The Wall Street Journal reports that Macy’s has decided to close Oklahoma City’s store in Crossroads Mall. Here’s the whole story, but if you haven’t spent all your Christmas money yet, you may want to wait for the closeout prices sure to come in a few weeks.

Hear a good one lately?

I’d personally like to hear a good one. One good idea about what the U.S. should do about Pakistan now that we’ve gone “all in” on Bhutto and she’s dead and the Islamic nuclear bomb sits on a much more slippery foundation. Just one, if you please. It seems to me that this administration is proved that there are no depths of incompetence to which it cannot drop, so I’m real optimistic about how this will all turn out. Part of the trouble is that there’s so little the U.S. actually CAN do. One stinking thing is an almost absolute certainty: the tribal territories of Pakistan that border Afghanistan will be able to assist the Taliban in Afghanistan with impunity, so we’d best get ready for that. I know that I personally took the principled course and went to see “Charlie Wilson’s War”. Julia Roberts is charming but never met a big-hair Houston big money momma, Tom Hanks doesn’t know how to play a cocaine and whiskey addled carousing Texas conservative, and P.S.Hoffman — well, I’m blaming Mike Nichols and wish he’d been 35 when he directed this movie. It’s a good film, but it also fails on many levels.

Gazing into the crystal ball

The following political prediction about the Iowa caucus/primary is provided to you by “gut check” accuracy. I’ve made a W.A.G., and here it is:

GOP:

Romney 24%
McCain 23%
Huckabee 21%
Ron Paul 17%
Guiliani 11%
Thompson 4%

Dem.:

Hillary 27.5%
Edwards 27%
Obama 26.5%
Richardson 9%
Biden 7%
Dodd 2%
Kucinich 1%

The New Hampshire primary a few days later is impossible to predict because there are so many undecideds and the effect of Iowa can’t be foretold, but what the hell?, it’s not like I have a national reputation to worry about, so here goes:

GOP

Romney 29%
McCain 27%
Guiliani 20%
Huckabee 13%
Ron Paul 8%
Thompson 3%

Dem.

Obama 28%
Hillary 26%
Edwards 24%
Richardson 10%
Biden 7%
Dodd 3%
Kucinich 2%

In other words, not much is going to clear up about the nominations until Feb.5 and the vote in South Carolina. When the S.C. vote comes down, Edwards and Guiliani will both need a win to stay in and that is easier for the southern Edwards than for the N.Y. Guiliani, although the Nation’s Mayor will do better with S.C. military families than most will expect. If Guiliani and Thompson leave, that helps McCain beat Romney on “Super Tuesday”. If Edwards and Richardson leave, that will help Obama against Hillary.

Of course, when W declares martial law and suspends elections just like his buddy Musharref in Pakistan, all that will become moot.

See you in the “retraining” camps, boys and girls!

blogblah!!!