At the end of the day, the scandals that get our attention are not always the most scandalous, they are the ones that hit closest to home. Sex is easier to get than financial problems (Enron vs. lying about an affair). When Governor Blagojevich tried to sell President-elect Obama’s Senate seat, and probably before, he broke the law. It would have brought front page news regardless of the language he used but the fact that he practically dared law enforcement to listen to his calls and then the fact that he was so over the top in these conversations – does anyone remember Gary Hart’s invitation to the press to follow up and remember how well that worked out? – makes this story really what it is. He is a jerk. It doesn’t take much to connect points a to b here.
Frank Rich wrote a great piece on this in Sunday’s NY Times (look it up). This is comedy. This is not the end of our country. While ‘impeachment fatigue’ (see same NY Times ‘Week in Review’ section) may have prevented hearings against President George Walker Bush et al but there is no question in my mind that they DEFINITELY committed ‘high crimes and misdemeanors.’ The irony of the Bill Clinton legacy may not be that he survived only after his detractors fell but that his successors survived when they should not have.
In the context of war, depression and torture, selling a Senate seat (even on Ebay) is not as bad as it seems right now.
PS. I think Blagojevich should be prosecuted and go to jail AND I think his phone calls were funny. I always think we all need a little perspective, on everything.
Newt Gingrich to the rescue! Newt Gingrich to the rescue! Newt Gingrich to the rescue!
Go, Newt Gingrich! Go, Newt Gingrich! (Sung to the song Jim Dandy to the rescue)
Being a liberal Democrat, few things put a smile on my face like watching the GOP so stupid things that show people their true colors. Their recent attempts to link President-elect Obama to Governor Rod Blagojevich really smack of both of their normal smear tactics mixed in with a fair amount of whining. You can watch their new video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2M1zMaZPmI. The announcement on their page is here: http://www.gop.com/News/NewsRead.aspx?Guid=be000046-39ad-4992-8e7e-05bdcbb80189. I would have thought that Obama’s landslide victory last month coupled with the fact that even most Republicans polled want to see him succeed – not because they like him so much but because the country needs it so badly – would make them reconsider this path. It has been the path you are on and maybe they are just following the old adage that when things get tough, just keep doing what you’re doing. A policy that clearly helped them this past election.
The one GOP name that keeps popping up again and again is Newt Gingrich. He knows a thing or two about revenge. He might agree with the saying that holding a grudge is like taking poison and hoping you enemy gets sick. He is very familiar with that one because after he swore he would get Bill Clinton out of office, the first casualties of the impeachment fight were Newt Gingrich the then-Speaker of the House and his designated replacement Bob Livingston. Both resigned when their own infidelities were brought to light. Additionally, the House Judiciary Committee Chairman, at the time, Henry Hyde – also an R, had to admit he had also had affairs but they were ‘youthful indiscretions’ (he was 52 years old, which means I have loads of time to make the same claim should I do something stupid but I digress). The last force behind the ridiculousness was Tom Delay, who probably inhaled too many chemicals as an exterminator, also had to resign a while later for other ethical failings. In fact, the one person who remains pretty much intact after all of that is President Bill Clinton. He’s a total rock star. Love him.
Now that all this happened and Newt is back in favor – he did orchestrate the Contract on America. Oopsie, I meant with. That PR ploy – and 40 years of Democratic arrogance – got him the House of Representatives in 1994. Not only did they win but they managed to oust the then-Speaker of the House Tom Foley (D-WA), which was the first time a Speaker lost since 1860 (side note: in a poll of Foley’s Congressional district I think about 60 to 70 percent of the voters assumed anyone they elected would be Speaker, yeah, our education is system is the best in the world). So it’s natural to look to him, he is a very smart guy.
This week he proved himself to be even more valuable when he announced he was unhappy with the way the GOP is behaving, and you know that will always get news. According to the Post :
Gingrich boils it down to a single sentence: "Republicans should be eager to work with [Obama] when he is right, and, when he is wrong, offer a better solution, instead of just opposing him." http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/12/more_republicans_revolt_on_oba.html?nav=rss_blog
Gingrich has also called the video a ‘destructive distraction.’ He is absolutely correct but I hope the RNC sticks to its guns. What’s been good for them has not been good for the country.
...at least to people's homes. The Detroit Free Press and Detroit News are going to stop home delivery. http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/16/detroit.newspapers/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
Let's see, the main industry in town is on the verge of collapse and that would possibly be the last nail in your city's economic coffin, your local teams suck (the Lions are now 0-14, maybe they should have kept Steve Mariucci) and it must be hard to read the bad news coming to your house every day. Now, you might not have to. The papers, according to the above piece, expect most people to read the papers online but admit it might not be good for people without broadband access. Seriously, this is just adding insult to injury for the Detroit citizenry.
Of course, one has to wonder when this will happen elsewhere, what impact the loss of newspapers will have on the economy and where is the news industry bailout?
· Dick Cheney meets our expectations. Apparently he admitted to supporting waterboarding. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cheney16-2008dec16,0,5456856.story Looks like he may not be the warm and fuzzy VPOTUS we have all grown to know and love. And just as he leaves office, maybe the indictments won’t come through until after he and Dubya have left town. Can a POTUS pardon people in advance?
· Obama fatigue – catch it! Sorry. I love the fact that Barak Obama will be our president soon. He is a great person and will be a fantastic leader. It was an amazing night here in DC – election night was like Mardi Gras, the Superbowl, all tennis grand slams, every sporting event championship and New Year’s Eve rolled into one. For weeks people walked around being nice to each other, like the local government had removed the chlorine from our water and replaced it with Prozac or Xanax. It has been great but the scale has tipped. No, thank you, I do not need a toilet seat cover with a picture of the new first family on it. There are more stalls here with Obama memorabilia than Washington Post stands (maybe the newspapers should think about that as they all file for chapter 11.)
· The holiday season is upon us but so is the apocalypse. No, I am not talking about the economy, the auto industry or the Illinois governor. I went to my second movie of 2008 – yes I need to get out more often – and heard some crazy music playing. It was the Chipmunks. It was a cover of an old Journey song. It was every bit as bad as you can imagine.
· Speaking of hell, if I am not there now I think I am headed there. Or at least that’s what every random religious door-to-door congregation in the city thinks because they come to my house five times a week. I am starting to think there is a big “Satan lives here” sign on my door. I thought I scared the Mormons away when I gave them a copy of “Under the Banner of Heaven” but they keep coming back. And if the two overly friendly women with the Watchtower come calling again I am just going to answer the door naked and see if that keeps them away.
· Christian Bale may be about to jump the shark, he make take the phrase with him. One of the previews I saw was of a new Terminator movie. Bale’s big line in the preview was “You tried to kill my mother, you tried to kill me, I am not gonna let you.” Then let them kill me. Death sounds better than this. Didn’t the writers’ strike end last year?
· Keanu Reeves found his ideal role: disaffected alien. Don’t get me wrong, I love Keanu. I loved him as Neo (even despite that line “You can’t die, I love you too damn much.”) and who didn’t love him in “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure”? He uttered my favorite line in any movie EVER. In “River’s Edge” he says, “You just come around here to eat our food and fuck our mother. You motherfucker. You food eater.” If you cannot appreciate that line, well, I can’t help that.
· And because it’s there: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/swear-words
We have finally been greeted as liberators in Iraq!
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-shoe15-2008dec15,0,1930513.story
That is, if you mean have liberated them from their shoes...
From MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28205738/
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - A burglar who broke into a house claims he was held captive by a "supernatural figure" for three days without food and water, officials said...
The man told police that every time he tried to escape, a "supernatural figure" shoved him to the ground.
(Edited: for some reason I though this would only be in another place)
These are some of the things that keep me up at night
1. The universe: I have heard a theory and wonder what you think. We know black holes exist in every galaxy. We know they attract matter. We also know they distintegrate. They also join up. Is it possible that all the matter in our universe was once in some enormous black hole that distin:tergrated and here we all are?
2. The Higgs particle: why do we need it? Don't things inhernently have mass?
3. The space-time continuium. I don't get it. I understand that when we look at things far away we are looking at the past becauuse it takes so long to get here but I don't get how distance =time.
4. Gravity. Einstein thought the universe was static. Gravity should make it contract, is it dark matter/energy? What? We know it is expanding.
Any thoughts, and if you want to tell me I suck, I am ok with that but remember I am really just interested and suck as I might, isn't intellectual curiosity what got us all here?
Seriously, Mike Huckabee, former GOP presidential contender and governor of Arkansas is a genius. You may not have noticed that during his failed presidential bid. Maybe you were thrown off by his bad joke at the NRA conference when he mused that a noise the audience heard was probably "just Obama jumping under a table because someone aimed a gun at him." Yeah, nothing says funny like joking about political assasinations.
Anyway, that's all water under the bridge now. He was on the Daily Show the other night, conveniently showing off his new book, but he also had an idea for how to get government out of our lives. He said, not verbatim, we would not need so much government if we were just nicer to each other.
Oh. My. God. The world has been saved. The people in the Congo and Darfur don't need our help, they just need to reminded of the golden rule. Makes you wonder why no one has come up with this brilliant advice before or have they?
Didn't Alan Greenspan recently admit a little "oopise" in front of Congress. The mistake, according to him, was he expected banks to act more in their customers' best interests rather than their own. Because banks known for doing that.
While we're at it, let's think of other groups that are more altruistic when left to their own devices. Businesses, we all know things like no child labor, overtime, vacation & sick leave, these were all thanks to the big hearts of big business. Oh wait, they weren't. We got them because of unions. Yes, you read that right unions. Why do you think Wal-Mart, conveniently based in Arkansas, is so opposed to unions?
So Mr. Huckabee, it's the holiday season and I appreciate your thoughts. We should be better to each other. (And you thought I would oppose this?) The catch is we aren't. Who keeps us honest, our food & water & air free of chemicals/bacteria and makes sure we are safe at home and abroad? That's right the government.
Then again, if you happen to get robbed, you can just ask the person to be 'nicer' next time. If it happens to me, I am calling 911.
