SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:47 P.M. ET: 

RAHM COMES UP SHORT – From The Hill:  "Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) is headed to a runoff despite outspending his opponents and muscling out his strongest opposition, the Associated Press projected Tuesday.  With roughly 84 percent of precincts reporting, the President Obama’s former chief of staff was hovering at 45.5 percent of the vote. His closest challenger, Cook County Commissioner Jesus 'Chuy' Garcia, had 33.9 percent.  Emanuel and Garcia will now campaign for another six weeks as they head toward the runoff vote in April. It is the first time since the 1990s that Chicago has had a mayoral runoff, WBEZ reported."   They don't fix 'em as well as they used to.  As we pointed out earlier, Hillary needs Rahm in the mayor's chair to help guarantee that Illinois goes Democratic in 2016. 

"AMERICAN SNIPER" KILLER GUILTY – From CNN:  "Eddie Ray Routh has been found guilty of murder in the killings of two men, including 'American Sniper' author Chris Kyle.  Kyle and Chad Littlefield, also a veteran, were killed at a gun range in Texas on Feb. 2, 2013. The two men had reached out to the troubled former Marine to try to help him.  No one disputed that Routh shot and killed the two men. Routh's attorneys argued Routh suffers from psychosis, paranoia and schizophrenia. Prosecutors argued Routh is a 'troubled man' who struggles with a 'personality disorder,' not insanity."  The fact is that the insanity defense is rarely successful.  Sentencing comes next.

TRUTH TELLIN' – From CNS:  "CNSNews.com) - Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Tuesday at a Senate Banking Committee hearing that the U-6 unemployment rate--which includes people who are working part-time for economic reasons and those who are marginally attached to the labor force--'definitely shows a less rosy picture' of employment in the country.  People 'marginally attached' to the labor force 'are those who currently are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want and are available for a job and have looked for one work sometime in the past 12 months.'"  About time someone at a high level noted that little complication.  You'd think, listening to Obama, that we were booming.

BRIAN, WE HARDLY MISS YE – From deadline.com:  "Sighs of relief from the direction of 30 Rock: NBC Nightly News Minus Brian Williams posted week-to-week gains in total viewers (up 7%, translating to 673,000 viewers), the news demo (11%, or 262,000 viewers), and among 18-49 year olds (up 9%, or 147,000 viewers) the week of February 16."  My guess is that Brian Williams is headed for some made-up job at NBC News like "roving correspondent in Siberia."  If ratings are higher without him, we'll see just how money talks.

February 24, 2015