Whole Latta Love

Washington is all in a tizzy about the couple who somehow got into the White House state dinner for the Indian prime minister earlier this week. The brouhaha over the alleged snub of House Republican leader John Boehner - who had been invited but chose instead to go go home to Ohio, apparently to get in some late autumn golf at his favorite course at taxpayer's expense - turned out to be a red herring. This miniature scandal might have some legs. It represented a clear breakdown in Secret Service procedure, and the couple, Tareq and Michaele Salahi, made a mockery out of the Secret Service's supposed thoroughness. Although the Obamas and the prime minister of India were never in danger - the Salahis were searched for weapons like everyone else - the fact that they crashed a state dinner has raised eyebrows. The Salahis insisted they were invited; the White House insists otherwise. Is the Obama White House so incompetent that their social secretary can't keep track of who was invited and who wasn't?

Still, nothing happened, the couple clearly enjoyed themselves getting themselves photographed with D.C. movers and shakers, and hindsight allows us to laugh at the affair. And before Republican lawmakers make a bigger deal out of this than it already is and start insisting that this would never happen under a Republican presidential administration, I refer you to Robert Latta. Latta was a Denver man who went to Washington in January 1985 for President Reagan's second inaugural, and most of the events were canceled due to the bitter cold that gripped Washington at the time. He somehow wandered into the White House and wasn't noticed right away by Secret Service. When discovered, Latta explained that he just wanted to "see the President." He was harmless. He was so harmless, in fact, that on "Saturday Night Live," then-cast member Rich Hall would play Latta and wander into a sketch - mostly when fellow cast member Christopher Guest was doing the news segment - for months afterward. (Hall, as Latta, even cracked up Bryan Adams when he was a musical guest.) 

Those who argue that the Latta incident was in a different time, before 9/11, forget that President Reagan was shot nearly four years earlier, and the memory of the attempt on his life was still very fresh, and no one made much of Latta then.

I imagine that the Obama administration will correct this breach of security and it won't happen again. Meanwhile, the Salahis will enjoy their fifteen minutes of fame (they'll be on Larry King's CNN show this coming Monday) and even get parodied on "Saturday Night Live" for awhile, and that will be the end of it.

And I'll bet they're so bummed for not being able to get their picture taken with John Boehner.

Thanksgiving 2009

Family Reality

Like Madonna, sport utility vehicles, and supply-side economics, reality television was not deemed a potential long-term threat to American popular culture when it first appeared. But with various shows from contests about surviving on a deserted island to the domestic life of Ozzy Osbourne's brood, they've been everywhere, on all channels, for the past ten years, and the reality "craze" shows no signs of passing. NBC, which resisted reality programming for so long, started binging on it just to keep its ratings - not respectable for years - one step up from pathetic. And so it is in this environment that we say goodbye to "Jon and Kate Plus 8," which aired its finale on TLC. (TLC, which used to stand for The Learning Channel, is just a bunch of meaningless initials now. You don't learn anything from their current programming.)

I've never taken the time to watch this show, nor do I regret ever missing it. The concept was obvious - a couple trying to raise eight children, nothing we hadn't seen before. How far back do you want to go? Two of sociologist Lillian Gilbreth's twelve children wrote about their large family.

The "reality" of Jon and Kate Gosselin's situation, which led many to believe they were able to preserve a stable marriage and domestic life, became all too real when Jon left Kate and the eight children, causing the tabloid-documented feud that some folks must have found more entertaining than the show.

I'm sorry, I'm old school. I prefer an old classic, scripted show like "Eight Is Enough," which was also based on reality - it was derived from the autobiography written by columnist Tom Braden. True, the fictional Bradford family didn't have much in common with the real Braden family, but at least we didn't have to see any ugly fights or tabloid exposés, not even any involving the cast. Dick Van Patten and Betty Buckley aren't those kinds of celebrities.

Ultimately, most of these "reality" shows exist to pick on the foibles of real people for the entertainment of others, and that's why I avoid those shows. Even a good ol' fashioned talent contest like "American Idol" has to be ruined by Simon Cowell's insults and fans taking sides. And so, while "Jon and Kate Plus 8" is off the air, I fear a new, similar show may fill the void, and possibly on TLC in the same time slot.

I couldn't have watched that show anyway, and not because I don't get TLC on my cable service. I have a small-screen TV. If I had tried to watch "Jon and Kate Plus 8" on it, I would have only seen four of them! (Sorry, couldn't resist. And there is more than one TV set in my house.)

The Senator From Aetna

Joe Lieberman recently said that no one really believes health care reform will pass as the bills in Congress are currently written. Of course no one believes it; Lieberman, the senator from Aetna, has the power to stop it all by himself! He can filibuster it all by himself, and President Obama is inexplicably content to let the process work itself out.

The overwhelming majority of Senate Democrats, who are the majority overall, supports a health care reform plan with a strong public insurance option, as does the President. Yet even if Nebraska's Ben Nelson, Arkansas's Blanche Lincoln, and Louisiana's Mary Landrieu were to suddenly support this bill (don't hold your breath!), Lieberman can still stop it on his own with a filibuster that 58 Democrats and an independent can't stop.

The federal government is a system of checks and balances. The health insurance establishment gives Lieberman a check, and Lieberman adds it to his campaign fund account balance.

The Rise of the Right

Could it happen here?

It's been said that fascism could be established in the United States just as easily as it has been established elsewhere. The most obvious examples were the rise of Benito Mussolini in Italy and Adolf Hitler in Germany. Both dictators came to power after the economies of their respective countries were rocked by inflation and depression. Hitler's rise to power is notable because the German economy had been more devastated in the aftermath of World War I. Italy had at least been on the winning side of that war, but Germany, as the leader of the losing Central Powers, was forced to pay numerous reparations, and the Weimar Republic that replaced the imperial monarchy was an ineffective government in the wake of hyperinflation that reduced the mark to the kind of worthlessness even Latin American currencies never facedd.

The German economy recovered in the mid-twenties, and Germany received help from the United States in paying war reparations demanded by the Treaty of Versailles (which established the peace after World War I) and established better relations with the Soviet Union. Soon German society became more freewheeling, with an increase in street theater and cabaret culture that led to many excesses. Such liberalization of German mores angered conservatives, as did the new modernist architecture and design coming from the Bauhaus.

Then in 1929 the global economic downturn we know as the Great Depression began. Germany could no longer borrow money to pay its reparations, and the government became unstable. It was in this environment that a coalition government run by the Nazis was established in 1933 with the appointment of Adolf Hitler as chancellor by President Paul von Hindenburg. Hitler decried the direction of the economy and demonized his political opponents, promising to restore Germany's greatness and restore traditional German values.

Fast forward to America in 2009. The economy is in a freefall. Unemployment is skyrocketing . The country is heading toward bankruptcy. Large bailouts are being given to banks, investment firms, and insurance companies. And we're coming out of a period of excessive cultural behavior.

It can't happen here?

I'm not suggesting that we're headed for a fascist-style dictatorship, but given the anger people feel toward President Obama and the hatred being stirred up the kind of right-wing extremists Chris Matthews calls wingnuts, the possibility is there.

And if one of them becomes President, God help us.

Closer To Reform

Barack Obama hasn't gotten health care reform legislation pushed through Congress yet, but he's one giant step closer. The Senate just voted to allow debate on the bill, and a public insurance option is in it, just like the House version. The President and his allies in Congress have gotten this legislation farther than any other President who who tried to reform health care ever could.

There's still a long way to go. At least three Democratic senators oppose a public option, Republicans are trying to delay the whole bill in order to kill it, and anything the Senate passes has to be reconciled with the House. Some liberals still steaming from the lack of a single-payer plan like Medicare are annoyed that the plan is being kept on a tight budget to avoid increasing the deficit.

Incidentally, I've changed my mind on letting health insurance companies compete across state lines. That idea seemed to make sense until it was pointed out that health insurance companies could easily sell policies in states like New Jersey, which has tough consumer protection laws, yet operate from Texas, where no such laws exist. It's no different from the credit card companies offering fabulous credit terms out of states like Delaware and South Dakota, where the credit card industry is unencumbered by strict regulations, to rubes all across America.

Most laws and policies that come of out Congress are wrought from compromises, although the compromises on health care reform must be making the great Kentucky legislator Henry Clay spin in his grave. But the health care bill that should eventually get to Obama's desk, while imperfect, will be better than what we have now.

Just not as good as Britain's National Health.

Oprah Going Out

Oprah Winfrey announced the end of her talk show today - it will end on September 9, 2011, after 25 years on the air - and she said she plans to start her own cable television network. Her OWN cable TV network, that is; it will be called the Oprah Winfrey Network. What will the channel's focus be? I think the name says it all.

Oprah Winfrey ought to be commended for establishing herself as powerful media mogul and providing a role model for black women, but apart from her endorsement of Barack Obama for the Presidency, she leaves a mixed record at best. Early editions of her show touched on the sensationalistic stories of the "lesbian nuns ate my Buick" variety, as she was competing with noted tabloid documentarian Geraldo Rivera and an increasingly desperate Phil Donahue. Later, Winfrey claimed to have been a victim of every serious offense and violation that was ever committed against women. Moreover, her talk show established a personality cult built around baring one's feelings in inopportune circumstances.

On the other hand, she did give away Pontiac G6s to everyone in her audience once. Damn, I'm going to miss that car.

All right, I'm being facetious. She did promote several authors on her book club segment, and she also called attention to the great Toni Morrison. But even in that example, there are problems. There was the James Frey fiasco, in which she endorsed a memoir that proved to be made up - and a reputation (Frey's) was broken into . . . a million little pieces. Oprah was right to give him the third degree over it, but couldn't she have had the veracity of Frey's story - not to mention Frey himself - checked out somehow before she let all this happen? As for Toni Morrison, well, Oprah produced the 1998 movie version of Beloved to bring Morrison to a wider audience, but then she had herself cast in it. Despite good reviews, the movie was a flop, which was largely blamed on overhype. Well, Oprah did have herself cast in it - what did people expect?

Oprah Winfrey's talk show began as a local news program in Chicago, and her blurring of the line as a serious talk show host and as an entertainer always perplexed me. On the one hand, she did some terrific work exposing unsavory practices in the meat industry and withstood a lawsuit against her for it. Paradoxically, she tried to be a movie star. Mike Wallace had straddled the line between entertainment and journalism before deciding to focus on the latter -he'd been a game show host and a stage actor beforehand - but Oprah never seemed to make up her mind on which direction she wanted to take. She somehow managed, amazingly, to find credibility with her overwhelmingly female audience despite her split-personality media career. And while I admire her for all the schools she started in Africa, it seemed vulgar of her to be out in the forefront of the effort. She gave many folks the impression that she wanted to be aggrandized for doing so many wonderful things . . . just like when she gave away those Pontiacs.

Her endorsement of Barack Obama for the Presidency may have been her biggest coup, because it probably got Obama nominated; getting elected was Obama's own job. She was called a traitor to her gender, but it the end it might have helped turn the tide for Obama in the primaries against Hillary Clinton.

So why don't I offer an opinion about Oprah one way or the other? Because I know that coming down on either side will stir up a hornet's nest. I may be noncommittal, but I'm not stupid!

Oprah Winfrey has plenty of money, and she knows when it's time to quit. I don't know what kind of programming OWN will show, but since she doesn't have to worry about pleasing advertisers so much, I doubt we'll see any alien abduction specials.

And it will probably last longer than the Pontiac G6.

Scary Palinistas

Sarah Palin scares me, but her fans scare me more. She appeared in Grand Rapids, Michigan, yesterday to promote her book, and the overwhelmingly white fans who showed up praised for her for standing up against big government and the assault on the Constitution. She showed up the Barnes and Noble store waving on a balcony floor, as if she were some wise guru acknowledging her cult. The vibe of utter ignorance could have caused the book store to levitate. Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com found that she's statistically in a good position to win the Republican presidential nomination, making her dangerous. Although a majority of Americans give her an unfavorable rating, a large minority - 38 percent, in some polls - still support her. How many of those who don't may be open to persuasion, especially if the economy sinks even lower (as if that were possible)?

Meanwhile, Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) celebrated his length of service in both houses of Congress yesterday. Byrd served a total of 56 years and 320 days in the House and the Senate combined, a new record. How long can Byrd, who turns 92 tomorrow, last in the Senate? Right now, I think Harry Reid would be happy to see Byrd last long enough to vote on the health care bill.

Every vote does count.

Pains In the Neck

Rush Limbaugh revealed the depth of his compassion for the unemployed. Speaking with and unemployed 49-year-old male caller about the severity of the man's employment situation, Limbaugh was so touched by his story - after he learned that he didn't vote for Obama - that he gave him information for getting a free massage from one of Limbaugh's sponsors to relieve his stress.

I would have preferred a fruit basket. At least then I'd have something to eat.

Meanwhile, someone suggested to Sarah Palin that Glenn Beck should be her vice presidential running mate if she is nominated to run for President in 2012. Palin praised Beck in response.

This story has given me something no masseur can relieve. :-O

Sarah Palin Can Write?

The Palinistas are out in full force, getting ready to rally to Sarah Palin's stops on the tour for her book, which, after so much Sturm und Drang, finally came out today. The noted book-banning wolf killer, who's read no more books than she's "written," has pumped a lot of excitement in Republican circles for a possible presidential bid in 2012 even as only 24 percent of Americans opposed the very idea of her candidacy in a recent poll. Although polls consistently show hostility to Palin and her views, she doesn't need a large base of support in the Republican nomination process in a crowded field of candidates where you only need a small plurality for momentum.

Meanwhile, details involving Palin's outlook on life demonstrate how unfit she is for the Presidency. Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has described Palin in her columns as vindictive and spiteful. She compared her viciousness toward opponents to that of Richard Nixon, though I can't recall Nixon ever accusing John F. Kennedy or even George McGovern of palling around with terrorists (even Nixon himself palled around with Communists like Mao and Brezhnev), as Palin did against Barack Obama in the 2008 campaign. Palin has complained about political correctness, and not the kind of loopy political correctness that encourages us to accept the legitimacy of Kwanzaa but the kind of political correctness that encourages sensitivity towards racial and ethnic minorities. Never mind her intolerance for criticism against her.

Her lack of sensitivity toward urban blacks, like the President, was displayed not by her accusations that Obama was bosom buddies with a former Weather Underground member but her desire to push his connection (since severed with Jeremiah Wright, to push the connection to the black urban population and strike fear into hearts in the heartland. John McCain, to his credit, refused to exploit the Wright association.)

The success (well, box office success, anyway) of the movie 2012 has given more popularity to the idea that the world will end on December 21 of that year due to the end of a cycle in the Mayan calendar. (So much for Christmas.) Just as scary, however, is another date on the 2012 calendar - November 6, the date of the next presidential election. If Sarah Palin is elected the next President of the United States in three years, Armageddon is going to look preferable . . . and attractive.

John W. Who?

Does anyone remember John W. Kern?

John Worth Kern was a Democratic politician from Indiana who was active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He had a scant record in Hoosier politics; he was elected to the Indiana Senate in 1893, where he served for four years, and he simultaneously served assistant - assistant - U.S. Attorney for Indiana. Kern also served as city solicitor of Indianapolis from 1897 to 1901 and ran unsuccessfully for governor of Indiana twice, in 1900 and 1904. I read all of this on Wikipedia.

Why am I telling you this? Because Kern has another distinction in his political career, and a rather dubious one at that; he was the losing vice presidential candidate in 1908, the running mate of Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan. (They lost to William Howard Taft and James S. Sherman. Sherman was the last Vice President to die in office.) Kern was the unsuccessful vice presidential candidate who ran exactly one hundred years before Sarah Palin.

You knew I had a valid point, didn't you?

History may be unkind to most Vice Presidents of the United States, but it's even crueler to most of those who vie for the office and don't get it. Unsuccessful vice presidential candidates tend to be forgotten rather quickly, especially after they retire from politics or die. No one remembers New Jersey's William L Dayton, the first Republican vice presidential candidate (he ran with John C. Frémont in 1856), John A. Logan (a Republican who ran with James G. Blaine in 1884), Joseph T. Robinson (a Democrat who ran with Alfred E. Smith in 1928) or Charles L. McNary (a Republican who ran with Wendell Willkie in 1940). The only reason we may remember William E. Miller, Barry Goldwater's 1964 running mate, is because of his American Express card commercial. "Do you know me? No, I don't.

I'd like to suggest that Sarah Palin is trying to buck the trend of history by turning her loss into an opportunity to position herself for greater things, but if I did that, I'd have to grant that the noted book-banning wolf killer is a student of history. But Palin is indeed trying to make herself the future of the Republican party by "writing" her "memoirs" (actually a screed against media figures and aides in John McCain's presidential campaign), going on a book tour to the "heartland" (cities to small to even have a minor league baseball team) and appearing on Oprah Winfrey's talk show (well, that was smart, I'll give her that). She thinks that her personal magnetism and her alleged sex appeal (she still has that annoying speaking voice that reminds me of eighties sitcom actress Edie McClurg, who was at least intentionally funny) will make her a leading contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

And she may be right. She has the power of persuasion; look how she persuaded me to write sentences with parenthetical thoughts! Despite her lack of interest in policy, she gets crowds fired up and generates excitement in a way that GOP presidential contenders like Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, or Mike Huckabee can't. Plus, she has the support of Rush Limbuagh. Chris Matthews seems to think this will help her among Republican primary and caucus voters in 2012. When Chris Matthews suggests that she may be a contender for the Republican presidential nomination, we can't afford to laugh her off.

After all, back in the nineties, we all laughed at the notion of "President George Walker Bush." Some of us still do.

But, of course, Palin has to overcome the unsuccessful vice presidential candidate syndrome. We all know the joke; a woman had two sons, one of whom went to sea while the other was elected Vice President of the United States, and neither was heard from again. Well, she had a third son who ran for Vice President and lost, and he was never heard from again either. Very few unsuccessful vice presidential candidates survived the indignity of their loss. The exceptions include Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democrat, 1920) and Earl Warren (Republican, 1948). Geraldine Ferraro (Democrat, 1984) also has escaped this curse simply by being the first woman and the first Italian-American to be nominated for the vice presidency by a major party. Sarah Palin only has the distinction being the first female Republican vice presidential nominee. She ain't even Italian.

Oh yeah, John W. Kern. Although Kern lost, he redeemed himself as a member of the United States Senate, where he became a staunch progressive and supported the creation of the Federal Trade Commission, the passage of the Federal Reserve Act, and enactment of antitrust laws. Nevertheless, he faded into history, just as I'm sure more recent unsuccessful vice presidential candidates will. (RIP, Lloyd Bentsen.) Palin’s political record in 2008 was as weak as Kern’s was in 1908, but Kern at least did his homework and went on to better things. Palin, who can’t even name a magazine she regularly looks at pictures in, is too lazy to bother. She seems to think she can become a political superstar on charisma alone.

But she could still break the curse of the unsuccessful vice presidential candidate, because the awful truth is . . . it’s possible that she could pull it off.

After all, she has a star quality that John W. Kern obviously did not have. :-O

Trying Trial

Late word from Washington is that Attorney General Eric Holder will have 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Muhammad and four other al-Qaeda operatives tried for the World Trade Center attacks in federal court in New York - literally in the shadow of Ground Zero.

Republicans have inevitably cried foul over this, but it took guts for Holder to go ahead with this. Although 9/11 was seen as an act of war, the current situation in Afghanistan finds al-Qaeda practically gone from that country after eight years of American and NATO involvement there in response to 9/11, yet that effort has apparently been as successful as it's going to get. The Taliban remain difficult foes. Al-Qaeda has resettled elsewhere, mainly in Pakistan. The best way to stand up against terrorist acts is to treat it as a law enforcement issue. Law enforcement should investigate and stop potential plots. That's how the British found that cell of terrorists hoping to blow up airliners over the Atlantic in 2006. Any plot that succeeds should be dealt with by the criminal justice system, and the punishment should fit the crime.

Also, putting Muhammad and his confederates on trial in the federal judicial system, we have the opportunity to show the world that our judicial system works and can bring the kind of justice that Muhammad and the others deserve without torture or indefinite imprisonment without a trial. Mayor Bloomberg and his police commissioner, Ray Kelly, said New York can handle the trial.

One bugaboo that remains is the failure to close the Guantanamo Bay prison facility. Although Holder says it won't be done by January 22, 2010 as planned, he thinks he can still have it done shortly thereafter. That would compensate for the resignation of White House counsel Gregory Craig, whose difficulties with closing Guantanamo supposedly forced his departure. The Justice Department claim Craig's resignation and the delayed Guantanamo closing are not related, but others see it as an abandonment and a scapegoating of Craig, one of Washington's best legal experts.

Bye Bye Lou

Lou Dobbs has left CNN.

Dobbs, the newsman and commentator known for his incendiary rhetoric about illegal immigrants, was the last original CNN on-air personality from the cable news channel's inception in 1980. Originally a financial reporter and the anchor of CNN's Moneyline from the 1980 to 1999 and from 2001 to 2003 (anchors Willow Bay, a former Estée Lauder model, and Stuart Varney, hosted in the two-year gap), Dobbs revamped his show as "Lou Dobbs Tonight." The focus of the show moved from financial reporting to economic populism, and Dobbs became a hero to many by championing fair trade and opposing economic policies that was costing the middle class their jobs.

Then he jumped the shark. Dobbs became a fierce critic of illegal immigration, insisting that Mexicans entered the country illegally were draining the U.S.'s resources (ignoring the white businessmen who hired these immigrants), and he even accused them of being responsible for seven thousand leprosy cases reported over three years (the actual figures were seven thousand cases reported over thirty years, few if any caused by Mexican immigrants). The fact that Dobbs's wife is a Mexican-American failed to inoculate him from criticism (or leprosy), and it shouldn't have. His immigrant-bashing was as much as class issue as it was a race issue.

Dobbs's opining got in the way of factual reporting - he suggested that President Obama might have indeed been born outside the United States - and he was told to stay with straight reporting if he wanted to stay on CNN. He chose not to. He now hopes to become active in the "political arena."

Uh-oh.

John King is replacing him, and he hopes to offer more opportunities for more diverse opinions on the show. John King? Hmm, couldn't they have gotten Willow Bay again? :-)

Three Stooges

Two stories from the news this Veterans' Day require me to write a pair of open letters to three conservative morons - I mean, icons:

Dear Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK): Don't go around waving the flag and touting the wonderful job the nation's veterans have done in service to their country and then block a bill that would expand health care to those same veterans, especially when 2266 veterans died last year for lack of health insurance and veterans account for one third of all homeless men.

Dear Sean Hannity: If you want to help the Fox News Channel, for whom you work (or something like it), preserve what little credibility it has as a source of journalism, don't run footage from your coworker Glenn Beck's September 12 rally and claim it was from the much more sparsely attended "press conference" (actually a rally, called a press conference by Republican congressmen so they could play for it with taxpayers' money) staged last Thursday to oppose the health care bill in the House. First you showed video from the "press conference," with leaves in the background changing color and trees partly bare, then you showed video of a rally with full, green-leafed trees in the background. Come on, even Fox News viewers aren't that dumb! Even Glenn Beck isn't that dumb!

Dear Glenn Beck: You are one big twit.

A Step Toward Financial Reform

The 9/15 disaster, as I call the Wall Street meltdown of September 15, 2008, calls for a new wave of financial regulation to replace the laissez-faire (pronounced "lazy fare!") policies of the past thirty years. In the Senate, Connecticut Democrat Christopher Dodd has unveiled a financial regulation bill that would, among other things, consolidate banking supervision under a single agency, regulate privately traded derivatives, limit the Federal Reserve's ability to end money in emergencies to healthy banks at the expense of weaker ones, and create an agency to dismantle financial firms that pose a threat to the well-being of the greater economy.

Naturally, Republicans and the financial industry are none too pleased with Dodd's ideas. But unlike the health care debate, where Democrats aligned with President Obama have to deal with a variety of skeptics, the efforts of Chris Dodd in the Senate (and Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, in the House) should receive broad support, if only because their objective is to prevent another 9/15 and make sure that federal bailouts of banks, financial firms, and insurance companies never have to be undertaken again. This is what Senator Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican known for his opposition to bailouts, is willing to meet Dodd halfway.

Dodd and Frank have a long way to go before the Depression-era banking regulations that were jettisoned in the 1980s are fully restored, but this is a step in the right direction.

The Bill Passes

It happened. With all 435 members of the House of Representatives voting, the lower house of Congress passed the health care bill backed by President Obama, 220-215, with only one Republican (Joseph Cao of Louisiana) supporting it and 39 Democrats opposing it. This is good news for the White House, which needs some good news in light of the 10.2% unemployment rate reported on Friday.

Of course, that was only the easy part. In the Senate, where Republicans and anyone named Lieberman could conceivably make mischief with filibuster threats, it might be difficult to get the necessary votes to pass health care reform, and then it has to go to conference so that the same bill gets voted on by both houses. All of this could take weeks if not months. But last night's vote was clearly a step in the right direction.

Meanwhile, an amendment to the health care bill bans abortion funding. What's my opinion fo this? I really don't want to answer that question. Because I'm sick to death of the abortion debate. It's only going to go on until the end of time - which could be as early as next Tuesday - and it's going to be kept alive for eah side to score points against each other. It embarrasses me as an American that abortion is still argued over in the United States long after every other Western country has settled the issue, one way or the other.

Do I have an opinion on abortion? Certainly. Am I going to share it here? No, I'm going to follow the example of our Canadian neighbors and move on to other issues.

Election 2009: Aftermath

The fallout from Tuesday's gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, where conservative Republicans running to the center won, isn't so much a Republican victory as a Democratic loss. Creigh Deeds in Virginia was a lousy candidate, and he didn't get enough help from President Obama or put up a good fight. Jon Corzine in New Jersey did both, and he might have won if he'd run a more positive campaign and highlighted accomplishments of his - expanding preschool for children, abolishing the death penalty - that mattered to his base and would have gotten them out to vote. They didn't. The consensus is that the young Obama voters from last year stayed home. That's not true. In fact, they went to the mall. (Dave Barry joke! :-D) In any event, they were not inspired enough to come out and work for the change they were expecting in an Obama administration. Young voters are far less motivated to work for their own interests than their more conservative elders.

I don't know about incoming governor Bob McDonnell in Virginia, but New Jersey is such a mess that Chris Christie has his work cut out for him. At least he doesn't have to drive his own car anymore, thank God for that.

Obama is trying to keep on track to push through a transformational agenda in the style of Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, but he remains limited by an angry opposition resistant to change. The Democrats were buoyed, though, by winning two special House elections in California and in New York, where a Democrat won the 23rd Congressional District seat for the first time in over a century thanks to dissension between mainstream Republicans and the far right. The arch-conservative lightweight heavyweights in the party supported a third-party candidate because the official Republican nominee (who dropped out) was deemed too moderate. Despite Democrat Bill Owens's victory, the right is treating this as a victory because the purged a moderate candidate and expect to win the seat for a conservative Republican next year. Excuse me? If the 23rd District is so conservative, why did they reject the third-party right-wing candidate, Doug Hoffman? And since when did Sarah Palin and Dick Armey become residents of the district? Or, for that matter, Doug Hoffman?

Be that as it may, some Democrats in Washington have gotten cold feet over supporting President Obama's two priorities for this year - health care reform and climate change. The congressional Democratic leadership, though, is still pushing legislation on both issues, with health care reform up for a vote in the House soon and greenhouse gas emission control legislation in the Senate. (The climate change bill has the support of noted liberals John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Joe Lieberman, so it has a fighting chance there after passing closely in the house this past June.) The Democrats will still have comfortable control of both houses of Congress after the 2010 elections if - if - they get this legislation passed and cite the party's accomplishments so far under Obama (expansion of children's health care coverage, protection of women's rights to sue for pay discrimination, a $787 billion stimulus package that saved people's jobs) in the midterm election campaigning to get out the vote next time. I'm sure Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid understand that.

Anarchy

On this day - my birthday - in 1605, English revolutionary Guy Fawkes's attempt to blow up Parliament was foiled, and the day is now celebrated in the United Kingdom as a triumph against terrorism. (Imagine a similar celebration in America every September 11 if the suicide hijackings that destroyed the World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon had been stopped.) Today, lawless revolutionaries descended on the Capitol in calling for a plot against Congress. This act was not just against the government - it was led by people who are the government!

Angry right-wingers were whipped up against the House of Representatives's health care reform bill by Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann, a Republican known for making Sarah Palin look like Margaret Chase Smith. Bachmann declared that there should be an insurrection against the growth of government. Egging her on was John Boehner, the House Republican leader, complaining that there was a "government takeover" of health care afoot that was an attack on the Constitution, and he quoted the passage from the Constitution about the self-evidence of the truth of all men being created equal, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. . ..

Oops! Correction: Boehner was quoting from the Declaration of Independence. Who said it was a quote from the Constitution? John Boehner.

Even as elected officials were encouraging violent revolution against Congress, a psychiatrist in the United States Army Medical Corps, unhappy with being sent to Iraq, shot and killed twelve people and wounded 31 more at Fort Hood in Texas before being shot to death himself.

Anarchy in the U.S.A. This is disgusting.

Christie Wins

Noted reckless driver Chris Christie won the New Jersey governorship last night in a tight race with incumbent Jon Corzine. Christie was helped by the dislike many people had for Governor Corzine and has perceived ineffectiveness in handling the state's budget problems despite the fact that the mess he inherited had been in the making for the previous decade.

Christie scares me. In addition to his egregious traffic violations - which he neatly avoided severe prosecution from - he is pro-life and a supporter of supply-side economics, hardly the Eastern establishment Republican type that previous New Jersey Republicans like Clifford Case and Tom Kean represented. His health care proposals, especially involving insurance reform, are barbaric, and he still has no definitive plan on how to help the state's municipalities lower property taxes (to be fair, neither did Corzine, but he was making some progress by slowing the rate of increase).

I'm afraid that Christie will create a bigger mess in Trenton than the one the previous Christie - Christine Todd Whitman - created when she cut taxes and program funding but raided state pension programs to keep the budget balanced and thus still let spending run amok. And for all of her posturing on the environment and her later stint as director of the Environmental Protection Agency, her environmental record was atrocious, in one case allowing Merill Lynch to built a huge office complex in a rural area outside Trenton rather than in the city, which would have saved land in the country and helped Trenton's tax base. Perhaps Chris Christie will be a delightful surprise like Arnold Schwarzenegger proved to be in California, but I'm not holding my breath.

Nor I am holding my breath on health care reform. President Obama wanted a reform bill on his desk by August, and later he allowed the possibility of signing it by December in time for Christmas, but now we'll be lucky to have health care reform by Martin Luther King Day. Harry Reid, the milquetoast Senate Democratic leader, admitted that Senate passage of a bill might have to wait until after the first of the new year. World peace, apparently, is the only thing that can't be done by 2010.

I'm one of those 47 million Americans who can't afford health insurance and who would benefit from a government-run optional plan, so I don't have to rely on employers for coverage. Right now, I'm possibly going to have to take a job with bad hours and possibly low pay - which has nothing to do with my career ambitions - because my mother is concerned that I won't have health insurance otherwise. This is exactly the kind of situation I thought I'd find myself in now if Obama had lost the 2008 election.

The Republicans in the House, meanwhile, have offered proposals for health care reform, and while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has dismissed the gesture as too little, too late, it's better late than never and I do find a little in the little proposals to support. I can and would support the Republican proposal for consumers being able to buy insurance across state lines and their initiative to lower premiums, but I cannot support their proposal to drop employer mandates and cap expansions on Medicaid.

Transport News

A few big stories in transportation today. . . 

Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor from Omaha, is buying the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad for $44 billion. Buffett - who obviously isn't satisfied with just model railroading - wants his Berkshire Hathaway company to invest in a build up freight railroads to provide a sound transportation infrastructure for the U.S. economy. Buffett is bullish on the economy;'s future, and he certainly demonstrated so with this move. A skillful investor by nature, Buffett's purchase of Burlington Northern Santa Fe gives us hope for a strong economic recovery - Buffett only bets on a sure thing. I just hope he gives Amtrak a break on whatever BNSF lines the passenger rail service rents for its routes.

BNSF trains may soon be carrying more cars from the domestic automakers to market. On the heels of Ford's unexpected profits, General Motors announced a 4.1 percent increase in October sales, its first year-over-year gain since January 2008. GM has wiped out its debt in bankruptcy court and now seeks to build on its four remaining brands - Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC Truck. Don't count out the General out - the current Chevrolet Malibu is a solid product, and Cadillac's renaissance continues with its excellent updates of cars like the CTS.

GM is doing well enough, it's decided not to sell a majority interest in Opel and Vauxhall in Europe to a Russo-Canadian consortium after all. By getting financial support at home and getting rid of debt in bankruptcy court, GM has decided not to do what it never wanted to do in the first place - sell any part of its most prestigious overseas assets. While this decision was welcomed in Britain, where Vauxhalls are produced, by the local autoworkers union, the German government is displeased that GM would withdraw from the sale of the Russelsheim-based Opel because the sale was handled by a trust that also included representatives from the government and an independent panelist. GM is now instead seeking aid from Berlin and other European capitals.

This story isn't over yet . . ..

Strong As a Bull

The Ford Motor Company surprised everyone by posting a billion-dollar profit for the third quarter of 2009. This proves that Ford's business decisions, dating back to their restructuring of a few years ago, are beginning to pay off. The company managed to avoid bankruptcy and produce some fine product - Ford cars are the best-made domestic cars right now - and they had fuel-efficient automobiles on the market during the "cash for clunkers" program when GM and Chrysler had few models in that market segment. Also, they continue to receive a lot of goodwill from car buyers by not taking federal bailout money.

Ford still has a few problems. They can't wipe out their debts the way GM and Chrysler did in Chapter 11, and getting unions to make concessions designed to cut costs hasn't been easy. But the way forward, as their restructuring plan was called, sounds more like a real plan of action than a slogan.

I happen to like the new Taurus. :-)

The Worst Birthday Present

What was the best gift you ever received for your birthday?

What could be the best possible gift you can get?

How about the Presidency of the United States?

While it may seem statistically impossible for anyone to be elected President on one's birthday, it's already happened once . . . to this fellow.

Warren G. Harding, born on this day in 1865, was the Republican candidate for President in 1920, which was also the year women got the vote. After eight years of Woodrow Wilson's government expansion and vigorous foreign policy, the latter of which brought the United States in World War I, Harding and the Republicans campaigned on a platform of laissez-faire economics and a return to relative global isolation that would restore "normalcy," whatever that was. Americans were drained by Wilson's activism (ironically, so was Wilson, sadly felled by a stroke in 1919) and happily elected Harding to succeed him, endorsing him over Democratic candidate James Cox by a plurality of seven million votes.

Election Day in 1920 fell on November 2. It was Harding's fifty-fifth birthday.

As you can tell by the scowl in the picture above, Harding got a present he would have happily brought back to the dry goods store. He wanted to remain in the U.S. Senate, where he represented Ohio, but party leaders pushed him to accept the presidential nomination because of his electability. Harding had a bad heart, and his father and brother - both doctors - predicted he wouldn't live through a full term. Sadly, they were right. The pressures of the Presidency proved too much for Harding, and he died in August 1923.

The following year, administration scandals that Harding had known nothing about surfaced, and the idea of American "normalcy" was kaput.

Eating In Iceland Is Suddenly Healthier

Oh, this is sweet. . ..

McDonald's, the evil fast food restaurant chain famous for hamburgers and chicken dishes inedible even by fast food standards, is pulling out of an entire country.

The company announced its withdrawal from Iceland over the weekend, citing the recession there that resulted from the investment-dependent country's economic collapse after the 9/15 disaster. This is indeed good news.

And why? Because Icelanders no longer have to be subjected to the foodlike substances McDonald's serves. No one in Iceland will ever have to risk their health ingesting breakfast sandwiches ever again. No more will anyone in Reykjavik or Akureyri have to worry about a Big Mac attack, which can lead to a heart attack. The recession up in that lonely part of the world may be the best thing to happen for the health of the already fit Icelanders, and given the fact that all of them are literate, they should be smart enough to appreciate that.

Now if we could only do something about out food policy at home to hasten the McDonald's chain's decline in its home market. . . .

Halloween WEDDINGS?

Halloween, today, falls on a Saturday for the first time since 1998. As Saturday is the traditional Christian wedding day, several people got married with Halloween-themed weddings.

I'm sorry, but this is in bad taste. This may put me in agreement with Pat Robertson, who recently warned us against witch-cursed demonic candy, but think about it. Weddings are solemn, religious rituals designed to celebrate the beginning of a new life between two people. (Note that I didn't say "a man and a woman" - that's where Robertson and I part company.) The bonds joining a couple in holy matrimony are meant to be sacred. So whenever I hear of Halloween weddings, where people wear masks and dine on cake splattered with fake blood, and the bride and groom are dressed like Elvira and Dracula or something like that, well, it's just tacky. We don't need haunted-house weddings to make a mockery of marriage. We already have divorce to do that.

Oh yeah, Pat Robertson. Well, his belief that Halloween is a demonic celebration endorsing witchcraft displays his ignorance of the day's origins as a time in which medieval folk dressed as demons and witches so the real demons and witches wouldn't steal their souls. That's right, the idea was to avoid being sucked into demonism by pretending to be evil spirits until All Soul's Day arrived on November 1. Then people could rest easily, having fooled real evil spirits from taking them to hell. So, Halloween is actually a pro-Christian holiday because it's all about fooling the devil. But don't expect a theological genius like Robertson to know that.

Anyway, Halloween these days is all about two things - dressing up for fun and getting candy. Lots of it. Most people don't dress up like evil spirits for Halloween anyway. Today I saw a little girl dressed as Pebbles Flintstone, the cutest and best costume I've seen this year.

Doesn't Robertson love "The Flintstones?" It's about two traditional families in suburbia who, as most Christian fundamentalists believe actually happened, lived with dinosaurs. :-D

A Too Independent Democrat

It's official - Joe Lieberman is a twerp.

The Connecticut senator, once a Democrat with an actually very liberal social record and also a level-headed guy, has gone to the dark side. He opposes the government-run public health insurance option, claiming to represent the interests of Connecticut but actually representing the health insurance industry of Connecticut. Not only does he threaten to block it with a filibuster - a tactic he's always been against using before - he now plans to campaign for Republicans in the 2010 midterm elections. Lieberman, who calls himself an "independent Democrat" (he was elected to his current term as an independent after losing the Senate primary to a more liberal challenger who, unlike Lieberman, opposed the Iraq War), is proving to be neither. He is so tied to the defense policies and corporate leanings of the Republican party, it makes no sense for him to call himself a Democrat of any kind.

President Obama should do to Lieberman what he did to Hillary - get rid of him. He should just go ahead and give the former McCain supporter a diplomatic post, just to get him out of the Senate. The governor of Connecticut, who would appoint a replacement, is a Republican. I don 't care. If Connecticut is going to be represented by a Republican in the Senate, let the state get someone who isn't afraid to call himself or herself a Republican. In fact, Connecticut Republicans tend to be more liberal than the party's national figures, and such a senator would likely be more flexible than Lieberman. Or even Olympia Snowe.

Lieberman was elected to the Senate in 1988 by upsetting a Republican who was in fact more liberal than he was - Lowell Weicker - by insisting Weicker, a three-term senator, had been in office to long and grown out of touch.

Lieberman is currently serving his fourth term.

Election 2009: Endorsements

Oh, gee whizbangers, is there an election coming up? Well, I always make endorsements in the most important races in any election, including off-year contests, so I might as well swallow and get them out of the way.

The problem with making endorsements this year is that the choices are mostly dismal. Far from being a year of hope and change, 2009 has been a year in which we've been trying to dig ourselves out of the mess we were left with George Bush The Younger, and the candidates for public office - most especially the gubernatorial campaigns in New Jersey and Virginia - seem underwhelming and not so much up to the job. Obama can only do so much at the national level. At the state level, it seems we in New Jersey and Virginia both need an experienced Yoda to pull our craft out of the muck but have to choose between a group of minimally experienced Luke Skywalkers who are just beginning to understand the Force.

So, with apologies to the master George Lucas, here are my endorsements:

For Governor of New Jersey: This blog endorses Jon Corzine, the incumbent Democrat, for a second term. Corzine continues to support expanding health care options, especially for women, and he has a record of slowing the rate of increase in local property taxes. Chris Christie - who is not a ditto machine salesman - is pro-life, would cut state spending in some of our (I'm from New Jersey, remember) most essential services, and his tax plan makes no sense. Plus, he seems to be too friendly to big business. Corzine's best asset is that he's mitigated the systematic problems that have affected this state since Corzine was still a Wall Street executive and not even in politics, so, like Obama, he has to deal with a mess that's been around for too long. Christie shows no understanding of the mess.

For Governor of Virginia: This blog endorses R. Creigh Deeds, the Democratic candidate, over Republican Bob McDonnell. Deeds, consistently behind in the polls, isn't likely to win, but he deserves my recommendation. While the economic and educational policies both candidates espouse are similar, Deeds gets my vote (or would, if I lived in Virginia) for several reasons. His transportation proposals, for example, would create a bipartisan commission to produce a comprehensive transportation plan for the state and raise money for it with taxes from Virginians. McDonnell, a tax increase opponent, wants to charge motorists tolls entering the state from North Carolina on Interstates 85 and 95, which is tantamount to paying an admission fee to get into Virginia. But these proposals are nothing compared to his energy policies; McDonnell would drill off the Virginia coast for oil and gas and support more coal production in addition to environmentally friendly energy sources, while Deeds would concentrate more exclusively on green energy.

But here are the biggest reasons I can't support McDonnell: He against renewing the order signed by outgoing Governor Tim Kaine banning discrimination against gays on the grounds that the order was illegal. He is also against a proposal to close a gun show loophole that allows firearms to infiltrate the streets in Northeastern cities. Deeds supports both.

For Mayor of New York City: This blog endorses independent Michael Bloomberg for a third term. Bill Thompson, the Democratic candidate and Bloomberg's biggest challenger, doesn't have a stellar record at education while the Bloomberg administration has helped push up grades and test scores. Also, New York City has been run more efficiently than any mayoral administration in recent memory, and it's produced obvious results. If Rudolph Giuliani cleaned up the city, Bloomberg has done a good job of keeping it clean, and without the fascism of his predecessor. The best reason to endorse him? He's cheap labor. He only makes a dollar a year as mayor. Bloomberg has been a very good bargain so far for the city at eight dollars.

On New Jersey Public Question #1: This blog endorses a "Yes" vote to acquire more open space. This endorsement is not based on costs, which are expected to be steep for this ballot initiative if it passes; it's based on common sense. New Jersey is already the most overbuilt state in the Union, and much of the development is spread out so much that it gobbles up more land than it should. In fact, a new senior housing complex is going up in Verona, New Jersey, in Essex County, where the population is actually decreasing. Why is Essex County, the only county in New Jersey without a state park, losing open space even as it's losing people? Because developers will build stuff we don't need just about anywhere. A "Yes" vote on this public question will save more land from those with an appetite for construction.

For West Caldwell, N.J. Town Council: This blog again endorses Robert Issetts, because a) he is a Democrat running to join an all-Republican council, and b) he's my neighbor. :-)

That's it for this election. Oh gosh, are the midterms coming up next year? See you then, in 2010.

No Option

First, the good news - Harry Reid supports the public option. The Senate Democratic leader said yesterday that a government-run public health insurance program will be in the Senate bill.

Now the bad news, unless your politics is different from mine - it doesn't have a chance.

There are a least three senators in the Democratic Senate majority - Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut - who oppose the public option due to opposition to a government-run health insurance program in these states. Especially in Connecticut, where the insurance industry dominates and the insurance salesman is the state bird.

Senators Tom Carper of Delaware and Charles Schumer of New York have suggested making it possible for states to opt of out a public health insurance program. Hello - it's a national system! It's not a states' rights issue, like self-serve gasoline (and I'm still ticked off at New Jersey for opting out of that!) It's a nationwide issue! We can't have a national system that leaves states out! It would be like Amtrak not serving South Dakota. . ..

Okay, bad example! :-O

And Now For Something Completely Different

John Cleese turns seventy today.

Leaves Blow

It was a nice day today, but I had to run around unexpectedly and I didn't accomplish everything I wanted to. Especially raking leaves. We have a lot of trees around our house, and so the yard - the back yard in particular - gets inundated with leaves pretty heavily and pretty quickly every fall. So I couldn't rake them today like I'd hoped to, and now I'll have to wait until Thursday, the next day we have sun.

My mother tells me not to worry about raking the leaves. "They're not going anywhere!" she says.

That's just the trouble! :-D

Fox Attacks

President Obama has come under fire from some political commentators for attacking Fox News. I'm not talking about commentators on Fox News. I'm talking about a few commentators on MSNBC, and even Mark Shields took the White House to task on "The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer." The argument has been the Obama cheapens himself by going after one cable news channel and singling them out as the enemy. They're not alone. When Obama tried to exclude Fox reporters from a White House event, other reporters protested and said the Fox reporters should be allowed to cover it as well. Even someone as wise and learned as Shields defended Fox for its reporting, and he said the White House should recognize the difference between Fox reporters and Fox commentators.

Let's put aside the insistence that Fox does any actual reporting, let alone fair and balanced reporting. Such an idea is too silly for me to dignify with a comment. Fox spends so much time bashing Obama, what is the President supposed to do - sit back and take it? Turning the other cheek only works for so long. Sometimes you have to fight back. President Obama is trying to change the trajectory of the nation and get it away from supply-side economics and wedge-issue politics, and the beneficiaries of these things - the right - know it. That's why Fox, an arm of the Republican party and the conservative movement, is so eager to destroy him. True, President Franklin Roosevelt had to deal with right-wing opposition, and he even had to deal with right-wing talk radio in the form of Father Charles Coughlin, but this was the days before cable television (or any television) and the Internet. FDR never had to put up with attacks 24/7. Roosevelt also never had to consider the idea of 24/7. He never even heard the phrase 24/7 (unless he heard Winston Churchill use it to mean July 24).

Change Is Hard

It appears that the change we can believe in is coming, albeit in small segments. President Obama, who has strategically chosen when to move to make good on his campaign promises and his administrative agenda, has chosen now as the moment to strike back at the Wall Street firms and banks benefiting from government bailouts making obscene profits and awarding fat bonuses.

According to the plan, the 25 highest-paid executives at these companies are to have a 90 percent cut, on average, of what they received in 2008. Overall compensation would be cut in half an have to go to the government for permission for future perks worth more than $25,000, including company cars or private planes. This is being planned in tandem with a plan to encourage more small business loans with Troubled Assets Recovery Program (TARP) money to expand the economy, with the bailout end of the TARP winding down.

It's easy to understand why Republicans would be against cutting compensation for CEOs - free market interference and all that. Harder to understand are the complaints against helping small businesses, which are the backbone of the American economy in general and the labor market in particular. Representative Mike Pence (R-IN) has complained about the cost of these proposed loans, while Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), who has never endorsed bailout money for anyone, just wants the government out of everything.

Even after the conditions that brought about the events of 9/15 that made TARP necessary in the first place, Republicans still believe in an unregulated free market and continue to trust private enterprise - just as long as it's big and profitable - yet don't want to help the small entrepreneurs. They still talk about the evils of big government, even though the government is keeping people's heads above water.

This includes the stimulus package, which is putting people to work on infrastructural projects, and a proposed extension on unemployment benefits, which Republicans are blocking in the Senate even as they bemoan a new TARP program to help small businesses create . . . jobs.

I'd like to think that Ronald Reagan - who once said, "The greatest social program is a job" - is spinning in his grave over this.

Love and Justice

My jaw almost dropped when I heard this story out of Louisiana. A parish judge has refused to marry an interracial couple.

Tangipahoa Parish Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell - that's right, I'm naming him here, Keith Bardwell - says that while he has no racial animosity toward anyone - Bardwell, who is white, insists that he has several black friends - he believes that interracial marriages are doomed to failure and that he can't perform them in good conscience. And so he chose not to wed Terrence McKay, who is black, and Beth Humphrey, who is white.

What is this, 1952? This reminds me of the argument that God meant the races to be apart and so set them on different continents, but for an "accident of history." If God didn't want to allow the races to live together, how did God allow the formation of America? You know, the country God blessed, the land that we love?

Speaking of love, this Louisiana couple, who did get married elsewhere, really do love each other and they're looking forward to their life together. They wed after they found a judge in Louisiana who, unlike Bardwell, knows that the Supreme Court threw out state anti-miscegenation laws in 1967. One other insult Bardwell made - he was afraid that the children would suffer for being of mixed parentage.

Mixed? As in one of each? A father and a mother? Well, as I recall, there was this kid from Hawaii who was the product of an interracial marriage, and he turned out alright.

In fact, he's living in a big mansion on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington and just won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Boss's Day?

Today is Boss's Day, a day for people to show appreciation for their employers.

When was the last time anyone bragged about what a wonderful boss they had?

Anyway, with unemployment rising to ten percent and possibly above, millions of Americans don't have a boss, and therefore, no reason to celebrate it.

There's even less of a reason for anyone to celebrate Sweetest Day, a day for celebrating your boyfriend or girlfriend, whether you're in a relationship or not.

I mean, don't we kind of already have a day like that in the middle of February?

And isn't that enough for one year?

To the Door of the Sun

The name of Al Martino, who died yesterday at 82, doesn't mean much to Baby Boomers except for those who saw his performance as singer Johnny Fontane in The Godfather, where he sang "Speak Softly Love." But his death robs Italian-Americans of one of their greatest and most beloved icons.

Martino was one of several Italian-American crooners with a romantic style. A Philadelphia native, his career preceded that of several Italian Philly singing idols like Frankie Avalon and Bobby Rydell, but Martino was a far more traditional singer than they are. Avalon and Rydell tried to be urban Elvises, but Martino was more in the tradition of Dean Martin. Martino, though, probably had a better voice; he had a rich, sonorous tone that made you take notice. He had a talent that even the most die-hard rock and roll fan, the kind of person who was against the corny balladeering that singers like Martino were known for, couldn't deny.

So his records conjured up stereotypical images of quaint little restaurants where spaghetti dominates the menu and the Chianti flows freely. So what? It's pretty hard not to give the man his due when you listen to him sing. Martino's hits included "I Love You Because," "Spanish Eyes," and "Here In My Heart." My most memorable encounter with Martino came when I heard his 1974 hit "To The Door of The Sun," in which he sang the verses in English and all but one of the choruses in Italian. He turned an slight, somewhat overdone ballad into a majestic, monumental experience. Hearing his voice rush over the words like smooth butterscotch made a believer out of me - this man was a true artist. :-)

He's gone to the door of the sun himself now. RIP. :-(

Skating Away On the Thin Ice of Middle Age

Nancy Kerrigan turns forty today.

On the Tube

So what's on TV these days?

It's been awhile since I commented on television, and I thought I'd take a break from commentary on current events (pretty boring, huh? ;-)), partly because there hasn't been that much to talk about for so long. But a few new shows in the 2009-10 season and of a couple of veteran ones are worth noting. Or not.

First, CBS's "How I met Your Mother." I've always liked this show, particularly because its characters are so likable - even Neil Patrick Harris's Barney - and they've had several unorthodox ideas and plot twists. But none of their far-out storylines have reached the improbable idea of Barney and Robin (Cobie Smulders) getting together. Gee whizbangers, this is more fun than the time Hawkeye and Hot Lips shacked up in a two-part "M*A*S*H" episode.

We still don't know who becomes the "mother" - the lady love of Ted (Josh Radnor) yet, but who cares? I'm having too much fun watching how everything else plays out. And Cobie Smulders remains the most beautiful brunette on American television. (Not bad for a Canadian.)

The most beautiful blonde on American television, Julie Bowen, landed a plum role on "Modern Family," an ABC sitcom about an extended family comprised of three separate units. Bowen plays Claire, the mother in a traditional nuclear family with a homosexual brother in his own relationship and their father married to a Hispanic trophy wife with her own son. This is probably the best new sitcom to appear in four years, and the intricate plot lines tying the three situations together offer plenty of enjoyable moments. Ed O'Neill, as the patriarch, is funnier than playing Al Bundy on "Married . . . With Children" ever allowed him to be. The pseudo-documentary format modeled after "The Office" (more of which later) adds to "Modern Family"'s freshness.

"Community," on NBC, is another keeper, starring Joel McHale as a conceited lawyer who's learned that his bachelor's degree is illegitimate and has to go to community college, where he thinks he's superior to his fellow students. He finds himself in a study group full of eccentrics, including one character played by Chevy Chase. Chase, as an entrepreneurial type with crazy ideas, performs with understatement but remains as funny as ever. This is a big comeback for Chase, whose movie career has long since stalled - although I'll go to my grave insisting that Foul Play is one of the greatest screwball comedies of all time, or at least the seventies. He's ready to take a chance again.

Sadly, NBC can't do much better. Still in fourth place, the network once known for groundbreaking dramas has moved their veteran drama series to the 9 PM ET hour, where they have to compete with lighter fare in the same time slot. Jay Leno owns every weekday 10 PM ET slot, hampering NBC's ability to produce new drama shows and shore up old ones. Well, what old ones they still have - they lost "Medium" to CBS. Leno himself has proven himself unable to compete with the traditional ten o'clock programming on ABC or CBS. Fox, as always, continues to eschew the 10 PM ET time slot, preferring to let its affiliates air local newscasts in that slot.

Speaking of local news, NBC's affiliates, whose own local newscasts are between Leno and Conan O'Brien, are losing viewers even as O'Brien struggles in vain to go up against David Letterman, a man O'Brien reveres and chooses not to lampoon for his sex scandal blackmail issues. O'Brien has been unable to adapt his after-midnight style of smart-aleck humor to "The Tonight Show" the way Letterman did when he began doing late-night talk an hour earlier.

Who would have thought that Jimmy Fallon, the insufferable nimrod who took over for O'Brien at "Late Night" and has enjoyed good ratings, would be the one NBC late-night comedian smelling like a rose?

Meanwhile, "The Office" is beginning to stink. Yeah, I saw the one-hour episode of Jim and Pam's wedding, but the humor was so lame and in some cases rather sick - Andy Bernard (Ed Helms) hurting his scrotum on his car keys while dancing - I have a feeling that, if it hasn't jumped the shark, it's swimming close to it. The British sitcom of the same name that it was based on didn't run as long, as Ricky Gervais (who played the boss) and his castmates knew when to quit.

This is NBC at the end of the two thousand zeroes, folks. Devoid of any coherent programming plan, unable to pull out of fourth place after half a decade, it's in such dire straits it may qualify for a taxpayer-supported federal bailout. Well, that's one way to get a BBC-style national television network; heck, it already has the proper name (NBC stands for National Broadcasting Company). It's easily the weakest link in the NBC/Universal media empire, its sister cable networks MSNBC and CNBC probably drawing more viewers. But gee whiz, look at its great successes of the past - "Ed," Friends," Frasier." As of today, Julie Bowen, Courteney Cox (star of the new series "Cougar Town," a sitcom I don't get) and Kelsey Grammer, who respectively starred in those shows, have all gone to ABC and Patricia Arquette took her entire show to CBS with her.

One thing about Kelsey Grammer's new ABC series, "Hank." Grammer has said that he would reprise his most famous character, Dr. Frasier Crane, in a new sitcom if he thought it was good enough. He apparently thought a show like "Hank," about a humbled man returning to his hometown to take a dead-end job, wasn't good enough to bring Frasier back in - his character is, after all, named Hank - and neither do critics and viewers. It's only one midseason replacement away from cancellation, and Grammer's chances of pulling off the impossible - enjoying three hit sitcoms in a single career - seem to have evaporated. NBC is probably glad it did not at least get stuck with this one.

Shooting Straight

President Obama spread waves of shock and delight across the nation when he announced on Saturday that he planned to end the "don't ask, don't tell" policy of gays in in the military and allow them to serve openly in the armed services without fear of expulsion. Some military leaders have expressed fears that could have a demoralizing effect on the service. Funny, I thought the outsourcing of all their duties to Blackwater had already taken care of that.

The United States would thus become the last Western country to allow gays to serve openly in the military, though it's better late than never. Many homosexual rights advocates had been disappointed on Obama's record of gay civil rights, but it turns out he was with them all the time; it was just a matter of fitting them into his schedule. Health care, two wars, a rotten job market . . . sooner or later the White House had to pencil them in. Friday? No, they couldn't do that, they already had a moon-bombing mission scheduled. :-D

In addition to a big agenda, President Obama has to deal with another thing blocking repeal of "don't ask, don't tell. . . ." congressional and military opponents. Not to mention talk radio hosts. But the President seems to be slowly learning to go ahead and do the right thing, if only because he'd even getting attacked for what he chooses to eat for breakfast.

As for gays in the military, the late Barry Goldwater said it best when he said that you don't have to be straight to serve in the military. You just have to shoot straight.

Achieving Peace

One day after winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Barack Obama is already fulfilling his promise. He actually got Turkey and Armenia to reach an accord that establishes diplomatic relations between the two countries and opens their shared border. Thanks to a little shrewd diplomacy from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, it also calls for dialogue on the historical dimension of the mass killings of 1.5 million Armenians during World War I, when the Ottoman Empire was in its final death throes and the Armenian homeland was divided between Russia and the Turks. The Turks, allied with Germany and Austria, terrorized and eventually killed a good deal of their Armenian population, distrusting them and fearing they would collaborate with Russia, allied with the British and the French.

Armenian grievances were overlooked in the 1920s the wake of Kamal Ataturk's established of the modern Turkish state after the Ottoman Empire collapsed and the Russian part of Armenia was incorporated into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. They re-emerged after the Soviet Union itself collapsed in 1991 and Armenia regained its independence. The tension has led to Turkish condemnation of the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over a disputed Azerbaijani region populated by Armenians (Nagorno-Karabakh, whose status remains undetermined despite the ethnic Armenian victory in 1994) and a subsequent sealing of the border. Armenia, by contrast, has insisted that Turkey admit to the Armenian Genocide of 1915. The fact that both sides are talking and have agreed to work for a permanent, peaceful solution means that Obama's efforts and building global trust and understanding are paying off.

Armenia and Turkey have a long way to go, but this breakthrough is clearly a step in the right direction.

WHO Won the Nobel Peace Prize?

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to whom?

The President?

Our President? Barack Obama, the President of the United States? Even though he's only been in office for less than nine months?

The Nobel Committee chose President Obama not on the basis of his promise but on the basis of what he's already achieved. The President, the committee noted, set a course for the U.S .to work with other countries, reached out to the Islamic world, and abandoned the arrogant foreign policy of George Walker Bush. The original nomination was made by a deadline of February 1, which meant that the President had only been in office twelve days by the time his name was in contention. Replacing Bush, apparently, was enough to qualify for the award.

Which meant that any Democrat vying to succeed Bush could have won it by succeeding him. Tom Vilsack, Nobel laureate? Who'da thunk?

Obama himself was surprised and humbled by the selection, and he accepted it in the spirit of moving forward to achieve peace. Ironically, he spent the day discussing the prosecution of the war in Afghanistan, which hasn't seen peace since 1978. Well, the conservatives went ballistic over the choice, insisting that it was a joke and that Obama was arrogant enough to accept it seriously. Some of them have found the the Nobel Committee to be anti-American and they think Obama deserves it because of his un-American policies. Yeah, whatever. If it's a joke, it's a pretty good joke, as it's good publicity for America's image.

I, like the President, am startled that Obama won an award he hasn't really done enough to earn. But I'm not surprised. Nothing surprises me anymore in light of the fact that these guys . . .

. . . Kiss . . . were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Shock me. :-O

Knowing When To Leave

John Paul Stevens, the senior justice on the Supreme Court, has hired only one new clerk for the Court term that just began, leading many to believe he will retire at the end of the term. Well, he is in his late eighties. Also, to give you how long he's served, he joined the Court when "Rock and Roll All Nite" was a new song.

It's too bad the the guys responsible for that song don't know when to quit.

Kiss just embarked on a tour to celebrate their thirty-fifth anniversary, although marking it rather than celebrating it seems more appropriate. Always loud and kind of dumb, Kiss were less about the music and more about style, showmanship, and ticking off music sophisticates and Bible-thumping preachers alike. Their face paint, concert special effects, and interstellar costumes paved the way for the production values commonly associated with videos on MTV, and their flamboyant heavy metal, to paraphrase one observer, ticked off members of the Moral Majority before there was a Moral Majority.

But at least in the seventies, Kiss were relevant. Now they're a bunch of old fogies trying to recapture their glory years, even if the glory was all hype courtesy of their manager and their record label (Casablanca, which also gave us the Village People). John Paul Stevens may be old, but his judicial opinions - especially given his liberal leanings on a conservative Court - still matter.

And who really cares about the intricate time signatures in "Detroit Rock City" anyway?

The Worse You Do . . .

David Letterman's admission last week to sleeping with women on his staff to thwart a blackmailer was both shockingly embarrassing and embarrassingly shocking. He not only demonstrated that he's a philanderer, but kind of a creepy one as well. But then Letterman always had a reckless side, as evidence by his tickets for speeding on the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut. (I've traveled on that road; trust me, it's pretty dangerous to go past the speed limit there!)

But get this. Letterman's actually getting moral support from his audience, and his ratings are up.

Meanwhile, President Obama hasn't gotten a climate change bill through the Senate, the economy is still reeling from last year's Wall Street crash, and if Obama signs a health care reform bill, it will more likely than not lack a public option. That said, his approval rating went up six points from last month, to 56 percent.

These two stories correspond to what I call the Bay of Pigs rule, named for the failed 1961 U.S.-backed counter-coup against Fidel Castro by Cuban exiles. The rule states that one's standing among others increases proportionally to how many times one screws up. President John F. Kennedy, remember, approved the Bay of Pigs invasion. After it failed spectacularly, he admitted the U.S's role in the Bay of Pigs operation and accepted full responsibility, and his poll ratings went up to 83 percent.

"Jesus," he was quoted as saying. "The worse you do, the better they like you."

An American Pope?

We may have lost the Olympics, but we may one day get the Vatican.

I had a dream the other night that the Pope had died and that the College of Cardinals chose Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago (!), to step into the shoes of the fisherman . . . and he took the name Pope Benedict XVII.

I don't think I have the gift of prophecy any more than I think Cardinal George will be Pope one day. Interestingly, I once heard someone say that the conservative Chicago archbishop is very papabile - Italian for having the makings of a pope - but because he's an American, he would never be chosen. No one wants to choose a Holy Father from the most powerful nation on earth - conflict of interest and all that. But I do think I will live to see the Roman Catholic Church select an American Pope.

Why? Because I think I will also live to see the time when America is no longer a superpower and not even a world power. I see this country going the way of the British Empire, its foreign influence diminished and its cultural influence restricted to popular music. And that's when the United States will will no longer matter so much on the world stage and become just another country.

And that's when an American Pope will be elected.

Nolympics

The unthinkable happened yesterday when Chicago, a heavy favorite to win the 2016 Olympics, was eliminated from contention. And, in an even greater embarrassment for President Obama after he tried to close the sale at the International Olympic Committee's meeting in Copenhagen to decide the site for the 2016 Games, Chicago was eliminated on the first ballot.

Republicans chided the President before the vote was taken, insisting that he had far more important things to worry about, like the economy, health care, and Iran, than getting the Olympics for his adoptive hometown. After the 2016 Olympics were given to Rio de Janeiro, Obama was gracious in defeat, but Newt Gingrich and Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele scolded Obama for wasting his political capital on such a trivial issue. The was pretty much what I expected from the President's detractors.

Nothing could have prepared me for the glee and the jubilation right-wing commentators and activists displayed upon hearing the news, even as Chicagoans were crestfallen. Rush Limbaugh was ecstatic, saying it proved that Obama's charm offensive was just plain offensive, and his ego got the beating it deserved. And he was kind in comparison to Glenn Beck, who giggled at the news, calling the defeat "sweet." Members of the pro-business group Americans For Prosperity applauded and laughed, and the offices of the Weekly Standard burst out into cheers.

Uh, they do realize the United States lost their chance to host another summer Olympiad, right?

The American right displayed its true colors by pouring salt into Obama's wounds on this issue. They were happy to see the country shamed and humiliated merely to score political points and bolster their efforts to weaken a President they wish to see fail, so they can return to power and finished the job of impoverishing the middle class and leaving them with no recourse for the injustices committed against them. If they were as patriotic as they claim to be, they would have supported Chicago's Olympic bid. If they thought Obama's bid was a waste of political prestige, they could have found a way to express it without taking glee in a loss for the country, as Gingrich did. Oh my God, it's come to this - Limbaugh, Beck, and noted Twinkie Michelle Malkin actually having me defend Gingrich!

Of course, if Obama hadn't gone to Copenhagen to make his case, he would have been blasted by the right for not making a personal appeal to the IOC. The only favorable outcome for Obama was for Chicago to actually get the Olympics - which was, we now know, not going to happen.

What caused Chicago to lose? Well, as well-versed in politics as Chicagoans are, the Brazilians were able to outmaneuver them. As I've been led to understand, Chicago went in with half as many committed votes as they thought they had, and the Brazilians managed to sway enough votes to eliminate Chicago - its closest competitor - as quickly as possible, knowing Tokyo could not put up a strong challenge on the next ballot. Then, when it came down to Rio de Janeiro and Madrid, it didn't take much persuasion to point out the no South American city has ever hosted an Olympiad before. By then, it was all over but the shouting - the shouting from jubilant Brazilians and jubilant radio reactionaries.

One conservative who must have been disappointed in the loss was former President George Walker Bush, who also lobbied for Chicago in the waning days of his administration.

Chicago hopes to try again for 2020, but here's some 2020 vision for you: New York, its bid for 2012 derailed by anti-Americanism over the Iraq War, chose to move on and not try again. As to the possibility of lingering anti-Americanism derailing Chicago's bid, it could be that many International Olympic Committee officials view Americans as arrogant morons, even though President Obama is neither, but if you ask me, the anti-Americanism came from the arrogant morons in question, after the bid failed.

Obama will hopefully learn how nasty his enemies are and learn how to fight back, because if he thinks the right is vicious now, wait until the health care reform bill takes final shape. As for Chicago, they're probably better off, even though it would have been nice to see a real American city (Los Angeles and Atlanta are not cities, they're freeway interchanges!) host the summer Olympics for a change. They've been spared logistical nightmares, awful traffic tie-ups, and exorbitant costs.

Plus, there's also the police department's crowd-control record to consider.

The world is watching. :-O

(Note: I kid the city of Chicago! I love this city! I was there in 1994 for a vacation. The video accompanying this post is only a joke!)

Saturn Falls

A venture that started as one of the boldest and most ambitious experiments in the American automobile industry came to a crashing end this week as Saturn burned out. Roger Penske, who had hoped to buy the brand and its dealer network from General Motors, abandoned his effort after failing to find another manufacturer to supply cars to replace the GM-built models upon their discontinuation.

Penske had been in negotiations with a foreign automaker - possibly Renault or its Nissan subsidiary - to sell cars currently unavailable in North America and also build them in North American plants, which Nissan has. He thought he had a deal with this unidentified company, but it all unraveled just before his acquisition of Saturn seemed to be in the bag.

Of course, Saturn had long since lost its edge in its brief history. The project had been started by GM chairman Roger Smith as an effort to build a solid small car that could compete with imported cars in the U.S. market, using innovative ideas and fresh thinking that would break with the conventional Detroit way of doing things. To preserve the bold, fresh mindset Smith wanted, the project would not produce cars for existing brands but be a new subsidiary company altogether. Smith named it not after the sixth planet from the sun but after a NASA rocket project in the sixties.

After numerous delays, the Saturn Corporation was finally launched in 1990 with a single model line, built in Spring Hill, Tennessee, by workers with a special contract with General Motors. Although many observers thought that the project was too overambitious, trying to start too much from scratch, Saturn's S-Series proved to be a popular car, and the company's approach to marketing and service was refreshing. The no-haggle pricing appealed to customers, and dealership events that treated customers like family - memorably satirized in an episode of Ellen DeGeneres's mid-nineties sitcom - became commonplace. Saturn's dent-resistant polymer body panels, easily accessible fluid reservoirs, and distinctive styling gave the brand an edge over the competition, and it featured the most sophisticated overhead-camshaft engine a GM brand had ever produced. By the end of the decade, a larger midsize model - the L-Series - had been added, and a three-door coupe, with a small rear side door, was available.

Several weaknesses had already become obvious by then, though, as Saturn tended to take sales from other GM brands more than from the imports they were supposed to compete with. Quality was better than other GM cars but still not as good as the Japanese competition. Then, in its second decade, Saturn managed to water down its advantages with a succession of bland models and a muddled identity as it became more integrated with its parent company, ruining everything that made it a breath of fresh air in the first place.

Saturn's biggest mistake was the Ion, which replaced the S-Series. Its design and ergonomics were so bland and uninspiring that it turned off potential customers while disappointing the brand's early admirers. Later models like the midsize Aura and the Sky sport coupe were obvious variations of product available from other GM brands. The final insult came when the Ion was replaced by the Opel-built Astra. Saturn had been founded to prove that Americans could build a good small car. Now its small volume car would be outsourced from a plant in . . . Belgium. The car was an unqualified failure, being overpriced due to currency rates and underappointed for American tastes.

Oh, and what happened to the Spring Hill plant? The special contract was terminated in 2004, and the factory was retooled to make other GM vehicles . . . only to scheduled to be closed later this year.

This is the ultimate humiliation for a once proud industry, not to mention an embarrassment for a country that once made the best consumer products in the world. To give you a perspective of how short a time Saturn will have lasted - twenty years - Hyundai, which competes in the small and midsize car market with Saturn, began selling cars in the U.S. in 1986 and continues to expand.

It's getting to the point where we can't even make any consumer products, never mind making the best. It seems ironic that Saturn should have been named for a a project from the glory days of the space program. If NASA in the 1960s were anything like GM is now, the Soviets would have reached the moon first.

A different kind of company became the same old song and dance from a dying, disrespected auto industry.

What caused the Penske deal with another car company to fall through? Who knows? Maybe someone who could have swung the deal in Penske's favor, at a critical moment, had JujyFruits stuffed in his mouth. ("Seinfeld" fans will get that joke.)