Joe Lieberman sucks!

I say let’s kick Joe Lieberman to the curb, right now.  Strip him of his committee chairmanship and cancel all his seniority on other committees.  Kick him out of the Democratic caucus and let him slink over the the Republican caucus where he truly belongs. 

“But,” you say, “we need his vote for the health care bill.”  Wrong.  Consider this from today’s HuffPo:

As Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid works to cobble together the 60 votes he needs to overcome an expected Republican attempt to block a floor vote on health care, there is still one powerful parliamentary weapon he could draw from his back pocket.

The process known as budget reconciliation only requires a simple majority -- and can not be filibustered -- meaning Reid (D-Nev.) would need only 50 Democrats plus a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Joe Biden to declare victory.

Is he still considering going that way?

"Sure, it's always an option," Reid said after leaving his press conference Monday, when he announced that he'd be pushing forward with a public health insurance option with an opt-out provision that would give states the right not to participate.

You can read the entire HuffPo article here.

A great Saturday

I am an avid Cal fan:  My late father got his doctor’s degree there, my former wife got her masters there, my daughter got her masters there, my current wife graduated from Cal, my son had a full track scholarship at Cal, and I graduated from Boalt Hall, Cal’s law school.  I’ve had football season tickets for years with my son Jesse and my brother Steve.  Say what you might, but there is nothing like hiking the mile or so up the hill from the BART station, through the beautiful campus, and up to my familiar seats on the 5 yard line.  Saturday was a killer day so I took some pictures to share with you.

 

Beginning the walk through campus

The campanile getting its dome spiffed up

Sousaphones on parade

At the gate

About 45 minutes before kick off.

By the way, we beat Washington State 49 – 17.

Annie Leibovitz photo of first family

 

 

Nuff said…

Keillor – inquiring minds

Since I posted the quote from Garrison Keillor, several have asked me from whence it came.  Here is the link.

Wish I woulda said that…

“The wailing and gnashing of teeth that you hear among Republicans is 68 percent envy and 32 percent sour grapes. Here is an idealistic, articulate young president who is enormously popular everywhere in the world except in the states of the Confederacy, and here sit the 28 percent of the American people who still thought Mr. Bush was doing a heckuva job at the end, gnashing their teeth, hoping and praying for something horrible to happen such as an infestation of locusts or the disappearance of the sun, something to make the president look bad, which is not a good place for a political party to be, hoping for the country to slide into chaos. When you bet against America, you are choosing long odds.”

~ Garrison Keillor

We dodged that bullet!

I recently I heard a progressive pundit note that it sure is a good thing that Bush and his corporate pimps were unsuccessful in ramming through their brilliant plan to “privatize” our Social Security system. Can you imagine what it would have been like if a significant portion of the Social Security system had been invested in the stock market and other such volatile investments when the current crash occurred? It’s horrendous enough that millions have lost thousands of dollars in their 401k plans, but if SS had been included, the disaster would have been really heart -breaking. I went back and read some of the articles that were written in 2004, which were very enlightening. For instance consider this excerpt from this terrific informative piece written in December 2004:

Privatization advocates like to stress the appeal of "individual choice" and "personal control," while assuming in their forecasts that everyone's accounts will match the overall performance of the stock market. But studies by Yale economist Robert J. Shiller and others have demonstrated that individual investors are far more likely to do worse than the market generally, even excluding the cost of commissions and administrative expenses. Indeed, research by Princeton University economist Burton Malkiel found that even professional money managers over time significantly underperformed indexes of the entire market.
Moreover, a number of surveys show that most people lack the knowledge to make even basic decisions about investing. For example, a Securities and Exchange Commission report synthesizing surveys of investors found that only 14 percent knew the difference between a growth stock and an income stock, and just 38 percent understood that when interest rates rise, bond prices go down. Almost half of all investors believed incorrectly that diversification guarantees that their portfolio won't suffer if the market drops and 40 percent thought that a mutual fund's operating costs have no impact on the returns they receive.
While predictions vary significantly about how investment markets will perform in the decades ahead, it's safe to say that any growth in individual accounts under privatization will be significantly lower than what the overall markets achieve.

See, it would have been bad enough even without the crash.

Whatever you may think of Barrack, thank God, fate, karma or whatever that Obama is not Bush! How did we survive that eight years of illegitimate governance anyway?

~ tom

I could not agree “Moore”

This is a great quote from Michael Moore.  It echoes my feelings and those of a lot of my liberal but sane friends. 

All I ask of those who voted for Obama is to not pile on him too quickly. Yes, make your voice heard (his phone number is 202-456-1414). But don't abandon the best hope we've had in our lifetime for change. And for God's sake, don't head to bummerville if he says or does something we don't like. Do you ever see Republicans behave that way? I mean, the Right had 20 years of Republican presidents and they still couldn't get prayer in the public schools, or outlaw abortion, or initiate a flat tax or put our Social Security into the stock market. They did a lot of damage, no doubt about that, but on the key issues that the Christian Right fought for, they came up nearly empty handed. No wonder they've been driven crazy lately. They'll never have it as good again as they've had it since Reagan took office.

But -- do you ever see them looking all gloomy and defeated? No! They keep on fighting! Every day. Our side? At the first sign of wavering, we just pack up our toys and go home.

So, at least for this weekend, let us celebrate what people elsewhere are celebrating -- that America now has a sane and smart man in the White House, a man who truly wants a world at peace for his two daughters.

Read the whole thing here.

Olbermann tops himself

I record Keith Olbermann’s show every day and watch it later to avoid the commercials.  Tonight, Keith devoted the entire show to one of his special comments, this one on the health care crisis.  I was truly moved and totally riveted.  The whole thing is already up on Daily Kos, so check it out.  I agree with the Kos contributor’s prefatory blurb:

Keith Olbermann has done some great stuff in the past, but he is burning the house down with this extended Special Comment on Healthcare Reform. It is tragic, it is raw; the intense, personal emotional honesty this newscaster shares with his viewers is nothing short of riveting. If you haven’t seen it yet, this is something you are going to want to watch from heart rending start to sobering finish.

Loving Grayson

Alan Grayson is my current number one hero.  Apparently, his courage is being recognized world-wide.  Check this out from the Brits.

Glee – another guilty pleasure

OK, I’ll admit it.  -- I’m totally hooked on the new TV series, “Glee.”  It is hard to explain exactly what the show is all about.  It takes place at a high school where the once-famous glee club has fallen far from grace.  An alumni, now faculty member (Will Schuester, payed by Matthew Morrison)  who was a member of the club in its heyday takes it over.  He faces opposition from the hilariously played (Jane Lynch) head of the snobby cheer leader squad, and draconian budget restrictions.  And the kids in the glee club are winsome.  Add to that Will’s semi-crazy wife who is faking a pregnancy to keep him in the marriage and a fellow faculty member who has a big crush on Will, and you have a pretty good sit-com setup.  But that is not what makes the show worth watching.  The musical numbers are what makes this show work for me.  They are so superb that I wonder whether they can keep up such a high level into future episodes.  Last week was simply glorious, because through a dubious plot twist they were able to work  Kristin Chenoweth into the  show.  I was first exposed to her at the end of the Westwing series where she played a strictly dramatic role to great effect.  At the time, my wife commented that she was also an accomplished singer and dancer, which at the time I sort of stored away in my brain.  Anyway, she has several fabulous musical/dance numbers in the last episode that really blew me away.  She is great!

Anyway, check out Glee.  Sure, like all musicals (with the exception of Cabaret) it’s kind of cheesy and artificial, but I guarantee that you will have a smile on your face after every episode.