The Cook County medical examiner confirms Rod Blagojevich's former chief fundraiser, who was just days away from beginning an eight-year prison sentence, has been found dead. Quincy: he's dead
A source tells ABC7 Chicago, paramedics were called after Christopher Kelly was found unresponsive in a condominium in Chicago. Quincy: unresponsive? That's cuz he's dead
Stroger Hospital spokesman Marcel Bright says Kelly was transported to the hospital from an unknown address at 5:15 a.m. Saturday. He was pronounced dead at 10:46 a.m. The cause of death has not yet been determined. Quincy: cause of death was "death"...and "knowing too much"
Kelly's defense attorney Michael Monico told ABC7 he would have no immediate comment. Monico: I don't wanna die
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/12/2009 17:54 ||
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#1
According to the Tribune, he died of salicylate poisoning.
"Shaddup and keep swallowing!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/12/2009 18:37 Comments ||
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#5
Kelly was also a close associate of Tony Rezko, the 'O's 'shadow' Illinois fundraiser for his Senate (and possibly other) campaign (although Barry denies it, it's a pretty well-known fact around Chi-town).
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
09/12/2009 22:01 Comments ||
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The Baltimore city state's attorney is considering prosecuting those responsible for taping the ACORN employees on charges that they violated Maryland's wiretap laws.
STATEMENT OF STATEÂ’S ATTORNEYS OFFICE FOR BALTIMORE CITY RELATIVE TO THE ALLEGED BALTIMORE ACORN INCIDENT
Baltimore, MD – September 11, 2009 – We have received inquiries from citizens and the media asking whether the Baltimore City State’s Attorneys Office would initiate a criminal investigation for acts allegedly committed at ACORN offices located in Baltimore. The only information received in reference to this alleged criminal behavior was a YouTube video. Upon review by this office, the video appears to be incomplete. In addition, the audio portion could possibly have been obtained in violation of Maryland Law, Annotated Code of Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article §10-402, which requires two party consent.
If it is determined that the audio portion now being heard on YouTube was illegally obtained, it is also illegal under Maryland Law to willfully use or willfully disclose the content of said audio. The penalty for the unlawful interception, disclosure or use of it is a felony punishable up to 5 years.
The Maryland state prosecutor's office went after Linda Tripp in the 1990s on two wiretap charges. Tripp was accused of illegally taping a phone conversation with Monica Lewinsky about her relationship with then-President Bill Clinton and disclosing the conversation to Newsweek. Prosecutors decided to drop the case when Lewinsky's testimony was suppressed.
#2
Since they exposed ACORN as an adjunct to organized violent crime (keeping children as sex slaves is an inherently violent act!), I fear their lives would be in danger even if they were "only" arrested for a couple of hours, prior to arraignment.
Truly bad people have been hurt by their sting and they might wish to make an example.
#5
political suicide. Someone smarter will quietly drop this
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/12/2009 7:57 Comments ||
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#6
Someone smarter will quietly drop this
This is Maryland, Frank. I do hope you're right, though.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
09/12/2009 8:35 Comments ||
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#7
Doublethink is a word described in the fictional language of Newspeak and the act of simultaneously accepting as correct two mutually contradictory beliefs. It is related to, but distinct from, hypocrisy and neutrality.
#9
"We have received inquiries from citizens and the media" Any of them live near 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. I really do hope they do prosecute the people making the films. Gives the politicans another grenade to throw at the other side. Billboards all over with young exploited girls: "Rep/Senator so and so ACORN and Acorn supports CHILD prostitution." Ya just know there are quotes out there frm all of them. Hard ball? Dirty pool? You betch ya. Politics is a blood sport so be prepared to get dirty.
#10
We have received inquiries from citizens and the media asking whether the Baltimore City State's Attorneys Office would initiate a criminal investigation...
So now the media wants the government to prosecute whistleblowers who have uncover pervasive corruption in a publicly funded agency. How delightfully Kafkaesque.
Posted by: regular joe ||
09/12/2009 15:23 Comments ||
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#11
So now the media wants the government to prosecute whistleblowers...
I took that to mean that they wanted to know whether the AG's office was going to prosecute ACORN.
You know, when I was a kid, about half the episodes on 60 Minutes involved surreptitious filming. And it was a lot harder to be surreptitious back then.
#12
I am pretty sure I read this law covers taping a telephone conversation without the permission of both parties. The law has noting to do with audio that is part of video recording.
Shows the State's Attorney has sub average IQ. I can establish complete picture the the State's Attorney just from that.
A state ethics board received an anonyomous complaint about a former Pennsylvania judge more than two years before the judge was charged in federal court with corruption, a newspaper reported. The Legal Intelligencer of Philadelphia obtained a copy of the complaint made against former Luzerne County Judge Michael Conahan.
The complaint was filed with the Judicial Conduct Board in the fall of 2006. It includes numerous allegations of corruption, including the improper placement of youth offenders in a privately owned detention center, the newspaper reported Wednesday.
Conahan and another former Luzerne County judge, Mark Ciavarella, were charged in January with taking $2.6 million in payments from Robert Powell, the former co-owner of PA Child Care and Western PA Child care; and Robert Mericle, who built the facilities. The judges initially agreed to plead guilty to fraud but withdrew their pleas last month after a federal judge rejected a plea deal.
The conduct board forwarded the 2006 complaint to federal prosecutors, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Zubrod.
"We got that early on in the case," Zubrod told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "They were very cooperative with us. There was no hiding the ball."
It's not clear if the conduct board itself conducted an investigation. Joseph Massa, the board's chief counsel for the board, said confidentiality rules prevented him from commenting. Complaints against Pennsylvania judges only become public if the conduct board files charges.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2009 00:00 ||
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MACON, Ga. -- A former Superior Court judge pleaded guilty to a federal corruption charge Friday after striking a deal to avoid prison, ending a lengthy legal battle that toppled him from his post as one of rural Clinch County's most powerful politicians.
Prosecutors' agreement to drop 13 charges against Brooks E. Blitch III - and to seek probation instead of a prison sentence - stunned U.S. District Judge Hugh Lawson, who took a 20 minute break to decide if he would accept the deal.
"This is the same Brooks Blitch whose hide the government has been trying to nail to the barn door for four years," Lawson said in court. "The government has done everything it can to send this man to jail."
Blitch, 74, presided for nearly 28 years in south Georgia's Alapaha Judicial Circuit. A federal investigation targeting the judge came to light in 2007 when the FBI searched Blitch's office soon after Clinch County commissioners accused him of ordering $73,000 in secret payments to employees that were kept off the books and never taxed.
Misconduct charges by the state Judicial Qualifications Commission, an agency that investigates judges, forced Blitch to resign in May 2008.
Two months later, federal prosecutors indicted Blitch on criminal charges that accused him of fixing cases, appointing his former law partner to a judgeship in exchange for legal services and making illegal payments to employees.
Speaking in a soft voice, Bitch pleaded guilty to only a single charge of honest service fraud conspiracy. He admitted he had negotiated deals for criminal defendants outside the courtroom - reducing sentences and bonds, terminating probations and ordering early releases from jail or prison without holding hearings or informing prosecutors.
Asked by the judge if he truly was guilty, Blitch replied: "Yes, sir. I am responsible for it too."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2009 00:00 ||
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Yet another opportunity to play "Name That Party!"
Prosecutors in the Dallas City Hall corruption trial ended two days of contentious cross-examination of former Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill on Thursday with questions about his State Bar ethical violations, tax liens, and apparent misrepresentations in his testimony.
Federal prosecutor Marcus Busch told jurors that Hill, a lawyer, was found to have committed more than a dozen ethical violations while representing two clients but gave no specifics.
Hill bristled during the questioning but did not lose his composure. He pointed out that he reached a settlement with the bar and his former clients that enabled him to keep his law license.
Busch continued to drill Hill with questions about what he knew about the activities of his wife, Sheila Farrington Hill, and his former Plan Commission appointee, D'Angelo Lee.
Farrington, who was Hill's mistress at the time in question, is accused of working with Lee to funnel bribes through her consulting business bank account, which Hill testified knowing little about.
Hill minimized Farrington's role, and claimed ignorance about tens of thousands of dollars moving through her bank account while they were a couple. But Hill told jurors that some of Lee's behavior was questionable, at best. "A planning commissioner shouldn't be telling a developer to hire specific contractors," Hill said, referring to the shakedown demands Lee is accused of making. "Did you think any of his conduct was proper?" Busch asked.
"The things that I saw or had personal knowledge about, I saw nothing illegal," Hill replied. "That's not for me, that's for them," indicating jurors.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2009 00:00 ||
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A corruption scandal case that shook New Jersey -- involving three mayors, five rabbis, two state legislators, and a man accused of organ trafficking -- took a step forward Wednesday when two of the accused entered guilty pleas.
Guy Catrillo, a former planning aide, and Maher Khalil, the suspended deputy director of the Jersey City Department of Health and Human Services, admitted to a federal judge that they took bribes -- worth tens of thousands of dollars -- from an undercover witness to facilitate business deals.
The undercover sting, which stretched for two years across multiple countries and netted as many as 44 people, exposed the deep and wide roots of graft in New Jersey.News of the sting has captured attention in New Jersey and beyond, as much for its cast of characters as for the outlandish details of the sting, as the New York Times described in July:
It was replete with tales of the illegal sales of body parts; of furtive negotiations in diners, parking lots and boiler rooms; of nervous jokes about "patting down" a man who turned out to indeed be an informant; and, again and again, of the passing of cash -- once in a box of Apple Jacks cereal stuffed with $97,000.
At the center of the operation was Solomon Dwek, "who was arrested in 2006 on a bank fraud charge," Bloomberg reports. Mr. Dwek became an undercover witness and solicited various officials and political operators with bribes on behalf of the federal sting.
"Federal authorities said the guilty pleas from Khalil and Catrillo mark a key step in the case," reports New Jersey's Star Ledger.Bloomberg adds:
Khalil appeared first before U.S. District Judge Jose Linares, admitting he conspired to commit extortion from March 2008 to July 2009 to get corrupt payments and illicit political contributions for exercising influence on Dwek's behalf....
Catrillo admitted to attempted extortion between February and May 2009, saying he took bribes from Dwek while running for the city council. Catrillo lost the election.
Entering his guilty plea, Khalil also implicated others charged in the case, reports the Star Ledger:
Aside from admitting accepting $72,500 in bribes, Khalil told U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares that three other people charged in the case took cash from the informant.He named two of them: Jersey City Council President Mariano Vega and Edward Cheatam, a former city housing commissioner and board of education vice president. The third, Khalil described only as the treasurer of the Guttenberg board of education.
As for Catrillo, reports The Jersey Journal:
In court today, [he] admitted that he had arranged for a meeting between the Jersey City planning director, Bob Cotter, and the federal witness about purchasing and developing attractive land in Jersey City.Cotter couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
The trial is likely to divulge other details of the extent of corruption in New Jersey. As NBC reported: "A parallel track of the probe focused on religious leaders accused of running a money-laundering ring."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2009 00:00 ||
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Yet another opportunity to play "Name That Party!"
HARTFORD - Mayor Eddie A Perez, arrested last week in connection with a state corruption probe at city hall, pleaded not guilty Friday morning to a variety of charges.
Also Friday, state prosecutors asked Superior Court Judge Julia Dewey to combine the charges against Perez stemming from two separate arrests -- one last week, the other in January -- into one trial.
Prosecutors say Perez, in his 2007 race for mayor, attempted to extort money from a private developer for the benefit of political ally Abraham L. Giles. In return, Giles could have brought Perez votes, prosecutors alleged. In January, Perez was accused of trading his influence at city hall for discounted work on his Bloomfield Avenue home.
The judge scheduled a hearing on the matter for October. Perez has until Oct. 5 to respond to the motion.
In addition to Perez, a city councilwoman, a former state representative and a city businessman are facing charges in connection with the corruption probe.
Perez, City Councilwoman Veronica Airey-Wilson, former Hartford state Rep. Abraham Giles and Farmington businessman Carlos Lopez were arrested last week on charges including attempted extortion, fabricating evidence, and voter fraud. The charges arose from an 18-month state investigation into allegations of corruption at city hall.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2009 00:00 ||
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Congressional Black Caucus members are standing squarely behind one of their own: embattled Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.).
In separate interviews with The Hill, several members of the CBC, including Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-Mich.), Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) and Mel Watt (D-N.C.) all expressed unmitigated support for Rangel holding onto the Ways and Means post.
Overall, The Hill interviewed about a dozen members of the caucus, who all defended Rangel and said he is innocent until proven guilty. That statement's usually taken to mean you can't investigate what the guy's done...
"He's done a great job as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and throughout his 30 years in Congress," Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) said. "I still think we live in a country that believes that people are innocent until proven guilty and he hasn't been charged or convicted of anything."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2009 00:00 ||
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The federal deficit surged higher into record territory in August, hitting $1.38 trillion with one month left in the budget year. The Treasury Department said Friday that last month's deficit was $111.4 billion, below the $152 billion that economists expected. Still, the imbalance added to a flood of red ink already accumulated through a severe recession and massive spending needed to stabilize the banking system.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Thereafter 2010 will be the record year, then 2011...
The Census Bureau on Friday severed its ties with ACORN, a community organization that has been hit with Republican accusations of voter-registration fraud. "We do not come to this decision lightly," Census director Robert Groves wrote in a letter to ACORN, which was obtained by The Associated Press.
But they did come to it on a Friday night ...
In splitting with ACORN, Groves sought to tamp down GOP concerns and negative publicity that the partnership will taint the 2010 head count.
"It is clear that ACORN's affiliation with the 2010 census promotion has caused sufficient concern in the general public, has indeed become a distraction from our mission, and may even become a discouragement to public cooperation, negatively impacting 2010 census efforts," Groves wrote.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2009 08:57 ||
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Notice Census Director Groves fails to denounce ACORN, electing to rather emphasize (or blame) public concern over the promotion and potential negative impact upon the mission.
#2
If they demand he apologize, he could tear them apart, by quoting from the bill, then repeating what Obama said, then saying
"I apologize, because in reading this bill it just seems to be completely different from what Obama said; but now I realize that anyone else reading this would clearly see that they are the same, no matter how radically different they appear to be. They are almost identical, like night and day. The only difference being light and darkness."
#5
An admonishment from the low rated House will help Joe to reelection and will erode what little creditibility the House has left, even more. A win-win situation.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/12/2009 13:14 Comments ||
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#6
Congressman Wilson has received at least three quarters of a million dollars in donations since his little outburst, according to DrudgeReport. I've seen reports that he's already up to $900,000.
#8
Wilson needs to be careful -- he won his last election 52-48, and the man he beat is running again. The money is sweet and Bambi won't be a big asset in 2010, but stranger things have happened.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/12/2009 15:46 Comments ||
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#9
his opponent got a large influx of $, prolly from the DNC, but he was also supposedly $400K in debt from the last campaign
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/12/2009 16:15 Comments ||
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#10
No conservative should be sanguine right now. This administration majors in dirty tricks and thuggery.
OTOH, with luck there will be a bunch of non-sanguine Dems too.
#12
Well, I've been told that white people lie all the time, so being half-white I have to accept that Obama will lie sometimes but its not his own conscience thoughts, it just happens. Pointing that out is just not cricket - its like making fun of the Special Olympics, just wrong.
For liberal Democrats unhappy with the way Max Baucus is handling health care reform, here's another dose of bad news: He's got his hands on climate and energy, too.
Behind closed doors, Sen. Baucus has been staking his claim on major aspects of the climate bill, including financing for a cap-and-trade system.
His power play could put Baucus at the helm of the Obama administration's domestic agenda, giving an unpredictable Montana Democrat control over legislative proposals that could define the Democratic Party for years to come.
"He's swung from liberal to conservative," said Montana pollster Craig Wilson, noting Baucus's support of the 2001 Bush tax cuts and the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill. "He's been a bit of an unpredictable vote for the Democrats."
Yet Baucus remains a signpost for moderates and could draw more conservative members of his party to support the Obama administration's key initiatives.
"The old saying used to be 'as Maine goes, so goes the nation,'" says Frank O'Donnell, head of Clean Air Watch, an environmental advocacy group. "On climate, it's 'as Baucus goes, so goes the Senate.'"
But liberals have complained that Baucus's obsession with getting Republican support for the health care bill has slowed progress on the issue, and they worry the same thing will happen on climate change.
In public, Baucus has kept a laserlike focus on the health care negotiations -- honoring the administration's wishes to put cap and trade on the back burner until Congress completes its work on health care.
"We've got health care. It's going to take up most of the month. It's going to be difficult to also do [climate]," he told Environment & Energy Daily this week.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2009 00:00 ||
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Rep. Joe Wilson and Democratic challenger Rob Miller say they raised a combined $1.6 million in the 40 hours after the South Carolina Republican yelled "You lie" during President Barack Obama's address to Congress Wednesday.
That total -- $850,000 for Miller, $750,000 for Wilson -- is almost as much as the two men received over the entire 24-month campaign cycle for their 2008 race, when Wilson defeated Miller 54-46 percent.
The astonishing numbers -- all hard cash, in the bank via online contributions -- are the best indicator that Wilson's outburst and its aftermath have made him a marked man among Democrats and transformed his re-election campaign into one of the nation's most watched races.
Meanwhile, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn personally demanded that his fellow South Carolinian stand on the House floor and apologize to his colleagues for the outburst. Wilson had rejected the demand as unnecessary after his apology to Obama, but aides say he's weighing it and will decide over the weekend.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
oops! Wilson's gone over $1Mil, passing Miller, who still owes substantial debt from their last battle
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/12/2009 16:27 Comments ||
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Under the glow of the sign outside Country Place Restaurant on Shallowford Road, homemade posters, loads of enthusiasm and at least one tri-corner hat were on display as local anti-spending protesters prepared to head to Washington, D.C.
Bryan Haddock of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Tennessee told the crowd of more than 100 gathered outside the restaurant Thursday night that they were headed into "a battle of rhetoric."
"I will stand next to every one of you guys on the field of battle if that's what it takes," he said.
The trip to Washington, sponsored by the Chattanooga Tea Party group, is part of the national 9/12 Project organized by television and radio host Glenn Beck. The project will culminate in a Saturday march on the National Mall to protest federal spending.
The group of protesters going to Washington left at about 9 p.m. Thursday and will stay through Sunday.
Keith Talley, spokesman for the Tennessee Democratic Party, said protests are "part of the American way," but he said the national debate should "be more civil."
He said many protesters who were vocal in protests at the town hall meetings held by members of Congress last month were driven by "vested corporate interests" that want to "kill legislation" such as energy bills and health care reform. "There's a lot of misinformation out there," he said.
But Melinda Crawley, who rallied supporters Thursday night, said the group heading to Washington represented the true grass roots. Ms. Crawley said she had a "bone to pick" with U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who has referred to Tea Party protesters as "astroturf" rather than sincere grass-roots protesters.
"You're not in touch with the American public!" Ms. Crawley said.
Someone in the crowd then shouted, "Pe-lousy!"
Another speaker at the rally, Patsy Nickle, said the protesters were filling the void left by the death of U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., who often was called the liberal lion of the Senate.
"I want you to roar!" she shouted into the microphone. "We are the new lion!"
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
It will be interesting to see how many people show up in DC.
#2
There are satellite events at all the state capitals for those who can't make it to DC. I'll be at the one in Oregon - steps of the state legislature at 11 . . .
#3
So many of the San Antonio Tea Party leadership went to Washington, that the rest of us are going to have a TV watching party at a local sports bar. (Momacks, by McAlister Park, from 11ish to threeish - come on by, if you're in town!
#4
So...will this get the Van Jones treatment from the MSM? Will we here that turnout failed to meet outrageously eggagerated turnout predictions? Will we here that this is all Astroturf driven, complete with moonbat mole claiming to be paid by the VRWC?
What's that old line? Soap box, ballot box, cartrige box. This is step 1. 2010 will be step 2. After that ..................8^(
#5
There was a tea party in in Sacramento about two weeks ago. There were about 10-15k people there, but you would never know that fromthe local papers. 50 people showed up to demonstrate for ILLEGALS rights and it was front page news. They are scared of the tea parties, so keep going and support the causes.
#7
Do they get to use the affirmative action math crowd multiplier(tm) to calculate size that the left employs for their propaganda new release to unquestioning fawning MSM? /rhet question
#8
Cyber Sarge, it could be worse. At least your local fishwrapper didn't choose to cover a bird colliding with an office window instead of tea parties/town halls/the ACORN mess like mine did. I kid you not.
#9
Traffic cams are quiet now. I can't find any access to Mall cams, though. WashingPost's is down for maintenance... since February, it seems.
Posted by: Grenter,protector of the Geats ||
09/12/2009 12:32 Comments ||
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#10
I walked over to the mall late this morning to check things out and was pretty impressed with the turnout. There were easily several thousand people there if not 10k+ plus, maybe even double that, and they were still pouring in.
#13
At least your local fishwrapper didn't choose to cover a bird colliding with an office window instead of tea parties/town halls/the ACORN mess like mine did.
Don't feel so bad Cornsilk Blondie: if the bird droppings were in the shape of Dear Leader, it would have been top story in the NYT.
Posted by: regular joe ||
09/12/2009 15:28 Comments ||
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#14
My wife and I just got back from the DC Tea Party. I don't know how many people were there - my unscientific guess is a LOT. They were supposed to gather at Freedom Park and march to the Capitol at 11:30. We got there about 10, and the march had already started. We never got all the way to the Capitol - we sat by the pool in front. There were people all around the pool, and all the way up to the Capitol building. I didn't see any news trucks, though. There was one helicopter that circled for a while, but I couldn't see if it was a MSM or police copter.
I didn't see a lot of trash on the ground. Some of the waste baskets were overflowing, but that is probably to be expected.
The Metro was jammed.
All in all, a good time (for the participants.) Any congress critter who is not in an absolutely safe seat, like Pelosi, should be worried.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
09/12/2009 16:59 Comments ||
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#16
Just got back a little while ago, I'd say there were at least 200,000 there. People were jammed in pretty thick the closer you got to the Capitol. There were some excellent signs...
#17
Did anyone see this the network news? Any numbers mentioned? I turned it on 3 minutes after the start and saw the tail end of an Obama interview. Watched for another 10 mins w/o any mention of this massive rally.
Posted by: ed ||
09/12/2009 19:08 Comments ||
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#18
The MSM only covers for their own declining readership and viewership. Their former readership and viewership were there to see for themselves.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The Cook County medical examiner confirms Rod Blagojevich's former chief fundraiser, who was just days away from beginning an eight-year prison sentence, has been found dead.
Congressional Black Caucus members are standing squarely behind one of their own: embattled Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.).
Rep. Joe Wilson and Democratic challenger Rob Miller say they raised a combined $1.6 million in the 40 hours after the South Carolina Republican yelled "You lie" during President Barack Obama's address to Congress Wednesday. 
Under the glow of the sign outside Country Place Restaurant on Shallowford Road, homemade posters, loads of enthusiasm and at least one tri-corner hat were on display as local anti-spending protesters prepared to head to Washington, D.C.
