2009: Winners and Losers

Well, 2009 is almost over, and it was quite a year. Michael Jackson died, and Donny Osmond won on "Dancing With The Stars." George Walker Bush ended his Presidency bailing out Wall Street and Barack Obama began his Presidency doing the same thing. Bryan Adams turned fifty on November 5, and Ryan Adams - who turned thirty-five on November 5 - married Mandy Moore. (I turned forty-four on November 5, but I remained single.) Swine flu caused a bigger scare than the prospect of Iran getting the bomb. And President Obama became the second consecutive U.S. President to be accused of lying by someone named Joe Wilson.

Anyway, it's that time again, the time when I look back for hopefully the last time on the outgoing old year and pick my winners and losers of the year. I had a hard time picking winners, mainly because this was a bad year for a lot of people and places, but I managed to come up with a dozen of them. I actually had to eliminate a few choices as I went back and forth. I had the same problem with picking the losers, trying to decide who made the bigger strikeouts among the fourteen or so choices I made (they came more easily than the winners) before whittling them down to twelve. As with every list of winners and losers I've made since 2004, this is a subjective list, and shouldn't be taken as the final word. But I think I came up with solid lists.

Here are, in no particular order, my choices for the winners of 2009:

Sandra Bullock. America's newest Hollywood sweetheart had such a good year at the box office, CNN is calling it her best year ever, and I won't argue. After her summer hit movie The Proposal (which grossed $300 million in box office receipts), she is stirring up Oscar talk for The Blind Side, a true story about a white Southern woman who adopts a black teenager who makes it to the NFL. And she's been nominated for Golden Globes for each movie.

The New York Yankees. They began the 2009 baseball season in a new stadium and ended it with their first World Series win in nine years and their 27th win overall. They also became the only team the win the Series twice in the past decade apart from their old rivals the Boston Red Sox.

Taylor Swift. Hip-hop rules the charts? You wouldn't know it from the success of Swift, the young blonde country and western singer who, being more like Carrie Underwood than Carrie Underwood herself, had the bestselling album of the year, Fearless.

Chevy Chase. Coming full circle by accepting a sitcom role on NBC's "Community," the venerable comedian and "Saturday Night Live" veteran returned to television and proved himself quite ready for prime time in one of the best new sitcoms of the year.

Patricia Heaton. Her career looked moribund after a failed sitcom on Fox and a anti-stem-cell research political ad that backfired on her, but Heaton came back in a big way this year with "The Middle," about an Indiana housewife/car saleswoman keeping her complicated life and dysfunctional family going. It's the best new ABC sitcom that isn't "Modern Family."

Ed Schultz. Talk radio's prairie populist got his own MSNBC show, and he used it passionately to help lead the cause for health care reform. Schultz provided a meat-and-potatoes approach to liberal commentary that contrasted nicely with the Washington insider role of Chris Matthews, the clowning of Keith Olbermann, and urbane wit of Rachel Maddow.

Sonia Sotomayor. A wise Latina who proved wiser than the clueless white guys who opposed her nomination to the Supreme Court became the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice and is easily expected to make a big mark on the Court for reasons other than her ethnicity or her sex.

Illinois. The Prairie State is suddenly in a position of major importance. It counts among its voices in Washington a new President, the deputy Senate Democratic leader (Richard Durbin) and the Secretary of Transportation (Ray LaHood). Plus, they got rid of Rod Blagojevich.

The Beatles. The Fab Four's catalog was remastered for the first time since it was originally issued on compact disc in 1987 and 1988, and sales of the new CDs - plus the success of the video game "The Beatles - Rock Band" - reflects well on the durability of their music. It doesn't reflect well on the inability of popular music to produce an act of similar quality and innovation since 1970, though.

Ford. America's second largest car company avoided bankruptcy and a federal handout, and it even made a profit in the third quarter. It was the only American automaker with a modern lineup of fuel-efficient cars to sell when the cash-for-clunkers program was in effect, and Ford made the most of it.

Sergio Marchionne. The leader of Fiat is soon getting his car company back in the U.S. market for the first time since 1984 with a stake in Chrysler and a lineup of new, interesting cars - due in a couple of years - that will likely put both companies in a solid position. And if you wish you could have owned a Fiat 500, relax - the retro version will soon be here.

Vampires. "True Blood." The "Twilight" saga. "The Vampire Diaries." Suddenly it's good to have movies and TV shows of new blood whose characters suck. :-D With a resurgent interest in vampires, can limited DVD editions of Dracula - both the 1931 and 1979 versions - or The Hunger, Fright Night, or any other 1980s horror movie starring someone named Sarandon be far behind? Don't bother with the garlic, this craze won't die even if you drive a stake through its heart.

And now for the other side of the coin . . . the losers.

Conrad Murray. Being the doctor who was administering to Michael Jackson when he died can't possibly be good for your career.

Toyota. The fall from grace of Japan's largest automaker was as unpredictable as the idea of a Japanese car company becoming America's bestselling auto brand must have been back in 1958, when Toyota entered the U.S. market. The firm lost nearly five billion dollars in its fiscal year, and 3.8 million vehicles were recalled due to poorly designed floor mats causing unintended acceleration. Even the Lexus brand - now marking its twentieth anniversary - saw its quality slip. To mix an old Toyota slogan and a Star Wars line, oh, what a bad feeling I've got about this.

Jon Corzine. Despite a severe recession and unpopularity with his policies, the governor of New Jersey put up a valiant fight to save his job, but in the end, Garden State voters decided that New Jersey was in such a bad situation, it was better to take a chance on an undistinguished prosecutor with a bad driving record and a Bush-style economic agenda.

NBC. The network once as proud as a peacock looks ready to go the way of the dodo, and the decision to hold onto Jay Leno by giving him a prime time show and letting Conan O'Brien take over "The Tonight Show" was certainly dodo-brained. O'Brien's late-night college-boy humor proved to be a wrong fit for an earlier, more mainstream time slot, and Leno has been accused of losing his edge as he tried to retrofit his own comedic approach for a prime time audience at 10:00 PM Eastern. Meanwhile, NBC's dramas in the 9:00 PM Eastern slot are tanking against other shows, and the network is about to be taken over by Comcast. Even the network's fortunes of the Fred Silverman era weren't this bad, and then they got cheated out of airing the 1980 Olympics. Even with the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, NBC remains the network NoBody Cares about, despite "Community."

The New Jersey Nets. The Nets set a new NBA record for the most consecutive games lost from the start of a basketball season - eighteen - before finally winning their nineteenth game. Then they lost their twentieth. Uh, guys? We in New Jersey have thought it over, and . . . you're free to move to Brooklyn. Go, already. And take your losing streaks with you. Enjoy your Jay-Z-financed, Frank Gehry-designed arena, if it's ever built. Don't let the Holland Tunnel toll gate hit your backsides on the way out.

Bonnie Hunt. The quirky comedienne appeared to have a hit show at last when her afternoon talk show began a second season this September. Then, earlier this month, it was announced that it would soon end production. She will not become the next Ellen DeGeneres. With two failed sitcoms to her credit already, Hunt must know what we've already figured out; we shouldn't look forward to spending any more life with Bonnie.

Magazines. It was a bad time to be in the magazine trade this year. Among the 428 magazines that folded in 2009 where prestigious titles like Gourmet, Domino, and Modern Bride (all published by Conde Nast), Metropolitan Home (published by Hatchette Fillipachi), and Southern Accents (published by Time, Inc.). The rock magazine Blender went to an online-only edition, but don't you rap fans start chanting "Hip-Hop Hooray" - Vibe met the same fate.

Iranian democracy. Even though Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadenijad won more votes than could have been cast in many areas of the country in his bid for a second term, the mullahs who actually run Iran certified his victory and returned him to office. The crackdown that has been conducted against dissidents since is beginning to make Chinese martial law seem benign by comparison.

California. The state is running out of water, the legislature can't agree on a budget to solve the state's fiscal crisis, Arnold Schwarzenegger's approval ratings are lower than the box office numbers for his movie Junior (the one in which he played a pregnant man), and the state was represented in the Miss USA pageant by a bottle-blonde right-wing sex tape star with more plastic than a Honda Civic before she was forced to relinquish her title. All that glitters isn't golden.

Fritz Henderson. After replacing Rick Wagoner as the CEO of General Motors when Wagoner ran GM into the ground, Henderson immediately got to work to change the automaker's way of doing business . . . and went from messiah to pariah within eight months. Henderson couldn't keep up with the changing climate in the car market, and reform came too slowly. Except for one thing - he put the proposed sale of Opel to a Russo-Canadian consortium on a fast track before realizing that was the one change other GM executives refused to make.

Gay marriage. Repealed in Maine, having failed to pass in New York, legislation to approve it on borrowed time in New Jersey, same-sex marriage has been losing ground despite high hopes for its acceptance. True, the District of Columbia approved it, but Washington, D.C. laws are subject to review by Congress, which is full of Republicans and conservative Democrats who don't like the idea of same-sex marriage very much.

Nia Vardalos. The My Big Fat Greek Wedding star had two big fat movie flops. Everyone hated I Hate Valentine's Day, and My Life In Ruins showed her career in the same state.

Tiger Woods. The emperor has no clothes, and where women not his wife were concerned, that was one of his troubles. When companies like Tag Heuer drop his endorsements, it's because they can't afford him - but not financially speaking.

That's it for this year. Let's see who wins and loses in 2010.

Eighties Redux

The decade that's about to close, the two thousand zeroes (actually, the 201st decade of Our Lord began on January 1, 2001, owing to lack of a year zero, and ends December 31, 2010, but let that pass), bore a strange and unbearable resemblance to the 1980s. Which is understandable, considering the lack of character the past decade had - we weren't even sure what to call it. I've always said that I would never want to relive the eighties again, but I think I just did. Consider the evidence of the past ten years:

The stock market kept going up before it finally crashed on a Monday.

The biggest foreign policy concern was terrorism.

Foreigners were fighting in Afghanistan, except this time we were among the foreigners.

The President of the United States was a dim-bulb conservative and a guy named Bush.

His domestic policy was comprised of tax cuts for the wealthy and a great emphasis on religion in the public square.

An even dimmer bulb was nominated by the Republicans at the end of the decade for the Vice Presidency.

Britney Spears was the new Madonna, and the original Madonna issued five albums and went on four tours.

The original lineup of Duran Duran reunited.

The most popular sitcom on television starred Jon Cryer and noted psychopathic spouse Charlie Sheen.

There was a plethora of blockbuster action movies, some of which had comic book superheroes.

Sylvester Stallone made a sixth Rocky movie and a fourth Rambo movie, and in California, Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected Governator.

Bob Geldof produced global concerts to bring awareness of hunger in Africa.

Yuppie taste dictated trends in everything from cars to coffee.

The biggest domestic concern was the federal budget deficit.

You couldn't go anywhere in New York without seeing break dancing.

One of the Beatles died early in the decade.

Happy new year. We can't end this decade fast enough. :-O

Panic In Detroit . . . From Terrorism

The country got an unpleasant Christmas surprise when a Delta Air Lines was almost blown up as it was landing at Detroit Metro Airport yesterday. The bomber, identified as Abdul Farouk Umar Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian, was subdued by passengers as he attempted to detonate it.

Delta Air Lines Flight 253 came from Amsterdam, where Abdulmutallaband boarded, so the security failure did not happen on U.S. soil. Nevertheless, it was an American air carrier that was involved. Interestingly, Umaru Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian banker, suspects that the suspect is is son, and he apparently warned U.S. authorities about him six months ago. Though the younger Abdulmutallab claimed to be with al-Qaeda, he likely acted alone.

The initial scare is over, but this story isn't. Stay tuned.

Christmas 2009

A Visit From St. Nicholas

Behold, the greatest poem in the English language!

A Visit From St. Nicholas

by Clement Clark Moore

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her ’kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long winter’s nap.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be Saint Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:
“Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!”

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of toys, and Saint Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney Saint Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes — how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself.
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!”

:-)

Volvo Sale A Safe Bet

Ford is selling the Swedish car manufacturer Volvo, which it bought for $6.45 billion in 1999, to the Chinese auto company Geely for a about third of what Ford paid for it. Volvo has been losing money lately, and Ford is focusing more on its namesake brand both in North America and Europe. Ford will still have a stake in Volvo, though; much of the technology and safety features Ford and its Swedish subsidiary have developed is included in Ford vehicles, so it will be able to continue to share components with Volvo for awhile.

It's a win-win situation for everyone, helping Ford becoming a leaner company while allowing the continued collaboration with Volvo and allowing the Volvo brand to be introduced to Chinese consumers.

To those auto enthusiasts who see this deal as the automotive equivalent of dipping herring in sweet and sour sauce, put a Swedish meatball in it. Volvo is a brand with a long and honored tradition of making the safest cars on the planet (not necessarily the most durable cars on the planet anymore, but that's another story). I'd rather see a thriving Chinese-owned Volvo company than a dead Swedish one. Didn't you hear about Saab? :-(

Climate Change Debate? Put a Cap On It!

President Obama got the best possible deal on reducing the carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming at Copenhagen, which was the environmental equivalent of Roosevelt and Churchill pretty much letting Stalin having all of Eastern Europe under Soviet domination at Yalta. Be that as it may, Obama is prepared to do whatever is possible to implement his plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent by 2020.  In other other words, he isn't going to get to do much.

The Senate Republican caucus has made it clear of its plans to fight Obama's plan - including capping emissions and trading permits to emit more or less carbons - with every ounce of energy they extracted in fighting health care. They hope that this will be Obama's Waterloo - forcing him to break his promises to the world for the United States to take a more active role in fighting global warming. Senator John Kerry (D-MA), who is cosponsoring a "cap-and-trade" bill in the Senate, has scoffed at the idea of such a strategy, insisting that there's no way the Republicans will be allowed to embarrass the President on the global stage and make us a pariah to the rest of the world.

Uh, Senator? Latest bulletin: The Republicans don't give a twit about the rest of the world or what they think of us. You kind of ran against an incumbent Republican President five years ago, and he considered his indifference to the rest of the world as an asset.

Enjoy a white Christmas if you have one - there might not be many from here on. I'm thinking of being beachfront property on Alaska's Arctic coast while it's still cheap.

Finis

Stick a fork in the Senate health care bill. It's done.

The Senate has moved to have a final vote on its health care bill for Thursday morning. Credit Mother Nature - God's bratty kid sister - for being instrumental in this development. An ice storm in the nation's midsection could prevent many Senate Republicans from getting home before Christmas. Not exactly something Tom Coburn would have prayed for.

Despite that, the huge flaws in the Senate bill still remain. There's no public insurance option, there's no provision to allow the sale of low-cost, imported drugs, and Americans will be forced to buy private insurance by federal mandate, with little choice among the private plans offered. President Obama had taken a hands-off approach in health care reform legislation, only nudging it along the way here and there, and the result is a watered-down Senate bill that is supposed to provide a foundation for universal health care but looks more like poles holding up a beach house. Here's where the rubber hits the road; once the bill goes to conference in January, Obama will have to get more seriously involved to get the cost controls and public option he spoke about in the 2008 presidential campaign and in the past year. But, given that he never pressured moderate members of the Senate Democratic caucus for any of these things - ask Joe Lieberman - how much can he possibly achieve with this same delegating approach to governing?

It's up to the House to preserve what the Senate finds so objectionable - but what the people want.

Meanwhile, there's some good news I can report, which is a happy ending. David Goldman, the New Jersey man who has been trying to get his nine-year-old son Sean back from the widower of Sean's mother, just won a major - and likely final - victory in his child custody battle. Gilmar Mendes, the chief justice of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court, ruled that Sean has to be returned to his dad. The chances of the Brazilian family getting this ruling overturned are between slim and none. I support this ruling just as I supported the return of Elián Gonzalez to Cuba nearly a decade ago, and for the same reason - with the mother deceased, the child needs his father. Elián Gonzalez was unfairly made a symbol in the ridiculous Cold War-era chess game between the United States and Cuba - the American right made it sound like he deserved to be with maternal relatives in Florida that he didn't know more than with his own father because of the benefits of American capitalism over living in Communist Cuba. "He doesn't need Disney World," Cynthia Tucker wrote of Elián Gonzalez at the time. "He needs his dad."

Sean Goldman doesn't need Rio, either . He needs his dad, too.

Christie Crosses the Opposition

Noted reckless driver Chris Christie has taken an approach to economic policy that's as haphazard and dangerous as his motoring skills. According to Tom Moran of the Newark Star-Ledger, the incoming governor of New Jersey has announced that he will seek a tax cut aimed at state residents earning more than $400,000 per year, even as he plans to cut spending on various social programs to keep the state from going into bankruptcy or something like it. Aid to hospitals and money for teachers and police are among the programs in jeopardy.

Although shared sacrifice isn't much of a concern to the incoming governor, it is to the state Democrats, who will still control both houses of the New Jersey legislature. They rightfully find it obscene and unconscionable that Christie would ask poor and middle-class New Jerseyans to sacrifice to put the state back in good fiscal health . . . only to give the upper classes a big tax giveaway. The tax cuts could cost the state up to one billion dollars while people of lesser means struggle to get by in the middle of a recession.

Incredibly, Christie has pledged not to negotiate on his tax plan, and the legislature is almost assured to oppose him on it. Christie seems to have forgotten the need for fairness in getting the state out of the hole it's in. He defends the tax cut by insisting it will free up money for investment in the state and keep wealthy people and businesses from moving out and taking their job investment dollars with them - even though such tax cuts have never been effective in spurring job creation and the number of wealthy residents actually increased in the past decade, despite the higher taxes.

Christie also forgot something else - the Republicans didn't win the power in New Jersey, just the executive branch. He's only going to be the governor around here. If he thinks he can get the legislature to adopt his my-way-or-the-highway approach, he'll be sadly mistaken.

Goodbye, Mr. Chaps

The lion in winter has roared his last.

After a career in music spanning over four decades, first as the frontman for Family, then as the lead singer of Streetwalkers, then as a solo artist, Roger Chapman - one of the great unsung heroes of rock and roll - called it a career by performing his last concerts ever in his hometown of Leicester, England last night and the night before. With the possible exception of Family's last concert in October 1973 (also in Leicester), no gig has ever been this bittersweet to fans of the man we all call Chappo.

Chapman was - is - one of the most powerful singers in rock. His bleated vibrato vocal style - described by many as the sound of an electronically amplified goat - brought songs to life with a vicious ferocity and a commanding strength. He could make Robert Plant sound like a crooner with his deliveries on Family classics such as "The Weaver's Answer" and "Drowned in Wine," and his later performances on Streetwalkers songs like "Downtown Flyers" and "Run For Cover," as well as solo tunes like "Do I Leave a Stone Unturned?", were no less potent. Chappo's covers of blues and rock songs gave them his own unique, interpretative stamp; it's hard to hear "Drive" as originally done by the Cars after hearing Chappo sing it.

Roger Chapman was a huge star in Germany, and he didn't do too badly singing for the punters in the U.K., but stardom in America eluded him. He didn't get off to a promising start; he threw a microphone stand at Family's debut 1969 U.S. gig at the Fillmore East in New York when the audience proved to be unreceptive, and it almost hit Fillmore East impresario Bill Graham, setting bad vibes for the band. (The entire group was discombobulated that night by circumstances beyond their control. Their gig as Elton John's warmup act on his 1972 U.S. tour went much better.) Both Family and Streetwalkers diligently tried to gain an audience in America, and they did - just not big enough to sustain either band, or get Family or Streetwalkers into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Chapman's solo career was of even less consequence here; his records were never released in the United States. His last American gigs, in fact, were with Streetwalkers on their 1976 American tour. Conquering the New World may not have worked out, but Chapman remained active and vital throughout his musical career, never letting the nostalgia of his early work with Family and Streetwalkers (both of which featured his old collaborator Charlie Whitney on guitar) get in the way of moving forward as an artist.

At 67, Chapman has ended his career in triumph. Having achieved just about everything he could possibly do, he went out like an undefeated boxing champion. I obviously couldn't go to either of his last concerts, and the news of Chapman's retirement meant I would never get the opportunity to take in one of his shows. I still have the records, and I still have a wonderful tape of one of his sets on the German TV rock show "Rockpalast." I'm thankful for that, and I'm especially grateful for the marvelous music and illustrious career of the man of the hour - Roger Maxwell Chapman, always and forever.

Something Is Rotten In Denmark

So how does the "deal" out of Copenhagen grab you?

The new agreement on fighting climate change calls for industrialized countries to list their targeted goals for cutting carbon emissions and keeping global warming below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit and requires developing nations to come up with their plans to cut carbon pollution. Emergency aid of $30 billion to developing countries has been promised with the audacious hope of providing and additional $100 billion a year by 2020, but with no guarantees.

Wow, I feel so re-assured.

The agreement encourages countries to figure out how to cut greenhouse gas emissions on their own. So fat the United States has labelled carbon dioxide a pollutant and is on a course to do something about it. More like doing anything about it. The bill before the Senate would try to to cut global warming by giving subsidies to companies that use a lot of energy to make a transition to clearer, greener energy. It would also set up a cap-and-trade system that would set a nationwide limit on emissions but allow polluters to buy and sell permits to meet the goals of emission reduction. It does nothing, however, to raise the price of fossil fuels and encourage alternative solutions to our energy and transportation needs and change our behavior. But even the bill as it currently stands is insufficient to address the concerns of Republican senators who are fighting for greedy corporations - oops, excuse me, who are fighting for preserving jobs and economic opportunity and, for various reasons ("Global warming is a hoax!" - James Inhofe), want further studies on the problem.

It's going to be pretty hard to convince the skeptics of global warming to even accept the Copenhagen "agreement," even though President Obama went to Denmark to get the best agreement possible (that is, any agreement) . Senate Republicans have to be convinced that there is global warming after Obama flew into Copenhagen while it was snowing there, especially with Senate business being conducted today . . . in the middle of a snowstorm.

Now is the winter of our discontent, to quote yet another Shakespeare play.

Saab Story

General Motors just announced it is discontinuing the Saab brand. And by that, I mean GM is shutting down the Swedish carmaker that it bought out a decade ago. There will be no more Saabs in any way, shape, or form (ironic, given Saab's history of unorthodox shapes in forms in its styling).

GM had hoped to find a buyer for the brand, turning first to consortium led by the Swedish sports car maker Koenigsegg Group AB. When those talks broke down last month, GM tried its luck with Spyker Cars, a firm from the Netherlands. When those talks broke down, it became obvious that two strikes were out in this case and GM decided that Saab need "a quick resolution." And so Saab will join other European niche carmakers such as NSU and Simca atop the dustbin of history.

Saab, originally an automotive division of an airplane company (Svenska Aeroplan AB, from which the name was derived), was ripe for a takeover when GM purchased half of its stock in 1989. Its sales were weak, and GM saw opportunities for expansion. The Detroit automaker modernized the brand's lineup and acquired the whole company by the year 2000, but its sales have suffered again of late and GM could not afford to keep it going. In the end, GM's European operations - at one point almost reduced to minority stockholder status in its other brands, Opel and Vauxhall - had no choice.

This is a sorry chapter in automotive history. GM learned the hard way that expansion isn't always good. Also at fault is the Swedish government, which could have bailed out Saab and saved people's jobs in Sweden but chose not to. Also, as smaller firms get bought out and liquidated by the giant car companies of the world, automotive innovation - historically spurred by smaller companies - will be less evident. As for Saab, it - and its Swedish rival Volvo, now owned by Ford - have long been celebrated for their safety innovations. Saab, in particular, made seat belts standard on its GT 750 model in 1958, and they developed the first headlight wipers, the first passenger compartment air filter, and cholro-fluorocarbon-free air conditioning. These are the kind of innovations that bureaucracy at large companies doesn't allow. Indeed, bureaucratic gigantism almost destroyed GM. Now GM is retiring Saab. What a sad irony.

Simon Says?

I just read a report on Comcast's news service that Simon Cowell is thinking of leaving "American Idol" and that the show could be kaput if he does.

Cowell, the talent scout everyone loves to hate, is planning an American version of his music series "The X Factor," a hit in the United Kingdom, which will debut on Fox in the U.S. in 2011. American Idol is committed to run on Fox through this coming year.

Conceived as a talent contest intended to give a chance at a music career to performers who otherwise have little hope of getting a studio test, never mind a recording contract, "American Idol" has long since become a shallow, mean-spirited show where people who are written off for their lack of stage presence or their questionable singing ability are mocked and ridiculed. While the show has been beneficial in uncovering real singing talent - Carrie Underwood is the most obvious example, and some would add Kelly Clarkson - it's mostly just an excuse for making fun of people. No one has perfected the art of the acid-tongued critique more than Cowell, though he seems to revel in being hated for being mean when the viewers refuse to take the bait and mock a contestant.

I know nothing about "The X-Factor" - the U.S. version may or may not become "American Idol" Mark Two - so I'll refrain from commenting on that. I will say, though, that American Idol" has done more harm than good for the music business, and while a new show executive produced by Cowell may not be much better, I'm sure many people will be glad it's different. It's expected to be a hit when it gets here, and Cowell seems comfortable enough with it to being it to America and move on from the series that made him famous - some say infamous - among us Yanks.

Meanwhile, the judges on "American Idol" seem to be taking more of the attention these days. Paula Abdul left the show after the most recent season after a nasty salary dispute that she says left her insulted. Comedienne and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, who's replaced Rosie O'Donnell as the Queen of Nice in daytime talk, will replace her this coming season - which commences next month - and she may provide a more positive aura for the show. She may even have an ear for musical talent. She certainly has an eye for acting talent - Jeremy Piven owes her his career for being on her ABC sitcom. :-) But it's still Simon Cowell's show, with his ethos all over it. And if he does leave, that may help with civility on "American Idol," but not its ratings.

Because as abhorrent as "American Idol" is for allowing its less successful contestants to be mocked, its fans by and large tune in to enjoy despising the man leading the mockery.

You Call This Reform?

The extremists on both sides of the health care reform issue are taking every step possible to change or scuttle the bill that sits before them like a blazing Yule log. Senator Bernard Sanders (I-VT) added an amendment that would add a national single-payer health insurance plan to the reform package. Even though everyone knew what was in the amendment and everyone knew it had no chance from the start, the reactionary Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) demanded the Sanders amendment be read out loud, not because of Coburn's own opposition to the amendment but because it was 767 pages long and require ten hours to read word for word . . . and would so continue the Republican tactic of slowing the debate to keep anything from passing. Sanders, who must have realized he made his point, withdrew the amendment so that debate could continue.

What debate? Single-payer insurance was never going to get a full hearing. A public health insurance option was supposed to be the alternative to such a plan. That's gone, too, as is the Medicare buy-in plan for late-middle-age Americans, which Joe Lieberman thought was a good idea until he found out that liberals liked it. So what are we left with? A bill that makes sex discrimination on insurance policies illegal, allows health insurance portability for people changing jobs (if they're lucky to find another job these days), and guarantees coverage for pre-existing conditions. Well, what could possibly be bad about a health care reform bill that includes all that?

This: Americans would be required to purchase health insurance, insurance companies would remain unregulated and free to charge whatever they want for their policies, and even then, there's no guarantee that you could collect for an illness if you had to. This bill is not reform. It gives all sorts of advantages to the health insurance companies, it would burden those who buy federally mandated health insurance with exorbitant costs, and it would penalize those who don't buy health insurance with fines. This bill does not "expand" coverage; it forces people to buy a product and thus does little more than create customers for private businesses, much like current federal transportation policy, by favoring highway construction over mass transit, forces Americans to buy cars and creates customers not just for car companies but for companies making products to keep cars running - oil companies, for example.

There's one chief difference here - when you buy a car, you don't have to buy an expensive sedan; you can buy a cheap economy car or a used car. When you buy health insurance, any plan you buy will likely be expensive because there'll be no competition from or regulation by the federal government to keep companies honest or reduce costs.

This "reform" plan in the Senate is a travesty. It's time for Senate Democratic leaders and the White House to admit that reform is not working out like they pictured it - it's certainly not working out like I pictured it - and go to reconciliation. Going to a procedure that requires only a 51-vote majority, supported by former Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean, would mean that Democrats no longer have to kowtow to insurance company lackeys like Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson, or to those Southern belles Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.

Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) likens the bill in its current form to a starter house with a solid foundation that can be added on to later. This bill ain't even a log cabin! If you want a solid foundation, start by containing the necessary costs to build the foundation. Don't pay the contractor a high salary for a job that's only going to have to be returned to later.

Because reconciliation is not likely to happen, the only recourse is to hope for some of the more punitive language of the mandates to be revised in conference with the House. But as long as the legislation defers to the insurance companies, the American health care system will remain a "system" that hardly merits the term.

The Health Care Hit List

A list of things I'm likely to see before I see universal health care in America:

Teri Polo in a hit television show
the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series
Barry Manilow getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Korean reunification
female Catholic priests
Chris Matthews letting a guest on his show finish a sentence
Grease 3
England
Wisconsin
Bob Dylan releasing a Christmas album (oh, wait, that's already happened!)

I think I've made my point.

And if I ever make it to England - and see London, Stonehenge, and the White Cliffs of Dover - not only will I die a happy man, I'll be able to get free health care if I get sick there.

Nothing against Wisconsin, but I don't really care if I never see Milwaukee.

Prairie Prison

President Obama announced that some Guantanamo Bay detainees in the war against al-Qaeda will be housed in an empty prison that the government plans to purchase. The prison is in Thomson, Illinois, a village on the Mississippi River due west of Chicago. Republicans who represent states in Congress nowhere near Illinois - plus a few G.O.P. members of Illinois's House delegation, in fairness - complained about the move, saying it brings terrorists to the homeland and endangers Americans.

What - terror suspects locked up inside a prison a threat to Americans? They won't even be a threat to the people of Thomson, who by and large welcome the move because of the jobs it will generate - three thousand jobs, a big deal for a little town like Thomson. So do Illinois's governor, Pat Quinn, and Illinois's senior senator, Richard Durbin, for the same reasons. If the people of Thomson are on board, and if the governor of Illinois and the state's senior senator (and possibly its junior senator, Roland Burris), and President Obama is putting his money where his mouth is buy willing to have the combatants incarcerated in his home state, what's the problem?

Oh, the law - that's right. There's a law on the books making it illegal to house Guantanamo prisoners on U.S. soil unless they are to be prosecuted. The Obama administration is likely to seek a change in the laws, and whether or not they seek further prosecutions is unclear. One thing that is clear is that the Defense Department will take over the portion of the prison the al-Qaeda inmates will be kept in once the transfer of prisoners is made.

The inmates are likely to be treated more fairly in Illinois than in the makeshift center at Guantanamo, and Obama is sincere in closing the odious Gitmo facility, but human rights activists shouldn't feel good about it yet; Guantanamo won't be close by next month as planned or hoped for, and there are still the questions of how long to keep these inmates and whether to prosecute them. But Obama is making a sincere effort to close Gitmo, which everyone agrees should be closed.

Even George Walker Bush.

Really.

A Charlie Brown Correction

Okay, I'm officially no longer mad at ABC. Tonight they showed the special "A Charlie Brown Christmas" tonight, in uncut form, and the network also aired some Peanuts Christmas sketches made later. I only hope WFAA-TV in Dallas showed it. Tomorrow, ABC re-airs "Prep and Landing," and hopefully ABC in the Big D will to.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good television season.

Henry Clay Must Die

Henry Clay, the distinguished early-nineteenth-century American legislator, was known in his days in the House of Representatives and later in the Senate as the Great Compromiser for his efforts compromise on the slavery issue. He brought the Missouri Compromise to passage in 1820, which brought Missouri into the union as a slave state and allowed Congress to take the constitutionally dubious act of creating a new state from an existing state by admitting Maine (then a part of Massachusetts) as a free state, preserving the balance of free states and slave states in the Senate. It also closed the Great Plains to slavery. Three decades later, as a senator, Clay sponsored the Compromise of 1850 that brought California into the Union as a free state and allowed territories newly won from Mexico in the U.S.-Mexican War.

Though a slaveowner himself, Clay, who was from Kentucky, believed in a strong Union and supported many industrial and economic policies that would have benefited the North, had they ever been enacted. Realizing he was on the wrong side of history, Clay, great though he was, was willing to broker compromises to keep a war between the states from erupting.

As we all know, it was all for naught. Clay, who died in 1852, didn't know.

Why am I telling you this? Because the Senate is ready to compromise away any chances for meaningful health care reform. With single-pater medical insurance never a realistic possibility, so liberals agreed to a compromise - a public insurance option. By the time the health care bill reached the Senate, it got compromised away in favor of a Medicare buy-in for Americans aged 55 to 64, Just it when it looked like the Senate was ready to pass a compromise bill that everyone could live with, noted closet Republican Joe Lieberman of Connecticut has announced that he will filibuster the bill for including the buy-in. He also remains against the public option, and he insists that health care reform bill must exclude both.

So, in other words, Lieberman supports a health care reform bill that doesn't reform much.

Oh yeah, he actually supported the Medicare buy-in in an Internet interview back in September.

Look, you couldn't compromise on slavery - it clearly had to be abolished. You can't compromise on health care reform - it needs a public option and/or expansion of Medicare. Abolishing restrictions against pre-existing conditions is all good and fine, but only greater public health insurance will keep costs down. Compromise is overrated. Nothing at all is ever achieved or resolved by compromise.

Henry Clay must die.

New Book on James Monroe

I just finished a book I referred to here earlier, a biography of James Monroe, the fifth President of the United States. It is a very revealing and engrossing read.

Titled "The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call To Greatness," Harlow Giles Unger sheds some necessary light and attention on the last U.S. President who had a hand in waging the American Revolution. Monroe, a Virginian, was man of notable character who joined the fight for American independence as a teenager, becoming a lieutenant in the service of General George Washington and fighting alongside and befriending the Marquis de Lafayette. Monroe later served as a U.S. senator, as a diplomat; as governor of Virginia he strengthened that office into one of the most powerful and effective governorships in to the country.

Unger portrays Monroe as a man of action who was instrumental in expanding American territory father over the continent to diminish the influence of foreign powers in North America and achieve secure borders for the country. As a diplomat in France, Monroe negotiated the Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon; as President, he acquired Florida from Spain and was able quelled Seminole Indian raids on towns in the Deep South. Monroe also saved the country from collapse in the War of 1812, serving concurrently as President James Madison's Secretary of State and Secretary of War and serving as a de facto President in the wake of the British attack on Washington, D.C. He was able to take civilian command of American armies and resupply and redirect the troops, securing the capital from further attack and strengthening the defenses of Baltimore.

Monroe's administration, which lasted from 1817 to 1825, proved to be very successful in uniting the country and expanding economic prosperity. Unger stresses how Monroe's Presidency, known as the "Era of Good Feelings," promoted the construction of canals and roads and opened the Midwest to greater settlement, crating a new middle class of landowners and democratizing economic opportunity. Special attention also goes to Elizabeth Monroe, the President's wife, who turned the White House into a showcase of taste and sophistication at a time when Washington, D.C. had neither. Elizabeth Monroe was also a beautiful, cultured, and strong-willed woman who, while husband was a minister to France braved the violence of the Reign of Terror and got Lafayette's wife released from a French prison.

Unger also makes it clear that the Monroe Doctrine was President Monroe's own initiative and that it was not written by John Quincy Adams, Monroe's Secretary of State. Monroe was an accomplished lawyer and diplomat who knew who to write and issue a manifesto declaring national interests; his doctrine, telling European powers to cease and desist in colonizing the Western Hemisphere and pledging to avoid European entanglements, was based on his own convictions and his understanding of diplomacy in the carefully crafted language one would expect from a man of Monroe's experience.

"The Last Founding Father" is an important book to seek out for anyone interested in how the United States evolved from its early years of independence to its maturation following the War of 1812. It's also a wonderful character study of Monroe himself. More information on the book is available here.

Here, too, is a video of Harlow Giles Unger discussing his book. :-)

Tiger Tamed

Tiger Woods admitted to infidelity against his wife, and how he plans to take an indefinite break from golf to mend fences with his family. This may not sound like a big deal, but Tiger Woods doesn't just have a place in golf today - he is golf. A golf tournament without Tiger Woods is like a rock festival without U2. I can see a lot of television sports programmers wishing they could throw their schedules into a water hazard.

With winter coming on, there obviously won't be many tournaments coming up in this hemisphere any time soon. Of course, there are golf matches in Australia to consider, and even when the Masters begins in Augusta in the spring, Tiger Woods may still be on hiatus.

Since Tiger is a much better golfer than he is a husband, and since he probably has more credibility as a golfer than as a pitchman, winning golf tournaments is the only way he can get back on his feet. And even if and when he does return to the links, his personal life will still be in the back of his mind.

I think his glory days are over.

Story Updates

A few updates on stories I've commented on this week. . . .

Gay marriage appears to be in trouble in New Jersey. State Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) postponed a vote in the legislature's upper house when it became apparent that the measure did not have enough votes to pass. He sent it to the Assembly, "I understand their desire to make sure this receives the thorough attention it deserves and therefore I have agreed to postpone tomorrow's vote until further notice."

In other words, don't hold your breath. The Assembly will consider it January 4, the first Monday of the new year. A new Assembly takes office on January 12.

Meanwhile, in Washington, Republicans object to an provision of the financial regulatory reform bill that passed the House yesterday. A $150 billion fund would be set up to pay for the dissolution of companies deemed too big to run the risk of failure, which the G.O.P. equated to a perpetual bailout fund. Despite eagerness among Senate Democrats to pass a financial reform bill, key differences between Senate and House proposals may make it difficult to get a bill to President Obama's desk any time soon.

Democracy inaction. :-O

Don't Show Them The Money

The House of Representatives moved the country one millimeter closer to financial sanity today by passing the most sweeping regulatory bill on the banking and finance trades since the Great Depression. The bill would subject the moneyed interests to new rules that include regulations on derivatives for the first time and create a new agency to take over consumer protection powers currently held by banking regulators. The latter provision survived attempts to kill it, but not before (or after, whatever the time line was) allowing exceptions for some companies trading in derivatives. The biggest element in the bill is the ability to break up banks and financial companies deemed too big to fail. The bill would set up a special oversight panel comprised of several bureaucratic leaders to keep an eye on the market to look for firms that pose a threat to the nation's financial system.

House Republicans vigorously opposed the "overreach" of the new regulations on the financial sector (I don't call it the financial "industry," because that would suggest that financiers produce something of tangible or intrinsic value like manufacturers), and they all voted against it. Decrying the massive government intervention inherent in this bill, Republicans found themselves on the receiving end of criticism by the White House. "I didn't expect them to help after a meeting with one hundred lobbyists for the financial industry," White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said. "I'm not surprised they are opposed to it. The lobbyists are trying to gut this."

These provisions, if implemented, would mean a lot less money for financial firms to play with, and possibly lose. The government, to boil it all down, would be given the opportunity to prevent another 9/15. Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) is at the forefront of this effort.

Meanwhile, Kenneth Feinberg, who regulates executive compensation at firms bailed out by the government, has placed a salary cap on midlevel executives at four such companies General Motors, GMAC, American Insurance Group, and Citibank - to $500,000 a year until their loans are paid off. This may be the most popular element of the bailout - big shots at companies run into the ground having to take a government-ordered pay cut.

President Obama hopes to sign this bill as soon as it reaches his desk, but the Senate won't act on it until the first of the year. But seeing as how they financial system, as it is, was allowed to bring the economy to the brink, I don't see how it would be difficult for Senate Democrats to unite behind this bill, as sure as the Republicans in the upper house will unite against it.

A Charlie Brown Controversy

Russell Wiseman, the inappropriately named mayor of the Memphis suburb of Arlington, Tennessee, is the only person I know of who can take a wonderful thing like Christmas and turn it into a problem.

ABC, which has aired classic "Peanuts" holiday television specials since 2002, had planned to air "A Charlie Brown Christmas," the first and still the most loved of all the "Peanuts" specials, on December 1 at 8 PM Eastern Time this year. But President Obama announced a speech on Afghanistan to be broadcast to the nation at the same time, and ABC was obliged to carry it. Wiseman got so upset that he blasted Obama for forcing the pre-emption of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" with his speech and accused him of being a Muslim. Only an Islamic president, Wiseman reasoned, would give a speech on a political issue (involving a Muslim country!) and cause ABC to pre-empt a Christmas special in which Linus Van Pelt recites Gospels text about an angel announcing the birth of a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Good grief.

Obama, probably being too busy to watch TV or even check the schedule, probably didn't know "A Charlie Brown Christmas" was on because he was busy with . . . the war in Afghanistan! Specifically, he was busy with preparing to explain the surge in the war, and pre-empting TV shows was the furthest thing from his mind. Besides, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" was aired this past week, and ABC will air it again before Christmas Day. Wiseman's outlandish questioning of Obama's Christian faith over an animated cartoon was so embarrassing to Arlington, Tennessee, even the town apologized for their mayor. Obama is only waging a war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda, not Christmas.

If anyone is waging a war against Christmas, it's the powers of commercialism. According to Dallas TV critic Ed Bark, WFAA-TV ABC's Dallas affiliate pre-empted this week's showing of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" - in which Charlie Brown bemoans the commercialization of the holiday - and the new Christmas special "Prep and Landing" with a prime-time Christmas special version of its morning talk show, "Good Morning Texas." The show is regarded by many as an abomination even by local television standards, stringing product placements and promotional segments in the form of a morning talk show. Bringing such thinly disguised infomercial programming to prime time in place of ABC's nationwide schedule was nothing short of crass. The show's hosts apologized for this, pointing out that both ABC specials will be re-aired later, but this hardly excuses the airing of such a special in the first place. You can read more about it here.

ABC is hardly innocent in the commercialization of Christmas, though, and not because the Disney-made "Prep and Landing" was specifically made for the Disney-owned ABC. The original December 1 air date for "A Charlie Brown Christmas" this year was far too early. Rebroadcasts had already been planned, suggesting deliberate overkill. And to make matters worse, ABC cut scenes out of the special. Various scenes - Sally dictating a letter to her brother, Lucy goading Schroeder to play "Jingle Bells" properly - were conspicuously absent from ABC's December 8 airing. ABC apparently wanted to show more . . . commercials.

We all know Christmas is a big commercial racket. It's run by a big Hollywood (not Eastern) syndicate, you know. Sadly, despite Charlie Brown's sentiments, this Christmas is not a Christmas that will be free of commercialism . . . or real blockheads like Russell Wiseman.

"A Charlie Brown Christmas" is too good to be seen in butchered form. If you want to see the show without cuts or commercials, go to YouTube. Why didn't Russell Wiseman think of that?

An Option to The Public Option?

The recent deal on the public health insurance option is making my head spin.

According to Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, a tentative agreement among Senate Democrats would sideline but not kill the public option supported by liberal Democrats in Congress as a way to create competition for the private insurance companies and drive down costs.

Under this agreement, people ages 55 to 64 could “buy in” to the Medicare program that is currently the only single-payer health care system available to Americans. A federal agency, the Office of Personnel Management, would negotiate with insurance companies to offer national health benefit plans that resemble plans offered to federal employees, including members of Congress. Should these private plans fail to meet "certain goals" for making affordable coverage available to all Americans, Senate Democratic aides said, then the government itself would offer a new insurance plan similar to the public option.

So the public option is itself an option now.

Many liberals, along with a majority of Americans who want and would likely use the public option, probably won't like this idea, as it only expands the scope of private insurance companies and makes it no less complicated to buy health insurance than it already is. One skeptic is Senator Russell Feingold. “I do not support proposals that would replace the public option in the bill with a purely private approach,” the Wisconsin Democrat said. “We need to have some competition for the insurance industry to keep rates down and save taxpayer dollars.”

This deal, however, is likely the bet we can expect in these United States. For the U.S. remains a country guided by the principles of private enterprise. To the politicians, lobbyists, and moneyed interests who actually run the country, anything "public" smacks as an impingement on personal freedom, be it public broadcasting, public transportation, or public medical insurance. Lost on these people are the popularity of such programs (in the case of public medical insurance, I refer to Medicare), and the recent polls supporting a public option bear that out. Some Republicans are aware of the popularity of such proposals, and do their best to quash them, lest the Democrats gain an upper hand by actually passing them. Opponents of progress are very good at this. They've talked Americans out of health care reform before, and they are likely to find a way to stop even this modest (very modest) Senate deal from advancing.

Will i support this? I suppose I'll have to. Something has to get through. But bear this in mind: The bill approved last month by the House of Representatives calls for a government-run health plan. This won't be the last we hear of it.

Global Warnings

The Obama administration took what will hopefully be the first of many steps to combat global warning by allowing the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate fossil fuel emissions from industrial polluters such as power plants, factories, and auto makers. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson declared that greenhouse gases are a health threat and a danger to public welfare, and she has directed her agency to begin mandating reductions in greenhouses gas emissions.

“The threat is real,” Jackson said yesterday. “Climate change has now become a household issue.”

She added that the EPA is authorized and obligated to try to to reduce greenhouse gas emissions per the Clean Energy Act.

This is clearly a victory for the environmental movement and for people who breathe. It's a small victory at best - these regulations are not susceptible to congressional approval, though many more proposed regulations are - but it's a constructive start. The Supreme Court had ruled in 2007 that the EPA is obligated to pursue these regulations but the Bush administration refused to sign off on them, and now President Obama is changing course.

Obama has also changed course for himself. Originally planning to visit Copenhagen for the early part of the climate change conference meeting there, he will now appear towards the end of the conference, when negotiations will likely be more detailed and intense. In addition, he's also pledge to get the United States to reduce carbon emissions to 2005 levels by 17 percent in 2020. Obama has been careful, though, not to promise more than he can deliver; several members of Congress oppose going further to restrict greenhouse gas emissions, most citing possible economic dislocation for business (but not necessarily workers employed in those businesses), with Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) foolishly insisting that global warming is a hoax.

Jackson has suggested numerous ways Americans can reduce their carbon footprint - smaller cars, more energy-efficient appliances, light rail transit - that are already par for the course in European countries and Japan. In Zurich, Switzerland, there's a concerted effort (reported by CBS News) to reduce daily electrical consumption to two thousand watts per day per resident, reducing its average per capita energy consumption by 67 percent by 2050. That could never happen in an American city. The average American already uses twice as much energy as what the average European uses now - twelve thousand watts versus six thousand. Could you imagine a city Las Vegas trying to get by on two thousand watts per day per person? Imagine what that would do to the casinos!

The average American - this one included - had better get used to cutting back. Conservation is the name of the game. The world is getting warmer, and the oil and gas are beginning to run out. The future is coming, and if present trends continue, it won't be pretty.

Gay Marriage in the Garden State

With the clock ticking on outgoing governor Jon Corzine's term of office, the New Jersey state legislature is poised to vote on a bill legalizing gay marriage in the state and sending to Corzine for his signature before the state's incoming governor, noted reckless driver Chris Christie, takes over. Our redundantly named Republican governor-elect opposes the bill, so lawmakers who support gay marriage and their allies are working feverishly to get it passed. the bill is under debate in the state Senate.

The usual suspects were in Trenton speaking out on it - civil rights activists for it, religious groups largely against it. State senator Loretta Weinberg, a Bergen County Democrat and the losing candidate for the new lieutenant governor's office, spoke out passionately in favor of the legislation so that all New Jerseyans are free to live with the ones they love "in peace and security." It's not a partisan issue, either - Bill Baroni, a Republican state senator from Mercer County, also supports the bill. The Assembly has yet to act.

New Jersey already has come a longer way on the subject of gay marriage and civil unions than its neighbor, New York. The Empire State, despite its large gay population, defeated a gay marriage bill in the state Senate after it passed in the Assembly. (New York and New Jersey both call the lower houses of their legislatures the Assembly.) New Jersey - boring, suburban, "mainstream" New Jersey - is considered to be ahead of "progressive, intellectual" New York (not to mention "laid-back" California) in providing civil rights to gays. civil unions have been legal in the Garden State for a few years now.

I support gay marriage, even though I'm not gay and I'm not married. The question here is not just whether this state has the political will to legalize it but the expediency to do so. Corzine is in office for only another month, and the lame-duck legislative session is almost over.

Holiday Rut

Well, I had an interesting weekend.

It snowed in northern New Jersey over the weekend, and even though it was supposed to be a coating and melt quickly, it snowed enough that I had to shovel late on Saturday night.

Last night - or rather, this morning - I went to bed at 1:30 in the morning and didn't get much sleep after having looked in vain for my keys. I thought they were gone for good, and I tossed and turned at the idea of spending two hundred dollars to replace my computerized car key fob. I left a note to my mother asking her to leave her house keys behind so I could make copies of the them. I turned out that I hadn't lost my keys - my mother took them thinking they were hers.

But at least we got out lights on our Christmas tree.

I'm pretty tired right now.

Not very inspired this morning. Sorry.

I think today I'll read that James Monroe biography that I checked out of the library. Maybe that'll make me feel good.

(You have to know your American history to get that joke.)

Altamont, Rock and Roll, and the December Curse

Ever notice how the worst moments in rock and roll always seem to happen in December?

Think about it. It's been the month in which all sorts of disasters have occurred - John Lennon's murder, the trampled fans at that Who concert in Cincinnati, the Montreux entertainment complex fire that occurred while Frank Zappa was performing there and Deep Purple were recording there (which Deep People immortalized in "Smoke On the Water"), Frank Zappa's death, Roy Orbison's death, Rick Nelson's fatal plane crash. . . . Obviously, not everything bad that happened in the "rock era" of popular music happened in December, but that's a pretty nasty list right there.

What is it about December being a bad month for rock and roll? Something makes rock and roll hit the skids in the last month of the year . . . or the decade. December 1979 saw Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer's awful duet record, Styx's "Babe," and Rupert Holmes's stupid song about piña coladas all hit number one on the Billboard singles charts. Not a good way to close out the seventies, although that's obviously an innocuous example. And of course, I haven't mentioned the greatest December disaster in the history of rock and roll . . . Altamont, the rock festival headlined and sponsored by the Rolling Stones, which took place in California forty years ago today.

The Rolling Stones had ushered in a new era of rock concerts with their 1969 U.S. tour by playing arenas, a standard that would last for big-name acts for decades. At the time, arena concerts were seen as money-grubbing shows to get as many people to attend a concert as possible, with little regard to the ambiance or intimacy necessary to make the music work. Advances in sound equipment made it possible for a rock band to give a pretty decent show in such a large space, but the Stones were still viewed as going for the money at the expense of their own audience. With their free concert in London's Hyde Park having gone off without much trouble, the Rolling Stones attempted an act of good faith by deciding to stage a free show in California. The Altamont Speedway was the third choice after proposals for employing one of two other venues - Kezar Stadium in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park and another Bay Area speedway - fell through.

Soon, California rock acts such as Santana, the Grateful Dead, Crosby, Stills and Nash, and the Jefferson Airplane were invited to perform there as well, with the Rolling Stones as the final act, in the interest of turning Altamont into "Woodstock West." The hope was that the good vibes of peace and love would permeate through the show and create a magical experience as had happened in upstate New York four months earlier. There was just one hitch. The Stones didn't represent the spirit of peace and love; they represented the dark, violent, sexual underbelly of rock and roll. Their most recent album of the time, Let It Bleed (notice the title?), had references to knifings in two - two - of its songs. Much of the crowd that gathered to see the Rolling Stones were not like the flower children who followed the Dead. They were young punks who scoffed at "peace and love" values and were turned on by rebellion. At a free concert, such attitudes could cause a ruckus. When the Stones decided to hire a local Hell's Angels chapter to provide security on the basis of the Stones having used a British Hell's Angels chapter at Hyde Park, something more than a ruckus was guaranteed. Rock critic Greil Marcus, who was there, picked up the negative vibe immediately. When Marcus offered a piece of his sandwich to a fellow concertgoer, the fan slapped the food out of Marcus's hand and snapped, "I don't want your f---ing food, you a--hole."

It got worse from that moment on. Unlike the British Hell's Angels chapter from Hyde Park, the American bikers were a much less malleable bunch, and after getting paid in five hundred dollars worth of beer, they proceeded to drink on the job. Some of them were reportedly stoned on barbiturates, while concertgoers were reportedly stoned on LSD and amphetamines. The mood was peaceful at first, but as the bands played their sets, the crowd got more restless and more violent, and the Hell's Angels started beating people up. The Grateful Dead bowed out entirely, refusing to play when Marty Balin of the Jefferson Airplane was knocked unconscious by a Hell's Angel.

When the Stones arrived, by helicopter, Mick Jagger actually got punched by a fan. The Stones began their set at sundown, and while performing "Sympathy For the Devil," the third song in their set, nearly five thousand people jammed the edge of the stage and some tried to climb on it. The band had to briefly stop their set to appeal for calm. Later, Meredith Hunter, a black Rolling Stones fan, tried to get on the stage, and a Hell's Angel grabbed his head and punched him. Hunter returned to the stage, where he pulled out a gun, and another Hell's Angel repeatedly stabbed him to death. The Stones, then performing "Under My Thumb," were unaware of the killing, and according to one other Hell's Angel, they were ready to abandon the show until he held a gun to Keith Richards and threatened him with his life to play their set.

The idealistic spirit of the sixties rolled over and died at Altamont, and rock and roll was no longer seen as a rebellious voice for social change. The seventies, while producing some great rock music, were a more cynical age, during which society in Britain and America became rougher and more disillusioning. The decade culminated in the burnout of the punk movement meant to reinvigorate rock and roll, giving way to an era of mindless self-interest that was signaled by Margaret Thatcher's assumption of the British prime ministership in 1979 and Ronald Reagan's election to the U.S. presidency a year later. The great racial divide in popular music began with Altamont, Meredith Hunter's killing an apparent sign that black people weren't welcome at white-dominated rock concerts. (This became clear when Prince opened for the Stones in 1981 and had garbage thrown at him.) In the early eighties, the late Michael Jackson was applauded for his crossover appeal; in the sixties, racial crossovers had been par for the course.

Altamont cast a pall on rock and roll, which continued to manifest itself in the ugliness of the Montreux and Cincinnati disasters referred to earlier, as well as Woodstock '99. In fact, the December curse began with Altamont; before 1969, the worst thing to happen to rock and roll in December was the Beatles's Magical Mystery Tour film. Now whenever the year winds down, I wonder what disaster awaits rock next . . . and hide in the comfort of holiday music.

The December curse lives, forty years after Altamont.

Let it bleed.

Aetna, I'm Glad I Never Met Ya

Not since Nero fiddled while Rome burned has anyone in a position of national leadership been dithering so much while a bad problem has grown worse with regards to the health care debate. As Harry Reid valiantly tries to get a health care reform bill with a public insurance option through the Senate so a bill for President Obama's signature can be worked out with the House - in the face of Republican and conservative Democratic opposition - Aetna, one of America's most ubiquitous insurance companies, has decided to drop 650,000 clients next year to increase their profit margin.

The Connecticut-based insurance firm is also raising rates on those who will continue to have coverage to secure larger profits, adding insult to injury. What's really stupefying is that Aetna has admitted as much, rather than hide behind some flowery language about the need to remain competitive and ensure quality service. Aetna CEO Ron Williams confessed to Aetna seeking greater profits in this not-so-cryptic statement: The pricing we put in place for 2009 turned out to not really be what we needed to achieve the results and margins that we had historically been delivering. We view 2010 as a repositioning year, a year that does not fully reflect the earnings potential of our business. Our pricing actions should have a noticeable effect beginning in the first quarter of 2010, with additional financial impact realized during the remaining three quarters of the year."

Here's the clincher: Aetna still made money in 2009, but the firm was taken aback by how much medical costs ate into the health insurance end of the business. So, not satisfied with a modest profit, Aetna wants to make even more money to please its shareholders. Sound like a fair deal to you? It is, except for the clients who can expect to pay higher premiums and the 650,000 people losing their coverage - most likely, people who tend to be more chronically ill and in greater need of care.

Aetna has pulled this trick in the past. Here are the statistics, courtesy of the Huffington Post, offering the proof: Aetna overhauled its business between 2000 and 2003, starting with 21 million members in 1999 and going down to 13 million by 2003, but increasing its profit margin from about 4% to higher than 7%.

President Obama will not change the trajectory of this country unless he puts it on the path to greater public investment in and administration of economic sectors normally controlled by private enterprise. Publicly used utilities such as telecommunications, home heating and electric power are obviously not going to be deprivatized, and as much sense as such an initiative would make, it ain't gonna happen - not now, anyway, and probably not ever. Woodrow Wilson could not nationalize the telephone system, and Franklin Roosevelt couldn't deprivatize the electric and gas companies. Health care is where Obama has wisely chosen to make a stand. The privatized health care system is costing us more money than other privatized public services, and Aetna is Exhibit A of how greed is getting in the way of meaningful reform to lower costs and provide quality health care service. There's one proven way to accomplish this. But, since single-payer medical insurance is out of the question - this ain't Canada, buster! - passage of a public option is the best hope for the time being.

Harry Reid can accomplish this by doing two things - move the bill to reconciliation and tell Joe Lieberman, the independent Democrat from Aetna, to put up or shut up.

Catch a Tiger by the Toe

When golfer Tiger Woods crashed his SUV into a fire hydrant in a spat of reckless driving, it was a non-story to me. The intensity of the investigation seemed largely driven by his own celebrity, but when I heard that Woods finally apologized for "transgressions" in his personal life, I instantly became obvious to me that he was talking about more than a fender bender.

Rumors of marital discord between Woods and his wife soon surfaced after Woods refused to talk to authorities. Sure enough, Woods was cheating on his wife; he apparently stormed out of his Florida mansion in a huff and might even have been swung at by his wife with one of his own clubs. The media are playing this for all it's worth, if only because they probably don't want to talk about health care reform so much.

People aren't so much surprised that Woods is a philanderer as they are pleased to find that no, he's not as perfect as he seems? Hello? How many examples of errant athletes do I need? The 1998 U.S. men's hockey team, who trashed their hotel rooms at the Winter Olympics in Japan? The 1998 U.S. men's soccer team, who choked? Alex Rodriguez, for philandering and fooling around with Madonna? Amy Van Dyken, the swimmer, for spitting into the swimming lane of a competitor at the Summer Olympics? Most football players? Of course, Woods isn't perfect. For one thing, he can't drive under pressure. Not to mention pilot a car. (Golfing joke!) The big lie here was that he was perfect, and his image had been so carefully honed that his squeaky-clean persona was too good to be believed. It's disgusting that he's being torn down with glee and giddiness from the press, but he helped bring it on by projecting a public image he could not live up to. No wonder he wanted privacy - he didn't want to be found out.

Oh yeah, his SUV - that wasn't a Buick, wasn't it? ;-)

All right, that's all I'm going to say about that. I'd like to get back to more serious topics. And I have something to say about the surge in Afghanistan - I oppose it.

Media Option

The health care debate is still going on, and rather heatedly, in the Senate where a coalition of Republicans and a handful of moderate Democrats dedicated to the proposition that all men and women are to be shafted equally water down the public option to the point of irrelevance. But unless you watch MSNBC's Ed Schultz, you probably won't get to hear much about it. Even PBS's news program, anchored by Jim Lehrer, devoted the bulk of its broadcast to Afghanistan, a story that has seemingly pushed the health care debate off the news agenda entirely. Some senators would like to see the health care pushed off the legislative agenda in favor of Afghanistan, with Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) even suggesting that health care be delayed until the Afghanistan issue is settled.

No. Not this time. The last time health care reform was put off, it was put off for fifteen years.

Even worse is that so many people are obsessed with the Tiger Woods story - relax ,I'll get to that - that even if health care reform were given more attention right now, no one would bother keeping up with it. Well, except maybe the millions of uninsured Americans who aren't guaranteed prompt medical attention if they crash their cars into fire hydrants.

My Flickr Photostream

Today, I found my Flickr photostream malfunctioning. The pictures I uploaded on my photostream at Flickr showed up in my layout screen but there was nothing at the bottom of my blog screen where the photostream should be, just a blank white space. It turns out this is a Blogger problem, as several other Blogger users at the service's help screen complained about the same thing.

Be that as it may, seeing as there's no solution to this problem, I have removed my photostream from my page and I will not reinstate it until I know for certain it's working properly again. In the meantime, I posted a link to my Flickr photostream under "Miscellaneous Links." Sorry.

Obama's Afghanistan Speech

President Obama gave his long-awaited speech on Afghanistan last night, and he seems confident that he can disable al-Qaeda and the Taliban effectively within the next three years. If polls and pundits are any indication, though, he seems to be the only person who thinks it's possible. Well, maybe Robert Gates as well.

The President announced that he will add 30,000 more troops beginning this month, with escalation to be completed by this coming summer. Other NATO members will be asked to provide more troops. Obama hopes he can begin a withdrawal by July 2011, with a full withdrawal possible by some time in 2012 - January, hopefully. But - I know it's cynical for me to say this - certainly by November 2012.

Specifically, before Tuesday, November 6, 2012.

Obama declared that as long as the Taliban and al-Qaeda are at large, the common security of world is at stake. The President illustrated this by citing numerous terrorist attacks around the world that followed 9/11, and his goal is not to engage in nation-building but to help the Afghan government shore up its foundation and train and prepare an Afghan military to take over the country's security. He plans to do this by launching a counterattack on the al-Qaeda-Taliban insurgency and the securing of key population centers.. as well as helping the government of neighboring Pakistan stabilize itself and support the Pakistani army's objective to secure and stabilize its tribal regions along the border with Afghanistan.

Obama was largely realistic and measured, and his speech was astonishingly low-keyed for that reason. His plan seems to fall short, though, in several areas. For example, without a deeper commitment Afghanistan, he offered no realistic reason to expect Afghanistan to become more secure on its own. Ineffectiveness of the Afghan army remains a concern, as does the weak central government in Kabul, with all the corruption involved with that. Key Democrats have already given their thumbs a downward trajectory in response, and the Republicans - used to hyperactive saber-rattling rhetoric - haven't given Obama much support either.

The President was wise enough to put limits on spending for the counteroffensive, and he expects to see results from Kabul before he gives Afghan President Hamid Karzai more help. Obama even tied the war in Afghanistan to the problems faced at home, sating that America can't afford to and won't stay in Afghanistan for any longer than he plans to. In this otherwise sober speech, Obama insisted that Americans don't historically wish engage in imperialism, occupy other countries, and exploit their resources.

That's what made me laugh, although no one in Latin America or the Philippines were likely laughing at that remark. Well, Obama is a law professor, not a historian.

Having heard Obama's speech - and the references to Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Cooper Union speech were nice touches - I am begrudgingly willing to give the President the benefit of the doubt on this. I only hope he's right.

Dubai-ous Goals

Somewhere between the bloviating on Tiger Woods's car accident and reaction to a speech on Afghanistan that President Obama hasn't given yet, few people have noticed and fewer people seem to care about the precarious state the emirate of Dubai is in.

Dubai, a part of the United Arab Emirates and one of the few places on the Arabian Peninsula that has little if any oil, has been building itself up as a fantastic tourist destination through the the will and the personality of its emir. Dubai has constructed several skyscrapers housing offices, apartments and hotels, looking like wet-drip sand castles, along with man-made islands in the Persian Gulf, an indoor skiing facility, and a $100 million golf course (designed by Tiger Woods). Rents and sales of these properties were supposed to enrich the small emirate, but such deals have fallen short of these expectations, as much of Dubai's real estate stock was built with - you guessed it - borrowed money, and the emir can't pay his bills.

Dubai has turned to the more fiscally conservative Abi Dhabi for aid, which may come with strings attached. It must be understood that the United Arab Emirates are not a strong federation like the United States is, and this is evident by my use of the plural person with the former and the singular person with the latter. The seven sheikdoms that make up the union are largely autonomous, with their own set of laws and a federal government run by a Supreme Council to manage foreign affairs. The president of the U.A.E. is usually the emir of Abu Dhabi, where the federation's capital is located, and the prime minister is usually . . . the emir of Dubai. Abu Dhabi will almost certainly help out Dubai to preserve the union, but will insist on strict terms for any loans it makes.

So what does Dubai have to do with Dubuque? Well, if there's a good deal of American money invested in Dubai's exorbitant earthly paradise, that could rattle the banks and investment firms in this country, which could have a ripple effect on the U.S. economy as a whole. Apparently, though, it's not seen as major problem on Wall Street . . . yet. Stock prices dipped a bit in half-day trading on Friday, when the Dubai crisis erupted, but the market seems to be on an uptick now.

Stay tuned.

Hot Air

President Obama's attempt to change the trajectory of America continues - albeit limpidly - with his intention to support the talks in Copenhagen to set guidelines for reducing the fossil fuel emissions that produce global warming. Obama will reportedly commit the United States to 17 percent reduction in emissions by the end of the coming decade. His 2020 vision (pun intended), however, will be contingent on cooperation from China, now emitting more greenhouse gases than the U.S.

President Obama is likelier to gain Chinese cooperation than any help from Congress, where passage of a Senate bill to cut emissions sponsored by Democratic senators John Kerry (MA) and Barbara Boxer (CA) is in doubt despite bipartisan support from Republicans such as Arizona's John McCain and South Carolina's Lindsey Graham. Obama has also been mildly criticized for planning to go early to the meeting rather than later, when negotiations will become more intense, but it sure does beat what Bush would have done . . . nothing.

Obama is stopping in Copenhagen on his way to Stockholm to accept the Nobel Peace Prize. Meanwhile, he's planing to expand the war in Afghanistan.

Cruisin' For a Bruisin'

In what has to be the biggest recall in automotive history, Toyota - yes, Toyota - has had to recall 3.8 million vehicles to install a new accelerator pedal and install a new brake system after several Toyota and Lexus cars have caused in the United States twelve deaths and over a hundred complaints to the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration. The cars accelerated without warning, even with cruise control in use.

This is a much more serious case than the infamous Audi incident in 1987, when Audi's 5000 model was believed to be unexpectedly accelerating when drivers attempted to use the brake pedal. What actually happened in that case was that American drivers, unfamiliar with the accelerator and brake pedals on German cars being so close together, unintentionally pressed on the gas when they attempted to slow the car down. The Toyota case was apparently due to a flaw in the interior design; the pedal was simply too close to the floor, and the floor mats have to be reconfigured as well to provide more clearance. Temporary gas pedals will be installed by January, with permanent replacements installed by April. A new system that brings the car to a stop when both the accelerator and brake pedals are applied will be added.

The cars affected are the 2005-10 Toyota Avalon, and the 2007-10 Toyota Camry and Lexus ES350, along with some IS Class models. If you own a different Toyota product, relax; you're off the hook. Toyota, though, will be hooked to the tune of exorbitant costs to set straight something that should have been taken care of in the original design.

Recalls in the automotive industry are nothing new, but Toyota has rarely had to deal with any recalls, and certainly nothing of this magnitude. The gas pedal snafu comes on the heels of the Japanese automaker having to recall 110,000 Tundra pickup trucks made from 2000 to 2003 to correct a problem with rust that could loosen spare tires mounted below the truck underbodies. Perhaps what happened to General Motors and Volkswagen in the seventies - a dramatic drop in quality due to unproven products and corporate gigantism - may finally be happening to Toyota, riding high in the United States after over three decades and now the world's largest automaker. Toyota would be wise to correct these problems and put a stop to such quality lapses lest they're in danger in losing market share. As other automakers have demonstrated, a loss in market share can't be regained for decades.

For more information, owners can call Toyota at 800-331-4331 or the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration at 888-327-4236.