff will pick and choose what appears in its search results. It’s a historic statement – and nobody has yet grasped its significance. . . . None of this would matter, if it wasn’t for one other trend: a paralysing loss of confidence in media companies.”

UPDATE: A reader emails:

I work at Google, so naturally this was of great surprise and interest to me. Two thoughts:

1) Notice the article does not link or even quote anyone from Google saying that its staff will make selections.

2) I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the various tech publications, but the Register is known as trash to basically everyone. Read with caution.

If Google disavows this, I’ll certainly post on that.

IS ILLINOIS REALLY the most corrupt state? I’d say that depends on whether the District of Columbia counts as a state. . . .