Another East Coast snowstorm is on the way (actually, it’s already here), and this time it looks like we aren’t gonna luck out and miss it. On top of the five or so inches of snow we already have (Update: more like six or seven inches by the time I left the house, and it’s the heavy stuff, too; I guess I’ll be shoveling at lunch time), it looks like we can expect another foot to a foot and a half by tomorrow morning. What with the dearth of snow so far this year, all the schools have decided to go ahead and burn a snow day, which is good news for the morning commute. None of those goddamn school buses to deal with.

If you didn’t grow up where it snows, you missed out on the pure joy of a snow day. Not only do you get a day off (even better if you had a test coming up), but you have all that snow to go out and play in. It doesn’t get much better than that if you’re a kid.

Of course, if you’re a grownup, you’re pretty much stuck going to work (unless you’re a teacher – right, Sue? – or it’s one of those superty-duperty storms where nobody goes anywhere – and I’ve been mandated to work through a couple of those in my time; damn hospitals don’t close).

Still, the snow’s pretty and the dogs love it. I’m not sure they’ll get to go out to the park today, though. I don’t anticipate the roads being all that much of a problem (one thing we know how to deal with around here is snow), but the park is technically closed, and they only plow out the dog walkers’ parking area a couple times a week.

In other news, it turns out the Orca named Tilikum who killed his trainer, Dawn Brancheau (BTW, is that a Star Trek TNG vintage uniform she’s wearing in that picture?), is actually a serial killer whale, having been linked to a couple of other human deaths.

Tourists eating poolside at a daily event called “Dining With Shamu” …

Might wanna consider renaming that.

…watched the whale drown 40-year-old Dawn Brancheau.

Tourists in an underwater viewing area saw the whale swim by, flipping the bleeding trainer over and over in his mouth.

“It was terrible. It’s very difficult to see the image,” Brazilian tourist Joao Lucio DeCosta Sobrinho, 28, told reporters.

Perhaps intelligent critters shouldn’t be kept in tanks for the amusement of humans? Just a thought. Why not put our politicians in a tank, and force them to do, oh, I don’t know, something – anything. That might be entertaining, and there’s no need to worry about them not getting enough mental stimulation, either.

Speaking of entertaining politicians, our Governor has a little problem with his “top aide” (no word on if he has a “bottom” aide, too, but rumor has it the Guv is quite the swinger, so it wouldn’t surprise me).

Gov. Paterson abruptly suspended a top aide without pay on Wednesday night and asked Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to investigate whether state police tried to “improperly influence” a woman the aide reportedly attacked.

Paterson also had contact with the woman a day before her scheduled court date to get a protective order earlier this month, his aides admit.

The woman missed her court appearance and the case was dismissed.

The possibility that the Paterson administration, and possibly even the governor himself, intervened in an assault case against a close aide is the most serious charge yet against his crumbling administration.

Hard to believe all this was going on right under Blinky’s nose. 🙄

In other news, it looks like the President will continue the “Obama Doctrine” of domestic politics. You know, the one that says, “speak loudly, but don’t carry a stick.”

The Obama administration is no longer insisting on the creation of a stand-alone consumer protection agency as a central element of the plan to remake regulation of the financial system. In hopes of quick congressional approval of a reform bill, White House officials are opening the door to compromise….

You may remember Elizabeth Warren, the TARP watchdog (and the only person even tangentially related to the government who sounds like she actually know what she’s talking about), was just slightly in favor of creating such an agency.

If the financial reform bill doesn’t establish an effective and independent consumer protection agency, Congress would be better off passing nothing at all, Elizabeth Warren warned….

Warren…said her chief concern is that financial regulatory reform legislation will suffer the same fate as health care reform — with noble principles either scaled down or negotiated away.

Silly woman. Our brave hopie-changie president would never let that happen.

The Consumer Financial Protection Agency, she said, is not optional.

“The CFPA is the heart of what makes regulatory reform work….”

“We just can’t pass a regulatory reform bill that acquiesces to the industry on every front and where everything is so watered down that nobody has to take a hard vote,” she said.

“It’s not ok to weaken the agency so much that, while everyone can vote yes and pretend to support consumers’ right to a fair deal, nothing really changes. I want a strong agency, and if there’s not going to be a strong agency, then I at least want to see an up-or-down vote on it. Let’s see a vote.”

And if it fails?

“Shame on them,” Warren declared.

Indeed.

But, hey, what’s another snow job in DC? It’s been quite the year for it.

Oh well, time to get out there and Carpe Nivis.