Free Speech in the World's Most Tolerant Country:

Where else would the freedom of speech face its most troublesome issues: Holland. Ian Buruma, the author of a book about the death of film maker Theo van Gogh, recently addressed the thorny problem in an editorial in The New York Times, which is well worth the time to read.

The important questions always address problems. As soon as you make laws prohibiting people from saying hateful things, all of the things that you find uncomfortable to hear becoming hateful.

Decades ago, when I was a young man, many of my friends wanted to ban stupidity. I thought that a fine idea, but first we'd need to define stupidity and then we'd need someone to enforce the anti-stupidity law.

This took some considerable thought. Eventually my friends decided that I should be the one to define and enforce. This seemed a brilliant solution to the problem, until everyone realized I was too stupid for the job.

In the event you have any doubts in this matter, I'll be happy to connect you with my children. They have never hesitated in making this judgment perfectly clear to me.

Bargains Galore:

If you're not going to lose your job and your health care or have your income severely reduced or lose your home, then you may be able to take advantage of some great deals. Louise Uchitelle reports in today's New York Times that inventories are piling up.

Stuff isn't selling and the downturn is happening so rapidly that the spigot can't be shut off fast enough. Warehousing will be an expensive problem, so if you've got the cash and you're not worried about tomorrow, you may be able to buy a bunch of stuff at fire sale prices.

According to Uchitelle, the big fear at the moment is that consumers will hold off in taking advantage of the situation, expecting prices to fall even further.

Don't you find it just a little funny that all we heard for the past thirty years is that we spend and borrow too much, that nobody is saving, and now the great fear, the evil, if you will, that lurks inside the deep recesses of our souls is the urge not to blow our money on junk?

Yes, it was me; I had my hand in the cookie jar:

Former senator Tom Daschle fesses up. Seems he owes a ton of back taxes for benefits he received during the time he was out of office, acting as a consultant (you should be so lucky). The missing tax money is equal to about three or four or five times the average person's salery (depending on whose doing the averaging). Just a dumb mistake, the health and human services nominee says. (See today's New York Times.)

Don't you love politicians who stare us soberly in the eye and tell us that we must get control of entitlements?

We Exist To Feed Them:

By now you've heard it too often: Wall Street brokers walked away with $18 billion in bonuses after they'd managed to screw things up to a fair-the-well. Our president cried foul, but the bonus babies have all replied tough luck. They control the money. The world is their cherry pie. We're just the cattle in the field, existing to be milked until we can no longer deliver the goods and get turned into hamburger.

Hey! There could be a fix for this. We used to have mechanisms for adjusting this sort of greed. You tax the suckers. They can avoid the higher taxes if the money goes back to work for the rest of us.

The brokers, in self-righteous indignation, claim they work hard and deserve the comp. That's the same nonsense everyone claims when they've screwed up the job: But I worked really hard, I should get paid. Right, and if you hire me to fix the plumbing in your house, you're going to pay me a bonus (correct?) when I screw your plumbing up even worse. 'Cause I worked really hard doing it. (See Alan Feuer's New York Times' story.)

Lincoln's Party or Obama's Victory:

The Republican National Party has seen the light. The party that was brought back to prominance by appealing to bigotry and race hatred has just elected an African American as national chairman. (See The Washington Post story.) Now the question is will women and minorities take the bait?

Why So Shocked?

President Obama declares the Wall Street boys' paying themselves billions in bonuses while the world's economy burns, partly as a result of their behavior, shameful. Well, what did you expect?

Actually, their bonuses were down to the 2004 levels, having granted themselves even greater bonuses in the years leading up to the collapse. It wasn't that long ago that the big story was how CEOs had been stacking governing boards with buddies who were loyal only to them. What was that echo? "That's where the money is."

What's Next?

Gov. Blagojevich lost 59-0. He's no longer the governor of Illinois. Where will he show up next?

What you should be asking yourself is if the man was so easily impeachable, why didn't Bush get the boot? He caused far more harm than Blago could ever conceive of.

When Will the U. S. Have Universal Health Care?

Paul Krugman demands to know why President Obama isn't moving on his health care proposal. Krugman argues that the best time to get legislation passed is during a crisis. He probably has a good point, but Krugman fails to address the 800 pound gorilla: We don't have "health care" in America, we have a "health care industry."

While there are doctors and nurses and dentists who do practice the art of medicine to the benefit of their patients, the driving force behind health care in this country is the industry, the people who profit off your illness or your wellness. Insurance companies fall into the latter category.

Bring on the Show Trials!

Maureen Dowd has her hackles up. Her op-ed piece in today's New York Times argues that since we're becoming a socialist republic why not go all out and put those bad boys who did so much to destroy the economy—the bankers, et al—on trial. And televise it. (That last idea's mine, but I'm sure Maureen'd agree.)

Jon Stewart's Great Idea:

Last night Jon Stewart of Comedy Central's The Daily Show* proposed that instead of taking taxpayers' money and giving it to the banks, why not figure out a way to give the money back to the taxpayers on the condition that the money must be used to pay off credit card debt.

Currently credit card users owe something like one trillion dollars in credit card debt. The money would still go to the banks, of course, but the credit card debt could be wiped out, allowing taxpayers, provided they have credit cards, to start purchasing again, thus jump starting the economy.

* Link is to full episode.

Republicans Stonewall Obama on Stimulus Package:

President Obama went to the Hill to appeal to Republicans to support his stimulus package, offering to make some compromises, but the Republicans, knowing that neither they nor the country has anything to lose by voting against the package, since they are outnumbered in both houses of congress, merely called the president a nice guy and then laughed at his efforts.

Republican law makers (sic) can have it both ways, during the next two years. They can vote however they want, knowing that their votes count for little if anything. If the stimulus package works, no one will remember who voted against it or much care. If it fails, they can say it wasn't their fault.

Currently, the Republicans are, however, in the unenviable position of having to support policies that everyone, even they, know have failed worse than anything the country has seen in over seventy years.

At Least 75,000 Jobs To Be Cut:

Caterpillar, the giant maker of giant equipment, expects to layoff one out of eight of its employees, and at least a dozen other major companies around the country are planning large, long term reductions in the number of workers they employee.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U. S. economy has already "shed 2.55 million jobs since the recession began" a year ago, and the current unemployment rate is 7.2 percent as of last month (See Catherine Rampell's "Layoffs Spread to More Sectors of the Economy" in today's New York Times). According to The New York Times, "66,600 retailing jobs were lost in December, the worst period since the late 1930s." (Numerologists will note the three 6s in a row.)

A Personal Note: Train tracks, coal cars, and the dirty back yard of a major city

Images from my past appear in today's New York Times—an endless stream of coal cars moving west to the power plants that provide the electricity for St. Louis, with the Gateway Arch in the background. As I've mentioned before, both of my grandfathers were coal miners whose deaths were at least in part attributable to the effects of mining coal.

As I look at the picture, I remember growing up in a home that was heated with coal, as were most homes in those days, and the endless string of "bad colds" my friends and I suffered through in those years, finding it difficult to breath for weeks at a time. By the time I was discharged from the Army in the late 1960s, much of the region had switched to natural gas for home heating. Suddenly, it seemed, the cure for the common cold had been found. Of course that's not true, but the number of respiratory illnesses dropped dramatically, at least in my family.

Good News for Starbucks:

Swedish and Danish researchers have shown there may be a link between drinking coffee and reducing the risk of dementia, including Alzheimer's. The study is reported on in today's New York Times. At this point, it appears that the more you drink, the better. Within limits, of course. The magic number seems to be five cups a day, but the Times' story fails to indicate whether "a cup" is equivalent to one of Aunt Margarette's tea cups or one of those two mug deals you get at the bistro. Also, it isn't clear just how strong the brew was or if it mattered where the beans came from. Does it matter whether the brew was made from fresh ground, or will instant do? At this point, the researchers won't even make a claim for the palative action, calling their study simply an "observation." But I'll bet you're glad to hear our bad habits might have a silver lining.

Rebuking Obama:

David Brooks delivers a veiled rebuke to the new president for his repudiation of the previous administration's method's in his inaugural address, in today's New York Times' Op-Ed section. Brooks cites former Chicago Cubs' second baseman Ryne Sandberg's acceptance speech from his Hall of Fame induction, recalling Sandberg's words about respecting the players that came before him and the organization and the game.

The Bushites are all aflutter over Obama's openly stated rejection of at least some of the Bush policies with the former president sitting only a few feet away. Where, one wonders, was Brooks' rebuke when Bush and Cheney were undermining American traditions of openness for the past eight years?

Liberty To Do What? Freedom from What?

Billy Kristol tries his hand at waxing eloquent in praising the, now, debunked mythology of Republican conservatism in his op-ed piece in today's New York Times. Sometimes Kristol can actually sound intelligent and has even garnered my respect on occasion, but today's piece shows just how empty the mythology was.

Citing the long occupancy of the White House by erstwhile conservatives as proof of success for policies, Kristol fails to describe any success that Reagan or either Bush had except for being elected to office. True, he does mention the so called fall of communism, which was replaced by even more fragile and potentially dangerous regimes. He could have focused on the succes of at least a few of the eastern European countries other than Russia, but they seem not to warrant a mention.

It is also true that in Russia there are now more millionaires and billionaires than there were under socialism—communism never existed in Russia—, but there is far more poverty in that country now, and life expectancy among its citizens has plummeted.

Here in the U. S., Kristol seems to equate success with keeping 90 percent of the population in the same economic straights for thirty years while the top 1 percent achieves unimaginable wealth with success. I suppose it is, if you are among that top percentile.

Preparing for the TV Movie:

Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, now known simply as Blago, has taken his case to the national stage by pleading with the American people on national TV that he's just not understood. Personally, I think once the state government in Illinois finishes throwing him out of office they should immediately impeach each other and get rid of the lot of them. Unfortunately, Illinois jails are already bursting at the seams. That's one of the few businesses that appears to be fairing very well in the current economic downturn.

"But, Jim, you've gotta ask yourself what's this guy thinking when he goes on TV that way? Does he really think the public is going to ride in like the cavalry to save his butt?"

My guess is he's just doing a nation-wide job search. Possibly he's trying to convince the networks that he'd make a good commentator. Kind of like a major league baseball manager who gets fired and then appears as the color guy while he waits for his next gig. (See the New York Times' story.)

Become a Welder; Drive a Truck:

During the most severe economic downturn in 70 years, two occupations for which there is still a shortage of applicants turn out to be ones you'd probably never think of: welding and driving a truck. Both imply production, which is just the opposite of what it would seem is taking place in America today. However, both are also occupations that are considered dirty and hazardous to your health.

Other occupations for which there is plenty of opportunity: teaching high school science or math. Schools find it nearly impossible to find qualified teachers for these disciplines. And the benefits aren't bad, as long as you can put up with a hundred or so of other people's teenage children.

(See today's New York Times' story "Bad Times Spur a Flight to Jobs Viewed as Safe.")

Who's Paying for All of That Anti-Coal Advertising?

Everywhere you look in the media today, from late night television to online newspapers, you run into ads denouncing the idea of "clean coal." I'm the grandson of coal miners. Both of my grandfathers died as a result, at least in part, of having worked in undermine coal fields. I'm no advocate of mining coal, but the amount of money being spent to denounce the notion of "clean coal" has got me wondering: who is paying for all of this advertising, and what is their agenda? Somehow I doubt this is part of any "green" movement.

Why isn't media addressing this question, after all they know who is handing them the checks for this advertising? Well, old dogs get to be old dogs by learning not to bite the hand that feeds them. That, as a matter of fact, is precisely why you hardly ever see an editorial denouncing campaign funding. They're the ones who end up with the biggest share of the booty in our current system of running political campaigns.

The State of Things:

While the nation's pundits parse Obama's inauguration speech, matching his campaign promises to his first 100 hours in office, it's politics as usual around the nation. Gail Collins' op-ed piece today ponders "the new Hillary" appointed by the blind governor of New York. How can a feisty Democrat from the most liberal state in America be so conservative?

Collins warns that change can be very real in the state that borders The Big Apple—New York City is in New Jersey, right?—and that an ambitious pol from an extremely conservative district can wax liberal when representing a great big ol' state. By-the-by, you've gotta love the description of Rep. Gillibrand spending "13 hours in the House of Representatives, voting on the farm bill and sitting through an endless hearing of the Armed Services Committee, where she successfully offered an amendment before moving on to the delivery room" where she gave birth to her now eight-month-old son. Take that Sarah Palin!

Collins points out that Gillibrand is starting to make appointments with members of the large liberal branch of the party, evidently in order to learn better how to be a switch hitter. Fox News should have a field day. Guess I'll find out when I watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. I like to get my stupid stuff from the pros.

On Race:

Amy Finnerty reviews Baz Dreisinger's Near Black: White-to-Black Passing in American Culture, this week in The New York Times. "Passing" is a term few white Americans are familiar with. In American culture it generally refers to people of African American descent whose skin is light enough and whose hair is straight enough so that they can, if they wish, pass themselves off or allow others to pass them off as white Americans.

Generally the term has had very negative connotations within both black and white American cultures, with a serious note of danger. Dreisinger's book addresses the more unusual phenomena of whites who pass themselves off as African American.

For me, one of the most telling moments in Finnerty's review is her annalysis that at least at times in American history "Whiteness was viewed as a fragile state that could easily be corrupted."

Understanding this notion and how a whole society can be manipulated by its pervasiveness is central to the understanding of who we are and how we arrived at the place we are now in.

Other works that address the issue, sometimes humorously, sometimes bitterly, include Richard Pryor's film Silver Streak, in which one character appears in black face in order to elude law enforcement (becoming invisible by doing so); the John Wayne film The Searchers, in which Wayne portrays a character who believes that a woman who has been touched by a non-white male person has been ruined; and Ralph Ellison's seminal novel Invisible Man.

Sinking Economy Becoming a Whirlpool:

As the economic downturn sweeps around the world it is picking up speed. Anthony Faiola, reporting on the global economic downturn in today's Washington Post, points out that things are "deteriorating more quickly than leading economists predicted only weeks ago." Faiola further points out that jump starting the economy will likely cost many more billions than currently anticipated and will probably not occur before 2010. Europe is judged to be in worse shape than the U. S., and South Korea may be in the worst downturn of all, with goods piling up on its docks. The U. S. and China, the two biggest purchasers of Korean products, simply aren't buying their goods at this point.

Signs of the Times:

Microsoft to lay off 5,000 workers beginning today. For the first time in the world's largest software manufacturing company's history, it is laying people off rather than hiring them. Word is that reduced sales of PCs along with the popularity of cheap NetBooks, which necessitate low cost operating systems, have both cut seriously into sales of its chief products, the operating system itself and the office program. Apple folks will note that their market share has continued to increase even in difficult financial times and concerns about the health of its CEO.

(See Ashlee Vance's New York Times' story.)

Sony Announces Biggest Losses in Its History:

Sony expects to lose $3 billion this year as a result of the economic turn down, the largest in the Japanese electronics manufacturer's history. Loss in sales is cited as the primary reason for financial losses. (See The New York Times' story.)

Michigan Becomes First State to Register Double-digit Unemployment:

Nobody's buying new cars and the effect on Michigan is dramatic. (See NPR.org.)

Obama Signs Executive Orders Closing Secret Prisons:

The desk was almost empty in the White House where the new president sat, signing the order that would bring about the closure of secret CIA prisons around the world, but the crowd surrounding him was large and smiling. (See The New York Times' story.)

Street Rebounds on Day One:

Wall Street recovered two-thirds of yesterday's losses today. There is still a lot of money floating around, looking for some place that can earn it a profit. Tech stocks were also up, according to The New York Times, with I.B.M., H.P., Sun Microsystems, and Dell, all posting gains.

One New York economist, rated highly by the Times, "has estimated banks will have $3.6 trillion in losses before the financial crisis is over." Many banks are expected to be nationalized.

Cheers on Pennsylvania Ave. While Storm Rages on Wall St.:

According to JP Morgan Chase, Wall Street suffered its worst Inauguration Day since 1900 as the Dow dipped below 8,000, but before you panic too much, Inauguration Day almost always sees a bad day on the Street. Investors feel more secure with a known commodity than with a new one.

In the meantime, with the price of gasoline having gone up in recent days, the price of crude still remains below $40 a barrel. (See today's New York Times.)

The Bush Legacy:

With unemployment on the rise and jobs disappearing, the U. S. military is having a banner year in recruiting. Lizette Alvarez reports on the numbers in today's New York Times.

In 2006, because the Army was falling so far behind in recruitment, the age limit was raised from 35 to 42. So now someone who might be a grandfather can begin a career in the Army. This was the age when most enlisted men expected to retire from military service if they had chosen it as a career.

Detainees are starting to be released after courts and military tribunals have begun to rule that they have been improperly held. William Glaberson reports in the Times, leading with the story of Haji Bismullah, an Afghan, who most likely fought against the Taliban prior to being arrested as a terror suspect. It should be remembered that substantial bounties were being paid, no questions asked, for terror suspects. Who better to turn in than someone in your village that you don't like. You collect the bounty and get rid of the irritant in the same stroke.

What Every Dragon Knows:

Get yourself a pile of gold, as big as possible, any way possible, and sit on it.

Congress has donated billions to the banking industry, with the goal of stimulating the economy by saving the financial system. So what are the banks doing with those hundreds of billions of dollars? Sitting on the piles.

The banks aren't loaning the money because the economy is in a funk, and the economy won't extricate itself from its funk until money begins to flow again.

In the meantime, the banks are sitting on the money they managed to extricate from the taxpayer, using it as an insurance policy against even worse times. The taxpayer is making sure that the banks remain solvent even if it means that they, the taxpayer, ends up jobless, homeless, dying of pneumonia in the street.

The dragon's loyalty is to itself, and its pile of gold. (Read Mike McIntire's "Bailout Is a Windfall to Banks, if Not to Borrowers" in today's New York Times.)

Dumbest Prez in History To Form Think Tank:

Soon to be former president, GW plans to return to Texas "to build a library, museum and public-policy center in Dallas" (Dan Eggen, "Bush's Post-Presidency to Include More Than a Library):

"The president's vision is for it to become an incubator of ideas, discussion and debate about the issues that were front and center during his presidency, including the controversy," said Dan Bartlett, a former counselor to Bush who is acting as a spokesman for the project. "The idea here is to have a place where that debate can continue." -- if McIntire)

McIntire's story provides us with some revealing stats: Bush is leaving office with approval ratings equal to those of Nixon when he was chased out of office. Almost 60 percent of those poled blame Bush for the country's economic woes. And five times as many people people believe that he was a below average president as those who thought the same about his father. As you recall, his dad was considered a "wimp."

Test time:

Your choice for worst president in U. S. history:

A) Buchanan: Took no action to head off Civil War, bloodiest in American history;

B) Harding: three years of poker, prostitutes and an oil scandal that set the tone for energy policy in America;

C) Hoover: During the country's worst economic depression, with one-in-five adult males unemployed and mounting homelessness and millions of citizens facing starvation, chose to do nothing;

D) Nixon: Mislead the country about ending the Vietnam War in order to become elected, intensified spying on American citizens, infiltrated opposition groups in order to lead them to commit illegal, subverted and undermined the U. S. Constitution in order to be re-elected, only president to resign office in disgrace;

E) George W Bush: Lied about weapons of mass destruction in order to mislead the government into an illegal war for the purpose of enriching friends and political supporters, costing thousands of American lives, pushed country into deregulation and reduced tax revenues that helped to bring about the seconds worst economic crisis (perhaps to become the worst) in American history, purposely weakened the government so that its response to natural catastrophes, like Katrina, would be inadequate in order to follow an ideology.

Note: That's five choices out of 43 possibilities; when you throw in the mediocre presidents the country has had, it doesn't say much for the country's ability to select leaders adequate to the job. The saving grace, one is left to suppose, is that no other country has a much better track record.

Let Bygones Be Bygones? Paul Krugman Thinks Not:

Paul Krugman joins Frank Rich of The New York Times, in calling for investigations and prosecutions of members of the Bush administration once Barack Obama takes office. Krugman makes his case in today's Times:

about Mr. Obama: while it’s probably in his short-term political interests to forgive and forget, next week he’s going to swear to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” That’s not a conditional oath to be honored only when it’s convenient.

And to protect and defend the Constitution, a president must do more than obey the Constitution himself; he must hold those who violate the Constitution accountable.

Krugman points out that the criminal behavior that took place under the Reagan administration got a pass for the most part, as the country attempted to "move on," but that only enabled the same behavior in the current Bush administration, including allowing some of the same perpetrators to participate again.

Efficient Markets:

Republicans have tried to sell the country on the notion that markets are efficient for years now. We should dump Social Security, they told us, and put our money in the stock market. It would make everyone's golden years truly golden.

What they didn't tell us is that the first principle of the market place is a fool and his money are soon parted. David Brooks, a conservative Republican, points us to what Andrew Lo of M.I.T. has to say on the stock market: "Lo … has demonstrated, if stock traders make a series of apparently good picks, the dopamine released into their brains creates a stupor that causes them to underperceive danger ahead." (Lo might have bee analyzing the Bush administration.)

Economics is not a science, folks, regardless of what the prof you had in college had to say. Not if by "science" you mean being able to accurately evaluate the future longer than a few days. Economics is about buying cheap and selling dear. On the other hand, if you prof told you, "I can tell you what happened in the past so that you can guess at what might happen in the future," then you've found someone you might be able to trust.

Multitasking on the Way Out?

Andrew Nusca blogs about a new study that proclaims focusing one's attention is far superior to multitasking, at their ZDNet blog, "The Toy Box": "A person who works with complete focus has a major advantage over a workaholic who multi-tasks all day and responds to every interruption, according to a story by tech writer Mike Elgan on InternetNews.com." Nusca refers to Malcolm Gladwell's latest book, Outliers: “Control of attention is the ultimate individual power. People who can do that are not prisoners of the stimuli around them.”

Teachers, artists, and artisans have known this all along. Let's face it, when you try to do two or more things at once, unless you're in an emergency situation, it's because you don't value any of those things very highly.

If You Ask the Right Questions …

Will you get at least good answers? Allison Arieff addresses the housing issue in her New York Times' blog "By Design." What to do with all that construction? The housing bubble reveals itself as an oil spill on the land. Think of how much agricultural land was taken out of production. Think of the commutes and the amount of gasoline burned and the resulting pollution.

Where is the leadership that might have headed this foolishness off?

Through a Glass Darkly:

Did you catch President Bush's final news conference this morning? Yes, the man is leaving office believing he has saved the world for … something. Only the "elites" find fault, he asserted today. (You can read the Times' version here.)

Gaza about To Cool Off:

The New York Times reports this afternoon that Israel believes "Hamas [is] beginning to crack," while "Hamas leaders [vow] to continue fighting." My forecast is that things are about to cool down. Groups like Hamas always shout the loudest just before the end. However, that doesn't mean "peace in our time" in the Middle East. Until those folks are either all killed off or they actually have something to live for, something that gives them hope for their children, it will all just continue to blow up.

Roland Burris To Be Seated in U. S. Senate:

And he didn't have to pay the governor of Illinois a penny. But can he be re-elected? I'm guessing not. We'll see in two years, so stick around and pay attention. I'm guessing he'll make more noise as a legislater than law.

Reading on the Rise—Another Sign of the Failed Economy?

What would Laura Bush say? The First Lady, a former librarian, hasn't been asked what she thinks is the cause of the recently reported increase in the literary reading habits of American adults, at least not by the press. Notoriously, the reading rates of Americans dropped below 50 percent during her husband's tenure in the White House, reflecting his critics' representation of him as the epitome of the dumbing down of America. (See Motoko Rich's New York Times story. The story ends with this quote: "As the economy has soured, Mr. Rettig [president of the American Library Association] said, 'people are discovering that you don't have to spend anything to read a book if you have a library card.'")

The Economy under Bush II:

Neil Irwin and Dan Eggen present the numbers in today's Washington Post, reporting on the failure of economic policy during George W. Bush's eight years in office. "Worst since" becomes a dominant phrase.

Hang 'em High!

Frank Rich makes the case in today's New York Times for fully investigating Bush et al for high crimes and misdemeanors committed over the past eight years. Rich argues that we have to get past the arguments that we can't afford the investigations because of their costs and the ridiculous argument that national security might be jeapordized. Put simply, if these people are allowed to move on scott free, you can be sure—regardless of whether or not we have a new administration with much better people—the behavior will continue to the detriment of all of us.

D. C. Housing Rush Bottoms Out:

The get rich quick schemes to rent out homes and apartments for a few days during the Obama inaugural has fallen the same way as the rest of the housing market. David Nakamura reports on the schemes to rent out rooms for a week or less at $1500 a day and how the supply has far exceeded the demand.

When Will the Sex Video Be Released?

Alaskan governor Sarah Palin may have lost her bid to become the power behind the throne in a McCain White House (ala Dick Cheney), but she's apparently going to be the one losing vice presidential candidate that no one ever forgets.

Who has time now to worry about which two Hollywood honeys are cat fighting over some Hollywood hunk when we can all salivate over Sarah versus Caroline or Sarah versus Katie in the press. And then there's that gorgeous moment when Sarah blurts out "that guy is evil!" while looking at a picture of MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, although to be fair Olbermann does appear to have some oddly shaped bumps hidden in his bushy hair.

In the Real News:

Jobless rate hits 7.2%, a 16-year high, with a total job loss for the past year reaching 2.6 million. More job losses are expected in the near future, with the only hope for a turn around coming from the expected Obama stimulus package, the effectiveness of which is highly suspect. (See The New York Times story.)

Meanwhile, Illinois has for the first time in its questionable political history voted to impeach its governor. Considering how many of their governors have ended up in jail, you have to wonder why is Blagojevich the first. (See The New York Times story.)

While the rest of the world demands a cease fire between Israel and whoever is in charge of things in Gaza, both the Israelis and Hamas are intensifying the violence that has resulted in more than 800 Palistinian deaths and 14 Israeli deaths. (See The New York Times story.)

Best Call on Burris:

Gail Collins analyzes the Roland Burris nomination to fill Barak Obama's senate seat: "Personally, I say give the guy the seat. Worst-case scenario, Illinois gets an overly self-involved lawmaker who seems, at this point in his life [71], to have a tendency to say things that sound somewhat silly. If that was a disqualification, the Senate could never meet a quorum call again."

NBC, Inspired by Obama, To Bring Back West Wing?

At least a dozen scripts by as many writers and would be producers must be underway as we speculate. Michael Shear and Ceci Connolly report on the powerful West Wing Obama is currently assembling in today's Washington Post. Surely Hollywood must be abuzz with anticipation. I'd go after Dennis Haysbert for the part of the president and pull in both West Wing fans and 24 fans. Haysbert's current show, The Unit, is destined to go off the air anyway.

The Bouncing Crude Oil Ball:

Just when you noticed that the price of gasoline at the pump was going up again, the price of crude oil dropped, 93 cents today. Is that good news or bad? Depends on which side of the pump you stand.

Teen Pregnancy Increases in Red States:

Teen pregnancy rates have been on the increase over the past four years of the Bush administration, with the increases showing up in the southern states that voted to keep George W. Bush in the White House. Mississippi has surpassed Texas and New Mexico for the highest rate. (See the AP story here.)

The causes are argumentative, but the facts are that "abstinence only" eduction is more predominant in these states and the percentage of African American and Hispanic teens are also much higher in these states.

What we do know is that young women have a greater likelihood of becoming pregnant when they have few opportunities in life. In other words, when young women are poor and have little hope for the future, they are more likely to become pregnant at an earlier age and to have more babies.

More Teen News:

Apple announced that it would allow iTunes Music to be copied, making it easier for users to access music on different devices. Note: Apple now dominates the music industry; you decide if this is good or otherwise.

MTV's "Real World" is now in its 17th year of production. MTV first taught television producers that viewers could tolerate, even enjoy "quick cutting" in the editing process, and then taught the same folks that the demographic they most sought liked nothing better than to watch young people humiliating themselves and whining about it. Advantage: very low cost production.

Maureen Dowd Supports Her Friend, Caroline Kennedy:

The redheaded gadfly from D. C. tones down the humor for a chance to voice her support for Jack Kennedy's daughter's bid for the New York senate seat. Dowd points out the many faces of dynasty that already walk the halls of power in the nation's capitol. If for no other reason, her op-ed is worth reading just to be reminded of how many people who wheel power are related to other wheelers of power.

Obama To End Earmarks; Warns of Trillion-Dollar Deficits:

President Elect Barack Obama announced today that he would put an end to earmarks and create an Economic Recovery Oversight Board. In addition he plans to create transparency by placing all government spending on the Internet.

You can read the transcript of his statements here.

Do You Really Need a New Car?

Bill Vlasic delivers some interesting statistics in today's New York Times, about the automobile market and American buying habits. In 2006, "[m]ore than 244 million vehicles were in operation …, outnumbering the 202 million licensed drivers in the country, according to … federal statistics."

In addition, Vlasic reports that in 1988 Americans kept their new cars for an average of 4.1 years, while today (or at least until the past six months) they traded them in every 2.9 years. Ironically, the quality of cars has increased significantly enough so that a new car will be serviceable for ten years or more. According to Vlasic "the typical vehicle on the road is nine years old, according to federal statistics."

The Knowledge Base:

Publishing is in the news this morning with two important stories in The New York Times. Motoko Rich takes a look at how the economy is affecting the publishing industry; however, publishing has been undergoing a revolution ever since the PC hit the market place. First it changed how books found their way into print, from the writer to the publisher, and then how books, magazines, and newspapers reached their audiences.

Rich also reports on Google's moves into making all printed matter that exists into searchable commodities. The lawsuits seem to have been settled to all parties' satisfaction so that both copyrighted material and ancient and obscure texts can now be available to anyone with an Internet connection. The effects of this still remains highly speculative, both in regards to economics and knowledge aquisition.

This Day in History: Henry Ford introduced the $5 per day minimum wage for workers at the Ford Motor Company. At the time, my grandfather was working in the coal mines for $1 per day.

Keeping the Wall Street Elite Sweet:

Michael Lewis and David Einhorn explain how the SEC lacks the capacity to do its job in today's New York Times.

How much is $300 billion, the amount given to the banks to bailout the economy? "It’s almost 2 percent of gross domestic product, and about what we spend annually on the departments of Agriculture, Education, Energy, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development and Transportation combined" (Michael Lewis and David Einhorn, "How to Repair a Broken Financial World," The New York Times).

China v. India:

Gurcharan Das entitles his op-ed piece in today's New York Times "The Next World Order," but the interesting part of it is the comparison between how the two nations function. China's economy is tightly controlled by the state, while India's economy works, according to Das, in spite of the government.

Das describes a Chinese friend and business associate befuddled by the Indian attitudes about the recent terrorist attack in Mumbai. The Indian people were angrier at their own government than they were at the terrorists. For Indians, terrorism seems an unfortunate but "futile sideshow."

Notable essays online:

Michael Lewis's "The End," in Porfolio.

Christopher Caldwell's "The Unwisdom of Crowds," in The Weekly Standard.

"Professor X's" "In the Basement of the Ivory Tower," in The Atlantic.

John B. Judis's "American Adam," in The New Republic.

The last of these is about America's and American's ability to re-invent themselves. In the essay, Judis compares Barak Obama with Ronald Reagan, something that has become popular to do among pundits. Judis describes Obama's ability to draw massive, admiring crowds, but this was never something that Reagan was able to do. True, "The Great Communicator" won two elections by huge margins, but even at his most well known speech, the Berlin Wall speech, his crowd was relatively small, perhaps only one-third the size that JFK spoke to, and Reagan's crowd was specially screened and appeared as a carefully orchastrated event by the German government.

In terms of popularity at the beginning of an administration, LBJ seems a more appropriate person to compare Obama with. But in terms of re-invention, maybe Reagan works. He certainly re-invented himself. Obama, on the other hand, hasn't so much re-invented himself as he seems to be a rebirth of an ideal that may never have existed.

A Hero Passes:

Helen Suzman, for years the sole voice of justice in South Africa's all white government, died at the age of 91. Her anti-apartheid voice helped keep the ground loose under the racist structure of that government for more than twenty years as she spoke truth to power both within her own country and wherever she could around the world. "When a government minister once accused her of embarrassing South Africa with her parliamentary questions, she replied, 'It is not my questions that embarrass South Africa; it is your answers'” (Celia W. Dugger, The New York Times).

Happy New Year!

Banks, Credit, Colleges, Money and Power:

You already know that attending college in the U. S. is an expensive proposition. Today's New York Times examines the relationship between banks and colleges that represents part of the issue. What the article doesn't address is the motivation behind the colleges' relationship with soaking all available funds from the folks they now refer to as their "clients." Higher ed, for the people who administer colleges and universities, no longer serves students; they service clients.