 To perhaps nobody’s surprise but his own, disgraced Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was soundly impeached on Thursday by a 59-0 Senate vote that also prevents him from ever holding public office in the state of Illinois. Former Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn, who’s taken his place, summed it up with four words: “The ordeal is over.”
 Blagojevich has maintained his innocence throughout his arrest, investigation and both House and Senate impeachments. He also boycotted the first three days of his own impeachment trial, preferring to be tried by the court of Larry King instead.
Blagojevich has been a popular subject with our community; the RecallRod.org folks had a shop long before his arrest, and as his tenure in office continued we saw the general public add their voices to the conversation. All in all 25,000 Blagojevich products have been created, most of which aren’t t-shirts he’s likely to wear to a family reunion.
 Er… then again, perhaps he would wear it. The man does seem to live in a Bizarro world, where “sucks” means “is AWESOME!” and “impeachment trial” means “irrelevant meeting” and “taped evidence” means “candy.”
With 3 of the last 7 Illinois Governors landing in the Big House, Blagojevich – still charged with wire fraud and bribery – has the dubious honor of potentially bringing that statistic to 4 of the last 8 – a 50% conviction rate. What this means for the young hooligans of Illinois: avoid public office, kids. You’re best off sticking to graffiti and petty theft.
And so the Blagojevich scandal comes to an end, of sorts. What the future holds for him and his closely-guarded coiffure is now up to the legal system.
 Peanut butter is a classic American staple. Unfortunately, a massive peanut butter recall now has parents wondering if they should find a lunch bag alternative for their kids.
An outbreak of salmonella caused the nationwide recall. The affected nuts seem to be isolated to the King Nut brand of peanut butter from the Peanut Corporation of America facility, which produces and sells peanut butters and pastes to a variety of wholesale buyers and food manufacturers – both human and pet.
 The FDA site has a list of manufacturers who have recalled their products, including bars and cookies sold by Trader Joe’s, Keebler and Clif Bar. Petco and Petsmart have also recalled some brands of dog treats, so if your four-legged friends have some peanut-butter based goodies at the house you should definitely check the list of affected brands.
The American Peanut Council also has an updated list of brands not affected by the FDA recall. So far, our most well-known brands of commercial peanut butter aren’t affected – so if your kids are set on their Skippy ‘n Smuckers on Wonder Bread you shouldn’t have to do any parental gymnastics to talk them into a tuna sandwich instead.
 A Boca Raton couple has welcomed a new puppy into their household recently. Well, sort of a new puppy. The pup is a clone of their yellow Lab Lancelot, who died at 11 of cancer. Ed and Nina Otto spent just over $150K to have their dog cloned by the Bay Area company BioArts, who sent Lancelot’s DNA to South Korea. Lancelot Encore was born 10 weeks ago, the result of inserting Lancelot’s DNA into the egg of a Korean dog, then inseminating another Korean dog with the  fertilized egg.
While this all may sound like something out of a sci-fi movie, the puppy is alive and well and has just moved home to Florida. The Ottos have 9 other dogs and 2 cats; no word on whether any of the other pets have told Lancelot Encore of his unusual beginnings, but if “Charlotte’s Web” and “Babe” have taught us anything, it’s that there’s always That Guy in the group who’s gonna give the new kid a hard time with a harsh dose of reality. Then again, they say that dogs live in the present.
 Interesting from our end is that we have a number of cloning t-shirts and anti-cloning t-shirts, and we even some designs that deal specifically with cloning dogs. And that of course means that someone out there created some cloning Dog T-shirts, giving Lancelot Encore and any future cloned pups to come a lot of nice wardrobe choices.
And so it is that Lancelot Encore becomes the first dog, cloned or otherwise, to win a Fantasy T-Wearer award today. May he enjoy the Superclone dog shirt at right. (We don’t know how the rest of the pack feels, but we’ll go out on a limb and assume that at least one of the cats would rather put him in a different outfit.)
While cloning overall raises a lot of controversial questions, we’ll leave you with this puzzler: if a cloned dog chews up the furniture, who’s fault is it?
 It’s no secret that Obama is a comic book fan – but his mad skills as a mediocre doodler went virtually unnoticed until he donated a sketch to the nonprofit Neurofibromatosis, Inc’s National Doodle Day.
The sketch, at left, features a pretty good representation of Dianne Feinstein and Ted Kennedy, as well as two men who – were this a police sketch – might be mistaken for Anderson Cooper and Alan Rickman. In the background we see some sort of official government seal (inspiration for the short-lived Obama seal?) as well as some… um, rainclouds? Which is to say that the new President shouldn’t quit his day job just yet. (The two in question are actually Senators Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid. What the rainclouds represent is, as is so often the case in art, open to subjective interpretation.)
 The Obama doodle was purchased at a 2007 online charity auction to benefit Neurofibromatosis, Inc. Since that time, the owner of the sketch has said he’ll turn down offers to purchase it.
Instead, he’s set up an Obama Doodle shop to help raise money for NF, Inc. So if you’re into unique Obama memorabilia and/or want to inspire a young child with marginal artistic skill toward a future in politicis, this may be just the thing for you.
 Or, as we say in English, Happy New Year!
The Chinese New Year begins today; appropriately, this year is the year of the Ox, which represents prosperity through hard work and perseverance. Indeed, it was the diligent Ox who carried the Rat to victory in the legend of the Chinese Zodiac. (He also carried the Cat, but the Rat pushed the Cat into the river. No wonder cats don’t like water. Or rats.)
 Given the global economic crisis, it seems appropriate that we’re ushering in a Chinese New Year symbolized by a strong, resilient working animal meant to carry heavy burdens. (Good thing it’s not the year of the Rooster.) The Chinese are finding hope in the bullish New Year, with a focus on the Ox’s success through loyalty and tenacity.
So as we begin this new lunar cycle, we leave you with words of wisdom from Confucius that go nicely with the Year of the Ox theme: “It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.”
 Speaking of which, that quote would also make for a nice fortune cookie this year. (Though arguably the best fortune to ever be birthed from a cookie is: “Help! I’m stuck in a fortune cookie factory,” that fortune is probably more relevant for the Year of the Rat.)
 There’s been a lot of requests for the CafePress Inauguration button – this is the free button that we handed out throughout D.C. and on the Mall during the Inauguration festivities.
We exhausted our physical supply, so we’ve put it up in a CafePress shop at Base Price so that those of you who want to remember this day can do so with a groovy, 3.5″ button.
While we’re still consolidating all the pictures and such we took, if you’re interested in seeing a snapshot of the Inauguration crowds we do have a Button Brigade flickr album that gives you a sampling of all the nice, celebrating people we met over our 3 days in D.C. while we handed out t-shirts and buttons.
 It was an amazing thing to see not only the sheer number of people out there, but the number of parents who’d brought their kids to D.C. to take part in this historic Inauguration.
The crowds in D.C. were huge, jubilant, actively celebrating and incredibly diverse – much like the CafePress community itself.
We feel very fortunate to have been able to make so many new friends in D.C., and so glad that we were able to provide a free memento to those who braved the cold, the crowds and the prices to get on out there. This Inauguration was all about being accessible for We the People, and from what we saw that intention was realized.
So for those of you who weren’t able to be there or just didn’t find us among the millions o’ people, we hope that this button provides you with a nice reminder of that day.
 President Obama’s Inaugural speech spoke both of bold and swift action, as well as a promise to align our nation’s protection with the ideals that underpin American society.
In that spirit, the President ordered the closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison within a year. He also ordered a review of military trials and interrogation methods, noting that the government would continue to fight terror without abandoning American “values and ideals.”
Guantanamo has been a hot-button issue since its 2002 inception; our own catalogue has a variety of Guantanamo t-shirts, the vast majority of which align with the new President’s stated ideology behind its closure.
 The controversy surrounding the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp will now most likely shift to the wisdom in its shuttering and the question of what to do with the prisoners, some of whom may be potential or previous terrorists. Gitmo houses 245 prisoners; most of them have been held for years without an official charge or trial. Complaints of abuse have been rampant, and one can only assume that those who weren’t guilty of terrorist activity aren’t likely to be feeling warm and fuzzy towards the United States after being imprisoned for the past several years.
 Many agree that the key to this difficult task is finding foreign nations to absorb many of the detainees. Switzerland has offered up agreement to take some of the prisoners, while other nations have been more reluctant to cooperate – some simply deny that a particular prisoner is a citizen, and others just don’t want them back. Overall, Europe is thus far the most vocally supportive partner in the Obama effort to honor his pre-Inaugural promise to end the Gitmo era.
So: should Gitmo be closed? Should the prisoners be released? Should a World Court be set up so that we can globally partner to prosecute suspected terrorists and war criminals in a manner that’s consistent with maintaining basic human rights and the ideals of civilized societies? Or is it too much of a risk to try to maintain these ideals with people who, by nature of the definition of “terrorist,” don’t share them?
All these questions and more are up for serious debate. Feel free to state your own opinion – whether here or via a t-shirt.
 President Obama took office yesterday, with over a million people braving the icy winds of the Potomac to stand in the Mall and watch him take office.
After handing out all our free buttons to the thousands of folks on the Mall, the CafePress Ground Crew headed up toward the closest JumboTron to wait for it all to start. We managed to get to the Washington Monument – about 1.5 miles from the Capitol building. Which is to say that we had an interesting view of A Lot of (Freezing) People, and a pretty good one of the screen.
 Look, there we are!
One of the more interesting things about being in a crowd this size was how mellow and well-behaved it was. The freezing cold may have helped; it was 13 degrees with the wind chill, and a lot of people spent the wait time trying to concentrate on staying warm.
Our trick: the hokey pokey. We also did some jumping in place and general fidgeting.
 This regrettably amateurish photo shows the sea o’ people next to us. (My actual camera had a temper tantrum, so I was forced to document with my phone. I always knew that camera was a McCain fan.) Fortunately, my cohorts took tons of Inauguration pictures and some video and we’ll be getting those up soon.
While watching TV from far away in 13 degree weather may not sound like the most fun thing in the world, the crowd itself made the experience one to remember.
 We met tons of interesting people in D.C., and saw an absolutely incredible amount of Obama stuff for sale. Street vendors, stores and even the trendy boutiques in Georgetown were all selling their own hot Obama merchandise, from blah to bling and everything in between.
In the end, we had a great time handing out our buttons and being part of the Inauguration that seemed so personal to so many people. This election season was incredibly vibrant in the CafePress community, and we’re happy that so many people were able to be a part of it.
Onward we go…
A (free) button’s worth 1,000 words… and a crowd o’people.
More Inauguration pictures to come!
 The Inauguration festivities were in full swing yesterday, with a massive concert on the mall drawing hundreds of thousands of people to celebrate and listen to Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, U2, Stevie Wonder and others.
The CafePress Ground Crew hit the Mall running with free buttons for the happy spectators – two of them are seen here.
The sea of people made stage visibility near impossible, but the sight of the huge, celebrating crowd was – in our button-festooned opinion – the best view of what this inauguration means to people.
 More 2009 Inauguration photos will be uploaded, so if you’re interested do check back in to see what hijinks might find us.
D.C. overall is brimming with a lot of happy people; restaurants and bars are packed to capacity until the wee hours of the morning, and the streets at times look like the sidewalks of New York.
We have seen a massive amount of Obama merchandise for sale; everything from t-shirts to rhinestone encrusted beanies and walking guides of D.C. (The “stuff we saw for sale” album will be uploaded in a bit.)
Overall, the energy in Washington is that of a huge, collective celebration. Even the plane ride is was more like riding a peace bus from the 70’s, with passengers talking about the inauguration events and sharing stories of why they were participating in it.
 And it’s snowing today, which of course makes the California snow-deprived people happy (and extra-happy that we added good socks to our packing list).
Unfortunately, there won’t be enough snow to create our own t-shirt wearing Snowzilla (or Obamazilla), and the buttons would make such nice eyes. Ah, well.
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