Farewell 2008

I might not get to my computer tomorrow, so I might as well say goodbye to 2008 now.

What kind of year was it? Well, a friend of mine wished me success at the beginning of the year, though I have a hard time finding any successes to crow about. My writing career has struggled - I'm not sure of I can call it a career anymore - and I've had a lot of dry patches in in my writing. It's apparent on this blog - as of now, I've posted 236 blog entries for 2008, the lowest number for a full calendar year. I only got two pieces published, and one was an eight-year-old essay I dusted off and submitted. I've also found it hard to find any relevant periodicals to submit my other writings to.

Also, two friends and my cousin got married this year, and an alarm went off in my brain - I'm 43 and still single. And I haven't dated since . . . since. . . uh, never mind. Let's just say I've forgotten what courting is like.

Are there any bright spots in the coming year? Well, I have an idea for an article I hope to develop, I might still be able to find places to send pieces I've already written, and on the romance front . . . well, this is a public blog, so let me just say I see possibilities.

Maybe 2009 will be my year. As for the old year, I can't get out of it fast enough. An extra day didn't help. Yes, maybe the new year will be better. I hope so.

Happy new year.

I'm On Facebook!

I just signed onto Facebook at the recommendation of a friend, and when I entered my college information . . . well, it was pretty scary. Facebook came up with classmates of mine, most of whom I haven't seen in twenty years and many of whom I hoped never to see again!

I have mixed feelings about this. I joined Facebook to interact with my current circle of friends, and I wanted no part of getting involved again with people from another time that I moved on from. But they're there, and now I can easily contact them - and they, conceivably, can contact me. Do you want to know how painful it is to sign on to a social networking site and get a direct connection with a girl from school you had a crush on but who blew you off, and you resolved never to have anything to do with her again . . . and you suddenly question whether or not you should still hold onto that grudge . . . just because she's on Facebook??

For a lark, I did put in a friend request to my best friend from college, along with requests to two other guys I remember fondly. (None of them have answered yet.) But as Steely Dan once sang, maybe I should never go back to my old school.

It's Burris

Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich announced his choice of a new U.S. Senator to replace Barack Obama - Roland Burris, a 71-year-old former state attorney general who, like Obama, is black. Blagojevich hopes his slime won't rub off on this esteemed politician.

Except that the Illinois secretary of state, Illinois Republicans, Democrats in the U.S. Senate, and incoming President Obama refuse to recognize the legitimacy of anyone Blagojevich chooses.

Note to the Rodster: Er, Governor, I'm not an Illinoisan, and I am not an expert on your state's political mores, but, umm, perhaps you were better off making this appointment to Obama's Senate seat before you were arrested.

Illinois Central

Illinois's lieutenant governor, Pat Quinn, confidently predicted that Rod Blagojecich would be impeached, convicted, and removed from office by February. Quinn also said, though, that he would still call a special election for Barack Obama's Senate seat because all of the likely appointees for the seat are tainted by merely having spoken to Blagojevich.

Surely there must be a politician in the state not associated with the governor who could be a "bench-warmer" in the meantime, though. It could be the deputy mayor of Kankakee, a state representative from Quincy, a city councilman from Decatur, the Oak Park town hall receptionist - anyone!

Forget Minnesota, this is getting more interesting . . .   

Rich Citizens

The two most impressive public figures in the past year outside the presidential campaign may be two filthy rich people I hadn't taken seriously not too long ago.

T. Boone Pickens is an oilman and a staunch Republican, so who'd have thought I'd be supporting this guy's efforts at advocating a national energy policy? Except that Pickens believes in alternatives to oil, and he's been promoting the use of wind power and natural gas as a cleaner way of generating the energy sources we need to keep the U.S. economy going and get if off foreign oil sources. It is true that Pickens has invested in wind farms, and such a government policy in favor of wind development would help him make money, but so what? This is a capitalist country, after all. If it's going to benefit our country, I don't care how much money Pickens makes. He gives a lot of it away anyway.

Seven years ago, media mogul Michael Bloomberg was seen as a billionaire businessman trying to buy his way into power by spending what it took to get elected mayor of New York. Once in office, though, Bloomberg has kept the city running with incredible efficiency, and his no-nonsense approach to governing has earned him applause for his integrity. Not only has he foregone a standard mayoral salary, taking only a dollar a year, he's attempted to reign in spending by trying to cut or cancel popular programs, such as city property tax rebates, to keep the budge balanced. (The rebate was saved with help from the New York state government.) Bloomberg is hoping to remain mayor of New York during the global financial crisis to keep the city going through tough times. Hence, he had the term limit law repealed. Cynics will complain that Bloomberg is only interested in aggrandizing his own political power. but he has no plans for higher office and will continue to make a dollar a year for his public service during a third mayoral term. He doesn't need to be the mayor of New York for his own power. He already has it.

True, Bloomberg acts like he's the only person who could possibly run New York City during tough times, but the truth is . . .he probably is.

2008: Winners and Losers

Well, it's that time of year again, the end of the year, ain't been 'round since you know when, yes, it's my annual list of winners and losers of the year!

For 2008, I'm going to try to keep myself honest and find as many selections in as many different fields as possible so it doesn't end up as a list of all the winners and losers in politics, because that's too easy. However, I will add a few extra political names here and there, when the situation calls for it. So, without further ado, here are my winners for 2008:

Barack Obama. This one was easy. Having come from behind in a tough presidential primary season against Hillary Clinton, where no one gave him a chance, and having handled the economic crisis of the autumn campaign against Republican John McCain deftly, he stuck to a consistent message of change and hope . . . and in doing so was elected the first black President of the United States. Now, of course, comes the hard part . . . governing.

Democracy in America. More people voted. More people participated in the campaign. More people cared.

Robert Downey, Jr. Don't say there are no great comebacks in Hollywood anymore; once left for permanent hasbeen status for his drug addictions, Downey overcame his demons and starred in one of the biggest hits of the summer movie season, Iron Man. He even stirred up talk of an Oscar nomination with his portrayal of a white Australian actor playing a black American character in the comedy Tropic Thunder.

Anne Hathaway. The young actress from New Jersey had a rough personal life - messy divorce and all that - but on screen, she demonstrated her talent for playing it sweet in the movie version of the 1960s TV series "Get Smart" and playing it sour with her role in Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married.

Tina Fey. The former "Saturday Night Live" cast member and writer picked up a load of Emmys for her work on the NBC sitcom "30 Rock," one of the few bright spots for that network of late. (Anyone see "Kath and Kim," starring "Saturday Night Live" alumna Molly Shannon? Anyone?) Then Fey returned to the show that made her famous - helping to boost its ratings to levels not seen in a decade - and played Sarah Palin without the need for heavy makeup. The governor of Alaska may be able to see Russia from her house, but Fey can see forever when she looks ahead at her career.

Heavy metal. Axl Rose finally delivered the long-awaited Guns 'n' Roses album Chinese Democracy to favorable reviews, and AC/DC released the LP Black Ice to even more favorable sales . . . in an exclusive marketing deal with Wal-Mart that, on the heels of that firm's exclusive selling of last year's Eagles release, portends more such deals with several chain stores in the future.

New York rock radio. The Big Apple is still a disco town, but the addition of another rock radio station to the New York metropolitan airwaves makes it easier for Tristate rock fans who still listen to the radio the old-fashioned way, without satellites or Internet connections. When WRXP-FM went on the air in February, it joined classic rock station WAXQ-FM and modern rock station WXRK-FM, and so New York has three stations devoted to rock and roll. And that's not even counting more stations in the Long Island and New Jersey suburbs. :-)

The Philadelphia Phillies. In one of the weirdest and wackiest baseball championships in history, the Phils beat back a strong challenge from the Tampa Bay Rays to win their first World Series in 28 years.

Michael Phelps. What can I say about the new grand homme of swimming that hasn't been said? Fourteen career gold medals, eight of them at the Beijing Olympics alone, and he's not ready to hang up his goggles yet.

Volkswagen. At a time when other automakers - even Toyota - are struggling through the global financial crisis, Volkswagen seems to be bucking the trend. The German automaker plans to open its first American factory in 2011 in Tennessee - 23 years after its Pennsylvania plant, the first factory opened in the U.S. by a non-American automaker, closed - and its stock has surged on the Frankfurt exchange.

Rachel Maddow. Rachel getting ratings! The Air America radio host proved that progressive politics can succeed on cable television - MSNBC, 9:00 Eastern - and she delivers satirical zingers with more subtlety than Keith Olbermann can manage.

Denver. It hosted the Democratic National Convention without incident, and the planning and security were so good, Barack Obama's acceptance speech at Mile High Stadium went flawlessly.

And now, as Cheap Trick once asked, "Whatever happened to all this season's losers of the year?" They're right here:

Wall Street. If John McCain considered wild Dow Jones point swings and losses a sign of an active economy - because of all that selling - no wonder he thought the fundamentals of our economy were strong.

Detroit. Motown just keeps falling with no floor in sight. Its automobile industry has to rely on loans from the government, its crime rate is rising along with its unemployment rate, and its mayor was forced out of office in a scandal involving sex, lies and audiotape. At least the Lions, its NFL team, have a perfect record for the 2008-09 football season - sixteen games lost and no games won. With all due respect to Martha Reeves - now a Detroit councilwoman - we can forget the Motor City.

The Republican Party. The Guardians of Privilege (GOP) got a major beating in the November presidential and congressional elections, thanks to an unpopular war and an unpopular Republican president. But John McCain, because of his gravitas, might have won enough independent voters to defeat Obama. Instead, he went chasing for supporters among the white evangelical base and demonstrated a misunderstanding of the financial crisis when it broke in September. McCain actually won by losing, though; the economy isn't going to be his problem.

The New England Patriots. They had a perfectly good record from last season - the opposite of the hapless Detroit Lions - and they lost Super Bowl XLII in an upset to the Giants. Coming as it did after their season, it was even more embarrassing than the losses of the cowardly Lions.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The once-respectable institution had compromised itself with the inductions of numerous pop acts with a dubious connection to rock and roll, but it squandered whatever credibility it had left when its board inducted Madonna in her first year of eligibility after having denied worthier acts that had been eligible for years. The Hall has preferred to downplay the rock and roll aspect and play up the fame aspect. The museum itself, in Cleveland, is no longer an essential tourist attraction to visit thanks to an annex that opened in New York - which, as noted, is still a disco town these days. (Indeed, the New York annex celebrates rock venues in the Apple that no longer exist.)

Kevin Costner. The nineties are over, but someone forgot to tell him. His movie Swing Vote, an alleged comedy about an undecided voter whose choice will determine the outcome of a presidential election by itself, was voted out of theaters by moviegoers who were more entertained by the real thing on cable TV news. Costner undistinguished himself further with a country record, Untold Truths, which only reached number 75 on the country charts. He can't handle the untold truth!

The Chicago Cubs. The fabled North Side baseball team had one of the best records in the National League, but a loss in a key divisional series game shut them out of pennant contention. And so, the Cubs begin their second century without a World Series victory.

Alaska. The once-majestic state is looking very small, thanks to the various antics of its politicians - Mike Gravel, Ted Stevens, Don Young, and of course the Almighty Queen of the Last Frontier, noted book-banning wolf-killer Sarah Palin. (In the spirit of the holidays, I'll say something nice about the noted book-banning wolf-killer - she could have been a really great smooth jazz flutist if she hadn't been sidetracked into desk jobs.) The state's residents are going to have a hard time drumming up pride when they mark their fiftieth anniversary of statehood next Saturday.

Illinois. Then again, Alaska doesn't have a governor so slimy his hair can stay in place without gel, nor does it have an unsold - er, unfilled - Senate seat. Abraham Lincoln is spinning in his grave indeed.

John Edwards. Had the former North Carolina senator merely lost his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, it would not have been humiliating - in fact, the failure of his antipoverty message reflected less on his failures as a politician and more on the average American voter's disregard for the poor (relax, Joe the Plumber, I'm not talking about you!). But his extramarital affair illustrated his failures as both a father and as a husband - his affair went on during the worst of Elizabeth Edwards's cancer battle. This son of mill worker's going to be toast.

NBC. If Tina Fey and Jay Leno weren't associated with this network, would anyone watch? The once-proud "Peacock Network," after years of poor sitcom pickups, an overreliance on veteran shows, gimmicky reality programming, and overhyped dramas, is mired in last place. Its sitcoms are qualified hits at best, and its drama lineup is so decimated it's surrendering the 10:00 Eastern time slot to a new show for Leno, which will render Conan O'Brien's takeover of "The Tonight Show" redundant and the insufferable Jimmy Fallon's takeover of "Late Night" even more so. (Well, there's a silver lining!) They're so desperate for ratings successes, they even let Rosie O'Donnell air a pilot for a variety show, even though no one has bothered with Rosie O'Donnell or variety shows in ages. True, NBC was in a similarly hapless state in the early eighties, but back then there wasn't a fourth network that lacked a nightly newscast and late-prime programming (that is, 10:00 Eastern) for the Not Broadcasting Competently network to lose the ratings battle to.

O.J. Simpson. Guess why.

And finally. . .

George W. Bush. The outgoing President is trying to burnish his legacy. And he still thinks people care.

That's it for 2008. Happy new year - I toss my shoe to you! :-D ;-)

Christmas 2008

I hope everyone had a good Christmas. I did. I spent a quiet afternoon with my mother, had a nice dinner, and spent the evening with friends. I stayed so long at my friends' house, I got home too late to open presents with my mom! We opened them today - Boxing Day.

I gave my mother a John Fogerty CD. I got a lot of clothes. :-)

More later.

Okay, Can We Cut The Crap Now?

Barack Obama released the information on his contacts with Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, liek he said he would as soon as he was allowed to by the U.S. Attorney's office, and sure enough, there was no improper behavior. So this should settle it - except as far as Fox News is concerned.

For the time being, Illinois won't have an additional senator, but then neither, apparently, will Minnesota. They still can't call the Senate election there for Al Franken or Norm Coleman, and it won't be settled until some time after the holidays.

Meanwhile, I was pleased to see Obama name California congresswoman Hilda Solis as his Secretary of Labor, as she has a strong, lengthy record of standing up for workers' rights. :-)

Last-Minute Bailout

George Walker Bush, with one month to go in his Presidency, agreed to a bailout for the American automobile companies that could total up to $17 billion.

Just when I thought he was a lost cause. . . . How dare he do the right thing? :-D

Both the UAW and conservative Republicans are bitching about the terms, so it must be a good plan if Ron Gettelfinger and Richard Shelby are ticked off about it.

This should serve as a lesson to a certain Illinois politician to do what's right. Rod Blagojevich, who should resign the governorship of the Prairie State? No, Barack Obama, who should rescind his invitation to noted homophobe Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at the inauguration.

More Cabinet Appointments

Barack Obama nominated Colorado senator Ken Salazar to be his Secretary of the Interior. What, another Senate vacancy to be created? Forget the filibuster-proof majority; the Democrats won't even have a quorum!

Tom Vilsack, the former governor of Iowa, is tapped to be Secretary of Agriculture, which seems fitting, but I have yet to understand the logic of Obama naming outgoing Illinois congressman Ray LaHood as Secretary of Transportation. But I'm sure we'll find out.

Still no Secretary of Labor nominee, I don't like that . . .

Beethoven A Rock and Roll Hall of Famer?

Today is Beethoven's birthday, and I can just imagine the conversation Lucy and Schroeder must be having now.

Lucy: "Everyone talks about how great Beethoven was. He wasn't so great."

Schroeder: "What do you mean, Beethoven wasn't so great?"

Lucy: "He never got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, did he? Huh? How can you say someone was great if he never got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?"

Schroeder: "Good grief!"

:-D

Shoe Shoe Baby

"Gentlemen! Gentlemen, I give you . . . the war!"

-- Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda) in a "M*A*S*H" episode, speaking to the personnel of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in the mess tent, just before everyone drinks champagne from shoes and spits it out in utter disgust

Shoe Bombing

George Walker Bush received the ultimate humiliation when an Iraqi reporter threw two shoes at the outgoing Leader of the Free World at a news conference in Baghdad, where Bush made a surprise visit. too bad Bush didn't have that rubber turkey from his last surprise visit to fight back with! Alas, both shoes missed him.

Meanwhile, despite a slew of reports showing that the reconstruction of Iraq was nothing short of a total failure, Vice President Cheney insists that national security needs dictated Saddam Hussein's ouster by the U.S. military even if he'd had no weapons of mass destruction. Too bad someone didn't knock him senseless with a pair of wingtips.

Oh, well. Soon we won't have Bush and Cheney to kick around anymore.

High-Speed Rail On Track

Could we be getting high-speed passenger rail service in America at last?

The federal government is studying possibilities for up to eleven high-speed rail corridors, and key Democrats including Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania and Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey have all expressed support for such a program at one time or another. New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, appearing to day with Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, has stressed that this is just the sort of transportation infrastructure the United States needs to stay competitive.

I can't help but be more than just a bit cynical, because I've seen this all before. Bill Clinton entered the Presidency in 1993 promising a similar project, but we only ended up getting the Acela service for Amtrak. It's a nice, fast train - I've ridden it - but it's no bullet train. Its top speed of 150 miles per hour is less than half of what a French TGV travels at. This time the promise of intercity bullet trans has to be more than just a shiny train set that can go faster than a Metroliner.

Texas tried to establish high-speed rail service, but Southwest Airlines boss Herb Kelleher lobbied the plans out of existence. (It would after all, have cut into the profitable business of selling airline tickets between Dallas and Houston.) Florida hoped to set up a similar service, but plans were canceled by then-Governor Jeb Bush, whose father and older brother, of course, have been oil men. Trains are more energy-efficient than planes or cars; many of them run on electricity generated by less oil than it takes to keep planes going. Ohio canceled a high-speed rail network long ago, but I don't know the what the ulterior motive may have been there. It's time to pick up where all of these grand ideas left off.

Don't expect any of the money from the proposed stimulus package Barack Obama is proposing to help get bullet trains started; many of the transportation projects ready to go involve highways or bridges, and high-speed rail takes forever to plan. California is getting started on such a program, but the first Golden State bullet trains won't start operation for at least twenty years.

At least the government is looking at the idea again. Hopefully, we'll be able to ride in modern high-speed Amtrak trains someday, but if the economy keeps worsening, we may have to settle for hitching rides on box cars. :-O

Spreading The Slime

Rod Blagojevich is not only a slimy politician, he's been spreading the slime to others. Now it turns out that foreign special interests have lobbied on behalf of Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. to help him with a Senate he so clearly wants, even though there's no evidence that Jackson was personally involved or aware. Rahm Emanuel suddenly looks like he has something to hide. And the scandal has injured Obama himself, as he tries to be cool about it but looks somewhat defensive.

Pundits are already saying that Obama should moves to Washington as soon as possible and continue the transition there to get away from Blagojevich, who also tried to get the Chicago Tribune to fire members of the editorial board for their critical editorials in exchange for help with the Tribune company to sell Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. (Obama is a White Sox fan.) Well, he'd like to move into Blair House across the street from the White House to get his daughters started in school after the holiday break, but Bush won't let him. He's using the historic house to host parties to celebrate his legacy.

But he hasn't saved Detroit yet.

Brush With Death

The American auto industry looks to be on the verge of collapsing faster than an abandoned mansion in Detroit's Brush Park neighborhood. After some Republican senators, many of those from Southern states with foreign auto plants, blocked a bill to give the automakers a loan, General Motors began making contingency plans, and the United Auto Workers union flatly claimed that the bill's opponents were out to bust the union. I've been listening to both sides of the argument, and it seems to me that most of the Republicans opposed to this bill, knowing the jig is up for the Grand Old Party, are indeed out to claim one last victory for predatory capitalism by breaking America's last great industrial union, but Richard Shelby of Alabama should be given the benefit of the doubt, if only because he didn't think the Wall Street bailout was a great idea, either.

It is true that the autoworkers enjoy benefits and perks not offered to American employees of foreign plants, or any other American workers in general. But many of these benefits - health care, for example - would not be necessary if we had meaningful government reform of the social safety net, health insurance especially. The automakers were known for their unsavory practices against their own employees back in the early twentieth century, and a strong union helped end that. While Toyota and Nissan are hardly as unfair to their own American employees, bear in mind that early union victories in the early days of the auto industry improved working conditions in American car plants and even right-to-work factories owned by foreign companies hold to many of those standards.

Is this the last hurrah for industrial unions as well as the American auto industry? Hardly. Obama's election may have been a great awakening of the labor movement. Look at what happened at the window and door factory in Chicago! All of those laid-off workers, many of them Hispanic, were denied the severance and vacation pay they were entitled to and successfully got it with a sit-in.

As for the automakers. . . . George Walker Bush now says he may reverse his earlier stand and give GM, Chrysler, and, if it needs it, Ford a loan to tide them over through January out of the $700 billion financial bailout money.

Bush may have finally found a positive legacy. He may save Detroit.

We May Have Lost Detroit

The automobile company bailout plan failed in the Senate, putting the domestic automakers on a possible path to ruin.

This story isn't over yet . . .

Selling Senate Seats

I heard of politicians trying to sell the influence of their offices, but the influences of other offices? But, apparently, that's exactly what Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich tried to do with the U.S. Senate seat that was vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

Obama had nothing to do with Blagojevich, as evidenced by the fact that the governor didn't appear with Obama anywhere during the presidential campaign and the added revelation that Blagojevich was angry with the incoming President for not offering anything for him. But Republicans are bound to use this to discredit Obama and possibly his whole agenda.

Except that Illinois politicians in general and Chicago politicians in particular have a history of being corrupt, and on both sides of the aisle. The list includes George Ryan, Blagojevich's Republican predecessor, currently serving time in prison fora scandal involving the sale of government licenses, contracts and leases by state employees. along with former congressman Dan Rostenkowski.

There are already yahoos on the Internet trying to nail Obama on this one.

Dude, he just lives in Illinois . . .

Light My Fire?

The late Doors vocalist Jim Morrison would have turned 65 today.

He could have activated his Medicare card and bought Viagra with it!

There's Mr. Mojo Risin' for ya! :-O :-D

Shazam!

Barack Obama may have just delivered the ultimate embarrassment yet to the outgoing Bush administration. This announcement actually took me by surprise, but he plans to name as his Secretary of Veterans Affairs retired General Eric Shinseki. Shinseki, you will recall, is the Army chief of staff who said tat the military needed to deploy more service personnel than George Walker Bush and Donald Rumsfeld were planning to use to pacify Iraq once the country was occupied and Saddam Hussein was gone. For his honesty, Shinseki was subsequently fired. The fact that the President-elect is appointing Shinseki to his Cabinet shows he seriously he takes both the active military and those who have already served.

NBC, meanwhile, made news I pretty much expected. David Gregory is the new host of the Sunday morning political talk show "Meet the Press," which remains the gold standard for such fare. He takes over from Tom Brokaw, who took over temporarily following the unexpected death of the legendary Tim Russert.

Obama On the Move

Barack Obama has what may be the solution to the lousy economy. Well, maybe not, but it will help mitigate the pain.

Obama revealed yesterday that he plans to espouse the biggest public works project in the history of this country since the Interstate Highway System was begun 52 years ago, and that he wants action taken the second he becomes President. I hope this means we finally get bullet trains for Amtrak, after so many promises. But there are several other projects needed - new bridges, new schools, new environmentally friendly electric grids . . . and we also need mass transit projects on the local level, ranging from state passenger rail systems to bus, light rail, and rapid transit projects for metropolitan areas.

Say, maybe New York will finally get its Second Avenue subway!

In the meantime, alas, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans a slew of service cuts to keep from going bankrupt. :-O

Life Support

If you were planning on buying one of those Chevrolet Volts slated for 2010, you may be in luck.

With over 530,000 people - enough to populate the city of Boston - having lost their jobs in November, late word tonight is that congressional Democrats and the White House reached for agreement Friday on about $15 billion in loans for what's left of the American auto industry. Failure to help Detroit, we have been warned, could lead to a depression.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi apparently relented to the White House's demand that the aid come from a fund set aside for the production of environmentally friendlier cars. While this takes money away from helping Detroit compete in one market segment, it;s become apparent that they need help in competing in the entire market.

The compromise - if it can be called that, as Pelosi, Democrat as she is, caved into Bush - should tide the automakers over by the time Barack Obama takes over. But it's still a step in the right direction. Nevertheless, any help the three remaining domestic automakers get is the beginning, not the end, of the solution. GM, Ford and Chrysler have made several mistakes over the last thirty years, and the problems they've created for themselves will not be solved overnight.

This all must be painful to those who remember when the Big Three - now the Only Three - had domestic competition. None of these folks would want to see Chevrolet or Ford go the way of Studebaker, or see Cadillac follow Packard into oblivion.

The New Team

Barack Obama named a rather varied and sharp team for his diplomatic and security advisers. Hillary Clinton was made Secretary of State, of course, in the hope of keeping her loyal and in the tent. Robert Gates is staying on as Secretary of Defense, James Jones is the new chairman of the National Security Council, and Arizona governor Janet Napolitano is to be Secretary of Homeland Security. Susan Rice, thought to be a logical choice for Secretary of State, will be ambassador to the United Nations.

Obama has said that he hopes to get a wide range of opinions and advice from this team, though he reassured people that the new administration's foreign policy decisions will be his, and his appointees will implement his vision.

So he's the decider, and he has the vision thing down pat. :-D

The Brief Wondrous Visit of Junot DIaz

So how have I been? Well, yesterday afternoon my writer's group book club was treated to a personal audience by author Junot Diaz, whose novel "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" has garnered a lot of attention.

Mr. Diaz talked at length about the writing process, and how he spent hours a day over the course of a few years to write his novel, which was originally a short story. He also elaborated on the meaning of art, and how it's not there to please people and how it has to be confrontational.

All in all, it was an enjoyable talk, and we all had a good time. The meeting was in a friend's house, and this person all but wanted to have the chair Mr. Diaz sat in had bronzed!

But you didn't hear that from me. :-D

How did we get Junot Diaz? Sorry, it's privileged information.