Logan Wanecski has entered the world!!

Click for a full-size image.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shannon just sent that picture out via cell phone. I’ll post more when I have more details.

P.S. AWWWWW!!!! Look how cute he is! AWWWWW!!!!!

UPDATE, 11:21 PM: Still no details yet about weight, time of birth, middle name, etc. Like I said, I’ll post ‘em when I get ‘em.

I did write back and ask (saying “YAAAAY!!!!” several times in the process), but I’m guessing Shannon, or maybe P.J. using Shannon’s phone, sent out the above picture to a flurry of people (I say “flurry” because I got it at 9:14 PM and Becky got it at 9:19 PM, so I suspect there were a number of others on the distribution list as well) and then probably put the cell phone away for the night. Certainly, my earlier joke notwithstanding, they have plenty of more important things to do right now than sending multiple text messages to friends in faraway states. :)

Anyway, the message contained only the above picture and the caption “Hello Baby Logan!” So, y’all know literally everything I know at the moment. (Speaking of which, in case anyone is wondering, Shannon has basically given me carte blanche to blog about this. Hence all the updates.)

I can’t wait to see Logan!! Becky and I will be in Buffalo on Friday night (for Marissa and Keith’s Saturday wedding), and so we will probably meet Logan sometime on Saturday. He’ll be just four days old! The adorableness meter promises to be off the charts!

Incidentally, since Logan has finally been born, I just removed the “Shannon’s due date” countdown (er, countup) from the “upcoming events” box at left. But, for posterity, here’s what it looked like just before it was removed. It got all the way to -7!

Before the clock strikes midnight, I gotta mention a very important event today that I haven’t posted about yet… it’s Bea’s birthday!

Lest Andrew’s feminine qualities confuse anyone :), Bea is the one on the right. (Now there’s a scary thought: someone to the right of Andrew!)

But seriously, a very happy birthday to Bea, a.k.a. La Voz de la Razón. May the Infallibility of the Holy Bea be duly recognized by the future Mr. Duque for many years to come! Hehe.

P.S. Why is it that whenever I wish my friends happy birthday, I always inevitably end up making fun of them? :) Though really, in this case I’m more making fun of Andrew. Kinda like how Comedy Central’s “Roast of Pamela Anderson” quickly degenerated into a roast of Tommy Lee’s penis. Actually, no, not like that at all.

P.P.S. EDITOR’S NOTE CONFESSION: This post was not actually published at 9:24 PM, as the timestamp indicates, but rather at 11:08 PM. The reason I bumped it “back in time,” if you will (one-point-twenty-one jiggawatts!!!), is that I wanted that other October 3 baby — the several-hours-old Logan Middle-Name-Still-Unknown-To-Me Wanecski — to get top billing on the blog overnight and into the morning. He’s just so darn cute, it would be a crime to bump his picture “below the fold” prematurely. Not that Bea isn’t cute, too, of course! But, y’know, even the sexiest 26-year-old can’t really compete on cuteness points with a newborn… especially a newborn with a cool hat and a stuffed monkey!

I was just browsing Southwest Airlines’s policies, and I was highly amused to discover that they have a specific policy regarding fat passengers — but of course, they don’t call them fat. They call them “Customers of Size.” LOL!

Former Rep. Mark Foley was molested as a teenager between the ages of 13 and 15 by a clergyman, his lawyer says. Visit CNN for the latest.

The Dow Jones industrial average closes at a record high as the bell rings. Visit CNN for the latest.

UPDATE BY BRENDAN: Here’s a nifty chart from the New York Times:

Swell:

“The U.S. extreme threat of a nuclear war and sanctions and pressure compel the DPRK to conduct a nuclear test, an essential process for bolstering nuclear deterrent, as a self-defense measure in response,” the North’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement…

My Take: Kim Jong Il is getting jealous again. Too much media attention to Mark Foley and Bob Woodward. ;> Here’s hoping little Kim the Ill doesn’t Test it atop one of his mighty Taepo Dongs; nobody knows where those things are gonna Fall down & go Boom ~ least of all his Democratic Peoples’ Republican Rocket Scientists. / Whole thing.

(We return you now to Other cheerful news of the day, e.g. slaughter of schoolchildren to expiate killer’s sins, hijacking of airplane to protest Pope, and destruction of church by lightning.)

Police say that the man who shot children at an Amish school told his wife that he had molested young family members 20 years ago. Visit CNN for the latest.

Drudge has a siren up for an apparent airplane hijacking:

State-run radio says a commercial airliner has been hijacked in Greek airspace…

Turkish Airlines spokesman says hijacked aircraft has landed at an airport in Brindisi, Italy…

Brindisi is near the southeast corner of Italy.

UPDATE: The BBC reports:

[The plane] sent out an SOS twice in Greek airspace, and Athens scrambled four fighters to escort it to Brindisi, a Greek official told Reuters.

The Turkish Airlines plane is carrying at least 107 passengers.

Unconfirmed reports say there are two hijackers and they are protesting about plans for a papal visit to Turkey.

Presumably, they’re upset about the pope’s speech that quoted an 14th-century cleric saying that Islam is an evil, violent religion. And they’re “protesting” this allegation of evil and violence by hijacking a plane. Way to go, idiots! That’ll show ‘em!

I say again: utterly insane.

The thunderstorms storms that rolled through yesterday afternoon wreaked some major havoc, as lightning struck a church in Mishawaka and set it on fire, destroying it.

Er, yeah, so that sucks a lot. Here’s a video report from WNDU, and here’s one from WSBT. The affected church is the the Albright United Methodist Church; Google Maps satellite view here. The parish has been around for 150 years or so, according to WSBT, and they had been using that church for about 60 years.

At the time when the storm which eventually produced that lightning strike was approaching the area, I blogged about a nasty line of thunderstorms that was hitting Wisconsin, and wondered if they’d make their way down here overnight. Well, they did, and although I slept through ‘em, apparently they packed quite a punch. The storms evidently knocked out power for a while at our apartment, judging by the flashing clocks, and they also caused some serious problems at Notre Dame’s information-technology department:

Here’s what the line of storms looked like on radar (animated GIF; takes a while to load fully) when I woke up this morning, by which time they were already well south of the area.

“I hear you have some kind of a famous Internet thing.” –professor who shall remain nameless

If Joe Lieberman wins as an independent, will he keep his seniority? There are conflicting signals:

Reid, the Senate Democratic leader, does not want to wrestle with these questions in public before the Nov. 7 election.

“The caucus won’t make any decisions until after the elections in November,� said Reid’s spokesman, Jim Manley.

While that response implies that Lieberman’s status is to be decided by the entire caucus, senior Democratic aides say questions of seniority are largely decided by Reid.

Lieberman said he would keep his senior position in the caucus, even though he lost Connecticut’s Democratic primary, and is running against Democratic nominee Ned Lamont, whom the Senate Democratic leadership has endorsed.

“That’s what I’ve been told,� said Lieberman in an interview Friday, before Congress recessed for the election. “Caucuses like to keep as many members as they can, not discourage membership,� implying that leaders risk his defection to the GOP if they strip him of seniority.

They’re quacking about this in Kosland, of course. But really, it makes perfect sense. Why the hell should Lieberman show any loyalty to the Democrats if they reward his 18 years of loyal service and consistent liberal voting record by stripping him of seniority? At that point, I personally would have no problem with him jumping ship. Kos & co. will portray it as a pure power grab, but that’s self-evidently wrong: if Lieberman were interested in power above principle, he would have either cynically abandoned his support for the war in 2003 like Kerry, Edwards, etc., thus possibly becoming serious presidential contender and certainly preventing the Lamont rebellion from happening in the first place; or else he would have jumped ship long ago, currying favor with the Republicans and joining their majority or maybe even the Bush Administration itself. Anyway, it simply isn’t necessary to cry “power grab” in order to explain a hypothetical Lieberman defection in the event the Democrats revoke his seniority. Such a move could be perfectly well explained by the fact that the Democrats would at that point be totally and completely saying “screw you” to Lieberman (not to mention “screw the voters of Connecticut,” who duly re-elected him in this scenario), and Lieberman would very naturally not want to respond by saying “oh well, aw shucks guys, okay, I’ll just get in the back of the line then… thanks for noticing me.” Why the hell should anyone expect him to do that? It’s ridiculous! At some point, when your former friends and allies show an endless willingness to kick you in the face over and over again, you’re not going to stand there and take it anymore.

What it really comes down to this. The Kos Kidz think all it’ll take to convince Lieberman to switch is a better offer from the GOP, regardless of the Dems’ actions:

Were the GOP to offer to honor his seniority to jump ship, what are the chances of his refusing that offer? Slim to none in my book. And it’s not an unlikely scenario at all should he be returned to the Senate and the Democrats make enough gains to approach a tied Senate.

No, it’s not unlikely, indeed I’d say it’s nearly 100% certain if the Democrats win 50 or 51 seats… REGARDLESS of whether the Dems revoke Lieberman’s seniority. That is to say, if Republicans need Lieberman, they will try to lure him over, even if the Democrats aren’t revoking his seniority. Just like the Dems did with Jeffords, the Republicans will offer him plum committee assignments, a seniority bonus, a really nice office, some bling :) … whatever it takes. And here’s the rub: Lieberman will turn them down, UNLESS the Democrats give him a very, very good reason to do otherwise. In other words, if faced with the choice of having somewhat less power on the Democratic side — but not being totally screwed over — versus having somewhat more power on the Republican side, Lieberman will do what he’s always done, and follow his principles: he’ll stay with the Dems. But if his Democratic “friends” spit in his face and say “yeah, you’ve been here for 18 years; so what? get in the back of the line, buddy,” then — and only then — will Lieberman give serious consideration to caucusing with GOP (regardless of the majority/minority situation). And at that point, he’ll be completely within his rights to do so, as far as I’m concerned. He’ll still vote as he always has, as an independent-minded progressive (which would make him a very odd member of the GOP caucus), but in terms of caucusing, it’s ridiculous to expect him to stay on the Democratic team if the Democratic leadership is going to send the unabashed message that “you’re not welcome here anymore.” At that point, Lieberman could very reasonably say, “I tried to be an ‘independent Democrat,’ like I promised, but it turns out the Democrats aren’t interested in independent-minded people anymore. They told me to take a hike. So now I’m just an independent, not affiliated with either major party. But, for purposes of caucusing, I had to pick a side, so I decided to caucus with the only party that was willing to respect my independence, which sadly, turns out to be the Republicans.”

Really, though, I don’t think it will come to this. Frank Lautenberg is offering Harry Reid a very attractive “out”:

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.)…views Lieberman’s independent status as an opportunity to press Democratic leaders to restore seniority he lost four years ago.

If Lautenberg retrieves seniority accrued during 18 years of Senate service before retiring in 2000, he could leapfrog Lieberman to lead the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee or the Environment and Public Works Committee [if the Democrats take back the Senate majority].

Lieberman has served 18 years in the upper chamber. Lautenberg has served a total of 22 years, but he has only four years of recognized seniority because he retired from Congress for two years in 2000.

Liberals don’t want Lieberman to be the chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, because they plan to use that committee to vigorously investigate the Bush Administration if they take back the Senate. In point of fact, Lieberman would probably be a great man for the job, as he would certainly be willing to vigorously investigate where it’s actually justified, but not where it’s a mere political charade. Liberals, however, want a partisan witch hunt, not a fair-minded investigation (and mind you, that’s not a Dem-only insult; the same would true if the roles were reversed), so they don’t want Lieberman. Well, Lautenberg is the perfect answer to that dilemma. He can prevent the “Chairman Lieberman Nightmare Scenario” without forcing the Democratic leadership to metaphorically spit in Joe’s face and virtually push him into the Republican caucus. So that’s what I think will happen, if Lieberman is re-elected and the Dems take back the Senate: Lieberman keeps his seniority, but Lautenberg gets his old seniority back and is chosen to lead the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

(Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

The Washington Times is calling for Speaker Hastert to resign over Foleygate.