I think it has to do with injecting some feel-good stuff into people's worlds in these days when it seems we are truly without direction and the worst is yet to come.  Love and candy and expensive jewelry will make us all feel better!  

(Why February 15?  For more than a century now, American women in and interested in politics -- and thus our future -- have been partying on that day to celebrate the birthday of Susan B. Anthony.

(I actually will be taking my chocolates with me to a celebration held for eons in the heartland, where hundreds of women including legislators, mayors, alders, DAs, and many others again will raise funds for scholarships here -- and for an annual check sent to the wonderful Susan B. Anthony home and historical site in Rochester, New York.)

So, the Republicans are pressing for mortgage relief.

"We need to fix housing first," [Sen. Mitch McConnell]said, and officials said the GOP was coalescing behind a proposal to have the federal government assume some of the risk inherent in mortgages. The goal was to have banks lower the interest rate to 4 percent or 4.5 percent on 30-year fixed rate loans for many primary residences, by directing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy the mortgages.

I find the tabloid obsession with romances, marriages, break ups and divorces to be bizarre.

Valentine's Day is always a "big deal."  Just a way businesses keep the capital flowing during the cold winter months.

This is America, after all, land of the One-Day sale and home of the Big Box stores; all of these industries are hurting, and if they are pushing harder this year, maybe it's more an act of survival, than the giddiness of having an attractive couple in the White House who look like they might still "do it."

I've been married for almost 29 years.  My Valentine goes out to the store and gets me the paper every Sunday, rain or shine.  He checks my oil and always fills my tank if he takes my car to run an errand.  He lets me sleep late on the weekend and never makes me feel guilty about it.  He irons his own clothes!  On my birthday he remembers some obscure thing I talked about 6 months earlier and gets it for me.  He shows me every day, in big ways and small, that he loves me; nothing from Hallmark or Godiva or the local jeweler will ever mean as much to me as all those little things.

With all the problems before us as a nation, I am not looking to the White House for evidence of romance - I think I can handle that one on my own.  If the Obamas provide a role model for black couples, or any couples, if their commitment to each other and to their children provides inspiration, I think that's great.  But the presidency should not be fluffed up and glitterized and made into the stuff of Inside Edition and Entertainment Tonight or even, heaven forbid, TMZ.

Pat Quinn treks to DC tomorrow to meet with Illinois' Congressional delegation, too.  No word on just how long it had been since Blago did so.

Intl Herald Trib

here is the plan the French are going with instead which kinda sounds like what OUR plan was SUPPOSED to be:

The government would spend €400 million on road building and renovation, €300 million on railroads, and €170 million on ports and river infrastructure. It would spend €731 million on universities and research centers and €620 million to renovate prisons, courts and more than 70 monuments and 50 cathedrals.

their unions want a plan like ours:

"It would be irresponsible to chose another policy, which would increase our country's indebtedness without having more infrastructure and increased competitiveness in the end," Fillon said in a speech in Lyon.

More than 1.1 million people took to the streets across France last Thursday, according to the Interior Ministry, with unions putting the number of protesters at 2.5 million, to call on President Nicolas Sarkozy to stop cutting government jobs, increase the minimum wage and spend more on households as the economy enters its first recession since 1993.

Opponents of the government have been calling for an "Obama-style" stimulus plan, one that puts money directly into the pockets of working people.

CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus, supported by Defence Secretary Robert Gates, tried to convince President Barack Obama that he had to back down from his campaign pledge to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months at an Oval Office meeting Jan. 21.

But Obama informed Gates, Petraeus and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen that he wasn't convinced and that he wanted Gates and the military leaders to come back quickly with a detailed 16-month plan, according to two sources who have talked with participants in the meeting.

via digby