9 p.m.

• Well, there goes the neighborhood.

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama promised on Tuesday to encourage trade but to enact new safeguards for workers and the environment, as he opened his campaign for the Pennsylvania primary six weeks away.

Christ, six weeks of ads for these two. I can't wait.

Obama repeated his call to spend $150 billion over 10 years to create "a green energy sector." He said it would "create up to 5 million new jobs, including jobs in Pennsylvania."

 

"We should be building windmills all across the country," he said, but oil companies and their friends in Washington discourage such expansions of alternative energy sources.

Yeah, building windmills all across the country -- except anywhere near a Kennedy residence.

8 p.m.

• So I saw this headline on Brietbart's video clips: Boy Dies After Playmates Bury Him in Sandbox to Imitate Cartoon.

I then went to Google news to get a story to see which cartoon is going to get shit on now.

A 10-year-old boy from the Everett area died Monday afternoon -- two days after playmates buried him in a sandbox and he stopped breathing.

 

The family of Codey Porter, a fifth-grader at Silver Firs Elementary, said an animated TV program called "Naruto" gave him the idea of being buried head-first Saturday morning.

 

Friends initially thought Codey was joking when he began thrashing around, covered from his head to his chest. When they realized he was in danger, they pulled him out and yelled for help.

Well, if this causes Naruto to get shitcanned, I know that the hosts of "X-Play" will be delighted because this probably means the video game line will be gone as well.

• Eh, big deal. The guy had a life jacket on.

Life jackets are made for people, not dogs. So, when Randy Earl's small boat capsized while he was fishing with his dog Lacy, a black spaniel mix, he stayed in the water with his life jacket while making sure Lacy was OK.

 

"When the boat flipped over, I put the dog on top of the boat," Earl told The Dominion Post of Morgantown.

 

While waiting for someone to rescue them on Mason Lake in northern West Virginia, Earl clung to the 12-foot boat's hull. The water temperature was about 50 degrees, said J.M. Crawley, a senior conservation officer for the Division of Natural Resources.

 

Another fisherman, Jan Thorn, watched from shore as a state trooper paddled out to rescue Earl and Lacy.

 

"He asked the state trooper to take the dog first," Thorn said. "It was very touching."

 

Earl, 53, said Lacy means a lot to him and his wife since they lost both of their children in a car accident 15 years ago.

 

"That dog is like a child to us," he said.